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At once a voice accosted her, and a sharp pang of disappointment or anxiety, she knew not which, went through her. "Mrs. Denys, is she here?" it said. "May I speak with her?" It was the unmistakable speech of a Frenchman. By the light of the hall-lamp, Avery saw the plump, anxious face and little pointed moustache of the speaker. He entered uninvited and stood before her. "Ah! But you are Mrs.
"Ay, and a man who is better than his word," cried Catherine; "the only one I ever did foregather." "Hold thy peace, wife." "Art a man of sense, Eli, a dirk, a chose, a chose ," shouted Denys. "The she-comrade will be right glad to obey Gerard and yet not face you all, whom she hates as wormwood, saving your presence.
"It's a lucky thing for you that you are not my little girl," he observed grimly. "If you were, you should have the slapping of your life to-night. As it is, well, you have asked me for an explanation of my presence here, and you shall have one. I am here in the capacity of escort to Mrs. Denys. Have you any fault to find with that?"
"In that case," she said, with the air of one closing a discussion, "there is nothing further to be said. I suppose Mrs. Denys wishes to be Lady Evesham. My father told me she was an adventuress. I see he was right." She went away with this parting shot, stepping high and holding her head poised loftily an absurd parody of the Vicar in his most clerical moments.
It was the afternoon of the next day. Gerard was no longer lightheaded, but very irritable and full of fancies; and in one of these he begged Denys to get him a lemon to suck.
"I am yearning for the refreshment of a little solitary meditation, Mrs. Denys," he said. "I shall not keep you," Avery rejoined steadily. She stood before him, very pale but wholly composed. "What I have to say can be said in a very few seconds. First, with regard to Gracie; the child is so upset that I think any further punishment would make her downright ill." "Pooh, my dear Mrs.
Her name is Denys Mrs. Denys she was careful to inform me. They've started a mother's help at the Vicarage. None too soon I should say. Who wouldn't be a mother's help in that establishment?" Sir Beverley uttered a dry laugh. "Daresay she knows how to feather her own nest. Most of 'em do." "She knows how to keep her head in an emergency, anyhow," remarked Piers.
Gracie stood up under it with all the courage at her disposal, but she was white to the lips before that dreadful gaze passed from her to Avery. "Mrs. Denys," said Mr. Lorimer, in tones of icy courtesy, "will you oblige me by taking that child upstairs, undressing her, and putting her to bed? She will remain there until I come." Avery, her task accomplished, turned and faced him.
"Well, sir, it was said of a good wife by the ancients, 'bene quae latuit, bene vixit, that is, she is the best wife that is least talked of: but here 'male quae patuit' were as near the mark. Therefore, an you bear the lass good-will, why not club purses with Denys and me and convey her safe home with a dowry? Then mayhap some rustical person in her own place may be brought to wife her."
Gerard then sopped some rye bread in red wine and ate it to break his fast: then went with Denys over the scene of combat, and came back shuddering, and finally took the road with his friend, and kept peering through the hedges, and expecting sudden attacks unreasonably, till they reached the little town. Denys took him to "The White Hart". "No fear of cut-throats here," said he.
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