King of the Castle Part 100

Mary crimsoned with mortification, and then felt as if she would sink beneath the weight of her misery. Nearly a fortnight had pa.s.sed, and her lover had made no sign; and now, when they were on the point of meeting, he had openly avoided her.

Mary's heart felt as if it sank down into the darkness. There could be but one interpretation, she said. He had repented of the engagement, and his eyes had been opened to what a poor, misshapen little thing she was.

"Sarah!" she whispered hoa.r.s.ely, "I cannot see where I am going; please take me home quickly, so that I am not--"

"No, no, my dear, let's walk up here first and over the bridge into the glen. You are too agitated to be seen. Try and be firm, my dear--try and be firm."

Totally unnerved, the poor girl clung to the st.u.r.dy woman by her side, and readily allowed her to guide her right away up into the calm, silent glen, where, making a sign, she let Sarah Woodham a.s.sist her to one of the detached rocks, where she sat down to let her tears of misery have full vent.

"And I was so happy," she moaned at last, as she looked up piteously in Sarah Woodham's face. "Is there real happiness, Sarah, for poor creatures such as we? Life appears to be all misery and care."

It was only about the third walk that Glyddyr had taken alone, and he left home reluctantly, and with a shadow as it were following every step.

"I oughtn't to have gone and left her," he muttered. "It's of no use trying to deceive myself; all that quiet, calm way means something, and I'm sure they meet--I could swear it. She never dares to look me straight in the face. I won't stay away long. I won't stay here long either. I see him; he's always hanging about trying to catch sight of her. Does he think I'm blind? I know! I know!"

He walked on hurriedly toward the quarry, but he had over-rated his strength, and grinding his teeth with rage, he sat down and began to wipe his wet brow.

"This cursed weakness," he groaned. "But I'm stronger and better now.

If I could have a drop of brandy now and then--not much--I should soon be all right."

"Yes," he said, after a pause, during which he had been looking nervously round, "I'll go away and take her on the Continent for our wedding trip. In another week I shall be strong and well enough, and we'll go away, and Chris Lisle may grind his teeth, and say the grapes are sour.

"I wonder whether they ever have met while I was so ill and at my worst?

He knows the way. He was found in the grounds that night. Would she dare?

"No, no," he muttered, after a long pause. "She wouldn't dare, but he might persuade her. Curse him! Why does he stay in the place?

"There, there; this won't do. I'm getting hot and excited, and I can't bear it yet. I'll go on now and see what the scoundrels are doing with the stones. I know they rob me because I'm ill and don't understand the trade; but I'll startle some of them.

"Now, then, I'm better now. The old strength's coming back, and--No,"

he cried, with a whine of misery, "I can't go on. If I go there it will seem as if he's back and at my elbow always. It's bad enough at home.

He seems to haunt the cursed place, and I'm always fancying he's there.

That doctor does me no good; no good. I want strength, strength.

There, I'll go back."

He was so weak that, short as the distance was, he was well-nigh spent, and had to sit down twice. But as he reached the end of the hollow road, overshadowed by trees, and came out in the open, where he could see the sea and feel the cool breeze, he recovered himself.

"Yes, there she lies," he said, as he let his eyes rest upon his yacht.

"What a time since I have been aboard! Yes, why not at once? We'll go to-morrow and sail across to France, and coast down to the Pyrenees.

Get away from here; curse the place. It will be long before I come back."

He panted a little as he turned up the slope and pa.s.sed through the gateway, to pause on the terrace, and look once more upon the yacht, as she lay about a quarter of a mile from where he stood.

"I was a fool not to think of it before. Get her right away; she daren't refuse. No, no; not so bad as that. She wouldn't have dared.

And yet it would have been so easy while I was lying by."

He entered the hall with curious thoughts buzzing through his brain.

"A miserable, puling, white-faced thing! Where is she? I'll tell her to get ready. We will go to-morrow."

He went into the drawing-room, but Claude was not there, and in an instant suspicion was master of his brain. Where was she?

He crossed the room and looked out through the open window, but no Claude. Then, hurrying to the dining-room, he saw that she was not there.

As he came out, he caught sight of a skirt just pa.s.sing through a swing-door, and he dashed after it.

It was one of the maids.

"Here," he said, in a half-whisper. "Your mistress--upstairs?"

"No, sir. In the library, I think. A gentleman came."

"That'll do," he said sharply. "No; stop. Where is Miss Mary?"

"Gone out, sir, with Mrs Woodham."

He turned quickly and swung to the door, with a look in his face that was diabolical.

"Gun--pistol?" he muttered. "No, no; not that--not murder. Better revenge. Lot of the money's mine. Free, free! Let him take her--let him--curse him! I wish I was strong once more."

As if impelled by the wave of pa.s.sion that came over him, he walked quickly to the library door, and as he reached it, he heard a peculiar clang, as of the closing of the book-shelf doors which screened the iron safe.

A peculiar look of rage and cunning distorted his face; and, twisting the handle round, he threw open the door and rushed in, as, with her face wild from excitement, Claude turned towards him.

"Hah!" he cried, with a look of fierce triumph, as he caught her by the wrist, "I've come back." And he uttered a low laugh as he pointed to the great safe.

Claude tried to speak, but no words would come, and she clung to the hand which held her to keep herself from falling.

"Didn't expect me back, eh? Didn't expect me back?"

"Come away quick; come away!" panted Claude, in a voice hardly above a whisper.

"Yes, of course," he snarled, as he held her at arm's-length, nearly fainting from terror and agony. "Come away, so as not to disturb our dear Chris!"

Claude looked at him wildly.

"Parry Glyddyr!" she cried, as a look of horror dilated her eyes, and she tried to cling to him and push him towards the door, for no further words words would come.

"Yes! Parry Glyddyr, your lawful husband," he yelled. "Found out at last!"

Volume Three, Chapter XVIII.

THE LAWYER IS BUSY.

John Trevithick would, in an ordinary way, have finished the little business in connection with Mrs Sarson's savings in a very short time, but he quite fluttered the widow by the importance he attached to the deed, and the way in which he was going to invest the money.

"You will not have any savings left, Mrs Sarson, when he sends in his bill," Chris said to her grimly; and, on Trevithick's next visit, the poor woman, in an agitated way, touched upon the topic of the bill of costs.