Lady Rose's Daughter Part 74

"Lady Henry commands and we obey," he said, slowly. "But to-day begins a new world--founded in ruin, like the rest of them."

He raised his fine eyes, in which there was no laughter, rather a dreamy intensity. Lady Henry shrank.

"If you're thinking of Chudleigh," she said, uncertainly, "be glad for him. It was release. As for Henry Warkworth--"

"Ah, poor fellow!" said Montresor, perfunctorily. "Poor fellow!"

He had dropped Lady Henry's hand, but he now recaptured it, enclosing the thin, jewelled fingers in his own.

"Well, well, then it's peace, with all my heart." He stooped and lightly kissed the fingers. "And now, when do you expect our friend?"

"At any moment," said Lady Henry.

She seated herself, and Montresor beside her.

"I am told," said Montresor, "that this horror will not only affect Delafield personally, but that he will regard the dukedom as a calamity."

"Hm!--and you believe it?" said Lady Henry.

"I try to," was the Minister's laughing reply. "Ah, surely, here they are!"

Meredith turned from the window, to which he had gone back.

"The carriage has just arrived," he announced, and he stood fidgeting, standing first on one foot, then on the other, and running his hand through his mane of gray hair. His large features were pale, and any close observer would have detected the quiver of emotion.

A sound of voices from the anteroom, the d.u.c.h.ess's light tones floating to the top. At the same time a door on the other side of the drawing-room opened and the Duke of Crowborough appeared.

"I think I hear my wife," he said, as he greeted Montresor and hurriedly crossed the room.

There was a rustle of quick steps, and the little d.u.c.h.ess entered.

"Freddie, here is Julie!"

Behind appeared a tall figure in black. Everybody in the room advanced, including Lady Henry, who, however, after a few steps stood still behind the others, leaning on her stick.

Julie looked round the little circle, then at the Duke of Crowborough, who had gravely given her his hand. The suppressed excitement already in the room clearly communicated itself to her. She did not lose her self-command for an instant, but her face pleaded.

"Is it really true? Perhaps there is some mistake?"

"I fear there can be none," said the Duke, sadly. "Poor Chudleigh had been long dead when they found him."

"Freddie," said the d.u.c.h.ess, interrupting, "I have told Greswell we shall want the carriage at half-past nine for Euston. Will that do?"

"Perfectly."

Greswell, the handsome groom of the chambers, approached Julie.

"Your grace's maid wishes to know whether it is your grace's wish that she should go round to Heribert Street before taking the luggage to Euston?"

Julie looked at the man, bewildered. Then a stormy color rushed into her cheeks.

"Does he mean my maid?" she said to the Duke, piteously.

"Certainly. Will you give your orders?"

She gave them, and then, turning again to the Duke, she covered her eyes with her hands a moment.

"What does it all mean?" she said, faltering. "It seems as though we were all mad."

"You understand, of course, that Jacob succeeds?" said the Duke, not without coldness; and he stood still an instant, gazing at this woman, who must now, he supposed, feel herself at the very summit of her ambitions.

Julie drew a long breath. Then she perceived Lady Henry. Instantly, impetuously, she crossed the room. But as she reached that composed and formidable figure, the old timidity, the old fear, seized her. She paused abruptly, but she held out her hand.

Lady Henry took it. The two women stood regarding each other, while the other persons in the room instinctively turned away from their meeting.

Lady Henry's first look was one of curiosity. Then, before the indefinable, enn.o.bling change in Julie's face, now full of the pale agitation of memory, the eyes of the older woman wavered and dropped.

But she soon recovered herself.

"We meet again under very strange circ.u.mstances," she said, quietly; "though I have long foreseen them. As for our former experience, we were in a false relation, and it made fools of us both. You and Jacob are now the heads of the family. And if you like to make friends with me on this new footing, I am ready. As to my behavior, I think it was natural; but if it rankles in your mind, I apologize."

The personal pride of the owner, curbed in its turn by the pride of tradition and family, spoke strangely from these words. Julie stood trembling, her chest heaving.

"I, too, regret--and apologize," she said, in a low voice.

"Then we begin again. But now you must let Evelyn take you to rest for an hour or two. I am sorry you have this hurried journey to-night."

Julie pressed her hands to her breast with one of those dramatic movements that were natural to her.

"Oh, I must see Jacob!" she said, under her breath--"I must see Jacob!"

And she turned away, looking vaguely round her. Meredith approached.

"Comfort yourself," he said, very gently, pressing her hand in both of his. "It has been a great shock, but when you get there he'll be all right."

"Jacob?"

Her expression, the piteous note in her voice, awoke in him an answering sense of pain. He wondered how it might be between the husband and wife.

Yet it was borne in upon him, as upon Lady Henry, that her marriage, however interpreted, had brought with it profound and intimate transformation. A different woman stood before him. And when, after a few more words, the d.u.c.h.ess swept down upon them, insisting that Julie must rest awhile, Meredith stood looking after the retreating figures, filled with the old, bitter sense of human separateness, and the fragmentariness of all human affections. Then he made his farewells to the Duke and Lady Henry, and slipped away. He had turned a page in the book of life; and as he walked through Grosvenor Square he applied his mind resolutely to one of the political "causes" with which, as a powerful and fighting journalist, he was at that moment occupied.

Lady Henry, too, watched Julie's exit from the room.

"So now she supposes herself in love with Jacob?" she thought, with amus.e.m.e.nt, as she resumed her seat.

"What if Delafield refuses to be made a duke?" said Sir Wilfrid, in her ear.

"It would be a situation new to the Const.i.tution," said Lady Henry, composedly. "I advise you, however, to wait till it occurs."