Contraband Part 24

And so found himself, in less than a quarter of an hour, at the door of that heterogeneous emporium. It did not seem to surprise him in the least, that, while he paid his driver, the well-known figure of Miss Ross should precede him into the building, nor that he should come upon her, minutely examining ornaments of bog-oak, at the very first counter which offered a secluded corner for confidential communication. The place seemed well adapted for secrecy; purchasers, it appeared, there were none, while the sellers, women of various ages and costumes, were mostly nodding drowsily behind their wares.

Jin looked up from a clumsy black cross set in Irish diamonds, and her eyes flashed brighter than the spurious gems while, putting her hand in Frank's arm, she nestled to his side, as though henceforth her refuge was there alone.

"You got my note?" she whispered. "I didn't know what to do. My only chance was to see you at once, and I could think of no place so good as this."

"Dearest!" he murmured, pressing the arm that clung so fondly to his own, looking about him, nevertheless, in uncomfortable apprehension of observant bystanders, or sharp-sighted acquaintance.

"I have had such a battle to fight," she continued, leading him into a grove of waving drapery, consisting chiefly of clothing for young people. "If I hadn't _felt_ I could depend upon you, I think I must have given way. I've behaved so badly to Mrs. Lascelles, so cruelly to Mr.

Groves. I've done so wrong, by everybody but _you_."

"Dearest!" he repeated, with another squeeze. His ideas were gradually deserting him, nor did he know exactly what he was expected to say in reply.

"They all wanted to persuade me," she continued. "They all wanted to talk me into it; and in my position, so completely friendless and forlorn, it would have been an excellent arrangement, of course--far the wisest thing to do. But I couldn't. No, I couldn't, when I thought of _you_."

"I didn't quite make out from your note," said Frank, collecting his wits with some difficulty. "You wrote it in a hurry, I dare say. You mentioned something about old Groves. Had he--had he the impudence to ask you to marry him?"

She turned round with a comical expression of mingled pain and amus.e.m.e.nt in her face.

"Do you think it requires so much effrontery?" she demanded. "Recollect my position, or rather total want of it. Recollect that Mr. Groves is rich, amiable, kind-hearted, and, after all, not so _very_ old, that is, for a _man_. Just the sort of person to make a good, trustworthy, affectionate husband."

"Then why didn't you take him?" said Frank; but the tone of pique in which he spoke, told Miss Ross the game was in her own hand.

She let go his arm, looking reproachfully into his very eyes.

"Can _you_ ask me, Captain Vanguard?" she exclaimed, in sorrowful accents, stopping short under a pair of elaborate blue knickerbockers, ticketed seven-and-nine. "If so, I have indeed acted madly in meeting you here to-day. No; let go my hand. Before I walk a step farther tell me if you really mean what you say!"

"You know what I mean," he answered, in an agitated whisper. "You know that you are everything in the world to _me_. That if you took up with any other fellow you would drive me mad, and that I would rather we were both in our graves than you should marry such a 'guy' as old Groves!"

They were pacing on through the bazaar once more, Frank having repossessed himself of his companion's arm, while he made the foregoing statement, with every appearance of earnestness and truth.

Jin stopped short at a counter, on which were displayed a variety of children's toys in gaudy profusion.

"What a love!" she exclaimed, pouncing on a parti-coloured little figure-of-fun with bells at all its angles. "Twelve-and-sixpence? Put it up for me, please, Captain Vanguard; don't look so astonished. It's only a plaything for my boy!"

Frank's eyes opened wide; perhaps for that reason his ears failed to detect something forced and embarra.s.sed in the laugh with which Miss Ross greeted his surprise.

"I have no secrets from you _now_," she continued. "You and I must trust each other entirely, or not at all. I have never told you about my boy, but I cannot and will not give him up, even for you, Frank. Take me with my enc.u.mbrances, or not at all. _C'est tout simple!_" Watching his looks as the steersman watches a coming wave, something warned her to avoid the imminent shock. Like a skilful pilot, she luffed, so to speak, several points to the windward of truth.

"He has n.o.body else to depend on in the world," she said, eyeing Frank's face with a touching and plaintive gaze. "People blame me, I dare say, but I know I'm doing right, for after all, is he not my own sister's child?"

Frank drew a long breath, looking immensely relieved, yet conscious the while of a vague perception, not entirely agreeable, that the last link in his fetters was about to be riveted for good and all.

"You're an angel," said he--"a real angel, I do believe. I begin to see it more every day. At first, I used to think you could be very wicked if you chose. Tell me all about it. I know you will tell me the----"

He could not have believed those slender fingers were strong enough to inflict such a grip as at this moment interrupted his sentence, and hurried him on to a different part of the bazaar so rapidly as to entail no small risk of upsetting many fragile articles exposed for sale at the corners of the different stalls; not, however, before he was aware of an exceedingly frigid bow from Lady Shuttlec.o.c.k, a stare of unbounded astonishment from at least two of her daughters, and a wink of intense amus.e.m.e.nt from Kilgarron, who, surrounded by children of all sizes, was obviously in attendance on aunt, cousins, and relations of every degree.

This numerous family-party did not affect to conceal their surprise at Frank's appearance in such an unlikely place and with so charming a companion. Had the pair walked boldly up to Lady Shuttlec.o.c.k to exchange with these new arrivals the customary greetings of people who see each other much oftener than they desire, it would probably have been inferred that Mrs. Lascelles was shopping in some other part of the building, and no further notice would have been taken of the circ.u.mstance; but Jin's sudden flight, the result perhaps of studied calculation, was compromising in the last degree, and her ladyship, gathering her brood around her, began to fan herself with a vigour of disapproval not calculated to cool an exuberant matron in the dog-days.

As her head, rising inch by inch, attained the level from which propriety looks down on indiscretion, she turned fiercely to Kilgarron, and observed, as if it was _his_ fault:

"Most extraordinary! _Your_ friend Captain Vanguard, and, of all people in the world, Miss Ross!"

"It couldn't have been Miss Ross, mamma," interposed Lady Selina in sprightly innocence. "She never would have run away from us as if we'd got the plague."

"Nonsense, Selina," said her sister. "She was ashamed of herself, and well she might be. I always thought her an odious person; and as for _your_ friend, Kil, I don't believe he's much better."

"Bother!" replied Kilgarron. "She's his cousin, sure! Mayn't a man take his cousin to the Soho Bazaar, and buy fairings for her? Never say it!

I'll be emptying the counter here for mine this minute!"

So popular a declaration was received by the young fry with acclamations that reached the ears of Frank and Jin, who had retired for sanctuary to the loneliness of the picture-room.

"I am lost _now_!" exclaimed the latter, really out of breath from the pace at which they fled. "It will be all over London to-night. The girls hate me like poison. The mother's the greatest gossip in Europe. Lord Kilgarron will make a joke of it at the mess-table! Captain Vanguard--Frank--what is to become of me? Don't look so cross! What am I to do?"

He pondered. His face was very grave--almost, as she said, cross.

Suddenly it lighted up, smiling fondly down into her own.

"There is a very easy way out of it," he said--"a way to stop all their mouths; but perhaps you wouldn't like it!"

"To marry Mr. Groves?" said she, with one of her most mischievous glances and her merriest laugh.

He laughed in concert.

"If you like, darling," he answered, "at some future time; but not whilst I'm alive. It's my turn first."

"Oh, Frank!" was all she said; and for a moment she felt she loved him too dearly to sacrifice him to such a fate.

But the temptation was overwhelming. So many considerations crowded on her brain: her state of dependence, now more than ever irksome since the late difference with Mrs. Lascelles; the awkwardness of meeting Uncle Joseph daily, and the impossibility of refusing to give him a decided answer; the equal impossibility, after all she had led him to expect, of saying anything but Yes; the delight--and this to one of her temperament and antecedents was not without considerable charm--of anything like an elopement or a clandestine marriage, not counting the triumph of carrying off such a prize as Frank Vanguard from the many women who would be too happy to make him their lawful prey; the impression--vague, unreasoning, and essentially feminine--that such a step would free her at once and for ever from any claim Picard might advance on her person, her belongings, or her child; finally, and it is only justice to insist that this was the strongest inducement of all--the undisturbed possession of that child, whom she resolved to carry off with her in her flight, but whose relationship to herself, it pained her to think, she must now disguise for evermore.

Vanguard, drawing her towards him, was surprised to find the tears running down her cheeks.

He didn't care if a hundred Lady Shuttlec.o.c.ks were watching: he wound his arm round her waist, and she buried her face impulsively in his breast. For half a minute or so, they were both very much in earnest and very happy.

Then she looked up, and adjusted her bonnet with a smile.

"How shocked St. Sebastian will be!" she observed; that sparingly-clothed martyr, execrably painted, having indeed been the only witness of this improper ebullition.

"It must be done at once," said Frank; now that he was fairly in for it, characteristically keen and impatient of inaction. "You can't go back to No. 40. I won't have you persecuted by that old idiot, Groves. We ought to start from here, you and I, just as we are--swagger into the first church that we see--they're always open--and get it over."

She smiled very sweetly now on his impatience.

"You rash, inconsiderate darling!" she said. "That's impossible. I wish it wasn't. No. You shall be guided by me, and let me have my own way. In the first place, I must go back to No. 40 for many reasons. Well, if you insist on knowing, I must get some more things. I am very glad you like this dress; but it wouldn't do for one's whole outfit. Don't look so alarmed: my wardrobe is not very large, and I know where I can have it taken care of without dragging about with me more than I require.

To-morrow I shall be free."

"And to-morrow I must be at Windsor--at least in the afternoon,"

observed Frank in an injured tone. "Why the Colonel can't inspect my young horses without _me_ I don't know. The whole lot are not worth five pounds. But I can get away by six o'clock."

"At Windsor!" repeated Jin. "The very thing! Now listen, Frank, and I will arrange it all in a way that will disarm suspicion, and leave no trace of us after we have made our escape. You shall go down to your barracks and attend to your duties, like a good boy. I mean you to be always subservient to discipline. When your colonel has done with you, it will be my turn. You will get into a skiff, or whatever you call it--a boat that has room enough for two people, and cushions, and all that--you shall row it to the very place I got in at--don't you remember--the day you saved my life? and--and you will find me waiting there. Take me or leave me; as I said before, Frank, I have n.o.body in the world now but you."

He lifted her hand pa.s.sionately to his lips. "Take you!" he repeated, "I should think I _would_! But how are you to get out of London? What excuse can you make to Mrs. Lascelles?"