CHAPTER XXIII

HER LADYSHIP FINISHES HER STORY

Dick, racing down the passage, ran up against Giles.

"Where's my cousin?" he cried. "Everybody's mad!"

"Are you bitten?" Giles enquired. "Your cousin is asking for you, and I have been hunting you this half-hour."

He pushed Dick into the oak parlour, and sauntered away himself.

"Oh, Dick, dear," cried her Ladyship, "what a hot, tangled, dishevelled young gallant! Come here to me at once, sir! I've something to say."

The sight of his cousin, sitting by the casement in her white dress, calmed Dick. He had thought her on her birthday night most beautiful, but her loveliness at this moment filled him with a kind of awe.

He flung himself down on the window-seat.

"Bridget said--" he began.

"Oh, never mind Bridget!" said her Ladyship. "I have a great deal to say, Dick. Do you know this?"

She laid in his hand two halves of a gold coin, each attached to a silken cord.

"Giles's token!" Dick cried. "The one I gave His Majesty at Lumley."

"Yes, and 'tis a coin, Dick, of Scotland, and called a 'bonnet-piece'."

Dick was in no mood to be interested in coins.

"'Twas Giles's," he observed; "and Bridget--"

"Listen, Dick," she entreated. "This piece once belonged to a boy I knew. 'Twas his chief treasure, and he broke it in two to give half to a little maid for a keepsake. When they were older she gave it him back, but in anger, Dick, and misunderstanding. And then he wanted to-- He was a very foolish man, Dick; he thought no one was like her, and that she hated him, so he would destroy himself. But he had a master who loved him, and he took from him the half that had belonged to the maid, and he bound the man to him by an oath, to live, and go away and forget the woman if he could; but for his sake to keep his oath and live. A year after 'twas said the man was dead. But he was only in prison, Dick, and he escaped. His master knew he was living, but no one besides, till, his master having need of him, he came home."

Dick was sitting before her, attentive, grave, wide-eyed.

"His master made him an earl, Dick, on condition that another title he possessed should go to his younger brother, who had used it believing 'twas his of right. His Majesty said: 'As Sir Richard Chester he held Dent, and as Sir Richard Chester he shall be known.'"

But Dick stopped her, catching her hand.

"Cousin Dorothy! No matter for that title. Was it Giles?"

She nodded.

"Who was it your Dorothy insulted in her father's hall years ago, Dick, thinking he'd killed her brother?"

"Was it--was it Giles?"

"Giles!" she said. "Ah, Dick! how could you be so deceived? A stableman! How could you, Dick? And how could you let me leave him at my door like that? Your brother Reginald, and--and he has never forgotten, Dick."

But Dick was scarcely heeding now.

"There is so much to think of," she went on rapidly. "But Reginald will have us wedded to-day. And why should I keep him waiting? We have wasted so many years." A tear fell on her hand, but she wiped it hastily away. "Will you have me for a sister, Dick," she said.

Dick did not answer. He was experiencing a real difficulty in sorting and understanding his own feelings. Giles! Giles whom he had lorded over, flouted, struck, at Dent, his brother! That he should be a great lord had seemed sufficiently astounding yesterday. Giles the stableman, Giles the courtier, the unapproachable presence amongst roisterers and revellers, the man to be obeyed, the friend, the companion--his brother! A quite strange conviction of his own unworthiness came over Dick. He turned his eyes solemnly on her Ladyship, and sighed.

"Dick!" she cried. "What is it? Are you not glad, proud, to be his brother?"

"All that," said Dick shortly. "What of him?"

"What of him?"

"Ay. Is he glad? Is he proud?" the boy demanded, with a strong likeness to his brother in his manner.

She kissed him.

"Go and ask him," she said, smiling. "He's in the garden waiting. To be sure, he's glad."

"But he never told me," Dick said doubtfully. "Why not, then? Because he was ashamed of me." His cheeks burned. "Think of me by him! Think how I treated him at Dent! And what I was at the inn!"

"Dick!" she exclaimed. Then, laughing a little, very softly: "Oh, you amazing creatures!" she said. "Why, think you, did Reginald never let me know he lived? Ah, because he thought I did not care! Why did he not tell you he was your brother? Because he thought you would not love him, forsooth! Why cannot you believe him glad to have you? Lest he deem you unworthy. Your audacities shock terribly one moment, and these sudden attacks of modesty are, let me tell you, confusing. Dick, go and find him. You are indeed just worthy of each other--a pair of stiff-necked, provoking, adorable beings!"

Dick moved to the door, hesitating still. Could it be true? Was Giles really his brother, and was he to claim affection by right, and be no longer a waif and a stray? Her Ladyship followed him, and stood at the foot of the stairs, swinging the gold tokens by their silken cords.

"You might have said 'Yes', when I was bold enough to offer myself as your sister," she said. "Reginald tells me 'twas His Majesty's wish. You would not question his wish, Dickie. You are going to him day after to-morrow, I may tell you. But what must I do if you will not have me for--"

But he flew at her, and the sentence was never completed. Then he ran down the steps, murmuring busily:

"My brother Reginald! My brother Reginald! But 'tis sad to say Giles no more!"

The Earl of Lumley was sitting on the grass where it sloped steeply to the banks of a little stream in the garden. Lorry lay by his side, beating the turf with his tail. They both heard Dick coming, and got up.

"A body," Giles observed, "launched down an inclined plane, Lorry, will gather force as it travels. The steeper the plane the greater the impact when such a body, so travelling, comes home. Therefore"--he set his feet apart, and extended his arms--"My boy!"

Dick had come home with impact sufficient, it seemed, to shake the earl slightly, and to make his eyes dim for a moment, and his voice break.

"Well," he said at last, "hath she told you all, Dickie?"

"Yes--Reginald."

"Not that, sir," said the earl, frowning.

"My--my lord?" Dick questioned, faltering a little.

"Heavens, no! I thank you, brother."

"Then Giles!" Dick cried, with a triumphant and comfortable sense of previous acquaintanceship and security.

"That's it, little Captain," said Giles, when his breath returned after Dick's second onset, and Lorry's wild efforts to be received also. "Giles for you, if for no one else, Dick. And now shall we find--"

"My sister Dorothy," said Dick.

"By all means," said Giles.

And together, followed by Lorry, they went back to the house.