"So am I," responded Ralph, with mendacious politeness. "May I come in?"
"Oh, yes, please!" said Lucy. "But the horse?"
"He will stand till this day week," said Ralph. "But I'll hitch the reins over the palings all the same."
"This way," said Lucy, eagerly; and she led him to the school-room. He stared up at the very small hole in the roof with the deepest gravity apparently; but in reality he was thinking how sweetly pretty the face beside him looked as she upturned to gaze aloft.
"All right," he said, with a laugh. "I'll see that it is put straight. You are sure there is nothing else?"
"N-o," said Lucy, "nothing. Oh, yes! the gate to the meadow is so very old that that the donkey in the next field pushes it open, and – "
"Let us go in and see it," said Ralph, promptly. "We may as well do everything that wants doing at once."
They went to the meadow, and he examined the gate and admired the view across the fields, and on Lucy telling him it was much better from the edge of the wood, he wandered off in that direction, and, somehow or other, they found themselves sitting on the stile that led into the plantation and talking, as Lucy put it afterward, "like old friends" – so much so, indeed, that it was with quite a start that Lucy heard the clock strike five.
"Oh, I have not offered you any tea!" she exclaimed, remorsefully. "Please come into the school-house. My friend will be back by this time, and she will be quite angry at my want of hospitality."
Ralph, picturing to himself a middle-aged school-mistress as the 'principal,' glanced at his watch hesitatingly; but seeing a look of disappointment beginning to cloud Lucy's face, rose promptly.
Why should he not go in to tea with her? It was the last time he would see her, having an opportunity of listening to the sweet young voice; and at the thought a sudden pang shot through his heart. He had spent his life following a will-o'-the-wisp. Leslie Lisle, even if he found her, could never be his. Why should he not ask this pretty, innocent-eyed girl —
"Lucy," he said, suddenly, and yet gently.
She started at the sound of the Christian name, and turned her eyes upon him questioningly.
"Don't be frightened," he said, still more gently, but with an earnest gravity that thrilled her. "And yet I am afraid I shall frighten you. Do you know what it is I am going to ask you? No, you cannot guess. Lucy, since last Saturday I have been thinking of you every day!"
"Of me?" The words left her lips in a whisper, and the color deepened in her cheeks.
"Of you!" he said, fervently. "I love you, Lucy. Will you be my wife?"
She stepped back, her eyes opening wide, her parted lips tremulous. But when he took her hand she did not shrink back further, and she did not attempt to take the hand away.
They wandered hand in hand about the lanes for an hour, while the horse contentedly nibbled at the grass at the bottom of the garden hedge, and during that hour Ralph told her who and what he was – told her everything, indeed, excepting his love for Leslie Lisle – and Lucy was still in 'love's amaze' as they made their way back to the house.
"You must come in, if only for a moment," she said as he was unfastening the reins. "I want to tell her – my fellow-teacher – to – to – to show you to her." Her eyes sunk and her voice trembled. "I know she will be so glad! Besides, I – I couldn't tell her about it all by myself. It is so sudden – so dreadfully sudden – that I should die of shame!" and her face grew crimson as she laughed.
"All right," he said; "I will come in; but it must be only for a moment, Lucy."
She opened the gate, and as she did so something glittering on the path caught her eye.
She stooped and picked it up.
"Why, it's a ring!" she exclaimed – "a gentleman's ring! You must have dropped it as you came in – Ralph."
"Not I!" he said, shaking his head.
He had not worn a ring since – since he had given his to Leslie.
"But you must have done," she said, with charming persistence. "No gentleman has passed this gate excepting you, sir."
He laughed.
"Let me see," he said.
He took the ring, looked at it, and the smile fled from his face, which suddenly went pale. It was the ring he had given Leslie! He stood, dumb with amazement.
"Well?" she said, linking her arm in his, and so intent on the ring that she did not notice his pallor and constraint.
"Yes," he said, and his voice rang out with a strange doubt and trouble – "yes, it is my ring!"
CHAPTER XXXVII.
"POOR GIRL!"
Ralph Duncombe stood looking at the ring as a man looks upon some trinket he has happened on that belonged to some dearly loved friend long since dead. The ring he had given to Leslie! Back in a flash came the memory of that morning he had given it to her. The sea, the beach, the lovely face floated before his eyes and made him giddy. He had just asked this sweet, innocent girl to be his wife; he had no right, no wish to think of Leslie as a lover, and yet – ah, well, in the heart, as in heaven, there are many manoeuvres, and for the moment the old love filled the biggest place in Ralph Duncombe's heart.
"What is the matter?" asked Lucy, with faint wonder at his silence and stillness. "Is it so very precious a ring? Let me look at it. Would you have been very sorry if you had lost it?"
"Very," he said, scarcely knowing what he said.
"How glad I am that I found it! You must have dropped it as you came in. How careless of you!"
"No," he said, bravely; he could no more prevaricate before that sweet innocence than lie outright. "No, Lucy, I did not drop it just now. I parted with it a long while ago, and I have not seen it since until now."
Lucy gazed up at him open-eyed.
"Then how did it come here?" she asked, in an awestruck whisper. "To whom did you give it? A gentleman, of course?"
"No," he said, after a moment's hesitation. "It was to – ."
Before he could add 'a woman,' a voice low and clear, a voice which thrilled him and awoke the echo – thank God, for Lucy's sake – only the echo – of his old passion, was heard in the doorway.
"Lucy, are you there?"
It was Leslie's voice! Ralph Duncombe started, and in the shock of surprise seized Lucy's arm.
"Who is that?" he breathed, in a hushed whisper, his eyes fixed on the doorway.
"Why, how nervous you are!" she said, laughing softly, but a little timidly, for she had seen him start, and felt the pressure of his hand. "Who should it be but my friend, Miss Lisle?"
"Miss – Lisle!" he repeated.
Something in his voice startled Lucy, and she shrank from him the slightest bit in the world. But he noticed it, and he put his arm round her.
"Your – your fellow teacher is called Leslie Lisle?" he said.
"I didn't say 'Leslie,'" said Lucy, half-frightened; "but it is Leslie."
As she spoke, a tall, slim figure in a white dress appeared against the dim background of the open doorway, then came towards them, then stopped.
"Is that you, Lucy? You are not alone – ." As she stopped her eyes glanced quickly from one to the other, dilating as she looked; then her face grew crimson, and she spoke his name: "Ralph!"
"Leslie!" he answered, and made a movement towards her; then, as if suddenly remembering the wondering, frightened girl on his arm, stopped.
"You – you know one another!" said Lucy, at last, in a kind of gasp. "Oh, what does it mean?"
Ralph Duncombe, the ever ready, self-possessed city man, the man whose clerks regarded him as of iron rather than flesh and blood, stood biting his lip, and staring at the white figure motionless and dumb.
But the gods made women quick, and that glance from one to the other had told Leslie all their story. Trembling a little, but outwardly calm, she glided towards them.
"Yes," she said, slowly, distinctly, "Mr. Duncombe and I know each other. We are old, very old friends – ."
"Friends?" fell from Lucy's quivering lips, and spoke doubtfully in her wide-open eyes.
"Yes, dear," said Leslie, softly, "great friends – nothing more." The last two words were breathed rather than spoken, and Lucy's lips opened with a deep sigh of relief, and the hand that had been gradually slipping, slipping from Ralph's arm, tightened again.
"This – this is a surprise, Les – Miss Lisle," he said at last, and his voice sounded almost harsh from his emotion. "Where have you been? What has happened?" he glanced at the black scarf, at the black ribbons on her sleeves, and his voice faltered.
Leslie's head drooped for a moment, then she raised it bravely.
"Yes!" she said, answering his unspoken question. "Months ago. I will tell you about it – presently. Will you both go in? You have something to tell me, I see," and she smiled. "I will come directly. I have lost something – ."
Lucy took Ralph's hand and held it up.
"It is found," she said, and pointed to the ring solemnly. "It was to you he gave it, was it not, Leslie?" and a dark, a terrible fear, a pang almost of jealousy shook her heart.
Leslie motioned to Ralph to be silent, and taking Lucy's hand drew her towards her.
"Yes, Lucy," she said, in a low voice, every word thrilling intensely. "The ring was given to me by Mr. Duncombe. It was given to me as a pledge of friendship. It was a farewell gift. Given without requital; a pledge and a token that if ever I needed the donor's help I had but to send it as a message to find that help. Since the day he gave it to me I have not seen Mr. Duncombe, but I have not forgotten him nor ceased to cherish my ring. And yet," a sad little smile curved her lip. "I have lost it twice – ."
Somehow, these last few words went farther to reassure Lucy than anything else could go. Lovers do not lose their love tokens! If Leslie had cared for Ralph, she would have taken better care of her ring.
"I – I don't understand – ah, yes, I do! I see it all!" she said, with a little sob, and looking from one to the other. "I understand it all! It is very natural," her voice choked a little. "Who could see you, know you, without loving you – ."
"Hush, hush!" whispered Leslie in her ear. "That was so long ago that he has forgotten it. There is only one woman in the world he loves, and she is here!" and she drew Lucy's face against her bosom with a loving pressure.
Ralph Duncombe stood, as a man in such a situation must stand, silent and awkward. It seemed as if both had clean forgotten him, but suddenly Leslie held out her hand to him.
"We have not shaken hands yet," she said, with a little laugh, "and we are keeping you outside in the most inhospitable fashion. Pray come in!" and she went in, still holding Lucy to her.
"Now let me turn up the lamp; how the evenings draw in, do they not? Supper is ready, and – ." Then she broke down, and sinking into a chair, leant her head in her hands.
Lucy knelt beside her and soothed her.
"It is her father she is thinking of," she whispered to Ralph with womanly instinct; she knew that Leslie would have died rather than weep over a lost lover before that lover and the woman who had won him. "It is of her father; the sight of you has brought it all back to her! Oh, how wonderful it all is! To think that you – ."
"I'd better go!" said Ralph, with a man's aptitude at doing the wrong thing.
"No, no! wait till she has got over it. She will be all right in a moment; you don't know how brave she is."
Indeed, almost in a moment Leslie had dried her tears.
"Forgive me!" she murmured penitently. "How selfish you must think me! and I am so full of happiness at her happiness too! And it was to this gentleman – this old friend of mine – you gave the fern root, and it was he who drove you and Jenny home in the rain!"
"Yes! isn't it like a fairy story, Leslie? And you are really glad?" she asked wistfully.
Leslie took the upturned face in her hand.
"Gladder than I have ever been in my life – than I have been for, ah! so long!" she corrected herself. "If I could have chosen your future for you I would have chosen just this that fate has planned. You will make each other very, very happy, I know! Now sit down, Mr. Duncombe. I will promise not to – not to cry again. Lucy, cut some bread. I will be back in a moment."
As she left the room, Lucy stole half timidly up to Ralph.
"Oh, how could you think of me after – after loving her!" she whispered.
He bent his head and kissed her.
"Say no more, Lucy," he said gravely. "Let the past bury its dead. Yes I – I loved her; but she – I was no more to her, never could have been more to her, than just a friend. I know it now; are you satisfied, dearest?"
She looked into his eyes for a moment, a look which seemed to sink into his soul; then she let her head fall on his breast with a sigh of peace. When Leslie came down there were no tears in her eyes, and presently, of her own accord, she spoke of her father's death, and told Ralph Duncombe how she had met with Lucy, and how they had passed their exams and obtained the school. But not one word did she say of Yorke. Ralph noticed this.
"And why did you not send to me?" he said reproachfully.
Leslie shook her head.
"You were too proud!" he said.
"Yes, that was it," she admitted quietly. "I was too proud."
"And it would have given me much pleasure to have helped you!" he said. "Is there nothing I can do now? Can you think of nothing?"
Leslie shook her head with a faint smile.
"We have everything we want, have we not, Lucy?" she said.
Lucy blushed. She certainly had.
"No, there is nothing," continued Leslie, then she stopped and he looked up quickly.
"There is something you have thought of?" he said.
Leslie's head drooped thoughtfully.
"Yes, there is something," she said. Lucy got up as if to leave the room; but Leslie put out a hand and stayed her. "No, dear, it is no secret; besides, if it were, you must not keep secrets from each other. Wait a moment."
Lucy and Ralph exchanged glances.
"Do you know anything?" he asked.
Lucy shook her head.
"No," she replied in an awed whisper, "she has told me nothing of her past – nothing. We love each other like sisters, and I think there is no one in the world half so good or sweet as Leslie, but I should not dare – yes, that is the word – to ask for her confidence."
Leslie came back into the room. She had a small packet in her hand, and she laid it on the table before Ralph Duncombe.
"I am going to ask you to do something for me," she said with a smile that flickered sadly, as if it were very near tears. "I wish you to give this to the person to whom it is addressed."
Ralph Duncombe took up the packet.
"The Duke of Rothbury!" he said aloud.
Lucy opened her eyes.
"You may open it," said Leslie in a low voice. "It is of value – great value, I believe. If it had not been I would have sent it by post. Yes, open it."
Ralph Duncombe opened the packet and stared amazed.
"It is of great value," he said gravely; "and – and I am to give it to the Duke of Rothbury?"
"Yes," said Leslie, her lips quivering. The sight of the sorrow which she was trying to hide stirred him past repression.
"He gave you this?" he said.
"Yes, but – but do not ask me any questions, please," she faltered.
Her color came and went.
"It is not necessary," he said. "You have suffered, and at his hands – ."
"No – no – ."
"But it is yes, yes!" he said, with restrained passion, and with a strange perplexity. Great heaven, what a mistake Lady Eleanor had made! It was not Lord Auchester then, but the Duke of Rothbury Leslie had been going to marry.
"I will give it him," he said sternly.
Leslie looked up with a sudden glance of apprehension.
"Give it to him; but that is all!" she said meaningly. "There is nothing to be said – or done."
"You mean that if – if he has injured you, you have forgiven him?" he said.
"Long, long ago!" she breathed. "You may say that, if – if there should be occasion, but no more."
He bowed his head.
"It shall be as you wish," he said; "your word is a law to me."
"I knew you would do it for me," she said in a low voice; "would understand."
Then, as if she wished the subject to be closed, she began to talk of his and Lucy's strange meeting, and their future.
"It is the greatest pity in the world that you should have happened to be passing the day Lucy was frightened by the wild horseman, for the Government will lose one of its best teachers."
"And I shall gain one of the best of wives!" he murmured. They talked for half an hour, and Leslie seemed as light-hearted as they, but presently she stole out of the room, looking over her shoulder in the doorway with a "good-night."
"Do you understand it?" whispered Lucy, as he took her in his arms to say farewell. "Does it mean that Leslie might have been a duchess?"
"Yes, I think so," he said. "I don't quite understand it; I feel as if I were groping in the dark with just a glimmer of light. But, anyhow, I know, I am sure that the fault, if there was any, was his, and I wish that she had left me free to tell him so and exact reparation."
"Ah, but that is just what you must not do!" said Lucy sternly. "It is just what Leslie does not want. You are to give him back the diamonds and say nothing excepting that she forgives him!"
He nodded with a sigh.
"Poor Leslie! How she must have suffered!"
"Yes, you can see that by her face, even now; and it is ever so much happier and brighter than when I saw it first. Ah, Ralph, I wish she were as happy as we are!"
Ralph Duncombe, as he drove along the road to White Place with the diamond pendant in his pocket, felt like a man struggling with a tremendous enigma. Lady Eleanor had evidently made a terrible and unaccountable blunder in stating and believing that it was Yorke Auchester whom Leslie was going to marry. How could she have made such a mistake? And what had happened to break off the marriage? Had the duke jilted Leslie? At the thought – though he was in love with Lucy now – his face grew red with anger and he felt that, duke or no duke, he would have called him to account but for Leslie's injunction.
When he reached White Place he found Lady Eleanor pacing up and down the room with an open letter in her hand, and she turned to greet him with a smile on her flushed face.
"You have good news?" he said.
"Yes." She nodded twice with a joyous light in her eyes. "I have heard from Lord Auchester. He is coming back the day after to-morrow. He and the Duke of Rothbury – ."
Ralph started, and his face darkened.
"The Duke of Rothbury?" he said. "I am glad of that, Lady Eleanor, for I wish to see him. And, Lady Eleanor, I have something to tell you – something you will be glad to hear. There has been a strange and awkward mistake. It was not Lord Auchester who was going to marry Miss – Miss Lisle, but the Duke of Rothbury."
Lady Eleanor's face paled, and she caught her breath.
"Not – Yorke! The duke! Ah, no, no! That cannot be!"
"Pardon me, but I am right," he said, rather sternly.
She shook her head.
"No, no; I saw – " She stopped, and the color flew to her face. "I saw him buying the – the wedding ring."
Ralph stared at her, then he smiled grimly.
"He may have bought a ring, but not for himself," he said. "It may have been for the duke, for it was the duke she was going to marry, Lady Eleanor."
"How – how do you know?"
"Miss Lisle herself told me."
She started.
"She! Where – where is she?"
"She is the teacher at the school at Newfold."
Lady Eleanor sank into a chair, and looked up at him with frightened eyes.
"Here – so near? Oh, let me think!" and she clasped her hands over her eyes.
"That is what I have been doing; thinking," he said grimly. "It has been a terrible blunder. I do not know all the circumstances – scarcely any, indeed – of the case; I only know that it was the duke to whom she was engaged."
"Was? Then it is broken off?"
"Yes," he said gravely. "By Miss Lisle – for good and sufficient reasons, I am certain."
She looked at him keenly.
"You know her – you have known her all along." She saw him color, and added in a breath – "Ah, I understand!"
"Yes," he said, "I have known Miss Lisle a long time. I had hoped once to induce her to become my wife, but – ."
"And now?"
"I am engaged to another lady," he said, rather stiffly. "Miss Lisle refused me. That is all that need be said on that point, Lady Eleanor."
She inclined her head.
"It has been a terrible blunder," she said thoughtfully. "But – ah, what a load your news has removed from my heart! Not Lord Auchester, but the duke!"
She closed her eyes and drew a long breath. Yorke was all her own now!
"Can you tell me the duke's address. Lady Eleanor?" he asked after a pause.
"His London house is in Grosvenor Square. He will go there, and not to Rothbury, on his return to England. Do you want to see him?" she added. "Why?"
"I have a small matter of business with his grace," he replied.
Lady Eleanor looked at his grave face apprehensively.
"You will not – ."
"Tell him anything that has occurred? Scarcely, Lady Eleanor," he said. "That which you and I did in regard to these bills and Lord Auchester's money affairs must forever remain secret. Erase it from your memory."
"Ah, if I could!" she murmured. "When I think of the possibility of his knowing – ."
"It is not likely that he will ever know," he said. "The secret is yours and mine alone. You say that Lord Auchester is returning the day after to-morrow?"
"Yes."
"In that case, Lady Eleanor, my visits to White Place must cease. You will not need any help of mine in the future – I need not say that I should be as ready and willing to be of assistance to you as I have ever been – but it will be better that all communication between us should cease. You will not misunderstand me?"
"No, no! I understand," she said. "I am very grateful for all you have done. But for you I should not be as happy as I am."
"I am glad to have helped you to that happiness, however slightly," he said. "And I trust that you may be happier still in the future. Good-by, Lady Eleanor."
He held her hand for a moment or two, then left her. He had no desire to see her again. If he could have done so, he would have wiped from his memory the plot in which he had been concerned with her to drive Lord Auchester into her arms; indeed, as he drove through the silent night he felt heartily ashamed of it. He thought of Leslie and Lucy throughout the journey with a strange sense of confusion. He loved the gentle girl who had given him her heart, but he would remain Leslie's friend and champion. That the Duke of Rothbury had in some way behaved badly to her he felt assured, and but for his promise to Leslie he would have called him to account. As it was, he had bound himself to the simple return of the diamond pendant.
He carried it in his breast pocket for the two following days, and on the third went to Grosvenor Square.
"Yes, sir; his grace is at home, but I do not know