第97章

Then I should like you to accompany me,Elfie;having originally sprung from the family too.

I dont like going where death is so emphatically present.Ill stay by the horses whilst you go in;they may get loose.

What nonsense!I had no idea your sentiments were so flimsily formed as to be perturbed by a few remnants of mortality;but stay out,if you are so afraid,by all means.

Oh no,I am not afraid;dont say that.

She held miserably to his arm,thinking that,perhaps,the revelation might as well come at once as ten minutes later,for Stephen would be sure to accompany his friend to his horse.

At first,the gloom of the vault,which was lighted only by a couple of candles,was too great to admit of their seeing anything distinctly;but with a further advance Knight discerned,in front of the black masses lining the walls,a young man standing,and writing in a pocket-book.

Knight said one word:Stephen!

Stephen Smith,not being in such absolute ignorance of Knights whereabouts as Knight had been of Smiths instantly recognized his friend,and knew by rote the outlines of the fair woman standing behind him.

Stephen came forward and shook him by the hand,without speaking.

Why have you not written,my boy?said Knight,without in any way signifying Elfrides presence to Stephen.To the essayist,Smith was still the country lad whom he had patronized and tended;one to whom the formal presentation of a lady betrothed to himself would have seemed incongruous and absurd.

Why havent you written to me?said Stephen.

Ah,yes.Why havent I?why havent we?Thats always the query which we cannot clearly answer without an unsatisfactory sense of our inadequacies.However,I have not forgotten you,Smith.And now we have met;and we must meet again,and have a longer chat than this can conveniently be.I must know all you have been doing.That yon have thriven,I know,and you must teach me the way.

Elfride stood in the background.Stephen had read the position at a glance,and immediately guessed that she had never mentioned his name to Knight.His tact in avoiding catastrophes was the chief quality which made him intellectually respectable,in which quality he far transcended Knight;and he decided that a tranquil issue out of the encounter,without any harrowing of the feelings of either Knight or Elfride,was to be attempted if possible.His old sense of indebtedness to Knight had never wholly forsaken him;his love for Elfride was generous now.

As far as he dared look at her movements he saw that her bearing towards him would be dictated by his own towards her;and if he acted as a stranger she would do likewise as a means of deliverance.Circumstances favouring this course,it was desirable also to be rather reserved towards Knight,to shorten the meeting as much as possible.

I am afraid that my time is almost too short to allow even of such a pleasure,he said.I leave here to-morrow.And until I start for the Continent and India,which will be in a fortnight,I shall have hardly a moment to spare.

Knights disappointment and dissatisfied looks at this reply sent a pang through Stephen as great as any he had felt at the sight of Elfride.The words about shortness of time were literally true,but their tone was far from being so.He would have been gratified to talk with Knight as in past times,and saw as a dead loss to himself that,to save the woman who cared nothing for him,he was deliberately throwing away his friend.

Oh,I am sorry to hear that,said Knight,in a changed tone.

But of course,if you have weighty concerns to attend to,they must not be neglected.And if this is to be our first and last meeting,let me say that I wish you success with all my heart!

Knights warmth revived towards the end;the solemn impressions he was beginning to receive from the scene around them abstracting from his heart as a puerility any momentary vexation at words.

It is a strange place for us to meet in,he continued,looking round the vault.

Stephen briefly assented,and there was a silence.The blackened coffins were now revealed more clearly than at first,the whitened walls and arches throwing them forward in strong relief.It was a scene which was remembered by all three as an indelible mark in their history.Knight,with an abstracted face,was standing between his companions,though a little in advance of them,Elfride being on his right hand,and Stephen Smith on his left.

The white daylight on his right side gleamed faintly in,and was toned to a blueness by contrast with the yellow rays from the candle against the wall.Elfride,timidly shrinking back,and nearest the entrance,received most of the light therefrom,whilst Stephen was entirely in candlelight,and to him the spot of outer sky visible above the steps was as a steely blue patch,and nothing more.

I have been here two or three times since it was opened,said Stephen.My father was engaged in the work,you know.

Yes.What are you doing?Knight inquired,looking at the note-book and pencil Stephen held in his hand.

I have been sketching a few details in the church,and since then I have been copying the names from some of the coffins here.

Before I left England I used to do a good deal of this sort of thing.

Yes;of course.Ah,thats poor Lady Luxellian,I suppose.

Knight pointed to a coffin of light satin-wood,which stood on the stone sleepers in the new niche.And the remainder of the family are on this side.Who are those two,so snug and close together?

Stephens voice altered slightly as he replied Thats Lady Elfride Kingsmore--born Luxellian,and that is Arthur,her husband.I have heard my father say that they--he--ran away with her,and married her against the wish of her parents.

Then I imagine this to be where you got your Christian name,Miss Swancourt?said Knight,turning to her.I think you told me it was three or four generations ago that your family branched off from the Luxellians?