The Courtship of Morrice Buckler Part 29

"It is the truth," I answered. "And the Countess knows so little of the affair that she is even ignorant of that."

"Are you sure?"

"Should I come here a-visiting, think you, if she knew?"

The words seemed somewhat to relieve her of apprehension, and she asked:

"To what end would you have me speak to her? What am I to say?"

"Simply that you and I have met by chance, for the first time this morning."

"Then she couples your name with mine," she exclaimed, in a fresh alarm. "Without ground or reason! Your name--for you killed him--with mine. Don't you see? She must suspect!"

"Nay," I answered. "It is the strangest accident which has led her to link us together in her thoughts. She can have no suspicion."

"Then how comes it that she couples us who are strangers?"

I saw no object in relating to her the device of her brother, or in disclosing my own pa.s.sion for the Countess. Moreover, I bethought me that at any moment Marston might take his leave, and I was resolved that Lady Tracy should speak in his presence, since by that means he would be compelled to confirm her words. So I broke in abruptly upon her questioning.

"Lady Tracy, we are wasting time. You must be content with my a.s.surances. 'Tis but a little service that I claim of you, and one that may haply repair in some slight measure the fatal consequences of your disloyalty."

She slipped her foot from the stirrup, and, without touching the hand I held out to a.s.sist her, sprang lightly to the ground. It may be that I spoke with more earnestness than I intended.

"What mean cowards love makes of men!" she said, looking at me scornfully.

The remark stung me sharply because I was fully sensible that I played but a despicable part in forcing her thus to bear testimony for me against her will, and I answered angrily:

"Surely your memory provides you with one instance to the contrary;"

and I mounted the steps and knocked at the door.

Otto Krax answered my summons, and for once in his life he betrayed surprise. At the sight of Lady Tracy, he leaped backwards into the hall, and stared from her to me. Lady Tracy laid a hand within my arm, and the fingers tightened convulsively upon my sleeve; it seemed as though she were on the point of fainting. I bade the fellow, roughly, to wait upon his mistress, and inquire whether she would receive me, and a friend whom I was most anxious to present to her. With a curiosity very unusual, he asked of me my companion's name, that he might announce it. But since my design was to surprise Hugh Marston, I ordered him to deliver the message in the precise terms which I had used.

So changed indeed was the man from his ordinary polite impa.s.sivity, that he abruptly left us standing in the hall, and departed on his errand with no more ceremony than a minister's servant shows to the needy place-seekers at his master's levee. We stood, I remember particularly, in a line with the high window of which I have already spoken, and the full light of the noontide sun fell athwart our faces.

I set the circ.u.mstance down here inasmuch as it helped to bring about a very strange result.

"Who is the man?" whispered Lady Tracy, in an agitated voice. "Does he know me?"

"Nay," said I, rea.s.suring her. "It may be that he has seen you before, at Bristol, for he was Count Lukstein's servant. But it is hardly probable that the Count shared his secret with him. And the matter was a secret kept most studiously."

"But his manner? How account for that?"

"Simply enough," said I. "The person who slandered us to the Countess, gave her, as a warrant and proof, a miniature of you."

"A miniature!" she exclaimed, clinging to me in terror. "Oh, no! no!"

"Gott im Himmel!"

The guttural cry rang hoa.r.s.ely from the top of the stairs. I looked up; Otto was leaning against the wall, his mouth open, his face working with excitement, and his eyes protruding from their sockets. I had just sufficient time to notice that, strangely enough, his gaze was directed at me, and not at the woman by my side, when I felt the hand slacken on my arm, and with a little weak sigh, Lady Tracy slipped to the floor in a swoon.

I stooped down, and lifting her with some difficulty, carried, or rather dragged her to a couch.

"Quick, b.o.o.by!" I shouted to Otto. "Fetch one of the women and some water!"

My outcry brought Ilga onto the landing.

"What has befallen?" she asked, leaning over the rail.

"'Tis but a swoon," I replied; "nothing more. There is no cause for alarm."

"Poor creature!" she said tenderly, and came running down the stairs.

"Let me look, Mr. Buckler. Ailments, you know, are a woman's province."

I was kneeling by the couch, supporting Lady Tracy's head upon my arm, and I drew aside, but without removing my arm. Ilga caught sight of her face, and stopped.

"Oh!" she cried, with a gasping intake of the breath; then she turned on me, her countenance flas.h.i.+ng with a savage fury, and her voice so bitter and harsh that, had I closed my eyes, I could not have believed that it was she who spoke.

"So you lied! You lied to me! You tell me one hour that you have never had speech with her, the next I find her in your arms."

"Madame," I replied, withdrawing my arm hastily, "I told you the truth."

The head fell heavily forward upon my breast, and I sought to arrange the body full-length upon the couch.

"Nay," said the Countess. "Let the head rest there. It knows its proper place."

"I told you the truth; believe it or not as you please!" I repeated, exasperated by her cruel indifference to Lady Tracy. "I never so much as set eyes upon this lady before to-day. I know that now. For the first time in my life, I saw her when I left you but a few minutes ago. She was waiting on horseback at your steps, and I persuaded her to dismount and bear me out with you."

"A very likely plausible story," sneered Ilga. "And whom did your friend await at my steps?"

"Her brother," I replied shortly. "Hugh Marston."

"Her brother!" she exclaimed. "We'll even test the truth of that."

She ran quickly to the foot of the stairs, as though she would ascend them. But seeing Otto still posted agape half-way up, she stopped and called to him.

"Tell Mr. Marston that his sister lies in the hall in a dead faint!"

Otto recovered his wits, and went slowly up to the parlour, while the Countess eyed me triumphantly. But in a moment Marston came flying down the stairs; he flung himself on his knees beside his sister.

"Betty!" he cried aloud, and again, whispering it into her ear with a caressing reproach, "Betty!" He shook her gently by the shoulders, like one that wakes a child from sleep. "Is there no help, no doctor near?"

One of the Countess's women came forward and loosed the bodice of Lady Tracy's riding-habit at the throat, while another fetched a bottle of salts.

"It is the heat," they said. "She will soon recover."

Marston turned to me with a momentary friendliness.

"It was you who helped my sister. Thank you!" He spoke simply and with so genuine cordiality that I could not doubt his affection for Lady Tracy; and I wondered yet the more at the selfish use to which he had put her reputation.

After a while the remedies had their effect, and Lady Tracy opened her eyes. Ilga was standing in front of her a few paces off, her face set and cold, and I noticed that Lady Tracy s.h.i.+vered as their glances met.