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A Prince of Sinners, a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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Part 3 - Chapter 10. Lady Sybil Says "Yes" |
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_ PART III CHAPTER X. LADY SYBIL SAYS "YES" The carriage plunged into the shadow of the pine-woods, and commenced the long uphill ascent to Saalburg. Lady Caroom put down her parasol and turned towards Sybil, whose eyes were steadfastly fixed upon the narrow white belt of road ahead. "Now, Sybil," she said, "for our talk." "Your talk," Sybil corrected her, with a smile. I'm to be listener." "Oh, it may not be so one-sided after all," Lady Caroom declared. "And we had better make haste, or that impetuous young man of yours will come pounding after us on his motor before we know where we are. What are you going to do about him, Sybil?" "I don't know." "Well, you'll have to make up your mind. He's getting on my nerves. You must decide one way or another." Sybil sighed. "He's quite the nicest young man I know--of his class," she remarked. "Exactly," Lady Caroom assented. "And though I think you will admit that I am one of the least conventional of mothers, I must really say I don't think that it is exactly a comfortable thing to do to marry a man who is altogether outside one's own circle." "Mr. Brooks," Sybil said, "is quite as well bred as Atherstone." "He is his equal in breeding and in birth," Lady Caroom declared. "You know all about him. I admit," she continued, "that it sounds like a page out of a novel. But it isn't. The only pity is--from one point of view--that it makes so little difference." "You think," Sybil asked, "that he will really keep his word--that he will not be reconciled with Lord Arranmore?" "I am sure of it, my dear," Lady Caroom answered. "Unless a miracle happens, he will continue to be Mr. Kingston Brooks for the next ten or fifteen years, for Lord Arranmore's lifetime, and you know that they are a long-lived race. So you see the situation remains practically unaltered by what I have told you. Mr. Kingston Brooks is a great favourite of mine. I am very fond of him indeed. But I very much doubt--even if he should ask you--whether you would find your position as his wife particularly comfortable. You and I, Sybil, have no secrets from one another. I wish you would tell me exactly how you feel about him." Sybil smiled--a little ruefully. "If I knew--exactly," she answered, "I should know exactly what to do. But I don't. You know how uninteresting our set of young men are as a rule. Well, directly I met Mr. Brooks at Enton I felt that he was different. He interested me very much. Then I have always wanted to do something useful, to get something different into my life, and he found me exactly the sort of work I wanted. But he has never talked to me as though he cared particularly though I think that he does a little." "It is easy to see," Lady Caroom remarked, "that you are not head over ears in love." "Mother," Sybil answered, "do you believe that girls often do fall head over ears in love? If Mr. Brooks and I met continually, and if he and his father were reconciled, well, I think it would be quite easy for me very soon to care for him a great deal. If even now he had followed me here, was with us often, and showed that he was really very fond of me, I think that I should soon be inclined to return it--perhaps even--I don't know--to risk marrying him, and giving up our ordinary life. But as it is I like to think of him, I should like him to be here; but I am not, as you say, head over ears in love with him." "And now about Atherstone?" Lady Caroom said. "Well, Atherstone has improved a great deal," Sybil answered, thoughtfully. "There are a great many things about him which I like very much. He is always well dressed and fresh and nice. He enjoys himself without being dissipated, and he is perfectly natural. He is rather boyish perhaps, but then he is young. He is not afraid to laugh, and I like the way he enters into everything. And I think I like his persistence." "As his wife," Lady Caroom said, "you would have immense opportunities for doing good. He has a great deal of property in London, besides three huge estates in Somerset." "That is a great consideration," Sybil said, earnestly. "I shall always be thankful that I met Mr. Brooks. He made me think in a practical way about things which have always troubled me a little. I should hate to seem thoughtless or ungrateful to him. Will you tell me something, mother?" Of course." "Do you think that he cares--at all?" I think he does--a little! "Enough to be reconciled with his father for my sake?" "No! Not enough for that," Lady Caroom answered. Sybil drew a little breath. "I think," she said, "that that decides me." The long ascent was over at last. They pulled up before the inn, in front of which the proprietor was already executing a series of low bows. Before they could descend there was a familiar sound from behind, and a young man, in a grey flannel suit and Panama hat, jumped from his motor and came to the carriage door. "Don't be awfully cross!" he exclaimed, laughing. "You know you half promised to come with me this afternoon, so I couldn't help having a spin out to see whether I could catch you up. Won't you allow me, Lady Caroom? The step is a little high." "It isn't any use being cross with you," Sybil remarked. "It never seems to make any impression." "I am terribly thick-skimmed," he answered, "when I don't want to understand. Will you ladies have some tea, or come and see how the restoration is getting on?" "We were proposing to go and see what the German Emperor's idea of a Roman camp was," Sybil answered. "Oh, you can't shake me off now, can you, Lady Caroom?" he declared, appealing to her. "We'll consider it an accident that you found me here, if you like, but it is in reality a great piece of good fortune for you." "And why, may I ask?" Sybil inquired, with uplifted eyebrows. "Oh, I'm an authority on this place--come here nearly every day to give the director, as he calls himself, some hints. Come along, Lady Caroom. I'll show you the baths and the old part of the outer wall." Lady Caroom very soon had enough of it. She sat down upon a tree and brought out her sketchbook. "Give me a quarter of an hour, please," she begged, "not longer. I want to be home for tea." They strolled off, Atherstone turning a little nervously to Sybil. "I say, we've seen the best part of the ruins," he remarked. "The renovation's hideous. Let's go in the wood--and I'll show you a squirrel's nest." Sybil hesitated. Her thoughts for a moment were in confusion. Then she sighed once and turned towards the wood. "I have never seen a squirrel's nest," she said. "Is it far?" Lady Caroom put her sketch away as she heard their approaching footsteps, and looked up. Atherstone's happiness was too ridiculously apparent. He came straight over to her. "You'll give her to me, won't you?" he exclaimed. "'Pon my word, she shall be the happiest woman in England if I can make her so. I'm perfectly certain I'm the happiest man." Lady Caroom pressed her daughter's hand, and they all turned to descend the hill. "Of course I'm charmed," Lady Caroom said. "Sybil makes me feel so elderly. But I don't know what I shall do for a chaperon now." Atherstone laughed. "I'm your son-in-law," he said. "I can take you out." Sybil shook her head. "No, you won't," she declared. "The only woman I have ever been really jealous of is mother. She has a way of absorbing all the attention from every one when she is around. I'm not going to have her begin with you." "I feel," Atherstone said, "like the man who married a twin--said he never tried to tell the difference, you know, when a pal asked him how he picked out his own wife." "If you think," Sybil said, severely, "that you have made any arrangements of that sort I take it all back. You are going to marry me, if you behave yourself." He sighed. "Three months is a beastly long time," he said. Lady Caroom drove back alone. The motor whizzed by her half-way down the hill--Sybil holding her hat with both hands, her hair blowing about, and her cheeks pink with pleasure. She waved her hand gaily as she went by, and then clutched her hat again. Lady Caroom watched them till they were out of sight, then she found herself looking steadfastly across the valley to the dark belt of pine-clad hills beyond. She could see nothing very clearly, and there was a little choking in her throat. They were both there, father and son. Once she fancied that at last he was holding out his arms towards her--she sat up in the carriage with a little cry which was half a sob. When she drove through the hotel gates it was he who stood upon the steps to welcome her. _ |
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