Thereby Hangs a Tale Part 46

"Yes, sir, I did; and you had no right to do so."

"How dare you speak to me like that, sir?" roared Trevor; and thoroughly roused now, he caught the young keeper by the throat, and for a few moments the ferns were trampled under foot as they wrestled together, till the veins stood up in knots in Humphrey's white forehead, as his hat fell off, and, grinding his teeth together, he put out his strength, and, with all the skill of a Cornish wrestler, threw Trevor heavily on his back.

"You would have it," said the keeper, hoa.r.s.ely. "You made me forget my place; so don't blame me for it. Have I hurt you, sir?"

The rage had departed as quickly as it came, and the young man went down on one knee by Trevor, who was half-stunned, but recovered himself quickly, and got up.

"No. I'm not much hurt," he said, hoa.r.s.ely.

"You made me do it, sir," said Humphrey, pitifully. "You shouldn't have laid hands on me, sir--it made me mad."

"Made you mad!" said Trevor, angrily. "This is a pretty way to serve your master."

"You're no master of mine, sir, from now," cried Humphrey. "I can't stand to serve you no more. I'd have stuck to you, sir, through thick and thin, if you'd been a gentleman to me, but--"

"Do you dare to say I've not been a gentleman to you, you scoundrel?"

cried Trevor, menacingly, as he clenched his fists.

"Now, don't 'ee, sir," cried Humphrey, appealingly. "I don't want to hurt you, and if you drive me to it I shall do you a mischief."

"You thick-headed, jealous dolt!" cried Trevor, restraining himself with difficulty. "How can you be such an a.s.s?"

"I don't blame you, sir," cried Humphrey, "not so much as that silly old woman who has set it all going."

"Then it is all true?" cried Trevor, angrily. "Humphrey," he said, "you're as great a fool as that mother of yours; and--there, I'll speak out, though you don't deserve it: as to little Polly, you great dolt, I never said a tender word to her in my life."

"Why, I saw you with her hand in yours, not ten minutes ago," cried Humphrey, indignantly.

"I've been calling you fool and dolt, Humphrey," said Trevor, cooling down, "when I've been both to let my pa.s.sion get the better of me, as it has. There's a wretched mistake over this altogether; and more mischief done," he continued, bitterly, "than you can imagine. You think, then, that Mrs Lloyd has that idea in her head?"

"Think, sir!" cried the keeper, hotly, "I know it. Hasn't she forbidden me to speak to the poor girl? Hasn't she half-broken her heart?"

"Humphrey," said Trevor, "you had good reason for feeling angry, but not with me."

Humphrey looked at him searchingly.

"You doubt me?" said Trevor.

"Will you say it again, sir?" cried the young man, pitifully--"will you swear it?"

"I give you my word of honour as a gentleman, Humphrey, that I have never given the girl a thought; and that this afternoon, when I spoke to her, it was to ask her if she came there to meet you; and she owned her aunt had sent her."

"Master d.i.c.k--Master d.i.c.k!" cried the young man in a choking voice, "will you forgive me, sir? If I had known that, sir, I'd sooner have cut my right hand off than have done what I did."

"It was all a mistake, Humphrey. There--that will do."

"But I said, sir, you were no master of mine--Master d.i.c.k--Mr Trevor, sir. We were boys together here--at the old place--don't send me away!"

"There, go now; that will do. Yes, it's all right, Humphrey. I'm not angry. Send you away? No, certainly not; only go now, and don't make a scene," said Trevor, incoherently, his eyes the while turned in another direction; for he had heard footsteps, and at the turn of the lane he could see through the trees that Mr Mervyn was coming, with his two companions.

Trevor hurried off through the wood, so as to gain the path a hundred yards in advance, and then he sauntered along so as to meet them.

"If I can get a few words with her I can explain," he said; and then they were close at hand.

"Ah, Mr Trevor!" cried Mervyn, gaily, for he seemed elated, and he held out his hand.

Before Trevor could take it, Fin had looked straight before her and marched on, her little lips pinched together, and her arm tight in that of her sister; while Tiny met Trevor's gaze in one short, sad look-- piteous, reproachful, and heartbroken--before she hurried away.

Volume 2, Chapter XII.

INVITATIONS.

Trevor returned home in no very enviable frame of mind. The look Tiny Rea had given him troubled him more than he could express, and he felt ready to rail at Fortune for the tricks she had played him. Old Lloyd came, smiling and deferential, into the room with some letters, which his master s.n.a.t.c.hed up and threw on the table.

"In which room are Captain Vanleigh and Sir Felix?"

"I think they're gone up to Tolcarne, sir," said the butler.

Worse and worse: they were evidently liked there, too, and that was the reason why they prolonged their stay without a word of leaving.

"Is there anything I can get for you, sir?" said the butler.

"No," said Trevor, sharply.

And he walked out of the room, to encounter Mrs Lloyd, who was ready to smile and give him a curtsey; but he pa.s.sed her with such an expression of anger that the blood flushed into her face, and she stood looking after him as, with his letters crumpled in his hand, he walked out into the grounds, to think over what he should next do.

"I'll send them both away," he thought. "That old woman's insolence is intolerable. It's plain enough. Pratt's right. Where is the little humbug? Out of the way just when I want him. I'll give that old woman such a setting down one of these days--but I have not time now."

He sat very still for a time, thinking of what he should do--Tiny's soft eyes haunting him the while, with their sad reproachful look.

He had seen very little of her, but, sailor-like, his heart had gone with a bound to her who had won it; and he was even now accusing himself of being dilatory in his love.

"Yes," he said, "I do love her, and very dearly. I'll see her, tell her frankly all, take her into my counsel, and she will believe me. I'm sure she will, and forgive me too. Humph! Forgive me for doing nothing. But I must talk to the old gentleman--propose in due form, ask his permission to visit his daughter, and the rest of it. Heigho! what a lot of formality there is in this life! I think I may cope with her, though. She looked so gently reproachful I could wait; but no, I mustn't do that. I'll call this afternoon and suffer the griffin. But those two fellows, why should they go up this morning? Evident that they did not see the ladies, for they were out. No wonder Van takes to making calls, seeing how I've neglected him and Flick. I wish Pratt were here. Where did he go?"

"Thy slave obeys," said Pratt, who had approached un.o.bserved upon the soft turf! "Should you have liked Van to hear what you said just now?"

"No. Was I talking aloud?" said Trevor.

"You were, and very fast," was the reply.

"But what's the matter, Franky? What's the letter?"

And he pointed to an open missive in his friend's hand.

"It's about that I've come to you," said Pratt. "Read."

Trevor took the note, glanced over it, and found it was an invitation to Mr Frank Pratt to dine at Tolcarne on the following Friday. This brought Trevor's thoughts back to the letters Lloyd had given him, and he hastily took them from his pocket, to find a similar invitation to the one Pratt had had placed in his hand.

"That's lucky," he said, brightening.