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+*Project Gutenberg Etext of My Lady's Money, by Wilkie Collins*
+#17 in our series by Wilkie Collins
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+MY LADY'S MONEY
+
+by Wilkie Collins
+
+February, 1999  [Etext #1628]
+
+
+*Project Gutenberg Etext of My Lady's Money, by Wilkie Collins*
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+[Etext version by James Rusk, jrusk@cyberramp.net. Italics are
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+
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+
+
+
+MY LADY'S MONEY
+
+by Wilkie Collins
+
+
+
+
+AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF A YOUNG GIRL
+
+PERSONS OF THE STORY
+
+
+Women
+
+
+Lady Lydiard (Widow of Lord Lydiard)
+Isabel Miller (her Adopted Daughter)
+Miss Pink (of South Morden)
+The Hon. Mrs. Drumblade (Sister to the Hon. A. Hardyman)
+
+
+Men
+
+The Hon. Alfred Hardyman (of the Stud Farm)
+Mr. Felix Sweetsir (Lady Lydiard's Nephew)
+Robert Moody (Lady Lydiard's Steward)
+Mr. Troy (Lady Lydiard's Lawyer)
+Old Sharon (in the Byways of Legal Bohemia)
+
+
+Animal
+
+Tommie (Lady Lydiard's Dog)
+
+
+
+
+PART THE FIRST.
+
+THE DISAPPEARANCE.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OLD Lady Lydiard sat meditating by the fireside, with three
+letters lying open on her lap.
+
+Time had discolored the paper, and had turned the ink to a
+brownish hue. The letters were all addressed to the same
+person--"THE RT. HON. LORD LYDIARD"--and were all signed in the
+same way--"Your affectionate cousin, James Tollmidge." Judged by
+these specimens of his correspondence, Mr. Tollmidge must have
+possessed one great merit as a letter-writer--the merit of
+brevity. He will weary nobody's patience, if he is allowed to
+have a hearing. Let him, therefore, be permitted, in his own
+high-flown way, to speak for himself.
+
+_First Letter._--"My statement, as your Lordship requests, shall
+be short and to the point. I was doing very well as a
+portrait-painter in the country; and I had a wife and children to
+consider. Under the circumstances, if I had been left to decide
+for myself, I should certainly have waited until I had saved a
+little money before I ventured on the serious expense of taking a
+house and studio at the west end of London. Your Lordship, I
+positively declare, encouraged me to try the experiment without
+waiting. And here I am, unknown and unemployed, a helpless artist
+lost in London--with a sick wife and hungry children, and
+bankruptcy staring me in the face. On whose shoulders does this
+dreadful responsibility rest? On your Lordship's!"
+
+_Second Letter._--"After a week's delay, you favor me, my Lord,
+with a curt reply. I can be equally curt on my side. I
+indignantly deny that I or my wife ever presumed to see your
+Lordship's name as a means of recommendation to sitters without
+your permission. Some enemy has slandered us. I claim as my right
+to know the name of that enemy."
+
+_Third (and last) Letter._--"Another week has passed--and not a
+word of answer has reached me from your Lordship. It matters
+little. I have employed the interval in making inquiries, and I
+have at last discovered the hostile influence which has estranged
+you from me. I have been, it seems, so unfortunate as to offend
+Lady Lydiard (how, I cannot imagine); and the all-powerful
+influence of this noble lady is now used against the struggling
+artist who is united to you by the sacred ties of kindred. Be it
+so. I can fight my way upwards, my Lord, as other men have done
+before me. A day may yet come when the throng of carriages
+waiting at the door of the fashionable portrait-painter will
+include her Ladyship's vehicle, and bring me the tardy expression
+of her Ladyship's regret. I refer you, my Lord Lydiard, to that
+day!"
+
+Having read Mr. Tollmidge's formidable assertions relating to
+herself for the second time, Lady Lydiard's meditations came to
+an abrupt end. She rose, took the letters in both hands to tear
+them up, hesitated, and threw them back in the cabinet drawer in
+which she had discovered them, among other papers that had not
+been arranged since Lord Lydiard's death.
+
+"The idiot!" said her Ladyship, thinking of Mr. Tollmidge, "I
+never even heard of him, in my husband's lifetime; I never even
+knew that he was really related to Lord Lydiard, till I found his
+letters. What is to be done next?"
+
+She looked, as she put that question to herself, at an open
+newspaper thrown on the table, which announced the death of "that
+accomplished artist Mr. Tollmidge, related, it is said, to the
+late well-known connoisseur, Lord Lydiard." In the next sentence
+the writer of the obituary notice deplored the destitute
+condition of Mrs. Tollmidge and her children, "thrown helpless on
+the mercy of the world." Lady Lydiard stood by the table with her
+eyes on those lines, and saw but too plainly the direction in
+which they pointed--the direction of her check-book.
+
+Turning towards the fireplace, she rang the bell. "I can do
+nothing in this matter," she thought to herself, "until I know
+whether the report about Mrs. Tollmidge and her family is to be
+depended on. Has Moody come back?" she asked, when the servant
+appeared at the door. "Moody" (otherwise her Ladyship's steward)
+had not come back. Lady Lydiard dismissed the subject of the
+artist's widow from further consideration until the steward
+returned, and gave her mind to a question of domestic interest
+which lay nearer to her heart. Her favorite dog had been ailing
+for some time past, and no report of him had reached her that
+morning. She opened a door near the fireplace, which led, through
+a little corridor hung with rare prints, to her own boudoir.
+"Isabel!" she called out, "how is Tommie?"
+
+A fresh young voice answered from behind the curtain which closed
+the further end of the corridor, "No better, my Lady."
+
+A low growl followed the fresh young voice, and added (in dog's
+language), "Much worse, my Lady--much worse!"
+
+Lady Lydiard closed the door again, with a compassionate sigh for
+Tommie, and walked slowly to and fro in her spacious
+drawing-room, waiting for the steward's return.
+
+Accurately described, Lord Lydiard's widow was short and fat,
+and, in the matter of age, perilously near her sixtieth birthday.
+But it may be said, without paying a compliment, that she looked
+younger than her age by ten years at least. Her complexion was of
+that delicate pink tinge which is sometimes seen in old women
+with well-preserved constitutions. Her eyes (equally well
+preserved) were of that hard light blue color which wears well,
+and does not wash out when tried by the test of tears. Add to
+this her short nose, her plump cheeks that set wrinkles at
+defiance, her white hair dressed in stiff little curls; and, if a
+doll could grow old, Lady Lydiard, at sixty, would have been the
+living image of that doll, taking life easily on its journey
+downwards to the prettiest of tombs, in a burial-ground where the
+myrtles and roses grew all the year round.
+
+These being her Ladyship's personal merits, impartial history
+must acknowledge, on the list of her defects, a total want of
+tact and taste in her attire. The lapse of time since Lord
+Lydiard's death had left her at liberty to dress as she pleased.
+She arrayed her short, clumsy figure in colors that were far too
+bright for a woman of her ages. Her dresses, badly chosen as to
+their hues, were perhaps not badly made, but were certainly badly
+worn. Morally, as well as physically, it must be said of Lady
+Lydiard that her outward side was her worst side. The anomalies
+of her dress were matched by the anomalies of her character.
+There were moments when she felt and spoke as became a lady of
+rank; and there were other moments when she felt and spoke as
+might have become the cook in the kitchen. Beneath these
+superficial inconsistencies, the great heart, the essentially
+true and generous nature of the woman, only waited the sufficient
+occasion to assert themselves. In the trivial intercourse of
+society she was open to ridicule on every side of her. But when a
+serious emergency tried the metal of which she was really made,
+the people who were loudest in laughing at her stood aghast, and
+wondered what had become of the familiar companion of their
+everyday lives.
+
+Her Ladyship's promenade had lasted but a little while, when a
+man in black clothing presented himself noiselessly at the great
+door which opened on the staircase. Lady Lydiard signed to him
+impatiently to enter the room.
+
+"I have been expecting you for some time, Moody," she said. "You
+look tired. Take a chair."
+
+The man in black bowed respectfully, and took his seat.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ROBERT MOODY was at this time nearly forty years of age. He was a
+shy, quiet, dark person, with a pale, closely-shav en face,
+agreeably animated by large black eyes, set deep in their orbits.
+His mouth was perhaps his best feature; he had firm, well-shaped
+lips, which softened on rare occasions into a particularly
+winning smile. The whole look of the man, in spite of his
+habitual reserve, declared him to be eminently trustworthy. His
+position in Lady Lydiard's household was in no sense of the
+menial sort. He acted as her almoner and secretary as well as her
+steward--distributed her charities, wrote her letters on
+business, paid her bills, engaged her servants, stocked her
+wine-cellar, was authorized to borrow books from her library, and
+was served with his meals in his own room. His parentage gave him
+claims to these special favors; he was by birth entitled to rank
+as a gentleman. His father had failed at a time of commercial
+panic as a country banker, had paid a good dividend, and had died
+in exile abroad a broken-hearted man. Robert had tried to hold
+his place in the world, but adverse fortune kept him down.
+Undeserved disaster followed him from one employment to another,
+until he abandoned the struggle, bade a last farewell to the
+pride of other days, and accepted the position considerately and
+delicately offered to him in Lady Lydiard's house. He had now no
+near relations living, and he had never made many friends. In the
+intervals of occupation he led a lonely life in his little room.
+It was a matter of secret wonder among the women in the servants'
+hall, considering his personal advantages and the opportunities
+which must surely have been thrown in his way, that he had never
+tempted fortune in the character of a married man. Robert Moody
+entered into no explanations on that subject. In his own sad and
+quiet way he continued to lead his own sad and quiet life. The
+women all failing, from the handsome housekeeper downward, to
+make the smallest impression on him, consoled themselves by
+prophetic visions of his future relations with the sex, and
+predicted vindictively that "his time would come."
+
+"Well," said Lady Lydiard, "and what have you done?"
+
+"Your Ladyship seemed to be anxious about the dog," Moody
+answered, in the low tone which was habitual to him. "I went
+first to the veterinary surgeon. He had been called away into the
+country; and--"
+
+Lady Lydiard waved away the conclusion of the sentence with her
+hand. "Never mind the surgeon. We must find somebody else. Where
+did you go next?"
+
+"To your Ladyship"s lawyer. Mr. Troy wished me to say that he
+will have the honor of waiting on you--"
+
+"Pass over the lawyer, Moody. I want to know about the painter's
+widow. Is it true that Mrs. Tollmidge and her family are left in
+helpless poverty?"
+
+"Not quite true, my Lady. I have seen the clergyman of the
+parish, who takes an interest in the case--"
+
+Lady Lydiard interrupted her steward for the third time. "Did you
+mention my name?" she asked sharply.
+
+"Certainly not, my Lady. I followed my instructions, and
+described you as a benevolent person in search of cases of real
+distress. It is quite true that Mr. Tollmidge has died, leaving
+nothing to his family. But the widow has a little income of
+seventy pounds in her own right."
+
+"Is that enough to live on, Moody?" her Ladyship asked.
+
+"Enough, in this case, for the widow and her daughter," Moody
+answered. "The difficulty is to pay the few debts left standing,
+and to start the two sons in life. They are reported to be steady
+lads; and the family is much respected in the neighborhood. The
+clergyman proposes to get a few influential names to begin with,
+and to start a subscription."
+
+"No subscription!" protested Lady Lydiard. "Mr. Tollmidge was
+Lord Lydiard's cousin; and Mrs. Tollmidge is related to his
+Lordship by marriage. It would be degrading to my husband's
+memory to have the begging-box sent round for his relations, no
+matter how distant they may be. Cousins!" exclaimed her Ladyship,
+suddenly descending from the lofty ranges of sentiment to the
+low. "I hate the very name of them! A person who is near enough
+to me to be my relation and far enough off from me to be my
+sweetheart, is a double-faced sort of person that I don't like.
+Let's get back to the widow and her sons. How much do they want?"
+
+"A subscription of five hundred pounds, my Lady, would provide
+for everything--if it could only be collected."
+
+"It _shall_ be collected, Moody! I will pay the subscription out
+of my own purse." Having asserted herself in those noble terms,
+she spoilt the effect of her own outburst of generosity by
+dropping to the sordid view of the subject in her next sentence.
+"Five hundred pounds is a good bit of money, though; isn't it,
+Moody?"
+
+"It is, indeed, my Lady." Rich and generous as he knew his
+mistress to be, her proposal to pay the whole subscription took
+the steward by surprise. Lady Lydiard's quick perception
+instantly detected what was passing in his mind.
+
+"You don't quite understand my position in this matter," she
+said. "When I read the newspaper notice of Mr. Tollmidge's death,
+I searched among his Lordship's papers to see if they really were
+related. I discovered some letters from Mr. Tollmidge, which
+showed me that he and Lord Lydiard were cousins. One of those
+letters contains some very painful statements, reflecting most
+untruly and unjustly on my conduct; lies, in short," her Ladyship
+burst out, losing her dignity, as usual. "Lies, Moody, for which
+Mr. Tollmidge deserved to be horsewhipped. I would have done it
+myself if his Lordship had told me at the time. No matter; it's
+useless to dwell on the thing now," she continued, ascending
+again to the forms of expression which became a lady of rank.
+"This unhappy man has done me a gross injustice; my motives may
+be seriously misjudged, if I appear personally in communicating
+with his family. If I relieve them anonymously in their present
+trouble, I spare them the exposure of a public subscription, and
+I do what I believe his Lordship would have done himself if he
+had lived. My desk is on the other table. Bring it here, Moody;
+and let me return good for evil, while I'm in the humor for it!"
+
+Moody obeyed in silence. Lady Lydiard wrote a check.
+
+"Take that to the banker's, and bring back a five-hundred pound
+note," she said. "I'll inclose it to the clergyman as coming from
+'an unknown friend.' And be quick about it. I am only a fallible
+mortal, Moody. Don't leave me time enough to take the stingy view
+of five hundred pounds."
+
+Moody went out with the check. No delay was to be apprehended in
+obtaining the money; the banking-house was hard by, in St.
+James's Street. Left alone, Lady Lydiard decided on occupying her
+mind in the generous direction by composing her anonymous letter
+to the clergyman. She had just taken a sheet of note-paper from
+her desk, when a servant appeared at the door announcing a
+visitor--
+
+"Mr. Felix Sweetsir!"
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+"MY nephew!" Lady Lydiard exclaimed in a tone which expressed
+astonishment, but certainly not pleasure as well. "How many years
+is it since you and I last met?" she asked, in her abruptly
+straightforward way, as Mr. Felix Sweetsir approached her
+writing-table.
+
+The visitor was not a person easily discouraged. He took Lady
+Lydiard's hand, and kissed it with easy grace. A shade of irony
+was in his manner, agreeably relieved by a playful flash of
+tenderness.
+
+"Years, my dear aunt?" he said. "Look in your glass and you will
+see that time has stood still since we met last. How wonderfully
+well you wear! When shall we celebrate the appearance of your
+first wrinkle? I am too old; I shall never live to see it."
+
+He took an easychair, uninvited; placed himself close at his
+aunt's side, and ran his eye over her ill-chosen dress with an
+air of satirical admiration. "How perfectly successful!" he said,
+with his well-bred insolence. "What a chaste gayety of color!"
+
+"What do you want?" asked her Ladyship, not in the least softened
+by the compliment.
+
+"I want to pay my respects to my dear aunt," Felix answered,
+perfectly impenetrable to his ungracious reception, and perfectly
+comfortable in a spacious arm-chair.
+
+No pen-and-ink portrait need surely be drawn of Felix
+Sweetsir--he is too well-known a picture in society. The little
+lith e man, with his bright, restless eyes, and his long
+iron-gray hair falling in curls to his shoulders, his airy step
+and his cordial manner; his uncertain age, his innumerable
+accomplishments, and his unbounded popularity--is he not familiar
+everywhere, and welcome everywhere? How gratefully he receives,
+how prodigally he repays, the cordial appreciation of an admiring
+world! Every man he knows is "a charming fellow." Every woman he
+sees is "sweetly pretty." What picnics he gives on the banks of
+the Thames in the summer season! What a well-earned little income
+he derives from the whist-table! What an inestimable actor he is
+at private theatricals of all sorts (weddings included)! Did you
+never read Sweetsir's novel, dashed off in the intervals of
+curative perspiration at a German bath? Then you don't know what
+brilliant fiction really is. He has never written a second work;
+he does everything, and only does it once. One song--the despair
+of professional composers. One picture--just to show how easily a
+gentleman can take up an art and drop it again. A really
+multiform man, with all the graces and all the accomplishments
+scintillating perpetually at his fingers' ends. If these poor
+pages have achieved nothing else, they have done a service to
+persons not in society by presenting them to Sweetsir. In his
+gracious company the narrative brightens; and writer and reader
+(catching reflected brilliancy) understand each other at last,
+thanks to Sweetsir.
+
+"Well," said Lady Lydiard, "now you are here, what have you got
+to say for yourself? You have been abroad, of course! Where?"
+
+"Principally at Paris, my dear aunt. The only place that is fit
+to live in--for this excellent reason, that the French are the
+only people who know how to make the most of life. One has
+relations and friends in England and every now and then one
+returns to London--"
+
+"When one has spent all one's money in Paris," her Ladyship
+interposed. "That's what you were going to say, isn't it?"
+
+Felix submitted to the interruption with his delightful
+good-humor.
+
+"What a bright creature you are!" he exclaimed. "What would I not
+give for your flow of spirits! Yes--one does spend money in
+Paris, as you say. The clubs, the stock exchange, the
+race-course: you try your luck here, there, and everywhere; and
+you lose and win, win and lose--and you haven't a dull day to
+complain of." He paused, his smile died away, he looked
+inquiringly at Lady Lydiard. "What a wonderful existence yours
+must be," he resumed. "The everlasting question with your needy
+fellow-creatures, 'Where am I to get money?' is a question that
+has never passed your lips. Enviable woman!" He paused once
+more--surprised and puzzled this time. "What is the matter, my
+dear aunt? You seem to be suffering under some uneasiness."
+
+"I am suffering under your conversation," her Ladyship answered
+sharply. "Money is a sore subject with me just now," she went on,
+with her eyes on her nephew, watching the effect of what she
+said. "I have spent five hundred pounds this morning with a
+scrape of my pen. And, only a week since, I yielded to temptation
+and made an addition to my picture-gallery." She looked, as she
+said those words, towards an archway at the further end of the
+room, closed by curtains of purple velvet. "I really tremble when
+I think of what that one picture cost me before I could call it
+mine. A landscape by Hobbema; and the National Gallery bidding
+against me. Never mind!" she concluded, consoling herself, as
+usual, with considerations that were beneath her. "Hobbema will
+sell at my death for a bigger price than I gave for him--that's
+one comfort!" She looked again at Felix; a smile of mischievous
+satisfaction began to show itself in her face. "Anything wrong
+with your watch-chain?" she asked.
+
+Felix, absently playing with his watch-chain, started as if his
+aunt had suddenly awakened him. While Lady Lydiard had been
+speaking, his vivacity had subsided little by little, and had
+left him looking so serious and so old that his most intimate
+friend would hardly have known him again. Roused by the sudden
+question that had been put to him, he seemed to be casting about
+in his mind in search of the first excuse for his silence that
+might turn up.
+
+"I was wondering," he began, "why I miss something when I look
+round this beautiful room; something familiar, you know, that I
+fully expected to find here."
+
+"Tommie?" suggested Lady Lydiard, still watching her nephew as
+maliciously as ever.
+
+"That's it!" cried Felix, seizing his excuse, and rallying his
+spirits. "Why don't I hear Tommie snarling behind me; why don't I
+feel Tommie's teeth in my trousers?"
+
+The smile vanished from Lady Lydiard's face; the tone taken by
+her nephew in speaking of her dog was disrespectful in the
+extreme. She showed him plainly that she disapproved of it. Felix
+went on, nevertheless, impenetrable to reproof of the silent
+sort. "Dear little Tommie! So delightfully fat; and such an
+infernal temper! I don't know whether I hate him or love him.
+Where is he?"
+
+"Ill in bed," answered her ladyship, with a gravity which
+startled even Felix himself. "I wish to speak to you about
+Tommie. You know everybody. Do you know of a good dog-doctor? The
+person I have employed so far doesn't at all satisfy me."
+
+"Professional person?" inquired Felix.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"All humbugs, my dear aunt. The worse the dog gets the bigger the
+bill grows, don't you see? I have got the man for you--a
+gentleman. Knows more about horses and dogs than all the
+veterinary surgeons put together. We met in the boat yesterday
+crossing the Channel. You know him by name, of course? Lord
+Rotherfield's youngest son, Alfred Hardyman."
+
+"The owner of the stud farm? The man who has bred the famous
+racehorses?" cried Lady Lydiard. "My dear Felix, how can I
+presume to trouble such a great personage about my dog?"
+
+Felix burst into his genial laugh. "Never was modesty more
+woefully out of place," he rejoined. "Hardyman is dying to be
+presented to your Ladyship. He has heard, like everybody, of the
+magnificent decorations of this house, and he is longing to see
+them. His chambers are close by, in Pall Mall. If he is at home
+we will have him here in five minutes. Perhaps I had better see
+the dog first?"
+
+Lady Lydiard shook her head. "Isabel says he had better not be
+disturbed," she answered. "Isabel understands him better than
+anybody."
+
+Felix lifted his lively eyebrows with a mixed expression of
+curiosity and surprise. "Who is Isabel?"
+
+Lady Lydiard was vexed with herself for carelessly mentioning
+Isabel's name in her nephew's presence. Felix was not the sort of
+person whom she was desirous of admitting to her confidence in
+domestic matters. "Isabel is an addition to my household since
+you were here last," she answered shortly.
+
+"Young and pretty?" inquired Felix. "Ah! you look serious, and
+you don't answer me. Young and pretty, evidently. Which may I see
+first, the addition to your household or the addition to your
+picture-gallery? You look at the picture-gallery--I am answered
+again." He rose to approach the archway, and stopped at his first
+step forward. "A sweet girl is a dreadful responsibility, aunt,"
+he resumed, with an ironical assumption of gravity. "Do you know,
+I shouldn't be surprised if Isabel, in the long run, cost you
+more than Hobbema. Who is this at the door?"
+
+The person at the door was Robert Moody, returned from the bank.
+Mr. Felix Sweetsir, being near-sighted, was obliged to fit his
+eye-glass in position before he could recognize the prime
+minister of Lady Lydiard's household.
+
+"Ha! our worthy Moody. How well he wears! Not a gray hair on his
+head--and look at mine! What dye do you use, Moody? If he had my
+open disposition he would tell. As it is, he looks unutterable
+things, and holds his tongue. Ah! if I could only have held _my_
+tongue--when I was in the diplomatic service, you know--what a
+position I might have occupied by this time! Don't let me
+interrupt you, Moody, if you have anything to say to Lady
+Lydiard."
+
+Having acknowledged Mr. Sweetsir's lively greeting by a formal
+bow, and a grave look of wonder which respectfully repelled that
+vivacious gentleman's flow of humor, Moody turned
+ towards his mistress.
+
+"Have you got the bank-note?" asked her Ladyship.
+
+Moody laid the bank-note on the table.
+
+"Am I in the way?" inquired Felix.
+
+"No," said his aunt. "I have a letter to write; it won't occupy
+me for more than a few minutes. You can stay here, or go and look
+at the Hobbema, which you please."
+
+Felix made a second sauntering attempt to reach the
+picture-gallery. Arrived within a few steps of the entrance, he
+stopped again, attracted by an open cabinet of Italian
+workmanship, filled with rare old china. Being nothing if not a
+cultivated amateur, Mr. Sweetsir paused to pay his passing
+tribute of admiration before the contents of the cabinet.
+"Charming! charming!" he said to himself, with his head twisted
+appreciatively a little on one side. Lady Lydiard and Moody left
+him in undisturbed enjoyment of the china, and went on with the
+business of the bank-note.
+
+"Ought we to take the number of the note, in case of accident?"
+asked her Ladyship.
+
+Moody produced a slip of paper from his waistcoat pocket. "I took
+the number, my Lady, at the bank."
+
+"Very well. You keep it. While I am writing my letter, suppose
+you direct the envelope. What is the clergyman's name?"
+
+Moody mentioned the name and directed the envelope. Felix,
+happening to look round at Lady Lydiard and the steward while
+they were both engaged in writing, returned suddenly to the table
+as if he had been struck by a new idea.
+
+"Is there a third pen?" he asked. "Why shouldn't I write a line
+at once to Hardyman, aunt? The sooner you have his opinion about
+Tommie the better--don't you think so?"
+
+Lady Lydiard pointed to the pen tray, with a smile. To show
+consideration for her dog was to seize irresistibly on the
+high-road to her favor. Felix set to work on his letter, in a
+large scrambling handwriting, with plenty of ink and a noisy pen.
+"I declare we are like clerks in an office," he remarked, in his
+cheery way. "All with our noses to the paper, writing as if we
+lived by it! Here, Moody, let one of the servants take this at
+once to Mr. Hardyman's."
+
+The messenger was despatched. Robert returned, and waited near
+his mistress, with the directed envelope in his hand. Felix
+sauntered back slowly towards the picture-gallery, for the third
+time. In a moment more Lady Lydiard finished her letter, and
+folded up the bank-note in it. She had just taken the directed
+envelope from Moody, and had just placed the letter inside it,
+when a scream from the inner room, in which Isabel was nursing
+the sick dog, startled everybody. "My Lady! my Lady!" cried the
+girl, distractedly, "Tommie is in a fit? Tommie is dying!"
+
+Lady Lydiard dropped the unclosed envelope on the table, and
+ran--yes, short as she was and fat as she was, ran--into the
+inner room. The two men, left together, looked at each other.
+
+"Moody," said Felix, in his lazily-cynical way, "do you think if
+you or I were in a fit that her Ladyship would run? Bah! these
+are the things that shake one's faith in human nature. I feel
+infernally seedy. That cursed Channel passage--I tremble in my
+inmost stomach when I think of it. Get me something, Moody."
+
+"What shall I send you, sir?" Moody asked coldly.
+
+"Some dry curacoa and a biscuit. And let it be brought to me in
+the picture-gallery. Damn the dog! I'll go and look at Hobbema."
+
+This time he succeeded in reaching the archway, and disappeared
+behind the curtains of the picture-gallery.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LEFT alone in the drawing-room, Moody looked at the unfastened
+envelope on the table.
+
+Considering the value of the inclosure, might he feel justified
+in wetting the gum and securing the envelope for safety's sake?
+After thinking it over, Moody decided that he was not justified
+in meddling with the letter. On reflection, her Ladyship might
+have changes to make in it or might have a postscript to add to
+what she had already written. Apart too, from these
+considerations, was it reasonable to act as if Lady Lydiard's
+house was a hotel, perpetually open to the intrusion of
+strangers? Objects worth twice five hundred pounds in the
+aggregate were scattered about on the tables and in the unlocked
+cabinets all round him. Moody withdrew, without further
+hesitation, to order the light restorative prescribed for himself
+by Mr. Sweetsir.
+
+The footman who took the curacoa into the picture gallery found
+Felix recumbent on a sofa, admiring the famous Hobbema.
+
+"Don't interrupt me," he said peevishly, catching the servant in
+the act of staring at him. "Put down the bottle and go!"
+Forbidden to look at Mr. Sweetsir, the man's eyes as he left the
+gallery turned wonderingly towards the famous landscape. And what
+did he see? He saw one towering big cloud in the sky that
+threatened rain, two withered mahogany-colored trees sorely in
+want of rain, a muddy road greatly the worse for rain, and a
+vagabond boy running home who was afraid of the rain. That was
+the picture, to the footman's eye. He took a gloomy view of the
+state of Mr. Sweetsir's brains on his return to the servants'
+hall. "A slate loose, poor devil!" That was the footman's report
+of the brilliant Felix.
+
+Immediately on the servant's departure, the silence in the
+picture-gallery was broken by voices penetrating into it from the
+drawing-room. Felix rose to a sitting position on the sofa. He
+had recognized the voice of Alfred Hardyman saying, "Don't
+disturb Lady Lydiard," and the voice of Moody answering, "I will
+just knock at the door of her Ladyship's room, sir; you will find
+Mr. Sweetsir in the picture-gallery."
+
+The curtains over the archway parted, and disclosed the figure of
+a tall man, with a closely cropped head set a little stiffly on
+his shoulders. The immovable gravity of face and manner which
+every Englishman seems to acquire who lives constantly in the
+society of horses, was the gravity which this gentleman displayed
+as he entered the picture-gallery. He was a finely made, sinewy
+man, with clearly cut, regular features. If he had not been
+affected with horses on the brain he would doubtless have been
+personally popular with the women. As it was, the serene and
+hippic gloom of the handsome horse-breeder daunted the daughters
+of Eve, and they failed to make up their minds about the exact
+value of him, socially considered. Alfred Hardyman was
+nevertheless a remarkable man in his way. He had been offered the
+customary alternatives submitted to the younger sons of the
+nobility--the Church or the diplomatic service--and had refused
+the one and the other. "I like horses," he said, "and I mean to
+get my living out of them. Don't talk to me about my position in
+the world. Talk to my eldest brother, who gets the money and the
+title." Starting in life with these sensible views, and with a
+small capital of five thousand pounds, Hardyman took his own
+place in the sphere that was fitted for him. At the period of
+this narrative he was already a rich man, and one of the greatest
+authorities on horse-breeding in England. His prosperity made no
+change in him. He was always the same grave, quiet, obstinately
+resolute man--true to the few friends whom he admitted to his
+intimacy, and sincere to a fault in the expression of his
+feelings among persons whom he distrusted or disliked. As he
+entered the picture-gallery and paused for a moment looking at
+Felix on the sofa, his large, cold, steady gray eyes rested on
+the little man with an indifference that just verged on contempt.
+Felix, on the other hand, sprang to his feet with alert
+politeness and greeted his friend with exuberant cordiality.
+
+"Dear old boy! This is so good of you," he began. "I feel it--I
+do assure you I feel it!"
+
+"You needn't trouble yourself to feel it," was the
+quietly-ungracious answer. "Lady Lydiard brings me here. I come
+to see the house--and the dog." He looked round the gallery in
+his gravely attentive way. "I don't understand pictures," he
+remarked resignedly. "I shall go back to the drawing-room."
+
+After a moment's consideration, Felix followed him into the
+drawing-room, with the air of a man who was determined not to be
+repelled.
+
+"Well?" asked Hardyman. "What is it?"
+
+"About that matter?" Felix said, inquiringly.
+
+"What matter?"
+
+"Oh, you know. Will next week do?"
+
+"Nex t week _won't_ do."
+
+Mr. Felix Sweetsir cast one look at his friend. His friend was
+too intently occupied with the decorations of the drawing-room to
+notice the look.
+
+"Will to-morrow do?" Felix resumed, after an interval.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"At what time?"
+
+"Between twelve and one in the afternoon."
+
+"Between twelve and one in the afternoon," Felix repeated. He
+looked again at Hardyman and took his hat. "Make my apologies to
+my aunt," he said. "You must introduce yourself to her Ladyship.
+I can't wait here any longer." He walked out of the room, having
+deliberately returned the contemptuous indifference of Hardyman
+by a similar indifference on his own side, at parting.
+
+Left by himself, Hardyman took a chair and glanced at the door
+which led into the boudoir. The steward had knocked at that door,
+had disappeared through it, and had not appeared again. How much
+longer was Lady Lydiard's visitor to be left unnoticed in Lady
+Lydiard's house?
+
+As the question passed through his mind the boudoir door opened.
+For once in his life, Alfred Hardyman's composure deserted him.
+He started to his feet, like an ordinary mortal taken completely
+by surprise
+
+Instead of Mr. Moody, instead of Lady Lydiard, there appeared in
+the open doorway a young woman in a state of embarrassment, who
+actually quickened the beat of Mr. Hardyman's heart the moment he
+set eyes on her. Was the person who produced this amazing
+impression at first sight a person of importance? Nothing of the
+sort. She was only "Isabel" surnamed "Miller." Even her name had
+nothing in it. Only "Isabel Miller!"
+
+Had she any pretensions to distinction in virtue of her personal
+appearance?
+
+It is not easy to answer the question. The women (let us put the
+worst judges first) had long since discovered that she wanted
+that indispensable elegance of figure which is derived from
+slimness of waist and length of limb. The men (who were better
+acquainted with the subject) looked at her figure from their
+point of view; and, finding it essentially embraceable, asked for
+nothing more. It might have been her bright complexion or it
+might have been the bold luster of her eyes (as the women
+considered it), that dazzled the lords of creation generally, and
+made them all alike incompetent to discover her faults. Still,
+she had compensating attractions which no severity of criticism
+could dispute. Her smile, beginning at her lips, flowed brightly
+and instantly over her whole face. A delicious atmosphere of
+health, freshness, and good humor seemed to radiate from her
+wherever she went and whatever she did. For the rest her brown
+hair grew low over her broad white forehead, and was topped by a
+neat little lace cap with ribbons of a violet color. A plain
+collar and plain cuffs encircled her smooth, round neck, and her
+plump dimpled hands. Her merino dress, covering but not hiding
+the charming outline of her bosom, matched the color of the
+cap-ribbons, and was brightened by a white muslin apron
+coquettishly trimmed about the pockets, a gift from Lady Lydiard.
+Blushing and smiling, she let the door fall to behind her, and,
+shyly approaching the stranger, said to him, in her small, clear
+voice, "If you please, sir, are you Mr. Hardyman?"
+
+The gravity of the great horse-breeder deserted him at her first
+question. He smiled as he acknowledged that he was "Mr.
+Hardyman"--he smiled as he offered her a chair.
+
+"No, thank you, sir," she said, with a quaintly pretty
+inclination of her head. "I am only sent here to make her
+Ladyship's apologies. She has put the poor dear dog into a warm
+bath, and she can't leave him. And Mr. Moody can't come instead
+of me, because I was too frightened to be of any use, and so he
+had to hold the dog. That's all. We are very anxious sir, to know
+if the warm bath is the right thing. Please come into the room
+and tell us."
+
+She led the way back to the door. Hardyman, naturally enough, was
+slow to follow her. When a man is fascinated by the charm of
+youth and beauty, he is in no hurry to transfer his attention to
+a sick animal in a bath. Hardyman seized on the first excuse that
+he could devise for keeping Isabel to himself--that is to say,
+for keeping her in the drawing-room.
+
+"I think I shall be better able to help you," he said, "if you
+will tell me something about the dog first."
+
+Even his accent in speaking had altered to a certain degree. The
+quiet, dreary monotone in which he habitually spoke quickened a
+little under his present excitement. As for Isabel, she was too
+deeply interested in Tommie's welfare to suspect that she was
+being made the victim of a stratagem. She left the door and
+returned to Hardyman with eager eyes. "What can I tell you, sir?"
+she asked innocently.
+
+Hardyman pressed his advantage without mercy.
+
+"You can tell me what sort of dog he is?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"How old he is?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What his name is?--what his temper is?--what his illness is?
+what diseases his father and mother had?--what--"
+
+Isabel's head began to turn giddy. "One thing at a time, sir!"
+she interposed, with a gesture of entreaty. "The dog sleeps on my
+bed, and I had a bad night with him, he disturbed me so, and I am
+afraid I am very stupid this morning. His name is Tommie. We are
+obliged to call him by it, because he won't answer to any other
+than the name he had when my Lady bought him. But we spell it
+with an _i e_ at the end, which makes it less vulgar than Tommy
+with a _y_. I am very sorry, sir--I forget what else you wanted
+to know. Please to come in here and my Lady will tell you
+everything."
+
+She tried to get back to the door of the boudoir. Hardyman,
+feasting his eyes on the pretty, changeful face that looked up at
+him with such innocent confidence in his authority, drew her away
+from the door by the one means at his disposal. He returned to
+his questions about Tommie.
+
+"Wait a little, please. What sort of dog is he?"
+
+Isabel turned back again from the door. To describe Tommie was a
+labor of love. "He is the most beautiful dog in the world!" the
+girl began, with kindling eyes. "He has the most exquisite white
+curly hair and two light brown patches on his back--and, oh!
+_such_ lovely dark eyes! They call him a Scotch terrier. When he
+is well his appetite is truly wonderful--nothing comes amiss to
+him, sir, from pate de foie gras to potatoes. He has his enemies,
+poor dear, though you wouldn't think it. People who won't put up
+with being bitten by him (what shocking tempers one does meet
+with, to be sure!) call him a mongrel. Isn't it a shame? Please
+come in and see him, sir; my Lady will be tired of waiting."
+
+Another journey to the door followed those words, checked
+instantly by a serious objection.
+
+"Stop a minute! You must tell me what his temper is, or I can do
+nothing for him."
+
+Isabel returned once more, feeling that it was really serious
+this time. Her gravity was even more charming than her gayety. As
+she lifted her face to him, with large solemn eyes, expressive of
+her sense of responsibility, Hardyman would have given every
+horse in his stables to have had the privilege of taking her in
+his arms and kissing her.
+
+"Tommie has the temper of an angel with the people he likes," she
+said. "When he bites, it generally means that he objects to
+strangers. He loves my Lady, and he loves Mr. Moody, and he loves
+me, and--and I think that's all. This way, sir, if you please, I
+am sure I heard my Lady call."
+
+"No," said Hardyman, in his immovably obstinate way. "Nobody
+called. About this dog's temper? Doesn't he take to any
+strangers? What sort of people does he bite in general?"
+
+Isabel's pretty lips began to curl upward at the corners in a
+quaint smile. Hardyman's last imbecile question had opened her
+eyes to the true state of the case. Still, Tommie's future was in
+this strange gentleman's hands; she felt bound to consider that.
+And, moreover, it was no everyday event, in Isabel's experience,
+to fascinate a famous personage, who was also a magnificent and
+perfectly dressed man. She ran the risk of wasting another minute
+or two, and went on with the memoirs of Tommie.
+
+"I must own, sir," she resumed, "that he behaves a little
+ungratefully--even to strangers who take an interest in him. When
+he gets lost in the streets (which is very often), he sits down
+on the pavement and howls till he collects a pitying crowd round
+him; and when they try to read his name and address on his collar
+he snaps at them. The servants generally find him and bring him
+back; and as soon as he gets home he turns round on the doorstep
+and snaps at the servants. I think it must be his fun. You should
+see him sitting up in his chair at dinner-time, waiting to be
+helped, with his fore paws on the edge of the table, like the
+hands of a gentleman at a public dinner making a speech. But,
+oh!" cried Isabel, checking herself, with the tears in her eyes,
+"how can I talk of him in this way when he is so dreadfully ill!
+Some of them say it's bronchitis, and some say it's his liver.
+Only yesterday I took him to the front door to give him a little
+air, and he stood still on the pavement, quite stupefied. For the
+first time in his life, he snapped at nobody who went by; and,
+oh, dear, he hadn't even the heart to smell a lamp-post!"
+
+Isabel had barely stated this last afflicting circumstance when
+the memoirs of Tommie were suddenly cut short by the voice of
+Lady Lydiard--really calling this time--from the inner room.
+
+"Isabel! Isabel!" cried her Ladyship, "what are you about?"
+
+Isabel ran to the door of the boudoir and threw it open. "Go in,
+sir! Pray go in!" she said.
+
+"Without you?" Hardyman asked.
+
+"I will follow you, sir. I have something to do for her Ladyship
+first."
+
+She still held the door open, and pointed entreatingly to the
+passage which led to the boudoir "I shall be blamed, sir," she
+said, "if you don't go in."
+
+This statement of the case left Hardyman no alternative. He
+presented himself to Lady Lydiard without another moment of
+delay.
+
+Having closed the drawing-room door on him, Isabel waited a
+little, absorbed in her own thoughts.
+
+She was now perfectly well aware of the effect which she had
+produced on Hardyman. Her vanity, it is not to be denied, was
+flattered by his admiration--he was so grand and so tall, and he
+had such fine large eyes. The girl looked prettier than ever as
+she stood with her head down and her color heightened, smiling to
+herself. A clock on the chimney-piece striking the half-hour
+roused her. She cast one look at the glass, as she passed it, and
+went to the table at which Lady Lydiard had been writing.
+
+Methodical Mr. Moody, in submitting to be employed as
+bath-attendant upon Tommie, had not forgotten the interests of
+his mistress. He reminded her Ladyship that she had left her
+letter, with a bank-note inclosed in it, unsealed. Absorbed in
+the dog, Lady Lydiard answered, "Isabel is doing nothing, let
+Isabel seal it. Show Mr. Hardyman in here," she continued,
+turning to Isabel, "and then seal a letter of mine which you will
+find on the table." "And when you have sealed it," careful Mr.
+Moody added, "put it back on the table; I will take charge of it
+when her Ladyship has done with me."
+
+Such were the special instructions which now detained Isabel in
+the drawing-room. She lighted the taper, and closed and sealed
+the open envelope, without feeling curiosity enough even to look
+at the address. Mr. Hardyman was the uppermost subject in her
+thoughts. Leaving the sealed letter on the table, she returned to
+the fireplace, and studied her own charming face attentively in
+the looking-glass. The time passed--and Isabel's reflection was
+still the subject of Isabel's contemplation . "He must see many
+beautiful ladies," she thought, veering backward and forward
+between pride and humility. "I wonder what he sees in Me?"
+
+The clock struck the hour. Almost at the same moment the
+boudoir-door opened, and Robert Moody, released at last from
+attendance on Tommie, entered the drawing-room.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+"WELL?" asked Isabel eagerly, "what does Mr. Hardyman say? Does
+he think he can cure Tommie?"
+
+Moody answered a little coldly and stiffly. His dark, deeply-set
+eyes rested on Isabel with an uneasy look.
+
+"Mr. Hardyman seems to understand animals," he said. "He lifted
+the dog's eyelid and looked at his eyes, and then he told us the
+bath was useless."
+
+"Go on!" said Isabel impatiently. "He did something, I suppose,
+besides telling you that the bath was useless?"
+
+"He took a knife out of his pocket, with a lancet in it."
+
+Isabel clasped her hands with a faint cry of horror. "Oh, Mr.
+Moody! did he hurt Tommie?"
+
+"Hurt him?" Moody repeated, indignant at the interest which she
+felt in the animal, and the indifference which she exhibited
+towards the man (as represented by himself). "Hurt him, indeed!
+Mr. Hardyman bled the brute--"
+
+"Brute?" Isabel reiterated, with flashing eyes. "I know some
+people, Mr. Moody, who really deserve to be called by that horrid
+word. If you can't say 'Tommie,' when you speak of him in my
+presence, be so good as to say 'the dog.' "
+
+Moody yielded with the worst possible grace. "Oh, very well! Mr.
+Hardyman bled the dog, and brought him to his senses directly. I
+am charged to tell you--" He stopped, as if the message which he
+was instructed to deliver was in the last degree distasteful to
+him.
+
+"Well, what were you charged to tell me?"
+
+"I was to say that Mr. Hardyman will give you instructions how to
+treat the dog for the future."
+
+Isabel hastened to the door, eager to receive her instructions.
+Moody stopped her before she could open it.
+
+"You are in a great hurry to get to Mr. Hardyman," he remarked.
+
+Isabel looked back at him in surprise. "You said just now that
+Mr. Hardyman was waiting to tell me how to nurse Tommie."
+
+"Let him wait," Moody rejoined sternly. "When I left him, he was
+sufficiently occupied in expressing his favorable opinion of you
+to her Ladyship."
+
+The steward's pale face turned paler still as he said those
+words. With the arrival of Isabel in Lady Lydiard's house "his
+time had come"--exactly as the women in the servants' hall had
+predicted. At last the impenetrable man felt the influence of the
+sex; at last he knew the passion of love misplaced, ill-starred,
+hopeless love, for a woman who was young enough to be his child.
+He had already spoken to Isabel more than once in terms which
+told his secret plainly enough. But the smouldering fire of
+jealousy in the man, fanned into flame by Hardyman, now showed
+itself for the first time. His looks, even more than his words,
+would have warned a woman with any knowledge of the natures of
+men to be careful how she answered him. Young, giddy, and
+inexperienced, Isabel followed the flippant impulse of the
+moment, without a thought of the consequences. "I'm sure it's
+very kind of Mr. Hardyman to speak favorably of me," she said,
+with a pert little laugh. "I hope you are not jealous of him, Mr.
+Moody?"
+
+Moody was in no humor to make allowances for the unbridled gayety
+of youth and good spirits.
+
+"I hate any man who admires you," he burst out passionately, "let
+him be who he may!"
+
+Isabel looked at her strange lover with unaffected astonishment.
+How unlike Mr. Hardyman, who had treated her as a lady from first
+to last! "What an odd man you are!" she said. "You can't take a
+joke. I'm sure I didn't mean to offend you."
+
+"You don't offend me--you do worse, you distress me."
+
+Isabel's color began to rise. The merriment died out of her face;
+she looked at Moody gravely. "I don't like to be accused of
+distressing people when I don't deserve it," she said. "I had
+better leave you. Let me by, if you please."
+
+Having committed one error in offending her, Moody committed
+another in attempting to make his peace with her. Acting under
+the fear that she would really leave him, he took her roughly by
+the arm.
+
+"You are always trying to get away from me," he said. "I wish I
+knew how to make you like me, Isabel."
+
+"I don't allow you to call me Isabel!" she retorted, struggling
+to free herself from his hold. "Let go of my arm. You hurt me."
+
+Moody dropped her arm with a bitter sigh. "I don't know how to
+deal with you," he said simply. "Have some pity on me!"
+
+If the steward had known anything of women (at Isabel's age) he
+would never have appealed to her mercy in those plain terms, and
+at the unpropitious moment. "Pity you?" she repeated
+contemptuously. "Is that all you have to say to me after hurting
+my arm? What a bear you are!" She shrugged her shoulders and put
+her hands coquettishly into the pockets of her apron. That was
+how she pitied him! His face turned paler and paler--he writhed
+under it.
+
+"For God"s sake, don't turn everything I say to you into
+ridicule!" he cried. "You know I love you with all my heart and
+soul. Again and again I have asked you to be my wife--and you
+laugh at me as if it was a joke. I haven't deserved to be treated
+in that cruel way. It maddens me--I can't endure it!"
+
+Isabel looked down on the floor, and followed the lines in the
+pattern of the carpet with the end of her smart little shoe. She
+could hardly have been further away from really understanding
+Moody if he had spoken in Hebrew. She was partly startled, partly
+puzzled, by the strong emotions which she had unconsciously
+called into being. "Oh dear me!" she said, "why can't you talk of
+something else? Why can't we be friends? Excuse me for mentioning
+it," she went on, looking up at him with a saucy smile, "you are
+old enough to be my father."
+
+Moody's head sank on his breast. "I own it," he answered humbly.
+"But there is something to be said for me. Men as old as I am
+have made good husbands before now. I would devote my whole life
+to make you happy. There isn't a wish you could form which I
+wouldn't be proud to obey. You mustnÕt reckon me by years. My
+youth has not been wasted in a profligate life; I can be truer to
+you and fonder of you than many a younger man. Surely my heart is
+not quite unworthy of you, when it is all yours. I have lived
+such a lonely, miserable life--and you might so easily brighten
+it. You are kind to everybody else, Isabel. Tell me, dear, why
+are you so hard on _me?_"
+
+His voice trembled as he appealed to her in those simple words.
+He had taken the right way at last to produce an impression on
+her. She really felt for him. All that was true and tender in her
+nature began to rise in her and take his part. Unhappily, he felt
+too deeply and too strongly to be patient, and give her time. He
+completely misinterpreted her silence--completely mistook the
+motive that made her turn aside for a moment, to gather composure
+enough to speak to him. "Ah!" he burst out bitterly, turning away
+on his side, "you have no heart."
+
+She instantly resented those unjust words. At that moment they
+wounded her to the quick.
+
+"You know best," she said. "I have no doubt you are right.
+Remember one thing, however, that though I have no heart, I have
+never encouraged you, Mr. Moody. I have declared over and over
+again that I could only be your friend. Understand that for the
+future, if you please. There are plenty of nice women who will be
+glad to marry you, I have no doubt. You will always have my best
+wishes for your welfare. Good-morning. Her Ladyship will wonder
+what has become of me. Be so kind as to let me pass."
+
+Tortured by the passion that consumed him, Moody obstinately kept
+his place between Isabel and the door. The unworthy suspicion of
+her, which had been in his mind all through the interview, now
+forced its way outwards to expression at last.
+
+"No woman ever used a man as you use me without some reason for
+it," he said. "You have kept your secret wonderfully well--but
+sooner or later all secrets get found out. I know what is in your
+mind as well as you know it yourself. You are in love with some
+other man."
+
+Isabel's face flushed deeply; the defensive pride of her sex was
+up in arms in an instant. She cast one disdainful look at Moody,
+without troubling herself to express her contempt in words.
+"Stand out of my way, sir!" --that was all she said to him.
+
+"You are in love with some other man," he reiterated
+passionately. "Deny it if you can!"
+
+"Deny it?" she repeated, with flashing eyes. "What right have you
+to ask the question? Am I not free to do as I please?"
+
+He stood looking at her, meditating his next words with a sudden
+and sinister change to self-restraint. Suppressed rage was in his
+rigidly set eyes, suppressed rage was in his trembling hand as he
+raised it emphatically while he spoke his next words.
+
+"I have one thing more to say," he answered, "and then I have
+done. If I am not your husband, no other man shall be. Look well
+to it, Isabel Miller. If there _is_ another man between us, I can
+tell him this--he shall find it no easy matter to rob me of you!"
+
+She started, and turned pale--but it was only for a moment. The
+high spirit that was in her rose brightly in her eyes, and faced
+him without shrinking.
+
+"Threats?" she said, with quiet contempt. "When you make love,
+Mr. Moody, you take strange ways of doing it. My conscience is
+easy. You may try to frighten me, but you will not succeed. When
+you have recovered your temper I will accept your excuses." She
+paused, and pointed to the table. "There is the letter that you
+told me to leave for you when I had sealed it," she went on. "I
+suppose you have her Ladyship's orders. Isn't it time you began
+to think of obeying them?"
+
+The contemptuous composure of her tone and manner seemed to act
+on Moody with crushing effect. Without a word of answer, the
+unfortunate steward took up the letter from the table. Without a
+word of answer, he walked mechanically to the great door which
+opened on the staircase--turned on the threshold to look at
+Isabel--waited a moment, pale and still--and suddenly left the
+room.
+
+That silent departure, that hopeless submission, impressed Isabel
+in spite of herself. The sustaining sense of injury and insult
+sank, as it were, from under her the moment she was alone. He had
+not been gone a minute before she began to be sorry for him once
+more. The interview had taught her nothing. She was neither old
+enough nor experienced enough to understand the overwhelming
+revolution produced in a man's character when he feels the
+passion of love for the first time in the maturity of his life.
+If Moody had stolen a kiss at the first opportunity, she would
+have resented the liberty he had taken with her; but she would
+have thoroughly understood him. His terrible earnestness, his
+overpowering agitation, his abrupt violence--all these evidences
+of a passion that was a mystery to himself--simply puzzled her.
+"I'm sure I didn't wish to hurt his feelings" (such was the form
+that her reflections took, in her present penitent frame of
+mind); "but why did he provoke me? It is a shame to tell me that
+I love some other man--when there is no other man. I declare I
+begin to hate the men, if they are all like Mr. Moody. I wonder
+whether he will forgive me when he sees me again? I'm sure I'm
+willing to forget and forgive on my side--especially if he won't
+insist on my being fond of him because he is fond of me. Oh,
+dear! I wish he would come back and shake hands. It's enough to
+try the patience of a saint to be treated in this way. I wish I
+was ugly! The ugly ones have a quiet time of it--the men let them
+be. Mr. Moody! Mr. Moody!" She went out to the landing and called
+to him softly. There was no answer. He was no longer in the
+house. She stood still for a moment in silent vexation. "I'll go
+to Tommie!" she decided. "I'm sure he's the more agreeable
+company of the two. And--oh, good gracious! there's Mr. Hardyman
+waiting to give me my instructions! How do I look, I wonder?"
+
+She consulted the glass once more--gave one or two corrective
+touches to her hair and her cap--and hastened into the boudoir.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+FOR a quarter of an hour the drawing-room remained empty. At the
+end of that time the council in the boudoir broke up. Lady
+Lydiard led the way back into the drawing-room, followed by
+Hardyman, Isabel being left to look after the dog. Before the
+door closed behind him, Hardyman turned round to reiterate his
+last medical directions--or, in plainer words, to take a last
+look at Isabel.
+
+"Plenty of water, Miss Isabel, for the dog to lap, and a little
+bread or biscuit, if he wants something to eat. Nothing more, if
+you please, till I see him to-morrow."
+
+"Thank you, sir. I will take the greatest care--"
+
+At that point Lady Lydiard cut short the interchange of
+instructions and civilities. "Shut the door, if you please, Mr.
+Hardyman. I feel the draught. Many thanks! I am really at a loss
+to tell you how gratefully I feel your kindness. But for you my
+poor little dog might be dead by this time."
+
+Hardyman answered, in the quiet melancholy monotone which was
+habitual with him, "Your Ladyship need feel no further anxiety
+about the dog. Only be careful not to overfeed him. He will do
+very well under Miss Isabel's care. By the bye, her family name
+is Miller--is it not? Is she related to the Warwickshire Millers
+of Duxborough House?"
+
+Lady Lydiard looked at him with an expression of satirical
+surprise. "Mr. Hardyman," she said, "this makes the fourth time
+you have questioned me about Isabel. You seem to take a great
+interest in my little companion. Don't make any apologies, pray!
+You pay Isabel a compliment, and, as I am very fond of her, I am
+naturally gratified when I find her admired. At the same time,"
+she added, with one of her abrupt transitions of language, "I had
+my eye on you, and I had my eye on her, when you were talking in
+the next room; and I don't mean to let you make a fool of the
+girl. She is not in your line of life, and the sooner you know it
+the better. You make me laugh when you ask if she is related to
+gentlefolks. She is the orphan daughter of a chemist in the
+country. Her relations haven't a penny to bless themselves with,
+except an old aunt, who lives in a village on two or three
+hundred a year. I heard of the girl by accident. When she lost
+her father and mother, her aunt offered to take her. Isabel said,
+'No, thank you; I will not be a burden on a relation who has only
+enough for herself. A girl can earn an honest living if she
+tries; and I mean to try'--that's what she said. I admired her
+independence," her Ladyship proceeded, ascending again to the
+higher regions of thought and expression. "My niece's marriage,
+just at that time, had left me alone in this great house. I
+proposed to Isabel to come to me as companion and reader for a
+few weeks, and to decide for herself whether she liked the life
+or not. We have never been separated since that time. I could
+hardly be fonder of her if she were my own daughter; and she
+returns my affection with all her heart. She has excellent
+qualities--prudent, cheerful, sweet-tempered; with good sense
+enough to understand what her place is in the world, as
+distinguished from her place in my regard. I have taken care, for
+her own sake, never to leave that part of the question in any
+doubt. It would be cruel kindness to deceive her as to her future
+position when she marries. I shall take good care that the man
+who pays his addresses to her is a man in her rank of life. I
+know but too well, in the case of one of my own relatives, what
+miseries unequal marriages bring with them. Excuse me for
+troubling you at this length on domestic matters. I am very fond
+of Isabel; and a girl's head is so easily turned. Now you know
+what her position really is, you will also know what limits there
+must be to the expression of your interest in her. I am sure we
+understand each other; and I say no more."
+
+Hardyman listened to this long harangue with the immovable
+gravity which was part of his character--except when Isabel had
+taken him by surprise. When her Ladyship gave him the opportunity
+of speaking on his side, he had very little to say, and that
+little did not suggest that he had greatly profited by what he
+had heard. His mind had been full of Isabel when Lady Lydiard
+began, and it remained just as full of her, in just the same way,
+when Lady Lydiard had done.
+
+"Yes," he remarked quietly, "Miss Isabel is an uncommonly nice
+girl, as you say. Very pretty, and such frank, unaffected
+manners. I don't deny that I feel an interest in her. The young
+ladies one meets in society are not much to my taste. Miss Isabel
+is my taste."
+
+Lady Lydiard's face assumed a look of blank dismay. "I am afraid
+I have failed to convey my exact meaning to you," she said.
+
+Hardyman gravely declared that he understood her perfectly.
+"Perfectly!" he repeated, with his impenetrable obstinacy. "Your
+Ladyship exactly expresses my opinion of Miss Isabel. Prudent,
+and cheerful, and sweet-tempered, as you say--all the qualities
+in a woman that I admire. With good looks, too--of course, with
+good looks. She will be a perfect treasure (as you remarked just
+now) to the man who marries her. I may claim to know something
+about it. I have twice narrowly escaped being married myself;
+and, though I can't exactly explain it, I'm all the harder to
+please in consequence. Miss Isabel pleases me. I think I have
+said that before? Pardon me for saying it again. I'll call again
+to-morrow morning and look at the dog as early as eleven o'clock,
+if you will allow me. Later in the day I must be off to France to
+attend a sale of horses. Glad to have been of any use to your
+Ladyship, I am sure. Good-morning."
+
+Lady Lydiard let him go, wisely resigning any further attempt to
+establish an understanding between her visitor and herself.
+
+"He is either a person of very limited intelligence when he is
+away from his stables," she thought, "or he deliberately declines
+to take a plain hint when it is given to him. I can't drop his
+acquaintance, on Tommie's account. The only other alternative is
+to keep Isabel out of his way. My good little girl shall not
+drift into a false position while I am living to look after her.
+When Mr. Hardyman calls to-morrow she shall be out on an errand.
+When he calls the next time she shall be upstairs with a
+headache. And if he tries it again she shall be away at my house
+in the country. If he makes any remarks on her absence--well, he
+will find that I can be just as dull of understanding as he is
+when the occasion calls for it."
+
+Having arrived at this satisfactory solution of the difficulty,
+Lady Lydiard became conscious of an irresistible impulse to
+summon Isabel to her presence and caress her. In the nature of a
+warm-hearted woman, this was only the inevitable reaction which
+followed the subsidence of anxiety about the girl, after her own
+resolution had set that anxiety at rest. She threw open the door
+and made one of her sudden appearances at the boudoir. Even in
+the fervent outpouring of her affection, there was still the
+inherent abruptness of manner which so strongly marked Lady
+Lydiard's character in all the relations of life.
+
+"Did I give you a kiss, this morning?" she asked, when Isabel
+rose to receive her.
+
+"Yes, my Lady," said the girl, with her charming smile.
+
+"Come, then, and give me a kiss in return. Do you love me? Very
+well, then, treat me like your mother. Never mind 'my lady' this
+time. Give me a good hug!"
+
+Something in those homely words, or something perhaps in the look
+that accompanied them, touched sympathies in Isabel which seldom
+showed themselves on the surface. Her smiling lips trembled, the
+bright tears rose in her eyes. "You are too good to me," she
+murmured, with her head on Lady Lydiard's bosom. "How can I ever
+love you enough in return?"
+
+Lady Lydiard patted the pretty head that rested on her with such
+filial tenderness. "There! there!" she said, "Go back and play
+with Tommie, my dear. We may be as fond of each other as we like;
+but we mustn't cry. God bless you! Go away--go away!"
+
+She turned aside quickly; her own eyes were moistening, and it
+was part of her character to be reluctant to let Isabel see it.
+"Why have I made a fool of myself?" she wondered, as she
+approached the drawing-room door. "It doesn't matter. I am all
+the better for it. Odd, that Mr. Hardyman should have made me
+feel fonder of Isabel than ever!"
+
+With those reflections she re-entered the drawing-room--and
+suddenly checked herself with a start. "Good Heavens!" she
+exclaimed irritably, "how you frightened me! Why was I not told
+you were here?"
+
+Having left the drawing-room in a state of solitude, Lady Lydiard
+on her return found herself suddenly confronted with a gentleman,
+mysteriously planted on the hearth-rug in her absence. The new
+visitor may be rightly described as a gray man. He had gray hair,
+eyebrows, and whiskers; he wore a gray coat, waistcoat, and
+trousers, and gray gloves. For the rest, his appearance was
+eminently suggestive of wealth and respectability and, in this
+case, appearances were really to
+ be trusted. The gray man was no other than Lady Lydiard's legal
+adviser, Mr. Troy.
+
+"I regret, my Lady, that I should have been so unfortunate as to
+startle you," he said, with a certain underlying embarrassment in
+his manner. "I had the honor of sending word by Mr. Moody that I
+would call at this hour, on some matters of business connected
+with your Ladyship's house property. I presumed that you expected
+to find me here, waiting your pleasure--"
+
+Thus far Lady Lydiard had listened to her legal adviser, fixing
+her eyes on his face in her usually frank, straightforward way.
+She now stopped him in the middle of a sentence, with a change of
+expression in her own face which was undisguisedly a change to
+alarm.
+
+"Don't apologize, Mr. Troy," she said. "I am to blame for
+forgetting your appointment and for not keeping my nerves under
+proper control." She paused for a moment and took a seat before
+she said her next words. "May I ask," she resumed, "if there is
+something unpleasant in the business that brings you here?"
+
+"Nothing whatever, my Lady; mere formalities, which can wait till
+to-morrow or next day, if you wish it."
+
+Lady Lydiard's fingers drummed impatiently on the table. "You
+have known me long enough, Mr. Troy, to know that I cannot endure
+suspense. You _have_ something unpleasant to tell me."
+
+The lawyer respectfully remonstrated. "Really, Lady Lydiard!--"
+he began.
+
+"It won't do, Mr. Troy! I know how you look at me on ordinary
+occasions, and I see how you look at me now. You are a very
+clever lawyer; but, happily for the interests that I commit to
+your charge, you are also a thoroughly honest man. After twenty
+years' experience of you, you can't deceive _me_. You bring me
+bad news. Speak at once, sir, and speak plainly."
+
+Mr. Troy yielded--inch by inch, as it were. "I bring news which,
+I fear, may annoy your Ladyship." He paused, and advanced another
+inch. "It is news which I only became acquainted with myself on
+entering this house."
+
+He waited again, and made another advance. "I happened to meet
+your Ladyship's steward, Mr. Moody, in the hall--"
+
+"Where is he?" Lady Lydiard interposed angrily. "I can make _him_
+speak out, and I will. Send him here instantly."
+
+The lawyer made a last effort to hold off the coming disclosure a
+little longer. "Mr. Moody will be here directly," he said. "Mr.
+Moody requested me to prepare your Ladyship--"
+
+"Will you ring the bell, Mr. Troy, or must I?"
+
+Moody had evidently been waiting outside while the lawyer spoke
+for him. He saved Mr. Troy the trouble of ringing the bell by
+presenting himself in the drawing-room. Lady Lydiard's eyes
+searched his face as he approached. Her bright complexion faded
+suddenly. Not a word more passed her lips. She looked, and
+waited.
+
+In silence on his part, Moody laid an open sheet of paper on the
+table. The paper quivered in his trembling hand.
+
+Lady Lydiard recovered herself first. "Is that for me?" she
+asked.
+
+"Yes, my Lady."
+
+She took up the paper without an instant's hesitation. Both the
+men watched her anxiously as she read it.
+
+The handwriting was strange to her. The words were these:--
+
+"I hereby certify that the bearer of these lines, Robert Moody by
+name, has presented to me the letter with which he was charged,
+addressed to myself, with the seal intact. I regret to add that
+there is, to say the least of it, some mistake. The inclosure
+referred to by the anonymous writer of the letter, who signs 'a
+friend in need,' has not reached me. No five-hundred pound
+bank-note was in the letter when I opened it. My wife was present
+when I broke the seal, and can certify to this statement if
+necessary. Not knowing who my charitable correspondent is (Mr.
+Moody being forbidden to give me any information), I can only
+take this means of stating the case exactly as it stands, and
+hold myself at the disposal of the writer of the letter. My
+private address is at the head of the page. --Samuel Bradstock,
+Rector, St. Anne's, Deansbury, London."
+
+Lady Lydiard dropped the paper on the table. For the moment,
+plainly as the Rector's statement was expressed, she appeared to
+be incapable of understanding it. "What, in God's name, does this
+mean?" she asked.
+
+The lawyer and the steward looked at each other. Which of the two
+was entitled to speak first? Lady Lydiard gave them no time to
+decide. "Moody," she said sternly, "you took charge of the
+letter--I look to you for an explanation."
+
+Moody's dark eyes flashed. He answered Lady Lydiard without
+caring to conceal that he resented the tone in which she had
+spoken to him.
+
+"I undertook to deliver the letter at its address," he said. "I
+found it, sealed, on the table. Your Ladyship has the clergyman's
+written testimony that I handed it to him with the seal unbroken.
+I have done my duty; and I have no explanation to offer."
+
+Before Lady Lydiard could speak again, Mr. Troy discreetly
+interfered. He saw plainly that his experience was required to
+lead the investigation in the right direction.
+
+"Pardon me, my Lady," he said, with that happy mixture of the
+positive and the polite in his manner, of which lawyers alone
+possess the secret. "There is only one way of arriving at the
+truth in painful matters of this sort. We must begin at the
+beginning. May I venture to ask your Ladyship a question?"
+
+Lady Lydiard felt the composing influence of Mr. Troy. "I am at
+your disposal, sir," she said, quietly.
+
+"Are you absolutely certain that you inclosed the bank-note in
+the letter?" the lawyer asked.
+
+"I certainly believe I inclosed it" Lady Lydiard answered. "But I
+was so alarmed at the time by the sudden illness of my dog, that
+I do not feel justified in speaking positively."
+
+"Was anybody in the room with your Ladyship when you put the
+inclosure in the letter--as you believe?"
+
+"_I_ was in the room," said Moody. "I can swear that I saw her
+Ladyship put the bank-note in the letter, and the letter in the
+envelope."
+
+"And seal the envelope?" asked Mr. Troy.
+
+"No, sir. Her Ladyship was called away into the next room to the
+dog, before she could seal the envelope."
+
+Mr. Troy addressed himself once more to Lady Lydiard. "Did your
+Ladyship take the letter into the next room with you?"
+
+"I was too much alarmed to think of it, Mr. Troy. I left it here,
+on the table."
+
+"With the envelope open?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How long were you absent in the other room?"
+
+"Half an hour or more."
+
+"Ha!" said Mr. Troy to himself. "This complicates it a little."
+He reflected for a while, and then turned again to Moody. "Did
+any of the servants know of this bank-note being in her
+Ladyship's possession?"
+
+"Not one of them," Moody answered.
+
+"Do you suspect any of the servants?"
+
+"Certainly not, sir."
+
+"Are there any workmen employed in the house?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you know of any persons who had access to the room while Lady
+Lydiard was absent from it?"
+
+"Two visitors called, sir."
+
+"Who were they?"
+
+"Her Ladyship's nephew, Mr. Felix Sweetsir, and the Honorable
+Alfred Hardyman."
+
+Mr. Troy shook his head irritably. "I am not speaking of
+gentlemen of high position and repute," he said. "It's absurd
+even to mention Mr. Sweetsir and Mr. Hardyman. My question
+related to strangers who might have obtained access to the
+drawing-room--people calling, with her Ladyship's sanction, for
+subscriptions, for instance; or people calling with articles of
+dress or ornament to be submitted to her Ladyship's inspection.""
+
+"No such persons came to the house with my knowledge," Moody
+answered.
+
+Mr. Troy suspended the investigation, and took a turn
+thoughtfully in the room. The theory on which his inquiries had
+proceeded thus far had failed to produce any results. His
+experience warned him to waste no more time on it, and to return
+to the starting-point of the investigation--in other words, to
+the letter. Shifting his point of view, he turned again to Lady
+Lydiard, and tried his questions in a new direction.
+
+"Mr. Moody mentioned just now," he said, "that your Ladyship was
+called into the next room before you could seal your letter. On
+your return to this room, did you seal the letter?"
+
+"I was busy with the dog," Lady Lydiard answered. "Isabel Miller
+was of no use in the boudoir, and I told her to seal it for
+ me."
+
+Mr. Troy started. The new direction in which he was pushing his
+inquiries began to look like the right direction already. "Miss
+Isabel Miller," he proceeded, "has been a resident under your
+Ladyship's roof for some little time, I believe?"
+
+"For nearly two years, Mr. Troy."
+
+"As your Ladyship's companion and reader?"
+
+"As my adopted daughter," her Ladyship answered, with marked
+emphasis.
+
+Wise Mr. Troy rightly interpreted the emphasis as a warning to
+him to suspend the examination of her Ladyship, and to address to
+Mr. Moody the far more serious questions which were now to come.
+
+"Did anyone give you the letter before you left the house with
+it?" he said to the steward. "Or did you take it yourself?"
+
+"I took it myself, from the table here."
+
+"Was it sealed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was anybody present when you took the letter from the table?"
+
+"Miss Isabel was present."
+
+"Did you find her alone in the room?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+Lady Lydiard opened her lips to speak, and checked herself. Mr.
+Troy, having cleared the ground before him, put the fatal
+question.
+
+"Mr. Moody," he said, "when Miss Isabel was instructed to seal
+the letter, did she know that a bank-note was inclosed in it?"
+
+Instead of replying, Robert drew back from the lawyer with a look
+of horror. Lady Lydiard started to her feet--and checked herself
+again, on the point of speaking.
+
+"Answer him, Moody," she said, putting a strong constraint on
+herself.
+
+Robert answered very unwillingly. "I took the liberty of
+reminding her ladyship that she had left her letter unsealed," he
+said. "And I mentioned as my excuse for speaking"--he stopped,
+and corrected himself--"_I believe_ I mentioned that a valuable
+inclosure was in the letter."
+
+"You believe?" Mr. Troy repeated. "Can't you speak more
+positively than that?"
+
+"_I_ can speak positively," said Lady Lydiard, with her eyes on
+the lawyer. "Moody did mention the inclosure in the letter--in
+Isabel Miller's hearing as well as in mine." She paused, steadily
+controlling herself. "And what of that, Mr. Troy?" she added,
+very quietly and firmly.
+
+Mr. Troy answered quietly and firmly, on his side. "I am
+surprised that your Ladyship should ask the question," he said.
+
+"I persist in repeating the question," Lady Lydiard rejoined. "I
+say that Isabel Miller knew of the inclosure in my letter--and I
+ask, What of that?"
+
+"And I answer," retorted the impenetrable lawyer, "that the
+suspicion of theft rests on your Ladyship's adopted daughter, and
+on nobody else."
+
+"It's false!" cried Robert, with a burst of honest indignation.
+"I wish to God I had never said a word to you about the loss of
+the bank-note! Oh, my Lady! my Lady! don't let him distress you!
+What does _he_ know about it?"
+
+"Hush!" said Lady Lydiard. "Control yourself, and hear what he
+has to say." She rested her hand on Moody's shoulder, partly to
+encourage him, partly to support herself; and, fixing her eyes
+again on Mr. Troy, repeated his last words, " 'Suspicion rests on
+my adopted daughter, and on nobody else.' Why on nobody else?"
+
+"Is your Ladyship prepared to suspect the Rector of St. Anne's of
+embezzlement, or your own relatives and equals of theft?" Mr.
+Troy asked. "Does a shadow of doubt rest on the servants? Not if
+Mr. Moody's evidence is to be believed. Who, to our own certain
+knowledge, had access to the letter while it was unsealed? Who
+was alone in the room with it? And who knew of the inclosure in
+it? I leave the answer to your Ladyship."
+
+"Isabel Miller is as incapable of an act of theft as I am. There
+is my answer, Mr. Troy."
+
+The lawyer bowed resignedly, and advanced to the door.
+
+"Am I to take your Ladyship's generous assertion as finally
+disposing of the question of the lost bank-note?" he inquired.
+
+Lady Lydiard met the challenge without shrinking from it.
+
+"No!" she said. "The loss of the bank-note is known out of my
+house. Other persons may suspect this innocent girl as you
+suspect her. It is due to Isabel's reputation--her unstained
+reputation, Mr. Troy!--that she should know what has happened,
+and should have an opportunity of defending herself. She is in
+the next room, Moody. Bring her here."
+
+Robert's courage failed him: he trembled at the bare idea of
+exposing Isabel to the terrible ordeal that awaited her. "Oh, my
+Lady!" he pleaded, "think again before you tell the poor girl
+that she is suspected of theft. Keep it a secret from her--the
+shame of it will break her heart!"
+
+"Keep it a secret," said Lady Lydiard, "when the Rector and the
+Rector's wife both know of it! Do you think they will let the
+matter rest where it is, even if I could consent to hush it up? I
+must write to them; and I can't write anonymously after what has
+happened. Put yourself in Isabel's place, and tell me if you
+would thank the person who knew you to be innocently exposed to a
+disgraceful suspicion, and who concealed it from you? Go, Moody!
+The longer you delay, the harder it will be."
+
+With his head sunk on his breast, with anguish written in every
+line of his face, Moody obeyed. Passing slowly down the short
+passage which connected the two rooms , and still shrinking from
+the duty that had been imposed on him, he paused, looking through
+the curtains which hung over the entrance to the boudoir.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE sight that met Moody's view wrung him to the heart.
+
+Isabel and the dog were at play together. Among the varied
+accomplishments possessed by Tommie, the capacity to take his
+part at a game of hide-and-seek was one. His playfellow for the
+time being put a shawl or a handkerchief over his head, so as to
+prevent him from seeing, and then hid among the furniture a
+pocketbook, or a cigar-case, or a purse, or anything else that
+happened to be at hand, leaving the dog to find it, with his keen
+sense of smell to guide him. Doubly relieved by the fit and the
+bleeding, Tommie's spirits had revived; and he and Isabel had
+just begun their game when Moody looked into the room, charged
+with his terrible errand. "You're burning, Tommie, you're
+burning!" cried the girl, laughing and clapping her hands. The
+next moment she happened to look round and saw Moody through the
+parted curtains. His face warned her instantly that something
+serious had happened. She advanced a few steps, her eyes resting
+on him in silent alarm. He was himself too painfully agitated to
+speak. Not a word was exchanged between Lady Lydiard and Mr. Troy
+in the next room. In the complete stillness that prevailed, the
+dog was heard sniffing and fidgeting about the furniture. Robert
+took Isabel by the hand and led her into the drawing-room. "For
+God's sake, spare her, my Lady!" he whispered. The lawyer heard
+him. "No," said Mr. Troy. "Be merciful, and tell her the truth!"
+
+He spoke to a woman who stood in no need of his advice. The
+inherent nobility in Lady Lydiard's nature was aroused: her great
+heart offered itself patiently to any sorrow, to any sacrifice.
+
+Putting her arm round Isabel--half caressing her, half supporting
+her--Lady Lydiard accepted the whole responsibility and told the
+whole truth.
+
+Reeling under the first shock, the poor girl recovered herself
+with admirable courage. She raised her head, and eyed the lawyer
+without uttering a word. In its artless consciousness of
+innocence the look was nothing less than sublime. Addressing
+herself to Mr. Troy, Lady Lydiard pointed to Isabel. "Do you see
+guilt there?" she asked.
+
+Mr. Troy made no answer. In the melancholy experience of humanity
+to which his profession condemned him, he had seen conscious
+guilt assume the face of innocence, and helpless innocence admit
+the disguise of guilt: the keenest observation, in either case,
+failing completely to detect the truth. Lady Lydiard
+misinterpreted his silence as expressing the sullen
+self-assertion of a heartless man. She turned from him, in
+contempt, and held out her hand to Isabel.
+
+"Mr. Troy is not satisfied yet," she said bitterly. "My love,
+take my hand, and look me in the face as your equal; I know no
+difference of rank at such a time as this. Before God, who hears
+you, are you innocent of the theft of the bank-note?"
+
+"Before God, who hears me," Isabel answered, "I am innocent."
+
+Lady Lydiard looked once more at the lawyer, and waited to hear
+if he believed _that_.
+
+Mr. Troy took refuge in dumb diplomacy--he made a low bow. It
+might have meant that he believed Isabel, or it might have meant
+that he modestly withdrew his own opinion into the background.
+Lady Lydiard did not condescend to inquire what it meant.
+
+"The sooner we bring this painful scene to an end the better,"
+she said. "I shall be glad to avail myself of your professional
+assistance, Mr. Troy, within certain limits. Outside of my house,
+I beg that you will spare no trouble in tracing the lost money to
+the person who has really stolen it. Inside of my house, I must
+positively request that the disappearance of the note may never
+be alluded to, in any way whatever, until your inquiries have
+been successful in discovering the thief. In the meanwhile, Mrs.
+Tollmidge and her family must not be sufferers by my loss: I
+shall pay the money again." She paused, and pressed Isabel's hand
+with affectionate fervor. "My child," she said, "one last word to
+you, and I have done. You remain here, with my trust in you, and
+my love for you, absolutely unshaken. When you think of what has
+been said here to-day, never forget that."
+
+Isabel bent her head, and kissed the kind hand that still held
+hers. The high spirit that was in her, inspired by Lady Lydiard's
+example, rose equal to the dreadful situation in which she was
+placed.
+
+"No, my Lady," she said calmly and sadly; "it cannot be. What
+this gentleman has said of me is not to be denied--the
+appearances are against me. The letter was open, and I was alone
+in the room with it, and Mr. Moody told me that a valuable
+inclosure was inside it. Dear and kind mistress! I am not fit to
+be a member of your household, I am not worthy to live with the
+honest people who serve you, while my innocence is in doubt. It
+is enough for me now that _you_ don't doubt it. I can wait
+patiently, after that, for the day that gives me back my good
+name. Oh, my Lady, don't cry about it! Pray, pray don't cry!"
+
+Lady Lydiard's self-control failed her for the first time.
+Isabel's courage had made Isabel dearer to her than ever. She
+sank into a chair, and covered her face with her handkerchief.
+Mr. Troy turned aside abruptly, and examined a Japanese vase,
+without any idea in his mind of what he was looking at. Lady
+Lydiard had gravely misjudged him in believing him to be a
+heartless man.
+
+Isabel followed the lawyer, and touched him gently on the arm to
+rouse his attention.
+
+"I have one relation living, sir--an aunt--who will receive me if
+I go to her," she said simply. "Is there any harm in my going?
+Lady Lydiard will give you the address when you want me. Spare
+her Ladyship, sir, all the pain and trouble that you can."
+
+At last the heart that was in Mr. Troy asserted itself. "You are
+a fine creature!" he said, with a burst of enthusiasm. "I agree
+with Lady Lydiard--I believe you are innocent, too; and I will
+leave no effort untried to find the proof of it." He turned aside
+again, and had another look at the Japanese vase.
+
+As the lawyer withdrew himself from observation, Moody approached
+Isabel.
+
+Thus far he had stood apart, watching her and listening to her in
+silence. Not a look that had crossed her face, not a word that
+had fallen from her, had escaped him. Unconsciously on her side,
+unconsciously on his side, she now wrought on his nature with a
+purifying and ennobling influence which animated it with a new
+life. All that had been selfish and violent in his passion for
+her left him to return no more. The immeasurable devotion which
+he laid at her feet, in the days that were yet to come--the
+unyielding courage which cheerfully accepted the sacrifice of
+himself when events demanded it at a later period of his
+life--struck root in him now. Without attempting to conceal the
+tears that were falling fast over his cheeks--striving vainly to
+express those new thoughts in him that were beyond the reach of
+words--he stood before her the truest friend and servant that
+ever woman had.
+
+"Oh, my dear! my heart is heavy for you. Take me to serve you and
+help you. Her Ladyship's kindness will permit it, I am sure."
+
+He could say no more. In those simple words the cry of his heart
+reached her. "Forgive me, Robert," she answered, gratefully, "if
+I said anything to pain you when we spoke together a little while
+since. I didn't mean it." She gave him her hand, and looked
+timidly over her shoulder at Lady Lydiard. "Let me go!" she said,
+in low, broken tones, "Let me go!"
+
+Mr. Troy heard her, and stepped forward to interfere before Lady
+Lydiard could speak. The man had recovered his self-control; the
+lawyer took his place again on the scene.
+
+"You must not leave us, my dear," he said to Isabel, "until I
+have put a question to Mr. Moody in which you are interested. Do
+you happen to have the number of the lost bank-note?" he asked,
+turning to the steward.
+
+Moody produced his slip of paper with the number on it. Mr. Troy
+made two copies of it before he returned the paper. One copy he
+put in his pocket, the other he handed to Isabel.
+
+"Keep it carefully," he said. "Neither you nor I know how soon it
+may be of use to you."
+
+Receiving the copy from him, she felt mechanically in her apron
+for her pocketbook. She had used it, in playing with the dog, as
+an object to hide from him; but she had suffered, and was still
+suffering, too keenly to be capable of the effort of remembrance.
+Moody, eager to help her even in the most trifling thing, guessed
+what had happened. "You were playing with Tommie," he said; "is
+it in the next room?"
+
+The dog heard his name pronounced through the open door. The next
+moment he trotted into the drawing-room with Isabel's pocketbook
+in his mouth. He was a strong, well-grown Scotch terrier of the
+largest size, with bright, intelligent eyes, and a coat of thick
+curling white hair, diversified by two light brown patches on his
+back. As he reached the middle of the room, and looked from one
+to another of the persons present, the fine sympathy of his race
+told him that there was trouble among his human friends. His tail
+dropped; he whined softly as he approached Isabel, and laid her
+pocketbook at her feet.
+
+She knelt as she picked up the pocketbook, and raised her
+playfellow of happier days to take her leave of him. As the dog
+put his paws on her shoulders, returning her caress, her first
+tears fell. "Foolish of me," she said, faintly, "to cry over a
+dog. I can't help it. Good-by, Tommie!"
+
+Putting him away from her gently, she walked towards the door.
+The dog instantly followed. She put him away from her, for the
+second time, and left him. He was not to be denied; he followed
+her again, and took the skirt of her dress in his teeth, as if to
+hold her back. Robert forced the dog, growling and resisting with
+all his might, to let go of the dress. "Don't be rough with him,"
+said Isabel. "Put him on her ladyship's lap; he will be quieter
+there." Robert obeyed. He whispered to Lady Lydiard as she
+received the dog; she seemed to be still incapable of
+speaking--she bowed her head in silent assent. Robert hurried
+back to Isabel before she had passed the door. "Not alone!" he
+said entreatingly. "Her Ladyship permits it, Isabel. Let me see
+you safe to your aunt's house."
+
+Isabel looked at him, felt for him, and yielded.
+
+"Yes," she answered softly; "to make amends for what I said to
+you when I was thoughtless and happy!" She waited a little to
+compose herself before she spoke her farewell words to Lady
+Lydiard. "Good-by, my Lady. Your kindness has not been thrown
+away on an ungrateful girl. I love you, and thank you, with all
+my heart."
+
+Lady Lydiard rose, placing the dog on the chair as she left it.
+She seemed to have grown older by years, instead of by minutes,
+in the short interval that had passed since she had hidden her
+face from view. "I can't bear it!" she cried, in husky, broken
+tones. "Isabel! Isabel! I forbid you to leave me!"
+
+But one person could venture to resist her. That person was Mr.
+Troy--and Mr. Troy knew it.
+
+"Control yourself," he said to her in a whisper. "The girl is
+doing what is best and most becoming in her position--and is
+doing it with a patience and courage wonderful to see. Sh e
+places herself under the protection of her nearest relative,
+until her character is vindicated and her position in your house
+is once more beyond a doubt. Is this a time to throw obstacles in
+her way? Be worthy of yourself, Lady Lydiard and think of the day
+when she will return to you without the breath of a suspicion to
+rest on her!"
+
+There was no disputing with him--he was too plainly in the right
+. Lady Lydiard submitted; she concealed the torture that her own
+resolution inflicted on her with an endurance which was, indeed,
+worthy of herself. Taking Isabel in her arms she kissed her in a
+passion of sorrow and love. "My poor dear! My own sweet girl!
+don't suppose that this is a parting kiss! I shall see you
+again--often and often I shall see you again at your aunt's!" At
+a sign from Mr. Troy, Robert took Isabel's arm in his and led her
+away. Tommie, watching her from his chair, lifted his little
+white muzzle as his playfellow looked back on passing the
+doorway. The long, melancholy, farewell howl of the dog was the
+last sound Isabel Miller heard as she left the house.
+
+
+
+PART THE SECOND.
+
+THE DISCOVERY.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ON the day after Isabel's departure, diligent Mr. Troy set forth
+for the Head Office in Whitehall to consult the police on the
+question of the missing money. He had previously sent information
+of the robbery to the Bank of England, and had also advertised
+the loss in the daily newspapers.
+
+The air was so pleasant, and the sun was so bright, that he
+determined on proceeding to his destination on foot. He was
+hardly out of sight of his own offices when he was overtaken by a
+friend, who was also walking in the direction of Whitehall. This
+gentleman was a person of considerable worldly wisdom and
+experience; he had been officially associated with cases of
+striking and notorious crime, in which Government had lent its
+assistance to discover and punish the criminals. The opinion of a
+person in this position might be of the greatest value to Mr.
+Troy, whose practice as a solicitor had thus far never brought
+him into collision with thieves and mysteries. He accordingly
+decided, in Isabel's interests, on confiding to his friend the
+nature of his errand to the police. Concealing the name, but
+concealing nothing else, he described what had happened on the
+previous day at Lady Lydiard's house, and then put the question
+plainly to his companion.
+
+"What would you do in my place?"
+
+"In your place," his friend answered quietly, "I should not waste
+time and money in consulting the police."
+
+"Not consult the police!" exclaimed Mr. Troy in amazement.
+"Surely, I have not made myself understood? I am going to the
+Head Office; and I have got a letter of introduction to the chief
+inspector in the detective department. I am afraid I omitted to
+mention that?"
+
+"It doesn't make any difference," proceeded the other, as coolly
+as ever. "You have asked for my advice, and I give you my advice.
+Tear up your letter of introduction, and don't stir a step
+further in the direction of Whitehall."
+
+Mr. Troy began to understand. "You don't believe in the detective
+police?" he said.
+
+"Who _can_ believe in them, who reads his newspaper and remembers
+what he reads?" his friend rejoined. "Fortunately for the
+detective department, the public in general forgets what it
+reads. Go to your club, and look at the criminal history of our
+own time, recorded in the newspapers. Every crime is more or less
+a mystery. You will see that the mysteries which the police
+discover are, almost without exception, mysteries made penetrable
+by the commonest capacity, through the extraordinary stupidity
+exhibited in the means taken to hide the crime. On the other
+hand, let the guilty man or woman be a resolute and intelligent
+person, capable of setting his (or her) wits fairly against the
+wits of the police--in other words, let the mystery really _be_ a
+mystery--and cite me a case if you can (a really difficult and
+perplexing case) in which the criminal has not escaped. Mind! I
+don't charge the police with neglecting their work. No doubt they
+do their best, and take the greatest pains in following the
+routine to which they have been trained. It is their misfortune,
+not their fault, that there is no man of superior intelligence
+among them--I mean no man who is capable, in great emergencies,
+of placing himself above conventional methods, and following a
+new way of his own. There have been such men in the police--men
+naturally endowed with that faculty of mental analysis which can
+decompose a mystery, resolve it into its component parts, and
+find the clue at the bottom, no matter how remote from ordinary
+observation it may be. But those men have died, or have retired.
+One of them would have been invaluable to you in the case you
+have just mentioned to me. As things are, unless you are wrong in
+believing in the young lady's innocence, the person who has
+stolen that bank-note will be no easy person to find. In my
+opinion, there is only one man now in London who is likely to be
+of the slightest assistance to you--and he is not in the police."
+
+"Who is he?" asked Mr. Troy.
+
+"An old rogue, who was once in your branch of the legal
+profession," the friend answered. "You may, perhaps, remember the
+name: they call him 'Old Sharon.' "
+
+"What! The scoundrel who was struck off the Roll of Attorneys,
+years since? Is he still alive?"
+
+"Alive and prospering. He lives in a court or lane running out of
+Long Acre, and he offers advice to persons interested in
+recovering missing objects of any sort. Whether you have lost
+your wife, or lost your cigar-case, Old Sharon is equally useful
+to you. He has an inbred capacity for reading the riddle the
+right way in cases of mystery, great or small. In short, he
+possesses exactly that analytical faculty to which I alluded just
+now. I have his address at my office, if you think it worth while
+to try him."
+
+"Who can trust such a man?" Mr. Troy objected. "He would be sure
+to deceive me."
+
+"You are entirely mistaken. Since he was struck off the Rolls Old
+Sharon has discovered that the straight way is, on the whole, the
+best way, even in a man's own interests. His consultation fee is
+a guinea; and he gives a signed estimate beforehand for any
+supplementary expenses that may follow. I can tell you (this is,
+of course, strictly between ourselves) that the authorities at my
+office took his advice in a Government case that puzzled the
+police. We approached him, of course, through persons who were to
+be trusted to represent us, without betraying the source from
+which their instructions were derived; and we found the old
+rascal's advice well worth paying for. It is quite likely that he
+may not succeed so well in your case. Try the police, by all
+means; and, if they fail, why, there is Sharon as a last resort."
+
+This arrangement commended itself to Mr. Troy's professional
+caution. He went on to Whitehall, and he tried the detective
+police.
+
+They at once adopted the obvious conclusion to persons of
+ordinary capacity--the conclusion that Isabel was the thief.
+
+Acting on this conviction, the authorities sent an experienced
+woman from the office to Lady Lydiard's house, to examine the
+poor girl's clothes and ornaments before they were packed up and
+sent after her to her aunt's. The search led to nothing. The only
+objects of any value that were discovered had been presents from
+Lady Lydiard. No jewelers' or milliners' bills were among the
+papers found in her desk. Not a sign of secret extravagance in
+dress was to be seen anywhere. Defeated so far, the police
+proposed next to have Isabel privately watched. There might be a
+prodigal lover somewhere in the background, with ruin staring him
+in the face unless he could raise five hundred pounds. Lady
+Lydiard (who had only consented to the search under stress of
+persuasive argument from Mr. Troy) resented this ingenious idea
+as an insult. She declared that if Isabel was watched the girl
+should know of it instantly from her own lips. The police
+listened with perfect resignation and decorum, and politely
+shifted their ground. A certain suspicion (they remarked) always
+rested in cases of this sort on the servants. Would her Ladyship
+obje ct to private inquiries into the characters and proceedings
+of the servants? Her Ladyship instantly objected, in the most
+positive terms. Thereupon the "Inspector" asked for a minute's
+private conversation with Mr. Troy. "The thief is certainly a
+member of Lady Lydiard's household," this functionary remarked,
+in his politely-positive way. "If her Ladyship persists in
+refusing to let us make the necessary inquiries, our hands are
+tied, and the case comes to an end through no fault of ours. If
+her Ladyship changes her mind, perhaps you will drop me a line,
+sir, to that effect. Good-morning."
+
+So the experiment of consulting the police came to an untimely
+end. The one result obtained was the expression of purblind
+opinion by the authorities of the detective department which
+pointed to Isabel, or to one of the servants, as the undiscovered
+thief. Thinking the matter over in the retirement of his own
+office--and not forgetting his promise to Isabel to leave no
+means untried of establishing her innocence--Mr. Troy could see
+but one alternative left to him. He took up his pen, and wrote to
+his friend at the Government office. There was nothing for it now
+but to run the risk, and try Old Sharon.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE next day, Mr. Troy (taking Robert Moody with him as a
+valuable witness) rang the bell at the mean and dirty
+lodging-house in which Old Sharon received the clients who stood
+in need of his advice.
+
+They were led up stairs to a back room on the second floor of the
+house. Entering the room, they discovered through a thick cloud
+of tobacco smoke, a small, fat, bald-headed, dirty, old man, in
+an arm-chair, robed in a tattered flannel dressing-gown, with a
+short pipe in his mouth, a pug-dog on his lap, and a French novel
+in his hands.
+
+"Is it business?" asked Old Sharon, speaking in a hoarse,
+asthmatical voice, and fixing a pair of bright, shameless, black
+eyes attentively on the two visitors.
+
+"It _is_ business," Mr. Troy answered, looking at the old rogue
+who had disgraced an honorable profession, as he might have
+looked at a reptile which had just risen rampant at his feet.
+"What is your fee for a consultation?"
+
+"You give me a guinea, and I'll give you half an hour." With this
+reply Old Sharon held out his unwashed hand across the rickety
+ink-splashed table at which he was sitting.
+
+Mr. Troy would not have touched him with the tips of his own
+fingers for a thousand pounds. He laid the guinea on the table.
+
+Old Sharon burst into a fierce laugh--a laugh strangely
+accompanied by a frowning contraction of his eyebrows, and a
+frightful exhibition of the whole inside of his mouth. "I'm not
+clean enough for you--eh?" he said, with an appearance of being
+very much amused. "There's a dirty old man described in this book
+that is a little like me." He held up his French novel. "Have you
+read it? A capital story--well put together. Ah, you haven't read
+it? You have got a pleasure to come. I say, do you mind
+tobacco-smoke? I think faster while I smoke--that's all."
+
+Mr. Troy's respectable hand waved a silent permission to smoke,
+given under dignified protest.
+
+"All right," said Old Sharon. "Now, get on."
+
+He laid himself back in his chair, and puffed out his smoke, with
+eyes lazily half closed, like the eyes of the pug-dog on his lap.
+At that moment, indeed there was a curious resemblance between
+the two. They both seemed to be preparing themselves, in the same
+idle way, for the same comfortable nap.
+
+Mr. Troy stated the circumstances under which the five hundred
+pound note had disappeared, in clear and consecutive narrative.
+When he had done, Old Sharon suddenly opened his eyes. The
+pug-dog suddenly opened his eyes. Old Sharon looked hard at Mr.
+Troy. The pug looked hard at Mr. Troy. Old Sharon spoke. The pug
+growled.
+
+"I know who you are--you're a lawyer. Don't be alarmed! I never
+saw you before; and I don't know your name. What I do know is a
+lawyer's statement of facts when I hear it. Who's this?" Old
+Sharon looked inquisitively at Moody as he put the question.
+
+Mr. Troy introduced Moody as a competent witness, thoroughly
+acquainted with the circumstances, and ready and willing to
+answer any questions relating to them. Old Sharon waited a
+little, smoking hard and thinking hard. "Now, then!" he burst out
+in his fiercely sudden way. "I'm going to get to the root of the
+matter."
+
+He leaned forward with his elbows on the table, and began his
+examination of Moody. Heartily as Mr. Troy despised and disliked
+the old rogue, he listened with astonishment and
+admiration--literally extorted from him by the marvelous ability
+with which the questions were adapted to the end in view. In a
+quarter of an hour Old Sharon had extracted from the witness
+everything, literally everything down to the smallest detail,
+that Moody could tell him. Having now, in his own phrase, "got to
+the root of the matter," he relighted his pipe with a grunt of
+satisfaction, and laid himself back in his old armchair.
+
+"Well?" said Mr. Troy. "Have you formed your opinion?"
+
+"Yes; I've formed my opinion."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+Instead of replying, Old Sharon winked confidentially at Mr.
+Troy, and put a question on his side.
+
+"I say! is a ten-pound note much of an object to you?"
+
+"It depends on what the money is wanted for," answered Mr. Troy.
+
+"Look here," said Old Sharon; "I give you an opinion for your
+guinea; but, mind this, it's an opinion founded on hearsay--and
+you know as a lawyer what that is worth. Venture your ten
+pounds--in plain English, pay me for my time and trouble in a
+baffling and difficult case--and I'll give you an opinion founded
+on my own experience."
+
+"Explain yourself a little more clearly," said Mr. Troy. "What do
+you guarantee to tell us if we venture the ten pounds?"
+
+"I guarantee to name the person, or the persons, on whom the
+suspicion really rests. And if you employ me after that, I
+guarantee (before you pay me a halfpenny more) to prove that I am
+right by laying my hand on the thief."
+
+"Let us have the guinea opinion first," said Mr. Troy.
+
+Old Sharon made another frightful exhibition of the whole inside
+of his mouth; his laugh was louder and fiercer than ever. "I like
+you!" he said to Mr. Troy, "you are so devilish fond of your
+money. Lord! how rich you must be! Now listen. Here's the guinea
+opinion: Suspect, in this case, the very last person on whom
+suspicion could possibly fall."
+
+Moody, listening attentively, started, and changed color at those
+last words. Mr. Troy looked thoroughly disappointed and made no
+attempt to conceal it.
+
+"Is that all?" he asked.
+
+"All?" retorted the cynical vagabond. "You're a pretty lawyer!
+What more can I say, when I don't know for certain whether the
+witness who has given me my information has misled me or not?
+Have I spoken to the girl and formed my own opinion? No! Have I
+been introduced among the servants (as errand-boy, or to clean
+the boots and shoes, or what not), and have I formed my own
+judgement of _them?_ No! I take your opinions for granted, and I
+tell you how I should set to work myself if they were _my_
+opinions too--and that's a guinea's-worth, a devilish good
+guinea's-worth to a rich man like you!"
+
+Old Sharon's logic produced a certain effect on Mr. Troy, in
+spite of himself. It was smartly put from his point of
+view--there was no denying that.
+
+"Even if I consented to your proposal," he said, "I should object
+to your annoying the young lady with impertinent questions, or to
+your being introduced as a spy into a respectable house."
+
+Old Sharon doubled his dirty fists and drummed with them on the
+rickety table in a comical frenzy of impatience while Mr. Troy
+was speaking.
+
+"What the devil do you know about my way of doing my business?"
+he burst out when the lawyer had done. "One of us two is talking
+like a born idiot--and (mind this) it isn't me. Look here! Your
+young lady goes out for a walk, and she meets with a dirty,
+shabby old beggar--I look like a shabby old beggar already, don't
+I? Very good. This dirty old wretch whines and whimpers and tells
+a long story, and gets sixpence out of the girl--and knows her by
+that time, inside and out, as well as if he had made her--and,
+mark! hasn't asked her a single ques tion, and, instead of
+annoying her, has made her happy in the performance of a
+charitable action. Stop a bit! I haven't done with you yet. Who
+blacks your boots and shoes? Look here!" He pushed his pug-dog
+off his lap, dived under the table, appeared again with an old
+boot and a bottle of blackening, and set to work with tigerish
+activity. "I'm going out for a walk, you know, and I may as well
+make myself smart." With that announcement, he began to sing over
+his work--a song of sentiment, popular in England in the early
+part of the present century--"She's all my fancy painted her;
+she's lovely, she's divine; but her heart it is another's; and it
+never can be mine! Too-ral-loo-ral-loo'. I like a love-song.
+Brush away! brush away! till I see my own pretty face in the
+blacking. Hey! Here's a nice, harmless, jolly old man! sings and
+jokes over his work, and makes the kitchen quite cheerful. What's
+that you say? He's a stranger, and don't talk to him too freely.
+You ought to be ashamed of yourself to speak in that way of a
+poor old fellow with one foot in the grave. Mrs. Cook will give
+him a nice bit of dinner in the scullery; and John Footman will
+look out an old coat for him. And when he's heard everything he
+wants to hear, and doesn't come back again the next day to his
+work--what do they think of it in the servants' hall? Do they
+say, 'We've had a spy among us!' Yah! you know better than that,
+by this time. The cheerful old man has been run over in the
+street, or is down with the fever, or has turned up his toes in
+the parish dead-house--that's what they say in the servants'
+hall. Try me in your own kitchen, and see if your servants take
+me for a spy. Come, come, Mr. Lawyer! out with your ten pounds,
+and don't waste any more precious time about it!"
+
+"I will consider and let you know," said Mr. Troy.
+
+Old Sharon laughed more ferociously than ever, and hobbled round
+the table in a great hurry to the place at which Moody was
+sitting. He laid one hand on the steward's shoulder, and pointed
+derisively with the other to Mr. Troy.
+
+"I say, Mr. Silent-man! Bet you five pounds I never hear of that
+lawyer again!"
+
+Silently attentive all through the interview (except when he was
+answering questions), Moody only replied in the fewest words. "I
+don't bet," was all he said. He showed no resentment at Sharon's
+familiarity, and he appeared to find no amusement in Sharon's
+extraordinary talk. The old vagabond seemed actually to produce a
+serious impression on him! When Mr. Troy set the example of
+rising to go, he still kept his seat, and looked at the lawyer as
+if he regretted leaving the atmosphere of tobacco smoke reeking
+in the dirty room.
+
+"Have you anything to say before we go?" Mr. Troy asked.
+
+Moody rose slowly and looked at Old Sharon. "Not just now, sir,"
+he replied, looking away again, after a moment's reflection.
+
+Old Sharon interpreted Moody's look and Moody's reply from his
+own peculiar point of view. He suddenly drew the steward away
+into a corner of the room.
+
+"I say!" he began, in a whisper. "Upon your solemn word of honor,
+you know--are you as rich as the lawyer there?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Look here! It's half price to a poor man. If you feel like
+coming back, on your own account--five pounds will do from _you_.
+There! there! Think of it!--think of it!"
+
+"Now, then!" said Mr. Troy, waiting for his companion, with the
+door open in his hand. He looked back at Sharon when Moody joined
+him. The old vagabond was settled again in his armchair, with his
+dog in his lap, his pipe in his mouth, and his French novel in
+his hand; exhibiting exactly the picture of frowzy comfort which
+he had presented when his visitors first entered the room.
+
+"Good-day," said Mr. Troy, with haughty condescension.
+
+"Don't interrupt me!" rejoined Old Sharon, absorbed in his novel.
+"You've had your guinea's worth. Lord! what a lovely book this
+is! Don't interrupt me!"
+
+"Impudent scoundrel!" said Mr. Troy, when he and Moody were in
+the street again. "What could my friend mean by recommending him?
+Fancy his expecting me to trust him with ten pounds! I consider
+even the guinea completely thrown away."
+
+"Begging your pardon, sir," said Moody, "I don't quite agree with
+you there."
+
+"What! you don't mean to tell me you understand that oracular
+sentence of his--'Suspect the very last person on whom suspicion
+could possibly fall.' Rubbish!"
+
+"I don't say I understand it, sir. I only say it has set me
+thinking."
+
+"Thinking of what? Do your suspicions point to the thief?"
+
+"If you will please to excuse me, Mr. Troy, I should like to wait
+a while before I answer that."
+
+Mr. Troy suddenly stood still, and eyed his companion a little
+distrustfully.
+
+"Are you going to turn detective-policeman on your own account?"
+he asked.
+
+"There's nothing I won't turn to, and try, to help Miss Isabel in
+this matter," Moody answered, firmly. "I have saved a few hundred
+pounds in Lady Lydiard's service, and I am ready to spend every
+farthing of it, if I can only discover the thief."
+
+Mr. Troy walked on again. "Miss Isabel seems to have a good
+friend in you," he said. He was (perhaps unconsciously) a little
+offended by the independent tone in which the steward spoke,
+after he had himself engaged to take the vindication of the
+girl's innocence into his own hands.
+
+"Miss Isabel has a devoted servant and slave in me!" Moody
+answered, with passionate enthusiasm.
+
+"Very creditable; I haven't a word to say against it," Mr. Troy
+rejoined. "But don't forget that the young lady has other devoted
+friends besides you. I am her devoted friend, for instance--I
+have promised to serve her, and I mean to keep my word. You will
+excuse me for adding that my experience and discretion are quite
+as likely to be useful to her as your enthusiasm. I know the
+world well enough to be careful in trusting strangers. It will do
+you no harm, Mr. Moody, to follow my example."
+
+Moody accepted his reproof with becoming patience and
+resignation. "If you have anything to propose, sir, that will be
+of service to Miss Isabel," he said, "I shall be happy if I can
+assist you in the humblest capacity."
+
+"And if not?" Mr. Troy inquired, conscious of having nothing to
+propose as he asked the question.
+
+"In that case, sir, I must take my own course, and blame nobody
+but myself if it leads me astray."
+
+Mr. Troy said no more: he parted from Moody at the next turning.
+
+Pursuing the subject privately in his own mind, he decided on
+taking the earliest opportunity of visiting Isabel at her aunt's
+house, and on warning her, in her future intercourse with Moody,
+not to trust too much to the steward's discretion. "I haven't a
+doubt," thought the lawyer, "of what he means to do next. The
+infatuated fool is going back to Old Sharon!"
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+RETURNING to his office, Mr. Troy discovered, among the
+correspondence that was waiting for him, a letter from the very
+person whose welfare was still the uppermost subject in his mind.
+Isabel Miller wrote in these terms:
+
+"Dear Sir--My aunt, Miss Pink, is very desirous of consulting you
+professionally at the earliest opportunity. Although South Morden
+is within little more than half an hour's railway ride from
+London, Miss Pink does not presume to ask you to visit her, being
+well aware of the value of your time. Will you, therefore, be so
+kind as to let me know when it will be convenient to you to
+receive my aunt at your office in London? Believe me, dear sir,
+respectfully yours, ISABEL MILLER. P.S.--I am further instructed
+to say that the regrettable event at Lady Lydiard's house is the
+proposed subject of the consultation. The Lawn, South Morden.
+Thursday."
+
+Mr. Troy smiled as he read the letter. "Too formal for a young
+girl!" he said to himself. "Every word of it has been dictated by
+Miss Pink." He was not long in deciding what course he should
+take. There was a pressing necessity for cautioning Isabel, and
+here was his opportunity. He sent for his head clerk, and looked
+at his list of engagements for the day. There was nothing set
+down in the book which the clerk was not quite as well able to do
+as the master. Mr. Troy consulted his railway-guide, ordered his
+cab, and caught the next train to South Mord en.
+
+South Morden was then (and remains to this day) one of those
+primitive agricultural villages, passed over by the march of
+modern progress, which are still to be found in the near
+neighborhood of London. Only the slow trains stopped at the
+station and there was so little to do that the station-master and
+his porter grew flowers on the embankment, and trained creepers
+over the waiting-room window. Turning your back on the railway,
+and walking along the one street of South Morden, you found
+yourself in the old England of two centuries since. Gabled
+cottages, with fast-closed windows; pigs and poultry in quiet
+possession of the road; the venerable church surrounded by its
+shady burial-ground; the grocer's shop which sold everything, and
+the butcher's shop which sold nothing; the scarce inhabitants who
+liked a good look at a stranger, and the unwashed children who
+were pictures of dirty health; the clash of the iron-chained
+bucket in the public well, and the thump of the falling nine-pins
+in the skittle-ground behind the public-house; the horse-pond on
+the one bit of open ground, and the old elm-tree with the wooden
+seat round it on the other--these were some of the objects that
+you saw, and some of the noises that you heard in South Morden,
+as you passed from one end of the village to the other.
+
+About half a mile beyond the last of the old cottages, modern
+England met you again under the form of a row of little villas,
+set up by an adventurous London builder who had bought the land a
+bargain. Each villa stood in its own little garden, and looked
+across a stony road at the meadow lands and softly-rising wooded
+hills beyond. Each villa faced you in the sunshine with the
+horrid glare of new red brick, and forced its nonsensical name on
+your attention, traced in bright paint on the posts of its
+entrance gate. Consulting the posts as he advanced, Mr. Troy
+arrived in due course of time at the villa called The Lawn, which
+derived its name apparently from a circular patch of grass in
+front of the house. The gate resisting his efforts to open it, he
+rang the bell.
+
+Admitted by a trim, clean, shy little maid-servant, Mr. Troy
+looked about him in amazement. Turn which way he might, he found
+himself silently confronted by posted and painted instructions to
+visitors, which forbade him to do this, and commanded him to do
+that, at every step of his progress from the gate to the house.
+On the side of the lawn a label informed him that he was not to
+walk on the grass. On the other side a painted hand pointed along
+a boundary-wall to an inscription which warned him to go that way
+if he had business in the kitchen. On the gravel walk at the foot
+of the housesteps words, neatly traced in little white shells,
+reminded him not to "forget the scraper". On the doorstep he was
+informed, in letters of lead, that he was "Welcome!" On the mat
+in the passage bristly black words burst on his attention,
+commanding him to "wipe his shoes." Even the hat-stand in the
+hall was not allowed to speak for itself; it had "Hats and
+Cloaks" inscribed on it, and it issued its directions
+imperatively in the matter of your wet umbrella--"Put it here!"
+
+Giving the trim little servant his card, Mr. Troy was introduced
+to a reception-room on the lower floor. Before he had time to
+look round him the door was opened again from without, and Isabel
+stole into the room on tiptoe. She looked worn and anxious. When
+she shook hands with the old lawyer the charming smile that he
+remembered so well was gone.
+
+"Don't say you have seen me," she whispered. "I am not to come
+into the room till my aunt sends for me. Tell me two things
+before I run away again. How is Lady Lydiard? And have you
+discovered the thief?"
+
+"Lady Lydiard was well when I last saw her; and we have not yet
+succeeded in discovering the thief." Having answered the
+questions in those terms, Mr. Troy decided on cautioning Isabel
+on the subject of the steward while he had the chance. "One
+question on my side," he said, holding her back from the door by
+the arm. "Do you expect Moody to visit you here?"
+
+"I am _sure_ he will visit me," Isabel answered warmly. "He has
+promised to come here at my request. I never knew what a kind
+heart Robert Moody had till this misfortune fell on me. My aunt,
+who is not easily taken with strangers, respects and admires him.
+I can't tell you how good he was to me on the journey here--and
+how kindly, how nobly, he spoke to me when we parted." She
+paused, and turned her head away. The tears were rising in her
+eyes. "In my situation," she said faintly, "kindness is very
+keenly felt. Don't notice me, Mr. Troy."
+
+The lawyer waited a moment to let her recover herself.
+
+"I agree entirely, my dear, in your opinion of Moody," he said.
+"At the same time, I think it right to warn you that his zeal in
+your service may possibly outrun his discretion. He may feel too
+confidently about penetrating the mystery of the missing money;
+and, unless you are on your guard, he may raise false hopes in
+you when you next see him. Listen to any advice that he may give
+you, by all means. But, before you decide on being guided by his
+opinion, consult my older experience, and hear what I have to say
+on the subject. Don't suppose that I am attempting to make you
+distrust this good friend," he added, noticing the look of uneasy
+surprise which Isabel fixed on him. "No such idea is in my mind.
+I only warn you that Moody's eagerness to be of service to you
+may mislead him. You understand me."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Isabel coldly; "I understand you. Please let
+me go now. My aunt will be down directly; and she must not find
+me here." She curtseyed with distant respect, and left the room.
+
+"So much for trying to put two ideas together into a girl's
+mind!" thought Mr. Troy, when he was alone again. "The little
+fool evidently thinks I am jealous of Moody's place in her
+estimation. Well! I have done my duty--and I can do no more."
+
+He looked round the room. Not a chair was out of its place, not a
+speck of dust was to be seen. The brightly-perfect polish of the
+table made your eyes ache; the ornaments on it looked as if they
+had never been touched by mortal hand; the piano was an object
+for distant admiration, not an instrument to be played on; the
+carpet made Mr. Troy look nervously at the soles of his shoes;
+and the sofa (protected by layers of white crochet-work) said as
+plainly as if in words, "Sit on me if you dare!" Mr. Troy
+retreated to a bookcase at the further end of the room. The books
+fitted the shelves to such absolute perfection that he had some
+difficulty in taking one of them out. When he had succeeded, he
+found himself in possession of a volume of the History of
+England. On the fly-leaf he encountered another written
+warning:--"This book belongs to Miss Pink's Academy for Young
+Ladies, and is not to be removed from the library." The date,
+which was added, referred to a period of ten years since. Miss
+Pink now stood revealed as a retired schoolmistress, and Mr. Troy
+began to understand some of the characteristic peculiarities of
+that lady's establishment which had puzzled him up to the present
+time.
+
+He had just succeeded in putting the book back again when the
+door opened once more, and Isabel's aunt entered the room.
+
+If Miss Pink could, by any possible conjuncture of circumstances,
+have disappeared mysteriously from her house and her friends, the
+police would have found the greatest difficulty in composing the
+necessary description of the missing lady. The acutest observer
+could have discovered nothing that was noticeable or
+characteristic in her personal appearance. The pen of the present
+writer portrays her in despair by a series of negatives. She was
+not young, she was not old; she was neither tall nor short, nor
+stout nor thin; nobody could call her features attractive, and
+nobody could call them ugly; there was nothing in her voice, her
+expression, her manner, or her dress that differed in any
+appreciable degree from the voice, expression, manner, and dress
+of five hundred thousand other single ladies of her age and
+position in the world. If you had asked her to describe herself,
+she would have answered, "I am  a gentlew oman"; and if you had
+further inquired which of her numerous accomplishments took
+highest rank in her own esteem, she would have replied, "My
+powers of conversation." For the rest, she was Miss Pink, of
+South Morden; and, when that has been said, all has been said.
+
+"Pray be seated, sir. We have had a beautiful day, after the
+long-continued wet weather. I am told that the season is very
+unfavorable for wall-fruit. May I offer you some refreshment
+after your journey?" In these terms and in the smoothest of
+voices, Miss Pink opened the interview.
+
+Mr. Troy made a polite reply, and added a few strictly
+conventional remarks on the beauty of the neighborhood. Not even
+a lawyer could sit in Miss Pink's presence, and hear Miss Pink's
+conversation, without feeling himself called upon (in the nursery
+phrase) to "be on his best behavior".
+
+"It is extremely kind of you, Mr. Troy, to favor me with this
+visit," Miss Pink resumed. "I am well aware that the time of
+professional gentlemen is of especial value to them; and I will
+therefore ask you to excuse me if I proceed abruptly to the
+subject on which I desire to consult your experience."
+
+Here the lady modestly smoothed out her dress over her knees, and
+the lawyer made a bow. Miss Pink's highly-trained conversation
+had perhaps one fault--it was not, strictly speaking,
+conversation at all. In its effect on her hearers it rather
+resembled the contents of a fluently conventional letter, read
+aloud.
+
+"The circumstances under which my niece Isabel has left Lady
+Lydiard's house," Miss Pink proceeded, "are so indescribably
+painful--I will go further, I will say so deeply
+humiliating--that I have forbidden her to refer to them again in
+my presence, or to mention them in the future to any living
+creature besides myself. You are acquainted with those
+circumstances, Mr. Troy; and you will understand my indignation
+when I first learnt that my sister's child had been suspected of
+theft. I have not the honor of being acquainted with Lady
+Lydiard. She is not a Countess, I believe? Just so! Her husband
+was only a Baron. I am not acquainted with Lady Lydiard; and I
+will not trust myself to say what I think of her conduct to my
+niece."
+
+"Pardon me, madam," Mr. Troy interposed. "Before you say any more
+about Lady Lydiard, I really must beg leave to observe--"
+
+"Pardon _me_," Miss Pink rejoined. "I never form a hasty
+judgment. Lady Lydiard's conduct is beyond the reach of any
+defense, no matter how ingenious it may be. You may not be aware,
+sir, that in receiving my niece under her roof her Ladyship was
+receiving a gentlewoman by birth as well as by education. My late
+lamented sister was the daughter of a clergyman of the Church of
+England. I need hardly remind you that, as such, she was a born
+lady. Under favoring circumstances, Isabel's maternal grandfather
+might have been Archbishop of Canterbury, and have taken
+precedence of the whole House of Peers, the Princes of the blood
+Royal alone excepted. I am not prepared to say that my niece is
+equally well connected on her father's side. My sister
+surprised--I will not add shocked--us when she married a chemist.
+At the same time, a chemist is not a tradesman. He is a gentleman
+at one end of the profession of Medicine, and a titled physician
+is a gentleman at the other end. That is all. In inviting Isabel
+to reside with her, Lady Lydiard, I repeat, was bound to remember
+that she was associating herself with a young gentlewoman. She
+has _not_ remembered this, which is one insult; and she has
+suspected my niece of theft, which is another."
+
+Miss Pink paused to take breath. Mr. Troy made a second attempt
+to get a hearing.
+
+"Will you kindly permit me, madam, to say a few words?"
+
+"No!" said Miss Pink, asserting the most immovable obstinacy
+under the blandest politeness of manner. "Your time, Mr. Troy, is
+really too valuable! Not even your trained intellect can excuse
+conduct which is manifestly _in_excusable on the face of it. Now
+you know my opinion of Lady Lydiard, you will not be surprised to
+hear that I decline to trust her Ladyship. She may, or she may
+not, cause the necessary inquiries to be made for the vindication
+of my niece's character. In a matter so serious as this--I may
+say, in a duty which I owe to the memories of my sister and my
+parents--I will not leave the responsibility to Lady Lydiard. I
+will take it on myself. Let me add that I am able to pay the
+necessary expenses. The earlier years of my life, Mr. Troy, have
+been passed in the tuition of young ladies. I have been happy in
+meriting the confidence of parents; and I have been strict in
+observing the golden rules of economy. On my retirement, I have
+been able to invest a modest, a very modest, little fortune in
+the Funds. A portion of it is at the service of my niece for the
+recovery of her good name; and I desire to place the necessary
+investigation confidentially in your hands. You are acquainted
+with the case, and the case naturally goes to you. I could not
+prevail on myself--I really could not prevail on myself--to
+mention it to a stranger. That is the business on which I wished
+to consult you. Please say nothing more about Lady Lydiard--the
+subject is inexpressibly disagreeable to me. I will only trespass
+on your kindness to tell me if I have succeeded in making myself
+understood."
+
+Miss Pink leaned back in her chair, at the exact angle permitted
+by the laws of propriety; rested her left elbow on the palm of
+her right hand, and lightly supported her cheek with her
+forefinger and thumb. In this position she waited Mr. Troy's
+answer--the living picture of human obstinacy in its most
+respectable form.
+
+If Mr. Troy had not been a lawyer--in other words, if he had not
+been professionally capable of persisting in his own course, in
+the face of every conceivable difficulty and discouragement--Miss
+Pink might have remained in undisturbed possession of her own
+opinions. As it was, Mr. Troy had got his hearing at last; and no
+matter how obstinately she might close her eyes to it, Miss Pink
+was now destined to have the other side of the case presented to
+her view.
+
+"I am sincerely obliged to you, madam, for the expression of your
+confidence in me," Mr. Troy began; "at the same time, I must beg
+you to excuse me if I decline to accept your proposal."
+
+Miss Pink had not expected to receive such an answer as this. The
+lawyer's brief refusal surprised and annoyed her.
+
+"Why do you decline to assist me?" she asked.
+
+"Because," answered Mr. Troy, "my services are already engaged,
+in Miss Isabel's interest, by a client whom I have served for
+more than twenty years. My client is--"
+
+Miss Pink anticipated the coming disclosure. "You need not
+trouble yourself, sir, to mention your client's name," she said.
+
+"My client," persisted Mr. Troy, "loves Miss Isabel dearly."
+
+"That is a matter of opinion," Miss Pink interposed.
+
+"And believes in Miss Isabel's innocence," proceeded the
+irrepressible lawyer, "as firmly as you believe in it yourself."
+
+Miss Pink (being human) had a temper; and Mr. Troy had found his
+way to it.
+
+"If Lady Lydiard believes in my niece's innocence," said Miss
+Pink, suddenly sitting bolt upright in her chair, "why has my
+niece been compelled, in justice to herself, to leave Lady
+Lydiard's house?"
+
+"You will admit, madam," Mr. Troy answered cautiously, "that we
+are all of us liable, in this wicked world, to be the victims of
+appearances. Your niece is a victim--an innocent victim. She
+wisely withdraws from Lady Lydiard's house until appearances are
+proved to be false and her position is cleared up."
+
+Miss Pink had her reply ready. "That is simply acknowledging, in
+other words, that my niece is suspected. I am only a woman, Mr.
+Troy--but it is not quite so easy to mislead me as you seem to
+suppose."
+
+Mr. Troy's temper was admirably trained. But it began to
+acknowledge that Miss Pink's powers of irritation could sting to
+some purpose.
+
+"No intention of misleading you, madam, has ever crossed my
+mind," he rejoined warmly. "As for your niece, I can tell you
+this. In all my experience of Lady Lydiard, I never saw her so
+distressed as she was when Miss Isabel left the house!"
+
+"Indeed!" said Miss Pink, with an incredulous smile. "In my rank
+of life, when we feel distressed about a person, we do our best
+to comfort that person by a kind letter or an early visit. But
+then I am not a lady of title."
+
+"Lady Lydiard engaged herself to call on Miss Isabel in my
+hearing," said Mr. Troy. "Lady Lydiard is the most generous woman
+living!"
+
+"Lady Lydiard is here!" cried a joyful voice on the other side of
+the door.
+
+At the same moment, Isabel burst into the room in a state of
+excitement which actually ignored the formidable presence of Miss
+Pink. "I beg your pardon, aunt! I was upstairs at the window, and
+I saw the carriage stop at the gate. And Tommie has come, too!
+The darling saw me at the window!" cried the poor girl, her eyes
+sparkling with delight as a perfect explosion of barking made
+itself heard over the tramp of horses' feet and the crash of
+carriage wheels outside.
+
+Miss Pink rose slowly, with a dignity that looked capable of
+adequately receiving--not one noble lady only, but the whole
+peerage of England.
+
+"Control yourself, dear Isabel," she said. "No well-bred young
+lady permits herself to become unduly excited. Stand by my
+side--a little behind me."
+
+Isabel obeyed. Mr. Troy kept his place, and privately enjoyed his
+triumph over Miss Pink. If Lady Lydiard had been actually in
+league with him, she could not have chosen a more opportune time
+for her visit. A momentary interval passed. The carriage drew up
+at the door; the horses trampled on the gravel; the bell rung
+madly; the uproar of Tommie, released from the carriage and
+clamoring to be let in, redoubled its fury. Never before had such
+an unruly burst of noises invaded the tranquility of Miss Pink's
+villa!
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE trim little maid-servant ran upstairs from her modest little
+kitchen, trembling at the terrible prospect of having to open the
+door. Miss Pink, deafened by the barking, had just time to say,
+"What a very ill-behaved dog!" when a sound of small objects
+overthrown in the hall, and a scurrying of furious claws across
+the oil-cloth, announced that Tommie had invaded the house. As
+the servant appeared, introducing Lady Lydiard, the dog ran in.
+He made one frantic leap at Isabel, which would certainly have
+knocked her down but for the chair that happened to be standing
+behind her. Received on her lap, the faithful creature half
+smothered her with his caresses. He barked, he shrieked, in his
+joy at seeing her again. He jumped off her lap and tore round and
+round the room at the top of his speed; and every time he passed
+Miss Pink he showed the whole range of his teeth and snarled
+ferociously at her ankles. Having at last exhausted his
+superfluous energy, he leaped back again on Isabel's lap, with
+his tongue quivering in his open mouth--his tail wagging softly,
+and his eye on Miss Pink, inquiring how she liked a dog in her
+drawing-room!
+
+"I hope my dog has not disturbed you, ma'am?" said Lady Lydiard,
+advancing from the mat at the doorway, on which she had patiently
+waited until the raptures of Tommie subsided into repose.
+
+Miss Pink, trembling between terror and indignation, acknowledged
+Lady Lydiard's polite inquiry by a ceremonious bow, and an answer
+which administered by implication a dignified reproof. "Your
+Ladyship's dog does not appear to be a very well-trained animal,"
+the ex-schoolmistress remarked.
+
+"Well trained?" Lady Lydiard repeated, as if the expression was
+perfectly unintelligible to her. "I don't think you have had much
+experience of dogs, ma'am." She turned to Isabel, and embraced
+her tenderly. "Give me a kiss, my dear--you don't know how
+wretched I have been since you left me." She looked back again at
+Miss Pink. "You are not, perhaps, aware, ma'am, that my dog is
+devotedly attached to your niece. A dog's love has been
+considered by many great men (whose names at the moment escape
+me) as the most touching and disinterested of all earthly
+affections." She looked the other way, and discovered the lawyer.
+"How do you do, Mr. Troy? It's a pleasant surprise to find you
+here The house was so dull without Isabel that I really couldn't
+put off seeing her any longer. When you are more used to Tommie,
+Miss Pink, you will understand and admire him. _You_ understand
+and admire him, Isabel--don't you? My child! you are not looking
+well. I shall take you back with me, when the horses have had
+their rest. We shall never be happy away from each other."
+
+Having expressed her sentiments, distributed her greetings, and
+defended her dog--all, as it were, in one breath--Lady Lydiard
+sat down by Isabel's side, and opened a large green fan that hung
+at her girdle. "You have no idea, Miss Pink, how fat people
+suffer in hot weather," said the old lady, using her fan
+vigorously.
+
+Miss Pink's eyes dropped modestly to the ground--"fat" was such a
+coarse word to use, if a lady _must_ speak of her own superfluous
+flesh! "May I offer some refreshment?" Miss Pink asked,
+mincingly. "A cup of tea?"
+
+Lady Lydiard shook her head.
+
+"A glass of water?"
+
+Lady Lydiard declined this last hospitable proposal with an
+exclamation of disgust. "Have you got any beer?" she inquired.
+
+"I beg your Ladyship's pardon," said Miss Pink, doubting the
+evidence of her own ears. "Did you say--beer?"
+
+Lady Lydiard gesticulated vehemently with her fan. "Yes, to be
+sure! Beer! beer!"
+
+Miss Pink rose, with a countenance expressive of genteel disgust,
+and rang the bell. "I think you have beer downstairs, Susan?" she
+said, when the maid appeared at the door.
+
+"Yes, miss."
+
+"A glass of beer for Lady Lydiard," said Miss Pink--under
+protest.
+
+"Bring it in a jug," shouted her Ladyship, as the maid left the
+room. "I like to froth it up for myself," she continued,
+addressing Miss Pink. "Isabel sometimes does it for me, when she
+is at home--don't you, my dear?"
+
+Miss Pink had been waiting her opportunity to assert her own
+claim to the possession of her own niece, from the time when Lady
+Lydiard had coolly declared her intention of taking Isabel back
+with her. The opportunity now presented itself.
+
+"Your Ladyship will pardon me," she said, "if I remark that my
+niece's home is under my humble roof. I am properly sensible, I
+hope, of your kindness to Isabel, but while she remains the
+object of a disgraceful suspicion she remains with me."
+
+Lady Lydiard closed her fan with an angry snap.
+
+"You are completely mistaken, Miss Pink. You may not mean it--but
+you speak most unjustly if you say that your niece is an object
+of suspicion to me, or to anybody in my house."
+
+Mr. Troy, quietly listening up to this point now interposed to
+stop the discussion before it could degenerate into a personal
+quarrel. His keen observation, aided by his accurate knowledge of
+his client's character, had plainly revealed to him what was
+passing in Lady Lydiard's mind. She had entered the house,
+feeling (perhaps unconsciously) a jealousy of Miss Pink, as her
+predecessor in Isabel's affections, and as the natural
+protectress of the girl under existing circumstances. Miss Pink's
+reception of her dog had additionally irritated the old lady. She
+had taken a malicious pleasure in shocking the schoolmistress's
+sense of propriety--and she was now only too ready to proceed to
+further extremities on the delicate question of Isabel's
+justification for leaving her house. For Isabel's own sake,
+therefore--to say nothing of other reasons--it was urgently
+desirable to keep the peace between the two ladies. With this
+excellent object in view, Mr. Troy seized his opportunity of
+striking into the conversation for the first time.
+
+"Pardon me, Lady Lydiard," he said, "you are speaking of a
+subject which has been already sufficiently discussed between
+Miss Pink and myself. I think we shall do better not to dwell
+uselessly on past events, but to direct our attention to the
+future. We are all equally satisfied of the complete rectitude of
+Miss Isabel's conduct, and we are all equally interested in the
+vindication of her good name."
+
+Whether these temperate words would of themselves have exercised
+the pacifying influence at which Mr. Troy aimed may be doubtful.
+But, as he ceased speaking, a powerful auxiliary appeared in the
+shape of the beer. Lady Lydiard seized on  the jug, a nd filled
+the tumbler for herself with an unsteady hand. Miss Pink,
+trembling for the integrity of her carpet, and scandalized at
+seeing a peeress drinking beer like a washer-woman, forgot the
+sharp answer that was just rising to her lips when the lawyer
+interfered. "Small!" said Lady Lydiard, setting down the empty
+tumbler, and referring to the quality of the beer. "But very
+pleasant and refreshing. What's the servant's name? Susan? Well,
+Susan, I was dying of thirst and you have saved my life. You can
+leave the jug--I dare say I shall empty it before I go."
+
+Mr. Troy, watching Miss Pink's face, saw that it was time to
+change the subject again.
+
+"Did you notice the old village, Lady Lydiard, on your way here?"
+he asked. "The artists consider it one of the most picturesque
+places in England."
+
+"I noticed that it was a very dirty village," Lady Lydiard
+answered, still bent on making herself disagreeable to Miss Pink.
+The artists may say what they please; I see nothing to admire in
+rotten cottages, and bad drainage, and ignorant people. I suppose
+the neighborhood has its advantages. It looks dull enough, to my
+mind."
+
+Isabel had hitherto modestly restricted her exertions to keeping
+Tommie quiet on her lap. Like Mr. Troy, she occasionally looked
+at her aunt--and she now made a timid attempt to defend the
+neighborhood as a duty that she owed to Miss Pink.
+
+"Oh, my Lady! don't say it's a dull neighborhood," she pleaded.
+"There are such pretty walks all round us. And, when you get to
+the hills, the view is beautiful."
+
+Lady Lydiard's answer to this was a little masterpiece of
+good-humored contempt. She patted Isabel's cheek, and said,
+"Pooh! Pooh!"
+
+"Your Ladyship does not admire the beauties of Nature," Miss Pink
+remarked, with a compassionate smile. "As we get older, no doubt
+our sight begins to fail--"
+
+"And we leave off canting about the beauties of Nature," added
+Lady Lydiard. "I hate the country. Give me London, and the
+pleasures of society."
+
+"Come! come! Do the country justice, Lady Lydiard!" put in
+peace-making Mr. Troy. "There is plenty of society to be found
+out of London--as good society as the world can show."
+
+"The sort of society," added Miss Pink, "which is to be found,
+for example, in this neighborhood. Her Ladyship is evidently not
+aware that persons of distinction surround us, whichever way we
+turn. I may instance among others, the Honorable Mr. Hardyman--"
+
+Lady Lydiard, in the act of pouring out a second glassful of
+beer, suddenly set down the jug.
+
+"Who is that you're talking of, Miss Pink?"
+
+"I am talking of our neighbor, Lady Lydiard--the Honorable Mr.
+Hardyman."
+
+"Do you mean Alfred Hardyman--the man who breeds the horses?"
+
+"The distinguished gentleman who owns the famous stud-farm," said
+Miss Pink, correcting the bluntly-direct form in which Lady
+Lydiard had put her question.
+
+"Is he in the habit of visiting here?" the old lady inquired,
+with a sudden appearance of anxiety. "Do you know him?"
+
+"I had the honor of being introduced to Mr. Hardyman at our last
+flower show," Miss Pink replied. "He has not yet favored me with
+a visit."
+
+Lady Lydiard's anxiety appeared to be to some extent relieved.
+
+"I knew that Hardyman's farm was in this county," she said; "but
+I had no notion that it was in the neighborhood of South Morden.
+How far away is he--ten or a dozen miles, eh?"
+
+"Not more than three miles," answered Miss Pink. "We consider him
+quite a near neighbor of ours."
+
+Renewed anxiety showed itself in Lady Lydiard. She looked round
+sharply at Isabel. The girl's head was bent so low over the rough
+head of the dog that her face was almost entirely concealed from
+view. So far as appearances went, she seemed to be entirely
+absorbed in fondling Tommie. Lady Lydiard roused her with a tap
+of the green fan.
+
+"Take Tommie out, Isabel, for a run in the garden," she said. "He
+won't sit still much longer--and he may annoy Miss Pink. Mr.
+Troy, will you kindly help Isabel to keep my ill-trained dog in
+order?"
+
+Mr. Troy got on his feet, and, not very willingly, followed
+Isabel out of the room. "They will quarrel now, to a dead
+certainty!" he thought to himself, as he closed the door. "Have
+you any idea of what this means?" he said to his companion, as he
+joined her in the hall. "What has Mr. Hardyman done to excite all
+this interest in him?"
+
+Isabel's guilty color rose. She knew perfectly well that
+Hardyman's unconcealed admiration of her was the guiding motive
+of Lady Lydiard's inquiries. If she had told the truth, Mr. Troy
+would have unquestionably returned to the drawing-room, with or
+without an acceptable excuse for intruding himself. But Isabel
+was a woman; and her answer, it is needless to say, was "I don't
+know, I'm sure."
+
+In the mean time, the interview between the two ladies began in a
+manner which would have astonished Mr. Troy--they were both
+silent. For once in her life Lady Lydiard was considering what
+she should say, before she said it. Miss Pink, on her side,
+naturally waited to hear what object her Ladyship had in
+view--waited, until her small reserve of patience gave way. Urged
+by irresistible curiosity, she spoke first.
+
+"Have you anything to say to me in private?" she asked.
+
+Lady Lydiard had not got to the end of her reflections. She said
+"Yes!" --and she said no more.
+
+"Is it anything relating to my niece?" persisted Miss Pink.
+
+Still immersed in her reflections, Lady Lydiard suddenly rose to
+the surface, and spoke her mind, as usual.
+
+"About your niece, ma'am. The other day Mr. Hardyman called at my
+house, and saw Isabel."
+
+"Yes," said Miss Pink, politely attentive, but not in the least
+interested, so far.
+
+"That's not all ma'am. Mr. Hardyman admires Isabel; he owned it
+to me himself in so many words."
+
+Miss Pink listened, with a courteous inclination of her head. She
+looked mildly gratified, nothing more. Lady Lydiard proceeded:
+
+"You and I think differently on many matters," she said. "But we
+are both agreed, I am sure, in feeling the sincerest interest in
+Isabel's welfare. I beg to suggest to you, Miss Pink, that Mr.
+Hardyman, as a near neighbor of yours, is a very undesirable
+neighbor while Isabel remains in your house."
+
+Saying those words, under a strong conviction of the serious
+importance of the subject, Lady Lydiard insensibly recovered the
+manner and resumed the language which befitted a lady of her
+rank. Miss Pink, noticing the change, set it down to an
+expression of pride on the part of her visitor which, in
+referring to Isabel, assailed indirectly the social position of
+Isabel's aunt.
+
+"I fail entirely to understand what your Ladyship means," she
+said coldly.
+
+Lady Lydiard, on her side, looked in undisguised amazement at
+Miss Pink.
+
+"Haven't I told you already that Mr. Hardyman admires your
+niece?" she asked.
+
+"Naturally," said Miss Pink. "Isabel inherits her lamented
+mother's personal advantages. If Mr. Hardyman admires her, Mr.
+Hardyman shows his good taste."
+
+Lady Lydiard's eyes opened wider and wider in wonder. "My good
+lady!" she exclaimed, "is it possible you don't know that when a
+man admires a women he doesn't stop there? He falls in love with
+her (as the saying is) next."
+
+"So I have heard," said Miss Pink.
+
+"So you have _heard?_" repeated Lady Lydiard. "If Mr. Hardyman
+finds his way to Isabel I can tell you what you will _see_. Catch
+the two together, ma'am--and you will see Mr. Hardyman making
+love to your niece."
+
+"Under due restrictions, Lady Lydiard, and with my permission
+first obtained, of course, I see no objection to Mr. Hardyman
+paying his addresses to Isabel."
+
+"The woman is mad!" cried Lady Lydiard. "Do you actually suppose,
+Miss Pink, that Alfred Hardyman could, by any earthly
+possibility, marry your niece!"
+
+Not even Miss Pink's politeness could submit to such a question
+as this. She rose indignantly from her chair. "As you aware, Lady
+Lydiard, that the doubt you have just expressed is an insult to
+my niece, and a insult to Me?"
+
+"Are _you_ aware of who Mr. Hardyman really is?" retorted her
+Ladyship. "Or do you judge of his position by the vocation in
+life which he has perversely chosen to adopt? I can tell you, if
+you do, that Alfred Hardyman is the younger son of one of the
+ oldest barons in the English Peerage, and that his mother is
+related by marriage to the Royal family of Wurtemberg."
+
+Miss Pink received the full shock of this information without
+receding from her position by a hair-breadth.
+
+"An English gentlewoman offers a fit alliance to any man living
+who seeks her hand in marriage," said Miss Pink. "Isabel's mother
+(you may not be aware of it) was the daughter of an English
+clergyman--"
+
+"And Isabel's father was a chemist in a country town," added Lady
+Lydiard.
+
+"Isabel's father," rejoined Miss Pink, "was attached in a most
+responsible capacity to the useful and honorable profession of
+Medicine. Isabel is, in the strictest sense of the word, a young
+gentlewoman. If you contradict that for a single instant, Lady
+Lydiard, you will oblige me to leave the room."
+
+Those last words produced a result which Miss Pink had not
+anticipated--they roused Lady Lydiard to assert herself. As usual
+in such cases, she rose superior to her own eccentricity.
+Confronting Miss Pink, she now spoke and looked with the gracious
+courtesy and the unpresuming self-confidence of the order to
+which she belonged.
+
+"For Isabel's own sake, and for the quieting of my conscience,"
+she answered, "I will say one word more, Miss Pink, before I
+relieve you of my presence. Considering my age and my
+opportunities, I may claim to know quite as much as you do of the
+laws and customs which regulate society in our time. Without
+contesting your niece's social position--and without the
+slightest intention of insulting you--I repeat that the rank
+which Mr. Hardyman inherits makes it simply impossible for him
+even to think of marrying Isabel. You will do well not to give
+him any opportunities of meeting with her alone. And you will do
+better still (seeing that he is so near a neighbor of yours) if
+you permit Isabel to return to my protection, for a time at
+least. I will wait to hear from you when you have thought the
+matter over at your leisure. In the mean time, if I have
+inadvertently offended you, I ask your pardon--and I wish you
+good-evening."
+
+She bowed, and walked to the door. Miss Pink, as resolute as ever
+in maintaining her pretensions, made an effort to match the great
+lady on her own ground.
+
+"Before you go, Lady Lydiard, I beg to apologize if I have spoken
+too warmly on my side," she said. "Permit me to send for your
+carriage."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Pink. My carriage is only at the village inn. I
+shall enjoy a little walk in the cool evening air. Mr. Troy, I
+have no doubt, will give me his arm." She bowed once more, and
+quietly left the room.
+
+Reaching the little back garden of the villa, through an open
+door at the further end of the hall, Lady Lydiard found Tommie
+rolling luxuriously on Miss Pink's flower-beds, and Isabel and
+Mr. Troy in close consultation on the gravel walk.
+
+She spoke to the lawyer first.
+
+"They are baiting the horses at the inn," she said. "I want your
+arm, Mr. Troy, as far as the village--and, in return, I will take
+you back to London with me. I have to ask your advice about one
+or two little matters, and this is a good opportunity."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure, Lady Lydiard. I suppose I must say
+good-by to Miss Pink?"
+
+"A word of advice to you, Mr. Troy. Take care how you ruffle Miss
+Pink's sense of her own importance. Another word for your private
+ear. Miss Pink is a fool."
+
+On the lawyer's withdrawal, Lady Lydiard put her arm fondly round
+Isabel's waist. "What were you and Mr. Troy so busy in talking
+about?" she asked.
+
+"We were talking, my Lady, about tracing the person who stole the
+money," Isabel answered, rather sadly. "It seems a far more
+difficult matter than I supposed it to be. I try not to lose
+patience and hope--but it is a little hard to feel that
+appearances are against me, and to wait day after day in vain for
+the discovery that is to set me right."
+
+"You are a dear good child," said Lady Lydiard; "and you are more
+precious to me than ever. Don't despair, Isabel. With Mr. Troy's
+means of inquiring, and with my means of paying, the discovery of
+the thief cannot be much longer delayed. If you don't return to
+me soon, I shall come back and see you again. Your aunt hates the
+sight of me--but I don't care two straws for that," remarked Lady
+Lydiard, showing the undignified side of her character once more.
+"Listen to me, Isabel! I have no wish to lower your aunt in your
+estimation, but I feel far more confidence in your good sense
+than in hers. Mr. Hardyman's business has taken him to France for
+the present. It is at least possible that you may meet with him
+on his return. If you do, keep him at a distance, my
+dear--politely, of course. There! there! you needn't turn red; I
+am not blaming you; I am only giving you a little good advice. In
+your position you cannot possibly be too careful. Here is Mr.
+Troy! You must come to the gate with us, Isabel, or we shall
+never get Tommie away from you; I am only his second favorite;
+you have the first place in his affections. God bless and prosper
+you, my child!--I wish to heaven you were going back to London
+with me! Well, Mr. Troy, how have you done with Miss Pink? Have
+you offended that terrible 'gentlewoman' (hateful word!); or has
+it been all the other way, and has she given you a kiss at
+parting?"
+
+Mr. Troy smiled mysteriously, and changed the subject. His brief
+parting interview with the lady of the house was not of a nature
+to be rashly related. Miss Pink had not only positively assured
+him that her visitor was the most ill-bred woman she had ever met
+with, but had further accused Lady Lydiard of shaking her
+confidence in the aristocracy of her native country. "For the
+first time in my life," said Miss Pink, "I feel that something is
+to be said for the Republican point of view; and I am not
+indisposed to admit that the constitution of the United States
+_has_ its advantages!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE conference between Lady Lydiard and Mr. Troy, on the way back
+to London, led to some practical results.
+
+Hearing from her legal adviser that the inquiry after the missing
+money was for a moment at a standstill, Lady Lydiard made one of
+those bold suggestions with which she was accustomed to startle
+her friends in cases of emergency. She had heard favorable
+reports of the extraordinary ingenuity of the French police; and
+she now proposed sending to Paris for assistance, after first
+consulting her nephew, Mr. Felix Sweetsir. "Felix knows Paris as
+well as he knows London," she remarked. "He is an idle man, and
+it is quite likely that he will relieve us of all trouble by
+taking the matter into his own hands. In any case, he is sure to
+know who are the right people to address in our present
+necessity. What do you say?"
+
+Mr. Troy, in reply, expressed his doubts as to the wisdom of
+employing foreigners in a delicate investigation which required
+an accurate knowledge of English customs and English character.
+Waiving this objection, he approved of the idea of consulting her
+Ladyship's nephew. "Mr. Sweetsir is a man of the world," he said.
+"In putting the case before him, we are sure to have it presented
+to us from a new point of view." Acting on this favorable
+expression of opinion, Lady Lydiard wrote to her nephew. On the
+day after the visit to Miss Pink, the proposed council of three
+was held at Lady Lydiard's house.
+
+Felix, never punctual at keeping an appointment, was even later
+than usual on this occasion. He made his apologies with his hand
+pressed upon his forehead, and his voice expressive of the
+languor and discouragement of a suffering man.
+
+"The beastly English climate is telling on my nerves," said Mr.
+Sweetsir--"the horrid weight of the atmosphere, after the
+exhilarating air of Paris; the intolerable dirt and dullness of
+London, you know. I was in bed, my dear aunt, when I received
+your letter. You may imagine the completely demoralised?? state I
+was in, when I tell you of the effect which the news of the
+robbery produced on me. I fell back on my pillow, as if I had
+been shot. Your Ladyship should really be a little more careful
+in communicating these disagreeable surprises to a
+sensitively-organised man. Never mind--my valet is a perfect
+treasure; he brought me some drops of ether on a lump of sugar. I
+said, 'Alfred' (his name is Alfred), 'put me into my clothes!'
+Alfred put me in. I assure you it reminded me of my young days,
+when I was put into my first pair of trousers. Has Alfred
+forgotten anything? Have I got my braces on? Have I come out in
+my shirt-sleeves? Well, dear aunt;--well, Mr. Troy!--what can I
+say? What can I do?"
+
+Lady Lydiard, entirely without sympathy for nervous suffering,
+nodded to the lawyer. "You tell him," she said.
+
+"I believe I speak for her Ladyship," Mr. Troy began, "when I say
+that we should like to hear, in the first place, how the whole
+case strikes you, Mr. Sweetsir?"
+
+"Tell it me all over again," said Felix.
+
+Patient Mr. Troy told it all over again--and waited for the
+result.
+
+"Well?" said Felix.
+
+"Well?" said Mr. Troy. "Where does the suspicion of robbery rest
+in your opinion? You look at the theft of the bank-note with a
+fresh eye."
+
+"You mentioned a clergyman just now," said Felix. "The man, you
+know, to whom the money was sent. What was his name?"
+
+"The Reverend Samuel Bradstock."
+
+"You want me to name the person whom I suspect?"
+
+"Yes, if you please," said Mr. Troy.
+
+"I suspect the Reverend Samuel Bradstock," said Felix.
+
+"If you have come here to make stupid jokes," interposed Lady
+Lydiard, "you had better go back to your bed again. We want a
+serious opinion."
+
+"You _have_ a serious opinion," Felix coolly rejoined. "I never
+was more in earnest in my life. Your Ladyship is not aware of the
+first principle to be adopted in cases of suspicion. One proceeds
+on what I will call the exhaustive system of reasoning. Thus:
+Does suspicion point to the honest servants downstairs? No. To
+your Ladyship's adopted daughter? Appearances are against the
+poor girl; but you know her better than to trust to appearances.
+Are you suspicious of Moody? No. Of Hardyman--who was in the
+house at the time? Ridiculous! But I was in the house at the
+time, too. Do you suspect Me? Just so! That idea is ridiculous,
+too. Now let us sum up. Servants, adopted daughter, Moody,
+Hardyman, Sweetsir--all beyond suspicion. Who is left? The
+Reverend Samuel Bradstock."
+
+This ingenious exposition of "the exhaustive system of
+reasoning," failed to produce any effect on Lady Lydiard. "You
+are wasting our time," she said sharply. "You know as well as I
+do that you are talking nonsense."
+
+"I don't," said Felix. "Taking the gentlemanly professions all
+round, I know of no men who are so eager to get money, and who
+have so few scruples about how they get it, as the parsons. Where
+is there a man in any other profession who perpetually worries
+you for money?--who holds the bag under your nose for money?--who
+sends his clerk round from door to door to beg a few shillings of
+you, and calls it an 'Easter offering'? The parson does all this.
+Bradstock is a parson. I put it logically. Bowl me over, if you
+can."
+
+Mr. Troy attempted to "bowl him over," nevertheless. Lady Lydiard
+wisely interposed.
+
+"When a man persists in talking nonsense," she said, "silence is
+the best answer; anything else only encourages him." She turned
+to Felix. "I have a question to ask you," she went on. "You will
+either give me a serious reply, or wish me good-morning." With
+this brief preface, she made her inquiry as to the wisdom and
+possibility of engaging the services of the French police.
+
+Felix took exactly the view of the matter which had been already
+expressed by Mr. Troy. "Superior in intelligence," he said, "but
+not superior in courage, to the English police. Capable of
+performing wonders on their own ground and among their own
+people. But, my dear aunt, the two most dissimilar nations on the
+face of the earth are the English and the French. The French
+police may speak our language--but they are incapable of
+understanding our national character and our national manners.
+Set them to work on a private inquiry in the city of Pekin--and
+they would get on in time with the Chinese people. Set them to
+work in the city of London--and the English people would remain,
+from first to last, the same impenetrable mystery to them. In my
+belief the London Sunday would be enough of itself to drive them
+back to Paris in despair. No balls, no concerts, no theaters, not
+even a museum or a picture-gallery open; every shop shut up but
+the gin-shop; and nothing moving but the church bells and the men
+who sell the penny ices. Hundreds of Frenchmen come to see me on
+their first arrival in England. Every man of them rushes back to
+Paris on the second Saturday of his visit, rather than confront
+the horrors of a second Sunday in London! However, you can try it
+if you like. Send me a written abstract of the case, and I will
+forward it to one of the official people in the Rue Jerusalem,
+who will do anything he can to oblige me. Of course," said Felix,
+turning to Mr. Troy, "some of you have got the number of the lost
+bank-note? If the thief has tried to pass it in Paris, my man may
+be of some use to you."
+
+"Three of us have got the number of the note," answered Mr. Troy;
+"Miss Isabel Miller, Mr. Moody, and myself."
+
+"Very good," said Felix. "Send me the number, with the abstract
+of the case. Is there anything else I can do towards recovering
+the money?" he asked, turning to his aunt. "There is one lucky
+circumstance in connection with this loss--isn't there? It has
+fallen on a person who is rich enough to take it easy. Good
+heavens! suppose it had been _my_ loss!"
+
+"It has fallen doubly on me," said Lady Lydiard; "and I am
+certainly not rich enough to take it _that_ easy. The money was
+destined to a charitable purpose; and I have felt it my duty to
+pay it again."
+
+Felix rose and approached his aunt's chair with faltering steps,
+as became a suffering man. He took Lady Lydiard's hand and kissed
+it with enthusiastic admiration.
+
+"You excellent creature!" he said. "You may not think it, but you
+reconcile me to human nature. How generous! how noble! I think
+I'll go to bed again, Mr. Troy, if you really don't want any more
+of me. My head feels giddy and my legs tremble under me. It
+doesn't matter; I shall feel easier when Alfred has taken me out
+of my clothes again. God bless you, my dear aunt! I never felt so
+proud of being related to you as I do to-day. Good-morning Mr.
+Troy! Don't forget the abstract of the case; and don't trouble
+yourself to see me to the door. I dare say I shan't tumble
+downstairs; and, if I do, there's the porter in the hall to pick
+me up again. Enviable porter! as fat as butter and as idle as a
+pig! _Au revoir! au revoir!_" He kissed his hand, and drifted
+feebly out of the room. Sweetsir one might say, in a state of
+eclipse; but still the serviceable Sweetsir, who was never
+consulted in vain by the fortunate people privileged to call him
+friend!
+
+"Is he really ill, do you think?" Mr. Troy asked.
+
+"My nephew has turned fifty," Lady Lydiard answered, "and he
+persists in living as if he was a young man. Every now and then
+Nature says to him, 'Felix, you are old!' And Felix goes to bed,
+and says it's his nerves."
+
+"I suppose he is to be trusted to keep his word about writing to
+Paris?" pursued the lawyer.
+
+"Oh, yes! He may delay doing it but he will do it. In spite of
+his lackadaisical manner, he has moments of energy that would
+surprise you. Talking of surprises, I have something to tell you
+about Moody. Within the last day or two there has been a marked
+change in him--a change for the worse."
+
+"You astonish me, Lady Lydiard! In what way has Moody
+deteriorated?"
+
+"You shall hear. Yesterday was Friday. You took him out with you,
+on business, early in the morning."
+
+Mr. Troy bowed, and said nothing. He had not thought it desirable
+to mention the interview at which Old Sharon had cheated him of
+his guinea.
+
+"In the course of the afternoon," pursued Lady Lydiard, "I
+happened to want him, and I was informed that Moody had gone out
+again. Where had he gone? Nobody knew. Had he left word when he
+would be back? He had left no message of any sort. Of course, he
+is not in the position of an ordinary servant. I don't expect him
+to ask permission to go out. But I do expect him to leave word
+downstairs of the time at which he is likely to return. When he
+did
+ come back, after an absence of some hours, I naturally asked for
+an explanation. Would you believe it? he simply informed me that
+he had been away on business of his own; expressed no regret, and
+offered no explanation--in short, spoke as if he was an
+independent gentleman. You may not think it, but I kept my
+temper. I merely remarked that I hoped it would not happen again.
+He made me a bow, and he said, 'My business is not completed yet,
+my Lady. I cannot guarantee that it may not call me away again at
+a moment's notice.' What do you think of that? Nine people out of
+ten would have given him warning to leave their service. I begin
+to think I am a wonderful woman--I only pointed to the door. One
+does hear sometimes of men's brains softening in the most
+unexpected manner. I have my suspicions of Moody's brains, I can
+tell you."
+
+Mr. Troy's suspicions took a different direction: they pointed
+along the line of streets which led to Old Sharon's lodgings.
+Discreetly silent as to the turn which his thoughts had taken, he
+merely expressed himself as feeling too much surprised to offer
+any opinion at all.
+
+"Wait a little," said Lady Lydiard, "I haven't done surprising
+you yet. You have been a boy here in a page's livery, I think?
+Well, he is a good boy; and he has gone home for a week's holiday
+with his friends. The proper person to supply his place with the
+boots and shoes and other small employments, is of course the
+youngest footman, a lad only a few years older than himself. What
+do you think Moody does? Engages a stranger, with the house full
+of idle men-servants already, to fill the page's place. At
+intervals this morning I heard them wonderfully merry in the
+servants hall--_so_ merry that the noise and laughter found its
+way upstairs to the breakfast-room. I like my servants to be in
+good spirits; but it certainly did strike me that they were
+getting beyond reasonable limits. I questioned my maid, and was
+informed that the noise was all due to the jokes of the strangest
+old man that ever was seen. In other words, to the person whom my
+steward had taken it on himself to engage in the page's absence.
+I spoke to Moody on the subject. He answered in an odd, confused
+way, that he had exercised his discretion to the best of his
+judgment and that (if I wished it), he would tell the old man to
+keep his good spirits under better control. I asked him how he
+came to hear of the man. He only answered, 'By accident, my
+Lady'--and not one more word could I get out of him, good or bad.
+Moody engages the servants, as you know; but on every other
+occasion he has invariably consulted me before an engagement was
+settled. I really don't feel at all sure about this person who
+has been so strangely introduced into the house--he may be a
+drunkard or a thief. I wish you would speak to Moody yourself,
+Mr. Troy. Do you mind ringing the bell?"
+
+Mr. Troy rose, as a matter of course, and rang the bell.
+
+He was by this time, it is needless to say, convinced that Moody
+had not only gone back to consult Old Sharon on his own
+responsibility, but worse still, had taken the unwarrantable
+liberty of introducing him, as a spy, into the house. To
+communicate this explanation to Lady Lydiard would, in her
+present humor, be simply to produce the dismissal of the steward
+from her service. The only other alternative was to ask leave to
+interrogate Moody privately, and, after duly reproving him, to
+insist on the departure of Old Sharon as the one condition on
+which Mr. Troy would consent to keep Lady Lydiard in ignorance of
+the truth.
+
+"I think I shall manage better with Moody, if your Ladyship will
+permit me to see him in private," the lawyer said. "Shall I go
+downstairs and speak with him in his own room?"
+
+"Why should you trouble yourself to do that?" said her Ladyship.
+"See him here; and I will go into the boudoir."
+
+As she made that reply, the footman appeared at the drawing-room
+door.
+
+"Send Moody here," said Lady Lydiard.
+
+The footman's answer, delivered at that moment, assumed an
+importance which was not expressed in the footman's words. "My
+Lady," he said, "Mr. Moody has gone out."
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WHILE the strange proceedings of the steward were the subject of
+conversation between Lady Lydiard and Mr. Troy, Moody was alone
+in his room, occupied in writing to Isabel. Being unwilling that
+any eyes but his own should see the address, he had himself
+posted his letter; the time that he had chosen for leaving the
+house proving, unfortunately, to be also the time proposed by her
+Ladyship for his interview with the lawyer. In ten minutes after
+the footman had reported his absence, Moody returned. It was then
+too late to present himself in the drawing-room. In the interval,
+Mr. Troy had taken his leave, and Moody's position had dropped a
+degree lower in Lady Lydiard's estimation.
+
+Isabel received her letter by the next morning's post. If any
+justification of Mr. Troy's suspicions had been needed, the terms
+in which Moody wrote would have amply supplied it.
+
+
+"DEAR ISABEL (I hope I may call you 'Isabel' without offending
+you, in your present trouble?)--I have a proposal to make, which,
+whether you accept it or not, I beg you will keep a secret from
+every living creature but ourselves. You will understand my
+request, when I add that these lines relate to the matter of
+tracing the stolen bank-note.
+
+"I have been privately in communication with a person in London,
+who is, as I believe, the one person competent to help us in
+gaining our end. He has already made many inquiries in private.
+With some of them I am acquainted; the rest he has thus far kept
+to himself. The person to whom I allude, particularly wishes to
+have half an hour's conversation with you in my presence. I am
+bound to warn you that he is a very strange and very ugly old
+man; and I can only hope that you will look over his personal
+appearance in consideration of what he is likely to do for your
+future advantage.
+
+"Can you conveniently meet us, at the further end of the row of
+villas in which your aunt lives, the day after to-morrow, at four
+o'clock? Let me have a line to say if you will keep the
+appointment, and if the hour named will suit you. And believe me
+your devoted friend and servant,
+
+                                            ROBERT MOODY."
+
+
+The lawyer's warning to her to be careful how she yielded too
+readily to any proposal of Moody's recurred to Isabel's mind
+while she read those lines. Being pledged to secrecy, she could
+not consult Mr. Troy--she was left to decide for herself.
+
+No obstacle stood in the way of her free choice of alternatives.
+After their early dinner at three o'clock, Miss Pink habitually
+retired to her own room "to meditate," as she expressed it. Her
+"meditations" inevitably ended in a sound sleep of some hours;
+and during that interval Isabel was at liberty to do as she
+pleased. After considerable hesitation, her implicit belief in
+Moody's truth and devotion, assisted by a strong feeling of
+curiosity to see the companion with whom the steward had
+associated himself, decided Isabel on consenting to keep the
+appointment.
+
+Taking up her position beyond the houses, on the day and at the
+hour mentioned by Moody, she believed herself to be fully
+prepared for the most unfavorable impression which the most
+disagreeable of all possible strangers could produce.
+
+But the first appearance of Old Sharon--as dirty as ever, clothed
+in a long, frowzy, gray overcoat, with his pug-dog at his heels,
+and his smoke-blackened pipe in his mouth, with a tan white hat
+on his head, which looked as if it had been picked up in a
+gutter, a hideous leer in his eyes, and a jaunty trip in his
+walk--took her so completely by surprise that she could only
+return Moody's friendly greeting by silently pressing his hand.
+As for Moody's companion, to look at him for a second time was
+more than she had resolution to do. She kept her eyes fixed on
+the pug-dog, and with good reason; as far as appearances went, he
+was indisputably the nobler animal of the two.
+
+Under the circumstances, the interview threatened to begin in a
+very embarrassing manner. Moody, disheartened by Isabel's
+silence, made no attempt to set the conversa tion going; he
+looked as if he meditated a hasty retreat to the railway station
+which he had just left. Fortunately, he had at his side the right
+man (for once) in the right place. Old Sharon's effrontery was
+equal to any emergency.
+
+"I am not a nice-looking old man, my dear, am I?" he said,
+leering at Isabel with cunning, half-closed eyes. "Bless your
+heart! you'll soon get used to me! You see, I am the sort of
+color, as they say at the linen-drapers," that doesn't wash well.
+It's all through love; upon my life it is! Early in the present
+century I had my young affections blighted; and I've neglected
+myself ever since. Disappointment takes different forms, miss, in
+different men. I don't think I have had heart enough to brush my
+hair for the last fifty years. She was a magnificent woman, Mr.
+Moody, and she dropped me like a hot potato. Dreadful! dreadful!
+Let us pursue this painful subject no further. Ha! here's a
+pretty country! Here's a nice blue sky! I admire the country,
+miss; I see so little of it, you know. Have you any objection to
+walk along into the fields? The fields, my dear, bring out all
+the poetry of my nature. Where's the dog? Here, Puggy! Puggy!
+hunt about, my man, and find some dog-grass. Does his inside
+good, you know, after a meat diet in London. Lord! how I feel my
+spirits rising in this fine air! Does my complexion look any
+brighter, miss? Will you run a race with me, Mr. Moody, or will
+you oblige me with a back at leap-frog? I'm not mad, my dear
+young lady; I'm only merry. I live, you see, in the London stink;
+and the smell of the hedges and the wild flowers is too much for
+me at first. It gets into my head, it does. I'm drunk! As I live
+by bread, I'm drunk on fresh air! Oh! what a jolly day! Oh! how
+young and innocent I do feel!" Here his innocence got the better
+of him, and he began to sing, "I wish I were a little fly, in my
+love's bosom for to lie!" "Hullo! here we are on the nice soft
+grass! and, oh, my gracious! there's a bank running down into a
+hollow! I can't stand that, you know. Mr. Moody, hold my hat, and
+take the greatest care of it. Here goes for a roll down the
+bank!"
+
+He handed his horrible hat to the astonished Moody, laid himself
+flat on the top of the bank, and deliberately rolled down it,
+exactly as he might have done when he was a boy. The tails of his
+long gray coat flew madly in the wind: the dog pursued him,
+jumping over him, and barking with delight; he shouted and
+screamed in answer to the dog as he rolled over and over faster
+and faster; and, when he got up, on the level ground, and called
+out cheerfully to his companions standing above him, "I say, you
+two, I feel twenty years younger already!"--human gravity could
+hold out no longer. The sad and silent Moody smiled, and Isabel
+burst into fits of laughter.
+
+"There," he said "didn't I tell you you would get used to me,
+Miss? There's a deal of life left in the old man yet--isn't
+there? Shy me down my hat, Mr. Moody. And now we'll get to
+business!" He turned round to the dog still barking at his heels.
+"Business, Puggy!" he called out sharply, and Puggy instantly
+shut up his mouth, and said no more.
+
+"Well, now," Old Sharon resumed when he had joined his friends
+and had got his breath again, "let's have a little talk about
+yourself, miss. Has Mr. Moody told you who I am, and what I want
+with you? Very good. May I offer you my arm? No! You like to be
+independent, don't you? All right--I don't object. I am an
+amiable old man, I am. About this Lady Lydiard, now? Suppose you
+tell me how you first got acquainted with her?"
+
+In some surprise at this question, Isabel told her little story.
+Observing Sharon's face while she was speaking, Moody saw that he
+was not paying the smallest attention to the narrative. His
+sharp, shameless black eyes watched the girl's face absently; his
+gross lips curled upwards in a sardonic and self-satisfied smile.
+He was evidently setting a trap for her of some kind. Without a
+word of warning--while Isabel was in the middle of a
+sentence--the trap opened, with the opening of Old Sharon's lips.
+
+"I say," he burst out. "How came _you_ to seal her Ladyship's
+letter--eh?"
+
+The question bore no sort of relation, direct or indirect, to
+what Isabel happened to be saying at the moment. In the sudden
+surprise of hearing it, she started and fixed her eyes in
+astonishment on Sharon's face. The old vagabond chuckled to
+himself. "Did you see that?" he whispered to Moody. "I beg your
+pardon, miss," he went on; "I won't interrupt you again. Lord!
+how interesting it is!--ain't it, Mr. Moody? Please to go on,
+miss."
+
+But Isabel, though she spoke with perfect sweetness and temper,
+declined to go on. "I had better tell you, sir, how I came to
+seal her Ladyship's letter," she said. "If I may venture on
+giving my opinion, _that_ part of my story seems to be the only
+part of it which relates to your business with me to-day."
+
+Without further preface she described the circumstances which had
+led to her assuming the perilous responsibility of sealing the
+letter. Old Sharon's wandering attention began to wander again:
+he was evidently occupied in setting another trap. For the second
+time he interrupted Isabel in the middle of a sentence. Suddenly
+stopping short, he pointed to some sheep, at the further end of
+the field through which they happened to be passing at the
+moment.
+
+"There's a pretty sight," he said. "There are the innocent sheep
+a-feeding--all following each other as usual. And there's the sly
+dog waiting behind the gate till the sheep wants his services.
+Reminds me of Old Sharon and the public!" He chuckled over the
+discovery of the remarkable similarity between the sheep-dog and
+himself, and the sheep and the public--and then burst upon Isabel
+with a second question. "I say! didn't you look at the letter
+before you sealed it?"
+
+"Certainly not!" Isabel answered.
+
+"Not even at the address?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Thinking of something else--eh?"
+
+"Very likely," said Isabel.
+
+"Was it your new bonnet, my dear?"
+
+Isabel laughed. "Women are not always thinking of their new
+bonnets," she answered.
+
+Old Sharon, to all appearance, dropped the subject there. He
+lifted his lean brown forefinger and pointed again--this time to
+a house at a short distance from them. "That's a farmhouse,
+surely?" he said. "I'm thirsty after my roll down the hill. Do
+you think, Miss, they would give me a drink of milk?"
+
+"I am sure they would," said Isabel. "I know the people. Shall I
+go and ask them?"
+
+"Thank you, my dear. One word more before you go. About the
+sealing of that letter? What _could_ you have been thinking of
+while you were doing it?" He looked hard at her, and took her
+suddenly by the arm. "Was it your sweetheart?" he asked, in a
+whisper.
+
+The question instantly reminded Isabel that she had been thinking
+of Hardyman while she sealed the letter. She blushed as the
+remembrance crossed her mind. Robert, noticing the embarrassment,
+spoke sharply to Old Sharon. "You have no right to put such a
+question to a young lady," he said. "Be a little more careful for
+the future."
+
+"There! there! don't be hard on me," pleaded the old rogue. "An
+ugly old man like me may make his innocent little joke--eh, miss?
+I'm sure you're too sweet-tempered to be angry when I meant no
+offense.. Show me that you bear no malice. Go, like a forgiving
+young angel, and ask for the milk."
+
+Nobody appealed to Isabel's sweetness of temper in vain. "I will
+do it with pleasure," she said--and hastened away to the
+farmhouse.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE instant Isabel was out of hearing, Old Sharon slapped Moody
+on the shoulder to rouse his attention. "I've got her out of the
+way," he said, "now listen to me. My business with the young
+angel is done--I may go back to London."
+
+Moody looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"Lord! how little you know of thieves!" exclaimed Old Sharon.
+"Why, man alive, I have tried her with two plain tests! If you
+wanted a proof of her innocence, there it was, as plain as the
+nose in your face. Did you hear me ask her how she came to seal
+the letter--just when her mind was running on something else?"
+
+"I heard you," said Moody.
+
+"Did you see how she started and stared  at me?"
+
+"I di d."
+
+"Well, I can tell you this--if she _had_ stolen the money she
+would neither have started nor stared. She would have had her
+answer ready beforehand in her own mind, in case of accidents.
+There's only one thing in my experience that you can never do
+with a thief, when a thief happens to be a woman--you can never
+take her by surprise. Put that remark by in your mind; one day
+you may find a use for remembering it. Did you see her blush, and
+look quite hurt in her feelings, pretty dear, when I asked about
+her sweetheart? Do you think a thief, in her place, would have
+shown such a face as that? Not she! The thief would have been
+relieved. The thief would have said to herself, 'All right! the
+more the old fool talks about sweethearts the further he is from
+tracing the robbery to Me!' Yes! yes! the ground's cleared now,
+Master Moody. I've reckoned up the servants; I've questioned Miss
+Isabel; I've made my inquiries in all the other quarters that may
+be useful to us--and what's the result? The advice I gave, when
+you and the lawyer first came to me--I hate that fellow!--remains
+as sound and good advice as ever. I have got the thief in my
+mind," said Old Sharon, closing his cunning eyes and then opening
+them again, "as plain as I've got you in my eye at this minute.
+No more of that now," he went on, looking round sharply at the
+path that led to the farmhouse. "I've something particular to say
+to you--and there's barely time to say it before that nice girl
+comes back. Look here! Do you happen to be acquainted with
+Mr.-Honorable-Hardyman's valet?"
+
+Moody's eyes rested on Old Sharon with a searching and doubtful
+look.
+
+"Mr. Hardyman's valet?" he repeated. "I wasn't prepared to hear
+Mr. Hardyman's name."
+
+Old Sharon looked at Moody, in his turn, with a flash of sardonic
+triumph.
+
+"Oho!" he said. "Has my good boy learned his lesson? Do you see
+the thief through my spectacles, already?"
+
+"I began to see him," Moody answered, "when you gave us the
+guinea opinion at your lodgings."
+
+"Will you whisper his name?" asked Old Sharon.
+
+"Not yet. I distrust my own judgment. I wait till time proves
+that you are right."
+
+Old Sharon knitted his shaggy brows and shook his head. "If you
+had only a little more dash and go in you," he said, "you would
+be a clever fellow. As it is--!" He finished the sentence by
+snapping his fingers with a grin of contempt. "Let's get to
+business. Are you going back by the next train along with me? or
+are you going to stop with the young lady?"
+
+"I will follow you by a later train," Moody answered.
+
+"Then I must give you my instructions at once," Sharon continued.
+"You get better acquainted with Hardyman's valet. Lend him money
+if he wants it--stick at nothing to make a bosom friend of him. I
+can't do that part of it; my appearance would be against me.
+_You_ are the man--you are respectable from the top of your hat
+to the tips of your boots; nobody would suspect You. Don't make
+objections! Can you fix the valet? Or can't you?"
+
+"I can try," said Moody. "And what then?"
+
+Old Sharon put his gross lips disagreeably close to Moody's ear.
+
+"Your friend the valet can tell you who his master's bankers
+are," he said; "and he can supply you with a specimen of his
+master's handwriting."
+
+Moody drew back, as suddenly as if his vagabond companion had put
+a knife to his throat. "You old villain!" he said. "Are you
+tempting me to forgery?"
+
+"You infernal fool!" retorted Old Sharon. "_Will_ you hold that
+long tongue of yours, and hear what I have to say. You go to
+Hardyman's bankers, with a note in Hardyman's handwriting
+(exactly imitated by me) to this effect:--'Mr. H. presents his
+compliments to Messrs. So-and-So, and is not quite certain
+whether a payment of five hundred pounds has been made within the
+last week to his account. He will be much obliged if Messrs.
+So-and-So will inform him by a line in reply, whether there is
+such an entry to his credit in their books, and by whom the
+payment has been made.' You wait for the bankers' answer, and
+bring it to me. It's just possible that the name you're afraid to
+whisper may appear in the letter. If it does, we've caught our
+man. Is _that_ forgery, Mr. Muddlehead Moody? I'll tell you
+what--if I had lived to be your age, and knew no more of the
+world than you do, I'd go and hang myself. Steady! here's our
+charming friend with the milk. Remember your instructions, and
+don't lose heart if my notion of the payment to the bankers comes
+to nothing. I know what to do next, in that case--and, what's
+more, I'll take all the risk and trouble on my own shoulders. Oh,
+Lord! I'm afraid I shall be obliged to drink the milk, now it's
+come!"
+
+With this apprehension in his mind, he advanced to relieve Isabel
+of the jug that she carried.
+
+"Here's a treat!" he burst out, with an affectation of joy, which
+was completely belied by the expression of his dirty face.
+"Here's a kind and dear young lady, to help an old man to a drink
+with her own pretty hands." He paused, and looked at the milk
+very much as he might have looked at a dose of physic. "Will
+anyone take a drink first?" he asked, offering the jug piteously
+to Isabel and Moody. "You see, I'm not wed to genuine milk; I'm
+used to chalk and water. I don't know what effect the
+unadulterated cow might have on my poor old inside." He tasted
+the milk with the greatest caution. "Upon my soul, this is too
+rich for me! The unadulterated cow is a deal too strong to be
+drunk alone. If you'll allow me I'll qualify it with a drop of
+gin. Here, Puggy, Puggy!" He set the milk down before the dog;
+and, taking a flask out of his pocket, emptied it at a draught.
+"That's something like!" he said, smacking his lips with an air
+of infinite relief. "So sorry, Miss, to have given you all your
+trouble for nothing; it's my ignorance that's to blame, not me. I
+couldn't know I was unworthy of genuine milk till I tried--could
+l? And do you know," he proceeded, with his eyes directed slyly
+on the way back to the station, "I begin to think I'm not worthy
+of the fresh air, either. A kind of longing seems to come over me
+for the London stink. I'm home-sick already for the soot of my
+happy childhood and my own dear native mud. The air here is too
+thin for me, and the sky's too clean; and--oh, Lord!--when you're
+wed to the roar of the traffic--the 'busses and the cabs and what
+not--the silence in these parts is downright awful. I'll wish you
+good evening, miss; and get back to London."
+
+Isabel turned to Moody with disappointment plainly expressed in
+her face and manner.
+
+"Is that all he has to say?" she asked. "You told me he could
+help us. You led me to suppose he could find the guilty person."
+
+Sharon heard her. "I could name the guilty person," he answered,
+"as easily, miss, as I could name you."
+
+"Why don't you do it then?" Isabel inquired, not very patiently
+
+"Because the time's not ripe for it yet, miss--that's one reason.
+Because, if I mentioned the thief's name, as things are now, you,
+Miss Isabel, would think me mad; and you would tell Mr. Moody I
+had cheated him out of his money--that's another reason. The
+matter's in train, if you will only wait a little longer."
+
+"So you say," Isabel rejoined. "If you really could name the
+thief, I believe you would do it now."
+
+She turned away with a frown on her pretty face. Old Sharon
+followed her. Even his coarse sensibilities appeared to feel the
+irresistible ascendancy of beauty and youth.
+
+"I say!" he began, "we must part friends, you know--or I shall
+break my heart over it. They have got milk at the farmhouse. Do
+you think they have got pen, ink, and paper too?"
+
+Isabel answered, without turning to look at him, "Of course they
+have!"
+
+"And a bit of sealing-wax?"
+
+"I daresay!"
+
+Old Sharon laid his dirty claws on her shoulder and forced her to
+face him as the best means of shaking them off.
+
+"Come along!" he said. "I am going to pacify you with some
+information in writing."
+
+"Why should you write it?" Isabel asked suspiciously.
+
+"Because I mean to make my own conditions, my dear, before I let
+you into the secret."
+
+In ten minutes more they were all three in the farmhouse parlor.
+Nobody but the farmer's wife was at home. The good  woman trembled
+from head to foot at the sight of Old Sharon. In all her harmless
+life she had never yet seen humanity under the aspect in which it
+was now presented to her. "Mercy preserve us, Miss!" she
+whispered to Isabel, "how come you to be in such company as
+_that?_" Instructed by Isabel, she produced the necessary
+materials for writing and sealing--and, that done, she shrank
+away to the door. "Please to excuse me, miss," she said with a
+last horrified look at her venerable visitor; "I really can't
+stand the sight of such a blot of dirt as that in my nice clean
+parlor." With those words she disappeared, and was seen no more.
+
+Perfectly indifferent to his reception, Old Sharon wrote,
+inclosed what he had written in an envelope; and sealed it (in
+the absence of anything better fitted for his purpose) with the
+mouthpiece of his pipe.
+
+"Now, miss," he said, "you give me your word of honor"--he
+stopped and looked round at Moody with a grin--"and you give me
+yours, that you won't either of you break the seal on this
+envelope till the expiration of one week from the present day.
+There are the conditions, Miss Isabel, on which I'll give you
+your information. If you stop to dispute with me, the candle's
+alight, and I'll burn it!"
+
+It was useless to contend with him. Isabel and Moody gave him the
+promise that he required. He handed the sealed envelope to Isabel
+with a low bow. "When the week's out," he said, "you will own I'm
+a cleverer fellow than you think me now. Wish you good evening,
+Miss. Come along, Puggy! Farewell to the horrid clean country,
+and back again to the nice London stink!"
+
+He nodded to Moody--he leered at Isabel--he chuckled to
+himself--he left the farmhouse.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+ISABEL looked down at the letter in her hand--considered it in
+silence--and turned to Moody. "I feel tempted to open it
+already," she said.
+
+"After giving your promise?" Moody gently remonstrated.
+
+Isabel met that objection with a woman's logic.
+
+"Does a promise matter?" she asked, "when one gives it to a
+dirty, disreputable, presuming old wretch like Mr. Sharon? It's a
+wonder to me that you trust such a creature. _I_ wouldn't!"
+
+"I doubted him just as you do," Moody answered, "when I first saw
+him in company with Mr. Troy. But there was something in the
+advice he gave us at that first consultation which altered my
+opinion of him for the better. I dislike his appearance and his
+manners as much as you do--I may even say I felt ashamed of
+bringing such a person to see you. And yet I can't think that I
+have acted unwisely in employing Mr. Sharon."
+
+Isabel listened absently. She had something more to say, and she
+was considering how she should say it. "May I ask you a bold
+question?" she began.
+
+"Any question you like."
+
+"Have you--" she hesitated and looked embarrassed. "Have you paid
+Mr. Sharon much money?" she resumed, suddenly rallying her
+courage. Instead of answering, Moody suggested that it was time
+to think of returning to Miss Pink's villa. "Your aunt may be
+getting anxious about you." he said.
+
+Isabel led the way out of the farmhouse in silence. She reverted
+to Mr. Sharon and the money, however, as they returned by the
+path across the fields.
+
+"I am sure you will not be offended with me," she said gently,
+"if I own that I am uneasy about the expense. I am allowing you
+to use your purse as if it was mine--and I have hardly any
+savings of my own."
+
+Moody entreated her not to speak of it. "How can I put my money
+to a better use than in serving your interests?" he asked. "My
+one object in life is to relieve you of your present anxieties. I
+shall be the happiest man living if you only owe a moment's
+happiness to my exertions!"
+
+Isabel took his hand, and looked at him with grateful tears in
+her eyes.
+
+"How good you are to me, Mr. Moody!" she said. "I wish I could
+tell you how deeply I feel your kindness."
+
+"You can do it easily," he answered, with a smile. "Call me
+'Robert' --don't call me 'Mr. Moody.' "
+
+She took his arm with a sudden familiarity that charmed him. "If
+you had been my brother I should have called you 'Robert,' " she
+said; "and no brother could have been more devoted to me than you
+are."
+
+He looked eagerly at her bright face turned up to his. "May I
+never hope to be something nearer and dearer to you than a
+brother?" he asked timidly.
+
+She hung her head and said nothing. Moody's memory recalled
+Sharon's coarse reference to her "sweetheart." She had blushed
+when he put the question? What had she done when Moody put _his_
+question? Her face answered for her--she had turned pale; she was
+looking more serious than usual. Ignorant as he was of the ways
+of women, his instinct told him that this was a bad sign. Surely
+her rising color would have confessed it, if time and gratitude
+together were teaching her to love him? He sighed as the
+inevitable conclusion forced itself on his mind.
+
+"I hope I have not offended you?" he said sadly.
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"I wish I had not spoken. Pray don't think that I am serving you
+with any selfish motive."
+
+"I don't think that, Robert. I never could think it of _you_."
+
+He was not quite satisfied yet. "Even if you were to marry some
+other man," he went on earnestly, "it would make no difference in
+what I am trying to do for you. No matter what I might suffer, I
+should still go on--for your sake."
+
+"Why do you talk so?" she burst out passionately. "No other man
+has such a claim as you to my gratitude and regard. How can you
+let such thoughts come to you? I have done nothing in secret. I
+have no friends who are not known to you. Be satisfied with that,
+Robert--and let us drop the subject."
+
+"Never to take it up again?" he asked, with the infatuated
+pertinacity of a man clinging to his last hope.
+
+At other times and under other circumstances, Isabel might have
+answered him sharply. She spoke with perfect gentleness now.
+
+"Not for the present," she said. "I don't know my own heart. Give
+me time."
+
+His gratitude caught at those words, as the drowning man is said
+to catch at the proverbial straw. He lifted her hand, and
+suddenly and fondly pressed his lips on it. She showed no
+confusion. Was she sorry for him, poor wretch!--and was that all?
+
+They walked on, arm-in-arm, in silence.
+
+Crossing the last field, they entered again on the high road
+leading to the row of villas in which Miss Pink lived. The minds
+of both were preoccupied. Neither of them noticed a gentleman
+approaching on horseback, followed by a mounted groom. He was
+advancing slowly, at the walking-pace of his horse, and he only
+observed the two foot-passengers when he was close to them.
+
+"Miss Isabel!"
+
+She started, looked up, and discovered--Alfred Hardyman.
+
+He was dressed in a perfectly-made travelling suit of light
+brown, with a peaked felt hat of a darker shade of the same
+color, which, in a picturesque sense, greatly improved his
+personal appearance. His pleasure at discovering Isabel gave the
+animation to his features which they wanted on ordinary
+occasions. He sat his horse, a superb hunter, easily and
+gracefully. His light amber-colored gloves fitted him perfectly.
+His obedient servant, on another magnificent horse, waited behind
+him. He looked the impersonation of rank and breeding--of wealth
+and prosperity. What a contrast, in a woman's eyes, to the shy,
+pale, melancholy man, in the ill-fitting black clothes, with the
+wandering, uneasy glances, who stood beneath him, and felt, and
+showed that he felt, his inferior position keenly! In spite of
+herself, the treacherous blush flew over Isabel's face, in
+Moody's presence, and with Moody's eyes distrustfully watching
+her.
+
+"This is a piece of good fortune that I hardly hoped for," said
+Hardyman, his cool, quiet, dreary way of speaking quickened as
+usual, in Isabel's presence. "I only got back from France this
+morning, and I called on Lady Lydiard in the hope of seeing you.
+She was not at home--and you were in the country--and the
+servants didn't know the address. I could get nothing out of
+them, except that you were on a visit to a relation." He looked
+at Moody while he was speaking. "Haven't I seen you before?" he
+said, carelessly. "Yes; at Lady Lydiard's. You're her steward,
+are you not? How d'ye do?" Moody, with h is eyes on the ground,
+answered silently by a bow. Hardyman, perfectly indifferent
+whether Lady Lydiard's steward spoke or not, turned on his saddle
+and looked admiringly at Isabel. "I begin to think I am a lucky
+man at last," he went on with a smile. "I was jogging along to my
+farm, and despairing of ever seeing Miss Isabel again--and Miss
+Isabel herself meets me at the roadside! I wonder whether you are
+as glad to see me as I am to see you? You won't tell me--eh? May
+I ask you something else? Are you staying in our neighborhood?"
+
+There was no alternative before Isabel but to answer this last
+question. Hardyman had met her out walking, and had no doubt
+drawn the inevitable inference--although he was too polite to say
+so in plain words.
+
+"Yes, sir," she answered, shyly, "I am staying in this
+neighborhood."
+
+"And who is your relation?" Hardyman proceeded, in his easy,
+matter-of-course way. "Lady Lydiard told me, when I had the
+pleasure of meeting you at her house, that you had an aunt living
+in the country. I have a good memory, Miss Isabel, for anything
+that I hear about You! It's your aunt, isn't it? Yes? I know
+everybody about hew. What is your aunt's name?"
+
+Isabel, still resting her hand on Robert's arm, felt it tremble a
+little as Hardyman made this last inquiry. If she had been
+speaking to one of her equals she would have known how to dispose
+of the question without directly answering it. But what could she
+say to the magnificent gentleman on the stately horse? He had
+only to send his servant into the village to ask who the young
+lady from London was staying with, and the answer, in a dozen
+mouths at least, would direct him to her aunt. She cast one
+appealing look at Moody and pronounced the distinguished name of
+Miss Pink.
+
+"Miss Pink?" Hardyman repeated. "Surely I know Miss Pink?" (He
+had not the faintest remembrances of her.) "Where did I meet her
+last?" (He ran over in his memory the different local festivals
+at which strangers had been introduced to him.) "Was it at the
+archery meeting? or at the grammar-school when the prizes were
+given? No? It must have been at the flower show, then, surely?"
+
+It _had_ been at the flower show. Isabel had heard it from Miss
+Pink fifty times at least, and was obliged to admit it now.
+
+"I am quite ashamed of never having called," Hardyman proceeded.
+"The fact is, I have so much to do. I am a bad one at paying
+visits. Are you on your way home? Let me follow you and make my
+apologies personally to Miss Pink."
+
+Moody looked at Isabel. It was only a momentary glance, but she
+perfectly understood it.
+
+"I am afraid, sir, my aunt cannot have the honor of seeing you
+to-day," she said.
+
+Hardyman was all compliance. He smiled and patted his horse's
+neck. "To-morrow, then," he said. "My compliments, and I will
+call in the afternoon. Let me see: Miss Pink lives at--?" He
+waited, as if he expected Isabel to assist his treacherous memory
+once more. She hesitated again. Hardyman looked round at his
+groom. The groom could find out the address, even if he did not
+happen to know it already. Besides, there was the little row of
+houses visible at the further end of the road. Isabel pointed to
+the villas, as a necessary concession to good manners, before the
+groom could anticipate her. "My aunt lives there, sir; at the
+house called The Lawn."
+
+"Ah! to be sure!" said Hardyman. "I oughtn't to have wanted
+reminding; but I have so many things to think of at the farm. And
+I am afraid I must be getting old--my memory isn't as good as it
+was. I am so glad to have seen you, Miss Isabel. You and your
+aunt must come and look at my horses. Do you like horses? Are you
+fond of riding? I have a quiet roan mare that is used to carrying
+ladies; she would be just the thing for you. Did I beg you to
+give my best compliments to your aunt? Yes? How well you are
+looking! our air here agrees with you. I hope I haven't kept you
+standing too long? I didn't think of it in the pleasure of
+meeting you. Good-by, Miss Isabel; good-by, till to-morrow!"
+
+He took off his hat to Isabel, nodded to Moody, and pursued his
+way to the farm.
+
+Isabel looked at her companion. His eyes were still on the
+ground. Pale, silent, motionless, he waited by her like a dog,
+until she gave the signal of walking on again towards the house.
+
+"You are not angry with me for speaking to Mr. Hardyman?" she
+asked, anxiously.
+
+He lifted his head it the sound of her voice. "Angry with you, my
+dear! why should I be angry?"
+
+"You seem so changed, Robert, since we met Mr. Hardyman. I
+couldn't help speaking to him--could I?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+They moved on towards the villa. Isabel was still uneasy. There
+was something in Moody's silent submission to all that she said
+and all that she did which pained and humiliated her. "You're not
+jealous?" she said, smiling timidly.
+
+He tried to speak lightly on his side. "I have no time to be
+jealous while I have your affairs to look after," he answered.
+
+She pressed his arm tenderly. "Never fear, Robert, that new
+friends will make me forget the best and dearest friend who is
+now at my side." She paused, and looked up at him with a
+compassionate fondness that was very pretty to see. "I can keep
+out of the way to-morrow, when Mr. Hardyman calls," she said. "It
+is my aunt he is coming to see--not me."
+
+It was generously meant. But while her mind was only occupied
+with the present time, Moody's mind was looking into the future.
+He was learning the hard lesson of self-sacrifice already. "Do
+what you think is right," he said quietly; "don't think of me."
+
+They reached the gate of the villa. He held out his hand to say
+good-by.
+
+"Won't you come in?" she asked. "Do come in!"
+
+"Not now, my dear. I must get back to London as soon as I can.
+There is some more work to be done for you, and the sooner I do
+it the better."
+
+She heard his excuse without heeding it.
+
+"You are not like yourself, Robert," she said. "Why is it? What
+are you thinking of?"
+
+He was thinking of the bright blush that overspread her face when
+Hardyman first spoke to her; he was thinking of the invitation to
+her to see the stud-farm, and to ride the roan mare; he was
+thinking of the utterly powerless position in which he stood
+towards Isabel and towards the highly-born gentleman who admired
+her. But he kept his doubts and fears to himself. "The train
+won't wait for me," he said, and held out his hand once more.
+
+She was not only perplexed; she was really distressed. "Don't
+take leave of me in that cold way!" she pleaded. Her eyes dropped
+before his, and her lips trembled a little. "Give me a kiss,
+Robert, at parting." She said those bold words softly and sadly,
+out of the depth of her pity for him. He started; his face
+brightened suddenly; his sinking hope rose again. In another
+moment the change came; in another moment he understood her. As
+he touched her cheek with his lips, he turned pale again. "Don't
+quite forget me," he said, in low, faltering tones--and left her.
+
+Miss Pink met Isabel in the hall. Refreshed by unbroken repose,
+the ex-schoolmistress was in the happiest frame of mind for the
+reception of her niece's news.
+
+Informed that Moody had travelled to South Morden to personally
+report the progress of the inquiries, Miss Pink highly approved
+of him as a substitute for Mr. Troy. "Mr. Moody, as a banker's
+son, is a gentleman by birth," she remarked; "he has
+condescended, in becoming Lady Lydiard's steward. What I saw of
+him, when he came here with you, prepossessed me in his favor. He
+has my confidence, Isabel, as well as yours--he is in every
+respect a superior person to Mr. Troy. Did you meet any friends,
+my dear, when you were out walking?"
+
+The answer to this question produced a species of transformation
+in Miss Pink. The rapturous rank-worship of her nation feasted,
+so to speak, on Hardyman's message. She looked taller and younger
+than usual--she was all smiles and sweetness. "At last, Isabel,
+you have seen birth and breeding under their right aspect," she
+said. "In the society of Lady Lydiard, you cannot possibly have
+formed correct ideas of the English aristocracy. Observe Mr.
+Hardyman when he does me the honor to call to-morrow--and you
+will see the difference."
+
+"Mr. Hardyman is your visitor, aunt--not mine. I was going to ask
+you to let me remain upstairs in my room."
+
+Miss Pink was unaffectedly shocked. "This is what you learn at
+Lady Lydiard's!" she observed. "No, Isabel, your absence would be
+a breach of good manners--I cannot possibly permit it. You will
+be present to receive our distinguished friend with me. And mind
+this!" added Miss Pink, in her most impressive manner, "If Mr.
+Hardyman should by any chance ask why you have left Lady Lydiard,
+not one word about those disgraceful circumstances which connect
+you with the loss of the banknote! I should sink into the earth
+if the smallest hint of what has really happened should reach Mr.
+Hardyman's ears. My child, I stand towards you in the place of
+your lamented mother; I have the right to command your silence on
+this horrible subject, and I do imperatively command it."
+
+In these words foolish Miss Pink sowed the seed for the harvest
+of trouble that was soon to come.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+PAYING his court to the ex-schoolmistress on the next day,
+Hardyman made such excellent use of his opportunities that the
+visit to the stud-farm took place on the day after. His own
+carriage was placed at the disposal of Isabel and her aunt; and
+his own sister was present to confer special distinction on the
+reception of Miss Pink.
+
+In a country like England, which annually suspends the sitting of
+its Legislature in honor of a horse-race, it is only natural and
+proper that the comfort of the horses should be the first object
+of consideration at a stud-farm. Nine-tenths of the land at
+Hardyman's farm was devoted, in one way or another, to the noble
+quadruped with the low forehead and the long nose. Poor humanity
+was satisfied with second-rate and third-rate accommodation. The
+ornamental grounds, very poorly laid out, were also very limited
+in extent--and, as for the dwelling-house, it was literally a
+cottage. A parlor and a kitchen, a smoking-room, a bed-room, and
+a spare chamber for a friend, all scantily furnished, sufficed
+for the modest wants of the owner of the property. If you wished
+to feast your eyes on luxury you went to the stables.
+
+The stud-farm being described, the introduction to Hardyman's
+sister follows in due course.
+
+The Honorable Lavinia Hardyman was, as all persons in society
+know, married rather late in life to General Drumblade. It is
+saying a great deal, but it is not saying too much, to describe
+Mrs. Drumblade as the most mischievous woman of her age in all
+England. Scandal was the breath of her life; to place people in
+false positions, to divulge secrets and destroy characters, to
+undermine friendships, and aggravate enmities--these were the
+sources of enjoyment from which this dangerous woman drew the
+inexhaustible fund of good spirits that made her a brilliant
+light in the social sphere. She was one of the privileged sinners
+of modern society. The worst mischief that she could work was
+ascribed to her "exuberant vitality." She had that ready
+familiarity of manner which is (in _her_ class) so rarely
+discovered to be insolence in disguise. Her power of easy
+self-assertion found people ready to accept her on her own terms
+wherever she went. She was one of those big, overpowering women,
+with blunt manners, voluble tongues, and goggle eyes, who carry
+everything before them. The highest society modestly considered
+itself in danger of being dull in the absence of Mrs. Drumblade.
+Even Hardyman himself--who saw as little of her as possible,
+whose frankly straightforward nature recoiled by instinct from
+contact with his sister--could think of no fitter person to make
+Miss Pink's reception agreeable to her, while he was devoting his
+own attentions to her niece. Mrs. Drumblade accepted the position
+thus offered with the most amiable readiness. In her own private
+mind she placed an interpretation on her brother's motives which
+did him the grossest injustice. She believed that Hardyman's
+designs on Isabel contemplated the most profligate result. To
+assist this purpose, while the girl's nearest relative was
+supposed to be taking care of her, was Mrs. Drumblade's idea of
+"fun." Her worst enemies admitted that the honorable Lavia had
+redeeming qualities, and owned that a keen sense of humor was one
+of her merits.
+
+Was Miss Pink a likely person to resist the fascinations of Mrs.
+Drumblade? Alas, for the ex-schoolmistress! before she had been
+five minutes at the farm, Hardyman's sister had fished for her,
+caught her, landed her. Poor Miss Pink!
+
+Mrs. Drumblade could assume a grave dignity of manner when the
+occasion called for it. She was grave, she was dignified, when
+Hardyman performed the ceremonies of introduction. She would not
+say she was charmed to meet Miss Pink--the ordinary slang of
+society was not for Miss Pink's ears--she would say she felt this
+introduction as a privilege. It was so seldom one met with
+persons of trained intellect in society. Mrs. Drumblade was
+already informed of Miss Pink's earlier triumphs in the
+instruction of youth. Mrs. Drumblade had not been blessed with
+children herself; but she had nephews and nieces, and she was
+anxious about their education, especially the nieces. What a
+sweet, modest girl Miss Isabel was! The fondest wish she could
+form for her nieces would be that they should resemble Miss
+Isabel when they grew up. The question was, as to the best method
+of education. She would own that she had selfish motives in
+becoming acquainted with Miss Pink. They were at the farm, no
+doubt, to see Alfred's horses. Mrs. Drumblade did not understand
+horses; her interest was in the question of education. She might
+even confess that she had accepted Alfred's invitation in the
+hope of hearing Miss Pink's views. There would be opportunities,
+she trusted, for a little instructive conversation on that
+subject. It was, perhaps, ridiculous to talk, at her age, of
+feeling as if she was Miss Pink's pupil; and yet it exactly
+expressed the nature of the aspiration which was then in her
+mind.
+
+In these terms, feeling her way with the utmost nicety, Mrs.
+Drumblade wound the net of flattery round and round Miss Pink
+until her hold on that innocent lady was, in every sense of the
+word, secure. Before half the horses had been passed under
+review, Hardyman and Isabel were out of sight, and Mrs. Drumblade
+and Miss Pink were lost in the intricacies of the stables.
+"Excessively stupid of me! We had better go back, and establish
+ourselves comfortably in the parlor. When my brother misses us,
+he and your charming niece will return to look for us in the
+cottage." Under cover of this arrangement the separation became
+complete. Miss Pink held forth on education to Mrs. Drumblade in
+the parlor; while Hardyman and Isabel were on their way to a
+paddock at the farthest limits of the property.
+
+"I am afraid you are getting a little tired," said Hardyman.
+"Won't you take my arm?"
+
+Isabel was on her guard: she had not forgotten what Lady Lydiard
+had said to her. "No, thank you, Mr. Hardyman; I am a better
+walker than you think."
+
+Hardyman continued the conversation in his blunt, resolute way.
+"I wonder whether you will believe me," he asked, "if I tell you
+that this is one of the happiest days of my life."
+
+"I should think you were always happy," Isabel cautiously
+replied, "having such a pretty place to live in as this."
+
+Hardyman met that answer with one of his quietly-positive
+denials. "A man is never happy by himself," he said. "He is happy
+with a companion. For instance, I am happy with you."
+
+Isabel stopped and looked back. Hardyman's language was becoming
+a little too explicit. "Surely we have lost Mrs. Drumblade and my
+aunt," she said. "I don't see them anywhere."
+
+You will see them directly; they are only a long way behind."
+With this assurance, he returned, in his own obstinate way, to
+his one object in view. "Miss Isabel, I want to ask you a
+question. I'm not a ladies' man. I speak my mind plainly to
+everybody--women included. Do you like being here to-day?"
+
+Isabel's gravity was not proof against this very downright
+question. "I should be hard to please," she said laughing, "if I
+didn't enjoy my visit to the farm."
+
+Hardyman pushed steadily forw ard through the obstacle of the
+farm to the question of the farm's master. "You like being here,"
+he repeated. "Do you like Me?"
+
+This was serious. Isabel drew back a little, and looked at him.
+He waited with the most impenetrable gravity for her reply.
+
+"I think you can hardly expect me to answer that question," she
+said
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Our acquaintance has been a very short one, Mr. Hardyman. And,
+if _you_ are so good as to forget the difference between us, I
+think _I_ ought to remember it."
+
+"What difference?"
+
+"The difference in rank."
+
+Hardyman suddenly stood still, and emphasized his next words by
+digging his stick into the grass.
+
+"If anything I have said has vexed you," he began, "tell me so
+plainly, Miss Isabel, and I'll ask your pardon. But don't throw
+my rank in my face. I cut adrift from all that nonsense when I
+took this farm and got my living out of the horses. What has a
+man's rank to do with a man's feelings?" he went on, with another
+emphatic dig of his stick. "I am quite serious in asking if you
+like me--for this good reason, that I like you. Yes, I do. You
+remember that day when I bled the old lady's dog--well, I have
+found out since then that there's a sort of incompleteness in my
+life which I never suspected before. It's you who have put that
+idea into my head. You didn't mean it, I dare say, but you have
+done it all the same. I sat alone here yesterday evening smoking
+my pipe--and I didn't enjoy it. I breakfasted alone this
+morning--and I didn't enjoy _that_. I said to myself, She's
+coming to lunch, that's one comfort--I shall enjoy lunch. That's
+what I feel, roughly described. I don't suppose I've been five
+minutes together without thinking of you, now in one way and now
+in another, since the day when I first saw you. When a man comes
+to my time of life, and has had any experience, he knows what
+that means. It means, in plain English, that his heart is set on
+a woman. You're the woman."
+
+Isabel had thus far made several attempts to interrupt him,
+without success. But, when Hardyman's confession attained its
+culminating point, she insisted on being heard.
+
+"If you will excuse me, sir," she interposed gravely, "I think I
+had better go back to the cottage. My aunt is a stranger here,
+and she doesn't know where to look for us."
+
+"We don't want your aunt," Hardyman remarked, in his most
+positive manner.
+
+"We do want her," Isabel rejoined. "I won't venture to say it's
+wrong in you, Mr. Hardyman, to talk to me as you have just done,
+but I am quite sure it's very wrong of me to listen."
+
+He looked at her with such unaffected surprise and distress that
+she stopped, on the point of leaving him, and tried to make
+herself better understood.
+
+"I had no intention of offending you, sir," she said, a little
+confusedly. "I only wanted to remind you that there are some
+things which a gentleman in your position--" She stopped, tried
+to finish the sentence, failed, and began another. "If I had been
+a young lady in your own rank of life," she went on, "I might
+have thanked you for paying me a compliment, and have given you a
+serious answer. As it is, I am afraid that I must say that you
+have surprised and disappointed me. I can claim very little for
+myself, I know. But I did imagine--so long as there was nothing
+unbecoming in my conduct--that I had some right to your respect."
+
+Listening more and more impatiently, Hardyman took her by the
+hand, and burst out with another of his abrupt questions.
+
+"What can you possibly be thinking of?" he asked.
+
+She gave him no answer; she only looked at him reproachfully, and
+tried to release herself.
+
+Hardyman held her hand faster than ever.
+
+"I believe you think me an infernal scoundrel!" he said. "I can
+stand a good deal, Miss Isabel, but I can't stand _that_. How
+have I failed in respect toward you, if you please? I have told
+you you're the woman my heart is set on. Well? Isn't it plain
+what I want of you, when I say that? Isabel Miller, I want you to
+be my wife!"
+
+Isabel's only reply to this extraordinary proposal of marriage
+was a faint cry of astonishment, followed by a sudden trembling
+that shook her from head to foot.
+
+Hardyman put his arm round her with a gentleness which his oldest
+friend would have been surprised to see in him.
+
+"Take your time to think of it," he said, dropping back again
+into his usual quiet tone. "If you had known me a little better
+you wouldn't have mistaken me, and you wouldn't be looking at me
+now as if you were afraid to believe your own ears. What is there
+so very wonderful in my wanting to marry you? I don't set up for
+being a saint. When I was a younger man I was no better (and no
+worse) than other young men. I'm getting on now to middle life. I
+don't want romances and adventures--I want an easy existence with
+a nice lovable woman who will make me a good wife. You're the
+woman, I tell you again. I know it by what I've seen of you
+myself, and by what I have heard of you from Lady Lydiard. She
+said you were prudent, and sweet-tempered, and affectionate; to
+which I wish to add that you have just the face and figure that I
+like, and the modest manners and the blessed absence of all slang
+in your talk, which I don't find in the young women I meet with
+in the present day. That's my view of it: I think for myself.
+What does it matter to me whether you're the daughter of a Duke
+or the daughter of a Dairyman? It isn't your father I want to
+marry--it's you. Listen to reason, there's a dear! We have only
+one question to settle before we go back to your aunt. You
+wouldn't answer me when I asked it a little while since. Will you
+answer now? _Do_ you like me?"
+
+Isabel looked up at him timidly.
+
+"In my position, sir," she asked, "have I any right to like you?
+What would your relations and friends think, if I said Yes?"
+
+Hardyman gave her waist a little admonitory squeeze with his arm
+
+"What? You're at it again? A nice way to answer a man, to call
+him "Sir," and to get behind his rank as if it was a place of
+refuge from him! I hate talking of myself, but you force me to
+it. Here is my position in the world--I have got an elder
+brother; he is married, and he has a son to succeed him, in the
+title and the property. You understand, so far? Very well! Years
+ago I shifted my share of the rank (whatever it may be) on to my
+brother's shoulders. He is a thorough good fellow, and he has
+carried my dignity for me, without once dropping it, ever since.
+As for what people may say, they have said it already, from my
+father and mother downward, in the time when I took to the horses
+and the farm. If they're the wise people I take them for, they
+won't be at the trouble of saying it all over again. No, no.
+Twist it how you may, Miss Isabel, whether I'm single or whether
+I'm married, I'm plain Alfred Hardyman; and everybody who knows
+me knows that I go on my way, and please myself. If you don't
+like me, it will be the bitterest disappointment I ever had in my
+life; but say so honestly, all the same."
+
+Where is the woman in Isabel's place whose capacity for
+resistance would not have yielded a little to such an appeal as
+this?
+
+"I should be an insensible wretch" she replied warmly, "if I
+didn't feel the honor you have done me, and feel it gratefully."
+
+"Does that mean you will have me for a husband?" asked downright
+Hardyman.
+
+She was fairly driven into a corner; but (being a woman) she
+tried to slip through his fingers at the last moment.
+
+"Will you forgive me," she said, "if I ask you for a little more
+time? I am so bewildered, I hardly know what to say or do for the
+best. You see, Mr. Hardyman, it would be a dreadful thing for me
+to be the cause of giving offense to your family. I am obliged to
+think of that. It would be so distressing for you (I will say
+nothing of myself) if your friends closed their doors on me. They
+might say I was a designing girl, who had taken advantage of your
+good opinion to raise herself in the world. Lady Lydiard warned
+me long since not to be ambitious about myself and not to forget
+my station in life, because she treated me like her adopted
+daughter. Indeed--indeed, I can't tell you how I feel your
+goodness, and the compliment--the very great compliment, you pay
+me!
+ My heart is free, and if I followed my own inclinations--" She
+checked herself, conscious that she was on the brink of saying
+too much. "Will you give me a few days," she pleaded, "to try if
+I can think composedly of all this? I am only a girl, and I feel
+quite dazzled by the prospect that you set before me."
+
+Hardyman seized on those words as offering all the encouragement
+that he desired to his suit.
+
+"Have your own way in this thing and in everything!" he said,
+with an unaccustomed fervor of language and manner. "I am so glad
+to hear that your heart is open to me, and that all your
+inclinations take my part."
+
+Isabel instantly protested against this misrepresentation of what
+she had really said, "Oh, Mr. Hardyman, you quite mistake me!"
+
+He answered her very much as he had answered Lady Lydiard, when
+she had tried to make him understand his proper relations towards
+Isabel.
+
+"No, no; I don't mistake you. I agree to every word you say. How
+can I expect you to marry me, as you very properly remark, unless
+I give you a day or two to make up your mind? It's quite enough
+for me that you like the prospect. If Lady Lydiard treated you as
+her daughter, why shouldn't you be my wife? It stands to reason
+that you're quite right to marry a man who can raise you in the
+world. I like you to be ambitious--though Heaven knows it isn't
+much I can do for you, except to love you with all my heart.
+Still, it's a great encouragement to hear that her Ladyship's
+views agree with mine--"
+
+"They don't agree, Mr. Hardyman!" protested poor Isabel. "You are
+entirely misrepresenting--"
+
+Hardyman cordially concurred in this view of the matter. "Yes!
+yes! I can't pretend to represent her Ladyship's language, or
+yours either; I am obliged to take my words as they come to me.
+Don't disturb yourself: it's all right--I understand. You have
+made me the happiest man living. I shall ride over to-morrow to
+your aunt's house, and hear what you have to say to me. Mind
+you're at home! Not a day must pass now without my seeing you. I
+do love you, Isabel--I do, indeed!" He stooped, and kissed her
+heartily. "Only to reward me," he explained, "for giving you time
+to think."
+
+She drew herself away from him--resolutely, not angrily. Before
+she could make a third attempt to place the subject in its right
+light before him, the luncheon bell rang at the cottage--and a
+servant appeared evidently sent to look for them.
+
+"Don't forget to-morrow," Hardyman whispered confidentially.
+"I'll call early--and then go to London, and get the ring."
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+EVENTS succeeded each other rapidly, after the memorable day to
+Isabel of the luncheon at the farm.
+
+On the next day (the ninth of the month) Lady Lydiard sent for
+her steward, and requested him to explain his conduct in
+repeatedly leaving the house without assigning any reason for his
+absence. She did not dispute his claims to a freedom of action
+which would not be permitted to an ordinary servant. Her
+objection to his present course of proceeding related entirely to
+the mystery in which it was involved, and to the uncertainty in
+which the household was left as to the hour of his return. On
+those grounds, she thought herself entitled to an explanation.
+Moody's habitual reserve--strengthened, on this occasion, by his
+dread of ridicule, if his efforts to serve Isabel ended in
+failure--disinclined him to take Lady Lydiard into his
+confidence, while his inquiries were still beset with obstacles
+and doubts. He respectfully entreated her Ladyship to grant him a
+delay of a few weeks before he entered on his explanation. Lady
+Lydiard's quick temper resented his request. She told Moody
+plainly that he was guilty of an act of presumption in making his
+own conditions with his employer. He received the reproof with
+exemplary resignation; but he held to his conditions
+nevertheless. From that moment the result of the interview was no
+longer in doubt. Moody was directed to send in his accounts. The
+accounts having been examined, and found to be scrupulously
+correct, he declined accepting the balance of salary that was
+offered to him. The next day he left Lady Lydiard's service.
+
+On the tenth of the month her Ladyship received a letter from her
+nephew.
+
+The health of Felix had not improved. He had made up his mind to
+go abroad again towards the end of the month. In the meantime, he
+had written to his friend in Paris, and he had the pleasure of
+forwarding an answer. The letter inclosed announced that the lost
+five-hundred-pound note had been made the subject of careful
+inquiry in Paris. It had not been traced. The French police
+offered to send to London one of their best men, well acquainted
+with the English language, if Lady Lydiard was desirous of
+employing him. He would be perfectly willing to act with an
+English officer in conducting the investigation, should it be
+thought necessary. Mr. Troy being consulted as to the expediency
+of accepting this proposal, objected to the pecuniary terms
+demanded as being extravagantly high. He suggested waiting a
+little before any reply was sent to Paris; and he engaged
+meanwhile to consult a London solicitor who had great experience
+in cases of theft, and whose advice might enable them to dispense
+entirely with the services of the French police.
+
+Being now a free man again, Moody was able to follow his own
+inclinations in regard to the instructions which he had received
+from Old Sharon.
+
+The course that had been recommended to him was repellent to the
+self-respect and the sense of delicacy which were among the
+inbred virtues of Moody's character. He shrank from forcing
+himself as a friend on Hardyman's valet: he recoiled from the
+idea of tempting the man to steal a specimen of his master's
+handwriting. After some consideration, he decided on applying to
+the agent who collected the rents at Hardyman's London chambers.
+Being an old acquaintance of Moody's, this person would certainly
+not hesitate to communicate the address of Hardyman's bankers, if
+he knew it. The experiment, tried under these favoring
+circumstances, proved perfectly successful. Moody proceeded to
+Sharon's lodgings the same day, with the address of the bankers
+in his pocketbook. The old vagabond, greatly amused by Moody's
+scruples, saw plainly enough that, so long as he wrote the
+supposed letter from Hardyman in the third person, it mattered
+little what handwriting was employed, seeing that no signature
+would be necessary. The letter was at once composed, on the model
+which Sharon had already suggested to Moody, and a respectable
+messenger (so far as outward appearances went) was employed to
+take it to the bank. In half an hour the answer came back. It
+added one more to the difficulties which beset the inquiry after
+the lost money. No such sum as five hundred pounds had been paid,
+within the dates mentioned, to the credit of Hardyman's account.
+
+Old Sharon was not in the least discomposed by this fresh check.
+"Give my love to the dear young lady," he said with his customary
+impudence; "and tell her we are one degree nearer to finding the
+thief."
+
+Moody looked at him, doubting whether he was in jest or in
+earnest.
+
+"Must I squeeze a little more information into that thick head of
+yours?" asked Sharon. With this question he produced a weekly
+newspaper, and pointed to a paragraph which reported, among the
+items of sporting news, Hardyman's recent visit to a sale of
+horses at a town in the north of France. "We know he didn't pay
+the bank-note in to his account," Sharon remarked. "What else did
+he do with it? Took it to pay for the horses that he bought in
+France! Do you see your way a little plainer now? Very good.
+Let's try next if your money holds out. Somebody must cross the
+Channel in search of the note. Which of us two is to sit in the
+steam-boat with a white basin on his lap? Old Sharon, of course!"
+He stopped to count the money still left, out of the sum
+deposited by Moody to defray the cost of the inquiry. "All
+right!" he went on. "I've got enough to pay my expenses there and
+back. Don't stir out of London till you hear from me. I can't
+tell how soon I may not want you. If there's any difficulty in
+tracing the note, your hand will have to go into your pocket
+again. Can't you get the lawyer to join you? Lord! how I should
+enjoy squandering _his_ money! It's a downright disgrace to me to
+have only got one guinea out of him. I could tear my flesh off my
+bones when I think of it."
+
+The same night Old Sharon started for France, by way of Dover and
+Calais.
+
+Two days elapsed, and brought no news from Moody's agent. On the
+third day, he received some information relating to Sharon--not
+from the man himself, but in a letter from Isabel Miller.
+
+"For once, dear Robert," she wrote, "my judgment has turned out
+to be sounder than yours. That hateful old man has confirmed my
+worst opinion of him. Pray have him punished. Take him before a
+magistrate and charge him with cheating you out of your money. I
+inclose the sealed letter which he gave me at the farmhouse. The
+week's time before I was to open it expired yesterday. Was there
+ever anything so impudent and so inhuman? I am too vexed and
+angry about the money you have wasted on this old wretch to write
+more. Yours, gratefully and affectionately, Isabel."
+
+The letter in which Old Sharon had undertaken (by way of
+pacifying Isabel) to write the name of the thief, contained these
+lines:
+
+"You are a charming girl, my dear; but you still want one thing
+to make you perfect--and that is a lesson in patience. I am proud
+and happy to teach you. The name of the thief remains, for the
+present, Mr. ---- (Blank)."
+
+From Moody's point of view, there was but one thing to be said of
+this: it was just like Old Sharon! Isabel's letter was of
+infinitely greater interest to him. He feasted his eyes on the
+words above the signature: she signed herself, "Yours gratefully
+and affectionately." Did the last words mean that she was really
+beginning to be fond of him? After kissing the word, he wrote a
+comforting letter to her, in which he pledged himself to keep a
+watchful eye on Sharon, and to trust him with no more money until
+he had honestly earned it first.
+
+A week passed. Moody (longing to see Isabel) still waited in vain
+for news from France. He had just decided to delay his visit to
+South Morden no longer, when the errand-boy employed by Sharon
+brought him this message: "The old 'un's at home, and waitin' to
+see yer."
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SHARON'S news was not of an encouraging character. He had met
+with serious difficulties, and had spent the last farthing of
+Moody's money in attempting to overcome them.
+
+One discovery of importance he had certainly made. A horse
+withdrawn from the sale was the only horse that had met with
+Hardyman's approval. He had secured the animal at the high
+reserved price of twelve thousand francs--being four hundred and
+eighty pounds in English money; and he had paid with an English
+bank-note. The seller (a French horse-dealer resident in
+Brussels) had returned to Belgium immediately on completing the
+negotiations. Sharon had ascertained his address, and had written
+to him at Brussels, inclosing the number of the lost banknote. In
+two days he had received an answer, informing him that the
+horse-dealer had been called to England by the illness of a
+relative, and that he had hitherto failed to send any address to
+which his letters could be forwarded. Hearing this, and having
+exhausted his funds, Sharon had returned to London. It now rested
+with Moody to decide whether the course of the inquiry should
+follow the horse-dealer next. Here was the cash account, showing
+how the money had been spent. And there was Sharon, with his pipe
+in his mouth and his dog on his lap, waiting for orders.
+
+Moody wisely took time to consider before he committed himself to
+a decision. In the meanwhile, he ventured to recommend a new
+course of proceeding which Sharon's report had suggested to his
+mind.
+
+"It seems to me," he said, "that we have taken the roundabout way
+of getting to our end in view, when the straight road lay before
+us. If Mr. Hardyman has passed the stolen note, you know, as well
+as I do, that he has passed it innocently. Instead of wasting
+time and money in trying to trace a stranger, why not tell Mr.
+Hardyman what has happened, and ask him to give us the number of
+the note? You can't think of everything, I know; but it does seem
+strange that this idea didn't occur to you before you went to
+France."
+
+"Mr. Moody," said Old Sharon, "I shall have to cut your
+acquaintance. You are a man without faith; I don't like you. As
+if I hadn't thought of Hardyman weeks since!" he exclaimed
+contemptuously. "Are you really soft enough to suppose that a
+gentleman in his position would talk about his money affairs to
+me? You know mighty little of him if you do. A fortnight since I
+sent one of my men (most respectably dressed) to hang about his
+farm, and see what information he could pick up. My man became
+painfully acquainted with the toe of a boot. It was thick, sir;
+and it was Hardyman's."
+
+"I will run the risk of the boot," Moody replied, in his quiet
+way.
+
+"And put the question to Hardyman?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very good," said Sharon. "If you get your answer from his
+tongue, instead of his boot, the case is cleared up--unless I
+have made a complete mess of it. Look here, Moody! If you want to
+do me a good turn, tell the lawyer that the guinea-opinion was
+the right one. Let him know that _he_ was the fool, not you, when
+he buttoned up his pockets and refused to trust me. And, I say,"
+pursued Old Sharon, relapsing into his customary impudence,
+"you're in love, you know, with that nice girl. I like her
+myself. When you marry her invite me to the wedding. I'll make a
+sacrifice; I'll brush my hair and wash my face in honor of the
+occasion."
+
+Returning to his lodgings, Moody found two letters waiting on the
+table. One of them bore the South Morden postmark. He opened that
+letter first.
+
+It was written by Miss Pink. The first lines contained an urgent
+entreaty to keep the circumstances connected with the loss of the
+five hundred pounds the strictest secret from everyone in
+general, and from Hardyman in particular. The reasons assigned
+for making the strange request were next expressed in these
+terms: "My niece Isabel is, I am happy to inform you, engaged to
+be married to Mr. Hardyman. If the slightest hint reached him of
+her having been associated, no matter how cruelly and unjustly,
+with a suspicion of theft, the marriage would be broken off, and
+the result to herself and to everybody connected with her, would
+be disgrace for the rest of our lives."
+
+On the blank space at the foot of the page a few words were added
+in Isabel's writing: "Whatever changes there may be in my life,
+your place in my heart is one that no other person can fill: it
+is the place of my dearest friend. Pray write and d tell me that
+you are not distressed and not angry. My one anxiety is that you
+should remember what I have always told you about the state of my
+own feelings. My one wish is that you will still let me love you
+and value you, as I might have loved and valued a brother."
+
+The letter dropped from Moody's hand. Not a word--not even a
+sigh--passed his lips. In tearless silence he submitted to the
+pang that wrung him. In tearless silence he contemplated the
+wreck of his life.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE narrative returns to South Morden, and follows the events
+which attended Isabel's marriage engagement.
+
+To say that Miss Pink, inflated by the triumph, rose, morally
+speaking, from the earth and floated among the clouds, is to
+indicate faintly the effect produced on the ex-schoolmistress
+when her niece first informed her of what had happened at the
+farm. Attacked on one side by her aunt, and on the other by
+Hardyman, and feebly defended, at the best, by her own doubts and
+misgivings, Isabel ended by surrendering at discretion. Like
+thousands of other women in a similar position, she was in the
+last degree uncertain as to the state of her own heart. To what
+extent she was insensibly influenced by Hardyman's commanding
+position in believing herself to be sincerely attached to him, it
+was beyond her power of self-examination to discover. He doubly
+dazzled her by his birth and by his celebrity. Not in England
+only, but throughout Europe, he was a recognized authority on his
+own subject. How could she-- how could any woman--resist the
+influence of his steady mind, his firmness of purpose, his manly
+resolution to owe everything to himself and nothing to his rank,
+set off as these attractive qualities were by the outward and
+personal advantages which exercise an ascendancy of their own?
+Isabel was fascinated, and yet Isabel was not at ease. In her
+lonely moments she was troubled by regretful thoughts of Moody,
+which perplexed and irritated her. She had always behaved
+honestly to him; she had never encouraged him to hope that his
+love for her had the faintest prospect of being returned. Yet,
+knowing, as she did, that her conduct was blameless so far, there
+were nevertheless perverse sympathies in her which took his part.
+In the wakeful hours of the night there were whispering voices in
+her which said: "Think of Moody!" Had there been a growing
+kindness towards this good friend in her heart, of which she
+herself was not aware? She tried to detect it--to weigh it for
+what it was really worth. But it lay too deep to be discovered
+and estimated, if it did really exist--if it had any sounder
+origin than her own morbid fancy. In the broad light of day, in
+the little bustling duties of life, she forgot it again. She
+could think of what she ought to wear on the wedding day; she
+could even try privately how her new signature, "Isabel
+Hardyman," would look when she had the right to use it. On the
+whole, it may be said that the time passed smoothly--with some
+occasional checks and drawbacks, which were the more easily
+endured seeing that they took their rise in Isabel's own conduct.
+Compliant as she was in general, there were two instances, among
+others, in which her resolution to take her own way was not to be
+overcome. She refused to write either to Moody or to Lady Lydiard
+informing them of her engagement; and she steadily disapproved of
+Miss Pink's policy of concealment, in the matter of the robbery
+at Lady Lydiard's house. Her aunt could only secure her as a
+passive accomplice by stating family considerations in the
+strongest possible terms. "If the disgrace was confined to you,
+my dear, I might leave you to decide. But I am involved in it, as
+your nearest relative; and, what is more, even the sacred
+memories of your father and mother might feel the slur cast on
+them." This exaggerated language--like all exaggerated language,
+a mischievous weapon in the arsenal of weakness and
+prejudice--had its effect on Isabel. Reluctantly and sadly, she
+consented to be silent.
+
+Miss Pink wrote word of the engagement to Moody first; reserving
+to a later day the superior pleasure of informing Lady Lydiard of
+the very event which that audacious woman had declared to be
+impossible. To her aunt's surprise, just as she was about to
+close the envelope Isabel stepped forward, and inconsistently
+requested leave to add a postscript to the very letter which she
+had refused to write! Miss Pink was not even permitted to see the
+postscript. Isabel secured the envelope the moment she laid down
+her pen, and retired to her room with a headache (which was
+heartache in disguise) for the rest of the day.
+
+While the question of marriage was still in debate, an event
+occurred which exercised a serious influence on Hardyman's future
+plans.
+
+He received a letter from the Continent which claimed his
+immediate attention. One of the sovereigns of Europe had decided
+on making some radical changes in the mounting and equipment of a
+cavalry regiment; and he required the assistance of Hardyman in
+that important part of the contemplated reform which was
+connected with the choice and purchase of horses. Setting his own
+interests out of the question, Hardyman owed obligations to the
+kindness of his illustrious correspondent which made it
+impossible for him to send an excuse. In a fortnight's time, at
+the latest, it would be necessary for him to leave England; and a
+month or more might elapse before it would be possible for him to
+return.
+
+Under these circumstances, he proposed, in his own precipitate
+way, to hasten the date of the marriage. The necessary legal
+delay would permit the ceremony to be performed on that day
+fortnight. Isabel might then accompany him on his journey, and
+spend a brilliant honeymoon at the foreign Court. She at once
+refused, not only to accept his proposal, but even to take it
+into consideration. While Miss Pink dwelt eloquently on the
+shortness of the notice, Miss Pink's niece based her resolution
+on far more important grounds. Hardyman had not yet announced the
+contemplated marriage to his parents and friends; and Isabel was
+determined not to become his wife until she could be first
+assured of a courteous and tolerant reception by the family--if
+she could hope for no warmer welcome at their hands.
+
+Hardyman was not a man who yielded easily, even in trifles. In
+the present case, his dearest interests were concerned in
+inducing Isabel to reconsider her decision. He was still vainly
+trying to shake her resolution, when the afternoon post brought a
+letter for Miss Pink which introduced a new element of
+disturbance into the discussion. The letter was nothing less than
+Lady Lydiard's reply to the written announcement of Isabel's
+engagement, despatched on the previous day by Miss Pink.
+
+Her Ladyship's answer was a surprisingly short one. It only
+contained these lines:
+
+"Lady Lydiard begs to acknowledge the receipt of Miss Pink's
+letter requesting that she will say nothing to Mr. Hardyman of
+the loss of a bank-note in her house, and, assigning as a reason
+that Miss Isabel Miller is engaged to be married to Mr. Hardyman,
+and might be prejudiced in his estimation if the facts were made
+known. Miss Pink may make her mind easy. Lady Lydiard had not the
+slightest intention of taking Mr. Hardyman into her confidence on
+the subject of her domestic affairs. With regard to the proposed
+marriage, Lady Lydiard casts no doubt on Miss Pink's perfect
+sincerity and good faith; but, at the same time, she positively
+declines to believe that Mr. Hardyman means to make Miss Isabel
+Miller his wife. Lady L. will yield to the evidence of a
+properly-attested certificate--and to nothing else."
+
+
+A folded piece of paper, directed to Isabel, dropped out of this
+characteristic letter as Miss Pink turned from the first page to
+the second. Lady Lydiard addressed her adopted daughter in these
+words:
+
+"I was on the point of leaving home to visit you again, when I
+received your aunt's letter. My poor deluded child, no words can
+tell how distressed I am about you. You are already sacrificed to
+the folly of the most foolish woman living. For God's sake, take
+care you do not fall a victim next to the designs of a profligate
+man. Come to me instantly, Isabel, and I promise to take care of
+you."
+
+Fortified by these letters, and aided by Miss Pink's indignation,
+Hardyman pressed his proposal on Isabel with renewed resolution.
+She made no attempt to combat his arguments--she only held firmly
+to her decision. Without some encouragement from Hardyman's
+father and mother she still steadily refused to become his wife.
+Irritated already by Lady Lydiard's letters, he lost the
+self-command which so eminently distinguished him in the ordinary
+affairs of life, and showed the domineering and despotic temper
+which was an inbred part of his disposition. Isabel's high spirit
+at once resented the harsh terms in which he spoke to her. In the
+plainest words, she released him from his engagement, and,
+without waiting for his excuses, quitted the room.
+
+Left together, Hardyman and Miss Pink devised an arrangement
+which paid due respect to Isabel's scruples, and at the same time
+met Lady Lydiard's insulting assertion of disbelief in Hardyman's
+honor, by a formal and public announcement of the marriage.
+
+It was proposed to give a garden party at the farm in a week's
+time for the express purpose of introducing Isabel to Hardyman's
+family and friends in the character of his betrothed wife. If his
+father and mother accepted the invitation, Isabel's only
+objection to hastening the union would fall to the ground.
+Hardyman might, in that case, plead with his Imperial
+correspondent for a delay in his departure of a few days more;
+and th e marriage might still take place before he left England.
+Isabel, at Miss Pink's intercession, was induced to accept her
+lover's excuses, and, in the event of her favorable reception by
+Hardyman's parents at the farm, to give her consent (not very
+willingly even yet) to hastening the ceremony which was to make
+her Hardyman's wife.
+
+On the next morning the whole of the invitations were sent out,
+excepting the invitation to Hardyman's father and mother. Without
+mentioning it to Isabel, Hardyman decided on personally appealing
+to his mother before he ventured on taking the head of the family
+into his confidence.
+
+The result of the interview was partially successful--and no
+more. Lord Rotherfield declined to see his youngest son; and he
+had engagements which would, under any circumstances, prevent his
+being present at the garden party. But at the express request of
+Lady Rotherfield, he was willing to make certain concessions.
+
+"I have always regarded Alfred as a barely sane person," said his
+Lordship, "since he turned his back on his prospects to become a
+horse dealer. If we decline altogether to sanction this new
+act--I won't say, of insanity, I will say, of absurdity--on his
+part, it is impossible to predict to what discreditable
+extremities he may not proceed. We must temporise with Alfred. In
+the meantime I shall endeavor to obtain some information
+respecting this young person--named Miller, I think you said, and
+now resident at South Morden. If I am satisfied that she is a
+woman of reputable character, possessing an average education and
+presentable manners, we may as well let Alfred take his own way.
+He is out of the pale of Society, as it is; and Miss Miller has
+no father and mother to complicate matters, which is distinctly a
+merit on her part and, in short, if the marriage is not
+absolutely disgraceful, the wisest way (as we have no power to
+prevent it) will be to submit. You will say nothing to Alfred
+about what I propose to do. I tell you plainly I don't trust him.
+You will simply inform him from me that I want time to consider,
+and that, unless he hears to the contrary in the interval, he may
+expect to have the sanction of your presence at his breakfast, or
+luncheon, or whatever it is. I must go to town in a day or two,
+and I shall ascertain what Alfred's friends know about this last
+of his many follies, if I meet any of them at the club."
+
+Returning to South Morden in no serene frame of mind, Hardyman
+found Isabel in a state of depression which perplexed and alarmed
+him.
+
+The news that his mother might be expected to be present at the
+garden party failed entirely to raise her spirits. The only
+explanation she gave of the change in her was, that the dull
+heavy weather of the last few days made her feel a little languid
+and nervous. Naturally dissatisfied with this reply to his
+inquiries, Hardyman asked for Miss Pink. He was informed that
+Miss Pink could not see him. She was constitutionally subject to
+asthma, and, having warnings of the return of the malady, she was
+(by the doctor's advice) keeping her room. Hardyman returned to
+the farm in a temper which was felt by everybody in his
+employment, from the trainer to the stable-boys.
+
+While the apology made for Miss Pink stated no more than the
+plain truth, it must be confessed that Hardyman was right in
+declining to be satisfied with Isabel's excuse for the melancholy
+that oppressed her. She had that morning received Moody's answer
+to the lines which she had addressed to him at the end of her
+aunt's letter; and she had not yet recovered from the effect
+which it had produced on her spirits.
+
+"It is impossible for me to say honestly that I am not distressed
+(Moody wrote) by the news of your marriage engagement. The blow
+has fallen very heavily on me. When I look at the future now, I
+see only a dreary blank. This is not your fault--you are in no
+way to blame. I remember the time when I should have been too
+angry to own this--when I might have said or done things which I
+should have bitterly repented afterwards. That time is past. My
+temper has been softened, since I have befriended you in your
+troubles. That good at least has come out of my foolish hopes,
+and perhaps out of the true sympathy which I have felt for you. I
+can honestly ask you to accept my heart's dearest wishes for your
+happiness--and I can keep the rest to myself.
+
+"Let me say a word now relating to the efforts that I have made
+to help you, since that sad day when you left Lady Lydiard's
+house.
+
+"I had hoped (for reasons which it is needless to mention here)
+to interest Mr. Hardyman himself in aiding our inquiry. But your
+aunt's wishes, as expressed in her letter to me, close my lips. I
+will only beg you, at some convenient time, to let me mention the
+last discoveries that we have made; leaving it to your
+discretion, when Mr. Hardyman has become your husband, to ask him
+the questions which, under other circumstances, I should have put
+to him myself.
+
+"It is, of course, possible that the view I take of Mr.
+Hardyman's capacity to help us may be a mistaken one. In this
+case, if you still wish the investigation to be privately carried
+on, I entreat you to let me continue to direct it, as the
+greatest favor you can confer on your devoted old friend.
+
+"You need be under no apprehension about the expense to which you
+are likely to put me. I have unexpectedly inherited what is to me
+a handsome fortune.
+
+"The same post which brought your aunt's letter brought a line
+from a lawyer asking me to see him on the subject of my late
+father's affairs. I waited a day or two before I could summon
+heart enough to see him, or to see anybody; and then I went to
+his office. You have heard that my father's bank stopped payment,
+at a time of commercial panic. His failure was mainly
+attributable to the treachery of a friend to whom he had lent a
+large sum of money, and who paid him the yearly interest, without
+acknowledging that every farthing of it had been lost in
+unsuccessful speculations. The son of this man has prospered in
+business, and he has honorably devoted a part of his wealth to
+the payment of his father's creditors. Half the sum due to _my_
+father has thus passed into my hands as his next of kin; and the
+other half is to follow in course of time. If my hopes had been
+fulfilled, how gladly I should have shared my prosperity with
+you! As it is, I have far more than enough for my wants as a
+lonely man, and plenty left to spend in your service.
+
+"God bless and prosper you, my dear. I shall ask you to accept a
+little present from me, among the other offerings that are made
+to you before the wedding day.-- R.M."
+
+
+The studiously considerate and delicate tone in which these lines
+were written had an effect on Isabel which was exactly the
+opposite of the effect intended by the writer. She burst into a
+passionate fit of tears; and in the safe solitude of her own
+room, the despairing words escaped her, "I wish I had died before
+I met with Alfred Hardyman!"
+
+As the days wore on, disappointments and difficulties seemed by a
+kind of fatality to beset the contemplated announcement of the
+marriage.
+
+Miss Pink's asthma, developed by the unfavorable weather, set the
+doctor's art at defiance, and threatened to keep that unfortunate
+lady a prisoner in her room on the day of the party. Hardyman's
+invitations were in some cases refused; and in others accepted by
+husbands with excuses for the absence of their wives. His elder
+brother made an apology for himself as well as for his wife.
+Felix Sweetsir wrote, "With pleasure, dear Alfred, if my health
+permits me to leave the house." Lady Lydiard, invited at Miss
+Pink's special request, sent no reply. The one encouraging
+circumstance was the silence of Lady Rotherfield. So long as her
+son received no intimation to the contrary, it was a sign that
+Lord Rotherfield permitted his wife to sanction the marriage by
+her presence.
+
+Hardyman wrote to his Imperial correspondent, engaging to leave
+England on the earliest possible day, and asking to be pardoned
+if he failed to express himself more definitely, in consideration
+of domestic affairs, which it was necessary to settle before he
+started  for the Continent. I f there should not be time enough to
+write again, he promised to send a telegraphic announcement of
+his departure. Long afterwards, Hardyman remembered the
+misgivings that had troubled him when he wrote that letter. In
+the rough draught of it, he had mentioned, as his excuse for not
+being yet certain of his own movements, that he expected to be
+immediately married. In the fair copy, the vague foreboding of
+some accident to come was so painfully present to his mind, that
+he struck out the words which referred to his marriage, and
+substituted the designedly indefinite phrase, "domestic affairs."
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE day of the garden party arrived. There was no rain; but the
+air was heavy, and the sky was overcast by lowering clouds.
+
+Some hours before the guests were expected, Isabel arrived alone
+at the farm, bearing the apologies of unfortunate Miss Pink,
+still kept a prisoner in her bed-chamber by the asthma. In the
+confusion produced at the cottage by the preparations for
+entertaining the company, the one room in which Hardyman could
+receive Isabel with the certainty of not being interrupted was
+the smoking-room. To this haven of refuge he led her--still
+reserved and silent, still not restored to her customary spirits.
+"If any visitors come before the time," Hardyman said to his
+servant, "tell them I am engaged at the stables. I must have an
+hour's quiet talk with you," he continued, turning to Isabel, "or
+I shall be in too bad a temper to receive my guests with common
+politeness. The worry of giving this party is not to be told in
+words. I almost wish I had been content with presenting you to my
+mother, and had let the rest of my acquaintances go to the
+devil."
+
+A quiet half hour passed; and the first visitor, a stranger to
+the servants, appeared at the cottage-gate. He was a middle-aged
+man, and he had no wish to disturb Mr. Hardyman. "I will wait in
+the grounds," he said, "and trouble nobody." The middle-aged man,
+who expressed himself in these modest terms, was Robert Moody.
+
+Five minutes later, a carriage drove up to the gate. An elderly
+lady got out of it, followed by a fat white Scotch terrier, who
+growled at every stranger within his reach. It is needless to
+introduce Lady Lydiard and Tommie.
+
+Informed that Mr. Hardyman was at the stables, Lady Lydiard gave
+the servant her card. "Take that to your master, and say I won't
+detain him five minutes." With these words, her Ladyship
+sauntered into the grounds. She looked about her with observant
+eyes; not only noticing the tent which had been set up on the
+grass to accommodate the expected guests, but entering it, and
+looking at the waiters who were engaged in placing the luncheon
+on the table. Returning to the outer world, she next remarked
+that Mr. Hardyman's lawn was in very bad order. Barren sun-dried
+patches, and little holes and crevices opened here and there by
+the action of the summer heat, announced that the lawn, like
+everything else at the farm, had been neglected, in the exclusive
+attention paid to the claims of the horses. Reaching a shrubbery
+which bounded one side of the grounds next, her Ladyship became
+aware of a man slowly approaching her, to all appearance absorbed
+in thought. The man drew a little nearer. She lifted her glasses
+to her eyes and recognized--Moody.
+
+No embarrassment was produced on either side by this unexpected
+meeting. Lady Lydiard had, not long since, sent to ask her former
+steward to visit her; regretting, in her warm-hearted way, the
+terms on which they had separated, and wishing to atone for the
+harsh language that had escaped her at their parting interview.
+In the friendly talk which followed the reconciliation, Lady
+Lydiard not only heard the news of Moody's pecuniary
+inheritance--but, noticing the change in his appearance for the
+worse, contrived to extract from him the confession of his
+ill-starred passion for Isabel. To discover him now, after all
+that he had acknowledged, walking about the grounds at Hardyman's
+farm, took her Ladyship completely by surprise. "Good Heavens!"
+she exclaimed, in her loudest tones, "what are you doing here?"
+
+"You mentioned Mr. Hardyman's garden party, my Lady, when I had
+the honor of waiting on you," Moody answered. "Thinking over it
+afterward, it seemed the fittest occasion I could find for making
+a little wedding present to Miss Isabel. Is there any harm in my
+asking Mr. Hardyman to let me put the present on her plate, so
+that she may see it when she sits down to luncheon? If your
+Ladyship thinks so, I will go away directly, and send the gift by
+post."
+
+Lady Lydiard looked at him attentively. "You don't despise the
+girl," she asked, "for selling herself for rank and money? I
+do--I can tell you!"
+
+Moody's worn white face flushed a little. "No, my Lady," he
+answered, "I can't hear you say that! Isabel would not have
+engaged herself to Mr. Hardyman unless she had been fond of
+him--as fond, I dare say, as I once hoped she might be of me.
+It's a hard thing to confess that; but I do confess it, in
+justice to her--God bless her!"
+
+The generosity that spoke in those simple words touched the
+finest sympathies in Lady Lydiard's nature. "Give me your hand,"
+she said, with her own generous spirit kindling in her eyes. "You
+have a great heart, Moody. Isabel Miller is a fool for not
+marrying _you_--and one day she will know it!"
+
+Before a word more could pass between them, Hardyman's voice was
+audible on the other side of the shrubbery, calling irritably to
+his servant to find Lady Lydiard.
+
+Moody retired to the further end of the walk, while Lady Lydiard
+advanced in the opposite direction, so as to meet Hardyman at the
+entrance to the shrubbery. He bowed stiffly, and begged to know
+why her Ladyship had honored him with a visit.
+
+Lady Lydiard replied without noticing the coldness of her
+reception.
+
+"I have not been very well, Mr. Hardyman, or you would have seen
+me before this. My only object in presenting myself here is to
+make my excuses personally for having written of you in terms
+which expressed a doubt of your honor. I have done you an
+injustice, and I beg you to forgive me."
+
+Hardyman acknowledged this frank apology as unreservedly as it
+had been offered to him. "Say no more, Lady Lydiard. And let me
+hope, now you are here, that you will honor my little party with
+your presence."
+
+Lady Lydiard gravely stated her reasons for not accepting the
+invitation.
+
+"I disapprove so strongly of unequal marriages," she said,
+walking on slowly towards the cottage, "that I cannot, in common
+consistency, become one of your guests. I shall always feel
+interested in Isabel Miller's welfare; and I can honestly say I
+shall be glad if your married life proves that my old-fashioned
+prejudices are without justification in your case. Accept my
+thanks for your invitation; and let me hope that my plain
+speaking has not offended you."
+
+She bowed, and looked about her for Tommie before she advanced to
+the carriage waiting for her at the gate. In the surprise of
+seeing Moody she had forgotten to look back for the dog when she
+entered the shrubbery. She now called to him, and blew the
+whistle at her watchchain. Not a sign of Tommie was to be seen.
+Hardyman instantly directed the servants to search in the cottage
+and out of the cottage for the dog. The order was obeyed with all
+needful activity and intelligence, and entirely without success.
+For the time being at any rate, Tommie was lost.
+
+Hardyman promised to have the dog looked for in every part of the
+farm, and to send him back in the care of one of his own men.
+With these polite assurances Lady Lydiard was obliged to be
+satisfied. She drove away in a very despondent frame of mind.
+"First Isabel, and now Tommie," thought her Ladyship. "I am
+losing the only companions who made life tolerable to me."
+
+Returning from the garden gate, after taking leave of his
+visitor, Hardyman received from his servant a handful of letters
+which had just arrived for him. Walking slowly over the lawn as
+he opened them, he found nothing but excuses for the absence of
+guests who had already accepted their invitations. He had just
+thrust the letters into his pocket, when he heard footsteps
+behind him, and, looking
+ round, found himself confronted by Moody.
+
+"Hullo! have you come to lunch?" Hardyman asked, roughly.
+
+"I have come here, sir, with a little gift for Miss Isabel, in
+honor of her marriage," Moody answered quietly, "and I ask your
+permission to put it on the table, so that she may see it when
+your guests sit down to luncheon."
+
+He opened a jeweler's case as he spoke, containing a plain gold
+bracelet with an inscription engraved on the inner side: "To Miss
+Isabel Miller, with the sincere good wishes of Robert Moody."
+
+Plain as it was, the design of the bracelet was unusually
+beautiful. Hardyman had noticed Moody's agitation on the day when
+he had met Isabel near her aunt's house, and had drawn his own
+conclusions from it. His face darkened with a momentary jealousy
+as he looked at the bracelet. "All right, old fellow!" he said,
+with contemptuous familiarity. "Don't be modest. Wait and give it
+to her with your own hand."
+
+"No, sir," said Moody "I would rather leave it, if you please, to
+speak for itself."
+
+Hardyman understood the delicacy of feeling which dictated those
+words, and, without well knowing why, resented it. He was on the
+point of speaking, under the influence of this unworthy motive,
+when Isabel's voice reached his ears, calling to him from the
+cottage.
+
+Moody's face contracted with a sudden expression of pain as he,
+too, recognized the voice. "Don't let me detain you, sir," he
+said, sadly. "Good-morning!"
+
+Hardyman left him without ceremony. Moody, slowly following,
+entered the tent. All the preparations for the luncheon had been
+completed; nobody was there. The places to be occupied by the
+guests were indicated by cards bearing their names. Moody found
+Isabel's card, and put his bracelet inside the folded napkin on
+her plate. For a while he stood with his hand on the table,
+thinking. The temptation to communicate once more with Isabel
+before he lost her forever, was fast getting the better of his
+powers of resistance.
+
+"If I could persuade her to write a word to say she liked her
+bracelet," he thought, "it would be a comfort when I go back to
+my solitary life." He tore a leaf out of his pocket book and
+wrote on it, "One line to say you accept my gift and my good
+wishes. Put it under the cushion of your chair, and I shall find
+it when the company have left the tent." He slipped the paper
+into the case which held the bracelet, and instead of leaving the
+farm as he had intended, turned back to the shelter of the
+shrubbery.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+HARDYMAN went on to the cottage. He found Isabel in some
+agitation. And there, by her side, with his tail wagging slowly,
+and his eye on Hardyman in expectation of a possible kick--there
+was the lost Tommie!
+
+"Has Lady Lydiard gone?" Isabel asked eagerly.
+
+"Yes," said Hardyman. "Where did you find the dog?"
+
+As events had ordered it, the dog had found Isabel, under these
+circumstances.
+
+The appearance of Lady Lydiard's card in the smoking-room had
+been an alarming event for Lady Lydiard's adopted daughter. She
+was guiltily conscious of not having answered her Ladyship's
+note, inclosed in Miss Pink's letter, and of not having taken her
+Ladyship's advice in regulating her conduct towards Hardyman. As
+he rose to leave the room and receive his visitor in the grounds,
+Isabel begged him to say nothing of her presence at the farm,
+unless Lady Lydiard exhibited a forgiving turn of mind by asking
+to see her. Left by herself in the smoking-room, she suddenly
+heard a bark in the passage which had a familiar sound in her
+ears. She opened the door--and in rushed Tommie, with one of his
+shrieks of delight! Curiosity had taken him into the house. He
+had heard the voices in the smoking-room; had recognized Isabel's
+voice; and had waited, with his customary cunning and his
+customary distrust of strangers, until Hardyman was out of the
+way. Isabel kissed and caressed him, and then drove him out again
+to the lawn, fearing that Lady Lydiard might return to look for
+him. Going back to the smoking-room, she stood at the window
+watching for Hardyman's return. When the servants came to look
+for the dog, she could only tell them that she had last seen him
+in the grounds, not far from the cottage. The useless search
+being abandoned, and the carriage having left the gate, who
+should crawl out from the back of a cupboard in which some empty
+hampers were placed but Tommie himself! How he had contrived to
+get back to the smoking-room (unless she had omitted to
+completely close the door on her return) it was impossible to
+say. But there he was, determined this time to stay with Isabel,
+and keeping in his hiding place until he heard the movement of
+the carriage-wheels, which informed him that his lawful mistress
+had left the cottage! Isabel had at once called Hardyman, on the
+chance that the carriage might yet be stopped. It was already out
+of sight, and nobody knew which of two roads it had taken, both
+leading to London. In this emergency, Isabel could only look at
+Hardyman and ask what was to be done.
+
+"I can't spare a servant till after the party," he answered. "The
+dog must be tied up in the stables."
+
+Isabel shook her head. Tommie was not accustomed to be tied up.
+He would make a disturbance, and he would be beaten by the
+grooms. "I will take care of him," she said. "He won't leave me."
+
+"There's something else to think of besides the dog," Hardyman
+rejoined irritably. "Look at these letters!" He pulled them out
+of his pocket as he spoke. "Here are no less than seven men, all
+calling themselves my friends, who accepted my invitation, and
+who write to excuse themselves on the very day of the party. Do
+you know why? They're all afraid of my father--I forgot to tell
+you he's a Cabinet Minister as well as a Lord. Cowards and cads.
+They have heard he isn't coming and they think to curry favor
+with the great man by stopping away. Come along, Isabel! Let's
+take their names off the luncheon table. Not a man of them shall
+ever darken my doors again!"
+
+"I am to blame for what has happened," Isabel answered sadly. "I
+am estranging you from your friends. There is still time, Alfred,
+to alter your mind and let me go."
+
+He put his arm round her with rough fondness. "I would sacrifice
+every friend I have in the world rather than lose you. Come
+along!"
+
+They left the cottage. At the entrance to the tent, Hardyman
+noticed the dog at Isabel's heels, and vented his ill-temper, as
+usual with male humanity, on the nearest unoffending creature
+that he could find. "Be off, you mongrel brute!" he shouted. The
+tail of Tommie relaxed from its customary tight curve over the
+small of his back; and the legs of Tommie (with his tail between
+them) took him at full gallop to the friendly shelter of the
+cupboard in the smoking-room. It was one of those trifling
+circumstances which women notice seriously. Isabel said nothing;
+she only thought to herself, "I wish he had shown his temper when
+I first knew him!"
+
+They entered the tent.
+
+"I'll read the names," said Hardyman, "and you find the cards and
+tear them up. Stop! I'll keep the cards. You're just the sort of
+woman my father likes. He'll be reconciled to me when he sees
+you, after we are married. If one of those men ever asks him for
+a place, I'll take care, if it's years hence, to put an obstacle
+in his way! Here; take my pencil, and make a mark on the cards to
+remind me; the same mark I set against a horse in my book when I
+don't like him--a cross, inclosed in a circle." He produced his
+pocketbook. His hands trembled with anger as he gave the pencil
+to Isabel and laid the book on the table. He had just read the
+name of the first false friend, and Isabel had just found the
+card, when a servant appeared with a message. "Mrs. Drumblade has
+arrived, sir, and wishes to see you on a matter of the greatest
+importance."
+
+Hardyman left the tent, not very willingly. "Wait here," he said
+to Isabel; "I'll be back directly."
+
+She was standing near her own place at the table. Moody had left
+one end of the jeweler's case visible above the napkin, to
+attract her attention. In a minute more the bracelet and note
+were in her hands. She dropped on her chair, overwhelmed by the
+conflicting emotions that rose in her at
+ the sight of the bracelet, at the reading of the note. Her head
+drooped, and the tears filled her eyes. "Are all women as blind
+as I have been to what is good and noble in the men who love
+them?" she wondered, sadly. "Better as it is," she thought, with
+a bitter sigh; "I am not worthy of him."
+
+As she took up the pencil to write her answer to Moody on the
+back of her dinner-card, the servant appeared again at the door
+of the tent.
+
+"My master wants you at the cottage, miss, immediately."
+
+Isabel rose, putting the bracelet and the note in the
+silver-mounted leather pocket (a present from Hardyman) which
+hung at her belt. In the hurry of passing round the table to get
+out, she never noticed that her dress touched Hardyman's
+pocketbook, placed close to the edge, and threw it down on the
+grass below. The book fell into one of the heat cracks which Lady
+Lydiard had noticed as evidence of the neglected condition of the
+cottage lawn.
+
+"You ought to hear the pleasant news my sister has just brought
+me," said Hardyman, when Isabel joined him in the parlor. "Mrs.
+Drumblade has been told, on the best authority, that my mother is
+not coming to the party."
+
+"There must be some reason, of course, dear Isabel," added Mrs.
+Drumblade. "Have you any idea of what it can be? I haven't seen
+my mother myself; and all my inquiries have failed to find it
+out."
+
+She looked searchingly at Isabel as she spoke. The mask of
+sympathy on her face was admirably worn. Nobody who possessed
+only a superficial acquaintance with Mrs. Drumblade's character
+would have suspected how thoroughly she was enjoying in secret
+the position of embarrassment in which her news had placed her
+brother. Instinctively doubting whether Mrs. Drumblade's friendly
+behavior was quite as sincere as it appeared to be, Isabel
+answered that she was a stranger to Lady Rotherfield, and was
+therefore quite at a loss to explain the cause of her ladyship's
+absence. As she spoke, the guests began to arrive in quick
+succession, and the subject was dropped as a matter of course.
+
+It was not a merry party. Hardyman's approaching marriage had
+been made the topic of much malicious gossip, and Isabel's
+character had, as usual in such cases, become the object of all
+the false reports that scandal could invent. Lady Rotherfield's
+absence confirmed the general conviction that Hardyman was
+disgracing himself. The men were all more or less uneasy. The
+women resented the discovery that Isabel was--personally
+speaking, at least--beyond the reach of hostile criticism. Her
+beauty was viewed as a downright offense; her refined and modest
+manners were set down as perfect acting; "really disgusting, my
+dear, in so young a girl." General Drumblade, a large and mouldy
+veteran, in a state of chronic astonishment (after his own
+matrimonial experience) at Hardyman's folly in marrying at all,
+diffused a wide circle of gloom, wherever he went and whatever he
+did. His accomplished wife, forcing her high spirits on
+everybody's attention with a sort of kittenish playfulness,
+intensified the depressing effect of the general dullness by all
+the force of the strongest contrast. After waiting half an hour
+for his mother, and waiting in vain, Hardyman led the way to the
+tent in despair. "The sooner I fill their stomachs and get rid of
+them," he thought savagely, "the better I shall be pleased!"
+
+The luncheon was attacked by the company with a certain silent
+ferocity, which the waiters noticed as remarkable, even in their
+large experience. The men drank deeply, but with wonderfully
+little effect in raising their spirits; the women, with the
+exception of amiable Mrs. Drumblade, kept Isabel deliberately out
+of the conversation that went on among them. General Drumblade,
+sitting next to her in one of the places of honor, discoursed to
+Isabel privately on "my brother-in-law Hardyman's infernal
+temper." A young marquis, on her other side--a mere lad, chosen
+to make the necessary speech in acknowledgment of his superior
+rank--rose, in a state of nervous trepidation, to propose
+Isabel's health as the chosen bride of their host. Pale and
+trembling, conscious of having forgotten the words which he had
+learnt beforehand, this unhappy young nobleman began: "Ladies and
+gentlemen, I haven't an idea--" He stopped, put his hand to his
+head, stared wildly, and sat down again; having contrived to
+state his own case with masterly brevity and perfect truth, in a
+speech of seven words.
+
+While the dismay, in some cases, and the amusement in others, was
+still at its height, Hardyman's valet made his appearance, and,
+approaching his master, said in a whisper, "Could I speak to you,
+sit, for a moment outside?"
+
+"What the devil do you want?" Hardyman asked irritably. "Is that
+a letter in your hand? Give it to me."
+
+The valet was a Frenchman. In other words, he had a sense of what
+was due to himself. His master had forgotten this. He gave up the
+letter with a certain dignity of manner, and left the tent.
+Hardyman opened the letter. He turned pale as he read it;
+crumpled it in his hand, and threw it down on the table. "By
+G--d! it's a lie!" he exclaimed furiously.
+
+The guests rose in confusion. Mrs. Drumblade, finding the letter
+within her reach, coolly possessed herself of it; recognized her
+mother's handwriting; and read these lines:
+
+"I have only now succeeded in persuading your father to let me
+write to you. For God's sake, break off your marriage at any
+sacrifice. Your father has heard, on unanswerable authority, that
+Miss Isabel Miller left her situation in Lady Lydiard's house on
+suspicion of theft."
+
+While his sister was reading this letter, Hardyman had made his
+way to Isabel's chair. "I must speak to you, directly," he
+whispered. "Come away with me!" He turned, as he took her arm,
+and looked at the table. "Where is my letter?" he asked. Mrs.
+Drumblade handed it to him, dexterously crumpled up again as she
+had found it. "No bad news, dear Alfred, I hope?" she said, in
+her most affectionate manner. Hardyman snatched the letter from
+her, without answering, and led Isabel out of the tent.
+
+"Read that!" he said, when they were alone. "And tell me at once
+whether it's true or false."
+
+Isabel read the letter. For a moment the shock of the discovery
+held her speechless. She recovered herself, and returned the
+letter.
+
+"It is true," she answered.
+
+Hardyman staggered back as if she had shot him.
+
+"True that you are guilty?" he asked.
+
+"No; I am innocent. Everybody who knows me believes in my
+innocence. It is true the appearances were against me. They are
+against me still." Having said this, she waited, quietly and
+firmly, for his next words.
+
+He passed his hand over his forehead with a sigh of relief. "It's
+bad enough as it is," he said, speaking quietly on his side. "But
+the remedy for it is plain enough. Come back to the tent."
+
+She never moved. "Why?" she asked.
+
+"Do you suppose I don't believe in your innocence too?" he
+answered. "The one way of setting you right with the world now is
+for me to make you my wife, in spite of the appearances that
+point to you. I'm too fond of you, Isabel, to give you up. Come
+back with me, and I will announce our marriage to my friends."
+
+She took his hand, and kissed it. "It is generous and good of
+you," she said; "but it must not be."
+
+He took a step nearer to her. "What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"It was against my will," she pursued, "that my aunt concealed
+the truth from you. I did wrong to consent to it, I will do wrong
+no more. Your mother is right, Alfred. After what has happened, I
+am not fit to be your wife until my innocence is proved. It is
+not proved yet."
+
+The angry color began to rise in his face once more. "Take care,"
+he said; "I am not in a humor to be trifled with."
+
+"I am not trifling with you," she answered, in low, sad tones.
+
+"You really mean what you say?"
+
+"I mean it."
+
+"Don't be obstinate, Isabel. Take time to consider."
+
+"You are very kind, Alfred. My duty is plain to me. I will marry
+you--if you still wish it--when my good name is restored to me.
+Not before."
+
+He laid one hand on her arm, and pointed with the other to the
+guests in the distance, all leaving the tent on the way to their
+carriages.
+
+"You r good name will be restored to you," he said, "on the day
+when I make you my wife. The worst enemy you have cannot
+associate _my_ name with a suspicion of theft. Remember that and
+think a little before you decide. You see those people there. If
+you don't change your mind by the time they have got to the
+cottage, it's good-by between us, and good-by forever. I refuse
+to wait for you; I refuse to accept a conditional engagement.
+Wait, and think. They're walking slowly; you have got some
+minutes more."
+
+He still held her arm, watching the guests as they gradually
+receded from view. It was not until they had all collected in a
+group outside the cottage door that he spoke himself, or that he
+permitted Isabel to speak again.
+
+"Now," he said, "you have had your time to get cool. Will you
+take my arm, and join those people with me? or will you say
+good-by forever?"
+
+"Forgive me, Alfred!" she began, gently. "I cannot consent, in
+justice to you, to shelter myself behind your name. It is the
+name of your family; and they have a right to expect that you
+will not degrade it--"
+
+"I want a plain answer," he interposed sternly. "Which is it?
+Yes, or No?"
+
+She looked at him with sad compassionate eyes. Her voice was firm
+as she answered him in one word as he had desired. The word was--
+"No."
+
+Without speaking to her, without even looking at her, he turned
+and walked back to the cottage.
+
+Making his way silently through the group of visitors--every one
+of whom had been informed of what had happened by his
+sister--with his head down and his lips fast closed, he entered
+the parlor and rang the bell which communicated with his
+foreman's rooms at the stables.
+
+"You know that I am going abroad on business?" he said, when the
+man appeared.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I am going to-day--going by the night train to Dover. Order the
+horse to be put to instantly in the dogcart. Is there anything
+wanted before I am off?"
+
+The inexorable necessities of business asserted their claims
+through the obedient medium of the foreman. Chafing at the delay,
+Hardyman was obliged to sit at his desk, signing checks and
+passing accounts, with the dogcart waiting in the stable yard.
+
+A knock at the door startled him in the middle of his work. "Come
+in," he called out sharply.
+
+He looked up, expecting to see one of the guests or one of the
+servants. It was Moody who entered the room. Hardyman laid down
+his pen, and fixed his eyes sternly on the man who had dared to
+interrupt him.
+
+"What the devil do _you_ want?" he asked.
+
+"I have seen Miss Isabel, and spoken with her," Moody replied.
+"Mr. Hardyman, I believe it is in your power to set this matter
+right. For the young lady's sake, sir, you must not leave England
+without doing it."
+
+Hardyman turned to his foreman. "Is this fellow mad or drunk?" he
+asked.
+
+Moody proceeded as calmly and as resolutely as if those words had
+not been spoken. "I apologize for my intrusion, sir. I will
+trouble you with no explanations. I will only ask one question.
+Have you a memorandum of the number of that five-hundred pound
+note you paid away in France?"
+
+Hardyman lost all control over himself.
+
+"You scoundrel!" he cried, "have you been prying into my private
+affairs? Is it _your_ business to know what I did in France?"
+
+"Is it _your_ vengeance on a woman to refuse to tell her the
+number of a bank-note?" Moody rejoined, firmly.
+
+That answer forced its way, through Hardyman's anger, to
+Hardyman's sense of honor. He rose and advanced to Moody. For a
+moment the two men faced each other in silence. "You're a bold
+fellow," said Hardyman, with a sudden change from anger to irony.
+"I'll do the lady justice. I'll look at my pocketbook."
+
+He put his hand into the breast-pocket of his coat; he searched
+his other pockets; he turned over the objects on his
+writing-table. The book was gone.
+
+Moody watched him with a feeling of despair. "Oh! Mr. Hardyman,
+don't say you have lost your pocketbook!"
+
+He sat down again at his desk, with sullen submission to the new
+disaster. "All I can say is you're at liberty to look for it," he
+replied. "I must have dropped it somewhere." He turned
+impatiently to the foreman, "Now then! What is the next check
+wanted? I shall go mad if I wait in this damned place much
+longer!"
+
+Moody left him, and found his way to the servants' offices. "Mr.
+Hardyman has lost his pocketbook," he said. "Look for it, indoors
+and out--on the lawn, and in the tent. Ten pounds reward for the
+man who finds it!"
+
+Servants and waiters instantly dispersed, eager for the promised
+reward. The men who pursued the search outside the cottage
+divided their forces. Some of them examined the lawn and the
+flower-beds. Others went straight to the empty tent. These last
+were too completely absorbed in pursuing the object in view to
+notice that they disturbed a dog, eating a stolen lunch of his
+own from the morsels left on the plates. The dog slunk away under
+the canvas when the men came in, waited in hiding until they had
+gone, then returned to the tent, and went on with his luncheon.
+
+Moody hastened back to the part of the grounds (close to the
+shrubbery) in which Isabel was waiting his return.
+
+She looked at him, while he was telling her of his interview with
+Hardyman, with an expression in her eyes which he had never seen
+in them before--an expression which set his heart beating wildly,
+and made him break off in his narrative before he had reached the
+end.
+
+"I understand," she said quietly, as he stopped in confusion.
+"You have made one more sacrifice to my welfare. Robert! I
+believe you are the noblest man that ever breathed the breath of
+life!"
+
+His eyes sank before hers; he blushed like a boy. "I have done
+nothing for you yet," he said. "Don't despair of the future, if
+the pocketbook should not be found. I know who the man is who
+received the bank note; and I have only to find him to decide the
+question whether it _is_ the stolen note or not."
+
+She smiled sadly as his enthusiasm. "Are you going back to Mr.
+Sharon to help you?" she asked. "That trick he played me has
+destroyed _my_ belief in him. He no more knows than I do who the
+thief really is."
+
+"You are mistaken, Isabel. He knows--and I know." He stopped
+there, and made a sign to her to be silent. One of the servants
+was approaching them.
+
+"Is the pocketbook found?" Moody asked.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Has Mr. Hardyman left the cottage?"
+
+"He has just gone, sir. Have you any further instructions to give
+us?"
+
+"No. There is my address in London, if the pocketbook should be
+found."
+
+The man took the card that was handed to him and retired. Moody
+offered his arm to Isabel. "I am at your service," he said, "when
+you wish to return to your aunt."
+
+They had advanced nearly as far as the tent, on their way out of
+the grounds, when they were met by a gentleman walking towards
+them from the cottage. He was a stranger to Isabel. Moody
+immediately recognized him as Mr. Felix Sweetsir.
+
+"Ha! our good Moody!" cried Felix. "Enviable man! you look
+younger than ever." He took off his hat to Isabel; his bright
+restless eyes suddenly became quiet as they rested on her. "Have
+I the honor of addressing the future Mrs. Hardyman? May I offer
+my best congratulations? What has become of our friend Alfred?"
+
+Moody answered for Isabel. "If you will make inquiries at the
+cottage, sir," he said, "you will find that you are mistaken, to
+say the least of it, in addressing your questions to this young
+lady."
+
+Felix took off his hat again--with the most becoming appearance
+of surprise and distress.
+
+"Something wrong, I fear?" he said, addressing Isabel. "I am,
+indeed, ashamed if I have ignorantly given you a moment's pain.
+Pray accept my most sincere apologies. I have only this instant
+arrived; my health would not allow me to be present at the
+luncheon. Permit me to express the earnest hope that matters may
+be set right to the satisfaction of all parties. Good-afternoon!"
+
+He bowed with elaborate courtesy, and turned back to the cottage.
+
+"Who is that?" Isabel asked.
+
+"Lady Lydiard's nephew, Mr. Felix Sweetsir," Moody answered, with
+a sudden sternness of tone, and a sudden coldness of manner,
+which surprised Isabel.
+
+"You don't like him?" she said.
+
+As she spoke, Fe lix stopped to give audience to one of the
+grooms, who had apparently been sent with a message to him. He
+turned so that his face was once more visible to Isabel. Moody
+pressed her hand significantly as it rested on his arm.
+
+"Look well at that man," he whispered. "It's time to warn you.
+Mr. Felix Sweetsir is the worst enemy you have!"
+
+Isabel heard him in speechless astonishment. He went on in tones
+that trembled with suppressed emotion.
+
+"You doubt if Sharon knows the thief. You doubt if I know the
+thief. Isabel! as certainly as the heaven is above us, there
+stands the wretch who stole the bank-note!"
+
+She drew her hand out of his arm with a cry of terror. She looked
+at him as if she doubted whether he was in his right mind.
+
+He took her hand, and waited a moment trying to compose himself.
+
+"Listen to me," he said. "At the first consultation I had with
+Sharon he gave this advice to Mr. Troy and to me. He said,
+'Suspect the very last person on whom suspicion could possibly
+fall.' Those words, taken with the questions he had asked before
+he pronounced his opinion, struck through me as if he had struck
+me with a knife. I instantly suspected Lady Lydiard's nephew.
+Wait! From that time to this I have said nothing of my suspicion
+to any living soul. I knew in my own heart that it took its rise
+in the inveterate dislike that I have always felt for Mr.
+Sweetsir, and I distrusted it accordingly. But I went back to
+Sharon, for all that, and put the case into his hands. His
+investigations informed me that Mr. Sweetsir owed 'debts of
+honor' (as gentlemen call them), incurred through lost bets, to a
+large number of persons, and among them a bet of five hundred
+pounds lost to Mr. Hardyman. Further inquiries showed that Mr.
+Hardyman had taken the lead in declaring that he would post Mr.
+Sweetsir as a defaulter, and have him turned out of his clubs,
+and turned out of the betting-ring. Ruin stared him in the face
+if he failed to pay his debt to Mr. Hardyman on the last day left
+to him--the day after the note was lost. On that very morning,
+Lady Lydiard, speaking to me of her nephew's visit to her, said,
+'If I had given him an opportunity of speaking, Felix would have
+borrowed money of me; I saw it in his face.' One moment more,
+Isabel. I am not only certain that Mr. Sweetsir took the
+five-hundred pound note out of the open letter, I am firmly
+persuaded that he is the man who told Lord Rotherfield of the
+circumstances under which you left Lady Lydiard's house. Your
+marriage to Mr. Hardyman might have put you in a position to
+detect the theft. You, not I, might, in that case, have
+discovered from your husband that the stolen note was the note
+with which Mr. Sweetsir paid his debt. He came here, you may
+depend on it, to make sure that he had succeeded in destroying
+your prospects. A more depraved villain at heart than that man
+never swung from a gallows!"
+
+He checked himself at those words. The shock of the disclosure,
+the passion and vehemence with which he spoke, overwhelmed
+Isabel. She trembled like a frightened child.
+
+While he was still trying to soothe and reassure her, a low
+whining made itself heard at her feet. They looked down, and saw
+Tommie. Finding himself noticed at last, he expressed his sense
+of relief by a bark. Something dropped out of his mouth. As Moody
+stooped to pick it up, the dog ran to Isabel and pushed his head
+against her feet, as his way was when he expected to have the
+handkerchief thrown over him, preparatory to one of those games
+at hide-and-seek which have been already mentioned. Isabel put
+out her hand to caress him, when she was stopped by a cry from
+Moody. It was _his_ turn to tremble now. His voice faltered as he
+said the words, "The dog has found the pocketbook!"
+
+He opened the book with shaking hands. A betting-book was bound
+up in it, with the customary calendar. He turned to the date of
+the day after the robbery.
+
+There was the entry: "Felix Sweetsir. Paid 500 pounds. Note
+numbered, N 8, 70564; dated 15th May, 1875."
+
+Moody took from his waistcoat pocket his own memorandum of the
+number of the lost bank-note. "Read it Isabel," he said. "I won't
+trust my memory."
+
+She read it. The number and date of the note entered in the
+pocketbook exactly corresponded with the number and date of the
+note that Lady Lydiard had placed in her letter.
+
+Moody handed the pocketbook to Isabel. "There is the proof of
+your innocence," he said, "thanks to the dog! Will you write and
+tell Mr. Hardyman what has happened?" he asked, with his head
+down and his eyes on the ground.
+
+She answered him, with the bright color suddenly flowing over her
+face.
+
+"_You_ shall write to him," she said, "when the time comes."
+
+"What time?" he asked.
+
+She threw her arms round his neck, and hid her face on his bosom.
+
+"The time," she whispered, "when I am your wife."
+
+A low growl from Tommie reminded them that he too had some claim
+to be noticed.
+
+Isabel dropped on her knees, and saluted her old playfellow with
+the heartiest kisses she had ever given him since the day when
+their acquaintance began. "You darling!" she said, as she put him
+down again, "what can I do to reward you?"
+
+Tommie rolled over on his back--more slowly than usual, in
+consequence of his luncheon in the tent. He elevated his four
+paws in the air and looked lazily at Isabel out of his bright
+brown eyes. If ever a dog's look spoke yet, Tommie's look said,
+"I have eaten too much; rub my stomach."
+
+
+POSTSCRIPT.
+
+Persons of a speculative turn of mind are informed that the
+following document is for sale, and are requested to mention what
+sum they will give for it.
+
+"IOU, Lady Lydiard, five hundred pounds (L500), Felix Sweetsir."
+
+Her Ladyship became possessed of this pecuniary remittance under
+circumstances which surround it with a halo of romantic interest.
+It was the last communication she was destined to receive from
+her accomplished nephew. There was a Note attached to it, which
+cannot fail to enhance its value in the estimation of all
+right-minded persons who assist the circulation of paper money.
+
+The lines that follow are strictly confidential:
+
+"Note.--Our excellent Moody informs me, my dear aunt, that you
+have decided (against his advice) on 'refusing to prosecute.' I
+have not the slightest idea of what he means; but I am very much
+obliged to him, nevertheless, for reminding me of a circumstance
+which is of some interest to yourself personally.
+
+"I am on the point of retiring to the Continent in search of
+health. One generally forgets something important when one starts
+on a journey. Before Moody called, I had entirely forgotten to
+mention that I had the pleasure of borrowing five hundred pounds
+of you some little time since.
+
+"On the occasion to which I refer, your language and manner
+suggested that you would not lend me the money if I asked for it.
+Obviously, the only course left was to take it without asking. I
+took it while Moody was gone to get some curacoa; and I returned
+to the picture-gallery in time to receive that delicious liqueur
+from the footman's hands.
+
+"You will naturally ask why I found it necessary to supply myself
+(if I may borrow an expression from the language of State
+finance) with this 'forced loan.' I was actuated by motives which
+I think do me honor. My position at the time was critical in the
+extreme. My credit with the money-lenders was at an end; my
+friends had all turned their backs on me. I must either take the
+money or disgrace my family. If there is a man living who is
+sincerely attached to his family, I am that man. I took the
+money.
+
+"Conceive your position as my aunt (I say nothing of myself), if
+I had adopted the other alternative. Turned out of the Jockey
+Club, turned out of Tattersalls', turned out of the betting-ring;
+in short, posted publicly as a defaulter before the noblest
+institution in England, the Turf--and all for want of five
+hundred pounds to stop the mouth of the greatest brute I know of,
+Alfred Hardyman! Let me not harrow your feelings (and mine) by
+dwelling on it. Dear and admirable woman! To you belongs the
+honor of saving the credit of the family; I can claim nothing but
+the inferior merit of having offered you the opportunity.
+
+"My IOU, it is needless to say, accompanies these lines. Can I do
+anything for you abroad?-- F. S."
+
+
+To this it is only necessary to add (first) that Moody was
+perfectly right in believing F. S. to be the person who informed
+Hardyman's father of Isabel's position when she left Lady
+Lydiard's house; and (secondly) that Felix did really forward Mr.
+Troy's narrative of the theft to the French police, altering
+nothing in it but the number of the lost bank-note.
+
+
+What is there left to write about? Nothing is left--but to say
+good-by (very sorrowfully on the writer's part) to the Persons of
+the Story.
+
+Good-by to Miss Pink--who will regret to her dying day that
+Isabel's answer to Hardyman was No.
+
+Good-by to Lady Lydiard--who differs with Miss Pink, and would
+have regretted it, to _her_ dying day, if the answer had been
+Yes.
+
+Good-by to Moody and Isabel--whose history has closed with the
+closing of the clergyman's book on their wedding-day.
+
+Good-by to Hardyman--who has sold his farm and his horses, and
+has begun a new life among the famous fast trotters of America.
+
+Good-by to Old Sharon--who, a martyr to his promise, brushed his
+hair and washed his face in honor of Moody's marriage; and
+catching a severe cold as the necessary consequence, declared, in
+the intervals of sneezing, that he would "never do it again."
+
+And last, not least, good-by to Tommie? No. The writer gave
+Tommie his dinner not half an hour since, and is too fond of him
+to say good-by.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of My Lady's Money, by Wilkie Collins
+
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