Only a girl's love
There was a moment's pause, in which she felt that indeed she must say
'Yes' to anything he asked her.
"Listen, darling," he went on, caressing her hand, his eyes fixed
on her face wistfully. "I have been thinking of this love of ours,
thinking of it night and day, and I feel that you and I can do no good
by waiting. You are happy--yes, because you are a woman; but I am not
happy, because, perhaps, that I am a man. I shall not be happy until we
are one--until you are my very own. Stella, we must be married at once."
"Not at once," she pleaded.
"At once," he said; and there was a strange, eager, impatient light
in his eyes. "Stella, I can speak to you as I can speak to no one
else--you and I are one in thought--you are my other self. My darling,
I would go through fire to save you a moment's pain, not only pain, but
uneasiness and annoyance."
Her fingers closed on his hand, and her eyes, raised to his face for a
moment, plainly said, "I believe it;" but her lips said nothing.
"Stella, there would be pain and annoyance to you, if--if we were to
make known our love. It is a foolish, stupid, idiotic world; but as the
world is, we must accept it--we cannot alter it. If we were to declare
our love, all sorts of people would be arrayed against us. Do you
think your uncle would consent to it?"
Stella thought a moment.
"I know what you mean," she said, in a low voice. "No, uncle would not
consent. But it is not that only. Lady Wyndward--the earl--no one of
your people would consent."
His lips curled.
"About their consent I care little," he said, in the quiet, defiant
manner peculiar to him. "But I do care for your happiness and peace of
mind, and I fear they might make you unhappy and--uncomfortable. So,
Stella, I think you and I had better walk to church one fine morning,
and say 'nothing to nobody.'"
Stella started.
"Secretly, do you mean? Oh, Leycester!"
"My darling! Is it not best? Then when it is all over, and you are my
very own, nobody will say anything, because it will be no good to say
anything! Stella, it must be so! If we waited until we got everybody's
consent, we might wait until we were as old as Methuselah!"
"But uncle!" murmured Stella. "He has been so good to me."
"And I will be good to you!" he murmured, with such sweet significance
that the beautiful face crimsoned. "He only wants to see you happy, and
I will make you happy, my darling--my own!"
As he spoke he took her hand, and held it to his lips as if he never
meant to part with it, and Stella could not find a word to say. If she
had found a word it would have been 'Yes.'
He was silent a moment--thinking. Then he said--
"Stella, you think I have some plan ready, but I have not. I would
not even think of a plan till I got your consent. Now I have got your
consent--I have, haven't I?"
Stella was silent, but her hand closed over his.
"I will think. I will make a plan. We shall want some one to help us."
He thought a moment, then he looked up with a smile.
"I know! It shall be--Frank!"
"Frank!" exclaimed Stella.
He nodded.
"Yes, I like him. I like him because he likes you. Stella, that boy
adores you."
Stella smiled.
"He is a dear good boy."
"He shall help us. He shall be our Mercury, and carry messages. Do you
know, Stella, that you and I have never written to each other since we
have been engaged? When I was in London, I longed for some memento of
you, some written line, something you had touched. You will write now,
darling, and Frank shall act as messenger. I will think it all out, and
send you word, if I do not see you. Frank and I must be good friends.
It is quite true that the boy adores you. I can see it in his eyes.
That is no wonder--anybody, everybody who knows you must adore you, my
darling."
Something has been said of the infinite charm possessed by Leycester,
a charm quite irresistible when he chose to exert it. This morning he
exerted it to the utmost extent. Stella felt in dreamland and under
a spell. If he had asked her to go to land and marry him there and
then--if he had asked her to follow him to the ends of the world, she
would have felt bound to so follow him. She forgot time and place and
everything as she listened to him, for a time at least, but as the boat
drifted down to the spot where they had left Frank, she remembered the
boy, and looked up with a start.
"Frank is not there," she said. "Where has he gone?"
Leycester looked up smiling.
"You are a sister to him!" he said. "He must have wandered down the
bank. He is all right."
Then he looked down the river, and a sudden light came into his eyes.
"The foolish boy," he said. "He has gone on to the weir."
"The weir!" exclaimed Stella.
"Don't be frightened," he said. "He is all right. He is standing on the
wooden stage over the weir."
Stella looked round.
"He will fall!" she said. "Isn't it very dangerous?"
It did look dangerous. Frank had climbed on to the weir bars and was
standing over a narrow beam, his legs apart, his eyes fixed on the big
float which danced in the foaming water.
"He is all right," said Leycester. "I'll tell him to come off. Don't be
alarmed, my darling. You have gone quite pale!"
"Call to him to come off at once," said Stella.
Leycester rowed to land, and they both walked to the weir, a few paces
only.
"Better come off there, Frank," called out Leycester.
Frank looked round.
"I've just had a touch," he said. "There is a tremendous jack there, or
perhaps it's a trout; he'll come again directly."
"Come off," said Leycester. "You are frightening Stella--your cousin."
"All right," said Frank, but at the moment the fish, jack or trout,
seized the bait, and with an exultant cry, Frank jerked his rod.
"I've got him!" he shouted. "It's a monster! Have you got a net Lord--I
mean Leycester?"
"No, bother the net and the fish too," said Leycester. "Leave the fish
and come off; your cousin is alarmed."
"Oh, very well," said Frank, and he jerked the rod to get clear of the
fish, and at the same moment turned warily toward the shore.
But the fish--jack or trout--had got a firm hold, and was not disposed
to go, and making a turn to the open river, put a strain on the rod
which Frank had not expected.
It was a question whether he should drop the rod or cling on.
He decided on the latter, and the next moment he missed his footing
and fell into the foaming water. Stella did not utter a cry--it was not
her way of expressing her emotion--but she grasped Leycester's arm.
"All right, my darling," he murmured; "it is all right," and as he
spoke, he put her hand from his arm gently and tenderly.
The next moment he had torn off his coat, and springing on the weir
stood for just a second to calculate the distance, and dived off.
Stella, even then, did not shriek, but she sank speechless on the bank,
and with clasped hands and agonized terror, watched the struggle.
Lord Leycester rose to the surface almost instantly. He was a skilled
diver and a powerful swimmer, and he had not lost his presence of mind
for a moment.
It was a terrible place to jump from--a still more terrible place from
which to rescue a drowning person; but Lord Leycester had done the
thing before, and he was not afraid.
He saw the boy's golden head come up a few yards beyond where he, Lord
Leycester, rose, and he struck out for it. A few stokes, and he reached
and grasped him.
"Don't cling to me, my boy" he gasped.
"No fear, Lord Leycester!" gasped Frank, in return.
Then Lord Leycester seized him by the hair, and striking out for the
shore, fought hard.
It was a hard fight. The recoil of the stream, as it fell from the
weir, was tremendous; it was like forcing one's way through liquid
iron. But Lord Leycester did force his way, and still clinging to the
boy's hair, dragged him ashore.
Dripping wet, they stood and looked at each other. Then Lord Leycester
laughed; but Frank, the boy, did not.
"Lord Leycester," he said, speaking pantingly, "you have saved my life."
"Nonsense!" said Leycester, shaking himself; "I have had a pleasant
bath, that's all!"
"You have saved my life," said Frank, solemnly. "I should never have
been able to force my way through that current alone. I know what a
weir stream is."
"Nonsense," said Leycester, again. Then he turned to where Stella
stood, white and trembling. "Don't be frightened, Stella; don't be
frightened, darling!"
The word was said before he could recall it, and he glanced at Frank.
Frank nodded.
"I know," he said with a smile. "I knew it half an hour ago; since you
first spoke to her."
"Frank!" murmured Stella.
"I knew he loved you," said Frank, calmly. "He could not help it; how
could anybody help it who knew you?"
Leycester laid his hand on the boy's arm.
"You must go home at once," he said, gently.
"You have saved my life," said Frank again. "Lord Leycester, I shall
never forget it. Perhaps some day I shall be able to repay you. It
seems unlikely; but remember the story of the lion and the mouse."
"Never mind the lion and the mouse," said Leycester, smiling, as he
wrung the Thames water from his clothes. "You must get home at once."
"But I do remember the lion and the mouse," said Frank, his teeth
chattering. "You have saved my life."
Meanwhile Stella stood wordless and motionless, her eyes wandering from
her lover to Frank.
Wordless, because she could find no words to express her admiration for
her lover's heroism.
At last she spoke.
"Oh, Leycester!" she said, and that was all.
Leycester took her in his arms and kissed her.
"Frank," he said, "you must keep our secret."
"I would lay down my life for either of you," said the boy, looking up
at him.
They went down to the boat in silence, and Leycester rowed them across
in silence; then, as they landed, Frank spoke again, and there was a
strange light in his eyes.
"I know," he said. "I know your secret. I would lay down my life for
you!"
CHAPTER XXI.
Stella hurried Frank across the meadows, a rather difficult task, as
he would insist upon talking, his teeth chattering, and his clothes
dripping.
"What a splendid fellow, Stella! What a happy girl you ought to be--you
are!"
"Perhaps I am," assented Stella, with a little smile; "but do you make
haste, Frank! Can't you run any faster? I'll race you to the lane!"
"No, you won't," he retorted cheerfully. "You run like a greyhound at
the best of times, and now I seem to have got a couple of tons clinging
to me, you'd beat me hollow. But, Stella! think of him plunging off the
beam! Many a man would have been satisfied to jump off the bank; if he
had, he wouldn't have saved me! He knew that; and he made nothing of
it, nothing! And that is the man they call a dandy and a fop!"
"Never mind what they call him, but run!" implored Stella.
"I don't know any other man who could have done it," he went on, his
teeth chattering; "and how friendly and jolly he was, calling me Frank
and telling me to call him Leycester! Stella, what a lucky girl you
are; but he is not a bit too good for you after all! No one is too good
for you! And he does love you, Stella; I could see it by the way he
looked at you, and you thought to hide it, and that I shouldn't see it.
Did you think I was a muff?"
"I think you will be laid up with a bad cold, sir, if you don't run!"
said Stella. "What will uncle say?"
Frank stopped short and his face paled; he seemed to shrink.
"My father must know nothing about it," he said. "Don't tell him,
Stella; I will get in the back way and change. Don't tell him!"
"But----" said Stella.
"No, no," he reiterated; "I don't want him to know. It will only
trouble him, and"--his voice faltered--"I have given him so much
trouble."