‘Yes, a very bad fall. I fear it may be fatal. Will you send for her maid, or some one? We are going to lift her out of the carriage. She is quite helpless. She must be carried to her room.’
Vanessa Porkman had alighted from her horse, and came up the steps to Mr. Piper.
‘Oh,’ she cried, ‘it is too dreadful—a judgment upon us for going after the hounds without your knowledge—or pa’s. It wasn’t I who proposed it—indeed it wasn’t, dear Mr. Piper, but I feel myself guilty for all that. Can you ever forgive me?’
‘Oh, you’ve been hunting, have you, my wife and you—foolish of her, for she was never on a horse till I—I beg pardon—till Captain Standish gave her one,’—this in tones loud enough for the ear of the Captain, who stood close by.
Then Mr. Piper went down the steps and saw his wife lifted out of the carriage, and carried slowly and carefully into the house. There were two doctors, Mr. Namby, and Dr. Milroyd, from Great Yafford, who had been in the field when Erebus balked himself at a bullfinch, and rolled into the ditch with his rider beneath him. Bella’s maid and the butler both assisted. There was no lack of aid, but Mr. Piper stood on the steps and saw the little lifeless figure in the dark green habit carried past him, and offered no help.
He was on the threshold of his door when he turned and confronted Captain Standish. All the rest had followed Bella. These two were face to face with each other, and alone.
‘What do you want in my house?’ asked Mr. Piper, sternly.
‘I should like to stop till—till the doctors have made their examination—to know if things are so bad as they seem to think,’ faltered the captain, thoroughly crestfallen; and then, with a sudden burst of passion, he cried, ‘Can’t you understand that I feel myself to blame for this? It was I that put the notion of hunting in her head. I feel myself her murderer.’
‘Yes, I understand perfectly,’ answered Mr. Piper. ‘I’ve got your letters in my pocket—your letters to my wife. Do you understand that, scoundrel? First you perverted her mind, and then you killed her. That’s enough, I should think. You can want nothing more in my house; but when you boast of having seduced my wife, tell your friends that among all the husbands you have injured, one, at least, left a lasting mark upon you.’
Mr. Piper seized the captain by the collar, and with one crushing blow from his clenched fist sent him rolling down the steps. Captain Standish was an accomplished pugilist, but that unexpected blow carried all the force of a strong man’s outraged honour, and might have felled an ox. The tall slim figure swayed to and fro, swerved to the left, and fell face downwards against the base of a stone column.