the meeting was quite an unexpected one for ralph. he had his own powerful reason for not wishing to come in contact with lady dashwood, but the thing was done now, and there was no help for it. ralph was the first to recover his self-possession. he saw that the colour was coming back to lady dashwood's face, and that it was very far from her intentions to make a scene. that would probably come later.
"there seems to be no conveyance here," mary said. "and really it is not worth while to make all this fuss about me. i am quite myself again and capable of walking as far as the dower house with lady dashwood. meanwhile, there is other work to do."
the excitement of the moment had passed, and willing hands were back once more at the task of putting out the flames. of the little group of principal actors in the scene, nobody was more calm or more collected now than lady dashwood.
"perhaps we had better walk," she said. "we can take the short cut through the shrubbery. and i shall be very glad if mr. darnley will accompany us. i presume, sir, that you have not had any breakfast?"
"i haven't," ralph said. "sir george has gone over to one of the farms for his. if you will be so good as to give me a mouthful of something, i will come back here and do my very utmost to save the old house. it would be a great pity to lose it."
"indeed i am glad to hear that you are so anxious about the place," lady dashwood said with a significance that puzzled mary, though it was by no means lost on ralph. "the hall is one of the finest places of its kind in england."
ralph ate his breakfast in silence; mary was silent too and pleaded a headache. she had had no sleep, she said, and was in need of rest. she ate little and drooped like a lily over her plate. when at length she rose, ralph rose also.
"please don't go yet," said lady dashwood in a voice with a touch of command in it. "i will just see that mary is made comfortable, and then i should like to have a word with you, sir. there are so many willing workers at the hall that one more or less will make no difference."
ralph bowed. lady dashwood would be glad if he would go as far as the drawing-room. he waited there till his hostess returned, proud and white, with a stern expression in her eyes. she shut the door behind her and pointed to a seat.
"pray do not stand," she said. "we may be some little time. did i not understand my--mary, to say that you are mr. ralph darnley?"
"that is quite correct," ralph said quietly. "miss mary made no mistake."
"possibly not. the mistake is on your side. i do not wish to seem in the least curious or impertinent, but have you no other name?"
"for the present, none," said ralph. "will not your ladyship oblige me by leaving matters just as they are for the moment? my happiness, the happiness of everybody, depends upon a complete and absolute discretion. i did not desire to see you----"
"no! i gathered that when i saw your face a night or two ago in the shrubbery. the moon was shining on your features, and it seemed to me that i was face to face with a ghost. but let me show you something, mr. darnley. it is a miniature of a man whom i have not seen for nearly forty years, the picture of my son. he left home for reasons which i need not go into, i never looked on his face again. i have never before shown the picture to anybody, but i have my very good reasons for showing it to you. what do you think of it?"
with trembling hands the old lady passed a miniature in a small gold frame over to ralph. he gazed at the picture long and intently, with a flush on his face and something that was very like moisture in his eyes. he was silent for so long that lady dashwood felt constrained to speak.
"well?" she asked. "i will try to restrain the natural curiosity of my sex and not ask too many questions. did you ever see that face before?"
"you force me to reply," ralph said slowly. "you have the advantage over me, lady dashwood."
"please do not call me lady dashwood. oh, i am not going to try to force your confidence; that will come to me in time. only you have not yet replied to my question. i asked you if ever you have seen that face before?"
"many a time and oft," ralph said. "is it very like me?"
"like you! it is a speaking likeness. when i came face to face with you today, it required all the seventy years of my social training to keep me from bursting into tears and throwing my arms about your neck. and nobody recognised you! but i forget that forty years have elapsed since my boy was in the midst of us. and now tell me, why do you persist in calling yourself ralph darnley?"
"i have never been known by any other name," ralph replied. "perhaps the time may come some day when i--but we need not discuss that. please do not think me churlish or wanting in courtesy to you, lady dashwood."
lady dashwood shook her head mournfully. something like tears stood in her eyes.
"i have no right to ask anything," she said. "i forfeited my right years ago. but, unless i am greatly mistaken, you could call me by a sweeter name than lady dashwood. my dear boy, i do not wish to pry into your secrets--you could not act in anything but a straightforward manner, i am certain. your face tells me that. nearly forty years ago i lost a son like you. how like he was to you i have proved by showing you that miniature. my son left dashwood hall vowing that nobody should ever see his face again there, and he kept his word. the blame was mine, and only mine, but i have been terribly punished for my treachery and deceit."
"i can hardly believe you guilty of those things, lady dashwood."
"oh, but i was. it was the cruellest wrong, and he found me out. from that day to this i have known no happiness. why do i talk like this to a stranger? i think you can guess. when i saw your face in the cloister the other night it seemed as if god had forgiven my sin and given my son back to me. is that so?"
"this is very painful," ralph stammered. "will you trust me and be patient?"
"i can be patient. i have been patient for forty years. and your face speaks for you. go on."
"there is little more for me to say," ralph resumed. "for the present i can tell you nothing. if the son you speak of came back tomorrow not a soul would recognise him but you."
"and old slight," lady dashwood said meaningly. "pray do not forget him."
"and old slight. quite true. and i am the image of the ralph dashwood who left his home nearly forty years ago. there were reasons, therefore, why i did not desire to meet you, lady dashwood, till the time was ripe. but circumstances were too strong for me; sooner or later it had been my hope that--that----"
"i begin to understand," lady dashwood said as ralph hesitated. "for the present you desire to be just ralph darnley. but the deception cannot continue for long."
"for long enough," ralph smiled. "let me confide in you to a certain extent, lady dashwood. i am a sentimental man as my father was before me."
"i know he was," lady dashwood said absently. "if he had not been, my punishment might have been less--but i am assuming too much. please go on."
"i am a lonely man. my mother died early, and my father and myself were thrown a great deal together. we spent most of our time in california, where the population is not great. you can understand how it was that i became so retrospective. and when i came to hear of the mystery that my father had kept till the end, i began to have dreams of my own. i began to see myself the master of a lovely place, like dashwood hall, for instance. . . . you see that i am speaking from my heart to you now, and i know that you are going to respect my confidence and sympathise with me."
"as long as you look at me with those eyes of--yours," lady dashwood murmured. "we are going to be great friends, thank god. but please go on."
"well, i had my dreams of the kind of wife who would make my home a paradise for me, and two years ago i met her in paris. she was proud and reserved and haughty, but all the same i knew that my instincts had not played me false. the girl likes me--of that i am certain. it sounds egotistical, but i believe that she loves me without knowing it. had i told her of the fine old house and the good old name, there would have been no obstacles in the way. but i gave the curb to my inclinations, and my secret remained untold. . . . for nearly two years i did not see that girl, not till i came down here less than a week ago. can you guess who it is?"
"mary," lady dashwood cried. "my dear, dear mary! and she does not know, she does not dream--indeed, how should she? you want her to----"
"to care for me, ralph darnley. mary has a terrible curse, her family pride comes before her duty, and even before her religion. it is the idol that she has come to worship. mind, i am by no means blind to the girl's virtues; i should not love her as i do otherwise. but i want to break down that family pride, i want to show mary and prove to her that it is a mere nothing by the side of love and duty and common humanity. that is why it is merely ralph darnley who speaks to you today. when mary owns her love for ralph darnley, and holds that love better than her pride of race, then i can speak. it may be that there is a hard lesson to be learned first, but i shall not shrink from that."
"that is how your--my son used to speak," lady dashwood murmured. "so gentle and firm, and yet so kind and considerate! you are going to make mary happy despite herself."
"that is my intention," ralph went on. "look how she is acting now. sir george has come within the grip of a scoundrel. i am alluding to horace mayfield. he has schemed out all this trouble and disaster so as to get mary in his power. the girl's senseless pride has been mayfield's strongest weapon. you know all about those sheriffs men, of course. rather than have a whisper of the trouble spoken, mary is ready to marry horace mayfield and condemn herself to lifelong misery and humiliation. it seems almost incredible that a girl should be so frozen into the ice of her family pride. but mary is not going to marry horace mayfield, she is destined for me. the lever to remove the stone from the path is mine, and i shall know how to use it when the time comes. already i have so brought it about that sir george can be free of mayfield in the course of a few days, but there is still mary to deal with. i do not quite see my way clearly with her, but fate may play into my hands and find me an instrument which----"
ralph paused hurriedly, for another man came noisily into the room. he was rather like ralph as regards figure and feature and trick of expression, but his face was effeminate, and his very black eyes a little shifty and sinister. in dress and manner he had the air of a gentleman, but at the same time there was a suggestion of loudness and hardness about him that belied the description. he did not see ralph, for he advanced noisily into the room.
"i've been looking for you everywhere," he said. "why are you hiding here, old lady?"
