Outlaw and Lawmaker/Chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII.
WE ARE ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED.
The dance that should have been Frank Hallett's was claimed by the Prince. Of course the royal request was a command, and Elsie danced with the distinguished guest of Leichardt's Land, to the envy and admiration of the Leichardtstonians. Lord Astar had written his name down for the dance following, and he came almost immediately and took her away. They went round the room once, and then he said hoarsely in her ear, "You are fooling me and playing with me. You won't listen to what I have to say. And yet you have as good as promised to be mine."
Elsie's hour had come. She let him lead her into the garden. They went to the little summer-house to which he had taken her before. All the way he poured out words of ardent devotion.
Frank Hallett watched her go out with Astar. He watched for her return. It seemed to him as though some horrible fate were keeping him from her. He could hardly prevent himself from going up to her when she was dancing with the Prince, and when she was on Lord Astar's arm. There was something about Elsie to-night which filled him with uneasiness. He was certain that she was very unhappy. He had watched her face while she was talking to Blake, and told himself that it was Blake she loved. Why was she flirting with Lord Astar? What was the meaning of that glittering star? He was standing moodily against a background of palms at the entrance to the ball-room, when he heard his own name spoken, and in Elsie's voice,—
"Frank!"
He hardly knew the voice, it was so thin and so frightened. He turned. She was standing there alone; he could not see Lord Astar. She was deadly pale except for a bright red spot on each cheek, and her eyes were like flames. "Frank," she said, still with that strange quietude, "will you take me away somewhere—somewhere where nobody can see me?"
"Elsie," he exclaimed, "what is the matter? Come with me, my dear. I will take care of you."
He gave her his arm. As she clung to it he felt a tremor all through her body.
"Not there," she cried, fancying he was going to turn into the ball-room. "Take me home. Oh, Frank, take me home."
"Your mother is there," he said. "She was asking for you a moment ago. I told her you were with Lord Astar. Won't you go to her?"
"No, no," she shuddered. "I can't go in there—I can't, I can't."
Her composure was deserting her. He threw a hasty glance round. Another dance had begun. To the right was a refreshment room, now empty. He took her in there and put her on a chair. By this time she was trembling violently. He went to the table and poured out a glass of champagne, all that he could find in the way of stimulant, and made her drink it. "I am sorry it is not something stronger," he said. "Elsie, tell me; are you ill ? Has anything happened?"
"Yes—yes—I am ill. Take me home, Frank; now, at once. If I stay here I shall faint, or go mad. Take me home."
"Tell me where your cloak is," he said quietly, "and if you will wait here for a few moments I will fetch it, and will send for a carriage. "
She felt in the bodice of her dress for a cardboard number. He noticed then for the first time that there was a great scratch upon the white skin, and that the diamond ornament was gone from her neck.
He asked no questions, but went silently to the cloakroom. After a few minutes he came back with her cloak, and wrapped it round her. She was cowering in a corner of the room, having moved from the chair in which he had put her, and she had her face turned from the door as if she were afraid of being seen.
"Come," he said. "I was lucky. My flyman was just outside the entrance, and I got the cab at once."
He led her out into the colonnade. She had a lace scarf over her head, and she pulled it round her face, still in the same dread of being recognized and spoken to. "Do you want me to tell your mother, or to send any message? Would you like her to go with you? If you would I will take you a little way down the drive and you will be able to wait in the cab while I bring her to you."
"No," she said, "I would rather go with you alone. Mamma will think I am with Lord Astar; she will not mind." Elsie gave a wild little laugh, which broke into a sob. "Stay," she said, and taking her programme she wrote upon it, "I have gone home with Mr. Hallett. Please don't mind about me, but stay with Ina. I am tired.—Elsie." She folded the programme and wrote her mother's name upon it, all with the same feverish haste, and put it into his hands, while he helped her into the cab. "Give it to someone to give to her," she said, "and then come back to me and take me away. I can't bear it any longer. Oh, Frank, make haste and take me away!"
He went back for a moment to the entrance to the ballroom, bidding the cabman to drive on and wait a little lower down the drive. He looked round for a trustworthy bearer of Elsie's message. By good fortune Lady Horace was coming out of one of the tea-rooms on the arm of Morres Blake. He went up to her. "Lady Horace, may I speak to you for a moment?"
Blake withdrew a few paces. Ina looked at him anxiously. "Where is Elsie," she asked; "I cannot find her."
"Elsie is with me, Ina; something has happened to upset her—I don't know what, unless that cad, Lord Astar"
"Lord Astar!" Ina repeated. "Oh, Frank, mamma said something—nothing is settled. I will not let Elsie be carried away into doing what she will all her life regret. Trust me, Frank. I have been looking for Elsie ever since. You mustn't judge poor mamma hardly. You mustn't be hard on Elsie."
Ina spoke in great agitation. She laid her little hand on his arm beseechingly. He looked at her puzzled.
"I don't quite know what you mean," he said. "I judge Elsie hardly! You know how I love her, Lady Horace, you may trust her with me. She wants to go home. She doesn't want Mrs. Valliant, I asked her. She wants to go home with me. Perhaps she will let me help her. She asked me to send this to Mrs. Valliant. Will you explain?"
Ina took the folded programme and read what Elsie had written.
"Yes, I will explain; I think I understand why Elsie doesn't want mamma. She thinks mamma might be angry. Poor Elsie I Take her home, Frank, and be kind to her."
Ina's voice was trembling. Frank wondered why she showed so much emotion, but he did not wait to ask any questions. Ina turned towards Blake, who was standing apart watching them, with a curious expression on his face.
"I beg your pardon," Ina said with quiet dignity, "Mr. Hallett wanted to tell me that my sister wasn't very well, and that she does not want to frighten my mother and to take her away. She is only tired, and there's nothing wrong; and so he is going to take her back to Riverside, and I will explain to my mother. It would be such a pity to interrupt mamma's pleasure, for she is enjoying the sight, and she so seldom goes anywhere, and there is nothing really wrong with Elsie," Ina added conscientiously. "She is only tired."
Blake bowed, and she took his arm again, while Hallett made his way out to where the cab was standing. He gave the order to the driver—"Riverside Cottage, Emu Point, round by the Bridge," and got in beside Elsie. He saw that in those few minutes her composure had been broken down completely. She was crouching in a corner of the cab and was sobbing hysterically. He took her hand in his, and soothed her as if she had been a child. "Elsie dear, try not to be unhappy, Elsie. Nothing can happen to you now. I am here to take care of you. If I can't be anything else I can be your brother, dear; and I can take care of you."
"You don't know; you don't know," she sobbed.
"I think I can guess," he answered, grimly. "Lord Astar dared to send you that diamond thing that you wore—and he took advantage of your—your ignorance and thoughtlessness in accepting a present of which you probably didn't know the value. You took it as you might have taken a flower from me, and he inferred from it that you cared for him."
"No," she said; " don't think better of me than I deserve. He did send it to me. He asked me to wear it as a sign that I would accept his love. I thought he wanted to marry me; and I would have married him, for his rank and his money, though I didn't love him. I was bad enough for that, Frank. And then" She fell again to shuddering sobs.
"Go on, Elsie." Frank's voice was deep with passion. "Tell me everything."
"I can't, I can't. How can I tell you of my disgrace! How can I expect that you will ever speak to me or look at me again. If you knew how low I have fallen—what men, think of me!"
Frank gave a low, grim exclamation. "Well, Elsie, tell me as if I were your brother. Try for to-night to think of me as your brother."
"It was mamma who said I must wear that, and the bouquet; it came while I was dressing. I had told him at the races that—that he might send me something. I did it; how can I make you understand? Mr. Blake was behind me; he warned me against Lord Astar. He had no right, his speaking made me mad. I wanted to show him that I did not care."
"Ah!" Frank drew in his breath, as if with pain. "I understand. It is Blake whom you love."
"No, no"; she cried with passion. "I hate him. I never wish to see him again."
"Is that true, Elsie?"
"Yes, Frank, I will tell you the truth. I did think I cared for him. We were playing at a game that was deadly for me, and I wouldn't own it. I thought I would make him care. It was a fair challenge. I can't blame him for anything. One of us had to be hurt. It is I who was hurt, but I would not let him know. I hate him now. He exulted over me. He dared to tell me that he had won. And I said no, no. I wanted to show him that it didn't matter to me. It was for that, partly. You know I always meant to make a great match if I could. I never hid that from you. It was partly because of Mr. Blake, and to get away from everything, that I wore Lord Astar's diamonds. Mamma thought that he wanted to marry me. We were both of us blind; foolish, oh, how utterly foolish! we didn't think how I must seem to him fair game. And he must have laughed. It makes me laugh now."
She burst into hysterical merriment that was terrible to hear.
"Don't, Elsie; don't—don't laugh like that, my dear. There is no shame to you, because he was a villain. The unutterable cad! He has dared"
"At first I thought he meant that we should run away, to be married. He said if I would meet him the next day; and he would get off going with the Prince, and take me to Sydney; and afterwards to England. And then—when I understood"
"What did you do? My God, if I had heard him"
"I don't know what I did. I tore the thing off, I think I threw it at him. And he tried to keep me. And then I came to you; I thought at once of you, Frank. I knew that you would take care of me."
He took her hand in his, and put his arm round the little trembling form.
"I will take care of you, with my life. Only give me the right."
"The right," she repeated, as if she did not realize what it meant. "Oh, I knew that I could trust you, Frank, there is no one like you." She clung to him, and her shivering ceased. "Frank," she went on, in a broken childlike way—"He didn't kiss me; I didn't let him kiss me. That's all the comfort I have. No one ever kissed my lips except" and she fell to shivering again.
For answer, Frank Hallett bent down very quietly and kissed her forehead. He laid her head against his shoulder, and she seemed to find comfort in the caress. "Elsie," he said, "I want you to listen to me. You know how I love you—no, you never can know quite how I love you. I would have given you up to Blake, if he had wanted to marry you, and you had loved him so that to marry him would have been for your happiness. I have kept away from you these weeks because I didn't want you to feel bound in any way, or to have any remorseful thoughts. I said from the beginning that I would take my chance, and wait your time. But I think that the time has come now for me to speak."
"It is generous of you," she said, very low; "now when no one can respect me; when I have given the two—when Lord Astar and Mr. Blake have a right to despise me."
"They have no right," cried Frank. "You are yourself pure, sweet, womanly as you have been always. I don't know what has passed between you and Blake. I don't want to know. No man can be so unutterable a scoundrel as to despise a woman for loving him—and you love Blake, my poor Elsie. It breaks my heart to see it, and yet I know it quite well."
"And in spite of that, you—you want" she said breathlessly.
"And in spite of that, I want you to marry me—that's what I want, Elsie. I want to have the right to protect you. I want Lord Astar—I want all the world to know to-morrow that you are my affianced wife. I am not a great match, Elsie dear, but I am great enough to protect you now. And you mightn't do better," he added, with an odd little laugh.
"Oh, Frank, you hurt me."
"I don't want to do that. And I don't want to take any advantage of you—and of your weakness to-night. If you don't want to bind yourself, let it be understood between us that our engagement is only before the world, and that in reality you are as free as you were yesterday. I shall not vex or worry you, Elsie. I shall not even ask you to kiss me. Everything shall be as you wish. I understand you and how you feel."
"No, Frank, you can't do that. And I couldn't sacrifice you, just to my pride, for that's what it comes to. If I were to accept you now, to-night, it would be for always, and because I meant to try and make you as good a wife as it is possible for me to be."
"Will you have me, then, Elsie?"
"Frank, you don't want to marry a girl who has just told you that she cares for a man who—who would not marry her and has let her see that he despises her."
"Yes, I do want to marry that girl. It is nothing to me what any other man feels about her."
"But it should be something to you— what she feels about some other man."
There was a short silence. At last Frank spoke. "I am willing to take my chance of your being cured of that. I have been watching you. Perhaps you thought I was too dense to see or to understand. But love makes people quick at forming conclusions. I formed mine about you and Blake. I thought he didn't care for you in the way that a man cares when he means to marry a girl in spite of every obstacle—I can't help feeling about Blake that there is some obstacle—some mystery in his past."
"Ah! You feel that, too?"
"Yes. It may be nothing disgraceful; I don't know. Why should I think so? The man is a gentleman. I like him in a kind of way, though he is my rival. But when a man loves a woman beyond all things, he goes away or else he does his honest best to win her. He doesn't play at a game of flirtation to amuse himself and gratify his sense of power, and let her run the risk of being hurt in it, as you have been hurt, my poor Elsie."
"Don't speak of that. I will cure myself. I will not let myself be beaten."
"It's because you say that that I am safe in taking the risk. I know you, Elsie; how true and good and pure you are in the very depths of your nature! You have only been playing at life, and at love. You haven't known anything of evil, or of the realities of the world. It may be that only in marriage you will learn what love means—and oh, if it might be for me to teach you! You have never cared for anyone in the real sense of the word. Of course I know that you don't care and never have cared for me in that way, though I believe that you have a more solid affection for me than you ever had for anyone."
"That is true, Frank."
"I don't believe that you have ever loved Blake in the real sense either. You were dazzled by him at the begining. There was a glamour of romance about him, and he has a way of compelling interest and admiration. Oh, I saw it all at Goondi, at the election time. And Ina saw it, too. Ina always said that you were only fascinated, and that it would pass away. Ina has been my best friend all through. If it hadn't been for her I should have given up hope."
"Frank, it is Ina you ought to have cared for, not me." Frank winced. He did not answer. There was a little silence. Presently he said, "Elsie, I am right. You will get over this girlish fancy: I am not afraid. I will wait."
They had crossed the bridge, and had passed out of the long straggling street of the South Side, as it was called, and now they were in a quiet road, bordered with gum trees, which gave out an aromatic fragrance into the night. Elsie had grown calm. Frank still kept his arm about her, but he had attempted no closer caress. They drove for some little way in silence. The lights of Emu Point and of the houses in Riverside Paddock began to show in front of them.
"Elsie," Frank said, "will you tell me what you are thinking?"
"I will tell you when we reach home," she said quietly. "I will give you your answer then. Don't speak to me till we reach home."
He obeyed her, and they did not speak another word till the cab drew up in front of the little garden gate of the cottage. There was a light in the drawing-room, and Peter, the Kanaka, was acting as watch dog in the verandah. Frank helped Elsie to get out, and told the cabman to wait. "I will see you in," he said in a matter-of-fact way, "and then I shall go back to Government House, and bring Mrs. Valliant home."
Peter, the Kanaka, had got up from his blanket, in which he had been sleeping in the verandah, after the fashion of an Australian black. He rubbed his eyes at sight of Elsie. She bade him wait and watch still for Mrs. Valliant, speaking quite composedly, and then turned to Frank. "Will you come in for a minute and hear what I have to say?"
He followed her into the little drawing-room, which was lighted by one lamp, turned low. She raised the wick and stood by the table, a little tremulous again now, but never, he thought, had he seen her look more beautiful. She had let her cloak drop, and the lace from her head. Her pretty ball-dress was scarcely crushed, and the roses on her bodice were fresh and overpoweringly sweet. She had thrown away the bouquet. On her face were still traces of tears and humiliation, and her eyes shone very brightly. On her neck was the deep angry scratch which the point of the diamond star had made. She put out her two hands to him, and he held them in his and stood looking at her.
"Well, Elsie; what is it to be?"
"It is to be as you wish," she said. "Only—only, Frank, don't expect too much from me yet. I will try—I will try hard to forget."
"Thank you, dear," he said gently. "That is all I ask. God bless you, Elsie, you have made me very happy."
"Tell them, tell them to-night," she said feverishly. "I want everybody to know—tell them at the ball. Tell mamma. But don't tell her anything else, Frank. Let that be between you and me. Let it never be spoken of again from this night. Only see that Lord Astar knows."
"He shall know," said Frank, grimly. "And I will tell your mother. She wouldn't have been sorry six months ago. Perhaps she will be disappointed now. But," he added, "Ina will be glad."
"Yes, Ina will be glad," Elsie said thoughtfully.
They were standing, he with her hands in his, both with trouble in their eyes. "I must go," he said, rousing himself from the contemplation of her face. "Good-night, my dear," he added wistfully. "Try to sleep happily."
Still he did not relinquish her hands. "Frank," she said falteringly, "it seems a strange way to be engaged."
"Yes, we are engaged," he answered, with an effort at brightness. "We are engaged to be married; and you have made me very happy. If it seems strange—but the strangeness will wear off in time, Elsie."
He let her hands go. "Good-night dear."
"Frank," she said, appealingly, "Frank, I didn't mean—won't you kiss me, Frank?"