Wild Margaret. Garvice Charles

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СКАЧАТЬ said the earl, his eyes flashing for a moment, then growing hard and cold. "But I forget. You say it was nothing. That which I deem a degradation, the future Earl of Ferrers may regard differently. But this I may be permitted to ask: that you will choose some other locality than Leyton for the exhibition of your brutality."

      A hot response sprung to the lips of Lord Blair, but with an effort he choked it back.

      "We won't say any more about the affair, sir," he said, "except that if it were to be done again, I'd do it!"

      "I don't doubt you, sir," said the earl, coldly.

      There was a pause, then the young man rose.

      "I take it I can raise the money on Ketton, then?" he said.

      The earl stared at the floor moodily.

      "Hartwell gone, Parkfield mortgaged to the hilt, and now Ketton. What next, sir? Thank Heaven, you cannot play ducks and drakes with this place, or you would do it, I suppose! But I could forgive you all you have done if you had spared Violet."

      The color mounted to the young man's face, and he bit his lip.

      "In her, and her alone, lay your chance of salvation. You flung it away as ruthlessly as you have flung away your property. You have ruined yourself and broken her heart, and you sit there smiling – "

      As if he could endure it no longer, Lord Blair rose.

      "Broken her heart! Broken Violet's heart!" he repeated, with mingled amazement and incredulity. "Good Heavens, who told you that? I don't believe she has a heart to break! We – we broke off the match by mutual agreement. She was quite jolly about it! She – oh, come, sir, you don't know Violet as well as I do. I'll answer for it she thinks herself well out of it; as she is, by George! Any woman would get a bad bargain in me, I'm afraid."

      "I wish that I could contradict you," said the earl grimly. "I pity any woman who trusts herself to your tender mercies. As for Violet Graham, I am glad that she has escaped; but your conduct was dishonorable – "

      The young man's face paled, and his hands clinched with a passion of which he had shown no trace during the fight of yesterday.

      "That will do, sir," he said, in a low voice. "No man, not even you, has the right to use such a word to me! I tell you it would have been dishonorable to have married Violet for her money; it was more honorable to keep from it. I'm going. As to Ketton, it's my own – "

      "For the present," put in the earl, with fearful sarcasm.

      – "And I can do what I like with it. I'd rather sell it twenty times over than marry Violet Graham, and get her money to save it! Good-bye, sir!" He was going out of the room with this brief farewell, but at the door he paused, and striding back held out his hand. "Look here, sir," he said, his voice softening, a gentler light coming into his eyes. "Don't let us part like this! Heaven knows when we shall meet again, if ever we do! I may have to clear out of England! I've some thoughts of going in for sheep farming out West, or I may break my neck at the next steeplechase. Anyhow, let us part friends."

      The earl waved him to the chair.

      If he had grasped the extended hand the warm heart of the young man would have forgiven all the hard words that had been spoken – forgiven and forgotten them.

      "Sit down, please. You are right. Words are of no avail between us. In regard to your proposition, I am averse to it. I will give you the money. What is the amount?"

      Lord Blair looked surprised, then grave.

      "Thanks, sir," he said. "But I would rather you didn't. I have had too much from you already. I'm ashamed to think how much. I'm a spendthrift and a fool, as you say, but for the future I will spend only my own. I'm not ungrateful for all you have given me! No, but – I can't take any more from you."

      The earl's lips came together tightly. He bowed.

      "I have no right to combat your resolution," he said, "or to prevent you ruining yourself in your own fashion. After all, it matters very little whether the Jews have Ketton now or later; they will get it one time or the other, doubtless."

      "I'm afraid they will," said Lord Blair, with a short sigh; then he rose. "Well, I'm off, sir."

      "Stay!" said the earl; "our quarrel – if it can be called one – is over. You will oblige me by remaining for one night at least. I do not wish it to be said all over the country that we could not exist for twenty-four hours under one roof, as it will be said if you go at once. Stay, if you please."

      "If you wish it, sir, certainly," said Lord Blair, not very joyously. "But I'm afraid I shall bore you dreadfully, you know."

      "The boring will be mutual, I have no doubt," said the earl grimly. "I may remind you that we need meet only at dinner."

      "That's true," said Lord Blair frankly. "Well, until then, I'll walk round the place."

      Then earl inclined his head, and rang the bell which stood at his elbow.

      "Lord Leyton will remain here to-night," he said to Larkhall, and that exemplary servant, holding the door open for Lord Blair to pass out, hurried off to tell Mr. Stibbings and Mrs. Hale the extraordinary news that the future earl was to sleep at the house which would some day be his own.

      Lord Blair had spent a remarkably bad quarter of an hour; but before he had got half way down the broad staircase, with its carved balustrades and magnificent cross panelling, he began to shake off the effects with that wonderful good-humored carelessness which had lost him nearly all his lands, and won him so many hearts.

      He went down the stairs into the hall and looked round him with a smile, as if his interview had been of the pleasantest description; then he lit a cigar and, with his hat on the back of his head, went out into the warm sunshine.

      He walked along the terrace and across the lawns, and then as if by instinct found his way to the stables. And be it remarked, and it is worth noting, that he had not – as many a man in his position would have done – given one glance at the magnificent place with the thought that it would some day all be his.

      Strange to say, for an heir, he didn't wish the earl dead. Blair Leyton hankered after no man's property, not even his uncle's; whatever sins may have been laid to his charge, he was innocent of that love of money which is the root of all evil.

      So without a spark of envy or covetousness or ill-will, he went to the stables and, nodding pleasantly to the head groom, went into the stalls.

      Of course the man knew who he was – the news had spread all over the Court in five minutes! – and was respectful, and in a second or two more than that; for Blair's manner was as pleasant with high, low, Jack, and the game all round.

      "Some good horses," he said.

      The man shook his head doubtfully.

      "Some, my lord," he assented. "But not what they ought to be for so big a place – begging your lordship's pardon. You see his lordship the earl only has the carriage horses – and them only once now and again – and there's nobody to ride. I try to keep 'em up, but a man loses heart like, my lord."

      "I understand," said Lord Blair, sympathetically. "It's a pity. Such a fine hunting country."

      "Ah, isn't it, my lord!" said the man with a sigh. "If the earl 'ud only take the hounds – but there" – and he sighed again.

      Lord СКАЧАТЬ