IN WHICH THE COLONEL GROWS MYSTERIOUS.

Chisholm was silent. The two men exchanged glances. Since they were his best and most confidential friends, he could not be offended in the least at what they had said, especially as he knew quite well that they had spoken plain, hard facts.

"Well," he said at last, in a metallic tone of voice, "the truth is, we have parted."

"Then I cordially congratulate you, my dear fellow," declared the red-faced old colonel bluntly. "Forgive me, but you've been a fool over her, an absolute fool, and couldn't see that she was deceiving you on every hand. Men had begun to sneer and laugh at you behind your back-- and, by Jove! you've had a narrow escape of making a complete a.s.s of yourself."

"I know. I'm well aware of it," his host replied in a low tone. "But between ourselves, it's all over."

"Why between ourselves?" inquired Benthall. "The world should, I think, know, for your own sake? _Pourquoi non_?"

"No. I intend to keep it a secret--for her sake." Both men were silent. The conversation had, indeed, been a strange one to take place between a host and his guests. But both men saw that although Claudia and her lover had parted, there still lingered in Dudley Chisholm's heart tender thoughts of that pretty, callous woman who was one of the leaders of smart society in London.

"Very well," said Murray-Kerr at length, after a brief period of silence. "If you wish us to say nothing, we can only obey. But, nevertheless, my dear old chap, I, for one, congratulate you most heartily upon your resolution. A man in your shoes can't afford to risk his reputation any longer. Forgive me for speaking as I have done, won't you?"

"Certainly, my dear fellow," he answered with a bitter smile. "You've both spoken as friends, and I've told you the plain truth, so what more need be said?"

"Nothing," said the colonel. "Stick to your resolution, and let Claudia Nevill proceed at her own sweet will. She'll marry some foreign notability or other, I expect, now that she's in search of big game.

Then you'll be entirely free of her."

Dudley laughed again, and soon afterwards, much to his relief, the conversation drifted into an easier channel. Her letter, however, remained in his pocket unopened. What words of mad despair, he wondered, did it contain?

He sat finishing his breakfast and chatting about various subjects. But his thoughts were of her--always of her.

When they rose, his two guests went out to see after their guns, while he, remaining behind upon some pretext, tore open the letter.

It was brief, and had evidently been penned in one of those moments of remorse which must come sooner or later to such a woman.

"You are cruel to leave me like this," she wrote. "Surely, if you really loved me, you would not care what the world might say. I have been foolish, I know, but am now penitent. I see the folly of it all-- the folly of not keeping my secret and playing the hypocrite like other women. Surely love is not forbidden between us because you happen to hold an official position! Return to me, Dudley--for I love you!"

He sighed, then, crushing the letter in his hand, he flung it into the fire, murmuring:

"No. She's played me false--false!"

He recollected what the colonel had said in regard to the Grand-Duke Stanislas, and saw with chagrin that the world was pitying him.

Before the blazing logs he stood, watching the leaping flames consume the letter. When the last spark had died from the black crackling tinder, he sighed again, and reluctantly went out to join his guests.

The morning was dull and grey. As they trudged on past the site of the old Roman cemetery, down through Altringham Wood, across the wide stretch of moorland known as Uckington Heath, at last crossing the old highway of Watling Street and entering the Dean Copse, the sportsmen agreed that October might have behaved in a handsomer fashion. The fierce north-east wind that had swept over the Welsh hills had died away the evening before in a tumbled sea of fiery crimson and dense jagged drift of sulphurous blue. For days and days it had torn and shaken the great elms in Wroxeter Park, until it had stripped them of the last vestige of their autumn foliage, and now in the calm morning the leaves in park and copse were lying in a deep, moist carpet of shimmering gold.

Nothing but the oaks had been able to withstand the fury of the blast; these still bore their leafy flags bravely aloft, thousands and thousands of their family flying proofs of staunchness on the flanks of many a n.o.ble hill. On the gra.s.s by the lane-side the dew was held in uncomfortable abundance, and a few belated blackberries showed sodden in the hedgerows. On entering the copse the shooters trudged down the narrow path, which was covered thickly with decaying leaves, and a few moments later both dogs and guns got to work.

During their walk the conversation had for the most part dealt with the condition of the birds. The colonel, keen sportsman that he was, telling of the execution effected by the six guns at Fernhurst; describing the big bags made up at Lord Morton's place in c.u.mberland, and how scarce the grouse had been in various districts in Scotland.

As Marston, the head-keeper, had predicted, birds were plentiful in the Dean Copse. Although the ground was rather difficult to work, the guests had good reason to praise the Under-Secretary's preserves. As for the colonel, who scarcely ever missed, he was now in his element; the heavier the bag became, the more brightly the old warrior's eyes sparkled. So excellent had been the sport, and, in consequence, so quickly had the time pa.s.sed, that the guests could hardly believe their ears when the interval for lunch was announced. Dudley, who was an excellent shot, and who, on an ordinary occasion, would have entered into the sport with becoming zest, throughout the morning had knocked down the birds in a merely mechanical way, more to please his friends than himself. Secretly he wished himself back at the castle, in the solitude of that old library which he used for his den at such times as he was all by himself at Wroxeter.

"I think, sir, we ought to try the Holly Wood now," Marston suggested as soon as they had eaten their sandwiches and drunk their sherry. In accordance with this view, they tramped down into the valley by Upton Magna, and presently came to the spot indicated. For the past two seasons Dudley had been down at Wroxeter but seldom, one of the results being that birds were very plentiful. All three of the shooters were kept busy until nearly three o'clock, when, after enjoying a grand day's sport, the party turned towards the old inn at Uffington, where the dog-cart was to meet them.

On the way across the brown fields, Benthall, deep in conversation with Marston, was somewhat ahead, and Dudley walked at the colonel's side, a smart, well-set-up figure in his drab shooting-clothes.

He was hesitating whether to broach a subject that was puzzling him.

Presently, however, unable longer to conceal his curiosity, he turned suddenly to his companion, saying:

"You were speaking of Fernhurst at breakfast. Let's see, hasn't Lady Meldrum a daughter?"

"A daughter?" observed the colonel, looking at him. "Certainly not.

There's no family."

"That's curious," Dudley said with an affected air of indifference.

"Somebody said she had a daughter named Muriel."

"A daughter named Muriel!" the old officer exclaimed. "No, she has a girl named Muriel who lives with her--a ward, I believe--and a confoundedly pretty girl she is, too. She wasn't much _en Evidence_ when I was down there. I have my suspicions that during the house-party she was sent away to the quieter atmosphere surrounding a maiden aunt."

"Oh, she's a ward, is she?" remarked Chisholm. "What's her name?"

"Muriel Mortimer."

"A ward in Chancery, I suppose?"

"I'm not certain," replied Murray-Kerr hesitatingly. "I only saw her once, on the day of my arrival at Fernhurst. She left for Hertfordshire next day. Lady Meldrum, however, seemed devoted to her--went up to town to see her off, and all that sort of thing. But who's been chattering to you about her?"

"Oh, I heard her spoken of somewhere. The fellow who told me said she was rather pretty."

"Yes," the other answered in rather a strange and hesitating manner, "she is--very pretty, and quite young."

"Do you know absolutely nothing more concerning her?" Chisholm asked.

"You always know everything about everybody when you're in the smoking-room at the Junior, you know."

"In the club a man may open his mouth, but it isn't always wise when visiting friends," the colonel replied with a laugh.

"I don't quite follow you," his companion said. "Surely Wroxeter is as free as Charles Street, isn't it?"

"Well, no, not quite, my dear Dudley--not quite."

"Why?"

"Because there are some things that even I--plain-spoken as I am--would rather leave unsaid."

Chisholm looked at him and saw the change upon the old fellow's countenance.

"You're hiding something from me," the younger man said quickly.

"I don't deny that," was the other's response. "But I really can't see why you should so suddenly become the victim of an intense desire to know the history of Lady Meldrum's ward. Have you met her?"

"No, never."

"Then don't, that's all," was the mysterious answer.

"What the d.i.c.kens do you mean, speaking in enigmas like this? Surely you can speak straight out?"