CHAPTER XIII

THE ENCOUNTER IN THE WOOD

Isabel crossed to her own room, put on her hat, smiling at herself in the looking-glass as she arranged it to her satisfaction, then went downstairs, and out of the house without a word to any one. It was perhaps because she was conscious that Martha was peeping at her through the stillroom window that she began to whistle. She was still whistling one of the latest possible melodies when, entering the drive, she turned off among the trees and struck into the woods. Whistling was one of her accomplishments: she whistled very well. The sound of her clear pipe travelled far and wide. No one to hear her, or, for the matter of that, to look at her either, would have supposed that she had a care upon her mind. She bore herself like some lighthearted, happy girl, who, with unstained conscience, looks the whole world in the face, thinking what a delightful place it was for a pretty girl to be in.

As a matter of fact it was the bright side of the picture which presented itself to her--the bright side only. In imagination she saw herself, as she would herself have phrased it, with "tons of money" and "heaps of friends"; the bright particular star of a radiant circle. Everywhere she was greeted with outstretched hands, glad faces and pæans of welcome. Her frocks were the most numerous and the "sweetest," her carriages and horses were the finest, everything she had was of the very best, and she had everything the heart--her heart!--could desire.

With that union of the practical with the imaginative which was not the least prominent of her characteristics she there and then began to inquire of herself what exactly in her new position she should do. To begin with, there was the delicate question of what she should call herself. Should she be Mrs. Lamb or Mrs. Grahame? Should she revert to her maiden patronymic, or should she start life again, with a fresh name altogether, one more in consonance with her new position? These were points she felt which would depend largely upon circumstances; she might not have so much freedom in the matter as she might desire. Then there was the question of domicile. Where should she reside? One thing was certain, she would not stay where she was--nothing would induce her. If she had her own way she would never come near the place again--never! As for living in his house!--in the middle of her brilliant imaginings the mere thought of such a thing seemed to make her blood run cold.

On the instant her mood was changed. She stood still, amid the trees and bushes. With clenched fists, a new expression in her eyes, she looked behind her, first over one shoulder, then the other, then to the right and to the left, as if in search of something she had no desire to see. A sudden, strange reluctance seemed to clog her limbs. She listened: there was only the cawing of some distant rooks and the whisper of the breeze among the pines. With a laugh at her stupidity, breaking through the something which constrained her, she went striding on.

But she had not gone far when a very genuine sound brought her to a halt. In itself a commonplace, there it was the most unusual of noises: it was the sound of footsteps, of some one tramping through the forest. In all the time she had known the place she had never heard a step except her own. Could it be Margaret Wallace, still lingering about the haunts she probably knew well and loved? It would be disconcerting if it were. If they met--but that was hardly a woman's step. Could it be the doctor? What was he doing in the forest on foot? Besides, she had noticed what little pattering steps he took; this person was striding.

The walker was hidden from her by a clump of bracken which rose to a height of some six or seven feet. He was moving in her direction. Should she retreat? It could probably be done, and before he caught a glimpse of her. Should she advance and meet him? or should she wait until he came to her? While she hesitated, the decision was taken out of her hands. The walker, threading his way among the bracken, reached a point where the stalks were shorter. All at once she found herself confronted by--Gregory Lamb.

She stared at him with as much amazement as he stared at her, and her amazement was unbounded. Possibly he was the last person with whom she would have associated the advancing footsteps; no thought of him had crossed her mind. Not improbably, since she at least had cause to suspect that he might be in the neighbourhood, his surprise was even greater than hers. He stood looking at her in bewildered silence, as if unable to believe the evidence of his own eyes. When he did speak the observation which he made was characteristic.

"Well, I'm hanged!"

Her retort was equally in character.

"I wish you were!"

"I daresay; but I rather fancy that when it does come to hanging, where you and I are concerned, it will be a case of the lady first. Where the deuce have you been all this time? and what on earth are you doing here?"

"What business is that of yours? Do you know you're trespassing?"

"What business is it of mine? and do I know I'm trespassing? Well, that's pretty good, considering you're my wife, and the way you've behaved. Do you happen to know that the police are scouring the country for you, and that they're only lying low because they think you're dead, or something?"

"It's a lie! You're a natural born liar; you tell nothing but lies."

"Don't you think you've a little gift of you're own in that direction? I do! It was bad enough to sneak off from me like that; but to steal the old girl's money was playing it too low down!"

"What are you talking about? What do you mean?"

"You know very well what I'm talking about! Do you think that I don't know--and that everybody doesn't know--that you broke into Mrs. Macconichie's cupboard and stole her savings? A pretty mess I got into because you were a thief! You don't happen to know, I suppose, that they locked me up for what you'd done, and that they only let me go when I proved that that sort of thing wasn't quite in my line."

"Serve you right!"

"What served me right?--locking me up, or letting me go?"

"Anything would serve you right, you brute!"

"Brute, am I? All right, my lady! if that's the way you're going to talk to me I'll soon let the police know whereabouts you are, and then they'll serve you right. A good taste of prison would do you good, you dirty thief!"

"Don't shout like that!"

"Then don't you call me names. I'm not a thief whatever else I am."

"I'm not so sure of that. What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing here?"

"I thought you'd gone back to London long ago."

"Then you're wrong, because I haven't; and what's more, I'm not likely to go. I've been having a real bad time, that's what I've been having."

"Haven't those rich friends of yours sent that remittance you were always gassing about?"

"No, they haven't." After a pause, he added, sullenly, "My old mother's allowing me a pound a week, and I'm living on that. So now you know."

"Honest?"

"It's the gospel truth. So you'll be able to judge for yourself how likely I am to be able to get back to London on that, especially as she won't let me have a penny in advance."

"A nice sort you are!--after the lies you told me about the tons of money you'd got yourself, and the other tons your friends had got!--a pound a week!"

"Anyhow I'm not a thief."

"And I shouldn't have been a thief if I hadn't listened to your lies; and very well you know it. I've had enough of you; take yourself off!"

"Take myself off?"

"Yes, take yourself off, before I tell some one to take you."

"Well! you've got a face! If I do go I'll put the police on to you, and then you'll sing a different song."

"You dare!"

"Dare!" he laughed, not pleasantly. "What is there to dare? I'd think as little of putting the police on to you as I would of putting a dog on to a cat. They'd soon show you your place, you thief!"

There was an interval of silence, during which she looked at him over the intervening bracken. If looks could kill he would have dropped dead where he stood.

"Well, are you going to take yourself off, or am I to tell them to take you?"

"Who's them?--tell away! I think that when I tell them you're my wife, and that the police have been looking for you for quite a while, they--whoever they may be!--won't be so keen to interfere with me as you perhaps fancy. There's another thing: you seem to be forgetting that you're my wife. When I do go you'll go with me."

"Will I? We'll see."

"We will see; or, if you prefer it, it shall be the other way about, I'll go with you."

"Will you?"

"It'll have to be one or the other, you may take it from me. Well, are you going to call those friends of yours? Are you coming with me, or am I to go with you? Which is it to be? I'm in no hurry; take your time. I'll have a pipe while you're thinking it over."

He filled a pipe which he took from his pocket, while she glared at him.

"I'm as strong as you; I believe I'm stronger; I believe I could kill you if I chose."

"Be a murderer as well as a thief, would you? I shouldn't be surprised. You mightn't find it so easy to bring off this job as you did the other; killing a man is not so simple as killing a pig, take my word for it."

"Listen to me, Gregory Lamb."

"I'm listening, Mrs. Lamb, and it gives me real pleasure to do it."

"I'll make a rich man of you if you'll take yourself off."

He stayed the lighted match on its passage to his pipe.

"You'll make a rich man of me? Now you're singing in quite another key. How are you going to do it?"

"I'm staying in the house of a man who's dying."

"Dying is he? Then what does he want you in the house for? Have you turned nurse? Is that your latest caper?"

"Never mind what I've turned. He's a rich man."

"What do you call rich?--like me?"

"You fool! He owns all this"--she threw out her arms--"and ever so much besides."

"Owns all this? Is it Cuthbert Grahame you're talking about?"

"What do you know about Cuthbert Grahame?"

"Only that I happen to be living in one of his cottages--just over there--and a nice hole it is. But you can't expect much in the way of board and lodging for a pound a week, especially when you want some change left out of it. You're living in Cuthbert Grahame's house? Why, then--great Scot!--you must be the woman they're talking about who dropped from the skies." A change took place in the expression of his countenance which in its way was comical. "A pretty sort of she-devil you must be!"

"Now what are you talking about?"

"I know everything. Why, one of the servants up at Cuthbert Grahame's--Martha Blair--is the daughter of the people I'm lodging with. They talk of nothing else but you. You've been passing yourself off as Cuthbert Grahame's wife."

"Well, what of it?"

"What of it?--that's good! First theft, then bigamy!"

"You fool! he's dying."

"I don't see what difference that makes; from what I understand he's been dying for years."

"He's made a will in my favour."

"Did he tell you?"

"He did. He's left me everything--every shilling he has in the world."

"You're a beauty, upon my soul you are!"

"And I tell you that he's dying while we are standing here. The odds are that he'll be dead by the time that I get back."

"How do you know?"

"Then everything he has will be mine--ours."

"Ours?"

"Ours!--yours and mine!--if you can keep a still tongue in your head, and keep on pretending that you know nothing about me."

He was trembling.

"What about the Mrs. Grahame?"

"Stuff the Mrs. Grahame! After he's dead I can soon be Mrs. Lamb again. What's to stop me?"

"Shall we have to live here?"

She shuddered, involuntarily.

"Live here?--not much! We'll clear out of this in double quick time. We'll take a house in London, and live like princes."

He moistened his lips with his tongue.

"You'll act on the square with me?"

"Of course I will, if you'll act on the square with me. Look here, there's a ten-pound note for you. It's all I've got about me, but as you seem hard up you may find it useful. You go back, and unless I'm mistaken by to-morrow morning you'll hear he's dead. It won't take me long to put things ship-shape. Don't you write or try to see me, unless I give you the office. I'll keep you posted in how things are going. And so soon as I can lay hands on a good lot of the ready, if you like we'll go up to town together, and we'll have a real old spree as we go."

"Belle, you--you're----"

He stopped, as if his vocabulary failed him altogether.

"Yes, I know I am; I'm all that, and more besides."

She laughed, and he laughed. In the laughter of neither of them was there any merriment. The sounds they emitted were merely mechanical.