Part 67 (2/2)
”It's quite impossible to justify either the use he's made of me or the way he's treated her,” he concluded sadly. ”I shall speak very seriously to him about it.” But he knew that the serious speaking, however comforting it might be to himself as a protest, would fall very lightly on Harry Tristram's ears; their listening would be for the verdict of another voice.
”Do you think Disney will repeat his offer--will give him a chance of reconsidering now?” asked Iver, who had heard of that affair from Lord Southend.
”I'm sure he wouldn't accept anything,” Neeld answered with remarkable prompt.i.tude and conviction. It was a luxury to find an opportunity of speaking the truth.
”The least he could do would be to leave that to her.”
”She'd say just the same,” Neeld a.s.sured him. ”I'm convinced there'll be no question of anything of the kind.”
”Then it's very awkward,” Iver grumbled crossly.
In all his varied experience of the Imp--which included, it may be remembered, a good deal of plain-speaking and one embrace--Neeld had never found her in such a state as governed her this evening. Mason gave him tea while she walked restlessly about; he gathered that Mason was dying to talk but had been sore wounded in an encounter with Mina already, and was now perforce holding his tongue.
”They'll be here by seven, and you and I are to dine with them,” she told him. ”Quite informally.”
”Dear me, I--I don't think I want----” he began.
”Hus.h.!.+” she interrupted. ”Are you going to be all day with those things, Mason?”
”I hope I haven't been slower than usual, ma'am,” said Mason very stiffly.
At last he went. In an instant Mina darted across to Neeld, and caught him by the arm. ”What have you to tell me?” she cried.
”To tell you? I? Oh, dear, no, Madame Zabriska! I a.s.sure you----”
”Oh, there's no need for that! Harry said you were to tell me before they arrived; that's why I sent for you now.”
”He said I was to tell you----?”
”Yes, yes. Something you knew and I didn't; something that would explain it all.”
She stood before him with clasped hands. ”It's quite true; he did say so,” she pleaded. ”It's all been so delightful, and yet so strange; and he told me to be ready either to stay here or to go home to-night! Tell me, tell me, Mr Neeld!”
”Why didn't he tell you himself?”
”I only saw him alone for an instant after the wedding; and before it he didn't say a word about there being anything to tell. There's a secret.
What is it?”
He was glad to tell it. He had carried his burden long enough.
”We've all made a great blunder. Harry is Lord Tristram after all.”
Mina stood silent for a moment. ”Oh!” she gasped. ”And he's married Cecily without telling her?”
”That's what he has done, I regret to say. And I take it that he means to tell her to-night.”
Mina sank into a chair. ”What will she do?” she murmured. ”What will she do?”
<script>