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"You are going to Vandon?" asked both ladies in one voice. "Yes. Lady Mary and Evelyn looked at each other in consternation, and Charles went off to see how Othello was after his night's work, and to order the dog-cart, Ralph calling after him, in perfect good-humor, that "a fellow's brother got more out of a fellow's horses than a fellow did himself."
No conversation was possible in the dog-cart, with the groom on the back seat thirsting to hear any particulars of the news which had spread like wildfire from Vandon throughout the whole village the previous afternoon, and which was already miraculously flying from house to house in Slumberleigh this morning, as things discreditable do fly among a Christian population, which perhaps "thinks no evil," but repeats it nevertheless.
Vandon was considered by many people to be the most beautiful house in shire.
And soon, in a moment, as it seemed to her, before she had had time to think, it was again to-morrow, a wet, dim to-morrow, and she was at Vandon, running up the wide stone steps in the starlight, under Dare's protecting umbrella, and allowing him to take her wraps from her before the hall fire. The concert had gone off well. Ruth was pleased, Mr. Alwynn was pleased.
No one spoke. Her quick eye glanced from one to another of the little group, and she gave a short constrained laugh. "Well," she said, "if you ain't coming, you can stop with your friends. I've had a deal of travelling one way and another, and I'll go on without you." And, turning quickly away, she told the driver in the same distinct high key to go on to Vandon, and got into the fly again.
He was about to resume his tea, when suddenly a tall white figure came lightly in through the open French window, and a clear voice began: "Oh, Uncle John, there is such a heathen of a black poodle making excavations in the flower-beds! Do " Ruth stopped suddenly as her eyes fell upon the stranger. Dare rose instinctively. "This is Mr. Dare, Ruth," said Mr. Alwynn. "He has just arrived at Vandon."
Ruth was not aware that one word from herself would have more weight with a man like Dare than any number from an angel of heaven, if that angel were of the masculine gender. Vandon lay in a distant part of Mr. Alwynn's parish, and a perpetual curate had charge of the district. Mr.
"I come back to Vandon," continued Dare, in a suppressed voice, "I come back overwhelmed, broken down, crushed under feet; and then," he was becoming dramatic, he felt the fire kindling "I meet a friend, a noble heart, I confide in him.
To her uncle Ruth told what had happened; and as he slowly wended his way to Vandon on the day fixed for the tenant's dinner, Mr. Alwynn mused thereon, and I believe, if the truth were known, he was sorry that Dare had been refused.
Alwynn had returned from his eventful morning call at Vandon very grave and silent. He shook his head when Ruth came to him in the study to ask what the result had been, and said Dare would tell her himself on his return from London, whither he had gone on business. Ruth went back to the drawing-room. She had not strength or energy to try to escape from Mrs. Alwynn.
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