The Tigress Part 44

"That will rob her of her power. And she was so beautiful."

"Yes, she was beautiful," agreed Carleigh. "And she did have power. She could make a man forget his eternal soul."

"Nina was wonderful at making men forget," said his Aunt Kitty. "She made you forget, didn't she?"

"For a little while. Then, by purest chance, I saw Rosamond again, and--well, I knew that she was the only woman I could ever really care for as one's wife should be cared for. She is an angel."

"But her mother?"

"Ah, her mother. We are going to keep clear of Mrs. Veynol."

"Can you?"

"Certainly. We must, you see. I don't know what it is, but she rouses all the devil there is in me. And then--" He paused.

"And then?" Lady Bellingdown asked.

"Then she tells Rosamond."

"Was that how she separated you before? I never exactly knew."

"That was at the bottom of it."

"And you mean to be married now--here--without letting her know?"

"Yes. Once we are married, what can she do? Rosie's of age, you know.

She doesn't have to ask any one's consent. When she is Lady Carleigh we can defy the mater."

"But I thought you were going to keep out of the way."

"We are if--if we can. Absence is better than defiance, isn't it?"

"Absence may be defiance," said his aunt. "I didn't think of it that way."

"Yes," he agreed, but he evidently had some misgiving.

"But you're not so certain as you were a minute ago that you can keep the place of your absence a secret. Is that it?"

"Mrs. Veynol has an uncanny faculty of finding things out," he confided miserably.

"Now, there's where Nina has an advantage," Lady Bellingdown suggested.

"She has no mother. You would have had no distressing mother-in-law."

Sir Caryll was thoughtful. Then: "But Mrs. Darling is too old for me.

She said so herself."

"I suppose that's true. Nina seems fixed in her purpose never to marry.

Fancy a woman saying she is too old for any man!"

"She counts by experience rather than years possibly. One would never think of age in her case if she didn't remind one."

"She's very lovely," said Kitty Bellingdown with something of finality.

"Where will you and Rosamond spend your honeymoon?" she added.

"That's just it," Carleigh returned with knitted brow. "It's the one problem that troubles me. Honeymoon places are so devilishly well known.

All Mrs. Veynol would have to do is to keep her eyes on the newspapers.

She'd spot us within a week. And then--she'd follow."

"You might travel _incognito_."

"On one's wedding journey? Never! How can you think of it, Aunt Kitty?

Don't you see--"

"Of course I see," she broke in. "Forgive me. It never once occurred to me."

Then they let that question drop, having been frightened away by thus straying on dangerous ground.

The arrangements for the nuptials were all completed in the next hour.

They were not to be in any wise simple. They were to be very imposing, in fact, with a whole house full of guests, hurriedly brought together, yet every one under a strict bond of secrecy.

Rosamond was to stop on at the Manse until the second day before. Then she was to withdraw her trousseau from where it had been so hurriedly rushed into storage in London and appear at Bellingdown on the eve of her last day of maidenhood.

Lord Waltheof was deputed to look after minor details; but Lord Kneedrock, could his consent be obtained, was to be best man.

Carleigh saw personally to this, of course, and encountered no trouble.

Kneedrock consented without demur and offered to see his grace, the Archbishop of Highs.h.i.+re, and arrange with him to perform the ceremony.

And, wonder of wonders, everything was carried out precisely as planned!

The September day proved glorious. The sun shone on the bride in good omen, and the bride was a picture of loveliness.

Many of the presents, returned six weeks before, came back in the same wrappings, and most of the rest would probably come later when the givers learned what had happened and how.

But no one--not even Lady Bellingdown--was given a hint as to the honeymoon destination of bride and bridegroom.

They drove away toward London under a deluging shower of rice and old slippers, and with white ribbon--yards and yards of it--streaming from every attachable place on Sir Caryll's own motor-car.

After they had gone the guests continued very merry. A great quant.i.ty of champagne had been consumed in drinking the health and happiness of the launched voyagers on the matrimonial sea, and every one's spirits were keyed high.

Every one's, that is to say, except Kitty Bellingdown's and Kneedrock's.

"Poor dear Caryll!" sighed his aunt, who, like some others, always chose to weep over those that were given in matrimony. "Well, and so he's married at last!"

"And such a surprise!" exclaimed the duke. "I say, Doody, wasn't it a surprise?"

Doody didn't say anything. She was trying a new dance-step with Waltheof.

"And so now there's an end to the gossip," contributed Charlotte Grey.

Kneedrock, who had his back turned, wheeled around.