CHAPTER XVI
THE OPEN DOOR
Billy had already departed upon Scott's mount era he and Dinah set forthto walk to the Court. It was threatening to rain, and the ground beneaththeir feet was sodden and heavy.
"It is rather a shame to ask you to walk," said Scott, as they turned upthe muddy road. "They would have sent a car for you if I had thought."
"I would much rather walk," said Dinah. Her face was very pale. Shelooked years older than she had looked at Willowmount. After a moment sheadded, "We shall pass the church. Perhaps you would like to see it. Theywere going to decorate it this morning."
"I should," said Scott.
He limped beside her, and she curbed her pace to his though the fever ofunrest that surged within her urged her forward. They went up the lanethat led to the church in almost unbroken silence.
At the churchyard gate she paused. "I hope there is no one here," shesaid uneasily.
"We need not go in unless you wish," he answered.
But when they reached the porch, they found that the church was empty,and so they entered.
A heavy scent of lilies pervaded the place. There was a wonderful whitearch of flowers at the top of the aisle, and the chancel was decked withthem. The space above the altar was a mass of white, perfumed splendour.They had been sent down from the Court that morning.
Slowly Scott passed up the nave with the bride-elect by his side,straight to the chancel-steps, and there he paused. His pale face withits light eyes was absolutely composed and calm. He looked straight up tothe dim richness of the stained-glass window above him as though he sawbeyond the flowers.
For many seconds Dinah stood beside him, awed, waiting as it were for thecoming of a revelation. Whatever it might be she knew already that shewould not leave that holy place in the state of hopeless turmoil in whichshe had entered. Something was coming to her, some new thing, that mightserve as an anchor in her distress even though it might not bring herultimate deliverance.
Or stay! Was it a new thing? Was it not rather the unveiling of somethingwhich had always been? Her heart quickened and became audible in thestillness. She clasped her hands tightly together. And in that momentScott turned his head and looked at her.
No word did he speak; only that straight, calm look--as of a man clean ofsoul and fearless of evil. It told her nothing, that look, it opened toher no secret chamber; neither did it probe her own quivering heart. Itwas the kindly, reassuring look of a friend ready to stand by, ready tolend a sure hand if such were needed.
But by that look Dinah's revelation burst upon her. In that moment shesaw her own soul as never before had she seen it; and all the littlethings, the shallow things, the earthly things, faded quite away. With adeep, deep breath she opened her eyes upon the Vision of Love....
"Shall we go?" murmured Scott.
She looked at him vaguely for a second, feeling stunned and blinded bythe radiance of that revelation. A black veil seemed to be descendingupon her; she put out a groping hand.
He took it, and his hold was sustaining. He led her in silence down thelong, shadowy building to the porch.
He would have led her further, but a sudden, heavy shower was falling,and he had to pause. She sank down trembling upon the stone seat.
"Scott! Oh, Scott!" she said. "Help me!"
He made a slight, involuntary movement that passed unexplained. "I amhere to help you, my dear," he said, his voice very quiet and even. "Youmustn't be scared, you know. You'll get through it all right."
She wrung her hands together in her extremity. "It isn't that,"she told him. "I--I suppose I've got to go through it--as you say so.But--but--you'll think me very wicked, yet I must tell you--I've made--adreadful mistake. I'm marrying for money, for position, to get away fromhome,--anything but love. I don't love him. I know now that I nevershall--never can! And I'd give anything--anything--anything to escape!"
It was spoken. All the long-pent misgivings that had culminated in awfulcertainty the night before had so wrought in her that now--now that therevelation had come--she could no longer keep silence. But of thatrevelation she would sooner have died than speak.
Scott heard that wrung confession, standing before her with a stillnessthat gave him a look of sternness. He spoke as she ended, possiblybecause he realized that she would not be able to endure the briefestsilence at that moment, possibly because he dreamed of filling up the gapere it widened to an irreparable breach.
"But, Dinah," he said, "don't you know he loves you?"
She flung her hands wide in a gesture of the most utter despair. "That'sjust the very worst part of it," she said. "That's just why there is nogetting away."
"You don't want his love?" Scott questioned, his voice very low.
She shook her head in instant negation. "Oh no, no, no!"
He bent slightly towards her, looking into her face of quiveringagitation. "Dinah, are you sure it isn't all this pomp and circumstancethat is frightening you? Are you sure you have no love at all in yourheart for him?"
She did not shrink from his look. Though she thought his eyes were stern,she met them with the courage of desperation. "I am quite--quite--sure,"she told him brokenly. "I never loved him. I was dazzled, that's all.But now--but now--the glamour is all gone. I would give anything--oh,anything in the world--if only he would marry Rose de Vigne instead!"
Her voice failed and with it her strength. She covered her face and wepthopelessly, tragically.
Scott stood motionless by her side. His brows were drawn as the brows ofa man in pain, but the eyes below them had the brightness of unwaveringresolution. There was something rocklike about his pose.
The pattering of the rain mingled with the sound of Dinah's anguishedsobbing; there seemed to be no other sound in all the world.
He moved at last, and into his eyes there came a very human look,dispelling all hardness. He bent to her again, his hand upon hershoulder. "My child," he said gently, "don't be so distressed! It isn'ttoo late--even now."
He felt her respond to his touch, but she could not lift her head. "I cannever face him," she sobbed hopelessly. "I shall never, never dare!"
"You must face him," Scott said quietly but very firmly. "You owe it tohim. Do you consider that you would be acting fairly by him if youmarried him solely for the reasons you have just given to me?"
She shrank at his words, trembling all over like a frightened child. Buthis hand was still upon her, restraining panic.
"He will be so angry--so furious," she faltered.
"I will help you," Scott said steadily.
"Ah!" she caught at the promise with an eagerness that was piteous."You won't leave me? You won't let me be alone with him? He can makeme do anything--anything--when I am alone with him. Oh, he is terribleenough--even when he is not angry. He told me once that--that--if I wereto slip out of his reach, he would follow--and kill me!"
The brightness returned to Scott's eyes; they shone with an almost steelygleam. "You needn't be afraid of that," he said quietly. "Now tell me,Dinah, for I want to know; how long have you known that you didn't wantto marry him?"
But Dinah shrank at the question, as though he had probed a wound."Oh, I can't tell you that! As long as I have realized that I was boundto him--I have been afraid! And now--now that it has come so close--" Shebroke off. "Oh, but I can't draw back now," she said hopelessly."Think--only think--what it will mean!"
Scott was silent for a few seconds, then: "If it would be easier for youto go on," he said slowly, "perhaps--in the end--it may be better foryou; because he honestly loves you, and I think his love may make adifference--in the end. Possibly you are nearer to loving him even nowthan you imagine. If it is the dread of hurting him--not angeringhim--that holds you back, then I do not think you would be doing wrong tomarry him. If you are just scared by the thought of to-morrow andpossibly the day after--"
"Oh, but it isn't that! It isn't that!" Dinah cried the words outpassionately like a prisoner who sees the door of his cell cl
osingfinally upon him. "It's because I'm not his! I don't belong tohim! I don't want to belong to him! The very thought makes mefeel--almost--sick!"
"Then there is someone else," Scott said, with grave conviction.
"Ah!" It was not so much a word as the sharp intake of breath thatfollows the last and keenest thrust of the probe that has reached theobject of its search. Dinah suddenly became rigid and yet vibrant asstretched wire. Her silence was the silence of the victim who dreads sounspeakably the suffering to come as to be scarcely aware of presentanguish.
But Scott was merciful. He withdrew the probe and very pitifully heclosed the wound that he had opened. "No, no!" he said. "That has nothingto do with me--or with Eustace either. But it makes your case absolutelyplain. Come with me now--before you feel any worse about it--and ask himto give you your release!"
"Oh, Scott!" She looked up at him at last, and though there was a measureof relief in her eyes, her face was deathly. "Oh, Scott,--dare I dothat?"
"I shall be there," he said.
"Yes,--yes, you will be there! You won't leave me? Promise!" She claspedhis arm in entreaty.
He looked into her eyes, and there was a great kindness in his own---thekindness of Greatheart arming himself to defend his pilgrims. "Yes, Ipromise that," he said, adding, "unless I leave you at your own desire."
"You will never do that," Dinah said and smiled with quivering lips. "Youare good to me. Oh, you are good! But--but--"
"But what?" he questioned gently.
"He may refuse to set me free," she said desperately. "What then?"
"My dear, no one is married by force now-a-days," he said.
Her face changed as a sudden memory swept across her. "And my mother! Mymother!" she said.
"Don't you think we had better deal with one difficulty at a time?"suggested Scott.
His hand sought hers, he drew her to her feet.
And, as one having no choice, she submitted and went with him.
It was still raining, but the heaviest of the shower was over. A gleam ofsunshine lit the distance as they went, and a faint, faint ray of hopedawned in Dinah's heart at the sight. Though her deliverance was yet tobe achieved, though she dreaded unspeakably that which lay before her, atleast the door was open, could she but reach it to pass through. Shebreathed a purer air already. And beside her stood Greatheart thevaliant, covering her with his shield of gold.