第7章 THE FIRST COUNTESS OF WESSEX(6)

To be out of the sound of this delicate discussion Betty was accordingly sent downstairs,and they soon saw her walking away into the shrubberies,looking very pretty in her sweeping green gown,and flapping broad-brimmed hat overhung with a feather.

On returning to the subject,Mrs.Dornell found her husband's reluctance to reply in the affirmative to Reynard's letter to be as great as ever.

'She is three months short of eighteen!'he exclaimed.''Tis too soon.I won't hear of it!If I have to keep him off sword in hand,he shall not have her yet.'

'But,my dear Thomas,'she expostulated,'consider if anything should happen to you or to me,how much better it would be that she should be settled in her home with him!'

'I say it is too soon!'he argued,the veins of his forehead beginning to swell.'If he gets her this side o'Candlemas I'll challenge en--I'll take my oath on't!I'll be back to King's-Hintock in two or three days,and I'll not lose sight of her day or night!'

She feared to agitate him further,and gave way,assuring him,in obedience to his demand,that if Reynard should write again before he got back,to fix a time for joining Betty,she would put the letter in her husband's hands,and he should do as he chose.This was all that required discussion privately,and Mrs.Dornell went to call in Betty,hoping that she had not heard her father's loud tones.

She had certainly not done so this time.Mrs.Dornell followed the path along which she had seen Betty wandering,but went a considerable distance without perceiving anything of her.The Squire's wife then turned round to proceed to the other side of the house by a short cut across the grass,when,to her surprise and consternation,she beheld the object of her search sitting on the horizontal bough of a cedar,beside her being a young man,whose arm was round her waist.He moved a little,and she recognized him as young Phelipson.

Alas,then,she was right.The so-called counterfeit love was real.

What Mrs.Dornell called her husband at that moment,for his folly in originally throwing the young people together,it is not necessary to mention.She decided in a moment not to let the lovers know that she had seen them.She accordingly retreated,reached the front of the house by another route,and called at the top of her voice from a window,'Betty!'

For the first time since her strategic marriage of the child,Susan Dornell doubted the wisdom of that step.

Her husband had,as it were,been assisted by destiny to make his objection,originally trivial,a valid one.She saw the outlines of trouble in the future.Why had Dornell interfered?Why had he insisted upon producing his man?This,then,accounted for Betty's pleading for postponement whenever the subject of her husband's return was broached;this accounted for her attachment to Falls-Park.Possibly this very meeting that she had witnessed had been arranged by letter.

Perhaps the girl's thoughts would never have strayed for a moment if her father had not filled her head with ideas of repugnance to her early union,on the ground that she had been coerced into it before she knew her own mind;and she might have rushed to meet her husband with open arms on the appointed day.

Betty at length appeared in the distance in answer to the call,and came up pale,but looking innocent of having seen a living soul.

Mrs.Dornell groaned in spirit at such duplicity in the child of her bosom.This was the simple creature for whose development into womanhood they had all been so tenderly waiting--a forward minx,old enough not only to have a lover,but to conceal his existence as adroitly as any woman of the world!Bitterly did the Squire's lady regret that Stephen Reynard had not been allowed to come to claim her at the time he first proposed.

The two sat beside each other almost in silence on their journey back to King's-Hintock.Such words as were spoken came mainly from Betty,and their formality indicated how much her mind and heart were occupied with other things.

Mrs.Dornell was far too astute a mother to openly attack Betty on the matter.That would be only fanning flame.The indispensable course seemed to her to be that of keeping the treacherous girl under lock and key till her husband came to take her off her mother's hands.That he would disregard Dornell's opposition,and come soon,was her devout wish.

It seemed,therefore,a fortunate coincidence that on her arrival at King's-Hintock a letter from Reynard was put into Mrs.Dornell's hands.It was addressed to both her and her husband,and courteously informed them that the writer had landed at Bristol,and proposed to come on to King's-Hintock in a few days,at last to meet and carry off his darling Betty,if she and her parents saw no objection.

Betty had also received a letter of the same tenor.Her mother had only to look at her face to see how the girl received the information.She was as pale as a sheet.

'You must do your best to welcome him this time,my dear Betty,'her mother said gently.

'But--but--I--'

'You are a woman now,'added her mother severely,'and these postponements must come to an end.'

'But my father--oh,I am sure he will not allow this!I am not ready.If he could only wait a year longer--if he could only wait a few months longer!Oh,I wish--I wish my dear father were here!Iwill send to him instantly.'She broke off abruptly,and falling upon her mother's neck,burst into tears,saying,'O my mother,have mercy upon me--I do not love this man,my husband!'