Nell, of Shorne Mills Part 81

Drake was silent for a moment; then, as if reluctantly, he replied:

"There were several persons engaged in the game. One of them was a young lady who is staying at the lodge--the south lodge. She happened to be out, strolling in the garden, and heard the rumpus. And she"--he lit a fresh cigarette--"she sprang on him and struck his arm up!"

"No!" exclaimed one of the men. "Dash it all! Angleford, if this isn't the most dramatic, sensational affair I've ever heard of."

"Yes?" came in Drake's grave, restrained tones. "Yes, that saved my life."

There was a moment's silence, an impressive silence, then he went on:

"And did for the man. If he had disposed of me, he could have shot poor Mr. Falconer at the gate and got off. As it was----" He stopped and seemed to consider. "Well, it left me free to collar him at the gate, but not, unfortunately, until he had wounded Falconer."

"Poor devil!" muttered Lord Turfleigh. "Hard lines on him, eh, Angleford?"

"Yes," said Drake gravely.

"Then, as I understand it," said Lord Wolfer, "your life, the salvation of the countess' jewels, and the capture of the burglar are due to this lady?"

"That is so," a.s.sented Drake quietly.

"Who is she? What is her name?" asked several men, in a breath.

There was a pause, during which Burden listened breathlessly.

"Her name is Lorton," said Drake, very quietly. "She is staying at the south lodge."

Burden started and bit her lip. Lorton? Where had she heard----

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Lord Wolfer. "You don't mean that Miss Lorton who was with us?"

Drake nodded.

"The same," he said gravely.

Burden's lips twitched, and her hands gripped the edge of the door frame.

There was silence for a moment, then one of the men asked:

"And what do you think the fellow will get, Angleford?"

"It all depends," replied Drake, after a pause. "If this fellow Falconer should die----Well, it will be murder. If not--and G.o.d grant he may not!--it will be burglary simply, and it will mean penal servitude for so many years."

"And serve him right, whichever way it goes!" cried one of the men.

"Anyway, this young lady, this Miss Lorton, is a brick! Here's her health!"

Burden waited for no more. She was white still, but she was trembling no longer. Her eyes were glowing savagely, and her lips were strained tightly. Her sweetheart was captured; he would either be hanged or sentenced to penal servitude; and Miss Lorton was the person with whom she had to reckon!

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

Before morning Falconer became delirious. He did not rave nor shout, but he talked incessantly, with his eyes wide open and fixed vacantly, and his long hand plucking at the bedclothes. Nell stole in from her room, though she had promised to rest and leave the night duty to the village nurse, and, sitting beside him, held his hand.

At the touch of her cool fingers he became quiet for a moment or two, and something like a smile crossed his pain-lined face; but presently he began again. Sometimes he was back at the Buildings, and he hummed a bar or two of music while his fingers played on the counterpane as if it were a piano. Once or twice he murmured her name in a tone which brought the color to Nell's face and made her heart ache. But it did not need the whisper of her name to tell her Falconer's secret. She knew that he loved her, for he had told her so at the moment when Drake had seen them walking together in the garden.

And as she sat and held his hand, she tried to force her mind from dwelling on Drake, and to remember the devotion of the stricken man beside her.

Though he had confessed his love, he had asked for nothing in return. He had said that he knew that his pa.s.sion was hopeless, but that he could not help loving her, that he must continue to do so while life lasted.

"I will never speak of it again," he had said. "You need not be afraid.

I don't know why I told you now; it slipped out before I knew----No, don't be afraid. All I ask is that you should still look upon me as a friend, that you will still let me be near you as often as is possible.

It is too much to ask? If so, I will go away--somewhere, and cease to trouble you with the sight of me!"

And Nell, with tears in her eyes--as Drake had seen--had given him her hand in silence, for a moment or two, and then, almost inaudibly, had answered:

"I am sorry--sorry! Oh, why did you tell me? No, no; forgive me! But you must not go. I--I could not afford to lose your--friendship!"

"That you shall not do!" he had said, very quietly, and with a brave smile. "Please remember that I said I knew there was no hope for me. How could there be? How could it be possible for you--you!--to care for me?

But a weed may dare to love the sun, Miss Lorton, though it is only a weed and not a stately flower. I ought not to have told you; but that little success of mine, and the prospect it has opened out, must have turned my head. But you have forgiven me, have you not? and you will try and forget that I was mad enough to show you my heart?"

He had not waited for her to respond, but had left her at once, and, so that she should not think him quite heartbroken, had hummed an air as he went.

And now that he lay here 'twixt life and death, Nell's heart ached for him, and she longed, with a longing beyond all words, that she could have returned the love he bore her.

But alas, alas! she had no love to give. Drake had stolen it long ago, there at Shorne Mills; and though he had flung it from him, it could not come back to her.

Even as she sat, with Falconer's hand in hers, she could not keep her mind from dwelling on Drake, though the failure of her attempt to do so covered her with shame. She had been in his arms again, had heard his voice, and the glamour of his presence and his touch were upon her.

His face hovered before her in the dim light of the sick room, and filled her with the aching longing of unsatisfied love.

Oh, why could she not forget him? Why could she not bring herself to accept, to return, the love of the man who loved her with all his heart and soul? He was all that was good, he was a genius, and a brave man to boot! Surely any woman might be proud to possess him for a husband, might learn to love him!

She turned and looked at him as he lay, his head tossing restlessly on the pillow, his lips moving deliriously; but though her whole being was stirred with pity for him, pity is not love, though it may be nearly akin, and one cannot force love as one forces a hothouse plant.

After a while he became weaker, and the rambling, incoherent talk ceased; but she was still holding his hand when d.i.c.k and the doctor came in again. She sought the latter's face eagerly, but he merely smiled encouragingly.

"He has had a better night than I expected," he said, "and the temperature is not exceedingly high. You had better get some rest, Miss Lorton; you have been sitting up, I see."

d.i.c.k drew Nell out of the room.

"Drake--confound it! Lord Angleford, I mean!--has sent for Sir William.

Is--is he going to die, do you think. Nell?"

Nell shook her head, her eyes filling.

"I don't know; I hope not. You--you have seen Dra--Lord Angleford, d.i.c.k?"