Greatheart - Ethel May Dell (the lemonade war series TXT) 📗

lumber."
"As if I should!" she said. "I love them--every one of them. I shall love them better still now I know they are yours."
"Thank you," said Scott.
Eustace turned his attention to him. "No one ever paid you such a compliment as that before, my good Stumpy," he observed. "If everyone saw you in that light, you'd be a great artist by now."
"I wonder," said Scott.
Dinah sent him another swift glance. She seemed on the verge of speech, but checked herself, and there fell a brief silence.
It was broken by the entrance of a servant. "If you please, Sir Eustace, Mr. Grey is in the library and would be glad if you could spare him a few minutes."
Sir Eustace uttered an impatient exclamation. "You go and see what he wants, Stumpy!" he said.
But Scott remained seated. "I know what he wants, my dear chap, and it's something that only you can give. He has come about Bob Jelf who was caught poaching last week. He wants you to give the fellow as light a sentence as possible on account of his wife."
Sir Eustace frowned. "I never give a light sentence for poaching. He's always at it, I'd give him the cat if I could."
Scott raised his shoulders slightly. "Well, don't ask me to say that to Mr. Grey! He's taking the whole business badly to heart, as he was beginning to look on Jelf as a reformed character."
"I'll reform him!" said Sir Eustace. He turned to the servant. "Ask Mr. Grey to join us here!"
"You had better see him alone first," said Scott.
"Why?" His brother turned upon him almost savagely.
Scott took up his tea-cup. "You can't refuse to give him a hearing," he observed. "He has come up on purpose."
Sir Eustace murmured something under his breath and rose. His look fell upon Dinah. "It's the village padre," he said. "I shall have to bring him in here. I hope you don't mind?"
She gave him a quick, half-startled smile. "Of course not."
He turned to the door which the waiting servant was holding open, and strode out with annoyed majesty.
Dinah watched him till the door closed; then very suddenly and urgently she turned to Scott.
"Oh, please, will you help me?" she said.
He gave her a straight, keen look that seemed to penetrate to her soul. "If it lies in my power," he said slowly.
She caught her breath, pierced by a sharp uncertainty. "You can. I'm sure you can," she said.
He set down his cup. "Dinah," he said gently, "don't ask me to interfere in your affairs if you can by any means manage without!"
"But that's just it!" she said in distress. "I can't."
He leaned forward. "My dear, don't be agitated!" he said. "Tell me what is the matter!"
Dinah leaned forward also, her hands tightly clasped, and spoke in a rapid whisper.
"Scott, Eustace wants me to go for an all-day picnic alone with him to-morrow. I--don't want to go."
He was still looking at her with that straight, almost stern regard. An odd little quiver went through her as she met it. She felt as if she were in a fashion on her trial.
"Why don't you want to go?" he asked.
She hesitated. "I was to have gone up to town with Isabel to shop," she said.
"No, that isn't the reason," he said. "Tell me the reason!"
She made a quick gesture of appeal. "I--wish you wouldn't ask," she faltered, and suddenly she could meet his eyes no longer. She lowered her own, and sat before him in burning confusion.
"Have you asked yourself?" he said, his voice very low.
She was silent; the quiet question seemed to probe her through and through. There was no evading it.
Scott was still watching her very closely, very intently. He spoke at length, just as she was beginning to feel his scrutiny to be more than she could bear.
"If you are just shy with him--as I think you are--I think you ought to try and get over it, as much for his sake as for your own. You don't want to hurt him, do you? You wouldn't like him to be disappointed?"
Dinah shook her head. "If you could come too!" she suggested, in a very small voice.
"No, I can't," said Scott firmly.
She sent him a darting glance. "Are you angry with me?" she said.
"I!" said Scott in amazement.
"You--spoke as if you were," she said. "And you looked--quite grim."
He laughed a little. "If you are afraid of me, you must indeed be easily frightened. No, of course I am not angry. Dinah! Dinah! Don't be silly!"
Her lips were quivering, but in response to his admonishing tone she forced them to smile. "I know I am silly," she said, with an effort. "I--I'm not nearly good enough for Eustace. And I'm a dreadful little coward, I know. But he does frighten me. When he kisses me--I always want to run away."
"But you wouldn't like it if he didn't," said Scott, in the voice of the philosopher.
"Shouldn't I?" said Dinah. "I wonder. It--wouldn't be him, would it?"
"And what are you going to do when you are married?" said Scott, point blank. "You'll see much more of him then."
"Oh, I expect I shall feel different then," said Dinah. "Married people are different, aren't they? They are not always going off by themselves and kissing in corners."
"Not as a rule," admitted Scott. "But I've been told that there is usually a good deal of that sort of thing done during the honeymoon."
"That's different too," Dinah's voice was slightly dubious notwithstanding. "But we are not on our honeymoon yet. Scott, couldn't you--just for once--help me to--to find an excuse not to go? It would be--so dear of you."
She spoke with earnest entreaty, her eyes frankly raised to his.
Scott looked into them with steady searching before he finally responded. "I will speak to him if you like. I don't know that I shall be successful. But--if you wish it--I will try."
"Oh, thank you," she said. "Thank you." And then quickly, "You're sure you don't mind? Sure you're not afraid?"
"Oh, quite sure of that," said Scott.
Her eyes expressed open admiration. "I can't think how you manage not to be," she said.
He smiled with a touch of sadness. "Perhaps I am not so weak as I look," he said.
"You--weak!" said Dinah. "Why, you are the strongest man I ever met."
Scott smothered a sudden sigh. "Which only proves how very little you know about me," he said.
But Dinah shook her head, wholly unconvinced. Here at least she was absolutely sure of her ground.
"'Mr. Greatheart was a strong man,'" she quoted, "'and he was not afraid of a Lion.'"
"There are sometimes worse things than lions in the path," said Scott gravely.


CHAPTER VIII
THE VICTORY

The return of Sir Eustace, marshalling the Vicar before him, put an end to further confidences.
Dinah rose nervously to receive the new-comer--a tall, thin man, elderly, with a grave, intellectual face and courteous manner, who looked at her with a gleam of surprise as he took her shyly proffered hand.
"It is a great privilege to meet you," he said then, and Dinah perceived at once that he had prepared that remark for someone much more imposing than herself, and had not time to readjust it.
She thanked him, and he sat down at Scott's invitation and fell into a troubled silence.
Sir Eustace was looking decidedly formidable, and it was not difficult to see that he had just given an unqualified refusal to his visitor's earnest request.
It was Scott as usual who came to the rescue, breaking through the Vicar's abstraction to ask for details concerning certain additions that were being made to the Cottage Hospital. He drew Dinah also into the conversation, taking it for granted that she would be interested; and presently Mr. Grey brightened somewhat, launching into what was evidently a favourite topic.
"We are hoping," he said, "that the new wing will be completed by the end of June, and it is expected that the Parish Council will request Lady Studley to be good enough to declare it open."
He looked at Dinah with the words, and she realized their significance with a sharp shock. "Oh, do you mean me?" she said. "I don't think I could."
"It wouldn't be a very difficult business," said Scott reassuringly.
"Oh, I couldn't!" she said. "Why--why, there would be crowds of people, wouldn't there?"
"I hope to get a few of the County," said Mr. Grey, "to support you."
"That makes it worse," said Dinah.
Scott laughed. "Eustace and I will come too and take care of you. You see, the Lady of the Manor has to do these tiresome things."
"Oh! I'll come if you want me," said Dinah. "But I've never done anything like that before and I can't think what the County will say. You see, I don't belong."
"Snap your fingers in its face, and it won't bite you!" said Eustace. "You will belong by that time."
Mr. Grey smiled a very kindly smile that had in it a touch of compassion. He said nothing, but in a few minutes he rose to take his leave, and then, with Dinah's hand held for a moment in his, he said in a low voice, "I wish I might enlist your sympathy on behalf of one of my parishioners. His wife is dying of cancer, and he is to be sent to gaol for poaching."
"Oh!" Dinah exclaimed in distress.
She looked quickly across at her _fiance_, and saw that his brow was dark.
He said nothing whatever, and she went to him impulsively. "Eustace, must you send him to prison?"
He looked at her for a second, then turned, without responding, to the Vicar. "That was a very unnecessary move on your part, sir," he said icily. "I have told you my decision in the matter, and there it must rest. Justice is justice."
Dinah was looking at him very pleadingly; he laid his hand upon her arm, and she felt his fingers close with a strong, restraining pressure.
Mr. Grey turned to go. "I make no excuse, Sir Eustace," he said. "I am begging for mercy, not justice. My cause is urgent. If one weapon fails, I must employ another."
He went out with Scott, and Dinah was left alone with Sir Eustace.
He spoke at once, sternly and briefly, before she had time to open her lips. "Dinah, this is no matter for your interference. I forbid you to pursue it any further."
His tone was crushingly absolute; she saw that he was white with anger.
She felt the colour die out of her own cheeks as she faced him. But the Vicar's few words had made a deep impression upon her; she forced back her fear.
"But, Eustace, is it true?" she said. "Is the man's wife really dying? If so--if so--surely you will let him off!"
His grasp upon her arm tightened. "Are you going to disobey me?" he said warningly.
His look was terrible, but she braved it. "Yes--yes, I am," she said, with desperate courage. "Eustace, I've never asked you to do anything before. Couldn't you--can't you--do this one thing?"
She met the blazing wrath of his eyes though her heart felt stiff with fear. It had come so suddenly, this ordeal, but she braced herself to meet it. Horrible though it was to withstand him, the thought came to her that if she did not make the effort just once she would never have the strength again.
"You think me very impertinent," she said, speaking quickly through quivering lips. "But--but--I have a right to speak. If I am to be--your wife, you