Part 20 (1/2)
”Indeed! I beg your pardon; I thought you were. But would you mind, Mr Leslie--it is a very trifling request, but I set store by these little relics of our early history--Miss _Marguerite_ Vine, if you would be so kind?”
Leslie bowed. ”Certainly, Miss Marguerite,” he said quietly.
”Thank you,” she said, detaining him. ”It is very good of you. Of course you are surprised to see me up here?”
”Oh no,” said Leslie quietly. ”It is a delightful place to sit and rest and read.”
”Ye-es; but I cannot say that I care much for the rough walking of this part of the world, and my brother seems somehow to have taken quite a dislike to the idea of having a carriage?”
”Yes?”
”So I am obliged to walk when I do come out. There are certain duties one is forced to attend to. For instance, there is my poor brother up yonder. I feel bound to see him from time to time. You see him frequently, of course?”
”Every day, necessarily. We are so near.”
”Poor fellow! yes. Very eccentric and peculiar; but you need be under no apprehension, Mr Leslie. He is quite harmless, I am sure.”
”Oh, quite harmless, Miss Marguerite. Merely original.”
”It is very good of you to call it originality; but as friends, Mr Leslie, there is no harm in our alluding to his poor brain. Softening, a medical man told me.”
”Hardening, I should say,” thought Leslie.
”Very peculiar! very peculiar! Father and uncle both so different from my dear nephew. He is in very bad spirits. Ah! Mr Leslie, I shall be very glad to see him once more as a Des Vignes should be. With him placed in the position that should be his, and that engagement carried out regarding my darling Louise's future, I could leave this world of sorrow without a sigh.”
Leslie winced, but it was not perceptible to Aunt Marguerite, who, feeling dissatisfied with the result of her shot, fired again.
”Of course it would involve losing my darling; but at my time of life, Mr Leslie, one has learned that it is one's duty always to study self-sacrifice. The Des Vignes were always a self-sacrificing family.
When it was not for some one or other of their kindred it was for their king, and then for their faith. You know our old French motto, Mr Leslie?”
”I? No. I beg pardon.”
”Really? I should have thought that you could not fail to see that. It is almost the only trace of our former greatness that my misguided brother--”
”Were you alluding to Mr Luke Vine?”
”No, no, no, no! To my brother, George des Vignes. Surely, Mr Leslie, you must have noted our arms upon the dining-room windows.”
”Oh, yes, of course, of course; and the motto, _Roy et Foy_.”
”Exactly,” said Aunt Marguerite, smiling. ”I thought it must have caught your eye.” Something else was catching Duncan Leslie's eye just then--the last flutter of the scarf Louise wore before it disappeared round the foot of the cliff.
”I shall bear it, I dare say, and with fort.i.tude, Mr Leslie, for it will be a grand position that she will take. The De Lignys are a family almost as old as our own; and fate might arrange for me to visit them and make a long stay. She's a sweet girl, is she not, Mr Leslie?”
”Miss Vine? Yes; you must be very proud of her,” said the young man, without moving a muscle.
”We are; we are indeed, Mr Leslie; but I am afraid I am detaining you.”
”It is curious,” said Leslie, as he walked slowly down the cliff-path.