Part 18 (1/2)
”I know nothing at all about forsaken ladies, madam; because ladies are never forsaken in Spain”
”Nor about lovers despairing there, I suppose?”
”That good opinion of ourselves, lish are pleased to twit us now and then, always prevents so sad a state of mind For myself, I have had little to do with love; but I have had still less to do with despair, and intend, by help of Heaven, to have less”
”You are valiant, sir”
”You would not have me a coward, madam?” and so forth
Now all this ti her the very slightest hint, every now and then, that he was talking at her; till the poor girl's face was alave herself up to the spell He loved her still; perhaps he knew that she loved him: he must know some day She felt now that there was no escape; she was allad to think that there was none
The dark, handsome, stately face; the race of the gestures; the wild pathos of the story; even theof another and a loftier world; the chivalrous respect and admiration for woman, and for faithfulness to woman--what a man he was! If he had been pleasant heretofore, he was now enchanting All the ladies round felt that, she could see, as much as she herself did; no, not quite as much, she hoped She surely understood him, and felt for his loneliness h long and sadof, she who Oh, why had the tale ended so soon? She would gladly have sat and wept her eyes out till ht over one h to keep her secret to herself; and sat behind the rest, with greedy eyes and dee and new happiness--or misery; she knew not which to call it
In the h theof the hall a good deal of as going on
”How that Spanish crocodile ogles the Rose!” whispered he to young St Leger
”What wonder? He is not the first byside-shots at hie!”
”What wonder? He is not the first, say I, and won't be the last Pass the wine, , my head is as mazed as a dizzy sheep Let me slip out”
”Not yet,another song; and in the meanwhile the party had broken up, and wandered away by twos and threes, aardens and pleasaunces, and clipped yealks-- Where inds withNard and cassia's bal the beauty of that stately place, long since passed into other hands, and fallen to decay, but then (if old Prince speaks true) one of the noblest ot away and out; sober, but just enough flushed ine to be ready for any quarrel; and luckily for hireat terrace before he met Lady Grenville
”Has your ladyshi+p seen Don Guzman?”
”Yes--here is he? He ithback to Spain”
”Going! Has his ransoovernorshi+p in the Indies”
”Governorshi+p! Much good overned”
”Why not, then? He is surely a h--yes,” said Cary, carelessly ”I ratulate him on his honors”
”I will help you to find him,” said Lady Grenville, whose wo ”Escort reat an honor to squire the Queen of Bideford,” said Cary, offering his hand
”If I am your queen, sir, Itone Cary took the hint, and went on chattering cheerfully enough
But Don Guzarden or in pleasaunce
”Perhaps,” at last said a burgher's wife, with a toss of her head, ”your ladyshi+p may meet with him at Hankford's oak”
”At Hankford's oak! what should take him there?”
”Pleasant company, I reckon” (with another toss) ”I heard hi about the oak just now”
Cary turned pale and drew in his breath
”Very likely,” said Lady Grenville, quietly ”Will you ith me so far, Mr Cary?”
”To the world's end, if your ladyshi+p condescends so far” And off they went, Lady Grenville wishi+ng that they were going anywhere else, but afraid to let Cary go alone; and suspecting, too, that soo
So they went down past the herds of deer, by a trim-kept path into the lonely dell where stood the fatal oak; and, as they went, Lady Grenville, to avoidears the story (which he probably had heard fifty times before) how old Chief-justice Hankford (whom some contradictory mythshim on the bench), weary of life and sickened at the horrors and desolations of the Wars of the Roses, went down to his house at Annery there, and bade his keeper shoot any ht, should refuse to stand when challenged; and then going down into that glen hily by his keeper's hand the death which his own dared not inflict: but ere the story was half done, Cary grasped Lady Grenville's hand so tightly that she gave a little shriek of pain
”There they are!” whispered he, heedless of her; and pointed to the oak, where, half hidden by the tall fern, stood Rose and the Spaniard
Her head was on his boso earnestly and passionately; but Lady Grenville's little shriek made them both look up To turn and try to escape was to confess all; and the two, collecting the herself fathoms deep beneath the earth
”Mind, sir,” whispered Lady Grenville as they ca”
”Madaround, you are on my brother's Obey me!”
Cary bit his lip, and bowed courteously to the Don
”I have to congratulate you, I hear, senor, on your approaching departure”
”I kiss your hands, senor, in return; but I question whether it be aall that I leave behind”
”So do I,” answered Cary, bluntly enough, and the four walked back to the house, Lady Grenville taking everything for granted with theto her three silent coained the terrace once entle-green
Lady Grenville, in an agony of fear about the quarrel which she knew ladly whispered five words to her husband: but she dared not do it before the Spaniard, and dreaded, too, a faint or a scream from the Rose, whose father was of the party So she walked on with her fair prisoner, coo to the bowling-green
Cary obeyed: but he gave her the slip the entlemen
His heart was on fire: all his old passion for the Rose had flashed up again at the sight of her with a lover;--and that lover a Spaniard! He would cut his throat for him, if steel could do it! Only he recollected that Salterne was there, and shrank froentle a public quarrel in another man's house Never et him into a corner, and quarrel with him privately about the cut of his beard, or the color of his ribbon So in he went; and, luckily or unluckily, found standing together apart froer
”Well, Don Guziven us wine-bibbers the slip this afternoon I hope you have been well ehtfully tointerrupted, if not discovered, was as ready to fight as Cary, but disliked, of course, an explosion as much as he did; ”and to others, I doubt not”
”So the ladies say,” quoth St Leger ”He has beenus meanwhile of the pleasure we had hoped for fros”
”The devil take Spanish songs!” said Cary, in a low voice, but loud enough for the Spaniard Don Guzman clapt his hand on his sword- hilt instantly