Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Mrs. Lancaster’s Rival

Chapter XXIV. Captain Cardew’s Bargain

page break

Chapter XXIV. Captain Cardew’s Bargain.

At that trying moment Randal kept his coolness and self-command.

‘Go away; the man is mad,’ he whispered to Mabel.

Then he started up, snatched the stick from Captain Cardew’s hand, and flung it away over the edge of the cliff.

‘What do you mean, Captain Cardew?’ he said. ‘You are in a passion.’

The Captain’s conscience smote him a little. He had meant to do this disagreeable business very coolly and quietly, but the sight of those two under the fir-trees had been suddenly too much for him.

‘No, sir, I am not in a passion,’ he said. ‘If I was, I might send you after my stick. I wish to know what you mean by your conduct to my daughter.’

‘Wait till we are alone, at any rate,’ exclaimed Randal. ‘You are under a mistake. I will explain; but we can’t discuss the subject in this lady’s hearing. Walk slowly towards the town,’ he said to Mabel, in a peremptory voice that trembled in spite of himself. ‘I’ll overtake you; don’t stay here.’

Mabel gazed at the two men in astonished horror. She had never before heard Randal speak in such a tone, in such a manner. He was in what people call a ‘white rage,’ and no wonder. Her look was too much for him. He came forward, seized her wrist, and almost dragged her away from Captain Cardew to the other side of the fir-trees.

‘Do you hear what I say, Mabel? This man is mad; page 220 he wants to ruin me. He tells frantic lies; you must not stay here and listen.’

Mabel looked at him. She was horrified, but not the least frightened.

‘He is Mrs. Lancaster’s father,’ she said.

‘What of that?’ said Randal. Then his manner suddenly changed. ‘My dear Mabel, if you care for me the least, if you believe in me at all, go quietly away, and let me talk to him.’

Mabel felt as if everything was all wrong. It seemed hours ago that she and Randal had been sitting there, that he had been saying those things so difficult to answer. Now there came the strangest feeling, as if all that had been mere play, and this at last was earnest. She had never seen Randal so disturbed, not even when Mrs. Lancaster came to them that day on the beach, a most disagreeable recollection. But of course she had nothing to say, and could only do as Randal asked her. She bowed her head very gravely, and walked away at once into the open park, where the sun was shining, and people who looked free and happy were passing up and down. Randal went back to the old Captain, who was standing with his arms folded, gazing out to sea. The little interval, the necessity of getting Mabel out of the way, had quieted them both.

‘What do you wish to say to me?’ said Randal, as the Captain did not at once turn or look at him.

‘Is that young lady engaged to you?’

‘I fail to see how that concerns you,’ said Randal. ‘However,’ he added, after a moment’s thought, ‘to show you that I wish to be candid and friendly, I will tell you that she is not. May I beg that you will not mention her again?’

The Captain took no particular notice of this request.

‘I hear, Mr. Randal Hawke,’ he said, ‘that for more page 221 than two years past you have been engaged to my daughter. She acted very foolishly in concealing such a thing from her parents, but of course that was your doing; it did not suit you that the fact should be made public. I say no more about that. If the engagement had been generally known, you would hardly have dared, sir, to back out of it in so mean and dishonourable a manner. You would have been more careful of your character as a gentleman.’

Randal stood biting his lips, and looking at the Captain under his frowning eyebrows.

There was something so manly, straightforward, and fearless about the old sailor, especially now that he spoke with some degree of calmness, that even Randal felt obliged to respect him.

‘You speak hardly, Captain Cardew,’ he said. ‘But I don’t mean to lose my temper with you, for two reasons. First, you are Flora’s father; and second, I am more sorry about this unfortunate affair than you can be. You don’t imagine that I should have broken off with Flora if I had not been forced to it by necessity. I hoped that she herself perfectly understood that.’

‘I don’t know what she understood,’ said Captain Cardew. ‘She only knows, as I do, that you have jilted her in a cruel and cowardly manner, to make a marriage more advantageous for yourself. She is ill, and I shouldn’t wonder if she was fool enough to pine away and die—I didn’t mean to tell you that, though. And you will be good enough in future to call her Mrs. Lancaster, if you speak of her at all. Flora is for her own people.’

‘Yes, I beg your pardon,’ said Randal, with wonderful meekness. He looked at the Captain, as if waiting for what more he had to say.

‘I assure you, sir,’ said the old sailor more fiercely, ‘that few men would take this affair so quietly as I do. page 222 You may think yourself lucky to escape an action for breach of promise.’

Randal stroked his moustache, and was silent.

‘What have you to say for yourself?’ demanded the Captain.

‘I am sorry you and Mrs. Lancaster have taken the thing up in this way,’ said Randal. ‘She and I had a long explanation on the subject. I pointed out to her that our engagement would be endless and hopeless. I am not in a position to marry a woman without fortune. Therefore it would have been injustice to her, and misery for both of us, if the thing had dragged on any longer. You yourself could not have wished it for her.’

‘I should not have wished it for her at all, under any circumstances,’ said the Captain. ‘Not if you had been a duke’s son, Mr. Randal, and the richest man in the kingdom.’

Randal bowed slightly. He thought this interview tiresome and useless, if nothing worse.

‘Then,’ he said, ‘don’t you think we had better say no more about it? Of course I understand your displeasure, and am very sorry to be the cause of it. But Mrs. Lancaster and I talked it over the other day, and quite understood each other. I fancy she would wish the whole thing to be forgotten. These mistakes are constantly made, and people get over them.’

‘I hope they do,’ said the Captain. ‘But some people think that the world was made for their pleasure only, and they have to be shown their mistake. Now, sir, what do you expect me to do?’

Randal stared; he could not quite make out what the old fellow was driving at. But he thought if both sides kept their temper, the affair might blow over without much more mischief.

‘Well, Captain Cardew,’ he said, with a faint smile, ‘you say that under no circumstances you would have page 223 liked me for a son-in-law. So I think you might accept my apologies and very sincere regrets,—shake hands, and say no more about it.’

‘O, that’s what you think?’ said the Captain, looking at him hard.

‘Yes. And I know Mrs. Lancaster’s generous character too well,’ said Randal more gravely, ‘to believe for a moment that she would wish anything else.’

‘So your fortunes are to be built up on her generosity? Very good,’ said the Captain. ‘Well, you might have a chance with her, I daresay; women are so good-natured. But that’s not exactly my view; I can’t let you off so easily as that.’

‘Explain yourself, please,’ said Randal.

He began walking up and down the small space between the trees and the cliff. Captain Cardew stood like a solid old rock, following him with his eyes.

‘Your character in this neighbourhood would be a good deal affected, sir, if this story was known,’ said the Captain. ‘I have it in my hands, you must remember.’

‘Very obliging of you to say so,’ said Randal, with a perceptible snarl in his voice. He felt that this dreadful father of Flora’s would soon make an end of his patience.

‘You’ve told me what you expect me to do,’ the Captain went on. ‘To shake hands and say no more about it. I think that’s hardly reasonable. Now I’ll tell you what I expect you to do. Nothing for Flora. You have done your worst by her. If I have my way, she shall never be troubled by thought or word of you again.’

‘Well, what?’ said Randal, still pacing up and down.

‘I don’t mean,’ said the Captain, ‘to mention the affair to anybody.’

‘All parties will be obliged to you,’ said Randal.

‘Stop a moment, sir; I have not done yet. I shall page 224 insist on one thing, as a condition of my saying nothing. Your father shall be told, as well as the young lady you mean to marry. You will tell them both in my presence. Then if the young lady choses to marry you, she will do it with her eyes open.’

Randal stood still and looked at him with an angry scowl.

‘You won’t insist on that!’ he said. ‘What good can it do you?’

‘None whatever,’ said the Captain. ‘I shall insist upon it.’

‘You might as well tell the whole place at once.’

‘As you please, sir.’

‘I would rather you did,’ said Randal.

He was in such a rage that it was with the greatest difficulty he kept himself quiet, and did not knock the Captain down. But a little prudence still remained, and warned himself not to put himself still farther in the wrong. For a minute or two it seemed to him that he was irretrievably ruined. Captain Cardew did not press him, or take him at his word, but let him stand there biting his moustache and staring at the sea. Tell everybody! All the gossips in St. Denys, all his acquaintance in the county, Anthony Strange, Dick Northcote! The last idea was insupportable. Then there was this other plan, to confess to his father and Mabel. Well, he thought he could manage his father, but Mabel was the difficulty. She was hardly sure of him now, and she was a girl of some character and strong prejudices. Still, it ought to touch a girl’s heart, he thought, to find out what a scrape he had got into for her sake. He believed he had a great influence over Mabel, and having her to himself at Pensand, surely she might be brought round in time. If only he could speak to her again first, and bring that scene to a close which Captain Cardew had so inopportunely broken in upon. Yes, on the whole page 225 he believed that his enemy’s plan was the least fatal of the two. ‘Very well,’ he said, with a half laugh, which made the old Captain look more grim than ever. ‘If you insist upon it, let it be so. You had better come over to Pensand to-morrow, and we will do the thing solemnly.’

‘I see nothing to laugh at,’ said Captain Cardew. ‘But I can’t waste my time going to Pensand; my work is here at Morebay. Your father and the young lady are here. Why not do it here, and to-day?’

‘Look here,’ said Randal. ‘I will tell them to-day, if you like; but why should you insist on being present?’

‘I mean to be present, sir,’ said the Captain. ‘And the least you can do is to consent.’

‘I must consent, of course,’ said Randal. ‘But it is understood that after this interesting scene you will let the affair drop completely. I shall never be twitted with it again?’

‘That was my intention,’ said the Captain. ‘I’ve some notion of the meaning of two old words, honour and conscience. They had dropped out of the dictionary before you went to school, Mr. Randal.’

‘If you wish to see my father this afternoon,’ said Randal, ‘you can meet us at the George at half-past five.’

‘I shall be there,’ said Captain Cardew.

Randal found Mabel, who, of course, did not know her way about the town, sitting on a bench at the other side of the park, near the band and the people, many of whom looked at her curiously; it seemed as if such a helpless, peculiar-looking little person was hardly fit to be alone.

‘Here I am at last,’ said Randal, as she got up to join him. ‘Come along; I don’t want that old fool to overtake us. Poor old man! You think it wrong of me page 226 to call him names, but if he had been prosing away at you for the last half hour, after interrupting us just at that moment! You are tired, dear; take my arm.’

Randal seemed strangely disturbed and excited. Mabel looked at him with her eyes full of wondering reproach. Those few words that the Captain had said to Randal in her hearing had repeated themselves ever since. ‘You are a jilt and a coward. I wish to know what you mean by your conduct to my daughter.’ They had mixed themselves with the merry tunes that the band was playing; such words were never set to such music before. Could it be that Mabel had been walking all this time blindfold near a precipice, and that those rough words of the old sea-captain had come to warn her just in time? Mabel’s meditations went very near the truth as she sat there, scarcely hearing the band or seeing the gaily-dressed crowd of people. When Randal came back to her she had nothing to say to him. She did not take his arm; they walked slowly together along a stone terrace facing the sea, and for some time both were silent.

‘Mabel,’ said he at last, ‘have you been thinking at all of what I asked you?’

‘O yes,’ said Mabel.

‘You dear sweet girl! Forgive me for tormenting you, but I can’t think or speak of anything else till I have your answer. You do care for me, Mabel, don’t you? I am not mistaken?’

‘O, I don’t know. Don’t ask me now,’ said Mabel, in a low voice.

‘Then I am very hopeful,’ said Randal. ‘You would say no at once if you disliked me. If you are not sure that way, it is all right.’

Probably Mabel had never heard the old French proverb about ‘Château qui parle, et femme qui écoute,’ but there was something in Randal’s hopefulness which page 227 frightened her at once. She looked up at him very gravely.

‘You must not be hopeful,’ she said; ‘I can’t let you!’

‘How can you help it, my dear child?’ said Randal.

‘Don’t speak to me like that, please,’ said Mabel, giving herself an impatient little shake. ‘It is very hard for me,’ she went on, after a moment’s pause, in a tired unhappy voice. ‘I have been alone all this time. I have had no friends, nobody to take care of me or advise me, nobody even to speak the truth to me, it seems. I must take care of myself, though I am so young. You won’t see that.’

‘I do see it, most clearly,’ said Randal. ‘But the unfortunate circumstances—I have done my best to keep you from feeling friendless, and I want to give you my whole life, if you will only let me. The truth, dear Mabel? I don’t quite know what you mean.’

‘O yes, you do,’ said Mabel, with a trembling voice.

Randal did not speak for a minute. Then he said, ‘Well, Mabel, I am not a perfect character, it is true; not nearly good enough for a sweet girl like you. But you will soon know the worst of me.’

Mabel wondered what he could mean, but did not ask him, and he did not explain himself. They strolled slowly on towards the hotel, where they were to meet the General.

When the chimes from the clock tower said that it was half-past five they were all three sitting in a pleasant up-stairs room looking out into the chief square of Morebay. Tea had been brought, and Mabel had poured it out, and was now leaning back in her chair in a little dream. The General also seemed tired, and was reading the paper. Randal had opened the window and gone out into the balcony. Suddenly, as the chimes ceased, he stepped back into the room.

page 228

‘Father,’ he said, ‘Captain Cardew is coming in.’

Mabel was roused, and gazed at him anxiously. The General also looked up in some surprise, for there was a curious tone in Randal’s voice, a slight tremor very unusual with him.

‘Anything wrong?’ said the General. ‘Why shouldn’t he come in? The George is free to everybody.’

‘He is coming here to see you,’ said Randal.

He did not look at Mabel, though she was watching him with painful intensity.

‘What a bore!’ said General Hawke. ‘Did you know he was coming?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then you might have prevented it. Mabel and I are resting ourselves.’

‘He won’t be here long. He thinks it a matter of necessity,’ said Randal.

The door was opened, and Captain Cardew came ni, Mabel left her chair at the table, and retreated to the farthest window, where she sat down. There was an awkward moment of silence, after the General had shaken hands with Captain Cardew.

‘You have some business with me?’ said the General, in a friendly manner.

‘Your son will explain it,’ answered the old Captain, waving his hand towards Randal.

‘What is all this about, Randal?’ said General Hawke, with some impatience. ‘Shall we go down into the coffee-room?’

He made a sign with his eyebrows in the direction of Mabel.

‘Captain Cardew wishes Miss Ashley to be here,’ said Randal.

‘Look sharp, then,’ said the General.

It is difficult not to pity Randal, for certainly never was a young man in a more awkward position.

page 229

‘I have something to tell you, sir,’ he said to his father. ‘You won’t interrupt me, I hope, till I have done. Sit down, Captain Cardew.’

‘Thank you; I’ll stand,’ said the Captain.

General Hawke sat in his armchair, frowning with amazement. Mabel trembled in the background. Randal stood with his back to the light, and both hands on a chair, quite composed and cool.

‘You always knew,’ he said, addressing his father, ‘that I had a great admiration for Mrs. Lancaster, Captain Cardew’s daughter. But you did not know that I had been engaged to her. Our engagement lasted for two years, and was only broken off the other day.’

‘Who broke it off, sir? Who backed out of it?’ said Captain Cardew.

‘It was not in the bond that you should ask me questions,’ said Randal. ‘However, the fact is, I broke it off. It was a foolish affair from the beginning.’

‘Foolish on both sides,’ said the Captain. ‘But only bad and heartless on one.’

‘Look here, Captain Cardew,’ said Randal, stepping forward, ‘I have done what we agreed on. You will oblige me by making no farther remarks. It would be better if you were to leave us.’

Captain Cardew took no notice of these words, or of the young man’s flashing eyes and angry movement. He looked at the General, who was leaning back in his chair, turning his eyes in a vague way from one to the other.

‘This is the only compensation I have asked from your son, sir,’ he said, ‘for his behaviour to my daughter. We on our side shall say no more about it, and the sooner his friends forget it, the better for him.’

‘Can’t you leave us now, as I asked you?’ said Randal. ‘You have had your will, and my father is not fit to talk to you.’

page 230

Mabel suddenly came forward from her corner, and took one of the General’s hands between her own.

‘Randal,’ he said, in a low thick voice, ‘I feel ill. Order the carriage. I must go home at once.’

‘Do you hear that?’ said Randal, in a furious whisper, to the Captain. ‘Come down-stairs with me.’

The two men went out together, and Mabel was left with the General. For a minute he did not speak, but stared vacantly across the room. Then he looked up at her and smiled.

‘Randal always talks nonsense, my dear,’ he muttered. ‘He is a funny fellow, but you may depend upon him, in spite of that.’