Volume Ii Part 11 (1/2)

Sir Albert watched her anxiously. He felt that, to be of real use to Grace, to _her_ sister, there must be a womanly hand, and he saw that he was not sufficiently behind the scenes to appreciate all the difficulties of this kind, but timid woman.

He felt so more than ever when Mr. Sandford came in. He was in such a towering pa.s.sion that he could hardly speak: he barely noticed Sir Albert, but threw himself into a chair and glared straight before him.

He was in that phase of temper when a man is anxious to make all his belongings uncomfortable, and, if possible, put them out of temper also.

Sir Albert would have left, but Mrs. Dorriman saw that something worse than usual had happened; she was always frightened when her brother was with her alone, and when he was out of temper she was simply terrified.

She made a gesture of entreaty, which checked the young man's impulse to go away.

There was a silence which fell like a terrible weight upon the two, who looked at each other unconscious of their mutual attraction, but the look was seen by the master of the house, and it set his pa.s.sion alight.

He sprang from his chair, he poured out a volley of abuse, upon his sister, Grace, and Margaret, swearing and using the most terrible language, reducing poor Mrs. Dorriman to a helpless state of terror and dismay.

Sir Albert looked at him with the most supreme astonishment. He now understood the whole thing; Grace had been exposed to this and she had gone, and he could not wonder at it. He could quite understand now that Margaret had felt any life was better than this. In his compa.s.sion for them he spoke aloud his thoughts.

”No wonder they fled from this,” he said, all unconsciously, as he looked at Mr. Sandford's wild gestures, with an overpowering sense of indignation.

Mr. Sandford heard him and understood. He turned round upon him, and said,

”You do not know what cause I have for anger; it is a just anger. The man who has married Margaret is a scoundrel and a swindler, and he is ruined, and he has nearly ruined _me_!”

Before another word could be spoken there was the sound of an arrival, and, while the three stood breathless, with all their emotions of rage and compa.s.sion, on either side, held for the moment in check, there glided into the room, her head as high as ever, but looking fatigued and troubled,--Grace Rivers!

”I have come back,” she said, as she sank into a chair; ”I am too tired just now to explain everything; and,” turning to Mrs. Dorriman, ”will somebody pay the cab, for I have no money.”

There was a pause. Mr. Sandford's rage had exhausted itself, fortunately for Grace, and she sat leaning back in her chair and surveying them all with a keen look of inquiry.

”I cannot enter into everything now, but I have been to Mr. Drayton's house; he has sold it, and I have come here because I have nowhere else to go.”

CHAPTER V.

When Mr. Drayton returned on the day that Sir Albert had seen Margaret, he came home sorely put out. He had such a complete belief in himself that it annoyed him to find, as he did find every day, that the loss of his manager was in all ways a loss to him. Nothing seemed to prosper just now, and he was annoyed and very much hara.s.sed. Entering the little hotel where he had left Margaret, he asked if a man he had expected to call, had called.

The landlord, who was a stout, comfortable, little man, with a strong burr in his voice and a thickness, coming partly from natural guttural tendencies and partly from beer and pipes, answered in the negative, but he said that he thought the gracious lady had interviewed him in the garden.

Surprised, he went to his wife immediately and asked if this was true.

Margaret, who had resolved upon telling him that Sir Albert had been there, and who had spent much time since his departure in thinking whether she was bound to tell her husband what had pa.s.sed, was taken by surprise, and a quick flush came into her usually pale face.

Like many fair and delicate-looking women she coloured vividly and the flush coloured her throat. Her husband watched her with a suspicious and angry frown, very different from the laughing, mocking one he usually showed her.

”Sir Albert Gerald pa.s.sed this place accidentally,” she said, ”he did not know we were here. He spoke to me for a little while, then he went away.”

”Indeed! and what makes you turn as red as a peony, because I found this out, eh?”

”You look so strange,” she said, frightened a little by his manner.

”Do I? Do you suppose I can look pleased when I see that this man's visit has such power over your cold and indifferent nature, and that for him you tremble and blush, while for me----? Where is this man?” and he rose and went towards the door.

”He has gone to England,” said Margaret, gently. ”He pa.s.sed by the purest accident and saw me; he did not know that I was married.... He went away at once.”