CHAPTER XXIX
When he was left alone the Duke swore sharply to himself. He was not aman accustomed to the use of strong language--but occasions arose inlife sometimes when a good sound oath seemed to relieve tension!
Then he paced up and down his long room. His imagination was on fire. Hecould see Katherine--he dwelt on the name "Katherine"--in the baboonembrace of old John Townly--loathsome picture!
Yes, of course, she would adorn any position, and Dullinglea was only avery moderate house. He could see her tall, slender, graceful figuresweeping in rich velvets through much larger rooms than it contained.Such rooms, for example, as these, his own at Valfreyne!
She would sit to-night between young Westonborough and old Barchester,but in a place where a gap in the flowers would give him, the host, acontinuous view of her.
Then he went off to dress, in a fiery mood!
Katherine, meanwhile, had been looking over "Eothen," and noting themarked passages, which she found to be the same mutual favourites theyhad discovered that night at Gerard's.
Had her host underlined them since then, or were they marked before?Then she peeped at "Abelard and Heloise" and turned over all the leaves.None of them had any pencillings, but her eye caught this sensibleparagraph, and it stiffened her jaded spirit, and made her feel morecalm:
"'How void of reason are men,' said Seneca, 'to make distant evilspresent by reflection, and to take pains before death to lose all thecomfort of life.'"
She was here at a splendid party as a guest like everyone else, and shemust enjoy it and forget anything but the pleasure of the moment. Butoh! if the Duke would only talk to her!
She wore the new white frock and looked quite beautiful, and some of thelilies of the valley shone in her belt.
Lady Garribardine was extremely pleased with her appearance and pattedher arm.
"To-morrow Sir John Townly is coming over from Hornwell, child, and Iwant you to be agreeable to him for me, as I shall be very busy. Youmust take him for a little walk."
Her Ladyship knew that however irksome it would appear to Katherine, hercommand would be obeyed!
The Duke's eyes were full of suppressed passion at dinner, and his witwas caustic. Katherine could not hear it, but could see his face, andthe puzzled expression which now and then came over the two ladies oneither side of him; and once she met his gaze, and there was pain and achallenge in it. Excitement rose in her before dessert came. Sheknew--she felt--he was conscious of her presence--and that it was notindifference which kept him from her side. What was it all leading to?It was very evident that he was determined not to succumb to whatever itmight be. It was also evident that he certainly did experience emotion.
Katherine felt unhappy, but this must not prevent her from talkingpolitely and sympathetically to the ladies she happened to be sittingnext to in the great drawing-room, until the men came in. She remarkedhow protective and gracious her own dear Ladyship was being to her,saying a word in passing and making her feel at home and an equal and aguest. She must be very grateful for these things and not look ahead.
Why had this new and sudden sense of values come over her? Thisrealisation of the frightful obstacle created by the blemish of thethree days? At the dinner at Gerard's she had not so much as rememberedthem, their meaning had come in a flash with the thrill of the Duke'skiss of homage upon her hand. Had she been contemplating union with SirJohn, she would have looked upon them as a fortunate experience to guideher in her knowledge of men. So this was some psychological witness tothe demands of the spirit of--love! Of love that desires to give onlythe pure gold untarnished to the lover.
She felt like a caged bird, and her triumphant evening of pleasingwomen, and earning the admiration of all who spoke to her, tasted onlyas Dead Sea fruit.
Now the Duke, when the men left the dining-room, walked straightto his own sitting-room. He was a man of rapid action and supremeself-confidence. He opened the inner door softly and listened--there wasno sound, he could move with impunity. There was no one in the passageroom, but there was not a moment to be lost; the housemaids, he knew,would be coming round almost immediately with the cans of hot water forthe night. He crossed the space and deliberately entered the green room,turning on the light as he did so.
He hastily looked about at the books--Yes, she had put the two specialones by her bed. And "Abelard and Heloise" was underneath; he pulled itout and quickly found a passage he wanted and with his gold pencil hescored it deeply underneath, and putting the volume on the top heswiftly left the room and was again in his own, and on his way to thewhite drawing-room. The whole affair had not taken two minutes. And withthe knowledge of this fact accomplished, he looked almost serene as hesat down by a great lady's side and determinedly avoided looking atKatherine.
So the evening passed without speech between them beyond good-night, andMiss Bush retired sorrowfully to bed.
But she could not sleep, and kept on the light to read. There were"Eothen" and "Abelard and Heloise" close to her side, their order ofplacing reversed, since she had left them, this change effected by thehousemaids, no doubt. And the love letters being on the top, she openedthem first. She read many exquisite thoughts, and was just thinking ofsleep when she turned a page and suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, forthis is what she read:
"I wish to heaven you had not such a power over me." And the passage wasdeeply underlined.
Her heart beat to suffocation. There had been no such mark in this placewhen she had read this very page before dinner. How had it comethere?--Who--Who?--But there was only one person who could have donesuch a thing--the Duke!
She bent nearer the lamp and devoured the lines again, and then shepassionately kissed the words and turned out the light.
Next day, Sunday, a number of the party went to church, their host amongthem--but Katherine and Lady Garribardine did not accompany them. Theywere seated on the tennis lawn watching a game when the church-goersjoined the group.
Three magnificent cedars of Lebanon made a great patch of shade, andhere the chairs were placed. The Duke took one and stretched himself onit as though fatigued. His grey felt hat was tilted over his eyes. Hemade a pleasing picture of length of limb and grace and distinction--thesame curious emotion crept over Katherine again as she had alreadyexperienced--half quiver, half shock--a strong desire to be very closeto him, to touch him, to feel herself caressing and caressed. His handswere clasped idly upon his knee, and his voice as he spoke softly to alady was lazy and complacent. Oh! how extremely bitter the wholesituation was proving to be!
The emerald ring seemed to flash green fire as a tiny glint of sunlightstruck it; it caught the attention of the sprightly dame to whom HisGrace was talking.
"What a very wonderful ring that is you wear, Duke. Has it a history?"
"Yes, a very remarkable one."
Katherine listened, deeply interested, she had so often wondered aboutthis ring, too.
"It has been in the family since the last Crusade. It came back with thetradition attached that it was the famous graven emerald seal whichTheodoras made for Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, about 590 B. C., andwhich was in vain thrown into the sea to be lost! It was brought back toPolycrates in the body of a fish next day. Such exampled luck wasconsidered to be ominous by his ally, Amasis, who broke off all alliancewith him in consequence. And truly enough, he was not long aftermurdered from jealousy of his good fortune! The ring then disappearedand was supposed later to have been found by a Roman who handed it downfor generations until it somehow got back into Greece, and when wreckedthere on his way home from Palestine, the Rievaulx of the day obtainedit from its owner, how, history does not say, and it has always beenwith us ever since--a strange belief attaching to it--that if life ishappy it must not be worn, but that if things have gone ill then it issafe to wear it for the rest of time."
He put out his hand for the lady to look at the stone and a knot ofinterested people drew near.
"You see," His Grace continued, "it is deeply
graven with a lyre--andsometimes it seems to be dull and sometimes it flashes angrily."
"Are you not afraid to wear it?" some tactless person said.
The Duke replied gravely--"Why should I be? I have amply fulfilled allthe conditions attached," and then the company, remembering the dark andugly shadow of the mad Duchess, which had hung over his life for so manyyears, all seemed to talk at once and so the slightly awkward momentpassed.
But Katherine thought deeply upon the subject as she sat in a wickerchair.
Yes, how ill his life had gone, and he was now fifty-three years old,and if it were true that he felt enough to have taken the trouble toscore that sentence in her book, his present frame of mind could not bealtogether happy either, and she sighed--why was happiness so often aforbidden fruit?
For a second before lunch she happened to be standing near him, and sosome kind of words were necessary for politeness' sake.
"I hope you find your room comfortable, Miss Bush, and that you have allthat you want."
She looked straight into his eyes, and there was a world of meaning inhers as she answered.
"Everything, thank you--and I am especially interested in the books. Thelast guest who slept there must have taken liberties with your volumesand put strange pencillings under some of the paragraphs, which I onlydiscovered last night."
"It was a man who occupied the room lately. What presumption he showed!"
"Yes, I wondered if you knew about it, the most significant marking isin the letters of 'Abelard and Heloise.' The scribbler had a turn forsentiment, it would seem, and probably was suffering from hallucinationsas to his own state, which he imagined to be one of subjection."
"No, he was a level-headed fellow, who was not particularly happy,though. I remember, and no doubt he found solace in reading about thedespairing passion of those two, and in underlining that passage whichrecords _Abelard's_ rebellion against pain so like his own."
Katherine sighed. "Happiness, alas! lies in the hand only of the verystrong," and she passed on to another group.
And the Duke frowned a little as they went in to lunch.
Sir John Townly came over in the afternoon, as he had been invited todo, and Lady Garribardine intimated to her secretary that now she musttake this incubus off her hands; so Katherine obediently proposed astroll round the wonderful tulip beds, which were in full bloom. AndMordryn saw them go off together from the window where he stood.
"I really do not think it looks so ridiculous after all," LadyGarribardine remarked to him reflectively, complacence in her tone. "Heis quite a fine figure of a man except for his perfectly bald head, andthat does not show now in his hat."
The Duke made an exclamation of disgust.
"Poor Miss Bush!"
"I do hope she won't be foolish, but she has been so odd lately; Icannot understand these girls."
"Odd?"
"Yes--sad-looking and quiet--Of course I would not force her intoanything she did not like, but still, Sir John would be better than someattractive and penniless young guardsman with nothing to offer butlove's young dream.--There are one or two who come over from Windsor whorather hang about."
"Oh! yes, certainly," emphatically agreed the Duke, and then he thoughtof another sentence in that book which seemed such a bond between them,one where _Abelard_ wrote, "What a comfort I felt in seeing you shutup!" Yes, to marry old Sir John would almost be the equivalent of aconvent. But not quite! There was always the thought that, however old,he would still be the undisputed possessor of this most desirable pieceof womanhood! His would be the right to clothe and feed her, and giveher jewels. His to hold her in his arms. The realisation of all this wasmaddening to Mordryn, for he no longer disguised from himself that heprofoundly desired to exercise these rights himself. And she had saidthat happiness only lay in the hands of the very strong.--Yes, but howcould one define strong? Strong in fidelity to tradition and family andrace and class? Or strong to break all barriers and seize that thing aman's heart cries out for passionately, his mate, his soul's and hisbody's mate? These were problems which were distressingly agitating tothink over, and distracted his mind from the duties towards guests.
What a time she spent in pointing out those tulips to that old fool!What pompous gallantry his attitude expressed! Of course the girl mustbe bored to death. Why had she been "odd" lately, "quiet and sad"? Oh,how divine it would be to go off to the Belvedere presently and see thesunset from over there by the lake, and ask her many things, and then asthey looked on the water from the marble terrace, if the falcon's eyegrew sweet again and soft, to read dear messages there, and fold her tohis heart!
She was so subtle, she understood every shade in anything he said, theyhad the same tastes and the same likings in books and art. She did notknow Italy and France; what supreme pleasure to wander there, anddiscover their manifold beauties to her! And above all, she was youngand fresh and passionate--who could doubt it who looked into her fairface, or knew anything about type? If she loved him she would never becold, but would amply repay him for his long starvation and abstinencefrom joy. The lonely splendour of Valfreyne would then become a happyhome filled with interest and affection. How was he going to get throughanother twenty years of dull duty after his twenty-five of anguish andgrief? He supposed he might live to be eighty, even, the Monluces were atenacious race!
Here Lady Garribardine deemed it prudent to divert his thoughts; sherealised that the moment for the final good which would draw him overthe brink into happiness had not yet come, so she spoke of soothingthings, and then amused him and coaxed him into a more peaceful state;only again to see him restive when the pair eventually came in from thetulip beds.
Katherine looked tired and depressed, but Sir John had an air ofgratification about him which made Mordryn feel that he could willinglyhave punched his head!
His good manners alone enabled him to bid a cordial farewell to the poorman when presently he left.
The sun was declining and the colours were opal over the lake. Theduties of host to so many charming ladies restrained the Duke and he hadthe mortification of seeing Katherine and another girl go off with twoof the young men in two canoes on the topaz waters, and by the time hewent to dress he was almost desperate.
Katherine was in black to-night, and a red rose was in her belt. Wherehad she got it from? Had that insupportable young Westonborough, whomshe had been in the canoe with, given it to her? Surely Bilton had notbeen so remiss as not to have seen that fresh lilies were put in thegreen room!--But perhaps she preferred the red rose; women wereincredibly fickle and capricious!
Lady Garribardine perceived the expression of fierceness in his eyes,and so contrived that even a single sentence with Katherine wasimpossible. And thus the evening passed and good-nights were said, andthere remained only the one more day!