CHAPTER XXIII

The next day being Sunday, Marigold went to the Temple for the morning service. It was not a long drive, and she sat in the big carriage, very stiff and straight, beside the old stone-deaf governess, who generally accompanied her to these affairs--strictly, however, when she was invited.

They had just risen from their knees when Marigold perceived Mr Barringcourt and St Armand pass them to a seat just beyond on the other side of the aisle. Again she felt that burning feeling on the scars on her neck, and a hundred quick emotions and memories throbbed in her heart and brain. It was not easy to sit there straight and calm, but Marigold managed it, and all through the service listened attentively, but with lack of interest, to what was going on. But now and again her strange, expressive eyes would wander across to the two figures opposite--so different, yet in some unaccountable way so much alike.

The High Priest preached himself--a very learned and eloquent address, all about nothing, yet marvellously well delivered, though in a pompous way.

Marigold studied him. Where had all the old infatuation vanished? All that exuberance of spirits that made her see something exceptional in everything he did and said?

“I can’t,” she said to herself. “It is too much fag--going acting through life.”

And then her eyes stole across again to the dark figure opposite--and the feeling of fag vanished.

So, when the service was over, it was Marigold who, having prayed no prayer at all, rose to her feet with a quiet face and beating heart. She took her long gold-handled umbrella, and gathered up her silken trailing skirts with a quiet grace that was the admiration of many watching--for on Lucifram half the people went to Church to see the other half, and the other half mostly to see each other.

And stepping down from the pew, her eyes came straight to the eyes of Mr Barringcourt. It was the first time he knew her to be in the Church, and, for the first instant, though he looked at her with interest, he did not recognise her. And even then his expression was more that of incredulous surprise than recognition.

But Marigold was more prepared; and though every joint in her body felt loose and powerless, she walked on down the aisle without showing any signs of it at all. But on the steps, before entering her carriage, she was accosted by St Armand.

“Good-morning, Princess. What delightful weather we are having! It is almost a pity there are such things as sermons, with the sun shining like this.”

“Oh! I liked the sermon very well. His holiness has such a wonderful delivery; it is a pleasure to listen to him.”

Thus she spoke to the little man in the old sweet voice grown sweeter, but her thoughts were all with the taller one who stood waiting, standing to one side.

“You do not know Mr Barringcourt,” said he, keeping all the maliciousness out of his voice, and speaking only with politeness. “The Princess Marigold of--of--Ellel.”

A strange, deep colour, that left him unusually pale, flushed into Mr Barringcourt’s face, and Marigold, who had always found him so easily self-controlled and self-assured, felt a certain pleasure in it. Yet she gave no signs of it, but inclined her head very coldly, and just as coldly he returned her salutation, and in the silence that followed she entered the carriage. It was St Armand who closed the door, and to him her last glance was directed, and she smiled as they rolled away.

And then Mr Barringcourt turned to him--his hands deep in his pockets.

“Is that--is that the beggar girl?”

“No--it’s the Princess.”

“Is it the beggar girl, St Armand?”

“You know as much about that as I. Looks very like her, I should say.”

“And have you known this all along?”

“Known what?”

“Who she is.”

“No, but I’ve _guessed_ at it. I possess a marvellous intuition, you know. But you yourself, surely you have guessed at it too?”

“No. By the Holy Serpent, no!”

“Did you seriously take her for a beggar girl?”

“I took her for what she said she was--what she acted up to.”

“Who would have given you credit for such stupidity? To believe a woman so implicitly! But, after all, with your reputation, princess or beggar maid, it is all the same to you.”

“You called her the Princess of Ellel,” he answered harshly. “There is no Princess of Ellel--Ellel in Fairy Sky belongs to me.”

“Well, that’s what she calls herself. I’m sure I don’t know. If you object, bring a law-suit. It is stamped on her belongings--‘Marigold--Princess of Ellel.’ That would be evidence sufficient for any judge.”

“And you have known this and never told me?”

“I simply got to know yesterday. I was wandering through the Duke of Mendona’s grounds, valuing his effects from idle curiosity. Suddenly I came across our little beggar girl, all dressed up in silks, pearls round her neck, high up under the chin--curious fashion that, when a woman has a lovely neck”--and he looked out of the corners of his eyes at the haggard face of his companion--“so naturally I stopped to speak, and she explained the episode of Friar’s Court was nothing but a girlish prank. She didn’t call it a prank--her words were all picked from the choicest dictionary.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“Do you accuse her of using slang? No; please don’t look so devilishly angry, Barringcourt. I really don’t want to wear pearls round my neck, much as they might enhance my natural complexion. Moreover, my neck is rather tough and scraggy--the last thing on Lucifram for you to try your strength upon.”

He saw by the rigid face that every idle word had hit.

“Was--was she badly hurt?”

“Well, women are very inconsistent. You wring their neck one day, and they don’t feel it; the next you touch them with your little finger, and they faint right off.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she fainted, didn’t she? That shows the little finger process.”

“Oh! I was under the impression I wrung her neck.”

But he wasn’t laughing, neither did he mean to imply that Marigold had not felt what he had done. St Armand alone perceived it, and he smiled tolerantly enough.

“By the way,” he said suddenly, “you must have known her. Hasn’t she lived at your Palace in Fairy Sky all these years, and isn’t that exactly the place where you have been?”

“You know I have not been there.”

“Ah! I remember. Alphonso said your letter dropped from Heaven, but it was beastly sharply-worded to have come from such a place. You’ll give them a bad reputation up there. Now, when they wanted to take your one house, you should have offered them also the other. They’d have swallowed both without needing pepsin tablets, I can tell you.”

“I’m going.”

“So am I. Remember you’ve asked me to lunch, and too much Sunday doesn’t suit me. Alphonso’s like a third-rate ship biscuit. It’s nothing but ME--my office and my Church! I wonder the Serpent doesn’t swallow him. Too hard and dry, perhaps--not soft enough about the neck.”

So they went back to Marble House together--these two so friendly on all points but one. And all that afternoon the Master gave to his companion--observing the strict rules of an etiquette that made them both for the time being the most charming companions of all.

And Marigold went back to the Palace, and Alice sat with her reading all the afternoon. And a very proud little curve had settled on Marigold’s lips, for she kept saying to herself:

“How could I ever love him?--a man to whom one’s position in the world makes such a difference. When I was poor he was always self-assured and self-composed, and even when he might have hurt me badly, he never cared or sent once to enquire. And as soon as I am rich--he hears my name--a Princess--that quick confusion, even a startled, anxious look at the strings round my neck. Oh! it is too despicable--more than I can stand. I think I could forgive him everything but that.”

So do we all at times misjudge our neighbours.

And that night the High Priest said to St Armand, with excitement in his manner:

“There has been twice at Church to-day a lady dressed in black, bearing a wonderful, though more refined resemblance to the beggar girl--to Marigold. I think I’ve seen her there before. I noticed she observed me pointedly. That is the style of woman I admire. The beggar girl was pretty, but too coarse in her manner--too free in her speech for a cultivated mind. These poor! when they open their mouths, how they disappoint one!”

So did he speak--himself believing what he said. And thus St Armand patiently--the High Priest never seeing the contemptuous smile.

“The beggar girl, I grant, was empty-headed, coarse, and uncultivated in her speech--but she was pretty. This lady whom you speak of is the Princess of Ellel--Marigold too. But more than different when you come to speak to her.”

Thus was the High Priest blinded--believing as his prejudices swayed and St Armand taught him.