The Star-Gazers Part 32

"They say the smell of the fir is healthy, and does a man good," said Rolph. "I'll have a good sniff or two."

There was more of the odour of tobacco, though, than of the pines, as with his footsteps deadened by the soft, half-decayed vegetable matter, he threaded his way amongst the tall trunks.

"Humph! moon rising! see the gates!" said Rolph, with a satisfied air, as if the great yellow orb, slowly rising above the wood and darting horizontal rays through the pines, were illumining the path for his special benefit. Then he looked at his watch. "Ten minutes too soon.

But I dare say she's waiting. If this place were mine I should have all these trees cut down for timber and firewood. Fetch a lot!"

The wondrous effects of black velvety darkness and golden lines of light were thrown away upon the young baronet, who saw in the pale gilding of the tree-trunks only so much to avoid.

All at once his thoughts took a turn in another direction, and unwittingly he began to ponder upon the intimacy that had grown up between the people at the Hall and the Alleynes.

"It's a great mistake, and I don't like it," Rolph said to himself.

"That fellow hangs about after Glynne like some great dog. I shall have to speak to the old man about it. Glynne doesn't see it, of course, and I don't mean that she should, but it gets to be confoundedly unpleasant to a--to a thoughtful man--to a man of the world. Wiser, perhaps, to have a few words with the fellow himself, and tell him what I think of his conduct. I will too," he said, after a pause. "He is simply ignorant of the common decencies of society, or he wouldn't do it. I shall--What the devil's he doing here--come to watch?"

Rolph stopped short, completely astounded upon seeing, not two yards away, the statue-like figure of Alleyne, with arms folded, leaning against a tree, thoroughly intent upon his thoughts.

For some time neither Rolph nor Alleyne spoke, the latter being profoundly ignorant of the presence of the former.

The shadows of the fir wood, as well as those of Alleyne's mind, were to blame for this, for where Rolph had paused the moonbeams had not touched, and though Alleyne's eyes were turned in that direction, they were filmed by the black darkness of the future, a deep shadow that he could not pierce. But by degrees, as the great golden s.h.i.+eld, whose every light or speck was as familiar to him as his daily life, swept slowly on, a broad bar of darkness pa.s.sed to his left, revealing first a part, then the whole of Sir Robert Rolph's figure, as he stood scowling there, his hands in his pockets, and puff after puff of smoke coming from his lips.

Some few moments glided by before Alleyne realised the truth. He had been thinking so deeply--so bitterly of his rival, that it seemed as if his imagination had evoked this figure, and that his nerves had been so overstrained that this was some waking dream.

Then came the reaction, making him start violently, as Rolph emitted a tremendous cloud of smoke, and then said shortly, without taking his cigar from his lips,--

"How do?"

"Captain Rolph!" cried Alleyne, finding speech at last. "That's me.

Well, what is it?" There was another pause, for what appeared to be an interminable time. Alleyne wished to speak, but his lips were sealed.

Years of quiet, thoughtful life had made him, save when led on by some object in which he took deep interest, slow of speech, while now the dislike, more than the disgust this man caused him, seemed to have robbed him of all power of reply.

"Confounded cad!" thought Rolph; "he is watching;" and then, aloud, "Star-gazing and mooning?"

The bitterly contemptuous tone in which this was said stung Alleyne to the quick, and he replied, promptly,--

"No."

There was something in that tone that startled Rolph for the moment, but he was of too blunt and heavy a nature to detect the subtle meaning a tone of voice might convey, and, seizing the opportunity that had come to him, he ran at it with the clumsiness of a bull at some object that offends its eye.

"Hang the cad, there couldn't be a better chance," he said to himself; and, adopting the att.i.tude popular with cavalry officers not largely addicted to brains, he straddled as if on horseback, and setting his feet down as though he expected each heel to make the rowel of a spur to ring, he walked straight up to Alleyne, smoking furiously, and puffed a cloud almost into his face.

"Look here, Mr--Mr--er--Alleyne," he said, loudly, "I wanted to talk to you, and present time seems as suitable as any other time."

Alleyne had recovered himself, and bowed coldly.

"I was not aware that Captain Rolph had any communication to make to me," he said quietly.

"S'pose not," replied Rolph, offensively; "people of your cla.s.s never do.--Hang the cad! He is spying so as to get a pull on me," he muttered to himself.

"I'm just in the humour, and for two pins I'd give him as good a thras.h.i.+ng as I really could."

"Will you proceed," said Alleyne, in whose pale cheeks a couple of spots were coming, for it was impossible not to read the meaning of the other's words and tone.

"When I please," said Rolph, in the tone of voice he would have adopted towards some groom, or to one of the privates of his troop.

Alleyne bowed his head and stood waiting, for he said to himself--"I am in the wrong--I am bitterly to blame. Whatever he says, I will bear without a word."

A deep silence followed, for, though Rolph pleased to speak, he could not quite make up his mind what to say. He did not wish to blurt out anything, he told himself, that should compromise his dignity, nor yet to let Alleyne off too easily. Hence, being unprepared, he was puzzled.

"Look here, you know," he said at last, and angrily; for he was enraged with himself for his want of words, "you come a good deal to Sir John's."

"Yes, I am invited," said Alleyne, quietly.

Rolph's rehearsal was gone.

"I'll let him have it," he muttered; "I'm not going to fence and spar.

Yes," he cried aloud, "I know you are. Sir John's foolishly liberal in that way; but you know, Mr Allen, or Alleyne, or whatever your name is, I'm not blind."

Alleyne remained silent; and, being now wound up, Rolph swaggered and straddled about with an imaginary horse between his legs.

"Look here, you know, I don't want to be hard on a man who is ready to own that he is in the wrong, and apologises, and keeps out of the way for the future; but this sort of thing won't do. By Jove, no, it sha'n't do, you know. I won't have it. Do you hear? I won't have it."

Something seemed to rise to Moray Alleyne's throat--some vital force to run through his nerves and muscles, making them twitch and quiver, as the young officer went on in an increasingly bullying tone. For some moments Alleyne, of the calm, peaceful existence, did not realise what it meant--what this sensation was; but at last it forced itself upon him that it was the madness of anger, the fierce desire of a furious man to seize an enemy and struggle with him till he is beaten down, crushed beneath the feet.

As he realised all this he wondered and shrank within himself, gazing straight before him with knitted brows and half-closed eyes.

"You see," continued Rolph, "I always have my eyes open--make a point of keeping my eyes open, and it's time you understood that, because Miss--"

"Silence!" cried Alleyne fiercely. "What! What do you mean?" cried Rolph, as if he was addressing some delinquent in his regiment.

"Confound it all! How dare you, sir! How dare you speak to me like that?"

"Say what you like, speak what you will to me," said Alleyne, excitedly, "but let that name be held sacred. It must not be drawn into this quarrel."

"How dare you, sir! How dare you!" roared Rolph. "What do you mean in dictating to me what I should say? Name held sacred? Drawn into this-- what do you say--quarrel. Do you think I should stoop to quarrel with you?"

Alleyne raised one hand deprecatingly. "I'd have you to know, sir, that I am telling you that I am not blind,"--he repeated this as if to mend his observations--"I tell you to keep away from the Hall, and to recollect that because a certain lady has condescended to speak to you in the innocency of her heart--yes, innocency of her heart," he repeated, for it was a phrase that pleased him, and sounded well--"it is not for you to dare to presume to talk to her as you do--to look at her as you do--or to come to the Hall as you do. I've watched you, and I've seen your looks and ways--confound your insolence! And now, look here, if ever you dare to presume to speak to Miss--to the lady, I mean, as you have addressed her before, I'll take you, sir, and horsewhip you till you cannot stand. Do you hear, sir; do you hear? Till you cannot stand."

Alleyne stood there without speaking, while this brutal tirade was going on. His breast heaved, and his breath was drawn heavily; but he gave no sign, and presuming upon the success that had attended his speaking, Rolph continued with all the offensiveness of tone and manner that he had acquired from his colonel, a rough, overbearing martinet of the old school.

"I cannot understand your presumption," continued Rolph. "I cannot understand of what you have been thinking, coming cringing over to the Hall, day after day, forcing your contemptible twaddle about stars and comets, and such far-fetched nonsense upon unwilling ears. Good heavens, sir! are you mad, or a fool?--I say, do you hear me--what are you, mad or a fool?"

Still Alleyne did not reply, but listened to his rival's words with so bitter a feeling of anguish at his heart, that it took all his self-command to keep him from groaning aloud.

And still Rolph went on, for, naturally sluggish of mind, it took some time to bring that mind, as he would have termed it, into action. Once started, however, he found abundance of words of a sort, and he kept on loudly, evidently pleased with what he was saying, till once more he completed the circle in which he had been galloping, and ended with,--

"You hear me--thrash you as I would a dog."

Rolph had run down, and, coughing to clear away the huskiness of his throat, he muttered to himself,--