CHAPTER XXIII
LEE returned to her father-in-law more slowly than she had advanced upon the enemy. She longed desperately for Cecil, but he was the last person in whom she could confide.
Lord Barnstaple opened the door for her.
“How pale you are!” he said. “I suppose I sent you to about the nastiest interview of your life.”
“Oh. I got the best of her. She was screaming about the room and I got tired of it and nearly shook the life out of her.”
Lord Barnstaple laughed with genuine delight. “I knew she’d never get the best of you,” he cried. “I knew you’d trounce her. Well, what else?”
“She promised to tell Mr. Pix he must go to-night.”
“Ah, you did manage her. How did you do it?”
“I told her I’d tell him if she didn’t.”
“Good! But of course she’ll get back at us. What’s she got up her sleeve?”
“I don’t think she knows herself. She’s too excited. I think she’s upset about a good many things. She seems to have been getting bad news from Chicago this last week or two.”
“Ah!” Lord Barnstaple walked over to the window. He turned about in a moment.
“I have felt a crash in the air for a long time,” he said pinching his lips. “But this last year or two her affairs seemed to take a new start, and of course her fortune was a large one and could stand a good deal of strain. But if she goes to pieces——” he spread out his hands.
“If Cecil and I could only live here all the year round we could keep up the Abbey in a way, particularly if you rented the shootings; but our six months in town take fully two thousand——”
“There’s no alternative, I’m afraid: we’ll all have to get out.”
“But you wouldn’t sell it?”
“I shall have to talk it over with Cecil. The rental would pay the expenses of the place; but I can’t live forever, and when I give place to him the death duties will make a large hole in his private fortune. I have a good many sins to repent of when my time comes.”
He had turned very pale, and he looked very harassed. Lee did not fling her arms round his neck as she might once have done, but she took his hand and patted it.
“You and Cecil and I can always be happy together, even without the Abbey,” she said. “If Emmy really loses her money she will run away with Mr. Pix or somebody. We three will live together, and forget all about her. And we won’t be really poor.”
Lord Barnstaple kissed her and patted her cheek, but his brow did not clear.
“I am glad Cecil has you,” he said, “the time maycome when he will need you badly. He loves the Abbey—more than I have done, I suppose, or I should have taken more pains to keep it.”
Lee felt half inclined to tell him of Randolph’s promise; but sometimes she thought she knew Randolph, and sometimes she was sure she did not. She had no right to raise hopes, which converse potentialities so nicely balanced. Then she bethought herself of Emmy’s last shot, which had passed out of her memory for the moment. She must speak of it to some one.
“She said something terrible to me just before I left. I’d like to ask you about it.”
“Do. Why didn’t you give her another shaking?”
“I was knocked out: it took all my energies to keep her from seeing it. She said that Abbey lands were cursed, and never descended from father to son.”
Lord Barnstaple dropped her hand and walked to the window again.
“It has been a curious series of coincidences in our case,” he said, “but as our lands were not cursed more vigorously than the others, and as a good many of the others have gone scot free or nearly so, we always hope for better luck next time. There is really no reason why our luck shouldn’t change any day. The old brutes ought to be satisfied, particularly as we’ve taken such good care of their bones.”
“Well, if the Abbey has to go, I hope the next people will be haunted out of it,” said Lee viciously. “I must go and dress for dinner. Don’t worry; I have a fine piece of property, and it is likely to increasein value any day.” She felt justified in saying this much.
“You had an air of bringing good luck with you when you came. It was a fancy, of course, but I remember it impressed me.”
“That is the reason you didn’t scold me for not bringing a million, as Emmy did?”
“Didshe? The little beast! Well, go and dress.”