Part 114 (1/2)
”If I be right,” said he, ”and I'd go the length of a wager that I am, the packet you saw on the breakfast-table contains one of the most costly ornaments a woman ever wore. It was a royal present on the wedding-day of Sir Within Wardles mother, and sent by him to fulfil the same office to Miss Luttrell on becoming Mrs. Ladarelle.”
”You know this!” said she, in a slow, collected tone.
”I know it because he sent me to his gem-room at Dalradern to fetch it. He opened the casket in my presence, he showed me the jewels, he explained to me the peculiar setting. Emeralds on one side, opals on the other, so as to present two distinct suites of ornaments. I remember his words, and how his lips trembled as he said, 'Ladies in these times were wont to turn their necklaces, now they only change their affections!'
You'd scarcely believe it, Miss Conrtenay, but it is fact, positive fact, the poor old man had been in love with her.”
”I certainly cannot stretch my credulity to that extent, Mr. Grenfell,”
said she, with a shade of vexation in her voice, ”though I could readily believe how an artful, unprincipled girl, with a field all her own, could manage to ensnare a most gentle, confiding nature into a degree of interest for her, that she would speedily a.s.sume to be a more tender feeling. And was the casket sent to _her_, Mr. Grenfell?” asked she, in a suddenly altered tone.
”Yes, I enclosed it, with an inscription dictated by Sir Within himself.”
”And she sends it back to him?” said she, pondering oyer each word as though it were charged with a deep significance.
”It would seem so.”
”I think you guess why. I am certain, if I have not taken a very wrong measure of Mr. Grenfell's acuteness, that he reads this riddle pretty much as I do myself.”
”It is by no means improbable,” said Grenfell, who quickly saw the line her suspicions had taken. ”I think it very likely the same interpretation has occurred to each of us.”
”Give me yours,” said she, eagerly.
”My reading is this,” replied he: ”she has returned his present on the ground that, not being Mrs. Ladarelle, she has no claim to it. The rest.i.tution serving to show at the same moment a punctilious sense of honour, and, what she is fully as eager to establish, the fact that, being still unmarried, there is nothing to prevent Sir Within himself from a renewal of his former pretensions.”
”How well you know her! How thoroughly you appreciate her wily, subtle nature!” cried she, in warm admiration.
”Not that the game will succeed,” added he; ”the poor old man is now beyond such captations as once enthralled him.”
”How so? What do you mean?” asked she, sharply.
”I mean simply what we all see. He is rapidly sinking into second childhood.”
”I declare, Mr. Grenfell, you astonish me!” said she, with an almost impetuous force of manner. ”At one moment you display a most remarkable acuteness in reading motives and deciphering intentions, and now you make an observation actually worthy of Mr. M'Kinlay.”
”And so you do not agree with me?” asked he.
”Agree with you! certainly not. Sir Within Wardle is an old friend of ours. Certain peculiarities of manner he has. In a great measure they have been impressed upon him by the circ.u.mstances of his station. An amba.s.sador, a great man himself, is constantly in the presence of a sovereign, who is still greater. The conflict of dignity with the respect due to royalty makes up a very intricate code of conduct and manner of which the possessor cannot always disembarra.s.s himself, even in the society of his equals. Something of this you may have remarked in Sir Within's manner; nothing beyond it, I am confident!”
”I only hope, my dear Miss Courtenay, that, if the day should come when my own faculties begin to fail me, I may be fortunate enough to secure you for my defender.”
”The way to ensure my advocacy will certainly not be by attacking an old and dear friend!” said she, with deep resentment in tone; and she turned abruptly and entered the house.
Mr. Grenfell looked after her for a moment in some astonishment. He was evidently unprepared for this sudden outburst of pa.s.sion, but he quickly recovered himself, and, after a brief pause, resumed his walk, muttering below his breath as he went: ”So, then, _this_ is the game! What a stupid fool I have been not to have seen it before! All happening under my very eyes, too! I must say, she has done it cleverly--very cleverly.”
And with his cordial appreciation of female skill, he lit his cigar, and, seating himself on the sea-wall, smoked and ruminated during the morning. There were many aspects of the question that struck him, and he turned from the present to the future with all that ready-wittedness that had so longed favoured him in life.
He heard the bell ring for luncheon, but he never stirred; he was not hungry, neither particularly anxious to meet Miss Courtenay again. He preferred to have some few words with her alone ere they met in society.
He thought he had tact enough to intimate that he saw her project, and was quite ready to abet it without anything which could offend her dignity. This done, they would be sworn friends ever after. As he sat thus thinking, he heard a quiet step approaching. It was doubtless a servant sent to tell him that luncheon was served, and while doubting what reply to make, he heard M'Kinlay call out, ”I have found you at last! I have been all over the house in search of you.”