Helena's Path. Hope Anthony
tut, who's thinking of the woman? – if there is a woman at all."
"I am thinking of the woman, Cromlech, and I've a perfect right to think of her. At least, if not of that woman, of a woman – whose like I've never met."
"She must be of an unusual type," opined Stabb with a reflective smile.
"She is, Cromlech. Shall I describe her?"
"I expect you must."
"Yes, at this moment – with the evening just this color – and the Grange down there – and the sea, Cromlech, so remarkably large, I'm afraid I must. She is, of course, tall and slender; she has, of course, a rippling laugh; her eyes are, of course, deep and dreamy, yet lighting to a sparkle when one challenges. All this may be presupposed. It's her tint, Cromlech, her color – that's what's in my mind to-night; that, you will find, is her most distinguishing, her most wonderful characteristic."
"That's just what the Vicar told Coltson! At least he said that the Marchesa had a most extraordinary complexion." Wilbraham had got something out at last.
"Roger, you bring me back to earth. You substitute the Vicar's impression for my imagination. Is that kind?"
"It seems such a funny coincidence."
"Supposing it to be a mere coincidence – no doubt! But I've always known that I had to meet that complexion somewhere. If here – so much the better!"
"I have a great doubt about that," said Leonard Stabb.
"I can get over it, Cromlech! At least consider that."
"But you're not going to know her!" laughed Wilbraham.
"I shall probably see her as we walk down to bathe by Beach Path."
A deferential voice spoke from behind his chair. "I beg your pardon, my lord, but Beach Path is closed." Coltson had brought Lynborough his cigar-case and laid it down on a table by him as he communicated this intelligence.
"Closed, Coltson?"
"Yes, my lord. There's a padlock on the gate, and a – er – barricade of furze. And the gardeners tell me they were warned off yesterday."
"My gardeners warned off Beach Path?"
"Yes, my lord."
"By whose orders?"
"Her Excellency's, my lord."
"That's the Marchesa – Marchesa di San Servolo," Wilbraham supplied.
"Yes, that's the name, sir," said Coltson respectfully.
"What about her complexion now, Ambrose?" chuckled Stabb.
"The Marchesa di San Servolo? Is that right, Coltson?"
"Perfectly correct, my lord. Italian, I understand, my lord."
"Excellent, excellent! She has closed my Beach Path? I think I have reflected enough for to-night. I'll go in and write a letter." He rose, smiled upon Stabb, who himself was grinning broadly, and walked through an open window into the house.
"Now you may see something happen," said Leonard Stabb.
"What's the matter? Is it a public path?" asked Wilbraham.
With a shrug Stabb denied all knowledge – and, probably, all interest. Coltson, who had lingered behind his master, undertook to reply.
"Not exactly public, as I understand, sir. But the Castle has always used it. Green – that's the head-gardener – tells me so, at least."
"By legal right, do you mean?" Wilbraham had been called to the Bar, although he had never practised. No situation gives rise to greater confidence on legal problems.
"I don't think you'll find that his lordship will trouble much about that, sir," was Coltson's answer, as he picked up the cigar-case again and hurried into the library with it.
"What does the man mean by that?" asked Wilbraham scornfully. "It's a purely legal question – Lynborough must trouble about it." He rose and addressed Stabb somewhat as though that gentleman were the Court. "Not a public right of way? We don't argue that? Then it's a case of dominant and servient tenement – a right of way by user as of right, or by a lost grant. That – or nothing!"
"I daresay," muttered Stabb very absently.
"Then what does Coltson mean – ?"
"Coltson knows Ambrose – you don't. Ambrose will never go to law – but he'll go to bathe."
"But she'll go to law if he goes to bathe!" cried the lawyer.
Stabb blinked lazily, and seemed to loom enormous over his cigar. "I daresay – if she's got a good case," said he. "Do you know, Wilbraham, I don't much care whether she does or not? But in regard to her complexion – "
"What the devil does her complexion matter?" shouted Wilbraham.
"The human side of a thing always matters," observed Leonard Stabb. "For instance – pray sit down, Wilbraham – standing up and talking loud prove nothing, if people would only believe it – the permanence of hierarchical systems may be historically observed to bear a direct relation to the emoluments."
"Would you mind telling me your opinion on two points, Stabb? We can go on with that argument of yours afterward."
"Say on, Wilbraham."
"Is Lynborough in his right senses?"
"The point is doubtful."
"Are you in yours?"
Stabb reflected. "I am sane – but very highly specialized," was his conclusion.
Wilbraham wrinkled his brow. "All the same, right of way or no right of way is purely a legal question," he persisted.
"I think you're highly specialized too," said Stabb. "But you'd better keep quiet and see it through, you know. There may be some fun – it will serve to amuse the Archdeacon when you write." Wilbraham's father was a highly esteemed dignitary of the order mentioned.
Lynborough came out again, smoking a cigar. His manner was noticeably more alert: his brow was unclouded, his whole mien tranquil and placid.
"I've put it all right," he observed. "I've written her a civil letter. Will you men bathe to-morrow?"
They both assented to the proposition.
"Very well. We'll start at eight. We may as well walk. By Beach Path it's only about half-a-mile."
"But the path's stopped, Ambrose," Stabb objected.
"I've asked her to have the obstruction removed before eight o'clock," Lynborough explained.
"If it isn't?" asked Roger Wilbraham.
"We have hands," answered Lynborough, looking at his own very small ones.
"Wilbraham wants to know why you don't go to law, Ambrose."
Lord Lynborough never shrank from explaining his views and convictions.
"The law disgusts me. So does my experience of it. You remember the beer, Cromlech? Nobody ever acted more wisely or from better motives. And if I made money – as I did, till the customers left off coming – why not? I was unobtrusively doing good. Then Juanita's affair! I acted as a gentleman is bound to act. Result – a year's imprisonment! I lay stress on these personal experiences, but not too great stress. The law, Roger, always considers what you have had and what you now have – never what you ought to have. Take that path! It happens to be a fact that my grandfather, and my father, and I have always used that path. That's important by law, I daresay – "
"Certainly, Lord Lynborough."
"Just what would be important by law!" commented Lynborough. "And I have made use of the fact in my letter to the Marchesa. But in my own mind I stand on reason and natural right. Is it reasonable that I, living half-a-mile from my bathing, should have to walk two miles to get to it? Plainly not. Isn't it the natural right of the owner of Scarsmoor to have that path open through Nab Grange? Plainly yes. That, Roger, although, as I say, not the shape in which I have put the matter before the Marchesa – because she, being a woman, would be unappreciative