Helena's Path

Miss Gilletson sprang up. But Norah was beforehand with her.

"No! I said it. I'm the one to go. Who could think she'd take it like that?" Norah's own blue eyes were less bright than usual as she hurried after her wounded friend. The rest ate on in dreary conscience-stricken silence. At last Stillford spoke.

"Don't urge her to go to law," he said. "I'm pretty sure she'd be beaten."

"Then she ought to give in – and apologize to Lord Lynborough," said Miss Gilletson decisively. "That would be right – and, I will add, Christian."

"Humble Pie ain't very good eating," commented Captain Irons.

Neither the Marchesa nor Norah came back. The meal wended along its slow and melancholy course to a mirthless weary conclusion. Colonel Wenman began to look on the repose of bachelorhood with a kinder eye, on its loneliness with a more tolerant disposition. He went so far as to remember that, if the worst came to the worst, he had another invitation for the following week.

The Spirit of Discord (The tragic atmosphere now gathering justifies these figures of speech – the chronicler must rise to the occasion of a heroine in tears), having wrought her fell work at Nab Grange, now winged her way to the towers of Scarsmoor Castle.

Dinner had passed off quite as Lynborough anticipated; he had enjoyed himself exceedingly. Whenever the temporary absence of the servants allowed, he had rallied his friends on their susceptibility to beauty, on their readiness to fail him under its lures, on their clumsy attempts at concealment of their growing intimacy, and their confidential relations, with the fascinating mistress of Nab Grange. He too had been told to take his case into the Courts or to drop his claim – and had laughed triumphantly at the advice. He had laughed when Stabb said that he really could not pursue his work in the midst of such distractions, that his mind was too perturbed for scientific thought. He had laughed lightly and good-humoredly even when (as they were left alone over coffee) Roger Wilbraham, going suddenly a little white, said he thought that persecuting a lady was no fit amusement for a gentleman. Lynborough did not suppose that the Marchesa – with the battle of the day at least drawn, if not decided in her favor – could be regarded as the subject of persecution – and he did recognize that young fellows, under certain spells, spoke hotly and were not to be held to serious account. He was smiling still when, with a forced remark about the heat, the pair went out together to smoke on the terrace. He had some letters to read, and for the moment dismissed the matter from his mind.

In ten minutes young Roger Wilbraham returned; his manner was quiet now, but his face still rather pale. He came up to the table by which Lynborough sat.

"Holding the position I do in your house, Lord Lynborough," he said, "I had no right to use the words I used this evening at dinner. I apologize for them. But, on the other hand, I have no wish to hold a position which prevents me from using those words when they represent what I think. I beg you to accept my resignation, and I shall be greatly obliged if you can arrange to relieve me of my duties as soon as possible."

Lynborough heard him without interruption; with grave impassive face, with surprise, pity, and a secret amusement. Even if he were right, he was so solemn over it!

The young man waited for no answer. With the merest indication of a bow, he left Lynborough alone, and passed on into the house.

"Well, now!" said Lord Lynborough, rising and lighting a cigar. "This Marchesa! Well, now!"

Stabb's heavy form came lumbering in from the terrace; he seemed to move more heavily than ever, as though his bulk were even unusually inert. He plumped down into a chair and looked up at Lynborough's graceful figure.

"I meant what I said at dinner, Ambrose. I wasn't joking, though I suppose you thought I was. All this affair may amuse you – it worries me. I can't settle to work. If you'll be so kind as to send me over to Easthorpe to-morrow, I'll be off – back to Oxford."

"Cromlech, old boy!"

"Yes, I know. But I – I don't want to stay, Ambrose. I'm not – comfortable." His great face set in a heavy, disconsolate, wrinkled frown.

Lord Lynborough pursed his lips in a momentary whistle, then put his cigar back into his mouth, and walked out on to the terrace.

"This Marchesa!" said he again. "This very remarkable Marchesa! Her riposte is admirable. Really I venture to hope that I, in my turn, have very seriously disturbed her household!"

He walked to the edge of the terrace, and stood there musing. Sandy Nab loomed up, dimly the sea rose and fell, twinkled and sank into darkness. It talked too – talked to Lynborough with a soft, low, quiet voice; it seemed (to his absurdly whimsical imagination) as though some lovely woman gently stroked his brow and whispered to him. He liked to encourage such freaks of fancy.

Cromlech couldn't go. That was absurd.

And the young fellow? So much a gentleman! Lynborough had liked the terms of his apology no less than the firmness of his protest. "It's the first time, I think, that I've been told that I'm no gentleman," he reflected with amusement. But Roger had been pale when he said it. Imaginatively Lynborough assumed his place. "A brave boy," he said. "And that dear old knight-errant of a Cromlech!"

A space – room indeed and room enough – for the softer emotions – so much Lynborough was ever inclined to allow. But to acquiesce in this state of things as final – that was to admit defeat at the hands of the Marchesa. It was to concede that one day had changed the whole complexion of the fight.

"Cromlech sha'n't go – the boy sha'n't go – and I'll still use the path," he thought. "Not that I really care about the path, you know." He paused. "Well, yes, I do care about it – for bathing in the morning." He hardened his heart against the Marchesa. She chose to fight; the fortune of war must be hers. He turned his eyes down to Nab Grange. Lights burned there – were her guests demanding to be sent to Easthorpe? Why, no! As he looked, Lynborough came to the conclusion that she had reduced them all to order – that they would be whipped back to heel – that his manoeuvers (and his lunch!) had probably been wasted. He was beaten then?

He scorned the conclusion. But if he were not – the result was deadlock! Then still he was beaten; for unless Helena (he called her that) owned his right, his right was to him as nothing.

"I have made myself a champion of my sex," he said. "Shall I be beaten?"

In that moment – with all the pang of forsaking an old conviction – of disowning that stronger tie, the loved embrace of an ancient and perversely championed prejudice – he declared that any price must be paid for victory.

"Heaven forgive me, but, sooner than be beaten, I'll go to law with her!" he cried.

A face appeared from between two bushes – a voice spoke from the edge of the terrace.

"I thought you might be interested to hear – "

"Lady Norah?"

"Yes, it's me – to hear that you've made her cry – and very bitterly."

Chapter Eleven

AN ARMISTICE

Lord Lynborough walked down to the edge of the terrace; Lady Norah stood half hidden in the shrubbery.

"And that, I suppose, ought to end the matter?" he asked. "I ought at once to abandon all my pretensions and to give up my path?"

"I just thought you might like to know it," said Norah.

"Actually I believe I do like to know it – though what Roger would say to me about that I really can't imagine. You're mistaking my character, Lady Norah. I'm not the hero of this piece. There are several gentlemen from among whom you can choose one for that effective part. Lots of candidates for it! But I'm the villain. Consequently you must be prepared for my receiving your news with devilish glee."

"Well, you haven't seen it – and I have."

"Well put!" he allowed. "How did it happen?"

"Over something I said to her – something horrid."

"Well, then, why am I – ?" Lynborough's hands expostulated eloquently.

"But you were the real reason, of course. She thinks you've turned us all against her; she says it's so mean to get her own friends to turn against her."

"Does she now?" asked Lord Lynborough with a thoughtful smile.

Norah too smiled faintly. "She says she's not angry with us – she's just sorry for us – because she understands – "

"What?"

"I mean she says she – she can imagine – " Norah's smile grew a little more pronounced. "I'm not sure she'd like me to repeat that," said Norah. "And of course she doesn't know I'm here at all – and you must never tell her."

"Of course it's all my fault. Still, as a matter of curiosity, what did you say to her?"

"I said that, if she had a good case, she ought to go to law; and, if she hadn't, she ought to stop making herself ridiculous and the rest of us uncomfortable."

"You spoke with the general assent of the company?"