Tony’s cheeks turned a trifle gray, but this time he met her gaze. “Listen to me, Lucy. On my word of honor I had no hand in what happened,” he said. “The solemn truth is that your father had an altercation with Appleby, and afterwards fell over the bridge.”
The girl’s eyes flashed, and she slowly straightened herself. “It is fortunate for you that I can take your word, because I had formed my own conclusions,” she said. “Don’t suppose I should sit here talking to you if I had thought you were guilty. This, however, is quite between ourselves.”
There was a significance in the last words which was not lost upon the man. “Well,” he said slowly, “we come back to the point again. What do you want from me?”
“Just a little kindness. I was, I don’t mind telling you again, fond of you, perhaps because—but we don’t always give reasons, Tony. There is nothing I want to ask you for in the meanwhile.”
“I am to be married soon,” the man said in desperation.
Lucy Davidson rose with a curious mocking smile. “Well,” she said, “I wish her joy of you. You are, you know, very poor stuff, Tony, and haven’t nerve enough to make either a good man or a rascal. The last, at least now and then, gets something for his pains. Now, you may take me back again.”
[XVIII — NETTIE ASKS A QUESTION]
NETTIE HARDING had spent at least six weeks at Low Wood when she sat one afternoon on the lawn, gazing before her reflectively, with a book turned upside-down upon her knee. She had at one time wondered why she lingered there, though she found the company of Hester Earle congenial, and Hester’s father had pressed her to extend her visit, while other reasons that appeared more or less convincing had not been wanting. The Northrop valley was very pretty, and the quiet, well-ordered life her English friends led pleasant, as a change from the turmoil of commercial enterprise and the fierce activity of the search for pleasure she had been accustomed to in America. The tranquillity of the green, peaceful country appealed to her, and she found interesting the quietly spoken men and women who so decorously directed what was done in it, partly because the type was new to her.
That, however, was at the beginning, for by and by she was willing to admit that Northrop might grow wearisome if she saw too much of it, and she could no longer hide from herself the fact that she had a more cogent reason for dallying there. She felt, though as yet it appeared quite likely that she might be mistaken, she was picking up the threads of a drama, the plot of which had been imperfectly revealed to her. This in itself was interesting, for she had at least as much inquisitiveness as most of her sex, and she was sensible of a little thrill of pleasurable excitement when the scent grew hotter. Still, she never asked an indiscreet question, and waited with a patience that is not usually a characteristic of the women of her nation until she was certain.
Miss Wayne, she decided, was at least very like the woman Appleby had pictured to her; but she was difficult to understand, for Violet seldom displayed her feelings, and her cold serenity baffled the observer. Tony Palliser, of whom she had contrived to see a good deal, was an easier and less interesting study. Nettie was naively witty, and could assume American mannerisms with excellent effect when she chose while Tony was fond of being amused, and Violet Wayne apparently devoid of any small jealousy. Thus he spent a good deal of time hanging about Miss Harding, and would have been painfully astonished had he discovered what she thought of him. Languid good nature and the faculty of idling time away very gracefully did not appeal to her, for even pleasure is pursued with grim strenuousness in her country. He was, she fancied, just such a man as the one Appleby had sacrificed himself for; but she surmised that there were a good many men of that kind in England, and Appleby had told his story in a fashion that made the identification of the scene and the persons concerned in it difficult. Nettie felt also that should conviction be forced upon her she would still have to decide what her course would be.