The Hoyden Part 62

"I saw fireworks," says Mr. Gower. Then, "I'm off," says he.

He slips out from behind the screen, and galloping up the room comes to the screen very nearly as soon as Rylton. Not soon enough, however. Rylton has turned the corner of it, and found t.i.ta with Tom Hescott crouching behind it, whispering together, and evidently enjoying themselves immensely.

As she sees him, t.i.ta gives a little cry. She had plainly taken him for one of the hunters, and had hoped he would pa.s.s by.

"Oh, you!" cries she. "You! Go away. Go _at once!_ They'll find us if----"

She waves him frantically from her. He is too angry to see that there is not a vestige of embarra.s.sment in her air.

Here Gower comes up panting.

"Caught!" cries he, making a pounce of t.i.ta.

"Not a bit of it!" says she, springing away from him to the other side of the screen. "And _you,_ Randal, you are not hunting. Where's Colonel Neilson? Where's Margaret?"

"They changed," says Mr. Gower mendaciously. "Miss Hescott and I are upon the track; we are the bloodhounds--we," making another grab at her soft gown, "have _got_ you!"

"No, you haven't," says t.i.ta, whereupon there ensues a very animated chase round and round the screen, t.i.ta at last finding shelter--of _all_ places--behind her husband--behind Maurice, whose face it is quite as well she cannot see.

He makes a movement as if to go, but she catches him, and unless he were to use violence he could hardly get away.

"There now!" says she, addressing Rylton indignantly. "See how you've given us away. You've told him where we were. Don't stir. You mustn't. If you do he'll catch me."

She laughs defiantly at Gower as she says this. Gower could have laughed too. There could, indeed, be hardly anything stranger than the scene as it stands--comedy and tragedy combined. The husband cold, impa.s.sive, stern, and over his shoulder the charming face of his little wife peeping--all mirth and fun and gaiety.

"You _must_ stay," says she, giving Sir Maurice a little shake.

"Why, you've betrayed our hiding-place. You've shown him where we were. It isn't fair, Randal--it isn't indeed----"

"You are caught, any way," says Gower, who would willingly bring the scene to a close.

_He_ can see Maurice's face, she cannot. As for Tom Hescott, his sister has chased him out of the gallery long before this, with a prompt.i.tude that does her credit.

"Caught! Not I," says t.i.ta. "Caught, indeed!"

"Certainly you're caught," says Gower, making frantic little dabs at her; but she dances away from him, letting her husband go, and rus.h.i.+ng once more behind the unfriendly screen that has done her so bad a turn.

"Certainly I'm _not,"_ retorts she, nodding her saucy head at him.

Slowly and artfully, as she speaks, she moves towards the farther end of the screen, always keeping an eye on her adversary over the top of it until she comes to the far end, when, darting like a little swallow round the corner, she flies down the long, dark gallery. Once only she turns. _"Now_ am I caught?" cries she, laughing defiance at Gower.

"Call _that_ fair, if you like!" says he, in high disgust.

But she is gone.

The house is quiet again. Gower and Marryatt are still lingering in the smoking-room, but for the rest, they have bidden each other "Good-night" and gone to their rooms.

t.i.ta is sitting before her gla.s.s having her hair brushed, when a somewhat loud knock comes to her door. The maid opens it, and Sir Maurice walks in.

"You can go," says he to Sarah, who courtesies and withdraws.

"Oh! it is you," says t.i.ta, springing up.

Her hair has just been brushed for the night, and round her forehead some cloudy ringlets are lying. She had thrown on her dressing-gown--a charming creation of white cashmere, almost covered with lace--without a thought of fastening it, and her young and lovely neck shows through the opening of the laces whiter than its surroundings. Her petticoat--all white lace, too, and caught here and there with tiny knots of pale pink ribbons--is naturally shorter than her gown would be, and shows the dainty little feet beneath them.

"When youth and beauty meet together, There's worke for breath."

And surely here are youth and beauty met together! Rylton, seeing the sweet combination, draws a long breath.

She advances towards him in the friendliest way, as if delighted.

"I haven't had a word with you," says she. "Hardly one. You just told me your mother had not come, and"--she stops, and breaks into a gay little laugh--"you must forgive me, but what I said to myself was, _'Thank goodness!' "_ She covers her eyes with widened fingers, and peeps at him through them. "What I said to you out loud was, 'Oh, I _am_ sorry!' Do you remember? Now, am I not a hypocrite?"

At this she takes down her hands from her eyes, and holds them out to him in the prettiest way.

He pushes them savagely from him.

"You are!" says he hoa.r.s.ely; "and one of the very worst of your kind!"

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW t.i.tA, HAVING BEEN REPULSED, GROWS ANGRY; AND HOW A VERY PRETTY BATTLE IS FOUGHT OUT; AND HOW t.i.tA GAINS A PRESENT; AND HOW SIR MAURICE LOSES HIS TEMPER.

Her hands drop to her sides. She grows suddenly a little pale. Her eyes widen.

"What is it? What have I done _now?"_ asks she.

The "now" has something pathetic in it.

"Done! done!" He is trying to keep down the fury that is possessing him. He had come to speak to her with a fixed determination in his heart not to lose his temper, not to let her have that advantage over him. He would be calm, judicial, but now---- What is the matter with him now? Seeing her there, so lovely and so sweet, so full of all graciousness--a very flower of beauty--a little thing--

"Light as the foam that flecks the seas, Fitful as summer's sunset breeze"--

somehow a very _rage_ of anger conquers him, and he feels as if he would like to take her and _compel_ her to his will. "You have done one thing, at all events," says he. "You have forfeited my trust in you for ever."

"_I_ have?"

"Yes, you! When I left home this morning, what was the last word I said to you? I must have been a fool indeed when I said it. I told you I left our house and our guests in your charge."

"Well?"