Part 38 (1/2)

”No, a hundred times, no.”

”Well then, I shall go alone.”

She turned away in the direction of the park, but with two strides Ulric reached her and placed himself before her, barring the road.

”Back, my lady, you can't get through, I tell you, least of all, this way where my men are. Lady or not, it is all the same to them now. Your name is Berkow, and that is enough. As soon as they find out who you are, you will have them all upon you. You cannot and shall not go over there now. Stay here where you are.”

These last words were spoken imperatively and in a tone of menace, but Eugenie was not accustomed to submit to orders, and the almost delirious violence with which he was striving to keep her from Arthur called up in her a vague anxiety and dread lest things should be worse with him than she had been led to believe.

”I shall go to my husband,” she repeated very resolutely, ”and I shall see whether on my way to him any one dares stop me by force. Let your friends a.s.sault a woman, give the signal for it yourself, if you care to take the credit of the heroic deed. I shall go.”

And she went; darting by him and taking the path which led across the fields.

Hartmann stood gazing after her with eyes which glowed again, paying no heed to his father's prayers and remonstrances. He understood better than the old man what she intended by this venture, what she wished to compel him to. But this time he would not yield to her. She might perish on the threshold of her own house, in sight of her husband, before he would take her back to the arms of a man he hated, before he ...

At this moment a troop of miners made their appearance, excited and uproarious, coming from the place of meeting to rejoin their leader.

The foremost of them was only some hundred paces off. They had already noticed the solitary female figure before them; in another minute she would be recognised, and he himself had, but half-an-hour ago, been goading on these men to blind fury against all that bore the name of Berkow.

Eugenie went forward to meet the danger, not attempting even to conceal her face. In his desperation Ulric stamped on the ground; then he tore himself free from his father, and in an instant was at her side.

”Put down your veil,” he said, and grasped her hand with an iron grasp.

Eugenie obeyed, drawing a deep breath of relief. She was safe now; she knew he would not loose his hold on her hand again, if all the men on the works were to attack them at once. She had gone on deliberately to meet the danger, with full consciousness of what she was doing, but also with the conviction that nothing short of her visible and imminent peril would win for her that protection which had been refused.

They now came up to the troop of insurgents, who at once attempted to throng round their leader so as to place him in their midst, but he briefly and emphatically bade them make way, and ordered them over to the shafts without loss of time. They obeyed at once as their comrades had done previously, and Ulric, who had not halted for so much as a second, drew his companion on more rapidly than ever. She began to see plainly how impossible it would have been for her to force a pa.s.sage through by herself, and how idle any other protection would have proved than that which was at her side.

This stretch of meadow-land, usually so peaceful, was to-day the scene of busy surging tumult, although the actual strife was confined to the neighbourhood of the shafts. Knots of miners were trooping about, or standing closely grouped together in noisy conference. Everywhere angry faces and threatening gestures were to be seen, everywhere turmoil and confusion reigned paramount, an object only seemed wanting for them to give vent to their wild excitement by some deed of violence.

Happily, the footpath skirted the edge of the fields where the tumult was relatively less, but even here Ulric no sooner showed himself than he became the centre of observation, and was greeted everywhere with loud shouts, in which there mingled a certain note of surprise. A host of astonished, distrustful, suspicious glances were levelled at the female figure by his side. No one guessed that, attired in that dark travelling-dress and thick veil, the master's wife was pa.s.sing through their midst. Had any one fancied he recognised her gait and bearing, such a notion would have been scouted by the others.

Ulric Hartmann was protecting her, and he would most surely never have accorded his protection to any one connected with the house of Berkow; still it was a lady who was walking with him, the Manager's rough, uncourteous son, though he cared nothing for women generally, not even for Martha Ewers, who was cared for, in some degree, by almost every unmarried man in the place.

Ulric, who, at a time like the present, looked upon and treated his comrades' wives as an unnecessary burthen to be shaken off as much as possible, Ulric was now playing the guide to this stranger, and there was a look on his face as though he would strike down any one who ventured a step too near her. That short walk, which lasted barely ten minutes in all, was a bold experiment even for the young leader himself, but he showed that here, at least, he was master, and that he knew how to make use of his power.

Now, by a few imperious words, he dissolved a group which stood in his way; now, again, he issued orders and instructions to a troop of miners bearing down upon him, which took them off in another direction; to those who would have pressed round with questions and reports of what was going on he cried,

”By and by, I am coming back!” and all the time he never lost a moment, but drew his companion swiftly on, so as to prevent discovery or delay.

At last they reached the park, closed at this spot by a wooden gate only. Ulric pushed it open, and stepped inside with her under the sheltering trees.

”That is enough,” he said, letting go her hand. ”The park is safe still, and in five minutes you will be at the house.”

Eugenie was still trembling at the danger they had pa.s.sed through, and her hand ached from the iron pressure of his. She put back her veil slowly.

”Make haste,” said he with bitter sarcasm. ”I have honestly done my part towards helping you back to your husband. You will not keep him waiting now?”

Eugenie looked up at him. His face betrayed the torture she had inflicted, by placing before him the alternative of witnessing an attack upon her, or of himself leading her to her husband.

She had no courage to thank him, but she put out her hand in silence.

Ulric pushed it away.