“It’s all right, I tell
you, my dear boy. You don’t understand
women yet. A girl who says snap the moment
you say snip, isn’t worth having.
A good, true woman takes some wooing and winning;
and no wonder, for it is a tremendous surrender for
her to make.”
“Yes, sir, you are quite right, but ”
“Yes; never mind the buts,
Glyddyr. I could put my foot down, and say:
`Claude, my dear, there’s your husband,’
but it would mean a scene, and a lot of excitement,
and I should be ill perhaps have one of
my confounded fits.”
“But without going so far as
that, sir, couldn’t you just a little,
you know parental authority you
understand. I am kept back so terribly as yet.”
“No, my lad, I should not be
serving your cause,” said Gartram firmly.
“You see, she had always been so intimate with
that fellow Lisle. Boy and girl together.
It will take a little time to wean her from the fancy,
and if I pull out the authoritative stop I shall be
making him into a hero and her into a persecuted heroine.
I may as well tell you that she is a bit firm, like
I am, and any angry discussion on my part would perhaps
make her stubborn.”
“Then, perhaps, you had better not speak, sir.”
“Decidedly not. There,
you have the run of my place. Set to and win
her like a man. Get along with you, you dog.
Smart, handsome fellow like you don’t want
any help. It’s only a matter of time.
Don’t seem to push your suit too hard.
Treat it all as a something settled; and all you
have to do is to get her used to you and her position
as your betrothed. Bah! it will all come right,
so don’t let’s risk opposition. You
will win.”
“You are right, sir,” said Glyddyr.
“I’ll be patient.”
“Of course you will. That’s right.
I say, though, that little upset?”
“Little upset, sir?” said Glyddyr starting.
“I mean about your friend, the
visitor from town, whose wife came after him.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Glyddyr. “I
didn’t know what you meant.”
“Rather an exciting affair,
that. Strikes me that if it had had a tragic
termination, your friend would not have broken his
heart. I say, here you are in a hurry to get
married, and you never know how the lady may turn
out.”
“Ah, that was an exception, sir,” said
Glyddyr hurriedly.
“Yes; but depend upon it, my
dear boy, that was a hasty marriage. The gentleman
said snip, and she said snap. Wasn’t
it so?”
“Yes; I think you are right,” said Glyddyr.
“What a temper that woman must
have. They tell me she deliberately stepped
off the pier to follow him, or drown herself in a fit
of passion.”
“Well, I’ll take your
advice, sir,” said Glyddyr, hurriedly changing
the conversation. “Of course, I can’t
help feeling impatient.”
“No, of course, no,” said
Gartram. “Come in,” he added, as
there was a timid knock at the door.
“I beg pardon, sir, but Doctor
Asher said I was to be particular as to time.”
Sarah Woodham entered the room with
a small tray, bearing glass and bottle.
There was a peculiar, shrinking, furtive
look about the woman, that would have impressed a
stranger unfavourably; but Glyddyr was too intent
upon his own business, and Gartram already disliked
his old servant, and did not shrink about showing
it.
“Oh!” he said roughly.
“Well, pour it out. Won’t take a
glass, I suppose, Glyddyr?”
“Oh, no, thanks. Not my favourite bin.”
“Thank your stars. Nice
thing to be under the doctor’s hands. Hard,
isn’t it? Regular piece of tyranny.”
“Oh, you’ll soon get over
that, Mr Gartram. Temporary trouble.”
“Ah, I don’t know, my
lad. Here, that’s more than usual, isn’t
it, Sarah?”
“No, sir. Exactly the quantity.”
“Humph! Bah! Horrible!”
He had gulped the medicine down, and thrust the glass
back on the tray.
“There, take it away,” he said.
The woman looked at him furtively, and slowly left
the room.
“How I do hate to see a nurse
in black,” exclaimed Gartram impatiently.
“When a man’s ill, the woman who attends
upon him ought to look bright and cheerful.
That woman always gives me a chill.”
“Why not make her dress differently?”
“Can’t. Widow of that poor fellow
who was killed.”
“Oh, yes; I remember.”
“Whim of Claude’s to have her here.”
“Yes, I know. Your old
servant. Well, it was a graceful act on Miss
Gartram’s part.”
“Of course; but it worries me.”
“The medicine makes you feel a little irritable,
perhaps.”
“No, it does not, man.
It’s tonic, and I’m taking chloral, which
is calming, or I don’t know what I should do.”
“Chloral?” said Glyddyr.
“Yes; curse it and bless it.
I don’t know what I should do without it.
Tell you what though. You must give me some
more sails in your yacht.
Cuts both ways?”
“I shall be most happy.”
“Yes; does me good and gives
you pleasant opportunities, eh? I ought to be
ashamed to say it, perhaps, but I am not. Confound
that medicine! What a filthy taste it does leave
in one’s mouth; quite makes one’s throat
tingle, too.”
“When will you have another sail, sir?”
“Oh, I don’t know. When did we go
last?”
“Tuesday.”
“To be sure; and this is Thursday.
That medicine seems to confuse me a bit sometimes.
Well, say this evening. By-the-bye, Glyddyr,
that was a pleasant little idea of yours.”
“What idea, sir?”
“Quite startled my girl when
that puss Mary drew her attention to it. How
cunning you young fellows grow now-a-days.”
“I don’t quite grasp what you mean, sir.”
“Altering the name of the yacht.”
“Oh!”
“A very delicate little compliment, my lad,
and it does you credit.”
“But Miss Gartram, sir?”
said Glyddyr hurriedly; “is she in the drawing-room?”
“In the drawing-room? no,”
said Gartram, with a strange display of irritability.
“I told you when you first came that she had
gone for a long walk up the glen with her cousin.”
“I beg your pardon, sir. I don’t
think ”
“Now, damn it all, Glyddyr,
don’t you take to contradicting me; and perhaps
by this time that confounded scoundrel Lisle has followed
her.”
Glyddyr leaped from his seat.
“No, no; I don’t mean
it,” said Gartram, calming down. “Lisle
is not at home. Gone to London, I think, or
I wouldn’t have let them go. There, my
lad, don’t you take any notice of me,”
he continued, holding out his hand; “it’s
that medicine. I wish Asher was hung. So
sure as I take a dose, I grow irritable and snappish,
just as if a fit was threatening; but it keeps ’em
off, eh?”
“I should say so, decidedly;
and I wouldn’t dwell upon the possibility if
I were you.”
“Well, curse it all, man, who
does?” cried Gartram fiercely. “There,
I beg your pardon. Go and meet the girls and
come back, and we’ll have an early dinner, and
then you can take us for a sail. Well, what the
devil do you want?” he roared, as Sarah re-entered
the room; “haven’t I just taken the cursed
stuff?”
“Beg pardon, sir, a telegram.”
“Well, don’t stand staring like a black
image. Give it to me.”
“For Mr Glyddyr, sir the
boy heard from the sailors at the pier that he was
here, and brought it on.”
“Well, then, give it to him;
and look here, I’m sure you must have given
me too strong a dose this morning.”
“No, sir; Miss Claude measured
it before she went. I took the bottle and glass
to her.”
“Humph! Feels wrong somehow. Is
it fresh stuff?”
“No, sir; the same.”
“Humph! Well, Glyddyr, good news?”
“Ye-es,” said Glyddyr,
with a peculiar look in his eyes. “Only
from my agent in town. You’ll excuse me
now?”
“To be sure. Go round
by the bridge and you’ll meet ’em.
Dinner at five. Hi, Sarah! Mind that:
five.”
“Yes, sir,” said the woman,
and she glided like a black shadow out of the room
after Glyddyr, who hurried along the terrace down to
the beach, where he could light a cigar and smoke.
“I feel as if they were poisoning
me amongst them,” said Gartram quite savagely.
“Not trying to put me out of the way, are they,
for the sake of my coin? How I do hate to see
that woman going about like a great black cat.
Bah! I’m as full of fancies as a child.”
Glyddyr lit his cigar and took out
his telegram again and read it.
“My congratulations.
Hope you put it on heavy. I did. Coming
down. Gellow.”
The curse which Glyddyr uttered was,
metaphorically speaking, glowing enough to fuse the
sand.
The next minute he began walking swiftly
along under the towering granite cliffs, so as to
get out of sight and hearing while he gave vent to
his feelings, for he felt that he could not command
himself.
The telegram meant so much.
“I shall have to kill that man
before I have done. Yes; I shall have to kill
that man,” said Glyddyr.
He started and looked up, for, plainly
heard, some one seemed to repeat his words, “Kill
that man.”
“Bah!” he cried impatiently,
as he looked in the direction from which the sounds
came, to find he was facing a huge wall of rock.
“Frightened at echoes now!”