第87章

Not a word was said in the cab as Lord Silverbridge took his sister to Carlton Terrace, and he leaving her without any reference to the scene which had taken place, when an idea struck him that this would be cruel. 'Mary,' he said, 'I was very sorry for all that.'

'It was not my doing.'

'I suppose it was nobody's doing. But I am very sorry that it occurred. I think you should have controlled yourself.'

'No!' she almost shouted.

'I think so.'

'No;--if you mean by controlling myself, holding my tongue. He is the man I love,--whom I have promised to marry.'

'But, Mary,--do ladies generally embrace their lovers in public?'

'No;--nor should I. I never did such a thing in my life before. But as he was there I had to show that I was not ashamed of him! Do you think I should have done it if you all had not been there?'

Then again she burst into tears.

He did not know quite what to make of it. Mabel Grex had declared that she had behaved like an angel. But yet, as he thought of what he had seen, he shuddered with vexation. 'I was thinking of the governor.'

'He shall be told everything.'

'That you met Tregear?'

'Certainly; and that I--kissed him. I will do nothing that I ashamed to tell everybody.'

'He will be very angry.'

'I cannot help it. He should not treat me as he is doing. Mr Tregear is a gentleman. Why did he let him come? Why you bring him? But it is of no use. The thing is settled. Papa can break my heart, but he cannot make me say that I am not engaged to Mr Tregear.'

On that night Mary told the whole of her story to Lady Cantrip.

There was nothing she tried to conceal. 'I got up,' she said, 'and threw my arms round him. Is he not all the world to me?'

'Had it been planned?' asked Lady Cantrip.

'No;--no! Nothing had been planned. They are cousins and very intimate, and he goes there constantly. Now I want you to tell papa all about it.'

Lady Cantrip began to think that it had been an evil day for her when she had agreed to take charge of this very determined young lady, but she consented to write to the Duke. As the girl was in her hands she must take care not to lay herself open to reproaches. As this objectionable lover had either contrived a meeting, or had met her without contriving, it was necessary that the Duke should be informed. 'I would rather you wrote the letter,' said Lady Mary. 'But pray tell him that all along I have meant him to know about it.'

Till Lady Cantrip seated herself at her writing-table she did not know how great the difficulty would be. It cannot in any circumstance be easy to write to a father of his daughter's love for an objectionable lover; but the Duke's character added much to the severity of the task. And then that embrace! She knew that the Duke would be struck with horror as he read of such a tale, and she found herself almost struck with horror as she attempted to write it. When she came to the point she found that she could not write it. 'I fear there was a good deal of warmth shown on both sides,' she said, feeling that she was calumniating the man, as to whose warmth she had heard nothing. 'It is quite clear,' she added, 'that this is not a passing fancy on her part.'

It was impossible that the Duke should be made to understand exactly what had occurred. That Silverbridge had taken Mary he did understand, and that they had together gone to Lord Grex's house.

He understood also that the meeting had taken place in the presence of Silverbridge and Lady Mabel. 'No doubt it was all an accident,' Lady Cantrip wrote. How could it be an accident?

'You had Mary up in town on Friday?' he said to his son on the following Sunday morning.

'Yes, sir.'

'And that friend of yours came in?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Do you not know what my wishes are?'

'Certainly I do;--but I could not help his coming. You do not suppose that anybody had planned it?'

'I hope not.'

'It was simply an accident. Such an accident as must occur over and over again,--unless Mary is to be locked up.'

'Who talks of locking anybody up? What right have you to speak in that way?'

'I only meant that of course they will stumble across each other in London.'

'I think I will go abroad,' said the Duke. He was silent for awhile, and then repeated his words. 'I think I will go abroad.'

'Not for long I hope, sir.'

'Yes;--to live there. Why should I stay here? What good can I do here? Everything I see and everything I hear is a pain to me.'

The young man of course could not but go back in his mind to the last interview which he had had with his father, when the Duke had been so gracious and apparently so well pleased.

'Is there anything else wrong,--except about Mary?' Silverbridge asked.

'I am told Gerald owes about fifteen hundred pounds at Cambridge.'

'So much as that! I knew that he had a few horses there.'

'It is not the money, but the absence of principle,--that a young man should have no feeling that he ought to live within certain prescribed means! Do you know what you have had from Mr Morton?'

'Not exactly, sir.'

'It is different with you. But a man, let him be who he may, should live within certain means. As for your sister, I think she will break my heart.' Silverbridge found it impossible to say anything in answer to this. 'Are you going to church?' asked the Duke.

'I was not thinking of doing so particularly.'

'Do you not ever go?'

'Yes;--sometimes. I will go with you now, if you like it, sir.'

'I had thought of going, but my mind is too much harassed. I do not see why you should not go.'