The Master of the Ceremonies Part 62

"Half-tipsy? Who's half-tipsy? This is the result of coming here, sir."

"Where I have been on thorns for the last two hours, lest my guests should see what a state you were in."

"State? What do you mean?"

"I will not expose you more before your young wife," said Denville quietly. "We are both angry, and had better say good-night. May, do you feel well enough to go home?"

"No; oh no, papa."

"You hear, Frank Burnett. Claire, you can easily get her bedroom ready."

"Look here, I shan't stay," cried Burnett. "I shan't stay here."

"Well, go home then. We will take care of her, you may depend."

"It's all nonsense. She shall come home."

"My child is not well enough to go home," retorted Denville.

"Frank dear, don't be obstinate, for May's sake," said Claire. "There, go home, dear. I'll get her to bed soon, and she'll be better in the morning."

Burnett looked from one to the other with his teeth set, and was about to burst out into an angry tirade; but he met the firm, cold gaze of his father-in-law fixed upon him, and it was irresistible. It literally looked him down; and, with an impatient curse, he left the house and banged the door.

Directly after they heard the rattle of carriage-wheels, and May uttered a sigh of relief as she watched the MC walk round the room extinguis.h.i.+ng the candles.

"Oh, papa dear," she sobbed, "he does behave so badly to me!"

"My child!" said Denville sadly, as he bent down and kissed her. "You are weary and excited to-night. Pray say no more."

He left the room, and went downstairs to bid the servants leave everything till morning, and go to bed; and as the door closed Claire knelt down beside her sister, and laid her hand upon her burning forehead.

"That's nice," sighed May; and then she sat up suddenly, glanced round, and flung her arms round Claire's neck to hide her face in her breast, and burst into a pa.s.sionate fit of sobbing.

"Oh, hush, hush, May, my darling," whispered Claire tenderly, as she kissed and caressed the pretty little head, which was jerked up again in an angry, spasmodic way.

"You saw--you heard," she cried, with her face flushed and her eyes flas.h.i.+ng, as she talked in a quick, low, excited manner. "You blamed me for loving poor Louis. Why, he was all that was gentle and kind. He loved me in his fierce Italian way, and he was so jealous that he would have killed me if I had given him cause. But so tender and loving; while this nasty, hateful little Frank--"

"May: oh, hus.h.!.+"

"I won't hush. I hate him. I despise him. A mean, shabby, spiteful little wretch! You saw him to-night. He pinched me, and wrung my wrists. He often hurts me."

"May!--May!"

"It's true. He strikes me, too; and I tell you I hate him."

"May! Your husband, whom you have sworn to honour and love!"

"And I don't either, and I never shall," cried May sharply.

"You must, you must, May, my darling. There, there; you are flushed and excited with your head being so bad, and Frank was not so gentle as he might have been. He was vexed because you had turned ill."

"Nasty, fretful wretch!"

"May!"

"I don't care; he is," cried the little foolish thing, looking wonderfully like an angry child as she spoke.

"Hus.h.!.+ I will not let you speak of your husband like that, May."

"Husband! A contemptible little tipsy wretch who bought me of papa because I was pretty. I loathe him, I tell you. Papa ought to have been ashamed of himself for selling me as he did."

"May! May! little sister!" said Claire, weeping silently as she drew her baby head to her bosom, and tried to stay the flow of bitter words that came.

"Horses and carriages, and servants and dresses, and nothing else but misery. I tell you--I don't care! If he ever beats me again I'll run away from him, that I will."

"No, no, little pa.s.sionate, tender heart," said Claire lovingly. "You are ill and troubled to-night. There, there. You shall sleep quietly to-night under the old roof. Why, May dear, it seems like the dear old times, and you are the little girl again whom I am going to undress and put to bed. There, you are better now."

"Old times? What, of misery and poverty and wretchedness, and having servants that you cannot pay, and struggling to keep up appearances, and all for what?"

"Oh, hush, hush, little May!" said Claire, holding her to her breast, and half sadly, half playfully, rocking herself to and fro.

"You don't know what trouble is. You don't know what it is to have your tenderest feelings torn. You never knew what it was to suffer as I have. I hate him."

She could not see Claire's ghastly face, nor the agonised twitching of the nerves about her lips which her sister was striving to master.

"No one knows what I have had to suffer," she went on; "and it's too hard--it's too hard to bear. No one loves me, no one cares for me.

It's all misery and wretchedness, and--and I wish I was dead."

"No, no, no, darling," said Claire, as she drew the sobbing little thing closer to her breast; "don't say that. I love you dearly, my own sister, and it breaks my heart to see you unhappy. But there, there, you are so weary and ill to-night that it makes everything look so black. I suffer too, darling, for your sake--for all our sakes, and now I will not scold you."

"Scold me?" cried May, in affright.

"No, not one word; only pray to you to be careful of your dear, sweet little self. My darling, I am so proud of my beautiful little sister.

You will not be frivolous again, and give me so much pain?"

"N-no," sighed May, with her face buried in her sister's breast.

"Frank--"

"Don't--don't speak of him."

"Yes, yes; he is your husband, and you must try to win him over to you by gentleness, instead of being a little angry tyrant."

"Clairy!"

"Yes, but you can be," said Claire playfully, as she pressed her lips upon the soft, flossy hair. "I can remember how these little hands used to beat at me, and the little tearful eyes flash anger at me in the old times."

Just then Denville entered the room softly, with a weary, dissatisfied air; but, as he stood in the doorway unnoticed, his whole aspect changed, and the tears stood in his eyes.