Part 38 (1/2)
”I don't know,” said Madelaine quietly. ”You will come in?”
”No; not this evening. We had better both have a grand think before anything is said.”
”Yes,” said Madelaine; and they parted at the door--to think.
”Why, John,” said Mrs Van Heldre, turning from the window to gaze in her husband's face, ”did you see that?”
”Yes,” said Van Heldre shortly; ”quite plainly.”
”But what does it mean?”
”Human nature.”
”But I thought, dear--”
”So did I, and now I think quite differently.”
”Well, really, I must speak to Madelaine; it is so--”
”Silence!” said Van Heldre sternly. ”Madelaine is not a child now.
Wait, wife, and she will speak to us.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
IN A WEST COAST GALE.
”That project is knocked over as if it were a card house,” said Duncan Leslie, as he reached home, and sat thinking of Louise and her brother.
He looked out to see that in a very short time the total aspect of the sea had changed. The sky had become overcast, and in the dim light the white horses of the Atlantic were displaying their manes.
”Very awkward run for the harbour to-night,” he said as he returned to his seat. ”Can't be pleasant to be a s.h.i.+powner. I wonder whether Miss Marguerite Vine would consider that a more honourable way of making money?”
”Yes, a tradesman, I suppose. Well, why not? Better than being a descendant of some feudal gentleman whose sole idea of right was might.”
”My word!” he exclaimed; ”what a sudden gale to have sprung up. Heavy consumption of coal in the furnaces to-night. How this wind will make them roar.”
He faced round to the window and sat listening as the wind shrieked, and howled, and beat at the panes, every now and then sending the raindrops pattering almost as loudly as hail. ”Hope it will not blow down my chimney on the top yonder. Hah! I ought to be glad that I have no s.h.i.+p to trouble me on a night like this.”
”No,” he said firmly just as the wind had hurled itself with redoubled fury against the house; ”no, she does not give me a second thought. But I take heart of grace, for I can feel that she has never had that gentle little heart troubled by such thoughts. The Frenchman has not won her, and he never shall if I can help it. It's a fair race for both of us, and only one can win.”
”My word! What a night!”
He walked to the window and looked out at the sombre sky, and listened to the roar of the rumbling billows before closing his cas.e.m.e.nt and ringing.
”Is all fastened?” he said to the servant. ”You need not sit up. I don't believe a dog would be out to-night, let alone a human being.”
He was wrong; for just as he spoke a dark figure encased in oilskins was st.u.r.dily making its way down the cliff path to the town. It was hard work and in places on the exposed cliff-side even dangerous, for the wind seemed to pounce upon the figure and try to tear it off; but after a few moments' pause the walk was continued, the town reached, and the wind-swept street traversed without a soul being pa.s.sed.