Thereby Hangs a Tale Part 33

"If ever there was a coward, Lloyd, you are one," she said, with a bitter sneer.

"Yes," said the butler. "I suppose I am, for I can't bear the idea of anything happening now. Then people say we're unnatural to poor Humphrey."

"Poor Humphrey again!" exclaimed Mrs Lloyd, angrily; "let people talk about what they understand. I should like for any one to say anything to me."

"But Martha," said Lloyd, after a pause. "Well?"

"You'll not be rash in the morning--don't peril our position here out of an angry feeling."

"You go to sleep," was the uncompromising response.

And sighing wearily, the butler did go to sleep, his wife sitting listening hour after hour till nearly two, when there was the sound of a door opening, a burst of voices, steps in the hall, "Good nights!"

loudly uttered, Pratt going upstairs to his room, whistling number one of the Lancers-quadrilles with all his might. Then came the closing of bedroom doors and silence.

Mrs Lloyd sat for ten minutes more, then, taking her candle, she walked softly downstairs; went round dining- and drawing-rooms and study, examining locks, bolts, and shutters, and then went to the butler's pantry, gave a drag at the handle of the iron plate-closet, to satisfy herself that all was right there, and lastly made for the smoking-room.

"Like a public-house," she muttered, as she crossed the hall, turned the handle with a s.n.a.t.c.h, and threw open the door, to find herself face to face with Trevor, who was sitting at a table writing a letter.

"Mrs Lloyd!"

"Not gone to bed!"

The couple looked angrily at each other for a few moments, and then Trevor said, sternly--

"Why are you downstairs at this time of the night, Mrs Lloyd?"

"The morning you mean, sir," said the housekeeper. "What am I down for?" she continued, angrily; "to see that the house is safe--that there's no fire left about--that doors are fastened, so that the house I've watched over all these years isn't destroyed by carelessness, and all going to rack and ruin."

Trevor jumped up with an angry exclamation on his lips; but he checked it, and then spoke, quite calmly--

"Mrs Lloyd, I should be perfectly justified in speaking to you perhaps in a way in which you have never been spoken to before."

"Pray do, then, Master--sir," jerked out Mrs Lloyd, looking white with anger.

"In half a dozen things during the past evening you have wilfully disobeyed my orders. Why was this?"

"To protect your interests and property," exclaimed the housekeeper.

"Giving me credit for not knowing my own mind, and making me look absurd in the eyes of my friends."

"I didn't mean to do anything of the kind, sir," said Mrs Lloyd, stoutly.

"I'll grant that; and that you did it through ignorance," said Trevor.

"I don't want to see the place I've taken care of for years go to ruin,"

said Mrs Lloyd.

"I'll grant that too," said Trevor, "and that you and your husband have been most faithful servants, and are ready at any time to give an account of your stewards.h.i.+p. I feel your zeal in my interests, but you must learn to see, Mrs Lloyd, that you can carry it too far. I daresay, too, that for all these years you and your husband have felt like mistress and master of the house, and that it seems hard to give up to the new rule, and to render the obedience that I shall exact; but, Mrs Lloyd, you are a woman of sound common sense, and you must see that your conduct to me has been anything but what it should be."

"I've never had a thought but for your benefit!" exclaimed Mrs Lloyd.

"I believe it, Mrs Lloyd--I know it; but tell me frankly that you feel you have erred, and no more shall be said."

Mrs Lloyd gave a gulp, and stood watching the fine, well-built man before her.

"It grieves me, I a.s.sure you, to have to speak as I do, Mrs Lloyd,"

continued Trevor; "but you must see that things are altered now."

"And that you forget all the past, Master d.i.c.k," cried Mrs Lloyd, with a wild sob, "and that those who have done everything for you may now be turned out of the house in their old age and go and beg their bread, while you make merry with your friends."

"Come--come--come, Mrs Lloyd," said Trevor, advancing to her, and laying his hand caressingly on her shoulder, "you don't believe that; you have too much respect for your old master's son to think he would grow up such an ingrate--so utterly void of common feeling. He has not forgotten who took the place of his mother--who nursed him--who tended him through many an illness, and was always more a friend than a servant. He has come back a man--I hope a generous one--accustomed to command, and be obeyed. He wishes you to keep your position of confidential trust, and the thought of making any change has never entered his mind. All he wishes is that you should make an effort to see the necessity for taking the place necessitated by the relative positions in which we now find ourselves; and he tells you, Mrs Lloyd, that you may rest a.s.sured while Penreife stands there is always a home for you and for your husband."

As he touched her a s.h.i.+ver ran through the woman's frame; the inimical aspect faded out, and she looked admiringly in his face, her own working the while, as his grave words were uttered, till, sobbing violently, she threw her arms round his neck, kissed him pa.s.sionately again and again, and then sank upon the floor to cover her face with her hands.

"There--there, nurse," he said, taking her hand and raising her. "Let this show you I've not forgotten old times. This is to be the seal of a compact for the future,"--he kissed her gravely on the forehead. "Now, nurse, you will believe in your master for the future, and you see your way?"

"Yes, sir," she said, looking appealingly in his face.

"We thoroughly understand each other?"

"Yes, sir; and I'll try never to thwart you again."

"You'll let me be master in my own house?" he said, his handsome face lighting up with a smile.

"Yes, indeed, I will, sir," sobbed the woman; "and--and--you're not angry with me--for--for--"

"For what--about the wine?"

"No, sir, for the liberty I took just now."

"Oh no," he said; "it was a minute's relapse to old times. And now," he continued, taking her hand, to lead her to the door, "it is very late, and I must finish my letter. Good night, nurse."

"Good night, sir--and--G.o.d bless you!" she exclaimed, pa.s.sionately.

And the door closed between them--another woman seeming to be the one who went upstairs.

Volume 2, Chapter IV.

"SING HEIGH--SING HO!"

Trevor's letter was sent off by one of the grooms by eight o'clock; for, accustomed to late watches and short nights at sea, the master of Penreife was down betimes, eagerly inspecting his stables and horses, and ending by making inquiries for Humphrey Lloyd, to find that he was away somewhere or another to look after the game.

Donning a wideawake, and looking about as unlike a naval officer as could be, he summoned the butler, to name half-past nine as the breakfast hour, and then, with little Polly watching him from one of the windows, he strode off across the lawn.

Polly sighed as she looked after him, and then she started, for a couple of hands were laid upon her shoulder, and turning hastily, it was to confront Mrs Lloyd, whose harsh countenance wore quite a smile as she gazed fixedly in the girl's blus.h.i.+ng face, and then kissed her on the forehead.

"He's a fine, handsome-looking man, isn't he, child?" said the housekeeper. "Don't you think so?"

"Yes, aunt," said the girl, naively; "I was thinking so as I saw him go across the lawn."