Lady Ingram

“ Stanief bowed, answering nothing.
"The lady—you will have heard of her. I met her last year on the Riviera. In her country they call her the Gentle Princess, because—she is. And she is very lovely."
Still the dark face was unstirred. His object gained, Adrian fretted and chafed before the change he himself had wrought.
"You are like Monsieur Allard; you do not want to yield your will," he said, half petulantly, half haughtily. "He is mine, you gave him to me; yet he did not like it because I said that no longer shall his fortune come from any one but me. Why?"
"He is an American, sire." ”

“ I replied, “but my friend Chetwynd has.”
“Ha!” he answered; “and doubtless that most interesting lady, Mrs. Ingram, also holds a theory of her own. I must not forget that I am to send her a cheque by you to-night. I would never wish to be hard on women, although I hate them all. By the way, Cato, do you know that I believe that woman, in some queer, unfathomable, impossible way, suspects me—me—of the murder of Ingram?” ”

“ I don't think the young lady ought to stay, either."
"She refuses to leave, Vere. What can I offer her that I have not offered? How can I find her? You have heard how I searched the countryside for a hint of such a girl's presence. No one has ever seen her; or else someone lies very cleverly."
In the pause, Phillida hesitatingly ventured an idea:
"Perhaps she is not—real. If the monster is a ghost thing, may not she be one, too? If we are to believe in such things at all——? She almost seems to intend that you shall believe her the ghost of the witch girl in that old book." ”

“ Oh no. I think she is in love with you as I am in love with her; and I am, ever since yesterday."
"Well, I will say this for you," remarked Ingram slowly, "that you are the cheekiest young beggar I have the pleasure to know. You are in love with her, are you? A lady admits you to her house, is particularly kind to you, talks to you in confidence, and then you go and tell people that you are in love with her!"
"I did not tell people," said Mosenberg, flushing under the severity of the reproof: "I told you only, and I thought you would understand what I meant. ”

“ Was baith born in one bower;
Laid baith their hearts on one lady,
The less was their honour.
Chiel Wyet and Lord Ingram
Was baith born in one hall;
Laid baith their hearts on one lady,
The worse did them befall. ”

“ Flavia lifted vaguely startled eyes to her father.
"I don't believe you need to worry about that," reassured Gerard smiling. The echo of Corrie's fresh young tones was in their ears, as he disputed with his cousin, outside the windows at the end of the room.
"I guess not. He's too much like his mother." Mr. Rose dropped his hand on Flavia's, as she sat in her low chair beside him. "And she was what they call an aristocrat, nowadays, but I called a lady when I married her. Old family, gentle breeding, the society end, and good looks like my little girl's that seem too fine to touch ”

“ If it is drowned, I win."
"Does Corrie play that game with you?"
"N'no. Corrie doesn't like it. He will step off of a sidewalk into the mud to avoid treading on a cricket. Do you suppose I never play with any one except my cousin? Will you try this wager? You're not silly?"
[Pg 83]
"I will, if I may. If that lady-bug is alive five minutes from now, I win? No other conditions?"
"None," gleefully. "Take your watch. You'll lose, he's weakening now."
Gerard leaned across, lifted the struggling beetle upon his finger-tip, and restored it to the safe refuge of the chrysanthemum bouquet. ”

“ We want the child. If he persists in annoying the lady who was his wife, however, he must be put in a sanitarium."
"Elsie, why do you not say that we know nothing of all this?" Anthony demanded, harsh in his strong impatience. "Why do you feed suspicion by arguing? I don't say that I would not shelter Holly Masterson, if he were here—in fact, I should! ”

“ Menzies as his liege-lady and by young Clyde as much more than that. The estate-management, home-farm, woods, tenancies, were given up to her at the end of the fifth year, just before Ingram sailed for West Africa on a shooting expedition. By that time he had grown to depend upon her entirely for everything. She was become the faithful well-tried wife of standing, which in a man of Ingram's bone means that nothing remained of love but entire confidence and occasional gratification. ”

“ And a' man boun to bed,
Lord Ingram and Lady Masery
In ae chamer were laid.
He put his hand out oure his bonnie bride,
The babe between her sides did quake:
. . . . . .
. . . . .
'O father your babe on me, Lady Masery,
O father your babe on me.'
. . . . . .
. . . . . ”

“ Ingram’s face.
“And young lady berry good, too; she give backsheish to poor Arab.”
“Yes,” said a fourth, preparing to take a similar liberty with Miss Damer.
This was too much for Mr. Ingram. He had already used very positive language in his endeavour to assure his tormentors that they would not get a piastre from him. But this only changed their soft persuasions into threats. Upon hearing which, and upon seeing what the man attempted to do in his endeavour to get money from Miss Damer, he raised his stick, and struck first one and then the other as violently as he could upon their heads. ”

“ Out ower the plains are gane,
And pensively walkd him Childe Vyet,
Him single self alane.
When they had eaten and well drunken,
And a' men bound for bed,
Lord Ingram and Lady Maisry
In ae chamber were laid. ”

“ John Allard was of your suite; perhaps he could have told you that I am not all harshness."
She snatched her gaze from his and blushed as he had never seen a woman blush before, the heavy crimson staining her very forehead.
"He did tell me—that, monseigneur."
"Then I would ask you to trust me, Princess. To-morrow you will come to my house; there will be no other change in your life which you do not wish. I am not a reigning sovereign, there is no reason why you should not keep with you the ladies of your own country whom you prefer. ”

“ The Regent is fair, with gray eyes, is he not, monsieur?"
"No, madame; he is very dark," he assured her hastily, his thoughts on Stanief's much-loved face.
Iría smiled, bending her head still lower.
"He is perhaps—fanciful, monsieur? He might do something quite useless and romantic, just for a caprice?"
"Hardly, madame. I think he does nothing without a purpose. He—I believe he has not been very happy, Princess."
"And, is he now?" she asked faintly.
Allard recalled himself to gallantry with charming grace.
"Madame, he should be happier than any one living." ”

“ The Gentle Princess was hurting him as no one else could.
Up in her cream-and-azure boudoir, Iría was alone when Stanief entered. She was bending over a table heaped with water-lilies and purple Florentine irises from the conservatory, herself quite radiant with their reflected brightness as she lifted the heavy petals and breathed their fragrance. Her back to the door, she did not turn at once to see who came unannounced.
"Look, Marya," she called gladly and sweetly. "Come here; were ever things so lovely? So the irises grew at home, knee-deep in the clear pools, like enchanted princes. ”

“ I thought I knew the answer to this, and I did.
"No, Cousin Roger," she refused firmly. "Please forgive me. I know how kind you mean to be, but—no! I shall stay with Ethan. If ever you love anyone, you will understand."
I accepted the decision. There was no reason why I should think of the woman who had spoken to me across the darkness in a voice of melody and power, or why I should seem to feel again the ex [Pg 68] quisite, live softness of her braid within my hand. But it was so.
"Very well," I said. "Vere, it is to you, then, as Phillida's husband, that I must address any plans. ”

“ The ocean now gathered for the final wave that should overwhelm the defeated.
"Braggart!" my thought answered the taunt. "If the witch-woman was yours, the girl Desire is mine. This I know: as little as man has to do with you, so little have you to do with the human and the good. Living or dead, our path is not yours. I did not summon you. I do dare look upon you, if you have visible form."
Now in the hush a sound that I had faintly heard as a continuing thing seemed to draw nearer. A sound of light, swift footsteps hurrying, hurrying; the steps of one in pitiful eagerness and haste. ”

“ It was so strange, too, that this handsome, proud-featured, proud-spirited girl should so devote herself to the amusement of a man like Ingram, and, forgetting all the court that should have been paid to a pretty woman, seem determined to persuade him that he was conferring a favor upon her by every word and look. Of course, Lavender admitted to himself, Ingram was a very good sort of a fellow—a very good sort of a fellow, indeed. ”

“ Far away he journeyed, to New York, which is in America, to find peace and make a home."
"Where you will go to him?"
"Señorita, we hope it. He works, I wait. We write long letters. But it is three years. It costs much to cross the ocean, and one grows old." The brown eyes looked the tragedy of hope deferred.
"For men must work and women must weep——" The old refrain came to Flavia. But not this woman, not if her American sister could prevent. And the preventing was so easy! She drew the girl down on the seat beside her, impulsive as Corrie could have been.
"Listen, Elvira—I may call you Elvira? ”

“ I love her so myself that I can hardly trust myself in her presence. Moreover, if morning brings no word from Fritz, we start for Zenda ourselves."
"Is it not a miracle? This marriage that was to have been the tragedy of my heart will now be my joy."
"But why—since his proposal of marriage two months ago, has he never again spoken of love?"
"Well, Princess, he is waiting for you to accept his offer."
"Shall I tell him then, Helga?—tell him that I will?"
"Indeed you should, Princess. There will be an opportunity during the ball tonight." ”

“ Phillida, who had been silent even when Vere left her to go upstairs, shrank away from the book on the table. She darted a glance over her shoulder at the curtained windows behind her.
"Drawls, I cannot help what everybody thinks of me," she said plaintively. "I am cold. The fire is ready laid in the grate. Will you put a match to it, please?"
No one smiled at the request. Her husband uttered some soothing phrase of compliance. We all looked on while the flame caught and began to creep up among the apple-logs. Bagheera rose and changed his position to one before the hearth. ”

“ He was a little dingy in appearance, and a man who had a somewhat cold manner, who was sallow of face, who was obviously getting gray, and who was generally insignificant in appearance, was not the sort of man, one would think, to fascinate an exceptionally handsome girl, who had brains enough to know the fineness of her own face. But here was this princess paying attentions to him, such as must have driven a more impressionable man out of his senses, while Ingram sat quiet and pleased, sometimes making fun of her, and generally talking to her as if she were a child. ”

“ I knew she was just the sort of clever, independent, clear-headed woman to see Ingram’s strong points, and rate them at their proper value. But I never expected anything of the sort, of course; for I had always a notion that some day or other he would be led into marrying some pretty, gentle, soft-headed young thing, whom he would have to take through life in a protecting sort of way, and who would never be a real companion for him. So he is to marry Mrs. Lorraine, after all. Well, he won’t become a man of fashion, despite all his money. He is sure to start a yacht, for one thing. ”

“ Stanief did not ride home that morning with the cheerful Vasili and bored Rosal, who awaited him. As he came down the wide steps between the usual parting, obsequious crowds, a girl leaned from a victoria that stood in the place of his own carriage,—Iría, opposite her the pale young Countess Marya.
"Will you ride with me, monseigneur?" invited the Gentle Princess, with her deliciously confiding glance and smile. "We were on the promenade, and I thought perhaps you would have finished—"
"Will you ride with me, Monseigneur?" ”

“ Of all sounds in the world the sweetest music for her ear was made by a man's voice embroidering the theme—“You are lovely, you are cruel, I die.” Ingram's descant on the golden phrase was querulous, after his manner. He took his lover's smarts, as one must suppose them, hardly. As thus: “You are lovely—but what's that to me, if I can't touch you? You sting my eyes, you inflame, you wound—or I think you do; here am I, tied by the leg to a dead woman—for dead to me she is, the she-cat Sanchia—looking at you because I can't help myself. You are soft and lax, you purr when I stroke you ”

“ A shelf of books had been put up; beneath, a small table held the jade-and-ivory chessmen drawn up in battle array on their field. As always, the fire glowed, and on the hearth the cat stretched drowsily. Cheer dwelt in the place, the atmosphere of comradeship{206} and assured love; and the pulse of it all was the girl who stood, tranquil of regard, rich in life and beautiful with health, princess in her own domain.
At her Masterson looked longest, his handsome, bitter mouth oddly twisted out of shape.
"You're different," he pronounced, finally. ”

“ Mr. Rose pronounced with decision. "It's not fit and I won't have it. And I'm tired of hearing you sulk at Corrie and Gerard because they've got the sense to say no. You'll keep out of the racing cars and off the race track, my girl. Flavia, if you don't make your brother stop eating nuts, he'll be ashamed to meet a squirrel in the woods."
There was open mutiny in the glance Isabel darted at her uncle, but she said nothing. Mr. Rose was not contradicted in his own house by anyone. ”