Part 76 (1/2)

They faced one another in the evening light, Scott pale to the lips, in his eyes an electric blaze that made them almost unbearably bright, Eustace, heavy-browed, lowering, the red glare of savagery gleaming like a smouldering flame, ready to leap forth in devastating fury to meet the fierce white heat that confronted him.

An awful silence hung between them--a silence of unutterable emotions, more poignant with pa.s.sion than any strife or clash of weapons. And through it like a mocking under-current there ran the distant tinkle of the piano, the echoes of careless laughter beyond the closed door.

Then at last--it seemed with difficulty--Scott spoke, his voice very low, oddly jerky. ”What do you mean by that? Tell me what you mean!”

Sir Eustace made an abrupt gesture,--the gesture of the swordsman on guard. He met the attack instantly and unwaveringly, but his look was wary. He did not seek to throw the lesser man from his path. As it were instinctively, though possibly for the first time in his life, he treated him as an equal.

”You know what I mean!” he made fierce rejoinder. ”Even you can hardly pretend ignorance on that point.”

”Even I!” Scott uttered a short, hard laugh that seemed to escape him against his will. ”All the same, I will have an explanation,” he said.

”I prefer a straight charge, notwithstanding my d.a.m.ned subtlety. You will either explain or withdraw.”

”As you like,” Sir Eustace yielded the point, and again he acted instinctively, not realizing that he had no choice. ”I mean that from the very beginning of things you have been influencing her against me, trying to win her from me. You never intended me to propose to her in the first place. You never imagined that I would do such a thing. You only thought of driving me off the ground and clearing it for yourself. I saw your game long ago. When you lost one trick, you tried for another. I knew--I knew all along. But the game is up now, and you've lost.” A very bitter smile curved his mouth with the words. ”There is your explanation,” he said. ”I hope you are satisfied.”

”But I am not satisfied!” Quick as lightning came the _riposte_. Scott stood upright against the closed door. His eyes, unflickering, dazzlingly bright, were fixed upon his brother's face. ”I am not satisfied,” he repeated, and his words were as sternly direct as his look; he spoke as one compelled by some inner, driving force, ”because what you have just said to me--this foul thing you believe of me--is utterly and absolutely without foundation. I have never tried--or dreamed of trying--to win her from you. I speak as before G.o.d. In this matter I have never been other than loyal either to you or to my own honour. If any other man insulted me in this fas.h.i.+on,” his face worked a little, but he controlled it sharply, ”I wouldn't have stooped to answer him. But you--I suppose I must allow you the--privilege of brotherhood. And so I ask you to believe--at least to make an effort to believe--that you have made a mistake.”

His voice was absolutely quiet as he ended. The dignity of his utterance had in it even a touch of the sublime, and the elder man was aware of it, felt the force of it, was humbled by it. He stood a moment or two as one irresolute, halting at a difficult choice. Then, with an abrupt lift of the head as though his pride made fierce resistance, he gave ground.

”If I have wronged you, I apologize,” he said with brevity.

Scott smiled faintly, wryly. ”If--” he said.

”Very well, I withdraw the 'if.'” Sir Eustace spoke impatiently, not as one desiring reconciliation. ”You laid yourself open to it by accepting the position of amba.s.sador. I don't know how you could seriously imagine that I would treat with you in that capacity. If Dinah has anything to say to me, she must say it herself.”

”She will do so,” Scott spoke with steady a.s.surance. ”But before you see her, I think I ought to tell you that her reason for wis.h.i.+ng to be set free is not stage-fright or any childish nonsense of that kind; but simply the plain fact that her heart is not in the compact. She has found out that she doesn't love you enough.”

”She told you so?” demanded Sir Eustace.

Scott bent his head, for the first time averting his eyes from his brother's face. ”Yes.”

”And she wished you to tell me?” There was a metallic ring in Sir Eustace's voice; the red glare was gone from his eyes, they were cold and hard as a winter sky.

”Yes,” Scott said again, still not looking at him.

”And why?” The words fell brief and imperious, compelling in their incisiveness.

Scott's eyes returned to his, almost in protest. ”I told her you ought to know,” he said.

”Then she would not have told me otherwise?”

”Possibly not.”

There fell another silence. Sir Eustace looked hard and straight into the pale eyes, as though he would pierce to the soul behind. But though Scott met the look unwavering, his soul was beyond all scrutiny. There was something about him that baffled all search, something colossal that barred the way. For the second time Sir Eustace realized himself to be at a disadvantage; haughtily he pa.s.sed the matter by.

”In that case there is nothing further to be said. You have fulfilled your somewhat rash undertaking, and that you have come out of the business with a whole skin is a bigger piece of luck than you deserved.

If Dinah wishes this matter to go any further, she must come to me herself.”