第65章 THE HONOURABLE LAURA(3)

On the door being opened,a room too large to be comfortable,lit by the best branch-candlesticks of the hotel,was disclosed,before the fire of which apartment the truant couple were sitting,very innocently looking over the hotel scrap-book and the album containing views of the neighbourhood.No sooner had the old man entered than the young lady--who now showed herself to be quite as young as described,and remarkably prepossessing as to features--perceptibly turned pale.When the nephew entered,she turned still paler,as if she were going to faint.The young man described as an opera-singer rose with grim civility,and placed chairs for his visitors.

'Caught you,thank God!'said the old gentleman breathlessly.

'Yes,worse luck,my lord!'murmured Signor Smithozzi,in native London-English,that distinguished alien having,in fact,first seen the light in the vicinity of the City Road.'She would have been mine to-morrow.And I think that under the peculiar circumstances it would be wiser--considering how soon the breath of scandal will tarnish a lady's fame--to let her be mine to-morrow,just the same.'

'Never!'said the old man.'Here is a lady under age,without experience--child-like in her maiden innocence and virtue--whom you have plied by your vile arts,till this morning at dawn--'

'Lord Quantock,were I not bound to respect your gray hairs--'

'Till this morning at dawn you tempted her away from her father's roof.What blame can attach to her conduct that will not,on a full explanation of the matter,be readily passed over in her and thrown entirely on you?Laura,you return at once with me.I should not have arrived,after all,early enough to deliver you,if it had not been for the disinterestedness of your cousin,Captain Northbrook,who,on my discovering your flight this morning,offered with a promptitude for which I can never sufficiently thank him,to accompany me on my journey,as the only male relative I have near me.Come,do you hear?Put on your things;we are off at once.'

'I don't want to go!'pouted the young lady.

'I daresay you don't,'replied her father drily.'But children never know what's best for them.So come along,and trust to my opinion.'

Laura was silent,and did not move,the opera gentleman looking helplessly into the fire,and the lady's cousin sitting meditatively calm,as the single one of the four whose position enabled him to survey the whole escapade with the cool criticism of a comparative outsider.

'I say to you,Laura,as the father of a daughter under age,that you instantly come with me.What?Would you compel me to use physical force to reclaim you?'

'I don't want to return!'again declared Laura.

'It is your duty to return nevertheless,and at once,I inform you.'

'I don't want to!'

'Now,dear Laura,this is what I say:return with me and your cousin James quietly,like a good and repentant girl,and nothing will be said.Nobody knows what has happened as yet,and if we start at once,we shall be home before it is light to-morrow morning.Come.'

'I am not obliged to come at your bidding,father,and I would rather not!'

Now James,the cousin,during this dialogue might have been observed to grow somewhat restless,and even impatient.More than once he had parted his lips to speak,but second thoughts each time held him back.The moment had come,however,when he could keep silence no longer.

'Come,madam!'he spoke out,'this farce with your father has,in my opinion,gone on long enough.Just make no more ado,and step downstairs with us.'

She gave herself an intractable little twist,and did not reply.

'By the Lord Harry,Laura,I won't stand this!'he said angrily.

'Come,get on your things before I come and compel you.There is a kind of compulsion to which this talk is child's play.Come,madam--instantly,I say!'

The old nobleman turned to his nephew and said mildly:'Leave me to insist,James.It doesn't become you.I can speak to her sharply enough,if I choose.'

James,however,did not heed his uncle,and went on to the troublesome young woman:'You say you don't want to come,indeed!

A pretty story to tell me,that!Come,march out of the room at once,and leave that hulking fellow for me to deal with afterward.

Get on quickly--come!'and he advanced toward her as if to pull her by the hand.

'Nay,nay,'expostulated Laura's father,much surprised at his nephew's sudden demeanour.'You take too much upon yourself.Leave her to me.'

'I won't leave her to you any longer!'

'You have no right,James,to address either me or her in this way;so just hold your tongue.Come,my dear.'

'I have every right!'insisted James.

'How do you make that out?'

'I have the right of a husband.'

'Whose husband?'

'Hers.'

'What?'

'She's my wife.'

'James!'

'Well,to cut a long story short,I may say that she secretly married me,in spite of your lordship's prohibition,about three months ago.And I must add that,though she cooled down rather quickly,everything went on smoothly enough between us for some time;in spite of the awkwardness of meeting only by stealth.We were only waiting for a convenient moment to break the news to you when this idle Adonis turned up,and after poisoning her mind against me,brought her into this disgrace.'

Here the operatic luminary,who had sat in rather an abstracted and nerveless attitude till the cousin made his declaration,fired up and cried:'I declare before Heaven that till this moment I never knew she was a wife!I found her in her father's house an unhappy girl--unhappy,as I believe,because of the loneliness and dreariness of that establishment,and the want of society,and for nothing else whatever.What this statement about her being your wife means I am quite at a loss to understand.Are you indeed married to him,Laura?'