Of High Descent Part 94

"I am your father's friend, and I should not be doing my duty--ah! my duty--to myself," he cried angrily, "if I did not speak plainly. Does Mr Vine know that this gentleman is here?"

"_No_," said Louise, in an almost inaudible voice, and in the contagion of her brother's fear she seemed to see him once more hunted down by the officers of justice; and the terrible scene on the pier danced before her eyes.

"So I suppose," said Leslie coldly.

"Send him away," whispered Harry hoa.r.s.ely.

"It is not in Miss Louise Vine's power to send me away, sir," cried Leslie fiercely; and the poor trembling girl felt her brother start once more.

"You, sir, are here, by her confession, clandestinely. You are a scoundrel and a cur, who dare not show your face, or you would not have dashed out that light."

Harry made a harsh guttural sound, such as might be uttered by a beast at bay.

"Who are you? I need not ask your object in coming here. I could not help hearing."

"Tell him to go away," said Harry sharply, speaking in French to disguise his voice.

"Mr Leslie, pray, pray go. This is a private visit. I beg you will go."

"Private enough," said Leslie bitterly; "and once more I say you may think I have no right to interfere. I give up all claims that I might have thought I had upon you, but as your father's friend I will not stand calmly by and see wrong done his child. Speak out, sir; who are you? Let's hear your name, if you are ashamed to show your face."

"Tell him to go away," said Harry again.

Leslie writhed, for Aunt Marguerite's hints about the French gentleman of good descent came up now as if to sting him. This man he felt, in his blind rage, was the n.o.ble suitor who in his n.o.bility stooped to come in the darkness to try and persuade a weak girl to leave her home; and as he thought this it was all he could do, hot-blooded, madly jealous and excited, to keep from flinging himself upon the supposed rival, the unworthy lover of the woman he had worshipped with all the strength of a man's first pa.s.sion.

"I can't talk to him in his wretched tongue," cried Leslie, fiercely; "but I understand his meaning. Perhaps he may comprehend mine. No. I shall not go. I shall not leave this room till Mr Vine returns. He can answer to your father, or I will, if I have done wrong."

"Mr Leslie!" cried Louise, "you don't know what you are doing--what you say. Pray--pray go."

"When my old friend George Vine tells me I have done wrong, and I have seen you safe in his care."

"No, no. Go now, now!" cried Louise.

Leslie drew a deep breath and his heart beat heavily in the agony and despair he felt. She loved this man, this contemptible wretch who had gained such ascendancy over her that she was pleading in his behalf, and trying to screen him from her father's anger.

"Mr Leslie. Do you hear me?" she cried, taking courage now in her despair and dread lest her father should return.

"Yes," he said coldly, "I hear you, Miss Vine; and it would be better for you to retire, and leave this man with me."

"No, no," she cried excitedly. "Mr Leslie! you are intruding here.

This is a liberty. I desire you to go."

"When Mr Vine comes back," said Leslie sternly. "If I have done wrong, then no apology shall be too humble for me to speak. But till he comes I stay. I have heard too much. I may have been mad in indulging in those vain hopes, but if that is all dead there still remains too much honour and respect for the woman I knew in happier times for me to stand by and let her wrong herself by accompanying this man."

"Mr Leslie, you are mistaken."

"I am not."

"Indeed--indeed!"

"Prove it then," he cried, in stern judicial tones. "I am open to conviction. You love this man?" Louise was silent. "He was begging you to accompany him in flight." Louise uttered a low wail. "Hah!"

e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Leslie, "I am right."

"No, no; it is all a misapprehension," cried Louise excitedly. "Mr Leslie, this--"

"Hold your tongue," whispered Harry hoa.r.s.ely, and she moaned as she writhed in spirit.

"There are reasons why my father should not know of this visit."

"So I suppose," said Leslie sternly; "and you ask me to be a partner by giving way to a second blow to that true-hearted, trusting man. Louise Vine, is it you who are speaking, or has this man put these cruelly base words in your mouth?"

"What can I say? What can I do?" wailed Louise, wringing her hands, as with every sense on the strain she listened for her father's step.

Harry, who now that the first shock had pa.s.sed was rapidly growing more calm and calculating, bent down over his sister, and whispered to her again in French to go quickly, and get her hat and mantle.

"He will not dare to stop us," he said.

Louise drew a long breath full of pain, for it seemed to be the only way to save her brother. She must go; and, taking a step or two she made for the door.

"No," said Leslie calmly, "it is better that you should stay, Miss Vine."

Harry was at her side in a moment.

"Never mind your hat," he whispered in French; "we must go at once."

"Stand back, sir!" cried Leslie, springing to the door. "Your every act shows you to be a base scoundrel. You may not understand my words, but you can understand my action. I am here by this door to keep it till Mr Vine returns. For the lady's sake, let there be no violence."

"Mr Leslie, let us pa.s.s!" cried Louise imperiously, but he paid no heed to her, continuing to address his supposed rival in calm, judicial tones, which did not express the wild rage seething in his heart.

"I say once more, sir, let there be no violence--for your own sake--for hers."

Harry continued to advance, with Louise's hand in his, till Leslie had pressed close to the door.

"Once more I warn you," said Leslie, "for I swear by Heaven you shall not pa.s.s while I can lift a hand."

At that moment, in the obscurity, Louise felt her hand dropped, and she reeled to the side of the room, as now, with a fierce, harsh sound, Harry sprang at Leslie's throat, pushed him back against the door in his sudden onslaught, and then wrenched him away.

"Quick, Louise!" he cried in French. "The door!"

Louise recovered herself and darted to the door, the handle rattling in her grasp. But she did not open it. She stood as if paralysed, her eyes staring and lips parted, gazing wildly at the two dimly-seen shadows which moved here and there across the cas.e.m.e.nt frames in a curiously weird manner, to the accompaniment of harsh, panting sounds, the dull tramping of feet, heavy breathing, and the quick, sharp e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of angry men.

Then a fresh chill of horror shot through her, as there was a momentary cessation of the sounds, and Leslie panted,

"Hah! then you give in, sir!" The apparent resignation of his adversary had thrown him off his guard, and the next moment Harry had sprung at him, and with his whole weight borne him backwards, so that he fell with his head upon the bare patch of the hearthstone.

There was the sound of a terrible blow, a faint rustling, and then, as Louise stood there like one in a nightmare, she was roused to action by her brother's words.

"Quick!" he whispered, in a hoa.r.s.e, panting way. "Your hat and mantle.