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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37320-0.txt b/37320-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e81e17 --- /dev/null +++ b/37320-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8317 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tiny Luttrell, by Ernest William Hornung + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tiny Luttrell + +Author: Ernest William Hornung + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +TINY LUTTRELL + +BY ERNEST WILLIAM HORNUNG + +AUTHOR OF "A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH," "UNDER TWO SKIES" + +NEW YORK +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY +104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE + +COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. + +All rights reserved. + +THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, +RAHWAY, N. J. + + + + + TO + C. A. M. D. + FROM + E. W. H. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE COMING OF TINY, 1 + II. SWIFT OF WALLANDOON, 21 + III. THE TAIL OF THE SEASON, 44 + IV. RUTH AND CHRISTINA, 63 + V. ESSINGHAM RECTORY, 84 + VI. A MATTER OF ANCIENT HISTORY, 102 + VII. THE SHADOW OF THE HALL, 116 + VIII. COUNTESS DROMARD AT HOME, 133 + IX. MOTHER AND SON, 148 + X. A THREATENING DAWN, 162 + XI. IN THE LADIES' TENT, 176 + XII. ORDEAL BY BATTLE, 193 + XIII. HER HOUR OF TRIUMPH, 213 + XIV. A CYCLE OF MOODS, 233 + XV. THE INVISIBLE IDEAL, 248 + XVI. FOREIGN SOIL, 263 + XVII. THE HIGH SEAS, 286 + XVIII. THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING, 306 + XIX. COUNSEL'S OPINION, 317 + XX. IN HONOR BOUND, 327 + XXI. A DEAF EAR, 339 + XXII. SUMMUM BONUM, 348 + + + + +TINY LUTTRELL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COMING OF TINY. + + +Swift of Wallandoon was visibly distraught. He had driven over to the +township in the heat of the afternoon to meet the coach. The coach was +just in sight, which meant that it could not arrive for at least half an +hour. Yet nothing would induce Swift to wait quietly in the hotel +veranda; he paid no sort of attention to the publican who pressed him to +do so. The iron roofs of the little township crackled in the sun with a +sound as of distant musketry; their sharp-edged shadows lay on the sand +like sheets of zinc that might be lifted up in one piece; and a hot wind +in full blast played steadily upon Swift's neck and ears. He had pulled +up in the shade, and was leaning forward, with his wide-awake tilted +over his nose, and his eyes on a cloud of dust between the bellying +sand-hills and the dark blue sky. The cloud advanced, revealing from +time to time a growing speck. That speck was the coach which Swift had +come to meet. + +He was a young man with broad shoulders and good arms, and a general air +of smartness and alacrity about which there could be no mistake. He had +dark hair and a fair mustache; his eye was brown and alert; and much +wind and sun had reddened a face that commonly gave the impression of +complete capability with a sufficiency of force. This afternoon, +however, Swift lacked the confident look of the thoroughly capable young +man. And he was even younger than he looked; he was young enough to +fancy that the owner of Wallandoon, who was a passenger by the +approaching coach, had traveled five hundred miles expressly to deprive +John Swift of the fine position to which recent good luck had promoted +him. + +He could think of nothing else to bring Mr. Luttrell all the way from +Melbourne at the time of year when a sheep station causes least anxiety. +The month was April, there had been a fair rainfall since Christmas, and +only in his last letter Mr. Luttrell had told Swift that all he need do +for the present was to take care of the fences and let the sheep take +care of themselves. The next news was a telegram to the effect that Mr. +Luttrell was coming up country to see for himself how things were going +at Wallandoon. Having stepped into the managership by an accident, and +even so merely as a trial man, young Swift at once made sure that his +trial was at an end. It did not strike him that in spite of his youth he +was the ideal person for the post. Yet this was obvious. He had five +years' experience of the station he was to manage. The like merit is not +often in the market. Swift seemed to forget that. Neither did he take +comfort from the fact that Mr. Luttrell was an old friend of his family +in Victoria, and hitherto his own highly satisfied employer. Hitherto, +or until the last three months, he had not tried to manage Mr. +Luttrell's station. If he had failed in that time to satisfy its owner, +then he would at once go elsewhere; but for many things he wished most +keenly to stay at Wallandoon; and he was thinking of these things now, +while the coach grew before his eyes. + +Of his five years on Wallandoon the last two had been infinitely less +enjoyable than the three that had gone before. There was a simple +reason for the difference. Until two years ago Mr. Luttrell had himself +managed the station, and had lived there with his wife and family. That +had answered fairly well while the family were young, thanks to a +competent governess for the girls. But when the girls grew up it became +time to make a change. The squatter was a wealthy man, and he could +perfectly well afford the substantial house which he had already built +for himself in a Melbourne suburb. The social splashing of his wife and +daughters after their long seclusion in the wilderness was also easily +within his means, if not entirely to his liking; but he was a mild man +married to a weak woman; and he happened to be bent on a little splash +on his own account in politics. Choosing out of many applicants the best +possible manager for Wallandoon, the squatter presently entered the +Victorian legislature, and embraced the new interests so heartily that +he was nearly two years in discovering his best possible manager to be +both a failure and a fraud. + +It was this discovery that had given Swift an opening whose very +splendor accounted for his present doubts and fears. Had his chance +been spoilt by Herbert Luttrell, who had lately been on Wallandoon as +Swift's overseer, for some ten days only, when the two young fellows had +failed to pull together? This was not likely, for Herbert at his worst +was an honest ruffian, who had taken the whole blame (indeed it was no +more than his share) of that fiasco. Swift, however, could think of +nothing else; nor was there time; for now the coach was so close that +the crack of the driver's whip was plainly heard, and above the cluster +of heads on the box a white handkerchief fluttered against the sky. + +The publican whom Swift had snubbed addressed another remark to him from +the veranda: + +"There's a petticoat on board." + +"So I see." + +The coach came nearer. + +"She's your boss's daughter," affirmed the publican--"the best of 'em." + +"So you're cracking!" + +"Well, wait a minute. What now?" + +Swift prolonged the minute. "You're right," he said, hastily tying his +reins to the brake. + +"I am so." + +"Heaven help me!" muttered Swift as he jumped to the ground. "There's +nothing ready for her. They might have told one!" + +A moment later five heaving horses stood sweating in the sun, and Swift, +reaching up his hand, received from a gray-bearded gentleman on the box +seat a grip from which his doubts and fears should have died on the +spot. If they did, however, it was only to make way for a new and +unlooked-for anxiety, for little Miss Luttrell was smiling down at him +through a brown gauze veil, as she poked away the handkerchief she had +waved, leaving a corner showing against her dark brown jacket; and how +she was to be made comfortable at the homestead, all in a minute, Swift +did not know. + +"She insisted on coming," said Mr. Luttrell, with a smile. "Is it any +good her getting down?" + +"Can you take me in?" asked the girl. + +"We'll do our best," said Swift, holding the ladder for her descent. + +Her shoes made a daintier imprint in the sand than it had known for two +whole years. She smiled as she gave her hand to Swift; it was small, +too, and Swift had not touched a lady's hand for many months. There was +very little of her altogether, but the little was entirely pleasing. +Embarrassed though he was, Swift was more than pleased to see the young +girl again, and her smiles that struggled through the brown gauze like +sunshine through a mist. She had not worn gauze veils two years ago; and +two years ago she had been content with fare that would scarcely please +her to-day, while naturally the living at the station was rougher now +than in the days of the ladies. It was all very well for her to smile. +She ought never to have come without a word of warning. Swift felt +responsible and aggrieved. + +He helped Mr. Luttrell to carry their baggage from the coach to the +buggy drawn up in the shade. Miss Luttrell went to the horses' heads and +stroked their noses; they were Bushman and Brownlock, the old safe pair +she had many a time driven herself. In a moment she was bidden to jump +up. There had been very little luggage to transfer. The most cumbrous +piece was a hamper, of which Swift formed expectations that were +speedily confirmed. For Miss Luttrell remarked, pointing to the hamper +as she took her seat: + +"At least we have brought our own rations; but I am afraid they will +make you horribly uncomfortable behind there?" + +Swift was on the back seat. "Not a bit," he answered; "I was much more +uncomfortable until I saw the hamper." + +"Don't you worry about us, Jack," said Mr. Luttrell as they drove off. +"Whatever you do, don't worry about Tiny. Give her travelers' rations +and send her to the travelers' hut. That's all she deserves, when she +wasn't on the way-bill. She insisted on coming at the last moment; I +told her it wasn't fair." + +"But it's very jolly," said Swift gallantly. + +"It was just like her," Mr. Luttrell chuckled; "she's as unreliable as +ever." + +The girl had been looking radiantly about her as they drove along the +single broad, straggling street of the township. She now turned her head +to Swift, and her eyes shot through her veil in a smile. That abominable +veil went right over her broad-brimmed hat, and was gathered in and made +fast at the neck. Swift could have torn it from her head; he had not +seen a lady smile for months. Also, he was beginning to make the +astonishing discovery that somehow she was altered, and he was curious +to see how much, which was impossible through the gauze. + +"Is that true?" he asked her. He had known her for five years. + +"I suppose so," she returned carelessly; and immediately her sparkling +eyes wandered. "There's old Mackenzie in the post office veranda. He was +a detestable old man, but I must wave to him; it's so good to be back!" + +"But you own to being unreliable?" persisted Swift. + +"I don't know," Miss Luttrell said, tossing the words to him over her +shoulder, because her attention was not for the manager. "Is it so very +dreadful if I am? What's the good of being reliable? It's much more +amusing to take people by surprise. Your face was worth the journey when +you saw me on the coach! But you see I haven't surprised Mackenzie; he +doesn't look the least impressed; I dare say he thinks it was last week +we all went away. I hate him!" + +"Here are the police barracks," said Swift, seeing that all her interest +was in the old landmarks; "we have a new sergeant since you left." + +"If _he's_ in _his_ veranda I shall shout out to him who I am, and how +long I have been away, and how good it is to get back." + +"She's quite capable of doing it," Mr. Luttrell chimed in, chuckling +afresh; "there's never any knowing what she'll do next." + +But the barracks veranda was empty, and it was the last of the township +buildings. There was now nothing ahead but the rim of scrub, beyond +which, among the sand-hills, sweltered the homestead of Wallandoon. + +"I've come back with a nice character, have I not?" the girl now +remarked, turning to Swift with another smile. + +"You must have earned it; I can quite believe that you have," laughed +Swift. He had known her in short dresses. + +"Ha! ha! You see he remembers all about you, my dear." + +"Do you, Jack?" the girl said. + +"Do I not!" said Jack. + +And he said no more. He was grateful to her for addressing him, though +only once, by his Christian name. He had been intimate with the whole +family, and it seemed both sensible and pleasant to resume a friendly +footing from the first. He would have called the girl by her Christian +name too, only this was so seldom heard among her own people. Tiny she +was by nature, and Tiny she had been by name also, from her cradle. +Certainly she had been Tiny to Swift two years ago, and already she had +called him Jack; but he saw in neither circumstance any reason why she +should be Tiny to him still. It was different from a proper name. Her +proper name was Christina, but unreliable though she confessedly was, +she might perhaps be relied upon to jeer if he came out with that. And +he would not call her "Miss Luttrell." He thought about it and grew +silent; but this was because his thoughts had glided from the girl's +name to the girl herself. + +She had surprised him in more ways than one--in so many ways that +already he stood almost in awe of the little person whom formerly he had +known so well. Christina had changed, as it was only natural that she +should have changed; but because we are prone to picture our friends as +last we saw them, no matter how long ago, not less natural was Swift's +surprise. It was unreasoning, however, and not the kind of surprise to +last. In a few minutes his wonder was that Christina had changed so +little. To look at her she had scarcely changed at all. A certain +finality of line was perceptible in the figure, but if anything she was +thinner than of old. As for her face, what he could see of it through +the maddening gauze was the face of Swift's memory. Her voice was a +little different; in it was a ring of curiously deliberate irony, +charming at first as a mere affectation. A more noteworthy alteration +had taken place in her manner: she had acquired the manner of a finished +young woman of the world and of society. Already she had shown that she +could become considerably excited without forfeiting any of the grace +and graciousness and self-possession that were now conspicuously hers; +and before the homestead was reached she exhibited such a saintly +sweetness in repose as only enhanced the lambent deviltry playing about +most of her looks and tones. If Swift was touched with awe in her +presence, that can hardly be wondered at in one who went for months +together without setting eyes upon a lady. + +The drive was a long one--so long that when they sighted the homestead +it came between them and the setting sun. The main building with its +long, regular roof lay against the red sky like some monstrous ingot. +The hot wind had fallen, and the station pines stood motionless, drawn +in ink. As they drove through the last gate they could hear the dogs +barking; and Christina distinguished the voice of her own old +short-haired collie, which she had bequeathed to Swift, who was repaid +for the sound with a final smile. He hardly knew why, but this look made +the girl's old self live to him as neither look nor word had done yet, +though her face was turned away from the light, and the stupid veil +still fell before it. + +But the less fascinating side of her arrival was presently engaging his +attention. He hastily interviewed Mrs. Duncan, an elderly godsend new to +the place since the Luttrells had left it, and never so invaluable as +now. Into Mrs. Duncan's hands Christina willingly submitted herself, for +she was really tired out. Swift did not see her again until supper, +which afforded further proofs of Mrs. Duncan's merits in a time of need. +Meanwhile, Mr. Luttrell had finally disabused him of the foolish fears +he had entertained while waiting for the coach. Swift's youth, which has +shown itself in these fears, comes out also in the ease with which he +now forgot them. They had made him unhappy for three whole days; yet he +dared to feel indignant because his owner, who had confirmed his command +instead of dismissing him from it, chose to talk sheep at the supper +table. Swift seemed burning to hear of the eldest Miss Luttrell, who was +Miss Luttrell no longer, having married a globe-trotting Londoner during +her first season and gone home. He asked Christina several questions +about Ruth (whose other name he kept forgetting) and her husband. But +Mr. Luttrell lost no chance of rounding up the conversation and yarding +it in the sheep pens; and Swift had the ingratitude to resent this. +Still more did he resent the hour he was forced to spend in the store +after supper, examining the books and discussing recent results and +future plans with Mr. Luttrell, while his subordinate, the storekeeper, +enjoyed the society of Christina. The business in the store was not only +absurdly premature and irksome in itself, but it made it perfectly +impossible for Swift to hear any more that night of the late Ruth +Luttrell, whose present name was not to be remembered. He found it hard +to possess his soul in patience and to answer questions satisfactorily +under such circumstances. For an hour, indeed, he did both; but the +station store faced the main building, and when Tiny Luttrell appeared +in the veranda of the latter with a lighted candle in her hand, he could +do neither any longer. Saying candidly that he must bid her good-night, +he hurried out of the store and across the yard, and was in time to +catch Christina at one end of the broad veranda which entirely +surrounded the house. + +At supper Mr. Luttrell had made him take the head of the table, by +virtue of his office, declaring that he himself was merely a visitor. +And on the strength of that Swift was perhaps justified now in adding a +host's apology to his good-night. "I'm afraid you'll have to rough it +most awfully," was what he said. + +"Far from it. You have given me my old room, the one we papered with +_Australasians_, if you remember; they are only a little more fly-blown +than they used to be." + +This was Christina's reply, which naturally led to more. + +"But it won't be as comfortable as it used to be," said Swift +unhappily; "and it won't be what you are accustomed to nowadays." + +"Never mind, it's the dearest little den in the colonies!" + +"That sounds as if you were glad to get back to Riverina?" + +"Glad? No one knows how glad I am." + +One person knew now. The measure of her gladness was expressed in her +face not less than in her tones, and it was no ordinary measure. Over +the candle she held in her hand Swift was enabled for the first time to +peer unobstructedly into her face. He found it more winsome than ever, +but he noticed some ancient blemishes under the memorable eyes. She had, +in fact, some freckles, which he recognized with the keenest joy. She +might stoop to a veil--she had not sunk to doctoring her complexion; she +had come back to the bush an incomplete worldling after all. Yet there +was that in her face which made him feel a stranger to her still. + +"Do you know," he said, smiling, "that I'm in a great funk of you? I +can't say quite what it is, but somehow you're so grand. I suppose it's +Melbourne." + +Miss Luttrell thanked him, bowing so low that her candle shed grease +upon the boards. "You've altered too," she added in his own manner; "I +suppose it's being boss. But I haven't seen enough of you to be sure. +You evidently told off your new storekeeper to entertain me for the +evening. He is a trying young man; he _will_ talk. But of course he is a +new chum fresh from home." + +"Still he's a very good little chap; but it wasn't my fault that he and +I didn't change places. Mr. Luttrell wanted to speak to me about several +things, besides glancing through the books; I thought we might have put +it off, and I wondered how you were getting on. By the way, it struck me +once or twice that your father was coming up to give me the sack; and +it's just the reverse, for now I'm permanent manager." + +He told her this with a natural exultation, but she did not seem +impressed by it. "Do you know why he did come up?" she asked him. + +"Yes; for his Easter holidays, chiefly." + +"And why I would come with him?" + +"No; I'm afraid we never mentioned you. I suppose you came for a holiday +too?" + +"Shall I tell you why I did come?" + +"I wish you would." + +"Well, I came to say good-by to Wallandoon," said Christina solemnly. + +"You're going to be married!" exclaimed Swift, with conviction, but with +perfect nonchalance. + +"Not if I know it," cried Christina. "Are you?" + +"Not I." + +"But there's Miss Trevor of Meringul!" + +"I see them once in six months." + +"That may be in the bond." + +"Well, never mind Miss Trevor of Meringul. You haven't told me how it is +you've come to say good-by to the station, Miss Luttrell of Wallandoon." + +"Then I'll tell you, seriously: it's because I sail for England on the +4th of May." + +"For England!" + +"Yes, and I'm not at all keen about it, I can tell you. But I'm not +going to see England, I'm going to see Ruth; Australia's worth fifty +Englands any day." + +Swift had recovered from his astonishment. "I don't know," he said +doubtfully; "most of us would like a trip home, you know, just to see +what the old country's like; though I dare say it isn't all it's cracked +up to be." + +"Of course it isn't. I hate it!" + +"But if you've never been there?" + +"I judge from the people--from the samples they send out. Your new +storekeeper is one; you meet worse down in Melbourne. Herbert's going +with me; he's going to Cambridge, if they'll have him. Didn't you know +that? But he could go alone, and if it wasn't for Ruth I wouldn't cross +Hobson's Bay to see their old England!" + +The serious bitterness of her tone struck him afterward as nothing less +than grotesque; but at the moment he was gazing into her face, +thoughtfully yet without thoughts. + +"It's good for Herbert," he said presently. "I couldn't do anything with +him here; he offered to fight me when I tried to make him work. I +suppose he will be three or four years at Cambridge; but how long are +you going to stay with Mrs.--Mrs. Ruth?" + +"How stupid you are at remembering a simple name! Do try to remember +that her name is Holland. I beg your pardon, Jack, but you have been +really very forgetful this evening. I think it must be Miss Trevor of +Meringul." + +"It isn't. I'm very sorry. But you haven't told me how long you think +of staying at home." + +"How long?" said the young girl lightly. "It may be for years and years, +and it may be forever and ever!" + +He looked at her strangely, and she darted out her hand. + +"Good-night again, Jack." + +"Good-night again." + +What with the pauses, each of them an excellent opportunity for +Christina to depart, it had taken them some ten minutes to say that +which ought not to have lasted one. But you must know that this was +nothing to their last good-night, on the self-same spot two years +before, when she had rested in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SWIFT OF WALLANDOON. + + +Christina was awakened in the morning by the holland blind flapping +against her open window. It was a soft, insinuating sound, that awoke +one gradually, and to Christina both the cause and the awakening itself +seemed incredibly familiar. So had she lain and listened in the past, as +each day broke in her brain. When she opened her eyes the shadow of the +sash wriggled on the blind as it flapped, a blade of sunshine lay under +the door that opened upon the veranda, and neither sight was new to her. +The same sheets of the _Australasian_ with which her own hands had once +lined the room, for want of a conventional wallpaper, lined it still; +the same area of printed matter was in focus from the pillow, and she +actually remembered an advertisement that caught her eye. It used to +catch her eye two years before. Thus it became difficult to believe in +those two years; and it was very pleasant to disbelieve in them. More +than pleasant Christina found it to lie where she was, hearing the old +noises (the horses were run up before she rose), seeing the old things, +and dreaming that the last two years were themselves a dream. Her life +as it stood was a much less charming composition than several possible +arrangements of the same material, impossible now. This is not strange, +but it was a little strange that neither sweet impossibilities nor +bitter actualities fascinated her much; for so many good girls are +morbidly introspective. As for Christina, let it be clearly and early +understood that she was neither an introspective girl by nature nor a +particularly good one from any point of view. She was not in the habit +of looking back; but to look back on the old days here at the station +without thinking of later days was like reading an uneven book for the +second time, leaving out the poor part. + +In making, but still more in closing that gap in her life (as you close +a table after taking out a leaf) she was immensely helped by the +associations of the present moment. They breathed of the remote past +only; their breath was sweet and invigorating. Her affection for +Wallandoon was no affectation; she loved it as she loved no other place. +And if, as she dressed, her thoughts dwelt more on the young manager of +the station than on the station itself, that only illustrates the +difference between an association and an associate. There is human +interest in the one, but it does not follow that Tiny Luttrell was +immoderately interested in Jack Swift. Even to herself she denied that +she had ever done more than like him very much. To some "nonsense" in +the past she was ready to own. But in the vocabulary of a Tiny Luttrell +a little "nonsense" may cover a calendar of mild crimes. It is only the +Jack Swifts who treat the nonsense seriously and deny that the crimes +are anything of the sort, because for their part they "mean it." Women +are not deceived. Besides, it is less shame for them to say they never +meant it. + +"He must marry Flo Trevor of Meringul," Christina said aloud. "It's what +we all expect of him. It's his duty. But she isn't pretty, poor thing!" + +The remarks happened to be made to Christina's own reflection in the +glass. She, as we know, was very pretty indeed. Her small head was +finely turned, and carried with her own natural grace. Her hair was of +so dark a brown as to be nearly black, but there was not enough of it to +hide the charming contour of her head. If she could have had the +altering of one feature, she would probably have shortened her lips; but +their red freshness justified their length; and the crux of a woman's +beauty, her nose, happened to be Christina's best point. Her eyes were a +sweeter one. Their depth of blue is seen only under dark blue skies, and +they seemed the darker for her hair. But with all her good features, +because she was not an English girl, but an Australian born and bred, +she had no complexion to speak of, being pale and slightly freckled. Yet +no one held that those blemishes prevented her from being pretty; while +some maintained that they did not even detract from her good looks, and +a few that they saved her from perfection and were a part of her charm. +The chances are that the authorities quoted were themselves her admirers +one and all. She had many such. To most of them her character had the +same charm as her face; it, too, was freckled with faults for which +they loved her the more. + +One of the many she met presently, but one of them now, though in his +day the first of all. Swift was hastening along the veranda as she +issued forth, a consciously captivating figure in her clean white frock. +He had on his wide-awake, a newly filled water-bag dripped as he carried +it, the drops drying under their eyes in the sun, and Christina foresaw +at once his absence for the day. She was disappointed, perhaps because +he was one of the many; certainly it was for this reason she did not let +him see her disappointment. He told her that he was going with her +father to the out-station. That was fourteen miles away. It meant a +lonely day for Christina at the homestead. So she said that a lonely day +there was just what she wanted, to overhaul the dear old place all by +herself, and to revel in it like a child without feeling that she was +being watched. But she told a franker story some hours later, when Swift +found her still on the veranda where he had left her, but this was now +the shady side, seated in a wicker chair and frowning at a book. For she +promptly flung away that crutch of her solitude, and seemed really glad +to see him. Her look made him tingle. He sat down on the edge of the +veranda and leaned his back against a post. Then he inquired, rather +diffidently, how the day had gone with Miss Luttrell. + +"I am ashamed to tell you," said Christina graciously, for though his +diffidence irritated her, she was quite as glad to see him as she +looked, "that I have been bored very nearly to death!" + +"I knew you would be," Swift said quite bitterly; but his bitterness was +against an absent man, who had gone indoors to rest. + +"I don't see how you could know anything," remarked Christina. "I +certainly didn't know it myself; and I'm very much ashamed of it, that's +another thing! I love every stick about the place. But I never knew a +hotter morning; the sand in the yard was like powdered cinders, and you +can't go poking about very long when everything you touch is red hot. +Then one felt tired. Mrs. Duncan took pity on me and came and talked to +me; she must be an acquisition to you, I am sure; but her cooking's +better than her conversation. I think she must have sent the new chum +to me to take her place; anyway I've had a dose of him, too, I can tell +you!" + +"Oh, he's been cutting his work, has he?" + +"He has been doing the civil; I think he considered that his work." + +"And quite right too! Tell me, what do you think of him?" + +Christina made a grotesque grimace. "He's such a little Englishman," she +simply said. + +"Well, he can't help that, you know," said Swift, laughing; "and he's +not half a bad little chap, as I told you last night." + +"Oh, not a bit bad; only typical. He has told me his history. It seems +he missed the army at home, front door and back, in spite of his +crammer--I mean his cwammer. He was no use, so they sent him out to us." + +"And he is gradually becoming of some use to us, or rather to me; he +really is," protested Swift in the interests of fair play, which a man +loves. "You laugh, but I like the fellow. He's much more use--forgive my +saying so--than Herbert ever would have been--here. At all events he +doesn't want to fight! He's willing, I will say that for him. And I +think it was rather nice of him to tell you about himself." + +"It's nicer of you to think so," said Christina to herself. And her +glance softened so that he noticed the difference, for he was becoming +sensitive to a slight but constant hardness of eye and tongue +distressing to find in one's divinity. + +"He went so far as to hint at an affair of the heart," she said aloud, +and he saw her eyes turn hard again, so that his own glanced off them +and fell. But he forced a chuckle as he looked down. + +"Well, you gave him your sympathy there, I hope?" + +"Not I, indeed. I urged him to forget all about her; she has forgotten +all about him long before now, you may be sure. He only thinks about her +still because it's pleasant to have somebody to think about at a lonely +place like this; and if she's thinking about him it's because he's away +in the wilderness and there's a glamour about that. It wouldn't prevent +her marrying another man to-morrow, and it won't prevent him making up +to some other girl when he gets the chance." + +"So that's your experience, is it?" + +"Never mind whose experience it is. I advised the young man to give up +thinking about the young woman, that's all, and it's my advice to every +young man situated as he is." + +Swift was not amused. Yet he refused to believe that her advice was +intended for himself: firstly, because it was so coolly given, which was +his ignorance, and secondly, because, literally speaking, he was not +himself situated as the young Englishman was, which was merely +unimaginative. In his determination, however, not to meet her in +generalizations, but to get back to the storekeeper, he was wise enough. + +"I know something about his affairs, too," he said quietly; "he's the +frankest little fellow in the world; and I have given him very different +advice, I must say." + +Tiny Luttrell bent down on him a gaze of fiendish innocence. + +"And what sort of advice does he give you, pray?" + +"You had better ask him," said Swift feebly, but with effect, for he was +honestly annoyed, and man enough to show it. As he spoke, indeed, he +rose. + +"What, are you going?" + +"Yes; you go in for being too hard altogether." + +"I don't go in for it. I am hard. I'm as hard as nails," said Christina +rapidly. + +"So I see," he said, and another weak return was strengthened by his +firmness; for he was going away as he spoke, and he never looked round. + +"I wouldn't lose my temper," she called after him. + +Her face was white. He disappeared. She colored angrily. + +"Now I hate you," she whispered to herself; but she probably respected +him more, and that was as it only should have been long ago. + +But Swift was in an awkward position, which indeed he deserved for the +unsuspected passages that had once taken place between Tiny Luttrell and +himself. It is true that those passages had occurred at the very end of +the Luttrells' residence at Wallandoon; they had not been going on for a +period preceding the end; but there is no denying that they were +reprehensible in themselves, and pardonable only on the plea of +exceeding earnestness. Swift would not have made that excuse for +himself, for he felt it to be a poor one, though of his own sincerity he +was and had been unwaveringly sure. Beyond all doubt he was properly in +love, and, being so, it was not until the girl stopped writing to him +that he honestly repented the lengths to which he had been encouraged to +go. It is easy to be blameless through the post, but they had kept up +their perfectly blameless correspondence for a very few weeks when +Christina ceased firing; she was to have gone on forever. He was just +persistent enough to make it evident that her silence was intentional; +then the silence became complete, and it was never again broken. For if +Swift's self-control was limited, his self-respect was considerable, and +this made him duly regret the limitations of his self-control. His boy's +soul bled with a boy's generous regrets. He had kissed her, of course, +and I wonder whose fault you think that was? I know which of them +regretted and which forgot it. The man would have given one of his +fingers to have undone those kisses, that made him think less of himself +and less of his darling. Nothing could make him love her less. He heard +no more of her, but that made no difference. And now they were together +again, and she was hard, and it made this difference: that he wanted +her worse than ever, and for her own gain now as much as for his. + +But two years had altered him also. In a manner he too was hardened; but +he was simply a stronger, not a colder man. The muscles of his mind were +set; his soul was now as sinewy as his body. He knew what he wanted, and +what would not do for him instead. He wanted a great deal, but he meant +having it or nothing. This time she should give him her heart before he +took her hand; he swore it through his teeth; and you will realize how +he must have known her of old even to have thought it. The curious thing +is that, having shown him what she was, she should have made him love +her as he did. But that was Tiny Luttrell. + +She was half witch, half coquette, and her superficial cynicism was but +a new form of her coquetry. He liked it less than the unsophisticated +methods of the old days. Indeed, he liked the girl less, while loving +her more. She had given him the jar direct in one conversation, but even +on indifferent subjects she spoke with a bitterness which he thoroughly +disliked; while some of her prejudices he could not help thinking +irredeemably absurd. As a shrill decrier of England, for instance, she +may have amused him, but he hardly admired her in that character. In a +word, he thought her, and rightly, a good deal spoilt by her town life; +but he hated towns, and it was a proof of her worth in his eyes that she +was not hopelessly spoilt. He saw hope for her still--if she would marry +him. He was a modest man in general, but he did feel this most strongly. +She was going to England without caring whether she went or not; she +would do much better by marrying him and coming back to her old home in +the bush. That home she loved, whether she loved him or not; in it she +had grown up simple and credulous and sweet, with a wicked side that +only picked out her sweetness; in it he believed that her life and his +might yet be beautiful. The feeling made him sometimes rejoice that she +had fallen a little out of love with her life, so that he might show her +with all the effect of contrast what life and love really were; it +thrilled his heart with generous throbs, it brought the moisture to his +honest eyes, and it came to him oftener and with growing force as the +days went on, by reason of certain signs they brought forth in +Christiana. Her voice lost its bitterness in his ears, not because he +had grown used to notes that had jarred him in the beginning, but +because the discordant strings came gradually into tune. Her freshness +came back to her with the charm and influence of the wilderness she +loved; her old self lived again to Jack Swift. On the other hand, she +came to realize her own delight in the old good life as she had never +realized it before; she felt that henceforward she should miss it as she +had not missed it yet. Now she could have defined her sensations and +given reasons for them. She spent many hours in the saddle, on a former +mount of hers that Swift had run up for her; often he rode with her, and +the scent of the pines, the swelling of the sand-hills against the sky, +the sense of Nothing between the horses' ears and the sunset, spoke to +her spirit as they had never done of old. And even so on their rides +would she speak to Swift, who listened grimly, hardly daring to answer +her for the fear of saying at the wrong moment what he had resolved to +say once and for all before she went. + +And he chose the wrong moment after all. It was the eve of her going, +and they were riding together for the last time; he felt that it was +also his last opportunity. So in six miles he made as many remarks, +then turned in his saddle and spoke out with overpowering fervor. This +may be expected of the self-contained suitor, with whom it is only a +question of time, and the longer the time the stronger the outburst. But +Christina was not carried away, for she did not quite love him, and the +opportunity was a bad one, and Swift's honest method had not improved +it. She listened kindly, with her eyes on the distant timbers of the +eight-mile whim; but her kindness was fatally calm; and when he waited +she refused him firmly. She confessed to a fondness for him. She +ascribed this to the years they had known each other. Once and for all +she did not love him. + +"Not now!" exclaimed the young fellow eagerly. "But you did once! You +will again!" + +"I never loved you," said the girl gravely. "If you're thinking of two +years ago, that was mere nonsense. I don't believe its love with you +either, if you only knew it." + +"But I do know what it is with me, Tiny! I loved you before you went +away, and all the time you were gone. Since you have been back, during +these few days, I have got to love you more than ever. And so I shall +go on, whatever happens. I can't help it, darling." + +Neither could he help saying this; for the hour found him unable to +accept his fate quite as he had meant to accept it. Her kindness had +something to do with that. And now she spoke more kindly than before. + +"Are you sure?" she said. + +"Am I sure!" he echoed bitterly. + +"It is so easy to deceive oneself." + +"I am not deceived." + +"It is so easy to imagine yourself----" + +"I am not imagining!" cried Swift impatiently. "I am the man who has +loved you always, and never any girl but you. If you can't believe that, +you must have had a very poor experience of men, Tiny!" + +For a moment she looked away from the whim which they were slowly +nearing, and her eyes met his. + +"I have," she admitted frankly; "I have had a particularly poor +experience of them. Yet I am sorry to find you so different from the +rest; I can't tell you how sorry I am to find you true to me." + +"Sorry?" he said tenderly; for her voice was full of pain, and he could +not bear that. "Why should you be sorry, dear?" + +"Why--because I never dreamt of being true to you." + +For some reason her face flamed as he watched it. There was a pause. +Then he said: + +"You are not engaged; are you in love?" + +"Very far from it." + +"Then why mind? If there is no one else you care for you shall care for +me yet. I'll make you. I'll wait for you. You don't know me! I won't +give you up until you are some other fellow's wife." + +His stern eyes, the way his mouth shut on the words, and the manly +determination of the words themselves gave the girl a thrill of pleasure +and of pride; but also a pang; for at that moment she felt the wish to +love him alongside the inability, and all at once she was as sorry for +herself as for him. + +"What should you mind?" repeated Swift. + +"I can't tell you, but you can guess what I have been." + +"A flirt?" He laughed aloud. "Darling, I don't care two figs for your +flirtations! I wanted you to enjoy yourself. What does it matter how +you've enjoyed yourself, so long as you haven't absolutely been getting +engaged or falling in love?" + +Her chin drooped into her loose white blouse. "I did fall in love," she +said slowly--"at any rate I thought so; and I very nearly got engaged." + +Swift had never seen so much color in her face. + +Presently he said, "What happened?" but immediately added, "I beg your +pardon; of course I have no business to ask." His tone was more stiff +than strained. + +"You _have_ business," she answered eagerly, fearful of making him less +than friend. "I wouldn't mind telling you the whole thing, except the +man's name. And yet," she added rather wistfully, "I suppose you're the +only friend I have that doesn't know! It's hard lines to have to tell +you." + +"Then I don't want to know anything at all about it," exclaimed Swift +impulsively. "I would rather you didn't tell me a word, if you don't +mind. I am only too thankful to think you got out of it, whatever it +was." + +"I didn't get out of it." + +"You don't--mean--that the man did?" + +Swift was aghast. + +"I do." + +He did not speak, but she heard him breathing. Stealing a look at him, +her eyes fell first upon the clenched fist lying on his knee. + +She made haste to defend the man. + +"It wasn't all his fault; of that I feel sure. If you knew who he was +you wouldn't blame him anymore than I do. He was quite a boy, too; I +don't suppose he was a free agent. In any case it is all quite, quite +over." + +"Is it? He was from England--that's why you hate the home people so!" + +"Yes, he was from home. He went back very suddenly. It wasn't his fault. +He was sent for. But he might have said good-by!" + +She spoke reflectively, gazing once more at the whim. They were near it +now. The framework cut the sky like some uncouth hieroglyph. To Swift +henceforward, on all his lonely journeys hither, it was the emblem of +humiliation. But it was not his own humiliation that moistened his +clenched hand now. + +"I wish I had him here," he muttered. + +"Ah! you know nothing about him, you see; I know enough to forgive him. +And I have got over it, quite; but the worst of it is that I can't +believe any more in any of you--I simply can't." + +"Not in me?" asked Swift warmly, for her belief in him, at least, he +knew he deserved. "I have always been the same. I have never thought of +any other girl but you, and I never will. I love you, darling!" + +"After this, Jack?" + +He seemed to disappoint her. + +"After the same thing if it happens all over again in England! There is +no merit in it; I simply can't help myself. While you are away I will +wait for you and work for you; only come back free, and I will win you, +too, in the end. You are happier here than anywhere else, but you don't +know what it is to be really happy as I should make you. Remember +that--and this: that I will never give you up until someone else has got +you! Now call me conceited or anything you like. I have done bothering +you." + +"I can only call you foolish," said the girl, though gently. "You are +far too good for me. As for conceit, you haven't enough of it, or you +would never give me another thought. I still hope you will quite give +up thinking about me, and--and try to get over it. But nothing is going +to happen in England, I can promise you that much. And I only wish I +could get out of going." + +He had already shown her how she might get out of it; he was not going +to show her afresh or more explicitly, in spite of the temptation to do +so. Even to a proud spirit it is difficult to take No when the voice +that says it is kind and sorrowful and all but loving. Swift found it +easier to bide by his own statement that he had done bothering her; such +was his pride. + +But he had chosen the wrong moment, and though he had shown less pride +than he had meant to show, he was still too proud to improve the right +one when it came. He was too proud, indeed, to stand much chance of +immediate success in love. Otherwise he might have reminded her with +more force and particularity of their former relations; and playing like +that he might have won, but he would rather have lost. Perhaps he did +not recognize the right moment as such when it fell; but at least he +must have seen that it was better than the one he had chosen. It fell +in the evening, when Christina's mood became conspicuously sentimental; +but Swift happened to be one of the last young men in the world to take +advantage of any mere mood. + +As on the first evening, Mr. Luttrell was busy in the store, but this +time with the storekeeper, who was making out a list of things to be +sent up in the drays from Melbourne. Tiny and the manager were thrown +together for the last time. She offered to sing a song, and he thanked +her gratefully enough. But he listened to her plaintive songs from a far +corner of the room, though the room was lighted only by the moonbeams; +and when she rose he declared that she was tired and begged her not to +sing any more. She could have beaten him for that. + +But in leaving the room they lingered on the threshold, being struck by +the beauty of the night. The full moon ribbed the station yard with the +shadows of the pines, a soft light was burning in the store, and all was +so still that the champing of the night-horse in the yard came plainly +to their ears, with the chirping of the everlasting crickets. Christina +raised her face to Swift; her eyes were wet in the moonlight; there was +even a slight tremor of the red lips; and one hand hung down invitingly +at her side. She did not love him, but she was beginning to wish that +she could love him; and she did love the place. Had he taken that one +hand then the chances are he might have kept it. But even Swift never +dreamt that this was so. And after that moment it was not so any more. +She turned cold, and was cold to the end. Her last words from the top of +the coach fell as harshly on a loving ear as any that had preceded them +by a week. + +"Why need you remind me I am going to England? Enjoy myself! I shall +detest the whole thing." + +Her last look matched the words. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TAIL OF THE SEASON. + + +"What do you say to sitting it out? The rooms are most awfully crowded, +and you dance too well for one; besides, one's anxious to hear your +impressions of a London ball." + +"One must wait till the ball is over. So far I can't deny that I'm +enjoying myself in spite of the crush. But I should rather like to sit +out for once, though you needn't be sarcastic about my dancing." + +"Well, then, where's a good place?" + +"There's a famous corner in the conservatory; it should be empty now +that a dance is just beginning." + +It was. So it became occupied next moment by Tiny Luttrell and her +partner, who allowed that the dimly illumined recess among the +tree-ferns deserved its fame. Tiny's partner, however, was only her +brother-in-law, Mr. Erskine Holland. + +The Luttrells had been exactly a fortnight in England. It was in the +earliest hour of the month of July that Christina sat out with her +brother-in-law at her first London party; and if she had spent that +fortnight chiefly in visiting dressmakers and waiting for results, she +had at least found time to get to know Erskine Holland very much better +than she had ever done in Melbourne. There she had seen very little of +him, partly through being away from home when he first called with an +introduction to the family, but more by reason of the short hurdle race +he had made of his courtship, marriage, and return to England with his +bride. He had taken the matrimonial fences as only an old bachelor can +who has been given up as such by his friends. Mr. Holland, though still +nearer thirty than forty, had been regarded as a confirmed bachelor when +starting on a long sea voyage for the restoration of his health after an +autumnal typhoid. His friends were soon to know what weakened health and +Australian women can do between them. They beheld their bachelor return +within four months, a comfortably married man, with a pleasant little +wife who was very fond of him, and in no way jealous of his old friends. +That was Mrs. Erskine's great merit, and the secret of the signal +success with which she presided over his table in West Kensington, when +Erskine had settled down there and returned with steadiness to the good, +safe business to which he had been virtually born a partner. For his +part, without being enslaved to a degree embarrassing to their friends, +Holland made an obviously satisfactory husband. He was good-natured and +never exacting; he was well off and generous. One of a wealthy, +many-membered firm driving a versatile trade in the East, he was as free +personally from business anxieties as was the hall porter at the firm's +offices in Lombard Street. There Erskine was the most popular and least +useful fraction of the firm, being just a big, fair, genial fellow, fond +of laughter and chaff and lawn tennis, and fonder of books than of the +newspapers--an eccentric preference in a business man. But as a business +man the older partners shook their heads about him. Once as a youngster +he had spent a year or two in Lisbon, learning the language and the +ropes there, the firm having certain minor interests planted in +Portuguese soil on both sides of the Indian Ocean; and those interests +just suited Erskine Holland, who had the handling of them, though the +older partners nursed their own distrust of a man who boasted of taking +his work out of his head each evening when he hung up his office coat. +At home Erskine was a man who read more than one guessed, and had his +own ideas on a good many subjects. He found his sister-in-law lamentably +ignorant, but quite eager to improve her mind at his direction; and this +is ever delightful to the man who reads. Also he found her amusing, and +that experience was mutual. + +A Londoner himself, with many reputable relatives in the town, who +rejoiced in the bachelor's marriage and were able to like his wife, he +was in a position to gratify to a considerable extent Mrs. Erskine's +social desires. That he did so somewhat against his own inclination +(much as in Melbourne his father-in-law had done before him) was due to +an acutely fair mind allied with a thoroughly kind and sympathetic +nature. His own attitude toward society was not free from that slight +intellectual superiority which some of the best fellows in the world +cannot help; but at least it was perfectly genuine. He treated society +as he treated champagne, which he seldom touched, but about which he +was curiously fastidious on those chance occasions. He cared as little +for the one as for the other, but found the drier brands inoffensive in +both cases. The ball to-night was at Lady Almeric's. + +"Not a bad corner," Erskine said as he made himself comfortable; "but +I'm afraid it's rather thrown away upon me, you know." + +"Far from it. I wish I had been dancing with you the whole evening, +Erskine," said Christina seriously. + +"That's rather obsequious of you. May I ask why?" + +"Because I don't think much of my partners so far, to talk to." + +"Ha! I knew there was something you wouldn't think much of," cried +Erskine Holland. "Have they nothing to say for themselves, then?" + +"Oh, plenty. They discover where I come from; then they show their +ignorance. They want to know if there is any chance for a fellow on the +gold fields now; they have heard of a place called Ballarat, but they +aren't certain whether it's a part of Melbourne or nearer Sydney. One +man knows some people at Hobart Town, in New Zealand, he fancies. I +never knew anything like their ignorance of the colonies!" + +Mr. Holland tugged a smile out of his mustache. "Can you tell me how to +address a letter to Montreal--is it Quebec or Ontario?" he asked her, as +if interested and anxious to learn. + +"Goodness knows," replied Christina innocently. + +"Then that's rather like their ignorance of the colonies, isn't it? +There's not much difference between a group of colonies and a dominion, +you see. I'm afraid your partners are not the only people whose +geography has been sadly neglected." + +Christina laughed. + +"My education's been neglected altogether, if it comes to that. As +you're taking me in hand, perhaps you'll lend me a geography, as well as +Ruskin and Thackeray. Nevertheless, Australia's more important than +Canada, you may say what you like, Erskine; and your being smart won't +improve my partners." + +"Oh! but I thought it was only their conversation?" + +"You force me to tell you that their idea of dancing seems limited to +pushing you up one side of the room, and dragging you after them down +the other. Sometimes they turn you round. Then they're proud of +themselves. They never do it twice running." + +"That's because there are so many here." + +"There are far too many here--that's what's the matter! And I'm a nice +person to tell you so," added Tiny penitently, "when it's you and Ruth +who have brought me here. But you know I don't mean that I'm not +enjoying it, Erskine; I'm enjoying it immensely, and I'm very proud of +myself for being here at all. I can't quite explain myself--I don't much +like trying to--but there's a something about everything that makes it +seem better than anything of the kind that we can do in Melbourne. The +music is so splendid, and the floor, and the flowers. I never saw such a +few diamonds--or such beauties! Even the ices are the best I ever +tasted, and they aren't too sweet. There's something subdued and +superior about the whole concern; but it's too subdued; it needs go and +swing nearly as badly as it needs elbow-room--of more kinds than one! +I'm thinking less of the crowd of people than of their etiquette and +ceremony, which hamper you far more. But it's your old England in a +nutshell, this ball is: it fits too tight." + +"Upon my word," said Erskine, laughing, "I don't think it's at all bad +for you to find the old country a tight fit! I'm obliged to you for the +expression, Tiny. I only hope it isn't suggested by personal suffering. +I have been thinking that you must have a good word to say for our +dressmakers, if not for our dancing men." + +Christina slid her eyes over the snow and ice of the shimmering attire +that had been made for her in haste since her arrival. + +"I'm glad you like me," she said, smiling honestly. "I must own I rather +like myself in this lot. I didn't want to disgrace you among your fine +friends, you see." + +"They're more fine than friends, my dear girl. Lady Almeric's the only +friend. She has been very nice to Ruth. Most of the people here are +rather classy, I can assure you." + +He named the flower of the company in a lowered voice. Christina knew +one of the names. + +"Lady Mary Dromard, did you say?" said she, playing idly with her fan. + +"Yes; do you know her?" + +"No, but her brother was in Melbourne once as aid-de-camp to the +governor. I knew him." + +"Ah, that was Lord Manister; he wasn't out there when I was." + +"No, he must have come just after you had gone. He only remained a few +months, you know. He was a quiet young man with a mania for cricket; we +liked him because he set our young men their fashions and yet never gave +himself airs. I wonder if he's here as well?" + +"I don't think so. I know him by sight, but I haven't seen him. I'm glad +to hear he didn't give himself airs; you couldn't say the same for the +sister who is here, though I only know her by sight, too." + +"He was quite a nice young man," said Christina, shutting up her fan; +and as she spoke the music, whose strains had reached them all the time, +came to its natural end. + +The conservatory suffered instant invasion, Christina and Mr. Holland +being afforded the entertainment of disappointing couple after couple +who came straight to their corner. + +"We're in a coveted spot," whispered Erskine; and his sister-in-law +reminded him who had shown the way to it. It was less secluded than +remote, so the present occupiers found further entertainment as mere +spectators. The same little things amused them both; this was one reason +why they got on so well together. They were amused by such trifles as a +distant prospect of Ruth, who was innocently enjoying herself at the +other end of the conservatory, unaware of their eyes. Erskine might have +felt proud, and no doubt he did, for many people considered Ruth even +prettier than Christina, with whom, however, they were apt to confuse +her, though Holland himself could never see the likeness. He now sat +watching his wife in the distance while talking to her sister at his +side until a new partner pounced upon Ruth, and bore her away as the +music began afresh. + +"There goes my chaperon," remarked Christina resignedly. + +"Who's your partner now? I'm sorry to say I see mine within ten yards of +me," whispered Erskine in some anxiety. + +Tiny consulted her card. "It's Herbert," she said. + +"Herbert!" said Mr. Holland dubiously. "I'm afraid Herbert's going it; +he's deeply employed with a girl in red--I think an American. Shall I +take you to Lady Almeric?" His eyes shifted uneasily toward his +expectant partner. + +"No, I'll wait here for Herbert. Mayn't I? Then I'm going to. You're +sure to see him, and you can send him at once. Don't blame Ruth. What +does it matter? It will matter if you don't go this instant to your +partner; I see it in her eye!" + +He left her reluctantly, with the undertaking that Herbert should be at +her side in two minutes. But that was rash. Christina soon had the +conservatory entirely to herself, whereupon she came out of her corner, +so that her brother might find her the more readily. Still he kept her +waiting, and she might as well have been lonely in the corner. It was +too bad of Herbert to leave her standing there, where she had no +business to be by herself, and the music and the throbbing of the floor +within a few yards of her. These awkward minutes naturally began to +disturb her. They checked and cooled her in the full blast of healthy +excitement, and that was bad; they threw her back upon herself straight +from her lightest mood, and this was worse. She became abnormally aware +of her own presence as she stood looking down and impatiently tapping +with her little white slipper upon the marble flags. Even about these +there was the grand air which Christina relished; she might have seen +her face far below, as though she had been standing in still water; but +her thoughts had been given a rough jerk inward, her outward vision fell +no deeper than the polished surface, while her mind's eye saw all at +once the dusty veranda boards of Wallandoon. She stood very still, and +in her ears the music died away, and through three months of travel and +great changes she heard again the night-horse champing in the yard, and +the crickets chirping further afield. And as she stood, her head bowed +by this sudden memory, footsteps approached, and she looked up, +expecting to see Herbert. But it was not Herbert; it was a young man of +more visible distinction than Herbert Luttrell. It is difficult to look +better dressed than another in our evening mode; but this young man +overcame the difficulty. He stood erect; he was well built; his clothes +fitted beautifully; he was himself nice looking, and fair-haired, and +boyish; and, even more than his clothes, one admired his smile, which +was frank and delightful. But the smile he gave Christina was followed +by a blush, for she had held out her hand to him, and asked him how he +was. + +"I'm all right, thanks. But--this is the most extraordinary thing! Been +over long?" + +He had dropped her hand. + +"About a fortnight," said Christina. + +"But what a pity to come over so late in the season! It's about done, +you know." + +"Yes. I thought there was a good deal going on still." + +"There's Henley, to be sure." + +"I think I'm going to Henley." + +"Going to the Eton and Harrow?" + +"I am not quite sure. That was your match, wasn't it?" + +The young man blushed afresh. + +"Fancy your remembering! Unfortunately it wasn't my match, though; my +day out was against Winchester." + +"Oh, yes," said Tiny, less knowingly. + +"And how are you, Miss Luttrell?" + +This had been forgotten, Tiny reported well of herself. Her friend +hesitated; there was some nervousness in his manner, but his good eyes +never fell from her face, and presently he exclaimed, as though the idea +had just struck him: + +"I say, mayn't I have this dance, Miss Luttrell--what's left of it?" + +"Thanks, I'm afraid I'm engaged for it." + +"Then mayn't I find your partner for you?" + +Now this second request, or his anxious way of making it, was an +elaborate revelation to Christina, and wrote itself in her brain. "Do +you remember Herbert?" she, however, simply replied. "He is the +culprit." + +"Your brother? Certainly I remember him. I saw him a few minutes ago, +and made sure I had seen him somewhere before; but he looks older. I +don't fancy he's dancing. He's somewhere or other with somebody in red." + +"So I hear." + +"Then mayn't I have a turn with you before it stops?" + +She hesitated as long as he had hesitated before first asking her; there +was not time to hesitate longer. Then she took his arm, and they passed +through a narrow avenue of ferns and flowers, round a corner, up some +steps, and so into the ball room. + +The waltz was indeed half over, but the second half of it Christina and +her fortuitous partner danced together, without a rest, and also without +a word. He led her a more enterprising measure than those previous +partners who had questioned her concerning Australia. The name of +Australia had not crossed this one's lips. As Tiny whirled and glided on +his arm she saw a good many eyes upon her: they made her dance her best; +and her best was the best in the room, though her partner was uncommonly +good, and they had danced together before. Among the eyes were Ruth's, +and they were beaming; the others were mostly inquisitive, and as +strange to Christina as she evidently was to them; but once a turn +brought her face to face with Herbert, on his way from the conservatory, +and alone. He was a lanky, brown-faced, hook-nosed boy, with wiry limbs +and an aggressive eye, and he followed his sister round the room with a +stare of which she was uncomfortably conscious. He had looked for her +too late, when forced to relinquish the girl in red to her proper +partner, who still seemed put out. Christina was put out also, by her +brother's look, but she did not show it. + +"You are staying in town?" her partner said after the dance as they sat +together in the conservatory, but not in the old corner. + +"Yes, with my sister, Mrs. Holland; you never met her, I think. We are +in town till August." + +"Where do you go then?" + +"To the country for a month. My sister and her husband have taken a +country rectory for the whole of August. They had it last year, and +liked the place so much that they have taken it again; it is a little +village called Essingham." + +"Essingham!" cried Christina's partner. + +"Yes; do you know it?" + +"I know of it," answered the young man. "I suppose you will go on the +Continent after that?" he added quickly. + +"Well, hardly; my brother-in-law has so little time; but he expects to +have to go to Lisbon on business at the end of October, and he has +promised to take us with him." + +"To Lisbon at the end of October," repeated Tiny's friend reflectively. +"Get him to take you to Cintra. They say it's well worth seeing." + +Yet another dance was beginning. Christina was interested in the +movements of a young man in spectacles, who was plainly in search of +somebody. "He's hunting for me," she whispered to her companion, who was +saying: + +"Portugal's rather the knuckle end of Europe, don't you think? But I've +heard Cintra well spoken of. I should go there if I were you." + +"We intend to. Do you mind pulling that young man's coat tails? He has +forgotten my face." + +"Yes, I do mind," said Tiny's partner with unexpected earnestness. "I +may meet you again, but I should like to take this opportunity of +explaining----" + +Tiny Luttrell was smiling in his face. + +"I hate explanations!" she cried. "They are an insult to one's +imagination, and I much prefer to accept things without them." There was +a gleam in her smile, but as she spoke she flashed it upon the +spectacles of her blind pursuer, who was squaring his arm to her in an +instant. + +And that was the last she saw of the only partner for whom she had a +good word afterward, and he had come to her by accident. But it was by +no means the last she heard of him. The next was from Herbert, as they +drove home together in one hansom, while Ruth and her husband followed +in another. The morning air blew fresh upon their faces; the rising sun +struck sparks from the harness; the leaves in the park were greener than +any in Australia, and the dew on the grass through the railings was as a +silver shower new-fallen. But the most delicious taste of London that +had yet been given her was poisoned for Christina by her brother +Herbert. + +"To have my claim jumped by that joker!" said he through his nose. + +"But you had left it empty," said Tiny mildly. "I was all alone." + +"It isn't so much that," her brother said, shifting the ground he had +taken in preliminary charges; "it's your dancing with that brute +Manister!" + +"My dear old Herbs," said Miss Luttrell with provoking coolness, "Lord +Manister asked me to dance with him, and I didn't see why I should +refuse. I certainly didn't see why I should consult you, Herbs." + +"By ghost," cried Herbert, "if it comes to that, he once asked you to +marry him!" + +"Now you are a treat," said the girl, before the blood came. + +"And then bolted! I should be ashamed of myself for dancing with him if +I were you. He said I was a larrikin, too. I'd like to fill his eye for +him!" + +"He'll never say a truer thing!" Christina cried out; but her voice +broke over the words, and the early sun cut diamonds on her lashes. + +Now this was Herbert: he was rough, but not cowardly. His nose had +become hooked in his teens from a stand-up fight with a full-grown man. +There is not the least doubt that in such a combat with Lord Manister +that nobleman, though otherwise a finer athlete, would have suffered +extremely. But it was not in Herbert to hit any woman in cold blood with +his tongue. Having done this in his heat to Christina, his mate, he was +man enough to be sorry and ashamed, and to slip her hands into his. + +"I'm an awful beast," he stammered out. "I didn't mean anything at +all--except that I'd like to fill up Manister's eye! I can't go back on +that when--when he called me a larrikin!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RUTH AND CHRISTINA. + + +Here is the difference between Ruth and Christina, who were considered +so much alike. + +Of the two, Ruth was the one to fall in love with at sight--of which +Erskine Holland supplies the proof. She was less diminutive than her +sister; she had a finer figure, a warmer color, and indeed, despite the +destructive Australian sun, a very beautiful complexion. In the early +days at Wallandoon she had given herself a better chance in this respect +than Christina had done, not from vanity at all, but rather owing to +certain differences in their ideas of pleasure, into which it is +needless to enter. The result was her complexion; and this was not her +only beauty, for she had good brown eyes that suited her coloring as +autumn leaves befit an autumn sunset. These eyes are never unkind, but +Ruth's were sweet-tempered to a fault. So the glance of one scanning +both girls for the first time rested naturally upon Ruth, but on all +subsequent occasions it flew straight to Christina, because there was +an end to Ruth; but there was no coming to an end of Tiny, about whom +there was ever some fresh thing to charm or disappoint one. + +Thus, but for the businesslike dispatch of Erskine Holland, it might +have been Ruth's fate to break in Christina's admirers until Christina +fancied one of them enough to marry him. For Ruth's was perhaps the more +unselfish character of the two, as it was certainly the simpler one, in +spite of a peculiar secretive strain in her from which Tiny was free. +Tiny, on the other hand, was much more sensitive; but to perceive this +was to understand her better than she understood herself. For she did +not know her own weaknesses as the self-examining know theirs, and +hardly anybody suspected her of this one until her arrival in +England--when Erskine Holland came to treat her as a sister, and to +understand her more or less. + +In Australia he had seen very little of her, though enough to regard her +at the time as an arrant little heartless flirt, for whom sighed silly +swains innumerable. That she was, indeed, a flirt there was still no +denying; but as his knowledge of her ripened, Holland was glad to +unharness the opprobrious epithets with which Ruth's sister had first +driven herself into his mind. He discovered good points in Christina, +and among them a humor which he had never detected out in Australia. +Probably his own sense of it had lost its edge out there, for +love-making blunts nothing sooner; while Ruth, for her part, was +naturally wanting in humor. Holland had never been blind to this defect +in his wife, but he seemed resigned to it; one can conceive it to be a +merit in the wife of an amusing man. + +Some people called Erskine amusing--it is not hard to win this label +from some people--but at any rate he was never likely to find it +difficult to amuse Ruth. Now no companion in this world is more charming +for all time than the person who is content to do the laughing. As a +novelty, however, Christina had her own distinctive attraction for +Erskine Holland. And they got on so well together that presently he saw +more in Tiny than her humor, which others had seen before him; he saw +that her heart was softer than she thought; but he divined that +something had happened to harden it. + +"She has been falling in love," he said to Ruth--"and something has +happened." + +"What makes you think so? She has told me nothing about it," Ruth said. + +"Ah, she is sensitive. I can see that, too. It's her bitterness, +however, that makes me think something has turned out badly." + +"She is sadly cynical," remarked Ruth. + +"Cynically sad, I rather think," her husband said. "I don't fancy she's +languishing now; I should say she has got over the thing, whatever it +has been--and is rather disappointed with herself for getting over it so +easily. She has hinted at nothing, but she has a trick of generalizing; +and she affects to think that one person doesn't fret for another longer +than a week in real life. I don't say her cynicism is so much +affectation; something or other has left a bad taste in her mouth; but I +should like to bet that it wasn't an affair of the most serious sort." + +"Her affairs never were very serious, Erskine." + +"So I gathered from what I saw of her before we were married. It's a +pity," said Erskine musingly. "I'd like to see her married, but I'd love +to see her wooed! That's where the sport would come in. There would be +no knowing where the fellow had her. He might hook her by luck, but he'd +have to play her like fun before he landed her! There'd be a strong +sporting interest in the whole thing, and that's what one likes." + +"It's a pity I didn't know what you liked," Ruth said, with a smile; +"and a wonder that you liked me, and not Tiny!" + +"My darling," laughed her husband, "that sort of sport's for the young +fellows. I'm past it. I merely meant that I should like to see the +sport. No, Tiny's charming in her way, but God forbid that it should be +your way too!" + +Now Ruth was such a fond little wife that at this speech she became too +much gratified on her own account to care to discuss her sister any +further. But in dismissing the subject of Tiny she took occasion to +impress one fact upon Erskine: + +"You may be right, dear, and something may have happened since I left +home; but I can only tell you that Tiny hasn't breathed a single word +about it to me." + +And this is an early sample of the disingenuous streak that was in the +very grain of Ruth. Christina, indeed, had told her nothing, but Ruth +knew nearly all that there was to know of the affair whose traces were +plain to her husband's insight. Beyond the fact that the name of Tiny +Luttrell had been coupled in Melbourne with that of Lord Manister, and +the _on dit_ that Lord Manister had treated her rather badly, there was, +indeed, very little to be known. But Ruth knew at least as much as her +mother, who had written to her on the subject the more freely and +frequently because her younger daughter flatly refused the poor lady her +confidence. There was no harm in Ruth's not showing those letters to her +husband. There was no harm in her keeping her sister's private affairs +from her husband's knowledge. There was the reverse of harm in both +reservations, as Erskine would have been the first to allow. Ruth had +her reasons for making them; and if her reasons embodied a deep design, +there was no harm in that either, for surely it is permissible to plot +and scheme for the happiness of another. I can see no harm in her +conduct from any point of view. But it was certainly disingenuous, and +it entailed an insincere attitude toward two people, which in itself was +not admirable. And those two were her nearest. However amiable her +plans might be, they made it impossible for Ruth to be perfectly sincere +with her husband on one subject, which was bad enough. But with +Christina it was still more impossible to be at all candid; and this +happened to be worse, for reasons which will be recognized later. In the +first place, Tiny immediately discovered Ruth's insincerity, and even +her plans. Tiny was a difficult person to deceive. She detected the +insincerity in a single conversation with Ruth on the afternoon +following Lady Almeric's ball, and before she went to bed she was as +much in possession of the plans as if Ruth had told her them. + +The conversation took place in Erskine's study, where the sisters had +foregathered for a lazy afternoon. + +"Oh, by the way," said Ruth, apropos of the ball, "it was a coincidence +your dancing with Lord Manister." + +"Why a coincidence?" asked Christina. She glanced rather sharply at Ruth +as she put the question. + +"Well, it is just possible that we shall see something of him in the +country. That's all," said Ruth, as she bent over the novel of which +she was cutting the pages. + +Christina also had a book in her lap, but she had not opened it; she was +trying to read Ruth's averted face. + +"I thought perhaps you meant because we saw something of him in +Melbourne," she said presently. "I suppose you know that we did see +something of him? He even honored us once or twice." + +"So you told me in your letters." + +The paper knife was still at work. + +"What makes it likely that we shall see him in the country?" + +"Well, Mundham Hall is quite close to Essingham, you know." + +"Mundham Hall! Whose place is that?" + +"Lord Dromard's," replied Ruth, still intent upon her work. + +"Surely not!" exclaimed Christina. "Lord Manister once told me the name +of their place, and I am convinced it wasn't that." + +"They have several places. But until quite lately they have lived mostly +at the other side of the county, at Wreford Abbey." + +"That was the name." + +"But they have sold that place," said Ruth, "and last autumn Lord +Dromard bought Mundham; it was empty when we were at Essingham last +year." + +For some moments there was silence, broken only by the leisurely swish +of Ruth's paper knife. Then Christina said, "That accounts for it," +thinking aloud. + +"For what?" asked Ruth rather nervously. + +"Lord Manister told me he knew of Essingham. He never mentioned Mundham. +Is it so very close to your rectory?" + +"The grounds are; they are very big; the hall itself is miles from the +gates--almost as far as our home station was from the boundary fence." + +"Surely not," Tiny said quietly. + +"Well, that's a little exaggeration, of course." + +"Then I wish it wasn't!" Tiny cried out. "I don't relish the idea of +living under the lee of such very fine people," she said next moment, as +quietly as before. + +"No more do I--no more does Erskine," Ruth made haste to declare. "But +we enjoyed ourselves so much there last August that we said at the time +that we would take the rectory again this August. We made the people +promise us the refusal. And it seemed absurd to refuse just because Lord +Dromard had bought Mundham; shouldn't you have said so yourself, dear?" + +"Certainly I should," answered Tiny; and for half an hour no more was +said. + +The afternoon was wet; there was no inducement to go out, even with the +necessary energy, and the two young women, on whose pillows the sun had +lain before their faces, felt anything but energetic. The afternoon was +also cold to Australian blood, and a fire had been lighted in Erskine's +den. His favorite armchair contained several cushions and Christina--who +might as well have worn his boots--while Ruth, having cut all the leaves +of her volume, curled herself up on the sofa with an obvious intention. +She was good at cutting the leaves of a new book, but still better at +going to sleep over them when cut. She had read even less than +Christina, and it troubled her less; but this afternoon she read more. +Ruth could not sleep. No more could Tiny. But Tiny had not opened her +book. It was one of the good books that Erskine had lent her. She was +extremely interested in it; but just at present her own affairs +interested her more. Lying back in the big chair, with the wet gray +light behind her, and that of the fire playing fitfully over her face, +Christina committed what was as yet an unusual weakness for her, by +giving way voluntarily to her thoughts. She was in the habit of thinking +as little as possible, because so many of her thoughts were depressing +company, and beyond all things she disliked being depressed. This +afternoon she was less depressed than indignant. The firelight showed +her forehead strung with furrows. From time to time she turned her eyes +to the sofa, as if to make sure that Ruth was still awake, and as often +as they rested there they gleamed. At last she spoke Ruth's name. + +"Well?" said Ruth. "I thought you were asleep; you have never stirred." + +"I'm not sleepy, thanks; and, if you don't mind, I should like to speak +to you before you drop off yourself." + +Ruth closed her novel. + +"What is it, dear? I'm listening." + +"When you wrote and invited me over you mentioned Essingham as one of +the attractions. Now why couldn't you tell me the Dromards would be our +neighbors there?" + +Ruth raised her eyes from the younger girl's face to the rain-spattered +window. Tiny's tone was cold, but not so cold as Tiny's searching +glance. This made Ruth uncomfortable. It did not incapacitate her, +however. + +"The Dromards!" she exclaimed rather well. "Had they taken the place +then?" + +"You say they bought it before Christmas; it was after Christmas that +you first wrote and expressly invited me." + +"Was it? Well, my dear, I suppose I never thought of them; that's all. +They aren't the only nice people thereabouts." + +"I'm afraid you are not quite frank with me," the young girl said; and +her own frankness was a little painful. + +"Tiny, dear, what a thing to say! What does it mean?" + +Ruth employed for these words the injured tone. + +"It means that you know as well as I do, Ruth, that it isn't pleasant +for me to meet Lord Manister." + +"Was there something between you in Melbourne?" asked Ruth. "I must say +that nobody would have thought so from seeing you together last night. +And--and how was I to think so, when you have never told me anything +about it?" + +Christina laughed bitterly. + +"When you have made a fool of yourself you don't go out of your way to +talk about it, even to your own people. It is kind of you to pretend to +know nothing about it--I am sure you mean it kindly; but I'm still surer +that you have been told all there was to tell concerning Lord Manister +and me. I don't mean by Herbert. He's close. But the mother must have +written and told you something; it was only natural that she should do +so." + +"She did tell me a little. Herbert has told me nothing. I tried to pump +him,--I think you can't wonder at that,--but he refused to speak a word +on the subject. He says he hates it." + +"He hates Lord Manister," said Christina, smiling. "It came round to him +once that Lord Manister had called him a larrikin, and he has never +forgiven him. But he has been less of a larrikin ever since. And, of +course, that wasn't why he was so angry with me for dancing with Lord +Manister last night; he was dreadfully angry with me as we drove home; +but he is a very good boy to me, and there was something in what he +said." + +"What made you dance with him?" Ruth said curiously. + +"I was alone. I hadn't a partner. He asked me rather prettily--he always +had pretty manners. You wouldn't have had me show him I cared, by +snubbing him, would you?" + +"No," said Ruth thoughtfully; and suddenly she slipped from the sofa, +and was kneeling on the hearthrug, with her brown eyes softly searching +Christina's face and her lips whispering, "Do you care, Tiny? _Do_ you +care, Tiny, dear?" + +Tiny snapped her fingers as she pushed back her chair. + +"Not that much for anybody--much less for Lord Manister, and least of +all for myself! Now don't you be too good to me, Ruth; if you are you'll +only make me feel ungrateful, and I shall run away, because I'm not +going to tell you another word about what's over and done with. I can't! +I have got over the whole thing, but it has been a sickener. It makes me +sick to think about it. I don't want ever to speak of it again." + +"I understand," said Ruth; but there was disappointment in her look and +tone, and she added, "I should like to have heard the truth, though; and +no one can tell it me but you." + +"I thank Heaven for that!" cried Christina piously. "The version out +there was that he proposed to me and I accepted him, and then he bolted +without even saying good-by. It's true that he didn't say good-by; the +rest is not true. But you must just make it do." + +Her face was scarlet with the shame of it all; but there was no sign of +weakness in the curling lips. She spoke bitterly, but not at all sadly, +and her next words were still more suggestive of a wound to the vanity +rather than to the heart. + +"Does Erskine know?" + +"Not a word." + +"Honestly?" + +"Quite honestly; at least I have never mentioned it to him, and I don't +think anybody else has, or he would have mentioned it to me." + +"Oh, Herbert wouldn't say anything. Herbert's very close. But--don't you +two tell each other everything, Ruth?" + +The young girl looked incredulous; the married woman smiled. + +"Hardly everything, you know! Erskine has lots of relations himself, for +instance, and I'm sure he wouldn't care to tell me the ins and outs of +their private affairs, even if I cared to know them. It's just the same +about you and your affairs, don't you see." + +"Except that he knows me so well," Christina reflected aloud, with her +eyes upon the fire. "If I had a husband," she added impulsively, "I +should like to tell him every mortal thing, whether I wanted to or not! +And I should like not to want to, but to be made. But that's because I +should like above all things to be bossed!" + +"You would take some bossing," suggested Ruth. + +"That's the worst of it," said Christina, with a little sigh, and then a +laugh, as she snatched her eyes from the fire. "But I can't tell you how +glad I am you haven't told Erskine. Never tell him, Ruth, for you don't +know how I covet his good opinion. I like him, you know, dear, and I +rather think he likes me--so far." + +"Indeed he does," cried Ruth warmly; and a good point in her character +stood out through the genuine words. "Nothing ever made me happier than +to see you become such friends." + +"He laughs at me a good deal," Tiny remarked doubtfully. + +"That's because you amuse him a good deal. I can't get him to laugh at +me, my dear." + +"He would laugh," said Christina, with her eyes on the fire again, "if +you told him I had aspired to Lord Manister!" + +"But I'm not going to tell him anything at all about it." Ruth paused. +"And after all, the Dromards won't take any notice of us in the +country." She paused again. "And we won't speak of this any more, Tiny, +if you don't like." + +The shame had come back to Christina's face as she bent it toward the +fire. Twice she had made no answer to what was kindly meant and even +kindlier said. But now she turned and kissed Ruth, saying, "Thank you, +dear. I am afraid I don't like. But you have been awfully good and sweet +about it--as I shan't forget." And the fire lit their faces as they met, +but the tear that had got upon Tiny's cheek was not her own. + +Ruth, you see, could be tender and sympathetic and genuine enough. But +she could not be sensible and let well alone. + +She did that night a very foolish thing: she brought up the subject +again. Tempted she certainly was. Never since her arrival in England had +Tiny seemed so near to her or she to Tiny as in the hours immediately +following the chat between them in Erskine's study. But Christina stood +further from Ruth than Ruth imagined; she had not advanced, but +retreated, before the glow of Ruth's sympathy. This was after the event, +when some hours separated Christina from those emotional moments to +which she had not contributed her share of the emotion, leaving the +scene upon her mind in just perspective. She still could value Ruth's +sweetness at the end of their talk, but her own suspicions, aroused at +the outset, to be immediately killed by a little kindness, had come to +life again, and were calling for an equal appreciation. The extent of +Tiny's suspicions was very full, and the suspicions themselves were +uncommonly shrewd and convincing. They made it a little hard to return +Ruth's smiles during the evening, and to kiss her when saying +good-night, though Tiny did these things duly. She went upstairs before +her time, however, and not at all in the mood to be bothered any further +about Lord Manister. Yet she behaved very patiently when Ruth came +presently to her room and thus bothered her, being suddenly tempted +beyond her strength. For Christina was discovered standing fully dressed +under the gas-bracket, and frowning at a certain photograph on an +orange-colored mount, which she turned face downward as Ruth entered. +Whereupon Ruth, discerning the sign manual of a Melbourne photographer, +could not help saying slyly, "Who is it, Tiny?" + +"A friend of mine," Tiny said, also slyly, but keeping the photograph +itself turned provokingly to the floor. + +"In Australia?" + +"Er--it was taken out there." + +"It's Lord Manister!" + +"Perhaps it is--perhaps it isn't." + +"Tiny," said Ruth with pathos, "you might show me!" + +But Tiny drummed vexatiously on the wrong side of the mount; and here +Ruth surely should have let the matter drop, instead of which: + +"You are very horrid," she said, "but I must just tell you something. I +have heard things from Lady Almeric, who is very intimate with Lady +Dromard, and I don't believe _he_ is so much to blame as you think him. +I have heard it spoken about in society. But don't look frightened. Your +name has never been mentioned. I don't think it has ever come out. +Indeed, I know it hasn't, for _I_, actually, have been asked the name of +the girl Lord Manister was fond of in Melbourne--by Lady Almeric!" + +"And what did you say?" + +"What do you suppose? I glory in that fib--I am honestly proud of it. +But, dear, the point is, not that Lord Manister has never mentioned your +name, but that he can bear neither name nor sight of the girl he is +expected to marry! Lady Almeric told me when--I couldn't help her." + +"He is a nice young man, I must say!" remarked Christina grimly. "My +fellow-victim has a title, no doubt?" + +"Well, it's Miss Garth, and her father's Lord Acklam, so she's the +honorable," said Ruth gravely. (Tiny smiled at her gravity.) "But I've +seen her, and--he can't like her! And oh! Tiny dear, they all say he +left his heart in Australia, but his mother sent for him because she +heard something--but not your name, dear--and he came. They say he is +devoted to his mother; but this has come between them, and she's sorry +she interfered, because after all he won't marry poor Miss Garth. I had +it direct from Lady Almeric when she tried to get that out of me. But I +lied like a trooper!" exclaimed poor Ruth. + +"I'm grateful to you for that," Christina said, not ungraciously--"but I +must really be going to bed." + +With a last wistful glance at the orange-colored cardboard, Ruth took +the hint. Christina turned away in time to avoid an embrace without +showing her repugnance, because she had still some regard for Ruth's +good heart. But she had never experienced a more grateful riddance, and +the look that followed Ruth to the threshold would have kept her company +for some time had she turned there and caught one glimpse of it. + +"Now I understand!" said Christina to the closed door. "I suppose I +ought to love you for it, Ruth; but I don't--no, I don't!" + +She turned the photograph face upward, and stared thoughtfully at it for +some minutes longer; then she put it away. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ESSINGHAM RECTORY. + + +Essingham Rectory, which the Erskine Hollands had taken for the month of +August, was a little old building with some picturesque points to +console one for the tameness of the view from its windows. The +surrounding country was perfectly flat but for Gallow Hill, and not at +all green but for the glebe and the riverside meadows, while the only +trees of any account were the rectory elms and those in the Mundham +grounds. It is true that on Gallow Hill three wind-crippled beeches +brandished their deformities against the sky, as they may do still; but +the country around Essingham is no country for trees. It is the country +for warrens and rabbits and roads without hedges. So it struck Christina +as more like the back-blocks than anything she had hoped to see in +England, and pleased her more than anything she had seen. She showed her +pleasure before they arrived at Essingham. She forgot to disparage the +old country during the long drive from the county town; and that was +notable. She had actually no stone to cast at the elaborate and +impressive gates of Mundham Hall; apparently she was herself impressed. +But opposite the gates they turned to the left, into a narrow road with +hedges, from which you can see the rectory, and as Herbert put it +afterward: + +"That's what knocked our Tiny!" + +For the girl's first glimpse of the old house was over the hedge and far +away above a brilliant sash of meadow green. The cream-colored walls +were aglow in the low late sunshine, what was to be seen of them, for +they were half hidden by a creeper almost as old as themselves. The +red-tiled, weather-beaten roof was dark with age. Even at a distance one +smelt rats in the wainscot within the stuccoed walls. Around the house, +and towering above the tiles, the elms stood as still against the +evening sky as the square church tower but a little way to the right. To +the right of that, but farther away, rose Gallow Hill. Thereabouts the +sun was sinking, but the clock on the near side of the church tower had +gilt hands, which marked the hour when Christina stood up in the fly and +astonished her friends with her frank delight. It was a point against +this young lady, on subsequent occasions when she did not forget to +decry the old country, that at ten minutes past seven on the evening of +the 1st of August she had given way to enthusiasm over a scene that was +purely English and very ordinary in itself. + +Not that her immediate appreciation of the place became modified on a +closer acquaintance with it. At the end of the first clear day at +Essingham she informed the others that thus far she had not enjoyed +herself so much since leaving Australia. Of course she had enjoyed +herself in London. That did not count. London only compared itself with +Melbourne, Christina did not care how favorably; but Essingham was for +comparison with the place that was dearer to her than any other in the +world. You will understand why all her appreciations were directly +comparative. This is natural in the very young, and fortunately Tiny +Luttrell was still very young in some respects. Blessed with observant +eyes, and having at this time an irritable memory to keep her prejudices +at attention, her mind soon became the scene of many curious and +specific contests between England and Australia. In the match between +Wallandoon and Essingham the latter made a better fight than you would +think against so strong an opponent. The rectory was homely and +convenient in its old age, and Christina was greatly charmed with her +own room, because it was small; and if the wall-paper was modern and +conventional, and not to be read from the pillow in the early morning, +it was almost as pleasant to lie and watch the elm tops trembling +against the sky. And if the sky was not really blue in England, the +leaves in Australia were not really green, as Christina now knew. So +there they were quits. But England and Essingham scored palpably in some +things; the kitchen garden was one. Christina had never seen such a +kitchen garden; she found it possible to spend half an hour there at any +time, to her further contentment; and there were other attractions on +the premises, which were just as good in their way, while their way was +often better for one. + +For instance, there was a lawn tennis court which satisfied the soul of +Erskine, who played daily for its express refreshment. That was what +brought him to Essingham. The neighboring clergy were always ready for a +game. But they laughed at Erskine for being so keen; he would get up +before breakfast to roll the court, which passed their understanding. +Christina played also, by no means ill, and Herbert uncommonly well; but +this player neither won nor lost very prettily. He was more amiable over +the photography which he had taken up in partnership with Tiny; but his +photographs were uncommonly bad. Yet this was another amusement in the +country, where, however, Christina was most amused by the neighbors who +called. These were friendly people, and they had all called on the +Hollands the previous year. Half of them were clergymen, though the +stranger who met them found this difficult to believe in some cases; the +other half were the clergymen's wives. Very grand families apart, there +is no other society round about Essingham. And what could man wish +better? Even Christina found it impossible to disapprove of the +well-bred, easy-going, tennis-playing, unprofessional country clergy, as +acquaintances and friends. But she did find fault with the rector of +Essingham as a rector, though she had never seen him, and though Ruth +assured her that he was a dear old man. + +"He may be a dear old man," Miss Luttrell would allow, "but he's a bad +old rector! His flock don't find him such a dear old man, either. They +only see him once a week, in the pulpit; and then they can't hear him!" + +"Who has been telling you that, Tiny?" asked Ruth. + +"You've been talking sedition in the village!" said Erskine Holland. + +"Well, I've been making friends with two or three of the people, if +that's what you call talking sedition," Tiny replied; "and I think your +dear old rector neglects them shamefully. He does worse than that. +There's some fund or other for buying coals and blankets for the poor of +the parish; and there's old Mrs. Clapperton. Mrs. Clapperton's a Roman +Catholic; so, if you please, she never gets her coals or blankets, and +she's too proud to ask for them. That's a fact--and I tell you what, I'd +like to expose your dear old man, Ruth! As for the village, if it's a +specimen of your English villages, let me tell you, Erskine, that it's +leagues behind the average bush township. Why, they haven't even got a +state school, but only a one-horse affair run by the rector! And the +schoolmaster's the most ignorant man in the village. I wonder you don't +copy us, and go in for state schools!" + +"'Copy us, and go in for state schools,'" echoed Ruth with gentle mirth, +as she sometimes would echo Tiny's remarks, and with a smile that +traveled from Tiny to Erskine. But Erskine did not return the smile. His +eyes rested shrewdly upon Christina, and Ruth feared from their +expression that he thought the girl an utter fool; but she was wrong. + +Christina was not, if you like, an intellectual girl, but she was by no +means a fool. Neither was her brother-in-law, who perceived this. Her +comments on the books he lent her were sufficiently intelligent, and she +pleased him in other ways too. He was glad, for instance, to see her +interesting herself in the local peasants; she was particularly glad +that she did not give this interest its head, though as a matter of fact +it never pulled. Christina was not the girl for interests that gallop +and have not legs. Not the least of her attractions, in the eyes of a +male relative of middle age, was a certain solid sanity that showed +through every crevice of her wayward nature. It was sanity of the +cynical sort, which men appreciate most. And it was least apparent in +her own actions, which is the weak point of the cynically sane. + +"At all events, Tiny, you can't find the country a tight fit, like +London," said Erskine once, during the first few days. "Come, now!" + +"No," replied Tiny thoughtfully, "I must own it doesn't fit so tight. +But it tickles! You mayn't go here and you mayn't go there; in Australia +you may go anywhere you darn please. Excuse me, Erskine, but I feel this +a good deal. Only this morning Ruth and I were blocked by a notice board +just outside the wicket at the far end of the churchyard; we were +thinking of going up Gallow Hill, but we had to turn back, as +trespassers would be prosecuted. There's no trespassing where I come +from. And Ruth says the board wasn't there last year." + +"Ah, the Dromards weren't there last year! They've stuck it up. You +should pitch into your friend Lord Manister. It's rather vexatious of +them, I grant you; they can't want to have tea on Gallow Hill; and it's +a pity, because there's a fine view of the Hall from the top." + +"Indeed? Ruth never told me that," remarked Christina curiously. "Have +they arrived yet?" she added in apparent idleness. + +"Last night, I hear--if you mean the Dromards. And a rumor has arrived +with them." + +Now Christina was careful not to inquire what the rumor was; but Erskine +told her; and, oddly enough, what he had heard and now repeated was to +come true immediately. + +The great family at Mundham were about to entertain the county. That was +the whisper, which was presently to be spoken aloud as a pure fact. It +ran over the land with "At last!" hissing at its heels, and a still more +sinister whisper chased the pair of them; for the Dromards might have +entertained the county months before; a house-warming had been expected +of them in the winter, but they had chosen to warm Mundham with their +own friends from a distance; and since then the general election had +become a moral certainty for the following spring, and--the point +was--Viscount Manister had declared his willingness to stand for the +division. The corollary was irresistible, but so, it appears, was +Countess Dromard's invitation, which few are believed to have +declined--for those that did so made it known. Some disgust, however, +was expressed at the kind of entertainment, which, after all, was to be +nothing more than a garden party. But nearly all who were bidden +accepted. The notice, too, was shorter than other people would have +presumed to give; but other people were not the Dromards. The countess' +invitation conveyed to a hundred country homes a joy that was none the +less keen for a certain shame or shyness in showing any sort of +satisfaction in so small a matter. Nevertheless, though not adorned by a +coronet, as it might have been, nor in any way a striking trophy, the +card obtained a telling position over many a rectory chimney-piece, +where in some instances it remained, accidentally, for months. In +justice to the residents, however, it must be owned that not one of them +read it with a more poignant delight, nor adjusted it in the mirror with +a nicer care and a finer show of carelessness, nor gazed at it oftener +while ostensibly looking at the clock, than did Mrs. Erskine Holland +during the next ten days. + +But when it came she acted cleverly. There was occasion for all her +cleverness, because in her case the invitation was a complete surprise; +she had not dared to expect one; and you may imagine her peculiar +satisfaction at receiving an invitation that embraced her "party." Yet +she was able to toss the card across the breakfast table to Erskine, +merely remarking, "Should we go?" And when Tiny at once stated that for +her part she was not keen, Ruth gave her a sympathetic look, as much as +to say, "No more am I, my dear," which might have deceived a less +discerning person. But Tiny saw that her sister was holding her breath +until Erskine spoke his mind. + +"Have we any other engagement?" said he directly. "If not, it would +hardly do to stick here playing tennis within sight of their lodge. I'm +no more keen than you are, Tiny, but that would look uncommon poor. It +was very kind of them to think of asking us; I'm afraid we must go; but +I am sure you will find it amusing." + +"Thanks," replied Christina, to whom this assurance was addressed, "but +you needn't send me there to be amused; you see, I have plenty to amuse +me here," she added, with a smile that had been slow to come. "I'll go, +of course, and with pleasure; but there would be more pleasure in some +hard sets with you, Erskine, or in taking your photograph." + +"Ah, you don't know what you'd miss, Tiny! I can promise you some sport, +if you keep your eyes and ears open. Then you knew Lord Manister in +Melbourne. In any case, you oughtn't to go back there without a glimpse +of some of our fine folks at home, when you can get it." + +"Oh, I'll go; but not for the sport of seeing your clergy and gentry on +their knees to your fine folks, nor yet to be amused. As for Lord +Manister, he was well enough in Melbourne; he didn't give himself airs, +and there he was wise. But on his native heath! One would be sorry to +set foot on the same soil. It must be sacred." + +"Come, I say, I don't think you'll find the parsons on their knees. We +think a lot of a lord, if you like; but we try to forget that when we're +talking to him. We do our best to treat him as though he were merely a +gentleman, you know," said Erskine, smiling, but giving, as he felt, an +informing hint. + +"Ah, you try!" said Christina. "You do your best!" + +"Our best may be very bad," laughed Erskine; "if so, you must show us +how to better it, Tiny." + +"I should get Tiny to teach you how to treat a lord, dear," said Ruth, +who saw nothing to laugh at, and seemed likely to lend her husband a +severer support than the occasion needed. + +"Say Lord Manister!" suggested Erskine. "Will you show me on him?" + +"I may if you're good--you wait and see," said Tiny lightly. And lightly +the matter was allowed to drop. For Herbert, as usual, was late for +breakfast, which was for once a very good thing; and as for Ruth, it was +merely her misfortune to have a near sight for the line dividing chaff +from earnest, but now she saw it, and on which side of it the others +were, for she had joined them and was laughing herself. + +But Herbert would not have laughed at all; indeed, he had not a smile +for the subject when he did come down and Ruth gave him his breakfast +alone. It seemed well that Christina was not in the room. Her brother +took the opportunity of saying what he thought of Manister, and what +Manister had once called him behind his back, and what he would have +done to Manister's eye had half as much been said to his face. His +personal decision about the garden party was merely contemptuous. He was +not going. Nor did he go when the time came. Meanwhile, however, +something happened to modify for the moment his opinion of the young +viscount whom it was Herbert's meager satisfaction to abuse roundly +whenever his noble name was spoken. + +Having been provided with two rooms at the rectory, in one of which he +was expected to read diligently every morning, Herbert entered that room +only when his pipe needed filling. He kept his tobacco there, and also, +to be sure, his books; but these he never opened. He read nothing, save +chance items in an occasional sporting paper; he simply smoked and +pottered, leaving the smell of his pipe in the least desirable places. +When he took photographs with Tiny, that was pottering too, for neither +of them knew much about it, and Herbert was too indolent to take either +pains or care in a pursuit which essentially demands both. He had rather +a good eye for a subject; he could arrange a picture with some +judgment. That interested him, but the subsequent processes did not, and +these invariably spoilt the plate. All his actions, however, suggested +an underlying theory that what is worth doing is not necessarily worth +doing well. This applied even to his games, about which Herbert was +really keen; he played lawn tennis carelessly, though with a verve and +energy somewhat surprising in the loafing, smoking idler of the morning. +He had been fond of cricket, too, in Australia; it was a disappointment +to him that no cricket was to be had at Essingham. He looked forward to +Cambridge for the athletic advantages. He had no intention of reading +there; so what, he wanted to know, was the good of his reading here? +Certainly Herbert had entered at an accommodating college, which would +receive young men quite free from previous knowledge; but he might have +been reading for his little-go all this time; and he never read a word. + +But one morning he loitered afield, and came back enthusiastic about a +place for a photograph; the next, Tiny and the implements were dragged +to the spot; and really it was not bad. It was a scene on the little +river just below Mundham bridge. The thick white rails of the bridge +standing out against a clump of trees in the park beyond, the single +arch with the dark water underneath and some sunlit ripples twinkling at +the further side, seemed to call aloud for a camera; and Herbert might +have used his to some purpose, for a change, had he not forgotten to +fill his slides with plates before leaving home. This discovery was not +made until the bridge was in focus, and it put young Luttrell in the +plight of a rifleman who has sighted the bull's-eye with an empty +barrel. It was a question of returning to the rectory to load the slides +or of giving up the photograph altogether. On another occasion, having +forgotten the lens, Herbert had packed up the camera and gone back in +disgust. But that happened nearer home. To-day he had carried the camera +a good mile. Two journeys with something to show for them were +preferable to one with a tired arm for the only result. Within a minute +after the slides were found empty Christina was alone in the meadow +below the bridge; Herbert had found it impossible to give up the +photograph altogether. + +The girl had not lost patience, for she was herself partly to blame. +There were, however, still better reasons for her resignation. She +happened to have the second volume of "The Newcomes" in her jacket +pocket, and the little river seemed to ripple her an invitation from the +bridge to make herself comfortable with her book in its shade. There was +no great need for shade, but the idea seemed sensible. With her hand on +the book in her pocket, and her eyes hovering about the bridge for the +coolest corner, she felt perhaps a little ashamed as she thought of +Herbert making a cool day hot by running back alone for what they had +both forgotten. It was hardly this feeling, however, that kept her +standing where she was. + +She had known no finer day in England. The light was strong and limpid, +the shadows abrupt and deep. The sky was not cloudless, but the clouds +were thin and clean. There was a refreshing amount of wind; the tree +tops beyond the bridge swayed a little against the sky; the focusing +cloth flapped between the tripod legs, and for some minutes the girl +stood absently imbibing all this, without a thought in her head. + +Presently she found herself wondering whether there was enough movement +in the trees to mar a photograph; later she tucked her head under the +cloth to see. As she examined the inverted picture on the ground glass, +she held the cloth loosely over her head and round her neck. But +suddenly she twitched it tighter. For first the sound of wheels had come +to her ears. Then a dogcart had been pulled up on the bridge. And now on +the focusing screen a figure was advancing upside down, like a fly on +the ceiling, and doubling its size with each stride, until there +occurred a momentary eclipse of the inverted landscape by Lord Manister, +who had stalked in broad daylight to our Tiny's side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A MATTER OF ANCIENT HISTORY. + + +The focusing cloth clung to her head like a cowl as she raised it and +bowed. There must have been nervousness on both sides, for the moment, +but it did not prevent Lord Manister from taking off his hat with a +sweep and swiftness that amounted almost to a flourish, nor Christina +from noticing this and his clothes. He was so admirably attired in +summer gray that she took pleasure in reflecting that she was herself +unusually shabby, her idea being that contact with the incorrect was +rather good for him. Correctness of any kind, it is to be feared, was +ridiculously wrong in her eyes. Otherwise she might have been different +herself. + +"I knew it was you!" Lord Manister declared, having shaken her hand. + +"How could you know?" said Christina, smiling. "You must be very +clever." + +"I wish I was. No; I met your brother running like anything with some +wooden things under his arm. He wouldn't see me, but I saw him. I was +going to pull up, but he wouldn't see me." + +Miss Luttrell explained that her brother had gone back for plates, which +they had both very stupidly forgotten; she added that she was sure he +could not have recognized Lord Manister. + +"Plates!" said this nobleman. "Ah, they're important, I know." + +"Well, they're your cartridges; you can't shoot anything without them." + +Lord Manister gave a louder laugh than the remark merited; then he +studied his boots among the daisies. Christina smiled as she watched +him, until he looked up briskly, and nearly caught her. + +"I say, Miss Luttrell, I should like immensely to be on in this scene, +if you would let me! I mean to say I should like to see the thing taken. +Perhaps you could do with the trap and my mare on the bridge; she's +something special, I assure you. And I have been thinking--if you think +so too--that my man might go back for your brother and give him a lift. +It must be monstrous hot walking. It's a monstrous hot day, you know." + +This was not only an exaggeration, but a puff of smoke revealing hidden +fires within the young man's head. Christina fanned the fire until it +tinged his cheek by willfully hesitating before giving him a gracious +answer. For when she spoke it was to say, with a smile at his anxiety, +"Really, you are very considerate, Lord Manister, and I am sure Herbert +will be grateful." They walked to the bridge, and stood upon it the next +minute, watching the dogcart swing out of sight where the road bent. + +"Your brother is very likely halfway back by this time," remarked Lord +Manister, who would have been very sorry to believe what he was saying. +"I dare say my man will pick him up directly; if so, they'll be back in +a minute." + +"I hope they will," said Christina--"the light is so excellent just +now," she was in a hurry to add. + +"Ah, the light in Australia was better for this sort of thing." + +"As a rule, yes; but it would surely be difficult to beat this morning +anywhere; the great thing is, over here, that you are so free from +glare." + +"Then you like England?" + +"Well, I must say I like this corner of England; I haven't seen much +else, you know." + +"Good! I am glad you like this corner; you know it's ours," said the +young fellow simply. Then he paused. "How strange to meet you here, +though!" he added, as if he could not help it, nor the slight stress +that laid itself upon the personal pronoun. + +"It should rather strike me as strange to meet you," Miss Luttrell +replied pointedly; "for I am sure I told you that my sister and her +husband had taken Essingham Rectory for August. You may have forgotten +the occasion. It was in London." + +"Dear me, no, I'm not likely to forget it. To be sure you told me--at +Lady Almeric's." + +"Then perhaps you remember saying that you knew _of_ Essingham?" + +It was not, perhaps, because this was very dryly said that Lord Manister +smiled. Nor was the smile one of his best, which were charming; it was +visibly the expression of his nervousness, not his mirth. + +"Yes, I am sorry to say I do remember that," he confessed with an +awkwardness and humility which made Christina tingle in a sudden +appreciation of his position in the world. "It was very foolish of me, +Miss Luttrell." + +"I wonder what made you?" remarked Christina reflectively, but in a +friendlier tone. + +"Ah! don't wonder," he said impatiently. His eyes fell upon her for one +moment, then wandered down the road, as he added strangely: "You do and +say so many foolish things without a decent why or wherefore. They're +the things for which you never forgive yourself! They're the things for +which you never hope to be forgiven!" + +The girl did not look at him, but her glance chased his down the road to +the bend where the dogcart had vanished and would reappear. She, +however, was the next to speak, for something had occurred to her that +she very much desired to explain. + +"You see, I didn't know you lived here. I had never heard of Mundham +when we met in town; if I had I shouldn't have known it was yours. I +never dreamt that I should meet you here. You understand, Lord +Manister?" + +"My dear Miss Luttrell," cried Manister earnestly, "anybody could see +that!" + +So Christina lost nothing by her little exhibition of anxiety to impress +this point upon him; for his reply was a triumphant flourish of the +opinion she desired him to hold, to show her that he had it already; and +his anxiety in the matter was even more apparent than her own. + +"Thank you, Lord Manister," said Christina, looking him full in the +face. Then her glance dropped to his hand; and his fingers were +entangled in his watch-chain; and in the knowledge that the greater +awkwardness was on his side she raised her eyes confidently, and met the +dogged stare of a young Briton about to make a clean breast of his +misdeeds. + +"Do you want to know why I didn't mention our having taken this +place--that time in town?" + +"That depends on whether you want to tell me." + +"I must tell you. It was because I feared--I mean to say, it crossed my +mind--that perhaps you mightn't care to come here if you knew." + +He paused and watched her. She was looking down, with her chin half +buried in the focusing cloth, which had slipped from her head and +fallen round her shoulders. The coolness of her face against the black +velvet exasperated him, and the more so because he felt himself flushing +as he added, "I see I was a fool to fear that." + +"It was certainly unnecessary, Lord Manister," said the girl calmly, and +not without a note of amusement in her voice. + +"So you don't mind meeting one!" + +"Lord Manister, I am delighted. Why should I mind?" + +"You know I behaved like a brute." + +"You did, I'm afraid." He winced. "You went away without saying good-by +to your friends." + +"I went away without saying good-by to you." + +"Among others." + +"No!" he cried sharply. "You and I were more than friends." + +Christina drummed the ground with one foot. Her glance passed over Lord +Manister's shoulder. He knew that it waited for the dogcart at the bend +of the road. + +"We were more than friends," he repeated desperately. + +"I don't think we ever were." + +"But you thought so once!" + +The girl's lip curled, but her eyes still waited in the road. + +"I wonder what you yourself thought once, Lord Manister?" she said +quietly. "Whatever it was, it didn't last long; but I forgive that +freely. Do you know why? Why, because it was exactly the same with me." + +"Do you forgive me for getting you talked about?" exclaimed Lord +Manister. + +"Yes--because it is the only thing I have to forgive," returned +Christina after a moment's hesitation. "The rest was nonsense; and I +wish you wouldn't rake it up in this dreadfully serious way." + +We know what Christina might mean by nonsense. Lord Manister was not the +first of her friends whom she had offended by her abuse of the word. "It +was not nonsense!" he cried. "It was something either better or worse. I +give you my word that I honestly meant it to be something better. But my +people sent for me. What could I do?" + +His voice and eyes were pitiable; but Christina showed him no pity. + +"What, indeed!" she said ironically. "I myself never blamed you for +going. I was quite sure that you were the passive party, though others +said differently. All I have to forgive is what you made other people +say; but the whole affair is a matter of ancient history--and do you +think we need talk about it any more, Lord Manister?" + +"It is not all I have to forgive myself," he answered bitterly, +disregarding her question. "If only you would hate me, I could hate +myself less; but I deserve your contempt. Yet, if you knew what has been +in my heart all this time, you would pity one. You have haunted me! I +have been good for nothing ever since I came back to England. My people +will tell you so, when you get to know them. My mother would tell you in +a minute. She has never heard your name ... but she knows there was +someone ... she knows there is someone still!" + +Christina had colored at last; but, as she colored, the trot of a horse +came gratefully to her attentive ears. + +"You must think no more about it," she whispered; and her flush +deepened. + +"You wipe it all out?" he cried eagerly. + +"Of course I do." + +Her eyes met the dogcart at the bend. Herbert was in it. + +"And we start afresh?" + +He thought he was to get no answer. She was gazing anxiously at Herbert +as the trap approached; as it drew up on the bridge she murmured, "I +think we had better let well alone," without looking at Lord Manister. +"Herbert, you remember Lord Manister?" she cried aloud in the same +breath. + +Herbert's look was not reassuring. He was, in fact, disgusted with all +present but the groom, and most of all with himself, for being where he +was. Nor was he the young man to trouble to hide his feelings, and he +showed them now in so black a look that Christina, who knew him, was +filled with apprehension. Thanks to Lord Manister's tact, that look did +not last. Manister, who had his own impression of young Luttrell's +character, and had not to be shrewd to guess the other's attitude toward +himself, brought his most graceful manner to bear on the situation. With +Tiny Luttrell, during the bad quarter of an hour which he had deserved +and now endured, his best manner had not been at his command; but it +returned to him with the return of the dogcart, and in time to do him a +service. He had hardly shaken hands with Herbert when he asked him as an +Australian, and therefore a judge, his opinion of the mare. + +The touch would have been too heavy for an older man; but Herbert was +barely twenty, and it flattered him to the marrow. Christina was +relieved to hear his knowing but laudatory comments on the mare's +points. She knew that, despite her brother's aggressive independence, he +was susceptible enough to marked civility. This, indeed, he never +expected, and he was ever ready to return, with interest, some fancied +slight; but Christina had never known him rude to anyone going out of +his way to be polite to him, as Lord Manister was doing this morning. +She divined that politeness from a nobleman was not less gratifying to +Herbert because he happened to have maligned the nobleman with much +industry. Herbert's modest desire was to be treated as an equal by all +men, and he was now being treated as an equal by a lord. This was all he +required to make him reasonably civil, even to Lord Manister. When +Manister asked him, almost deferentially, whether the mare could be +taken in the photograph, he offered his lordship a place in it too, the +offer being declined, but not without many thanks. + +"I'm going to help take it," Manister laughed. "Mind you don't move, +Luttrell. I'm going to help your sister. Hadn't you better come too, and +leave my man alone in his glory?" + +Herbert replied that he would take off the cap or do anything they +liked. So the three went down into the meadow, and some infamous +negatives resulted later. At the time care seemed to be taken by the +photographers, while Lord Manister stood at a little distance, laughing +a good deal. He was pressed to stand in the foreground, but not by +Christina, and he steadily refused. The conciliation of his enemy seemed +assured without that, though he did think of something else to make it +doubly sure. + +"By the way, Luttrell," he said as the camera was being packed away, +"you're a cricketer to a certainty--you're an Australian." + +"I'm very fond of it," the Australian replied, "but I haven't played +over here; I've never had the slant." + +"Well, we play a bit; come over and practice with us." + +Herbert thanked him, declaring that he should like nothing better. + +"Lord Manister is a great cricketer," Christina observed. + +"Come over and practice," repeated his lordship cordially. "The ground +isn't at all bad, considering it was only made last winter, and there's +a professor to bowl to you. We have some matches coming on presently. +Perhaps we might find a place for you." + +This was the one thing Lord Manister said which came within measurable +distance of offending the touchy Herbert. A minute later they had parted +company. + +"They _might_ find a place for me," Herbert repeated as he and Tiny +turned toward the village, while Lord Manister drove off in the opposite +direction, with another slightly ornamental sweep of his hat. "Might +they, indeed! I wouldn't take it. My troubles about their matches! But I +could enjoy a practice." + +"He said he would send over for you next time they do practice." + +Those had been Lord Manister's last words. + +"He did. He is improved. He's a sportsman, after all. It was decent of +him to send back the trap for me. But I didn't want to get in--I was +jolly scotty with myself for getting in. I say, Tiny!" + +"Well?" + +He had her by the arm. + +"I don't ask any questions. I don't want to know a single thing. I hope +he went down on his knees for his sins; I hope you gave him fits! But +look here, Tiny: I won't say a word about this inside if you'd rather I +didn't." + +"I'd rather you did," Tiny said at once. "There's nothing to hide. +But--you can be a dear, good boy when you like, Herbs!" + +"Can I? Then you can be offended if you like--but he's on the job now if +he never was in his life before!" + +"I won't say I hope he isn't," Tiny whispered. + +So she was not offended. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE SHADOW OF THE HALL. + + +Such was Christina's first meeting with Lord Manister in his own county. +It occurred while his mother's invitation was exhilarating so many +homes, and on the day when the Mundham mail bag would not hold the first +draught of prompt replies. Until the garden party itself, however, no +one at the rectory saw any more of Lord Manister, who had gone for a few +days to the Marquis of Wymondham's place in Scotland, where he shot +dreadfully on the Twelfth and was otherwise in queer form, considering +that Miss Garth was also one of the guests. But under all the +circumstances it is not difficult to imagine Manister worried and +unhappy during this interval; which, on the other hand, remained in the +minds of the people at the rectory, Christina included, as the +pleasantest part of their month there. + +Not that they suspected this at the time. Mrs. Erskine especially found +these days a little slow. Having knowledge of Lord Manister's +whereabouts, she was impatient for his return, and the more so because +Christina seemed to have forgotten his existence. Christina was indeed +puzzling, and on one embarrassing occasion, which with some girls would +have led to a scene, she puzzled Ruth more than ever. Ruth tried to +follow her presumptive example, and to put aside the thought of Lord +Manister for the time being. Her consolation meanwhile was the lively +_camaraderie_ between Christina and Erskine, wherein Erskine's wife took +a delight for which we may forgive her much. + +"How well you two get on!" she would say gladly to each of them. + +"He's a man and a brother," Tiny would reply. + +To which Ruth was sure to say tenderly: "It's sweet of you, dear, to +look upon him as a brother. + +"Ah, but don't you forget that he's a man, and not my brother really, +but just the very best of pals!" Tiny said once. "That's the beauty of +him. He's the only man who ever talked sense to me right through from +the beginning, so he's something new. He's the only man I ever liked +without having the least desire to flirt with him, if you particularly +want to know! And I don't believe his being my brother-in-law has +anything to do with that," added the girl reflectively; "it would have +been the same in any case. What's better still, he's the only man who +ever understood me, my dear." + +"He's very clever, you see," observed Ruth slyly, but also in all +seriousness. + +"That's the worst of him; he makes you feel your ignorance." + +"I assure you, Tiny, he thinks _you_ very clever." + +"So you're crackin'!" laughed Tiny; and as the old bush slang filled her +mouth unbidden, the smell of a hot wind at Wallandoon came into her +nostrils; and there seemed no more to be said. + +But that last assurance of Ruth's was still ringing in her ears when her +thoughts got back from the bush. She did not believe a word of it. Yet +it was more or less true. Nor was Erskine far wrong in any opinion he +had expressed to his wife concerning Christina, of whom, perhaps, he had +said even less than he thought. + +She was not, indeed, to be called an intellectual girl, in these days +least of all. That was her misfortune, or otherwise, as you happen to +think. Intellectual possibilities, however, she possessed: raw brain +with which much might have been done. Not much can be done by a +governess on a station in the back-blocks. Merely in curing the girls of +the twang of Australia, more successfully than of its slang, and in +teaching Tiny to sing rather nicely, the governess at Wallandoon had +done wonders. But gifts that were of more use to Christina were natural, +such as the quick perception, the long memory, and the ready tongue with +which she defended the doors of her mind, so that few might guess the +poverty of the store within. Nor had the governess been able to add much +to that store. The liking for books had not come to Christina at +Wallandoon; but in Melbourne she had taken to reading, and had reveled +in a deal of trash; and now in England she read whatever Erskine put in +her hands, and honestly enjoyed most of it, with the additional relish +of being proud of her enjoyment. Erskine thought her discriminating, +too; but converts to good books are apt to flatter the saviors of their +taste, and perhaps her brother-in-law was a poor judge of the girl's +judgment. He liked her for finding _Colonel Newcome's_ life more +touching than his death, and for placing the _Colonel_ second to _Dr. +Primrose_ in the order of her gods after reading "The Vicar of +Wakefield." He was delighted with her confession that she should "love +to be loved by Clive Newcome," while her defense of _Miss Ethel_, which +was vigorous enough to betray a fellow-feeling, was interesting at the +time, and more so later, when there was occasion to remember it. Similar +interest attached to another confession, that she had long envied +_Å’none_ and _Elaine_ "because they were really in love." She seemed to +have mixed some good poetry with the bad novels that had contented her +in Melbourne. Two more books which she learned to love now were "Sesame +and Lilies" and "Virginibus Puerisque." It was Erskine Holland's +privilege to put each into her hands for the first time, and perhaps she +never pleased him quite so much as when she said: "It makes me think +less of myself; it has made me horribly unhappy; but if they were going +to hang me in the morning I would sit up all night to read it again!" +That was her grace after "Sesame and Lilies." + +"Why don't you make Ruth read too?" she asked him once, quite idly, when +they had been talking about books. + +"She has a good deal to think about," Erskine replied after a little +hesitation. "She's too busy to read." + +"Or too happy," suggested Tiny. + +Mr. Holland made a longer pause, looking gratefully at the girl, as +though she had given him a new idea, which he would gladly entertain if +he could. "I wonder whether that's possible?" he said at last. + +"I'm sure it is. Ruth is so happy that books can do nothing for her; the +happy ones show her no happiness so great as her own, and she thinks the +sad ones stupid. The other day, when I insisted on reading her my +favorite thing in 'Virginibus----'" + +"What is your favorite thing?" interrupted Erskine. + +"'El Dorado'--it's the most beautiful thing you have put me on to yet, +of its size. I could hardly see my way through the last page--I can't +tell you why--only because it was so beautiful, I think, and so awfully +true! But Ruth saw nothing to cry over; I'm not sure that she saw much +to admire; and that's all because you have gone and made her so happy." + +For some minutes Erskine looked grim. Then he smiled. + +"But aren't you happy too, Tiny?" + +"I'm as happy as I deserve to be. That's good enough, isn't it?" + +"Quite. You must be as happy as you're pleased to think Ruth." + +"Well, then, I'm not. I should like to be some good in the world, and +I'm no good at all!" + +"I am sorry to see it take you like that," said Erskine gravely. "I +wouldn't have thought this of you, Tiny!" + +"Ah, there are many things you wouldn't think of me," remarked Tiny. She +spoke a little sadly, and she said no more. And this time her sudden +silence came from no vision of the bush, but from what she loved much +less--a glimpse of herself in the mirror of her own heart. + +There was one thing, certainly, that none of them would have thought of +her; for she never told them of her little quiet meddlings in the +village. But I could tell you. Pleasant it would be to write of what she +did for Mrs. Clapperton (who certainly seemed to have been unfairly +treated) and of the memories that lived after her in more cottages than +one. But you are to see her as they did who saw most of her, and to +remember that nothing is more delightful than being kind to the grateful +poor, especially when one is privately depressed. Little was ever known +of the liberties taken by Christina's generosity, and nothing shall be +recorded here. She must stand or fall without that, as in the eyes of +her friends. Suffice it that she did amuse herself in this way on the +sly, and found it good for restoring her vanity, which was suffering +secretly all this time. She would have been the last to take credit for +any good she may have done in Essingham. She knew that it wiped out +nothing, and also that it made her happier than she would have been +otherwise. For though a worse time came later, even now she was not +comfortable in her heart. And she had by no means forgotten the +existence of Lord Manister, as someone feared. + +Ruth, however, put her own conversation under studious restraint during +these days, many of which passed without any mention of Lord Minister's +name at the rectory. The distracting proximity of his stately home was +apparently forgotten in this peaceful spot. But the wife of one clerical +neighbor, a Mrs. Willoughby, who accompanied her husband when he came to +play lawn tennis with Mr. Holland, and indeed wherever the poor man +went, cherished a grudge against the young nobleman's family, of which +she made no secret. It was only natural that this lady should air her +grievance on the lawn at Essingham, whence there was a distant prospect +of lodge and gates to goad her tongue. Yet, when she did so, it was as +though the sun had come out suddenly and thrown the shadow of the hall +across the rectory garden. + +"As for this garden party," cried Mrs. Willoughby, as it seemed for the +benefit of the gentlemen, who had put on their coats, and were handing +teacups under the trees, "I consider it an insult to the county. It +comes too late in the day to be regarded as anything else. Why didn't +they do something when first they came here? They have had the place a +year. Why didn't they give a ball in the winter, or a set of dinner +parties if they preferred that? Shall I tell you why, Mr. Holland? It +was because the general election was further off then, and it hadn't +occurred to them to put up Lord Manister for the division." + +"They haven't been here a year, my dear, by any means," observed Mrs. +Willoughby's husband; "and as for dinner parties, we, at any rate, have +dined with them." + +"Well, I wouldn't boast about it," answered Mrs. Willoughby, who had a +sharp manner in conversation, and a specially staccato note for her +husband. "We dined with them, it is true; I suppose they thought they +must do the civil to a neighboring rector or two. But as their footman +had the insolence to tell our coachman, Mrs. Holland, they considered +things had reached a pretty pass when it came to dining the country +clergy!'" + +"Their footman considered," murmured Mr. Willoughby. + +"He was repeating what he had heard at table," the lady affirmed, as +though she had heard it herself. "They had made a joke of it--before +their servants. So they don't catch me at their garden party, which is +to satisfy our social cravings and secure our votes. I don't visit with +snobs, Mrs. Holland, for all their coronets and Norman blood--of which, +let me tell you, they haven't one drop between them. Who was the present +earl's great-grandfather, I should like to know? He never had one; they +are not only snobs but upstarts, the Dromards." + +"At any rate," Mr. Holland said mildly, "they can't gain anything by +being civil to _us_. We don't represent a single vote. We are here for +one calendar month." + +"Ah, it is wise to be disinterested here and there," rejoined Mrs. +Willoughby, whose sharpness was not merely vocal; "it supplies an +instance, and that's worth a hundred arguments. Now I shouldn't wonder, +Mr. Holland, if they didn't go out of their way to be quite nice to you. +I shouldn't wonder a bit. It would advertise their disinterestedness. +But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly." + +"Mrs. Willoughby is a cynic," laughed Erskine, turning to the clergyman, +whose wife swallowed her tea complacently with this compliment to +sweeten it. To so many minds a charge of cynicism would seem to imply +that intellectual superiority which is cheap at the price of a moral +defect. + +Now Erskine had a lawn tennis player staying with him for the inside of +this week; and the lawn tennis player was a fallen cricketer, who had +played against the Eton eleven when young Manister was in it; and he +ventured to suggest that the division might find a worse candidate. "He +was a nice enough boy then," said he, "and I recollect he made runs; +he's a good fellow still, from all accounts." + +"From all _my_ accounts," retorted Mrs. Willoughby, refreshed by her +tea, "he's a very fast one!" + +Erskine's friend had never heard that, though he understood that +Manister had fallen off in his cricket; he had not seen the young fellow +for years, nor did he think any more about him at the moment, being +drawn by Herbert into cricket talk, which stopped his ears to the +general conversation just as this became really interesting. + +"That reminds me," Mrs. Willoughby exclaimed, turning to Ruth. "Was Lord +Manister out in Australia in your time?" + +Ruth said "No," rather nervously, for Mrs. Willoughby's manner alarmed +her. "I was married just before he came out," she added; "as a matter of +fact, our steamers crossed in the canal." + +"Well, you know what a short time he stayed there, for a governor's +aid-de-camp?" + +"Only a few months, I have heard. Do let me give you another cup of tea, +Mrs. Willoughby!" + +"Now I wonder if you know," pursued this lady, having cursorily declined +more tea, "how he came to leave so suddenly?" + +Poor Mrs. Holland shook her head, which was inwardly besieged with +impossible tenders for a change of subject. No one helped her: Tiny had +perhaps already lost her presence of mind; Erskine did not understand; +the other two were not listening. Ruth could think of no better +expedient than a third cup for Christina; as she passed it her own hand +trembled, but venturing to glance at her sister's face, she was amazed +to find it not only free from all sign of self-consciousness or of +anxiety, but filled with unaffected interest. For this was the occasion +on which Christina's coolness quite baffled Ruth, who for her part was +preparing for a scene. + +"Shall I tell you?" asked Mrs. Willoughby. + +"Do," said Christina, to whom the well-informed lady at once turned. + +"He formed an attachment out there, Miss Luttrell! He could only get +out of it by fleeing the country; so he fled. You look as though you +knew all about it," she added (making Ruth shudder), for the girl had +smiled knowingly. + +"About which?" asked Tiny. + +"What! Were there more affairs than one?" + +"Some people said so." + +Mrs. Willoughby glanced around her with a glittering eye, and was sorry +to notice that two of her hearers were not listening. "That is just what +I expected," she informed the other four. "If you tell me that Melbourne +became too hot to hold him I shall not be surprised." + +"Melbourne made rather a fuss about him," replied Christina in an +excusing tone that pierced Ruth's embarrassment and pricked to life her +darling hopes. "He was not greatly to blame." + +"But he broke the poor girl's heart. I should blame him for that, to say +the least of it." + +"You surprise me," said Christina gravely; "I thought that people at +home never blamed each other for anything they did in the colonies? +Over here you are particular, I know; but I thought it was correct not +to be too particular when out there. Your writers come out: we treat +them like lords, and then they do nothing but abuse us; your lords come +out: we treat them like princes, and, you see, they break our hearts. Of +course they do! We expect it of them. It's all we look for in the +colonies." + +"You are not serious, Miss Luttrell," said Mrs. Willoughby in some +displeasure. "To my mind it is a serious thing. It seems a sad thing, +too, to me. But I may be old-fashioned; the present generation would +crack jokes across an open grave, as I am well aware. Yet there isn't +much joke in a young girl having her heart broken by such as Lord +Manister, is there? And that's what literally happened, for my friend +Mrs. Foster-Simpson knows all about it. She knows all about the +Dromards--to her cost!" + +"Ah, we know the Foster-Simpsons; they called on us last year," remarked +Erskine, who devoutly trusted that they would not call again. His +amusement at Christina hardly balanced his weariness of Mrs. Willoughby, +and he took off his coat as he spoke. + +"Does your friend know the poor girl's name, Mrs. Willoughby?" Tiny +asked when the men had gone back to the court; and her tone was now as +sympathetic as could possibly be desired. + +"I'm sorry to say she does not; it's the one thing she has been unable +to find out," said Mrs. Willoughby naïvely. "Perhaps you could tell me, +Miss Luttrell?" + +"Perhaps I could," said Christina, smiling, as she rose to seek a ball +which had been hit into the churchyard. "Only, you see, I don't know +which of them it was. It wouldn't be fair to give you a list of names to +guess from, would it?" + +Fortunately Mrs. Willoughby put no further questions to Ruth, who was +intensely thankful. "For," as she told Christina afterward, "_I_ was on +pins and needles the whole time. I never did know anyone like you for +keeping cool under fire!" + +"It depends on the fire," Tiny said. "Mrs. Willoughby went off by +accident, and luckily she was not pointing at anybody." + +"And I'm glad she did, now it's over!" exclaimed Ruth. "Don't you see +that I was quite right about your name? So now you need have no more +qualms about the garden party." + +"Perhaps I've had no qualms for some time; perhaps I've known you were +right." + +"Since when? Since--since you saw Lord Manister?" + +Tiny nodded. + +"Do you mean to say you talked about it?" Ruth whispered in delicious +awe. + +"I mustn't tell you what _he_ talked about. He was as nice as he could +be--though I should have preferred to find him less beautifully dressed +in the country; but I always felt that about him. I am sure, however, of +one thing: he was no more to blame than--I was. I have always felt this +about him, too." + +"Tiny, dear, if only I could understand you!" + +"If only you could! Then you might help me to understand myself." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"COUNTESS DROMARD AT HOME." + + +The hall gates were plain enough from the rectory lawn, but plainer +still from the steps whence, on the afternoon of the garden party, Mr. +Holland watched them from under the brim of the first hard hat he had +worn for a fortnight. He was ready, while the ladies were traditionally +late, but he did not lose patience; he was too much entertained in +watching the hall gates and the hedgerow that hid the road leading up to +them. Vehicles were filing along this road in a procession which for the +moment was continuous. Erskine could see them over the hedge, and it was +difficult to do so without sharing some opinions which Mrs. Willoughby +had expressed regarding the comprehensive character of the social +measure taken not before it was time by the noble family within those +gates. There were county clergymen driving themselves in ill-balanced +dogcarts, and county townspeople in carriages manifestly hired, and +county bigwigs--as big as the Dromards themselves--in splendid +equipages, with splendid coachmen and horseflesh the most magnificent. +Greater processional versatility might scarcely be seen in southwestern +suburbs on Derby Day; and the low phaeton which he himself was about to +contribute to the medley made Erskine laugh. + +"We should follow the next really swagger turnout--we should run behind +it," he suggested to the girls when at length they appeared; and Ruth +took him seriously. + +"No, get in front of them," said Herbert, who was lounging on the steps, +in dirty flannels which Erskine envied him. "Get in front of them and +slow down. That'd be the sporting thing to do! They couldn't pass you in +the drive. It would do 'em good." + +However, the procession was not without gaps, and to Ruth's satisfaction +they found themselves in rather a wide one. As they drove through those +august gates a parson's dogcart was rounding a curve some distance +ahead, but nothing was in sight behind. Ruth sat beside her husband, who +drove. She looked rather demure, but very charming in her little +matronly bonnet; her costume was otherwise somewhat noticeably sober, +and certainly she had never felt more sensibly the married sister than +now, as she glanced at Christina with furtive anxiety, but open +admiration. Tiny was neatly dressed in white, and her hat was white +also. "Do you know why I wear a white hat?" she asked Erskine on the +way; but her question proved merely to be an impudent adaptation of a +very disreputable old riddle, and beyond this she was unusually silent +during the short drive. Yet she seemed not only self-possessed, but +inwardly at her ease. She sat on the little seat in front, often turning +round to gaze ahead, and her curiosity and interest were very frank and +natural. So were her admiration of the park, her anxiety to see the +house itself, and even her wonder at the great length of the drive, +which ran alongside the cricket field, and then bent steadily to the +left. When at last the low red-brick pile became visible, Gallow Hill +was seen immediately behind it, which surprised Christina; the lawn in +front was alive with people, which put her on her mettle; and the +inspiriting outburst of a military band at that moment forced from her +an admission of the pleasure and excitement which had been growing upon +her for some minutes. + +"I like this!" she exclaimed. "This is first-rate England!" + +Countess Dromard stood on the edge of the lawn at the front of the +house, and apparently the carriages were unloading at this side of the +drive. Ruth whispered hurriedly that she was sure they were, but she was +not so sure in reality, and she now saw the disadvantage of arriving in +a wide gap, which deprives the inexperienced of their lawful cue. She +was quite right, however, and when some minutes elapsed before the +arrival of another carriage to interrupt the charming little +conversation Ruth had with Lady Dromard, the good of the gap became +triumphantly apparent. The countess was very kind indeed. She was a +tall, fine woman, with whom the shadows of life had scarce begun to +lengthen to the eye; her face was not only handsome, but wonderfully +fresh, and she had a trick of lowering it as she chatted with Ruth, +bending over her in a way which was comfortable and almost motherly from +the first. She had heard of Mrs. Holland, whom she was glad to meet at +last, and of whom she now hoped to see something more. Ruth observed +that they had the rectory only till September; she was sorry her time +was so short. Lady Dromard very flatteringly echoed her sorrow, and also +professed an envious admiration for the rectory, which she described as +idyllic. That was practically all. What was said of the weather hardly +counted; and a repetition of her ladyship's hopes of seeing something +more of Mrs. Holland and her party was not worth remembering, according +to Erskine, who declared that this meant nothing at all. + +Ruth, however, was not likely to forget it; though she treasured just as +much the memory of a certain glance which she had caught the countess +leveling at her sister. She thought that other eyes also were attracted +by the white-robed Tiny, and the smooth-shaven turf was air to Ruth's +tread as she marched off with her husband and that cynosure. Nor was her +satisfaction decreased when the first person they came across chanced to +be no other than Mrs. Willoughby. This meeting was literally the +unexpected treat that Ruth pronounced it to be, for the clergyman's wife +was smiling in a manner which showed that she had witnessed the +countess' singular civility to her friend. + +"Yes, I'm here after all," said Mrs. Willoughby grimly. "Henry made me +very angry by insisting on coming, but of course I wasn't going to let +him come alone. I hope you think he looks happy now he's here!" (Mr. +Willoughby and a brother rector might have been hatching dark designs +against their bishop, who was himself present, judging by their looks.) +"_I_ call him the picture of misery. Well, Mrs. Holland, I hope you are +gratified at your reception! Oh, it was quite gushing, I assure you; we +have all been watching. But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly, my +dear Mrs. Holland." + +Mrs. Holland left the reply to her husband, who, however, contented +himself with promising Mrs. Willoughby a telegraphic report of the +proceedings at that meeting, if it ever took place. + +"Ah, there won't be much to report," said that redoubtable woman; "they +won't look at you. But I shouldn't be surprised to see them make a deal +of you in the country, if you let them." + +It did not seem conducive to the enjoyment of the afternoon to prolong +the conversation with Mrs. Willoughby. The party of three wandered +toward the band, admiring the scarlet coats of the bandsmen against the +dark green of the shrubbery, and their bright brass instruments flaming +in the sun. The music also was of much spirit and gayety, and it was +agreed that a band was an immense improvement to a rite of this sort. +Then these three, who, after all, knew very few people present, followed +the example of others, and made a circuit of the house, in high good +humor. But Tiny found herself between two conversational fires, for Ruth +would compel her to express admiration for the premises, which might +have been taken for granted, while Erskine called her attention to the +people, who were much more entertaining to watch. As they passed a table +devoted to refreshments, at which a large lady was being waited upon +very politely by a small boy in a broad collar, they overheard one of +those scraps of conversation which amuse at the moment. + +"So you're a Dromard boy, are you?" the lady was saying. "I've never +seen you before. What Dromard boy are _you_, pray?" + +"My name's Douglas." + +"Oh! So you're the Honorable Douglas Dromard, are you?" + +The boy handed her an ice without answering as the three passed on. + +"I said you'd see and hear some queer things," whispered Mr. Holland; +"but you won't hear anything much finer than that. The woman is Mrs. +Foster-Simpson; her husband's a solicitor, and may be the Conservative +agent, if his wife doesn't disqualify him. She professes to know all +about the Dromards, as you heard the other day. You can guess the kind +of knowledge. Even the boy snubs her. Yet mark him. The mixture of +politeness and contempt was worth noticing in a small boy like that. +There's a little nobleman for you!" + +"No, a little Englishman," said Tiny. "Now that's a thing I do envy +you--your schoolboys, your little gentlemen! We don't grow them so +little in the colonies; we don't know how." + +They were walking on a majestic terrace in the shadow of the red-brick +house, their figures mirrored in each mullioned window as they passed +it. + +"I call Lord Manister the luckiest young man in England," Ruth exclaimed +during a pause between the other two. "To think that all this will be +his!" + +"It rather reminds me of Hampton Court on this side," remarked Tiny +indifferently. + +"And it's by no means their only place, you know; there are others they +never use, are there not, Erskine?--to say nothing of all those squares +and streets in town!" + +But Erskine sounded the thick sibilant of silence as they passed a +shabby looking person with a slouching walk and a fair beard. + +"I wonder how _he_ got here?" Tiny murmured next moment. + +"He has a better right than most of us." + +"What do you mean, Erskine?" + +"Well, it's the earl." + +"Earl Dromard? I should have guessed his gardener!" + +"No, that's the earl. Old clothes are his special fancy in the country. +It's his particular form of side, so they say." + +"Well," said Tiny, "I prefer it to his son's, which has always appeared +to me to be the other extreme." + +"I am sure Lord Manister is not over-dressed," remonstrated Ruth, with +her usual alacrity in defense of his lordship. + +"No, that's the worst of him," answered her sister. "There is nothing to +find fault with, ever; that's what makes one think he employs his +intellect on the study of his appearance." + +They had seen Lord Manister in the distance. Presumably he had not seen +them, but he might have done so; and Ruth supposed it was the doubt that +made her sister speak of him more captiously than usual. But the +criticism was not utterly unfair, as Ruth might presently have seen for +herself; for as they came back to the front of the house, Lord Manister +detached himself from a group, and approached them with the suave smile +and the slight flourish of the hat which were two of his tricks. +Christina asked afterward if the flourish was not dreadfully +continental, but she was told that it was merely up to date, like the +hat itself. At the time, however, she introduced Lord Manister to her +sister Mrs. Erskine Holland, and to Mr. Holland, taking this liberty +with charming grace and tact, yet with a becoming amount of natural +shyness. Manister, for one, was pleased with the introduction on all +grounds. From the first, however, he addressed himself to the married +lady, speaking partly of the surrounding country, for which Ruth could +not say too much, and partly of Melbourne, which enabled him to return +her compliments. His manner was eminently friendly and polite. +Discovering that they had not yet been in the house for tea, he led the +way thither, and through a throng of people in the hall, and so into the +dining room. Here he saved the situation from embarrassment by making +himself equally attentive to another party. To Ruth, however, Lord +Manister's civility was still sufficiently marked, while he asked her +husband whether he was a cricketer; and this reminded him of Herbert, +for whom he gave Miss Luttrell a message. He said they had just arranged +some cricket for the last week of the month; he thought they would be +glad of Miss Luttrell's brother in one or two of the matches. But he +seemed to fear that most of the teams were made up; his young brother +was arranging everything. Christina gathered that in any case they would +be glad to see Herbert at the nets any afternoon of the following week, +more especially on the Monday. Lord Manister made a point of the +message, and also of the cricket week, "when," he said, "you must all +turn up if it's fine." And those were his last words to them. + +"I see you know my son," said the countess in her kindliest manner as +Ruth thanked her for a charming afternoon. + +"My sister met him the other day at Lady Almeric's," replied Ruth, "and +before that in Australia." + +"I knew Lord Manister in Melbourne," added Tiny with freedom. + +"Do you mean to tell me you are Australians?" said Lady Dromard in a +tone that complimented the girls at the expense of their country. "Then +you must certainly come and see me," she added cordially, though her +surprise was still upon her. "I am greatly interested in Australia since +my son was there. I feel I have a welcome for all Australians--you +welcomed him, you know!" + +Christina afterward expressed the firm opinion that Lady Dromard had +said this rather strangely, which Ruth as firmly denied. Tiny was +accused of an imaginative self-consciousness, and the accusation +provoked a blush, which Ruth took care to remember. Certainly, if the +countess had spoken queerly, the queerness had escaped the one person +who was not on the lookout for something of the kind; Erskine Holland +had perceived nothing but her ladyship's condescension, which had been +indeed remarkable, though Erskine still told his wife to expect no +further notice from that quarter. + +"And I'm selfish enough to hope you'll get none, my dears," he said to +the girls that evening as they sauntered through the kitchen garden +after dinner; "because for my part I'd much rather not be noticed by +them. We were not intended to take seriously anything that was said this +afternoon; honey was the order of the day for all comers--and can't you +imagine them wiping their foreheads when we were all gone? I only hope +they wiped us out of their heads! We're much happier as we are. I'm not +rabid, like Mrs. Willoughby; but she prophesied a very possible +experience, when all's said and done, confound her! I have visions of +Piccadilly myself. And seriously, Ruth, you wouldn't like it if you +became friendly with these people here and they cut you in town; no more +should I. I think you can't be too careful with people of that sort; and +if they ask us again I vote we don't go; but they won't ask us any +more, you may depend upon it." + +"I don't depend upon it, all the same," replied Ruth, with some spirit. +"Lady Dromard was most kind; and as for Lord Manister, _I_ was enchanted +with him." + +"Were you?" Tiny said, feeling vaguely that she was challenged. + +"I was; I thought him unaffected and friendly, and even simple. I am +sure he is simple-minded! I am also sure that you won't find another +young man in his position who is better natured or better hearted----" + +"Or better mannered--or better dressed! You are quite right; he is +nearly perfect. He is rather too perfect for me in his manners and +appearance; I should like to untidy him; I should like to put him in a +temper. Lord Manister was never in a temper in his life; he's nicer than +most people--but he's too nice altogether for me!" + +"You knew him rather well in Melbourne?" said Erskine, eyeing his +sister-in-law curiously; her face was toward the moon, and her +expression was set and scornful. + +"Very well indeed," she answered with her erratic candor. + +"I might have guessed as much that time in town. I say, if we meet _him_ +in Piccadilly we may score off Mrs. Willoughby yet! Wait till we get +back----" + +"All right; only don't let us wait out here," Ruth interrupted--"or Tiny +and I may have to go back in our coffins!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MOTHER AND SON. + + +A clever man is not necessarily an infallible prophet; and the clever +man who is married may well preserve an intellectual luster in the eyes +of his admirer by never prophesying at all. But should he take pleasure +in predicting the thing that is openly deprecated at the other side of +the hearth, let him see to it that his prediction comes true, for +otherwise he has whetted a blade for his own breast, from whose +justifiable use only an angel could abstain. There was no angel in the +family which had been brought up on Wallandoon Station, New South Wales. +When, within the next three days, Ruth received a note from Lady Dromard +inviting them all to dinner at a very early date, she did not fail to +prod Erskine as he deserved. But her thrust was not malignant; nor did +she give vexatious vent to her own triumph, which was considerable. + +"You are a very clever man," she merely told him, and with the relish +of a wife who can say this from her heart; "but you see, you're wrong +for once. Lady Dromard _did_ mean what she said. She wants us all to +dine there on Friday evening, when, as it happens, we have no other +engagement; and really I don't see how we can refuse." + +"You mean that you would like to get out of it if you could?" her +husband said. + +"You don't need to be sarcastic," remarked Ruth with a slight flush. +"Who wants to get out of it?" + +"I thought perhaps you did, my dear; to tell you the truth, I rather +hoped so." + +"You don't want to go!" + +"I can't say I jump." + +Ruth colored afresh. + +"I have no patience with you, Erskine! Nobody is dying to go; but I own +I can't see any reason against going, nor any excuse for stopping away; +and considering what you yourself said about going to the garden party, +dear, I must say I think you're rather inconsistent." + +Holland gazed down into the flushed, frowning face, that frowned so +seldom, and flushed so prettily. Always an undemonstrative husband, +very properly he had been more so than ever since others had been +staying in the house. But neither of those others was present now, and +rather suddenly he stooped and kissed his wife. + +"There is no reason, and there would be no excuse; so you are quite +right," he said kindly. "It's only that one has a constitutional dislike +to being taken up--and dropped. I have visions of all that. I'm afraid +Mrs. Willoughby has poisoned my mind; we will go, and let us hope it'll +prove an antidote." + +They went, and that dinner party was not the formidable affair it might +have been; as Lady Dromard herself said, most graciously, it was not a +dinner party at all. Ten, however, sat down, of whom four came from the +rectory; for Herbert had been over to practice at the nets, and was +fairly satisfied with his treatment on that occasion, which accounted +for his presence on this. The only other guests were an inevitable +divine and his wife. The earl was absent. As if to conserve Christina's +impression of the old clothes in which, as the natives said, his +lordship "liked himself," Earl Dromard had left for London rather +suddenly that morning. Lord Manister filled his place impeccably, with +Ruth at her best on his right. Herbert was less happy with Lady Mary +Dromard, a very proud person, who could also be very rude in the most +elegant manner. But Christina fell to the jolliest scion of the house, +Mr. Stanley Dromard; and this pair mutually enjoyed themselves. + +Young in every way was the Honorable Stanley Dromard. He had just left +Eton, where he had been in the eleven, like his brother before him; he +was to go into residence at Trinity in October. With a quantum of +gentlemanly interest he heard that Miss Luttrell's brother was also +going up to Cambridge next term; but not to Trinity. Said Mr. Dromard, +"Your brother's a bit of a cricketer, too; he came over for a knock the +other day; he means to play for us next week, if we're short, doesn't +he?" Christina fancied so. Mr. Dromard said "Good!" with some emphasis, +and Herbert's name dropped out of the conversation. This became +Anglo-Australian, as it was sure to, and led to some of those bold +comparisons for which Christina was generally to be trusted; but the +bolder they were, the more Mr. Dromard enjoyed them, for the girl +glittered in his eyes. He was a delightfully appreciative youth, if +easily amused, and his laughter sharpened Tiny's wits. She shone +consciously, but yet calmly, and made a really remarkable impression +upon her companion, without once meeting Lord Manister's glance, which +rested on her sometimes for a second. + +So the flattering attentions of young Dromard were not terminated, but +merely interrupted, by the flight of the ladies. When the men followed +them to the drawing room the younger son shot to Miss Luttrell's side +with the fine regardlessness of nineteen, and furthered their friendship +by divulging the Mundham plans for the following week. The cricket was +to begin on the Tuesday. The men were coming the day before: half the +Eton eleven, Tiny understood, and some older young fellows of Manister's +standing. The first two were to be two-day matches against the county +and a Marylebone team. The Saturday's match would be between Mundham +Hall and another scratch eleven, "and that's when we may want your +brother, Miss Luttrell," added Mr. Dromard, "though we _might_ want him +before. Our team has been made up some time, but somebody is sure to +have some other fixture for Saturday." + +"I think he may like to play," said Christina. + +Mr. Dromard seemed a little surprised. + +"It's a jolly ground," he remarked, "and there will be some first-rate +players." + +"I am sure he would like a game on your ground," Christina went so far +as to say. + +"Do you dance, Miss Luttrell?" asked the young man, after a pause. + +"When I get the chance," said Christina. + +He gazed at her a moment, and could imagine her dancing--with him. + +"Suppose we were to do something of the kind here one evening between +the matches; would you come?" + +"If I got the chance," said Christina. + +Dromard considered what he was saying. "We ought to have a dance," he +added in a doubtful tone, as though the need were greater than the +chance; "we really ought. But I don't suppose we shall; nothing is +arranged, you see." + +"You needn't hedge, Mr. Dromard," said the girl, smiling. + +"Eh?" + +"I shan't expect an invitation!" + +She nodded knowingly as he blushed; but he had the great merit of being +easily amused, and with another word she made him merry and at ease +again. Not unreasonably, perhaps, a casual spectator might have +suspected these two of a mild but immediate flirtation. Stanley, +however, was at a safe and privileged age, and no eye was on him but his +brother's. Lord Manister gave the impression of being a rather dignified +person in his own home, but he was doing his gracious duty by the +guests, none of whom seemed especially to occupy his attention, while he +was reasonably polite to all. It was he, too, who at length suggested to +Lady Dromard that Miss Luttrell would probably sing something if she +were asked. + +So Christina sang something--it hardly matters what. Her song was not a +classic, neither was it grossly popular. It was a pleasant song, +pleasantly sung, and the entire absence of pretentiousness and of +affectation in the song and the singing was more noticeable than the +positive excellence of either. The girl had no greater voice than one +would have expected of so small a person, but what she had was in +keeping. Lady Dromard, however, had a more sensitive appreciation of +good taste than of good music, and she asked for more. Christina sang +successively something of Lassen's, and then "Last Night," taking the +English words in each case. She played her own accompaniments, and felt +little nervousness until her last song was finished, when it certainly +startled her to find Lady Dromard standing at her side. + +"Thank you!" said the countess with considerable enthusiasm. "You sing +delightfully, and you sing delightful songs. You must have been very +well taught." + +"Mostly in the bush," said Christina truthfully. + +"You come from the bush?" + +"But you had some lessons in Melbourne," put in Ruth, who was visibly +delighted. + +"Oh, yes, a few," Tiny said, smiling; "as many as I was worth." + +"Ah, you shall tell me about Melbourne one day soon," said Lady Dromard +to the young girl. "Your sister has promised to come over and watch the +cricket. I do hope you will come with her." + +Christina expressed her pleasure at the prospect, and, taking the +nearest seat, found Lord Manister leaning over the end of the piano and +looking down upon her with a rather sardonic smile. + +"You haven't looked at me this evening," he said to her under cover of +the general conversation, which was now renewed. "May I ask what I have +done?" + +"Certainly you may ask, Lord Manister," answered the girl with immense +simplicity; "but I can't tell you, because I am not aware that you have +done anything beyond making us all very happy and at home." + +"Well, I'm glad to hear that," said Manister, whose quasi-humorous tone +lacked the lightness to deceive; "I was afraid I had offended you." + +"Offended me!" cried Christina, with widening eyes and a puzzled look. +"When have you seen me to offend me! I haven't seen you since your +garden party, and you certainly didn't offend me then--you were awfully +nice to us all!" + +"Ah, that wasn't seeing you," Lord Manister murmured. "I don't reckon +that I've seen you since--the photographs. I had to go to Scotland; I +meant to tell you." + +"It wouldn't have interested me," said Christina, with a shrug. "It +might have interested me if you had said--you were _not_ going," she +added next moment. Her tone had dropped. She looked at him and smiled. + +Her smile stayed with him after she was gone; but from his face you +would not have guessed that he was nursing a kind look. She had given +him one smile, which made up for many things. But you would have +thought, with his people, that he had been suffering the whole evening +from acute boredom: you might well have fancied, with Lady Mary, that a +remark disparaging Australian women would have met with a grateful +response from him. The response it did meet with was anything but +grateful to Lady Mary Dromard. It drove her from the room, in which +Manister and his mother were presently left alone. + +"I think you were just," the countess said critically. "They are +pleasant people, and quite all right. The young man is their weak +point." + +"They always are," her son remarked, rather savagely still. "They're +larrikins!" + +"The young girl was especially nice, and sang like a lady." + +"Ah, you approve of her," said Lord Manister dryly. + +"Entirely, I think. Evidently you don't. I only saw you speak to her +once, toward the end. Yet she has met you in Australia; I should have +recognized that, I think. Now her people," Lady Dromard added +tentatively, "will be rather superior, I suppose, as colonials go?" + +"Well, they're rich; I suppose that's how colonials go." + +For one moment Lady Dromard fancied that the sneer was for the +colonials, and it surprised her; the next, she took it to herself, and +very meekly for so proud a heart. + +"My dear boy!" she murmured indulgently. "Apart from their people, these +girls--for the married one is as young as she has any right to +be--strike one as fresh, and free, and pleasing. And they are ladies. Am +I to believe that the majority out there are like them?" + +Manister shrugged his shoulders. + +"That's as you please, my dear mother. These people didn't strike me as +the only decent ones in Melbourne. I did meet others." + +The countess tapped her foot upon the fender, and took counsel with her +own reflection in the mirror, for she was standing before the fireplace +while her son wandered about the room--her son with the reputation for a +childlike devotion to his mother. There had been little of that sort of +devotion since his return from Australia. Nothing between them was as it +had been before. This bitter coldness had been his domestic manner--his +manner with her, of all people--longer than the mother could bear. She +knew the reason; she had tried to tell him so; she had tried to speak +freely to him of the whole matter--even penitently, if he would. But he +had never spoken freely to her; and once he had refused to speak at all, +thence or thenceforth. Lady Dromard had made a resolve then which she +remembered now. + +"Really, Harry, I can't make you out," she said lightly at length. "You +knock down the colonials with one hand, and you set them up with the +other, as though they were so many ninepins. I am puzzled to know what +you really mean, and what you mean satirically. You never used to be +satirical, Harry! I should like to know whether you really approve of +these people, or whether you don't." + +"I do approve of them," said Lord Manister, halting on the rug before +his mother. "I won't put it more strongly. But I am glad that you should +have seen there are such things as ladies in Australia!" + +Their eyes met, and the mother forgot her resolve; for he had raised the +subject himself, and for the first time. + +"You think of her still!" whispered Lady Dromard. + +"Of course I do," returned Manister, roughly; and again he was striding +about the room. + +Never in her life, perhaps, had the countess received a sharper hurt; +for he had refused to see the hand she had reached out to him +involuntarily. Yet assuredly Lady Dromard had never spoken in a more +ordinary tone than that of her next words, a minute later. + +"It occurred to me, Harry, that if we really think of dancing one +evening during the cricket week, we might do worse than ask these people +from the rectory. You must have girls to dance with. Still, if you think +better not, you have only to say so." + +"I think it's for you to decide; but, if you ask me, I don't see the +least objection to it," said Lord Manister, with a smooth ceremony that +had a sharper edge than his rough words. "I'm not sure, however, that +they will come every time you ask them." + +"Pourquoi?" + +"Because they're the most independent people in the world, the +Australians." + +"It would scarcely touch their independence," said Lady Dromard with +careless contempt; "but we can really do without them, and I am glad of +your hint, because now I shall not think of asking them." + +"Now, my dear mother," cried Lord Manister, no longer either hot or +cold, but his old self for once in his anxiety--"you misunderstand me +entirely! I'm not great on a dance at all, but if we're to have one we +must, as you say, have somebody to dance with; and I _want_ you to ask +these people." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A THREATENING DAWN. + + +"I like a dance where you can dance," said Herbert, who was looking at +himself in a glass and wondering how long his white tie had been on one +side. "It was worth fifty of the swell show you took us to in town, +Ruth." + +"I am glad you two have enjoyed it so," returned Ruth, with her eye, +however, upon her husband. "Of course there's a great difference between +a big dance in town and a little one in the country." + +Tiny seemed busy. She was tearing her programme into small pieces, and +dropping them at her feet, so that when she had gone up to bed it was as +though a paper chase had passed through the rectory study, where they +had all gathered for a few moments on their return from the dance. +Christina, however, was not too preoccupied to chime in on her own +note: + +"It's like the difference between Riverina and Victoria--there were +acres to the sheep instead of sheep to the acre." + +Now there was no merit in this speech, but to those who understood it +the comparison was apt, and Erskine knew enough of Australia to +understand. Moreover, he had taught Tiny to listen for his laugh. So +when he made neither sound nor sign the girl felt injured, but +remembered that he had been extremely silent on the way home. And he was +the first to go upstairs. + +"It has bored him," observed Christina. + +"He don't like dancing," said Herbert. "He's no sportsman." + +"I am afraid he cares for nothing but lawn tennis when he's here," +sighed Ruth, who looked a little troubled. "I am afraid he dislikes +going out in the country." + +They were silent for some minutes before Tiny exclaimed with conviction: + +"No; it's the Dromards he dislikes." + +And presently they made a move from the room. But on the stairs they met +Erskine coming down, having changed his dress suit for flannels; and +Ruth followed him back to the study, eying the change with dismay. + +"Surely you're not going to sit up at this hour?" + +Ruth had raised her glance from his flannels to his face, which troubled +her more. + +"I'm afraid the fine weather's at an end," Erskine answered crookedly; +"it's most awfully close, at any rate. And I want a pipe." + +He proceeded to fill one with his back to her. + +"Erskine!" + +"Well, dear?" + +"I won't be 'dear' to you when you're cross with me. I want to know what +I have done to vex you." + +He had struck a match, and he lit his pipe before answering. Then he +said gently enough: + +"If you think I'm cross with you I should run away to bed; I certainly +don't mean to be." + +But he had not turned round. + +"You succeed, at any rate! As you seem to wish it, I shall take your +advice." + +Erskine heard her on the stairs with a twinge in his heart. He went to +the door to call her down and be frank with her, but the shutting of +her own door checked him. Setting this one ajar, he threw up the window, +and stood frowning at the opaque pall that seemed to have been let down +behind it like an outer blind. So he remained for some minutes before +remembering the easy-chair. No one knew better than Erskine that he had +just been unkind to his wife. He was not pleased with her, but he had +refused to explain his displeasure when she invited him to do so. There +was this difficulty in explaining it--that he knew it to be +unreasonable, since the person who had vexed him most was not Ruth, but +Christina. And not more reasonable was his disappointment in Christina, +as he also knew. Yet the one thing in life not disappointing to him at +the moment was his pipe; even the fine weather was most surely at an +end. + +He was tired of the rectory, which, wet or fair, had no longer either +light or shadow of its own, for both were now absorbed in the deepening +shadow of the hall. A week ago they had all dined there, now they had +been dancing there, and meanwhile the girls had watched one of the +matches, and were going to another. Erskine had been opposed to the +dance, but the wife had prevailed; he was against their going to another +match, but doubtless Ruth would have her way again, for she had shown a +tenacity of purpose that surprised him in her, while he was crippled by +a conscious lack of logic in his objections. He was not an arbitrary +person, and it seemed that Ruth would stop for nothing less than a +command where her heart was set; and her sister was with her. The whole +trouble was, where their hearts were set. + +He tried hard not to think the worst of Tiny, or rather the worst as it +seemed to him. To make it easier, he called to mind various things she +had said to him at various times concerning Lord Manister, of whom she +had seldom failed to make fun. It amused and consoled Erskine to +remember the fun; there must be hope for her still. Then he recalled +common gossip about Lord Manister and his affairs; and there was hope on +that side too. In less than a week the danger would be past, and those +two would never see each other again. Consideration of the danger he had +in mind, _quá_ danger, provoked a smile. Tiny herself would have enjoyed +the humor of that, she was so quick to see and to enjoy. But she could +appreciate more than a joke, or did she only pretend to like those +books? And the soul that shone sometimes in her eyes, did it lie much +deeper? She interested Erskine the more because he could not be sure. +She was a fascinating study to him, whatever she did or was trying to +do. In any case, there was much good in her that he had fathomed, and +more was suggested; and the finer the nature, the stronger the +contrasts. Now as to contrasts--yet he had never seen that in Australia. + +"A penny for your thoughts!" + +Ten thousand pounds would not have bought them. It was his wife on the +threshold, in a pale pink wrapper. + +"My dear! I pictured you asleep hours ago." + +"Were you picturing me when I spoke?" Ruth said, with a smile. "I'm not +sleepy--and I want to talk to you. May I sit down? An hour more or less +makes no difference at this time of the morning." + +Erskine rose from the easy-chair in which he had been smoking, and +settled his wife in it against her will, and drew the curtains across +the open window. + +"I'm glad you've come down, Ruth, for I want to speak to you, too. I was +a brute to you when I sent you away just now." + +"Well, I really think you were; but I know you must have had some +reason; so I've come down to have it out and be done with it." + +"My dear Ruth!" said Mr. Holland uncomfortably; for was there any call +to be frank with her at all? It would hurt; and could it do any good? + +"I suppose," pursued Ruth in a tone not perfectly free from defiance, +"it's all because we went to this horrid dance! And I'll say I'm sorry +we did go, if you like; though why you should have such a down on the +Dromards I can't for the life of me imagine." + +"My dear girl," said Erskine, smiling now that he had determined not to +say everything, "I really have no down on them at all. They're the most +amiable family I know, considering who they are. They have a charming +place, and they treat you delightfully while you're there. Considering +who _we_ are, and that we have no root in this soil, I grant you they're +particularly kind to us; but don't you think their kindness is just a +little trying? I do, though I have nothing against them, personally or +otherwise. I am not even a political opponent; if I had a vote for the +division young Manister should have it. But I'm not keen on so much +notice from them; I've said so before; there's no sense in it!" + +"Ah, well, if only you would show me the harm in it!" + +"Harm? Heaven forbid there should be any. One finds it a bore, that's +all. It's a selfish reason, but it's the truth--I should have had a +better time this last week if the Dromards had been far enough!" + +"And we should have had a worse--Tiny and I. No, Erskine, I know you +better than you think. You're not so selfish as all that; there's some +other reason." + +Erskine turned away with a shrug, to avoid her glance. + +"Something has annoyed you to-night. One of us has behaved badly. Was it +Tiny or was it----" + +"You?" said Erskine, with a smile. "From what I saw of your behavior, my +dear, it was entirely creditable to you as a chaperon. Your face was +seventeen, but your air was a frank fifty!" + +"Then it was Tiny. I suppose she danced too much with those boys they +have staying in the house. I should have thought there was +respectability in numbers; I really don't see how _they_ could matter." + +"They seemed to matter to Manister," remarked Erskine dryly. + +Ruth winced, but he had wondered whether she would, or he would never +have noticed it. + +"Surely you don't think Lord Manister cares who dances with our Tiny?" + +The amusement in her tone and manner was cleverly feigned, but instead +of deceiving Erskine it spurred him to speak out, after all. + +"I hardly like to tell you what I think about Tiny and Lord Manister," +he said gravely. + +"What on earth do you mean, Erskine?" cried Ruth, reddening. "Now you +_must_ tell me!" + +Erskine temporized, already regretting that he had said so much. "It +would hurt your feelings," he warned her grimly. + +"Not so much as your silence." + +"I wouldn't say it if I didn't look on her as my own sister by this +time, and if I didn't think her the best little girl in the world--but +one." + +Now he spoke tenderly. + +"Say it, in any case," said Ruth, who had been uncommonly calm. + +"Then I am afraid she is making up to him, if you must know." + +"Which is absurd," said Ruth lightly; but in her anxiety to remain cool +she forgot to seem surprised; and that was a mistake. + +"I wonder if you really think so?" said her husband very quietly. "If +you do I can't agree with you; I wish I could." + +"You must!" cried Ruth desperately. "Do you know how many dances she +gave him to-night?" + +Erskine knew only of one; his eyes rested on the remains of her +programme lying on the floor in many fragments. + +"Well, that one was the lot!" he was informed severely. "And pray did +you count how many times she spoke to him the other evening when we +dined at the hall?" + +"Not often, I grant you; I noticed that." + +"Yet you think she is making up to him!" + +"It's a strong way of putting it, I know," said Erskine reluctantly; +"but really I can't think of any other. I wonder you don't realize that +there are more ways of making up to a man than the dead-set method. +Can't you see that a far more effective method is a little judicious +snubbing and avoiding, which is coquetry? You take my word for it, +that's the touch for a man like Manister, who is probably accustomed to +everything but being snubbed and avoided. Then you speak of the one +dance she gave him. Now I happen to know that they didn't dance it at +all; they spent the time under the stars, for it was my misfortune to +see them and their misfortune not to see me." + +"Well?" whispered Ruth; and though she had never been so dark until now, +that whisper would have drawn his lantern to her real hopes and fears. + +"I only saw them for an instant: I bolted; so I may easily be wrong; but +it struck me that our Tiny was making up for her snubbing and avoiding. +It has since occurred to me that they must have known each other rather +well in Melbourne--rather better, at any rate, than you have ever led me +to suppose." + +As a woman's last resource, Ruth aimed a stone at his temper. + +"So that's it!" she exclaimed viciously. + +"That's what?" + +"The secret of your bad temper." + +"Well, to be kept in the dark doesn't sweeten a man, certainly," Erskine +answered, in a tone, however, that was far from bitter. "Then one can't +help feeling disappointed with Tiny; and in this matter--to be frank +with you at last--I am just a little disappointed in you too, my dear." + +"I always knew you would be," said Ruth dolefully. For her stone had +missed, and there was no more fight in her. + +"Now don't be a goose. It's only in this one matter, in which--I can't +help telling you--I don't think you've been perfectly straight with me." + +"Oh, indeed!" cried Ruth, as her spirit made one spurt more. It was the +last. The next moment she was weeping. + +It annoys most men to make a woman cry. Those who do not become annoyed +make impetuous atonement, partly, no doubt, to drown the hooting in +their own heart. But Erskine could not feel himself to blame, and though +he spoke very kindly, his kindness was too nearly paternal, and he spoke +with his elbow on the chimney-piece. He told Ruth not to do that. He +pointed out to her that there was no crime in her want of candor +concerning her sister's affairs, which were certainly no business of +his. Only, if there really had been something between Christina and Lord +Manister in Melbourne--if, for instance, Mrs. Willoughby had gossiped +unwittingly to Christina about none other than Christina +herself--Erskine put it to his wife that she might have done more wisely +to place him in a position silently to appreciate such capital jokes. He +would have said nothing; but as it was he might easily have said much to +imperil the situation; in fact, he had been in a false position all +along, more especially at the hall. But that was all. There was really +nothing to cry about. Perhaps to give her the fairest opportunity to +compose herself, Erskine crossed the room and drew back the curtains to +let in the gray morning; for the birds had long been twittering. + +But Ruth had been waiting for the touch of his hand, and he had only +given her kind words. She looked up, and saw through her tears his form +against the gray window, as he shut down the sash. The lamp burnt +faintly, and in the two wan lights it was a chamber of misery, in which +one could not sit alone. Ruth rose and ran to Erskine, and laid her +hands upon his arm. + +"It is raining," he said, without looking at her tears. "I knew we were +in for a break up of the fine weather." + +"Never mind the rain!" Ruth cried piteously, with her face upon his +coat. "Will you forgive me now if I tell you everything that I +know--everything? It isn't much, because Tiny has been almost as close +with me as I have been with you." + +"My dear," he said, patting her head at last, and with his arms around +her lightly, "you both had a perfect right to be close." + +"But suppose I've been at the bottom of the whole thing? Suppose I turn +out a horrid little intriguer--what then?" + +She waited eagerly, and the pause seemed long. + +"Well, you won't have been intriguing for yourself," sighed Erskine--so +that her face rose on his breast, as on a wave. + +And then, playing nervously with a button of his coat, Ruth confessed +all. As she spoke she gathered confidence, but not enough to watch his +face. That was turned to the gray morning, and looked as gray as it. The +fine weather had indeed broken up, and Essingham had lost its savor for +Erskine Holland. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +IN THE LADIES' TENT. + + +And yet, even at the time she made it, Ruth little dreamt how deeply her +confession both galled and revolted her husband. He forgave her very +kindly in the end, and that satisfied her lean imagination. Perhaps +there was not much to forgive. There was enough, at all events, to +trouble Erskine (to whom the best excuse there was for her was the least +likely to suggest itself); but the matter soon ceased to trouble +Erskine's wife, because his smile was as good-tempered as before. He +seemed, indeed, to think no more about it. When Ruth would speak +confidentially of her hopes and wishes for Tiny (as though Erskine had +been in her confidence all the time), he would chat the matter over with +interest, which was the next best thing to sympathy. He had to do this +oftener than he liked during the next twenty-four hours; for Ruth really +thought that excessive candor now was a more or less adequate atonement +for an excessive reserve in the past. Moreover, she genuinely enjoyed +talking openly at last of the matter which had concerned her so long and +so severely in secret. + +"Don't you think he means it?" she asked her husband several times. + +"I am afraid he thinks he does," was one of Holland's answers. + +"That's your way of admitting it," rejoined Ruth, who could bear his +repudiation of her desires for the sake of his assent to her opinion, +which Erskine was too honest to withhold. "Of course he means it. Have +you noticed how he watches her?" + +"I have noticed it once or twice." + +"And did you see him watching his mother, the night we dined there, to +see what impression Tiny made upon her?" + +"So you spotted that!" Erskine said curiously, not having given his wife +the credit for such acute perception. "Well, I own that I did, too; and +that was worse than his watching Tiny. This is a youth with a well-known +weakness for his mamma. She has probably more influence over him than +any other body in the world. I am prepared to bet that it was she, and +she alone, who whistled him back from Australia. Now though she did it +partly by her singing--which, by the way, was rather cheap for our +Tiny--there's no doubt at all about the impression Tiny has made upon +Lady Dromard; and that's the worst of it." + +"The worst of it! as if he was beneath her!" said Ruth mockingly. "Or is +it that you think her too terribly beneath him?" + +"Tiny," said Erskine, shaking his head, "is beneath no man that I have +yet come across." + +"Then what can you have against it? Is it that you think she will grow +so grand that we shall see no more of her! If so, it shows how much you +know of our Tiny. Or do you think him too high and mighty to be honest +and true? I don't profess to know much about it," continued Ruth +scornfully, being stung to eloquence by his perversity, "but I should +have said an honest man and his love might be found in a castle, +sometimes, as well as in a cottage!" + +"'Hearts just as pure and fair may beat in Belgrave Square as in the +lowly air of Seven Dials,'" quoted Erskine, with a laugh. "I grant all +that; but if you want to know, my point is that Tiny would be thrown +away on Belgrave Square! She is far too funny and fresh, and unlike most +of us, to thrive in that fine soil; she would need to be clipped and +pruned and trimmed in the image of other people. And that would spoil +her. Whatever else she may be, she's more or less original as she +stands. She's not a copy now; but she will have to become one in +Belgrave Square." + +"She _will_ have to become one!" cried Ruth, jumping at the change of +mood. "Then you think that Tiny means it, too?" + +"I am afraid she means to marry him," said Erskine, with a sigh. "I have +visions of our Tiny ours no more, but my Lady Manister, and Countess +Dromard in due course." + +So delighted was Ruth with his opinion on this point that his other +opinions had no power to annoy her; and in her joy she told him once +more, and with much impulsive feeling, how sorry she was for having kept +him in the dark so willfully and so long. She called him an angel of +good temper and forbearance, and undertook to reward his generosity by +never hiding another thing from him in her life. And she would never, +never vex him again, she said--so earnestly that he thought she meant +it, as indeed she thought herself, for half a minute. + +"But you mean to go to the match to-morrow?" he asked her wistfully. + +"Oh, we must--if it's fine. It's the last match of the week; besides, +Herbert's going to play." + +This was an argument, and Erskine said no more. The chances are that he +would have said no more in any case. The following afternoon Ruth drove +with Tiny to the match, and with a particularly light heart, because she +had not heard another word against the plan. Her one remaining anxiety +was lest it might rain before they got to the cricket field. + +For the day was one of those dull ones of early autumn when there is +little wind, a gray sky, and more than a chance of rain; but none had +fallen during the morning, which reduced the chance; while the clouds +were high, and occasionally parted by faint rays of sunshine. The ground +was so beautiful in itself that it was the greater pity there was no +more sun, since, without it, well-kept turf and tall trees are like a +sweet face saddened. The trees were the fine elms of that country, and +they flanked two sides of the ground; but one missed their shadows, and +the foliage had a dingy, lack-luster look in the tame light. On the +third side a ha-ha formed a natural "boundary," and the red, spreading +house stood aloof on the fourth, giving a touch of welcome warmth to a +picture whose highest lights were the white flannels of the players and +the canvas tents. The tents were many, and admirably arranged; but one +beneath the elms had a side on the ground to itself; and thither drove +Mrs. Holland, alighting rather nervously as a groom came promptly to the +pony's head, because this was the ladies' tent. + +To-day, however, the tent was not formidably full, as it had been when +the girls had watched the cricket from it earlier in the week; this was +only the Saturday's match. Ruth looked in vain for Lady Dromard, but +received a cold greeting from her daughter, Lady Mary, upon whom the +guinea stamp was disagreeably fresh and sharp. The sight of Mrs. +Willoughby and her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson on a front seat was a +relief at the moment (the sight of anything to nod to is a relief +sometimes); but Ruth was discreet enough to sit down behind these +ladies, not beside them. She congratulated herself on her presence of +mind when she heard the tone and character of some of their comments on +the game. It would have done Ruth no good to be seen at the side of loud +Mrs. Foster-Simpson or of loquacious Mrs. Willoughby, and it might have +done Tiny grave harm. Mrs. Willoughby's husband, who had good-naturedly +become eleventh man at the eleventh hour, was conspicuous in the field +from his black trousers, clerical wide-awake, and shirt-sleeves of gray +flannel. "I hope you admire him," said his wife over her shoulder to +Ruth; "I tell him he might as well take a funeral in flannels!" + +"Or dine in his surplice," added her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson in a +voice that carried to the back of the tent. + +"I just do admire Mr. Willoughby," Ruth said softly; "he has a soul +above appearances." + +"You're not his wife," replied the lady who was. + +"You may thank your stars!" shouted her too familiar friend. + +Little Mrs. Holland turned to her sister and speculated aloud as to the +state of the game, but her tone was an example to the ladies in front, +who nevertheless did not lower theirs to supply the gratuitous +information that the Mundham players had been fielding all day. + +"They're getting the worst of it," declared Mrs. Willoughby, perhaps +prematurely. + +"Do them good," her friend said viciously, but with the soft pedal down +for once. "There would have been no holding them. That young Dromard, +now--it will take it out of _him_. He wants it taking out of him!" + +Mr. Stanley Dromard, who had been scoring heavily all the week, happened +to be in the deep field close to the tent. Ruth nudged her sister, and +they moved further along their row in order to avoid the bonnets in +front. + +"Horrid people!" whispered Ruth. + +"That's the earl by the canvas screen," answered Tiny. "I should like to +send him a new straw hat!" + +"Hush!" whispered Ruth in terror. "You're as bad as they are. Tell me, +do you see Herbert?" + +"Yes, there he is, all by himself. There's a man out." + +"Is there? How tired they seem! That's Lord Manister sprawling on the +grass. What a boy he looks! You wouldn't think he was anybody in +particular, would you?" + +"I should hope not, indeed, on the cricket field!" + +"I only meant he looked rather nice." + +"Certainly he looks nicer in flannels than in anything else; his tailor +has less to do with it." + +The patience of Ruth was inexhaustible. She watched the game until +another wicket fell. Then it was her admiration for the scene that +escaped in more whispers. + +"_Isn't_ it a lovely place, Tiny?" + +"Oh, it's all that." + +"I've never seen one to touch it, and I have seen two or three, you +know, since we were married. But the house is the best part of it all. I +would give anything to live in a house like that--wouldn't you?" + +"I? My immortal soul!" + +And Tiny sighed, but Ruth, looking round quickly, saw laughter in her +eyes, and said no more. Tiny was very trying. Was she half in earnest, +or wholly in jest? Ruth could never tell; and now, while she wondered, a +lady who knew her sat down on her right. Ruth was glad enough to shake +hands and talk, and not sorry in this case to be seen doing so, while +at the moment it was a very human pleasure to her to leave Tiny to take +care of herself. And that was a thing at which Tiny may be said to have +excelled, so far as one saw, and no further. The attacks of most tongues +she was capable of repelling with distinction; against those of her own +thoughts she made ever the feeblest resistance; and at this stage of +Christina's career her own thoughts were a swarm of flies upon a wound +in her heart. That was the truth--and no one suspected it. + +During the next quarter of an hour the innings came to an end, and the +fielders trooped over to the group of tents at another side of the +ground. Tiny hoped that one of them would have the good taste to come to +the ladies' tent and talk to her; an Eton boy would do very well; +Herbert would be better than nobody: but she hoped in vain. On her right +Ruth had turned her back, and was quite taken up with the lady with whom +she was not sorry to be seen in conversation. The chairs on her left +were all empty; and those flies were fighting for her heart. It was the +rustle of silk disturbed them in the end; and Lady Dromard who sat down +in the empty chair on Tiny's left. + +"I am so glad to see you both," said the countess as though she meant +it; and she leant over to shake hands with Ruth, whose back was now +turned upon her new found friend. Not so much was said to the pair in +front, though those ladies had something to say for themselves. Lady +Dromard gave them very small change in smiles, but made the conversation +general for a minute or two, with that graceful tact at which, perhaps, +she was, in a manner, a professional. With equal facility she dropped +them from her talk one after another, much as the last wickets had +fallen in the match, and until only Tiny was left in. For the countess +had come there expressly to talk to Miss Luttrell, as she herself stated +with charming directness. + +"I was afraid you were feeling dull; though really you deserve to, Miss +Luttrell." + +"I was," said Tiny honestly; "but I don't know what I have done to +deserve to, Lady Dromard." + +"It's the last match, and a poor one, which nobody cares anything about. +You should have come earlier in the week." + +"We were here on Wednesday afternoon." + +"But why not oftener? My second son made ninety-three on Thursday. I do +wish you had seen that!" + +"It wasn't my fault that I didn't," remarked Miss Luttrell. "I suppose +things came in the way." + +"Then you are a cricketer!" exclaimed the countess. "I am glad to hear +it, for I am a great cricketer myself. No, I don't play, Miss Luttrell; +only I know all about it." + +Christina candidly confessed that she was not a cricketer in any +sense--that, in fact, she knew very little about cricket; and the +countess, who considered how many girls would have pretended to know +much, was more pleased with this answer than she would have been with an +exhibition of real knowledge of the game. + +"My only interest in this match, however," explained Lady Dromard, "is +in my eldest son. I do so want him to make runs! He has been dreadfully +unsuccessful all the week." + +Christina was discreetly sympathetic. + +"He is going in first," murmured the countess presently in suppressed +excitement. "We must watch the match." + +So they sat without speaking during the first few overs, and the silence +did much for Christina, by putting her at her ease in the hour when she +needed all the ease at her command. Cool as she was outwardly, in her +heart she was not a little afraid of Lady Dromard, whose manner toward +herself had already struck her as rather too kind and much too +scrutinizing. She now entertained a perfectly private conviction that +Lady Dromard either knew something about her or had her suspicions. Not +that this made Christina particularly uncomfortable at the moment. The +countess had eyes and wits for the game only, following it intently +through a heavy field glass grown light now that Manister was batting. + +It was difficult to realize that this eager, animated woman was the +mother of the young fellow at the wicket, she looked so very little +older than her son; or so it seemed to Tiny, who now had ample +opportunity to study not only her face and figure, but her quiet, +handsome bonnet and faultless dress. Even Tiny could not help admiring +Lady Dromard. Suddenly, however, the hand that held the field-glass was +allowed to drop, and the fine face flushed with disappointment as a +round of applause burst from the field and found no echo in the tents. + +"Manister is out!" exclaimed the countess. "He has only made two or +three!" + +"How fond she is of him," thought the girl, still watching her +companion's face, which somehow softened Christina toward both mother +and son; so that now it was with real sympathy that she remarked, "Poor +Lord Manister! I am very sorry." + +Some expressions of condolence from the seats in front threw the young +girl's words into advantageous relief. + +The countess said presently to Christina, "I am sorry it has turned out +so dull a day; the ground looks really nice when it is fine and sunny." + +"It is a beautiful ground," answered Tiny simply; "the trees are so +splendid." + +"Ah, but you're used to splendid trees." + +"In Australia? Well, we are and we are not, Lady Dromard. I mean to say, +there are tremendous trees in some parts; in others there are none at +all, you know. Up the bush, where we used to live, the trees were of +very little account." + +"I thought the bush was nothing _but_ trees," remarked Lady Dromard; and +Christina could not help smiling as she explained the comprehensive +character of "the bush." + +"So you were actually brought up on a sheep farm!" said Lady Dromard, +looking flatteringly at the graceful young girl. + +"Yes--on a station. It was in the bush, and very much the bush," laughed +Tiny, "for we were hundreds of miles up country. But most of the trees +were no higher than this tent, Lady Dromard. The homestead was in a +clump of pines, and they were pretty tall, but the rest were mere +scrub." + +"Then how in the world," cried her ladyship, "did you manage to become +educated? What school could you go to in a place like that?" + +"We never went to school at all," Tiny informed her confidentially. "We +had a governess." + +"Ah, and she taught you to sing! I should like to meet that governess. +She must be a very clever person." + +Her ladyship's manner was delightfully blunt. + +"Now, Lady Dromard, you're laughing at me! I know nothing--I have read +nothing." + +"I rejoice to hear it!" cried the countess cordially. "I assure you, +Miss Luttrell, that's a most refreshing confession in these days. Only +it's too good to be true. I don't believe you, you know." + +Christina made no great effort to establish the truth of her statement; +for some minutes longer they watched the game. + +But the countess was not interested, though her younger son had gone in, +and had already begun to score. "What were they?" she said at length +with extreme obscurity; but Christina was polite enough not to ask her +what she meant until she had put this question to herself, and while she +still hesitated Lady Dromard recollected herself, appreciated the +hesitation, and explained. "I mean the trees in the bush, at your farm. +Were they gum trees?" + +"Very few of them--there are hardly any gum trees up there." + +"Do you know that _I_ have a young gum tree?" said Lady Dromard +amusingly, as though it were a young opossum. + +"No!" said Tiny incredulously. + +"But I have, in the conservatory; you might have seen it the other +evening." + +"How I wish I had!" + +The young girl's face wore a flush of genuine animation. Lady Dromard +regarded it for a moment, and admired it very much; then she bent +forward and touched Ruth on the arm. + +"Mrs. Holland, will you trust your sister to me for half an hour? I want +to show her something that will interest her more than the cricket." + +"Oh, Lady Dromard, I can't think of taking you away from the match," +cried Christina, while Ruth's eyes danced, and the bonnets in front +turned round. + +"My dear Miss Luttrell, it will interest _me_ more, now that Lord +Manister is out." + +"But there's Mr. Dromard." + +"Oh, that boy! He has made more runs this week than are good for him. +Miss Luttrell, am I to go alone?" + +The bonnets in front knocked together. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ORDEAL BY BATTLE. + + +If Tiny Luttrell suffered at all from self-consciousness as she followed +Lady Dromard from the tent, she hid it uncommonly well. Her color did +not change, while her expression was neither bashful nor bold, and +unnatural only in its entire naturalness. Considering that the +conversation in the ladies' tent underwent a momentary lull, by no means +so slight as to escape a sensitive ear, the girl's serene bearing at the +countess' skirts was in its way an achievement of which no one thought +more highly than Lady Dromard herself. Christina had not merely imagined +that she was being systematically watched. No sooner were they in the +open air than the countess wheeled abruptly, expecting to surprise some +slight embarrassment, not unpardonable in so young a face; and this was +not the only occasion on which she was agreeably disappointed in little +Miss Luttrell. The short cut to the house was a narrow path that +crossed an intervening paddock. They followed this path. But now Lady +Dromard walked behind, with eyes slightly narrowed; and still she +approved. + +Presently they reached the conservatory. It was large and lofty, and the +smooth white flags and spreading fronds gave it an appearance of +coolness and quiet very different from Christina's recollection of the +place on the night of the dance, when Chinese lanterns had shone and +smoked and smelt among the foliage, and a frivolous hum had filled the +air. The gum tree proved to be a sapling of no great promise or +pretensions. Nor was it seen to advantage, being planted in the central +bed, in the midst of some admirable palms and tree-ferns. But Tiny made +a long arm to seize the leaves and pull them to her nostrils, setting +foot on the soft soil in her excitement; and when she started back, with +an apology for the mark, her face was beaming. + +"But that was a real whiff of Australia," she added gratefully--"the +first I've had since I sailed. It was very, very good of you to bring +me, Lady Dromard. If you knew how it reminds me!" + +"I thought it would interest you," remarked Lady Dromard, who was +herself more interested in the footprint on the soil, which was absurdly +small. "If you like I will show you something that should remind you +still more." + +"Oh, of course I like to see anything Australian; but I am sure I am +troubling you a great deal, Lady Dromard!" + +"Not in the least, my dear Miss Luttrell. I have something extremely +Australian to show you now." + +Countess Dromard led the way through the room in which Tiny had danced. +It was still carpetless and empty, and the clatter of her walking shoes +on the floor which her ball slippers had skimmed so noiselessly struck a +note that jarred. The desire came over Tiny to turn back. As they passed +through the hall, a side door stood open; the girl saw it with a gasp +for the open air. It was an odd sensation, as of the march into prison. +It made her lag while it lasted; when it passed it was as though weights +had been removed from her feet. She ran lightly up the shallow stairs; +Lady Dromard was waiting on the landing, and led her along a corridor. + +Here Tiny forgot that her feet had drummed vague misgivings into her +mind; she could no longer hear her own steps the corridor was so +thickly carpeted. It was a special corridor, leading to a very special +room of delicate tints and dainty furniture, and Christina was so far +herself again as to enter without a qualm. But her qualms had been a +rather singular thing. + +"This is my own little chapel of ease, Miss Luttrell," the countess +explained; "and now do you not see a fellow-countryman?" + +She pointed to the window; and in front of the window was a pedestal +supporting a gilded cage, and in the cage a pink-and-gray parrot, of a +kind with which the girl had been familiar from her infancy. "Oh, you +beauty!" cried Christina, going to the cage and scratching the bird's +head through the wires. "It's a galar," she added. + +"Indeed," said Lady Dromard, watching her; "a galar! I must remember +that. By the way, can you tell me why he doesn't talk?" + +Christina answered, in a slightly preoccupied manner, that galars very +seldom did. She had become quite absorbed in the bird; she seemed easily +pleased. She went the length of asking whether she might take him out, +and received a hesitating permission to do so at her own risk, Lady +Dromard confessing that for her own part she was quite afraid to touch +him through the wires. In a twinkling the girl had the bird in her hand, +and was smoothing its feathers with her chin. The sun was beginning to +struggle through the clouds; the window faced the west; and the faint +rays, falling on the young girl's face and the bird's bright plumage, +threw a good light on a charming picture. Lady Dromard was reminded of +the artificial art of her young days, when this was a favorite posture, +and searched narrowly for artifice in her guest. Finding none she +admired more keenly than before, but became also more timid on the +other's account, so that she could fancy the blood sliding down the fair +skin which the beak actually touched. + +"Dear Miss Luttrell, do put him back! I tremble for you." + +Tiny put the quiet thing back on the perch. Then she turned to Lady +Dromard with rather a comic expression. + +"Do you know what we used to do with this gentleman up on the station?" +said Tiny shamefacedly. "We poisoned him wholesale to save our crop. But +this one seems like an old friend to me. Lady Dromard, you have taken +me back to the bush this afternoon!" + +"So it appears," observed the countess dryly, "or I think you would +admire my little view. That's Gallow Hill, and I'm rather proud of my +view of it, because it is the only hill of any sort in these parts. Then +the sun sets behind it, and those three trees stand out so." + +"Ah! I have often wanted to climb up to those three trees," said Tiny, +who took a tantalized interest in Gallow Hill; "but I mayn't, because +I'm in England, where trespassers will be prosecuted." + +For a moment Lady Dromard stared. Then she saw that Christina had merely +forgotten. "Dear me, that stupid notice board!" exclaimed the countess. +"Lord Dromard never meant it to apply to everybody. Next time you come +here come over Gallow Hill, and through the little green gate you can +just see. You will find it a quarter of the distance." + +Christina had indeed spoken without thinking of Gallow Hill as a part of +the estate, or of the warning to trespassers as Lord Dromard's doing. +Now she apologized, and was naturally a little confused; but this time +the countess would not have had her otherwise. "You shall go back that +way this very evening," she said kindly, "and I promise you shan't be +prosecuted." But Christina had to pet her fellow-countryman for a minute +or two before she quite regained her ease, while her ladyship touched +the bell and ordered tea. + +"How fond you must be of the bush!" Lady Dromard exclaimed as the girl +still lingered by the cage. + +"I like it very much," said Christina soberly. + +"Better than Melbourne?" + +"Oh, infinitely." + +"And England?" + +"Yes, better than England--I can't help it," Tiny added apologetically. + +"There's no reason why you should," said Lady Dromard, with a smile. "I +could imagine your quite disliking England after Australia. I'm sure my +son disliked it when he first came back." + +"Did he?" the girl said indifferently. "Ah, well! I don't dislike +England. I admire it very much, and, of course, it is ever so much +better than Australia in every way. We have no villages like Essingham +out there, no red tiles and old churches, and certainly no villagers +who treat you like a queen on wheels when you walk down the street. +We've nothing of that sort--nor of this sort either--no splendid old +houses and beautiful old grounds! But I can't help it, I'd rather live +out there. Give me the bush!" + +"You _are_ enthusiastic about the bush," said Lady Dromard, laughing; +"yet you don't know how fresh enthusiasm is to one nowadays." + +"I'm afraid I'm not enthusiastic about anything else, then," answered +Christina with engaging candor. "They tell me I don't half appreciate +England; I disappoint all my friends here." + +"Ah, that is perhaps your little joke at our expense!" + +Christina was on the brink of an audacious reply when a footman entered +with the tea tray. That took some of the audacity out of her. She had +not heard the order given. Once more she reflected where she was, and +with whom, and once more she wished herself elsewhere. It was a mild +return of her panic downstairs. Now she felt vaguely apprehensive and as +vaguely exultant. In the uncertain fusion of her feelings she was apt +to become a little unguarded in what she said; there was safety in her +sense of this tendency, however. + +Lady Dromard was reflecting also. As the footman withdrew she had told +him not to shut the door. The truth was she had got Christina to herself +by pure design, though she had not originally intended to get her to +herself up here. That had been an inspiration of the moment, and even +now Lady Dromard was by no means sure of its wisdom. She had gone so far +as to closet herself with this girl, but she did not wish the proceeding +to appear so pronounced either to the footman or to the girl herself. It +would make the footman talk, while it might frighten the girl. That, at +any rate, was the idea of Countess Dromard, who, however, had not yet +learnt her way about the young mind with which she was dealing. + +The tea tray had been placed on a small table near the window. Lady +Dromard promptly settled herself with her back to the light, and +motioned Christina to a chair facing her. + +"Now you'll be able to watch your beloved bird," said her ladyship +craftily. "I thought we might as well have tea now we are here. I +thought it would be so much more comfortable than having it in the +tent." + +Tiny settled a business matter by stating that she took two pieces of +sugar, but only one spot of cream. Unconsciously, however, she had +followed Lady Dromard's advice, for her eyes were fixed on the parrot in +the cage. + +"I have only had him a few months," observed the countess suggestively. +"Something less than a year, I should say." + +"Yes?" And Tiny lowered her eyes politely to her hostess' face. + +"Yes," repeated Lady Dromard affirmatively. "My son brought him home for +me. It was the only present he had time to get, so I rather value it." + +The girl's gaze returned involuntarily to the bird she had caressed; +apparently her interest was neither diminished nor increased by this +information as to its origin. + +"He was in a great hurry to run away from us, was he not?" she remarked +inoffensively; but there was no attempt in her manner to conceal the +fact that Christina knew what she was talking about. + +"He was obliged to return rather suddenly," said the countess after a +moment's hesitation. She made a longer pause before slyly adding, "I +consider myself very lucky to have got him back at all." + +"How is that, Lady Dromard?" + +And Christina outstared the countess, so that she was asked whether she +would not take another cup of tea. She would, and her hand neither +rattled it empty nor spilt it full. Then Lady Dromard smiled at the +coronet on her teaspoon, and said to it: + +"The fact is I was terrified lest he should go and marry one of you." + +"One of _us_?" + +"Some fascinating Australian beauty," said Lady Dromard hastily. "So +many aids-de-camp have done that." + +"Poor--young--men!" said Tiny, as slowly and solemnly as though her +words were going to the young men's funeral. "It would have been a +calamity indeed." + +So far from showing indignation Lady Dromard leant forward in her chair +to say in her most winning manner: + +"I should have been all the more terrified had I known _you_, Miss +Luttrell!" + +Clearly this was meant for one of those blunt effective compliments to +which Lady Dromard had the peculiar knack of imparting delicacy and +grace. But the words were no sooner uttered than she saw their double +meaning, and grimly awaited the obvious misconstruction. Tiny, however, +had a quick perception, and plenty of common sense in little things. +Instead of a snub the countess received a good-tempered smile, for which +she could not help feeling grateful at the time; but now her instinct +told her that she was dealing with a person with whom it might be well +to be a little more downright, and she obeyed her instinct without +further delay. + +"Miss Luttrell, I am sure there is no occasion for me to beat about the +bush--with you," she began in an altered, but a no less flattering tone; +"I see that one is quite safe in being frank with you. The fact is--and +you know it--my son very nearly did marry someone out there. Now you met +him out there in society, and you probably knew everyone there who was +worth knowing, so pray don't pretend that you know nothing about this." + +Their eyes were joined, but at the moment Christina's was the cooler +glance. + +"I couldn't pretend that, Lady Dromard, for it happens that I know _all_ +about it." + +The countess was perceptibly startled. "The girl was a friend of yours?" +she inquired quickly. + +"A great friend," answered Tiny, nodding. + +"How I wish you would tell me her name!" + +"I mustn't do that." This was said decidedly. "But it seems a strange +thing that you don't know it." + +"It is a strange thing," Lady Dromard allowed; "nevertheless it's the +truth. I never heard her name. You may imagine my curiosity. Miss +Luttrell, I seem to have felt ever since I met you that you knew +something about this--that you could tell one something. And I don't +mind confessing to you now--since I see you are not the one to +misunderstand me willfully--that I have purposely sought an opportunity +of sounding you on the subject." + +Christina smiled, for this was not news to her. + +"My son will tell me nothing," continued Lady Dromard, "and I have, of +course, the greatest curiosity to know everything. It is no idle +curiosity, Miss Luttrell. I am his mother, and he has never got over +that attachment." + +"Has he not?" said Tiny with dry satire. + +"He has never got over it," repeated Lady Dromard in a tone which was a +match for the other. "Has the girl?" + +Tiny was startled in her turn. She hesitated before replying, and seemed +to waver over the nature of her reply. It was the first sign she had +shown of wavering at all, and Lady Dromard drew her breath. The girl was +hanging her head, and murmuring that she really could not answer for the +other girl. Suddenly she flung up her face, and it was hot, but not +hotter than her words: + +"Yes, Lady Dromard, you are his mother. But the girl was my friend. He +treated her abominably!" + +"It wasn't his fault--it was mine," said Lady Dromard steadily. + +"I'm afraid that does not make one think any better of him," murmured +the young girl. Her chin was resting in her hand. The flush had passed +from her face as suddenly as it had come. Her eyes were raised to the +sky out of the window, and there was in them the sad, hardened, reckless +look that those who knew her best had seen too often, latterly, in her +silent moments. The sun was dropping clear of the clouds, and the +brighter rays fell kindly over Tiny's dark hair and pale, piquant face. +The keen eye that was on her had never watched more closely nor admired +so much. + +"Consider!" said Lady Dromard presently, and rather gently. "Try to put +yourself in our place--and consider. We have a position, here in +England, of which very few people can be got to take a sensible view; +half the country professes an absurd contempt for it, while the other +half speaks of it and of us with bated breath. We ourselves naturally +think something of our position, and we try, as we say, to keep it up. +Of course we are worldly, in the popular sense. We bring up our children +with worldly ideas. They must make worldly marriages in their own +station. Is it so very contemptible that we should see to this, and +dread beyond most things an unwise or an unequal marriage? Now do +consider: we let our son go out to Australia, because it is good for a +young man to see the world before he marries and settles down--and mind! +that was what he was about to do. If he had not gone to Australia then, +he would have been married at once. He was all but engaged. It was a +case of putting off the engagement instead of the marriage. We do not +believe in long, formal engagements; we do not permit them. We find them +undesirable for many reasons. So, you see, he goes out to Australia as +good as engaged, but unable to say so, and very young, and no doubt very +susceptible. Can you wonder that I tremble for him when he has gone? +Well, he is the best son in the world, and has told me everything +always. That is my comfort. But presently he tells one things in his +letters which make one tremble more than ever, though he tells them +jokingly. Then a cousin of Lord Dromard's stays a day or two in +Melbourne and comes home with a report----" + +Christina's face twitched in the sunlight. "I suppose that was Captain +Dromard?" she said quietly; "I never met him, but I saw him." She seemed +to see him then, and that was why her face twitched. She was still +staring out of the window at the yellowing sky. + +"Captain Dromard had forgotten the girl's name," said the countess +pointedly; "but he told me enough to make me write to my boy--I nearly +cabled! And do you think I was wrong?" + +"Not from your point of view, Lady Dromard," answered Christina +judicially, with her eyes half closed in the slanting sunbeams which she +chose to face. "Certainly you cannot have had very much faith in Lord +Manister's judgment; but the case is altered if he was to all intents +and purposes engaged to a girl in England; and, at all events, that's +the worst that could be said of you--looking at it from your own point +of view. But is not the girl out there entitled to a point of view as +well?" And the hardened reckless eyes were turned so suddenly upon Lady +Dromard that the youth and grace and bitterness of the girl smote her +straight to the heart. + +There was a slight tremor and great tenderness in the voice that +whispered, "Did she feel it very much? Come, come--don't tell me it +broke her heart!" + +"No, I won't tell you that," said the girl briskly, but with a laugh +which hurt. "That doesn't break so easily in these days. No, it didn't +break her heart, Lady Dromard--it did much worse. It got her talked +about. It poisoned her mind, it killed her faith, it spoilt her temper. +It did all that--and one thing worse still. Though it didn't _break_ her +heart, Lady Dromard, it cracked it, so that it will never ring true any +more; it made her hate those she had loved--those who loved her; it made +it impossible for her ever to care for anybody in the whole wide world +again!" + +Lady Dromard had drawn her chair nearer to the girl, and nearer still. +Lady Dromard was no longer mistress of herself. + +"Did it make her hate _you_, my dear?" + +"It made her loathe--me." + +Lady Dromard was seen to battle with a strong womanly impulse, and to +lose. Her fine eyes filled with tears. Her soft, white hands flew out to +Christina's, and drew them to her bosom. At this moment a young man in +flannels appeared at the door, and the young man was Lord Manister; but +the rich carpet had muffled his tread, and the two women had eyes for +one another only--the girl he had loved--the mother who had drawn him +from her. The same sunbeam washed them both. + +"Now I know her name--now I know it!" + +"I think you cannot have found it out this minute, Lady Dromard." + +"But I have. I have never known whether to believe it or not, since it +first crossed my mind, the night you dined here. You see, I know him so +well! But he didn't tell me, and after all I had no reason to suppose +it. Oh, he has told me nothing--and you are the gulf between us, for +which I have only myself to thank. Ah, if I had only dreamt--of you!" + +Tiny suffered herself to be kissed upon the cheek. + +"Pray say no more, dear Lady Dromard," she said quietly. "Shall I tell +you why?" she added, drawing back. "Why, because it's quite a thing of +the past." + +"It is not a thing of the past," cried Lady Dromard passionately. "He +has never loved anyone else. He bitterly regrets having listened to me, +and I, now that I know you--I bitterly regret everything! And he loves +you ... and I would rather ... and I have told him what is the simple +truth--how I have admired you from the first!" + +The last sentence was doubtless a mistake. It was the only one that +would let itself be uttered, however, and before another could be added +by either woman Lord Manister had tramped into the room. They fell the +further apart as he came between them and stooped down, laying his hands +heavily on the little table. His eyes sped from the girl to his mother, +and back to the girl, on whom they stayed. One hand held his crumpled +cap. His hair was disordered. In many ways he looked at his best, as +Tiny had always said he did in flannels. But never before had Tiny seen +him half so earnest and sad and handsome. + +"My mother is right," he said firmly. "I love you, and I ask you to +forgive us both, and to give me what I don't deserve--one word of hope!" + +The young girl glanced from his grave, humble face to that of his +mother, through whose tears a smile was breaking. Lady Dromard's lips +were parted, half in surprise at the humility of her son's words, half +in eagerness for the answer to them. Tiny Luttrell read her like a +printed book, and rose to her feet with a smile that was equally +unmistakable, for it was a smile of triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HER HOUR OF TRIUMPH. + + +Now Herbert was taking part in the match, and Ruth was in the ladies' +tent, trying not to think of Christina, who was playing a single-wicket +game in another place. But Erskine Holland was rolling the rectory court +gloomily and quite alone, and he was tired of Essingham. Not only had +the day kept fine in spite of its threats, but toward the end of the +afternoon it turned out very fine indeed, and the light became excellent +for lawn tennis, because there was nobody to play with poor Erskine. +Even the good Willoughby was on the accursed field over yonder; and he +mattered least. Ruth was there. Tiny was there. Herbert was not only +there, but playing for Lord Manister, who was notoriously short of men. +One can hardly wonder at Erskine's condemnation of his brother-in-law, +out of his own mouth, as a stultified young fraud in the matter of Lord +Manister. As to the girls, some old tenets of his concerning women in +general returned to taunt him for the ship-wreck of his holiday at +least. Yet Ruth had but plotted for her sister's advancement, not her +own. Whether Christina cared in the least for the man whom she evidently +meant to marry, if she could, was, after all, Christina's own affair. +Erskine had only heard her disparage him behind his back--at which +Herbert himself could not beat her--whereas Ruth had at least been +openly in favor of the fellow from the very first. But if Herbert was a +fraud, what was the name for Tiny? Clearly the only trustworthy person +of the three was Ruth, who at least--yet alone--was consistent. + +To this conclusion, which was not without its pleasing side, Erskine +came with his eyes on the ground he was rolling. But as he pushed the +roller toward the low stone wall dividing the lawn from the churchyard, +into which the balls were too often hit, one came whizzing out of it for +a change, and struck the roller under Erskine's nose. And leaning with +her elbows on the low wall, and her right hand under her chin, as though +it were the last right hand that could have flung that ball, stood the +girl for whom a bad enough name had yet to be found. + +"Where on earth did you spring from?" Holland asked, a little brusquely, +as he stopped for a moment and then rolled on toward the wall. + +"If you mean the ball," replied Tiny, "it must be the one we lost the +last time we played. I have just found it among the graves, and it +slipped out of my hand." + +"I meant you," said Erskine, with an unsuccessful smile; and he pushed +the roller close up to the wall, and folded his arms upon the handle. + +"Oh, I have come from the hall by the forbidden path over Gallow Hill; +but it seems that wasn't meant for us, and at any rate I have leave to +use it whenever I like." She was puzzling him, and she knew it, but she +met his eyes with a mysterious smile for some moments before adding: +"You can't think what a view there is from the top of the hill--I mean a +view of the hall. Just now the sun was blazing in all the windows, like +the flash of a broadside from an old two-decker; you see it made such an +impression on me that I thought of that for your benefit." + +Erskine acknowledged the benefit rather heavily with a nod. + +"What have you done with Ruth?" + +"To the best of my belief she is watching the match; at least she was an +hour ago." + +"Something _has_ happened!" exclaimed Erskine Holland, starting upright +and leaving the roller handle swinging in the air like an inverted +pendulum. His eyes were unconsciously stern; those of the girl seemed to +quail before them. + +"Something has happened," she admitted to the top of the wall. "I +suppose you would get to know sooner or later, so I may as well tell you +myself now. The fact is Lord Manister has just proposed to me." + +Erskine dropped his eyes and shrugged slightly; then he raised them to +the setting sun, and tried to look resigned; then, with a noticeable +effort, he brought them back to her face, and forced a smile. + +"I'm not surprised. I saw it coming, though I hardly expected it so +soon. Well, Tiny, I congratulate you! He is about the most brilliant +match in England." + +"Quite the most, I thought?" + +"And I am sure he is a first-rate fellow," added Erskine with vigor, +regretting that he had not said this first, and disliking what he had +said. + +"Oh, he is a very good sort," acknowledged Tiny to the wall. + +"So you ought to be the happiest young woman in the world, as you are +perhaps the luckiest--I mean in one sense. And I congratulate you, Tiny, +I do indeed!" + +To clinch his congratulations he held out his hand, from which she +raised her eyes to him at last--with the look of a cabman refusing his +proper fare. + +"And I took you for the most discerning person I knew!" said Tiny very +slowly. + +"You don't mean to say----" + +His eagerness and incredulity arrested his speech. + +"I _do_ mean to say." + +"That you have--refused him?" + +Tiny nodded. "With thanks--not too many." + +They stared at one another for some moments longer. Then Erskine sat +down on the roller and folded his arms and looked extremely serious, +though already the corners of his mouth were beginning to twitch. + +"Now, you know, Tiny, I'm _in loco parentis_ as long as you're in +England. In this one matter you've no business to chaff me. Honestly, +now, is it the truth that Lord Manister has asked you to marry him, and +that you have said him nay?" + +"It is the truest truth I ever uttered in my life. I refused him +point-blank," added Tiny, with eyes once more lowered, as though the +memory were not unmixed with shame, "and before his own mother!" + +"In the presence of Lady Dromard?" + +She nodded solemnly, but with a blush. + +"Good Lord!" murmured Erskine. "And I was ass enough to think you were +leading him on!" + +She whispered, "And so I was." + +For one moment Erskine stared at her more seriously than ever; then the +reaction came, and she saw him shaking. He shook until the tears were in +his eyes; and when he was rid of them he perceived the same thing in +Tiny's eyes, but obviously not from the same cause. + +"_I_ don't think it's such a joke," said the girl, in the voice of one +pained when in pain already. "I am pretty well ashamed of myself, I can +tell you. If you really consider yourself responsible for me I think you +might let me tell you something about it; for you must tell Ruth--I +daren't. But if you're going to laugh ... let me tell you it's no +laughing matter to me, now I've done it." + +"Forgive me," said Holland instantly; "I am a brute. Do tell me anything +you care to; I promise not to laugh unless you do. And I might be able +to help you." + +"Ah, you would if anybody could; but nobody can; I have behaved just +scandalously, and I know it as well as you do, now that it's too late. +Yet I wish that you knew all about it, Erskine!" She looked at him +wistfully. "You understand things so. Would it bore you if I were to +tell you how the whole thing happened?" + +The gilt hands of the church clock made it ten minutes to six when +Erskine shook his head and bent it attentively. When the hour struck he +had opened his mouth only once, to answer her question as to how much he +knew of her affair with Lord Manister in Melbourne. He had known for a +day and a half as much as Ruth knew; and he did not learn much more now, +for the girl could speak more freely of recent incidents, and dwelt +principally on those of that afternoon, beginning with Lady Dromard's +extraordinary attentiveness on the cricket field. + +"I felt there was something behind that, though I didn't know what; I +could only be sure that she had her eye on me. However, I took a +tremendous vow to face whatever came without moving a muscle. I think I +succeeded, on the whole, but I was on the edge of a panic when she took +me upstairs. I wanted to clear! I had qualms!" + +She was startlingly candid on another point. + +"I also made up my mind to behave as prettily as possible, just to show +her. I was really pleased with the interest she seemed to take in what I +told her about the bush, and I was quite delighted to see a galar again. +But I needn't have made the fuss I did in taking it out of its cage; +that was purely put on, and all the time I was mortally afraid that it +would peck me. Yet I suppose," added Tiny, after some moments, "you +won't believe me when I tell you that I am ashamed of all that already?" + +Erskine declared that there was nothing in the world to be ashamed of; +on the contrary, in his opinion she was perfectly justified in all she +had done. With kind eyes upon her, he added what he very nearly meant, +that he was proud of her; and his remark wrought a change in her +expression which convinced him finally that at least she was not proud +of herself. + +"Ah, you weren't there, Erskine," said Christina sadly, her blue eyes +clouded with penitence; "you don't know how kind poor Lady Dromard was +with all her dodges! She said it would be more comfortable to have tea +up there. Comfortable was the last thing I felt in my heart, but I never +let her see that; and besides, I didn't as yet guess what was coming. +Even when she wanted me to tell her my own name, I couldn't be sure that +she suspected me. I wasn't sure until she asked me whether the girl had +got over it, when I knew from her voice. And I saw then that she really +rather liked me, and half wished it to be; and I was sorry because I +liked her; and though I spoke my mind to her about her son, I should +have made a clean breast of everything to her if he hadn't come in just +then. I should have told her straight that I didn't care _that_ for +him--not now--and that I had been flirting with him disgracefully just +to try to make him smart as I had smarted. That's the whole truth of +it, Erskine; and I meant to tell her so in another second, because I +couldn't stand her kissing me and crying, and all that. I should have +been crying myself next moment. But just then _he_ came in, and I +remembered everything. I remembered, too, what she had had to do with +it, on her own showing; and when I saw what she wanted me to say I think +I became possessed." + +Her brother-in-law was very curious to know all that Christina had said, +but she would not tell him. She merely remarked that he would think all +the worse of her if he knew, even though at the moment she could hardly +remember any one thing that she had said. Then she paused, and recalled +a little, and the little made her blush. + +"I didn't come well out of it," she declared. + +Erskine threw discredit on her word in this particular matter; he +sniffed an extravagant remorse. + +"Talk of hitting a man when he's down!" exclaimed Tiny miserably. "I hit +Lady Dromard when the tears were in her eyes, and Lord Manister when he +was hitting himself. He took it splendidly. He is a gentleman. I don't +care what else he is--lord or no lord, he would always be a perfect +gentleman. What's more, I am very sorry for him." + +"Why on earth be sorry for him?" asked Erskine with a touch of +irritation; for when Tiny spoke of Lady Dromard's tears, her own eyes +swam with them; and to do a thing like this and start crying over it the +moment it was done seemed to Erskine a bad sign. The event was so very +fresh, and so entirely contrary to his own most recent apprehensions, +that at present his only feeling in the matter was one of profound +satisfaction. But the symptoms she showed of relenting already +interfered not a little with that satisfaction, while, even more than by +the remark that had prompted his question, he was alarmed by her answer +to it: + +"Because I believe he does care for me, a little bit, in his own way--or +he thinks he does, which comes to the same thing; and because, when +all's said and done, I have treated him like a little fiend!" + +"My good girl!" said Holland uneasily, "I should remember how he treated +you." + +"Ah, no," answered Christina, shaking her head; "I have remembered that +far too long as it is. That's ancient history." + +"Well, be sorry for him if you like; be sorry for yourself as well." + +That was the best advice that occurred to him at the moment, but it set +her off at a tangent. + +"I should think I am sorry for myself--I should be sorry for any girl +who could so far forget herself!" cried Christina, speaking bitterly and +at a great pace. "Shall I tell you the sort of thing I said? When I told +him I could not possibly believe in his really caring for me, after the +way in which he left Melbourne without so much as saying good-by to me +or sending me word that he was going, he said it wasn't then he really +loved me, but now. So I told him I was sorry to hear it, as in my case +it might perhaps have been then, but it certainly wasn't now. I actually +said that! Then Lady Dromard spoke up. She had been staring at me +without a word, but she spoke up now, and it served me right. I can't +blame her for being indignant, but she didn't say half she could have +said, and it was more what she implied that sticks and stings. It didn't +sting then, though; I was thinking of all the talk out there. It was +when Lord Manister stopped her, and held out his hand to me and said, +'Anyway you forgive me now? I thought you _had_ forgiven me'--it was +then I began to tingle. I said I forgave him, of course; and then I +bolted. But I was sorry for him, and I _am_ sorry for him, whatever you +say, for I had cut him to the heart.... And he looked most awfully nice +the whole time!" + +With these frivolous last words there came a smile: the normal girl +shone out for an instant, as the sun breaks through clouds; and Erskine +took advantage of the gleam. + +"To the heart of his vanity--that's where you cut. You've humiliated him +certainly; but surely he deserved it? In any case, you've given young +Manister the right-about; and upon my soul that's rather a performance +for our Tiny! I should only like to have seen it." + +"It's good of you to call me your Tiny," returned the young girl rather +coldly. "But don't talk to me about performances, please, unless you +mean disgraceful performances. I wish I had never come to England--I +wish I was back in Australia--I wish I was up at the station!" she +cried with sudden passion. "I am miserable, and you won't understand me; +and Ruth couldn't if she tried." + +"My dear girl," Erskine said in rather an injured tone, "surely you're a +little unfair on us both? Ruth will understand when I tell her; and as +for me--I think I understand you already." + +"Not you!" answered Tiny disdainfully. "You call it a performance! You +treat it as a joke!" And she left him, with the tears in her eyes. + +He watched her enter the garden by the little gate lower down, and +saunter toward the house with lagging steps. The low sun streamed upon +her drooping figure. Even at that distance, and with her face hidden +from him, she seemed to Erskine the incarnation of all that was wayward +and willful and sweet in girlhood. And her tears and temper made her +doubly sweet, as the rain draws new fragrance from a flower; but they +had also made her doubly difficult to understand. One moment he had seen +her plainly, as in the lime light; in another, she had retired to a +deeper shade than before. The explanation of her conduct toward Lord +Manister had been a sufficiently startling revelation, yet a perfectly +lucid one; but what of this prompt transition to tears and penitence? +The only interpretation which suggested itself to Erskine was one that +he refused to entertain. He preferred to attribute Christina's present +state of mind to mere reaction; if the reaction had taken a rather +hysterical form, that, perhaps, was not to be wondered at. Moreover, +this seemed to be indeed the case; for the girl was seen no more that +day, save by Ruth, who by night was perhaps the most disappointed person +in the parish; only she managed to conceal her disappointment in a way +that it was impossible not to admire. + +Nevertheless dinner at the rectory was a dismal meal, and the more so +for the high spirits of Herbert, which, meeting with no response, turned +to silence. Poor Herbert happened to have distinguished himself in the +match, which, indeed, he had been largely instrumental in winning for +his side; but neither Ruth nor her husband showed any interest in his +exploit, and Tiny was not there. Erskine was no cricketer; Herbert hated +him for it, and made a sullen attack on the claret. But at length it +dawned upon him that there was some special reason for the silence and +glum looks at either end of the table, for which Christina's alleged +headache would not in itself account; and when Ruth left the table early +to look after Tiny, he said bluntly to Erskine: + +"You're enough to give a fellow the blues, the pair of you! What's +wrong? Have I done anything, or has Tiny?" + +Erskine temporized, pushing forward the claret. "I understand _you_ have +done something," he said with a first approach to geniality; "but, upon +my word, old fellow, I don't know what it is. I couldn't listen, for the +life of me; and you must forgive me. Tiny's upset, and that's upset +Ruth, which I suppose has upset me in my turn. Please call me names--I +deserve them--and then tell me again what you have done." + +Herbert did not require two invitations to do this. He had not only +acquitted himself brilliantly, but there was a peculiar piquancy in his +success; he had saved the side which had treated him with unobtrusive +but galling contempt until the last moment, when he opened their eyes, +and their throats too. They had put him to field at short leg; during +the intervals, after the fall of a wicket, not one of them had spoken a +word to him, save good-natured Mr. Willoughby; and they had sent him in +last, with hopeless faces, when there were many runs to get. The good +batsmen, beginning with Lord Manister, had mostly failed miserably. The +Honorable Stanley Dromard, who had been in fine form all the week, had +alone done well; and he was still at the wicket when Herbert whipped in, +with his ears full of gratuitous instructions to keep his wicket up, and +not to try to hit the professional, and his heart full of other designs. +Those instructions were given without much knowledge of this young +Australian, who took a sincere delight in disregarding them. He had hit +out from the very first, particularly at the professional, who disliked +being hit, and who was also somewhat demoralized by the extreme respect +with which he had been treated by preceding batsmen. There were thirty +runs to make when Herbert went in, and in a quarter of an hour he made +them nearly all from his own bat, exhibiting an almost insolent amount +of coolness and nerve at the crisis. The best of it was that no one had +considered it a crisis when he went in; but his truculent batting had +immediately made it one, and ultimately, in a scene of the greatest +excitement, of which Herbert was the hero, an almost certain defeat had +been converted into a glorious victory. All this was confirmed by the +local newspaper next day; considering his achievement and his character, +the hero himself told his tale with modesty. + +"He bowled like beggary," he concluded, in allusion to the discomfited +professional; "but I tell you, old toucher, we were too many measles for +him!" + +"They were more civil to you after that?" + +"My oath!" said Herbert complacently. "Those Eton jokers kicked up +hell's delight! Stanley Dromard shook hands with me between the wickets, +and said I ought to be going up to Trinity; but he's a real good +sportsman, with less side than you'd think. His governor, the earl, +congratulated me in person--you bet I felt it down my marrow! He wants +to know how it is I'm not playing for the Australians. The only man who +didn't say a word to me was that dam' fool Manister." + +"Ah, he was on the ground, then?" + +"He turned up as I went in; and when I came out he didn't look at me. +Who the blazes does he think he is? I'm as good a man as him, though I'm +a larrikin and he's a twopenny lord. I don't care what he is, I had the +bulge over him to-day--he made four!" + +"Perhaps someone else has had the bulge over him, too," suggested +Erskine gently. + +"Has someone?" + +Erskine nodded. + +"Our Tiny?" + +"Yes; he has asked her to marry him, and she has refused him on the +spot." + +Herbert shot out of his chair. + +"So're you crackin'! I thought something was _wrong_, man? O Lord, this +is a treat!" + +"It's a treat she didn't prepare one for. I had visions of a very +different upshot." + +"Aha! you never know where you have our Tiny. No more does old Manister. +Oh, but this is a treat for the gods!" + +"I told Tiny it was a performance," Erskine said reflectively; "it +struck me as one, and I was trying to cheer her up--but that wasn't the +way." + +"No? She's a terror, our Tiny!" murmured Herbert, with a running +chuckle. "Now I know why the brute was so civil to me the first time I +met him in these parts. Even then my hand itched to fill his eye for +him, but I didn't say anything, because Tiny seemed on the job herself. +To think this was her game! I must go and shake hands with her. I must +go and tell her she's done better than filling up his eye." + +"Don't you," said Erskine quietly. "I wouldn't say much to her +afterward, either, if I may give you a hint. She doesn't take quite our +view of this matter. Not that we can pretend that ours is at all a nice +view of it, mind you; only I really do regard it as a bit of a +performance on our Tiny's part, and I should like to have seen it." + +"By ghost, so should I! And seriously," added Herbert, "he deserved all +he's got. I happen to know." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A CYCLE OF MOODS. + + +But the girl herself chose to think otherwise. That was her perversity. +She could now see excuses for her own ill-treatment in the past, but +none for the revenge she had just taken on the man who had treated her +badly. A revenge it had certainly been, plotted systematically, and +carried out from first to last in sufficiently cold blood. But already +she was ashamed of it. So sincerely ashamed was Christina, now that she +had completed her retaliation and secured her triumph, that she very +much exaggerated the evil she had done, and could imagine no baser +behavior than her own. She had, indeed, felt the baseness of it while +yet there was time to draw back, but the memory of her own humiliation +had been her goad whenever she hesitated; and then the way had been made +irresistibly easy for her. But this was no comfort to her now. Neither +was that goad any excuse to her self-accusing mind; for she could feel +it no longer, which made her wonder how she had ever felt it at all. Her +judgment was obscured by the magnitude of her meanness in her own eyes. +The revulsion of feeling was as complete as it was startling and +distressing to herself. + +In her trouble and excitement that night it became necessary for her to +speak to someone, and she spoke with unusual freedom to Ruth, who +displayed on this occasion, among others, a really lamentable want of +tact. Tiny sought to explain her trouble: it was not that she could +possibly care for Lord Manister again, or dream of marrying him under +any circumstances (Ruth said nothing to all this), but that she half +believed he really cared for her (Ruth was sure of it), in his own way +(Ruth seemed to believe in his way); and in any case she was very sorry +for him. So was Ruth. In all the circumstances the sorrow of Ruth might +well have received a less frank expression than she thought fit to give +it. + +But it is only fair to say that this did not occur to Ruth. She was in +and out of the room until at last Christina was asleep, and dreaming of +the hall windows ablaze against the sunset, while again and again in +her sleep the warm, broken voice of Lady Dromard turned hard and cold. +Ruth watched her affectionately enough as she slept, and consoled +herself for her own disappointment by the reflection that at least they +understood one another now. Therefore it was a rude shock to her when +Christina came down next day and would hardly look at any of them. + +Her mood had changed; it was now her worst. She was pale still, but her +expression was set, and there was a quarrelsome glitter in her eyes; the +fact being that she was a little tired of chastising herself, and +exceedingly ready to begin on some second person. So Erskine himself was +badly snubbed at his own breakfast table, and when Tiny afterward took +herself into the kitchen garden Ruth followed her for an explanation, in +the fullness of her confidence that they understood one another at last. +No explanation was given, Tiny merely remarking that she was sorry if +she had been rude, but that she was in an evil state all through, and +unfit for human society. To Ruth, however, this only meant that Tiny was +unfit to be alone. So Ruth remained in the kitchen garden too, and was +good enough to resume gratuitously her consolations of the night before. +But in a very few minutes she returned, complaining, to her husband. + +"My dear," said he at once, "you oughtn't to have gone near her. Above +all, you shouldn't have broached the subject of her affairs; you should +have left that to her. She seems considerably ashamed of herself, and +though I must say I think that's absurd, you can't help liking her the +better for it. She surprised us all, but she surprised herself too, +because she has found that she can't strike a blow without hurting +herself at least as badly as anybody else; and that shows the good in +her. Personally, I think the blow was justified; but that has nothing to +do with it. The point is that if she's mortified about the whole +concern, as is obviously the case, it must increase her mortification to +know that we know all about it, and that she herself has told us. Which +applies more to me than to you. It was natural she should tell you; she +only told me because I happened to be the first person she saw, and I +can quite understand her hating me by this time for listening. We must +ignore the whole matter except when it pleases her to bring it up, and +then we must let her make the running." + +"I hate people to require so much humoring!" exclaimed Ruth, with some +reason. + +"Well, I must say I'm glad that _you_ don't," her husband said prettily. +"As to Tiny, her faults are very sweet, and her moods are really +interesting--but I'm thankful they don't run in the family!" + +He seemed thankful. + +"Yet you're a wonderful man for understanding other people," returned +Ruth as prettily; and her eyes were full of admiration. + +"Ah, well! Tiny's not like other people. I think she must enjoy +startling one. Our best plan is to expect the unexpected of her from +this time forth, and to let her be until she comes to herself." + +And that came to pass quite in good time. Having effaced herself all the +morning and again during the afternoon, and having been grotesquely +polite to the others (when it was necessary to speak to them) at midday +dinner, Tiny appeared at tea in another frock and flying signals of +peace. She seemed anxious to acquiesce with things that were said. So +Erskine forced jokes which were sufficiently terrible in themselves, +but they served a good purpose very well. Christina recovered her old +form, and after tea made a winsome assault upon no less redoubtable a +defender of his own inclinations than her brother Herbert. Him she +successfully importuned to take her to church in the evening, although +not to the church close at hand, where there was never, necessarily, any +service in the rector's absence. Tiny, however, had heard from her +friends in the village of a gifted young Irishman who wore a stole and +held forth extempore in a neighboring parish; they found their way to it +across the twilight fields. They did not return till after nine, when +Christina seemed much brighter than before. Her brightness, however, was +seemingly more grateful to Mr. than to Mrs. Holland, who enticed her +brother into the garden after supper, to ask him whether Tiny had not +mentioned Lord Manister. + +"Why, yes, she did just mention him," said Herbert; "but that's all. I +wasn't going to say a word about the joker, and just as we came back to +the drive here she got a hold of my arm and thanked me for not having +asked her any questions; so I was glad I hadn't. She said she wasn't by +any means proud of herself, and that she wanted to forget the whole +thing, if we'd only let her. She doesn't want to be bothered about it by +anybody. Those were her very words, as we came up the drive. She was +jolly enough all the way there, talking mostly about Wallandoon. You'll +have noticed how keen she is on the station ever since she went up there +with the governor last April; I think the old place was a treat to her +after Melbourne, to tell you the truth." + +Ruth nodded, as much as to say that she knew. She asked, however, +whether Tiny had talked also of Wallandoon on the way home. + +"No; she was a bit quiet on the way home. I think the sermon must have +made an impression on her, but I didn't hear it myself; I put in a sleep +instead. In the hymns, though, she sang out immense--by ghost, as if she +meant it! I rather wished I'd heard the sermon," remarked Herbert +thoughtfully, "because it seemed to set her thinking. I believe she's +given to thinking of those things now and then; I shouldn't be surprised +to see her go religious some day, if she don't marry; I'd rather she +did, too, than marry a thing like Manister!" + +The next day was their last at Essingham, for which not even Ruth could +grieve, in view of recent events. The day, however, was its own +consolation; it was cold and dull and damp, though not actually wet, so +that Erskine, who spent the greater part of the morning in front of a +barometer, had hopes of some final sets in the afternoon, when the +Willoughbys were coming to say good-by. Nor was he disappointed when the +time arrived, though the court was dead and the light bad; his own +service was the more telling under these conditions. But to the two +girls, who had been brought up to better things, it was a repulsive day +from all points of view, and they were very glad to spend the morning in +packing up before a hearty fire. + +"This is the kind of thing that makes one sigh for Wallandoon," Tiny +happened to say once as she stood looking out of the window at gray sky +and sullied trees. The thought was spoken just as it came into her head +with an imaginary beam of bush sunshine. There was no other thought +behind it--no human mote in that sunbeam certainly. But Ruth had raised +her head swiftly from the trunk over which she was bending, and she +knelt gazing at her sister's back as a dog pricks its ears. + +"Why Wallandoon? Why not Melbourne?" + +"Because I have had enough of Melbourne," replied Christina quietly, and +without turning round. + +"I thought you took so kindly to it?" + +"Perhaps I did; I have taken kindly to many things that were bad for me +in my time. And that's all the more reason why I should hanker after +Wallandoon. I only wish we could all go back there to live!" + +"Well, I must say I shouldn't care to live there now," remarked Ruth, +with a little laugh; "and I don't see how you could like it either, +after civilization." + +"Ah, that's because you never cared for the station as I did," replied +Christina, with her back still turned; "you liked the veranda better +than the run, and you hated the dust from the sheep when you were +riding. I can smell it now! Just think: they'll be in the middle of +shearing by this time. They were going to have thirty-six shearers on +the board, and they expected the best clip they've had for years. Can't +you hear the blades clicking and the tar boys tearing down the board, +and the bales being heaved about at the back of the shed--or see the +fleeces thrown out on the table and rolled up and bounced into the +bins--and father drafting in a cloud of dust at the yards? Can't I! +Many's the time I've brought him a mob of woollies myself. And how good +the pannikin of tea was, and the shearer's bun! I can taste 'em now. You +never cared for tea in a pannikin. Yet perhaps if you'd ever gone back +to see the place since we left it, as I did, you might be as keen on it +as I am. I own I wasn't so keen when we lived there. When I went back +and saw it the other day, though, I thought it the best place in the +world; and you would, too." + +"Is Jack Swift managing it now?" Ruth asked indifferently. + +"You knew he was." + +"Really I'm afraid I don't know much about it; but if you're so fond of +the place as all that, Tiny, I should just marry Jack Swift, and live +there ever after." + +"I suppose you're joking," said the young girl rather scornfully; "but +in case you aren't perhaps it will relieve you to hear that, if ever I +do marry, I shall marry a man--not a place." + +And she turned round and stared hard through another window, which +commanded a view of the Mundham gates and grounds; and Ruth made no more +jokes; but neither, on the other hand, did Tiny expatiate any further on +the attractions of station life at Wallandoon. + +The Willoughbys came in the afternoon, when Mrs. Willoughby was severely +disappointed, owing to the rudeness of Christina, who had disappeared +mysteriously, although she knew that these people were coming. Mrs. +Willoughby had seen her last leaving the cricket ground at Mundham under +the wing of Lady Dromard--Mrs. Willoughby had looked forward immensely +to seeing her again. But Christina had gone out, and none knew whither; +the visitor's idea was some private engagement at the hall; and this was +not the only idea she expressed, a little too freely for the entire ease +of Christina's sister. Happily they were only ideas. Mrs. Willoughby +knew nothing. + +Tiny, as it turned out later, had spent the whole afternoon in the +village, saying good-by to her friends there. Ruth found this rather +difficult to believe, as she had heard so little of the friends in +question. Nevertheless it was strictly true, and Tiny had taken tea with +Mrs. Clapperton, whose tears she had kissed away when they said good-by; +but that was only the end of a scene which would have been a revelation +to some who prided themselves on knowing their Tiny as well as anyone +could know so unaccountable a person. At dinner that evening she seemed +chastened and subdued, yet her temper, certainly, had never been +sweeter. It was noticeable that, while she had a responsive smile for +most things that were said, she made fun of nothing herself; and she was +far too fond of making fun of everything. But for two whole days her +moods had come and gone like the shadows of the clouds when sun and wind +are strong together; and the last of her whims was not the least +puzzling at the time. Later Ruth read it to her own extreme +satisfaction; but at the time it did seem odd to her that anyone should +desire a walk on so chilly and unattractive a night. Yet when they had +left the men to themselves this was what Tiny said she would like above +all things. And Ruth, who humored her, had her reward. + +For she found herself being led through the churchyard; and when she +hesitated as they came to the notice to trespassers, Tiny muttered in a +dare-devil way: + +"Lady Dromard gave me leave to come this way whenever I liked, and I +mean to make use of my privilege while I can. I want to see the hall +once again--it has a sort of fascination for me!" + +More amazed than before, Ruth followed her leader up the western slope +of Gallow Hill. The night was so dark that they heard the rustle of the +beeches on top before they could discern their branches against the sky; +and standing under them presently, panting from their climb, they gazed +down upon a double row of warm lights embedded in blackness. These were +the hall windows, in even tier, with here and there one missing, like +the broken teeth of a comb. Outline the building had none; only the +windows were bitten upon a sable canvas in ruddy orange and glimmering +yellow, from which there was just enough reflection on the lawn and +shrubs to chain them to earth in the mind of one who watched. + +"Only the windows," murmured Tiny musingly. "Those windows mean to haunt +me for the rest of my time." + +"I wish it were moonlight," Ruth said. "I wish we could see everything." + +"No, I like it best as it is," remarked Tiny, after further meditation. +"It leaves something to your imagination. Those windows are going to +leave my imagination uncommonly well off!" + +They stood together in silence, and the beeches talked in whispers above +them. When Ruth spoke next she whispered too, as though they were just +outside those lighted windows: + +"Yet you would rather live at Wallandoon than anywhere else on earth!" + +Tiny said nothing to that; but after it, at a distance, there came a +sigh. + +"What's the matter, Ruth?" + +"I'd rather not tell you, dear; it might make you angry." + +"I think I like being made angry just at present," said Christina, with +a little laugh; "but you've spiked my guns by saying that first; you are +quite safe, my dear." + +"Then I was thinking--I couldn't help thinking--that one day you might +have been mistress----" + +"Of the windows? Then it's high time we turned our backs on them! That's +just what I was thinking myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE INVISIBLE IDEAL. + + +On the flags of a London square, some days later, Ruth repeated the sigh +that had succeeded on Gallow Hill, and once more Christina asked her +what was the matter. + +"I was thinking," said Ruth with a confidence born of the former +occasion, "that one day all this, too, would have been more or less +yours." + +"All what, pray?" + +"Every brick and slate that you can see! All this is part of the Dromard +estate; they own every inch hereabouts." + +Christina's next remark was a perfectly pleasant one in itself, only it +referred to a totally different matter. And thus she treated poor Ruth. +At other times she would herself rush into the subject without warning, +and out of it the moment it wearied or annoyed her; to follow her +closely in and out required a nimble tact indeed. Nor was it easy to +know always the right thing to say, or at all delightful to feel that +the right thing to-day might be the wrong thing to-morrow. But into this +one subject Ruth was as ready to enter at a hint from Tiny as she was +now contented to quit it at her caprice. The elder sister's patience and +good temper were alike wonderful, but still more wonderful was her +faith. Instinctively she felt that all was not over between Tiny and +Lord Manister, and like many people who do not pretend to be clever, and +are fond of saying so, she believed immensely in her instincts. It must +not, however, be forgotten that her wishes for Tiny were the very best +she could conceive; and it should be remembered that she had nobody but +Tiny to watch over and care for, to think about and make plans for, +during the long days when Erskine was in the City. This was the great +excuse for Ruth, which never occurred to her husband, and was unknown +even to herself. Christina was her baby, and a very troublesome, bad +baby it was. + +But what could you expect? The girl was sufficiently worried and +unsettled; she was suffering from those upsetting fluctuations of mind +which few of her kind entirely escape, but which are violent in +characters that have grown with the emotional side to the sun and the +intellectual side to the wall. In such a case the mind remains hard and +green, while the emotions ripen earlier than need be; and the fault is +the gardener's, and the gardener is the girl's mother. Now Mrs. Luttrell +was a soulless but ladylike nonentity, with an eye naturally blind to +the soul in her girls. All she herself had taught them was an unaffected +manner and the necessity of becoming married. So Ruth had married both +early and well by the favor of the gods, and Christina had restored the +average by committing more follies of all sizes than would appear +possible in the time. That in which Lord Manister was concerned had +doubtless been the most important of the series, but its sting lay +greatly in its notoriety. It had caused a light-hearted girl to see +herself suddenly in the pupils of many eyes, and to recoil in shame from +her own littleness. It had made her hate both herself and the owners of +all those eyes, but men especially, of whom she had seen far too much in +a short space of time. What she had done in England only heightened her +poor opinion of herself now that it was done. She had seen her way to +an incredibly sweet revenge, only to find it incredibly bitter. In +striking hard she had hurt herself most, as Erskine had divined; instead +of satisfying her naturally vindictive feeling toward Lord Manister that +blow had killed it. Now she forgave him freely, but found it impossible +to forgive herself; and so the generosity that was in a disordered heart +asserted itself, because she had omitted to allow for it, not knowing it +was there. Worse things asserted themselves too, such as the very solid +attractions of the position which might have been hers; to these she +could not help being fully alive, though this was one more reason why +she hated herself. Her first judgment on herself, if a mere reaction at +the beginning, became ratified and hardened as time went on. She became +what she had never been before, even when notoriety had made her +reckless--an introspective girl. And that made her twisty and queer and +unaccountable; for, to be introspective with equanimity, you must have a +bluff belief in yourself, which is not necessarily conceit, but Tiny was +not blessed with it. + +"She has lost her sense of fun--that's the worst part of the whole +business!" exclaimed Erskine, one night when Christina had gone early to +bed, as she always would now. "She has ceased to be amusing or easily +amused. The empty town is boring her to the bone, and if I don't fix up +our Lisbon trip we shall have her wanting to go back to Australia. +However, I am bound to be in Lisbon by the end of next month, and I'm +keener than ever on having you two with me. I know the ropes out there, +and I could promise you both a good time--but that depends on Tiny. Let +us hope the bay will blow the cobwebs out of her head; she wasn't made +to be sentimental. I only wish I could get her to jeer at things as she +used before we went to Essingham and while we were there!" + +"Don't you think it's rather a good thing she has dropped that?" Ruth +asked. "She had no respect for anything in those days." + +"And her humor saved her! Pray what does she respect now?" + +"Two or three people that I know of--my lord and master for one, and +another person who is only a lord." + +"Look here, Ruth, I don't believe it," cried Erskine, who by this time +was pacing his study floor. "Why, she hasn't set eyes on him since the +day she refused him--with variations." + +"I know--but she's had time to reflect." + +"Then I hope and pray she may never have the opportunity to recant!" + +"Well, I won't deny that I hope differently," replied Ruth quietly; "but +I've no reason to suppose there's any chance of it; and whatever +happens, Erskine, you needn't be afraid of my--of my meddling any more." + +"My dear girl, I know that," said he cordially enough; "but of course +you tell her you're sorry for this, and you wish that. It's only natural +that you should." + +"Ah, I daren't say as much to her as you think," said Ruth, with a nod +and a smile, for she was glad to know more than he did, here and there. +"You needn't be afraid of me; I have little enough influence over her. +She has only once opened her heart to me--once, and that's all." + +Which was perfectly true, at the time. + +But a few days later the restless girl was seized with a sudden desire +to spend her money (which is really a good thing to do when you are +troubled, if, like Christina, you have the money to spend), and as her +most irregular desires were sure to be gratified by Ruth when they were +not quite impossible, this whim was immediately indulged. It was rather +late in the afternoon, but, on the other hand, the afternoon was +extremely fine; and it was a Thursday, when men stay late in Lombard +Street on account of next day's outward mails. Consequently there was no +occasion for hurry; and so fascinated was Christina with the attractions +and temptations of several well-known establishments, and last, as well +as most of all, with those of the stores, that it was golden evening +before they breathed again the comparatively fresh air of Victoria +Street. It was like Christina to wish, at that hour, to walk home, and +"through as many parks as possible"; it was even more like her to be +extravagantly delighted with the first of these, and to insist on +"shouting" Ruth a penny chair overlooking the ornamental water in St. +James' Park. + +Glad as she was to meet her sister's wishes, when she would only express +them, which she was doing with inconvenient freedom this afternoon, Ruth +did take exception to the penny chairs. Her feeling was that for the +two of them to sit down solemnly on two of those chairs was not an +entirely nice thing to do, and certainly not a thing that she would care +to be seen doing. Knowing, however, that this would be no argument with +Tiny, she merely said that it would make them too late in getting home; +and that happened to be worse than none. + +"Erskine said he wouldn't be home till eight o'clock; and he told us not +to dress, as plain as he could speak," Tiny reminded her. "The other +parks won't beat this; and you shall not be late, because I'll shout a +hansom, too." + +So Ruth made no more objections, though she felt a sufficient number; +and they sat down with their eyes toward the pale traces of a gentle, +undemonstrative September sunset, and were silent. Already the lamps +were lighted in the Mall, where the trees were tanned and tattered by +the change and fall of the leaf; at each end of the bridge, too, the +lamps were lighted, and reflected below in palpitating pillars of fire; +and every moment all the lights burnt brighter. Eastward a bluish haze +mellowed trees and chimneys, making them seem more distant than they +were; the noise of the traffic seemed more distant still, but it +floated inward from the four corners, like the breaking of waves upon an +islet; and here in the midst of it the stillness was strange, and +certainly charming; only Tiny was immoderately charmed. She sat so long +without speaking that Ruth leant back and watched her curiously. Her +face was raised to the pale pink sky, with wide-opened eyes and +tight-shut lips, as though the desires of her soul were written out in +the tinted haze, as you may scratch with your finger in the bloom of a +plum. She never spoke until the next quarter rang out from Westminster +and was lingering in the quiet air, when she said, "Why have we never +done this before, Ruth?" + +"Well," answered Ruth, "I never did it myself before to-day; and I must +own I think it's rather an odd thing to do." + +"Ah, well, heaven may be odd--I hope it is!" + +Ruth began to laugh. "My dear Tiny, you don't mean to say you call this +heavenly?" + +"It's near enough," said the young girl. + +"But, my dear child, what stuff! The couples keep it sufficiently +earthly, I should say--and the smell of bad tobacco, and that child's +trumpet, and the midges and gnats--but principally 'Arry and 'Arriet." + +"Now I just like to see them," said Christina, for once the serious +person of the two, "they're so awfully happy." + +"Awfully, indeed!" cried Ruth, with a superior little laugh. "Very +vulgarly happy, I should say!" And Tiny did not immediately reply, but +her eyes had fallen as far as the fretwork of the shabby foliage in the +Mall, over which the sky still glowed; and when she spoke her words were +the words of youthful speculation. She seemed, indeed, to be thinking +aloud, and not at all sure of the sense of her thoughts. + +"Very vulgarly happy!" she repeated, so long after the words had been +spoken that it took Ruth some moments to recall them. "I am trying to +decide whether there isn't something rather vulgar about all happiness +of that kind--from the highest to the lowest. Forgive me, dear--I don't +mean anything the least bit personal--I find I don't mean a word I've +said! I wasn't thinking of the happiness itself so much, but of the +desire for it. Oh, there must be something better for a girl to long +for! There _is_ something, if one only knew what it was; but nobody has +ever shown me, for instance. Still there must be something between +misery and marriage--something higher." + +Her eyes had not fallen, but they shone with tears. + +"I don't know anything higher than marrying the man you love," said Ruth +honestly. + +"Ah, if you love him! There is no need for _you_ to know a higher +happiness, even if one were possible in your case. But look at me!" + +"You must marry, too," said Ruth with facility. + +"As I probably shall; but to be happy, as you are happy, one ought to be +fond of the person first, as you were; and--well, I don't think I have +ever in my life felt as you felt." + +"Stuff!" said Ruth, but with as much tenderness as the word would carry. + +"I wish it were," returned Christina sadly; "it's the shameful truth. I +have been going over things lately, and that's never a very cheerful +employment in my case, but I think it has taught me my own heart this +time. And I know now that I have never cared for anyone so much as for +myself--much less for Lord Manister! If I had ever really cared for him +I couldn't have treated him as I have done--no, not if he had behaved +fifty times worse in the beginning. I was flattered by him, but I think +I liked him, though I know I was dazzled by--the different things. I +would have married him; I never loved him--nor any of the others!" + +"Ah, well, Tiny, I am quite sure he loves you." + +"Not very deeply, I hope; I can't altogether believe in him, and I don't +much want to. It is bad enough to have one of them in deadly earnest," +added Christina after a pause, but with a laugh. + +"Is one of them--I mean another one?" asked Ruth, correcting herself +quickly. + +Tiny nodded. She would not say who it was. "I don't care for him +either--not enough," she, however, vouchsafed. + +"Then you don't think of marrying him, I hope?" + +"No, not the man I mean"--she shook her head sadly at trees and sky--"I +like him too much to marry him unless I loved him. Only if anyone else +asked me--someone I didn't perhaps care a scrap for--I don't know what +mightn't happen. I feel so reckless sometimes, and so sick of +everything! This comes of having played at it so often that one is +incapable of the real thing; more than all, it comes of growing up with +no higher ideal than a happy marriage. And there must be something so +much nobler--if one only knew what!" + +Very wistfully her eyes wandered over the fading sky. The thin, floating +clouds, fast disappearing in the darkness, were not less vague than her +desires, and not more lofty. Her soul was tugging at a chain that had +been too seldom taut. + +"I know of nothing--unless you're a bluestocking," suggested poor Ruth, +"or go in for Woman's Rights!" + +Then the sights and sounds of the place came suddenly home to Christina, +and her eyes fell. A child rattled by with an iron hoop. A pleasure +boat, villainously rowed, passed with hoarse shouts through the pillar +of fire below the bridge and left it writhing. Her eyes as she lowered +them were greeted with the smarting smoke of a cigar, and her nostrils +with the smell that priced it. The smoker took a neighboring chair, or +rather two, for he was not without his companion. + +Christina was the first to rise. + +"I have been talking utter nonsense to you, Ruth," she whispered as they +walked away; "but it was kind of you to let me go on and on. One has +sometimes to say a lot more than one means to get out a little that one +does mean; you must try to separate the little from the lot. I've been +talking on tiptoe--it was good of you not to push me over!" + +They crossed the bridge, throbbing beneath the tread of many feet; in +the Mall, under the half-clothed trees, they hailed a hansom, and Ruth +greeted her reflection in the side mirror with a sigh of relief. + +"We should never have done this if we hadn't been Australians," she +remarked, as though exceedingly ashamed of what they had done, as indeed +she was. + +"Then that's one more good reason for thanking Heaven we _are_ +Australians!" answered Tiny, with some of her old spirit. "You may think +differently, Ruth, but for my part that's the one point on which I have +still some lingering shreds of pride." + +And that was how Tiny Luttrell opened her heart a second time to Ruth, +her sister, who was of less comfort to her even than before, because now +her open heart was also the cradle of a waking soul. More things than +one need name, for they must be obvious, had of late worked together +toward this awakening, until now the soul tossed and struggled within a +frivolous heart, and its cries were imperious, though ever inarticulate. +To Ruth they were but faint echoes of the unintelligible; scarce +hearing, she was contented not to try to understand. When Tiny said she +had been "talking on tiptoe," to Ruth's mind that merely expressed a +queer mood queerly. She did not see how accurately it figured the young +soul straining upward; indeed the accuracy was unconscious, and +Christina herself did not see this. + +Queer as it may have been, her mood had made for nobility, and was, +therefore, memorable among the follies and worse of which, unhappily, +she was still in the thick. It passed from her not to return, yet to +lodge, perhaps, where all that is good in our lives and hearts must +surely gather and remain until the spirit itself goes to complete and to +inhabit a new temple, and we stand built afresh in the better image of +God. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +FOREIGN SOIL. + + +There is in Cintra a good specimen of the purely Portuguese hotel, which +is worth a trial if you can speak the language of the country and eat +its meats; if you want to feel as much abroad as you are, this is the +spot to promote that sensation. The whole concern is engagingly +indigenous. They will give you a dinner of which every course (there +must be nearly twenty) has the twofold charm of novelty and mystery +combined; and you shall dine in a room where it is safe, if +unsportsmanlike, to criticise aloud your fellow-diners, when their ways +are most notably not your ways. Then, after dinner, you may make music +in a pleasant drawing room or saunter in the quaint garden behind the +hotel; only remember that the garden has a view which is necessarily +lost at night. + +The view is good, and it improves as the day wears on by reason of the +beetling crag that stands between Cintra and the morning sun. So close +is this crag to the town, and so sheer, that at dawn it looms the +highest mountain on earth; but with the afternoon sunlight streaming on +its face you see it for what it is, and there is much in the sight to +satisfy the eye. Halfway up the vast wall is forested with fir trees +picked out with bright villas and streaked with the white lines of +ascending roads. The upper portion is of granite, rugged and bare and +iron gray. The topmost angle is surmounted by square towers and +battlements that seem a part of the peak, as indeed they are, since the +Moors who made them hewed the stones from the spot; and the serrated +crest notches the sky like a crown on a hoary head. Finer effects may +recur very readily to the traveled eye, but to one too used to flat +regions this is fine enough: thus Tiny Luttrell was in love with Cintra +from the moment when she and Ruth and Erskine first set foot in the +garden of the Portuguese hotel, and let their eyes climb up the sunlit +face of the rock. + +They were a merrier party now than when leaving Plymouth. They had left +fog and damp behind them (it was near the end of October), and steamed +back to summer in a couple of days; and that alone was inspiriting. Then +they had already stayed a day or two in Lisbon, where Erskine had spent +as many years when Ruth was an infant at the other end of the world, so +that he was naturally a good guide. There, too, Ruth and Tiny made some +friends, being charmingly treated by people with whom they were unable +to converse, while Erskine attended to the business matter which had +brought him over. The girls were not sorry to hear that this matter was +hanging fire, as such matters have a way of doing in Lisbon, for they +were enjoying themselves thoroughly. Ruth felt prouder than ever of her +big husband when she saw him among his Portuguese friends, and she +thought him very clever to speak their language so fluently. As for +Tiny, she seemed herself again; she was willing to be amused, and +luckily there was much to amuse her. Much, on the other hand, she could +seriously admire, and her high opinion of Portugal was itself amusing +after the fault she had found with another country; she even made +comparisons between the two, which gave considerable pleasure when +translated by Erskine. Cintra pleased her most, however. She delighted +in the hotel, where there were no English tongues but their own; she +even pretended to enjoy the dinner. So Erskine felt proud of his choice +of quarters; only he missed his English paper, and had to go to the +English hotel and purchase unnecessary refreshment on the chance of a +glimpse of one. Your man-Briton abroad is miserable without that. It is +a male weakness entirely. Holland took with him on that pilgrimage no +sympathy from the ladies, who only derided him when he came back +confessing that he had thrown his money away, as some other fellow was +staying at the English inn and reading the paper in his room. + +"But I'm very sorry there's another Englishman in the place," announced +Christina; "though I suppose one ought to be thankful he didn't choose +our hotel. It is something like being abroad, staying here; one more +Englishman would have spoilt the fun." + +"When you see the steeds I've ordered for the morning," said Erskine, +with a laugh, "you'll feel more abroad than ever." + +And they did, indeed, when the morning came; for their steeds were +three small asses in charge of a dark-eyed child who was whacking them +for his amusement while he smoked a cigarette. A small but picturesque +crowd had collected in the street to see the start, and were greatly +entertained by the spectacle of the Senhor Inglez (a giant among them) +astride a donkey little taller than a big dog. Interest was also shown +in the camera legs, which Erskine carried like a lance in rest, while +the camera itself was nursed by Christina, who had spoilt a power of +plates in Lisbon without becoming discouraged. The small boy threw away +his cigarette, and having asked Erskine for another, which was sternly +denied him, smote each donkey in turn and set the cavalcade in motion. + +They passed the palace in the little market place, and were unable to +admire it; they passed the loathly prison, which is the worst feature of +Cintra, and were duly abused by the prisoners at the barred windows; +they were glad to reach the outskirts of the town, and to begin their +ascent of the rock up which their eyes had already climbed. They were to +devote the day to the ruined Moorish fort they had seen against the sky, +and to the Palace of Pena, which stands on a peak hidden from the town; +and Erskine, who was confident that they were all going to enjoy +themselves very particularly, declared that the day was only worthy of +the cause. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the weather was just +warm enough for the work in hand. As the donkeys wended their way up the +steep roads, Mr. Holland was advised to get off and carry his carrier; +but he knew the Cintra donkey of old, and sat ignobly still. He also +knew the Cintra donkey boy, and aired his Portuguese upon the attendant +imp, who passed on the way, and greeted with jeers, a professional +friend waiting with only one donkey in front of a pretty house +overlooking the road. + +"Ah," said Erskine, "that's the English hotel; and no doubt that moke is +for the opposition Senhor Inglez--whose name is Jackson." + +"Then pray let us push on," cried Christina anxiously. "Do you suppose +he is coming our way, Erskine?" + +"Most probably, to begin with; but he may turn off for Monserrat or the +cork convent." + +"Let us hope so. If he should pass us, Erskine, just talk Portuguese to +us as loud as ever you can!" + +"Far better to hurry up and not be overtaken," added Ruth, who was +thinking of her appearance, with which she was far from satisfied. + +Accordingly the imp (with whose good looks Christina had already +expressed herself as enamored) was employed for some moments at his +favorite occupation. But for the pursuing Englishman, however, Tiny, +instead of leading the way upward, would have dismounted more than once +to set up her camera; for low parapets were continually on their left, +high walls on their right; and wherever there was a gap in the fir trees +growing below the parapets, a fresh view was presented of the town +below. First it was a bird's-eye view of the palace, seen to better +advantage through the trees of the Rua de Duque Saldanha than before, +from the street; then a fair impression of the town as a whole, with its +gay gardens and cheap looking stuccoed houses; and then successive +editions of Cintra, each one smaller than the last, and each with a +wider tract of undulating brown land beyond, and a broader band of ocean +at the horizon. Then they plunged into mountain gorges; there were no +more distant views, but mighty walls on either side, and reddening +foliage interlacing overhead, as though woven upon the strip of pure +blue sky. And the atmosphere was clear as distilled water in a crystal +vessel; but in the shade the air had a sweet keenness, an inspiriting +pungency, under whose influence the enthusiast of the party grew +inevitably eloquent in the praises of Portugal. + +"I can't tell you how I like it!" she said to Erskine, with a color on +her cheeks and a light in her eyes which alone seemed worth the voyage. +"I call it a real good country, which has never had justice done to it. +If I could write I would boom it. Of course I haven't seen Italy or +Switzerland, nor yet France, but I have seen England. If I were +condemned to live in Europe at all, I'd rather live at this end of it +than at yours, Erskine. Look at the climate--it's as good as our +Australian climate, and very like it--and this is all but November. You +have no such air in England, even in summer, but when you think of what +we left behind us the other day, it's ditch water unto wine compared +with this. Ah, what a day it is, and what a place, and how fresh and +queer and un-English the whole thing is!" + +"I am perhaps spoiling it for you," suggested Erskine apologetically, +"by being not un-English myself?" + +"No, Erskine, it's only me you're spoiling," returned the girl +unexpectedly, and with a grateful smile for Ruth as well. "But I don't +know another Briton--home or colonial--who wouldn't rather spoil the day +and the place for me." + +"That's a pity, because I happen to smell the blood of an Englishman at +this moment--at least I hear his donkey." + +They stopped to listen, and following hoofs were plainly audible. + +"Then he hasn't turned off for the other places!" exclaimed Ruth, +smoothing her skirt. + +Erskine shrugged his shoulders like a native of the country. "No, he is +evidently bound for our port; and as the chances are that he is under +sixteen stone, he's sure to overtake us. It is I that am keeping you all +back." + +"We won't look round," exclaimed Tiny decisively; "and you shall shout +at us in Portuguese as he comes up, and we'll say 'Sim, Senhor!'" + +So they kept their eyes most rigorously in front of them; and such was +the authority of Tiny that Erskine was in the midst of an absurd speech +in Portuguese when they were overtaken. That harangue was interrupted by +the voice of the interloping Englishman; and was never resumed, as the +voice was Lord Manister's. + +The meeting was plainly an embarrassing one for all concerned, but it +had at least the appearance of a very singular coincidence; and nothing +will go further in conversation than the slightest or most commonplace +coincidence. You must be very nervous indeed if you are incapable of +expressing your surprise, of which much may be made, while the little +bit of personal history to follow need not entail a severe intellectual +effort. Lord Manister accounted very simply, if a little eagerly, for +his presence in Portugal; he went on to explain that he had heard much +of Cintra, but not, as he was glad to find, one word too much. +Personally, he was delighted and charmed. Was not Mrs. Holland charmed +and delighted? It was at Ruth's side that Lord Manister rode forward, +falling into the position very naturally indeed. + +Quite as naturally the other two dropped behind. "So now I suppose your +day will be spoilt, Tiny," murmured Erskine, with a wry smile. + +"The day is doomed--unless he has the good taste to see he isn't +wanted." + +"Well, I wouldn't let him see that, even if he does bore you," said +Erskine, who had his doubts on this point. "I don't think he's looking +very well," he added meditatively. + +As for Christina, she was staring fixedly at Lord Manister's back; for +once, however, his excellent attire earned no gibe from her; and while +she was still seeking for some more convincing mode of parading her +immutable indifference toward that young man, a turn in the road brought +them suddenly before the gates of Pena. The four closed up and rode +through the gates abreast; and, presently dismounting, they left their +small steeds to the sticks of the Cintra donkey boys, and walked +together up the broad, sloping path. + +"By the way," remarked Holland, "I was told there was only one other +Englishman in Cintra at the moment--a man of the name of Jackson; have +you arrived this morning?" + +"I am afraid--I'm Jackson!" confessed Manister, with a blush and a noisy +laugh. + +"Oh, I see," said Mr. Holland, laughing also; and he saw a good deal. + +"Of course you have to do that sometimes; I can quite understand it," +Ruth said in a sympathetic voice. "Still I think we must call you Mr. +Jackson!" she added slyly. + +Christina said nothing at all. Her extreme silence and self-possession +hardly tended to promote the common comfort; her only comment on Lord +Manister's alias was a somewhat scornful smile. As they all pressed +upward by well-kept paths, in the shadow of tall fir trees, she kept +assiduously by Erskine's side. The ascent, however, was steep enough to +touch the breath, and conversation was for some minutes neither a +pleasure nor a necessity. Then, above the firs, the palace of Pena +reared hoary head and granite shoulders; for, like the ruined fort +visible from the town below, the palace is built upon the summit of a +rock. Still a steeper climb, and the party stood looking down upon the +fir trees which had just shadowed them, with their backs to the palace +walls, that seem, and often are, a part of the rugged peak itself. For +this is a palace not only founded on a rock, and on the rock's topmost +crag, but the foundation has itself supplied so many features ready-made +that nature and the Moors may be said to have collaborated in its +making. Three of the party, having taken breath, played catch with this +idea; but Christina barely listened. Her attitude was regrettable, but +not unnatural. In the last place on earth where she would have expected +to meet anyone she knew, she had met the last person whom she expected +to meet anywhere. She remembered telling him of her mooted trip to +Portugal with the Hollands, she remembered also his telling her to be +sure to go to Cintra; her recollection of the conversation in question, +and of Lady Almeric's conservatory, where it had taken place, was +sufficiently clear, now that she thought of it; but certainly she had +never thought of it since. Had he? She might have mentioned the time +when the trip was likely to take place; she was not so sure of this, but +it seemed likely; and in that case, was a certain explanation of his +sojourn in Portugal, other than the explanation he had been so careful +to give, either preposterous in itself or the mere suggestion of her own +vanity? + +These questions were now worrying Christina as she had seldom been +worried before, even about Lord Manister, who had been much in her +thoughts for many weeks past. Yet Manister was not the only person on +her mind at the moment. Just before leaving London she had experienced +the fulfillment of a prophecy, by receiving from Countess Dromard a +stare as stony as the pavement they met on, which was near enough to +Piccadilly to inspire a superstitious respect for sibylline Mrs. +Willoughby. In the disagreeable moment following Tiny's thoughts had +flown straight to that lady--indeed her only remark at the time had been +"Good old Mrs. Willoughby!" to which Ruth (who suffered at Tiny's side, +and for her part turned positively faint with mortification) had been in +no condition to reply. Little as she showed it, however, Christina had +felt the affront far more keenly than Ruth--chiefly because she took it +all to herself, and was unable to think it utterly undeserved. In any +event she felt it now. It was but the other day that the countess had +cut her. The wound was still tender; the sight of Lord Manister scrubbed +it cruelly. And long afterward the scar had its own little place among +the forces driving Christina in a certain direction, whether she went on +feeling it or not. + +Hardly less preoccupied than herself was the man whose side Christina +would not leave. Wherefore, though the place was old ground to him, as a +guide he was instructive rather than amusing. He spoke the requisite +Portuguese to the janitors, whose stock facts he also translated into +intelligible English; he led the way up the winding staircase of the +round tower, and from the giddy gallery at the top he did not omit to +point out Torres Vedras and such like landmarks; descending, he had +stock facts of his own connected with chapel and sacristy, but he failed +to make them interesting. A paid guide could not have been more +perfunctory in method, though it is certain that the most entertaining +showmanship would have failed to entertain Erskine's hearers, each one +of whom was more or less nervous and ill at ease. He himself was +thinking only of Christina, who would not leave his side. He saw her +watching Lord Manister; though she would hardly speak to him, he saw +pity in her glance. He heard Lord Manister talking volubly to Ruth; he +did not know about what, and he wondered if Manister knew, himself. +Erskine did not understand. The girl seemed to care, and if she did--if +this thing was to be--he would never say another word against it. If she +cared there would not be another word to say, save in joyous and loving +congratulation. That was the whole question: whether she cared. For the +first time Erskine was not sure; it was a toss-up in his mind whether +Tiny was sure herself. Certainly there seemed to be hope for the man who +was being watched yet avoided; however, Erskine was resolved to give him +the very first opportunity of learning his fate. + +Accordingly he reminded Tiny that he had been carrying the camera ever +since they had dismounted: and was his arm to ache for nothing? The +suggestion of the square tower, with the steps below, as an admirable +target, also came from Erskine. Lord Manister helped to take the +photograph. That, again, was Erskine's doing; and he even did more. When +they all turned their backs on Pena, and their faces to the ruin on the +opposite peak, it was her husband who rode ahead with Ruth. His reward +was the smile of an angel over a lost soul saved. He returned the smile +cynically. But round the first corner he belabored his ass with the +camera legs, and shot ahead, Ruth gladly following. + +In the hollow between the peaks the bridle path passes an ancient and +picturesque mosque, with a lime tree growing in the center; from this +the ruin derives a roof in summer, a carpet in winter, and had now a +little of each. + +"What a romantic place!" said Ruth, peeping in. Her husband had waited +for her to do so. + +"Then let us leave it to more romantic people," he answered, dropping +the tripod in the doorway. "They may like to have a photograph of +it--for every reason! You and I had better climb up to the fort and +chuck stones into Cintra till they come." + +This looked quite possible when at last they sat perched upon the +antique battlements; they seemed so to overhang the little town. Erskine +lit a Portuguese cigarette, which the wind finished for him in a minute. +Ruth kept a hand upon her hat. Then she spoke out, with the wind +whistling between their faces. + +"Erskine, I know what you think--that this isn't an accident!" + +"Of course it isn't." + +"And I dare say you think _I_ have had something to do with it?" + +"Have you, I wonder? You may easily have said that we thought of coming +here--quite innocently, you know." + +"Then I never said so at all. I thought--you know what I thought would +have happened last August. Erskine, I have had absolutely nothing to do +with it this time!" + +"My dear, you needn't say that. I know neither you nor Tiny have had +anything to do with it--so far as you are aware; but Tiny must have told +him we were coming here, and this is his roundabout dodge of seeing her +again. Certainly that looks as if he were in earnest." + +"I always said he was." + +"And as for Tiny, I don't pretend to make her out. You see, they do not +come. I shouldn't be surprised at anything." + +"No more should I; but I should be thankful. Even when I hid things from +you, Erskine, I never pretended I shouldn't be thankful if this +happened, did I? Oh, and you'll be thankful, too, when you see them +happy--as we are happy!" + +Holland sat for some minutes with bent head, picking lichen from +granite. + +"My dear girl," he said at length, and tenderly, "don't let us talk any +more about it. I dare say I have taken a rotten view of it all along. I +only thought--that he didn't deserve her, and that neither of them could +care enough. It seems I was more or less wrong; but there is nothing +further to be said until we know." + +He leant over the battlements, gazing down into the toy town below. Ruth +brooked his silence for a time. Then he heard her saying: + +"They are a very long while. He's certainly helping her to take a +photograph." + +"I hope he'll get a negative," said Erskine, with a laugh. + +They came at last. + +"How long have you been there, Erskine?" shouted Tiny from below. She +held one end of the tripod, by which Manister was tugging her uphill. + +"About ten minutes." + +"Not as much, Erskine," said Ruth. + +"We have been photographing that charming mosque," Manister said, as he +set down the camera and wiped his forehead; "you meant us to, didn't +you, Holland?" + +"Of course I did." + +"And have you got a negative?" asked poor Ruth. + + * * * * * + +"A month to make up her mind!" cried Erskine Holland, on hearing at +second hand what had actually happened in the mosque. "No wonder he +wouldn't stay and dine, and no wonder he is going back to Lisbon +to-morrow. By Jove! he _must_ be fond of her to stand it at all. To go +and wait a month!" + +"He offered to wait six," said Ruth. + +"Then he's a fool," said Erskine quietly. "Tell me, Ruth, is it a thing +one may speak about? One would like, of course, to say something +pleasant. After all, it's very like an engagement, and I could at least +tell her that I like him. I did like him to-day. Under the circumstances +he behaved capitally; only I do think him a fool not to have insisted on +her deciding one way or the other." + +"I don't think I'd mention the matter unless she does," Ruth said +doubtfully. "She told me to tell you she would rather not speak of it at +present. You see she has thought of you already! She says you will find +her the same as ever if only you will try to look as though you didn't +know anything about it. She declares that she means to make the most of +her time for the next month wherever she may be, and she hopes you have +ordered the donkeys for to-morrow. Still she is troubled, and if she +thought you didn't disapprove--if she thought you approved--I can see +that it would make a difference to her. She thinks so much of your +opinion--only she doesn't want to speak to you herself about this until +it is a settled thing. But if you would send her your blessing, dear, I +know she would appreciate that." + +"Then take it to her by all means," said Erskine, heartily enough. "Tell +her I think she is very wise to have left it open--you needn't say what +I think of Manister for letting her do so. But you may say, if she likes +to hear it, that I think him a jolly good fellow, who will make her very +happy if she can really feel she cares for him. Tell her it all hangs on +that. That's what we have to impress upon her, and you're the proper +person to do so. I only felt one ought to say something pleasant. Wait a +moment--tell her I'll do my best to give her a good time until December +if none of us are ever to have one again!" + +Tiny was sitting at the dressing table in her room, slowly and +deliberately burning a photograph in the flame of a candle. The +photograph was on a yellow mount which Ruth remembered, and as she drew +near Tiny turned it face downward to the flame, which smacked still more +of a former occasion. + +"Tiny!" cried Ruth in alarm, laying her hand on the young girl's +shoulder. "What on earth are you burning, dear?" + +"My boats," replied Christina grimly; and turning the photograph over, +the face of Jack Swift was still uncharred. + +"So you've carried _his_ photograph with you all this time?" + +"He is as good a friend as I shall ever have." + +"Then why burn him if he is only a friend?" + +"Perhaps he would like to be more; and perhaps there was once a moment +when he might have been. But now I shall duly marry Lord Manister--if he +has patience." + +"Then why keep poor Lord Manister in suspense, Tiny, dearest?" + +"Because I'm not in love with him; and I question whether he's as much +in love with me as he imagines--I told him so." + +"As it is, you may find it difficult to draw back." + +"Exactly; so I am burning my boats. Jack, my dear, that's the last of +you!" + +Her voice satisfied Ruth, who, however, could see no more of her face +than the curve of her cheek, and beyond it the blackened film curling +from the burning cardboard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE HIGH SEAS. + + +"He's done it at last!" + +Erskine brandished a letter as he spoke, and then leant back in his +chair with a guffaw that alarmed the Portuguese waiters. The letter was +from Herbert Luttrell, a Cambridge man of one month's standing, of whose +academic outset too little had been heard. His sisters were anxious to +know what it was that he had done at last; they put this question in the +same breath. + +"Oh, it might be worse," said Erskine cheerfully. "He has stopped short +of murder!" + +"We should like to know how far he got," Tiny said, while Ruth held out +an eager hand for the letter. + +"I don't think you must read it, my dear; but the fact is he has at last +filled up somebody's eye!" + +Tiny breathed a sigh of relief. + +"Is he in prison?" asked Ruth. + +"No, not yet; but I am afraid he must be in bad odor, though perhaps not +with everybody." + +"Whose was the eye?" Christina wanted to know. + +"The proctor's!" suggested Ruth. + +"Not yet, again--you must give the poor boy time, my dear. It may be the +proctor's turn next, but at present your little brother has contented +himself with filling the eye of the man who was coaching his college +trials. It's a time-honored privilege of the coach to use free language +to his crew, and it doesn't give offense as a rule; but it seems to have +offended Herbert. Young Australia don't like being sworn at, and Herbert +admits that he swore back from his thwart, and said that he fancied he +was as good a man as the coach, but he hoped to find out when they got +to the boathouse. They did find out; and Herbert has at last filled up +an old country eye; and for my part I don't think the less of him for +doing so." + +"The less!" cried Tiny, whose blue eyes were alight. "_I_ think all the +more of him. I'm proud of Herbs! You have too many of those savage old +customs, Erskine; you need Young Australia to come and knock them on the +head!" + +"Well, as long as he doesn't knock a proctor on the head, as Ruth seems +to fear! If he does that there's an end of him, so far as Cambridge is +concerned. He tells me the eye was unpopular, otherwise I'm afraid he +would have had a warm time of it; though a quick fist and an arm that's +stronger than it looks are wonderful things for winning the respect of +men, even in these days." + +"And mayn't we really see the letter?" Tiny said wistfully. + +Erskine shook his head. + +"I am very sorry, but I'm afraid I must treat it as private. It's a +verbatim report. I can only tell you that Herbert seems to have been +justified, more or less, though he is perhaps too modest to report +himself as fully as he reports the eye. He says nothing else of any +consequence. He doesn't mention work of any kind; but he's not there +only, or even primarily, to pass exams. On the whole, we mustn't fret +about the eye, so long as the dear boy keeps his hands off the +authorities." + +Their hotel was no longer at Cintra, but in Lisbon, where Mr. Holland +was being sadly delayed by the business men of the most unbusinesslike +capital in Europe. Already it was the middle of November. They had left +Cintra as long ago as the 5th of the month, expecting to sail from +Lisbon on the 7th; but out of his experience Erskine ought to have known +better. It is true that on landing in the country he had attended first +to business. The business was connected with the forming of a company +for certain operations on Portuguese territory in the East, the capital +coming from London; a board was necessary in both cities, and very +necessary indeed were certain negotiations between the London directors, +as represented by Erskine Holland, and their colleagues in Lisbon. The +latter had promised to do much while Erskine was at Cintra, and duly did +nothing until he returned; knowing their kind of old, he ought never to +have gone. He quite deserved to have to wait and worry and smoke more +Portuguese cigarettes than were either agreeable or good, with the women +on his hands; with all his knowledge of the country and the people he +might have known very well how it would be--as indeed Erskine was told +in a letter from Lombard Street, where an amusing dispatch of his from +Cintra had rather irritated the senior partners. + +Thus Mr. Holland had his own worries throughout this trip, but it is a +pleasure to affirm that his sister-in-law did not add to them after that +first day at Cintra. Thenceforward she had behaved herself as a +perfectly rational and even a contented being. She had appreciated the +other sights of Cintra even more than Pena (which had hardly been given +a fair chance), and most of all that gorgeous garden of Monserrat, where +the trees of the world are grouped together, and among them the gum +trees which were so dear to Christina. She had even been overcome by a +bloodthirsty desire to witness the bullfight on the Sunday; and Erskine +had taken her, because her present frame was not one to discourage; but +it must be confessed that Tiny was disappointed by the tameness of this +sport rather than revolted by its cruelty. Negatively, she had been +behaving better still; the Cintra donkey, the locality of the English +hotel, and other associations of the first day never once perceptibly +affected either her spirits or her temper. She had shown, indeed, so +dead a level of cheerfulness and good sense as to seem almost +uninteresting after the accustomed undulations; but in point of fact she +had never been more interesting to those in her secret. She had promised +to give Lord Manister his answer in a month, and meanwhile she was +displaying all the even temper and equable spirits of settled happiness. +She ate healthily, she declared that she slept well, and otherwise she +was amazingly and consistently serene. That was her perversity, once +more, but on this occasion her perversity admitted of an obvious +explanation. The explanation was that she had never been in doubt about +her decision, that in her heart she was more than satisfied, and that +she had asked for a month's respite chiefly for freedom's sake. The +matter was discussed no more between the sisters, because Tiny refused +to discuss it, declaring that she had dismissed it from her mind till +December. And to Erskine she never once mentioned it while they were in +Portugal, nor had she the least intention of doing so on the homeward +voyage, which they were able ultimately to make within a week of the +arrival of Herbert's letter. + +But the voyage was rough, and Tiny happened to be a remarkably good +sailor, which made her very tiresome once more. Holland had his hands +full in attending to his wife in the cabin, while keeping an eye on her +sister, who would remain on deck. Through the worst of the weather the +unreasonable girl clung like a limpet to the rail, staring seaward at +the misty horizon, or downward at the milky wake, until her pale face +was red and rough and sparkling with dried spray. + +"I do wish you would come below," Erskine said to her, in a tone of +entreaty, toward dusk on the second day, but by no means for the first +time. "There's not another woman on deck; and you've chosen the one spot +of the whole vessel where there's most motion." + +Until he joined her Tiny had indeed been the only soul on the hurricane +deck, where she stood, leaning on the after-rail, with eyes for nothing +but the steamer's track. They were on the hem of the bay and the wind +was ahead, so the boat was pitching; and you must be a good sailor to +enjoy leaning over the after-rail with this motion--but that is what +Christina was. The wind welded her garments to the wire network +underneath, and loosened her hair, and lit lamps in her ears; but it +seemed that she liked it, and that the long, frothy trail had a strong +fascination for her; for when she answered, it was without lifting her +eyes from the sea. + +"You see, I like being different from other people; that's what I go in +for! Honestly, though, I love being up here, and I think you might let +me stay. However, that's no reason why you should stay too--if it makes +you feel uncomfortable." + +"Thanks, I think I am proof," returned Erskine rather brusquely, for +this is a point on which most men are either vain or sensitive; "but of +course I'll leave you, if you prefer it." + +"On the contrary, I should like you to stay," Christina murmured--in +such a lonely little voice that Erskine stayed. + +It was difficult to believe in this young lady's sincerity, however. She +not only made no further remark herself, but refused to acknowledge one +of Erskine's. Men do not like that, either. Tiny's eyes had never been +lifted from the endless race of white water, now rising as though to +their feet, now sinking from under them as the steamer labored end on +to the wind. Apparently she had forgotten that Erskine was there, as +also that she had asked him to remain. He was on the point of leaving +her to her reverie when she swung round suddenly, with only one elbow on +the rail, and looked up at him with a pout that turned slowly to a +smile. + +"Erskine, you've come and spoilt everything!" + +"My dear child, I told you I would go if you liked, you know." + +"Ah, that was too late; you'd spoilt it then. It won't come back." + +"Do you mean that I have broken some spell? If that's the case I am very +sorry." + +"That won't mend it--you can't mend spells," said Tiny, laughing +ruefully. "Perhaps it's as well you can't; and perhaps it's a good thing +you came," she added more briskly. "I had humbugged myself into thinking +I was on my way back to Australia. That was all." + +"But if I were to go mightn't you humbug yourself again?" + +"I don't think I want to," the girl answered thoughtfully; "at any rate +I don't want you to go. Don't you think it's jolly up here? To me it's +as good as a gallop up the bush--and I think we're taking our fences +splendidly! But it was jollier still thinking that England was over +there," nodding her head at the wake, "and that every five minutes or so +it was a mile further away--instead of the other thing." + +"Poor old England!" + +"No, Erskine, I meant a mile nearer Australia--that was the jolly +feeling," Tiny made haste to explain. "You know I didn't mean anything +else--you know how I have enjoyed being with you and Ruth. Only I can't +help wishing I was on my way back to Melbourne instead of to Plymouth. +I'd give so much to see Australia again." + +"Well, so you will see it again." + +Her eyes sped seaward as she shook her head. + +"Why on earth shouldn't you?" said Erskine, laughing. + +"You know why." + +Now he saw her meaning, and held his tongue. This was the subject on +which he understood it to be her desire that they should not speak. To +himself, moreover, it was a highly unattractive topic, and he was +thoroughly glad to have it ignored as it had been; but if she alluded to +the matter herself that was another thing, and he must say something. +So he said: + +"Is it really so certain, Tiny?" + +"On my part absolutely. I'm only climbing down!" + +Erskine was reminded of the pleasant things he had thought of saying to +her at Cintra; they had been by him so long that he found himself saying +them now as though he meant every word. + +"My congratulations must keep till the proper time; but when that comes +they may surprise you. My dear girl, I should like you to understand +that you're not the only person whose opinion has changed since we were +at Essingham. If I may say so at this stage of the proceedings, and if +it is any satisfaction to you to hear it, I for one am going to be very +glad about this thing, I think him such a first-rate fellow, Tiny!" + +For a moment Christina gazed acutely at her brother-in-law. "I wonder if +that's sincere?" she said reflectively. Then her eyes hurried back to +the sea. + +"I think he's a very good fellow indeed," said Erskine with emphasis. + +The girl gave a little laugh. "Oh, he's all that; the question is +whether that's enough." + +"It is, if he really loves you--as I think he must." + +"Oh, if it's enough for him to be in love!" + +There followed a great pause, during which the thought of pleasant +things to say was thrown overboard and left far astern. + +"I only hope," Erskine said at last, with an earnest ring in his voice +which was new to Christina, "that you are not going to make the greatest +mistake of your life!" + +"I hope not also." + +"Ah, don't make light of it!" he cried impetuously. "If you marry +without love you'll ruin your life, I don't care who it is you marry! To +marry for affection, or for esteem, or for money--they're all equally +bad; there is no distinction. Take affection--for a time you might be as +happy as if it were something more; but remember that any day you might +see somebody that you could really love. Then you would know the +difference, and it would embitter your whole existence with a quiet, +private, unsuspected bitterness, of which you can have no conception. +And so much the worse if you have married somebody who is honestly and +sufficiently fond of you. His love would cut you to the heart--because +you could only pretend to return it--because your whole existence would +be a living lie!" + +He was extremely unlike himself. His voice trembled, and in the dying +light his face was gray. These things made his words impressive, but the +girl did not seem particularly impressed. Had she remembered the one +previous occasion when a similar conversation had taken place between +them, the strangeness of his manner must have been driven home to her by +contrast; but the contrast was a double one, and her own share in it +kept her from thinking of the time when she had been serious and he had +not, and now, when he was more serious than she had ever known him, she +met him with a frivolous laugh. + +"Well, really, Erskine, I've never heard you so terribly in earnest +before! I think I had better not tell Ruth what you have said; my dear +man, you speak as though you'd been there!" + +It was some time before he laughed. + +"If only you yourself would be more in earnest, Tiny! You may say this +comes badly from me. I know there has been more jest than earnest +between me and you. But if I was never serious in my life before I am +now, and I want you, too, to take yourself seriously for once. You see, +Tiny, I am not only an old married man by this time, but I am your +European parent as well. I am entitled to play the heavy father, and to +give you a lecture when I think you need one. My dear child, I have been +in the world about twice as long as you have, and I know men and have +heard of women who have poisoned their whole lives by marrying with love +on the other side only; and the greater their worldly goods, the greater +has been their misery! And rather than see you do as they have done----" +The sentence snapped. "You shan't do it!" he exclaimed sharply. "You're +far too good to spoil yourself as others have done and are doing every +day." + +"Who told you I was good?" inquired Christina, with a touch of the +coquetry which even with him she could not entirely repress. "You never +had it from me, most certainly. Let me tell you, Erskine, that I'm +bad--bad--bad! And if I haven't shocked you sufficiently already it is +evidently time that I did; so you'll please to understand that if I +marry Lord Manister it is partly because I think I owe it to him; +otherwise it's for the main chance purely. And I think it's very unkind +of you to make me confess all this," she added fretfully. "I never meant +to speak to you about it at all. Only I can't bear you to think me +better than I am." + +Erskine shook his head sadly. + +"At least you have a better side than this, Tiny--this is not you at +all! You love and admire all that is honest and noble, and fresh and +free; you should give that love and admiration a chance. But I'm not +going to say any more to worry you. If you really, with your eyes open, +are going to marry a man whom you do not love, I can only tell you that +you will be doing at best a very cynical thing. And yet--I can +understand it." This he added more to himself than to the girl. + +He was turning away, but she laid a restraining hand upon his arm. + +"Don't go," she exclaimed impulsively. "I can't let you go when--when +you understand me better than anyone else ever did--and when I am never, +never going to speak to you like this again." + +"If only I could help you!" + +"You cannot!" Tiny cried out. "I'm too far gone to be helped. I feel +hopelessly bad and hard, and nobody can mend that. But if there's one +grain of goodness in my composition that wasn't there when I came over +to England, you may know, Erskine, if you care to know it, that it's +you, and you alone, who have put it there!" + +"Nonsense," he said; "what good have I done you?" + +"You have talked sense to me, as only one other man ever did--and he +wasn't as clever as you are. You've given me books to read, and they're +the first good books I ever read in my life; you have dug a sort of +oyster knife into my miserable ignorance! You have been a real good pal +to me, Erskine, and you must never turn your back on me, whatever I do. +I know you never will. I believe in you as I believe in very few people +on this footstool; but there's one thing you can do for me now that will +be even kinder than anything that you have ever done yet." + +"There's nothing that I wouldn't do for you, Tiny," said Erskine +tenderly. "What is it?" + +The corners of her mouth twitched--her eyes twinkled. + +"It's not to say another serious word to me this month! I know I began +it this time; I won't do so again. I'm trying to be happy in my own way, +if you'll only let me. I'm trying to make the most of my time. When I'm +really engaged I shall need all the help and advice you can give me; for +I mean to be very good to him, Erskine; I do indeed! Then of course I +shall need to cultivate the finest manners; but until it actually comes +off I'm trying to forget about it--don't you see? I'm doing my level +best to forget!" + +What Erskine saw was the tears in her eyes, but he saw them only for an +instant; instead of his leaving Christina on the deck it was she who +left him; and there he stood, between the high seas and the gathering +shades of night, until both were black. + +It was their last conversation of the kind. + +One more night was spent at sea; the next they were all back in +Kensington. Here they were greeted with a pleasant surprise: Herbert was +in the house to meet them. Cambridge seemed already to have done him +good; he was singularly polite and subdued, though a little +uncommunicative. They, however, had much to tell him, so this was not +noticed immediately. His sisters supposed that he was in London for the +night only, as he said he had come down from Cambridge that day. It was +not until later that they knew that he had been sent down. Erskine broke +the news to them. + +"I'm afraid," he added, "that they've sent him down for good and all. +The fact is, Ruth, your fears have been realized. He has done his best +to fill another eye; and this time the proctor's! He says he shall go +back to Melbourne immediately." + +"Never!" cried Ruth; and she went straight to her brother, who was +smoking viciously in another room. + +"Yes, by ghost!" drawled Herbert through his hooked nose. "I'm going to +clear out. I'm full up of England, Ruth, and I guess England's full up +of me. The best thing I can do is to go back, and turn boundary rider or +whim driver. That's about all I'm fit for, and it's what I'm going to +do. The _Ballaarat_ sails on the 2d--I've been to the office and taken +my berth already. My oath, I drove there straight from Liverpool Street +this afternoon!" + +Nor was there any moving him from his purpose, though Ruth tried for +half an hour there and then. Twice that time Herbert spent afterward in +Tiny's room; but it was not known whether Tiny also had attempted to +dissuade him. When he left her the girl stood for five minutes with a +foot on the fender and an elbow on the mantelpiece. Then she sought Ruth +in haste. + +Ruth had just gone upstairs. Erskine was surprised to see her back in +his study almost immediately, and startled by her mode of entrance, +which suggested sudden illness in the house. + +"What in the world has happened?" he said, sitting upright in his chair. + +"Happened?" cried Ruth bitterly. "It is the last straw! I give her up. I +wash my hands of her. I wish she had never come over!" + +"Tiny? Why, what has she been doing now?" + +"It isn't what she has been doing--it is what she says she's going to +do. You may be able to bring her to reason, but I never shall. I won't +try--I wash my hands of her. I will say no more to her. But it is simply +disgraceful! She is far worse than Herbert!" + +"Has she unmade her mind," Holland asked eagerly. + +"No, no, no! But worse, I call it. O Erskine, if you knew what she +says----" + +"I am waiting to hear." + +"You'll never guess!" + +"No, I give it up." + +"So must Tiny--I never heard a madder idea in my life!" + +"Than _what_, my dear?" + +"Her going out with Herbert in the _Ballaarat_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING. + + +December was at hand soon enough, and with the month came Lord Manister +for his answer. Though more than slightly nervous he entered the modest +house in Kensington with his head very high; and certain inappropriate +sensations visited him during the few minutes he was kept waiting in the +drawing room. He did not sit down. Then it was Tiny Luttrell who opened +the door, and those sensations made good their escape from a bosom in +which they had no business. In the living presence of the person one +proposes to marry there are some misgivings that had need be +impossible--Christina little suspected her privilege of shutting the +door on Manister's with her own hand. He sat down at her example. + +But if he was nervous so was she, and as he came bravely to the point +she found it more and more difficult to meet his hungry eyes. It was +rather rare for Christina to experience any difficulty of the kind. She +rose, and stood in front of the fire, with her back to the room and Lord +Manister. There, with her forehead resting on the rim of the mantelpiece +(for Tiny that was not far to bend), and while the hot fire scorched her +plain gray skirt and gave a needed color to the downcast face, she heard +what Manister had to say. Soon she knew that he was saying it with his +elbow on one end of the mantelpiece; and liked him for facing her so, +and compelling her to face him. But when she found him waiting for his +answer, she gave him it without lifting her eyes from the fire. + +"No!" + +He had asked her whether she had been able to make up her mind. The +answer she had given was, indeed, the truth; but it had been prepared +for a more conclusive question. She was vexed with him for the question +he had chosen to put first; and the more so because it had snatched from +her an admission which she had not intended to make. But she had not +made up her mind--that was the simple truth; and now she trusted that he +would make up his. + +Instead of which he said sadly, after a pause: + +"I wanted to give you six months!" + +"It was very wrong of you to give me one," she answered with startling +ingratitude. + +"Why wrong?" + +"You might have seen that I was unworthy of you." + +"I might have given up loving you, I suppose, in a second!" + +"I wish you would----" + +"I never shall!" + +"If you ever began," Christina added to her own sentence. At last her +face was raised, and now it was his eyes that fell before the cool +acumen of her smile. + +"You don't believe in me yet!" he groaned. "Not yet, though I wait, +wait, wait." + +"No one asked you to wait," Lord Manister was reminded. + +"But you see that I can't help it! You see that I am miserable about +you!" + +This indeed was sufficiently plain; and the sight of his misery was +softening Christina by degrees. She said more kindly: + +"Listen to me, Lord Manister. It is a month since you saw me. At this +moment you may feel what you are saying. Very well, then, you _do_ feel +it; but have you felt it throughout the last month? Have you felt so +patient--you are far too patient--all the time? Has it never seemed to +you that my keeping you in doubt, even for one month, was a piece of +impertinence you ought never to have stood? Wouldn't your friends simply +think you mad if they knew how you were allowing me to use you? Haven't +you yourself occasionally remembered who you are, and who I am, and +burst out laughing? I must say I have; it sometimes seems to me so +utterly absurd---- And you see you can't answer my questions!" + +He could not; one after another they had penetrated to the quick. + +"They are not fair questions," Manister said doggedly. "What may have +crossed my mind when I have felt worried and wretched has nothing to do +with it. Isn't it enough that I tell you I can wait your own good +time--that I feel a pride in waiting, now we are together and I am +looking in your eyes?" + +"No, I don't think that's quite enough," replied Christina softly. "It +would hardly be enough, you know, if you only felt me worth waiting for +while you were with me. That would mean that for some reason I +fascinated you. And fascination isn't love, Lord Manister. I don't want +to be rude--much less unkind--but I can't believe that you have ever +been really in love with me; I simply can't!" + +Yet she had never felt so near to that belief before. Her words, +however, helped Lord Manister back to his dignity. + +"Of course you must believe only what you choose," said he loftily. "One +cannot force you to believe in one's sincerity. I suppose I spoilt you +for believing in mine some time since. At all events you were fond of me +once! Only a month ago you liked me all but well enough to marry me. Yet +now you do not know!" + +"Therefore the decision is left to you, Lord Manister; you must give me +up." + +"Never! while you are free." + +His teeth were clenched. + +"But do consider. Most probably I shall never care enough for you to +marry you. And oh! I wonder how you can look at me when no other girl in +the world would refuse you!" + +"Can't you see that this is part of your charm?" cried the young man +impulsively. "You are the one girl I know who is not worldly. You are +the one girl I want!" + +Christina shook her head. + +"If I have any charm at all, you oughtn't to know what it is--you ought +to love me you can't say why--there's no sizing up real love!" she +informed him rapidly, but with a smile. "There's another thing, too. You +cannot be used to being treated as I have treated you in many ways. I +have often been intensely rude to you. I can't help thinking there must +be a good deal of pique in your feeling toward me." + +"There is more real love," returned Manister, "if I know it!" + +"I wonder if you do know it?" said the girl, with a laugh; but she was +wondering very seriously in her heart. He protested no more; she liked +him for that, too, as also for the briskness in his tone and manner when +he spoke next. + +"You say you don't care for me enough, and you say I don't care for you +properly, and we won't argue any more about either matter for the +moment." He had flung back his head from the hand that had shaded his +eyes; his elbow remained on the chimney-piece, but now he was standing +erect. "There is something else," said Lord Manister, "that has +prevented you from coming to a decision." + +"There is certainly one thing that has had something to do with it." + +"May I ask what it is?" + +"Certainly, Lord Manister. I am going back to Australia." + +"Soon?" This was after a pause, during which their eyes had not met. + +"Sooner than was intended." + +"Is it--is it for any special reason that--that you have kept from me?" + +He was agitated by a sudden thought, which she read. She shook her head +reassuringly. + +"No, it is not to get married, nor yet engaged." + +"Then there is no one out there?" + +"There is no one anywhere that I could marry for love. That's the simple +truth. I am going back to Australia because Herbert is going. Cambridge +doesn't suit him, and I'm sorry to say he doesn't suit Cambridge. We +came over together, so we are going back together. That, I promise you, +is the whole and only explanation. I myself did not want to go so +soon." + +"But surely you are not going this year?" + +"We are--before Christmas." + +As Tiny spoke her glance went to the window: she was very anxious to see +the snow before she sailed, but none had fallen yet, though December had +come in dull and raw. + +"But your people here must be very much against that?" + +"They were, but now it is settled." + +"You must have promised to come back!" + +Christina seemed surprised. + +"Yes, I said I would come back some day." + +"And you shall!" cried Manister passionately. "You shall come back as my +wife! Do you suppose I am going to stop short at this, when but for your +brother you would have been mine to-day? I don't mean to say he has +influenced you, except by going back so soon; you love Australia, and +you must needs go back with him. Then go! I told you to take six months; +you have taken one of them. When the other five are up I am coming to +you again wherever you may be. Till then I will take no answer; and +whatever it may be in the end I bow to it--I bow to it!" + +His passion surprised and even moved Christina; but his humility stirred +up in her soul a contempt which mingled strangely with her pity. Women +of spirit cannot admire the man who will submit to anything at their +hands. Christina would willingly have given admiration in exchange for +the love in which she was beginning to believe; it would have pleased +her sense of justice, it would have promoted her self-respect to make +some such small payment on account. With Manister's patience she had +none at all. She was disappointed in him. Her foot tapped angrily on the +fender. + +"But I don't want you to wait!" exclaimed Christina ungraciously. "I +have told you so already." + +"Still I mean to do so, and it serves me right." + +This touched her generosity. + +"Ah, don't say that!" she cried earnestly. "Oh, Lord Manister, I have +forgotten all old scores--I never think of them now! The balance has +been the other way so long; and I do not deserve another chance." + +"Ah, but Tiny--darling--it is I who am asking for that!" + +His tone compelled her to meet his gaze--its intensity made her wince. + +"You believe in me!" he cried joyously. "Say only that you believe in +me, and I will go away now. I will go away happy and proud--to wait--for +you." + +Then Tiny laid her little hand on his arm, and her eyes that had filled +with tears answered him to his present satisfaction. He held her hand +for just a few seconds before he went, and in kindness she returned his +pressure. Then the shutting of the front door down below made her +realize that he was gone. And she had time to dry her eyes and to gather +herself together before Ruth, whose hopes had been dead some days, came +into the room with a dejected mien and pointedly abstained from asking +questions. + +"If it interests you to hear it," Tiny said lightly, "I am converted to +your creed at last; I believe in Lord Manister!" + +"But you are not engaged to him," Ruth said wearily; "I see you are +not." + +"I am not; but he insists on waiting. If only he wasn't so tame! But I +can't help believing in him now; and that settles it." + +"Nothing is settled until you are engaged," said the matter-of-fact +sister, with a sigh. + +"Nevertheless I'm going to try with all my might to care for him, now +that I see that he must really care for me. And let me tell you that I +shall consider myself all the more bound to him because I haven't _said_ +yes, and because we're _not_ actually engaged!" + +"Yes?" said the other incredulously. "That is so like you, Tiny!" + +And Ruth almost sneered. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +COUNSEL'S OPINION. + + +The worst of it all was this: that the young man himself had not +invariably that confidence in his own affections which displayed itself +so bravely and so convincingly at a psychological moment. Not that +Manister was insincere, exactly. If you come to think of it, you may +deceive others with perfect innocence, having once deceived yourself. +And this was exactly what had happened. + +There was one distinctive feature of the case: away from Christina +Luttrell the poor fellow had already had his doubts of himself; in her +presence those doubts were as certain to evaporate as snowflakes in the +warmth of the sun. + +Even as he went down Mrs. Holland's stairs Manister was joined by +certain invisible companions--the misgivings that had made their escape +as Christina entered the room. They had waited for him on the landing +outside the door. They led and followed him downstairs. They linked +arms with him in the street. They stifled him in his hansom, which they +boarded ruthlessly. In one of the silent rooms of the club to which he +drove they talked to him silently, sitting on the arms of his +saddle-back chair and arguing all at once. Powerless to shake them off +he was forced to bear with them, to hear what they had to say, to answer +them where he could. + +Mingling with the importunate voices of his inner consciousness were the +remembered words of the girl. She had asked him whether he had never +burst out laughing as the affair presented itself in certain lights; he +did so now, silently, it is true, but with exceeding bitterness. She had +told him that it was not enough that he should feel willing to wait for +her when they were together; and now that he had left her, though so +lately, he was certainly less inclined to be patient. She had suggested +that he was more fascinated than in love; and already he knew that her +suggestion had given shape and utterance to a vague suspicion of his own +soul. She had gone so far as to hint at the possible secret of his +infatuation, and there again she had hit the mark; though apart from +her talent of torture her sweet looks and charming ways had been strong +wine to Manister from the first. Still her snubs had piqued his passion +in the beginning of things out in Melbourne; and here in Europe she had +virtually refused him three times. Modest he might be, and yet know that +this were a rare experience for such as himself at the hands of such as +Tiny Luttrell. On the whole, the experience was sufficiently complete as +it stood; yet he could not help wishing to win; indeed, he had gone too +far to draw back, and for that reason alone the idea of defeat in the +end was intolerable to him. And this was the one spring of his actions +which seemed to have escaped Christina's notice; the others she had +detected with an acuteness which made him wonder, for the first time, +whether on her very merits she would be a comfortable person to live +with, after all. + +Gradually, however, these echoes of the late interview grew fainter in +his ears, and its upshot came home to Manister with sensations of +chagrin sharper than any he had endured in all his life before. His +feelings when refused by this girl in the previous August, and under +peculiarly humiliating circumstances, were enviable compared with his +feelings now. Then he had deserved his humiliation--at least he was +generous enough to say so--and he had taken what he called his +punishment in a very manly spirit. But the desire to win had sent him on +a secret mission to Cintra, on the chance of seeing her there, and his +present feelings reminded him of those with which he had beaten his +retreat from Portugal. For he had gone there for a final answer, and had +come back without one; and to-day he had suffered afresh that selfsame +humiliation, only in an aggravated form, and more voluntarily than ever. +She had never asked him to wait; he had offered on both occasions to +wait six months--nay, he had insisted on waiting. Even now, within a +couple of hours after the event, he could scarcely credit his own +weakness and stultification. He was by no means so weak in affairs +wherein the affections played no part. He firmly believed that no other +woman could have twisted him round her finger as this one had done. But +here, perhaps, we have merely the everyday spectacle of a young man +discerning exceptional excuses for a realized infirmity; and the point +is that Manister realized his weakness this evening as he had never +done before. The girl herself had made him look inward. She had +suggested fascination, not love. That suggestion stuck painfully. Yet he +was not sure. + +Never had he felt so horribly unsure of himself; in the midst of his +self-distrust there came to him, suddenly, the recollection that she +distrusted him no longer, and there was actually some comfort in this +thought, which is strange when you note its fellows, but due less to the +contradictoriness of human nature than to the supremacy of a young man's +vanity. He stood well with her now. She believed in him at last. Propped +up by these reflections, he began almost to believe in himself. At least +a momentary complacency was the result. + +The improvement in his spirits allowed Lord Manister to give heed to +another portion of his organism which had for some time been inviting +him to go into another room and dine. Now he did so, with a sharp eye +for acquaintances, whom he had no desire to meet. For this reason he had +driven to the club which he had joined most recently; it was not a young +man's club, so he felt fairly safe from his friends. Yet he had hardly +ordered his soup, and was searching the wine list for the choice brand +which the circumstances seemed to demand, when a heavy hand dropped upon +his shoulder, and his glance leapt from the wine list to the last face +he expected or wished to see--that of his kinsman Captain Dromard. + +Captain Dromard was a cousin of the present earl, and notoriously the +rolling stone of his house. Manister had seen him last in Melbourne, and +ever since had borne him a grudge which he was not likely to forget. Had +he dreamt that the captain (who had been last heard of in Borneo) was in +London, Manister would have shunned this club in order to avoid the risk +of meeting him; but it seemed that Captain Dromard had landed in England +only that morning: and they dined together, of course; and Manister made +the best of it. His kinsman was a big, grizzled, florid man, with an +imperial, and with a comic wicked cut about him which made one laugh. +But he retained an unpleasant trick of treating Manister as a mere boy: +for instance, he was in time to choose the brand, and, as he said before +the waiter, to prevent Manister from poisoning himself. He was, +however, an entertaining person, and at his best to-night, being wont to +delight in London for a day or two before realizing the infernal +qualities of the climate and arranging fresh travels. But Manister was +not entertained; he tried to appear so, but the captain saw through the +pretense, and immediately scented a woman. There were reasons why the +rolling stone was particularly good at detecting this element--which +always interested him. His interest was unusual in the present instance, +owing to certain reminiscences of Manister in Melbourne during his own +flying visit to that port. It was during a subsequent week-end in +England that Captain Dromard had alarmed the countess, with a result of +which he was as yet unaware; but he did not hesitate to make inquiries +now, and he began by asking Manister how he had managed to get out of +the scrape in which he had left him. + +"I remember no scrape," said Manister stiffly. + +"You don't? Well, perhaps I put it too strongly," conceded the captain. +"We'll say no more about it, my boy. Devilish pretty little thing, +though; remember her well, but could never recall her name. By the bye, +I'm afraid I terrified your mother over that; feared she was going to +cable you home next day; was sorry I spoke." + +"So was I," Manister said dryly, but, by an effort, not forbiddingly, so +that the captain saw no harm in raising his glass. + +"Well, here's to the lady's health, my boy, whoever she was, and +wherever she may be!" + +Manister smiled across his glass and drained it in silence. There was a +glitter in his young eyes which made it difficult for the captain to +drop the subject finally. Manister had been drinking freely, without +becoming flushed, which is another sign of trouble. The captain could +not help saying confidentially: + +"You know, Harry, your mother was so keen for you to marry one of old +Acklam's daughters. That's what frightened her. But it is to come off +some day, isn't it?" + +"Can't say," said Lord Manister. + +"It ought to, Harry. I like to see a young fellow with your position +marry properly, and settle down. I don't know which of the Garths it is, +but I've always heard one of 'em was the girl you liked." + +"Suppose the girl you like won't marry you?" Manister exclaimed, with a +sudden change of manner, and in the tone of one consulting an authority. + +"Well, there's an end on't." + +"Ah, but suppose she can't make up her mind?" + +"You might give her a month--though I wouldn't." + +"Suppose a month is not enough for her?" + +The captain stared; his bronzed forehead became barred with furrows; his +eyes turned stony with indignation. + +"A month not enough for her to make up her mind--about you?" he said at +length incredulously. "Good God, sir, see her to the devil!" + +Then Lord Manister showed his teeth. Though he had consulted the +captain, he took his advice badly. He said you could not be much in love +to be choked off so easily; he hinted that his kinsman had never been +much in love. Captain Dromard intimated in reply that whether that was +the case or not he was not without experience of a sort, and he could +tell Harry that no woman under heaven was worth kneeling in the mud to, +which Harry said hotly was unnecessary information. So they went +elsewhere to smoke, and later on to a music hall, the subject having +been left for good in the club coffee room. The following afternoon, +however, Lord Manister drove through the snow with a very resolute front +to show to Tiny Luttrell, who was just then passing Deal in the +_Ballaarat_, without having given him the faintest notion yesterday that +she was to sail to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +IN HONOR BOUND. + + +Aboard the _Ballaarat_ Christina committed a new eccentricity, but it +may be well to state at once, a perfectly harmless one. She confided in +another girl--a practice which Tiny had avoided all her life. And this +very girl had offended her at first sight by looking aggressively happy +when the boat sailed and all nice women were in tears. + +There had been a time when Christina seldom cried, but in England she +had grown very soft in some ways, and she looked her last at it, and at +the snow that had fallen in the night as if to please her, through +blinding tears. She had never in her life felt more acutely wretched +than when saying good-by to Ruth and Erskine, and her sorrow was +heightened by the feeling that she had been both unkind and ungrateful +to Ruth, to whom she clung for forgiveness at the last moment. The +reason why her parting words were jocular, though broken, was because +the sight of an honest, smiling face, which might have blushed for +smiling then, sent a fleam of irritation through her heart that awoke +the latent mischief in her wet eyes. + +"I do wish you would ask Erskine to throw a snowball at that depressing +person," she whispered to Ruth, "who does nothing but laugh and look +really happy! If it was only put on for the sake of her friends I could +forgive her; but it isn't. Tell him I mean it--there's no fun in me +to-day; and you may also tell him that it would have been only brotherly +of him to kiss me on this occasion, when we may all be going to the +bottom!" + +Erskine, who had crossed the gangway before his wife, so that she need +not feel that he overheard her final words to her own kin, shook his +head at Tiny when Ruth joined him on the quay. But his smile was +lifeless; there was no fun in him either to-day. He drew his wife's arm +through his own, and Tiny saw the last of them standing together thus. +They stood in snow and mud, but the railway shed behind them was a great +sheet of unsullied whiteness, softly edging the bright December sky, and +Christina never forgot her first glimpse of the snow and her last of +Ruth and Erskine. When their figures were gone and only the snow was +left for Christina's eyes, they filled afresh, and she broke hastily +from Herbert, who was himself uncommonly dejected. She hurried +unsteadily to her cabin, to find her cabin companion singing softly to +herself as she unstrapped her rugs; for her cabin companion was, of +course, the odiously cheerful person who already on deck had done +violence to Christina's feelings. + +Thus the acquaintance began in a particularly unpromising manner; but +the cheerful person turned out to be as bad a sailor as Christina was a +good one, and she met with much practical kindness at Christina's hands, +which had a clever, tender way with them, though in other respects the +good sailor was not from the first so sympathetic. It is harder than it +ought to be to sympathize with the seasick when one is quite well one's +self; still Christina found it impossible not to admire her +extraordinary companion, who kept up her spirits during a whole week +spent in her berth, and was more cheerful than ever at the end of it, +when she could scarcely stand. Then Christina expressed her admiration, +likewise her curiosity, and received a simple explanation. The cheerful +person was on her way to Colombo and the altar-rails. Her _trousseau_ +was in the hold. + +The two became exceeding fast friends, and their friendship was founded +on mutual envy. Tiny was envied for the various qualities which made her +greatly admired on board, for that admiration itself, and for the marked +manner in which she paid no heed to it; and she envied her friend a very +ordinary love story, now approaching a very ordinary end. The cheerful +girl was plain, unaccomplished, and not at all young. But there was one +whom she loved better than herself; she was properly engaged; she was +happy in her engagement; her soul was settled and at peace. Also she was +good, and Christina envied her far more than she envied Christina, who +would listen wistfully to the commonplace expression of a commonplace +happiness, but was herself much more reserved. It was only when the +other girl guessed it that she admitted that she also was "as good as +engaged." The other girl clamored to know all about it; and ultimately, +in the Indian Ocean, she discovered that Christina was not the least in +love with the man to whom she was as good as engaged. Then this honest +person spoke her mind with extreme freedom, and Christina, instead of +being offended, opened her own heart as freely, merely keeping to +herself the man's name and never hinting at his high degree. She +declared that she was morally bound to him, adding that she had treated +him badly enough already; her friend ridiculed the bond, and told her +how she would be treating him worse than ever. Christina argued--it was +curious how fond she was of arguing the matter, and how she allowed +herself to be lectured by a stranger. But these two were not strangers +now; the cheerful girl was the best friend Tiny had ever made among +women. They parted with a wrench at Colombo, where Tiny saw the other +safely into the arms of a gentleman of a suitably happy and ordinary +appearance; and so one more friend passed in and out of the young girl's +life, leaving a deeper mark in the three weeks than either of them +suspected. + +The rest of the voyage dragged terribly with Christina, which is an +unusual experience for the prettiest girl aboard an Australian liner; +only on this voyage the prettiest girl was also the most unsociable. +Beyond her late companion (whose berth remained empty to depress +Christina whenever she entered the cabin) Miss Luttrell had formed few +acquaintances and no friendships between London and Colombo; between +Colombo and Melbourne she simply preyed upon herself. Herbert +remonstrated with her, and the third officer--who had been fourth on the +boat in which they had come over--was excessively interested, +remembering the difference six months earlier. Then, indeed, Christina +had found a good deal to say to all the officers, including the captain, +whom she had chaffed notoriously; but now she would stay out late and +alone on the starlit deck without ever breaking the rules by conversing +with the officer of the watch (her pet trick formerly), and only the +third, who knew her of old, had the right to bid her good-day. Tiny's +cheerful friend had left her wretched and apprehensive. She saw the +Southern Cross rise out of the Southern Sea without a thrill of welcome, +but rather with a vague dismay; from the after-rail she said good-by to +the Great Bear with a shudder at the thought of seeing it again. Neither +end of the earth presented a very peaceful prospect to Christina as she +hovered between the two on the steamer's deck. She had quite made up her +mind to return to England, however, and to reward Lord Manister's +long-suffering docility by marrying him at the end of the six months. +Meanwhile she would enjoy Australia and tell only one of her friends +there. One she must tell, and with her own lips, in case she should be +misjudged. And thinking not a little of her own justification, she +invented a small sophistry with which to defend herself as occasion +might arise. She argued that two men were in love with her, that she +herself was in love with neither, but that she liked one of them too +well to marry him without love. Therefore, she said, the easiest way out +of it was to marry the other, who not only had less in him to satisfy, +but who had more to give in place of real happiness. She was proud of +this argument. She was sorry it had not occurred to her before stopping +at Colombo--forgetting that she had told her friend of only one man who +was in love with her. But the heart starves on sophistry with nothing to +it; and with Christina the voyage dragged cruelly to its end. + +But the moment she landed in Melbourne a good thing happened to +her--she was snatched out of herself. A common shock and anxiety awaited +both Christina and Herbert Luttrell: they found their mother in tears +over a piece of very bad news from Wallandoon. It seemed that Mr. +Luttrell had gone up to the station the week before to choose the site +for a well which he was about to sink at considerable expense, and that +he was now lying at the old homestead with a broken leg, the result of a +buggy accident with a pair of young horses. He was able to write with +his own hand in pencil, and he mentioned that Swift had fetched a +surgeon from the river in the quickest time ever known; that the surgeon +had set the leg quite successfully, so that there was no occasion for +anxiety, though naturally he should be unable to leave Wallandoon for +some weeks. He expressed forcibly the hope that his wife would not think +of joining him there; she was not strong enough, and he needed no +attention. Nevertheless, had the _Ballaarat_ arrived one day later, Mrs. +Luttrell would have gone. Her two children were in time to restrain her, +but only by undertaking to go instead. Before they could realize that +they had spent an afternoon and a night in Melbourne they had left the +city and had embarked on an inland voyage of five hundred miles up +country. + +So their first full day ashore was spent in a railway carriage; but all +that night the stars were in their eyes, and the gum trees racing by on +either hand, and the warm wind fanning their faces, because Tiny would +never travel inside the coach. They were back in Riverina. The Murray +coiled behind them; the Murrumbidgee lay before. And the night after +that they were creeping across the desert of the One Tree Plain, with +the Lachlan lying ahead and the Murrumbidgee left behind. Here the +leather-hung coach labored in the mud, for the Lachlan district was +suffering before it could profit from a rather heavy rainfall three days +old; and the driver flogged seven horses all night long instead of +mildly chastening five, and the girl at his side could not have slept if +she had tried, but she did not try. To her the night seemed too good to +miss. The stars shone brilliantly from rim to rim of the unbroken plain, +and upward from the overflowing crab-holes, and even in the flooded +ruts, where the coach wheels split and scattered them like quicksilver +beneath the thumb. There was no conversation on the coach. On the eve +of facing his father Herbert was rehearsing his defense, while Tiny was +just reveling in the night, and feeling very happy, so she said. + +For a couple of hours before dawn they rested at Booligal. But Booligal +is notorious for its mosquitoes, and there had been three inches of rain +there, so the rest was a mockery. Tiny had a bed to lie down on, but she +did not lie long. She was found by Herbert (who smoked six pipes in +those two hours), leaning against one of the veranda posts as if asleep +on her feet, but with eyes fixed intently upon a dull, reddening arc on +the very edge of the darkling plain. + +"By the time we get there," said Herbert severely, "you'll be just about +dished! What on earth are you doing out here instead of taking a spell +when you can get it?" + +"I'm watching for the sun," murmured Christina, without moving. "It's a +regular Australian dawn; you never saw one like it in England. Here the +sun gets up in the middle of the night, and there he very often doesn't +get up at all. Oh, but it's glorious to be back--don't _you_ think so, +old Herbs?" + +"I might--if it wasn't for the governor." + +Tiny flushed with shame. She had forgotten the accident. Being reminded +of it she turned her back on the sunrise in deep contrition, but she had +not taken Herbert's meaning. + +"I funk facing him," said he gloomily. "I have nothing to say for +myself, and if I had a fellow couldn't say it with the poor governor +lying on his back." + +"Poor old Herbs!" said Tiny kindly. "I don't think you have much to +fear, however. It was our mistake in wanting you to go to Cambridge when +you'd been your own boss always. You were born for the bush--I'm not +sure that we both weren't!" + +He did not hear her sigh. + +"It's all very well for you to talk, Tiny! You haven't to make your +peace with anybody--you haven't to confess that you've made a ghastly +fool of yourself!" + +"Have I not?" exclaimed the girl bitterly. + +"I thought you weren't going to mention his name?" Herbert said in +surprise. + +"No more I am," replied Tiny, recovering herself. "So, as you say, it is +all very well for me to talk." And as she turned a ball of fire was +balanced on the distant rim of the plain, and the arc above was now a +semicircle of crimson, which blended even yet with the lingering shades +of night. + +Even Herbert was not in all Tiny's secrets. He never dreamt that she had +before her an ordeal far worse than his own. When they sighted the +little township where the station buggy always met the coach, he thought +her excitement due to obvious and natural causes. The township roofs +gleamed in the afternoon sun for half an hour before one could +distinguish even a looked-for object, such as a buggy drawn up in the +shade at the hotel veranda. Herbert had time to become excited himself, +in spite of the ignoble circumstances of his return. + +"I see it!" he exclaimed with confidence, at five hundred yards. "And +good old Bushman and Brownlock are the pair. I'd spot 'em a mile off." + +"Can you see who it is in the buggy?" asked Tiny, at two hundred. She +was sitting like a mouse between Herbert and the driver. + +"I shall in a shake; I think it's Jack Swift." + +He did not know how her heart was beating. At fifty yards he said, "It +isn't Swift; it's one of the hands. I've never seen this joker before." + +"Ah!" said Tiny, and that was all. Herbert had no ear for a tone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A DEAF EAR. + + +The manager of Wallandoon was harder at work that afternoon than any man +on the run. This was generally the case when there was hard work to be +done; when there was not, however, Swift had a way of making work for +himself. He had made his work to-day. Nothing need have prevented his +meeting the coach himself; but it had occurred to Swift that he would be +somewhat in the way at the meeting between Mr. Luttrell and his +children, while with regard to his own meeting with Christina he felt +much nervousness, which night, perhaps, would partly cloak. This, +however, was an instinct rather than a motive. Instinctively also he +sought by violent labor to expel the fever from his mind. He was +absurdly excited, and his energy during the heat of the day was little +less than insane. So at any rate it seemed to the youth who was helping +him by looking on, while Swift covered in half a tank with brushwood. +The tank had been almost dry, but was newly filled by the rains, and the +partial covering was designed to delay evaporation. But Swift himself +would execute his own design, and thought nothing of standing up to his +chest in the water, clothed only in his wide-awake, though he was the +manager of the station. The young storekeeper did not admire him for it, +though he could not help envying the manager his thick arms, which were +also bronzed, like the manager's face and neck, and in striking contrast +to the whiteness of his deep chest and broad shoulders. There had been a +change in storekeepers during recent months, a change not by any means +for the better. + +Near the tank were some brushwood yards, which were certainly in need of +repairs, but the need was far from immediate. Swift, however, chose to +mend up the fences that night, while he happened to be on the spot, and +his young assistant had no choice but to watch him. It was dark when at +last they rode back together to the station, silent, hungry, and not +pleased with one another; for Swift was one of those energetic people +whom it is difficult to help unless you are energetic yourself; and the +new storekeeper was not. This youth did little for his rations that day +until the homestead was reached. Then the manager left him to unsaddle +and feed both horses, and himself walked over to the veranda, whence +came the sound of voices. + +Mr. Luttrell was lying in the long deck chair which had been procured +from a neighboring station, and Herbert was smoking demurely at his +side. Christina was not there at all. + +"You will find her in the dining room," Mr. Luttrell said, as his son +and the manager shook hands. "She has gone to make tea for you; she +means to look after us all for the next few weeks." + +The dining room was at the back of the house, and as Swift walked round +to it he stepped from the veranda into the heavy sand in which the +homestead was planted. He could not help it. His love had grown upon him +since that short week with her, nine months before. He felt that if his +eyes rested upon her first he could take her hand more steadily. So he +stood and watched her a moment as she bent over the tea table with +lowered head and busy fingers, and there was something so like his +dreams in the sight of her there that he almost cried out aloud. Next +instant his spurs jingled in the veranda. She raised her head with a +jerk; he saw the fear of himself in her eyes--and knew. + +It did not blind him to her haggard looks. + +When they had shaken hands he could not help saying, "It is evident that +the old country doesn't agree with you, as you feared." And when it was +too late he would have altered the remark. + +"Seeing that it's six weeks since I left it, and that I have been +traveling night and day since I landed, you are rather hard on the old +country." + +So she answered him, her fingers in the tea caddy, and her eyes with +them. The lamplight shone upon her freckles as Swift studied her +anxiously. Perhaps, as she hinted, she was only tired. + +"I say, I can't have you making tea for me!" Swift exclaimed nervously. +"You are worn out, and I am accustomed to doing all this sort of thing +for myself." + +"Then you will have the kindness to unaccustom yourself! I am mistress +here until papa is fit to be moved." + +And not a day longer. He knew it by the way she avoided his eyes. Yet he +was forced to make conversation. + +"Why do you warm the teapot?" + +"It is the proper thing to do." + +"I never knew that!" + +"I dare say it isn't the only thing you never knew. I shouldn't wonder +if you swallowed your coffee with cold milk?" + +"Of course we do--when we have coffee." + +"Ah, it is good for you to have a housekeeper for a time," said +Christina cruelly, she did not know why. + +"It's my firm belief," remarked Swift, "that you have learnt these +dodges in England, and that you did _not_ detest the whole thing!" + +The words had a far-away familiar sound to Christina, and they were +spoken in the pointed accents with which one quotes. + +"Did I say I should detest the whole thing?" asked Christina, marking +the tablecloth with a fork. + +"You did; they were your very words." + +"Come, I don't believe that." + +"I can't help it; those were your words. They were your very last words +to me." + +"And you actually remember them?" + +She looked at him, smiling; but his face put out her smile, and the wave +of compassion which now swept over hers confirmed the knowledge that had +come to him with her first frightened glance. + +The storekeeper, who came in before more was said, was the unconscious +witness of a well-acted interlude of which he was also the cause. He +approved of Miss Luttrell at the tea tray, and was to some extent +recompensed for the hard day's work he had not done. He left her with +Swift on the back veranda, and they might have been grateful to him, for +not only had his advent been a boon to them both at a very awkward +moment, but, in going, he supplied them with a topic. + +"What has happened to my little Englishman?" Christina asked at once. "I +hoped to find him here still." + +"I wish you had. He was a fine fellow, and this one is not." + +"Then you didn't mean to get rid of my little friend?" + +"No. It's a very pretty story," Swift said slowly, as he watched her in +the starlight. "His father died, and he went home and came in for +something; and now that little chap is actually married to the girl he +used to talk about!" + +Tiny was silent for some moments. Then she laughed. + +"So much for my advice! His case is the exception that proves my rule." + +"I happen to remember your advice. So you still think the same?" + +"Most certainly I do." + +He laughed sardonically. "You might just as well tell me outright that +you are engaged to be married." + +The girl recoiled. + +"How do you know?" she cried. "Who has told you?" + +"You have--now. Your eyes told me twenty minutes ago." + +"But it isn't true! Nobody knows anything about it! It isn't a real +engagement yet!" + +"I have no doubt it will be real enough for me," answered Swift very +bitterly; and he moved away from her, though her little hands were +stretched out to keep him. + +"Don't leave me!" she cried piteously. "I want to tell you. I will tell +you now, if you will only let me." + +He faced about, with one foot on the veranda and the other in the sand. + +"Tell me," he said, "if it is that old affair come right; that is all I +care to know." + +"It is; but it hasn't come right yet--perhaps it never will. If only you +would let me tell you everything!" + +"Thank you; I dare say I can imagine how matters stand. I think I told +you it would all come right. I am very glad it has." + +"Jack!" + +But Jack was gone. In the starlight she watched him disappear among the +pines. He walked so slowly that she fancied him whistling, and would +have given very much for some such sign of outward indifference to show +that he cared; but no sound came to her save the chirrup of the +crickets, which never ceased in the night time at Wallandoon. And that +made her listen for the champing of the solitary animal in the horse +yard, until she heard it, too, and stood still to listen to both noises +of the night. She remembered how once or twice in England she had seemed +to hear these two sounds, and how she had longed to be back again in the +old veranda. Now she was back. This was the old, old veranda. And those +two old sounds were beating into her brain in very reality--without +pause or pity. + +"Why, Tiny," said Herbert later, "this is the second time to-day! I +believe you _can_ sleep on end like a blooming native-companion. You're +to come and talk to the governor; he would like you to sit with him +before we carry him into his room." + +"Would he?" Tiny cried out, and a moment later she was kneeling by the +deck chair and sobbing wildly on her father's breast. + +"Just because I told her she'd dish herself," remarked Herbert, looking +on with irritation, "she's been and gone and done it. That's still her +line!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +SUMMUM BONUM. + + +For a month Christina declined to leave her father's side, much against +his will, but the girl's will was stronger. She was as though tethered +to the long deck chair until the lame man became able to leave it on two +sticks. Then she flew to the other extreme. + +North of the Lachlan the recent rains had been less heavy than in Lower +Riverina. On Wallandoon less than two inches had fallen, and by February +it was found necessary to resume work at the eight-mile whim. But the +whim driver had gone off with his check when the rain gave him a +holiday, and he had never returned. There was a momentary difficulty in +finding a man to replace him, and it was then that Miss Tiny startled +the station by herself volunteering for the post. At first Mr. Luttrell +would not hear of the plan, but the manager's opinion was not asked, and +he carefully refrained from giving it, while Herbert (who was about to +be intrusted with a mob of wethers for the Melbourne market) took his +sister's side. He pointed out with truth that any fool could drive a +whim under ordinary circumstances, and that, as Tiny would hardly +petition to sleep at the whim, the long ride morning and evening would +do her no harm. Mr. Luttrell gave in then. He had tried in vain to drive +the young girl from his side. She had watched over him with increasing +solicitude, with an almost unnatural tenderness. She had shown him a +warmer heart than heretofore he had known her to possess, and an amount +of love and affection which he felt to be more than a father's share. He +did not know what was the matter, but he made guesses. It had been his +lifelong practice not to "interfere" with his children; hence the +earliest misdeeds of his daughter Tiny; hence, also, the academic career +of his son Herbert. Mr. Luttrell put no questions to the girl, and none +concerning her to her brother, which was nice of him, seeing that her +ways had made him privately inquisitive; but he took Herbert's advice +and let Christina drive the eight-mile whim. + +The experiment proved a complete success, but then plain whim driving +is not difficult. Christina spent an hour or so two or three times a day +in driving the whim horse round and round until the tank was full, after +which it was no trouble to keep the troughs properly supplied. The rest +of her time she occupied in reading or musing in the shadow of the tank; +but each day she boiled her "billy" in the hut, eating very heartily in +her seclusion, and delighting more and more in the temporary freedom of +her existence, as a boy in holidays that are drawing to an end. The whim +stood high on a plain, the wind whistled through its timbers, and each +evening the girl brought back to the homestead a higher color and a +lighter step. In these days, however, very little was seen of her. She +would come in tired, and soon secrete herself within four newspapered +walls; and she went out of her way to discourage visitors at the whim. +Of this she made such a point that the manager, on coming in earlier +than usual one afternoon, was surprised when Herbert, whom he met riding +out from the station, informed him that he was on his way to the +eight-mile to look up the whim driver. Herbert seemed to have something +on his mind, and presently he told Swift what it was. He had awkward +news for Tiny, which he had decided to tell her at once and be done with +it. But he did not like the job. He liked it so little that he went the +length of confiding in Swift as to the nature of the news. The manager +annoyed him--he had not a remark to make. + +Herbert rode moodily on his way. He was sorry that he had spoken to +Swift (whose stolid demeanor was a surprise to him, as well as an +irritation); he had undoubtedly spoken too freely. With Swift still in +his thoughts, Luttrell was within a mile of the whim, and cantering +gently, before he became aware that another rider was overtaking him at +a gallop; and as he turned in his saddle, the manager himself bore down +upon him with a strange look in his good eyes. + +"I want you to let me--tell Tiny!" Jack Swift said hoarsely, as Herbert +stared. Jack's was a look of pure appeal. + +"You?" + +"Yes----You understand?" + +"That's all right! I thought I couldn't have been mistaken," said +Herbert, still looking him in the eyes. "By ghost, Jack, you're a +sportsman!" + +He held out his hand, and Swift gripped it. In another minute they were +a quarter of a mile apart; but it was Swift who was riding on to the +whim, very slowly now, and with his eyes on the black timbers rising +clear of the sand against the sky. He could never look at them without +hearing words and tones that it was still bitter to remember; and now he +was going--to break bad news to Tiny? That was his undertaking. + +He found the whim driver with her book in the shadow of the tank. + +"Good-afternoon," Christina said very civilly, though her eyebrows had +arched at the sight of him. "Have you come to see whether the troughs +are full, or am I wanted at the homestead?" + +"Neither," said Swift, smiling; "only the mail is in, and there are +letters from England." + +"How good of you!" exclaimed the girl, holding out her hand. + +Swift was embarrassed. + +"Now you will pitch into me! I haven't seen the letters, and I don't +know whether there is one for you: but I met Herbert, and he told me he +had heard from your sister; and--and I thought you might like to hear +that, as I was coming this way." + +"It is still good of you," said Christina kindly; and that made him +honest. + +"It isn't a bit good, because I came this way to speak to you about +something else." + +"Really?" + +"Yes, because one sees so little of you now, and soon you will be going. +The truth is something has been rankling with me ever since the night +you arrived--nothing you said to me; it was my own behavior to you----" + +"Which wasn't pretty," interrupted Tiny. + +"I know it wasn't; I have been very sorry for it. When you offered to +tell me about your engagement I wouldn't listen. I would listen now!" + +"And now I shouldn't dream of telling you a word," Tiny said, staring +coolly in his face; "not even if I _were_ engaged." + +"Well, it amounts to that," Swift told her steadfastly, for he knew what +he meant to say, and was not to be deterred by the snubs and worse to +which he was knowingly laying himself open. + +"Pray how do you know what it amounts to?" + +"On your side, at any rate, it amounts to an engagement; for you +consider yourself bound." + +"Upon my word!" cried Tiny hastily. "Do you mind telling me how you come +to know so much about my affairs?" + +"I am naturally interested in them after all these years." + +"How very kind of you! How interested you were when I foolishly offered +to tell you myself! So you have been talking me over with Herbert, have +you?" + +"We have spoken about you to-day for the first time; that is why I'm +here." + +Christina was white with anger. + +"And I suppose," she sneered, "that you have told him things which I +have forgotten, and which you might have forgotten as well!" + +"I don't think you do suppose that," Swift said gently. "No, he merely +told me about your engagement." + +"Then why do you want me to tell you?" + +"Because you alone can tell me what I most want to know." + +"Oh, indeed!" + +"Yes--whether you are happy!" + +She had found her temper, which enabled her to put a keener edge on the +words, "That, I should say, is not your business"; and she stared at +Swift coldly where he stood, with his hands behind him, looking down +upon her without wincing. + +"I am not so sure," said he sturdily. "I loved you dearly; _I_ could +have made you happy." + +"It is well you think so," was the best answer she could think of for +that; and she did not think of it at once. "Do you know who he is?" she +added later. + +"Herbert told me. It seems you have tampered with a splendid chance." + +"I have tampered with three. I shall jump at the next--if I get +another." + +"And if you don't?" + +Involuntarily she drew a deep breath at the thought. Her head was +lifted, and her blue eyes wandered over the yellow distance of the +plains with the look of a prisoner coming back into the world. + +"Nobody could blame him," she said at last, "and I should be rightly +served." + +Swift crouched in front of her, almost sitting on his heels to peer into +her face. + +"Tiny," he suddenly cried, "you don't love him one bit!" + +"But I think he loves me," she answered, hanging her head, for he held +her hand. + +"Not as I do, Tiny! Never as I have done! I have loved you all the time, +and never anyone but you. And you--you care for me best; I see it in +your eyes; I feel it in your hand. Don't you think that you, too, may +have loved me all the time?" + +"If I have," she murmured, "it has been without knowing it." + +It was without knowing it that she trod upon the truth. Their voices +were trembling. + +"Darling," he whispered, "this would be home to you. It's the same old +Wallandoon. You love it, I know; and I think--you love----" + +She snatched her hand from his, and sprang to her feet. He, too, rose +astounded, gazing on every side to see who was coming. But the plain was +flecked only with straggling sheep, bleating to the troughs. His gaze +came back to the girl. Her straw hat sharply shadowed her face like a +highwayman's mask, her blue eyes flashing in the midst of it, and her +lips below parted in passion. + +"You? I hate you! I _do_ consider myself bound, and you would make me +false--you would tempt me through my love for the bush, for this +place--you coward!" + +Swift reddened, and there was roughness in his answer: + +"I can't stand this, even from you. I have heard that all women are +unfair; you are, certainly. What you say about my tempting you is +nonsense. You have shown me that you love me, and that you don't love +the other man; you know you have. You have now to show whether you have +the courage of your love--to give him up--to marry me." + +This method must have had its attractions after another's; but it hurt, +because Tiny was sensitive, with all her sins. + +"You have spoken very cruelly," she faltered, delightfully forgetting +how she had spoken herself. "I could not marry anyone who spoke to me +like that!" + +"Oh, forgive me!" he cried, covered with contrition in an instant. "I am +a rough brute, but I promise----" He stopped, for her head had drooped, +and she seemed to be crying. He stood away from her in his shame. "Yes, +I am a rough brute," he repeated bitterly; "but, darling, you don't know +how it roughens one, bossing the men!" + +Still she hung her head, but within the widened shadow of her hat he saw +her red mouth twitching at his clumsiness. Yet, when she raised her +face, her smile astonished him, it was so timorous; and the wondrous +shyness in her lovely eyes abashed him far more than her tears. + +"I dare say--I need that!" he heard her whisper in spurts. "I think I +should like--you--to boss--me--too." + + * * * * * + +These things and others were tersely told in a letter written in the hot +blast of a north wind at Wallandoon, and delivered in London six weeks +later, damp with the rain of early April. The letter arrived by the last +post, and Ruth read it on the sofa in her husband's den, while Erskine +paced up and down the room, listening to the sentences she read aloud, +but saying little. + +"So you see," said Ruth as she put the thin sheets together and replaced +them in their envelope, "she accepted him before she knew of Lord +Manister's engagement. _He_ knew of it, and had undertaken to tell her, +but that was only to give himself a last chance. Had she heard of it +first he would never have spoken again." + +"I question that," Erskine said thoughtfully. "He might not have spoken +so soon; but his love would have proved stronger than his pride in the +end. Yet I like him for his pride. That was what she needed, and what +Manister lacked. It is very curious." + +"I wonder if you really would like him," said Ruth, who no longer cared +for the sound of Lord Manister's name. "I don't remember much about him, +except that we all thought a good deal of him; but somehow I don't fancy +he's your sort." + +"I wasn't aware that I had a sort," Erskine said, smiling. + +"Oh, but you have. _I_ am not your sort. But Tiny was!" + +He laughed heartily. + +"Then we four have chosen sides most excellently! It is quite fatal to +marry your own sort. Didn't you know that, my dear?" + +"No, I didn't," said Ruth, watching him from the sofa; "but I am very +glad to hear it, and I quite agree. You and Tiny, for instance, would +have jeered at everything in life until you were left jeering at one +another. Don't you think so?" she added wistfully, after a pause. + +"I think you're an uncommonly shrewd little person," Erskine remarked, +smiling down upon her kindly, so that her face shone with pleasure. + +"Do you?" she said, as he helped her to rise. "You used to think me so +dense when Tiny was here; and I dare say I was--beside Tiny." + +"My dearest girl," said Erskine, taking his wife in his arms, and +speaking in a troubled tone, "you have never said that sort of thing +before, and I hope you never will again. Tiny was Tiny--our Tiny--but +surely wisdom was not her strongest point? She amused us all because she +wasn't quite like other people; but how often am I to tell you that I am +thankful you are not like Tiny?" + +"Ah, if you really were!" Ruth whispered on his shoulder. + +"But I always was," he answered, kissing her; and they smiled at one +another until the door was shut and Ruth had gone, for there was now +between them an exceeding tenderness. + +Ruth had left him her letter, so that he might read it for himself; but +though he lit a pipe and sat down, it was some time before Erskine read +anything. Had Ruth returned and asked him for his thoughts, he would +have confessed that he was wondering whether Tiny's husband would +understand the girl he had managed to tame; and whether he had a fine +ear for a joke. As wondering would not tell him, he at length turned to +the letter; and that did not tell him either; but before he turned the +first of the many leaves, it was as though the child herself was beside +him in the room. + +The qualities she mentioned in her beloved were all of a serious +character, and the praises she bestowed upon him, at her own expense, +were a little tiresome to one who did not know the man. Erskine turned +over with excusable impatience, and was rewarded on the next page by a +sufficiently just summary of Lord Manister; even here, however, Tiny +took occasion to be very hard on herself. She declared--possibly she +would have said it in any case, but it happened to be true--that she had +never loved Lord Manister. On the way she had ill-used him she harped no +more; his own solution of his difficulties had, indeed, broken that +string. But she spoke of her "temptation" (incidentally remarking that +the hall windows haunted her still), and said she would perhaps have +yielded to it outright but for her visit to Wallandoon before sailing +for England; and that she would certainly have done so at the third +asking had it not been for that stronger temptation to go back with +Herbert to Australia. As it was, she had gone back fully determined to +marry Lord Manister in the end. And if that decision had been furthered +to the smallest extent by any sort of consideration for another, she did +not say so; neither did she seek to defend her own behavior at any +point, for this was not Tiny's way. However, with Jack she had burned to +justify herself, because love puts an end to one's ways. She had longed +to tell him everything with her own lips, and to have him forgive and +excuse her on the spot. This she admitted. But she denied having known +what her unreasonable longing really was. Did Ruth remember the "burning +of the boats" at Cintra? Well, she had spoken the truth about Jack then; +she had never "known" until the night of her last arrival at the +station; she had never been quite miserable until the succeeding days. +Reverting to Manister, she supposed the discovery of her departure the +day after their interview--in which she had studiously refrained from +revealing its imminence--had proved the last straw with him; she added +that such a result had been vaguely in her mind at the time, but that +she had never really admitted it among her hopes. Yet it seemed she had +cured him just when she gave him up for incurable--and how thankful she +was! A well-felt word about Lord Manister's future happiness and so on +led her to her own; and Erskine slid his eye over that, but had it +arrested by a loving little description of the old home to which she was +coming back for good. It was a hot wind as she wrote, and the beginning +of a word dried before she got to the end of it--so she affirmed. The +roof was crackling, and the shadows in the yard were like tanks of ink. +Out on the run the salt-bush still looked healthy after the rains. She +had given up whim driving; the manager had put in his word. But she was +taking long rides, all by herself; and the lonely grandeur of the bush +appealed to her just as it had when she first came back to it nearly a +year ago; and the deep sky and yellow distances and dull leaves were all +her eyes required; and she thought this was the one place in the world +where it would be easy to be good. + +The letter came rather suddenly to its end. There were some very kind +words about himself, which Erskine read more than once. Then he sat +staring into the fire, until, by some fancy's trick, the red coals +turned pale and took the shape of a girl's sweet face with blemishes +that only made it sweeter, with dark hair, and generous lips, and eyes +like her own Australian sky. And the eyes lightened with fun and with +mischief, with recklessness, and bitterness, and temper; and in each +light they were more lovable than before; but last of all they beamed +clear and tranquil as the blue sea becalmed; and in their depths there +shone a soul. + + +THE END. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been changed. + +In Chapter VI, ="It was not nonsense!" be cried.= was changed to ="It was +not nonsense!" he cried.= + +In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after =Oh, it's all +that.= + +In Chapter XVII, a missing quotation mark was added after =You shan't do +it!= + +In Chapter XVIII, =there are some migivings= was changed to =there are some +misgivings=. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tiny Luttrell, by Ernest William Hornung + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + +***** This file should be named 37320-0.txt or 37320-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37320/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tiny Luttrell + +Author: Ernest William Hornung + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +TINY LUTTRELL + +BY ERNEST WILLIAM HORNUNG + +AUTHOR OF "A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH," "UNDER TWO SKIES" + +NEW YORK +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY +104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE + +COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. + +All rights reserved. + +THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, +RAHWAY, N. J. + + + + + TO + C. A. M. D. + FROM + E. W. H. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE COMING OF TINY, 1 + II. SWIFT OF WALLANDOON, 21 + III. THE TAIL OF THE SEASON, 44 + IV. RUTH AND CHRISTINA, 63 + V. ESSINGHAM RECTORY, 84 + VI. A MATTER OF ANCIENT HISTORY, 102 + VII. THE SHADOW OF THE HALL, 116 + VIII. COUNTESS DROMARD AT HOME, 133 + IX. MOTHER AND SON, 148 + X. A THREATENING DAWN, 162 + XI. IN THE LADIES' TENT, 176 + XII. ORDEAL BY BATTLE, 193 + XIII. HER HOUR OF TRIUMPH, 213 + XIV. A CYCLE OF MOODS, 233 + XV. THE INVISIBLE IDEAL, 248 + XVI. FOREIGN SOIL, 263 + XVII. THE HIGH SEAS, 286 + XVIII. THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING, 306 + XIX. COUNSEL'S OPINION, 317 + XX. IN HONOR BOUND, 327 + XXI. A DEAF EAR, 339 + XXII. SUMMUM BONUM, 348 + + + + +TINY LUTTRELL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COMING OF TINY. + + +Swift of Wallandoon was visibly distraught. He had driven over to the +township in the heat of the afternoon to meet the coach. The coach was +just in sight, which meant that it could not arrive for at least half an +hour. Yet nothing would induce Swift to wait quietly in the hotel +veranda; he paid no sort of attention to the publican who pressed him to +do so. The iron roofs of the little township crackled in the sun with a +sound as of distant musketry; their sharp-edged shadows lay on the sand +like sheets of zinc that might be lifted up in one piece; and a hot wind +in full blast played steadily upon Swift's neck and ears. He had pulled +up in the shade, and was leaning forward, with his wide-awake tilted +over his nose, and his eyes on a cloud of dust between the bellying +sand-hills and the dark blue sky. The cloud advanced, revealing from +time to time a growing speck. That speck was the coach which Swift had +come to meet. + +He was a young man with broad shoulders and good arms, and a general air +of smartness and alacrity about which there could be no mistake. He had +dark hair and a fair mustache; his eye was brown and alert; and much +wind and sun had reddened a face that commonly gave the impression of +complete capability with a sufficiency of force. This afternoon, +however, Swift lacked the confident look of the thoroughly capable young +man. And he was even younger than he looked; he was young enough to +fancy that the owner of Wallandoon, who was a passenger by the +approaching coach, had traveled five hundred miles expressly to deprive +John Swift of the fine position to which recent good luck had promoted +him. + +He could think of nothing else to bring Mr. Luttrell all the way from +Melbourne at the time of year when a sheep station causes least anxiety. +The month was April, there had been a fair rainfall since Christmas, and +only in his last letter Mr. Luttrell had told Swift that all he need do +for the present was to take care of the fences and let the sheep take +care of themselves. The next news was a telegram to the effect that Mr. +Luttrell was coming up country to see for himself how things were going +at Wallandoon. Having stepped into the managership by an accident, and +even so merely as a trial man, young Swift at once made sure that his +trial was at an end. It did not strike him that in spite of his youth he +was the ideal person for the post. Yet this was obvious. He had five +years' experience of the station he was to manage. The like merit is not +often in the market. Swift seemed to forget that. Neither did he take +comfort from the fact that Mr. Luttrell was an old friend of his family +in Victoria, and hitherto his own highly satisfied employer. Hitherto, +or until the last three months, he had not tried to manage Mr. +Luttrell's station. If he had failed in that time to satisfy its owner, +then he would at once go elsewhere; but for many things he wished most +keenly to stay at Wallandoon; and he was thinking of these things now, +while the coach grew before his eyes. + +Of his five years on Wallandoon the last two had been infinitely less +enjoyable than the three that had gone before. There was a simple +reason for the difference. Until two years ago Mr. Luttrell had himself +managed the station, and had lived there with his wife and family. That +had answered fairly well while the family were young, thanks to a +competent governess for the girls. But when the girls grew up it became +time to make a change. The squatter was a wealthy man, and he could +perfectly well afford the substantial house which he had already built +for himself in a Melbourne suburb. The social splashing of his wife and +daughters after their long seclusion in the wilderness was also easily +within his means, if not entirely to his liking; but he was a mild man +married to a weak woman; and he happened to be bent on a little splash +on his own account in politics. Choosing out of many applicants the best +possible manager for Wallandoon, the squatter presently entered the +Victorian legislature, and embraced the new interests so heartily that +he was nearly two years in discovering his best possible manager to be +both a failure and a fraud. + +It was this discovery that had given Swift an opening whose very +splendor accounted for his present doubts and fears. Had his chance +been spoilt by Herbert Luttrell, who had lately been on Wallandoon as +Swift's overseer, for some ten days only, when the two young fellows had +failed to pull together? This was not likely, for Herbert at his worst +was an honest ruffian, who had taken the whole blame (indeed it was no +more than his share) of that fiasco. Swift, however, could think of +nothing else; nor was there time; for now the coach was so close that +the crack of the driver's whip was plainly heard, and above the cluster +of heads on the box a white handkerchief fluttered against the sky. + +The publican whom Swift had snubbed addressed another remark to him from +the veranda: + +"There's a petticoat on board." + +"So I see." + +The coach came nearer. + +"She's your boss's daughter," affirmed the publican--"the best of 'em." + +"So you're cracking!" + +"Well, wait a minute. What now?" + +Swift prolonged the minute. "You're right," he said, hastily tying his +reins to the brake. + +"I am so." + +"Heaven help me!" muttered Swift as he jumped to the ground. "There's +nothing ready for her. They might have told one!" + +A moment later five heaving horses stood sweating in the sun, and Swift, +reaching up his hand, received from a gray-bearded gentleman on the box +seat a grip from which his doubts and fears should have died on the +spot. If they did, however, it was only to make way for a new and +unlooked-for anxiety, for little Miss Luttrell was smiling down at him +through a brown gauze veil, as she poked away the handkerchief she had +waved, leaving a corner showing against her dark brown jacket; and how +she was to be made comfortable at the homestead, all in a minute, Swift +did not know. + +"She insisted on coming," said Mr. Luttrell, with a smile. "Is it any +good her getting down?" + +"Can you take me in?" asked the girl. + +"We'll do our best," said Swift, holding the ladder for her descent. + +Her shoes made a daintier imprint in the sand than it had known for two +whole years. She smiled as she gave her hand to Swift; it was small, +too, and Swift had not touched a lady's hand for many months. There was +very little of her altogether, but the little was entirely pleasing. +Embarrassed though he was, Swift was more than pleased to see the young +girl again, and her smiles that struggled through the brown gauze like +sunshine through a mist. She had not worn gauze veils two years ago; and +two years ago she had been content with fare that would scarcely please +her to-day, while naturally the living at the station was rougher now +than in the days of the ladies. It was all very well for her to smile. +She ought never to have come without a word of warning. Swift felt +responsible and aggrieved. + +He helped Mr. Luttrell to carry their baggage from the coach to the +buggy drawn up in the shade. Miss Luttrell went to the horses' heads and +stroked their noses; they were Bushman and Brownlock, the old safe pair +she had many a time driven herself. In a moment she was bidden to jump +up. There had been very little luggage to transfer. The most cumbrous +piece was a hamper, of which Swift formed expectations that were +speedily confirmed. For Miss Luttrell remarked, pointing to the hamper +as she took her seat: + +"At least we have brought our own rations; but I am afraid they will +make you horribly uncomfortable behind there?" + +Swift was on the back seat. "Not a bit," he answered; "I was much more +uncomfortable until I saw the hamper." + +"Don't you worry about us, Jack," said Mr. Luttrell as they drove off. +"Whatever you do, don't worry about Tiny. Give her travelers' rations +and send her to the travelers' hut. That's all she deserves, when she +wasn't on the way-bill. She insisted on coming at the last moment; I +told her it wasn't fair." + +"But it's very jolly," said Swift gallantly. + +"It was just like her," Mr. Luttrell chuckled; "she's as unreliable as +ever." + +The girl had been looking radiantly about her as they drove along the +single broad, straggling street of the township. She now turned her head +to Swift, and her eyes shot through her veil in a smile. That abominable +veil went right over her broad-brimmed hat, and was gathered in and made +fast at the neck. Swift could have torn it from her head; he had not +seen a lady smile for months. Also, he was beginning to make the +astonishing discovery that somehow she was altered, and he was curious +to see how much, which was impossible through the gauze. + +"Is that true?" he asked her. He had known her for five years. + +"I suppose so," she returned carelessly; and immediately her sparkling +eyes wandered. "There's old Mackenzie in the post office veranda. He was +a detestable old man, but I must wave to him; it's so good to be back!" + +"But you own to being unreliable?" persisted Swift. + +"I don't know," Miss Luttrell said, tossing the words to him over her +shoulder, because her attention was not for the manager. "Is it so very +dreadful if I am? What's the good of being reliable? It's much more +amusing to take people by surprise. Your face was worth the journey when +you saw me on the coach! But you see I haven't surprised Mackenzie; he +doesn't look the least impressed; I dare say he thinks it was last week +we all went away. I hate him!" + +"Here are the police barracks," said Swift, seeing that all her interest +was in the old landmarks; "we have a new sergeant since you left." + +"If _he's_ in _his_ veranda I shall shout out to him who I am, and how +long I have been away, and how good it is to get back." + +"She's quite capable of doing it," Mr. Luttrell chimed in, chuckling +afresh; "there's never any knowing what she'll do next." + +But the barracks veranda was empty, and it was the last of the township +buildings. There was now nothing ahead but the rim of scrub, beyond +which, among the sand-hills, sweltered the homestead of Wallandoon. + +"I've come back with a nice character, have I not?" the girl now +remarked, turning to Swift with another smile. + +"You must have earned it; I can quite believe that you have," laughed +Swift. He had known her in short dresses. + +"Ha! ha! You see he remembers all about you, my dear." + +"Do you, Jack?" the girl said. + +"Do I not!" said Jack. + +And he said no more. He was grateful to her for addressing him, though +only once, by his Christian name. He had been intimate with the whole +family, and it seemed both sensible and pleasant to resume a friendly +footing from the first. He would have called the girl by her Christian +name too, only this was so seldom heard among her own people. Tiny she +was by nature, and Tiny she had been by name also, from her cradle. +Certainly she had been Tiny to Swift two years ago, and already she had +called him Jack; but he saw in neither circumstance any reason why she +should be Tiny to him still. It was different from a proper name. Her +proper name was Christina, but unreliable though she confessedly was, +she might perhaps be relied upon to jeer if he came out with that. And +he would not call her "Miss Luttrell." He thought about it and grew +silent; but this was because his thoughts had glided from the girl's +name to the girl herself. + +She had surprised him in more ways than one--in so many ways that +already he stood almost in awe of the little person whom formerly he had +known so well. Christina had changed, as it was only natural that she +should have changed; but because we are prone to picture our friends as +last we saw them, no matter how long ago, not less natural was Swift's +surprise. It was unreasoning, however, and not the kind of surprise to +last. In a few minutes his wonder was that Christina had changed so +little. To look at her she had scarcely changed at all. A certain +finality of line was perceptible in the figure, but if anything she was +thinner than of old. As for her face, what he could see of it through +the maddening gauze was the face of Swift's memory. Her voice was a +little different; in it was a ring of curiously deliberate irony, +charming at first as a mere affectation. A more noteworthy alteration +had taken place in her manner: she had acquired the manner of a finished +young woman of the world and of society. Already she had shown that she +could become considerably excited without forfeiting any of the grace +and graciousness and self-possession that were now conspicuously hers; +and before the homestead was reached she exhibited such a saintly +sweetness in repose as only enhanced the lambent deviltry playing about +most of her looks and tones. If Swift was touched with awe in her +presence, that can hardly be wondered at in one who went for months +together without setting eyes upon a lady. + +The drive was a long one--so long that when they sighted the homestead +it came between them and the setting sun. The main building with its +long, regular roof lay against the red sky like some monstrous ingot. +The hot wind had fallen, and the station pines stood motionless, drawn +in ink. As they drove through the last gate they could hear the dogs +barking; and Christina distinguished the voice of her own old +short-haired collie, which she had bequeathed to Swift, who was repaid +for the sound with a final smile. He hardly knew why, but this look made +the girl's old self live to him as neither look nor word had done yet, +though her face was turned away from the light, and the stupid veil +still fell before it. + +But the less fascinating side of her arrival was presently engaging his +attention. He hastily interviewed Mrs. Duncan, an elderly godsend new to +the place since the Luttrells had left it, and never so invaluable as +now. Into Mrs. Duncan's hands Christina willingly submitted herself, for +she was really tired out. Swift did not see her again until supper, +which afforded further proofs of Mrs. Duncan's merits in a time of need. +Meanwhile, Mr. Luttrell had finally disabused him of the foolish fears +he had entertained while waiting for the coach. Swift's youth, which has +shown itself in these fears, comes out also in the ease with which he +now forgot them. They had made him unhappy for three whole days; yet he +dared to feel indignant because his owner, who had confirmed his command +instead of dismissing him from it, chose to talk sheep at the supper +table. Swift seemed burning to hear of the eldest Miss Luttrell, who was +Miss Luttrell no longer, having married a globe-trotting Londoner during +her first season and gone home. He asked Christina several questions +about Ruth (whose other name he kept forgetting) and her husband. But +Mr. Luttrell lost no chance of rounding up the conversation and yarding +it in the sheep pens; and Swift had the ingratitude to resent this. +Still more did he resent the hour he was forced to spend in the store +after supper, examining the books and discussing recent results and +future plans with Mr. Luttrell, while his subordinate, the storekeeper, +enjoyed the society of Christina. The business in the store was not only +absurdly premature and irksome in itself, but it made it perfectly +impossible for Swift to hear any more that night of the late Ruth +Luttrell, whose present name was not to be remembered. He found it hard +to possess his soul in patience and to answer questions satisfactorily +under such circumstances. For an hour, indeed, he did both; but the +station store faced the main building, and when Tiny Luttrell appeared +in the veranda of the latter with a lighted candle in her hand, he could +do neither any longer. Saying candidly that he must bid her good-night, +he hurried out of the store and across the yard, and was in time to +catch Christina at one end of the broad veranda which entirely +surrounded the house. + +At supper Mr. Luttrell had made him take the head of the table, by +virtue of his office, declaring that he himself was merely a visitor. +And on the strength of that Swift was perhaps justified now in adding a +host's apology to his good-night. "I'm afraid you'll have to rough it +most awfully," was what he said. + +"Far from it. You have given me my old room, the one we papered with +_Australasians_, if you remember; they are only a little more fly-blown +than they used to be." + +This was Christina's reply, which naturally led to more. + +"But it won't be as comfortable as it used to be," said Swift +unhappily; "and it won't be what you are accustomed to nowadays." + +"Never mind, it's the dearest little den in the colonies!" + +"That sounds as if you were glad to get back to Riverina?" + +"Glad? No one knows how glad I am." + +One person knew now. The measure of her gladness was expressed in her +face not less than in her tones, and it was no ordinary measure. Over +the candle she held in her hand Swift was enabled for the first time to +peer unobstructedly into her face. He found it more winsome than ever, +but he noticed some ancient blemishes under the memorable eyes. She had, +in fact, some freckles, which he recognized with the keenest joy. She +might stoop to a veil--she had not sunk to doctoring her complexion; she +had come back to the bush an incomplete worldling after all. Yet there +was that in her face which made him feel a stranger to her still. + +"Do you know," he said, smiling, "that I'm in a great funk of you? I +can't say quite what it is, but somehow you're so grand. I suppose it's +Melbourne." + +Miss Luttrell thanked him, bowing so low that her candle shed grease +upon the boards. "You've altered too," she added in his own manner; "I +suppose it's being boss. But I haven't seen enough of you to be sure. +You evidently told off your new storekeeper to entertain me for the +evening. He is a trying young man; he _will_ talk. But of course he is a +new chum fresh from home." + +"Still he's a very good little chap; but it wasn't my fault that he and +I didn't change places. Mr. Luttrell wanted to speak to me about several +things, besides glancing through the books; I thought we might have put +it off, and I wondered how you were getting on. By the way, it struck me +once or twice that your father was coming up to give me the sack; and +it's just the reverse, for now I'm permanent manager." + +He told her this with a natural exultation, but she did not seem +impressed by it. "Do you know why he did come up?" she asked him. + +"Yes; for his Easter holidays, chiefly." + +"And why I would come with him?" + +"No; I'm afraid we never mentioned you. I suppose you came for a holiday +too?" + +"Shall I tell you why I did come?" + +"I wish you would." + +"Well, I came to say good-by to Wallandoon," said Christina solemnly. + +"You're going to be married!" exclaimed Swift, with conviction, but with +perfect nonchalance. + +"Not if I know it," cried Christina. "Are you?" + +"Not I." + +"But there's Miss Trevor of Meringul!" + +"I see them once in six months." + +"That may be in the bond." + +"Well, never mind Miss Trevor of Meringul. You haven't told me how it is +you've come to say good-by to the station, Miss Luttrell of Wallandoon." + +"Then I'll tell you, seriously: it's because I sail for England on the +4th of May." + +"For England!" + +"Yes, and I'm not at all keen about it, I can tell you. But I'm not +going to see England, I'm going to see Ruth; Australia's worth fifty +Englands any day." + +Swift had recovered from his astonishment. "I don't know," he said +doubtfully; "most of us would like a trip home, you know, just to see +what the old country's like; though I dare say it isn't all it's cracked +up to be." + +"Of course it isn't. I hate it!" + +"But if you've never been there?" + +"I judge from the people--from the samples they send out. Your new +storekeeper is one; you meet worse down in Melbourne. Herbert's going +with me; he's going to Cambridge, if they'll have him. Didn't you know +that? But he could go alone, and if it wasn't for Ruth I wouldn't cross +Hobson's Bay to see their old England!" + +The serious bitterness of her tone struck him afterward as nothing less +than grotesque; but at the moment he was gazing into her face, +thoughtfully yet without thoughts. + +"It's good for Herbert," he said presently. "I couldn't do anything with +him here; he offered to fight me when I tried to make him work. I +suppose he will be three or four years at Cambridge; but how long are +you going to stay with Mrs.--Mrs. Ruth?" + +"How stupid you are at remembering a simple name! Do try to remember +that her name is Holland. I beg your pardon, Jack, but you have been +really very forgetful this evening. I think it must be Miss Trevor of +Meringul." + +"It isn't. I'm very sorry. But you haven't told me how long you think +of staying at home." + +"How long?" said the young girl lightly. "It may be for years and years, +and it may be forever and ever!" + +He looked at her strangely, and she darted out her hand. + +"Good-night again, Jack." + +"Good-night again." + +What with the pauses, each of them an excellent opportunity for +Christina to depart, it had taken them some ten minutes to say that +which ought not to have lasted one. But you must know that this was +nothing to their last good-night, on the self-same spot two years +before, when she had rested in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SWIFT OF WALLANDOON. + + +Christina was awakened in the morning by the holland blind flapping +against her open window. It was a soft, insinuating sound, that awoke +one gradually, and to Christina both the cause and the awakening itself +seemed incredibly familiar. So had she lain and listened in the past, as +each day broke in her brain. When she opened her eyes the shadow of the +sash wriggled on the blind as it flapped, a blade of sunshine lay under +the door that opened upon the veranda, and neither sight was new to her. +The same sheets of the _Australasian_ with which her own hands had once +lined the room, for want of a conventional wallpaper, lined it still; +the same area of printed matter was in focus from the pillow, and she +actually remembered an advertisement that caught her eye. It used to +catch her eye two years before. Thus it became difficult to believe in +those two years; and it was very pleasant to disbelieve in them. More +than pleasant Christina found it to lie where she was, hearing the old +noises (the horses were run up before she rose), seeing the old things, +and dreaming that the last two years were themselves a dream. Her life +as it stood was a much less charming composition than several possible +arrangements of the same material, impossible now. This is not strange, +but it was a little strange that neither sweet impossibilities nor +bitter actualities fascinated her much; for so many good girls are +morbidly introspective. As for Christina, let it be clearly and early +understood that she was neither an introspective girl by nature nor a +particularly good one from any point of view. She was not in the habit +of looking back; but to look back on the old days here at the station +without thinking of later days was like reading an uneven book for the +second time, leaving out the poor part. + +In making, but still more in closing that gap in her life (as you close +a table after taking out a leaf) she was immensely helped by the +associations of the present moment. They breathed of the remote past +only; their breath was sweet and invigorating. Her affection for +Wallandoon was no affectation; she loved it as she loved no other place. +And if, as she dressed, her thoughts dwelt more on the young manager of +the station than on the station itself, that only illustrates the +difference between an association and an associate. There is human +interest in the one, but it does not follow that Tiny Luttrell was +immoderately interested in Jack Swift. Even to herself she denied that +she had ever done more than like him very much. To some "nonsense" in +the past she was ready to own. But in the vocabulary of a Tiny Luttrell +a little "nonsense" may cover a calendar of mild crimes. It is only the +Jack Swifts who treat the nonsense seriously and deny that the crimes +are anything of the sort, because for their part they "mean it." Women +are not deceived. Besides, it is less shame for them to say they never +meant it. + +"He must marry Flo Trevor of Meringul," Christina said aloud. "It's what +we all expect of him. It's his duty. But she isn't pretty, poor thing!" + +The remarks happened to be made to Christina's own reflection in the +glass. She, as we know, was very pretty indeed. Her small head was +finely turned, and carried with her own natural grace. Her hair was of +so dark a brown as to be nearly black, but there was not enough of it to +hide the charming contour of her head. If she could have had the +altering of one feature, she would probably have shortened her lips; but +their red freshness justified their length; and the crux of a woman's +beauty, her nose, happened to be Christina's best point. Her eyes were a +sweeter one. Their depth of blue is seen only under dark blue skies, and +they seemed the darker for her hair. But with all her good features, +because she was not an English girl, but an Australian born and bred, +she had no complexion to speak of, being pale and slightly freckled. Yet +no one held that those blemishes prevented her from being pretty; while +some maintained that they did not even detract from her good looks, and +a few that they saved her from perfection and were a part of her charm. +The chances are that the authorities quoted were themselves her admirers +one and all. She had many such. To most of them her character had the +same charm as her face; it, too, was freckled with faults for which +they loved her the more. + +One of the many she met presently, but one of them now, though in his +day the first of all. Swift was hastening along the veranda as she +issued forth, a consciously captivating figure in her clean white frock. +He had on his wide-awake, a newly filled water-bag dripped as he carried +it, the drops drying under their eyes in the sun, and Christina foresaw +at once his absence for the day. She was disappointed, perhaps because +he was one of the many; certainly it was for this reason she did not let +him see her disappointment. He told her that he was going with her +father to the out-station. That was fourteen miles away. It meant a +lonely day for Christina at the homestead. So she said that a lonely day +there was just what she wanted, to overhaul the dear old place all by +herself, and to revel in it like a child without feeling that she was +being watched. But she told a franker story some hours later, when Swift +found her still on the veranda where he had left her, but this was now +the shady side, seated in a wicker chair and frowning at a book. For she +promptly flung away that crutch of her solitude, and seemed really glad +to see him. Her look made him tingle. He sat down on the edge of the +veranda and leaned his back against a post. Then he inquired, rather +diffidently, how the day had gone with Miss Luttrell. + +"I am ashamed to tell you," said Christina graciously, for though his +diffidence irritated her, she was quite as glad to see him as she +looked, "that I have been bored very nearly to death!" + +"I knew you would be," Swift said quite bitterly; but his bitterness was +against an absent man, who had gone indoors to rest. + +"I don't see how you could know anything," remarked Christina. "I +certainly didn't know it myself; and I'm very much ashamed of it, that's +another thing! I love every stick about the place. But I never knew a +hotter morning; the sand in the yard was like powdered cinders, and you +can't go poking about very long when everything you touch is red hot. +Then one felt tired. Mrs. Duncan took pity on me and came and talked to +me; she must be an acquisition to you, I am sure; but her cooking's +better than her conversation. I think she must have sent the new chum +to me to take her place; anyway I've had a dose of him, too, I can tell +you!" + +"Oh, he's been cutting his work, has he?" + +"He has been doing the civil; I think he considered that his work." + +"And quite right too! Tell me, what do you think of him?" + +Christina made a grotesque grimace. "He's such a little Englishman," she +simply said. + +"Well, he can't help that, you know," said Swift, laughing; "and he's +not half a bad little chap, as I told you last night." + +"Oh, not a bit bad; only typical. He has told me his history. It seems +he missed the army at home, front door and back, in spite of his +crammer--I mean his cwammer. He was no use, so they sent him out to us." + +"And he is gradually becoming of some use to us, or rather to me; he +really is," protested Swift in the interests of fair play, which a man +loves. "You laugh, but I like the fellow. He's much more use--forgive my +saying so--than Herbert ever would have been--here. At all events he +doesn't want to fight! He's willing, I will say that for him. And I +think it was rather nice of him to tell you about himself." + +"It's nicer of you to think so," said Christina to herself. And her +glance softened so that he noticed the difference, for he was becoming +sensitive to a slight but constant hardness of eye and tongue +distressing to find in one's divinity. + +"He went so far as to hint at an affair of the heart," she said aloud, +and he saw her eyes turn hard again, so that his own glanced off them +and fell. But he forced a chuckle as he looked down. + +"Well, you gave him your sympathy there, I hope?" + +"Not I, indeed. I urged him to forget all about her; she has forgotten +all about him long before now, you may be sure. He only thinks about her +still because it's pleasant to have somebody to think about at a lonely +place like this; and if she's thinking about him it's because he's away +in the wilderness and there's a glamour about that. It wouldn't prevent +her marrying another man to-morrow, and it won't prevent him making up +to some other girl when he gets the chance." + +"So that's your experience, is it?" + +"Never mind whose experience it is. I advised the young man to give up +thinking about the young woman, that's all, and it's my advice to every +young man situated as he is." + +Swift was not amused. Yet he refused to believe that her advice was +intended for himself: firstly, because it was so coolly given, which was +his ignorance, and secondly, because, literally speaking, he was not +himself situated as the young Englishman was, which was merely +unimaginative. In his determination, however, not to meet her in +generalizations, but to get back to the storekeeper, he was wise enough. + +"I know something about his affairs, too," he said quietly; "he's the +frankest little fellow in the world; and I have given him very different +advice, I must say." + +Tiny Luttrell bent down on him a gaze of fiendish innocence. + +"And what sort of advice does he give you, pray?" + +"You had better ask him," said Swift feebly, but with effect, for he was +honestly annoyed, and man enough to show it. As he spoke, indeed, he +rose. + +"What, are you going?" + +"Yes; you go in for being too hard altogether." + +"I don't go in for it. I am hard. I'm as hard as nails," said Christina +rapidly. + +"So I see," he said, and another weak return was strengthened by his +firmness; for he was going away as he spoke, and he never looked round. + +"I wouldn't lose my temper," she called after him. + +Her face was white. He disappeared. She colored angrily. + +"Now I hate you," she whispered to herself; but she probably respected +him more, and that was as it only should have been long ago. + +But Swift was in an awkward position, which indeed he deserved for the +unsuspected passages that had once taken place between Tiny Luttrell and +himself. It is true that those passages had occurred at the very end of +the Luttrells' residence at Wallandoon; they had not been going on for a +period preceding the end; but there is no denying that they were +reprehensible in themselves, and pardonable only on the plea of +exceeding earnestness. Swift would not have made that excuse for +himself, for he felt it to be a poor one, though of his own sincerity he +was and had been unwaveringly sure. Beyond all doubt he was properly in +love, and, being so, it was not until the girl stopped writing to him +that he honestly repented the lengths to which he had been encouraged to +go. It is easy to be blameless through the post, but they had kept up +their perfectly blameless correspondence for a very few weeks when +Christina ceased firing; she was to have gone on forever. He was just +persistent enough to make it evident that her silence was intentional; +then the silence became complete, and it was never again broken. For if +Swift's self-control was limited, his self-respect was considerable, and +this made him duly regret the limitations of his self-control. His boy's +soul bled with a boy's generous regrets. He had kissed her, of course, +and I wonder whose fault you think that was? I know which of them +regretted and which forgot it. The man would have given one of his +fingers to have undone those kisses, that made him think less of himself +and less of his darling. Nothing could make him love her less. He heard +no more of her, but that made no difference. And now they were together +again, and she was hard, and it made this difference: that he wanted +her worse than ever, and for her own gain now as much as for his. + +But two years had altered him also. In a manner he too was hardened; but +he was simply a stronger, not a colder man. The muscles of his mind were +set; his soul was now as sinewy as his body. He knew what he wanted, and +what would not do for him instead. He wanted a great deal, but he meant +having it or nothing. This time she should give him her heart before he +took her hand; he swore it through his teeth; and you will realize how +he must have known her of old even to have thought it. The curious thing +is that, having shown him what she was, she should have made him love +her as he did. But that was Tiny Luttrell. + +She was half witch, half coquette, and her superficial cynicism was but +a new form of her coquetry. He liked it less than the unsophisticated +methods of the old days. Indeed, he liked the girl less, while loving +her more. She had given him the jar direct in one conversation, but even +on indifferent subjects she spoke with a bitterness which he thoroughly +disliked; while some of her prejudices he could not help thinking +irredeemably absurd. As a shrill decrier of England, for instance, she +may have amused him, but he hardly admired her in that character. In a +word, he thought her, and rightly, a good deal spoilt by her town life; +but he hated towns, and it was a proof of her worth in his eyes that she +was not hopelessly spoilt. He saw hope for her still--if she would marry +him. He was a modest man in general, but he did feel this most strongly. +She was going to England without caring whether she went or not; she +would do much better by marrying him and coming back to her old home in +the bush. That home she loved, whether she loved him or not; in it she +had grown up simple and credulous and sweet, with a wicked side that +only picked out her sweetness; in it he believed that her life and his +might yet be beautiful. The feeling made him sometimes rejoice that she +had fallen a little out of love with her life, so that he might show her +with all the effect of contrast what life and love really were; it +thrilled his heart with generous throbs, it brought the moisture to his +honest eyes, and it came to him oftener and with growing force as the +days went on, by reason of certain signs they brought forth in +Christiana. Her voice lost its bitterness in his ears, not because he +had grown used to notes that had jarred him in the beginning, but +because the discordant strings came gradually into tune. Her freshness +came back to her with the charm and influence of the wilderness she +loved; her old self lived again to Jack Swift. On the other hand, she +came to realize her own delight in the old good life as she had never +realized it before; she felt that henceforward she should miss it as she +had not missed it yet. Now she could have defined her sensations and +given reasons for them. She spent many hours in the saddle, on a former +mount of hers that Swift had run up for her; often he rode with her, and +the scent of the pines, the swelling of the sand-hills against the sky, +the sense of Nothing between the horses' ears and the sunset, spoke to +her spirit as they had never done of old. And even so on their rides +would she speak to Swift, who listened grimly, hardly daring to answer +her for the fear of saying at the wrong moment what he had resolved to +say once and for all before she went. + +And he chose the wrong moment after all. It was the eve of her going, +and they were riding together for the last time; he felt that it was +also his last opportunity. So in six miles he made as many remarks, +then turned in his saddle and spoke out with overpowering fervor. This +may be expected of the self-contained suitor, with whom it is only a +question of time, and the longer the time the stronger the outburst. But +Christina was not carried away, for she did not quite love him, and the +opportunity was a bad one, and Swift's honest method had not improved +it. She listened kindly, with her eyes on the distant timbers of the +eight-mile whim; but her kindness was fatally calm; and when he waited +she refused him firmly. She confessed to a fondness for him. She +ascribed this to the years they had known each other. Once and for all +she did not love him. + +"Not now!" exclaimed the young fellow eagerly. "But you did once! You +will again!" + +"I never loved you," said the girl gravely. "If you're thinking of two +years ago, that was mere nonsense. I don't believe its love with you +either, if you only knew it." + +"But I do know what it is with me, Tiny! I loved you before you went +away, and all the time you were gone. Since you have been back, during +these few days, I have got to love you more than ever. And so I shall +go on, whatever happens. I can't help it, darling." + +Neither could he help saying this; for the hour found him unable to +accept his fate quite as he had meant to accept it. Her kindness had +something to do with that. And now she spoke more kindly than before. + +"Are you sure?" she said. + +"Am I sure!" he echoed bitterly. + +"It is so easy to deceive oneself." + +"I am not deceived." + +"It is so easy to imagine yourself----" + +"I am not imagining!" cried Swift impatiently. "I am the man who has +loved you always, and never any girl but you. If you can't believe that, +you must have had a very poor experience of men, Tiny!" + +For a moment she looked away from the whim which they were slowly +nearing, and her eyes met his. + +"I have," she admitted frankly; "I have had a particularly poor +experience of them. Yet I am sorry to find you so different from the +rest; I can't tell you how sorry I am to find you true to me." + +"Sorry?" he said tenderly; for her voice was full of pain, and he could +not bear that. "Why should you be sorry, dear?" + +"Why--because I never dreamt of being true to you." + +For some reason her face flamed as he watched it. There was a pause. +Then he said: + +"You are not engaged; are you in love?" + +"Very far from it." + +"Then why mind? If there is no one else you care for you shall care for +me yet. I'll make you. I'll wait for you. You don't know me! I won't +give you up until you are some other fellow's wife." + +His stern eyes, the way his mouth shut on the words, and the manly +determination of the words themselves gave the girl a thrill of pleasure +and of pride; but also a pang; for at that moment she felt the wish to +love him alongside the inability, and all at once she was as sorry for +herself as for him. + +"What should you mind?" repeated Swift. + +"I can't tell you, but you can guess what I have been." + +"A flirt?" He laughed aloud. "Darling, I don't care two figs for your +flirtations! I wanted you to enjoy yourself. What does it matter how +you've enjoyed yourself, so long as you haven't absolutely been getting +engaged or falling in love?" + +Her chin drooped into her loose white blouse. "I did fall in love," she +said slowly--"at any rate I thought so; and I very nearly got engaged." + +Swift had never seen so much color in her face. + +Presently he said, "What happened?" but immediately added, "I beg your +pardon; of course I have no business to ask." His tone was more stiff +than strained. + +"You _have_ business," she answered eagerly, fearful of making him less +than friend. "I wouldn't mind telling you the whole thing, except the +man's name. And yet," she added rather wistfully, "I suppose you're the +only friend I have that doesn't know! It's hard lines to have to tell +you." + +"Then I don't want to know anything at all about it," exclaimed Swift +impulsively. "I would rather you didn't tell me a word, if you don't +mind. I am only too thankful to think you got out of it, whatever it +was." + +"I didn't get out of it." + +"You don't--mean--that the man did?" + +Swift was aghast. + +"I do." + +He did not speak, but she heard him breathing. Stealing a look at him, +her eyes fell first upon the clenched fist lying on his knee. + +She made haste to defend the man. + +"It wasn't all his fault; of that I feel sure. If you knew who he was +you wouldn't blame him anymore than I do. He was quite a boy, too; I +don't suppose he was a free agent. In any case it is all quite, quite +over." + +"Is it? He was from England--that's why you hate the home people so!" + +"Yes, he was from home. He went back very suddenly. It wasn't his fault. +He was sent for. But he might have said good-by!" + +She spoke reflectively, gazing once more at the whim. They were near it +now. The framework cut the sky like some uncouth hieroglyph. To Swift +henceforward, on all his lonely journeys hither, it was the emblem of +humiliation. But it was not his own humiliation that moistened his +clenched hand now. + +"I wish I had him here," he muttered. + +"Ah! you know nothing about him, you see; I know enough to forgive him. +And I have got over it, quite; but the worst of it is that I can't +believe any more in any of you--I simply can't." + +"Not in me?" asked Swift warmly, for her belief in him, at least, he +knew he deserved. "I have always been the same. I have never thought of +any other girl but you, and I never will. I love you, darling!" + +"After this, Jack?" + +He seemed to disappoint her. + +"After the same thing if it happens all over again in England! There is +no merit in it; I simply can't help myself. While you are away I will +wait for you and work for you; only come back free, and I will win you, +too, in the end. You are happier here than anywhere else, but you don't +know what it is to be really happy as I should make you. Remember +that--and this: that I will never give you up until someone else has got +you! Now call me conceited or anything you like. I have done bothering +you." + +"I can only call you foolish," said the girl, though gently. "You are +far too good for me. As for conceit, you haven't enough of it, or you +would never give me another thought. I still hope you will quite give +up thinking about me, and--and try to get over it. But nothing is going +to happen in England, I can promise you that much. And I only wish I +could get out of going." + +He had already shown her how she might get out of it; he was not going +to show her afresh or more explicitly, in spite of the temptation to do +so. Even to a proud spirit it is difficult to take No when the voice +that says it is kind and sorrowful and all but loving. Swift found it +easier to bide by his own statement that he had done bothering her; such +was his pride. + +But he had chosen the wrong moment, and though he had shown less pride +than he had meant to show, he was still too proud to improve the right +one when it came. He was too proud, indeed, to stand much chance of +immediate success in love. Otherwise he might have reminded her with +more force and particularity of their former relations; and playing like +that he might have won, but he would rather have lost. Perhaps he did +not recognize the right moment as such when it fell; but at least he +must have seen that it was better than the one he had chosen. It fell +in the evening, when Christina's mood became conspicuously sentimental; +but Swift happened to be one of the last young men in the world to take +advantage of any mere mood. + +As on the first evening, Mr. Luttrell was busy in the store, but this +time with the storekeeper, who was making out a list of things to be +sent up in the drays from Melbourne. Tiny and the manager were thrown +together for the last time. She offered to sing a song, and he thanked +her gratefully enough. But he listened to her plaintive songs from a far +corner of the room, though the room was lighted only by the moonbeams; +and when she rose he declared that she was tired and begged her not to +sing any more. She could have beaten him for that. + +But in leaving the room they lingered on the threshold, being struck by +the beauty of the night. The full moon ribbed the station yard with the +shadows of the pines, a soft light was burning in the store, and all was +so still that the champing of the night-horse in the yard came plainly +to their ears, with the chirping of the everlasting crickets. Christina +raised her face to Swift; her eyes were wet in the moonlight; there was +even a slight tremor of the red lips; and one hand hung down invitingly +at her side. She did not love him, but she was beginning to wish that +she could love him; and she did love the place. Had he taken that one +hand then the chances are he might have kept it. But even Swift never +dreamt that this was so. And after that moment it was not so any more. +She turned cold, and was cold to the end. Her last words from the top of +the coach fell as harshly on a loving ear as any that had preceded them +by a week. + +"Why need you remind me I am going to England? Enjoy myself! I shall +detest the whole thing." + +Her last look matched the words. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TAIL OF THE SEASON. + + +"What do you say to sitting it out? The rooms are most awfully crowded, +and you dance too well for one; besides, one's anxious to hear your +impressions of a London ball." + +"One must wait till the ball is over. So far I can't deny that I'm +enjoying myself in spite of the crush. But I should rather like to sit +out for once, though you needn't be sarcastic about my dancing." + +"Well, then, where's a good place?" + +"There's a famous corner in the conservatory; it should be empty now +that a dance is just beginning." + +It was. So it became occupied next moment by Tiny Luttrell and her +partner, who allowed that the dimly illumined recess among the +tree-ferns deserved its fame. Tiny's partner, however, was only her +brother-in-law, Mr. Erskine Holland. + +The Luttrells had been exactly a fortnight in England. It was in the +earliest hour of the month of July that Christina sat out with her +brother-in-law at her first London party; and if she had spent that +fortnight chiefly in visiting dressmakers and waiting for results, she +had at least found time to get to know Erskine Holland very much better +than she had ever done in Melbourne. There she had seen very little of +him, partly through being away from home when he first called with an +introduction to the family, but more by reason of the short hurdle race +he had made of his courtship, marriage, and return to England with his +bride. He had taken the matrimonial fences as only an old bachelor can +who has been given up as such by his friends. Mr. Holland, though still +nearer thirty than forty, had been regarded as a confirmed bachelor when +starting on a long sea voyage for the restoration of his health after an +autumnal typhoid. His friends were soon to know what weakened health and +Australian women can do between them. They beheld their bachelor return +within four months, a comfortably married man, with a pleasant little +wife who was very fond of him, and in no way jealous of his old friends. +That was Mrs. Erskine's great merit, and the secret of the signal +success with which she presided over his table in West Kensington, when +Erskine had settled down there and returned with steadiness to the good, +safe business to which he had been virtually born a partner. For his +part, without being enslaved to a degree embarrassing to their friends, +Holland made an obviously satisfactory husband. He was good-natured and +never exacting; he was well off and generous. One of a wealthy, +many-membered firm driving a versatile trade in the East, he was as free +personally from business anxieties as was the hall porter at the firm's +offices in Lombard Street. There Erskine was the most popular and least +useful fraction of the firm, being just a big, fair, genial fellow, fond +of laughter and chaff and lawn tennis, and fonder of books than of the +newspapers--an eccentric preference in a business man. But as a business +man the older partners shook their heads about him. Once as a youngster +he had spent a year or two in Lisbon, learning the language and the +ropes there, the firm having certain minor interests planted in +Portuguese soil on both sides of the Indian Ocean; and those interests +just suited Erskine Holland, who had the handling of them, though the +older partners nursed their own distrust of a man who boasted of taking +his work out of his head each evening when he hung up his office coat. +At home Erskine was a man who read more than one guessed, and had his +own ideas on a good many subjects. He found his sister-in-law lamentably +ignorant, but quite eager to improve her mind at his direction; and this +is ever delightful to the man who reads. Also he found her amusing, and +that experience was mutual. + +A Londoner himself, with many reputable relatives in the town, who +rejoiced in the bachelor's marriage and were able to like his wife, he +was in a position to gratify to a considerable extent Mrs. Erskine's +social desires. That he did so somewhat against his own inclination +(much as in Melbourne his father-in-law had done before him) was due to +an acutely fair mind allied with a thoroughly kind and sympathetic +nature. His own attitude toward society was not free from that slight +intellectual superiority which some of the best fellows in the world +cannot help; but at least it was perfectly genuine. He treated society +as he treated champagne, which he seldom touched, but about which he +was curiously fastidious on those chance occasions. He cared as little +for the one as for the other, but found the drier brands inoffensive in +both cases. The ball to-night was at Lady Almeric's. + +"Not a bad corner," Erskine said as he made himself comfortable; "but +I'm afraid it's rather thrown away upon me, you know." + +"Far from it. I wish I had been dancing with you the whole evening, +Erskine," said Christina seriously. + +"That's rather obsequious of you. May I ask why?" + +"Because I don't think much of my partners so far, to talk to." + +"Ha! I knew there was something you wouldn't think much of," cried +Erskine Holland. "Have they nothing to say for themselves, then?" + +"Oh, plenty. They discover where I come from; then they show their +ignorance. They want to know if there is any chance for a fellow on the +gold fields now; they have heard of a place called Ballarat, but they +aren't certain whether it's a part of Melbourne or nearer Sydney. One +man knows some people at Hobart Town, in New Zealand, he fancies. I +never knew anything like their ignorance of the colonies!" + +Mr. Holland tugged a smile out of his mustache. "Can you tell me how to +address a letter to Montreal--is it Quebec or Ontario?" he asked her, as +if interested and anxious to learn. + +"Goodness knows," replied Christina innocently. + +"Then that's rather like their ignorance of the colonies, isn't it? +There's not much difference between a group of colonies and a dominion, +you see. I'm afraid your partners are not the only people whose +geography has been sadly neglected." + +Christina laughed. + +"My education's been neglected altogether, if it comes to that. As +you're taking me in hand, perhaps you'll lend me a geography, as well as +Ruskin and Thackeray. Nevertheless, Australia's more important than +Canada, you may say what you like, Erskine; and your being smart won't +improve my partners." + +"Oh! but I thought it was only their conversation?" + +"You force me to tell you that their idea of dancing seems limited to +pushing you up one side of the room, and dragging you after them down +the other. Sometimes they turn you round. Then they're proud of +themselves. They never do it twice running." + +"That's because there are so many here." + +"There are far too many here--that's what's the matter! And I'm a nice +person to tell you so," added Tiny penitently, "when it's you and Ruth +who have brought me here. But you know I don't mean that I'm not +enjoying it, Erskine; I'm enjoying it immensely, and I'm very proud of +myself for being here at all. I can't quite explain myself--I don't much +like trying to--but there's a something about everything that makes it +seem better than anything of the kind that we can do in Melbourne. The +music is so splendid, and the floor, and the flowers. I never saw such a +few diamonds--or such beauties! Even the ices are the best I ever +tasted, and they aren't too sweet. There's something subdued and +superior about the whole concern; but it's too subdued; it needs go and +swing nearly as badly as it needs elbow-room--of more kinds than one! +I'm thinking less of the crowd of people than of their etiquette and +ceremony, which hamper you far more. But it's your old England in a +nutshell, this ball is: it fits too tight." + +"Upon my word," said Erskine, laughing, "I don't think it's at all bad +for you to find the old country a tight fit! I'm obliged to you for the +expression, Tiny. I only hope it isn't suggested by personal suffering. +I have been thinking that you must have a good word to say for our +dressmakers, if not for our dancing men." + +Christina slid her eyes over the snow and ice of the shimmering attire +that had been made for her in haste since her arrival. + +"I'm glad you like me," she said, smiling honestly. "I must own I rather +like myself in this lot. I didn't want to disgrace you among your fine +friends, you see." + +"They're more fine than friends, my dear girl. Lady Almeric's the only +friend. She has been very nice to Ruth. Most of the people here are +rather classy, I can assure you." + +He named the flower of the company in a lowered voice. Christina knew +one of the names. + +"Lady Mary Dromard, did you say?" said she, playing idly with her fan. + +"Yes; do you know her?" + +"No, but her brother was in Melbourne once as aid-de-camp to the +governor. I knew him." + +"Ah, that was Lord Manister; he wasn't out there when I was." + +"No, he must have come just after you had gone. He only remained a few +months, you know. He was a quiet young man with a mania for cricket; we +liked him because he set our young men their fashions and yet never gave +himself airs. I wonder if he's here as well?" + +"I don't think so. I know him by sight, but I haven't seen him. I'm glad +to hear he didn't give himself airs; you couldn't say the same for the +sister who is here, though I only know her by sight, too." + +"He was quite a nice young man," said Christina, shutting up her fan; +and as she spoke the music, whose strains had reached them all the time, +came to its natural end. + +The conservatory suffered instant invasion, Christina and Mr. Holland +being afforded the entertainment of disappointing couple after couple +who came straight to their corner. + +"We're in a coveted spot," whispered Erskine; and his sister-in-law +reminded him who had shown the way to it. It was less secluded than +remote, so the present occupiers found further entertainment as mere +spectators. The same little things amused them both; this was one reason +why they got on so well together. They were amused by such trifles as a +distant prospect of Ruth, who was innocently enjoying herself at the +other end of the conservatory, unaware of their eyes. Erskine might have +felt proud, and no doubt he did, for many people considered Ruth even +prettier than Christina, with whom, however, they were apt to confuse +her, though Holland himself could never see the likeness. He now sat +watching his wife in the distance while talking to her sister at his +side until a new partner pounced upon Ruth, and bore her away as the +music began afresh. + +"There goes my chaperon," remarked Christina resignedly. + +"Who's your partner now? I'm sorry to say I see mine within ten yards of +me," whispered Erskine in some anxiety. + +Tiny consulted her card. "It's Herbert," she said. + +"Herbert!" said Mr. Holland dubiously. "I'm afraid Herbert's going it; +he's deeply employed with a girl in red--I think an American. Shall I +take you to Lady Almeric?" His eyes shifted uneasily toward his +expectant partner. + +"No, I'll wait here for Herbert. Mayn't I? Then I'm going to. You're +sure to see him, and you can send him at once. Don't blame Ruth. What +does it matter? It will matter if you don't go this instant to your +partner; I see it in her eye!" + +He left her reluctantly, with the undertaking that Herbert should be at +her side in two minutes. But that was rash. Christina soon had the +conservatory entirely to herself, whereupon she came out of her corner, +so that her brother might find her the more readily. Still he kept her +waiting, and she might as well have been lonely in the corner. It was +too bad of Herbert to leave her standing there, where she had no +business to be by herself, and the music and the throbbing of the floor +within a few yards of her. These awkward minutes naturally began to +disturb her. They checked and cooled her in the full blast of healthy +excitement, and that was bad; they threw her back upon herself straight +from her lightest mood, and this was worse. She became abnormally aware +of her own presence as she stood looking down and impatiently tapping +with her little white slipper upon the marble flags. Even about these +there was the grand air which Christina relished; she might have seen +her face far below, as though she had been standing in still water; but +her thoughts had been given a rough jerk inward, her outward vision fell +no deeper than the polished surface, while her mind's eye saw all at +once the dusty veranda boards of Wallandoon. She stood very still, and +in her ears the music died away, and through three months of travel and +great changes she heard again the night-horse champing in the yard, and +the crickets chirping further afield. And as she stood, her head bowed +by this sudden memory, footsteps approached, and she looked up, +expecting to see Herbert. But it was not Herbert; it was a young man of +more visible distinction than Herbert Luttrell. It is difficult to look +better dressed than another in our evening mode; but this young man +overcame the difficulty. He stood erect; he was well built; his clothes +fitted beautifully; he was himself nice looking, and fair-haired, and +boyish; and, even more than his clothes, one admired his smile, which +was frank and delightful. But the smile he gave Christina was followed +by a blush, for she had held out her hand to him, and asked him how he +was. + +"I'm all right, thanks. But--this is the most extraordinary thing! Been +over long?" + +He had dropped her hand. + +"About a fortnight," said Christina. + +"But what a pity to come over so late in the season! It's about done, +you know." + +"Yes. I thought there was a good deal going on still." + +"There's Henley, to be sure." + +"I think I'm going to Henley." + +"Going to the Eton and Harrow?" + +"I am not quite sure. That was your match, wasn't it?" + +The young man blushed afresh. + +"Fancy your remembering! Unfortunately it wasn't my match, though; my +day out was against Winchester." + +"Oh, yes," said Tiny, less knowingly. + +"And how are you, Miss Luttrell?" + +This had been forgotten, Tiny reported well of herself. Her friend +hesitated; there was some nervousness in his manner, but his good eyes +never fell from her face, and presently he exclaimed, as though the idea +had just struck him: + +"I say, mayn't I have this dance, Miss Luttrell--what's left of it?" + +"Thanks, I'm afraid I'm engaged for it." + +"Then mayn't I find your partner for you?" + +Now this second request, or his anxious way of making it, was an +elaborate revelation to Christina, and wrote itself in her brain. "Do +you remember Herbert?" she, however, simply replied. "He is the +culprit." + +"Your brother? Certainly I remember him. I saw him a few minutes ago, +and made sure I had seen him somewhere before; but he looks older. I +don't fancy he's dancing. He's somewhere or other with somebody in red." + +"So I hear." + +"Then mayn't I have a turn with you before it stops?" + +She hesitated as long as he had hesitated before first asking her; there +was not time to hesitate longer. Then she took his arm, and they passed +through a narrow avenue of ferns and flowers, round a corner, up some +steps, and so into the ball room. + +The waltz was indeed half over, but the second half of it Christina and +her fortuitous partner danced together, without a rest, and also without +a word. He led her a more enterprising measure than those previous +partners who had questioned her concerning Australia. The name of +Australia had not crossed this one's lips. As Tiny whirled and glided on +his arm she saw a good many eyes upon her: they made her dance her best; +and her best was the best in the room, though her partner was uncommonly +good, and they had danced together before. Among the eyes were Ruth's, +and they were beaming; the others were mostly inquisitive, and as +strange to Christina as she evidently was to them; but once a turn +brought her face to face with Herbert, on his way from the conservatory, +and alone. He was a lanky, brown-faced, hook-nosed boy, with wiry limbs +and an aggressive eye, and he followed his sister round the room with a +stare of which she was uncomfortably conscious. He had looked for her +too late, when forced to relinquish the girl in red to her proper +partner, who still seemed put out. Christina was put out also, by her +brother's look, but she did not show it. + +"You are staying in town?" her partner said after the dance as they sat +together in the conservatory, but not in the old corner. + +"Yes, with my sister, Mrs. Holland; you never met her, I think. We are +in town till August." + +"Where do you go then?" + +"To the country for a month. My sister and her husband have taken a +country rectory for the whole of August. They had it last year, and +liked the place so much that they have taken it again; it is a little +village called Essingham." + +"Essingham!" cried Christina's partner. + +"Yes; do you know it?" + +"I know of it," answered the young man. "I suppose you will go on the +Continent after that?" he added quickly. + +"Well, hardly; my brother-in-law has so little time; but he expects to +have to go to Lisbon on business at the end of October, and he has +promised to take us with him." + +"To Lisbon at the end of October," repeated Tiny's friend reflectively. +"Get him to take you to Cintra. They say it's well worth seeing." + +Yet another dance was beginning. Christina was interested in the +movements of a young man in spectacles, who was plainly in search of +somebody. "He's hunting for me," she whispered to her companion, who was +saying: + +"Portugal's rather the knuckle end of Europe, don't you think? But I've +heard Cintra well spoken of. I should go there if I were you." + +"We intend to. Do you mind pulling that young man's coat tails? He has +forgotten my face." + +"Yes, I do mind," said Tiny's partner with unexpected earnestness. "I +may meet you again, but I should like to take this opportunity of +explaining----" + +Tiny Luttrell was smiling in his face. + +"I hate explanations!" she cried. "They are an insult to one's +imagination, and I much prefer to accept things without them." There was +a gleam in her smile, but as she spoke she flashed it upon the +spectacles of her blind pursuer, who was squaring his arm to her in an +instant. + +And that was the last she saw of the only partner for whom she had a +good word afterward, and he had come to her by accident. But it was by +no means the last she heard of him. The next was from Herbert, as they +drove home together in one hansom, while Ruth and her husband followed +in another. The morning air blew fresh upon their faces; the rising sun +struck sparks from the harness; the leaves in the park were greener than +any in Australia, and the dew on the grass through the railings was as a +silver shower new-fallen. But the most delicious taste of London that +had yet been given her was poisoned for Christina by her brother +Herbert. + +"To have my claim jumped by that joker!" said he through his nose. + +"But you had left it empty," said Tiny mildly. "I was all alone." + +"It isn't so much that," her brother said, shifting the ground he had +taken in preliminary charges; "it's your dancing with that brute +Manister!" + +"My dear old Herbs," said Miss Luttrell with provoking coolness, "Lord +Manister asked me to dance with him, and I didn't see why I should +refuse. I certainly didn't see why I should consult you, Herbs." + +"By ghost," cried Herbert, "if it comes to that, he once asked you to +marry him!" + +"Now you are a treat," said the girl, before the blood came. + +"And then bolted! I should be ashamed of myself for dancing with him if +I were you. He said I was a larrikin, too. I'd like to fill his eye for +him!" + +"He'll never say a truer thing!" Christina cried out; but her voice +broke over the words, and the early sun cut diamonds on her lashes. + +Now this was Herbert: he was rough, but not cowardly. His nose had +become hooked in his teens from a stand-up fight with a full-grown man. +There is not the least doubt that in such a combat with Lord Manister +that nobleman, though otherwise a finer athlete, would have suffered +extremely. But it was not in Herbert to hit any woman in cold blood with +his tongue. Having done this in his heat to Christina, his mate, he was +man enough to be sorry and ashamed, and to slip her hands into his. + +"I'm an awful beast," he stammered out. "I didn't mean anything at +all--except that I'd like to fill up Manister's eye! I can't go back on +that when--when he called me a larrikin!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RUTH AND CHRISTINA. + + +Here is the difference between Ruth and Christina, who were considered +so much alike. + +Of the two, Ruth was the one to fall in love with at sight--of which +Erskine Holland supplies the proof. She was less diminutive than her +sister; she had a finer figure, a warmer color, and indeed, despite the +destructive Australian sun, a very beautiful complexion. In the early +days at Wallandoon she had given herself a better chance in this respect +than Christina had done, not from vanity at all, but rather owing to +certain differences in their ideas of pleasure, into which it is +needless to enter. The result was her complexion; and this was not her +only beauty, for she had good brown eyes that suited her coloring as +autumn leaves befit an autumn sunset. These eyes are never unkind, but +Ruth's were sweet-tempered to a fault. So the glance of one scanning +both girls for the first time rested naturally upon Ruth, but on all +subsequent occasions it flew straight to Christina, because there was +an end to Ruth; but there was no coming to an end of Tiny, about whom +there was ever some fresh thing to charm or disappoint one. + +Thus, but for the businesslike dispatch of Erskine Holland, it might +have been Ruth's fate to break in Christina's admirers until Christina +fancied one of them enough to marry him. For Ruth's was perhaps the more +unselfish character of the two, as it was certainly the simpler one, in +spite of a peculiar secretive strain in her from which Tiny was free. +Tiny, on the other hand, was much more sensitive; but to perceive this +was to understand her better than she understood herself. For she did +not know her own weaknesses as the self-examining know theirs, and +hardly anybody suspected her of this one until her arrival in +England--when Erskine Holland came to treat her as a sister, and to +understand her more or less. + +In Australia he had seen very little of her, though enough to regard her +at the time as an arrant little heartless flirt, for whom sighed silly +swains innumerable. That she was, indeed, a flirt there was still no +denying; but as his knowledge of her ripened, Holland was glad to +unharness the opprobrious epithets with which Ruth's sister had first +driven herself into his mind. He discovered good points in Christina, +and among them a humor which he had never detected out in Australia. +Probably his own sense of it had lost its edge out there, for +love-making blunts nothing sooner; while Ruth, for her part, was +naturally wanting in humor. Holland had never been blind to this defect +in his wife, but he seemed resigned to it; one can conceive it to be a +merit in the wife of an amusing man. + +Some people called Erskine amusing--it is not hard to win this label +from some people--but at any rate he was never likely to find it +difficult to amuse Ruth. Now no companion in this world is more charming +for all time than the person who is content to do the laughing. As a +novelty, however, Christina had her own distinctive attraction for +Erskine Holland. And they got on so well together that presently he saw +more in Tiny than her humor, which others had seen before him; he saw +that her heart was softer than she thought; but he divined that +something had happened to harden it. + +"She has been falling in love," he said to Ruth--"and something has +happened." + +"What makes you think so? She has told me nothing about it," Ruth said. + +"Ah, she is sensitive. I can see that, too. It's her bitterness, +however, that makes me think something has turned out badly." + +"She is sadly cynical," remarked Ruth. + +"Cynically sad, I rather think," her husband said. "I don't fancy she's +languishing now; I should say she has got over the thing, whatever it +has been--and is rather disappointed with herself for getting over it so +easily. She has hinted at nothing, but she has a trick of generalizing; +and she affects to think that one person doesn't fret for another longer +than a week in real life. I don't say her cynicism is so much +affectation; something or other has left a bad taste in her mouth; but I +should like to bet that it wasn't an affair of the most serious sort." + +"Her affairs never were very serious, Erskine." + +"So I gathered from what I saw of her before we were married. It's a +pity," said Erskine musingly. "I'd like to see her married, but I'd love +to see her wooed! That's where the sport would come in. There would be +no knowing where the fellow had her. He might hook her by luck, but he'd +have to play her like fun before he landed her! There'd be a strong +sporting interest in the whole thing, and that's what one likes." + +"It's a pity I didn't know what you liked," Ruth said, with a smile; +"and a wonder that you liked me, and not Tiny!" + +"My darling," laughed her husband, "that sort of sport's for the young +fellows. I'm past it. I merely meant that I should like to see the +sport. No, Tiny's charming in her way, but God forbid that it should be +your way too!" + +Now Ruth was such a fond little wife that at this speech she became too +much gratified on her own account to care to discuss her sister any +further. But in dismissing the subject of Tiny she took occasion to +impress one fact upon Erskine: + +"You may be right, dear, and something may have happened since I left +home; but I can only tell you that Tiny hasn't breathed a single word +about it to me." + +And this is an early sample of the disingenuous streak that was in the +very grain of Ruth. Christina, indeed, had told her nothing, but Ruth +knew nearly all that there was to know of the affair whose traces were +plain to her husband's insight. Beyond the fact that the name of Tiny +Luttrell had been coupled in Melbourne with that of Lord Manister, and +the _on dit_ that Lord Manister had treated her rather badly, there was, +indeed, very little to be known. But Ruth knew at least as much as her +mother, who had written to her on the subject the more freely and +frequently because her younger daughter flatly refused the poor lady her +confidence. There was no harm in Ruth's not showing those letters to her +husband. There was no harm in her keeping her sister's private affairs +from her husband's knowledge. There was the reverse of harm in both +reservations, as Erskine would have been the first to allow. Ruth had +her reasons for making them; and if her reasons embodied a deep design, +there was no harm in that either, for surely it is permissible to plot +and scheme for the happiness of another. I can see no harm in her +conduct from any point of view. But it was certainly disingenuous, and +it entailed an insincere attitude toward two people, which in itself was +not admirable. And those two were her nearest. However amiable her +plans might be, they made it impossible for Ruth to be perfectly sincere +with her husband on one subject, which was bad enough. But with +Christina it was still more impossible to be at all candid; and this +happened to be worse, for reasons which will be recognized later. In the +first place, Tiny immediately discovered Ruth's insincerity, and even +her plans. Tiny was a difficult person to deceive. She detected the +insincerity in a single conversation with Ruth on the afternoon +following Lady Almeric's ball, and before she went to bed she was as +much in possession of the plans as if Ruth had told her them. + +The conversation took place in Erskine's study, where the sisters had +foregathered for a lazy afternoon. + +"Oh, by the way," said Ruth, apropos of the ball, "it was a coincidence +your dancing with Lord Manister." + +"Why a coincidence?" asked Christina. She glanced rather sharply at Ruth +as she put the question. + +"Well, it is just possible that we shall see something of him in the +country. That's all," said Ruth, as she bent over the novel of which +she was cutting the pages. + +Christina also had a book in her lap, but she had not opened it; she was +trying to read Ruth's averted face. + +"I thought perhaps you meant because we saw something of him in +Melbourne," she said presently. "I suppose you know that we did see +something of him? He even honored us once or twice." + +"So you told me in your letters." + +The paper knife was still at work. + +"What makes it likely that we shall see him in the country?" + +"Well, Mundham Hall is quite close to Essingham, you know." + +"Mundham Hall! Whose place is that?" + +"Lord Dromard's," replied Ruth, still intent upon her work. + +"Surely not!" exclaimed Christina. "Lord Manister once told me the name +of their place, and I am convinced it wasn't that." + +"They have several places. But until quite lately they have lived mostly +at the other side of the county, at Wreford Abbey." + +"That was the name." + +"But they have sold that place," said Ruth, "and last autumn Lord +Dromard bought Mundham; it was empty when we were at Essingham last +year." + +For some moments there was silence, broken only by the leisurely swish +of Ruth's paper knife. Then Christina said, "That accounts for it," +thinking aloud. + +"For what?" asked Ruth rather nervously. + +"Lord Manister told me he knew of Essingham. He never mentioned Mundham. +Is it so very close to your rectory?" + +"The grounds are; they are very big; the hall itself is miles from the +gates--almost as far as our home station was from the boundary fence." + +"Surely not," Tiny said quietly. + +"Well, that's a little exaggeration, of course." + +"Then I wish it wasn't!" Tiny cried out. "I don't relish the idea of +living under the lee of such very fine people," she said next moment, as +quietly as before. + +"No more do I--no more does Erskine," Ruth made haste to declare. "But +we enjoyed ourselves so much there last August that we said at the time +that we would take the rectory again this August. We made the people +promise us the refusal. And it seemed absurd to refuse just because Lord +Dromard had bought Mundham; shouldn't you have said so yourself, dear?" + +"Certainly I should," answered Tiny; and for half an hour no more was +said. + +The afternoon was wet; there was no inducement to go out, even with the +necessary energy, and the two young women, on whose pillows the sun had +lain before their faces, felt anything but energetic. The afternoon was +also cold to Australian blood, and a fire had been lighted in Erskine's +den. His favorite armchair contained several cushions and Christina--who +might as well have worn his boots--while Ruth, having cut all the leaves +of her volume, curled herself up on the sofa with an obvious intention. +She was good at cutting the leaves of a new book, but still better at +going to sleep over them when cut. She had read even less than +Christina, and it troubled her less; but this afternoon she read more. +Ruth could not sleep. No more could Tiny. But Tiny had not opened her +book. It was one of the good books that Erskine had lent her. She was +extremely interested in it; but just at present her own affairs +interested her more. Lying back in the big chair, with the wet gray +light behind her, and that of the fire playing fitfully over her face, +Christina committed what was as yet an unusual weakness for her, by +giving way voluntarily to her thoughts. She was in the habit of thinking +as little as possible, because so many of her thoughts were depressing +company, and beyond all things she disliked being depressed. This +afternoon she was less depressed than indignant. The firelight showed +her forehead strung with furrows. From time to time she turned her eyes +to the sofa, as if to make sure that Ruth was still awake, and as often +as they rested there they gleamed. At last she spoke Ruth's name. + +"Well?" said Ruth. "I thought you were asleep; you have never stirred." + +"I'm not sleepy, thanks; and, if you don't mind, I should like to speak +to you before you drop off yourself." + +Ruth closed her novel. + +"What is it, dear? I'm listening." + +"When you wrote and invited me over you mentioned Essingham as one of +the attractions. Now why couldn't you tell me the Dromards would be our +neighbors there?" + +Ruth raised her eyes from the younger girl's face to the rain-spattered +window. Tiny's tone was cold, but not so cold as Tiny's searching +glance. This made Ruth uncomfortable. It did not incapacitate her, +however. + +"The Dromards!" she exclaimed rather well. "Had they taken the place +then?" + +"You say they bought it before Christmas; it was after Christmas that +you first wrote and expressly invited me." + +"Was it? Well, my dear, I suppose I never thought of them; that's all. +They aren't the only nice people thereabouts." + +"I'm afraid you are not quite frank with me," the young girl said; and +her own frankness was a little painful. + +"Tiny, dear, what a thing to say! What does it mean?" + +Ruth employed for these words the injured tone. + +"It means that you know as well as I do, Ruth, that it isn't pleasant +for me to meet Lord Manister." + +"Was there something between you in Melbourne?" asked Ruth. "I must say +that nobody would have thought so from seeing you together last night. +And--and how was I to think so, when you have never told me anything +about it?" + +Christina laughed bitterly. + +"When you have made a fool of yourself you don't go out of your way to +talk about it, even to your own people. It is kind of you to pretend to +know nothing about it--I am sure you mean it kindly; but I'm still surer +that you have been told all there was to tell concerning Lord Manister +and me. I don't mean by Herbert. He's close. But the mother must have +written and told you something; it was only natural that she should do +so." + +"She did tell me a little. Herbert has told me nothing. I tried to pump +him,--I think you can't wonder at that,--but he refused to speak a word +on the subject. He says he hates it." + +"He hates Lord Manister," said Christina, smiling. "It came round to him +once that Lord Manister had called him a larrikin, and he has never +forgiven him. But he has been less of a larrikin ever since. And, of +course, that wasn't why he was so angry with me for dancing with Lord +Manister last night; he was dreadfully angry with me as we drove home; +but he is a very good boy to me, and there was something in what he +said." + +"What made you dance with him?" Ruth said curiously. + +"I was alone. I hadn't a partner. He asked me rather prettily--he always +had pretty manners. You wouldn't have had me show him I cared, by +snubbing him, would you?" + +"No," said Ruth thoughtfully; and suddenly she slipped from the sofa, +and was kneeling on the hearthrug, with her brown eyes softly searching +Christina's face and her lips whispering, "Do you care, Tiny? _Do_ you +care, Tiny, dear?" + +Tiny snapped her fingers as she pushed back her chair. + +"Not that much for anybody--much less for Lord Manister, and least of +all for myself! Now don't you be too good to me, Ruth; if you are you'll +only make me feel ungrateful, and I shall run away, because I'm not +going to tell you another word about what's over and done with. I can't! +I have got over the whole thing, but it has been a sickener. It makes me +sick to think about it. I don't want ever to speak of it again." + +"I understand," said Ruth; but there was disappointment in her look and +tone, and she added, "I should like to have heard the truth, though; and +no one can tell it me but you." + +"I thank Heaven for that!" cried Christina piously. "The version out +there was that he proposed to me and I accepted him, and then he bolted +without even saying good-by. It's true that he didn't say good-by; the +rest is not true. But you must just make it do." + +Her face was scarlet with the shame of it all; but there was no sign of +weakness in the curling lips. She spoke bitterly, but not at all sadly, +and her next words were still more suggestive of a wound to the vanity +rather than to the heart. + +"Does Erskine know?" + +"Not a word." + +"Honestly?" + +"Quite honestly; at least I have never mentioned it to him, and I don't +think anybody else has, or he would have mentioned it to me." + +"Oh, Herbert wouldn't say anything. Herbert's very close. But--don't you +two tell each other everything, Ruth?" + +The young girl looked incredulous; the married woman smiled. + +"Hardly everything, you know! Erskine has lots of relations himself, for +instance, and I'm sure he wouldn't care to tell me the ins and outs of +their private affairs, even if I cared to know them. It's just the same +about you and your affairs, don't you see." + +"Except that he knows me so well," Christina reflected aloud, with her +eyes upon the fire. "If I had a husband," she added impulsively, "I +should like to tell him every mortal thing, whether I wanted to or not! +And I should like not to want to, but to be made. But that's because I +should like above all things to be bossed!" + +"You would take some bossing," suggested Ruth. + +"That's the worst of it," said Christina, with a little sigh, and then a +laugh, as she snatched her eyes from the fire. "But I can't tell you how +glad I am you haven't told Erskine. Never tell him, Ruth, for you don't +know how I covet his good opinion. I like him, you know, dear, and I +rather think he likes me--so far." + +"Indeed he does," cried Ruth warmly; and a good point in her character +stood out through the genuine words. "Nothing ever made me happier than +to see you become such friends." + +"He laughs at me a good deal," Tiny remarked doubtfully. + +"That's because you amuse him a good deal. I can't get him to laugh at +me, my dear." + +"He would laugh," said Christina, with her eyes on the fire again, "if +you told him I had aspired to Lord Manister!" + +"But I'm not going to tell him anything at all about it." Ruth paused. +"And after all, the Dromards won't take any notice of us in the +country." She paused again. "And we won't speak of this any more, Tiny, +if you don't like." + +The shame had come back to Christina's face as she bent it toward the +fire. Twice she had made no answer to what was kindly meant and even +kindlier said. But now she turned and kissed Ruth, saying, "Thank you, +dear. I am afraid I don't like. But you have been awfully good and sweet +about it--as I shan't forget." And the fire lit their faces as they met, +but the tear that had got upon Tiny's cheek was not her own. + +Ruth, you see, could be tender and sympathetic and genuine enough. But +she could not be sensible and let well alone. + +She did that night a very foolish thing: she brought up the subject +again. Tempted she certainly was. Never since her arrival in England had +Tiny seemed so near to her or she to Tiny as in the hours immediately +following the chat between them in Erskine's study. But Christina stood +further from Ruth than Ruth imagined; she had not advanced, but +retreated, before the glow of Ruth's sympathy. This was after the event, +when some hours separated Christina from those emotional moments to +which she had not contributed her share of the emotion, leaving the +scene upon her mind in just perspective. She still could value Ruth's +sweetness at the end of their talk, but her own suspicions, aroused at +the outset, to be immediately killed by a little kindness, had come to +life again, and were calling for an equal appreciation. The extent of +Tiny's suspicions was very full, and the suspicions themselves were +uncommonly shrewd and convincing. They made it a little hard to return +Ruth's smiles during the evening, and to kiss her when saying +good-night, though Tiny did these things duly. She went upstairs before +her time, however, and not at all in the mood to be bothered any further +about Lord Manister. Yet she behaved very patiently when Ruth came +presently to her room and thus bothered her, being suddenly tempted +beyond her strength. For Christina was discovered standing fully dressed +under the gas-bracket, and frowning at a certain photograph on an +orange-colored mount, which she turned face downward as Ruth entered. +Whereupon Ruth, discerning the sign manual of a Melbourne photographer, +could not help saying slyly, "Who is it, Tiny?" + +"A friend of mine," Tiny said, also slyly, but keeping the photograph +itself turned provokingly to the floor. + +"In Australia?" + +"Er--it was taken out there." + +"It's Lord Manister!" + +"Perhaps it is--perhaps it isn't." + +"Tiny," said Ruth with pathos, "you might show me!" + +But Tiny drummed vexatiously on the wrong side of the mount; and here +Ruth surely should have let the matter drop, instead of which: + +"You are very horrid," she said, "but I must just tell you something. I +have heard things from Lady Almeric, who is very intimate with Lady +Dromard, and I don't believe _he_ is so much to blame as you think him. +I have heard it spoken about in society. But don't look frightened. Your +name has never been mentioned. I don't think it has ever come out. +Indeed, I know it hasn't, for _I_, actually, have been asked the name of +the girl Lord Manister was fond of in Melbourne--by Lady Almeric!" + +"And what did you say?" + +"What do you suppose? I glory in that fib--I am honestly proud of it. +But, dear, the point is, not that Lord Manister has never mentioned your +name, but that he can bear neither name nor sight of the girl he is +expected to marry! Lady Almeric told me when--I couldn't help her." + +"He is a nice young man, I must say!" remarked Christina grimly. "My +fellow-victim has a title, no doubt?" + +"Well, it's Miss Garth, and her father's Lord Acklam, so she's the +honorable," said Ruth gravely. (Tiny smiled at her gravity.) "But I've +seen her, and--he can't like her! And oh! Tiny dear, they all say he +left his heart in Australia, but his mother sent for him because she +heard something--but not your name, dear--and he came. They say he is +devoted to his mother; but this has come between them, and she's sorry +she interfered, because after all he won't marry poor Miss Garth. I had +it direct from Lady Almeric when she tried to get that out of me. But I +lied like a trooper!" exclaimed poor Ruth. + +"I'm grateful to you for that," Christina said, not ungraciously--"but I +must really be going to bed." + +With a last wistful glance at the orange-colored cardboard, Ruth took +the hint. Christina turned away in time to avoid an embrace without +showing her repugnance, because she had still some regard for Ruth's +good heart. But she had never experienced a more grateful riddance, and +the look that followed Ruth to the threshold would have kept her company +for some time had she turned there and caught one glimpse of it. + +"Now I understand!" said Christina to the closed door. "I suppose I +ought to love you for it, Ruth; but I don't--no, I don't!" + +She turned the photograph face upward, and stared thoughtfully at it for +some minutes longer; then she put it away. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ESSINGHAM RECTORY. + + +Essingham Rectory, which the Erskine Hollands had taken for the month of +August, was a little old building with some picturesque points to +console one for the tameness of the view from its windows. The +surrounding country was perfectly flat but for Gallow Hill, and not at +all green but for the glebe and the riverside meadows, while the only +trees of any account were the rectory elms and those in the Mundham +grounds. It is true that on Gallow Hill three wind-crippled beeches +brandished their deformities against the sky, as they may do still; but +the country around Essingham is no country for trees. It is the country +for warrens and rabbits and roads without hedges. So it struck Christina +as more like the back-blocks than anything she had hoped to see in +England, and pleased her more than anything she had seen. She showed her +pleasure before they arrived at Essingham. She forgot to disparage the +old country during the long drive from the county town; and that was +notable. She had actually no stone to cast at the elaborate and +impressive gates of Mundham Hall; apparently she was herself impressed. +But opposite the gates they turned to the left, into a narrow road with +hedges, from which you can see the rectory, and as Herbert put it +afterward: + +"That's what knocked our Tiny!" + +For the girl's first glimpse of the old house was over the hedge and far +away above a brilliant sash of meadow green. The cream-colored walls +were aglow in the low late sunshine, what was to be seen of them, for +they were half hidden by a creeper almost as old as themselves. The +red-tiled, weather-beaten roof was dark with age. Even at a distance one +smelt rats in the wainscot within the stuccoed walls. Around the house, +and towering above the tiles, the elms stood as still against the +evening sky as the square church tower but a little way to the right. To +the right of that, but farther away, rose Gallow Hill. Thereabouts the +sun was sinking, but the clock on the near side of the church tower had +gilt hands, which marked the hour when Christina stood up in the fly and +astonished her friends with her frank delight. It was a point against +this young lady, on subsequent occasions when she did not forget to +decry the old country, that at ten minutes past seven on the evening of +the 1st of August she had given way to enthusiasm over a scene that was +purely English and very ordinary in itself. + +Not that her immediate appreciation of the place became modified on a +closer acquaintance with it. At the end of the first clear day at +Essingham she informed the others that thus far she had not enjoyed +herself so much since leaving Australia. Of course she had enjoyed +herself in London. That did not count. London only compared itself with +Melbourne, Christina did not care how favorably; but Essingham was for +comparison with the place that was dearer to her than any other in the +world. You will understand why all her appreciations were directly +comparative. This is natural in the very young, and fortunately Tiny +Luttrell was still very young in some respects. Blessed with observant +eyes, and having at this time an irritable memory to keep her prejudices +at attention, her mind soon became the scene of many curious and +specific contests between England and Australia. In the match between +Wallandoon and Essingham the latter made a better fight than you would +think against so strong an opponent. The rectory was homely and +convenient in its old age, and Christina was greatly charmed with her +own room, because it was small; and if the wall-paper was modern and +conventional, and not to be read from the pillow in the early morning, +it was almost as pleasant to lie and watch the elm tops trembling +against the sky. And if the sky was not really blue in England, the +leaves in Australia were not really green, as Christina now knew. So +there they were quits. But England and Essingham scored palpably in some +things; the kitchen garden was one. Christina had never seen such a +kitchen garden; she found it possible to spend half an hour there at any +time, to her further contentment; and there were other attractions on +the premises, which were just as good in their way, while their way was +often better for one. + +For instance, there was a lawn tennis court which satisfied the soul of +Erskine, who played daily for its express refreshment. That was what +brought him to Essingham. The neighboring clergy were always ready for a +game. But they laughed at Erskine for being so keen; he would get up +before breakfast to roll the court, which passed their understanding. +Christina played also, by no means ill, and Herbert uncommonly well; but +this player neither won nor lost very prettily. He was more amiable over +the photography which he had taken up in partnership with Tiny; but his +photographs were uncommonly bad. Yet this was another amusement in the +country, where, however, Christina was most amused by the neighbors who +called. These were friendly people, and they had all called on the +Hollands the previous year. Half of them were clergymen, though the +stranger who met them found this difficult to believe in some cases; the +other half were the clergymen's wives. Very grand families apart, there +is no other society round about Essingham. And what could man wish +better? Even Christina found it impossible to disapprove of the +well-bred, easy-going, tennis-playing, unprofessional country clergy, as +acquaintances and friends. But she did find fault with the rector of +Essingham as a rector, though she had never seen him, and though Ruth +assured her that he was a dear old man. + +"He may be a dear old man," Miss Luttrell would allow, "but he's a bad +old rector! His flock don't find him such a dear old man, either. They +only see him once a week, in the pulpit; and then they can't hear him!" + +"Who has been telling you that, Tiny?" asked Ruth. + +"You've been talking sedition in the village!" said Erskine Holland. + +"Well, I've been making friends with two or three of the people, if +that's what you call talking sedition," Tiny replied; "and I think your +dear old rector neglects them shamefully. He does worse than that. +There's some fund or other for buying coals and blankets for the poor of +the parish; and there's old Mrs. Clapperton. Mrs. Clapperton's a Roman +Catholic; so, if you please, she never gets her coals or blankets, and +she's too proud to ask for them. That's a fact--and I tell you what, I'd +like to expose your dear old man, Ruth! As for the village, if it's a +specimen of your English villages, let me tell you, Erskine, that it's +leagues behind the average bush township. Why, they haven't even got a +state school, but only a one-horse affair run by the rector! And the +schoolmaster's the most ignorant man in the village. I wonder you don't +copy us, and go in for state schools!" + +"'Copy us, and go in for state schools,'" echoed Ruth with gentle mirth, +as she sometimes would echo Tiny's remarks, and with a smile that +traveled from Tiny to Erskine. But Erskine did not return the smile. His +eyes rested shrewdly upon Christina, and Ruth feared from their +expression that he thought the girl an utter fool; but she was wrong. + +Christina was not, if you like, an intellectual girl, but she was by no +means a fool. Neither was her brother-in-law, who perceived this. Her +comments on the books he lent her were sufficiently intelligent, and she +pleased him in other ways too. He was glad, for instance, to see her +interesting herself in the local peasants; she was particularly glad +that she did not give this interest its head, though as a matter of fact +it never pulled. Christina was not the girl for interests that gallop +and have not legs. Not the least of her attractions, in the eyes of a +male relative of middle age, was a certain solid sanity that showed +through every crevice of her wayward nature. It was sanity of the +cynical sort, which men appreciate most. And it was least apparent in +her own actions, which is the weak point of the cynically sane. + +"At all events, Tiny, you can't find the country a tight fit, like +London," said Erskine once, during the first few days. "Come, now!" + +"No," replied Tiny thoughtfully, "I must own it doesn't fit so tight. +But it tickles! You mayn't go here and you mayn't go there; in Australia +you may go anywhere you darn please. Excuse me, Erskine, but I feel this +a good deal. Only this morning Ruth and I were blocked by a notice board +just outside the wicket at the far end of the churchyard; we were +thinking of going up Gallow Hill, but we had to turn back, as +trespassers would be prosecuted. There's no trespassing where I come +from. And Ruth says the board wasn't there last year." + +"Ah, the Dromards weren't there last year! They've stuck it up. You +should pitch into your friend Lord Manister. It's rather vexatious of +them, I grant you; they can't want to have tea on Gallow Hill; and it's +a pity, because there's a fine view of the Hall from the top." + +"Indeed? Ruth never told me that," remarked Christina curiously. "Have +they arrived yet?" she added in apparent idleness. + +"Last night, I hear--if you mean the Dromards. And a rumor has arrived +with them." + +Now Christina was careful not to inquire what the rumor was; but Erskine +told her; and, oddly enough, what he had heard and now repeated was to +come true immediately. + +The great family at Mundham were about to entertain the county. That was +the whisper, which was presently to be spoken aloud as a pure fact. It +ran over the land with "At last!" hissing at its heels, and a still more +sinister whisper chased the pair of them; for the Dromards might have +entertained the county months before; a house-warming had been expected +of them in the winter, but they had chosen to warm Mundham with their +own friends from a distance; and since then the general election had +become a moral certainty for the following spring, and--the point +was--Viscount Manister had declared his willingness to stand for the +division. The corollary was irresistible, but so, it appears, was +Countess Dromard's invitation, which few are believed to have +declined--for those that did so made it known. Some disgust, however, +was expressed at the kind of entertainment, which, after all, was to be +nothing more than a garden party. But nearly all who were bidden +accepted. The notice, too, was shorter than other people would have +presumed to give; but other people were not the Dromards. The countess' +invitation conveyed to a hundred country homes a joy that was none the +less keen for a certain shame or shyness in showing any sort of +satisfaction in so small a matter. Nevertheless, though not adorned by a +coronet, as it might have been, nor in any way a striking trophy, the +card obtained a telling position over many a rectory chimney-piece, +where in some instances it remained, accidentally, for months. In +justice to the residents, however, it must be owned that not one of them +read it with a more poignant delight, nor adjusted it in the mirror with +a nicer care and a finer show of carelessness, nor gazed at it oftener +while ostensibly looking at the clock, than did Mrs. Erskine Holland +during the next ten days. + +But when it came she acted cleverly. There was occasion for all her +cleverness, because in her case the invitation was a complete surprise; +she had not dared to expect one; and you may imagine her peculiar +satisfaction at receiving an invitation that embraced her "party." Yet +she was able to toss the card across the breakfast table to Erskine, +merely remarking, "Should we go?" And when Tiny at once stated that for +her part she was not keen, Ruth gave her a sympathetic look, as much as +to say, "No more am I, my dear," which might have deceived a less +discerning person. But Tiny saw that her sister was holding her breath +until Erskine spoke his mind. + +"Have we any other engagement?" said he directly. "If not, it would +hardly do to stick here playing tennis within sight of their lodge. I'm +no more keen than you are, Tiny, but that would look uncommon poor. It +was very kind of them to think of asking us; I'm afraid we must go; but +I am sure you will find it amusing." + +"Thanks," replied Christina, to whom this assurance was addressed, "but +you needn't send me there to be amused; you see, I have plenty to amuse +me here," she added, with a smile that had been slow to come. "I'll go, +of course, and with pleasure; but there would be more pleasure in some +hard sets with you, Erskine, or in taking your photograph." + +"Ah, you don't know what you'd miss, Tiny! I can promise you some sport, +if you keep your eyes and ears open. Then you knew Lord Manister in +Melbourne. In any case, you oughtn't to go back there without a glimpse +of some of our fine folks at home, when you can get it." + +"Oh, I'll go; but not for the sport of seeing your clergy and gentry on +their knees to your fine folks, nor yet to be amused. As for Lord +Manister, he was well enough in Melbourne; he didn't give himself airs, +and there he was wise. But on his native heath! One would be sorry to +set foot on the same soil. It must be sacred." + +"Come, I say, I don't think you'll find the parsons on their knees. We +think a lot of a lord, if you like; but we try to forget that when we're +talking to him. We do our best to treat him as though he were merely a +gentleman, you know," said Erskine, smiling, but giving, as he felt, an +informing hint. + +"Ah, you try!" said Christina. "You do your best!" + +"Our best may be very bad," laughed Erskine; "if so, you must show us +how to better it, Tiny." + +"I should get Tiny to teach you how to treat a lord, dear," said Ruth, +who saw nothing to laugh at, and seemed likely to lend her husband a +severer support than the occasion needed. + +"Say Lord Manister!" suggested Erskine. "Will you show me on him?" + +"I may if you're good--you wait and see," said Tiny lightly. And lightly +the matter was allowed to drop. For Herbert, as usual, was late for +breakfast, which was for once a very good thing; and as for Ruth, it was +merely her misfortune to have a near sight for the line dividing chaff +from earnest, but now she saw it, and on which side of it the others +were, for she had joined them and was laughing herself. + +But Herbert would not have laughed at all; indeed, he had not a smile +for the subject when he did come down and Ruth gave him his breakfast +alone. It seemed well that Christina was not in the room. Her brother +took the opportunity of saying what he thought of Manister, and what +Manister had once called him behind his back, and what he would have +done to Manister's eye had half as much been said to his face. His +personal decision about the garden party was merely contemptuous. He was +not going. Nor did he go when the time came. Meanwhile, however, +something happened to modify for the moment his opinion of the young +viscount whom it was Herbert's meager satisfaction to abuse roundly +whenever his noble name was spoken. + +Having been provided with two rooms at the rectory, in one of which he +was expected to read diligently every morning, Herbert entered that room +only when his pipe needed filling. He kept his tobacco there, and also, +to be sure, his books; but these he never opened. He read nothing, save +chance items in an occasional sporting paper; he simply smoked and +pottered, leaving the smell of his pipe in the least desirable places. +When he took photographs with Tiny, that was pottering too, for neither +of them knew much about it, and Herbert was too indolent to take either +pains or care in a pursuit which essentially demands both. He had rather +a good eye for a subject; he could arrange a picture with some +judgment. That interested him, but the subsequent processes did not, and +these invariably spoilt the plate. All his actions, however, suggested +an underlying theory that what is worth doing is not necessarily worth +doing well. This applied even to his games, about which Herbert was +really keen; he played lawn tennis carelessly, though with a verve and +energy somewhat surprising in the loafing, smoking idler of the morning. +He had been fond of cricket, too, in Australia; it was a disappointment +to him that no cricket was to be had at Essingham. He looked forward to +Cambridge for the athletic advantages. He had no intention of reading +there; so what, he wanted to know, was the good of his reading here? +Certainly Herbert had entered at an accommodating college, which would +receive young men quite free from previous knowledge; but he might have +been reading for his little-go all this time; and he never read a word. + +But one morning he loitered afield, and came back enthusiastic about a +place for a photograph; the next, Tiny and the implements were dragged +to the spot; and really it was not bad. It was a scene on the little +river just below Mundham bridge. The thick white rails of the bridge +standing out against a clump of trees in the park beyond, the single +arch with the dark water underneath and some sunlit ripples twinkling at +the further side, seemed to call aloud for a camera; and Herbert might +have used his to some purpose, for a change, had he not forgotten to +fill his slides with plates before leaving home. This discovery was not +made until the bridge was in focus, and it put young Luttrell in the +plight of a rifleman who has sighted the bull's-eye with an empty +barrel. It was a question of returning to the rectory to load the slides +or of giving up the photograph altogether. On another occasion, having +forgotten the lens, Herbert had packed up the camera and gone back in +disgust. But that happened nearer home. To-day he had carried the camera +a good mile. Two journeys with something to show for them were +preferable to one with a tired arm for the only result. Within a minute +after the slides were found empty Christina was alone in the meadow +below the bridge; Herbert had found it impossible to give up the +photograph altogether. + +The girl had not lost patience, for she was herself partly to blame. +There were, however, still better reasons for her resignation. She +happened to have the second volume of "The Newcomes" in her jacket +pocket, and the little river seemed to ripple her an invitation from the +bridge to make herself comfortable with her book in its shade. There was +no great need for shade, but the idea seemed sensible. With her hand on +the book in her pocket, and her eyes hovering about the bridge for the +coolest corner, she felt perhaps a little ashamed as she thought of +Herbert making a cool day hot by running back alone for what they had +both forgotten. It was hardly this feeling, however, that kept her +standing where she was. + +She had known no finer day in England. The light was strong and limpid, +the shadows abrupt and deep. The sky was not cloudless, but the clouds +were thin and clean. There was a refreshing amount of wind; the tree +tops beyond the bridge swayed a little against the sky; the focusing +cloth flapped between the tripod legs, and for some minutes the girl +stood absently imbibing all this, without a thought in her head. + +Presently she found herself wondering whether there was enough movement +in the trees to mar a photograph; later she tucked her head under the +cloth to see. As she examined the inverted picture on the ground glass, +she held the cloth loosely over her head and round her neck. But +suddenly she twitched it tighter. For first the sound of wheels had come +to her ears. Then a dogcart had been pulled up on the bridge. And now on +the focusing screen a figure was advancing upside down, like a fly on +the ceiling, and doubling its size with each stride, until there +occurred a momentary eclipse of the inverted landscape by Lord Manister, +who had stalked in broad daylight to our Tiny's side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A MATTER OF ANCIENT HISTORY. + + +The focusing cloth clung to her head like a cowl as she raised it and +bowed. There must have been nervousness on both sides, for the moment, +but it did not prevent Lord Manister from taking off his hat with a +sweep and swiftness that amounted almost to a flourish, nor Christina +from noticing this and his clothes. He was so admirably attired in +summer gray that she took pleasure in reflecting that she was herself +unusually shabby, her idea being that contact with the incorrect was +rather good for him. Correctness of any kind, it is to be feared, was +ridiculously wrong in her eyes. Otherwise she might have been different +herself. + +"I knew it was you!" Lord Manister declared, having shaken her hand. + +"How could you know?" said Christina, smiling. "You must be very +clever." + +"I wish I was. No; I met your brother running like anything with some +wooden things under his arm. He wouldn't see me, but I saw him. I was +going to pull up, but he wouldn't see me." + +Miss Luttrell explained that her brother had gone back for plates, which +they had both very stupidly forgotten; she added that she was sure he +could not have recognized Lord Manister. + +"Plates!" said this nobleman. "Ah, they're important, I know." + +"Well, they're your cartridges; you can't shoot anything without them." + +Lord Manister gave a louder laugh than the remark merited; then he +studied his boots among the daisies. Christina smiled as she watched +him, until he looked up briskly, and nearly caught her. + +"I say, Miss Luttrell, I should like immensely to be on in this scene, +if you would let me! I mean to say I should like to see the thing taken. +Perhaps you could do with the trap and my mare on the bridge; she's +something special, I assure you. And I have been thinking--if you think +so too--that my man might go back for your brother and give him a lift. +It must be monstrous hot walking. It's a monstrous hot day, you know." + +This was not only an exaggeration, but a puff of smoke revealing hidden +fires within the young man's head. Christina fanned the fire until it +tinged his cheek by willfully hesitating before giving him a gracious +answer. For when she spoke it was to say, with a smile at his anxiety, +"Really, you are very considerate, Lord Manister, and I am sure Herbert +will be grateful." They walked to the bridge, and stood upon it the next +minute, watching the dogcart swing out of sight where the road bent. + +"Your brother is very likely halfway back by this time," remarked Lord +Manister, who would have been very sorry to believe what he was saying. +"I dare say my man will pick him up directly; if so, they'll be back in +a minute." + +"I hope they will," said Christina--"the light is so excellent just +now," she was in a hurry to add. + +"Ah, the light in Australia was better for this sort of thing." + +"As a rule, yes; but it would surely be difficult to beat this morning +anywhere; the great thing is, over here, that you are so free from +glare." + +"Then you like England?" + +"Well, I must say I like this corner of England; I haven't seen much +else, you know." + +"Good! I am glad you like this corner; you know it's ours," said the +young fellow simply. Then he paused. "How strange to meet you here, +though!" he added, as if he could not help it, nor the slight stress +that laid itself upon the personal pronoun. + +"It should rather strike me as strange to meet you," Miss Luttrell +replied pointedly; "for I am sure I told you that my sister and her +husband had taken Essingham Rectory for August. You may have forgotten +the occasion. It was in London." + +"Dear me, no, I'm not likely to forget it. To be sure you told me--at +Lady Almeric's." + +"Then perhaps you remember saying that you knew _of_ Essingham?" + +It was not, perhaps, because this was very dryly said that Lord Manister +smiled. Nor was the smile one of his best, which were charming; it was +visibly the expression of his nervousness, not his mirth. + +"Yes, I am sorry to say I do remember that," he confessed with an +awkwardness and humility which made Christina tingle in a sudden +appreciation of his position in the world. "It was very foolish of me, +Miss Luttrell." + +"I wonder what made you?" remarked Christina reflectively, but in a +friendlier tone. + +"Ah! don't wonder," he said impatiently. His eyes fell upon her for one +moment, then wandered down the road, as he added strangely: "You do and +say so many foolish things without a decent why or wherefore. They're +the things for which you never forgive yourself! They're the things for +which you never hope to be forgiven!" + +The girl did not look at him, but her glance chased his down the road to +the bend where the dogcart had vanished and would reappear. She, +however, was the next to speak, for something had occurred to her that +she very much desired to explain. + +"You see, I didn't know you lived here. I had never heard of Mundham +when we met in town; if I had I shouldn't have known it was yours. I +never dreamt that I should meet you here. You understand, Lord +Manister?" + +"My dear Miss Luttrell," cried Manister earnestly, "anybody could see +that!" + +So Christina lost nothing by her little exhibition of anxiety to impress +this point upon him; for his reply was a triumphant flourish of the +opinion she desired him to hold, to show her that he had it already; and +his anxiety in the matter was even more apparent than her own. + +"Thank you, Lord Manister," said Christina, looking him full in the +face. Then her glance dropped to his hand; and his fingers were +entangled in his watch-chain; and in the knowledge that the greater +awkwardness was on his side she raised her eyes confidently, and met the +dogged stare of a young Briton about to make a clean breast of his +misdeeds. + +"Do you want to know why I didn't mention our having taken this +place--that time in town?" + +"That depends on whether you want to tell me." + +"I must tell you. It was because I feared--I mean to say, it crossed my +mind--that perhaps you mightn't care to come here if you knew." + +He paused and watched her. She was looking down, with her chin half +buried in the focusing cloth, which had slipped from her head and +fallen round her shoulders. The coolness of her face against the black +velvet exasperated him, and the more so because he felt himself flushing +as he added, "I see I was a fool to fear that." + +"It was certainly unnecessary, Lord Manister," said the girl calmly, and +not without a note of amusement in her voice. + +"So you don't mind meeting one!" + +"Lord Manister, I am delighted. Why should I mind?" + +"You know I behaved like a brute." + +"You did, I'm afraid." He winced. "You went away without saying good-by +to your friends." + +"I went away without saying good-by to you." + +"Among others." + +"No!" he cried sharply. "You and I were more than friends." + +Christina drummed the ground with one foot. Her glance passed over Lord +Manister's shoulder. He knew that it waited for the dogcart at the bend +of the road. + +"We were more than friends," he repeated desperately. + +"I don't think we ever were." + +"But you thought so once!" + +The girl's lip curled, but her eyes still waited in the road. + +"I wonder what you yourself thought once, Lord Manister?" she said +quietly. "Whatever it was, it didn't last long; but I forgive that +freely. Do you know why? Why, because it was exactly the same with me." + +"Do you forgive me for getting you talked about?" exclaimed Lord +Manister. + +"Yes--because it is the only thing I have to forgive," returned +Christina after a moment's hesitation. "The rest was nonsense; and I +wish you wouldn't rake it up in this dreadfully serious way." + +We know what Christina might mean by nonsense. Lord Manister was not the +first of her friends whom she had offended by her abuse of the word. "It +was not nonsense!" he cried. "It was something either better or worse. I +give you my word that I honestly meant it to be something better. But my +people sent for me. What could I do?" + +His voice and eyes were pitiable; but Christina showed him no pity. + +"What, indeed!" she said ironically. "I myself never blamed you for +going. I was quite sure that you were the passive party, though others +said differently. All I have to forgive is what you made other people +say; but the whole affair is a matter of ancient history--and do you +think we need talk about it any more, Lord Manister?" + +"It is not all I have to forgive myself," he answered bitterly, +disregarding her question. "If only you would hate me, I could hate +myself less; but I deserve your contempt. Yet, if you knew what has been +in my heart all this time, you would pity one. You have haunted me! I +have been good for nothing ever since I came back to England. My people +will tell you so, when you get to know them. My mother would tell you in +a minute. She has never heard your name ... but she knows there was +someone ... she knows there is someone still!" + +Christina had colored at last; but, as she colored, the trot of a horse +came gratefully to her attentive ears. + +"You must think no more about it," she whispered; and her flush +deepened. + +"You wipe it all out?" he cried eagerly. + +"Of course I do." + +Her eyes met the dogcart at the bend. Herbert was in it. + +"And we start afresh?" + +He thought he was to get no answer. She was gazing anxiously at Herbert +as the trap approached; as it drew up on the bridge she murmured, "I +think we had better let well alone," without looking at Lord Manister. +"Herbert, you remember Lord Manister?" she cried aloud in the same +breath. + +Herbert's look was not reassuring. He was, in fact, disgusted with all +present but the groom, and most of all with himself, for being where he +was. Nor was he the young man to trouble to hide his feelings, and he +showed them now in so black a look that Christina, who knew him, was +filled with apprehension. Thanks to Lord Manister's tact, that look did +not last. Manister, who had his own impression of young Luttrell's +character, and had not to be shrewd to guess the other's attitude toward +himself, brought his most graceful manner to bear on the situation. With +Tiny Luttrell, during the bad quarter of an hour which he had deserved +and now endured, his best manner had not been at his command; but it +returned to him with the return of the dogcart, and in time to do him a +service. He had hardly shaken hands with Herbert when he asked him as an +Australian, and therefore a judge, his opinion of the mare. + +The touch would have been too heavy for an older man; but Herbert was +barely twenty, and it flattered him to the marrow. Christina was +relieved to hear his knowing but laudatory comments on the mare's +points. She knew that, despite her brother's aggressive independence, he +was susceptible enough to marked civility. This, indeed, he never +expected, and he was ever ready to return, with interest, some fancied +slight; but Christina had never known him rude to anyone going out of +his way to be polite to him, as Lord Manister was doing this morning. +She divined that politeness from a nobleman was not less gratifying to +Herbert because he happened to have maligned the nobleman with much +industry. Herbert's modest desire was to be treated as an equal by all +men, and he was now being treated as an equal by a lord. This was all he +required to make him reasonably civil, even to Lord Manister. When +Manister asked him, almost deferentially, whether the mare could be +taken in the photograph, he offered his lordship a place in it too, the +offer being declined, but not without many thanks. + +"I'm going to help take it," Manister laughed. "Mind you don't move, +Luttrell. I'm going to help your sister. Hadn't you better come too, and +leave my man alone in his glory?" + +Herbert replied that he would take off the cap or do anything they +liked. So the three went down into the meadow, and some infamous +negatives resulted later. At the time care seemed to be taken by the +photographers, while Lord Manister stood at a little distance, laughing +a good deal. He was pressed to stand in the foreground, but not by +Christina, and he steadily refused. The conciliation of his enemy seemed +assured without that, though he did think of something else to make it +doubly sure. + +"By the way, Luttrell," he said as the camera was being packed away, +"you're a cricketer to a certainty--you're an Australian." + +"I'm very fond of it," the Australian replied, "but I haven't played +over here; I've never had the slant." + +"Well, we play a bit; come over and practice with us." + +Herbert thanked him, declaring that he should like nothing better. + +"Lord Manister is a great cricketer," Christina observed. + +"Come over and practice," repeated his lordship cordially. "The ground +isn't at all bad, considering it was only made last winter, and there's +a professor to bowl to you. We have some matches coming on presently. +Perhaps we might find a place for you." + +This was the one thing Lord Manister said which came within measurable +distance of offending the touchy Herbert. A minute later they had parted +company. + +"They _might_ find a place for me," Herbert repeated as he and Tiny +turned toward the village, while Lord Manister drove off in the opposite +direction, with another slightly ornamental sweep of his hat. "Might +they, indeed! I wouldn't take it. My troubles about their matches! But I +could enjoy a practice." + +"He said he would send over for you next time they do practice." + +Those had been Lord Manister's last words. + +"He did. He is improved. He's a sportsman, after all. It was decent of +him to send back the trap for me. But I didn't want to get in--I was +jolly scotty with myself for getting in. I say, Tiny!" + +"Well?" + +He had her by the arm. + +"I don't ask any questions. I don't want to know a single thing. I hope +he went down on his knees for his sins; I hope you gave him fits! But +look here, Tiny: I won't say a word about this inside if you'd rather I +didn't." + +"I'd rather you did," Tiny said at once. "There's nothing to hide. +But--you can be a dear, good boy when you like, Herbs!" + +"Can I? Then you can be offended if you like--but he's on the job now if +he never was in his life before!" + +"I won't say I hope he isn't," Tiny whispered. + +So she was not offended. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE SHADOW OF THE HALL. + + +Such was Christina's first meeting with Lord Manister in his own county. +It occurred while his mother's invitation was exhilarating so many +homes, and on the day when the Mundham mail bag would not hold the first +draught of prompt replies. Until the garden party itself, however, no +one at the rectory saw any more of Lord Manister, who had gone for a few +days to the Marquis of Wymondham's place in Scotland, where he shot +dreadfully on the Twelfth and was otherwise in queer form, considering +that Miss Garth was also one of the guests. But under all the +circumstances it is not difficult to imagine Manister worried and +unhappy during this interval; which, on the other hand, remained in the +minds of the people at the rectory, Christina included, as the +pleasantest part of their month there. + +Not that they suspected this at the time. Mrs. Erskine especially found +these days a little slow. Having knowledge of Lord Manister's +whereabouts, she was impatient for his return, and the more so because +Christina seemed to have forgotten his existence. Christina was indeed +puzzling, and on one embarrassing occasion, which with some girls would +have led to a scene, she puzzled Ruth more than ever. Ruth tried to +follow her presumptive example, and to put aside the thought of Lord +Manister for the time being. Her consolation meanwhile was the lively +_camaraderie_ between Christina and Erskine, wherein Erskine's wife took +a delight for which we may forgive her much. + +"How well you two get on!" she would say gladly to each of them. + +"He's a man and a brother," Tiny would reply. + +To which Ruth was sure to say tenderly: "It's sweet of you, dear, to +look upon him as a brother. + +"Ah, but don't you forget that he's a man, and not my brother really, +but just the very best of pals!" Tiny said once. "That's the beauty of +him. He's the only man who ever talked sense to me right through from +the beginning, so he's something new. He's the only man I ever liked +without having the least desire to flirt with him, if you particularly +want to know! And I don't believe his being my brother-in-law has +anything to do with that," added the girl reflectively; "it would have +been the same in any case. What's better still, he's the only man who +ever understood me, my dear." + +"He's very clever, you see," observed Ruth slyly, but also in all +seriousness. + +"That's the worst of him; he makes you feel your ignorance." + +"I assure you, Tiny, he thinks _you_ very clever." + +"So you're crackin'!" laughed Tiny; and as the old bush slang filled her +mouth unbidden, the smell of a hot wind at Wallandoon came into her +nostrils; and there seemed no more to be said. + +But that last assurance of Ruth's was still ringing in her ears when her +thoughts got back from the bush. She did not believe a word of it. Yet +it was more or less true. Nor was Erskine far wrong in any opinion he +had expressed to his wife concerning Christina, of whom, perhaps, he had +said even less than he thought. + +She was not, indeed, to be called an intellectual girl, in these days +least of all. That was her misfortune, or otherwise, as you happen to +think. Intellectual possibilities, however, she possessed: raw brain +with which much might have been done. Not much can be done by a +governess on a station in the back-blocks. Merely in curing the girls of +the twang of Australia, more successfully than of its slang, and in +teaching Tiny to sing rather nicely, the governess at Wallandoon had +done wonders. But gifts that were of more use to Christina were natural, +such as the quick perception, the long memory, and the ready tongue with +which she defended the doors of her mind, so that few might guess the +poverty of the store within. Nor had the governess been able to add much +to that store. The liking for books had not come to Christina at +Wallandoon; but in Melbourne she had taken to reading, and had reveled +in a deal of trash; and now in England she read whatever Erskine put in +her hands, and honestly enjoyed most of it, with the additional relish +of being proud of her enjoyment. Erskine thought her discriminating, +too; but converts to good books are apt to flatter the saviors of their +taste, and perhaps her brother-in-law was a poor judge of the girl's +judgment. He liked her for finding _Colonel Newcome's_ life more +touching than his death, and for placing the _Colonel_ second to _Dr. +Primrose_ in the order of her gods after reading "The Vicar of +Wakefield." He was delighted with her confession that she should "love +to be loved by Clive Newcome," while her defense of _Miss Ethel_, which +was vigorous enough to betray a fellow-feeling, was interesting at the +time, and more so later, when there was occasion to remember it. Similar +interest attached to another confession, that she had long envied +_OEnone_ and _Elaine_ "because they were really in love." She seemed to +have mixed some good poetry with the bad novels that had contented her +in Melbourne. Two more books which she learned to love now were "Sesame +and Lilies" and "Virginibus Puerisque." It was Erskine Holland's +privilege to put each into her hands for the first time, and perhaps she +never pleased him quite so much as when she said: "It makes me think +less of myself; it has made me horribly unhappy; but if they were going +to hang me in the morning I would sit up all night to read it again!" +That was her grace after "Sesame and Lilies." + +"Why don't you make Ruth read too?" she asked him once, quite idly, when +they had been talking about books. + +"She has a good deal to think about," Erskine replied after a little +hesitation. "She's too busy to read." + +"Or too happy," suggested Tiny. + +Mr. Holland made a longer pause, looking gratefully at the girl, as +though she had given him a new idea, which he would gladly entertain if +he could. "I wonder whether that's possible?" he said at last. + +"I'm sure it is. Ruth is so happy that books can do nothing for her; the +happy ones show her no happiness so great as her own, and she thinks the +sad ones stupid. The other day, when I insisted on reading her my +favorite thing in 'Virginibus----'" + +"What is your favorite thing?" interrupted Erskine. + +"'El Dorado'--it's the most beautiful thing you have put me on to yet, +of its size. I could hardly see my way through the last page--I can't +tell you why--only because it was so beautiful, I think, and so awfully +true! But Ruth saw nothing to cry over; I'm not sure that she saw much +to admire; and that's all because you have gone and made her so happy." + +For some minutes Erskine looked grim. Then he smiled. + +"But aren't you happy too, Tiny?" + +"I'm as happy as I deserve to be. That's good enough, isn't it?" + +"Quite. You must be as happy as you're pleased to think Ruth." + +"Well, then, I'm not. I should like to be some good in the world, and +I'm no good at all!" + +"I am sorry to see it take you like that," said Erskine gravely. "I +wouldn't have thought this of you, Tiny!" + +"Ah, there are many things you wouldn't think of me," remarked Tiny. She +spoke a little sadly, and she said no more. And this time her sudden +silence came from no vision of the bush, but from what she loved much +less--a glimpse of herself in the mirror of her own heart. + +There was one thing, certainly, that none of them would have thought of +her; for she never told them of her little quiet meddlings in the +village. But I could tell you. Pleasant it would be to write of what she +did for Mrs. Clapperton (who certainly seemed to have been unfairly +treated) and of the memories that lived after her in more cottages than +one. But you are to see her as they did who saw most of her, and to +remember that nothing is more delightful than being kind to the grateful +poor, especially when one is privately depressed. Little was ever known +of the liberties taken by Christina's generosity, and nothing shall be +recorded here. She must stand or fall without that, as in the eyes of +her friends. Suffice it that she did amuse herself in this way on the +sly, and found it good for restoring her vanity, which was suffering +secretly all this time. She would have been the last to take credit for +any good she may have done in Essingham. She knew that it wiped out +nothing, and also that it made her happier than she would have been +otherwise. For though a worse time came later, even now she was not +comfortable in her heart. And she had by no means forgotten the +existence of Lord Manister, as someone feared. + +Ruth, however, put her own conversation under studious restraint during +these days, many of which passed without any mention of Lord Minister's +name at the rectory. The distracting proximity of his stately home was +apparently forgotten in this peaceful spot. But the wife of one clerical +neighbor, a Mrs. Willoughby, who accompanied her husband when he came to +play lawn tennis with Mr. Holland, and indeed wherever the poor man +went, cherished a grudge against the young nobleman's family, of which +she made no secret. It was only natural that this lady should air her +grievance on the lawn at Essingham, whence there was a distant prospect +of lodge and gates to goad her tongue. Yet, when she did so, it was as +though the sun had come out suddenly and thrown the shadow of the hall +across the rectory garden. + +"As for this garden party," cried Mrs. Willoughby, as it seemed for the +benefit of the gentlemen, who had put on their coats, and were handing +teacups under the trees, "I consider it an insult to the county. It +comes too late in the day to be regarded as anything else. Why didn't +they do something when first they came here? They have had the place a +year. Why didn't they give a ball in the winter, or a set of dinner +parties if they preferred that? Shall I tell you why, Mr. Holland? It +was because the general election was further off then, and it hadn't +occurred to them to put up Lord Manister for the division." + +"They haven't been here a year, my dear, by any means," observed Mrs. +Willoughby's husband; "and as for dinner parties, we, at any rate, have +dined with them." + +"Well, I wouldn't boast about it," answered Mrs. Willoughby, who had a +sharp manner in conversation, and a specially staccato note for her +husband. "We dined with them, it is true; I suppose they thought they +must do the civil to a neighboring rector or two. But as their footman +had the insolence to tell our coachman, Mrs. Holland, they considered +things had reached a pretty pass when it came to dining the country +clergy!'" + +"Their footman considered," murmured Mr. Willoughby. + +"He was repeating what he had heard at table," the lady affirmed, as +though she had heard it herself. "They had made a joke of it--before +their servants. So they don't catch me at their garden party, which is +to satisfy our social cravings and secure our votes. I don't visit with +snobs, Mrs. Holland, for all their coronets and Norman blood--of which, +let me tell you, they haven't one drop between them. Who was the present +earl's great-grandfather, I should like to know? He never had one; they +are not only snobs but upstarts, the Dromards." + +"At any rate," Mr. Holland said mildly, "they can't gain anything by +being civil to _us_. We don't represent a single vote. We are here for +one calendar month." + +"Ah, it is wise to be disinterested here and there," rejoined Mrs. +Willoughby, whose sharpness was not merely vocal; "it supplies an +instance, and that's worth a hundred arguments. Now I shouldn't wonder, +Mr. Holland, if they didn't go out of their way to be quite nice to you. +I shouldn't wonder a bit. It would advertise their disinterestedness. +But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly." + +"Mrs. Willoughby is a cynic," laughed Erskine, turning to the clergyman, +whose wife swallowed her tea complacently with this compliment to +sweeten it. To so many minds a charge of cynicism would seem to imply +that intellectual superiority which is cheap at the price of a moral +defect. + +Now Erskine had a lawn tennis player staying with him for the inside of +this week; and the lawn tennis player was a fallen cricketer, who had +played against the Eton eleven when young Manister was in it; and he +ventured to suggest that the division might find a worse candidate. "He +was a nice enough boy then," said he, "and I recollect he made runs; +he's a good fellow still, from all accounts." + +"From all _my_ accounts," retorted Mrs. Willoughby, refreshed by her +tea, "he's a very fast one!" + +Erskine's friend had never heard that, though he understood that +Manister had fallen off in his cricket; he had not seen the young fellow +for years, nor did he think any more about him at the moment, being +drawn by Herbert into cricket talk, which stopped his ears to the +general conversation just as this became really interesting. + +"That reminds me," Mrs. Willoughby exclaimed, turning to Ruth. "Was Lord +Manister out in Australia in your time?" + +Ruth said "No," rather nervously, for Mrs. Willoughby's manner alarmed +her. "I was married just before he came out," she added; "as a matter of +fact, our steamers crossed in the canal." + +"Well, you know what a short time he stayed there, for a governor's +aid-de-camp?" + +"Only a few months, I have heard. Do let me give you another cup of tea, +Mrs. Willoughby!" + +"Now I wonder if you know," pursued this lady, having cursorily declined +more tea, "how he came to leave so suddenly?" + +Poor Mrs. Holland shook her head, which was inwardly besieged with +impossible tenders for a change of subject. No one helped her: Tiny had +perhaps already lost her presence of mind; Erskine did not understand; +the other two were not listening. Ruth could think of no better +expedient than a third cup for Christina; as she passed it her own hand +trembled, but venturing to glance at her sister's face, she was amazed +to find it not only free from all sign of self-consciousness or of +anxiety, but filled with unaffected interest. For this was the occasion +on which Christina's coolness quite baffled Ruth, who for her part was +preparing for a scene. + +"Shall I tell you?" asked Mrs. Willoughby. + +"Do," said Christina, to whom the well-informed lady at once turned. + +"He formed an attachment out there, Miss Luttrell! He could only get +out of it by fleeing the country; so he fled. You look as though you +knew all about it," she added (making Ruth shudder), for the girl had +smiled knowingly. + +"About which?" asked Tiny. + +"What! Were there more affairs than one?" + +"Some people said so." + +Mrs. Willoughby glanced around her with a glittering eye, and was sorry +to notice that two of her hearers were not listening. "That is just what +I expected," she informed the other four. "If you tell me that Melbourne +became too hot to hold him I shall not be surprised." + +"Melbourne made rather a fuss about him," replied Christina in an +excusing tone that pierced Ruth's embarrassment and pricked to life her +darling hopes. "He was not greatly to blame." + +"But he broke the poor girl's heart. I should blame him for that, to say +the least of it." + +"You surprise me," said Christina gravely; "I thought that people at +home never blamed each other for anything they did in the colonies? +Over here you are particular, I know; but I thought it was correct not +to be too particular when out there. Your writers come out: we treat +them like lords, and then they do nothing but abuse us; your lords come +out: we treat them like princes, and, you see, they break our hearts. Of +course they do! We expect it of them. It's all we look for in the +colonies." + +"You are not serious, Miss Luttrell," said Mrs. Willoughby in some +displeasure. "To my mind it is a serious thing. It seems a sad thing, +too, to me. But I may be old-fashioned; the present generation would +crack jokes across an open grave, as I am well aware. Yet there isn't +much joke in a young girl having her heart broken by such as Lord +Manister, is there? And that's what literally happened, for my friend +Mrs. Foster-Simpson knows all about it. She knows all about the +Dromards--to her cost!" + +"Ah, we know the Foster-Simpsons; they called on us last year," remarked +Erskine, who devoutly trusted that they would not call again. His +amusement at Christina hardly balanced his weariness of Mrs. Willoughby, +and he took off his coat as he spoke. + +"Does your friend know the poor girl's name, Mrs. Willoughby?" Tiny +asked when the men had gone back to the court; and her tone was now as +sympathetic as could possibly be desired. + +"I'm sorry to say she does not; it's the one thing she has been unable +to find out," said Mrs. Willoughby naïvely. "Perhaps you could tell me, +Miss Luttrell?" + +"Perhaps I could," said Christina, smiling, as she rose to seek a ball +which had been hit into the churchyard. "Only, you see, I don't know +which of them it was. It wouldn't be fair to give you a list of names to +guess from, would it?" + +Fortunately Mrs. Willoughby put no further questions to Ruth, who was +intensely thankful. "For," as she told Christina afterward, "_I_ was on +pins and needles the whole time. I never did know anyone like you for +keeping cool under fire!" + +"It depends on the fire," Tiny said. "Mrs. Willoughby went off by +accident, and luckily she was not pointing at anybody." + +"And I'm glad she did, now it's over!" exclaimed Ruth. "Don't you see +that I was quite right about your name? So now you need have no more +qualms about the garden party." + +"Perhaps I've had no qualms for some time; perhaps I've known you were +right." + +"Since when? Since--since you saw Lord Manister?" + +Tiny nodded. + +"Do you mean to say you talked about it?" Ruth whispered in delicious +awe. + +"I mustn't tell you what _he_ talked about. He was as nice as he could +be--though I should have preferred to find him less beautifully dressed +in the country; but I always felt that about him. I am sure, however, of +one thing: he was no more to blame than--I was. I have always felt this +about him, too." + +"Tiny, dear, if only I could understand you!" + +"If only you could! Then you might help me to understand myself." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"COUNTESS DROMARD AT HOME." + + +The hall gates were plain enough from the rectory lawn, but plainer +still from the steps whence, on the afternoon of the garden party, Mr. +Holland watched them from under the brim of the first hard hat he had +worn for a fortnight. He was ready, while the ladies were traditionally +late, but he did not lose patience; he was too much entertained in +watching the hall gates and the hedgerow that hid the road leading up to +them. Vehicles were filing along this road in a procession which for the +moment was continuous. Erskine could see them over the hedge, and it was +difficult to do so without sharing some opinions which Mrs. Willoughby +had expressed regarding the comprehensive character of the social +measure taken not before it was time by the noble family within those +gates. There were county clergymen driving themselves in ill-balanced +dogcarts, and county townspeople in carriages manifestly hired, and +county bigwigs--as big as the Dromards themselves--in splendid +equipages, with splendid coachmen and horseflesh the most magnificent. +Greater processional versatility might scarcely be seen in southwestern +suburbs on Derby Day; and the low phaeton which he himself was about to +contribute to the medley made Erskine laugh. + +"We should follow the next really swagger turnout--we should run behind +it," he suggested to the girls when at length they appeared; and Ruth +took him seriously. + +"No, get in front of them," said Herbert, who was lounging on the steps, +in dirty flannels which Erskine envied him. "Get in front of them and +slow down. That'd be the sporting thing to do! They couldn't pass you in +the drive. It would do 'em good." + +However, the procession was not without gaps, and to Ruth's satisfaction +they found themselves in rather a wide one. As they drove through those +august gates a parson's dogcart was rounding a curve some distance +ahead, but nothing was in sight behind. Ruth sat beside her husband, who +drove. She looked rather demure, but very charming in her little +matronly bonnet; her costume was otherwise somewhat noticeably sober, +and certainly she had never felt more sensibly the married sister than +now, as she glanced at Christina with furtive anxiety, but open +admiration. Tiny was neatly dressed in white, and her hat was white +also. "Do you know why I wear a white hat?" she asked Erskine on the +way; but her question proved merely to be an impudent adaptation of a +very disreputable old riddle, and beyond this she was unusually silent +during the short drive. Yet she seemed not only self-possessed, but +inwardly at her ease. She sat on the little seat in front, often turning +round to gaze ahead, and her curiosity and interest were very frank and +natural. So were her admiration of the park, her anxiety to see the +house itself, and even her wonder at the great length of the drive, +which ran alongside the cricket field, and then bent steadily to the +left. When at last the low red-brick pile became visible, Gallow Hill +was seen immediately behind it, which surprised Christina; the lawn in +front was alive with people, which put her on her mettle; and the +inspiriting outburst of a military band at that moment forced from her +an admission of the pleasure and excitement which had been growing upon +her for some minutes. + +"I like this!" she exclaimed. "This is first-rate England!" + +Countess Dromard stood on the edge of the lawn at the front of the +house, and apparently the carriages were unloading at this side of the +drive. Ruth whispered hurriedly that she was sure they were, but she was +not so sure in reality, and she now saw the disadvantage of arriving in +a wide gap, which deprives the inexperienced of their lawful cue. She +was quite right, however, and when some minutes elapsed before the +arrival of another carriage to interrupt the charming little +conversation Ruth had with Lady Dromard, the good of the gap became +triumphantly apparent. The countess was very kind indeed. She was a +tall, fine woman, with whom the shadows of life had scarce begun to +lengthen to the eye; her face was not only handsome, but wonderfully +fresh, and she had a trick of lowering it as she chatted with Ruth, +bending over her in a way which was comfortable and almost motherly from +the first. She had heard of Mrs. Holland, whom she was glad to meet at +last, and of whom she now hoped to see something more. Ruth observed +that they had the rectory only till September; she was sorry her time +was so short. Lady Dromard very flatteringly echoed her sorrow, and also +professed an envious admiration for the rectory, which she described as +idyllic. That was practically all. What was said of the weather hardly +counted; and a repetition of her ladyship's hopes of seeing something +more of Mrs. Holland and her party was not worth remembering, according +to Erskine, who declared that this meant nothing at all. + +Ruth, however, was not likely to forget it; though she treasured just as +much the memory of a certain glance which she had caught the countess +leveling at her sister. She thought that other eyes also were attracted +by the white-robed Tiny, and the smooth-shaven turf was air to Ruth's +tread as she marched off with her husband and that cynosure. Nor was her +satisfaction decreased when the first person they came across chanced to +be no other than Mrs. Willoughby. This meeting was literally the +unexpected treat that Ruth pronounced it to be, for the clergyman's wife +was smiling in a manner which showed that she had witnessed the +countess' singular civility to her friend. + +"Yes, I'm here after all," said Mrs. Willoughby grimly. "Henry made me +very angry by insisting on coming, but of course I wasn't going to let +him come alone. I hope you think he looks happy now he's here!" (Mr. +Willoughby and a brother rector might have been hatching dark designs +against their bishop, who was himself present, judging by their looks.) +"_I_ call him the picture of misery. Well, Mrs. Holland, I hope you are +gratified at your reception! Oh, it was quite gushing, I assure you; we +have all been watching. But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly, my +dear Mrs. Holland." + +Mrs. Holland left the reply to her husband, who, however, contented +himself with promising Mrs. Willoughby a telegraphic report of the +proceedings at that meeting, if it ever took place. + +"Ah, there won't be much to report," said that redoubtable woman; "they +won't look at you. But I shouldn't be surprised to see them make a deal +of you in the country, if you let them." + +It did not seem conducive to the enjoyment of the afternoon to prolong +the conversation with Mrs. Willoughby. The party of three wandered +toward the band, admiring the scarlet coats of the bandsmen against the +dark green of the shrubbery, and their bright brass instruments flaming +in the sun. The music also was of much spirit and gayety, and it was +agreed that a band was an immense improvement to a rite of this sort. +Then these three, who, after all, knew very few people present, followed +the example of others, and made a circuit of the house, in high good +humor. But Tiny found herself between two conversational fires, for Ruth +would compel her to express admiration for the premises, which might +have been taken for granted, while Erskine called her attention to the +people, who were much more entertaining to watch. As they passed a table +devoted to refreshments, at which a large lady was being waited upon +very politely by a small boy in a broad collar, they overheard one of +those scraps of conversation which amuse at the moment. + +"So you're a Dromard boy, are you?" the lady was saying. "I've never +seen you before. What Dromard boy are _you_, pray?" + +"My name's Douglas." + +"Oh! So you're the Honorable Douglas Dromard, are you?" + +The boy handed her an ice without answering as the three passed on. + +"I said you'd see and hear some queer things," whispered Mr. Holland; +"but you won't hear anything much finer than that. The woman is Mrs. +Foster-Simpson; her husband's a solicitor, and may be the Conservative +agent, if his wife doesn't disqualify him. She professes to know all +about the Dromards, as you heard the other day. You can guess the kind +of knowledge. Even the boy snubs her. Yet mark him. The mixture of +politeness and contempt was worth noticing in a small boy like that. +There's a little nobleman for you!" + +"No, a little Englishman," said Tiny. "Now that's a thing I do envy +you--your schoolboys, your little gentlemen! We don't grow them so +little in the colonies; we don't know how." + +They were walking on a majestic terrace in the shadow of the red-brick +house, their figures mirrored in each mullioned window as they passed +it. + +"I call Lord Manister the luckiest young man in England," Ruth exclaimed +during a pause between the other two. "To think that all this will be +his!" + +"It rather reminds me of Hampton Court on this side," remarked Tiny +indifferently. + +"And it's by no means their only place, you know; there are others they +never use, are there not, Erskine?--to say nothing of all those squares +and streets in town!" + +But Erskine sounded the thick sibilant of silence as they passed a +shabby looking person with a slouching walk and a fair beard. + +"I wonder how _he_ got here?" Tiny murmured next moment. + +"He has a better right than most of us." + +"What do you mean, Erskine?" + +"Well, it's the earl." + +"Earl Dromard? I should have guessed his gardener!" + +"No, that's the earl. Old clothes are his special fancy in the country. +It's his particular form of side, so they say." + +"Well," said Tiny, "I prefer it to his son's, which has always appeared +to me to be the other extreme." + +"I am sure Lord Manister is not over-dressed," remonstrated Ruth, with +her usual alacrity in defense of his lordship. + +"No, that's the worst of him," answered her sister. "There is nothing to +find fault with, ever; that's what makes one think he employs his +intellect on the study of his appearance." + +They had seen Lord Manister in the distance. Presumably he had not seen +them, but he might have done so; and Ruth supposed it was the doubt that +made her sister speak of him more captiously than usual. But the +criticism was not utterly unfair, as Ruth might presently have seen for +herself; for as they came back to the front of the house, Lord Manister +detached himself from a group, and approached them with the suave smile +and the slight flourish of the hat which were two of his tricks. +Christina asked afterward if the flourish was not dreadfully +continental, but she was told that it was merely up to date, like the +hat itself. At the time, however, she introduced Lord Manister to her +sister Mrs. Erskine Holland, and to Mr. Holland, taking this liberty +with charming grace and tact, yet with a becoming amount of natural +shyness. Manister, for one, was pleased with the introduction on all +grounds. From the first, however, he addressed himself to the married +lady, speaking partly of the surrounding country, for which Ruth could +not say too much, and partly of Melbourne, which enabled him to return +her compliments. His manner was eminently friendly and polite. +Discovering that they had not yet been in the house for tea, he led the +way thither, and through a throng of people in the hall, and so into the +dining room. Here he saved the situation from embarrassment by making +himself equally attentive to another party. To Ruth, however, Lord +Manister's civility was still sufficiently marked, while he asked her +husband whether he was a cricketer; and this reminded him of Herbert, +for whom he gave Miss Luttrell a message. He said they had just arranged +some cricket for the last week of the month; he thought they would be +glad of Miss Luttrell's brother in one or two of the matches. But he +seemed to fear that most of the teams were made up; his young brother +was arranging everything. Christina gathered that in any case they would +be glad to see Herbert at the nets any afternoon of the following week, +more especially on the Monday. Lord Manister made a point of the +message, and also of the cricket week, "when," he said, "you must all +turn up if it's fine." And those were his last words to them. + +"I see you know my son," said the countess in her kindliest manner as +Ruth thanked her for a charming afternoon. + +"My sister met him the other day at Lady Almeric's," replied Ruth, "and +before that in Australia." + +"I knew Lord Manister in Melbourne," added Tiny with freedom. + +"Do you mean to tell me you are Australians?" said Lady Dromard in a +tone that complimented the girls at the expense of their country. "Then +you must certainly come and see me," she added cordially, though her +surprise was still upon her. "I am greatly interested in Australia since +my son was there. I feel I have a welcome for all Australians--you +welcomed him, you know!" + +Christina afterward expressed the firm opinion that Lady Dromard had +said this rather strangely, which Ruth as firmly denied. Tiny was +accused of an imaginative self-consciousness, and the accusation +provoked a blush, which Ruth took care to remember. Certainly, if the +countess had spoken queerly, the queerness had escaped the one person +who was not on the lookout for something of the kind; Erskine Holland +had perceived nothing but her ladyship's condescension, which had been +indeed remarkable, though Erskine still told his wife to expect no +further notice from that quarter. + +"And I'm selfish enough to hope you'll get none, my dears," he said to +the girls that evening as they sauntered through the kitchen garden +after dinner; "because for my part I'd much rather not be noticed by +them. We were not intended to take seriously anything that was said this +afternoon; honey was the order of the day for all comers--and can't you +imagine them wiping their foreheads when we were all gone? I only hope +they wiped us out of their heads! We're much happier as we are. I'm not +rabid, like Mrs. Willoughby; but she prophesied a very possible +experience, when all's said and done, confound her! I have visions of +Piccadilly myself. And seriously, Ruth, you wouldn't like it if you +became friendly with these people here and they cut you in town; no more +should I. I think you can't be too careful with people of that sort; and +if they ask us again I vote we don't go; but they won't ask us any +more, you may depend upon it." + +"I don't depend upon it, all the same," replied Ruth, with some spirit. +"Lady Dromard was most kind; and as for Lord Manister, _I_ was enchanted +with him." + +"Were you?" Tiny said, feeling vaguely that she was challenged. + +"I was; I thought him unaffected and friendly, and even simple. I am +sure he is simple-minded! I am also sure that you won't find another +young man in his position who is better natured or better hearted----" + +"Or better mannered--or better dressed! You are quite right; he is +nearly perfect. He is rather too perfect for me in his manners and +appearance; I should like to untidy him; I should like to put him in a +temper. Lord Manister was never in a temper in his life; he's nicer than +most people--but he's too nice altogether for me!" + +"You knew him rather well in Melbourne?" said Erskine, eyeing his +sister-in-law curiously; her face was toward the moon, and her +expression was set and scornful. + +"Very well indeed," she answered with her erratic candor. + +"I might have guessed as much that time in town. I say, if we meet _him_ +in Piccadilly we may score off Mrs. Willoughby yet! Wait till we get +back----" + +"All right; only don't let us wait out here," Ruth interrupted--"or Tiny +and I may have to go back in our coffins!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MOTHER AND SON. + + +A clever man is not necessarily an infallible prophet; and the clever +man who is married may well preserve an intellectual luster in the eyes +of his admirer by never prophesying at all. But should he take pleasure +in predicting the thing that is openly deprecated at the other side of +the hearth, let him see to it that his prediction comes true, for +otherwise he has whetted a blade for his own breast, from whose +justifiable use only an angel could abstain. There was no angel in the +family which had been brought up on Wallandoon Station, New South Wales. +When, within the next three days, Ruth received a note from Lady Dromard +inviting them all to dinner at a very early date, she did not fail to +prod Erskine as he deserved. But her thrust was not malignant; nor did +she give vexatious vent to her own triumph, which was considerable. + +"You are a very clever man," she merely told him, and with the relish +of a wife who can say this from her heart; "but you see, you're wrong +for once. Lady Dromard _did_ mean what she said. She wants us all to +dine there on Friday evening, when, as it happens, we have no other +engagement; and really I don't see how we can refuse." + +"You mean that you would like to get out of it if you could?" her +husband said. + +"You don't need to be sarcastic," remarked Ruth with a slight flush. +"Who wants to get out of it?" + +"I thought perhaps you did, my dear; to tell you the truth, I rather +hoped so." + +"You don't want to go!" + +"I can't say I jump." + +Ruth colored afresh. + +"I have no patience with you, Erskine! Nobody is dying to go; but I own +I can't see any reason against going, nor any excuse for stopping away; +and considering what you yourself said about going to the garden party, +dear, I must say I think you're rather inconsistent." + +Holland gazed down into the flushed, frowning face, that frowned so +seldom, and flushed so prettily. Always an undemonstrative husband, +very properly he had been more so than ever since others had been +staying in the house. But neither of those others was present now, and +rather suddenly he stooped and kissed his wife. + +"There is no reason, and there would be no excuse; so you are quite +right," he said kindly. "It's only that one has a constitutional dislike +to being taken up--and dropped. I have visions of all that. I'm afraid +Mrs. Willoughby has poisoned my mind; we will go, and let us hope it'll +prove an antidote." + +They went, and that dinner party was not the formidable affair it might +have been; as Lady Dromard herself said, most graciously, it was not a +dinner party at all. Ten, however, sat down, of whom four came from the +rectory; for Herbert had been over to practice at the nets, and was +fairly satisfied with his treatment on that occasion, which accounted +for his presence on this. The only other guests were an inevitable +divine and his wife. The earl was absent. As if to conserve Christina's +impression of the old clothes in which, as the natives said, his +lordship "liked himself," Earl Dromard had left for London rather +suddenly that morning. Lord Manister filled his place impeccably, with +Ruth at her best on his right. Herbert was less happy with Lady Mary +Dromard, a very proud person, who could also be very rude in the most +elegant manner. But Christina fell to the jolliest scion of the house, +Mr. Stanley Dromard; and this pair mutually enjoyed themselves. + +Young in every way was the Honorable Stanley Dromard. He had just left +Eton, where he had been in the eleven, like his brother before him; he +was to go into residence at Trinity in October. With a quantum of +gentlemanly interest he heard that Miss Luttrell's brother was also +going up to Cambridge next term; but not to Trinity. Said Mr. Dromard, +"Your brother's a bit of a cricketer, too; he came over for a knock the +other day; he means to play for us next week, if we're short, doesn't +he?" Christina fancied so. Mr. Dromard said "Good!" with some emphasis, +and Herbert's name dropped out of the conversation. This became +Anglo-Australian, as it was sure to, and led to some of those bold +comparisons for which Christina was generally to be trusted; but the +bolder they were, the more Mr. Dromard enjoyed them, for the girl +glittered in his eyes. He was a delightfully appreciative youth, if +easily amused, and his laughter sharpened Tiny's wits. She shone +consciously, but yet calmly, and made a really remarkable impression +upon her companion, without once meeting Lord Manister's glance, which +rested on her sometimes for a second. + +So the flattering attentions of young Dromard were not terminated, but +merely interrupted, by the flight of the ladies. When the men followed +them to the drawing room the younger son shot to Miss Luttrell's side +with the fine regardlessness of nineteen, and furthered their friendship +by divulging the Mundham plans for the following week. The cricket was +to begin on the Tuesday. The men were coming the day before: half the +Eton eleven, Tiny understood, and some older young fellows of Manister's +standing. The first two were to be two-day matches against the county +and a Marylebone team. The Saturday's match would be between Mundham +Hall and another scratch eleven, "and that's when we may want your +brother, Miss Luttrell," added Mr. Dromard, "though we _might_ want him +before. Our team has been made up some time, but somebody is sure to +have some other fixture for Saturday." + +"I think he may like to play," said Christina. + +Mr. Dromard seemed a little surprised. + +"It's a jolly ground," he remarked, "and there will be some first-rate +players." + +"I am sure he would like a game on your ground," Christina went so far +as to say. + +"Do you dance, Miss Luttrell?" asked the young man, after a pause. + +"When I get the chance," said Christina. + +He gazed at her a moment, and could imagine her dancing--with him. + +"Suppose we were to do something of the kind here one evening between +the matches; would you come?" + +"If I got the chance," said Christina. + +Dromard considered what he was saying. "We ought to have a dance," he +added in a doubtful tone, as though the need were greater than the +chance; "we really ought. But I don't suppose we shall; nothing is +arranged, you see." + +"You needn't hedge, Mr. Dromard," said the girl, smiling. + +"Eh?" + +"I shan't expect an invitation!" + +She nodded knowingly as he blushed; but he had the great merit of being +easily amused, and with another word she made him merry and at ease +again. Not unreasonably, perhaps, a casual spectator might have +suspected these two of a mild but immediate flirtation. Stanley, +however, was at a safe and privileged age, and no eye was on him but his +brother's. Lord Manister gave the impression of being a rather dignified +person in his own home, but he was doing his gracious duty by the +guests, none of whom seemed especially to occupy his attention, while he +was reasonably polite to all. It was he, too, who at length suggested to +Lady Dromard that Miss Luttrell would probably sing something if she +were asked. + +So Christina sang something--it hardly matters what. Her song was not a +classic, neither was it grossly popular. It was a pleasant song, +pleasantly sung, and the entire absence of pretentiousness and of +affectation in the song and the singing was more noticeable than the +positive excellence of either. The girl had no greater voice than one +would have expected of so small a person, but what she had was in +keeping. Lady Dromard, however, had a more sensitive appreciation of +good taste than of good music, and she asked for more. Christina sang +successively something of Lassen's, and then "Last Night," taking the +English words in each case. She played her own accompaniments, and felt +little nervousness until her last song was finished, when it certainly +startled her to find Lady Dromard standing at her side. + +"Thank you!" said the countess with considerable enthusiasm. "You sing +delightfully, and you sing delightful songs. You must have been very +well taught." + +"Mostly in the bush," said Christina truthfully. + +"You come from the bush?" + +"But you had some lessons in Melbourne," put in Ruth, who was visibly +delighted. + +"Oh, yes, a few," Tiny said, smiling; "as many as I was worth." + +"Ah, you shall tell me about Melbourne one day soon," said Lady Dromard +to the young girl. "Your sister has promised to come over and watch the +cricket. I do hope you will come with her." + +Christina expressed her pleasure at the prospect, and, taking the +nearest seat, found Lord Manister leaning over the end of the piano and +looking down upon her with a rather sardonic smile. + +"You haven't looked at me this evening," he said to her under cover of +the general conversation, which was now renewed. "May I ask what I have +done?" + +"Certainly you may ask, Lord Manister," answered the girl with immense +simplicity; "but I can't tell you, because I am not aware that you have +done anything beyond making us all very happy and at home." + +"Well, I'm glad to hear that," said Manister, whose quasi-humorous tone +lacked the lightness to deceive; "I was afraid I had offended you." + +"Offended me!" cried Christina, with widening eyes and a puzzled look. +"When have you seen me to offend me! I haven't seen you since your +garden party, and you certainly didn't offend me then--you were awfully +nice to us all!" + +"Ah, that wasn't seeing you," Lord Manister murmured. "I don't reckon +that I've seen you since--the photographs. I had to go to Scotland; I +meant to tell you." + +"It wouldn't have interested me," said Christina, with a shrug. "It +might have interested me if you had said--you were _not_ going," she +added next moment. Her tone had dropped. She looked at him and smiled. + +Her smile stayed with him after she was gone; but from his face you +would not have guessed that he was nursing a kind look. She had given +him one smile, which made up for many things. But you would have +thought, with his people, that he had been suffering the whole evening +from acute boredom: you might well have fancied, with Lady Mary, that a +remark disparaging Australian women would have met with a grateful +response from him. The response it did meet with was anything but +grateful to Lady Mary Dromard. It drove her from the room, in which +Manister and his mother were presently left alone. + +"I think you were just," the countess said critically. "They are +pleasant people, and quite all right. The young man is their weak +point." + +"They always are," her son remarked, rather savagely still. "They're +larrikins!" + +"The young girl was especially nice, and sang like a lady." + +"Ah, you approve of her," said Lord Manister dryly. + +"Entirely, I think. Evidently you don't. I only saw you speak to her +once, toward the end. Yet she has met you in Australia; I should have +recognized that, I think. Now her people," Lady Dromard added +tentatively, "will be rather superior, I suppose, as colonials go?" + +"Well, they're rich; I suppose that's how colonials go." + +For one moment Lady Dromard fancied that the sneer was for the +colonials, and it surprised her; the next, she took it to herself, and +very meekly for so proud a heart. + +"My dear boy!" she murmured indulgently. "Apart from their people, these +girls--for the married one is as young as she has any right to +be--strike one as fresh, and free, and pleasing. And they are ladies. Am +I to believe that the majority out there are like them?" + +Manister shrugged his shoulders. + +"That's as you please, my dear mother. These people didn't strike me as +the only decent ones in Melbourne. I did meet others." + +The countess tapped her foot upon the fender, and took counsel with her +own reflection in the mirror, for she was standing before the fireplace +while her son wandered about the room--her son with the reputation for a +childlike devotion to his mother. There had been little of that sort of +devotion since his return from Australia. Nothing between them was as it +had been before. This bitter coldness had been his domestic manner--his +manner with her, of all people--longer than the mother could bear. She +knew the reason; she had tried to tell him so; she had tried to speak +freely to him of the whole matter--even penitently, if he would. But he +had never spoken freely to her; and once he had refused to speak at all, +thence or thenceforth. Lady Dromard had made a resolve then which she +remembered now. + +"Really, Harry, I can't make you out," she said lightly at length. "You +knock down the colonials with one hand, and you set them up with the +other, as though they were so many ninepins. I am puzzled to know what +you really mean, and what you mean satirically. You never used to be +satirical, Harry! I should like to know whether you really approve of +these people, or whether you don't." + +"I do approve of them," said Lord Manister, halting on the rug before +his mother. "I won't put it more strongly. But I am glad that you should +have seen there are such things as ladies in Australia!" + +Their eyes met, and the mother forgot her resolve; for he had raised the +subject himself, and for the first time. + +"You think of her still!" whispered Lady Dromard. + +"Of course I do," returned Manister, roughly; and again he was striding +about the room. + +Never in her life, perhaps, had the countess received a sharper hurt; +for he had refused to see the hand she had reached out to him +involuntarily. Yet assuredly Lady Dromard had never spoken in a more +ordinary tone than that of her next words, a minute later. + +"It occurred to me, Harry, that if we really think of dancing one +evening during the cricket week, we might do worse than ask these people +from the rectory. You must have girls to dance with. Still, if you think +better not, you have only to say so." + +"I think it's for you to decide; but, if you ask me, I don't see the +least objection to it," said Lord Manister, with a smooth ceremony that +had a sharper edge than his rough words. "I'm not sure, however, that +they will come every time you ask them." + +"Pourquoi?" + +"Because they're the most independent people in the world, the +Australians." + +"It would scarcely touch their independence," said Lady Dromard with +careless contempt; "but we can really do without them, and I am glad of +your hint, because now I shall not think of asking them." + +"Now, my dear mother," cried Lord Manister, no longer either hot or +cold, but his old self for once in his anxiety--"you misunderstand me +entirely! I'm not great on a dance at all, but if we're to have one we +must, as you say, have somebody to dance with; and I _want_ you to ask +these people." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A THREATENING DAWN. + + +"I like a dance where you can dance," said Herbert, who was looking at +himself in a glass and wondering how long his white tie had been on one +side. "It was worth fifty of the swell show you took us to in town, +Ruth." + +"I am glad you two have enjoyed it so," returned Ruth, with her eye, +however, upon her husband. "Of course there's a great difference between +a big dance in town and a little one in the country." + +Tiny seemed busy. She was tearing her programme into small pieces, and +dropping them at her feet, so that when she had gone up to bed it was as +though a paper chase had passed through the rectory study, where they +had all gathered for a few moments on their return from the dance. +Christina, however, was not too preoccupied to chime in on her own +note: + +"It's like the difference between Riverina and Victoria--there were +acres to the sheep instead of sheep to the acre." + +Now there was no merit in this speech, but to those who understood it +the comparison was apt, and Erskine knew enough of Australia to +understand. Moreover, he had taught Tiny to listen for his laugh. So +when he made neither sound nor sign the girl felt injured, but +remembered that he had been extremely silent on the way home. And he was +the first to go upstairs. + +"It has bored him," observed Christina. + +"He don't like dancing," said Herbert. "He's no sportsman." + +"I am afraid he cares for nothing but lawn tennis when he's here," +sighed Ruth, who looked a little troubled. "I am afraid he dislikes +going out in the country." + +They were silent for some minutes before Tiny exclaimed with conviction: + +"No; it's the Dromards he dislikes." + +And presently they made a move from the room. But on the stairs they met +Erskine coming down, having changed his dress suit for flannels; and +Ruth followed him back to the study, eying the change with dismay. + +"Surely you're not going to sit up at this hour?" + +Ruth had raised her glance from his flannels to his face, which troubled +her more. + +"I'm afraid the fine weather's at an end," Erskine answered crookedly; +"it's most awfully close, at any rate. And I want a pipe." + +He proceeded to fill one with his back to her. + +"Erskine!" + +"Well, dear?" + +"I won't be 'dear' to you when you're cross with me. I want to know what +I have done to vex you." + +He had struck a match, and he lit his pipe before answering. Then he +said gently enough: + +"If you think I'm cross with you I should run away to bed; I certainly +don't mean to be." + +But he had not turned round. + +"You succeed, at any rate! As you seem to wish it, I shall take your +advice." + +Erskine heard her on the stairs with a twinge in his heart. He went to +the door to call her down and be frank with her, but the shutting of +her own door checked him. Setting this one ajar, he threw up the window, +and stood frowning at the opaque pall that seemed to have been let down +behind it like an outer blind. So he remained for some minutes before +remembering the easy-chair. No one knew better than Erskine that he had +just been unkind to his wife. He was not pleased with her, but he had +refused to explain his displeasure when she invited him to do so. There +was this difficulty in explaining it--that he knew it to be +unreasonable, since the person who had vexed him most was not Ruth, but +Christina. And not more reasonable was his disappointment in Christina, +as he also knew. Yet the one thing in life not disappointing to him at +the moment was his pipe; even the fine weather was most surely at an +end. + +He was tired of the rectory, which, wet or fair, had no longer either +light or shadow of its own, for both were now absorbed in the deepening +shadow of the hall. A week ago they had all dined there, now they had +been dancing there, and meanwhile the girls had watched one of the +matches, and were going to another. Erskine had been opposed to the +dance, but the wife had prevailed; he was against their going to another +match, but doubtless Ruth would have her way again, for she had shown a +tenacity of purpose that surprised him in her, while he was crippled by +a conscious lack of logic in his objections. He was not an arbitrary +person, and it seemed that Ruth would stop for nothing less than a +command where her heart was set; and her sister was with her. The whole +trouble was, where their hearts were set. + +He tried hard not to think the worst of Tiny, or rather the worst as it +seemed to him. To make it easier, he called to mind various things she +had said to him at various times concerning Lord Manister, of whom she +had seldom failed to make fun. It amused and consoled Erskine to +remember the fun; there must be hope for her still. Then he recalled +common gossip about Lord Manister and his affairs; and there was hope on +that side too. In less than a week the danger would be past, and those +two would never see each other again. Consideration of the danger he had +in mind, _quá_ danger, provoked a smile. Tiny herself would have enjoyed +the humor of that, she was so quick to see and to enjoy. But she could +appreciate more than a joke, or did she only pretend to like those +books? And the soul that shone sometimes in her eyes, did it lie much +deeper? She interested Erskine the more because he could not be sure. +She was a fascinating study to him, whatever she did or was trying to +do. In any case, there was much good in her that he had fathomed, and +more was suggested; and the finer the nature, the stronger the +contrasts. Now as to contrasts--yet he had never seen that in Australia. + +"A penny for your thoughts!" + +Ten thousand pounds would not have bought them. It was his wife on the +threshold, in a pale pink wrapper. + +"My dear! I pictured you asleep hours ago." + +"Were you picturing me when I spoke?" Ruth said, with a smile. "I'm not +sleepy--and I want to talk to you. May I sit down? An hour more or less +makes no difference at this time of the morning." + +Erskine rose from the easy-chair in which he had been smoking, and +settled his wife in it against her will, and drew the curtains across +the open window. + +"I'm glad you've come down, Ruth, for I want to speak to you, too. I was +a brute to you when I sent you away just now." + +"Well, I really think you were; but I know you must have had some +reason; so I've come down to have it out and be done with it." + +"My dear Ruth!" said Mr. Holland uncomfortably; for was there any call +to be frank with her at all? It would hurt; and could it do any good? + +"I suppose," pursued Ruth in a tone not perfectly free from defiance, +"it's all because we went to this horrid dance! And I'll say I'm sorry +we did go, if you like; though why you should have such a down on the +Dromards I can't for the life of me imagine." + +"My dear girl," said Erskine, smiling now that he had determined not to +say everything, "I really have no down on them at all. They're the most +amiable family I know, considering who they are. They have a charming +place, and they treat you delightfully while you're there. Considering +who _we_ are, and that we have no root in this soil, I grant you they're +particularly kind to us; but don't you think their kindness is just a +little trying? I do, though I have nothing against them, personally or +otherwise. I am not even a political opponent; if I had a vote for the +division young Manister should have it. But I'm not keen on so much +notice from them; I've said so before; there's no sense in it!" + +"Ah, well, if only you would show me the harm in it!" + +"Harm? Heaven forbid there should be any. One finds it a bore, that's +all. It's a selfish reason, but it's the truth--I should have had a +better time this last week if the Dromards had been far enough!" + +"And we should have had a worse--Tiny and I. No, Erskine, I know you +better than you think. You're not so selfish as all that; there's some +other reason." + +Erskine turned away with a shrug, to avoid her glance. + +"Something has annoyed you to-night. One of us has behaved badly. Was it +Tiny or was it----" + +"You?" said Erskine, with a smile. "From what I saw of your behavior, my +dear, it was entirely creditable to you as a chaperon. Your face was +seventeen, but your air was a frank fifty!" + +"Then it was Tiny. I suppose she danced too much with those boys they +have staying in the house. I should have thought there was +respectability in numbers; I really don't see how _they_ could matter." + +"They seemed to matter to Manister," remarked Erskine dryly. + +Ruth winced, but he had wondered whether she would, or he would never +have noticed it. + +"Surely you don't think Lord Manister cares who dances with our Tiny?" + +The amusement in her tone and manner was cleverly feigned, but instead +of deceiving Erskine it spurred him to speak out, after all. + +"I hardly like to tell you what I think about Tiny and Lord Manister," +he said gravely. + +"What on earth do you mean, Erskine?" cried Ruth, reddening. "Now you +_must_ tell me!" + +Erskine temporized, already regretting that he had said so much. "It +would hurt your feelings," he warned her grimly. + +"Not so much as your silence." + +"I wouldn't say it if I didn't look on her as my own sister by this +time, and if I didn't think her the best little girl in the world--but +one." + +Now he spoke tenderly. + +"Say it, in any case," said Ruth, who had been uncommonly calm. + +"Then I am afraid she is making up to him, if you must know." + +"Which is absurd," said Ruth lightly; but in her anxiety to remain cool +she forgot to seem surprised; and that was a mistake. + +"I wonder if you really think so?" said her husband very quietly. "If +you do I can't agree with you; I wish I could." + +"You must!" cried Ruth desperately. "Do you know how many dances she +gave him to-night?" + +Erskine knew only of one; his eyes rested on the remains of her +programme lying on the floor in many fragments. + +"Well, that one was the lot!" he was informed severely. "And pray did +you count how many times she spoke to him the other evening when we +dined at the hall?" + +"Not often, I grant you; I noticed that." + +"Yet you think she is making up to him!" + +"It's a strong way of putting it, I know," said Erskine reluctantly; +"but really I can't think of any other. I wonder you don't realize that +there are more ways of making up to a man than the dead-set method. +Can't you see that a far more effective method is a little judicious +snubbing and avoiding, which is coquetry? You take my word for it, +that's the touch for a man like Manister, who is probably accustomed to +everything but being snubbed and avoided. Then you speak of the one +dance she gave him. Now I happen to know that they didn't dance it at +all; they spent the time under the stars, for it was my misfortune to +see them and their misfortune not to see me." + +"Well?" whispered Ruth; and though she had never been so dark until now, +that whisper would have drawn his lantern to her real hopes and fears. + +"I only saw them for an instant: I bolted; so I may easily be wrong; but +it struck me that our Tiny was making up for her snubbing and avoiding. +It has since occurred to me that they must have known each other rather +well in Melbourne--rather better, at any rate, than you have ever led me +to suppose." + +As a woman's last resource, Ruth aimed a stone at his temper. + +"So that's it!" she exclaimed viciously. + +"That's what?" + +"The secret of your bad temper." + +"Well, to be kept in the dark doesn't sweeten a man, certainly," Erskine +answered, in a tone, however, that was far from bitter. "Then one can't +help feeling disappointed with Tiny; and in this matter--to be frank +with you at last--I am just a little disappointed in you too, my dear." + +"I always knew you would be," said Ruth dolefully. For her stone had +missed, and there was no more fight in her. + +"Now don't be a goose. It's only in this one matter, in which--I can't +help telling you--I don't think you've been perfectly straight with me." + +"Oh, indeed!" cried Ruth, as her spirit made one spurt more. It was the +last. The next moment she was weeping. + +It annoys most men to make a woman cry. Those who do not become annoyed +make impetuous atonement, partly, no doubt, to drown the hooting in +their own heart. But Erskine could not feel himself to blame, and though +he spoke very kindly, his kindness was too nearly paternal, and he spoke +with his elbow on the chimney-piece. He told Ruth not to do that. He +pointed out to her that there was no crime in her want of candor +concerning her sister's affairs, which were certainly no business of +his. Only, if there really had been something between Christina and Lord +Manister in Melbourne--if, for instance, Mrs. Willoughby had gossiped +unwittingly to Christina about none other than Christina +herself--Erskine put it to his wife that she might have done more wisely +to place him in a position silently to appreciate such capital jokes. He +would have said nothing; but as it was he might easily have said much to +imperil the situation; in fact, he had been in a false position all +along, more especially at the hall. But that was all. There was really +nothing to cry about. Perhaps to give her the fairest opportunity to +compose herself, Erskine crossed the room and drew back the curtains to +let in the gray morning; for the birds had long been twittering. + +But Ruth had been waiting for the touch of his hand, and he had only +given her kind words. She looked up, and saw through her tears his form +against the gray window, as he shut down the sash. The lamp burnt +faintly, and in the two wan lights it was a chamber of misery, in which +one could not sit alone. Ruth rose and ran to Erskine, and laid her +hands upon his arm. + +"It is raining," he said, without looking at her tears. "I knew we were +in for a break up of the fine weather." + +"Never mind the rain!" Ruth cried piteously, with her face upon his +coat. "Will you forgive me now if I tell you everything that I +know--everything? It isn't much, because Tiny has been almost as close +with me as I have been with you." + +"My dear," he said, patting her head at last, and with his arms around +her lightly, "you both had a perfect right to be close." + +"But suppose I've been at the bottom of the whole thing? Suppose I turn +out a horrid little intriguer--what then?" + +She waited eagerly, and the pause seemed long. + +"Well, you won't have been intriguing for yourself," sighed Erskine--so +that her face rose on his breast, as on a wave. + +And then, playing nervously with a button of his coat, Ruth confessed +all. As she spoke she gathered confidence, but not enough to watch his +face. That was turned to the gray morning, and looked as gray as it. The +fine weather had indeed broken up, and Essingham had lost its savor for +Erskine Holland. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +IN THE LADIES' TENT. + + +And yet, even at the time she made it, Ruth little dreamt how deeply her +confession both galled and revolted her husband. He forgave her very +kindly in the end, and that satisfied her lean imagination. Perhaps +there was not much to forgive. There was enough, at all events, to +trouble Erskine (to whom the best excuse there was for her was the least +likely to suggest itself); but the matter soon ceased to trouble +Erskine's wife, because his smile was as good-tempered as before. He +seemed, indeed, to think no more about it. When Ruth would speak +confidentially of her hopes and wishes for Tiny (as though Erskine had +been in her confidence all the time), he would chat the matter over with +interest, which was the next best thing to sympathy. He had to do this +oftener than he liked during the next twenty-four hours; for Ruth really +thought that excessive candor now was a more or less adequate atonement +for an excessive reserve in the past. Moreover, she genuinely enjoyed +talking openly at last of the matter which had concerned her so long and +so severely in secret. + +"Don't you think he means it?" she asked her husband several times. + +"I am afraid he thinks he does," was one of Holland's answers. + +"That's your way of admitting it," rejoined Ruth, who could bear his +repudiation of her desires for the sake of his assent to her opinion, +which Erskine was too honest to withhold. "Of course he means it. Have +you noticed how he watches her?" + +"I have noticed it once or twice." + +"And did you see him watching his mother, the night we dined there, to +see what impression Tiny made upon her?" + +"So you spotted that!" Erskine said curiously, not having given his wife +the credit for such acute perception. "Well, I own that I did, too; and +that was worse than his watching Tiny. This is a youth with a well-known +weakness for his mamma. She has probably more influence over him than +any other body in the world. I am prepared to bet that it was she, and +she alone, who whistled him back from Australia. Now though she did it +partly by her singing--which, by the way, was rather cheap for our +Tiny--there's no doubt at all about the impression Tiny has made upon +Lady Dromard; and that's the worst of it." + +"The worst of it! as if he was beneath her!" said Ruth mockingly. "Or is +it that you think her too terribly beneath him?" + +"Tiny," said Erskine, shaking his head, "is beneath no man that I have +yet come across." + +"Then what can you have against it? Is it that you think she will grow +so grand that we shall see no more of her! If so, it shows how much you +know of our Tiny. Or do you think him too high and mighty to be honest +and true? I don't profess to know much about it," continued Ruth +scornfully, being stung to eloquence by his perversity, "but I should +have said an honest man and his love might be found in a castle, +sometimes, as well as in a cottage!" + +"'Hearts just as pure and fair may beat in Belgrave Square as in the +lowly air of Seven Dials,'" quoted Erskine, with a laugh. "I grant all +that; but if you want to know, my point is that Tiny would be thrown +away on Belgrave Square! She is far too funny and fresh, and unlike most +of us, to thrive in that fine soil; she would need to be clipped and +pruned and trimmed in the image of other people. And that would spoil +her. Whatever else she may be, she's more or less original as she +stands. She's not a copy now; but she will have to become one in +Belgrave Square." + +"She _will_ have to become one!" cried Ruth, jumping at the change of +mood. "Then you think that Tiny means it, too?" + +"I am afraid she means to marry him," said Erskine, with a sigh. "I have +visions of our Tiny ours no more, but my Lady Manister, and Countess +Dromard in due course." + +So delighted was Ruth with his opinion on this point that his other +opinions had no power to annoy her; and in her joy she told him once +more, and with much impulsive feeling, how sorry she was for having kept +him in the dark so willfully and so long. She called him an angel of +good temper and forbearance, and undertook to reward his generosity by +never hiding another thing from him in her life. And she would never, +never vex him again, she said--so earnestly that he thought she meant +it, as indeed she thought herself, for half a minute. + +"But you mean to go to the match to-morrow?" he asked her wistfully. + +"Oh, we must--if it's fine. It's the last match of the week; besides, +Herbert's going to play." + +This was an argument, and Erskine said no more. The chances are that he +would have said no more in any case. The following afternoon Ruth drove +with Tiny to the match, and with a particularly light heart, because she +had not heard another word against the plan. Her one remaining anxiety +was lest it might rain before they got to the cricket field. + +For the day was one of those dull ones of early autumn when there is +little wind, a gray sky, and more than a chance of rain; but none had +fallen during the morning, which reduced the chance; while the clouds +were high, and occasionally parted by faint rays of sunshine. The ground +was so beautiful in itself that it was the greater pity there was no +more sun, since, without it, well-kept turf and tall trees are like a +sweet face saddened. The trees were the fine elms of that country, and +they flanked two sides of the ground; but one missed their shadows, and +the foliage had a dingy, lack-luster look in the tame light. On the +third side a ha-ha formed a natural "boundary," and the red, spreading +house stood aloof on the fourth, giving a touch of welcome warmth to a +picture whose highest lights were the white flannels of the players and +the canvas tents. The tents were many, and admirably arranged; but one +beneath the elms had a side on the ground to itself; and thither drove +Mrs. Holland, alighting rather nervously as a groom came promptly to the +pony's head, because this was the ladies' tent. + +To-day, however, the tent was not formidably full, as it had been when +the girls had watched the cricket from it earlier in the week; this was +only the Saturday's match. Ruth looked in vain for Lady Dromard, but +received a cold greeting from her daughter, Lady Mary, upon whom the +guinea stamp was disagreeably fresh and sharp. The sight of Mrs. +Willoughby and her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson on a front seat was a +relief at the moment (the sight of anything to nod to is a relief +sometimes); but Ruth was discreet enough to sit down behind these +ladies, not beside them. She congratulated herself on her presence of +mind when she heard the tone and character of some of their comments on +the game. It would have done Ruth no good to be seen at the side of loud +Mrs. Foster-Simpson or of loquacious Mrs. Willoughby, and it might have +done Tiny grave harm. Mrs. Willoughby's husband, who had good-naturedly +become eleventh man at the eleventh hour, was conspicuous in the field +from his black trousers, clerical wide-awake, and shirt-sleeves of gray +flannel. "I hope you admire him," said his wife over her shoulder to +Ruth; "I tell him he might as well take a funeral in flannels!" + +"Or dine in his surplice," added her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson in a +voice that carried to the back of the tent. + +"I just do admire Mr. Willoughby," Ruth said softly; "he has a soul +above appearances." + +"You're not his wife," replied the lady who was. + +"You may thank your stars!" shouted her too familiar friend. + +Little Mrs. Holland turned to her sister and speculated aloud as to the +state of the game, but her tone was an example to the ladies in front, +who nevertheless did not lower theirs to supply the gratuitous +information that the Mundham players had been fielding all day. + +"They're getting the worst of it," declared Mrs. Willoughby, perhaps +prematurely. + +"Do them good," her friend said viciously, but with the soft pedal down +for once. "There would have been no holding them. That young Dromard, +now--it will take it out of _him_. He wants it taking out of him!" + +Mr. Stanley Dromard, who had been scoring heavily all the week, happened +to be in the deep field close to the tent. Ruth nudged her sister, and +they moved further along their row in order to avoid the bonnets in +front. + +"Horrid people!" whispered Ruth. + +"That's the earl by the canvas screen," answered Tiny. "I should like to +send him a new straw hat!" + +"Hush!" whispered Ruth in terror. "You're as bad as they are. Tell me, +do you see Herbert?" + +"Yes, there he is, all by himself. There's a man out." + +"Is there? How tired they seem! That's Lord Manister sprawling on the +grass. What a boy he looks! You wouldn't think he was anybody in +particular, would you?" + +"I should hope not, indeed, on the cricket field!" + +"I only meant he looked rather nice." + +"Certainly he looks nicer in flannels than in anything else; his tailor +has less to do with it." + +The patience of Ruth was inexhaustible. She watched the game until +another wicket fell. Then it was her admiration for the scene that +escaped in more whispers. + +"_Isn't_ it a lovely place, Tiny?" + +"Oh, it's all that." + +"I've never seen one to touch it, and I have seen two or three, you +know, since we were married. But the house is the best part of it all. I +would give anything to live in a house like that--wouldn't you?" + +"I? My immortal soul!" + +And Tiny sighed, but Ruth, looking round quickly, saw laughter in her +eyes, and said no more. Tiny was very trying. Was she half in earnest, +or wholly in jest? Ruth could never tell; and now, while she wondered, a +lady who knew her sat down on her right. Ruth was glad enough to shake +hands and talk, and not sorry in this case to be seen doing so, while +at the moment it was a very human pleasure to her to leave Tiny to take +care of herself. And that was a thing at which Tiny may be said to have +excelled, so far as one saw, and no further. The attacks of most tongues +she was capable of repelling with distinction; against those of her own +thoughts she made ever the feeblest resistance; and at this stage of +Christina's career her own thoughts were a swarm of flies upon a wound +in her heart. That was the truth--and no one suspected it. + +During the next quarter of an hour the innings came to an end, and the +fielders trooped over to the group of tents at another side of the +ground. Tiny hoped that one of them would have the good taste to come to +the ladies' tent and talk to her; an Eton boy would do very well; +Herbert would be better than nobody: but she hoped in vain. On her right +Ruth had turned her back, and was quite taken up with the lady with whom +she was not sorry to be seen in conversation. The chairs on her left +were all empty; and those flies were fighting for her heart. It was the +rustle of silk disturbed them in the end; and Lady Dromard who sat down +in the empty chair on Tiny's left. + +"I am so glad to see you both," said the countess as though she meant +it; and she leant over to shake hands with Ruth, whose back was now +turned upon her new found friend. Not so much was said to the pair in +front, though those ladies had something to say for themselves. Lady +Dromard gave them very small change in smiles, but made the conversation +general for a minute or two, with that graceful tact at which, perhaps, +she was, in a manner, a professional. With equal facility she dropped +them from her talk one after another, much as the last wickets had +fallen in the match, and until only Tiny was left in. For the countess +had come there expressly to talk to Miss Luttrell, as she herself stated +with charming directness. + +"I was afraid you were feeling dull; though really you deserve to, Miss +Luttrell." + +"I was," said Tiny honestly; "but I don't know what I have done to +deserve to, Lady Dromard." + +"It's the last match, and a poor one, which nobody cares anything about. +You should have come earlier in the week." + +"We were here on Wednesday afternoon." + +"But why not oftener? My second son made ninety-three on Thursday. I do +wish you had seen that!" + +"It wasn't my fault that I didn't," remarked Miss Luttrell. "I suppose +things came in the way." + +"Then you are a cricketer!" exclaimed the countess. "I am glad to hear +it, for I am a great cricketer myself. No, I don't play, Miss Luttrell; +only I know all about it." + +Christina candidly confessed that she was not a cricketer in any +sense--that, in fact, she knew very little about cricket; and the +countess, who considered how many girls would have pretended to know +much, was more pleased with this answer than she would have been with an +exhibition of real knowledge of the game. + +"My only interest in this match, however," explained Lady Dromard, "is +in my eldest son. I do so want him to make runs! He has been dreadfully +unsuccessful all the week." + +Christina was discreetly sympathetic. + +"He is going in first," murmured the countess presently in suppressed +excitement. "We must watch the match." + +So they sat without speaking during the first few overs, and the silence +did much for Christina, by putting her at her ease in the hour when she +needed all the ease at her command. Cool as she was outwardly, in her +heart she was not a little afraid of Lady Dromard, whose manner toward +herself had already struck her as rather too kind and much too +scrutinizing. She now entertained a perfectly private conviction that +Lady Dromard either knew something about her or had her suspicions. Not +that this made Christina particularly uncomfortable at the moment. The +countess had eyes and wits for the game only, following it intently +through a heavy field glass grown light now that Manister was batting. + +It was difficult to realize that this eager, animated woman was the +mother of the young fellow at the wicket, she looked so very little +older than her son; or so it seemed to Tiny, who now had ample +opportunity to study not only her face and figure, but her quiet, +handsome bonnet and faultless dress. Even Tiny could not help admiring +Lady Dromard. Suddenly, however, the hand that held the field-glass was +allowed to drop, and the fine face flushed with disappointment as a +round of applause burst from the field and found no echo in the tents. + +"Manister is out!" exclaimed the countess. "He has only made two or +three!" + +"How fond she is of him," thought the girl, still watching her +companion's face, which somehow softened Christina toward both mother +and son; so that now it was with real sympathy that she remarked, "Poor +Lord Manister! I am very sorry." + +Some expressions of condolence from the seats in front threw the young +girl's words into advantageous relief. + +The countess said presently to Christina, "I am sorry it has turned out +so dull a day; the ground looks really nice when it is fine and sunny." + +"It is a beautiful ground," answered Tiny simply; "the trees are so +splendid." + +"Ah, but you're used to splendid trees." + +"In Australia? Well, we are and we are not, Lady Dromard. I mean to say, +there are tremendous trees in some parts; in others there are none at +all, you know. Up the bush, where we used to live, the trees were of +very little account." + +"I thought the bush was nothing _but_ trees," remarked Lady Dromard; and +Christina could not help smiling as she explained the comprehensive +character of "the bush." + +"So you were actually brought up on a sheep farm!" said Lady Dromard, +looking flatteringly at the graceful young girl. + +"Yes--on a station. It was in the bush, and very much the bush," laughed +Tiny, "for we were hundreds of miles up country. But most of the trees +were no higher than this tent, Lady Dromard. The homestead was in a +clump of pines, and they were pretty tall, but the rest were mere +scrub." + +"Then how in the world," cried her ladyship, "did you manage to become +educated? What school could you go to in a place like that?" + +"We never went to school at all," Tiny informed her confidentially. "We +had a governess." + +"Ah, and she taught you to sing! I should like to meet that governess. +She must be a very clever person." + +Her ladyship's manner was delightfully blunt. + +"Now, Lady Dromard, you're laughing at me! I know nothing--I have read +nothing." + +"I rejoice to hear it!" cried the countess cordially. "I assure you, +Miss Luttrell, that's a most refreshing confession in these days. Only +it's too good to be true. I don't believe you, you know." + +Christina made no great effort to establish the truth of her statement; +for some minutes longer they watched the game. + +But the countess was not interested, though her younger son had gone in, +and had already begun to score. "What were they?" she said at length +with extreme obscurity; but Christina was polite enough not to ask her +what she meant until she had put this question to herself, and while she +still hesitated Lady Dromard recollected herself, appreciated the +hesitation, and explained. "I mean the trees in the bush, at your farm. +Were they gum trees?" + +"Very few of them--there are hardly any gum trees up there." + +"Do you know that _I_ have a young gum tree?" said Lady Dromard +amusingly, as though it were a young opossum. + +"No!" said Tiny incredulously. + +"But I have, in the conservatory; you might have seen it the other +evening." + +"How I wish I had!" + +The young girl's face wore a flush of genuine animation. Lady Dromard +regarded it for a moment, and admired it very much; then she bent +forward and touched Ruth on the arm. + +"Mrs. Holland, will you trust your sister to me for half an hour? I want +to show her something that will interest her more than the cricket." + +"Oh, Lady Dromard, I can't think of taking you away from the match," +cried Christina, while Ruth's eyes danced, and the bonnets in front +turned round. + +"My dear Miss Luttrell, it will interest _me_ more, now that Lord +Manister is out." + +"But there's Mr. Dromard." + +"Oh, that boy! He has made more runs this week than are good for him. +Miss Luttrell, am I to go alone?" + +The bonnets in front knocked together. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ORDEAL BY BATTLE. + + +If Tiny Luttrell suffered at all from self-consciousness as she followed +Lady Dromard from the tent, she hid it uncommonly well. Her color did +not change, while her expression was neither bashful nor bold, and +unnatural only in its entire naturalness. Considering that the +conversation in the ladies' tent underwent a momentary lull, by no means +so slight as to escape a sensitive ear, the girl's serene bearing at the +countess' skirts was in its way an achievement of which no one thought +more highly than Lady Dromard herself. Christina had not merely imagined +that she was being systematically watched. No sooner were they in the +open air than the countess wheeled abruptly, expecting to surprise some +slight embarrassment, not unpardonable in so young a face; and this was +not the only occasion on which she was agreeably disappointed in little +Miss Luttrell. The short cut to the house was a narrow path that +crossed an intervening paddock. They followed this path. But now Lady +Dromard walked behind, with eyes slightly narrowed; and still she +approved. + +Presently they reached the conservatory. It was large and lofty, and the +smooth white flags and spreading fronds gave it an appearance of +coolness and quiet very different from Christina's recollection of the +place on the night of the dance, when Chinese lanterns had shone and +smoked and smelt among the foliage, and a frivolous hum had filled the +air. The gum tree proved to be a sapling of no great promise or +pretensions. Nor was it seen to advantage, being planted in the central +bed, in the midst of some admirable palms and tree-ferns. But Tiny made +a long arm to seize the leaves and pull them to her nostrils, setting +foot on the soft soil in her excitement; and when she started back, with +an apology for the mark, her face was beaming. + +"But that was a real whiff of Australia," she added gratefully--"the +first I've had since I sailed. It was very, very good of you to bring +me, Lady Dromard. If you knew how it reminds me!" + +"I thought it would interest you," remarked Lady Dromard, who was +herself more interested in the footprint on the soil, which was absurdly +small. "If you like I will show you something that should remind you +still more." + +"Oh, of course I like to see anything Australian; but I am sure I am +troubling you a great deal, Lady Dromard!" + +"Not in the least, my dear Miss Luttrell. I have something extremely +Australian to show you now." + +Countess Dromard led the way through the room in which Tiny had danced. +It was still carpetless and empty, and the clatter of her walking shoes +on the floor which her ball slippers had skimmed so noiselessly struck a +note that jarred. The desire came over Tiny to turn back. As they passed +through the hall, a side door stood open; the girl saw it with a gasp +for the open air. It was an odd sensation, as of the march into prison. +It made her lag while it lasted; when it passed it was as though weights +had been removed from her feet. She ran lightly up the shallow stairs; +Lady Dromard was waiting on the landing, and led her along a corridor. + +Here Tiny forgot that her feet had drummed vague misgivings into her +mind; she could no longer hear her own steps the corridor was so +thickly carpeted. It was a special corridor, leading to a very special +room of delicate tints and dainty furniture, and Christina was so far +herself again as to enter without a qualm. But her qualms had been a +rather singular thing. + +"This is my own little chapel of ease, Miss Luttrell," the countess +explained; "and now do you not see a fellow-countryman?" + +She pointed to the window; and in front of the window was a pedestal +supporting a gilded cage, and in the cage a pink-and-gray parrot, of a +kind with which the girl had been familiar from her infancy. "Oh, you +beauty!" cried Christina, going to the cage and scratching the bird's +head through the wires. "It's a galar," she added. + +"Indeed," said Lady Dromard, watching her; "a galar! I must remember +that. By the way, can you tell me why he doesn't talk?" + +Christina answered, in a slightly preoccupied manner, that galars very +seldom did. She had become quite absorbed in the bird; she seemed easily +pleased. She went the length of asking whether she might take him out, +and received a hesitating permission to do so at her own risk, Lady +Dromard confessing that for her own part she was quite afraid to touch +him through the wires. In a twinkling the girl had the bird in her hand, +and was smoothing its feathers with her chin. The sun was beginning to +struggle through the clouds; the window faced the west; and the faint +rays, falling on the young girl's face and the bird's bright plumage, +threw a good light on a charming picture. Lady Dromard was reminded of +the artificial art of her young days, when this was a favorite posture, +and searched narrowly for artifice in her guest. Finding none she +admired more keenly than before, but became also more timid on the +other's account, so that she could fancy the blood sliding down the fair +skin which the beak actually touched. + +"Dear Miss Luttrell, do put him back! I tremble for you." + +Tiny put the quiet thing back on the perch. Then she turned to Lady +Dromard with rather a comic expression. + +"Do you know what we used to do with this gentleman up on the station?" +said Tiny shamefacedly. "We poisoned him wholesale to save our crop. But +this one seems like an old friend to me. Lady Dromard, you have taken +me back to the bush this afternoon!" + +"So it appears," observed the countess dryly, "or I think you would +admire my little view. That's Gallow Hill, and I'm rather proud of my +view of it, because it is the only hill of any sort in these parts. Then +the sun sets behind it, and those three trees stand out so." + +"Ah! I have often wanted to climb up to those three trees," said Tiny, +who took a tantalized interest in Gallow Hill; "but I mayn't, because +I'm in England, where trespassers will be prosecuted." + +For a moment Lady Dromard stared. Then she saw that Christina had merely +forgotten. "Dear me, that stupid notice board!" exclaimed the countess. +"Lord Dromard never meant it to apply to everybody. Next time you come +here come over Gallow Hill, and through the little green gate you can +just see. You will find it a quarter of the distance." + +Christina had indeed spoken without thinking of Gallow Hill as a part of +the estate, or of the warning to trespassers as Lord Dromard's doing. +Now she apologized, and was naturally a little confused; but this time +the countess would not have had her otherwise. "You shall go back that +way this very evening," she said kindly, "and I promise you shan't be +prosecuted." But Christina had to pet her fellow-countryman for a minute +or two before she quite regained her ease, while her ladyship touched +the bell and ordered tea. + +"How fond you must be of the bush!" Lady Dromard exclaimed as the girl +still lingered by the cage. + +"I like it very much," said Christina soberly. + +"Better than Melbourne?" + +"Oh, infinitely." + +"And England?" + +"Yes, better than England--I can't help it," Tiny added apologetically. + +"There's no reason why you should," said Lady Dromard, with a smile. "I +could imagine your quite disliking England after Australia. I'm sure my +son disliked it when he first came back." + +"Did he?" the girl said indifferently. "Ah, well! I don't dislike +England. I admire it very much, and, of course, it is ever so much +better than Australia in every way. We have no villages like Essingham +out there, no red tiles and old churches, and certainly no villagers +who treat you like a queen on wheels when you walk down the street. +We've nothing of that sort--nor of this sort either--no splendid old +houses and beautiful old grounds! But I can't help it, I'd rather live +out there. Give me the bush!" + +"You _are_ enthusiastic about the bush," said Lady Dromard, laughing; +"yet you don't know how fresh enthusiasm is to one nowadays." + +"I'm afraid I'm not enthusiastic about anything else, then," answered +Christina with engaging candor. "They tell me I don't half appreciate +England; I disappoint all my friends here." + +"Ah, that is perhaps your little joke at our expense!" + +Christina was on the brink of an audacious reply when a footman entered +with the tea tray. That took some of the audacity out of her. She had +not heard the order given. Once more she reflected where she was, and +with whom, and once more she wished herself elsewhere. It was a mild +return of her panic downstairs. Now she felt vaguely apprehensive and as +vaguely exultant. In the uncertain fusion of her feelings she was apt +to become a little unguarded in what she said; there was safety in her +sense of this tendency, however. + +Lady Dromard was reflecting also. As the footman withdrew she had told +him not to shut the door. The truth was she had got Christina to herself +by pure design, though she had not originally intended to get her to +herself up here. That had been an inspiration of the moment, and even +now Lady Dromard was by no means sure of its wisdom. She had gone so far +as to closet herself with this girl, but she did not wish the proceeding +to appear so pronounced either to the footman or to the girl herself. It +would make the footman talk, while it might frighten the girl. That, at +any rate, was the idea of Countess Dromard, who, however, had not yet +learnt her way about the young mind with which she was dealing. + +The tea tray had been placed on a small table near the window. Lady +Dromard promptly settled herself with her back to the light, and +motioned Christina to a chair facing her. + +"Now you'll be able to watch your beloved bird," said her ladyship +craftily. "I thought we might as well have tea now we are here. I +thought it would be so much more comfortable than having it in the +tent." + +Tiny settled a business matter by stating that she took two pieces of +sugar, but only one spot of cream. Unconsciously, however, she had +followed Lady Dromard's advice, for her eyes were fixed on the parrot in +the cage. + +"I have only had him a few months," observed the countess suggestively. +"Something less than a year, I should say." + +"Yes?" And Tiny lowered her eyes politely to her hostess' face. + +"Yes," repeated Lady Dromard affirmatively. "My son brought him home for +me. It was the only present he had time to get, so I rather value it." + +The girl's gaze returned involuntarily to the bird she had caressed; +apparently her interest was neither diminished nor increased by this +information as to its origin. + +"He was in a great hurry to run away from us, was he not?" she remarked +inoffensively; but there was no attempt in her manner to conceal the +fact that Christina knew what she was talking about. + +"He was obliged to return rather suddenly," said the countess after a +moment's hesitation. She made a longer pause before slyly adding, "I +consider myself very lucky to have got him back at all." + +"How is that, Lady Dromard?" + +And Christina outstared the countess, so that she was asked whether she +would not take another cup of tea. She would, and her hand neither +rattled it empty nor spilt it full. Then Lady Dromard smiled at the +coronet on her teaspoon, and said to it: + +"The fact is I was terrified lest he should go and marry one of you." + +"One of _us_?" + +"Some fascinating Australian beauty," said Lady Dromard hastily. "So +many aids-de-camp have done that." + +"Poor--young--men!" said Tiny, as slowly and solemnly as though her +words were going to the young men's funeral. "It would have been a +calamity indeed." + +So far from showing indignation Lady Dromard leant forward in her chair +to say in her most winning manner: + +"I should have been all the more terrified had I known _you_, Miss +Luttrell!" + +Clearly this was meant for one of those blunt effective compliments to +which Lady Dromard had the peculiar knack of imparting delicacy and +grace. But the words were no sooner uttered than she saw their double +meaning, and grimly awaited the obvious misconstruction. Tiny, however, +had a quick perception, and plenty of common sense in little things. +Instead of a snub the countess received a good-tempered smile, for which +she could not help feeling grateful at the time; but now her instinct +told her that she was dealing with a person with whom it might be well +to be a little more downright, and she obeyed her instinct without +further delay. + +"Miss Luttrell, I am sure there is no occasion for me to beat about the +bush--with you," she began in an altered, but a no less flattering tone; +"I see that one is quite safe in being frank with you. The fact is--and +you know it--my son very nearly did marry someone out there. Now you met +him out there in society, and you probably knew everyone there who was +worth knowing, so pray don't pretend that you know nothing about this." + +Their eyes were joined, but at the moment Christina's was the cooler +glance. + +"I couldn't pretend that, Lady Dromard, for it happens that I know _all_ +about it." + +The countess was perceptibly startled. "The girl was a friend of yours?" +she inquired quickly. + +"A great friend," answered Tiny, nodding. + +"How I wish you would tell me her name!" + +"I mustn't do that." This was said decidedly. "But it seems a strange +thing that you don't know it." + +"It is a strange thing," Lady Dromard allowed; "nevertheless it's the +truth. I never heard her name. You may imagine my curiosity. Miss +Luttrell, I seem to have felt ever since I met you that you knew +something about this--that you could tell one something. And I don't +mind confessing to you now--since I see you are not the one to +misunderstand me willfully--that I have purposely sought an opportunity +of sounding you on the subject." + +Christina smiled, for this was not news to her. + +"My son will tell me nothing," continued Lady Dromard, "and I have, of +course, the greatest curiosity to know everything. It is no idle +curiosity, Miss Luttrell. I am his mother, and he has never got over +that attachment." + +"Has he not?" said Tiny with dry satire. + +"He has never got over it," repeated Lady Dromard in a tone which was a +match for the other. "Has the girl?" + +Tiny was startled in her turn. She hesitated before replying, and seemed +to waver over the nature of her reply. It was the first sign she had +shown of wavering at all, and Lady Dromard drew her breath. The girl was +hanging her head, and murmuring that she really could not answer for the +other girl. Suddenly she flung up her face, and it was hot, but not +hotter than her words: + +"Yes, Lady Dromard, you are his mother. But the girl was my friend. He +treated her abominably!" + +"It wasn't his fault--it was mine," said Lady Dromard steadily. + +"I'm afraid that does not make one think any better of him," murmured +the young girl. Her chin was resting in her hand. The flush had passed +from her face as suddenly as it had come. Her eyes were raised to the +sky out of the window, and there was in them the sad, hardened, reckless +look that those who knew her best had seen too often, latterly, in her +silent moments. The sun was dropping clear of the clouds, and the +brighter rays fell kindly over Tiny's dark hair and pale, piquant face. +The keen eye that was on her had never watched more closely nor admired +so much. + +"Consider!" said Lady Dromard presently, and rather gently. "Try to put +yourself in our place--and consider. We have a position, here in +England, of which very few people can be got to take a sensible view; +half the country professes an absurd contempt for it, while the other +half speaks of it and of us with bated breath. We ourselves naturally +think something of our position, and we try, as we say, to keep it up. +Of course we are worldly, in the popular sense. We bring up our children +with worldly ideas. They must make worldly marriages in their own +station. Is it so very contemptible that we should see to this, and +dread beyond most things an unwise or an unequal marriage? Now do +consider: we let our son go out to Australia, because it is good for a +young man to see the world before he marries and settles down--and mind! +that was what he was about to do. If he had not gone to Australia then, +he would have been married at once. He was all but engaged. It was a +case of putting off the engagement instead of the marriage. We do not +believe in long, formal engagements; we do not permit them. We find them +undesirable for many reasons. So, you see, he goes out to Australia as +good as engaged, but unable to say so, and very young, and no doubt very +susceptible. Can you wonder that I tremble for him when he has gone? +Well, he is the best son in the world, and has told me everything +always. That is my comfort. But presently he tells one things in his +letters which make one tremble more than ever, though he tells them +jokingly. Then a cousin of Lord Dromard's stays a day or two in +Melbourne and comes home with a report----" + +Christina's face twitched in the sunlight. "I suppose that was Captain +Dromard?" she said quietly; "I never met him, but I saw him." She seemed +to see him then, and that was why her face twitched. She was still +staring out of the window at the yellowing sky. + +"Captain Dromard had forgotten the girl's name," said the countess +pointedly; "but he told me enough to make me write to my boy--I nearly +cabled! And do you think I was wrong?" + +"Not from your point of view, Lady Dromard," answered Christina +judicially, with her eyes half closed in the slanting sunbeams which she +chose to face. "Certainly you cannot have had very much faith in Lord +Manister's judgment; but the case is altered if he was to all intents +and purposes engaged to a girl in England; and, at all events, that's +the worst that could be said of you--looking at it from your own point +of view. But is not the girl out there entitled to a point of view as +well?" And the hardened reckless eyes were turned so suddenly upon Lady +Dromard that the youth and grace and bitterness of the girl smote her +straight to the heart. + +There was a slight tremor and great tenderness in the voice that +whispered, "Did she feel it very much? Come, come--don't tell me it +broke her heart!" + +"No, I won't tell you that," said the girl briskly, but with a laugh +which hurt. "That doesn't break so easily in these days. No, it didn't +break her heart, Lady Dromard--it did much worse. It got her talked +about. It poisoned her mind, it killed her faith, it spoilt her temper. +It did all that--and one thing worse still. Though it didn't _break_ her +heart, Lady Dromard, it cracked it, so that it will never ring true any +more; it made her hate those she had loved--those who loved her; it made +it impossible for her ever to care for anybody in the whole wide world +again!" + +Lady Dromard had drawn her chair nearer to the girl, and nearer still. +Lady Dromard was no longer mistress of herself. + +"Did it make her hate _you_, my dear?" + +"It made her loathe--me." + +Lady Dromard was seen to battle with a strong womanly impulse, and to +lose. Her fine eyes filled with tears. Her soft, white hands flew out to +Christina's, and drew them to her bosom. At this moment a young man in +flannels appeared at the door, and the young man was Lord Manister; but +the rich carpet had muffled his tread, and the two women had eyes for +one another only--the girl he had loved--the mother who had drawn him +from her. The same sunbeam washed them both. + +"Now I know her name--now I know it!" + +"I think you cannot have found it out this minute, Lady Dromard." + +"But I have. I have never known whether to believe it or not, since it +first crossed my mind, the night you dined here. You see, I know him so +well! But he didn't tell me, and after all I had no reason to suppose +it. Oh, he has told me nothing--and you are the gulf between us, for +which I have only myself to thank. Ah, if I had only dreamt--of you!" + +Tiny suffered herself to be kissed upon the cheek. + +"Pray say no more, dear Lady Dromard," she said quietly. "Shall I tell +you why?" she added, drawing back. "Why, because it's quite a thing of +the past." + +"It is not a thing of the past," cried Lady Dromard passionately. "He +has never loved anyone else. He bitterly regrets having listened to me, +and I, now that I know you--I bitterly regret everything! And he loves +you ... and I would rather ... and I have told him what is the simple +truth--how I have admired you from the first!" + +The last sentence was doubtless a mistake. It was the only one that +would let itself be uttered, however, and before another could be added +by either woman Lord Manister had tramped into the room. They fell the +further apart as he came between them and stooped down, laying his hands +heavily on the little table. His eyes sped from the girl to his mother, +and back to the girl, on whom they stayed. One hand held his crumpled +cap. His hair was disordered. In many ways he looked at his best, as +Tiny had always said he did in flannels. But never before had Tiny seen +him half so earnest and sad and handsome. + +"My mother is right," he said firmly. "I love you, and I ask you to +forgive us both, and to give me what I don't deserve--one word of hope!" + +The young girl glanced from his grave, humble face to that of his +mother, through whose tears a smile was breaking. Lady Dromard's lips +were parted, half in surprise at the humility of her son's words, half +in eagerness for the answer to them. Tiny Luttrell read her like a +printed book, and rose to her feet with a smile that was equally +unmistakable, for it was a smile of triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HER HOUR OF TRIUMPH. + + +Now Herbert was taking part in the match, and Ruth was in the ladies' +tent, trying not to think of Christina, who was playing a single-wicket +game in another place. But Erskine Holland was rolling the rectory court +gloomily and quite alone, and he was tired of Essingham. Not only had +the day kept fine in spite of its threats, but toward the end of the +afternoon it turned out very fine indeed, and the light became excellent +for lawn tennis, because there was nobody to play with poor Erskine. +Even the good Willoughby was on the accursed field over yonder; and he +mattered least. Ruth was there. Tiny was there. Herbert was not only +there, but playing for Lord Manister, who was notoriously short of men. +One can hardly wonder at Erskine's condemnation of his brother-in-law, +out of his own mouth, as a stultified young fraud in the matter of Lord +Manister. As to the girls, some old tenets of his concerning women in +general returned to taunt him for the ship-wreck of his holiday at +least. Yet Ruth had but plotted for her sister's advancement, not her +own. Whether Christina cared in the least for the man whom she evidently +meant to marry, if she could, was, after all, Christina's own affair. +Erskine had only heard her disparage him behind his back--at which +Herbert himself could not beat her--whereas Ruth had at least been +openly in favor of the fellow from the very first. But if Herbert was a +fraud, what was the name for Tiny? Clearly the only trustworthy person +of the three was Ruth, who at least--yet alone--was consistent. + +To this conclusion, which was not without its pleasing side, Erskine +came with his eyes on the ground he was rolling. But as he pushed the +roller toward the low stone wall dividing the lawn from the churchyard, +into which the balls were too often hit, one came whizzing out of it for +a change, and struck the roller under Erskine's nose. And leaning with +her elbows on the low wall, and her right hand under her chin, as though +it were the last right hand that could have flung that ball, stood the +girl for whom a bad enough name had yet to be found. + +"Where on earth did you spring from?" Holland asked, a little brusquely, +as he stopped for a moment and then rolled on toward the wall. + +"If you mean the ball," replied Tiny, "it must be the one we lost the +last time we played. I have just found it among the graves, and it +slipped out of my hand." + +"I meant you," said Erskine, with an unsuccessful smile; and he pushed +the roller close up to the wall, and folded his arms upon the handle. + +"Oh, I have come from the hall by the forbidden path over Gallow Hill; +but it seems that wasn't meant for us, and at any rate I have leave to +use it whenever I like." She was puzzling him, and she knew it, but she +met his eyes with a mysterious smile for some moments before adding: +"You can't think what a view there is from the top of the hill--I mean a +view of the hall. Just now the sun was blazing in all the windows, like +the flash of a broadside from an old two-decker; you see it made such an +impression on me that I thought of that for your benefit." + +Erskine acknowledged the benefit rather heavily with a nod. + +"What have you done with Ruth?" + +"To the best of my belief she is watching the match; at least she was an +hour ago." + +"Something _has_ happened!" exclaimed Erskine Holland, starting upright +and leaving the roller handle swinging in the air like an inverted +pendulum. His eyes were unconsciously stern; those of the girl seemed to +quail before them. + +"Something has happened," she admitted to the top of the wall. "I +suppose you would get to know sooner or later, so I may as well tell you +myself now. The fact is Lord Manister has just proposed to me." + +Erskine dropped his eyes and shrugged slightly; then he raised them to +the setting sun, and tried to look resigned; then, with a noticeable +effort, he brought them back to her face, and forced a smile. + +"I'm not surprised. I saw it coming, though I hardly expected it so +soon. Well, Tiny, I congratulate you! He is about the most brilliant +match in England." + +"Quite the most, I thought?" + +"And I am sure he is a first-rate fellow," added Erskine with vigor, +regretting that he had not said this first, and disliking what he had +said. + +"Oh, he is a very good sort," acknowledged Tiny to the wall. + +"So you ought to be the happiest young woman in the world, as you are +perhaps the luckiest--I mean in one sense. And I congratulate you, Tiny, +I do indeed!" + +To clinch his congratulations he held out his hand, from which she +raised her eyes to him at last--with the look of a cabman refusing his +proper fare. + +"And I took you for the most discerning person I knew!" said Tiny very +slowly. + +"You don't mean to say----" + +His eagerness and incredulity arrested his speech. + +"I _do_ mean to say." + +"That you have--refused him?" + +Tiny nodded. "With thanks--not too many." + +They stared at one another for some moments longer. Then Erskine sat +down on the roller and folded his arms and looked extremely serious, +though already the corners of his mouth were beginning to twitch. + +"Now, you know, Tiny, I'm _in loco parentis_ as long as you're in +England. In this one matter you've no business to chaff me. Honestly, +now, is it the truth that Lord Manister has asked you to marry him, and +that you have said him nay?" + +"It is the truest truth I ever uttered in my life. I refused him +point-blank," added Tiny, with eyes once more lowered, as though the +memory were not unmixed with shame, "and before his own mother!" + +"In the presence of Lady Dromard?" + +She nodded solemnly, but with a blush. + +"Good Lord!" murmured Erskine. "And I was ass enough to think you were +leading him on!" + +She whispered, "And so I was." + +For one moment Erskine stared at her more seriously than ever; then the +reaction came, and she saw him shaking. He shook until the tears were in +his eyes; and when he was rid of them he perceived the same thing in +Tiny's eyes, but obviously not from the same cause. + +"_I_ don't think it's such a joke," said the girl, in the voice of one +pained when in pain already. "I am pretty well ashamed of myself, I can +tell you. If you really consider yourself responsible for me I think you +might let me tell you something about it; for you must tell Ruth--I +daren't. But if you're going to laugh ... let me tell you it's no +laughing matter to me, now I've done it." + +"Forgive me," said Holland instantly; "I am a brute. Do tell me anything +you care to; I promise not to laugh unless you do. And I might be able +to help you." + +"Ah, you would if anybody could; but nobody can; I have behaved just +scandalously, and I know it as well as you do, now that it's too late. +Yet I wish that you knew all about it, Erskine!" She looked at him +wistfully. "You understand things so. Would it bore you if I were to +tell you how the whole thing happened?" + +The gilt hands of the church clock made it ten minutes to six when +Erskine shook his head and bent it attentively. When the hour struck he +had opened his mouth only once, to answer her question as to how much he +knew of her affair with Lord Manister in Melbourne. He had known for a +day and a half as much as Ruth knew; and he did not learn much more now, +for the girl could speak more freely of recent incidents, and dwelt +principally on those of that afternoon, beginning with Lady Dromard's +extraordinary attentiveness on the cricket field. + +"I felt there was something behind that, though I didn't know what; I +could only be sure that she had her eye on me. However, I took a +tremendous vow to face whatever came without moving a muscle. I think I +succeeded, on the whole, but I was on the edge of a panic when she took +me upstairs. I wanted to clear! I had qualms!" + +She was startlingly candid on another point. + +"I also made up my mind to behave as prettily as possible, just to show +her. I was really pleased with the interest she seemed to take in what I +told her about the bush, and I was quite delighted to see a galar again. +But I needn't have made the fuss I did in taking it out of its cage; +that was purely put on, and all the time I was mortally afraid that it +would peck me. Yet I suppose," added Tiny, after some moments, "you +won't believe me when I tell you that I am ashamed of all that already?" + +Erskine declared that there was nothing in the world to be ashamed of; +on the contrary, in his opinion she was perfectly justified in all she +had done. With kind eyes upon her, he added what he very nearly meant, +that he was proud of her; and his remark wrought a change in her +expression which convinced him finally that at least she was not proud +of herself. + +"Ah, you weren't there, Erskine," said Christina sadly, her blue eyes +clouded with penitence; "you don't know how kind poor Lady Dromard was +with all her dodges! She said it would be more comfortable to have tea +up there. Comfortable was the last thing I felt in my heart, but I never +let her see that; and besides, I didn't as yet guess what was coming. +Even when she wanted me to tell her my own name, I couldn't be sure that +she suspected me. I wasn't sure until she asked me whether the girl had +got over it, when I knew from her voice. And I saw then that she really +rather liked me, and half wished it to be; and I was sorry because I +liked her; and though I spoke my mind to her about her son, I should +have made a clean breast of everything to her if he hadn't come in just +then. I should have told her straight that I didn't care _that_ for +him--not now--and that I had been flirting with him disgracefully just +to try to make him smart as I had smarted. That's the whole truth of +it, Erskine; and I meant to tell her so in another second, because I +couldn't stand her kissing me and crying, and all that. I should have +been crying myself next moment. But just then _he_ came in, and I +remembered everything. I remembered, too, what she had had to do with +it, on her own showing; and when I saw what she wanted me to say I think +I became possessed." + +Her brother-in-law was very curious to know all that Christina had said, +but she would not tell him. She merely remarked that he would think all +the worse of her if he knew, even though at the moment she could hardly +remember any one thing that she had said. Then she paused, and recalled +a little, and the little made her blush. + +"I didn't come well out of it," she declared. + +Erskine threw discredit on her word in this particular matter; he +sniffed an extravagant remorse. + +"Talk of hitting a man when he's down!" exclaimed Tiny miserably. "I hit +Lady Dromard when the tears were in her eyes, and Lord Manister when he +was hitting himself. He took it splendidly. He is a gentleman. I don't +care what else he is--lord or no lord, he would always be a perfect +gentleman. What's more, I am very sorry for him." + +"Why on earth be sorry for him?" asked Erskine with a touch of +irritation; for when Tiny spoke of Lady Dromard's tears, her own eyes +swam with them; and to do a thing like this and start crying over it the +moment it was done seemed to Erskine a bad sign. The event was so very +fresh, and so entirely contrary to his own most recent apprehensions, +that at present his only feeling in the matter was one of profound +satisfaction. But the symptoms she showed of relenting already +interfered not a little with that satisfaction, while, even more than by +the remark that had prompted his question, he was alarmed by her answer +to it: + +"Because I believe he does care for me, a little bit, in his own way--or +he thinks he does, which comes to the same thing; and because, when +all's said and done, I have treated him like a little fiend!" + +"My good girl!" said Holland uneasily, "I should remember how he treated +you." + +"Ah, no," answered Christina, shaking her head; "I have remembered that +far too long as it is. That's ancient history." + +"Well, be sorry for him if you like; be sorry for yourself as well." + +That was the best advice that occurred to him at the moment, but it set +her off at a tangent. + +"I should think I am sorry for myself--I should be sorry for any girl +who could so far forget herself!" cried Christina, speaking bitterly and +at a great pace. "Shall I tell you the sort of thing I said? When I told +him I could not possibly believe in his really caring for me, after the +way in which he left Melbourne without so much as saying good-by to me +or sending me word that he was going, he said it wasn't then he really +loved me, but now. So I told him I was sorry to hear it, as in my case +it might perhaps have been then, but it certainly wasn't now. I actually +said that! Then Lady Dromard spoke up. She had been staring at me +without a word, but she spoke up now, and it served me right. I can't +blame her for being indignant, but she didn't say half she could have +said, and it was more what she implied that sticks and stings. It didn't +sting then, though; I was thinking of all the talk out there. It was +when Lord Manister stopped her, and held out his hand to me and said, +'Anyway you forgive me now? I thought you _had_ forgiven me'--it was +then I began to tingle. I said I forgave him, of course; and then I +bolted. But I was sorry for him, and I _am_ sorry for him, whatever you +say, for I had cut him to the heart.... And he looked most awfully nice +the whole time!" + +With these frivolous last words there came a smile: the normal girl +shone out for an instant, as the sun breaks through clouds; and Erskine +took advantage of the gleam. + +"To the heart of his vanity--that's where you cut. You've humiliated him +certainly; but surely he deserved it? In any case, you've given young +Manister the right-about; and upon my soul that's rather a performance +for our Tiny! I should only like to have seen it." + +"It's good of you to call me your Tiny," returned the young girl rather +coldly. "But don't talk to me about performances, please, unless you +mean disgraceful performances. I wish I had never come to England--I +wish I was back in Australia--I wish I was up at the station!" she +cried with sudden passion. "I am miserable, and you won't understand me; +and Ruth couldn't if she tried." + +"My dear girl," Erskine said in rather an injured tone, "surely you're a +little unfair on us both? Ruth will understand when I tell her; and as +for me--I think I understand you already." + +"Not you!" answered Tiny disdainfully. "You call it a performance! You +treat it as a joke!" And she left him, with the tears in her eyes. + +He watched her enter the garden by the little gate lower down, and +saunter toward the house with lagging steps. The low sun streamed upon +her drooping figure. Even at that distance, and with her face hidden +from him, she seemed to Erskine the incarnation of all that was wayward +and willful and sweet in girlhood. And her tears and temper made her +doubly sweet, as the rain draws new fragrance from a flower; but they +had also made her doubly difficult to understand. One moment he had seen +her plainly, as in the lime light; in another, she had retired to a +deeper shade than before. The explanation of her conduct toward Lord +Manister had been a sufficiently startling revelation, yet a perfectly +lucid one; but what of this prompt transition to tears and penitence? +The only interpretation which suggested itself to Erskine was one that +he refused to entertain. He preferred to attribute Christina's present +state of mind to mere reaction; if the reaction had taken a rather +hysterical form, that, perhaps, was not to be wondered at. Moreover, +this seemed to be indeed the case; for the girl was seen no more that +day, save by Ruth, who by night was perhaps the most disappointed person +in the parish; only she managed to conceal her disappointment in a way +that it was impossible not to admire. + +Nevertheless dinner at the rectory was a dismal meal, and the more so +for the high spirits of Herbert, which, meeting with no response, turned +to silence. Poor Herbert happened to have distinguished himself in the +match, which, indeed, he had been largely instrumental in winning for +his side; but neither Ruth nor her husband showed any interest in his +exploit, and Tiny was not there. Erskine was no cricketer; Herbert hated +him for it, and made a sullen attack on the claret. But at length it +dawned upon him that there was some special reason for the silence and +glum looks at either end of the table, for which Christina's alleged +headache would not in itself account; and when Ruth left the table early +to look after Tiny, he said bluntly to Erskine: + +"You're enough to give a fellow the blues, the pair of you! What's +wrong? Have I done anything, or has Tiny?" + +Erskine temporized, pushing forward the claret. "I understand _you_ have +done something," he said with a first approach to geniality; "but, upon +my word, old fellow, I don't know what it is. I couldn't listen, for the +life of me; and you must forgive me. Tiny's upset, and that's upset +Ruth, which I suppose has upset me in my turn. Please call me names--I +deserve them--and then tell me again what you have done." + +Herbert did not require two invitations to do this. He had not only +acquitted himself brilliantly, but there was a peculiar piquancy in his +success; he had saved the side which had treated him with unobtrusive +but galling contempt until the last moment, when he opened their eyes, +and their throats too. They had put him to field at short leg; during +the intervals, after the fall of a wicket, not one of them had spoken a +word to him, save good-natured Mr. Willoughby; and they had sent him in +last, with hopeless faces, when there were many runs to get. The good +batsmen, beginning with Lord Manister, had mostly failed miserably. The +Honorable Stanley Dromard, who had been in fine form all the week, had +alone done well; and he was still at the wicket when Herbert whipped in, +with his ears full of gratuitous instructions to keep his wicket up, and +not to try to hit the professional, and his heart full of other designs. +Those instructions were given without much knowledge of this young +Australian, who took a sincere delight in disregarding them. He had hit +out from the very first, particularly at the professional, who disliked +being hit, and who was also somewhat demoralized by the extreme respect +with which he had been treated by preceding batsmen. There were thirty +runs to make when Herbert went in, and in a quarter of an hour he made +them nearly all from his own bat, exhibiting an almost insolent amount +of coolness and nerve at the crisis. The best of it was that no one had +considered it a crisis when he went in; but his truculent batting had +immediately made it one, and ultimately, in a scene of the greatest +excitement, of which Herbert was the hero, an almost certain defeat had +been converted into a glorious victory. All this was confirmed by the +local newspaper next day; considering his achievement and his character, +the hero himself told his tale with modesty. + +"He bowled like beggary," he concluded, in allusion to the discomfited +professional; "but I tell you, old toucher, we were too many measles for +him!" + +"They were more civil to you after that?" + +"My oath!" said Herbert complacently. "Those Eton jokers kicked up +hell's delight! Stanley Dromard shook hands with me between the wickets, +and said I ought to be going up to Trinity; but he's a real good +sportsman, with less side than you'd think. His governor, the earl, +congratulated me in person--you bet I felt it down my marrow! He wants +to know how it is I'm not playing for the Australians. The only man who +didn't say a word to me was that dam' fool Manister." + +"Ah, he was on the ground, then?" + +"He turned up as I went in; and when I came out he didn't look at me. +Who the blazes does he think he is? I'm as good a man as him, though I'm +a larrikin and he's a twopenny lord. I don't care what he is, I had the +bulge over him to-day--he made four!" + +"Perhaps someone else has had the bulge over him, too," suggested +Erskine gently. + +"Has someone?" + +Erskine nodded. + +"Our Tiny?" + +"Yes; he has asked her to marry him, and she has refused him on the +spot." + +Herbert shot out of his chair. + +"So're you crackin'! I thought something was _wrong_, man? O Lord, this +is a treat!" + +"It's a treat she didn't prepare one for. I had visions of a very +different upshot." + +"Aha! you never know where you have our Tiny. No more does old Manister. +Oh, but this is a treat for the gods!" + +"I told Tiny it was a performance," Erskine said reflectively; "it +struck me as one, and I was trying to cheer her up--but that wasn't the +way." + +"No? She's a terror, our Tiny!" murmured Herbert, with a running +chuckle. "Now I know why the brute was so civil to me the first time I +met him in these parts. Even then my hand itched to fill his eye for +him, but I didn't say anything, because Tiny seemed on the job herself. +To think this was her game! I must go and shake hands with her. I must +go and tell her she's done better than filling up his eye." + +"Don't you," said Erskine quietly. "I wouldn't say much to her +afterward, either, if I may give you a hint. She doesn't take quite our +view of this matter. Not that we can pretend that ours is at all a nice +view of it, mind you; only I really do regard it as a bit of a +performance on our Tiny's part, and I should like to have seen it." + +"By ghost, so should I! And seriously," added Herbert, "he deserved all +he's got. I happen to know." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A CYCLE OF MOODS. + + +But the girl herself chose to think otherwise. That was her perversity. +She could now see excuses for her own ill-treatment in the past, but +none for the revenge she had just taken on the man who had treated her +badly. A revenge it had certainly been, plotted systematically, and +carried out from first to last in sufficiently cold blood. But already +she was ashamed of it. So sincerely ashamed was Christina, now that she +had completed her retaliation and secured her triumph, that she very +much exaggerated the evil she had done, and could imagine no baser +behavior than her own. She had, indeed, felt the baseness of it while +yet there was time to draw back, but the memory of her own humiliation +had been her goad whenever she hesitated; and then the way had been made +irresistibly easy for her. But this was no comfort to her now. Neither +was that goad any excuse to her self-accusing mind; for she could feel +it no longer, which made her wonder how she had ever felt it at all. Her +judgment was obscured by the magnitude of her meanness in her own eyes. +The revulsion of feeling was as complete as it was startling and +distressing to herself. + +In her trouble and excitement that night it became necessary for her to +speak to someone, and she spoke with unusual freedom to Ruth, who +displayed on this occasion, among others, a really lamentable want of +tact. Tiny sought to explain her trouble: it was not that she could +possibly care for Lord Manister again, or dream of marrying him under +any circumstances (Ruth said nothing to all this), but that she half +believed he really cared for her (Ruth was sure of it), in his own way +(Ruth seemed to believe in his way); and in any case she was very sorry +for him. So was Ruth. In all the circumstances the sorrow of Ruth might +well have received a less frank expression than she thought fit to give +it. + +But it is only fair to say that this did not occur to Ruth. She was in +and out of the room until at last Christina was asleep, and dreaming of +the hall windows ablaze against the sunset, while again and again in +her sleep the warm, broken voice of Lady Dromard turned hard and cold. +Ruth watched her affectionately enough as she slept, and consoled +herself for her own disappointment by the reflection that at least they +understood one another now. Therefore it was a rude shock to her when +Christina came down next day and would hardly look at any of them. + +Her mood had changed; it was now her worst. She was pale still, but her +expression was set, and there was a quarrelsome glitter in her eyes; the +fact being that she was a little tired of chastising herself, and +exceedingly ready to begin on some second person. So Erskine himself was +badly snubbed at his own breakfast table, and when Tiny afterward took +herself into the kitchen garden Ruth followed her for an explanation, in +the fullness of her confidence that they understood one another at last. +No explanation was given, Tiny merely remarking that she was sorry if +she had been rude, but that she was in an evil state all through, and +unfit for human society. To Ruth, however, this only meant that Tiny was +unfit to be alone. So Ruth remained in the kitchen garden too, and was +good enough to resume gratuitously her consolations of the night before. +But in a very few minutes she returned, complaining, to her husband. + +"My dear," said he at once, "you oughtn't to have gone near her. Above +all, you shouldn't have broached the subject of her affairs; you should +have left that to her. She seems considerably ashamed of herself, and +though I must say I think that's absurd, you can't help liking her the +better for it. She surprised us all, but she surprised herself too, +because she has found that she can't strike a blow without hurting +herself at least as badly as anybody else; and that shows the good in +her. Personally, I think the blow was justified; but that has nothing to +do with it. The point is that if she's mortified about the whole +concern, as is obviously the case, it must increase her mortification to +know that we know all about it, and that she herself has told us. Which +applies more to me than to you. It was natural she should tell you; she +only told me because I happened to be the first person she saw, and I +can quite understand her hating me by this time for listening. We must +ignore the whole matter except when it pleases her to bring it up, and +then we must let her make the running." + +"I hate people to require so much humoring!" exclaimed Ruth, with some +reason. + +"Well, I must say I'm glad that _you_ don't," her husband said prettily. +"As to Tiny, her faults are very sweet, and her moods are really +interesting--but I'm thankful they don't run in the family!" + +He seemed thankful. + +"Yet you're a wonderful man for understanding other people," returned +Ruth as prettily; and her eyes were full of admiration. + +"Ah, well! Tiny's not like other people. I think she must enjoy +startling one. Our best plan is to expect the unexpected of her from +this time forth, and to let her be until she comes to herself." + +And that came to pass quite in good time. Having effaced herself all the +morning and again during the afternoon, and having been grotesquely +polite to the others (when it was necessary to speak to them) at midday +dinner, Tiny appeared at tea in another frock and flying signals of +peace. She seemed anxious to acquiesce with things that were said. So +Erskine forced jokes which were sufficiently terrible in themselves, +but they served a good purpose very well. Christina recovered her old +form, and after tea made a winsome assault upon no less redoubtable a +defender of his own inclinations than her brother Herbert. Him she +successfully importuned to take her to church in the evening, although +not to the church close at hand, where there was never, necessarily, any +service in the rector's absence. Tiny, however, had heard from her +friends in the village of a gifted young Irishman who wore a stole and +held forth extempore in a neighboring parish; they found their way to it +across the twilight fields. They did not return till after nine, when +Christina seemed much brighter than before. Her brightness, however, was +seemingly more grateful to Mr. than to Mrs. Holland, who enticed her +brother into the garden after supper, to ask him whether Tiny had not +mentioned Lord Manister. + +"Why, yes, she did just mention him," said Herbert; "but that's all. I +wasn't going to say a word about the joker, and just as we came back to +the drive here she got a hold of my arm and thanked me for not having +asked her any questions; so I was glad I hadn't. She said she wasn't by +any means proud of herself, and that she wanted to forget the whole +thing, if we'd only let her. She doesn't want to be bothered about it by +anybody. Those were her very words, as we came up the drive. She was +jolly enough all the way there, talking mostly about Wallandoon. You'll +have noticed how keen she is on the station ever since she went up there +with the governor last April; I think the old place was a treat to her +after Melbourne, to tell you the truth." + +Ruth nodded, as much as to say that she knew. She asked, however, +whether Tiny had talked also of Wallandoon on the way home. + +"No; she was a bit quiet on the way home. I think the sermon must have +made an impression on her, but I didn't hear it myself; I put in a sleep +instead. In the hymns, though, she sang out immense--by ghost, as if she +meant it! I rather wished I'd heard the sermon," remarked Herbert +thoughtfully, "because it seemed to set her thinking. I believe she's +given to thinking of those things now and then; I shouldn't be surprised +to see her go religious some day, if she don't marry; I'd rather she +did, too, than marry a thing like Manister!" + +The next day was their last at Essingham, for which not even Ruth could +grieve, in view of recent events. The day, however, was its own +consolation; it was cold and dull and damp, though not actually wet, so +that Erskine, who spent the greater part of the morning in front of a +barometer, had hopes of some final sets in the afternoon, when the +Willoughbys were coming to say good-by. Nor was he disappointed when the +time arrived, though the court was dead and the light bad; his own +service was the more telling under these conditions. But to the two +girls, who had been brought up to better things, it was a repulsive day +from all points of view, and they were very glad to spend the morning in +packing up before a hearty fire. + +"This is the kind of thing that makes one sigh for Wallandoon," Tiny +happened to say once as she stood looking out of the window at gray sky +and sullied trees. The thought was spoken just as it came into her head +with an imaginary beam of bush sunshine. There was no other thought +behind it--no human mote in that sunbeam certainly. But Ruth had raised +her head swiftly from the trunk over which she was bending, and she +knelt gazing at her sister's back as a dog pricks its ears. + +"Why Wallandoon? Why not Melbourne?" + +"Because I have had enough of Melbourne," replied Christina quietly, and +without turning round. + +"I thought you took so kindly to it?" + +"Perhaps I did; I have taken kindly to many things that were bad for me +in my time. And that's all the more reason why I should hanker after +Wallandoon. I only wish we could all go back there to live!" + +"Well, I must say I shouldn't care to live there now," remarked Ruth, +with a little laugh; "and I don't see how you could like it either, +after civilization." + +"Ah, that's because you never cared for the station as I did," replied +Christina, with her back still turned; "you liked the veranda better +than the run, and you hated the dust from the sheep when you were +riding. I can smell it now! Just think: they'll be in the middle of +shearing by this time. They were going to have thirty-six shearers on +the board, and they expected the best clip they've had for years. Can't +you hear the blades clicking and the tar boys tearing down the board, +and the bales being heaved about at the back of the shed--or see the +fleeces thrown out on the table and rolled up and bounced into the +bins--and father drafting in a cloud of dust at the yards? Can't I! +Many's the time I've brought him a mob of woollies myself. And how good +the pannikin of tea was, and the shearer's bun! I can taste 'em now. You +never cared for tea in a pannikin. Yet perhaps if you'd ever gone back +to see the place since we left it, as I did, you might be as keen on it +as I am. I own I wasn't so keen when we lived there. When I went back +and saw it the other day, though, I thought it the best place in the +world; and you would, too." + +"Is Jack Swift managing it now?" Ruth asked indifferently. + +"You knew he was." + +"Really I'm afraid I don't know much about it; but if you're so fond of +the place as all that, Tiny, I should just marry Jack Swift, and live +there ever after." + +"I suppose you're joking," said the young girl rather scornfully; "but +in case you aren't perhaps it will relieve you to hear that, if ever I +do marry, I shall marry a man--not a place." + +And she turned round and stared hard through another window, which +commanded a view of the Mundham gates and grounds; and Ruth made no more +jokes; but neither, on the other hand, did Tiny expatiate any further on +the attractions of station life at Wallandoon. + +The Willoughbys came in the afternoon, when Mrs. Willoughby was severely +disappointed, owing to the rudeness of Christina, who had disappeared +mysteriously, although she knew that these people were coming. Mrs. +Willoughby had seen her last leaving the cricket ground at Mundham under +the wing of Lady Dromard--Mrs. Willoughby had looked forward immensely +to seeing her again. But Christina had gone out, and none knew whither; +the visitor's idea was some private engagement at the hall; and this was +not the only idea she expressed, a little too freely for the entire ease +of Christina's sister. Happily they were only ideas. Mrs. Willoughby +knew nothing. + +Tiny, as it turned out later, had spent the whole afternoon in the +village, saying good-by to her friends there. Ruth found this rather +difficult to believe, as she had heard so little of the friends in +question. Nevertheless it was strictly true, and Tiny had taken tea with +Mrs. Clapperton, whose tears she had kissed away when they said good-by; +but that was only the end of a scene which would have been a revelation +to some who prided themselves on knowing their Tiny as well as anyone +could know so unaccountable a person. At dinner that evening she seemed +chastened and subdued, yet her temper, certainly, had never been +sweeter. It was noticeable that, while she had a responsive smile for +most things that were said, she made fun of nothing herself; and she was +far too fond of making fun of everything. But for two whole days her +moods had come and gone like the shadows of the clouds when sun and wind +are strong together; and the last of her whims was not the least +puzzling at the time. Later Ruth read it to her own extreme +satisfaction; but at the time it did seem odd to her that anyone should +desire a walk on so chilly and unattractive a night. Yet when they had +left the men to themselves this was what Tiny said she would like above +all things. And Ruth, who humored her, had her reward. + +For she found herself being led through the churchyard; and when she +hesitated as they came to the notice to trespassers, Tiny muttered in a +dare-devil way: + +"Lady Dromard gave me leave to come this way whenever I liked, and I +mean to make use of my privilege while I can. I want to see the hall +once again--it has a sort of fascination for me!" + +More amazed than before, Ruth followed her leader up the western slope +of Gallow Hill. The night was so dark that they heard the rustle of the +beeches on top before they could discern their branches against the sky; +and standing under them presently, panting from their climb, they gazed +down upon a double row of warm lights embedded in blackness. These were +the hall windows, in even tier, with here and there one missing, like +the broken teeth of a comb. Outline the building had none; only the +windows were bitten upon a sable canvas in ruddy orange and glimmering +yellow, from which there was just enough reflection on the lawn and +shrubs to chain them to earth in the mind of one who watched. + +"Only the windows," murmured Tiny musingly. "Those windows mean to haunt +me for the rest of my time." + +"I wish it were moonlight," Ruth said. "I wish we could see everything." + +"No, I like it best as it is," remarked Tiny, after further meditation. +"It leaves something to your imagination. Those windows are going to +leave my imagination uncommonly well off!" + +They stood together in silence, and the beeches talked in whispers above +them. When Ruth spoke next she whispered too, as though they were just +outside those lighted windows: + +"Yet you would rather live at Wallandoon than anywhere else on earth!" + +Tiny said nothing to that; but after it, at a distance, there came a +sigh. + +"What's the matter, Ruth?" + +"I'd rather not tell you, dear; it might make you angry." + +"I think I like being made angry just at present," said Christina, with +a little laugh; "but you've spiked my guns by saying that first; you are +quite safe, my dear." + +"Then I was thinking--I couldn't help thinking--that one day you might +have been mistress----" + +"Of the windows? Then it's high time we turned our backs on them! That's +just what I was thinking myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE INVISIBLE IDEAL. + + +On the flags of a London square, some days later, Ruth repeated the sigh +that had succeeded on Gallow Hill, and once more Christina asked her +what was the matter. + +"I was thinking," said Ruth with a confidence born of the former +occasion, "that one day all this, too, would have been more or less +yours." + +"All what, pray?" + +"Every brick and slate that you can see! All this is part of the Dromard +estate; they own every inch hereabouts." + +Christina's next remark was a perfectly pleasant one in itself, only it +referred to a totally different matter. And thus she treated poor Ruth. +At other times she would herself rush into the subject without warning, +and out of it the moment it wearied or annoyed her; to follow her +closely in and out required a nimble tact indeed. Nor was it easy to +know always the right thing to say, or at all delightful to feel that +the right thing to-day might be the wrong thing to-morrow. But into this +one subject Ruth was as ready to enter at a hint from Tiny as she was +now contented to quit it at her caprice. The elder sister's patience and +good temper were alike wonderful, but still more wonderful was her +faith. Instinctively she felt that all was not over between Tiny and +Lord Manister, and like many people who do not pretend to be clever, and +are fond of saying so, she believed immensely in her instincts. It must +not, however, be forgotten that her wishes for Tiny were the very best +she could conceive; and it should be remembered that she had nobody but +Tiny to watch over and care for, to think about and make plans for, +during the long days when Erskine was in the City. This was the great +excuse for Ruth, which never occurred to her husband, and was unknown +even to herself. Christina was her baby, and a very troublesome, bad +baby it was. + +But what could you expect? The girl was sufficiently worried and +unsettled; she was suffering from those upsetting fluctuations of mind +which few of her kind entirely escape, but which are violent in +characters that have grown with the emotional side to the sun and the +intellectual side to the wall. In such a case the mind remains hard and +green, while the emotions ripen earlier than need be; and the fault is +the gardener's, and the gardener is the girl's mother. Now Mrs. Luttrell +was a soulless but ladylike nonentity, with an eye naturally blind to +the soul in her girls. All she herself had taught them was an unaffected +manner and the necessity of becoming married. So Ruth had married both +early and well by the favor of the gods, and Christina had restored the +average by committing more follies of all sizes than would appear +possible in the time. That in which Lord Manister was concerned had +doubtless been the most important of the series, but its sting lay +greatly in its notoriety. It had caused a light-hearted girl to see +herself suddenly in the pupils of many eyes, and to recoil in shame from +her own littleness. It had made her hate both herself and the owners of +all those eyes, but men especially, of whom she had seen far too much in +a short space of time. What she had done in England only heightened her +poor opinion of herself now that it was done. She had seen her way to +an incredibly sweet revenge, only to find it incredibly bitter. In +striking hard she had hurt herself most, as Erskine had divined; instead +of satisfying her naturally vindictive feeling toward Lord Manister that +blow had killed it. Now she forgave him freely, but found it impossible +to forgive herself; and so the generosity that was in a disordered heart +asserted itself, because she had omitted to allow for it, not knowing it +was there. Worse things asserted themselves too, such as the very solid +attractions of the position which might have been hers; to these she +could not help being fully alive, though this was one more reason why +she hated herself. Her first judgment on herself, if a mere reaction at +the beginning, became ratified and hardened as time went on. She became +what she had never been before, even when notoriety had made her +reckless--an introspective girl. And that made her twisty and queer and +unaccountable; for, to be introspective with equanimity, you must have a +bluff belief in yourself, which is not necessarily conceit, but Tiny was +not blessed with it. + +"She has lost her sense of fun--that's the worst part of the whole +business!" exclaimed Erskine, one night when Christina had gone early to +bed, as she always would now. "She has ceased to be amusing or easily +amused. The empty town is boring her to the bone, and if I don't fix up +our Lisbon trip we shall have her wanting to go back to Australia. +However, I am bound to be in Lisbon by the end of next month, and I'm +keener than ever on having you two with me. I know the ropes out there, +and I could promise you both a good time--but that depends on Tiny. Let +us hope the bay will blow the cobwebs out of her head; she wasn't made +to be sentimental. I only wish I could get her to jeer at things as she +used before we went to Essingham and while we were there!" + +"Don't you think it's rather a good thing she has dropped that?" Ruth +asked. "She had no respect for anything in those days." + +"And her humor saved her! Pray what does she respect now?" + +"Two or three people that I know of--my lord and master for one, and +another person who is only a lord." + +"Look here, Ruth, I don't believe it," cried Erskine, who by this time +was pacing his study floor. "Why, she hasn't set eyes on him since the +day she refused him--with variations." + +"I know--but she's had time to reflect." + +"Then I hope and pray she may never have the opportunity to recant!" + +"Well, I won't deny that I hope differently," replied Ruth quietly; "but +I've no reason to suppose there's any chance of it; and whatever +happens, Erskine, you needn't be afraid of my--of my meddling any more." + +"My dear girl, I know that," said he cordially enough; "but of course +you tell her you're sorry for this, and you wish that. It's only natural +that you should." + +"Ah, I daren't say as much to her as you think," said Ruth, with a nod +and a smile, for she was glad to know more than he did, here and there. +"You needn't be afraid of me; I have little enough influence over her. +She has only once opened her heart to me--once, and that's all." + +Which was perfectly true, at the time. + +But a few days later the restless girl was seized with a sudden desire +to spend her money (which is really a good thing to do when you are +troubled, if, like Christina, you have the money to spend), and as her +most irregular desires were sure to be gratified by Ruth when they were +not quite impossible, this whim was immediately indulged. It was rather +late in the afternoon, but, on the other hand, the afternoon was +extremely fine; and it was a Thursday, when men stay late in Lombard +Street on account of next day's outward mails. Consequently there was no +occasion for hurry; and so fascinated was Christina with the attractions +and temptations of several well-known establishments, and last, as well +as most of all, with those of the stores, that it was golden evening +before they breathed again the comparatively fresh air of Victoria +Street. It was like Christina to wish, at that hour, to walk home, and +"through as many parks as possible"; it was even more like her to be +extravagantly delighted with the first of these, and to insist on +"shouting" Ruth a penny chair overlooking the ornamental water in St. +James' Park. + +Glad as she was to meet her sister's wishes, when she would only express +them, which she was doing with inconvenient freedom this afternoon, Ruth +did take exception to the penny chairs. Her feeling was that for the +two of them to sit down solemnly on two of those chairs was not an +entirely nice thing to do, and certainly not a thing that she would care +to be seen doing. Knowing, however, that this would be no argument with +Tiny, she merely said that it would make them too late in getting home; +and that happened to be worse than none. + +"Erskine said he wouldn't be home till eight o'clock; and he told us not +to dress, as plain as he could speak," Tiny reminded her. "The other +parks won't beat this; and you shall not be late, because I'll shout a +hansom, too." + +So Ruth made no more objections, though she felt a sufficient number; +and they sat down with their eyes toward the pale traces of a gentle, +undemonstrative September sunset, and were silent. Already the lamps +were lighted in the Mall, where the trees were tanned and tattered by +the change and fall of the leaf; at each end of the bridge, too, the +lamps were lighted, and reflected below in palpitating pillars of fire; +and every moment all the lights burnt brighter. Eastward a bluish haze +mellowed trees and chimneys, making them seem more distant than they +were; the noise of the traffic seemed more distant still, but it +floated inward from the four corners, like the breaking of waves upon an +islet; and here in the midst of it the stillness was strange, and +certainly charming; only Tiny was immoderately charmed. She sat so long +without speaking that Ruth leant back and watched her curiously. Her +face was raised to the pale pink sky, with wide-opened eyes and +tight-shut lips, as though the desires of her soul were written out in +the tinted haze, as you may scratch with your finger in the bloom of a +plum. She never spoke until the next quarter rang out from Westminster +and was lingering in the quiet air, when she said, "Why have we never +done this before, Ruth?" + +"Well," answered Ruth, "I never did it myself before to-day; and I must +own I think it's rather an odd thing to do." + +"Ah, well, heaven may be odd--I hope it is!" + +Ruth began to laugh. "My dear Tiny, you don't mean to say you call this +heavenly?" + +"It's near enough," said the young girl. + +"But, my dear child, what stuff! The couples keep it sufficiently +earthly, I should say--and the smell of bad tobacco, and that child's +trumpet, and the midges and gnats--but principally 'Arry and 'Arriet." + +"Now I just like to see them," said Christina, for once the serious +person of the two, "they're so awfully happy." + +"Awfully, indeed!" cried Ruth, with a superior little laugh. "Very +vulgarly happy, I should say!" And Tiny did not immediately reply, but +her eyes had fallen as far as the fretwork of the shabby foliage in the +Mall, over which the sky still glowed; and when she spoke her words were +the words of youthful speculation. She seemed, indeed, to be thinking +aloud, and not at all sure of the sense of her thoughts. + +"Very vulgarly happy!" she repeated, so long after the words had been +spoken that it took Ruth some moments to recall them. "I am trying to +decide whether there isn't something rather vulgar about all happiness +of that kind--from the highest to the lowest. Forgive me, dear--I don't +mean anything the least bit personal--I find I don't mean a word I've +said! I wasn't thinking of the happiness itself so much, but of the +desire for it. Oh, there must be something better for a girl to long +for! There _is_ something, if one only knew what it was; but nobody has +ever shown me, for instance. Still there must be something between +misery and marriage--something higher." + +Her eyes had not fallen, but they shone with tears. + +"I don't know anything higher than marrying the man you love," said Ruth +honestly. + +"Ah, if you love him! There is no need for _you_ to know a higher +happiness, even if one were possible in your case. But look at me!" + +"You must marry, too," said Ruth with facility. + +"As I probably shall; but to be happy, as you are happy, one ought to be +fond of the person first, as you were; and--well, I don't think I have +ever in my life felt as you felt." + +"Stuff!" said Ruth, but with as much tenderness as the word would carry. + +"I wish it were," returned Christina sadly; "it's the shameful truth. I +have been going over things lately, and that's never a very cheerful +employment in my case, but I think it has taught me my own heart this +time. And I know now that I have never cared for anyone so much as for +myself--much less for Lord Manister! If I had ever really cared for him +I couldn't have treated him as I have done--no, not if he had behaved +fifty times worse in the beginning. I was flattered by him, but I think +I liked him, though I know I was dazzled by--the different things. I +would have married him; I never loved him--nor any of the others!" + +"Ah, well, Tiny, I am quite sure he loves you." + +"Not very deeply, I hope; I can't altogether believe in him, and I don't +much want to. It is bad enough to have one of them in deadly earnest," +added Christina after a pause, but with a laugh. + +"Is one of them--I mean another one?" asked Ruth, correcting herself +quickly. + +Tiny nodded. She would not say who it was. "I don't care for him +either--not enough," she, however, vouchsafed. + +"Then you don't think of marrying him, I hope?" + +"No, not the man I mean"--she shook her head sadly at trees and sky--"I +like him too much to marry him unless I loved him. Only if anyone else +asked me--someone I didn't perhaps care a scrap for--I don't know what +mightn't happen. I feel so reckless sometimes, and so sick of +everything! This comes of having played at it so often that one is +incapable of the real thing; more than all, it comes of growing up with +no higher ideal than a happy marriage. And there must be something so +much nobler--if one only knew what!" + +Very wistfully her eyes wandered over the fading sky. The thin, floating +clouds, fast disappearing in the darkness, were not less vague than her +desires, and not more lofty. Her soul was tugging at a chain that had +been too seldom taut. + +"I know of nothing--unless you're a bluestocking," suggested poor Ruth, +"or go in for Woman's Rights!" + +Then the sights and sounds of the place came suddenly home to Christina, +and her eyes fell. A child rattled by with an iron hoop. A pleasure +boat, villainously rowed, passed with hoarse shouts through the pillar +of fire below the bridge and left it writhing. Her eyes as she lowered +them were greeted with the smarting smoke of a cigar, and her nostrils +with the smell that priced it. The smoker took a neighboring chair, or +rather two, for he was not without his companion. + +Christina was the first to rise. + +"I have been talking utter nonsense to you, Ruth," she whispered as they +walked away; "but it was kind of you to let me go on and on. One has +sometimes to say a lot more than one means to get out a little that one +does mean; you must try to separate the little from the lot. I've been +talking on tiptoe--it was good of you not to push me over!" + +They crossed the bridge, throbbing beneath the tread of many feet; in +the Mall, under the half-clothed trees, they hailed a hansom, and Ruth +greeted her reflection in the side mirror with a sigh of relief. + +"We should never have done this if we hadn't been Australians," she +remarked, as though exceedingly ashamed of what they had done, as indeed +she was. + +"Then that's one more good reason for thanking Heaven we _are_ +Australians!" answered Tiny, with some of her old spirit. "You may think +differently, Ruth, but for my part that's the one point on which I have +still some lingering shreds of pride." + +And that was how Tiny Luttrell opened her heart a second time to Ruth, +her sister, who was of less comfort to her even than before, because now +her open heart was also the cradle of a waking soul. More things than +one need name, for they must be obvious, had of late worked together +toward this awakening, until now the soul tossed and struggled within a +frivolous heart, and its cries were imperious, though ever inarticulate. +To Ruth they were but faint echoes of the unintelligible; scarce +hearing, she was contented not to try to understand. When Tiny said she +had been "talking on tiptoe," to Ruth's mind that merely expressed a +queer mood queerly. She did not see how accurately it figured the young +soul straining upward; indeed the accuracy was unconscious, and +Christina herself did not see this. + +Queer as it may have been, her mood had made for nobility, and was, +therefore, memorable among the follies and worse of which, unhappily, +she was still in the thick. It passed from her not to return, yet to +lodge, perhaps, where all that is good in our lives and hearts must +surely gather and remain until the spirit itself goes to complete and to +inhabit a new temple, and we stand built afresh in the better image of +God. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +FOREIGN SOIL. + + +There is in Cintra a good specimen of the purely Portuguese hotel, which +is worth a trial if you can speak the language of the country and eat +its meats; if you want to feel as much abroad as you are, this is the +spot to promote that sensation. The whole concern is engagingly +indigenous. They will give you a dinner of which every course (there +must be nearly twenty) has the twofold charm of novelty and mystery +combined; and you shall dine in a room where it is safe, if +unsportsmanlike, to criticise aloud your fellow-diners, when their ways +are most notably not your ways. Then, after dinner, you may make music +in a pleasant drawing room or saunter in the quaint garden behind the +hotel; only remember that the garden has a view which is necessarily +lost at night. + +The view is good, and it improves as the day wears on by reason of the +beetling crag that stands between Cintra and the morning sun. So close +is this crag to the town, and so sheer, that at dawn it looms the +highest mountain on earth; but with the afternoon sunlight streaming on +its face you see it for what it is, and there is much in the sight to +satisfy the eye. Halfway up the vast wall is forested with fir trees +picked out with bright villas and streaked with the white lines of +ascending roads. The upper portion is of granite, rugged and bare and +iron gray. The topmost angle is surmounted by square towers and +battlements that seem a part of the peak, as indeed they are, since the +Moors who made them hewed the stones from the spot; and the serrated +crest notches the sky like a crown on a hoary head. Finer effects may +recur very readily to the traveled eye, but to one too used to flat +regions this is fine enough: thus Tiny Luttrell was in love with Cintra +from the moment when she and Ruth and Erskine first set foot in the +garden of the Portuguese hotel, and let their eyes climb up the sunlit +face of the rock. + +They were a merrier party now than when leaving Plymouth. They had left +fog and damp behind them (it was near the end of October), and steamed +back to summer in a couple of days; and that alone was inspiriting. Then +they had already stayed a day or two in Lisbon, where Erskine had spent +as many years when Ruth was an infant at the other end of the world, so +that he was naturally a good guide. There, too, Ruth and Tiny made some +friends, being charmingly treated by people with whom they were unable +to converse, while Erskine attended to the business matter which had +brought him over. The girls were not sorry to hear that this matter was +hanging fire, as such matters have a way of doing in Lisbon, for they +were enjoying themselves thoroughly. Ruth felt prouder than ever of her +big husband when she saw him among his Portuguese friends, and she +thought him very clever to speak their language so fluently. As for +Tiny, she seemed herself again; she was willing to be amused, and +luckily there was much to amuse her. Much, on the other hand, she could +seriously admire, and her high opinion of Portugal was itself amusing +after the fault she had found with another country; she even made +comparisons between the two, which gave considerable pleasure when +translated by Erskine. Cintra pleased her most, however. She delighted +in the hotel, where there were no English tongues but their own; she +even pretended to enjoy the dinner. So Erskine felt proud of his choice +of quarters; only he missed his English paper, and had to go to the +English hotel and purchase unnecessary refreshment on the chance of a +glimpse of one. Your man-Briton abroad is miserable without that. It is +a male weakness entirely. Holland took with him on that pilgrimage no +sympathy from the ladies, who only derided him when he came back +confessing that he had thrown his money away, as some other fellow was +staying at the English inn and reading the paper in his room. + +"But I'm very sorry there's another Englishman in the place," announced +Christina; "though I suppose one ought to be thankful he didn't choose +our hotel. It is something like being abroad, staying here; one more +Englishman would have spoilt the fun." + +"When you see the steeds I've ordered for the morning," said Erskine, +with a laugh, "you'll feel more abroad than ever." + +And they did, indeed, when the morning came; for their steeds were +three small asses in charge of a dark-eyed child who was whacking them +for his amusement while he smoked a cigarette. A small but picturesque +crowd had collected in the street to see the start, and were greatly +entertained by the spectacle of the Senhor Inglez (a giant among them) +astride a donkey little taller than a big dog. Interest was also shown +in the camera legs, which Erskine carried like a lance in rest, while +the camera itself was nursed by Christina, who had spoilt a power of +plates in Lisbon without becoming discouraged. The small boy threw away +his cigarette, and having asked Erskine for another, which was sternly +denied him, smote each donkey in turn and set the cavalcade in motion. + +They passed the palace in the little market place, and were unable to +admire it; they passed the loathly prison, which is the worst feature of +Cintra, and were duly abused by the prisoners at the barred windows; +they were glad to reach the outskirts of the town, and to begin their +ascent of the rock up which their eyes had already climbed. They were to +devote the day to the ruined Moorish fort they had seen against the sky, +and to the Palace of Pena, which stands on a peak hidden from the town; +and Erskine, who was confident that they were all going to enjoy +themselves very particularly, declared that the day was only worthy of +the cause. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the weather was just +warm enough for the work in hand. As the donkeys wended their way up the +steep roads, Mr. Holland was advised to get off and carry his carrier; +but he knew the Cintra donkey of old, and sat ignobly still. He also +knew the Cintra donkey boy, and aired his Portuguese upon the attendant +imp, who passed on the way, and greeted with jeers, a professional +friend waiting with only one donkey in front of a pretty house +overlooking the road. + +"Ah," said Erskine, "that's the English hotel; and no doubt that moke is +for the opposition Senhor Inglez--whose name is Jackson." + +"Then pray let us push on," cried Christina anxiously. "Do you suppose +he is coming our way, Erskine?" + +"Most probably, to begin with; but he may turn off for Monserrat or the +cork convent." + +"Let us hope so. If he should pass us, Erskine, just talk Portuguese to +us as loud as ever you can!" + +"Far better to hurry up and not be overtaken," added Ruth, who was +thinking of her appearance, with which she was far from satisfied. + +Accordingly the imp (with whose good looks Christina had already +expressed herself as enamored) was employed for some moments at his +favorite occupation. But for the pursuing Englishman, however, Tiny, +instead of leading the way upward, would have dismounted more than once +to set up her camera; for low parapets were continually on their left, +high walls on their right; and wherever there was a gap in the fir trees +growing below the parapets, a fresh view was presented of the town +below. First it was a bird's-eye view of the palace, seen to better +advantage through the trees of the Rua de Duque Saldanha than before, +from the street; then a fair impression of the town as a whole, with its +gay gardens and cheap looking stuccoed houses; and then successive +editions of Cintra, each one smaller than the last, and each with a +wider tract of undulating brown land beyond, and a broader band of ocean +at the horizon. Then they plunged into mountain gorges; there were no +more distant views, but mighty walls on either side, and reddening +foliage interlacing overhead, as though woven upon the strip of pure +blue sky. And the atmosphere was clear as distilled water in a crystal +vessel; but in the shade the air had a sweet keenness, an inspiriting +pungency, under whose influence the enthusiast of the party grew +inevitably eloquent in the praises of Portugal. + +"I can't tell you how I like it!" she said to Erskine, with a color on +her cheeks and a light in her eyes which alone seemed worth the voyage. +"I call it a real good country, which has never had justice done to it. +If I could write I would boom it. Of course I haven't seen Italy or +Switzerland, nor yet France, but I have seen England. If I were +condemned to live in Europe at all, I'd rather live at this end of it +than at yours, Erskine. Look at the climate--it's as good as our +Australian climate, and very like it--and this is all but November. You +have no such air in England, even in summer, but when you think of what +we left behind us the other day, it's ditch water unto wine compared +with this. Ah, what a day it is, and what a place, and how fresh and +queer and un-English the whole thing is!" + +"I am perhaps spoiling it for you," suggested Erskine apologetically, +"by being not un-English myself?" + +"No, Erskine, it's only me you're spoiling," returned the girl +unexpectedly, and with a grateful smile for Ruth as well. "But I don't +know another Briton--home or colonial--who wouldn't rather spoil the day +and the place for me." + +"That's a pity, because I happen to smell the blood of an Englishman at +this moment--at least I hear his donkey." + +They stopped to listen, and following hoofs were plainly audible. + +"Then he hasn't turned off for the other places!" exclaimed Ruth, +smoothing her skirt. + +Erskine shrugged his shoulders like a native of the country. "No, he is +evidently bound for our port; and as the chances are that he is under +sixteen stone, he's sure to overtake us. It is I that am keeping you all +back." + +"We won't look round," exclaimed Tiny decisively; "and you shall shout +at us in Portuguese as he comes up, and we'll say 'Sim, Senhor!'" + +So they kept their eyes most rigorously in front of them; and such was +the authority of Tiny that Erskine was in the midst of an absurd speech +in Portuguese when they were overtaken. That harangue was interrupted by +the voice of the interloping Englishman; and was never resumed, as the +voice was Lord Manister's. + +The meeting was plainly an embarrassing one for all concerned, but it +had at least the appearance of a very singular coincidence; and nothing +will go further in conversation than the slightest or most commonplace +coincidence. You must be very nervous indeed if you are incapable of +expressing your surprise, of which much may be made, while the little +bit of personal history to follow need not entail a severe intellectual +effort. Lord Manister accounted very simply, if a little eagerly, for +his presence in Portugal; he went on to explain that he had heard much +of Cintra, but not, as he was glad to find, one word too much. +Personally, he was delighted and charmed. Was not Mrs. Holland charmed +and delighted? It was at Ruth's side that Lord Manister rode forward, +falling into the position very naturally indeed. + +Quite as naturally the other two dropped behind. "So now I suppose your +day will be spoilt, Tiny," murmured Erskine, with a wry smile. + +"The day is doomed--unless he has the good taste to see he isn't +wanted." + +"Well, I wouldn't let him see that, even if he does bore you," said +Erskine, who had his doubts on this point. "I don't think he's looking +very well," he added meditatively. + +As for Christina, she was staring fixedly at Lord Manister's back; for +once, however, his excellent attire earned no gibe from her; and while +she was still seeking for some more convincing mode of parading her +immutable indifference toward that young man, a turn in the road brought +them suddenly before the gates of Pena. The four closed up and rode +through the gates abreast; and, presently dismounting, they left their +small steeds to the sticks of the Cintra donkey boys, and walked +together up the broad, sloping path. + +"By the way," remarked Holland, "I was told there was only one other +Englishman in Cintra at the moment--a man of the name of Jackson; have +you arrived this morning?" + +"I am afraid--I'm Jackson!" confessed Manister, with a blush and a noisy +laugh. + +"Oh, I see," said Mr. Holland, laughing also; and he saw a good deal. + +"Of course you have to do that sometimes; I can quite understand it," +Ruth said in a sympathetic voice. "Still I think we must call you Mr. +Jackson!" she added slyly. + +Christina said nothing at all. Her extreme silence and self-possession +hardly tended to promote the common comfort; her only comment on Lord +Manister's alias was a somewhat scornful smile. As they all pressed +upward by well-kept paths, in the shadow of tall fir trees, she kept +assiduously by Erskine's side. The ascent, however, was steep enough to +touch the breath, and conversation was for some minutes neither a +pleasure nor a necessity. Then, above the firs, the palace of Pena +reared hoary head and granite shoulders; for, like the ruined fort +visible from the town below, the palace is built upon the summit of a +rock. Still a steeper climb, and the party stood looking down upon the +fir trees which had just shadowed them, with their backs to the palace +walls, that seem, and often are, a part of the rugged peak itself. For +this is a palace not only founded on a rock, and on the rock's topmost +crag, but the foundation has itself supplied so many features ready-made +that nature and the Moors may be said to have collaborated in its +making. Three of the party, having taken breath, played catch with this +idea; but Christina barely listened. Her attitude was regrettable, but +not unnatural. In the last place on earth where she would have expected +to meet anyone she knew, she had met the last person whom she expected +to meet anywhere. She remembered telling him of her mooted trip to +Portugal with the Hollands, she remembered also his telling her to be +sure to go to Cintra; her recollection of the conversation in question, +and of Lady Almeric's conservatory, where it had taken place, was +sufficiently clear, now that she thought of it; but certainly she had +never thought of it since. Had he? She might have mentioned the time +when the trip was likely to take place; she was not so sure of this, but +it seemed likely; and in that case, was a certain explanation of his +sojourn in Portugal, other than the explanation he had been so careful +to give, either preposterous in itself or the mere suggestion of her own +vanity? + +These questions were now worrying Christina as she had seldom been +worried before, even about Lord Manister, who had been much in her +thoughts for many weeks past. Yet Manister was not the only person on +her mind at the moment. Just before leaving London she had experienced +the fulfillment of a prophecy, by receiving from Countess Dromard a +stare as stony as the pavement they met on, which was near enough to +Piccadilly to inspire a superstitious respect for sibylline Mrs. +Willoughby. In the disagreeable moment following Tiny's thoughts had +flown straight to that lady--indeed her only remark at the time had been +"Good old Mrs. Willoughby!" to which Ruth (who suffered at Tiny's side, +and for her part turned positively faint with mortification) had been in +no condition to reply. Little as she showed it, however, Christina had +felt the affront far more keenly than Ruth--chiefly because she took it +all to herself, and was unable to think it utterly undeserved. In any +event she felt it now. It was but the other day that the countess had +cut her. The wound was still tender; the sight of Lord Manister scrubbed +it cruelly. And long afterward the scar had its own little place among +the forces driving Christina in a certain direction, whether she went on +feeling it or not. + +Hardly less preoccupied than herself was the man whose side Christina +would not leave. Wherefore, though the place was old ground to him, as a +guide he was instructive rather than amusing. He spoke the requisite +Portuguese to the janitors, whose stock facts he also translated into +intelligible English; he led the way up the winding staircase of the +round tower, and from the giddy gallery at the top he did not omit to +point out Torres Vedras and such like landmarks; descending, he had +stock facts of his own connected with chapel and sacristy, but he failed +to make them interesting. A paid guide could not have been more +perfunctory in method, though it is certain that the most entertaining +showmanship would have failed to entertain Erskine's hearers, each one +of whom was more or less nervous and ill at ease. He himself was +thinking only of Christina, who would not leave his side. He saw her +watching Lord Manister; though she would hardly speak to him, he saw +pity in her glance. He heard Lord Manister talking volubly to Ruth; he +did not know about what, and he wondered if Manister knew, himself. +Erskine did not understand. The girl seemed to care, and if she did--if +this thing was to be--he would never say another word against it. If she +cared there would not be another word to say, save in joyous and loving +congratulation. That was the whole question: whether she cared. For the +first time Erskine was not sure; it was a toss-up in his mind whether +Tiny was sure herself. Certainly there seemed to be hope for the man who +was being watched yet avoided; however, Erskine was resolved to give him +the very first opportunity of learning his fate. + +Accordingly he reminded Tiny that he had been carrying the camera ever +since they had dismounted: and was his arm to ache for nothing? The +suggestion of the square tower, with the steps below, as an admirable +target, also came from Erskine. Lord Manister helped to take the +photograph. That, again, was Erskine's doing; and he even did more. When +they all turned their backs on Pena, and their faces to the ruin on the +opposite peak, it was her husband who rode ahead with Ruth. His reward +was the smile of an angel over a lost soul saved. He returned the smile +cynically. But round the first corner he belabored his ass with the +camera legs, and shot ahead, Ruth gladly following. + +In the hollow between the peaks the bridle path passes an ancient and +picturesque mosque, with a lime tree growing in the center; from this +the ruin derives a roof in summer, a carpet in winter, and had now a +little of each. + +"What a romantic place!" said Ruth, peeping in. Her husband had waited +for her to do so. + +"Then let us leave it to more romantic people," he answered, dropping +the tripod in the doorway. "They may like to have a photograph of +it--for every reason! You and I had better climb up to the fort and +chuck stones into Cintra till they come." + +This looked quite possible when at last they sat perched upon the +antique battlements; they seemed so to overhang the little town. Erskine +lit a Portuguese cigarette, which the wind finished for him in a minute. +Ruth kept a hand upon her hat. Then she spoke out, with the wind +whistling between their faces. + +"Erskine, I know what you think--that this isn't an accident!" + +"Of course it isn't." + +"And I dare say you think _I_ have had something to do with it?" + +"Have you, I wonder? You may easily have said that we thought of coming +here--quite innocently, you know." + +"Then I never said so at all. I thought--you know what I thought would +have happened last August. Erskine, I have had absolutely nothing to do +with it this time!" + +"My dear, you needn't say that. I know neither you nor Tiny have had +anything to do with it--so far as you are aware; but Tiny must have told +him we were coming here, and this is his roundabout dodge of seeing her +again. Certainly that looks as if he were in earnest." + +"I always said he was." + +"And as for Tiny, I don't pretend to make her out. You see, they do not +come. I shouldn't be surprised at anything." + +"No more should I; but I should be thankful. Even when I hid things from +you, Erskine, I never pretended I shouldn't be thankful if this +happened, did I? Oh, and you'll be thankful, too, when you see them +happy--as we are happy!" + +Holland sat for some minutes with bent head, picking lichen from +granite. + +"My dear girl," he said at length, and tenderly, "don't let us talk any +more about it. I dare say I have taken a rotten view of it all along. I +only thought--that he didn't deserve her, and that neither of them could +care enough. It seems I was more or less wrong; but there is nothing +further to be said until we know." + +He leant over the battlements, gazing down into the toy town below. Ruth +brooked his silence for a time. Then he heard her saying: + +"They are a very long while. He's certainly helping her to take a +photograph." + +"I hope he'll get a negative," said Erskine, with a laugh. + +They came at last. + +"How long have you been there, Erskine?" shouted Tiny from below. She +held one end of the tripod, by which Manister was tugging her uphill. + +"About ten minutes." + +"Not as much, Erskine," said Ruth. + +"We have been photographing that charming mosque," Manister said, as he +set down the camera and wiped his forehead; "you meant us to, didn't +you, Holland?" + +"Of course I did." + +"And have you got a negative?" asked poor Ruth. + + * * * * * + +"A month to make up her mind!" cried Erskine Holland, on hearing at +second hand what had actually happened in the mosque. "No wonder he +wouldn't stay and dine, and no wonder he is going back to Lisbon +to-morrow. By Jove! he _must_ be fond of her to stand it at all. To go +and wait a month!" + +"He offered to wait six," said Ruth. + +"Then he's a fool," said Erskine quietly. "Tell me, Ruth, is it a thing +one may speak about? One would like, of course, to say something +pleasant. After all, it's very like an engagement, and I could at least +tell her that I like him. I did like him to-day. Under the circumstances +he behaved capitally; only I do think him a fool not to have insisted on +her deciding one way or the other." + +"I don't think I'd mention the matter unless she does," Ruth said +doubtfully. "She told me to tell you she would rather not speak of it at +present. You see she has thought of you already! She says you will find +her the same as ever if only you will try to look as though you didn't +know anything about it. She declares that she means to make the most of +her time for the next month wherever she may be, and she hopes you have +ordered the donkeys for to-morrow. Still she is troubled, and if she +thought you didn't disapprove--if she thought you approved--I can see +that it would make a difference to her. She thinks so much of your +opinion--only she doesn't want to speak to you herself about this until +it is a settled thing. But if you would send her your blessing, dear, I +know she would appreciate that." + +"Then take it to her by all means," said Erskine, heartily enough. "Tell +her I think she is very wise to have left it open--you needn't say what +I think of Manister for letting her do so. But you may say, if she likes +to hear it, that I think him a jolly good fellow, who will make her very +happy if she can really feel she cares for him. Tell her it all hangs on +that. That's what we have to impress upon her, and you're the proper +person to do so. I only felt one ought to say something pleasant. Wait a +moment--tell her I'll do my best to give her a good time until December +if none of us are ever to have one again!" + +Tiny was sitting at the dressing table in her room, slowly and +deliberately burning a photograph in the flame of a candle. The +photograph was on a yellow mount which Ruth remembered, and as she drew +near Tiny turned it face downward to the flame, which smacked still more +of a former occasion. + +"Tiny!" cried Ruth in alarm, laying her hand on the young girl's +shoulder. "What on earth are you burning, dear?" + +"My boats," replied Christina grimly; and turning the photograph over, +the face of Jack Swift was still uncharred. + +"So you've carried _his_ photograph with you all this time?" + +"He is as good a friend as I shall ever have." + +"Then why burn him if he is only a friend?" + +"Perhaps he would like to be more; and perhaps there was once a moment +when he might have been. But now I shall duly marry Lord Manister--if he +has patience." + +"Then why keep poor Lord Manister in suspense, Tiny, dearest?" + +"Because I'm not in love with him; and I question whether he's as much +in love with me as he imagines--I told him so." + +"As it is, you may find it difficult to draw back." + +"Exactly; so I am burning my boats. Jack, my dear, that's the last of +you!" + +Her voice satisfied Ruth, who, however, could see no more of her face +than the curve of her cheek, and beyond it the blackened film curling +from the burning cardboard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE HIGH SEAS. + + +"He's done it at last!" + +Erskine brandished a letter as he spoke, and then leant back in his +chair with a guffaw that alarmed the Portuguese waiters. The letter was +from Herbert Luttrell, a Cambridge man of one month's standing, of whose +academic outset too little had been heard. His sisters were anxious to +know what it was that he had done at last; they put this question in the +same breath. + +"Oh, it might be worse," said Erskine cheerfully. "He has stopped short +of murder!" + +"We should like to know how far he got," Tiny said, while Ruth held out +an eager hand for the letter. + +"I don't think you must read it, my dear; but the fact is he has at last +filled up somebody's eye!" + +Tiny breathed a sigh of relief. + +"Is he in prison?" asked Ruth. + +"No, not yet; but I am afraid he must be in bad odor, though perhaps not +with everybody." + +"Whose was the eye?" Christina wanted to know. + +"The proctor's!" suggested Ruth. + +"Not yet, again--you must give the poor boy time, my dear. It may be the +proctor's turn next, but at present your little brother has contented +himself with filling the eye of the man who was coaching his college +trials. It's a time-honored privilege of the coach to use free language +to his crew, and it doesn't give offense as a rule; but it seems to have +offended Herbert. Young Australia don't like being sworn at, and Herbert +admits that he swore back from his thwart, and said that he fancied he +was as good a man as the coach, but he hoped to find out when they got +to the boathouse. They did find out; and Herbert has at last filled up +an old country eye; and for my part I don't think the less of him for +doing so." + +"The less!" cried Tiny, whose blue eyes were alight. "_I_ think all the +more of him. I'm proud of Herbs! You have too many of those savage old +customs, Erskine; you need Young Australia to come and knock them on the +head!" + +"Well, as long as he doesn't knock a proctor on the head, as Ruth seems +to fear! If he does that there's an end of him, so far as Cambridge is +concerned. He tells me the eye was unpopular, otherwise I'm afraid he +would have had a warm time of it; though a quick fist and an arm that's +stronger than it looks are wonderful things for winning the respect of +men, even in these days." + +"And mayn't we really see the letter?" Tiny said wistfully. + +Erskine shook his head. + +"I am very sorry, but I'm afraid I must treat it as private. It's a +verbatim report. I can only tell you that Herbert seems to have been +justified, more or less, though he is perhaps too modest to report +himself as fully as he reports the eye. He says nothing else of any +consequence. He doesn't mention work of any kind; but he's not there +only, or even primarily, to pass exams. On the whole, we mustn't fret +about the eye, so long as the dear boy keeps his hands off the +authorities." + +Their hotel was no longer at Cintra, but in Lisbon, where Mr. Holland +was being sadly delayed by the business men of the most unbusinesslike +capital in Europe. Already it was the middle of November. They had left +Cintra as long ago as the 5th of the month, expecting to sail from +Lisbon on the 7th; but out of his experience Erskine ought to have known +better. It is true that on landing in the country he had attended first +to business. The business was connected with the forming of a company +for certain operations on Portuguese territory in the East, the capital +coming from London; a board was necessary in both cities, and very +necessary indeed were certain negotiations between the London directors, +as represented by Erskine Holland, and their colleagues in Lisbon. The +latter had promised to do much while Erskine was at Cintra, and duly did +nothing until he returned; knowing their kind of old, he ought never to +have gone. He quite deserved to have to wait and worry and smoke more +Portuguese cigarettes than were either agreeable or good, with the women +on his hands; with all his knowledge of the country and the people he +might have known very well how it would be--as indeed Erskine was told +in a letter from Lombard Street, where an amusing dispatch of his from +Cintra had rather irritated the senior partners. + +Thus Mr. Holland had his own worries throughout this trip, but it is a +pleasure to affirm that his sister-in-law did not add to them after that +first day at Cintra. Thenceforward she had behaved herself as a +perfectly rational and even a contented being. She had appreciated the +other sights of Cintra even more than Pena (which had hardly been given +a fair chance), and most of all that gorgeous garden of Monserrat, where +the trees of the world are grouped together, and among them the gum +trees which were so dear to Christina. She had even been overcome by a +bloodthirsty desire to witness the bullfight on the Sunday; and Erskine +had taken her, because her present frame was not one to discourage; but +it must be confessed that Tiny was disappointed by the tameness of this +sport rather than revolted by its cruelty. Negatively, she had been +behaving better still; the Cintra donkey, the locality of the English +hotel, and other associations of the first day never once perceptibly +affected either her spirits or her temper. She had shown, indeed, so +dead a level of cheerfulness and good sense as to seem almost +uninteresting after the accustomed undulations; but in point of fact she +had never been more interesting to those in her secret. She had promised +to give Lord Manister his answer in a month, and meanwhile she was +displaying all the even temper and equable spirits of settled happiness. +She ate healthily, she declared that she slept well, and otherwise she +was amazingly and consistently serene. That was her perversity, once +more, but on this occasion her perversity admitted of an obvious +explanation. The explanation was that she had never been in doubt about +her decision, that in her heart she was more than satisfied, and that +she had asked for a month's respite chiefly for freedom's sake. The +matter was discussed no more between the sisters, because Tiny refused +to discuss it, declaring that she had dismissed it from her mind till +December. And to Erskine she never once mentioned it while they were in +Portugal, nor had she the least intention of doing so on the homeward +voyage, which they were able ultimately to make within a week of the +arrival of Herbert's letter. + +But the voyage was rough, and Tiny happened to be a remarkably good +sailor, which made her very tiresome once more. Holland had his hands +full in attending to his wife in the cabin, while keeping an eye on her +sister, who would remain on deck. Through the worst of the weather the +unreasonable girl clung like a limpet to the rail, staring seaward at +the misty horizon, or downward at the milky wake, until her pale face +was red and rough and sparkling with dried spray. + +"I do wish you would come below," Erskine said to her, in a tone of +entreaty, toward dusk on the second day, but by no means for the first +time. "There's not another woman on deck; and you've chosen the one spot +of the whole vessel where there's most motion." + +Until he joined her Tiny had indeed been the only soul on the hurricane +deck, where she stood, leaning on the after-rail, with eyes for nothing +but the steamer's track. They were on the hem of the bay and the wind +was ahead, so the boat was pitching; and you must be a good sailor to +enjoy leaning over the after-rail with this motion--but that is what +Christina was. The wind welded her garments to the wire network +underneath, and loosened her hair, and lit lamps in her ears; but it +seemed that she liked it, and that the long, frothy trail had a strong +fascination for her; for when she answered, it was without lifting her +eyes from the sea. + +"You see, I like being different from other people; that's what I go in +for! Honestly, though, I love being up here, and I think you might let +me stay. However, that's no reason why you should stay too--if it makes +you feel uncomfortable." + +"Thanks, I think I am proof," returned Erskine rather brusquely, for +this is a point on which most men are either vain or sensitive; "but of +course I'll leave you, if you prefer it." + +"On the contrary, I should like you to stay," Christina murmured--in +such a lonely little voice that Erskine stayed. + +It was difficult to believe in this young lady's sincerity, however. She +not only made no further remark herself, but refused to acknowledge one +of Erskine's. Men do not like that, either. Tiny's eyes had never been +lifted from the endless race of white water, now rising as though to +their feet, now sinking from under them as the steamer labored end on +to the wind. Apparently she had forgotten that Erskine was there, as +also that she had asked him to remain. He was on the point of leaving +her to her reverie when she swung round suddenly, with only one elbow on +the rail, and looked up at him with a pout that turned slowly to a +smile. + +"Erskine, you've come and spoilt everything!" + +"My dear child, I told you I would go if you liked, you know." + +"Ah, that was too late; you'd spoilt it then. It won't come back." + +"Do you mean that I have broken some spell? If that's the case I am very +sorry." + +"That won't mend it--you can't mend spells," said Tiny, laughing +ruefully. "Perhaps it's as well you can't; and perhaps it's a good thing +you came," she added more briskly. "I had humbugged myself into thinking +I was on my way back to Australia. That was all." + +"But if I were to go mightn't you humbug yourself again?" + +"I don't think I want to," the girl answered thoughtfully; "at any rate +I don't want you to go. Don't you think it's jolly up here? To me it's +as good as a gallop up the bush--and I think we're taking our fences +splendidly! But it was jollier still thinking that England was over +there," nodding her head at the wake, "and that every five minutes or so +it was a mile further away--instead of the other thing." + +"Poor old England!" + +"No, Erskine, I meant a mile nearer Australia--that was the jolly +feeling," Tiny made haste to explain. "You know I didn't mean anything +else--you know how I have enjoyed being with you and Ruth. Only I can't +help wishing I was on my way back to Melbourne instead of to Plymouth. +I'd give so much to see Australia again." + +"Well, so you will see it again." + +Her eyes sped seaward as she shook her head. + +"Why on earth shouldn't you?" said Erskine, laughing. + +"You know why." + +Now he saw her meaning, and held his tongue. This was the subject on +which he understood it to be her desire that they should not speak. To +himself, moreover, it was a highly unattractive topic, and he was +thoroughly glad to have it ignored as it had been; but if she alluded to +the matter herself that was another thing, and he must say something. +So he said: + +"Is it really so certain, Tiny?" + +"On my part absolutely. I'm only climbing down!" + +Erskine was reminded of the pleasant things he had thought of saying to +her at Cintra; they had been by him so long that he found himself saying +them now as though he meant every word. + +"My congratulations must keep till the proper time; but when that comes +they may surprise you. My dear girl, I should like you to understand +that you're not the only person whose opinion has changed since we were +at Essingham. If I may say so at this stage of the proceedings, and if +it is any satisfaction to you to hear it, I for one am going to be very +glad about this thing, I think him such a first-rate fellow, Tiny!" + +For a moment Christina gazed acutely at her brother-in-law. "I wonder if +that's sincere?" she said reflectively. Then her eyes hurried back to +the sea. + +"I think he's a very good fellow indeed," said Erskine with emphasis. + +The girl gave a little laugh. "Oh, he's all that; the question is +whether that's enough." + +"It is, if he really loves you--as I think he must." + +"Oh, if it's enough for him to be in love!" + +There followed a great pause, during which the thought of pleasant +things to say was thrown overboard and left far astern. + +"I only hope," Erskine said at last, with an earnest ring in his voice +which was new to Christina, "that you are not going to make the greatest +mistake of your life!" + +"I hope not also." + +"Ah, don't make light of it!" he cried impetuously. "If you marry +without love you'll ruin your life, I don't care who it is you marry! To +marry for affection, or for esteem, or for money--they're all equally +bad; there is no distinction. Take affection--for a time you might be as +happy as if it were something more; but remember that any day you might +see somebody that you could really love. Then you would know the +difference, and it would embitter your whole existence with a quiet, +private, unsuspected bitterness, of which you can have no conception. +And so much the worse if you have married somebody who is honestly and +sufficiently fond of you. His love would cut you to the heart--because +you could only pretend to return it--because your whole existence would +be a living lie!" + +He was extremely unlike himself. His voice trembled, and in the dying +light his face was gray. These things made his words impressive, but the +girl did not seem particularly impressed. Had she remembered the one +previous occasion when a similar conversation had taken place between +them, the strangeness of his manner must have been driven home to her by +contrast; but the contrast was a double one, and her own share in it +kept her from thinking of the time when she had been serious and he had +not, and now, when he was more serious than she had ever known him, she +met him with a frivolous laugh. + +"Well, really, Erskine, I've never heard you so terribly in earnest +before! I think I had better not tell Ruth what you have said; my dear +man, you speak as though you'd been there!" + +It was some time before he laughed. + +"If only you yourself would be more in earnest, Tiny! You may say this +comes badly from me. I know there has been more jest than earnest +between me and you. But if I was never serious in my life before I am +now, and I want you, too, to take yourself seriously for once. You see, +Tiny, I am not only an old married man by this time, but I am your +European parent as well. I am entitled to play the heavy father, and to +give you a lecture when I think you need one. My dear child, I have been +in the world about twice as long as you have, and I know men and have +heard of women who have poisoned their whole lives by marrying with love +on the other side only; and the greater their worldly goods, the greater +has been their misery! And rather than see you do as they have done----" +The sentence snapped. "You shan't do it!" he exclaimed sharply. "You're +far too good to spoil yourself as others have done and are doing every +day." + +"Who told you I was good?" inquired Christina, with a touch of the +coquetry which even with him she could not entirely repress. "You never +had it from me, most certainly. Let me tell you, Erskine, that I'm +bad--bad--bad! And if I haven't shocked you sufficiently already it is +evidently time that I did; so you'll please to understand that if I +marry Lord Manister it is partly because I think I owe it to him; +otherwise it's for the main chance purely. And I think it's very unkind +of you to make me confess all this," she added fretfully. "I never meant +to speak to you about it at all. Only I can't bear you to think me +better than I am." + +Erskine shook his head sadly. + +"At least you have a better side than this, Tiny--this is not you at +all! You love and admire all that is honest and noble, and fresh and +free; you should give that love and admiration a chance. But I'm not +going to say any more to worry you. If you really, with your eyes open, +are going to marry a man whom you do not love, I can only tell you that +you will be doing at best a very cynical thing. And yet--I can +understand it." This he added more to himself than to the girl. + +He was turning away, but she laid a restraining hand upon his arm. + +"Don't go," she exclaimed impulsively. "I can't let you go when--when +you understand me better than anyone else ever did--and when I am never, +never going to speak to you like this again." + +"If only I could help you!" + +"You cannot!" Tiny cried out. "I'm too far gone to be helped. I feel +hopelessly bad and hard, and nobody can mend that. But if there's one +grain of goodness in my composition that wasn't there when I came over +to England, you may know, Erskine, if you care to know it, that it's +you, and you alone, who have put it there!" + +"Nonsense," he said; "what good have I done you?" + +"You have talked sense to me, as only one other man ever did--and he +wasn't as clever as you are. You've given me books to read, and they're +the first good books I ever read in my life; you have dug a sort of +oyster knife into my miserable ignorance! You have been a real good pal +to me, Erskine, and you must never turn your back on me, whatever I do. +I know you never will. I believe in you as I believe in very few people +on this footstool; but there's one thing you can do for me now that will +be even kinder than anything that you have ever done yet." + +"There's nothing that I wouldn't do for you, Tiny," said Erskine +tenderly. "What is it?" + +The corners of her mouth twitched--her eyes twinkled. + +"It's not to say another serious word to me this month! I know I began +it this time; I won't do so again. I'm trying to be happy in my own way, +if you'll only let me. I'm trying to make the most of my time. When I'm +really engaged I shall need all the help and advice you can give me; for +I mean to be very good to him, Erskine; I do indeed! Then of course I +shall need to cultivate the finest manners; but until it actually comes +off I'm trying to forget about it--don't you see? I'm doing my level +best to forget!" + +What Erskine saw was the tears in her eyes, but he saw them only for an +instant; instead of his leaving Christina on the deck it was she who +left him; and there he stood, between the high seas and the gathering +shades of night, until both were black. + +It was their last conversation of the kind. + +One more night was spent at sea; the next they were all back in +Kensington. Here they were greeted with a pleasant surprise: Herbert was +in the house to meet them. Cambridge seemed already to have done him +good; he was singularly polite and subdued, though a little +uncommunicative. They, however, had much to tell him, so this was not +noticed immediately. His sisters supposed that he was in London for the +night only, as he said he had come down from Cambridge that day. It was +not until later that they knew that he had been sent down. Erskine broke +the news to them. + +"I'm afraid," he added, "that they've sent him down for good and all. +The fact is, Ruth, your fears have been realized. He has done his best +to fill another eye; and this time the proctor's! He says he shall go +back to Melbourne immediately." + +"Never!" cried Ruth; and she went straight to her brother, who was +smoking viciously in another room. + +"Yes, by ghost!" drawled Herbert through his hooked nose. "I'm going to +clear out. I'm full up of England, Ruth, and I guess England's full up +of me. The best thing I can do is to go back, and turn boundary rider or +whim driver. That's about all I'm fit for, and it's what I'm going to +do. The _Ballaarat_ sails on the 2d--I've been to the office and taken +my berth already. My oath, I drove there straight from Liverpool Street +this afternoon!" + +Nor was there any moving him from his purpose, though Ruth tried for +half an hour there and then. Twice that time Herbert spent afterward in +Tiny's room; but it was not known whether Tiny also had attempted to +dissuade him. When he left her the girl stood for five minutes with a +foot on the fender and an elbow on the mantelpiece. Then she sought Ruth +in haste. + +Ruth had just gone upstairs. Erskine was surprised to see her back in +his study almost immediately, and startled by her mode of entrance, +which suggested sudden illness in the house. + +"What in the world has happened?" he said, sitting upright in his chair. + +"Happened?" cried Ruth bitterly. "It is the last straw! I give her up. I +wash my hands of her. I wish she had never come over!" + +"Tiny? Why, what has she been doing now?" + +"It isn't what she has been doing--it is what she says she's going to +do. You may be able to bring her to reason, but I never shall. I won't +try--I wash my hands of her. I will say no more to her. But it is simply +disgraceful! She is far worse than Herbert!" + +"Has she unmade her mind," Holland asked eagerly. + +"No, no, no! But worse, I call it. O Erskine, if you knew what she +says----" + +"I am waiting to hear." + +"You'll never guess!" + +"No, I give it up." + +"So must Tiny--I never heard a madder idea in my life!" + +"Than _what_, my dear?" + +"Her going out with Herbert in the _Ballaarat_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING. + + +December was at hand soon enough, and with the month came Lord Manister +for his answer. Though more than slightly nervous he entered the modest +house in Kensington with his head very high; and certain inappropriate +sensations visited him during the few minutes he was kept waiting in the +drawing room. He did not sit down. Then it was Tiny Luttrell who opened +the door, and those sensations made good their escape from a bosom in +which they had no business. In the living presence of the person one +proposes to marry there are some misgivings that had need be +impossible--Christina little suspected her privilege of shutting the +door on Manister's with her own hand. He sat down at her example. + +But if he was nervous so was she, and as he came bravely to the point +she found it more and more difficult to meet his hungry eyes. It was +rather rare for Christina to experience any difficulty of the kind. She +rose, and stood in front of the fire, with her back to the room and Lord +Manister. There, with her forehead resting on the rim of the mantelpiece +(for Tiny that was not far to bend), and while the hot fire scorched her +plain gray skirt and gave a needed color to the downcast face, she heard +what Manister had to say. Soon she knew that he was saying it with his +elbow on one end of the mantelpiece; and liked him for facing her so, +and compelling her to face him. But when she found him waiting for his +answer, she gave him it without lifting her eyes from the fire. + +"No!" + +He had asked her whether she had been able to make up her mind. The +answer she had given was, indeed, the truth; but it had been prepared +for a more conclusive question. She was vexed with him for the question +he had chosen to put first; and the more so because it had snatched from +her an admission which she had not intended to make. But she had not +made up her mind--that was the simple truth; and now she trusted that he +would make up his. + +Instead of which he said sadly, after a pause: + +"I wanted to give you six months!" + +"It was very wrong of you to give me one," she answered with startling +ingratitude. + +"Why wrong?" + +"You might have seen that I was unworthy of you." + +"I might have given up loving you, I suppose, in a second!" + +"I wish you would----" + +"I never shall!" + +"If you ever began," Christina added to her own sentence. At last her +face was raised, and now it was his eyes that fell before the cool +acumen of her smile. + +"You don't believe in me yet!" he groaned. "Not yet, though I wait, +wait, wait." + +"No one asked you to wait," Lord Manister was reminded. + +"But you see that I can't help it! You see that I am miserable about +you!" + +This indeed was sufficiently plain; and the sight of his misery was +softening Christina by degrees. She said more kindly: + +"Listen to me, Lord Manister. It is a month since you saw me. At this +moment you may feel what you are saying. Very well, then, you _do_ feel +it; but have you felt it throughout the last month? Have you felt so +patient--you are far too patient--all the time? Has it never seemed to +you that my keeping you in doubt, even for one month, was a piece of +impertinence you ought never to have stood? Wouldn't your friends simply +think you mad if they knew how you were allowing me to use you? Haven't +you yourself occasionally remembered who you are, and who I am, and +burst out laughing? I must say I have; it sometimes seems to me so +utterly absurd---- And you see you can't answer my questions!" + +He could not; one after another they had penetrated to the quick. + +"They are not fair questions," Manister said doggedly. "What may have +crossed my mind when I have felt worried and wretched has nothing to do +with it. Isn't it enough that I tell you I can wait your own good +time--that I feel a pride in waiting, now we are together and I am +looking in your eyes?" + +"No, I don't think that's quite enough," replied Christina softly. "It +would hardly be enough, you know, if you only felt me worth waiting for +while you were with me. That would mean that for some reason I +fascinated you. And fascination isn't love, Lord Manister. I don't want +to be rude--much less unkind--but I can't believe that you have ever +been really in love with me; I simply can't!" + +Yet she had never felt so near to that belief before. Her words, +however, helped Lord Manister back to his dignity. + +"Of course you must believe only what you choose," said he loftily. "One +cannot force you to believe in one's sincerity. I suppose I spoilt you +for believing in mine some time since. At all events you were fond of me +once! Only a month ago you liked me all but well enough to marry me. Yet +now you do not know!" + +"Therefore the decision is left to you, Lord Manister; you must give me +up." + +"Never! while you are free." + +His teeth were clenched. + +"But do consider. Most probably I shall never care enough for you to +marry you. And oh! I wonder how you can look at me when no other girl in +the world would refuse you!" + +"Can't you see that this is part of your charm?" cried the young man +impulsively. "You are the one girl I know who is not worldly. You are +the one girl I want!" + +Christina shook her head. + +"If I have any charm at all, you oughtn't to know what it is--you ought +to love me you can't say why--there's no sizing up real love!" she +informed him rapidly, but with a smile. "There's another thing, too. You +cannot be used to being treated as I have treated you in many ways. I +have often been intensely rude to you. I can't help thinking there must +be a good deal of pique in your feeling toward me." + +"There is more real love," returned Manister, "if I know it!" + +"I wonder if you do know it?" said the girl, with a laugh; but she was +wondering very seriously in her heart. He protested no more; she liked +him for that, too, as also for the briskness in his tone and manner when +he spoke next. + +"You say you don't care for me enough, and you say I don't care for you +properly, and we won't argue any more about either matter for the +moment." He had flung back his head from the hand that had shaded his +eyes; his elbow remained on the chimney-piece, but now he was standing +erect. "There is something else," said Lord Manister, "that has +prevented you from coming to a decision." + +"There is certainly one thing that has had something to do with it." + +"May I ask what it is?" + +"Certainly, Lord Manister. I am going back to Australia." + +"Soon?" This was after a pause, during which their eyes had not met. + +"Sooner than was intended." + +"Is it--is it for any special reason that--that you have kept from me?" + +He was agitated by a sudden thought, which she read. She shook her head +reassuringly. + +"No, it is not to get married, nor yet engaged." + +"Then there is no one out there?" + +"There is no one anywhere that I could marry for love. That's the simple +truth. I am going back to Australia because Herbert is going. Cambridge +doesn't suit him, and I'm sorry to say he doesn't suit Cambridge. We +came over together, so we are going back together. That, I promise you, +is the whole and only explanation. I myself did not want to go so +soon." + +"But surely you are not going this year?" + +"We are--before Christmas." + +As Tiny spoke her glance went to the window: she was very anxious to see +the snow before she sailed, but none had fallen yet, though December had +come in dull and raw. + +"But your people here must be very much against that?" + +"They were, but now it is settled." + +"You must have promised to come back!" + +Christina seemed surprised. + +"Yes, I said I would come back some day." + +"And you shall!" cried Manister passionately. "You shall come back as my +wife! Do you suppose I am going to stop short at this, when but for your +brother you would have been mine to-day? I don't mean to say he has +influenced you, except by going back so soon; you love Australia, and +you must needs go back with him. Then go! I told you to take six months; +you have taken one of them. When the other five are up I am coming to +you again wherever you may be. Till then I will take no answer; and +whatever it may be in the end I bow to it--I bow to it!" + +His passion surprised and even moved Christina; but his humility stirred +up in her soul a contempt which mingled strangely with her pity. Women +of spirit cannot admire the man who will submit to anything at their +hands. Christina would willingly have given admiration in exchange for +the love in which she was beginning to believe; it would have pleased +her sense of justice, it would have promoted her self-respect to make +some such small payment on account. With Manister's patience she had +none at all. She was disappointed in him. Her foot tapped angrily on the +fender. + +"But I don't want you to wait!" exclaimed Christina ungraciously. "I +have told you so already." + +"Still I mean to do so, and it serves me right." + +This touched her generosity. + +"Ah, don't say that!" she cried earnestly. "Oh, Lord Manister, I have +forgotten all old scores--I never think of them now! The balance has +been the other way so long; and I do not deserve another chance." + +"Ah, but Tiny--darling--it is I who am asking for that!" + +His tone compelled her to meet his gaze--its intensity made her wince. + +"You believe in me!" he cried joyously. "Say only that you believe in +me, and I will go away now. I will go away happy and proud--to wait--for +you." + +Then Tiny laid her little hand on his arm, and her eyes that had filled +with tears answered him to his present satisfaction. He held her hand +for just a few seconds before he went, and in kindness she returned his +pressure. Then the shutting of the front door down below made her +realize that he was gone. And she had time to dry her eyes and to gather +herself together before Ruth, whose hopes had been dead some days, came +into the room with a dejected mien and pointedly abstained from asking +questions. + +"If it interests you to hear it," Tiny said lightly, "I am converted to +your creed at last; I believe in Lord Manister!" + +"But you are not engaged to him," Ruth said wearily; "I see you are +not." + +"I am not; but he insists on waiting. If only he wasn't so tame! But I +can't help believing in him now; and that settles it." + +"Nothing is settled until you are engaged," said the matter-of-fact +sister, with a sigh. + +"Nevertheless I'm going to try with all my might to care for him, now +that I see that he must really care for me. And let me tell you that I +shall consider myself all the more bound to him because I haven't _said_ +yes, and because we're _not_ actually engaged!" + +"Yes?" said the other incredulously. "That is so like you, Tiny!" + +And Ruth almost sneered. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +COUNSEL'S OPINION. + + +The worst of it all was this: that the young man himself had not +invariably that confidence in his own affections which displayed itself +so bravely and so convincingly at a psychological moment. Not that +Manister was insincere, exactly. If you come to think of it, you may +deceive others with perfect innocence, having once deceived yourself. +And this was exactly what had happened. + +There was one distinctive feature of the case: away from Christina +Luttrell the poor fellow had already had his doubts of himself; in her +presence those doubts were as certain to evaporate as snowflakes in the +warmth of the sun. + +Even as he went down Mrs. Holland's stairs Manister was joined by +certain invisible companions--the misgivings that had made their escape +as Christina entered the room. They had waited for him on the landing +outside the door. They led and followed him downstairs. They linked +arms with him in the street. They stifled him in his hansom, which they +boarded ruthlessly. In one of the silent rooms of the club to which he +drove they talked to him silently, sitting on the arms of his +saddle-back chair and arguing all at once. Powerless to shake them off +he was forced to bear with them, to hear what they had to say, to answer +them where he could. + +Mingling with the importunate voices of his inner consciousness were the +remembered words of the girl. She had asked him whether he had never +burst out laughing as the affair presented itself in certain lights; he +did so now, silently, it is true, but with exceeding bitterness. She had +told him that it was not enough that he should feel willing to wait for +her when they were together; and now that he had left her, though so +lately, he was certainly less inclined to be patient. She had suggested +that he was more fascinated than in love; and already he knew that her +suggestion had given shape and utterance to a vague suspicion of his own +soul. She had gone so far as to hint at the possible secret of his +infatuation, and there again she had hit the mark; though apart from +her talent of torture her sweet looks and charming ways had been strong +wine to Manister from the first. Still her snubs had piqued his passion +in the beginning of things out in Melbourne; and here in Europe she had +virtually refused him three times. Modest he might be, and yet know that +this were a rare experience for such as himself at the hands of such as +Tiny Luttrell. On the whole, the experience was sufficiently complete as +it stood; yet he could not help wishing to win; indeed, he had gone too +far to draw back, and for that reason alone the idea of defeat in the +end was intolerable to him. And this was the one spring of his actions +which seemed to have escaped Christina's notice; the others she had +detected with an acuteness which made him wonder, for the first time, +whether on her very merits she would be a comfortable person to live +with, after all. + +Gradually, however, these echoes of the late interview grew fainter in +his ears, and its upshot came home to Manister with sensations of +chagrin sharper than any he had endured in all his life before. His +feelings when refused by this girl in the previous August, and under +peculiarly humiliating circumstances, were enviable compared with his +feelings now. Then he had deserved his humiliation--at least he was +generous enough to say so--and he had taken what he called his +punishment in a very manly spirit. But the desire to win had sent him on +a secret mission to Cintra, on the chance of seeing her there, and his +present feelings reminded him of those with which he had beaten his +retreat from Portugal. For he had gone there for a final answer, and had +come back without one; and to-day he had suffered afresh that selfsame +humiliation, only in an aggravated form, and more voluntarily than ever. +She had never asked him to wait; he had offered on both occasions to +wait six months--nay, he had insisted on waiting. Even now, within a +couple of hours after the event, he could scarcely credit his own +weakness and stultification. He was by no means so weak in affairs +wherein the affections played no part. He firmly believed that no other +woman could have twisted him round her finger as this one had done. But +here, perhaps, we have merely the everyday spectacle of a young man +discerning exceptional excuses for a realized infirmity; and the point +is that Manister realized his weakness this evening as he had never +done before. The girl herself had made him look inward. She had +suggested fascination, not love. That suggestion stuck painfully. Yet he +was not sure. + +Never had he felt so horribly unsure of himself; in the midst of his +self-distrust there came to him, suddenly, the recollection that she +distrusted him no longer, and there was actually some comfort in this +thought, which is strange when you note its fellows, but due less to the +contradictoriness of human nature than to the supremacy of a young man's +vanity. He stood well with her now. She believed in him at last. Propped +up by these reflections, he began almost to believe in himself. At least +a momentary complacency was the result. + +The improvement in his spirits allowed Lord Manister to give heed to +another portion of his organism which had for some time been inviting +him to go into another room and dine. Now he did so, with a sharp eye +for acquaintances, whom he had no desire to meet. For this reason he had +driven to the club which he had joined most recently; it was not a young +man's club, so he felt fairly safe from his friends. Yet he had hardly +ordered his soup, and was searching the wine list for the choice brand +which the circumstances seemed to demand, when a heavy hand dropped upon +his shoulder, and his glance leapt from the wine list to the last face +he expected or wished to see--that of his kinsman Captain Dromard. + +Captain Dromard was a cousin of the present earl, and notoriously the +rolling stone of his house. Manister had seen him last in Melbourne, and +ever since had borne him a grudge which he was not likely to forget. Had +he dreamt that the captain (who had been last heard of in Borneo) was in +London, Manister would have shunned this club in order to avoid the risk +of meeting him; but it seemed that Captain Dromard had landed in England +only that morning: and they dined together, of course; and Manister made +the best of it. His kinsman was a big, grizzled, florid man, with an +imperial, and with a comic wicked cut about him which made one laugh. +But he retained an unpleasant trick of treating Manister as a mere boy: +for instance, he was in time to choose the brand, and, as he said before +the waiter, to prevent Manister from poisoning himself. He was, +however, an entertaining person, and at his best to-night, being wont to +delight in London for a day or two before realizing the infernal +qualities of the climate and arranging fresh travels. But Manister was +not entertained; he tried to appear so, but the captain saw through the +pretense, and immediately scented a woman. There were reasons why the +rolling stone was particularly good at detecting this element--which +always interested him. His interest was unusual in the present instance, +owing to certain reminiscences of Manister in Melbourne during his own +flying visit to that port. It was during a subsequent week-end in +England that Captain Dromard had alarmed the countess, with a result of +which he was as yet unaware; but he did not hesitate to make inquiries +now, and he began by asking Manister how he had managed to get out of +the scrape in which he had left him. + +"I remember no scrape," said Manister stiffly. + +"You don't? Well, perhaps I put it too strongly," conceded the captain. +"We'll say no more about it, my boy. Devilish pretty little thing, +though; remember her well, but could never recall her name. By the bye, +I'm afraid I terrified your mother over that; feared she was going to +cable you home next day; was sorry I spoke." + +"So was I," Manister said dryly, but, by an effort, not forbiddingly, so +that the captain saw no harm in raising his glass. + +"Well, here's to the lady's health, my boy, whoever she was, and +wherever she may be!" + +Manister smiled across his glass and drained it in silence. There was a +glitter in his young eyes which made it difficult for the captain to +drop the subject finally. Manister had been drinking freely, without +becoming flushed, which is another sign of trouble. The captain could +not help saying confidentially: + +"You know, Harry, your mother was so keen for you to marry one of old +Acklam's daughters. That's what frightened her. But it is to come off +some day, isn't it?" + +"Can't say," said Lord Manister. + +"It ought to, Harry. I like to see a young fellow with your position +marry properly, and settle down. I don't know which of the Garths it is, +but I've always heard one of 'em was the girl you liked." + +"Suppose the girl you like won't marry you?" Manister exclaimed, with a +sudden change of manner, and in the tone of one consulting an authority. + +"Well, there's an end on't." + +"Ah, but suppose she can't make up her mind?" + +"You might give her a month--though I wouldn't." + +"Suppose a month is not enough for her?" + +The captain stared; his bronzed forehead became barred with furrows; his +eyes turned stony with indignation. + +"A month not enough for her to make up her mind--about you?" he said at +length incredulously. "Good God, sir, see her to the devil!" + +Then Lord Manister showed his teeth. Though he had consulted the +captain, he took his advice badly. He said you could not be much in love +to be choked off so easily; he hinted that his kinsman had never been +much in love. Captain Dromard intimated in reply that whether that was +the case or not he was not without experience of a sort, and he could +tell Harry that no woman under heaven was worth kneeling in the mud to, +which Harry said hotly was unnecessary information. So they went +elsewhere to smoke, and later on to a music hall, the subject having +been left for good in the club coffee room. The following afternoon, +however, Lord Manister drove through the snow with a very resolute front +to show to Tiny Luttrell, who was just then passing Deal in the +_Ballaarat_, without having given him the faintest notion yesterday that +she was to sail to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +IN HONOR BOUND. + + +Aboard the _Ballaarat_ Christina committed a new eccentricity, but it +may be well to state at once, a perfectly harmless one. She confided in +another girl--a practice which Tiny had avoided all her life. And this +very girl had offended her at first sight by looking aggressively happy +when the boat sailed and all nice women were in tears. + +There had been a time when Christina seldom cried, but in England she +had grown very soft in some ways, and she looked her last at it, and at +the snow that had fallen in the night as if to please her, through +blinding tears. She had never in her life felt more acutely wretched +than when saying good-by to Ruth and Erskine, and her sorrow was +heightened by the feeling that she had been both unkind and ungrateful +to Ruth, to whom she clung for forgiveness at the last moment. The +reason why her parting words were jocular, though broken, was because +the sight of an honest, smiling face, which might have blushed for +smiling then, sent a fleam of irritation through her heart that awoke +the latent mischief in her wet eyes. + +"I do wish you would ask Erskine to throw a snowball at that depressing +person," she whispered to Ruth, "who does nothing but laugh and look +really happy! If it was only put on for the sake of her friends I could +forgive her; but it isn't. Tell him I mean it--there's no fun in me +to-day; and you may also tell him that it would have been only brotherly +of him to kiss me on this occasion, when we may all be going to the +bottom!" + +Erskine, who had crossed the gangway before his wife, so that she need +not feel that he overheard her final words to her own kin, shook his +head at Tiny when Ruth joined him on the quay. But his smile was +lifeless; there was no fun in him either to-day. He drew his wife's arm +through his own, and Tiny saw the last of them standing together thus. +They stood in snow and mud, but the railway shed behind them was a great +sheet of unsullied whiteness, softly edging the bright December sky, and +Christina never forgot her first glimpse of the snow and her last of +Ruth and Erskine. When their figures were gone and only the snow was +left for Christina's eyes, they filled afresh, and she broke hastily +from Herbert, who was himself uncommonly dejected. She hurried +unsteadily to her cabin, to find her cabin companion singing softly to +herself as she unstrapped her rugs; for her cabin companion was, of +course, the odiously cheerful person who already on deck had done +violence to Christina's feelings. + +Thus the acquaintance began in a particularly unpromising manner; but +the cheerful person turned out to be as bad a sailor as Christina was a +good one, and she met with much practical kindness at Christina's hands, +which had a clever, tender way with them, though in other respects the +good sailor was not from the first so sympathetic. It is harder than it +ought to be to sympathize with the seasick when one is quite well one's +self; still Christina found it impossible not to admire her +extraordinary companion, who kept up her spirits during a whole week +spent in her berth, and was more cheerful than ever at the end of it, +when she could scarcely stand. Then Christina expressed her admiration, +likewise her curiosity, and received a simple explanation. The cheerful +person was on her way to Colombo and the altar-rails. Her _trousseau_ +was in the hold. + +The two became exceeding fast friends, and their friendship was founded +on mutual envy. Tiny was envied for the various qualities which made her +greatly admired on board, for that admiration itself, and for the marked +manner in which she paid no heed to it; and she envied her friend a very +ordinary love story, now approaching a very ordinary end. The cheerful +girl was plain, unaccomplished, and not at all young. But there was one +whom she loved better than herself; she was properly engaged; she was +happy in her engagement; her soul was settled and at peace. Also she was +good, and Christina envied her far more than she envied Christina, who +would listen wistfully to the commonplace expression of a commonplace +happiness, but was herself much more reserved. It was only when the +other girl guessed it that she admitted that she also was "as good as +engaged." The other girl clamored to know all about it; and ultimately, +in the Indian Ocean, she discovered that Christina was not the least in +love with the man to whom she was as good as engaged. Then this honest +person spoke her mind with extreme freedom, and Christina, instead of +being offended, opened her own heart as freely, merely keeping to +herself the man's name and never hinting at his high degree. She +declared that she was morally bound to him, adding that she had treated +him badly enough already; her friend ridiculed the bond, and told her +how she would be treating him worse than ever. Christina argued--it was +curious how fond she was of arguing the matter, and how she allowed +herself to be lectured by a stranger. But these two were not strangers +now; the cheerful girl was the best friend Tiny had ever made among +women. They parted with a wrench at Colombo, where Tiny saw the other +safely into the arms of a gentleman of a suitably happy and ordinary +appearance; and so one more friend passed in and out of the young girl's +life, leaving a deeper mark in the three weeks than either of them +suspected. + +The rest of the voyage dragged terribly with Christina, which is an +unusual experience for the prettiest girl aboard an Australian liner; +only on this voyage the prettiest girl was also the most unsociable. +Beyond her late companion (whose berth remained empty to depress +Christina whenever she entered the cabin) Miss Luttrell had formed few +acquaintances and no friendships between London and Colombo; between +Colombo and Melbourne she simply preyed upon herself. Herbert +remonstrated with her, and the third officer--who had been fourth on the +boat in which they had come over--was excessively interested, +remembering the difference six months earlier. Then, indeed, Christina +had found a good deal to say to all the officers, including the captain, +whom she had chaffed notoriously; but now she would stay out late and +alone on the starlit deck without ever breaking the rules by conversing +with the officer of the watch (her pet trick formerly), and only the +third, who knew her of old, had the right to bid her good-day. Tiny's +cheerful friend had left her wretched and apprehensive. She saw the +Southern Cross rise out of the Southern Sea without a thrill of welcome, +but rather with a vague dismay; from the after-rail she said good-by to +the Great Bear with a shudder at the thought of seeing it again. Neither +end of the earth presented a very peaceful prospect to Christina as she +hovered between the two on the steamer's deck. She had quite made up her +mind to return to England, however, and to reward Lord Manister's +long-suffering docility by marrying him at the end of the six months. +Meanwhile she would enjoy Australia and tell only one of her friends +there. One she must tell, and with her own lips, in case she should be +misjudged. And thinking not a little of her own justification, she +invented a small sophistry with which to defend herself as occasion +might arise. She argued that two men were in love with her, that she +herself was in love with neither, but that she liked one of them too +well to marry him without love. Therefore, she said, the easiest way out +of it was to marry the other, who not only had less in him to satisfy, +but who had more to give in place of real happiness. She was proud of +this argument. She was sorry it had not occurred to her before stopping +at Colombo--forgetting that she had told her friend of only one man who +was in love with her. But the heart starves on sophistry with nothing to +it; and with Christina the voyage dragged cruelly to its end. + +But the moment she landed in Melbourne a good thing happened to +her--she was snatched out of herself. A common shock and anxiety awaited +both Christina and Herbert Luttrell: they found their mother in tears +over a piece of very bad news from Wallandoon. It seemed that Mr. +Luttrell had gone up to the station the week before to choose the site +for a well which he was about to sink at considerable expense, and that +he was now lying at the old homestead with a broken leg, the result of a +buggy accident with a pair of young horses. He was able to write with +his own hand in pencil, and he mentioned that Swift had fetched a +surgeon from the river in the quickest time ever known; that the surgeon +had set the leg quite successfully, so that there was no occasion for +anxiety, though naturally he should be unable to leave Wallandoon for +some weeks. He expressed forcibly the hope that his wife would not think +of joining him there; she was not strong enough, and he needed no +attention. Nevertheless, had the _Ballaarat_ arrived one day later, Mrs. +Luttrell would have gone. Her two children were in time to restrain her, +but only by undertaking to go instead. Before they could realize that +they had spent an afternoon and a night in Melbourne they had left the +city and had embarked on an inland voyage of five hundred miles up +country. + +So their first full day ashore was spent in a railway carriage; but all +that night the stars were in their eyes, and the gum trees racing by on +either hand, and the warm wind fanning their faces, because Tiny would +never travel inside the coach. They were back in Riverina. The Murray +coiled behind them; the Murrumbidgee lay before. And the night after +that they were creeping across the desert of the One Tree Plain, with +the Lachlan lying ahead and the Murrumbidgee left behind. Here the +leather-hung coach labored in the mud, for the Lachlan district was +suffering before it could profit from a rather heavy rainfall three days +old; and the driver flogged seven horses all night long instead of +mildly chastening five, and the girl at his side could not have slept if +she had tried, but she did not try. To her the night seemed too good to +miss. The stars shone brilliantly from rim to rim of the unbroken plain, +and upward from the overflowing crab-holes, and even in the flooded +ruts, where the coach wheels split and scattered them like quicksilver +beneath the thumb. There was no conversation on the coach. On the eve +of facing his father Herbert was rehearsing his defense, while Tiny was +just reveling in the night, and feeling very happy, so she said. + +For a couple of hours before dawn they rested at Booligal. But Booligal +is notorious for its mosquitoes, and there had been three inches of rain +there, so the rest was a mockery. Tiny had a bed to lie down on, but she +did not lie long. She was found by Herbert (who smoked six pipes in +those two hours), leaning against one of the veranda posts as if asleep +on her feet, but with eyes fixed intently upon a dull, reddening arc on +the very edge of the darkling plain. + +"By the time we get there," said Herbert severely, "you'll be just about +dished! What on earth are you doing out here instead of taking a spell +when you can get it?" + +"I'm watching for the sun," murmured Christina, without moving. "It's a +regular Australian dawn; you never saw one like it in England. Here the +sun gets up in the middle of the night, and there he very often doesn't +get up at all. Oh, but it's glorious to be back--don't _you_ think so, +old Herbs?" + +"I might--if it wasn't for the governor." + +Tiny flushed with shame. She had forgotten the accident. Being reminded +of it she turned her back on the sunrise in deep contrition, but she had +not taken Herbert's meaning. + +"I funk facing him," said he gloomily. "I have nothing to say for +myself, and if I had a fellow couldn't say it with the poor governor +lying on his back." + +"Poor old Herbs!" said Tiny kindly. "I don't think you have much to +fear, however. It was our mistake in wanting you to go to Cambridge when +you'd been your own boss always. You were born for the bush--I'm not +sure that we both weren't!" + +He did not hear her sigh. + +"It's all very well for you to talk, Tiny! You haven't to make your +peace with anybody--you haven't to confess that you've made a ghastly +fool of yourself!" + +"Have I not?" exclaimed the girl bitterly. + +"I thought you weren't going to mention his name?" Herbert said in +surprise. + +"No more I am," replied Tiny, recovering herself. "So, as you say, it is +all very well for me to talk." And as she turned a ball of fire was +balanced on the distant rim of the plain, and the arc above was now a +semicircle of crimson, which blended even yet with the lingering shades +of night. + +Even Herbert was not in all Tiny's secrets. He never dreamt that she had +before her an ordeal far worse than his own. When they sighted the +little township where the station buggy always met the coach, he thought +her excitement due to obvious and natural causes. The township roofs +gleamed in the afternoon sun for half an hour before one could +distinguish even a looked-for object, such as a buggy drawn up in the +shade at the hotel veranda. Herbert had time to become excited himself, +in spite of the ignoble circumstances of his return. + +"I see it!" he exclaimed with confidence, at five hundred yards. "And +good old Bushman and Brownlock are the pair. I'd spot 'em a mile off." + +"Can you see who it is in the buggy?" asked Tiny, at two hundred. She +was sitting like a mouse between Herbert and the driver. + +"I shall in a shake; I think it's Jack Swift." + +He did not know how her heart was beating. At fifty yards he said, "It +isn't Swift; it's one of the hands. I've never seen this joker before." + +"Ah!" said Tiny, and that was all. Herbert had no ear for a tone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A DEAF EAR. + + +The manager of Wallandoon was harder at work that afternoon than any man +on the run. This was generally the case when there was hard work to be +done; when there was not, however, Swift had a way of making work for +himself. He had made his work to-day. Nothing need have prevented his +meeting the coach himself; but it had occurred to Swift that he would be +somewhat in the way at the meeting between Mr. Luttrell and his +children, while with regard to his own meeting with Christina he felt +much nervousness, which night, perhaps, would partly cloak. This, +however, was an instinct rather than a motive. Instinctively also he +sought by violent labor to expel the fever from his mind. He was +absurdly excited, and his energy during the heat of the day was little +less than insane. So at any rate it seemed to the youth who was helping +him by looking on, while Swift covered in half a tank with brushwood. +The tank had been almost dry, but was newly filled by the rains, and the +partial covering was designed to delay evaporation. But Swift himself +would execute his own design, and thought nothing of standing up to his +chest in the water, clothed only in his wide-awake, though he was the +manager of the station. The young storekeeper did not admire him for it, +though he could not help envying the manager his thick arms, which were +also bronzed, like the manager's face and neck, and in striking contrast +to the whiteness of his deep chest and broad shoulders. There had been a +change in storekeepers during recent months, a change not by any means +for the better. + +Near the tank were some brushwood yards, which were certainly in need of +repairs, but the need was far from immediate. Swift, however, chose to +mend up the fences that night, while he happened to be on the spot, and +his young assistant had no choice but to watch him. It was dark when at +last they rode back together to the station, silent, hungry, and not +pleased with one another; for Swift was one of those energetic people +whom it is difficult to help unless you are energetic yourself; and the +new storekeeper was not. This youth did little for his rations that day +until the homestead was reached. Then the manager left him to unsaddle +and feed both horses, and himself walked over to the veranda, whence +came the sound of voices. + +Mr. Luttrell was lying in the long deck chair which had been procured +from a neighboring station, and Herbert was smoking demurely at his +side. Christina was not there at all. + +"You will find her in the dining room," Mr. Luttrell said, as his son +and the manager shook hands. "She has gone to make tea for you; she +means to look after us all for the next few weeks." + +The dining room was at the back of the house, and as Swift walked round +to it he stepped from the veranda into the heavy sand in which the +homestead was planted. He could not help it. His love had grown upon him +since that short week with her, nine months before. He felt that if his +eyes rested upon her first he could take her hand more steadily. So he +stood and watched her a moment as she bent over the tea table with +lowered head and busy fingers, and there was something so like his +dreams in the sight of her there that he almost cried out aloud. Next +instant his spurs jingled in the veranda. She raised her head with a +jerk; he saw the fear of himself in her eyes--and knew. + +It did not blind him to her haggard looks. + +When they had shaken hands he could not help saying, "It is evident that +the old country doesn't agree with you, as you feared." And when it was +too late he would have altered the remark. + +"Seeing that it's six weeks since I left it, and that I have been +traveling night and day since I landed, you are rather hard on the old +country." + +So she answered him, her fingers in the tea caddy, and her eyes with +them. The lamplight shone upon her freckles as Swift studied her +anxiously. Perhaps, as she hinted, she was only tired. + +"I say, I can't have you making tea for me!" Swift exclaimed nervously. +"You are worn out, and I am accustomed to doing all this sort of thing +for myself." + +"Then you will have the kindness to unaccustom yourself! I am mistress +here until papa is fit to be moved." + +And not a day longer. He knew it by the way she avoided his eyes. Yet he +was forced to make conversation. + +"Why do you warm the teapot?" + +"It is the proper thing to do." + +"I never knew that!" + +"I dare say it isn't the only thing you never knew. I shouldn't wonder +if you swallowed your coffee with cold milk?" + +"Of course we do--when we have coffee." + +"Ah, it is good for you to have a housekeeper for a time," said +Christina cruelly, she did not know why. + +"It's my firm belief," remarked Swift, "that you have learnt these +dodges in England, and that you did _not_ detest the whole thing!" + +The words had a far-away familiar sound to Christina, and they were +spoken in the pointed accents with which one quotes. + +"Did I say I should detest the whole thing?" asked Christina, marking +the tablecloth with a fork. + +"You did; they were your very words." + +"Come, I don't believe that." + +"I can't help it; those were your words. They were your very last words +to me." + +"And you actually remember them?" + +She looked at him, smiling; but his face put out her smile, and the wave +of compassion which now swept over hers confirmed the knowledge that had +come to him with her first frightened glance. + +The storekeeper, who came in before more was said, was the unconscious +witness of a well-acted interlude of which he was also the cause. He +approved of Miss Luttrell at the tea tray, and was to some extent +recompensed for the hard day's work he had not done. He left her with +Swift on the back veranda, and they might have been grateful to him, for +not only had his advent been a boon to them both at a very awkward +moment, but, in going, he supplied them with a topic. + +"What has happened to my little Englishman?" Christina asked at once. "I +hoped to find him here still." + +"I wish you had. He was a fine fellow, and this one is not." + +"Then you didn't mean to get rid of my little friend?" + +"No. It's a very pretty story," Swift said slowly, as he watched her in +the starlight. "His father died, and he went home and came in for +something; and now that little chap is actually married to the girl he +used to talk about!" + +Tiny was silent for some moments. Then she laughed. + +"So much for my advice! His case is the exception that proves my rule." + +"I happen to remember your advice. So you still think the same?" + +"Most certainly I do." + +He laughed sardonically. "You might just as well tell me outright that +you are engaged to be married." + +The girl recoiled. + +"How do you know?" she cried. "Who has told you?" + +"You have--now. Your eyes told me twenty minutes ago." + +"But it isn't true! Nobody knows anything about it! It isn't a real +engagement yet!" + +"I have no doubt it will be real enough for me," answered Swift very +bitterly; and he moved away from her, though her little hands were +stretched out to keep him. + +"Don't leave me!" she cried piteously. "I want to tell you. I will tell +you now, if you will only let me." + +He faced about, with one foot on the veranda and the other in the sand. + +"Tell me," he said, "if it is that old affair come right; that is all I +care to know." + +"It is; but it hasn't come right yet--perhaps it never will. If only you +would let me tell you everything!" + +"Thank you; I dare say I can imagine how matters stand. I think I told +you it would all come right. I am very glad it has." + +"Jack!" + +But Jack was gone. In the starlight she watched him disappear among the +pines. He walked so slowly that she fancied him whistling, and would +have given very much for some such sign of outward indifference to show +that he cared; but no sound came to her save the chirrup of the +crickets, which never ceased in the night time at Wallandoon. And that +made her listen for the champing of the solitary animal in the horse +yard, until she heard it, too, and stood still to listen to both noises +of the night. She remembered how once or twice in England she had seemed +to hear these two sounds, and how she had longed to be back again in the +old veranda. Now she was back. This was the old, old veranda. And those +two old sounds were beating into her brain in very reality--without +pause or pity. + +"Why, Tiny," said Herbert later, "this is the second time to-day! I +believe you _can_ sleep on end like a blooming native-companion. You're +to come and talk to the governor; he would like you to sit with him +before we carry him into his room." + +"Would he?" Tiny cried out, and a moment later she was kneeling by the +deck chair and sobbing wildly on her father's breast. + +"Just because I told her she'd dish herself," remarked Herbert, looking +on with irritation, "she's been and gone and done it. That's still her +line!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +SUMMUM BONUM. + + +For a month Christina declined to leave her father's side, much against +his will, but the girl's will was stronger. She was as though tethered +to the long deck chair until the lame man became able to leave it on two +sticks. Then she flew to the other extreme. + +North of the Lachlan the recent rains had been less heavy than in Lower +Riverina. On Wallandoon less than two inches had fallen, and by February +it was found necessary to resume work at the eight-mile whim. But the +whim driver had gone off with his check when the rain gave him a +holiday, and he had never returned. There was a momentary difficulty in +finding a man to replace him, and it was then that Miss Tiny startled +the station by herself volunteering for the post. At first Mr. Luttrell +would not hear of the plan, but the manager's opinion was not asked, and +he carefully refrained from giving it, while Herbert (who was about to +be intrusted with a mob of wethers for the Melbourne market) took his +sister's side. He pointed out with truth that any fool could drive a +whim under ordinary circumstances, and that, as Tiny would hardly +petition to sleep at the whim, the long ride morning and evening would +do her no harm. Mr. Luttrell gave in then. He had tried in vain to drive +the young girl from his side. She had watched over him with increasing +solicitude, with an almost unnatural tenderness. She had shown him a +warmer heart than heretofore he had known her to possess, and an amount +of love and affection which he felt to be more than a father's share. He +did not know what was the matter, but he made guesses. It had been his +lifelong practice not to "interfere" with his children; hence the +earliest misdeeds of his daughter Tiny; hence, also, the academic career +of his son Herbert. Mr. Luttrell put no questions to the girl, and none +concerning her to her brother, which was nice of him, seeing that her +ways had made him privately inquisitive; but he took Herbert's advice +and let Christina drive the eight-mile whim. + +The experiment proved a complete success, but then plain whim driving +is not difficult. Christina spent an hour or so two or three times a day +in driving the whim horse round and round until the tank was full, after +which it was no trouble to keep the troughs properly supplied. The rest +of her time she occupied in reading or musing in the shadow of the tank; +but each day she boiled her "billy" in the hut, eating very heartily in +her seclusion, and delighting more and more in the temporary freedom of +her existence, as a boy in holidays that are drawing to an end. The whim +stood high on a plain, the wind whistled through its timbers, and each +evening the girl brought back to the homestead a higher color and a +lighter step. In these days, however, very little was seen of her. She +would come in tired, and soon secrete herself within four newspapered +walls; and she went out of her way to discourage visitors at the whim. +Of this she made such a point that the manager, on coming in earlier +than usual one afternoon, was surprised when Herbert, whom he met riding +out from the station, informed him that he was on his way to the +eight-mile to look up the whim driver. Herbert seemed to have something +on his mind, and presently he told Swift what it was. He had awkward +news for Tiny, which he had decided to tell her at once and be done with +it. But he did not like the job. He liked it so little that he went the +length of confiding in Swift as to the nature of the news. The manager +annoyed him--he had not a remark to make. + +Herbert rode moodily on his way. He was sorry that he had spoken to +Swift (whose stolid demeanor was a surprise to him, as well as an +irritation); he had undoubtedly spoken too freely. With Swift still in +his thoughts, Luttrell was within a mile of the whim, and cantering +gently, before he became aware that another rider was overtaking him at +a gallop; and as he turned in his saddle, the manager himself bore down +upon him with a strange look in his good eyes. + +"I want you to let me--tell Tiny!" Jack Swift said hoarsely, as Herbert +stared. Jack's was a look of pure appeal. + +"You?" + +"Yes----You understand?" + +"That's all right! I thought I couldn't have been mistaken," said +Herbert, still looking him in the eyes. "By ghost, Jack, you're a +sportsman!" + +He held out his hand, and Swift gripped it. In another minute they were +a quarter of a mile apart; but it was Swift who was riding on to the +whim, very slowly now, and with his eyes on the black timbers rising +clear of the sand against the sky. He could never look at them without +hearing words and tones that it was still bitter to remember; and now he +was going--to break bad news to Tiny? That was his undertaking. + +He found the whim driver with her book in the shadow of the tank. + +"Good-afternoon," Christina said very civilly, though her eyebrows had +arched at the sight of him. "Have you come to see whether the troughs +are full, or am I wanted at the homestead?" + +"Neither," said Swift, smiling; "only the mail is in, and there are +letters from England." + +"How good of you!" exclaimed the girl, holding out her hand. + +Swift was embarrassed. + +"Now you will pitch into me! I haven't seen the letters, and I don't +know whether there is one for you: but I met Herbert, and he told me he +had heard from your sister; and--and I thought you might like to hear +that, as I was coming this way." + +"It is still good of you," said Christina kindly; and that made him +honest. + +"It isn't a bit good, because I came this way to speak to you about +something else." + +"Really?" + +"Yes, because one sees so little of you now, and soon you will be going. +The truth is something has been rankling with me ever since the night +you arrived--nothing you said to me; it was my own behavior to you----" + +"Which wasn't pretty," interrupted Tiny. + +"I know it wasn't; I have been very sorry for it. When you offered to +tell me about your engagement I wouldn't listen. I would listen now!" + +"And now I shouldn't dream of telling you a word," Tiny said, staring +coolly in his face; "not even if I _were_ engaged." + +"Well, it amounts to that," Swift told her steadfastly, for he knew what +he meant to say, and was not to be deterred by the snubs and worse to +which he was knowingly laying himself open. + +"Pray how do you know what it amounts to?" + +"On your side, at any rate, it amounts to an engagement; for you +consider yourself bound." + +"Upon my word!" cried Tiny hastily. "Do you mind telling me how you come +to know so much about my affairs?" + +"I am naturally interested in them after all these years." + +"How very kind of you! How interested you were when I foolishly offered +to tell you myself! So you have been talking me over with Herbert, have +you?" + +"We have spoken about you to-day for the first time; that is why I'm +here." + +Christina was white with anger. + +"And I suppose," she sneered, "that you have told him things which I +have forgotten, and which you might have forgotten as well!" + +"I don't think you do suppose that," Swift said gently. "No, he merely +told me about your engagement." + +"Then why do you want me to tell you?" + +"Because you alone can tell me what I most want to know." + +"Oh, indeed!" + +"Yes--whether you are happy!" + +She had found her temper, which enabled her to put a keener edge on the +words, "That, I should say, is not your business"; and she stared at +Swift coldly where he stood, with his hands behind him, looking down +upon her without wincing. + +"I am not so sure," said he sturdily. "I loved you dearly; _I_ could +have made you happy." + +"It is well you think so," was the best answer she could think of for +that; and she did not think of it at once. "Do you know who he is?" she +added later. + +"Herbert told me. It seems you have tampered with a splendid chance." + +"I have tampered with three. I shall jump at the next--if I get +another." + +"And if you don't?" + +Involuntarily she drew a deep breath at the thought. Her head was +lifted, and her blue eyes wandered over the yellow distance of the +plains with the look of a prisoner coming back into the world. + +"Nobody could blame him," she said at last, "and I should be rightly +served." + +Swift crouched in front of her, almost sitting on his heels to peer into +her face. + +"Tiny," he suddenly cried, "you don't love him one bit!" + +"But I think he loves me," she answered, hanging her head, for he held +her hand. + +"Not as I do, Tiny! Never as I have done! I have loved you all the time, +and never anyone but you. And you--you care for me best; I see it in +your eyes; I feel it in your hand. Don't you think that you, too, may +have loved me all the time?" + +"If I have," she murmured, "it has been without knowing it." + +It was without knowing it that she trod upon the truth. Their voices +were trembling. + +"Darling," he whispered, "this would be home to you. It's the same old +Wallandoon. You love it, I know; and I think--you love----" + +She snatched her hand from his, and sprang to her feet. He, too, rose +astounded, gazing on every side to see who was coming. But the plain was +flecked only with straggling sheep, bleating to the troughs. His gaze +came back to the girl. Her straw hat sharply shadowed her face like a +highwayman's mask, her blue eyes flashing in the midst of it, and her +lips below parted in passion. + +"You? I hate you! I _do_ consider myself bound, and you would make me +false--you would tempt me through my love for the bush, for this +place--you coward!" + +Swift reddened, and there was roughness in his answer: + +"I can't stand this, even from you. I have heard that all women are +unfair; you are, certainly. What you say about my tempting you is +nonsense. You have shown me that you love me, and that you don't love +the other man; you know you have. You have now to show whether you have +the courage of your love--to give him up--to marry me." + +This method must have had its attractions after another's; but it hurt, +because Tiny was sensitive, with all her sins. + +"You have spoken very cruelly," she faltered, delightfully forgetting +how she had spoken herself. "I could not marry anyone who spoke to me +like that!" + +"Oh, forgive me!" he cried, covered with contrition in an instant. "I am +a rough brute, but I promise----" He stopped, for her head had drooped, +and she seemed to be crying. He stood away from her in his shame. "Yes, +I am a rough brute," he repeated bitterly; "but, darling, you don't know +how it roughens one, bossing the men!" + +Still she hung her head, but within the widened shadow of her hat he saw +her red mouth twitching at his clumsiness. Yet, when she raised her +face, her smile astonished him, it was so timorous; and the wondrous +shyness in her lovely eyes abashed him far more than her tears. + +"I dare say--I need that!" he heard her whisper in spurts. "I think I +should like--you--to boss--me--too." + + * * * * * + +These things and others were tersely told in a letter written in the hot +blast of a north wind at Wallandoon, and delivered in London six weeks +later, damp with the rain of early April. The letter arrived by the last +post, and Ruth read it on the sofa in her husband's den, while Erskine +paced up and down the room, listening to the sentences she read aloud, +but saying little. + +"So you see," said Ruth as she put the thin sheets together and replaced +them in their envelope, "she accepted him before she knew of Lord +Manister's engagement. _He_ knew of it, and had undertaken to tell her, +but that was only to give himself a last chance. Had she heard of it +first he would never have spoken again." + +"I question that," Erskine said thoughtfully. "He might not have spoken +so soon; but his love would have proved stronger than his pride in the +end. Yet I like him for his pride. That was what she needed, and what +Manister lacked. It is very curious." + +"I wonder if you really would like him," said Ruth, who no longer cared +for the sound of Lord Manister's name. "I don't remember much about him, +except that we all thought a good deal of him; but somehow I don't fancy +he's your sort." + +"I wasn't aware that I had a sort," Erskine said, smiling. + +"Oh, but you have. _I_ am not your sort. But Tiny was!" + +He laughed heartily. + +"Then we four have chosen sides most excellently! It is quite fatal to +marry your own sort. Didn't you know that, my dear?" + +"No, I didn't," said Ruth, watching him from the sofa; "but I am very +glad to hear it, and I quite agree. You and Tiny, for instance, would +have jeered at everything in life until you were left jeering at one +another. Don't you think so?" she added wistfully, after a pause. + +"I think you're an uncommonly shrewd little person," Erskine remarked, +smiling down upon her kindly, so that her face shone with pleasure. + +"Do you?" she said, as he helped her to rise. "You used to think me so +dense when Tiny was here; and I dare say I was--beside Tiny." + +"My dearest girl," said Erskine, taking his wife in his arms, and +speaking in a troubled tone, "you have never said that sort of thing +before, and I hope you never will again. Tiny was Tiny--our Tiny--but +surely wisdom was not her strongest point? She amused us all because she +wasn't quite like other people; but how often am I to tell you that I am +thankful you are not like Tiny?" + +"Ah, if you really were!" Ruth whispered on his shoulder. + +"But I always was," he answered, kissing her; and they smiled at one +another until the door was shut and Ruth had gone, for there was now +between them an exceeding tenderness. + +Ruth had left him her letter, so that he might read it for himself; but +though he lit a pipe and sat down, it was some time before Erskine read +anything. Had Ruth returned and asked him for his thoughts, he would +have confessed that he was wondering whether Tiny's husband would +understand the girl he had managed to tame; and whether he had a fine +ear for a joke. As wondering would not tell him, he at length turned to +the letter; and that did not tell him either; but before he turned the +first of the many leaves, it was as though the child herself was beside +him in the room. + +The qualities she mentioned in her beloved were all of a serious +character, and the praises she bestowed upon him, at her own expense, +were a little tiresome to one who did not know the man. Erskine turned +over with excusable impatience, and was rewarded on the next page by a +sufficiently just summary of Lord Manister; even here, however, Tiny +took occasion to be very hard on herself. She declared--possibly she +would have said it in any case, but it happened to be true--that she had +never loved Lord Manister. On the way she had ill-used him she harped no +more; his own solution of his difficulties had, indeed, broken that +string. But she spoke of her "temptation" (incidentally remarking that +the hall windows haunted her still), and said she would perhaps have +yielded to it outright but for her visit to Wallandoon before sailing +for England; and that she would certainly have done so at the third +asking had it not been for that stronger temptation to go back with +Herbert to Australia. As it was, she had gone back fully determined to +marry Lord Manister in the end. And if that decision had been furthered +to the smallest extent by any sort of consideration for another, she did +not say so; neither did she seek to defend her own behavior at any +point, for this was not Tiny's way. However, with Jack she had burned to +justify herself, because love puts an end to one's ways. She had longed +to tell him everything with her own lips, and to have him forgive and +excuse her on the spot. This she admitted. But she denied having known +what her unreasonable longing really was. Did Ruth remember the "burning +of the boats" at Cintra? Well, she had spoken the truth about Jack then; +she had never "known" until the night of her last arrival at the +station; she had never been quite miserable until the succeeding days. +Reverting to Manister, she supposed the discovery of her departure the +day after their interview--in which she had studiously refrained from +revealing its imminence--had proved the last straw with him; she added +that such a result had been vaguely in her mind at the time, but that +she had never really admitted it among her hopes. Yet it seemed she had +cured him just when she gave him up for incurable--and how thankful she +was! A well-felt word about Lord Manister's future happiness and so on +led her to her own; and Erskine slid his eye over that, but had it +arrested by a loving little description of the old home to which she was +coming back for good. It was a hot wind as she wrote, and the beginning +of a word dried before she got to the end of it--so she affirmed. The +roof was crackling, and the shadows in the yard were like tanks of ink. +Out on the run the salt-bush still looked healthy after the rains. She +had given up whim driving; the manager had put in his word. But she was +taking long rides, all by herself; and the lonely grandeur of the bush +appealed to her just as it had when she first came back to it nearly a +year ago; and the deep sky and yellow distances and dull leaves were all +her eyes required; and she thought this was the one place in the world +where it would be easy to be good. + +The letter came rather suddenly to its end. There were some very kind +words about himself, which Erskine read more than once. Then he sat +staring into the fire, until, by some fancy's trick, the red coals +turned pale and took the shape of a girl's sweet face with blemishes +that only made it sweeter, with dark hair, and generous lips, and eyes +like her own Australian sky. And the eyes lightened with fun and with +mischief, with recklessness, and bitterness, and temper; and in each +light they were more lovable than before; but last of all they beamed +clear and tranquil as the blue sea becalmed; and in their depths there +shone a soul. + + +THE END. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been changed. + +In Chapter VI, ="It was not nonsense!" be cried.= was changed to ="It was +not nonsense!" he cried.= + +In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after =Oh, it's all +that.= + +In Chapter XVII, a missing quotation mark was added after =You shan't do +it!= + +In Chapter XVIII, =there are some migivings= was changed to =there are some +misgivings=. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tiny Luttrell, by Ernest William Hornung + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + +***** This file should be named 37320-8.txt or 37320-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37320/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tiny Luttrell + +Author: Ernest William Hornung + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="370" height="600" alt="cover of Tiny Luttrell" title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>TINY LUTTRELL</h1> + +<p class="center">BY<br /><span class="bigtext">ERNEST WILLIAM HORNUNG</span></p> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH," "UNDER TWO SKIES"</p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY<br /> +<span class="smcap">104 & 106 Fourth Avenue</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1893, by</span><br /> +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved.</i></p> + +<p class="center">THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,<br /> +RAHWAY, N. J.</p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p class="center">TO<br /> +<span class="bigtext">C. A. M. D.</span><br /> +FROM<br /> +<span class="bigtext">E. W. H.</span></p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table class="figcenter" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum smalltext">CHAPTER</td> +<td class="chapname smalltext"> </td> +<td class="chappage smalltext">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">I.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Coming of Tiny,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">II.</td> +<td class="chapname">Swift of Wallandoon,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">III.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Tail of the Season,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">44</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IV.</td> +<td class="chapname">Ruth and Christina,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">63</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">V.</td> +<td class="chapname">Essingham Rectory,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">84</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VI.</td> +<td class="chapname">A Matter of Ancient History,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">102</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VII.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Shadow of the Hall,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">116</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">Countess Dromard at Home,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">133</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IX.</td> +<td class="chapname">Mother and Son,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">148</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">X.</td> +<td class="chapname">A Threatening Dawn,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">162</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XI.</td> +<td class="chapname">In the Ladies' Tent,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">176</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XII.</td> +<td class="chapname">Ordeal by Battle,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">193</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">Her Hour of Triumph,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">213</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIV.</td> +<td class="chapname">A Cycle of Moods,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">233</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XV.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Invisible Ideal,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">248</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVI.</td> +<td class="chapname">Foreign Soil,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">263</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVII.</td> +<td class="chapname">The High Seas,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">286</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Third Time of Asking,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">306</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIX.</td> +<td class="chapname">Counsel's Opinion,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">317</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XX.</td> +<td class="chapname">In Honor Bound,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">327</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXI.</td> +<td class="chapname">A Deaf Ear,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">339</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXII.</td> +<td class="chapname">Summum Bonum,</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">348</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="wide" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="TINY_LUTTRELL" id="TINY_LUTTRELL"></a>TINY LUTTRELL.</h2> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE COMING OF TINY.</span></h2> + + +<p>Swift of Wallandoon was visibly distraught. He had driven over to the +township in the heat of the afternoon to meet the coach. The coach was +just in sight, which meant that it could not arrive for at least half an +hour. Yet nothing would induce Swift to wait quietly in the hotel +veranda; he paid no sort of attention to the publican who pressed him to +do so. The iron roofs of the little township crackled in the sun with a +sound as of distant musketry; their sharp-edged shadows lay on the sand +like sheets of zinc that might be lifted up in one piece; and a hot wind +in full blast played steadily upon Swift's neck and ears. He had pulled +up in the shade, and was leaning forward, with his wide-awake tilted +over his nose, and his eyes on a cloud of dust between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> bellying +sand-hills and the dark blue sky. The cloud advanced, revealing from +time to time a growing speck. That speck was the coach which Swift had +come to meet.</p> + +<p>He was a young man with broad shoulders and good arms, and a general air +of smartness and alacrity about which there could be no mistake. He had +dark hair and a fair mustache; his eye was brown and alert; and much +wind and sun had reddened a face that commonly gave the impression of +complete capability with a sufficiency of force. This afternoon, +however, Swift lacked the confident look of the thoroughly capable young +man. And he was even younger than he looked; he was young enough to +fancy that the owner of Wallandoon, who was a passenger by the +approaching coach, had traveled five hundred miles expressly to deprive +John Swift of the fine position to which recent good luck had promoted +him.</p> + +<p>He could think of nothing else to bring Mr. Luttrell all the way from +Melbourne at the time of year when a sheep station causes least anxiety. +The month was April, there had been a fair rainfall since Christmas, and +only in his last letter Mr. Luttrell had told Swift<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> that all he need do +for the present was to take care of the fences and let the sheep take +care of themselves. The next news was a telegram to the effect that Mr. +Luttrell was coming up country to see for himself how things were going +at Wallandoon. Having stepped into the managership by an accident, and +even so merely as a trial man, young Swift at once made sure that his +trial was at an end. It did not strike him that in spite of his youth he +was the ideal person for the post. Yet this was obvious. He had five +years' experience of the station he was to manage. The like merit is not +often in the market. Swift seemed to forget that. Neither did he take +comfort from the fact that Mr. Luttrell was an old friend of his family +in Victoria, and hitherto his own highly satisfied employer. Hitherto, +or until the last three months, he had not tried to manage Mr. +Luttrell's station. If he had failed in that time to satisfy its owner, +then he would at once go elsewhere; but for many things he wished most +keenly to stay at Wallandoon; and he was thinking of these things now, +while the coach grew before his eyes.</p> + +<p>Of his five years on Wallandoon the last two had been infinitely less +enjoyable than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> the three that had gone before. There was a simple +reason for the difference. Until two years ago Mr. Luttrell had himself +managed the station, and had lived there with his wife and family. That +had answered fairly well while the family were young, thanks to a +competent governess for the girls. But when the girls grew up it became +time to make a change. The squatter was a wealthy man, and he could +perfectly well afford the substantial house which he had already built +for himself in a Melbourne suburb. The social splashing of his wife and +daughters after their long seclusion in the wilderness was also easily +within his means, if not entirely to his liking; but he was a mild man +married to a weak woman; and he happened to be bent on a little splash +on his own account in politics. Choosing out of many applicants the best +possible manager for Wallandoon, the squatter presently entered the +Victorian legislature, and embraced the new interests so heartily that +he was nearly two years in discovering his best possible manager to be +both a failure and a fraud.</p> + +<p>It was this discovery that had given Swift an opening whose very +splendor accounted for his present doubts and fears. Had his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> chance +been spoilt by Herbert Luttrell, who had lately been on Wallandoon as +Swift's overseer, for some ten days only, when the two young fellows had +failed to pull together? This was not likely, for Herbert at his worst +was an honest ruffian, who had taken the whole blame (indeed it was no +more than his share) of that fiasco. Swift, however, could think of +nothing else; nor was there time; for now the coach was so close that +the crack of the driver's whip was plainly heard, and above the cluster +of heads on the box a white handkerchief fluttered against the sky.</p> + +<p>The publican whom Swift had snubbed addressed another remark to him from +the veranda:</p> + +<p>"There's a petticoat on board."</p> + +<p>"So I see."</p> + +<p>The coach came nearer.</p> + +<p>"She's your boss's daughter," affirmed the publican—"the best of 'em."</p> + +<p>"So you're cracking!"</p> + +<p>"Well, wait a minute. What now?"</p> + +<p>Swift prolonged the minute. "You're right," he said, hastily tying his +reins to the brake.</p> + +<p>"I am so."</p> + +<p>"Heaven help me!" muttered Swift as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> jumped to the ground. "There's +nothing ready for her. They might have told one!"</p> + +<p>A moment later five heaving horses stood sweating in the sun, and Swift, +reaching up his hand, received from a gray-bearded gentleman on the box +seat a grip from which his doubts and fears should have died on the +spot. If they did, however, it was only to make way for a new and +unlooked-for anxiety, for little Miss Luttrell was smiling down at him +through a brown gauze veil, as she poked away the handkerchief she had +waved, leaving a corner showing against her dark brown jacket; and how +she was to be made comfortable at the homestead, all in a minute, Swift +did not know.</p> + +<p>"She insisted on coming," said Mr. Luttrell, with a smile. "Is it any +good her getting down?"</p> + +<p>"Can you take me in?" asked the girl.</p> + +<p>"We'll do our best," said Swift, holding the ladder for her descent.</p> + +<p>Her shoes made a daintier imprint in the sand than it had known for two +whole years. She smiled as she gave her hand to Swift; it was small, +too, and Swift had not touched a lady's hand for many months. There was +very little of her altogether, but the little was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> entirely pleasing. +Embarrassed though he was, Swift was more than pleased to see the young +girl again, and her smiles that struggled through the brown gauze like +sunshine through a mist. She had not worn gauze veils two years ago; and +two years ago she had been content with fare that would scarcely please +her to-day, while naturally the living at the station was rougher now +than in the days of the ladies. It was all very well for her to smile. +She ought never to have come without a word of warning. Swift felt +responsible and aggrieved.</p> + +<p>He helped Mr. Luttrell to carry their baggage from the coach to the +buggy drawn up in the shade. Miss Luttrell went to the horses' heads and +stroked their noses; they were Bushman and Brownlock, the old safe pair +she had many a time driven herself. In a moment she was bidden to jump +up. There had been very little luggage to transfer. The most cumbrous +piece was a hamper, of which Swift formed expectations that were +speedily confirmed. For Miss Luttrell remarked, pointing to the hamper +as she took her seat:</p> + +<p>"At least we have brought our own rations;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> but I am afraid they will +make you horribly uncomfortable behind there?"</p> + +<p>Swift was on the back seat. "Not a bit," he answered; "I was much more +uncomfortable until I saw the hamper."</p> + +<p>"Don't you worry about us, Jack," said Mr. Luttrell as they drove off. +"Whatever you do, don't worry about Tiny. Give her travelers' rations +and send her to the travelers' hut. That's all she deserves, when she +wasn't on the way-bill. She insisted on coming at the last moment; I +told her it wasn't fair."</p> + +<p>"But it's very jolly," said Swift gallantly.</p> + +<p>"It was just like her," Mr. Luttrell chuckled; "she's as unreliable as +ever."</p> + +<p>The girl had been looking radiantly about her as they drove along the +single broad, straggling street of the township. She now turned her head +to Swift, and her eyes shot through her veil in a smile. That abominable +veil went right over her broad-brimmed hat, and was gathered in and made +fast at the neck. Swift could have torn it from her head; he had not +seen a lady smile for months. Also, he was beginning to make the +astonishing discovery that somehow she was altered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> and he was curious +to see how much, which was impossible through the gauze.</p> + +<p>"Is that true?" he asked her. He had known her for five years.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," she returned carelessly; and immediately her sparkling +eyes wandered. "There's old Mackenzie in the post office veranda. He was +a detestable old man, but I must wave to him; it's so good to be back!"</p> + +<p>"But you own to being unreliable?" persisted Swift.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Miss Luttrell said, tossing the words to him over her +shoulder, because her attention was not for the manager. "Is it so very +dreadful if I am? What's the good of being reliable? It's much more +amusing to take people by surprise. Your face was worth the journey when +you saw me on the coach! But you see I haven't surprised Mackenzie; he +doesn't look the least impressed; I dare say he thinks it was last week +we all went away. I hate him!"</p> + +<p>"Here are the police barracks," said Swift, seeing that all her interest +was in the old landmarks; "we have a new sergeant since you left."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>"If <i>he's</i> in <i>his</i> veranda I shall shout out to him who I am, and how +long I have been away, and how good it is to get back."</p> + +<p>"She's quite capable of doing it," Mr. Luttrell chimed in, chuckling +afresh; "there's never any knowing what she'll do next."</p> + +<p>But the barracks veranda was empty, and it was the last of the township +buildings. There was now nothing ahead but the rim of scrub, beyond +which, among the sand-hills, sweltered the homestead of Wallandoon.</p> + +<p>"I've come back with a nice character, have I not?" the girl now +remarked, turning to Swift with another smile.</p> + +<p>"You must have earned it; I can quite believe that you have," laughed +Swift. He had known her in short dresses.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! You see he remembers all about you, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Do you, Jack?" the girl said.</p> + +<p>"Do I not!" said Jack.</p> + +<p>And he said no more. He was grateful to her for addressing him, though +only once, by his Christian name. He had been intimate with the whole +family, and it seemed both sensible and pleasant to resume a friendly +footing from the first. He would have called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> the girl by her Christian +name too, only this was so seldom heard among her own people. Tiny she +was by nature, and Tiny she had been by name also, from her cradle. +Certainly she had been Tiny to Swift two years ago, and already she had +called him Jack; but he saw in neither circumstance any reason why she +should be Tiny to him still. It was different from a proper name. Her +proper name was Christina, but unreliable though she confessedly was, +she might perhaps be relied upon to jeer if he came out with that. And +he would not call her "Miss Luttrell." He thought about it and grew +silent; but this was because his thoughts had glided from the girl's +name to the girl herself.</p> + +<p>She had surprised him in more ways than one—in so many ways that +already he stood almost in awe of the little person whom formerly he had +known so well. Christina had changed, as it was only natural that she +should have changed; but because we are prone to picture our friends as +last we saw them, no matter how long ago, not less natural was Swift's +surprise. It was unreasoning, however, and not the kind of surprise to +last. In a few minutes his wonder was that Christina<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> had changed so +little. To look at her she had scarcely changed at all. A certain +finality of line was perceptible in the figure, but if anything she was +thinner than of old. As for her face, what he could see of it through +the maddening gauze was the face of Swift's memory. Her voice was a +little different; in it was a ring of curiously deliberate irony, +charming at first as a mere affectation. A more noteworthy alteration +had taken place in her manner: she had acquired the manner of a finished +young woman of the world and of society. Already she had shown that she +could become considerably excited without forfeiting any of the grace +and graciousness and self-possession that were now conspicuously hers; +and before the homestead was reached she exhibited such a saintly +sweetness in repose as only enhanced the lambent deviltry playing about +most of her looks and tones. If Swift was touched with awe in her +presence, that can hardly be wondered at in one who went for months +together without setting eyes upon a lady.</p> + +<p>The drive was a long one—so long that when they sighted the homestead +it came between them and the setting sun. The main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> building with its +long, regular roof lay against the red sky like some monstrous ingot. +The hot wind had fallen, and the station pines stood motionless, drawn +in ink. As they drove through the last gate they could hear the dogs +barking; and Christina distinguished the voice of her own old +short-haired collie, which she had bequeathed to Swift, who was repaid +for the sound with a final smile. He hardly knew why, but this look made +the girl's old self live to him as neither look nor word had done yet, +though her face was turned away from the light, and the stupid veil +still fell before it.</p> + +<p>But the less fascinating side of her arrival was presently engaging his +attention. He hastily interviewed Mrs. Duncan, an elderly godsend new to +the place since the Luttrells had left it, and never so invaluable as +now. Into Mrs. Duncan's hands Christina willingly submitted herself, for +she was really tired out. Swift did not see her again until supper, +which afforded further proofs of Mrs. Duncan's merits in a time of need. +Meanwhile, Mr. Luttrell had finally disabused him of the foolish fears +he had entertained while waiting for the coach. Swift's youth, which has +shown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> itself in these fears, comes out also in the ease with which he +now forgot them. They had made him unhappy for three whole days; yet he +dared to feel indignant because his owner, who had confirmed his command +instead of dismissing him from it, chose to talk sheep at the supper +table. Swift seemed burning to hear of the eldest Miss Luttrell, who was +Miss Luttrell no longer, having married a globe-trotting Londoner during +her first season and gone home. He asked Christina several questions +about Ruth (whose other name he kept forgetting) and her husband. But +Mr. Luttrell lost no chance of rounding up the conversation and yarding +it in the sheep pens; and Swift had the ingratitude to resent this. +Still more did he resent the hour he was forced to spend in the store +after supper, examining the books and discussing recent results and +future plans with Mr. Luttrell, while his subordinate, the storekeeper, +enjoyed the society of Christina. The business in the store was not only +absurdly premature and irksome in itself, but it made it perfectly +impossible for Swift to hear any more that night of the late Ruth +Luttrell, whose present name was not to be remembered. He found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> it hard +to possess his soul in patience and to answer questions satisfactorily +under such circumstances. For an hour, indeed, he did both; but the +station store faced the main building, and when Tiny Luttrell appeared +in the veranda of the latter with a lighted candle in her hand, he could +do neither any longer. Saying candidly that he must bid her good-night, +he hurried out of the store and across the yard, and was in time to +catch Christina at one end of the broad veranda which entirely +surrounded the house.</p> + +<p>At supper Mr. Luttrell had made him take the head of the table, by +virtue of his office, declaring that he himself was merely a visitor. +And on the strength of that Swift was perhaps justified now in adding a +host's apology to his good-night. "I'm afraid you'll have to rough it +most awfully," was what he said.</p> + +<p>"Far from it. You have given me my old room, the one we papered with +<i>Australasians</i>, if you remember; they are only a little more fly-blown +than they used to be."</p> + +<p>This was Christina's reply, which naturally led to more.</p> + +<p>"But it won't be as comfortable as it used<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> to be," said Swift +unhappily; "and it won't be what you are accustomed to nowadays."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, it's the dearest little den in the colonies!"</p> + +<p>"That sounds as if you were glad to get back to Riverina?"</p> + +<p>"Glad? No one knows how glad I am."</p> + +<p>One person knew now. The measure of her gladness was expressed in her +face not less than in her tones, and it was no ordinary measure. Over +the candle she held in her hand Swift was enabled for the first time to +peer unobstructedly into her face. He found it more winsome than ever, +but he noticed some ancient blemishes under the memorable eyes. She had, +in fact, some freckles, which he recognized with the keenest joy. She +might stoop to a veil—she had not sunk to doctoring her complexion; she +had come back to the bush an incomplete worldling after all. Yet there +was that in her face which made him feel a stranger to her still.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he said, smiling, "that I'm in a great funk of you? I +can't say quite what it is, but somehow you're so grand. I suppose it's +Melbourne."</p> + +<p>Miss Luttrell thanked him, bowing so low<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> that her candle shed grease +upon the boards. "You've altered too," she added in his own manner; "I +suppose it's being boss. But I haven't seen enough of you to be sure. +You evidently told off your new storekeeper to entertain me for the +evening. He is a trying young man; he <i>will</i> talk. But of course he is a +new chum fresh from home."</p> + +<p>"Still he's a very good little chap; but it wasn't my fault that he and +I didn't change places. Mr. Luttrell wanted to speak to me about several +things, besides glancing through the books; I thought we might have put +it off, and I wondered how you were getting on. By the way, it struck me +once or twice that your father was coming up to give me the sack; and +it's just the reverse, for now I'm permanent manager."</p> + +<p>He told her this with a natural exultation, but she did not seem +impressed by it. "Do you know why he did come up?" she asked him.</p> + +<p>"Yes; for his Easter holidays, chiefly."</p> + +<p>"And why I would come with him?"</p> + +<p>"No; I'm afraid we never mentioned you. I suppose you came for a holiday +too?"</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you why I did come?"</p> + +<p>"I wish you would."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>"Well, I came to say good-by to Wallandoon," said Christina solemnly.</p> + +<p>"You're going to be married!" exclaimed Swift, with conviction, but with +perfect nonchalance.</p> + +<p>"Not if I know it," cried Christina. "Are you?"</p> + +<p>"Not I."</p> + +<p>"But there's Miss Trevor of Meringul!"</p> + +<p>"I see them once in six months."</p> + +<p>"That may be in the bond."</p> + +<p>"Well, never mind Miss Trevor of Meringul. You haven't told me how it is +you've come to say good-by to the station, Miss Luttrell of Wallandoon."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll tell you, seriously: it's because I sail for England on the +4th of May."</p> + +<p>"For England!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I'm not at all keen about it, I can tell you. But I'm not +going to see England, I'm going to see Ruth; Australia's worth fifty +Englands any day."</p> + +<p>Swift had recovered from his astonishment. "I don't know," he said +doubtfully; "most of us would like a trip home, you know, just to see +what the old country's like; though I dare say it isn't all it's cracked +up to be."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>"Of course it isn't. I hate it!"</p> + +<p>"But if you've never been there?"</p> + +<p>"I judge from the people—from the samples they send out. Your new +storekeeper is one; you meet worse down in Melbourne. Herbert's going +with me; he's going to Cambridge, if they'll have him. Didn't you know +that? But he could go alone, and if it wasn't for Ruth I wouldn't cross +Hobson's Bay to see their old England!"</p> + +<p>The serious bitterness of her tone struck him afterward as nothing less +than grotesque; but at the moment he was gazing into her face, +thoughtfully yet without thoughts.</p> + +<p>"It's good for Herbert," he said presently. "I couldn't do anything with +him here; he offered to fight me when I tried to make him work. I +suppose he will be three or four years at Cambridge; but how long are +you going to stay with Mrs.—Mrs. Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"How stupid you are at remembering a simple name! Do try to remember +that her name is Holland. I beg your pardon, Jack, but you have been +really very forgetful this evening. I think it must be Miss Trevor of +Meringul."</p> + +<p>"It isn't. I'm very sorry. But you haven't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> told me how long you think +of staying at home."</p> + +<p>"How long?" said the young girl lightly. "It may be for years and years, +and it may be forever and ever!"</p> + +<p>He looked at her strangely, and she darted out her hand.</p> + +<p>"Good-night again, Jack."</p> + +<p>"Good-night again."</p> + +<p>What with the pauses, each of them an excellent opportunity for +Christina to depart, it had taken them some ten minutes to say that +which ought not to have lasted one. But you must know that this was +nothing to their last good-night, on the self-same spot two years +before, when she had rested in his arms.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">SWIFT OF WALLANDOON.</span></h2> + + +<p>Christina was awakened in the morning by the holland blind flapping +against her open window. It was a soft, insinuating sound, that awoke +one gradually, and to Christina both the cause and the awakening itself +seemed incredibly familiar. So had she lain and listened in the past, as +each day broke in her brain. When she opened her eyes the shadow of the +sash wriggled on the blind as it flapped, a blade of sunshine lay under +the door that opened upon the veranda, and neither sight was new to her. +The same sheets of the <i>Australasian</i> with which her own hands had once +lined the room, for want of a conventional wallpaper, lined it still; +the same area of printed matter was in focus from the pillow, and she +actually remembered an advertisement that caught her eye. It used to +catch her eye two years before. Thus it became difficult to believe in +those two years;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> and it was very pleasant to disbelieve in them. More +than pleasant Christina found it to lie where she was, hearing the old +noises (the horses were run up before she rose), seeing the old things, +and dreaming that the last two years were themselves a dream. Her life +as it stood was a much less charming composition than several possible +arrangements of the same material, impossible now. This is not strange, +but it was a little strange that neither sweet impossibilities nor +bitter actualities fascinated her much; for so many good girls are +morbidly introspective. As for Christina, let it be clearly and early +understood that she was neither an introspective girl by nature nor a +particularly good one from any point of view. She was not in the habit +of looking back; but to look back on the old days here at the station +without thinking of later days was like reading an uneven book for the +second time, leaving out the poor part.</p> + +<p>In making, but still more in closing that gap in her life (as you close +a table after taking out a leaf) she was immensely helped by the +associations of the present moment. They breathed of the remote past +only; their breath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> was sweet and invigorating. Her affection for +Wallandoon was no affectation; she loved it as she loved no other place. +And if, as she dressed, her thoughts dwelt more on the young manager of +the station than on the station itself, that only illustrates the +difference between an association and an associate. There is human +interest in the one, but it does not follow that Tiny Luttrell was +immoderately interested in Jack Swift. Even to herself she denied that +she had ever done more than like him very much. To some "nonsense" in +the past she was ready to own. But in the vocabulary of a Tiny Luttrell +a little "nonsense" may cover a calendar of mild crimes. It is only the +Jack Swifts who treat the nonsense seriously and deny that the crimes +are anything of the sort, because for their part they "mean it." Women +are not deceived. Besides, it is less shame for them to say they never +meant it.</p> + +<p>"He must marry Flo Trevor of Meringul," Christina said aloud. "It's what +we all expect of him. It's his duty. But she isn't pretty, poor thing!"</p> + +<p>The remarks happened to be made to Christina's own reflection in the +glass. She, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> we know, was very pretty indeed. Her small head was +finely turned, and carried with her own natural grace. Her hair was of +so dark a brown as to be nearly black, but there was not enough of it to +hide the charming contour of her head. If she could have had the +altering of one feature, she would probably have shortened her lips; but +their red freshness justified their length; and the crux of a woman's +beauty, her nose, happened to be Christina's best point. Her eyes were a +sweeter one. Their depth of blue is seen only under dark blue skies, and +they seemed the darker for her hair. But with all her good features, +because she was not an English girl, but an Australian born and bred, +she had no complexion to speak of, being pale and slightly freckled. Yet +no one held that those blemishes prevented her from being pretty; while +some maintained that they did not even detract from her good looks, and +a few that they saved her from perfection and were a part of her charm. +The chances are that the authorities quoted were themselves her admirers +one and all. She had many such. To most of them her character had the +same charm as her face; it, too, was freckled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> with faults for which +they loved her the more.</p> + +<p>One of the many she met presently, but one of them now, though in his +day the first of all. Swift was hastening along the veranda as she +issued forth, a consciously captivating figure in her clean white frock. +He had on his wide-awake, a newly filled water-bag dripped as he carried +it, the drops drying under their eyes in the sun, and Christina foresaw +at once his absence for the day. She was disappointed, perhaps because +he was one of the many; certainly it was for this reason she did not let +him see her disappointment. He told her that he was going with her +father to the out-station. That was fourteen miles away. It meant a +lonely day for Christina at the homestead. So she said that a lonely day +there was just what she wanted, to overhaul the dear old place all by +herself, and to revel in it like a child without feeling that she was +being watched. But she told a franker story some hours later, when Swift +found her still on the veranda where he had left her, but this was now +the shady side, seated in a wicker chair and frowning at a book. For she +promptly flung away that crutch of her soli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>tude, and seemed really glad +to see him. Her look made him tingle. He sat down on the edge of the +veranda and leaned his back against a post. Then he inquired, rather +diffidently, how the day had gone with Miss Luttrell.</p> + +<p>"I am ashamed to tell you," said Christina graciously, for though his +diffidence irritated her, she was quite as glad to see him as she +looked, "that I have been bored very nearly to death!"</p> + +<p>"I knew you would be," Swift said quite bitterly; but his bitterness was +against an absent man, who had gone indoors to rest.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you could know anything," remarked Christina. "I +certainly didn't know it myself; and I'm very much ashamed of it, that's +another thing! I love every stick about the place. But I never knew a +hotter morning; the sand in the yard was like powdered cinders, and you +can't go poking about very long when everything you touch is red hot. +Then one felt tired. Mrs. Duncan took pity on me and came and talked to +me; she must be an acquisition to you, I am sure; but her cooking's +better than her conversation. I think she must have sent the new chum +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> me to take her place; anyway I've had a dose of him, too, I can tell +you!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's been cutting his work, has he?"</p> + +<p>"He has been doing the civil; I think he considered that his work."</p> + +<p>"And quite right too! Tell me, what do you think of him?"</p> + +<p>Christina made a grotesque grimace. "He's such a little Englishman," she +simply said.</p> + +<p>"Well, he can't help that, you know," said Swift, laughing; "and he's +not half a bad little chap, as I told you last night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, not a bit bad; only typical. He has told me his history. It seems +he missed the army at home, front door and back, in spite of his +crammer—I mean his cwammer. He was no use, so they sent him out to us."</p> + +<p>"And he is gradually becoming of some use to us, or rather to me; he +really is," protested Swift in the interests of fair play, which a man +loves. "You laugh, but I like the fellow. He's much more use—forgive my +saying so—than Herbert ever would have been—here. At all events he +doesn't want to fight! He's willing, I will say that for him. And I +think it was rather nice of him to tell you about himself."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>"It's nicer of you to think so," said Christina to herself. And her +glance softened so that he noticed the difference, for he was becoming +sensitive to a slight but constant hardness of eye and tongue +distressing to find in one's divinity.</p> + +<p>"He went so far as to hint at an affair of the heart," she said aloud, +and he saw her eyes turn hard again, so that his own glanced off them +and fell. But he forced a chuckle as he looked down.</p> + +<p>"Well, you gave him your sympathy there, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"Not I, indeed. I urged him to forget all about her; she has forgotten +all about him long before now, you may be sure. He only thinks about her +still because it's pleasant to have somebody to think about at a lonely +place like this; and if she's thinking about him it's because he's away +in the wilderness and there's a glamour about that. It wouldn't prevent +her marrying another man to-morrow, and it won't prevent him making up +to some other girl when he gets the chance."</p> + +<p>"So that's your experience, is it?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind whose experience it is. I advised the young man to give up +thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> about the young woman, that's all, and it's my advice to every +young man situated as he is."</p> + +<p>Swift was not amused. Yet he refused to believe that her advice was +intended for himself: firstly, because it was so coolly given, which was +his ignorance, and secondly, because, literally speaking, he was not +himself situated as the young Englishman was, which was merely +unimaginative. In his determination, however, not to meet her in +generalizations, but to get back to the storekeeper, he was wise enough.</p> + +<p>"I know something about his affairs, too," he said quietly; "he's the +frankest little fellow in the world; and I have given him very different +advice, I must say."</p> + +<p>Tiny Luttrell bent down on him a gaze of fiendish innocence.</p> + +<p>"And what sort of advice does he give you, pray?"</p> + +<p>"You had better ask him," said Swift feebly, but with effect, for he was +honestly annoyed, and man enough to show it. As he spoke, indeed, he +rose.</p> + +<p>"What, are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; you go in for being too hard altogether."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>"I don't go in for it. I am hard. I'm as hard as nails," said Christina +rapidly.</p> + +<p>"So I see," he said, and another weak return was strengthened by his +firmness; for he was going away as he spoke, and he never looked round.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't lose my temper," she called after him.</p> + +<p>Her face was white. He disappeared. She colored angrily.</p> + +<p>"Now I hate you," she whispered to herself; but she probably respected +him more, and that was as it only should have been long ago.</p> + +<p>But Swift was in an awkward position, which indeed he deserved for the +unsuspected passages that had once taken place between Tiny Luttrell and +himself. It is true that those passages had occurred at the very end of +the Luttrells' residence at Wallandoon; they had not been going on for a +period preceding the end; but there is no denying that they were +reprehensible in themselves, and pardonable only on the plea of +exceeding earnestness. Swift would not have made that excuse for +himself, for he felt it to be a poor one, though of his own sincerity he +was and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> had been unwaveringly sure. Beyond all doubt he was properly in +love, and, being so, it was not until the girl stopped writing to him +that he honestly repented the lengths to which he had been encouraged to +go. It is easy to be blameless through the post, but they had kept up +their perfectly blameless correspondence for a very few weeks when +Christina ceased firing; she was to have gone on forever. He was just +persistent enough to make it evident that her silence was intentional; +then the silence became complete, and it was never again broken. For if +Swift's self-control was limited, his self-respect was considerable, and +this made him duly regret the limitations of his self-control. His boy's +soul bled with a boy's generous regrets. He had kissed her, of course, +and I wonder whose fault you think that was? I know which of them +regretted and which forgot it. The man would have given one of his +fingers to have undone those kisses, that made him think less of himself +and less of his darling. Nothing could make him love her less. He heard +no more of her, but that made no difference. And now they were together +again, and she was hard, and it made this difference: that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> wanted +her worse than ever, and for her own gain now as much as for his.</p> + +<p>But two years had altered him also. In a manner he too was hardened; but +he was simply a stronger, not a colder man. The muscles of his mind were +set; his soul was now as sinewy as his body. He knew what he wanted, and +what would not do for him instead. He wanted a great deal, but he meant +having it or nothing. This time she should give him her heart before he +took her hand; he swore it through his teeth; and you will realize how +he must have known her of old even to have thought it. The curious thing +is that, having shown him what she was, she should have made him love +her as he did. But that was Tiny Luttrell.</p> + +<p>She was half witch, half coquette, and her superficial cynicism was but +a new form of her coquetry. He liked it less than the unsophisticated +methods of the old days. Indeed, he liked the girl less, while loving +her more. She had given him the jar direct in one conversation, but even +on indifferent subjects she spoke with a bitterness which he thoroughly +disliked; while some of her prejudices he could not help thinking +irredeemably absurd. As a shrill decrier of England, for instance, she +may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> have amused him, but he hardly admired her in that character. In a +word, he thought her, and rightly, a good deal spoilt by her town life; +but he hated towns, and it was a proof of her worth in his eyes that she +was not hopelessly spoilt. He saw hope for her still—if she would marry +him. He was a modest man in general, but he did feel this most strongly. +She was going to England without caring whether she went or not; she +would do much better by marrying him and coming back to her old home in +the bush. That home she loved, whether she loved him or not; in it she +had grown up simple and credulous and sweet, with a wicked side that +only picked out her sweetness; in it he believed that her life and his +might yet be beautiful. The feeling made him sometimes rejoice that she +had fallen a little out of love with her life, so that he might show her +with all the effect of contrast what life and love really were; it +thrilled his heart with generous throbs, it brought the moisture to his +honest eyes, and it came to him oftener and with growing force as the +days went on, by reason of certain signs they brought forth in +Christiana. Her voice lost its bitterness in his ears, not because he +had grown used to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> notes that had jarred him in the beginning, but +because the discordant strings came gradually into tune. Her freshness +came back to her with the charm and influence of the wilderness she +loved; her old self lived again to Jack Swift. On the other hand, she +came to realize her own delight in the old good life as she had never +realized it before; she felt that henceforward she should miss it as she +had not missed it yet. Now she could have defined her sensations and +given reasons for them. She spent many hours in the saddle, on a former +mount of hers that Swift had run up for her; often he rode with her, and +the scent of the pines, the swelling of the sand-hills against the sky, +the sense of Nothing between the horses' ears and the sunset, spoke to +her spirit as they had never done of old. And even so on their rides +would she speak to Swift, who listened grimly, hardly daring to answer +her for the fear of saying at the wrong moment what he had resolved to +say once and for all before she went.</p> + +<p>And he chose the wrong moment after all. It was the eve of her going, +and they were riding together for the last time; he felt that it was +also his last opportunity. So in six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> miles he made as many remarks, +then turned in his saddle and spoke out with overpowering fervor. This +may be expected of the self-contained suitor, with whom it is only a +question of time, and the longer the time the stronger the outburst. But +Christina was not carried away, for she did not quite love him, and the +opportunity was a bad one, and Swift's honest method had not improved +it. She listened kindly, with her eyes on the distant timbers of the +eight-mile whim; but her kindness was fatally calm; and when he waited +she refused him firmly. She confessed to a fondness for him. She +ascribed this to the years they had known each other. Once and for all +she did not love him.</p> + +<p>"Not now!" exclaimed the young fellow eagerly. "But you did once! You +will again!"</p> + +<p>"I never loved you," said the girl gravely. "If you're thinking of two +years ago, that was mere nonsense. I don't believe its love with you +either, if you only knew it."</p> + +<p>"But I do know what it is with me, Tiny! I loved you before you went +away, and all the time you were gone. Since you have been back, during +these few days, I have got to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> love you more than ever. And so I shall +go on, whatever happens. I can't help it, darling."</p> + +<p>Neither could he help saying this; for the hour found him unable to +accept his fate quite as he had meant to accept it. Her kindness had +something to do with that. And now she spoke more kindly than before.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Am I sure!" he echoed bitterly.</p> + +<p>"It is so easy to deceive oneself."</p> + +<p>"I am not deceived."</p> + +<p>"It is so easy to imagine yourself——"</p> + +<p>"I am not imagining!" cried Swift impatiently. "I am the man who has +loved you always, and never any girl but you. If you can't believe that, +you must have had a very poor experience of men, Tiny!"</p> + +<p>For a moment she looked away from the whim which they were slowly +nearing, and her eyes met his.</p> + +<p>"I have," she admitted frankly; "I have had a particularly poor +experience of them. Yet I am sorry to find you so different from the +rest; I can't tell you how sorry I am to find you true to me."</p> + +<p>"Sorry?" he said tenderly; for her voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> was full of pain, and he could +not bear that. "Why should you be sorry, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Why—because I never dreamt of being true to you."</p> + +<p>For some reason her face flamed as he watched it. There was a pause. +Then he said:</p> + +<p>"You are not engaged; are you in love?"</p> + +<p>"Very far from it."</p> + +<p>"Then why mind? If there is no one else you care for you shall care for +me yet. I'll make you. I'll wait for you. You don't know me! I won't +give you up until you are some other fellow's wife."</p> + +<p>His stern eyes, the way his mouth shut on the words, and the manly +determination of the words themselves gave the girl a thrill of pleasure +and of pride; but also a pang; for at that moment she felt the wish to +love him alongside the inability, and all at once she was as sorry for +herself as for him.</p> + +<p>"What should you mind?" repeated Swift.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you, but you can guess what I have been."</p> + +<p>"A flirt?" He laughed aloud. "Darling, I don't care two figs for your +flirtations! I wanted you to enjoy yourself. What does it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> matter how +you've enjoyed yourself, so long as you haven't absolutely been getting +engaged or falling in love?"</p> + +<p>Her chin drooped into her loose white blouse. "I did fall in love," she +said slowly—"at any rate I thought so; and I very nearly got engaged."</p> + +<p>Swift had never seen so much color in her face.</p> + +<p>Presently he said, "What happened?" but immediately added, "I beg your +pardon; of course I have no business to ask." His tone was more stiff +than strained.</p> + +<p>"You <i>have</i> business," she answered eagerly, fearful of making him less +than friend. "I wouldn't mind telling you the whole thing, except the +man's name. And yet," she added rather wistfully, "I suppose you're the +only friend I have that doesn't know! It's hard lines to have to tell +you."</p> + +<p>"Then I don't want to know anything at all about it," exclaimed Swift +impulsively. "I would rather you didn't tell me a word, if you don't +mind. I am only too thankful to think you got out of it, whatever it +was."</p> + +<p>"I didn't get out of it."</p> + +<p>"You don't—mean—that the man did?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>Swift was aghast.</p> + +<p>"I do."</p> + +<p>He did not speak, but she heard him breathing. Stealing a look at him, +her eyes fell first upon the clenched fist lying on his knee.</p> + +<p>She made haste to defend the man.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't all his fault; of that I feel sure. If you knew who he was +you wouldn't blame him anymore than I do. He was quite a boy, too; I +don't suppose he was a free agent. In any case it is all quite, quite +over."</p> + +<p>"Is it? He was from England—that's why you hate the home people so!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he was from home. He went back very suddenly. It wasn't his fault. +He was sent for. But he might have said good-by!"</p> + +<p>She spoke reflectively, gazing once more at the whim. They were near it +now. The framework cut the sky like some uncouth hieroglyph. To Swift +henceforward, on all his lonely journeys hither, it was the emblem of +humiliation. But it was not his own humiliation that moistened his +clenched hand now.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had him here," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you know nothing about him, you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> see; I know enough to forgive him. +And I have got over it, quite; but the worst of it is that I can't +believe any more in any of you—I simply can't."</p> + +<p>"Not in me?" asked Swift warmly, for her belief in him, at least, he +knew he deserved. "I have always been the same. I have never thought of +any other girl but you, and I never will. I love you, darling!"</p> + +<p>"After this, Jack?"</p> + +<p>He seemed to disappoint her.</p> + +<p>"After the same thing if it happens all over again in England! There is +no merit in it; I simply can't help myself. While you are away I will +wait for you and work for you; only come back free, and I will win you, +too, in the end. You are happier here than anywhere else, but you don't +know what it is to be really happy as I should make you. Remember +that—and this: that I will never give you up until someone else has got +you! Now call me conceited or anything you like. I have done bothering +you."</p> + +<p>"I can only call you foolish," said the girl, though gently. "You are +far too good for me. As for conceit, you haven't enough of it, or you +would never give me another thought.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> I still hope you will quite give +up thinking about me, and—and try to get over it. But nothing is going +to happen in England, I can promise you that much. And I only wish I +could get out of going."</p> + +<p>He had already shown her how she might get out of it; he was not going +to show her afresh or more explicitly, in spite of the temptation to do +so. Even to a proud spirit it is difficult to take No when the voice +that says it is kind and sorrowful and all but loving. Swift found it +easier to bide by his own statement that he had done bothering her; such +was his pride.</p> + +<p>But he had chosen the wrong moment, and though he had shown less pride +than he had meant to show, he was still too proud to improve the right +one when it came. He was too proud, indeed, to stand much chance of +immediate success in love. Otherwise he might have reminded her with +more force and particularity of their former relations; and playing like +that he might have won, but he would rather have lost. Perhaps he did +not recognize the right moment as such when it fell; but at least he +must have seen that it was better than the one he had chosen. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> fell +in the evening, when Christina's mood became conspicuously sentimental; +but Swift happened to be one of the last young men in the world to take +advantage of any mere mood.</p> + +<p>As on the first evening, Mr. Luttrell was busy in the store, but this +time with the storekeeper, who was making out a list of things to be +sent up in the drays from Melbourne. Tiny and the manager were thrown +together for the last time. She offered to sing a song, and he thanked +her gratefully enough. But he listened to her plaintive songs from a far +corner of the room, though the room was lighted only by the moonbeams; +and when she rose he declared that she was tired and begged her not to +sing any more. She could have beaten him for that.</p> + +<p>But in leaving the room they lingered on the threshold, being struck by +the beauty of the night. The full moon ribbed the station yard with the +shadows of the pines, a soft light was burning in the store, and all was +so still that the champing of the night-horse in the yard came plainly +to their ears, with the chirping of the everlasting crickets. Christina +raised her face to Swift; her eyes were wet in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> the moonlight; there was +even a slight tremor of the red lips; and one hand hung down invitingly +at her side. She did not love him, but she was beginning to wish that +she could love him; and she did love the place. Had he taken that one +hand then the chances are he might have kept it. But even Swift never +dreamt that this was so. And after that moment it was not so any more. +She turned cold, and was cold to the end. Her last words from the top of +the coach fell as harshly on a loving ear as any that had preceded them +by a week.</p> + +<p>"Why need you remind me I am going to England? Enjoy myself! I shall +detest the whole thing."</p> + +<p>Her last look matched the words.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE TAIL OF THE SEASON.</span></h2> + + +<p>"What do you say to sitting it out? The rooms are most awfully crowded, +and you dance too well for one; besides, one's anxious to hear your +impressions of a London ball."</p> + +<p>"One must wait till the ball is over. So far I can't deny that I'm +enjoying myself in spite of the crush. But I should rather like to sit +out for once, though you needn't be sarcastic about my dancing."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, where's a good place?"</p> + +<p>"There's a famous corner in the conservatory; it should be empty now +that a dance is just beginning."</p> + +<p>It was. So it became occupied next moment by Tiny Luttrell and her +partner, who allowed that the dimly illumined recess among the +tree-ferns deserved its fame. Tiny's partner, however, was only her +brother-in-law, Mr. Erskine Holland.</p> + +<p>The Luttrells had been exactly a fortnight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> in England. It was in the +earliest hour of the month of July that Christina sat out with her +brother-in-law at her first London party; and if she had spent that +fortnight chiefly in visiting dressmakers and waiting for results, she +had at least found time to get to know Erskine Holland very much better +than she had ever done in Melbourne. There she had seen very little of +him, partly through being away from home when he first called with an +introduction to the family, but more by reason of the short hurdle race +he had made of his courtship, marriage, and return to England with his +bride. He had taken the matrimonial fences as only an old bachelor can +who has been given up as such by his friends. Mr. Holland, though still +nearer thirty than forty, had been regarded as a confirmed bachelor when +starting on a long sea voyage for the restoration of his health after an +autumnal typhoid. His friends were soon to know what weakened health and +Australian women can do between them. They beheld their bachelor return +within four months, a comfortably married man, with a pleasant little +wife who was very fond of him, and in no way jealous of his old friends. +That was Mrs. Erskine's great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> merit, and the secret of the signal +success with which she presided over his table in West Kensington, when +Erskine had settled down there and returned with steadiness to the good, +safe business to which he had been virtually born a partner. For his +part, without being enslaved to a degree embarrassing to their friends, +Holland made an obviously satisfactory husband. He was good-natured and +never exacting; he was well off and generous. One of a wealthy, +many-membered firm driving a versatile trade in the East, he was as free +personally from business anxieties as was the hall porter at the firm's +offices in Lombard Street. There Erskine was the most popular and least +useful fraction of the firm, being just a big, fair, genial fellow, fond +of laughter and chaff and lawn tennis, and fonder of books than of the +newspapers—an eccentric preference in a business man. But as a business +man the older partners shook their heads about him. Once as a youngster +he had spent a year or two in Lisbon, learning the language and the +ropes there, the firm having certain minor interests planted in +Portuguese soil on both sides of the Indian Ocean; and those interests +just suited Erskine Holland, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> had the handling of them, though the +older partners nursed their own distrust of a man who boasted of taking +his work out of his head each evening when he hung up his office coat. +At home Erskine was a man who read more than one guessed, and had his +own ideas on a good many subjects. He found his sister-in-law lamentably +ignorant, but quite eager to improve her mind at his direction; and this +is ever delightful to the man who reads. Also he found her amusing, and +that experience was mutual.</p> + +<p>A Londoner himself, with many reputable relatives in the town, who +rejoiced in the bachelor's marriage and were able to like his wife, he +was in a position to gratify to a considerable extent Mrs. Erskine's +social desires. That he did so somewhat against his own inclination +(much as in Melbourne his father-in-law had done before him) was due to +an acutely fair mind allied with a thoroughly kind and sympathetic +nature. His own attitude toward society was not free from that slight +intellectual superiority which some of the best fellows in the world +cannot help; but at least it was perfectly genuine. He treated society +as he treated champagne, which he seldom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> touched, but about which he +was curiously fastidious on those chance occasions. He cared as little +for the one as for the other, but found the drier brands inoffensive in +both cases. The ball to-night was at Lady Almeric's.</p> + +<p>"Not a bad corner," Erskine said as he made himself comfortable; "but +I'm afraid it's rather thrown away upon me, you know."</p> + +<p>"Far from it. I wish I had been dancing with you the whole evening, +Erskine," said Christina seriously.</p> + +<p>"That's rather obsequious of you. May I ask why?"</p> + +<p>"Because I don't think much of my partners so far, to talk to."</p> + +<p>"Ha! I knew there was something you wouldn't think much of," cried +Erskine Holland. "Have they nothing to say for themselves, then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, plenty. They discover where I come from; then they show their +ignorance. They want to know if there is any chance for a fellow on the +gold fields now; they have heard of a place called Ballarat, but they +aren't certain whether it's a part of Melbourne or nearer Sydney. One +man knows some peo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>ple at Hobart Town, in New Zealand, he fancies. I +never knew anything like their ignorance of the colonies!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Holland tugged a smile out of his mustache. "Can you tell me how to +address a letter to Montreal—is it Quebec or Ontario?" he asked her, as +if interested and anxious to learn.</p> + +<p>"Goodness knows," replied Christina innocently.</p> + +<p>"Then that's rather like their ignorance of the colonies, isn't it? +There's not much difference between a group of colonies and a dominion, +you see. I'm afraid your partners are not the only people whose +geography has been sadly neglected."</p> + +<p>Christina laughed.</p> + +<p>"My education's been neglected altogether, if it comes to that. As +you're taking me in hand, perhaps you'll lend me a geography, as well as +Ruskin and Thackeray. Nevertheless, Australia's more important than +Canada, you may say what you like, Erskine; and your being smart won't +improve my partners."</p> + +<p>"Oh! but I thought it was only their conversation?"</p> + +<p>"You force me to tell you that their idea of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> dancing seems limited to +pushing you up one side of the room, and dragging you after them down +the other. Sometimes they turn you round. Then they're proud of +themselves. They never do it twice running."</p> + +<p>"That's because there are so many here."</p> + +<p>"There are far too many here—that's what's the matter! And I'm a nice +person to tell you so," added Tiny penitently, "when it's you and Ruth +who have brought me here. But you know I don't mean that I'm not +enjoying it, Erskine; I'm enjoying it immensely, and I'm very proud of +myself for being here at all. I can't quite explain myself—I don't much +like trying to—but there's a something about everything that makes it +seem better than anything of the kind that we can do in Melbourne. The +music is so splendid, and the floor, and the flowers. I never saw such a +few diamonds—or such beauties! Even the ices are the best I ever +tasted, and they aren't too sweet. There's something subdued and +superior about the whole concern; but it's too subdued; it needs go and +swing nearly as badly as it needs elbow-room—of more kinds than one! +I'm thinking less of the crowd of people than of their etiquette and +ceremony,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> which hamper you far more. But it's your old England in a +nutshell, this ball is: it fits too tight."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word," said Erskine, laughing, "I don't think it's at all bad +for you to find the old country a tight fit! I'm obliged to you for the +expression, Tiny. I only hope it isn't suggested by personal suffering. +I have been thinking that you must have a good word to say for our +dressmakers, if not for our dancing men."</p> + +<p>Christina slid her eyes over the snow and ice of the shimmering attire +that had been made for her in haste since her arrival.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you like me," she said, smiling honestly. "I must own I rather +like myself in this lot. I didn't want to disgrace you among your fine +friends, you see."</p> + +<p>"They're more fine than friends, my dear girl. Lady Almeric's the only +friend. She has been very nice to Ruth. Most of the people here are +rather classy, I can assure you."</p> + +<p>He named the flower of the company in a lowered voice. Christina knew +one of the names.</p> + +<p>"Lady Mary Dromard, did you say?" said she, playing idly with her fan.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>"Yes; do you know her?"</p> + +<p>"No, but her brother was in Melbourne once as aid-de-camp to the +governor. I knew him."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that was Lord Manister; he wasn't out there when I was."</p> + +<p>"No, he must have come just after you had gone. He only remained a few +months, you know. He was a quiet young man with a mania for cricket; we +liked him because he set our young men their fashions and yet never gave +himself airs. I wonder if he's here as well?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. I know him by sight, but I haven't seen him. I'm glad +to hear he didn't give himself airs; you couldn't say the same for the +sister who is here, though I only know her by sight, too."</p> + +<p>"He was quite a nice young man," said Christina, shutting up her fan; +and as she spoke the music, whose strains had reached them all the time, +came to its natural end.</p> + +<p>The conservatory suffered instant invasion, Christina and Mr. Holland +being afforded the entertainment of disappointing couple after couple +who came straight to their corner.</p> + +<p>"We're in a coveted spot," whispered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> Erskine; and his sister-in-law +reminded him who had shown the way to it. It was less secluded than +remote, so the present occupiers found further entertainment as mere +spectators. The same little things amused them both; this was one reason +why they got on so well together. They were amused by such trifles as a +distant prospect of Ruth, who was innocently enjoying herself at the +other end of the conservatory, unaware of their eyes. Erskine might have +felt proud, and no doubt he did, for many people considered Ruth even +prettier than Christina, with whom, however, they were apt to confuse +her, though Holland himself could never see the likeness. He now sat +watching his wife in the distance while talking to her sister at his +side until a new partner pounced upon Ruth, and bore her away as the +music began afresh.</p> + +<p>"There goes my chaperon," remarked Christina resignedly.</p> + +<p>"Who's your partner now? I'm sorry to say I see mine within ten yards of +me," whispered Erskine in some anxiety.</p> + +<p>Tiny consulted her card. "It's Herbert," she said.</p> + +<p>"Herbert!" said Mr. Holland dubiously.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> "I'm afraid Herbert's going it; +he's deeply employed with a girl in red—I think an American. Shall I +take you to Lady Almeric?" His eyes shifted uneasily toward his +expectant partner.</p> + +<p>"No, I'll wait here for Herbert. Mayn't I? Then I'm going to. You're +sure to see him, and you can send him at once. Don't blame Ruth. What +does it matter? It will matter if you don't go this instant to your +partner; I see it in her eye!"</p> + +<p>He left her reluctantly, with the undertaking that Herbert should be at +her side in two minutes. But that was rash. Christina soon had the +conservatory entirely to herself, whereupon she came out of her corner, +so that her brother might find her the more readily. Still he kept her +waiting, and she might as well have been lonely in the corner. It was +too bad of Herbert to leave her standing there, where she had no +business to be by herself, and the music and the throbbing of the floor +within a few yards of her. These awkward minutes naturally began to +disturb her. They checked and cooled her in the full blast of healthy +excitement, and that was bad; they threw her back upon herself straight +from her lightest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> mood, and this was worse. She became abnormally aware +of her own presence as she stood looking down and impatiently tapping +with her little white slipper upon the marble flags. Even about these +there was the grand air which Christina relished; she might have seen +her face far below, as though she had been standing in still water; but +her thoughts had been given a rough jerk inward, her outward vision fell +no deeper than the polished surface, while her mind's eye saw all at +once the dusty veranda boards of Wallandoon. She stood very still, and +in her ears the music died away, and through three months of travel and +great changes she heard again the night-horse champing in the yard, and +the crickets chirping further afield. And as she stood, her head bowed +by this sudden memory, footsteps approached, and she looked up, +expecting to see Herbert. But it was not Herbert; it was a young man of +more visible distinction than Herbert Luttrell. It is difficult to look +better dressed than another in our evening mode; but this young man +overcame the difficulty. He stood erect; he was well built; his clothes +fitted beautifully; he was himself nice looking, and fair-haired, and +boyish; and, even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> more than his clothes, one admired his smile, which +was frank and delightful. But the smile he gave Christina was followed +by a blush, for she had held out her hand to him, and asked him how he +was.</p> + +<p>"I'm all right, thanks. But—this is the most extraordinary thing! Been +over long?"</p> + +<p>He had dropped her hand.</p> + +<p>"About a fortnight," said Christina.</p> + +<p>"But what a pity to come over so late in the season! It's about done, +you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I thought there was a good deal going on still."</p> + +<p>"There's Henley, to be sure."</p> + +<p>"I think I'm going to Henley."</p> + +<p>"Going to the Eton and Harrow?"</p> + +<p>"I am not quite sure. That was your match, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>The young man blushed afresh.</p> + +<p>"Fancy your remembering! Unfortunately it wasn't my match, though; my +day out was against Winchester."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Tiny, less knowingly.</p> + +<p>"And how are you, Miss Luttrell?"</p> + +<p>This had been forgotten, Tiny reported well of herself. Her friend +hesitated; there was some nervousness in his manner, but his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> good eyes +never fell from her face, and presently he exclaimed, as though the idea +had just struck him:</p> + +<p>"I say, mayn't I have this dance, Miss Luttrell—what's left of it?"</p> + +<p>"Thanks, I'm afraid I'm engaged for it."</p> + +<p>"Then mayn't I find your partner for you?"</p> + +<p>Now this second request, or his anxious way of making it, was an +elaborate revelation to Christina, and wrote itself in her brain. "Do +you remember Herbert?" she, however, simply replied. "He is the +culprit."</p> + +<p>"Your brother? Certainly I remember him. I saw him a few minutes ago, +and made sure I had seen him somewhere before; but he looks older. I +don't fancy he's dancing. He's somewhere or other with somebody in red."</p> + +<p>"So I hear."</p> + +<p>"Then mayn't I have a turn with you before it stops?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated as long as he had hesitated before first asking her; there +was not time to hesitate longer. Then she took his arm, and they passed +through a narrow avenue of ferns and flowers, round a corner, up some +steps, and so into the ball room.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>The waltz was indeed half over, but the second half of it Christina and +her fortuitous partner danced together, without a rest, and also without +a word. He led her a more enterprising measure than those previous +partners who had questioned her concerning Australia. The name of +Australia had not crossed this one's lips. As Tiny whirled and glided on +his arm she saw a good many eyes upon her: they made her dance her best; +and her best was the best in the room, though her partner was uncommonly +good, and they had danced together before. Among the eyes were Ruth's, +and they were beaming; the others were mostly inquisitive, and as +strange to Christina as she evidently was to them; but once a turn +brought her face to face with Herbert, on his way from the conservatory, +and alone. He was a lanky, brown-faced, hook-nosed boy, with wiry limbs +and an aggressive eye, and he followed his sister round the room with a +stare of which she was uncomfortably conscious. He had looked for her +too late, when forced to relinquish the girl in red to her proper +partner, who still seemed put out. Christina was put out also, by her +brother's look, but she did not show it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>"You are staying in town?" her partner said after the dance as they sat +together in the conservatory, but not in the old corner.</p> + +<p>"Yes, with my sister, Mrs. Holland; you never met her, I think. We are +in town till August."</p> + +<p>"Where do you go then?"</p> + +<p>"To the country for a month. My sister and her husband have taken a +country rectory for the whole of August. They had it last year, and +liked the place so much that they have taken it again; it is a little +village called Essingham."</p> + +<p>"Essingham!" cried Christina's partner.</p> + +<p>"Yes; do you know it?"</p> + +<p>"I know of it," answered the young man. "I suppose you will go on the +Continent after that?" he added quickly.</p> + +<p>"Well, hardly; my brother-in-law has so little time; but he expects to +have to go to Lisbon on business at the end of October, and he has +promised to take us with him."</p> + +<p>"To Lisbon at the end of October," repeated Tiny's friend reflectively. +"Get him to take you to Cintra. They say it's well worth seeing."</p> + +<p>Yet another dance was beginning. Chris<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>tina was interested in the +movements of a young man in spectacles, who was plainly in search of +somebody. "He's hunting for me," she whispered to her companion, who was +saying:</p> + +<p>"Portugal's rather the knuckle end of Europe, don't you think? But I've +heard Cintra well spoken of. I should go there if I were you."</p> + +<p>"We intend to. Do you mind pulling that young man's coat tails? He has +forgotten my face."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do mind," said Tiny's partner with unexpected earnestness. "I +may meet you again, but I should like to take this opportunity of +explaining——"</p> + +<p>Tiny Luttrell was smiling in his face.</p> + +<p>"I hate explanations!" she cried. "They are an insult to one's +imagination, and I much prefer to accept things without them." There was +a gleam in her smile, but as she spoke she flashed it upon the +spectacles of her blind pursuer, who was squaring his arm to her in an +instant.</p> + +<p>And that was the last she saw of the only partner for whom she had a +good word afterward, and he had come to her by acciden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>t. But it was by +no means the last she heard of him. The next was from Herbert, as they +drove home together in one hansom, while Ruth and her husband followed +in another. The morning air blew fresh upon their faces; the rising sun +struck sparks from the harness; the leaves in the park were greener than +any in Australia, and the dew on the grass through the railings was as a +silver shower new-fallen. But the most delicious taste of London that +had yet been given her was poisoned for Christina by her brother +Herbert.</p> + +<p>"To have my claim jumped by that joker!" said he through his nose.</p> + +<p>"But you had left it empty," said Tiny mildly. "I was all alone."</p> + +<p>"It isn't so much that," her brother said, shifting the ground he had +taken in preliminary charges; "it's your dancing with that brute +Manister!"</p> + +<p>"My dear old Herbs," said Miss Luttrell with provoking coolness, "Lord +Manister asked me to dance with him, and I didn't see why I should +refuse. I certainly didn't see why I should consult you, Herbs."</p> + +<p>"By ghost," cried Herbert, "if it comes to that, he once asked you to +marry him!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>"Now you are a treat," said the girl, before the blood came.</p> + +<p>"And then bolted! I should be ashamed of myself for dancing with him if +I were you. He said I was a larrikin, too. I'd like to fill his eye for +him!"</p> + +<p>"He'll never say a truer thing!" Christina cried out; but her voice +broke over the words, and the early sun cut diamonds on her lashes.</p> + +<p>Now this was Herbert: he was rough, but not cowardly. His nose had +become hooked in his teens from a stand-up fight with a full-grown man. +There is not the least doubt that in such a combat with Lord Manister +that nobleman, though otherwise a finer athlete, would have suffered +extremely. But it was not in Herbert to hit any woman in cold blood with +his tongue. Having done this in his heat to Christina, his mate, he was +man enough to be sorry and ashamed, and to slip her hands into his.</p> + +<p>"I'm an awful beast," he stammered out. "I didn't mean anything at +all—except that I'd like to fill up Manister's eye! I can't go back on +that when—when he called me a larrikin!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">RUTH AND CHRISTINA.</span></h2> + + +<p>Here is the difference between Ruth and Christina, who were considered +so much alike.</p> + +<p>Of the two, Ruth was the one to fall in love with at sight—of which +Erskine Holland supplies the proof. She was less diminutive than her +sister; she had a finer figure, a warmer color, and indeed, despite the +destructive Australian sun, a very beautiful complexion. In the early +days at Wallandoon she had given herself a better chance in this respect +than Christina had done, not from vanity at all, but rather owing to +certain differences in their ideas of pleasure, into which it is +needless to enter. The result was her complexion; and this was not her +only beauty, for she had good brown eyes that suited her coloring as +autumn leaves befit an autumn sunset. These eyes are never unkind, but +Ruth's were sweet-tempered to a fault. So the glance of one scanning +both girls for the first time rested naturally upon Ruth, but on all +subsequent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> occasions it flew straight to Christina, because there was +an end to Ruth; but there was no coming to an end of Tiny, about whom +there was ever some fresh thing to charm or disappoint one.</p> + +<p>Thus, but for the businesslike dispatch of Erskine Holland, it might +have been Ruth's fate to break in Christina's admirers until Christina +fancied one of them enough to marry him. For Ruth's was perhaps the more +unselfish character of the two, as it was certainly the simpler one, in +spite of a peculiar secretive strain in her from which Tiny was free. +Tiny, on the other hand, was much more sensitive; but to perceive this +was to understand her better than she understood herself. For she did +not know her own weaknesses as the self-examining know theirs, and +hardly anybody suspected her of this one until her arrival in +England—when Erskine Holland came to treat her as a sister, and to +understand her more or less.</p> + +<p>In Australia he had seen very little of her, though enough to regard her +at the time as an arrant little heartless flirt, for whom sighed silly +swains innumerable. That she was, indeed, a flirt there was still no +denying; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> as his knowledge of her ripened, Holland was glad to +unharness the opprobrious epithets with which Ruth's sister had first +driven herself into his mind. He discovered good points in Christina, +and among them a humor which he had never detected out in Australia. +Probably his own sense of it had lost its edge out there, for +love-making blunts nothing sooner; while Ruth, for her part, was +naturally wanting in humor. Holland had never been blind to this defect +in his wife, but he seemed resigned to it; one can conceive it to be a +merit in the wife of an amusing man.</p> + +<p>Some people called Erskine amusing—it is not hard to win this label +from some people—but at any rate he was never likely to find it +difficult to amuse Ruth. Now no companion in this world is more charming +for all time than the person who is content to do the laughing. As a +novelty, however, Christina had her own distinctive attraction for +Erskine Holland. And they got on so well together that presently he saw +more in Tiny than her humor, which others had seen before him; he saw +that her heart was softer than she thought; but he divined that +something had happened to harden it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>"She has been falling in love," he said to Ruth—"and something has +happened."</p> + +<p>"What makes you think so? She has told me nothing about it," Ruth said.</p> + +<p>"Ah, she is sensitive. I can see that, too. It's her bitterness, +however, that makes me think something has turned out badly."</p> + +<p>"She is sadly cynical," remarked Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Cynically sad, I rather think," her husband said. "I don't fancy she's +languishing now; I should say she has got over the thing, whatever it +has been—and is rather disappointed with herself for getting over it so +easily. She has hinted at nothing, but she has a trick of generalizing; +and she affects to think that one person doesn't fret for another longer +than a week in real life. I don't say her cynicism is so much +affectation; something or other has left a bad taste in her mouth; but I +should like to bet that it wasn't an affair of the most serious sort."</p> + +<p>"Her affairs never were very serious, Erskine."</p> + +<p>"So I gathered from what I saw of her before we were married. It's a +pity," said Erskine musingly. "I'd like to see her married, but I'd love +to see her wooed! That's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> where the sport would come in. There would be +no knowing where the fellow had her. He might hook her by luck, but he'd +have to play her like fun before he landed her! There'd be a strong +sporting interest in the whole thing, and that's what one likes."</p> + +<p>"It's a pity I didn't know what you liked," Ruth said, with a smile; +"and a wonder that you liked me, and not Tiny!"</p> + +<p>"My darling," laughed her husband, "that sort of sport's for the young +fellows. I'm past it. I merely meant that I should like to see the +sport. No, Tiny's charming in her way, but God forbid that it should be +your way too!"</p> + +<p>Now Ruth was such a fond little wife that at this speech she became too +much gratified on her own account to care to discuss her sister any +further. But in dismissing the subject of Tiny she took occasion to +impress one fact upon Erskine:</p> + +<p>"You may be right, dear, and something may have happened since I left +home; but I can only tell you that Tiny hasn't breathed a single word +about it to me."</p> + +<p>And this is an early sample of the disingenuous streak that was in the +very grain of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Ruth. Christina, indeed, had told her nothing, but Ruth +knew nearly all that there was to know of the affair whose traces were +plain to her husband's insight. Beyond the fact that the name of Tiny +Luttrell had been coupled in Melbourne with that of Lord Manister, and +the <i>on dit</i> that Lord Manister had treated her rather badly, there was, +indeed, very little to be known. But Ruth knew at least as much as her +mother, who had written to her on the subject the more freely and +frequently because her younger daughter flatly refused the poor lady her +confidence. There was no harm in Ruth's not showing those letters to her +husband. There was no harm in her keeping her sister's private affairs +from her husband's knowledge. There was the reverse of harm in both +reservations, as Erskine would have been the first to allow. Ruth had +her reasons for making them; and if her reasons embodied a deep design, +there was no harm in that either, for surely it is permissible to plot +and scheme for the happiness of another. I can see no harm in her +conduct from any point of view. But it was certainly disingenuous, and +it entailed an insincere attitude toward two people, which in itself was +not admirable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> And those two were her nearest. However amiable her +plans might be, they made it impossible for Ruth to be perfectly sincere +with her husband on one subject, which was bad enough. But with +Christina it was still more impossible to be at all candid; and this +happened to be worse, for reasons which will be recognized later. In the +first place, Tiny immediately discovered Ruth's insincerity, and even +her plans. Tiny was a difficult person to deceive. She detected the +insincerity in a single conversation with Ruth on the afternoon +following Lady Almeric's ball, and before she went to bed she was as +much in possession of the plans as if Ruth had told her them.</p> + +<p>The conversation took place in Erskine's study, where the sisters had +foregathered for a lazy afternoon.</p> + +<p>"Oh, by the way," said Ruth, apropos of the ball, "it was a coincidence +your dancing with Lord Manister."</p> + +<p>"Why a coincidence?" asked Christina. She glanced rather sharply at Ruth +as she put the question.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is just possible that we shall see something of him in the +country. That's all,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> said Ruth, as she bent over the novel of which +she was cutting the pages.</p> + +<p>Christina also had a book in her lap, but she had not opened it; she was +trying to read Ruth's averted face.</p> + +<p>"I thought perhaps you meant because we saw something of him in +Melbourne," she said presently. "I suppose you know that we did see +something of him? He even honored us once or twice."</p> + +<p>"So you told me in your letters."</p> + +<p>The paper knife was still at work.</p> + +<p>"What makes it likely that we shall see him in the country?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Mundham Hall is quite close to Essingham, you know."</p> + +<p>"Mundham Hall! Whose place is that?"</p> + +<p>"Lord Dromard's," replied Ruth, still intent upon her work.</p> + +<p>"Surely not!" exclaimed Christina. "Lord Manister once told me the name +of their place, and I am convinced it wasn't that."</p> + +<p>"They have several places. But until quite lately they have lived mostly +at the other side of the county, at Wreford Abbey."</p> + +<p>"That was the name."</p> + +<p>"But they have sold that place," said Ruth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> "and last autumn Lord +Dromard bought Mundham; it was empty when we were at Essingham last +year."</p> + +<p>For some moments there was silence, broken only by the leisurely swish +of Ruth's paper knife. Then Christina said, "That accounts for it," +thinking aloud.</p> + +<p>"For what?" asked Ruth rather nervously.</p> + +<p>"Lord Manister told me he knew of Essingham. He never mentioned Mundham. +Is it so very close to your rectory?"</p> + +<p>"The grounds are; they are very big; the hall itself is miles from the +gates—almost as far as our home station was from the boundary fence."</p> + +<p>"Surely not," Tiny said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's a little exaggeration, of course."</p> + +<p>"Then I wish it wasn't!" Tiny cried out. "I don't relish the idea of +living under the lee of such very fine people," she said next moment, as +quietly as before.</p> + +<p>"No more do I—no more does Erskine," Ruth made haste to declare. "But +we enjoyed ourselves so much there last August that we said at the time +that we would take the rectory again this August. We made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> people +promise us the refusal. And it seemed absurd to refuse just because Lord +Dromard had bought Mundham; shouldn't you have said so yourself, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I should," answered Tiny; and for half an hour no more was +said.</p> + +<p>The afternoon was wet; there was no inducement to go out, even with the +necessary energy, and the two young women, on whose pillows the sun had +lain before their faces, felt anything but energetic. The afternoon was +also cold to Australian blood, and a fire had been lighted in Erskine's +den. His favorite armchair contained several cushions and Christina—who +might as well have worn his boots—while Ruth, having cut all the leaves +of her volume, curled herself up on the sofa with an obvious intention. +She was good at cutting the leaves of a new book, but still better at +going to sleep over them when cut. She had read even less than +Christina, and it troubled her less; but this afternoon she read more. +Ruth could not sleep. No more could Tiny. But Tiny had not opened her +book. It was one of the good books that Erskine had lent her. She was +extremely interested in it; but just at present her own affairs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +interested her more. Lying back in the big chair, with the wet gray +light behind her, and that of the fire playing fitfully over her face, +Christina committed what was as yet an unusual weakness for her, by +giving way voluntarily to her thoughts. She was in the habit of thinking +as little as possible, because so many of her thoughts were depressing +company, and beyond all things she disliked being depressed. This +afternoon she was less depressed than indignant. The firelight showed +her forehead strung with furrows. From time to time she turned her eyes +to the sofa, as if to make sure that Ruth was still awake, and as often +as they rested there they gleamed. At last she spoke Ruth's name.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Ruth. "I thought you were asleep; you have never stirred."</p> + +<p>"I'm not sleepy, thanks; and, if you don't mind, I should like to speak +to you before you drop off yourself."</p> + +<p>Ruth closed her novel.</p> + +<p>"What is it, dear? I'm listening."</p> + +<p>"When you wrote and invited me over you mentioned Essingham as one of +the attractions. Now why couldn't you tell me the Dromards would be our +neighbors there?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>Ruth raised her eyes from the younger girl's face to the rain-spattered +window. Tiny's tone was cold, but not so cold as Tiny's searching +glance. This made Ruth uncomfortable. It did not incapacitate her, +however.</p> + +<p>"The Dromards!" she exclaimed rather well. "Had they taken the place +then?"</p> + +<p>"You say they bought it before Christmas; it was after Christmas that +you first wrote and expressly invited me."</p> + +<p>"Was it? Well, my dear, I suppose I never thought of them; that's all. +They aren't the only nice people thereabouts."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you are not quite frank with me," the young girl said; and +her own frankness was a little painful.</p> + +<p>"Tiny, dear, what a thing to say! What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>Ruth employed for these words the injured tone.</p> + +<p>"It means that you know as well as I do, Ruth, that it isn't pleasant +for me to meet Lord Manister."</p> + +<p>"Was there something between you in Melbourne?" asked Ruth. "I must say +that nobody would have thought so from seeing you together last night. +And—and how was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> I to think so, when you have never told me anything +about it?"</p> + +<p>Christina laughed bitterly.</p> + +<p>"When you have made a fool of yourself you don't go out of your way to +talk about it, even to your own people. It is kind of you to pretend to +know nothing about it—I am sure you mean it kindly; but I'm still surer +that you have been told all there was to tell concerning Lord Manister +and me. I don't mean by Herbert. He's close. But the mother must have +written and told you something; it was only natural that she should do +so."</p> + +<p>"She did tell me a little. Herbert has told me nothing. I tried to pump +him,—I think you can't wonder at that,—but he refused to speak a word +on the subject. He says he hates it."</p> + +<p>"He hates Lord Manister," said Christina, smiling. "It came round to him +once that Lord Manister had called him a larrikin, and he has never +forgiven him. But he has been less of a larrikin ever since. And, of +course, that wasn't why he was so angry with me for dancing with Lord +Manister last night; he was dreadfully angry with me as we drove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> home; +but he is a very good boy to me, and there was something in what he +said."</p> + +<p>"What made you dance with him?" Ruth said curiously.</p> + +<p>"I was alone. I hadn't a partner. He asked me rather prettily—he always +had pretty manners. You wouldn't have had me show him I cared, by +snubbing him, would you?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Ruth thoughtfully; and suddenly she slipped from the sofa, +and was kneeling on the hearthrug, with her brown eyes softly searching +Christina's face and her lips whispering, "Do you care, Tiny? <i>Do</i> you +care, Tiny, dear?"</p> + +<p>Tiny snapped her fingers as she pushed back her chair.</p> + +<p>"Not that much for anybody—much less for Lord Manister, and least of +all for myself! Now don't you be too good to me, Ruth; if you are you'll +only make me feel ungrateful, and I shall run away, because I'm not +going to tell you another word about what's over and done with. I can't! +I have got over the whole thing, but it has been a sickener. It makes me +sick to think about it. I don't want ever to speak of it again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>"I understand," said Ruth; but there was disappointment in her look and +tone, and she added, "I should like to have heard the truth, though; and +no one can tell it me but you."</p> + +<p>"I thank Heaven for that!" cried Christina piously. "The version out +there was that he proposed to me and I accepted him, and then he bolted +without even saying good-by. It's true that he didn't say good-by; the +rest is not true. But you must just make it do."</p> + +<p>Her face was scarlet with the shame of it all; but there was no sign of +weakness in the curling lips. She spoke bitterly, but not at all sadly, +and her next words were still more suggestive of a wound to the vanity +rather than to the heart.</p> + +<p>"Does Erskine know?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word."</p> + +<p>"Honestly?"</p> + +<p>"Quite honestly; at least I have never mentioned it to him, and I don't +think anybody else has, or he would have mentioned it to me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Herbert wouldn't say anything. Herbert's very close. But—don't you +two tell each other everything, Ruth?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>The young girl looked incredulous; the married woman smiled.</p> + +<p>"Hardly everything, you know! Erskine has lots of relations himself, for +instance, and I'm sure he wouldn't care to tell me the ins and outs of +their private affairs, even if I cared to know them. It's just the same +about you and your affairs, don't you see."</p> + +<p>"Except that he knows me so well," Christina reflected aloud, with her +eyes upon the fire. "If I had a husband," she added impulsively, "I +should like to tell him every mortal thing, whether I wanted to or not! +And I should like not to want to, but to be made. But that's because I +should like above all things to be bossed!"</p> + +<p>"You would take some bossing," suggested Ruth.</p> + +<p>"That's the worst of it," said Christina, with a little sigh, and then a +laugh, as she snatched her eyes from the fire. "But I can't tell you how +glad I am you haven't told Erskine. Never tell him, Ruth, for you don't +know how I covet his good opinion. I like him, you know, dear, and I +rather think he likes me—so far."</p> + +<p>"Indeed he does," cried Ruth warmly; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> a good point in her character +stood out through the genuine words. "Nothing ever made me happier than +to see you become such friends."</p> + +<p>"He laughs at me a good deal," Tiny remarked doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"That's because you amuse him a good deal. I can't get him to laugh at +me, my dear."</p> + +<p>"He would laugh," said Christina, with her eyes on the fire again, "if +you told him I had aspired to Lord Manister!"</p> + +<p>"But I'm not going to tell him anything at all about it." Ruth paused. +"And after all, the Dromards won't take any notice of us in the +country." She paused again. "And we won't speak of this any more, Tiny, +if you don't like."</p> + +<p>The shame had come back to Christina's face as she bent it toward the +fire. Twice she had made no answer to what was kindly meant and even +kindlier said. But now she turned and kissed Ruth, saying, "Thank you, +dear. I am afraid I don't like. But you have been awfully good and sweet +about it—as I shan't forget." And the fire lit their faces as they met, +but the tear that had got upon Tiny's cheek was not her own.</p> + +<p>Ruth, you see, could be tender and sympa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>thetic and genuine enough. But +she could not be sensible and let well alone.</p> + +<p>She did that night a very foolish thing: she brought up the subject +again. Tempted she certainly was. Never since her arrival in England had +Tiny seemed so near to her or she to Tiny as in the hours immediately +following the chat between them in Erskine's study. But Christina stood +further from Ruth than Ruth imagined; she had not advanced, but +retreated, before the glow of Ruth's sympathy. This was after the event, +when some hours separated Christina from those emotional moments to +which she had not contributed her share of the emotion, leaving the +scene upon her mind in just perspective. She still could value Ruth's +sweetness at the end of their talk, but her own suspicions, aroused at +the outset, to be immediately killed by a little kindness, had come to +life again, and were calling for an equal appreciation. The extent of +Tiny's suspicions was very full, and the suspicions themselves were +uncommonly shrewd and convincing. They made it a little hard to return +Ruth's smiles during the evening, and to kiss her when saying +good-night, though Tiny did these things duly. She went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> upstairs before +her time, however, and not at all in the mood to be bothered any further +about Lord Manister. Yet she behaved very patiently when Ruth came +presently to her room and thus bothered her, being suddenly tempted +beyond her strength. For Christina was discovered standing fully dressed +under the gas-bracket, and frowning at a certain photograph on an +orange-colored mount, which she turned face downward as Ruth entered. +Whereupon Ruth, discerning the sign manual of a Melbourne photographer, +could not help saying slyly, "Who is it, Tiny?"</p> + +<p>"A friend of mine," Tiny said, also slyly, but keeping the photograph +itself turned provokingly to the floor.</p> + +<p>"In Australia?"</p> + +<p>"Er—it was taken out there."</p> + +<p>"It's Lord Manister!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is—perhaps it isn't."</p> + +<p>"Tiny," said Ruth with pathos, "you might show me!"</p> + +<p>But Tiny drummed vexatiously on the wrong side of the mount; and here +Ruth surely should have let the matter drop, instead of which:</p> + +<p>"You are very horrid," she said, "but I must just tell you something. I +have heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> things from Lady Almeric, who is very intimate with Lady +Dromard, and I don't believe <i>he</i> is so much to blame as you think him. +I have heard it spoken about in society. But don't look frightened. Your +name has never been mentioned. I don't think it has ever come out. +Indeed, I know it hasn't, for <i>I</i>, actually, have been asked the name of +the girl Lord Manister was fond of in Melbourne—by Lady Almeric!"</p> + +<p>"And what did you say?"</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose? I glory in that fib—I am honestly proud of it. +But, dear, the point is, not that Lord Manister has never mentioned your +name, but that he can bear neither name nor sight of the girl he is +expected to marry! Lady Almeric told me when—I couldn't help her."</p> + +<p>"He is a nice young man, I must say!" remarked Christina grimly. "My +fellow-victim has a title, no doubt?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's Miss Garth, and her father's Lord Acklam, so she's the +honorable," said Ruth gravely. (Tiny smiled at her gravity.) "But I've +seen her, and—he can't like her! And oh! Tiny dear, they all say he +left his heart in Australia, but his mother sent for him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> because she +heard something—but not your name, dear—and he came. They say he is +devoted to his mother; but this has come between them, and she's sorry +she interfered, because after all he won't marry poor Miss Garth. I had +it direct from Lady Almeric when she tried to get that out of me. But I +lied like a trooper!" exclaimed poor Ruth.</p> + +<p>"I'm grateful to you for that," Christina said, not ungraciously—"but I +must really be going to bed."</p> + +<p>With a last wistful glance at the orange-colored cardboard, Ruth took +the hint. Christina turned away in time to avoid an embrace without +showing her repugnance, because she had still some regard for Ruth's +good heart. But she had never experienced a more grateful riddance, and +the look that followed Ruth to the threshold would have kept her company +for some time had she turned there and caught one glimpse of it.</p> + +<p>"Now I understand!" said Christina to the closed door. "I suppose I +ought to love you for it, Ruth; but I don't—no, I don't!"</p> + +<p>She turned the photograph face upward, and stared thoughtfully at it for +some minutes longer; then she put it away.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">ESSINGHAM RECTORY.</span></h2> + + +<p>Essingham Rectory, which the Erskine Hollands had taken for the month of +August, was a little old building with some picturesque points to +console one for the tameness of the view from its windows. The +surrounding country was perfectly flat but for Gallow Hill, and not at +all green but for the glebe and the riverside meadows, while the only +trees of any account were the rectory elms and those in the Mundham +grounds. It is true that on Gallow Hill three wind-crippled beeches +brandished their deformities against the sky, as they may do still; but +the country around Essingham is no country for trees. It is the country +for warrens and rabbits and roads without hedges. So it struck Christina +as more like the back-blocks than anything she had hoped to see in +England, and pleased her more than anything she had seen. She showed her +pleasure before they arrived at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Essingham. She forgot to disparage the +old country during the long drive from the county town; and that was +notable. She had actually no stone to cast at the elaborate and +impressive gates of Mundham Hall; apparently she was herself impressed. +But opposite the gates they turned to the left, into a narrow road with +hedges, from which you can see the rectory, and as Herbert put it +afterward:</p> + +<p>"That's what knocked our Tiny!"</p> + +<p>For the girl's first glimpse of the old house was over the hedge and far +away above a brilliant sash of meadow green. The cream-colored walls +were aglow in the low late sunshine, what was to be seen of them, for +they were half hidden by a creeper almost as old as themselves. The +red-tiled, weather-beaten roof was dark with age. Even at a distance one +smelt rats in the wainscot within the stuccoed walls. Around the house, +and towering above the tiles, the elms stood as still against the +evening sky as the square church tower but a little way to the right. To +the right of that, but farther away, rose Gallow Hill. Thereabouts the +sun was sinking, but the clock on the near side of the church tower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> had +gilt hands, which marked the hour when Christina stood up in the fly and +astonished her friends with her frank delight. It was a point against +this young lady, on subsequent occasions when she did not forget to +decry the old country, that at ten minutes past seven on the evening of +the 1st of August she had given way to enthusiasm over a scene that was +purely English and very ordinary in itself.</p> + +<p>Not that her immediate appreciation of the place became modified on a +closer acquaintance with it. At the end of the first clear day at +Essingham she informed the others that thus far she had not enjoyed +herself so much since leaving Australia. Of course she had enjoyed +herself in London. That did not count. London only compared itself with +Melbourne, Christina did not care how favorably; but Essingham was for +comparison with the place that was dearer to her than any other in the +world. You will understand why all her appreciations were directly +comparative. This is natural in the very young, and fortunately Tiny +Luttrell was still very young in some respects. Blessed with observant +eyes, and having at this time an irritable memory to keep her prejudices +at attention, her mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> soon became the scene of many curious and +specific contests between England and Australia. In the match between +Wallandoon and Essingham the latter made a better fight than you would +think against so strong an opponent. The rectory was homely and +convenient in its old age, and Christina was greatly charmed with her +own room, because it was small; and if the wall-paper was modern and +conventional, and not to be read from the pillow in the early morning, +it was almost as pleasant to lie and watch the elm tops trembling +against the sky. And if the sky was not really blue in England, the +leaves in Australia were not really green, as Christina now knew. So +there they were quits. But England and Essingham scored palpably in some +things; the kitchen garden was one. Christina had never seen such a +kitchen garden; she found it possible to spend half an hour there at any +time, to her further contentment; and there were other attractions on +the premises, which were just as good in their way, while their way was +often better for one.</p> + +<p>For instance, there was a lawn tennis court which satisfied the soul of +Erskine, who played daily for its express refreshment. That was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> what +brought him to Essingham. The neighboring clergy were always ready for a +game. But they laughed at Erskine for being so keen; he would get up +before breakfast to roll the court, which passed their understanding. +Christina played also, by no means ill, and Herbert uncommonly well; but +this player neither won nor lost very prettily. He was more amiable over +the photography which he had taken up in partnership with Tiny; but his +photographs were uncommonly bad. Yet this was another amusement in the +country, where, however, Christina was most amused by the neighbors who +called. These were friendly people, and they had all called on the +Hollands the previous year. Half of them were clergymen, though the +stranger who met them found this difficult to believe in some cases; the +other half were the clergymen's wives. Very grand families apart, there +is no other society round about Essingham. And what could man wish +better? Even Christina found it impossible to disapprove of the +well-bred, easy-going, tennis-playing, unprofessional country clergy, as +acquaintances and friends. But she did find fault with the rector of +Essingham as a rector, though she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> never seen him, and though Ruth +assured her that he was a dear old man.</p> + +<p>"He may be a dear old man," Miss Luttrell would allow, "but he's a bad +old rector! His flock don't find him such a dear old man, either. They +only see him once a week, in the pulpit; and then they can't hear him!"</p> + +<p>"Who has been telling you that, Tiny?" asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>"You've been talking sedition in the village!" said Erskine Holland.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've been making friends with two or three of the people, if +that's what you call talking sedition," Tiny replied; "and I think your +dear old rector neglects them shamefully. He does worse than that. +There's some fund or other for buying coals and blankets for the poor of +the parish; and there's old Mrs. Clapperton. Mrs. Clapperton's a Roman +Catholic; so, if you please, she never gets her coals or blankets, and +she's too proud to ask for them. That's a fact—and I tell you what, I'd +like to expose your dear old man, Ruth! As for the village, if it's a +specimen of your English villages, let me tell you, Erskine, that it's +leagues behind the average bush township. Why, they haven't even got a +state school,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> but only a one-horse affair run by the rector! And the +schoolmaster's the most ignorant man in the village. I wonder you don't +copy us, and go in for state schools!"</p> + +<p>"'Copy us, and go in for state schools,'" echoed Ruth with gentle mirth, +as she sometimes would echo Tiny's remarks, and with a smile that +traveled from Tiny to Erskine. But Erskine did not return the smile. His +eyes rested shrewdly upon Christina, and Ruth feared from their +expression that he thought the girl an utter fool; but she was wrong.</p> + +<p>Christina was not, if you like, an intellectual girl, but she was by no +means a fool. Neither was her brother-in-law, who perceived this. Her +comments on the books he lent her were sufficiently intelligent, and she +pleased him in other ways too. He was glad, for instance, to see her +interesting herself in the local peasants; she was particularly glad +that she did not give this interest its head, though as a matter of fact +it never pulled. Christina was not the girl for interests that gallop +and have not legs. Not the least of her attractions, in the eyes of a +male relative of middle age, was a certain solid sanity that showed +through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> every crevice of her wayward nature. It was sanity of the +cynical sort, which men appreciate most. And it was least apparent in +her own actions, which is the weak point of the cynically sane.</p> + +<p>"At all events, Tiny, you can't find the country a tight fit, like +London," said Erskine once, during the first few days. "Come, now!"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Tiny thoughtfully, "I must own it doesn't fit so tight. +But it tickles! You mayn't go here and you mayn't go there; in Australia +you may go anywhere you darn please. Excuse me, Erskine, but I feel this +a good deal. Only this morning Ruth and I were blocked by a notice board +just outside the wicket at the far end of the churchyard; we were +thinking of going up Gallow Hill, but we had to turn back, as +trespassers would be prosecuted. There's no trespassing where I come +from. And Ruth says the board wasn't there last year."</p> + +<p>"Ah, the Dromards weren't there last year! They've stuck it up. You +should pitch into your friend Lord Manister. It's rather vexatious of +them, I grant you; they can't want to have tea on Gallow Hill; and it's +a pity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> because there's a fine view of the Hall from the top."</p> + +<p>"Indeed? Ruth never told me that," remarked Christina curiously. "Have +they arrived yet?" she added in apparent idleness.</p> + +<p>"Last night, I hear—if you mean the Dromards. And a rumor has arrived +with them."</p> + +<p>Now Christina was careful not to inquire what the rumor was; but Erskine +told her; and, oddly enough, what he had heard and now repeated was to +come true immediately.</p> + +<p>The great family at Mundham were about to entertain the county. That was +the whisper, which was presently to be spoken aloud as a pure fact. It +ran over the land with "At last!" hissing at its heels, and a still more +sinister whisper chased the pair of them; for the Dromards might have +entertained the county months before; a house-warming had been expected +of them in the winter, but they had chosen to warm Mundham with their +own friends from a distance; and since then the general election had +become a moral certainty for the following spring, and—the point +was—Viscount Manister had declared his willingness to stand for the +division. The corollary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> was irresistible, but so, it appears, was +Countess Dromard's invitation, which few are believed to have +declined—for those that did so made it known. Some disgust, however, +was expressed at the kind of entertainment, which, after all, was to be +nothing more than a garden party. But nearly all who were bidden +accepted. The notice, too, was shorter than other people would have +presumed to give; but other people were not the Dromards. The countess' +invitation conveyed to a hundred country homes a joy that was none the +less keen for a certain shame or shyness in showing any sort of +satisfaction in so small a matter. Nevertheless, though not adorned by a +coronet, as it might have been, nor in any way a striking trophy, the +card obtained a telling position over many a rectory chimney-piece, +where in some instances it remained, accidentally, for months. In +justice to the residents, however, it must be owned that not one of them +read it with a more poignant delight, nor adjusted it in the mirror with +a nicer care and a finer show of carelessness, nor gazed at it oftener +while ostensibly looking at the clock, than did Mrs. Erskine Holland +during the next ten days.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>But when it came she acted cleverly. There was occasion for all her +cleverness, because in her case the invitation was a complete surprise; +she had not dared to expect one; and you may imagine her peculiar +satisfaction at receiving an invitation that embraced her "party." Yet +she was able to toss the card across the breakfast table to Erskine, +merely remarking, "Should we go?" And when Tiny at once stated that for +her part she was not keen, Ruth gave her a sympathetic look, as much as +to say, "No more am I, my dear," which might have deceived a less +discerning person. But Tiny saw that her sister was holding her breath +until Erskine spoke his mind.</p> + +<p>"Have we any other engagement?" said he directly. "If not, it would +hardly do to stick here playing tennis within sight of their lodge. I'm +no more keen than you are, Tiny, but that would look uncommon poor. It +was very kind of them to think of asking us; I'm afraid we must go; but +I am sure you will find it amusing."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," replied Christina, to whom this assurance was addressed, "but +you needn't send me there to be amused; you see, I have plenty to amuse +me here," she added, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> smile that had been slow to come. "I'll go, +of course, and with pleasure; but there would be more pleasure in some +hard sets with you, Erskine, or in taking your photograph."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you don't know what you'd miss, Tiny! I can promise you some sport, +if you keep your eyes and ears open. Then you knew Lord Manister in +Melbourne. In any case, you oughtn't to go back there without a glimpse +of some of our fine folks at home, when you can get it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll go; but not for the sport of seeing your clergy and gentry on +their knees to your fine folks, nor yet to be amused. As for Lord +Manister, he was well enough in Melbourne; he didn't give himself airs, +and there he was wise. But on his native heath! One would be sorry to +set foot on the same soil. It must be sacred."</p> + +<p>"Come, I say, I don't think you'll find the parsons on their knees. We +think a lot of a lord, if you like; but we try to forget that when we're +talking to him. We do our best to treat him as though he were merely a +gentleman, you know," said Erskine, smiling, but giving, as he felt, an +informing hint.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>"Ah, you try!" said Christina. "You do your best!"</p> + +<p>"Our best may be very bad," laughed Erskine; "if so, you must show us +how to better it, Tiny."</p> + +<p>"I should get Tiny to teach you how to treat a lord, dear," said Ruth, +who saw nothing to laugh at, and seemed likely to lend her husband a +severer support than the occasion needed.</p> + +<p>"Say Lord Manister!" suggested Erskine. "Will you show me on him?"</p> + +<p>"I may if you're good—you wait and see," said Tiny lightly. And lightly +the matter was allowed to drop. For Herbert, as usual, was late for +breakfast, which was for once a very good thing; and as for Ruth, it was +merely her misfortune to have a near sight for the line dividing chaff +from earnest, but now she saw it, and on which side of it the others +were, for she had joined them and was laughing herself.</p> + +<p>But Herbert would not have laughed at all; indeed, he had not a smile +for the subject when he did come down and Ruth gave him his breakfast +alone. It seemed well that Christina was not in the room. Her brother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +took the opportunity of saying what he thought of Manister, and what +Manister had once called him behind his back, and what he would have +done to Manister's eye had half as much been said to his face. His +personal decision about the garden party was merely contemptuous. He was +not going. Nor did he go when the time came. Meanwhile, however, +something happened to modify for the moment his opinion of the young +viscount whom it was Herbert's meager satisfaction to abuse roundly +whenever his noble name was spoken.</p> + +<p>Having been provided with two rooms at the rectory, in one of which he +was expected to read diligently every morning, Herbert entered that room +only when his pipe needed filling. He kept his tobacco there, and also, +to be sure, his books; but these he never opened. He read nothing, save +chance items in an occasional sporting paper; he simply smoked and +pottered, leaving the smell of his pipe in the least desirable places. +When he took photographs with Tiny, that was pottering too, for neither +of them knew much about it, and Herbert was too indolent to take either +pains or care in a pursuit which essentially demands both. He had rather +a good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> eye for a subject; he could arrange a picture with some +judgment. That interested him, but the subsequent processes did not, and +these invariably spoilt the plate. All his actions, however, suggested +an underlying theory that what is worth doing is not necessarily worth +doing well. This applied even to his games, about which Herbert was +really keen; he played lawn tennis carelessly, though with a verve and +energy somewhat surprising in the loafing, smoking idler of the morning. +He had been fond of cricket, too, in Australia; it was a disappointment +to him that no cricket was to be had at Essingham. He looked forward to +Cambridge for the athletic advantages. He had no intention of reading +there; so what, he wanted to know, was the good of his reading here? +Certainly Herbert had entered at an accommodating college, which would +receive young men quite free from previous knowledge; but he might have +been reading for his little-go all this time; and he never read a word.</p> + +<p>But one morning he loitered afield, and came back enthusiastic about a +place for a photograph; the next, Tiny and the implements were dragged +to the spot; and really it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> was not bad. It was a scene on the little +river just below Mundham bridge. The thick white rails of the bridge +standing out against a clump of trees in the park beyond, the single +arch with the dark water underneath and some sunlit ripples twinkling at +the further side, seemed to call aloud for a camera; and Herbert might +have used his to some purpose, for a change, had he not forgotten to +fill his slides with plates before leaving home. This discovery was not +made until the bridge was in focus, and it put young Luttrell in the +plight of a rifleman who has sighted the bull's-eye with an empty +barrel. It was a question of returning to the rectory to load the slides +or of giving up the photograph altogether. On another occasion, having +forgotten the lens, Herbert had packed up the camera and gone back in +disgust. But that happened nearer home. To-day he had carried the camera +a good mile. Two journeys with something to show for them were +preferable to one with a tired arm for the only result. Within a minute +after the slides were found empty Christina was alone in the meadow +below the bridge; Herbert had found it impossible to give up the +photograph altogether.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>The girl had not lost patience, for she was herself partly to blame. +There were, however, still better reasons for her resignation. She +happened to have the second volume of "The Newcomes" in her jacket +pocket, and the little river seemed to ripple her an invitation from the +bridge to make herself comfortable with her book in its shade. There was +no great need for shade, but the idea seemed sensible. With her hand on +the book in her pocket, and her eyes hovering about the bridge for the +coolest corner, she felt perhaps a little ashamed as she thought of +Herbert making a cool day hot by running back alone for what they had +both forgotten. It was hardly this feeling, however, that kept her +standing where she was.</p> + +<p>She had known no finer day in England. The light was strong and limpid, +the shadows abrupt and deep. The sky was not cloudless, but the clouds +were thin and clean. There was a refreshing amount of wind; the tree +tops beyond the bridge swayed a little against the sky; the focusing +cloth flapped between the tripod legs, and for some minutes the girl +stood absently imbibing all this, without a thought in her head.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>Presently she found herself wondering whether there was enough movement +in the trees to mar a photograph; later she tucked her head under the +cloth to see. As she examined the inverted picture on the ground glass, +she held the cloth loosely over her head and round her neck. But +suddenly she twitched it tighter. For first the sound of wheels had come +to her ears. Then a dogcart had been pulled up on the bridge. And now on +the focusing screen a figure was advancing upside down, like a fly on +the ceiling, and doubling its size with each stride, until there +occurred a momentary eclipse of the inverted landscape by Lord Manister, +who had stalked in broad daylight to our Tiny's side.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">A MATTER OF ANCIENT HISTORY.</span></h2> + + +<p>The focusing cloth clung to her head like a cowl as she raised it and +bowed. There must have been nervousness on both sides, for the moment, +but it did not prevent Lord Manister from taking off his hat with a +sweep and swiftness that amounted almost to a flourish, nor Christina +from noticing this and his clothes. He was so admirably attired in +summer gray that she took pleasure in reflecting that she was herself +unusually shabby, her idea being that contact with the incorrect was +rather good for him. Correctness of any kind, it is to be feared, was +ridiculously wrong in her eyes. Otherwise she might have been different +herself.</p> + +<p>"I knew it was you!" Lord Manister declared, having shaken her hand.</p> + +<p>"How could you know?" said Christina, smiling. "You must be very +clever."</p> + +<p>"I wish I was. No; I met your brother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> running like anything with some +wooden things under his arm. He wouldn't see me, but I saw him. I was +going to pull up, but he wouldn't see me."</p> + +<p>Miss Luttrell explained that her brother had gone back for plates, which +they had both very stupidly forgotten; she added that she was sure he +could not have recognized Lord Manister.</p> + +<p>"Plates!" said this nobleman. "Ah, they're important, I know."</p> + +<p>"Well, they're your cartridges; you can't shoot anything without them."</p> + +<p>Lord Manister gave a louder laugh than the remark merited; then he +studied his boots among the daisies. Christina smiled as she watched +him, until he looked up briskly, and nearly caught her.</p> + +<p>"I say, Miss Luttrell, I should like immensely to be on in this scene, +if you would let me! I mean to say I should like to see the thing taken. +Perhaps you could do with the trap and my mare on the bridge; she's +something special, I assure you. And I have been thinking—if you think +so too—that my man might go back for your brother and give him a lift. +It must be monstrous hot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> walking. It's a monstrous hot day, you know."</p> + +<p>This was not only an exaggeration, but a puff of smoke revealing hidden +fires within the young man's head. Christina fanned the fire until it +tinged his cheek by willfully hesitating before giving him a gracious +answer. For when she spoke it was to say, with a smile at his anxiety, +"Really, you are very considerate, Lord Manister, and I am sure Herbert +will be grateful." They walked to the bridge, and stood upon it the next +minute, watching the dogcart swing out of sight where the road bent.</p> + +<p>"Your brother is very likely halfway back by this time," remarked Lord +Manister, who would have been very sorry to believe what he was saying. +"I dare say my man will pick him up directly; if so, they'll be back in +a minute."</p> + +<p>"I hope they will," said Christina—"the light is so excellent just +now," she was in a hurry to add.</p> + +<p>"Ah, the light in Australia was better for this sort of thing."</p> + +<p>"As a rule, yes; but it would surely be difficult to beat this morning +anywhere; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> great thing is, over here, that you are so free from +glare."</p> + +<p>"Then you like England?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I must say I like this corner of England; I haven't seen much +else, you know."</p> + +<p>"Good! I am glad you like this corner; you know it's ours," said the +young fellow simply. Then he paused. "How strange to meet you here, +though!" he added, as if he could not help it, nor the slight stress +that laid itself upon the personal pronoun.</p> + +<p>"It should rather strike me as strange to meet you," Miss Luttrell +replied pointedly; "for I am sure I told you that my sister and her +husband had taken Essingham Rectory for August. You may have forgotten +the occasion. It was in London."</p> + +<p>"Dear me, no, I'm not likely to forget it. To be sure you told me—at +Lady Almeric's."</p> + +<p>"Then perhaps you remember saying that you knew <i>of</i> Essingham?"</p> + +<p>It was not, perhaps, because this was very dryly said that Lord Manister +smiled. Nor was the smile one of his best, which were charming; it was +visibly the expression of his nervousness, not his mirth.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>"Yes, I am sorry to say I do remember that," he confessed with an +awkwardness and humility which made Christina tingle in a sudden +appreciation of his position in the world. "It was very foolish of me, +Miss Luttrell."</p> + +<p>"I wonder what made you?" remarked Christina reflectively, but in a +friendlier tone.</p> + +<p>"Ah! don't wonder," he said impatiently. His eyes fell upon her for one +moment, then wandered down the road, as he added strangely: "You do and +say so many foolish things without a decent why or wherefore. They're +the things for which you never forgive yourself! They're the things for +which you never hope to be forgiven!"</p> + +<p>The girl did not look at him, but her glance chased his down the road to +the bend where the dogcart had vanished and would reappear. She, +however, was the next to speak, for something had occurred to her that +she very much desired to explain.</p> + +<p>"You see, I didn't know you lived here. I had never heard of Mundham +when we met in town; if I had I shouldn't have known it was yours. I +never dreamt that I should meet you here. You understand, Lord +Manister?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>"My dear Miss Luttrell," cried Manister earnestly, "anybody could see +that!"</p> + +<p>So Christina lost nothing by her little exhibition of anxiety to impress +this point upon him; for his reply was a triumphant flourish of the +opinion she desired him to hold, to show her that he had it already; and +his anxiety in the matter was even more apparent than her own.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Lord Manister," said Christina, looking him full in the +face. Then her glance dropped to his hand; and his fingers were +entangled in his watch-chain; and in the knowledge that the greater +awkwardness was on his side she raised her eyes confidently, and met the +dogged stare of a young Briton about to make a clean breast of his +misdeeds.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to know why I didn't mention our having taken this +place—that time in town?"</p> + +<p>"That depends on whether you want to tell me."</p> + +<p>"I must tell you. It was because I feared—I mean to say, it crossed my +mind—that perhaps you mightn't care to come here if you knew."</p> + +<p>He paused and watched her. She was looking down, with her chin half +buried in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> focusing cloth, which had slipped from her head and +fallen round her shoulders. The coolness of her face against the black +velvet exasperated him, and the more so because he felt himself flushing +as he added, "I see I was a fool to fear that."</p> + +<p>"It was certainly unnecessary, Lord Manister," said the girl calmly, and +not without a note of amusement in her voice.</p> + +<p>"So you don't mind meeting one!"</p> + +<p>"Lord Manister, I am delighted. Why should I mind?"</p> + +<p>"You know I behaved like a brute."</p> + +<p>"You did, I'm afraid." He winced. "You went away without saying good-by +to your friends."</p> + +<p>"I went away without saying good-by to you."</p> + +<p>"Among others."</p> + +<p>"No!" he cried sharply. "You and I were more than friends."</p> + +<p>Christina drummed the ground with one foot. Her glance passed over Lord +Manister's shoulder. He knew that it waited for the dogcart at the bend +of the road.</p> + +<p>"We were more than friends," he repeated desperately.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>"I don't think we ever were."</p> + +<p>"But you thought so once!"</p> + +<p>The girl's lip curled, but her eyes still waited in the road.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what you yourself thought once, Lord Manister?" she said +quietly. "Whatever it was, it didn't last long; but I forgive that +freely. Do you know why? Why, because it was exactly the same with me."</p> + +<p>"Do you forgive me for getting you talked about?" exclaimed Lord +Manister.</p> + +<p>"Yes—because it is the only thing I have to forgive," returned +Christina after a moment's hesitation. "The rest was nonsense; and I +wish you wouldn't rake it up in this dreadfully serious way."</p> + +<p>We know what Christina might mean by nonsense. Lord Manister was not the +first of her friends whom she had offended by her abuse of the word. "It +was not nonsense!" he cried. "It was something either better or worse. I +give you my word that I honestly meant it to be something better. But my +people sent for me. What could I do?"</p> + +<p>His voice and eyes were pitiable; but Christina showed him no pity.</p> + +<p>"What, indeed!" she said ironically. "I my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>self never blamed you for +going. I was quite sure that you were the passive party, though others +said differently. All I have to forgive is what you made other people +say; but the whole affair is a matter of ancient history—and do you +think we need talk about it any more, Lord Manister?"</p> + +<p>"It is not all I have to forgive myself," he answered bitterly, +disregarding her question. "If only you would hate me, I could hate +myself less; but I deserve your contempt. Yet, if you knew what has been +in my heart all this time, you would pity one. You have haunted me! I +have been good for nothing ever since I came back to England. My people +will tell you so, when you get to know them. My mother would tell you in +a minute. She has never heard your name ... but she knows there was +someone ... she knows there is someone still!"</p> + +<p>Christina had colored at last; but, as she colored, the trot of a horse +came gratefully to her attentive ears.</p> + +<p>"You must think no more about it," she whispered; and her flush +deepened.</p> + +<p>"You wipe it all out?" he cried eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Of course I do."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>Her eyes met the dogcart at the bend. Herbert was in it.</p> + +<p>"And we start afresh?"</p> + +<p>He thought he was to get no answer. She was gazing anxiously at Herbert +as the trap approached; as it drew up on the bridge she murmured, "I +think we had better let well alone," without looking at Lord Manister. +"Herbert, you remember Lord Manister?" she cried aloud in the same +breath.</p> + +<p>Herbert's look was not reassuring. He was, in fact, disgusted with all +present but the groom, and most of all with himself, for being where he +was. Nor was he the young man to trouble to hide his feelings, and he +showed them now in so black a look that Christina, who knew him, was +filled with apprehension. Thanks to Lord Manister's tact, that look did +not last. Manister, who had his own impression of young Luttrell's +character, and had not to be shrewd to guess the other's attitude toward +himself, brought his most graceful manner to bear on the situation. With +Tiny Luttrell, during the bad quarter of an hour which he had deserved +and now endured, his best manner had not been at his command; but it +returned to him with the return of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> dogcart, and in time to do him a +service. He had hardly shaken hands with Herbert when he asked him as an +Australian, and therefore a judge, his opinion of the mare.</p> + +<p>The touch would have been too heavy for an older man; but Herbert was +barely twenty, and it flattered him to the marrow. Christina was +relieved to hear his knowing but laudatory comments on the mare's +points. She knew that, despite her brother's aggressive independence, he +was susceptible enough to marked civility. This, indeed, he never +expected, and he was ever ready to return, with interest, some fancied +slight; but Christina had never known him rude to anyone going out of +his way to be polite to him, as Lord Manister was doing this morning. +She divined that politeness from a nobleman was not less gratifying to +Herbert because he happened to have maligned the nobleman with much +industry. Herbert's modest desire was to be treated as an equal by all +men, and he was now being treated as an equal by a lord. This was all he +required to make him reasonably civil, even to Lord Manister. When +Manister asked him, almost deferentially, whether the mare could be +taken in the pho<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>tograph, he offered his lordship a place in it too, the +offer being declined, but not without many thanks.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to help take it," Manister laughed. "Mind you don't move, +Luttrell. I'm going to help your sister. Hadn't you better come too, and +leave my man alone in his glory?"</p> + +<p>Herbert replied that he would take off the cap or do anything they +liked. So the three went down into the meadow, and some infamous +negatives resulted later. At the time care seemed to be taken by the +photographers, while Lord Manister stood at a little distance, laughing +a good deal. He was pressed to stand in the foreground, but not by +Christina, and he steadily refused. The conciliation of his enemy seemed +assured without that, though he did think of something else to make it +doubly sure.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Luttrell," he said as the camera was being packed away, +"you're a cricketer to a certainty—you're an Australian."</p> + +<p>"I'm very fond of it," the Australian replied, "but I haven't played +over here; I've never had the slant."</p> + +<p>"Well, we play a bit; come over and practice with us."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>Herbert thanked him, declaring that he should like nothing better.</p> + +<p>"Lord Manister is a great cricketer," Christina observed.</p> + +<p>"Come over and practice," repeated his lordship cordially. "The ground +isn't at all bad, considering it was only made last winter, and there's +a professor to bowl to you. We have some matches coming on presently. +Perhaps we might find a place for you."</p> + +<p>This was the one thing Lord Manister said which came within measurable +distance of offending the touchy Herbert. A minute later they had parted +company.</p> + +<p>"They <i>might</i> find a place for me," Herbert repeated as he and Tiny +turned toward the village, while Lord Manister drove off in the opposite +direction, with another slightly ornamental sweep of his hat. "Might +they, indeed! I wouldn't take it. My troubles about their matches! But I +could enjoy a practice."</p> + +<p>"He said he would send over for you next time they do practice."</p> + +<p>Those had been Lord Manister's last words.</p> + +<p>"He did. He is improved. He's a sportsman, after all. It was decent of +him to send back the trap for me. But I didn't want to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> get in—I was +jolly scotty with myself for getting in. I say, Tiny!"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>He had her by the arm.</p> + +<p>"I don't ask any questions. I don't want to know a single thing. I hope +he went down on his knees for his sins; I hope you gave him fits! But +look here, Tiny: I won't say a word about this inside if you'd rather I +didn't."</p> + +<p>"I'd rather you did," Tiny said at once. "There's nothing to hide. +But—you can be a dear, good boy when you like, Herbs!"</p> + +<p>"Can I? Then you can be offended if you like—but he's on the job now if +he never was in his life before!"</p> + +<p>"I won't say I hope he isn't," Tiny whispered.</p> + +<p>So she was not offended.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE SHADOW OF THE HALL.</span></h2> + + +<p>Such was Christina's first meeting with Lord Manister in his own county. +It occurred while his mother's invitation was exhilarating so many +homes, and on the day when the Mundham mail bag would not hold the first +draught of prompt replies. Until the garden party itself, however, no +one at the rectory saw any more of Lord Manister, who had gone for a few +days to the Marquis of Wymondham's place in Scotland, where he shot +dreadfully on the Twelfth and was otherwise in queer form, considering +that Miss Garth was also one of the guests. But under all the +circumstances it is not difficult to imagine Manister worried and +unhappy during this interval; which, on the other hand, remained in the +minds of the people at the rectory, Christina included, as the +pleasantest part of their month there.</p> + +<p>Not that they suspected this at the time. Mrs. Erskine especially found +these days a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> little slow. Having knowledge of Lord Manister's +whereabouts, she was impatient for his return, and the more so because +Christina seemed to have forgotten his existence. Christina was indeed +puzzling, and on one embarrassing occasion, which with some girls would +have led to a scene, she puzzled Ruth more than ever. Ruth tried to +follow her presumptive example, and to put aside the thought of Lord +Manister for the time being. Her consolation meanwhile was the lively +<i>camaraderie</i> between Christina and Erskine, wherein Erskine's wife took +a delight for which we may forgive her much.</p> + +<p>"How well you two get on!" she would say gladly to each of them.</p> + +<p>"He's a man and a brother," Tiny would reply.</p> + +<p>To which Ruth was sure to say tenderly: "It's sweet of you, dear, to +look upon him as a brother.</p> + +<p>"Ah, but don't you forget that he's a man, and not my brother really, +but just the very best of pals!" Tiny said once. "That's the beauty of +him. He's the only man who ever talked sense to me right through from +the beginning, so he's something new. He's the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> only man I ever liked +without having the least desire to flirt with him, if you particularly +want to know! And I don't believe his being my brother-in-law has +anything to do with that," added the girl reflectively; "it would have +been the same in any case. What's better still, he's the only man who +ever understood me, my dear."</p> + +<p>"He's very clever, you see," observed Ruth slyly, but also in all +seriousness.</p> + +<p>"That's the worst of him; he makes you feel your ignorance."</p> + +<p>"I assure you, Tiny, he thinks <i>you</i> very clever."</p> + +<p>"So you're crackin'!" laughed Tiny; and as the old bush slang filled her +mouth unbidden, the smell of a hot wind at Wallandoon came into her +nostrils; and there seemed no more to be said.</p> + +<p>But that last assurance of Ruth's was still ringing in her ears when her +thoughts got back from the bush. She did not believe a word of it. Yet +it was more or less true. Nor was Erskine far wrong in any opinion he +had expressed to his wife concerning Christina, of whom, perhaps, he had +said even less than he thought.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>She was not, indeed, to be called an intellectual girl, in these days +least of all. That was her misfortune, or otherwise, as you happen to +think. Intellectual possibilities, however, she possessed: raw brain +with which much might have been done. Not much can be done by a +governess on a station in the back-blocks. Merely in curing the girls of +the twang of Australia, more successfully than of its slang, and in +teaching Tiny to sing rather nicely, the governess at Wallandoon had +done wonders. But gifts that were of more use to Christina were natural, +such as the quick perception, the long memory, and the ready tongue with +which she defended the doors of her mind, so that few might guess the +poverty of the store within. Nor had the governess been able to add much +to that store. The liking for books had not come to Christina at +Wallandoon; but in Melbourne she had taken to reading, and had reveled +in a deal of trash; and now in England she read whatever Erskine put in +her hands, and honestly enjoyed most of it, with the additional relish +of being proud of her enjoyment. Erskine thought her discriminating, +too; but converts to good books<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> are apt to flatter the saviors of their +taste, and perhaps her brother-in-law was a poor judge of the girl's +judgment. He liked her for finding <i>Colonel Newcome's</i> life more +touching than his death, and for placing the <i>Colonel</i> second to <i>Dr. +Primrose</i> in the order of her gods after reading "The Vicar of +Wakefield." He was delighted with her confession that she should "love +to be loved by Clive Newcome," while her defense of <i>Miss Ethel</i>, which +was vigorous enough to betray a fellow-feeling, was interesting at the +time, and more so later, when there was occasion to remember it. Similar +interest attached to another confession, that she had long envied +<i>Œnone</i> and <i>Elaine</i> "because they were really in love." She seemed to +have mixed some good poetry with the bad novels that had contented her +in Melbourne. Two more books which she learned to love now were "Sesame +and Lilies" and "Virginibus Puerisque." It was Erskine Holland's +privilege to put each into her hands for the first time, and perhaps she +never pleased him quite so much as when she said: "It makes me think +less of myself; it has made me horribly unhappy; but if they were going +to hang me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> in the morning I would sit up all night to read it again!" +That was her grace after "Sesame and Lilies."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you make Ruth read too?" she asked him once, quite idly, when +they had been talking about books.</p> + +<p>"She has a good deal to think about," Erskine replied after a little +hesitation. "She's too busy to read."</p> + +<p>"Or too happy," suggested Tiny.</p> + +<p>Mr. Holland made a longer pause, looking gratefully at the girl, as +though she had given him a new idea, which he would gladly entertain if +he could. "I wonder whether that's possible?" he said at last.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure it is. Ruth is so happy that books can do nothing for her; the +happy ones show her no happiness so great as her own, and she thinks the +sad ones stupid. The other day, when I insisted on reading her my +favorite thing in 'Virginibus——'"</p> + +<p>"What is your favorite thing?" interrupted Erskine.</p> + +<p>"'El Dorado'—it's the most beautiful thing you have put me on to yet, +of its size. I could hardly see my way through the last page—I can't +tell you why—only because it was so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> beautiful, I think, and so awfully +true! But Ruth saw nothing to cry over; I'm not sure that she saw much +to admire; and that's all because you have gone and made her so happy."</p> + +<p>For some minutes Erskine looked grim. Then he smiled.</p> + +<p>"But aren't you happy too, Tiny?"</p> + +<p>"I'm as happy as I deserve to be. That's good enough, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Quite. You must be as happy as you're pleased to think Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I'm not. I should like to be some good in the world, and +I'm no good at all!"</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to see it take you like that," said Erskine gravely. "I +wouldn't have thought this of you, Tiny!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, there are many things you wouldn't think of me," remarked Tiny. She +spoke a little sadly, and she said no more. And this time her sudden +silence came from no vision of the bush, but from what she loved much +less—a glimpse of herself in the mirror of her own heart.</p> + +<p>There was one thing, certainly, that none of them would have thought of +her; for she never told them of her little quiet meddlings in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +village. But I could tell you. Pleasant it would be to write of what she +did for Mrs. Clapperton (who certainly seemed to have been unfairly +treated) and of the memories that lived after her in more cottages than +one. But you are to see her as they did who saw most of her, and to +remember that nothing is more delightful than being kind to the grateful +poor, especially when one is privately depressed. Little was ever known +of the liberties taken by Christina's generosity, and nothing shall be +recorded here. She must stand or fall without that, as in the eyes of +her friends. Suffice it that she did amuse herself in this way on the +sly, and found it good for restoring her vanity, which was suffering +secretly all this time. She would have been the last to take credit for +any good she may have done in Essingham. She knew that it wiped out +nothing, and also that it made her happier than she would have been +otherwise. For though a worse time came later, even now she was not +comfortable in her heart. And she had by no means forgotten the +existence of Lord Manister, as someone feared.</p> + +<p>Ruth, however, put her own conversation under studious restraint during +these days,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> many of which passed without any mention of Lord Minister's +name at the rectory. The distracting proximity of his stately home was +apparently forgotten in this peaceful spot. But the wife of one clerical +neighbor, a Mrs. Willoughby, who accompanied her husband when he came to +play lawn tennis with Mr. Holland, and indeed wherever the poor man +went, cherished a grudge against the young nobleman's family, of which +she made no secret. It was only natural that this lady should air her +grievance on the lawn at Essingham, whence there was a distant prospect +of lodge and gates to goad her tongue. Yet, when she did so, it was as +though the sun had come out suddenly and thrown the shadow of the hall +across the rectory garden.</p> + +<p>"As for this garden party," cried Mrs. Willoughby, as it seemed for the +benefit of the gentlemen, who had put on their coats, and were handing +teacups under the trees, "I consider it an insult to the county. It +comes too late in the day to be regarded as anything else. Why didn't +they do something when first they came here? They have had the place a +year. Why didn't they give a ball in the winter, or a set of dinner +parties if they pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>ferred that? Shall I tell you why, Mr. Holland? It +was because the general election was further off then, and it hadn't +occurred to them to put up Lord Manister for the division."</p> + +<p>"They haven't been here a year, my dear, by any means," observed Mrs. +Willoughby's husband; "and as for dinner parties, we, at any rate, have +dined with them."</p> + +<p>"Well, I wouldn't boast about it," answered Mrs. Willoughby, who had a +sharp manner in conversation, and a specially staccato note for her +husband. "We dined with them, it is true; I suppose they thought they +must do the civil to a neighboring rector or two. But as their footman +had the insolence to tell our coachman, Mrs. Holland, they considered +things had reached a pretty pass when it came to dining the country +clergy!'"</p> + +<p>"Their footman considered," murmured Mr. Willoughby.</p> + +<p>"He was repeating what he had heard at table," the lady affirmed, as +though she had heard it herself. "They had made a joke of it—before +their servants. So they don't catch me at their garden party, which is +to satisfy our social cravings and secure our votes. I don't visit with +snobs, Mrs. Holland, for all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> their coronets and Norman blood—of which, +let me tell you, they haven't one drop between them. Who was the present +earl's great-grandfather, I should like to know? He never had one; they +are not only snobs but upstarts, the Dromards."</p> + +<p>"At any rate," Mr. Holland said mildly, "they can't gain anything by +being civil to <i>us</i>. We don't represent a single vote. We are here for +one calendar month."</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is wise to be disinterested here and there," rejoined Mrs. +Willoughby, whose sharpness was not merely vocal; "it supplies an +instance, and that's worth a hundred arguments. Now I shouldn't wonder, +Mr. Holland, if they didn't go out of their way to be quite nice to you. +I shouldn't wonder a bit. It would advertise their disinterestedness. +But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Willoughby is a cynic," laughed Erskine, turning to the clergyman, +whose wife swallowed her tea complacently with this compliment to +sweeten it. To so many minds a charge of cynicism would seem to imply +that intellectual superiority which is cheap at the price of a moral +defect.</p> + +<p>Now Erskine had a lawn tennis player stay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>ing with him for the inside of +this week; and the lawn tennis player was a fallen cricketer, who had +played against the Eton eleven when young Manister was in it; and he +ventured to suggest that the division might find a worse candidate. "He +was a nice enough boy then," said he, "and I recollect he made runs; +he's a good fellow still, from all accounts."</p> + +<p>"From all <i>my</i> accounts," retorted Mrs. Willoughby, refreshed by her +tea, "he's a very fast one!"</p> + +<p>Erskine's friend had never heard that, though he understood that +Manister had fallen off in his cricket; he had not seen the young fellow +for years, nor did he think any more about him at the moment, being +drawn by Herbert into cricket talk, which stopped his ears to the +general conversation just as this became really interesting.</p> + +<p>"That reminds me," Mrs. Willoughby exclaimed, turning to Ruth. "Was Lord +Manister out in Australia in your time?"</p> + +<p>Ruth said "No," rather nervously, for Mrs. Willoughby's manner alarmed +her. "I was married just before he came out," she added; "as a matter of +fact, our steamers crossed in the canal."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>"Well, you know what a short time he stayed there, for a governor's +aid-de-camp?"</p> + +<p>"Only a few months, I have heard. Do let me give you another cup of tea, +Mrs. Willoughby!"</p> + +<p>"Now I wonder if you know," pursued this lady, having cursorily declined +more tea, "how he came to leave so suddenly?"</p> + +<p>Poor Mrs. Holland shook her head, which was inwardly besieged with +impossible tenders for a change of subject. No one helped her: Tiny had +perhaps already lost her presence of mind; Erskine did not understand; +the other two were not listening. Ruth could think of no better +expedient than a third cup for Christina; as she passed it her own hand +trembled, but venturing to glance at her sister's face, she was amazed +to find it not only free from all sign of self-consciousness or of +anxiety, but filled with unaffected interest. For this was the occasion +on which Christina's coolness quite baffled Ruth, who for her part was +preparing for a scene.</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you?" asked Mrs. Willoughby.</p> + +<p>"Do," said Christina, to whom the well-informed lady at once turned.</p> + +<p>"He formed an attachment out there, Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> Luttrell! He could only get +out of it by fleeing the country; so he fled. You look as though you +knew all about it," she added (making Ruth shudder), for the girl had +smiled knowingly.</p> + +<p>"About which?" asked Tiny.</p> + +<p>"What! Were there more affairs than one?"</p> + +<p>"Some people said so."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Willoughby glanced around her with a glittering eye, and was sorry +to notice that two of her hearers were not listening. "That is just what +I expected," she informed the other four. "If you tell me that Melbourne +became too hot to hold him I shall not be surprised."</p> + +<p>"Melbourne made rather a fuss about him," replied Christina in an +excusing tone that pierced Ruth's embarrassment and pricked to life her +darling hopes. "He was not greatly to blame."</p> + +<p>"But he broke the poor girl's heart. I should blame him for that, to say +the least of it."</p> + +<p>"You surprise me," said Christina gravely; "I thought that people at +home never blamed each other for anything they did in the colo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>nies? +Over here you are particular, I know; but I thought it was correct not +to be too particular when out there. Your writers come out: we treat +them like lords, and then they do nothing but abuse us; your lords come +out: we treat them like princes, and, you see, they break our hearts. Of +course they do! We expect it of them. It's all we look for in the +colonies."</p> + +<p>"You are not serious, Miss Luttrell," said Mrs. Willoughby in some +displeasure. "To my mind it is a serious thing. It seems a sad thing, +too, to me. But I may be old-fashioned; the present generation would +crack jokes across an open grave, as I am well aware. Yet there isn't +much joke in a young girl having her heart broken by such as Lord +Manister, is there? And that's what literally happened, for my friend +Mrs. Foster-Simpson knows all about it. She knows all about the +Dromards—to her cost!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, we know the Foster-Simpsons; they called on us last year," remarked +Erskine, who devoutly trusted that they would not call again. His +amusement at Christina hardly balanced his weariness of Mrs. Willoughby, +and he took off his coat as he spoke.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>"Does your friend know the poor girl's name, Mrs. Willoughby?" Tiny +asked when the men had gone back to the court; and her tone was now as +sympathetic as could possibly be desired.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to say she does not; it's the one thing she has been unable +to find out," said Mrs. Willoughby naïvely. "Perhaps you could tell me, +Miss Luttrell?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I could," said Christina, smiling, as she rose to seek a ball +which had been hit into the churchyard. "Only, you see, I don't know +which of them it was. It wouldn't be fair to give you a list of names to +guess from, would it?"</p> + +<p>Fortunately Mrs. Willoughby put no further questions to Ruth, who was +intensely thankful. "For," as she told Christina afterward, "<i>I</i> was on +pins and needles the whole time. I never did know anyone like you for +keeping cool under fire!"</p> + +<p>"It depends on the fire," Tiny said. "Mrs. Willoughby went off by +accident, and luckily she was not pointing at anybody."</p> + +<p>"And I'm glad she did, now it's over!" exclaimed Ruth. "Don't you see +that I was quite right about your name? So now you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> need have no more +qualms about the garden party."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I've had no qualms for some time; perhaps I've known you were +right."</p> + +<p>"Since when? Since—since you saw Lord Manister?"</p> + +<p>Tiny nodded.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you talked about it?" Ruth whispered in delicious +awe.</p> + +<p>"I mustn't tell you what <i>he</i> talked about. He was as nice as he could +be—though I should have preferred to find him less beautifully dressed +in the country; but I always felt that about him. I am sure, however, of +one thing: he was no more to blame than—I was. I have always felt this +about him, too."</p> + +<p>"Tiny, dear, if only I could understand you!"</p> + +<p>"If only you could! Then you might help me to understand myself."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">"COUNTESS DROMARD AT HOME."</span></h2> + + +<p>The hall gates were plain enough from the rectory lawn, but plainer +still from the steps whence, on the afternoon of the garden party, Mr. +Holland watched them from under the brim of the first hard hat he had +worn for a fortnight. He was ready, while the ladies were traditionally +late, but he did not lose patience; he was too much entertained in +watching the hall gates and the hedgerow that hid the road leading up to +them. Vehicles were filing along this road in a procession which for the +moment was continuous. Erskine could see them over the hedge, and it was +difficult to do so without sharing some opinions which Mrs. Willoughby +had expressed regarding the comprehensive character of the social +measure taken not before it was time by the noble family within those +gates. There were county clergymen driving themselves in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> ill-balanced +dogcarts, and county townspeople in carriages manifestly hired, and +county bigwigs—as big as the Dromards themselves—in splendid +equipages, with splendid coachmen and horseflesh the most magnificent. +Greater processional versatility might scarcely be seen in southwestern +suburbs on Derby Day; and the low phaeton which he himself was about to +contribute to the medley made Erskine laugh.</p> + +<p>"We should follow the next really swagger turnout—we should run behind +it," he suggested to the girls when at length they appeared; and Ruth +took him seriously.</p> + +<p>"No, get in front of them," said Herbert, who was lounging on the steps, +in dirty flannels which Erskine envied him. "Get in front of them and +slow down. That'd be the sporting thing to do! They couldn't pass you in +the drive. It would do 'em good."</p> + +<p>However, the procession was not without gaps, and to Ruth's satisfaction +they found themselves in rather a wide one. As they drove through those +august gates a parson's dogcart was rounding a curve some distance +ahead, but nothing was in sight behind. Ruth sat beside her husband, who +drove. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> looked rather demure, but very charming in her little +matronly bonnet; her costume was otherwise somewhat noticeably sober, +and certainly she had never felt more sensibly the married sister than +now, as she glanced at Christina with furtive anxiety, but open +admiration. Tiny was neatly dressed in white, and her hat was white +also. "Do you know why I wear a white hat?" she asked Erskine on the +way; but her question proved merely to be an impudent adaptation of a +very disreputable old riddle, and beyond this she was unusually silent +during the short drive. Yet she seemed not only self-possessed, but +inwardly at her ease. She sat on the little seat in front, often turning +round to gaze ahead, and her curiosity and interest were very frank and +natural. So were her admiration of the park, her anxiety to see the +house itself, and even her wonder at the great length of the drive, +which ran alongside the cricket field, and then bent steadily to the +left. When at last the low red-brick pile became visible, Gallow Hill +was seen immediately behind it, which surprised Christina; the lawn in +front was alive with people, which put her on her mettle; and the +inspiriting outburst of a military band at that moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> forced from her +an admission of the pleasure and excitement which had been growing upon +her for some minutes.</p> + +<p>"I like this!" she exclaimed. "This is first-rate England!"</p> + +<p>Countess Dromard stood on the edge of the lawn at the front of the +house, and apparently the carriages were unloading at this side of the +drive. Ruth whispered hurriedly that she was sure they were, but she was +not so sure in reality, and she now saw the disadvantage of arriving in +a wide gap, which deprives the inexperienced of their lawful cue. She +was quite right, however, and when some minutes elapsed before the +arrival of another carriage to interrupt the charming little +conversation Ruth had with Lady Dromard, the good of the gap became +triumphantly apparent. The countess was very kind indeed. She was a +tall, fine woman, with whom the shadows of life had scarce begun to +lengthen to the eye; her face was not only handsome, but wonderfully +fresh, and she had a trick of lowering it as she chatted with Ruth, +bending over her in a way which was comfortable and almost motherly from +the first. She had heard of Mrs. Holland, whom she was glad to meet at +last,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and of whom she now hoped to see something more. Ruth observed +that they had the rectory only till September; she was sorry her time +was so short. Lady Dromard very flatteringly echoed her sorrow, and also +professed an envious admiration for the rectory, which she described as +idyllic. That was practically all. What was said of the weather hardly +counted; and a repetition of her ladyship's hopes of seeing something +more of Mrs. Holland and her party was not worth remembering, according +to Erskine, who declared that this meant nothing at all.</p> + +<p>Ruth, however, was not likely to forget it; though she treasured just as +much the memory of a certain glance which she had caught the countess +leveling at her sister. She thought that other eyes also were attracted +by the white-robed Tiny, and the smooth-shaven turf was air to Ruth's +tread as she marched off with her husband and that cynosure. Nor was her +satisfaction decreased when the first person they came across chanced to +be no other than Mrs. Willoughby. This meeting was literally the +unexpected treat that Ruth pronounced it to be, for the clergyman's wife +was smiling in a manner which showed that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> she had witnessed the +countess' singular civility to her friend.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm here after all," said Mrs. Willoughby grimly. "Henry made me +very angry by insisting on coming, but of course I wasn't going to let +him come alone. I hope you think he looks happy now he's here!" (Mr. +Willoughby and a brother rector might have been hatching dark designs +against their bishop, who was himself present, judging by their looks.) +"<i>I</i> call him the picture of misery. Well, Mrs. Holland, I hope you are +gratified at your reception! Oh, it was quite gushing, I assure you; we +have all been watching. But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly, my +dear Mrs. Holland."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holland left the reply to her husband, who, however, contented +himself with promising Mrs. Willoughby a telegraphic report of the +proceedings at that meeting, if it ever took place.</p> + +<p>"Ah, there won't be much to report," said that redoubtable woman; "they +won't look at you. But I shouldn't be surprised to see them make a deal +of you in the country, if you let them."</p> + +<p>It did not seem conducive to the enjoyment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> of the afternoon to prolong +the conversation with Mrs. Willoughby. The party of three wandered +toward the band, admiring the scarlet coats of the bandsmen against the +dark green of the shrubbery, and their bright brass instruments flaming +in the sun. The music also was of much spirit and gayety, and it was +agreed that a band was an immense improvement to a rite of this sort. +Then these three, who, after all, knew very few people present, followed +the example of others, and made a circuit of the house, in high good +humor. But Tiny found herself between two conversational fires, for Ruth +would compel her to express admiration for the premises, which might +have been taken for granted, while Erskine called her attention to the +people, who were much more entertaining to watch. As they passed a table +devoted to refreshments, at which a large lady was being waited upon +very politely by a small boy in a broad collar, they overheard one of +those scraps of conversation which amuse at the moment.</p> + +<p>"So you're a Dromard boy, are you?" the lady was saying. "I've never +seen you before. What Dromard boy are <i>you</i>, pray?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>"My name's Douglas."</p> + +<p>"Oh! So you're the Honorable Douglas Dromard, are you?"</p> + +<p>The boy handed her an ice without answering as the three passed on.</p> + +<p>"I said you'd see and hear some queer things," whispered Mr. Holland; +"but you won't hear anything much finer than that. The woman is Mrs. +Foster-Simpson; her husband's a solicitor, and may be the Conservative +agent, if his wife doesn't disqualify him. She professes to know all +about the Dromards, as you heard the other day. You can guess the kind +of knowledge. Even the boy snubs her. Yet mark him. The mixture of +politeness and contempt was worth noticing in a small boy like that. +There's a little nobleman for you!"</p> + +<p>"No, a little Englishman," said Tiny. "Now that's a thing I do envy +you—your schoolboys, your little gentlemen! We don't grow them so +little in the colonies; we don't know how."</p> + +<p>They were walking on a majestic terrace in the shadow of the red-brick +house, their figures mirrored in each mullioned window as they passed +it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>"I call Lord Manister the luckiest young man in England," Ruth exclaimed +during a pause between the other two. "To think that all this will be +his!"</p> + +<p>"It rather reminds me of Hampton Court on this side," remarked Tiny +indifferently.</p> + +<p>"And it's by no means their only place, you know; there are others they +never use, are there not, Erskine?—to say nothing of all those squares +and streets in town!"</p> + +<p>But Erskine sounded the thick sibilant of silence as they passed a +shabby looking person with a slouching walk and a fair beard.</p> + +<p>"I wonder how <i>he</i> got here?" Tiny murmured next moment.</p> + +<p>"He has a better right than most of us."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Erskine?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's the earl."</p> + +<p>"Earl Dromard? I should have guessed his gardener!"</p> + +<p>"No, that's the earl. Old clothes are his special fancy in the country. +It's his particular form of side, so they say."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Tiny, "I prefer it to his son's, which has always appeared +to me to be the other extreme."</p> + +<p>"I am sure Lord Manister is not over-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>dressed," remonstrated Ruth, with +her usual alacrity in defense of his lordship.</p> + +<p>"No, that's the worst of him," answered her sister. "There is nothing to +find fault with, ever; that's what makes one think he employs his +intellect on the study of his appearance."</p> + +<p>They had seen Lord Manister in the distance. Presumably he had not seen +them, but he might have done so; and Ruth supposed it was the doubt that +made her sister speak of him more captiously than usual. But the +criticism was not utterly unfair, as Ruth might presently have seen for +herself; for as they came back to the front of the house, Lord Manister +detached himself from a group, and approached them with the suave smile +and the slight flourish of the hat which were two of his tricks. +Christina asked afterward if the flourish was not dreadfully +continental, but she was told that it was merely up to date, like the +hat itself. At the time, however, she introduced Lord Manister to her +sister Mrs. Erskine Holland, and to Mr. Holland, taking this liberty +with charming grace and tact, yet with a becoming amount of natural +shyness. Manister, for one, was pleased with the introduction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> on all +grounds. From the first, however, he addressed himself to the married +lady, speaking partly of the surrounding country, for which Ruth could +not say too much, and partly of Melbourne, which enabled him to return +her compliments. His manner was eminently friendly and polite. +Discovering that they had not yet been in the house for tea, he led the +way thither, and through a throng of people in the hall, and so into the +dining room. Here he saved the situation from embarrassment by making +himself equally attentive to another party. To Ruth, however, Lord +Manister's civility was still sufficiently marked, while he asked her +husband whether he was a cricketer; and this reminded him of Herbert, +for whom he gave Miss Luttrell a message. He said they had just arranged +some cricket for the last week of the month; he thought they would be +glad of Miss Luttrell's brother in one or two of the matches. But he +seemed to fear that most of the teams were made up; his young brother +was arranging everything. Christina gathered that in any case they would +be glad to see Herbert at the nets any afternoon of the following week, +more especially on the Monday. Lord Manister made a point of the +mes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>sage, and also of the cricket week, "when," he said, "you must all +turn up if it's fine." And those were his last words to them.</p> + +<p>"I see you know my son," said the countess in her kindliest manner as +Ruth thanked her for a charming afternoon.</p> + +<p>"My sister met him the other day at Lady Almeric's," replied Ruth, "and +before that in Australia."</p> + +<p>"I knew Lord Manister in Melbourne," added Tiny with freedom.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me you are Australians?" said Lady Dromard in a +tone that complimented the girls at the expense of their country. "Then +you must certainly come and see me," she added cordially, though her +surprise was still upon her. "I am greatly interested in Australia since +my son was there. I feel I have a welcome for all Australians—you +welcomed him, you know!"</p> + +<p>Christina afterward expressed the firm opinion that Lady Dromard had +said this rather strangely, which Ruth as firmly denied. Tiny was +accused of an imaginative self-consciousness, and the accusation +provoked a blush, which Ruth took care to remember. Certainly, if the +countess had spoken queerly, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> queerness had escaped the one person +who was not on the lookout for something of the kind; Erskine Holland +had perceived nothing but her ladyship's condescension, which had been +indeed remarkable, though Erskine still told his wife to expect no +further notice from that quarter.</p> + +<p>"And I'm selfish enough to hope you'll get none, my dears," he said to +the girls that evening as they sauntered through the kitchen garden +after dinner; "because for my part I'd much rather not be noticed by +them. We were not intended to take seriously anything that was said this +afternoon; honey was the order of the day for all comers—and can't you +imagine them wiping their foreheads when we were all gone? I only hope +they wiped us out of their heads! We're much happier as we are. I'm not +rabid, like Mrs. Willoughby; but she prophesied a very possible +experience, when all's said and done, confound her! I have visions of +Piccadilly myself. And seriously, Ruth, you wouldn't like it if you +became friendly with these people here and they cut you in town; no more +should I. I think you can't be too careful with people of that sort; and +if they ask us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> again I vote we don't go; but they won't ask us any +more, you may depend upon it."</p> + +<p>"I don't depend upon it, all the same," replied Ruth, with some spirit. +"Lady Dromard was most kind; and as for Lord Manister, <i>I</i> was enchanted +with him."</p> + +<p>"Were you?" Tiny said, feeling vaguely that she was challenged.</p> + +<p>"I was; I thought him unaffected and friendly, and even simple. I am +sure he is simple-minded! I am also sure that you won't find another +young man in his position who is better natured or better hearted——"</p> + +<p>"Or better mannered—or better dressed! You are quite right; he is +nearly perfect. He is rather too perfect for me in his manners and +appearance; I should like to untidy him; I should like to put him in a +temper. Lord Manister was never in a temper in his life; he's nicer than +most people—but he's too nice altogether for me!"</p> + +<p>"You knew him rather well in Melbourne?" said Erskine, eyeing his +sister-in-law curiously; her face was toward the moon, and her +expression was set and scornful.</p> + +<p>"Very well indeed," she answered with her erratic candor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>"I might have guessed as much that time in town. I say, if we meet <i>him</i> +in Piccadilly we may score off Mrs. Willoughby yet! Wait till we get +back——"</p> + +<p>"All right; only don't let us wait out here," Ruth interrupted—"or Tiny +and I may have to go back in our coffins!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">MOTHER AND SON.</span></h2> + + +<p>A clever man is not necessarily an infallible prophet; and the clever +man who is married may well preserve an intellectual luster in the eyes +of his admirer by never prophesying at all. But should he take pleasure +in predicting the thing that is openly deprecated at the other side of +the hearth, let him see to it that his prediction comes true, for +otherwise he has whetted a blade for his own breast, from whose +justifiable use only an angel could abstain. There was no angel in the +family which had been brought up on Wallandoon Station, New South Wales. +When, within the next three days, Ruth received a note from Lady Dromard +inviting them all to dinner at a very early date, she did not fail to +prod Erskine as he deserved. But her thrust was not malignant; nor did +she give vexatious vent to her own triumph, which was considerable.</p> + +<p>"You are a very clever man," she merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> told him, and with the relish +of a wife who can say this from her heart; "but you see, you're wrong +for once. Lady Dromard <i>did</i> mean what she said. She wants us all to +dine there on Friday evening, when, as it happens, we have no other +engagement; and really I don't see how we can refuse."</p> + +<p>"You mean that you would like to get out of it if you could?" her +husband said.</p> + +<p>"You don't need to be sarcastic," remarked Ruth with a slight flush. +"Who wants to get out of it?"</p> + +<p>"I thought perhaps you did, my dear; to tell you the truth, I rather +hoped so."</p> + +<p>"You don't want to go!"</p> + +<p>"I can't say I jump."</p> + +<p>Ruth colored afresh.</p> + +<p>"I have no patience with you, Erskine! Nobody is dying to go; but I own +I can't see any reason against going, nor any excuse for stopping away; +and considering what you yourself said about going to the garden party, +dear, I must say I think you're rather inconsistent."</p> + +<p>Holland gazed down into the flushed, frowning face, that frowned so +seldom, and flushed so prettily. Always an undemonstrative hus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>band, +very properly he had been more so than ever since others had been +staying in the house. But neither of those others was present now, and +rather suddenly he stooped and kissed his wife.</p> + +<p>"There is no reason, and there would be no excuse; so you are quite +right," he said kindly. "It's only that one has a constitutional dislike +to being taken up—and dropped. I have visions of all that. I'm afraid +Mrs. Willoughby has poisoned my mind; we will go, and let us hope it'll +prove an antidote."</p> + +<p>They went, and that dinner party was not the formidable affair it might +have been; as Lady Dromard herself said, most graciously, it was not a +dinner party at all. Ten, however, sat down, of whom four came from the +rectory; for Herbert had been over to practice at the nets, and was +fairly satisfied with his treatment on that occasion, which accounted +for his presence on this. The only other guests were an inevitable +divine and his wife. The earl was absent. As if to conserve Christina's +impression of the old clothes in which, as the natives said, his +lordship "liked himself," Earl Dromard had left for London rather +suddenly that morning. Lord Manister<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> filled his place impeccably, with +Ruth at her best on his right. Herbert was less happy with Lady Mary +Dromard, a very proud person, who could also be very rude in the most +elegant manner. But Christina fell to the jolliest scion of the house, +Mr. Stanley Dromard; and this pair mutually enjoyed themselves.</p> + +<p>Young in every way was the Honorable Stanley Dromard. He had just left +Eton, where he had been in the eleven, like his brother before him; he +was to go into residence at Trinity in October. With a quantum of +gentlemanly interest he heard that Miss Luttrell's brother was also +going up to Cambridge next term; but not to Trinity. Said Mr. Dromard, +"Your brother's a bit of a cricketer, too; he came over for a knock the +other day; he means to play for us next week, if we're short, doesn't +he?" Christina fancied so. Mr. Dromard said "Good!" with some emphasis, +and Herbert's name dropped out of the conversation. This became +Anglo-Australian, as it was sure to, and led to some of those bold +comparisons for which Christina was generally to be trusted; but the +bolder they were, the more Mr. Dromard enjoyed them, for the girl +glittered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> in his eyes. He was a delightfully appreciative youth, if +easily amused, and his laughter sharpened Tiny's wits. She shone +consciously, but yet calmly, and made a really remarkable impression +upon her companion, without once meeting Lord Manister's glance, which +rested on her sometimes for a second.</p> + +<p>So the flattering attentions of young Dromard were not terminated, but +merely interrupted, by the flight of the ladies. When the men followed +them to the drawing room the younger son shot to Miss Luttrell's side +with the fine regardlessness of nineteen, and furthered their friendship +by divulging the Mundham plans for the following week. The cricket was +to begin on the Tuesday. The men were coming the day before: half the +Eton eleven, Tiny understood, and some older young fellows of Manister's +standing. The first two were to be two-day matches against the county +and a Marylebone team. The Saturday's match would be between Mundham +Hall and another scratch eleven, "and that's when we may want your +brother, Miss Luttrell," added Mr. Dromard, "though we <i>might</i> want him +before. Our team has been made up some time, but somebody is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> sure to +have some other fixture for Saturday."</p> + +<p>"I think he may like to play," said Christina.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dromard seemed a little surprised.</p> + +<p>"It's a jolly ground," he remarked, "and there will be some first-rate +players."</p> + +<p>"I am sure he would like a game on your ground," Christina went so far +as to say.</p> + +<p>"Do you dance, Miss Luttrell?" asked the young man, after a pause.</p> + +<p>"When I get the chance," said Christina.</p> + +<p>He gazed at her a moment, and could imagine her dancing—with him.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we were to do something of the kind here one evening between +the matches; would you come?"</p> + +<p>"If I got the chance," said Christina.</p> + +<p>Dromard considered what he was saying. "We ought to have a dance," he +added in a doubtful tone, as though the need were greater than the +chance; "we really ought. But I don't suppose we shall; nothing is +arranged, you see."</p> + +<p>"You needn't hedge, Mr. Dromard," said the girl, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Eh?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>"I shan't expect an invitation!"</p> + +<p>She nodded knowingly as he blushed; but he had the great merit of being +easily amused, and with another word she made him merry and at ease +again. Not unreasonably, perhaps, a casual spectator might have +suspected these two of a mild but immediate flirtation. Stanley, +however, was at a safe and privileged age, and no eye was on him but his +brother's. Lord Manister gave the impression of being a rather dignified +person in his own home, but he was doing his gracious duty by the +guests, none of whom seemed especially to occupy his attention, while he +was reasonably polite to all. It was he, too, who at length suggested to +Lady Dromard that Miss Luttrell would probably sing something if she +were asked.</p> + +<p>So Christina sang something—it hardly matters what. Her song was not a +classic, neither was it grossly popular. It was a pleasant song, +pleasantly sung, and the entire absence of pretentiousness and of +affectation in the song and the singing was more noticeable than the +positive excellence of either. The girl had no greater voice than one +would have expected of so small a person, but what she had was in +keeping. Lady Dromard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> however, had a more sensitive appreciation of +good taste than of good music, and she asked for more. Christina sang +successively something of Lassen's, and then "Last Night," taking the +English words in each case. She played her own accompaniments, and felt +little nervousness until her last song was finished, when it certainly +startled her to find Lady Dromard standing at her side.</p> + +<p>"Thank you!" said the countess with considerable enthusiasm. "You sing +delightfully, and you sing delightful songs. You must have been very +well taught."</p> + +<p>"Mostly in the bush," said Christina truthfully.</p> + +<p>"You come from the bush?"</p> + +<p>"But you had some lessons in Melbourne," put in Ruth, who was visibly +delighted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, a few," Tiny said, smiling; "as many as I was worth."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you shall tell me about Melbourne one day soon," said Lady Dromard +to the young girl. "Your sister has promised to come over and watch the +cricket. I do hope you will come with her."</p> + +<p>Christina expressed her pleasure at the prospect, and, taking the +nearest seat, found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> Lord Manister leaning over the end of the piano and +looking down upon her with a rather sardonic smile.</p> + +<p>"You haven't looked at me this evening," he said to her under cover of +the general conversation, which was now renewed. "May I ask what I have +done?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly you may ask, Lord Manister," answered the girl with immense +simplicity; "but I can't tell you, because I am not aware that you have +done anything beyond making us all very happy and at home."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm glad to hear that," said Manister, whose quasi-humorous tone +lacked the lightness to deceive; "I was afraid I had offended you."</p> + +<p>"Offended me!" cried Christina, with widening eyes and a puzzled look. +"When have you seen me to offend me! I haven't seen you since your +garden party, and you certainly didn't offend me then—you were awfully +nice to us all!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, that wasn't seeing you," Lord Manister murmured. "I don't reckon +that I've seen you since—the photographs. I had to go to Scotland; I +meant to tell you."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't have interested me," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> Christina, with a shrug. "It +might have interested me if you had said—you were <i>not</i> going," she +added next moment. Her tone had dropped. She looked at him and smiled.</p> + +<p>Her smile stayed with him after she was gone; but from his face you +would not have guessed that he was nursing a kind look. She had given +him one smile, which made up for many things. But you would have +thought, with his people, that he had been suffering the whole evening +from acute boredom: you might well have fancied, with Lady Mary, that a +remark disparaging Australian women would have met with a grateful +response from him. The response it did meet with was anything but +grateful to Lady Mary Dromard. It drove her from the room, in which +Manister and his mother were presently left alone.</p> + +<p>"I think you were just," the countess said critically. "They are +pleasant people, and quite all right. The young man is their weak +point."</p> + +<p>"They always are," her son remarked, rather savagely still. "They're +larrikins!"</p> + +<p>"The young girl was especially nice, and sang like a lady."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>"Ah, you approve of her," said Lord Manister dryly.</p> + +<p>"Entirely, I think. Evidently you don't. I only saw you speak to her +once, toward the end. Yet she has met you in Australia; I should have +recognized that, I think. Now her people," Lady Dromard added +tentatively, "will be rather superior, I suppose, as colonials go?"</p> + +<p>"Well, they're rich; I suppose that's how colonials go."</p> + +<p>For one moment Lady Dromard fancied that the sneer was for the +colonials, and it surprised her; the next, she took it to herself, and +very meekly for so proud a heart.</p> + +<p>"My dear boy!" she murmured indulgently. "Apart from their people, these +girls—for the married one is as young as she has any right to +be—strike one as fresh, and free, and pleasing. And they are ladies. Am +I to believe that the majority out there are like them?"</p> + +<p>Manister shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"That's as you please, my dear mother. These people didn't strike me as +the only decent ones in Melbourne. I did meet others."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>The countess tapped her foot upon the fender, and took counsel with her +own reflection in the mirror, for she was standing before the fireplace +while her son wandered about the room—her son with the reputation for a +childlike devotion to his mother. There had been little of that sort of +devotion since his return from Australia. Nothing between them was as it +had been before. This bitter coldness had been his domestic manner—his +manner with her, of all people—longer than the mother could bear. She +knew the reason; she had tried to tell him so; she had tried to speak +freely to him of the whole matter—even penitently, if he would. But he +had never spoken freely to her; and once he had refused to speak at all, +thence or thenceforth. Lady Dromard had made a resolve then which she +remembered now.</p> + +<p>"Really, Harry, I can't make you out," she said lightly at length. "You +knock down the colonials with one hand, and you set them up with the +other, as though they were so many ninepins. I am puzzled to know what +you really mean, and what you mean satirically. You never used to be +satirical, Harry! I should like to know whether you really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> approve of +these people, or whether you don't."</p> + +<p>"I do approve of them," said Lord Manister, halting on the rug before +his mother. "I won't put it more strongly. But I am glad that you should +have seen there are such things as ladies in Australia!"</p> + +<p>Their eyes met, and the mother forgot her resolve; for he had raised the +subject himself, and for the first time.</p> + +<p>"You think of her still!" whispered Lady Dromard.</p> + +<p>"Of course I do," returned Manister, roughly; and again he was striding +about the room.</p> + +<p>Never in her life, perhaps, had the countess received a sharper hurt; +for he had refused to see the hand she had reached out to him +involuntarily. Yet assuredly Lady Dromard had never spoken in a more +ordinary tone than that of her next words, a minute later.</p> + +<p>"It occurred to me, Harry, that if we really think of dancing one +evening during the cricket week, we might do worse than ask these people +from the rectory. You must have girls to dance with. Still, if you think +better not, you have only to say so."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>"I think it's for you to decide; but, if you ask me, I don't see the +least objection to it," said Lord Manister, with a smooth ceremony that +had a sharper edge than his rough words. "I'm not sure, however, that +they will come every time you ask them."</p> + +<p>"Pourquoi?"</p> + +<p>"Because they're the most independent people in the world, the +Australians."</p> + +<p>"It would scarcely touch their independence," said Lady Dromard with +careless contempt; "but we can really do without them, and I am glad of +your hint, because now I shall not think of asking them."</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear mother," cried Lord Manister, no longer either hot or +cold, but his old self for once in his anxiety—"you misunderstand me +entirely! I'm not great on a dance at all, but if we're to have one we +must, as you say, have somebody to dance with; and I <i>want</i> you to ask +these people."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">A THREATENING DAWN.</span></h2> + + +<p>"I like a dance where you can dance," said Herbert, who was looking at +himself in a glass and wondering how long his white tie had been on one +side. "It was worth fifty of the swell show you took us to in town, +Ruth."</p> + +<p>"I am glad you two have enjoyed it so," returned Ruth, with her eye, +however, upon her husband. "Of course there's a great difference between +a big dance in town and a little one in the country."</p> + +<p>Tiny seemed busy. She was tearing her programme into small pieces, and +dropping them at her feet, so that when she had gone up to bed it was as +though a paper chase had passed through the rectory study, where they +had all gathered for a few moments on their return from the dance. +Christina, however, was not too preoccupied to chime in on her own +note:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>"It's like the difference between Riverina and Victoria—there were +acres to the sheep instead of sheep to the acre."</p> + +<p>Now there was no merit in this speech, but to those who understood it +the comparison was apt, and Erskine knew enough of Australia to +understand. Moreover, he had taught Tiny to listen for his laugh. So +when he made neither sound nor sign the girl felt injured, but +remembered that he had been extremely silent on the way home. And he was +the first to go upstairs.</p> + +<p>"It has bored him," observed Christina.</p> + +<p>"He don't like dancing," said Herbert. "He's no sportsman."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid he cares for nothing but lawn tennis when he's here," +sighed Ruth, who looked a little troubled. "I am afraid he dislikes +going out in the country."</p> + +<p>They were silent for some minutes before Tiny exclaimed with conviction:</p> + +<p>"No; it's the Dromards he dislikes."</p> + +<p>And presently they made a move from the room. But on the stairs they met +Erskine coming down, having changed his dress suit for flannels; and +Ruth followed him back to the study, eying the change with dismay.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>"Surely you're not going to sit up at this hour?"</p> + +<p>Ruth had raised her glance from his flannels to his face, which troubled +her more.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid the fine weather's at an end," Erskine answered crookedly; +"it's most awfully close, at any rate. And I want a pipe."</p> + +<p>He proceeded to fill one with his back to her.</p> + +<p>"Erskine!"</p> + +<p>"Well, dear?"</p> + +<p>"I won't be 'dear' to you when you're cross with me. I want to know what +I have done to vex you."</p> + +<p>He had struck a match, and he lit his pipe before answering. Then he +said gently enough:</p> + +<p>"If you think I'm cross with you I should run away to bed; I certainly +don't mean to be."</p> + +<p>But he had not turned round.</p> + +<p>"You succeed, at any rate! As you seem to wish it, I shall take your +advice."</p> + +<p>Erskine heard her on the stairs with a twinge in his heart. He went to +the door to call her down and be frank with her, but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> shutting of +her own door checked him. Setting this one ajar, he threw up the window, +and stood frowning at the opaque pall that seemed to have been let down +behind it like an outer blind. So he remained for some minutes before +remembering the easy-chair. No one knew better than Erskine that he had +just been unkind to his wife. He was not pleased with her, but he had +refused to explain his displeasure when she invited him to do so. There +was this difficulty in explaining it—that he knew it to be +unreasonable, since the person who had vexed him most was not Ruth, but +Christina. And not more reasonable was his disappointment in Christina, +as he also knew. Yet the one thing in life not disappointing to him at +the moment was his pipe; even the fine weather was most surely at an +end.</p> + +<p>He was tired of the rectory, which, wet or fair, had no longer either +light or shadow of its own, for both were now absorbed in the deepening +shadow of the hall. A week ago they had all dined there, now they had +been dancing there, and meanwhile the girls had watched one of the +matches, and were going to another. Erskine had been opposed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> the +dance, but the wife had prevailed; he was against their going to another +match, but doubtless Ruth would have her way again, for she had shown a +tenacity of purpose that surprised him in her, while he was crippled by +a conscious lack of logic in his objections. He was not an arbitrary +person, and it seemed that Ruth would stop for nothing less than a +command where her heart was set; and her sister was with her. The whole +trouble was, where their hearts were set.</p> + +<p>He tried hard not to think the worst of Tiny, or rather the worst as it +seemed to him. To make it easier, he called to mind various things she +had said to him at various times concerning Lord Manister, of whom she +had seldom failed to make fun. It amused and consoled Erskine to +remember the fun; there must be hope for her still. Then he recalled +common gossip about Lord Manister and his affairs; and there was hope on +that side too. In less than a week the danger would be past, and those +two would never see each other again. Consideration of the danger he had +in mind, <i>quá</i> danger, provoked a smile. Tiny herself would have enjoyed +the humor of that, she was so quick to see and to enjoy. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> she could +appreciate more than a joke, or did she only pretend to like those +books? And the soul that shone sometimes in her eyes, did it lie much +deeper? She interested Erskine the more because he could not be sure. +She was a fascinating study to him, whatever she did or was trying to +do. In any case, there was much good in her that he had fathomed, and +more was suggested; and the finer the nature, the stronger the +contrasts. Now as to contrasts—yet he had never seen that in Australia.</p> + +<p>"A penny for your thoughts!"</p> + +<p>Ten thousand pounds would not have bought them. It was his wife on the +threshold, in a pale pink wrapper.</p> + +<p>"My dear! I pictured you asleep hours ago."</p> + +<p>"Were you picturing me when I spoke?" Ruth said, with a smile. "I'm not +sleepy—and I want to talk to you. May I sit down? An hour more or less +makes no difference at this time of the morning."</p> + +<p>Erskine rose from the easy-chair in which he had been smoking, and +settled his wife in it against her will, and drew the curtains across +the open window.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>"I'm glad you've come down, Ruth, for I want to speak to you, too. I was +a brute to you when I sent you away just now."</p> + +<p>"Well, I really think you were; but I know you must have had some +reason; so I've come down to have it out and be done with it."</p> + +<p>"My dear Ruth!" said Mr. Holland uncomfortably; for was there any call +to be frank with her at all? It would hurt; and could it do any good?</p> + +<p>"I suppose," pursued Ruth in a tone not perfectly free from defiance, +"it's all because we went to this horrid dance! And I'll say I'm sorry +we did go, if you like; though why you should have such a down on the +Dromards I can't for the life of me imagine."</p> + +<p>"My dear girl," said Erskine, smiling now that he had determined not to +say everything, "I really have no down on them at all. They're the most +amiable family I know, considering who they are. They have a charming +place, and they treat you delightfully while you're there. Considering +who <i>we</i> are, and that we have no root in this soil, I grant you they're +particularly kind to us; but don't you think their kindness is just a +little trying? I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> do, though I have nothing against them, personally or +otherwise. I am not even a political opponent; if I had a vote for the +division young Manister should have it. But I'm not keen on so much +notice from them; I've said so before; there's no sense in it!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, if only you would show me the harm in it!"</p> + +<p>"Harm? Heaven forbid there should be any. One finds it a bore, that's +all. It's a selfish reason, but it's the truth—I should have had a +better time this last week if the Dromards had been far enough!"</p> + +<p>"And we should have had a worse—Tiny and I. No, Erskine, I know you +better than you think. You're not so selfish as all that; there's some +other reason."</p> + +<p>Erskine turned away with a shrug, to avoid her glance.</p> + +<p>"Something has annoyed you to-night. One of us has behaved badly. Was it +Tiny or was it——"</p> + +<p>"You?" said Erskine, with a smile. "From what I saw of your behavior, my +dear, it was entirely creditable to you as a chaperon. Your face was +seventeen, but your air was a frank fifty!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>"Then it was Tiny. I suppose she danced too much with those boys they +have staying in the house. I should have thought there was +respectability in numbers; I really don't see how <i>they</i> could matter."</p> + +<p>"They seemed to matter to Manister," remarked Erskine dryly.</p> + +<p>Ruth winced, but he had wondered whether she would, or he would never +have noticed it.</p> + +<p>"Surely you don't think Lord Manister cares who dances with our Tiny?"</p> + +<p>The amusement in her tone and manner was cleverly feigned, but instead +of deceiving Erskine it spurred him to speak out, after all.</p> + +<p>"I hardly like to tell you what I think about Tiny and Lord Manister," +he said gravely.</p> + +<p>"What on earth do you mean, Erskine?" cried Ruth, reddening. "Now you +<i>must</i> tell me!"</p> + +<p>Erskine temporized, already regretting that he had said so much. "It +would hurt your feelings," he warned her grimly.</p> + +<p>"Not so much as your silence."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't say it if I didn't look on her as my own sister by this +time, and if I didn't think her the best little girl in the world—but +one."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>Now he spoke tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Say it, in any case," said Ruth, who had been uncommonly calm.</p> + +<p>"Then I am afraid she is making up to him, if you must know."</p> + +<p>"Which is absurd," said Ruth lightly; but in her anxiety to remain cool +she forgot to seem surprised; and that was a mistake.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you really think so?" said her husband very quietly. "If +you do I can't agree with you; I wish I could."</p> + +<p>"You must!" cried Ruth desperately. "Do you know how many dances she +gave him to-night?"</p> + +<p>Erskine knew only of one; his eyes rested on the remains of her +programme lying on the floor in many fragments.</p> + +<p>"Well, that one was the lot!" he was informed severely. "And pray did +you count how many times she spoke to him the other evening when we +dined at the hall?"</p> + +<p>"Not often, I grant you; I noticed that."</p> + +<p>"Yet you think she is making up to him!"</p> + +<p>"It's a strong way of putting it, I know," said Erskine reluctantly; +"but really I can't think of any other. I wonder you don't realize that +there are more ways of making up to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> man than the dead-set method. +Can't you see that a far more effective method is a little judicious +snubbing and avoiding, which is coquetry? You take my word for it, +that's the touch for a man like Manister, who is probably accustomed to +everything but being snubbed and avoided. Then you speak of the one +dance she gave him. Now I happen to know that they didn't dance it at +all; they spent the time under the stars, for it was my misfortune to +see them and their misfortune not to see me."</p> + +<p>"Well?" whispered Ruth; and though she had never been so dark until now, +that whisper would have drawn his lantern to her real hopes and fears.</p> + +<p>"I only saw them for an instant: I bolted; so I may easily be wrong; but +it struck me that our Tiny was making up for her snubbing and avoiding. +It has since occurred to me that they must have known each other rather +well in Melbourne—rather better, at any rate, than you have ever led me +to suppose."</p> + +<p>As a woman's last resource, Ruth aimed a stone at his temper.</p> + +<p>"So that's it!" she exclaimed viciously.</p> + +<p>"That's what?"</p> + +<p>"The secret of your bad temper."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>"Well, to be kept in the dark doesn't sweeten a man, certainly," Erskine +answered, in a tone, however, that was far from bitter. "Then one can't +help feeling disappointed with Tiny; and in this matter—to be frank +with you at last—I am just a little disappointed in you too, my dear."</p> + +<p>"I always knew you would be," said Ruth dolefully. For her stone had +missed, and there was no more fight in her.</p> + +<p>"Now don't be a goose. It's only in this one matter, in which—I can't +help telling you—I don't think you've been perfectly straight with me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed!" cried Ruth, as her spirit made one spurt more. It was the +last. The next moment she was weeping.</p> + +<p>It annoys most men to make a woman cry. Those who do not become annoyed +make impetuous atonement, partly, no doubt, to drown the hooting in +their own heart. But Erskine could not feel himself to blame, and though +he spoke very kindly, his kindness was too nearly paternal, and he spoke +with his elbow on the chimney-piece. He told Ruth not to do that. He +pointed out to her that there was no crime in her want of candor +concern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>ing her sister's affairs, which were certainly no business of +his. Only, if there really had been something between Christina and Lord +Manister in Melbourne—if, for instance, Mrs. Willoughby had gossiped +unwittingly to Christina about none other than Christina +herself—Erskine put it to his wife that she might have done more wisely +to place him in a position silently to appreciate such capital jokes. He +would have said nothing; but as it was he might easily have said much to +imperil the situation; in fact, he had been in a false position all +along, more especially at the hall. But that was all. There was really +nothing to cry about. Perhaps to give her the fairest opportunity to +compose herself, Erskine crossed the room and drew back the curtains to +let in the gray morning; for the birds had long been twittering.</p> + +<p>But Ruth had been waiting for the touch of his hand, and he had only +given her kind words. She looked up, and saw through her tears his form +against the gray window, as he shut down the sash. The lamp burnt +faintly, and in the two wan lights it was a chamber of misery, in which +one could not sit alone. Ruth rose and ran to Erskine, and laid her +hands upon his arm.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>"It is raining," he said, without looking at her tears. "I knew we were +in for a break up of the fine weather."</p> + +<p>"Never mind the rain!" Ruth cried piteously, with her face upon his +coat. "Will you forgive me now if I tell you everything that I +know—everything? It isn't much, because Tiny has been almost as close +with me as I have been with you."</p> + +<p>"My dear," he said, patting her head at last, and with his arms around +her lightly, "you both had a perfect right to be close."</p> + +<p>"But suppose I've been at the bottom of the whole thing? Suppose I turn +out a horrid little intriguer—what then?"</p> + +<p>She waited eagerly, and the pause seemed long.</p> + +<p>"Well, you won't have been intriguing for yourself," sighed Erskine—so +that her face rose on his breast, as on a wave.</p> + +<p>And then, playing nervously with a button of his coat, Ruth confessed +all. As she spoke she gathered confidence, but not enough to watch his +face. That was turned to the gray morning, and looked as gray as it. The +fine weather had indeed broken up, and Essingham had lost its savor for +Erskine Holland.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">IN THE LADIES' TENT.</span></h2> + + +<p>And yet, even at the time she made it, Ruth little dreamt how deeply her +confession both galled and revolted her husband. He forgave her very +kindly in the end, and that satisfied her lean imagination. Perhaps +there was not much to forgive. There was enough, at all events, to +trouble Erskine (to whom the best excuse there was for her was the least +likely to suggest itself); but the matter soon ceased to trouble +Erskine's wife, because his smile was as good-tempered as before. He +seemed, indeed, to think no more about it. When Ruth would speak +confidentially of her hopes and wishes for Tiny (as though Erskine had +been in her confidence all the time), he would chat the matter over with +interest, which was the next best thing to sympathy. He had to do this +oftener than he liked during the next twenty-four hours; for Ruth really +thought that excessive candor now was a more or less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> adequate atonement +for an excessive reserve in the past. Moreover, she genuinely enjoyed +talking openly at last of the matter which had concerned her so long and +so severely in secret.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think he means it?" she asked her husband several times.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid he thinks he does," was one of Holland's answers.</p> + +<p>"That's your way of admitting it," rejoined Ruth, who could bear his +repudiation of her desires for the sake of his assent to her opinion, +which Erskine was too honest to withhold. "Of course he means it. Have +you noticed how he watches her?"</p> + +<p>"I have noticed it once or twice."</p> + +<p>"And did you see him watching his mother, the night we dined there, to +see what impression Tiny made upon her?"</p> + +<p>"So you spotted that!" Erskine said curiously, not having given his wife +the credit for such acute perception. "Well, I own that I did, too; and +that was worse than his watching Tiny. This is a youth with a well-known +weakness for his mamma. She has probably more influence over him than +any other body in the world. I am prepared to bet that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> was she, and +she alone, who whistled him back from Australia. Now though she did it +partly by her singing—which, by the way, was rather cheap for our +Tiny—there's no doubt at all about the impression Tiny has made upon +Lady Dromard; and that's the worst of it."</p> + +<p>"The worst of it! as if he was beneath her!" said Ruth mockingly. "Or is +it that you think her too terribly beneath him?"</p> + +<p>"Tiny," said Erskine, shaking his head, "is beneath no man that I have +yet come across."</p> + +<p>"Then what can you have against it? Is it that you think she will grow +so grand that we shall see no more of her! If so, it shows how much you +know of our Tiny. Or do you think him too high and mighty to be honest +and true? I don't profess to know much about it," continued Ruth +scornfully, being stung to eloquence by his perversity, "but I should +have said an honest man and his love might be found in a castle, +sometimes, as well as in a cottage!"</p> + +<p>"'Hearts just as pure and fair may beat in Belgrave Square as in the +lowly air of Seven Dials,'" quoted Erskine, with a laugh. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> grant all +that; but if you want to know, my point is that Tiny would be thrown +away on Belgrave Square! She is far too funny and fresh, and unlike most +of us, to thrive in that fine soil; she would need to be clipped and +pruned and trimmed in the image of other people. And that would spoil +her. Whatever else she may be, she's more or less original as she +stands. She's not a copy now; but she will have to become one in +Belgrave Square."</p> + +<p>"She <i>will</i> have to become one!" cried Ruth, jumping at the change of +mood. "Then you think that Tiny means it, too?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid she means to marry him," said Erskine, with a sigh. "I have +visions of our Tiny ours no more, but my Lady Manister, and Countess +Dromard in due course."</p> + +<p>So delighted was Ruth with his opinion on this point that his other +opinions had no power to annoy her; and in her joy she told him once +more, and with much impulsive feeling, how sorry she was for having kept +him in the dark so willfully and so long. She called him an angel of +good temper and forbearance, and undertook to reward his generosity by +never hiding another thing from him in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> life. And she would never, +never vex him again, she said—so earnestly that he thought she meant +it, as indeed she thought herself, for half a minute.</p> + +<p>"But you mean to go to the match to-morrow?" he asked her wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we must—if it's fine. It's the last match of the week; besides, +Herbert's going to play."</p> + +<p>This was an argument, and Erskine said no more. The chances are that he +would have said no more in any case. The following afternoon Ruth drove +with Tiny to the match, and with a particularly light heart, because she +had not heard another word against the plan. Her one remaining anxiety +was lest it might rain before they got to the cricket field.</p> + +<p>For the day was one of those dull ones of early autumn when there is +little wind, a gray sky, and more than a chance of rain; but none had +fallen during the morning, which reduced the chance; while the clouds +were high, and occasionally parted by faint rays of sunshine. The ground +was so beautiful in itself that it was the greater pity there was no +more sun, since, without it, well-kept turf and tall trees are like a +sweet face saddened. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> trees were the fine elms of that country, and +they flanked two sides of the ground; but one missed their shadows, and +the foliage had a dingy, lack-luster look in the tame light. On the +third side a ha-ha formed a natural "boundary," and the red, spreading +house stood aloof on the fourth, giving a touch of welcome warmth to a +picture whose highest lights were the white flannels of the players and +the canvas tents. The tents were many, and admirably arranged; but one +beneath the elms had a side on the ground to itself; and thither drove +Mrs. Holland, alighting rather nervously as a groom came promptly to the +pony's head, because this was the ladies' tent.</p> + +<p>To-day, however, the tent was not formidably full, as it had been when +the girls had watched the cricket from it earlier in the week; this was +only the Saturday's match. Ruth looked in vain for Lady Dromard, but +received a cold greeting from her daughter, Lady Mary, upon whom the +guinea stamp was disagreeably fresh and sharp. The sight of Mrs. +Willoughby and her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson on a front seat was a +relief at the moment (the sight of anything to nod to is a relief +sometimes); but Ruth was dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>creet enough to sit down behind these +ladies, not beside them. She congratulated herself on her presence of +mind when she heard the tone and character of some of their comments on +the game. It would have done Ruth no good to be seen at the side of loud +Mrs. Foster-Simpson or of loquacious Mrs. Willoughby, and it might have +done Tiny grave harm. Mrs. Willoughby's husband, who had good-naturedly +become eleventh man at the eleventh hour, was conspicuous in the field +from his black trousers, clerical wide-awake, and shirt-sleeves of gray +flannel. "I hope you admire him," said his wife over her shoulder to +Ruth; "I tell him he might as well take a funeral in flannels!"</p> + +<p>"Or dine in his surplice," added her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson in a +voice that carried to the back of the tent.</p> + +<p>"I just do admire Mr. Willoughby," Ruth said softly; "he has a soul +above appearances."</p> + +<p>"You're not his wife," replied the lady who was.</p> + +<p>"You may thank your stars!" shouted her too familiar friend.</p> + +<p>Little Mrs. Holland turned to her sister and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> speculated aloud as to the +state of the game, but her tone was an example to the ladies in front, +who nevertheless did not lower theirs to supply the gratuitous +information that the Mundham players had been fielding all day.</p> + +<p>"They're getting the worst of it," declared Mrs. Willoughby, perhaps +prematurely.</p> + +<p>"Do them good," her friend said viciously, but with the soft pedal down +for once. "There would have been no holding them. That young Dromard, +now—it will take it out of <i>him</i>. He wants it taking out of him!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanley Dromard, who had been scoring heavily all the week, happened +to be in the deep field close to the tent. Ruth nudged her sister, and +they moved further along their row in order to avoid the bonnets in +front.</p> + +<p>"Horrid people!" whispered Ruth.</p> + +<p>"That's the earl by the canvas screen," answered Tiny. "I should like to +send him a new straw hat!"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" whispered Ruth in terror. "You're as bad as they are. Tell me, +do you see Herbert?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, there he is, all by himself. There's a man out."</p> + +<p>"Is there? How tired they seem! That's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> Lord Manister sprawling on the +grass. What a boy he looks! You wouldn't think he was anybody in +particular, would you?"</p> + +<p>"I should hope not, indeed, on the cricket field!"</p> + +<p>"I only meant he looked rather nice."</p> + +<p>"Certainly he looks nicer in flannels than in anything else; his tailor +has less to do with it."</p> + +<p>The patience of Ruth was inexhaustible. She watched the game until +another wicket fell. Then it was her admiration for the scene that +escaped in more whispers.</p> + +<p>"<i>Isn't</i> it a lovely place, Tiny?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's all that."</p> + +<p>"I've never seen one to touch it, and I have seen two or three, you +know, since we were married. But the house is the best part of it all. I +would give anything to live in a house like that—wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I? My immortal soul!"</p> + +<p>And Tiny sighed, but Ruth, looking round quickly, saw laughter in her +eyes, and said no more. Tiny was very trying. Was she half in earnest, +or wholly in jest? Ruth could never tell; and now, while she wondered, a +lady who knew her sat down on her right. Ruth was glad enough to shake +hands and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> talk, and not sorry in this case to be seen doing so, while +at the moment it was a very human pleasure to her to leave Tiny to take +care of herself. And that was a thing at which Tiny may be said to have +excelled, so far as one saw, and no further. The attacks of most tongues +she was capable of repelling with distinction; against those of her own +thoughts she made ever the feeblest resistance; and at this stage of +Christina's career her own thoughts were a swarm of flies upon a wound +in her heart. That was the truth—and no one suspected it.</p> + +<p>During the next quarter of an hour the innings came to an end, and the +fielders trooped over to the group of tents at another side of the +ground. Tiny hoped that one of them would have the good taste to come to +the ladies' tent and talk to her; an Eton boy would do very well; +Herbert would be better than nobody: but she hoped in vain. On her right +Ruth had turned her back, and was quite taken up with the lady with whom +she was not sorry to be seen in conversation. The chairs on her left +were all empty; and those flies were fighting for her heart. It was the +rustle of silk disturbed them in the end; and Lady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> Dromard who sat down +in the empty chair on Tiny's left.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad to see you both," said the countess as though she meant +it; and she leant over to shake hands with Ruth, whose back was now +turned upon her new found friend. Not so much was said to the pair in +front, though those ladies had something to say for themselves. Lady +Dromard gave them very small change in smiles, but made the conversation +general for a minute or two, with that graceful tact at which, perhaps, +she was, in a manner, a professional. With equal facility she dropped +them from her talk one after another, much as the last wickets had +fallen in the match, and until only Tiny was left in. For the countess +had come there expressly to talk to Miss Luttrell, as she herself stated +with charming directness.</p> + +<p>"I was afraid you were feeling dull; though really you deserve to, Miss +Luttrell."</p> + +<p>"I was," said Tiny honestly; "but I don't know what I have done to +deserve to, Lady Dromard."</p> + +<p>"It's the last match, and a poor one, which nobody cares anything about. +You should have come earlier in the week."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>"We were here on Wednesday afternoon."</p> + +<p>"But why not oftener? My second son made ninety-three on Thursday. I do +wish you had seen that!"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't my fault that I didn't," remarked Miss Luttrell. "I suppose +things came in the way."</p> + +<p>"Then you are a cricketer!" exclaimed the countess. "I am glad to hear +it, for I am a great cricketer myself. No, I don't play, Miss Luttrell; +only I know all about it."</p> + +<p>Christina candidly confessed that she was not a cricketer in any +sense—that, in fact, she knew very little about cricket; and the +countess, who considered how many girls would have pretended to know +much, was more pleased with this answer than she would have been with an +exhibition of real knowledge of the game.</p> + +<p>"My only interest in this match, however," explained Lady Dromard, "is +in my eldest son. I do so want him to make runs! He has been dreadfully +unsuccessful all the week."</p> + +<p>Christina was discreetly sympathetic.</p> + +<p>"He is going in first," murmured the countess presently in suppressed +excitement. "We must watch the match."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>So they sat without speaking during the first few overs, and the silence +did much for Christina, by putting her at her ease in the hour when she +needed all the ease at her command. Cool as she was outwardly, in her +heart she was not a little afraid of Lady Dromard, whose manner toward +herself had already struck her as rather too kind and much too +scrutinizing. She now entertained a perfectly private conviction that +Lady Dromard either knew something about her or had her suspicions. Not +that this made Christina particularly uncomfortable at the moment. The +countess had eyes and wits for the game only, following it intently +through a heavy field glass grown light now that Manister was batting.</p> + +<p>It was difficult to realize that this eager, animated woman was the +mother of the young fellow at the wicket, she looked so very little +older than her son; or so it seemed to Tiny, who now had ample +opportunity to study not only her face and figure, but her quiet, +handsome bonnet and faultless dress. Even Tiny could not help admiring +Lady Dromard. Suddenly, however, the hand that held the field-glass was +allowed to drop, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> the fine face flushed with disappointment as a +round of applause burst from the field and found no echo in the tents.</p> + +<p>"Manister is out!" exclaimed the countess. "He has only made two or +three!"</p> + +<p>"How fond she is of him," thought the girl, still watching her +companion's face, which somehow softened Christina toward both mother +and son; so that now it was with real sympathy that she remarked, "Poor +Lord Manister! I am very sorry."</p> + +<p>Some expressions of condolence from the seats in front threw the young +girl's words into advantageous relief.</p> + +<p>The countess said presently to Christina, "I am sorry it has turned out +so dull a day; the ground looks really nice when it is fine and sunny."</p> + +<p>"It is a beautiful ground," answered Tiny simply; "the trees are so +splendid."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but you're used to splendid trees."</p> + +<p>"In Australia? Well, we are and we are not, Lady Dromard. I mean to say, +there are tremendous trees in some parts; in others there are none at +all, you know. Up the bush, where we used to live, the trees were of +very little account."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>"I thought the bush was nothing <i>but</i> trees," remarked Lady Dromard; and +Christina could not help smiling as she explained the comprehensive +character of "the bush."</p> + +<p>"So you were actually brought up on a sheep farm!" said Lady Dromard, +looking flatteringly at the graceful young girl.</p> + +<p>"Yes—on a station. It was in the bush, and very much the bush," laughed +Tiny, "for we were hundreds of miles up country. But most of the trees +were no higher than this tent, Lady Dromard. The homestead was in a +clump of pines, and they were pretty tall, but the rest were mere +scrub."</p> + +<p>"Then how in the world," cried her ladyship, "did you manage to become +educated? What school could you go to in a place like that?"</p> + +<p>"We never went to school at all," Tiny informed her confidentially. "We +had a governess."</p> + +<p>"Ah, and she taught you to sing! I should like to meet that governess. +She must be a very clever person."</p> + +<p>Her ladyship's manner was delightfully blunt.</p> + +<p>"Now, Lady Dromard, you're laughing at me! I know nothing—I have read +nothing."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>"I rejoice to hear it!" cried the countess cordially. "I assure you, +Miss Luttrell, that's a most refreshing confession in these days. Only +it's too good to be true. I don't believe you, you know."</p> + +<p>Christina made no great effort to establish the truth of her statement; +for some minutes longer they watched the game.</p> + +<p>But the countess was not interested, though her younger son had gone in, +and had already begun to score. "What were they?" she said at length +with extreme obscurity; but Christina was polite enough not to ask her +what she meant until she had put this question to herself, and while she +still hesitated Lady Dromard recollected herself, appreciated the +hesitation, and explained. "I mean the trees in the bush, at your farm. +Were they gum trees?"</p> + +<p>"Very few of them—there are hardly any gum trees up there."</p> + +<p>"Do you know that <i>I</i> have a young gum tree?" said Lady Dromard +amusingly, as though it were a young opossum.</p> + +<p>"No!" said Tiny incredulously.</p> + +<p>"But I have, in the conservatory; you might have seen it the other +evening."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>"How I wish I had!"</p> + +<p>The young girl's face wore a flush of genuine animation. Lady Dromard +regarded it for a moment, and admired it very much; then she bent +forward and touched Ruth on the arm.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Holland, will you trust your sister to me for half an hour? I want +to show her something that will interest her more than the cricket."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lady Dromard, I can't think of taking you away from the match," +cried Christina, while Ruth's eyes danced, and the bonnets in front +turned round.</p> + +<p>"My dear Miss Luttrell, it will interest <i>me</i> more, now that Lord +Manister is out."</p> + +<p>"But there's Mr. Dromard."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that boy! He has made more runs this week than are good for him. +Miss Luttrell, am I to go alone?"</p> + +<p>The bonnets in front knocked together.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">ORDEAL BY BATTLE.</span></h2> + + +<p>If Tiny Luttrell suffered at all from self-consciousness as she followed +Lady Dromard from the tent, she hid it uncommonly well. Her color did +not change, while her expression was neither bashful nor bold, and +unnatural only in its entire naturalness. Considering that the +conversation in the ladies' tent underwent a momentary lull, by no means +so slight as to escape a sensitive ear, the girl's serene bearing at the +countess' skirts was in its way an achievement of which no one thought +more highly than Lady Dromard herself. Christina had not merely imagined +that she was being systematically watched. No sooner were they in the +open air than the countess wheeled abruptly, expecting to surprise some +slight embarrassment, not unpardonable in so young a face; and this was +not the only occasion on which she was agreeably disappointed in little +Miss Luttrell. The short cut to the house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> was a narrow path that +crossed an intervening paddock. They followed this path. But now Lady +Dromard walked behind, with eyes slightly narrowed; and still she +approved.</p> + +<p>Presently they reached the conservatory. It was large and lofty, and the +smooth white flags and spreading fronds gave it an appearance of +coolness and quiet very different from Christina's recollection of the +place on the night of the dance, when Chinese lanterns had shone and +smoked and smelt among the foliage, and a frivolous hum had filled the +air. The gum tree proved to be a sapling of no great promise or +pretensions. Nor was it seen to advantage, being planted in the central +bed, in the midst of some admirable palms and tree-ferns. But Tiny made +a long arm to seize the leaves and pull them to her nostrils, setting +foot on the soft soil in her excitement; and when she started back, with +an apology for the mark, her face was beaming.</p> + +<p>"But that was a real whiff of Australia," she added gratefully—"the +first I've had since I sailed. It was very, very good of you to bring +me, Lady Dromard. If you knew how it reminds me!"</p> + +<p>"I thought it would interest you," remarked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> Lady Dromard, who was +herself more interested in the footprint on the soil, which was absurdly +small. "If you like I will show you something that should remind you +still more."</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course I like to see anything Australian; but I am sure I am +troubling you a great deal, Lady Dromard!"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least, my dear Miss Luttrell. I have something extremely +Australian to show you now."</p> + +<p>Countess Dromard led the way through the room in which Tiny had danced. +It was still carpetless and empty, and the clatter of her walking shoes +on the floor which her ball slippers had skimmed so noiselessly struck a +note that jarred. The desire came over Tiny to turn back. As they passed +through the hall, a side door stood open; the girl saw it with a gasp +for the open air. It was an odd sensation, as of the march into prison. +It made her lag while it lasted; when it passed it was as though weights +had been removed from her feet. She ran lightly up the shallow stairs; +Lady Dromard was waiting on the landing, and led her along a corridor.</p> + +<p>Here Tiny forgot that her feet had drummed vague misgivings into her +mind; she could no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> longer hear her own steps the corridor was so +thickly carpeted. It was a special corridor, leading to a very special +room of delicate tints and dainty furniture, and Christina was so far +herself again as to enter without a qualm. But her qualms had been a +rather singular thing.</p> + +<p>"This is my own little chapel of ease, Miss Luttrell," the countess +explained; "and now do you not see a fellow-countryman?"</p> + +<p>She pointed to the window; and in front of the window was a pedestal +supporting a gilded cage, and in the cage a pink-and-gray parrot, of a +kind with which the girl had been familiar from her infancy. "Oh, you +beauty!" cried Christina, going to the cage and scratching the bird's +head through the wires. "It's a galar," she added.</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said Lady Dromard, watching her; "a galar! I must remember +that. By the way, can you tell me why he doesn't talk?"</p> + +<p>Christina answered, in a slightly preoccupied manner, that galars very +seldom did. She had become quite absorbed in the bird; she seemed easily +pleased. She went the length of asking whether she might take him out, +and received a hesitating permission to do so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> at her own risk, Lady +Dromard confessing that for her own part she was quite afraid to touch +him through the wires. In a twinkling the girl had the bird in her hand, +and was smoothing its feathers with her chin. The sun was beginning to +struggle through the clouds; the window faced the west; and the faint +rays, falling on the young girl's face and the bird's bright plumage, +threw a good light on a charming picture. Lady Dromard was reminded of +the artificial art of her young days, when this was a favorite posture, +and searched narrowly for artifice in her guest. Finding none she +admired more keenly than before, but became also more timid on the +other's account, so that she could fancy the blood sliding down the fair +skin which the beak actually touched.</p> + +<p>"Dear Miss Luttrell, do put him back! I tremble for you."</p> + +<p>Tiny put the quiet thing back on the perch. Then she turned to Lady +Dromard with rather a comic expression.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what we used to do with this gentleman up on the station?" +said Tiny shamefacedly. "We poisoned him wholesale to save our crop. But +this one seems like an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> old friend to me. Lady Dromard, you have taken +me back to the bush this afternoon!"</p> + +<p>"So it appears," observed the countess dryly, "or I think you would +admire my little view. That's Gallow Hill, and I'm rather proud of my +view of it, because it is the only hill of any sort in these parts. Then +the sun sets behind it, and those three trees stand out so."</p> + +<p>"Ah! I have often wanted to climb up to those three trees," said Tiny, +who took a tantalized interest in Gallow Hill; "but I mayn't, because +I'm in England, where trespassers will be prosecuted."</p> + +<p>For a moment Lady Dromard stared. Then she saw that Christina had merely +forgotten. "Dear me, that stupid notice board!" exclaimed the countess. +"Lord Dromard never meant it to apply to everybody. Next time you come +here come over Gallow Hill, and through the little green gate you can +just see. You will find it a quarter of the distance."</p> + +<p>Christina had indeed spoken without thinking of Gallow Hill as a part of +the estate, or of the warning to trespassers as Lord Dromard's doing. +Now she apologized, and was naturally a little confused; but this time +the count<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>ess would not have had her otherwise. "You shall go back that +way this very evening," she said kindly, "and I promise you shan't be +prosecuted." But Christina had to pet her fellow-countryman for a minute +or two before she quite regained her ease, while her ladyship touched +the bell and ordered tea.</p> + +<p>"How fond you must be of the bush!" Lady Dromard exclaimed as the girl +still lingered by the cage.</p> + +<p>"I like it very much," said Christina soberly.</p> + +<p>"Better than Melbourne?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, infinitely."</p> + +<p>"And England?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, better than England—I can't help it," Tiny added apologetically.</p> + +<p>"There's no reason why you should," said Lady Dromard, with a smile. "I +could imagine your quite disliking England after Australia. I'm sure my +son disliked it when he first came back."</p> + +<p>"Did he?" the girl said indifferently. "Ah, well! I don't dislike +England. I admire it very much, and, of course, it is ever so much +better than Australia in every way. We have no villages like Essingham +out there, no red tiles and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> old churches, and certainly no villagers +who treat you like a queen on wheels when you walk down the street. +We've nothing of that sort—nor of this sort either—no splendid old +houses and beautiful old grounds! But I can't help it, I'd rather live +out there. Give me the bush!"</p> + +<p>"You <i>are</i> enthusiastic about the bush," said Lady Dromard, laughing; +"yet you don't know how fresh enthusiasm is to one nowadays."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I'm not enthusiastic about anything else, then," answered +Christina with engaging candor. "They tell me I don't half appreciate +England; I disappoint all my friends here."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that is perhaps your little joke at our expense!"</p> + +<p>Christina was on the brink of an audacious reply when a footman entered +with the tea tray. That took some of the audacity out of her. She had +not heard the order given. Once more she reflected where she was, and +with whom, and once more she wished herself elsewhere. It was a mild +return of her panic downstairs. Now she felt vaguely apprehensive and as +vaguely exultant. In the uncer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>tain fusion of her feelings she was apt +to become a little unguarded in what she said; there was safety in her +sense of this tendency, however.</p> + +<p>Lady Dromard was reflecting also. As the footman withdrew she had told +him not to shut the door. The truth was she had got Christina to herself +by pure design, though she had not originally intended to get her to +herself up here. That had been an inspiration of the moment, and even +now Lady Dromard was by no means sure of its wisdom. She had gone so far +as to closet herself with this girl, but she did not wish the proceeding +to appear so pronounced either to the footman or to the girl herself. It +would make the footman talk, while it might frighten the girl. That, at +any rate, was the idea of Countess Dromard, who, however, had not yet +learnt her way about the young mind with which she was dealing.</p> + +<p>The tea tray had been placed on a small table near the window. Lady +Dromard promptly settled herself with her back to the light, and +motioned Christina to a chair facing her.</p> + +<p>"Now you'll be able to watch your beloved bird," said her ladyship +craftily. "I thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> we might as well have tea now we are here. I +thought it would be so much more comfortable than having it in the +tent."</p> + +<p>Tiny settled a business matter by stating that she took two pieces of +sugar, but only one spot of cream. Unconsciously, however, she had +followed Lady Dromard's advice, for her eyes were fixed on the parrot in +the cage.</p> + +<p>"I have only had him a few months," observed the countess suggestively. +"Something less than a year, I should say."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" And Tiny lowered her eyes politely to her hostess' face.</p> + +<p>"Yes," repeated Lady Dromard affirmatively. "My son brought him home for +me. It was the only present he had time to get, so I rather value it."</p> + +<p>The girl's gaze returned involuntarily to the bird she had caressed; +apparently her interest was neither diminished nor increased by this +information as to its origin.</p> + +<p>"He was in a great hurry to run away from us, was he not?" she remarked +inoffensively; but there was no attempt in her manner to conceal the +fact that Christina knew what she was talking about.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>"He was obliged to return rather suddenly," said the countess after a +moment's hesitation. She made a longer pause before slyly adding, "I +consider myself very lucky to have got him back at all."</p> + +<p>"How is that, Lady Dromard?"</p> + +<p>And Christina outstared the countess, so that she was asked whether she +would not take another cup of tea. She would, and her hand neither +rattled it empty nor spilt it full. Then Lady Dromard smiled at the +coronet on her teaspoon, and said to it:</p> + +<p>"The fact is I was terrified lest he should go and marry one of you."</p> + +<p>"One of <i>us</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Some fascinating Australian beauty," said Lady Dromard hastily. "So +many aids-de-camp have done that."</p> + +<p>"Poor—young—men!" said Tiny, as slowly and solemnly as though her +words were going to the young men's funeral. "It would have been a +calamity indeed."</p> + +<p>So far from showing indignation Lady Dromard leant forward in her chair +to say in her most winning manner:</p> + +<p>"I should have been all the more terrified had I known <i>you</i>, Miss +Luttrell!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>Clearly this was meant for one of those blunt effective compliments to +which Lady Dromard had the peculiar knack of imparting delicacy and +grace. But the words were no sooner uttered than she saw their double +meaning, and grimly awaited the obvious misconstruction. Tiny, however, +had a quick perception, and plenty of common sense in little things. +Instead of a snub the countess received a good-tempered smile, for which +she could not help feeling grateful at the time; but now her instinct +told her that she was dealing with a person with whom it might be well +to be a little more downright, and she obeyed her instinct without +further delay.</p> + +<p>"Miss Luttrell, I am sure there is no occasion for me to beat about the +bush—with you," she began in an altered, but a no less flattering tone; +"I see that one is quite safe in being frank with you. The fact is—and +you know it—my son very nearly did marry someone out there. Now you met +him out there in society, and you probably knew everyone there who was +worth knowing, so pray don't pretend that you know nothing about this."</p> + +<p>Their eyes were joined, but at the moment Christina's was the cooler +glance.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>"I couldn't pretend that, Lady Dromard, for it happens that I know <i>all</i> +about it."</p> + +<p>The countess was perceptibly startled. "The girl was a friend of yours?" +she inquired quickly.</p> + +<p>"A great friend," answered Tiny, nodding.</p> + +<p>"How I wish you would tell me her name!"</p> + +<p>"I mustn't do that." This was said decidedly. "But it seems a strange +thing that you don't know it."</p> + +<p>"It is a strange thing," Lady Dromard allowed; "nevertheless it's the +truth. I never heard her name. You may imagine my curiosity. Miss +Luttrell, I seem to have felt ever since I met you that you knew +something about this—that you could tell one something. And I don't +mind confessing to you now—since I see you are not the one to +misunderstand me willfully—that I have purposely sought an opportunity +of sounding you on the subject."</p> + +<p>Christina smiled, for this was not news to her.</p> + +<p>"My son will tell me nothing," continued Lady Dromard, "and I have, of +course, the greatest curiosity to know everything. It is no idle +curiosity, Miss Luttrell. I am his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> mother, and he has never got over +that attachment."</p> + +<p>"Has he not?" said Tiny with dry satire.</p> + +<p>"He has never got over it," repeated Lady Dromard in a tone which was a +match for the other. "Has the girl?"</p> + +<p>Tiny was startled in her turn. She hesitated before replying, and seemed +to waver over the nature of her reply. It was the first sign she had +shown of wavering at all, and Lady Dromard drew her breath. The girl was +hanging her head, and murmuring that she really could not answer for the +other girl. Suddenly she flung up her face, and it was hot, but not +hotter than her words:</p> + +<p>"Yes, Lady Dromard, you are his mother. But the girl was my friend. He +treated her abominably!"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't his fault—it was mine," said Lady Dromard steadily.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid that does not make one think any better of him," murmured +the young girl. Her chin was resting in her hand. The flush had passed +from her face as suddenly as it had come. Her eyes were raised to the +sky out of the window, and there was in them the sad, hardened, reckless +look that those who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> knew her best had seen too often, latterly, in her +silent moments. The sun was dropping clear of the clouds, and the +brighter rays fell kindly over Tiny's dark hair and pale, piquant face. +The keen eye that was on her had never watched more closely nor admired +so much.</p> + +<p>"Consider!" said Lady Dromard presently, and rather gently. "Try to put +yourself in our place—and consider. We have a position, here in +England, of which very few people can be got to take a sensible view; +half the country professes an absurd contempt for it, while the other +half speaks of it and of us with bated breath. We ourselves naturally +think something of our position, and we try, as we say, to keep it up. +Of course we are worldly, in the popular sense. We bring up our children +with worldly ideas. They must make worldly marriages in their own +station. Is it so very contemptible that we should see to this, and +dread beyond most things an unwise or an unequal marriage? Now do +consider: we let our son go out to Australia, because it is good for a +young man to see the world before he marries and settles down—and mind! +that was what he was about to do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> If he had not gone to Australia then, +he would have been married at once. He was all but engaged. It was a +case of putting off the engagement instead of the marriage. We do not +believe in long, formal engagements; we do not permit them. We find them +undesirable for many reasons. So, you see, he goes out to Australia as +good as engaged, but unable to say so, and very young, and no doubt very +susceptible. Can you wonder that I tremble for him when he has gone? +Well, he is the best son in the world, and has told me everything +always. That is my comfort. But presently he tells one things in his +letters which make one tremble more than ever, though he tells them +jokingly. Then a cousin of Lord Dromard's stays a day or two in +Melbourne and comes home with a report——"</p> + +<p>Christina's face twitched in the sunlight. "I suppose that was Captain +Dromard?" she said quietly; "I never met him, but I saw him." She seemed +to see him then, and that was why her face twitched. She was still +staring out of the window at the yellowing sky.</p> + +<p>"Captain Dromard had forgotten the girl's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> name," said the countess +pointedly; "but he told me enough to make me write to my boy—I nearly +cabled! And do you think I was wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Not from your point of view, Lady Dromard," answered Christina +judicially, with her eyes half closed in the slanting sunbeams which she +chose to face. "Certainly you cannot have had very much faith in Lord +Manister's judgment; but the case is altered if he was to all intents +and purposes engaged to a girl in England; and, at all events, that's +the worst that could be said of you—looking at it from your own point +of view. But is not the girl out there entitled to a point of view as +well?" And the hardened reckless eyes were turned so suddenly upon Lady +Dromard that the youth and grace and bitterness of the girl smote her +straight to the heart.</p> + +<p>There was a slight tremor and great tenderness in the voice that +whispered, "Did she feel it very much? Come, come—don't tell me it +broke her heart!"</p> + +<p>"No, I won't tell you that," said the girl briskly, but with a laugh +which hurt. "That doesn't break so easily in these days. No, it didn't +break her heart, Lady Dromard—it did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> much worse. It got her talked +about. It poisoned her mind, it killed her faith, it spoilt her temper. +It did all that—and one thing worse still. Though it didn't <i>break</i> her +heart, Lady Dromard, it cracked it, so that it will never ring true any +more; it made her hate those she had loved—those who loved her; it made +it impossible for her ever to care for anybody in the whole wide world +again!"</p> + +<p>Lady Dromard had drawn her chair nearer to the girl, and nearer still. +Lady Dromard was no longer mistress of herself.</p> + +<p>"Did it make her hate <i>you</i>, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"It made her loathe—me."</p> + +<p>Lady Dromard was seen to battle with a strong womanly impulse, and to +lose. Her fine eyes filled with tears. Her soft, white hands flew out to +Christina's, and drew them to her bosom. At this moment a young man in +flannels appeared at the door, and the young man was Lord Manister; but +the rich carpet had muffled his tread, and the two women had eyes for +one another only—the girl he had loved—the mother who had drawn him +from her. The same sunbeam washed them both.</p> + +<p>"Now I know her name—now I know it!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>"I think you cannot have found it out this minute, Lady Dromard."</p> + +<p>"But I have. I have never known whether to believe it or not, since it +first crossed my mind, the night you dined here. You see, I know him so +well! But he didn't tell me, and after all I had no reason to suppose +it. Oh, he has told me nothing—and you are the gulf between us, for +which I have only myself to thank. Ah, if I had only dreamt—of you!"</p> + +<p>Tiny suffered herself to be kissed upon the cheek.</p> + +<p>"Pray say no more, dear Lady Dromard," she said quietly. "Shall I tell +you why?" she added, drawing back. "Why, because it's quite a thing of +the past."</p> + +<p>"It is not a thing of the past," cried Lady Dromard passionately. "He +has never loved anyone else. He bitterly regrets having listened to me, +and I, now that I know you—I bitterly regret everything! And he loves +you ... and I would rather ... and I have told him what is the simple +truth—how I have admired you from the first!"</p> + +<p>The last sentence was doubtless a mistake. It was the only one that +would let itself be uttered, however, and before another could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> be added +by either woman Lord Manister had tramped into the room. They fell the +further apart as he came between them and stooped down, laying his hands +heavily on the little table. His eyes sped from the girl to his mother, +and back to the girl, on whom they stayed. One hand held his crumpled +cap. His hair was disordered. In many ways he looked at his best, as +Tiny had always said he did in flannels. But never before had Tiny seen +him half so earnest and sad and handsome.</p> + +<p>"My mother is right," he said firmly. "I love you, and I ask you to +forgive us both, and to give me what I don't deserve—one word of hope!"</p> + +<p>The young girl glanced from his grave, humble face to that of his +mother, through whose tears a smile was breaking. Lady Dromard's lips +were parted, half in surprise at the humility of her son's words, half +in eagerness for the answer to them. Tiny Luttrell read her like a +printed book, and rose to her feet with a smile that was equally +unmistakable, for it was a smile of triumph.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">HER HOUR OF TRIUMPH.</span></h2> + + +<p>Now Herbert was taking part in the match, and Ruth was in the ladies' +tent, trying not to think of Christina, who was playing a single-wicket +game in another place. But Erskine Holland was rolling the rectory court +gloomily and quite alone, and he was tired of Essingham. Not only had +the day kept fine in spite of its threats, but toward the end of the +afternoon it turned out very fine indeed, and the light became excellent +for lawn tennis, because there was nobody to play with poor Erskine. +Even the good Willoughby was on the accursed field over yonder; and he +mattered least. Ruth was there. Tiny was there. Herbert was not only +there, but playing for Lord Manister, who was notoriously short of men. +One can hardly wonder at Erskine's condemnation of his brother-in-law, +out of his own mouth, as a stultified young fraud in the matter of Lord +Manister. As to the girls,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> some old tenets of his concerning women in +general returned to taunt him for the ship-wreck of his holiday at +least. Yet Ruth had but plotted for her sister's advancement, not her +own. Whether Christina cared in the least for the man whom she evidently +meant to marry, if she could, was, after all, Christina's own affair. +Erskine had only heard her disparage him behind his back—at which +Herbert himself could not beat her—whereas Ruth had at least been +openly in favor of the fellow from the very first. But if Herbert was a +fraud, what was the name for Tiny? Clearly the only trustworthy person +of the three was Ruth, who at least—yet alone—was consistent.</p> + +<p>To this conclusion, which was not without its pleasing side, Erskine +came with his eyes on the ground he was rolling. But as he pushed the +roller toward the low stone wall dividing the lawn from the churchyard, +into which the balls were too often hit, one came whizzing out of it for +a change, and struck the roller under Erskine's nose. And leaning with +her elbows on the low wall, and her right hand under her chin, as though +it were the last right hand that could have flung that ball, stood the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +girl for whom a bad enough name had yet to be found.</p> + +<p>"Where on earth did you spring from?" Holland asked, a little brusquely, +as he stopped for a moment and then rolled on toward the wall.</p> + +<p>"If you mean the ball," replied Tiny, "it must be the one we lost the +last time we played. I have just found it among the graves, and it +slipped out of my hand."</p> + +<p>"I meant you," said Erskine, with an unsuccessful smile; and he pushed +the roller close up to the wall, and folded his arms upon the handle.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have come from the hall by the forbidden path over Gallow Hill; +but it seems that wasn't meant for us, and at any rate I have leave to +use it whenever I like." She was puzzling him, and she knew it, but she +met his eyes with a mysterious smile for some moments before adding: +"You can't think what a view there is from the top of the hill—I mean a +view of the hall. Just now the sun was blazing in all the windows, like +the flash of a broadside from an old two-decker; you see it made such an +impression on me that I thought of that for your benefit."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>Erskine acknowledged the benefit rather heavily with a nod.</p> + +<p>"What have you done with Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"To the best of my belief she is watching the match; at least she was an +hour ago."</p> + +<p>"Something <i>has</i> happened!" exclaimed Erskine Holland, starting upright +and leaving the roller handle swinging in the air like an inverted +pendulum. His eyes were unconsciously stern; those of the girl seemed to +quail before them.</p> + +<p>"Something has happened," she admitted to the top of the wall. "I +suppose you would get to know sooner or later, so I may as well tell you +myself now. The fact is Lord Manister has just proposed to me."</p> + +<p>Erskine dropped his eyes and shrugged slightly; then he raised them to +the setting sun, and tried to look resigned; then, with a noticeable +effort, he brought them back to her face, and forced a smile.</p> + +<p>"I'm not surprised. I saw it coming, though I hardly expected it so +soon. Well, Tiny, I congratulate you! He is about the most brilliant +match in England."</p> + +<p>"Quite the most, I thought?"</p> + +<p>"And I am sure he is a first-rate fellow,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> added Erskine with vigor, +regretting that he had not said this first, and disliking what he had +said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is a very good sort," acknowledged Tiny to the wall.</p> + +<p>"So you ought to be the happiest young woman in the world, as you are +perhaps the luckiest—I mean in one sense. And I congratulate you, Tiny, +I do indeed!"</p> + +<p>To clinch his congratulations he held out his hand, from which she +raised her eyes to him at last—with the look of a cabman refusing his +proper fare.</p> + +<p>"And I took you for the most discerning person I knew!" said Tiny very +slowly.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say——"</p> + +<p>His eagerness and incredulity arrested his speech.</p> + +<p>"I <i>do</i> mean to say."</p> + +<p>"That you have—refused him?"</p> + +<p>Tiny nodded. "With thanks—not too many."</p> + +<p>They stared at one another for some moments longer. Then Erskine sat +down on the roller and folded his arms and looked extremely serious, +though already the corners of his mouth were beginning to twitch.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>"Now, you know, Tiny, I'm <i>in loco parentis</i> as long as you're in +England. In this one matter you've no business to chaff me. Honestly, +now, is it the truth that Lord Manister has asked you to marry him, and +that you have said him nay?"</p> + +<p>"It is the truest truth I ever uttered in my life. I refused him +point-blank," added Tiny, with eyes once more lowered, as though the +memory were not unmixed with shame, "and before his own mother!"</p> + +<p>"In the presence of Lady Dromard?"</p> + +<p>She nodded solemnly, but with a blush.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" murmured Erskine. "And I was ass enough to think you were +leading him on!"</p> + +<p>She whispered, "And so I was."</p> + +<p>For one moment Erskine stared at her more seriously than ever; then the +reaction came, and she saw him shaking. He shook until the tears were in +his eyes; and when he was rid of them he perceived the same thing in +Tiny's eyes, but obviously not from the same cause.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> don't think it's such a joke," said the girl, in the voice of one +pained when in pain already. "I am pretty well ashamed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> myself, I can +tell you. If you really consider yourself responsible for me I think you +might let me tell you something about it; for you must tell Ruth—I +daren't. But if you're going to laugh ... let me tell you it's no +laughing matter to me, now I've done it."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," said Holland instantly; "I am a brute. Do tell me anything +you care to; I promise not to laugh unless you do. And I might be able +to help you."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you would if anybody could; but nobody can; I have behaved just +scandalously, and I know it as well as you do, now that it's too late. +Yet I wish that you knew all about it, Erskine!" She looked at him +wistfully. "You understand things so. Would it bore you if I were to +tell you how the whole thing happened?"</p> + +<p>The gilt hands of the church clock made it ten minutes to six when +Erskine shook his head and bent it attentively. When the hour struck he +had opened his mouth only once, to answer her question as to how much he +knew of her affair with Lord Manister in Melbourne. He had known for a +day and a half as much as Ruth knew; and he did not learn much more now, +for the girl could speak more freely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> of recent incidents, and dwelt +principally on those of that afternoon, beginning with Lady Dromard's +extraordinary attentiveness on the cricket field.</p> + +<p>"I felt there was something behind that, though I didn't know what; I +could only be sure that she had her eye on me. However, I took a +tremendous vow to face whatever came without moving a muscle. I think I +succeeded, on the whole, but I was on the edge of a panic when she took +me upstairs. I wanted to clear! I had qualms!"</p> + +<p>She was startlingly candid on another point.</p> + +<p>"I also made up my mind to behave as prettily as possible, just to show +her. I was really pleased with the interest she seemed to take in what I +told her about the bush, and I was quite delighted to see a galar again. +But I needn't have made the fuss I did in taking it out of its cage; +that was purely put on, and all the time I was mortally afraid that it +would peck me. Yet I suppose," added Tiny, after some moments, "you +won't believe me when I tell you that I am ashamed of all that already?"</p> + +<p>Erskine declared that there was nothing in the world to be ashamed of; +on the contrary,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> in his opinion she was perfectly justified in all she +had done. With kind eyes upon her, he added what he very nearly meant, +that he was proud of her; and his remark wrought a change in her +expression which convinced him finally that at least she was not proud +of herself.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you weren't there, Erskine," said Christina sadly, her blue eyes +clouded with penitence; "you don't know how kind poor Lady Dromard was +with all her dodges! She said it would be more comfortable to have tea +up there. Comfortable was the last thing I felt in my heart, but I never +let her see that; and besides, I didn't as yet guess what was coming. +Even when she wanted me to tell her my own name, I couldn't be sure that +she suspected me. I wasn't sure until she asked me whether the girl had +got over it, when I knew from her voice. And I saw then that she really +rather liked me, and half wished it to be; and I was sorry because I +liked her; and though I spoke my mind to her about her son, I should +have made a clean breast of everything to her if he hadn't come in just +then. I should have told her straight that I didn't care <i>that</i> for +him—not now—and that I had been flirting with him disgracefully just +to try to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> make him smart as I had smarted. That's the whole truth of +it, Erskine; and I meant to tell her so in another second, because I +couldn't stand her kissing me and crying, and all that. I should have +been crying myself next moment. But just then <i>he</i> came in, and I +remembered everything. I remembered, too, what she had had to do with +it, on her own showing; and when I saw what she wanted me to say I think +I became possessed."</p> + +<p>Her brother-in-law was very curious to know all that Christina had said, +but she would not tell him. She merely remarked that he would think all +the worse of her if he knew, even though at the moment she could hardly +remember any one thing that she had said. Then she paused, and recalled +a little, and the little made her blush.</p> + +<p>"I didn't come well out of it," she declared.</p> + +<p>Erskine threw discredit on her word in this particular matter; he +sniffed an extravagant remorse.</p> + +<p>"Talk of hitting a man when he's down!" exclaimed Tiny miserably. "I hit +Lady Dromard when the tears were in her eyes, and Lord Manister when he +was hitting himself. He took it splendidly. He is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> gentleman. I don't +care what else he is—lord or no lord, he would always be a perfect +gentleman. What's more, I am very sorry for him."</p> + +<p>"Why on earth be sorry for him?" asked Erskine with a touch of +irritation; for when Tiny spoke of Lady Dromard's tears, her own eyes +swam with them; and to do a thing like this and start crying over it the +moment it was done seemed to Erskine a bad sign. The event was so very +fresh, and so entirely contrary to his own most recent apprehensions, +that at present his only feeling in the matter was one of profound +satisfaction. But the symptoms she showed of relenting already +interfered not a little with that satisfaction, while, even more than by +the remark that had prompted his question, he was alarmed by her answer +to it:</p> + +<p>"Because I believe he does care for me, a little bit, in his own way—or +he thinks he does, which comes to the same thing; and because, when +all's said and done, I have treated him like a little fiend!"</p> + +<p>"My good girl!" said Holland uneasily, "I should remember how he treated +you."</p> + +<p>"Ah, no," answered Christina, shaking her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> head; "I have remembered that +far too long as it is. That's ancient history."</p> + +<p>"Well, be sorry for him if you like; be sorry for yourself as well."</p> + +<p>That was the best advice that occurred to him at the moment, but it set +her off at a tangent.</p> + +<p>"I should think I am sorry for myself—I should be sorry for any girl +who could so far forget herself!" cried Christina, speaking bitterly and +at a great pace. "Shall I tell you the sort of thing I said? When I told +him I could not possibly believe in his really caring for me, after the +way in which he left Melbourne without so much as saying good-by to me +or sending me word that he was going, he said it wasn't then he really +loved me, but now. So I told him I was sorry to hear it, as in my case +it might perhaps have been then, but it certainly wasn't now. I actually +said that! Then Lady Dromard spoke up. She had been staring at me +without a word, but she spoke up now, and it served me right. I can't +blame her for being indignant, but she didn't say half she could have +said, and it was more what she implied that sticks and stings. It didn't +sting then, though; I was thinking of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> all the talk out there. It was +when Lord Manister stopped her, and held out his hand to me and said, +'Anyway you forgive me now? I thought you <i>had</i> forgiven me'—it was +then I began to tingle. I said I forgave him, of course; and then I +bolted. But I was sorry for him, and I <i>am</i> sorry for him, whatever you +say, for I had cut him to the heart.... And he looked most awfully nice +the whole time!"</p> + +<p>With these frivolous last words there came a smile: the normal girl +shone out for an instant, as the sun breaks through clouds; and Erskine +took advantage of the gleam.</p> + +<p>"To the heart of his vanity—that's where you cut. You've humiliated him +certainly; but surely he deserved it? In any case, you've given young +Manister the right-about; and upon my soul that's rather a performance +for our Tiny! I should only like to have seen it."</p> + +<p>"It's good of you to call me your Tiny," returned the young girl rather +coldly. "But don't talk to me about performances, please, unless you +mean disgraceful performances. I wish I had never come to England—I +wish I was back in Australia—I wish I was up at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> station!" she +cried with sudden passion. "I am miserable, and you won't understand me; +and Ruth couldn't if she tried."</p> + +<p>"My dear girl," Erskine said in rather an injured tone, "surely you're a +little unfair on us both? Ruth will understand when I tell her; and as +for me—I think I understand you already."</p> + +<p>"Not you!" answered Tiny disdainfully. "You call it a performance! You +treat it as a joke!" And she left him, with the tears in her eyes.</p> + +<p>He watched her enter the garden by the little gate lower down, and +saunter toward the house with lagging steps. The low sun streamed upon +her drooping figure. Even at that distance, and with her face hidden +from him, she seemed to Erskine the incarnation of all that was wayward +and willful and sweet in girlhood. And her tears and temper made her +doubly sweet, as the rain draws new fragrance from a flower; but they +had also made her doubly difficult to understand. One moment he had seen +her plainly, as in the lime light; in another, she had retired to a +deeper shade than before. The explanation of her conduct toward Lord +Manister had been a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> sufficiently startling revelation, yet a perfectly +lucid one; but what of this prompt transition to tears and penitence? +The only interpretation which suggested itself to Erskine was one that +he refused to entertain. He preferred to attribute Christina's present +state of mind to mere reaction; if the reaction had taken a rather +hysterical form, that, perhaps, was not to be wondered at. Moreover, +this seemed to be indeed the case; for the girl was seen no more that +day, save by Ruth, who by night was perhaps the most disappointed person +in the parish; only she managed to conceal her disappointment in a way +that it was impossible not to admire.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless dinner at the rectory was a dismal meal, and the more so +for the high spirits of Herbert, which, meeting with no response, turned +to silence. Poor Herbert happened to have distinguished himself in the +match, which, indeed, he had been largely instrumental in winning for +his side; but neither Ruth nor her husband showed any interest in his +exploit, and Tiny was not there. Erskine was no cricketer; Herbert hated +him for it, and made a sullen attack on the claret. But at length it +dawned upon him that there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> was some special reason for the silence and +glum looks at either end of the table, for which Christina's alleged +headache would not in itself account; and when Ruth left the table early +to look after Tiny, he said bluntly to Erskine:</p> + +<p>"You're enough to give a fellow the blues, the pair of you! What's +wrong? Have I done anything, or has Tiny?"</p> + +<p>Erskine temporized, pushing forward the claret. "I understand <i>you</i> have +done something," he said with a first approach to geniality; "but, upon +my word, old fellow, I don't know what it is. I couldn't listen, for the +life of me; and you must forgive me. Tiny's upset, and that's upset +Ruth, which I suppose has upset me in my turn. Please call me names—I +deserve them—and then tell me again what you have done."</p> + +<p>Herbert did not require two invitations to do this. He had not only +acquitted himself brilliantly, but there was a peculiar piquancy in his +success; he had saved the side which had treated him with unobtrusive +but galling contempt until the last moment, when he opened their eyes, +and their throats too. They had put him to field at short leg; during +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> intervals, after the fall of a wicket, not one of them had spoken a +word to him, save good-natured Mr. Willoughby; and they had sent him in +last, with hopeless faces, when there were many runs to get. The good +batsmen, beginning with Lord Manister, had mostly failed miserably. The +Honorable Stanley Dromard, who had been in fine form all the week, had +alone done well; and he was still at the wicket when Herbert whipped in, +with his ears full of gratuitous instructions to keep his wicket up, and +not to try to hit the professional, and his heart full of other designs. +Those instructions were given without much knowledge of this young +Australian, who took a sincere delight in disregarding them. He had hit +out from the very first, particularly at the professional, who disliked +being hit, and who was also somewhat demoralized by the extreme respect +with which he had been treated by preceding batsmen. There were thirty +runs to make when Herbert went in, and in a quarter of an hour he made +them nearly all from his own bat, exhibiting an almost insolent amount +of coolness and nerve at the crisis. The best of it was that no one had +considered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> it a crisis when he went in; but his truculent batting had +immediately made it one, and ultimately, in a scene of the greatest +excitement, of which Herbert was the hero, an almost certain defeat had +been converted into a glorious victory. All this was confirmed by the +local newspaper next day; considering his achievement and his character, +the hero himself told his tale with modesty.</p> + +<p>"He bowled like beggary," he concluded, in allusion to the discomfited +professional; "but I tell you, old toucher, we were too many measles for +him!"</p> + +<p>"They were more civil to you after that?"</p> + +<p>"My oath!" said Herbert complacently. "Those Eton jokers kicked up +hell's delight! Stanley Dromard shook hands with me between the wickets, +and said I ought to be going up to Trinity; but he's a real good +sportsman, with less side than you'd think. His governor, the earl, +congratulated me in person—you bet I felt it down my marrow! He wants +to know how it is I'm not playing for the Australians. The only man who +didn't say a word to me was that dam' fool Manister."</p> + +<p>"Ah, he was on the ground, then?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>"He turned up as I went in; and when I came out he didn't look at me. +Who the blazes does he think he is? I'm as good a man as him, though I'm +a larrikin and he's a twopenny lord. I don't care what he is, I had the +bulge over him to-day—he made four!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps someone else has had the bulge over him, too," suggested +Erskine gently.</p> + +<p>"Has someone?"</p> + +<p>Erskine nodded.</p> + +<p>"Our Tiny?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he has asked her to marry him, and she has refused him on the +spot."</p> + +<p>Herbert shot out of his chair.</p> + +<p>"So're you crackin'! I thought something was <i>wrong</i>, man? O Lord, this +is a treat!"</p> + +<p>"It's a treat she didn't prepare one for. I had visions of a very +different upshot."</p> + +<p>"Aha! you never know where you have our Tiny. No more does old Manister. +Oh, but this is a treat for the gods!"</p> + +<p>"I told Tiny it was a performance," Erskine said reflectively; "it +struck me as one, and I was trying to cheer her up—but that wasn't the +way."</p> + +<p>"No? She's a terror, our Tiny!" murmured Herbert, with a running +chuckle. "Now I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> know why the brute was so civil to me the first time I +met him in these parts. Even then my hand itched to fill his eye for +him, but I didn't say anything, because Tiny seemed on the job herself. +To think this was her game! I must go and shake hands with her. I must +go and tell her she's done better than filling up his eye."</p> + +<p>"Don't you," said Erskine quietly. "I wouldn't say much to her +afterward, either, if I may give you a hint. She doesn't take quite our +view of this matter. Not that we can pretend that ours is at all a nice +view of it, mind you; only I really do regard it as a bit of a +performance on our Tiny's part, and I should like to have seen it."</p> + +<p>"By ghost, so should I! And seriously," added Herbert, "he deserved all +he's got. I happen to know."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">A CYCLE OF MOODS.</span></h2> + + +<p>But the girl herself chose to think otherwise. That was her perversity. +She could now see excuses for her own ill-treatment in the past, but +none for the revenge she had just taken on the man who had treated her +badly. A revenge it had certainly been, plotted systematically, and +carried out from first to last in sufficiently cold blood. But already +she was ashamed of it. So sincerely ashamed was Christina, now that she +had completed her retaliation and secured her triumph, that she very +much exaggerated the evil she had done, and could imagine no baser +behavior than her own. She had, indeed, felt the baseness of it while +yet there was time to draw back, but the memory of her own humiliation +had been her goad whenever she hesitated; and then the way had been made +irresistibly easy for her. But this was no comfort to her now. Neither +was that goad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> any excuse to her self-accusing mind; for she could feel +it no longer, which made her wonder how she had ever felt it at all. Her +judgment was obscured by the magnitude of her meanness in her own eyes. +The revulsion of feeling was as complete as it was startling and +distressing to herself.</p> + +<p>In her trouble and excitement that night it became necessary for her to +speak to someone, and she spoke with unusual freedom to Ruth, who +displayed on this occasion, among others, a really lamentable want of +tact. Tiny sought to explain her trouble: it was not that she could +possibly care for Lord Manister again, or dream of marrying him under +any circumstances (Ruth said nothing to all this), but that she half +believed he really cared for her (Ruth was sure of it), in his own way +(Ruth seemed to believe in his way); and in any case she was very sorry +for him. So was Ruth. In all the circumstances the sorrow of Ruth might +well have received a less frank expression than she thought fit to give +it.</p> + +<p>But it is only fair to say that this did not occur to Ruth. She was in +and out of the room until at last Christina was asleep, and dreaming of +the hall windows ablaze against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> the sunset, while again and again in +her sleep the warm, broken voice of Lady Dromard turned hard and cold. +Ruth watched her affectionately enough as she slept, and consoled +herself for her own disappointment by the reflection that at least they +understood one another now. Therefore it was a rude shock to her when +Christina came down next day and would hardly look at any of them.</p> + +<p>Her mood had changed; it was now her worst. She was pale still, but her +expression was set, and there was a quarrelsome glitter in her eyes; the +fact being that she was a little tired of chastising herself, and +exceedingly ready to begin on some second person. So Erskine himself was +badly snubbed at his own breakfast table, and when Tiny afterward took +herself into the kitchen garden Ruth followed her for an explanation, in +the fullness of her confidence that they understood one another at last. +No explanation was given, Tiny merely remarking that she was sorry if +she had been rude, but that she was in an evil state all through, and +unfit for human society. To Ruth, however, this only meant that Tiny was +unfit to be alone. So Ruth remained in the kitchen garden too, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> was +good enough to resume gratuitously her consolations of the night before. +But in a very few minutes she returned, complaining, to her husband.</p> + +<p>"My dear," said he at once, "you oughtn't to have gone near her. Above +all, you shouldn't have broached the subject of her affairs; you should +have left that to her. She seems considerably ashamed of herself, and +though I must say I think that's absurd, you can't help liking her the +better for it. She surprised us all, but she surprised herself too, +because she has found that she can't strike a blow without hurting +herself at least as badly as anybody else; and that shows the good in +her. Personally, I think the blow was justified; but that has nothing to +do with it. The point is that if she's mortified about the whole +concern, as is obviously the case, it must increase her mortification to +know that we know all about it, and that she herself has told us. Which +applies more to me than to you. It was natural she should tell you; she +only told me because I happened to be the first person she saw, and I +can quite understand her hating me by this time for listening. We must +ignore the whole matter except<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> when it pleases her to bring it up, and +then we must let her make the running."</p> + +<p>"I hate people to require so much humoring!" exclaimed Ruth, with some +reason.</p> + +<p>"Well, I must say I'm glad that <i>you</i> don't," her husband said prettily. +"As to Tiny, her faults are very sweet, and her moods are really +interesting—but I'm thankful they don't run in the family!"</p> + +<p>He seemed thankful.</p> + +<p>"Yet you're a wonderful man for understanding other people," returned +Ruth as prettily; and her eyes were full of admiration.</p> + +<p>"Ah, well! Tiny's not like other people. I think she must enjoy +startling one. Our best plan is to expect the unexpected of her from +this time forth, and to let her be until she comes to herself."</p> + +<p>And that came to pass quite in good time. Having effaced herself all the +morning and again during the afternoon, and having been grotesquely +polite to the others (when it was necessary to speak to them) at midday +dinner, Tiny appeared at tea in another frock and flying signals of +peace. She seemed anxious to acquiesce with things that were said. So +Erskine forced jokes which were sufficiently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> terrible in themselves, +but they served a good purpose very well. Christina recovered her old +form, and after tea made a winsome assault upon no less redoubtable a +defender of his own inclinations than her brother Herbert. Him she +successfully importuned to take her to church in the evening, although +not to the church close at hand, where there was never, necessarily, any +service in the rector's absence. Tiny, however, had heard from her +friends in the village of a gifted young Irishman who wore a stole and +held forth extempore in a neighboring parish; they found their way to it +across the twilight fields. They did not return till after nine, when +Christina seemed much brighter than before. Her brightness, however, was +seemingly more grateful to Mr. than to Mrs. Holland, who enticed her +brother into the garden after supper, to ask him whether Tiny had not +mentioned Lord Manister.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, she did just mention him," said Herbert; "but that's all. I +wasn't going to say a word about the joker, and just as we came back to +the drive here she got a hold of my arm and thanked me for not having +asked her any questions; so I was glad I hadn't.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> She said she wasn't by +any means proud of herself, and that she wanted to forget the whole +thing, if we'd only let her. She doesn't want to be bothered about it by +anybody. Those were her very words, as we came up the drive. She was +jolly enough all the way there, talking mostly about Wallandoon. You'll +have noticed how keen she is on the station ever since she went up there +with the governor last April; I think the old place was a treat to her +after Melbourne, to tell you the truth."</p> + +<p>Ruth nodded, as much as to say that she knew. She asked, however, +whether Tiny had talked also of Wallandoon on the way home.</p> + +<p>"No; she was a bit quiet on the way home. I think the sermon must have +made an impression on her, but I didn't hear it myself; I put in a sleep +instead. In the hymns, though, she sang out immense—by ghost, as if she +meant it! I rather wished I'd heard the sermon," remarked Herbert +thoughtfully, "because it seemed to set her thinking. I believe she's +given to thinking of those things now and then; I shouldn't be surprised +to see her go religious some day, if she don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> marry; I'd rather she +did, too, than marry a thing like Manister!"</p> + +<p>The next day was their last at Essingham, for which not even Ruth could +grieve, in view of recent events. The day, however, was its own +consolation; it was cold and dull and damp, though not actually wet, so +that Erskine, who spent the greater part of the morning in front of a +barometer, had hopes of some final sets in the afternoon, when the +Willoughbys were coming to say good-by. Nor was he disappointed when the +time arrived, though the court was dead and the light bad; his own +service was the more telling under these conditions. But to the two +girls, who had been brought up to better things, it was a repulsive day +from all points of view, and they were very glad to spend the morning in +packing up before a hearty fire.</p> + +<p>"This is the kind of thing that makes one sigh for Wallandoon," Tiny +happened to say once as she stood looking out of the window at gray sky +and sullied trees. The thought was spoken just as it came into her head +with an imaginary beam of bush sunshine. There was no other thought +behind it—no human mote in that sunbeam certainly. But Ruth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> had raised +her head swiftly from the trunk over which she was bending, and she +knelt gazing at her sister's back as a dog pricks its ears.</p> + +<p>"Why Wallandoon? Why not Melbourne?"</p> + +<p>"Because I have had enough of Melbourne," replied Christina quietly, and +without turning round.</p> + +<p>"I thought you took so kindly to it?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I did; I have taken kindly to many things that were bad for me +in my time. And that's all the more reason why I should hanker after +Wallandoon. I only wish we could all go back there to live!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I must say I shouldn't care to live there now," remarked Ruth, +with a little laugh; "and I don't see how you could like it either, +after civilization."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that's because you never cared for the station as I did," replied +Christina, with her back still turned; "you liked the veranda better +than the run, and you hated the dust from the sheep when you were +riding. I can smell it now! Just think: they'll be in the middle of +shearing by this time. They were going to have thirty-six shearers on +the board,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> and they expected the best clip they've had for years. Can't +you hear the blades clicking and the tar boys tearing down the board, +and the bales being heaved about at the back of the shed—or see the +fleeces thrown out on the table and rolled up and bounced into the +bins—and father drafting in a cloud of dust at the yards? Can't I! +Many's the time I've brought him a mob of woollies myself. And how good +the pannikin of tea was, and the shearer's bun! I can taste 'em now. You +never cared for tea in a pannikin. Yet perhaps if you'd ever gone back +to see the place since we left it, as I did, you might be as keen on it +as I am. I own I wasn't so keen when we lived there. When I went back +and saw it the other day, though, I thought it the best place in the +world; and you would, too."</p> + +<p>"Is Jack Swift managing it now?" Ruth asked indifferently.</p> + +<p>"You knew he was."</p> + +<p>"Really I'm afraid I don't know much about it; but if you're so fond of +the place as all that, Tiny, I should just marry Jack Swift, and live +there ever after."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you're joking," said the young girl rather scornfully; "but +in case you aren't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> perhaps it will relieve you to hear that, if ever I +do marry, I shall marry a man—not a place."</p> + +<p>And she turned round and stared hard through another window, which +commanded a view of the Mundham gates and grounds; and Ruth made no more +jokes; but neither, on the other hand, did Tiny expatiate any further on +the attractions of station life at Wallandoon.</p> + +<p>The Willoughbys came in the afternoon, when Mrs. Willoughby was severely +disappointed, owing to the rudeness of Christina, who had disappeared +mysteriously, although she knew that these people were coming. Mrs. +Willoughby had seen her last leaving the cricket ground at Mundham under +the wing of Lady Dromard—Mrs. Willoughby had looked forward immensely +to seeing her again. But Christina had gone out, and none knew whither; +the visitor's idea was some private engagement at the hall; and this was +not the only idea she expressed, a little too freely for the entire ease +of Christina's sister. Happily they were only ideas. Mrs. Willoughby +knew nothing.</p> + +<p>Tiny, as it turned out later, had spent the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> whole afternoon in the +village, saying good-by to her friends there. Ruth found this rather +difficult to believe, as she had heard so little of the friends in +question. Nevertheless it was strictly true, and Tiny had taken tea with +Mrs. Clapperton, whose tears she had kissed away when they said good-by; +but that was only the end of a scene which would have been a revelation +to some who prided themselves on knowing their Tiny as well as anyone +could know so unaccountable a person. At dinner that evening she seemed +chastened and subdued, yet her temper, certainly, had never been +sweeter. It was noticeable that, while she had a responsive smile for +most things that were said, she made fun of nothing herself; and she was +far too fond of making fun of everything. But for two whole days her +moods had come and gone like the shadows of the clouds when sun and wind +are strong together; and the last of her whims was not the least +puzzling at the time. Later Ruth read it to her own extreme +satisfaction; but at the time it did seem odd to her that anyone should +desire a walk on so chilly and unattractive a night. Yet when they had +left the men to themselves this was what Tiny<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> said she would like above +all things. And Ruth, who humored her, had her reward.</p> + +<p>For she found herself being led through the churchyard; and when she +hesitated as they came to the notice to trespassers, Tiny muttered in a +dare-devil way:</p> + +<p>"Lady Dromard gave me leave to come this way whenever I liked, and I +mean to make use of my privilege while I can. I want to see the hall +once again—it has a sort of fascination for me!"</p> + +<p>More amazed than before, Ruth followed her leader up the western slope +of Gallow Hill. The night was so dark that they heard the rustle of the +beeches on top before they could discern their branches against the sky; +and standing under them presently, panting from their climb, they gazed +down upon a double row of warm lights embedded in blackness. These were +the hall windows, in even tier, with here and there one missing, like +the broken teeth of a comb. Outline the building had none; only the +windows were bitten upon a sable canvas in ruddy orange and glimmering +yellow, from which there was just enough reflection on the lawn and +shrubs to chain them to earth in the mind of one who watched.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>"Only the windows," murmured Tiny musingly. "Those windows mean to haunt +me for the rest of my time."</p> + +<p>"I wish it were moonlight," Ruth said. "I wish we could see everything."</p> + +<p>"No, I like it best as it is," remarked Tiny, after further meditation. +"It leaves something to your imagination. Those windows are going to +leave my imagination uncommonly well off!"</p> + +<p>They stood together in silence, and the beeches talked in whispers above +them. When Ruth spoke next she whispered too, as though they were just +outside those lighted windows:</p> + +<p>"Yet you would rather live at Wallandoon than anywhere else on earth!"</p> + +<p>Tiny said nothing to that; but after it, at a distance, there came a +sigh.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"I'd rather not tell you, dear; it might make you angry."</p> + +<p>"I think I like being made angry just at present," said Christina, with +a little laugh; "but you've spiked my guns by saying that first; you are +quite safe, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Then I was thinking—I couldn't help<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> thinking—that one day you might +have been mistress——"</p> + +<p>"Of the windows? Then it's high time we turned our backs on them! That's +just what I was thinking myself!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE INVISIBLE IDEAL.</span></h2> + + +<p>On the flags of a London square, some days later, Ruth repeated the sigh +that had succeeded on Gallow Hill, and once more Christina asked her +what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking," said Ruth with a confidence born of the former +occasion, "that one day all this, too, would have been more or less +yours."</p> + +<p>"All what, pray?"</p> + +<p>"Every brick and slate that you can see! All this is part of the Dromard +estate; they own every inch hereabouts."</p> + +<p>Christina's next remark was a perfectly pleasant one in itself, only it +referred to a totally different matter. And thus she treated poor Ruth. +At other times she would herself rush into the subject without warning, +and out of it the moment it wearied or annoyed her; to follow her +closely in and out required a nimble tact indeed. Nor was it easy to +know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> always the right thing to say, or at all delightful to feel that +the right thing to-day might be the wrong thing to-morrow. But into this +one subject Ruth was as ready to enter at a hint from Tiny as she was +now contented to quit it at her caprice. The elder sister's patience and +good temper were alike wonderful, but still more wonderful was her +faith. Instinctively she felt that all was not over between Tiny and +Lord Manister, and like many people who do not pretend to be clever, and +are fond of saying so, she believed immensely in her instincts. It must +not, however, be forgotten that her wishes for Tiny were the very best +she could conceive; and it should be remembered that she had nobody but +Tiny to watch over and care for, to think about and make plans for, +during the long days when Erskine was in the City. This was the great +excuse for Ruth, which never occurred to her husband, and was unknown +even to herself. Christina was her baby, and a very troublesome, bad +baby it was.</p> + +<p>But what could you expect? The girl was sufficiently worried and +unsettled; she was suffering from those upsetting fluctuations of mind +which few of her kind entirely escape,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> but which are violent in +characters that have grown with the emotional side to the sun and the +intellectual side to the wall. In such a case the mind remains hard and +green, while the emotions ripen earlier than need be; and the fault is +the gardener's, and the gardener is the girl's mother. Now Mrs. Luttrell +was a soulless but ladylike nonentity, with an eye naturally blind to +the soul in her girls. All she herself had taught them was an unaffected +manner and the necessity of becoming married. So Ruth had married both +early and well by the favor of the gods, and Christina had restored the +average by committing more follies of all sizes than would appear +possible in the time. That in which Lord Manister was concerned had +doubtless been the most important of the series, but its sting lay +greatly in its notoriety. It had caused a light-hearted girl to see +herself suddenly in the pupils of many eyes, and to recoil in shame from +her own littleness. It had made her hate both herself and the owners of +all those eyes, but men especially, of whom she had seen far too much in +a short space of time. What she had done in England only heightened her +poor opinion of herself now that it was done. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> had seen her way to +an incredibly sweet revenge, only to find it incredibly bitter. In +striking hard she had hurt herself most, as Erskine had divined; instead +of satisfying her naturally vindictive feeling toward Lord Manister that +blow had killed it. Now she forgave him freely, but found it impossible +to forgive herself; and so the generosity that was in a disordered heart +asserted itself, because she had omitted to allow for it, not knowing it +was there. Worse things asserted themselves too, such as the very solid +attractions of the position which might have been hers; to these she +could not help being fully alive, though this was one more reason why +she hated herself. Her first judgment on herself, if a mere reaction at +the beginning, became ratified and hardened as time went on. She became +what she had never been before, even when notoriety had made her +reckless—an introspective girl. And that made her twisty and queer and +unaccountable; for, to be introspective with equanimity, you must have a +bluff belief in yourself, which is not necessarily conceit, but Tiny was +not blessed with it.</p> + +<p>"She has lost her sense of fun—that's the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> worst part of the whole +business!" exclaimed Erskine, one night when Christina had gone early to +bed, as she always would now. "She has ceased to be amusing or easily +amused. The empty town is boring her to the bone, and if I don't fix up +our Lisbon trip we shall have her wanting to go back to Australia. +However, I am bound to be in Lisbon by the end of next month, and I'm +keener than ever on having you two with me. I know the ropes out there, +and I could promise you both a good time—but that depends on Tiny. Let +us hope the bay will blow the cobwebs out of her head; she wasn't made +to be sentimental. I only wish I could get her to jeer at things as she +used before we went to Essingham and while we were there!"</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it's rather a good thing she has dropped that?" Ruth +asked. "She had no respect for anything in those days."</p> + +<p>"And her humor saved her! Pray what does she respect now?"</p> + +<p>"Two or three people that I know of—my lord and master for one, and +another person who is only a lord."</p> + +<p>"Look here, Ruth, I don't believe it," cried Erskine, who by this time +was pacing his study<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> floor. "Why, she hasn't set eyes on him since the +day she refused him—with variations."</p> + +<p>"I know—but she's had time to reflect."</p> + +<p>"Then I hope and pray she may never have the opportunity to recant!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I won't deny that I hope differently," replied Ruth quietly; "but +I've no reason to suppose there's any chance of it; and whatever +happens, Erskine, you needn't be afraid of my—of my meddling any more."</p> + +<p>"My dear girl, I know that," said he cordially enough; "but of course +you tell her you're sorry for this, and you wish that. It's only natural +that you should."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I daren't say as much to her as you think," said Ruth, with a nod +and a smile, for she was glad to know more than he did, here and there. +"You needn't be afraid of me; I have little enough influence over her. +She has only once opened her heart to me—once, and that's all."</p> + +<p>Which was perfectly true, at the time.</p> + +<p>But a few days later the restless girl was seized with a sudden desire +to spend her money (which is really a good thing to do when you are +troubled, if, like Christina, you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> have the money to spend), and as her +most irregular desires were sure to be gratified by Ruth when they were +not quite impossible, this whim was immediately indulged. It was rather +late in the afternoon, but, on the other hand, the afternoon was +extremely fine; and it was a Thursday, when men stay late in Lombard +Street on account of next day's outward mails. Consequently there was no +occasion for hurry; and so fascinated was Christina with the attractions +and temptations of several well-known establishments, and last, as well +as most of all, with those of the stores, that it was golden evening +before they breathed again the comparatively fresh air of Victoria +Street. It was like Christina to wish, at that hour, to walk home, and +"through as many parks as possible"; it was even more like her to be +extravagantly delighted with the first of these, and to insist on +"shouting" Ruth a penny chair overlooking the ornamental water in St. +James' Park.</p> + +<p>Glad as she was to meet her sister's wishes, when she would only express +them, which she was doing with inconvenient freedom this afternoon, Ruth +did take exception to the penny chairs. Her feeling was that for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +two of them to sit down solemnly on two of those chairs was not an +entirely nice thing to do, and certainly not a thing that she would care +to be seen doing. Knowing, however, that this would be no argument with +Tiny, she merely said that it would make them too late in getting home; +and that happened to be worse than none.</p> + +<p>"Erskine said he wouldn't be home till eight o'clock; and he told us not +to dress, as plain as he could speak," Tiny reminded her. "The other +parks won't beat this; and you shall not be late, because I'll shout a +hansom, too."</p> + +<p>So Ruth made no more objections, though she felt a sufficient number; +and they sat down with their eyes toward the pale traces of a gentle, +undemonstrative September sunset, and were silent. Already the lamps +were lighted in the Mall, where the trees were tanned and tattered by +the change and fall of the leaf; at each end of the bridge, too, the +lamps were lighted, and reflected below in palpitating pillars of fire; +and every moment all the lights burnt brighter. Eastward a bluish haze +mellowed trees and chimneys, making them seem more distant than they +were; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> noise of the traffic seemed more distant still, but it +floated inward from the four corners, like the breaking of waves upon an +islet; and here in the midst of it the stillness was strange, and +certainly charming; only Tiny was immoderately charmed. She sat so long +without speaking that Ruth leant back and watched her curiously. Her +face was raised to the pale pink sky, with wide-opened eyes and +tight-shut lips, as though the desires of her soul were written out in +the tinted haze, as you may scratch with your finger in the bloom of a +plum. She never spoke until the next quarter rang out from Westminster +and was lingering in the quiet air, when she said, "Why have we never +done this before, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Well," answered Ruth, "I never did it myself before to-day; and I must +own I think it's rather an odd thing to do."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, heaven may be odd—I hope it is!"</p> + +<p>Ruth began to laugh. "My dear Tiny, you don't mean to say you call this +heavenly?"</p> + +<p>"It's near enough," said the young girl.</p> + +<p>"But, my dear child, what stuff! The couples keep it sufficiently +earthly, I should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> say—and the smell of bad tobacco, and that child's +trumpet, and the midges and gnats—but principally 'Arry and 'Arriet."</p> + +<p>"Now I just like to see them," said Christina, for once the serious +person of the two, "they're so awfully happy."</p> + +<p>"Awfully, indeed!" cried Ruth, with a superior little laugh. "Very +vulgarly happy, I should say!" And Tiny did not immediately reply, but +her eyes had fallen as far as the fretwork of the shabby foliage in the +Mall, over which the sky still glowed; and when she spoke her words were +the words of youthful speculation. She seemed, indeed, to be thinking +aloud, and not at all sure of the sense of her thoughts.</p> + +<p>"Very vulgarly happy!" she repeated, so long after the words had been +spoken that it took Ruth some moments to recall them. "I am trying to +decide whether there isn't something rather vulgar about all happiness +of that kind—from the highest to the lowest. Forgive me, dear—I don't +mean anything the least bit personal—I find I don't mean a word I've +said! I wasn't thinking of the happiness itself so much, but of the +desire for it. Oh, there must be something better for a girl to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> long +for! There <i>is</i> something, if one only knew what it was; but nobody has +ever shown me, for instance. Still there must be something between +misery and marriage—something higher."</p> + +<p>Her eyes had not fallen, but they shone with tears.</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything higher than marrying the man you love," said Ruth +honestly.</p> + +<p>"Ah, if you love him! There is no need for <i>you</i> to know a higher +happiness, even if one were possible in your case. But look at me!"</p> + +<p>"You must marry, too," said Ruth with facility.</p> + +<p>"As I probably shall; but to be happy, as you are happy, one ought to be +fond of the person first, as you were; and—well, I don't think I have +ever in my life felt as you felt."</p> + +<p>"Stuff!" said Ruth, but with as much tenderness as the word would carry.</p> + +<p>"I wish it were," returned Christina sadly; "it's the shameful truth. I +have been going over things lately, and that's never a very cheerful +employment in my case, but I think it has taught me my own heart this +time. And I know now that I have never cared for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> anyone so much as for +myself—much less for Lord Manister! If I had ever really cared for him +I couldn't have treated him as I have done—no, not if he had behaved +fifty times worse in the beginning. I was flattered by him, but I think +I liked him, though I know I was dazzled by—the different things. I +would have married him; I never loved him—nor any of the others!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, Tiny, I am quite sure he loves you."</p> + +<p>"Not very deeply, I hope; I can't altogether believe in him, and I don't +much want to. It is bad enough to have one of them in deadly earnest," +added Christina after a pause, but with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Is one of them—I mean another one?" asked Ruth, correcting herself +quickly.</p> + +<p>Tiny nodded. She would not say who it was. "I don't care for him +either—not enough," she, however, vouchsafed.</p> + +<p>"Then you don't think of marrying him, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"No, not the man I mean"—she shook her head sadly at trees and sky—"I +like him too much to marry him unless I loved him. Only if anyone else +asked me—someone I didn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> perhaps care a scrap for—I don't know what +mightn't happen. I feel so reckless sometimes, and so sick of +everything! This comes of having played at it so often that one is +incapable of the real thing; more than all, it comes of growing up with +no higher ideal than a happy marriage. And there must be something so +much nobler—if one only knew what!"</p> + +<p>Very wistfully her eyes wandered over the fading sky. The thin, floating +clouds, fast disappearing in the darkness, were not less vague than her +desires, and not more lofty. Her soul was tugging at a chain that had +been too seldom taut.</p> + +<p>"I know of nothing—unless you're a bluestocking," suggested poor Ruth, +"or go in for Woman's Rights!"</p> + +<p>Then the sights and sounds of the place came suddenly home to Christina, +and her eyes fell. A child rattled by with an iron hoop. A pleasure +boat, villainously rowed, passed with hoarse shouts through the pillar +of fire below the bridge and left it writhing. Her eyes as she lowered +them were greeted with the smarting smoke of a cigar, and her nostrils +with the smell that priced it. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> smoker took a neighboring chair, or +rather two, for he was not without his companion.</p> + +<p>Christina was the first to rise.</p> + +<p>"I have been talking utter nonsense to you, Ruth," she whispered as they +walked away; "but it was kind of you to let me go on and on. One has +sometimes to say a lot more than one means to get out a little that one +does mean; you must try to separate the little from the lot. I've been +talking on tiptoe—it was good of you not to push me over!"</p> + +<p>They crossed the bridge, throbbing beneath the tread of many feet; in +the Mall, under the half-clothed trees, they hailed a hansom, and Ruth +greeted her reflection in the side mirror with a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>"We should never have done this if we hadn't been Australians," she +remarked, as though exceedingly ashamed of what they had done, as indeed +she was.</p> + +<p>"Then that's one more good reason for thanking Heaven we <i>are</i> +Australians!" answered Tiny, with some of her old spirit. "You may think +differently, Ruth, but for my part that's the one point on which I have +still some lingering shreds of pride."</p> + +<p>And that was how Tiny Luttrell opened her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> heart a second time to Ruth, +her sister, who was of less comfort to her even than before, because now +her open heart was also the cradle of a waking soul. More things than +one need name, for they must be obvious, had of late worked together +toward this awakening, until now the soul tossed and struggled within a +frivolous heart, and its cries were imperious, though ever inarticulate. +To Ruth they were but faint echoes of the unintelligible; scarce +hearing, she was contented not to try to understand. When Tiny said she +had been "talking on tiptoe," to Ruth's mind that merely expressed a +queer mood queerly. She did not see how accurately it figured the young +soul straining upward; indeed the accuracy was unconscious, and +Christina herself did not see this.</p> + +<p>Queer as it may have been, her mood had made for nobility, and was, +therefore, memorable among the follies and worse of which, unhappily, +she was still in the thick. It passed from her not to return, yet to +lodge, perhaps, where all that is good in our lives and hearts must +surely gather and remain until the spirit itself goes to complete and to +inhabit a new temple, and we stand built afresh in the better image of +God.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">FOREIGN SOIL.</span></h2> + + +<p>There is in Cintra a good specimen of the purely Portuguese hotel, which +is worth a trial if you can speak the language of the country and eat +its meats; if you want to feel as much abroad as you are, this is the +spot to promote that sensation. The whole concern is engagingly +indigenous. They will give you a dinner of which every course (there +must be nearly twenty) has the twofold charm of novelty and mystery +combined; and you shall dine in a room where it is safe, if +unsportsmanlike, to criticise aloud your fellow-diners, when their ways +are most notably not your ways. Then, after dinner, you may make music +in a pleasant drawing room or saunter in the quaint garden behind the +hotel; only remember that the garden has a view which is necessarily +lost at night.</p> + +<p>The view is good, and it improves as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> day wears on by reason of the +beetling crag that stands between Cintra and the morning sun. So close +is this crag to the town, and so sheer, that at dawn it looms the +highest mountain on earth; but with the afternoon sunlight streaming on +its face you see it for what it is, and there is much in the sight to +satisfy the eye. Halfway up the vast wall is forested with fir trees +picked out with bright villas and streaked with the white lines of +ascending roads. The upper portion is of granite, rugged and bare and +iron gray. The topmost angle is surmounted by square towers and +battlements that seem a part of the peak, as indeed they are, since the +Moors who made them hewed the stones from the spot; and the serrated +crest notches the sky like a crown on a hoary head. Finer effects may +recur very readily to the traveled eye, but to one too used to flat +regions this is fine enough: thus Tiny Luttrell was in love with Cintra +from the moment when she and Ruth and Erskine first set foot in the +garden of the Portuguese hotel, and let their eyes climb up the sunlit +face of the rock.</p> + +<p>They were a merrier party now than when leaving Plymouth. They had left +fog and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> damp behind them (it was near the end of October), and steamed +back to summer in a couple of days; and that alone was inspiriting. Then +they had already stayed a day or two in Lisbon, where Erskine had spent +as many years when Ruth was an infant at the other end of the world, so +that he was naturally a good guide. There, too, Ruth and Tiny made some +friends, being charmingly treated by people with whom they were unable +to converse, while Erskine attended to the business matter which had +brought him over. The girls were not sorry to hear that this matter was +hanging fire, as such matters have a way of doing in Lisbon, for they +were enjoying themselves thoroughly. Ruth felt prouder than ever of her +big husband when she saw him among his Portuguese friends, and she +thought him very clever to speak their language so fluently. As for +Tiny, she seemed herself again; she was willing to be amused, and +luckily there was much to amuse her. Much, on the other hand, she could +seriously admire, and her high opinion of Portugal was itself amusing +after the fault she had found with another country; she even made +comparisons between the two, which gave considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> pleasure when +translated by Erskine. Cintra pleased her most, however. She delighted +in the hotel, where there were no English tongues but their own; she +even pretended to enjoy the dinner. So Erskine felt proud of his choice +of quarters; only he missed his English paper, and had to go to the +English hotel and purchase unnecessary refreshment on the chance of a +glimpse of one. Your man-Briton abroad is miserable without that. It is +a male weakness entirely. Holland took with him on that pilgrimage no +sympathy from the ladies, who only derided him when he came back +confessing that he had thrown his money away, as some other fellow was +staying at the English inn and reading the paper in his room.</p> + +<p>"But I'm very sorry there's another Englishman in the place," announced +Christina; "though I suppose one ought to be thankful he didn't choose +our hotel. It is something like being abroad, staying here; one more +Englishman would have spoilt the fun."</p> + +<p>"When you see the steeds I've ordered for the morning," said Erskine, +with a laugh, "you'll feel more abroad than ever."</p> + +<p>And they did, indeed, when the morning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> came; for their steeds were +three small asses in charge of a dark-eyed child who was whacking them +for his amusement while he smoked a cigarette. A small but picturesque +crowd had collected in the street to see the start, and were greatly +entertained by the spectacle of the Senhor Inglez (a giant among them) +astride a donkey little taller than a big dog. Interest was also shown +in the camera legs, which Erskine carried like a lance in rest, while +the camera itself was nursed by Christina, who had spoilt a power of +plates in Lisbon without becoming discouraged. The small boy threw away +his cigarette, and having asked Erskine for another, which was sternly +denied him, smote each donkey in turn and set the cavalcade in motion.</p> + +<p>They passed the palace in the little market place, and were unable to +admire it; they passed the loathly prison, which is the worst feature of +Cintra, and were duly abused by the prisoners at the barred windows; +they were glad to reach the outskirts of the town, and to begin their +ascent of the rock up which their eyes had already climbed. They were to +devote the day to the ruined Moorish fort they had seen against the sky, +and to the Palace of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> Pena, which stands on a peak hidden from the town; +and Erskine, who was confident that they were all going to enjoy +themselves very particularly, declared that the day was only worthy of +the cause. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the weather was just +warm enough for the work in hand. As the donkeys wended their way up the +steep roads, Mr. Holland was advised to get off and carry his carrier; +but he knew the Cintra donkey of old, and sat ignobly still. He also +knew the Cintra donkey boy, and aired his Portuguese upon the attendant +imp, who passed on the way, and greeted with jeers, a professional +friend waiting with only one donkey in front of a pretty house +overlooking the road.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Erskine, "that's the English hotel; and no doubt that moke is +for the opposition Senhor Inglez—whose name is Jackson."</p> + +<p>"Then pray let us push on," cried Christina anxiously. "Do you suppose +he is coming our way, Erskine?"</p> + +<p>"Most probably, to begin with; but he may turn off for Monserrat or the +cork convent."</p> + +<p>"Let us hope so. If he should pass us,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> Erskine, just talk Portuguese to +us as loud as ever you can!"</p> + +<p>"Far better to hurry up and not be overtaken," added Ruth, who was +thinking of her appearance, with which she was far from satisfied.</p> + +<p>Accordingly the imp (with whose good looks Christina had already +expressed herself as enamored) was employed for some moments at his +favorite occupation. But for the pursuing Englishman, however, Tiny, +instead of leading the way upward, would have dismounted more than once +to set up her camera; for low parapets were continually on their left, +high walls on their right; and wherever there was a gap in the fir trees +growing below the parapets, a fresh view was presented of the town +below. First it was a bird's-eye view of the palace, seen to better +advantage through the trees of the Rua de Duque Saldanha than before, +from the street; then a fair impression of the town as a whole, with its +gay gardens and cheap looking stuccoed houses; and then successive +editions of Cintra, each one smaller than the last, and each with a +wider tract of undulating brown land beyond, and a broader band of ocean +at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> the horizon. Then they plunged into mountain gorges; there were no +more distant views, but mighty walls on either side, and reddening +foliage interlacing overhead, as though woven upon the strip of pure +blue sky. And the atmosphere was clear as distilled water in a crystal +vessel; but in the shade the air had a sweet keenness, an inspiriting +pungency, under whose influence the enthusiast of the party grew +inevitably eloquent in the praises of Portugal.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you how I like it!" she said to Erskine, with a color on +her cheeks and a light in her eyes which alone seemed worth the voyage. +"I call it a real good country, which has never had justice done to it. +If I could write I would boom it. Of course I haven't seen Italy or +Switzerland, nor yet France, but I have seen England. If I were +condemned to live in Europe at all, I'd rather live at this end of it +than at yours, Erskine. Look at the climate—it's as good as our +Australian climate, and very like it—and this is all but November. You +have no such air in England, even in summer, but when you think of what +we left behind us the other day, it's ditch water unto wine compared +with this.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> Ah, what a day it is, and what a place, and how fresh and +queer and un-English the whole thing is!"</p> + +<p>"I am perhaps spoiling it for you," suggested Erskine apologetically, +"by being not un-English myself?"</p> + +<p>"No, Erskine, it's only me you're spoiling," returned the girl +unexpectedly, and with a grateful smile for Ruth as well. "But I don't +know another Briton—home or colonial—who wouldn't rather spoil the day +and the place for me."</p> + +<p>"That's a pity, because I happen to smell the blood of an Englishman at +this moment—at least I hear his donkey."</p> + +<p>They stopped to listen, and following hoofs were plainly audible.</p> + +<p>"Then he hasn't turned off for the other places!" exclaimed Ruth, +smoothing her skirt.</p> + +<p>Erskine shrugged his shoulders like a native of the country. "No, he is +evidently bound for our port; and as the chances are that he is under +sixteen stone, he's sure to overtake us. It is I that am keeping you all +back."</p> + +<p>"We won't look round," exclaimed Tiny decisively; "and you shall shout +at us in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> Portuguese as he comes up, and we'll say 'Sim, Senhor!'"</p> + +<p>So they kept their eyes most rigorously in front of them; and such was +the authority of Tiny that Erskine was in the midst of an absurd speech +in Portuguese when they were overtaken. That harangue was interrupted by +the voice of the interloping Englishman; and was never resumed, as the +voice was Lord Manister's.</p> + +<p>The meeting was plainly an embarrassing one for all concerned, but it +had at least the appearance of a very singular coincidence; and nothing +will go further in conversation than the slightest or most commonplace +coincidence. You must be very nervous indeed if you are incapable of +expressing your surprise, of which much may be made, while the little +bit of personal history to follow need not entail a severe intellectual +effort. Lord Manister accounted very simply, if a little eagerly, for +his presence in Portugal; he went on to explain that he had heard much +of Cintra, but not, as he was glad to find, one word too much. +Personally, he was delighted and charmed. Was not Mrs. Holland charmed +and delighted? It was at Ruth's side that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> Lord Manister rode forward, +falling into the position very naturally indeed.</p> + +<p>Quite as naturally the other two dropped behind. "So now I suppose your +day will be spoilt, Tiny," murmured Erskine, with a wry smile.</p> + +<p>"The day is doomed—unless he has the good taste to see he isn't +wanted."</p> + +<p>"Well, I wouldn't let him see that, even if he does bore you," said +Erskine, who had his doubts on this point. "I don't think he's looking +very well," he added meditatively.</p> + +<p>As for Christina, she was staring fixedly at Lord Manister's back; for +once, however, his excellent attire earned no gibe from her; and while +she was still seeking for some more convincing mode of parading her +immutable indifference toward that young man, a turn in the road brought +them suddenly before the gates of Pena. The four closed up and rode +through the gates abreast; and, presently dismounting, they left their +small steeds to the sticks of the Cintra donkey boys, and walked +together up the broad, sloping path.</p> + +<p>"By the way," remarked Holland, "I was told there was only one other +Englishman in Cintra at the moment—a man of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> the name of Jackson; have +you arrived this morning?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid—I'm Jackson!" confessed Manister, with a blush and a noisy +laugh.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," said Mr. Holland, laughing also; and he saw a good deal.</p> + +<p>"Of course you have to do that sometimes; I can quite understand it," +Ruth said in a sympathetic voice. "Still I think we must call you Mr. +Jackson!" she added slyly.</p> + +<p>Christina said nothing at all. Her extreme silence and self-possession +hardly tended to promote the common comfort; her only comment on Lord +Manister's alias was a somewhat scornful smile. As they all pressed +upward by well-kept paths, in the shadow of tall fir trees, she kept +assiduously by Erskine's side. The ascent, however, was steep enough to +touch the breath, and conversation was for some minutes neither a +pleasure nor a necessity. Then, above the firs, the palace of Pena +reared hoary head and granite shoulders; for, like the ruined fort +visible from the town below, the palace is built upon the summit of a +rock. Still a steeper climb, and the party stood looking down upon the +fir trees which had just shadowed them, with their backs to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> the palace +walls, that seem, and often are, a part of the rugged peak itself. For +this is a palace not only founded on a rock, and on the rock's topmost +crag, but the foundation has itself supplied so many features ready-made +that nature and the Moors may be said to have collaborated in its +making. Three of the party, having taken breath, played catch with this +idea; but Christina barely listened. Her attitude was regrettable, but +not unnatural. In the last place on earth where she would have expected +to meet anyone she knew, she had met the last person whom she expected +to meet anywhere. She remembered telling him of her mooted trip to +Portugal with the Hollands, she remembered also his telling her to be +sure to go to Cintra; her recollection of the conversation in question, +and of Lady Almeric's conservatory, where it had taken place, was +sufficiently clear, now that she thought of it; but certainly she had +never thought of it since. Had he? She might have mentioned the time +when the trip was likely to take place; she was not so sure of this, but +it seemed likely; and in that case, was a certain explanation of his +sojourn in Portugal, other than the explanation he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> been so careful +to give, either preposterous in itself or the mere suggestion of her own +vanity?</p> + +<p>These questions were now worrying Christina as she had seldom been +worried before, even about Lord Manister, who had been much in her +thoughts for many weeks past. Yet Manister was not the only person on +her mind at the moment. Just before leaving London she had experienced +the fulfillment of a prophecy, by receiving from Countess Dromard a +stare as stony as the pavement they met on, which was near enough to +Piccadilly to inspire a superstitious respect for sibylline Mrs. +Willoughby. In the disagreeable moment following Tiny's thoughts had +flown straight to that lady—indeed her only remark at the time had been +"Good old Mrs. Willoughby!" to which Ruth (who suffered at Tiny's side, +and for her part turned positively faint with mortification) had been in +no condition to reply. Little as she showed it, however, Christina had +felt the affront far more keenly than Ruth—chiefly because she took it +all to herself, and was unable to think it utterly undeserved. In any +event she felt it now. It was but the other day that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> countess had +cut her. The wound was still tender; the sight of Lord Manister scrubbed +it cruelly. And long afterward the scar had its own little place among +the forces driving Christina in a certain direction, whether she went on +feeling it or not.</p> + +<p>Hardly less preoccupied than herself was the man whose side Christina +would not leave. Wherefore, though the place was old ground to him, as a +guide he was instructive rather than amusing. He spoke the requisite +Portuguese to the janitors, whose stock facts he also translated into +intelligible English; he led the way up the winding staircase of the +round tower, and from the giddy gallery at the top he did not omit to +point out Torres Vedras and such like landmarks; descending, he had +stock facts of his own connected with chapel and sacristy, but he failed +to make them interesting. A paid guide could not have been more +perfunctory in method, though it is certain that the most entertaining +showmanship would have failed to entertain Erskine's hearers, each one +of whom was more or less nervous and ill at ease. He himself was +thinking only of Christina, who would not leave his side. He saw her +watching Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> Manister; though she would hardly speak to him, he saw +pity in her glance. He heard Lord Manister talking volubly to Ruth; he +did not know about what, and he wondered if Manister knew, himself. +Erskine did not understand. The girl seemed to care, and if she did—if +this thing was to be—he would never say another word against it. If she +cared there would not be another word to say, save in joyous and loving +congratulation. That was the whole question: whether she cared. For the +first time Erskine was not sure; it was a toss-up in his mind whether +Tiny was sure herself. Certainly there seemed to be hope for the man who +was being watched yet avoided; however, Erskine was resolved to give him +the very first opportunity of learning his fate.</p> + +<p>Accordingly he reminded Tiny that he had been carrying the camera ever +since they had dismounted: and was his arm to ache for nothing? The +suggestion of the square tower, with the steps below, as an admirable +target, also came from Erskine. Lord Manister helped to take the +photograph. That, again, was Erskine's doing; and he even did more. When +they all turned their backs on Pena,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> and their faces to the ruin on the +opposite peak, it was her husband who rode ahead with Ruth. His reward +was the smile of an angel over a lost soul saved. He returned the smile +cynically. But round the first corner he belabored his ass with the +camera legs, and shot ahead, Ruth gladly following.</p> + +<p>In the hollow between the peaks the bridle path passes an ancient and +picturesque mosque, with a lime tree growing in the center; from this +the ruin derives a roof in summer, a carpet in winter, and had now a +little of each.</p> + +<p>"What a romantic place!" said Ruth, peeping in. Her husband had waited +for her to do so.</p> + +<p>"Then let us leave it to more romantic people," he answered, dropping +the tripod in the doorway. "They may like to have a photograph of +it—for every reason! You and I had better climb up to the fort and +chuck stones into Cintra till they come."</p> + +<p>This looked quite possible when at last they sat perched upon the +antique battlements; they seemed so to overhang the little town. Erskine +lit a Portuguese cigarette, which the wind finished for him in a minute. +Ruth kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> a hand upon her hat. Then she spoke out, with the wind +whistling between their faces.</p> + +<p>"Erskine, I know what you think—that this isn't an accident!"</p> + +<p>"Of course it isn't."</p> + +<p>"And I dare say you think <i>I</i> have had something to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Have you, I wonder? You may easily have said that we thought of coming +here—quite innocently, you know."</p> + +<p>"Then I never said so at all. I thought—you know what I thought would +have happened last August. Erskine, I have had absolutely nothing to do +with it this time!"</p> + +<p>"My dear, you needn't say that. I know neither you nor Tiny have had +anything to do with it—so far as you are aware; but Tiny must have told +him we were coming here, and this is his roundabout dodge of seeing her +again. Certainly that looks as if he were in earnest."</p> + +<p>"I always said he was."</p> + +<p>"And as for Tiny, I don't pretend to make her out. You see, they do not +come. I shouldn't be surprised at anything."</p> + +<p>"No more should I; but I should be thankful. Even when I hid things from +you, Er<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>skine, I never pretended I shouldn't be thankful if this +happened, did I? Oh, and you'll be thankful, too, when you see them +happy—as we are happy!"</p> + +<p>Holland sat for some minutes with bent head, picking lichen from +granite.</p> + +<p>"My dear girl," he said at length, and tenderly, "don't let us talk any +more about it. I dare say I have taken a rotten view of it all along. I +only thought—that he didn't deserve her, and that neither of them could +care enough. It seems I was more or less wrong; but there is nothing +further to be said until we know."</p> + +<p>He leant over the battlements, gazing down into the toy town below. Ruth +brooked his silence for a time. Then he heard her saying:</p> + +<p>"They are a very long while. He's certainly helping her to take a +photograph."</p> + +<p>"I hope he'll get a negative," said Erskine, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>They came at last.</p> + +<p>"How long have you been there, Erskine?" shouted Tiny from below. She +held one end of the tripod, by which Manister was tugging her uphill.</p> + +<p>"About ten minutes."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>"Not as much, Erskine," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"We have been photographing that charming mosque," Manister said, as he +set down the camera and wiped his forehead; "you meant us to, didn't +you, Holland?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I did."</p> + +<p>"And have you got a negative?" asked poor Ruth.</p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p>"A month to make up her mind!" cried Erskine Holland, on hearing at +second hand what had actually happened in the mosque. "No wonder he +wouldn't stay and dine, and no wonder he is going back to Lisbon +to-morrow. By Jove! he <i>must</i> be fond of her to stand it at all. To go +and wait a month!"</p> + +<p>"He offered to wait six," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Then he's a fool," said Erskine quietly. "Tell me, Ruth, is it a thing +one may speak about? One would like, of course, to say something +pleasant. After all, it's very like an engagement, and I could at least +tell her that I like him. I did like him to-day. Under the circumstances +he behaved capitally; only I do think him a fool not to have insisted on +her deciding one way or the other."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'd mention the matter unless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> she does," Ruth said +doubtfully. "She told me to tell you she would rather not speak of it at +present. You see she has thought of you already! She says you will find +her the same as ever if only you will try to look as though you didn't +know anything about it. She declares that she means to make the most of +her time for the next month wherever she may be, and she hopes you have +ordered the donkeys for to-morrow. Still she is troubled, and if she +thought you didn't disapprove—if she thought you approved—I can see +that it would make a difference to her. She thinks so much of your +opinion—only she doesn't want to speak to you herself about this until +it is a settled thing. But if you would send her your blessing, dear, I +know she would appreciate that."</p> + +<p>"Then take it to her by all means," said Erskine, heartily enough. "Tell +her I think she is very wise to have left it open—you needn't say what +I think of Manister for letting her do so. But you may say, if she likes +to hear it, that I think him a jolly good fellow, who will make her very +happy if she can really feel she cares for him. Tell her it all hangs on +that. That's what we have to impress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> upon her, and you're the proper +person to do so. I only felt one ought to say something pleasant. Wait a +moment—tell her I'll do my best to give her a good time until December +if none of us are ever to have one again!"</p> + +<p>Tiny was sitting at the dressing table in her room, slowly and +deliberately burning a photograph in the flame of a candle. The +photograph was on a yellow mount which Ruth remembered, and as she drew +near Tiny turned it face downward to the flame, which smacked still more +of a former occasion.</p> + +<p>"Tiny!" cried Ruth in alarm, laying her hand on the young girl's +shoulder. "What on earth are you burning, dear?"</p> + +<p>"My boats," replied Christina grimly; and turning the photograph over, +the face of Jack Swift was still uncharred.</p> + +<p>"So you've carried <i>his</i> photograph with you all this time?"</p> + +<p>"He is as good a friend as I shall ever have."</p> + +<p>"Then why burn him if he is only a friend?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he would like to be more; and perhaps there was once a moment +when he might have been. But now I shall duly marry Lord Manister—if he +has patience."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>"Then why keep poor Lord Manister in suspense, Tiny, dearest?"</p> + +<p>"Because I'm not in love with him; and I question whether he's as much +in love with me as he imagines—I told him so."</p> + +<p>"As it is, you may find it difficult to draw back."</p> + +<p>"Exactly; so I am burning my boats. Jack, my dear, that's the last of +you!"</p> + +<p>Her voice satisfied Ruth, who, however, could see no more of her face +than the curve of her cheek, and beyond it the blackened film curling +from the burning cardboard.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE HIGH SEAS.</span></h2> + + +<p>"He's done it at last!"</p> + +<p>Erskine brandished a letter as he spoke, and then leant back in his +chair with a guffaw that alarmed the Portuguese waiters. The letter was +from Herbert Luttrell, a Cambridge man of one month's standing, of whose +academic outset too little had been heard. His sisters were anxious to +know what it was that he had done at last; they put this question in the +same breath.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it might be worse," said Erskine cheerfully. "He has stopped short +of murder!"</p> + +<p>"We should like to know how far he got," Tiny said, while Ruth held out +an eager hand for the letter.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you must read it, my dear; but the fact is he has at last +filled up somebody's eye!"</p> + +<p>Tiny breathed a sigh of relief.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>"Is he in prison?" asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>"No, not yet; but I am afraid he must be in bad odor, though perhaps not +with everybody."</p> + +<p>"Whose was the eye?" Christina wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"The proctor's!" suggested Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, again—you must give the poor boy time, my dear. It may be the +proctor's turn next, but at present your little brother has contented +himself with filling the eye of the man who was coaching his college +trials. It's a time-honored privilege of the coach to use free language +to his crew, and it doesn't give offense as a rule; but it seems to have +offended Herbert. Young Australia don't like being sworn at, and Herbert +admits that he swore back from his thwart, and said that he fancied he +was as good a man as the coach, but he hoped to find out when they got +to the boathouse. They did find out; and Herbert has at last filled up +an old country eye; and for my part I don't think the less of him for +doing so."</p> + +<p>"The less!" cried Tiny, whose blue eyes were alight. "<i>I</i> think all the +more of him. I'm proud of Herbs! You have too many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> of those savage old +customs, Erskine; you need Young Australia to come and knock them on the +head!"</p> + +<p>"Well, as long as he doesn't knock a proctor on the head, as Ruth seems +to fear! If he does that there's an end of him, so far as Cambridge is +concerned. He tells me the eye was unpopular, otherwise I'm afraid he +would have had a warm time of it; though a quick fist and an arm that's +stronger than it looks are wonderful things for winning the respect of +men, even in these days."</p> + +<p>"And mayn't we really see the letter?" Tiny said wistfully.</p> + +<p>Erskine shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, but I'm afraid I must treat it as private. It's a +verbatim report. I can only tell you that Herbert seems to have been +justified, more or less, though he is perhaps too modest to report +himself as fully as he reports the eye. He says nothing else of any +consequence. He doesn't mention work of any kind; but he's not there +only, or even primarily, to pass exams. On the whole, we mustn't fret +about the eye, so long as the dear boy keeps his hands off the +authorities."</p> + +<p>Their hotel was no longer at Cintra, but in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> Lisbon, where Mr. Holland +was being sadly delayed by the business men of the most unbusinesslike +capital in Europe. Already it was the middle of November. They had left +Cintra as long ago as the 5th of the month, expecting to sail from +Lisbon on the 7th; but out of his experience Erskine ought to have known +better. It is true that on landing in the country he had attended first +to business. The business was connected with the forming of a company +for certain operations on Portuguese territory in the East, the capital +coming from London; a board was necessary in both cities, and very +necessary indeed were certain negotiations between the London directors, +as represented by Erskine Holland, and their colleagues in Lisbon. The +latter had promised to do much while Erskine was at Cintra, and duly did +nothing until he returned; knowing their kind of old, he ought never to +have gone. He quite deserved to have to wait and worry and smoke more +Portuguese cigarettes than were either agreeable or good, with the women +on his hands; with all his knowledge of the country and the people he +might have known very well how it would be—as indeed Erskine was told +in a letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> from Lombard Street, where an amusing dispatch of his from +Cintra had rather irritated the senior partners.</p> + +<p>Thus Mr. Holland had his own worries throughout this trip, but it is a +pleasure to affirm that his sister-in-law did not add to them after that +first day at Cintra. Thenceforward she had behaved herself as a +perfectly rational and even a contented being. She had appreciated the +other sights of Cintra even more than Pena (which had hardly been given +a fair chance), and most of all that gorgeous garden of Monserrat, where +the trees of the world are grouped together, and among them the gum +trees which were so dear to Christina. She had even been overcome by a +bloodthirsty desire to witness the bullfight on the Sunday; and Erskine +had taken her, because her present frame was not one to discourage; but +it must be confessed that Tiny was disappointed by the tameness of this +sport rather than revolted by its cruelty. Negatively, she had been +behaving better still; the Cintra donkey, the locality of the English +hotel, and other associations of the first day never once perceptibly +affected either her spirits or her temper. She had shown, indeed, so +dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> a level of cheerfulness and good sense as to seem almost +uninteresting after the accustomed undulations; but in point of fact she +had never been more interesting to those in her secret. She had promised +to give Lord Manister his answer in a month, and meanwhile she was +displaying all the even temper and equable spirits of settled happiness. +She ate healthily, she declared that she slept well, and otherwise she +was amazingly and consistently serene. That was her perversity, once +more, but on this occasion her perversity admitted of an obvious +explanation. The explanation was that she had never been in doubt about +her decision, that in her heart she was more than satisfied, and that +she had asked for a month's respite chiefly for freedom's sake. The +matter was discussed no more between the sisters, because Tiny refused +to discuss it, declaring that she had dismissed it from her mind till +December. And to Erskine she never once mentioned it while they were in +Portugal, nor had she the least intention of doing so on the homeward +voyage, which they were able ultimately to make within a week of the +arrival of Herbert's letter.</p> + +<p>But the voyage was rough, and Tiny hap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>pened to be a remarkably good +sailor, which made her very tiresome once more. Holland had his hands +full in attending to his wife in the cabin, while keeping an eye on her +sister, who would remain on deck. Through the worst of the weather the +unreasonable girl clung like a limpet to the rail, staring seaward at +the misty horizon, or downward at the milky wake, until her pale face +was red and rough and sparkling with dried spray.</p> + +<p>"I do wish you would come below," Erskine said to her, in a tone of +entreaty, toward dusk on the second day, but by no means for the first +time. "There's not another woman on deck; and you've chosen the one spot +of the whole vessel where there's most motion."</p> + +<p>Until he joined her Tiny had indeed been the only soul on the hurricane +deck, where she stood, leaning on the after-rail, with eyes for nothing +but the steamer's track. They were on the hem of the bay and the wind +was ahead, so the boat was pitching; and you must be a good sailor to +enjoy leaning over the after-rail with this motion—but that is what +Christina was. The wind welded her garments to the wire network +underneath, and loosened her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> hair, and lit lamps in her ears; but it +seemed that she liked it, and that the long, frothy trail had a strong +fascination for her; for when she answered, it was without lifting her +eyes from the sea.</p> + +<p>"You see, I like being different from other people; that's what I go in +for! Honestly, though, I love being up here, and I think you might let +me stay. However, that's no reason why you should stay too—if it makes +you feel uncomfortable."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, I think I am proof," returned Erskine rather brusquely, for +this is a point on which most men are either vain or sensitive; "but of +course I'll leave you, if you prefer it."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, I should like you to stay," Christina murmured—in +such a lonely little voice that Erskine stayed.</p> + +<p>It was difficult to believe in this young lady's sincerity, however. She +not only made no further remark herself, but refused to acknowledge one +of Erskine's. Men do not like that, either. Tiny's eyes had never been +lifted from the endless race of white water, now rising as though to +their feet, now sinking from under them as the steamer labored end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> on +to the wind. Apparently she had forgotten that Erskine was there, as +also that she had asked him to remain. He was on the point of leaving +her to her reverie when she swung round suddenly, with only one elbow on +the rail, and looked up at him with a pout that turned slowly to a +smile.</p> + +<p>"Erskine, you've come and spoilt everything!"</p> + +<p>"My dear child, I told you I would go if you liked, you know."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that was too late; you'd spoilt it then. It won't come back."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that I have broken some spell? If that's the case I am very +sorry."</p> + +<p>"That won't mend it—you can't mend spells," said Tiny, laughing +ruefully. "Perhaps it's as well you can't; and perhaps it's a good thing +you came," she added more briskly. "I had humbugged myself into thinking +I was on my way back to Australia. That was all."</p> + +<p>"But if I were to go mightn't you humbug yourself again?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I want to," the girl answered thoughtfully; "at any rate +I don't want you to go. Don't you think it's jolly up here? To me it's +as good as a gallop up the bush—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> I think we're taking our fences +splendidly! But it was jollier still thinking that England was over +there," nodding her head at the wake, "and that every five minutes or so +it was a mile further away—instead of the other thing."</p> + +<p>"Poor old England!"</p> + +<p>"No, Erskine, I meant a mile nearer Australia—that was the jolly +feeling," Tiny made haste to explain. "You know I didn't mean anything +else—you know how I have enjoyed being with you and Ruth. Only I can't +help wishing I was on my way back to Melbourne instead of to Plymouth. +I'd give so much to see Australia again."</p> + +<p>"Well, so you will see it again."</p> + +<p>Her eyes sped seaward as she shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Why on earth shouldn't you?" said Erskine, laughing.</p> + +<p>"You know why."</p> + +<p>Now he saw her meaning, and held his tongue. This was the subject on +which he understood it to be her desire that they should not speak. To +himself, moreover, it was a highly unattractive topic, and he was +thoroughly glad to have it ignored as it had been; but if she alluded to +the matter herself that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> was another thing, and he must say something. +So he said:</p> + +<p>"Is it really so certain, Tiny?"</p> + +<p>"On my part absolutely. I'm only climbing down!"</p> + +<p>Erskine was reminded of the pleasant things he had thought of saying to +her at Cintra; they had been by him so long that he found himself saying +them now as though he meant every word.</p> + +<p>"My congratulations must keep till the proper time; but when that comes +they may surprise you. My dear girl, I should like you to understand +that you're not the only person whose opinion has changed since we were +at Essingham. If I may say so at this stage of the proceedings, and if +it is any satisfaction to you to hear it, I for one am going to be very +glad about this thing, I think him such a first-rate fellow, Tiny!"</p> + +<p>For a moment Christina gazed acutely at her brother-in-law. "I wonder if +that's sincere?" she said reflectively. Then her eyes hurried back to +the sea.</p> + +<p>"I think he's a very good fellow indeed," said Erskine with emphasis.</p> + +<p>The girl gave a little laugh. "Oh, he's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> all that; the question is +whether that's enough."</p> + +<p>"It is, if he really loves you—as I think he must."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if it's enough for him to be in love!"</p> + +<p>There followed a great pause, during which the thought of pleasant +things to say was thrown overboard and left far astern.</p> + +<p>"I only hope," Erskine said at last, with an earnest ring in his voice +which was new to Christina, "that you are not going to make the greatest +mistake of your life!"</p> + +<p>"I hope not also."</p> + +<p>"Ah, don't make light of it!" he cried impetuously. "If you marry +without love you'll ruin your life, I don't care who it is you marry! To +marry for affection, or for esteem, or for money—they're all equally +bad; there is no distinction. Take affection—for a time you might be as +happy as if it were something more; but remember that any day you might +see somebody that you could really love. Then you would know the +difference, and it would embitter your whole existence with a quiet, +private, unsuspected bitterness, of which you can have no conception. +And so much the worse if you have married somebody who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> is honestly and +sufficiently fond of you. His love would cut you to the heart—because +you could only pretend to return it—because your whole existence would +be a living lie!"</p> + +<p>He was extremely unlike himself. His voice trembled, and in the dying +light his face was gray. These things made his words impressive, but the +girl did not seem particularly impressed. Had she remembered the one +previous occasion when a similar conversation had taken place between +them, the strangeness of his manner must have been driven home to her by +contrast; but the contrast was a double one, and her own share in it +kept her from thinking of the time when she had been serious and he had +not, and now, when he was more serious than she had ever known him, she +met him with a frivolous laugh.</p> + +<p>"Well, really, Erskine, I've never heard you so terribly in earnest +before! I think I had better not tell Ruth what you have said; my dear +man, you speak as though you'd been there!"</p> + +<p>It was some time before he laughed.</p> + +<p>"If only you yourself would be more in earnest, Tiny! You may say this +comes badly from me. I know there has been more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> jest than earnest +between me and you. But if I was never serious in my life before I am +now, and I want you, too, to take yourself seriously for once. You see, +Tiny, I am not only an old married man by this time, but I am your +European parent as well. I am entitled to play the heavy father, and to +give you a lecture when I think you need one. My dear child, I have been +in the world about twice as long as you have, and I know men and have +heard of women who have poisoned their whole lives by marrying with love +on the other side only; and the greater their worldly goods, the greater +has been their misery! And rather than see you do as they have done——" +The sentence snapped. "You shan't do it!" he exclaimed sharply. "You're +far too good to spoil yourself as others have done and are doing every +day."</p> + +<p>"Who told you I was good?" inquired Christina, with a touch of the +coquetry which even with him she could not entirely repress. "You never +had it from me, most certainly. Let me tell you, Erskine, that I'm +bad—bad—bad! And if I haven't shocked you sufficiently already it is +evidently time that I did; so you'll please to understand that if I +marry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> Lord Manister it is partly because I think I owe it to him; +otherwise it's for the main chance purely. And I think it's very unkind +of you to make me confess all this," she added fretfully. "I never meant +to speak to you about it at all. Only I can't bear you to think me +better than I am."</p> + +<p>Erskine shook his head sadly.</p> + +<p>"At least you have a better side than this, Tiny—this is not you at +all! You love and admire all that is honest and noble, and fresh and +free; you should give that love and admiration a chance. But I'm not +going to say any more to worry you. If you really, with your eyes open, +are going to marry a man whom you do not love, I can only tell you that +you will be doing at best a very cynical thing. And yet—I can +understand it." This he added more to himself than to the girl.</p> + +<p>He was turning away, but she laid a restraining hand upon his arm.</p> + +<p>"Don't go," she exclaimed impulsively. "I can't let you go when—when +you understand me better than anyone else ever did—and when I am never, +never going to speak to you like this again."</p> + +<p>"If only I could help you!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>"You cannot!" Tiny cried out. "I'm too far gone to be helped. I feel +hopelessly bad and hard, and nobody can mend that. But if there's one +grain of goodness in my composition that wasn't there when I came over +to England, you may know, Erskine, if you care to know it, that it's +you, and you alone, who have put it there!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," he said; "what good have I done you?"</p> + +<p>"You have talked sense to me, as only one other man ever did—and he +wasn't as clever as you are. You've given me books to read, and they're +the first good books I ever read in my life; you have dug a sort of +oyster knife into my miserable ignorance! You have been a real good pal +to me, Erskine, and you must never turn your back on me, whatever I do. +I know you never will. I believe in you as I believe in very few people +on this footstool; but there's one thing you can do for me now that will +be even kinder than anything that you have ever done yet."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing that I wouldn't do for you, Tiny," said Erskine +tenderly. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>The corners of her mouth twitched—her eyes twinkled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>"It's not to say another serious word to me this month! I know I began +it this time; I won't do so again. I'm trying to be happy in my own way, +if you'll only let me. I'm trying to make the most of my time. When I'm +really engaged I shall need all the help and advice you can give me; for +I mean to be very good to him, Erskine; I do indeed! Then of course I +shall need to cultivate the finest manners; but until it actually comes +off I'm trying to forget about it—don't you see? I'm doing my level +best to forget!"</p> + +<p>What Erskine saw was the tears in her eyes, but he saw them only for an +instant; instead of his leaving Christina on the deck it was she who +left him; and there he stood, between the high seas and the gathering +shades of night, until both were black.</p> + +<p>It was their last conversation of the kind.</p> + +<p>One more night was spent at sea; the next they were all back in +Kensington. Here they were greeted with a pleasant surprise: Herbert was +in the house to meet them. Cambridge seemed already to have done him +good; he was singularly polite and subdued, though a little +uncommunicative. They, however, had much to tell him, so this was not +noticed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> immediately. His sisters supposed that he was in London for the +night only, as he said he had come down from Cambridge that day. It was +not until later that they knew that he had been sent down. Erskine broke +the news to them.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid," he added, "that they've sent him down for good and all. +The fact is, Ruth, your fears have been realized. He has done his best +to fill another eye; and this time the proctor's! He says he shall go +back to Melbourne immediately."</p> + +<p>"Never!" cried Ruth; and she went straight to her brother, who was +smoking viciously in another room.</p> + +<p>"Yes, by ghost!" drawled Herbert through his hooked nose. "I'm going to +clear out. I'm full up of England, Ruth, and I guess England's full up +of me. The best thing I can do is to go back, and turn boundary rider or +whim driver. That's about all I'm fit for, and it's what I'm going to +do. The <i>Ballaarat</i> sails on the 2d—I've been to the office and taken +my berth already. My oath, I drove there straight from Liverpool Street +this afternoon!"</p> + +<p>Nor was there any moving him from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> purpose, though Ruth tried for +half an hour there and then. Twice that time Herbert spent afterward in +Tiny's room; but it was not known whether Tiny also had attempted to +dissuade him. When he left her the girl stood for five minutes with a +foot on the fender and an elbow on the mantelpiece. Then she sought Ruth +in haste.</p> + +<p>Ruth had just gone upstairs. Erskine was surprised to see her back in +his study almost immediately, and startled by her mode of entrance, +which suggested sudden illness in the house.</p> + +<p>"What in the world has happened?" he said, sitting upright in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Happened?" cried Ruth bitterly. "It is the last straw! I give her up. I +wash my hands of her. I wish she had never come over!"</p> + +<p>"Tiny? Why, what has she been doing now?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't what she has been doing—it is what she says she's going to +do. You may be able to bring her to reason, but I never shall. I won't +try—I wash my hands of her. I will say no more to her. But it is simply +disgraceful! She is far worse than Herbert!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>"Has she unmade her mind," Holland asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>"No, no, no! But worse, I call it. O Erskine, if you knew what she +says——"</p> + +<p>"I am waiting to hear."</p> + +<p>"You'll never guess!"</p> + +<p>"No, I give it up."</p> + +<p>"So must Tiny—I never heard a madder idea in my life!"</p> + +<p>"Than <i>what</i>, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"Her going out with Herbert in the <i>Ballaarat</i>!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING.</span></h2> + + +<p>December was at hand soon enough, and with the month came Lord Manister +for his answer. Though more than slightly nervous he entered the modest +house in Kensington with his head very high; and certain inappropriate +sensations visited him during the few minutes he was kept waiting in the +drawing room. He did not sit down. Then it was Tiny Luttrell who opened +the door, and those sensations made good their escape from a bosom in +which they had no business. In the living presence of the person one +proposes to marry there are some misgivings that had need be +impossible—Christina little suspected her privilege of shutting the +door on Manister's with her own hand. He sat down at her example.</p> + +<p>But if he was nervous so was she, and as he came bravely to the point +she found it more and more difficult to meet his hungry eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> It was +rather rare for Christina to experience any difficulty of the kind. She +rose, and stood in front of the fire, with her back to the room and Lord +Manister. There, with her forehead resting on the rim of the mantelpiece +(for Tiny that was not far to bend), and while the hot fire scorched her +plain gray skirt and gave a needed color to the downcast face, she heard +what Manister had to say. Soon she knew that he was saying it with his +elbow on one end of the mantelpiece; and liked him for facing her so, +and compelling her to face him. But when she found him waiting for his +answer, she gave him it without lifting her eyes from the fire.</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>He had asked her whether she had been able to make up her mind. The +answer she had given was, indeed, the truth; but it had been prepared +for a more conclusive question. She was vexed with him for the question +he had chosen to put first; and the more so because it had snatched from +her an admission which she had not intended to make. But she had not +made up her mind—that was the simple truth; and now she trusted that he +would make up his.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>Instead of which he said sadly, after a pause:</p> + +<p>"I wanted to give you six months!"</p> + +<p>"It was very wrong of you to give me one," she answered with startling +ingratitude.</p> + +<p>"Why wrong?"</p> + +<p>"You might have seen that I was unworthy of you."</p> + +<p>"I might have given up loving you, I suppose, in a second!"</p> + +<p>"I wish you would——"</p> + +<p>"I never shall!"</p> + +<p>"If you ever began," Christina added to her own sentence. At last her +face was raised, and now it was his eyes that fell before the cool +acumen of her smile.</p> + +<p>"You don't believe in me yet!" he groaned. "Not yet, though I wait, +wait, wait."</p> + +<p>"No one asked you to wait," Lord Manister was reminded.</p> + +<p>"But you see that I can't help it! You see that I am miserable about +you!"</p> + +<p>This indeed was sufficiently plain; and the sight of his misery was +softening Christina by degrees. She said more kindly:</p> + +<p>"Listen to me, Lord Manister. It is a month since you saw me. At this +moment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> you may feel what you are saying. Very well, then, you <i>do</i> feel +it; but have you felt it throughout the last month? Have you felt so +patient—you are far too patient—all the time? Has it never seemed to +you that my keeping you in doubt, even for one month, was a piece of +impertinence you ought never to have stood? Wouldn't your friends simply +think you mad if they knew how you were allowing me to use you? Haven't +you yourself occasionally remembered who you are, and who I am, and +burst out laughing? I must say I have; it sometimes seems to me so +utterly absurd—— And you see you can't answer my questions!"</p> + +<p>He could not; one after another they had penetrated to the quick.</p> + +<p>"They are not fair questions," Manister said doggedly. "What may have +crossed my mind when I have felt worried and wretched has nothing to do +with it. Isn't it enough that I tell you I can wait your own good +time—that I feel a pride in waiting, now we are together and I am +looking in your eyes?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think that's quite enough," replied Christina softly. "It +would hardly be enough, you know, if you only felt me worth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> waiting for +while you were with me. That would mean that for some reason I +fascinated you. And fascination isn't love, Lord Manister. I don't want +to be rude—much less unkind—but I can't believe that you have ever +been really in love with me; I simply can't!"</p> + +<p>Yet she had never felt so near to that belief before. Her words, +however, helped Lord Manister back to his dignity.</p> + +<p>"Of course you must believe only what you choose," said he loftily. "One +cannot force you to believe in one's sincerity. I suppose I spoilt you +for believing in mine some time since. At all events you were fond of me +once! Only a month ago you liked me all but well enough to marry me. Yet +now you do not know!"</p> + +<p>"Therefore the decision is left to you, Lord Manister; you must give me +up."</p> + +<p>"Never! while you are free."</p> + +<p>His teeth were clenched.</p> + +<p>"But do consider. Most probably I shall never care enough for you to +marry you. And oh! I wonder how you can look at me when no other girl in +the world would refuse you!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>"Can't you see that this is part of your charm?" cried the young man +impulsively. "You are the one girl I know who is not worldly. You are +the one girl I want!"</p> + +<p>Christina shook her head.</p> + +<p>"If I have any charm at all, you oughtn't to know what it is—you ought +to love me you can't say why—there's no sizing up real love!" she +informed him rapidly, but with a smile. "There's another thing, too. You +cannot be used to being treated as I have treated you in many ways. I +have often been intensely rude to you. I can't help thinking there must +be a good deal of pique in your feeling toward me."</p> + +<p>"There is more real love," returned Manister, "if I know it!"</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you do know it?" said the girl, with a laugh; but she was +wondering very seriously in her heart. He protested no more; she liked +him for that, too, as also for the briskness in his tone and manner when +he spoke next.</p> + +<p>"You say you don't care for me enough, and you say I don't care for you +properly, and we won't argue any more about either matter for the +moment." He had flung back his head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> from the hand that had shaded his +eyes; his elbow remained on the chimney-piece, but now he was standing +erect. "There is something else," said Lord Manister, "that has +prevented you from coming to a decision."</p> + +<p>"There is certainly one thing that has had something to do with it."</p> + +<p>"May I ask what it is?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Lord Manister. I am going back to Australia."</p> + +<p>"Soon?" This was after a pause, during which their eyes had not met.</p> + +<p>"Sooner than was intended."</p> + +<p>"Is it—is it for any special reason that—that you have kept from me?"</p> + +<p>He was agitated by a sudden thought, which she read. She shook her head +reassuringly.</p> + +<p>"No, it is not to get married, nor yet engaged."</p> + +<p>"Then there is no one out there?"</p> + +<p>"There is no one anywhere that I could marry for love. That's the simple +truth. I am going back to Australia because Herbert is going. Cambridge +doesn't suit him, and I'm sorry to say he doesn't suit Cambridge. We +came over together, so we are going back together. That, I promise you, +is the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> and only explanation. I myself did not want to go so +soon."</p> + +<p>"But surely you are not going this year?"</p> + +<p>"We are—before Christmas."</p> + +<p>As Tiny spoke her glance went to the window: she was very anxious to see +the snow before she sailed, but none had fallen yet, though December had +come in dull and raw.</p> + +<p>"But your people here must be very much against that?"</p> + +<p>"They were, but now it is settled."</p> + +<p>"You must have promised to come back!"</p> + +<p>Christina seemed surprised.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I said I would come back some day."</p> + +<p>"And you shall!" cried Manister passionately. "You shall come back as my +wife! Do you suppose I am going to stop short at this, when but for your +brother you would have been mine to-day? I don't mean to say he has +influenced you, except by going back so soon; you love Australia, and +you must needs go back with him. Then go! I told you to take six months; +you have taken one of them. When the other five are up I am coming to +you again wherever you may be. Till then I will take no answer; and +whatever it may be in the end I bow to it—I bow to it!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>His passion surprised and even moved Christina; but his humility stirred +up in her soul a contempt which mingled strangely with her pity. Women +of spirit cannot admire the man who will submit to anything at their +hands. Christina would willingly have given admiration in exchange for +the love in which she was beginning to believe; it would have pleased +her sense of justice, it would have promoted her self-respect to make +some such small payment on account. With Manister's patience she had +none at all. She was disappointed in him. Her foot tapped angrily on the +fender.</p> + +<p>"But I don't want you to wait!" exclaimed Christina ungraciously. "I +have told you so already."</p> + +<p>"Still I mean to do so, and it serves me right."</p> + +<p>This touched her generosity.</p> + +<p>"Ah, don't say that!" she cried earnestly. "Oh, Lord Manister, I have +forgotten all old scores—I never think of them now! The balance has +been the other way so long; and I do not deserve another chance."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but Tiny—darling—it is I who am asking for that!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>His tone compelled her to meet his gaze—its intensity made her wince.</p> + +<p>"You believe in me!" he cried joyously. "Say only that you believe in +me, and I will go away now. I will go away happy and proud—to wait—for +you."</p> + +<p>Then Tiny laid her little hand on his arm, and her eyes that had filled +with tears answered him to his present satisfaction. He held her hand +for just a few seconds before he went, and in kindness she returned his +pressure. Then the shutting of the front door down below made her +realize that he was gone. And she had time to dry her eyes and to gather +herself together before Ruth, whose hopes had been dead some days, came +into the room with a dejected mien and pointedly abstained from asking +questions.</p> + +<p>"If it interests you to hear it," Tiny said lightly, "I am converted to +your creed at last; I believe in Lord Manister!"</p> + +<p>"But you are not engaged to him," Ruth said wearily; "I see you are +not."</p> + +<p>"I am not; but he insists on waiting. If only he wasn't so tame! But I +can't help believing in him now; and that settles it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>"Nothing is settled until you are engaged," said the matter-of-fact +sister, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless I'm going to try with all my might to care for him, now +that I see that he must really care for me. And let me tell you that I +shall consider myself all the more bound to him because I haven't <i>said</i> +yes, and because we're <i>not</i> actually engaged!"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said the other incredulously. "That is so like you, Tiny!"</p> + +<p>And Ruth almost sneered.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">COUNSEL'S OPINION.</span></h2> + + +<p>The worst of it all was this: that the young man himself had not +invariably that confidence in his own affections which displayed itself +so bravely and so convincingly at a psychological moment. Not that +Manister was insincere, exactly. If you come to think of it, you may +deceive others with perfect innocence, having once deceived yourself. +And this was exactly what had happened.</p> + +<p>There was one distinctive feature of the case: away from Christina +Luttrell the poor fellow had already had his doubts of himself; in her +presence those doubts were as certain to evaporate as snowflakes in the +warmth of the sun.</p> + +<p>Even as he went down Mrs. Holland's stairs Manister was joined by +certain invisible companions—the misgivings that had made their escape +as Christina entered the room. They had waited for him on the landing +outside the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> door. They led and followed him downstairs. They linked +arms with him in the street. They stifled him in his hansom, which they +boarded ruthlessly. In one of the silent rooms of the club to which he +drove they talked to him silently, sitting on the arms of his +saddle-back chair and arguing all at once. Powerless to shake them off +he was forced to bear with them, to hear what they had to say, to answer +them where he could.</p> + +<p>Mingling with the importunate voices of his inner consciousness were the +remembered words of the girl. She had asked him whether he had never +burst out laughing as the affair presented itself in certain lights; he +did so now, silently, it is true, but with exceeding bitterness. She had +told him that it was not enough that he should feel willing to wait for +her when they were together; and now that he had left her, though so +lately, he was certainly less inclined to be patient. She had suggested +that he was more fascinated than in love; and already he knew that her +suggestion had given shape and utterance to a vague suspicion of his own +soul. She had gone so far as to hint at the possible secret of his +infatuation, and there again she had hit the mark; though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> apart from +her talent of torture her sweet looks and charming ways had been strong +wine to Manister from the first. Still her snubs had piqued his passion +in the beginning of things out in Melbourne; and here in Europe she had +virtually refused him three times. Modest he might be, and yet know that +this were a rare experience for such as himself at the hands of such as +Tiny Luttrell. On the whole, the experience was sufficiently complete as +it stood; yet he could not help wishing to win; indeed, he had gone too +far to draw back, and for that reason alone the idea of defeat in the +end was intolerable to him. And this was the one spring of his actions +which seemed to have escaped Christina's notice; the others she had +detected with an acuteness which made him wonder, for the first time, +whether on her very merits she would be a comfortable person to live +with, after all.</p> + +<p>Gradually, however, these echoes of the late interview grew fainter in +his ears, and its upshot came home to Manister with sensations of +chagrin sharper than any he had endured in all his life before. His +feelings when refused by this girl in the previous August, and under +peculiarly humiliating circum<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>stances, were enviable compared with his +feelings now. Then he had deserved his humiliation—at least he was +generous enough to say so—and he had taken what he called his +punishment in a very manly spirit. But the desire to win had sent him on +a secret mission to Cintra, on the chance of seeing her there, and his +present feelings reminded him of those with which he had beaten his +retreat from Portugal. For he had gone there for a final answer, and had +come back without one; and to-day he had suffered afresh that selfsame +humiliation, only in an aggravated form, and more voluntarily than ever. +She had never asked him to wait; he had offered on both occasions to +wait six months—nay, he had insisted on waiting. Even now, within a +couple of hours after the event, he could scarcely credit his own +weakness and stultification. He was by no means so weak in affairs +wherein the affections played no part. He firmly believed that no other +woman could have twisted him round her finger as this one had done. But +here, perhaps, we have merely the everyday spectacle of a young man +discerning exceptional excuses for a realized infirmity; and the point +is that Manister<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> realized his weakness this evening as he had never +done before. The girl herself had made him look inward. She had +suggested fascination, not love. That suggestion stuck painfully. Yet he +was not sure.</p> + +<p>Never had he felt so horribly unsure of himself; in the midst of his +self-distrust there came to him, suddenly, the recollection that she +distrusted him no longer, and there was actually some comfort in this +thought, which is strange when you note its fellows, but due less to the +contradictoriness of human nature than to the supremacy of a young man's +vanity. He stood well with her now. She believed in him at last. Propped +up by these reflections, he began almost to believe in himself. At least +a momentary complacency was the result.</p> + +<p>The improvement in his spirits allowed Lord Manister to give heed to +another portion of his organism which had for some time been inviting +him to go into another room and dine. Now he did so, with a sharp eye +for acquaintances, whom he had no desire to meet. For this reason he had +driven to the club which he had joined most recently; it was not a young +man's club, so he felt fairly safe from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> his friends. Yet he had hardly +ordered his soup, and was searching the wine list for the choice brand +which the circumstances seemed to demand, when a heavy hand dropped upon +his shoulder, and his glance leapt from the wine list to the last face +he expected or wished to see—that of his kinsman Captain Dromard.</p> + +<p>Captain Dromard was a cousin of the present earl, and notoriously the +rolling stone of his house. Manister had seen him last in Melbourne, and +ever since had borne him a grudge which he was not likely to forget. Had +he dreamt that the captain (who had been last heard of in Borneo) was in +London, Manister would have shunned this club in order to avoid the risk +of meeting him; but it seemed that Captain Dromard had landed in England +only that morning: and they dined together, of course; and Manister made +the best of it. His kinsman was a big, grizzled, florid man, with an +imperial, and with a comic wicked cut about him which made one laugh. +But he retained an unpleasant trick of treating Manister as a mere boy: +for instance, he was in time to choose the brand, and, as he said before +the waiter, to prevent Manister from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> poisoning himself. He was, +however, an entertaining person, and at his best to-night, being wont to +delight in London for a day or two before realizing the infernal +qualities of the climate and arranging fresh travels. But Manister was +not entertained; he tried to appear so, but the captain saw through the +pretense, and immediately scented a woman. There were reasons why the +rolling stone was particularly good at detecting this element—which +always interested him. His interest was unusual in the present instance, +owing to certain reminiscences of Manister in Melbourne during his own +flying visit to that port. It was during a subsequent week-end in +England that Captain Dromard had alarmed the countess, with a result of +which he was as yet unaware; but he did not hesitate to make inquiries +now, and he began by asking Manister how he had managed to get out of +the scrape in which he had left him.</p> + +<p>"I remember no scrape," said Manister stiffly.</p> + +<p>"You don't? Well, perhaps I put it too strongly," conceded the captain. +"We'll say no more about it, my boy. Devilish pretty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> little thing, +though; remember her well, but could never recall her name. By the bye, +I'm afraid I terrified your mother over that; feared she was going to +cable you home next day; was sorry I spoke."</p> + +<p>"So was I," Manister said dryly, but, by an effort, not forbiddingly, so +that the captain saw no harm in raising his glass.</p> + +<p>"Well, here's to the lady's health, my boy, whoever she was, and +wherever she may be!"</p> + +<p>Manister smiled across his glass and drained it in silence. There was a +glitter in his young eyes which made it difficult for the captain to +drop the subject finally. Manister had been drinking freely, without +becoming flushed, which is another sign of trouble. The captain could +not help saying confidentially:</p> + +<p>"You know, Harry, your mother was so keen for you to marry one of old +Acklam's daughters. That's what frightened her. But it is to come off +some day, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Can't say," said Lord Manister.</p> + +<p>"It ought to, Harry. I like to see a young fellow with your position +marry properly, and settle down. I don't know which of the Garths it is, +but I've always heard one of 'em was the girl you liked."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>"Suppose the girl you like won't marry you?" Manister exclaimed, with a +sudden change of manner, and in the tone of one consulting an authority.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's an end on't."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but suppose she can't make up her mind?"</p> + +<p>"You might give her a month—though I wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"Suppose a month is not enough for her?"</p> + +<p>The captain stared; his bronzed forehead became barred with furrows; his +eyes turned stony with indignation.</p> + +<p>"A month not enough for her to make up her mind—about you?" he said at +length incredulously. "Good God, sir, see her to the devil!"</p> + +<p>Then Lord Manister showed his teeth. Though he had consulted the +captain, he took his advice badly. He said you could not be much in love +to be choked off so easily; he hinted that his kinsman had never been +much in love. Captain Dromard intimated in reply that whether that was +the case or not he was not without experience of a sort, and he could +tell Harry that no woman under heaven was worth kneeling in the mud to, +which Harry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> said hotly was unnecessary information. So they went +elsewhere to smoke, and later on to a music hall, the subject having +been left for good in the club coffee room. The following afternoon, +however, Lord Manister drove through the snow with a very resolute front +to show to Tiny Luttrell, who was just then passing Deal in the +<i>Ballaarat</i>, without having given him the faintest notion yesterday that +she was to sail to-day.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">IN HONOR BOUND.</span></h2> + + +<p>Aboard the <i>Ballaarat</i> Christina committed a new eccentricity, but it +may be well to state at once, a perfectly harmless one. She confided in +another girl—a practice which Tiny had avoided all her life. And this +very girl had offended her at first sight by looking aggressively happy +when the boat sailed and all nice women were in tears.</p> + +<p>There had been a time when Christina seldom cried, but in England she +had grown very soft in some ways, and she looked her last at it, and at +the snow that had fallen in the night as if to please her, through +blinding tears. She had never in her life felt more acutely wretched +than when saying good-by to Ruth and Erskine, and her sorrow was +heightened by the feeling that she had been both unkind and ungrateful +to Ruth, to whom she clung for forgiveness at the last moment. The +reason why her parting words were jocular, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> broken, was because +the sight of an honest, smiling face, which might have blushed for +smiling then, sent a fleam of irritation through her heart that awoke +the latent mischief in her wet eyes.</p> + +<p>"I do wish you would ask Erskine to throw a snowball at that depressing +person," she whispered to Ruth, "who does nothing but laugh and look +really happy! If it was only put on for the sake of her friends I could +forgive her; but it isn't. Tell him I mean it—there's no fun in me +to-day; and you may also tell him that it would have been only brotherly +of him to kiss me on this occasion, when we may all be going to the +bottom!"</p> + +<p>Erskine, who had crossed the gangway before his wife, so that she need +not feel that he overheard her final words to her own kin, shook his +head at Tiny when Ruth joined him on the quay. But his smile was +lifeless; there was no fun in him either to-day. He drew his wife's arm +through his own, and Tiny saw the last of them standing together thus. +They stood in snow and mud, but the railway shed behind them was a great +sheet of unsullied whiteness, softly edging the bright December sky, and +Christina never forgot her first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> glimpse of the snow and her last of +Ruth and Erskine. When their figures were gone and only the snow was +left for Christina's eyes, they filled afresh, and she broke hastily +from Herbert, who was himself uncommonly dejected. She hurried +unsteadily to her cabin, to find her cabin companion singing softly to +herself as she unstrapped her rugs; for her cabin companion was, of +course, the odiously cheerful person who already on deck had done +violence to Christina's feelings.</p> + +<p>Thus the acquaintance began in a particularly unpromising manner; but +the cheerful person turned out to be as bad a sailor as Christina was a +good one, and she met with much practical kindness at Christina's hands, +which had a clever, tender way with them, though in other respects the +good sailor was not from the first so sympathetic. It is harder than it +ought to be to sympathize with the seasick when one is quite well one's +self; still Christina found it impossible not to admire her +extraordinary companion, who kept up her spirits during a whole week +spent in her berth, and was more cheerful than ever at the end of it, +when she could scarcely stand. Then Christina expressed her admiration, +like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>wise her curiosity, and received a simple explanation. The cheerful +person was on her way to Colombo and the altar-rails. Her <i>trousseau</i> +was in the hold.</p> + +<p>The two became exceeding fast friends, and their friendship was founded +on mutual envy. Tiny was envied for the various qualities which made her +greatly admired on board, for that admiration itself, and for the marked +manner in which she paid no heed to it; and she envied her friend a very +ordinary love story, now approaching a very ordinary end. The cheerful +girl was plain, unaccomplished, and not at all young. But there was one +whom she loved better than herself; she was properly engaged; she was +happy in her engagement; her soul was settled and at peace. Also she was +good, and Christina envied her far more than she envied Christina, who +would listen wistfully to the commonplace expression of a commonplace +happiness, but was herself much more reserved. It was only when the +other girl guessed it that she admitted that she also was "as good as +engaged." The other girl clamored to know all about it; and ultimately, +in the Indian Ocean, she discovered that Christina was not the least in +love with the man to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> whom she was as good as engaged. Then this honest +person spoke her mind with extreme freedom, and Christina, instead of +being offended, opened her own heart as freely, merely keeping to +herself the man's name and never hinting at his high degree. She +declared that she was morally bound to him, adding that she had treated +him badly enough already; her friend ridiculed the bond, and told her +how she would be treating him worse than ever. Christina argued—it was +curious how fond she was of arguing the matter, and how she allowed +herself to be lectured by a stranger. But these two were not strangers +now; the cheerful girl was the best friend Tiny had ever made among +women. They parted with a wrench at Colombo, where Tiny saw the other +safely into the arms of a gentleman of a suitably happy and ordinary +appearance; and so one more friend passed in and out of the young girl's +life, leaving a deeper mark in the three weeks than either of them +suspected.</p> + +<p>The rest of the voyage dragged terribly with Christina, which is an +unusual experience for the prettiest girl aboard an Australian liner; +only on this voyage the prettiest girl was also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> the most unsociable. +Beyond her late companion (whose berth remained empty to depress +Christina whenever she entered the cabin) Miss Luttrell had formed few +acquaintances and no friendships between London and Colombo; between +Colombo and Melbourne she simply preyed upon herself. Herbert +remonstrated with her, and the third officer—who had been fourth on the +boat in which they had come over—was excessively interested, +remembering the difference six months earlier. Then, indeed, Christina +had found a good deal to say to all the officers, including the captain, +whom she had chaffed notoriously; but now she would stay out late and +alone on the starlit deck without ever breaking the rules by conversing +with the officer of the watch (her pet trick formerly), and only the +third, who knew her of old, had the right to bid her good-day. Tiny's +cheerful friend had left her wretched and apprehensive. She saw the +Southern Cross rise out of the Southern Sea without a thrill of welcome, +but rather with a vague dismay; from the after-rail she said good-by to +the Great Bear with a shudder at the thought of seeing it again. Neither +end of the earth presented a very peaceful prospect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> to Christina as she +hovered between the two on the steamer's deck. She had quite made up her +mind to return to England, however, and to reward Lord Manister's +long-suffering docility by marrying him at the end of the six months. +Meanwhile she would enjoy Australia and tell only one of her friends +there. One she must tell, and with her own lips, in case she should be +misjudged. And thinking not a little of her own justification, she +invented a small sophistry with which to defend herself as occasion +might arise. She argued that two men were in love with her, that she +herself was in love with neither, but that she liked one of them too +well to marry him without love. Therefore, she said, the easiest way out +of it was to marry the other, who not only had less in him to satisfy, +but who had more to give in place of real happiness. She was proud of +this argument. She was sorry it had not occurred to her before stopping +at Colombo—forgetting that she had told her friend of only one man who +was in love with her. But the heart starves on sophistry with nothing to +it; and with Christina the voyage dragged cruelly to its end.</p> + +<p>But the moment she landed in Melbourne<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> a good thing happened to +her—she was snatched out of herself. A common shock and anxiety awaited +both Christina and Herbert Luttrell: they found their mother in tears +over a piece of very bad news from Wallandoon. It seemed that Mr. +Luttrell had gone up to the station the week before to choose the site +for a well which he was about to sink at considerable expense, and that +he was now lying at the old homestead with a broken leg, the result of a +buggy accident with a pair of young horses. He was able to write with +his own hand in pencil, and he mentioned that Swift had fetched a +surgeon from the river in the quickest time ever known; that the surgeon +had set the leg quite successfully, so that there was no occasion for +anxiety, though naturally he should be unable to leave Wallandoon for +some weeks. He expressed forcibly the hope that his wife would not think +of joining him there; she was not strong enough, and he needed no +attention. Nevertheless, had the <i>Ballaarat</i> arrived one day later, Mrs. +Luttrell would have gone. Her two children were in time to restrain her, +but only by undertaking to go instead. Before they could realize that +they had spent an afternoon and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> a night in Melbourne they had left the +city and had embarked on an inland voyage of five hundred miles up +country.</p> + +<p>So their first full day ashore was spent in a railway carriage; but all +that night the stars were in their eyes, and the gum trees racing by on +either hand, and the warm wind fanning their faces, because Tiny would +never travel inside the coach. They were back in Riverina. The Murray +coiled behind them; the Murrumbidgee lay before. And the night after +that they were creeping across the desert of the One Tree Plain, with +the Lachlan lying ahead and the Murrumbidgee left behind. Here the +leather-hung coach labored in the mud, for the Lachlan district was +suffering before it could profit from a rather heavy rainfall three days +old; and the driver flogged seven horses all night long instead of +mildly chastening five, and the girl at his side could not have slept if +she had tried, but she did not try. To her the night seemed too good to +miss. The stars shone brilliantly from rim to rim of the unbroken plain, +and upward from the overflowing crab-holes, and even in the flooded +ruts, where the coach wheels split and scattered them like quicksilver +beneath the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> thumb. There was no conversation on the coach. On the eve +of facing his father Herbert was rehearsing his defense, while Tiny was +just reveling in the night, and feeling very happy, so she said.</p> + +<p>For a couple of hours before dawn they rested at Booligal. But Booligal +is notorious for its mosquitoes, and there had been three inches of rain +there, so the rest was a mockery. Tiny had a bed to lie down on, but she +did not lie long. She was found by Herbert (who smoked six pipes in +those two hours), leaning against one of the veranda posts as if asleep +on her feet, but with eyes fixed intently upon a dull, reddening arc on +the very edge of the darkling plain.</p> + +<p>"By the time we get there," said Herbert severely, "you'll be just about +dished! What on earth are you doing out here instead of taking a spell +when you can get it?"</p> + +<p>"I'm watching for the sun," murmured Christina, without moving. "It's a +regular Australian dawn; you never saw one like it in England. Here the +sun gets up in the middle of the night, and there he very often doesn't +get up at all. Oh, but it's glorious to be back—don't <i>you</i> think so, +old Herbs?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>"I might—if it wasn't for the governor."</p> + +<p>Tiny flushed with shame. She had forgotten the accident. Being reminded +of it she turned her back on the sunrise in deep contrition, but she had +not taken Herbert's meaning.</p> + +<p>"I funk facing him," said he gloomily. "I have nothing to say for +myself, and if I had a fellow couldn't say it with the poor governor +lying on his back."</p> + +<p>"Poor old Herbs!" said Tiny kindly. "I don't think you have much to +fear, however. It was our mistake in wanting you to go to Cambridge when +you'd been your own boss always. You were born for the bush—I'm not +sure that we both weren't!"</p> + +<p>He did not hear her sigh.</p> + +<p>"It's all very well for you to talk, Tiny! You haven't to make your +peace with anybody—you haven't to confess that you've made a ghastly +fool of yourself!"</p> + +<p>"Have I not?" exclaimed the girl bitterly.</p> + +<p>"I thought you weren't going to mention his name?" Herbert said in +surprise.</p> + +<p>"No more I am," replied Tiny, recovering herself. "So, as you say, it is +all very well for me to talk." And as she turned a ball of fire was +balanced on the distant rim of the plain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> and the arc above was now a +semicircle of crimson, which blended even yet with the lingering shades +of night.</p> + +<p>Even Herbert was not in all Tiny's secrets. He never dreamt that she had +before her an ordeal far worse than his own. When they sighted the +little township where the station buggy always met the coach, he thought +her excitement due to obvious and natural causes. The township roofs +gleamed in the afternoon sun for half an hour before one could +distinguish even a looked-for object, such as a buggy drawn up in the +shade at the hotel veranda. Herbert had time to become excited himself, +in spite of the ignoble circumstances of his return.</p> + +<p>"I see it!" he exclaimed with confidence, at five hundred yards. "And +good old Bushman and Brownlock are the pair. I'd spot 'em a mile off."</p> + +<p>"Can you see who it is in the buggy?" asked Tiny, at two hundred. She +was sitting like a mouse between Herbert and the driver.</p> + +<p>"I shall in a shake; I think it's Jack Swift."</p> + +<p>He did not know how her heart was beating. At fifty yards he said, "It +isn't Swift; it's one of the hands. I've never seen this joker before."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Tiny, and that was all. Herbert had no ear for a tone.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">A DEAF EAR.</span></h2> + + +<p>The manager of Wallandoon was harder at work that afternoon than any man +on the run. This was generally the case when there was hard work to be +done; when there was not, however, Swift had a way of making work for +himself. He had made his work to-day. Nothing need have prevented his +meeting the coach himself; but it had occurred to Swift that he would be +somewhat in the way at the meeting between Mr. Luttrell and his +children, while with regard to his own meeting with Christina he felt +much nervousness, which night, perhaps, would partly cloak. This, +however, was an instinct rather than a motive. Instinctively also he +sought by violent labor to expel the fever from his mind. He was +absurdly excited, and his energy during the heat of the day was little +less than insane. So at any rate it seemed to the youth who was helping +him by looking on, while Swift covered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> in half a tank with brushwood. +The tank had been almost dry, but was newly filled by the rains, and the +partial covering was designed to delay evaporation. But Swift himself +would execute his own design, and thought nothing of standing up to his +chest in the water, clothed only in his wide-awake, though he was the +manager of the station. The young storekeeper did not admire him for it, +though he could not help envying the manager his thick arms, which were +also bronzed, like the manager's face and neck, and in striking contrast +to the whiteness of his deep chest and broad shoulders. There had been a +change in storekeepers during recent months, a change not by any means +for the better.</p> + +<p>Near the tank were some brushwood yards, which were certainly in need of +repairs, but the need was far from immediate. Swift, however, chose to +mend up the fences that night, while he happened to be on the spot, and +his young assistant had no choice but to watch him. It was dark when at +last they rode back together to the station, silent, hungry, and not +pleased with one another; for Swift was one of those energetic people +whom it is difficult to help unless you are energetic yourself; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> the +new storekeeper was not. This youth did little for his rations that day +until the homestead was reached. Then the manager left him to unsaddle +and feed both horses, and himself walked over to the veranda, whence +came the sound of voices.</p> + +<p>Mr. Luttrell was lying in the long deck chair which had been procured +from a neighboring station, and Herbert was smoking demurely at his +side. Christina was not there at all.</p> + +<p>"You will find her in the dining room," Mr. Luttrell said, as his son +and the manager shook hands. "She has gone to make tea for you; she +means to look after us all for the next few weeks."</p> + +<p>The dining room was at the back of the house, and as Swift walked round +to it he stepped from the veranda into the heavy sand in which the +homestead was planted. He could not help it. His love had grown upon him +since that short week with her, nine months before. He felt that if his +eyes rested upon her first he could take her hand more steadily. So he +stood and watched her a moment as she bent over the tea table with +lowered head and busy fingers, and there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> something so like his +dreams in the sight of her there that he almost cried out aloud. Next +instant his spurs jingled in the veranda. She raised her head with a +jerk; he saw the fear of himself in her eyes—and knew.</p> + +<p>It did not blind him to her haggard looks.</p> + +<p>When they had shaken hands he could not help saying, "It is evident that +the old country doesn't agree with you, as you feared." And when it was +too late he would have altered the remark.</p> + +<p>"Seeing that it's six weeks since I left it, and that I have been +traveling night and day since I landed, you are rather hard on the old +country."</p> + +<p>So she answered him, her fingers in the tea caddy, and her eyes with +them. The lamplight shone upon her freckles as Swift studied her +anxiously. Perhaps, as she hinted, she was only tired.</p> + +<p>"I say, I can't have you making tea for me!" Swift exclaimed nervously. +"You are worn out, and I am accustomed to doing all this sort of thing +for myself."</p> + +<p>"Then you will have the kindness to unaccustom yourself! I am mistress +here until papa is fit to be moved."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>And not a day longer. He knew it by the way she avoided his eyes. Yet he +was forced to make conversation.</p> + +<p>"Why do you warm the teapot?"</p> + +<p>"It is the proper thing to do."</p> + +<p>"I never knew that!"</p> + +<p>"I dare say it isn't the only thing you never knew. I shouldn't wonder +if you swallowed your coffee with cold milk?"</p> + +<p>"Of course we do—when we have coffee."</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is good for you to have a housekeeper for a time," said +Christina cruelly, she did not know why.</p> + +<p>"It's my firm belief," remarked Swift, "that you have learnt these +dodges in England, and that you did <i>not</i> detest the whole thing!"</p> + +<p>The words had a far-away familiar sound to Christina, and they were +spoken in the pointed accents with which one quotes.</p> + +<p>"Did I say I should detest the whole thing?" asked Christina, marking +the tablecloth with a fork.</p> + +<p>"You did; they were your very words."</p> + +<p>"Come, I don't believe that."</p> + +<p>"I can't help it; those were your words. They were your very last words +to me."</p> + +<p>"And you actually remember them?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>She looked at him, smiling; but his face put out her smile, and the wave +of compassion which now swept over hers confirmed the knowledge that had +come to him with her first frightened glance.</p> + +<p>The storekeeper, who came in before more was said, was the unconscious +witness of a well-acted interlude of which he was also the cause. He +approved of Miss Luttrell at the tea tray, and was to some extent +recompensed for the hard day's work he had not done. He left her with +Swift on the back veranda, and they might have been grateful to him, for +not only had his advent been a boon to them both at a very awkward +moment, but, in going, he supplied them with a topic.</p> + +<p>"What has happened to my little Englishman?" Christina asked at once. "I +hoped to find him here still."</p> + +<p>"I wish you had. He was a fine fellow, and this one is not."</p> + +<p>"Then you didn't mean to get rid of my little friend?"</p> + +<p>"No. It's a very pretty story," Swift said slowly, as he watched her in +the starlight. "His father died, and he went home and came in for +something; and now that little chap is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> actually married to the girl he +used to talk about!"</p> + +<p>Tiny was silent for some moments. Then she laughed.</p> + +<p>"So much for my advice! His case is the exception that proves my rule."</p> + +<p>"I happen to remember your advice. So you still think the same?"</p> + +<p>"Most certainly I do."</p> + +<p>He laughed sardonically. "You might just as well tell me outright that +you are engaged to be married."</p> + +<p>The girl recoiled.</p> + +<p>"How do you know?" she cried. "Who has told you?"</p> + +<p>"You have—now. Your eyes told me twenty minutes ago."</p> + +<p>"But it isn't true! Nobody knows anything about it! It isn't a real +engagement yet!"</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt it will be real enough for me," answered Swift very +bitterly; and he moved away from her, though her little hands were +stretched out to keep him.</p> + +<p>"Don't leave me!" she cried piteously. "I want to tell you. I will tell +you now, if you will only let me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>He faced about, with one foot on the veranda and the other in the sand.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," he said, "if it is that old affair come right; that is all I +care to know."</p> + +<p>"It is; but it hasn't come right yet—perhaps it never will. If only you +would let me tell you everything!"</p> + +<p>"Thank you; I dare say I can imagine how matters stand. I think I told +you it would all come right. I am very glad it has."</p> + +<p>"Jack!"</p> + +<p>But Jack was gone. In the starlight she watched him disappear among the +pines. He walked so slowly that she fancied him whistling, and would +have given very much for some such sign of outward indifference to show +that he cared; but no sound came to her save the chirrup of the +crickets, which never ceased in the night time at Wallandoon. And that +made her listen for the champing of the solitary animal in the horse +yard, until she heard it, too, and stood still to listen to both noises +of the night. She remembered how once or twice in England she had seemed +to hear these two sounds, and how she had longed to be back again in the +old veranda. Now she was back. This was the old, old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> veranda. And those +two old sounds were beating into her brain in very reality—without +pause or pity.</p> + +<p>"Why, Tiny," said Herbert later, "this is the second time to-day! I +believe you <i>can</i> sleep on end like a blooming native-companion. You're +to come and talk to the governor; he would like you to sit with him +before we carry him into his room."</p> + +<p>"Would he?" Tiny cried out, and a moment later she was kneeling by the +deck chair and sobbing wildly on her father's breast.</p> + +<p>"Just because I told her she'd dish herself," remarked Herbert, looking +on with irritation, "she's been and gone and done it. That's still her +line!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.<br /> +<span class="smalltext">SUMMUM BONUM.</span></h2> + + +<p>For a month Christina declined to leave her father's side, much against +his will, but the girl's will was stronger. She was as though tethered +to the long deck chair until the lame man became able to leave it on two +sticks. Then she flew to the other extreme.</p> + +<p>North of the Lachlan the recent rains had been less heavy than in Lower +Riverina. On Wallandoon less than two inches had fallen, and by February +it was found necessary to resume work at the eight-mile whim. But the +whim driver had gone off with his check when the rain gave him a +holiday, and he had never returned. There was a momentary difficulty in +finding a man to replace him, and it was then that Miss Tiny startled +the station by herself volunteering for the post. At first Mr. Luttrell +would not hear of the plan, but the manager's opinion was not asked, and +he carefully refrained from giving it, while Herbert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> (who was about to +be intrusted with a mob of wethers for the Melbourne market) took his +sister's side. He pointed out with truth that any fool could drive a +whim under ordinary circumstances, and that, as Tiny would hardly +petition to sleep at the whim, the long ride morning and evening would +do her no harm. Mr. Luttrell gave in then. He had tried in vain to drive +the young girl from his side. She had watched over him with increasing +solicitude, with an almost unnatural tenderness. She had shown him a +warmer heart than heretofore he had known her to possess, and an amount +of love and affection which he felt to be more than a father's share. He +did not know what was the matter, but he made guesses. It had been his +lifelong practice not to "interfere" with his children; hence the +earliest misdeeds of his daughter Tiny; hence, also, the academic career +of his son Herbert. Mr. Luttrell put no questions to the girl, and none +concerning her to her brother, which was nice of him, seeing that her +ways had made him privately inquisitive; but he took Herbert's advice +and let Christina drive the eight-mile whim.</p> + +<p>The experiment proved a complete success,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> but then plain whim driving +is not difficult. Christina spent an hour or so two or three times a day +in driving the whim horse round and round until the tank was full, after +which it was no trouble to keep the troughs properly supplied. The rest +of her time she occupied in reading or musing in the shadow of the tank; +but each day she boiled her "billy" in the hut, eating very heartily in +her seclusion, and delighting more and more in the temporary freedom of +her existence, as a boy in holidays that are drawing to an end. The whim +stood high on a plain, the wind whistled through its timbers, and each +evening the girl brought back to the homestead a higher color and a +lighter step. In these days, however, very little was seen of her. She +would come in tired, and soon secrete herself within four newspapered +walls; and she went out of her way to discourage visitors at the whim. +Of this she made such a point that the manager, on coming in earlier +than usual one afternoon, was surprised when Herbert, whom he met riding +out from the station, informed him that he was on his way to the +eight-mile to look up the whim driver. Herbert seemed to have something +on his mind, and presently he told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> Swift what it was. He had awkward +news for Tiny, which he had decided to tell her at once and be done with +it. But he did not like the job. He liked it so little that he went the +length of confiding in Swift as to the nature of the news. The manager +annoyed him—he had not a remark to make.</p> + +<p>Herbert rode moodily on his way. He was sorry that he had spoken to +Swift (whose stolid demeanor was a surprise to him, as well as an +irritation); he had undoubtedly spoken too freely. With Swift still in +his thoughts, Luttrell was within a mile of the whim, and cantering +gently, before he became aware that another rider was overtaking him at +a gallop; and as he turned in his saddle, the manager himself bore down +upon him with a strange look in his good eyes.</p> + +<p>"I want you to let me—tell Tiny!" Jack Swift said hoarsely, as Herbert +stared. Jack's was a look of pure appeal.</p> + +<p>"You?"</p> + +<p>"Yes——You understand?"</p> + +<p>"That's all right! I thought I couldn't have been mistaken," said +Herbert, still looking him in the eyes. "By ghost, Jack, you're a +sportsman!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>He held out his hand, and Swift gripped it. In another minute they were +a quarter of a mile apart; but it was Swift who was riding on to the +whim, very slowly now, and with his eyes on the black timbers rising +clear of the sand against the sky. He could never look at them without +hearing words and tones that it was still bitter to remember; and now he +was going—to break bad news to Tiny? That was his undertaking.</p> + +<p>He found the whim driver with her book in the shadow of the tank.</p> + +<p>"Good-afternoon," Christina said very civilly, though her eyebrows had +arched at the sight of him. "Have you come to see whether the troughs +are full, or am I wanted at the homestead?"</p> + +<p>"Neither," said Swift, smiling; "only the mail is in, and there are +letters from England."</p> + +<p>"How good of you!" exclaimed the girl, holding out her hand.</p> + +<p>Swift was embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"Now you will pitch into me! I haven't seen the letters, and I don't +know whether there is one for you: but I met Herbert, and he told me he +had heard from your sister; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>—and I thought you might like to hear +that, as I was coming this way."</p> + +<p>"It is still good of you," said Christina kindly; and that made him +honest.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a bit good, because I came this way to speak to you about +something else."</p> + +<p>"Really?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, because one sees so little of you now, and soon you will be going. +The truth is something has been rankling with me ever since the night +you arrived—nothing you said to me; it was my own behavior to you——"</p> + +<p>"Which wasn't pretty," interrupted Tiny.</p> + +<p>"I know it wasn't; I have been very sorry for it. When you offered to +tell me about your engagement I wouldn't listen. I would listen now!"</p> + +<p>"And now I shouldn't dream of telling you a word," Tiny said, staring +coolly in his face; "not even if I <i>were</i> engaged."</p> + +<p>"Well, it amounts to that," Swift told her steadfastly, for he knew what +he meant to say, and was not to be deterred by the snubs and worse to +which he was knowingly laying himself open.</p> + +<p>"Pray how do you know what it amounts to?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>"On your side, at any rate, it amounts to an engagement; for you +consider yourself bound."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word!" cried Tiny hastily. "Do you mind telling me how you come +to know so much about my affairs?"</p> + +<p>"I am naturally interested in them after all these years."</p> + +<p>"How very kind of you! How interested you were when I foolishly offered +to tell you myself! So you have been talking me over with Herbert, have +you?"</p> + +<p>"We have spoken about you to-day for the first time; that is why I'm +here."</p> + +<p>Christina was white with anger.</p> + +<p>"And I suppose," she sneered, "that you have told him things which I +have forgotten, and which you might have forgotten as well!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think you do suppose that," Swift said gently. "No, he merely +told me about your engagement."</p> + +<p>"Then why do you want me to tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Because you alone can tell me what I most want to know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Yes—whether you are happy!"</p> + +<p>She had found her temper, which enabled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> her to put a keener edge on the +words, "That, I should say, is not your business"; and she stared at +Swift coldly where he stood, with his hands behind him, looking down +upon her without wincing.</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure," said he sturdily. "I loved you dearly; <i>I</i> could +have made you happy."</p> + +<p>"It is well you think so," was the best answer she could think of for +that; and she did not think of it at once. "Do you know who he is?" she +added later.</p> + +<p>"Herbert told me. It seems you have tampered with a splendid chance."</p> + +<p>"I have tampered with three. I shall jump at the next—if I get +another."</p> + +<p>"And if you don't?"</p> + +<p>Involuntarily she drew a deep breath at the thought. Her head was +lifted, and her blue eyes wandered over the yellow distance of the +plains with the look of a prisoner coming back into the world.</p> + +<p>"Nobody could blame him," she said at last, "and I should be rightly +served."</p> + +<p>Swift crouched in front of her, almost sitting on his heels to peer into +her face.</p> + +<p>"Tiny," he suddenly cried, "you don't love him one bit!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>"But I think he loves me," she answered, hanging her head, for he held +her hand.</p> + +<p>"Not as I do, Tiny! Never as I have done! I have loved you all the time, +and never anyone but you. And you—you care for me best; I see it in +your eyes; I feel it in your hand. Don't you think that you, too, may +have loved me all the time?"</p> + +<p>"If I have," she murmured, "it has been without knowing it."</p> + +<p>It was without knowing it that she trod upon the truth. Their voices +were trembling.</p> + +<p>"Darling," he whispered, "this would be home to you. It's the same old +Wallandoon. You love it, I know; and I think—you love——"</p> + +<p>She snatched her hand from his, and sprang to her feet. He, too, rose +astounded, gazing on every side to see who was coming. But the plain was +flecked only with straggling sheep, bleating to the troughs. His gaze +came back to the girl. Her straw hat sharply shadowed her face like a +highwayman's mask, her blue eyes flashing in the midst of it, and her +lips below parted in passion.</p> + +<p>"You? I hate you! I <i>do</i> consider myself bound, and you would make me +false—you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> would tempt me through my love for the bush, for this +place—you coward!"</p> + +<p>Swift reddened, and there was roughness in his answer:</p> + +<p>"I can't stand this, even from you. I have heard that all women are +unfair; you are, certainly. What you say about my tempting you is +nonsense. You have shown me that you love me, and that you don't love +the other man; you know you have. You have now to show whether you have +the courage of your love—to give him up—to marry me."</p> + +<p>This method must have had its attractions after another's; but it hurt, +because Tiny was sensitive, with all her sins.</p> + +<p>"You have spoken very cruelly," she faltered, delightfully forgetting +how she had spoken herself. "I could not marry anyone who spoke to me +like that!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, forgive me!" he cried, covered with contrition in an instant. "I am +a rough brute, but I promise——" He stopped, for her head had drooped, +and she seemed to be crying. He stood away from her in his shame. "Yes, +I am a rough brute," he repeated bitterly; "but, darling, you don't know +how it roughens one, bossing the men!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>Still she hung her head, but within the widened shadow of her hat he saw +her red mouth twitching at his clumsiness. Yet, when she raised her +face, her smile astonished him, it was so timorous; and the wondrous +shyness in her lovely eyes abashed him far more than her tears.</p> + +<p>"I dare say—I need that!" he heard her whisper in spurts. "I think I +should like—you—to boss—me—too."</p> + +<hr class="thin" /> + +<p>These things and others were tersely told in a letter written in the hot +blast of a north wind at Wallandoon, and delivered in London six weeks +later, damp with the rain of early April. The letter arrived by the last +post, and Ruth read it on the sofa in her husband's den, while Erskine +paced up and down the room, listening to the sentences she read aloud, +but saying little.</p> + +<p>"So you see," said Ruth as she put the thin sheets together and replaced +them in their envelope, "she accepted him before she knew of Lord +Manister's engagement. <i>He</i> knew of it, and had undertaken to tell her, +but that was only to give himself a last chance. Had she heard of it +first he would never have spoken again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>"I question that," Erskine said thoughtfully. "He might not have spoken +so soon; but his love would have proved stronger than his pride in the +end. Yet I like him for his pride. That was what she needed, and what +Manister lacked. It is very curious."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if you really would like him," said Ruth, who no longer cared +for the sound of Lord Manister's name. "I don't remember much about him, +except that we all thought a good deal of him; but somehow I don't fancy +he's your sort."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't aware that I had a sort," Erskine said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you have. <i>I</i> am not your sort. But Tiny was!"</p> + +<p>He laughed heartily.</p> + +<p>"Then we four have chosen sides most excellently! It is quite fatal to +marry your own sort. Didn't you know that, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't," said Ruth, watching him from the sofa; "but I am very +glad to hear it, and I quite agree. You and Tiny, for instance, would +have jeered at everything in life until you were left jeering at one +another. Don't you think so?" she added wistfully, after a pause.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>"I think you're an uncommonly shrewd little person," Erskine remarked, +smiling down upon her kindly, so that her face shone with pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Do you?" she said, as he helped her to rise. "You used to think me so +dense when Tiny was here; and I dare say I was—beside Tiny."</p> + +<p>"My dearest girl," said Erskine, taking his wife in his arms, and +speaking in a troubled tone, "you have never said that sort of thing +before, and I hope you never will again. Tiny was Tiny—our Tiny—but +surely wisdom was not her strongest point? She amused us all because she +wasn't quite like other people; but how often am I to tell you that I am +thankful you are not like Tiny?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, if you really were!" Ruth whispered on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"But I always was," he answered, kissing her; and they smiled at one +another until the door was shut and Ruth had gone, for there was now +between them an exceeding tenderness.</p> + +<p>Ruth had left him her letter, so that he might read it for himself; but +though he lit a pipe and sat down, it was some time before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> Erskine read +anything. Had Ruth returned and asked him for his thoughts, he would +have confessed that he was wondering whether Tiny's husband would +understand the girl he had managed to tame; and whether he had a fine +ear for a joke. As wondering would not tell him, he at length turned to +the letter; and that did not tell him either; but before he turned the +first of the many leaves, it was as though the child herself was beside +him in the room.</p> + +<p>The qualities she mentioned in her beloved were all of a serious +character, and the praises she bestowed upon him, at her own expense, +were a little tiresome to one who did not know the man. Erskine turned +over with excusable impatience, and was rewarded on the next page by a +sufficiently just summary of Lord Manister; even here, however, Tiny +took occasion to be very hard on herself. She declared—possibly she +would have said it in any case, but it happened to be true—that she had +never loved Lord Manister. On the way she had ill-used him she harped no +more; his own solution of his difficulties had, indeed, broken that +string. But she spoke of her "temptation" (incidentally remarking that +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> hall windows haunted her still), and said she would perhaps have +yielded to it outright but for her visit to Wallandoon before sailing +for England; and that she would certainly have done so at the third +asking had it not been for that stronger temptation to go back with +Herbert to Australia. As it was, she had gone back fully determined to +marry Lord Manister in the end. And if that decision had been furthered +to the smallest extent by any sort of consideration for another, she did +not say so; neither did she seek to defend her own behavior at any +point, for this was not Tiny's way. However, with Jack she had burned to +justify herself, because love puts an end to one's ways. She had longed +to tell him everything with her own lips, and to have him forgive and +excuse her on the spot. This she admitted. But she denied having known +what her unreasonable longing really was. Did Ruth remember the "burning +of the boats" at Cintra? Well, she had spoken the truth about Jack then; +she had never "known" until the night of her last arrival at the +station; she had never been quite miserable until the succeeding days. +Reverting to Manister, she supposed the discovery of her departure the +day after their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> interview—in which she had studiously refrained from +revealing its imminence—had proved the last straw with him; she added +that such a result had been vaguely in her mind at the time, but that +she had never really admitted it among her hopes. Yet it seemed she had +cured him just when she gave him up for incurable—and how thankful she +was! A well-felt word about Lord Manister's future happiness and so on +led her to her own; and Erskine slid his eye over that, but had it +arrested by a loving little description of the old home to which she was +coming back for good. It was a hot wind as she wrote, and the beginning +of a word dried before she got to the end of it—so she affirmed. The +roof was crackling, and the shadows in the yard were like tanks of ink. +Out on the run the salt-bush still looked healthy after the rains. She +had given up whim driving; the manager had put in his word. But she was +taking long rides, all by herself; and the lonely grandeur of the bush +appealed to her just as it had when she first came back to it nearly a +year ago; and the deep sky and yellow distances and dull leaves were all +her eyes required; and she thought this was the one place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> in the world +where it would be easy to be good.</p> + +<p>The letter came rather suddenly to its end. There were some very kind +words about himself, which Erskine read more than once. Then he sat +staring into the fire, until, by some fancy's trick, the red coals +turned pale and took the shape of a girl's sweet face with blemishes +that only made it sweeter, with dark hair, and generous lips, and eyes +like her own Australian sky. And the eyes lightened with fun and with +mischief, with recklessness, and bitterness, and temper; and in each +light they were more lovable than before; but last of all they beamed +clear and tranquil as the blue sea becalmed; and in their depths there +shone a soul.</p> + + +<p class="theend">THE END.</p> + +<hr class="wide" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been changed.</p> + +<p>In Chapter VI, <b>"It was not nonsense!" be cried.</b> was changed to <b>"It was +not nonsense!" he cried.</b></p> + +<p>In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after <b>Oh, it's all +that.</b></p> + +<p>In Chapter XVII, a missing quotation mark was added after <b>You shan't do +it!</b></p> + +<p>In Chapter XVIII, <b>there are some migivings</b> was changed to <b>there are some +misgivings</b>.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tiny Luttrell, by Ernest William Hornung + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + +***** This file should be named 37320-h.htm or 37320-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37320/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tiny Luttrell + +Author: Ernest William Hornung + +Release Date: September 5, 2011 [EBook #37320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +TINY LUTTRELL + +BY ERNEST WILLIAM HORNUNG + +AUTHOR OF "A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH," "UNDER TWO SKIES" + +NEW YORK +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY +104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE + +COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY +CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. + +All rights reserved. + +THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, +RAHWAY, N. J. + + + + + TO + C. A. M. D. + FROM + E. W. H. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE COMING OF TINY, 1 + II. SWIFT OF WALLANDOON, 21 + III. THE TAIL OF THE SEASON, 44 + IV. RUTH AND CHRISTINA, 63 + V. ESSINGHAM RECTORY, 84 + VI. A MATTER OF ANCIENT HISTORY, 102 + VII. THE SHADOW OF THE HALL, 116 + VIII. COUNTESS DROMARD AT HOME, 133 + IX. MOTHER AND SON, 148 + X. A THREATENING DAWN, 162 + XI. IN THE LADIES' TENT, 176 + XII. ORDEAL BY BATTLE, 193 + XIII. HER HOUR OF TRIUMPH, 213 + XIV. A CYCLE OF MOODS, 233 + XV. THE INVISIBLE IDEAL, 248 + XVI. FOREIGN SOIL, 263 + XVII. THE HIGH SEAS, 286 + XVIII. THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING, 306 + XIX. COUNSEL'S OPINION, 317 + XX. IN HONOR BOUND, 327 + XXI. A DEAF EAR, 339 + XXII. SUMMUM BONUM, 348 + + + + +TINY LUTTRELL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE COMING OF TINY. + + +Swift of Wallandoon was visibly distraught. He had driven over to the +township in the heat of the afternoon to meet the coach. The coach was +just in sight, which meant that it could not arrive for at least half an +hour. Yet nothing would induce Swift to wait quietly in the hotel +veranda; he paid no sort of attention to the publican who pressed him to +do so. The iron roofs of the little township crackled in the sun with a +sound as of distant musketry; their sharp-edged shadows lay on the sand +like sheets of zinc that might be lifted up in one piece; and a hot wind +in full blast played steadily upon Swift's neck and ears. He had pulled +up in the shade, and was leaning forward, with his wide-awake tilted +over his nose, and his eyes on a cloud of dust between the bellying +sand-hills and the dark blue sky. The cloud advanced, revealing from +time to time a growing speck. That speck was the coach which Swift had +come to meet. + +He was a young man with broad shoulders and good arms, and a general air +of smartness and alacrity about which there could be no mistake. He had +dark hair and a fair mustache; his eye was brown and alert; and much +wind and sun had reddened a face that commonly gave the impression of +complete capability with a sufficiency of force. This afternoon, +however, Swift lacked the confident look of the thoroughly capable young +man. And he was even younger than he looked; he was young enough to +fancy that the owner of Wallandoon, who was a passenger by the +approaching coach, had traveled five hundred miles expressly to deprive +John Swift of the fine position to which recent good luck had promoted +him. + +He could think of nothing else to bring Mr. Luttrell all the way from +Melbourne at the time of year when a sheep station causes least anxiety. +The month was April, there had been a fair rainfall since Christmas, and +only in his last letter Mr. Luttrell had told Swift that all he need do +for the present was to take care of the fences and let the sheep take +care of themselves. The next news was a telegram to the effect that Mr. +Luttrell was coming up country to see for himself how things were going +at Wallandoon. Having stepped into the managership by an accident, and +even so merely as a trial man, young Swift at once made sure that his +trial was at an end. It did not strike him that in spite of his youth he +was the ideal person for the post. Yet this was obvious. He had five +years' experience of the station he was to manage. The like merit is not +often in the market. Swift seemed to forget that. Neither did he take +comfort from the fact that Mr. Luttrell was an old friend of his family +in Victoria, and hitherto his own highly satisfied employer. Hitherto, +or until the last three months, he had not tried to manage Mr. +Luttrell's station. If he had failed in that time to satisfy its owner, +then he would at once go elsewhere; but for many things he wished most +keenly to stay at Wallandoon; and he was thinking of these things now, +while the coach grew before his eyes. + +Of his five years on Wallandoon the last two had been infinitely less +enjoyable than the three that had gone before. There was a simple +reason for the difference. Until two years ago Mr. Luttrell had himself +managed the station, and had lived there with his wife and family. That +had answered fairly well while the family were young, thanks to a +competent governess for the girls. But when the girls grew up it became +time to make a change. The squatter was a wealthy man, and he could +perfectly well afford the substantial house which he had already built +for himself in a Melbourne suburb. The social splashing of his wife and +daughters after their long seclusion in the wilderness was also easily +within his means, if not entirely to his liking; but he was a mild man +married to a weak woman; and he happened to be bent on a little splash +on his own account in politics. Choosing out of many applicants the best +possible manager for Wallandoon, the squatter presently entered the +Victorian legislature, and embraced the new interests so heartily that +he was nearly two years in discovering his best possible manager to be +both a failure and a fraud. + +It was this discovery that had given Swift an opening whose very +splendor accounted for his present doubts and fears. Had his chance +been spoilt by Herbert Luttrell, who had lately been on Wallandoon as +Swift's overseer, for some ten days only, when the two young fellows had +failed to pull together? This was not likely, for Herbert at his worst +was an honest ruffian, who had taken the whole blame (indeed it was no +more than his share) of that fiasco. Swift, however, could think of +nothing else; nor was there time; for now the coach was so close that +the crack of the driver's whip was plainly heard, and above the cluster +of heads on the box a white handkerchief fluttered against the sky. + +The publican whom Swift had snubbed addressed another remark to him from +the veranda: + +"There's a petticoat on board." + +"So I see." + +The coach came nearer. + +"She's your boss's daughter," affirmed the publican--"the best of 'em." + +"So you're cracking!" + +"Well, wait a minute. What now?" + +Swift prolonged the minute. "You're right," he said, hastily tying his +reins to the brake. + +"I am so." + +"Heaven help me!" muttered Swift as he jumped to the ground. "There's +nothing ready for her. They might have told one!" + +A moment later five heaving horses stood sweating in the sun, and Swift, +reaching up his hand, received from a gray-bearded gentleman on the box +seat a grip from which his doubts and fears should have died on the +spot. If they did, however, it was only to make way for a new and +unlooked-for anxiety, for little Miss Luttrell was smiling down at him +through a brown gauze veil, as she poked away the handkerchief she had +waved, leaving a corner showing against her dark brown jacket; and how +she was to be made comfortable at the homestead, all in a minute, Swift +did not know. + +"She insisted on coming," said Mr. Luttrell, with a smile. "Is it any +good her getting down?" + +"Can you take me in?" asked the girl. + +"We'll do our best," said Swift, holding the ladder for her descent. + +Her shoes made a daintier imprint in the sand than it had known for two +whole years. She smiled as she gave her hand to Swift; it was small, +too, and Swift had not touched a lady's hand for many months. There was +very little of her altogether, but the little was entirely pleasing. +Embarrassed though he was, Swift was more than pleased to see the young +girl again, and her smiles that struggled through the brown gauze like +sunshine through a mist. She had not worn gauze veils two years ago; and +two years ago she had been content with fare that would scarcely please +her to-day, while naturally the living at the station was rougher now +than in the days of the ladies. It was all very well for her to smile. +She ought never to have come without a word of warning. Swift felt +responsible and aggrieved. + +He helped Mr. Luttrell to carry their baggage from the coach to the +buggy drawn up in the shade. Miss Luttrell went to the horses' heads and +stroked their noses; they were Bushman and Brownlock, the old safe pair +she had many a time driven herself. In a moment she was bidden to jump +up. There had been very little luggage to transfer. The most cumbrous +piece was a hamper, of which Swift formed expectations that were +speedily confirmed. For Miss Luttrell remarked, pointing to the hamper +as she took her seat: + +"At least we have brought our own rations; but I am afraid they will +make you horribly uncomfortable behind there?" + +Swift was on the back seat. "Not a bit," he answered; "I was much more +uncomfortable until I saw the hamper." + +"Don't you worry about us, Jack," said Mr. Luttrell as they drove off. +"Whatever you do, don't worry about Tiny. Give her travelers' rations +and send her to the travelers' hut. That's all she deserves, when she +wasn't on the way-bill. She insisted on coming at the last moment; I +told her it wasn't fair." + +"But it's very jolly," said Swift gallantly. + +"It was just like her," Mr. Luttrell chuckled; "she's as unreliable as +ever." + +The girl had been looking radiantly about her as they drove along the +single broad, straggling street of the township. She now turned her head +to Swift, and her eyes shot through her veil in a smile. That abominable +veil went right over her broad-brimmed hat, and was gathered in and made +fast at the neck. Swift could have torn it from her head; he had not +seen a lady smile for months. Also, he was beginning to make the +astonishing discovery that somehow she was altered, and he was curious +to see how much, which was impossible through the gauze. + +"Is that true?" he asked her. He had known her for five years. + +"I suppose so," she returned carelessly; and immediately her sparkling +eyes wandered. "There's old Mackenzie in the post office veranda. He was +a detestable old man, but I must wave to him; it's so good to be back!" + +"But you own to being unreliable?" persisted Swift. + +"I don't know," Miss Luttrell said, tossing the words to him over her +shoulder, because her attention was not for the manager. "Is it so very +dreadful if I am? What's the good of being reliable? It's much more +amusing to take people by surprise. Your face was worth the journey when +you saw me on the coach! But you see I haven't surprised Mackenzie; he +doesn't look the least impressed; I dare say he thinks it was last week +we all went away. I hate him!" + +"Here are the police barracks," said Swift, seeing that all her interest +was in the old landmarks; "we have a new sergeant since you left." + +"If _he's_ in _his_ veranda I shall shout out to him who I am, and how +long I have been away, and how good it is to get back." + +"She's quite capable of doing it," Mr. Luttrell chimed in, chuckling +afresh; "there's never any knowing what she'll do next." + +But the barracks veranda was empty, and it was the last of the township +buildings. There was now nothing ahead but the rim of scrub, beyond +which, among the sand-hills, sweltered the homestead of Wallandoon. + +"I've come back with a nice character, have I not?" the girl now +remarked, turning to Swift with another smile. + +"You must have earned it; I can quite believe that you have," laughed +Swift. He had known her in short dresses. + +"Ha! ha! You see he remembers all about you, my dear." + +"Do you, Jack?" the girl said. + +"Do I not!" said Jack. + +And he said no more. He was grateful to her for addressing him, though +only once, by his Christian name. He had been intimate with the whole +family, and it seemed both sensible and pleasant to resume a friendly +footing from the first. He would have called the girl by her Christian +name too, only this was so seldom heard among her own people. Tiny she +was by nature, and Tiny she had been by name also, from her cradle. +Certainly she had been Tiny to Swift two years ago, and already she had +called him Jack; but he saw in neither circumstance any reason why she +should be Tiny to him still. It was different from a proper name. Her +proper name was Christina, but unreliable though she confessedly was, +she might perhaps be relied upon to jeer if he came out with that. And +he would not call her "Miss Luttrell." He thought about it and grew +silent; but this was because his thoughts had glided from the girl's +name to the girl herself. + +She had surprised him in more ways than one--in so many ways that +already he stood almost in awe of the little person whom formerly he had +known so well. Christina had changed, as it was only natural that she +should have changed; but because we are prone to picture our friends as +last we saw them, no matter how long ago, not less natural was Swift's +surprise. It was unreasoning, however, and not the kind of surprise to +last. In a few minutes his wonder was that Christina had changed so +little. To look at her she had scarcely changed at all. A certain +finality of line was perceptible in the figure, but if anything she was +thinner than of old. As for her face, what he could see of it through +the maddening gauze was the face of Swift's memory. Her voice was a +little different; in it was a ring of curiously deliberate irony, +charming at first as a mere affectation. A more noteworthy alteration +had taken place in her manner: she had acquired the manner of a finished +young woman of the world and of society. Already she had shown that she +could become considerably excited without forfeiting any of the grace +and graciousness and self-possession that were now conspicuously hers; +and before the homestead was reached she exhibited such a saintly +sweetness in repose as only enhanced the lambent deviltry playing about +most of her looks and tones. If Swift was touched with awe in her +presence, that can hardly be wondered at in one who went for months +together without setting eyes upon a lady. + +The drive was a long one--so long that when they sighted the homestead +it came between them and the setting sun. The main building with its +long, regular roof lay against the red sky like some monstrous ingot. +The hot wind had fallen, and the station pines stood motionless, drawn +in ink. As they drove through the last gate they could hear the dogs +barking; and Christina distinguished the voice of her own old +short-haired collie, which she had bequeathed to Swift, who was repaid +for the sound with a final smile. He hardly knew why, but this look made +the girl's old self live to him as neither look nor word had done yet, +though her face was turned away from the light, and the stupid veil +still fell before it. + +But the less fascinating side of her arrival was presently engaging his +attention. He hastily interviewed Mrs. Duncan, an elderly godsend new to +the place since the Luttrells had left it, and never so invaluable as +now. Into Mrs. Duncan's hands Christina willingly submitted herself, for +she was really tired out. Swift did not see her again until supper, +which afforded further proofs of Mrs. Duncan's merits in a time of need. +Meanwhile, Mr. Luttrell had finally disabused him of the foolish fears +he had entertained while waiting for the coach. Swift's youth, which has +shown itself in these fears, comes out also in the ease with which he +now forgot them. They had made him unhappy for three whole days; yet he +dared to feel indignant because his owner, who had confirmed his command +instead of dismissing him from it, chose to talk sheep at the supper +table. Swift seemed burning to hear of the eldest Miss Luttrell, who was +Miss Luttrell no longer, having married a globe-trotting Londoner during +her first season and gone home. He asked Christina several questions +about Ruth (whose other name he kept forgetting) and her husband. But +Mr. Luttrell lost no chance of rounding up the conversation and yarding +it in the sheep pens; and Swift had the ingratitude to resent this. +Still more did he resent the hour he was forced to spend in the store +after supper, examining the books and discussing recent results and +future plans with Mr. Luttrell, while his subordinate, the storekeeper, +enjoyed the society of Christina. The business in the store was not only +absurdly premature and irksome in itself, but it made it perfectly +impossible for Swift to hear any more that night of the late Ruth +Luttrell, whose present name was not to be remembered. He found it hard +to possess his soul in patience and to answer questions satisfactorily +under such circumstances. For an hour, indeed, he did both; but the +station store faced the main building, and when Tiny Luttrell appeared +in the veranda of the latter with a lighted candle in her hand, he could +do neither any longer. Saying candidly that he must bid her good-night, +he hurried out of the store and across the yard, and was in time to +catch Christina at one end of the broad veranda which entirely +surrounded the house. + +At supper Mr. Luttrell had made him take the head of the table, by +virtue of his office, declaring that he himself was merely a visitor. +And on the strength of that Swift was perhaps justified now in adding a +host's apology to his good-night. "I'm afraid you'll have to rough it +most awfully," was what he said. + +"Far from it. You have given me my old room, the one we papered with +_Australasians_, if you remember; they are only a little more fly-blown +than they used to be." + +This was Christina's reply, which naturally led to more. + +"But it won't be as comfortable as it used to be," said Swift +unhappily; "and it won't be what you are accustomed to nowadays." + +"Never mind, it's the dearest little den in the colonies!" + +"That sounds as if you were glad to get back to Riverina?" + +"Glad? No one knows how glad I am." + +One person knew now. The measure of her gladness was expressed in her +face not less than in her tones, and it was no ordinary measure. Over +the candle she held in her hand Swift was enabled for the first time to +peer unobstructedly into her face. He found it more winsome than ever, +but he noticed some ancient blemishes under the memorable eyes. She had, +in fact, some freckles, which he recognized with the keenest joy. She +might stoop to a veil--she had not sunk to doctoring her complexion; she +had come back to the bush an incomplete worldling after all. Yet there +was that in her face which made him feel a stranger to her still. + +"Do you know," he said, smiling, "that I'm in a great funk of you? I +can't say quite what it is, but somehow you're so grand. I suppose it's +Melbourne." + +Miss Luttrell thanked him, bowing so low that her candle shed grease +upon the boards. "You've altered too," she added in his own manner; "I +suppose it's being boss. But I haven't seen enough of you to be sure. +You evidently told off your new storekeeper to entertain me for the +evening. He is a trying young man; he _will_ talk. But of course he is a +new chum fresh from home." + +"Still he's a very good little chap; but it wasn't my fault that he and +I didn't change places. Mr. Luttrell wanted to speak to me about several +things, besides glancing through the books; I thought we might have put +it off, and I wondered how you were getting on. By the way, it struck me +once or twice that your father was coming up to give me the sack; and +it's just the reverse, for now I'm permanent manager." + +He told her this with a natural exultation, but she did not seem +impressed by it. "Do you know why he did come up?" she asked him. + +"Yes; for his Easter holidays, chiefly." + +"And why I would come with him?" + +"No; I'm afraid we never mentioned you. I suppose you came for a holiday +too?" + +"Shall I tell you why I did come?" + +"I wish you would." + +"Well, I came to say good-by to Wallandoon," said Christina solemnly. + +"You're going to be married!" exclaimed Swift, with conviction, but with +perfect nonchalance. + +"Not if I know it," cried Christina. "Are you?" + +"Not I." + +"But there's Miss Trevor of Meringul!" + +"I see them once in six months." + +"That may be in the bond." + +"Well, never mind Miss Trevor of Meringul. You haven't told me how it is +you've come to say good-by to the station, Miss Luttrell of Wallandoon." + +"Then I'll tell you, seriously: it's because I sail for England on the +4th of May." + +"For England!" + +"Yes, and I'm not at all keen about it, I can tell you. But I'm not +going to see England, I'm going to see Ruth; Australia's worth fifty +Englands any day." + +Swift had recovered from his astonishment. "I don't know," he said +doubtfully; "most of us would like a trip home, you know, just to see +what the old country's like; though I dare say it isn't all it's cracked +up to be." + +"Of course it isn't. I hate it!" + +"But if you've never been there?" + +"I judge from the people--from the samples they send out. Your new +storekeeper is one; you meet worse down in Melbourne. Herbert's going +with me; he's going to Cambridge, if they'll have him. Didn't you know +that? But he could go alone, and if it wasn't for Ruth I wouldn't cross +Hobson's Bay to see their old England!" + +The serious bitterness of her tone struck him afterward as nothing less +than grotesque; but at the moment he was gazing into her face, +thoughtfully yet without thoughts. + +"It's good for Herbert," he said presently. "I couldn't do anything with +him here; he offered to fight me when I tried to make him work. I +suppose he will be three or four years at Cambridge; but how long are +you going to stay with Mrs.--Mrs. Ruth?" + +"How stupid you are at remembering a simple name! Do try to remember +that her name is Holland. I beg your pardon, Jack, but you have been +really very forgetful this evening. I think it must be Miss Trevor of +Meringul." + +"It isn't. I'm very sorry. But you haven't told me how long you think +of staying at home." + +"How long?" said the young girl lightly. "It may be for years and years, +and it may be forever and ever!" + +He looked at her strangely, and she darted out her hand. + +"Good-night again, Jack." + +"Good-night again." + +What with the pauses, each of them an excellent opportunity for +Christina to depart, it had taken them some ten minutes to say that +which ought not to have lasted one. But you must know that this was +nothing to their last good-night, on the self-same spot two years +before, when she had rested in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SWIFT OF WALLANDOON. + + +Christina was awakened in the morning by the holland blind flapping +against her open window. It was a soft, insinuating sound, that awoke +one gradually, and to Christina both the cause and the awakening itself +seemed incredibly familiar. So had she lain and listened in the past, as +each day broke in her brain. When she opened her eyes the shadow of the +sash wriggled on the blind as it flapped, a blade of sunshine lay under +the door that opened upon the veranda, and neither sight was new to her. +The same sheets of the _Australasian_ with which her own hands had once +lined the room, for want of a conventional wallpaper, lined it still; +the same area of printed matter was in focus from the pillow, and she +actually remembered an advertisement that caught her eye. It used to +catch her eye two years before. Thus it became difficult to believe in +those two years; and it was very pleasant to disbelieve in them. More +than pleasant Christina found it to lie where she was, hearing the old +noises (the horses were run up before she rose), seeing the old things, +and dreaming that the last two years were themselves a dream. Her life +as it stood was a much less charming composition than several possible +arrangements of the same material, impossible now. This is not strange, +but it was a little strange that neither sweet impossibilities nor +bitter actualities fascinated her much; for so many good girls are +morbidly introspective. As for Christina, let it be clearly and early +understood that she was neither an introspective girl by nature nor a +particularly good one from any point of view. She was not in the habit +of looking back; but to look back on the old days here at the station +without thinking of later days was like reading an uneven book for the +second time, leaving out the poor part. + +In making, but still more in closing that gap in her life (as you close +a table after taking out a leaf) she was immensely helped by the +associations of the present moment. They breathed of the remote past +only; their breath was sweet and invigorating. Her affection for +Wallandoon was no affectation; she loved it as she loved no other place. +And if, as she dressed, her thoughts dwelt more on the young manager of +the station than on the station itself, that only illustrates the +difference between an association and an associate. There is human +interest in the one, but it does not follow that Tiny Luttrell was +immoderately interested in Jack Swift. Even to herself she denied that +she had ever done more than like him very much. To some "nonsense" in +the past she was ready to own. But in the vocabulary of a Tiny Luttrell +a little "nonsense" may cover a calendar of mild crimes. It is only the +Jack Swifts who treat the nonsense seriously and deny that the crimes +are anything of the sort, because for their part they "mean it." Women +are not deceived. Besides, it is less shame for them to say they never +meant it. + +"He must marry Flo Trevor of Meringul," Christina said aloud. "It's what +we all expect of him. It's his duty. But she isn't pretty, poor thing!" + +The remarks happened to be made to Christina's own reflection in the +glass. She, as we know, was very pretty indeed. Her small head was +finely turned, and carried with her own natural grace. Her hair was of +so dark a brown as to be nearly black, but there was not enough of it to +hide the charming contour of her head. If she could have had the +altering of one feature, she would probably have shortened her lips; but +their red freshness justified their length; and the crux of a woman's +beauty, her nose, happened to be Christina's best point. Her eyes were a +sweeter one. Their depth of blue is seen only under dark blue skies, and +they seemed the darker for her hair. But with all her good features, +because she was not an English girl, but an Australian born and bred, +she had no complexion to speak of, being pale and slightly freckled. Yet +no one held that those blemishes prevented her from being pretty; while +some maintained that they did not even detract from her good looks, and +a few that they saved her from perfection and were a part of her charm. +The chances are that the authorities quoted were themselves her admirers +one and all. She had many such. To most of them her character had the +same charm as her face; it, too, was freckled with faults for which +they loved her the more. + +One of the many she met presently, but one of them now, though in his +day the first of all. Swift was hastening along the veranda as she +issued forth, a consciously captivating figure in her clean white frock. +He had on his wide-awake, a newly filled water-bag dripped as he carried +it, the drops drying under their eyes in the sun, and Christina foresaw +at once his absence for the day. She was disappointed, perhaps because +he was one of the many; certainly it was for this reason she did not let +him see her disappointment. He told her that he was going with her +father to the out-station. That was fourteen miles away. It meant a +lonely day for Christina at the homestead. So she said that a lonely day +there was just what she wanted, to overhaul the dear old place all by +herself, and to revel in it like a child without feeling that she was +being watched. But she told a franker story some hours later, when Swift +found her still on the veranda where he had left her, but this was now +the shady side, seated in a wicker chair and frowning at a book. For she +promptly flung away that crutch of her solitude, and seemed really glad +to see him. Her look made him tingle. He sat down on the edge of the +veranda and leaned his back against a post. Then he inquired, rather +diffidently, how the day had gone with Miss Luttrell. + +"I am ashamed to tell you," said Christina graciously, for though his +diffidence irritated her, she was quite as glad to see him as she +looked, "that I have been bored very nearly to death!" + +"I knew you would be," Swift said quite bitterly; but his bitterness was +against an absent man, who had gone indoors to rest. + +"I don't see how you could know anything," remarked Christina. "I +certainly didn't know it myself; and I'm very much ashamed of it, that's +another thing! I love every stick about the place. But I never knew a +hotter morning; the sand in the yard was like powdered cinders, and you +can't go poking about very long when everything you touch is red hot. +Then one felt tired. Mrs. Duncan took pity on me and came and talked to +me; she must be an acquisition to you, I am sure; but her cooking's +better than her conversation. I think she must have sent the new chum +to me to take her place; anyway I've had a dose of him, too, I can tell +you!" + +"Oh, he's been cutting his work, has he?" + +"He has been doing the civil; I think he considered that his work." + +"And quite right too! Tell me, what do you think of him?" + +Christina made a grotesque grimace. "He's such a little Englishman," she +simply said. + +"Well, he can't help that, you know," said Swift, laughing; "and he's +not half a bad little chap, as I told you last night." + +"Oh, not a bit bad; only typical. He has told me his history. It seems +he missed the army at home, front door and back, in spite of his +crammer--I mean his cwammer. He was no use, so they sent him out to us." + +"And he is gradually becoming of some use to us, or rather to me; he +really is," protested Swift in the interests of fair play, which a man +loves. "You laugh, but I like the fellow. He's much more use--forgive my +saying so--than Herbert ever would have been--here. At all events he +doesn't want to fight! He's willing, I will say that for him. And I +think it was rather nice of him to tell you about himself." + +"It's nicer of you to think so," said Christina to herself. And her +glance softened so that he noticed the difference, for he was becoming +sensitive to a slight but constant hardness of eye and tongue +distressing to find in one's divinity. + +"He went so far as to hint at an affair of the heart," she said aloud, +and he saw her eyes turn hard again, so that his own glanced off them +and fell. But he forced a chuckle as he looked down. + +"Well, you gave him your sympathy there, I hope?" + +"Not I, indeed. I urged him to forget all about her; she has forgotten +all about him long before now, you may be sure. He only thinks about her +still because it's pleasant to have somebody to think about at a lonely +place like this; and if she's thinking about him it's because he's away +in the wilderness and there's a glamour about that. It wouldn't prevent +her marrying another man to-morrow, and it won't prevent him making up +to some other girl when he gets the chance." + +"So that's your experience, is it?" + +"Never mind whose experience it is. I advised the young man to give up +thinking about the young woman, that's all, and it's my advice to every +young man situated as he is." + +Swift was not amused. Yet he refused to believe that her advice was +intended for himself: firstly, because it was so coolly given, which was +his ignorance, and secondly, because, literally speaking, he was not +himself situated as the young Englishman was, which was merely +unimaginative. In his determination, however, not to meet her in +generalizations, but to get back to the storekeeper, he was wise enough. + +"I know something about his affairs, too," he said quietly; "he's the +frankest little fellow in the world; and I have given him very different +advice, I must say." + +Tiny Luttrell bent down on him a gaze of fiendish innocence. + +"And what sort of advice does he give you, pray?" + +"You had better ask him," said Swift feebly, but with effect, for he was +honestly annoyed, and man enough to show it. As he spoke, indeed, he +rose. + +"What, are you going?" + +"Yes; you go in for being too hard altogether." + +"I don't go in for it. I am hard. I'm as hard as nails," said Christina +rapidly. + +"So I see," he said, and another weak return was strengthened by his +firmness; for he was going away as he spoke, and he never looked round. + +"I wouldn't lose my temper," she called after him. + +Her face was white. He disappeared. She colored angrily. + +"Now I hate you," she whispered to herself; but she probably respected +him more, and that was as it only should have been long ago. + +But Swift was in an awkward position, which indeed he deserved for the +unsuspected passages that had once taken place between Tiny Luttrell and +himself. It is true that those passages had occurred at the very end of +the Luttrells' residence at Wallandoon; they had not been going on for a +period preceding the end; but there is no denying that they were +reprehensible in themselves, and pardonable only on the plea of +exceeding earnestness. Swift would not have made that excuse for +himself, for he felt it to be a poor one, though of his own sincerity he +was and had been unwaveringly sure. Beyond all doubt he was properly in +love, and, being so, it was not until the girl stopped writing to him +that he honestly repented the lengths to which he had been encouraged to +go. It is easy to be blameless through the post, but they had kept up +their perfectly blameless correspondence for a very few weeks when +Christina ceased firing; she was to have gone on forever. He was just +persistent enough to make it evident that her silence was intentional; +then the silence became complete, and it was never again broken. For if +Swift's self-control was limited, his self-respect was considerable, and +this made him duly regret the limitations of his self-control. His boy's +soul bled with a boy's generous regrets. He had kissed her, of course, +and I wonder whose fault you think that was? I know which of them +regretted and which forgot it. The man would have given one of his +fingers to have undone those kisses, that made him think less of himself +and less of his darling. Nothing could make him love her less. He heard +no more of her, but that made no difference. And now they were together +again, and she was hard, and it made this difference: that he wanted +her worse than ever, and for her own gain now as much as for his. + +But two years had altered him also. In a manner he too was hardened; but +he was simply a stronger, not a colder man. The muscles of his mind were +set; his soul was now as sinewy as his body. He knew what he wanted, and +what would not do for him instead. He wanted a great deal, but he meant +having it or nothing. This time she should give him her heart before he +took her hand; he swore it through his teeth; and you will realize how +he must have known her of old even to have thought it. The curious thing +is that, having shown him what she was, she should have made him love +her as he did. But that was Tiny Luttrell. + +She was half witch, half coquette, and her superficial cynicism was but +a new form of her coquetry. He liked it less than the unsophisticated +methods of the old days. Indeed, he liked the girl less, while loving +her more. She had given him the jar direct in one conversation, but even +on indifferent subjects she spoke with a bitterness which he thoroughly +disliked; while some of her prejudices he could not help thinking +irredeemably absurd. As a shrill decrier of England, for instance, she +may have amused him, but he hardly admired her in that character. In a +word, he thought her, and rightly, a good deal spoilt by her town life; +but he hated towns, and it was a proof of her worth in his eyes that she +was not hopelessly spoilt. He saw hope for her still--if she would marry +him. He was a modest man in general, but he did feel this most strongly. +She was going to England without caring whether she went or not; she +would do much better by marrying him and coming back to her old home in +the bush. That home she loved, whether she loved him or not; in it she +had grown up simple and credulous and sweet, with a wicked side that +only picked out her sweetness; in it he believed that her life and his +might yet be beautiful. The feeling made him sometimes rejoice that she +had fallen a little out of love with her life, so that he might show her +with all the effect of contrast what life and love really were; it +thrilled his heart with generous throbs, it brought the moisture to his +honest eyes, and it came to him oftener and with growing force as the +days went on, by reason of certain signs they brought forth in +Christiana. Her voice lost its bitterness in his ears, not because he +had grown used to notes that had jarred him in the beginning, but +because the discordant strings came gradually into tune. Her freshness +came back to her with the charm and influence of the wilderness she +loved; her old self lived again to Jack Swift. On the other hand, she +came to realize her own delight in the old good life as she had never +realized it before; she felt that henceforward she should miss it as she +had not missed it yet. Now she could have defined her sensations and +given reasons for them. She spent many hours in the saddle, on a former +mount of hers that Swift had run up for her; often he rode with her, and +the scent of the pines, the swelling of the sand-hills against the sky, +the sense of Nothing between the horses' ears and the sunset, spoke to +her spirit as they had never done of old. And even so on their rides +would she speak to Swift, who listened grimly, hardly daring to answer +her for the fear of saying at the wrong moment what he had resolved to +say once and for all before she went. + +And he chose the wrong moment after all. It was the eve of her going, +and they were riding together for the last time; he felt that it was +also his last opportunity. So in six miles he made as many remarks, +then turned in his saddle and spoke out with overpowering fervor. This +may be expected of the self-contained suitor, with whom it is only a +question of time, and the longer the time the stronger the outburst. But +Christina was not carried away, for she did not quite love him, and the +opportunity was a bad one, and Swift's honest method had not improved +it. She listened kindly, with her eyes on the distant timbers of the +eight-mile whim; but her kindness was fatally calm; and when he waited +she refused him firmly. She confessed to a fondness for him. She +ascribed this to the years they had known each other. Once and for all +she did not love him. + +"Not now!" exclaimed the young fellow eagerly. "But you did once! You +will again!" + +"I never loved you," said the girl gravely. "If you're thinking of two +years ago, that was mere nonsense. I don't believe its love with you +either, if you only knew it." + +"But I do know what it is with me, Tiny! I loved you before you went +away, and all the time you were gone. Since you have been back, during +these few days, I have got to love you more than ever. And so I shall +go on, whatever happens. I can't help it, darling." + +Neither could he help saying this; for the hour found him unable to +accept his fate quite as he had meant to accept it. Her kindness had +something to do with that. And now she spoke more kindly than before. + +"Are you sure?" she said. + +"Am I sure!" he echoed bitterly. + +"It is so easy to deceive oneself." + +"I am not deceived." + +"It is so easy to imagine yourself----" + +"I am not imagining!" cried Swift impatiently. "I am the man who has +loved you always, and never any girl but you. If you can't believe that, +you must have had a very poor experience of men, Tiny!" + +For a moment she looked away from the whim which they were slowly +nearing, and her eyes met his. + +"I have," she admitted frankly; "I have had a particularly poor +experience of them. Yet I am sorry to find you so different from the +rest; I can't tell you how sorry I am to find you true to me." + +"Sorry?" he said tenderly; for her voice was full of pain, and he could +not bear that. "Why should you be sorry, dear?" + +"Why--because I never dreamt of being true to you." + +For some reason her face flamed as he watched it. There was a pause. +Then he said: + +"You are not engaged; are you in love?" + +"Very far from it." + +"Then why mind? If there is no one else you care for you shall care for +me yet. I'll make you. I'll wait for you. You don't know me! I won't +give you up until you are some other fellow's wife." + +His stern eyes, the way his mouth shut on the words, and the manly +determination of the words themselves gave the girl a thrill of pleasure +and of pride; but also a pang; for at that moment she felt the wish to +love him alongside the inability, and all at once she was as sorry for +herself as for him. + +"What should you mind?" repeated Swift. + +"I can't tell you, but you can guess what I have been." + +"A flirt?" He laughed aloud. "Darling, I don't care two figs for your +flirtations! I wanted you to enjoy yourself. What does it matter how +you've enjoyed yourself, so long as you haven't absolutely been getting +engaged or falling in love?" + +Her chin drooped into her loose white blouse. "I did fall in love," she +said slowly--"at any rate I thought so; and I very nearly got engaged." + +Swift had never seen so much color in her face. + +Presently he said, "What happened?" but immediately added, "I beg your +pardon; of course I have no business to ask." His tone was more stiff +than strained. + +"You _have_ business," she answered eagerly, fearful of making him less +than friend. "I wouldn't mind telling you the whole thing, except the +man's name. And yet," she added rather wistfully, "I suppose you're the +only friend I have that doesn't know! It's hard lines to have to tell +you." + +"Then I don't want to know anything at all about it," exclaimed Swift +impulsively. "I would rather you didn't tell me a word, if you don't +mind. I am only too thankful to think you got out of it, whatever it +was." + +"I didn't get out of it." + +"You don't--mean--that the man did?" + +Swift was aghast. + +"I do." + +He did not speak, but she heard him breathing. Stealing a look at him, +her eyes fell first upon the clenched fist lying on his knee. + +She made haste to defend the man. + +"It wasn't all his fault; of that I feel sure. If you knew who he was +you wouldn't blame him anymore than I do. He was quite a boy, too; I +don't suppose he was a free agent. In any case it is all quite, quite +over." + +"Is it? He was from England--that's why you hate the home people so!" + +"Yes, he was from home. He went back very suddenly. It wasn't his fault. +He was sent for. But he might have said good-by!" + +She spoke reflectively, gazing once more at the whim. They were near it +now. The framework cut the sky like some uncouth hieroglyph. To Swift +henceforward, on all his lonely journeys hither, it was the emblem of +humiliation. But it was not his own humiliation that moistened his +clenched hand now. + +"I wish I had him here," he muttered. + +"Ah! you know nothing about him, you see; I know enough to forgive him. +And I have got over it, quite; but the worst of it is that I can't +believe any more in any of you--I simply can't." + +"Not in me?" asked Swift warmly, for her belief in him, at least, he +knew he deserved. "I have always been the same. I have never thought of +any other girl but you, and I never will. I love you, darling!" + +"After this, Jack?" + +He seemed to disappoint her. + +"After the same thing if it happens all over again in England! There is +no merit in it; I simply can't help myself. While you are away I will +wait for you and work for you; only come back free, and I will win you, +too, in the end. You are happier here than anywhere else, but you don't +know what it is to be really happy as I should make you. Remember +that--and this: that I will never give you up until someone else has got +you! Now call me conceited or anything you like. I have done bothering +you." + +"I can only call you foolish," said the girl, though gently. "You are +far too good for me. As for conceit, you haven't enough of it, or you +would never give me another thought. I still hope you will quite give +up thinking about me, and--and try to get over it. But nothing is going +to happen in England, I can promise you that much. And I only wish I +could get out of going." + +He had already shown her how she might get out of it; he was not going +to show her afresh or more explicitly, in spite of the temptation to do +so. Even to a proud spirit it is difficult to take No when the voice +that says it is kind and sorrowful and all but loving. Swift found it +easier to bide by his own statement that he had done bothering her; such +was his pride. + +But he had chosen the wrong moment, and though he had shown less pride +than he had meant to show, he was still too proud to improve the right +one when it came. He was too proud, indeed, to stand much chance of +immediate success in love. Otherwise he might have reminded her with +more force and particularity of their former relations; and playing like +that he might have won, but he would rather have lost. Perhaps he did +not recognize the right moment as such when it fell; but at least he +must have seen that it was better than the one he had chosen. It fell +in the evening, when Christina's mood became conspicuously sentimental; +but Swift happened to be one of the last young men in the world to take +advantage of any mere mood. + +As on the first evening, Mr. Luttrell was busy in the store, but this +time with the storekeeper, who was making out a list of things to be +sent up in the drays from Melbourne. Tiny and the manager were thrown +together for the last time. She offered to sing a song, and he thanked +her gratefully enough. But he listened to her plaintive songs from a far +corner of the room, though the room was lighted only by the moonbeams; +and when she rose he declared that she was tired and begged her not to +sing any more. She could have beaten him for that. + +But in leaving the room they lingered on the threshold, being struck by +the beauty of the night. The full moon ribbed the station yard with the +shadows of the pines, a soft light was burning in the store, and all was +so still that the champing of the night-horse in the yard came plainly +to their ears, with the chirping of the everlasting crickets. Christina +raised her face to Swift; her eyes were wet in the moonlight; there was +even a slight tremor of the red lips; and one hand hung down invitingly +at her side. She did not love him, but she was beginning to wish that +she could love him; and she did love the place. Had he taken that one +hand then the chances are he might have kept it. But even Swift never +dreamt that this was so. And after that moment it was not so any more. +She turned cold, and was cold to the end. Her last words from the top of +the coach fell as harshly on a loving ear as any that had preceded them +by a week. + +"Why need you remind me I am going to England? Enjoy myself! I shall +detest the whole thing." + +Her last look matched the words. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE TAIL OF THE SEASON. + + +"What do you say to sitting it out? The rooms are most awfully crowded, +and you dance too well for one; besides, one's anxious to hear your +impressions of a London ball." + +"One must wait till the ball is over. So far I can't deny that I'm +enjoying myself in spite of the crush. But I should rather like to sit +out for once, though you needn't be sarcastic about my dancing." + +"Well, then, where's a good place?" + +"There's a famous corner in the conservatory; it should be empty now +that a dance is just beginning." + +It was. So it became occupied next moment by Tiny Luttrell and her +partner, who allowed that the dimly illumined recess among the +tree-ferns deserved its fame. Tiny's partner, however, was only her +brother-in-law, Mr. Erskine Holland. + +The Luttrells had been exactly a fortnight in England. It was in the +earliest hour of the month of July that Christina sat out with her +brother-in-law at her first London party; and if she had spent that +fortnight chiefly in visiting dressmakers and waiting for results, she +had at least found time to get to know Erskine Holland very much better +than she had ever done in Melbourne. There she had seen very little of +him, partly through being away from home when he first called with an +introduction to the family, but more by reason of the short hurdle race +he had made of his courtship, marriage, and return to England with his +bride. He had taken the matrimonial fences as only an old bachelor can +who has been given up as such by his friends. Mr. Holland, though still +nearer thirty than forty, had been regarded as a confirmed bachelor when +starting on a long sea voyage for the restoration of his health after an +autumnal typhoid. His friends were soon to know what weakened health and +Australian women can do between them. They beheld their bachelor return +within four months, a comfortably married man, with a pleasant little +wife who was very fond of him, and in no way jealous of his old friends. +That was Mrs. Erskine's great merit, and the secret of the signal +success with which she presided over his table in West Kensington, when +Erskine had settled down there and returned with steadiness to the good, +safe business to which he had been virtually born a partner. For his +part, without being enslaved to a degree embarrassing to their friends, +Holland made an obviously satisfactory husband. He was good-natured and +never exacting; he was well off and generous. One of a wealthy, +many-membered firm driving a versatile trade in the East, he was as free +personally from business anxieties as was the hall porter at the firm's +offices in Lombard Street. There Erskine was the most popular and least +useful fraction of the firm, being just a big, fair, genial fellow, fond +of laughter and chaff and lawn tennis, and fonder of books than of the +newspapers--an eccentric preference in a business man. But as a business +man the older partners shook their heads about him. Once as a youngster +he had spent a year or two in Lisbon, learning the language and the +ropes there, the firm having certain minor interests planted in +Portuguese soil on both sides of the Indian Ocean; and those interests +just suited Erskine Holland, who had the handling of them, though the +older partners nursed their own distrust of a man who boasted of taking +his work out of his head each evening when he hung up his office coat. +At home Erskine was a man who read more than one guessed, and had his +own ideas on a good many subjects. He found his sister-in-law lamentably +ignorant, but quite eager to improve her mind at his direction; and this +is ever delightful to the man who reads. Also he found her amusing, and +that experience was mutual. + +A Londoner himself, with many reputable relatives in the town, who +rejoiced in the bachelor's marriage and were able to like his wife, he +was in a position to gratify to a considerable extent Mrs. Erskine's +social desires. That he did so somewhat against his own inclination +(much as in Melbourne his father-in-law had done before him) was due to +an acutely fair mind allied with a thoroughly kind and sympathetic +nature. His own attitude toward society was not free from that slight +intellectual superiority which some of the best fellows in the world +cannot help; but at least it was perfectly genuine. He treated society +as he treated champagne, which he seldom touched, but about which he +was curiously fastidious on those chance occasions. He cared as little +for the one as for the other, but found the drier brands inoffensive in +both cases. The ball to-night was at Lady Almeric's. + +"Not a bad corner," Erskine said as he made himself comfortable; "but +I'm afraid it's rather thrown away upon me, you know." + +"Far from it. I wish I had been dancing with you the whole evening, +Erskine," said Christina seriously. + +"That's rather obsequious of you. May I ask why?" + +"Because I don't think much of my partners so far, to talk to." + +"Ha! I knew there was something you wouldn't think much of," cried +Erskine Holland. "Have they nothing to say for themselves, then?" + +"Oh, plenty. They discover where I come from; then they show their +ignorance. They want to know if there is any chance for a fellow on the +gold fields now; they have heard of a place called Ballarat, but they +aren't certain whether it's a part of Melbourne or nearer Sydney. One +man knows some people at Hobart Town, in New Zealand, he fancies. I +never knew anything like their ignorance of the colonies!" + +Mr. Holland tugged a smile out of his mustache. "Can you tell me how to +address a letter to Montreal--is it Quebec or Ontario?" he asked her, as +if interested and anxious to learn. + +"Goodness knows," replied Christina innocently. + +"Then that's rather like their ignorance of the colonies, isn't it? +There's not much difference between a group of colonies and a dominion, +you see. I'm afraid your partners are not the only people whose +geography has been sadly neglected." + +Christina laughed. + +"My education's been neglected altogether, if it comes to that. As +you're taking me in hand, perhaps you'll lend me a geography, as well as +Ruskin and Thackeray. Nevertheless, Australia's more important than +Canada, you may say what you like, Erskine; and your being smart won't +improve my partners." + +"Oh! but I thought it was only their conversation?" + +"You force me to tell you that their idea of dancing seems limited to +pushing you up one side of the room, and dragging you after them down +the other. Sometimes they turn you round. Then they're proud of +themselves. They never do it twice running." + +"That's because there are so many here." + +"There are far too many here--that's what's the matter! And I'm a nice +person to tell you so," added Tiny penitently, "when it's you and Ruth +who have brought me here. But you know I don't mean that I'm not +enjoying it, Erskine; I'm enjoying it immensely, and I'm very proud of +myself for being here at all. I can't quite explain myself--I don't much +like trying to--but there's a something about everything that makes it +seem better than anything of the kind that we can do in Melbourne. The +music is so splendid, and the floor, and the flowers. I never saw such a +few diamonds--or such beauties! Even the ices are the best I ever +tasted, and they aren't too sweet. There's something subdued and +superior about the whole concern; but it's too subdued; it needs go and +swing nearly as badly as it needs elbow-room--of more kinds than one! +I'm thinking less of the crowd of people than of their etiquette and +ceremony, which hamper you far more. But it's your old England in a +nutshell, this ball is: it fits too tight." + +"Upon my word," said Erskine, laughing, "I don't think it's at all bad +for you to find the old country a tight fit! I'm obliged to you for the +expression, Tiny. I only hope it isn't suggested by personal suffering. +I have been thinking that you must have a good word to say for our +dressmakers, if not for our dancing men." + +Christina slid her eyes over the snow and ice of the shimmering attire +that had been made for her in haste since her arrival. + +"I'm glad you like me," she said, smiling honestly. "I must own I rather +like myself in this lot. I didn't want to disgrace you among your fine +friends, you see." + +"They're more fine than friends, my dear girl. Lady Almeric's the only +friend. She has been very nice to Ruth. Most of the people here are +rather classy, I can assure you." + +He named the flower of the company in a lowered voice. Christina knew +one of the names. + +"Lady Mary Dromard, did you say?" said she, playing idly with her fan. + +"Yes; do you know her?" + +"No, but her brother was in Melbourne once as aid-de-camp to the +governor. I knew him." + +"Ah, that was Lord Manister; he wasn't out there when I was." + +"No, he must have come just after you had gone. He only remained a few +months, you know. He was a quiet young man with a mania for cricket; we +liked him because he set our young men their fashions and yet never gave +himself airs. I wonder if he's here as well?" + +"I don't think so. I know him by sight, but I haven't seen him. I'm glad +to hear he didn't give himself airs; you couldn't say the same for the +sister who is here, though I only know her by sight, too." + +"He was quite a nice young man," said Christina, shutting up her fan; +and as she spoke the music, whose strains had reached them all the time, +came to its natural end. + +The conservatory suffered instant invasion, Christina and Mr. Holland +being afforded the entertainment of disappointing couple after couple +who came straight to their corner. + +"We're in a coveted spot," whispered Erskine; and his sister-in-law +reminded him who had shown the way to it. It was less secluded than +remote, so the present occupiers found further entertainment as mere +spectators. The same little things amused them both; this was one reason +why they got on so well together. They were amused by such trifles as a +distant prospect of Ruth, who was innocently enjoying herself at the +other end of the conservatory, unaware of their eyes. Erskine might have +felt proud, and no doubt he did, for many people considered Ruth even +prettier than Christina, with whom, however, they were apt to confuse +her, though Holland himself could never see the likeness. He now sat +watching his wife in the distance while talking to her sister at his +side until a new partner pounced upon Ruth, and bore her away as the +music began afresh. + +"There goes my chaperon," remarked Christina resignedly. + +"Who's your partner now? I'm sorry to say I see mine within ten yards of +me," whispered Erskine in some anxiety. + +Tiny consulted her card. "It's Herbert," she said. + +"Herbert!" said Mr. Holland dubiously. "I'm afraid Herbert's going it; +he's deeply employed with a girl in red--I think an American. Shall I +take you to Lady Almeric?" His eyes shifted uneasily toward his +expectant partner. + +"No, I'll wait here for Herbert. Mayn't I? Then I'm going to. You're +sure to see him, and you can send him at once. Don't blame Ruth. What +does it matter? It will matter if you don't go this instant to your +partner; I see it in her eye!" + +He left her reluctantly, with the undertaking that Herbert should be at +her side in two minutes. But that was rash. Christina soon had the +conservatory entirely to herself, whereupon she came out of her corner, +so that her brother might find her the more readily. Still he kept her +waiting, and she might as well have been lonely in the corner. It was +too bad of Herbert to leave her standing there, where she had no +business to be by herself, and the music and the throbbing of the floor +within a few yards of her. These awkward minutes naturally began to +disturb her. They checked and cooled her in the full blast of healthy +excitement, and that was bad; they threw her back upon herself straight +from her lightest mood, and this was worse. She became abnormally aware +of her own presence as she stood looking down and impatiently tapping +with her little white slipper upon the marble flags. Even about these +there was the grand air which Christina relished; she might have seen +her face far below, as though she had been standing in still water; but +her thoughts had been given a rough jerk inward, her outward vision fell +no deeper than the polished surface, while her mind's eye saw all at +once the dusty veranda boards of Wallandoon. She stood very still, and +in her ears the music died away, and through three months of travel and +great changes she heard again the night-horse champing in the yard, and +the crickets chirping further afield. And as she stood, her head bowed +by this sudden memory, footsteps approached, and she looked up, +expecting to see Herbert. But it was not Herbert; it was a young man of +more visible distinction than Herbert Luttrell. It is difficult to look +better dressed than another in our evening mode; but this young man +overcame the difficulty. He stood erect; he was well built; his clothes +fitted beautifully; he was himself nice looking, and fair-haired, and +boyish; and, even more than his clothes, one admired his smile, which +was frank and delightful. But the smile he gave Christina was followed +by a blush, for she had held out her hand to him, and asked him how he +was. + +"I'm all right, thanks. But--this is the most extraordinary thing! Been +over long?" + +He had dropped her hand. + +"About a fortnight," said Christina. + +"But what a pity to come over so late in the season! It's about done, +you know." + +"Yes. I thought there was a good deal going on still." + +"There's Henley, to be sure." + +"I think I'm going to Henley." + +"Going to the Eton and Harrow?" + +"I am not quite sure. That was your match, wasn't it?" + +The young man blushed afresh. + +"Fancy your remembering! Unfortunately it wasn't my match, though; my +day out was against Winchester." + +"Oh, yes," said Tiny, less knowingly. + +"And how are you, Miss Luttrell?" + +This had been forgotten, Tiny reported well of herself. Her friend +hesitated; there was some nervousness in his manner, but his good eyes +never fell from her face, and presently he exclaimed, as though the idea +had just struck him: + +"I say, mayn't I have this dance, Miss Luttrell--what's left of it?" + +"Thanks, I'm afraid I'm engaged for it." + +"Then mayn't I find your partner for you?" + +Now this second request, or his anxious way of making it, was an +elaborate revelation to Christina, and wrote itself in her brain. "Do +you remember Herbert?" she, however, simply replied. "He is the +culprit." + +"Your brother? Certainly I remember him. I saw him a few minutes ago, +and made sure I had seen him somewhere before; but he looks older. I +don't fancy he's dancing. He's somewhere or other with somebody in red." + +"So I hear." + +"Then mayn't I have a turn with you before it stops?" + +She hesitated as long as he had hesitated before first asking her; there +was not time to hesitate longer. Then she took his arm, and they passed +through a narrow avenue of ferns and flowers, round a corner, up some +steps, and so into the ball room. + +The waltz was indeed half over, but the second half of it Christina and +her fortuitous partner danced together, without a rest, and also without +a word. He led her a more enterprising measure than those previous +partners who had questioned her concerning Australia. The name of +Australia had not crossed this one's lips. As Tiny whirled and glided on +his arm she saw a good many eyes upon her: they made her dance her best; +and her best was the best in the room, though her partner was uncommonly +good, and they had danced together before. Among the eyes were Ruth's, +and they were beaming; the others were mostly inquisitive, and as +strange to Christina as she evidently was to them; but once a turn +brought her face to face with Herbert, on his way from the conservatory, +and alone. He was a lanky, brown-faced, hook-nosed boy, with wiry limbs +and an aggressive eye, and he followed his sister round the room with a +stare of which she was uncomfortably conscious. He had looked for her +too late, when forced to relinquish the girl in red to her proper +partner, who still seemed put out. Christina was put out also, by her +brother's look, but she did not show it. + +"You are staying in town?" her partner said after the dance as they sat +together in the conservatory, but not in the old corner. + +"Yes, with my sister, Mrs. Holland; you never met her, I think. We are +in town till August." + +"Where do you go then?" + +"To the country for a month. My sister and her husband have taken a +country rectory for the whole of August. They had it last year, and +liked the place so much that they have taken it again; it is a little +village called Essingham." + +"Essingham!" cried Christina's partner. + +"Yes; do you know it?" + +"I know of it," answered the young man. "I suppose you will go on the +Continent after that?" he added quickly. + +"Well, hardly; my brother-in-law has so little time; but he expects to +have to go to Lisbon on business at the end of October, and he has +promised to take us with him." + +"To Lisbon at the end of October," repeated Tiny's friend reflectively. +"Get him to take you to Cintra. They say it's well worth seeing." + +Yet another dance was beginning. Christina was interested in the +movements of a young man in spectacles, who was plainly in search of +somebody. "He's hunting for me," she whispered to her companion, who was +saying: + +"Portugal's rather the knuckle end of Europe, don't you think? But I've +heard Cintra well spoken of. I should go there if I were you." + +"We intend to. Do you mind pulling that young man's coat tails? He has +forgotten my face." + +"Yes, I do mind," said Tiny's partner with unexpected earnestness. "I +may meet you again, but I should like to take this opportunity of +explaining----" + +Tiny Luttrell was smiling in his face. + +"I hate explanations!" she cried. "They are an insult to one's +imagination, and I much prefer to accept things without them." There was +a gleam in her smile, but as she spoke she flashed it upon the +spectacles of her blind pursuer, who was squaring his arm to her in an +instant. + +And that was the last she saw of the only partner for whom she had a +good word afterward, and he had come to her by accident. But it was by +no means the last she heard of him. The next was from Herbert, as they +drove home together in one hansom, while Ruth and her husband followed +in another. The morning air blew fresh upon their faces; the rising sun +struck sparks from the harness; the leaves in the park were greener than +any in Australia, and the dew on the grass through the railings was as a +silver shower new-fallen. But the most delicious taste of London that +had yet been given her was poisoned for Christina by her brother +Herbert. + +"To have my claim jumped by that joker!" said he through his nose. + +"But you had left it empty," said Tiny mildly. "I was all alone." + +"It isn't so much that," her brother said, shifting the ground he had +taken in preliminary charges; "it's your dancing with that brute +Manister!" + +"My dear old Herbs," said Miss Luttrell with provoking coolness, "Lord +Manister asked me to dance with him, and I didn't see why I should +refuse. I certainly didn't see why I should consult you, Herbs." + +"By ghost," cried Herbert, "if it comes to that, he once asked you to +marry him!" + +"Now you are a treat," said the girl, before the blood came. + +"And then bolted! I should be ashamed of myself for dancing with him if +I were you. He said I was a larrikin, too. I'd like to fill his eye for +him!" + +"He'll never say a truer thing!" Christina cried out; but her voice +broke over the words, and the early sun cut diamonds on her lashes. + +Now this was Herbert: he was rough, but not cowardly. His nose had +become hooked in his teens from a stand-up fight with a full-grown man. +There is not the least doubt that in such a combat with Lord Manister +that nobleman, though otherwise a finer athlete, would have suffered +extremely. But it was not in Herbert to hit any woman in cold blood with +his tongue. Having done this in his heat to Christina, his mate, he was +man enough to be sorry and ashamed, and to slip her hands into his. + +"I'm an awful beast," he stammered out. "I didn't mean anything at +all--except that I'd like to fill up Manister's eye! I can't go back on +that when--when he called me a larrikin!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RUTH AND CHRISTINA. + + +Here is the difference between Ruth and Christina, who were considered +so much alike. + +Of the two, Ruth was the one to fall in love with at sight--of which +Erskine Holland supplies the proof. She was less diminutive than her +sister; she had a finer figure, a warmer color, and indeed, despite the +destructive Australian sun, a very beautiful complexion. In the early +days at Wallandoon she had given herself a better chance in this respect +than Christina had done, not from vanity at all, but rather owing to +certain differences in their ideas of pleasure, into which it is +needless to enter. The result was her complexion; and this was not her +only beauty, for she had good brown eyes that suited her coloring as +autumn leaves befit an autumn sunset. These eyes are never unkind, but +Ruth's were sweet-tempered to a fault. So the glance of one scanning +both girls for the first time rested naturally upon Ruth, but on all +subsequent occasions it flew straight to Christina, because there was +an end to Ruth; but there was no coming to an end of Tiny, about whom +there was ever some fresh thing to charm or disappoint one. + +Thus, but for the businesslike dispatch of Erskine Holland, it might +have been Ruth's fate to break in Christina's admirers until Christina +fancied one of them enough to marry him. For Ruth's was perhaps the more +unselfish character of the two, as it was certainly the simpler one, in +spite of a peculiar secretive strain in her from which Tiny was free. +Tiny, on the other hand, was much more sensitive; but to perceive this +was to understand her better than she understood herself. For she did +not know her own weaknesses as the self-examining know theirs, and +hardly anybody suspected her of this one until her arrival in +England--when Erskine Holland came to treat her as a sister, and to +understand her more or less. + +In Australia he had seen very little of her, though enough to regard her +at the time as an arrant little heartless flirt, for whom sighed silly +swains innumerable. That she was, indeed, a flirt there was still no +denying; but as his knowledge of her ripened, Holland was glad to +unharness the opprobrious epithets with which Ruth's sister had first +driven herself into his mind. He discovered good points in Christina, +and among them a humor which he had never detected out in Australia. +Probably his own sense of it had lost its edge out there, for +love-making blunts nothing sooner; while Ruth, for her part, was +naturally wanting in humor. Holland had never been blind to this defect +in his wife, but he seemed resigned to it; one can conceive it to be a +merit in the wife of an amusing man. + +Some people called Erskine amusing--it is not hard to win this label +from some people--but at any rate he was never likely to find it +difficult to amuse Ruth. Now no companion in this world is more charming +for all time than the person who is content to do the laughing. As a +novelty, however, Christina had her own distinctive attraction for +Erskine Holland. And they got on so well together that presently he saw +more in Tiny than her humor, which others had seen before him; he saw +that her heart was softer than she thought; but he divined that +something had happened to harden it. + +"She has been falling in love," he said to Ruth--"and something has +happened." + +"What makes you think so? She has told me nothing about it," Ruth said. + +"Ah, she is sensitive. I can see that, too. It's her bitterness, +however, that makes me think something has turned out badly." + +"She is sadly cynical," remarked Ruth. + +"Cynically sad, I rather think," her husband said. "I don't fancy she's +languishing now; I should say she has got over the thing, whatever it +has been--and is rather disappointed with herself for getting over it so +easily. She has hinted at nothing, but she has a trick of generalizing; +and she affects to think that one person doesn't fret for another longer +than a week in real life. I don't say her cynicism is so much +affectation; something or other has left a bad taste in her mouth; but I +should like to bet that it wasn't an affair of the most serious sort." + +"Her affairs never were very serious, Erskine." + +"So I gathered from what I saw of her before we were married. It's a +pity," said Erskine musingly. "I'd like to see her married, but I'd love +to see her wooed! That's where the sport would come in. There would be +no knowing where the fellow had her. He might hook her by luck, but he'd +have to play her like fun before he landed her! There'd be a strong +sporting interest in the whole thing, and that's what one likes." + +"It's a pity I didn't know what you liked," Ruth said, with a smile; +"and a wonder that you liked me, and not Tiny!" + +"My darling," laughed her husband, "that sort of sport's for the young +fellows. I'm past it. I merely meant that I should like to see the +sport. No, Tiny's charming in her way, but God forbid that it should be +your way too!" + +Now Ruth was such a fond little wife that at this speech she became too +much gratified on her own account to care to discuss her sister any +further. But in dismissing the subject of Tiny she took occasion to +impress one fact upon Erskine: + +"You may be right, dear, and something may have happened since I left +home; but I can only tell you that Tiny hasn't breathed a single word +about it to me." + +And this is an early sample of the disingenuous streak that was in the +very grain of Ruth. Christina, indeed, had told her nothing, but Ruth +knew nearly all that there was to know of the affair whose traces were +plain to her husband's insight. Beyond the fact that the name of Tiny +Luttrell had been coupled in Melbourne with that of Lord Manister, and +the _on dit_ that Lord Manister had treated her rather badly, there was, +indeed, very little to be known. But Ruth knew at least as much as her +mother, who had written to her on the subject the more freely and +frequently because her younger daughter flatly refused the poor lady her +confidence. There was no harm in Ruth's not showing those letters to her +husband. There was no harm in her keeping her sister's private affairs +from her husband's knowledge. There was the reverse of harm in both +reservations, as Erskine would have been the first to allow. Ruth had +her reasons for making them; and if her reasons embodied a deep design, +there was no harm in that either, for surely it is permissible to plot +and scheme for the happiness of another. I can see no harm in her +conduct from any point of view. But it was certainly disingenuous, and +it entailed an insincere attitude toward two people, which in itself was +not admirable. And those two were her nearest. However amiable her +plans might be, they made it impossible for Ruth to be perfectly sincere +with her husband on one subject, which was bad enough. But with +Christina it was still more impossible to be at all candid; and this +happened to be worse, for reasons which will be recognized later. In the +first place, Tiny immediately discovered Ruth's insincerity, and even +her plans. Tiny was a difficult person to deceive. She detected the +insincerity in a single conversation with Ruth on the afternoon +following Lady Almeric's ball, and before she went to bed she was as +much in possession of the plans as if Ruth had told her them. + +The conversation took place in Erskine's study, where the sisters had +foregathered for a lazy afternoon. + +"Oh, by the way," said Ruth, apropos of the ball, "it was a coincidence +your dancing with Lord Manister." + +"Why a coincidence?" asked Christina. She glanced rather sharply at Ruth +as she put the question. + +"Well, it is just possible that we shall see something of him in the +country. That's all," said Ruth, as she bent over the novel of which +she was cutting the pages. + +Christina also had a book in her lap, but she had not opened it; she was +trying to read Ruth's averted face. + +"I thought perhaps you meant because we saw something of him in +Melbourne," she said presently. "I suppose you know that we did see +something of him? He even honored us once or twice." + +"So you told me in your letters." + +The paper knife was still at work. + +"What makes it likely that we shall see him in the country?" + +"Well, Mundham Hall is quite close to Essingham, you know." + +"Mundham Hall! Whose place is that?" + +"Lord Dromard's," replied Ruth, still intent upon her work. + +"Surely not!" exclaimed Christina. "Lord Manister once told me the name +of their place, and I am convinced it wasn't that." + +"They have several places. But until quite lately they have lived mostly +at the other side of the county, at Wreford Abbey." + +"That was the name." + +"But they have sold that place," said Ruth, "and last autumn Lord +Dromard bought Mundham; it was empty when we were at Essingham last +year." + +For some moments there was silence, broken only by the leisurely swish +of Ruth's paper knife. Then Christina said, "That accounts for it," +thinking aloud. + +"For what?" asked Ruth rather nervously. + +"Lord Manister told me he knew of Essingham. He never mentioned Mundham. +Is it so very close to your rectory?" + +"The grounds are; they are very big; the hall itself is miles from the +gates--almost as far as our home station was from the boundary fence." + +"Surely not," Tiny said quietly. + +"Well, that's a little exaggeration, of course." + +"Then I wish it wasn't!" Tiny cried out. "I don't relish the idea of +living under the lee of such very fine people," she said next moment, as +quietly as before. + +"No more do I--no more does Erskine," Ruth made haste to declare. "But +we enjoyed ourselves so much there last August that we said at the time +that we would take the rectory again this August. We made the people +promise us the refusal. And it seemed absurd to refuse just because Lord +Dromard had bought Mundham; shouldn't you have said so yourself, dear?" + +"Certainly I should," answered Tiny; and for half an hour no more was +said. + +The afternoon was wet; there was no inducement to go out, even with the +necessary energy, and the two young women, on whose pillows the sun had +lain before their faces, felt anything but energetic. The afternoon was +also cold to Australian blood, and a fire had been lighted in Erskine's +den. His favorite armchair contained several cushions and Christina--who +might as well have worn his boots--while Ruth, having cut all the leaves +of her volume, curled herself up on the sofa with an obvious intention. +She was good at cutting the leaves of a new book, but still better at +going to sleep over them when cut. She had read even less than +Christina, and it troubled her less; but this afternoon she read more. +Ruth could not sleep. No more could Tiny. But Tiny had not opened her +book. It was one of the good books that Erskine had lent her. She was +extremely interested in it; but just at present her own affairs +interested her more. Lying back in the big chair, with the wet gray +light behind her, and that of the fire playing fitfully over her face, +Christina committed what was as yet an unusual weakness for her, by +giving way voluntarily to her thoughts. She was in the habit of thinking +as little as possible, because so many of her thoughts were depressing +company, and beyond all things she disliked being depressed. This +afternoon she was less depressed than indignant. The firelight showed +her forehead strung with furrows. From time to time she turned her eyes +to the sofa, as if to make sure that Ruth was still awake, and as often +as they rested there they gleamed. At last she spoke Ruth's name. + +"Well?" said Ruth. "I thought you were asleep; you have never stirred." + +"I'm not sleepy, thanks; and, if you don't mind, I should like to speak +to you before you drop off yourself." + +Ruth closed her novel. + +"What is it, dear? I'm listening." + +"When you wrote and invited me over you mentioned Essingham as one of +the attractions. Now why couldn't you tell me the Dromards would be our +neighbors there?" + +Ruth raised her eyes from the younger girl's face to the rain-spattered +window. Tiny's tone was cold, but not so cold as Tiny's searching +glance. This made Ruth uncomfortable. It did not incapacitate her, +however. + +"The Dromards!" she exclaimed rather well. "Had they taken the place +then?" + +"You say they bought it before Christmas; it was after Christmas that +you first wrote and expressly invited me." + +"Was it? Well, my dear, I suppose I never thought of them; that's all. +They aren't the only nice people thereabouts." + +"I'm afraid you are not quite frank with me," the young girl said; and +her own frankness was a little painful. + +"Tiny, dear, what a thing to say! What does it mean?" + +Ruth employed for these words the injured tone. + +"It means that you know as well as I do, Ruth, that it isn't pleasant +for me to meet Lord Manister." + +"Was there something between you in Melbourne?" asked Ruth. "I must say +that nobody would have thought so from seeing you together last night. +And--and how was I to think so, when you have never told me anything +about it?" + +Christina laughed bitterly. + +"When you have made a fool of yourself you don't go out of your way to +talk about it, even to your own people. It is kind of you to pretend to +know nothing about it--I am sure you mean it kindly; but I'm still surer +that you have been told all there was to tell concerning Lord Manister +and me. I don't mean by Herbert. He's close. But the mother must have +written and told you something; it was only natural that she should do +so." + +"She did tell me a little. Herbert has told me nothing. I tried to pump +him,--I think you can't wonder at that,--but he refused to speak a word +on the subject. He says he hates it." + +"He hates Lord Manister," said Christina, smiling. "It came round to him +once that Lord Manister had called him a larrikin, and he has never +forgiven him. But he has been less of a larrikin ever since. And, of +course, that wasn't why he was so angry with me for dancing with Lord +Manister last night; he was dreadfully angry with me as we drove home; +but he is a very good boy to me, and there was something in what he +said." + +"What made you dance with him?" Ruth said curiously. + +"I was alone. I hadn't a partner. He asked me rather prettily--he always +had pretty manners. You wouldn't have had me show him I cared, by +snubbing him, would you?" + +"No," said Ruth thoughtfully; and suddenly she slipped from the sofa, +and was kneeling on the hearthrug, with her brown eyes softly searching +Christina's face and her lips whispering, "Do you care, Tiny? _Do_ you +care, Tiny, dear?" + +Tiny snapped her fingers as she pushed back her chair. + +"Not that much for anybody--much less for Lord Manister, and least of +all for myself! Now don't you be too good to me, Ruth; if you are you'll +only make me feel ungrateful, and I shall run away, because I'm not +going to tell you another word about what's over and done with. I can't! +I have got over the whole thing, but it has been a sickener. It makes me +sick to think about it. I don't want ever to speak of it again." + +"I understand," said Ruth; but there was disappointment in her look and +tone, and she added, "I should like to have heard the truth, though; and +no one can tell it me but you." + +"I thank Heaven for that!" cried Christina piously. "The version out +there was that he proposed to me and I accepted him, and then he bolted +without even saying good-by. It's true that he didn't say good-by; the +rest is not true. But you must just make it do." + +Her face was scarlet with the shame of it all; but there was no sign of +weakness in the curling lips. She spoke bitterly, but not at all sadly, +and her next words were still more suggestive of a wound to the vanity +rather than to the heart. + +"Does Erskine know?" + +"Not a word." + +"Honestly?" + +"Quite honestly; at least I have never mentioned it to him, and I don't +think anybody else has, or he would have mentioned it to me." + +"Oh, Herbert wouldn't say anything. Herbert's very close. But--don't you +two tell each other everything, Ruth?" + +The young girl looked incredulous; the married woman smiled. + +"Hardly everything, you know! Erskine has lots of relations himself, for +instance, and I'm sure he wouldn't care to tell me the ins and outs of +their private affairs, even if I cared to know them. It's just the same +about you and your affairs, don't you see." + +"Except that he knows me so well," Christina reflected aloud, with her +eyes upon the fire. "If I had a husband," she added impulsively, "I +should like to tell him every mortal thing, whether I wanted to or not! +And I should like not to want to, but to be made. But that's because I +should like above all things to be bossed!" + +"You would take some bossing," suggested Ruth. + +"That's the worst of it," said Christina, with a little sigh, and then a +laugh, as she snatched her eyes from the fire. "But I can't tell you how +glad I am you haven't told Erskine. Never tell him, Ruth, for you don't +know how I covet his good opinion. I like him, you know, dear, and I +rather think he likes me--so far." + +"Indeed he does," cried Ruth warmly; and a good point in her character +stood out through the genuine words. "Nothing ever made me happier than +to see you become such friends." + +"He laughs at me a good deal," Tiny remarked doubtfully. + +"That's because you amuse him a good deal. I can't get him to laugh at +me, my dear." + +"He would laugh," said Christina, with her eyes on the fire again, "if +you told him I had aspired to Lord Manister!" + +"But I'm not going to tell him anything at all about it." Ruth paused. +"And after all, the Dromards won't take any notice of us in the +country." She paused again. "And we won't speak of this any more, Tiny, +if you don't like." + +The shame had come back to Christina's face as she bent it toward the +fire. Twice she had made no answer to what was kindly meant and even +kindlier said. But now she turned and kissed Ruth, saying, "Thank you, +dear. I am afraid I don't like. But you have been awfully good and sweet +about it--as I shan't forget." And the fire lit their faces as they met, +but the tear that had got upon Tiny's cheek was not her own. + +Ruth, you see, could be tender and sympathetic and genuine enough. But +she could not be sensible and let well alone. + +She did that night a very foolish thing: she brought up the subject +again. Tempted she certainly was. Never since her arrival in England had +Tiny seemed so near to her or she to Tiny as in the hours immediately +following the chat between them in Erskine's study. But Christina stood +further from Ruth than Ruth imagined; she had not advanced, but +retreated, before the glow of Ruth's sympathy. This was after the event, +when some hours separated Christina from those emotional moments to +which she had not contributed her share of the emotion, leaving the +scene upon her mind in just perspective. She still could value Ruth's +sweetness at the end of their talk, but her own suspicions, aroused at +the outset, to be immediately killed by a little kindness, had come to +life again, and were calling for an equal appreciation. The extent of +Tiny's suspicions was very full, and the suspicions themselves were +uncommonly shrewd and convincing. They made it a little hard to return +Ruth's smiles during the evening, and to kiss her when saying +good-night, though Tiny did these things duly. She went upstairs before +her time, however, and not at all in the mood to be bothered any further +about Lord Manister. Yet she behaved very patiently when Ruth came +presently to her room and thus bothered her, being suddenly tempted +beyond her strength. For Christina was discovered standing fully dressed +under the gas-bracket, and frowning at a certain photograph on an +orange-colored mount, which she turned face downward as Ruth entered. +Whereupon Ruth, discerning the sign manual of a Melbourne photographer, +could not help saying slyly, "Who is it, Tiny?" + +"A friend of mine," Tiny said, also slyly, but keeping the photograph +itself turned provokingly to the floor. + +"In Australia?" + +"Er--it was taken out there." + +"It's Lord Manister!" + +"Perhaps it is--perhaps it isn't." + +"Tiny," said Ruth with pathos, "you might show me!" + +But Tiny drummed vexatiously on the wrong side of the mount; and here +Ruth surely should have let the matter drop, instead of which: + +"You are very horrid," she said, "but I must just tell you something. I +have heard things from Lady Almeric, who is very intimate with Lady +Dromard, and I don't believe _he_ is so much to blame as you think him. +I have heard it spoken about in society. But don't look frightened. Your +name has never been mentioned. I don't think it has ever come out. +Indeed, I know it hasn't, for _I_, actually, have been asked the name of +the girl Lord Manister was fond of in Melbourne--by Lady Almeric!" + +"And what did you say?" + +"What do you suppose? I glory in that fib--I am honestly proud of it. +But, dear, the point is, not that Lord Manister has never mentioned your +name, but that he can bear neither name nor sight of the girl he is +expected to marry! Lady Almeric told me when--I couldn't help her." + +"He is a nice young man, I must say!" remarked Christina grimly. "My +fellow-victim has a title, no doubt?" + +"Well, it's Miss Garth, and her father's Lord Acklam, so she's the +honorable," said Ruth gravely. (Tiny smiled at her gravity.) "But I've +seen her, and--he can't like her! And oh! Tiny dear, they all say he +left his heart in Australia, but his mother sent for him because she +heard something--but not your name, dear--and he came. They say he is +devoted to his mother; but this has come between them, and she's sorry +she interfered, because after all he won't marry poor Miss Garth. I had +it direct from Lady Almeric when she tried to get that out of me. But I +lied like a trooper!" exclaimed poor Ruth. + +"I'm grateful to you for that," Christina said, not ungraciously--"but I +must really be going to bed." + +With a last wistful glance at the orange-colored cardboard, Ruth took +the hint. Christina turned away in time to avoid an embrace without +showing her repugnance, because she had still some regard for Ruth's +good heart. But she had never experienced a more grateful riddance, and +the look that followed Ruth to the threshold would have kept her company +for some time had she turned there and caught one glimpse of it. + +"Now I understand!" said Christina to the closed door. "I suppose I +ought to love you for it, Ruth; but I don't--no, I don't!" + +She turned the photograph face upward, and stared thoughtfully at it for +some minutes longer; then she put it away. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ESSINGHAM RECTORY. + + +Essingham Rectory, which the Erskine Hollands had taken for the month of +August, was a little old building with some picturesque points to +console one for the tameness of the view from its windows. The +surrounding country was perfectly flat but for Gallow Hill, and not at +all green but for the glebe and the riverside meadows, while the only +trees of any account were the rectory elms and those in the Mundham +grounds. It is true that on Gallow Hill three wind-crippled beeches +brandished their deformities against the sky, as they may do still; but +the country around Essingham is no country for trees. It is the country +for warrens and rabbits and roads without hedges. So it struck Christina +as more like the back-blocks than anything she had hoped to see in +England, and pleased her more than anything she had seen. She showed her +pleasure before they arrived at Essingham. She forgot to disparage the +old country during the long drive from the county town; and that was +notable. She had actually no stone to cast at the elaborate and +impressive gates of Mundham Hall; apparently she was herself impressed. +But opposite the gates they turned to the left, into a narrow road with +hedges, from which you can see the rectory, and as Herbert put it +afterward: + +"That's what knocked our Tiny!" + +For the girl's first glimpse of the old house was over the hedge and far +away above a brilliant sash of meadow green. The cream-colored walls +were aglow in the low late sunshine, what was to be seen of them, for +they were half hidden by a creeper almost as old as themselves. The +red-tiled, weather-beaten roof was dark with age. Even at a distance one +smelt rats in the wainscot within the stuccoed walls. Around the house, +and towering above the tiles, the elms stood as still against the +evening sky as the square church tower but a little way to the right. To +the right of that, but farther away, rose Gallow Hill. Thereabouts the +sun was sinking, but the clock on the near side of the church tower had +gilt hands, which marked the hour when Christina stood up in the fly and +astonished her friends with her frank delight. It was a point against +this young lady, on subsequent occasions when she did not forget to +decry the old country, that at ten minutes past seven on the evening of +the 1st of August she had given way to enthusiasm over a scene that was +purely English and very ordinary in itself. + +Not that her immediate appreciation of the place became modified on a +closer acquaintance with it. At the end of the first clear day at +Essingham she informed the others that thus far she had not enjoyed +herself so much since leaving Australia. Of course she had enjoyed +herself in London. That did not count. London only compared itself with +Melbourne, Christina did not care how favorably; but Essingham was for +comparison with the place that was dearer to her than any other in the +world. You will understand why all her appreciations were directly +comparative. This is natural in the very young, and fortunately Tiny +Luttrell was still very young in some respects. Blessed with observant +eyes, and having at this time an irritable memory to keep her prejudices +at attention, her mind soon became the scene of many curious and +specific contests between England and Australia. In the match between +Wallandoon and Essingham the latter made a better fight than you would +think against so strong an opponent. The rectory was homely and +convenient in its old age, and Christina was greatly charmed with her +own room, because it was small; and if the wall-paper was modern and +conventional, and not to be read from the pillow in the early morning, +it was almost as pleasant to lie and watch the elm tops trembling +against the sky. And if the sky was not really blue in England, the +leaves in Australia were not really green, as Christina now knew. So +there they were quits. But England and Essingham scored palpably in some +things; the kitchen garden was one. Christina had never seen such a +kitchen garden; she found it possible to spend half an hour there at any +time, to her further contentment; and there were other attractions on +the premises, which were just as good in their way, while their way was +often better for one. + +For instance, there was a lawn tennis court which satisfied the soul of +Erskine, who played daily for its express refreshment. That was what +brought him to Essingham. The neighboring clergy were always ready for a +game. But they laughed at Erskine for being so keen; he would get up +before breakfast to roll the court, which passed their understanding. +Christina played also, by no means ill, and Herbert uncommonly well; but +this player neither won nor lost very prettily. He was more amiable over +the photography which he had taken up in partnership with Tiny; but his +photographs were uncommonly bad. Yet this was another amusement in the +country, where, however, Christina was most amused by the neighbors who +called. These were friendly people, and they had all called on the +Hollands the previous year. Half of them were clergymen, though the +stranger who met them found this difficult to believe in some cases; the +other half were the clergymen's wives. Very grand families apart, there +is no other society round about Essingham. And what could man wish +better? Even Christina found it impossible to disapprove of the +well-bred, easy-going, tennis-playing, unprofessional country clergy, as +acquaintances and friends. But she did find fault with the rector of +Essingham as a rector, though she had never seen him, and though Ruth +assured her that he was a dear old man. + +"He may be a dear old man," Miss Luttrell would allow, "but he's a bad +old rector! His flock don't find him such a dear old man, either. They +only see him once a week, in the pulpit; and then they can't hear him!" + +"Who has been telling you that, Tiny?" asked Ruth. + +"You've been talking sedition in the village!" said Erskine Holland. + +"Well, I've been making friends with two or three of the people, if +that's what you call talking sedition," Tiny replied; "and I think your +dear old rector neglects them shamefully. He does worse than that. +There's some fund or other for buying coals and blankets for the poor of +the parish; and there's old Mrs. Clapperton. Mrs. Clapperton's a Roman +Catholic; so, if you please, she never gets her coals or blankets, and +she's too proud to ask for them. That's a fact--and I tell you what, I'd +like to expose your dear old man, Ruth! As for the village, if it's a +specimen of your English villages, let me tell you, Erskine, that it's +leagues behind the average bush township. Why, they haven't even got a +state school, but only a one-horse affair run by the rector! And the +schoolmaster's the most ignorant man in the village. I wonder you don't +copy us, and go in for state schools!" + +"'Copy us, and go in for state schools,'" echoed Ruth with gentle mirth, +as she sometimes would echo Tiny's remarks, and with a smile that +traveled from Tiny to Erskine. But Erskine did not return the smile. His +eyes rested shrewdly upon Christina, and Ruth feared from their +expression that he thought the girl an utter fool; but she was wrong. + +Christina was not, if you like, an intellectual girl, but she was by no +means a fool. Neither was her brother-in-law, who perceived this. Her +comments on the books he lent her were sufficiently intelligent, and she +pleased him in other ways too. He was glad, for instance, to see her +interesting herself in the local peasants; she was particularly glad +that she did not give this interest its head, though as a matter of fact +it never pulled. Christina was not the girl for interests that gallop +and have not legs. Not the least of her attractions, in the eyes of a +male relative of middle age, was a certain solid sanity that showed +through every crevice of her wayward nature. It was sanity of the +cynical sort, which men appreciate most. And it was least apparent in +her own actions, which is the weak point of the cynically sane. + +"At all events, Tiny, you can't find the country a tight fit, like +London," said Erskine once, during the first few days. "Come, now!" + +"No," replied Tiny thoughtfully, "I must own it doesn't fit so tight. +But it tickles! You mayn't go here and you mayn't go there; in Australia +you may go anywhere you darn please. Excuse me, Erskine, but I feel this +a good deal. Only this morning Ruth and I were blocked by a notice board +just outside the wicket at the far end of the churchyard; we were +thinking of going up Gallow Hill, but we had to turn back, as +trespassers would be prosecuted. There's no trespassing where I come +from. And Ruth says the board wasn't there last year." + +"Ah, the Dromards weren't there last year! They've stuck it up. You +should pitch into your friend Lord Manister. It's rather vexatious of +them, I grant you; they can't want to have tea on Gallow Hill; and it's +a pity, because there's a fine view of the Hall from the top." + +"Indeed? Ruth never told me that," remarked Christina curiously. "Have +they arrived yet?" she added in apparent idleness. + +"Last night, I hear--if you mean the Dromards. And a rumor has arrived +with them." + +Now Christina was careful not to inquire what the rumor was; but Erskine +told her; and, oddly enough, what he had heard and now repeated was to +come true immediately. + +The great family at Mundham were about to entertain the county. That was +the whisper, which was presently to be spoken aloud as a pure fact. It +ran over the land with "At last!" hissing at its heels, and a still more +sinister whisper chased the pair of them; for the Dromards might have +entertained the county months before; a house-warming had been expected +of them in the winter, but they had chosen to warm Mundham with their +own friends from a distance; and since then the general election had +become a moral certainty for the following spring, and--the point +was--Viscount Manister had declared his willingness to stand for the +division. The corollary was irresistible, but so, it appears, was +Countess Dromard's invitation, which few are believed to have +declined--for those that did so made it known. Some disgust, however, +was expressed at the kind of entertainment, which, after all, was to be +nothing more than a garden party. But nearly all who were bidden +accepted. The notice, too, was shorter than other people would have +presumed to give; but other people were not the Dromards. The countess' +invitation conveyed to a hundred country homes a joy that was none the +less keen for a certain shame or shyness in showing any sort of +satisfaction in so small a matter. Nevertheless, though not adorned by a +coronet, as it might have been, nor in any way a striking trophy, the +card obtained a telling position over many a rectory chimney-piece, +where in some instances it remained, accidentally, for months. In +justice to the residents, however, it must be owned that not one of them +read it with a more poignant delight, nor adjusted it in the mirror with +a nicer care and a finer show of carelessness, nor gazed at it oftener +while ostensibly looking at the clock, than did Mrs. Erskine Holland +during the next ten days. + +But when it came she acted cleverly. There was occasion for all her +cleverness, because in her case the invitation was a complete surprise; +she had not dared to expect one; and you may imagine her peculiar +satisfaction at receiving an invitation that embraced her "party." Yet +she was able to toss the card across the breakfast table to Erskine, +merely remarking, "Should we go?" And when Tiny at once stated that for +her part she was not keen, Ruth gave her a sympathetic look, as much as +to say, "No more am I, my dear," which might have deceived a less +discerning person. But Tiny saw that her sister was holding her breath +until Erskine spoke his mind. + +"Have we any other engagement?" said he directly. "If not, it would +hardly do to stick here playing tennis within sight of their lodge. I'm +no more keen than you are, Tiny, but that would look uncommon poor. It +was very kind of them to think of asking us; I'm afraid we must go; but +I am sure you will find it amusing." + +"Thanks," replied Christina, to whom this assurance was addressed, "but +you needn't send me there to be amused; you see, I have plenty to amuse +me here," she added, with a smile that had been slow to come. "I'll go, +of course, and with pleasure; but there would be more pleasure in some +hard sets with you, Erskine, or in taking your photograph." + +"Ah, you don't know what you'd miss, Tiny! I can promise you some sport, +if you keep your eyes and ears open. Then you knew Lord Manister in +Melbourne. In any case, you oughtn't to go back there without a glimpse +of some of our fine folks at home, when you can get it." + +"Oh, I'll go; but not for the sport of seeing your clergy and gentry on +their knees to your fine folks, nor yet to be amused. As for Lord +Manister, he was well enough in Melbourne; he didn't give himself airs, +and there he was wise. But on his native heath! One would be sorry to +set foot on the same soil. It must be sacred." + +"Come, I say, I don't think you'll find the parsons on their knees. We +think a lot of a lord, if you like; but we try to forget that when we're +talking to him. We do our best to treat him as though he were merely a +gentleman, you know," said Erskine, smiling, but giving, as he felt, an +informing hint. + +"Ah, you try!" said Christina. "You do your best!" + +"Our best may be very bad," laughed Erskine; "if so, you must show us +how to better it, Tiny." + +"I should get Tiny to teach you how to treat a lord, dear," said Ruth, +who saw nothing to laugh at, and seemed likely to lend her husband a +severer support than the occasion needed. + +"Say Lord Manister!" suggested Erskine. "Will you show me on him?" + +"I may if you're good--you wait and see," said Tiny lightly. And lightly +the matter was allowed to drop. For Herbert, as usual, was late for +breakfast, which was for once a very good thing; and as for Ruth, it was +merely her misfortune to have a near sight for the line dividing chaff +from earnest, but now she saw it, and on which side of it the others +were, for she had joined them and was laughing herself. + +But Herbert would not have laughed at all; indeed, he had not a smile +for the subject when he did come down and Ruth gave him his breakfast +alone. It seemed well that Christina was not in the room. Her brother +took the opportunity of saying what he thought of Manister, and what +Manister had once called him behind his back, and what he would have +done to Manister's eye had half as much been said to his face. His +personal decision about the garden party was merely contemptuous. He was +not going. Nor did he go when the time came. Meanwhile, however, +something happened to modify for the moment his opinion of the young +viscount whom it was Herbert's meager satisfaction to abuse roundly +whenever his noble name was spoken. + +Having been provided with two rooms at the rectory, in one of which he +was expected to read diligently every morning, Herbert entered that room +only when his pipe needed filling. He kept his tobacco there, and also, +to be sure, his books; but these he never opened. He read nothing, save +chance items in an occasional sporting paper; he simply smoked and +pottered, leaving the smell of his pipe in the least desirable places. +When he took photographs with Tiny, that was pottering too, for neither +of them knew much about it, and Herbert was too indolent to take either +pains or care in a pursuit which essentially demands both. He had rather +a good eye for a subject; he could arrange a picture with some +judgment. That interested him, but the subsequent processes did not, and +these invariably spoilt the plate. All his actions, however, suggested +an underlying theory that what is worth doing is not necessarily worth +doing well. This applied even to his games, about which Herbert was +really keen; he played lawn tennis carelessly, though with a verve and +energy somewhat surprising in the loafing, smoking idler of the morning. +He had been fond of cricket, too, in Australia; it was a disappointment +to him that no cricket was to be had at Essingham. He looked forward to +Cambridge for the athletic advantages. He had no intention of reading +there; so what, he wanted to know, was the good of his reading here? +Certainly Herbert had entered at an accommodating college, which would +receive young men quite free from previous knowledge; but he might have +been reading for his little-go all this time; and he never read a word. + +But one morning he loitered afield, and came back enthusiastic about a +place for a photograph; the next, Tiny and the implements were dragged +to the spot; and really it was not bad. It was a scene on the little +river just below Mundham bridge. The thick white rails of the bridge +standing out against a clump of trees in the park beyond, the single +arch with the dark water underneath and some sunlit ripples twinkling at +the further side, seemed to call aloud for a camera; and Herbert might +have used his to some purpose, for a change, had he not forgotten to +fill his slides with plates before leaving home. This discovery was not +made until the bridge was in focus, and it put young Luttrell in the +plight of a rifleman who has sighted the bull's-eye with an empty +barrel. It was a question of returning to the rectory to load the slides +or of giving up the photograph altogether. On another occasion, having +forgotten the lens, Herbert had packed up the camera and gone back in +disgust. But that happened nearer home. To-day he had carried the camera +a good mile. Two journeys with something to show for them were +preferable to one with a tired arm for the only result. Within a minute +after the slides were found empty Christina was alone in the meadow +below the bridge; Herbert had found it impossible to give up the +photograph altogether. + +The girl had not lost patience, for she was herself partly to blame. +There were, however, still better reasons for her resignation. She +happened to have the second volume of "The Newcomes" in her jacket +pocket, and the little river seemed to ripple her an invitation from the +bridge to make herself comfortable with her book in its shade. There was +no great need for shade, but the idea seemed sensible. With her hand on +the book in her pocket, and her eyes hovering about the bridge for the +coolest corner, she felt perhaps a little ashamed as she thought of +Herbert making a cool day hot by running back alone for what they had +both forgotten. It was hardly this feeling, however, that kept her +standing where she was. + +She had known no finer day in England. The light was strong and limpid, +the shadows abrupt and deep. The sky was not cloudless, but the clouds +were thin and clean. There was a refreshing amount of wind; the tree +tops beyond the bridge swayed a little against the sky; the focusing +cloth flapped between the tripod legs, and for some minutes the girl +stood absently imbibing all this, without a thought in her head. + +Presently she found herself wondering whether there was enough movement +in the trees to mar a photograph; later she tucked her head under the +cloth to see. As she examined the inverted picture on the ground glass, +she held the cloth loosely over her head and round her neck. But +suddenly she twitched it tighter. For first the sound of wheels had come +to her ears. Then a dogcart had been pulled up on the bridge. And now on +the focusing screen a figure was advancing upside down, like a fly on +the ceiling, and doubling its size with each stride, until there +occurred a momentary eclipse of the inverted landscape by Lord Manister, +who had stalked in broad daylight to our Tiny's side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A MATTER OF ANCIENT HISTORY. + + +The focusing cloth clung to her head like a cowl as she raised it and +bowed. There must have been nervousness on both sides, for the moment, +but it did not prevent Lord Manister from taking off his hat with a +sweep and swiftness that amounted almost to a flourish, nor Christina +from noticing this and his clothes. He was so admirably attired in +summer gray that she took pleasure in reflecting that she was herself +unusually shabby, her idea being that contact with the incorrect was +rather good for him. Correctness of any kind, it is to be feared, was +ridiculously wrong in her eyes. Otherwise she might have been different +herself. + +"I knew it was you!" Lord Manister declared, having shaken her hand. + +"How could you know?" said Christina, smiling. "You must be very +clever." + +"I wish I was. No; I met your brother running like anything with some +wooden things under his arm. He wouldn't see me, but I saw him. I was +going to pull up, but he wouldn't see me." + +Miss Luttrell explained that her brother had gone back for plates, which +they had both very stupidly forgotten; she added that she was sure he +could not have recognized Lord Manister. + +"Plates!" said this nobleman. "Ah, they're important, I know." + +"Well, they're your cartridges; you can't shoot anything without them." + +Lord Manister gave a louder laugh than the remark merited; then he +studied his boots among the daisies. Christina smiled as she watched +him, until he looked up briskly, and nearly caught her. + +"I say, Miss Luttrell, I should like immensely to be on in this scene, +if you would let me! I mean to say I should like to see the thing taken. +Perhaps you could do with the trap and my mare on the bridge; she's +something special, I assure you. And I have been thinking--if you think +so too--that my man might go back for your brother and give him a lift. +It must be monstrous hot walking. It's a monstrous hot day, you know." + +This was not only an exaggeration, but a puff of smoke revealing hidden +fires within the young man's head. Christina fanned the fire until it +tinged his cheek by willfully hesitating before giving him a gracious +answer. For when she spoke it was to say, with a smile at his anxiety, +"Really, you are very considerate, Lord Manister, and I am sure Herbert +will be grateful." They walked to the bridge, and stood upon it the next +minute, watching the dogcart swing out of sight where the road bent. + +"Your brother is very likely halfway back by this time," remarked Lord +Manister, who would have been very sorry to believe what he was saying. +"I dare say my man will pick him up directly; if so, they'll be back in +a minute." + +"I hope they will," said Christina--"the light is so excellent just +now," she was in a hurry to add. + +"Ah, the light in Australia was better for this sort of thing." + +"As a rule, yes; but it would surely be difficult to beat this morning +anywhere; the great thing is, over here, that you are so free from +glare." + +"Then you like England?" + +"Well, I must say I like this corner of England; I haven't seen much +else, you know." + +"Good! I am glad you like this corner; you know it's ours," said the +young fellow simply. Then he paused. "How strange to meet you here, +though!" he added, as if he could not help it, nor the slight stress +that laid itself upon the personal pronoun. + +"It should rather strike me as strange to meet you," Miss Luttrell +replied pointedly; "for I am sure I told you that my sister and her +husband had taken Essingham Rectory for August. You may have forgotten +the occasion. It was in London." + +"Dear me, no, I'm not likely to forget it. To be sure you told me--at +Lady Almeric's." + +"Then perhaps you remember saying that you knew _of_ Essingham?" + +It was not, perhaps, because this was very dryly said that Lord Manister +smiled. Nor was the smile one of his best, which were charming; it was +visibly the expression of his nervousness, not his mirth. + +"Yes, I am sorry to say I do remember that," he confessed with an +awkwardness and humility which made Christina tingle in a sudden +appreciation of his position in the world. "It was very foolish of me, +Miss Luttrell." + +"I wonder what made you?" remarked Christina reflectively, but in a +friendlier tone. + +"Ah! don't wonder," he said impatiently. His eyes fell upon her for one +moment, then wandered down the road, as he added strangely: "You do and +say so many foolish things without a decent why or wherefore. They're +the things for which you never forgive yourself! They're the things for +which you never hope to be forgiven!" + +The girl did not look at him, but her glance chased his down the road to +the bend where the dogcart had vanished and would reappear. She, +however, was the next to speak, for something had occurred to her that +she very much desired to explain. + +"You see, I didn't know you lived here. I had never heard of Mundham +when we met in town; if I had I shouldn't have known it was yours. I +never dreamt that I should meet you here. You understand, Lord +Manister?" + +"My dear Miss Luttrell," cried Manister earnestly, "anybody could see +that!" + +So Christina lost nothing by her little exhibition of anxiety to impress +this point upon him; for his reply was a triumphant flourish of the +opinion she desired him to hold, to show her that he had it already; and +his anxiety in the matter was even more apparent than her own. + +"Thank you, Lord Manister," said Christina, looking him full in the +face. Then her glance dropped to his hand; and his fingers were +entangled in his watch-chain; and in the knowledge that the greater +awkwardness was on his side she raised her eyes confidently, and met the +dogged stare of a young Briton about to make a clean breast of his +misdeeds. + +"Do you want to know why I didn't mention our having taken this +place--that time in town?" + +"That depends on whether you want to tell me." + +"I must tell you. It was because I feared--I mean to say, it crossed my +mind--that perhaps you mightn't care to come here if you knew." + +He paused and watched her. She was looking down, with her chin half +buried in the focusing cloth, which had slipped from her head and +fallen round her shoulders. The coolness of her face against the black +velvet exasperated him, and the more so because he felt himself flushing +as he added, "I see I was a fool to fear that." + +"It was certainly unnecessary, Lord Manister," said the girl calmly, and +not without a note of amusement in her voice. + +"So you don't mind meeting one!" + +"Lord Manister, I am delighted. Why should I mind?" + +"You know I behaved like a brute." + +"You did, I'm afraid." He winced. "You went away without saying good-by +to your friends." + +"I went away without saying good-by to you." + +"Among others." + +"No!" he cried sharply. "You and I were more than friends." + +Christina drummed the ground with one foot. Her glance passed over Lord +Manister's shoulder. He knew that it waited for the dogcart at the bend +of the road. + +"We were more than friends," he repeated desperately. + +"I don't think we ever were." + +"But you thought so once!" + +The girl's lip curled, but her eyes still waited in the road. + +"I wonder what you yourself thought once, Lord Manister?" she said +quietly. "Whatever it was, it didn't last long; but I forgive that +freely. Do you know why? Why, because it was exactly the same with me." + +"Do you forgive me for getting you talked about?" exclaimed Lord +Manister. + +"Yes--because it is the only thing I have to forgive," returned +Christina after a moment's hesitation. "The rest was nonsense; and I +wish you wouldn't rake it up in this dreadfully serious way." + +We know what Christina might mean by nonsense. Lord Manister was not the +first of her friends whom she had offended by her abuse of the word. "It +was not nonsense!" he cried. "It was something either better or worse. I +give you my word that I honestly meant it to be something better. But my +people sent for me. What could I do?" + +His voice and eyes were pitiable; but Christina showed him no pity. + +"What, indeed!" she said ironically. "I myself never blamed you for +going. I was quite sure that you were the passive party, though others +said differently. All I have to forgive is what you made other people +say; but the whole affair is a matter of ancient history--and do you +think we need talk about it any more, Lord Manister?" + +"It is not all I have to forgive myself," he answered bitterly, +disregarding her question. "If only you would hate me, I could hate +myself less; but I deserve your contempt. Yet, if you knew what has been +in my heart all this time, you would pity one. You have haunted me! I +have been good for nothing ever since I came back to England. My people +will tell you so, when you get to know them. My mother would tell you in +a minute. She has never heard your name ... but she knows there was +someone ... she knows there is someone still!" + +Christina had colored at last; but, as she colored, the trot of a horse +came gratefully to her attentive ears. + +"You must think no more about it," she whispered; and her flush +deepened. + +"You wipe it all out?" he cried eagerly. + +"Of course I do." + +Her eyes met the dogcart at the bend. Herbert was in it. + +"And we start afresh?" + +He thought he was to get no answer. She was gazing anxiously at Herbert +as the trap approached; as it drew up on the bridge she murmured, "I +think we had better let well alone," without looking at Lord Manister. +"Herbert, you remember Lord Manister?" she cried aloud in the same +breath. + +Herbert's look was not reassuring. He was, in fact, disgusted with all +present but the groom, and most of all with himself, for being where he +was. Nor was he the young man to trouble to hide his feelings, and he +showed them now in so black a look that Christina, who knew him, was +filled with apprehension. Thanks to Lord Manister's tact, that look did +not last. Manister, who had his own impression of young Luttrell's +character, and had not to be shrewd to guess the other's attitude toward +himself, brought his most graceful manner to bear on the situation. With +Tiny Luttrell, during the bad quarter of an hour which he had deserved +and now endured, his best manner had not been at his command; but it +returned to him with the return of the dogcart, and in time to do him a +service. He had hardly shaken hands with Herbert when he asked him as an +Australian, and therefore a judge, his opinion of the mare. + +The touch would have been too heavy for an older man; but Herbert was +barely twenty, and it flattered him to the marrow. Christina was +relieved to hear his knowing but laudatory comments on the mare's +points. She knew that, despite her brother's aggressive independence, he +was susceptible enough to marked civility. This, indeed, he never +expected, and he was ever ready to return, with interest, some fancied +slight; but Christina had never known him rude to anyone going out of +his way to be polite to him, as Lord Manister was doing this morning. +She divined that politeness from a nobleman was not less gratifying to +Herbert because he happened to have maligned the nobleman with much +industry. Herbert's modest desire was to be treated as an equal by all +men, and he was now being treated as an equal by a lord. This was all he +required to make him reasonably civil, even to Lord Manister. When +Manister asked him, almost deferentially, whether the mare could be +taken in the photograph, he offered his lordship a place in it too, the +offer being declined, but not without many thanks. + +"I'm going to help take it," Manister laughed. "Mind you don't move, +Luttrell. I'm going to help your sister. Hadn't you better come too, and +leave my man alone in his glory?" + +Herbert replied that he would take off the cap or do anything they +liked. So the three went down into the meadow, and some infamous +negatives resulted later. At the time care seemed to be taken by the +photographers, while Lord Manister stood at a little distance, laughing +a good deal. He was pressed to stand in the foreground, but not by +Christina, and he steadily refused. The conciliation of his enemy seemed +assured without that, though he did think of something else to make it +doubly sure. + +"By the way, Luttrell," he said as the camera was being packed away, +"you're a cricketer to a certainty--you're an Australian." + +"I'm very fond of it," the Australian replied, "but I haven't played +over here; I've never had the slant." + +"Well, we play a bit; come over and practice with us." + +Herbert thanked him, declaring that he should like nothing better. + +"Lord Manister is a great cricketer," Christina observed. + +"Come over and practice," repeated his lordship cordially. "The ground +isn't at all bad, considering it was only made last winter, and there's +a professor to bowl to you. We have some matches coming on presently. +Perhaps we might find a place for you." + +This was the one thing Lord Manister said which came within measurable +distance of offending the touchy Herbert. A minute later they had parted +company. + +"They _might_ find a place for me," Herbert repeated as he and Tiny +turned toward the village, while Lord Manister drove off in the opposite +direction, with another slightly ornamental sweep of his hat. "Might +they, indeed! I wouldn't take it. My troubles about their matches! But I +could enjoy a practice." + +"He said he would send over for you next time they do practice." + +Those had been Lord Manister's last words. + +"He did. He is improved. He's a sportsman, after all. It was decent of +him to send back the trap for me. But I didn't want to get in--I was +jolly scotty with myself for getting in. I say, Tiny!" + +"Well?" + +He had her by the arm. + +"I don't ask any questions. I don't want to know a single thing. I hope +he went down on his knees for his sins; I hope you gave him fits! But +look here, Tiny: I won't say a word about this inside if you'd rather I +didn't." + +"I'd rather you did," Tiny said at once. "There's nothing to hide. +But--you can be a dear, good boy when you like, Herbs!" + +"Can I? Then you can be offended if you like--but he's on the job now if +he never was in his life before!" + +"I won't say I hope he isn't," Tiny whispered. + +So she was not offended. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE SHADOW OF THE HALL. + + +Such was Christina's first meeting with Lord Manister in his own county. +It occurred while his mother's invitation was exhilarating so many +homes, and on the day when the Mundham mail bag would not hold the first +draught of prompt replies. Until the garden party itself, however, no +one at the rectory saw any more of Lord Manister, who had gone for a few +days to the Marquis of Wymondham's place in Scotland, where he shot +dreadfully on the Twelfth and was otherwise in queer form, considering +that Miss Garth was also one of the guests. But under all the +circumstances it is not difficult to imagine Manister worried and +unhappy during this interval; which, on the other hand, remained in the +minds of the people at the rectory, Christina included, as the +pleasantest part of their month there. + +Not that they suspected this at the time. Mrs. Erskine especially found +these days a little slow. Having knowledge of Lord Manister's +whereabouts, she was impatient for his return, and the more so because +Christina seemed to have forgotten his existence. Christina was indeed +puzzling, and on one embarrassing occasion, which with some girls would +have led to a scene, she puzzled Ruth more than ever. Ruth tried to +follow her presumptive example, and to put aside the thought of Lord +Manister for the time being. Her consolation meanwhile was the lively +_camaraderie_ between Christina and Erskine, wherein Erskine's wife took +a delight for which we may forgive her much. + +"How well you two get on!" she would say gladly to each of them. + +"He's a man and a brother," Tiny would reply. + +To which Ruth was sure to say tenderly: "It's sweet of you, dear, to +look upon him as a brother. + +"Ah, but don't you forget that he's a man, and not my brother really, +but just the very best of pals!" Tiny said once. "That's the beauty of +him. He's the only man who ever talked sense to me right through from +the beginning, so he's something new. He's the only man I ever liked +without having the least desire to flirt with him, if you particularly +want to know! And I don't believe his being my brother-in-law has +anything to do with that," added the girl reflectively; "it would have +been the same in any case. What's better still, he's the only man who +ever understood me, my dear." + +"He's very clever, you see," observed Ruth slyly, but also in all +seriousness. + +"That's the worst of him; he makes you feel your ignorance." + +"I assure you, Tiny, he thinks _you_ very clever." + +"So you're crackin'!" laughed Tiny; and as the old bush slang filled her +mouth unbidden, the smell of a hot wind at Wallandoon came into her +nostrils; and there seemed no more to be said. + +But that last assurance of Ruth's was still ringing in her ears when her +thoughts got back from the bush. She did not believe a word of it. Yet +it was more or less true. Nor was Erskine far wrong in any opinion he +had expressed to his wife concerning Christina, of whom, perhaps, he had +said even less than he thought. + +She was not, indeed, to be called an intellectual girl, in these days +least of all. That was her misfortune, or otherwise, as you happen to +think. Intellectual possibilities, however, she possessed: raw brain +with which much might have been done. Not much can be done by a +governess on a station in the back-blocks. Merely in curing the girls of +the twang of Australia, more successfully than of its slang, and in +teaching Tiny to sing rather nicely, the governess at Wallandoon had +done wonders. But gifts that were of more use to Christina were natural, +such as the quick perception, the long memory, and the ready tongue with +which she defended the doors of her mind, so that few might guess the +poverty of the store within. Nor had the governess been able to add much +to that store. The liking for books had not come to Christina at +Wallandoon; but in Melbourne she had taken to reading, and had reveled +in a deal of trash; and now in England she read whatever Erskine put in +her hands, and honestly enjoyed most of it, with the additional relish +of being proud of her enjoyment. Erskine thought her discriminating, +too; but converts to good books are apt to flatter the saviors of their +taste, and perhaps her brother-in-law was a poor judge of the girl's +judgment. He liked her for finding _Colonel Newcome's_ life more +touching than his death, and for placing the _Colonel_ second to _Dr. +Primrose_ in the order of her gods after reading "The Vicar of +Wakefield." He was delighted with her confession that she should "love +to be loved by Clive Newcome," while her defense of _Miss Ethel_, which +was vigorous enough to betray a fellow-feeling, was interesting at the +time, and more so later, when there was occasion to remember it. Similar +interest attached to another confession, that she had long envied +_OEnone_ and _Elaine_ "because they were really in love." She seemed to +have mixed some good poetry with the bad novels that had contented her +in Melbourne. Two more books which she learned to love now were "Sesame +and Lilies" and "Virginibus Puerisque." It was Erskine Holland's +privilege to put each into her hands for the first time, and perhaps she +never pleased him quite so much as when she said: "It makes me think +less of myself; it has made me horribly unhappy; but if they were going +to hang me in the morning I would sit up all night to read it again!" +That was her grace after "Sesame and Lilies." + +"Why don't you make Ruth read too?" she asked him once, quite idly, when +they had been talking about books. + +"She has a good deal to think about," Erskine replied after a little +hesitation. "She's too busy to read." + +"Or too happy," suggested Tiny. + +Mr. Holland made a longer pause, looking gratefully at the girl, as +though she had given him a new idea, which he would gladly entertain if +he could. "I wonder whether that's possible?" he said at last. + +"I'm sure it is. Ruth is so happy that books can do nothing for her; the +happy ones show her no happiness so great as her own, and she thinks the +sad ones stupid. The other day, when I insisted on reading her my +favorite thing in 'Virginibus----'" + +"What is your favorite thing?" interrupted Erskine. + +"'El Dorado'--it's the most beautiful thing you have put me on to yet, +of its size. I could hardly see my way through the last page--I can't +tell you why--only because it was so beautiful, I think, and so awfully +true! But Ruth saw nothing to cry over; I'm not sure that she saw much +to admire; and that's all because you have gone and made her so happy." + +For some minutes Erskine looked grim. Then he smiled. + +"But aren't you happy too, Tiny?" + +"I'm as happy as I deserve to be. That's good enough, isn't it?" + +"Quite. You must be as happy as you're pleased to think Ruth." + +"Well, then, I'm not. I should like to be some good in the world, and +I'm no good at all!" + +"I am sorry to see it take you like that," said Erskine gravely. "I +wouldn't have thought this of you, Tiny!" + +"Ah, there are many things you wouldn't think of me," remarked Tiny. She +spoke a little sadly, and she said no more. And this time her sudden +silence came from no vision of the bush, but from what she loved much +less--a glimpse of herself in the mirror of her own heart. + +There was one thing, certainly, that none of them would have thought of +her; for she never told them of her little quiet meddlings in the +village. But I could tell you. Pleasant it would be to write of what she +did for Mrs. Clapperton (who certainly seemed to have been unfairly +treated) and of the memories that lived after her in more cottages than +one. But you are to see her as they did who saw most of her, and to +remember that nothing is more delightful than being kind to the grateful +poor, especially when one is privately depressed. Little was ever known +of the liberties taken by Christina's generosity, and nothing shall be +recorded here. She must stand or fall without that, as in the eyes of +her friends. Suffice it that she did amuse herself in this way on the +sly, and found it good for restoring her vanity, which was suffering +secretly all this time. She would have been the last to take credit for +any good she may have done in Essingham. She knew that it wiped out +nothing, and also that it made her happier than she would have been +otherwise. For though a worse time came later, even now she was not +comfortable in her heart. And she had by no means forgotten the +existence of Lord Manister, as someone feared. + +Ruth, however, put her own conversation under studious restraint during +these days, many of which passed without any mention of Lord Minister's +name at the rectory. The distracting proximity of his stately home was +apparently forgotten in this peaceful spot. But the wife of one clerical +neighbor, a Mrs. Willoughby, who accompanied her husband when he came to +play lawn tennis with Mr. Holland, and indeed wherever the poor man +went, cherished a grudge against the young nobleman's family, of which +she made no secret. It was only natural that this lady should air her +grievance on the lawn at Essingham, whence there was a distant prospect +of lodge and gates to goad her tongue. Yet, when she did so, it was as +though the sun had come out suddenly and thrown the shadow of the hall +across the rectory garden. + +"As for this garden party," cried Mrs. Willoughby, as it seemed for the +benefit of the gentlemen, who had put on their coats, and were handing +teacups under the trees, "I consider it an insult to the county. It +comes too late in the day to be regarded as anything else. Why didn't +they do something when first they came here? They have had the place a +year. Why didn't they give a ball in the winter, or a set of dinner +parties if they preferred that? Shall I tell you why, Mr. Holland? It +was because the general election was further off then, and it hadn't +occurred to them to put up Lord Manister for the division." + +"They haven't been here a year, my dear, by any means," observed Mrs. +Willoughby's husband; "and as for dinner parties, we, at any rate, have +dined with them." + +"Well, I wouldn't boast about it," answered Mrs. Willoughby, who had a +sharp manner in conversation, and a specially staccato note for her +husband. "We dined with them, it is true; I suppose they thought they +must do the civil to a neighboring rector or two. But as their footman +had the insolence to tell our coachman, Mrs. Holland, they considered +things had reached a pretty pass when it came to dining the country +clergy!'" + +"Their footman considered," murmured Mr. Willoughby. + +"He was repeating what he had heard at table," the lady affirmed, as +though she had heard it herself. "They had made a joke of it--before +their servants. So they don't catch me at their garden party, which is +to satisfy our social cravings and secure our votes. I don't visit with +snobs, Mrs. Holland, for all their coronets and Norman blood--of which, +let me tell you, they haven't one drop between them. Who was the present +earl's great-grandfather, I should like to know? He never had one; they +are not only snobs but upstarts, the Dromards." + +"At any rate," Mr. Holland said mildly, "they can't gain anything by +being civil to _us_. We don't represent a single vote. We are here for +one calendar month." + +"Ah, it is wise to be disinterested here and there," rejoined Mrs. +Willoughby, whose sharpness was not merely vocal; "it supplies an +instance, and that's worth a hundred arguments. Now I shouldn't wonder, +Mr. Holland, if they didn't go out of their way to be quite nice to you. +I shouldn't wonder a bit. It would advertise their disinterestedness. +But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly." + +"Mrs. Willoughby is a cynic," laughed Erskine, turning to the clergyman, +whose wife swallowed her tea complacently with this compliment to +sweeten it. To so many minds a charge of cynicism would seem to imply +that intellectual superiority which is cheap at the price of a moral +defect. + +Now Erskine had a lawn tennis player staying with him for the inside of +this week; and the lawn tennis player was a fallen cricketer, who had +played against the Eton eleven when young Manister was in it; and he +ventured to suggest that the division might find a worse candidate. "He +was a nice enough boy then," said he, "and I recollect he made runs; +he's a good fellow still, from all accounts." + +"From all _my_ accounts," retorted Mrs. Willoughby, refreshed by her +tea, "he's a very fast one!" + +Erskine's friend had never heard that, though he understood that +Manister had fallen off in his cricket; he had not seen the young fellow +for years, nor did he think any more about him at the moment, being +drawn by Herbert into cricket talk, which stopped his ears to the +general conversation just as this became really interesting. + +"That reminds me," Mrs. Willoughby exclaimed, turning to Ruth. "Was Lord +Manister out in Australia in your time?" + +Ruth said "No," rather nervously, for Mrs. Willoughby's manner alarmed +her. "I was married just before he came out," she added; "as a matter of +fact, our steamers crossed in the canal." + +"Well, you know what a short time he stayed there, for a governor's +aid-de-camp?" + +"Only a few months, I have heard. Do let me give you another cup of tea, +Mrs. Willoughby!" + +"Now I wonder if you know," pursued this lady, having cursorily declined +more tea, "how he came to leave so suddenly?" + +Poor Mrs. Holland shook her head, which was inwardly besieged with +impossible tenders for a change of subject. No one helped her: Tiny had +perhaps already lost her presence of mind; Erskine did not understand; +the other two were not listening. Ruth could think of no better +expedient than a third cup for Christina; as she passed it her own hand +trembled, but venturing to glance at her sister's face, she was amazed +to find it not only free from all sign of self-consciousness or of +anxiety, but filled with unaffected interest. For this was the occasion +on which Christina's coolness quite baffled Ruth, who for her part was +preparing for a scene. + +"Shall I tell you?" asked Mrs. Willoughby. + +"Do," said Christina, to whom the well-informed lady at once turned. + +"He formed an attachment out there, Miss Luttrell! He could only get +out of it by fleeing the country; so he fled. You look as though you +knew all about it," she added (making Ruth shudder), for the girl had +smiled knowingly. + +"About which?" asked Tiny. + +"What! Were there more affairs than one?" + +"Some people said so." + +Mrs. Willoughby glanced around her with a glittering eye, and was sorry +to notice that two of her hearers were not listening. "That is just what +I expected," she informed the other four. "If you tell me that Melbourne +became too hot to hold him I shall not be surprised." + +"Melbourne made rather a fuss about him," replied Christina in an +excusing tone that pierced Ruth's embarrassment and pricked to life her +darling hopes. "He was not greatly to blame." + +"But he broke the poor girl's heart. I should blame him for that, to say +the least of it." + +"You surprise me," said Christina gravely; "I thought that people at +home never blamed each other for anything they did in the colonies? +Over here you are particular, I know; but I thought it was correct not +to be too particular when out there. Your writers come out: we treat +them like lords, and then they do nothing but abuse us; your lords come +out: we treat them like princes, and, you see, they break our hearts. Of +course they do! We expect it of them. It's all we look for in the +colonies." + +"You are not serious, Miss Luttrell," said Mrs. Willoughby in some +displeasure. "To my mind it is a serious thing. It seems a sad thing, +too, to me. But I may be old-fashioned; the present generation would +crack jokes across an open grave, as I am well aware. Yet there isn't +much joke in a young girl having her heart broken by such as Lord +Manister, is there? And that's what literally happened, for my friend +Mrs. Foster-Simpson knows all about it. She knows all about the +Dromards--to her cost!" + +"Ah, we know the Foster-Simpsons; they called on us last year," remarked +Erskine, who devoutly trusted that they would not call again. His +amusement at Christina hardly balanced his weariness of Mrs. Willoughby, +and he took off his coat as he spoke. + +"Does your friend know the poor girl's name, Mrs. Willoughby?" Tiny +asked when the men had gone back to the court; and her tone was now as +sympathetic as could possibly be desired. + +"I'm sorry to say she does not; it's the one thing she has been unable +to find out," said Mrs. Willoughby naively. "Perhaps you could tell me, +Miss Luttrell?" + +"Perhaps I could," said Christina, smiling, as she rose to seek a ball +which had been hit into the churchyard. "Only, you see, I don't know +which of them it was. It wouldn't be fair to give you a list of names to +guess from, would it?" + +Fortunately Mrs. Willoughby put no further questions to Ruth, who was +intensely thankful. "For," as she told Christina afterward, "_I_ was on +pins and needles the whole time. I never did know anyone like you for +keeping cool under fire!" + +"It depends on the fire," Tiny said. "Mrs. Willoughby went off by +accident, and luckily she was not pointing at anybody." + +"And I'm glad she did, now it's over!" exclaimed Ruth. "Don't you see +that I was quite right about your name? So now you need have no more +qualms about the garden party." + +"Perhaps I've had no qualms for some time; perhaps I've known you were +right." + +"Since when? Since--since you saw Lord Manister?" + +Tiny nodded. + +"Do you mean to say you talked about it?" Ruth whispered in delicious +awe. + +"I mustn't tell you what _he_ talked about. He was as nice as he could +be--though I should have preferred to find him less beautifully dressed +in the country; but I always felt that about him. I am sure, however, of +one thing: he was no more to blame than--I was. I have always felt this +about him, too." + +"Tiny, dear, if only I could understand you!" + +"If only you could! Then you might help me to understand myself." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"COUNTESS DROMARD AT HOME." + + +The hall gates were plain enough from the rectory lawn, but plainer +still from the steps whence, on the afternoon of the garden party, Mr. +Holland watched them from under the brim of the first hard hat he had +worn for a fortnight. He was ready, while the ladies were traditionally +late, but he did not lose patience; he was too much entertained in +watching the hall gates and the hedgerow that hid the road leading up to +them. Vehicles were filing along this road in a procession which for the +moment was continuous. Erskine could see them over the hedge, and it was +difficult to do so without sharing some opinions which Mrs. Willoughby +had expressed regarding the comprehensive character of the social +measure taken not before it was time by the noble family within those +gates. There were county clergymen driving themselves in ill-balanced +dogcarts, and county townspeople in carriages manifestly hired, and +county bigwigs--as big as the Dromards themselves--in splendid +equipages, with splendid coachmen and horseflesh the most magnificent. +Greater processional versatility might scarcely be seen in southwestern +suburbs on Derby Day; and the low phaeton which he himself was about to +contribute to the medley made Erskine laugh. + +"We should follow the next really swagger turnout--we should run behind +it," he suggested to the girls when at length they appeared; and Ruth +took him seriously. + +"No, get in front of them," said Herbert, who was lounging on the steps, +in dirty flannels which Erskine envied him. "Get in front of them and +slow down. That'd be the sporting thing to do! They couldn't pass you in +the drive. It would do 'em good." + +However, the procession was not without gaps, and to Ruth's satisfaction +they found themselves in rather a wide one. As they drove through those +august gates a parson's dogcart was rounding a curve some distance +ahead, but nothing was in sight behind. Ruth sat beside her husband, who +drove. She looked rather demure, but very charming in her little +matronly bonnet; her costume was otherwise somewhat noticeably sober, +and certainly she had never felt more sensibly the married sister than +now, as she glanced at Christina with furtive anxiety, but open +admiration. Tiny was neatly dressed in white, and her hat was white +also. "Do you know why I wear a white hat?" she asked Erskine on the +way; but her question proved merely to be an impudent adaptation of a +very disreputable old riddle, and beyond this she was unusually silent +during the short drive. Yet she seemed not only self-possessed, but +inwardly at her ease. She sat on the little seat in front, often turning +round to gaze ahead, and her curiosity and interest were very frank and +natural. So were her admiration of the park, her anxiety to see the +house itself, and even her wonder at the great length of the drive, +which ran alongside the cricket field, and then bent steadily to the +left. When at last the low red-brick pile became visible, Gallow Hill +was seen immediately behind it, which surprised Christina; the lawn in +front was alive with people, which put her on her mettle; and the +inspiriting outburst of a military band at that moment forced from her +an admission of the pleasure and excitement which had been growing upon +her for some minutes. + +"I like this!" she exclaimed. "This is first-rate England!" + +Countess Dromard stood on the edge of the lawn at the front of the +house, and apparently the carriages were unloading at this side of the +drive. Ruth whispered hurriedly that she was sure they were, but she was +not so sure in reality, and she now saw the disadvantage of arriving in +a wide gap, which deprives the inexperienced of their lawful cue. She +was quite right, however, and when some minutes elapsed before the +arrival of another carriage to interrupt the charming little +conversation Ruth had with Lady Dromard, the good of the gap became +triumphantly apparent. The countess was very kind indeed. She was a +tall, fine woman, with whom the shadows of life had scarce begun to +lengthen to the eye; her face was not only handsome, but wonderfully +fresh, and she had a trick of lowering it as she chatted with Ruth, +bending over her in a way which was comfortable and almost motherly from +the first. She had heard of Mrs. Holland, whom she was glad to meet at +last, and of whom she now hoped to see something more. Ruth observed +that they had the rectory only till September; she was sorry her time +was so short. Lady Dromard very flatteringly echoed her sorrow, and also +professed an envious admiration for the rectory, which she described as +idyllic. That was practically all. What was said of the weather hardly +counted; and a repetition of her ladyship's hopes of seeing something +more of Mrs. Holland and her party was not worth remembering, according +to Erskine, who declared that this meant nothing at all. + +Ruth, however, was not likely to forget it; though she treasured just as +much the memory of a certain glance which she had caught the countess +leveling at her sister. She thought that other eyes also were attracted +by the white-robed Tiny, and the smooth-shaven turf was air to Ruth's +tread as she marched off with her husband and that cynosure. Nor was her +satisfaction decreased when the first person they came across chanced to +be no other than Mrs. Willoughby. This meeting was literally the +unexpected treat that Ruth pronounced it to be, for the clergyman's wife +was smiling in a manner which showed that she had witnessed the +countess' singular civility to her friend. + +"Yes, I'm here after all," said Mrs. Willoughby grimly. "Henry made me +very angry by insisting on coming, but of course I wasn't going to let +him come alone. I hope you think he looks happy now he's here!" (Mr. +Willoughby and a brother rector might have been hatching dark designs +against their bishop, who was himself present, judging by their looks.) +"_I_ call him the picture of misery. Well, Mrs. Holland, I hope you are +gratified at your reception! Oh, it was quite gushing, I assure you; we +have all been watching. But wait till you meet them in Piccadilly, my +dear Mrs. Holland." + +Mrs. Holland left the reply to her husband, who, however, contented +himself with promising Mrs. Willoughby a telegraphic report of the +proceedings at that meeting, if it ever took place. + +"Ah, there won't be much to report," said that redoubtable woman; "they +won't look at you. But I shouldn't be surprised to see them make a deal +of you in the country, if you let them." + +It did not seem conducive to the enjoyment of the afternoon to prolong +the conversation with Mrs. Willoughby. The party of three wandered +toward the band, admiring the scarlet coats of the bandsmen against the +dark green of the shrubbery, and their bright brass instruments flaming +in the sun. The music also was of much spirit and gayety, and it was +agreed that a band was an immense improvement to a rite of this sort. +Then these three, who, after all, knew very few people present, followed +the example of others, and made a circuit of the house, in high good +humor. But Tiny found herself between two conversational fires, for Ruth +would compel her to express admiration for the premises, which might +have been taken for granted, while Erskine called her attention to the +people, who were much more entertaining to watch. As they passed a table +devoted to refreshments, at which a large lady was being waited upon +very politely by a small boy in a broad collar, they overheard one of +those scraps of conversation which amuse at the moment. + +"So you're a Dromard boy, are you?" the lady was saying. "I've never +seen you before. What Dromard boy are _you_, pray?" + +"My name's Douglas." + +"Oh! So you're the Honorable Douglas Dromard, are you?" + +The boy handed her an ice without answering as the three passed on. + +"I said you'd see and hear some queer things," whispered Mr. Holland; +"but you won't hear anything much finer than that. The woman is Mrs. +Foster-Simpson; her husband's a solicitor, and may be the Conservative +agent, if his wife doesn't disqualify him. She professes to know all +about the Dromards, as you heard the other day. You can guess the kind +of knowledge. Even the boy snubs her. Yet mark him. The mixture of +politeness and contempt was worth noticing in a small boy like that. +There's a little nobleman for you!" + +"No, a little Englishman," said Tiny. "Now that's a thing I do envy +you--your schoolboys, your little gentlemen! We don't grow them so +little in the colonies; we don't know how." + +They were walking on a majestic terrace in the shadow of the red-brick +house, their figures mirrored in each mullioned window as they passed +it. + +"I call Lord Manister the luckiest young man in England," Ruth exclaimed +during a pause between the other two. "To think that all this will be +his!" + +"It rather reminds me of Hampton Court on this side," remarked Tiny +indifferently. + +"And it's by no means their only place, you know; there are others they +never use, are there not, Erskine?--to say nothing of all those squares +and streets in town!" + +But Erskine sounded the thick sibilant of silence as they passed a +shabby looking person with a slouching walk and a fair beard. + +"I wonder how _he_ got here?" Tiny murmured next moment. + +"He has a better right than most of us." + +"What do you mean, Erskine?" + +"Well, it's the earl." + +"Earl Dromard? I should have guessed his gardener!" + +"No, that's the earl. Old clothes are his special fancy in the country. +It's his particular form of side, so they say." + +"Well," said Tiny, "I prefer it to his son's, which has always appeared +to me to be the other extreme." + +"I am sure Lord Manister is not over-dressed," remonstrated Ruth, with +her usual alacrity in defense of his lordship. + +"No, that's the worst of him," answered her sister. "There is nothing to +find fault with, ever; that's what makes one think he employs his +intellect on the study of his appearance." + +They had seen Lord Manister in the distance. Presumably he had not seen +them, but he might have done so; and Ruth supposed it was the doubt that +made her sister speak of him more captiously than usual. But the +criticism was not utterly unfair, as Ruth might presently have seen for +herself; for as they came back to the front of the house, Lord Manister +detached himself from a group, and approached them with the suave smile +and the slight flourish of the hat which were two of his tricks. +Christina asked afterward if the flourish was not dreadfully +continental, but she was told that it was merely up to date, like the +hat itself. At the time, however, she introduced Lord Manister to her +sister Mrs. Erskine Holland, and to Mr. Holland, taking this liberty +with charming grace and tact, yet with a becoming amount of natural +shyness. Manister, for one, was pleased with the introduction on all +grounds. From the first, however, he addressed himself to the married +lady, speaking partly of the surrounding country, for which Ruth could +not say too much, and partly of Melbourne, which enabled him to return +her compliments. His manner was eminently friendly and polite. +Discovering that they had not yet been in the house for tea, he led the +way thither, and through a throng of people in the hall, and so into the +dining room. Here he saved the situation from embarrassment by making +himself equally attentive to another party. To Ruth, however, Lord +Manister's civility was still sufficiently marked, while he asked her +husband whether he was a cricketer; and this reminded him of Herbert, +for whom he gave Miss Luttrell a message. He said they had just arranged +some cricket for the last week of the month; he thought they would be +glad of Miss Luttrell's brother in one or two of the matches. But he +seemed to fear that most of the teams were made up; his young brother +was arranging everything. Christina gathered that in any case they would +be glad to see Herbert at the nets any afternoon of the following week, +more especially on the Monday. Lord Manister made a point of the +message, and also of the cricket week, "when," he said, "you must all +turn up if it's fine." And those were his last words to them. + +"I see you know my son," said the countess in her kindliest manner as +Ruth thanked her for a charming afternoon. + +"My sister met him the other day at Lady Almeric's," replied Ruth, "and +before that in Australia." + +"I knew Lord Manister in Melbourne," added Tiny with freedom. + +"Do you mean to tell me you are Australians?" said Lady Dromard in a +tone that complimented the girls at the expense of their country. "Then +you must certainly come and see me," she added cordially, though her +surprise was still upon her. "I am greatly interested in Australia since +my son was there. I feel I have a welcome for all Australians--you +welcomed him, you know!" + +Christina afterward expressed the firm opinion that Lady Dromard had +said this rather strangely, which Ruth as firmly denied. Tiny was +accused of an imaginative self-consciousness, and the accusation +provoked a blush, which Ruth took care to remember. Certainly, if the +countess had spoken queerly, the queerness had escaped the one person +who was not on the lookout for something of the kind; Erskine Holland +had perceived nothing but her ladyship's condescension, which had been +indeed remarkable, though Erskine still told his wife to expect no +further notice from that quarter. + +"And I'm selfish enough to hope you'll get none, my dears," he said to +the girls that evening as they sauntered through the kitchen garden +after dinner; "because for my part I'd much rather not be noticed by +them. We were not intended to take seriously anything that was said this +afternoon; honey was the order of the day for all comers--and can't you +imagine them wiping their foreheads when we were all gone? I only hope +they wiped us out of their heads! We're much happier as we are. I'm not +rabid, like Mrs. Willoughby; but she prophesied a very possible +experience, when all's said and done, confound her! I have visions of +Piccadilly myself. And seriously, Ruth, you wouldn't like it if you +became friendly with these people here and they cut you in town; no more +should I. I think you can't be too careful with people of that sort; and +if they ask us again I vote we don't go; but they won't ask us any +more, you may depend upon it." + +"I don't depend upon it, all the same," replied Ruth, with some spirit. +"Lady Dromard was most kind; and as for Lord Manister, _I_ was enchanted +with him." + +"Were you?" Tiny said, feeling vaguely that she was challenged. + +"I was; I thought him unaffected and friendly, and even simple. I am +sure he is simple-minded! I am also sure that you won't find another +young man in his position who is better natured or better hearted----" + +"Or better mannered--or better dressed! You are quite right; he is +nearly perfect. He is rather too perfect for me in his manners and +appearance; I should like to untidy him; I should like to put him in a +temper. Lord Manister was never in a temper in his life; he's nicer than +most people--but he's too nice altogether for me!" + +"You knew him rather well in Melbourne?" said Erskine, eyeing his +sister-in-law curiously; her face was toward the moon, and her +expression was set and scornful. + +"Very well indeed," she answered with her erratic candor. + +"I might have guessed as much that time in town. I say, if we meet _him_ +in Piccadilly we may score off Mrs. Willoughby yet! Wait till we get +back----" + +"All right; only don't let us wait out here," Ruth interrupted--"or Tiny +and I may have to go back in our coffins!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MOTHER AND SON. + + +A clever man is not necessarily an infallible prophet; and the clever +man who is married may well preserve an intellectual luster in the eyes +of his admirer by never prophesying at all. But should he take pleasure +in predicting the thing that is openly deprecated at the other side of +the hearth, let him see to it that his prediction comes true, for +otherwise he has whetted a blade for his own breast, from whose +justifiable use only an angel could abstain. There was no angel in the +family which had been brought up on Wallandoon Station, New South Wales. +When, within the next three days, Ruth received a note from Lady Dromard +inviting them all to dinner at a very early date, she did not fail to +prod Erskine as he deserved. But her thrust was not malignant; nor did +she give vexatious vent to her own triumph, which was considerable. + +"You are a very clever man," she merely told him, and with the relish +of a wife who can say this from her heart; "but you see, you're wrong +for once. Lady Dromard _did_ mean what she said. She wants us all to +dine there on Friday evening, when, as it happens, we have no other +engagement; and really I don't see how we can refuse." + +"You mean that you would like to get out of it if you could?" her +husband said. + +"You don't need to be sarcastic," remarked Ruth with a slight flush. +"Who wants to get out of it?" + +"I thought perhaps you did, my dear; to tell you the truth, I rather +hoped so." + +"You don't want to go!" + +"I can't say I jump." + +Ruth colored afresh. + +"I have no patience with you, Erskine! Nobody is dying to go; but I own +I can't see any reason against going, nor any excuse for stopping away; +and considering what you yourself said about going to the garden party, +dear, I must say I think you're rather inconsistent." + +Holland gazed down into the flushed, frowning face, that frowned so +seldom, and flushed so prettily. Always an undemonstrative husband, +very properly he had been more so than ever since others had been +staying in the house. But neither of those others was present now, and +rather suddenly he stooped and kissed his wife. + +"There is no reason, and there would be no excuse; so you are quite +right," he said kindly. "It's only that one has a constitutional dislike +to being taken up--and dropped. I have visions of all that. I'm afraid +Mrs. Willoughby has poisoned my mind; we will go, and let us hope it'll +prove an antidote." + +They went, and that dinner party was not the formidable affair it might +have been; as Lady Dromard herself said, most graciously, it was not a +dinner party at all. Ten, however, sat down, of whom four came from the +rectory; for Herbert had been over to practice at the nets, and was +fairly satisfied with his treatment on that occasion, which accounted +for his presence on this. The only other guests were an inevitable +divine and his wife. The earl was absent. As if to conserve Christina's +impression of the old clothes in which, as the natives said, his +lordship "liked himself," Earl Dromard had left for London rather +suddenly that morning. Lord Manister filled his place impeccably, with +Ruth at her best on his right. Herbert was less happy with Lady Mary +Dromard, a very proud person, who could also be very rude in the most +elegant manner. But Christina fell to the jolliest scion of the house, +Mr. Stanley Dromard; and this pair mutually enjoyed themselves. + +Young in every way was the Honorable Stanley Dromard. He had just left +Eton, where he had been in the eleven, like his brother before him; he +was to go into residence at Trinity in October. With a quantum of +gentlemanly interest he heard that Miss Luttrell's brother was also +going up to Cambridge next term; but not to Trinity. Said Mr. Dromard, +"Your brother's a bit of a cricketer, too; he came over for a knock the +other day; he means to play for us next week, if we're short, doesn't +he?" Christina fancied so. Mr. Dromard said "Good!" with some emphasis, +and Herbert's name dropped out of the conversation. This became +Anglo-Australian, as it was sure to, and led to some of those bold +comparisons for which Christina was generally to be trusted; but the +bolder they were, the more Mr. Dromard enjoyed them, for the girl +glittered in his eyes. He was a delightfully appreciative youth, if +easily amused, and his laughter sharpened Tiny's wits. She shone +consciously, but yet calmly, and made a really remarkable impression +upon her companion, without once meeting Lord Manister's glance, which +rested on her sometimes for a second. + +So the flattering attentions of young Dromard were not terminated, but +merely interrupted, by the flight of the ladies. When the men followed +them to the drawing room the younger son shot to Miss Luttrell's side +with the fine regardlessness of nineteen, and furthered their friendship +by divulging the Mundham plans for the following week. The cricket was +to begin on the Tuesday. The men were coming the day before: half the +Eton eleven, Tiny understood, and some older young fellows of Manister's +standing. The first two were to be two-day matches against the county +and a Marylebone team. The Saturday's match would be between Mundham +Hall and another scratch eleven, "and that's when we may want your +brother, Miss Luttrell," added Mr. Dromard, "though we _might_ want him +before. Our team has been made up some time, but somebody is sure to +have some other fixture for Saturday." + +"I think he may like to play," said Christina. + +Mr. Dromard seemed a little surprised. + +"It's a jolly ground," he remarked, "and there will be some first-rate +players." + +"I am sure he would like a game on your ground," Christina went so far +as to say. + +"Do you dance, Miss Luttrell?" asked the young man, after a pause. + +"When I get the chance," said Christina. + +He gazed at her a moment, and could imagine her dancing--with him. + +"Suppose we were to do something of the kind here one evening between +the matches; would you come?" + +"If I got the chance," said Christina. + +Dromard considered what he was saying. "We ought to have a dance," he +added in a doubtful tone, as though the need were greater than the +chance; "we really ought. But I don't suppose we shall; nothing is +arranged, you see." + +"You needn't hedge, Mr. Dromard," said the girl, smiling. + +"Eh?" + +"I shan't expect an invitation!" + +She nodded knowingly as he blushed; but he had the great merit of being +easily amused, and with another word she made him merry and at ease +again. Not unreasonably, perhaps, a casual spectator might have +suspected these two of a mild but immediate flirtation. Stanley, +however, was at a safe and privileged age, and no eye was on him but his +brother's. Lord Manister gave the impression of being a rather dignified +person in his own home, but he was doing his gracious duty by the +guests, none of whom seemed especially to occupy his attention, while he +was reasonably polite to all. It was he, too, who at length suggested to +Lady Dromard that Miss Luttrell would probably sing something if she +were asked. + +So Christina sang something--it hardly matters what. Her song was not a +classic, neither was it grossly popular. It was a pleasant song, +pleasantly sung, and the entire absence of pretentiousness and of +affectation in the song and the singing was more noticeable than the +positive excellence of either. The girl had no greater voice than one +would have expected of so small a person, but what she had was in +keeping. Lady Dromard, however, had a more sensitive appreciation of +good taste than of good music, and she asked for more. Christina sang +successively something of Lassen's, and then "Last Night," taking the +English words in each case. She played her own accompaniments, and felt +little nervousness until her last song was finished, when it certainly +startled her to find Lady Dromard standing at her side. + +"Thank you!" said the countess with considerable enthusiasm. "You sing +delightfully, and you sing delightful songs. You must have been very +well taught." + +"Mostly in the bush," said Christina truthfully. + +"You come from the bush?" + +"But you had some lessons in Melbourne," put in Ruth, who was visibly +delighted. + +"Oh, yes, a few," Tiny said, smiling; "as many as I was worth." + +"Ah, you shall tell me about Melbourne one day soon," said Lady Dromard +to the young girl. "Your sister has promised to come over and watch the +cricket. I do hope you will come with her." + +Christina expressed her pleasure at the prospect, and, taking the +nearest seat, found Lord Manister leaning over the end of the piano and +looking down upon her with a rather sardonic smile. + +"You haven't looked at me this evening," he said to her under cover of +the general conversation, which was now renewed. "May I ask what I have +done?" + +"Certainly you may ask, Lord Manister," answered the girl with immense +simplicity; "but I can't tell you, because I am not aware that you have +done anything beyond making us all very happy and at home." + +"Well, I'm glad to hear that," said Manister, whose quasi-humorous tone +lacked the lightness to deceive; "I was afraid I had offended you." + +"Offended me!" cried Christina, with widening eyes and a puzzled look. +"When have you seen me to offend me! I haven't seen you since your +garden party, and you certainly didn't offend me then--you were awfully +nice to us all!" + +"Ah, that wasn't seeing you," Lord Manister murmured. "I don't reckon +that I've seen you since--the photographs. I had to go to Scotland; I +meant to tell you." + +"It wouldn't have interested me," said Christina, with a shrug. "It +might have interested me if you had said--you were _not_ going," she +added next moment. Her tone had dropped. She looked at him and smiled. + +Her smile stayed with him after she was gone; but from his face you +would not have guessed that he was nursing a kind look. She had given +him one smile, which made up for many things. But you would have +thought, with his people, that he had been suffering the whole evening +from acute boredom: you might well have fancied, with Lady Mary, that a +remark disparaging Australian women would have met with a grateful +response from him. The response it did meet with was anything but +grateful to Lady Mary Dromard. It drove her from the room, in which +Manister and his mother were presently left alone. + +"I think you were just," the countess said critically. "They are +pleasant people, and quite all right. The young man is their weak +point." + +"They always are," her son remarked, rather savagely still. "They're +larrikins!" + +"The young girl was especially nice, and sang like a lady." + +"Ah, you approve of her," said Lord Manister dryly. + +"Entirely, I think. Evidently you don't. I only saw you speak to her +once, toward the end. Yet she has met you in Australia; I should have +recognized that, I think. Now her people," Lady Dromard added +tentatively, "will be rather superior, I suppose, as colonials go?" + +"Well, they're rich; I suppose that's how colonials go." + +For one moment Lady Dromard fancied that the sneer was for the +colonials, and it surprised her; the next, she took it to herself, and +very meekly for so proud a heart. + +"My dear boy!" she murmured indulgently. "Apart from their people, these +girls--for the married one is as young as she has any right to +be--strike one as fresh, and free, and pleasing. And they are ladies. Am +I to believe that the majority out there are like them?" + +Manister shrugged his shoulders. + +"That's as you please, my dear mother. These people didn't strike me as +the only decent ones in Melbourne. I did meet others." + +The countess tapped her foot upon the fender, and took counsel with her +own reflection in the mirror, for she was standing before the fireplace +while her son wandered about the room--her son with the reputation for a +childlike devotion to his mother. There had been little of that sort of +devotion since his return from Australia. Nothing between them was as it +had been before. This bitter coldness had been his domestic manner--his +manner with her, of all people--longer than the mother could bear. She +knew the reason; she had tried to tell him so; she had tried to speak +freely to him of the whole matter--even penitently, if he would. But he +had never spoken freely to her; and once he had refused to speak at all, +thence or thenceforth. Lady Dromard had made a resolve then which she +remembered now. + +"Really, Harry, I can't make you out," she said lightly at length. "You +knock down the colonials with one hand, and you set them up with the +other, as though they were so many ninepins. I am puzzled to know what +you really mean, and what you mean satirically. You never used to be +satirical, Harry! I should like to know whether you really approve of +these people, or whether you don't." + +"I do approve of them," said Lord Manister, halting on the rug before +his mother. "I won't put it more strongly. But I am glad that you should +have seen there are such things as ladies in Australia!" + +Their eyes met, and the mother forgot her resolve; for he had raised the +subject himself, and for the first time. + +"You think of her still!" whispered Lady Dromard. + +"Of course I do," returned Manister, roughly; and again he was striding +about the room. + +Never in her life, perhaps, had the countess received a sharper hurt; +for he had refused to see the hand she had reached out to him +involuntarily. Yet assuredly Lady Dromard had never spoken in a more +ordinary tone than that of her next words, a minute later. + +"It occurred to me, Harry, that if we really think of dancing one +evening during the cricket week, we might do worse than ask these people +from the rectory. You must have girls to dance with. Still, if you think +better not, you have only to say so." + +"I think it's for you to decide; but, if you ask me, I don't see the +least objection to it," said Lord Manister, with a smooth ceremony that +had a sharper edge than his rough words. "I'm not sure, however, that +they will come every time you ask them." + +"Pourquoi?" + +"Because they're the most independent people in the world, the +Australians." + +"It would scarcely touch their independence," said Lady Dromard with +careless contempt; "but we can really do without them, and I am glad of +your hint, because now I shall not think of asking them." + +"Now, my dear mother," cried Lord Manister, no longer either hot or +cold, but his old self for once in his anxiety--"you misunderstand me +entirely! I'm not great on a dance at all, but if we're to have one we +must, as you say, have somebody to dance with; and I _want_ you to ask +these people." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A THREATENING DAWN. + + +"I like a dance where you can dance," said Herbert, who was looking at +himself in a glass and wondering how long his white tie had been on one +side. "It was worth fifty of the swell show you took us to in town, +Ruth." + +"I am glad you two have enjoyed it so," returned Ruth, with her eye, +however, upon her husband. "Of course there's a great difference between +a big dance in town and a little one in the country." + +Tiny seemed busy. She was tearing her programme into small pieces, and +dropping them at her feet, so that when she had gone up to bed it was as +though a paper chase had passed through the rectory study, where they +had all gathered for a few moments on their return from the dance. +Christina, however, was not too preoccupied to chime in on her own +note: + +"It's like the difference between Riverina and Victoria--there were +acres to the sheep instead of sheep to the acre." + +Now there was no merit in this speech, but to those who understood it +the comparison was apt, and Erskine knew enough of Australia to +understand. Moreover, he had taught Tiny to listen for his laugh. So +when he made neither sound nor sign the girl felt injured, but +remembered that he had been extremely silent on the way home. And he was +the first to go upstairs. + +"It has bored him," observed Christina. + +"He don't like dancing," said Herbert. "He's no sportsman." + +"I am afraid he cares for nothing but lawn tennis when he's here," +sighed Ruth, who looked a little troubled. "I am afraid he dislikes +going out in the country." + +They were silent for some minutes before Tiny exclaimed with conviction: + +"No; it's the Dromards he dislikes." + +And presently they made a move from the room. But on the stairs they met +Erskine coming down, having changed his dress suit for flannels; and +Ruth followed him back to the study, eying the change with dismay. + +"Surely you're not going to sit up at this hour?" + +Ruth had raised her glance from his flannels to his face, which troubled +her more. + +"I'm afraid the fine weather's at an end," Erskine answered crookedly; +"it's most awfully close, at any rate. And I want a pipe." + +He proceeded to fill one with his back to her. + +"Erskine!" + +"Well, dear?" + +"I won't be 'dear' to you when you're cross with me. I want to know what +I have done to vex you." + +He had struck a match, and he lit his pipe before answering. Then he +said gently enough: + +"If you think I'm cross with you I should run away to bed; I certainly +don't mean to be." + +But he had not turned round. + +"You succeed, at any rate! As you seem to wish it, I shall take your +advice." + +Erskine heard her on the stairs with a twinge in his heart. He went to +the door to call her down and be frank with her, but the shutting of +her own door checked him. Setting this one ajar, he threw up the window, +and stood frowning at the opaque pall that seemed to have been let down +behind it like an outer blind. So he remained for some minutes before +remembering the easy-chair. No one knew better than Erskine that he had +just been unkind to his wife. He was not pleased with her, but he had +refused to explain his displeasure when she invited him to do so. There +was this difficulty in explaining it--that he knew it to be +unreasonable, since the person who had vexed him most was not Ruth, but +Christina. And not more reasonable was his disappointment in Christina, +as he also knew. Yet the one thing in life not disappointing to him at +the moment was his pipe; even the fine weather was most surely at an +end. + +He was tired of the rectory, which, wet or fair, had no longer either +light or shadow of its own, for both were now absorbed in the deepening +shadow of the hall. A week ago they had all dined there, now they had +been dancing there, and meanwhile the girls had watched one of the +matches, and were going to another. Erskine had been opposed to the +dance, but the wife had prevailed; he was against their going to another +match, but doubtless Ruth would have her way again, for she had shown a +tenacity of purpose that surprised him in her, while he was crippled by +a conscious lack of logic in his objections. He was not an arbitrary +person, and it seemed that Ruth would stop for nothing less than a +command where her heart was set; and her sister was with her. The whole +trouble was, where their hearts were set. + +He tried hard not to think the worst of Tiny, or rather the worst as it +seemed to him. To make it easier, he called to mind various things she +had said to him at various times concerning Lord Manister, of whom she +had seldom failed to make fun. It amused and consoled Erskine to +remember the fun; there must be hope for her still. Then he recalled +common gossip about Lord Manister and his affairs; and there was hope on +that side too. In less than a week the danger would be past, and those +two would never see each other again. Consideration of the danger he had +in mind, _qua_ danger, provoked a smile. Tiny herself would have enjoyed +the humor of that, she was so quick to see and to enjoy. But she could +appreciate more than a joke, or did she only pretend to like those +books? And the soul that shone sometimes in her eyes, did it lie much +deeper? She interested Erskine the more because he could not be sure. +She was a fascinating study to him, whatever she did or was trying to +do. In any case, there was much good in her that he had fathomed, and +more was suggested; and the finer the nature, the stronger the +contrasts. Now as to contrasts--yet he had never seen that in Australia. + +"A penny for your thoughts!" + +Ten thousand pounds would not have bought them. It was his wife on the +threshold, in a pale pink wrapper. + +"My dear! I pictured you asleep hours ago." + +"Were you picturing me when I spoke?" Ruth said, with a smile. "I'm not +sleepy--and I want to talk to you. May I sit down? An hour more or less +makes no difference at this time of the morning." + +Erskine rose from the easy-chair in which he had been smoking, and +settled his wife in it against her will, and drew the curtains across +the open window. + +"I'm glad you've come down, Ruth, for I want to speak to you, too. I was +a brute to you when I sent you away just now." + +"Well, I really think you were; but I know you must have had some +reason; so I've come down to have it out and be done with it." + +"My dear Ruth!" said Mr. Holland uncomfortably; for was there any call +to be frank with her at all? It would hurt; and could it do any good? + +"I suppose," pursued Ruth in a tone not perfectly free from defiance, +"it's all because we went to this horrid dance! And I'll say I'm sorry +we did go, if you like; though why you should have such a down on the +Dromards I can't for the life of me imagine." + +"My dear girl," said Erskine, smiling now that he had determined not to +say everything, "I really have no down on them at all. They're the most +amiable family I know, considering who they are. They have a charming +place, and they treat you delightfully while you're there. Considering +who _we_ are, and that we have no root in this soil, I grant you they're +particularly kind to us; but don't you think their kindness is just a +little trying? I do, though I have nothing against them, personally or +otherwise. I am not even a political opponent; if I had a vote for the +division young Manister should have it. But I'm not keen on so much +notice from them; I've said so before; there's no sense in it!" + +"Ah, well, if only you would show me the harm in it!" + +"Harm? Heaven forbid there should be any. One finds it a bore, that's +all. It's a selfish reason, but it's the truth--I should have had a +better time this last week if the Dromards had been far enough!" + +"And we should have had a worse--Tiny and I. No, Erskine, I know you +better than you think. You're not so selfish as all that; there's some +other reason." + +Erskine turned away with a shrug, to avoid her glance. + +"Something has annoyed you to-night. One of us has behaved badly. Was it +Tiny or was it----" + +"You?" said Erskine, with a smile. "From what I saw of your behavior, my +dear, it was entirely creditable to you as a chaperon. Your face was +seventeen, but your air was a frank fifty!" + +"Then it was Tiny. I suppose she danced too much with those boys they +have staying in the house. I should have thought there was +respectability in numbers; I really don't see how _they_ could matter." + +"They seemed to matter to Manister," remarked Erskine dryly. + +Ruth winced, but he had wondered whether she would, or he would never +have noticed it. + +"Surely you don't think Lord Manister cares who dances with our Tiny?" + +The amusement in her tone and manner was cleverly feigned, but instead +of deceiving Erskine it spurred him to speak out, after all. + +"I hardly like to tell you what I think about Tiny and Lord Manister," +he said gravely. + +"What on earth do you mean, Erskine?" cried Ruth, reddening. "Now you +_must_ tell me!" + +Erskine temporized, already regretting that he had said so much. "It +would hurt your feelings," he warned her grimly. + +"Not so much as your silence." + +"I wouldn't say it if I didn't look on her as my own sister by this +time, and if I didn't think her the best little girl in the world--but +one." + +Now he spoke tenderly. + +"Say it, in any case," said Ruth, who had been uncommonly calm. + +"Then I am afraid she is making up to him, if you must know." + +"Which is absurd," said Ruth lightly; but in her anxiety to remain cool +she forgot to seem surprised; and that was a mistake. + +"I wonder if you really think so?" said her husband very quietly. "If +you do I can't agree with you; I wish I could." + +"You must!" cried Ruth desperately. "Do you know how many dances she +gave him to-night?" + +Erskine knew only of one; his eyes rested on the remains of her +programme lying on the floor in many fragments. + +"Well, that one was the lot!" he was informed severely. "And pray did +you count how many times she spoke to him the other evening when we +dined at the hall?" + +"Not often, I grant you; I noticed that." + +"Yet you think she is making up to him!" + +"It's a strong way of putting it, I know," said Erskine reluctantly; +"but really I can't think of any other. I wonder you don't realize that +there are more ways of making up to a man than the dead-set method. +Can't you see that a far more effective method is a little judicious +snubbing and avoiding, which is coquetry? You take my word for it, +that's the touch for a man like Manister, who is probably accustomed to +everything but being snubbed and avoided. Then you speak of the one +dance she gave him. Now I happen to know that they didn't dance it at +all; they spent the time under the stars, for it was my misfortune to +see them and their misfortune not to see me." + +"Well?" whispered Ruth; and though she had never been so dark until now, +that whisper would have drawn his lantern to her real hopes and fears. + +"I only saw them for an instant: I bolted; so I may easily be wrong; but +it struck me that our Tiny was making up for her snubbing and avoiding. +It has since occurred to me that they must have known each other rather +well in Melbourne--rather better, at any rate, than you have ever led me +to suppose." + +As a woman's last resource, Ruth aimed a stone at his temper. + +"So that's it!" she exclaimed viciously. + +"That's what?" + +"The secret of your bad temper." + +"Well, to be kept in the dark doesn't sweeten a man, certainly," Erskine +answered, in a tone, however, that was far from bitter. "Then one can't +help feeling disappointed with Tiny; and in this matter--to be frank +with you at last--I am just a little disappointed in you too, my dear." + +"I always knew you would be," said Ruth dolefully. For her stone had +missed, and there was no more fight in her. + +"Now don't be a goose. It's only in this one matter, in which--I can't +help telling you--I don't think you've been perfectly straight with me." + +"Oh, indeed!" cried Ruth, as her spirit made one spurt more. It was the +last. The next moment she was weeping. + +It annoys most men to make a woman cry. Those who do not become annoyed +make impetuous atonement, partly, no doubt, to drown the hooting in +their own heart. But Erskine could not feel himself to blame, and though +he spoke very kindly, his kindness was too nearly paternal, and he spoke +with his elbow on the chimney-piece. He told Ruth not to do that. He +pointed out to her that there was no crime in her want of candor +concerning her sister's affairs, which were certainly no business of +his. Only, if there really had been something between Christina and Lord +Manister in Melbourne--if, for instance, Mrs. Willoughby had gossiped +unwittingly to Christina about none other than Christina +herself--Erskine put it to his wife that she might have done more wisely +to place him in a position silently to appreciate such capital jokes. He +would have said nothing; but as it was he might easily have said much to +imperil the situation; in fact, he had been in a false position all +along, more especially at the hall. But that was all. There was really +nothing to cry about. Perhaps to give her the fairest opportunity to +compose herself, Erskine crossed the room and drew back the curtains to +let in the gray morning; for the birds had long been twittering. + +But Ruth had been waiting for the touch of his hand, and he had only +given her kind words. She looked up, and saw through her tears his form +against the gray window, as he shut down the sash. The lamp burnt +faintly, and in the two wan lights it was a chamber of misery, in which +one could not sit alone. Ruth rose and ran to Erskine, and laid her +hands upon his arm. + +"It is raining," he said, without looking at her tears. "I knew we were +in for a break up of the fine weather." + +"Never mind the rain!" Ruth cried piteously, with her face upon his +coat. "Will you forgive me now if I tell you everything that I +know--everything? It isn't much, because Tiny has been almost as close +with me as I have been with you." + +"My dear," he said, patting her head at last, and with his arms around +her lightly, "you both had a perfect right to be close." + +"But suppose I've been at the bottom of the whole thing? Suppose I turn +out a horrid little intriguer--what then?" + +She waited eagerly, and the pause seemed long. + +"Well, you won't have been intriguing for yourself," sighed Erskine--so +that her face rose on his breast, as on a wave. + +And then, playing nervously with a button of his coat, Ruth confessed +all. As she spoke she gathered confidence, but not enough to watch his +face. That was turned to the gray morning, and looked as gray as it. The +fine weather had indeed broken up, and Essingham had lost its savor for +Erskine Holland. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +IN THE LADIES' TENT. + + +And yet, even at the time she made it, Ruth little dreamt how deeply her +confession both galled and revolted her husband. He forgave her very +kindly in the end, and that satisfied her lean imagination. Perhaps +there was not much to forgive. There was enough, at all events, to +trouble Erskine (to whom the best excuse there was for her was the least +likely to suggest itself); but the matter soon ceased to trouble +Erskine's wife, because his smile was as good-tempered as before. He +seemed, indeed, to think no more about it. When Ruth would speak +confidentially of her hopes and wishes for Tiny (as though Erskine had +been in her confidence all the time), he would chat the matter over with +interest, which was the next best thing to sympathy. He had to do this +oftener than he liked during the next twenty-four hours; for Ruth really +thought that excessive candor now was a more or less adequate atonement +for an excessive reserve in the past. Moreover, she genuinely enjoyed +talking openly at last of the matter which had concerned her so long and +so severely in secret. + +"Don't you think he means it?" she asked her husband several times. + +"I am afraid he thinks he does," was one of Holland's answers. + +"That's your way of admitting it," rejoined Ruth, who could bear his +repudiation of her desires for the sake of his assent to her opinion, +which Erskine was too honest to withhold. "Of course he means it. Have +you noticed how he watches her?" + +"I have noticed it once or twice." + +"And did you see him watching his mother, the night we dined there, to +see what impression Tiny made upon her?" + +"So you spotted that!" Erskine said curiously, not having given his wife +the credit for such acute perception. "Well, I own that I did, too; and +that was worse than his watching Tiny. This is a youth with a well-known +weakness for his mamma. She has probably more influence over him than +any other body in the world. I am prepared to bet that it was she, and +she alone, who whistled him back from Australia. Now though she did it +partly by her singing--which, by the way, was rather cheap for our +Tiny--there's no doubt at all about the impression Tiny has made upon +Lady Dromard; and that's the worst of it." + +"The worst of it! as if he was beneath her!" said Ruth mockingly. "Or is +it that you think her too terribly beneath him?" + +"Tiny," said Erskine, shaking his head, "is beneath no man that I have +yet come across." + +"Then what can you have against it? Is it that you think she will grow +so grand that we shall see no more of her! If so, it shows how much you +know of our Tiny. Or do you think him too high and mighty to be honest +and true? I don't profess to know much about it," continued Ruth +scornfully, being stung to eloquence by his perversity, "but I should +have said an honest man and his love might be found in a castle, +sometimes, as well as in a cottage!" + +"'Hearts just as pure and fair may beat in Belgrave Square as in the +lowly air of Seven Dials,'" quoted Erskine, with a laugh. "I grant all +that; but if you want to know, my point is that Tiny would be thrown +away on Belgrave Square! She is far too funny and fresh, and unlike most +of us, to thrive in that fine soil; she would need to be clipped and +pruned and trimmed in the image of other people. And that would spoil +her. Whatever else she may be, she's more or less original as she +stands. She's not a copy now; but she will have to become one in +Belgrave Square." + +"She _will_ have to become one!" cried Ruth, jumping at the change of +mood. "Then you think that Tiny means it, too?" + +"I am afraid she means to marry him," said Erskine, with a sigh. "I have +visions of our Tiny ours no more, but my Lady Manister, and Countess +Dromard in due course." + +So delighted was Ruth with his opinion on this point that his other +opinions had no power to annoy her; and in her joy she told him once +more, and with much impulsive feeling, how sorry she was for having kept +him in the dark so willfully and so long. She called him an angel of +good temper and forbearance, and undertook to reward his generosity by +never hiding another thing from him in her life. And she would never, +never vex him again, she said--so earnestly that he thought she meant +it, as indeed she thought herself, for half a minute. + +"But you mean to go to the match to-morrow?" he asked her wistfully. + +"Oh, we must--if it's fine. It's the last match of the week; besides, +Herbert's going to play." + +This was an argument, and Erskine said no more. The chances are that he +would have said no more in any case. The following afternoon Ruth drove +with Tiny to the match, and with a particularly light heart, because she +had not heard another word against the plan. Her one remaining anxiety +was lest it might rain before they got to the cricket field. + +For the day was one of those dull ones of early autumn when there is +little wind, a gray sky, and more than a chance of rain; but none had +fallen during the morning, which reduced the chance; while the clouds +were high, and occasionally parted by faint rays of sunshine. The ground +was so beautiful in itself that it was the greater pity there was no +more sun, since, without it, well-kept turf and tall trees are like a +sweet face saddened. The trees were the fine elms of that country, and +they flanked two sides of the ground; but one missed their shadows, and +the foliage had a dingy, lack-luster look in the tame light. On the +third side a ha-ha formed a natural "boundary," and the red, spreading +house stood aloof on the fourth, giving a touch of welcome warmth to a +picture whose highest lights were the white flannels of the players and +the canvas tents. The tents were many, and admirably arranged; but one +beneath the elms had a side on the ground to itself; and thither drove +Mrs. Holland, alighting rather nervously as a groom came promptly to the +pony's head, because this was the ladies' tent. + +To-day, however, the tent was not formidably full, as it had been when +the girls had watched the cricket from it earlier in the week; this was +only the Saturday's match. Ruth looked in vain for Lady Dromard, but +received a cold greeting from her daughter, Lady Mary, upon whom the +guinea stamp was disagreeably fresh and sharp. The sight of Mrs. +Willoughby and her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson on a front seat was a +relief at the moment (the sight of anything to nod to is a relief +sometimes); but Ruth was discreet enough to sit down behind these +ladies, not beside them. She congratulated herself on her presence of +mind when she heard the tone and character of some of their comments on +the game. It would have done Ruth no good to be seen at the side of loud +Mrs. Foster-Simpson or of loquacious Mrs. Willoughby, and it might have +done Tiny grave harm. Mrs. Willoughby's husband, who had good-naturedly +become eleventh man at the eleventh hour, was conspicuous in the field +from his black trousers, clerical wide-awake, and shirt-sleeves of gray +flannel. "I hope you admire him," said his wife over her shoulder to +Ruth; "I tell him he might as well take a funeral in flannels!" + +"Or dine in his surplice," added her friend Mrs. Foster-Simpson in a +voice that carried to the back of the tent. + +"I just do admire Mr. Willoughby," Ruth said softly; "he has a soul +above appearances." + +"You're not his wife," replied the lady who was. + +"You may thank your stars!" shouted her too familiar friend. + +Little Mrs. Holland turned to her sister and speculated aloud as to the +state of the game, but her tone was an example to the ladies in front, +who nevertheless did not lower theirs to supply the gratuitous +information that the Mundham players had been fielding all day. + +"They're getting the worst of it," declared Mrs. Willoughby, perhaps +prematurely. + +"Do them good," her friend said viciously, but with the soft pedal down +for once. "There would have been no holding them. That young Dromard, +now--it will take it out of _him_. He wants it taking out of him!" + +Mr. Stanley Dromard, who had been scoring heavily all the week, happened +to be in the deep field close to the tent. Ruth nudged her sister, and +they moved further along their row in order to avoid the bonnets in +front. + +"Horrid people!" whispered Ruth. + +"That's the earl by the canvas screen," answered Tiny. "I should like to +send him a new straw hat!" + +"Hush!" whispered Ruth in terror. "You're as bad as they are. Tell me, +do you see Herbert?" + +"Yes, there he is, all by himself. There's a man out." + +"Is there? How tired they seem! That's Lord Manister sprawling on the +grass. What a boy he looks! You wouldn't think he was anybody in +particular, would you?" + +"I should hope not, indeed, on the cricket field!" + +"I only meant he looked rather nice." + +"Certainly he looks nicer in flannels than in anything else; his tailor +has less to do with it." + +The patience of Ruth was inexhaustible. She watched the game until +another wicket fell. Then it was her admiration for the scene that +escaped in more whispers. + +"_Isn't_ it a lovely place, Tiny?" + +"Oh, it's all that." + +"I've never seen one to touch it, and I have seen two or three, you +know, since we were married. But the house is the best part of it all. I +would give anything to live in a house like that--wouldn't you?" + +"I? My immortal soul!" + +And Tiny sighed, but Ruth, looking round quickly, saw laughter in her +eyes, and said no more. Tiny was very trying. Was she half in earnest, +or wholly in jest? Ruth could never tell; and now, while she wondered, a +lady who knew her sat down on her right. Ruth was glad enough to shake +hands and talk, and not sorry in this case to be seen doing so, while +at the moment it was a very human pleasure to her to leave Tiny to take +care of herself. And that was a thing at which Tiny may be said to have +excelled, so far as one saw, and no further. The attacks of most tongues +she was capable of repelling with distinction; against those of her own +thoughts she made ever the feeblest resistance; and at this stage of +Christina's career her own thoughts were a swarm of flies upon a wound +in her heart. That was the truth--and no one suspected it. + +During the next quarter of an hour the innings came to an end, and the +fielders trooped over to the group of tents at another side of the +ground. Tiny hoped that one of them would have the good taste to come to +the ladies' tent and talk to her; an Eton boy would do very well; +Herbert would be better than nobody: but she hoped in vain. On her right +Ruth had turned her back, and was quite taken up with the lady with whom +she was not sorry to be seen in conversation. The chairs on her left +were all empty; and those flies were fighting for her heart. It was the +rustle of silk disturbed them in the end; and Lady Dromard who sat down +in the empty chair on Tiny's left. + +"I am so glad to see you both," said the countess as though she meant +it; and she leant over to shake hands with Ruth, whose back was now +turned upon her new found friend. Not so much was said to the pair in +front, though those ladies had something to say for themselves. Lady +Dromard gave them very small change in smiles, but made the conversation +general for a minute or two, with that graceful tact at which, perhaps, +she was, in a manner, a professional. With equal facility she dropped +them from her talk one after another, much as the last wickets had +fallen in the match, and until only Tiny was left in. For the countess +had come there expressly to talk to Miss Luttrell, as she herself stated +with charming directness. + +"I was afraid you were feeling dull; though really you deserve to, Miss +Luttrell." + +"I was," said Tiny honestly; "but I don't know what I have done to +deserve to, Lady Dromard." + +"It's the last match, and a poor one, which nobody cares anything about. +You should have come earlier in the week." + +"We were here on Wednesday afternoon." + +"But why not oftener? My second son made ninety-three on Thursday. I do +wish you had seen that!" + +"It wasn't my fault that I didn't," remarked Miss Luttrell. "I suppose +things came in the way." + +"Then you are a cricketer!" exclaimed the countess. "I am glad to hear +it, for I am a great cricketer myself. No, I don't play, Miss Luttrell; +only I know all about it." + +Christina candidly confessed that she was not a cricketer in any +sense--that, in fact, she knew very little about cricket; and the +countess, who considered how many girls would have pretended to know +much, was more pleased with this answer than she would have been with an +exhibition of real knowledge of the game. + +"My only interest in this match, however," explained Lady Dromard, "is +in my eldest son. I do so want him to make runs! He has been dreadfully +unsuccessful all the week." + +Christina was discreetly sympathetic. + +"He is going in first," murmured the countess presently in suppressed +excitement. "We must watch the match." + +So they sat without speaking during the first few overs, and the silence +did much for Christina, by putting her at her ease in the hour when she +needed all the ease at her command. Cool as she was outwardly, in her +heart she was not a little afraid of Lady Dromard, whose manner toward +herself had already struck her as rather too kind and much too +scrutinizing. She now entertained a perfectly private conviction that +Lady Dromard either knew something about her or had her suspicions. Not +that this made Christina particularly uncomfortable at the moment. The +countess had eyes and wits for the game only, following it intently +through a heavy field glass grown light now that Manister was batting. + +It was difficult to realize that this eager, animated woman was the +mother of the young fellow at the wicket, she looked so very little +older than her son; or so it seemed to Tiny, who now had ample +opportunity to study not only her face and figure, but her quiet, +handsome bonnet and faultless dress. Even Tiny could not help admiring +Lady Dromard. Suddenly, however, the hand that held the field-glass was +allowed to drop, and the fine face flushed with disappointment as a +round of applause burst from the field and found no echo in the tents. + +"Manister is out!" exclaimed the countess. "He has only made two or +three!" + +"How fond she is of him," thought the girl, still watching her +companion's face, which somehow softened Christina toward both mother +and son; so that now it was with real sympathy that she remarked, "Poor +Lord Manister! I am very sorry." + +Some expressions of condolence from the seats in front threw the young +girl's words into advantageous relief. + +The countess said presently to Christina, "I am sorry it has turned out +so dull a day; the ground looks really nice when it is fine and sunny." + +"It is a beautiful ground," answered Tiny simply; "the trees are so +splendid." + +"Ah, but you're used to splendid trees." + +"In Australia? Well, we are and we are not, Lady Dromard. I mean to say, +there are tremendous trees in some parts; in others there are none at +all, you know. Up the bush, where we used to live, the trees were of +very little account." + +"I thought the bush was nothing _but_ trees," remarked Lady Dromard; and +Christina could not help smiling as she explained the comprehensive +character of "the bush." + +"So you were actually brought up on a sheep farm!" said Lady Dromard, +looking flatteringly at the graceful young girl. + +"Yes--on a station. It was in the bush, and very much the bush," laughed +Tiny, "for we were hundreds of miles up country. But most of the trees +were no higher than this tent, Lady Dromard. The homestead was in a +clump of pines, and they were pretty tall, but the rest were mere +scrub." + +"Then how in the world," cried her ladyship, "did you manage to become +educated? What school could you go to in a place like that?" + +"We never went to school at all," Tiny informed her confidentially. "We +had a governess." + +"Ah, and she taught you to sing! I should like to meet that governess. +She must be a very clever person." + +Her ladyship's manner was delightfully blunt. + +"Now, Lady Dromard, you're laughing at me! I know nothing--I have read +nothing." + +"I rejoice to hear it!" cried the countess cordially. "I assure you, +Miss Luttrell, that's a most refreshing confession in these days. Only +it's too good to be true. I don't believe you, you know." + +Christina made no great effort to establish the truth of her statement; +for some minutes longer they watched the game. + +But the countess was not interested, though her younger son had gone in, +and had already begun to score. "What were they?" she said at length +with extreme obscurity; but Christina was polite enough not to ask her +what she meant until she had put this question to herself, and while she +still hesitated Lady Dromard recollected herself, appreciated the +hesitation, and explained. "I mean the trees in the bush, at your farm. +Were they gum trees?" + +"Very few of them--there are hardly any gum trees up there." + +"Do you know that _I_ have a young gum tree?" said Lady Dromard +amusingly, as though it were a young opossum. + +"No!" said Tiny incredulously. + +"But I have, in the conservatory; you might have seen it the other +evening." + +"How I wish I had!" + +The young girl's face wore a flush of genuine animation. Lady Dromard +regarded it for a moment, and admired it very much; then she bent +forward and touched Ruth on the arm. + +"Mrs. Holland, will you trust your sister to me for half an hour? I want +to show her something that will interest her more than the cricket." + +"Oh, Lady Dromard, I can't think of taking you away from the match," +cried Christina, while Ruth's eyes danced, and the bonnets in front +turned round. + +"My dear Miss Luttrell, it will interest _me_ more, now that Lord +Manister is out." + +"But there's Mr. Dromard." + +"Oh, that boy! He has made more runs this week than are good for him. +Miss Luttrell, am I to go alone?" + +The bonnets in front knocked together. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ORDEAL BY BATTLE. + + +If Tiny Luttrell suffered at all from self-consciousness as she followed +Lady Dromard from the tent, she hid it uncommonly well. Her color did +not change, while her expression was neither bashful nor bold, and +unnatural only in its entire naturalness. Considering that the +conversation in the ladies' tent underwent a momentary lull, by no means +so slight as to escape a sensitive ear, the girl's serene bearing at the +countess' skirts was in its way an achievement of which no one thought +more highly than Lady Dromard herself. Christina had not merely imagined +that she was being systematically watched. No sooner were they in the +open air than the countess wheeled abruptly, expecting to surprise some +slight embarrassment, not unpardonable in so young a face; and this was +not the only occasion on which she was agreeably disappointed in little +Miss Luttrell. The short cut to the house was a narrow path that +crossed an intervening paddock. They followed this path. But now Lady +Dromard walked behind, with eyes slightly narrowed; and still she +approved. + +Presently they reached the conservatory. It was large and lofty, and the +smooth white flags and spreading fronds gave it an appearance of +coolness and quiet very different from Christina's recollection of the +place on the night of the dance, when Chinese lanterns had shone and +smoked and smelt among the foliage, and a frivolous hum had filled the +air. The gum tree proved to be a sapling of no great promise or +pretensions. Nor was it seen to advantage, being planted in the central +bed, in the midst of some admirable palms and tree-ferns. But Tiny made +a long arm to seize the leaves and pull them to her nostrils, setting +foot on the soft soil in her excitement; and when she started back, with +an apology for the mark, her face was beaming. + +"But that was a real whiff of Australia," she added gratefully--"the +first I've had since I sailed. It was very, very good of you to bring +me, Lady Dromard. If you knew how it reminds me!" + +"I thought it would interest you," remarked Lady Dromard, who was +herself more interested in the footprint on the soil, which was absurdly +small. "If you like I will show you something that should remind you +still more." + +"Oh, of course I like to see anything Australian; but I am sure I am +troubling you a great deal, Lady Dromard!" + +"Not in the least, my dear Miss Luttrell. I have something extremely +Australian to show you now." + +Countess Dromard led the way through the room in which Tiny had danced. +It was still carpetless and empty, and the clatter of her walking shoes +on the floor which her ball slippers had skimmed so noiselessly struck a +note that jarred. The desire came over Tiny to turn back. As they passed +through the hall, a side door stood open; the girl saw it with a gasp +for the open air. It was an odd sensation, as of the march into prison. +It made her lag while it lasted; when it passed it was as though weights +had been removed from her feet. She ran lightly up the shallow stairs; +Lady Dromard was waiting on the landing, and led her along a corridor. + +Here Tiny forgot that her feet had drummed vague misgivings into her +mind; she could no longer hear her own steps the corridor was so +thickly carpeted. It was a special corridor, leading to a very special +room of delicate tints and dainty furniture, and Christina was so far +herself again as to enter without a qualm. But her qualms had been a +rather singular thing. + +"This is my own little chapel of ease, Miss Luttrell," the countess +explained; "and now do you not see a fellow-countryman?" + +She pointed to the window; and in front of the window was a pedestal +supporting a gilded cage, and in the cage a pink-and-gray parrot, of a +kind with which the girl had been familiar from her infancy. "Oh, you +beauty!" cried Christina, going to the cage and scratching the bird's +head through the wires. "It's a galar," she added. + +"Indeed," said Lady Dromard, watching her; "a galar! I must remember +that. By the way, can you tell me why he doesn't talk?" + +Christina answered, in a slightly preoccupied manner, that galars very +seldom did. She had become quite absorbed in the bird; she seemed easily +pleased. She went the length of asking whether she might take him out, +and received a hesitating permission to do so at her own risk, Lady +Dromard confessing that for her own part she was quite afraid to touch +him through the wires. In a twinkling the girl had the bird in her hand, +and was smoothing its feathers with her chin. The sun was beginning to +struggle through the clouds; the window faced the west; and the faint +rays, falling on the young girl's face and the bird's bright plumage, +threw a good light on a charming picture. Lady Dromard was reminded of +the artificial art of her young days, when this was a favorite posture, +and searched narrowly for artifice in her guest. Finding none she +admired more keenly than before, but became also more timid on the +other's account, so that she could fancy the blood sliding down the fair +skin which the beak actually touched. + +"Dear Miss Luttrell, do put him back! I tremble for you." + +Tiny put the quiet thing back on the perch. Then she turned to Lady +Dromard with rather a comic expression. + +"Do you know what we used to do with this gentleman up on the station?" +said Tiny shamefacedly. "We poisoned him wholesale to save our crop. But +this one seems like an old friend to me. Lady Dromard, you have taken +me back to the bush this afternoon!" + +"So it appears," observed the countess dryly, "or I think you would +admire my little view. That's Gallow Hill, and I'm rather proud of my +view of it, because it is the only hill of any sort in these parts. Then +the sun sets behind it, and those three trees stand out so." + +"Ah! I have often wanted to climb up to those three trees," said Tiny, +who took a tantalized interest in Gallow Hill; "but I mayn't, because +I'm in England, where trespassers will be prosecuted." + +For a moment Lady Dromard stared. Then she saw that Christina had merely +forgotten. "Dear me, that stupid notice board!" exclaimed the countess. +"Lord Dromard never meant it to apply to everybody. Next time you come +here come over Gallow Hill, and through the little green gate you can +just see. You will find it a quarter of the distance." + +Christina had indeed spoken without thinking of Gallow Hill as a part of +the estate, or of the warning to trespassers as Lord Dromard's doing. +Now she apologized, and was naturally a little confused; but this time +the countess would not have had her otherwise. "You shall go back that +way this very evening," she said kindly, "and I promise you shan't be +prosecuted." But Christina had to pet her fellow-countryman for a minute +or two before she quite regained her ease, while her ladyship touched +the bell and ordered tea. + +"How fond you must be of the bush!" Lady Dromard exclaimed as the girl +still lingered by the cage. + +"I like it very much," said Christina soberly. + +"Better than Melbourne?" + +"Oh, infinitely." + +"And England?" + +"Yes, better than England--I can't help it," Tiny added apologetically. + +"There's no reason why you should," said Lady Dromard, with a smile. "I +could imagine your quite disliking England after Australia. I'm sure my +son disliked it when he first came back." + +"Did he?" the girl said indifferently. "Ah, well! I don't dislike +England. I admire it very much, and, of course, it is ever so much +better than Australia in every way. We have no villages like Essingham +out there, no red tiles and old churches, and certainly no villagers +who treat you like a queen on wheels when you walk down the street. +We've nothing of that sort--nor of this sort either--no splendid old +houses and beautiful old grounds! But I can't help it, I'd rather live +out there. Give me the bush!" + +"You _are_ enthusiastic about the bush," said Lady Dromard, laughing; +"yet you don't know how fresh enthusiasm is to one nowadays." + +"I'm afraid I'm not enthusiastic about anything else, then," answered +Christina with engaging candor. "They tell me I don't half appreciate +England; I disappoint all my friends here." + +"Ah, that is perhaps your little joke at our expense!" + +Christina was on the brink of an audacious reply when a footman entered +with the tea tray. That took some of the audacity out of her. She had +not heard the order given. Once more she reflected where she was, and +with whom, and once more she wished herself elsewhere. It was a mild +return of her panic downstairs. Now she felt vaguely apprehensive and as +vaguely exultant. In the uncertain fusion of her feelings she was apt +to become a little unguarded in what she said; there was safety in her +sense of this tendency, however. + +Lady Dromard was reflecting also. As the footman withdrew she had told +him not to shut the door. The truth was she had got Christina to herself +by pure design, though she had not originally intended to get her to +herself up here. That had been an inspiration of the moment, and even +now Lady Dromard was by no means sure of its wisdom. She had gone so far +as to closet herself with this girl, but she did not wish the proceeding +to appear so pronounced either to the footman or to the girl herself. It +would make the footman talk, while it might frighten the girl. That, at +any rate, was the idea of Countess Dromard, who, however, had not yet +learnt her way about the young mind with which she was dealing. + +The tea tray had been placed on a small table near the window. Lady +Dromard promptly settled herself with her back to the light, and +motioned Christina to a chair facing her. + +"Now you'll be able to watch your beloved bird," said her ladyship +craftily. "I thought we might as well have tea now we are here. I +thought it would be so much more comfortable than having it in the +tent." + +Tiny settled a business matter by stating that she took two pieces of +sugar, but only one spot of cream. Unconsciously, however, she had +followed Lady Dromard's advice, for her eyes were fixed on the parrot in +the cage. + +"I have only had him a few months," observed the countess suggestively. +"Something less than a year, I should say." + +"Yes?" And Tiny lowered her eyes politely to her hostess' face. + +"Yes," repeated Lady Dromard affirmatively. "My son brought him home for +me. It was the only present he had time to get, so I rather value it." + +The girl's gaze returned involuntarily to the bird she had caressed; +apparently her interest was neither diminished nor increased by this +information as to its origin. + +"He was in a great hurry to run away from us, was he not?" she remarked +inoffensively; but there was no attempt in her manner to conceal the +fact that Christina knew what she was talking about. + +"He was obliged to return rather suddenly," said the countess after a +moment's hesitation. She made a longer pause before slyly adding, "I +consider myself very lucky to have got him back at all." + +"How is that, Lady Dromard?" + +And Christina outstared the countess, so that she was asked whether she +would not take another cup of tea. She would, and her hand neither +rattled it empty nor spilt it full. Then Lady Dromard smiled at the +coronet on her teaspoon, and said to it: + +"The fact is I was terrified lest he should go and marry one of you." + +"One of _us_?" + +"Some fascinating Australian beauty," said Lady Dromard hastily. "So +many aids-de-camp have done that." + +"Poor--young--men!" said Tiny, as slowly and solemnly as though her +words were going to the young men's funeral. "It would have been a +calamity indeed." + +So far from showing indignation Lady Dromard leant forward in her chair +to say in her most winning manner: + +"I should have been all the more terrified had I known _you_, Miss +Luttrell!" + +Clearly this was meant for one of those blunt effective compliments to +which Lady Dromard had the peculiar knack of imparting delicacy and +grace. But the words were no sooner uttered than she saw their double +meaning, and grimly awaited the obvious misconstruction. Tiny, however, +had a quick perception, and plenty of common sense in little things. +Instead of a snub the countess received a good-tempered smile, for which +she could not help feeling grateful at the time; but now her instinct +told her that she was dealing with a person with whom it might be well +to be a little more downright, and she obeyed her instinct without +further delay. + +"Miss Luttrell, I am sure there is no occasion for me to beat about the +bush--with you," she began in an altered, but a no less flattering tone; +"I see that one is quite safe in being frank with you. The fact is--and +you know it--my son very nearly did marry someone out there. Now you met +him out there in society, and you probably knew everyone there who was +worth knowing, so pray don't pretend that you know nothing about this." + +Their eyes were joined, but at the moment Christina's was the cooler +glance. + +"I couldn't pretend that, Lady Dromard, for it happens that I know _all_ +about it." + +The countess was perceptibly startled. "The girl was a friend of yours?" +she inquired quickly. + +"A great friend," answered Tiny, nodding. + +"How I wish you would tell me her name!" + +"I mustn't do that." This was said decidedly. "But it seems a strange +thing that you don't know it." + +"It is a strange thing," Lady Dromard allowed; "nevertheless it's the +truth. I never heard her name. You may imagine my curiosity. Miss +Luttrell, I seem to have felt ever since I met you that you knew +something about this--that you could tell one something. And I don't +mind confessing to you now--since I see you are not the one to +misunderstand me willfully--that I have purposely sought an opportunity +of sounding you on the subject." + +Christina smiled, for this was not news to her. + +"My son will tell me nothing," continued Lady Dromard, "and I have, of +course, the greatest curiosity to know everything. It is no idle +curiosity, Miss Luttrell. I am his mother, and he has never got over +that attachment." + +"Has he not?" said Tiny with dry satire. + +"He has never got over it," repeated Lady Dromard in a tone which was a +match for the other. "Has the girl?" + +Tiny was startled in her turn. She hesitated before replying, and seemed +to waver over the nature of her reply. It was the first sign she had +shown of wavering at all, and Lady Dromard drew her breath. The girl was +hanging her head, and murmuring that she really could not answer for the +other girl. Suddenly she flung up her face, and it was hot, but not +hotter than her words: + +"Yes, Lady Dromard, you are his mother. But the girl was my friend. He +treated her abominably!" + +"It wasn't his fault--it was mine," said Lady Dromard steadily. + +"I'm afraid that does not make one think any better of him," murmured +the young girl. Her chin was resting in her hand. The flush had passed +from her face as suddenly as it had come. Her eyes were raised to the +sky out of the window, and there was in them the sad, hardened, reckless +look that those who knew her best had seen too often, latterly, in her +silent moments. The sun was dropping clear of the clouds, and the +brighter rays fell kindly over Tiny's dark hair and pale, piquant face. +The keen eye that was on her had never watched more closely nor admired +so much. + +"Consider!" said Lady Dromard presently, and rather gently. "Try to put +yourself in our place--and consider. We have a position, here in +England, of which very few people can be got to take a sensible view; +half the country professes an absurd contempt for it, while the other +half speaks of it and of us with bated breath. We ourselves naturally +think something of our position, and we try, as we say, to keep it up. +Of course we are worldly, in the popular sense. We bring up our children +with worldly ideas. They must make worldly marriages in their own +station. Is it so very contemptible that we should see to this, and +dread beyond most things an unwise or an unequal marriage? Now do +consider: we let our son go out to Australia, because it is good for a +young man to see the world before he marries and settles down--and mind! +that was what he was about to do. If he had not gone to Australia then, +he would have been married at once. He was all but engaged. It was a +case of putting off the engagement instead of the marriage. We do not +believe in long, formal engagements; we do not permit them. We find them +undesirable for many reasons. So, you see, he goes out to Australia as +good as engaged, but unable to say so, and very young, and no doubt very +susceptible. Can you wonder that I tremble for him when he has gone? +Well, he is the best son in the world, and has told me everything +always. That is my comfort. But presently he tells one things in his +letters which make one tremble more than ever, though he tells them +jokingly. Then a cousin of Lord Dromard's stays a day or two in +Melbourne and comes home with a report----" + +Christina's face twitched in the sunlight. "I suppose that was Captain +Dromard?" she said quietly; "I never met him, but I saw him." She seemed +to see him then, and that was why her face twitched. She was still +staring out of the window at the yellowing sky. + +"Captain Dromard had forgotten the girl's name," said the countess +pointedly; "but he told me enough to make me write to my boy--I nearly +cabled! And do you think I was wrong?" + +"Not from your point of view, Lady Dromard," answered Christina +judicially, with her eyes half closed in the slanting sunbeams which she +chose to face. "Certainly you cannot have had very much faith in Lord +Manister's judgment; but the case is altered if he was to all intents +and purposes engaged to a girl in England; and, at all events, that's +the worst that could be said of you--looking at it from your own point +of view. But is not the girl out there entitled to a point of view as +well?" And the hardened reckless eyes were turned so suddenly upon Lady +Dromard that the youth and grace and bitterness of the girl smote her +straight to the heart. + +There was a slight tremor and great tenderness in the voice that +whispered, "Did she feel it very much? Come, come--don't tell me it +broke her heart!" + +"No, I won't tell you that," said the girl briskly, but with a laugh +which hurt. "That doesn't break so easily in these days. No, it didn't +break her heart, Lady Dromard--it did much worse. It got her talked +about. It poisoned her mind, it killed her faith, it spoilt her temper. +It did all that--and one thing worse still. Though it didn't _break_ her +heart, Lady Dromard, it cracked it, so that it will never ring true any +more; it made her hate those she had loved--those who loved her; it made +it impossible for her ever to care for anybody in the whole wide world +again!" + +Lady Dromard had drawn her chair nearer to the girl, and nearer still. +Lady Dromard was no longer mistress of herself. + +"Did it make her hate _you_, my dear?" + +"It made her loathe--me." + +Lady Dromard was seen to battle with a strong womanly impulse, and to +lose. Her fine eyes filled with tears. Her soft, white hands flew out to +Christina's, and drew them to her bosom. At this moment a young man in +flannels appeared at the door, and the young man was Lord Manister; but +the rich carpet had muffled his tread, and the two women had eyes for +one another only--the girl he had loved--the mother who had drawn him +from her. The same sunbeam washed them both. + +"Now I know her name--now I know it!" + +"I think you cannot have found it out this minute, Lady Dromard." + +"But I have. I have never known whether to believe it or not, since it +first crossed my mind, the night you dined here. You see, I know him so +well! But he didn't tell me, and after all I had no reason to suppose +it. Oh, he has told me nothing--and you are the gulf between us, for +which I have only myself to thank. Ah, if I had only dreamt--of you!" + +Tiny suffered herself to be kissed upon the cheek. + +"Pray say no more, dear Lady Dromard," she said quietly. "Shall I tell +you why?" she added, drawing back. "Why, because it's quite a thing of +the past." + +"It is not a thing of the past," cried Lady Dromard passionately. "He +has never loved anyone else. He bitterly regrets having listened to me, +and I, now that I know you--I bitterly regret everything! And he loves +you ... and I would rather ... and I have told him what is the simple +truth--how I have admired you from the first!" + +The last sentence was doubtless a mistake. It was the only one that +would let itself be uttered, however, and before another could be added +by either woman Lord Manister had tramped into the room. They fell the +further apart as he came between them and stooped down, laying his hands +heavily on the little table. His eyes sped from the girl to his mother, +and back to the girl, on whom they stayed. One hand held his crumpled +cap. His hair was disordered. In many ways he looked at his best, as +Tiny had always said he did in flannels. But never before had Tiny seen +him half so earnest and sad and handsome. + +"My mother is right," he said firmly. "I love you, and I ask you to +forgive us both, and to give me what I don't deserve--one word of hope!" + +The young girl glanced from his grave, humble face to that of his +mother, through whose tears a smile was breaking. Lady Dromard's lips +were parted, half in surprise at the humility of her son's words, half +in eagerness for the answer to them. Tiny Luttrell read her like a +printed book, and rose to her feet with a smile that was equally +unmistakable, for it was a smile of triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HER HOUR OF TRIUMPH. + + +Now Herbert was taking part in the match, and Ruth was in the ladies' +tent, trying not to think of Christina, who was playing a single-wicket +game in another place. But Erskine Holland was rolling the rectory court +gloomily and quite alone, and he was tired of Essingham. Not only had +the day kept fine in spite of its threats, but toward the end of the +afternoon it turned out very fine indeed, and the light became excellent +for lawn tennis, because there was nobody to play with poor Erskine. +Even the good Willoughby was on the accursed field over yonder; and he +mattered least. Ruth was there. Tiny was there. Herbert was not only +there, but playing for Lord Manister, who was notoriously short of men. +One can hardly wonder at Erskine's condemnation of his brother-in-law, +out of his own mouth, as a stultified young fraud in the matter of Lord +Manister. As to the girls, some old tenets of his concerning women in +general returned to taunt him for the ship-wreck of his holiday at +least. Yet Ruth had but plotted for her sister's advancement, not her +own. Whether Christina cared in the least for the man whom she evidently +meant to marry, if she could, was, after all, Christina's own affair. +Erskine had only heard her disparage him behind his back--at which +Herbert himself could not beat her--whereas Ruth had at least been +openly in favor of the fellow from the very first. But if Herbert was a +fraud, what was the name for Tiny? Clearly the only trustworthy person +of the three was Ruth, who at least--yet alone--was consistent. + +To this conclusion, which was not without its pleasing side, Erskine +came with his eyes on the ground he was rolling. But as he pushed the +roller toward the low stone wall dividing the lawn from the churchyard, +into which the balls were too often hit, one came whizzing out of it for +a change, and struck the roller under Erskine's nose. And leaning with +her elbows on the low wall, and her right hand under her chin, as though +it were the last right hand that could have flung that ball, stood the +girl for whom a bad enough name had yet to be found. + +"Where on earth did you spring from?" Holland asked, a little brusquely, +as he stopped for a moment and then rolled on toward the wall. + +"If you mean the ball," replied Tiny, "it must be the one we lost the +last time we played. I have just found it among the graves, and it +slipped out of my hand." + +"I meant you," said Erskine, with an unsuccessful smile; and he pushed +the roller close up to the wall, and folded his arms upon the handle. + +"Oh, I have come from the hall by the forbidden path over Gallow Hill; +but it seems that wasn't meant for us, and at any rate I have leave to +use it whenever I like." She was puzzling him, and she knew it, but she +met his eyes with a mysterious smile for some moments before adding: +"You can't think what a view there is from the top of the hill--I mean a +view of the hall. Just now the sun was blazing in all the windows, like +the flash of a broadside from an old two-decker; you see it made such an +impression on me that I thought of that for your benefit." + +Erskine acknowledged the benefit rather heavily with a nod. + +"What have you done with Ruth?" + +"To the best of my belief she is watching the match; at least she was an +hour ago." + +"Something _has_ happened!" exclaimed Erskine Holland, starting upright +and leaving the roller handle swinging in the air like an inverted +pendulum. His eyes were unconsciously stern; those of the girl seemed to +quail before them. + +"Something has happened," she admitted to the top of the wall. "I +suppose you would get to know sooner or later, so I may as well tell you +myself now. The fact is Lord Manister has just proposed to me." + +Erskine dropped his eyes and shrugged slightly; then he raised them to +the setting sun, and tried to look resigned; then, with a noticeable +effort, he brought them back to her face, and forced a smile. + +"I'm not surprised. I saw it coming, though I hardly expected it so +soon. Well, Tiny, I congratulate you! He is about the most brilliant +match in England." + +"Quite the most, I thought?" + +"And I am sure he is a first-rate fellow," added Erskine with vigor, +regretting that he had not said this first, and disliking what he had +said. + +"Oh, he is a very good sort," acknowledged Tiny to the wall. + +"So you ought to be the happiest young woman in the world, as you are +perhaps the luckiest--I mean in one sense. And I congratulate you, Tiny, +I do indeed!" + +To clinch his congratulations he held out his hand, from which she +raised her eyes to him at last--with the look of a cabman refusing his +proper fare. + +"And I took you for the most discerning person I knew!" said Tiny very +slowly. + +"You don't mean to say----" + +His eagerness and incredulity arrested his speech. + +"I _do_ mean to say." + +"That you have--refused him?" + +Tiny nodded. "With thanks--not too many." + +They stared at one another for some moments longer. Then Erskine sat +down on the roller and folded his arms and looked extremely serious, +though already the corners of his mouth were beginning to twitch. + +"Now, you know, Tiny, I'm _in loco parentis_ as long as you're in +England. In this one matter you've no business to chaff me. Honestly, +now, is it the truth that Lord Manister has asked you to marry him, and +that you have said him nay?" + +"It is the truest truth I ever uttered in my life. I refused him +point-blank," added Tiny, with eyes once more lowered, as though the +memory were not unmixed with shame, "and before his own mother!" + +"In the presence of Lady Dromard?" + +She nodded solemnly, but with a blush. + +"Good Lord!" murmured Erskine. "And I was ass enough to think you were +leading him on!" + +She whispered, "And so I was." + +For one moment Erskine stared at her more seriously than ever; then the +reaction came, and she saw him shaking. He shook until the tears were in +his eyes; and when he was rid of them he perceived the same thing in +Tiny's eyes, but obviously not from the same cause. + +"_I_ don't think it's such a joke," said the girl, in the voice of one +pained when in pain already. "I am pretty well ashamed of myself, I can +tell you. If you really consider yourself responsible for me I think you +might let me tell you something about it; for you must tell Ruth--I +daren't. But if you're going to laugh ... let me tell you it's no +laughing matter to me, now I've done it." + +"Forgive me," said Holland instantly; "I am a brute. Do tell me anything +you care to; I promise not to laugh unless you do. And I might be able +to help you." + +"Ah, you would if anybody could; but nobody can; I have behaved just +scandalously, and I know it as well as you do, now that it's too late. +Yet I wish that you knew all about it, Erskine!" She looked at him +wistfully. "You understand things so. Would it bore you if I were to +tell you how the whole thing happened?" + +The gilt hands of the church clock made it ten minutes to six when +Erskine shook his head and bent it attentively. When the hour struck he +had opened his mouth only once, to answer her question as to how much he +knew of her affair with Lord Manister in Melbourne. He had known for a +day and a half as much as Ruth knew; and he did not learn much more now, +for the girl could speak more freely of recent incidents, and dwelt +principally on those of that afternoon, beginning with Lady Dromard's +extraordinary attentiveness on the cricket field. + +"I felt there was something behind that, though I didn't know what; I +could only be sure that she had her eye on me. However, I took a +tremendous vow to face whatever came without moving a muscle. I think I +succeeded, on the whole, but I was on the edge of a panic when she took +me upstairs. I wanted to clear! I had qualms!" + +She was startlingly candid on another point. + +"I also made up my mind to behave as prettily as possible, just to show +her. I was really pleased with the interest she seemed to take in what I +told her about the bush, and I was quite delighted to see a galar again. +But I needn't have made the fuss I did in taking it out of its cage; +that was purely put on, and all the time I was mortally afraid that it +would peck me. Yet I suppose," added Tiny, after some moments, "you +won't believe me when I tell you that I am ashamed of all that already?" + +Erskine declared that there was nothing in the world to be ashamed of; +on the contrary, in his opinion she was perfectly justified in all she +had done. With kind eyes upon her, he added what he very nearly meant, +that he was proud of her; and his remark wrought a change in her +expression which convinced him finally that at least she was not proud +of herself. + +"Ah, you weren't there, Erskine," said Christina sadly, her blue eyes +clouded with penitence; "you don't know how kind poor Lady Dromard was +with all her dodges! She said it would be more comfortable to have tea +up there. Comfortable was the last thing I felt in my heart, but I never +let her see that; and besides, I didn't as yet guess what was coming. +Even when she wanted me to tell her my own name, I couldn't be sure that +she suspected me. I wasn't sure until she asked me whether the girl had +got over it, when I knew from her voice. And I saw then that she really +rather liked me, and half wished it to be; and I was sorry because I +liked her; and though I spoke my mind to her about her son, I should +have made a clean breast of everything to her if he hadn't come in just +then. I should have told her straight that I didn't care _that_ for +him--not now--and that I had been flirting with him disgracefully just +to try to make him smart as I had smarted. That's the whole truth of +it, Erskine; and I meant to tell her so in another second, because I +couldn't stand her kissing me and crying, and all that. I should have +been crying myself next moment. But just then _he_ came in, and I +remembered everything. I remembered, too, what she had had to do with +it, on her own showing; and when I saw what she wanted me to say I think +I became possessed." + +Her brother-in-law was very curious to know all that Christina had said, +but she would not tell him. She merely remarked that he would think all +the worse of her if he knew, even though at the moment she could hardly +remember any one thing that she had said. Then she paused, and recalled +a little, and the little made her blush. + +"I didn't come well out of it," she declared. + +Erskine threw discredit on her word in this particular matter; he +sniffed an extravagant remorse. + +"Talk of hitting a man when he's down!" exclaimed Tiny miserably. "I hit +Lady Dromard when the tears were in her eyes, and Lord Manister when he +was hitting himself. He took it splendidly. He is a gentleman. I don't +care what else he is--lord or no lord, he would always be a perfect +gentleman. What's more, I am very sorry for him." + +"Why on earth be sorry for him?" asked Erskine with a touch of +irritation; for when Tiny spoke of Lady Dromard's tears, her own eyes +swam with them; and to do a thing like this and start crying over it the +moment it was done seemed to Erskine a bad sign. The event was so very +fresh, and so entirely contrary to his own most recent apprehensions, +that at present his only feeling in the matter was one of profound +satisfaction. But the symptoms she showed of relenting already +interfered not a little with that satisfaction, while, even more than by +the remark that had prompted his question, he was alarmed by her answer +to it: + +"Because I believe he does care for me, a little bit, in his own way--or +he thinks he does, which comes to the same thing; and because, when +all's said and done, I have treated him like a little fiend!" + +"My good girl!" said Holland uneasily, "I should remember how he treated +you." + +"Ah, no," answered Christina, shaking her head; "I have remembered that +far too long as it is. That's ancient history." + +"Well, be sorry for him if you like; be sorry for yourself as well." + +That was the best advice that occurred to him at the moment, but it set +her off at a tangent. + +"I should think I am sorry for myself--I should be sorry for any girl +who could so far forget herself!" cried Christina, speaking bitterly and +at a great pace. "Shall I tell you the sort of thing I said? When I told +him I could not possibly believe in his really caring for me, after the +way in which he left Melbourne without so much as saying good-by to me +or sending me word that he was going, he said it wasn't then he really +loved me, but now. So I told him I was sorry to hear it, as in my case +it might perhaps have been then, but it certainly wasn't now. I actually +said that! Then Lady Dromard spoke up. She had been staring at me +without a word, but she spoke up now, and it served me right. I can't +blame her for being indignant, but she didn't say half she could have +said, and it was more what she implied that sticks and stings. It didn't +sting then, though; I was thinking of all the talk out there. It was +when Lord Manister stopped her, and held out his hand to me and said, +'Anyway you forgive me now? I thought you _had_ forgiven me'--it was +then I began to tingle. I said I forgave him, of course; and then I +bolted. But I was sorry for him, and I _am_ sorry for him, whatever you +say, for I had cut him to the heart.... And he looked most awfully nice +the whole time!" + +With these frivolous last words there came a smile: the normal girl +shone out for an instant, as the sun breaks through clouds; and Erskine +took advantage of the gleam. + +"To the heart of his vanity--that's where you cut. You've humiliated him +certainly; but surely he deserved it? In any case, you've given young +Manister the right-about; and upon my soul that's rather a performance +for our Tiny! I should only like to have seen it." + +"It's good of you to call me your Tiny," returned the young girl rather +coldly. "But don't talk to me about performances, please, unless you +mean disgraceful performances. I wish I had never come to England--I +wish I was back in Australia--I wish I was up at the station!" she +cried with sudden passion. "I am miserable, and you won't understand me; +and Ruth couldn't if she tried." + +"My dear girl," Erskine said in rather an injured tone, "surely you're a +little unfair on us both? Ruth will understand when I tell her; and as +for me--I think I understand you already." + +"Not you!" answered Tiny disdainfully. "You call it a performance! You +treat it as a joke!" And she left him, with the tears in her eyes. + +He watched her enter the garden by the little gate lower down, and +saunter toward the house with lagging steps. The low sun streamed upon +her drooping figure. Even at that distance, and with her face hidden +from him, she seemed to Erskine the incarnation of all that was wayward +and willful and sweet in girlhood. And her tears and temper made her +doubly sweet, as the rain draws new fragrance from a flower; but they +had also made her doubly difficult to understand. One moment he had seen +her plainly, as in the lime light; in another, she had retired to a +deeper shade than before. The explanation of her conduct toward Lord +Manister had been a sufficiently startling revelation, yet a perfectly +lucid one; but what of this prompt transition to tears and penitence? +The only interpretation which suggested itself to Erskine was one that +he refused to entertain. He preferred to attribute Christina's present +state of mind to mere reaction; if the reaction had taken a rather +hysterical form, that, perhaps, was not to be wondered at. Moreover, +this seemed to be indeed the case; for the girl was seen no more that +day, save by Ruth, who by night was perhaps the most disappointed person +in the parish; only she managed to conceal her disappointment in a way +that it was impossible not to admire. + +Nevertheless dinner at the rectory was a dismal meal, and the more so +for the high spirits of Herbert, which, meeting with no response, turned +to silence. Poor Herbert happened to have distinguished himself in the +match, which, indeed, he had been largely instrumental in winning for +his side; but neither Ruth nor her husband showed any interest in his +exploit, and Tiny was not there. Erskine was no cricketer; Herbert hated +him for it, and made a sullen attack on the claret. But at length it +dawned upon him that there was some special reason for the silence and +glum looks at either end of the table, for which Christina's alleged +headache would not in itself account; and when Ruth left the table early +to look after Tiny, he said bluntly to Erskine: + +"You're enough to give a fellow the blues, the pair of you! What's +wrong? Have I done anything, or has Tiny?" + +Erskine temporized, pushing forward the claret. "I understand _you_ have +done something," he said with a first approach to geniality; "but, upon +my word, old fellow, I don't know what it is. I couldn't listen, for the +life of me; and you must forgive me. Tiny's upset, and that's upset +Ruth, which I suppose has upset me in my turn. Please call me names--I +deserve them--and then tell me again what you have done." + +Herbert did not require two invitations to do this. He had not only +acquitted himself brilliantly, but there was a peculiar piquancy in his +success; he had saved the side which had treated him with unobtrusive +but galling contempt until the last moment, when he opened their eyes, +and their throats too. They had put him to field at short leg; during +the intervals, after the fall of a wicket, not one of them had spoken a +word to him, save good-natured Mr. Willoughby; and they had sent him in +last, with hopeless faces, when there were many runs to get. The good +batsmen, beginning with Lord Manister, had mostly failed miserably. The +Honorable Stanley Dromard, who had been in fine form all the week, had +alone done well; and he was still at the wicket when Herbert whipped in, +with his ears full of gratuitous instructions to keep his wicket up, and +not to try to hit the professional, and his heart full of other designs. +Those instructions were given without much knowledge of this young +Australian, who took a sincere delight in disregarding them. He had hit +out from the very first, particularly at the professional, who disliked +being hit, and who was also somewhat demoralized by the extreme respect +with which he had been treated by preceding batsmen. There were thirty +runs to make when Herbert went in, and in a quarter of an hour he made +them nearly all from his own bat, exhibiting an almost insolent amount +of coolness and nerve at the crisis. The best of it was that no one had +considered it a crisis when he went in; but his truculent batting had +immediately made it one, and ultimately, in a scene of the greatest +excitement, of which Herbert was the hero, an almost certain defeat had +been converted into a glorious victory. All this was confirmed by the +local newspaper next day; considering his achievement and his character, +the hero himself told his tale with modesty. + +"He bowled like beggary," he concluded, in allusion to the discomfited +professional; "but I tell you, old toucher, we were too many measles for +him!" + +"They were more civil to you after that?" + +"My oath!" said Herbert complacently. "Those Eton jokers kicked up +hell's delight! Stanley Dromard shook hands with me between the wickets, +and said I ought to be going up to Trinity; but he's a real good +sportsman, with less side than you'd think. His governor, the earl, +congratulated me in person--you bet I felt it down my marrow! He wants +to know how it is I'm not playing for the Australians. The only man who +didn't say a word to me was that dam' fool Manister." + +"Ah, he was on the ground, then?" + +"He turned up as I went in; and when I came out he didn't look at me. +Who the blazes does he think he is? I'm as good a man as him, though I'm +a larrikin and he's a twopenny lord. I don't care what he is, I had the +bulge over him to-day--he made four!" + +"Perhaps someone else has had the bulge over him, too," suggested +Erskine gently. + +"Has someone?" + +Erskine nodded. + +"Our Tiny?" + +"Yes; he has asked her to marry him, and she has refused him on the +spot." + +Herbert shot out of his chair. + +"So're you crackin'! I thought something was _wrong_, man? O Lord, this +is a treat!" + +"It's a treat she didn't prepare one for. I had visions of a very +different upshot." + +"Aha! you never know where you have our Tiny. No more does old Manister. +Oh, but this is a treat for the gods!" + +"I told Tiny it was a performance," Erskine said reflectively; "it +struck me as one, and I was trying to cheer her up--but that wasn't the +way." + +"No? She's a terror, our Tiny!" murmured Herbert, with a running +chuckle. "Now I know why the brute was so civil to me the first time I +met him in these parts. Even then my hand itched to fill his eye for +him, but I didn't say anything, because Tiny seemed on the job herself. +To think this was her game! I must go and shake hands with her. I must +go and tell her she's done better than filling up his eye." + +"Don't you," said Erskine quietly. "I wouldn't say much to her +afterward, either, if I may give you a hint. She doesn't take quite our +view of this matter. Not that we can pretend that ours is at all a nice +view of it, mind you; only I really do regard it as a bit of a +performance on our Tiny's part, and I should like to have seen it." + +"By ghost, so should I! And seriously," added Herbert, "he deserved all +he's got. I happen to know." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A CYCLE OF MOODS. + + +But the girl herself chose to think otherwise. That was her perversity. +She could now see excuses for her own ill-treatment in the past, but +none for the revenge she had just taken on the man who had treated her +badly. A revenge it had certainly been, plotted systematically, and +carried out from first to last in sufficiently cold blood. But already +she was ashamed of it. So sincerely ashamed was Christina, now that she +had completed her retaliation and secured her triumph, that she very +much exaggerated the evil she had done, and could imagine no baser +behavior than her own. She had, indeed, felt the baseness of it while +yet there was time to draw back, but the memory of her own humiliation +had been her goad whenever she hesitated; and then the way had been made +irresistibly easy for her. But this was no comfort to her now. Neither +was that goad any excuse to her self-accusing mind; for she could feel +it no longer, which made her wonder how she had ever felt it at all. Her +judgment was obscured by the magnitude of her meanness in her own eyes. +The revulsion of feeling was as complete as it was startling and +distressing to herself. + +In her trouble and excitement that night it became necessary for her to +speak to someone, and she spoke with unusual freedom to Ruth, who +displayed on this occasion, among others, a really lamentable want of +tact. Tiny sought to explain her trouble: it was not that she could +possibly care for Lord Manister again, or dream of marrying him under +any circumstances (Ruth said nothing to all this), but that she half +believed he really cared for her (Ruth was sure of it), in his own way +(Ruth seemed to believe in his way); and in any case she was very sorry +for him. So was Ruth. In all the circumstances the sorrow of Ruth might +well have received a less frank expression than she thought fit to give +it. + +But it is only fair to say that this did not occur to Ruth. She was in +and out of the room until at last Christina was asleep, and dreaming of +the hall windows ablaze against the sunset, while again and again in +her sleep the warm, broken voice of Lady Dromard turned hard and cold. +Ruth watched her affectionately enough as she slept, and consoled +herself for her own disappointment by the reflection that at least they +understood one another now. Therefore it was a rude shock to her when +Christina came down next day and would hardly look at any of them. + +Her mood had changed; it was now her worst. She was pale still, but her +expression was set, and there was a quarrelsome glitter in her eyes; the +fact being that she was a little tired of chastising herself, and +exceedingly ready to begin on some second person. So Erskine himself was +badly snubbed at his own breakfast table, and when Tiny afterward took +herself into the kitchen garden Ruth followed her for an explanation, in +the fullness of her confidence that they understood one another at last. +No explanation was given, Tiny merely remarking that she was sorry if +she had been rude, but that she was in an evil state all through, and +unfit for human society. To Ruth, however, this only meant that Tiny was +unfit to be alone. So Ruth remained in the kitchen garden too, and was +good enough to resume gratuitously her consolations of the night before. +But in a very few minutes she returned, complaining, to her husband. + +"My dear," said he at once, "you oughtn't to have gone near her. Above +all, you shouldn't have broached the subject of her affairs; you should +have left that to her. She seems considerably ashamed of herself, and +though I must say I think that's absurd, you can't help liking her the +better for it. She surprised us all, but she surprised herself too, +because she has found that she can't strike a blow without hurting +herself at least as badly as anybody else; and that shows the good in +her. Personally, I think the blow was justified; but that has nothing to +do with it. The point is that if she's mortified about the whole +concern, as is obviously the case, it must increase her mortification to +know that we know all about it, and that she herself has told us. Which +applies more to me than to you. It was natural she should tell you; she +only told me because I happened to be the first person she saw, and I +can quite understand her hating me by this time for listening. We must +ignore the whole matter except when it pleases her to bring it up, and +then we must let her make the running." + +"I hate people to require so much humoring!" exclaimed Ruth, with some +reason. + +"Well, I must say I'm glad that _you_ don't," her husband said prettily. +"As to Tiny, her faults are very sweet, and her moods are really +interesting--but I'm thankful they don't run in the family!" + +He seemed thankful. + +"Yet you're a wonderful man for understanding other people," returned +Ruth as prettily; and her eyes were full of admiration. + +"Ah, well! Tiny's not like other people. I think she must enjoy +startling one. Our best plan is to expect the unexpected of her from +this time forth, and to let her be until she comes to herself." + +And that came to pass quite in good time. Having effaced herself all the +morning and again during the afternoon, and having been grotesquely +polite to the others (when it was necessary to speak to them) at midday +dinner, Tiny appeared at tea in another frock and flying signals of +peace. She seemed anxious to acquiesce with things that were said. So +Erskine forced jokes which were sufficiently terrible in themselves, +but they served a good purpose very well. Christina recovered her old +form, and after tea made a winsome assault upon no less redoubtable a +defender of his own inclinations than her brother Herbert. Him she +successfully importuned to take her to church in the evening, although +not to the church close at hand, where there was never, necessarily, any +service in the rector's absence. Tiny, however, had heard from her +friends in the village of a gifted young Irishman who wore a stole and +held forth extempore in a neighboring parish; they found their way to it +across the twilight fields. They did not return till after nine, when +Christina seemed much brighter than before. Her brightness, however, was +seemingly more grateful to Mr. than to Mrs. Holland, who enticed her +brother into the garden after supper, to ask him whether Tiny had not +mentioned Lord Manister. + +"Why, yes, she did just mention him," said Herbert; "but that's all. I +wasn't going to say a word about the joker, and just as we came back to +the drive here she got a hold of my arm and thanked me for not having +asked her any questions; so I was glad I hadn't. She said she wasn't by +any means proud of herself, and that she wanted to forget the whole +thing, if we'd only let her. She doesn't want to be bothered about it by +anybody. Those were her very words, as we came up the drive. She was +jolly enough all the way there, talking mostly about Wallandoon. You'll +have noticed how keen she is on the station ever since she went up there +with the governor last April; I think the old place was a treat to her +after Melbourne, to tell you the truth." + +Ruth nodded, as much as to say that she knew. She asked, however, +whether Tiny had talked also of Wallandoon on the way home. + +"No; she was a bit quiet on the way home. I think the sermon must have +made an impression on her, but I didn't hear it myself; I put in a sleep +instead. In the hymns, though, she sang out immense--by ghost, as if she +meant it! I rather wished I'd heard the sermon," remarked Herbert +thoughtfully, "because it seemed to set her thinking. I believe she's +given to thinking of those things now and then; I shouldn't be surprised +to see her go religious some day, if she don't marry; I'd rather she +did, too, than marry a thing like Manister!" + +The next day was their last at Essingham, for which not even Ruth could +grieve, in view of recent events. The day, however, was its own +consolation; it was cold and dull and damp, though not actually wet, so +that Erskine, who spent the greater part of the morning in front of a +barometer, had hopes of some final sets in the afternoon, when the +Willoughbys were coming to say good-by. Nor was he disappointed when the +time arrived, though the court was dead and the light bad; his own +service was the more telling under these conditions. But to the two +girls, who had been brought up to better things, it was a repulsive day +from all points of view, and they were very glad to spend the morning in +packing up before a hearty fire. + +"This is the kind of thing that makes one sigh for Wallandoon," Tiny +happened to say once as she stood looking out of the window at gray sky +and sullied trees. The thought was spoken just as it came into her head +with an imaginary beam of bush sunshine. There was no other thought +behind it--no human mote in that sunbeam certainly. But Ruth had raised +her head swiftly from the trunk over which she was bending, and she +knelt gazing at her sister's back as a dog pricks its ears. + +"Why Wallandoon? Why not Melbourne?" + +"Because I have had enough of Melbourne," replied Christina quietly, and +without turning round. + +"I thought you took so kindly to it?" + +"Perhaps I did; I have taken kindly to many things that were bad for me +in my time. And that's all the more reason why I should hanker after +Wallandoon. I only wish we could all go back there to live!" + +"Well, I must say I shouldn't care to live there now," remarked Ruth, +with a little laugh; "and I don't see how you could like it either, +after civilization." + +"Ah, that's because you never cared for the station as I did," replied +Christina, with her back still turned; "you liked the veranda better +than the run, and you hated the dust from the sheep when you were +riding. I can smell it now! Just think: they'll be in the middle of +shearing by this time. They were going to have thirty-six shearers on +the board, and they expected the best clip they've had for years. Can't +you hear the blades clicking and the tar boys tearing down the board, +and the bales being heaved about at the back of the shed--or see the +fleeces thrown out on the table and rolled up and bounced into the +bins--and father drafting in a cloud of dust at the yards? Can't I! +Many's the time I've brought him a mob of woollies myself. And how good +the pannikin of tea was, and the shearer's bun! I can taste 'em now. You +never cared for tea in a pannikin. Yet perhaps if you'd ever gone back +to see the place since we left it, as I did, you might be as keen on it +as I am. I own I wasn't so keen when we lived there. When I went back +and saw it the other day, though, I thought it the best place in the +world; and you would, too." + +"Is Jack Swift managing it now?" Ruth asked indifferently. + +"You knew he was." + +"Really I'm afraid I don't know much about it; but if you're so fond of +the place as all that, Tiny, I should just marry Jack Swift, and live +there ever after." + +"I suppose you're joking," said the young girl rather scornfully; "but +in case you aren't perhaps it will relieve you to hear that, if ever I +do marry, I shall marry a man--not a place." + +And she turned round and stared hard through another window, which +commanded a view of the Mundham gates and grounds; and Ruth made no more +jokes; but neither, on the other hand, did Tiny expatiate any further on +the attractions of station life at Wallandoon. + +The Willoughbys came in the afternoon, when Mrs. Willoughby was severely +disappointed, owing to the rudeness of Christina, who had disappeared +mysteriously, although she knew that these people were coming. Mrs. +Willoughby had seen her last leaving the cricket ground at Mundham under +the wing of Lady Dromard--Mrs. Willoughby had looked forward immensely +to seeing her again. But Christina had gone out, and none knew whither; +the visitor's idea was some private engagement at the hall; and this was +not the only idea she expressed, a little too freely for the entire ease +of Christina's sister. Happily they were only ideas. Mrs. Willoughby +knew nothing. + +Tiny, as it turned out later, had spent the whole afternoon in the +village, saying good-by to her friends there. Ruth found this rather +difficult to believe, as she had heard so little of the friends in +question. Nevertheless it was strictly true, and Tiny had taken tea with +Mrs. Clapperton, whose tears she had kissed away when they said good-by; +but that was only the end of a scene which would have been a revelation +to some who prided themselves on knowing their Tiny as well as anyone +could know so unaccountable a person. At dinner that evening she seemed +chastened and subdued, yet her temper, certainly, had never been +sweeter. It was noticeable that, while she had a responsive smile for +most things that were said, she made fun of nothing herself; and she was +far too fond of making fun of everything. But for two whole days her +moods had come and gone like the shadows of the clouds when sun and wind +are strong together; and the last of her whims was not the least +puzzling at the time. Later Ruth read it to her own extreme +satisfaction; but at the time it did seem odd to her that anyone should +desire a walk on so chilly and unattractive a night. Yet when they had +left the men to themselves this was what Tiny said she would like above +all things. And Ruth, who humored her, had her reward. + +For she found herself being led through the churchyard; and when she +hesitated as they came to the notice to trespassers, Tiny muttered in a +dare-devil way: + +"Lady Dromard gave me leave to come this way whenever I liked, and I +mean to make use of my privilege while I can. I want to see the hall +once again--it has a sort of fascination for me!" + +More amazed than before, Ruth followed her leader up the western slope +of Gallow Hill. The night was so dark that they heard the rustle of the +beeches on top before they could discern their branches against the sky; +and standing under them presently, panting from their climb, they gazed +down upon a double row of warm lights embedded in blackness. These were +the hall windows, in even tier, with here and there one missing, like +the broken teeth of a comb. Outline the building had none; only the +windows were bitten upon a sable canvas in ruddy orange and glimmering +yellow, from which there was just enough reflection on the lawn and +shrubs to chain them to earth in the mind of one who watched. + +"Only the windows," murmured Tiny musingly. "Those windows mean to haunt +me for the rest of my time." + +"I wish it were moonlight," Ruth said. "I wish we could see everything." + +"No, I like it best as it is," remarked Tiny, after further meditation. +"It leaves something to your imagination. Those windows are going to +leave my imagination uncommonly well off!" + +They stood together in silence, and the beeches talked in whispers above +them. When Ruth spoke next she whispered too, as though they were just +outside those lighted windows: + +"Yet you would rather live at Wallandoon than anywhere else on earth!" + +Tiny said nothing to that; but after it, at a distance, there came a +sigh. + +"What's the matter, Ruth?" + +"I'd rather not tell you, dear; it might make you angry." + +"I think I like being made angry just at present," said Christina, with +a little laugh; "but you've spiked my guns by saying that first; you are +quite safe, my dear." + +"Then I was thinking--I couldn't help thinking--that one day you might +have been mistress----" + +"Of the windows? Then it's high time we turned our backs on them! That's +just what I was thinking myself!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE INVISIBLE IDEAL. + + +On the flags of a London square, some days later, Ruth repeated the sigh +that had succeeded on Gallow Hill, and once more Christina asked her +what was the matter. + +"I was thinking," said Ruth with a confidence born of the former +occasion, "that one day all this, too, would have been more or less +yours." + +"All what, pray?" + +"Every brick and slate that you can see! All this is part of the Dromard +estate; they own every inch hereabouts." + +Christina's next remark was a perfectly pleasant one in itself, only it +referred to a totally different matter. And thus she treated poor Ruth. +At other times she would herself rush into the subject without warning, +and out of it the moment it wearied or annoyed her; to follow her +closely in and out required a nimble tact indeed. Nor was it easy to +know always the right thing to say, or at all delightful to feel that +the right thing to-day might be the wrong thing to-morrow. But into this +one subject Ruth was as ready to enter at a hint from Tiny as she was +now contented to quit it at her caprice. The elder sister's patience and +good temper were alike wonderful, but still more wonderful was her +faith. Instinctively she felt that all was not over between Tiny and +Lord Manister, and like many people who do not pretend to be clever, and +are fond of saying so, she believed immensely in her instincts. It must +not, however, be forgotten that her wishes for Tiny were the very best +she could conceive; and it should be remembered that she had nobody but +Tiny to watch over and care for, to think about and make plans for, +during the long days when Erskine was in the City. This was the great +excuse for Ruth, which never occurred to her husband, and was unknown +even to herself. Christina was her baby, and a very troublesome, bad +baby it was. + +But what could you expect? The girl was sufficiently worried and +unsettled; she was suffering from those upsetting fluctuations of mind +which few of her kind entirely escape, but which are violent in +characters that have grown with the emotional side to the sun and the +intellectual side to the wall. In such a case the mind remains hard and +green, while the emotions ripen earlier than need be; and the fault is +the gardener's, and the gardener is the girl's mother. Now Mrs. Luttrell +was a soulless but ladylike nonentity, with an eye naturally blind to +the soul in her girls. All she herself had taught them was an unaffected +manner and the necessity of becoming married. So Ruth had married both +early and well by the favor of the gods, and Christina had restored the +average by committing more follies of all sizes than would appear +possible in the time. That in which Lord Manister was concerned had +doubtless been the most important of the series, but its sting lay +greatly in its notoriety. It had caused a light-hearted girl to see +herself suddenly in the pupils of many eyes, and to recoil in shame from +her own littleness. It had made her hate both herself and the owners of +all those eyes, but men especially, of whom she had seen far too much in +a short space of time. What she had done in England only heightened her +poor opinion of herself now that it was done. She had seen her way to +an incredibly sweet revenge, only to find it incredibly bitter. In +striking hard she had hurt herself most, as Erskine had divined; instead +of satisfying her naturally vindictive feeling toward Lord Manister that +blow had killed it. Now she forgave him freely, but found it impossible +to forgive herself; and so the generosity that was in a disordered heart +asserted itself, because she had omitted to allow for it, not knowing it +was there. Worse things asserted themselves too, such as the very solid +attractions of the position which might have been hers; to these she +could not help being fully alive, though this was one more reason why +she hated herself. Her first judgment on herself, if a mere reaction at +the beginning, became ratified and hardened as time went on. She became +what she had never been before, even when notoriety had made her +reckless--an introspective girl. And that made her twisty and queer and +unaccountable; for, to be introspective with equanimity, you must have a +bluff belief in yourself, which is not necessarily conceit, but Tiny was +not blessed with it. + +"She has lost her sense of fun--that's the worst part of the whole +business!" exclaimed Erskine, one night when Christina had gone early to +bed, as she always would now. "She has ceased to be amusing or easily +amused. The empty town is boring her to the bone, and if I don't fix up +our Lisbon trip we shall have her wanting to go back to Australia. +However, I am bound to be in Lisbon by the end of next month, and I'm +keener than ever on having you two with me. I know the ropes out there, +and I could promise you both a good time--but that depends on Tiny. Let +us hope the bay will blow the cobwebs out of her head; she wasn't made +to be sentimental. I only wish I could get her to jeer at things as she +used before we went to Essingham and while we were there!" + +"Don't you think it's rather a good thing she has dropped that?" Ruth +asked. "She had no respect for anything in those days." + +"And her humor saved her! Pray what does she respect now?" + +"Two or three people that I know of--my lord and master for one, and +another person who is only a lord." + +"Look here, Ruth, I don't believe it," cried Erskine, who by this time +was pacing his study floor. "Why, she hasn't set eyes on him since the +day she refused him--with variations." + +"I know--but she's had time to reflect." + +"Then I hope and pray she may never have the opportunity to recant!" + +"Well, I won't deny that I hope differently," replied Ruth quietly; "but +I've no reason to suppose there's any chance of it; and whatever +happens, Erskine, you needn't be afraid of my--of my meddling any more." + +"My dear girl, I know that," said he cordially enough; "but of course +you tell her you're sorry for this, and you wish that. It's only natural +that you should." + +"Ah, I daren't say as much to her as you think," said Ruth, with a nod +and a smile, for she was glad to know more than he did, here and there. +"You needn't be afraid of me; I have little enough influence over her. +She has only once opened her heart to me--once, and that's all." + +Which was perfectly true, at the time. + +But a few days later the restless girl was seized with a sudden desire +to spend her money (which is really a good thing to do when you are +troubled, if, like Christina, you have the money to spend), and as her +most irregular desires were sure to be gratified by Ruth when they were +not quite impossible, this whim was immediately indulged. It was rather +late in the afternoon, but, on the other hand, the afternoon was +extremely fine; and it was a Thursday, when men stay late in Lombard +Street on account of next day's outward mails. Consequently there was no +occasion for hurry; and so fascinated was Christina with the attractions +and temptations of several well-known establishments, and last, as well +as most of all, with those of the stores, that it was golden evening +before they breathed again the comparatively fresh air of Victoria +Street. It was like Christina to wish, at that hour, to walk home, and +"through as many parks as possible"; it was even more like her to be +extravagantly delighted with the first of these, and to insist on +"shouting" Ruth a penny chair overlooking the ornamental water in St. +James' Park. + +Glad as she was to meet her sister's wishes, when she would only express +them, which she was doing with inconvenient freedom this afternoon, Ruth +did take exception to the penny chairs. Her feeling was that for the +two of them to sit down solemnly on two of those chairs was not an +entirely nice thing to do, and certainly not a thing that she would care +to be seen doing. Knowing, however, that this would be no argument with +Tiny, she merely said that it would make them too late in getting home; +and that happened to be worse than none. + +"Erskine said he wouldn't be home till eight o'clock; and he told us not +to dress, as plain as he could speak," Tiny reminded her. "The other +parks won't beat this; and you shall not be late, because I'll shout a +hansom, too." + +So Ruth made no more objections, though she felt a sufficient number; +and they sat down with their eyes toward the pale traces of a gentle, +undemonstrative September sunset, and were silent. Already the lamps +were lighted in the Mall, where the trees were tanned and tattered by +the change and fall of the leaf; at each end of the bridge, too, the +lamps were lighted, and reflected below in palpitating pillars of fire; +and every moment all the lights burnt brighter. Eastward a bluish haze +mellowed trees and chimneys, making them seem more distant than they +were; the noise of the traffic seemed more distant still, but it +floated inward from the four corners, like the breaking of waves upon an +islet; and here in the midst of it the stillness was strange, and +certainly charming; only Tiny was immoderately charmed. She sat so long +without speaking that Ruth leant back and watched her curiously. Her +face was raised to the pale pink sky, with wide-opened eyes and +tight-shut lips, as though the desires of her soul were written out in +the tinted haze, as you may scratch with your finger in the bloom of a +plum. She never spoke until the next quarter rang out from Westminster +and was lingering in the quiet air, when she said, "Why have we never +done this before, Ruth?" + +"Well," answered Ruth, "I never did it myself before to-day; and I must +own I think it's rather an odd thing to do." + +"Ah, well, heaven may be odd--I hope it is!" + +Ruth began to laugh. "My dear Tiny, you don't mean to say you call this +heavenly?" + +"It's near enough," said the young girl. + +"But, my dear child, what stuff! The couples keep it sufficiently +earthly, I should say--and the smell of bad tobacco, and that child's +trumpet, and the midges and gnats--but principally 'Arry and 'Arriet." + +"Now I just like to see them," said Christina, for once the serious +person of the two, "they're so awfully happy." + +"Awfully, indeed!" cried Ruth, with a superior little laugh. "Very +vulgarly happy, I should say!" And Tiny did not immediately reply, but +her eyes had fallen as far as the fretwork of the shabby foliage in the +Mall, over which the sky still glowed; and when she spoke her words were +the words of youthful speculation. She seemed, indeed, to be thinking +aloud, and not at all sure of the sense of her thoughts. + +"Very vulgarly happy!" she repeated, so long after the words had been +spoken that it took Ruth some moments to recall them. "I am trying to +decide whether there isn't something rather vulgar about all happiness +of that kind--from the highest to the lowest. Forgive me, dear--I don't +mean anything the least bit personal--I find I don't mean a word I've +said! I wasn't thinking of the happiness itself so much, but of the +desire for it. Oh, there must be something better for a girl to long +for! There _is_ something, if one only knew what it was; but nobody has +ever shown me, for instance. Still there must be something between +misery and marriage--something higher." + +Her eyes had not fallen, but they shone with tears. + +"I don't know anything higher than marrying the man you love," said Ruth +honestly. + +"Ah, if you love him! There is no need for _you_ to know a higher +happiness, even if one were possible in your case. But look at me!" + +"You must marry, too," said Ruth with facility. + +"As I probably shall; but to be happy, as you are happy, one ought to be +fond of the person first, as you were; and--well, I don't think I have +ever in my life felt as you felt." + +"Stuff!" said Ruth, but with as much tenderness as the word would carry. + +"I wish it were," returned Christina sadly; "it's the shameful truth. I +have been going over things lately, and that's never a very cheerful +employment in my case, but I think it has taught me my own heart this +time. And I know now that I have never cared for anyone so much as for +myself--much less for Lord Manister! If I had ever really cared for him +I couldn't have treated him as I have done--no, not if he had behaved +fifty times worse in the beginning. I was flattered by him, but I think +I liked him, though I know I was dazzled by--the different things. I +would have married him; I never loved him--nor any of the others!" + +"Ah, well, Tiny, I am quite sure he loves you." + +"Not very deeply, I hope; I can't altogether believe in him, and I don't +much want to. It is bad enough to have one of them in deadly earnest," +added Christina after a pause, but with a laugh. + +"Is one of them--I mean another one?" asked Ruth, correcting herself +quickly. + +Tiny nodded. She would not say who it was. "I don't care for him +either--not enough," she, however, vouchsafed. + +"Then you don't think of marrying him, I hope?" + +"No, not the man I mean"--she shook her head sadly at trees and sky--"I +like him too much to marry him unless I loved him. Only if anyone else +asked me--someone I didn't perhaps care a scrap for--I don't know what +mightn't happen. I feel so reckless sometimes, and so sick of +everything! This comes of having played at it so often that one is +incapable of the real thing; more than all, it comes of growing up with +no higher ideal than a happy marriage. And there must be something so +much nobler--if one only knew what!" + +Very wistfully her eyes wandered over the fading sky. The thin, floating +clouds, fast disappearing in the darkness, were not less vague than her +desires, and not more lofty. Her soul was tugging at a chain that had +been too seldom taut. + +"I know of nothing--unless you're a bluestocking," suggested poor Ruth, +"or go in for Woman's Rights!" + +Then the sights and sounds of the place came suddenly home to Christina, +and her eyes fell. A child rattled by with an iron hoop. A pleasure +boat, villainously rowed, passed with hoarse shouts through the pillar +of fire below the bridge and left it writhing. Her eyes as she lowered +them were greeted with the smarting smoke of a cigar, and her nostrils +with the smell that priced it. The smoker took a neighboring chair, or +rather two, for he was not without his companion. + +Christina was the first to rise. + +"I have been talking utter nonsense to you, Ruth," she whispered as they +walked away; "but it was kind of you to let me go on and on. One has +sometimes to say a lot more than one means to get out a little that one +does mean; you must try to separate the little from the lot. I've been +talking on tiptoe--it was good of you not to push me over!" + +They crossed the bridge, throbbing beneath the tread of many feet; in +the Mall, under the half-clothed trees, they hailed a hansom, and Ruth +greeted her reflection in the side mirror with a sigh of relief. + +"We should never have done this if we hadn't been Australians," she +remarked, as though exceedingly ashamed of what they had done, as indeed +she was. + +"Then that's one more good reason for thanking Heaven we _are_ +Australians!" answered Tiny, with some of her old spirit. "You may think +differently, Ruth, but for my part that's the one point on which I have +still some lingering shreds of pride." + +And that was how Tiny Luttrell opened her heart a second time to Ruth, +her sister, who was of less comfort to her even than before, because now +her open heart was also the cradle of a waking soul. More things than +one need name, for they must be obvious, had of late worked together +toward this awakening, until now the soul tossed and struggled within a +frivolous heart, and its cries were imperious, though ever inarticulate. +To Ruth they were but faint echoes of the unintelligible; scarce +hearing, she was contented not to try to understand. When Tiny said she +had been "talking on tiptoe," to Ruth's mind that merely expressed a +queer mood queerly. She did not see how accurately it figured the young +soul straining upward; indeed the accuracy was unconscious, and +Christina herself did not see this. + +Queer as it may have been, her mood had made for nobility, and was, +therefore, memorable among the follies and worse of which, unhappily, +she was still in the thick. It passed from her not to return, yet to +lodge, perhaps, where all that is good in our lives and hearts must +surely gather and remain until the spirit itself goes to complete and to +inhabit a new temple, and we stand built afresh in the better image of +God. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +FOREIGN SOIL. + + +There is in Cintra a good specimen of the purely Portuguese hotel, which +is worth a trial if you can speak the language of the country and eat +its meats; if you want to feel as much abroad as you are, this is the +spot to promote that sensation. The whole concern is engagingly +indigenous. They will give you a dinner of which every course (there +must be nearly twenty) has the twofold charm of novelty and mystery +combined; and you shall dine in a room where it is safe, if +unsportsmanlike, to criticise aloud your fellow-diners, when their ways +are most notably not your ways. Then, after dinner, you may make music +in a pleasant drawing room or saunter in the quaint garden behind the +hotel; only remember that the garden has a view which is necessarily +lost at night. + +The view is good, and it improves as the day wears on by reason of the +beetling crag that stands between Cintra and the morning sun. So close +is this crag to the town, and so sheer, that at dawn it looms the +highest mountain on earth; but with the afternoon sunlight streaming on +its face you see it for what it is, and there is much in the sight to +satisfy the eye. Halfway up the vast wall is forested with fir trees +picked out with bright villas and streaked with the white lines of +ascending roads. The upper portion is of granite, rugged and bare and +iron gray. The topmost angle is surmounted by square towers and +battlements that seem a part of the peak, as indeed they are, since the +Moors who made them hewed the stones from the spot; and the serrated +crest notches the sky like a crown on a hoary head. Finer effects may +recur very readily to the traveled eye, but to one too used to flat +regions this is fine enough: thus Tiny Luttrell was in love with Cintra +from the moment when she and Ruth and Erskine first set foot in the +garden of the Portuguese hotel, and let their eyes climb up the sunlit +face of the rock. + +They were a merrier party now than when leaving Plymouth. They had left +fog and damp behind them (it was near the end of October), and steamed +back to summer in a couple of days; and that alone was inspiriting. Then +they had already stayed a day or two in Lisbon, where Erskine had spent +as many years when Ruth was an infant at the other end of the world, so +that he was naturally a good guide. There, too, Ruth and Tiny made some +friends, being charmingly treated by people with whom they were unable +to converse, while Erskine attended to the business matter which had +brought him over. The girls were not sorry to hear that this matter was +hanging fire, as such matters have a way of doing in Lisbon, for they +were enjoying themselves thoroughly. Ruth felt prouder than ever of her +big husband when she saw him among his Portuguese friends, and she +thought him very clever to speak their language so fluently. As for +Tiny, she seemed herself again; she was willing to be amused, and +luckily there was much to amuse her. Much, on the other hand, she could +seriously admire, and her high opinion of Portugal was itself amusing +after the fault she had found with another country; she even made +comparisons between the two, which gave considerable pleasure when +translated by Erskine. Cintra pleased her most, however. She delighted +in the hotel, where there were no English tongues but their own; she +even pretended to enjoy the dinner. So Erskine felt proud of his choice +of quarters; only he missed his English paper, and had to go to the +English hotel and purchase unnecessary refreshment on the chance of a +glimpse of one. Your man-Briton abroad is miserable without that. It is +a male weakness entirely. Holland took with him on that pilgrimage no +sympathy from the ladies, who only derided him when he came back +confessing that he had thrown his money away, as some other fellow was +staying at the English inn and reading the paper in his room. + +"But I'm very sorry there's another Englishman in the place," announced +Christina; "though I suppose one ought to be thankful he didn't choose +our hotel. It is something like being abroad, staying here; one more +Englishman would have spoilt the fun." + +"When you see the steeds I've ordered for the morning," said Erskine, +with a laugh, "you'll feel more abroad than ever." + +And they did, indeed, when the morning came; for their steeds were +three small asses in charge of a dark-eyed child who was whacking them +for his amusement while he smoked a cigarette. A small but picturesque +crowd had collected in the street to see the start, and were greatly +entertained by the spectacle of the Senhor Inglez (a giant among them) +astride a donkey little taller than a big dog. Interest was also shown +in the camera legs, which Erskine carried like a lance in rest, while +the camera itself was nursed by Christina, who had spoilt a power of +plates in Lisbon without becoming discouraged. The small boy threw away +his cigarette, and having asked Erskine for another, which was sternly +denied him, smote each donkey in turn and set the cavalcade in motion. + +They passed the palace in the little market place, and were unable to +admire it; they passed the loathly prison, which is the worst feature of +Cintra, and were duly abused by the prisoners at the barred windows; +they were glad to reach the outskirts of the town, and to begin their +ascent of the rock up which their eyes had already climbed. They were to +devote the day to the ruined Moorish fort they had seen against the sky, +and to the Palace of Pena, which stands on a peak hidden from the town; +and Erskine, who was confident that they were all going to enjoy +themselves very particularly, declared that the day was only worthy of +the cause. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the weather was just +warm enough for the work in hand. As the donkeys wended their way up the +steep roads, Mr. Holland was advised to get off and carry his carrier; +but he knew the Cintra donkey of old, and sat ignobly still. He also +knew the Cintra donkey boy, and aired his Portuguese upon the attendant +imp, who passed on the way, and greeted with jeers, a professional +friend waiting with only one donkey in front of a pretty house +overlooking the road. + +"Ah," said Erskine, "that's the English hotel; and no doubt that moke is +for the opposition Senhor Inglez--whose name is Jackson." + +"Then pray let us push on," cried Christina anxiously. "Do you suppose +he is coming our way, Erskine?" + +"Most probably, to begin with; but he may turn off for Monserrat or the +cork convent." + +"Let us hope so. If he should pass us, Erskine, just talk Portuguese to +us as loud as ever you can!" + +"Far better to hurry up and not be overtaken," added Ruth, who was +thinking of her appearance, with which she was far from satisfied. + +Accordingly the imp (with whose good looks Christina had already +expressed herself as enamored) was employed for some moments at his +favorite occupation. But for the pursuing Englishman, however, Tiny, +instead of leading the way upward, would have dismounted more than once +to set up her camera; for low parapets were continually on their left, +high walls on their right; and wherever there was a gap in the fir trees +growing below the parapets, a fresh view was presented of the town +below. First it was a bird's-eye view of the palace, seen to better +advantage through the trees of the Rua de Duque Saldanha than before, +from the street; then a fair impression of the town as a whole, with its +gay gardens and cheap looking stuccoed houses; and then successive +editions of Cintra, each one smaller than the last, and each with a +wider tract of undulating brown land beyond, and a broader band of ocean +at the horizon. Then they plunged into mountain gorges; there were no +more distant views, but mighty walls on either side, and reddening +foliage interlacing overhead, as though woven upon the strip of pure +blue sky. And the atmosphere was clear as distilled water in a crystal +vessel; but in the shade the air had a sweet keenness, an inspiriting +pungency, under whose influence the enthusiast of the party grew +inevitably eloquent in the praises of Portugal. + +"I can't tell you how I like it!" she said to Erskine, with a color on +her cheeks and a light in her eyes which alone seemed worth the voyage. +"I call it a real good country, which has never had justice done to it. +If I could write I would boom it. Of course I haven't seen Italy or +Switzerland, nor yet France, but I have seen England. If I were +condemned to live in Europe at all, I'd rather live at this end of it +than at yours, Erskine. Look at the climate--it's as good as our +Australian climate, and very like it--and this is all but November. You +have no such air in England, even in summer, but when you think of what +we left behind us the other day, it's ditch water unto wine compared +with this. Ah, what a day it is, and what a place, and how fresh and +queer and un-English the whole thing is!" + +"I am perhaps spoiling it for you," suggested Erskine apologetically, +"by being not un-English myself?" + +"No, Erskine, it's only me you're spoiling," returned the girl +unexpectedly, and with a grateful smile for Ruth as well. "But I don't +know another Briton--home or colonial--who wouldn't rather spoil the day +and the place for me." + +"That's a pity, because I happen to smell the blood of an Englishman at +this moment--at least I hear his donkey." + +They stopped to listen, and following hoofs were plainly audible. + +"Then he hasn't turned off for the other places!" exclaimed Ruth, +smoothing her skirt. + +Erskine shrugged his shoulders like a native of the country. "No, he is +evidently bound for our port; and as the chances are that he is under +sixteen stone, he's sure to overtake us. It is I that am keeping you all +back." + +"We won't look round," exclaimed Tiny decisively; "and you shall shout +at us in Portuguese as he comes up, and we'll say 'Sim, Senhor!'" + +So they kept their eyes most rigorously in front of them; and such was +the authority of Tiny that Erskine was in the midst of an absurd speech +in Portuguese when they were overtaken. That harangue was interrupted by +the voice of the interloping Englishman; and was never resumed, as the +voice was Lord Manister's. + +The meeting was plainly an embarrassing one for all concerned, but it +had at least the appearance of a very singular coincidence; and nothing +will go further in conversation than the slightest or most commonplace +coincidence. You must be very nervous indeed if you are incapable of +expressing your surprise, of which much may be made, while the little +bit of personal history to follow need not entail a severe intellectual +effort. Lord Manister accounted very simply, if a little eagerly, for +his presence in Portugal; he went on to explain that he had heard much +of Cintra, but not, as he was glad to find, one word too much. +Personally, he was delighted and charmed. Was not Mrs. Holland charmed +and delighted? It was at Ruth's side that Lord Manister rode forward, +falling into the position very naturally indeed. + +Quite as naturally the other two dropped behind. "So now I suppose your +day will be spoilt, Tiny," murmured Erskine, with a wry smile. + +"The day is doomed--unless he has the good taste to see he isn't +wanted." + +"Well, I wouldn't let him see that, even if he does bore you," said +Erskine, who had his doubts on this point. "I don't think he's looking +very well," he added meditatively. + +As for Christina, she was staring fixedly at Lord Manister's back; for +once, however, his excellent attire earned no gibe from her; and while +she was still seeking for some more convincing mode of parading her +immutable indifference toward that young man, a turn in the road brought +them suddenly before the gates of Pena. The four closed up and rode +through the gates abreast; and, presently dismounting, they left their +small steeds to the sticks of the Cintra donkey boys, and walked +together up the broad, sloping path. + +"By the way," remarked Holland, "I was told there was only one other +Englishman in Cintra at the moment--a man of the name of Jackson; have +you arrived this morning?" + +"I am afraid--I'm Jackson!" confessed Manister, with a blush and a noisy +laugh. + +"Oh, I see," said Mr. Holland, laughing also; and he saw a good deal. + +"Of course you have to do that sometimes; I can quite understand it," +Ruth said in a sympathetic voice. "Still I think we must call you Mr. +Jackson!" she added slyly. + +Christina said nothing at all. Her extreme silence and self-possession +hardly tended to promote the common comfort; her only comment on Lord +Manister's alias was a somewhat scornful smile. As they all pressed +upward by well-kept paths, in the shadow of tall fir trees, she kept +assiduously by Erskine's side. The ascent, however, was steep enough to +touch the breath, and conversation was for some minutes neither a +pleasure nor a necessity. Then, above the firs, the palace of Pena +reared hoary head and granite shoulders; for, like the ruined fort +visible from the town below, the palace is built upon the summit of a +rock. Still a steeper climb, and the party stood looking down upon the +fir trees which had just shadowed them, with their backs to the palace +walls, that seem, and often are, a part of the rugged peak itself. For +this is a palace not only founded on a rock, and on the rock's topmost +crag, but the foundation has itself supplied so many features ready-made +that nature and the Moors may be said to have collaborated in its +making. Three of the party, having taken breath, played catch with this +idea; but Christina barely listened. Her attitude was regrettable, but +not unnatural. In the last place on earth where she would have expected +to meet anyone she knew, she had met the last person whom she expected +to meet anywhere. She remembered telling him of her mooted trip to +Portugal with the Hollands, she remembered also his telling her to be +sure to go to Cintra; her recollection of the conversation in question, +and of Lady Almeric's conservatory, where it had taken place, was +sufficiently clear, now that she thought of it; but certainly she had +never thought of it since. Had he? She might have mentioned the time +when the trip was likely to take place; she was not so sure of this, but +it seemed likely; and in that case, was a certain explanation of his +sojourn in Portugal, other than the explanation he had been so careful +to give, either preposterous in itself or the mere suggestion of her own +vanity? + +These questions were now worrying Christina as she had seldom been +worried before, even about Lord Manister, who had been much in her +thoughts for many weeks past. Yet Manister was not the only person on +her mind at the moment. Just before leaving London she had experienced +the fulfillment of a prophecy, by receiving from Countess Dromard a +stare as stony as the pavement they met on, which was near enough to +Piccadilly to inspire a superstitious respect for sibylline Mrs. +Willoughby. In the disagreeable moment following Tiny's thoughts had +flown straight to that lady--indeed her only remark at the time had been +"Good old Mrs. Willoughby!" to which Ruth (who suffered at Tiny's side, +and for her part turned positively faint with mortification) had been in +no condition to reply. Little as she showed it, however, Christina had +felt the affront far more keenly than Ruth--chiefly because she took it +all to herself, and was unable to think it utterly undeserved. In any +event she felt it now. It was but the other day that the countess had +cut her. The wound was still tender; the sight of Lord Manister scrubbed +it cruelly. And long afterward the scar had its own little place among +the forces driving Christina in a certain direction, whether she went on +feeling it or not. + +Hardly less preoccupied than herself was the man whose side Christina +would not leave. Wherefore, though the place was old ground to him, as a +guide he was instructive rather than amusing. He spoke the requisite +Portuguese to the janitors, whose stock facts he also translated into +intelligible English; he led the way up the winding staircase of the +round tower, and from the giddy gallery at the top he did not omit to +point out Torres Vedras and such like landmarks; descending, he had +stock facts of his own connected with chapel and sacristy, but he failed +to make them interesting. A paid guide could not have been more +perfunctory in method, though it is certain that the most entertaining +showmanship would have failed to entertain Erskine's hearers, each one +of whom was more or less nervous and ill at ease. He himself was +thinking only of Christina, who would not leave his side. He saw her +watching Lord Manister; though she would hardly speak to him, he saw +pity in her glance. He heard Lord Manister talking volubly to Ruth; he +did not know about what, and he wondered if Manister knew, himself. +Erskine did not understand. The girl seemed to care, and if she did--if +this thing was to be--he would never say another word against it. If she +cared there would not be another word to say, save in joyous and loving +congratulation. That was the whole question: whether she cared. For the +first time Erskine was not sure; it was a toss-up in his mind whether +Tiny was sure herself. Certainly there seemed to be hope for the man who +was being watched yet avoided; however, Erskine was resolved to give him +the very first opportunity of learning his fate. + +Accordingly he reminded Tiny that he had been carrying the camera ever +since they had dismounted: and was his arm to ache for nothing? The +suggestion of the square tower, with the steps below, as an admirable +target, also came from Erskine. Lord Manister helped to take the +photograph. That, again, was Erskine's doing; and he even did more. When +they all turned their backs on Pena, and their faces to the ruin on the +opposite peak, it was her husband who rode ahead with Ruth. His reward +was the smile of an angel over a lost soul saved. He returned the smile +cynically. But round the first corner he belabored his ass with the +camera legs, and shot ahead, Ruth gladly following. + +In the hollow between the peaks the bridle path passes an ancient and +picturesque mosque, with a lime tree growing in the center; from this +the ruin derives a roof in summer, a carpet in winter, and had now a +little of each. + +"What a romantic place!" said Ruth, peeping in. Her husband had waited +for her to do so. + +"Then let us leave it to more romantic people," he answered, dropping +the tripod in the doorway. "They may like to have a photograph of +it--for every reason! You and I had better climb up to the fort and +chuck stones into Cintra till they come." + +This looked quite possible when at last they sat perched upon the +antique battlements; they seemed so to overhang the little town. Erskine +lit a Portuguese cigarette, which the wind finished for him in a minute. +Ruth kept a hand upon her hat. Then she spoke out, with the wind +whistling between their faces. + +"Erskine, I know what you think--that this isn't an accident!" + +"Of course it isn't." + +"And I dare say you think _I_ have had something to do with it?" + +"Have you, I wonder? You may easily have said that we thought of coming +here--quite innocently, you know." + +"Then I never said so at all. I thought--you know what I thought would +have happened last August. Erskine, I have had absolutely nothing to do +with it this time!" + +"My dear, you needn't say that. I know neither you nor Tiny have had +anything to do with it--so far as you are aware; but Tiny must have told +him we were coming here, and this is his roundabout dodge of seeing her +again. Certainly that looks as if he were in earnest." + +"I always said he was." + +"And as for Tiny, I don't pretend to make her out. You see, they do not +come. I shouldn't be surprised at anything." + +"No more should I; but I should be thankful. Even when I hid things from +you, Erskine, I never pretended I shouldn't be thankful if this +happened, did I? Oh, and you'll be thankful, too, when you see them +happy--as we are happy!" + +Holland sat for some minutes with bent head, picking lichen from +granite. + +"My dear girl," he said at length, and tenderly, "don't let us talk any +more about it. I dare say I have taken a rotten view of it all along. I +only thought--that he didn't deserve her, and that neither of them could +care enough. It seems I was more or less wrong; but there is nothing +further to be said until we know." + +He leant over the battlements, gazing down into the toy town below. Ruth +brooked his silence for a time. Then he heard her saying: + +"They are a very long while. He's certainly helping her to take a +photograph." + +"I hope he'll get a negative," said Erskine, with a laugh. + +They came at last. + +"How long have you been there, Erskine?" shouted Tiny from below. She +held one end of the tripod, by which Manister was tugging her uphill. + +"About ten minutes." + +"Not as much, Erskine," said Ruth. + +"We have been photographing that charming mosque," Manister said, as he +set down the camera and wiped his forehead; "you meant us to, didn't +you, Holland?" + +"Of course I did." + +"And have you got a negative?" asked poor Ruth. + + * * * * * + +"A month to make up her mind!" cried Erskine Holland, on hearing at +second hand what had actually happened in the mosque. "No wonder he +wouldn't stay and dine, and no wonder he is going back to Lisbon +to-morrow. By Jove! he _must_ be fond of her to stand it at all. To go +and wait a month!" + +"He offered to wait six," said Ruth. + +"Then he's a fool," said Erskine quietly. "Tell me, Ruth, is it a thing +one may speak about? One would like, of course, to say something +pleasant. After all, it's very like an engagement, and I could at least +tell her that I like him. I did like him to-day. Under the circumstances +he behaved capitally; only I do think him a fool not to have insisted on +her deciding one way or the other." + +"I don't think I'd mention the matter unless she does," Ruth said +doubtfully. "She told me to tell you she would rather not speak of it at +present. You see she has thought of you already! She says you will find +her the same as ever if only you will try to look as though you didn't +know anything about it. She declares that she means to make the most of +her time for the next month wherever she may be, and she hopes you have +ordered the donkeys for to-morrow. Still she is troubled, and if she +thought you didn't disapprove--if she thought you approved--I can see +that it would make a difference to her. She thinks so much of your +opinion--only she doesn't want to speak to you herself about this until +it is a settled thing. But if you would send her your blessing, dear, I +know she would appreciate that." + +"Then take it to her by all means," said Erskine, heartily enough. "Tell +her I think she is very wise to have left it open--you needn't say what +I think of Manister for letting her do so. But you may say, if she likes +to hear it, that I think him a jolly good fellow, who will make her very +happy if she can really feel she cares for him. Tell her it all hangs on +that. That's what we have to impress upon her, and you're the proper +person to do so. I only felt one ought to say something pleasant. Wait a +moment--tell her I'll do my best to give her a good time until December +if none of us are ever to have one again!" + +Tiny was sitting at the dressing table in her room, slowly and +deliberately burning a photograph in the flame of a candle. The +photograph was on a yellow mount which Ruth remembered, and as she drew +near Tiny turned it face downward to the flame, which smacked still more +of a former occasion. + +"Tiny!" cried Ruth in alarm, laying her hand on the young girl's +shoulder. "What on earth are you burning, dear?" + +"My boats," replied Christina grimly; and turning the photograph over, +the face of Jack Swift was still uncharred. + +"So you've carried _his_ photograph with you all this time?" + +"He is as good a friend as I shall ever have." + +"Then why burn him if he is only a friend?" + +"Perhaps he would like to be more; and perhaps there was once a moment +when he might have been. But now I shall duly marry Lord Manister--if he +has patience." + +"Then why keep poor Lord Manister in suspense, Tiny, dearest?" + +"Because I'm not in love with him; and I question whether he's as much +in love with me as he imagines--I told him so." + +"As it is, you may find it difficult to draw back." + +"Exactly; so I am burning my boats. Jack, my dear, that's the last of +you!" + +Her voice satisfied Ruth, who, however, could see no more of her face +than the curve of her cheek, and beyond it the blackened film curling +from the burning cardboard. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE HIGH SEAS. + + +"He's done it at last!" + +Erskine brandished a letter as he spoke, and then leant back in his +chair with a guffaw that alarmed the Portuguese waiters. The letter was +from Herbert Luttrell, a Cambridge man of one month's standing, of whose +academic outset too little had been heard. His sisters were anxious to +know what it was that he had done at last; they put this question in the +same breath. + +"Oh, it might be worse," said Erskine cheerfully. "He has stopped short +of murder!" + +"We should like to know how far he got," Tiny said, while Ruth held out +an eager hand for the letter. + +"I don't think you must read it, my dear; but the fact is he has at last +filled up somebody's eye!" + +Tiny breathed a sigh of relief. + +"Is he in prison?" asked Ruth. + +"No, not yet; but I am afraid he must be in bad odor, though perhaps not +with everybody." + +"Whose was the eye?" Christina wanted to know. + +"The proctor's!" suggested Ruth. + +"Not yet, again--you must give the poor boy time, my dear. It may be the +proctor's turn next, but at present your little brother has contented +himself with filling the eye of the man who was coaching his college +trials. It's a time-honored privilege of the coach to use free language +to his crew, and it doesn't give offense as a rule; but it seems to have +offended Herbert. Young Australia don't like being sworn at, and Herbert +admits that he swore back from his thwart, and said that he fancied he +was as good a man as the coach, but he hoped to find out when they got +to the boathouse. They did find out; and Herbert has at last filled up +an old country eye; and for my part I don't think the less of him for +doing so." + +"The less!" cried Tiny, whose blue eyes were alight. "_I_ think all the +more of him. I'm proud of Herbs! You have too many of those savage old +customs, Erskine; you need Young Australia to come and knock them on the +head!" + +"Well, as long as he doesn't knock a proctor on the head, as Ruth seems +to fear! If he does that there's an end of him, so far as Cambridge is +concerned. He tells me the eye was unpopular, otherwise I'm afraid he +would have had a warm time of it; though a quick fist and an arm that's +stronger than it looks are wonderful things for winning the respect of +men, even in these days." + +"And mayn't we really see the letter?" Tiny said wistfully. + +Erskine shook his head. + +"I am very sorry, but I'm afraid I must treat it as private. It's a +verbatim report. I can only tell you that Herbert seems to have been +justified, more or less, though he is perhaps too modest to report +himself as fully as he reports the eye. He says nothing else of any +consequence. He doesn't mention work of any kind; but he's not there +only, or even primarily, to pass exams. On the whole, we mustn't fret +about the eye, so long as the dear boy keeps his hands off the +authorities." + +Their hotel was no longer at Cintra, but in Lisbon, where Mr. Holland +was being sadly delayed by the business men of the most unbusinesslike +capital in Europe. Already it was the middle of November. They had left +Cintra as long ago as the 5th of the month, expecting to sail from +Lisbon on the 7th; but out of his experience Erskine ought to have known +better. It is true that on landing in the country he had attended first +to business. The business was connected with the forming of a company +for certain operations on Portuguese territory in the East, the capital +coming from London; a board was necessary in both cities, and very +necessary indeed were certain negotiations between the London directors, +as represented by Erskine Holland, and their colleagues in Lisbon. The +latter had promised to do much while Erskine was at Cintra, and duly did +nothing until he returned; knowing their kind of old, he ought never to +have gone. He quite deserved to have to wait and worry and smoke more +Portuguese cigarettes than were either agreeable or good, with the women +on his hands; with all his knowledge of the country and the people he +might have known very well how it would be--as indeed Erskine was told +in a letter from Lombard Street, where an amusing dispatch of his from +Cintra had rather irritated the senior partners. + +Thus Mr. Holland had his own worries throughout this trip, but it is a +pleasure to affirm that his sister-in-law did not add to them after that +first day at Cintra. Thenceforward she had behaved herself as a +perfectly rational and even a contented being. She had appreciated the +other sights of Cintra even more than Pena (which had hardly been given +a fair chance), and most of all that gorgeous garden of Monserrat, where +the trees of the world are grouped together, and among them the gum +trees which were so dear to Christina. She had even been overcome by a +bloodthirsty desire to witness the bullfight on the Sunday; and Erskine +had taken her, because her present frame was not one to discourage; but +it must be confessed that Tiny was disappointed by the tameness of this +sport rather than revolted by its cruelty. Negatively, she had been +behaving better still; the Cintra donkey, the locality of the English +hotel, and other associations of the first day never once perceptibly +affected either her spirits or her temper. She had shown, indeed, so +dead a level of cheerfulness and good sense as to seem almost +uninteresting after the accustomed undulations; but in point of fact she +had never been more interesting to those in her secret. She had promised +to give Lord Manister his answer in a month, and meanwhile she was +displaying all the even temper and equable spirits of settled happiness. +She ate healthily, she declared that she slept well, and otherwise she +was amazingly and consistently serene. That was her perversity, once +more, but on this occasion her perversity admitted of an obvious +explanation. The explanation was that she had never been in doubt about +her decision, that in her heart she was more than satisfied, and that +she had asked for a month's respite chiefly for freedom's sake. The +matter was discussed no more between the sisters, because Tiny refused +to discuss it, declaring that she had dismissed it from her mind till +December. And to Erskine she never once mentioned it while they were in +Portugal, nor had she the least intention of doing so on the homeward +voyage, which they were able ultimately to make within a week of the +arrival of Herbert's letter. + +But the voyage was rough, and Tiny happened to be a remarkably good +sailor, which made her very tiresome once more. Holland had his hands +full in attending to his wife in the cabin, while keeping an eye on her +sister, who would remain on deck. Through the worst of the weather the +unreasonable girl clung like a limpet to the rail, staring seaward at +the misty horizon, or downward at the milky wake, until her pale face +was red and rough and sparkling with dried spray. + +"I do wish you would come below," Erskine said to her, in a tone of +entreaty, toward dusk on the second day, but by no means for the first +time. "There's not another woman on deck; and you've chosen the one spot +of the whole vessel where there's most motion." + +Until he joined her Tiny had indeed been the only soul on the hurricane +deck, where she stood, leaning on the after-rail, with eyes for nothing +but the steamer's track. They were on the hem of the bay and the wind +was ahead, so the boat was pitching; and you must be a good sailor to +enjoy leaning over the after-rail with this motion--but that is what +Christina was. The wind welded her garments to the wire network +underneath, and loosened her hair, and lit lamps in her ears; but it +seemed that she liked it, and that the long, frothy trail had a strong +fascination for her; for when she answered, it was without lifting her +eyes from the sea. + +"You see, I like being different from other people; that's what I go in +for! Honestly, though, I love being up here, and I think you might let +me stay. However, that's no reason why you should stay too--if it makes +you feel uncomfortable." + +"Thanks, I think I am proof," returned Erskine rather brusquely, for +this is a point on which most men are either vain or sensitive; "but of +course I'll leave you, if you prefer it." + +"On the contrary, I should like you to stay," Christina murmured--in +such a lonely little voice that Erskine stayed. + +It was difficult to believe in this young lady's sincerity, however. She +not only made no further remark herself, but refused to acknowledge one +of Erskine's. Men do not like that, either. Tiny's eyes had never been +lifted from the endless race of white water, now rising as though to +their feet, now sinking from under them as the steamer labored end on +to the wind. Apparently she had forgotten that Erskine was there, as +also that she had asked him to remain. He was on the point of leaving +her to her reverie when she swung round suddenly, with only one elbow on +the rail, and looked up at him with a pout that turned slowly to a +smile. + +"Erskine, you've come and spoilt everything!" + +"My dear child, I told you I would go if you liked, you know." + +"Ah, that was too late; you'd spoilt it then. It won't come back." + +"Do you mean that I have broken some spell? If that's the case I am very +sorry." + +"That won't mend it--you can't mend spells," said Tiny, laughing +ruefully. "Perhaps it's as well you can't; and perhaps it's a good thing +you came," she added more briskly. "I had humbugged myself into thinking +I was on my way back to Australia. That was all." + +"But if I were to go mightn't you humbug yourself again?" + +"I don't think I want to," the girl answered thoughtfully; "at any rate +I don't want you to go. Don't you think it's jolly up here? To me it's +as good as a gallop up the bush--and I think we're taking our fences +splendidly! But it was jollier still thinking that England was over +there," nodding her head at the wake, "and that every five minutes or so +it was a mile further away--instead of the other thing." + +"Poor old England!" + +"No, Erskine, I meant a mile nearer Australia--that was the jolly +feeling," Tiny made haste to explain. "You know I didn't mean anything +else--you know how I have enjoyed being with you and Ruth. Only I can't +help wishing I was on my way back to Melbourne instead of to Plymouth. +I'd give so much to see Australia again." + +"Well, so you will see it again." + +Her eyes sped seaward as she shook her head. + +"Why on earth shouldn't you?" said Erskine, laughing. + +"You know why." + +Now he saw her meaning, and held his tongue. This was the subject on +which he understood it to be her desire that they should not speak. To +himself, moreover, it was a highly unattractive topic, and he was +thoroughly glad to have it ignored as it had been; but if she alluded to +the matter herself that was another thing, and he must say something. +So he said: + +"Is it really so certain, Tiny?" + +"On my part absolutely. I'm only climbing down!" + +Erskine was reminded of the pleasant things he had thought of saying to +her at Cintra; they had been by him so long that he found himself saying +them now as though he meant every word. + +"My congratulations must keep till the proper time; but when that comes +they may surprise you. My dear girl, I should like you to understand +that you're not the only person whose opinion has changed since we were +at Essingham. If I may say so at this stage of the proceedings, and if +it is any satisfaction to you to hear it, I for one am going to be very +glad about this thing, I think him such a first-rate fellow, Tiny!" + +For a moment Christina gazed acutely at her brother-in-law. "I wonder if +that's sincere?" she said reflectively. Then her eyes hurried back to +the sea. + +"I think he's a very good fellow indeed," said Erskine with emphasis. + +The girl gave a little laugh. "Oh, he's all that; the question is +whether that's enough." + +"It is, if he really loves you--as I think he must." + +"Oh, if it's enough for him to be in love!" + +There followed a great pause, during which the thought of pleasant +things to say was thrown overboard and left far astern. + +"I only hope," Erskine said at last, with an earnest ring in his voice +which was new to Christina, "that you are not going to make the greatest +mistake of your life!" + +"I hope not also." + +"Ah, don't make light of it!" he cried impetuously. "If you marry +without love you'll ruin your life, I don't care who it is you marry! To +marry for affection, or for esteem, or for money--they're all equally +bad; there is no distinction. Take affection--for a time you might be as +happy as if it were something more; but remember that any day you might +see somebody that you could really love. Then you would know the +difference, and it would embitter your whole existence with a quiet, +private, unsuspected bitterness, of which you can have no conception. +And so much the worse if you have married somebody who is honestly and +sufficiently fond of you. His love would cut you to the heart--because +you could only pretend to return it--because your whole existence would +be a living lie!" + +He was extremely unlike himself. His voice trembled, and in the dying +light his face was gray. These things made his words impressive, but the +girl did not seem particularly impressed. Had she remembered the one +previous occasion when a similar conversation had taken place between +them, the strangeness of his manner must have been driven home to her by +contrast; but the contrast was a double one, and her own share in it +kept her from thinking of the time when she had been serious and he had +not, and now, when he was more serious than she had ever known him, she +met him with a frivolous laugh. + +"Well, really, Erskine, I've never heard you so terribly in earnest +before! I think I had better not tell Ruth what you have said; my dear +man, you speak as though you'd been there!" + +It was some time before he laughed. + +"If only you yourself would be more in earnest, Tiny! You may say this +comes badly from me. I know there has been more jest than earnest +between me and you. But if I was never serious in my life before I am +now, and I want you, too, to take yourself seriously for once. You see, +Tiny, I am not only an old married man by this time, but I am your +European parent as well. I am entitled to play the heavy father, and to +give you a lecture when I think you need one. My dear child, I have been +in the world about twice as long as you have, and I know men and have +heard of women who have poisoned their whole lives by marrying with love +on the other side only; and the greater their worldly goods, the greater +has been their misery! And rather than see you do as they have done----" +The sentence snapped. "You shan't do it!" he exclaimed sharply. "You're +far too good to spoil yourself as others have done and are doing every +day." + +"Who told you I was good?" inquired Christina, with a touch of the +coquetry which even with him she could not entirely repress. "You never +had it from me, most certainly. Let me tell you, Erskine, that I'm +bad--bad--bad! And if I haven't shocked you sufficiently already it is +evidently time that I did; so you'll please to understand that if I +marry Lord Manister it is partly because I think I owe it to him; +otherwise it's for the main chance purely. And I think it's very unkind +of you to make me confess all this," she added fretfully. "I never meant +to speak to you about it at all. Only I can't bear you to think me +better than I am." + +Erskine shook his head sadly. + +"At least you have a better side than this, Tiny--this is not you at +all! You love and admire all that is honest and noble, and fresh and +free; you should give that love and admiration a chance. But I'm not +going to say any more to worry you. If you really, with your eyes open, +are going to marry a man whom you do not love, I can only tell you that +you will be doing at best a very cynical thing. And yet--I can +understand it." This he added more to himself than to the girl. + +He was turning away, but she laid a restraining hand upon his arm. + +"Don't go," she exclaimed impulsively. "I can't let you go when--when +you understand me better than anyone else ever did--and when I am never, +never going to speak to you like this again." + +"If only I could help you!" + +"You cannot!" Tiny cried out. "I'm too far gone to be helped. I feel +hopelessly bad and hard, and nobody can mend that. But if there's one +grain of goodness in my composition that wasn't there when I came over +to England, you may know, Erskine, if you care to know it, that it's +you, and you alone, who have put it there!" + +"Nonsense," he said; "what good have I done you?" + +"You have talked sense to me, as only one other man ever did--and he +wasn't as clever as you are. You've given me books to read, and they're +the first good books I ever read in my life; you have dug a sort of +oyster knife into my miserable ignorance! You have been a real good pal +to me, Erskine, and you must never turn your back on me, whatever I do. +I know you never will. I believe in you as I believe in very few people +on this footstool; but there's one thing you can do for me now that will +be even kinder than anything that you have ever done yet." + +"There's nothing that I wouldn't do for you, Tiny," said Erskine +tenderly. "What is it?" + +The corners of her mouth twitched--her eyes twinkled. + +"It's not to say another serious word to me this month! I know I began +it this time; I won't do so again. I'm trying to be happy in my own way, +if you'll only let me. I'm trying to make the most of my time. When I'm +really engaged I shall need all the help and advice you can give me; for +I mean to be very good to him, Erskine; I do indeed! Then of course I +shall need to cultivate the finest manners; but until it actually comes +off I'm trying to forget about it--don't you see? I'm doing my level +best to forget!" + +What Erskine saw was the tears in her eyes, but he saw them only for an +instant; instead of his leaving Christina on the deck it was she who +left him; and there he stood, between the high seas and the gathering +shades of night, until both were black. + +It was their last conversation of the kind. + +One more night was spent at sea; the next they were all back in +Kensington. Here they were greeted with a pleasant surprise: Herbert was +in the house to meet them. Cambridge seemed already to have done him +good; he was singularly polite and subdued, though a little +uncommunicative. They, however, had much to tell him, so this was not +noticed immediately. His sisters supposed that he was in London for the +night only, as he said he had come down from Cambridge that day. It was +not until later that they knew that he had been sent down. Erskine broke +the news to them. + +"I'm afraid," he added, "that they've sent him down for good and all. +The fact is, Ruth, your fears have been realized. He has done his best +to fill another eye; and this time the proctor's! He says he shall go +back to Melbourne immediately." + +"Never!" cried Ruth; and she went straight to her brother, who was +smoking viciously in another room. + +"Yes, by ghost!" drawled Herbert through his hooked nose. "I'm going to +clear out. I'm full up of England, Ruth, and I guess England's full up +of me. The best thing I can do is to go back, and turn boundary rider or +whim driver. That's about all I'm fit for, and it's what I'm going to +do. The _Ballaarat_ sails on the 2d--I've been to the office and taken +my berth already. My oath, I drove there straight from Liverpool Street +this afternoon!" + +Nor was there any moving him from his purpose, though Ruth tried for +half an hour there and then. Twice that time Herbert spent afterward in +Tiny's room; but it was not known whether Tiny also had attempted to +dissuade him. When he left her the girl stood for five minutes with a +foot on the fender and an elbow on the mantelpiece. Then she sought Ruth +in haste. + +Ruth had just gone upstairs. Erskine was surprised to see her back in +his study almost immediately, and startled by her mode of entrance, +which suggested sudden illness in the house. + +"What in the world has happened?" he said, sitting upright in his chair. + +"Happened?" cried Ruth bitterly. "It is the last straw! I give her up. I +wash my hands of her. I wish she had never come over!" + +"Tiny? Why, what has she been doing now?" + +"It isn't what she has been doing--it is what she says she's going to +do. You may be able to bring her to reason, but I never shall. I won't +try--I wash my hands of her. I will say no more to her. But it is simply +disgraceful! She is far worse than Herbert!" + +"Has she unmade her mind," Holland asked eagerly. + +"No, no, no! But worse, I call it. O Erskine, if you knew what she +says----" + +"I am waiting to hear." + +"You'll never guess!" + +"No, I give it up." + +"So must Tiny--I never heard a madder idea in my life!" + +"Than _what_, my dear?" + +"Her going out with Herbert in the _Ballaarat_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING. + + +December was at hand soon enough, and with the month came Lord Manister +for his answer. Though more than slightly nervous he entered the modest +house in Kensington with his head very high; and certain inappropriate +sensations visited him during the few minutes he was kept waiting in the +drawing room. He did not sit down. Then it was Tiny Luttrell who opened +the door, and those sensations made good their escape from a bosom in +which they had no business. In the living presence of the person one +proposes to marry there are some misgivings that had need be +impossible--Christina little suspected her privilege of shutting the +door on Manister's with her own hand. He sat down at her example. + +But if he was nervous so was she, and as he came bravely to the point +she found it more and more difficult to meet his hungry eyes. It was +rather rare for Christina to experience any difficulty of the kind. She +rose, and stood in front of the fire, with her back to the room and Lord +Manister. There, with her forehead resting on the rim of the mantelpiece +(for Tiny that was not far to bend), and while the hot fire scorched her +plain gray skirt and gave a needed color to the downcast face, she heard +what Manister had to say. Soon she knew that he was saying it with his +elbow on one end of the mantelpiece; and liked him for facing her so, +and compelling her to face him. But when she found him waiting for his +answer, she gave him it without lifting her eyes from the fire. + +"No!" + +He had asked her whether she had been able to make up her mind. The +answer she had given was, indeed, the truth; but it had been prepared +for a more conclusive question. She was vexed with him for the question +he had chosen to put first; and the more so because it had snatched from +her an admission which she had not intended to make. But she had not +made up her mind--that was the simple truth; and now she trusted that he +would make up his. + +Instead of which he said sadly, after a pause: + +"I wanted to give you six months!" + +"It was very wrong of you to give me one," she answered with startling +ingratitude. + +"Why wrong?" + +"You might have seen that I was unworthy of you." + +"I might have given up loving you, I suppose, in a second!" + +"I wish you would----" + +"I never shall!" + +"If you ever began," Christina added to her own sentence. At last her +face was raised, and now it was his eyes that fell before the cool +acumen of her smile. + +"You don't believe in me yet!" he groaned. "Not yet, though I wait, +wait, wait." + +"No one asked you to wait," Lord Manister was reminded. + +"But you see that I can't help it! You see that I am miserable about +you!" + +This indeed was sufficiently plain; and the sight of his misery was +softening Christina by degrees. She said more kindly: + +"Listen to me, Lord Manister. It is a month since you saw me. At this +moment you may feel what you are saying. Very well, then, you _do_ feel +it; but have you felt it throughout the last month? Have you felt so +patient--you are far too patient--all the time? Has it never seemed to +you that my keeping you in doubt, even for one month, was a piece of +impertinence you ought never to have stood? Wouldn't your friends simply +think you mad if they knew how you were allowing me to use you? Haven't +you yourself occasionally remembered who you are, and who I am, and +burst out laughing? I must say I have; it sometimes seems to me so +utterly absurd---- And you see you can't answer my questions!" + +He could not; one after another they had penetrated to the quick. + +"They are not fair questions," Manister said doggedly. "What may have +crossed my mind when I have felt worried and wretched has nothing to do +with it. Isn't it enough that I tell you I can wait your own good +time--that I feel a pride in waiting, now we are together and I am +looking in your eyes?" + +"No, I don't think that's quite enough," replied Christina softly. "It +would hardly be enough, you know, if you only felt me worth waiting for +while you were with me. That would mean that for some reason I +fascinated you. And fascination isn't love, Lord Manister. I don't want +to be rude--much less unkind--but I can't believe that you have ever +been really in love with me; I simply can't!" + +Yet she had never felt so near to that belief before. Her words, +however, helped Lord Manister back to his dignity. + +"Of course you must believe only what you choose," said he loftily. "One +cannot force you to believe in one's sincerity. I suppose I spoilt you +for believing in mine some time since. At all events you were fond of me +once! Only a month ago you liked me all but well enough to marry me. Yet +now you do not know!" + +"Therefore the decision is left to you, Lord Manister; you must give me +up." + +"Never! while you are free." + +His teeth were clenched. + +"But do consider. Most probably I shall never care enough for you to +marry you. And oh! I wonder how you can look at me when no other girl in +the world would refuse you!" + +"Can't you see that this is part of your charm?" cried the young man +impulsively. "You are the one girl I know who is not worldly. You are +the one girl I want!" + +Christina shook her head. + +"If I have any charm at all, you oughtn't to know what it is--you ought +to love me you can't say why--there's no sizing up real love!" she +informed him rapidly, but with a smile. "There's another thing, too. You +cannot be used to being treated as I have treated you in many ways. I +have often been intensely rude to you. I can't help thinking there must +be a good deal of pique in your feeling toward me." + +"There is more real love," returned Manister, "if I know it!" + +"I wonder if you do know it?" said the girl, with a laugh; but she was +wondering very seriously in her heart. He protested no more; she liked +him for that, too, as also for the briskness in his tone and manner when +he spoke next. + +"You say you don't care for me enough, and you say I don't care for you +properly, and we won't argue any more about either matter for the +moment." He had flung back his head from the hand that had shaded his +eyes; his elbow remained on the chimney-piece, but now he was standing +erect. "There is something else," said Lord Manister, "that has +prevented you from coming to a decision." + +"There is certainly one thing that has had something to do with it." + +"May I ask what it is?" + +"Certainly, Lord Manister. I am going back to Australia." + +"Soon?" This was after a pause, during which their eyes had not met. + +"Sooner than was intended." + +"Is it--is it for any special reason that--that you have kept from me?" + +He was agitated by a sudden thought, which she read. She shook her head +reassuringly. + +"No, it is not to get married, nor yet engaged." + +"Then there is no one out there?" + +"There is no one anywhere that I could marry for love. That's the simple +truth. I am going back to Australia because Herbert is going. Cambridge +doesn't suit him, and I'm sorry to say he doesn't suit Cambridge. We +came over together, so we are going back together. That, I promise you, +is the whole and only explanation. I myself did not want to go so +soon." + +"But surely you are not going this year?" + +"We are--before Christmas." + +As Tiny spoke her glance went to the window: she was very anxious to see +the snow before she sailed, but none had fallen yet, though December had +come in dull and raw. + +"But your people here must be very much against that?" + +"They were, but now it is settled." + +"You must have promised to come back!" + +Christina seemed surprised. + +"Yes, I said I would come back some day." + +"And you shall!" cried Manister passionately. "You shall come back as my +wife! Do you suppose I am going to stop short at this, when but for your +brother you would have been mine to-day? I don't mean to say he has +influenced you, except by going back so soon; you love Australia, and +you must needs go back with him. Then go! I told you to take six months; +you have taken one of them. When the other five are up I am coming to +you again wherever you may be. Till then I will take no answer; and +whatever it may be in the end I bow to it--I bow to it!" + +His passion surprised and even moved Christina; but his humility stirred +up in her soul a contempt which mingled strangely with her pity. Women +of spirit cannot admire the man who will submit to anything at their +hands. Christina would willingly have given admiration in exchange for +the love in which she was beginning to believe; it would have pleased +her sense of justice, it would have promoted her self-respect to make +some such small payment on account. With Manister's patience she had +none at all. She was disappointed in him. Her foot tapped angrily on the +fender. + +"But I don't want you to wait!" exclaimed Christina ungraciously. "I +have told you so already." + +"Still I mean to do so, and it serves me right." + +This touched her generosity. + +"Ah, don't say that!" she cried earnestly. "Oh, Lord Manister, I have +forgotten all old scores--I never think of them now! The balance has +been the other way so long; and I do not deserve another chance." + +"Ah, but Tiny--darling--it is I who am asking for that!" + +His tone compelled her to meet his gaze--its intensity made her wince. + +"You believe in me!" he cried joyously. "Say only that you believe in +me, and I will go away now. I will go away happy and proud--to wait--for +you." + +Then Tiny laid her little hand on his arm, and her eyes that had filled +with tears answered him to his present satisfaction. He held her hand +for just a few seconds before he went, and in kindness she returned his +pressure. Then the shutting of the front door down below made her +realize that he was gone. And she had time to dry her eyes and to gather +herself together before Ruth, whose hopes had been dead some days, came +into the room with a dejected mien and pointedly abstained from asking +questions. + +"If it interests you to hear it," Tiny said lightly, "I am converted to +your creed at last; I believe in Lord Manister!" + +"But you are not engaged to him," Ruth said wearily; "I see you are +not." + +"I am not; but he insists on waiting. If only he wasn't so tame! But I +can't help believing in him now; and that settles it." + +"Nothing is settled until you are engaged," said the matter-of-fact +sister, with a sigh. + +"Nevertheless I'm going to try with all my might to care for him, now +that I see that he must really care for me. And let me tell you that I +shall consider myself all the more bound to him because I haven't _said_ +yes, and because we're _not_ actually engaged!" + +"Yes?" said the other incredulously. "That is so like you, Tiny!" + +And Ruth almost sneered. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +COUNSEL'S OPINION. + + +The worst of it all was this: that the young man himself had not +invariably that confidence in his own affections which displayed itself +so bravely and so convincingly at a psychological moment. Not that +Manister was insincere, exactly. If you come to think of it, you may +deceive others with perfect innocence, having once deceived yourself. +And this was exactly what had happened. + +There was one distinctive feature of the case: away from Christina +Luttrell the poor fellow had already had his doubts of himself; in her +presence those doubts were as certain to evaporate as snowflakes in the +warmth of the sun. + +Even as he went down Mrs. Holland's stairs Manister was joined by +certain invisible companions--the misgivings that had made their escape +as Christina entered the room. They had waited for him on the landing +outside the door. They led and followed him downstairs. They linked +arms with him in the street. They stifled him in his hansom, which they +boarded ruthlessly. In one of the silent rooms of the club to which he +drove they talked to him silently, sitting on the arms of his +saddle-back chair and arguing all at once. Powerless to shake them off +he was forced to bear with them, to hear what they had to say, to answer +them where he could. + +Mingling with the importunate voices of his inner consciousness were the +remembered words of the girl. She had asked him whether he had never +burst out laughing as the affair presented itself in certain lights; he +did so now, silently, it is true, but with exceeding bitterness. She had +told him that it was not enough that he should feel willing to wait for +her when they were together; and now that he had left her, though so +lately, he was certainly less inclined to be patient. She had suggested +that he was more fascinated than in love; and already he knew that her +suggestion had given shape and utterance to a vague suspicion of his own +soul. She had gone so far as to hint at the possible secret of his +infatuation, and there again she had hit the mark; though apart from +her talent of torture her sweet looks and charming ways had been strong +wine to Manister from the first. Still her snubs had piqued his passion +in the beginning of things out in Melbourne; and here in Europe she had +virtually refused him three times. Modest he might be, and yet know that +this were a rare experience for such as himself at the hands of such as +Tiny Luttrell. On the whole, the experience was sufficiently complete as +it stood; yet he could not help wishing to win; indeed, he had gone too +far to draw back, and for that reason alone the idea of defeat in the +end was intolerable to him. And this was the one spring of his actions +which seemed to have escaped Christina's notice; the others she had +detected with an acuteness which made him wonder, for the first time, +whether on her very merits she would be a comfortable person to live +with, after all. + +Gradually, however, these echoes of the late interview grew fainter in +his ears, and its upshot came home to Manister with sensations of +chagrin sharper than any he had endured in all his life before. His +feelings when refused by this girl in the previous August, and under +peculiarly humiliating circumstances, were enviable compared with his +feelings now. Then he had deserved his humiliation--at least he was +generous enough to say so--and he had taken what he called his +punishment in a very manly spirit. But the desire to win had sent him on +a secret mission to Cintra, on the chance of seeing her there, and his +present feelings reminded him of those with which he had beaten his +retreat from Portugal. For he had gone there for a final answer, and had +come back without one; and to-day he had suffered afresh that selfsame +humiliation, only in an aggravated form, and more voluntarily than ever. +She had never asked him to wait; he had offered on both occasions to +wait six months--nay, he had insisted on waiting. Even now, within a +couple of hours after the event, he could scarcely credit his own +weakness and stultification. He was by no means so weak in affairs +wherein the affections played no part. He firmly believed that no other +woman could have twisted him round her finger as this one had done. But +here, perhaps, we have merely the everyday spectacle of a young man +discerning exceptional excuses for a realized infirmity; and the point +is that Manister realized his weakness this evening as he had never +done before. The girl herself had made him look inward. She had +suggested fascination, not love. That suggestion stuck painfully. Yet he +was not sure. + +Never had he felt so horribly unsure of himself; in the midst of his +self-distrust there came to him, suddenly, the recollection that she +distrusted him no longer, and there was actually some comfort in this +thought, which is strange when you note its fellows, but due less to the +contradictoriness of human nature than to the supremacy of a young man's +vanity. He stood well with her now. She believed in him at last. Propped +up by these reflections, he began almost to believe in himself. At least +a momentary complacency was the result. + +The improvement in his spirits allowed Lord Manister to give heed to +another portion of his organism which had for some time been inviting +him to go into another room and dine. Now he did so, with a sharp eye +for acquaintances, whom he had no desire to meet. For this reason he had +driven to the club which he had joined most recently; it was not a young +man's club, so he felt fairly safe from his friends. Yet he had hardly +ordered his soup, and was searching the wine list for the choice brand +which the circumstances seemed to demand, when a heavy hand dropped upon +his shoulder, and his glance leapt from the wine list to the last face +he expected or wished to see--that of his kinsman Captain Dromard. + +Captain Dromard was a cousin of the present earl, and notoriously the +rolling stone of his house. Manister had seen him last in Melbourne, and +ever since had borne him a grudge which he was not likely to forget. Had +he dreamt that the captain (who had been last heard of in Borneo) was in +London, Manister would have shunned this club in order to avoid the risk +of meeting him; but it seemed that Captain Dromard had landed in England +only that morning: and they dined together, of course; and Manister made +the best of it. His kinsman was a big, grizzled, florid man, with an +imperial, and with a comic wicked cut about him which made one laugh. +But he retained an unpleasant trick of treating Manister as a mere boy: +for instance, he was in time to choose the brand, and, as he said before +the waiter, to prevent Manister from poisoning himself. He was, +however, an entertaining person, and at his best to-night, being wont to +delight in London for a day or two before realizing the infernal +qualities of the climate and arranging fresh travels. But Manister was +not entertained; he tried to appear so, but the captain saw through the +pretense, and immediately scented a woman. There were reasons why the +rolling stone was particularly good at detecting this element--which +always interested him. His interest was unusual in the present instance, +owing to certain reminiscences of Manister in Melbourne during his own +flying visit to that port. It was during a subsequent week-end in +England that Captain Dromard had alarmed the countess, with a result of +which he was as yet unaware; but he did not hesitate to make inquiries +now, and he began by asking Manister how he had managed to get out of +the scrape in which he had left him. + +"I remember no scrape," said Manister stiffly. + +"You don't? Well, perhaps I put it too strongly," conceded the captain. +"We'll say no more about it, my boy. Devilish pretty little thing, +though; remember her well, but could never recall her name. By the bye, +I'm afraid I terrified your mother over that; feared she was going to +cable you home next day; was sorry I spoke." + +"So was I," Manister said dryly, but, by an effort, not forbiddingly, so +that the captain saw no harm in raising his glass. + +"Well, here's to the lady's health, my boy, whoever she was, and +wherever she may be!" + +Manister smiled across his glass and drained it in silence. There was a +glitter in his young eyes which made it difficult for the captain to +drop the subject finally. Manister had been drinking freely, without +becoming flushed, which is another sign of trouble. The captain could +not help saying confidentially: + +"You know, Harry, your mother was so keen for you to marry one of old +Acklam's daughters. That's what frightened her. But it is to come off +some day, isn't it?" + +"Can't say," said Lord Manister. + +"It ought to, Harry. I like to see a young fellow with your position +marry properly, and settle down. I don't know which of the Garths it is, +but I've always heard one of 'em was the girl you liked." + +"Suppose the girl you like won't marry you?" Manister exclaimed, with a +sudden change of manner, and in the tone of one consulting an authority. + +"Well, there's an end on't." + +"Ah, but suppose she can't make up her mind?" + +"You might give her a month--though I wouldn't." + +"Suppose a month is not enough for her?" + +The captain stared; his bronzed forehead became barred with furrows; his +eyes turned stony with indignation. + +"A month not enough for her to make up her mind--about you?" he said at +length incredulously. "Good God, sir, see her to the devil!" + +Then Lord Manister showed his teeth. Though he had consulted the +captain, he took his advice badly. He said you could not be much in love +to be choked off so easily; he hinted that his kinsman had never been +much in love. Captain Dromard intimated in reply that whether that was +the case or not he was not without experience of a sort, and he could +tell Harry that no woman under heaven was worth kneeling in the mud to, +which Harry said hotly was unnecessary information. So they went +elsewhere to smoke, and later on to a music hall, the subject having +been left for good in the club coffee room. The following afternoon, +however, Lord Manister drove through the snow with a very resolute front +to show to Tiny Luttrell, who was just then passing Deal in the +_Ballaarat_, without having given him the faintest notion yesterday that +she was to sail to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +IN HONOR BOUND. + + +Aboard the _Ballaarat_ Christina committed a new eccentricity, but it +may be well to state at once, a perfectly harmless one. She confided in +another girl--a practice which Tiny had avoided all her life. And this +very girl had offended her at first sight by looking aggressively happy +when the boat sailed and all nice women were in tears. + +There had been a time when Christina seldom cried, but in England she +had grown very soft in some ways, and she looked her last at it, and at +the snow that had fallen in the night as if to please her, through +blinding tears. She had never in her life felt more acutely wretched +than when saying good-by to Ruth and Erskine, and her sorrow was +heightened by the feeling that she had been both unkind and ungrateful +to Ruth, to whom she clung for forgiveness at the last moment. The +reason why her parting words were jocular, though broken, was because +the sight of an honest, smiling face, which might have blushed for +smiling then, sent a fleam of irritation through her heart that awoke +the latent mischief in her wet eyes. + +"I do wish you would ask Erskine to throw a snowball at that depressing +person," she whispered to Ruth, "who does nothing but laugh and look +really happy! If it was only put on for the sake of her friends I could +forgive her; but it isn't. Tell him I mean it--there's no fun in me +to-day; and you may also tell him that it would have been only brotherly +of him to kiss me on this occasion, when we may all be going to the +bottom!" + +Erskine, who had crossed the gangway before his wife, so that she need +not feel that he overheard her final words to her own kin, shook his +head at Tiny when Ruth joined him on the quay. But his smile was +lifeless; there was no fun in him either to-day. He drew his wife's arm +through his own, and Tiny saw the last of them standing together thus. +They stood in snow and mud, but the railway shed behind them was a great +sheet of unsullied whiteness, softly edging the bright December sky, and +Christina never forgot her first glimpse of the snow and her last of +Ruth and Erskine. When their figures were gone and only the snow was +left for Christina's eyes, they filled afresh, and she broke hastily +from Herbert, who was himself uncommonly dejected. She hurried +unsteadily to her cabin, to find her cabin companion singing softly to +herself as she unstrapped her rugs; for her cabin companion was, of +course, the odiously cheerful person who already on deck had done +violence to Christina's feelings. + +Thus the acquaintance began in a particularly unpromising manner; but +the cheerful person turned out to be as bad a sailor as Christina was a +good one, and she met with much practical kindness at Christina's hands, +which had a clever, tender way with them, though in other respects the +good sailor was not from the first so sympathetic. It is harder than it +ought to be to sympathize with the seasick when one is quite well one's +self; still Christina found it impossible not to admire her +extraordinary companion, who kept up her spirits during a whole week +spent in her berth, and was more cheerful than ever at the end of it, +when she could scarcely stand. Then Christina expressed her admiration, +likewise her curiosity, and received a simple explanation. The cheerful +person was on her way to Colombo and the altar-rails. Her _trousseau_ +was in the hold. + +The two became exceeding fast friends, and their friendship was founded +on mutual envy. Tiny was envied for the various qualities which made her +greatly admired on board, for that admiration itself, and for the marked +manner in which she paid no heed to it; and she envied her friend a very +ordinary love story, now approaching a very ordinary end. The cheerful +girl was plain, unaccomplished, and not at all young. But there was one +whom she loved better than herself; she was properly engaged; she was +happy in her engagement; her soul was settled and at peace. Also she was +good, and Christina envied her far more than she envied Christina, who +would listen wistfully to the commonplace expression of a commonplace +happiness, but was herself much more reserved. It was only when the +other girl guessed it that she admitted that she also was "as good as +engaged." The other girl clamored to know all about it; and ultimately, +in the Indian Ocean, she discovered that Christina was not the least in +love with the man to whom she was as good as engaged. Then this honest +person spoke her mind with extreme freedom, and Christina, instead of +being offended, opened her own heart as freely, merely keeping to +herself the man's name and never hinting at his high degree. She +declared that she was morally bound to him, adding that she had treated +him badly enough already; her friend ridiculed the bond, and told her +how she would be treating him worse than ever. Christina argued--it was +curious how fond she was of arguing the matter, and how she allowed +herself to be lectured by a stranger. But these two were not strangers +now; the cheerful girl was the best friend Tiny had ever made among +women. They parted with a wrench at Colombo, where Tiny saw the other +safely into the arms of a gentleman of a suitably happy and ordinary +appearance; and so one more friend passed in and out of the young girl's +life, leaving a deeper mark in the three weeks than either of them +suspected. + +The rest of the voyage dragged terribly with Christina, which is an +unusual experience for the prettiest girl aboard an Australian liner; +only on this voyage the prettiest girl was also the most unsociable. +Beyond her late companion (whose berth remained empty to depress +Christina whenever she entered the cabin) Miss Luttrell had formed few +acquaintances and no friendships between London and Colombo; between +Colombo and Melbourne she simply preyed upon herself. Herbert +remonstrated with her, and the third officer--who had been fourth on the +boat in which they had come over--was excessively interested, +remembering the difference six months earlier. Then, indeed, Christina +had found a good deal to say to all the officers, including the captain, +whom she had chaffed notoriously; but now she would stay out late and +alone on the starlit deck without ever breaking the rules by conversing +with the officer of the watch (her pet trick formerly), and only the +third, who knew her of old, had the right to bid her good-day. Tiny's +cheerful friend had left her wretched and apprehensive. She saw the +Southern Cross rise out of the Southern Sea without a thrill of welcome, +but rather with a vague dismay; from the after-rail she said good-by to +the Great Bear with a shudder at the thought of seeing it again. Neither +end of the earth presented a very peaceful prospect to Christina as she +hovered between the two on the steamer's deck. She had quite made up her +mind to return to England, however, and to reward Lord Manister's +long-suffering docility by marrying him at the end of the six months. +Meanwhile she would enjoy Australia and tell only one of her friends +there. One she must tell, and with her own lips, in case she should be +misjudged. And thinking not a little of her own justification, she +invented a small sophistry with which to defend herself as occasion +might arise. She argued that two men were in love with her, that she +herself was in love with neither, but that she liked one of them too +well to marry him without love. Therefore, she said, the easiest way out +of it was to marry the other, who not only had less in him to satisfy, +but who had more to give in place of real happiness. She was proud of +this argument. She was sorry it had not occurred to her before stopping +at Colombo--forgetting that she had told her friend of only one man who +was in love with her. But the heart starves on sophistry with nothing to +it; and with Christina the voyage dragged cruelly to its end. + +But the moment she landed in Melbourne a good thing happened to +her--she was snatched out of herself. A common shock and anxiety awaited +both Christina and Herbert Luttrell: they found their mother in tears +over a piece of very bad news from Wallandoon. It seemed that Mr. +Luttrell had gone up to the station the week before to choose the site +for a well which he was about to sink at considerable expense, and that +he was now lying at the old homestead with a broken leg, the result of a +buggy accident with a pair of young horses. He was able to write with +his own hand in pencil, and he mentioned that Swift had fetched a +surgeon from the river in the quickest time ever known; that the surgeon +had set the leg quite successfully, so that there was no occasion for +anxiety, though naturally he should be unable to leave Wallandoon for +some weeks. He expressed forcibly the hope that his wife would not think +of joining him there; she was not strong enough, and he needed no +attention. Nevertheless, had the _Ballaarat_ arrived one day later, Mrs. +Luttrell would have gone. Her two children were in time to restrain her, +but only by undertaking to go instead. Before they could realize that +they had spent an afternoon and a night in Melbourne they had left the +city and had embarked on an inland voyage of five hundred miles up +country. + +So their first full day ashore was spent in a railway carriage; but all +that night the stars were in their eyes, and the gum trees racing by on +either hand, and the warm wind fanning their faces, because Tiny would +never travel inside the coach. They were back in Riverina. The Murray +coiled behind them; the Murrumbidgee lay before. And the night after +that they were creeping across the desert of the One Tree Plain, with +the Lachlan lying ahead and the Murrumbidgee left behind. Here the +leather-hung coach labored in the mud, for the Lachlan district was +suffering before it could profit from a rather heavy rainfall three days +old; and the driver flogged seven horses all night long instead of +mildly chastening five, and the girl at his side could not have slept if +she had tried, but she did not try. To her the night seemed too good to +miss. The stars shone brilliantly from rim to rim of the unbroken plain, +and upward from the overflowing crab-holes, and even in the flooded +ruts, where the coach wheels split and scattered them like quicksilver +beneath the thumb. There was no conversation on the coach. On the eve +of facing his father Herbert was rehearsing his defense, while Tiny was +just reveling in the night, and feeling very happy, so she said. + +For a couple of hours before dawn they rested at Booligal. But Booligal +is notorious for its mosquitoes, and there had been three inches of rain +there, so the rest was a mockery. Tiny had a bed to lie down on, but she +did not lie long. She was found by Herbert (who smoked six pipes in +those two hours), leaning against one of the veranda posts as if asleep +on her feet, but with eyes fixed intently upon a dull, reddening arc on +the very edge of the darkling plain. + +"By the time we get there," said Herbert severely, "you'll be just about +dished! What on earth are you doing out here instead of taking a spell +when you can get it?" + +"I'm watching for the sun," murmured Christina, without moving. "It's a +regular Australian dawn; you never saw one like it in England. Here the +sun gets up in the middle of the night, and there he very often doesn't +get up at all. Oh, but it's glorious to be back--don't _you_ think so, +old Herbs?" + +"I might--if it wasn't for the governor." + +Tiny flushed with shame. She had forgotten the accident. Being reminded +of it she turned her back on the sunrise in deep contrition, but she had +not taken Herbert's meaning. + +"I funk facing him," said he gloomily. "I have nothing to say for +myself, and if I had a fellow couldn't say it with the poor governor +lying on his back." + +"Poor old Herbs!" said Tiny kindly. "I don't think you have much to +fear, however. It was our mistake in wanting you to go to Cambridge when +you'd been your own boss always. You were born for the bush--I'm not +sure that we both weren't!" + +He did not hear her sigh. + +"It's all very well for you to talk, Tiny! You haven't to make your +peace with anybody--you haven't to confess that you've made a ghastly +fool of yourself!" + +"Have I not?" exclaimed the girl bitterly. + +"I thought you weren't going to mention his name?" Herbert said in +surprise. + +"No more I am," replied Tiny, recovering herself. "So, as you say, it is +all very well for me to talk." And as she turned a ball of fire was +balanced on the distant rim of the plain, and the arc above was now a +semicircle of crimson, which blended even yet with the lingering shades +of night. + +Even Herbert was not in all Tiny's secrets. He never dreamt that she had +before her an ordeal far worse than his own. When they sighted the +little township where the station buggy always met the coach, he thought +her excitement due to obvious and natural causes. The township roofs +gleamed in the afternoon sun for half an hour before one could +distinguish even a looked-for object, such as a buggy drawn up in the +shade at the hotel veranda. Herbert had time to become excited himself, +in spite of the ignoble circumstances of his return. + +"I see it!" he exclaimed with confidence, at five hundred yards. "And +good old Bushman and Brownlock are the pair. I'd spot 'em a mile off." + +"Can you see who it is in the buggy?" asked Tiny, at two hundred. She +was sitting like a mouse between Herbert and the driver. + +"I shall in a shake; I think it's Jack Swift." + +He did not know how her heart was beating. At fifty yards he said, "It +isn't Swift; it's one of the hands. I've never seen this joker before." + +"Ah!" said Tiny, and that was all. Herbert had no ear for a tone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A DEAF EAR. + + +The manager of Wallandoon was harder at work that afternoon than any man +on the run. This was generally the case when there was hard work to be +done; when there was not, however, Swift had a way of making work for +himself. He had made his work to-day. Nothing need have prevented his +meeting the coach himself; but it had occurred to Swift that he would be +somewhat in the way at the meeting between Mr. Luttrell and his +children, while with regard to his own meeting with Christina he felt +much nervousness, which night, perhaps, would partly cloak. This, +however, was an instinct rather than a motive. Instinctively also he +sought by violent labor to expel the fever from his mind. He was +absurdly excited, and his energy during the heat of the day was little +less than insane. So at any rate it seemed to the youth who was helping +him by looking on, while Swift covered in half a tank with brushwood. +The tank had been almost dry, but was newly filled by the rains, and the +partial covering was designed to delay evaporation. But Swift himself +would execute his own design, and thought nothing of standing up to his +chest in the water, clothed only in his wide-awake, though he was the +manager of the station. The young storekeeper did not admire him for it, +though he could not help envying the manager his thick arms, which were +also bronzed, like the manager's face and neck, and in striking contrast +to the whiteness of his deep chest and broad shoulders. There had been a +change in storekeepers during recent months, a change not by any means +for the better. + +Near the tank were some brushwood yards, which were certainly in need of +repairs, but the need was far from immediate. Swift, however, chose to +mend up the fences that night, while he happened to be on the spot, and +his young assistant had no choice but to watch him. It was dark when at +last they rode back together to the station, silent, hungry, and not +pleased with one another; for Swift was one of those energetic people +whom it is difficult to help unless you are energetic yourself; and the +new storekeeper was not. This youth did little for his rations that day +until the homestead was reached. Then the manager left him to unsaddle +and feed both horses, and himself walked over to the veranda, whence +came the sound of voices. + +Mr. Luttrell was lying in the long deck chair which had been procured +from a neighboring station, and Herbert was smoking demurely at his +side. Christina was not there at all. + +"You will find her in the dining room," Mr. Luttrell said, as his son +and the manager shook hands. "She has gone to make tea for you; she +means to look after us all for the next few weeks." + +The dining room was at the back of the house, and as Swift walked round +to it he stepped from the veranda into the heavy sand in which the +homestead was planted. He could not help it. His love had grown upon him +since that short week with her, nine months before. He felt that if his +eyes rested upon her first he could take her hand more steadily. So he +stood and watched her a moment as she bent over the tea table with +lowered head and busy fingers, and there was something so like his +dreams in the sight of her there that he almost cried out aloud. Next +instant his spurs jingled in the veranda. She raised her head with a +jerk; he saw the fear of himself in her eyes--and knew. + +It did not blind him to her haggard looks. + +When they had shaken hands he could not help saying, "It is evident that +the old country doesn't agree with you, as you feared." And when it was +too late he would have altered the remark. + +"Seeing that it's six weeks since I left it, and that I have been +traveling night and day since I landed, you are rather hard on the old +country." + +So she answered him, her fingers in the tea caddy, and her eyes with +them. The lamplight shone upon her freckles as Swift studied her +anxiously. Perhaps, as she hinted, she was only tired. + +"I say, I can't have you making tea for me!" Swift exclaimed nervously. +"You are worn out, and I am accustomed to doing all this sort of thing +for myself." + +"Then you will have the kindness to unaccustom yourself! I am mistress +here until papa is fit to be moved." + +And not a day longer. He knew it by the way she avoided his eyes. Yet he +was forced to make conversation. + +"Why do you warm the teapot?" + +"It is the proper thing to do." + +"I never knew that!" + +"I dare say it isn't the only thing you never knew. I shouldn't wonder +if you swallowed your coffee with cold milk?" + +"Of course we do--when we have coffee." + +"Ah, it is good for you to have a housekeeper for a time," said +Christina cruelly, she did not know why. + +"It's my firm belief," remarked Swift, "that you have learnt these +dodges in England, and that you did _not_ detest the whole thing!" + +The words had a far-away familiar sound to Christina, and they were +spoken in the pointed accents with which one quotes. + +"Did I say I should detest the whole thing?" asked Christina, marking +the tablecloth with a fork. + +"You did; they were your very words." + +"Come, I don't believe that." + +"I can't help it; those were your words. They were your very last words +to me." + +"And you actually remember them?" + +She looked at him, smiling; but his face put out her smile, and the wave +of compassion which now swept over hers confirmed the knowledge that had +come to him with her first frightened glance. + +The storekeeper, who came in before more was said, was the unconscious +witness of a well-acted interlude of which he was also the cause. He +approved of Miss Luttrell at the tea tray, and was to some extent +recompensed for the hard day's work he had not done. He left her with +Swift on the back veranda, and they might have been grateful to him, for +not only had his advent been a boon to them both at a very awkward +moment, but, in going, he supplied them with a topic. + +"What has happened to my little Englishman?" Christina asked at once. "I +hoped to find him here still." + +"I wish you had. He was a fine fellow, and this one is not." + +"Then you didn't mean to get rid of my little friend?" + +"No. It's a very pretty story," Swift said slowly, as he watched her in +the starlight. "His father died, and he went home and came in for +something; and now that little chap is actually married to the girl he +used to talk about!" + +Tiny was silent for some moments. Then she laughed. + +"So much for my advice! His case is the exception that proves my rule." + +"I happen to remember your advice. So you still think the same?" + +"Most certainly I do." + +He laughed sardonically. "You might just as well tell me outright that +you are engaged to be married." + +The girl recoiled. + +"How do you know?" she cried. "Who has told you?" + +"You have--now. Your eyes told me twenty minutes ago." + +"But it isn't true! Nobody knows anything about it! It isn't a real +engagement yet!" + +"I have no doubt it will be real enough for me," answered Swift very +bitterly; and he moved away from her, though her little hands were +stretched out to keep him. + +"Don't leave me!" she cried piteously. "I want to tell you. I will tell +you now, if you will only let me." + +He faced about, with one foot on the veranda and the other in the sand. + +"Tell me," he said, "if it is that old affair come right; that is all I +care to know." + +"It is; but it hasn't come right yet--perhaps it never will. If only you +would let me tell you everything!" + +"Thank you; I dare say I can imagine how matters stand. I think I told +you it would all come right. I am very glad it has." + +"Jack!" + +But Jack was gone. In the starlight she watched him disappear among the +pines. He walked so slowly that she fancied him whistling, and would +have given very much for some such sign of outward indifference to show +that he cared; but no sound came to her save the chirrup of the +crickets, which never ceased in the night time at Wallandoon. And that +made her listen for the champing of the solitary animal in the horse +yard, until she heard it, too, and stood still to listen to both noises +of the night. She remembered how once or twice in England she had seemed +to hear these two sounds, and how she had longed to be back again in the +old veranda. Now she was back. This was the old, old veranda. And those +two old sounds were beating into her brain in very reality--without +pause or pity. + +"Why, Tiny," said Herbert later, "this is the second time to-day! I +believe you _can_ sleep on end like a blooming native-companion. You're +to come and talk to the governor; he would like you to sit with him +before we carry him into his room." + +"Would he?" Tiny cried out, and a moment later she was kneeling by the +deck chair and sobbing wildly on her father's breast. + +"Just because I told her she'd dish herself," remarked Herbert, looking +on with irritation, "she's been and gone and done it. That's still her +line!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +SUMMUM BONUM. + + +For a month Christina declined to leave her father's side, much against +his will, but the girl's will was stronger. She was as though tethered +to the long deck chair until the lame man became able to leave it on two +sticks. Then she flew to the other extreme. + +North of the Lachlan the recent rains had been less heavy than in Lower +Riverina. On Wallandoon less than two inches had fallen, and by February +it was found necessary to resume work at the eight-mile whim. But the +whim driver had gone off with his check when the rain gave him a +holiday, and he had never returned. There was a momentary difficulty in +finding a man to replace him, and it was then that Miss Tiny startled +the station by herself volunteering for the post. At first Mr. Luttrell +would not hear of the plan, but the manager's opinion was not asked, and +he carefully refrained from giving it, while Herbert (who was about to +be intrusted with a mob of wethers for the Melbourne market) took his +sister's side. He pointed out with truth that any fool could drive a +whim under ordinary circumstances, and that, as Tiny would hardly +petition to sleep at the whim, the long ride morning and evening would +do her no harm. Mr. Luttrell gave in then. He had tried in vain to drive +the young girl from his side. She had watched over him with increasing +solicitude, with an almost unnatural tenderness. She had shown him a +warmer heart than heretofore he had known her to possess, and an amount +of love and affection which he felt to be more than a father's share. He +did not know what was the matter, but he made guesses. It had been his +lifelong practice not to "interfere" with his children; hence the +earliest misdeeds of his daughter Tiny; hence, also, the academic career +of his son Herbert. Mr. Luttrell put no questions to the girl, and none +concerning her to her brother, which was nice of him, seeing that her +ways had made him privately inquisitive; but he took Herbert's advice +and let Christina drive the eight-mile whim. + +The experiment proved a complete success, but then plain whim driving +is not difficult. Christina spent an hour or so two or three times a day +in driving the whim horse round and round until the tank was full, after +which it was no trouble to keep the troughs properly supplied. The rest +of her time she occupied in reading or musing in the shadow of the tank; +but each day she boiled her "billy" in the hut, eating very heartily in +her seclusion, and delighting more and more in the temporary freedom of +her existence, as a boy in holidays that are drawing to an end. The whim +stood high on a plain, the wind whistled through its timbers, and each +evening the girl brought back to the homestead a higher color and a +lighter step. In these days, however, very little was seen of her. She +would come in tired, and soon secrete herself within four newspapered +walls; and she went out of her way to discourage visitors at the whim. +Of this she made such a point that the manager, on coming in earlier +than usual one afternoon, was surprised when Herbert, whom he met riding +out from the station, informed him that he was on his way to the +eight-mile to look up the whim driver. Herbert seemed to have something +on his mind, and presently he told Swift what it was. He had awkward +news for Tiny, which he had decided to tell her at once and be done with +it. But he did not like the job. He liked it so little that he went the +length of confiding in Swift as to the nature of the news. The manager +annoyed him--he had not a remark to make. + +Herbert rode moodily on his way. He was sorry that he had spoken to +Swift (whose stolid demeanor was a surprise to him, as well as an +irritation); he had undoubtedly spoken too freely. With Swift still in +his thoughts, Luttrell was within a mile of the whim, and cantering +gently, before he became aware that another rider was overtaking him at +a gallop; and as he turned in his saddle, the manager himself bore down +upon him with a strange look in his good eyes. + +"I want you to let me--tell Tiny!" Jack Swift said hoarsely, as Herbert +stared. Jack's was a look of pure appeal. + +"You?" + +"Yes----You understand?" + +"That's all right! I thought I couldn't have been mistaken," said +Herbert, still looking him in the eyes. "By ghost, Jack, you're a +sportsman!" + +He held out his hand, and Swift gripped it. In another minute they were +a quarter of a mile apart; but it was Swift who was riding on to the +whim, very slowly now, and with his eyes on the black timbers rising +clear of the sand against the sky. He could never look at them without +hearing words and tones that it was still bitter to remember; and now he +was going--to break bad news to Tiny? That was his undertaking. + +He found the whim driver with her book in the shadow of the tank. + +"Good-afternoon," Christina said very civilly, though her eyebrows had +arched at the sight of him. "Have you come to see whether the troughs +are full, or am I wanted at the homestead?" + +"Neither," said Swift, smiling; "only the mail is in, and there are +letters from England." + +"How good of you!" exclaimed the girl, holding out her hand. + +Swift was embarrassed. + +"Now you will pitch into me! I haven't seen the letters, and I don't +know whether there is one for you: but I met Herbert, and he told me he +had heard from your sister; and--and I thought you might like to hear +that, as I was coming this way." + +"It is still good of you," said Christina kindly; and that made him +honest. + +"It isn't a bit good, because I came this way to speak to you about +something else." + +"Really?" + +"Yes, because one sees so little of you now, and soon you will be going. +The truth is something has been rankling with me ever since the night +you arrived--nothing you said to me; it was my own behavior to you----" + +"Which wasn't pretty," interrupted Tiny. + +"I know it wasn't; I have been very sorry for it. When you offered to +tell me about your engagement I wouldn't listen. I would listen now!" + +"And now I shouldn't dream of telling you a word," Tiny said, staring +coolly in his face; "not even if I _were_ engaged." + +"Well, it amounts to that," Swift told her steadfastly, for he knew what +he meant to say, and was not to be deterred by the snubs and worse to +which he was knowingly laying himself open. + +"Pray how do you know what it amounts to?" + +"On your side, at any rate, it amounts to an engagement; for you +consider yourself bound." + +"Upon my word!" cried Tiny hastily. "Do you mind telling me how you come +to know so much about my affairs?" + +"I am naturally interested in them after all these years." + +"How very kind of you! How interested you were when I foolishly offered +to tell you myself! So you have been talking me over with Herbert, have +you?" + +"We have spoken about you to-day for the first time; that is why I'm +here." + +Christina was white with anger. + +"And I suppose," she sneered, "that you have told him things which I +have forgotten, and which you might have forgotten as well!" + +"I don't think you do suppose that," Swift said gently. "No, he merely +told me about your engagement." + +"Then why do you want me to tell you?" + +"Because you alone can tell me what I most want to know." + +"Oh, indeed!" + +"Yes--whether you are happy!" + +She had found her temper, which enabled her to put a keener edge on the +words, "That, I should say, is not your business"; and she stared at +Swift coldly where he stood, with his hands behind him, looking down +upon her without wincing. + +"I am not so sure," said he sturdily. "I loved you dearly; _I_ could +have made you happy." + +"It is well you think so," was the best answer she could think of for +that; and she did not think of it at once. "Do you know who he is?" she +added later. + +"Herbert told me. It seems you have tampered with a splendid chance." + +"I have tampered with three. I shall jump at the next--if I get +another." + +"And if you don't?" + +Involuntarily she drew a deep breath at the thought. Her head was +lifted, and her blue eyes wandered over the yellow distance of the +plains with the look of a prisoner coming back into the world. + +"Nobody could blame him," she said at last, "and I should be rightly +served." + +Swift crouched in front of her, almost sitting on his heels to peer into +her face. + +"Tiny," he suddenly cried, "you don't love him one bit!" + +"But I think he loves me," she answered, hanging her head, for he held +her hand. + +"Not as I do, Tiny! Never as I have done! I have loved you all the time, +and never anyone but you. And you--you care for me best; I see it in +your eyes; I feel it in your hand. Don't you think that you, too, may +have loved me all the time?" + +"If I have," she murmured, "it has been without knowing it." + +It was without knowing it that she trod upon the truth. Their voices +were trembling. + +"Darling," he whispered, "this would be home to you. It's the same old +Wallandoon. You love it, I know; and I think--you love----" + +She snatched her hand from his, and sprang to her feet. He, too, rose +astounded, gazing on every side to see who was coming. But the plain was +flecked only with straggling sheep, bleating to the troughs. His gaze +came back to the girl. Her straw hat sharply shadowed her face like a +highwayman's mask, her blue eyes flashing in the midst of it, and her +lips below parted in passion. + +"You? I hate you! I _do_ consider myself bound, and you would make me +false--you would tempt me through my love for the bush, for this +place--you coward!" + +Swift reddened, and there was roughness in his answer: + +"I can't stand this, even from you. I have heard that all women are +unfair; you are, certainly. What you say about my tempting you is +nonsense. You have shown me that you love me, and that you don't love +the other man; you know you have. You have now to show whether you have +the courage of your love--to give him up--to marry me." + +This method must have had its attractions after another's; but it hurt, +because Tiny was sensitive, with all her sins. + +"You have spoken very cruelly," she faltered, delightfully forgetting +how she had spoken herself. "I could not marry anyone who spoke to me +like that!" + +"Oh, forgive me!" he cried, covered with contrition in an instant. "I am +a rough brute, but I promise----" He stopped, for her head had drooped, +and she seemed to be crying. He stood away from her in his shame. "Yes, +I am a rough brute," he repeated bitterly; "but, darling, you don't know +how it roughens one, bossing the men!" + +Still she hung her head, but within the widened shadow of her hat he saw +her red mouth twitching at his clumsiness. Yet, when she raised her +face, her smile astonished him, it was so timorous; and the wondrous +shyness in her lovely eyes abashed him far more than her tears. + +"I dare say--I need that!" he heard her whisper in spurts. "I think I +should like--you--to boss--me--too." + + * * * * * + +These things and others were tersely told in a letter written in the hot +blast of a north wind at Wallandoon, and delivered in London six weeks +later, damp with the rain of early April. The letter arrived by the last +post, and Ruth read it on the sofa in her husband's den, while Erskine +paced up and down the room, listening to the sentences she read aloud, +but saying little. + +"So you see," said Ruth as she put the thin sheets together and replaced +them in their envelope, "she accepted him before she knew of Lord +Manister's engagement. _He_ knew of it, and had undertaken to tell her, +but that was only to give himself a last chance. Had she heard of it +first he would never have spoken again." + +"I question that," Erskine said thoughtfully. "He might not have spoken +so soon; but his love would have proved stronger than his pride in the +end. Yet I like him for his pride. That was what she needed, and what +Manister lacked. It is very curious." + +"I wonder if you really would like him," said Ruth, who no longer cared +for the sound of Lord Manister's name. "I don't remember much about him, +except that we all thought a good deal of him; but somehow I don't fancy +he's your sort." + +"I wasn't aware that I had a sort," Erskine said, smiling. + +"Oh, but you have. _I_ am not your sort. But Tiny was!" + +He laughed heartily. + +"Then we four have chosen sides most excellently! It is quite fatal to +marry your own sort. Didn't you know that, my dear?" + +"No, I didn't," said Ruth, watching him from the sofa; "but I am very +glad to hear it, and I quite agree. You and Tiny, for instance, would +have jeered at everything in life until you were left jeering at one +another. Don't you think so?" she added wistfully, after a pause. + +"I think you're an uncommonly shrewd little person," Erskine remarked, +smiling down upon her kindly, so that her face shone with pleasure. + +"Do you?" she said, as he helped her to rise. "You used to think me so +dense when Tiny was here; and I dare say I was--beside Tiny." + +"My dearest girl," said Erskine, taking his wife in his arms, and +speaking in a troubled tone, "you have never said that sort of thing +before, and I hope you never will again. Tiny was Tiny--our Tiny--but +surely wisdom was not her strongest point? She amused us all because she +wasn't quite like other people; but how often am I to tell you that I am +thankful you are not like Tiny?" + +"Ah, if you really were!" Ruth whispered on his shoulder. + +"But I always was," he answered, kissing her; and they smiled at one +another until the door was shut and Ruth had gone, for there was now +between them an exceeding tenderness. + +Ruth had left him her letter, so that he might read it for himself; but +though he lit a pipe and sat down, it was some time before Erskine read +anything. Had Ruth returned and asked him for his thoughts, he would +have confessed that he was wondering whether Tiny's husband would +understand the girl he had managed to tame; and whether he had a fine +ear for a joke. As wondering would not tell him, he at length turned to +the letter; and that did not tell him either; but before he turned the +first of the many leaves, it was as though the child herself was beside +him in the room. + +The qualities she mentioned in her beloved were all of a serious +character, and the praises she bestowed upon him, at her own expense, +were a little tiresome to one who did not know the man. Erskine turned +over with excusable impatience, and was rewarded on the next page by a +sufficiently just summary of Lord Manister; even here, however, Tiny +took occasion to be very hard on herself. She declared--possibly she +would have said it in any case, but it happened to be true--that she had +never loved Lord Manister. On the way she had ill-used him she harped no +more; his own solution of his difficulties had, indeed, broken that +string. But she spoke of her "temptation" (incidentally remarking that +the hall windows haunted her still), and said she would perhaps have +yielded to it outright but for her visit to Wallandoon before sailing +for England; and that she would certainly have done so at the third +asking had it not been for that stronger temptation to go back with +Herbert to Australia. As it was, she had gone back fully determined to +marry Lord Manister in the end. And if that decision had been furthered +to the smallest extent by any sort of consideration for another, she did +not say so; neither did she seek to defend her own behavior at any +point, for this was not Tiny's way. However, with Jack she had burned to +justify herself, because love puts an end to one's ways. She had longed +to tell him everything with her own lips, and to have him forgive and +excuse her on the spot. This she admitted. But she denied having known +what her unreasonable longing really was. Did Ruth remember the "burning +of the boats" at Cintra? Well, she had spoken the truth about Jack then; +she had never "known" until the night of her last arrival at the +station; she had never been quite miserable until the succeeding days. +Reverting to Manister, she supposed the discovery of her departure the +day after their interview--in which she had studiously refrained from +revealing its imminence--had proved the last straw with him; she added +that such a result had been vaguely in her mind at the time, but that +she had never really admitted it among her hopes. Yet it seemed she had +cured him just when she gave him up for incurable--and how thankful she +was! A well-felt word about Lord Manister's future happiness and so on +led her to her own; and Erskine slid his eye over that, but had it +arrested by a loving little description of the old home to which she was +coming back for good. It was a hot wind as she wrote, and the beginning +of a word dried before she got to the end of it--so she affirmed. The +roof was crackling, and the shadows in the yard were like tanks of ink. +Out on the run the salt-bush still looked healthy after the rains. She +had given up whim driving; the manager had put in his word. But she was +taking long rides, all by herself; and the lonely grandeur of the bush +appealed to her just as it had when she first came back to it nearly a +year ago; and the deep sky and yellow distances and dull leaves were all +her eyes required; and she thought this was the one place in the world +where it would be easy to be good. + +The letter came rather suddenly to its end. There were some very kind +words about himself, which Erskine read more than once. Then he sat +staring into the fire, until, by some fancy's trick, the red coals +turned pale and took the shape of a girl's sweet face with blemishes +that only made it sweeter, with dark hair, and generous lips, and eyes +like her own Australian sky. And the eyes lightened with fun and with +mischief, with recklessness, and bitterness, and temper; and in each +light they were more lovable than before; but last of all they beamed +clear and tranquil as the blue sea becalmed; and in their depths there +shone a soul. + + +THE END. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been changed. + +In Chapter VI, ="It was not nonsense!" be cried.= was changed to ="It was +not nonsense!" he cried.= + +In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after =Oh, it's all +that.= + +In Chapter XVII, a missing quotation mark was added after =You shan't do +it!= + +In Chapter XVIII, =there are some migivings= was changed to =there are some +misgivings=. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tiny Luttrell, by Ernest William Hornung + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TINY LUTTRELL *** + +***** This file should be named 37320.txt or 37320.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37320/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Steven desJardins, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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