The Heavenly Twins (Victorian Feminist Novel). Grand Sarah

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СКАЧАТЬ the way, perhaps she's gone to the carriage," and he started to see, the porter following him. "Did you notice a young lady in a gray dress pass this way?" he asked the man as they went.

      "With a pink feather in 'er 'at, sir?"

      "Yes."

      "Not pass up this way, sir," the man rejoined. "She got into a 'ansom over there, and drove off—if it was the same young lady." Major Colquhoun stopped short. The compartment reserved for them was empty also.

      "Dover express! Dover express!" the guard shouted as he came along banging the carriage doors to.

      "For Dover, sir?" he said in his ordinary voice to Major Colquhoun.

      "No. It seems not," that gentleman answered deliberately.

      The guard went on: "Dover express! Dover express! All right, Bill!" This was to someone in front as he popped into his own van, and shut the door.

      Then the whistle shrieked derisively, the crank turned, and the next moment the train slid out serpent-like into the mist. Major Colquhoun had watched it off like any ordinary spectator, and when it had gone he looked at the porter, and the porter looked at him.

      "Was your luggage in the train, sir?" the man asked him.

      "Yes, but only booked to Dover," Major Colquhoun answered carelessly, taking out a cigarette case and choosing a cigarette with exaggerated precision. When he had lighted it he tipped the porter, and strolled back to the entrance, on the chance of finding the carriage still there, but it had gone, and he called a hansom, paused a moment with his foot on the step, then finally directed the man to drive to the Fraylings'.

      "Swell's bin sold some'ow," commented the porter. "And if I was a swell I wouldn't take on neither."

CHAPTER XIII.

       Table of Contents

      The Fraylings had decided to postpone all further festivities till the bride and bridegroom's return, so that the wedding guests had gone, and the house looked as drearily commonplace as any other in the street when the hansom pulled up a little short of the door for Major Colquhoun to alight.

      The servant who answered his ring made no pretense of concealing his astonishment when he saw who it was, but Major Colquhoun's manner effectually checked any expression of it. He was not the kind of a man whom a servant would ever have dared to express any sympathy with, however obviously things might have gone wrong. But there was nothing in Major Colquhoun's appearance at that moment to show that anything had gone wrong, except his return when he should have been off on his wedding journey. There was probably a certain amount of assumption in his apparent indifference. He had always cultivated an inscrutable bearing, as being "the thing" in his set, so that it was easy for him now to appear to be cooler and more collected than he was. His attitude, however, was largely due to a want of proper healthy feeling, for he was a vice-worn man, with small capacity left for any great emotion.

      He walked into the hall and hung up his hat.

      "Is Mr. Frayling alone?" he said.

      "Yes, sir—with Mrs. Frayling—and the family—upstairs in the drawing room," the man stammered.

      "Ask him to see me down here, please. Say a gentleman." He stepped to a mirror as he spoke and carefully twisted the ends of his blond moustache.

      "Very good, sir," said the servant.

      Major Colquhoun walked into the library in the same deliberate way, and turned up the gas. Mr. Frayling came hurrying down, fat and fussy, and puffing a little, but cheerfully rubicund upon the success of the day's proceedings, and apprehending nothing untoward. When he saw his son-in-law he opened his eyes, stopped short, turned pale, and gasped.

      "Is Evadne here?" Major Colquhoun asked quietly.

      "Here? No! What should she be doing here? What has happened?" Mr. Frayling exclaimed aghast.

      "That is just what I don't rightly know myself if she is not here," Major Colquhoun replied, the quiet demeanour he had assumed contrasting favourably with his father-in-law's fuss and fume.

      "Why have you left her? What are you doing here? Explain," Mr. Frayling demanded almost angrily.

      Major Colquhoun related the little he knew, and Mr. Frayling plumped down into a chair to listen, and bounced up again, when all was said, to speak.

      "Let me send for her mother," he began, showing at once where, in an emergency, he felt that his strength lay. "No, though, I'd better go myself and prepare her," he added on second thought. "We mustn't make a fuss—with all the servants about too. They would talk." And then he fussed off himself, with agitation evident in every step.

      Something like a smile disturbed Major Colquhoun's calm countenance for a moment, and then he stood, twisting the ends of his fair moustache slowly with his left hand, and gazing into the fire, which shone reflected in his steely blue eyes, making them glitter like pale sapphires, coldly, while he waited.

      Mr. Frayling returned with his wife almost immediately. The latter had had her handkerchief in her hand all day, but she put it in her pocket now.

      Major Colquhoun had to repeat his story.

      "Did you look for her in the waiting rooms?" Mrs. Frayling asked.

      "No."

      "She may be there waiting for you at this very moment."

      It was a practical suggestion.

      "But the porter said he saw her get into a hansom," Major Colquhoun objected.

      "He said he saw a young lady in gray get into a hansom, I understood you to say," Mrs. Frayling corrected him. "A young lady in gray is not necessarily Evadne. There might be a dozen young ladies in gray in such a crowd."

      "There might, yes," Mr. Frayling agreed.

      "And the proof that it was not Evadne is that she is not here," her mother proceeded. "If she had been seen getting into a hansom it could only have been to come here."

      "A hansom might break down on the way," said Major Colquhoun, entertaining the idea for a moment.

      "That is not impossible," Mr. Frayling decided.

      "But why should she come here?" Major Colquhoun slowly pursued, looking hard at his parents-in-law. "Had she any objection to marrying me? Was she overpersuaded into it?"

      "Oh, no!" Mrs. Frayling exclaimed emphatically. "How can you suppose such a thing? We should never have dreamed of influencing the dear child in such a matter. If there were ever a case of love at first sight it was one. Why, her first words on awaking this morning, were: 'Oh, mother! I am so happy!' and that doesn't sound like being overpersuaded!"

      "Then what, in God's name, is the explanation of all this?" Major

       Colquhoun exclaimed, showing some natural emotion for the first time.

      "That is it," said Mr. Frayling energetically. СКАЧАТЬ