Her Majesty's Minister Part 25

"Lord Barmouth is a man of whom England may justly be proud. Would that there were many more like him in our service!" said the Prime Minister.

"Kindly ask him to keep me posted constantly regarding the progress of the matter he has just reported. It is serious, and may necessitate some drastic change of policy. It is for that reason that I wish to be kept informed."

"Do you require me to return to my post to-day?"

"Certainly not," he replied quickly. "Now you are in England you may remain a couple of days or so, if you wish. I am well aware how all of you long for a day or two at home."

I thanked his lordship; and then, after a short and pleasant chat upon the political situation in Paris and the mystery regarding Ceuta, I went out, mounted into my cab, and drove down to the St. James' Club, where I made myself tidy, and breakfasted.

When I had finished my second cup of tea and glanced through the morning paper, eight o'clock was striking. I rose, went to the window, and looked out upon Piccadilly, bright and brilliant in the morning sun.

With hands in my pockets I stood debating whether I should act upon a suggestion that had been constantly in my mind ever since leaving Paris.

Should I take Edith by surprise, and go down to visit her?

The fact that the Marquess had given me leave so readily showed that the outlook had become clearer, notwithstanding the fact that my Chief had transmitted, for the eye of the Foreign Minister only, the secret despatch of which I had been the bearer.

At that early hour there was no one in the club, yet as I wandered through those well-remembered rooms my mind became filled with pleasant recollections of merry hours spent there in the days before my duty compelled me to become an exile abroad. I thought of Yolande, and tried to decide whether or no I really loved her. A vision of her face arose before my eyes, but with a strenuous effort I succeeded in shutting it out. All was of the past. Besides, had not Kaye proved her to be a secret agent, or, to put it plainly, a spy? Daily, hourly, I had struggled with my conscience. In the performance of what was plainly my duty I had visited her, and had nearly fallen into the trap she had so cunningly baited, for she no doubt intended, after all, to become my wife; and in this she was acting, I felt confident, in concert with that man who was my bitterest enemy--the man who now called himself Rodolphe Wolf. No, I had treated Edith unfairly, and therefore resolved to run down to Norfolk and visit her. With that object, an hour later I left London for Great Ryburgh, the small village where she delighted to live reposeful days in company with her maiden aunt, Miss Henrietta Foskett.

In due course I arrived by the express at Fakenham, drove in a fly to the quiet little village, and descended before the large, low, roomy old house with mullioned windows and tall chimneys, which lay back from the village street behind a garden filled with those old-world, sweet-smelling flowers so much beloved by our grandmothers.

I walked up the garden-path, knocked, and was admitted by the neat maid, Ann, who for fifteen years had been in Miss Foskett's service.

It has always seemed to me that except by their immediate heirs, maiden aunts are often nearly forgotten among a bustling younger generation always striving and toiling. They are left to dust their own china and sharply to superintend the morals and manners of their general servant, save when the holiday-times of the year come round, when their country houses are more apt to recur to their relatives' minds; their periodical letters, in the delicate pointed Italian hand, essential in the days of their youth as the hall-mark of gentility, are then more eagerly replied to, for Aunt Jane's or Aunt Maria's proffered hospitality will generally furnish an economical change of air.

Edith's case was not an unusual one. Her father, a wealthy landowner in Northumberland, had died in her youth, while five years ago, just before she left college at St. Leonard's, her mother, who was constantly ailing, also succ.u.mbed. She was left entirely alone; but she had succeeded to a handsome income, derived from property in the city of Newcastle. Her Aunt Henrietta, her mother's only surviving sister, had const.i.tuted herself her guardian. Miss Foskett had been able through stress and change to cling to the old house--the old place, once so full, from which so many had gone out to return no more.

I knew that interior well. There was a haunting sense of pathos in those old rooms, and the ancient furniture was arranged in unyielding precision.

When Ann ushered me into the musty-smelling drawing-room, I glanced round and shuddered. Aunt Henrietta's rules were the household rules of her mother before her, and she severely reprobated the domestic slackness and craving for mere comfort and luxury of the present generation. Her lace curtains, carefully dressed, were hung up, and fires banished from all her fireplaces, on the first of May. Untimely frost and snow had no power to move the prim old wool-work screen, glazed and framed, that hid the steel bars of the grate; the simpering ladies, in their faded blue and scarlet dresses, looked unsympathetically at the light carpet, the white curtains, the anti-maca.s.sared armchairs, the round table with books, miniatures, and a flowering plant, whatever the state of the thermometer.

Through the windows a pleasant vista was presented across a well-kept lawn with broad pasture-lands beyond, and the spire of Testerton church rising in the distance behind the belt of trees. While I sat there awaiting Edith, who was no doubt amazed at the announcement of my presence, and was now rearranging her hair, as women will, I glanced up at the feeble watercolours and chalk drawings traced by the hand of "dear Aunt f.a.n.n.y, who had a wonderful talent for drawing." It occurred to me that f.a.n.n.y's great-nieces, with perhaps less artistic excuse, now studied at the Slade, copied at the National Gallery, and lived in flats with some feminine friend on tea and pickles. Such girls give lunches and teas to stray bachelors, and own a latchkey. But such doings could hardly be thought of among f.a.n.n.y's muddled trees and impossible sunsets, with f.a.n.n.y's pictured eyes smiling sweetly, if a trifle inanely, from behind her bunches of fair, hanging curls, at grandmother's mild face and folded hands on the opposite wall.

Notwithstanding the inartistic character of the place, there was everywhere a tranquillity and an old-world charm. Through the open window came the scent of the flowers, the hum of insects in the noonday sun, and the call of the birds. How different was the life there from my own turbulent existence in the glare and glitter of the gayest circle in Paris! I sighed, and longed for quiet and rest at home in dear old rural England.

Suddenly the door opened, and Aunt Henrietta, a prim, shrunken, thin-faced old lady in stiff black silk, and wearing a cap of cream lace, came forward to greet me.

"Why, you have taken us entirely by surprise, Mr. Ingram!" she said in her high-pitched voice. "When Ann told me that it was you, I would scarcely believe her. We thought you were in Paris."

"I had to come to London on business, so I thought I would run down to see how you all are," I answered. "I hope my visit is not inconvenient?"

"Oh no," answered the old lady. "I've told Edith, and she will be down in a moment. She's been worrying for the past week because she has received no letter from you."

"Well, I've come personally, Miss Foskett," I laughed. "I hope my presence will partly make up for my failure as a correspondent."

Her grey, wizened face puckered into a smile. I knew that she had not altogether approved of Edith becoming engaged to me. But her niece was of age, mistress of her fortune, and, I shrewdly suspected, contributed handsomely towards the expenses of that small, prim household.

Although Aunt Hetty was of a somewhat trenchant type, and shook her head over the wilful vagaries of a world that had outgrown her philosophy of life, yet she still preserved a motherly instinct of patient love for all mankind. She was, in common with most maiden aunts, a great church-goer and firm supporter of the parish clergy of Great Ryburgh; but in parochial matters I believe she was more dreaded than loved for the uncompromising force of her doctrine and demeanour. She was severe on the faults and failings of her inferiors, and apt to discriminate in her almsgiving. Frequent curtseys and a little adroit flattery from "the poor" were a surer road to her purse than morose merit, however great.

The old lady straightened out an antimaca.s.sar that chanced to be a trifle awry, then, spreading out her skirts slowly, seated herself, and began to relate to me gossip concerning people whom I knew in the neighbourhood--the squire, the doctor, the parson, and other local worthies, all of whom, taken together, made up her quiet little world.

At last the door opened again, and next instant, as I sprang up, I became conscious of a fair vision in a simple white gown standing before me. The touch of her soft, tiny hand, the love-glance of those beautiful eyes, the glad smile of welcome, the music of that voice, came upon me as a sudden revelation. Her perfect type of English loveliness became disclosed to me for the first time. She was absolutely incomparable, although never before that moment had I realised the truth. But in that instant I became aware that she held me irrevocably beneath her spell.

I took her hand, and our eyes met. My gaze wavered beneath hers, and what words I uttered in response to her greeting I cannot tell. All that I knew was that I was unworthy of her love.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

EDITH AUSTIN.

For a time our conversation was somewhat stilted. Then Aunt Hetty rose suddenly, with a loud rustling of her stiff silks, made the excuse that she had to speak with the servants, and discreetly left the room.

The instant the door had closed, Edith moved towards me, and we became locked in one another's arms. She was full of inexpressible sweetness and perfect grace. The pa.s.sion that had at once taken possession of her soul had the force, the rapidity, the resistless violence of the torrent; but she was herself as "moving delicate," as fair, as soft, as flexible as the willow that bends over it, whose light leaves tremble even with the motion of the current which hurries beneath them.

Love lit within my breast a clear fire that burned to my heart's very core. Edith could scarce speak, so overjoyed was she at my visit; but at last, as I pressed her to me, and rained kisses upon her brow, she said, looking up at me with a glance of reproach:

"You have not written to me for ten whole days, Gerald! Why was that?

Last night I sent you a telegram asking if you were ill."

"Forgive me, dearest," I urged. "This last week I've been extremely busy. There have been serious political complications, and, in addition, I've had a perfect crowd of engagements which duty compelled me to attend."

"You go and enjoy yourself at all sorts of gay receptions and great dinners, and forget me," she declared, pouting prettily.

"I never forget you, Edith," I answered. "Don't say that. You are ever in my thoughts, even though sometimes I may be too much occupied to write."

"Do you a.s.sert then that for the past ten days you have absolutely not had five minutes in which to send me news of yourself?" she cried in a tone of doubt.

"Well, perhaps I had better admit that I've been neglectful," I said, altering my tactics. "But, you see, I knew that I should come here to-day, so I thought to take you by surprise. Are you pleased to see me?"

"Pleased!" she echoed, raising her lips to mine. "Why, of course I am!

You seem always so far away, and I always fear--" and she paused without concluding her sentence.

"Well, what do you fear?"

"I fear that amid all that whirl of pleasure in Paris, and amid all those smart women you must meet daily, you will forget me."

"I shall never do that," I answered rea.s.suringly.

She was silent for a moment. Her countenance had a.s.sumed a very grave expression.

"Ah," she said, with a slight sigh, "you do not know how I sometimes suffer, Gerald. I am always fearing that some other woman may rob me of you."

"No, no, dearest," I answered, laughing. "Never contemplate that, for such a theft is not possible. Remember that my duty in a foreign capital is to represent my country at the various social functions, and to endeavour to promote good feeling wherever I can. A diplomatist who is not popular with the women never rises to the post of amba.s.sador. To be gallant is essential, however one may despise and detest the crowd of voluble females upon whom one must dance attendance."

"I often sit here and picture you in your smart diplomatic uniform flirting with some pretty foreign woman in a dimly lit arbour or conservatory," she observed, still very grave. "My life is so very quiet and uneventful in comparison with yours;" and she sighed.

"The charge against me of flirtation is entirely unfounded," I declared, holding her hand and looking earnestly into her clear eyes, now filled with tears. "It is true that sometimes, for purposes connected with our diplomacy, I chat merrily with some grande dame in an endeavour to pick up information regarding the latest change in the political wind; but with me the art of pleasing women is a profession, as it is with every man in the Diplomatic Service."

"I know," she said in a strained tone. "And in those hours of pleasure you forget me. Is not that so?"

"I do not forget a certain summer evening up in Scotland when we walked out after dinner and strolled together down by the rippling burn," I said in a low voice, pressing her closer to me. "I do not forget what words I uttered then, nor do I forget your response--that you loved me, darling."

"But there are others, more attractive than myself, whom you must meet constantly at those brilliant receptions of which I read in the newspapers," she cried, bursting into tears.