"Perhaps I may find them a more interesting one soon," said Kathleen; then, as Geraldine looked inquiringly, she added, "I shall be of age in three months."
"True, and they will speculate about the festivities."
"Anything else of interest?"
"Hetty Stapleton is come to make a long stay at Oakwood."
Geraldine expected that Kathleen would express her pleasure at this, but she was silently wondering how Hetty would receive the news of her engagement, when it became public.
"I suppose she will hate me for winning what she most desired," was her own first thought.
She was wrong, but not to blame for a false impression which John Torrance had managed to convey to her mind respecting his acquaintance with Hetty.
The latter was longing to see Kathleen, and full of fears on her account, and because of the captain's frequent visits.
"As to Aylmer," thought Hetty, "he is too unselfish. Had I been in his place, Captain Jack should never have crossed the threshold of Hollingsby Hall. Moreover, he should have found Monk's How too hot to hold him long ago. Aye, and I would have been Kathleen's affianced husband too, for had that man been out of the way he would have stood first. She trusts and esteems Aylmer, and love would have followed but for a bit of high-flown, romantic folly that has got into the girl's head. She thinks she can save John Torrance and Ralph. I am convinced she is full of plans to effect this. Cost what it may, I will try to open her eyes to her danger."
Full of this resolution, Hetty went early to the Hall on the following morning, and asked for Miss Mountford.
Kathleen received her pleasantly enough, but the old girlish heartiness was absent, and Hetty could not help feeling that they met again on different terms from those which existed when they last parted.
They talked of many things. Hetty's journeyings and new experiences, of Kathleen's own, of Ralph's illness and present condition, and of the family at Oakwood. Then, in a quiet fashion, Hetty stepped on forbidden ground, and began to speak of John Torrance. She hardly knew how she found courage, but she did begin a story with which few beside herself were acquainted, and which need not be, repeated here.
Kathleen at first listened quietly, but at length she exclaimed, "How dare you repeat such falsehoods? Shame on you to attack a fallen man behind his back! But I have learned that hopeless love will sometimes turn to hate, and that a girl will leave no stone unturned to revenge a slight! But I thought better things of you, Hetty Stapleton."
"What do you mean, Kathleen? Never did I entertain anything like affection for John Torrance, or even respect; but till now I should have thought him incapable of inventing an untruth to prejudice you. I have spoken in your interests, vainly, I can see. Some day you will know the falsehood lies not with me; and for myself, I would die sooner than share the lot of such a man as John Torrance, and with such a past!"
"He did not say you had—" Kathleen paused.
"Been in love with him," said Hetty. "Perhaps not in so many words, but there are ways of conveying impressions apart from speech. You are angry, and I am sharing the fate of those who, with a right motive, give unwelcome information. I have often dared to do it, and earned gratitude thereby. To-day I have lost my friend in the effort to save her from the effects of her too generous, trustful nature. Farewell, Kitty. May God preserve you from yourself! I cannot."
Hetty left the room and the house, without waiting for a reply, feeling unhappy, but no more so than did Kathleen. A shrug of the shoulders, an indirect sentence, a meaning look which, as used by John Torrance, might have applied to anybody. On this foundation Kathleen had insulted Hetty, accused her of a vile motive in speaking, and as good as told her that she had, in unmaidenly fashion, flung herself at John Torrance's feet, to be repulsed and scorned!
When the passion was over, Kathleen thought of what she really knew about Hetty. She saw in her a girl, true to her friends, helpful to the weak, wise to advise, cheer, comfort and strengthen others, and always incapable of falsehood or meanness.
What had John Torrance been by his own confession?
She shrank from the picture, but said to herself, "How different will the future be from the past, which I will help him to forget!"
Then about Hetty. "She is too generous to keep up a grudge. Some day I shall ask her to forgive my hasty words, and when she sees me happy, despite the past, she will forgive and rejoice with me."
It was a terrible surprise to Aylmer Matheson when, as soon as possible after his return, John Torrance sought an interview with him, and asked his consent to his engagement with Kathleen, and his influence with Mrs. Ellicott.
"I am not worthy of her, I know," he said, "but girls seldom choose the best man, even when choice is theirs, or I should not have been the husband of such a woman as was my boy's mother. But Kathleen loves me, and has promised to be my wife, and she is fully informed as to my hopeless pecuniary position. I will agree to anything in reason as to the settlement of the property, the estate absolutely, and part of the money. As to the past, it is irrevocable. I can only begin again."
"Yes," said Aylmer, "the present is yours, and there is help to be had." He felt that opposition would be hopeless.
"Shall I not make a fresh start with an angel of goodness by my side to help me? And you will be my friend, Matheson. I do not forget what I owe to you, and you shall not find me ungrateful," was the reply.
"I will do all I can for Kathleen's sake, and yours," he added. "But I cannot forget that you, as you acknowledge, had an angel of goodness by your side once before, when you made a new beginning. Believe me, Torrance, there is only One whose help will make you strong to withstand temptation. If I knew you sought such guidance, I should be more hopeful."
"You think I failed with Adela beside me. Do you think I shall rush into the old follies after past experience? If so, you must deem me weak indeed."
"I have seen enough to know that experience does not give strength," said Aylmer.
Carried away by his own faith, and his anxiety, too, for Kathleen, he pleaded with John Torrance as he had never thought to speak to a man of his stamp.
"You are the best fellow I ever met," said the other as he finished. "If you had gone into the Church, you would have carried all before you. I will think of your words, though I make no promise to follow your advice. I doubt whether my sweet Kathleen would like a saint as well as she does good-for-nothing Jack Torrance, whom she is going to take in hand and reform. So far, her preferences have been in favour of the sinner rather than the saint."
The speaker laughed, and Aylmer's cheek flushed, for he detected a sneer beneath the jesting words, and was pained by it.
Captain Torrance saw the look, and continued. "Do not misunderstand my jesting words. Feeling as you do, you cannot regard me as a desirable husband for Kathleen; but until you have spoken to her I will not ask your consent. Be sure, however, we should both be happier for having it, and Mrs. Ellicott's also."
Kathleen prevented the possibility of any difficulty when the subject was named to her.
"Glad as I should be to have your consent and aunty's, I will not seek it; and, though I have no fears respecting my future, you shall have no responsibility, whatever may happen. I will not marry until I am my own mistress."
Mrs. Ellicott was distressed, but helpless; for Kathleen deferred to her guardians in everything until the end of their trust. As for Aylmer, he would have forfeited his whole fortune, if by so doing he could have prevented the ill-omened marriage, though his prospect of winning Kathleen himself would have remained hopeless. He sometimes thought that Torrance would prefer wealth alone, rather than with a wife, however charming.
On the other hand, Aylmer noticed that Kathleen was exacting in requiring her lover's attendance, and that Torrance showed a scarcely veiled impatience to escape. "No wonder," thought Aylmer. "He has so long been unused to home-life that it soon palls upon him. What will the future bring, when such a life is expected to be lasting?"
He hinted these doubts to John Torrance in a half-jesting way, and the answer startled him.
"You think I shall not settle down easily after my recent vagabond life, but we shall not need to be quite humdrum in our habits. Kathleen must see something of life, and I shall delight in introducing her to it, in order to give her new interests, before we drop into the domestic rut. After a season in town we shall enjoy Hollingsby and rural felicity," replied the other, with a laugh.
Perhaps John Torrance read the fears that filled Aylmer's mind as he listened, and he continued: "You have no faith in me, but mind, I am not wholly selfish and mercenary, though you know how needy I am—none better. But let me tell you, that if you could and would hand over to me every yard of land and every penny she possesses, with your fortune to boot, on condition of giving up Kathleen, I would refuse all. She has honoured me by her choice. A world's wealth would not to give her up."
"Who could relinquish one like Kathleen?" asked Aylmer, with a sigh. "Be good and true to her, Torrance. Make her happy, and those who love her will be happy in knowing it, and bless you as the cause."
CHAPTER XIX CLOUDS OVERHEAD
THE news of Kathleen's engagement spread quickly, and calls and congratulatory letters were many. How could it be otherwise? The customs of society demanded this much. Well for the parties concerned that they did not hear all that was said on the subject. Kathleen's friends pitied both her and her guardians; the girl, because of the future before her, the latter for having allowed John Torrance to outwit them. Ralph was wild with joy. His heart had been sore after that afternoon when he displeased Kathleen so much, but now he was forgiven, and his happiness complete.
The head gardener at Hollingsby had grown grey in his present service; but he promptly remarked, "When Captain Torrance is master here, he'll want a fresh gardener." Mountain was on the point of saying the same thing as to his position, but, with his usual contradiction, he turned fiercely on his fellow-servant.
"I shall stick to my horses and my young mistress," said he. "It's a poor sort of a servant that would leave her because she means to please herself. I reckon Miss Mountford didn't engage you to pick her a husband, or me either."
"I was here before she was born," was the answer.
"Then more shame for you to talk of leaving at the first contrary wind. You've had smooth times and good pay."
"I've earned my wages," said Griffiths, in high dudgeon.
"Who said you hadn't? You've no call to take offence."
But Griffiths departed, whilst Mountain growled out that some folks' tempers were short, like themselves, the gardener being little of stature. Moreover, he would like to know what Griffiths made by "perkisites," for precious little out of what he grew could be used at the Hall.
"We shall lose Mrs. Ellicott and Miss Geraldine," moaned Mrs. Mountain. "They'll not stay when Captain Jack comes."
"How do you know? Hold your tongue, and let your betters manage their own business. Look after your own girl, if you want something to do."
Patty Mountain, probably infected by Miss Mountford's example, had consented to become the wife of William Burns as soon as her mistress's wedding had taken place. Their cottage was being made ready, and Mrs. Ellicott, Geraldine, Kathleen, and Aylmer were all helping by well-timed gifts to make it comfortable and pretty for the young couple.
Mountain liked his son-in-law-elect, but growled us usual, and declared that all girls were idiots who left a good service to marry, as they would never again be as well off. Mrs. Mountain was a much enduring woman, but she retorted for once.
"You've told the truth, George," she said. "I know a girl who left a good service thirty years ago, to marry a man who has grumbled at her more in a week than her mistresses did in all the years she served them."
Mountain was too much astonished to reply, so went off to the stables, leaving his wife triumphant.
Kathleen's twenty-first birthday soon came, and tenants were regaled and school-children feasted most liberally. She wished to have no gatherings at her own home, but at length agreed to a dinner-party for older friends, and an evening one for younger neighbours.
Hetty Stapleton was at neither. Her brother and his wife were guests, knowing nothing of what had passed between Kathleen and Hetty.
Kathleen had repented of her hasty words, and had learned to doubt the correctness of her conclusions regarding the acquaintance between Hetty and John Torrance. She told him nothing of the scene, but wrote to Hetty, and owned her fault in giving way to temper and using insulting words on the slenderest foundation. She begged her "to forget and forgive, and to be still the friend of her ever affectionate Kathleen Mountford."
Hetty wrote kindly in reply, and assured Kathleen of her forgiveness.
"As to forgetting," she added, "I cannot promise what I know to be impossible, and you must feel this also. I was very angry at first, and felt inclined to state the exact truth in your presence and that of John Torrance. For your sake I have been silent, and shall continue so. I cannot, however, accept your invitation, dear, for though I would gladly come at the call of Kathleen Mountford, I could never be a guest under the roof which owns John Torrance as its master, or consent to sit at the same table with him. Nevertheless, if you ever want any service that I can render, send for me, and you shall find a true friend in Hetty Stapleton."
To Aylmer alone had Hetty told the story of that stormy interview with Kathleen, and there was no fear of its becoming public property. Remembering, however, how Hetty had foretold the result of Ralph's influence on his father's behalf, Aylmer was still more inclined to join in her fears for Kathleen's future as the wife of John Torrance. After this confidence he was most anxious that his ward's property should be settled upon her. In those days there was no protection for a wife, if a husband squandered every penny of her property, and, without a settlement, Kathleen's large personal property would be wholly in the hands of John Torrance.
