Chapter XVI. The Last Blow.

Otago Witness, Issue 1900, 3 July 1890, Page 34

Chapter XVI. The Last Blow.

Mrs Barclay was very bitter indeed about Nancy's return, and when during the next day Mrs Loftus was forced }to admit that the cause of it was "some folly about young Lord Gilmore talking to her," Aunt Fannie at once declared that Nancy's conduct had been disgraceful. " She always was a girl who tried to attract attention," she said virtuously, " and you see this is the end of it. What are you going to do about it, Lucy, for it is quite impossible that you can afford to keep her at home, and who will take her as a governess now, when both Lady Gilmore and Lady Blenkensop will of course have turned against her ? " Mrs Loftus, however, did not take quite such a dismal view of Nancy's shortcomings. "I will write to Lady Blenkensop and explain," she said ; " Lady Gilmore is known to be a very quick tempered woman, and I hope it will all come right ; after all it was not such a very dreadful thing for a young man to like to talk to a pretty girl." Aunt Fannie shook her head. " Ladies in their position won't stand that kind of thing," she said ; " I consider that Nancy has thrown away her one chance in life, and she will never have another." AH this was, of course, very trying to poor Nancy, for Aunt Fannie considered it her duty to be disagreeable the whole day, and made constant allusions to their want of means, and misfortunes in general. Nancy tried to play with the children, and forget her wounded feelings, but somehow she could think of no one but Gilmore, and kept wondering what he would feel and what he would do when he found out how disgracefully she had been treated. And she knew the next morning, for the early post brought her a letter from him which Gilmore had written after he arrived in town the night before, and which filled Nancy's heart with the wildest excitement, " My dear sweet Nancy," the girl read with dewy eyes and a beating heart, " I cannot tell you what I felt when I went to our old trysting place this afternoon at half-past 4, and you never came I I waited until a quarterpast 5, and then I could bear the suspense no longer, and so went to the schoolroom door and rapped. Dossj called to me to go in and I went, and found only the children and their maid. The maid went away and then Dossy told me the whole story, and how shamef ullj you had been treated. My blood boiled as I listened, and I soon found out from Dossy how it had all happened. That wretched girl Kate Butler had learnt from the little one that I knew you, and I am almost sure had watched us— nay, I am sure she did— so without saying a word to my mother, I left Wrothsley by the evening train, and before I left I got your address from Graham. "And now, my dear sweet Nancy, when and where shall I see you ? Do let it be to-morrow for I can wait no longer. When you get ' this, therefore, will you send me a telegram, and I shall meet you at any place and at any hour you appoint ? Do not disappoint me, for I have so much to tell you. And I remain, ever lovingly yours, " Gilmore." Nancy kissed these lines after she had read them, aud they brought hope to her heart, and yet she felt she could not deceive her mother, and go to meet Gilmore without her knowledge. Therefore she wrote to tell him this, and went out and posted the letter long before Aunt Fannie made her first appearance. " Dear Lord Gilmore," a few hours later Gilmore read, who had waited patiently all the morning in the house at Eton square expecting a telegram from Nancy ; " I was very glad to get your letter, for the way in which I was treated at Wrothsley made me very unhappy But I cannot go out to meet you, for it would vex my dear mother very much, aud I cannot deceive her, for she is so good and kind to me, and I love her so dearly. But I hope you will not quite forget me, and I shall often think of the many happy hours we spent together, which I suppose were too good to last.— Yours very sincerely, " Nancy." Lord Gilmore was a spoilt child of fortune, and every wish of his heart had always been his. Therefore this letter of Nancy's first made him very angry, and then made him

more determined than ever to see her, and more in love with her than ever, too 1 He received it abont 2' o'clock and by 3 he had made up his mind. He would go to her mother's house to see her, whatever it cost him. And he did go. Nancy was sitting alone, thinking sadly enough, in the little drawing room without a fire, for Mrs Loftus' narrow means could only afford one in the sitting rooms ; and Aunt Fannie, after making herself very trying during the early dinner, had fallen into a gentle doze over the dining room fire when she was roused by a hansom cab driving up and stopping at the street door. She started to her feet, and ran first to the mirror to see if her wig was straight, and then went to the room door, and listened to try to learn who the visitor was ; and she distinctly heard a man's voice inquire for "Miss Loftus." "What name shall I say, sir ?" asked the maid ; and to Aunt Fannies great excitement and consternation she heard the answer — " Lord Gilmore." " This is really most barefaced," thought Aunt Fannie, and while the two upstairs were standing with clasped hands, downstairs Aunt Fannie was in a state nearly bordering on distraction, for her sister-in-law, Mrs Loftus, bad gone out on an errand, and Aunt Fannie could not make up her mind what exactly it was her duty to do. In the meanwhile let us leave Aunt Fannie in her perplexity, and listen to what the young pair are saying to each other in' the fireless room. Nancy had started to her feet also when she heard the cab drive to the door, and stood with beating heart and bated breath during the few moments that followed, until Lord Gilmore's name was announced. Then she went forward, pale, trembling, .silent, and Gilmore also did not speak as he clasped both her hands. "You see I could not wait," he said at last. « It it is very good of you," faltered Nancy. " Good I " echoed Gilmore ; "good to myself, you mean, Nancy. I have been just mad since I heard the shameful way you have been treated ; but it was all that horrid girl, I am sure, and my only consolation is thinking how her ears must have tingled when I was abusing her, if she was listening to us." "How could she listen 1" asked Nancy, with a charming blush, remembering certain foolish words. " I have an idea, from something the child Dossy said, that she had hidden herself in one of those rooms at the end of the corridor, that I always thought were kept locked. But what matter if she did listen ? I only care because it has brought worry and pain to you." " Oh 1 it was so dreadful, Lord Gilmore 1" " Don't vex yourself about it any more, my sweec Nancy. And so you wouldn't come and meet me, you dear, naughty little witch?" " My mother would be angry." " And you never thought, I suppose, that I should be angry if you didn't? I was angry, I can tell you ; but I came to town to see you, and I wasn't going to be baulked." " But, Lord Gilmore " " What about your pretty 'buts ' ? " "You know we can't go on seeing each other." " Oh, can't we ? We just can, then, sweet Nancy ; nothing will induce me to give you up" By this time Mrs Loftus had returned to the house, and as she entered the; dining room Aunt Fannie majestically rose to the occasion. " Who do you think is upstairs, Lucy ; I ask you, who ? " she said, with extreme gravity. Mrs Loftus' delicate complexion changed. " With Nancy ? " she asked quickly. " Yes, with Nancy. I consider it monstrous Lord Gilmore is upstairs." " He may have called to apologise," faltered Mrs Loftus. v "Nothing of the sort I He has called to continue an acquaintance which can only have a bad end. Now, Lucy, will you do your duty, or shall 1 1 Your duty is to forbid this man to come to this house, where you may be sure he only comes for improper purposes ; do not forget that though you are poor, your husband and Nancy's father was a gentleman and my brother, and my husband also was a gentleman, both in the service." Mrs Loftus, who was a timid and retiring woman, hesitated. " Will you do it, or shall 1 1 " continued Aunt. Fannie deter minately. " I shall go and speak to him," said Mrs Loftus; "of course, he should not come here." And, with a sinking heart, Mrs Loftus did go upstairs, and as she opened the drawing room door the two inside, who were standing suspiciously near to each other, started suddenly apart. " My mother— Lord Gilmore," said Nancy nervously. Mrs Loftus bowed gravely, and Gilmore bowed, and then Mrs Loftus found courage to speak the words she had come to say. 11 1 think, Lord Gilmore," she said, steadily enough, " that under the circumstances you should not come here." " It was the circumstances that emboldened me to come," answered Gilmore ; " the disgraceful way in which your daughter was treated under my roof must be my excuse." " Still it is unwise— my daughter is only a young girl, and I cannot permit " " Mrs Loftus," interrupted Gilmore, as Mrs Loftus hesitated and paused, " I am sure you cannot suspect me of anything but honourable motives in cominghere— lcame to ask your daughter to be my wife." A* little started exclamation burst from Nancy's lips at his announcement, which certainly had not been made to her; acd Mrs Loftus' delicate face flushed deeply. "It is a great honour to Nancy," sha said f alteringly ; " but your mother '' " My mother has nothing whatever to do with my actions, and the way she treated Nancy was enough to disgust any man. In fact, there is just one request I have to make if Nancy here will honour me by iccepting me?" and Gilmore ardently oaught Nancy's little hand in his. " And this request is that my mother should know nothing of our en-

f gagement until after our marriage— whioh I hope Nancy will permit to be very soon." " I think that I had better leave you two to settle your own affairs," smiled Mrs Loftus. " Thank you, Lord Gilmore, for your generous and noble conduct to my child." " Well, have you turned him out? " asked Aunt Fannie, eagerlj, as Mrs Loftus reentered the dining room. " Hush, Fannie, you do not understand," answered the proud, fond mother, whose dark eyes were wet with tears ; "he came ts ask Nancy to be his wife." "I will never believe it," began Aunt Fannie positively. "It is a fact, nevertheless," said Mrs Loftus, with mild triumph, "and their marriage will take place very soon, I believe — Lord Gilmore has behaved very nobly." Aunt Fannie was speechless for some minutes after this, and sat with her eyes fixed with a stony expression of utter astonishment; then presently she roused herself. " It is a very odd thing," she said, nodding her head sagely, "but do you remember, Lucy, what I said to you about Nancy when it was first fixed that she had to go to Lady Gilmore's ? " " No, Fannie, what did you say 1 " " I said that girl was sure to make a good mateh — there, and you see I have been right, though of course I never thought of her entering the peerage— it's just wonderful, and her poor father would have been a proud and happy man if he had lived to see this day." " We ought all to be very, very thankful," said Mrs Loftus, gently, and no words were ever more truly spoken from a woman's heart. And in the golden days that followed, Mrs Loftus had no reason to change her first opinion of Gilmore. He almost lived at the little house in West Harapstead, and seemed never happy when Nancy was out of his sight. She was his last new toy in fact— the sweetest, the dearest one — he told himself, and he was really and truly in love with her, and he did not regret the words he had spoken to her, mother almost without consideration, which had plighted his troth to Nancy. He had seen, in fact, that he would lose her unless he married her, and he was ready to make any sacrifice rather than do this. And Nancy ? She was a blithe and happy maiden in those days, with her handsome lover by her side, and a bright future lying before her, athwart which no shadow seemed to fall. Their engagement, by Gilmore's wish, was kept a profound secret from all but the members of the family, and even when Lady Blenkensop wrote a most severe letter to Nancy— having heard Lady Gilmore's story —by Gilmore's request she made no reply to it. He treated a letter which he received from his mother in the same fashion. In this letter Lady Gilmore implored her son not to besome "entangled with a young woman whose character was of so degraded and low a nature, that she would actually plan meetings with gentlemen in dimly-lighted passages," and so on ; and she entreated him to leturn to Wrothsley. These letters, however, had one effect, they made Gilmore more anxious to be married immediately, " to prevent any more worry," he told Nancy ; and they made Nancy and Mrs Loftus also desirous that Nancy's real position with Lord Gilmore should be known. Gilmore had other and private reasons also for baste and secrecy about his marriage, and therefore just two weeks after Nancy had been so ignominiously sent home from Worthsley, very quietly one early morning, Hugh Gifford, third Lord Gilmore, was married to Nancy Loftus, in the parish church. Aunt Fannie behaved most generously on the occasion, and presented £100 to the happy bride, and her bridegroom's lavish hand provided her with everything she could require. But none in the street or the neighbourhood knew that the .marriage was going to take place, except the clergyman who married them, until it was over— nay, until the bride and bridegroom were actually gone. ' But before he left, Gilmore wrote a letter to his mother to tell her that all her words and warnings had been in vain. " Dear mother " (he inscribed in his large scrawling handwriting), " I did not reply to your letter before because you used in it cerlain very unjust expressions of the girl to whom I was then engaged, and to whom I am now married. I was married this morning to Nancy Loftus, and I mean to take her abroad for a year or more, and I hope by the time of our return you will be reconciled to my choice. I for one am willing 1 to let bygones be by-gones, and I think we had all better bury the hatchet ; but you see you did not act very wisely in turning Nancy out of the house, when she will return to it as its mistress. Please keep the diamonds I gave her safely until she requires them. With love to the children, in which Nancy joins.— I remain, yours sincerely, Gilmore." " There, will that do, my little one ? " he said, handing this letter to Nancy after he had written it, and we may be sure her smiling rosy lips thanked him for his words. They left Mrs Loftus' house half an hour afterwards, and the letter left too, and speeded on its way until it reached the great house which Sir Thomas Giftord had built in his pride, before he became the first Lord Gilmore, and where the second lord had lived and died, and where his children had been ! born. And it reached the hand of Lady Gilmore, who seized it with passionate haste, recognising the handwriting of her son. But as she read the words it contained— words that crushed all her hopes to dust— a shriek so loud, so terrible, that the lofty roof rang, burst from her writhing lips, and utterances wild, self-accusing, and despairing, escaped her tongue. She walked up and down the room like a mad woman. Sne wrung her hands, she cried aloud — "My sin has found me out 1 My sin has found me out I " But suddenly she stopped, flung up her arms and fell forward, stricken, paralysed, on tha floor. The violent emotions of her heart had shattered their frail tenement.