Sir Noel's Heir: A Novel. May Agnes Fleming

Чтение книги онлайн.

      "And you, my lady – you gained the desire to your heart, wealth, and a title? Let me hope they have made you a happy woman."

      "I am not happy!"

      "No? But you have been – you were while Sir Noel lived?"

      "My husband was very good to me, Captain Everard. His death was the greatest misfortune that could have befallen me."

      "But you are young, you are free, you are rich, you are beautiful. You may wear a coronet next time."

      His face and glance were so darkly grave, that the covert sneer was almost hidden. But she felt it.

      "I shall never marry again, Captain Everard."

      "Never? You surprise me! Six years – nay, seven, a widow, and with innumerable attractions. Oh, you cannot mean it!"

      She made a sudden, passionate gesture – looked at him, then away.

      "It is useless – worse than useless, folly, madness, to lift the veil from the irrevocable past. But don't you think, don't you, Lady Thetford, that you might have been equally happy if you had married me?"

      She made no reply. She stood gazing seaward, cold and still.

      "I was madly, insanely, absurdly in love with pretty Ada Vandeleur in those days, and I think I would have made her a good husband; better, however – forgive me – than I ever made my poor dead wife. But you were wise and ambitious, my pretty Ada, and bartered your black eyes and raven ringlets to a higher bidder. You jilted me in cold blood, poor love-sick devil that I was, and reigned resplendent as my Lady Thetford. Ah! you knew how to choose the better part, my pretty Ada!"

      "Captain Everard, I am sorry for the past – I have atoned, if suffering can atone. Have a little pity, and let me alone!"

      He stood and looked at her silently, gravely. Then said, in a voice deep and calm:

      "We are both free! Will you marry me now, Ada!"

      "I cannot!"

      "But I love you – I have always loved you. And you – I used to think you loved me!"

      He was strangely calm and passionless, voice and glance and face. But Lady Thetford had covered her face, and was sobbing.

      "I did – I do – I always have! But I cannot marry you. I will love you all my life; but don't, don't ask me to be your wife!"

      "As you please!" he said, in the same passionless voice. "I think it is best myself; for the George Everard of to-day is not the George Everard who loved you eight years ago. We would not be happy – I know that. Ada, is that your son?"

      "Yes."

      "I should like to look at him. Here, my little baronet! I want to see you."

      The boy, who had been looking curiously at the stranger, ran up at a sign from his mother. The tall captain lifted him in his arms and gazed in his small, thin face, with which his bright tartan plaid contrasted harshly.

      "He hasn't a look of the Thetfords. He is your own son, Ada. My little baronet, what is your name?"

      "Sir Rupert Thetford," answered the child, struggling to get free. "Let me go – I don't know you!"

      The captain set him down with a grim smile; and the boy clung to his mother's skirts, and eyed the tall stranger askance.

      "I want to go home, mamma! I'm tired and hungry."

      "Presently, dearest. Run to William, he has cake for you. Captain Everard, I shall be happy to have you at dinner."

      "Thanks; but I must decline. I go back to London to-night. I sail for India again in a week."

      "So soon! I thought you meant to remain."

      "Nothing is further from my intentions. I merely brought my little girl over to provide her a home; that is why I have troubled you. Will you do me this kindness, Lady Thetford?"

      "Take your little girl? Oh, most gladly – most willingly!"

      "Thanks! Her mother's people are French, and I know little about them; and, save yourself, I can claim friendship with few in England. She will be poor; I have settled on her all I am worth – some three hundred a year; and you, Lady Thetford, you can teach her, when she grows up, to catch a rich husband."

      She took no notice of the taunt; she looked only too happy to render him this service.

      "I am so pleased! She will be such a nice companion for Rupert. How old is she?"

      "Nearly four."

      "Is she here?"

      "No; she is in London. I will fetch her down in a day or two."

      "What do you call her?"

      "Mabel – after her mother. Then it is settled, Lady Thetford, I am to fetch her?"

      "I shall be delighted! But won't you dine with me?"

      "No. I must catch the evening train. Farewell, Lady Thetford, and many thanks! In three days I will be here again."

      He lifted his hat and walked away. Lady Thetford watched him out of sight, and then turned slowly, as she heard her little boy calling her with shrill impatience. The red sunset had faded out; the sea lay gray and cold under the twilight sky, and the evening breeze was chill. Changes in sky and sea and land told of coming night; and Lady Thetford, shivering slightly in the rising wind, hurried away to be driven home.

      CHAPTER III.

      "LITTLE MAY."

      On the evening of the third day after this interview, a fly from the railway drove up the long, winding avenue leading to the great front entrance of the Thetford mansion. A bronzed military gentleman, a nurse and a little girl, occupied the fly, and the gentleman's keen, dark eyes wandered searchingly around. Swelling meadows, velvety lawns, sloping terraces, waving trees, bright flower-gardens, quaint old fish-ponds, sparkling fountains, and a wooded park, with sprightly deer – that was what he saw, all bathed in the golden halo of the summer sunset. Massive and grand, the old house reared its gray head, half overgrown with ivy and climbing roses. Gaudy peacocks strutted on the terraces; a graceful gazelle flitted out for an instant amongst the trees to look at them and then fled in afright; and the barking of half a dozen mastiffs greeted their approach noisily.

      "A fine old place," thought Captain Everard. "My pretty Ada might have done worse. A grand old place for that puny child to inherit. The staunch old warrior-blood of the Thetfords is sadly adulterated in his pale veins, I fancy. Well, my little May, and how are you going to like all this?"

      The child, a bright-faced little creature, with great sparkling eyes and rose-bloom cheeks, was looking in delight at a distant terrace.

      "See, papa! See all the pretty peacocks! Look, Ellen," to the nurse, "three, four, five! Oh, how pretty!"

      "Then little May will like to live here, where she can see the pretty peacocks every day?"

      "And all the pretty flowers, and the water, and the little boy – where's the little boy, papa?"

      "In СКАЧАТЬ