He rose as he spoke, and crossed to the opposite side of the room, where was a window set in an alcove, which just at present was partially shrouded by a heavy curtain. With a quick movement of the hand, Sir William drew back the curtain, and revealed, to Lady Renshaw’s astonished gaze, Mr Archie Ridsdale sitting with a skein of silk on his uplifted hands in close proximity to Miss Loraine, who was in the act of winding the silk into a ball. The young people started to their feet in dismay as the curtain was drawn back. It was a pretty picture. ‘There’s no need to disturb yourselves,’ said Sir William smilingly; ‘I only wanted to give her ladyship a pleasant surprise.’ With that he let fall the curtain and went back to his chair.
‘A pleasant surprise, indeed! You don’t mean to say, Sir William’—— Her ladyship choked and stopped.
‘I mean to say, Lady Renshaw, that in Miss Loraine you behold my son’s future wife. He has chosen wisely and well; and that his married life will be a happy one, I do not doubt. In the assumed character of Mr Etheridge, I made the acquaintance of Miss Loraine, so that I am no stranger to her sweet temper and fine disposition. If anything, she is just a leetle too good for Master Archie.’
Lady Renshaw felt as if the ground were heaving under her feet. In fact, at that moment an earthquake would hardly have astonished her. Most truly had Sir William been termed an eccentric man: he was more than eccentric—he was mad! She had only one shaft more left in her quiver, but that was tipped with venom.
‘Then poor Archie, when he marries, will be brother-in-law to a person whose husband was or is a convict,’ she murmured presently, more as if communing sorrowfully with herself, than addressing Sir William. Her eyes were fixed on the cornice pole of one of the windows; and when she shook her head, which she did with an air of profound melancholy, she seemed to be shaking it at that useful piece of furniture. Sir William and Colonel Woodruffe exchanged glances. Then the baronet said: ‘Will you oblige me, Lady Renshaw?’
He led the way to the opposite end of the room, where anything they might say would be less likely to be overheard by the young people behind the curtain. ‘Yes, as your ladyship very justly observes,’ said the baronet, ‘when my son marries Miss Loraine, he will be brother-in-law to an ex-convict—for the fellow is alive—to a man whom I verily believe to be one of the biggest scoundrels on the face of the earth. It will be a great misfortune, I grant you, but one which, under the circumstances, can in nowise be helped.’
‘It will be one that the world will never tire of talking about.’
‘Poor Madame De Vigne! I pity her from the bottom of my heart; and you yourself, as a woman, Lady Renshaw, can hardly fail to do the same.’
Lady Renshaw shrugged her shoulders, but was silent.
‘What a misfortune for her, to be entrapped through a father’s selfishness, when a girl just fresh from school, into marriage with such a villain!’ resumed the baronet. ‘But in what way could she possibly have helped herself? Alas! in such a case there is no help for a woman. When—years after he had robbed and deserted her, and had fallen into the clutches of the law—she received the news of his death, it was impossible that she should feel anything but thankfulness for her release. Time went on, and she had no reason to doubt the fact of her widowhood, when suddenly, only three days ago, her husband turned up—here! I have told you all this, Lady Renshaw, in order that you may know the truth of the case as it now stands, and not be led away by any distorted version of it. Ah, poor Madame De Vigne! How was she to help herself?’