CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XV.

LADY GAYNOR SHOWS HER HAND.

A week passed, and Lady Elaine had been permitted to indulge in almost perfect seclusion, but at length a message was sent to her announcing that Lady Gaynor wished to see her in herboudoir.

The servant who delivered it glanced pityingly at the black-robed figure, and told the shabbily-dressed butler a little later that the atmosphere would soon be sultry.

The butler smiled, as only an upper servant can smile, and remarked:

“We are hall hinterested in this last spec., John. Three years’ money owin’ to me, an’ not a stitch to my back, hardly. If her ladyship hadn’t hev explained, it meant a county court case for her.”

John smirked.

“It’s hin theboudoir, eh?” continued the butler. “Then that’s hominous.”

“How blood do tell,” said the footman. “I was hordered to deliver the message peremptory like, and you should hev seen the beautiful young lady’s eyes flash!”

“Look ’ere, don’t you take sides with her, John, because my back pay depends hon the winnin’ side being Lady Gaynor.”

The footman’s manner had seemed extremely rude to Lady Elaine, and Nina had strongly resented it by closing the door in his face.

It is true that Elaine had met one or two kindly inquiries with an exasperating indifference, and Lady Gaynor decided that it was time to show her authority.

Fully understanding that the servant’s manner wasbut a reflection of that of his mistress, Lady Elaine promptly attended the summons, her blood raised to a white heat of indignation.

She paused momentarily at the half-open door of her ladyship’sboudoir, and immediately heard the soft, cooing tones of the woman she hated and distrusted.

“Is that you, child? Come in, and close the door after you. I am far from feeling well this morning, and the tiresome viscount has written to say that he is coming to dinner to-day. Will you sit down, please, Lady Elaine? Nothing makes me so uncomfortable as to see my friends standing about the rooms when I wish to talk to them.”

She sighed, and arranged the folds of her dirty dressing-gown, watching the girl at the same time from the corners of her eyes.

“Lady Gaynor,” Elaine said, haughtily, “I am here to learn what it is you wish to communicate to me. Mind you, I am not to be deceived by this outward complaisance after your bold attempt to humiliate me in the eyes of your servants!”

For a few moments the cool woman of the world was taken completely off her guard.

“My dear Elaine,” she said, aghast, “whatever are you driving at?”

Inwardly she reflected: “I have heard that she has a temper of her own, but it must be crushed! Backed by strong friends and perfect independence, the task might be a difficult one, but now—faugh!”

She eyed the angry girl with a glance that gradually deepened into a smile of bitterest contempt.

“Is it to be open warfare between us, Lady Elaine?” she asked, sneeringly, a baleful light in her deep-set eyes. “As you appear to have taken the initiative, I must accept the impudent challenge!”

“It is as well that we should at once understand each other,” the earl’s daughter replied, icily.

“I agree with you there perfectly, my lady, and for that very reason I sent for you here. My frankness may appear almost brutal, but you yourself have forced me to cease from paltering with words. My lady of Seabright, you must forget that you are the daughter of an earl, and remember that you are practically little better than a pauper upon my bounty.”

“Stop!”

Elaine advanced one step, with flashing eyes.

“Who dares to beard me on my own ground!” screamed Lady Gaynor, losing all control of herself. “Girl, I am your legal guardian, and will force you into obedience! Do you think that I will permit my guests to be insulted as you insulted Miss Nugent? Do you think that I will endure your moping away in silence, with a maid dancing attendance upon you at my expense? What is your paltry five hundred a year? It will not keep personal attendants and buy you handsome clothes. I say that your maid shall be dismissed this very day; I insist that you appear downstairs at my request, and amuse my guests. I am determined to exercise my full authority, and since you have treated the viscount so shamefully I am sure that he will exact a similar obedience.”

At the end of her tirade she rose to her feet, her face purple with unbridled rage, and shook both her tightly-clinched hands at the astonished girl.

“Have you finished?” Lady Elaine asked, calmly. “I do not forget that the blood of a hundred earls flows in my veins! I am not to be frightened by a creature like you. Your melodramatic ravings are more amusing than otherwise. I need say little more. I ignore your commands and wishes alike, because I despise you for an unprincipledadventuress. You must not imagine that I am wholly without friends, and I give you warning that I shall quit the Lodge to-day!”

With a glance of withering contempt, Lady Elaine swept from the room. She hurried to her own apartments, and commanded Nina to begin packing at once.

“I have quarreled with Lady Gaynor,” she said, “and we cannot remain here another hour. Oh, Nina, I am in great trouble, and now I want your help and sympathy. The mistress of this place has insulted me cruelly, and I must seek the advice of Mr. Worboys, our old family lawyer, at the earliest possible moment.”

“And where shall we go to, my lady?” ventured Nina.

“To London—to a hotel. I have five hundred pounds a year, surely they cannot deprive me of that! Then we will find a comfortable little home somewhere, Nina, and you shall stay with me as long as you like—not as a mere servant—but as a friend, the most faithful friend I have ever had.”

Nina’s face flushed with pleasure, and she clapped her hands together joyously.

“Oh, my lady, won’t that be nice! But what a shame for all your fortune to go because of that wretched will.”

“Hush, Nina; I never wish to think of it again. Never before was a poor mortal so afflicted as I, but beyond the black clouds of the present I have faith that there is a golden promise that will blossom into glorious fruition. I know that my lover will come back to me some day—and I shall wait—even if it is until I am old and gray. Bitter as my sorrows have been, the most dreadful blow has not fallen. There is no proof that Sir Harold has been false to me. If this were so, then I should be stricken with death, indeed!”

Lady Elaine shed a few tears, then, with rapid anddecisive movements, assisted her maid to turn out the contents of drawers and wardrobes, and pack them into her traveling trunks.

In the meantime, Lady Gaynor had sent an urgent telegram to the viscount, who was dutifully visiting his octogenarian uncle, the Duke of Rothwell. The duke’s country seat was within twenty miles of Ashbourne, and the viscount had many reasons for trying to conciliate the old gentleman. In the first place, his grace had complete control of every acre of his possessions. There was not a square yard of entail, and the viscount had never been a favorite with his uncle.

When the telegram arrived, Rivington was reading that morning’sTimesto the Duke of Rothwell. The day was bright and warm, and they were sunning themselves on one of the terraces that overlooked miles of undulating woodland.

“What is that, Henry?” asked his grace, suspiciously.

“Lady Gaynor desires my immediate presence at the Lodge,” replied Rivington, knitting his brows.

“Lady Gaynor!” echoed the duke, contemptuously. “You must break with that woman, Henry. Let me see the telegram.”

Rivington reluctantly handed the slip of pink paper to his uncle, who slowly read:

You must come at once. Trouble with the girl.—Gaynor.

You must come at once. Trouble with the girl.—Gaynor.

“Trouble with the girl,” repeated the duke, suspiciously. “What does that mean? No deception, please. I endured quite enough of that in your young days, when you used money that did not belong to you. Sometimes I think that I have been a fool to take you back again and make you a handsome allowance. It is hard to believe in the reformation of a blackleg and a gambler. But my will is not yet made in your favor, and all dependsupon your marriage with Lady Elaine Seabright. After that there is some hope for you!”

“Uncle!” pleaded Rivington. “How unkind you are!”

“The telegram, the telegram!” was the interruption.

“Oh, that is nothing. The facts are simple. Of course, everybody is aware of Lady Gaynor’s crippled condition so far as finances go, and I recently recommended to her care the—er—sister of a fellow I know, who suffers with periodical attacks of mild insanity—the result of a carriage accident. Her brother was willing to pay a decent sum to any one who would take particular care of the girl until she was quite recovered, and I recommended Lady Gaynor. That is all there is in it. It is a great nuisance at all events, just now.”

“H’m! Is that the truth?” the duke grunted.

“My dear uncle,” exclaimed Rivington, distressfully, “it pains me beyond measure that you should continue to doubt me.”

“Can you wonder at it? Well, I suppose that you must leave me. If it was anywhere but Lady Gaynor’s place I would go with you. I can’t think what possessed the Earl of Seabright when he mixed that woman up with his affairs. I must see Lady Elaine as soon as she has got over her spell of grief. I must hear from her own lips that she intends to marry you, and then you may depend upon getting something from me besides the title. I won’t believe one word of the story until her ladyship confirms it. It will ever be a mystery to me how you managed to ingratiate yourself in the Earl of Seabright’s good graces. He was no fool, and must have known what a worthless scoundrel you were in your younger days. I would see you hanged before you should marry a daughter of mine, no matter how much you promised to reform. I have no belief in reformed rakes. Confound it, I am almost disposed to put a stop to this abominablemarriage, but I suppose that Lady Elaine knows her own business best. There never is any accounting for taste—particularly a woman’s! Not only are you deficient in what I consider the ordinary attributes of manhood, but you are small and insignificant. You will be the most undignified Duke of Rothwell that has ever borne the title. Why the deuce didn’t I marry myself, I wonder!”

Inwardly the viscount was fuming. He hated his uncle, and cursed Lady Gaynor for a fool. Why had she sent the insane telegram? What had she done to Lady Elaine?

When once beyond the notice of the old duke, his haste became almost frantic. He helped the groom to saddle a horse, and then galloped away as though upon an errand of life and death.

In less than two hours he was pacing Lady Gaynor’s drawing-room, hot, dust-stained and angry; and when her ladyship appeared his irritability burst out.

“Well! Until now I have looked upon you as a woman of sense. That telegram nearly exploded the whole business to the duke!”

“Why should the duke see it?”

“See it he did. Now for the trouble. What is the matter?” he demanded.

“My lady is packing up. She refuses to remain here longer, and, of course, we must use our authority.”

“Use our authority,” he sneered. “I suppose you have been using your infernal temper, woman-like! Where is your tact? A girl of Lady Elaine’s spirit would submit to no living woman—not even you. It appears that I have been depending upon a broken reed!”

“What was I to do? I have tried kindness in vain, and I consider that——”

“Well, please don’t employ your extraordinary considering powers again,” Rivington interrupted savagely.“My very life depends upon my marriage with Lady Elaine. If the duke discovers that he has been deceived I shall be a titled pauper. I lose both fortunes—while you will find a resting place from your labors in one of her majesty’s prisons. It is a serious offense to purchase thousands of pounds’ worth of jewelry on credit and to pawn it the same day.”

Lady Gaynor was deathly pale.

“Now,” he continued, a little more calmly, “tell me exactly what has taken place.”

“If you persist in your taunts,” she told him, “I may have something to say. As for this girl, I tell you that it is impossible to manage her, and the marriage will have to be forced. Money will do anything. I repeat that I have tried kindness in vain, and because I remonstrated with her this morning she flew into a temper, and declared her intention of quitting the Lodge at once. As her legal guardians we must exercise our authority.”

He did not reply immediately, but continued to pace the floor. At last he came to a standstill, and said:

“Lady Elaine will not be coerced into anything, and it was a mistake to bring her here at all. Your suggestion of compelling her to suitably respond to the marriage lines must only be adopted as a last desperate resort. I do not even wish to hear you hint at the means to be employed at present, because, independently of what the marriage means to me, I honestly love the earl’s daughter.”

Lady Gaynor laughed doubtfully.

“Now,” continued Rivington, without deigning to notice the interruption, “for the present I shall assume active control of affairs, and Lady Elaine will be permitted to follow her own devices. I shall even advise her to hasten her departure, and constitute myself her guide and protector. Apparently you and I will be upon very bad terms. In this way I shall enlist her confidence, andalso keep her in sight. If my plan fails, well, then we must have recourse to something which requires the nerve of a bad woman to formulate and successfully accomplish.”

“Thank you!” said Lady Gaynor.

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