"Are we not like to disturb a _tete-a-tete_, Linton?" said Lord Kilgoff, nudging his friend's arm, and laughing slyly, as he pointed through the large frame of plate-gla.s.s that formed a door to the boudoir.

"By Jove!" said Linton, in a low whisper, "and so we were; you are always thoughtful, my Lord!"

"You know the adage, Linton, 'An old poacher makes the best gamekeeper!'

Ha, ha, ha!"

"Ah, my Lord! I have heard as much of you. But who can they be?"

"We shall soon see, for it is always better in these cases to incur the rudeness of interruption than the meanness of espionage;" and so saying, Lord Kilgoff opened the door and entered. Although in so doing the noise he made might easily have attracted notice, the chess-players, either deep in their preoccupation, or habituated to the uproar of the drawing-room, paid no attention, so that it was only as he exclaimed "Lady Kilgoff!" that both started, and beheld him, as, pale with pa.s.sion, he stood supporting himself on the back of a chair.

"Pray don't stir, sir; be seated, I beg," said he, addressing Cashel, in a voice that shook with anger; "my interruption of your game was pure accident."

"No apologies, my Lord; we are both but indifferent players," said Cashel, smiling, but yet very far from at ease.

"Your seclusion at least bespeaks the interest you feel in the game. Mr.

Linton and I can vouch--" (Here his Lordship turned to call his witness; but he had left the court, or, more properly speaking, had never entered it.)

"Linton here?" said Lady Kilgoff, in a voice which, though scarce a whisper, was actually thrilling in the intensity of its meaning.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 208]

"I hope, sir, when you have lived somewhat more in the world, you will learn that the first duty of a host is not to compromise a guest."

"I am most willing to be taught by your Lordship's better knowledge; but if I am to benefit by the lesson in the present case, it must be more clearly expressed," said Cashel, calmly.

"As for you, madam," said Lord Kilgoff, "I cannot compliment you on the progress you have made in acquiring the habits and instincts of 'your order.'"

"My Lord!" exclaimed she; and then, with a countenance wherein rebuke and entreaty were blended, she stopped.

"I am aware, sir, what _eclat_ young gentlemen nowadays derive from the supposed preference of individuals of exalted rank; and I hope that your vanity may be most in fault here."

"My Lord, one word,--only one," said Cashel, eagerly; "I am sadly afflicted with the infirmity of hot temper, which never gives way more surely, nor more suddenly, than when accused wrongfully. Such is your Lordship doing at present. I would entreat you not to say what a very little calm reflection will call upon you to retract."

"This concerns me, sir, most of all," said Lady Kilgoff, rising, and drawing herself proudly up. "These unworthy suspicions had never occurred to you had they not been prompted; but you might have believed that when I sacrificed all I have done for that rank of which so incessantly you remind me, that I would not rashly hazard the position for which I paid so dearly. Let us leave this now, my Lord; Mr. Cashel can scarcely desire a presence that has so ungratefully rewarded his hospitality, and I, at least, shall be spared the mortification of meeting one who has been a witness to such an outrage."

"This is not to end here, sir," said Lord Kilgoff, in a whisper to Cashel, who, more intent upon the words Lady Kilgoff had just uttered, carelessly answered,--

"As you will."

"Good-bye, Mr. Cashel," said she, holding out her hand; "I wish I was leaving a better _souvenir_ behind me than the memory of this last scene."

"I will never remember it, madam," said Cashel; "but I would beg that you may not let an incident so trivial, so perfectly devoid of everything like importance, hasten your going. Nothing save malevolence and calumny could suggest any other impression, and I would beseech you not to favor, by such a step as a hasty departure, the malice that scandal-lovers may circulate."

"This is matter for _my_ consideration, sir," said Lord Kilgoflf, haughtily; while, drawing Lady Kilgoffs arm within his own, he made a vigorous attempt to move away with dignity.

CHAPTER XX. LORD KILGOFF DETERMINES TO "MEET" ROLAND

Is he not too old for such gambols?

--Sir Raymond.

Cashel was in no mood to join his company after such a scene, and hastening upstairs, he entered his dressing-room. What was his surprise to see that Linton was seated in an easy-chair, before the fire, enjoying a cigar and a new novel, with all the cool negligence of his unruffled nature.

"At last!" cried he, as Cashel entered. "I have been waiting here most impatiently to know how you got through it."

"Through what!--how--what do you mean?"

"That affair with Kilgoff. I slipped away when I saw that he _would_ enter the boudoir, after having coughed and sneezed like a grampus, in the hope of attracting your attention; but you were so confoundedly engrossed by my Lady's agreeability,--so excessively tender--"

"Linton, I must stop you at once. I may barter some of my own self-respect for quietness' sake, and let you talk this way of me, but you shall not do so of another."

"Hang it, man, she is an older friend than yourself. I have known her these seven years--as little more than a child."

"Your friendship would seem a costly blessing, if you understand its duties always in this fashion."

"I hope it will admit of a little frankness, at all events," said he, affecting a laugh. "It will be too bad if you both fall out with me for watching over your interests."

"I don't understand you."

"I will be plain enough. I have seen for many a day back what has been going on. I perceived the very commencement of the mischief, when probably neither she nor you dreamed of it; and, resigning all the esteem that years had cemented between us, I spoke to her. Ay, Roland, I told her what would happen. I said that qualities like yours could not be brought every day into contrast with those of poor Kilgoff without most unhappy comparisons. I explained to her, that if she did form an attachment to you, it could not be one of those pa.s.sing flirtations that an easy code of fashion admits and sanctions; that you were a fellow whose generous nature could never descend to such heartless levity, and that there was no sacrifice of position and prospect you would hesitate to make for a woman that loved you; and I asked her flatly, would she bring such ruin upon you? The greater fool myself; I ought to have known better. She not only refused to listen to me, but actually resented my at-tempted kindness by actual injury. I don't want to speak for myself here, so I 'll hasten on. It was all but a cut between us, for months before we met here. You may remember, in Dublin, we rarely even spoke to each other; we, who once had been like brother and sister!

"Well, before she was a week here, I saw that the danger I had dreaded so long was hourly becoming more imminent. _You_, very possibly, had not a serious thought upon the matter, but _she_ had actually fallen in love! I suppose you must have played hero, at that shipwreck, in some very chivalrous fashion; however it was, my Lady had lost her heart, precisely at the same time that his Lordship had lost his head,--leaving you, I conjecture, in a very awkward dilemma. Seeing there was no time to lose, and resolving to sacrifice myself to save her, I made one more effort. I'll not weary you with a narrative of my eloquence, nor repeat any of the ten-thousand-and-one reasons I gave for her shunning your society, and, if need were, leaving your house. The whole ended as I ought to have foreseen it would,--in an open breach between us; she candidly avowing that she would be my deadly enemy through life, and even procure a personal rupture between you and me, if pushed to it, by my 'impertinent importunity,' so she called it. I own to you I was completely dumfounded by this. I knew that she had courage for anything, and that, if she did care for a man, there would be a recklessness in the course she would follow that would defy guidance or direction, and so I abstained from any further interference; and, as you may have remarked yourself, I actually estranged myself from you."

"I did remark that," said Cashel, gravely.

"Well, to-night, when by mere accident Kilgoff and I had sauntered into the gallery and came upon you in the boudoir, I own frankly I was not sorry for it; unpleasant as such scenes are, they are better--a hundred thousand times better--than the sad consequences they antic.i.p.ate; and even should anything take place personally, I 'd rather see you stand Kilgoff's fire at 'twelve paces,' than be exposed to the flash of my Lady's eye at 'one.'"

"Your friendly zeal," said Cashel, with a very peculiar emphasis on the words, "would seem to have got the upper hand of your habitually sharp perception; there was nothing to fear in any part of my intimacy with Lady Kilgoff. I have been but too short a time conversant with fashionable life to forget more vulgar habits, and, among them, that which forbids a man to pay his addresses to the wife of another. I need not vindicate her Ladyship; that she has taken a warm, I shame not to say an affectionate, interest in my fortunes, may have been imprudent I know not what your code admits of or rejects, but her kindness demands all my grat.i.tude, and, if need be, the defence that a man of honor should always be ready to offer for the cause of truth."

"Don't you perceive, Cashel, that all you are saying only proves what I have been a.s.serting,--that, while you are actually ignorant of your danger, the peril is but the greater? I repeat it to you, however intact _your_ heart may be, _hers_ is in your keeping. I know this; nay, I say it advisedly--don't shake your head and look so confident--I repeat it, I know this to be the case."

"You _know_ it?" said Cashel, as though Linton's words had startled his convictions.

"I _know_ it, and I 'll prove it, but upon one condition--your word of honor as to secrecy." Cashel nodded, and Linton went on. "Some short time back, some one, under the shelter of the anonymous, wrote her a letter, stating that they had long watched her intimacy with you--grieving over it, and regretting that she should have yielded any portion of her affection to one whose whole life had been a series of deceptions; that your perjuries in Love's Court were undeniable, and that you were actually married--legally and regularly married--to a young Spanish girl."

"Was this told her?" said Cashel, gasping for breath.

"Yes, the very name was given--Maritana, if I mistake not. Is there such a name?"

Cashel bent his head slightly in a.s.sent.

"How you had deserted this poor girl after having won her affections--"

"This is false, sir; every word of it false!" said Cashel, purple with pa.s.sion; "nor will I permit any man to drag her name before this world of slanderers in connection with such a tale. Great Heaven! what hypocrisy it is to have a horror for the a.s.sa.s.sin and the cut-throat, and yet give shelter, in your society, to those who stab character and poison reputation! I tell you, sir, that among those buccaneers you have so often sneered at, you'd not meet one base enough for this."