Cursed by a Fortune Part 69

"Will you be good enough to sit down, Mr Garstang?" she said, gazing firmly at him.

"May I not rather kneel?" he said, imploringly.

"Will you be good enough to understand, Mr Garstang," she continued, with cutting contempt in her tones, "that you are speaking to a woman whose faith in you is completely destroyed, and not to a weak, timid girl."

"I can only think one thing," he whispered, earnestly, "that I am in the presence of the woman I wors.h.i.+p, one who will forgive me everything, and become my wife."

"Your wife, sir? I have come here this morning, repellent as the task is, to tell you what you refuse to see--that your proposals are impossible, and to demand that you at once restore me to the care of my guardian."

"To be forced to marry that wretched boy?" he cried, pa.s.sionately; "never!"

"May I ask you not to waste time by acting, Mr Garstang?" she said, with cutting irony. "You call me 'My dear child!' You are a man of sufficient common sense to know that I am not the foolish child you wish me to be, and that your words and manner no longer impose upon me."

"Ah, so cruel still!" he cried; but she met his eyes with such scathing contempt in her own that his lips tightened, and the anger he felt betrayed itself in the twitching at the corners of his temples.

"You have unmasked yourself completely now, sir, and by this time you must understand your position as fully as I do mine. You have been guilty of a disgraceful outrage."

"My love--I swear it was my love," he cried.

"Of gold?" she said, contemptuously. "Is it possible that a man supposed to be a gentleman can stoop to such pitiful language as this?

Let us understand each other at once. Your attempts to replace the fallen mask are pitiful. Come, sir, let us treat this as having to do with your scheme. You wish to marry me?"

"Yes; I adore you."

She rose, with her brow wrinkling, her eyes half closed, and the look of contempt intensifying.

"Perhaps I had better defer what I wished to say till to-morrow, sir?"

He turned from her as if her words had lashed him, but he wrenched himself back and forced himself to meet her gaze.

"In G.o.d's name, no!" he cried, pa.s.sionately; "say what you have to say at once, and bring this folly to an end."

She resumed her seat.

"Very well; let us bring this folly to an end. I am ready to treat with you, Mr Garstang."

"Hah!" he cried, with a mocking laugh. "An unconditional surrender?"

"Yes, sir; an unconditional surrender," she said calmly. "You have been playing like a gamester for the sake of my fortune."

"And your beautiful self," he whispered.

"For my miserable fortune; and you have won."

"Yes," he said, "I have won. I am the conqueror; but Kate, dearest--"

She rose slowly from her seat.

"Will you go on speaking without the mask, Mr Garstang?" she said, coldly; and she heard his teeth grit together, as he literally scowled at her now, with a look full of threats for the future.

"I am your slave, I suppose," he said, bitterly; but she remained standing.

"I wish to continue talking to Mr Garstang, the lawyer," she said, coldly. "If this is to continue it is a waste of words."

He threw himself back in his chair, and she resumed hers.

"Now, sir, you are a solicitor, and learned in these matters; can you draw up some paper which will mean the full surrender of my fortune to you? and this I will sign if you set me at liberty."

"No," he said, quietly, "I can not draw up such a paper."

"Why?"

"Because it would be utterly without value."

"Very well, then, there must be some way by which I can buy my liberty.

The money will be mine when I come of age."

"Yes, there is one way," he said, gazing at her intently.

"What is that, sir?"

"By signing the marriage register."

"That I shall never do," she said, rising slowly. "Once more, Mr Garstang, I tell you that this money is valueless to me, and that I am ready to give it to you for my liberty."

"And I tell you the simple truth--that you talk like the foolish child you are. You cannot give away that which you do not possess. It is in the keeping of your uncle, and the law would not allow you to give it away like that."

"Does the law allow you to force me to be your wife, that you may, as my husband, seize upon it?"

"The law will let you consent to be my wife," he said, wincing slightly at her words.

"I have told you my decision," she said, coldly.

"Temporary decision," he said, smiling.

"And," she continued, "I shall wait until your reason has shown you that we are not living in the days of romance. Your treatment would be horrible in its baseness if it were not ridiculous. I own that I was frightened at first, but a night's calm thought has taught me how I stand, has given me strength of mind, and I shall wait."

"And so shall I," he said, gazing at her angrily as he leaned forward; but she did not shrink from his eyes, meeting them with calm contemptuous indifference; and he sprang up at last with an angry oath.

"Once more, Kate," he said, "understand this: you must and shall be my wife. You may try and set me at defiance, shut yourself up in your room, and keep on making efforts to escape, but all is in vain. I weighed all this well before I put my plans in execution. You hear me?"

"Every word," she said, coldly. "Now hear me, Mr Garstang. I shall never consent to be your wife."

"We shall see that," he cried.

"I shall not shut myself up in my room, and I shall make no further attempt to leave this house. It would be too ridiculous. Sooner or later my uncle will trace me, and call you to account. I shall keep nothing back, and if he thinks proper to prosecute you for what you have done I shall be his willing witness."

"Then you would go back to Northwood?" he said, with a laugh.