第184章

But, though she could have but one word that night with her lover, there were many words between her and Lady Albury before they went to bed. "And so, like wise people, you have settled it all between you at last," said Lady Albury.

"I don't know whether he is wise."

"We will take that for granted. At any rate he has been very true.""Oh, yes."

"And you -- you knew all about it."

"No -- I knew nothing. I did not think he would ever ask again.

I only hoped."

"But why on earth did you give him so much trouble?""I can't tell you," said Ayala, shaking her head.

"Do you mean that there is still a secret?""No, not that. I would tell you anything that I could tell, because you have been so very, very good to me. But I cannot tell. Icannot explain even to myself. Oh, Lady Albury, why have you been so good to me?""Shall I say because I have loved you?"

"Yes -- if it be true."

"But it is not true."

"Oh, Lady Albury!"

"I do love you dearly. I shall always love you now. I do hope I shall love you now, because you will be his wife. But I have not been kind to you as you call it because I loved you.""Then why?"

"Because I loved him. Cannot you understand that? Because I was anxious that he should have all that he wanted. Was it not necessary that there should be some house in which he might meet you? Could there have been much of a pleasant time for wooing between you in your aunt's drawing-room in Kingsbury Crescent?""Oh, no," said Ayala.

"Could he have taken you out hunting unless you had been here?

How could he and you have known each other at all unless I had been kind to you? Now you will understand.""Yes," said Ayala, "I understand now. Did he ask you?""Well -- he consulted me. We talked you all over, and made up our minds, between us, that if we petted you down here that would be the best way to win you. Were we not right?""It was a very nice way. I do so like to be petted.""Sir Harry was in the secret, and he did his petting by buying the frock. That was a success too, I think.""Did he care about that, Lady Albury?"

"What he?"

"Jonathan," said Ayala, almost stumbling over the word, as she pronounced it aloud for the first time.

"I think he liked it. But whether he would have persevered without it you must ask yourself. If he tells you that he would never have said another word to you only for this frock, then I think you ought to thank Sir Harry, and give him a kiss.""I am sure he will not tell me that," said Ayala, with mock indignation.

"And now, my dear, as I have told you all my secret, and have explained to you how we laid our heads together, and plotted against you, I think you ought to tell me your secret. Why was it that you refused him so pertinaciously on that Sunday when you were out walking, and yet you knew your mind about it so clearly as soon as he arrived today?""I can't explain it," said Ayala.

"You must know that you liked him."

"I always liked him."

"You must have more than liked on that Sunday.""I adored him."

"Then I don't understand you."

"Lady Albury, I think I fell in love with him the first moment I saw him. The Marchesa took me to a party in London, and there he was.""Did he say anything to you then?"

"No. He was very funny -- as he often is. Don't you know his way? I remember every word he said to me. He came up without any introduction and ordered me to dance with him.""And you did?"

"Oh yes. Whatever he told me I should have done. Then he scolded me because I did not stand up quick enough. And he invented some story about a woman who was engaged to him and would not marry him because he had red hair and his name was Jonathan. I knew it was all a joke, and yet I hated the woman.""That must have been love at first sight.""I think it was. From that day to this I have always been thinking about him.""And yet you refused him twice over?"

"Yes."

"At ever so long an interval?" Ayala bobbed her head at her companion.

"And why?"

"Ah -- that I can't tell. I shall try to tell him some day, but I know that I never shall. It was because -- . But, Lady Albury, I cannot tell it. Did you ever picture anything to yourself in a waking dream?""Build castles in the air?" suggested Lady Albury. "That's just it.""Very often. But they never come true."

"Never have come true -- exactly. I had a castle in the air, and in the castle lived a knight." She was still ashamed to say that the inhabitant of the castle was an Angel of Light. "I wanted to find out whether he was the knight who lived there. He was.""And you were not quite sure till today?""I have been sure a long time. But when we walked out on that Sunday I was such an idiot that I did not know how to tell him.

Oh, Lady Albury, I was such a fool! What should I have done if he hadn't come back?""Sent for him."

"Never -- never! I should have been miserable always! But now I am so happy.""He is the real knight?"

"Oh, yes; indeed. He is the real -- real knight, that has always been living in my castle."Ayala's promotion was now so firmly fixed that the buxom female came to assist her off with her clothes when Lady Albury had left her. From this time forth it was supposed that such assistance would be necessary. "I take it, Miss," said the buxom female, "there will be a many new dresses before the end of this time two years." From which Ayala was quite sure that everybody in the house knew all about it.

But it was now, now when she was quite alone, that the great sense of her happiness came to her. In the fulness of her dreams there had never been more than the conviction that such a being, and none other, could be worthy of her love. There had never been faith in the hope that such a one would come to her -- never even though she would tell herself that angels had come down from heaven and had sought in marriage the hands of the daughters of men. Her dreams had been to her a barrier against love rather than an encouragement. But now he that she had in truth dreamed of had come for her. Then she brought out the Marchesa's letter and read that description of her lover. Yes; he was all that;true, brave, tender -- a very hero. But then he was more than all that -- for he was in truth the very "Angel of Light".