Of High Descent

Volume Three – Chapter Ten.

A Strange Summons

Madelaine Van Heldre closed the book and sat by the little table gazing towards her father’s bed.

Since he had been sufficiently recovered she had taken her father’s task, and read the chapter and prayers night and morning in his bedroom – a little later on this night, for George Vine had stayed longer than usual.

Madelaine sat looking across the chamber at where her father lay back on his pillow with his eyes closed, and her mother seated by the bed’s head holding his hand, the hand she had kept in hers during the time she knelt and ever since she had risen from her knees.

Incongruous thoughts come at the best of times, and, with the tears standing in her eyes, Madelaine thought of her many encounters with Aunt Marguerite, and of the spiteful words. She did not see why a Dutchman should not be as good as a Frenchman, but all the same there was a little of the love of descent in her heart, and as she gazed at the fine manly countenance on the pillow, with its closely-cut grey hair displaying the broad forehead, and at the clipped and pointed beard and moustache, turned quite white, she thought to herself that if Aunt Marguerite could see her father now she would not dare to argue about his descent.

The veil of tears grew thicker in her eyes, and one great drop fell with a faint pat upon the cover of the Prayer-book as she thought of the past, and that the love in her heart would not be divided now. It would be all for those before her, and help to make their path happier to the end.

“‘And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us,’” said Van Heldre thoughtfully. “Grand words, wife – grand words. Hah! I feel wonderfully better to-night. George Vine acted like a tonic. I’ve lain here hours thinking that our old companionship would end, but I feel at rest now. His manner seemed to say that the old brotherly feeling would grow stronger, and that the past was to be forgotten.”

He stopped short, and a faint flush came into his pale cheeks, for on opening his eyes they had encountered the wistful look in Madelaine’s. He had not thought of her sufferings, but now with a rush came the memories of her confession to him of her love for Harry on that day when she had asked him to take the young man into his office.

“My darling!” he said softly, as he held out his arms; and the next moment she was folded sobbing to his heart.

No word was spoken till the nightly parting; no word could have been spoken that would have been more touching and soothing than that embrace.

Then “Good-night!” and Madelaine sought the solitude of her own chamber, to sit by the open window listening to the faintly heard beat of the waves upon the bar at the mouth of the harbour. Her spirit was low and the hidden sorrow that she had fought hard to keep down all through the past trouble had its way for the time, till, at last wearied out, she closed her window and went to bed. Still for long enough it was not to sleep, but to think of the old boy-and-girl days, when Harry was merely thoughtless, and the better part of his nature, his frank kindness and generosity, had impressed her so that she had grown to love him with increasing years, and in spite of his follies that love still lay hidden in her heart.

“And always will be there,” she said softly, as she felt that the terrible end had been the expiation, and with the thought that in the future Harry Vine, forgiven, purified – the Harry of the past – would always be now the frank, manly youth she idealised, she dropped off to sleep – a deep, restful slumber, from which she started with the impression full upon her that she had only just closed her eyes. There must have been some noise to awaken her, and she sat up listening, to see that it was day.

“Yes? Did any one knock?” she said aloud, for the terror was upon her now, one which had often haunted her during the unnerving past days – that her father had been taken worse.

All silent.

Then a sharp pattering noise at her window, as if some one had thrown up some shot or pebbles. She hurried out of bed, and ran to the window to peep through the slit beside the blind, to see below in the street Liza, the Vines’ maid, staring up.

“Louise – ill? or Mr Vine?” thought Madelaine, as she quickly unfastened and opened the window.

“Yes, Liza. Quick! what is it?”

“Oh, miss, I’ve been awake all night, and, not knowing what to do, and so I come on.”

“Is Mr Vine ill?”

“No, ’m; Miss Louise.”

“Ill? I’ll come on at once.”

“No, miss; gone,” whispered Liza hoarsely; and in a blundering way she whispered all she knew.

“I’ll come on and see Mr Vine,” said Madelaine hastily, and Liza ran back, while her blundering narrative, hastily delivered, had naturally a confusing effect upon one just awakened from sleep.

Louise gone, Mr Leslie found bleeding, Mr Vine sitting alone in his room busy over the molluscs in his aquaria! It seemed impossible. Aunt Marguerite hysterical. Everything so strange.

No mention had been made of Uncle Luke by the girl, nor yet of Leslie’s departure.

“Am I still dreaming?” Madelaine asked herself as she hastily dressed, “or has some fresh terrible disaster come upon us?”

“Upon us,” she said, for the two families seemed so drawn together that one could not suffer without thrilling the other’s nerves.

“Louise gone! It is impossible!”

She said that again and again, trying all the while to be cool and think out what were best to be done. She felt that it would be better not to alarm her father by waking him at that early hour, and that she could not arouse her mother without his knowing.

She was not long in deciding.

Uncle Luke had shown during the troubles of the past how he could throw aside his eccentricity and become a useful, helpful counsellor, and it seemed the natural thing to send a message up to him, and beg him to come down. Better still, to save time, she would run up there first.

Liza had not been gone a quarter of an hour before Madelaine was well on her way, after stealing silently out of the house.

The effort to be calm was unavailing, for a wild fit of excitement was growing upon her, and instead of walking up the steep cliff-path, she nearly ran.

Would Uncle Luke be at home? He was eccentric and strange in his habits, and perhaps by that time out and away fishing off some rocky point.

She scanned the rough pier by the harbour, and shuddered as the scene of that horrible night came back. But there was no sign of the old man there, neither could she see him farther away, and feeling hopeful that perhaps she would be in time to catch him, she hurried on, panting. As she turned a corner of the devious way, and came in sight of the cottage, with Leslie’s house and mine chimney far up at the back, she stopped short, breathless and wondering, and with a strange reaction at work, suggesting that, after all, this was some mythical invention on the part of the servant, for there stood Duncan Leslie outside Uncle Luke’s cottage awaiting her coming.

Volume Three – Chapter Eleven.

Her Defender

“Miss Van Heldre!”

“Mr Leslie! That woman came to our house this morning to say – Oh, then, it is not true?”

“Yes,” he said slowly; “it is all true.”

“True that – that you were hurt – that – that – Oh, pray speak! Louise – Louise!”

“Gone!” said Leslie hoarsely, and, sick at heart and suffering, he leaned back against the wall.

“Gone? Louise gone? Gone where?” Leslie shook his head mournfully, and gazed out to sea.

“Why do you not speak?” cried Madelaine. “Can you not see how your silence troubles me? Mr Leslie, what is the matter? You were found hurt – and Louise – gone! What does it mean?”

He shook his head again.

“Where is Mr Luke Vine?” cried Madelaine, turning from him quickly.

“At the house.”

“Then I have come here for nothing,” she cried agitatedly. “Mr Leslie, pray, pray speak.”

He looked at her wistfully for a few moments.

“What am I to say?” he said at last.

“Tell me – everything.”

He still remained retentive; but there was a grim smile full of pity and contempt for himself upon his lips as he said coldly —

“Monsieur De Ligny has been.”

“Monsieur De Ligny?”

“The French gentleman, the member of the haute noblesse who was to marry Miss Vine.”

Madelaine looked at him wonderingly.

“Mr Leslie,” she said, laying her hand upon his arm and believing that she saw delirium in his eyes, consequent upon his injury, her late experience having made her prone to anticipate such a sequel. “Mr Leslie, do you know what you are saying?”

“Yes, perfectly,” he said slowly. “Monsieur De Ligny, the French gentleman of whom Miss Marguerite so often talked to me, came last night, while Mr Vine was at your father’s, and he was persuading Louise to go with him, when I interfered and said she should not go till her father returned.”

“Yes? – well?” said Madelaine, watching him keenly.

“Well, there was a struggle, and I got the worst of it. That’s all.”

“That is not all!” cried Madelaine angrily. “Louise, what did she say?”

“Begged him – not to press her to go,” he said slowly and unwillingly, as if the words were being dragged out of him.

“Yes?”

“That is all,” he said, still in the same slow, half-dreamy way. “I heard no more. When I came to the Vines were helping me, and – ”

“Louise?”

“Louise was gone.”

“Mr Leslie,” said Madelaine gently, as in a gentle, sympathetic way she laid her hand upon his arm, “you seem to have been a good deal hurt. I will not press you to speak. I’m afraid you hardly know what you say. This cannot be true.”

“Would to Heaven it were not!” he cried passionately. “You think I am wandering. No, no, no; I wish I could convince myself that it was. She is gone – gone!”

“Gone? Louise gone? It cannot be.”

“Yes,” he said bitterly; “it is true. I suppose when a man once gets a strong hold upon a woman’s heart she is ready to be his slave, and obey him to the end. I don’t know. I never won a woman’s love.”

“His slave – obey – but who – who is this man?”

“Monsieur De Ligny, I suppose. The French nobleman.”

Madelaine made a gesticulation with her hands, as if throwing the idea aside.

“No, no, no,” he said impatiently. “It is impossible. De Ligny – De Ligny? You mean that Louise Vine, my dear friend, my sister, was under the influence of some French gentleman unknown to me?”

“Unknown to her father too,” said Leslie bitterly, “for he reviled me when I told him.”

“I cannot do that,” said Madelaine firmly; “but I tell you it is not true.”

“As you will,” he said coldly; “but I saw her at his knees last night.”

“De Ligny – a French gentleman?”

“Yes.”

“I tell you it is impossible.”

“But she has gone,” said Leslie coldly.

“Gone? I cannot believe it. Mr Vine? He knows where?”

Leslie shook his head mournfully. “Some secret love,” he said.

“Yes; Louise did nurture a secret love,” said Madelaine scornfully, “and for a man unworthy of her.”

“Poor girl!”

“Yes: poor girl! Shame upon you, Duncan Leslie! She may be gone for some good reason, but it is not as you say and think. Louise, my sister, my poor suffering friend, carry on a clandestine intrigue with some French gentleman? It is not true.”

“You forget her aunt – the influence she has had upon the poor girl.”

“I forget everything but the fact that Louise loved you, Duncan Leslie, with all her heart.”

“No, no,” he cried with an angry start.

“I tell you it is true,” cried Madelaine.

“De Ligny? – a French nobleman? Absurd! A fable invented by that poor old half-crazy woman to irritate you and scare you away.”

“I might have thought so once, but after what I saw last night – ”

“A jealous man surrounds all he sees with a glamour of his own,” cried Madelaine. “Oh, where is your reason? How could you be so ready to believe it of the truest, sweetest girl that ever lived?”

“But – ”

“Don’t speak to me,” cried Madelaine, angrily. “You know what that old woman is with her wild ideas about birth and position. Louise, deceive her father – cheat me – elope! Duncan Leslie, I did not think you could be so weak.”

“I will not fight against your reproaches,” he said, coldly.

“No. Come with me. Let us go down and see Uncle Luke.”

“But you really think – ” he faltered.

“I really think?” she cried, with her eyes flashing. “Am I to lose all faith and confidence in you? I tell you what you say is impossible.”

Her words, her manner sent flashes of hope through the darkness that haunted Leslie’s spirit, and without a word he turned and walked hurriedly down with her toward the town till they reached the seat in the sheltered niche where he had had that memorable conversation with Aunt Marguerite.

There he paused, and pointed to the seat.

“She sat there with me,” he said bitterly, “and poured her poison into my ears till under a smiling face I felt half mad. I have tried so hard to free myself from their effect, but it has been hard – so hard. And last night – ”

“You saw something which shook your confidence in Louise for the moment, but that is all gone now.”

“I think – I – ”

“I vouch for my friend’s truth,” said Madelaine proudly. “I tell you that you have been deceived.”

Leslie was ghastly pale, and the injury he had received and the mental agony of the past night made him look ten years older, as he drew in a catching breath, and then said hastily —

“Come on, and let us find out the truth.”

Volume Three – Chapter Twelve.

Aunt Marguerite Finds a Friend

Uncle Luke met them at the garden gate, and took Madelaine’s hands in his, drawing her toward him, and kissing her brow.

“Tell me, Mr Luke,” she said quickly, “it is not true?”

“What he says is not true, Maddy,” said the old man quietly.

“But Louise?”

“Gone, my dear. Left here last night. No,” he continued, “we know nothing except what her letter says. She has good reason for what she has done, no doubt, but it is very terrible for my brother.”

Madelaine darted a triumphant look at Leslie.

“Look here, my child,” said Uncle Luke, “I am uneasy about George. Go in and see him, and if he says anything about Louie, you will side with me and take her part?”

“Do you think I could believe it of Louise?” said Madelaine, proudly.

Uncle Luke held her hand in his, patting it softly the while.

“No,” he said, “I don’t think you could. Go to him now. Tell him it will all be cleared up some day, perhaps sooner than we think.”

“Where is he?” she said quietly.

“In his study.”

She nodded her head with a confident look in her eyes, crossed the hall, and tapped at the study door.

“Come in.”

The words bidding her to enter were uttered in so calm and matter-of-fact a way that Madelaine felt startled, and Uncle Luke’s words, “I am uneasy about George,” came with a meaning they had not before possessed.

She entered, and stopped short, for there before the open window, close to which was a glass vessel full of water, stood George Vine, busy with a microscope, by whose help he was carefully examining the structure of some minute organism, while one busy hand made notes upon a sheet of paper at his side.

His face was from her, and he was so intent upon his task that he did not turn his head.

“Breakfast?” he said quietly. “I shall not have any. Yes,” he added hastily; “bring me a cup of tea, Liza – no sugar, and a little dry toast.”

A pang shot through Madelaine’s heart, and for a few moments she strove vainly to speak.

“It is I, Mr Vine,” she faltered at last in a voice she did not recognise as her own.

“Madelaine, my child!” he cried, starting and dropping his pencil as he turned. “How rude of me! So intent upon this beautiful preparation of mine here. Very, very glad to see you,” he continued, as he took her hands in his. “How is your father this morning?”

“I – I have not seen him this morning,” faltered Madelaine as she gazed upon the pale, lined face before her, to note the change thereon, in spite of the unnatural calmness which the old man had assumed; “I – I came on at once, as soon as I had heard.”

He drew in a long breath as if her words were cutting him. Then raising her hands to his lips he kissed them tenderly.

“Like you,” he said gently, “like you, my child. There, I have nothing to say, nothing to hear.”

“But, dear Mr Vine,” cried Madelaine, as she clung to him, and her tears fell fast, “I am sure – ”

He smiled down at her lovingly, as he kissed her hand again.

“Spare me, my child,” he said. “Never mention her name again.”

“But, Mr Vine – ”

“Hush, my dear! It is like you,” he whispered. “Good, gentle, and forgiving. Let the whole of the past be dead.”

“But, Mr Vine, Louise – ”

“Hush!” he said sternly. “There, come and sit down and talk to me. No, my dear, I had a nasty fainting attack last night, but I am not mad. You need not fear that. Let the past be dead, my child. Will you bring me some tea?”

Madelaine’s face worked pitifully, as she clung to him for a few moments, and then, as he resumed his place at the table, she felt that the hour was not opportune, and turned to leave the room.

At that moment there was a gentle tap at the door.

“See who that is, my child,” said Vine, quietly; “and do not let me be interrupted. If it is my brother, ask him not to speak to me to-day.”

Madelaine crossed quickly to the old man’s side, bent over him, and kissed his forehead, before going to the door, to find Uncle Luke waiting.

“Maddy,” he whispered, “tell my brother that Margaret wants him to see her. Ask him if she may come in.”

Madelaine took the message, and felt startled at the angry look in the old man’s face.

“No,” he cried peremptorily. “I could not bear to see her. Maddy, my darling, you are almost like a daughter to me. You know all. Tell her from me to keep to her room, I could not trust myself to see her now.”