The Lonely Stronghold

  CHAPTER XXXVI

  IN THE DARK

  She heard the breathing of one who has ridden hard and far, and rightthrough her there shuddered a thrill so exquisite that for a moment shecould not move. She was on the point of springing up, flinging herselfinto those unseen arms, when she heard his voice, low and mocking.

  "You little wretch--you treacherous minx! Don't you think you are thelimit?"

  As in the mile-castle, she had but the time it took him to deliverhimself of this courteous address in which to meet the challenge. Shedid it, however. If she died for it he should not know that she hadbeen sitting there crying for the moon until her eyes were all swelledand her "hanshif" drenched.

  "You must have left your dinner engagement very early, Mr. Guyse. It isbarely ten o'clock. However, as I have been travelling all day I amvery tired, and I will ask you to excuse me."

  "You may ask, but you won't get excused," he said rapidly. "What thedickens are you sitting in the dark for? I want to see your wickedface--to see the conscious guilt steal over it! How dare you? Oh, how_dare_ you insult me as you have insulted me to-day?" With a suddenchange of tone he added, after a moment's breathless silence: "How couldyou plan such a fiendish vengeance?"

  "Vengeance! How fatiguing you are!" said she languidly. "Whatvengeance should I want? I am giving you what you love most in theworld. You always have wanted it--don't deny it! You would evenalmost, have married me in order to secure it! Only I bored you soutterly! However, if you are talking about insults, I don't think I canbeat the one you have offered me. You couldn't bring yourself to marryme, but you can bring yourself to marry a poll parrot like that Kendallthing! Oh, _do_ go away; I wonder I have the patience to talk to you atall!"

  "I wonder I have the patience not to shake you! ... Do you happen toknow where there are some matches?"

  "I'll call Deb and ask for some." ...

  She rose from the depths of the chair, and found her hands held.

  "Why, you're as cold as a stone! Sitting alone in the dark and thecold--you're actually shivering----"

  "That's with rage, not cold. Good night, Mr. Guyse. Sorry I can't stopand talk to you, but you pay your calls at unseemly hours."

  "Olwen!" It seemed he was in earnest at last. He had never beforecalled her by her name. "Could you really be so stupid, so utterlyunlike yourself, as to imagine that I should accept that deed of gift?"

  She gave a little low chuckle. "You can't help accepting it, silly."

  "Haven't you got the sense to see that it must be all or nothing betweenme and you?"

  "Well, the choice lies with you, I suppose."

  "You suppose nothing of the kind," he cried in exasperation. "You knowthat all is out of the question, so it must be nothing from you tome--Miss Innes!"

  He was so near her that the warmth and energy of him seemed to enfoldher. His breath still came fast--and no wonder. The distance betweenCaryngston and the Pele, though easy in a motor, was a long, hard ride.She knew that he could not have been at the Kendalls at all. She feltthat he was within an ace of sheer explosion, yet still he resisted.Would _nothing_ break down his pride?

  "Nin"--she threw all the appeal she could into her voice--"Nin, what doyou mean? Why do you say that it is out of the question for me to giveyou--all?"

  "Because you don't love me."

  "Indeed? And what about you? You don't love me, either."

  He gave a rough sort of laugh as if of utter scorn. "You unprincipledwoman! Here, I have had enough of this bo-peep, I am going to make alight."

  He let go her hands to feel in his pocket for matches; and instantly shemade a dart to get past him. He gave an exclamation.

  "No, you don't!" dropped the match-box and caught her as shefled--caught her in both arms, held her a breathless moment in silence,breathing hard. Then, with a muttered ejaculation which sounded like"That's done it!" he bent his head down to where he supposed the top ofher head to be. She had flung back her throat, and instead of the hairhe meant to kiss, he found her lips....

  * * * * *

  "Well, it's your fault. You shouldn't have said I didn't love you!Such an obvious lie, now wasn't it?"

  The dark still enfolded them. She lay in his arms; but she could notanswer. Life had gone past speech.

  "What is it?" he whispered. "Are you angry? Have I hurt you?"

  He had to bend very close to catch what she said:

  "At last!"

  "At last!" he echoed; "but girls are the very queerest! Why on earth, ifyou felt like this, did you treat me in the old days as though youwouldn't have anything to do with me?"

  "Oh, Nin, it would take such ages to explain. I--I couldn't even beginyet. I'm--I'm too completely muddled.... Hadn't you better put me downnow?"

  His hold did not slacken. "You are such a will-o'-the-wisp that I dreadletting you go, in case you slip away into the dark, as you used to dowhen I dreamed of you at Griesslauen. Let me sit in the big chair andhold you as I did in the mile-castle--my little white-crane lady!" Hisodd voice held the tenderest, shyest note--both tones so new to her thatthey caused delicious shivers to pass through her, as if at a caressingtouch. He sat down as he had suggested, cradling her head against him,and added with a choky laugh, "Gad, perhaps it's as well it happened inthe dark, so that you could forget the kind of scarecrow I have turnedinto. You saw to-day, though, up on the moor. You once told me that Ilooked like a demon. An elderly demon isn't at all a charming sight, Ishould suppose."

  She slipped an arm about his neck. "You have altered, I won't deny it.But you are going to get back all your looks. Wait till you have had asix months' honeymoon! Even Sunia won't know you at the end!" And thereher control gave way and she began to sob. "When I think--when Ithink--what you have gone through----"

  "It was bad. But it's over. Yes, it was pretty bad. We won't talk ofit now. You see, I was only a private. I went and enlisted in theGordons because I had no previous military experience. There wasn't ahope of my getting a commission; and I wanted to get out there quick.So I did; I was out of England into France, and out of France intoGermany before you could say 'Knife.' ... Well, if Germany is going toreceive retribution at the hands of Providence for all her misdeeds,it's likely to be a good while before she's through."

  "You are not to think of such things now, but to listen to me. There isone thing I simply must know. When you looked up to-day and saw mestanding there in the mile-castle, what did you think? Now don't tease,boy, tell me really."

  "I would if I could, but I can't. I felt as if I couldn't feelanything. The only idea left was a determination to keep my end up."

  "And I was just as determined to break you down."

  "Much you know about it! Break me down with your flippant Leap-Yearproposals, which merely shocked me! ... That was what made me run overmy whole list of ammunition and hit upon Rose Kendall!"

  "Nin!" Two hands, which small though they may have been were stilldecidedly vigorous, went round his throat. "Were you having me on?Tell the truth now!"

  "I can't, if you choke me! Well, yes and no. I was and I wasn't. Itis not true that I am engaged to her, but they have been letting me seethat they would be pleased enough if it came about. I was thinking thatby going there this evening I was perhaps committing myself. Anyway, Ithought it just possible that if I threw that stone it might hit you andhurt you, and I wanted to hurt you as much as I possibly could, becauseI knew I could never ask you, and you had shown such incredibleeffrontery in asking me! You really did deserve----"

  "But, Nin, you are a perfect owl! If you thought I should mind beingtold you were engaged to the poll-parrot, how can you say you thought Ididn't care for you?"

  "Oh, I don't know! Weren't you sticking pins into me all over?"

  She laid her cheek close against his. "Effrontery!" she echoed, with agleeful chuckle. "Yes, I was ra
ther outrageous, wasn't I? Yourprunes-prism school-marm asking you right out to marry her! But, yousee, you had given yourself away completely. I saw you some minutesbefore you knew I was there ... _and I saw what you had in your hand_."

  She boldly plunged her hand into his coat pocket, but found nothing.

  He laughed. "Not there, not there, my child. I can't show it youwithout pulling off my coat and rolling up my sleeve. I've got a'bracelet of bright hair about the bone' like the chap in Donne's verses... it went to Griesslauen with me.... Kiddie, this is too good to betrue. How nice and soft your cheek is against mine! Just like a peach.Does mine feel scratchy? Bum, isn't it, that it should be such bliss torub them against each other! Oh, Jove! Here's Mother Deb!"

  They had but a moment to regain their feet before the sleepy landladywas upon them, bearing a candle in her hand.

  "All in the dark! Then he must have gone," she began, and broke off tocontinue, in a shocked voice, "Muster Nin, it's time you was a-going."

  "You'll have to put me up here tonight, Deb, and to-morrow, yoonglass'll be away oop to t' Pele with me. We're going to get wed, yoonglass and me! What d'you think o' that?"