Part 52 (1/2)

In the hall he asked a footman whether Lord Blair were in, and was surprised to hear that he had not yet returned from the Sudan. Lady Muriel, he was told, was in the garden with Lord Barthampton: the man thought that they were in the alcove beside the river. Mr. and Mrs.

Bindane were out driving, and the Secretaries had all gone home.

Daniel hastened through the house, and out by the door at the back. His legs were aching, but he went down the stone steps of the terrace two at a time, and hurried across the lawn, his heart full of foreboding. He could not understand why Muriel should be entertaining his cousin.

At the rose bushes which screened the alcove, however, he paused; for the thought came to him with renewed terror that he might be an unwelcome visitor.

But, even as he came to a halt, he heard his cousin's voice, and for a moment he could not help playing the eavesdropper.

”Yes,” he was saying, ”you'll have to marry me, or I shall tell all I know, and then there'll be a fine old scandal. Come on, now, give me a kiss.”

Daniel did not wait to hear more, but ran round the bushes on to the terrace beyond. At a glance he took in the situation. Lord Barthampton, his back turned to him, was endeavouring to take Muriel in his arms; and from behind the screen of his burly form, the girl's figure was partly visible, struggling to escape.

Daniel leaped forward and grasped him by the scruff of the neck, flinging him aside so that he staggered across the terrace. He saw Muriel's wide frightened eyes; and hardly realizing what he was doing, he put his arm about her.

She, too, forgot her relations.h.i.+p to him: she only knew that he had intervened between her and a half-drunken bully; and she clung to him, clung desperately, her hands clutching at his coat.

”What's the meaning of this?” Daniel exclaimed, angrily staring at his cousin, who seemed to be about to spring upon him.

”What the h.e.l.l do you want here?” Lord Barthampton roared, his face scarlet.

Muriel pointed her finger at the furious man. ”You'd better go,” she said. ”Go and tell everybody whatever you like-I don't care.” She turned to her protector. ”There's a lot of gossip about my having stayed at El Hamran.”

Daniel stared from one to the other. ”Well, and what is your answer to it?” he asked her, and, waiting for her reply, he seemed to hold his breath.

”I hav'n't denied it,” she said, looking at him full in the face.

He uttered an exclamation, a sort of suppressed shout of joy. ”Good for you!” he cried; and, forgetting all else, he s.n.a.t.c.hed off his battered hat and flung it up into the air. Catching it again, he turned to his cousin. ”I take it,” he said, ”that you are trying to blackmail Lady Muriel. Is that it?”

”I have asked her to be my wife,” he answered, his fists clenched, ”and it's no d.a.m.ned business of yours.”

”Well,” said Daniel, ”you've got your answer now, so you'd better go.”

Lord Barthampton was trembling with pa.s.sion; he was beside himself.

”Yes, I'll go,” he shouted, ”and you'll very soon find, dear Cousin Daniel, that you and Lady Muriel will be cut by all Cairo, and Lord Blair will have to leave the country. I know enough to ruin the lot of you.”

Daniel looked at him steadily. ”Don't forget that I know something about you, too,” he replied; ”and if you do what you say you're going to do, I shall not consider you worthy to hold your present position any longer.

And you've been drinking again, too: you're half drunk now.”

”Very well then, dispossess me, you swine!” his cousin blurted out, coming close to him and shaking his fist so menacingly that Muriel took fresh hold upon Daniel's coat. ”Take the t.i.tle and the money, and be d.a.m.ned to you! I'd rather be a penniless b.a.s.t.a.r.d than the smug pillar of society you're trying to make of me. Good G.o.d!-I've stood enough from you, you pious hypocrite.”

Daniel laughed aloud. ”Don't be a fool,” he said. ”I've told you that so long as you behave yourself you're quite safe. It surely isn't so difficult as all that to be a gentleman.”

With a snort, Lord Barthampton lurched round, and, without another word, took his departure.

Muriel stepped back. ”I don't know what I'm clinging on to you like that for,” she said, with a smile. ”What on earth does he mean about your taking his t.i.tle and his money?”

”Oh, I'll explain later,” he answered, rather listlessly. ”It's only that by law I ought to have inherited when his father died, not he. It's a great joke, because, you see, he thinks I'll dispossess him if he misbehaves himself; but, of course, really he'd have to go altogether to the dogs before I'd do such a thing. I don't want the bother of being a peer, and I would be hopeless with a lot of money.”

Muriel looked up at him with wonder in her face. Quietly and naturally she linked her arm in his, ”I've been wanting so much to be beastly to you, Daniel,” she said, and her voice was husky; ”but it's no good, my dear. When a man like Charles Barthampton curses you and tells you to take his money, and you simply laugh and say you don't want it, what chance have _I_ got of upsetting this disgusting unworldliness of yours?