Chapter XVII: More Mystery

Bevil Goring was greatly perplexed and bewildered by the sudden disappearance of the household at Chilcote, and in quest of information rode over to Mrs. Trelawney at the Grange, and she expressed herself as much surprised as himself at their abrupt departure, but she knew only a little more on the subject than he did.

The baronet and his daughter had left England in Lord Cadbury's yacht the _Firefly_ several days ago.

'Gone! sailed thus suddenly without a letter of explanation, of farewell, or the time of her return being even hinted to me,' were Goring's natural thoughts.

'And what about Lord Cadbury?' he asked.

'Oh! he has gone too; the Court is shut up,' replied Mrs. Trelawney, with a faint approach to a smile.

'Gone too!' replied Goring, more mystified than ever.

Was she yielding to the pressure put upon her by Sir Ranald--yielding after all?

'And for where has the party sailed?' he asked.

'There is no party, on board, I understand, but only Lord Cadbury, Alison, and her father; and whither they have gone no one knows--they decamped so hurriedly. But you, at least, will certainly hear in time,' said Mrs. Trelawney, with a soft smile, as she knew well how deep was the interest Goring and Miss Cheyne had in each other.

'I am indeed surprised that--that Alison did not write about the whole affair to me.'

'Perhaps she did not know in time, or her letter may not have been--may have from some cause miscarried. So whether they are seeking the fiords of Norway or the source of the Nile we cannot know.'

'And who was your informant so far, Mrs. Trelawney?'

'Old Mrs. Rebecca Prune, who came with a farewell message from Alison to me--a circumstance which I thought strange, as courtesy required that she should have called, or at least written.'

'And there was none for me?'

'None. I assure you, Captain Goring, I miss Alison very much, and so does my child here, little Netty.'

'Ah--little Netty, whose "flower-like beauty," as he calls it, Dalton is never weary praising.'

Mrs. Trelawney's colour heightened for a moment, her long lashes flickered, but she merely said,

'How is Captain Dalton? I have not seen him for some time.'

'Very well--but low-spirited apparently,' replied Goring, who thought that 'she seemed interested in poor Tony after all.'

After a pause--

'Dalton is my dearest friend, Mrs. Trelawney, and, as the confidant of his secrets, he has not concealed from me his deep admiration and love of yourself.'

Mrs. Trelawney's bright hazel eyes sparkled, and her bosom heaved, while an undoubtedly joyous expression spread over all her animated face.

'You will pardon me for saying this, when I know that you are the friend of Alison Cheyne, whom I love with my whole life, and shall follow over the world if I can trace her!' said Goring, whose voice trembled with emotion that sprang from love and anger.

'I do love sweet Alison very dearly.'

'And poor Dalton,' said Goring, anxious to plead his friend's cause; 'can you not love him as he deserves to be?'

'I have not said so,' replied Mrs. Trelawney, now laughing excessively, and added, 'what an odd question for a gentleman visitor!'

'Do pardon me; but will you give him time to hope--through me?'

'Please not to suggest this, Captain Goring.'

'Why?

'There is--I know--a secret in his life--he knows it too--a secret that in some measure fetters alike his words and his actions.'

'Good heavens! and this secret?'

'Is mine also--I have the key to it.'

'Yours!'

'Yes--you look perplexed--even distressed; nevertheless it is so,' she rejoined, tapping the floor, as if impatient, with a slim and pretty foot.

'Will it ever be unravelled?'

'Yes--very soon now, perhaps.'

'But when?'

'When the proper time comes. Till then, Captain Goring, I shall trust to your friendship for myself and Captain Dalton not to attempt to probe it, or act the umpire or match-maker between us.'

She said this emphatically, and with one of her sweetest smiles, while her soft white hand was placed confidently in that of Goring.

'I shall be silent as the grave,' said he. 'I have suspected something of this kind. At times a great gloom comes over poor Tony; there has been some mystery about his early life; what, I cannot divine; but it drove him into the ranks, and made him for years loathe England and English society, which he avoided as much as possible. He seems to have got over that whim now, and to you I look forward as the means of effecting a perfect cure.'

She gave Goring one of her soft and inexplicable smiles, and then, drooping her eyelids said, with a sigh, but apparently one of pleasure,

'You expect too much from me, Captain Goring.'

Mrs. Trelawney promised him, the moment she could obtain, through any source, some tidings of Alison's whereabouts, to let him know, and he bade her adieu with his mind full of doubt and anxiety--not doubt of Alison's faith, but of their mutual future; and anxiety for the annoyances to which she might be subjected, and the pressure that might in many ways be put upon her.

That Cadbury was in her society was an irritating circumstance; but a peer of the realm was some one of consequence, and his movements would ere long most probably be a clue to hers.

Mrs. Trelawney's mysterious hints about her knowledge of Dalton's past life gave Goring some food for reflection, and he knew not what to think of them.

'So--she seems to have refused Tony, as she did Jerry Wilmot; by Jove, she must be difficult to please!' thought he, as he turned his horse in the direction of Aldershot, often giving a long, earnest, and hopeless farewell glance at the old trysting-place beside the beeches.

But Jerry by this time had quite got over his fancy for Mrs. Trelawney, and found a new divinity in the person of her friend, Miss Bella Chevenix, whom he had known from her girlhood, but who now became invested with new and sudden interest to him.

Days passed slowly in succession now, but to Goring there came no tidings of the absent one. Thus life in the winter camp at Aldershot became an intolerable bore to him, and he longed for action of any kind; but now rumours went abroad that troubles were in store at the Cape, and the regiment would be one of the first dispatched to Africa.