CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
It is a well-known axiom that misfortunes never come singly, and ifthose misfortunes are brought about by our own carelessness, they arenone the less easy to bear. What were Peggy's feelings then, on goingto her key basket, to find it lying empty on the floor, with never asign of its contents to be seen! Where had she put them? Memorybrought back a misty recollection of hurrying through her work themorning before, in order to begin some more congenial occupation, and ofhaving laid down the bunch in careless fashion, thinking the while thatshe would come back for it later on. But where had she placed it?Where, oh, where? Up and down the room she raced, to and fro she ran,wringing her hands in distress, and scanning every inch of wall, floor,and ceiling with her eager glance.
"They are staring me in the face most likely; they are right before myeyes, and I can't see them!" she cried in despair. "My keys! My keys!If I can't find them, I can do nothing. I shall be disgraced for ever!I should have given out the stores yesterday, but I put it off,miserable, procrastinating wretch that I am! Oh, keys, keys, where areyou, keys? Don't hide from me, _please_, I want you so badly--badly!"
But the keys refused to reveal themselves. They were lying contentedlyin the bottom of a china vase on the staircase, into which they had beendropped midway in a hasty descent the day before, and, however willingthey might have been to obey their mistress's request, they were clearlypowerless in the matter, since not even the echo of her voice reachedtheir ears. Peggy searched in a frenzy of impatience, summoned ahousemaid to assist her, and turned the contents of drawers andcupboards upside down upon her bed, but no success greeted her efforts.At the end of ten minutes' time she was in a more pitiable plight thanbefore, since every likely place had been explored, and not the wildestidea had she where next to repair.
"Wh-at," quoth the housemaid tremblingly, "what shall I say to cook?"and at that Miss Peggy's eyes sent out a flash which made her look theimage of her soldier father.
"Tell her to get on with what she can," she cried. "She shall have thestores in five minutes from now!" and away she flew downstairs, leavingthe astonished maid to wonder whether her brain had given way beneaththe strain of the occasion.
Get into the store-room, Peggy was determined she _would_! By fairmeans or foul, that citadel must be stormed, and its treasures broughtforth. If the door were closed, the window remained open, and thegardener's ladder lay conveniently at hand. To scale it so far as thesecond storey could be no difficult task for a girl who had been taughtto climb trees and scramble over fences by the most fearless ofmasculine guides, and once inside the room the rest was easy, for in thefirst flush of careful forethought, a duplicate key had been provided,which hung on a nail near the door, ready for use if need should arise.It was characteristic of Peggy that its resting-place should have beeninside the room, instead of out, but there it was, and nothing remainedbut to get possession of it as speedily as possible.
She seized the ladder, then, and dragged it towards the desired spot; itwas so top-heavy that it was with difficulty that she could preserve itsbalance, but she struggled gallantly until it was placed against thesill, and as firmly settled as her inexperience could contrive. Tomount it was the next thing, and--what was more difficult--to lowerherself safely through the window when it was reached. That was theonly part of the proceeding of which she had any dread, but, as itturned out, she was not to attempt it, for before she had ascended tworungs of the ladder a voice called her sharply by name, and she turnedto find Hector Darcy standing by her side.
"For pity's sake, Peggy, what are you doing?" he cried, and laid hishand on her arm with a frightened gesture. "Come down this instant!How dare you be so rash? You don't mean to tell me seriously that youwere going to climb that ladder?"
"A great deal more seriously than you imagine!" sighed Peggy dolefully."Oh, why did you come and interrupt? You don't know how important itis. How did you come to see me here at all?"
"I was going into the house to give myself a brush up in your father'sroom, and I saw a glimpse of your dress through the tree."
"And the others--are they coming too? I don't want them to see me; theymust not see me."
"No! No! They are sitting with your mother, having a smoke until lunchis ready. You need not be afraid; but tell me what is the matter? Whaton earth induced you to think of doing such a mad thing?"
Peggy leant against the ladder, and sighed in helpless resignation. Shehad not yet descended from her perch, so that her face was almost on alevel with Hector's own. The hazel eyes had lost their mocking gleam,and the peaked brows were furrowed with distress; it was a very forlornand disconsolate but withal charming little Peggy who faltered out herhumiliating confession.
"I--have been--so naughty, Hector! I'm supposed to be housekeeper, andI forgot to send my orders to the tradesmen last night, so that nothinghas arrived this morning. That's my store-room up there, and the key islost, and I _must_ get in, or you will have nothing to eat. I daren'ttell father, for he has warned me to be careful over and over again, andhe would be so angry. I'm in a horrible scrape, Hector, and there's noother way out of it. Do please, please, go away and let me get on!"
Hector stared at her, his handsome face blank with astonishment. Givena hundred guineas, he would never have thought of such an explanation,and coming from a home where the advent of a dozen unexpected visitorswould have made no confusion, he found it difficult to realise theseriousness of the occasion. There was no doubting Peggy's distress,however, and that was the important point. Whether she was imaginingher trouble or not, he must come to her aid, and that as quickly aspossible. He stretched out his arms, set her lightly on the ground, andput his own foot on the ladder.
"I will stay and help you," he said firmly; "that will be better thangoing away! You don't expect me to walk off and leave you to risk yourlittle neck climbing up ladders to provide food for me, do you? Notquite, Peggy, I think! Tell me what to do, and I'll do it. You want meto get into the room up there?"
Peggy looked at him doubtfully. The window was small, and Hector wasbig; she was afraid he would find it no easy task, but his ready offerrelieved and touched her more than she could express, for he had such anacute sense of his own dignity that it meant much for him to performsuch a feat.
"You really mean it? It is good of you! You don't mind doing it tohelp me?"
"I'd do a great deal more than that to please you, Peggy, if you wouldgive me the chance!"
This was dreadful. He was growing sentimental, gazing at her with anexpression which filled her with embarrassment, and speaking in a tonewhich implied even more than the words. She could not snub him in theface of an offered service; the only hope was to be brisk and matter-of-fact.
"Up with you, then!" she cried, stepping back, and waving her hand withimperious gesture. "Time is precious, and I am already far too late.I'll watch here until you have got through the window. You will find akey hanging on a nail. Open the door with it, and you will find mepanting on the threshold!"
No sooner said than done. Hector attempted no more sentimentalities,but mounted the ladder and squeezed his heavy form through the store-room window. It was no easy feat, and Peggy had one or two bad momentsas she watched him trembling on the brink. When one foot had alreadydisappeared he seemed for a moment to overbalance, and righted himselfonly by a vigorous effort, but finally he reached the room, and Peggyran to meet him, aglow with relief. The key turned in the lock as sheapproached, and she rushed forward to select her stores with hardly aglance in Hector's direction, though with many eager expressions ofthanks.
"You are good! I am relieved! You deserve the Victoria Cross at least.I was quite agitated watching you, but you managed splendidly-splendidly. Did you get horribly dusty squeezing through?"
"I think I did, rather. I will go to your father's room and have abrush. I'll see you at lunch."
"Yes, yes!" Peggy flew past, her arms full of the tins and bottles fo
rwhich cook was waiting, leaving the things which were not immediatelyneeded to be selected on a second visit. When she returned, fiveminutes later, Hector had disappeared, and she had leisure to lookaround, and feel a pang of shame at the general disorder. A room withmore elaborate preparation for order, and less success in attaining it,it would have been difficult to discover. Shelves and cupboards wereprofusely labelled, and every nook or corner had been dedicated to somespecial use, but, alas! practice had fallen short of precept, and thelabels now served no other purpose than that of confusion, since theyhad no longer any bearing on their position. Odd morsels of string andpaper were littered over the floor, and empty cases, instead of beingstored away, were thrown together in an unsightly heap beneath thewindow. A broken case showed where Hector's foot had descended, and theboards lay kicked aside, the nails sticking out of their jagged edges.
"Misery me! and himself a soldier too, with eyes staring out of everyside of him!" sighed Peggy, with a doleful imitation of Mrs Asplin'sIrish accent. "If this isn't a lesson to you, Mariquita Saville,there's no hope left! It's most perturbing to have one's secret faultsexhibited to the public gaze. It will be quite an age before I dare puton airs to Hector, after this!"
She made a mental vow to set the room in order first thing next day, butat present could think of nothing but lunch; and when her ownpreparations were completed she rejoined the little party in the garden,and beguiled her father into talking of his past adventures, to preventthe time from hanging too heavily on his hands.
Hector did not appear until at last the gong sounded, and when he did,the first glance at him evoked a chorus of exclamations. His face waswhite and drawn, and he dragged one foot after him in halting fashion.In spite of his air of indifference, it was evident that he was inconsiderable pain, and as soon as he saw that deception could not bekept up, he sank down in a chair, as if thankful to give up the strain.
"Turned my foot a little, that's all! Afraid the ankle has gone wrong!"
"Turned your foot! When did you do that? Must have given it a wrenchgetting over some of those stiles to-day, I suppose; but you did notspeak of it at the time. You felt nothing walking home?"
"No!"
"It has just begun to trouble you now? Pretty badly too, I'm afraid,for you look pale, old fellow. Come, we must have off that boot, andget the leg up on a sofa! It won't do to let it hang down like that.I'll take you upstairs and doctor it properly, for if there is one thingI do flatter myself I understand, it is how to treat a sprained ankle.Will you come now, or wait until after lunch?"
"Oh, have your lunch first, please! It will be time enough when youhave finished. It would be too bad to take you away now, when Peggy hashad so much trouble to prepare a meal for us!"
Hector smiled at the girl in encouraging fashion, but there was noanswering smile upon Peggy's face. She stood up stiff and straight, herbrows puckered in lines of distress. Hector's evasive answers had notdeceived her, for she knew too well that the accident had happenedafter, not before, he had reached Yew Hedge. In some fashion he hadstrained his foot in mounting the ladder, and he was now trying toscreen her from the result of her carelessness. To allow such a thingas that, however, was not Peggy Saville's way. Her eyes gleamed, andher voice rang out clear and distinct.
"I am afraid it is I who am to blame. I am afraid you hurt yourselfclimbing into the store-room for me. You were quite well when you camein, so that must have been how it happened. You stepped on a box ingetting through, and it gave way beneath you, and turned your ankle.That was it, wasn't it?"
"I--I'm afraid it was. It was stupid of me not to look where I wasgoing. I thought at the time that it was only a wrench, but it seems tobe growing worse."
"Box! Store-room! Climbing! What on earth are you talking about?"echoed Colonel Saville, looking in bewilderment from one speaker toanother. "You two have been up to some mischief together since wearrived. What was it? I don't understand."
"Oh, nothing at all! Peggy wanted to get into the store-room withoutwasting time looking for a key that was mislaid, and I ran up a ladderand got in by the window. That was all; but unfortunately I put down myfoot trusting to alight on the floor, leant all my weight on an emptybox, and--this is the consequence!"
It was an extraordinary statement, despite the matter-of-course mannerin which the words were uttered. It is not usual in well-conductedhouseholds for gentlemen visitors to scramble through windows on thesecond storey, or for the daughter of the house to utilise such servicesto remedy the effect of her own carelessness. The parents of ordinarychildren would have been breathless with horror at listening to such arecital, but it must be remembered that Arthur and Peggy Saville hadnever been ordinary in their habits. From earliest youth they hadscorned the obvious ways of locomotion, had chosen to descend thestaircase on a toboggan improvised out of a kitchen tea-tray rather thanto walk from step to step like rational beings, and to ascend on theoutside rather than the inside of the banisters, so that theirbelongings had grown to expect the unexpected, and Major Darcy'sexplanation caused less consternation than might have been expected.
Mrs Saville sighed, and her husband uttered an exclamation ofimpatience, but both were much more concerned about the condition of theinvalid than the cause of his accident, for it was evident that withevery moment the pain in the foot grew more severe.
"A pretty bad consequence, it seems to me!" quoth the colonel grimly."I'll tell you what it is, my dear fellow; you had better come into thelibrary with me at once, and let me take you in hand. The others canget on with their lunch while Mary brings me what I want. I'll make youcomfortable in ten minutes, and then we'll send over a cart to TheLarches and get a bag packed, and keep you here for a day or two untilyou can get about again. Least thing we can do to nurse you round, whenyou have hurt yourself in our service."
Hector protested, but in no very vigorous fashion. Truth to tell, theprospect of being housed at Yew Hedge, with the colonel as companion andPeggy as nurse, was much more congenial than the thought of returning tothe big, desolate house where Rob reigned in solitary state and thesitting-rooms were shrouded in holland wrappings. He allowed himself tobe persuaded, submitted to the sponging and binding which ensued with adocility which advanced him far in the host's good graces, and ate hisluncheon on the sofa in approved invalid fashion.
It was not until late in the afternoon that Peggy had a chance ofinterviewing Hector alone, and of expressing her thanks for the doubleservice which he had rendered, but when Mrs Saville retired for herusual rest, and the colonel accompanied the other guest down the drive,her opportunity came. She was sitting by the tea-table, which had beenplaced close to the sofa for the convenience of the invalid, and Hectorwas leaning against his cushions watching her little hands flying in andout of her work. Peggy always made a great affectation of being busy,and had at least half-a-dozen pieces of fancy work hidden away in asmany drawers, waiting completion at that indefinite period when sheshould remember their existence. She glanced at him now, and tried tospeak, threaded a new length of silk, and stitched more assiduously thanever, glanced again, began a sentence, broke off in confusion, and toher inward rage felt her cheeks flaming with colour.
Why did he stare so fixedly? Why did he look so queer? It was mostembarrassing, most annoying. She would have liked to show herdispleasure, but how could she, when he was suffering through her folly,and had been so chivalrous in shielding her from blame?
"I--I want to say all sorts of things," she stammered uncomfortably,"and I can't think of one! I'm sorry, I'm ashamed, I'm grateful, I feela miserable culprit. I don't know what you must think of me and mymiserable carelessness. I wish you would be cross, and say every horridthing you could think of. It would help me more than anything else!"
But Hector only laughed, a cheerful, complacent laugh.
"I don't feel the least inclined to be cross. I have had no pain sinceyour father doctored me, and I am remarkably comfortable sitting o
n thissofa. I look upon the little _contretemps_ as a blessing in disguise,since it has gained me some days at Yew Hedge. Don't be sorry any more,Peggy, but be as grateful as you please, and show your gratitude bygiving me as much of your society as you can spare from your manyinterests. My time is growing short now, and I have seen so little ofyou lately."
"You have been so busy going about among your grand friends that youhave had no time to spare for the country. Oh yes, indeed, I'll do allI can to cheer your solitude. You shall read aloud to me while I sew,and add up my accounts while I do my housekeeping, and--"
"Seems to me that is rather the wrong way about, isn't it? I thoughtyou were to amuse me, whereas it seems--"
"Reciprocity! Reciprocity!" murmured Peggy, shaking her head at himsolemnly, and cocking her little finger in the air, as she drew herthread to its full length. "Reciprocity is the basis of all truefriendship! Mutual service, cheerfully rendered, cements andestablishes amicable relationships. If I were to leave you idle, andpander to your fancies, it would have a most deleterious effect on yourcharacter. I must endeavour to show my gratitude by doing you good, notharm."
Hector laid back his head, and chuckled in delighted amusement.
"Bravo, Peggy! Most excellent sentiments! When all trades fail, youmight turn your attention to composing copy-book headings! It's a fieldin which you would certainly make a reputation. You have the mostremarkable flow of moral precepts."
"I have!" assented Peggy readily. "It's astonishing. I wish mybehaviour bore more resemblance to my conversation, but indeed the twohave never seemed to have any influence on each other. I've sometimesthought I should like to keep a girls' school, for I could lecture thepupils so beautifully against all the faults I myself have committed."
"You will have something better to do than keep a school, Peggy. Wecan't spare you for that!" said Hector tenderly. He thought he hadnever seen anything prettier than the sparkling, mischievous littleface, or listened to conversation more charming than the quaint,sententious phrases. What a delight to be with Peggy Saville againafter those weeks of fashionable visiting! What a contrast she was tothe society belles, who made the same remarks, laughed the same laugh,smiled the same forced artificial smiles! They had bored him todistraction, but there was no feeling bored in Peggy's society; she wasalways interesting, always bright, always charming. He felt no moredoubts as to his own feeling, for absence had made him only the moreappreciative of Peggy's charms. He loved her, he could not endure topart from her, she must be his wife! He looked at her with a kindlingeye; but Peggy was folding up her work, and did not notice the dangersignal.
"Ah, well," she said, laughing, "judging from recent experiences that'sjust as well, for if I forgot to provide food for the poor dears, andthen set them on break-ankle expeditions to rescue my belongings, theschool might not succeed so well as could be desired. I'm off now towrite some letters which must go by the early post; but before I go Imust just say again how grateful I am for your help to-day, and stillmore for the way in which you tried to shield me from blame. You werevery, very good, and I'll not forget it!"
She held out her hand with a frank gesture of gratitude, and Hector tookit and held it firmly in his own.
"I'd do more than that to please you, Peggy," he said once more. "Agreat deal more than that!" He looked her full in the face with his biggrey eyes as he spoke, and brought his other hand down to press hersmore closely, while Peggy sat with crimson cheeks and downcast eyes,conscious that she was behaving like any foolish school-girl, yetmiserably incapable of doing otherwise. Then suddenly her hand wasdropped, Hector sat upright with an elaborate affection of indifference,and a voice spoke from the further end of the room.
"I beg your pardon. I did not mean to interrupt. I came over with yourbag. I heard you had had an accident."
"My dear fellow, come in, come in! It is nothing at all. I have merelygiven my ankle a turn. Come in, and we will tell you all about it."
Rob came forward slowly, and Peggy heard as in a dream the murmur of thetwo voices, questioning, replying, making arrangements for the future,but for her own part she could not stir nor lift her eyes from thefloor. She sat in an agony, seeing as in a mirror the scene which hadgreeted Rob as he entered the room--Hector's eager glance, her ownembarrassment, his hand and hers clasped tightly together.
What would Rob think? What _could_ he think? If he judged byappearances, there could be but one solution, and that was that she wasdeliberately encouraging Hector's attentions!
Peggy felt sure that he would be furiously angry, but Rob's voice had nosound of anger in it as he talked to his brother. It was even quieterthan usual, with only a slight tone of formality, to show that anythingunusual had occurred. She summoned up courage to glance across theroom, and met the dark eyes fixed full upon her. Rob had beautifuleyes, and they had never looked more beautiful than at this moment as hesmiled back with tender, reassuring glance. But Peggy's heart died downwithin her, for, oh, if Rob were _not_ angry, things were far, far worsethan she had imagined!