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A South-Sea Siren

Chapter XXII

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Chapter XXII

One bright afternoop, as he was slowly jogging homewards after a tour of road inspection in the district, Raleigh found himself suddenly confronted with his ‘dear Alice.’ who, notwithstanding his sincere regard for her, he had shown himself so anxious to avoid.

But on the present occasion no escape was possible.

He first caught sight of her, indeed, at a distance, as he was fording the stream of the Sunnydowns river, but she was coming on at a hand gallop, while he was restricted to a walking pace, as he traversed a long stretch of shingle bed. So that she gained upon him rapidly.

Raleigh would willingly have avoided the interview; he pretended, at first, not to see his fair pursuer, kept his head steadily averted, urged his horse forward, and was in hopes of gaining shelter among the high flax bushes that lined the river bank.

But Miss Seymour was too quick for him. She kept him well in view, and as she approached the opposite side of the stream, a clear, high-pitched, ringing call, in the familiar Australian coo-ee, pierced through the din of the splashing waters, and, like a shot from Diana's bow, struck the fugitive motionless.

He was suddenly brought to a dead stop, and could only wait with a countenance of affected surprise and delight until he was overtaken.

In a few moments the young lady, on a panting steed, and with her expressive face all in a glow, rode up to him.

‘So I have caught you at last!’ she exclaimed triumphantly, but with a point of malice in her tone, and without extending her hand. ‘So I have caught you at last, but not without a good run for it. I was determined you should not escape me this time, for you have dodged me long enough. I saw you making straight for the flaxbushes, and guessed your little move. So I made a dash to cut off your retreat, and now——’

‘Surely, Alice,’ stammered the other, ‘you did not suppose that I wanted to avoid you; you, of all people’?

‘I know you did,’ she replied curtly, ‘and you have been purposely doing so for a long time past. But now I've got you, and I'm to have it out. I just want to know what it all means; that's all.’

‘I have an apology to offer.’ He hesitated, and looked rather confused.

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‘I don't want apologies,’ she interrupted brusquely, ‘I want to have it out with you. I demand an explanation. I wish to know, sir, why you have kept away from our house lately; why you have put on all this air of reserve, and shown yourself so very desirous of avoiding me. It used not to be so. Even my father has noticed it of late, and on several occasions has wondered what has come over our friend Raleigh. As for me, who used to look gladly forward to Cousin Richard's visits, I have been entirely ignored.’

‘I am very sorry, indeed, if I have offended you, but——’

‘I am not offended,’ she continued, more quietly; ‘I am concerned and grieved. I cannot understand it in the least. What is the matter with you? Are you brooding over some fancied grievance, have you ceased to care for your old friends, or has His Lordship only been airing his dignity, or taken the huff?’

‘Miss Seymour,’ replied the other, stiffly, ‘you know very well that I don't indulge in airs of that sort, especially where you and your father are concerned.’

‘I know very well,’ she answered right out, ‘that you have changed very much. We were accustomed to find you unsociable at times, illtempered even, not to say bearish. I have had to put with a lot from you, to humour you sometimes, and to give you a good “setting down” at others. But, at least, you were always loyal and genuine. You never ran away. But this new style of standoffishness, of taking the sulks, and keeping miserably aloof, is something quite fresh. It is not natural to you, and I, for one, don't like it. I want to know what it is all about?’

‘I plead guilty; I throw myself on your indulgence,’ he said penitently. ‘I can only plead as an excuse that I have been wretchedly out of sorts of late, and have had much to worry and to depress me.’

Worry and depression? Are we not all afflicted that way? It's the prevailing epidemic. I was not aware that you have been especially victimised, where nearly all are sufferers. Then what about your boasted philosophy, which is supposed to support a man under such very common-place troubles? You are a pretty one to pose as a Stoic, and to cultivate Sublime Indifference towards the world in general.’

‘Oh! I have fallen much below my own ideal standard. Indeed, I am much more disgusted with myself than my friends can be with me.’

‘Why, what's the matter with you?’

‘It is more than I can tell,’

‘Sick of life?’

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‘Just about. I am not fit company for any one, and therefore I bury myself in seclusion.’

‘Any one!’ repeated Miss Seymour, pettishly, and with a toss of the head. ‘Do I pass, then, for any one?. If you are really distressed in mind, is it not from a true friend that you would seek advice and sympathy. And have we not stood in that light. You forsake us, you ignore us, even at the very time when, by your own showing, you need us most. That won't do.’

Raleigh, who was much embarrassed, and was anxious to give the conversation a more lively turn, struck a theatrical attitude and declaimed aloud, with appropriate gesture—

‘Canst thou minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of the perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart?’

But Miss Seymour was not to be put off in that way.

‘Cousin Richard,’ she said seriously, ‘I insist upon a full explanation of your strange and unfriendly conduct. There has never yet been any want of confidence between us. Come along; I will accompany you as far as the township, and listen attentively to what you have to say. Confession is good for the soul. Tell me all about it.’

‘About what?’ inquired Raleigh, vaguely.

‘About this trouble of yours. This disease of the mind, or of the heart, of which you complain, and which makes you so miserably unsociable, and so neglectful of your truest friends. Make a clean breast of it.’

‘I told you years ago, Alice, when we first met at your father's house,’ he replied, in a disconsolate way. ‘I told you then, what I can only tell you now, that the bane of my life had been disenchantment. I thought then that I had been thoroughly disillusioned, but I find—even now——’

‘That you are human, after all.’

‘Too much so, perhaps.’

‘Is it then some little affair-de-cæur?’ she replied, with a quizzical look. ‘A touch of the old complaint?’ She put on a languishing air, laid her hand on her breast, and sighed impressively—then, burst out laughing.

Raleigh turned testily away.

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‘You see that you have only mocking words for me. My deepest affection only causes you amusement.’

‘Indeed, I am very much in earnest,’ she replied, with affected gravity, ‘It is no laughing matter, especially as I am personally so much concerned in it.’

You concerned in it?’ he exclaimed nervously. ‘How is that?’

‘Haven't you heard the latest?’

‘I know that some very foolish and ill-natured things have been said about me. I take no heed of such gossip. But I never heard that any one had dared to make free with your honoured name. If I thought for one moment——’

She interrupted him with vivacity. ‘Oh! I assure you, our names have been freely coupled together.’

Raleigh checked his horse with a sudden jerk. ‘Good heavens, Alice!’ he exclaimed aghast; ‘what can you mean?’

‘Oh! in a very proper sort of way,’ she continued demurely; ‘although you will admit the whole thing is highly improbable. I have just come from that dear old gossip, Mrs Dearie, and she has told me all about it. It seems we are the talk of the whole neighbourhood. It was a surprise to me, and such a—terrible shock.’

‘I really don't understand in the least,’ he stammered forth, with evident confusion.

‘Well, I will tell you, for certainly you ought to know. But steel yourself for the blow! I am informed that it is currently reported, and generally believed, that you and I have been secretly engaged, and are about to be—Married!’

‘Is that all?’ exclaimed the other, with a sigh of relief.

‘Well, I declare! I think it is quite enough for an afternoon teaparty. I was vastly entertained.’

‘Most ridiculous, to be sure.’

‘Supremely absurd! Especially as we have hardly exchanged a dozen words for the past month. But that's the mischief. People noticing your distant manner in public, and mysterious manoeuvres, thought there must be something in it, and that set them talking. They have arrived at a queer conclusion, anyhow. See what you have brought about with your airs and graces. I have been sacrificed.’

‘Alice, you are joking!’

‘Joking, indeed! There is nothing to joke about, where a young lady's reputation is concerned. Already I have received quite a shower of—congratulations.’

‘Oh! this is too much. Were you not indignant?’

‘Not at all. I was—convulsed!’

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And Miss Seymour, unable to control her risible faculties any longer, burst forth with a peal of laughter.

‘Well, really,’ replied Raleigh, rather piqued. ‘I don't see that there is anything so awfully funny about it all. You are easily amused to-day,’

‘Did you not just remark that it was most ridiculous?’ she continued, still laughing heartily.

‘Well, so it is, in a way, to any one who knows the state of my affairs, and who understands our respective positions. I am low down in the world's estate, with barely enough for my own support, while you are high up——’

‘On the shelf,’ she put in, good-humouredly.

‘High up in the social sciale, I mean. Admired, respected, and sought after; with rich and influential relations, luxurious surroundings, a delightful home—an object also of——’

‘Veneration!’ she suggested slyly, with a titter.

Universal esteem, I was going to say. You know very well, Alice, that you are quite a popular favourite, beloved and appreciated wherever you go.’

‘You surprise me!’ she exclaimed, opening wide her eyes, and trying hard to keep her countenance. ‘You overwhelm me. In my wildest dreams I never fancied myself a personage of half such importance. When I was up and about this morning at six o'clock, helping Maggie to sort the clothes for the washing, then foraging about the farmyard and placing a sitting of eggs under a young hen, afterwards busy in the kitchen preparing a curry for papa's lunch, I never imagined that such a halo of glory shone round my dishevelled little head. It is very nice, all this you tell me, if only I could bring myself to believe it. Then what a wonderful prize I must be, what a matrimonial catch! Surely, Cousin Richard, you are to be congratulated. People will sing about us some day—

For she's a charming woman,
And he's a most fortunate man.’

And the lively young lady gave way to another fit of merriment, that rang through the high flax bushes like a peal of silvery bells.

Raleigh was unable to escape the contagion, and for the moment he joined heartily in the laugh. Then he resumed in a more pensive tone—

‘Alice, you have wonderful spirits. You chirp and twitter like a gay little lark the livelong day; but if you knew all the heaviness of heart that oppresses me, you would not wonder at my melancholy.’

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‘At least,’ she cried, ‘I have the consolation to know that I am for nothing in it.’

‘Indeed, you are mistaken there.’

‘I did think so, once; just a leetle, you know. And when I heard this startling report, for the first time this afternoon, it struck me that maybe you had heard it before, and that it was this which had scared you away. I foolishly imagined that out of regard for me, and to stop such silly gossip, you have deemed it right and prudent to keep aloof. A wrong course for you to take, but one which might have been held to do honour to your heart. I actually took it as a proof of friendship; I thought that you were punishing yourself on my account. Alas! for such flattering illusions. It turns out that I have not been of the slightest account in the matter. That being piqued and huffed in another quarter you have merely vented your illhumour on your friends, and kept away from them to indulge an unsociable mood.’

And with an indifferent toss of the head, and a rather scornful flash from her dark eyes, Miss Seymour jerked the reins and put her horse at a canter. Raleigh pressed forward to keep pace with her, and in silence they rode briskly side by side along the winding track.

After a few moments of awkward suspense: ‘I cannot stand this,’ he cried earnestly. ‘Alice, I must tell you all, for you have cruelly misunderstood my conduct. I have kept away because I feared I might compromise you in quite another way.’

‘I know something about that,’ she replied, slowly, and in a low voice, while bringing her horse to a walking pace. ‘Then it is only for outward appearances, and out of regard for what the world says that you are concerned.’

‘No! more than that. I know that you do not trouble yourself much on that score, neither does Mr Seymour, who never listens to scandal, and takes public gossip for what it is worth. But I have realised painfully my own discreditable position in this wretched affair. When I have lost my self-respect, how can I hope to retain your confidence? You are so good, so frank, and so true, that you are incapable of countenancing any unworthiness or duplicity. Alice, if I have avoided you, it is because I felt in my heart that I was no longer worthy of your esteem.’

He spoke with a tremor in his voice, and looked another way. Then he felt the soft touch of a gloved hand upon his arm, and as he wistfully turned towards her again he met her glance fixed intently upon him, with an expression of sympathy and compassion.

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‘Poor boy!’ she murmured; her lips quivered, and he saw a moist veil dim the brightness of her eyes. Then, as if conscious of this betrayal of weakness, she quickly turned her face away, and answered almost pettishly: ‘I have no patience with you! Is this the loyalty of a true friend? You are vexed with yourself—very properly ashamed perhaps; you find shunned and misrepresented by the world, and instead of coming to us, where you have been received as one of the family, and might be assured of a heartfelt welcome, you keep moodily away on the plea that you have made a fool of yourself and would bring discredit upon us. What nonsense!’

Raleigh hung his head. He did not feel prepared to acquaint his amiable friend with all the circumstances of the case.

‘A pretty opinion you must have entertained of our sincerity and friendship,’ she continued warmly, ‘to put us on a par with mere conventional acquaintances and to treat us all alike. You know that my father has a real affection for you; you know how considerate, how indulgent he is, and surely you might have come to him. He would have helped you out of any difficulty, and advised you for the best. As for me, … I am not of much account, perhaps; I have no wisdom to impart, or worldly experience to draw upon, but at least … I am not one to … forsake a friend in the hour of trouble.’

‘I know that. I fully appreciate all the kindness and consideration I have received from Mr Seymour and yourself. I have been pround of his regard, and so happy in your friendship and confidence, Alice. It is this that has added so much bitterness to my sense of unworthiness. But if you are kind and charitable the world is not so. The very partiality you show me would be misconstrued; and when I have brought discredit on myself, and got myself mixed up in a scandal, is it right that you should be allowed to share it, by championing a friend who is——’

She interrupted him nervously.

‘I know,’ she remarked, with a slight blush, ‘that there are things which could not be countenanced, and that there are faults that could not be passed over, and … dear cos, if you were to misconduct yourself in that way; if we heard that you led the fast, wicked life that many fashionable young men do, although they are courted in the best society, yet you could no longer be admitted to ours. I could no longer cling to you as a friend. Much as I should grieve for you, much as I should regret it and suffer in consequence, we should have to part. I am sure that my father, who is so tolerant of people's faults and failings, would not wish it otherwise. Should that happen … it would be a bitter sorrow to us … But,’ she added, vivaciously, and page 248 with a sudden change of manner, ‘it seems to me that you are making too much of this. We know the worst. The Siren has turned the heads of so many of her admirers, that you will find yourself in good company. You only appear in the light of another victim. Besides, we all know how she goes about it.’

‘Indeed,’ ejaculated the other, changing colour.

‘Of course,’ pursued Miss Seymour, brightening up. ‘The murder is out. Indeed, it was never a secret to me. I detected her tactics the first day, and she knows it, and hates me in consequence. It is a simple plan, which seems of unfailing success when applied to the noble creature Man. One has simply to touch your vanity. A little flattery properly applied, a soft appeal to your overweening conceit—I speak generally—just a whiff of incense under your royal noses, some ogling and sighing, as if smitten with your wonderful charms, and the battle is won. It is simply ludicrous to stand by and watch such proceedings, as I have done, and to notice the effect on the elated victims. It does not give one a very exalted notion of you Lords of Creation. You are all alike where flattery is administered. Greybeards and boys, the wise and the foolish—the bait is always swallowed with avidity, the fish is always hooked, and—with a little patience—landed!’

Raleigh did not appear much reassured or diverted at this rally.

‘If I have been “got at” through my egregious vanity,’ he said bitterly, ‘at least I have had to pay dearly for it.’ And upon her looking at him inquiringly, he added: ‘I advanced the commodore some money—nearly all I possessed—and I am now informed that I shall probably never see a penny of it back again.’

‘I am very sorry for that,’ she replied gravely. ‘It must have been a great blow to you, but the loss may not be as serious as you seem to anticipate. Do not magnify the possible evil to its utmost. Papa had heard from various sources, for some time past, that the affairs of the Wyldes were in a bad way, and he often expressed an earnest hope that you would not be induced to lend them any money. We much feared that something of the sort would occur, and I remember sounding to you once a warning note; but you know, Cousin Richard, you were so touchy on that score that it was difficult to allude even to the subject.’

‘I have no one to blame but myself. I have made an absolute ass of myself, there's no mistake about that. Don't you despise me for it?’

‘Not by any means!’ she answered, in a quiet sympathetic way, and page 249 the look she gave him seemed to reveal a much warmer sentiment than mere commiseration for a bad investment.

‘But then you don't know all. My good name has suffered as much as my purse.’

Miss Seymour suddenly checked her horse and brought him to a standstill. Then she turned a grieved, almost solemn, countenance on her companion, looking at him steadily with her dark, lustrous, earnest eyes.

‘Cousin Richard,’ she said, speaking very gently and deliberately, ‘I wanted an explanation from you, because I did not think it right that an estrangement should grow up, without any apparent cause, between two such old and tried friends as we have been. But I do not want you to tell me anything that it would be wrong for you to reveal, or undesirable that I should hear. I have no right to ask any such confidences from you.’

The other, still dwelling on the sore point, replied moodily:—‘So you admit to setting strict bounds to your friendship for me, after all. Any one who does not come up to your high and virtuous standard is to be discarded at once—his very name, perhaps, blotted out from your memory for some fault that you do not in the least understand. Would you treat a brother so?’

She continued to look at him intently, with a pained and astonished expression.

‘The ties of blood are different,’ she said reflectively. ‘I had a brother once, he was such a good, dear, kind boy; such a fine fellow—incapable of anything mean or despicable—O! how I loved him, and how I have mourned him——’ There her voice faltered. ‘Whatever he might have done he would always have remained my beloved brother as long as he lived——’ Then she continued in a soft yet decided tone, ‘I am constant in my affection. I do not change likings or dislikings, and where once I have given my heart it remains firm and true; but there are things that would keep one apart even from those one loved best. It is very dreadful to think about, it would make one very wretched, but it would be—inevitable! Why do you distress me like this?’

He glanced at her, and saw that her eyes were filled with tears.

‘Alice,’ he said with some emotion, and averting his face, ‘I don't think I have done anything to forfeit your esteem. At any rate, I have seen the error of my ways, and shall endeavour to be wiser and better in future. Yet, it is only to be expected that ill-disposed and gossiping people should make the worst of it, and put a shameful construction on my conduct. I wanted to tell you this.’

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‘And it is equally to be expected,’ she replied with animation, ‘that your friends and wellwishers will take a much more lenient view where you are concerned. Trust me in that. I always stand fast by my friends,’ she added, with a bright smile, ‘and as I resolutely shut my ears to ill-natured gossip also, it would be hard for a censorious world to dislodge them.’

Raleigh felt as if he could have jumped from his horse, knelt in the dust, and done humble homage to the sweet and gentle creature before him. His heart bounded with admiration towards her. There was, indeed, an apparent inconsistency, yet charming withal, in her truly feminine mode of combining a high sense of purity in life and uprightness of conduct with such a partiality towards her friends, due to the warmth and sincerity of her affection, as to render her almost wilfully blind to their faults. A most merciful little judge, truly, where her heart was touched; ready to find in her own innocent mind plausible excuses for the weaknesses and transgressions of those she loved. Raleigh felt cheered in spirit and restored to something like his old equanimity. Her avowal of unshaken confidence seemed to relieve him of a load of trouble and disgrace; her frank expression of sympathy inspired him with hope and consolation.

But he controlled his conflicting feelings, and merely muttered, in a hesitating way—

‘So you are quite sure that this deplorable business will make no difference whatever in your regard for me?’

‘I am quite certain,’ she replied blithely, ‘that you are daily expected at Glenmoor, where you have only got to come, as of old. Papa is only concerned at your keeping so much away from us, and absenting yourself for no reason that we know of. Our humble home is always open to you, where you take your place as a most intimate and esteemed friend. What more can I say?’ she added, with a silvery laugh. ‘If, in addition to this bulwark against your enemies, this retreat from the cares and worries of the world, you want a staunch protector against spite and evil tongues, why haven't you got Me?’

And she held out her hand to him with a frank and hearty gesture.

They resumed their ride, conversing pleasantly in a much lighter vein.

‘Look there!’ she exclaimed suddenly, as they emerged from the cover, and caught sight of a small party of riders, watching them intently from an adjacent terrace. ‘Look there! The O'Neils, the major, and old Lady Flannery, the most confirmed tattlers and gossips in the whole district. They have evidently been spying at us for some time, and awaiting the dénoûment. O! sha'n't I be in for page 251 it! This will be a regular clincher, as you call it. If I don't appear next week with that lovely engagement ring, which you are going to bring me, I shouldn't wonder that papa will receive a solemn warning from some quarters. There, don't look at them, and let's take an effusive farewell of one another. O! Cousin Richard, a pretty pass you have brought me to. We shall hear about this! Here's my track. Shake hands, and good-bye, or rather au revoir,’ and with a merry laugh, and flipping her steed with the whip, she bounded away at a canter, and in a few moments was lost to sight. Raleigh, without pretending to notice the party of observers on the rising ground close by, turned in another direction, and trotted quietly on towards Sunnydowns.