The Dust of Conflict Part 24

"I have asked you for it," said Palliser. "n.o.body knows Bernard so well as you do, and while I have scarcely a doubt in my own mind, Violet's faith in him had its effect on me. After all, he belongs to us, and I would like to believe him innocent, incredible as it seems, or at least to hear something in extenuation. You will think me illogical in this, Craythorne?"

Craythorne smiled. "Then I admit that, being a lawyer, I am more so, for I would believe in Bernard Appleby against the evidence of my eyes. It also seems to me that the intuitions of young women of Miss Wayne's kind merit more respect than they usually receive."

"I am still waiting, Tony," said Palliser.

Tony sat silent almost too long, for the words "either you or he"

troubled him. Had G.o.dfrey Palliser not spoken them he might have answered differently, but as it was his apprehensions overcame him.

"It is a hard thing to admit, but I am afraid my views have changed since then," he said.

The lawyer regarded him covertly, and noticed the furtiveness of his eyes, but Palliser sighed. "You have," he said, "nothing to urge in extenuation?"

"No, sir," said Tony. "I wish I had!"

"Then you will be so much the richer," said Palliser dryly. "Now Violet will be waiting, and Craythorne and I have a good deal to do. I shall retire when we have finished. Good night, Tony!"

He held out his hand when Tony rose, and the younger man noticed how cold his fingers felt. "Good night, sir," he said. "I trust you will feel brighter in the morning."

The chilly fingers still detained him and Palliser said very quietly, "One never knows what may happen, Tony; but it would be my wish that you and Violet did not wait very long."

Tony went out with a curious throbbing of his pulses and a horrible sense of degradation, for he knew that he had perjured himself to a dying man who trusted him. The room he entered was dimly lighted, but he knew where the spirit stand and siphon were kept, and a liberal measure of brandy was frothing in the gla.s.s, when there was a light step behind him and a hand touched his arm.

"No!" said a low voice with a little ring of command in it.

Tony started, and swinging round with a dark flush in his face saw Violet Wayne looking at him. There was also a little more color than usual in her cheeks, but her eyes were steady, which Tony's were not.

"I never expected you, Violet," he said. "You made me feel like a boy caught with his hand in the jam-pot. It's humiliating as well as ludicrous!"

The girl smiled very faintly. "I am afraid it is," she said. "Do you know, Tony, that this is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life?"

Tony saw the slight trembling of her lips, and laughed somewhat inanely as he held out his hands.

"I think I needed it!" he said; and in a sudden fit of rage seized the gla.s.s and, moving a few steps forward, flung it cras.h.i.+ng into the grate.

Then he turned and faced the girl, flushed to the forehead, but stirred to almost unwilling respect.

"There is not one woman of your station in a thousand who would have had the courage to do that," he said. "Still, it is preposterous to think that there was the least reason for it."

"Tony," said the girl very slowly, "I fancy I should hate you if you ever made it necessary for me to do as much again, but we will try not to remember it. What has been troubling you?"

Tony was glad of the opening, though under different circ.u.mstances he would not have availed himself of it.

"I'll try to tell you," he said. "I am afraid G.o.dfrey Palliser is very shaky. In fact he was oppressively morbid to-night."

"No," said the girl. "I know what you mean, but morbid is not the right word. Your uncle is now and then pedantic but one could only feel respect for him to-day."

"Of course!" said Tony. "I shall be very genuinely sorry if his fancies turn out right. That, however, is not the question. He asked me if I still believed in Bernard, and I had a difficult thing to do. It seems that your faith in the man had almost convinced him. He wanted to believe him innocent, and leave him something in his will."

"And you told him-"

"What could I tell him? Only that I was not so sure of Bernard as I had been."

There was a gleam of something very like anger in Violet Wayne's eyes.

"So you shattered the faint hope he clung to, and turned the forgiveness, which, mistaken or not, would have been a precious thing just now, into vindictive bitterness!"

"He asked me," said Tony. "What could I do?"

"You could have defended your friend-the man who has done so much for you."

Tony stared at her, and once more the girl felt a little s.h.i.+ver of apprehension when she saw his face, but in a moment he recovered himself.

"I want to know exactly what you mean by that?" he said.

"Isn't it evident from what you have told me of your early days?"

Tony's apprehension disappeared, for it seemed he had been mistaken. "Of course!" he said. "Still, the difficulty was that I couldn't urge anything. I can't see why you believe in Bernard, Violet. Isn't it plain that-it must have been either he or I?"

Tony was not devoid of a certain cunning, and the boldness of the question had its effect, but the girl's eyes gleamed as she said, "I could almost as soon believe you guilty as Bernard Appleby."

"Then," said Tony with a quietness which served him very well, "I am sorry you have so little confidence in me!"

Violet stood still a moment, a trifle pale in face, and very erect. Then she made a little gesture, and her lips trembled.

"Tony," she said simply, "you will forgive me that, though I scarcely deserve it. If I could have meant it would I have done-what I did a little while ago?"

Tony caught her hands, and would have drawn her to him, but the girl shook off his grasp and slipped away, while the man stood still until the door closed behind her, and then shook his head.

"Angry yet!" he said. "If one could only understand her-but it's quite beyond me, and I've no inclination for further worries of any kind just now."

He turned towards the cupboard again, stopped a moment, and then, with a little impatient gesture, went out of the room. He did not see Violet again that night, and went to bed early, though it was long before he slept. It was early morning when he was awakened by the sound of a door being opened suddenly and a hasty running up and down. In a few minutes there were voices beneath him in the hall, while he huddled on his clothes; and going out he stood a moment, irresolute, in the corridor. A man who seemed to tread in a curious fas.h.i.+on was coming down the stairs, and pa.s.sed apparently without noticing him. Then Tony gasped as the Darsley doctor he had sent for touched his arm, for he could see the man's face dimly in the faint gray light.

"Yes," said the doctor quietly, answering the unspoken question. "I never expected it would come so suddenly, or I would have sent for you.

G.o.dfrey Palliser pa.s.sed away ten minutes ago."

XVI - DANE COP

IT was a dismal wet afternoon when Tony Palliser stood bareheaded beside a dripping yew tree under the eastern window of Northrop church. His head was aching, for the last few days and nights had not pa.s.sed pleasantly with him, and confused as his thoughts were he realized what he owed to the man the bearers were then waiting to carry to his resting place. G.o.dfrey Palliser had been autocratic and a trifle exacting, but he had taken his nephew into the place of his dead son, and bestowed all he had on him, while Tony remembered what his part had been. He had with false words hindered the dying man making a reparation which would have lightened his last hours.

Tony was not usually superst.i.tious, or addicted to speculation about anything that did not concern the present world, but as he glanced at the faces close packed beyond the tall marble pillar with its gleaming cross, and heard the words of ponderous import the surpliced vicar read, he was troubled by a vague sense of fear. G.o.dfrey Palliser had gone out into the unknown, unforgiving, and with heart hardened against his kinsman who had done no wrong, but it seemed to Tony that the man who had deceived him would be held responsible.

By and by somebody touched his arm, the droning voice died away, there was a shuffle of feet, and he watched the bearers, who vanished with their burden beyond a narrow granite portal. Then the voice that seemed faint and indistinct went on again, there was a grinding of hinges, an iron gate closed with a crash, and though Tony felt the damp upon his forehead he straightened himself with a little sigh of relief. He need, at least, no longer fear the righteous indignation of G.o.dfrey Palliser, who had gone down into the darkness with his trust in him unshaken.

Still, it was with an effort he met the rows of faces that were turned in his direction as he walked slowly between them to the gate. They were respectfully sympathetic, for G.o.dfrey Palliser had held the esteem of his tenants and neighbors, who had only good will for the man who would succeed him. They still stood bareheaded, for the most part, in the rain, and Tony closed the fingers of one hand tight, for he had erred from fear and weakness and not with deliberate intent, and the men's silent homage hurt him.

It was but a short drive back to the hall, and bracing himself for a last effort he met the little group of kinsmen and friends who were a.s.sembled about lawyer Craythorne in the great dining-room. n.o.body desired to prolong the proceedings, and there was a little murmur of approbation when the elderly lawyer took out the will. He read it in a low, clear voice, while the rain lashed the windows and the light grew dim. Providing for certain charges and a list of small legacies it left Tony owner of the Northrop property. His nearest kinsman shook hands with him.