Part 35 (2/2)
”Thank you, there is nothing wrong, only--I want to go.”
”Go! You can't go now--it's impossible--before I've introduced you, since you're here for that special purpose.”
”I don't want to be introduced. I'd rather you didn't. Harry, you mustn't!”
”Meg, don't look like that. She's not an ogre; she won't bite you. Child, what's gone wrong with you all of a sudden? You needn't stop more than five minutes--and this atmosphere's enough to asphyxiate any one; but, after what I said to her this morning, and since you have come, the commonest courtesy compels me to introduce you; afterwards we can go at once; any excuse will serve. Anyhow it's too late now for us to think of going before I've made you known to her.”
What Mr. Talfourd said seemed to be the fact. The current had borne them so close to their hostess that she had but to turn round to find herself within arm's length of them. Margaret was silent. Harry did not look at her face; he was careful not to do so. The sudden curious change in the girl's manner had affected him more than he would have cared to admit. He knew that she was not a person who was liable to be beset by fantastic whims and fancies, and that there was probably some substantial reason for the alteration which had taken place in her. His wish was to get through the ceremony of introduction with as much speed, and as little ostentation, as he could, and then depart, if the feat were possible, more quickly than they had come. With this intention, taking the bull a little by the horns, he addressed their hostess while her back was still turned towards them.
”Mrs. Lamb!”
At the sound of the voice, for whose accents she had been listening all the evening, the lady moved round with quite a little swirl of her draperies; there was just sufficient open s.p.a.ce about her to enable her to do it.
”Mr. Talfourd! I thought you had forgotten me, and were never coming. And--have you brought the lady?”
”I have. Permit me to introduce to you Miss Margaret Wallace.”
There have possibly been moments in most of our lives when we have been visited by something of the nature of a thunderbolt, and sometimes it has seemed to drop out of the clearest of blue skies. That was the moment in her life in which the thunderbolt descended on Mrs. Lamb, and with such crus.h.i.+ng force that, for a too perceptible period of time, it left her literally bereft of her right senses. Its utter unexpectedness was no slight factor in the havoc which it wrought. Possibly more than she had been able to do for a considerable interval she had succeeded in putting behind her matters which were wont to press too closely; for the moment she had forgotten Pitmuir--all that it meant.
This was a case in which forgetfulness meant happiness, or a very tolerable subst.i.tute. If only for a few fleeting minutes her mind was at peace.
And, on a sudden, without a moment's warning, not dreaming that such a meeting was even within the range of possibility, she found herself confronted by the one person in the world whom she would have traversed the universe to avoid. There, in her own drawing-room, within two feet of her was the girl who was the only living creature whose image haunted her, both awake and asleep.
She had had communion of late with ghosts--unwillingly enough, for she had resorted to every means with which she was acquainted to drive them from her. Yet come they would.
Therefore it was not, after all, so strange, that in the first moments of what practically amounted to delirium, she supposed that this bonny, fair-haired, blue-eyed girl, whom she so hated and so feared, was one of them.
When she heard her name, and saw her face, she moved back upon the people who were behind, oblivious that they were there. The whole fas.h.i.+on of her countenance was changed. She held out her arms, as if to ward off something whose approach she feared. And she exclaimed, in a voice which none of those about had heard from her before--
”You can't come in!--you can't! He says you're not to--and you shan't! Go away! go away!”
Not one person in the throng which was around her had a notion what she meant, Margaret no more than any of them. She herself drew back and clung to Mr. Talfourd's arm, as if in fear. But her fear was as nothing to the other's. Their hostess offered in herself a picture for her guests' inspection which it was not pleasant to behold. She seemed to have all at once become transformed into a gibbering idiot. While she persistently drew farther and farther back, she kept repeating--
”You shan't come in!--you shan't! He says you're not to--and you shan't! you shan't! I say you shan't!”
There was among the onlookers a medical man, one who had had experience of different phases of lunacy. Perceiving that this was a case which entered into his domain, he forced himself to the front. He put his hand upon his hostess' bare shoulder.
”Mrs. Lamb! what has affected you? There is nothing here to cause you the slightest disturbance. Control yourself, I beg.”
His tone of calm authority had instant effect. Mrs. Lamb was still, she ceased to gibber. Her arms fell to her sides. She remained motionless, staring in front of her, as one in a dream.
Putting her hands up to her face, a convulsion seemed to pa.s.s all over her. When she removed her hands she was awake, and understood, and knew what she had done. The knowledge was more than she could bear.
”Let me pa.s.s,” she cried.
They let her pa.s.s. She swept through her guests, who huddled themselves together to let her go, like some incensed wild creature, out of the room, from their sight.
CHAPTER XXII
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