The Star-Gazers Part 68

"Hush, mother! Hush!" he replied. "She was not to blame."

"Not to blame?" retorted Mrs Alleyne. "You defend her, but, had she not led you on by her soft words and wiles, you had never come to think of her like this. But she will repent: so sure as she marries that man, she will bitterly repent."

"You are giving me cruel pain, mother," said Alleyne sadly.

"My boy! my own brave boy!" cried Mrs Alleyne, clinging to him. "I will say no more! I will be silent, indeed. No word on the subject shall ever leave my lips again. There: forgive me."

"Forgive you, mother!" he said softly, as he drew her more closely, and kissed her lips, "I have nothing to forgive. You felt what you thought to be a just indignation on my behalf. It is so easy to think those we love must be in the right, so hard to see when we alone are in the wrong. There, let us talk about it no more, for--Why, Lucy! what is the matter?"

Lucy hurried into the observatory, looking hot and excited, threw herself into a chair, sobbing hysterically, and for some time not a word could be obtained from her.

Mrs Alleyne was the first to get an answer, as she at last exclaimed,--

"Then someone has insulted you?"

"No, no!" she cried; and then more emphatically, "No! Glynne, Glynne!"

Then her sobs choked her utterance, and she hid her face in her hands, sobbing in the most violently hysterical manner, till, utterly exhausted, she lay back in the chair so still and reduced that Alleyne grew alarmed, and, hurrying out of the room, he set off for Oldroyd.

"Miss Alleyne? Taken ill?" cried the young doctor excitedly. "I'll be with you directly. Has she heard of that terrible business?"

"Business? What business?" faltered Alleyne. "What! haven't you heard?" cried Oldroyd in amazement. "Why, about Miss Day."

Alleyne gazed at him enquiringly, and Oldroyd leaned forward and said a few words in Alleyne's ear, making him sink back silent and ghastly into a chair.

Volume 3, Chapter VIII.

THE FALLEN STAR.

"There, I think everything is in train," said Sir John, as he and his brother sat together over a final cigar before retiring for the night, for Glynne and the friends staying in the house had gone to their rooms, and the brothers were at last alone.

"Yes, Jack, all seems ready for action."

"Except you, Jem."

"I?--I'm ready."

"No; you ought to have had a new suit, Jem."

"No; I said I would not," cried the major; "and I've kept to that, and that alone. I've given way in everything else. Let me alone there."

"All right; all right. I say no more. Change the subject, Jem; we won't have words to-night. Glynne looks lovely; doesn't she?"

"Fit bride for a G.o.d," said the major. "Bless her!"

"Amen. Calm, satisfied and happy in her choice."

"H'm."

The major coughed a little.

"She does, Jem," cried Sir John hastily. "Everybody said so to-night.

I should have liked that little la.s.sie, Lucy Alleyne, to have been asked to be a bridesmaid though; but after what has pa.s.sed it was as well not."

"Yes," said the major gruffly, "just as well not."

"Pretty girl that Marjorie Emlin. Best looking bridesmaid we shall have."

"Humph! yes. Can't say I like her, Jack."

"Prejudiced? old man."

"Perhaps so; but those white-faced red-haired girls always have a foxey look to me. There, there, I've done, and I'll play cavalier to her to-morrow if I get the chance."

"That you will, Jem, I know. Trust you soldiers for that. Sad dogs.

Why, Jem, old chap, I never said anything to you before," chuckled Sir John, "but 'pon my soul, I thought once you were going to make play and get married before Glynne."

The major moved uneasily in his chair, and suppressed a sigh.

"Nice little girl, Jem," continued Sir John. "I liked her myself; but only a woman. There were rumours about her. You didn't hear, I suppose?"

"Yes, I did," said the major, biting hard at his cigar.

"Well, no wonder. It was enough to make the best girl in the world a little wild. Shut up in that dreary house by herself, for you can't call it anything else."

"Yes; dull life for a young girl," a.s.sented the major, "Never heard-- er--er--who it was?"

"I? Wouldn't listen to the confounded scandal. Some d.a.m.ned chatter about her getting up at daylight to go and meet a man. Did you?"

"Hah!" said the major, drawing a deep breath; "I wouldn't hear."

"Right, Jem, right. By the way, I think we've got every one here who ought to come, and we'll make the day go off with a swing, old fellow.

Is there any fellow I ought to have asked on Miss Emlin's account?"

"No," said the major grimly; "you've got him for another purpose."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"She wanted Rolph herself."

"Impossible! Why, the girl's devotedly attached to Glynne, affectionate in the extreme. See what a beautiful diamond bracelet she has given her."

"Yes, that kind of girl always is. It's a way they have of showing their spite."

"Nonsense! Who told you that rubbish?"

"The young lady's aunt--Rob's mother."

"The deuce!"