Parlous Times Part 49

"You know of this marriage then?"

"Yes--I'm even popularly supposed to be engaged to the bride!"

"But you are not--tell me you are not."

"Of course I'm not--I've never had the slightest interest in her, except as a friend."

"You relieve me immensely. To lay such charges at the door of one you loved--to break your heart-- I could not have done it."

"You could not do it in any event--to a woman of her nature such things would be impossible. I a.s.sure you, it is some grievous mistake."

She shook her head.

"Why should my husband be a witness to this secret marriage?"

"Was he----?"

"s.h.!.+" she said, "he is coming," and disappeared so silently into the bushes that she seemed to fade away from his sight. A moment later, the dry leaves crackled under a man's foot, and Colonel Darcy stood before him.

"We have not had our little meeting yet, Mr. Stanley," he said abruptly.

"When do you leave this vicinity, Colonel Darcy?" asked the Secretary, ignoring the other's remark.

"When you do. Till then I remain here to guard my honour."

"You surely are not trying to live up to that absurd fable!"

"Why not, when my wife has this moment left you?"

"You have sharp eyes, Colonel," replied the Secretary, turning on his heel, and walking towards the house.

"I need to have, Mr. Stanley," remarked the other, as he watched him go.

"Kent-Lauriston," said the Secretary, when they were alone after lunch, "affairs have taken a startling turn since I last saw you."

"I think so myself."

"Have you been making discoveries?"

"I don't know that they can be dignified by that name; but tell me of yours."

"Madame Darcy a.s.sures me that the letters which she holds, and on which she bases her case against her husband, are in the same handwriting as the name of Lady Isabelle, in the parish register."

"Lady Isabelle!"

"Yes. It's absurd, isn't it?"

"Perfectly so--you may take my word for it. But do you a.s.sure me that she said 'Lady Isabelle'?"

"We mentioned no names, of course. She said that the bride's signature corresponded--it's the same thing."

"Ah, I see. I think you've made a little mistake about this affair, my boy. I've seen the register myself."

"Good Heavens! You don't mean--you can't----!" exclaimed Stanley, a sickening suspicion dominating his mind.

"I mean," replied Kent-Lauriston, "that the maiden name of the bride, as written there, is not Isabelle McLane, but Isabelle Fitzgerald."

CHAPTER XXVIII

TWO QUESTIONS

Kent-Lauriston fully realised that the strong hold which he possessed over the Secretary rested, more than anything else, on the fact that his opinions were entirely reliable; and it was most important that Stanley's confidence in his friend's _dicta_ should remain unimpaired, if that friend hoped to be able to guide him. Therefore, much as the Englishman would have liked to voice his suspicions for the Secretary's benefit, he determined to keep silence till he had full verification of his conjectures, and for this purpose he sought out Madame Darcy.

He found her at home, and she welcomed him courteously.

"Will you think me very presuming," he said, "to have called on you in the interests of a mutual friend of ours, Mr. Stanley?"

"Any friend of Mr. Stanley's can claim and receive friends.h.i.+p of me,"

she replied, a beautiful light coming over her expressive face, "for he has done me kindnesses that I can never forget or repay."

"It is in virtue of that, that I've ventured to intrude myself upon you this afternoon. You have, like myself, a great interest in his welfare, I'm sure, and I am come to make common cause with you for his good."

"You could have come to no one more willing--but will you do me the honour to accept a seat in the garden, where we can chat more at leisure."

"I shall be charmed," he said, and she led the way to a rustic bench, under the spreading branches of a gnarled, old apple-tree.

"Our friend makes no secrets of his own affairs from me, you must understand," Kent-Lauriston began, after a.s.suring himself that they were alone, "and I imagine, from what he's said, that he's given you some inkling of his heart troubles."

"Yes," she said, "he hinted to me in London that he had some affair under consideration; but I do not think he felt deeply--as he should have felt. I trust it's not turned out seriously."

"Not as yet, I'm glad to say--but he's in some danger; and, believe me, you could not be doing him a greater service, than in helping to ward off this peril, which would be the ruin of his life."

"Indeed, yes,--but what means have I?"

"I believe you have it in your power to prove that the woman who has bewitched him, is unworthy of his love. Let him realise this and he is saved."

"But, surely, you're not alluding to the lady who formed our topic of conversation this morning?"

"I fear I am."

"But Mr. Stanley a.s.sured me that she was nothing to him."

"You were talking at cross purposes, and unintentionally deceiving each other."