Black Sheep Read online

  'It would surprise me very much to learn that it was! You know, I have never been able to understand how anyone could escape by means of a rope-ladder, particularly a female. It's all very well to talk of throwing it up to the window, but the chances are one wouldn't be able to catch it, or would fall out of the window, trying to do so. And what would you attach it to, if you did catch it?'

  'I can't think.'

  'No, and even if it was attached I have a strong notion that it is not at all easy to come down a rope-ladder. Depend upon it, it requires a great deal of practice.'

  'Hampered by your petticoats, too,' he said thoughtfully. 'I see that you have applied your mind to the problem: tell me all about it!'

  She laughed. 'No, I won't allow you to divert me. This is not a funning matter. I know that you think it a great bore, but –'

  'Well, don't you?'

  'How could I? I think it vexatious – indeed, I could slap Fanny for being such a wet-goose! – but one cannot be bored by what nearly concerns anyone to whom one is very much attached, and for whom one is responsible, can one?'

  'As I have never found myself in such a position, I can't say.'

  She said, with quick sympathy: 'I know that, and I pity you! You told me once – you said that you were not an object for compassion, but you are, Mr Calverleigh!'

  'Yes, I've come to that conclusion myself,' he said unexpectedly. 'I was used not to think so, but ever since I came to Bath I have been growing steadily more convinced that I was mistaken.'

  Taken by surprise, feeling very much as if she had suffered an electric shock, Abby gave a gasp. After a brief, but perceptible, pause, she said with as much composure as she could summon to her aid: 'You might not have felt the want of family ties whilst you were abroad, I daresay. But we were speaking of Fanny, and you were about to explain to me why I need not be afraid that she will run away in the night, when we fell into an absurd digression on the subject of rope-ladders. I should be very glad to believe you, but – but why?'

  'Oh, it would be much too dangerous! The poor girl would be obliged to get up and scramble on her clothes in the dark, in case some other member of the household should be wakeful, and see the light under her door. After which, she must grope her way down two pairs of stairs, and if their creakings didn't rouse you the approach of a chaise over the cobblestones at that hour of night would certainly do so. Then, too, she must draw back the bolts on the front-door, take off the chain, and lastly, most difficult task of all, shut the door behind her – all without a sound! Of course, she might choose to leave the house open to any chance marauder, but I feel sure that you will tell me she is not so lost to all sense of what is due to you as that !'

  'Yes!' said Abby, perceiving the force of these objections. 'And her room is at the back of the house, so how could she know that your horrid nephew was punctual to his appointment? Some thing might have happened to detain him, and only think how awkward it would be for her! She would be bound to consider that possibility. Anyone would! Furthermore, Grimston – our old nurse – sleeps in a little room next to hers, and although I may believe that nothing less than a trumpet-blast in her ear would wake her, you may depend upon it that Fanny would be in a quake! Oh, I think you are undoubtedly right! She won't make the attempt at night, and I'll take good care she has no opportunity during the day, even if I must accompany her everywhere, like the dragon I vowed I never would be.'

  'That might become a trifle tedious. Are you so sure that she is planning to elope with my horrid nephew?'

  'No,' she replied at once. 'Sometimes I tell myself that I am suffering from a stupid irritation of nerves: that however much she might fancy herself in love she would never do anything so improper, so unprincipled! And then I think that he has taken such strong possession of her mind that she will do whatever he wishes. But she has been in low spirits lately, in a worry, I conjecture. It might be that she can't bring herself to do what she knows is very wrong. I did entertain the hope that she had quarrelled with Stacy, but she hasn't.' She sighed. 'He was at the concert last night, and she looked at him as if he were her whole dependence and delight.'

  'No, did she? I envy him. Not, of course, that I've the smallest desire that Fanny should bestow such a look upon me, but I wish that you would.'

  She was aware suddenly that her heart, in general a very reliable organ, was behaving in a most alarming way, first trying to jump into her throat, and then beginning to thump so violently that she felt breathless, and uncomfortably hot. It was an effort to speak, but she managed to do so, saying: 'Mr Calverleigh – I am in no mood – for flirting!'

  'Now, when have I ever tried to flirt with you?' he protested.

  She felt herself impelled to steal a look at him, which she instantly realised was a very imprudent thing to have done, because he was smiling at her, and in a way which made her

  heart beat still more violently.

  'I love you, you know,' he said conversationally. 'Will you marry me?'

  The manner in which he made this abrupt proposal struck her as being so typical of him that a shaky laugh was dragged from her. 'Of all the graceless ways of making me an offer – ! No, no, you are not serious! you cannot be!'

  'Of course I'm serious! A pretty hobble I should be in if I weren't, and you accepted my offer! The thing is that it is such a devil of a time since I proposed marriage to a girl that I've forgotten how to set about it. If I ever knew, but I daresay I didn't, for I was always a poor hand at making flowery speeches.' He smiled at her again, a little ruefully. 'That I should love a bright particular star! '

  'Oh – !' she breathed. 'Oh, pray don't say such things!'

  'I won't, if you dislike it,' he said obligingly.

  'Dislike it! How could anyone dislike to have such a thing said to her? But it won't do! You mustn't say any more on this head! Pray do not!'

  'No, that's quite unreasonable,' he said. 'I won't pay you any compliments, but you can't expect me not to say any more! I've asked you to marry me, Abigail!'

  'You must know I can't – how impossible it would be!'

  'No, I don't. Why should it be?'

  'The – the circumstances!' she uttered, in a stifled voice.

  He looked to be a good deal puzzled. 'What circumstances? Mine? Oh, I'm perfectly well able to support a wife! You must have been listening to my horrid nephew.'

  'I've done no such thing!' she said, much incensed. 'And if I had I shouldn't believe a word he said! What's more, con siderations of that nature wouldn't weigh with me, if – if I returned your regard!'

  'Don't you? Not at all?'

  'I – No! I mean – I mean, it isn't that!'

  'Well, if it isn't that – Good God, you don't mean to tell me it's because I made a cake of myself over Celia Morval twenty years ago? No, really, my sweet life, that's doing it much too brown! What had it to do with you? You must have been in the nursery!'

  'Yes, but – Oh, surely you can perceive how impossible it would be for me to marry you? She was my brother's wife!'

  'No, she wasn't.'

  'She was engaged to be married to him, at all events, and she became his wife! And, if it hadn't been hushed up, there would have been a shocking scandal – of your making!'

  'But it was hushed up,' he pointed out.

  She looked helplessly at him. 'How can I make you understand?'

  'Oh, I do understand! You don't care a straw for all that ancient history, but you know that James would, and you're afraid he'd kick up the devil of a dust. He wouldn't, but I daresay he'd wear you to death, trying to heckle or cajole you into giving me up. However, you needn't let that worry you: I can deal with James.'

  She said, in a low tone: 'I'm not afraid of James. If – if I knew that I was doing right. But it wouldn't be James only. My sisters – all my family – would be thrown into such an uproar! I only wish I might not be wholly cast off !' She glanced up fleetingly, and tried to speak more lightly. 'I shouldn't like that, you know. They may not know a