The Loudwater Mystery | Page 8

her," said Mrs. Truslove.
"I suppose that when he was in love with her he bragged about these
commissions to her and she told her mother."
"Her mother has certainly taken it out of him for jilting her daughter.
But what an unsavoury place the castle is!" said Mr. Manley.
"With such a master--what can you expect?" said Mrs. Truslove. "Did
the hog say anything more about halving my allowance?"
Mr. Manley frowned. A few days before he had been greatly surprised
to learn from Lord Loudwater that the bulk of Helena Truslove's
income was an allowance from him. The matter had greatly exercised
his mind. Why should his employer allow her six hundred a year? It
was a matter which should be cleared up.
He said slowly: "Yes, he did. He asked what you said when I told you
that he was going to halve it, and he did not seem to like the idea of
your seeing him about it."
"He'll like my seeing him about it even less than the idea of it," said
Mrs. Truslove firmly, and there was a sudden gleam in her wild black
eyes.
Mr. Manley looked at her, frowning faintly. Then he said in a rather
hesitating manner: "I've never asked you about it. But why does the hog
make you this allowance?"
"That's my dark past," she said in a teasing tone, smiling at him. "I
suppose that as we're going to be married so soon I ought to make a
clean breast of it, if you really want to know."
"Just as you like," said Mr. Manley, his face clearing a little at her
careless tone.
"Well, the hog treated me badly--not really badly, because I didn't care
enough about him to make it possible for him to treat me really badly,
but just as badly as he could. For when he and I first met I was on the

way to get engaged to a man, named Hardwicke--a rich city man, rather
a bore, but a man who would make an excellent husband. Loudwater
knew that Hardwicke was ready and eager to marry me, and I suppose
that that helped to make him keen on me. At any rate, he made love to
me, not nearly so badly as you'd think, and persuaded me to promise to
marry him."
"I can't think how you could have done it!" cried Mr. Manley.
"How was I to know what a hog he was at home? At Trouville he was
quite nice, as I tell you. Besides, there was the title--I thought I should
like to be Lady Loudwater. You know, I do have strong impulses, and I
act on them."
"Well, after all, you didn't marry him," said Mr. Manley in a tone of
relief. "What did happen?"
"We were engaged for about two months. Then, about a month before
the date fixed for our marriage, he met Olivia Quainton, fell in love
with her, and broke off our engagement a week before our
wedding-day."
"Well, of all the caddish tricks!" cried Mr. Manley.
"You can imagine how furious I was. And I wasn't going to stand
it--not from Loudwater, at any rate. I had learnt a good deal more about
him in the eleven weeks we were engaged, and, naturally, I wasn't
pleased with what I had learnt. I set out to make myself very
disagreeable. I saw him and did make myself very disagreeable. I told
him a good many unpleasant things about himself which made him
much more furious than I was myself."
"I'm glad some of it got through his thick skin," said Mr. Manley.
"A good deal of it did. Then I made it clear to him that he had robbed
me of John Hardwicke and an excellent settlement in life, and told him
that I was going to bring an action for breach of promise against him.
That certainly got through his thick skin, for it's very painful to him to

spend money on any one but himself. But he made terms at once, gave
me this house furnished, and promised to allow me six hundred a year
for life. You don't think I was wrong to take it?" she added anxiously.
"Certainly not," said Mr. Manley quickly and firmly.
Her face cleared and she said: "So many people would say that it was
not nice my taking money for an injury like that."
"Rubbish! It wasn't as if you'd been in love with him," said Mr. Manley
with the firmest conviction.
"That's the exact point. You do see things," she said, smiling at him
gratefully. "If I had been, it would have been quite different."
"And how else were you to score off him except by hitting him in the
pocket? That and his stomach are