JOAN HASTE, H. RIDER HAGGARD [free ereaders TXT] 📗

showed no further symptoms of backsliding. Still, slips between the cup and the lip are many, and in the event of a public scandal anything might happen. However private the marriage, it proved, in fact, impossible to dispense with a certain amount of the hospitality usual upon these occasions: thus a dinner must be given to the tenants, and a reception held after the wedding to which all the neighbouring families were invited. In these preparations Henry took but a small part, though, as head of the family, it would be his duty to give away the bride and to receive the guests. This marriage, and everything connected with it, was hateful to him, but not the less on that account must he keep up appearances before the world. There had been no reconciliation between himself and his sister, though outwardly they were polite and even affectionate to each other; and he had scarcely exchanged a word in private with his future brother-in-law since the day when Edward read him a lecture upon morals and conduct.

Thus it came about that not even Ellen herself was more anxious that the marriage should be over and done with. As it chanced, the bride's good luck did not desert her, and everything went smoothly. At the last moment, indeed, Edward showed some disposition to jib at the settlements, which, considering that the lady brought him nothing, were disproportionate and unfair; but Ellen's lawyers, assisted by a judicious letter from herself, were equal to the emergency, and he grumbled and signed.

At length, to everybody's relief, the day came--one of those rare and beautiful November days when the falling leaves dropped silently as snowflakes through the crisp and sunlit air to the frosted grass beneath. Rosham church was full, and when the bride, looking very stately and handsome in her wedding robes, swept up the aisle on her brother's arm, followed by her two bridesmaids, Emma Levinger and an aristocratic cousin of Mr. Milward's, a low hum of admiration ran round the crowded pews. Then Edward, exceedingly uncomfortable in the newest of coats and the shiniest of boots, took his place by her side; the service began, Henry, wearing anything but an amiable expression of countenance, gave his sister away, and presently Mr. and Mrs. Milward were receiving the congratulations of their relatives and friends.

The wedding took place at two o'clock, so that there were no speeches or breakfast, only a glorified tea with champagne, at which the rector of the parish, /vice/ Sir Henry Graves, who declared himself quite incapable of public speaking, proposed the bride and bridegroom's health in a few well-chosen words and a Latin quotation. Edward responded, stuttering horribly, saying with much truth, but by inadvertence, "that this was the proudest moment of his wife's life," whereat Henry smiled grimly and everybody else tittered. Then the company wandered off to inspect the marriage offerings, which were "numerous and costly"; the newly married pair vanished, and reappeared in appropriate travelling costume, to be driven away amid showers of slippers and rice, and after a little feeble and flickering conversation the proceedings terminated.

Mr. Levinger and Emma were the last to go.

"You look tired, Graves," said the former, as his trap came round.

"Yes," he answered, "I never was more tired in my life. Thank Heaven that it is done with!"

"Well, it is a good business well over, and, even if you don't quite like the man, one that has many advantages."

"I dare say," Henry replied briefly. "Good-bye, Miss Levinger; many thanks for coming. If you will allow me to say so, I think that dress of yours is charming, with those shimmering ornaments--moonstones, are they not?"

"I am glad you like it, Sir Henry," she answered, looking pleased.

"By the way, Graves," broke in Mr. Levinger, "can you come over next Friday week and stop till Tuesday? You know that old donkey Bowles rears a few pheasants in the intervals of attending the public-house. There ought to be three or four hundred to shoot, and they fly high on those hillside covers--too high for me, anyway. If you can come, I'll get another gun or two--there's a parson near who has a couple of pupils, very decent shots--and we'll shoot on Saturday and Monday, and Tuesday too if you care for driven partridge, resting the Sabbath."

"I shall be delighted," answered Henry sincerely. "I don't think that I have any engagement; in fact, I am sure that I have none," and he looked at Emma and, for the first time that day, smiled genially.

Emma saw the look and smile, and wondered in her heart whether it were the prospect of shooting the three or four hundred pheasants that "flew high" with which Henry was delighted, or that of visiting Monk's Lodge--and herself. On the whole she thought it was the pheasants; still she smiled in answer, and said she was glad that he could come. Then they drove off, and Henry, having changed his wedding garments for a shooting coat, departed to the study, there to smoke the pipe of peace.

That night he dined /tête-à-tête/ with his mother. It was not a cheerful meal, for the house was disorganised and vestiges of the marriage feast were all about them. There had been no time even to remove the extra leaves from the great oval dining-table, and as Henry and his mother's places were set at its opposite extremes, conversation was, or seemed to be, impossible.

"I think that this is a little dismal, dear," said Lady Graves, speaking across the white expanse of cloth, when the butler had served the dessert and gone.

"Yes," answered Henry; "it reminds me of South Africa, where the natives talk to each other across the kloofs. Suppose that we go into the study--we sha'n't want a speaking trumpet there."

His mother nodded in assent, and they adjourned, Henry taking a decanter of wine with him.

"I think that it went off very well," she said presently, when he had made up the fire.

"Oh, yes, I suppose so. You don't mind my smoking, do you, mother?"

"I know that you didn't like the marriage, Henry," she went on, "nor do I altogether, for Edward is not--well, quite the class of man that I should have selected. But different people have different tastes, and I think that he will suit Ellen admirably. You see, she will rule him, and she could never have got on with a man who tried to be her master; also he is rich, and wealth is necessary to her comfort. I shall be very much surprised if she does not make a great success of her marriage."

"Ellen would make a success of anything, mother--even of Edward Milward. I have a great admiration for Ellen, but somehow I do not envy my brother-in-law his bargain, though he has married a lady, which, strictly speaking, is more than he deserves. However, I dare say that he will find his place."

"I have no doubt that they will settle it to their mutual satisfaction, dear; and, to look at the matter from another point of view, it certainly is a relief to me to know that your sister is removed out of reach of our troubles here." And she sighed. "It has been a great struggle, Henry, to keep up appearances so far, and I was in constant fear lest something awful should happen before the marriage. One way and another, difficulties have been staved off; indeed, the fact that Ellen was going to become the wife of such a rich man--for he is very rich--has helped us a great deal. But now the money is done; I doubt if there is a hundred pounds to go on with, and what is to happen I am sure I do not know."

Henry puffed at his pipe, staring into the fire, and made no answer.

"I scarcely like to ask you, dear," Lady Graves went on presently, "but--have you in any way considered the matter of which we spoke together after your father's funeral?"

"Yes, mother, I have considered--I have considered it a great deal."

"And what conclusion have you come to, Henry?" she asked, making pretence to arrange her dress in order to conceal the anxiety with which she awaited his answer.

He rose, and, although it was only half smoked, knocked out the contents of his pipe upon the fire-guard. Then he turned round and spoke suddenly, almost fiercely indeed.

"The conclusion which I have come to, mother, is that, taking everything into consideration, I ought to try my luck yonder. I don't know that she will have me, indeed I think that she will be foolish if she does, but I'll ask her. The other has vanished Heaven knows where; I can't find her, and perhaps it is best that I shouldn't, for if I did my resolutions might melt. And now, if you don't mind, let us talk of something else. I will let you know the end of the adventure in due course."

"One question, Henry. Are you going to Monk's Lodge again?"

"Yes, on Friday week. I have accepted an invitation to stay there from Friday till Tuesday, or perhaps longer."

Lady Graves uttered a sigh of the most intense and heartfelt relief. Then she rose, and coming to where her son was sitting, she kissed him upon the forehead, murmuring, "God bless you, my dear boy!--you have made me a happier woman than I have been for many a long day. Good night."

He returned his mother's embrace, lit a bedroom candle for her, and watched her pass from the room and across the hall. As she went he noticed that her very gait seemed different, so great was the effect of his words upon her. Of late it had been uncertain, almost timid; but now she was walking as she used to walk in middle life, with grace and dignity, holding her head high.

"Poor mother!" he thought to himself as he resumed his seat, "she has had much to bear, and it is a comfort to be able to please her for once. Heaven knows that had I alone been concerned I would have done it long ago for her sake. Oh, Joan, Joan! I wonder where you are, and why your eyes haunt me so continually. Well, wherever you may be, it is all over between us now, Joan." And he put his hands before his face and groaned aloud.

 

On the following morning, while Henry was dressing, the butler brought him up his letters, in accordance with the custom of the house. One by one, as the exigencies of his toilet gave him opportunity, he opened them and glanced through their contents. Some were circulars, some were on business connected with the estate, two were invitations to shoot, and one was a bill for saddlery supplied to his brother three years before.

"That's the lot, I think," he said, and was crushing up the circulars preparatory to throwing them into the fireplace, when another rather bulky letter, in a common thin envelope and addressed in an unformed handwriting, fell from among them. He picked it up and examined it, a certain distrust of this innocent-looking epistle creeping into his mind. "I wonder what it is?" he thought to himself: "another of Reginald's bills, or a fresh application for money from one of his intimate friends? Any way I don't know the writing and I have half a mind to tear it up unread. Letters that look like that always contain something disagreeable."

He threw it down on the dressing-table while he arranged his necktie, and hunted for a stud which had rolled under a chest of drawers. Indeed, the excitement of this wild pursuit put the letter out of his mind till he went to brush his hair, when the inaccurate superscription of "Sir H. Grave" immediately caught his eye, and he opened it at once. The first words that he saw were "see fit to act like an honest man."

"As I thought," he said aloud, "here's another of Reginald's legacies