CHAPTER LXI.
IN WHICH THE GHOSTS OF A BY-GONE SIN KEEP TRYST.
Devereux, wrapped in his cloak, strode into the park, through
Parson's-gate, up the steep hill, and turned towards Castleknock and the
furze and hawthorn wood that interposes. The wide plain spread before
him in solitude, with the thin vapours of night, lying over it like a
film in the moonlight.
Two or three thorn trees stood out from the rest, a pale and solitary
group, stooping eastward with the prevailing sweep of a hundred years or
more of westerly winds. To this the gipsy captain glided, in a straight
military line, his eye searching the distance; and, after a while, from
the skirts of the wood, there moved to meet him a lonely female figure, with her light clothing fluttering in the cold air. At first she came hurriedly, but as they drew near, she came more slowly.
Devereux was angry, and, like an angry man, he broke out first with—
'So, your servant, Mistress Nan! Pretty lies you've been telling of
me—you and your shrew of a mother. You thought you might go to the
rector and say what you pleased, and I hear nothing.'
Nan Glynn was undefinably aware that he was very angry, and had
hesitated and stood still before he began, and now she said
imploringly—
'Sure, Masther Richard, it wasn't me.'
'Come, my lady, don't tell me. You and your mother—curse her!—went to
the Elms in my absence—you and she—and said I had promised to
marry you! There—yes or no. Didn't you? And could you or could she
have uttered a more utterly damnable lie?'
'Twas she, Master Richard—troth an' faith. I never knew she was
going to say the like—no more I didn't.'
'A likely story, truly, Miss Nan!' said the young rake, bitterly.
'Oh! Masther Richard! by this cross!—you won't believe me—'tis as true
as you're standin' there—until she said it to Miss Lily—'
'Hold your tongue!' cried Devereux, so fiercely, that she thought him
half wild; 'do you think 'tis a pin's point to me which of you first
coined or uttered the lie? Listen to me; I'm a desperate man, and I'll
take a course with you both you'll not like, unless you go to-morrow and
see Dr. Walsingham yourself, and tell him the whole truth—yes, the
truth—what the devil do I care?—speak that, and make the most of it. But tell him plainly that your story about my having promised to marry you—do you hear—was a lie, from first to last—a lie—a lie—without so much as a grain of truth mixed up in it. All a cursed—devil's—woman's invention. Now, mind ye, Miss Nan, if you don't, I'll bring you and your mother into court, or I'll have the truth out of you.'
'But there's no need to threaten, sure, you know, Masther Richard, I'd
do anything for you—I would. I'd beg, or I'd rob, or I'd die for you, Masther Richard; and whatever you bid me, your poor wild Nan 'ill do.'
Devereux was touched, the tears were streaming down her pale cheeks, and
she was shivering.
'You're cold, Nan; where's your cloak and riding hood?' he said, gently.
'I had to part them, Masther Richard.'
'You want money, Nan,' he said, and his heart smote him.
'I'm not cold when I'm near you, Masther Richard. I'd wait the whole
night long for a chance of seeing you; but oh! ho—(she was crying as if
her heart would break, looking in his face, and with her hands just a
little stretched towards him), oh, Masther Richard, I'm nothing to you
now—your poor wild Nan!'
Poor thing! Her mother had not given her the best education. I believe
she was a bit of a thief, and she could tell fibs with fluency and
precision. The woman was a sinner; but her wild, strong affections were
true, and her heart was not in pelf.
'Now, don't cry—where's the good of crying—listen to me,' said
Devereux.
'Sure I heerd you were sick, last week, Masther Richard,' she went on, not heeding, and with her cold fingers just touching his arm timidly—and the moon glittered on the tears that streamed down her poor imploring cheeks—'an' I'd like to be caring you; an' I think you look bad, Masther Richard.'