CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

IS IT TRUE?

As Mrs Leigh moved out of hearing, Lady Haredale turned quickly to her daughter.

"Well, _did_ he kiss you?" she said, eagerly.

Amethyst stared at her for a moment.

"No," she said, with neither outcry nor protest. It was worse to know her mother, than to be suspected herself. Her soul was hurt by the knowledge.

"Well, so much the better. Now you must tell me exactly what did happen--what makes that woman think so?"

"I told you, mother, I met him in that turfed walk, and he said what I told you. I gave him the packet. Mr Riddell did see us, but I don't think Mrs Leigh did. That was all."

"But what did she mean about the conservatory?"

"I did go through the conservatory, and through the ante-room into the drawing-room, and no one was there but Major Fowler, and Miss Verrequers came in, in a minute or two. It is all a mistake. But oh, mother, can't I tell her that I had a message from you?"

"No, Amethyst," said Lady Haredale, without any of her usual softness. "If you do, we shall all be ruined. They'll break off your engagement to a certainty. They're just the people who never--never would understand about poor Tony. And--and you know, my dear, I'm _always_ honest. I ought to have paid those losses, and it's a story to gain in the telling. If Miss Verrequers heard some things, there'd be such an explosion. Besides, your father would be furious. Remember, I've trusted you with your poor mother's honour. We must make a story up. They must not know about Tony."

"Make up a story! But what can I tell them?" exclaimed Amethyst with incautious vehemence.

"The truth!"--and Lucian, who had sprung over the stile and flashed along the path, in a moment had seized her hands; his clear unfaltering eyes were looking into hers, his young strong voice, troubled, angered, and yet loving, sounded in her ears.

"What does my mother mean, Amethyst? what is all this?"

"I did not--oh, I did not!" gasped Amethyst, like a falsely accused child. "Oh, Lucian, don't you believe what I say?"

"Yes, yes, of course I believe it. But what do you say? What can my mother possibly be thinking of?" cried Lucian, still hasty and unrealising.

"Really, Lucian," said Lady Haredale, "I cannot tell; Mrs Leigh is under some extraordinary mistake. Amethyst has nothing to tell you, and I really hardly know if I can allow the subject to be dropped here. I believe that Amethyst took a turn with Major Fowler--dear old Tony--who has been like an uncle among the children, and Mrs Leigh has made some extraordinary mistake."

"What is it, Amethyst? _You_ tell me what it is," said Lucian, who hated Lady Haredale, and never believed a word that fell from her lips.

But his hastiness, which looked like anger and suspicion, though it was in truth passionate trouble, almost took from her breath and speech. Her face whitened, her figure swayed.

"I--I only took a turn with him," she stammered, with her eyes on her mother, "a turn in the turfed walk."

"But afterwards--" said Lucian. "No, I'll not ask you in any one's presence. Come with me, and tell me the meaning of it all."

"There's nothing else to tell you," said Amethyst, suddenly feeling that she would never dare to be alone with Lucian again.

"I don't think I ought to leave you with the poor child, while you are so unreasonable," said Lady Haredale.

"I do not choose to ask her such a question even before you," said Lucian, with dignity.

"Why, what a mountain out of a mole-hill you are making, you dear foolish boy," exclaimed Lady Haredale. "It is quite true that Major Fowler and Amethyst took a turn together, and met Mr Sylvester Riddell. She gave him a little present the children have clubbed together to buy for him out of their own money, as a congratulation on his engagement. What was it, Amethyst?--a purse, I think? Then it appears that Mrs Leigh saw her with him,--where was it, Amethyst?--in the conservatory?"

"No, mother, she did not," said Amethyst, who had drawn away from Lucian, and stood upright.

"Oh, my dear child, she couldn't quite invent it, I think she must have seen you. And if he had kissed you--I shall always maintain that he did no harm. _Dear old Tony_!--And an engaged man! But if you say that Mrs Leigh was mistaken, of course Lucian is bound to believe you."

Amethyst did not speak.

"_Could_ it have been some one else--Miss Verrequers herself, or one of the little girls? Shall I call them?"

"Certainly not, Lady Haredale," said Lucian; "I want no witnesses. Amethyst will explain to _me_."

"Well," said Lady Haredale, still lightly, "I will leave her to do so. She can only tell you what I have told you now. But, Lucian, take care,--I cannot have her word doubted."

As Lady Haredale walked away, uttering the last words with a charming air of motherly dignity, Lucian turned round and gazed into Amethyst's face.

"What did my mother see?" he said, "what makes her think this? _She_ always speaks the truth."

"She did not see me," said Amethyst, "with Major Fowler in the ante-room."

"Then is what Lady Haredale says true?" Amethyst did not speak.

"There is some mystery. There is something not square somewhere. What is your mother making you do? You were not like yourself yesterday; you had been crying when that scoundrel's engagement was announced? What does it mean?"

As she was still speechless, he went on, his boyish roughness of manner ill matching the agony in his pale stern face.

"I hate mysteries. It is your duty to tell me the truth. Soon you can have no secrets from me."

"I cannot explain what Mrs Leigh saw," said Amethyst, but she sank slowly down on the bench as she spoke, for her limbs failed her. Then suddenly she sprang up, and threw herself into his arms, with one outburst of all her forces against the fate that was closing in upon her.

"Oh, Lucian, trust me, trust me; I swear to you you may."

As Lucian strained her in his arms, he felt all his convictions reeling and yielding; but the answer was as inevitable to his nature, as the appeal to hers.

"Oh, my darling--my love, I do trust you. _But you ought to tell_."

What Amethyst might have done in another moment, convinced as she was that she ought _not_ to tell, is doubtful, but, before she could speak. Lady Haredale returned, and with her Tory and Kattern.

"Oh, Lucian," said Tory, in her high drawling voice, "my lady says you think that Amethyst has secrets with Tony. So she has; she gave him a present from us. We bought him a purse with our own money. It was all quite correct, I assure you."

"Is that true?" said Lucian, abruptly. Amethyst had started up, and he saw the startled horror in her eyes.--"Madam," he said to Lady Haredale, while his young eyes flashed fire, "that is the story which was to be made up. I will leave you to improve upon it," and he lifted his hat, and dashed away almost more rapidly than he had come.

Amethyst stood for a moment motionless; then she turned to her mother, and caught both her hands.

"Mother," she cried, "your are ruining my life. I will never, never marry Lucian, while I am pledged to deceive him.--Never, not if he would marry me!"

Lady Haredale's shallow sentimental nature fairly quailed before the passion in the girl's eyes and voice, but she held to her point.

"Oh, nonsense, my dear, you are far too scrupulous. It's not your secret; we must make it right somehow. Why, there were thousands of things I had to keep secret when _I_ was married!"

"Yes, mother, I dare say there were," said Amethyst, dropping her hands, and walking away across the grass.

Lucian's angry eyes had pierced her heart, but the unveiling of her sweet mother's real nature seemed to have laid it waste. Half an hour later, as she sat in her room, crushed and stupefied, not one dear thought able to lift itself up under the frightful weight, hot, eager hands caught hers, and Una's voice sobbed out--

"Oh, Amethyst, my darling Amethyst, I've ruined you; it's all my fault, I did it! Tory says so, and it's true, but if I don't deny it and deny it, it will ruin _him_; Miss Verrequers will give him up. Oh, I can't spoil his prospects. Oh, what shall I do?" Amethyst started up. There stood Una, with a very white face and black-ringed eyes, looking, in her ordinary striped frock and long hanging hair, as unlike her sister as could well be.

"You!" exclaimed Amethyst. "What do you mean? What can you mean, Una?"

"I mean, he kissed me. It was good-bye for ever and ever--and ever-- there in the ante-room; Mrs Leigh must have seen me. Tory guessed directly, and of course she'll tell. But, if I won't own to it, they can't bring it home to him. But you--oh, my darling! Oh, what shall I do?"

That the children should be mixed up in the miserable story seemed the last drop in Amethyst's cup. But the sense that, helpless as she was, she was less helpless than Una, did rouse her to some power of consideration.

"I don't think they could mistake you for me," she said vaguely.

"I was all white, and my frock was long. Some one did think I was Miss Haredale. Amethyst, I think I could do it this way. If they think he had an affair with you, that would be worse still for him. We'll go all three of us to Mrs Leigh, and say, we're very sorry there's been a mistake, but Major Fowler always played with us, as my lady said, and that he just gave me a kiss for fun, to tease me, as I was dressed like a grown-up girl. She'll think we're forward little minxes, but she'll never think more of a child like me. I can _do_ the child well enough, if I like," concluded Una with melancholy shrewdness.

"I wouldn't have you do such a thing for the world!" exclaimed Amethyst, horrified. "Besides, Mrs Leigh wouldn't believe you; and that is not all."

"Oh no, I know there's some awful scrape of my lady's. But won't she believe about the purse either?" said Una, to whom the scheme of exciting magnanimous confession had a certain miserable attraction.

"Una!" said Amethyst, "I'd rather never see Lucian again, than have you and Tory tell lies for my sake. Oh, it is all horrible--better a thousand times lose him, than know I was deceiving him!"

"Is that true?" said Una, in a tone of intense surprise, and, as she spoke, an awful wave of self-knowledge flooded Amethyst's mind; and the nature within her, akin to the mother whom she had found out, akin to the very girl whose proposal was so shocking to her, rose up in all its strength of self-pleasing passion. Was it true? She, felt as if her own soul, and the soul of her young sister,--nay, Lucian's soul too, might depend on her answer.

"Oh, God help me! God help me!" she cried. "It shall be true! I'll join in no cheating--nor let you do things worse than you understand, for my sake. But oh, it's a dreadful world! Oh, mother, mother!" and floods of tears and choking sobs overwhelmed her.

Una twined her arms round her, kissing her, and calling her by every tender name. For a moment Amethyst held back, half shrinking from her, half feeling how unfit it was for such a child to witness her despair. But she was little more than a child herself, in extreme need of love and sympathy. She put up her cheek to Una's, and the two poor girls, victims of the sins and follies of others, clung to each other for the comfort there was no one else on earth to give them.