CHAPTER XVIII

A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK

After refusing to quit the grounds of Steignton, in spite of the

proprietor, Mrs. Pagnell burst into an agitation to have them be at

speed, that they might 'shake the dust of the place from the soles of

their feet'; and she hurried past Aminta and Lord Ormont's insolent

emissary, carrying Mr. Morsfield beside her, perforce of a series of

imperiously-toned vacuous questions, to which he listened in rigid

politeness, with the ejaculation steaming off from time to time, 'A

scandal!'

He shot glances behind him.

Mrs. Pagnell was going too fast. She, however, world not hear of a halt,

and she was his main apology for being present; he was excruciatingly

attached to the horrid woman.

Weyburn spoke the commonplaces about regrets to Aminta.

'Believe me, it's long since I have been so happy,' she said.

She had come out of her stupefaction, and she wore no theatrical looks of

cheerfulness.

'I regret that you should be dragged away. But, if you say you do not

mind, it will be pleasant to me. I can excuse Lord Ormont's anger. I was

ignorant of his presence here. I thought him in Paris. I supposed the

place empty. I wished to see it once. I travelled as the niece of Mrs.

Pagnell. She is a little infatuated. . . . Mr. Morsfield heard of our

expedition through her. I changed the route. I was not in want of a

defender. I could have defended myself in case of need. We slept at

Ashead, two hours from Steignton. He and a friend accompanied us, not

with my consent. Lord Ormont could not have been aware of that. These

accidental circumstances happen. There may be pardonable intentions on

all sides.'

She smiled. Her looks were open, and her voice light and spirited; though

the natural dark rose-glow was absent from her olive cheeks.

Weyburn puzzled over the mystery of so volatile a treatment of a serious

matter, on the part of a woman whose feelings he had reason to know were

quick and deep. She might be acting, as women so cleverly do.

It could hardly be acting when she pointed to peeps of scenery, with a

just eye for landscape.

'You leave us for Switzerland very soon?' she said.

'The Reversion I have been expecting has fallen in, besides my

inheritance. My mother was not to see the school. But I shall not forget

her counsels. I can now make my purchase of the house and buildings, and

buy out my partner at the end of a year. My boys are jumping to start. I

had last week a letter from Emile.'

'Dear little Emile!'

'You like him?'

'I could use a warmer word. He knew me when I was a girl.'

She wound the strings of his heart suddenly tense, and they sang to their

quivering.

'You will let me hear of you, Mr. Weyburn?'

'I will write. Oh! certainly I will write, if I am told you are

interested in our doings, Lady Ormont.'

'I will let you know that I am.'

'I shall be happy in writing full reports.'

'Every detail, I beg. All concerning the school. Help me to feel I am a

boarder. I catch up an old sympathy I had for girls and boys. For boys!

any boys! the dear monkey boys! cherub monkeys! They are so funny. I am

sure I never have laughed as I did at Selina Collett's report, through

her brother, of the way the boys tried to take to my name; and their

sneezing at it, like a cat at a deceitful dish. "Aminta"--was that their

way?'

'Something--the young rascals!'

'But please repeat it as you heard them.'

'" Aminta."'

He subdued the mouthing.

'It didn't, offend me at all. It is one of my amusements to think of it.

But after a time they liked the name; and then how did they say it?'

He had the beloved Aminta on his lips.

He checked it, or the power to speak it failed. She drew in a sharp

breath.

'I hope your boys will have plenty of fun in them. They will have you for

a providence and a friend. I should wish to propose to visit your school

some day. You will keep me informed whether the school has vacancies. You

will, please, keep me regularly informed?'

She broke into sobs.

Weyburn talked on of the school, for a cover to the resuming of her

fallen mask, as he fancied it.

She soon recovered, all save a steady voice for converse, and begged him

to proceed, and spoke in the flow of the subject; but the quaver of her

tones was a cause of further melting. The tears poured, she could not

explain why, beyond assuring him that they were no sign of unhappiness.

Winds on the great waters against a strong tidal current beat up the wave

and shear and wing the spray, as in Aminta's bosom. Only she could know

that it was not her heart weeping, though she had grounds for a woman's

weeping. But she alone could be aware of her heart's running counter to

the tears.

Her agitation was untimely. Both Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Morsfield observed

emotion at work. And who could wonder? A wife denied the admittance to

her husband's house by her husband! The most beautiful woman of her time

relentlessly humiliated, ordered to journey back the way she had come.

They had reached the gate of the park, and had turned.

'A scandal!'

Mr. Morsfield renewed his interjection vehemently, for an apology to his

politeness in breaking from Mrs. Pagnell.

Joining the lady, whose tears were of the nerves, he made offer of his

devotion in any shape; and she was again in the plight to which a

desperado can push a woman of the gentle kind. She had the fear of

provoking a collision if she reminded him, that despite her entreaties,

he had compelled her, seconded by her aunt as he had been, to submit to

his absurd protection on the walk across the park.

He seemed quite regardless of the mischief he had created; and,

reflecting upon how it served his purpose, he might well be. Intemperate

lover, of the ancient pattern, that he was, his aim to win the woman

acknowledged no obstacle in the means. Her pitiable position appealed to

the best of him; his inordinate desire of her aroused the worst. It was,

besides, an element of his coxcombry, that he should, in apeing the

utterly inconsiderate, rush swiftly to impersonate it when his passions

were cast on a die.

Weyburn he ignored as a stranger, an intruder, an inferior.

Aminta's chariot was at the gate.

She had to resign herself to the chances of a clash of men, and, as there

were two to one, she requested help of Weyburn's hand, that he might be

near her.

A mounted gentleman, smelling parasite in his bearing, held the bridle of

Morsfield's horse.

The ladies having entered the chariot, Morsfield sprang to the saddle,

and said: 'You, sir, had better stretch your legs to the inn.'

'There is room for you, Mr. Weyburn,' said Aminta.

Mrs. Pagnell puffed.

'I can't think we've room, my dear. I want that bit of seat in front for

my feet.'

Morsfield kicked at his horse's flanks, and between Weyburn and the

chariot step, cried: 'Back, sir!'

His reins were seized; the horse reared, the unexpected occurred.

Weyburn shouted 'Off!' to the postillion, and jumped in.

Morsfield was left to the shaking of a dusty coat, while the chariot

rolled its gentle course down the leafy lane into the high-road.

His friend had seized the horse's bridle-reins; and he remarked: 'I say,

Dolf, we don't prosper to-day.'

'He pays for it!' said Morsfield, foot in stirrup. 'You'll take him and

trounce him at the inn. I don't fight with servants. Better game. One

thing, Cumnock: the fellow's clever at the foils.'

'Foils to the devil! If I tackle the fellow, it won't be with the

buttons. But how has he pushed in?'

Morsfield reported 'the scandal!' in sharp headings.

'Turned her away. Won't have her enter his house--grandest woman in all

England! Sent his dog to guard. Think of it for an insult! It's insult

upon insult. I 've done my utmost to fire his marrow. I did myself a good

turn by following her up and entering that park with her. I shall

succeed; there 's a look of it. All I have--my life--is that woman's. I

never knew what this devil's torture was before I saw her.'

His friend was concerned for his veracity. 'Amy!'

'A common spotted snake. She caught me young, and she didn't carry me

off, as I mean to carry off this glory of her sex--she is: you've seen

her!--and free her, and devote every minute of the rest of my days to

her. I say I must win the woman if I stop at nothing, or I perish; and if

it 's a failure, exit 's my road. I 've watched every atom she touched in

a room, and would have heaped gold to have the chairs, tables, cups,

carpets, mine. I have two short letters written with her hand. I 'd give

two of my estates for two more. If I were a beggar, and kept them, I

should be rich. Relieve me of that dog, and I toss you a thousand-pound

note, and thank you from my soul, Cumnock. You know what hangs on it.

Spur, you dolt, or she'll be out of sight.'

They cantered upon application of the spur. Captain Cumnock was an

impecunious fearless rascal, therefore a parasite and a bully duellist; a

thick-built north-countryman; a burly ape of the ultra-elegant; hunter,

gamester, hard-drinker, man of pleasure. His known readiness to fight was

his trump-card at a period when the declining custom of the duel taxed

men's courage to brave the law and the Puritan in the interests of a

privileged and menaced aristocracy. An incident like the present was the

passion in the dice-box to Cumnock. Morsfield was of the order of men who

can be generous up to the pitch of their desires. Consequently, the world

accounted him open-handed and devoted when enamoured. Few men liked him;

he was a hero with some women. The women he trampled on; the men he

despised. To the lady of his choice he sincerely offered his fortune and

his life for the enjoyment of her favour. His ostentation and his

offensive daring combined the characteristics of the peacock and the

hawk. Always near upon madness, there were occasions when he could

eclipse the insane. He had a ringing renown in his class.

Chariot and horsemen arrived at the Roebuck Arms, at the centre of the

small town of Ashead, on the line from Steignton through Rowsley. The

pair of cavaliers dismounted and hustled Weyburn in assisting the ladies

to descend.

The ladies entered the inn; they declined refection of any sort. They had

biscuits and sweetmeats, and looked forward to tea at a farther stage.

Captain Cumnock stooped to their verdict on themselves, with marvel at

the quantity of flesh they managed to put on their bones from such

dieting.

'By your courtesy, sir, a word with you in the inn yard, if you please,'

he said to Weyburn in the inn-porch.

Weyburn answered, 'Half a minute,' and was informed that it was exactly

the amount of time the captain could afford to wait.

Weyburn had seen the Steignton phaeton and coachman in the earl's

light-blue livery. It was at his orders, he heard. He told the coachman

to expect hire shortly, and he followed the captain, with a heavy trifle

of suspicion that some brew was at work. He said to Aminta in the

passage--

'You have your settlement with the innkeeper. Don't, I beg, step into the

chariot till you see me.'

'Anything?' said she.

'Only prudence.'

'Our posting horses will be harnessed soon, I hope. I burn to get away.'

Mrs. Pagnell paid the bill at the bar of the inn. Morsfield poured out

for the injured countess or no-countess a dram of the brandy of passion,

under the breath.

'Deny that you singled me once for your esteem. Hardest-hearted of the

women of earth and dearest! deny that you gave me reason to hope--and

now! I have ridden in your track all this way for the sight of you, as

you know, and you kill me with frost. Yes, I rejoice that we were seen

together. Look on me. I swear I perish for one look of kindness. You have

been shamefully used, madam.'

'It seems to me I am being so,' said Aminta, cutting herself loose from

the man of the close eyes that wavered as they shot the dart.

Her action was too decided for him to follow her up under the observation

of the inn windows and a staring street.

Mrs. Pagnell came out. She went boldly to Morsfield and they conferred.

He was led by her to the chariot, where she pointed to a small padded

slab of a seat back to the horses. Turning to the bar, he said:--My

friend will look to my horse. Both want watering and a bucketful.

There!'--he threw silver--'I have to protect the ladies.'

Aminta was at the chariot door talking to her aunt inside.

'But I say I have been insulted--is the word--more than enough by Lord

Ormont to-day!' Mrs. Pagnell exclaimed; 'and I won't, I positively refuse

to ride up to London with any servant of his. It's quite sufficient that

it's his servant. I'm not titled, but I 'in not quite dirt. Mr. Morsfield

kindly offers his protection, and I accept. He is company.'

Nodding and smirking at Morsfield's approach, she entreated Aminta to

step up and in, for the horses were coming out of the yard.

Aminta looked round. Weyburn was perceived; and Morsfield's features

cramped at thought of a hitch in the plot.

'Possession,' Mrs. Pagnell murmured significantly. She patted the seat.

Morsfield sprang to Weyburn's place.

That was witnessed by Aminta and Weyburn. She stepped to consult him. He

said to the earl's coachman--a young fellow with a bright eye for

orders--

'Drive as fast as you can pelt for Dornton. I'm doing my lord's

commands.'

'Trust yourself to me, madam.' His hand stretched for Aminta to mount.

She took it without a word and climbed to the seat. A clatter of hoofs

rang out with the crack of the whip. They were away behind a pair of

steppers that could go the pace.