VI.
When they had parted Dare walked along towards Markton with resolve onhis mouth and an unscrupulous light in his prominent black eye. Couldany person who had heard the previous conversation have seen him now, hewould have found little difficulty in divining that, notwithstanding DeStancy's obduracy, the reinstation of Captain De Stancy in the castle,and the possible legitimation and enrichment of himself, was stillthe dream of his brain. Even should any legal settlement or offspringintervene to nip the extreme development of his projects, therewas abundant opportunity for his glorification. Two conditions wereimperative. De Stancy must see Paula before Somerset's return. And itwas necessary to have help from Havill, even if it involved letting himknow all.
Whether Havill already knew all was a nice question for Mr. Dare'sluminous mind. Havill had had opportunities of reading his secret,particularly on the night they occupied the same room. If so, byrevealing it to Paula, Havill might utterly blast his project for themarriage. Havill, then, was at all risks to be retained as an ally.
Yet Dare would have preferred a stronger check upon his confederatethan was afforded by his own knowledge of that anonymous letter and thecompetition trick. For were the competition lost to him, Havill wouldhave no further interest in conciliating Miss Power; would as soon asnot let her know the secret of De Stancy's relation to him.
Fortune as usual helped him in his dilemma. Entering Havill's office,Dare found him sitting there; but the drawings had all disappeared fromthe boards. The architect held an open letter in his hand.
'Well, what news?' said Dare.
'Miss Power has returned to the castle, Somerset is detained in London,and the competition is decided,' said Havill, with a glance of quietdubiousness.
'And you have won it?'
'No. We are bracketed--it's a tie. The judges say there is no choicebetween the designs--that they are singularly equal and singularly good.That she would do well to adopt either. Signed So-and-So, Fellows ofthe Royal Institute of British Architects. The result is that shewill employ which she personally likes best. It is as if I had spun asovereign in the air and it had alighted on its edge. The least falsemovement will make it tails; the least wise movement heads.'
'Singularly equal. Well, we owe that to our nocturnal visit, which mustnot be known.'
'O Lord, no!' said Havill apprehensively.
Dare felt secure of him at those words. Havill had much at stake; theslightest rumour of his trick in bringing about the competition, wouldbe fatal to Havill's reputation.
'The permanent absence of Somerset then is desirable architecturally onyour account, matrimonially on mine.'
'Matrimonially? By the way--who was that captain you pointed out to mewhen the artillery entered the town?'
'Captain De Stancy--son of Sir William De Stancy. He's the husband.O, you needn't look incredulous: it is practicable; but we won't arguethat. In the first place I want him to see her, and to see her in themost love-kindling, passion-begetting circumstances that can be thoughtof. And he must see her surreptitiously, for he refuses to meet her.'
'Let him see her going to church or chapel?'
Dare shook his head.
'Driving out?'
'Common-place!'
'Walking in the gardens?'
'Ditto.'
'At her toilet?'
'Ah--if it were possible!'
'Which it hardly is. Well, you had better think it over and makeinquiries about her habits, and as to when she is in a favourable aspectfor observation, as the almanacs say.'
Shortly afterwards Dare took his leave. In the evening he made it hisbusiness to sit smoking on the bole of a tree which commanded a viewof the upper ward of the castle, and also of the old postern-gate,now enlarged and used as a tradesmen's entrance. It was half-past sixo'clock; the dressing-bell rang, and Dare saw a light-footed young womanhasten at the sound across the ward from the servants' quarter. A lightappeared in a chamber which he knew to be Paula's dressing-room; andthere it remained half-an-hour, a shadow passing and repassing on theblind in the style of head-dress worn by the girl he had previouslyseen. The dinner-bell sounded and the light went out.
As yet it was scarcely dark out of doors, and in a few minutes Dare hadthe satisfaction of seeing the same woman cross the ward and emergeupon the slope without. This time she was bonneted, and carried a littlebasket in her hand. A nearer view showed her to be, as he had expected,Milly Birch, Paula's maid, who had friends living in Markton, whom shewas in the habit of visiting almost every evening during the threehours of leisure which intervened between Paula's retirement from thedressing-room and return thither at ten o'clock. When the young womanhad descended the road and passed into the large drive, Dare rose andfollowed her.
'O, it is you, Miss Birch,' said Dare, on overtaking her. 'I am glad tohave the pleasure of walking by your side.'
'Yes, sir. O it's Mr. Dare. We don't see you at the castle now, sir.'
'No. And do you get a walk like this every evening when the others areat their busiest?'
'Almost every evening; that's the one return to the poor lady's maid forlosing her leisure when the others get it--in the absence of the familyfrom home.'
'Is Miss Power a hard mistress?'
'No.'
'Rather fanciful than hard, I presume?'
'Just so, sir.'
'And she likes to appear to advantage, no doubt.'
'I suppose so,' said Milly, laughing. 'We all do.'
'When does she appear to the best advantage? When riding, or driving, orreading her book?'
'Not altogether then, if you mean the very best.'
'Perhaps it is when she sits looking in the glass at herself, and youlet down her hair.'
'Not particularly, to my mind.'
'When does she to your mind? When dressed for a dinner-party or ball?'
'She's middling, then. But there is one time when she looks nicer andcleverer than at any. It is when she is in the gymnasium.'
'O--gymnasium?'
'Because when she is there she wears such a pretty boy's costume, and isso charming in her movements, that you think she is a lovely young youthand not a girl at all.'
'When does she go to this gymnasium?'
'Not so much as she used to. Only on wet mornings now, when she can'tget out for walks or drives. But she used to do it every day.'
'I should like to see her there.'
'Why, sir?'
'I am a poor artist, and can't afford models. To see her attitudes wouldbe of great assistance to me in the art I love so well.'
Milly shook her head. 'She's very strict about the door being locked. IfI were to leave it open she would dismiss me, as I should deserve.'
'But consider, dear Miss Birch, the advantage to a poor artist the sightof her would be: if you could hold the door ajar it would be worth fivepounds to me, and a good deal to you.'
'No,' said the incorruptible Milly, shaking her head. 'Besides, I don'talways go there with her. O no, I couldn't!'
Milly remained so firm at this point that Dare said no more.
When he had left her he returned to the castle grounds, and though therewas not much light he had no difficulty in discovering the gymnasium,the outside of which he had observed before, without thinking to inquireits purpose. Like the erections in other parts of the shrubberies it wasconstructed of wood, the interstices between the framing being filled upwith short billets of fir nailed diagonally. Dare, even when without asettled plan in his head, could arrange for probabilities; and wrenchingout one of the billets he looked inside. It seemed to be a simple oblongapartment, fitted up with ropes, with a little dressing-closet at oneend, and lighted by a skylight or lantern in the roof. Dare replaced thewood and went on his way.
Havill was smoking on his doorstep when Dare passed up the street. Heheld up his hand.
'Since you have been gone,' said the architect, 'I've hit upon somethingthat may help you in exhibiting your lady to your gentleman. In thesummer I had or
ders to design a gymnasium for her, which I did; and theysay she is very clever on the ropes and bars. Now--'
'I've discovered it. I shall contrive for him to see her there on thefirst wet morning, which is when she practises. What made her think ofit?'
'As you may have heard, she holds advanced views on social and othermatters; and in those on the higher education of women she is verystrong, talking a good deal about the physical training of the Greeks,whom she adores, or did. Every philosopher and man of science whoventilates his theories in the monthly reviews has a devout listener inher; and this subject of the physical development of her sex has had itsturn with other things in her mind. So she had the place built on hervery first arrival, according to the latest lights on athletics, and inimitation of those at the new colleges for women.'
'How deuced clever of the girl! She means to live to be a hundred!'