The Pagan's Cup

"I don't love her," protested Leo.

"No matter; she loves you. Her brother told me so, and I am woman enough to see that she is deeply attached to you."

"I won't marry her!" said Leo, doggedly. "I have a right to choose a wife for myself, and Miss Hale is not my choice."

"Ah! Then what I have heard is true?"

"What have you heard?" he demanded, with a dangerous look in his blue eyes. Mrs Gabriel was going too far.

"That you are in love with Sibyl Tempest."

"That is true. She is a beautiful and charming girl."

"And a beggar!" burst out Mrs Gabriel, savagely. "Her father has nothing beyond his stipend, and that he spends on books. When he dies she will be a beggar. If you married her she would bring you no dowry."

"She will bring me herself," replied Haverleigh, "and that is good enough for me. I love Sybil with my whole soul."

"And how do you propose to keep her?" sneered Mrs Gabriel.

"Not as the heir to your property," said Leo, wrathfully. "In some way or another I shall make my way in the world. Sybil is quite willing to wait for me. We are engaged."

"Ha! You seem to have settled the whole matter."

"We have. And it will not be unsettled by anyone."

The young man looked so determined, there was such fire in his eye, such a firmness about his closed mouth, that Mrs Gabriel felt that she was beaten. For the moment she retreated gracefully, but by no means gave up her point. By nagging at Leo she might be enabled to bring about things as she wished. "Well, have it your own way," she said, rising. "I have said my say, and you are behaving abominably."

"I am sorry you should think so, but I really cannot submit to this life any longer. You quite understand that next week I go to London?"

"As you please." Mrs Gabriel was outwardly calm, but inwardly furious. "I hope you have well considered what you are doing?"

"I have. My mind has been made up for some time."

"In that case, Leo, we may as well part good friends. I shall pay your debts and fit you out. Now do not contradict me. If you have any feeling of gratitude you will at least let me do this much."

Haverleigh did not like the proposition, as he felt that Mrs Gabriel was preparing some snare into which he might blindly fall. However, as he could not see his way to a refusal, and, moreover, was weary of this bickering, he merely bowed. Mrs Gabriel had thus gained time, and in some measure had secured the victory. It remained to her to make the best use of it. She was determined that Leo should marry Edith Hale.

"Have you had luncheon, Leo?" she asked, changing the subject.

"No. But I am not hungry now."

"Nonsense. A big man like you. Come in and have something to eat at once."

As a refusal would only have meant another outburst, Leo accepted the inevitable, and moved towards the door with his mother. "By the way," he said, "I met Mr Pratt down below. He intends to ask us to a house-warming."

It might have been Leo's fancy, but he thought that Mrs Gabriel started at the mention of the name. However, there was an emotion in her hard voice as she replied, "I shall be rather glad to see the interior of his house, Leo. It is said that he has the most beautiful things. Will he ask us to dinner?"

"Yes. Hale and his sister are coming."

"Ah!" said Mrs Gabriel in gratified tones.

"And the vicar and his daughter. Also Raston, the curate."

"The church party," said Mrs Gabriel, disdainfully. She had no love for Tempest, whom she regarded as half insane, nor for Sibyl, who was too beautiful for womanly taste, nor for Raston, who had frequently fought her on questions connected with parish affairs.

"By the way," said Leo, who had been meditating, "why has Mr Pratt settled in these parts? I should think he found it dull."

Mrs Gabriel smiled contemptuously. "Mr Pratt is not a foolish young man like someone I know," she said; "he does not find pleasure in the follies of the Town. For my part, I think he is wise to settle here in his old age. He is a delightful neighbour and a pleasant companion."

"He is all that," assented Leo, heartily. He liked Pratt. "You have known him for many years, mother?"

"For ten or twelve," replied Mrs Gabriel, carelessly. "I met him in Vienna, I think, and he called on me when I returned to London. Afterwards he came down here and fell in love with the place. For years he has been a rolling stone, but always said that when he settled down he would come to Colester. He is liked, is he not, Leo?"

"He is more than liked. He is immensely popular – with our friends, if not with the villagers. You have done a good deed in introducing him to our dull parish."

"I don't think Mr Pratt, who has so many resources in himself, finds it dull, my dear. However, I shall be glad to accept the invitation to his dinner. I should like to see him married."

"Indeed! Have you chosen him a wife also?"

Mrs Gabriel laughed. "I thought he might take a fancy to Sibyl Tempest."

"Why, he's old enough to be her father. Besides – "

"Besides you love her," finished Mrs Gabriel, with a shrug. "Well, do not get angry, Leo. I should like to see Mr Pratt marry Sybil and you the husband of Edith Hale. Then everything would be right."

"I don't think so at all," commenced Haverleigh in vexed tones. "But don't let us quarrel any more. I have the greatest regard for Pratt, but I do not care to go the length of letting him marry the girl I love."

"You know very little of Mr Pratt," said Mrs Gabriel, looking suddenly at the young man, "how, then, can you regard him so – "

"Oh, I have seen him often in Town," broke in Leo; "sometimes when I was in difficulties and did not want to tell you Pratt helped me."

"With money?" asked Mrs Gabriel, sharply.

"Of course with money. But I paid him back."

Mrs Gabriel made no answer, but, rising suddenly, passed out of the room, and left Leo eating his luncheon alone. Her usually calm face looked disturbed and her hands were restless. Leo's information had annoyed her.

"What does Pratt mean?" she asked herself. "Can't he leave the boy alone after all these years? I wonder – " She broke off and pressed her hand to her heart as though she there felt a cruel pain. Perhaps she did, but Mrs Gabriel was not the woman to show it.

CHAPTER IV

THE DINNER-PARTY

Built on the lower slopes of the Castle Hill, Mr Pratt's residence, commonly known as The Nun's House, stood a little distance back from the highway which led down to King's-meadows. It was a plain, rough stone building of great strength, two storeys in height, and with a high roof of slate. Gloomy in the extreme, it was rendered still more so from its being encircled by a grove of yew trees which gave it a churchyard air. Not the kind of residence one would have thought attractive to a cheerful and dapper man like Richard Pratt. But he had, so he declared, fallen in love with it at first sight, and Mrs Gabriel, always having an eye to business, had only too readily granted him a seven years' lease. She was delighted at the chance of securing a tenant, as the house had been empty for a long time owing to its uncomfortable reputation. There was not a man, woman or child in Colester that did not know it was haunted.

The name came from a tradition, probably a true one, that when the Colester convent had been suppressed by Henry VIII., the evicted nuns had found refuge in this dismal house, a dozen of them. In time they died, and the mansion was inhabited by other people. But queer sounds were heard, strange sights were seen, and it became known that the twelve nuns re-visited the scene of their exile. There never was a house so populated with ghosts; and the tenants promptly departed. Others, lured by a low rent, came, and after a month's trial departed also. Finally no one would stop in the ill-omened mansion until Mr Pratt arrived. He liked the place, laughed at the gruesome reputation of the dwelling, and announced his intention of making it his home.

"Ghosts!" laughed Pratt, with his cheery smile. "Nonsense. Ghosts went out with gas. Besides, I should rather like to see a ghost, particularly of a nun. I am partial to the fair sex."