"I was going this way back," he said, "and now that through your goodness I am forgiven, I trust you will add to it by allowing me to walk with you to the Hall."
Kathleen gave a smiling assent, and the two walked on, talking chiefly about Ralph, and his father's anxiety on his account during his stay in London. The captain waxed pathetic as he bewailed the boy's motherless condition and his own comparative helplessness. He sighed as he added—
"If only one, as good, tender, and fair as my poor Adela, would take her place and be a mother to Ralph, I should care little for myself; but I ought not to speak in this way. Even the thought of Ralph must not make me forget—"
Kathleen's look of sympathy was carrying Captain Jack beyond himself. He was beginning to venture on ground which he had hardly dared to believe he should be able to approach for months to come, for he was far too politic to risk a refusal by haste or rashness.
How far he might have gone, tempted by Kathleen's readiness to talk of Ralph, and her evident sympathy with the father's anxiety, cannot be told. At this most opportune moment Aylmer Matheson came in sight, as he turned a corner only a short distance in front of the pair. He had been at the Hall, and was going homeward, having declined Mrs. Ellicott's invitation to luncheon.
Captain Torrance was inwardly delighted at the meeting, and not in the least sorry that his conversation with Kathleen was interrupted at this point. He was becoming afraid that he had gone too far already, and that his impetuosity might have the effect of injuring his cause. Now he should stop, leaving Kathleen plenty to think about, and perhaps wishing the sentence had been completed before Aylmer appeared in sight. She could not doubt his earnestness, for he meant every word he had said.
Captain Jack changed the subject abruptly, and said—
"Some day I shall hope to talk about my boy again, with one who can sympathize with a motherless child, and with a father who longs to care for him in the best way. But here comes your lawful guardian, Miss Mountford; perhaps I had better retreat and resign you to his care."
There was just a suspicion of mockery in Captain Jack's tone, and his smile was less pleasant to look upon than it had been before Aylmer came in sight.
Tone and look had the effect of rousing Kathleen to show her independence, and she answered—
"Indeed no, Captain Torrance. You were good enough to say you would walk with me to the Hall, and your escort will be more than sufficient, for I expected that my walk would be solitary. Mr. Matheson is my guardian and my good, true friend, not my jailer."
The captain laughed heartily at this speech, and said some complimentary words at the moment of Aylmer's approach, with the result that Kathleen's face was full of amusement, and her heightened colour could not fail to be noticed by her guardian.
Aylmer was intensely surprised at seeing Captain Torrance in Kathleen's company, and at the apparently good understanding subsisting between them.
Mr. Matheson did not stop. He merely bowed to Kathleen, just acknowledged the captain's salute, and then went on his way, greatly disturbed by what he had seen. Painfully self-conscious in everything that concerned his ward, Aylmer tormented himself with conjectures as to the means by which her meeting with Captain Torrance had been brought about. Until the pair came in sight, he had no idea that the latter had returned to Monk's How.
He had heard, without repeating them, rumours of his neighbour's ever-growing money difficulties, and perhaps at the bottom of his heart hoped that these might eventually remove him from the neighbourhood. Now, Aylmer walked homeward, unable to see, hear, or think of anything but the half-mocking, half-triumphant look on Captain Torrance's face, the mirthful one on Kathleen's, the sound of the ringing laugh, and the impression that these were caused by some jest of which he was himself the subject. He had been so happy for a month past, even hopeful for Kathleen and for himself. Now he was miserable, full of fears, terribly conscious of his own responsibility, and at the same time of the strength, resources, and unscrupulous character of the man with whom he would have to deal, in protecting his ward against herself.
Arrived at home, he sent away his luncheon almost untasted, and his thoughts became prayers for help and guidance to do the right, and to forget self in doing it for Kathleen's sake.
Captain Jack left Miss Mountford at the entrance-gates, and she walked through the grounds alone. He would have accompanied her to the Hall door; but, in spite of that touch of the old spirit which had induced her to insist on his continued escort thus far, Kathleen shrank from braving the look of dismay which would become visible on Mrs. Ellicott's face, if she saw her niece thus accompanied. So she paused at the gates, and, holding out her hand, said—
"Good-bye, Captain Torrance. I shall hope to hear only good news of Ralph."
"Many thanks for your kindness. I shall be only too glad to be the bearer of such news."
Thus they parted, the captain in the highest spirits, Kathleen in a flutter of excitement, not altogether of a pleasurable character. The moment she found herself alone she felt a certain amount of compunction for what she had done, and she realized that the having one's own way is not always the only thing to be desired.
Aylmer had met her. Well! If he had not, he would soon have heard that she had been seen walking with Captain Torrance, for there were plenty of lookers-on from doors and windows, and in the passers-by in the village street.
Probably, Aylmer had heard her companion's laugh, and seen that she shared in the amusement caused by some remark of his. She would be honestly sorry if he imagined that she was laughing at him. He could not know that she had spoken of him as her "good, true friend" the moment before.
"And Aylmer is good," said Kathleen to herself. "He has a right to advise me, indeed, to control me, whilst I am under age, though I am sure he has a thankless office with such a wilful ward. How grave his face was as he passed us!"
"Aunty will be sadly put out, too, for Captain Torrance is her bête noir. She shall not hear of my escapade from any one else, for after lunch is over I will tell her just how the thing came about, and show her the letter. It will touch her tender heart, I know, as it touched mine."
Full of good resolutions, Kathleen entered the house, and ran lightly upstairs to take off her walking trim. Halfway up she met with her cousin.
"Oh, Ger," she said, "I am glad to see you up. I was afraid you would feel it necessary to stay in bed all day. Are you better?"
"Yes, thanks, Kitty. Have you enjoyed your walk?"
"Very much, and I am as hungry, as a bear I was going to say; but I suppose even bears are not always in a ravenous condition."
"Probably not. Did you see Aylmer whilst you were out?"
Geraldine was looking at her cousin, and could not help wondering at the vivid colour which mounted to her very forehead at this question.
"Yes," replied Kathleen. "I saw him, but not to speak to. He passed me when some one else was talking to me."
"Then it was not he who came back with you to the gate a few minutes ago?"
Kathleen turned sharply round, and asked in an angry tone, "Pray, were you watching me? Is it needful that some one should play the spy on my movements, if I leave the house alone, and am absent for an hour or two?"
"Kitty, Kitty, what do you mean? What have I done to call forth such a speech?" said Geraldine, and dropping down on a seat, she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.
Kathleen's irritation gave place to regret in an instant. Nothing could be more unlike Geraldine than the act of which she had been accused, and she could not have imagined it possible that her cousin would associate what savoured of meanness with her character. She was not given to frequent tears, but she was feeling far from well, and Kathleen's angry questioning caused her acute distress.
"What a wretch I am, Ger! do forgive me! I am horribly ashamed of myself. To think I could say such dreadful things to you, and make you cry by my unkindness. Of course you were not watching me on purpose, even if you saw me. Oh dear, dear, when shall I learn to govern my temper and my tongue?"
"I will tell you how it happened," replied Geraldine, raising her head and wiping the tears from her pale cheeks.
"No, no. Tell me nothing," cried Kathleen. "I should wrong you by listening. Do I not know that you would not do a mean thing to save your life? Only forgive me."
"Please listen, Kitty. I must tell you."
"Then, listening shall be my penance," said Kathleen, "for every word of your defence will be an added reproach."
"I will cut my words very short, dear, out of consideration for your present penitence, and," added Geraldine, with a smile, "your hunger."
"Ah, I was forgetting that in the business of hating myself; but it will come back with double force directly, as all merely animal wants persist in doing."
"I was getting ready to come downstairs for luncheon, and I stopped to rest for a moment, as my head felt giddy at first. As I looked across the grounds and park, I was struck with the wondrous loveliness of the winter landscape, and I felt a little envious of you, Kitty dear, as I pictured you going merrily over the crisp path, and revelling in your surroundings."
"Without any idea of even seeing you, I glanced in the direction of the entrance. You were just parting with some one whom I took to be Aylmer. That is all. Let us say no more about it."
Geraldine bent to kiss Kathleen, who had dropped down on the rug beside her, and then rising from her seat said—
"Make haste, Kitty. There goes the luncheon bell."
Kathleen clung round her cousin's neck, and kissed her repeatedly.
"I will tell you and aunty all about my walk afterwards," she replied, and then hurried to her own room to make herself presentable.
When the ladies gathered at the table, Mrs. Ellicott and Geraldine were, probably, the only persons under the roof of Hollingsby Hall who did not know that its mistress had been seen walking out with Captain Torrance, "just for all the world as if they were keeping company," said one of the under-gardeners to Patty Mountain, in the simple words which would have been used of one of her own degree seen under similar circumstances.
"Ha! Keeping company with my young mistress!" replied Patty, angry at the very mention of such a possibility. "As if Miss Mountford would demean herself by looking the side he's on—in that way. You had better hold your tongue altogether than talk nonsense like that."
"Nonsense or no, Patty, our young mistress did go a long walk with the captain this very morning, and whether you believe my tongue, or think I'm telling you what isn't true, won't alter what is. I've got my eyesight, and I saw that groom of the captain's give our young lady a letter, as I was coming back from the smithy, where I'd been getting a tool mended. A little while since, after dinner-hour, I saw the captain and her walking this way together, as smart as you please, laughing and talking, and he brought her as far as the gate."
Such evidence was overpowering; but Patty, staunch to her mistress's cause, was not going to allow that any importance was to be attached to it.
"You might know," she said, "that Captain Jack, as folks call him, just because he belongs to the county, as one may say, though by all accounts he's no real captain now, seeing he had to leave the army years ago, has impudence enough for anything. He would push himself into our mistress's company without saying, 'By your leave, miss,' and he would stick by her side like a leech, just to show off. What could she do?"
"They meet in company sometimes, though very seldom, and a good thing too; and of course she couldn't say straight out, 'Go away, I don't want to be seen speaking to you.' And now, William Burns, if we are to be friends, you'll not say another word to any living soul about having seen that man walking with our young mistress."
"I wish nobody knew but me, Patty, and then no one else should know. But plenty of people saw them walking together, your own father for one, as they came up to the gates. And everybody would tell you, same as I have done, that Miss Mountford looked as merry and pleased as could be. As to not turning the side the captain was on! Why, you know he's a rare handsome man, and good looks sometimes go farther than good lives in gaining favour."
William Burns cast a sly glance at Patty as he gave utterance to this opinion, which was intended to express a well-known truth, and to be a quiet reproof to the listening damsel. William was Patty's open admirer, but thus far had not received the measure of encouragement his devotion merited. He attributed his ill-success to the fact that he had a rival whose personal appearance was allowed to be far superior to his own, and who, having seen service in the neighbourhood of London, knew far more of the great world and its ways than honest William, who had never been far from his native village.
"Don't tell me about looks!" retorted Patty. "Many an apple looks tempting enough outside, but sets your teeth on edge when you taste it. I prefer good ways to good looks."
Patty smiled on her faithful admirer more kindly than was her wont. She was, like many another girl, proud to show her absolute power over him. But, despite the various snubs she had thought fit to administer during the conversation, William went away happy and hopeful after this last conciliatory speech.
CHAPTER IX A REPENTANT REBEL
"AUNTY," said Kathleen, after luncheon was over, "I want you to read a letter which I received this morning; not by post, or I should have told you about it at breakfast. It was given to me on the road by a messenger who would have brought it here, only he met me, and asked if he were to come on to the house, or if I would take it then. As it needed no answer, it was as well to spare the man a longer walk, was it not?"
"Certainly, dear. Somebody wanting you to patronize those village concerts that are being got up, I suppose. I had a note about them this morning, and so had Geraldine."
