The Master of the Ceremonies Part 10

"Oh, don't, my dear boy," whispered Claire in a choking voice.

"Oh, yes, I shall. They're ashamed of me and of all of us. Just as if we could help the old girl being killed here."

A horrible spasm ran through Claire.

"Don't jump like that, stupid," said Morton roughly. "You didn't kill her."

"Hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+"

"No, I shan't hush. It'll do you good to talk and hear what people say, my pretty old darling Sis. There, there hush-a-bye, baby. Cuddle up close, and let's comfort you. What's the matter now?"

Claire had struggled up, with her hands upon his shoulders, and was gazing wildly into his eyes.

"What--what do people say?" she panted.

"Be still, little goose--no; pretty little white pigeon," he said, more softly, as he tried to draw her towards him.

"What--do they say?" she cried, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, and she trembled violently.

"Why, that it is a jolly good job the old woman is dead, for she was no use to anyone."

Claire groaned as she yielded once more to his embrace.

"Fisherman d.i.c.k says--I say, he is a close old nut there's no getting anything out of him!--says he don't see that people like Lady Teigne are any use in the world."

"Morton!"

"Oh, it's all right. I'm only telling you what he said. He says too that the chap who did it--I say, don't kick out like that, Sis. Yes, I shall go on: I'm doing you good. Fisherman d.i.c.k, and Mrs Miggles too, said that I ought to try and rouse you up, and I'm doing it. You're ever so much better already. Why, your hands were like dabs when I came up, and now they are nice and warm."

She caressed his cheek with them, and he kissed her as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"d.i.c.k Miggles said that the diamonds would never do the chap any good who stole 'em."

Once more that hysterical start, but the boy only clasped his sister more tightly, and went on:

"d.i.c.k says he never knew anyone prosper who robbed or murdered, or did anything wrong, except those who smuggled. I say, Sis, I do feel sometimes as if I should go in for a bit of smuggling. There are some rare games going on."

Claire clung to him as if exhausted by her emotion.

"d.i.c.k's been in for lots of it, I know, only he's too close to speak. I don't know what I should have done if it hadn't been for them. I've taken the fish I've caught up there, and Polly Miggles has cooked them, and we've had regular feeds."

"You have been up there, Morton?" said Claire wildly.

"Yes; you needn't tell the old man. What was I to do? I couldn't get anything to eat here. I nursed the little girl for Mrs Miggles while she cooked, and d.i.c.k has laughed at me to see me nurse the little thing, and said it was rum. But I don't mind; she's a pretty little t.i.t, and d.i.c.k has taught her to call me uncle."

Volume One, Chapter VIII.

THE FIRST MEETING.

It was the next morning that the Master of the Ceremonies made his effort, and went down to the breakfast-room, where he sat by the table, playing with the newspaper that he dared not try to read, and waiting, wondering, in a dazed way, whether his son or his daughter would come in to breakfast.

The paper fell from his hands, and as he sat there he caught at the table, drawing the cloth aside and holding it with a spasmodic clutch, as one who was in danger of falling.

For there was the creak of a stair, the faint rustle of a dress, and he knew that the time had come.

He tried to rise to his feet, but his limbs refused their office, and the palsied trembling that had attacked him rose to his hands. Then he loosened his hold of the table, and sank back in his chair, clinging to the arms, and with his chin falling upon his breast.

At that moment the door opened, and Claire glided into the room.

She took a couple of steps forward, after closing the door, and then caught at the back of a chair to support herself.

The agony and horror in his child's face, as their eyes met, galvanised Denville into life, and, starting up, he took a step forward, extending his trembling hands.

"Claire--my child!" he cried, in a husky voice.

His hands dropped, his jaw fell, his eyes seemed to be starting, as he read the look of horror, loathing, and shame in his daughter's face, and for the s.p.a.ce of a full minute neither spoke.

Then, as if moved to make another effort, he started spasmodically forward.

"Claire, my child--if you only knew!"

But she shrank from him with the look of horror intensified.

"Don't--don't touch me," she whispered, in a harsh, dry voice. "Don't: pray don't."

"But, Claire--"

"I know," she whispered, trembling violently. "It is our secret. I will not speak. Father--they should kill me first; but don't--don't.

Father--father--you have broken my heart!"

As she burst forth in a piteous wail in these words, the terrible involuntary shrinking he had seen in her pa.s.sed away. The stiff angularity that had seemed to pervade her was gone, and she sank upon her knees, holding by the back of the chair, and rested her brow upon her hands, sobbing and drawing her breath painfully.

He stood there gazing down at her, but for a time he did not move.

Then, taking a step forward, he saw that she heard him, and shrank again.

"Claire, my child," he gasped once more, "if you only knew!"

"Hus.h.!.+--for G.o.d's sake, hus.h.!.+" she said, in a whisper. "Can you not see? It is our secret. You are my father. I am trying so hard. But don't--don't--"

"Don't touch you!" he cried slowly, as she left her sentence unspoken.

"Well, be it so," he added, with a piteous sigh; "I will not complain."

"Let it be like some horrible dream," she said, in the same low, painful whisper. "Let me--let me go away."

"No!" he cried, with a change coming over him; and he drew himself up as if her words had given him a sudden strength. "You must stay. You have duties here, and I have mine. Claire, you must stay, and it must be to you--to me, like some horrible dream. Some day you may learn the horrible temptations that beset my path. Till then I accept my fate, for I dare not confide more, even to you. Heaven help me in this horror, and give me strength!" he muttered to himself, with closed eyes.

"I dare not die; I cannot--I will not die. I must wear the mask. Two lives to live, when heretofore one only has been so hard!"

Just then there was a quick step outside, and the tall figure of Morton Denville pa.s.sed the window.