Luttrell Of Arran Part 72

"I wish you would tell me what Mr. Luttrell might not permit."

"He'd not permit me to stay out on the sea-sh.o.r.e till the evening dew had fallen," said she, laughing. "Tell them to take me back."

"Yes, darling, we have lingered here too long. It was my fault."

And now the little procession moved slowly across the sands towards the town; pa.s.sing through small mean-looking streets, they gained the place where their hotel stood. Groups of idlers were about--townsfolk and a few strangers--who made way for them to pa.s.s. Some respectfully enough--the show of rank suffices at times to exact this--others, more venturesome, stared at the beautiful girl, and then looked at the worn and feeble figure who walked beside her. That they were English was plain enough, and was taken as a reason to comment on them without reserve.

Sir Within turned looks of anger and defiance around him; he gave them to understand that he could overhear their insolence, and he sought with his eyes through the crowd to see one--even one--sufficiently like a gentleman, to hold him responsible for the impertinence.

"Neither wife nor daughter, I'll wager a 'cent-sous' piece," said one, as they pa.s.sed under the arched doorway.

Sir Within stepped back, when Kate said, suddenly, "I mean to walk up-stairs, give me your arm, Sir;" and as they moved slowly on, she whispered, "How can it be helped, Gardy?" and then, with a laugh, added, "it is a maxim of your own, that it is the unmannerly people take care of the public morals."

It was a subtle flattery to quote himself, which Sir Within thoroughly appreciated, and as he took leave of her at the door of her room he was almost calm again.

CHAPTER XLIII. THE INSULT.

When Kate had gained her room she locked the door, and throwing off her shawl and bonnet, sat down before the gla.s.s; her hair fell heavily down in the rude carelessness with which she flung her bonnet from her, and now, with a faint tinge of colour in her cheek--the flush of a pa.s.sing excitement--she looked very beautiful.

"So," said she, smiling at her image, "it is the old story, 'Qu'en dira le Monde?' The dear old man was very, very fond. He admired me very much; I pleased him--I amused him--I made his life somewhat brighter than he would have found it rambling amongst his t.i.tians and Peruginos; but, with all that, he couldn't face the terrible question, What will the world say? Ma foi, Mademoiselle Kate, the confession is not flattering to you! Most people would call me very inexpert that I had not made that grand old place my own before this. I had the field all to myself--no rivalry, no interference--and certainly it was a great opportunity. Perhaps I was too much occupied in enjoying my happiness; perhaps I took no note of time; and, perhaps, if I ever thought at all, I thought I could win the game whenever I liked, and now I awake to discover that there is something that he fears more than he loves me; and that the dear old dowager world, that shakes down reputations with a nod and blasts pretensions with a stare, will declare a strict blockade against the distinguished Sir Within Wardle and that girl--lucky if they do not say, 'that creature'--he married. Ought he not to have had a spirit above this? Ought he not to have been able to say, 'I am rich enough to buy this bauble, and if the wearing it gives me pleasure, I can forget your sarcasms? I like the life she can throw around me; which of you all could give such colour to my existence?' He might have said this, but he did not. He heard me talk of a new home, and a new name, and he would not offer me his own. He saw and felt bitterly, too, how my position compromised me. I took care he should see it, but no thought of separation crossed him, or, if it did, stronger than all was the dread query, 'Qu'en dira le Monde?'

[Ill.u.s.tration: 373]

"There are things one cannot believe possible till they have happened; and, even then, some strange uncertainty pervades the mind that they have not been read aright. This is one of them. No one could have persuaded me this morning that this prize was not mine whenever I cared to claim it. What a fall to my pride! How little must I feel myself, that after all these years of subtle flattery, I might as well have been with the Vyners--living with creatures of my own nature--giving affection and getting it--cultivating the heart in the rich soil of human hopes and fears, and loves, and trials, and not wearing a mask till it had stiffened into my very features. And he refused me--yes, refused me; for there was no maiden bashfulness in the terms of my offer. I said, I go back to be the niece, or I stay to be the wife; and his reply was, 'Qu'en dira le Monde?' I suppose he was right--I am sure he was; but I hate him for it--how I hate him!" She arose and walked the room with long and measured steps for a while in silence, and then burst out: "What would I not give to be revenged for this? Some vengeances there are he would feel bitterly. Should he meet me in the world--the great world, for instance--the wife of some one, his equal, see me courted, and feted, and flattered; hear of me at all times and all places, and learn that this 'Monde'--that is his G.o.d--had adopted me amongst his spoiled children, I think I know the dark despair that would gather around him as he muttered to himself, 'And she might have been mine--she had been mine for the asking--she offered herself;' ay, he might say so, if he wished to add insult to my memory; 'and I only replied, "The world would not bear it!" How I hate him! How I hate him!

If I cannot be revenged as I wish, I will be revenged as I can. I shall leave him--go at once. He has pa.s.sed his last of those blissful days, as he loves to call them; and he shall, awake to see his life in all the weariness of desertion. Not a look, nor a sound; not a laugh, not a song to cheer him. With every spot full of memories of me, he shall be haunted by a happiness that will never return to him. I know that in his misery he will ask me to forgive the past and be his wife; and if the alternative were to be the wretchedness I sprung from, I'd go back to it!

"I do not know--in all likelihood I shall never know--what this heart of mine could feel of love, but I know its power of hatred, and so shall Sir Within, though it may cost me dear to buy it.

"Your repentance may come as early as you please, it shall avail you nothing. It may be even now; I almost thought I heard his foot on the stair; and I know not whether I would not rather it came now, or after months of heart-suffering and sorrow. I was slighted--he weighed the beauty that he admired, and the love he thought he had gained, against the mockeries of some score of people whose very faces he has forgotten, and 'Qu'en dira le Monde' had more power over him than all my tenderness, all my wit, and all my beauty.

"Is it not strange that, with all his boasted keenness to read people's natures, he should know so little of mine? To think that I could stand there and see the struggle between his pride of station and what he would call 'his pa.s.sion'--that I could tamely wait and see how I was weighed in the balance and found wanting--that I could bear all this unmoved, and then return to my daily life, without an attempt to resent it?

"It is true, till this letter came from my uncle, there was no pressure upon him. None in the wide world was more friendless than myself. His life might have gone on as heretofore, and if a thought of me or of my fate invaded, he might have dismissed it with the excuse that he could mention me in his will; he could have bequeathed me enough to make me a desirable match for the land-steward or the gardener!

"How I bless my Uncle Luttrell for his remembrance of me! It is like a reprieve arriving when the victim was on the scaffold. He shall see with what gladness I accept his offer. If the conditions had been ten times as hard, I would not quarrel with one of them. Now, then, to answer him, and that done, Sir Within, you run no danger of that scandal-loving world you dread so much! For if you came with the offer of all your fortune to my feet, I'd spurn you!"

She opened her writing-desk, and sat down before it. She then took out Luttrell's letter, and read it carefully over. I must take care that my answer be as calm and as unimpa.s.sioned as his own note. He makes no protestation of affection--neither shall I. He says nothing of any pleasure that he antic.i.p.ates from my companions.h.i.+p--I will be as guarded as himself." She paused for a moment or two, and then wrote:

"My dear Uncle,--Though your letter found me weak and low, after a severe illness, its purport has given me strength to answer you at once.

I accept.

"It would be agreeable to me if I could close this letter with these words, and not impose any further thought of myself upon you; but it is better, perhaps, if I tell you now and for ever that you may discharge your mind of all fears as to what you call the sacrifices I shall have to make. I hope to show you that all the indulgences in which I have lived make no part of my real nature. You have one boon to confer on me worth all that wealth and splendour could offer--your name. By making me a Luttrell, you fill the full measure of my ambition.

"For whatever share of your confidence and affection you may vouchsafe me, I will try to be worthy; but I will not importune for either, but patiently endeavour to deserve them. My life has not hitherto taught many lessons of utility. I hope duty will be a better teacher than self-indulgence. Lastly, have no fears that my presence under your roof will draw closer around you the ties and the claims of those humble people with whom I am connected. I know as little of them as you do.

They certainly fill no place in my affection; nor have I the pretence to think I have any share in theirs. One old man alone have I any recollection of--my mother's father--and if I may judge by the past, he will continue to be more influenced by what tends to my advantage, than what might minister to the indulgence of his own pride. He neither came to see me at Sir Gervais Vyner's, nor Dalradern; and though I have written to him once or twice, he never sought to impose himself as a burden upon me. Of course, it will be for you to say if this correspondence should be discontinued.

"You will see in these pledges, that I give in all frankness, how much it will be my ambition to be worthy of the n.o.ble name you allow me to bear.

"There is no necessity to remit me any money. I have ample means to pay for my journey; and as there are circ.u.mstances which I can tell you of more easily than I can write, requiring that I should leave this at once, I will do so immediately after posting the present letter. I will go direct to the hotel you speak of at Holyhead, and remain there till your messenger arrives to meet me.

"You distress me, my dear uncle, when you suggest that I should mention any articles that I might require to be added to your household for my comfort or convenience. Do not forget, I beg, that I was not born to these luxuries, and that they only attach to me as the accidents of a station which I relinquish with delight, when I know that it gives me the right to sign myself,

"Your loving Niece,

"Kate Luttrell."

CHAPTER XLIV. THE FLIGHT

The day was just breaking as Kate, carrying a small bundle in her hand, issued noiselessly from the deep porch of the hotel, and hastened to the pier.

The steam-boat was about to start, and she was the last to reach the deck, as the vessel moved off. It was a raw and gusty morning, and the pa.s.sengers had all sought shelter below, so that she was free to seek a spot to herself unmolested and un.o.bserved.

As she turned her farewell look at the sands, where she had walked on the evening before, she could not believe that one night--one short night--had merely filled the interval. Why, it seemed as if half a lifetime had been crowded into the s.p.a.ce. Within those few hours how much had happened! A grand dream of ambition scattered to the winds--a dream that for many a day had filled her whole thoughts, working its way into every crevice of her mind, and so colouring all her fancies that she had not even a caprice untinged by it! To be the mistress of that old feudal castle--to own its vast halls and its tall towers--to gaze on the deep-bosomed woods that stretched for miles away, and feel that they were her own! To know that at last she had gained a station and a position that none dared dispute; "For," as she would say, "the world may say its worst of that old man's folly; they may ridicule and deride him. Of me they can but say that I played boldly, and won the great stake I played for." And now, the game was over, and she had lost!

"What a reverse was this! Yesterday, surrounded with wealth, cared for, watched, courted, my slightest wish consulted, how fair the prospect looked! And now, alone, and more friendless than the meanest around me!

And was the fault mine? How hard to tell. Was it that I gave him too much of my confidence, or too little? Was my mistake to let him dwell too much on the ways and opinions of that great world that he loved so well? Should I not have tried rather to disparage than exalt it? And should I not have sought to inspire him with a desire for a quiet, tranquil existence--such a life as he might have dreamed to lead in those deep old woods around his home? To the last," cried she, to herself--"to the last, I never could believe that he would consent to lose me! Perhaps he never thought it would come to this. Perhaps he fancied that I could not face that wretchedness from which I came.

Perhaps he might have thought that I myself was not one to relinquish so good a game, and rise from the table at the first reverse. But what a reverse! To be so near the winning-post, and yet lose the race! And how will he bear it? Will he sink under the blow, or will that old pride of blood of which he boasts so much come to his aid and carry him through it? How I wish--oh, what would I not give to see him, as he tears open my last letter, and sees all his presents returned to him! Ah, if he could but feel with what a pang I parted with them! If he but knew the tears the leave-taking cost me! If he but saw me as I took off that necklace I was never to wear again, feeling like one who was laying down her beauty to go forth into the world without a charm, he might, perchance, hope to win me back again. And would that be possible? My heart says no. My heart tells me, that before I can think of a fortune to achieve, there is an insult to avenge. He slighted me--yes, he slighted me! There was a price too high for all my love, and he let me see it. There was his fault--he let me see it! It was my dream for many a year to show the humble folk from whom I came what my ambition and my capacity could make me; and I thought of myself as the proud mistress of Dalradern without a pang for all the misery the victory would cost me.

Now the victory has escaped me, and I go back, so far as my own efforts are concerned, defeated! What next--ay, what next?"

As the day wore on, every incident of her ordinary life rose before her.

Nine o'clock. It was the hour the carriage came to take her to her bath.

She bethought her of all the obsequious attention of her maid, that quiet watchfulness of cunning service, the mindful observance that supplies a want and yet obtrudes no thought of it. The very bustle of her arrival at the bathing-place had its own flattery. The eager attention, the zealous anxiety of the servants, that showed how, in her presence, all others were for the time forgotten. She knew well--is beauty ever deficient in the knowledge?--that many came each morning only to catch a glimpse of her. Her practised eye had taught her, even as she pa.s.sed, to note what amount of tribute each rendered to her loveliness; and she could mark the wondering veneration here, the almost rapturous gaze of this one, and not unfrequently the jealous depreciation of that other.

Eleven o'clock. She was at breakfast with Sir Within, and he was asking her for all the little events of the morning. And what were these? A bantering narrative of her own triumphs--how well she had looked--how tastefully she was dressed--how spitefully the women had criticised the lovely hat she swam in, and which she gave to some poor girl as she came out of the water--a trifle that had cost some "louis" a few days before.

It was noon--the hour the mail arrived from Brussels--and Sir Within would come to present her with the rich bouquet of rare flowers, despatched each morning from the capital. It was a piece of homage he delighted to pay, and she was wont to accept it with a sort of queen-like condescension. "What a strange life of dreamy indulgence--of enjoyments multiplied too fast to taste--of luxuries so lavished as almost to be a burden--and how unreal it was all!" so thought she, as they drew near the tall chalk cliffs of the English coast, and the deck grew crowded with those who were eagerly impatient to quit their prison-house.

For the first time for a long while did she find herself unnoticed and unattended to; none of that watchful, obsequious attention that used to track her steps was there. Now, people hurried hither and thither, collecting their scattered effects, and preparing to land. Not one to care for her, who only yesterday was waited on like royalty!

"Is this your trunk, Miss?" asked a porter.

"No; this is mine," said she, pointing to a bundle.

"Shall I carry it for you, my dear?" said a vulgar-looking and over-dressed young fellow, who had put his gla.s.s in his eye to stare at her.

She muttered but one word, but that it was enough seemed clear, as his companion said, "I declare I think you deserved it!"

"It has begun already," said she to herself, as she walked slowly along towards the town. "The bitter conflict with the world, of which I have only heard hitherto, I now must face. By this time he knows it; he knows that he is desolate, and that he shall never see me more. All the misery is not, therefore, mine; nor is mine the greater. I have youth, and can hope; he cannot hope; he can but grieve on to the last. Well, let him go to that world he loves so dearly, and ask it to console him. It will say by its thousand tongues, 'You have done well, Sir Within. Why should you have allied yourself with a low-born peasant-girl? How could her beauty have reconciled you to her want of refinement, her ignorance, her coa.r.s.e breeding?' Ah, what an answer could his heart give, if he but dared to utter it; for he could tell them I was their equal in all their vaunted captivations! Will he have the courage to do this? Or, will he seek comfort in the falsehood that belies me?"

In thoughts like these, ever revolving around herself and her altered fortunes, she journeyed on, and by the third day arrived at Holyhead.

The rendezvous was given at a small inn outside the town called "The Kid," and directions for her reception had been already forwarded there.

Two days elapsed before her uncle's messenger arrived--two days that seemed to extend to as many years! How did her ever-active mind go over in that s.p.a.ce all her past life, from the cruel sorrows of her early days, to the pampered existence she had led at Dalradern? She fancied what she might have been, if she had never left her lowly station, but grown up amongst the hards.h.i.+ps and privations of her humble condition.

She canva.s.sed in her mind the way in which she might have either conformed to that life, or struggled against it. "I cannot believe,"

said she, with a saucy laugh, as she stood and looked at herself in the gla.s.s, "that these arms were meant to carry sea-wrack, or that these feet were fas.h.i.+oned to clamber shoeless up the rocks! And yet, if destiny had fixed me there, how should I have escaped? I cannot tell, any more than I can tell what is yet before me! And what a fascination there is in this uncertainty! What a wondrous influence has the unknown!