Part 7 (1/2)
She flashed a sharp glance at him, and he felt glad that it was too dark for her to see his face.
”You must tell me the whole story to-night,” she requested.
Her companion made no answer. With the reserve that must be maintained on several points, the story would be difficult to relate; and it could not fail to be painful to her. The horror she would feel if she ever learned that her brother might have been saved had his cousin shown more resolution was a thing he dare not contemplate, and he wondered if the shock the knowledge must bring could be spared her. This depended upon Lisle, whom he had promised to a.s.sist. Nasmyth could foresee nothing but trouble, and he was silent for a while as they drove on across the lonely moor.
CHAPTER VI
NASMYTH TELLS HIS STORY
Dinner was over, and Millicent's elderly companion had discreetly left them alone, when the girl led Nasmyth into her drawing-room. It was brightly lighted and was tastefully decorated in delicate colors, and a wood fire was burning on the hearth; but, for the first time that he could remember, Nasmyth felt ill at ease in it. He was fresh from the snow-covered rocks and shadowy woods and the refinement and artistic luxury of his surroundings rather jarred on him. The story he had to relate dealt with elemental things--hunger, toil, and death--it would sound harsher and more ugly amid the evidences of civilization.
”You have a good deal to tell me,” Millicent suggested at length.
He stood still a moment, looking at her. She had already seated herself, and the sweeping lines of her pose suggested vigor and energy held in quiet control. Her face was warm in coloring, bearing signs of exposure to wind and sun, but it was chastely molded in a fine oval with the features firmly lined. Her hair was dark, though there were bronzy gleams in it, and her eyes, which were deeply brown, had a sparkle in them. As a whole, her appearance indicated a sanguine, optimistic temperament, but there was also an indefinite something which spoke of due balance and repose. Nasmyth was more convinced than ever that he had not met any other woman fit to compare with her. Her age, as he knew, having given her many birthday presents, was twenty-four.
”Yes,” he said, in answer to her remark, ”but it's curious that I can't fix my mind upon the subject here. The night's mild; shall we go out on to the veranda?”
”Wait until I get a wrap. I understand.”
”You always do that,” Nasmyth declared.
She joined him outside in another minute and seated herself in the chair he drew out. The house was small and irregularly built, and a gla.s.s roof supported on light pillars stretched along part of the front. A half-moon hung above a ridge of dark fir wood, a tarn gleamed below, and here and there down a shadowy hollow there was a sparkle of running water. On the other side of the dale the moors stretched away, waste and empty, toward the half-seen hills. The loneliness of the prospect reminded Nasmyth of Canada, and the resemblance grew more marked when the crying of plover rose from the dim heath--it brought back the call of the loon. Still, he did not wonder why Millicent, an orphan with ample means, lived alone except for her elderly companion on the desolate Border.
”You don't mind, I know,” he said as he lighted a cigar.
”I can make that concession willingly,” she answered with a smile. ”I suppose I'm old-fas.h.i.+oned, because I go no farther.”
”Keep so,” advised Nasmyth. ”Of course, that's unnecessary; but I never could make out why women should want to smoke. From my point of view, it isn't becoming.”
He was putting off a task from which he shrank, and she indulged him.
”One retains one's prejudices in a place like this,” she said. ”I felt sadly left behind when I was last in London; and the few visits I made in the home counties a little while ago astonished me. n.o.body seemed to stay at home; the motors were continually whirling them up to town and back; the guests kept coming and going. There was so much restlessness and bustle that I was glad to be home again.”
”It has struck me,” returned Nasmyth with an air of sage reflection, ”that we who live quietly in the country are the pick of the lot. Sounds egotistical, doesn't it? But if we don't do much good--and I'm afraid I don't, anyway--neither do we do any harm.”
”I'm not sure that that's a great deal to be proud of.”
”I didn't include you,” Nasmyth a.s.sured her. ”There have been wholesome changes in the village since you grew up and made your influence felt.
And that leads to a question: How does Clarence get on with his tenants and the rank and file? George understood them, but they're difficult folks to handle.”
”He's away a good deal--I'm afraid there has been some friction now and then.” The girl's manner suddenly changed. ”But that's beside the point.
Aren't you wasting time?”
”I am almost afraid to begin. You will find the story trying.”
She turned toward him, and the moonlight showed her face was rea.s.suringly quiet.
”I expect that; but your fears are groundless. You needn't hesitate on my account.”