Part 21 (1/2)

”I am glad to know there is a distinction. Indeed I might have perceived it for myself. In motives, of course, that distinction is great indeed, and I hope that I am not slow to discover it, and in your case to excuse it. I quite understand and even sympathise with your feelings, General.”

”I am glad of that now,” said Sir Terence, who had understood nothing of all this.

”Naturally,” the Count pursued on a smooth, level note of amiability, ”when a man, himself no longer young, commits the folly of taking a young and charming wife, he is to be forgiven when a natural anxiety drives him to lengths which in another might be resented.” He bowed before the empurpling Sir Terence.

”Ye're a d.a.m.ned c.o.xcomb, it seems,” was the answering roar.

”Of course you would a.s.sume it. It was to be expected. I condone it with the rest. And because I condone it, because I sympathise with what in a man of your age and temperament must amount to an affliction, I hasten to a.s.sure you upon my honour that so far as I am concerned there are no grounds for your anxiety.”

”And who the devil asks for your a.s.surances? It's stark mad ye are to suppose that I ever needed them.”

”Of course you must say that,” Samoval insisted, with a confident and superior smile. He shook his head, his expression one of amused sorrow.

”Sir Terence, you have knocked at the wrong door. You are youthful at least in your impulsiveness, but you are surely as blind as old Pantaloon in the comedy or you would see where your industry would be better employed in s.h.i.+elding your wife's honour and your own.”

Goaded to fury, his blue eyes aflame now with pa.s.sion, Sir Terence considered the sleek and subtle gentleman before him, and it was in that moment that the Count's subtlety soared to its finest heights. In a flash of inspiration he perceived the advantages to be drawn by himself from conducting this quarrel to extremes.

This is not mere idle speculation. Knowledge of the real motives actuating him rests upon the evidence of a letter which Samoval was to write that same evening to La Fleche--afterwards to be discovered--wherein he related what had pa.s.sed, how deliberately he had steered the matter, and what he meant to do. His object was no longer the punis.h.i.+ng of an affront. That would happen as a mere incident, a thing done, as it were, in pa.s.sing. His real aim now was to obtain the keys of the adjutant's strong-box, which never left Sir Terence's person, and so become possessed of the plans of the lines of Torres Vedras. When you consider in the light of this the manner in which Samoval proceeded now you will admire with me at once the opportunism and the subtlety of the man.

”You'll be after telling me exactly what you mean,” Sir Terence had said.

It was in that moment that Tremayne and Lady O'Moy came arm in arm into the open on the hill-side, half-a-mile away--very close and confidential. They came most opportunely to the Count's need, and he flung out a hand to indicate them to Sir Terence, a smile of pity on his lips.

”You need but to look to take the answer for yourself,” said he.

Sir Terence looked, and laughed. He knew the secret of Ned Tremayne's heart and could laugh now with relish at that which hitherto had left him darkly suspicious.

”And who shall blame Lady O'Moy?” Count Samoval pursued. ”A lady so charming and so courted must seek her consolation for the almost unnatural union Fate has imposed upon her. Captain Tremayne is of her own age, convenient to her hand, and for an Englishman not ill-looking.”

He smiled at O'Moy with insolent compa.s.sion, and O'Moy, losing all his self-control, struck him slapped him resoundingly upon the cheek.

”Ye're a dirty liar, Samoval, a muck-rake,” said he.

Samoval stepped back, breathing hard, one cheek red, the other white.

Yet by a miracle he still preserved his self-control.

”I have proved my courage too often,” he said, ”to be under the necessity of killing you for this blow. Since my honour is safe I will not take advantage of your overwrought condition.”

”Ye'll take advantage of it whether ye like it or not,” blazed Sir Terence at him. ”I mean you to take advantage of it. D' ye think I'll suffer any man to cast a slur upon Lady O'Moy? I'll be sending my friends to wait on you to-day, Count; and--by G.o.d!--Tremayne himself shall be one of them.”

Thus did the hot-headed fellow deliver himself into the hands of his enemy. Nor was he warned when he saw the sudden gleam in Samoval's dark eyes.

”Ha!” said the Count. It was a little exclamation of wicked satisfaction. ”You are offering me a challenge, then?”

”If I may make so bold. And as I've a mind to shoot you dead--”

”Shoot, did you say?” Samoval interrupted gently.

”I said 'shoot'--and it shall be at ten paces, or across a handkerchief, or any d.a.m.ned distance you please.”

The Count shook his head. He sneered. ”I think not--not shoot.” And he waved the notion aside with a hand white and slender as a woman's. ”That is too English, or too Irish. The pistol, I mean--appropriately a fool's weapon.” And he explained himself, explained at last his extraordinary forbearance under a blow. ”If you think I have practised the small-sword every day of my life for ten years to suffer myself to be shot at like a rabbit in the end--ho, really!” He laughed aloud. ”You have challenged me, I think, Sir Terence. Because I feared the predilection you have discovered, I was careful to wait until the challenge came from you. The choice of weapons lies, I think, with me. I shall instruct my friends to ask for swords.”