Part 44 (1/2)
”Oh, dash it all! Can nothing be done to stop it?”
”Much, I hope. Tell Howard what you know, and he will start for the Continent at once to verify it. Meanwhile, may I invite a friend to come here tomorrow?”
”Need you ask? We can put up six more at a pinch. But I can't get over Montecastello's infernal impertinence. Yet, it's fully in accordance with Italian standards of right and wrong. Your young count or princeling can live like a pig until matrimony crops up. Then he becomes mighty particular. The bride must bring not only her dowry, but an unblemished record as well. I suppose, in the long run, it is a wise thing. Were it not for some such proviso, half the aristocracy of Europe would disappear in two generations.”
Power pa.s.sed no comment; but he sent the following letter by the night post:
”Dear Mr. Lindsay.--Miss Nancy Marten, who is staying at Valescure Castle, near this house, has honored me by asking my advice and help in a matter that concerns herself and you. She has done this because I am her friend, and was her mother's friend years ago in Colorado. Can you get leave from your regiment for a few days, and come here? I believe you army men can plead urgent private affairs, and there is little doubt as to the urgency and privacy of this request. I make one stipulation. You are not to communicate with Miss Nancy Marten until you have seen me.
”Sincerely yours, ”JOHN DARIEN POWER.”
He pa.s.sed a troubled and sleepless night. Dacre's careless if heated words had sunk deep. They chimed in oddly with a thought that was not to be stilled, a thought that had its genesis in a faded letter written twenty years ago.
When Howard went to London next day he took with him a cablegram, part in code and part in plain English. It's text was of a peculiarity that forbade the use of a village postoffice; for it ran, when decoded:
”MacGonigal, Bison, Colorado.--Break open the locked upper right-hand drawer of the j.a.panese cabinet in sitting-room, Dolores, and send immediately by registered mail the long sealed envelop marked 'To be burnt, unopened, by my executors,' and signed by me.”
Then followed Power's code signature and his address.
A telegram arrived early. It read:
”Will be with you 4.30 today. LINDSAY.”
So the witches' caldron was a-boil, and none might tell what strange brew it would produce.
Lindsay came. Nancy had described him aptly. The British army seems to turn out a certain type of tall, straight, clean-limbed, and clear-eyed young officer as though he were cast in a mold. Power appraised him rightly at the first glance--a gentleman, who held honor dear and life cheap, a man of high lineage and honest mind, a Scot with a fox-hunting strain in him, a youngster who would put his horse at a s.h.i.+re fence or lead his company in a forlorn hope with equal nonchalance and determination--not, perhaps, markedly intellectual, but a direct descendant of a long line of cavaliers whose all-sufficing motto was, ”G.o.d, and the King.”
The two had a protracted discussion. Power felt that he must win this somewhat reserved wooer's confidence before he broached the astounding project he had formed.
”I take it,” he said, at last, seeing that Lindsay was convinced he meant well to Nancy, ”I take it Lord Colonsay cannot supplement the small allowance he now makes you?”
”No. It's not to be thought of. Scottish estates grow poorer every decade. Even now Dad makes no pretense of supporting a t.i.tle. He lives very quietly, and is hard put to it to give me a couple of hundred a year.”
”Then I can't see how you can expect to marry the daughter of a very rich man like Hugh Marten.”
”Heaven help me, neither do I!”
”Yet you have contrived to fall in love with her?”
”That was beyond my control. She has told you what happened. I fought hard against what the world calls a piece of folly. I--avoided her.
There is, there can be, no sort of engagement between us, unless----”
”Unless what?”
”Oh, it is a stupid thing to say, but you American millionaires do occasionally get hipped by the other fellow. If Marten came a cropper, I'd have my chance.”
Power laughed quietly. ”You are a true Briton,” he said. ”You think there is no security for money except in trustee stocks. Well, I won't disturb your faith. Now, I want you to call on Mr. Marten tomorrow and ask him formally for his daughter's hand.”
”Then the fat _will_ be in the fire.” Evidently, Philip and Nancy were well mated.
”Possibly; but it is the proper thing to do.”