THE LADIES LINDORES
BY MRS OLIPHANT
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. III.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCLXXXIII
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 'BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE'
"Two of the sweet'st companions in the world."
—Cymbeline.
THE LADIES LINDORES.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Left to themselves, Millefleurs and Beaufort stood opposite to eachother for a moment with some embarrassment. To have anything to do witha quarrel is always painful for the third person; and it was so entirelyunexpected, out of the way of all his habits, that Beaufort felt himselfexceptionally incapable of dealing with it. "Millefleurs," he said withhesitation, "I don't understand all this. That was a very strange toneto take in speaking to—a friend."
He felt for the first time like a tutor discharging an uncomfortableoffice, knowing that it must be done, yet that he was not the man to doit, and that of all the youthful individuals in the world, the lastperson to be so lectured was Millefleurs.
"Naturally you think so. The circumstances make all the difference,don't you know," said Millefleurs, with his ordinary composure. "And thesituation. In 'Frisco it might not have been of any great consequence.Helping a bully out of the world is not much of a crime there. But thenit's never hushed up. No one makes a secret of it: that is the thingthat sets one's blood up, don't you know. Not for Torrance's sake—who,so far as I can make out, was a cad—or poor Lady Car's, to whom it'ssomething like a deliverance——"
"Torrance!" cried Beaufort, with a gasp. "Lady—Car! Do you mean tosay——"
"Then——" said Millefleurs, "he never told you? That is a curious pieceof evidence. They do things straightforward in Denver City—not likethat. He never spoke of an event which had made the country ring——"
"Torrance!" repeated Beaufort, bewildered. The world seemed all to reelabout him. He gazed at his companion with eyes wide opened but scarcelycapable of vision. By-and-by he sat down abruptly on the nearest chair.He did not hear what Millefleurs was saying. Presently he turned to him,interrupting him unconsciously. "Torrance!" he repeated; "let there beno mistake. You mean the man—to whom Carry—Lady Caroline—wasmarried?"
Millefleurs fixed upon him his little keen black eyes. He recalled tohimself tones and looks which had struck him at the moment, on which hehad not been able to put any interpretation. He nodded his head withoutsaying anything. He was as keen after any piece of human history as ahound on a scent. And now he was too much interested, too eager for newinformation, to speak.
"And it happened," said Beaufort, "on Thursday—on the day I arrived?"He drew a long breath to relieve his breast, then waved his hand. "Yes;if that is all, Erskine told me of it," he said.
"You have something to do with them also, old fellow," said Millefleurs,patting him on the shoulder. "I knew there was something. Come along andwalk with me. I must see it out; but perhaps we had better not meetagain just now—Erskine and I, don't you know. Perhaps I was rude. Comealong; it is your duty to get me out of harm's way. Was there anythingremarkable, by the way, in the fact that this happened just when youarrived?"
Beaufort made no reply; he scarcely heard, so viol