ALICE was combing Lady Betty’s hair late that night.
The two girls were in Betty’s bedroom, a solitary1 taper2 burning on the table. In this rosy3 twilight4 both faces showed indistinctly. Betty’s finery lay upon a chair near by; she wore only a flowing white robe over her night-rail, and one rosy foot, out of the slipper5, rested on the rug. Her luxuriant hair falling about her almost hid her face, and her eyes were fixed6 pensively8 upon the fire. Meanwhile, Alice stood behind her combing and brushing her hair with hands that actually trembled, while her face was very white. If Lady Clancarty had looked at her, she would have divined some trouble, but as it was she was only aroused from her revery by the girl’s unwonted awkwardness.
“Dear me, Alice!” she exclaimed, “that is the third time you have pulled my hair. I[Pg 105] shall be as bald soon as Lady Dacres without her perukes. What ails9 you, girl?”
“I’m nervous,” Alice said, her voice breaking suspiciously, “I can’t help it.”
Lady Betty tossed back her hair, snatched up a taper and looked at her sharply.
“Nervous?” she exclaimed, “why, you are naturally as tame as any barnyard fowl10. Nervous! Why, your eyes are sticking out of your head. What is it, girl? Hast met your friend the parson again?”
“No, no,” faltered11 Alice, with a little sob12. “I—I overheard some talk between two gentlemen to-night in the hall—and it scared me.”
Betty laughed merrily.
“Fie, Alice, fie!” she cried, “an eavesdropper13! What horrible thing was it they said? Mercy on us, girl, you look as if they plotted bloody14 murder!”
“So they did, madam,” Alice said soberly.
Lady Betty stared.
“The child’s demented,” she remarked, shaking her head.
“That I’m not,” Alice replied bluntly, wiping a tear from her pale cheek, “but I hate to think of one of them dead—for some folly15, too.”
“Oh, ho!” said her mistress, setting down[Pg 106] the taper, “now I understand—there is to be a duel;” then suddenly her mood changed.
“Who were they?” she demanded sharply.
Alice began to show reluctance16 and her eyes avoided Betty’s.
But Lady Clancarty caught her arm and turned her to the light.
“Out with it, Alice,” she said imperiously, “I will know.”
“It was Lord Savile,” the girl said slowly, “and—and another—a stranger.”
“Our stranger of Althorpe, Alice?” Lady Betty said, a sudden indefinable change in her whole aspect.
Her mistress stood quite still for a moment, pressing her hands together. She had shaken her hair about her face again, so that it was concealed19. There was something in her attitude so unusual, in the silence, too, of the room, where only the fire crackled, and in the girl’s own nervousness, that quite overcame Alice. She began to cry.
[Pg 107]“Who are their seconds?” Lady Betty asked, in a strangely quiet tone.
“Mr. Benham, so I heard them say, and a young fellow with a face like a boy. He was to act for the stranger because he had no friends.”
“Young Mackie!” said Lady Clancarty. “You heard this and did not tell me, Alice? I find it hard to forgive you.”
“But why should I?” cried Alice trembling, “what could your ladyship do?”
Betty gave a strange little laugh. “You shall see what I will do to-morrow,” she said quietly, “for you shall go with me.”
“Go where, my lady?” Alice asked in surprise.
“To the meadow behind the limes,” replied her mistress calmly; “there I shall go to-morrow, at sunrise, and stop this folly. It began in my rooms, Alice, over a ballad22, and I have no mind that it shall end in bloodshed.”
“Indeed, madam, I think you are in the right,” said Alice simply, “but what can we do? They will never listen to a woman!”
Lady Clancarty shut her lips firmly, and held her little bare foot out to the fire, warming it.
“I fear you cannot stop them,” Alice went on; “Lord Savile was very fierce, but the other[Pg 108] gentleman—oh, madam, I feared him more! he was so cool; and those eyes of his—they are like steel.”
“So they are,” said Betty absently, “and hath he not a handsome face?” and she looked pensively into the fire. “To-morrow we shall go, Alice, to-morrow at sunrise, and I shall stop this duel—I will stop it, if I have to go to the king!”
But the little handmaid did not reply; she was watching her mistress with an anxious face. She did not know the meaning of this new Lady Betty, and some hint of impending23 trouble weighed upon her. She was country bred, too, and timid, and the thought of the gray dawn with the shadowy trees looming24 through the mist and only the flash of steel to illumine the scene, made her tremble. But Betty, usually so observant and sympathetic and light hearted, did not heed25 her; she was suddenly self-absorbed, pensive7, quietly determined26. She went to the window and peeped out into the night.
“How many hours until sunrise, Alice?” she asked.
“Six, my lady,” the girl replied with a sigh, “and I wish it might be sixteen!”
Betty laughed, a strange little embarrassed[Pg 109] laugh, coming back and sinking on her knees before the hearth27, the firelight playing on her lovely face, and the shadowy masses of her hair, and the gleaming white of her draperies.
“I cannot sleep,” she said softly; “I cannot sleep—I am not fit for a soldier’s wife!”
Alice shuddered28. “Indeed, my lady, I’d as lief marry a butcher!” she cried, with such genuine horror and disgust that she moved her mistress to merriment.
“There, my girl, I told you so,” cried Lady Betty, “you were meant for that same parson.”
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1
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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2
taper
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| n.小蜡烛，尖细，渐弱；adj.尖细的；v.逐渐变小 | |
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3
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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4
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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5
slipper
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| n.拖鞋 | |
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6
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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7
pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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8
pensively
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| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
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9
ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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10
fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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11
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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12
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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13
eavesdropper
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| 偷听者 | |
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14
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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15
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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16
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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17
averting
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| 防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移 | |
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18
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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19
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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20
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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21
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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22
ballad
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| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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23
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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24
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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25
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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26
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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27
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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28
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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