Luttrell Of Arran Part 83

"After all, the intention is to open a way to come back here?"

"I don't believe it."

"I suspect, Master O'Rorke, this is rather a pleasanter place to live in than the Arran Islands."

"So it is; there's no doubt of that! But she is young, and thinks more about her pride than her profit--not to say that she comes of a stock that's as haughty in their own wild way as ever a peer in the land."

"There never was a better bait to catch that old man there than this same pride. She has just hit upon the key to move him. What did he say when he read the letter?"

"He couldn't speak for a while, but kept wiping his eyes and trembling all over."

"And then?"

"And then he said, 'Stop here to-night, Mr. O'Rorke, and I'll have your answer ready for you in the morning.'"

"And shall I tell you what it will be? It will be to implore her to come back here. She can have her own terms now; she may be My Lady."

"Do you mean his wife?"

"I do."

O'Rorke gave a long whistle, and stood a perfect picture of amazement and wonder.

"That _was_ playing for a big stake! May I never! if I thought she was bowld enough for that. That she was. And how she missed it, to this hour I never knew. But whatever happened between them was, one evening, on the strand at a sea-side place abroad. That much I learned from her maid, who was in my pay; and it must have been serious, for she left the house that night, and never returned; and, what is more, never wrote one line to him till this letter that you carried here yesterday."

So astounded was O'Rorke by what he heard, that for some minutes he scarcely followed what Ladarelle was saying.

"So that," continued Ladarelle, "it may not be impossible that he had the hardihood to make her some such proposal."

"Do you mean without marriage?" broke in O'Rorke, suddenly catching the clue. "Do you mean that?"

The other nodded.

"No, by all that's holy!" cried O'Rorke. "That he never did! You might trick her, you might cheat her--and it wouldn't be so easy to do it, either--but, take my word for it, the man that would insult her, and get off free, isn't yet born!"

"What could she do, except go off?" said Ladarelle, scoffingly.

"That's not the stuff they're made of where she comes from, young man."

And, in his eagerness, he for a moment forgot all respect and deference; nor did the other seem to resent the liberty, for he only smiled as he heard it, and then said:

"All I have been telling you now is merely to prepare you for what I want you to do, and mind, if you stand by me faithfully and well, your fortune is made. I ask no man's help without being ready and willing to pay for it--to pay handsomely, too! Is that intelligible?"

"Quite intelligible."

"Now, the short and long of the story is this: If this old fool were to marry that girl, he could enc.u.mber my estate--for it is mine--with a jointure, and I have no fancy to pay some twelve or fifteen hundred a year--perhaps more--to Biddy somebody, and have, besides, a lawsuit for plate, or pictures, or china, or jewels, that she claimed as matter of gift--and all this, that an old worn-out rake should end his life with an act of absurdity!"

"And he could leave her fifteen hundred a year for ever," muttered O'Rorke, thoughtfully.

"Nothing of the kind. For her life only; and even that, I believe, we might break by law--at least, Palmer says so.".

All this Ladarelle said hastily, for he half suspected he had made a grievous blunder in pointing out the wealth to which she would succeed as Sir Within's widow.

"I see--I see!" muttered O'Rorke, thoughtfully; which simply meant that there was a great deal to be said for each side of the question.

"What are you thinking of?" said Ladarelle at last, losing patience at his prolonged silence.

"I'm just wondering to myself if she ever knew how near she was to being My Lady."

"How near, or how far off, you mean!"

"No, I don't! I just mean what I said--how near. You don't know her as well as I do, that's clear!" Another long pause followed these words, and each followed out his own train of thought. At length, Ladarelle, not at all satisfied, as it seemed, with his own diplomacy, said, half-impatiently: "My friend Grenfell said, if there was any one who would understand how to deal with this matter, you were the man; and it was with that view he gave me the letter you have just read."

"Oh! there's many a way to deal with it," said O'Rorke, who was not insensible to the flattery. "That is to say, if she was anything else but the girl she is, there would be no trouble at all in it."

"You want me to believe that she is something very uncommon, and that she knows the world, like a woman of fas.h.i.+on."

"I know nothing about women of fas.h.i.+on, but I never saw man or woman yet was 'cuter than Katty O'Hara, or Luttrell, as she calls herself now."

"She did not play her cards here so cunningly, that's plain," said Ladarelle, with a sneer. "Maybe I can guess why."

"What is your guess, then?"

"Something happened that wounded her pride! If anything did _that_, she'd forget herself and her advantage--ay, her very life--and she'd think of nothing but being revenged. That's the blood that's in her!"

"So that her pride is her weak point?"

"You have it now! That's it. I think she'd rather have died than write that letter the other morning, and if the answer isn't what she expects, I don't think she'll get over it! Without," added he, quickly, "it would drive her to some vengeance or other, if she was to see the way to any."

"I begin to understand her," said Ladarelle, thoughtfully. "The devil a bit of you! And if you were to think of it for twenty years, you wouldn't understand her! She beats _me_, and I don't suspect that _you_ do."

This was one of those thrusts it was very hard to bear without wincing, but Ladarelle turned away, and concealed the pain he felt.

"It is evident, then, Mr. O'Rorke, that you don't feel yourself her match?"

"I didn't say that; but it would be no disgrace if I _did_ say it," was the cautious answer.

"Mr. Grenfell a.s.sured me, that with a man like yourself to aid me, I need not be afraid of any difficulty. Do you feel as if he said too much for you, or has he promised more than you like to fulfil? You see, by what I have told you, that I should be very sorry to see that girl here again, or know that she was likely to regain any part of her old influence over my relative. Now, though her present letter does not touch either of these points, it opens a correspondence; don't you perceive that?"

"Go on," said O'Rorke, half sulkily, for a sort of doubt was creeping over him that possibly his services ought to be retained by the other party.

"And if they once begin writing letters, and if she only be as ready with her pen as you say she is with her tongue, there's nothing to prevent her being back here this day week, on any terms she pleases."

"Faix, and there are worse places! May I never! if I'd wonder that she'd like to be mistress of it."

For the second time had Ladarelle blundered in his negotiation, and he was vexed and angry as he perceived it.

"That's not all so plain and easy, Mr. O'Rorke, as you imagine. When old men make fools of themselves, the law occasionally takes them at their word, and p.r.o.nounces them insane. So long as Sir Within's eccentricities were harmless, we bore them, but I'll not promise our patience for serious injury."