Part 31 (2/2)
She was telling herself how awful it was to know that this wreck of a man standing before her could hold the whole of her future in his weak and yet tenacious grasp! How cruel that this--this cripple should possess the right to grant or to deny what had become the crowning wish of her heart!
Perhaps something of what was in her mind penetrated to Richard Maule's quick brain.
”The ailing and the infirm,” he said, staring at her fixedly, ”are treated by the kind folk about them like children. They are never left alone. I do not choose that our household should know that I desire to have a private interview with you, and so I thought the simplest thing would be to come here and wait for you----”
”What is it you wish to say to me?” Her voice shook with suspense. She clasped her hands together with an unconscious gesture of supplication.
”I have brought you--I have brought us all--the order of release.”
A feeling of exultant joy--of relief which pierced so keenly that it was akin to pain, filled Athena Maule's soul. She had indeed been well inspired to tell Jane all that was in her heart--and Hew's. And here was Richard actually saying so! For, ”You chose a most excellent Mercury,”
he observed dryly.
”You mean Jane Oglander?” her voice again shook a little. ”She was not my messenger. She asked my permission to speak to you----”
”Yes, I mean Jane Oglander. She showed me where my duty lay. For a while I hesitated between two courses--for you know, Athena, there were two courses open to me.”
She looked at him without speaking. How cruel, how--how unmanly, of Richard to say this! And how futile. There was only one moment when he could have divorced her. Providence had stood her friend by choosing just that moment to make him ill. Since then--she thought she had learnt enough English law to know that--he would be held to have condoned.
But her look made him feel ashamed. The javelin does not thus play with its victim.
”I beg your pardon,” he muttered almost inaudibly.
”I know you have always hated me,” she said pa.s.sionately.
”You have not known that always,” he answered sombrely--and for a moment she hung her head.
”Perhaps now, Richard, we may be better friends.”
She reminded herself that in old days--in the days when she had been his idol, his G.o.ddess--she had had a certain contemptuous fondness for her husband. She would be generous--now. Jane had taught her that it was good to be generous.
How true a friend had Jane Oglander been to her! Athena felt a rush of warm grat.i.tude to the woman who still--how strange, how absurd it seemed--was engaged to Lingard. Jane, like the angel she was, would help them--Athena and Hew Lingard--over what must be for some time to come very delicate ground. Their progress, albeit that of happy and, what was so satisfactory, of innocent lovers, would be hampered with small difficulties. How fortunate it was, how more than fortunate, that Lingard's engagement to Jane had not yet been publicly announced....
”Have you told d.i.c.k?” she asked nervously. Her husband--he was still her husband--had smiled strangely as only reply to her kindly words. ”Was it about that you wished to see him to-night?”
”No, I have not yet told d.i.c.k of my decision.”
”I suppose it can all be managed very quietly?” she said plaintively. ”I hope I shan't have to go and appear before a judge--or shall I?”
Richard Maule looked at her thoughtfully. ”That is a thing I cannot tell you,” he said slowly. ”Many would say to you most confidently--yes, that you will have to appear before the Judge.”
”I thought there was a thing in England called taking evidence on commission. You yourself, Richard, could not possibly appear in person.
And then--I want to know, it is rather important that I should know”--her husband bent his head gravely--”if there will be any delay?”
”You mean any lapse of time before the decree can be obtained?”
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