Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'MalleyWilliamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
General
Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'Malley
Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Soldiers -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"Do find out something from somebody," I said hastily to Tony, and ran
upstairs in search of Kitty Main, who, having deserted us to return home
with Father, was nevertheless not to be found in the drawing-room. She
was sure to know everything, I thought, and delighted to talk. But the
first person I met was Sidney Vandyke in the act of closing Diana's door
and coming out into the hall. Seeing me, a set and gloomy expression,
most unsuitable to a bridegroom, changed to a look of actual fury. If I
had been a small tame dog which had unexpectedly sprung up to bite him,
he could not have glared more venomously.
Since he had come to London we had met almost every day, and when
necessary I had been as dully polite as a book on etiquette. But only
when necessary. At other times I had effaced myself; now, though I was
keen for news of Di, I didn't care to get it from him, especially after
that look. Never since the episode of the photograph in camp at El Paso
had I of my own free will begun a conversation with Major Vandyke, and
it was now my intention to wait until he was out of the way before going
to Kitty or Diana. But when I would quietly have slid past the
bridegroom in the corridor, he stopped me.
"You've always been the enemy," he said in a tone of repressed rage,
subdued to reach my ears only, "but I did think you fought fair. I
didn't expect you to hit me in the back--and strike your sister, too, on
her wedding day. You're a cruel and cowardly little enemy, after all.
And let me tell you this: neither of us will forgive you as long as we
live."
I stared at him in amazement. "I don't know what you mean!"
"I shouldn't lie on top of the rest, if I were you," he sneered. "I
forbid you to go to Di. She's borne enough. A little more, and she'd not
be able to face those people downstairs."
"I tell you again, and I don't lie, because Eagle March himself taught
me to speak the truth," I said, "that I've no idea what you're driving
at. I have done nothing, except live. I don't know what's happened. I
want to know."
"You shan't have the satisfaction of hearing anything from me!" Sidney
flung the words at my head. Then he turned on his heel, and opened
Diana's door again without knocking. I think he would have shut it in my
face; but Kitty Main was ready to come out, and must have had her hand
on the knob when it was snatched from her fingers.
"Oh, Major!" she exclaimed. "I was hurrying to call you back. Di thinks
she's strong enough to go down now."
The door remained open, and I saw Di sitting on a sofa just opposite,
with an empty champagne glass in her hand. Her white face and white
figure in her wedding dress stood out like a wonderfully painted
portrait against the fashionable black chintz wall-covering of the
bedroom. Seeing her husband, she stood up and came forward, setting the
wineglass on the table as she passed. "I'm all right now," she said, and
then caught sight of me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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