Part 3 (1/2)
”Your father. He hates this man Lister.”
”How can my father hate a man he has never even seen?” she demanded; ”you are talking rubbish.”
”Miss Huxham”--Pence detained her by laying his thin fingers on her arm--”if you marry this man Lister”--he kept to this sentence as though it were a charm--”you will be a pauper.”
She flashed up into a royal rage and stamped. ”How dare you say that?”
”I dare tell the truth.”
”It is not the truth. How can you tell if----”
”Your father told me,” insisted the preacher, hotly.
Bella withdrew a step or so, her eyes growing round with surprise.
”My--father--said--that?”
”Yes, yes, yes!” cried Silas feverishly. ”I went to him this very afternoon to ask permission to present myself to you as a suitor. He consented, but only when he heard that you loved this man who----”
”You told him that?” demanded Bella, her breath coming quick and short.
”Yes,” said Pence, trying to be courageous, ”and it is true.”
”Who says that it is?”
”Everyone in the village.”
”The village has nothing to do with my business,” she declared imperiously, ”and even if I do love--but let that pa.s.s. You told me that my father said I should be a pauper.”
”If you married the man Lister,” he reminded her. ”Yes, he did say so, and declared also that he would give me the manor-house and the farm when he died, if I made you my wife.”
Bella shrugged her shoulders. ”My father does not mean what he says,”
she remarked disbelievingly; ”as I am his only child, the Solitary Farm, as they call it, comes to me in any case. And I see no reason why I should discuss my father's business with you. Stand aside and let me pa.s.s.”
”No.” Silas was wonderfully brave for one of his timid soul. ”You shall not pa.s.s until you learn the truth. You think that I am a fool and weak.
I am not. I feel wise and strong; and I am strong--strong enough to withstand temptation, even when you are offered as a bribe.”
Bella grew somewhat alarmed. She did not like the glittering of his shallow, grey eyes. ”You are mad.”
”I am sane; you know that I am sane, but you think to put me off by saying that I am crazy. I have had enough to make me so. Your father”--here his voice took on the sing-song pulpit style--”your father took me up to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed me the kingdoms of the world. All of them he offered me, together with you, if I murdered Lister.”
”What!” Bella's voice leaped an octave; ”you--you--murder Cyril?”
”Yes, Cyril, the man you love. And if I dared----”
”Mr. Pence”--Bella saw the necessity of keeping herself well in hand with this hysterical youth, for he was nothing else, and spoke in a calm, kind voice--”my father has not seen Mr. Lister, and cannot hate him.”
”Go and ask him what he thinks,” said Pence fiercely. ”I tell you that to-day I was offered everything if I would kill this man Lister.”