The Black Box | Page 5

was looking out
westwards across the park, towards the sea. For a moment she dreamed
of all the wonderful things that lay on the other side of that silver streak.
She saw inside the crowded Opera House. She felt the tense hush, the
thrill of excitement. She heard the low sobbing of the violins, she saw
the stage-setting, she heard the low notes of music creeping and
growing till every pulse in her body thrilled with her one great
enthusiasm. When she turned back to the table, her eyes were bright
and there was a little flush upon her cheeks.
"You're not sorry, mother?" she exclaimed.
"Not really, dear," Lady Ashleigh answered resignedly.
2.
Lord Ashleigh, who in many respects was a typical Englishman of his
class, had a constitutional affection for small ceremonies, an affection
nurtured by his position as Chairman of the County Magistrates and
President of the local Unionist Association. After dinner that evening, a
meal which was served in the smaller library, he cleared his throat and
filled his glass with wine. His manner, as he addressed his wife and
daughter, was almost official.

"I am to take it, I believe," he began, "that you have finally decided,
Ella, to embrace our friend Delarey's suggestion and to leave us on
Saturday for New York?"
"If you please," Ella murmured, with glowing eyes. "I can't tell you
how grateful I am to you both for letting me go."
"It is naturally a wrench to us," Lord Ashleigh confessed, "especially as
circumstances which you already know of prevent either your mother
or myself from being with you during the first few months of your stay
there. You have very many friends in New York, however, and your
mother tells me that there will be no difficulty about your chaperonage
at the various social functions to which you will, of course, be bidden."
"I think that will be all right, dad," Ella ventured.
"You will take your own maid with you, of course," Lord Ashleigh
continued. "Lenora is a good girl and I am sure she will look after you
quite well, but I have decided, although it is a somewhat unusual step,
to supplement Lenora's surveillance over your comfort by sending with
you, also, as a sort of courier and general attendant--whom do you
think? Well, Macdougal."
Lady Ashleigh looked across the table with knitted brows.
"Macdougal, George? Why, however will you spare him?"
"We can easily," Lord Ashleigh declared, "find a temporary butler.
Macdougal has lived in New York for some years, and you will
doubtless find this a great advantage, Ella. I hope that my suggestion
pleases you?"
Ella glanced over her shoulder at the two servants who were standing
discreetly in the background. Her eyes rested upon the pale,
expressionless face of the man who during the last few years had
enjoyed her father's absolute confidence. Like many others of his class,
there seemed to be so little upon which to comment in his appearance,
so little room for surmise or analysis in his quiet, negative features, his

studiously low voice, his unexceptionable deportment. Yet for a
moment a queer sense of apprehension troubled her. Was it true, she
wondered, that she did not like the man? She banished the thought
almost as soon as it was conceived. The very idea was absurd! His
manner towards her had always been perfectly respectful. He seemed
equally devoid of sex or character. She withdrew her gaze and turned
once more towards her father.
"Do you think that you can really spare him, daddy," she asked, "and
that it will be necessary?"
"Not altogether necessary, I dare say," Lord Ashleigh admitted. "On the
other hand, I feel sure that you will find him a comfort, and it would be
rather a relief to me to know that there is some one in touch with you
all the time in whom I place absolute confidence. I dare say I shall be
very glad to see him back again at the end of the year, but that is neither
here nor there. Mr. Delarey has sent me the name of some bankers in
New York who will honour your cheques for whatever money you may
require."
"You are spoiling me, daddy," Ella sighed.
Lord Ashleigh smiled. His hand had disappeared into the pocket of his
dinner-coat.
"If you think so now," he remarked, "I do not know what you will say
to me presently. What I am doing now, Ella, I am doing with your
mother's sanction, and you must associate her with the gift which I am
going to place in your keeping."
The hand was slowly withdrawn from his pocket. He laid upon the
table a very familiar morocco case, stamped with a coronet. Even
before he touched the spring