We now leave the scene in the bedroom for a spot not many yards off.
When the carriage seen by Margery at the door was driving up to Mount Lodge it arrested the attention, not only of the young girl, but of a man who had for some time been moving slowly about the opposite lawn, engaged in some operation while he smoked a short pipe.A short observation of his doings would have shown that he was sheltering some delicate plants from an expected frost, and that he was the gardener.When the light at the door fell upon the entering forms of parson and lawyer--the former a stranger, the latter known to him--the gardener walked thoughtfully round the house.Reaching the small side-entrance he was further surprised to see it noiselessly open to a young woman, in whose momentarily illumined features he discerned those of Margery Tucker.
Altogether there was something curious in this.The man returned to the lawn front, and perfunctorily went on putting shelters over certain plants, though his thoughts were plainly otherwise engaged.
On the grass his footsteps were noiseless, and the night moreover being still, he could presently hear a murmuring from the bedroom window over his head.
The gardener took from a tree a ladder that he had used in nailing that day, set it under the window, and ascended half-way, hoodwinking his conscience by seizing a nail or two with his hand and testing their twig-supporting powers.He soon heard enough to satisfy him.
The words of a church-service in the strange parson's voice were audible in snatches through the blind: they were words he knew to be part of the solemnization of matrimony, such as 'wedded wife,'
'richer for poorer,' and so on; the less familiar parts being a more or less confused sound.
Satisfied that a wedding was in progress there, the gardener did not for a moment dream that one of the contracting parties could be other than the sick Baron.He descended the ladder and again walked round the house, waiting only till he saw Margery emerge from the same little door; when, fearing that he might be discovered, he withdrew in the direction of his own cottage.
This building stood at the lower corner of the garden, and as soon as the gardener entered he was accosted by a handsome woman in a widow's cap, who called him father, and said that supper had been ready for a long time.They sat down, but during the meal the gardener was so abstracted and silent that his daughter put her head winningly to one side and said, 'What is it, father dear?'
'Ah--what is it!' cried the gardener.'Something that makes very little difference to me, but may be of great account to you, if you play your cards well.THERE'S BEEN A WEDDING AT THE LODGE TO-NIGHT!'
He related to her, with a caution to secrecy, all that he had heard and seen.
'We are folk that have got to get their living,' he said, 'and such ones mustn't tell tales about their betters,--Lord forgive the mockery of the word!--but there's something to be made of it.She's a nice maid; so, Harriet, do you take the first chance you get for honouring her, before others know what has happened.Since this is done so privately it will be kept private for some time--till after his death, no question;--when I expect she'll take this house for herself; and blaze out as a widow-lady ten thousand pound strong.
You being a widow, she may make you her company-keeper; and so you'll have a home by a little contriving.'
While this conversation progressed at the gardener's Margery was on her way out of the Baron's house.She was, indeed, married.But, as we know, she was not married to the Baron.The ceremony over she seemed but little discomposed, and expressed a wish to return alone as she had come.To this, of course, no objection could be offered under the terms of the agreement, and wishing Jim a frigid good-bye, and the Baron a very quiet farewell, she went out by the door which had admitted her.Once safe and alone in the darkness of the park she burst into tears, which dropped upon the grass as she passed along.In the Baron's room she had seemed scared and helpless; now her reason and emotions returned.The further she got away from the glamour of that room, and the influence of its occupant, the more she became of opinion that she had acted foolishly.She had disobediently left her father's house, to obey him here.She had pleased everybody but herself.
However, thinking was now too late.How she got into her grandmother's house she hardly knew; but without a supper, and without confronting either her relative or Edy, she went to bed.
