CHAPTER XLV.
THE CUP OF HAPPINESS
Six weeks later, when the world of fashion was ringing with the praises of Lady Auchester's beauty and amiability, and the society papers were prophesying that the future Duchess of Rothbury would become the most popular of the leaders of ton, Leslie and Yorke drove in a hansom to St. John's Wood.
They were very silent during the journey, and when they stopped at the house in which the famous Finetta of the Diadem had held so many merry parties, Leslie got out of the cab alone.
She was inside the house nearly an hour, and when she came out with her veil down and re-entered the cab she did not speak for some time, but held her husband's hand in eloquent silence.
"Well, dearest?" he said at last.
"Yes, I am glad I came," she said, in a low voice. "Very glad. Oh, Yorke, how changed she is! I scarcely knew her. You remember how strong and self-reliant she was? Now – ," she stopped with a little sob. "And yet she is so happy and cheerful. She spends all her time thinking and working for others; the poor girls at the theater where she was, come and see her, and she helps them in all sorts of ways. While I was there the clergyman came in, and he spoke a few words to me outside her room. He said that if there ever was a really good woman she was one."
"Poor Fin!" said Yorke, under his breath.
"No, no," said Leslie; "not pity, Yorke. She does not need that, for she is happier now lying there, than ever she was in the old days of her strength and triumph. I told her all about you, and Lucy and Ralph, and she wants me to take Lucy to see her. She and Lucy will just suit each other. And Yorke – ," she paused and held out her tiny fist to him. "She has given me something; for a wedding present, she said. Guess what it is."
"I give it up," he said quietly.
She opened her hand and showed him the diamond pendant.
"'I thought you would come some day,' she said, Yorke, and if you could have seen her face when she said it! 'And so I kept it for you.'"
One day Lord Auchester and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Duncombe were staying at a country house in the North. It was an extremely pleasant party, of which those two ladies were, by general consent, admitted to be the belles, and the hostess, not unnaturally proud of having the famous Lady Auchester under her roof, decided to give a big dance which should include all the neighboring county families and their guests.
Half an hour before the opening of the ball, while Leslie was dressing, the hostess, Lady Springmore, came in to her in a great flush of excitement and distress.
"Oh, my dear Lady Auchester, I am so sorry!" she exclaimed, when Leslie had sent her maid away. "I am heartbroken about it, and I don't know what to do."
"What is it, Lady Springmore?" asked Leslie, more amused than frightened at her hostess' fluster. "Has the floor fallen in, or the ices gone wrong?"
"No, no, my dear! It's – it's something concerning you and Lord Auchester," and she clasped her hands and sank into a chair.
"Then I'd better call my husband," said Leslie, looking toward the next dressing-room, where Yorke was brushing his hair and whistling "like a ploughboy," as Leslie often declared.
"No, no. And yet – oh, I'd better tell you at once. My dear Lady Auchester, the Marlows have got Lady Eleanor Dallas staying with them – and she's coming here to-night!"
Leslie blushed, but she said quietly, "Well?"
"Well!" echoed the hostess in a kind of despair. "Don't you see, dear? She doesn't know you are here, and – and – oh, what shall I do?"
"Do nothing," replied Leslie, as quietly as before.
"But – but will it not be awkward and unpleasant for you, dear Lady Auchester?"
"Yes," said Leslie, in her old, downright way. "Yes; it will be both awkward and unpleasant, but if we ran away from all the awkwardness and unpleasantness in life we should spend our time in perpetual flight. I see you know our story, Lady Springmore."
"Oh, every one does, my dear," murmured that lady apologetically.
"Just so," said Leslie calmly. "Well, if you are kind enough to ask my advice, it is: Do nothing. The world is so small that Lady Dallas and we are sure to meet sometimes, and – well," she smiled, "do you think that we shall make a scene in your pretty ballroom? Wait!"
She opened the door of the dressing-room an inch or two and called to Yorke.
"Hallo!" he called back. "What is it? Want me to come and admire you in your warpaint, I suppose? Shan't! Tired of admiring you!"
"Oh, hush, hush!" said Leslie, blushing like a rose. "Lady Springmore is here, Yorke. She has come to tell us that – that Lady Eleanor Dallas is coming to-night."
"The devil!"
"No, dear, Lady Eleanor," said Leslie, sweetly and naively.
He came to the door and poked his head round; then he saw by her face what he was expected to say, and said it like a good and docile husband.
"Delighted to see any guest of yours, Lady Springmore!" he said, bobbing his head at her, and promptly disappeared.
An hour or two later, when the ball was in full swing, Leslie heard the footman announce Lady Eleanor Dallas.
She had been waiting for it, and was prepared. Lady Eleanor entered. She was thinner, and looked pale, and rather listless, and the air of pride and hauteur were more pronounced than of old.
Superbly dressed, she moved through the crowd with a faint smile of greeting for her acquaintances; then suddenly she saw Leslie. She stopped for just one instant, and the blood rushed to her face; then she came toward her, and, Leslie coming forward too, they met each other half way, so to speak.
The few conventional words were spoken, and by that time Lady Eleanor had recovered her presence of mind, and was once more the stately, haughty patrician who suffers and is silent.
"Your husband is here, Lady Auchester?" she said, quite calmly.
"I will bring him to you," said Leslie, promptly.
She found Yorke, and put her arm through his, pressing it to give him courage, for in all cases like this the bravest man is as like as not to prove an arrant coward.
"She is here, Yorke! Now, mind!"
"Oh, Lord!" he groaned. Then he pulled himself together quite suddenly. "If she can go through it, I can!" he said, grimly.
In another moment they were facing each other – Yorke with an unconsciously stern face, Lady Eleanor with a faint smile which masked more than pen can tell.
"How do you do, Lord Auchester?" she said, giving him her hand.
Yorke took it, and for a moment he found that it trembled; but he said afterwards that he thought it was only fancy.
Then, without another word, she turned and moved away.
They met – they were bound to meet – often in the after years, but it was never more than "How do you do, Lord Auchester?" "I hope you are well, Lady Eleanor?" until Leslie's first girl was born.
There had been a good deal of fuss – as the duke said, who made more fuss than any one else – over the birth of the son and heir; but this child, the first girl, was hailed as if she were the most wonderful production the world had ever seen, and Lucy was regarded with boundless envy because she was chosen as godmother.
But the day before the christening Leslie received a magnificent set of pearls, inclosed in a box of white ivory, inside which was a slip of paper, bearing, in Lady Eleanor's handwriting, this inscription:
"To my godchild, Leslie Eleanor Auchester."
Yorke was amazed and bewildered, but Leslie understood in an instant.
"What does it mean?" he demanded, staring at her, and almost letting the casket drop.
"It means that she is going to transfer her love to our – no, your – little one, Yorke," she said. "Oh, don't you see? And we thought she hated us!"
She caught up her baby and kissed it, and laughed and cried over it, in her joy and thankfulness, for every time she had met Lady Eleanor her tender heart had ached. But now this little mite had removed the only thorn in Leslie's bed of roses.
"Yes, she shall have her," she said.
"Eh?" exclaimed Yorke, staring. "What! Altogether? I say!"
"Oh, not altogether!" said Leslie, with a little gasp, and clutching her baby tighter. "No, not altogether, but – but nearly! Oh, Yorke, Yorke, my cup of happiness is full now. Quite, quite full!"