40+ Adventure Novels & Lost World Mysteries in One Premium Edition. Henry Rider Haggard

you know what you look like, standing there with your arms crossed? You look like an angry goddess."

      "If you mean that seriously, I don't understand you. If it is a compliment, I don't like compliments."

      "You are not very friendly," said George, whose temper was fast getting the better of him.

      "I am sorry. I do not wish to be unfriendly."

      "So I hear that my ward has been staying here whilst I was ill."

      "Yes, he was staying here."

      "And I am also told that there was some boy-and-girl love affair between you. I suppose that he indulged in a flirtation to wile away the time."

      Angela turned upon him, too angry to speak.

      "Well, you need not look at me like that. You surely never expect to see him again, do you?"

      "If we both live, I shall certainly see him again; indeed, I shall, in any case."

      "You will never see him again."

      "Why not?"

      "Because he was only flirting and playing the fool with you. He is a notorious flirt, and, to my certain knowledge, has been engaged to two women before."

      "I do not believe that that is true, or, if it is true, it is not all the truth; but, true or untrue, I am not going to discuss Mr. Heigham with you, or allow myself to be influenced by stories told behind his back."

      "Angela," said George, rising, and seizing her hand.

      She turned quite pale, and a shudder passed over her frame.

      "Leave my hand alone, and never dare to touch me again. This is the second time that you have tried to insult me."

      "So!" answered George, furious with outraged pride and baffled passion, "you set up your will against mine, do you? Very well, you shall see. I will crush you to powder. Insult you, indeed! How often did that young blackguard insult you? I warrant he did more than take your hand."

      "If," answered Angela, "you mean Mr. Heigham, I shall leave you to consider whether that term is not more applicable to the person who does his best to outrage an unprotected woman, and take advantage of the absent, than to the gentleman against whom you have used it;" and, darting on him one glance of supreme contempt, she swept away like an angry queen.

      Left to his meditations, George shook his fist towards where she had vanished.

      "Very well, my fine lady, very well," he said, aloud. "You treat me as so much dirt, do you? You shall smart for this, so sure as my name is George Caresfoot. Only wait till you are in my power, and you shall learn that I was never yet defied with impunity. Oh, and you shall learn many other things also."

      From that time forward, Angela was, for a period of two months or more, subjected to an organized persecution as harassing as it was cruel. George waylaid her everywhere, and twice actually succeeded in entering into conversation with her, but on both occasions she managed to escape from him before he could proceed any further. So persistently did he hunt her, that at last the wretched girl was driven to hide herself away in odd corners of the house and woods, in order to keep out of his way. Then he took to writing her letters, and sending handsome presents, all of which she returned.

      Poor Angela! It was hard both to lose her lover, and to suffer daily from the persecutions of her hateful cousin, which were now pushed forward so openly and with such pertinacity as to fill her with vague alarm. What made her position worse was, that she had no one in whom to confide, for Mr. Fraser had not yet returned. Pigott indeed knew more or less what was going on, but she could do nothing, except bewail Arthur's absence, and tell her "not to mind." There remained her father, but with him she had never been on sufficiently intimate terms for confidence. Indeed, as time went on, the suspicion gathered strength in her mind that he was privy to George's advances, and that those advances had something to do with the harsh terms imposed upon Arthur and herself. But at last matters grew so bad that, having no other refuge, she determined to appeal to him for protection.

      "Father," she said, boldly, one day to Philip, as he was sitting writing in his study, "my cousin George is persecuting me every day. I have borne it as long as I can, but I can bear it no longer. I have come to ask you to protect me from him."

      "Why, Angela, I should have thought that you were perfectly capable of protecting yourself. What is he persecuting you about? What does he want?"

      "To marry me, I suppose," answered Angela, blushing to her eyes.

      "Well, that is a very complimentary wish on his part, and I can tell you what it is, Angela, if only you could get that young Heigham out of your head, you might do a deal worse."

      "It is quite useless to talk to me like that," she answered, coldly.

      "Well, that is your affair; but it is very ridiculous of you to come and ask me to protect you. The woman must, indeed, be a fool who cannot protect herself."

      And so the interview ended.

      Next day Lady Bellamy called again.

      "My dear child," she said to Angela, "you are not looking well; this business worries you, no doubt; it is the old struggle between duty and inclination, that we have most of us gone through. Well, there is one consolation, nobody who ever did his or her duty, regardless of inclination, ever regretted it in the end."

      "What do you mean, Lady Bellamy, when you talk about my duty?"

      "I mean the plain duty that lies before you of marrying your cousin

       George, and of throwing up this young Heigham."

      "I recognize no such duty."

      "My dear Angela, do look at the matter from a sensible point of view, think what a good thing it would be for your father, and remember, too, that it would re-unite all the property. If ever a girl had a clear duty to perform, you have."

      "Since you insist so much upon my 'duty,' I must say that it seems to me that an honest girl in my position has three duties to consider, and not one, as you say, Lady Bellamy. First, there is her duty to the man she loves, for her the greatest duty of any in the world; next her duty to herself, for her happiness and self-respect are involved in her decision; and, lastly, her duty to her family. I put the family last, because, after all, it is she who gets married, not her family."

      Lady Bellamy smiled a little.

      "You argue well; but there is one thing that you overlook, though I am sorry to have to pain you by saying it; young Mr. Heigham is no better than he should be. I have made inquiries about him, and think that I ought to tell you that."

      "What do you mean?"

      "I mean that his life, young as he is, has not been so creditable as it might have been. He has been the hero of one or two little affairs. I can tell you about them if you like."

      "Lady Bellamy, your stories are either true or untrue. If true, I should take no notice of them, because they must have happened before he loved me; if untrue, they would be a mere waste of breath, so I think that we may dispense with the stories—they would influence me no more than the hum of next summer's gnats."

      Lady Bellamy smiled again.

      "You are a curious woman," she said; "but, supposing that there were to be a repetition of these little stories after he loved you, what would you say then?"

      Angela looked troubled, and thought awhile.

      "He could never go far from me," she answered.

      "What do you mean?"

      "I mean that I hold the strings of his heart in my hands, and I have only to lift them to draw him back to me—so. No other woman, no living force, can keep him from me, if I choose to bid him come."

      "Supposing that to be so, how about the self-respect you spoke of just now? Could you bear to take your lover back from the hands of another woman?"

      "That would entirely depend upon the circumstances, and upon what was just to the other