By Birth A Lady Part 15

"Motto?" said Laura inquiringly.

"Ya-as, bai Jove! the very one for you--just suited to the occasion: _Laissez-aller_. Do you understand?"

Laura looked at him meaningly, but made no reply, for they had reached the carriage.

Volume 1, Chapter XV.

CHARLEY'S FETE.

In spite of her annoyance, Laura's eyes sparkled when they reached the Court; for Sir Philip hurried to the carriage, welcoming the party most warmly, and, handing her out, he led her himself to the beautiful little kiosk, and then took her from place to place, according to her attentions that made more than one match-making mamma with marriageable daughters look meaningly at the same daughters, and then think of Charley Vining with a sigh.

But if Laura was in high glee, so was not Max, who had to stand by while Charley carried off Ella Bedford, Nelly laughingly fastening upon his other arm.

"A rude coa.r.s.e beast, bai Jove!" muttered Max elegantly, as he tried vainly to get the little b.u.t.ton of his glove secured. "Let him have a fall again, and see if I'll go to his help!"

"I shall come with you if I may," said Nelly demurely.

"To be sure!" laughed Charley, whose heart throbbed with pleasure as he felt--nay, hardly felt--the light pressure of the grey glove upon his arm. "Miss Bedford won't mind, I hope. Do you know, Miss Bedford, I'm rather glad you are with us? I'm almost afraid Nelly means some inroad upon my purse."

"No, I don't," said Nelly, "so don't be afraid;" and then she walked very demurely by their side, Charley encouraging her to stay upon observing Ella's constraint and troubled looks.

"She'd be off like a frightened pigeon--dove, I mean!" muttered Charley, as he looked down at the almost painful face beside him. But a little quiet conversation upon current topics seemed to set her more at ease, and, after a while, Hugh Lingon approaching, Charley Vining whispered, loudly enough, though, for Nelly to hear:

"Now I'm going, Miss Bedford, for here comes Nelly's intended. I hope you will play the _chaperone_ most stringently."

Nelly rewarded him with a sharp pinch as he left them, Hugh Lingon taking his place; and Ella, whose heart beat almost painfully, asking herself the reason why.

But Charley Vining had laid his plans that day, and he felt he must proceed with caution. So hurrying himself, he acted the part of host with admirable tact, picking out the ladies who seemed neglected, forming sets for croquet, handing refreshments, or escorting little parties to the lake-like river for boating; distributing himself, as it were, throughout the grounds, and at last interrupting a tete-a-tete between Laura and Hugh Lingon, who had soon forsaken the ladies left in his charge.

Laura commenced a little _minauderie_, professing to be unable to leave Mr Lingon; but she gave up directly she saw Charley's laugh, for she knew that it would be--nay, was--seen through. She knew Charley Vining to be different from most men of her acquaintance; and accepting his offer, she gladly took his arm, making the match-making mammas to whisper, as the handsome couple pa.s.sed through the grounds, "There, didn't I tell you so?" and then to gossip about how they had had their suspicions concerning the purpose of the fete.

But Laura's pleasure was but short-lived; for though Charley was pleasant, gay, and chatty, he was nothing more, and though he carefully avoided referring to the croquet-party, she felt that he was not as she could wish.

"He'll go back to her as soon as, with any decency, he can," she thought; and her teeth were set, and her fingers clenched, pressing the nails almost through her gloves, as she forced back a sigh.

But she soon cheered up, for she told herself it was not for long, and determined to try if gentleness would gain the day; she listened to all her companion said, striving the while, without being obtrusive, to obliterate her past words of anger.

Laura was wrong; for it was not for a considerable time, and until he had played cavalier to many a lady--winning the thanks and smiles of Sir Philip, who was delighted at his son's efforts--that he sought once more Ella Bedford, followed by Sir Philip's eyes; the old gentleman gazing uneasily after him as he went up and offered his arm, which was reluctantly taken.

"I'm going now," said Nelly, who had kept with her guard the whole time; "I want something to eat. I declare, Charley Vining, I've only had one thin slice of b.u.t.ter spread with bread-crumbs, and a cup of tea;" and before a word could be said, she had darted off.

Sir Philip's were not the only eyes that followed Charley Vining to where sat Ella Bedford; for as Max Bray followed him at a distance, as if by accident Laura did the same, and brother and sister gave genuine starts as they encountered at the union of two alleys.

"Grows quite romantic, bai Jove!" sneered Max; but he relapsed into an uncomfortable look on seeing the penetrating gaze directed at him by his sister.

"Let me take your arm," she said coldly; and then, as the shades of evening were fast falling, they walked slowly on together, towards a part of the grounds now apparently deserted.

Meanwhile Charley Vining had led Ella across the lawn, pressing her to partake of some refreshment, but in vain; and at last, in spite of herself, she found that she was alone with him, in a secluded part of the grounds.

"There is a seat here," said Charley. "Shall we rest for a few minutes?"

"It would hardly be advisable," was the quiet reply; "the evening is damp." And then for a few moments there was a pause, as they still walked slowly on, Charley with his heart beating heavily, and Ella eager to return to the throng upon the lawn--a throng that the afternoon through she had avoided--and hardly liking to speak, lest she might betray her agitation, and that she looked upon this otherwise than as an ordinary attention of host to one of his guests.

For Ella was not blind: her woman's instinct had whispered to her respecting the many attentions pressed upon her, and she trembled as she recalled the night when the cross was returned; for her heart told her that such things must not be--that she must be cold and cautious, guarding and steeling herself against tender emotions, for she was but the poor paid governess, and this man, whose arm she lightly touched, was almost engaged to Laura Bray.

But the silence was broken at length by Charley, who spoke deeply, as he stopped short by a standard covered with pale white roses, whose perfume seemed shed around upon the soft night air.

"Miss Bedford," he said, "I have been in pain, almost in agony, for many days past; and till I found that I had been wronging you, it seemed to me that life was going to be unbearable."

"Pain!--wronging me!" exclaimed Ella.

"Yes," he said; "but hear me out. I am no polished speaker, Miss Bedford--only a simple, blunt, and I hope honest and truthful man. A week or two since I believed that you favoured the suit of Max Bray: to-night I will not insult you with questions, but tell you honestly I do not believe that to be the case; and when the conviction flashed upon me that I was wrong, I tell you frankly my heart leaped with joy. You may ask why: I will tell you."

"Mr Vining," exclaimed Ella, "this must not be; you forget yourself, your position--you forget me when you talk so. Pray lead me back."

"You speak as if my words pained you, Miss Bedford," said Charley huskily. "Pray forgive me if they do. Nay, but a few minutes longer."

He caught one hand in his, and as she glanced for an instant in his direction, the rising moon gleaming through the trees lit up his handsome earnest face, photographing it, as it were, upon her brain; for to her dying day she never forgot that look--that countenance so imploringly turned upon her.

"Miss Bedford--Ella," he whispered, "I love you tenderly and devotedly!

This is no light declaration: till I saw you, woman never occupied my thoughts. You see by my brusque ways, my bluntness, that I have been no dallier in drawing-rooms, no holder of lady's silk. Till now, my loves have been in the stables, kennels, fields. Blunt language this-- uncomplimentary perhaps; but I am no courtier. I speak as I feel, and I tell you that to win your love in return would be to make me a happy man."

"Mr Vining," exclaimed Ella, vainly trying to release her hand, "lead me back, pray!"

"Nay," said Charley, with sadness in his tones, "I will not force you to listen to me;" and he released her hand. "I was hopeful that you would have listened to my suit."

"Indeed--indeed," said Ella, "I cannot, Mr Vining: it can never be.

You forget--position--me!"

She could say no more--her words seemed to stifle her; and had she continued speaking, she felt that she would have burst into tears.

"I forget nothing," said Charley, almost sternly. "How can I forget?

How can I ever forget? But surely," he said, once more catching her hand in his--"surely you cannot with that sweet gentle face be cruel, and love to torture one who has spoken simply the truth--laid bare to you his feelings! You believe what I say?"

"Yes, yes!" almost sobbed Ella. "But indeed--indeed it can never be.

Do not think me either harsh or cruel, for I mean it not."

"What am I to think then?" said Charley bitterly. "Is it that you reject me utterly, or am I so poor a wooer that you would have me on my knees, protesting, swearing? No; I wrong you again: it is not that," he exclaimed pa.s.sionately. "Look here, Ella"--he plucked one of the white roses, tearing his hand as he did so, the blood appearing in a long mark across the back--"emblematic," he said, smiling sadly, "of my love. You see it has its smarts and pains. You refused me so slight a gift once, but take this; and though I am a man I can freely say that my love for you is as pure and spotless as that simple flower. You will not refuse that?"

He could see the tears in her eyes, and that her face was drawn as if with pain; but one trembling hand was extended to take the flower; then, before he could recover from his surprise, she had turned from him and fled; when, with almost a groan, he threw himself upon the garden-seat, remaining motionless for a few moments, and then rising to hurry back to the marquee.

Volume 1, Chapter XVI.

THE ECHOES OF CHARLEY'S DECLARATION.

Two minutes had scarcely elapsed before there was the faint rustling of a lady's dress and the creaking of a boot, and then two pale faces-- those of brother and sister--appeared from a neighbouring clump of evergreens, gazed cautiously about for a few moments, and then moved away in another direction; the moon just beginning to cast their shadows upon the dewy lawn upon whose turf they walked, perhaps because it hushed their footsteps.

They had hardly disappeared before there was another faint rustling, and, eagerly peering about, Nelly Bray appeared, her girlish face looking half merry, half anxious, in the moonlit glade.