The Quiet Gentleman

He laughed. ‘No, no, I know your mind to be hardened against them, ma’am! Let us admit at once that a cord was tied to that tree, and allowed to lie unnoticed across the avenue until my horse was abreast of it. There can be little doubt that it was then jerked tight, an action which, I judge, must have brought it to the level of Cloud’s knees. That he came down very suddenly I recall, and also that I was flung over his head.’

‘Who did it?’ she said abruptly.

‘I don’t know, Miss Morville. Do you?’

She shook her head. ‘There was no one in sight when I ran out into the avenue. I looked for no one, for I had then no suspicion that the accident had been contrived, but I think I must have noticed anyone moving by the thicket.’

‘You could not have done so had he stood behind the thicket. Was it long after I fell that you came up with me? By the by, where were you, ma’am? I did not see you!’

‘No, for I was walking along that ride, coming from the village, you know,’ she replied, nodding towards the path. ‘You would only have perceived me had you chanced to turn your head, and from the thicket I must have been wholly obscured. I heard the fall, and you may readily suppose tha

t I wasted no time in running to the spot – it cannot have been more than a matter of seconds before I had reached the end of the ride. It must have been impossible for anyone to have had sufficient time between your fall and my coming into view to have removed that cord, or –’

She stopped. He prompted her gently: ‘Or, Miss Morville?’

‘Excuse me!’ she begged. ‘I had nearly said what must have given you reason to suppose that I have a disordered intellect! I believe that the shock of seeing you stretched lifeless upon the ground has a little overset my nerves.’

‘You mean, do you not, that the finishing blow might have been dealt me while I lay senseless, had you not been at hand to frighten away my assailant?’

‘I did mean that,’ she confessed. ‘The misadventure you escaped at the bridge the other day must have been in my mind, perhaps.’

‘So you knew about that!’

‘Everyone knows of it. One of the servants heard your cousin rating Martin for – for his carelessness in forgetting to warn you. You must know how quickly gossip will spread in a large household! But if it was indeed Martin who brought your horse down, I am persuaded he did not mean to kill you!’

‘Just a boyish prank, Miss Morville?’ Gervase said.

‘It was very bad, of course, for he could not know that the accident would not prove to be fatal. When his temper is roused, there is no saying what he will do. He seems not to care – But I own this goes beyond anything I should have thought it possible for him to do! There is no understanding it, for he is by no means a genius, so that we cannot excuse him on the score of eccentricity.’

His head was aching, but he was obliged to smile. ‘Is it your experience that geniuses are apt to perform such violent deeds, ma’am?’

‘Well, they frequently behave very irrationally,’ she replied. ‘History, I believe, affords us many examples of peculiar conduct on the part of those whose intellects are of an elevated order; and within my own knowledge there is the sad case of poor Miss Mary Lamb, who murdered her Mama, in a fit of aberration. Then, too, Miss Wollstonecraft, who was once a friend of my mother’s, cast herself into the Thames, and she, you know, had a most superior intellect.’

‘Cast herself into the Thames!’ echoed the Earl.

‘Yes, at Putney. She had meant to commit the dreadful deed at Battersea, but found the bridge there too crowded, and so was obliged to row herself to Putney. She was picked up by a passing boat, and afterwards married Mr Godwin, which quite turned her thoughts from suicide. Not that I should have thought it a preferable fate,’ said Miss Morville reflectively, ‘but, then, I am not at all partial to Mr Godwin. In fact, though I never met him – nor, indeed, Miss Wollstonecraft, either – I have often thought I should have liked Mr Imlay better than Mr Godwin. He was an American, with whom Miss Wollstonecraft had an unhappy connection, and although a great many harsh things have been said about him, Mama has always maintained that most of the trouble arose from Miss Wollstonecraft’s determination to make him an elm-tree round which she might throw her tendrils. Very few gentlemen could, I believe, support for long so arduous a role.’

‘I find myself, as always, in entire agreement with you, Miss Morville,’ he said gravely. ‘But do you wish me to suppose that a deranged mind was responsible for my accident?’

‘By no means. Martin has too little control over his passions, but he cannot be thought to be deranged. Indeed, I cannot account for your accident, except by a solution which I am persuaded is not the correct one.’

He smiled slightly. ‘I have a great dependence on your discretion, Miss Morville. We shall say, if you please, that I was so heedless as to let Cloud set his foot in a rabbit-hole. Meanwhile, I think it would be well if I gathered up this cord, and stowed it away in my pocket.’

She watched him do so in silence, but when he had untied the cord from about the tree, and had returned to her, she said: ‘I think you perfectly able to manage your own affairs, my lord, and I shall certainly not interfere in them. But, absurd though it may seem to you, this incident has made me feel apprehensive, and I do trust that you will take care how you expose yourself while you remain at Stanyon!’

‘Why, yes, to the best of my power I will do so,’ he answered. ‘But nothing will be gained through my noising this trick abroad: whoever was responsible for it knows that his design was frustrated, and he is not very likely to betray himself. I must suppose that everyone at Stanyon knew that I should return to the Castle by this road. Who, by the way, knew of your visit to the village?’

‘No one, and only Marianne and Lord Ulverston can have known that I went to Gilbourne House.’

‘That is no help at all. I never suspected Lucy of wishing to put a period to my life!’ he said, smiling.

Eleven

They began to walk slowly down the avenue in the direction of the Castle, the Earl assuring Miss Morville that apart from an aching skull he had sustained no injury from his fall. They had not proceeded far on their way when they heard the sound of an approaching vehicle, being driven towards them at a furious pace. ‘If this is Chard, springing my grays, I will very soon give him something else to alarm him out of his senses!’ said the Earl.

But the four horses which almost immediately swept round the bend ahead of them were not grays, nor was Chard driving them. He sat perched up beside Lord Ulverston, who had the ribbons in his hands, and was encouraging his team to gallop down the avenue.

The Earl drew Miss Morville on to the grass verge, but the Viscount had already perceived him, and was checking his horses. They pulled up, very much on the fret, and the Earl called out: ‘If I had guessed this was how you meant to use my bays I swear I would never have sold them to you, Lucy! Four-Horse Club, indeed! The veriest whipster!’