The Baronet's Bride Part 15

"I shall not quarrel with Lady Louise."

"Then, w.i.l.l.y-nilly, it must be Lord Carteret's daughter, and no other?"

"Everard," his mother said, earnestly, "you know I have set my heart on seeing Lady Louise your wife; and she loves you, I know. And you, my darling Everard--you will not disappoint me?"

"I should be an ungrateful wretch if I did! Rest easy, _ma mere_--Lady Louise shall become Lady Kingsland, or the fault shall not be mine. I believed I should have asked the momentous little question last night but for that interloper, George Grosvenor!"

"Ah! jealous, of course. He is always _de trop_, that great, stupid George," my lady said. "And was the dinner-party agreeable; and what time did you get home?"

"The dinner-party was delightful, and I came home shortly after midnight. What time Sir Galahad arrived I can't say--half an hour before I did, at least."

Lady Kingsland looked inquiringly.

"Did you not ride Sir Galahad?"

"Yes, until I was torn from the saddle! My dear mother, I met with an adventure last night, and you had like never to see your precious son again."

"Everard!"

"Quite true. But for the direct interposition of Providence, in the shape of a handsome lad in velveteen, who shot my a.s.sailant, I would be lying now in Brithlow Wood yonder, as dead as any Kingsland in the family vault."

And then, while Lady Kingsland gazed at him breathlessly, Sir Everard related his midnight adventure.

"Good heavens!" my lady cried, clasping him in her arms. "Oh, to think what might have happened! My boy--my boy!"

"Very true, mother; but a miss is as good as a mile, you know.

Poetical justice befell my a.s.sailant; and here I am safe and sound, sipping chocolate."

"And the preserver of your life, Everard--where is he?"

"Upstairs, waiting like patience on a monument; and by the same token, fasting all this time! But it isn't a he, _ma mere_; it's a she."

"What?"

Sir Everard laughed.

"Such a mystified face, mother! Oh; it's highly sensational and melodramatic, I promise you! Sit down and hear the sequel."

And then, eloquently and persuasively, Sir Everard repeated Miss Sybilla Silver's extraordinary story, and Lady Kingsland was properly shocked.

"Disguised herself in men's clothes! My dear Everard, what a dreadful creature she must be!"

"Not at all dreadful, mother. She is as sensitive and womanly a young lady as ever I saw in my life. And, she's a very pretty girl, too."

Lady Kingsland looked suspiciously at her son. She highly disapproved of pretty girls where he was concerned; but the handsome face was frank and open as the day.

"Now don't be suspicious, Lady Kingsland. I'm not going to fall in love with Miss Sybilla Silver, I give you my word and honor. She saved my life, remember. May I not fetch her here?"

"What! in men's clothes, and before your sister? Everard, how dare you?"

Sir Everard broke into a peal of boyish laughter that made the room ring.

"I don't believe she's in men's clothes!" exclaimed Mildred, suddenly.

"Honorine told me robbers must have been in my dressing-room last night--half my things were stolen. I understand it now--Everard was the robber."

"I am going for her, mother. Remember she is friendless, and that she saved your son's life."

He quitted the room with the last word. That claim, he knew, was one his mother would never repudiate.

"Oh!" she said, lying back in her chair pale and faint, "to think what might have happened!"

As she spoke her son re-entered the room, and by his side a young lady--so stately, so majestic in her dark beauty, that involuntarily the mother and daughter arose.

"My mother, this young lady saved my life. Try and thank her for me.

Lady Kingsland, Miss Silver."

Surely some subtle power of fascination invested this dark daughter of the earth. The liquid dark eyes lifted themselves in mute appeal to the great lady's face, and then the proudest woman in England opened her arms with a sudden impulse and took the outcast to her bosom.

"I can never thank you," she murmured. "The service you have rendered me is beyond all words."

An hour later Sybilla went slowly back to her room. She had breakfasted _tete-a-tete_ with my lady and her daughter, while Sir Everard, in scarlet coat and cord and tops, had mounted his bonny bay and ridden off to Lady Louise and the fox-hunt, and to his fate, though he knew it not.

"Really, Mildred," my lady said, "a most delightful young person, truly. Do you know, if she does not succeed in finding her friends I should like to retain her as a companion?"

In her own room Sybilla Silver stood before the gla.s.s, and she smiled back at her own image.

"So, my lady," she said, "you walk into the trap with your eyes open, too--you who are old enough to know better? My handsome face and black eyes and smooth tongue stand me in their usual good stead. And I saved Sir Everard Kingsland's life! Poor fools! A thousand times better for you all if I had let that midnight a.s.sa.s.sin shoot him down like a dog!"

CHAPTER X.

A SHAFT FROM CUPID'S QUIVER.

It was fully ten o'clock, and the hunting-party were ready to start, when Sir Everard Kingsland joined them, looking handsome and happy as a young prince in his very becoming hunting costume.

Of course the young baronet's first look was for Lady Louise--he scarcely glanced at the rest. She was just being a.s.sisted into the saddle by the devoted George Grosvenor, but she turned to Sir Everard and graciously held out her gauntleted hand.

"Once more," she said, "almost late. Laggard! I shall quarrel with you one of these days if you do not learn to be more punctual."

"You will never have to reproach me again," he said. "Had I known you would have honored my absence by a thought, you should not have had to reproach me now."

"Very pretty, indeed, Sir Everard. But don't waste your time paying compliments this morning. Thanks, Mr. Grosvenor; that will do. For whom are you looking, Sir Everard? Lady Carteret? Oh, she is going to see as much of the fun as she can from the carriage, with some other ladies. Miss Hunsden and myself are the only ones who intend to ride.

By the way, I hope Sir Galahad will uphold his master's reputation to-day. He must do his very best, or Whirlwind will beat him."

At that instant a red-coated young gentleman joined them, in an evident state of excitement.