Part 15 (1/2)
”It's no part of yours I'll ever take again. Are you going?”
”I only want to talk to you. If you'll only open the door I promise you I won't try to get in if you don't want me to.”
”I can have all the talk I want with you as we are. Will you be off?”
”Won't you let me have one look at you, Nannie, and give you just one kiss?”
”I'll have none of your kisses, and I never want to look at you again till you're lying in your coffin.”
”Nannie! there's something about the way you talk which I don't understand. It's not you to speak to me like this. I insist upon your opening the door. I don't believe Cuthbert Grahame ever told you not to--I know him too well to think that's possible. I shall keep on ringing and knocking till you do open, and so I tell you.”
”Then you'll keep on some time, I promise you that. I know what Mr. Cuthbert's orders are better than you. If I was to empty his gun at you I'd only do what he'd wish me to.”
”Nannie! But, Nannie, I've come all the way from London. It's a very long way, and costs a deal of money, and nowadays I haven't much money, as you know. You're not going to send me back like this.”
”Is it the fare back to London that you're wanting? If it's to beg you've come, I'll give you the fare out of my own pocket, so that Mr. Cuthbert may be rid of you in peace.”
This time in the girlish voice there was a ring of unmistakable indignation.
”Nannie! you're a wicked old woman! I believe that you've some wicked scheme in your head of which Cuthbert Grahame knows nothing. You sound as if you were capable of anything. If you don't let me in this moment I'll get in without your help.”
”How are you going to do that, pray?”
”Do you think I can't? I'll soon show you! If you think I'm still a foolish girl to be tyrannised over by you, you're very much mistaken. I won't believe that Cuthbert Grahame doesn't wish to see me till he tells me so with his own lips.”
CHAPTER XI
HOT WATER
A hand was raised on the other side of the door and brought smartly against the gla.s.s. The whole panel s.h.i.+vered; the blow would only have to be repeated two or three times to destroy it altogether. Whipping the key out of the lock, Isabel hurried up the staircase, slipping it into her pocket as she went. Although she had no fear of an entry being made, she was very far from desirous of being seen. That would involve the discovery of the fraud she had been practising. If Miss Wallace learned that it was not Nannie who had been addressing her in such uncompromising terms, it was scarcely likely, even if driven by force from the house, that she would leave the neighbourhood without effecting her purpose of seeing Cuthbert Grahame. So Isabel, determined that that should not happen, resolved to adopt extreme measures.
When she gained the top of the stairs she could already hear the gla.s.s s.h.i.+vering in the door below. Rus.h.i.+ng into the bath-room, s.n.a.t.c.hing up a couple of pails which the not too tidy maids had left there, and filling them at the tap, she strode with them to the landing-window which overlooked the entrance. She had filled them at the hot-water tap, and the steam came against her hand.
”It isn't very hot,” she told herself. ”There's just enough sting in it to make her a little warmer than she is already.”
The window was wide open. She peeped out to see that the girl was immediately below. Balancing both pails on the sill she turned them over together. That the contents had reached the mark was immediately made plain by the cries which ascended from below.
”Nannie! Nannie! you've scalded me! you've scalded me!”
Isabel replied, still taking care not to allow so much as the tip of her nose to be seen through the window--
”I'll scald you again in half a minute--you'll find the water's boiling next time, I promise you. What's more, I'll take Mr.
Cuthbert's gun to you, as he bade me. You shameless hussy! to go breaking his windows because he won't have you set your foot inside the house that you've disgraced!”
This diatribe from the supposit.i.tious Nannie was followed by silence below. Isabel, who found the suspense a little trying, was half disposed to venture on a glance to learn what was taking place. Unmistakable sounds, however, arose just as she had made up her mind to run the risk. Margaret Wallace was crying. Presently she exclaimed, in tones which were broken by her sobs--
”I'm going, Nannie. You needn't trouble to get Mr. Cuthbert's gun, nor to wait till the water's boiling. Whatever Mr.
Cuthbert's orders may have been--and I know I've used him badly, and deserve anything from him--I never thought you'd have treated me like this. I've never done you any harm, and you've always pretended that you loved me. I hope you'll never regret driving me away like this from the house that has always been a home to me! Oh, Nannie! Nannie!”