“Yes, yes; that’s what she said and more too. She went on to tell him that she thought the lady would very likely succeed and would become Lady Ashley, as she was a clever and skilful angler, but did he not think that she angled for him a little too openly and too boldly?”
“Oh—oh! What——”
“Now don’t interrupt me, Dorothy,” exclaimed Beatrice, completely engrossed in her story, “or I’ll lose it all again. Well, when Lady Brooke said that to him the one wish in his mind, he said, was that she were a man and he would have strangled her where she stood for those words she had spoken.”
“Ah!”
“Yes, and then he went on to say that whomever she chose—whether lord or commoner—would be fortunate, indeed, and that he hoped she would be as happy as he knew she was good and beautiful. Then he told Captain Swords that he should always love her, with the loyalty a soldier has for his flag; worship her with the blind idolatry of a fanatic for his God. He said that if war should again break out, it would find him at the front and that when he fell his one hope was that her face might be the last vision to pass before his eyes; her name the last word upon his lips. Oh, Dorothy, I tell you he spoke so beautifully and so sadly of her that I just sniveled behind the bush and the sob I gave nearly betrayed me. As for Captain Swords, I could hear him pacing up and down the path and he flung his cigar away with such violence that it flew clear over the big bush and almost fell on my head. I wish I had someone to care for me like that. As for Lady Brooke——”
At the mention of that name, Dorothy suddenly sprang from her chair and confronted Beatrice with pale face and strained, wide-staring eyes.
“The wretch—oh, the wretch!” she murmured fiercely. “Such base falsehood!”
“Why, Dorothy,” exclaimed Beatrice, startled, “why are you so excited?”
“Excited! Who wouldn’t be in the face of such horrible untruths—such a dreadful mistake!”
“Why, why, Dorothy!” cried Beatrice quickly. “Do you know anything of this? Who the lady is? Is she some friend of yours? Have I made you unhappy?”