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LADY O'HARA RETIRES
For a long minute silence reigned, all three actors in the little comedylistening to the heavy footsteps retreating down the passage, Carstareswith one arm still around my lady's waist and a rather strained look onhis face. Molly instinctively felt that something beyond her ken was inthe air, and glanced fearfully up at the white face above her. Theexpression in the blue eyes fixed on her husband made her turn sharplyto look at him. She found that he was staring at my lord as though hesaw a ghost: She wanted to speak, to relieve the tension, but all wordsstuck in her throat, and she could only watch the _denouement_breathlessly. At last O'Hara moved, coming slowly towards them, readingJohn's countenance. Some of the wonder went out of his face, and, as ifhe sensed the other's agony of mind, he smiled suddenly and laid hishands once more on the straight, stiff shoulders.
"Jack, ye rascal, what do ye mean by hugging and kissing me wife underme very eyes?"
Molly all at once remembered the position of her "Cousin Harry's" arm,and gave a little gasp, whisking herself away.
My lord put out his hands and strove to thrust his friend off.
"Miles, don't forget--don't forget--what I am!"
The words were forced out, but his head was held high.
"Tare an' ouns, man! And is it meself that'll be caring what ye may ormay not be? Oh, Jack, Jack, I'm so pleased to see ye, that I can scarcerealise 'tis yourself I am looking at! When did ye come to England, andwhat-a-plague are you doing in that costume?" He jerked his head towhere John's mask lay, and wrung the hand he held as though he wouldnever stop.
"I've been in England a year. As to the mask--!" He shrugged andlaughed.
Lady O'Hara pushed in between them.
"But please I do not understand!" she said plaintively.
Carstares bowed over her hand.
"May I be permitted to thank you for your kindly intervention, my lady?And to congratulate Miles on his marriage?"
She dimpled charmingly and curtsied. Her husband caught her round thewaist.
"Ay, the saucy minx! Oh, me cousin Harry, forsooth! If it had beenanyone but Jack I should be angry with ye, asthore, for 'twas a wickedthrick to play entirely!"
She patted his hand and smiled across at Jack.
"Of course, I would never have done such a forward thing had I not knownthat he was indeed a gentleman--and had he not saved me from suddendeath!" she added as an afterthought.
Miles looked sharply round at her and then at Carstares.
"What's this?"
"My lady exaggerates," smiled my lord. "'Tis merely that I had thehonour to catch her as she fell down the steps this morning."
O'Hara looked relieved.
"Ye are not hurt, alanna?"
"Gracious, no! But I had to do something to show my gratitude--and I wassure that you would never expose _my_ fraud--so I--But," as a suddenthought struck her, "you seem to _know_ my highwayman!"
"Sure an' I do, Molly. 'Tis none other than Jack Carstares of whom ye'veoften heard me speak!"
She turned round eyes of wonderment upon my lord.
"Can it be--is it possible that you are my husband's dearestfriend--Lord John?"
Jack flushed and bowed.
"I was once--madam," he said stiffly.
"Once!" she scoffed. "Oh, if you could but hear him speak of you! ButI'll let you hear him speak _to_ you, which perhaps you'll enjoy more. Iknow you've a prodigious great deal to say to one another, so I shallrun away and leave you alone." She smiled graciously upon him, blew anairy kiss to her husband and went quickly out of the room.
Carstares closed the door behind her and came back to O'Hara, who hadflung himself back into his chair, trying, manlike, to conceal theexcitement he was feeling.
