'Never!' said Jim incredulously.
'But I do not mistake.I say it is so!'
Jim ridiculed the idea; the bandsman protested, and was about to lose his temper, when Jim gave in with the good-nature of a person who can afford to despise opinions; and the musician went his way.
As he dwindled out of sight Jim began to think more carefully over what he had said.The young man's thoughts grew quite to an excitement, for there came into his mind the Baron's extraordinary kindness in regard to furniture, hitherto accounted for by the assumption that the nobleman had taken a fancy to him.Could it be, among all the amazing things of life, that the Baron was at the bottom of this mischief; and that he had amused himself by taking Margery to a ball?
Doubts and suspicions which distract some lovers to imbecility only served to bring out Jim's great qualities.Where he trusted he was the most trusting fellow in the world; where he doubted he could be guilty of the slyest strategy.Once suspicious, he became one of those subtle, watchful characters who, without integrity, make good thieves; with a little, good jobbers; with a little more, good diplomatists.Jim was honest, and he considered what to do.
Retracing his steps, he peeped again.She had gone in; but she would soon reappear, for it could be seen that she was carrying little new cheeses one by one to a spring-cart and horse tethered outside the gate--her grandmother, though not a regular dairywoman, still managing a few cows by means of a man and maid.With the lightness of a cat Jim crept round to the gate, took a piece of chalk from his pocket, and wrote upon the boarding 'The Baron.' Then he retreated to the other side of the garden where he had just watched Margery.
In due time she emerged with another little cheese, came on to the garden-door, and glanced upon the chalked words which confronted her.
She started; the cheese rolled from her arms to the ground, and broke into pieces like a pudding.
She looked fearfully round, her face burning like sunset, and, seeing nobody, stooped to pick up the flaccid lumps.Jim, with a pale face, departed as invisibly as he had come.He had proved the bandsman's tale to be true.On his way back he formed a resolution.It was to beard the lion in his den--to call on the Baron.
Meanwhile Margery had recovered her equanimity, and gathered up the broken cheese.But she could by no means account for the handwriting.Jim was just the sort of fellow to play her such a trick at ordinary times, but she imagined him to be far too incensed against her to do it now; and she suddenly wondered if it were any sort of signal from the Baron himself.
Of him she had lately heard nothing.If ever monotony pervaded a life it pervaded hers at Rook's Gate; and she had begun to despair of any happy change.But it is precisely when the social atmosphere seems stagnant that great events are brewing.Margery's quiet was broken first, as we have seen, by a slight start, only sufficient to make her drop a cheese; and then by a more serious matter.
She was inside the same garden one day when she heard two watermen talking without.The conversation was to the effect that the strange gentleman who had taken Mount Lodge for the season was seriously ill.
'How ill?' cried Margery through the hedge, which screened her from recognition.
'Bad abed,' said one of the watermen.
'Inflammation of the lungs,' said the other.
'Got wet, fishing,' the first chimed in.
Margery could gather no more.An ideal admiration rather than any positive passion existed in her breast for the Baron: she had of late seen too little of him to allow any incipient views of him as a lover to grow to formidable dimensions.It was an extremely romantic feeling, delicate as an aroma, capable of quickening to an active principle, or dying to 'a painless sympathy,' as the case might be.
This news of his illness, coupled with the mysterious chalking on the gate, troubled her, and revived his image much.She took to walking up and down the garden-paths, looking into the hearts of flowers, and not thinking what they were.His last request had been that she was not to go to him if be should send for her; and now she asked herself, was the name on the gate a hint to enable her to go without infringing the letter of her promise? Thus unexpectedly had Jim's manoeuvre operated.
Ten days passed.All she could hear of the Baron were the same words, 'Bad abed,' till one afternoon, after a gallop of the physician to the Lodge, the tidings spread like lightning that the Baron was dying.
Margery distressed herself with the question whether she might be permitted to visit him and say her prayers at his bedside; but she feared to venture; and thus eight-and-forty hours slipped away, and the Baron still lived.Despite her shyness and awe of him she had almost made up her mind to call when, just at dusk on that October evening, somebody came to the door and asked for her.
She could see the messenger's head against the low new moon.He was a man-servant.He said he had been all the way to her father's, and had been sent thence to her here.He simply brought a note, and, delivering it into her hands, went away.
DEAR MARGERY TUCKER (ran the note)--They say I am not likely to live, so I want to see you.Be here at eight o'clock this evening.Come quite alone to the side-door, and tap four times softly.My trusty man will admit you.The occasion is an important one.Prepare yourself for a solemn ceremony, which I wish to have performed while it lies in my power.
VON XANTEN.
