MARIETTA'S MARRIAGE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9835, 18 September 1897, Page 2

MARIETTA'S MARRIAGE.

Br W. E. NoKßia. CHAPTER XXXII.— Is An Opeka-Box. Marietta's forgetfnlness of her luncheon engagement had not; been caused, as her father rather absurdly conjectured, by some surreptitious appointment with Strahan, but by a piteous little summons to Cheshamplace from Betty, who wrote : " I wish, if you have not anything particular to do, you would come and lielp mc to cheer up granny. She is in the deepest dejection, and I have fallen into such deptlis of disgrace that they can only be described by word of mouth. When I tell you that we are upon the point of flying into the country to hide our shame, you will guess, perhaps, what a good use 1 have been making of my time since 1 saw you last! n If Marietta's powers of divination were not quite equal to the demand made upon them, her cariosity, at all events, was sufficiently excited to impel her to order the carriage forthwith, and within half an hour she had been placed in possession of the distressing facts. It was generous of her, no doubt, to say that she considered herself in a great measure to blame for what had happened, since all this might have been averted if ahe had not refused the request made to her twenty-four hours before ; but she could very well afford to be generous, now that the somewhat bumptious Betty was at her mercy, and she refrained from trampling upon the fallen. In the way of consolation there was not a great deal to be said ; but ehe extended her fullest sympathy to the two ladies, and willingly promised that she would do what she could to make their peace with Lionel, whose unwonted sternness appeared to have trightened them out of their wits. Probably, indeed, she had been sent for in the hope that that promise .be obtainable from her ; for it is the privilege of easy-going men to become, on occasion, a source of terror to their womankind.

Thus, after having spent several hours in Chesham-place, Marietta returned home, glowing with conscious benevolence and prepared to discharge in no gradging spirit the mission with which she had been intrusted. She did not expect to see her husband before dinner time ; so that it was a surprise to her to find him seated in her boadoir—a- l-ooum which he very seldom entered—and to be informed that he had been waiting some little time for her. The fact was that by dint of sitting with his hands before him and meditating over Colonel Vigne's remarks, he had managed to get himself into one of those worried conditions of mind in which nothing seems too preposterous to be guile impossible, and he h'*3 now really eager for the anticipated assurance on his wife's part that she was guiltless of having encouraged anybody's advances. Naturally, however, she ascribed hia grave looks to another origin, and she hastened to say:

" You must forgive poor Betty, Lionel. I have just left her, and I can anewer for her being really repentant. After auch a

lesson as she has had, she is not iikelv to offend in the same way again. Eeaides, 1^ it punishment enough for her to be packed off home, like this, at a moment's notice ? " Oh, you have been with them and heard all about it, then?" said Lionel. "I am sorry if Betty thinks I have been too hard upon her ; I was tinder the impression that 1 had been studiously in my observations. Unfortunately, it isn't my forgiveness—to which lam sure she is very welcome—that can put matters straight. Why is it, I wonder, that women can never distinguish between causes and effects ! He spoke irritably, aud continued to do so during the brief discussion which followed. "My dear Marietta," he said at length, "it is kind of you to take Bettys part, and I am as convinced as you are that siie did not realise what she was about when she made this amazing blunder. What she fails to understand, and what you also apparently fail to understand, is that intentions don't- count. If I break the law, I must suffer for it, hoy/ever ignorant or wellmeaning I may have been." "At that rate," remarked Marietta, " you would not mind what your sister did, so long as appearances were kept up.' , "Como, Marietta, that wasn't what I said. AH the same, appearances are important, and nobody can afford to disregard them."

He took advantage ot the opportunity which, she had given him to say what he had to say, and as quickly as possible he performed a task which he suddenly found to be a good deal more distasteful thau he had anticipated. It was not, after all, exactly pleasant to accuse his wife of being too intimate with another man ; so, in his haste to get the thing over and lwvo done with it, he omitted to mention that he himself did not suspect her even of imprudence. The consequence was that she wa3 startled and genuinely alarmed. She turned pale, the pupils of her eyes became dilated, and for a moment she looked as like a guilty woman as she could very well look. But this was only for a moment. She instantly perceived that Lionel knew nothing—that it was, indeed, quite impossible for him to know anything—and she broke into a laugh so natural that hie nascent fears, which were but the swift reflection of here, were dissipated there and then. "Mr Strahan, of all people! :, she exclaimed. " Well, certainly 1 have seen a good deal of him lately and I liko him bettor than I did ; but I should have thought that if there was a man in London whom I might safely receive, it was he. Everybody knows that'he is a friend of yours, and I daresay a good many people know that he wasu't at first a particular friend of mine. Who can have been so ingenious as to suggest to you that lie was compromising mc?" Lionel did not feel justified in betraying his informant. He was fain to reply, vaguely aud a little shamefacedly, that he believed the frequency of Strahan's visits had been noticed, but that the matter was really not one of any consequence as yet. " All you have to do is to be 'not at home , to him when he calls ; he isn't a fool, and he will grasp the meaning of that." " Most likely he will," agreed Marietta, still laughing ; "but do you really wish him to grasp the meauiag of it ? Would you like him to'know that you pay him the compliment of being jealoua of him ? " Generally it is foolish to display jealousy, aud someliraes it is almost wise ; but under no circumstances can it be very dignified to do so. Lionel rather hastily disclaimed any such sentiment.

"As far as I am concerned, Strahan is welcome to be here all day and every day," he declared ; " the only thing is that one can't afford to disregard the chatter ot outsiders."

It Mould not have been easy to express himself more unfortunately. Marietta smiled and thanked him for having put her upon her guard ; but inwardly aha was nearly as much piuued as if she had adored this unsni}xi3sioned husband of hers. Since immunity from inconvenient chatter was all that he cared about, she would endeavour to spare him that inconvenience, she thought; more than that he had not asked for, and more he should not obtain. In her somewhat perverted view, his words conveyed a permission to do anything she liked, provided that she kept within the bounds of conventional decorum.

She was still under the influencs of that impression when she betook herself to the opera some hours later, unaccompanied by Lionel, who had an engagement elsewhere. She had even, by a superfluity of conscientiousness, mentioned that Strahan would mosfc likely be present at the performance, and might be expected to find his way to her box, to which her husband had replied : " Oh, well, that really can't be helped. I don't want you to be rude to the poor fellow, much less cut him. I hope you quite understand that it isn't in his power to give mc one moment of personal uneasiness."

Consequently, when Lady Middlev/ood reached the scene of her first introduction to London society, she was iv no temper to put a curb either upon her thoughts or her actions. She was reminded of that now distant occasion when she advanced to the front .of the box and looked down upon the crowded rows of stalls beneath her. Since then she had indeed fait dv chemin ! At that time—or so, at any rate, she assured herself—she had been a very simple Italian girl, in love with the handsome young Englishman, who had been so proud to introduce her to his aristocratic relations, excited almost to the point of tears by the music and by the skill of the privia donna, whom she" had innocently envied, and susceptible of being moulded into the best and most affectionate of wives. Now, through no fault of her own that she knew of, she was a totally different person. She herself had become a representative of this insular aristocracy; some of her ambitions had been fulfilled, and had left her cold ; others had ceased to attract her ; she had realised, in short, that no fulfilled ambitions have power to satisfy the soul, save possibly one. To love and to be loved —is not that, when all is said, the one and only thing that can atone for the many dieappointments of earthly existence? That Marietta Middlewood did not differ in any appreciable degree from Marietta Vigne, that sho was only dissatisfied with her extremely fortunate lot because it was her nature to be always dissatisfied, and that love in her case was likely to prove quite as fleeting an emotion as any other, may have been facts; hue for the moment she was happy in her inability to recognise them as such. She was happy, that is to say, in what it suited her to consider her unhappiness—wJych, to be sure, is no very uncommon experience.

The programme that evening was a broken one, being made up of selections from the works of two modern Italian composers, whose somewhat sensuous melodie3 were strangely wedded to an orchestration of perceptibly Teutonic origin. The music was of a nature to accord with Marietta's not over-sincere mood, and at moments she willingly allowed hor mental balance to be disturbed by it. There are so many things which one does not mean to do, yet which it is a luxury to contemplate one's self as doing, and she liked to fancy that she had it in her to sacrifice her wealth, her coronet, and her reputation for the sake of the man who had won her love.

She had caught sight of him in the stalls soon after her entrance ; she had responded to his bow by a slight hod; immediately upon the fall of the curtain he presented himself in her box ; and then, on a sudden, it was borne in upon her that, whatever sacrifices she might be prepared to make, few were to be expected from Roland Strahan.

"All alone?" were his first words. **1 thought Lady Gosport was to be with you." "Do you fee! uncomfortable without her protection•?" asked Marietta. "If so, nothing hinders you from beating a retreat." She had withdrawn from the front of the box, and the chair into which Strahan dropped close to her elbow wa9 barely visible from any quarter of the house. "I wonder why you say those things!" he murmured. " You know they aren't true."

" I suppose," she replied, " I say them partly because I know how true they are, and partly because you provoke mc to it. Is it not enough that I am to be gravely cautioned by other people against your dangerous fascinations ? Must you yourself be for ever reminding mc that, however fascinating you may be, yoa wouldn't for the world be dangerous ? " Hβ took no notice of this ironical query ; but it was with evident displeasure and anxiety that he asked :—

" Who lias been cautioning you ? Has your father been saying anything T" "No; only my "hqsband. There! now you are really alarmed. I thought you would be. Bat take oomfnrfc • Lionel is not

in the least jealous. He thinks that, as your attentions have been remarked upon, I had better be out for the future when you honour mc with a visit, that's all. I mention this because your time is of so much value, and because I should be sorry for you to waste any of it upon fruitless calls in Arlington street." " You mean to obey orders then !" "I haven't received any. I have been favoured with ad vice—which I dare say it would be wise on my part to take. Don't you think I should be wise to take it V "T wish I knew!" was his reply. "I wish I wore as wise as you pretend to think mc, and I wish—well, I wish, anyhow, that you were foolish enough to regret dismissing mc !"

"Ob, I ara foolish enough for that," she returned, with a slight laugh. She was, perhaps, foolish enough for anything. He almost believed that she was. And yet—he was no nearer than he had been at the outset to any certainty as to the form which her folly might be expected to take. Feminine folly sometimes assumes such terribly inconvenient forms ! In any case he was weary of this eternal fencing, and resolved to have an end of it.

"Lady Middlewood," said he, leaning forward) so that the words were almost whispered into her ear, "it is for you and nobody else to decide whether I shall be dismissed or not. Only one thint* is certain— we must either be a good deal more or a good deal less to one another in future than we have been up to now." She drew back with a startled, affrighted air which was not altogether assumed to suit the occasion. " What do you mean ?" she asked. " I only suggested that you should not call so often while we are in London. Why should that make any difference ? " He replied calmly, " Because I can't and won't be treated in that way any longer. Because I love you; because you know quite well that I love you ; and because"— he hesitated for one second before adding, " because I believe that you love mo, Marietta !"

His audacity mieht have won a complete victory for him had he chosen a less public spot in which to resort to direct methods of attack : as it was, Marietta could allege a sufficient reason for the agitation which she was unable to control or disguise. "Hush !" she whispered, pointing to the thin partition which separated them from the adjoining box ; " you will be heard, and I shall be ruined ! I have never given you the smallest right to insult mc as you have done ; but what eavesdropper would believe that?"

Strahan smiled. "There aren't any eavesdroppsrs," he answered, composedly. "The next box is empty, and if it were full, wo might shout at the top of our voices before "we should be audible through that uproar." "For the orchestra had now resumed work with a crushing overture which certainly had volnme enough to drown all other sounds ; so that that pretext for closing his month could scarcely be maintained.

t: You call it an uproar!" exclaimed Marietta, laughing nervously. " What a barbarian you ure! If you can't appreciate the magnificence of it, I can; so please go back to your stall at once and leave mc to listen to it."

" I will go," he answered, "if you tell mc to go and never return to you again. Then I shall understand that I have really insulted you, and that I have been a madman to suppose that yeu could ever care for mc as Ido for you. Is that what you wish mc to understand?"

She tried to say that it was ; she would undoubtedly have said so, but for a horrible conviction that he would take her at her word, if she did. Even at that supreme moment—the moment which she had long foreseen, and had always in her heart beßn determined to bring about—she did not feel sure of him. She suspected that he would be speedily consoled, and that release and reliof would be to him synonymous terms. And while she yet hesitated he broke forth into a flood of impassioned language which astounded her, coming from the lips of one who knew so well how to hold himself in check. It was impossible to doubt that he was in earnest, impossible to tell him the lie which he dared her to tell, impossible also to throw away what she was both proud and and ashamed of having secured. What remained possible was to gain time, and this concession he was the more willing to make because he was well aware of what such a plea must needs imply.

"To-morrow—no, not to-morrow, but the next day—l shall be at home at five o'clock," she said, rather breathlessly. "I ought not to see yo\i —it is wrong, I know ; but there are some things which I should like to say—which may help to explain, perhaps— but you must see that I can't say anything here ! Now go away, please." CHAPTER XXXIII.-The Bbtteb Pakt of Valour. It was no very exultant woman who was driven away from Coveut Garden in Lady Middlewoocl's luxurious equipage. She had been escorted down the staircase by an assiduous gentleman of her acexuaintance, who, seeing that she was alone, had offered to find hor footman for her; during her passage through the crowd she had several times heard her name mentioned in accents of admiration and envy,by the bystandets (a species of homage to which ahe was never wholly insensible), and she could' look back upon what she was fairly entitled to call a complete victory. But she did not call it by that name, nor weve her feelings in any way akin to those of a conquering commander. She had, it was true, conquered Strahan in one sense ; but had he not conquered her in another, and perhaps a more real one ? He had declared his conviction that she loved him, and he had not been contradicted—had scarcely eveu been so much as rebuked. Of course, he could be in no doubt as to the outcome of the appointment which she had made with him.

But her own doubts were grave, as well as numerous. It is all very well to dream of an act of impetuous and romantic folly; it is quite another thing to be brought face to face with its inevitable consequences. Granting (which is, indeed, an enormous concession to make) that the emotion which we call love may be of lifelong duration, and that mutual love between two human beings may make up to them for all imaginable privations, was ib a fact that she loved Roland Strahan in that way ? Was it a fact that, for the sake of keeping him always with her, she would be willing to throw away literally everything that she possessed—fortune, position, domestic joys, self-respect and the respect of her neighbours ? Was it even a fact that, by making this mad sacrifice, she would be able to keep him always by her side ? She really did not know. There were moments when she loved the man, and there were other moments when she felt as if she did not wish ever to see him again. He was an avowed egoist, and at the bottom of her heart there lurked a constant misgiving that, when put to the test, he might prove himself a traitor. The circumstance of her eelf-coinmunings having taken that shape will doubtless lead the perspicacious reader to two conclusions : in the first place, that if she had been really in love, she would not have questioned her lover's sincerity or fidelity, and in the second that she was more of a goose than of a prospective sinner. That the admission of an illicit affection ahonld necessarily entail in Marietta's mind the abandonment of all that she contemplated abandoning ought sorely to secure for her the atuosed pardon of any woman of the world. She was, however, serious enough about it. She pictured herself eloping to Australia—nothing less than that—with the future premier of a colony destined to become great, and being perhaps, eventually received and acknowledged as the legefcimafce wife of so brilliant a personage. She must either make up her mind to that she supposed, ot else take leave of Roland Strahan for ever ; and the truth waa that neither alternative pleased her. She had played her cards badly; she hod allowed her hand to be forced : she had not meant to be driven so soon, if at all, into such a corner. And since it ia but natural, in a situation of that kind, to be incensed against somebody, she divided her anger in about equal portions between her. hueband and her admirer. The former, by his almost insulting permission to her to do what she pleased, had merited the worst that might befall him ; the latter, by taking advantage of her in an unguarded and unprotected moment, had displayed a lack of generosity for which she longed to make him smart.

On her return home, she encountered Lionel, who always sat up late, and who was in the act of carrying a Blue Book from the library into his study. He hoped she had enjoyed herself, wished that he had had time to go to the opera with her, remarked that it wo 3 a horrid trrind to have to set up

the whole history of the education question, made no inquiries as to whom she had seen, and bade her good-night. "So that is all you care !" she thought to herself as she mounted the broad staircase. Upon the landing she stood irresolutely for a moment, and then, contrary to her habit, made her way to the nursery, where Bob was lying sound asleep, with his thumu in his mouth. That spectacle, which she contemplated in silence for a few minutes, to the manifest displeasure of tho nurse, who did not like to bo intruded upon without previous notice, afforded her the excuse which had probably been her motive in seek- ! mc it for some subsequent shedding of tears. Ultimately, she went to bed, and had what she considered a very bad night, lhat is to say that it was very nearly an hour before profound slumber descended upon her and set her free from her numerous cares and dubitations. . Nobody ever wakes up in precisely the same mental condition as that m which he has fallen aaleep, and Mariotta, on opening her eyes and recalling the events of the previous evening, told herself that some ot her conclusions had been a little too hasty. Things, after all, had not yet reached a climax, nor was she committed to any surrender. Sho had still a respite of thirty hours or so before her, and, witli a little forethought, it should not exceed the range of her capacity to reply neither in the negative nor in the affirmative to the questions with which she was threatened. In the breakfast-room, which Lionel had already quitted, she found her father, who apologised for intruding upon her at such an hour, alleging by way of excuse that the oppressive heat of the weather rendered early rising a necessity to him. ""London," he declared, "is the hottest and stuffiest city in Europe. It is a marvel to mc that people who have big, cool, country houses, with shady parks and gardens, should deliberately choose to waste the best part of the summer in such an atmosphere." The meaning of this was that the anxious Colonel had found himself unable to wait until the afternoon to ascertain the eftect upon his daughter of her husband's proposed "hint," and also that he still clung to the rather forlorn hope of inducing her to turn her back upon Arlington street and the waning season. His curiosity upon the first point was not gratified ; but, to his surprise not less than to his delight, Marietta showed some inclination to share his views with regard to the second. , " X"ou do look hot and tired and worried ! she said compassionately.. " Now that you mention it, I believe I am hot and tired too. Would you come with us to Middlewood, I wonder, if we made up our minds all of a ; sudden to give our friends here the slip ? i It was all of a sudden that this simple method of evading a dilemma had suggested itself to her, and something associated with the idea caused her to laugh softly. Colonel ■ Vigne joined in her merriment out of sheer i light-heartedness and relief, though he did not know or guess what the joke was. ♦« My dear child," he replied, " there is nothing in the world that I should enjoy so ! much ; provided that Lionel " " Oh, he, won't leave Londou," interrupted [ Marietta; "you need not be in the least afraid of being in his way. When I said 'us,' I alluded to Bob and myself. Bob requires fresh air ; so do you and so do I. With three such good reasons for decamping, .we shall be justified, I think, in leaving Lionel to look after himself for a few weeks." " Well," said her father, "if you are sure that he will consent to your leaving him, and that he will not be able to get away : from London yet himself, I shall, of course, ' be only too glad to take charge of you during 1 his absence." "I am not quite sure - about his being unable to leave London," answered Marietta; " but I haven't the slightest doubt about Ins being unwilling, and I don't think he is at all likely to object to my departure. However, nothing is easier than to find out; for I believe he is still somewhere on the premises." „ She rang the bell, and despatched a message to his" lordship, who presently appeared in response thereto. " Oh, by all means," said he, as soon as his wife's wishes had been made known to him. " I quite agree with you both that it is a sin to be in LoMiSh at this time of year, and I would be off myself, if I could. Unfortunately, I have a good bit of cornnritteework on hand, whicli I can hardly abandon ; but I shall take the first opportunity of getting oufc of this. When do you think of starting ? " "To-morrow morning," answered Marietta promptly. "That can be managed, can't it?"

Lionel raised his eyebrows. "Well, it'a rather short notice; but I suppose, if I telegraph at once, rooms and a certain amount of rough food can be got ready for you. Are you in such a tremendous hurry ? " Marietta gave him to understand that she was, and that she would greatly prefer a little possible discomfort to delay ; so he shrugged his shoulders and said, with his usual good humour, " Very well; I'll go and give instructions," (To he Continued.)