Lady St. Craye

“ Davenal, scarcely understanding in his surprise. "Oswald Cray true! Yes, Lady Oswald. Never man lived yet more honestly true than Oswald Cray."
He looked towards Oswald Cray as he spoke, pacing the broad middle walk with his son and Sara; at the calm good face with its earnest expression, every line, every feature speaking truth and honour; and the doctor's judgment re-echoed his words.
"Yes, Lady Oswald, he is a true man, whatever else he may be." ”

“ At any rate, there are no lives lost."
Sara's heart breathed a word of thankfulness. "Did you see Lady Oswald?" she asked. "She went to Hildon this afternoon, and Mr. Oswald Cray thought she must be in this train, returning."
"I did not see her," replied Mrs. Cray. "Lady Oswald in the train! I thought she never travelled by rail."
"She did this afternoon. One of her carriage-horses is ill. How thankful!--how thankful we must all be that it is no worse!" concluded Sara Davenal.
"Well, this is a fine ending to your wedding-jaunt!" exclaimed Miss Bettina. "What about your luggage, Caroline? ”

“ Mr. Cray made his contented but wondering way into the lounge. A tall and very elegant-looking young woman rose to her feet and came to meet him. Mr. Cray's eyes shone and his smile was wonderful.
“Sara!” he gasped. “Gee, this is great!”
“Dad!” she replied, saluting him on both cheeks. “You old dear!”
They went off arm in arm to a corner.
“To think of your being here to welcome me!” Mr. Cray murmured ecstatically.
“And why not?” the young lady replied. “If ever anyone deserved a welcome home, it's you. Twelve months' work in a hut in France is scarcely a holiday.” ”

“ You may be what you seem. I don't know. You handle the cards too slickly for my liking, and if you want to know my opinion of you, you can have it.”
“My dear Mrs. Green!” Mr. Cray faltered.
“Don't 'my dear' me!” that lady thundered, striking the table with her fist “I've formed my opinion of you, Mr. Cray. I believe you to be a professional gambler, and not one penny of my money do I part with.”
A sudden wave of emotion seemed to pass over the little company. Blanche Esholt's face was hidden in her handkerchief, Thomson's was buried in his arms. Mr. Cray himself was pained and humiliated. ”

“ Cray expressed his relief.
“We're pretty harmless, take us all round,” he ventured.
“You may or may not be,” the lady replied. “I have never allowed a man to take any liberties with me. I don't trust them. At the same time,” she went on, “a man has his place in a woman's life, and because I have chosen to keep him outside mine for the last fourteen years, that does not necessarily mean that I intend to preserve the same attitude for the rest of my life. Indeed, the contrary is the case. I intend to cultivate men friends.” ”

“ A sweet-looking young lady whose manner was timid and hesitating, as if she did not like to advance further into the room. You need not be told that it was Sara Davenal. She had wished to remain in the fly while Mrs. Cray came up; but Mrs. Cray had insisted on being accompanied by her indoors, and Sara was obliged to yield, for she was unable to give any good reason against it. How could she hint at the relations which had once existed between her and Mr. Oswald Cray?--at the love that lingered still?
"He's as well as a body can be ”

“ It has cost a good lady her life; I know that. She had her little tempers and her fidgety ways, poor dear lady, but she was one of the best of mistresses. It's just as if they had done it to kill her."
Did the words grate on the ear of Oswald Cray?--as though they bore all too significant a meaning. Not yet; not quite yet. This testimony of the maid's had confirmed beyond doubt that Dr. Davenal had been the chief and acting surgeon: how then reconcile that fact with the opinion expressed to him not many hours before the death? ”

“ Mark Cray, as he walked home with his wife afterwards, remarked that it was "slow." But nobody dreamt of anything like fear for the doctor, save his daughter and the Reverend Mr. Stephenson.
"I can never be sufficiently grateful to you, sir," murmured the clergyman, as he was leaving. "Neither can my brother. You have done for us what I believe no other man living would have done. May Heaven reward you, and restore you to health and strength!" ”

“ Esholt was deathly pale. “I have your four aces, sir, he announced. “I kept three and a kicker.”
“You may marry,” Mr. Cray suggested.
Mrs. Richard Green looked at him very hard.
“I may,” she admitted. “On the other hand, I may not. I am a woman who is free from all prejudices. Travel has broadened my mind. My outlook is different from other women's. Marriage has its advantages and disadvantages. Besides, the person whom I might choose,” she went on, still looking fixedly at Mr. Cray, “might be a married man.”
“Sure!” Mr. Cray assented, a little shaken. ”

“ Mrs. Cray, gay in attire, wearied in countenance, was quite alone. She wore a low evening dress of blue silk, with lace and fringes and trimmings; and blue ribbons in her hair. Rather more dress than is necessary for a quiet evening at home; but she was young and pretty and a bride, and--very fond of finery in any shape. Her weary face lighted up with smiles as she saw Oswald and rose to greet him: very, very pretty did she look then.
"I am so glad to see you! I had grown tired, waiting for Mark. ”

“ Davenal, could have become known to Oswald Cray. If so--why, then, in his high honour, his sensitive pride, he had perhaps decided that she was no fit wife for him. And Sara could not say that he had so decided unjustifiably. Whatever the cause, they were separated.
They were separated. And the sunshine of her life was over. Oh, the bitter anguish that it cost! There is no pain, no anguish, that this world and its many troubles can bring, like unto it--the finding one false, upon whom love, in all the freshness of its first feeling, has been lavished. The bright green of life's verdure is gone ”

“ Miss Bettina stared hopelessly. "Oswald Cray got you out of the mine! What are you talking of?"
"Out of the carriage, aunt; not out of the mine. That's in Wales."
"Do you suppose I thought it was in London?" retorted offended Miss Bettina. "You'll be obligingly informing me where London is next. Where is Mark Cray?"
"No one seems to know. His wife does not; except that he said to her he might have to go down to Wales this evening, and she was not to mention it. She is in great uncertainty and distress."
"What's she in?"
"Uncertainty, distress," repeated Sara. "She is as frightened as a child. ”

“ Oswald Cray whom you have seen: but the stare from the baronet's carriage was not less stony than before.
A twelvemonth more, when Oswald could just begin to run about in his pretty white frocks, and get his sturdy legs into grief, his hands into mischief, another child was born, and died. Poor Mrs. Cray died herself a few weeks afterwards. People said she had grown weak, fretting after Thorndyke, after her father and mother, lamenting their hardness, regretting her own disobedience; but people are prone to talk, and often say things for which there's not a shadow of foundation. ”

“ It was neither his fault nor mine; it--it was the fault of circumstances."
"Ah!" said the doctor, "a foolish quarrel. But I had thought both of you superior to it. Should the cloud ever pass away, and he wish to make you his wife, remember that you have my full and free approbation--that my blessing would go with it. In spite of his pride and his caprice, I like Oswald Cray."
"It never will pass away," she interrupted, almost with vehemence. "It is a thing impossible. We have bidden adieu to all that for ever." ”

“ Lady Oswald, in my opinion, would prove an unsafe subject for chloroform."
"She will make so much of the pain."
"Better that she should make much of it--ay, and feel it--than that any risk should be run. I cannot allow chloroform to be given to Lady Oswald."
Mark Cray demurred: not outwardly, for he said not another word; but inwardly. He was of that class of men who disbelieve what they cannot see. Some of us will look into a man's face and read his character, read him for what he is, as surely and unerringly as we read the pages of a book ”

“ Sara re-locked the desk; and still she could not form any very definite idea of what Edward's crime had been. The letter to Mr. Alfred King and the letter to Oswald Cray she kept out, for they must be posted ere the day should close. She went out herself at dusk and posted them; whatever duty lay before her, she felt that she must go about it, shrinking from none. Girl though she was in years, she was beginning to feel old in sorrow: no teacher is like unto it. There are woes that bring more experience to the heart in the first night of their falling than will half a lifetime of smooth years. ”

“ But Dr. Davenal did not satisfy him: not that he had any particular motive for observing reticence on the point. "It is of no consequence. I must have been mistaken," was all he said.
"You will not forbid her to me, sir?" pleaded Mr. Cray.
A spasm of pain passed across the face of Dr. Davenal; the words had called up bitter recollections.
"So long as I live I shall never forbid a marriage to any over whom I hold control," he said, in a tone of subdued anguish; and Mark Cray knew where the sting had pointed, and wished in his good-nature he had not put the question. ”

“ For the last twelvemonth, since Oswald Cray had become intimate at their house, her love for him had been gradually growing into being: that subtle understanding, never to be explained or accounted for, which draws together two human hearts, and only those two, the one for the other, of all the whole world, life finding life, had arisen between them. Oswald Cray had never spoken or hinted at his feelings until the time when Dr. Davenal honestly avowed to him that he had fancied he cared for Caroline: that had brought forth the one word--and it was little more--to Sara. ”

“ It was his custom to take down the names of his patients ere he entered upon their cases, and he looked again at the memorandum-book before him. "Cray."
"Your husband is not the Mr. Cray who was connected with the Great Chwddyn Mine!" he exclaimed. "Marcus Cray?"
She was startled to tremor. There was no cause for it, of course the fact of its being known that she was Mark's wife could not result in their taking him. But these unpleasant recognitions do bring a fear with them, startling as it is vague.
"Don't be alarmed," said the surgeon kindly, discerning the exact state of the case. ”

“ Cray in a grievous state of perplexity and of distress: for they had spoken of "ruin" as connected with the mine. She was one of those who cannot bear suspense: she had no patience; no endurance, not even for an hour. In a tumult of hurry and emotion, she had her carriage brought round, called for Sara Davenal, to whom, however, she did not tell what had taken place, and drove on to the City almost as fast as those cabs had driven, to get an explanation of Mark. ”

“ Cray grunted.
“Truth is truth, though she's my daughter,” continued Mr. Rose, vaguely. “She's too good-looking. Sometimes when I've taken her up to market I've seen the folks fair turn their backs on the cattle and stare at her instead.”
Mr. Cray sniffed; louder, perhaps, than he had intended. “Beautiful that rose-bush smells,” he remarked, as his friend turned and eyed him.
“What is the consequence?” demanded the farmer, relaxing his gaze. “She looks in the glass and sees herself, and then she gets miserable and uppish because there ain't nobody in these parts good enough for her to marry.” ”

“ Cray listened in rebellious silence.
“Your great country, Mr. Cray,” she wound up, “has shown the world what it thinks of liquor.”
“Because they cheated,” he answered gravely.
“In her way she has,” Mr. Cray acknowledged. “In my small way, I shall continue to show the world what I think of it. Steward, hurry up with that wine.”
Mrs. Green shook her head but her smile was indulgent.
“Obstinate!” she murmured. “We will have a little talk after dinner, Mr. Cray. I will make you a little coffee up on deck.”
“I never drink coffee,” her victim lied. “I always take brandy after my meals.” ”

“ Sara contrived to draw behind, and began plucking one of the flowers, already closing to the night. He resumed carelessly, as if conscious that his tones had been too earnest for general ears.
"Men do marry for the most part in this good old-fashioned land of ours, and my turn may come some time. I think our time is nearly up, Davenal."
The captain took out his watch. "In a minute or two. We can walk it in ten minutes, if we put out our best speed."
As they went in, Oswald Cray looked round for Sara, and found she had not followed them. He turned back to her. ”

“ It was the embodiment of Charlotte Cray, he had no doubt of that; but how could he reconcile the fact of her being there with the damp clods he had seen piled upon her grave, with the certificate of death, and the doctor’s and landlady’s assertion that they had watched her last moments?
At last he prepared, with desperate energy, to turn the handle of the door. At that moment the attention of the more frivolous of the clerks was directed from his actions by the entrance of an uncommonly pretty woman at the other end of the outer office. ”

“ Unless—”
“Unless what?”
“Unless the man’s ready for them. Then, it’s a pat on the back and a clean bill of health for you; and, ‘Thanks, my noble radio man; your message was music to our honest ears,’ for me.” Cray stopped.
“And so—”
Cray leaned closer.
“Get this. There’s two men we ain’t searched yet—Drake and Quayle. Either one, mebbe—”
The old captain rose.
“We’ll start with Quayle, eh?” He made for the door, but he stopped, turned. “You put that into my head, damn ye!”
“What if I did?” Cray cried. “What if I did? Since you have no detective aboard, what price Cray, hey?” ”