第13章 THE FIRST COUNTESS OF WESSEX(12)

'Come inside,'says she.'I want to speak privately to you.Why are you so late?'

'One hindrance and another,'says he.'I meant to be at the Court by eight at latest.My gratitude for your letter.I hope--'

'You must not try to see Betty yet,'said she.'There be far other and newer reasons against your seeing her now than there were when Iwrote.'

The circumstances were such that Mrs.Dornell could not possibly conceal them entirely;nothing short of knowing some of the facts would prevent his blindly acting in a manner which might be fatal to the future.Moreover,there are times when deeper intriguers than Mrs.Dornell feel that they must let out a few truths,if only in self-indulgence.So she told so much of recent surprises as that Betty's heart had been attracted by another image than his,and that his insisting on visiting her now might drive the girl to desperation.'Betty has,in fact,rushed off to her father to avoid you,'she said.'But if you wait she will soon forget this young man,and you will have nothing to fear.'

As a woman and a mother she could go no further,and Betty's desperate attempt to infect herself the week before as a means of repelling him,together with the alarming possibility that,after all,she had not gone to her father but to her lover,was not revealed.

'Well,'sighed the diplomatist,in a tone unexpectedly quiet,'such things have been known before.After all,she may prefer me to him some day,when she reflects how very differently I might have acted than I am going to act towards her.But I'll say no more about that now.I can have a bed at your house for to-night?'

'To-night,certainly.And you leave to-morrow morning early?'She spoke anxiously,for on no account did she wish him to make further discoveries.'My husband is so seriously ill,'she continued,'that my absence and Betty's on your arrival is naturally accounted for.'

He promised to leave early,and to write to her soon.'And when Ithink the time is ripe,'he said,'I'll write to her.I may have something to tell her that will bring her to graciousness.'

It was about one o'clock in the morning when Mrs.Dornell reached Falls-Park.A double blow awaited her there.Betty had not arrived;her flight had been elsewhither;and her stricken mother divined with whom.She ascended to the bedside of her husband,where to her concern she found that the physician had given up all hope.The Squire was sinking,and his extreme weakness had almost changed his character,except in the particular that his old obstinacy sustained him in a refusal to see a clergyman.He shed tears at the least word,and sobbed at the sight of his wife.He asked for Betty,and it was with a heavy heart that Mrs.Dornell told him that the girl had not accompanied her.

'He is not keeping her away?'

'No,no.He is going back--he is not coming to her for some time.'

'Then what is detaining her--cruel,neglectful maid!'

'No,no,Thomas;she is--She could not come.'

'How's that?'

Somehow the solemnity of these last moments of his gave him inquisitorial power,and the too cold wife could not conceal from him the flight which had taken place from King's-Hintock that night.

To her amazement,the effect upon him was electrical.

'What--Betty--a trump after all?Hurrah!She's her father's own maid!She's game!She knew he was her father's own choice!She vowed that my man should win!Well done,Bet!--haw!haw!Hurrah!'

He had raised himself in bed by starts as he spoke,and now fell back exhausted.He never uttered another word,and died before the dawn.People said there had not been such an ungenteel death in a good county family for years.

Now I will go back to the time of Betty's riding off on the pillion behind her lover.They left the park by an obscure gate to the east,and presently found themselves in the lonely and solitary length of the old Roman road now called Long-Ash Lane.

By this time they were rather alarmed at their own performance,for they were both young and inexperienced.Hence they proceeded almost in silence till they came to a mean roadside inn which was not yet closed;when Betty,who had held on to him with much misgiving all this while,felt dreadfully unwell,and said she thought she would like to get down.

They accordingly dismounted from the jaded animal that had brought them,and were shown into a small dark parlour,where they stood side by side awkwardly,like the fugitives they were.A light was brought,and when they were left alone Betty threw off the cloak which had enveloped her.No sooner did young Phelipson see her face than he uttered an alarmed exclamation.

'Why,Lord,Lord,you are sickening for the small-pox!'he cried.

'Oh--I forgot!'faltered Betty.And then she informed him that,on hearing of her husband's approach the week before,in a desperate attempt to keep him from her side,she had tried to imbibe the infection--an act which till this moment she had supposed to have been ineffectual,imagining her feverishness to be the result of her excitement.

The effect of this discovery upon young Phelipson was overwhelming.

Better-seasoned men than he would not have been proof against it,and he was only a little over her own age.'And you've been holding on to me!'he said.'And suppose you get worse,and we both have it,what shall we do?Won't you be a fright in a month or two,poor,poor Betty!'

In his horror he attempted to laugh,but the laugh ended in a weakly giggle.She was more woman than girl by this time,and realized his feeling.

'What--in trying to keep off him,I keep off you?'she said miserably.'Do you hate me because I am going to be ugly and ill?'

'Oh--no,no!'he said soothingly.'But I--I am thinking if it is quite right for us to do this.You see,dear Betty,if you was not married it would be different.You are not in honour married to him we've often said;still you are his by law,and you can't be mine whilst he's alive.And with this terrible sickness coming on,perhaps you had better let me take you back,and--climb in at the window again.'