Jeanne of the Marshes

by E. Phillips Oppenheim

  CHAPTER XIX

  For the Princess it was a day full of excitements. The Count had onlyjust reluctantly withdrawn, and Jeanne had gone to her room under theplea of fatigue, when Forrest was shown in. She started at the look inhis drawn face.

  "Nigel," she exclaimed hastily, "is everything all right?"

  He threw himself into a chair.

  "Everything," he answered, "is all wrong. Everything is over."

  The Princess saw then that he had aged during the last few days, thatthis man whose care of himself had kept him comparatively youthfullooking, notwithstanding the daily routine of an unwholesome life, wasshowing signs at last of breaking down. There were lines about hiseyes, little baggy places underneath. He dragged his feet across thecarpet as though he were tired. The Princess pushed up an easy-chairand went herself to the sideboard.

  "Give me a little brandy," he said, "or rather a good deal of brandy. Ineed it."

  The Princess felt her own hand shake. She brought him a tumbler and satdown by his side.

  "You had to kill him?" she asked, in a whisper. "Is it that?"

  Forrest set down his glass--empty.

  "No!" he answered. "We were going to, when a mad woman who lives theregot into the place and found us out. We had them safe, the two of them,when the worst thing happened which could have befallen us. Andrew dela Borne broke in upon us."

  The Princess listened with set face.

  "Go on," she said. "What happened?"

  "The game was up so far as we were concerned," he answered. "Cecilcrumpled up before his brother, and gave the whole show away. There wasnothing left for me to do but to wait and hear what they had to say,before I decided whether or no to make my graceful exit from the stage."

  "Go on," she commanded. "What happened exactly?"

  "We were kept there," he continued, "until this morning, waiting untilEngleton was well enough to make up his mind what to do. The end issimple enough. Considering that but for that girl's interventionEngleton would have been in the sea by now, and he knows it, I supposeit might have been worse. I have signed a paper undertaking to leaveEngland within forty-eight hours, and never to show myself in thiscountry again. Further, I am not to play cards at any time with anyEnglishman."

  "Is that all?" the Princess asked.

  "Yes!" Forrest answered. "I suppose you would say that they have let meoff lightly. I wish I could feel so. If ever a man was sick of thosedirty disreputable foreign places, where one holds on to life andrespectability only with the tips of one's fingernails, I am. I think Ishall chuck it, Ena. I am tired of those foreign crowds, suspicious,semi-disreputable. There's something wrong with every one of them. Eventhe few decent ones you know very well speak to you because you are ina foreign country, and would cut you in Pall Mall."

  "It isn't so bad as that," the Princess said calmly. "There are some ofthe places worth living in. You must live a quieter life, spend less,and find distractions. You used to be so fond of shooting and golf."

  He laughed hardly.

  "How am I to live," he demanded, "away from the card-tables? What doyou suppose my income is? A blank! It is worse than a blank, for I owebills which I shall never pay. How am I going to live from day to dayunless I go on the same infernal treadmill. I am an adventurer, Iknow," he went on, "but what is one to do who has the tastes andeducation of a gentleman, and not even money enough to buy a farm andwork with one's hands for a living?"

  The Princess moved to the window and back again.

  "I, too, Nigel," she said, "have had shocks. Jeanne has come back. Shehas been at Salthouse all the time."

  "It was probably she, then, who sent for De la Borne," Forrest saidwearily.

  "Perhaps so," the Princess assented, "but listen to this. It willsurprise you. She came back and she told De Brensault in this room onlya short while ago that her supposed fortune was a myth. De Brensaulttook it like a lamb. He wants to marry her still."

  Forrest looked up in amazement.

  "And will he?" he asked.

  "Oh, I do not know!" the Princess answered. "Nigel, I am sick of lifemyself. There are times when everything you have been trying for seemsnot worth while, when even one's fundamental ideas come tottering down.Just now I feel as though every stone in the foundation of what hasseemed to me to mean life, is rotten and insecure. I am tired of it.Shall I tell you what I feel like doing?"

  "Yes!" he answered.

  "I have a little house in Silesia, where I am still a great lady,half-a-dozen servants, perhaps, farms which bring in a trifle of money.I think I will go and live there. I think I will get up in the morningsas Jeanne does, and try to love my mountains, and go about amongst mypeople, and try to spell life with different letters. Come with me,Nigel. There is shooting and fishing there, and horses wild enough foreven you to find pleasure in riding. We have tried many things in life.Let us make one last throw, and try the land of Arcady."

  He looked at her, at first in amazement. Afterwards some change seemedto come into his face, called there, perhaps, by what he saw in hers.

  "Ena," he said, "you mean it?"

  "Absolutely," she answered. "Fortunately we are both free, and we canset our peasants an absolutely respectable example. You shall be farmerand I will be housewife. Nigel, it is an inspiration."

  He bent over her fingers.

  "I wonder," he murmured, "if there is good enough left in me to make itworth your while."

  Late that afternoon another caller thundered at the door of the housein Berkeley Square. The Duke of Westerham desired to see Miss LeMesurier. The butler was respectful but doubtful. Miss Le Mesurier hadjust arrived from a journey and was lying down. The Duke, however, wasinsistent. He waited twenty minutes in a small back morning-room andpresently Jeanne came in to him.

  He held out his hands.

  "Little girl," he said, "you know what you promised. I am afraid thatyou have forgotten."

  She smiled pitifully.

  "No," she said, "I have not forgotten. I went away alone because I hadto go, because I wanted to be quite alone and quite quiet. Now I havecome home, and there is no one who can help me at all."

  "Rubbish!" he answered. "There was never trouble in the world where afriend couldn't help. What is it now?"

  She shook her head.

  "I cannot tell you," she said, "only I am going to marry the Count deBrensault."

  "I'm hanged if you are!" the Duke declared vigorously. "Look here, MissJeanne. This is your stepmother's doing. I know all about it. Don't youbelieve that in this country you are obliged to marry any one whom youdon't want to."

  "But I do want to," Jeanne answered, "or rather I don't mind whom I domarry, or whether I marry any one or no one."

  The Duke was grave.

  "I thought," he said, "that my friend Andrew had a chance."

  Her face was suddenly burning.

  "Mr. Andrew," she said, "does not want me; I mean that it isimpossible. Oh, if you please," she added, bursting into tears, "won'tyou let me alone? I am going to marry the Count de Brensault. I havequite made up my mind. Perhaps you have not heard that it is all amistake about my having a great fortune. The Count de Brensault is verykind, and he is going to marry me although I have no money."

  The Duke stared at her for several moments. Then he rang the bell.

  "Will you tell your mistress," he said to the servant, "that the Dukeof Westerham would be exceedingly obliged if she would spare him fiveminutes here and now."

  The man bowed and withdrew. The Princess came almost at once.

  "Madam," the Duke said, "I trust that you will forgive my sending foryou, but I am very much interested in the happiness of our littlefriend Miss Jeanne here. She tells me that she is going to marry theCount de Brensault, that she has lost her fortune and she is evidentlyvery unhappy. Will you forgive me if I ask you whether this marriage isbeing forced upon her?"

  The Princess hesitated.

  "No," she said, "it is not that. Jeanne told him of her loss offortune. S
he told him, too, without any prompting from me, that shewould marry him if he still wished it. That is all that I know."

  The Duke bowed. He moved a few steps across towards the Princess.

  "Princess," he said, "will you make a friend? Will you let me take yourlittle girl to my sister's for say one week? You shall have her backthen, and you shall do as you will with her."

  "Willingly," the Princess answered. "I am only anxious that she shouldbe happy."

  The Duke marvelled then at the sincerity in her tone. Nevertheless, forfear she should change her mind, he hurried Jeanne out of the houseinto his brougham.