Part 6 (2/2)

”I knew?”

”You told me you were coming here.”

”Ah, what a lovely answer!” says she, with a glance from under her long lashes, that--whatever her answer may be--certainly _is_ lovely.

Rylton regards her moodily. If she really loved him, would she coquet with him like this--would she so pretend? All in a second, as he stands looking at her, the whole of the past year comes back to him. A strange year, fraught with gladness and deep pain--with fears and joys intense! What had it all meant? If anything, it had meant devotion to her--to his cousin, who, widowed, all but penniless, had been flung by the adverse winds of Fate into his home.

She was the only daughter of Lady Rylton's only brother, and the latter had taken her in, and in a measure adopted her. It was a strange step for her to take--for one so little led by kindly impulses, or rather for one who had so few kindly impulses to be led by; but everyone has a soft spot somewhere in his heart, and Lady Rylton had loved her brother, good-for-nothing as he was. There might have been a touch of remorse, too, in her charity; she had made Marian's marriage!

Grudgingly, coldly, she opened her son's doors to her niece, but still she opened them. She was quite at liberty to do this, as Maurice was seldom at home, and gave her always _carte blanche_ to do as she would with all that belonged to him. She made Marian Bethune's life for the first few months a burden to her, and then Marian Bethune, who had waited, took the reins in a measure; at all events, she made herself so useful to Lady Rylton that the latter could hardly get on without her.

Maurice had fallen in love with her almost at once; insensibly but thoroughly. There had been an hour in which he had flung himself, metaphorically, at her feet (one never does the real thing now, because it spoils one's trousers so), and offered his heart, and all the fortune still left to him after his mother's reign; and Marian had refused it all, very tenderly, very sympathetically, very regretfully--to tell the truth--but she _had_ refused it.

She had sweetened the refusal by declaring that, as she could not marry him--as she could not to be so selfish as to ruin his prospects--she would never marry at all. She had looked lovely in the light of the dying sunset as she said all this to him, and Maurice had believed in her a thousand times more than before, and had loved her a thousand times deeper. And in a sense his belief was justified. She did love him, as she had never loved before, but not well enough to risk poverty again. She had seen enough of that in her first marriage, and in her degradation and misery had sworn a bitter oath to herself never again to marry, unless marriage should sweep her into the broad river of luxury and content. Had Maurice's financial affairs been all they ought to have been but for his mother's extravagances, she undoubtedly would have chosen him before all the world; but Maurice's fortunes were (and are) at a low ebb, and she would risk nothing. His uncle _might_ die, and then Maurice, who was his heir, would be a rich man; but his uncle was only sixty-five, and he might marry again, and---- No, she would refuse!

Rylton had pressed his suit many times, but she had never yielded.

It was always the same argument, she would not ruin _him_. But one day--only the other day, indeed--she had said something that made him know she sometimes counted on his uncle's death. She would marry him then! She would not marry a poor man, however much she loved him. The thought that she was waiting for his uncle's death revolted him at the moment, and though he forgave her afterwards, still the thought rankled.

It hurt him, in a sense, that she could _desire_ death--the death of another--to create her own content.

His mother had hinted at it only just now! Marian feared, she said--feared to step aboard his sinking s.h.i.+p. Where, then, was her love, that perfect love that casteth out all fear?

A wave of anger rushes over him as he looks at her now--smiling, fair, with large, deep, gleaming eyes. He tells himself he will know at once what it is she means--what is the worth of her love.

She is leaning towards him, a soft red rosebud crushed against her lips.

”Ah, yes! It is true. I _did_ know you were coming,” says she tenderly.

She gives a hasty, an almost imperceptible glance around. Lady Rylton is often a little--just a _little_--p.r.o.ne to prying--especially of late; ever since the arrival of that small impossible heiress, for example; and then very softly she slips her hand into his.

”What an evening!” says she with delicate fervour. ”How sweet, how perfect, Maurice!”

”Well?” in a rather cold, uncompromising way.

Mrs. Bethune gives him a quick glance.

”What a tone!” says she; ”you frighten me!”

She laughs softly, sweetly. She draws closer to him--closer still;--and, laying her cheek against his arm, rubs it lightly, caressingly, up and down.

”Look here!” says he quickly, catching her by both arms, and holding her a little away from him; ”I have a question to ask you.”

”There is always a question,” says she, smiling still, ”between friends and foes, then why not between--_lovers?”_

She lingers over the word, and, stooping her graceful head, runs her lips lightly across the hand that is holding her right arm.

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