Part 42 (1/2)
”I am dying to see Mordryn, G. I wish I had known he was going to speak to-day and I would have gone to the House; he felt it his duty, I suppose--this wretched Land Bill! How did he look? And did you get a word with him? I shall see him to-morrow, of course.”
Mr. Strobridge gave the message that he had been asked to give, and vouchsafed the information that the Duke had appeared as usual and was altogether charming as ever.
”It is to be hoped he will get some good out of life now that he is free at last from those mad women.”
Her Ladys.h.i.+p's face a.s.sumed a strange expression. She sat down in her usual armchair with an air of fatigue.
”Your words strike home, G.--for you know I made his marriage--in those far back ignorant days when no one thought of heredity or such things. I literally married him off to Laura almost against his will, because he was utterly devoted to me and I to him, and the situation was becoming impossible, over ten years between our ages, his immense position and mine--and Garribardine jealous--There was nothing else for it. Laura was a sweet, foolish creature then, beautiful and of no account. I felt she would never replace me in his affection, and in those days, nearly thirty years ago, it would have been considered almost indecent to talk of what future children might turn out--They were supposed to come from the cabbage beds and to have nothing to do with their parents!”
”Of course, one had always heard he was devoted to you, Seraphim--He is still.”
”Dear Mordryn!--Laura gave him trouble on the honeymoon, and once made him look ridiculous--He never pardoned that. By the time she was shut up, I was fifty, G., and had mercifully a strong sense of humour, so Mordryn and I had no lapses and have remained firm friends as you know.”
”One has often wondered what his inner life could have been during all those years of horror at home. He was a model of circ.u.mspection outwardly, but the adoration of women must have affected him now and then.”
”Not greatly, I think--Naturally he has had some consolation, but when one thinks of it, it is perfectly marvellous that no woman in England has ever been able to flatter herself that she possessed an influence over him--and, of course, in these last years he has not even seen any.”
”I suppose he will marry again now, having no heir?”
There was a very interested note in Mr. Strobridge's voice.
”He must--And he must find a sane and strong woman--the family is on the verge of being overbred. I must look out a suitable bunch for him to select from.”
”I should leave it to fate this time, Seraphim.”
”If I do that some totally unsuitable creature with a clever mother will grab him.”
Mr. Strobridge laughed.
”Has not the man a will of his own?”
”No man has a will of his own while the vanity of his s.e.x is still in him. He is as defenceless as a baby, and at the mercy of any cunning female. I could not bear to see Mordryn suffering a second time,” and Lady Garribardine sighed.
After luncheon next day, when the rest of the company had departed, the Duke stayed on and accompanied his friend up to her own sitting-room where they could talk undisturbed.
They understood each other completely. They spoke for a long time of his travels and of his release at last from bondage and strain, and of how he was going to open Valfreyne once more and see the world of his fellows and take up the thread of his life.
”You must not keep a grain of mawkish sentiment, Mordryn,” Her Ladys.h.i.+p said at last. ”You must banish all remembrance of Laura and Adeliza and begin life afresh.”
”At fifty-three?--It is a little late, I fear, for the game to have much zest.”
”Tut! tut! You have never found the youngest and most beautiful woman recalcitrant, I'll wager. One had heard not so many years ago that a certain fine creature in Paris almost died of love for you!”
The Duke smiled, and when he did this it was an illumination, his face in repose was so stern.
”Not of love--of chagrin, because the ruby in the bangle she received was reported to her--by her ma.s.seuse--to be of less pure pigeon's blood than the duplicate--which I gave to the Spaniard. It is impossible to gauge the love of a mistress; it is equally kindled by rubies and the charms of a youthful Apollo.”
”But you need not now confine your attentions to _ces dames_ any longer, Mordryn; there are numbers of our world who would console you.”