And as the old lady stood there her mind was made up and her plan of action formed. Yes, Lettice was tiresome, Lettice was headstrong, but as yet she had not done anything egregiously wrong. She was her only brother’s only child, and the young mother who had lived and died in those faraway years had been a much-cherished friend. Then, too, the girl was her own and Judith’s heiress, and how much more creditable and respectable would it be that the family estates and property should pass into the hands of a Countess Lochiel than into those of a country doctor’s wife or a Mrs. McCormack! Aunt Rosamond shuddered in fancy as the dreadful combination of syllables passed through her mind. “She may think herself very clever, and Miss Lilla McCormack may think herself very clever, and the captain no doubt fancies he has brains, but perhaps they will find that someone else has brains too.” And the lady slanted her green sunshade carefully over her eyes and went back to her shady nook in the drawing-room perfectly satisfied with the part she had resolved to play.
Her plan, after all, was a very simple one. She would stay at Rosneath another eight days only. In a week’s time there was to be a grand archery fête and distribution of prizes at Lochiel Castle. Lettice’s skill in archery was pronounced, and far above the average; her dress too, of dark green and cream, suited her à ravir, and there was little doubt but what with her bright delicate beauty and the prestige of her previous successes she would be the queen of the day. Lord Lochiel, whose attentions had been marked and unremitting since their arrival at Rosneath, would, she was sure, fairly succumb to such a combination of attractions, and no doubt his coronet would be at Lettice’s feet before the end of the day. “If Lettice accepts him,” argued the lady—and what girl could be proof against a coronet?—“I shall the next day carry her off to Paris before she has had time to alter her mind, and also to order her trousseau, for there shall be no long engagement, I’ll take care of that. And if she refuses him I shall carry her off all the same. We’ll do Paris, and the Alps, and Switzerland, and Vienna, and Rome, and—and—” here the energetic old lady was compelled to pause and arrange her geographical knowledge—“and New York,” she went on, “and Niagara, and Utah, and Mexico, and Heaven only knows where we won’t go before I let her return to either of her disreputable suitors.”
But while Aunt Rosamond was so comfortably planning out her own and her niece’s future, Captain and Miss McCormack were spinning a web of a somewhat different texture.
Very close and confidential had been the talk of brother and sister during their drive over the last ten miles of their journey which brought them to Ingleside.
“It’s your last chance, Ivie,” said the sister; “it’s now or never without a doubt. Follow out my advice to the very letter, or else you’ll ruin everything.”
“I suppose I must,” replied Ivie, twirling his long silken moustache, for Lilla had fairly talked him into obedience now. “I should be very sorry, though, ’pon my honour, if it all fell through, and Lettice—Miss Tremarten I mean—were compromised in any way.”
“You idiot!” said Lilla in low angry tones. “You haven’t the sense of a tomtit even, I declare. Don’t you see that the girl must be compromised, or else it will fall through? How do you mean to get her, I should like to know, if not in the way I propose? Do you mean, after you have talked her over, to go to her father and tell him that you have little more than your pay to live on—that you are up to your eyes in debt, and have given paper enough to the Jews to write a volume of sermons on, and then are you fool enough to imagine he will give you his handsome daughter with her fortune unfettered by settlements and trustees? Bah! I’ve no patience with such imbecility.” And Miss Lilla resolutely shut her mouth and refused to open it for the rest of the journey.
Lettice wondered much at not seeing either Captain Ivie or his sister for two or three days after their arrival, of which she had heard through her maid.
Lilla’s orders to her brother, however, had been very positive on that head.
“Don’t on any account show yourself at Rosneath till the archery day, Ivie. Here’s Lochiel’s card,” she said, handing it to him. “Depend upon it the old dragons will carry off the princess at once if the disreputable knight makes his appearance on the scene. Their maid told mine the other day when they met in the village that they were to leave the day after the fête. I’ve no doubt the clever old ladies imagine that Miss Lettice in dark green will knock Lord Lochiel over completely, but perhaps there are some others as clever as they, and Miss Lettice, instead of carrying off a coronet, may be carried off herself. But for Heaven’s sake, Ivie, don’t forget it’s your very last chance; if you let that day pass it’s all up with you. Once they get her away from here your little game is over.”
The day for the archery fête dawned in brilliant blue sky and golden sunshine, and, best of all, without even the rustle of a soft south wind.
“Of course the irreproachable earl will think of the immaculate tenants,” said Lettice to her aunts as she buckled on her waistbelt and counted up her arrows. “I only hope there won’t
