Part 1 (1/2)
The Imaginary Marriage.
by Henry St. John Cooper.
CHAPTER I
A MASTERFUL WOMAN
”Don't talk to me, miss,” said her ladys.h.i.+p. ”I don't want to hear any nonsense from you!”
The pretty, frightened girl who shared the drawing-room at this moment with Lady Linden of Cornbridge Manor House had not dared to open her lips. But that was her ladys.h.i.+p's way, and ”Don't talk to me!” was a stock expression of hers. Few people were permitted to talk in her ladys.h.i.+p's presence. In Cornbridge they spoke of her with bated breath as a ”rare masterful woman,” and they had good cause.
Masterful and domineering was Lady Linden of Cornbridge, yet she was kind-hearted, though she tried to disguise the fact.
In Cornbridge she reigned supreme, men and women trembled at her approach. She penetrated the homes of the cottagers, she tasted of their foods, she rated them on uncleanliness, drunkenness, and thriftlessness; she lectured them on cooking.
On many a Sat.u.r.day night she raided, single-handed, the Plough Inn and drove forth the sheepish revellers, personally conducting them to their homes and wives.
They respected her in Cornbridge as the reigning sovereign of her small estate, and none did she rule more autocratically and completely than her little nineteen-year-old niece Marjorie.
A pretty, timid, little maid was Marjorie, with soft yellow hair, a sweet oval face, with large pathetic blue eyes and a timid, uncertain little rosebud of a mouth.
”A rare sweet maid her be,” they said of her in the village, ”but terribul tim'rous, and I lay her ladys.h.i.+p du give she a rare time of it....” Which was true.
”Don't talk to me, miss!” her ladys.h.i.+p said to the silent girl. ”I know what is best for you; and I know, too, what you don't think I know--ha, ha!” Her ladys.h.i.+p laughed terribly. ”I know that you have been meeting that worthless young scamp, Tom Arundel!”
”Oh, aunt, he is not worthless--”
”Financially he isn't worth a sou--and that's what I mean, and don't interrupt. I am your guardian, you are entirely in my charge, and until you arrive at the age of twenty-five I can withhold your fortune from you if you marry in opposition to me and my wishes. But you won't--you won't do anything of the kind. You will marry the man I select for you, the man I have already selected--what did you say, miss?
”And now, not another word. Hugh Alston is the man I have selected for you. He is in love with you, there isn't a finer lad living. He has eight thousand a year, and Hurst Dormer is one of the best old properties in Suss.e.x. So that's quite enough, and I don't want to hear any more nonsense about Tom Arundel. I say nothing against him personally. Colonel Arundel is a gentleman, of course, otherwise I would not permit you to know his son; but the Arundels haven't a pennypiece to fly with and--and now--Now I see Hugh coming up the drive. Leave me. I want to talk to him. Go into the garden, and wait by the lily-pond. In all probability Hugh will have something to say to you before long.”
”Oh, aunt, I--”
”Shut up!” said her ladys.h.i.+p briefly.
Marjorie went out, with hanging head and bursting heart. She believed herself the most unhappy girl in England. She loved; who could help loving happy-go-lucky, handsome Tom Arundel, who well-nigh wors.h.i.+pped the ground her little feet trod upon? It was the first love and the only love of her life, and of nights she lay awake picturing his bright, young boyish face, hearing again all the things he had said to her till her heart was well-nigh bursting with love and longing for him.
But she did not hate Hugh. Who could hate Hugh Alston, with his cheery smile, his ringing voice, his big generous heart, and his fine manliness? Not she! But from the depths of her heart she wished Hugh Alston a great distance away from Cornbridge.
”h.e.l.lo, Hugh!” said her ladys.h.i.+p. He had come in, a man of two-and-thirty, big and broad, with suntanned face and eyes as blue as the tear-dimmed eyes of the girl who had gone miserably down to the lily-pond.
Fair haired was Hugh, ruddy of cheek, with no particular beauty to boast of, save the wholesomeness and cleanliness of his young manhood. He seemed to bring into the room a scent of the open country, of the good brown earth and of the clean wind of heaven.
”h.e.l.lo, Hugh!” said Lady Linden.
”h.e.l.lo, my lady,” said he, and kissed her. It had been his habit from boyhood, also it had been his lifelong habit to love and respect the old dame, and to feel not the slightest fear of her. In this he was singular, and because he was the one person who did not fear her she preferred him to anyone else.
”Hugh,” she said--she went straight to the point, she always did; as a hunter goes at a hedge, so her ladys.h.i.+p without prevarication went at the matter she had in hand--”I have been talking to Marjorie about Tom Arundel--”
His cheery face grew a little grave.