登陆注册
20041400000029

第29章 CHAPTER VII(1)

THE ALLY

Tremayne elbowed his way through the gorgeous crowd, exchanging greetings here and there as he went, and so reached the ballroom during a pause in the dancing. He looked round for Lady O'Moy, but he could see her nowhere, and would never have found her had not Carruthers pointed out a knot of officers and assured him that the lady was in the heart of it and in imminent peril of being suffocated.

Thither the captain bent his steps, looking neither to right nor left in his singleness of purpose. Thus it happened that he saw neither O'Moy, who had just arrived, nor the massive, decorated bulk of Marshal Beresford, with whom the adjutant stood in conversation on the skirts of the throng that so assiduously worshipped at her ladyship's shrine.

Captain Tremayne went through the group with all a sapper's skill at piercing obstacles, and so came face to face with the lady of his quest. Seeing her so radiant now, with sparkling eyes and ready laugh, it was difficult to conceive her haunted by any such anxieties as Miss Armytage had mentioned. Yet the moment she perceived him, as if his presence acted as a reminder to lift her out of the delicious present, something of her gaiety underwent eclipse.

Child of impulse that she was, she gave no thought to her action and the construction it might possibly bear in the minds of men chagrined and slighted.

"Why, Ned," she cried, "you have kept me waiting." And with a complete and charming ignoring of the claims of all who had been before him, and who were warring there for precedence of one another, she took his arm in token that she yielded herself to him before even the honour was so much as solicited.

With nods and smiles to right and left - a queen dismissing her court - she passed on the captain's arm through the little crowd that gave way before her dismayed and intrigued, and so away.

O'Moy, who had been awaiting a favourable moment to present the marshal by the marshal's own request, attempted to thrust forward now with Beresford at his side. But the bowing line of officers whose backs were towards him effectively barred his progress, and before they had broken up that formation her ladyship and her cavalier were out of sight, lost in the moving crowd.

The marshal laughed good-humouredly. "The infallible reward of patience," said he. And O'Moy laughed with him. But the next moment he was scowling at what he overheard.

"On my soul, that was impudence!" an Irish infantryman had protested.

"Have you ever heard," quoth a heavy dragoon, who was also a heavy jester, "that in heaven the last shall be first? If you pay court to an angel you must submit to celestial customs."

"And bedad," rejoined the infantryman, "as there's no marryin' in heaven ye've got to make the best of it with other men's wives.

Sure it's a great success that fellow should be in paradise. Did ye remark the way she melted to him beauty swooning at the sight of temptation! Bad luck to him! Who is he at all?"

They dispersed laughing and followed by O'Moy's scowling eyes. It annoyed him that his wife's thoughtless conduct should render her the butt of such jests as these, and perhaps a subject for lewd gossip. He would speak to her about it later. Meanwhile the marshal had linked arms with him.

"Since the privilege must be postponed," said he, "suppose that we seek supper. I have always found that a man can best heal in his stomach the wounds taken by his heart." His fleshy bulk afforded a certain prima-facie confirmation of the dictum.

With a roll more suggestive of the quarter-deck than the saddle, the great man bore off O'Moy in quest of material consolation. Yet as they went the adjutant's eyes raked the ballroom in quest of his wife. That quest, however, was unsuccessful, for his wife was already in the garden.

"I want to talk to you most urgently, Ned. Take me somewhere where we can be quite private," she had begged the captain. "Somewhere where there is no danger of being overheard."

Her agitation, now uncontrolled, suggested to Tremayne that the matter might be far more serious and urgent than Miss Armytage had represented it. He thought first of the balcony where he had lately been. But then the balcony opened immediately from the ante-room and was likely at any moment to be invaded. So, since the night was soft and warm, he preferred the garden. Her ladyship went to find a wrap, then arm in arm they passed out, and were lost in the shadows of an avenue of palm-trees.

"It is about Dick," she said breathlessly.

"I know - Miss Armytage told me."

"What did she tell you?"

"That you had a premonition that he might come to you for assistance."

"A premonition!" Her ladyship laughed nervously. "It is more than a premonition, Ned. He has come."

The captain stopped in his stride, and stood quite still.

"Come?" he echoed. "Dick?"

"Sh!" she warned him, and sank her voice from very instinct. "He came to me this evening, half an hour before we left home. I have put him in an alcove adjacent to my dressing-room for the present."

"You have left him there?" He was alarmed.

"Oh, there's no fear. No one ever goes there except Bridget. And I have locked the alcove. He's fast asleep. He was asleep before I left. The poor fellow was so worn and weary." Followed details of his appearance and a recital of his wanderings so far as he had made them known to her. "And he was so insistent that no one should know, not even Terence."

"Terence must not know," he said gravely.

"You think that too!"

"If Terence knows - well, you will regret it all the days of your life, Una."

He was so stern, so impressive, that she begged for explanation. He afforded it. "You would be doing Terence the utmost cruelty if you told him. You would be compelling him to choose between his honour and his concern for you. And since he is the very soul of honour, he must sacrifice you and himself, your happiness and his own, everything that makes life good for you both, to his duty."

同类推荐
  • 南亭

    南亭

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说圣庄严陀罗尼经

    佛说圣庄严陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 台湾海防并开山日记

    台湾海防并开山日记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 伏狮义公禅师语录

    伏狮义公禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 仁王般若经疏

    仁王般若经疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 球场传奇

    球场传奇

    步凡穿越到03年的约克郡,意外的成为了濒临降级的利兹联队的主席。在内忧外患的情况之下,步凡能否带领球队保级?“保级这样的事情会难道我,我的梦想是将球队打造成世界最顶级的豪门球队,一支无敌之师,球场之上的传奇俱乐部”步凡自信的说道。对于打造豪门,对于步凡来说从来都不是一个问题本书会主要描写在俱乐部的经营以及引援上面,会尽量省略比赛的缓解,假如你喜欢球星或者喜欢强大的俱乐部的成长,选择本书是没错的
  • 平城烟华

    平城烟华

    九边重镇,塞上古城,有多少痴儿女洒泪红尘中;悲欢离合,颠沛起落,有多少平凡事淹没烟华梦。
  • 都市救亡记之苍世之上

    都市救亡记之苍世之上

    苍世之上有神明,普天之下猪狗徒。多行不义必自毙,是奸非善谁仲裁?
  • 那段年少时光

    那段年少时光

    每个人在年少的时候都偷偷的喜欢过一个人,这个人只能偷偷地喜欢,从来都不敢说出口。【短篇一万字左右】
  • 你说,时光会带我们一起飞

    你说,时光会带我们一起飞

    他和她从小认识,一起成长,默默陪着她有过匆匆岁月,时光荏苒,一起苦笑,一起承受青春的疼痛成长。曾以为她终究是他望不尽的蔷,闻不出的香,品不成的酿,触不到的墙,抵达不了的远方。感谢十余年的相伴,最终牵起她的手步入殿堂。
  • 梁遇春作品集:泪与笑

    梁遇春作品集:泪与笑

    本书收录了梁遇春的传世散文集《泪与笑》与《春髎集》的全部内容,以及他的代表性的杂文。梁遇春的散文深得英国小品文的精髓,技巧感情神似18世纪英国散文大家查尔斯·兰姆,承袭一种悲剧式的幽默,又因扎根于中国古典文学的土壤,从中汲取养分,从而形成了自己独树一帜的艺术风格。
  • 夜之死神

    夜之死神

    这是死神的故事,异界的传说,讲述着魔法的辉煌,在这里你可以看到许多与众不同的东西。
  • 傻丫头:多变校草霸道爱

    傻丫头:多变校草霸道爱

    婚约什么的还是不怎么适合人家的,唉!想我堂堂洛大小姐居然第一天去学校报到就那么衰,居然碰上了跟我有婚约的恶魔,而且还跟人家吵了一架,唉!希望他没有记仇和虐待人的毛病,不然人家的后半生可就惨了。啊!老天,我又没惹你,老妈,拜托你下一世再嫁人的时候挑一个普通人家嫁好吧!呜呜呜~~~
  • 尘世狐狸

    尘世狐狸

    一世为妖却与神仙相爱导致魂飞烟灭。因得神仙护佑留住元魂,经千年之吸取天地精华终得转世。二世为人是一家权贵人家的小姐,因天生眉间长着一颗酷似眼睛的朱砂胎记被人认为是妖眼,因妖眼的存在无人作伴,本该一生孤独的她却识得了一位朋友,可天不逐人愿最终被朋友所害和背叛,就这样权贵人家一夜之间惨遭灭门。
  • 超圣神

    超圣神

    她是个纯真的高中女牛也是个冷酷无情的杀手,三世穿越,二世因某种原因得到漫画中《偷星九月天》中的第七感,而且不是一种而是十种更夸张的是最后又灵魂穿越了来到一个不一样的世界。灵魂来到另一个世界后附在了一个家族中十二废材女孩的身体,因她的到来使她成为了这世界与时空的神话,这是强者的世界。融合万能成为超圣神自由穿梭于数万时空、宇宙、过去、与未来、掌握生死、创造与毁灭;宇宙、时空、神在她手中是纳米般小颗粒想知道故事就来阅读吧!前几章写的不怎么好请大家多多包涵。