The Mandarin's Fan
way in which her aunt had spoken of Rupert. But Miss Wharf gave her no
chance of leaving the room or the house. Olivia had never seen her aunt
so pale or upset. She looked as white as chalk, and controlled her
emotion with difficulty. Lavinia Pewsey glanced at the two, guessed
there was about to be a row, and glided away. She always kept out of
trouble.
"Now," said Miss Wharf when they were alone, "I want an explanation."
CHAPTER IV
RUPERT'S SECRET
Olivia was astonished to see the emotion of her aunt, for, as a rule
Miss Wharf was cold and self-contained. The two had never got on well
together, and the elder woman was undeniably jealous of the youth and
superior good looks of the younger. But as Olivia owed bed and board to
her aunt, she always behaved as well as possible to one who was very
trying in many ways. It is only just to say, that Miss Pewsey made
matters much worse by tale-bearing, and probably had she been out of the
house, Miss Wharf and her niece might have got on better. But they could
never have been congenial companions. The difference between their
natures was too great.
"Yes" said Miss Wharf throwing herself back in her seat, and feeling
irritated by the silence of Olivia. "I want an explanation."
"What about?" asked the girl seating herself opposite and folding her
hands, which, Miss Wharf noticed with bitterness, were more slender and
delicate that her own.
"You know well enough."
"If it's about Rupert--"
"There," snapped the aunt, "I knew you would guess. Yes it is about
young Ainsleigh, and how dare you call him Rupert?"
"Because I love him," said Olivia firmly, and looked directly into the
cold blue eyes of her aunt.
"Then you must put this love out of your head. You shall never marry
him--never--never--never."
"If I choose, and I do choose," said Olivia calmly, but with a fine
colour. "I shall certainly marry him. I am of age--"
"Yes, and a pauper."
"Rupert would not marry me for my money."
"He is wise; for you have none."
"It is kind of you to speak to me in this way," said Olivia, "to remind
me of obligations. I am aware that my parents died poor and left me a
penniless orphan. I am aware that you took me in and educated me and--"
"And acted like a mother to you," said Miss Wharf vehemently.
"No. You never acted like a mother. With you, I have had a most unhappy
life."
"Olivia," the elder woman started furiously from her chair, "how dare
you say that. Have I grudged you clothes or food. Did I not send you to
a first-class school and--"
"So far as material things are concerned you have done everything Aunt
Sophia, and I thank you for what you have done--"
"A fine way you have of showing it," scoffed Miss Wharf.
"But a mother you have never been," went on Olivia calmly, "you have
never given me a kind word; you speak to me before visitors as you
should not do: you make me slave for you and run messages and talk of me
to others as though I were a servant. What love have you ever shown me?"
demanded Olivia, starting up in her turn, and also becoming excited. "I
long for love. My heart yearns for it. I would like to be a daughter to
you, but always you have kept me at arm's length. Aunt Sophia let me go.
I can earn my bread as a governess, or as a typist. It will be better
for us both."
"No," said Aunt Sophia, looking as hard as stone.
"I shall not let you go. If you have any gratitude in you, you will
remain and help me to manage the house."
"You have Miss Pewsey."
"She is not a relative, you are."
"And so you treat me worse than you do her. Well, Aunt Sophia, I am not
ungrateful though you seem to think I am. I shall stop with you. I only
ask for a little more consideration."
"I give you every consideration. As for love, I cannot give it to you or
to anyone. I gave all the love my nature was capable of feeling to
Markham Ainsleigh, and he rejected my love. Yes, you may look
astonished, but it was this man's father who broke my heart."
"And that is why you don't want Rupert to marry me."
"That is the reason," said Miss Wharf sitting down and growing more her
calm stony self. "I was almost engaged to Markham Ainsleigh: but he saw
Violet Vane and fell in love with her. He left me and made her his wife.
Can you wonder that I hate the son of the woman who stole my love away
from me?"
"Rupert is the son of the man you loved----"
"And of the man who cheated me. Look at my lonely life, at my starved
heart. I hate the Ainsleighs--there's only one left but I hate him. And
when I heard Markham was murdered in China I was glad--yes, very glad."
"What an unforgiving nature you have."
"I have every right to be unforgiving. Markham ruined my life. And do
you think I'll let you marry Rupert--the son of that woman. No! Marry
him, and I leave what money I have to Miss Pewsey."
"You can if you like, Aunt Sophia. I don't want your money."
"Reflect," said Miss Wharf violently. "I have a thousand a year. Half of
that goes to a distant relative, and the remainder you shall have if you
will give this man up. Five hundred a year is not to be thrown away."
"I cannot give Rupert up," said Olivia firmly.
"Think girl," pleaded Miss Wharf, her face becoming red and wrinkled
with the violence of her passion, "there are other men who love you.
Young Walker would make you a good husband, and Lady Jabe is most
anxious for the match."
"I like Chris," said Olivia, "and I have known him all my life. But I
can't marry him. I want a master when I marry."
"Then take Clarence Burgh," said Miss Wharf, "he will be your master."
"No. He's a brute."
"He's a man--much more of a man than Rupert Ainsleigh."
"I deny that" said Olivia fiercely.
"He is. Clarence has been all over the world. He has fought
everywhere--"
"So has Major Tidman. Do you advise me to marry him?"
"He would make you a better husband than Rupert, old as he is. That
young Ainsleigh is a dreamer. He is on the point of losing his estates,
yet he sits at Royabay doing nothing."
"He intends to do something, and save the estates."
"Never. He is not the sort of man to work. Olivia if you will take Chris
Walker, or Clarence Burgh for your husband I shall leave you five
hundred a year. If you refuse I give you nothing."
"I prefer nothing--and Rupert."
"Then you shall not have him. I'll ruin him first."
Olivia started. "You can't ruin him. You talk wildly."
"Oh do I," sneered Miss Wharf, "that shows you know little of me or of
my business. Listen. I bought up a mortgage on the Royabay estate. It
cost me money which I could ill afford to pay away. But I bought it so
as to ruin the son of that woman Vane who took Markham from me. I always
intended to buy the estate, or at least to drive Rupert from the place,
but if you will give him up, I shall forego my revenge. Now what do you
say?"
"Nothing," faltered Olivia, who had turned very pale. "I don't know what
to say."
"Will you give the man up."
"I won't see him, if that will please you."
"No. It doesn't please me. You must give him up, and engage yourself to
Mr. Walker or to Mr. Burgh."
"I cannot--I cannot--" said poor Olivia.
Miss Wharf stamped her foot and bit her lip. "You are as obstinate as
your mother was before you," she said savagely. "I shall give you one
month to make up your mind, and that is very generous of me. If you
surrender Rupert and choose one of the other two, I will not
foreclose the mortgage and will leave you five hundred a year."
"When can you foreclose?" asked Olivia anxiously.
"By the end of the year. So it rests with you, if Rupert Ainsleigh
leaves his home in six months or keeps it. Now you can go."
Olivia Rayner was not a girl who would stand dictation. But for some
reason or another she meekly bowed her head and went out, leaving Miss
Wharf to calm down over her needle-work.
The girl went to her own room, and lay down to think over the situation.
What she thought or what plan she conceived, it is difficult to say; but
she came down to dinner quite composed. Her aunt looked at her sharply,
and Miss Pewsey with suspicion, but neither of them made any remark
bearing on the storm. On the contrary Miss Wharf chatted about the ball
and talked of her dress and even advised Olivia about her costume. "You
will look very well in white," said Miss Wharf.
"But not so lovely as my Sophia in pale blue," said Miss Pewsey with her
usual emphasis. "I know you will be the belle of the ball darling
Sophia."
"I have been the belle of several balls in my time," said Miss Wharf
good-humouredly.
"And will be still," purred Miss Pewsey like the cat she was, "my dear
nephew said you were a rattling fine woman."
"It sounds like one of Mr. Burgh's speeches," said Olivia with great
contempt. She knew that the buccaneer loved her, and therefore disliked
him the more.
"Oh Olivia how can you," cried the little old maid, throwing up her
hands, "when poor, dear, darling, Clarence worships the ground you walk
on. He's got money too, and wants a wife!"
"Let him marry Lotty Dean then."
"That retired grocer's daughter," cried Miss Pewsey, drawing herself up,
"no indeed. I may be poor, but I am of gentle blood Olivia. The Pewsey's
have been in Essex for generations. My papa was rich and could afford to
send me to a fashionable school when I met my own Sophia. But poor sweet
papa lost his money and then--oh, dear me." Miss Pewsey squeezed out a
tear. "What sad times I have had."
"You're all right now, Lavinia," said Miss Wharf stolidly, eating fruit
and sipping port wine.
"Yes dearest Sophia, thanks to your large and generous heart. I have no
one in the world but you and Clarence. He is the son of my only sister,
and has travelled--"
"In China," said Olivia.
Miss Pewsey narrowed her eyes and looked as though about to scratch.
"In China, of course. But why do you make that remark, Olivia?"
The girl shrugged her shoulders. "I observed that Mr. Burgh has not very
pleasant recollections of China," she said deliberately, "he was not
pleased to find that Mr. Walker could talk the language, and he was
uncomfortable when the name Tung-yu was mentioned."
Miss Pewsey bit her lip. "Do you know anything of Tung-yu?"
"No. Why should I. All I know, is that Chris Walker says he will bring
the man down here for the ball."
The little old maid looked hard at the girl, but Olivia bore her
scrutiny composedly. She wondered why Miss Pewsey stared so hard, and
laid such emphasis on the Chinese name, but the matter slipped from her
mind when she retired to her room. She would have wondered still more
had she known that Miss Pewsey came up the stairs and listened at the
door of the bed-room.
Olivia had arranged to meet Rupert near the band-stand, as their
meetings were secret because of Miss Wharf's dislike. Certainly the
young man had come to the house, and Miss Wharf had received him with
cold dignity: but when he showed a marked preference for Olivia's
company, she gave him to understand that she did not approve. Henceforth
Rupert stopped away from Ivy Lodge, and met Olivia at intervals near the
band-stand. So Olivia, putting on a dark dress and a veil, slipped out
of the house, and took her way along the brilliantly lighted front. She
had often gone before and always had left her aunt and Miss Pewsey
sitting in the drawing-room, Miss Wharf working and the companion
reading the newspaper. Miss Wharf never by any chance looked at a
newspaper herself, but left it to Miss Pewsey to cull the choice news
for her delectation.
So Olivia, feeling quite safe, stepped lightly along to where the crowd
gathered round the stand. It was a perfect night and very warm,
therefore many people were seated in the chairs and strolling across the