Luttrell Of Arran Part 104

"Really, Sir, you make my position a very painful one. You insist upon my being extremely disagreeable to you."

"Listen to reason. I am telling you that I found myself in considerable embarra.s.sment, and I entreat of you, as a favour, to show me the way out of it. Am I to discontinue all intimacy with Miss Vyner? Am I to avoid her? Am I to leave this, and not return?"

"That I opine to be the most fitting course under the circ.u.mstances,"

said M'Kinlay, bowing.

"I see," said Harry, pondering for some seconds--"I see." And then, with a more fervid manner, resuming: "But if I know, Sir--if I feel--that all this caution is unnecessary, that I have not--that I never had--the slightest pretensions such as you speak of, that Miss Vyner's manner to me, in its very freedom, repels any suspicion of the kind,--I ask you, is it not a little hard to deny me the greatest happiness I have ever tasted in life--the first holiday after a long spell of work and hardship? Why should I not go straight to Sir Gervais and say this?"

"You forget your promise to myself."

"Ay, to be sure, _that_ is a barrier. I suppose you are right. The best, the only way, is to go off; and I own I feel ashamed to make this return for all the generous kindness I have met here; and what an insufferable c.o.xcomb must it stamp me, if it ever comes out that I left on such grounds as these."

"That is not how the world regards such things, Sir. Men are not supposed to measure their affections by their circ.u.mstances. If it were so, we should not see so many mesalliances."

"I don't know how to go about it. I'm a precious bungler at making excuses, and, whenever I have told a lie in my life, my own shame and confusion have always convicted me; help me to some ingenious pretext for a sudden departure."

"You can have law business. Your agents wish to see you."

"But I have no property, or next to none. No, no, that won't do."

"You desire to visit your friends in Ireland."

"Just as bad. I have as little friends as fortune. Try again."

"Why should not Captain Dodge have sent for you; you left him very ill, and confined to bed, I understand?"

"He told Sir Gervais to keep me as long as possible; that the air of the hospital was bad for me, and had brought back my ague."

"If you are so very scrupulous, Sir, as to what people generally regard as a mere conventionality, I should say, pack up and be off without any explanation at all."

"I believe you are right. It is the old story of paying one's debts with the topsail sheet. Shabby enough, too, but it can't be helped.

Perhaps, Mr. M'Kinlay, if occasion should occur, you would find means to let Sir Gervais know that I am not the ungrateful dog my want of manners might bespeak me; perhaps you would convey to him that this step of mine had been suggested by yourself."

"It is possible, Mr. Luttrell, that a fortuitous moment for an explanation of the kind you mention might occur, and, if so, you may rely on my willingness to profit by it. You mean to go at once?"

"I suppose so. Is it not what you advise?"

"Most certainly."

"Here goes, then! I'll start this instant. They are all out driving, except Miss Courtenay. I see her in the garden yonder. She, I know, will forgive me my abrupt departure, and you'll make the best story you can out of it, Mr. M'Kinlay. As I was last seen in your company, you'll be obliged, for your own sake, to say something plausible."

"I will do my best, Sir. The eccentric habits of a sea-life must bear the burden of the explanation."

"It's poor comfort that I can't be much missed! Good-by!" And, without any more cordial leave-taking, Luttrell turned into a side-path that led directly to the house, while M'Kinlay entered the garden and made straight for the sea-wall, on which Miss Courtenay was sitting, awaiting him.

"Well?" said she, impatiently, as he came forward--"well?"

"It is done--all finished!"

"In what way? How is it finished?"

"He goes away--goes at once!"

"Of course he writes a note, and makes some sort of excuse to my brother-in-law for his hurried departure?"

"I believe not. I fear--that is, I apprehend--he is one of those not very tractable people who always do an awkward thing in the awkwardest way; for when I explained to him that his position here was--what shall I say?--an indiscretion, and that Miss Vyner's friends saw with uneasiness the growing intimacy between them----"

"You did not speak of me--you did not mention my name, I hope?" broke she in, in an imperious tone.

"You could not suppose me guilty of such imprudence, Miss Courtenay!"

said he, in an offended manner.

"No matter what I suppose, Sir. I want you to tell me that my name was not uttered during your interview."

"Not by _me_--certainly not by _me!_" said he, timidly.

"Was it by _him_, Sir? Answer me that!"

"Well, I rather think that he did say that I had been deputed by you to convey the message to him."

"What insolence! And how did you reply?"

"I observed that I was not there exactly for the purpose of a cross-examination; that in my capacity as a friendly adviser, I declined all interrogation."

"Fiddle faddle, Sir. It would have been far more to the purpose to have said, 'Miss Courtenay has nothing whatever to do with this communication.' I really feel ashamed to think I should play the prompter to a professor in subtleties; but I still think that your ingenuity might have hit upon a reason for his going, without any reference to _us_, or to _our_ wishes. Did it never occur to you, for instance, that the arrival of Sir Within Wardle might offer a convenient plea?"

"Indeed! I might have mentioned that," said he, in some confusion.

"The house does not admit of much accommodation for strangers, and an additional room would be of consequence just now."

"I think, Sir," said she, haughtily, "you might have put the matter in a better light than by making it a domestic question. This young man might have been brought to see that the gentleman who was so ungratefully treated--I might say, so shamefully treated--by his near relative, could not be the pleasantest person for him to meet in a narrow family circle."

"I might. It is quite true, I might have insinuated that consideration,"

said he, with a crestfallen air and look.

"I suppose you did your best, Sir!" said she, with a sigh; and he felt all the sarcastic significance of its compa.s.sion. "Indeed, I am certain you did, and I thank you." With these words, not conveyed in any excess of warmth or grat.i.tude, she moved away, and M'Kinlay stood a picture of doubt, confusion, and dismay, muttering to himself some unintelligible words, whose import was, however, the hope of that day coming when these and many similar small scores might be all wiped out together.

CHAPTER LXIII. WITH LAWYERS

"What! that you, Harry? How comes it you have left all the fine folk so soon?" cried Captain Dodge, as he suddenly awoke and saw young Luttrell at his bedside. "Why, lad, I didn't expect to see you back here these ten days to come. Warn't they polite and civil to you?"

"That they were. They could not haye treated me better if I had been their own son."

"How comes it, then, that you slipped your moorings?"

"Well, I can't well say. There were new guests just arriving, and people I never saw, and so, with one thing or other, I thought I'd just move off; and--and--here I am."