The Star-Gazers Part 3

"And you have told her you love her?--asked her to be your wife?"

"Good heavens, mother! are you gone mad too?--Madge--I never dreamed of such a thing."

"Why?" said Mrs Rolph, with a strange coldness.

"Because--because--"

"Yes; because you have taken a fancy to another," said Mrs Rolph sternly. "Robert, my son, it is not I who am mad, but you. Have you thought well over all this?"

"Don't ask questions," he said sulkily.

"I am your mother, sir, and I a.s.sert my right to question you on such a matter as this, as your poor father would have questioned you. But there is no need. I have done wrong, and yet I cannot blame myself, for how could I, his mother, know that my son would act otherwise than as a gentleman."

"Well, I never do."

"It is false. When Mary Hayle died, I bade her go in peace, for I would try to be a mother to the orphaned girl. Heaven knows, I tried to be.

I brought her here, and made her the humble companion of your cousin Madge. She shared her lessons; she was taught everything, that she might be able to earn her own livelihood as a governess."

"Well, I know all that."

"To be treated with ingrat.i.tude. My foolish son, when he comes home, must allow himself to be enmeshed by a cunning and deceitful woman."

"What bosh, mother!"

"But it is true. You do not dare to tell me you do not love Judith Hayle?"

"There is no dare in question. I like the girl."

"Unhappy boy! and she has led you on."

Captain Rolph whistled.

"Any telegram come for me? I sent a man to Brackley."

"Telegram!"

"Yes. I want to know about the footrace at Lilley Bridge."

Mrs Rolph gave her foot an impatient stamp.

"Listen to me, sir. This is no time for thinking about low sports."

"Hallo? Low?"

"Yes, sir; low. I have never interfered when I saw you taking so much interest in these pursuits. My son, I said to our friends, is an officer and a gentleman, and if he likes to encourage athleticism in the country by his presence at these meetings, he has a right to do so; but I have not liked it, though I have been silent. You know I have never interfered about your relaxations."

"No; you've been a splendid mater," he said laughingly.

"And I have been proud of my manly son; but when I see him stooping to folly--"

"Misapplied quotation, mater--when lovely woman stoops to folly."

"Be serious, sir. I will not have you degrade yourself in the eyes of the neighbourhood by such conduct, for it means disgrace. What would the Days say--Sir John and Glynne? If it had been she, I would not have cared."

"Let the Days be," he said gruffly.

"I will," said Mrs Rolph; "but listen, Rob, dear; think of poor Madge."

"Hang poor Madge! Look here, once for all, mother; I'm not a witch in Macbeth. I don't want three ounces of a red-haired wench--nor seven stone neither."

"Rob! Shame!"

"I'm not going to have Madge rammed down my throat. If I'm to marry, she's not in the running."

"What? when you know my wishes?"

"Man marries to satisfy his own wishes, not his mother's. I have other ideas."

"Then what are they, sir?" said Mrs Rolph scornfully.

"That's my business," he said, taking out his cigar-case.

"Then, am I to understand that you intend to form an alliance with the family of our keeper?" said Mrs Rolph sarcastically.

"Bah!" roared her son fiercely; and he strode out of the room and banged the door.

"Gone!" cried Mrs Rolph, wringing her hands and making her rings crackle one against the other. "I was mad to have the wretched girl here. What fools we women are."

Her son was saying precisely the same as he marched away.

"Does she think me mad?" he growled. "Marry freckle-faced Madge!--form an alliance with Ben Hayle's Judy! Not quite such a fool. I'll go and do it, and show the old girl a trick worth two of that. She's as clean-limbed a girl as ever stepped, and there's a look of breed in her that I like. Must marry, I suppose. Ck! For the sake of the estate, join the two then--I will--at once. It will stop their mouths at home, and make an end of the Madge business. She'll be all right, and begin kissing and hugging her and calling her dearest in a week. That's the way to clear that hedge, so here goes."

He stopped, took a short run and cleared the hedge at the side of the lane in reality to begin with, before striking off through one of the adjacent fir woods, so as to reach the sandy lanes and wild common on the way to Brackley.

Volume 1, Chapter III.

CONCERNING VIRGO AND GEMINI.

"And what does Glynne say?"

"Well, Sir John, she don't say much; it isn't her way to say a deal."

"Humph! No; you're quite right. But I should have thought that she would have said a good deal upon an occasion like this."

"Yes, I thought she would have roused up a little more; but she has been very quiet ever since I went into training for the event."

"Hang it all, Rolph, don't talk about marriage as if it were a bit of athletic sport."

"No, of course not. It was a slip."