Part 56 (1/2)
”I would have regretted deeply missing this pleasure,” she said, meeting the brother and sister half way. ”You have both been so kind to me--so kind!”--with a look of deep and gentle grat.i.tude toward his grace--”that I can scarcely express my sense and appreciation of it.”
A mortal pallor had overspread the young man's face. His hand trembled as it touched hers, and his tongue trembled, too, when he essayed to speak.
”I would have known Miss Walsingham among a thousand, and yet illness and trials have robbed her even of the delicate roses she possessed.
I--I think she is more frail than, perhaps, she is apt to imagine.”
”Your grace is considerably changed, too. Have you been ill?”
He turned and looked imploringly at his sister, who was wringing Margaret's hand, and patting it in a very ardent manner.
”You don't deserve me to speak to you,” said Lady Dora, in a vehement _sotto voce_. ”So I'll be looking for my opera-gla.s.s down below, while you have a chat with the boy.”
Away she tripped with all haste, leaving Margaret standing silent by the side of her admirer.
”Will you honor me with a word or two?” faltered his grace. ”Perhaps you will not object to walking with me where there is less of a crowd.”
”I pray you not to enter again upon a subject which I thought was at an end,” murmured Margaret, reluctantly pacing the long deck with him, followed by the chevalier's jealous eyes.
”Circ.u.mstances have thrown us together again so strangely,” returned the young man, leaning in a dejected att.i.tude across the taffrail, ”that I could not resist the hope that entered my mind of being more successful this time. You wished me not to seek you out, and I have been firm in obeying you, hard as it was to avoid your vicinity while all these extraordinary trials were besetting you. Oh, Miss Walsingham, how I have longed to take you away from the miserable position in which that will has plunged you, and to guard you with my name and love from what you have suffered! But I did not seek you because you had exacted from me a promise to leave you unmolested. But, now, has not heaven thrown us together in the most marked manner by sending us three thousand miles across the sea in the same steamer? It seems as if we were destined for each other, does it not? And that Providence is pointing out, for the second time, the path we ought to pursue?”
”There is one obstacle to your grace's rather superst.i.tious fancy,”
rejoined Margaret, ”one which Providence is not likely to overlook. I do not entertain for your grace that regard which Heaven has decreed should be between husband and wife, and if Lady Dora has rightly reported our interview of yesterday, you know that such a regard is out of the question.”
Piermont bowed his head on his hands and bore his disappointment in silence.
”I am glad that I have had this opportunity,” resumed Margaret, in a gentle voice, ”of thanking you again for the generous love you offer me--a love which the n.o.blest lady would be richly honored in receiving, and though I must refuse it, it is with a keen appreciation of its value. I shall always remember your grace with grat.i.tude--ay, with affectionate solicitude, and your whole-souled sister also.”
”I wish you every happiness,” muttered the young man, lifting his haggard face and trying to smile; ”and may your love be placed upon a man worthy to receive it. But, beloved Miss Walsingham, if ever circ.u.mstances throw you free and untrammeled upon the world, and if you can send one thought of affection to me, give me a chance to try my fate a third time.”
He pressed her hand for a moment to his fond and foolish heart, which was throbbing like to burst for the simple girl before him, and then he went away.
”By gar!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the chevalier, plucking Davenport's sleeve, ”the _tete-a-tete_ has broken its neck off short--so, in the middle. Here comes a man all ready for a dose of prussic acid, or a duel with his rival. Bravo, mademoiselle! You are one trump to stick to the colonel, and to send the coronet away. And there is the _charmante_ demoiselle with the black eyes; see how she does pounce upon our duke and walk him away. Aha, you don't like it, _miladi_, do you? Would you not love to pull the eyes out of Mademoiselle Marguerite with those pretty _leetle_ nails?”
CHAPTER XXVII.
A NEW ACQUAINTANCE.
Arrived in New York, the three travelers speedily were located in a hotel, and the chevalier proposed going to the military hospital in which he left Colonel Brand, for news of him.
”There will not be the shadow of a doubt, my dear mademoiselle,” said the sanguine little man, ”that our hero is still in the same domicile, convalescing, we shall say, by this time, but still unable to resume his deeds of valor, as six weeks only have pa.s.sed since I parted from him.”
But Margaret by this time was in such a state of excitement and suspense, that they decided that all three should repair to the hospital with as little delay as possible.
Das.h.i.+ng rapidly through the snow-beaten streets, they paused at last before a stately building, and Margaret lifted her famished eyes in a long, a yearning gaze, from window to window, as if, perchance, she might see the man whose face had never beamed upon her the smile of kindness.
She sat immovable while Davenport and Calembours were in the hospital, and her heart rose in the wild triumph of conviction that he was there, they staid so long.