Wild Margaret. Garvice Charles

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СКАЧАТЬ and then quickly returning his gaze to her face. "It's a pity you can't paint this; but you artists get rather handicapped on these night scenes, don't you? Want a big moon and a waterfall, and all that kind of thing?"

      Margaret smiled. Certainly, in matters pertaining to art he was a perfect savage.

      "To-night could be painted, my lord," she said, just stopping to say it, then moving away again.

      "You think so?" he said, displaying, with boyish ingenuousness, his desire to engage her in conversation. "Well, I don't know much about it; rather out of my line, you know. But I like seeing pictures, and I think you must be awfully clever – "

      "Thanks, my lord!" said Margaret, with admirable gravity. "But your avowed ignorance rather detracts on the value of your expressed approval, does it not?"

      He looked at her.

      "That's rather hot and peppery, isn't it?" he said, ruefully. "Look here, you know, if I'm not up in painting, I know a little of other things. There are three things you might put me through a regular exam. in, and I shouldn't come out badly."

      "For instance, my lord?" said Margaret, dangerously interested, and slowly stopping.

      "For instance. Well, I know a horse when I see it."

      "Very few people take it for a cow," retorted Margaret.

      He laughed.

      "Oh, you know what I mean. Many flats take a screw for a horse, though. Well, I know what a horse is worth pretty well, and I know a good dog when I see him, and I can tell you the proper kind of fly for most of the rivers in England and Scotland; and I know the quickest and surest way of stalking a stag; and – I can play a decent hand at ecarte – that is, if it's not too late in the evening; and – and – " he paused and looked rather at a loss.

      "Is that all, my lord?"

      "That's – that's all. It seemed rather a long lot, too, while I was running it over," he responded.

      "And what use is your knowledge to you, my lord, unless you intend turning horse-dealer or gamekeeper? – but perhaps you do."

      He laughed.

      "By George, you're hard upon me! Won't you sit down?" Insensibly, Margaret sank into the seat, and he dropped carelessly on to the arm. "Well, I might do worse!"

      "Much worse!" assented Margaret, severely.

      He looked at her rather curiously.

      "How strangely you said that," he remarked. "Meant for me from the shoulder, I expect; now wasn't it?"

      Margaret was silent. She had meant it as a rebuke, but she would not have admitted it for the world.

      He regarded her silently for a second, then he said:

      "Miss Hale, they have been telling you something about me. They have, haven't they?"

      A faint flush rose to her face.

      "Would that matter in the slightest, my lord?"

      "By George, yes!" he said. "Look here! there is an old proverb that says: 'Don't believe more than half you see, and less than half you hear.' I should like to know what they have been telling you about me!"

      "What should 'they' say, my lord?" said Margaret. "Except that you are a very high-principled and serious-minded gentleman, doing all the good you could find to do, and setting a high example to your friends and companions?"

      He leaned forward so that he might see her face, then broke into the musical and contagious laugh.

      "It's too bad!" he said. "Miss Hale, I give you my word that the dev – , that nobody is quite as bad as he is painted – "

      "It is to be hoped not, or, judging from the portraits one sees at the Academy, there must be a great many ugly people in the world," she said, quietly.

      Lord Blair stared at her with unconcealed delight.

      Pretty women he had met by the hundred, but a girl who was lovely as a flower, and witty as well, was a rarity that set his heart throbbing.

      "All right!" he said. "I see you have made up your mind about me, and that you won't let me say a word in my own defense. But every poor beggar of a convict is allowed to say something before they pass sentence, don't you know, and you'll let me say my word before you send me away, painted black right through. Miss Hale, I'm in one of my unlucky months! Everything I've touched this June has gone wrong! My horse – but I don't want to trouble you about that – and to put the finishing touch to the catalogue, I had the bad luck to have you looking on while I'm having a set-to with a country yokel. Of course, you think the worst of me, and yet – " He stopped. "Well, I'm bad enough, I dare say," he said, with a sort of groan; "but I haven't had much chance; I haven't, indeed. They don't make many saints out of the kind of life that has fallen to me. What can you expect of a fellow who is thrown upon the world at nineteen without a friend to keep him straight or say a word of warning? And that was just the way of it with me; my father died when I was nineteen and I was let loose with plenty of money, and not a soul to show me the right road."

      "Your mother?" said Margaret, and the next instant regretted it, for across his handsome face came a spasm, as if she had touched a wound across his heart.

      "My mother died two years before my father; her death killed him. I wish that it had killed me. Don't let's speak of her."

      "I am very sorry, my lord," murmured Margaret.

      "All right," he said cheerfully. "If she had been living – but then! Well, I had no one. My uncle – the earl, here – would have nothing to say to me; I reminded him too much that he had lost his own boy and that I must come into the property. As if I wouldn't rather have died instead of the lad! He was as nice a boy as ever you saw – poor little chap! Well, where was I? Oh, on the road to ruin as my uncle said this afternoon, and, by George, he was right!" and he laughed. "But there – once you make the first false step, the rest is easy; it's all down hill, you see, and nobody to put the skid on – nobody! But never mind any more about me; I can see you've passed sentence. Are you living here altogether, Miss Hale?"

      "No," said Margaret with a little start, and very quietly. She was thinking of the wasted life, the friendless, guardless youth which his wild, incoherent statement revealed, and something like pity for him was creeping into her heart.

      Pity! It is a dangerous sentiment for one like Margaret to harbor for one like Blair Leyton!

      "No; I am here on a visit, my lord."

      "How jolly!" he said. "I hope you are enjoying yourself. But, perhaps you always live in the country?"

      "I am enjoying myself very much. No, I live in London, my lord."

      "In London!" he said, quickly. "But I say – " he broke off appealingly, "I wish you wouldn't 'my lord' me, you know."

      Margaret laughed.

      "My circle of acquaintances does not include any noblemen, Lord Leyton, and I am not quite sure of the way to address one of your rank," she said, faltering a little.

      "How well she said that!" he thought. "Most girls would have giggled and blushed, but she took it as quietly as a duchess would have done!"

      Then СКАЧАТЬ