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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Master Mummer, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Master Mummer
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2009 [EBook #28161]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER MUMMER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              The Master Mummer
+
+                           By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+           Author of "Anna, the Adventuress," "A Prince of Sinners,"
+                             "The Betrayal," Etc.
+
+
+WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_A. L. BURT COMPANY_
+_Publishers New York_
+
+_Copyright_, 1904,
+BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Let the boy have his chance," said Allan.]
+
+
+
+
+The Master Mummer
+
+
+
+
+Book I
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Sheets of virgin manuscript paper littered my desk, the smoke of much
+uselessly consumed tobacco hung about the room in a little cloud. Many a
+time I had dipped my pen in the ink, only to find myself a few minutes
+later scrawling ridiculous little figures upon the margin of my
+blotting-pad. It was not at all an auspicious start for one who sought
+immortality.
+
+There came a growl presently from the other side of the room, where
+Mabane, attired in a disreputable smock, with a short black pipe in the
+corner of his mouth, was industriously defacing a small canvas. Mabane
+was tall and fair and lean, with a mass of refractory hair which was the
+despair of his barber; a Scotchman with keen blue eyes, and humorous
+mouth amply redeeming his face from the plainness which would otherwise
+have been its lot. He also was in search of immortality.
+
+"Make a start for Heaven's sake, Arnold," he implored. "To look at you
+is an incitement to laziness. The world's full of things to write about.
+Make a choice and have done with it. Write something, even if you have
+to tear it up afterwards."
+
+I turned round in my chair and regarded Mabane reproachfully.
+
+"Get on with your pot-boiler, and leave me alone, Allan," I said. "You
+do not understand my difficulties in the least. It is simply a matter of
+selection. My brain is full of ideas--brimming over. I want to be sure
+that I am choosing the best."
+
+There came to me from across the room a grunt of contempt.
+
+"Pot-boiler indeed! What about short stories at ten guineas a time, must
+begin in the middle, scented and padded to order, Anthony Hopeish, with
+the sugar of Austin Dobson and the pepper of Kipling shaken on _ad
+lib._? Man alive, do you know what pot-boilers are? It's a perfect
+conservatory you're living in. Got any tobacco, Arnold?"
+
+I jerked my pouch across the room, and it was caught with a deft little
+backward swing of the hand. Allan Mabane was an M.C.C. man, and a
+favourite point with his captain.
+
+"You've got me on the hip, Allan," I answered, rising suddenly from my
+chair and walking restlessly up and down the large bare room. "The devil
+himself might have put those words into your mouth. They are
+pot-boilers, every one of them, and I am sick of it. I want to do
+something altogether different. I am sure that I can, but I have got
+into the way of writing those other things, and I can't get out of it.
+That is why I am sitting here like an owl."
+
+Mabane refilled his pipe and smoked contentedly.
+
+"I know exactly how you're feeling, old chap," he said sympathetically.
+"I get a dash of the same thing sometimes--generally in the springtime.
+It begins with a sort of wistfulness, a sense of expansion follows, you
+go about all the time with your head in the clouds. You want to collect
+all the beautiful things in life and express them. Oh, I know all about
+it. It generally means a girl. Where were you last night?"
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Where I shall be to-night, to-morrow night--where I was a year ago.
+That is the trouble of it all. One is always in the same place."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is a very bad attack," he said. "Your generalities may be all right,
+but they are not convincing."
+
+"I have not spoken a word to a woman, except to Mrs. Burdett, for a week
+or more," I declared.
+
+Mabane resumed his work. Such a discussion, his gesture seemed to
+indicate, was not worth continuing. But I continued, following out my
+train of thought, though I spoke as much to myself as to my friend.
+
+"You are right about my stories," I admitted. "I have painted
+rose-coloured pictures of an imaginary life, and publishers have bought
+them, and the public, I suppose, have read them. I have dressed up
+puppets of wood and stone, and set them moving like mechanical
+dolls--over-gilded, artificial, vulgar. And all the time the real thing
+knocks at our doors."
+
+Mabane stepped back from his canvas to examine critically the effect of
+an unexpected dash of colour.
+
+"The public, my dear Greatson," he said abstractedly, "do not want the
+real thing--from you. Every man to his _mêtier_. Yours is to sing of
+blue skies and west winds, of hay-scented meadows and Watteau-like
+revellers in a paradise as artificial as a Dutch garden. Take my advice,
+and keep your muse chained. The other worlds are for the other writers."
+
+I was annoyed with Mabane. There was just sufficient truth in his words
+to make them sound brutal. I answered him with some heat.
+
+"Not if I starve for it, Allan? The whole cycle of life goes humming
+around us, hour by hour. It is here, there, everywhere. I will bring a
+little of it into my work, or I will write no more."
+
+Mabane shook his head. He was busy again upon his canvas.
+
+"It is always the humourist," he murmured, "who is ambitious to write a
+tragedy--and _vice versâ_. The only sane man is he who is conscious of
+his limitations."
+
+"On the contrary," I answered quickly, "the man who admits them is a
+fool. I have made up my mind. I will dress no more dolls in fine
+clothes, and set them strutting across a rose-garlanded stage. I will
+create, or I will leave alone. I will write of men and women, or not at
+all."
+
+"It will affect your income," Mabane said. "It will cost you money in
+postage stamps, and your manuscripts will be declined with thanks."
+
+His gentle cynicism left me unmoved. I had almost forgotten his
+presence. I was standing over by the window, looking out across a
+wilderness of housetops. My own thoughts for the moment were sufficient.
+I spoke, it is true, but I spoke to myself.
+
+"A beginning," I murmured. "That is all one wants. It seems so hard, and
+yet--it ought to be so easy. If one could but lift the roofs--could but
+see for a moment underneath."
+
+"I can save you the trouble," Mabane remarked cheerfully, strolling over
+to my side. "Where are you looking? Chertsey Street, eh? Well, in all
+probability mamma is cooking the dinner, Mary is scrubbing the floor,
+Miss Flora is dusting the drawing-room, and Miss Louisa is practising
+her scales. You have got a maggot in your brain, Greatson. Life such as
+you are thinking of is the most commonplace thing in the world. The
+middle-classes haven't the capacity for passion--even the tragedy of
+existence never troubles them. Don't try to stir up the muddy waters,
+Arnold. Write a pretty story about a Princess and her lovers, and draw
+your cheque."
+
+"There are times, Allan," I remarked thoughtfully, "when you are an
+intolerable nuisance."
+
+Mabane shrugged his shoulders and returned to his work. Apparently he
+had reached a point in it which required his undivided attention, for he
+relapsed almost at once into silence. Following his example, I too
+returned to my desk and took up my pen. As a rule my work came to me
+easily. Even now there were shadowy ideas, well within my mental
+grasp--ideas, however, which I was in the humour to repel rather than to
+invite. For I knew very well whither they would lead me--back to the
+creation of those lighter and more fanciful figures flitting always
+across the canvas of a painted world. A certain facility for this sort
+of thing had brought me a reputation which I was already growing to
+hate. More than ever I was determined not to yield. Mabane's words had
+come to me with a subtle note of mockery underlying their undoubted
+common-sense. I thrust the memory of them on one side. Certain gifts I
+knew that I possessed. I had a ready pen and a facile invention.
+Something had stirred in me a late-awakened but irresistible desire to
+apply them to a different purpose than ever before. As I sat there the
+creations of my fancy flitted before me one by one--delicate, perhaps,
+and graceful, thoughtfully conceived, adequately completed. Yet I knew
+very well that they were like ripples upon the water, creatures without
+lasting forms or shape, images passing as easily as they had come into
+the mists of oblivion. The human touch, the transforming fire of life
+was wholly wanting. These April creations of my brain--carnival figures,
+laughing and weeping with equal facility, lacked always and altogether
+the blood and muscle of human creatures. The mishaps of their lives
+struck never a tragic note; always the thrill and stir of actual
+existence were wanting. I would have no more of them. I felt myself
+capable of other things. I would wait until other things came.
+
+The door was pushed open, and Arthur smiled in upon us. This third
+member of our bachelor household was younger than either Mabane or
+myself--a smooth-faced, handsome boy, resplendent to-day in frock-coat
+and silk hat.
+
+"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "Hard at work, both of you!"
+
+Mabane laid down his brush and surveyed the newcomer critically.
+
+"Arthur," he declared with slow emphasis, "you do us credit--you do
+indeed. I hope that you will show yourself to our worthy landlady, and
+that you will linger upon the doorstep as long as possible. This sort of
+thing is good for our waning credit. I am no judge, for I never
+possessed such a garment, but there is something about the skirts of
+your frock-coat which appeals to me. There is indeed, Arthur. And then
+your tie--the cunning arrangement of it----"
+
+"Oh, rats!" the boy exclaimed, laughing. "Give me a couple of
+cigarettes, there's a good chap, and do we feed at home to-night?"
+
+Mabane produced the cigarettes and turned back to his work.
+
+"We do!" he admitted with a sigh. "Always on Tuesdays, you know.
+By-the-bye, are you going to the works in that costume?"
+
+"Not likely! It's my day at the depôt, worse luck," Arthur answered,
+pausing to strike a match. "What's up with Arnold?"
+
+"Got the blues, because his muse won't work," Mabane said. "He wants to
+strike out in a new line--something blood-curdling, you
+know--Tolstoi-like, or Hall Caineish--he doesn't care which. He wants to
+do what nobody else ever will--take himself seriously. I put it down in
+charity to dyspepsia."
+
+"Mabane is an ass!" I grunted. "Be off, Arthur, there's a good chap, and
+don't listen to him. He hasn't the least idea what he is talking about."
+
+Arthur, however, happened to be in no hurry. He tilted his hat on the
+back of his head, and leaned upon the table.
+
+"I have always noticed," he remarked affably, "that under Allan's most
+asinine speeches there usually lurks a substratum of truth. Are you
+really going to write a serious novel, Arnold?"
+
+I lit a cigarette and leaned back in my chair resignedly. Arthur was a
+most impenetrable person, and if he meant to stay, I knew very well that
+it was hopeless to attempt to hurry him.
+
+"I had some idea of it," I admitted. "By-the-bye, Arthur, you are a
+person with a deep insight into life. Can't you give me a few hints? I
+haven't even made a start."
+
+Arthur considered the matter in all seriousness.
+
+"It is a bit difficult for you, I daresay," he remarked. "You stop
+indoors so much, and when you do go out you mope off into the country by
+yourself. You want to knock about the restaurants and places to get
+ideas. That's what Gorman always does. You see you get all your
+characters from life in them, and they seem so much more natural."
+
+"And who," I asked, "is Mr. Gorman? I do not recognize the name."
+
+"Pal of mine," Arthur answered easily. "I don't bring him here because
+he's a bit loud for you chaps. Writes stories for no end of papers.
+_Illustrated Bits_ and the _Cigarette Journal_ print anything he cares
+to send. I thought perhaps you'd know the name."
+
+Mabane went off into a peal of laughter behind his canvas. The boy
+remained imperturbable.
+
+"Of course, I'm not comparing his work with Arnold's," he declared.
+"Arnold's stuff is no end better, of course. But, after all, the chap's
+got common-sense. If they want me to draw a motor I go and sit down in
+front of it. If Arnold wants to write of real things, real men and
+women, you know, he ought to go out and look for them. If he sits here
+and just imagines them, how can he be sure that they are the real thing?
+See what I mean?"
+
+There was a short silence. Arthur was swinging his long legs backwards
+and forwards, and whistling softly to himself. I looked at him for a
+moment curiously. The words of an ancient proverb flitted through my
+brain.
+
+"Arthur," I declared solemnly, laying down my pen, "you are a prophet in
+disguise, the prophet sent to lift the curtain which is before my eyes.
+Which way shall I go to find these real men and real women, to look upon
+these tragic happenings? For Heaven's sake direct me. Where, for
+instance, does Mr. Gorman go?"
+
+Arthur swung himself off, laughing.
+
+"Gorman goes everywhere," he answered. "If I were you I should try one
+of the big railway stations. So long!"
+
+I rose to my feet, and taking down my hat commenced to brush it. Mabane
+looked up from his work.
+
+"Where are you off to, Arnold?" he asked.
+
+Some curious instinct or power of divination might indeed have given me
+a passing glimpse of the things which lay beyond, through the portals of
+that day, for I answered him seriously enough--even gravely.
+
+"The prophet has spoken," I said. "I must obey! I shall start with
+Charing Cross."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Why the man should have spoken to me at all I could not tell. Yet it is
+certain that I heard his simple and courteous inquiry with a thrill of
+pleasure, not unmixed with excitement. From the first moment of my
+arrival upon the platform I had singled him out, the only interesting
+figure in a crowd of nonentities. Perhaps I had lingered a little too
+closely by his side, had manifested more curiosity in him than was
+altogether seemly. At any rate, he spoke to me.
+
+"Do you know if the Continental train is punctual?" he asked.
+
+"I have no idea," I answered. "This guard would tell us, perhaps."
+
+"Signalled in, sir," the man declared. "Two minutes late only."
+
+My new acquaintance thanked me and lit a cigarette. He seemed in no
+hurry to depart, and I was equally anxious to engage him in
+conversation. For although he was dressed with the trim and quiet
+precision of the foreigner or man of affairs, there was something about
+his beardless face, his broadly humorous mouth, and easy, nonchalant
+bearing which suggested the person who juggled always with the ball of
+life.
+
+"Marvellous!" he murmured, looking after the guard. "Two minutes late
+from Paris--and perhaps beyond. It is a wonderful service. Now, if I had
+come to meet any one, and had a pressing appointment immediately
+afterwards, this train would have been an hour late. As it is--ah, well,
+one is foolish to grumble," he added, with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+"You, like me, then," I remarked, "are a loiterer."
+
+He flashed a keen glance upon me.
+
+"I see that I have met," he said slowly, "with someone of similar tastes
+to my own. I will confess at once that you are right. For myself I feel
+that there is nothing more interesting in this great city of yours than
+to watch the people coming and going from it. All your railway stations
+fascinate me, especially those which are the connecting links with other
+countries. Perhaps it is because I am an idle man, and must needs find
+amusement somewhere."
+
+"Yet," I objected, "for a single face or personality which is
+suggestive, one sees a thousand of the type which only irritates--the
+great rank and file of the commonplace. I wonder, after all, whether the
+game is worth the candle."
+
+"One in a thousand," he repeated thoughtfully. "Yet think what that one
+may mean--a walking drama, a tragedy, a comedy, an epitome of life or
+death. There is more to be read in the face of that one than in the
+three hundred pages of the novel over which we yawn ourselves to sleep.
+Here is the train! Now let us watch the people together--that is, if you
+really mean that you have no friends to look out for."
+
+"I really mean it," I assured him. "I am here out of the idlest
+curiosity. I am by profession a scribbler, and I am in search of an
+idea."
+
+Once more he regarded me curiously.
+
+"Your name is Greatson, is it not--Arnold Greatson? You were pointed out
+to me once at the Vagabonds' Club, and I never forget a face. Here they
+come! Look! Look!"
+
+The train had come to a standstill. People were streaming out upon the
+platform. My companion laid his fingers upon my arm. He talked rapidly
+but lightly.
+
+"You see them, my young friend," he exclaimed. "Those are returning
+tourists from Switzerland; the thin, sharp-featured girl there, with a
+plaid skirt and a satchel, is an American. Heavens! how she talks! She
+has lost a trunk. The whole system will be turned upside down until she
+has found it or been compensated. The two young men with her are silent.
+They are wise. Alone she will prevail. You see the man of commerce; he
+is off already. He has been to France, perhaps to Belgium also, to buy
+silks and laces. And the stout old gentleman? See how happy he looks to
+be back again where English is spoken, and he can pay his way in
+half-crowns and shillings. You see the milliner's head-woman, dressed
+with obtrusive smartness, though everything seems a little awry. She has
+been over to Paris for the fashions; in a few days her firm will send
+out a little circular, and Hampstead or Balham will be much impressed.
+And--what do you make of those two, my young friend?"
+
+It seemed to me that my companion's tone was changed, that his whole
+appearance was different. I was suddenly conscious of an irresistible
+conviction. I did not believe any longer that he was, like me, an idle
+loiterer here. I felt that his presence had a purpose, and that it was
+connected in some measure with the two people to whom my attention was
+so suddenly drawn. They were, in that somewhat heterogeneous crowd,
+sufficiently noticeable. The man, although he assumed the jauntiness of
+youth, was past middle-age, and his mottled cheeks, his thin, watery
+eyes, and thick red neck were the unmistakeable hall-marks of years of
+self-indulgence. He was well dressed and groomed, and his demeanour
+towards his companion was one of deferential good humour. She, however,
+was a person of a very different order. She was a girl apparently
+between fifteen and sixteen, her figure as yet undeveloped, her dresses
+a little too short. Her face was small and white, her mouth had a most
+pathetic droop, and in her eyes--wonderful, deep blue eyes--there was a
+curious look of shrinking fear, beneath which flashed every now and then
+a gleam of positive terror. Her dark hair was arranged in a thick
+straight fringe upon her forehead, and in a long plait behind, after the
+schoolgirl fashion. Notwithstanding the _gaucherie_ of her years and her
+apparent unhappiness, she carried herself with a certain dignity and
+grace of movement which were wonderfully impressive. I watched her
+admiringly.
+
+"They are rather a puzzle," I admitted. "I suppose they might very well
+be father and daughter. It is certain that she is fresh from some
+convent boarding-school. I don't like the way she looks at the man, do
+you? It is as though she were terrified to death. I wonder if he is her
+father?"
+
+My companion did not answer me. He was straining forward as though
+anxious to hear the instructions which the man was giving to a porter
+about the luggage; my presence seemed to be a thing which he had wholly
+forgotten. The girl stood for a moment alone. More than ever one seemed
+to perceive in her eyes the nameless fear of the hunted animal. She
+looked around her furtively, yet with a strange, half-veiled wildness in
+her dilated eyes. I should scarcely have been surprised to have seen her
+make a sudden dash for freedom. Presently, however, the man, having
+identified all his luggage, turned towards her.
+
+"That's all right," he declared cheerfully. "Now I think that I shall
+take you straight away for lunch somewhere, and then we must go to the
+shops. Are you hungry, Isobel?"
+
+"I--I do not know," she answered, so tremulously that the words scarcely
+reached us, though we were standing only a few feet away.
+
+"We will soon find out," he said. "Hansom, there! Café Grand!"
+
+The cab drove off, and I realized then how completely for the last few
+moments I had forgotten my companion. I turned to look for him, and
+found him standing close to my side. He was apparently absorbed in
+thought, and seemed to have lost all interest in our surroundings. His
+hands were thrust deep in his overcoat pockets, and his eyes were fixed
+upon the ground. The stream of people from the train had melted away
+now, and we were almost alone upon the platform. I hesitated for a
+moment, and then walked slowly off. I did not wish to seem discourteous
+to the man with whom I had exchanged a few remarks more intimate than
+those which usually pass between strangers, but he had distinctly the
+air of one wishing to be alone, and I was unwilling to seem intrusive. I
+had barely taken a dozen steps, however, before I was overtaken. My
+companion of a few minutes before was again by my side. All traces of
+his recent preoccupation seemed to have vanished. He was smoking a fresh
+cigarette, and his bright, deep-set eyes were lit with gentle mirth.
+
+"Well, Mr. Novelist," he exclaimed, "have you succeeded? Is your languid
+muse stirred? Have you seen a face, a look, a gesture--anything to prick
+your imagination?"
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"I have seen one thing," I answered, "which it is not easy to forget. I
+have seen fear, and very pathetic it was."
+
+"You mean----?"
+
+"In the face of that child, or rather girl, with that coarse-looking
+brute of a man."
+
+The light seemed to die out from my companion's face. Once more he
+became stern and thoughtful.
+
+"Yes," he agreed; "I too saw that. If one were looking for tragedy, one
+might perhaps find it there."
+
+We stood now together on the pavement outside the station. My companion
+glanced at his watch.
+
+"Come," he said; "I have a fancy that you and I might exchange a few
+ideas. I am a lonely man, and to-day I am not in the humour for
+solitude. Do me the favour to lunch with me!"
+
+I did not hesitate for a moment. It was exactly the sort of invitation
+which I had coveted.
+
+"I shall be delighted," I answered.
+
+"I myself," my companion continued, "have no gift for writing. My
+talents, such as they are, lie in a different direction. But I have been
+in many countries, and adventures have come to me of various sorts. I
+may be able even to start you on your way--if, indeed, the author of
+_The Lost Princess_ is ever short of an idea."
+
+I smiled.
+
+"I can assure you," I said, "that my pilgrimage this morning has no
+other object than to find one. I begin to fear that I have written too
+much lately. At any rate, the well of my inspiration, if I may use so
+grandiloquent a term, has run dry."
+
+He put up his stick and hailed a hansom.
+
+"After all," he said, "it is possible--yes, it is possible that you may
+succeed. Adventures wait for us everywhere, if only we go about in a
+proper frame of mind. We will lunch, I think, at the Café Grand."
+
+I followed my prospective host into the cab. Was it altogether a
+coincidence, I wondered, that we were bound for the same restaurant
+whither the man and the girl had preceded us a few minutes before?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Mr. Grooten, as my new acquaintance called himself, belied neither his
+appearance nor his modest reference to himself. He proved at once that
+he knew how to order a satisfactory luncheon, going through the _menu_
+with the quiet deliberation of a connoisseur, neither seeking nor
+accepting any advice from the dark-visaged waiter who stood by his side,
+and finally writing out his few carefully chosen dishes with a special
+postscript as to the coffee, which, by-the-bye, we were never to taste.
+He then leaned over the table and began to talk.
+
+Apparently my host had been in every country of the world, and mixed
+with people of note in each. His anecdotes were always pungent, personal
+without being egotistical, and savoured always with a certain dry and
+perfectly natural humour. I found myself both interested and fascinated
+by his constant flow of reminiscences, and yet at times my attention
+wandered. For within a few yards of us were seated the man and the
+child.
+
+Everything that was noticeable in their demeanour towards one another at
+the station was even more apparent here. A bottle of champagne stood
+upon the table. The man had ordered such a luncheon that the head-waiter
+was seldom far from his side, and the manager in person had come to pay
+his respects. He himself was apparently doing full justice to it. His
+cheeks were flushed, his eyes moist, and his little bursts of laughter
+as he persevered in his attentions to his companion grew louder and more
+frequent. But opposite to him, the child's face was unchanged. Her glass
+was full of wine, but she seemed never to touch it. Her long white
+fingers played with her bread, but she seemed to eat little or nothing.
+Her face was pallid and drawn; there was terror--absolute, undiluted
+terror--in her unnaturally large eyes. Often when the man spoke to her
+she shivered. Her eyes seemed constantly trying to escape his gaze,
+wandering round the room, the terror of a hunted animal in their soft,
+luminous depths. Once they rested upon mine--I was seated in the corner
+facing her--and it seemed to me that there was appeal--desperate,
+frenzied appeal--in that long, tense look which thrilled all my pulses
+with passionate sympathy. Yet she held herself all the while stiff and
+erect. There was a certain sustaining pride in her close, firm-set
+mouth. There was never any sign of tears, though more than once her lips
+parted for a moment in a pitiful quiver.
+
+The table at which we were sitting was just inside the door, in the
+left-hand corner. The man and the girl were upon the opposite side, and
+a few yards further in the room. My host, with his face to the door,
+could see neither of them, therefore, without turning round, and owing
+to our table being pushed far into the corner, only his back was visible
+to the people in the restaurant. I, sitting facing him, had an excellent
+view of the girl and her companion, and I was all the while a witness of
+the silent drama being played out between the two. There came a time
+when I felt that I could stand it no longer. I leaned over our small
+table, and interrupted my companion in the middle of a story.
+
+"Forgive me," I said, "but I wish you could see that child's face. There
+is something wrong, I am sure. She is terrified to death. Look, that
+brute is trying to force her to drink her wine. I really can't sit and
+watch it any longer."
+
+The man who was my host, and who had called himself Mr. Grooten, nodded
+his head slightly. I knew at once, however, that he was in close
+sympathy with me.
+
+"I have been watching them," he said. "There is a mirror over your head;
+I have seen everything. It is a hideous-looking affair, but what can one
+do?"
+
+"I know what I am going to do, at any rate," I said, laying my serviette
+deliberately upon the table. "I don't care what happens, but I am going
+to speak to the child."
+
+Mr. Grooten raised his eyebrows. Beyond this faint expression of
+surprise his face betrayed neither approval nor disapproval.
+
+"What will you gain?" he asked.
+
+"Probably nothing," I answered. "And yet I shall try all the same. I
+dare not go away with the memory of that child's face haunting me. I
+must make an effort, even though it seems ridiculous. I can't help it."
+
+My companion smiled softly.
+
+"As you will, my impetuous young friend," he said. "This promises to be
+interesting. I will await your return."
+
+I did not hesitate any longer. I rose to my feet, and crossed the space
+which lay between the two tables. As I drew nearer to her I watched the
+child's face. At first a flash of desperate hope seemed suddenly to
+illumine it; then a fear more abject even than before took its place as
+she glanced at her companion. She watched me come, reading without a
+doubt the purpose in my mind with a sort of fascinated wonder. Her eyes
+were still fastened upon mine when at last I paused before her. I leaned
+over the table, keeping my shoulder turned upon the man.
+
+"You will forgive me," I said to her in a low tone, "but I believe that
+you are in trouble. Can I help you? Don't be afraid to tell me if I
+can."
+
+"You--you are very kind, sir," she began, breathlessly; "I----"
+
+Her companion intervened. Astonishment and anger combined to render his
+voice unsteady.
+
+"Eh? What's this? Who the devil are you, sir, and what do you mean by
+speaking to my ward?"
+
+I disregarded his interruption altogether. I still addressed myself only
+to the child, and I spoke as encouragingly as I could.
+
+"Don't be afraid to tell me," I said. "Think that I am your brother. I
+want to help you if I can."
+
+"Oh, if you only could!" she moaned.
+
+Her companion seized me by the arm and forced me to turn round. His face
+was red almost to suffocation, and two thick blue veins stood out upon
+his forehead in ugly fashion. His voice was scarcely articulate by
+reason of his attempt to keep it low.
+
+"Of all the infernal impertinence! What do you mean by it, sir? Who are
+you? How dare you force yourself upon strangers in this fashion?"
+
+"I am quite aware that I am doing an unusual thing," I answered, "and I
+perhaps deserve all that you can say to me. At the same time, I am here
+to have my question answered. You have a child with you who is
+apparently terrified to death. I insist upon hearing from her own lips
+whether she is in need of friends."
+
+White and mute, she looked from one to the other. It was the man who
+answered.
+
+"If this were not a public place," he said, still struggling with his
+anger, "I'd punish you as you deserve, you impudent young cub. This
+young lady is my ward, and I have just brought her from a convent, where
+she has lived since she was three years old. She is strange and shy, of
+course, and I was perhaps wrong to bring her to a public place. I did
+it, however, out of kindness. I wanted her to enjoy herself, but I
+perhaps did not appreciate her sensitiveness and the fact that only a
+few days ago she parted with the friends with whom she has lived all her
+life. Now, sir," he added, with a sneer upon his coarse lips, "I have
+been compelled to answer your questions to avoid a disturbance in a
+public place; but I promise you that if you do not make yourself scarce
+in thirty seconds I will send for the manager."
+
+I looked once more at the child, from whose white, set face every gleam
+of hope seemed to have fled.
+
+"I can do nothing for you, then?" I asked.
+
+Her eyes met mine helplessly. She shook her head. She did not speak at
+all.
+
+"Is it true--what he has told me?" I asked.
+
+She murmured an assent so faint, that though I was bending over her, it
+scarcely did more than reach my ears. I could do no more. I turned away
+and resumed my seat. Grooten smiled at me.
+
+"Well, Sir Knight Errant," he said lightly; "so you could not free the
+maiden?"
+
+"I was made to feel and look like a fool, of course," I answered, "but I
+don't mind about that. To tell you the truth, I am not satisfied now.
+The man says that he is her guardian, and that he has just brought her
+from a convent, where she has lived all her life. He vouchsafed to
+explain things to me to avoid a row, but he was desperately angry. She
+has never been out of the convent since she was three years old, and she
+is very nervous and shy. That was his story, and he told it plausibly
+enough. I could not get anything out of her, except an admission that
+what he said was the truth."
+
+Mr. Grooten nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"After all," he said, "she is only a child, fourteen or fifteen at the
+most, I should suppose. I have paid the bill, and, as you see, I have my
+coat on. Are you ready?"
+
+"Directly I have finished my coffee," I answered. "It looks too good to
+leave."
+
+"Finish it, by all means," he answered. "I am in no particular hurry.
+By-the-bye, I forget whether I showed you this."
+
+He drew a small shining weapon, with rather a long barrel, from his
+pocket, but though he invited me to inspect it, he retained it in his
+own hand.
+
+"I bought it in New York a few months ago," he remarked; "it is the
+latest weapon of destruction invented."
+
+"Is it a revolver?" I asked, a little puzzled by its shape.
+
+"Not exactly," he answered, fingering it carelessly; "it is in reality a
+sort of air-gun, with a wonderful compression, and a most ingenious
+silencer; quite as deadly, they say, as any firearm ever invented. It
+ejects a cylindrically-shaped bullet, tapered down almost to the
+fineness of a needle. Now," he added, with a faint smile and a rapid
+glance round the room, "if only one dared--" he turned in his chair, and
+I saw the thing steal out below his cuff, "one could free the child
+quite easily--quite easily."
+
+It was all over in a moment--a wonderful, tense moment, during which I
+sat frozen to my chair, stricken dumb and motionless with the tragedy
+which it seemed that I alone had witnessed. For there had been a little
+puff of sound, so slight that no other ears had noticed it. The seat in
+front of me was empty, and the man on my right had fallen forwards, his
+hand pressed to his side, his face curiously livid, patchy with streaks
+of dark colour, his eyes bulbous. Waiters still hurried to and fro, the
+hum of conversation was uninterrupted. And then suddenly it came--a cry
+of breathless horror, of mortal unexpected agony--a cry, it seemed, of
+death. The waiters stopped in their places to gaze breathlessly at the
+spot from which the cry had come, a silver dish fell clattering from the
+fingers of one, and its contents rolled unnoticed about the floor. The
+murmur of voices, the rise and fall of laughter and speech, ceased as
+though an unseen finger had been pressed upon the lips of everyone in
+the room. Men rose in their places, women craned their necks. For a
+second or two the whole place was like a tableau of arrested motion.
+Then there was a rush towards the table across which the man had fallen,
+a doubled-up heap. A few feet away, with only that narrow margin of
+table-cloth between them, the girl sat and stared at him, still white
+and panic-stricken, yet with a curious change in her face from which all
+the dumb terror which had first attracted my attention seemed to have
+passed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The manager, who was very flurried, closed the door of the little room
+into which the wounded man had been carried.
+
+"Can you tell me his name, or shall we look for his card-case?" he
+asked.
+
+I glanced towards the child. She was by far the most composed of the
+three. Only she remained with her back turned steadily upon the sofa.
+
+"His name is Delahaye," she said; "Major Sir William Delahaye, I think
+they called him."
+
+"And where does he live--in London? Tell me his address. I will send a
+cab there at once!"
+
+"I do not know his address," the child answered. "I do not know where he
+lives."
+
+The manager stared at her.
+
+"You were with him, were you not?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then surely you must know something more about him than just his name?"
+
+"He called himself my guardian. I believe that when I was very young he
+took me to the convent where I have been ever since. Two days ago he
+came to fetch me away."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Isobel de Sorrens!"
+
+"You are not related to him, then?"
+
+She shuddered a little.
+
+"I hope not," she said simply.
+
+"Well, where was he taking you to?" the manager asked impatiently.
+"Surely there must be someone I can send to."
+
+"I believe that he has a house in London," the child said. "I really do
+not know anything more. You could send to Madame Richard at the Convent
+St. Argueil. I suppose she knows all about him. She told me that I was
+to consider him my guardian."
+
+The manager turned to me. I was an occasional customer, and he knew who
+I was.
+
+"Can you tell me anything about him, Mr. Greatson? The doctor will be
+here in a moment, but I feel that I ought to be sending for some of his
+friends. I am afraid that he is very ill."
+
+"You were not in the room at the time it happened?" I remarked.
+
+The manager shook his head.
+
+"No, I was in the office."
+
+"Have you sent for the police?" I asked.
+
+"Police, no!" he exclaimed. "What have the police to do with it? It was
+an ordinary fit, surely."
+
+I felt that I had held my peace long enough.
+
+"It was not a fit at all," I said gravely. "He was shot with a sort of
+air-gun by a man sitting at my table. I think that you ought to send for
+the police at once. The man's name was Grooten, but I know nothing else
+about him."
+
+The manager was for a moment speechless. The child looked at me eagerly.
+
+"It was the little old gentleman who was sitting with you who did it,"
+she exclaimed. "I saw him at Charing Cross."
+
+"Yes, it was he!" I answered.
+
+The child turned away.
+
+"Perhaps after all, then," she murmured to herself, "I may have friends
+in the world."
+
+The manager, whose name was Huber, was inclined to be incredulous.
+
+"An air-gun would have made as much noise as a revolver," he said. "Are
+you sure of what you say, Mr. Greatson?"
+
+"There is no doubt at all about it," I answered, "and you ought to
+inform the police at once. This man--Grooten, he called himself--pulled
+the pistol out of his pocket, and was pretending to show it to me when
+he fired the shot. He told me that it was a new invention which he had
+bought in America, and which was quite noiseless."
+
+The manager hurried from the room. The child and I were alone, except
+for the man on the couch. Every now and then he groaned--a sound I could
+not hear without a shiver. The child, however, was unmoved. She fixed
+her dark eyes on me.
+
+"Do you think that he will get away?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"You mean the man who shot Major Delahaye?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I think that it is very likely. He has a good start, and I expect that
+he had made his arrangements."
+
+"I hope he does," she murmured passionately. "I wish that I could help
+him."
+
+"You have no idea who he was?" I asked. "I do not believe that Grooten
+was his real name."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I have never seen him before in my life," she said. "If I did know I
+should not tell anyone."
+
+The doctor came at last. In reality it was barely five minutes since he
+had been sent for, but time dragged itself along slowly in that little
+room. Directly afterwards Huber, the manager, returned, followed by a
+sergeant of the police. We all waited for the doctor's examination. I
+fetched a chair for the child, and she thanked me with a wan little
+smile. Always she sat with her back to the sofa. There was something
+terribly suggestive in her utter lack of sympathy with the wounded man.
+
+The doctor finished his examination at last. He came towards us.
+
+"The wound is a very curious one," he said, "and I am afraid that the
+bullet will be difficult to extract, but it is not in itself serious. It
+is really only a flesh wound, but the man is suffering from severe
+shock, and I don't like the action of his heart. He can be removed quite
+safely. If you like I will telephone for an ambulance and take him to
+the hospital. Do you know anything about this affair, sergeant?"
+
+"Very little as yet, sir," the man answered. "I want this gentleman's
+description of the person who showed him the pistol. The commissionaire
+saw him leave, I understand, and one of the waiters saw something in his
+hand. Was he a friend of yours, sir?"
+
+"I only know his name," I answered. "He called himself Mr. Grooten, and
+I judged him to be a foreigner, though he spoke perfect English. He
+seemed to be about fifty years old, clean-shaven, and of under medium
+height."
+
+"Too vague," the sergeant remarked. "Had he any peculiarity of feature
+or expression, anything which would help towards identification?"
+
+"None that I can remember," I answered.
+
+"How was he dressed?"
+
+"Quietly. I could not remember anything that he wore."
+
+"Did he give you any idea of his intention? Did he speak of Major
+Delahaye at all as though he knew him?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"We simply both remarked," I said slowly, "that this--young lady seemed
+to be very frightened of her companion, and I do not think that we
+formed a favourable impression of him. He gave me not the slightest
+intimation, however, of his intention to interfere."
+
+"It could not have been an accident, I suppose?" Mr. Huber suggested.
+
+"I might have thought so," I answered, "if he had not immediately left
+the place. He disappeared so quickly that I did not even see him go."
+
+"You sat by accident at the same table?" the sergeant asked.
+
+"No, we came together," I answered. "We met at Charing Cross, and he
+spoke to me. He knew my name, and reminded me that we had once met at
+the 'Vagabonds' Club.'"
+
+"Did you remember him?"
+
+"I cannot say that I did," I answered.
+
+"And afterwards?"
+
+"We talked together for some time, and when we left the station he asked
+me to lunch here."
+
+"Did he arrive by train, or was he meeting anyone at Charing Cross?" the
+sergeant asked.
+
+"Neither, so far as I could see," I answered. "He seemed to be simply
+loitering. I ought to tell you, though, that we saw Major Delahaye and
+this young lady arrive by the Continental train, and he seemed to be
+interested in them."
+
+The sergeant turned to Isobel.
+
+"Did you know him?" he asked.
+
+"No," she answered. "I did not notice him at the station at all. I saw
+that he was sitting at the same table downstairs as this gentleman, but
+I am quite sure that I have never seen him before in my life."
+
+The sergeant put away his pocket-book.
+
+"I am very sorry to trouble you," he said, "but I think it would be
+better for you all to come to Bow Street and see the superintendent."
+
+"I am quite willing to do so," I answered, "though I can tell him no
+more than I have told you."
+
+The child moved suddenly towards me. Her thin, shabbily gloved fingers
+gripped my arm with almost painful force. Her eyes were full of
+passionate appeal.
+
+"I may go with you," she murmured. "You will not leave me alone?"
+
+"The young lady will be required also," the sergeant remarked.
+
+"We will go together, of course," I said gently. "Come!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+We crossed the road from the police-station, and found ourselves in one
+of the narrow streets fringing Covent Garden. The air was fragrant here
+with the perfume of white and purple lilac, great baskets full of which
+were piled up in the gutter. The girl half closed her eyes.
+
+"Delicious!" she murmured. "This reminds me of St. Argueil! You have
+flowers too, then, in London?"
+
+I bought her a handful, which she sniffed and held to her face with
+delight.
+
+"Ah!" she said a little sadly. "I had forgotten that there were any
+beautiful things left in the world. Thank you so much, Mr. Arnold."
+
+"At your age," I said cheerfully, "you will soon find out that the
+world--even London--is a treasure-house of beautiful things."
+
+She looked down the narrow, untidy street, strewn with the refuse from
+the market waggons and trucks which blocked the way, making all but
+pedestrian traffic an impossibility--at the piles of empty baskets in
+the gutter, and the slatternly crowd of loiterers. Then she looked up at
+me with a faint smile.
+
+"London--is not all like this, then?" she remarked.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"This is a back street, almost a slum," I said. "I daresay you have
+lived in the country always, and just at first it does not seem possible
+that there should be anything beautiful about a great city. When you get
+a little older I think that you will see things differently. The beauty
+of a great city thronged with men and women is a more subtle thing than
+the mere joy of meadows and hills and country lanes--but it exists all
+the same. And now," I continued, stopping short upon the pavement, "I
+must take you to your friends. Tell me where they live. You have the
+address, perhaps."
+
+"What friends?" she asked me, with wide-open eyes.
+
+"You told the superintendent of police that you had friends in London,"
+I reminded her.
+
+Then she smiled at me--a very dazzling smile, which showed all her white
+teeth, and which seemed somehow to become reflected in her dark blue
+eyes.
+
+"But I meant you!" she exclaimed. "I thought that you knew that! There
+is no one else. You are my friend, I know very well, for you came and
+spoke kindly to me when I was terrified--terrified to death."
+
+The shadow of gravity rested only for a moment upon her face. She
+laughed gaily at my consternation.
+
+"Then where am I to take you?" I asked.
+
+"Stupid," she murmured; "I am going with you, of course. Why--why--you
+don't mind, do you?" she asked, with a sudden catch in her throat.
+
+I felt like a brute, and I hastened to make what amends I could. I
+smiled at her reassuringly.
+
+"Mind! Of course I don't mind," I declared. "Only, you see, there are
+three of us--all men--and we live together. I was afraid----"
+
+"I shall not mind that at all," she interrupted cheerfully. "If they are
+nice like you, I think that it will be delightful. There were only girls
+at the convent, you know, and the sisters, and a few masters who came to
+teach us things, but they were not allowed to speak to us except to give
+out the lessons, and they were very stupid. I do not think that I shall
+be any trouble to you at all. I will try not to be."
+
+I looked at her--a little helplessly. After all, though she was tall for
+her years, she was only a child. Her dress was of an awkward length, her
+long straight fringe and plaited hair the coiffure of the schoolroom.
+The most surprising thing of all in connection with her was that she
+showed no signs of the tragedy which had so recently been played out
+around her. Her eyes had lost their nameless fear; there was even colour
+in her cheeks.
+
+"Come along, then!" I said. "We will turn into the Strand and take a
+hansom."
+
+She walked buoyantly along by my side, as tall within an inch or so as
+myself, and with a certain elegance in her gait a little hard to
+reconcile with her years. All the while she looked eagerly about her,
+her eyes shining with curiosity.
+
+"We passed through Paris at night," she said, with a little reminiscent
+shudder, as though every thought connected with that journey were a
+torture, "and I have never really been in a great city before. I hope
+you meant what you said," she added, looking up at me with a quick
+smile, "and that there are parts of London more beautiful than this."
+
+"Many," I assured her. "You shall see the parks. The rhododendrons will
+be out soon, and I think that you will find them beautiful, though, of
+course, the town can never be like the country. Here's a hansom with a
+good horse. Jump in!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I think that our arrival at Number 4, Earl's Crescent, created quite as
+much sensation as I had anticipated. When I opened the door of the
+large, barely-furnished room, which we called our workshop, Arthur
+sprang from the table on which he had been lounging, and Mabane, who was
+still working, dropped his brush in sheer amazement. I turned towards
+the girl.
+
+"These are my friends, Isobel, of whom I have been telling you," I said.
+"This is Mr. Arthur Fielding, who is the ornamental member of the
+establishment, and that is Mr. Allan Mabane, who paints very bad
+pictures, but who contrives to make other people think that they are
+worth buying. Allan, this young lady, Miss Isobel de Sorrens, and I have
+had a little adventure together. I will explain all about it later on."
+
+They both advanced with extended hands. The girl, as though suddenly
+conscious of her position, gave a hand to each, and looked at them
+almost piteously.
+
+"You will not mind my coming," she begged, with a tremulous little note
+of appeal in her tone. "I do not seem to have any friends, and Mr.
+Arnold has been so kind to me. If I may stay here for a little while I
+will try--oh, I am sure, that I will not be in anyone's way!"
+
+The pathos of her breathless little speech was almost irresistible. The
+child, as she stood there in the centre of the room, looking eagerly
+from one to the other, conquered easily. I do not know if either of the
+other two were conscious of the new note of life which she seemed to
+bring with her into our shabby, smoke-smelling room, but to me it came
+home, even in those first few moments, with wonderful poignancy. An
+alien note it was, but a wonderfully sweet one. We three men had drifted
+away from the whole world of our womenkind. She seemed to bring us back
+instantly into touch with some of the few better and rarer memories
+round which the selfishness of life is always building a thicker crust.
+For one thing, at that moment I was deeply grateful--that I knew my
+friends. My task was made a sinecure.
+
+"My dear young lady," Mabane exclaimed, with unmistakeable earnestness,
+"you are heartily welcome. We are delighted to see you here!"
+
+"More than welcome," Arthur declared. "We are all one here, you know,
+Miss de Sorrens; and if you are Arnold's friend, you must be ours."
+
+For the first time tears stood in her eyes. She brushed them proudly
+away.
+
+"You are very, very kind," she said. "I cannot tell you how grateful I
+am to you both."
+
+Arthur rushed for our one easy-chair, and insisted upon installing her
+in it. Mabane lit a stove and left the room swinging a kettle. I drew a
+little sigh of relief, and threw my hat into a corner. Apparently she
+had conquered my friends as easily as she had conquered me.
+
+"Arthur," I said, "please entertain Miss de Sorrens for a few moments,
+will you. I must go and interview Mrs. Burdett."
+
+"I'll do my best, Arnold," he assured me. "Mrs. Burdett's in the
+kitchen, I think. She came in just before you."
+
+Mrs. Burdett was our housekeeper and sole domestic. She was a
+hard-featured but kindly old woman, with a caustic tongue and a soft
+heart. She heard my story unmoved, betraying neither enthusiasm or
+disapproval. When I had finished, she simply set her cap straight and
+rubbed her hands upon her apron.
+
+"I'd like to see the child, as you call her, Mr. Arnold," she said. "You
+young gentlemen are so easy deceived, and it's an unusual thing that
+you're proposing, not to say inconvenient."
+
+So I took Mrs. Burdett back with me to the studio. As we opened the door
+the music of the girl's strange little foreign laugh was ringing through
+the room. Arthur was mounted upon his hobby, talking of the delights of
+motoring, and she was listening with sparkling eyes. They stopped at
+once as we entered.
+
+"This is Mrs. Burdett, Isobel," I said, "who looks after us here, and
+who is going to take charge of you. She will show you your room. I'm
+sorry that you will find it so tiny, but you can see that we are a
+little cramped here!"
+
+Isobel rose at once.
+
+"You should have seen our cells at St. Argueil," she exclaimed, smiling.
+"Some of us who were tall could scarcely stand upright. May I come with
+you, Mrs. Burdett?"
+
+Mrs. Burdett's tone and answer relieved me of one more anxiety. The door
+closed upon them. We three men were alone.
+
+"Is this," Mabane asked curiously, "a practical joke, or a part of your
+plot? What does it all mean? Where on earth did you come across the
+child? Who is she?"
+
+I took a cigarette from my case and lit it.
+
+"The responsibility for the whole affair," I declared, "remains with
+Arthur."
+
+The boy whistled softly. He looked at me with wide-open eyes.
+
+"Come," he declared, "I like that. Why, I have never seen the girl
+before in my life, or anyone like her. Where do I come in, I should like
+to know?"
+
+"It was you," I said, "who started me off to Charing Cross."
+
+"You mean to say that you picked her up there?" Mabane exclaimed.
+
+"I will tell you the whole story," I answered. "She comes with the halo
+of tragedy about her. Listen!"
+
+Then I told them of the things which had happened to me during the last
+few hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+I certainly could not complain of any lack of interest on the part of my
+auditors. They listened to every word of my story with rapt attention.
+When I had finished they were both silent for several moments. Mabane
+eyed me curiously. I think that at first he scarcely knew whether to
+believe me altogether serious.
+
+"The man who was with the girl," Arthur asked at last--"this Major
+Delahaye, or whatever his name was--is he dead?"
+
+"He was alive two hours ago," I answered.
+
+"Will he recover?"
+
+"I believe that there is just a bare chance--no more," I answered. "He
+had a weak heart, and the shock was almost enough to kill him."
+
+"And your friend--the man who shot him--where is he?" Mabane asked. "Is
+he in custody?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"He disappeared," I answered, "as though by magic. You see, we were
+sitting at the table next the door, and he had every opportunity for
+slipping out unnoticed."
+
+"It was at the Café Grand, you said, wasn't it?" Arthur asked.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"How about the commissionaire, then?"
+
+"He saw the man come out, but he took no particular notice of him," I
+answered. "He crossed the street at an ordinary walking pace, and he was
+out of sight before the commotion inside began."
+
+"It seems to me," Mabane remarked, "that you must have found yourself in
+rather an awkward position."
+
+"I did," I answered grimly. "Of course my story sounded a bit thin, and
+the police made me go to the station with them. As luck would have it,
+however, I knew the inspector, and I managed to convince him that I was
+telling the truth, or I doubt whether they would have let me go. I
+suppose," I added, a little doubtfully, "that you fellows must think me
+a perfect idiot for bringing the child here, but upon my word I don't
+know what else I could have done. I simply couldn't leave her there, or
+in the streets. I'm awfully sorry--"
+
+"Don't be an ass," Arthur interrupted energetically. "Of course you
+couldn't do anything but bring her here. You acted like a sensible chap
+for once."
+
+"Have you questioned her," Mabane asked, "about her friends? If she has
+none in London, she must have some somewhere!"
+
+"I have questioned her," I answered, "but not very successfully. She
+appears to know nothing about her relations, or even her parentage. She
+has been at the convent ever since she can remember, and she has seen no
+one outside it except this man who took her there and came to fetch her
+away."
+
+"And what relation is he?" Allan asked.
+
+"None! He called himself simply her guardian."
+
+Arthur walked across the room for his pipe, and commenced to fill it.
+
+"Well," he said, "you are like the man in the Scriptures, who found what
+he went out for to see. You've got your adventure, at any rate. All
+owing to my advice, too. Hullo!"
+
+We all turned round. The door of the room was suddenly opened and
+closed. My host of a few hours ago stood upon the threshold, smiling
+suavely upon us. He wore a low black hat, and a coat somewhat thicker
+than the season of the year seemed to demand. Every article of attire
+was different, but his face seemed to defy disguise. I should have known
+Mr. Grooten anywhere.
+
+His unexpected presence seemed to deprive me almost of my wits. I simply
+gaped at him like the others.
+
+"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "You here!"
+
+He stood quite still for a moment, listening. Then he glanced sharply
+around the room. He looked at Mabane, and he looked at Arthur. Finally
+he addressed me.
+
+"I fancy that I am a fairly obvious apparition," he remarked. "Where is
+the child?"
+
+"She is here," I answered, "in another room with our housekeeper just
+now. But----"
+
+"I have only a few seconds to spare," Mr. Grooten interrupted
+ruthlessly. "Listen to me. You have chosen to interfere in this concern,
+and you must take your part in it now. You have the child, and you must
+keep her for a time. You must not let her go, on any account.
+Unfortunately, the man who sold me that pistol was a liar. Delahaye is
+not dead. It is possible even that he may recover. Will you swear to
+keep the child from him?"
+
+I hesitated. It seemed to me that Grooten was taking a great deal for
+granted.
+
+"You must remember," I said, "that I have absolutely no legal hold upon
+her. If Delahaye is her guardian it will be quite easy for him to take
+her away."
+
+"He is not her legal guardian," Grooten said sharply. "He has no just
+claim upon her at all."
+
+"Neither have I," I reminded him.
+
+"You have possession," Grooten exclaimed. "I tell you that neither
+Delahaye, if he lives, nor any other person, will appeal to the law to
+force you to give the child up. This is the truth. I see you still
+hesitate. Listen! This also is truth. The child is in danger from
+Delahaye--hideous, unmentionable danger."
+
+I never thought of doubting his word. Truth blazed out from his keen
+grey eyes; his words carried conviction with them.
+
+"I will keep the child," I promised him. "But tell me who you are, and
+what you have to do with her."
+
+"No matter," he answered swiftly. "I lay this thing upon you, a charge
+upon your honour. Guard the child. If Delahaye recovers there will be
+trouble. You must brave it out. You are an Englishman; you are one of a
+stubborn, honourable race. Do my bidding in this matter, and you shall
+learn what gratitude can mean."
+
+Once more he listened for a moment intently. Then he continued.
+
+"I am followed by the police," he said. "They may be here at any moment.
+You can tell them of my visit if it is necessary. My escape is provided
+for."
+
+"But surely you will tell me something else about the child," I
+exclaimed. "Tell me at least----"
+
+He held out his hand.
+
+"You are safer to know nothing," he said quickly. "Be faithful to what
+you have promised, and you will never regret it."
+
+With almost incredible swiftness he disappeared. We all three looked at
+one another, speechless. Then from outside came the sound of light
+footsteps, and a laugh as from the throat of a singing bird. The door
+was thrown open, and Isobel entered.
+
+"Such a funny little man has just gone out!" she exclaimed. "He had a
+handkerchief tied round his face as though he had been fighting. What
+lazy people!" she added, looking around. "I expected to find tea ready.
+Will you please tell me some more about motor-cars, Mr. Arthur?"
+
+She sat on a stool in our midst, and chattered while we fed her with
+cakes, and screamed with laughter at Mabane's toast. The tragedy of a
+few hours ago seemed to have passed already from her mind. She was all
+charm and irresponsibility. The gaunt, bare room, which for years had
+mocked all our efforts at decoration, seemed suddenly a beautiful place.
+Easily, and with the effortless grace of her fifteen years, she laughed
+her way into our hearts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+"Arnold!"
+
+I waved my left hand.
+
+"Don't disturb me for a few minutes, Allan, there's a good chap," I
+begged. "I'm hard at it."
+
+"Found your plot, then, eh?"
+
+"I've got a start, anyhow! Give me half an hour. I only want to set the
+thing going."
+
+Mabane grunted, and took up his brush. For once I was thankful that we
+were alone. At last I saw my way. After weeks of ineffective scribbling
+a glimpse of the real thing had come to me.
+
+The stiffness had gone from my brain and fingers. My pen flew over the
+paper. The joy of creation sang once more in my heart, tingled in all my
+pulses. We worked together and in silence for an hour or more. Then,
+with a little sigh of satisfaction, I leaned back in my chair.
+
+"The story goes, then?" Mabane remarked.
+
+"Yes, it goes," I assented, my eyes fixed absently upon the loose sheets
+of manuscript strewn all over my desk. Already I was finding it hard to
+tear my thoughts away from it.
+
+There was a short silence. Then Mabane, who had been filling his pipe,
+came over to my side.
+
+"You heard from the convent this morning, Arnold?"
+
+"Yes! The letter is here. Read it!"
+
+Mabane shook his head.
+
+"I can't read French," he said.
+
+"They want her back again," I told him, thoughtfully. "The woman appears
+to be honest enough. She admits that they have no absolute claim--they
+do not even know her parentage. They have been paid, she says, regularly
+and well for the child's education, and if she is now without a home
+they would like her to go back to them. She thinks it possible that
+Major Delahaye's relatives, or the people for whom he acted, might
+continue the payments, but they are willing to take their risk of that.
+The long and short of it is, that they want her back again."
+
+"As a pupil still?" Mabane asked.
+
+"They would train her for a teacher. In that case she would have to
+serve a sort of novitiate. She would practically become a nun."
+
+Mabane withdrew his pipe from his mouth, and looked thoughtfully into
+the bowl of it.
+
+"I never had a sister," he said, "and I really know nothing whatever
+about children. But does it occur to you, Arnold, that this--young lady
+seems particularly adapted for a convent?"
+
+"I believe," I said firmly, "that it would be misery for her."
+
+Mabane walked over to his canvas and came back again.
+
+"What about Delahaye?" he asked.
+
+"He is still unconscious at the hospital," I answered.
+
+Mabane hesitated.
+
+"I do not wish to seem intrusive, Arnold," he said, "but I can't help
+remembering that a certain lady with whom you were very friendly once
+married a Delahaye!"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"I should have told you, in any case," I said. "This is the man--Major
+Sir William Delahaye, whom Eileen Marigold married."
+
+"Then surely you recognized him in the restaurant?"
+
+"I never met him," I answered. "This marriage was arranged very quickly,
+as you know, and I was abroad when it took place. I called on Lady
+Delahaye twice, but I did not meet her husband on either occasion."
+
+Mabane fingered the loose sheets of my manuscript idly.
+
+"Your story, Arnold," he said, "is having a tragic birth. Will Delahaye
+really die, do you think?"
+
+"The doctors are not very hopeful," I told him. "The wound itself is not
+mortal, but the shock seems to have affected him seriously. He is not a
+young man, and he has lived hard all his days."
+
+"If he dies," Mabane said thoughtfully, "your friend Grooten, I think
+you said he called himself, will have to disappear altogether. In that
+case I suppose we--shall be compelled to send the child back to the
+convent?"
+
+"Unless----"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Unless we provide for her ourselves," I answered boldly.
+
+Mabane smoked furiously for a few moments. His hands were thrust deep
+down in his trousers pockets. He looked fixedly out of the window.
+
+"Arnold," he said abruptly, "do you believe in presentiments?"
+
+"It depends whether they affect me favourably or the reverse," I
+answered carelessly. "You Scotchmen are all so superstitious."
+
+"You may call it superstition," Mabane continued. "Everything of the
+sort which an ignorant man cannot understand he calls superstition. But
+if you like, I will tell you something which is surely going to happen.
+I will tell you what I have seen."
+
+I leaned forward in my chair, and looked curiously into Allan's face.
+His hard, somewhat commonplace features seemed touched for the moment by
+some transfiguring fire. His keen, blue-grey eyes were as soft and
+luminous as a girl's. He had actually the appearance of a man who sees a
+little way beyond the border. Even then I could not take him seriously.
+
+"Speak, Sir Prophet!" I exclaimed, with a little laugh. "Let my eyes
+also be touched with fire. Let me see what you see."
+
+Mabane showed no sign of annoyance. He looked at me composedly.
+
+"Do not be a fool, Arnold," he said. "You may believe or disbelieve, but
+some day you will know that the things which I have in my mind are
+true."
+
+I think that I was a little bewildered. I realized now what at first I
+had been inclined to doubt--that Mabane was wholly in earnest.
+Unconsciously my attitude towards him changed. It is hard to mock a man
+who believes in himself.
+
+"Go ahead, then, Allan," I said quietly. "Remember that you have told me
+nothing yet."
+
+Mabane turned towards me. He spoke slowly. His face was serious--almost
+solemn.
+
+"The man Delahaye will never claim the child," he said. "I think that he
+will die. The man who shot him has gone--we shall not hear of him again,
+not for many years, if at all. He has gone like a stone dropped into a
+bottomless tarn. We shall not send the child back to the convent. She
+will remain here."
+
+He paused, as though expecting me to speak. I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Come," I said, "I shall not quarrel with your prophecy so far, Allan.
+The introduction of a feminine element here seems a little incongruous,
+but after all she is very young."
+
+Mabane unclasped his arms, and looked thoughtfully around the room.
+Already there was a change since a few days ago. The ornaments and
+furniture were free from dust. There were two great bowls of flowers
+upon the table, some studies which had hung upon the wall were replaced
+with others of a more sedate character. The atmosphere of the place was
+different. Wild untidiness had given place to some semblance of order.
+There was an attempt everywhere at repression. Mabane knocked the ashes
+from his pipe.
+
+"For five years," he said abstractedly, "you and I and Arthur have lived
+here together. Are you satisfied with those five years? Think!"
+
+I looked from my desk out of the window, over the housetops up into the
+sunshine, and I too was grave. Satisfied! Is anyone short of a fool ever
+satisfied?
+
+"No! I am not," I admitted, a little bitterly.
+
+"Tell me what you think of these five years, Arnold. Tell me the truth,"
+Mabane persisted. "Let me know if your thoughts are the same as mine."
+
+"Drift," I answered. "We have worked a little, and thought a little--but
+our feet have been on the earth a great deal oftener than our heads have
+touched the clouds."
+
+"Drift," Mabane repeated. "It is a true word. We have gained a little
+experience of the wrong sort: we have learnt how to adapt our poor
+little gifts to the whim of the moment. Such as our talent has been, we
+have made a servant of it to minister to our physical necessities. We
+have lived little lives, Arnold--very little lives."
+
+"Go on," I murmured. "This at least is truth!"
+
+Mabane paused. He looked at his pipe, but he did not relight it.
+
+"There is a change coming," he said, slowly. "We are going to drift no
+longer. We are going to be drawn into the maelstrom of life. What it may
+mean for you and for me and for the boy, I do not know. It will change
+us--it must change our work. I shall paint no more guesses at
+realism--after someone else; and you will write no more of princesses,
+or pull the strings of tinsel-decked puppets, so that they may dance
+their way through the pages of your gaily-dressed novels. And an end has
+come to these things, Arnold. No, I am not raving, nor is this a jest.
+Wait!"
+
+"You speak," I told him, "like a seer. Since when was it given to you to
+read the future so glibly, my friend?"
+
+Mabane looked at me with grave eyes. There was no shadow of levity in
+his manner.
+
+"I am not a superstitious man, Arnold," he said, "but I come, after all,
+of hill-folk, and I believe that there are times when one can feel and
+see the shadow of coming things. My grandfather knew the day of his
+death, and spoke of it; my father made his will before he set foot on
+the steamer which went to the bottom on a calm day between Dover and
+Ostend. Nothing of this sort has ever come to me before. You yourself
+have called me too hard-headed, too material for an artist. So I have
+always thought myself--until to-day. To-day I feel differently."
+
+"Is it this child, then, who is to open the gates of the world to us?" I
+asked.
+
+"Remember," Mabane answered, "that before many months have passed she
+will be a woman."
+
+I moved in my chair a little uneasily.
+
+"I wonder," I said, half to myself, "whether I did well to bring her
+here!"
+
+Mabane laughed shortly.
+
+"It was not you who brought her," he declared. "She was sent."
+
+"Sent?"
+
+"Aye, these things are not of our choosing, Arnold. There is something
+behind which drives the great wheels. You can call it Fate or God,
+according to your philosophy. It is there all the time, the one eternal
+force."
+
+I looked at Mabane steadfastly. He did not flinch.
+
+"Psychologically, my dear Allan," I said, "you appear to be in a very
+interesting state just now."
+
+Mabane shrugged his shoulders. He crossed the room for some tobacco, and
+began to refill his pipe.
+
+"Well," he said, "I have finished. To-morrow, I suppose, I shall want to
+kick myself for having said as much as I have. Listen! Here they come."
+
+Isobel came into the room, followed by Arthur in a leather jacket and
+breeches. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes danced with excitement. She
+threw off her tam-o'-shanter, and stood deftly re-arranging for a moment
+her wind-tossed hair.
+
+"Glorious!" she exclaimed. "Oh, it has been glorious! Mr. Arthur, how
+can I thank you? I have never enjoyed myself so much in my life. If the
+Sister Superior could only have seen me--and the girls!"
+
+"Motoring, I presume," Mabane remarked, "is amongst the pleasures denied
+to the young ladies of the convent?"
+
+She laughed gaily.
+
+"Pleasures! Why, there are no pleasures for those poor girls. One may
+not even smile, and as for games, even they are not permitted. I think
+that it is shameful to make such a purgatory of a place. One may not,
+one could not, be happy there. It is not allowed."
+
+She caught the look which flashed from Mabane to me, and turned
+instantly around.
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Arnold," she cried breathlessly, "you do not think--I
+shall not have to return there?"
+
+"Not likely!" Arthur interposed with vigour. "By Jove! if anyone shut
+you up there again I'd come and fetch you out."
+
+She threw a quick glance of gratitude towards him, but her eyes returned
+almost immediately to mine. She waited anxiously for me to speak.
+
+"If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you shall never return
+there. I do not think that it is at all the proper place for you. But
+you must remember that we are, after all, people of no authority.
+Someone might come forward to-morrow with a legal right to claim you,
+and we should be helpless."
+
+[Illustration: "If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you
+shall never return there."]
+
+Slowly the colour died away from her cheeks. Her eyes became
+preternaturally bright and anxious.
+
+"There is no one," she faltered, "except that man. He called himself my
+guardian."
+
+"Had you seen him before he came to the convent and fetched you away?" I
+asked.
+
+"Only once," she answered. "He came to St. Argueil about a year ago. I
+hated him then. I have hated him ever since. I think that if all men
+were like that I would be content to stay in the convent all my life."
+
+"You don't remember the circumstances under which he took you there, I
+suppose?" Mabane asked thoughtfully.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I do not remember being taken there at all," she answered. "I think
+that I was not more than four or five years old."
+
+"And all the time no one else has been to see you or written to you?" I
+asked.
+
+"No one!"
+
+She smothered a little sob as she answered me. It was as though my
+questions and Mabane's, although I had asked them gently enough, had
+suddenly brought home to her a fuller sense of her complete loneliness.
+Her eyes were full of tears. She held herself proudly, and she fought
+hard for her self-control. Arthur glanced indignantly at both of us. He
+had the wit, however, to remain silent.
+
+"There are just one or two more questions, Isobel," I said, "which I
+must ask you some time or other."
+
+"Now, please, then," she begged.
+
+"Did Major Delahaye ever mention his wife to you?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"You did not even know, then, when you arrived in London where he was
+taking you?"
+
+"I knew nothing," she admitted. "He behaved very strangely, and I was
+miserable every moment of the time I was with him. I understood that I
+was to have a companion and live in London."
+
+I felt my blood run cold for a moment. I did not dare to look at Mabane.
+
+"I do not think," I said, "that you need fear anything more from Major
+Delahaye, even if he should recover."
+
+"You mean--?" she cried breathlessly.
+
+"We should never give you up to him," I declared firmly.
+
+"Thank God!" she murmured. "Mr. Arnold," she added, looking at me
+eagerly, "I can paint and sing and play the piano. Can't people earn
+money sometimes by doing these things? I would work--oh, I am not afraid
+to work. Couldn't I stay here for a little while?"
+
+"Of course you can," I assured her. "And there is no need at all for you
+to think about earning money yet. It is not that which troubles us at
+all. It is the fact that we have no legal claim upon you, and people may
+come forward at any moment who have."
+
+Arthur glanced towards her triumphantly.
+
+"What did I tell you?" he exclaimed.
+
+She looked timidly across at Mabane.
+
+"The other gentleman won't mind?" she asked timidly.
+
+Mabane smiled at her, and his smile was a revelation even to us who knew
+him so well.
+
+"My dear young lady," he said, "you will be more than welcome. I have
+just been telling Arnold that your coming will make the world a
+different place for us."
+
+The girl's smile was illumining. It seemed to include us all. She held
+out both her hands. Mabane seized one and bent over it with the air of a
+courtier. The other was offered to me. Arthur was content to beam upon
+us all from the background. At that precise moment came a tap at the
+door. Mrs. Burdett brought in a telegram.
+
+I tore it open, and hastily reading it, passed it on to Mabane. He
+hesitated for a moment, and then turned gravely to Isobel.
+
+"Major Delahaye will not trouble you any more," he said. "He died in the
+hospital an hour ago."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"A shade more to the right, please. There, just as you are now! Don't
+move! In five minutes I shall have finished for the day."
+
+Isobel smiled.
+
+"I think that your five minutes," she said, "last sometimes for a very
+long time. But I am not tired--no, not at all. I can stay like this if
+you wish until the light goes."
+
+"You are splendid," Mabane murmured. "The best sitter--oh, hang it,
+who's that?"
+
+"There is certainly some one at the door," Isobel remarked.
+
+Mabane paused in his work to shout fiercely, "Come in!" I too looked up
+from my writing. A woman was ushered into the room--a woman dressed in
+fashionable mourning, of medium height, and with a wealth of fair,
+fluffy hair, which seemed to mock the restraining black bands. Mrs.
+Burdett, visibly impressed, lingered in the background.
+
+The woman paused and looked around. She looked at me, and the pen
+slipped from my nerveless fingers. I rose to my feet.
+
+"Eil--Lady Delahaye!" I exclaimed.
+
+She inclined her head. Her demeanour was cold, almost belligerent.
+
+"I am glad to find you here, Arnold Greatson," she said. "You are a
+friend, I believe, of the man who murdered my husband?"
+
+"You have been misinformed, Lady Delahaye," I answered quietly. "I was
+not even an acquaintance of his. We met that day for the first time."
+
+By the faintest possible curl of the lips she expressed her contemptuous
+disbelief.
+
+"Ah!" she said. "I remember your story at the inquest. You will forgive
+me if, in company, I believe, with the majority who heard it, I find it
+a trifle improbable."
+
+I looked at her gravely. This was the woman with whom I had once
+believed myself in love, the woman who had jilted me to marry a man of
+whom even his friends found it hard to speak well.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "my story may have sounded strangely, but it
+was true. I presume that you did not come here solely with the purpose
+of expressing your amiable opinion of my veracity?"
+
+"You are quite right," she admitted drily. "I did not."
+
+She was silent for a few moments. Her eyes were fixed upon Isobel, and I
+did not like their expression.
+
+"May I offer you a chair, Lady Delahaye?" I asked.
+
+"Thank you, I prefer to stand--here," she answered. "This, I believe, is
+the young person who was with my husband?"
+
+She extended a sombrely gloved forefinger towards Isobel, who met her
+gaze unflinchingly.
+
+"That is the young lady," I answered. "Have you anything to say to her?"
+
+"My errand here is with her," Lady Delahaye declared. "What is it that
+you call yourself, girl?"
+
+Isobel was a little bewildered. She seemed scarcely able to appreciate
+Lady Delahaye's attitude.
+
+"My name," she said, "is Isobel de Sorrens."
+
+"You asserted at the inquest," Lady Delahaye continued, "that my husband
+was your guardian. What did you mean by such an extraordinary
+statement?"
+
+Isobel seemed suddenly to grasp the situation. Her finely arched
+eyebrows were raised, her cheeks were pink, her eyes sparkling. She rose
+slowly to her feet, and, child though she was, the dignity of her
+demeanour was such that Lady Delahaye with her accusing forefinger
+seemed to shrink into insignificance.
+
+"I think," she said, "that you are a very rude person. Major Delahaye
+took me to the convent of St. Argueil when I was four years old, and
+left me there. He visited me twelve months ago, and brought me to
+England you know when. I was with him for less than twenty-four hours,
+and I was very unhappy indeed all the time. I did not understand the
+things which he said to me, nor did I like him at all. I think that if
+he had left me out of his sight for a moment I should have run away."
+
+Lady Delahaye was very pale, and her eyes were full of unpleasant
+things. I found myself looking at her, and marvelling at the folly which
+I had long since forgotten.
+
+"You perhaps complained of him--to his murderer! It is you, no doubt,
+who are responsible for my husband's death!"
+
+Isobel's lips curled contemptuously.
+
+"Major Delahaye," she said, "did not permit me to speak to anyone. As
+for the man whom you call his murderer, I never saw him before in my
+life, nor should I recognize him again if I saw him now. I do not know
+why you come here and say all these unkind things to me. I have done you
+no harm. I am very sorry about Major Delahaye, but--but--"
+
+Her lips quivered. I hastily interposed.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "I do not know what the immediate object of
+your visit here may be, but----"
+
+"The immediate object of my visit," she interrupted coldly, "is as
+repugnant to me, Mr. Greatson, as it may possibly be disappointing to
+you. I am here, however, to carry out my husband's last wish. This child
+herself has asserted that he was her guardian. By his death that most
+unwelcome post devolves upon me."
+
+Isobel turned white, as though stung by a sudden apprehension. She
+looked towards me, and I took her hand in mine. Lady Delahaye smiled
+unpleasantly upon us both.
+
+"You mean," I said, "that you wish to take her away from us?"
+
+"Wish!" Lady Delahaye repeated coldly. "I can assure you that I am not
+consulting my own wishes upon the subject at all. What I am doing is
+simply my duty. The child had better get her hat on."
+
+Isobel did not move, but she turned very pale. Her eyes seemed fastened
+upon mine. She waited for me to speak. The situation was embarrassing
+enough so far as I was concerned, for Lady Delahaye was obviously in
+earnest. I tried to gain time.
+
+"May I ask what your intentions are with regard to the child? You intend
+to take her to your home--to adopt her, I suppose?"
+
+Lady Delahaye regarded me with cold surprise.
+
+"Certainly not," she answered. "I shall find a fitting position for her
+in her own station of life."
+
+"May I assume then," I continued, with some eagerness, "that you know
+what that is? You are acquainted, perhaps, with her parentage?"
+
+She returned my gaze steadily.
+
+"I may be," she answered. "That, however, is beside the question. I
+intend to do my duty by the child. If you have been put to any expense
+with regard to her, you can mention the amount and I will defray it. I
+have answered enough questions. What is your name, child--Isobel? Get
+ready to come with me."
+
+Isobel answered her steadily, but her eyes were filled with shrinking
+fear.
+
+"I do not wish to come with you," she said. "I do not like you at all."
+
+Lady Delahaye raised her eyebrows. It seemed to me that in a quiet way
+she was becoming angry.
+
+"Unfortunately," she said, "your liking or disliking me makes very
+little difference. I have no choice in the matter at all. The care of
+you has devolved upon me, and I must undertake it. You had better come
+at once."
+
+Isobel trembled where she stood. I judged it time to intervene.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "the duty of looking after this child is
+evidently a distasteful one to you. We will relieve you of it. She can
+remain with us."
+
+Lady Delahaye looked at me in astonishment. Then she laughed, and it
+seemed to all of us that we had never heard a more unpleasant travesty
+of mirth.
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed. "And may I ask of whom your household
+consists?"
+
+"Of myself and my two friends, Mabane and Fielding. We have a most
+responsible housekeeper, however, who will be able to look after the
+child."
+
+"Until she herself can qualify for the position, I presume," Lady
+Delahaye remarked drily. "What a delightful arrangement! A sort of
+co-operative household. Quite Arcadian, I am sure, and so truly
+philanthropic. You have changed a good deal during the last few years,
+Mr. Arnold Greatson, to be able to stand there and make such an
+extraordinary proposition to me."
+
+I was determined not to lose my temper, though, as a matter of fact, I
+was fiercely angry.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "we are not prepared to give this child up to
+you. It will perhaps help to shorten a--a painful interview if you will
+accept that from me as final."
+
+The change in Isobel was marvellous. The brilliant colour streamed into
+her cheeks. Her long-drawn, quivering sigh of relief seemed in the
+momentary silence which followed my pronouncement a very audible thing.
+Lady Delahaye looked at me as though she doubted the meaning of my
+words.
+
+"You are aware," she said, "that this will mean great unpleasantness for
+you. You know the law?"
+
+"I neither know it nor wish to know it," I answered. "We shall not give
+up the child."
+
+I glanced at Mabane. His confirmation was swift and decisive.
+
+"I am entirely in accord with my friend, madam," he said, with grim
+precision.
+
+"The law will compel you," she declared.
+
+"We will do our best, then," he answered, "to cheat the law."
+
+"I should like to add, Lady Delahaye," I continued, "that our
+housekeeper, who has been in the service of my family for over thirty
+years, has willingly undertaken the care of the child, and I can assure
+you, in case you should have any anxieties concerning her, that she will
+be as safe under our charge as in your own."
+
+Lady Delahaye moved towards the door. On the threshold she turned and
+laid her hand upon my arm. I was preparing to show her out. There was
+meaning in her eyes as she leaned towards me.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "we were once friends, or I should drive
+straight from here to my solicitors. I presume you are aware that your
+present attitude is capable of very serious misrepresentation?"
+
+"I must take the risk of that, Lady Delahaye," I answered. "I ask you to
+remember, however, that the law would also require you to prove your
+guardianship. Do you yourself know anything of the child's parentage?"
+
+She did not answer me directly.
+
+"I shall give you," she said, "twenty-four hours for reflection. At the
+end of that time, if I do not hear from you, I shall apply to the
+courts."
+
+I held the door open and bowed.
+
+"You will doubtless act," I said, "according to your discretion."
+
+The moment seemed propitious for her departure. All that had to be said
+had surely passed between us. Yet she seemed for some reason unwilling
+to go.
+
+"I am not sure, Mr. Greatson," she said, "that I can find my way out.
+Will you be so good as to see me to my carriage?"
+
+I had no alternative but to obey. Our rooms were on the fifth floor of a
+block of flats overlooking Chelsea Embankment, and we had no lift. We
+descended two flights of the stone stairs in silence. Then she suddenly
+laid her fingers upon my arm.
+
+"Arnold," she said softly, "I never thought that we should meet again
+like this."
+
+"Nor I, Lady Delahaye," I answered, truthfully enough.
+
+"You have changed."
+
+I looked at her. She had the grace to blush.
+
+"Oh, I know that I behaved badly," she murmured, "but think how poor we
+were, and oh, how weary I was of poverty. If I had refused Major
+Delahaye I think that my mother would have turned me out of doors. I
+wrote and told you all about it."
+
+"Yes," I admitted, "you wrote!"
+
+"And you never answered my letter."
+
+"It seemed to me," I remarked, "that it needed no answer."
+
+"And afterwards," she said, "I wrote and asked you to come and see me."
+
+"Lady Delahaye----" I began.
+
+"Eileen!" she interrupted.
+
+"Very well, then, if you will have it so, Eileen," I said. "You have
+alluded to events which I have forgotten. Whether you or I behaved well
+or ill does not matter in the least now. It is all over and done with."
+
+"You mean, then, that I am unforgiven?"
+
+"On the contrary," I assured her, "I have nothing to forgive."
+
+She flashed a swift glance of reproach up on me. To my amazement there
+were tears in her eyes.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "I can find my way to the street alone. I will
+not trouble you further."
+
+She swept away with a dignity which became her better than her previous
+attitude. There was nothing left for me to do but to turn back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Isobel was standing quite still in the middle of the room, her hands
+tightly clenched, a spot of colour aflame in her cheeks. Arthur, who had
+passed Lady Delahaye and me upon the stairs, had apparently just been
+told the object of her visit.
+
+"Oh, I hate that woman!" Isobel exclaimed as I entered, "I hate her! I
+would rather die than go to her. I would rather go back to the convent.
+She looks at me as though I were something to be despised, something
+which should not be allowed to go alive upon the earth!"
+
+Arthur would have spoken, but Mabane interrupted him. He laid his hand
+gently upon her shoulder.
+
+"Isobel," he said gently, "you need have no fear. I know how Arnold
+feels about it, and I can speak for myself also. You shall not go to
+her. We will not give you up. I do not believe that she will go to the
+courts at all. I doubt if she has any claim."
+
+"Why, we'd hide you, run away with you, anything," Arthur declared
+impetuously. "Don't you be scared, Isobel, I don't believe she can do a
+thing. The law's like a great fat animal. It takes a plaguey lot to move
+it, and then it moves as slowly as a steam-roller. We'll dodge it
+somehow."
+
+She gave them a hand each. Her action was almost regal. It some way, it
+seemed that in according her our protection we were receiving rather
+than conferring a favour.
+
+"My friends," she said, "you are so kind that I have no words with which
+to thank you. But you will believe that I am grateful."
+
+It was then for the first time that they saw me upon the threshold.
+Isobel looked at me anxiously.
+
+"She has gone?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"I do not think that she will trouble us again just yet," I said. "At
+the same time, we must be prepared. Tell me, whereabouts is this school
+from which you came, Isobel?"
+
+"St. Argueil? It is about three hours' journey from Paris. Why do you
+ask?"
+
+"Because I think that I must go there," I answered. "We must try and
+find out what legal claims Major Delahaye had upon you. What is the name
+of the Principal?"
+
+"Madame Richard is the lay principal," Isobel answered, "but Sister
+Ursula is really the head of the place. We girls saw her, though, very
+seldom--only those who were going to remain," she added, with a little
+shudder.
+
+"And this Madame Richard," I asked, "is she a kindly sort of a person?"
+
+Isobel shook her head doubtfully.
+
+"I did not like her," she said. "She is very stern. She is not kind to
+anyone."
+
+"Nevertheless, I suppose she will tell me what she knows," I said. "Give
+me the Bradshaw, Allan, and that old Continental guide."
+
+I presently became immersed in planning out my route. When at last I
+looked up, Mabane was working steadily. The others had gone. I looked
+round the room.
+
+"Where are Arthur and Isobel?" I asked.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Like calling to like," he remarked tersely. "They have gone trailing."
+
+I put the Bradshaw down.
+
+"I shall leave for Paris at midnight, Mabane," I said.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"It seems to be the most sensible thing to do," he remarked. "There is
+no other way of getting to the bottom of the affair."
+
+So I went to pack my bag. And within an hour I was on my way to France.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I rose to my feet, after a somewhat lengthy wait, and bowed. Between
+this newcomer and myself, across the stone floor, lay the sunlight, a
+long, yellow stream which seemed to me the only living thing which I had
+as yet seen in this strange, grim-looking building. I spoke in
+indifferent French. She answered me in perfect English.
+
+"I have the honour to address----"
+
+"Madame Richard. I am the lay principal of the convent. Will you permit
+me?"
+
+The blind fell, and there was no more sunlight. I was conscious of a
+sudden chill. The bare room, with its stone-flagged floor, its plain
+deal furniture, depressed me no less than the cold, forbidding
+appearance of the woman who stood now motionless before me. She was
+paler than any woman whom I had ever seen in my life. A living person,
+she seemed the personification of lifelessness. Her black hair was
+streaked with grey; her dress, which suggested a uniform in its
+severity, knew no adornment save the plain ivory cross which hung from
+an almost invisible chain about her neck. Her expression indicated
+neither curiosity nor courtesy. She simply waited. I, although as a rule
+I had no great difficulty in finding words, felt myself almost
+embarrassed.
+
+"I have come from London to see you," I said. "My name is
+Greatson--Arnold Greatson."
+
+There was not a quiver of expression in her cold acknowledgment of my
+declaration. Nevertheless, at that moment I received an inspiration. I
+was perfectly sure that she knew who I was and what I had come for.
+
+"I have come to know," I continued, "if you can give me any information
+as to the friends or parentage of a young lady who was recently, I
+believe, a pupil of yours--a Miss Isobel de Sorrens?"
+
+"The young lady is still in your charge, I hear," Madame Richard
+remarked quietly.
+
+Notwithstanding my inspiration I was startled.
+
+"How do you know that?" I asked.
+
+"We despatched a messenger only yesterday to escort Isobel back here,"
+Madame Richard answered. "Your address was the destination given us."
+
+"May I ask who gave it you? At whose instigation you sent?"
+
+"At the instigation of those who have the right to consider themselves
+Isobel's guardians," Madame Richard said quietly.
+
+"Isobel's guardians!" I repeated softly. "But surely you know, Madame
+Richard--you have heard of the tragedy which happened in London? Major
+Delahaye died last week."
+
+"We have been informed of the occurrence," she answered, her tone as
+perfectly emotionless as though she had been discussing the veriest
+trifle. "We were content to recognize Major Delahaye as representing
+those who have the right to dispose of Isobel's future. His death,
+however, alters many things. Isobel will be placed in even surer hands."
+
+"Isobel has, I presume, then, relatives living?" I remarked. "May I know
+their names?"
+
+Madame Richard was silent for a moment. She was regarding me steadily. I
+even fancied that the ghost of a hard smile trembled upon her lips.
+
+"I have no authority to disclose any information whatever," she said.
+
+I bowed.
+
+"I have no desire to seem inquisitive," I said. "On the other hand, I
+and my friends are greatly interested in the child. I will be frank with
+you, Madame Richard. We have no claim upon her, I know, but we should
+certainly require to know something about the people into whose charge
+she was to pass before we gave her up."
+
+"She is to come back here," Madame Richard answered calmly. "We are
+ready to receive her. She has lived with us for ten years. I presume
+under the circumstances, and when I add that it is the desire of those
+who are responsible for her that she should immediately return to us,
+that you will not hesitate to send her?"
+
+"Madame Richard," I answered gravely, "you who live so far from the
+world lose touch sometimes with its worst side. We others, to our
+sorrow, know more, though our experience is dearly enough bought. Let me
+tell you that I should hesitate at any time to give back the child into
+the care of those who sent her out into the world alone with such a man
+as Major Delahaye."
+
+Madame Richard touched the cross which hung upon her bosom. Her eyes, it
+seemed to me, narrowed a little.
+
+"Major Delahaye," she said, "was the nominee of those who have the right
+to dispose of the child."
+
+"Then," I answered, "I shall require their right proven before Isobel
+leaves us. I do not wish to speak ill of the dead, but I was present
+when Major Delahaye was shot, and I am not sure that the bullet of his
+assassin did not prevent a worse crime. The child was terrified to
+death. It is my honest conviction that her fear was not uncalled for."
+
+Madame Richard raised her hand slightly.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "such matters are not our concern. It is because
+of the passions and evil doing of the world outside that we cling so
+closely here to our own doctrine of isolation. Whatever she may have
+suffered, Isobel will learn to forget here. In the blessed years which
+lie before her, the memory of her unhappy pilgrimage will grow dim and
+faint. It may even be for the best that she has realized for a moment
+the shadow of evil things."
+
+"Isobel is intended, then?" I asked.
+
+"For the Church," Madame Richard answered. "That is the present decision
+of those who have the right to decide for her. We ourselves do not care
+to take pupils who have no idea at all of the novitiate. Occasionally we
+are disappointed, and those in whom we have placed faith are tempted
+back into the world. But we do our best while they are here to show them
+the better way. We feared that we had lost Isobel. We shall be all the
+more happy to welcome her back."
+
+I shivered a little. I could not help feeling the cold repression of the
+place. A vision of thin, grey-gowned figures, with pallid faces and
+weary, discontented eyes, haunted me. I tried to fancy Isobel amongst
+them. It was preposterous.
+
+"Madame," I said, "I do not believe that Isobel is adapted by nature or
+disposition for such a life."
+
+"The desire for holiness," Madame Richard answered, "is never very
+apparent in the young. It is the child's great good fortune that she
+will grow into it."
+
+"I am afraid," I answered, "that our views upon this matter are too far
+apart to render discussion profitable. You have spoken of those who have
+the right to dispose of the child's future. I will go and see them."
+
+"It is not necessary," Madame Richard answered. "We will send to England
+for the child."
+
+"Do I understand, Madame Richard," I said, "that you decline to give me
+the address of those who stand behind you in the disposal of Isobel?"
+
+"They would not discuss the matter with you," she answered calmly.
+"Their decision is already made. Isobel is for the Church."
+
+I took up my hat.
+
+"I will not detain you any further, Madame," I said.
+
+"A messenger is already in London to bring back the child," she
+remarked.
+
+"As to that," I answered, "it is perhaps better to be frank with you,
+Madame Richard. Your messenger will return alone."
+
+For the first time the woman's face showed some signs of feeling. Her
+dark eyebrows contracted a little. Her expression was coldly repellent.
+
+"You have no claim upon the child," she said.
+
+"Neither do I know of any other person who has," I answered.
+
+"We have had the charge of her for ten years. That itself is a claim. It
+is unseemly that she should remain with you."
+
+"Madame," I answered, "Isobel is meant for life--not a living death."
+
+The woman crossed herself.
+
+"There is but one life," she said. "We wish to prepare Isobel for it."
+
+"Madame," I said, "as to that, argument between us is impossible. I
+shall consult with my friends. Your messenger shall bring back word as
+to our decision."
+
+The face of the woman grew darker.
+
+"But surely," she protested, "you will not dare to keep the child?"
+
+"Madame," I answered, "humanity makes sometimes strange claims upon us.
+Isobel is as yet a child. She came into my keeping by the strangest of
+chances. I did not seek the charge of her. It was, to tell the truth, an
+embarrassment to me. Yet she is under my care to-day, and I shall do
+what I believe to be the right thing."
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "you are interfering in matters greater than you
+have any knowledge of."
+
+"It is in your power," I reminded her, "to enlighten me."
+
+"It is not a power which I am able to use," she answered.
+
+"Then I will not detain you further, Madame," I said.
+
+As I passed out she leaned over towards me. She had already rung a bell,
+and outside I could hear the shuffling footsteps of the old servant who
+had admitted me.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "if you keep the child you make enemies--very
+powerful enemies. It is long since I lived in the world, but I think
+that the times have not changed very much. Of the child's parentage I
+may not tell you, but as I hope for salvation I will tell you this. It
+will be better for you, and better for the child, that she comes back
+here, even to embrace what you have called the living death."
+
+"Madame," I said, "I will consider all these things."
+
+"It will be well for you to do so, Monsieur," she said with meaning. "An
+enemy of those in whose name I have spoken must needs be a holy man, for
+he lives hand in hand with death."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+So I was driven back to Argueil, the red-tiled, sleepy old town, with
+its great gaunt church, whose windows, as the lumbering cart descended
+the hill, were stained blood-red by the dying sunset. Behind, on the
+hillside, was the convent, with its avenue of stunted elms, its
+close-barred windows, its terrible prison-like silence. As I looked
+behind, holding on to the sides of the springless cart to avoid being
+jostled into the road, I found myself shivering. The convent
+boarding-schools which I had heard of had been very different sort of
+places. Even after my brief visit there this return into the fresh
+country air, the smell of the fields, the colour and life of the rolling
+landscape, were blessed things. I was more than ever satisfied with my
+decision. It was not possible to send the child back to such a place.
+
+Across a great vineyard plain, through which the narrow white road ran
+like a tightly drawn band of ribbon, I came presently to the village of
+Argueil. The street which led to the inn was paved with the most
+abominable cobbles, and I was forced to hold my hat with one hand and
+the side of the cart with the other. My blue-smocked driver pulled up
+with a flourish in front of the ancient gateway of the _Leon d'Or_, and
+I was very nearly precipitated on to the top of the broad-backed horse.
+As I gathered myself together I was conscious of a soft peal of
+laughter--a woman's laughter, which came from the arched entrance to the
+inn. I looked up quickly. A too familiar figure was standing there
+watching me,--Lady Delahaye, trim, elegant, a trifle supercilious. By
+her side stood the innkeeper, white-aproned and obsequious.
+
+I clambered down on to the pavement, and Lady Delahaye advanced a little
+way to meet me. She held out a delicately gloved hand, and smiled.
+
+"You must forgive my laughing, Arnold," she said. "Really, you looked
+too funny in that terrible cart. What an odd meeting, isn't it? Have you
+a few minutes to spare?"
+
+"I believe," I answered, "that I cannot get away from this place till
+the evening. Shall we go in and sit down?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"The inn-parlour is too stuffy," she answered. "I was obliged to come
+out myself for some fresh air. Let us walk up the street."
+
+I paid for my conveyance, and we strolled along the broad sidewalk. Lady
+Delahaye seemed inclined to thrust the onus of commencing our
+conversation upon me.
+
+"I presume," I said, "that we are here with the same object?"
+
+She glanced at me curiously.
+
+"Indeed!" she remarked. "Then tell me why you came."
+
+"To discover that child's parentage, if possible," I answered promptly.
+"I want to discover who her friends are, who really has the right to
+take charge of her."
+
+"You perplex me, Arnold," she said thoughtfully. "I do not understand
+your position in the matter. I always looked upon you as a somewhat
+indolent person. Yet I find you now taking any amount of trouble in a
+matter which really does not concern you at all. Whence all this
+good-nature?"
+
+"Lady Delahaye----"
+
+"Eileen," she interrupted softly.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I answered firmly. "You must forgive me if I remind you
+that I have no longer the right to call you by any other name. I am not
+good-natured, and I am afraid that I am still indolent. Nevertheless, I
+am interested in this child, and I intend to do my utmost to prevent her
+returning to this place."
+
+"I am still in the dark," she said, looking at me curiously. "She is
+nothing to you. A more unsuitable home for her than with three young men
+I cannot imagine. You seem to want to keep her there. Why? She is a
+child to-day, it is true--but in little more than a year's time she will
+be a woman. The position then for you will be full of embarrassments."
+
+"I find the position now," I answered, "equally embarrassing. We can
+only give the child up to you, send her back to the convent, or keep her
+ourselves. Of the three we prefer to keep her."
+
+"You seem to have a great distaste for the convent," she remarked, "but
+that is because you are not a Catholic, and you do not understand these
+things. She would at least be safe there, and in time, I think, happy."
+
+We were at the head of the village street now, upon a slight eminence. I
+pointed backwards to the prison-like building, standing grim and
+desolate on the bare hillside.
+
+"I should consider myself no less a murderer than the man who shot your
+husband," I answered, "if I sent her there. I have made all the
+enquiries I could in the neighbourhood, and I have added to them my own
+impressions. The secular part of the place may be conducted as other
+places of its sort, but the great object of Madame Richard's sister is
+to pass her pupils from that into the religious portion. Isobel is not
+adapted for such a life."
+
+Lady Delahaye shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Well," she said, "I am a Catholic, so of course I don't agree with you.
+But why do you hesitate to give the child up to me?"
+
+I was silent for a moment. It was not easy to put my feeling into words.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "you must forgive my reminding you that on the
+occasion of your visit to us you did not attempt to conceal the fact
+that your feelings towards her were inimical. Beyond that, I was pledged
+not to hand her back into your husband's care, and----"
+
+"Pledged by whom?" she asked quickly.
+
+"I am afraid," I said, "that I cannot answer you that question."
+
+She flashed an angry glance upon me.
+
+"You pretend that the man who called himself Grooten was not your
+friend. Yet you have been in communication with him since!"
+
+"I saw Mr. Grooten for the first time in my life on the morning of that
+day," I answered.
+
+"You know where he is now?" she asked, watching me keenly.
+
+"I have not the slightest idea. I wish that I did know," I declared
+truthfully. "There is no man whom I am more anxious to see."
+
+"You would, of course, inform the police?" she asked.
+
+"I am afraid not," I answered.
+
+Again she was angry. This time scarcely without reason.
+
+"Your sympathies, in short, are with the murderer rather than with his
+victim--the man who was shot without warning in the back? It accords, I
+presume, with your idea of fair play?"
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "the subject is unpleasant and futile. Let us
+return to the inn."
+
+She turned abruptly around. She made a little motion as of dismissal,
+but I remained by her side.
+
+"By-the-bye," I said, "we were to exchange confidences. You are here, of
+course, to visit the convent? Why?"
+
+She smiled enigmatically.
+
+"I am not sure, my very simple conspirator," she said, "whether I will
+imitate your frankness. You see, you have blundered into a somewhat more
+important matter than you have any idea of. But I will tell you this, if
+you like. You may call that place a prison, or any hard names you
+please--yet it is destined to be Isobel's home. Not only that, but it is
+her only chance. I am putting you on your guard, you see, but I do not
+think that it matters. You are fighting against hopeless odds, and if by
+any chance you should succeed, your success would be the most terrible
+thing which could happen to Isobel."
+
+I walked by her side for a moment in silence. There was in her words and
+tone some underlying note of fear, some suggestion of hidden danger,
+which brought back to my mind at once the farewell speech of Madame
+Richard. There was something ominous, too, in her presence here.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, as lightly as possible, "you have told me a
+great deal, and less than nothing at all. Yet I gather that you know
+more about the child and her history than you have led me to suppose."
+
+"Yes," she admitted, "that is perhaps true."
+
+"Why not let me share your knowledge?" I suggested boldly.
+
+"You carry candour," she remarked, smiling, "to absurdity. We are on
+opposite sides. Ah, how delicious this is!"
+
+We were regaining the centre of the little town by a footpath which for
+some distance had followed the river, and now, turning almost at right
+angles, skirted a cherry orchard in late blossom. The perfume of the
+pink and white buds, swaying slightly in the breeze, came to us both--a
+waft of delicate and poignant freshness. Lady Delahaye stood still, and
+half closed her eyes.
+
+"How perfectly delicious," she murmured. "Arn--Mr. Greatson, do get me
+just the tiniest piece. I can't quite reach."
+
+I broke off a small branch, and she thrust it into the bosom of her
+dress. The orchard was gay with bees and a few early butterflies, blue
+and white and orange coloured. In the porch of a red-tiled cottage a few
+yards away a girl was singing. Suddenly I stopped and pointed.
+
+"Look!"
+
+An avenue with a gate at the end led through the orchard, and under the
+drooping boughs we caught a glimpse of the convent away on the hillside.
+Greyer and more stern than ever it seemed through the delicate framework
+of soft green foliage and blossoms.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "you are yourself a young woman. Could you bear
+to think of banishing from your life for ever all the colour and the
+sweet places, all the joy of living? Would you be content to build for
+yourself a tomb, to commit yourself to a living death?"
+
+She answered me instantly, almost impulsively.
+
+"There is all the difference in the world," she declared. "I am a woman;
+although I am not old, I know what life is. I know what it would be to
+give it up. But the child--she knows nothing. She is too young to know
+what lies before her. As yet her eyes are not opened. Very soon she
+would be content there."
+
+I shook my head. I did not agree with Lady Delahaye.
+
+"Indeed no!" I protested. "You reckon nothing for disposition. In her
+heart the song of life is already formed, the joy of it is already
+stirring in her blood. The convent would be slow torture to her. She
+shall not go there!"
+
+Lady Delahaye smiled--mirthlessly, yet as one who has some hidden
+knowledge which she may not share.
+
+"You think yourself her friend," she said. "In reality you are her
+enemy. If not the convent, then worse may befall her."
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"As to that," I said, "we shall see!"
+
+We resumed our walk. Again we were nearing the inn. Lady Delahaye looked
+at me every now and then curiously. My feeling towards her had grown
+more and more belligerent.
+
+"You puzzle me, Arnold," she said softly. "After all, Isobel is but a
+child. What cunning tune can she have played upon your heartstrings that
+you should espouse her cause with so much fervour? If she were a few
+years older one could perhaps understand."
+
+I disregarded her innuendo.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "if you were as much her friend as I believe
+that I am, you would not hesitate to tell me all that you know. I have
+no other wish than to see her safe, and amongst her friends, but I will
+give her up to no one whom I believe to be her enemy."
+
+"Arnold," she answered gravely, "I can only repeat what I have told you
+before. You are interfering in greater concerns than you know of. Even
+if I would, I dare not give you any information. The fate of this child,
+insignificant in herself though she is, is bound up with very important
+issues."
+
+Our eyes met for a moment. The expression in hers puzzled me--puzzled me
+to such an extent that I made her no answer. Slowly she extended her
+hand.
+
+"At least," she said, "let us part friends--unless you choose to be
+gallant and wait here for me until to-morrow. It is a dreary journey
+home alone."
+
+I took her hand readily enough.
+
+"Friends, by all means," I answered, "but I must get back to Paris
+to-night. A messenger from Madame Richard is already waiting for me in
+London."
+
+She withdrew her hand quickly, and turned away.
+
+"It must be as you will, of course," she said coldly. "I do not wish to
+detain you."
+
+Nevertheless, her farewell look haunted me as I sped across the great
+fertile plain on my way to Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Mabane laid down his brush, Arthur sprang from his seat upon the table
+and greeted me with a shout. Isobel said nothing, but her dark blue eyes
+were fastened upon my face as though seeking to read her fate there.
+They had evidently been waiting for my coming. I remember thinking it
+strange, even then, that these other two men should apparently share to
+the fullest degree my own interest in the child's fate.
+
+"I have failed," I announced shortly.
+
+I took Isobel's hand. It was cold as ice, and I could feel that she was
+trembling violently.
+
+"Madame Richard would tell me nothing, Isobel," I said. "I believe that
+she knows all about you, and I believe that Lady Delahaye does too. But
+they will tell me nothing."
+
+"And?" she demanded, with quivering lips. "And?"
+
+"It is for you to decide," I said gravely. "Lady Delahaye wants you, so
+does Madame Richard. On the other hand, if you like to stay with us
+until someone proves their right to take you away, you will be very
+welcome, Isobel! Stop one moment," I added hastily, for I saw the quick
+colour stream into her cheeks, and the impetuous words already trembling
+upon her lips, "I want you to remember this: Madame Richard makes no
+secret of her own wishes as regards your future. She desires you to take
+the veil. You have lived at the convent, so I presume you are able to
+judge for yourself as regards that. Lady Delahaye, on the other hand, is
+a rich woman, and she professes to be your friend. Your life with her,
+if she chose to make it so, would be an easy and a pleasant one. We, as
+you know, are poor. We have very little indeed to offer you. We live
+what most people call a shiftless life. We have money one day, and none
+the next. Our surroundings and our associations are not in the least
+like what a child of your age should become accustomed to. Nine people
+out of ten would probably pronounce us utterly unsuitable guardians for
+you. It is only right that you should understand these things."
+
+She looked at me with tear-bedimmed eyes.
+
+"I want to stay with you," she pleaded. "Don't send me away--oh, don't!
+I hate the convent, and I am afraid of Lady Delahaye. I will do
+everything I can not to be a nuisance to you. I am not afraid to work,
+or to help Mrs. Burdett. Only let me stay."
+
+I smiled, and looked around at the others.
+
+"It is settled," I declared. "We appoint ourselves your guardians. You
+agree, Mabane?"
+
+"Most heartily," he answered.
+
+"And you, Arthur?"
+
+"Great heavens, yes!" he answered vehemently.
+
+"You are very good," she murmured, "very good to me. All my life I shall
+remember this."
+
+She held out both her hands. Her eyes were fixed still upon mine. Mabane
+laid his hand upon her shoulder.
+
+"Dear child," he said, "do not forget that there are three of us. I too
+am very happy to be one of your guardians."
+
+She gave him the hand which Arthur had seized upon. I think that we had
+none of us before seen a smile so dazzling as hers.
+
+"Dear friends," she murmured, "I only hope that you will never regret
+this great, great kindness."
+
+Then suddenly she flitted away and went to her room. We three men were
+left alone.
+
+I think that for the first few moments there was some slight
+awkwardness, for we were men, and we spoke seldom of the things which
+touched us most. Arthur, however, broke almost immediately into speech,
+and relieved the tension.
+
+"And to think that it was I," he exclaimed, "who sent you out plot
+hunting to the station! Arnold, what a sensible chap you are!"
+
+We all laughed.
+
+"A good many people," Mabane remarked quietly, "would call us three
+fools. Tell us, Arnold, did you really discover nothing?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing," I declared. "Stop, though. I did find out this.
+There is some secret about the child's parentage. I have spoken with two
+people who know it, and one of them warned me that in keeping the child
+we were interfering in a greater matter than we had any idea of. Of
+course it might have been a bluff, but I fancy that Lady Delahaye was in
+earnest."
+
+"You do not think," Mabane asked, "that she was Major Delahaye's
+daughter?"
+
+"I do not," I answered, with a little shudder. "I am sure that she was
+not."
+
+"Whoever she is," Arthur declared, "there's one thing jolly certain, and
+that is she's thoroughbred. She has the most marvellous nerve I ever
+knew. We got in a tight corner this morning. I took her down to
+Guildford in a trailer, and I had to jump the pavement to avoid a
+runaway. She never flinched for a moment. Half the girls I know would
+have squealed like mad. She only laughed, and asked whether she should
+get out. She's as thoroughbred as they make them."
+
+"Perhaps," I answered, "but I'm not going to have you risk her life with
+your beastly motoring, Arthur. Take her out in a car, if you want to.
+Who's this?"
+
+We turned towards the door. Was it the ghost of Madame Richard who stood
+there pale, cold, and in the sombre garb of her sisterhood?
+
+"This lady has been before," Mabane said, placing a chair for her. "She
+has come from the convent, and she brought a letter from Madame
+Richard."
+
+"You are Mr. Greatson?" she asked.
+
+I bowed, and took the letter which she handed to me. I tore it open. It
+contained a few lines only.
+
+     "SIR,--
+
+     "I have been informed of the unfortunate event which has placed
+     under your protection one of my late pupils, Isobel de Sorrens. We
+     are willing and anxious to receive her back here, and I have sent
+     the bearer to accompany her upon the journey. She will also defray
+     what expenses her sojourn with you may have occasioned.
+
+     "I am, sir, yours respectfully,
+
+     "EMILY RICHARD."
+
+I put the letter back in the envelope and laid it upon the table.
+
+"I have seen Madame Richard," I said. "The child will remain with us for
+the present."
+
+The cold, dark eyes met mine searchingly.
+
+"But, monsieur," the woman said, "how can that be? You are not a
+relative, you surely have no claim----"
+
+"It will save time, perhaps," I interrupted, "if I explain that I have
+discussed all these matters with Madame Richard, and the decision which
+I have come to is final. The child remains here."
+
+The woman looked at me steadfastly.
+
+"Madame Richard will not be satisfied with that decision," she said.
+"You will be forced to give her up."
+
+"And why," I asked, "should a penniless orphan, as I understand Isobel
+is, be of so much interest to Madame Richard?"
+
+The woman watched me still, and listened to my words as though seeking
+to discover in them some hidden meaning. Then she leaned a little
+towards me.
+
+"Can I speak with you alone, monsieur?" she said.
+
+"These are my friends," I answered, "from whom I have no secrets."
+
+"None?"
+
+"None," I repeated.
+
+She hesitated. Then, although the door was fast closed, she dropped her
+voice.
+
+"You know--who the child is," she said softly.
+
+"Upon my word, I do not," I answered. "I saw the man, under whose care
+she was, shot, and I brought her here because she was friendless. I know
+no more about her."
+
+"That," she said quietly, "is hard to believe."
+
+"I have no interest in your belief or disbelief," I answered. "Pardon me
+if I add, madame, that I have no interest in the continuation of this
+conversation."
+
+She rose at once.
+
+"You are either a very brave man," she said, "or a very simple one. I
+shall await further instructions from Madame Richard."
+
+She departed silently and without any leave-taking. We all three looked
+at one another.
+
+"Now what in thunder did she mean by that!" Arthur exclaimed blankly.
+
+"It appears to me," Mabane said, "that you went plot hunting with a
+vengeance, Arnold."
+
+Arthur was walking restlessly up and down the room, his hands in his
+pockets, a discontented frown upon his smooth young face. He stopped
+suddenly in front of us.
+
+"I don't know much about the law, you fellows," he said, "but it seems
+to me that any of these people who seem to want to take Isobel away from
+us have only to go before the court and establish some sort of a legal
+claim, and we should have to give her up."
+
+"That is true enough," I admitted. "The strange part of it is, though,
+that no one seems inclined to take this course."
+
+Arthur threw down a letter upon the table.
+
+"This came for you yesterday, Arnold," he said. "I haven't opened it, of
+course, but you can see from the name at the back of the envelope that
+it is from a firm of solicitors."
+
+I took it up and opened it at once. I knew quite well what Arthur
+feared. This is what I read--
+
+     "17, LINCOLN'S INN, LONDON.
+
+     "DEAR SIR,--
+
+     "We beg to inform you that we have been instructed by a client, who
+     desires to remain anonymous, to open for you at the London and
+     Westminster Bank an account on your behalf as guardian of Miss
+     Isobel de Sorrens, a young lady who, we understand, is at present
+     in your care.
+
+     "The amount placed at our disposal is three hundred a year. We
+     shall be happy to furnish you with cheque book and full authority
+     to make use of this sum if you will favour us with a call,
+     accompanied by the young lady, but we are not in a position to
+     afford you any information whatever as to our client's identity.
+
+     "Trusting to have the pleasure of seeing you shortly,
+
+     "We are, yours truly,
+
+     "HAMILTON & PLACE."
+
+I laid the letter on the table without a word. Mabane and Arthur in turn
+read it. Then there was an ominous silence. I think that we all had the
+same thought. It was Arthur, however, who expressed it.
+
+"What beastly rot!" he exclaimed.
+
+I turned to Mabane.
+
+"I imagine," he said, "that we should not be justified in refusing this
+offer. At the same time, if anyone has the right to provide for the
+child, why do they not come forward and claim her?"
+
+At that moment Isobel came in. I took up the letter and placed it in her
+hand.
+
+"Isobel," I said, "we want you to read this."
+
+She read it, and handed it back to me without a word. We were all
+watching her eagerly. She looked at me appealingly.
+
+"Is it necessary," she asked, "for me to accept this money?"
+
+"Tell us," I said, "exactly how you feel."
+
+"I think," she said, "that if there is anyone from whom I have the right
+to accept all this money, I ought to know who they are. I do not want to
+be a burden upon anyone," she added hesitatingly, "but I would rather
+work every moment of the day--oh, I think that I would rather starve
+than touch this money, unless I know who it is that offers it."
+
+I laughed as I tore the letter in half.
+
+"Dear child," I said, resting my hand upon her shoulder, "that is what
+we all hoped that you would say!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Lady Delahaye sank down upon the couch against which I had been
+standing.
+
+"Poor, bored man!" she exclaimed, with mock sympathy. "I ought to have
+asked some entertaining people, oughtn't I? There isn't a soul here for
+you to talk to!"
+
+"On the contrary," I answered, "there are a good many more people here
+than I expected to see. I understood that you were to be alone."
+
+"And you probably think that I ought to be," she remarked. "Well, I
+never was conventional. You know that. I shut myself up for a month. Now
+I expect my friends to come and console me."
+
+"It is not likely," I said, "that you will be disappointed."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Perhaps not. Those whom I do not want will come, of course. As for the
+others--well!"
+
+She looked up at me. I sat down by her side.
+
+"Ah! That is nice of you," she said softly. "I wanted to have a quiet
+talk. Tell me why you are looking so glum."
+
+"I was not conscious of it," I answered. "To tell you the truth, I was
+wondering whether Isobel were not a little young to bring to a gathering
+of this description."
+
+"My dear Arnold," she murmured, "there are only one or two of my
+particular friends here. The rest dropped in by accident. Isobel does
+not seem to me to be particularly out of place, and she is certainly
+enjoying herself."
+
+The echoes of her light laugh reached us just then. Several men were
+standing over her chair. She was the centre of what seemed to be a very
+amusing conversation. Arthur was standing on the outskirts of the group,
+apparently a little dull.
+
+"She enjoys herself always," I answered. "She is of that disposition.
+Still----"
+
+She put her hands up to her ears.
+
+"Come, I won't be lectured," she exclaimed. "Seriously, I wanted you
+here. I had something to say to you--something particular."
+
+"Waiving the other matter, then," I said, "I am wholly at your service."
+
+"I may be prolix," she said quietly. "Forgive me if I am, but I want you
+to understand me. I am beginning to see that I have adopted a wrong
+position with regard to a certain matter which we have discussed at your
+rooms and at Argueil. I want to reopen the subject from an entirely
+different point of view."
+
+"You mean," I said, "the subject of Isobel?"
+
+"Of course! The first time I came to see you," Lady Delahaye said,
+looking up at me with penitence in her blue eyes, "I was horrid. I am
+very, very sorry. I did not know then who Isobel was, and I was angry
+with everyone--with poor Will, with the child herself, and with you. You
+must forgive me! I was very much upset."
+
+"I will never think of it again," I promised her.
+
+"Then, again, at Argueil," she continued, "I adopted a wrong tone
+altogether. Yours was the more natural, the more human point of view.
+There are certain very grave reasons why the child would be very much
+better out of the world. A life of seclusion would, I believe, in the
+end, when she is able to understand, be the happiest for her. And
+yet--she ought to have her chance!"
+
+"I am glad that you admit that," I murmured.
+
+"Now I am going to ask you something," she went on. "You will not be
+angry with me, I am sure. Do you think that a girl of Isobel's age and
+appearance is in her proper place in bachelor quarters, living with
+three young men?"
+
+"I do not," I admitted. "I look upon it as a most regrettable necessity.
+Still, you must not make it sound worse than it is. We have a
+housekeeper who is the very essence of respectability, and Isobel is
+under her care."
+
+"I want to make it no longer a necessity," Lady Delahaye said, smiling.
+"I want to relieve you and your conscience at the same time of a very
+awkward incubus. Listen! This is what I propose. Let Isobel come to me
+for a year! I shall treat her as my own daughter. She will have plenty
+of amusement. There are the theatres, and no end of scratch
+entertainments where one can take a girl of her age who is too young for
+society. She will mix with young people of her own age, she will have
+every advantage which, to speak frankly, must be denied to her in her
+present position. At the end of that year I shall tell her her history.
+It is a sad and a miserable one. You may as well know that now. She can
+then take her choice of the convent, or any other mode of life which
+between us we can make possible for her. And I am very much inclined to
+believe, Arnold, that she will choose the convent."
+
+"Is there any real reason, Lady Delahaye?" I asked, "why you should not
+tell me now what you propose to tell Isobel in a year's time? There have
+been so many mysterious circumstances in connection with this affair
+that it is hard to come to any decision when one is ignorant of so
+much."
+
+"There are reasons--grave reasons--why I can tell you nothing," she
+answered. "Indeed, I would like to, Arnold," she continued earnestly,
+"but my position is a very difficult one. I think that you might trust
+me a little."
+
+"I am sure that you wish to do what is best," I said, a little
+awkwardly, "but you must see that my position also is a little
+difficult. I, too, am under a promise!"
+
+Her eyes flashed indignantly.
+
+"To the man who killed my husband! The man whom you are shielding!" she
+exclaimed indignantly. "I think that you might at least have the grace
+to leave him out of the conversation."
+
+"I have never introduced him," I answered. "I do not wish to do so. As
+to shielding him, I have not the slightest idea as to his whereabouts.
+Be reasonable, Lady Delahaye. I----"
+
+"Reasonable," she interrupted. "That is what I want you to be! Ask
+yourself a plain question. Which is the more fitting place for her--my
+house, or your chambers?"
+
+She pointed to Isobel, who was leaning back in her chair laughing
+heartily into the face of a young man who was bending over her. By
+chance she looked just then older even than her years, and Arthur's glum
+figure, too, in the background was suggestive.
+
+"Your house, without a doubt," I answered gravely, "if it is the house
+of a friend."
+
+Her satin slipper beat the ground impatiently. She looked at me with a
+frown upon her face.
+
+"Do you believe, then," she asked, "that I am her enemy? Does my offer
+sound like it?"
+
+"Indeed, no," I answered, rising. "I am going to give Isobel herself a
+chance of accepting or declining it."
+
+I crossed the room. Isobel, seeing me come, rose at once.
+
+"Is it time for us to go?" she asked.
+
+"Not quite!" I answered. "Go and talk to Lady Delahaye for a few
+minutes. She has something to say to you."
+
+Isobel made a little grimace, so slight that only I could notice it, and
+took my place upon the sofa. I talked for a few minutes with some of the
+men whom I knew, and then Arthur touched me on the arm.
+
+"Can't we go, Arnold?" he exclaimed, a little peevishly. "I've never
+been so bored in all my life."
+
+"We must wait for a few minutes," I answered. "Isobel is talking to Lady
+Delahaye."
+
+"I don't know a soul here, and I'm dying for a cigarette."
+
+I pointed through the curtain to the anteroom adjoining.
+
+"You can smoke in there," I remarked. "I'll introduce you to Miss
+Ernston if you like, the girl who drives the big Panhard in the park. I
+heard her say that she was going in there to get one of Lady Delahaye's
+Russian cigarettes!"
+
+Arthur shook his head. He was covertly watching Isobel, sitting on the
+sofa.
+
+"I'll go in and have the cigarette," he said, "but, Arnold, there's no
+fresh move on, is there? You're looking pretty glum!"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"No, there is nothing exactly fresh," I answered. "Come along and smoke,
+will you! I want Lady Delahaye and Isobel to have their talk out."
+
+He followed me reluctantly into the smaller of Lady Delahaye's
+reception-rooms, where we smoked for a few minutes in silence. Then
+Mabel Ernston stopped to speak to me for a moment, and I introduced
+Arthur. I left them talking motors, and stepped back into the other
+room. Isobel had already risen to her feet, and Lady Delahaye was
+looking at her curiously as though uncertain how far she had been
+successful. She saw me enter, and beckoned me to approach.
+
+"I think that Isobel is tired," she said, in a tone which was meant to
+be kind. "She has promised to come and see me again."
+
+Isobel looked at me. Her mouth, which a few minutes before had been
+curved with smiles, was straight now, and resolutely set. She was
+distinctly paler, and her manner seemed to have acquired a new gravity.
+I must confess that my first impulse was one of relief. Isobel had not
+found Lady Delahaye's offer, then, so wonderfully attractive.
+
+"Do you mind coming home now, Arnold?" she asked. "I did not know that
+it was so late."
+
+I saw Lady Delahaye's face darken at her simple use of my Christian
+name, and the touch of her fingers upon my arm. Arthur heard our voices,
+and came to us at once. So we took leave of our hostess, and turned
+homewards.
+
+For a long time we walked almost in silence. Then Isobel turned towards
+me with a new gravity in her face, and an unusual hesitation in her
+tone.
+
+"Arnold," she said, "Lady Delahaye has been pointing out to me one or
+two things which I had not thought of before. I suppose she meant to be
+kind. I suppose it is right that I should know. But----" her voice
+trembled--"I wish she had not told me."
+
+"Lady Delahaye is an interfering old cat!" Arthur exclaimed viciously.
+"Don't take any notice of her, Isobel."
+
+"But I must know," she answered, "whether the things which she said were
+true."
+
+"They were probably exaggerations," I said cheerfully; "but let us hear
+them, at any rate."
+
+"She said," Isobel continued, looking steadily in front of her, "that
+you were all three very poor indeed, and that I had no right to come and
+live with you, and make you poorer still, when I had a home offered me
+elsewhere. She said that I should disturb your whole life, that you
+would have to give up many things which were a pleasure to you, and you
+would not be able to succeed so well with your work, as you would have
+to write altogether for money. And she said that I should be grown up
+soon, and ought to live where there are women; and when I told her about
+Mrs. Burdett she laughed unpleasantly, and said that she did not count
+at all. And that is why--she wants me--to go there!"
+
+Again the shadow of tragedy gleamed in the child's white face. Her face
+was strained, her eyes had lost the deep softness of their colouring,
+and there lurked once more in their depths the terror of nameless
+things. To me the sight of her like this was so piteous that I wasted
+not a moment in endeavouring to reassure her.
+
+"Rubbish!" I exclaimed cheerfully. "Sheer and unadulterated rubbish! We
+are not rich, Isobel, but the trifle the care of you will cost us
+amounts to nothing at all. We are willing and able to take charge of you
+as well as we can. You know that!"
+
+Ah! She drew a long sigh of relief. It was wonderful how her face
+changed.
+
+"But why is Lady Delahaye so cruel--why is she so anxious that I should
+not stay with you?" she said.
+
+I laughed.
+
+"Lady Delahaye is mysterious," I answered. "I have come to the
+conclusion, Isobel, that you must be a princess in disguise, and that
+Lady Delahaye wants to claim all the rewards for having taken charge of
+you!"
+
+"Don't be silly!" she laughed. "Princesses are not brought up at Madame
+Richard's, without relations or friends to visit them, and no pocket
+money."
+
+"Nevertheless," I answered, "when I consider the number of people who
+are interested in you, and Lady Delahaye's extraordinary persistence, I
+am inclined to stick to my theory. We shall look upon you, Isobel, as an
+investment, and some day you shall reward us all."
+
+Her hand slipped into mine. Her eyes were soft enough now.
+
+"Dear friend," she murmured, "I think that it is my heart only which
+will reward you--my great, great gratitude. I am afraid of Lady
+Delahaye, Arnold. There are things in her eyes when she looks at me
+which make me shiver. Do not let us go there again, please!"
+
+Arthur broke in impetuously.
+
+"You shall go nowhere you don't want to, Isobel. Arnold and I will see
+to that."
+
+"And--about the other thing--she mentioned," Isobel began.
+
+"She was right and wrong," I answered. "Of course, it would be better
+for you if one of us had a sister or a mother living with us, but Mrs.
+Burdett has always seemed to us like a mother, and I think--that it will
+be all right," I concluded a little lamely. "We need not worry about
+that, at present at any rate. Come, we've had a dull afternoon, and I
+sold a story yesterday. Let's go to Fasolas, and have a half-crown
+dinner."
+
+"I'm on," Arthur declared. "We'll go and fetch Allan."
+
+"You dear!" Isobel exclaimed. "I shall wear my new hat!"
+
+
+
+
+Book II
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"I have no doubt," Mabane said gloomily, "that Arthur is right. He ought
+to know more about it than old fogies like you and me, Arnold. We had
+the money, and we ought to have insisted upon it. You gave way far too
+easily."
+
+"That's all very well," I protested, "but I don't take in a woman's
+fashion paper, and Isobel assured us that the hat was all right. She
+looks well enough in it, surely!"
+
+"Isobel looks ripping!" Arthur declared, "but then, she looks ripping in
+anything. All the same, the hat's old-fashioned. You look at the hats
+those girls are wearing, who've just come in--flat, bunchy things, with
+flowers under the brim. That's the style just now."
+
+"Isobel shall have one, then," I declared. "We will take her West
+to-morrow. We can afford it very well."
+
+She came up to us beaming. She was a year older, and her skirts were a
+foot longer. Her figure was, perhaps, a shade more developed, and her
+manner a little more assured. In other respects she was unchanged.
+
+"What are you two old dears worrying about?" she exclaimed lightly. "You
+have the air of conspirators. No secrets from me, please. What is it all
+about?"
+
+"We are lamenting the antiquity of your hat," Mabane answered gravely.
+"Arthur assures us that it is out of date. It ought to be flat and
+bunchy, and it isn't!"
+
+"Geese!" she exclaimed lightly, "both of you! Arthur, I'm ashamed of
+you. You may know something about motors, but you are very ignorant
+indeed about hats. Come along, all of you, and gaze at my miniatures. I
+am longing to see how they look framed."
+
+"As regards the hat----" I began.
+
+"I will not hear anything more about it," she interrupted, laughing. "Of
+course, if you don't like to be seen with me--oh! Why, look! look!"
+
+We had stopped before a case of miniatures. In the front row were two
+somewhat larger than the others, and Isobel's first serious attempts.
+Behind each was stuck a little ivory board bearing the magic word
+"Sold."
+
+"Sold!" Arthur exclaimed incredulously.
+
+"It may be a mistake," I said slowly.
+
+Mabane and I exchanged glances. We knew very well that, though the
+miniatures showed promise of talent, they were amateurish and imperfect,
+and the reserve which we had placed upon them was quite out of all
+proportion to their merit. It must surely be a mistake! We followed
+Isobel across the room. A little elderly gentleman was sitting before a
+desk, engaged in the leisurely contemplation of a small open ledger.
+Isobel had halted in front of him. There was a delicate flush of pink on
+her cheeks, and her eyes were brilliant.
+
+"Are my miniatures sold, please?" she exclaimed. "My name is Miss de
+Sorrens. They have a small ivory board just behind them which says
+'Sold.'"
+
+The elderly gentleman looked up, and surveyed her calmly over the top of
+his spectacles.
+
+"What did you say that your name was, madam, and the number of your
+miniatures?" he enquired.
+
+"Miss Isobel de Sorrens," she answered breathlessly, "and my miniatures
+are number two hundred and seven and eight--a portrait of an elderly
+lady, and two hundred and eighty-nine--a child."
+
+The little old gentleman turned over the pages of his ledger in very
+leisurely fashion, and consulted a recent entry.
+
+"Your miniatures are sold, Miss de Sorrens," he said, "for the reserve
+price placed upon them--twenty guineas each. The money will be paid to
+you on the close of the Exhibition, according to our usual custom."
+
+"Please tell me who bought them," she begged. "I want to be quite sure
+that there is no mistake."
+
+"There is certainly no mistake," he answered, smiling. "The first one
+was bought by--let me see--a nobleman in the suite of the Archduchess of
+Bristlaw, the Baron von Leibingen. I believe that her Highness is
+proposing to visit the Exhibition this afternoon. The other purchaser
+paid cash, but refused his name. Ah! Excuse me!"
+
+He rose hastily, and moved towards the door. A little group of people
+were entering, before whom the bystanders gave way with all that respect
+which the British public invariably displays for Royalty. Isobel watched
+them with frank and eager interest. Mabane and I moved over to her side.
+
+"Is it true?" I asked her.
+
+"He says so," she answered, still a little bewildered. "Arnold, can you
+imagine it? Forty guineas! I--I----"
+
+There followed an amazing interlude. The little party of newcomers,
+before whom everyone was obsequiously giving way, came face to face with
+us. Mabane and I stepped back at once, but Isobel remained motionless.
+An extraordinary change had come over her. Her eyes seemed fastened upon
+the woman who was the central figure of the little procession, and the
+girl who walked by her side. Someone whispered to her to move back. She
+took no notice. She seemed as though she had not heard. Royalty raised
+its lorgnettes, and dropped them with a crash upon the polished wood
+floor. Then those who were quick to understand knew that something lay
+beneath this unusual awkwardness.
+
+The manager of the Gallery, who, catalogue in hand, had been prepared
+personally to conduct the Royal party round, looked about him, wondering
+as to the cause of the _contretemps_. His eyes fell upon Isobel.
+
+"Please step back," he whispered to her, angrily. "Don't you see that
+the Princess is here, and the Archduchess of Bristlaw? Clear the way,
+please!"
+
+The manager was a small man, and Isobel's eyes travelled over his head.
+She did not seem to hear him speak. The Archduchess recovered herself.
+She took the shattered lorgnettes from the hand of her lady-in-waiting.
+She pointed to Isobel.
+
+"Who is this young person?" she asked calmly. "Does she wish to speak to
+me?"
+
+A wave of colour swept into Isobel's cheeks. She drew back at once.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Madame," she said. But even when she had rejoined my
+side her eyes remained fixed upon the face of the Archduchess and her
+companion.
+
+There was a general movement forward. One of the ladies in the suite,
+however, lingered behind. Our eyes met, and Lady Delahaye held out her
+hand.
+
+"Your ward is growing," she murmured, "in inches, if not in manners.
+When are you going to engage a chaperon for her?"
+
+"When I think it necessary, Lady Delahaye," I answered, with a bow.
+
+"You artists have--such strange ideas," she remarked, smiling up at me.
+"You wish Isobel to remain a child of nature, perhaps. Yet you must
+admit that a few lessons in deportment would be of advantage."
+
+"To the Archduchess, apparently," I answered. "One does not often see a
+great lady so embarrassed."
+
+Lady Delahaye shrugged her shoulders. She dropped her voice a little.
+
+"Are we never to meet without quarrelling, Arnold?" she whispered,
+looking up into my eyes. "It used not to be like this."
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "it is not my fault. We seem to have taken
+opposite sides in a game which I for one do not understand. Twice during
+the last six months you have made attempts which can scarcely be called
+honourable to take Isobel from us. Our rooms are continually watched. We
+dare not let the child go out alone. Now this woman from Madame
+Richard's has come to live in the same building. She, too, watches."
+
+"It is only the beginning, Arnold," she said quietly. "I told you more
+than a year ago that you were interfering in graver concerns than you
+imagined. Why don't you be wise, and let the child go? The care of her
+will bring nothing but trouble upon you!"
+
+Her words struck home more surely than she imagined, for in my heart had
+lain dormant for months the fear of what was to come, the shadow which
+was already creeping over our lives. Nevertheless, I answered her
+lightly.
+
+"You know my obstinacy of old, Lady Delahaye," I said. "We are wasting
+words, I think."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and passed on. Mabane touched me on the
+shoulder.
+
+"Isobel would like to go," he said. "Arthur and she are at the door
+already."
+
+I turned to leave the place. We were already in the passage which led
+into Bond Street, when I felt myself touched upon the shoulder. A tall,
+fair young man, with his hair brushed back, and very blue eyes, who had
+been in the suite of the Archduchess, addressed me.
+
+"Pardon me," he said, "but you are Mr. Arnold Greatson, I believe?"
+
+I acknowledged the fact.
+
+"The Archduchess of Bristlaw begs that you will spare her a moment. She
+will not detain you longer."
+
+I turned to Mabane.
+
+"Take Isobel home," I said. "I will follow presently."
+
+We re-entered the Gallery. The majority of the Royal party were busy
+examining the miniatures. The Archduchess was talking earnestly to Lady
+Delahaye in a remote corner. My guide led me directly to her.
+
+"Her Highness permits me to present you," he said to me. "This is Mr.
+Arnold Greatson, your Highness."
+
+The Archduchess acknowledged my bow graciously.
+
+"You are the Mr. Arnold Greatson who writes such charming stories," she
+said. "Yes, it is so, is it not?"
+
+"Your Highness is very kind," I answered.
+
+"I learn," she continued, "that you are also the guardian of the young
+lady who gave us all such a start. Pardon me, but you surely seem a
+little young for such a post."
+
+"The circumstances, your Highness," I answered, "were a little
+exceptional."
+
+She nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, yes, so I have heard. Lady Delahaye has been telling me the story.
+I understand that you have never been able to discover the child's
+parentage. That is very strange!"
+
+"There are other things in connection with my ward, your Highness," I
+said, "which seem to me equally inexplicable."
+
+"Yes? I am very interested. Will you tell me what they are?"
+
+"By all means," I answered. "I refer to the fact that though no one has
+come forward openly to claim the child, indirect efforts to induce her
+to leave us are continually being made by persons who seem to desire
+anonymity. Whenever she has been alone in the streets she has been
+accosted under various pretexts."
+
+The Archduchess was politely surprised.
+
+"But surely you are aware," she remarked, "of the source of some at
+least of these attempts?"
+
+"Madame Richard," I said, "the principal of the convent where Isobel was
+educated, seems particularly anxious to have her return there."
+
+The Archduchess nodded her head slowly.
+
+"Well," she said, "is that so much to be wondered at? Even we who are of
+the world might consider--you must pardon me, Mr. Greatson, if I speak
+frankly--the girl's present position an undesirable one. How do you
+suppose, then, that the principal of a convent boarding-school, whose
+sister, I believe, is a nun, would be likely to regard the same thing?"
+
+"Your Highness knows, then, of the convent?" I remarked.
+
+The Archduchess lifted her eyebrows lightly. Her gesture seemed intended
+to convey to me the fact that she had not sent for me to answer my
+questions. I remained unabashed, however, and waited for her reply.
+Several curious facts were beginning to group themselves together in my
+mind.
+
+"I have heard of the place," she said coldly. "I believe it to be an
+excellent institution. I sent for you, Mr. Greatson, not, however, to
+discuss such matters, but solely to ask for information as to the
+child's parentage. It seems that you are unable to give me this."
+
+"Lady Delahaye knows as much--probably more--than I," I answered.
+
+It seemed to me that the Archduchess and Lady Delahaye exchanged quick
+glances. I affected, however, to have noticed nothing.
+
+"I will be quite candid with you, Mr. Greatson," the Archduchess
+continued. "My interest in the girl arises, of course, from the
+wonderful likeness to my own daughter, and to other members of my
+family. Your ward herself was obviously struck with it. I must confess
+that I, too, received something of a shock."
+
+"I think," I answered, "that it was apparent to all of us."
+
+The Archduchess coughed. For a Royal personage, she seemed to find some
+little difficulty in proceeding.
+
+"The history of our family is naturally a matter of common knowledge,"
+she said slowly. "Any connection with it, therefore, which this child
+might be able to claim would be of that order which you, as a man of the
+world, would doubtless understand. Nevertheless, I am sufficiently
+interested in her to be inclined to take any steps which might be
+necessary for her welfare. I propose to set some enquiries on foot.
+Providing that the result of them be as I suspect, I presume you would
+have no objection to relinquish the child to my protection?"
+
+"Your Highness," I answered, "I could not answer such a question as that
+without consideration, or without consulting Isobel herself."
+
+The Archduchess frowned upon me, and I was at once made conscious that I
+had fallen under her displeasure. I fancy, however, that I appeared as I
+felt, quite unimpressed.
+
+"I cannot understand any hesitation whatsoever upon your part, Mr.
+Greatson," she said. "Under my care the child's future would be
+fittingly provided for. Her position with you must be, at the best, an
+equivocal one."
+
+"Your Highness," I answered steadily, "my friends and I are handicapped
+perhaps by our sex, but we have a housekeeper who is an old family
+servant, and a model of respectability. In all ways and at all times we
+have treated Isobel as a very dear sister. The position may seem an
+equivocal one--to a certain order of minds. Those who know us, I may
+venture to say, see nothing harmful to the child in our guardianship."
+
+The Archduchess stared at me, and I gathered that she was not used to
+anything save implicit obedience from those to whom she made
+suggestions. She stared, and then she laughed softly. There was more
+than a spice of malice in her mirth.
+
+"Which of you three young men are going to fall in love with her?" she
+asked bluntly. "You call her a child, but she is almost a woman, and she
+is beautiful. She will be very beautiful."
+
+"Your Highness," I answered coldly, "it is a matter which we have not as
+yet permitted ourselves to consider."
+
+The Archduchess was displeased with me, and she took no further pains to
+hide her displeasure.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, with a little wave of dismissal, "for the
+present I have no more to say."
+
+She turned her back upon me, and I at once left the Gallery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+I walked home with but one thought in my mind. The Archduchess had put
+into words--very plain, blunt words--what as yet I had scarcely dared
+harbour in my mind as a fugitive idea. She had done me in that respect
+good service. She had brought to a sudden crisis an issue which it was
+folly any longer to evade. I meant to speak now, and have done with it.
+I walked through the busy streets a dreaming man. It was for the last
+time. Henceforth, even the dream must pass.
+
+I found Mabane and Arthur alone, for which I was sufficiently thankful.
+There was no longer any excuse for delay. Mabane had taken possession of
+the easy-chair, and was smoking his largest pipe. Arthur was walking
+restlessly up and down the room. Evidently they had been discussing
+between them the events of the afternoon, for there was a sudden silence
+when I entered, and they both waited eagerly for me to speak. I closed
+the door carefully behind me, and took a cigarette from the box on my
+desk.
+
+"What did the Archduchess want?" Arthur asked bluntly.
+
+"I will tell you all that she said presently," I answered. "In effect,
+it was the same as the others. She, too, wanted Isobel!"
+
+"Shall we have to give her up?" Arthur demanded.
+
+"We will discuss that another time," I said. "I am glad to find that you
+are both here. There is another matter, concerning which I think that we
+ought to come to an understanding as soon as possible. It has been in my
+mind for a long while."
+
+"About Isobel?" Arthur interrupted.
+
+"About Isobel!" I assented.
+
+They were both attentive. Mabane's expression was purely negative.
+Arthur, on the other hand, was distinctly nervous. I think that from the
+first he had some idea what it was that I wanted to say.
+
+"Isobel, when she came to us little more than a year ago," I continued,
+"was a child. We have always treated her, and I believe thought of her,
+as a child. It was perhaps a daring experiment to have brought her here
+at all, and yet I am inclined to think that, under the circumstances, it
+was the best thing for her, and, from another point of view, an
+excellent thing for us!"
+
+"Excellent! Why, it has made all the difference in the world," Arthur
+declared vigorously.
+
+"I see that you follow me," I agreed. "Her coming seems to have steadied
+us up all round. The changes which we were obliged to make in our manner
+of living have all been for the better. I am afraid that we were
+drifting, Allan and I, at any rate into a somewhat objectless sort of
+existence, and our work was beginning to show the signs of it. The
+coming of Isobel seems to have changed all that. You, Allan, know that
+you have never done better work in your life than during the last year.
+Your portrait of her was an inspiration. Some of those smaller studies
+show signs of a talent which I think has surprised everyone, except
+Arthur and myself, who knew what you could do when you settled down to
+it. I, too, have been more successful, as you know. I have done better
+work, and more of it. You agree with me so far, Allan?"
+
+"There is no doubt at all about it," Mabane said slowly. "There has been
+a different atmosphere about the place since the child came, and we have
+thrived in it. We are all better, much the better, for her coming!"
+
+"I am glad that you appreciate this, Allan," I said. "This sort of thing
+is rather hard to put into words, but I believe that you fellows
+understand exactly what I mean. We have had to amuse her, and in doing
+so we have developed simpler and better tastes for ourselves. We've had
+to give up a lot of things, and a lot of friends we've been much better
+without."
+
+"It's true, every word of it, Arnold," Mabane admitted, knocking out the
+ashes from his pipe. "We've chucked the music-halls for the theatres,
+and our lazy slacking Sundays, with a night at the club afterwards, for
+long wholesome days in the country--very jolly days, too. We're better
+men in our small way for the child's coming, Arnold. You can take that
+for granted. Now, go on with what you have to say. I suppose this is all
+a prelude to something or other."
+
+Even then I hesitated, for my task was not an easy one, and all the
+while Arthur, who maintained an uneasy silence, was watching me
+furtively. It was as though he knew from the first what it was that I
+was leading up to, and I seemed to be conscious already of his
+passionate though unspoken resistance.
+
+"It was a child," I said at last, "whom we took into our lives. To-day
+she is a woman!"
+
+Then Arthur could keep silence no longer. There was a pink flush in his
+cheeks, which were still as smooth as a girl's, but the passion in his
+tone was the passion of a man.
+
+"You are not thinking, Arnold--you would not be so mad as to think of
+giving her up to any of these people?" he exclaimed. "They are her
+enemies, all of them. I am sure of it!"
+
+"I am coming to that presently," I went on. "You know what happened this
+afternoon? You saw the likeness, the amazing likeness, between Isobel
+and that other girl, the daughter of the Archduchess. The Archduchess
+was herself very much impressed with it. Without a doubt she knows
+Isobel's history. She went so far as to tell me that she believed Isobel
+to be morganatically connected with her own family, the House of
+Waldenburg! She offered to take her under her own protection!"
+
+"You did not consent!" Arthur exclaimed.
+
+"I neither consented nor absolutely refused," I answered. "It was not a
+matter to be decided on the spur of the moment. But the more I think of
+it, the more I am puzzled. Madame Richard wants Isobel. She was not
+satisfied with our refusal to give her up. She sent that messenger of
+hers back with fresh offers, and when again we refused, the woman takes
+up her quarters here, always spying upon us, always accosting Isobel on
+any excuse. Madame Richard may be a very good woman, but I have seen and
+spoken with her, and I do not for one moment believe that her
+extraordinary persistence is for Isobel's sake alone. Then Lady Delahaye
+has never ceased from worrying us. She has tried threats, persuasions
+and entreaties. She has tried by every means in her power to induce us
+to give up the child to her. And now we have the Archduchess to deal
+with, and it seems to me that we are getting very near the heart of the
+matter. The Archduchess is a daughter of one of the Royal Houses of
+Europe, and Major Delahaye was once _attaché_ at her father's Court.
+Then there is Grooten, the man who shot Delahaye. His interest in her is
+so strong that he risks his life and commits a crime to save her from a
+man whom he believes to be a source of danger to her. He sends her money
+every quarter, which, as you know, we have never touched--it stands in
+her name if ever she should require it. Grooten is a man into whose
+charge we could not possibly give her, and yet of all these people he is
+the only one whom I would trust--the only one whom I feel instinctively
+means well by her. Madame Richard wants her, Lady Delahaye wants her,
+and behind them both there is the Archduchess, who also wants her. I
+have thought this matter over, and, so far as I am concerned, I have
+decided----"
+
+"Not to give her up to any of them!" Arthur exclaimed sharply.
+
+"To give her up to no one who is not prepared to go into court and
+establish a legal claim," I continued. "It is very simple, and I think
+very reasonable. When she leaves us, it shall be to take up an
+accredited and definite station in life. The time may come at any
+moment. We must always be prepared for it. But until it does, we will
+not even parley any longer with these people who come to us and hint at
+mysterious things."
+
+Arthur wrung my hand. He was apparently much relieved, and he did not
+know what was coming.
+
+"Arnold, you are a brick!" he exclaimed. "That's sound
+common-sense--every word you've uttered. Let them prove their claim to
+her."
+
+"I agree with every word you have spoken," Allan said quietly, in
+response to a look from me. "The child is at least safe with us, and she
+is not wasting her time. She has talent, and she has application. I, for
+my part, shall be very sorry indeed when the time comes, as I suppose it
+will come some day, for her to go."
+
+Then I mustered up my courage, and said that which I had known from the
+first would be difficult.
+
+"There is one thing more," I said, "and I want to say it to you now. It
+may seem to you both unnecessary. Perhaps it is. Still, it is better
+that we should come to an understanding about it. A year has passed
+since Isobel, the child, came to us. To-day she is a woman. If we still
+keep her with us there must be a bond, a covenant between us, and our
+honour must stand pledged to keep it. I think that you both know very
+well what I mean. I hope that you will both agree with me."
+
+I paused for a moment, but I received no encouragement from either of
+them. They were both silent, and Arthur's eyes were questioning mine
+fiercely. I addressed myself more particularly to him.
+
+"Allan and I are elderly persons compared with you, Arthur," I said,
+"but we might still be described at a stretch as young men. If we decide
+to remain Isobel's guardians, there is a further and a deeper duty
+devolving upon us than the obvious one of treating her with all respect.
+It is possible that she might come to feel a preference for one of us--a
+sense of gratitude, the natural sentiment of her coming womanhood, even
+the fact of continual propinquity might encourage it. Isobel is
+charming; she will be beautiful. The position, if any one of us relaxed
+in the slightest degree, might become critical. You must understand what
+I mean, I am sure, even if I am not expressing it very clearly. Isobel
+sees few, if any, other men. It is possible, it is almost certain, that
+she belongs to a class whose position and ideas are far removed from
+ours. There must be no sentimental relations established between her and
+any one of us. We are her brothers, she is our sister. So it must remain
+while she is under our charge. This must be agreed upon between us."
+
+There was a dead, almost an ominous, silence. Mabane was standing with
+his arms folded, and his face turned a little away. I appealed first to
+him.
+
+"Allan," I said, "you agree with me?"
+
+"Absolutely!" he answered. "I agree with every word you have said."
+
+I turned to Arthur.
+
+"And you, Arthur?"
+
+He did not at once reply. The colour was coming and going in his cheeks,
+and he was playing nervously with his watchchain. When he raised his
+eyes to mine, the slight belligerency of his earlier manner was more
+clearly defined.
+
+"I think," he said, "that there is another side to the question. Isobel
+is the sort of girl whom fellows are bound to notice. Besides, being so
+jolly good-looking, she is such ripping good form, and that sort of
+thing. What you are proposing, Arnold, is simply that we should stand on
+one side altogether and leave Isobel for any other fellow who happens to
+come along."
+
+"It scarcely amounts to that," I answered. "No other man is likely to
+see much of her while she is under our care. Afterwards, of course, the
+conditions are different. Our covenant, the covenant to which I am
+asking you to agree, comes to an end when she leaves us."
+
+"You see," Arthur protested, "it is a little different, isn't it, for
+you fellows? Not that I'm comparing myself with you, of course, in any
+sort of way. You're both heaps cleverer than I am, and all that, but
+Isobel and I are nearer the same age, and we've been about together such
+a lot, motoring and all that, and had such good times. You understand
+what I mean, don't you? Of course, that sort of thing, that sort of
+thing--you know, brings a fellow and a girl together so, liking the same
+things, and being about the same age. It isn't quite like that with you
+two, is it now?"
+
+Again there was silence. Mabane had withdrawn his pipe from his mouth,
+and was looking steadfastly into the bowl. As for me, I found it wholly
+impossible to analyse my sensations. All the time Arthur was looking
+eagerly from one to the other of us. I recovered myself with an effort,
+and answered him.
+
+"We will not dispute the position with you, Arthur," I said quietly. "We
+will admit all that you say. We will admit, therefore, that by all
+natural laws you are the one on whom the burden of keeping this covenant
+must fall most heavily. That fact may make it a little harder for you
+than for us, but it does not alter the position in any way. There must
+be no attempt at sentiment between Isobel and any one of us. If by any
+chance the opening should come from her, it must be ignored and
+discouraged."
+
+"I can't for the life of me see why," Arthur declared. "And I--well,
+it's no use beating about the bush. Isobel is the only girl in the world
+I could ever look at. I am fond of her! I can't help it! I love her!
+There!"
+
+Mabane mercifully took up the burden of speech.
+
+"Have you said anything to her?" he asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"Not a word?"
+
+"Not a word," Arthur declared. "She is too young. She has not begun to
+think about those things yet. But she is wonderful, and I love her. It
+is all very well for you two," he continued earnestly. "You are both
+over thirty, and confirmed bachelors. I'm only just twenty-four, and
+I've never cared for a girl a snap of the fingers yet. I don't care any
+more about knocking about. Of course, I've done a bit at it like
+everyone else, but Isobel has knocked all that out of me. I should be
+quite content to settle down to-morrow!"
+
+I tried to put myself in his place, to enter for a moment into his point
+of view. Yet I am afraid that I must have seemed very unsympathetic.
+
+"Arthur," I said, "I am sorry for you, but it won't do. I fancy that
+before long she will be removed from us altogether. For her sake, and
+the sake of our own honour, no word of what you have told us must pass
+your lips. Unless you can promise that----"
+
+I hesitated. Arthur had risen to his feet. The colour had mounted to his
+temples, his eyes were bright with anger.
+
+"I will not promise it," he declared. "I love Isobel, and very soon I
+mean to tell her so."
+
+"Then it must be under another roof," I answered. "If you will not
+promise to keep absolutely silent until we at least know exactly what
+her parentage is, you must leave us."
+
+Arthur took up his hat.
+
+"Very well," he said shortly. "I will send for my things to-morrow."
+
+He left the room without another word to either of us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+"In diplomacy," the Baron remarked blandly, "as also, I believe, in
+affairs of commerce, the dinner-table is frequently chosen as a fitting
+place for the commencement of delicate negotiations. For a bargain--no!
+But when three men--take ourselves, for instance--have a matter of some
+importance to discuss, I can conceive no better opportunity for the
+preliminary--skirmishing, shall I say?--than the present."
+
+I raised my glass, and looked thoughtfully at the pale amber wine
+bubbling up from the stem.
+
+"From a certain point of view," I answered, "I entirely agree with you.
+Yet you must remember that the host has always the advantage."
+
+"In the present case," the Baron said with a smile, "that amounts to
+nothing, for you practically gave me my answer before we sat down to
+dinner. If I am able to induce you to change your mind--well, so much
+the better. If not--well, I can have nothing to complain of."
+
+"I am glad," I answered, "that you appreciate our position. With regard
+to the present custody of the child, which I take it is what you want to
+discuss with us, our minds are practically made up. My friend and I have
+both agreed that we will continue the charge of her until she is claimed
+by someone who is in a position to do so openly--someone, in short, who
+has a legal right."
+
+The Baron nodded gravely.
+
+"An excellent decision," he said. "No one could possibly quarrel with
+it. Yet it is a privilege to be able to tell you some facts which may
+perhaps affect your point of view. I can explain to you _why_ this open
+claim is not made."
+
+"We are here," I answered, "to listen to whatever you may have to say."
+
+We--Allan and I--were dining with the Baron at Claridge's. An
+appointment, which he had begged us to make, had been changed into a
+dinner invitation at his earnest request. There was a likelihood, he
+told us, of his being summoned abroad at any moment, and he was
+particularly anxious not to leave the hotel pending the arrival of a
+cablegram. So far his demeanour had been courtesy and consideration
+itself, but under the man's geniality and almost excessive _bonhomie_
+both Allan and myself were conscious of a certain nervous impatience,
+only partially concealed. Whatever proposal he might have to make to us,
+our acceptance of it was without doubt a matter of great importance to
+him. The more we realized this, the more we wondered.
+
+"I only wish," he said with emphasis, "that it was within my power to
+lay the cards upon the table before you, to tell you the whole truth. I
+do not think then that you would hesitate for a single second. But that
+I cannot do. The honour of a great house, Mr. Greatson, is involved in
+this matter, into which you have been so strangely drawn. I must leave
+blanks in my story which you must fill in for yourselves, you and Mr.
+Mabane. There are things which I may not--dare not--tell you. If I
+could, you would wonder no longer that those who desire to take over the
+charge of the child wish to do so without publicity, and without any
+appeal to the courts."
+
+"The Archduchess," I remarked, "gave me some hint as to the nature of
+these difficulties."
+
+The Baron emptied his glass and called for another bottle of wine. Then
+he looked carefully around him, a quite unnecessary precaution, for our
+table was in a remote corner of the room, and there were very few
+dining.
+
+"It is no longer," he said, "a matter of surmise with us as to who the
+child you call Isobel de Sorrens really is. She is of the House of
+Waldenburg. She carries her descent written in her face, a hall-mark no
+one could deny. Upon the Archduchess and others of her great family must
+rest always the shadow of a grave stigma so long as the child remains in
+the hands of strangers, an alien from her own country. The Archduchess
+wishes at once, and quietly, to assume the charge of her. She is
+conscious of your services; she feels that you have probably saved the
+child from a fate which it is not easy to contemplate calmly. She
+authorizes me, therefore, to treat with you in the most generous
+fashion."
+
+"That is a phrase," I remarked, "which I do not altogether understand."
+
+"Later," the Baron said, with a meaning look, "I will make myself clear.
+In the meantime, let me recommend this soufflé. Mr. Mabane, you are
+drinking nothing. Would you prefer your wine a shade colder?"
+
+"Not for me," Allan declared. "I prefer champagne at its natural
+temperature; the wine is far too good to have its flavour frozen out of
+it. Apropos of what you were saying, Baron, there is one question which
+I should like to ask you. Why was Major Delahaye sent to St. Argueil for
+Isobel, and what was he supposed to do with her?"
+
+I do not think that the Baron liked the question. He hesitated for
+several moments before he answered it.
+
+"Major Delahaye was not sent," he said. "He went on his own account. He
+was the only person who knew the child's whereabouts."
+
+"And what do you suppose his object was in bringing her away from the
+convent?" Allan persisted.
+
+"I do not know," the Baron answered. "All I can say is that it pleases
+me vastly more to find the child in your keeping than in his."
+
+"Was the man who shot him," I asked, "concerned in the child's earlier
+history?"
+
+"I cannot place him at all," the Baron answered. "I should imagine that
+his quarrel with Major Delahaye was a personal one, and had no bearing
+upon the child. Few men had more enemies than Delahaye. One does not
+wish to speak ill of the dead, but he was a bully and a brute all his
+days."
+
+A servant in plain black livery brought a sealed note to our host, and
+stood respectfully by his side while he read it. It obviously consisted
+of but a few words, yet the Baron continued to hold it in front of him
+for nearly a minute. Finally, he crushed it in his hand, and dismissed
+the servant.
+
+"There is no answer," he said. "I shall wait upon her Highness in an
+hour."
+
+Our dinner was over. Both Mabane and myself had declined dessert. Our
+host rose.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I have ordered coffee in the smoking-room. The
+head-waiter has told me of some wonderful brandy, and I have some cigars
+which I am anxious for you to try. Will you come this way?"
+
+We were the only occupants of the smoking-room. The Baron appropriated a
+corner, and left us to fetch the cigars. Mabane lit a cigarette and
+leaned back in an easy-chair.
+
+"It seems to me, Arnold," he said, "that you are like the man who found
+what he went out for to see. You wanted tragedy--and you came very near
+it. I do not quite see what the end of all these things will be. Our
+host----"
+
+"There is a disappointment in store for him, I fancy," I interrupted.
+"He is a very faithful servant of the Archduchess, and he has worked
+hard for her. From his point of view his arguments are reasonable
+enough. All that he says is plausible--and yet--one feels that there is
+something behind it all. Allan, I don't trust one of these people! I
+can't!"
+
+"Nor I," Allan answered softly, for the Baron had already entered the
+room.
+
+He brought with him some wonderful cabanas, and immediately afterwards
+coffee and liqueurs were served. The moment the waiter had disappeared,
+he threw off all reserve.
+
+"Come," he said, "I am no longer your host. We meet here on equal terms.
+I have an offer to make to you which I think you will find astonishing.
+The fact is, her Highness is anxious to run no risk of any resurrection
+of a certain scandal. She has commissioned me to beg your
+acceptance--you and your friend--of these," he laid down two separate
+pieces of paper upon the table. "She wishes to relieve you as soon as
+possible to-night, if you can arrange it--of the care of a certain young
+lady. There need be no hesitation about your acceptance. Royalty, as you
+know, has special privileges so far as regards bounty, and her Highness
+appreciates most heartily the care and kindness which the child has
+received at your hands."
+
+I stared at my piece of paper. It was a cheque for five thousand pounds.
+I looked at Mabane's. It was a cheque for a like amount. Then I looked
+up at the Baron. The perspiration was standing out upon his forehead. He
+was watching us as a man might watch one in whose hands lay the power of
+life or death. I resisted my first impulse, which was simply to tear the
+cheque in two. I simply pushed it back across the table.
+
+"Baron," I said, "if this is meant as a recompense for any kindness
+which we have shown to a friendless child, it is unnecessary and
+unacceptable. If it is meant," I added more slowly, "for a bribe, it is
+not enough."
+
+"Call it what you will," he answered quickly. "Name your own price for
+the child--brought here--to-night."
+
+"No price that you or your mistress could pay, Baron," I answered
+quietly. "I told you my ultimatum two hours ago. The child remains with
+us until she is claimed by one who has a legal right, and is not afraid
+to invoke the law."
+
+"But I have explained the position," the Baron protested. "You must
+understand why we cannot bring such a matter as this into the courts."
+
+"Your story is ingenious, and, pardon me, it may be true," I answered.
+"We require proof!"
+
+The Baron's face was not pleasant to look upon.
+
+"You doubt my word, sir--my word, and the word of the Archduchess?"
+
+I rose to my feet. Mabane followed my example. I felt that a storm was
+pending.
+
+"Baron," I said, "there are some causes which make strange demands upon
+the best of us. A man may lie to save a woman's honour, or, if he be a
+politician, for the good of his country. I cannot discuss this matter
+any further with you. My sole regret is that we ever discussed it at
+all. My friend and I must wish you good-night."
+
+"By heavens, you shall not go!" the Baron exclaimed. "What right have
+you to the child? None at all! Her Highness wishes to be generous. It
+pleases you to flout her generosity. Mr. Arnold Greatson, you are a
+fool! Don't you see that you are a pigmy, who has stolen through the
+back door into the world where great things are dealt with? You have no
+place there. You cannot keep the child away from us. You have no
+influence, no money. You are nobody. If you think----"
+
+Mabane interposed.
+
+"Baron," he said, "if you were not still, in a sense, our host, I should
+knock you down. As it is, permit me to tell you that you are talking
+nonsense."
+
+The Baron drew a sharp, quick breath.
+
+"You are right," he said shortly. "I am a fool to discuss this with you
+at all. It is not worth while. The Archduchess, out of kindness, would
+have treated you as friends. You decline! Good! You shall be treated--as
+you deserve."
+
+The Baron threw open the door and bowed us out. The commissionaire
+helped us on with our coats and summoned a hansom. We were just driving
+off, when a man in a long travelling coat, who had been standing outside
+the swing-door of the hotel, calmly swung himself up into the cab and
+motioned to us to make room. I stared at him in blank amazement.
+
+"Hullo!" I exclaimed. "What----"
+
+"It is I, my friend," Mr. Grooten answered calmly. "Tell the man to
+drive to your rooms."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"I am staying at Claridge's, or rather I was," Mr. Grooten remarked, as
+we turned into Brook Street. "I saw you with Leibingen, and I have been
+waiting for you. We will talk, I think, at your rooms."
+
+Whereupon he lit a fresh cigarette, and did not speak a word until we
+had reached our destination. Isobel had gone to bed, and our
+sitting-room was empty. I turned up the lamp, and pushed a chair towards
+him. In various small ways he seemed to have succeeded in effecting a
+wonderful change in his appearance. His hair was differently arranged,
+and much greyer. His face was pale and drawn as though with illness. But
+for his voice and his broad, humorous mouth I doubt whether I should
+immediately have recognized him.
+
+"I perceive," he said, "that I am not forgotten. It is very flattering!
+My friends abroad tell me that I have altered a good deal during the
+last twelve months."
+
+"You have altered, without a doubt," I admitted. "But the circumstances
+connected with our first meeting were scarcely such as tend towards
+forgetfulness. You remember my friend, Mr. Allan Mabane?"
+
+"Perfectly," he assented, with a courteous little wave of the hand. "I
+am very glad to have come across you both again so opportunely. I only
+arrived in England a few days ago, but I did not hope to have this
+pleasure until the morning at the earliest. You expected to have heard
+from me, perhaps, before."
+
+"I don't know about that," I answered, "but I can assure you that we are
+both very glad to see you, for more reasons than one. There are a good
+many things which we are anxious to discuss with you."
+
+"The pleasure, then, is mutual," Mr. Grooten remarked affably. "Isobel
+is, I trust, well?"
+
+"She is quite well," I answered.
+
+"You are helping her to spend her time profitably, I am glad to find,"
+he continued. "I saw two miniatures of hers yesterday at the Mordaunt
+Rooms."
+
+"Isobel has gifts," I said. "We are doing our best to assist her in
+their development."
+
+Mr. Grooten raised his eyes to mine. He looked at me steadily.
+
+"Why have you refused to use the money which I placed to your credit at
+the National Bank for her?" he asked.
+
+"Because," I answered, "we are not aware what right you have to provide
+for her."
+
+Mr. Grooten smiled upon us--much as a sphynx might have smiled. It had
+the effect of making us both feel very young.
+
+"My claim," he murmured, "must surely be as good as yours."
+
+"Perhaps," I admitted. "At any rate, the money remains there in her
+name. She may find herself in greater need of it later on in life."
+
+Mr. Grooten seemed to find some amusement in the idea.
+
+"No," he said, "I do not think that that is likely. You could safely
+have used the money, but as you have not--well, it is of small
+consequence. I presume that attempts have been made to withdraw the
+child from your care?"
+
+"Several," I told him. "Madame Richard and Lady Delahaye were equally
+importunate."
+
+Grooten nodded.
+
+"You have shown," he said, "an admirable discretion in refusing to give
+her up to either of them."
+
+"And to-day," I continued, "a third claimant to the care of her has
+intervened. The Archduchess of Bristlaw herself has offered to relieve
+us of our guardianship."
+
+Mr. Grooten dropped the cigarette which he had only just lit, and seemed
+for the moment unconscious of the fact. He made no effort to pick it up.
+He quivered as though someone had struck him a blow. For a man whose
+impassivity was almost a part of himself he was evidently deeply
+agitated.
+
+"The Archduchess--has seen Isobel!" he muttered.
+
+"They met by chance at the Mordaunt Rooms a few afternoons ago," I told
+him. "The Archduchess was accompanied by a girl of about Isobel's age.
+We came upon them suddenly, and the likeness was so marvellous that we
+were all startled. There was something in the nature of a scene. We left
+the Gallery at once, but the Archduchess sent one of her suite for me. I
+had some conversation with her concerning Isobel."
+
+"Can you repeat it?" Grooten asked.
+
+"In substance--yes," I told him. "The Archduchess plainly hinted that
+she believed Isobel to be connected morganatically with her family. She
+wished to take her under her own charge and provide for her."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I thought it best to take some time for reflection. I had some idea of
+looking up the history of the Archduchess's family."
+
+"You made no promise?"
+
+"Certainly not. To tell you the truth, I was influenced by the presence
+of Lady Delahaye amongst the royal party. I have no faith in Lady
+Delahaye's good intentions with regard to Isobel."
+
+Mr. Grooten flashed a quick glance upon me.
+
+"Yet," he said softly, "report says that you and Lady Delahaye have been
+very good friends."
+
+"That," I answered, "is beside the mark. I knew her before her marriage,
+but I have seen very little of her since. As a matter of fact, our
+relations at the present time are scarcely amicable. We have had a
+difference of opinion concerning our guardianship of Isobel. Lady
+Delahaye does not approve of her presence here with us."
+
+Mr. Grooten smiled.
+
+"That," he said, "is probable. May I proceed to ask a somewhat
+impertinent question? You were the guests to-night, I believe, of the
+Baron von Leibingen, who is, I understand, a _persona grata_ with the
+Archduchess. I presume that your meeting in some way concerned Isobel?"
+
+"Isobel was the sole cause of it," I answered. "The Archduchess is a
+woman who perseveres. She declined to consider that my reply to her
+first tentative offer was in any way final. She passed the matter on to
+the Baron, and certainly until he lost his temper towards the end of our
+interview, he was a very efficient ambassador. He proved to us quite
+clearly that it was our duty to give Isobel up to those who had a better
+right to assume the charge of her, and he wound up by handing us cheques
+for--I think it was five thousand pounds each, wasn't it, Allan?"
+
+Mr. Grooten leaned back in his chair and laughed silently, yet with
+obvious enjoyment.
+
+"That poor von Leibingen," he murmured, "how he blunders his way through
+life! Yet, my friend, I am afraid that this charge which I so
+thoughtlessly laid upon you is proving very troublesome. And you
+perceive that I do not even offer you a cheque."
+
+Allan suddenly rose up and knocked the ashes from his pipe into the
+fire.
+
+"You do not offer us a cheque, Mr. Grooten," he said quietly, "because
+you have perceptions. But there is another way in which you can
+recompense us for the trifling inconveniences to which we have been put.
+You can make our task easier--and more dignified; you can answer a
+question which I think I may say that we have an absolute right to ask
+you."
+
+Mr. Grooten inclined his head slightly. He made no remark. Allan turned
+to me.
+
+"Arnold," he said, "this is more your affair than mine, for it is you
+who have borne the brunt of it from the first. I do not wish to
+interfere in it unduly. But from every point of view, I think that the
+time has come when all this mystery concerning Isobel's antecedents
+should be, so far as we are concerned at any rate, cleared up. Our hands
+would be immensely strengthened by the knowledge of the truth. Your
+friend here, Mr. Grooten, can tell us if he will. Ask him to do so. I
+will go further. I will even say that we have a right to insist upon
+it."
+
+Mr. Grooten sat immovable. One could scarcely gather from his face that
+he had heard a word of Allan's speech.
+
+"You are quite right, Allan," I answered. "Mr. Grooten," I continued,
+turning towards him, "you are the best judge as to whether your presence
+in this country is altogether wise, but I can assure you that for the
+last six months we have looked for you every day, and for this same
+reason. We want that question answered. The time has come when, in
+common justice to us and the child, the whole thing should be cleared
+up. Whatever knowledge rests with you is safe also with us. I think that
+we have proved that. I think that we have earned our right to your
+complete confidence. Mabane and I you can consider as one in this
+matter. You can speak before him as though we were alone. Now tell us
+the whole truth."
+
+"I cannot," Mr. Grooten answered simply.
+
+There was a certain crisp definiteness about those two words which
+carried conviction with them. Mabane and I were a little staggered. Our
+position was such a strong one, our request so reasonable, that I think
+that we had never realized the possibility of a refusal.
+
+"May I ask you this?" Mabane said. "Do you expect that we shall continue
+our--I suppose we may call it guardianship--of Isobel in the face of
+your present attitude?"
+
+"I hope so, for the present," our visitor admitted softly.
+
+"Notwithstanding," Mabane continued, "our absolute ignorance of
+everything connected with her, our lack of any sort of claim or title to
+the charge of her, and the increasing number of people who still persist
+in trying to take her from us?"
+
+Mr. Grooten shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You omit to mention the factors in the situation which may be said to
+be on your side," he murmured.
+
+"I should be interested to know what those are," I remarked.
+
+"Certainly. The first and most powerful of all is, of course,
+possession."
+
+Mabane nodded.
+
+"And after that?"
+
+"The fact that not one of the three people who have appealed to you for
+the charge of the child is in a position to use the only real force
+which exists in this land. I mean the law," Grooten continued.
+
+This kept us silent again for a moment. Mabane, I could see, was getting
+a little ruffled.
+
+"You pelt us with enigmas, sir," he said. "You answer our questions only
+by propounding fresh conundrums. One thing, at least, you may feel
+disposed to tell us. What is your own relationship to Isobel?"
+
+"None," Mr. Grooten answered.
+
+"Your interest, then?"
+
+Mr. Grooten remained silent. He sat in his chair, very still and very
+quiet. Yet in his eyes there shone for a moment something which seemed
+to bring into the little room the shadow of great things. Mabane and I
+both felt it. We had the sense of having been left behind. The little
+man in his chair seemed to have been lifted out of our reach into the
+mightier world of passion and suffering and self-conquest.
+
+"I loved her mother," he said softly. "I was the man whom her mother
+loved."
+
+There was a silence between us then. We had no more to say. We were at
+that moment his bounden slaves. But by some evil chance, after a
+lengthened pause, he continued--
+
+"I, alas, could do little for the child. Yet when I heard that harm was
+threatened to her through that scamp Delahaye, I crossed the ocean at an
+hour's notice. I saved her from him. He deserved his fate, but I am no
+murderer by profession, and the shock unnerved me for a time. Then----"
+
+"Hush!" Mabane cried.
+
+I sprang to the door. It had been thrust about a foot open. From outside
+came the sound of angry voices, followed by a moment's silence. Then a
+quick, shrill cry of triumph.
+
+"Let me in. Oh, you shall not stop me now. I am going to see the man who
+boasts of being my husband's murderer!"
+
+It was the voice of Lady Delahaye. She was already upon the threshold. I
+sprang to the table and saw her coming. Already she was behind the
+screen, stealing into the room, her head thrust forward, her lips
+parted, a peculiar glitter in her eyes. For a moment I stood rigid. The
+sight of her fascinated me--there was something so wholly animal-like in
+the stealthy triumph of her tiptoe approach. I recovered myself just in
+time. One more step, a turn of her head, and she would have seen
+Grooten. My finger pressed down the catch of the lamp, and a sudden
+darkness filled the room.
+
+She stopped short. Her fierce little cry of anger told me exactly where
+she was. I stepped forward and caught her wrists firmly. Then I faced
+where I knew Grooten was still sitting. I could see the red end of his
+cigarette still in his mouth.
+
+"Leave the room at once," I said. "You can push the screen on one side,
+and you are within a yard of the door then. Please do exactly as I say,
+and don't reply."
+
+"Let go my hands, sir! Arnold, how dare you! Let me go, or I'll scream
+the place down. Mr. Mabane, you will not permit this?" she cried, in a
+fury.
+
+Mabane closed the door through which Grooten had already issued, and I
+heard the key turn in the lock. I released Lady Delahaye's hands, and
+she sprang away from me. As the flame from the lamp which Allan had just
+rekindled gained in power we saw her, still shaking the handle, but with
+her back now against the wall turned to face us. She was calmer than I
+had expected, but it was a terrible look which she flashed upon us.
+
+[Illustration: She was calmer than I had expected, but it was a terrible
+look which she flashed upon us.]
+
+"In how many minutes," she asked, "may I be released?"
+
+Allan whispered in my ear.
+
+"In five minutes, Lady Delahaye," I said. "I regret very much the
+necessity for keeping you at all. May I offer you a chair?"
+
+"You may offer me nothing, sir, except your silence," she answered
+swiftly.
+
+She meant it too. I know the signs of anger in a woman's face as well as
+most men, and they were written there plainly enough. So for a most
+uncomfortable period of time we waited there until Allan, after a glance
+at his watch, went and opened the door. She passed out without remark,
+but from the threshold outside she turned and looked at me.
+
+"I warned you once before, Arnold Greatson," she said, "that you were
+meddling with greater concerns than you knew of, and that harm would
+come to you for it. Now you have chosen to shield a murderer, and to use
+your strength upon a woman. These things will not go unforgotten!"
+
+Mabane closed the door, and threw himself into an easy chair.
+
+"For two easy-going sort of fellows, Arnold," he said to me, "we seem to
+be making a lot of enemies. Don't you think it would be a good idea if
+we drew stumps for a bit?"
+
+"Meaning?" I asked.
+
+"Roseleys!"
+
+"We'll go to-morrow," I declared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+"I have never seen anything like this," Isobel said softly. I looked up
+from the writing-pad on my knee, and she met my glance with a smile of
+contrition.
+
+"Ah," she said. "I forgot that I must not talk. Indeed, I did not mean
+to, but--look!"
+
+I followed her eyes.
+
+"Well," I said, "tell me what you see."
+
+"There are so many beautiful things," she murmured. "Do you see how
+thick and green the grass is in the meadows there? How the quaker
+grasses glimmer?--you call them so, do you not?--and how those yellow
+cowslips shine like gold? What a world of colour it all seems. London is
+so grey and cold, and here--look at the sea, and the sky, with all those
+dear little fleecy white clouds, and the pink and white of all those
+wild roses wound in and out of the hedges. Oh, Arnold, it is all
+beautiful!"
+
+"Even without a motor-car!" I remarked.
+
+She looked at me a little resentfully.
+
+"Motoring is very delightful," she said, "although you do not like it.
+Of course, it would be nice if Arthur were here!"
+
+She looked away from me seawards, and I found myself studying her
+expression with an interest which had something more in it than mere
+curiosity. At odd times lately I had fancied that I could see it coming.
+To-day, for the first time, I was sure. The smooth transparency of
+childhood, the unrestrained but almost animal play of features and eyes,
+reproducing with photographic accuracy every small emotion and
+joy--these things were passing away. Even before her time the child was
+seeking knowledge. As she sat there, with her steadfast eyes fixed upon
+the smooth blue line where sea and sky met, who could tell what thoughts
+were passing in her mind? Not I, not Mabane, nor any of us into whose
+care she had come. Only I knew that she saw new things, that the rush of
+a more complex and stronger life was already troubling her, the sweet
+pangs of its birth were already tugging at her heartstrings. My pencil
+rested idly in my fingers, my eyes, like hers, sought that distant line,
+beyond which lies ever the world of one's own creation. What did she see
+there, I wondered? Never again should I be able to ask with the full
+certainty of knowing all that was in her mind. The time had come for
+delicate reserves, the time when the child of yesterday, with the first
+faint notes of a new and wonderful song stealing into her heart, must
+fence her new modesty around with many sweet elusions and barriers,
+fairy creations to be swept aside later on in one glad moment--by the
+one chosen person. There was a coldness in my heart when I realized that
+the time had come even for the child who had tripped so lightly into our
+lives so short a time ago, to pass away from us into that other and more
+complex world. It was the decree of sex, nature's immutable law,
+sundering playfellows, severing friendships, driving its unwilling
+victims into opposite corners of the world, with all the pitilessness of
+natural law. Nevertheless, the thought of these things as I looked at
+Isobel made me sad. She was young indeed for these days to come, for the
+shadows to steal into her eyes, and the song of trouble to grow in her
+heart.
+
+"Tell me," I asked softly, "what you see beyond that blue line."
+
+"I can tell you more easily," she said, glancing down with a faint smile
+at my empty pages, "what I see by my side--a very lazy man. And," she
+continued, crumpling a little ball of heather in her fingers and
+throwing it with unerring aim at Allan, "another one over there!"
+
+"My picture," Allan protested, "is finished."
+
+"Nonsense!" she exclaimed, preparing to rise, but he waved her back.
+
+"In my mind," he added. "Don't misunderstand me. The casual and ignorant
+observer glancing just now at my canvas might come to the same
+conclusion as you--a conclusion, by-the-bye, entirely erroneous. I will
+admit that my canvas is unspoilt. Nevertheless, my picture is painted."
+
+She looked across at him reproachfully.
+
+"Allan, how dare you!" she exclaimed. "Only Arnold has the right to be
+subtle. I have always regarded you as a straightforward and honest
+person. Don't disappoint me."
+
+"St. Andrew forbid it!" Allan declared. "My meaning is painfully simple.
+I build up my picture first in my mind. Its transmission to canvas is
+purely mechanical. Here goes!"
+
+He took up his palette, and in a few moments was hard at work. Isobel
+pointed downwards to my writing-pad.
+
+"Can you too match Allan's excuse?" she asked. "Is your story already
+written?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I have been watching you," I answered. "Besides, for a perfectly lazy
+person, are you not rather a hard task-mistress? Consider that this is
+our first day of summer--the first time we have seen the sun make
+diamonds on the sea, the first west wind which has come to us with the
+scent of cowslips and wild roses. I claim the right to be lazy if I want
+to be."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"The poet," she murmured, "finds these things inspiring."
+
+"The poet," I answered, "is an ordinary creature. Nowadays he eats
+mutton-chops, plays golf, and has a banking account. The real man of
+feeling, Isobel, is the man who knows how to be idle. Believe me, there
+is a certain vulgarity in seeking to make a stock-in-trade of these
+delicious moments."
+
+"That is not fair," she protested. "How should we all live if none of
+you did any work?"
+
+"For your age, Isobel," I declared seriously, "you are very nearly a
+practical person. You make me more than ever anxious for an answer to my
+last question. What were you thinking of just now?"
+
+Her eyes seemed to drift away from mine. A touch of her new seriousness
+returned. She pointed to that thin blue line.
+
+"Beyond there," she said, "is to-morrow, and all the to-morrows to come.
+One sees a very little way."
+
+"Our limitations," I answered, "are life's lesson to us. If to-morrow is
+hidden, so much the more reason that we should live to-day."
+
+"Without thought for the morrow?"
+
+"Without care for it," I answered. "Are we not Bohemians, and is it not
+our text?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It is not yours," she answered slowly. "I am sure of that."
+
+I looked at her quickly.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say," she answered gravely. "Men and women to whom the
+present is sufficient surely cannot achieve very much in life. All the
+time they must concentrate powers which need expansion. I think that it
+must be those who try to climb the walls, those even who tear their
+fingers and their hearts in the great struggle for freedom, who can make
+themselves capable of great things, even if escape is impossible. But I
+do not think that escape is so impossible after all, is it? There have
+been men, and women too, who have lived in all times, to whom there have
+been no to-morrows or any yesterdays. Only it seems rather hard that
+life for those who seek it must always be a battle!"
+
+I did not answer her for several minutes. It was true, then, that the
+old days had passed away. Isobel, the child whom we had known and loved
+so well, had disappeared. It was Isobel the incomprehensible who was
+taking her place. What might the change not mean for us?...
+
+Later we walked back over an open heath yellow with gorse, and faintly
+pink with the promise of the heather to come. Isobel carried her hat in
+her hand. She walked with her head thrown back, and a smile playing
+every now and then upon her lips. She was so completely absorbed that I
+found myself every now and then watching her, half expecting, I believe,
+to find some physical change to accord with that other more mysterious
+evolution. She walked with all the grace of long limbs and unfettered
+clothing. Her figure, though perfectly graceful, and with that same
+peculiar distinction which had first attracted me, was as yet wholly
+immature. But in the face itself there were signs of a coming change.
+Wherein it might lie I could not tell, but it was there, an intangible
+and wholly elusive thing. I think that a certain fear of it and what it
+might mean oppressed me with the sense of coming trouble. I was more
+fully conscious then than ever before of the moral responsibility of our
+peculiar charge.
+
+We crossed a straight dusty road, cleaving the rolling moor like a belt
+of ribbon. Isobel looked thoughtfully along it.
+
+"I wonder," she said, "when Arthur will come down!"
+
+The folly of a man is a thing sometimes outside his own power of
+control. A second before I had been wondering of whom and what she had
+been thinking.
+
+"Not just yet, I'm afraid," Allan answered, stopping to light his pipe.
+"It is not easy for him to get backwards and forwards, and I believe
+that he is by way of being rather busy just now."
+
+"What a nuisance!" Isobel declared, looking behind her regretfully. "The
+roads about here seem so good."
+
+"The roads are good, but the heath is better," Allan answered. "I will
+race you for half a pound of chocolates to that clump of pines!"
+
+"You are such a slow starter," she laughed, bounding away before he had
+time to drop his easel. "Make it a pound!"
+
+I picked up Allan's easel and strolled away after them. Was it the
+motoring, I wondered, which had prompted her half-wistful question, or
+had I been wise too late? Arthur had been very confident. So much that
+he had said had carried with it a certain ring of truth. Youth and the
+temperament of youth were surely irresistible. Like calls to like across
+the garden of spring flowers with a cry which no interloper can still,
+no wanderer of later years can stifle. Somehow it seemed to me just then
+that the sun had ceased to shine, and a touch of winter after all was
+lingering in the western breeze....
+
+They disappeared round the pine plantation, Isobel leading by a few
+yards, her skirts blowing in the wind, running still with superb and
+untired grace. I climbed a bank to gain a better view of the finish, and
+became suddenly aware that I was not the only interested spectator of
+their struggle. About a hundred yards to my left a man was standing on
+the top of the same bank, a pair of field-glasses glued to his eyes,
+watching intently the spot where they might be expected to reappear. The
+sight of him took me by surprise. A few moments ago I could have sworn
+that there was not a human being within a mile of us. There was only one
+explanation of his appearance. He must have been concealed in the dry
+mossy ditch at the foot of the bank. It was possible, of course, that he
+might have been like us, a casual way-farer, and yet the suddenness of
+his appearance, the intentness of his watch, both had their effect upon
+me. I moved a few yards towards him, with what object I perhaps scarcely
+knew. A dry twig snapped beneath my feet. He became suddenly aware of my
+approach. Then, indeed, my suspicions took definite shape, for without a
+moment's hesitation the man turned and strode away in the opposite
+direction.
+
+I shouted to him. He took no notice. I shouted again, and he only
+increased his pace. I watched him disappear, and I no longer had any
+doubts at all. He was not in the least like a tramp, and his flight
+could bear but one interpretation. Isobel was not safe even here. We had
+been followed from London--we were being watched every hour. For the
+first time I began seriously to doubt what the end of these things might
+be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+"Silence and perfume and moon-flooded meadows," Allan murmured. "Arnold,
+we shall all become corrupted. You will take to writing pastorals, and
+I--I--"
+
+Isobel, from her seat between us, smiled up at him. Touched by the
+yellow moonlight, her face seemed almost ethereal.
+
+"You," she said, "should paint a vision of the 'enchanted land.' You see
+those blurred woods, and the fields sloping up to the mists? Isn't that
+a perfect impression of the world unseen, half understood? Oh, how can
+you talk of such a place corrupting anybody, Allan!"
+
+"I withdraw the term," he answered. "Yet Arnold knows what I meant very
+well. This place soothes while the city frets. Which state of mind do
+you think, Miss Isobel, draws from a man his best work?"
+
+"Don't ask me enigmas, Allan," she murmured. "I am too happy to think,
+too happy to want to do anything more than exist. I wish we lived here
+always! Why didn't we come here long ago?"
+
+"You forget the wonders of our climate," I remarked. "A month ago you
+might have stood where you are now, and seen nothing. You would have
+shivered with the cold. The field scents, the birds, the very insects
+were unborn. It is all a matter of seasons. What to-day is beautiful was
+yesterday a desert."
+
+She shook her head slowly. Bareheaded, she was leaning now over the
+little gate, and her eyes sought the stars.
+
+"I will not believe it," she declared. "I will not believe that it is
+not always beautiful here. Arnold, Allan, can you smell the
+honeysuckle?"
+
+"And the hay," Allan answered, smoking vigorously. "To-morrow we shall
+be sneezing every few minutes. Have you ever had hay fever, Isobel?"
+
+She laughed at him scornfully.
+
+"You poor old thing!" she exclaimed. "You should wear a hat."
+
+"A hat," Allan protested, "is of no avail against hay fever. It's the
+most insidious thing in the world, and is no respecter of youth. You, my
+dear Isobel, might be its first victim."
+
+"Pooh! I catch nothing!" she declared, "and you mustn't either. I'm sure
+you ought to be able to paint some beautiful pictures down here, Allan.
+And, Arnold, you shall have your writing-table out under the chestnut
+tree there. You will be so comfortable, and I'm sure you'll be able to
+finish your story splendidly."
+
+"You are very anxious to dispose of us all here, Isobel," I remarked.
+"What do you propose to do yourself?"
+
+"Oh, paint a little, I suppose," she answered, "and--think! There is so
+much to think about here."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I am beginning to wonder," I said, "whether we did wisely to bring
+you."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"This thinking you are speaking of. It is bad!"
+
+"You are foolish! Why should I not want to think?"
+
+"If you begin to think you will begin to doubt," I answered, "and if you
+begin to doubt you will begin to understand. The person who once
+understands, you know, is never again really happy."
+
+Isobel came and stood in front of me.
+
+"Arnold!" she said.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I wish you wouldn't talk to me always as though I were a baby," she
+said thoughtfully.
+
+I took her hand and made her sit down by my side.
+
+"Come," I protested, "that is not at all fair. I can assure you that I
+was taking you most seriously. The people who get most out of life are
+the people who avoid the analytical attitude, who enjoy but who do not
+seek to understand, who worship form and external beauty without the
+desire to penetrate below to understand the inner meaning of what they
+find so beautiful."
+
+"That," she said, "sounds a little difficult. But I do not see how
+people can enjoy meaningless things."
+
+"The source of all beauty is disillusioning."
+
+"Seriously," Mabane interrupted, "if this conversation develops I am
+going indoors. Does Arnold want to penetrate into the hidden meaning of
+that cricket's chirp--or is he going to give us the chemical formula for
+the smell of the honeysuckle?"
+
+Isobel laughed.
+
+"He is rather trying to-night, isn't he?" she declared. "Listen! Is that
+someone going by?"
+
+The footsteps of a man were clearly audible passing along the dusty
+little strip of road which fronted our cottage. Leaning forward I saw a
+tall, dark figure pass slowly by. From his height and upright carriage I
+thought that it must be the village policeman, and I called out
+good-night. My greeting met with no response. I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Some of these village people are not particularly civil!" I remarked.
+
+Mabane rose to his feet and strolled to the hedge.
+
+"Those were not the footsteps of a villager," he remarked. "Listen!"
+
+We stood quite still. The footsteps had ceased, although there was no
+other habitation for more than half a mile along the road. We could see
+nothing, but I noticed that Mabane was leaning a little forward and
+gazing with a curious intentness at the open common on the other side of
+the road. He stood up presently and knocked the ashes from his pipe.
+
+"What do you say to a drink, Arnold?" he suggested.
+
+"Come along!" I answered. "There's some whisky and soda on the
+sideboard."
+
+Isobel laughed at us. She would have lingered where she was, but Allan
+passed his arm through hers.
+
+"Sentiment must not make you lazy, Isobel," he declared. "I decline to
+mix my own whisky and soda. Arnold," he whispered, drawing me back as
+she stepped past us through the wide-open window, "I wonder if it has
+occurred to you that if any of our friends who are so anxious to obtain
+possession of Isobel were to attempt a coup down here, we should be
+rather in a mess. We're a mile from the village, and Lord knows how many
+from a police-station, and there isn't a door in the cottage a man
+couldn't break open with his fist."
+
+"What made you think of it--just now?" I asked.
+
+"Three men passed by, following that last fellow--on the edge of the
+common. I've got eyes like a cat in the dark, you know, and I could see
+that they were trying to get by unnoticed. Of course, there may be
+nothing in it, but--thanks, Isobel! By Jove, that's good!"
+
+I slipped upstairs to my room, and on my return handed Allan something
+which he thrust quietly into his pocket. Then we went out again into the
+garden. I drew Mabane on one side for a moment.
+
+"I don't think there's anything in it, Allan," I whispered. "It would be
+too clumsy for any of our friends--and too risky."
+
+"It needn't be either," Allan answered, "but I daresay you're right."
+
+Then we hastened once more to the front gate, summoned there by Isobel's
+cry.
+
+"Listen!" she exclaimed, holding up her hand.
+
+We stood by her side. From somewhere out of the night there came to our
+ears the faint distant throbbing of an engine. Neither Allan nor I
+realized what it was, but Isobel, who had stepped out on to the road,
+knew at once.
+
+"Look!" she cried suddenly.
+
+We followed her outstretched finger. Far away on the top of a distant
+hill, but moving towards us all the time with marvellous swiftness, we
+saw a small but brilliant light.
+
+"A motor bicycle!" she cried. "I believe it is Arthur. It sounds just
+like his machine."
+
+Arthur it was, white with dust and breathless. His first greeting was
+for Isobel, who welcomed him with both hands outstretched and a delight
+which she made no effort to conceal, overwhelming him with questions,
+frankly joyful at his coming. Mabane and I stood silent in the
+background, and we avoided each other's eyes. It was at that moment,
+perhaps, that I for the first time realized the tragedy into which we
+were slowly drifting. Isobel had forgotten us. She was wholly absorbed
+in her joy at Arthur's unexpected appearance. The thing which in my
+quieter moments had begun already vaguely to trouble me--a thing of slow
+and painful growth--assumed for the first time a certain definiteness. I
+looked a little way into the future, and it seemed to me that there were
+evil times coming.
+
+Arthur approached us presently with outstretched hand. His manner was
+half apologetic, half triumphant. He seemed to be saying to himself that
+Isobel's reception of him must surely have opened our eyes.
+
+"Your coming, I suppose, Arthur," Mabane said quietly, "signifies----"
+
+"That I accept your terms for the present," Arthur answered, in a low
+tone. "I had to see you. There are strangers continually watching our
+diggings, and making inquiries about Isobel. There are things happening
+which I cannot understand at all."
+
+I glanced towards Isobel.
+
+"We will talk about it after she has gone to bed," I said. "Come in and
+have some supper now."
+
+He drew me a little on one side.
+
+"You remember the chap who was with the Archduchess at the Mordaunt
+Rooms?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"He was at the hotel in Guildford when I stopped for tea, with two other
+men. They're in a great Daimter car, and they're coming this way. I
+heard them ask about the roads."
+
+"How far were they behind you?" I asked.
+
+"They must be close up," he answered. "Listen!"
+
+"Another motor!" Isobel cried suddenly. "Can you not hear it?"
+
+There was no mistaking the sound, the deep, low throbbing of a powerful
+engine as yet some distance away. I was conscious of a curious sense of
+uneasiness.
+
+"Isobel," I said, "would you mind going indoors!"
+
+"Indoors indeed!" she laughed. "But no. I must see this motor-car."
+
+I stepped quickly up to her, and laid my hand upon her arm.
+
+"Isobel," I said earnestly, "you do not understand. I do not wish to
+frighten you, but I am afraid that the men in this car are coming here,
+and it is better that you should be out of the way. They want to take
+you from us. Go inside and lock yourself in your room."
+
+She looked at me half puzzled, half resentful. The car was close at hand
+now. We ourselves were almost in the path of its flaring searchlights.
+
+"Arnold, you are joking, of course!" she exclaimed. "They cannot take me
+away. I would not go."
+
+The car had stopped. It contained four men, one of whom at once alighted
+and advanced towards us. I knew him by his voice and figure. It was the
+Baron von Leibingen!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+I made no movement towards opening the gate. The newcomer advanced to
+within a few feet of me, and then paused. He leaned a little forward. He
+was doubtful, as I could see, of my identity.
+
+"Can you tell me," he asked, raising his hat, "if this is Roseleys
+Cottage, the residence of Mr. Arnold Greatson?"
+
+"Do you forget all your acquaintances so quickly, Baron?" I answered.
+"This is Roseleys, and I am Arnold Greatson!"
+
+"Your voice," he declared, "is sufficient. I can assure you that it is a
+matter of eyesight, not of memory. In the dark I am always as blind as a
+bat."
+
+"It is," I remarked, "a very common happening. You are motoring, I see.
+You have chosen a very delightful night, but are you not--pardon me--a
+little off the track? You are on your way to the South Coast, I
+presume?"
+
+"On the contrary," the Baron answered, "our destination is here. Will
+you permit me to apologise for the lateness of my visit? We were
+unfortunately delayed for several hours by a mishap to our automobile,
+or I should have had the honour of presenting myself during the
+afternoon."
+
+I did not offer to move.
+
+"Perhaps," I said, "as it is certainly very late, and we were on the
+point of retiring, you will permit me to inquire at once into the nature
+of the business which procures for me the honour of this visit."
+
+My visitor paused. His hand was upon the gate. So was mine, keeping it
+all the time fast closed.
+
+"You will permit me?" he said, making an attempt to enter.
+
+"I regret," I answered, "that at this late hour I am not prepared to
+offer you any hospitality. If you will come and see me to-morrow morning
+I shall be happy to hear what you have to say."
+
+My visitor did not remove his hand from the gate. It seemed to me that
+his tone became more belligerent.
+
+"You are discomposed to see us, Mr. Greatson," he said, "me and my
+friends. As you see," he added, with a little wave of his hand, "I am
+not alone. I have only to regret that you have made this visit
+necessary. We have come to induce you, if possible, to change your mind,
+and to give up the young lady in whom the Archduchess has been
+graciously pleased to interest herself to those who have a better claim
+upon her."
+
+"It is not a matter," I answered, "which I am prepared to discuss at
+this hour--or with you!"
+
+"As to that," the young man answered, "I am the envoy of her Royal
+Highness, as I can speedily convince you if you will."
+
+"It is unnecessary," I answered. "The Archduchess has already had my
+answer. Will you allow me to wish you good-night?"
+
+"I wish, Mr. Greatson," the young man said, "that you would discuss this
+matter with me in a reasonable spirit."
+
+"At a reasonable hour," I answered, "I might be prepared to do so. But
+certainly not now."
+
+It seemed to me that his hand upon the gate tightened. He certainly
+showed no signs of accepting the dismissal which I was trying to force
+upon him.
+
+"I have endeavoured to explain my late arrival," he said. "You must not
+believe me guilty of wilful discourtesy. As for the rest, Mr. Greatson,
+what does it matter whether the hour is late or early? The matter is an
+important one. Between ourselves, her Highness has made up her mind to
+undertake the charge of the young lady, and I may tell you that when her
+Highness has made up her mind to anything she is not one to be
+disappointed."
+
+"In her own country," I said, "the will of the Archduchess is doubtless
+paramount. Out here, however, she must take her chance amongst the
+others."
+
+"But you have no claim--no shadow of a claim upon the child," the Baron
+declared.
+
+"If the Archduchess thinks she has a better," I answered, "the law
+courts are open to her."
+
+My visitor was apparently becoming annoyed. There were traces of
+irritation in his tone.
+
+"Do you imagine, my dear Mr. Greatson," he said, "that her Highness can
+possibly desire to bring before the notice of the world the peccadiloes
+of her illustrious relative? No, the law courts are not to be thought
+of. We rely upon your good sense!"
+
+"And failing that?"
+
+The Baron hesitated. It seemed to me that he was peering into the
+shadows beyond the hedge.
+
+"The position," he murmured, "is a singular one. Where neither side for
+different reasons is disposed to submit its case to the courts, then it
+must be admitted that possession becomes a very important feature in the
+case."
+
+"That," I remarked, "is entirely my view. May I take the liberty, Baron
+von Leibingen, of wishing you good-night? I see no advantage in
+continuing this discussion."
+
+"Possession for the moment," he said slowly, "is with you. Have you
+reflected, Mr. Greatson, that it may not always be so?"
+
+"Will you favour me," I said, "by becoming a little more explicit?"
+
+"With pleasure," the Baron answered quickly. "I have three friends here
+with me, and we are all armed. Your cottage is surrounded by half a
+dozen more--friends--who are also armed. We are here to take Isobel de
+Sorrens back with us, and we mean to do it. On my honour, Mr. Greatson,
+no harm is intended to her. She will be as safe with the Archduchess as
+with her own mother."
+
+"If you don't take your hand off my gate in two seconds," I said, "you
+will regret it all your life."
+
+He sprang forward, but I fired over his shoulder, and with an oath he
+backed into the road. Isobel meanwhile, now thoroughly alarmed, turned
+and ran towards the house, only to find the path already blocked by two
+men, who had stepped silently out from the low hedge which separated the
+garden from the fields beyond. Allan promptly knocked one of them down,
+only to find himself struggling with the other. Isobel, whose skirts
+were caught by the fallen man, tried in vain to release herself. I dared
+scarcely turn my head, for my levelled revolver was keeping in check the
+Baron and his three friends.
+
+"Baron," I said, "your methods savour a little too much of comic opera.
+You have mistaken your country and--us. There are three of us, and if
+you force us to fight--well, we shall fight. The advantage of numbers is
+with you, I admit. For the rest, if you succeed to-night you will be in
+the police court to-morrow."
+
+The Baron made no answer. I felt that he was watching the struggle which
+was going on behind my back. I heard Isobel shriek, and the sound
+maddened me. I left it to the Baron to do his worst. I sprang backwards,
+and brought the butt end of my revolver down upon the skull of the man
+who was dragging her across the lawn. Then I passed my arm round her
+waist, and called out once more to the Baron who had passed through the
+gate, and was coming rapidly towards us.
+
+"You fool!" I cried. "Unless you call off your hired gang and leave this
+place at once, every newspaper in London shall advertise Isobel's name
+and presence here to-morrow."
+
+It was a chance shot, but it went home. I saw him stop short, and I
+heard his little broken exclamation.
+
+"But you do not know who she is?" he cried.
+
+"I know very well indeed," I answered.
+
+Just then Mabane broke loose from the man with whom he had been
+struggling, and rushed to Arthur's assistance. The Baron raised his hand
+and shouted something in German. Instantly our assailants seemed to melt
+away. The Baron stepped on to the strip of lawn and raised his hand.
+
+"I call a truce, Mr. Greatson," he said. "I desire to speak with you."
+
+I released my hold upon Isobel and turned to Mabane. Arthur too,
+breathless but unhurt, had struggled to his feet.
+
+"Take her into the house," I said quickly. But her grasp only tightened
+upon my arm.
+
+"I will not leave you, Arnold," she said. "I shall stay here. They will
+not dare to touch me."
+
+I tried to disengage her arm, but she was persistent. She took no notice
+of Allan, who tried to lead her away. I stole a glance at her through
+the darkness. Her face was white, but there were no signs of fear there,
+nor were there any signs of childishness in her manner or bearing. She
+carried herself like an angry young princess, and her eyes seemed lit
+with smouldering fire, as clinging to my arm she leaned a little
+forwards toward the Baron.
+
+"Why am I spoken of," she cried passionately, "as though I were a baby,
+a thing of no account, to be carried away to your mistress or disposed
+of according to your liking? Do you think that I would come, Baron von
+Leibingen----"
+
+She broke off suddenly. She leaned a little further forward. Her lips
+were parted. The fire in her eyes had given way to a great wonder, and
+the breathlessness of her silence was like a thing to be felt. It held
+us all dumb. We waited--we scarcely knew for what. Only we knew that she
+had something more to say, and we were impelled to wait for her words.
+
+"I have seen you before," she cried, with a strange note of wonder in
+her tone. "Your face comes back to me--only it was a long time ago--a
+long, long time! Where was it, Baron von Leibingen?"
+
+I heard his smothered exclamation. He drew quickly a step backwards as
+though he sought to evade her searching gaze.
+
+"You are mistaken, young lady," he said. "I know nothing of you beyond
+the fact that the lady whom I have the honour to serve desires to be
+your friend."
+
+"It is not true," she answered. "I remember you--a long way back--and
+the memory comes to me like an evil thought. I will not come to you. You
+may kill me, but I will not come alive."
+
+"Indeed you are mistaken," he persisted, though he sought still the
+shadow of a rhododendron bush, and his voice quivered with nervous
+anxiety. "You have never seen me before. Surely the Archduchess, the
+daughter of a King, is not one whose proffered kindness it is well to
+slight? Think again, young lady. Her Highness will make your future her
+special charge!"
+
+"If your visit to-night, sir," she answered, "is a mark of the
+Archduchess's good-will to me, I can well dispense with it. I have given
+you my answer."
+
+"You will remember, Baron," I said, speaking at random, but gravely, and
+as though some special meaning lurked in my words, "that this young lady
+comes of a race who do not readily change. She has made her choice, and
+her answer to you is my answer. She will remain with us!"
+
+The Baron stepped out again into the rich-scented twilight.
+
+"You hold strong cards, Mr. Arnold Greatson," he said, "but I see their
+backs only. How do I know that you speak the truth? From whom have you
+learnt the story of this young lady's antecedents?"
+
+"From Mr. Grooten," I answered boldly.
+
+"I do not know the name," the Baron protested.
+
+"He is the man," I said, "who set Isobel free!"
+
+The Baron said something to himself in German, which I did not
+understand.
+
+"You mean the man who shot Major Delahaye?" he asked.
+
+"I do!"
+
+"Then I would to Heaven I knew whose identity that name conceals," he
+cried fiercely.
+
+"You would not dare to publish it," I answered, "for to do so would be
+to give Isobel's story to the world."
+
+"And why should I shrink from that?" he asked.
+
+I laughed.
+
+"Ask your august mistress," I declared. "It seems to me that we know
+more than you think."
+
+The Baron looked over his shoulder and spoke to his companions. From
+that moment I knew that we had conquered. One of them left and went
+outside to where the motor-car, with its great flaring lights, still
+stood. Then the Baron faced me once more.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," he said, "you are playing a game of your own, and for
+the moment I must admit that you hold the tricks against me. But it is
+well that I should give you once more this warning. If you should decide
+upon taking one false step--you perhaps know very well what I
+mean--things will go ill with you--very ill indeed."
+
+Then he turned away, and our little garden was freed from the presence
+of all of them. We heard the starting of the car. Presently it glided
+away. We listened to its throbbing growing fainter and fainter in the
+distance. Then there was silence. A faint breeze had sprung up, and was
+rustling in the shrubs. From somewhere across the moor we heard the
+melancholy cry of the corncrakes. A great sob of relief broke from
+Isobel's throat--then suddenly her arm grew heavy upon mine. We hurried
+her into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The perfume from a drooping lilac-bush a few feet away from the open
+casement was mingled with the fainter odour of jessamine and homely
+stocks. In the soft morning sunshine the terrors of last night seemed a
+thing far removed from us. We sat at breakfast in our little
+sitting-room, and as though by common though unspoken consent we treated
+the whole affair as a gigantic joke. We ignored its darker aspect. We
+spoke of it as an "opera-bouffe" attempt never likely to be
+repeated--the hare-brained scheme of a mad foreigner, over anxious to
+earn the favour of his mistress. But beneath all our light talk was an
+undernote of seriousness. I think that Mabane and I, at any rate,
+realized perhaps for the first time that the situation, so far as Isobel
+was concerned, was fast becoming an impossible one.
+
+After breakfast we all strolled out into the garden. Isobel, with her
+hands full of flowers, flitted in and out amongst the rose-bushes,
+laughing and talking with all the invincible gaiety of light-hearted
+youth, and Arthur hung all the while about her, his eyes following her
+every movement, telling her all the while by every action and look--if
+indeed the time had come for her to discern such things--all that our
+compact forbade him to utter. Presently I slipped away, and shutting
+myself up in the tiny room where I worked, drew out my papers. In a few
+minutes I had made a start. I passed with a little unconscious sigh of
+relief into the detachment which was fast becoming the one luxury of my
+life.
+
+An hour may have passed, perhaps more, when I was interrupted. I heard
+the door softly opened, and light footsteps crossed the room to my side.
+Isobel's hand rested on my shoulder, and she looked down at my work.
+
+"Arnold," she exclaimed, "how dare you! You promised to read your story
+when you had finished six chapters, and you are working on chapter
+twenty now!"
+
+Her long white forefinger pointed accusingly to the heading of my last
+page. Then I realized with a sudden flash of apprehension why I had not
+kept my promise--why I could never keep it. The story which flowed so
+smoothly from my pen was a record of my own emotions, my own sufferings.
+Even her name had usurped the name of my heroine, and stared up at me
+from the half-finished page. It was my own story which was written
+there, my own unhappiness which throbbed through every word and
+sentence. With a little nervous gesture I covered over the open sheets.
+I rose hastily to my feet, and I drew her away from the table.
+
+"Another time, Isobel," I said. "It is too glorious a day to spend
+indoors, and Arthur has taken holiday too. Tell me, what shall we do?"
+
+She looked at me a little doubtfully. I had grown into the habit of
+consulting her about my work, of reading most of it to her. Sometimes,
+too, she acted as my secretary. Perhaps she saw something of the trouble
+in my face, for she answered me very softly.
+
+"I should like," she said, "to sit there before the open window on a
+cushion, and to have you sit down in that easy-chair and read to me.
+That is how I choose to spend the morning!"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"How about the others?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, Arthur and Allan can go for a walk!" she declared.
+
+"What selfishness," I answered, as lightly as I could. "Arthur must go
+back to town to-night, he says. I think that we ought all to spend the
+day together, don't you? I rather thought that you young people would
+have been off somewhere directly after breakfast."
+
+She looked at me earnestly.
+
+"Of course," she said, "if you want to be left alone----"
+
+"But I don't," I interrupted, reaching for my hat. "I want to come too."
+
+"You nice old thing!" she exclaimed, passing her arm through mine.
+"We'll walk to Heather Hill. Arthur says that we can see the sea from
+there. Come along!"
+
+So we started away, the four of us together. Presently, however, Arthur
+and Isobel drew away in front. Allan, with a little grunt, stopped to
+light his pipe.
+
+"Arthur may keep his compact in the letter," he said, "but in the spirit
+he breaks it every time their eyes meet. You can't blame him. It's human
+nature, after all--the gravitation of youth. Arnold, I'm afraid you
+awoke to your responsibilities too late."
+
+"You think--that she understands?" I asked quietly.
+
+"Why not? She is almost a woman, and she is older than her years. Look
+at them now. He wants to talk seriously, and she is teasing him all the
+time. She has the instinct of her sex. She will conceal what she feels
+until the--psychological moment. But she does feel--she begins to
+understand. I am sure of it. Watch them!"
+
+We kept silence for a while, I myself struggling with a sickening sense
+of despair against this newborn and most colossal folly. I think that I
+was always possessed of an average amount of self-control, but my great
+fear now was lest my secret should in any way escape me. Mabane's words
+had carried conviction with them. Life itself for these few deadly
+minutes seemed changed. The birds had ceased to sing, and the warmth of
+the sunshine had faded out of the fluttering east wind. I saw no longer
+the heath starred with yellow and purple blooms, the distant line of
+blue hills. The turf was no longer springy beneath my feet, a grey mist
+hung over the joyous summer morning. I was back again on my way from Bow
+Street, threading a difficult passage through the market baskets of
+Covent Garden, the child stepping blithely by my side, graceful even
+then, notwithstanding her immatureness, and quaintly attractive, though
+her deep blue eyes were full of tears, and the white terror had not
+passed wholly from her face. It was those few moments of her complete
+and trustful helplessness which had transformed my life for me, those
+few moments in which the huge folly of these later days had been born.
+For her very coming seemed to have been at a chosen time--at one of
+those periods of weariness which a man must feel whose sympathy with and
+desire for life leads him into many and devious forms of distraction,
+only to find in time the same dregs at the bottom of the cup. The joy of
+her fresh childish beauty, her pure sweet trustfulness, at all times a
+delicate flattery to any man, just the more so to me, a little inclined
+towards self-distrust, was like a fragrant, a heart-stirring memory even
+now. I looked back upon these years which lay between her youth and my
+fast approaching middle-age--grey, weary years, whose follies seemed now
+to rise up and stalk by my side, the ghosts of misspent days, ghosts of
+the sickly reasonings of a sham philosophy which lead into the broad way
+because its thoroughfares are easy and pleasant, and pressed by the
+feet of the great majority. I kept my eyes fixed upon the ground and
+I felt that strange thrill of despair pulling at my heartstrings,
+dragging me downwards--the despair which is almost akin to physical
+suffering.... And then a voice came floating back to me down the west
+wind. Its call at such a moment seemed almost symbolical.
+
+"Come along, you very lazy people! Arnold, may I walk with you for a
+little way? Arthur is not at all brilliant this morning, and he does not
+amuse me."
+
+"I am afraid," I began, "that as an entertainer----"
+
+"Oh, you want to smoke your pipe in peace, of course," she interrupted,
+laughing, and passing her arm through mine. "Well, I am not going to
+allow it. I want you--to tell me things."
+
+So our little procession was re-formed. Mabane, and Arthur with his
+hands deep in his pockets and an angry frown upon his forehead, walked
+on ahead. Behind came Isobel and I--Isobel with her hands clasped behind
+her, her head a little thrown back, a faint, wistful smile lightening
+the unusual gravity of her face. I looked at her in wonder.
+
+"Come," I said, "what are the things you want me to talk to you about,
+and why are you tired of talking nonsense with Arthur?"
+
+She did not look at me, but the smile faded from her lips. Her eyes were
+still fixed steadily ahead.
+
+"I believe you think, Arnold," she said quietly, "that I am still a
+baby!"
+
+I saw her lips quiver for a moment, and my selfishness melted away. I
+thought only of her.
+
+"No, I do not think that, Isobel," I said gently. "Only if I were you I
+would not be in too great a hurry to grow up. It is when one is young,
+after all, that one walks in the gardens of life. Afterwards--when one
+has passed through the portals--outside the roads are dusty, and the way
+a little wearisome. Stay in the gardens, Isobel, as long as you can.
+Believe me, that life outside has many disappointments and many sorrows.
+Your time will come soon enough."
+
+She smiled at me a little enigmatically.
+
+"And you?" she asked, "have you closed the gates of the garden behind
+you?"
+
+"I am nearer forty than thirty," I answered. "I have grey hairs, and I
+am getting a little bald. I may still be of some use in the world, and
+there are very beautiful places where I may rest, and even find
+happiness. But they are not like the gardens of youth. There is no other
+place like them. All of us who have hurried so eagerly away, Isobel,
+look back sometimes--and long!"
+
+She shook her head. Perhaps a little of the sadness of my mood had after
+all found its way into my tone, for she looked at me with the shadow of
+a reproach in her deep blue eyes, a faint tenderness which seemed to me
+more beautiful than anything I had ever seen.
+
+"I do not think that I like your allegory, Arnold," she said. "After
+all, the gardens are the nursery of life, are they not? The great things
+of the world are all outside."
+
+I held my breath for a moment in amazement. Since when had thoughts like
+this come to her? I knew then that the days of her childhood were
+numbered indeed, that, underneath the fresh joyous grace of her
+delightful youth, the woman's instincts were stirring. And I was afraid!
+
+"The great things, Isobel," I said slowly, "look very fine from a
+distance, but the power of accomplishment is not given to all of us.
+Every triumph and every success has its reverse side, its sorrowful
+side. For instance, the whole judgment of the world is by comparison. A
+great picture which brings fame to a man eclipses the work and lessens
+the reputation of another. A successful book takes not a place of its
+own, but the place of another man's work who must needs suffer for your
+success. Life is a battle truly enough, but it is always civil war, the
+striving of humanity against itself. That is why what looks so great to
+you from behind the hedge may seem a very hollow thing when you have won
+the power to call it your own."
+
+She looked at me as though wondering how far I were in earnest.
+
+"I think," she said, smiling, "that you are trying to confuse me. Of
+course, I have not thought much about such things, but when I am a
+little older, if there was anything I could do I should simply try to do
+it in the best possible way, and I should feel that I was doing what was
+right. There is room for a great many people in the world, Arnold--a
+great many novelists and a great many artists and a great many thinkers!
+Some of us must be content with lesser places. I for one!..."
+
+I walked home with Allan, and I spoke to him seriously.
+
+"There is a duty before us," I said, "which up to now we have shirked.
+The time has come when we must undertake it in earnest."
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"We must abandon our negative attitude. Isobel comes, I am very sure,
+from no ordinary people. We must find out her place in life and restore
+her to it. She is a child no longer. It is not fitting that she should
+stay with us."
+
+Mabane, too, was for a moment sad and silent. His face fell into stern
+lines, but when he answered me his tone was steady and resolute enough.
+
+"You are right, Arnold," he answered. "We had better go back to London
+and begin at once."
+
+It was perhaps a little ominous that I should find waiting for me on our
+return a telegram from Grooten:
+
+"I must see you to-night. Shall call at your rooms twelve o'clock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Isobel interrupted the discussion with an imperative little tap upon the
+table.
+
+"Please listen, all of you!" she exclaimed. "I have something to say,
+and an invitation for you all."
+
+We had been dining at a little Italian restaurant on our way home, and
+over our coffee had been considering how to spend the rest of the
+evening. Arthur had declared for a music hall; Mabane and I were
+indifferent. Isobel up to now had said nothing.
+
+"All my life," she said slowly, "I have been wanting to see Feurgéres.
+He is in London for one week with Rejani, and if we can get seats I am
+going to take you all. I have twenty pounds in my pocket from that nice
+man Mr. Grooten, who bought my other miniature, and I want to spend some
+of it."
+
+Arthur, who understood no French, shook his head.
+
+"Not the slightest chance of seats," he declared. "They've all been
+booked for weeks."
+
+"They often have some returned at the theatre," Isobel answered. "At
+least, if you others do not mind, we will go and see."
+
+"Your proposal, Isobel," Allan said gravely, "indicates a certain amount
+of recklessness which reflects little credit upon us, your guardians. I
+propose----"
+
+"Please do not be tiresome!" she interrupted. "Arnold, you will come
+with me, will you not?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," I answered. "I am sure that we all shall. Only I
+am afraid that we shall not get in."
+
+We paid the bill and walked to the theatre. The man at the ticket-office
+shook his head at our request for seats. People had been waiting in the
+streets since morning for the unreserved places, and the others had been
+booked weeks ago. But as we were turning away the telephone in his
+office rang, and he called us back.
+
+"I have just had four stalls returned," he said. "You can have them, if
+you like."
+
+"We are in morning dress," I remarked doubtfully.
+
+"They are in the back row, so you can have them if you care to," he
+answered.
+
+"What luck!" Isobel exclaimed, delighted. "Arnold, how glorious! Here is
+my purse. Will you pay for me, please?"
+
+So we went in just as the curtain rose upon the first act of Rostand's
+great play. The house was packed with an immense audience. One box
+alone, the stage box on the left, was empty. I leaned over to Isobel,
+and would have told her the story which all the world knew.
+
+"You see that box?" I whispered. "Wherever he plays it is always empty."
+
+"I know," she answered. "His wife used to sit there--always in the same
+place; and after her death, whatever theatre he played at, he always
+insisted upon having it kept empty. They say that on great nights, when
+the people go almost wild with enthusiasm, he looks into the shadows
+there almost as though he really saw her still sitting in her old place.
+It is a beautiful story."
+
+"Done for effect!" Arthur muttered, and was promptly snubbed, as he
+deserved. They were friends again immediately afterwards, however, and I
+saw him attempt to hold her hand for a moment. Decidedly it was time
+that we carried out our new resolution.
+
+I think that from the moment I took my seat I was conscious in some
+mysterious way of the coming of great things. There was a thrill of
+excitement in the air, a sort of stifled electricity which one realizes
+often amongst a highly cultured audience awaiting the production of a
+great work. But apart from this sensation of which I was fully
+conscious, I felt a curious sense of nervousness stealing in upon me for
+which I could in no way account. I knew what it meant only when, amidst
+a storm of cheers, Feurgéres entered. Then indeed I knew.
+
+I kept silent, for which I was thankful, but the programme in my hand
+was crumpled into a little ball, and the figures upon the stage moved as
+though in a mist before my eyes. Isobel noticed nothing, for her whole
+breathless attention was riveted upon the play. I came to myself with
+the rich sweet voice of the man, so tender, so infinitely pathetic,
+ringing with a curious familiarity in my ears. From that moment I
+followed the movement of the play.
+
+The curtain went down upon the first act amidst a silence so intense
+that it seemed as though people might be listening still for the echoes
+of that sad, sweet voice which had been playing so effectively upon
+their heartstrings. Then came the storm of applause, which lasted for
+several minutes. I turned towards Isobel. She was sitting very still,
+and she did not join in the enthusiasm which seemed to find its way
+straight from the hearts of the men and women who sat about us. But her
+eyes were wet with tears, her lips a little parted. She gazed at the man
+whom incessant calls had brought at last a little wearily before the
+curtain, as one might look at a god. And their eyes met. He did not
+start or betray himself in any way--perhaps his training befriended him
+there, but as he left the stage he staggered, and I saw his hand go to
+clutch the curtain for support. I knew then that, before the night was
+over, Isobel's history would no longer be a secret to us.
+
+She turned to me with a little smile of apology. There was a new look in
+her face too. She spoke gravely.
+
+"Was I very stupid? I am sorry, but I could not help it. I have never
+seen anything like this before. It is wonderful!"
+
+We talked quietly of the play, and I was astonished at the keenness of
+her perceptions, the unerring ease with which she had realized and
+appreciated the self-abnegation which was the great underlying _motif_
+of the whole drama. And in the midst of our conversation, what I had
+expected happened. A note was brought to me by an attendant.
+
+"Come to me after the next act, and bring her. An attendant will be
+waiting for you at your left-hand door of egress."
+
+Mabane and Arthur had gone out to have a smoke. I had still a moment
+before the curtain went up. I leaned over towards Isobel.
+
+"Isobel," I said, "I am going to tell you something which will surprise
+you very much. It is necessary that I tell you at once. If you answer me
+at all do not speak above a whisper."
+
+She only slightly moved her head. I had not any fear of her betraying
+herself.
+
+"You have seen Feurgéres before. It was in the _café_. He was my
+companion when I saw you first."
+
+"Mr. Grooten!" she murmured, so softly that her lips seemed scarcely to
+move.
+
+I nodded assent.
+
+"You knew?"
+
+"Not until to-night."
+
+She was very pale, but her self-control was complete.
+
+"He wishes us--you and I--to go round to his room after this act. You
+will be prepared?"
+
+"Of course," she answered simply.
+
+Mabane and Arthur came back, and the latter whispered several times in
+her ear. I doubt, however, whether she heard anything. She sat through
+the whole of the next act like one in a dream, only her eyes never left
+the stage--never left, indeed, the figure of the man from whom all the
+greatness of the play seemed to flow. As the curtain fell I leaned over
+to Arthur.
+
+"Isobel and I are going to pay a visit," I said. "We shall be back in
+time for the next act."
+
+"A visit!" he repeated doubtfully. "Is there anyone we know here, then?"
+
+"Allan will explain," I answered. "You had better tell him," I whispered
+to Mabane.
+
+Allan was looking very serious. I think that he questioned the wisdom of
+what I was doing.
+
+"You are going to see him?" he asked, in a low tone.
+
+"He has sent for us," I answered.
+
+We found the attendant waiting, and by a devious route along many
+passages and through many doors we reached our destination at last. Our
+guide knocked at a door on which was hanging a little board with the
+name of "Monsieur Feurgéres" painted across it. Almost immediately we
+were bidden to enter. Monsieur Feurgéres was sitting with his back to us
+before a long dressing-table. He turned at once to the servant who stood
+by his side.
+
+"Come back five minutes before my call," he ordered. "That will be in
+about twenty minutes from now."
+
+The man bowed and silently withdrew. Not until he had left the room did
+Feurgéres move from his place. Then he arose to his feet and held out
+his hands to Isobel.
+
+"I knew your mother, Isobel!" he said simply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Isobel never hesitated. I think that instinctively she accepted him
+without demur. Her eyes flashed back to him all those nameless things
+which his own greeting had left unspoken. She took his hands, and looked
+him frankly in the face.
+
+"All my life," she said softly, "I have wanted to meet someone who could
+say that to me."
+
+He was dressed in a suit of mediæval court clothes, black from head to
+foot, and fashioned according to the period of the play in which he was
+acting. But if he had worn the garments of a pierrot or a clown, one
+would never have noticed it. The man's individuality, magnetic and
+irresistible, triumphed easily. Mr. Grooten had passed away. It was the
+great Feurgéres, whose sad shining eyes lingered so wistfully upon
+Isobel's face.
+
+"I can say more than that," he went on. "And now that I see you, Isobel,
+I wonder that I have not said it long ago. You are like her, child--very
+like her!"
+
+"I am glad," Isobel murmured. "Please tell me--everything!"
+
+"Everything--for me--is soon told," he answered, his voice dropping
+almost to a whisper, his eyes still fixed upon Isobel's, yet looking her
+through as though she were a shadow. "I loved your mother. I was the
+man--whom your mother loved! The years of my life began and ended
+there."
+
+Their hands had fallen apart a little while before, but Isobel, with an
+impulsive gesture, stooped down and raised the fingers of his left hand
+to her lips. I turned away. It seemed like sacrilege to watch a man's
+soul shining in his eyes. I walked to the other end of the long narrow
+room, and examined the swords which lay ready for use against the wall.
+It was not many minutes, however, before Feurgéres recalled me.
+
+"To-night," he said, "I was coming to see Mr. Greatson."
+
+"It is better," she murmured, "to have met you like this."
+
+He smiled very slightly, yet it seemed to me that the curve of his lips
+was almost a caress. There was certainly nothing left now of Mr.
+Grooten.
+
+"I think that I, too, am glad," he said. "Your mother suffered all her
+life because she permitted herself to care for me. We mummers, you see,
+Isobel, though the world loves to be amused, are always a little outside
+the pale. I think," he added, with a curious little note of bitterness
+in his tone, "that we are not reckoned worthy or capable of the domestic
+affections."
+
+"You do not believe--you cannot believe," she murmured, "that there are
+many people who are so foolish! It is the dwellers in the world who are
+mummers--those who live their foolish, orderly lives with their eyes
+closed, and oppressed all the while with a nervous fear of what their
+neighbours are thinking of them. Those are the mummers--but you--you,
+Monsieur, are Feurgéres--the artist! You make music on the heartstrings
+of the world!"
+
+For myself I was astonished. I had not often seen Isobel so deeply
+moved. I had never known her so ready, so earnest of speech. But
+Feurgéres was almost agitated. For the first time I saw him without the
+mask of his perfect self-control. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes were
+soft as a woman's. He raised Isobel's hand to his lips, and his voice,
+when he spoke, shook with real emotion.
+
+"You are the daughter of your mother, dear Isobel," he said. "Beyond
+that, what is there that I can say--I, who loved her!"
+
+"You can tell me about her," Isobel said gently. "That is what I have
+been hoping for!"
+
+"A little, a very little," he answered, "and more to-night, if you will.
+I have already written to Mr. Greatson, and I meant in a few hours to
+tell him everything. But I would have you know this, Isobel, and
+remember it always. Your mother was a holy woman. For my sake, for the
+sake of the love she bore me, she abandoned a great position. She broke
+down all the barriers of race, and all the conventions of a lifetime.
+She lost every friend she had in the world; she even, perhaps, in some
+measure, neglected her duty to you. Yet you were seldom out of her
+thoughts, and her last words committed you to my distant care. I have,
+perhaps, ill-fulfilled her charge, Isobel. Yet I have been watching over
+you sometimes when you have not known it."
+
+"You were my saviour once," she said, "you and Arnold here, when I
+sorely needed help."
+
+"I came from America at a moment's notice," he said, "when it seemed to
+me that you might need my help. I broke the greatest contract I had ever
+signed, and I placed my liberty, if not my life, at the mercy of your
+wonderful police system. But those things count for little. I have been
+forced, Isobel, to leave you very much to yourself. You come of a race
+who would regard any association with me as defilement. And there is
+always the chance that you may be able to take your proper position in
+the world. That is why it has been my duty to keep away from you, why I
+have been forced to leave to others what I would gladly have done
+myself. To-night you will understand everything."
+
+"Nothing that you can tell me of my family or myself," she answered,
+"will ever make me forget that, whereas of them I know nothing, you have
+been my guardian angel. It was you who rescued me from the one person in
+this world of whom I have been miserably, hatefully afraid. It was not
+my family who saved me. It was you!"
+
+A shrill bell was ringing outside. We heard the commotion of hurrying
+footsteps, the call-boy's summons, the creaking of moving scenery.
+Feurgéres glanced at the watch which stood upon his table. His manner
+seemed to undergo a sudden change. The man no longer revealed himself.
+
+"The curtain is going up," he said. "I can stay with you but two minutes
+longer. I am coming to see Mr. Greatson to-night, Isobel, after the
+performance, and I wish to see him alone. This is at once our meeting
+and our farewell."
+
+"Our farewell!" she repeated doubtfully. "Surely you are not going to
+leave us--so soon! You cannot mean that?"
+
+"To-morrow," he said, "I leave for St. Petersburg. My engagement there
+has been made many months ago. But even if it were not so, dear child,
+our ways through life must always lie far apart. If the necessity for it
+had not existed, I should not have left you to the care of--of even Mr.
+Greatson. To be your guardian, Isobel, would not be seemly. That you
+will better understand--to-morrow."
+
+"Indeed!" she protested, "I would sooner hear it now from your own
+lips--if, indeed, it must be so!"
+
+He shook his head very slowly, but with a decision more finite than the
+most emphatic negation which words could have framed.
+
+"I must go away, Isobel," he said, "and you and I must remain apart. I
+will only ask you to remember me by this. I am the man your mother
+loved. Nothing else in my life is worth considering--but that. I am one
+of those with whom fate has dealt a little hardly. I am as weary of my
+work as I am of life itself. I go on because it was her wish. But I
+cannot forget. The past remains--a blazing page of light. The present is
+a very empty and a very cold place. My days here are a sort of
+aftermath. My life ended with hers. To-night, for one moment--I want you
+to take her place."
+
+Isobel looked at him eagerly.
+
+"Tell me how," she begged. "Tell me what to do!"
+
+"It may sound very foolish," he said, with a faint smile, "but I have a
+fancy, and I am sure that you will do as I ask. I want you to sit where
+she sat night after night. You will find some flowers in her chair. Keep
+them. They were the ones she preferred."
+
+There was an imperative knocking at the door. Feurgéres caught up his
+plumed hat and sword.
+
+"I am ready," he said quietly. "Mr. Greatson, my servant will take you
+to the box, which I beg that you and Isobel will occupy for the rest of
+the evening. It is a harmless whim of mine, and I trust that it will not
+inconvenience you."
+
+With scarcely another word he left us, and a moment later we heard the
+roar of applause which greeted his appearance on the stage. Isobel's
+eyes kindled, and she moved restlessly towards the door.
+
+"I do hope," she said, "that someone will come for us soon. I want to
+hear every word. I hate to miss any of it."
+
+The dark-visaged servant stood upon the threshold.
+
+"I have orders from Monsieur Feurgéres," he announced respectfully, "to
+conduct you to his box. If Mademoiselle will permit!"
+
+We followed him on tiptoe to the front of the house. He unlocked the
+door of the left-hand stage box with a key which he took from his
+pocket.
+
+"Monsieur will permit me to remark," he whispered, "that this is the
+first time since I have been in the service of Monsieur Feurgéres that
+anyone has occupied his private box. I trust that Mademoiselle will be
+comfortable."
+
+Then the door closed behind him, and we were left to ourselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Isobel, her chair drawn a little behind the curtain, was almost
+invisible from the house. With both hands she held the cluster of pink
+roses which she had found upon the seat. Gravely, but with wonderful
+self-composure, she followed the action of the play with an intentness
+which never faltered. Occasionally she leaned a little forward, and at
+such moments her profile passed the droop of the curtain, and was
+visible to the greater part of the audience. It was immediately after
+one of such movements that I noticed some commotion amongst the
+occupants of the box opposite to us. Their attention seemed suddenly
+drawn towards Isobel--two sets of opera-glasses were steadily levelled
+at her. A woman, whose neck and arms were ablaze with diamonds, raised
+her lorgnettes, and, regardless of the progress of the play, kept them
+fixed in our direction. I changed my position to obtain a better view of
+these people, and immediately I understood.
+
+I saw the house now for the first time, and I saw something which
+pleased me very little. We were immediately opposite the Royal box,
+which, with the one adjoining, was occupied by a very brilliant little
+party. The Archduchess was there. It was she whose lorgnettes were still
+unfalteringly directed towards Isobel. Lady Delahaye sat in the
+background, and a greater personage than either occupied the chair next
+to the Archduchess. Soon I saw that they were all whispering together,
+all still looking from Isobel towards the stage, and from the stage to
+Isobel; and in the background was a man whose coat was covered with
+orders, and who held himself like a soldier. He looked at Isobel as one
+might look at a ghost. I stood back almost hidden in the shadows, and I
+wondered more than ever what the end of all these things might be.
+
+Towards the close of the act that wonderful voice, with its low burden
+of sorrow so marvellously controlled, drew me against my will to the
+front of the box. He stood there with outstretched arms, the prototype
+of all pathos, and the low words, drawn as it were against his will from
+his tremulous lips, kept the whole house breathless. His arms dropped to
+his side, the curtain commenced to fall. In that moment his eyes,
+suddenly uplifted, met mine. It seemed to me that they were charged with
+meaning, and I read their message rightly. After all, though, I am not
+sure that I needed any warning.
+
+The curtain fell. There was twenty minutes' interval. Isobel sat back in
+her chair, and her hand lingered lovingly about the roses which lay upon
+her lap. I did not speak to her. I knew that she was living in a little
+world of her own, into which any ordinary intrusion was almost
+sacrilege. Arthur and Allan had left their places. I judged rightly that
+they had gone home. So I sat by myself, and waited for what I knew was
+sure to happen.
+
+And presently it came--the knock at the box door for which I had been
+listening. I rose and opened it. A tall young Englishman, with smooth
+parted hair, whose evening attire was so immaculate as to become almost
+an offence, stood and stared at me through his eyeglass.
+
+"Mr. Greatson!" he suggested. "Mr. Arnold Greatson?"
+
+I acknowledged the fact with becoming meekness.
+
+"My name is Milton," he said--"Captain Angus Milton. I am in the suite
+of the Archduchess for this evening. Her Highness occupies the box
+opposite to yours."
+
+I bowed.
+
+"I have noticed the fact," I answered. "The Archduchess has been good
+enough to favour us with some attention."
+
+The young man stared at me for some moments. I found myself able to
+endure his scrutiny.
+
+"Her Highness desires that you and the young lady"--for the first time
+he bowed towards Isobel--"will be so good as to come to the anteroom of
+the Royal box. She is anxious for a few minutes' conversation with you."
+
+"The Archduchess," I answered, "does us too much honour! I shall be
+glad, however, if you will inform her that we will take another
+opportunity of waiting upon her. Miss de Sorrens is much interested in
+the play."
+
+The young man dropped his eyeglass. I was proud of the fact that I had
+succeeded in surprising him.
+
+"You mean," he exclaimed softly, "that you won't--that you don't want to
+come?"
+
+"Precisely," I answered. "I have already had the honour of one interview
+with the Archduchess, and I imagine that no useful purpose would be
+served by re-opening the subject of our discussion!"
+
+"The young lady, then?" he remarked, turning again to Isobel.
+
+"The young lady remains under my charge," I answered. "You will be so
+good as to express my regrets to the Archduchess."
+
+He hesitated for a moment, and then, with a slight bow to Isobel, left
+us. She spoke to me, and we had been so long silent that our voices
+sounded strange.
+
+"Thank you, Arnold," she said quietly. "This is all so wonderful that I
+could not bear to have it disturbed."
+
+"I pray that it may not be," I answered. "The Archduchess's interest is
+flattering, but mysterious. I for one do not trust her. I wish----"
+
+I broke off in my speech, for I saw that the principal seat in the
+opposite box was vacant. As for Isobel, I doubt whether she noticed my
+sudden pause. Her hands were still caressing the soft pink blossoms in
+her lap, her eyes were fixed upon vacancy. She was in a sort of dream,
+from which I did not care to rouse her. I knew very well that the
+awakening would come fast enough.
+
+Another imperative tap upon the door. I opened it, and the Archduchess
+swept past me. In the darkness of our box her diamonds glittered like
+fire, the perfume from her draperies was stronger by far than the
+delicate fragrance of the roses which Isobel still held. Me she ignored
+altogether. She went straight up to Isobel, and, stooping down, rested
+her gloved hand upon the girl's shoulder.
+
+"I sent for you just now," she said. "Did you not understand?"
+
+Isobel raised her eyebrows. The Archduchess was angry, and her voice
+betrayed her.
+
+"I do not know any reason," Isobel answered, "why I should do your
+bidding."
+
+[Illustration: "I do not know any reason" Isobel answered, "why I should
+do your bidding."]
+
+The Archduchess was silent for a moment. I think that she was waiting
+until she could control her voice.
+
+"Isobel," she said, "I will tell you a very good reason. I cannot keep
+silence any longer. They will not give you up to me any other way, so I
+have come to claim you openly. You shall know the truth. I am your
+mother's sister!"
+
+Isobel rose slowly to her feet. She was as tall as the Archduchess, and
+the likeness which had always haunted me was unmistakable. Only Isobel
+was of the finer mould, and her eyes were different.
+
+"Why did you not tell me this before--at the Mordaunt Rooms, for
+instance?" she asked.
+
+"You came upon me like a thunderclap," the Archduchess answered quickly.
+"For years we had lost all trace of you. Besides, there were
+reasons--you know that there were reasons why I might surely have been
+forgiven for hesitating. But let that go. We had better have your story
+blazoned out once more to the world than that you should live your life
+in this hole-and-corner fashion. I shall take you back to Waldenburg. I
+presume, sir!" she added, turning suddenly towards me, "that even you
+will not question my right to assume the guardianship of my own niece?"
+
+The memory of Feurgéres' look came to my aid, or I scarcely know how I
+should have answered her.
+
+"Your Highness," I said, "it is for Isobel to decide. She is no longer a
+child. Only I would remind you that you have on more than one occasion
+endeavoured to assume that guardianship without mentioning any such
+relationship."
+
+"You know Isobel's history," the Archduchess answered. "Can you wonder
+that I was anxious to avoid all publicity?"
+
+"Your Highness," I said, "we do not know Isobel's history--yet. We shall
+hear it to-night."
+
+"He has not told you--yet?" she asked incredulously.
+
+"He is coming to my rooms to-night," I answered.
+
+"You shall hear it before then," she exclaimed, with a little laugh.
+"Put on your hat, child. We will drive to my house, you and I and Mr.
+Greatson, and I will tell you everything. You will know then how greatly
+that man insulted you by daring to allow you to occupy this box, to
+approach you at all."
+
+"Madame," Isobel said, "I thank you, but I wish to hear the end of the
+play. And as for my history, Monsieur Feurgéres has promised to tell it
+to Mr. Greatson to-night."
+
+I saw the Archduchess's teeth meet, and a spot of colour that burned in
+her cheeks.
+
+"You talk like a fool, child," she said fiercely. "You are being
+deceived on every side. It is not fit that that man should come into
+your presence. It is a disgrace that you should mention his name."
+
+"Mr.--Monsieur Feurgéres has proved himself my friend," Isobel answered
+quietly.
+
+The Archduchess's eyes were burning. She was a woman of violent temper,
+and it was fast becoming beyond her control.
+
+"Child," she said, "I am your aunt, the daughter of the King of
+Waldenburg. You, too, are of the same race. You know well that I speak
+the truth. How dare you talk to me of a creature like Feurgéres? You
+have our blood in your veins. I command you to come with me, and break
+off at once and for ever these remarkable associations. You shall make
+what return you will later on to those whom you may think"--she darted a
+contemptuous glance at me--"have been your friends. But from this moment
+I claim you. Come!"
+
+Isobel looked her aunt in the face. She spoke courteously, but without
+faltering.
+
+"Madame," she said, "it is not possible for me to do as you ask.
+Whatever plans are made for my future, it is to my dear friend here,"
+she said, looking across at me with shining eyes, "that I owe
+everything. And as for Monsieur Feurgéres, I have promised him to occupy
+this box for this evening, and I shall do so."
+
+The Archduchess was very white.
+
+"You force me to tell you, child," she said. "This creature Feurgéres
+was your mother's----"
+
+"Your Highness!" I cried.
+
+She stopped short and bit her lip. Isobel was very pale, but she pointed
+to the door. The orchestra had commenced to play.
+
+"Madame," she said, "Monsieur Feurgéres loved my mother. I shall keep my
+word to him."
+
+There was a soft knock at the door. Captain Milton stood on the
+threshold.
+
+"Your Highness," he said, bowing low, "the curtain will rise in thirty
+seconds."
+
+The Archduchess left us without a word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+It was not often we permitted ourselves such luxuries, but as we left
+the theatre I caught a glimpse of Isobel's white face, more clearly
+visible now than in the dimly lit box, and I knew that, bravely though
+she had carried herself through the whole of that trying evening, she
+was not far from breaking down. So I called a hansom, and she sank back
+in a corner with a little sigh of relief. I lit a cigarette, and
+suddenly I felt a cold little hand steal into mine. I set my teeth and
+held it firmly.
+
+"Arnold," she whispered, and her voice was none too steady, "I hate that
+woman. I do not care if she is my aunt; and--Arnold----"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I believe that she hates me too. She looks at me as though I were
+something unpleasant, as though she wished me dead. I will not go to
+her, Arnold. Say that I shall not."
+
+For a moment I was silent. Her little womanish airs of the last few
+months, the quaint effort of dignity with which it seemed to have
+pleased her to add all that was possible to her years, had wholly
+departed. She was a child again, with frightened eyes and quivering
+lips, the child who had walked so easily into our hearts in those first
+days of her terror. To think of her as such again was almost a relief.
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, "the Archduchess has told me now two different
+stories concerning you. She appears to be very anxious to have you in
+her care, but her methods up to the present have been very strange. We
+shall not give you up to her unless we are obliged. But----"
+
+"Please what, Arnold?" she interrupted anxiously.
+
+"If the Archduchess is indeed your aunt, as she says she is, you must
+have hundreds of other relations, many of whom you would without doubt
+find very different people. Besides, in that case, you see, Isobel, you
+ought to be living altogether differently. It is absurd for you to be
+grubbing along with us in an attic when you ought to be living in a
+palace, with plenty of money and servants and beautiful frocks, and all
+that sort of thing. You understand me, don't you?" I concluded a little
+lamely, for the steady gaze of those deep blue frightened eyes was a
+little disconcerting.
+
+"No, I do not," she answered. "If I am a Waldenburg and the niece of the
+Archduchess, why was I left alone at that convent for all those years,
+and who was responsible for sending that man to fetch me away--that
+terrible man? How are they going to explain that, these wonderful
+relations of mine? Oh, Arnold, Arnold!" she cried, suddenly swaying over
+towards me in the cab, "I don't want to leave you--all. Do not send me
+away. Promise that you will not!"
+
+A child, I told myself fiercely, a mere child this! Nevertheless I was
+thankful for the darkness of the silent street into which we had turned,
+the darkness which hid my face from her. Her soft breath was upon my
+cheek, her beautiful head very near my shoulder. Oh, I had need of all
+my strength, of all my common-sense.
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, looking straight ahead of me out of the cab, "I
+cannot make you any promise. All must depend upon what Monsieur
+Feurgéres tells us to-night. Nothing would make me--all of us--happier
+than to keep you with us always. But it may not be our duty to keep you,
+or yours to stay. Until we have heard Feurgéres' story we are in the
+dark."
+
+She shrank, as it seemed, into herself. Her eyes followed mine
+hauntingly.
+
+"Arnold," she said, with a little tremor in her tone, "you are not very
+kind to me to-night, and I feel--that I want--people to be kind to me
+just now."
+
+I bent down, and I raised her hands to my lips and kissed them.
+
+"My dear child," I said, "don't forget that I am your guardian, and I
+have to think for you--a long way ahead. As for the rest, I have not a
+single thought or hope in life which is not concerned for your
+happiness."
+
+"I like that better," she murmured; "but--you are very fond of my
+hands."
+
+Fortunately the cab pulled up with a jerk. I paid the man, and we
+commenced to climb up the stone steps towards our rooms. Isobel, who was
+generally a couple of flights ahead, slipped her hand through my arm and
+leaned heavily upon me.
+
+"Arnold," she whispered, "why would you not read your story to me. Tell
+me, please!"
+
+"My dear child!" I exclaimed, "what made you think of that just now?"
+
+She leaned forward. I think that she was trying to look into my face.
+
+"Never mind! Please tell me," she begged.
+
+"I will read it some day," I answered. "It is so incomplete. I think I
+shall have to rewrite it."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You have always read to me before just as you have written it. I think
+that you are not quite so nice to me, Arnold, as you were. I haven't
+done anything that you do not like, have I? Because I am sure that you
+are different!"
+
+"You absurd child," I answered, smiling at her as cheerfully as I could.
+"You are in an imaginative frame of mind to-night."
+
+"It is not that! You look at me differently, you do not seem to want to
+have me with you so much, and----"
+
+I stopped her. We had reached the fourth floor, where our apartments
+were. With the key in the lock I turned and faced her for a moment. She
+was as tall as I, and a certain grace of carriage which she had always
+possessed, and which had grown with her years, redeemed her completely
+from the _gaucherie_ of her uncomfortable age. Her features had gained
+in strength, and lost nothing in delicacy. She wore even her simple
+clothes with the nameless grace which must surely have come to her from
+inheritance. I spoke to her then seriously. Yet if I had tried I could
+not have kept the kindness from my tone.
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, "if there is any difference--think! A year ago
+you were a child. To-day you are a woman. You must understand that, side
+by side with the pleasure of having you with us--the greatest pleasure
+that has ever come into our lives, Isobel--has come a certain amount of
+responsibility."
+
+"I am becoming a trouble to you, then!" she exclaimed breathlessly.
+
+"A trouble, Isobel!"
+
+I suppose I weakened for a moment. Some trick of tone or expression must
+have let in the daylight, for she suddenly held out her hands with a
+soft little cry. And then as she stood there, her eyes shining, the old
+delightful smile curving her lips, the door before which she stood was
+thrown open, and Arthur stood there. He had on his hat and coat, and I
+saw at once that he was not himself. His cheeks were flushed with anger,
+and he looked at us with a black frown.
+
+"So you've come back, then!" he exclaimed. "Allan and I got tired of
+waiting. Just in time to say good-bye, Isobel. I'm off!"
+
+"Off? But where?" she asked, looking at him in surprise.
+
+I left them, and passed on into our studio sitting-room, where Mabane
+was filling his pipe.
+
+"What's the matter with Arthur?" I asked.
+
+"Off his chump," Allan answered gravely. "Don't take any notice of him."
+
+Isobel and he were still talking together. Arthur's voice was a little
+raised--then it suddenly dropped.
+
+"I think," Allan said, "that you had better interfere. Arthur has lost
+his temper. I am afraid----"
+
+"He will break the compact?" I exclaimed.
+
+"I am afraid so!"
+
+I stepped back into the little hall. They were talking together
+earnestly. Arthur looked up and glared at me.
+
+"Arthur," I said, "Allan and I want a few words with you before you
+go--if you are going out to-night."
+
+"In a moment," he answered. "I have something to say to Isobel."
+
+But Isobel had gone. He looked for a moment at the door of her room
+through which she had vanished, and then he turned on his heel and
+followed me. He threw his hat upon the table and faced us both
+defiantly.
+
+"It is I," he said, "who have something to say to you, and I'd like to
+get it over quick. D--n your hypocritical compact, Arnold Greatson!
+There! You're in love with Isobel! Any fool can see it, and you want to
+keep the child all to yourself."
+
+Allan took a quick step forward, but I held out my hand.
+
+"Don't interfere, Allan," I said. "Let him say all that he has to say."
+
+"I mean to!" Arthur continued, "and I hope you'll like it. The compact
+was a fraud from beginning to end, and I'll have no more to do with it.
+Isobel's too old to live here with you fellows, and I'm going to ask her
+to marry me. I'm going to advise her to go and stay with Lady Delahaye,
+who wants her, and I'm going to marry her from there if she'll have me."
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I repeated thoughtfully. "You have been in
+communication with her, have you?"
+
+"Yes, I have! And I think she's right. Isobel ought to have some women
+friends. She may have enemies, but I'm not so sure about that. Lady
+Delahaye isn't one of them, at any rate. The people who want to get her
+away from here may be her best friends, after all."
+
+"Is that all, Arthur?"
+
+"It's enough, isn't it?" he answered doggedly.
+
+"Quite! Now listen," I said. "To-night we are going to hear Isobel's
+history. We are going to know who she is, and all about her. Stay with
+us, and you shall share the knowledge. As for the rest, you have been
+talking like a fool. We do not wish to take you seriously. We took up
+the charge of Isobel jointly. If the time has come now for us to give
+her up, I should like us all to be in agreement. It is very likely that
+the time has come. I, too, think that in many ways it would be for her
+benefit. We are prepared to give her up when we know the proper people
+to undertake the care of her--but never, Arthur, to Lady Delahaye."
+
+Arthur smiled slowly, but it was not a pleasant smile.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "I forgot. Lady Delahaye is an old friend of yours, isn't
+she?"
+
+"Your insinuations are childish, Arthur," I answered. "Lady Delahaye is
+an old friend of the Archduchess's, and their interest in Isobel is
+identical. For many reasons I am going to know Isobel's history before I
+give her up to either of them."
+
+"And who is going to tell it to you?" he asked.
+
+"Feurgéres," I answered. "He sent for us at the theatre to-night. He is
+coming on here."
+
+There was a sharp tapping at the door. I moved across the room to open
+it. Arthur threw his hat upon the table.
+
+"I will wait!" he declared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+We all knew Isobel's history. It had taken barely twenty minutes to tell
+it, but they had been twenty minutes of tragedy. We were all, I think,
+in different ways affected. Monsieur Feurgéres alone sat back in his
+seat like a carved image, his face white and haggard, his deep-set eyes
+fixed upon vacancy. We felt that he had passed wholly away from the
+world of present things. He himself was lingering amongst the shadows of
+that wonderful past, upon which he had only a moment before dropped the
+curtain. He had told us to ask him questions, but I for my part felt
+that questions just then were a sacrilege. Arthur, however, seemed to
+feel nothing of this. It was he who took the lead.
+
+"Isobel, then," he said, "is the granddaughter of the King of
+Waldenburg, the only child of his eldest daughter! Her mother was
+divorced from her husband, Prince of Herrshoff, and afterwards married
+to you. What about her father?"
+
+"He died two years after the divorce was granted," Feurgéres said
+without turning his head. "Isobel was hurried away from the Court
+through the influence of her aunt, the Archduchess of Bristlaw, and sent
+to a convent in France. It was not intended that she should ever
+reappear at the Court of Waldenburg."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"The King is very old, and he is the richest man in Europe. Isobel is
+the daughter of his eldest and favourite child. The Archduchess also has
+a daughter, and, failing Isobel, she will inherit."
+
+"Has the King," I asked, "taken any steps to discover Isobel?"
+
+"He has been told that she is dead," Feurgéres answered.
+
+We were all silent then for several minutes. The things which we had
+heard were strange enough, but they let in a flood of light upon all the
+events of the last few months. It was Feurgéres himself who broke in
+upon our thoughts.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "there is another thing which I must tell you."
+
+His voice was very low but firm. He had turned in his chair, and was
+facing us all. His eyes were no longer vacant. He spoke as one speaks of
+sacred things.
+
+"All Europe," he said, "was pleased to discuss what was called the
+elopement of the Princess Isobel with Feurgéres the player. The
+gutter-press of the world filled their columns with sensational and
+scandalous lies. We at no time made any reply. There was no need. If now
+I break the silence of years it is that Isobel shall know the truth. It
+is you, Mr. Greatson, who will tell her this, and many other things.
+Listen carefully to what I say. The husband of the Princess Isobel was a
+blackguard, a man unfit for the society of any self-respecting woman.
+She was living in misery when I was bidden to the Court of Waldenburg. I
+was made the more welcome there, perhaps, because I myself am a
+descendant of an ancient and honourable French family. I met the
+Princess Isobel often, and we grew to love each other. Of the struggle
+which ensued between her sense of duty and my persuasions I say nothing.
+She was a highly sensitive and very intellectual woman, and she had a
+profound conviction of the unalienable right of a woman to live out her
+life to its fullest capacity, to gather into it to the full all that is
+best and greatest. Her position at Waldenburg was impossible. I proved
+it to her. I prevailed. But----"
+
+He paused, and held up his hand.
+
+"The whole story of our elopement was a lie. There was no elopement. The
+Princess Isobel left her husband accompanied only by a maid and a
+lady-in-waiting. They lived quietly in Paris until her husband procured
+his divorce. Then we were married, but until then we had not met since
+our parting at Waldenburg. Isobel's mother was ever a pure and holy
+woman. Let Isobel know that. Let her know that the greatest and most
+wonderful sacrifice a woman ever made was surely hers--when she denied
+herself her own daughter lest the merest shadow of shame should rest
+upon her in later years. It is for that same reason that I myself have
+kept away from Isobel. I have watched over her always, but at a
+distance. That is why I am content to stand aside even now and yield up
+my place to strangers."
+
+It was Arthur again who questioned him.
+
+"Mr. Feurgéres," he said, "you have told us wonderful things about
+Isobel. You have told us wonderful things about the past, but you have
+not spoken at all about the future. Is it your wish that she returns to
+Waldenburg, or is she to remain Isobel de Sorrens?"
+
+Feurgéres turned his head and looked searchingly at Arthur. The boy's
+face was flushed with excitement. He made no effort to conceal his great
+interest. Feurgéres looked at him steadfastly, and it was long before he
+spoke.
+
+"You are asking me," he said slowly, "the very question which I have
+been asking myself for a long time. Isobel's proper place is at
+Waldenburg, and yet there are many and grave reasons why I dread her
+going there. The King is an old man, the Court is ruled by the
+Archduchess, a hard, unscrupulous woman. Already she has schemed to get
+the child into her power. I dread the thought of her there, alone and
+friendless. Her mother spoke of this to me upon her deathbed. She shrank
+always from the idea that even the shadow of those hideous calumnies
+which oppressed her own life should darken a single moment of Isobel's.
+I believe that if she were here at this moment she would place the two
+issues before her and bid her take her choice. I think that it is what
+we must do."
+
+Arthur stood up. He looked very eager and handsome, though a little
+boyish.
+
+"Monsieur Feurgéres," he said, "I love Isobel. Give her to me, and I
+will look after her future. I am not rich, but I will make a home for
+her. She is too old to stay here with us any longer. I will make her
+happy! Indeed I will!"
+
+Monsieur Feurgéres looked back at that vacant spot upon the wall, and
+was silent for some time. It was impossible to gather anything from his
+face, though Arthur watched him fixedly all the time.
+
+"And Isobel?" he asked at length.
+
+"I have not spoken to her," Arthur said. "There was a compact between us
+that we should not whilst she was under our care."
+
+Monsieur Feurgéres turned to me.
+
+"That sounds like a compact of your making, Arnold Greatson," he said.
+"What am I to say to your friend?"
+
+"It is surely," I said, "for Isobel to decide. It is only another issue
+to be placed before her with those others of which you have spoken. You
+say that you must leave for St. Petersburg to-morrow. Will you see her
+now?"
+
+He shook his head. I might almost have imagined him indifferent but for
+the sudden twitching of his lips, the almost pitiful craving which
+flashed out for a moment from his deep-set eyes. These were signs which
+came and went so quickly that I doubt if either of the others observed
+them. But I at least understood.
+
+"I will not see her at all," he said. "It is better that I should not.
+If she should decide upon Waldenburg, the less she has seen of me the
+better. I leave it to you, Arnold Greatson, to put these matters
+faithfully before Isobel. I claim no guardianship over her. Her mother's
+sole desire was that when she had reached her present age the whole
+truth should be placed before her, and she should decide exactly as she
+thought best. That is my charge upon you," he continued, looking me
+steadfastly in the face, "and I know that you will fulfil it. I shall
+send you my address in case it is necessary to communicate with me."
+
+He rose to his feet, prepared for departure. Arthur intercepted him.
+
+"If Isobel will have me, then," he said, "you will not object?"
+
+"Isobel shall make her own choice of these various issues," he answered.
+"I claim no guardianship over her at all. If any further decision has to
+be given, you must look to Mr. Greatson."
+
+Arthur did look at me, but his eyes fell quickly. He turned once more to
+Monsieur Feurgéres.
+
+"Whether you claim it or not," he said, "you are really her guardian,
+not Arnold. I shall tell her that you left her free to choose."
+
+"I have said all that I have to say," Monsieur Feurgéres replied.
+"Except this to you, Mr. Greatson," he added, turning to me. "You can
+have no longer any hesitation in using the money which stands in
+Isobel's name at the National Bank. You will find that it has
+accumulated, and I have also added to it. Isobel will always be
+reasonably well off, for I have left all that I myself possess to her,
+with the exception of one legacy."
+
+Without any further form of farewell he passed away from us. It was so
+obviously his wish to be allowed to depart that we none of us cared to
+stop him. Then we all three looked at one another.
+
+"To-morrow," Mabane said, "you must tell Isobel."
+
+"Why not to-night?" Arthur interposed.
+
+"Why not to-night, indeed?" Isobel's soft voice asked. "If, indeed,
+there is anything more to tell."
+
+We were all thunderstruck as she glided out from behind the screen which
+shielded the inner door, the door which led to her room. It needed only
+a single glance into her face to assure us that she knew everything. Her
+eyes were still soft with tears, shining like stars as she stood and
+looked at me across the floor; her cheeks were pale, and her lips were
+still quivering.
+
+"I heard my name," she said. "The door was unfastened, so I stole out.
+And I think that I am glad I did. I had a right to know all that I have
+heard. It is very wonderful. I keep thinking and thinking, and even now
+I cannot realize."
+
+"You heard everything, Isobel?" Arthur exclaimed meaningly.
+
+"Everything!" she answered, her eyes suddenly seeking the carpet. "I
+thank you all for what you have said and done for me. To-morrow, I
+think, I shall know better how I feel about these things."
+
+"Quite right, Isobel," Allan said quietly. "There are great issues
+before you, and you should live with them for a little while. Do not
+decide anything hastily!"
+
+Arthur pressed forward to her side.
+
+"You will give me your hand, Isobel?" he pleaded. "You will say
+good-night?"
+
+She gave it to him passively. He raised it to his lips. It was his
+active pronouncement of himself as her suitor. I watched her closely,
+and so did Allan. But she gave no sign. She held out her hand to us,
+too--a cold, sad little hand it felt--and turned away. There was
+something curiously subdued about her movements as well as her silence
+as she passed out of sight.
+
+Arthur took up his hat. He was nervous and uneasy. His tone was almost
+threatening.
+
+"I shall be here early in the morning," he said. "I suppose you will
+allow me to see Isobel?"
+
+"By all means," I answered. "As things are now you need not go away
+unless you like. Your room is still empty. Our compact is at an end.
+Stay if you will."
+
+He hesitated for a moment, and then threw down his hat. He sank into an
+easy chair, and covered his face with his hands.
+
+"I've been a beast, I know!" he half sobbed. "I can't help it. Isobel is
+everything in the world to me. You fellows can't imagine how I care for
+her."
+
+I laid my hand upon his shoulder--a little wearily, perhaps, though I
+tried to infuse some sympathy into my tone.
+
+"Cheer up, Arthur!" I said. "You have your chance. Don't make a trouble
+of it yet."
+
+Arthur shook his head despondently.
+
+"I think," he said, "that she will go to Waldenburg!"
+
+
+
+
+Book III
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Arthur flung himself into the room pale, hollow-eyed, the picture of
+despair.
+
+"Any news?" he cried, hopelessly enough, for he had seen my face.
+
+"None," I answered.
+
+"Anything from Feurgéres?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Tell me again--where did you telegraph him?"
+
+"Dover, Calais, Paris, Ostend, Brussels, Cologne!"
+
+"And no reply?"
+
+"As yet none."
+
+"Let us look again at the note you found."
+
+I smoothed it out upon the table. We had read it many times.
+
+     "There is something else which I must tell you before I leave
+     England. Come to me at once. The bearer will bring you. Come alone.
+
+     "HENRI FEURGÉRES.
+
+     "P.S.--You will be back in an hour. Disturb no one. It is possible
+     that I may ask you to keep secret what I have to say."
+
+"This note," I remarked, tapping it with my forefinger, "was taken in to
+Isobel by Mrs. Burdett at a quarter to eight. It was brought, she said,
+by a respectable middle-aged woman, with whom Isobel left the place soon
+after eight. We heard of this an hour later. At eleven o'clock we began
+the search for Monsieur Feurgéres. At three, Allan discovered that he
+had left the _Savoy Hotel_ at ten for St. Petersburg. Since then we have
+sent seven telegrams, the delivery of which is very problematical--and
+we have heard--nothing!"
+
+Allan laid his hand gently upon my shoulder.
+
+"We may get a reply from Feurgéres at any moment," he said, "but there
+will be no news of Isobel. That note is a forgery, Arnold."
+
+"I am afraid it is," I admitted. "Feurgéres was a man of his word. He
+would never have sent for Isobel."
+
+"Then she is lost to us," Arthur groaned.
+
+I caught up my hat and coat.
+
+"Not yet," I said. "I will go and see what Lady Delahaye has to say
+about this. It can do no harm, at any rate."
+
+"Shall I come?" Arthur asked, half rising from his chair.
+
+"I would rather go alone," I answered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The butler, who knew me by sight, was courteous but doubtful.
+
+"Her ladyship has been receiving all the afternoon," he told me, "but I
+believe that she has gone to her rooms now. Her ladyship dines early
+to-night because of the opera. I will send your name up if you like,
+sir."
+
+I walked restlessly up and down the hall for ten minutes. Then a lady's
+maid suddenly appeared through a green baize door and beckoned me to
+follow her.
+
+"Her ladyship will see you upstairs, sir, if you will come this way,"
+she announced.
+
+I followed her into a little boudoir. Lady Delahaye, in a blue
+dressing-gown, was lying upon a sofa. She eyed me as I entered with a
+curious smile.
+
+"This is indeed an unexpected pleasure," she murmured. "Do sit down
+somewhere. It is long past my hour of receiving, and I am just getting
+ready for dinner, but I positively could not send you away. Now, please,
+tell me all about it."
+
+"You know why I have come, then?" I remarked.
+
+"My dear man, I haven't the least idea," she protested. "It is sheer
+unadulterated curiosity which made me send Perkins for you up here.
+We're not at all upon the sort of terms, you know," she added, looking
+up at me with her big blue eyes, "for this sort of thing."
+
+"Isobel left us this morning!" I said bluntly. "She received a note
+signed Feurgéres, which I am sure was a forgery. She left us at eight
+o'clock, and she has not returned."
+
+Lady Delahaye looked at me with a faint smile. Her expression puzzled
+me. I was not even able to guess at the thoughts which lay underneath
+her words.
+
+"How anxious you must be," she murmured. "Do you know, I always wondered
+whether Isobel would not some day weary of your milk-and-water
+Bohemianism. Your Scotch friend is worthy, no doubt, but dull, and the
+boy was too hopelessly in love to be amusing. And as for you--well--you
+would do very nicely, no doubt, my dear Arnold, but you are too stuffed
+up with principles for a girl of Isobel's antecedents. So she has cut
+the Gordian knot herself! Well, I am sorry!"
+
+"You are sorry!" I repeated. "Why?"
+
+She smiled sweetly at me.
+
+"Because my dear friend has promised me that wonderful emerald necklace
+if I could get the child away from you, and I think that very soon, with
+the help of that stupid boy, I should have succeeded," she said
+regretfully. "Such emeralds, Arnold! and you know how anything green
+suits me."
+
+"You do not doubt, then, but that it is the Archduchess who has done
+this?" I said.
+
+Lady Delahaye lifted her eyebrows.
+
+"Either the Archduchess, or Isobel has walked off of her own sweet
+will," she remarked calmly. "In any case you have lost the child, and I
+have lost my necklace. I positively cannot risk losing my dinner too,"
+she added, with a glance at the clock, "so I am afraid--I am so sorry,
+but I must ask you to go away. Come and see me again, won't you? Perhaps
+we can be friends again now that this bone of contention is removed."
+
+"I have never desired anything else, Lady Delahaye," I said. "But if my
+friendship is really of any value to you, if you would care to earn my
+deepest gratitude, you could easily do so."
+
+"Really! In what manner?"
+
+"By helping me to regain possession of the child."
+
+She laughed at me, softly at first, and then without restraint. Finally
+she rang the bell.
+
+"My dear Arnold," she exclaimed, wiping her eyes, "you are really too
+naïve! You amuse me more than I can tell you. My maid will show you the
+way downstairs. Do come and see me again soon. Good-bye!"
+
+So that was the end of any hope we may have had of help from Lady
+Delahaye. I called a hansom outside and drove at once to Blenheim House,
+the temporary residence of the Archduchess and her suite. A footman
+passed me on to a more important person who was sitting at a round table
+in the hall with a visitor's book open before him. I explained to him my
+desire to obtain a few moments' audience with the Archduchess, but he
+only smiled and shook his head.
+
+"It is quite impossible for her Highness to see anyone now before her
+departure, sir," he said. "If you are connected with the Press, I can
+only tell you what I have told all the others. We have received a
+telegram from Illghera with grave news concerning the health of his
+Majesty the King of Waldenburg, and notwithstanding the indisposition of
+the Princess Adelaide, the Archduchess has arranged to leave for
+Illghera at once. A fuller explanation will appear in the _Court
+Circular_, and the Archduchess is particularly anxious to express her
+great regret to all those whom the cancellation of her engagements may
+inconvenience. Good-day, sir!"
+
+The man recommenced his task, which was apparently the copying out of a
+list of names from the visitor's book, and signed to the footman with
+his penholder to show me out. But I stood my ground.
+
+"You are leaving to-day, then?" I said.
+
+"We are leaving to-day," the man assented, without glancing up from his
+task. "We are naturally very busy."
+
+"Can I see the Baron von Leibingen?" I asked.
+
+"It is quite impossible, sir," the man answered shortly. "He is engaged
+with her Highness."
+
+"I will wait!" I declared.
+
+"Then I must trouble you, sir, to wait outside," he said, with a little
+gesture of impatience. "I do not wish to seem uncivil, but my orders
+to-day are peremptory."
+
+At that moment a door opened and a man came across the hall, slowly
+drawing on his gloves. I looked up and saw the Baron von Leibingen. He
+recognized me at once, and bowed courteously. At the same time there was
+something in his manner which gave me the impression that he was not
+altogether pleased to see me.
+
+"Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Greatson?" he asked, pausing
+for a moment by my side.
+
+"I am anxious to obtain five minutes' interview with the Archduchess," I
+answered. "If you could manage that for me I should be exceedingly
+obliged."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is quite impossible!" he said decisively. "You have heard of the
+serious news from Illghera, without doubt. We shall be on our way there
+in a few hours."
+
+I drew him a little on one side.
+
+"Is Isobel here, Baron?" I asked bluntly.
+
+"I beg your pardon--is who here?" he inquired, with the air of one who
+is puzzled by an incomprehensible question.
+
+"Isobel--the Princess Isobel, if you like--has been lured from our care
+by a forged message. We know her history now, and we are able to
+understand the nature of the interest which your mistress has shown in
+her. Therefore, when I find her missing I come to you. I want to know if
+she is in this house."
+
+"If she were," the Baron remarked, "I, and everyone else who knows
+anything about it, would say at once that she was in her proper place.
+If she were, I should most earnestly advise the Archduchess to keep her
+here. But I regret to say that she is not. To tell you the truth, the
+Archduchess is so annoyed at the young lady's refusal to accept her
+protection, that she has lost all interest in her. I doubt whether she
+would receive her now if she came."
+
+"Perhaps," I remarked slowly, "she has gone to Illghera."
+
+"It is, of course," the Baron agreed, "not an impossibility."
+
+"If I do not succeed in my search," I said, "it is to Illghera that I
+shall come."
+
+"You will find it," the Baron assured me, with a smile, "a most charming
+place. I shall be delighted to renew our acquaintance there."
+
+"His Majesty," I continued, "is, I have heard, very accessible. I shall
+be able to tell him Isobel's story. You may keep the child away from
+him, Baron, but you cannot prevent his learning the fact of her
+existence and her history."
+
+"My young friend," the Baron answered, edging his way towards the door,
+"your enigmas at another time would be most interesting. But at present
+I have affairs on hand, and I am pressed for time. I will permit myself
+to say, however, that you are altogether deceiving yourself. It was the
+one wish of the Archduchess to have taken Isobel to her grandfather and
+begged him to recognize her."
+
+"You decline to meet me fairly, then--to tell me the truth? Mind, I
+firmly believe that Isobel is now under your control. I shall not rest
+until I have discovered her."
+
+"Then you may discover, my young friend," the Baron said, putting on his
+hat, and turning resolutely away, "the true meaning of the word
+weariness. You are a fool to ask me any questions at all. We are on
+opposite sides. If I knew where the child was you are the last person
+whom I should tell. Her place is anywhere--save with you!"
+
+He bowed and turned away, whispering as he passed to a footman, who at
+once approached me. I allowed myself to be shown out. As a matter of
+fact, I had no alternative. But on the steps was an English servant in
+the Blenheim livery. I slipped half a sovereign into his hand.
+
+"Can you tell me what time the Archduchess leaves, and from what
+station?" I asked.
+
+"I am not quite sure about the time, sir," the man answered, "but the
+'buses are ordered from Charing Cross, and they are to be here at eight
+to-night."
+
+It was already past seven. I lit a cigarette and strolled on towards the
+station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+At Charing Cross station a strange thing happened. The Continental train
+arrived whilst I was sauntering about the platform, and out of it,
+within a few feet of me, stepped Feurgéres. He was pale and haggard, and
+he leaned heavily upon the arm of his servant as he stepped out of his
+carriage. When he saw me, however, he held out his hand and smiled.
+
+"You expected me, then?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Not I," I answered. "You have taken my breath away."
+
+"I had your telegram at Brussels," he explained. "I wired St. Petersburg
+at once, and turned back. Any news?"
+
+"None," I answered.
+
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+I told him in a few rapid words. He listened intently, nodding his head
+every now and then.
+
+"The Archduchess has her," he said, "and if only one of us had the ghost
+of a legal claim upon the child our difficulties would end. She is an
+unscrupulous woman, but there are things which even she dare not do.
+What are they doing over there?"
+
+He pointed to the next platform. I took him by the arm and dragged him
+along.
+
+"It is the special!" I exclaimed. "We must see them start."
+
+Red drugget was being stretched across the platform, and to my dismay
+the barricades were rolled across. The luggage was already in the van,
+and the guard was looking at his watch. Then a small brougham drove
+rapidly up and stopped opposite to the saloon. Baron von Leibingen
+descended, and was immediately followed by the Archduchess. Together
+they helped from the carriage and across the platform a dark, tall girl,
+at the first sight of whom my heart began to beat wildly. Then I
+remembered the likeness between the cousins and what I had heard of the
+Princess Adelaide's indisposition. She was almost carried into the
+saloon, and at the last moment she looked swiftly, almost fearfully,
+around her. I could scarcely contain myself. The likeness was
+marvellous! As the train steamed out of the station Feurgéres pushed
+aside the barricade and walked straight up to the station-master.
+
+"I want a special," he said, "to catch the boat. I am Feurgéres, and I
+am due at Petersburg Wednesday."
+
+The station-master shook his head.
+
+"You can have a special, sir, in twenty minutes, but you cannot catch
+the boat. The one I have just sent off would never do it, but the boat
+has a Royal command to wait for her."
+
+"Can't you give me an engine which will make up the twenty minutes?"
+Feurgéres asked.
+
+"It is impossible, sir," the station-master answered. "We have not an
+engine built which would come within ten miles an hour of that one."
+
+"Very good," Feurgéres said. "I will have the special, at any rate. Be
+so good as to give your orders at once."
+
+"You will gain nothing if you want to get on, sir," the station-master
+remarked. "An ordinary train will leave here in two hours, which will
+catch the next boat."
+
+"The special in twenty minutes," Feurgéres answered sharply. "Forty
+pounds, is it not? It is here!"
+
+The station-master hurried away. I scarcely understood Feurgéres' haste
+to reach Dover. When I told him so he only laughed and led me away
+towards the refreshment-room. He ordered luncheon baskets to be sent out
+to the train, and he made me drink a brandy-and-soda. Then he took me by
+the arm.
+
+"You are not much of a conspirator, my friend, Arnold Greatson," he
+said. "You have been within a dozen yards of Isobel within the last few
+minutes, and you have not recognized her."
+
+I stopped short. That wonderful likeness flashed once more back upon my
+mind. Certainly in the Mordaunt Rooms it had not been so noticeable. And
+her eyes! I looked at Feurgéres, and he nodded.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide either remains in England or has gone on quietly
+ahead," he said. "They have dressed Isobel in her clothes, and the
+general public could never tell the difference. You see how difficult
+they have made it for us to approach her. They will be hedged around
+like this all across the Continent. Oh, it was a very clever move!"
+
+I scarcely answered him. My eyes were fixed upon the tangled wilderness
+of red and green lights, amongst which that train had disappeared. What
+had they done to her, these people, that she should scarcely have been
+able to crawl across the platform? What had they done to make her accept
+their bidding, and leave England without a word or message to any of us?
+It had not been of her own choice, I was sure enough of that.
+
+"Come!" Feurgéres said quietly.
+
+I followed him to the platform, where the saloon carriage and engine
+were already drawn up. Feurgéres brought with him his servant and all
+his luggage. A few curious porters and bystanders saw us start. No one,
+however, manifested any particular interest in us. There was no one
+whose business it seemed to be to watch us.
+
+I sat back in my corner and looked out into the darkness. Feurgéres,
+opposite to me, was leaning back with half-closed eyes. From his soft,
+regular breathing it seemed almost as though he slept. For me there was
+no thought of rest or sleep. I made plans only to discard them,
+rehearsed speeches, appeals, threats, only to realize their hopeless
+ineffectiveness. And underneath it all was a dull constant pain, the
+pain which stays.
+
+Our journey was about three-parts over when Feurgéres suddenly sat up in
+his seat, and opening his dressing-case, drew out a Continental
+timetable.
+
+"In a sense that station-master was right," he remarked, turning over
+the leaves. "We shall not reach Paris any the sooner for taking this
+special train. On the other hand, we shall have time to ascertain in
+Dover whether our friends really have gone on to Calais, or whether they
+by any chance changed their minds and took the Ostend boat. I sincerely
+trust that that course will not have presented itself to them."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Somewhere on the journey," he remarked, "they must pause. They will
+have to exchange Isobel for the Princess Adelaide, and make their plans
+for the disposal of Isobel. If they should do this, say, in Brussels, we
+shall be at a great disadvantage. If, however, they should stay in
+Paris, we should be in a different position altogether. The chief of the
+police is my friend. I am known there, and can command as good service
+as the Archduchess herself. We must hope that it will be Paris. If so,
+we shall arrive--let me see, six hours behind them; but supposing they
+do break their connection, we shall have still five hours in Paris with
+them before they can get on. If they are cautious they will go to
+Illghera _viâ_ Brussels and their own country. If, however, they do not
+seriously regard the matter of pursuit they will go direct."
+
+A few moments later we came to a standstill in the town station.
+Feurgéres let down the window, and talked for a few minutes with the
+station-master. Then he resumed his seat.
+
+"We will go on to the quay," he said. "It is almost certain that our
+friends left by the Paris boat. We shall have four hours to wait, but we
+can secure our cabins, and perhaps sleep."
+
+We moved slowly on to the quay. A few enquiries there completely assured
+us. Midway across the Channel, plainly visible still, was a disappearing
+green light.
+
+"That's the _Marie Louise_, sir," a seaman told me. "Left here five and
+twenty minutes ago. The parties you were enquiring about boarded her
+right enough. The young lady had almost to be carried. She's the new
+turbine boat, and she ought to be across in about half an hour from
+now."
+
+Monsieur Feurgéres engaged the best cabin on the steamer, and his
+servant fitted me up a dressing-case with necessaries for the journey
+from his master's ample store. Then we went into the saloon, and had
+some supper. Afterwards we stood upon deck watching the passengers come
+on board from the train which had just arrived. Suddenly I seized
+Feurgéres by the arm and dragged him inside the cabin.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide!" I exclaimed. "Look!"
+
+We saw her distinctly from the window. She was dressed very plainly, and
+wore a heavy veil which she had just raised. She stood within a few feet
+of us, talking to the maid, who seemed to be her sole companion.
+
+"Find my cabin, Mason," she ordered. "I shall lie down directly we
+start. I am always ill upon these wretched night boats. It is a most
+unpleasant arrangement, this."
+
+Feurgéres looked at me and smiled.
+
+"Isobel's features," he remarked, "but not her voice. You see, we are on
+the right track. We must contrive to keep out of that young lady's way."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To keep out of the way of the Princess Adelaide was easy enough,
+presuming that she kept her word and remained in her cabin. I watched
+her enter it and close the door. Afterwards I wrapped myself in an
+ulster of Feurgéres' and went out on deck. It was a fine night, but
+windy, and a little dark. I lit a pipe and leaned over the side. I had
+scarcely been there two minutes when I heard a light footstep coming
+along the deck and pause a few feet away. A girl's voice addressed me.
+
+"Can you tell me what that light is?"
+
+I knew who it was at once. It was the most hideous ill-fortune. I
+answered gruffly, and without turning my head.
+
+"Folkestone Harbour!"
+
+I thought that after that she must surely go away. But she did nothing
+of the sort. She came and leaned over the rail by my side.
+
+"You are Mr. Arnold Greatson, are you not?"
+
+My heart sank, and I could have cursed my folly for leaving my cabin.
+However, since I was discovered there was nothing to do but to make the
+best of it.
+
+"Yes, I am Arnold Greatson," I admitted.
+
+"I wonder if you know who I am?" she asked.
+
+"You are the Princess Adelaide of----"
+
+She held up her hand.
+
+"Stop, please! I see that you know. For some mysterious reason I am
+travelling almost alone, and under another name which I do not like at
+all. You are very fond of my cousin, Isobel, are you not, Mr. Greatson?"
+
+I tried to see her face, but it was half turned away from me. Her voice,
+however, reminded me a little of Isobel's.
+
+"Yes," I admitted slowly. "You see, she was under our care for some
+time, and we all grew very fond of her."
+
+"But you--you especially, I mean," she went on. "Do not be afraid of me,
+Mr. Greatson. I know that my mother is very angry with you, and has
+tried to take Isobel away, but if I were she I would not come. I think
+that she must be very much happier as she is."
+
+"I--I am too old," I said slowly, "to dare to be fond of anyone--in that
+way."
+
+"How foolish!" she murmured. "Do you know, Mr. Greatson, that I am only
+eighteen, and that I am betrothed to the King of Saxonia. He is over
+forty, very short, and he has horrid turned-up black moustaches. He is
+willing to marry me because I am to have a great fortune, and my mother
+is willing for me to marry him because I shall be a Queen. But that is
+not happiness, is it?"
+
+"I am afraid not," I answered.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she continued, "I feel that I can talk to you like this
+because I have read your books. I like the heroes so much, and of course
+I like the stories too. I think that Isobel is very wise not to want to
+come back to Waldenburg. I wish that I were free as she is, and had not
+to do things because I am a Princess. And I am sure that she is very
+fond of you."
+
+"Princess----" I began.
+
+She stopped me.
+
+"If you knew how I hated that word!" she murmured. "I may never see you
+again, you know, after this evening, so it really does not matter--but
+would you mind calling me Adelaide?"
+
+"Adelaide, then," I said, "may I ask you a question?"
+
+"As many as you like."
+
+"Do you know where Isobel is now?"
+
+Her surprise was obviously genuine.
+
+"Why, of course not! Is she not at your house in London?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"She is a few hours in front of us on her way to Paris," I said, "with
+your mother and the Baron von Leibingen and the rest of your people. She
+is travelling in your clothes and in your name. That is why you were
+left to follow as quietly as possible."
+
+She laid her hand upon my arm. Her eyes were full of tears, and her
+voice shook.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry," she cried softly, "so very sorry. Why cannot my
+mother leave her alone with you? I am sure she would be happier."
+
+"I think so too," I answered. "That is why I am going to try and fetch
+her back."
+
+She looked at me very anxiously.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "you do not know my mother. If she makes up
+her mind to anything she is terribly hard to change. I do hope that you
+succeed, though. Why ever did Isobel leave you?"
+
+"She received a forged letter, written in somebody else's name," I said.
+"How your mother has induced her to stay since, though, I do not know.
+She looked very ill at Charing Cross, and she had to be helped into the
+train."
+
+The Princess Adelaide went very white.
+
+"It was she I heard this morning--cry out," she murmured. "They told me
+it was one of the servants who had had an accident. Mr. Greatson, this
+is terrible!"
+
+She turned her head away, and I could see that she was crying.
+
+"You must not distress yourself," I said kindly. "I daresay that it will
+all come right. You will see Isobel, I think, in Paris. If you do, will
+you give her a message?"
+
+"Of course, I will," she answered.
+
+"Tell her that we are close at hand, and that we have powerful friends,"
+I whispered. "We shall get to see her somehow or other, and if she
+chooses to return she shall!"
+
+"Yes. Anything else?"
+
+"I think not," I answered.
+
+"Do you not want to send her your love?" she asked, with a faint smile.
+
+"Of course," I said slowly.
+
+She leaned a little over towards me.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "do you know what I should want you to do if I
+were Isobel--what I am quite sure that she must want you to do now?"
+
+"Tell me!"
+
+"Why, marry her! She would be quite safe then, wouldn't she?"
+
+I tried to smile in a non-committal sort of way, but I am afraid there
+were things in my face beyond my power to control.
+
+"You forget," I answered. "I am thirty-four, and Isobel is only
+eighteen. Besides, there is someone else who wants to marry Isobel. He
+is young, and they have been great friends always. I think that she is
+fond of him."
+
+She shook her head doubtfully.
+
+"I do not think that thirty-four is old at all, and if you care for
+Isobel, I would not let anyone else marry her," she declared. "Is that
+Calais?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I think that I will go now in case my maid should see us together," she
+said. "Oh, I can tell you where we are going in Paris. Will that help
+you?"
+
+"Of course it will," I answered.
+
+"Number 17, Rue Henriette," she whispered. "Please come a little further
+this way a moment."
+
+I obeyed her at once. We were quite out of sight now, in the quietest
+corner of the ship.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "you will think that I am a very strange girl.
+I am going to be married in a few months to a man I do not care for one
+little bit, and it seems to me that that will be the end of my life. I
+want you to marry Isobel, and I hope you will both be very
+happy--and--will you please kiss me once? I am Isobel's cousin, you
+know."
+
+I leaned forward and touched her lips. Then I grasped her hands warmly.
+
+"You are very, very kind," I said gratefully, "and you can't think how
+much happier you have made me feel. If only--you were not a Princess!"
+
+She flitted away into the darkness with a little broken laugh. She
+passed me half an hour later in the Customs' house with a languid
+impassive stare which even her mother could not have excelled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Feurgéres looked at me in surprise.
+
+"What have you been doing to yourself?" he exclaimed. "Is the fresh air
+so wonderful a tonic, or have you been asleep and dreaming of Paradise?"
+
+I laughed.
+
+"The sea air was well enough," I answered, "but I have been having a
+most interesting conversation."
+
+"With whom?" he asked.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide!"
+
+He drew a little closer to me.
+
+"You are serious?"
+
+"Undoubtedly. Listen!"
+
+Then I told him of my conversation with Isobel's cousin, excepting the
+last episode. His gratification was scarcely equal to mine. He was a
+little thoughtful for some time afterwards. I am sure he felt that I had
+been indiscreet.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide," I said, "will not betray us. I am sure of that.
+She will tell her mother nothing."
+
+"These Waldenburgs," he answered gravely, "are a crafty race. It is in
+their blood. They cannot help it."
+
+"Isobel is a Waldenburg," I reminded him.
+
+"She is her mother's daughter," he said. "There is always one alien
+temperament in a family."
+
+"In this case," I declared, "two!"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"We shall soon know," he said, "whether this young lady is honest or
+not. A man will meet us at Paris with an exact record of the doings of
+the Archduchess and her party. We shall know then where Isobel is. If
+the address is the same as that given you by the Princess Adelaide, I
+will believe in her."
+
+"But not till then?" I remarked, smiling.
+
+"Not till then!" he assented.
+
+Before we left Calais, Feurgéres sent more telegrams, and for an hour
+afterwards he sat opposite to me with wide-open eyes, seeing nothing, as
+was very evident, save the images created by his own thoughts. As we
+reached Amiens, however, he spoke to me.
+
+"You had better try and get some sleep," he said. "You may have little
+time for rest in Paris."
+
+"And you?" I asked.
+
+"It is another matter," he answered. "I am accustomed to sleeping very
+little; and besides, it is probable that this affair may become one
+which it will be necessary for you to follow up alone. The sight of me,
+or the mention of my name, is like poison to all the Waldenburgs. They
+would only be the more bitter and hard to deal with if they knew that I,
+too, had joined in the chase. I hope to be able to do my share
+secretly."
+
+I followed his suggestion, and slept more or less fitfully all the way
+to Paris. I was awakened to find that the train had come to a
+standstill. We were already in the station, and as I hastily collected
+my belongings I saw that Feurgéres had left me, and was standing on the
+platform talking earnestly to a pale, dark young Frenchman, sombrely
+dressed and of insignificant appearance. I joined him just as his
+companion departed. He turned towards me with a peculiar smile.
+
+"My apologies to the Princess," he said. "The address is correct. They
+have gone to a suite of rooms belonging to the Baron von Leibingen."
+
+"They are there still, then?" I exclaimed.
+
+"They are there still," Feurgéres assented, "and they show no immediate
+signs of moving on. They are apparently waiting for someone--perhaps for
+the Princess Adelaide. Inside the house and out they are being closely
+watched, and directly their plans are made I shall know of them."
+
+I looked, as I felt, a little surprised. Feurgéres smiled.
+
+"I am at home here," he said, "and I have friends. Come! My own
+apartments are scarcely a stone's-throw away from the Rue Henriette.
+Estere will see our things safely through the Customs."
+
+We drove through the cold grey twilight to the Rue de St. Antoine, where
+Feurgéres' apartments were. To my surprise servants were at hand
+expecting us, and I was shown at once into a suite of rooms, in one of
+which was a great marble bath all ready for use. Some coffee and a
+change of clothes were brought me. All my wants seemed to have been
+anticipated and provided for. I had always imagined Feurgéres to be a
+man of very simple and homely tastes, but there were no traces of it in
+his home. He showed me some of the rooms while we waited for breakfast,
+rooms handsomely furnished and decorated, full of art treasures and
+curios of many sorts collected from many countries.
+
+But, in a sense, it was like a dead house. One felt that it might be a
+dwelling of ghosts. There were nowhere any signs of the rooms being
+used, the habitable air was absent. Everything was in perfect order.
+There was no dust, none of the chilliness of disuse. Yet one seemed to
+feel everywhere the sadness of places which exist only for their
+history. One door only remained closed, and that Feurgéres unlocked with
+a little key which hung from his chain. But he did not invite me to
+enter.
+
+"You will excuse me for a few moments," he said. "My housekeeper will
+show you into the breakfast-room. Please do not wait for me."
+
+An old lady, very primly dressed in black, and wearing a curious cap
+with long white strings, bustled me away. As Feurgéres opened the door
+of the room, in front of which we had been standing, the air seemed
+instantly sweet with the perfume of flowers. The old lady sighed as she
+poured me out some coffee. I am ashamed to say that I felt, and
+doubtless I looked, curious.
+
+"Would it not be as well for me to wait for Monsieur Feurgéres?" I
+asked. "He will not be very long, I suppose?"
+
+The old lady shook her head sadly.
+
+"Ah! but one cannot say!" she answered. "Monsieur had better begin his
+breakfast."
+
+"Your master has perhaps someone waiting to see him?" I remarked.
+
+Madame Tobain--she told me her name--shook her head once more. She spoke
+softly, almost as though she were speaking of something sacred.
+
+"Monsieur did not know, perhaps--it was the chamber of Madame. Always
+Monsieur spends several hours a day there when he is in Paris, and
+always after he has performed at the theatre he returns immediately to
+sit there. No one else is allowed to enter; only I, when Monsieur is
+away, am permitted once a day to fill it with fresh flowers--flowers
+always the most expensive and rare. Ah, such devotion, and for the dead,
+too! One finds it seldom, indeed! It is the great artists only who can
+feel like that!"
+
+She wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron, dropped me a curtsey,
+and withdrew. Feurgéres came in presently, and I avoided looking at him
+for the first few minutes. To tell the truth, there was a lump in my own
+throat. When he spoke, however, his tone was as usual.
+
+"I shall ask you," he said, "to stay indoors, but to be prepared to
+start away at a moment's notice. I am going to make a few enquiries
+myself."
+
+His voice drew my eyes to his face, and I was astonished at his
+appearance. The skin seemed tightly drawn about his cheeks, and he was
+very white. As though in contradiction to his ill-looks, however, his
+eyes were unusually brilliant and clear, and his manner almost buoyant.
+
+"Forgive me, Monsieur Feurgéres," I said, "but it seems to me that you
+had better rest for a while. You have been travelling longer than I
+have, and you are tired."
+
+He smiled at me almost gaily.
+
+"On the contrary," he declared, "I never felt more vigorous. I----"
+
+He stopped short, and walked the length of the room. When he returned he
+was very grave, but the smile was still upon his lips. He laid his hand
+almost affectionately upon my shoulder.
+
+"My dear friend," he said softly, "I think that you are the only one to
+whom I have felt it possible to speak of the things which lie so near my
+heart. For I think that you, too, are one of those who know, and who
+must know, what it is to suffer. We who carry the iron in our hearts,
+you know, are sometimes drawn together. The things which we may hide
+from the world we cannot hide from one another. Only for you there is
+hope, for me there has been the wonderful past. People have pitied me
+often, my friend, for what they have called my lonely life. They little
+know! I am not a sentimentalist. I speak of real things. Isobel, my
+wife, died to the world and was buried. To me she lives always. Just
+now--I have been with her. She sat in her old chair, and her eyes smiled
+again their marvellous welcome to me. Only--and this is why I speak to
+you of these things--there was a difference."
+
+He was silent for a few minutes. When he continued, his voice was a
+little softer but no less firm.
+
+"Dear friend," he said, "I will be honest. When Isobel was taken from me
+I had days and hours of hideous agony. But it was the craving for her
+body only, the touch of her lips, the caress of her hands, the sound of
+her voice. Her spirit has been with me always. At first, perhaps, her
+coming was faint and indefinable, but with every day I realized her more
+fully. I called her, and she sat in her box and watched me play, and
+kissed her roses to me. I close the door upon the world and call her
+back to her room, call her into my arms, whisper the old words, call her
+those names which she loves best--and she is there, and all my burden of
+sorrow falls away. My friend, a great love can do this! A great, pure
+love can mock even at the grave."
+
+I clasped his hand in mine.
+
+"I think," I said, "that I will never pity you again. You have triumphed
+even over Fate--even over those terrible, relentless laws which
+sometimes make a ghastly nightmare of life even to the happiest of us.
+You have turned sorrow into joy. It is a great deed. You have made my
+own suffering seem almost a vulgar thing."
+
+"Ah, no!" he said, "for you, too, there is hope. You, too, know that we
+need never be the idle, resistless slaves of Fate--like those others.
+Will and faith and purity can kindle a magic flame to lighten the
+darkness of the greatest sorrow. I speak to you of these
+things--now--because I think that the end is near."
+
+He suddenly sank into a chair. I looked at him in alarm, but his face
+was radiant. There was no sign of any illness there.
+
+"You are young, Arnold Greatson," he said. "They tell me that you will
+be famous. Yet you are not one of those to turn your face to the wall
+because the greatest gift of life is withheld from you. That is why I
+have lifted the curtain of my own days. I know you, and I know that you
+will triumph. It is a world of compensations after all for those who
+have the wit to understand."
+
+I think that he had more to say to me, but we were interrupted. There
+was a knock at the door, and the man entered whom I had seen talking
+with Feurgéres upon the platform of the railway station. Feurgéres rose
+at once, calm and prepared. They talked for a while so rapidly that I
+could not follow them. Then he turned to me.
+
+"They are preparing for a move," he announced. "They are going south as
+though for Marseilles and Illghera, but they insist upon a special
+train. They have declined a saloon attached to the train de luxe, and
+Monsieur Estere here has doubts as to their real destination. Wait here
+until I return. Be prepared for a journey."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They left me alone. I lit a cigarette and settled down to read. In less
+than half an hour, however, I was disturbed. There was a knock at the
+door, and Madame Tobain entered.
+
+"There is a lady here, sir, who desires to see Monsieur!" she announced.
+
+A fair, slight woman in a long travelling cloak brushed past her. She
+raised her veil, and I started at once to my feet. It was Lady Delahaye.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+It did not need a word from Lady Delahaye to acquaint me fully with what
+had happened. Indeed, my only wonder had been that this knowledge had
+not come to her before. She greeted me with a smile, but her face was
+full of purpose.
+
+"Where is he?" she asked simply.
+
+"Not here," I answered.
+
+She seated herself, and began to unpin the travelling veil from her hat.
+
+"So I perceive," she remarked. "He will return?"
+
+"Yes," I admitted, "he will return."
+
+She folded the veil upon her knee and looked across at me thoughtfully.
+
+"What an idiot I have been!" she murmured. "After all, that emerald
+necklace might easily have been mine."
+
+"I am not so sure about that," I answered. "I think I know what is in
+your mind, but I might remind you that suspicion is one thing and proof
+another."
+
+"The motive," she answered, "is the difficult thing, and that is found.
+I suppose the police are good for something. They should be able to work
+backwards from a certainty."
+
+"Are you," I asked, "going to employ the police? Don't you think that,
+for the good of everyone, and even for your husband's own sake, the
+thing had better remain where it is?"
+
+She laughed scornfully.
+
+"You would have me let the man go free who shot another in the back
+treacherously and without warning?" she exclaimed. "Thank you for your
+advice, Arnold Greatson. I have a different purpose in my mind."
+
+I moved my chair and drew a little nearer to her.
+
+"Lady Delahaye--" I began.
+
+"The use of my Christian name," she murmured, "would perhaps make your
+persuasions more effective. At any rate, you might try. I have never
+forbidden you to use it."
+
+"If you have any regard for me at all, then, Eileen," I said, "you will
+think seriously before you take any steps against Monsieur Feurgéres.
+Remember that he had, or thought he had, very strong reasons for acting
+as he did. Looking at it charitably, your husband's proceedings were
+open to very grave misconstruction. There will be a great deal of
+unpleasant scandal if the story is raked up again, and Isobel's whole
+history will be told in court. How will that suit the Archduchess?"
+
+"Not at all," Lady Delahaye admitted frankly; "but the Archduchess is
+not the only person to be considered. You seem to forget that this is no
+trifling matter. It is a murderer whom you are shielding, the man who
+killed my husband whom you would have me let go free."
+
+"Technically," I admitted, "not actually. Your husband did not die of
+his wound. He was in a very bad state of health."
+
+"I cannot recognize the distinction," Lady Delahaye declared coldly. "He
+died from shock following it."
+
+"Consider for a moment the position of Monsieur Feurgéres," I pleaded.
+"Isobel was the only child of the woman whom he had dearly loved. The
+care of her was a charge upon his conscience and upon his honour. Any
+open association with him he felt might be to her detriment later on in
+life. All that he could do was to watch over her from a distance. He saw
+her, as he imagined, in danger. What course was open to him? Forget for
+the moment that Major Delahaye was your husband. Put yourself in the
+place of Feurgéres. What could he do but strike?"
+
+"He broke the law," she said coldly, "the law of men and of God. He must
+take the consequences. I am not a vindictive woman. I would have
+forgiven him for making a scene, for striking my husband, or taking away
+the child by force. But he went too far."
+
+"Have you," I asked, "been to the police?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+I caught at this faint hope.
+
+"You came here to see him first? You have something to propose--some
+compromise?"
+
+She shook her head slowly.
+
+"Between Monsieur Feurgéres and myself," she said, "there can be no
+question of anything of the sort. There is nothing which he could offer
+me, nothing within his power to offer, which could influence me in the
+slightest."
+
+"Then why," I asked, "are you here?"
+
+"To see you," she answered. "I want to ask you this, Arnold. You wish
+Monsieur Feurgéres to go free. You wish to stay my hand. What price are
+you willing to pay?"
+
+I looked at her blankly. As yet her meaning was hidden from me.
+
+"Any price!" I declared.
+
+Then she leaned over towards me.
+
+"What is he to you, Arnold--this man?" she asked softly. "You are
+wonderfully loyal to some of your friends."
+
+"I know the story of his life," I answered, "and it is enough. Besides,
+he is an old man, and I fancy that his health is failing. Let him end
+his days in peace. You will never regret it, Eileen. If my gratitude is
+worth anything to you----"
+
+"I want," she interrupted, "more than your gratitude."
+
+We sat looking at each other for a moment in a silence which I for my
+part could not have broken. I read in her face, in her altered
+expression, and the softened gleam of her eyes, all that I was expected
+to read. I said nothing.
+
+"It is not so very many years, Arnold," she went on, "since you cared
+for me, or said that you did. I have not changed so much, have I? Give
+up this senseless pursuit of a child. Oh, you guard your secret very
+bravely, but you cannot hide the truth from me. It is not all
+philanthropy which has made you such a squire of dames. You believe that
+you care for her--that child! Arnold, it is a foolish fancy. You belong
+to different hemispheres; you are twice her age. It will be years before
+she can even realize what life and love may be. Give it all up. She is
+in safe hands now. Come back to London with me, and Monsieur Feurgéres
+shall go free."
+
+"Monsieur Feurgéres, Madame, thanks you!"
+
+He had entered the room softly, and stood at the end of the screen. Lady
+Delahaye's face darkened.
+
+"May I ask, sir, how long you have been playing the eavesdropper?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Not so long, Madame, as I should have desired," he answered, "yet long
+enough to understand this. My young friend here seems to be trying to
+bargain with you for my safety. Madame, I cannot allow it. If your
+silence is indeed to be bought, the terms must be arranged between you
+and me."
+
+She looked at him a trifle insolently.
+
+"I have already explained to Mr. Greatson," she remarked, "that
+bargaining between you and me is impossible because you have nothing to
+offer which could tempt me."
+
+"And Mr. Greatson has?"
+
+"That, Monsieur," she answered, "is between Mr. Greatson and myself."
+
+Monsieur Feurgéres stood his ground.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," he said, "I want you to listen to me for a moment. It
+is not a justification which I am attempting. It is just a word or two
+of explanation, to which I trust you will not refuse to listen."
+
+"If you think it worth while," she answered coldly.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Who can tell! I have the fancy, however, to assure you that what took
+place that day at the Café Grand was not the impulsive act of a man
+inspired with a homicidal mania, but was the necessary outcome of a long
+sequence of events. You know the peculiar relations existing between
+Isobel and myself. I had not the right to approach her, or to assume any
+overt act of guardianship. Any association with me would at once have
+imperilled any chance she may have possessed of being restored to her
+rightful position at Waldenburg. I accordingly could only watch over her
+by means of spies. This I have always done."
+
+"With what object, Monsieur Feurgéres?" Lady Delahaye asked. "You could
+never have interfered."
+
+"The care of Isobel--the distant care of her--was a charge laid upon me
+by her mother," Feurgéres answered. "It was therefore sacred. I trusted
+to Fate to find those who might intervene where I dared not, and Fate
+sent me at a very critical moment Mr. Arnold Greatson. Lady Delahaye, to
+speak ill of a woman is no pleasant task--to speak ill of the dead is
+more painful still. Yet these are facts. The Archduchess was willing to
+go to any lengths to prevent Isobel's creditable and honourable
+appearance in Waldenburg. It was the Archduchess who, after what she has
+termed her sister's disgrace, sent Isobel secretly to the convent, and
+your husband, Lady Delahaye, who took her there. It was your husband who
+brought her away, and it was the announcement of his visit to the
+convent, and an ill-advised confidence to a friend at his club in Paris,
+which brought me home from America. I will only say that I had reason to
+suspect Major Delahaye as the guardian of Isobel--even the Archduchess
+was ignorant of the position which he had assumed. Since I became a
+player there are many who forget that my family is noble. Major Delahaye
+was one of these. He returned a letter which I wrote to him with a
+contemptuous remark only. My friend the Duc d'Autrien saw him on my
+behalf. From him your husband received a second and a very plain
+warning. He disregarded it. Once more I wrote. I warned him that if he
+took Isobel from the convent he went to his death. That is all!"
+
+There was a silence. Lady Delahaye was very pale. She looked imploringly
+at me.
+
+"Monsieur Feurgéres," she said, "I am not your judge. I do not wish to
+seem vindictive. Will you leave me with Mr. Greatson for a few minutes?"
+
+"Madame, I cannot," he answered gravely. "Apart from the fact that I
+decline to have my safety purchased for me, especially by one to whom I
+already owe too much, it is necessary that Mr. Greatson leaves this
+house within the next quarter of an hour."
+
+I sprang to my feet. I forgot Lady Delahaye. I forgot that this man's
+life and freedom rested at her disposal. The great selfishness was upon
+me.
+
+"I am ready!" I exclaimed.
+
+Lady Delahaye looked, and she understood. Slowly she rose to her feet
+and crossed the room towards the door. I was tongue-tied. I made no
+protest--asked no questions. Feurgéres opened the door for her and
+summoned his servant, but no word of any sort passed between them. Then
+he turned suddenly to me. His tone was changed. He was quick and alert.
+
+"Arnold," he said, "the rest is with you. They are taking her to the
+convent. Madame Richard is here, and the Cardinal de Vaux. They have a
+plot--but never mind that. If she passes the threshold of the convent
+she is lost. It is for you to prevent it."
+
+"I am ready!" I cried.
+
+He opened a desk and tossed me a small revolver.
+
+"Estere waits below in the carriage. He will drive with you to the
+station. You take the ordinary express to Marcon. There an automobile
+waits for you, and you must start for the convent. The driver has the
+route. Remember this. You must go alone. You must overtake them. Use
+force if necessary. If you fail--Isobel is lost!"
+
+"I shall not fail!" I answered grimly.
+
+"Bring her back, Arnold," he said, with a sudden change in his tone. "I
+want to see her once more."
+
+I left him there, and glancing upwards from the street as the carriage
+drove off, I waved my hand to the slim black figure at the window, whose
+wan, weary eyes watched our departure with an expression which at the
+time I could not fathom. It was not until I was actually in the train
+that I remembered what Lady Delahaye's silent departure might mean for
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Our plans were skilfully enough laid, but the Archduchess also had
+missed nothing. We rushed through the village of Argueil without having
+seen any sign of the carriage, and it was not until we had reached the
+vineyard-bordered road beyond that we saw it at last climbing the last
+hill to the convent.
+
+"Shall we catch it?" I gasped.
+
+The _chauffeur_ only smiled.
+
+"Monsieur may rest assured," he answered, changing into his fourth
+speed, notwithstanding the slight ascent.
+
+Half-way up the hill we were barely one hundred yards behind. The man
+glanced at me for instructions.
+
+"Blow your horn," I said.
+
+He obeyed. The carriage drew to the side of the road. We rushed by, and
+I caught a glimpse of three faces. My spirits rose. There was only the
+Baron to deal with. Madame Richard and Isobel were the other occupants
+of the carriage.
+
+"Stop, and draw the car across the road!" I ordered.
+
+The man obeyed. I sprang to the ground. The Baron had his head out of
+the window, and the driver was flogging his horses.
+
+"If you do not stop," I called out, "I shall shoot your horses."
+
+The driver took no notice. He had flogged his horses into a gallop, and
+was coming straight at me. I fired, and one of the horses, after a wild
+plunge came down, dragging the other with him, and breaking the pole.
+The driver was thrown on to the top of them and rolled off into the
+hedge, cursing volubly. The Baron leaned out of the window, and he had
+something in his hand which gleamed like silver in the sunlight.
+
+"I have had enough of you, my young friend," he said fiercely, and
+instantly fired.
+
+An unseen hand struck his arm as he pulled the trigger. I felt my hat
+quiver upon my head as I sprung forward. The Baron had no time to fire
+again. I caught him by the throat and dragged him into the road.
+
+"I have had more than enough of you, you blackguard," I muttered, and I
+shook him till he groaned, and threw him across the road.
+
+Isobel stretched out her arms to me--Isobel herself, but how pale and
+changed!
+
+"Arnold, Arnold, take me away!" she moaned.
+
+I would have lifted her out, but Madame Richard had seized her.
+
+"The child is vowed," she said. "You shall not touch her. She belongs to
+God."
+
+"Then give her to me," I cried, "for I swear she is nearer to Heaven in
+my arms than yours."
+
+The woman's black eyes flashed terrible things at me, and she wound
+herself round Isobel with a marvellous strength. For a moment I was
+helpless.
+
+"Madame," I said, "I have never yet raised my hand against a woman, but
+if you do not release that girl this moment I shall have to forget your
+sex."
+
+"Never!" she shrieked. "Help! Baron! Cocher!"
+
+Some blue-bloused men looked up from their work in the vineyards a long
+way off. It was no time for hesitation. I set my teeth, and I caught
+hold of the woman's arms. Her bones cracked in my hands before she let
+go. Isobel at last was free!
+
+"Jump up and get in the automobile, Isobel!" I said. "Bear up, dear! It
+is only for a moment now."
+
+Half fainting she staggered out and groped her way across the road. Once
+she nearly fell, but my _chauffeur_ leaped down and caught her. Then
+Madame Richard looked in my eyes and cursed me with slow, solemn words.
+
+I sprang away from her. She followed. I jumped into the automobile. She
+stood in front of it and dared us to start. The driver backed a little,
+suddenly shot forward, and with a wonderful curve avoided her. She ran
+to meet the peasants who were streaming now across the fields. We could
+hear for a few minutes her shrill cries to them. Then the vineyards
+became patchwork, and the still air a rushing wind. Our _chauffeur_ sat
+grim and motionless, like a figure of fate, and we did our forty miles
+an hour.
+
+"You have orders?" I asked him once.
+
+"But yes, Monsieur," he answered. "We go to Paris--and avoid the
+telegraph offices."
+
+All the while Isobel was only partially conscious. Gradually, however,
+her colour became more natural, and at last she opened her eyes and
+smiled at me. Her fingers faintly pressed mine. She said nothing then,
+but in about half an hour she made an effort to sit up.
+
+"Dear Arnold," she murmured, "you are indeed my guardian. Oh----"
+
+She broke off, and shuddered violently.
+
+"Please don't try to talk yet," I said. "I shouldn't have been much of a
+guardian, should I, if I hadn't fetched you out of this scrape? Besides,
+it was Monsieur Feurgéres who planned everything."
+
+"Arnold," she murmured, "I--haven't eaten anything for some time. They
+put things in my food to make me drowsy, so I dared not."
+
+Under my breath I made large demands upon my stock of profanity. Then I
+leaned over and spoke to the _chauffeur_. We were passing through a
+small town, and he at once slackened pace and pulled up at a small
+restaurant. With the first mouthful of soup Isobel's youth and strength
+seemed to reassert themselves. After a cutlet and a glass of wine she
+had colour, and began to talk. She even grumbled when I denied her
+coffee, and hurried her off again. In the automobile she came close to
+my side, and with a shyness quite new to her linked her arm in mine. So
+we sped once more on our way to Paris.
+
+Conversation, had Isobel been fit for it, was scarcely possible. But in
+a disjointed sort of way she tried to tell me things.
+
+"I was inside the house," she said, "and the door of the room was locked
+before I knew that Monsieur Feurgéres was not there--that the letter was
+not a true one. My aunt came and talked to me. She tried to be kind at
+first. Afterwards she was very angry. She said that my grandfather was
+an old man, that he wished to see me before he died. I must go with her
+at once. I said that I would go if I might see you first, but that only
+made her more angry still. She said that my life had been a disgrace to
+our family, that I must not mention your name, that I must speak as
+though I had just left the convent. Then I, too, lost my temper. I said
+that I would not go to Illghera. I did not want to see my grandfather,
+or any of my relations. They had left me alone so many years that now I
+could do without them altogether. She never interrupted me. She looked
+at me all the time with a still, cold smile. When I had finished she
+said only, 'We shall see,' and she left me alone. They brought me food,
+and after I had taken some of it I was ill. After that everything seemed
+like a dream. I simply moved about as they told me, and I did not seem
+to care much what happened. Then in Paris Adelaide came into my room.
+She brought me some chocolate, and she told me that you were near. I
+think that I should have died but for her. I began to listen to what
+they said. I found out that they never meant to take me to Illghera. It
+was the convent all the time. Adelaide brought me more chocolate, and
+kissed me. Then I made up my mind to fight. I would not take their food.
+I told myself all the time that I was not ill--I would not be ill. That
+is why I was able to look out for you, to strike at the Baron when he
+tried to shoot you, and to walk by myself. Arnold, why does my aunt hate
+me so?"
+
+I did not answer her, for even as she talked her voice grew fainter and
+fainter, and in a moment or two she was in a dead sleep. Her head fell
+upon my shoulder, her hand rested in mine. So she remained until we
+reached the outskirts of Paris. Then the noise of passing vehicles, and
+the altered motion of the car over the large cobble-stones woke her. She
+pressed my arm.
+
+"I am safe, Arnold?" she murmured, with a shade of anxiety still in her
+tone.
+
+"Quite," I assured her.
+
+In a few moments we turned into the Rue de St. Antoine and drew up
+before Monsieur Feurgéres' house. In the hall we met Tobain. I could see
+that she had been weeping, and her tone, as she took me a little on one
+side, was full of anxiety.
+
+"Monsieur," she murmured, "I am afraid----"
+
+I stopped her.
+
+"The young lady first," I said. "She has been ill. Where shall I take
+her?"
+
+She threw open the door of the dining-room. A small round table,
+elegantly appointed, was spread with such a supper as Feurgéres knew
+well how to order. There was a gold foiled bottle, flowers, salads and
+fruits. Tobain nodded vigorously as she drew up a chair for Isobel.
+
+"It was Monsieur himself who ordered everything," she exclaimed. "He was
+so particular that everything should be of the best, and the wine he
+fetched himself."
+
+"Where is Monsieur Feurgéres?" I asked, struck by some note of hidden
+feeling in her tone.
+
+"I will take you to him," she answered, "if Mademoiselle will wait
+here."
+
+In the hall she no longer concealed her fears.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "I am afraid. Soon after you had left, and the
+master had given his orders for the supper, he called me to him. He was
+standing before the door of Madame's chamber, the room which it is not
+permitted to enter, and his hands and arms were full of flowers. He had
+been to the florists himself, I knew, for there were more than usual.
+'Tobain,' he said, 'always, as you know, I lock the door of this room
+when I enter. To-day I shall not do so. But you must understand that no
+one is permitted to enter but my friend, Mr. Arnold Greatson, who will
+return this evening. Those are my orders, Tobain.' 'But, Monsieur,
+dejeuner?' 'Remember, Tobain--Mr. Arnold Greatson only.' Then I caught a
+glimpse of his face, Monsieur, and I was afraid. I have been afraid ever
+since. It was the face of a young man, so brilliant, so eager. I was at
+my master's marriage, and the look was there then. He went in and he
+closed the door, and since then, Monsieur, I have heard no sound, and
+many hours have passed. Monsieur will please enter quickly."
+
+For myself, I shared, too, Tobain's nameless apprehensions. I left her,
+and knocked softly at the door. There was no answer. So I entered.
+
+The room was in darkness, but the opening of the door touched a spring
+under the carpet, and several heavily-shaded electric lamps filled the
+apartment with a soft dim light. Monsieur Feurgéres was sitting opposite
+to me, his eyes closed, a faint smile upon his lips. He had the air of a
+man who slept with a good conscience, and whose dreams were of the
+pleasantest. Close drawn to his was another chair, against which he
+leaned somewhat, and over the arm of which one hand was stretched,
+resting gently upon the soft mass of deep pink roses, whose perfume made
+fragrant the whole room. I spoke to him.
+
+"Monsieur Feurgéres," I cried, "it is done. I have brought Isobel. She
+is here."
+
+There was no answer. Had I, indeed, expected any, I could almost have
+believed that the smile, so light and delicate a thing, which quivered
+upon his pale lips, deepened a little as I spoke. But that, of course,
+was fancy, for Monsieur Feurgéres had won his heart's desire. Softly,
+and with fingers which felt almost sacrilegious, I broke off one of the
+blossoms with which the empty chair was laden, and with it in my hands I
+went back to Isobel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Isobel knew the whole truth. I told her one evening--the only one on
+which we two had dined out together alone. I think that the weather had
+tempted me to this indulgence, which I had up to now so carefully
+avoided. An early summer, with its long still evenings, had driven us
+out of doors. The leaves which rustled over our heads, stirred by the
+faintest of evening breezes, made sweeter music for us than the violins
+of the more fashionable restaurants, and no carved ceiling could be so
+beautiful as the star-strewn sky above. I omitted nothing. I laid the
+whole situation before her. When I had finished, she was very white and
+very quiet.
+
+"And now that you have told me all this," she asked, after a long
+silence, "does it remain for me to make my choice? Even now I do not see
+my way at all clearly. My relations do not want me. Monsieur Feurgéres
+has left me some money. Cannot I choose for myself how I shall spend my
+life?"
+
+"I am afraid," I answered, "that you may not. For my part I am bound to
+say, Isobel, that I think Monsieur Feurgéres was right. The letter of
+which I have told you, and which I found in my room, was written only a
+few hours before his death. At such a time a man sees clearly. You are
+not only yourself the Princess Isobel of Waldenburg, but you have a
+grandfather who has never recovered the loss of your mother and of you.
+It was not his fault or by his wish that you were sent away from
+Waldenburg. He has been deceived all the time by your aunt the
+Archduchess. I think that it is your duty to go to him."
+
+"You will come with me?" she murmured anxiously.
+
+"I shall not leave you," I answered slowly, "until you are in his
+charge. But afterwards----"
+
+"Well?" she interrupted anxiously.
+
+"Afterwards," I said, firmly keeping my eyes away from her and bracing
+myself for the effort, "our ways must lie apart, Isobel. You are the
+daughter of one of Europe's great families, you have a future which is
+almost a destiny. You must fulfil your obligations."
+
+I saw the look in her face, and my heart ached for her. I leaned forward
+in my chair.
+
+"Dear child," I said, "remember that this is what your mother would have
+wished. Monsieur Feurgéres believed this before he died, and I think
+that no one else could tell so well what she would have desired for you.
+Just now it may seem a little hard to go amongst strangers, to begin
+life all over again at your age. But, after all, we must believe that it
+is the right thing."
+
+Her face was turned away from me, but I could see that her cheeks were
+pale and her lips trembling. She said nothing, I fancied because she
+dared not trust her voice. Above the tops of the trees the yellow moon
+was slowly rising; from a few yards away came all the varied clatter of
+the Boulevard. And around us little groups and couples of people were
+gay--gay with the invincible, imperishable gaiety of the Frenchman who
+dines. The white-aproned waiters smiled as with deft hands they served a
+different course, or with a few wonderful touches removed all traces of
+the repast, and served coffee and liqueurs upon a spotless cloth. And
+amidst it all I watched with aching heart Isobel, the child of to-day,
+the woman of to-morrow, as she fought her battle.
+
+Her face seemed marble-white in the strange light, half natural, half
+artificial. When she spoke at last she still kept her face turned away
+from me.
+
+"The right thing!" she murmured. "That is what I want to do. I want to
+do what she would have wished. But just now it seems a little hard. I do
+not want to be a princess. I do not want to be rich. Monsieur Feurgéres
+has made me independent, and that is all I desire. I would like to be
+free to live always my own life--free like you and Allan, who paint and
+write and think, for I, too, would love so much to be an artist. But it
+seems that all these things have been decided for me--by you and
+Monsieur Feurgéres. No," she added quickly, "I know very well that you
+are right. I am willing to do what Monsieur Feurgéres thinks that my
+mother would have wished. I will go to my grandfather, and if he wishes
+it I will stay with him. But there will be a condition!"
+
+She turned at last and looked at me. The lines of her mouth had altered,
+the carriage of her head, a subtle change in her tone, told their own
+story. It was the Princess Isobel who spoke.
+
+"I will not have my mother ignored or spoken of as one who forgot her
+rank and station. These are all very well, but they are trifles compared
+with the great things of life. I am proud of my mother's courage, I am
+proud of the love which made his life, after she had gone, so beautiful.
+I know that you understand me, Arnold, but I do not think that those
+others will. They must bear with me, or I shall not stay."
+
+I looked at her wonderingly. It seemed to me so strange that, under our
+very eyes, the child whom I had led by the hand through Covent Garden on
+that bright Spring morning should have developed in thought and mind
+under our own roof, and with so little conscious instruction, into a
+woman of perceptions and character. Somewhere the seed of these things
+must have lain hidden. One knows so little, after all, of those whom one
+knows best.
+
+"It is a fair condition, Isobel," I said. "You are going into a world
+which is hedged about with conventions and prejudices. The things which
+are so clear to you and to me, they may look at differently. You must be
+received as your mother's daughter, and not as the King's
+granddaughter."
+
+She nodded gravely. Then she leaned across the table and looked into my
+eyes. Notwithstanding her pallor and her black dress, I was forced to
+realize what I ever forbade my thoughts to dwell upon--her great and
+increasing beauty. She looked into my eyes, and my heart stood still.
+
+"Arnold," she murmured, "shall you miss me?"
+
+My heel dug into the turf beneath my foot. My eyes fell from hers. I
+dared not look at her.
+
+"We shall all miss you so much," I said gravely, "that life will never
+be the same again to us. You made it beautiful for a little time, and
+your absence will be hard to bear. I suppose we shall all turn to hard
+work," I added, with an attempt at lightness. "Allan will paint his
+great picture, Arthur will invent a new motor and make his fortune, and
+I shall write my immortal story."
+
+"The story," she said, "which you would not show me?"
+
+Show her! How could I, when I knew that for one who read between the
+lines the story of my own suffering was there? My secret had been hard
+enough to keep faithfully, even from her to whom the truth, had she ever
+divined it, must have seemed so incredible.
+
+"That one, perhaps," I answered lightly, "or the next! Who can tell? One
+is never a judge of one's own work, you know."
+
+"Why would you not show me that story, Arnold?" she asked softly.
+
+I met her eyes fixed upon me with a peculiar intentness. I tried to
+escape them, but I could not. It was impossible for me to lie to her. My
+voice shook as I answered her.
+
+"Don't ask me, Isobel!" I said. "We all make mistakes sometime, you
+know. Not to show you that story when you asked me was one of mine."
+
+"If you had it here----?"
+
+"If I had it here I would show it you," I declared.
+
+She sighed. She did not seem altogether satisfied.
+
+"Sometimes, Arnold," she said thoughtfully, "you puzzle me very much.
+You treat me always as though I were a child; you keep me at arm's
+length always, as though there were between us some impassable barrier,
+as though it could never be possible for you to come into my world or
+for me to pass into yours. I know that you are wiser and cleverer than I
+am, but I can learn. I have been learning all the time. Are we always to
+remain at this great distance?"
+
+"Dear Isobel," I answered, "you forget that I am more than twice your
+age. You are eighteen, and I am thirty-four. I cannot make myself young
+like you. I cannot call back the years, however much I might wish to do
+so. And for the rest, I have been your guardian. I, a poor writer of no
+particular family and very meagre fortune, and you my ward, a princess
+standing at the opposite pole of life. I have had to remember these
+things, Isobel."
+
+She leaned a little further across the table. Again her eyes held mine,
+and I felt my heart beat like a boy's at the touch of her soft white
+fingers as she laid her hand on mine.
+
+"I wish," she murmured, "oh, I wish----"
+
+"So we've found you at last, have we?"
+
+Isobel's speech was never ended. Mabane and Arthur stood within a few
+feet of us, the former grave, the latter white and angry. I rose slowly
+to my feet and held out my hand to Allan.
+
+"I am glad to see you, Allan!" I said.
+
+He looked first at my hand, and afterwards at me. Then, with a sigh of
+relief, he took it and nearly wrung it off.
+
+"And I can't tell you how glad I am to see you both again!" he
+exclaimed. "We've heard strange stories--or rather Arthur has--from his
+friend Lady Delahaye, and at last we decided to come over and find out
+all about it for ourselves. Don't take any notice of Arthur," he added
+under his breath, "he's not quite himself."
+
+Arthur was standing with his back to me, talking to Isobel. Certainly
+her welcome was flattering enough. I realized with a sudden gravity that
+I had not heard her laugh like this since she had been in England.
+Arthur continued talking in a low, earnest tone.
+
+"How did you find us?" I asked Allan.
+
+"We called at the Rue de St. Antoine," he answered. "The housekeeper
+said that she had heard you talk about dining at one of these places.
+Arnold?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Why are you and Isobel staying on in Paris?"
+
+"First of all," I answered promptly, "we had to stay for the funeral,
+and now there are some legal formalities which cannot be finished until
+to-morrow. I am Monsieur Feurgéres' executor, Allan, and he has left me
+twenty thousand pounds. Isobel has the rest."
+
+"I am delighted, old chap," Mabane declared heartily. "In fact, I'll
+drink your health."
+
+I called a waiter and ordered liqueurs. Arthur took his with an ill
+grace, and he still avoided any direct speech with me. Isobel was
+evidently uneasy, and looked at me once or twice as though anxious that
+I should break up their _tête-à-tête_. But when I had paid the bill and
+we rose to go, Allan passed his arm through mine, and I was forced to
+let the two go on.
+
+"Let the boy have his chance," Allan said, pausing a little as we turned
+into the Boulevard. "He's in such a state that he won't listen to reason
+only from her."
+
+"But," I protested, "it is absurd for him to speak to her. Does he know
+who she is? The Princess Isobel of Waldenburg! Their little kingdom is
+small enough, but they play at royalty there."
+
+Allan nodded.
+
+"He knows. But he's a good-looking boy, and the girls have spoilt him a
+little. He has an idea that she cares for him."
+
+"Impossible!" I declared, sharply.
+
+"No! Not impossible!" Allan answered, shaking his head. "They have been
+together a great deal, you must remember, and Arthur can be a very
+delightful companion when he chooses. No, it isn't impossible, Arnold."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Isobel's future is already arranged," I said. "In three days' time I am
+taking her to her grandfather. If he receives her, as I believe that he
+will receive her, she will pass out of our lives as easily as she came
+into them. She will marry a grand duke, perhaps even a petty king. She
+will be plunged into all manner of excitements and gaiety. Her years
+with us will never be mentioned at Court. She herself will soon learn to
+look back on them as a quaint episode."
+
+"You do not believe it, Arnold?" Mabane declared scornfully.
+
+"Heaven only knows what I believe," I answered, with a little burst of
+bitterness. "Look at that!"
+
+We had reached the Rue de St. Antoine. Isobel stood in the doorway at
+the apartments waiting for us. But Arthur had already disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+I examined the tickets carefully and placed them in my pocket-book. Then
+I paused to light a cigarette on my way out of the office, and almost
+immediately felt a hand upon my arm. I looked at first at the hand. It
+was feminine and delicately gloved. Then I looked upwards into the blue
+eyes of Lady Delahaye.
+
+"Abominable!" she murmured. "You are not glad to see me!"
+
+I raised my hat.
+
+"The Boulevard des Italiennes," I said, "has never seemed to me to be a
+place peculiarly suitable for the display of emotion."
+
+"Come and try the Rue Strelitz," she answered, smiling.
+
+I glanced down at her. She was gowned even more perfectly than
+usual--Parisienne to the finger-tips. She had too all the delightful
+confidence of a woman who knows that she is looking her best.
+
+I smiled back at her. It was impossible to take her seriously.
+
+"Your invitation," I said, "sounds most attractive. But I am curious to
+know what would happen to me in the Rue Strelitz. Should I be offered
+poison in a jewelled cup, or disposed of in a cruder fashion? Let me
+make my will first, and I will come. I am really curious!"
+
+"Arnold," she said, looking up at me with very bright eyes, "you are
+brutal."
+
+"Not quite that, I hope," I protested.
+
+"Let me tell you something," she continued.
+
+We were in rather a conspicuous position. Lady Delahaye seemed suddenly
+to realize it.
+
+"May I beg for your escort a little way?" she said. "I am not
+comfortable upon the Boulevard alone."
+
+"You could scarcely fail," I remarked, throwing away my cigarette, "to
+be an object of attention from the Frenchman, who is above all things a
+judge of your sex. I will accompany you a little way with pleasure.
+Shall we take a fiacre?"
+
+"I would rather walk," she answered. "Do you mind coming this way? I
+will not take you far."
+
+"I have two whole unoccupied hours," I assured her, "which are very much
+at your service."
+
+"Where, then," she asked, "is Isobel?"
+
+"Shopping with Tobain," I answered.
+
+"Are you not afraid," she asked with a smile, "to send her out alone
+with Tobain?"
+
+"Not in the least," I answered. "Monsieur Feurgéres' only friend in
+Paris was the chief commissioner of police, and he has been good enough
+to take great interest in us. Isobel is well watched."
+
+"I wonder," she said, after a moment's pause, "whether you have still
+any faith in me!"
+
+"My dear lady!"
+
+"I wish I could make you believe me. The--her Highness--she prefers us
+here to call her Madame--has relinquished altogether her designs against
+you. She desires an alliance."
+
+"Is this," I asked, "an invitation to me to join in the spoils? Am I to
+become murderer, or poisoner, or abductor, or what?"
+
+Lady Delahaye bit her lip.
+
+"You are altogether too severe," she said. "Madame simply realizes that
+she has been mistaken. She is willing for Isobel to be restored to her
+grandfather. It will mean a million or so less dowry for Adelaide, but
+that must be faced. Madame desires to make peace with you."
+
+"I am charmed," I answered. "May I ask exactly what this means?"
+
+Lady Delahaye smiled up at me.
+
+"The Archduchess will explain to you herself," she said. "I am taking
+you to her."
+
+I slackened my pace.
+
+"I think not," I said. "To tell you the truth, the Archduchess terrifies
+me. I see myself inveigled into a room with a trap-door, or knocked on
+the head by hired bullies, and all manner of disagreeable things. No,
+Lady Delahaye, I think that I will not run the risk."
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+"I know that you will come," she said softly.
+
+"And why?" I asked.
+
+"Because you are a man, and you do not know fear!"
+
+I raised my hat and proceeded.
+
+"My head is turned," I said. "Nothing flatters a coward so much as the
+imputation of bravery. I think that I shall go with you anywhere."
+
+"Even--to the Rue Strelitz?"
+
+"My courage may fail me at the last moment," I answered. "At present it
+feels equal even to the Rue Strelitz."
+
+Again she laughed.
+
+"You are a fraud, Arnold," she declared. "As if we did not know--I and
+Madame and all of us, that in Paris, even throughout France, you could
+walk safely into any den of thieves you choose. Your courage isn't worth
+a snap of the fingers. Any man can be brave who has the archangels of
+Dotant at his elbows."
+
+"What an easily pricked reputation," I answered regretfully. "Well, it
+is true. Dotant was Feurgéres' greatest friend, and even Isobel might
+walk the streets of Paris alone and in safety. Hence, I presume, the
+amiable desire of the Archduchess for an alliance."
+
+Lady Delahaye shrugged her lace-clad shoulders.
+
+"My dear Arnold," she said, "for myself I adore candour, and why should
+I try and deceive you? Madame has played a losing game, and knows it.
+She has the courage to admit defeat. She can still offer enough to make
+an alliance desirable. For instance, those tickets in your pocket for
+Illghera will take you there, it is true, but they will not take you
+into the presence of the King."
+
+"The King," I remarked pensively, "leads a retired life."
+
+"He does," Lady Delahaye answered. "He has the greatest objection to
+visitors, and for a stranger to obtain an audience is almost an
+impossibility. He never leaves the grounds of the villa, and his
+secretary, who opens all his letters, is--a friend of Madame's."
+
+"You have put your case admirably," I remarked. "If Madame is sincere, I
+should at least like to hear what she has to say."
+
+Lady Delahaye drew a little sigh of content.
+
+"At last," she exclaimed, "I do believe that you are going to behave
+like a reasonable person."
+
+I could not refrain from the natural retort.
+
+"I have an idea," I said, "that up to now my actions have been fairly
+well justified."
+
+We were mounting the steps of her house. She looked round and raised her
+eyebrows.
+
+"We must let bygones be bygones!" she said. "Madame has declared that
+henceforth she adjures all intrigue."
+
+A footman took my hat and stick in the hall. Lady Delahaye led me into a
+small boudoir leading out of a larger room. She herself only opened the
+door and closed it, remaining outside. I was alone with the Archduchess.
+
+She rose slowly to her feet, a very graceful and majestic-looking
+person, with a suggestion of Isobel in her thin neck and the pose of her
+head. She did not hold out her hand, and she surveyed me very
+critically. I ventured to bestow something of the same attention upon
+her. She was certainly a very beautiful woman, and her expression by no
+means displeasing. She had Isobel's dark blue eyes, and there was a
+humorous line about her mouth which astonished me.
+
+"I am not offering you my hand, Mr. Greatson," she said, "because I
+presume that until we understand each other better it would be a mere
+matter of form. Still, I am glad that you have come to see me."
+
+"I am very glad too, Madame," I answered, "especially if my visit leads
+to a cessation of the somewhat remarkable proceedings of the last few
+weeks."
+
+The Archduchess smiled.
+
+"Well," she said, "I am forced to admit myself beaten. I have been
+ill-served, it is true, but I suppose my methods are antiquated."
+
+"They belong properly," I admitted, "to a few centuries ago."
+
+Madame smiled a little queerly.
+
+"A few centuries ago," she said, "I fancy that if our family history is
+true, the affair would have been more simple."
+
+"I can well believe it," I answered.
+
+Madame relapsed into her chair, from which I judged that the preliminary
+skirmishing was over.
+
+"You will please to be seated, Mr. Greatson!"
+
+I obeyed.
+
+"I am not going to play the hypocrite with you, sir," she said quietly.
+"It is not worth while, is it? The object of the struggle between us has
+been, on my part, to keep Isobel and her grandfather apart. You have
+doubtless correctly gauged my motive. Isobel's mother was my father's
+favourite child. If he had an idea that her child was alive, he would
+receive her without a word. She would completely usurp the place of
+Adelaide, my own daughter, in his affection--and in his will."
+
+"In his will!" I repeated quietly. "Yes, I understand."
+
+Madame nodded.
+
+"It is quite simple," she said. "For myself I am willing to admit that I
+am an ambitious woman. Money for its own sake I take no heed of, but it
+remains always one of the great levers of the world, and it is the only
+lever by means of which I can gain what I desire. I never forget that
+the country over which my father rules was once an absolute kingdom, and
+semi-Royalty does not appeal to me. The betrothal of my daughter
+Adelaide to Ferdinand of Saxonia was of my planning entirely. The dowry
+required by the Council of Saxonia is so large that it could not
+possibly be paid if any portion of my father's fortune, great though it
+is, is diverted towards Isobel. Hence my desire to keep Isobel and her
+grandfather apart."
+
+"Madame," I said, "you are candour itself. I can only regret that it is
+my hard fate to oppose such admirable plans."
+
+"I have been given to understand," the Archduchess said, "that it is now
+your intention to take Isobel yourself to Illghera!"
+
+"The tickets," I murmured, "are in my pocket."
+
+Madame bowed.
+
+"Well," she said, "I have seen and heard enough of you to make no
+further effort to thwart or even to influence you. Yet I have a
+proposition to make. First of all, consider these things. If we come to
+no arrangement with each other I shall use every means I can to prevent
+your obtaining an interview with my father. Everything is in my favour.
+He is very old, he has a hatred of strangers, he grants audiences to no
+one. He never passes outside the grounds of the villa, and all the gates
+are guarded by sentries, who admit no one save those who have the
+entrée. Then, if you attempt to approach him by correspondence, his
+private secretary, who opens every letter, is one of my own appointing.
+I have exaggerated none of these things. It will be difficult for you to
+approach the King. You may succeed--you seem to have the knack of
+success--but it will take time. Isobel's re-appearance will be without
+dignity, and open to many remarks for various reasons. You may even fail
+to convince my father, and if you failed the first time there would be
+no second opportunity."
+
+"What you say, Madame," I admitted, "is reasonable. I have never assumed
+that as yet my task is completed. I recognize fully the difficulties
+that are still before me."
+
+"You have common-sense, Mr. Greatson, I am glad to see," she continued.
+"I am the more inclined to hope that you will accede to my proposition.
+Briefly, it is this! Let me have the credit of bringing Isobel to her
+grandfather. Her year in London would at all times, in these days of
+scandal, be a somewhat delicate matter to publish. What you have done,
+you have done, as I very well know, from no hope of or desire for
+reward. Efface yourself. It will be for Isobel's good. I myself shall
+stand sponsor for her to the world. I shall have discovered her in the
+convent here, and I shall take her back to her rightful place with
+triumph. All your difficulties then will vanish, your end will have been
+creditably and adequately attained. For myself the advantage is obvious.
+A difference to Adelaide it must make, but it will inevitably be less if
+the credit of her discovery remains with me. Have I made myself clear,
+Mr. Greatson?"
+
+"Perfectly," I answered. "But you forget there is Isobel herself to be
+considered. She is no longer a child. She has opinions and a will of her
+own."
+
+"She owes too much to you," Madame replied quietly, "to disregard your
+wishes."
+
+I believed from the first that the woman was in earnest, and her
+proposal an honest one. And yet I hesitated. The past was a little
+recent. She showed that she read my thoughts.
+
+"Come," she said, "I will prove to you that I mean what I say. To-night
+I will give a dinner-party--informal, it is true, but the Prince of
+Cleves, my cousin the Cardinal, and your own ambassador, shall come. I
+will introduce Isobel as my niece. The affair will then be established.
+Do you consent?"
+
+For one moment I hesitated. I knew very well what my answer meant.
+Absolute effacement, the tearing out of my life for ever of what had
+become the sweetest part of it. In that single moment it seemed to me
+that I realized with something like complete despair the barrenness of
+the days to come.
+
+"Madame, if Isobel is to be persuaded," I answered, "I consent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"This, then," the Prince remarked, raising his eyeglass, "is the young
+lady whose romantic history you have been recounting to me? But, my dear
+lady, she is charming!"
+
+Madame held out her hands affectionately and kissed Isobel, who had
+entered the room with her cousin, on both cheeks. Then she took her by
+the hand and presented her to the Prince of Cleves and several others of
+the company. Isobel was a little pale, but her manner was perfectly easy
+and self-possessed. She was dressed, somewhat to my surprise, in the
+deepest mourning, and she even wore a band of black velvet around her
+neck.
+
+"My dear child," her aunt said pleasantly, "I scarcely think that your
+toilette is a compliment to us all. White should be your colour for many
+years to come."
+
+Isobel raised her eyes. Her tone was no louder than ordinary, but
+somehow her voice seemed to be possessed of unusually penetrating
+qualities.
+
+"My dear aunt," she said, "you forget I am in mourning for my
+stepfather, Monsieur Feurgéres, who was very good to me."
+
+A company of perfectly bred people accepted the remark in sympathetic
+silence. There was not even an eyebrow raised, but I fancy that Isobel's
+words, calmly spoken and with obvious intent, struck the keynote of her
+future relations with her aunt.
+
+Isobel, a few minutes later, brought her cousin over to me.
+
+"Adelaide is very anxious to know you, Arnold!" she said quietly. This
+was all the introduction she offered. Immediately afterwards her aunt
+called Isobel away to be presented to a new arrival.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," Adelaide said earnestly, "I cannot tell you how
+delighted I am that all this trouble is over, and that Isobel is coming
+to us. But I think--I think she is paying too great a price. I think my
+mother is hatefully, wickedly cruel!"
+
+"My dear young lady," I protested, "I do not think that you must say
+that. Your mother's conditions are necessary. In fact, whether she made
+them or not, I think that they would be inevitable."
+
+"You are not even to come to Illghera with us? Not to visit us even?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I belong to the great family of Bohemians," I reminded her, "who have
+no possessions and but one dress suit. What should I do at Court?"
+
+"What indeed!" she answered, with a little sigh, "for you are a citizen
+of the greater world!"
+
+"There is no such thing," I answered. "We carry our own world with us.
+We make it small or large with our own hands."
+
+"For some," she murmured, "the task then is very difficult. Where one
+lives in a forcing-house of conventions, and the doors are fast locked,
+it is very easy to be stifled, but it is hard indeed to breathe."
+
+"Princess," I said gravely, "have you examined the windows?"
+
+"I do not understand you," she answered.
+
+"But it is simple, surely," I declared. "Even if you must remain in the
+forcing-house, it is for you to open the windows and breathe what air
+you will. For your thoughts at least are free, and it is of our thoughts
+that our lives are fashioned."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Greatson," she said, "one does not talk like that at Court."
+
+"You have a great opportunity," I answered. "Character is a flower which
+blossoms in all manner of places. Sometimes it comes nearest to
+perfection in the most unlikely spots. Prosperity and sunshine are not
+the best things in the world for it. Sometimes in the gloomy and
+desolate places its growth is the sturdiest and its flowers the
+sweetest."
+
+The service of dinner had been announced. The English Ambassador took
+Adelaide away from me, but as she accepted his arm she looked me in the
+eyes with a grave but wonderfully sweet smile.
+
+"I thank you very much, Mr. Greatson," she said. "Our little
+conversation has been most pleasant."
+
+The Archduchess swept up to me. She was looking a little annoyed.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "Isobel is pleading shyness--an absurd excuse.
+She insists that you take her in to dinner. I suppose she must have her
+own way to-night, but it is annoying."
+
+Madame looked at me as though it were my fault that her plans were
+disarranged, which was a little unfair. And then Isobel, very serene,
+but with that weary look about the eyes which seemed only to have
+increased during the evening, came quietly up and took my arm.
+
+"If this is to be our last evening, Arnold, we will at least spend as
+much of it as possible together," she said gently. "I will be a very
+dutiful niece, aunt, to-morrow."
+
+We moved off together, but not before I was struck with something
+singular in Madame's expression. She stood looking at us two as though
+some wholly new idea had presented itself to her. She did not follow us
+into the dining-room for some few moments.
+
+The dinner itself, for an informal one, was a very brilliant function.
+There were eighteen of us at a large round table, which would easily
+have accommodated twenty-four. The Cardinal, whose scarlet robes in
+themselves formed a strange note of colour, sat on the Archduchess's
+right, touching scarcely any of the dishes which were continually
+presented to him, and sipping occasionally from the glass of water at
+his side. The other men and women were all distinguished, and their
+conversation, mostly carried on in French, was apt, and at times
+brilliant. Isobel and I perhaps, the former particularly, contributed
+least to the general fund. Isobel met the advances of her right-hand
+neighbour with the barest of monosyllables. Lady Delahaye, who sat on my
+left, left me for the most part discreetly alone. Yet we two spoke very
+little. I could see that Isobel was disposed to be hysterical, and that
+her outward calm was only attained by means of an unnatural effort. Yet
+I fancied that my being near soothed her, and every time I spoke to her
+or she to me, a certain relief came into her face. All the while I was
+conscious of one strange thing. The Archduchess, although she had the
+Cardinal on one side and the Prince of Cleves on the other, was
+continually watching us. Her interest in their conversation was purely
+superficial. Her interest in us, on the contrary, was an absorbing one.
+I could not understand it at all.
+
+The conclusion of dinner was marked by an absence of all ceremony. The
+cigarettes had already been passed round before the Archduchess rose,
+but those who chose to remain at the table did so. Isobel leaned over
+and whispered in my ear.
+
+"Come with me into the drawing-room. I want to talk to you."
+
+I obeyed, and the Archduchess seemed to me purposely to leave us alone.
+We sat in a quiet corner, and when I saw that there were tears in
+Isobel's eyes, I knew that my time of trial was not yet over.
+
+"Arnold," she said quietly, "you care--whether I am happy or not? You
+have done so much for me--you must care!"
+
+"You cannot doubt it, Isobel," I answered.
+
+"I do not. This sort of life will not suit me at all. I do not trust my
+aunt. I am weary of strangers. Let us give it all up. Take me back to
+London with you. I feel as though I were going into prison."
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, "you must remember why we decided that it was
+right for you to rejoin your people."
+
+"Oh, I know," she answered. "But even to the last Monsieur Feurgéres
+hesitated. My mother would never have wished me to be miserable."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I believe that Feurgéres was right," I answered. "I believe that your
+mother would wish to see you in your rightful place. I believe that it
+is your duty to claim it."
+
+Then I think that for the first time Isobel was unfair to me, and spoke
+words which hurt.
+
+"You do not wish to have me back again," she said slowly. "I have been a
+trouble to you, I know, and I have upset your life. You want me to go
+away."
+
+I did not answer her. I could not. She leaned forward and looked into my
+face, and instantly her tone changed. Her soft fingers clutched mine for
+a moment.
+
+"Dear Arnold," she whispered, "I am sorry! Forgive me! I will do what
+you think best. I did not mean to hurt you."
+
+"I am quite sure that you did not, Isobel," I answered. "Listen! I am
+speaking now for Allan as well as for myself, and for Arthur too. To
+tear you out of our lives is the hardest thing we have ever had to do.
+Your coming changed everything for us. We were never so happy before. We
+shall never know anything like it again. If you were what we thought, a
+nameless and friendless child, you would be welcome back again, more
+welcome than I can tell you. But you have your own life to live, and it
+is not ours. You have your own place to fill in the world, and, forgive
+me, your mother's memory to vindicate. Monsieur Feurgéres was right. For
+her sake you must claim the things that are yours."
+
+"But shall I never see you again, Arnold?" she asked, with a little
+catch in her breath.
+
+I set my teeth. I could see that the Archduchess was watching us.
+
+"Our ways must lie far apart, Isobel," I said. "But who can say? Many
+things may happen. The Princess Isobel may visit the studios when she is
+in London or at Homburg. She may patronize the poor writer whose books
+she knows."
+
+Isobel sat and listened to me with stony face.
+
+"I wonder," she murmured, "why the way to one's duty lies always through
+Hell?"
+
+Isobel's lips were quivering, and I dared make no effort to console her.
+The Archduchess came suddenly across the room to us, and bent
+affectionately over Isobel.
+
+"My dear child," she said, "you are overtired. Go and talk to Adelaide.
+She is alone in the music-room. I have something to say to Mr.
+Greatson."
+
+Isobel rose and left us at once. The Archduchess took her place. She was
+carrying a fan of black ostrich feathers, and she waved it languidly for
+some time as though in deep thought.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said at length.
+
+I turned and found her eyes fixed curiously upon me. These were moments
+which I remembered all my life, and every little detail in connection
+with them seemed flashed into my memory. The strange perfume, something
+like the burning of wood spice, wafted towards me by her fan, the
+glitter of the blue black sequins which covered her magnificent gown,
+the faint smile upon her parted lips, and the meaning in her eyes--all
+these things made their instantaneous and ineffaceable impression. Then
+she leaned a little closer to me.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she repeated, "I know your secret!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+I am afraid that for the moment I lost my self-possession. I had gone
+through so much during the last few hours, and this woman spoke with
+such confidence--so quietly, and yet with such absolute conviction--that
+I felt the barriers which I had built about myself crumbling away. I
+answered her lamely, and without conviction.
+
+"My secret! I do not know what you mean. I have no secret!"
+
+The black feathers fluttered backwards and forwards once more. She
+regarded me still with the same quiet smile.
+
+"You love my niece, Mr. Greatson," she said.
+
+"Madame," I answered, "you are jesting!"
+
+"Indeed I am not," she declared. "I have made a statement which is
+perfectly true."
+
+"I deny it!" I exclaimed hoarsely.
+
+"You can deny it as much as you like, if you think it worth while to
+perjure yourself," she replied coolly. "The truth remains. I have had a
+good deal of experience in such matters. You love Isobel, and I am not
+at all sure that Isobel does not love you."
+
+"Madame," I protested, "such statements are absurd. I am no longer a
+young man. I am thirty-four years old. I have no longer any thought of
+marriage. Isobel is no more than a child. I was nearly her present age
+when she was born. The whole idea, as I trust you will see, is
+ridiculous."
+
+The Archduchess regarded me still with unchanged face.
+
+"Your protestations, Mr. Greatson," she said, "amuse, but utterly fail
+to convince me."
+
+"Let us drop the subject, then," I said hastily. "At least, if you
+persist in your hallucination, I hope you will believe this. I have
+never spoken a word of what could be called love-making to the child in
+my life."
+
+"I believe you implicitly," she answered promptly. "I believe that I
+know and can appreciate your position. Let me tell you that I honour you
+for it."
+
+"Madame," I murmured, "you are very good. Let us now abandon the
+subject."
+
+"By no means," she answered. "On the contrary, I should like to discuss
+it with you fully."
+
+"Madame!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Let us suppose for a moment," she went on calmly, "that I am correct,
+that you really love Isobel, but that your peculiar position has imposed
+upon your sense of honour the necessity for silence. Well, your
+guardianship of her may now be considered to have ended. From to-night
+it has passed into my hands. Still, you would say the difference between
+your positions is immeasurable. You are, I doubt not, a gentleman by
+birth, but Isobel comes from one of the ancient and noble families of
+the world, and might almost expect to share a throne with the man whom
+she elects to marry. It is true, in effect, Mr. Greatson, that you are
+of different worlds."
+
+"Madame," I answered, "why do you trouble to demonstrate such obvious
+facts? They are incontestable. But supposing for a moment that your
+surmises concerning myself were true, you will understand that they are
+painful for me to listen to."
+
+"You must have patience, Mr. Greatson," she said quietly. "At present I
+am feeling my way through my thoughts. There is rash blood in Isobel's
+veins, and I should like her life to be happier than her mother's. She
+is unconventional and a lover of freedom. The etiquette of our Court at
+Illghera will chafe her continually. I wonder, Mr. Greatson, if she
+would not be happier--married to some one of humbler birth, perhaps, but
+who can give her the sort of life she desires."
+
+I was for a moment dumb with astonishment. Apart from the amazement of
+the whole thing, the Archduchess was not in the least the sort of person
+to be seriously interested in the abstract question of Isobel's
+happiness. At least, I should not have supposed her capable of it. I
+imagine that she must have read my thoughts, for after a searching
+glance at me she continued:
+
+"You doubt my disinterestedness, Mr. Greatson. Perhaps you are right. I
+wish the child well, but there is also this fact to be considered.
+Isobel married to an English gentleman such as, say, yourself, would be
+no longer a serious rival to my daughter in the affections of her
+grandfather."
+
+Then indeed I began to understand. What a woman of resource! She watched
+me closely behind the feathers of her fan.
+
+"Come," she said, "this time my plot is an innocent one, and it is for
+Isobel's happiness as well as for my daughter's benefit. Speak to her
+now. Marry her at once, here in Paris, and I will give her for dowry
+twenty thousand pounds!"
+
+I ground my heel into the carpet, and I was grateful for those long
+black feathers which waved gracefully in front of my face. For I was
+tempted--sorely tempted. The woman's words rang like mad music in my
+brain. Speak to her! Why not? It was the great joy of the world which
+waited for me to pluck it. Why not? I was not an old man, the child was
+fond of me, a single word of compliance, and I might step into my
+kingdom. Oh, the rapture of it, the wonderful joy of taking her hands in
+mine, of dropping once and for ever the mask from my face, the gag from
+my tongue! A rush of wild thoughts turned me dizzy. My secret was no
+longer a secret at all. The Archduchess leaned a little closer to me,
+and whispered behind those fluttering feathers--
+
+"You are a very wonderful person, Mr. Greatson, that you have kept
+silence so long. The necessity for it has passed. The child loves you. I
+am sure of it."
+
+But my moment of weakness was over. I had a sudden vision of Feurgéres,
+standing on the stage, listening with bowed head to the thunder of
+applause, but with his eyes turned always to the darkened box, with its
+lonely bouquet of pink roses--lonely to all save him, who alone saw the
+hand which held them--of Feurgéres in his sanctuary, bending lovingly
+over that chair, empty to all save him, Feurgéres, with that smile of
+unearthly happiness upon his lips--calm, debonair and steadfast. This
+was the man who had trusted me. I raised my head.
+
+"Madame," I said quietly, "what you suggest is impossible."
+
+She stared at me in incredulous astonishment.
+
+"But I do not understand," she exclaimed weakly. "You agree, surely?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"On the contrary, Madame," I said, "I beg that you will not allude
+further to the matter."
+
+The Archduchess muttered something in German to herself which I did not
+understand. Perhaps it was just as well.
+
+"You will vouchsafe me," she begged, speaking very slowly, and keeping
+her eyes fixed on me, "some reason for your refusal?"
+
+"I will give you two," I answered. "First, it is contrary to the spirit
+of my promise to Monsieur Feurgéres."
+
+Her lip curled.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Secondly," I continued, "I should be taking a dishonourable advantage
+of my position with regard to Isobel. She is very grateful to me, and
+she would very likely mistake her sentiments if I were to speak to her
+as you suggest. She is too young to know what love is. She has met no
+young men of her own rank, she does not understand in the least what
+sort of position is in store for her."
+
+"These are your reasons, then?"
+
+"I venture to think that they are sufficient ones, Madame," I answered.
+
+The Archduchess rose.
+
+"We shall need a new Cervantes," she remarked, "to do justice to the
+Englishman of to-day. I shall keep my word, Mr. Greatson, as regards
+Isobel, and I can promise you this. If gaiety and eligible suitors, and
+the luxury of her new life are not sufficient to stifle any sentimental
+follies she may be nursing just now, I will not rest till I find other
+means. Adelaide's future is arranged. I will set myself to make Isobel's
+equally brilliant. I will make her the beauty of Europe. She shall
+forget in a month the squalid days of her life with you and your friends
+in an attic."
+
+"So long as Isobel is happy," I answered, "my mission is accomplished,
+and I am content."
+
+"You are a fool and a liar!" she answered contemptuously. "You will love
+her all your days, and you know it. You will grow to curse the memory of
+this hour in which you threw away the only chance you will ever have of
+winning her. The only chance, mind, I will answer for that. I wish you
+good-evening, Mr. Greatson. You are excused. Isobel, as you are aware,
+remains here. You will find her in the music-room with Adelaide. Go and
+make your adieux, and make them quickly. You will be interrupted in
+three minutes."
+
+She swept away from me with only the slightest inclination of her head.
+I made my way to the music-room, where Isobel and her cousin were
+sitting together. Directly I entered, the latter, with a little nod of
+curious meaning to me, rose and left us alone. I held out my hands.
+
+"Isobel, dear," I said, "this must be--our farewell, then--for a time!"
+
+She placed her hands in mine. They were as cold as ice. Her cheeks were
+white, her eyes seemed fastened upon mine. All the while her bosom was
+heaving convulsively, but she said nothing.
+
+"I can only wish you what Arthur and Allan have already wished you," I
+said, "happiness! You have every chance of it, dear. You surely deserve
+it, for you brightened up our dull lives so that we can, no one of us,
+ever forget you. Think of us sometimes. Good-bye!"
+
+I stooped and kissed her lightly on the cheek. But suddenly her arms
+were wound around my neck. With a strength which was amazing she held me
+to her.
+
+"Arnold!" she sobbed. "Oh, Arnold!"
+
+Her lips were upon mine, and in another second I should have been lost,
+for my arms would have been around her. The door opened and closed. We
+heard the jingling of sequins, the sweep of a silken train. The
+Archduchess had entered. Isobel's arms fell from my neck, but her cheeks
+were scarlet, and her eyes like stars.
+
+"You--are going?" she pleaded.
+
+"I am going," I answered huskily.
+
+The Archduchess came down the room, humming a light tune.
+
+"So the dread farewell is over, then!" she exclaimed, with light good
+humour. "Come, child, no red eyes. Remember, a Waldenburg weeps only
+twice in her life. Once more, good-night, Mr. Greatson."
+
+I had reached the door. Isobel was standing still with outstretched
+arms. The Archduchess glided between us--and I went.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning I travelled unseen by the Riviera express, to which the
+saloon of the Archduchess had been attached, all the way to Illghera. I
+saw her driven with the others to the villa.
+
+Two days afterwards, from a hill overlooking the grounds, I saw an old
+gentleman in a pony chaise preceded by two footmen in dark green livery.
+Adelaide walked on one side, and Isobel on the other. That night I left
+Illghera for England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+I knew the moment I opened the door that changes were on foot. Our
+studio sitting-room was dismantled of many of its treasures. Allan, with
+his coat off and a pipe in his mouth, was throwing odds and ends in a
+promiscuous sort of way into a huge trunk which stood open upon the
+floor. Arthur, a few yards off, was rolling a cigarette.
+
+Our meeting was not wholly free from embarrassment. I think that for the
+first time in our lives there was a cloud between Allan and myself. He
+stood up and faced me squarely.
+
+"Arnold," he said, "where is Isobel?"
+
+"In Illghera with her grandfather," I answered. "Where else should she
+be?"
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"I have seen her there with my own eyes," I affirmed.
+
+There was a moment's pause. I saw the two exchange glances. Then Allan
+held out his hand.
+
+"That damned woman again!" he exclaimed. "Forgive me, Arnold!"
+
+"Willingly," I answered, "when I know what for."
+
+"Suspecting you. Lady Delahaye wrote Arthur a note, in which she said
+that the Archduchess and you had made fresh plans. You can guess what
+they were. And Illghera was off. You did hurry us away from Paris a bit,
+you know, and I was fool enough to imagine for a moment that there might
+be something in it. Forgive me, Arnold!" he added, holding out his hand.
+
+"And me!" Arthur exclaimed, extending his.
+
+I held out a hand to each. There was something grimly humorous in this
+reception, after all that I had suffered during the last few days. My
+first impulse of anger died away almost as quickly as it had been
+conceived.
+
+"My friends," I said, "the Archduchess did propose some such scheme to
+me, but you forget that my honour was involved, not only to you, not
+only to the child, but to a dead man. I can look you both in the face
+and assure you that in word and letter I have been faithful to my
+trust."
+
+"I knew it!" Allan declared gruffly. "Dear old chap, forgive me!"
+
+"I am the brute who dangled the letter before his eyes," Arthur
+exclaimed bitterly, "and I am the only one of the three who has broken
+our covenant."
+
+"My dear friends," I said slowly, "the things which are past, let us
+forget. Isobel has gone back to the life which claimed her. No barrier
+which human hand could rear could separate her from us so effectually
+and irrevocably as the mere fact that she has taken up the position
+which belongs to her. She is the Princess Isobel of Waldenburg, a king's
+grandchild. And we are--what we are! Let me now make my confession to
+you. I, too, loved her."
+
+The two hands which held mine tightened for a moment their grasp. The
+old "camaraderie" was established once more.
+
+"It is I who was responsible for her coming," I continued. "It is only
+fitting that I, too, should suffer. How she grew into our hearts you all
+know. She has gone, and nothing can ever be the same. Yet I for one do
+not regret it. I regret nothing! I am content to live with the memory of
+these wonderful days she spent with us."
+
+"And I!" Allan declared.
+
+"And I!" Arthur echoed.
+
+I wrung their hands, for it was a joy to me to feel that we had come
+once more into complete accord.
+
+"You know what sort of a state we were drifting into when she came," I
+continued. "We were like thousands of others. We were rubbing shoulders,
+hour by hour and day by day, with the world which takes no account of
+beautiful things. She came and laid the magician's hand upon our lives.
+We had perforce to alter our ways, to alter our surroundings, our
+amusements, our ideals. Joy came with her, and pain may find a secret
+place in our hearts now that she has gone, but I do not think that
+either of us would willingly blot out from his life these last two
+years. Would you, Arthur?"
+
+"Not I!" he declared. "We had to learn ourselves to teach her. To chuck
+the things that were rotten, anyhow, just because she was around. Jolly
+good for us, too!"
+
+"I agree with Arthur and you," Allan said. "I agree with all that you
+have said. The child was dear to me too. So dear, that I do not think
+that it would be easy to go back to our old life without her. That is
+why----"
+
+He glanced around the room. Our hands fell apart. I lit a cigarette and
+looked at the open trunk.
+
+"You are going away, Allan?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I'm off to Canada," he said. "I've an old uncle there who's worth
+looking after, and he's always bothering me to pay him a visit. Right
+time of the year, too--and hang it all, Arnold, I've sat here for a week
+in front of an empty canvas, and I'd go to hell sooner than stand it any
+longer!"
+
+"And you, Arthur?"
+
+"I have been appointed manager of our Paris Depôt," Arthur answered a
+little grandiloquently. "I couldn't refuse it. Much better pay and more
+fun, and all that sort of thing, and--oh, hang it all, Arnold, is it
+likely a fellow could stay here now she's gone?" he wound up, with a
+little catch in his throat.
+
+So the old days were over! I looked at my desk, and by the side of it
+was the chair in which she used sometimes to sit while I read to her.
+Then I think that I, too, was glad that this change was to come.
+
+"There is one thing, Arnold," Mabane said quietly, "about her things. We
+locked the door of her room. Mrs. Burdett has packed up most of her
+clothes, but there are the ornaments and a few little things of her own.
+We should like to go in--Arthur and I. We have waited for you."
+
+"We will go now," I answered. "She will have no need of anything that
+she has left behind. We will each choose a keepsake, and lock the rest
+up."
+
+We entered the room all together, almost on tiptoe. If we had been
+wearing hats I am sure that we should have taken them off. How, with
+such trifling means at her command, she could have left behind in that
+tiny chamber so potent an impression of daintiness and comfort I cannot
+tell. But there it was. Her little bed, with its spotless counterpane,
+was hung with pink muslin. There was a lace spread upon her
+toilet-table, on which her little oddments of silver made a brave show.
+Only one thing seemed out of place, a worn little slipper peeping out
+from under a chair. I thrust it into my pocket. The others took some
+trifle from the table. Then, as silently as we had entered, we left the
+room. As I turned the key I choked down something in my throat, and did
+my best to laugh--a little unnaturally, I am afraid.
+
+"Come!" I cried, "it is I who am responsible for this attack of
+sentiment. I will show you how to get rid of it. You dine with me at
+Hautboy's. I have money--lots of it. Feurgéres left me twenty thousand
+pounds. Hautboy's and a magnum of the best. How long will you fellows be
+dressing?"
+
+They tried to fall into my mood. Allan mixed cocktails. We drank and
+smoked and shouted to one another uproariously from our rooms as we
+changed our clothes. We drove to Hautboy's three in a hansom, and Arthur
+spent his usual five minutes chaffing the young lady behind the tiny
+bar. But when the wine came, and our glasses were filled, a sudden
+silence fell upon us. We looked at each other, and we all knew what was
+in the minds of all of us. It was Allan who spoke.
+
+"To Isobel!" he said softly.
+
+We drank in silence, each busy with his own thoughts. But afterwards
+Arthur raised his glass high above his head.
+
+"To the Princess Isobel!" he cried. "Long life and good luck to her!"
+
+Afterwards there were no more toasts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Arthur and Allan went their several ways within twenty-four hours of our
+farewell dinner. I saw them both off, and I forced them with great
+difficulty to share to some small extent in Feurgéres' legacy. Then I
+took some rooms near my club in the heart of London, and line for line,
+word for word, I re-wrote the whole of the story which I had not dared
+to show to Isobel, determined that the one thing I still had which was
+part of her body and soul should be the best that my brain and skill
+could fashion. So the winter and the early spring passed, and then my
+story was published.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+A miracle of white daintiness, from the spotless muslin of her gown to
+the creamy lace which hung from her parasol. So far as toilette went,
+Lady Delahaye was always an artist. Yet my pulses were unmoved, and my
+heart unstirred, as she stood under my dark cedar-tree and welcomed me
+with all the expression which her tone and eyes could command.
+
+"So you see, Sir Hermit," she murmured, "what happens to those who will
+not go to the mountain? Seriously, I hope you are glad to see me."
+
+"Why not?" I answered calmly. "Will you come inside, or shall we sit
+here in the shade?"
+
+"Here, by all means," she answered, subsiding gracefully into a wicker
+chair.
+
+"You will let me order you some tea?"
+
+She checked my movement towards the house.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, no! I have been paying calls all the afternoon with
+Mrs. Jerningham, and you know what that means. She has gone to the Hall
+now, and I am to pick her up in half an hour."
+
+"You are staying at Eastford House, then?" I remarked.
+
+"For a few days. Can you guess why?"
+
+"The house parties there have the reputation of being amusing," I
+suggested.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It was not that. Can you make no better guess?"
+
+"I am a dunce at riddles," I admitted.
+
+"You are a dunce at many things," she replied. "The reason I came was
+because I knew that you were living in these parts, and I had a fancy to
+see you again."
+
+"You are very good," I remarked.
+
+She looked at me critically.
+
+"You have not changed," she said slowly. "One would almost say that the
+life of a recluse agrees with you. You have by no means the white and
+wasted look which I expected. Is it fame which you have found so potent
+a tonic?"
+
+I laughed lightly.
+
+"Don't call it fame," I answered. "Success, if you will. My profession
+is so much of a lottery. A whiff of public opinion, a criticism which
+hits the popular fancy, and the bubble is floated. I'm not pretending
+that I don't appreciate it, but it was a stroke of luck all the same."
+
+She was silent for a few moments. From outside we could hear the
+jingling of harness as Mrs. Jerningham's fat bays resented the onslaught
+of officious flies. Nearer at hand there was only the lazy humming of
+bees to break the stillness of the summer afternoon. Lady Delahaye
+sighed.
+
+"You are talking nonsense, and you know it," she said. "I do not want to
+flatter you. Any man who has the trick of the pen, and chooses to give
+himself wholly and utterly away, can write a powerful story."
+
+"I am afraid that I do not understand you," I protested.
+
+"Yes, you do. You cut open your own heart, and you offered the world a
+magnifying glass to study its wounds. You wrote your own story. You told
+the tale of your own suffering. Of course it was strong, of course it
+rang with all the truth of genius. So you loved that child, Arnold! You,
+a man of the world, not a callow schoolboy. You loved her magnificently.
+Did she know?"
+
+"She did not know," I answered. "She never will know."
+
+"She may read the book!"
+
+"She may read it, and yet not know," I answered.
+
+"It is true," she murmured. "Unless she loved herself she might not
+understand."
+
+Again we were silent for a while. The perfume of the cedars floated upon
+the hot breathless air. Lady Delahaye half closed her eyes and leaned
+back.
+
+"You read the newspapers, Sir Hermit?"
+
+"Sometimes."
+
+"You have heard the news from Waldenburg?"
+
+"I read of the King's death."
+
+"And of the betrothal of the Princess Isobel?"
+
+"Yes. I have read also of that."
+
+"The cousins will both be the consorts of reigning sovereigns, small
+though their kingdoms may be. One reads great things of Adelaide. Her
+people call her already 'the well-beloved.'"
+
+A swift rush of thought carried me back to the dark stormy crossing,
+when the rain had beaten in our faces, and the wind came booming down
+the Channel. Adelaide stood once more by my side. I heard the quiet,
+bitter words, the low, passionate cry of her troubled heart. "The
+well-beloved" of her people! After all, race tells.
+
+"I spoke but twice alone to the Princess Adelaide," I said. "I learnt
+enough of her, however, to be sure that in any position she would do the
+thing that was right and gracious."
+
+"And so will Isobel," Lady Delahaye said. "I know the race well. The men
+are degenerates, but the women have nerve to rule and courage to hold
+their own against the world. Isobel's future may well be the more
+brilliant of the two. Can you realize, I wonder, that Isobel of
+Waldenburg was once the child who filled your brain with such strange
+fancies?"
+
+"I never think," I answered, "of Isobel of Waldenburg."
+
+"You are wise," she answered. "She is as surely separated from us
+eternally as though she had made that little journey from which one does
+not return. Yet you--you are going to hug your wounds all your life. Is
+that wise, my friend?"
+
+I laughed softly.
+
+"You are mistaken," I assured her. "I have no wounds--not even regrets.
+I believe that there are few men happier. Look at my home!"
+
+"It is beautiful," she admitted.
+
+"My gardens, my flowers, my cedar-tree and my books," I said. "These are
+all a joy to me. What more can a man want? Friends have moods, and they
+pass away out of one's life. The friends who smile from my study wall
+are patient and always ready. There is one to fit every hour. They do
+not change. They are always ready to show me the way into the world
+beautiful, to cheer me when I am sad, to laugh with me when I am gay.
+You must not waste any sympathy on me, Lady Delahaye. The man who has
+learnt to live alone is the man who has learnt the greatest lesson life
+has to teach. He is the man for whom the sun shines always, who carries
+with him for ever the magic key."
+
+Lady Delahaye disturbed the smoothness of my turf with the point of her
+parasol.
+
+"Are there no times," she asked in a low tone, "when these things fail
+you? No times when like calls for like, when the human part of you finds
+the comfort of ashes a dead thing? You and your books and your flowers!"
+she cried scornfully, raising her head and looking at me with heightened
+colour. "Bah! You are a man, are you not, like the others? How long will
+these content you? How long will you stop your ears and forget that life
+has passions and joys which these dead things can never yield to you?"
+
+"Until," I answered, "the magician comes who can make me believe it. And
+I am afraid, Lady Delahaye, that he has passed me by."
+
+She rose to her feet.
+
+"I am answered," she said. "I promise you that I will not intrude again
+into this Paradise of wood and stone. Give me a cigarette to keep off
+these flies, and take me down to the carriage. Thanks! If one might
+venture upon a prophecy, my dear Arnold, I think that I can see your
+fate very clearly written. I do not even need your hand to read it."
+
+"Would the spell," I asked, "be broken if I shared the knowledge?"
+
+"Not in the least," she answered, with a hard little laugh. "You will
+become one of those half-mad sort of creatures whom people call cranks,
+or you will marry your housekeeper. In either case you will deserve your
+fate."
+
+So Lady Delahaye drove away down the white dusty road, and I walked back
+to the study from whence her coming had brought me. As I sat down to my
+interrupted work I smiled. How little she understood!
+
+I wrote till seven o'clock. Punctually at that hour there was a discreet
+knock at the door, and my servant reminded me that it was time to
+change. At a quarter before eight I strolled into the garden and
+selected a piece of heliotrope for the buttonhole of my dinner coat. A
+few minutes later my dinner was served.
+
+My table was a small round one set in front of the open French windows.
+Looking a little to the right I could see the extent of my domain--a low
+laurel hedge, a sloping field beyond, in which my two Alderneys were
+standing almost knee-deep amongst the buttercups; a ring fence, a
+paddock, and, beyond, the road. To the left were my gardens, the
+sweetness of which came stealing through the window with the very
+faintest breath of the slowly moving air, bordered by that ancient red
+brick wall, mellowed and crumbling with the sun and west winds of
+generations, and in front of me my lawn and the cedar-tree under which
+Lady Delahaye had sat an hour or so ago and prophesied evil things. My
+lips parted into a smile as I thought of her words. Did she indeed think
+me a creature so weak as to pile gloom on the top of sorrow, to shut my
+eyes to all the joys of life, because supreme happiness was denied me,
+to play skittles with my self-respect, and--marry a kitchen-maid? I, who
+had turned over great pages in the book of life! I, who had known
+Feurgéres! Wallace had left the room for a moment, and I raised my glass
+full of clear amber wine, and drank silently my evening toast. I drank
+to the memory of the greatest love I had ever known, to the man whose
+strong and beautiful life had taught me how to fashion my own. Perhaps
+my thoughts flashed a little further afield. It was so always when I
+thought of Feurgéres, but it was to the joyous and wonderful memory of
+those earlier days, to Isobel the child I drank. Isobel of Waldenburg
+had passed away into the world of shadows. I courted no heartaches by
+vain thoughts of her. I pored over no papers to find mention of her
+name. I was content with what had gone before.
+
+I morbid! Lady Delahaye had judged me wrongly indeed. I, before whom two
+great worlds stretched themselves continually, full of countless
+treasures, always changing, yet always beautiful. Only yesterday I had
+seen the sun rise. I had seen the still slumbering world break into
+quivering life. I had seen the curtain roll up on a new act of this most
+wonderful of all plays to the music of an orchestra hidden indeed in my
+grove of chestnuts, but sweeter, more joyous, more full of the promise
+of perfect things than ever a violin touched by human fingers. Then the
+thrushes had hopped out on to my dew-spangled lawn, where before the hot
+sun the grey, gossamer-like mist was vanishing like breath from a
+mirror; my roses raised their heads, and the breeze from the west--a
+lazy, fluttering breeze--borrowed their sweetness; my peaches cracked
+through their full skins upon the wall, and the bees commenced their
+eternal lullaby of murmuring sounds. Then at night--such a night as
+this, too, promised to be--I had watched the shadows come creeping over
+the land when the sun had set and the moon had barely risen; a new order
+of things had come. The fire of the day was replaced by the infinite
+peace of night. Beyond the confines of my little domain the whole world
+lay hushed and hidden. There were few stars as yet to mock with their
+passionless serenity the toilers of the earth, worn out with the long
+day's struggle. Only a great quiet--a great, peaceful quiet--and the
+shadows of dim things!
+
+I morbid, with eyes to see these things, with a whole room full of
+waiting friends, ready at a touch of my fingers, the turning of a page,
+to take me by the hand and lead into even other worlds as beautiful as
+this, to scale with me the mountains, or to wander along the
+flower-strewn valleys. Lady Delahaye was a very foolish woman. She had
+seen nothing of my well-ordered household, of the ease, the
+luxury--simple, yet almost Sybaritic--with which I had surrounded
+myself. She did not understand life from my point of view--life as
+Feurgéres had lived it. The life sentimental, but not passionate; the
+life to be evolved by will from the tangle of bruised hopes and hot
+desires. The life----
+
+I set down my glass empty. The last drop had tasted like vinegar. Always
+one has to fight, and for a while I sat in silence before my table piled
+now with dishes of fruit. My hands gripped the sides of my chair, my
+eyes were fixed upon a twinkling light which had shot out from the
+distant hillside. Always one has to fight for the things worth
+having--and the pain soon passes.
+
+In a few minutes I rose. I lit a cigarette from the box which Wallace
+had placed at my elbow, and with a handful more in my pocket I stepped
+outside. On the lawn under the cedar-tree something was lying--something
+pink and fluffy, and very soft to the fingers. As I held it at arm's
+length a faint, familiar perfume stole up from its flouncy depths. The
+pain was all gone now. I smiled as I looked at it. It was Lady
+Delahaye's parasol!
+
+I turned it over meditatively. The fancy seized me that it had been left
+there on purpose--my last chance! Eastford House was barely a mile and a
+half away--a very reasonable after-dinner stroll. I smiled to myself as
+I summoned Wallace from the dining-room.
+
+"Take this parasol over to Eastford House as soon as you have served my
+coffee," I directed. "Lady Delahaye must have left it here this
+afternoon."
+
+"Very good, sir," Wallace answered, relieving me of my burden and
+carrying it into the house.
+
+Then I departed on my usual evening pilgrimage. I entered the flower
+garden by a little iron gate, and walked slowly amongst my roses. Here
+the air was full of delicate scents--lavender insistent; mignonette
+faint, but penetrating; homely wall-flowers, sweet even as the roses
+themselves. Night insects now were buzzing around me; the bushes took to
+themselves phantasmal shapes; even the path, very narrow and overgrown,
+was hard to find. I filled my hand with flowers and made my way slowly
+back to the cedar-tree. The shadows were deeper now. It was the one hour
+of darkness before the rising of the late moon. I threw myself into a
+low chair, and the flowers on to the seat which encircled the
+cedar-tree. Oh, wonderful Feurgéres, who had taught me the sweetness of
+such moments as this!
+
+Always she came the same way; yet to-night it seemed to me that a
+startling note of reality heralded her coming. The ghostliness of her
+movements, that noiseless flitting across the lawn were changed. Almost
+I could have sworn that the little iron gate had indeed been opened and
+closed, that real footsteps had fallen lightly enough, but, with actual
+sound, upon the gravel path, that I could hear the soft swish of a real
+dress from the slim white figure which came hesitatingly across the
+lawn. Oh, Feurgéres was a great man! It was a great thing which he had
+taught me. My pulses were thrilled with expectant joy. Reality itself
+could be no more real. But to-night--to-night was a triumph indeed! She
+was dressed differently. She wore a long white travelling cloak, a veil
+pushed back from her hat. I did not understand. My fancy had never
+dressed her like this. That little cry, her pause. Had I indeed done
+greater things than Feurgéres, and summoned to my side real flesh and
+blood?
+
+"Arnold!"
+
+I gripped the sides of my chair. I felt my breath coming shorter. A cry.
+I could not keep it back from my quivering lips.
+
+"Isobel!"
+
+I could not move. I was afraid of what I had done. And then she dropped
+on her knees by my side, and real arms were about my neck, real kisses
+were upon my lips. Then I no longer had any fear, for from whatever
+world she had come the joy of it was like a foretaste of heaven. I drew
+her to me, held her passionately, and I knew that this was no creature
+of my mind's fashioning, but a live woman, whose heart beat so wildly
+against my own....
+
+"It was all Adelaide," she murmured presently. "She brought me your
+book, and afterwards we talked. She was alone with my grandfather--and
+then he sent for me. I was afraid, for this was in his last days. Shall
+I tell you what he said, Arnold?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, tightening my grasp upon her. "Go on talking!" For I
+was fighting still for belief.
+
+"He took my hand quite calmly, and I knew at once that I had nothing to
+fear. 'Isobel,' he said, 'they tell me that you have your mother's blood
+in your veins, that freedom means more to you than ambition, that you
+are a woman first and a Waldenburg afterwards. Is this true?' Then I
+told him everything, and he kissed me. 'Go your own way, Isobel,' he
+said, 'but stay with me while I live. Adelaide has shown me many things
+which I did not understand. Poor child!' He sent for his lawyers,
+Arnold, and he made me a poor woman. I am much too poor to be a princess
+any longer--unless I may be yours."
+
+Then I believed--this, the strangest of all things that may happen to a
+man. My garden of fancies, which Feurgéres had shown me so well how to
+cultivate, passed away into the mists. Before the moon rose, Paradise
+was there.
+
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+
+    A Prince of Sinners
+    Anna the Adventuress
+    The Master Mummer
+    A Maker of History
+    Mysterious Mr. Sabin
+    The Yellow Crayon
+    The Betrayal
+    The Traitors
+    Enoch Strone
+    A Sleeping Memory
+    The Malefactor
+    A Daughter of the Marionis
+    The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown
+    A Lost Leader
+    The Great Secret
+    The Avenger
+    As a Man Lives
+    The Missioner
+    The Governors
+    The Man and His Kingdom
+    A Millionaire of Yesterday
+    The Long Arm of Mannister
+    Jeanne of the Marshes
+    The Illustrious Prince
+    The Lost Ambassador
+    Berenice
+    The Moving Finger
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
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+Under the Red Robe. By Stanley J. Weyman.
+
+
+
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+
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+End of Project Gutenberg's The Master Mummer, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Master Mummer, by E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Master Mummer, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Master Mummer
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2009 [EBook #28161]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER MUMMER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+<h1>The Master Mummer</h1>
+
+<h2><i>By</i> E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM</h2>
+
+<h3>Author of "Anna, the Adventuress," "A Prince of Sinners," "The
+Betrayal," Etc.</h3>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">With Four Illustrations</span></h4>
+
+
+<h4><i>A. L. BURT COMPANY</i><br />
+<i>Publishers New York</i></h4>
+
+<h4><i>Copyright</i>, 1904,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By Little, Brown, and Company.</span></h4>
+
+<h4><i>All rights reserved</i></h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a>
+<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"Let the boy have his chance," said Allan.</h3>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#Book_I">Book I</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IA">CHAPTER I</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IIA">CHAPTER II</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IIIA">CHAPTER III</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IVA">CHAPTER IV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VA">CHAPTER V</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIA">CHAPTER VI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIIA">CHAPTER VII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIIIA">CHAPTER VIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IXA">CHAPTER IX</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XA">CHAPTER X</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIA">CHAPTER XI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIIA">CHAPTER XII</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#Book_II">Book II</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IB">CHAPTER I</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IIB">CHAPTER II</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IIIB">CHAPTER III</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IVB">CHAPTER IV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VB">CHAPTER V</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIB">CHAPTER VI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIIB">CHAPTER VII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIIIB">CHAPTER VIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IXB">CHAPTER IX</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XB">CHAPTER X</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIB">CHAPTER XI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIIB">CHAPTER XII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIIIB">CHAPTER XIII</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#Book_III">Book III</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IC">CHAPTER I</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IIC">CHAPTER II</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IIIC">CHAPTER III</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IVC">CHAPTER IV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VC">CHAPTER V</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIC">CHAPTER VI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIIC">CHAPTER VII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIIIC">CHAPTER VIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IXC">CHAPTER IX</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XC">CHAPTER X</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIC">CHAPTER XI</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#THE_NOVELS_OF_E_PHILLIPS_OPPENHEIM">THE NOVELS OF E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM</a><br />
+<a href="#Popular_Copyright_Books">Popular Copyright Books</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<p><a href="#illus1">"Let the boy have his chance," said Allan.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus2">"If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you shall never return there."</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus3">She was calmer than I had expected, but it was a terrible look which she flashed upon us.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus4">"I do not know any reason" Isobel answered, "why I should do your bidding."</a></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>The Master Mummer</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Book_I" id="Book_I"></a>Book I</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IA" id="CHAPTER_IA"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<p>Sheets of virgin manuscript paper littered my desk, the smoke of much
+uselessly consumed tobacco hung about the room in a little cloud. Many a
+time I had dipped my pen in the ink, only to find myself a few minutes
+later scrawling ridiculous little figures upon the margin of my
+blotting-pad. It was not at all an auspicious start for one who sought
+immortality.</p>
+
+<p>There came a growl presently from the other side of the room, where
+Mabane, attired in a disreputable smock, with a short black pipe in the
+corner of his mouth, was industriously defacing a small canvas. Mabane
+was tall and fair and lean, with a mass of refractory hair which was the
+despair of his barber; a Scotchman with keen blue eyes, and humorous
+mouth amply redeeming his face from the plainness which would otherwise
+have been its lot. He also was in search of immortality.</p>
+
+<p>"Make a start for Heaven's sake, Arnold," he implored. "To look at you
+is an incitement to laziness. The world's full of things to write about.
+Make a choice and have done with it. Write something, even if you have
+to tear it up afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>I turned round in my chair and regarded Mabane reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Get on with your pot-boiler, and leave me alone, Allan," I said. "You
+do not understand my difficulties in the least. It is simply a matter of
+selection. My brain is full of ideas&mdash;brimming over. I want to be sure
+that I am choosing the best."</p>
+
+<p>There came to me from across the room a grunt of contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"Pot-boiler indeed! What about short stories at ten guineas a time, must
+begin in the middle, scented and padded to order, Anthony Hopeish, with
+the sugar of Austin Dobson and the pepper of Kipling shaken on <i>ad
+lib.</i>? Man alive, do you know what pot-boilers are? It's a perfect
+conservatory you're living in. Got any tobacco, Arnold?"</p>
+
+<p>I jerked my pouch across the room, and it was caught with a deft little
+backward swing of the hand. Allan Mabane was an M.C.C. man, and a
+favourite point with his captain.</p>
+
+<p>"You've got me on the hip, Allan," I answered, rising suddenly from my
+chair and walking restlessly up and down the large bare room. "The devil
+himself might have put those words into your mouth. They are
+pot-boilers, every one of them, and I am sick of it. I want to do
+something altogether different. I am sure that I can, but I have got
+into the way of writing those other things, and I can't get out of it.
+That is why I am sitting here like an owl."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane refilled his pipe and smoked contentedly.</p>
+
+<p>"I know exactly how you're feeling, old chap," he said sympathetically.
+"I get a dash of the same thing sometimes&mdash;generally in the springtime.
+It begins with a sort of wistfulness, a sense of expansion follows, you
+go about all the time with your head in the clouds. You want to collect
+all the beautiful things in life and express them. Oh, I know all about
+it. It generally means a girl. Where were you last night?"</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Where I shall be to-night, to-morrow night&mdash;where I was a year ago.
+That is the trouble of it all. One is always in the same place."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very bad attack," he said. "Your generalities may be all right,
+but they are not convincing."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not spoken a word to a woman, except to Mrs. Burdett, for a week
+or more," I declared.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane resumed his work. Such a discussion, his gesture seemed to
+indicate, was not worth continuing. But I continued, following out my
+train of thought, though I spoke as much to myself as to my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right about my stories," I admitted. "I have painted
+rose-coloured pictures of an imaginary life, and publishers have bought
+them, and the public, I suppose, have read them. I have dressed up
+puppets of wood and stone, and set them moving like mechanical
+dolls&mdash;over-gilded, artificial, vulgar. And all the time the real thing
+knocks at our doors."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane stepped back from his canvas to examine critically the effect of
+an unexpected dash of colour.</p>
+
+<p>"The public, my dear Greatson," he said abstractedly, "do not want the
+real thing&mdash;from you. Every man to his <i>m&ecirc;tier</i>. Yours is to sing of
+blue skies and west winds, of hay-scented meadows and Watteau-like
+revellers in a paradise as artificial as a Dutch garden. Take my advice,
+and keep your muse chained. The other worlds are for the other writers."</p>
+
+<p>I was annoyed with Mabane. There was just sufficient truth in his words
+to make them sound brutal. I answered him with some heat.</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I starve for it, Allan? The whole cycle of life goes humming
+around us, hour by hour. It is here, there, everywhere. I will bring a
+little of it into my work, or I will write no more."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane shook his head. He was busy again upon his canvas.</p>
+
+<p>"It is always the humourist," he murmured, "who is ambitious to write a
+tragedy&mdash;and <i>vice vers&acirc;</i>. The only sane man is he who is conscious of
+his limitations."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," I answered quickly, "the man who admits them is a
+fool. I have made up my mind. I will dress no more dolls in fine
+clothes, and set them strutting across a rose-garlanded stage. I will
+create, or I will leave alone. I will write of men and women, or not at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"It will affect your income," Mabane said. "It will cost you money in
+postage stamps, and your manuscripts will be declined with thanks."</p>
+
+<p>His gentle cynicism left me unmoved. I had almost forgotten his
+presence. I was standing over by the window, looking out across a
+wilderness of housetops. My own thoughts for the moment were sufficient.
+I spoke, it is true, but I spoke to myself.</p>
+
+<p>"A beginning," I murmured. "That is all one wants. It seems so hard, and
+yet&mdash;it ought to be so easy. If one could but lift the roofs&mdash;could but
+see for a moment underneath."</p>
+
+<p>"I can save you the trouble," Mabane remarked cheerfully, strolling over
+to my side. "Where are you looking? Chertsey Street, eh? Well, in all
+probability mamma is cooking the dinner, Mary is scrubbing the floor,
+Miss Flora is dusting the drawing-room, and Miss Louisa is practising
+her scales. You have got a maggot in your brain, Greatson. Life such as
+you are thinking of is the most commonplace thing in the world. The
+middle-classes haven't the capacity for passion&mdash;even the tragedy of
+existence never troubles them. Don't try to stir up the muddy waters,
+Arnold. Write a pretty story about a Princess and her lovers, and draw
+your cheque."</p>
+
+<p>"There are times, Allan," I remarked thoughtfully, "when you are an
+intolerable nuisance."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane shrugged his shoulders and returned to his work. Apparently he
+had reached a point in it which required his undivided attention, for he
+relapsed almost at once into silence. Following his example, I too
+returned to my desk and took up my pen. As a rule my work came to me
+easily. Even now there were shadowy ideas, well within my mental
+grasp&mdash;ideas, however, which I was in the humour to repel rather than to
+invite. For I knew very well whither they would lead me&mdash;back to the
+creation of those lighter and more fanciful figures flitting always
+across the canvas of a painted world. A certain facility for this sort
+of thing had brought me a reputation which I was already growing to
+hate. More than ever I was determined not to yield. Mabane's words had
+come to me with a subtle note of mockery underlying their undoubted
+common-sense. I thrust the memory of them on one side. Certain gifts I
+knew that I possessed. I had a ready pen and a facile invention.
+Something had stirred in me a late-awakened but irresistible desire to
+apply them to a different purpose than ever before. As I sat there the
+creations of my fancy flitted before me one by one&mdash;delicate, perhaps,
+and graceful, thoughtfully conceived, adequately completed. Yet I knew
+very well that they were like ripples upon the water, creatures without
+lasting forms or shape, images passing as easily as they had come into
+the mists of oblivion. The human touch, the transforming fire of life
+was wholly wanting. These April creations of my brain&mdash;carnival figures,
+laughing and weeping with equal facility, lacked always and altogether
+the blood and muscle of human creatures. The mishaps of their lives
+struck never a tragic note; always the thrill and stir of actual
+existence were wanting. I would have no more of them. I felt myself
+capable of other things. I would wait until other things came.</p>
+
+<p>The door was pushed open, and Arthur smiled in upon us. This third
+member of our bachelor household was younger than either Mabane or
+myself&mdash;a smooth-faced, handsome boy, resplendent to-day in frock-coat
+and silk hat.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "Hard at work, both of you!"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane laid down his brush and surveyed the newcomer critically.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur," he declared with slow emphasis, "you do us credit&mdash;you do
+indeed. I hope that you will show yourself to our worthy landlady, and
+that you will linger upon the doorstep as long as possible. This sort of
+thing is good for our waning credit. I am no judge, for I never
+possessed such a garment, but there is something about the skirts of
+your frock-coat which appeals to me. There is indeed, Arthur. And then
+your tie&mdash;the cunning arrangement of it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, rats!" the boy exclaimed, laughing. "Give me a couple of
+cigarettes, there's a good chap, and do we feed at home to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane produced the cigarettes and turned back to his work.</p>
+
+<p>"We do!" he admitted with a sigh. "Always on Tuesdays, you know.
+By-the-bye, are you going to the works in that costume?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not likely! It's my day at the dep&ocirc;t, worse luck," Arthur answered,
+pausing to strike a match. "What's up with Arnold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Got the blues, because his muse won't work," Mabane said. "He wants to
+strike out in a new line&mdash;something blood-curdling, you
+know&mdash;Tolstoi-like, or Hall Caineish&mdash;he doesn't care which. He wants to
+do what nobody else ever will&mdash;take himself seriously. I put it down in
+charity to dyspepsia."</p>
+
+<p>"Mabane is an ass!" I grunted. "Be off, Arthur, there's a good chap, and
+don't listen to him. He hasn't the least idea what he is talking about."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur, however, happened to be in no hurry. He tilted his hat on the
+back of his head, and leaned upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always noticed," he remarked affably, "that under Allan's most
+asinine speeches there usually lurks a substratum of truth. Are you
+really going to write a serious novel, Arnold?"</p>
+
+<p>I lit a cigarette and leaned back in my chair resignedly. Arthur was a
+most impenetrable person, and if he meant to stay, I knew very well that
+it was hopeless to attempt to hurry him.</p>
+
+<p>"I had some idea of it," I admitted. "By-the-bye, Arthur, you are a
+person with a deep insight into life. Can't you give me a few hints? I
+haven't even made a start."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur considered the matter in all seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a bit difficult for you, I daresay," he remarked. "You stop
+indoors so much, and when you do go out you mope off into the country by
+yourself. You want to knock about the restaurants and places to get
+ideas. That's what Gorman always does. You see you get all your
+characters from life in them, and they seem so much more natural."</p>
+
+<p>"And who," I asked, "is Mr. Gorman? I do not recognize the name."</p>
+
+<p>"Pal of mine," Arthur answered easily. "I don't bring him here because
+he's a bit loud for you chaps. Writes stories for no end of papers.
+<i>Illustrated Bits</i> and the <i>Cigarette Journal</i> print anything he cares
+to send. I thought perhaps you'd know the name."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane went off into a peal of laughter behind his canvas. The boy
+remained imperturbable.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I'm not comparing his work with Arnold's," he declared.
+"Arnold's stuff is no end better, of course. But, after all, the chap's
+got common-sense. If they want me to draw a motor I go and sit down in
+front of it. If Arnold wants to write of real things, real men and
+women, you know, he ought to go out and look for them. If he sits here
+and just imagines them, how can he be sure that they are the real thing?
+See what I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a short silence. Arthur was swinging his long legs backwards
+and forwards, and whistling softly to himself. I looked at him for a
+moment curiously. The words of an ancient proverb flitted through my
+brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur," I declared solemnly, laying down my pen, "you are a prophet in
+disguise, the prophet sent to lift the curtain which is before my eyes.
+Which way shall I go to find these real men and real women, to look upon
+these tragic happenings? For Heaven's sake direct me. Where, for
+instance, does Mr. Gorman go?"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur swung himself off, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Gorman goes everywhere," he answered. "If I were you I should try one
+of the big railway stations. So long!"</p>
+
+<p>I rose to my feet, and taking down my hat commenced to brush it. Mabane
+looked up from his work.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you off to, Arnold?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Some curious instinct or power of divination might indeed have given me
+a passing glimpse of the things which lay beyond, through the portals of
+that day, for I answered him seriously enough&mdash;even gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"The prophet has spoken," I said. "I must obey! I shall start with
+Charing Cross."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIA" id="CHAPTER_IIA"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+
+<p>Why the man should have spoken to me at all I could not tell. Yet it is
+certain that I heard his simple and courteous inquiry with a thrill of
+pleasure, not unmixed with excitement. From the first moment of my
+arrival upon the platform I had singled him out, the only interesting
+figure in a crowd of nonentities. Perhaps I had lingered a little too
+closely by his side, had manifested more curiosity in him than was
+altogether seemly. At any rate, he spoke to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know if the Continental train is punctual?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no idea," I answered. "This guard would tell us, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Signalled in, sir," the man declared. "Two minutes late only."</p>
+
+<p>My new acquaintance thanked me and lit a cigarette. He seemed in no
+hurry to depart, and I was equally anxious to engage him in
+conversation. For although he was dressed with the trim and quiet
+precision of the foreigner or man of affairs, there was something about
+his beardless face, his broadly humorous mouth, and easy, nonchalant
+bearing which suggested the person who juggled always with the ball of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>"Marvellous!" he murmured, looking after the guard. "Two minutes late
+from Paris&mdash;and perhaps beyond. It is a wonderful service. Now, if I had
+come to meet any one, and had a pressing appointment immediately
+afterwards, this train would have been an hour late. As it is&mdash;ah, well,
+one is foolish to grumble," he added, with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You, like me, then," I remarked, "are a loiterer."</p>
+
+<p>He flashed a keen glance upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that I have met," he said slowly, "with someone of similar tastes
+to my own. I will confess at once that you are right. For myself I feel
+that there is nothing more interesting in this great city of yours than
+to watch the people coming and going from it. All your railway stations
+fascinate me, especially those which are the connecting links with other
+countries. Perhaps it is because I am an idle man, and must needs find
+amusement somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet," I objected, "for a single face or personality which is
+suggestive, one sees a thousand of the type which only irritates&mdash;the
+great rank and file of the commonplace. I wonder, after all, whether the
+game is worth the candle."</p>
+
+<p>"One in a thousand," he repeated thoughtfully. "Yet think what that one
+may mean&mdash;a walking drama, a tragedy, a comedy, an epitome of life or
+death. There is more to be read in the face of that one than in the
+three hundred pages of the novel over which we yawn ourselves to sleep.
+Here is the train! Now let us watch the people together&mdash;that is, if you
+really mean that you have no friends to look out for."</p>
+
+<p>"I really mean it," I assured him. "I am here out of the idlest
+curiosity. I am by profession a scribbler, and I am in search of an
+idea."</p>
+
+<p>Once more he regarded me curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name is Greatson, is it not&mdash;Arnold Greatson? You were pointed out
+to me once at the Vagabonds' Club, and I never forget a face. Here they
+come! Look! Look!"</p>
+
+<p>The train had come to a standstill. People were streaming out upon the
+platform. My companion laid his fingers upon my arm. He talked rapidly
+but lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"You see them, my young friend," he exclaimed. "Those are returning
+tourists from Switzerland; the thin, sharp-featured girl there, with a
+plaid skirt and a satchel, is an American. Heavens! how she talks! She
+has lost a trunk. The whole system will be turned upside down until she
+has found it or been compensated. The two young men with her are silent.
+They are wise. Alone she will prevail. You see the man of commerce; he
+is off already. He has been to France, perhaps to Belgium also, to buy
+silks and laces. And the stout old gentleman? See how happy he looks to
+be back again where English is spoken, and he can pay his way in
+half-crowns and shillings. You see the milliner's head-woman, dressed
+with obtrusive smartness, though everything seems a little awry. She has
+been over to Paris for the fashions; in a few days her firm will send
+out a little circular, and Hampstead or Balham will be much impressed.
+And&mdash;what do you make of those two, my young friend?"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that my companion's tone was changed, that his whole
+appearance was different. I was suddenly conscious of an irresistible
+conviction. I did not believe any longer that he was, like me, an idle
+loiterer here. I felt that his presence had a purpose, and that it was
+connected in some measure with the two people to whom my attention was
+so suddenly drawn. They were, in that somewhat heterogeneous crowd,
+sufficiently noticeable. The man, although he assumed the jauntiness of
+youth, was past middle-age, and his mottled cheeks, his thin, watery
+eyes, and thick red neck were the unmistakeable hall-marks of years of
+self-indulgence. He was well dressed and groomed, and his demeanour
+towards his companion was one of deferential good humour. She, however,
+was a person of a very different order. She was a girl apparently
+between fifteen and sixteen, her figure as yet undeveloped, her dresses
+a little too short. Her face was small and white, her mouth had a most
+pathetic droop, and in her eyes&mdash;wonderful, deep blue eyes&mdash;there was a
+curious look of shrinking fear, beneath which flashed every now and then
+a gleam of positive terror. Her dark hair was arranged in a thick
+straight fringe upon her forehead, and in a long plait behind, after the
+schoolgirl fashion. Notwithstanding the <i>gaucherie</i> of her years and her
+apparent unhappiness, she carried herself with a certain dignity and
+grace of movement which were wonderfully impressive. I watched her
+admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"They are rather a puzzle," I admitted. "I suppose they might very well
+be father and daughter. It is certain that she is fresh from some
+convent boarding-school. I don't like the way she looks at the man, do
+you? It is as though she were terrified to death. I wonder if he is her
+father?"</p>
+
+<p>My companion did not answer me. He was straining forward as though
+anxious to hear the instructions which the man was giving to a porter
+about the luggage; my presence seemed to be a thing which he had wholly
+forgotten. The girl stood for a moment alone. More than ever one seemed
+to perceive in her eyes the nameless fear of the hunted animal. She
+looked around her furtively, yet with a strange, half-veiled wildness in
+her dilated eyes. I should scarcely have been surprised to have seen her
+make a sudden dash for freedom. Presently, however, the man, having
+identified all his luggage, turned towards her.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," he declared cheerfully. "Now I think that I shall
+take you straight away for lunch somewhere, and then we must go to the
+shops. Are you hungry, Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I do not know," she answered, so tremulously that the words scarcely
+reached us, though we were standing only a few feet away.</p>
+
+<p>"We will soon find out," he said. "Hansom, there! Caf&eacute; Grand!"</p>
+
+<p>The cab drove off, and I realized then how completely for the last few
+moments I had forgotten my companion. I turned to look for him, and
+found him standing close to my side. He was apparently absorbed in
+thought, and seemed to have lost all interest in our surroundings. His
+hands were thrust deep in his overcoat pockets, and his eyes were fixed
+upon the ground. The stream of people from the train had melted away
+now, and we were almost alone upon the platform. I hesitated for a
+moment, and then walked slowly off. I did not wish to seem discourteous
+to the man with whom I had exchanged a few remarks more intimate than
+those which usually pass between strangers, but he had distinctly the
+air of one wishing to be alone, and I was unwilling to seem intrusive. I
+had barely taken a dozen steps, however, before I was overtaken. My
+companion of a few minutes before was again by my side. All traces of
+his recent preoccupation seemed to have vanished. He was smoking a fresh
+cigarette, and his bright, deep-set eyes were lit with gentle mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Novelist," he exclaimed, "have you succeeded? Is your languid
+muse stirred? Have you seen a face, a look, a gesture&mdash;anything to prick
+your imagination?"</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen one thing," I answered, "which it is not easy to forget. I
+have seen fear, and very pathetic it was."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the face of that child, or rather girl, with that coarse-looking
+brute of a man."</p>
+
+<p>The light seemed to die out from my companion's face. Once more he
+became stern and thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he agreed; "I too saw that. If one were looking for tragedy, one
+might perhaps find it there."</p>
+
+<p>We stood now together on the pavement outside the station. My companion
+glanced at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," he said; "I have a fancy that you and I might exchange a few
+ideas. I am a lonely man, and to-day I am not in the humour for
+solitude. Do me the favour to lunch with me!"</p>
+
+<p>I did not hesitate for a moment. It was exactly the sort of invitation
+which I had coveted.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be delighted," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I myself," my companion continued, "have no gift for writing. My
+talents, such as they are, lie in a different direction. But I have been
+in many countries, and adventures have come to me of various sorts. I
+may be able even to start you on your way&mdash;if, indeed, the author of
+<i>The Lost Princess</i> is ever short of an idea."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I can assure you," I said, "that my pilgrimage this morning has no
+other object than to find one. I begin to fear that I have written too
+much lately. At any rate, the well of my inspiration, if I may use so
+grandiloquent a term, has run dry."</p>
+
+<p>He put up his stick and hailed a hansom.</p>
+
+<p>"After all," he said, "it is possible&mdash;yes, it is possible that you may
+succeed. Adventures wait for us everywhere, if only we go about in a
+proper frame of mind. We will lunch, I think, at the Caf&eacute; Grand."</p>
+
+<p>I followed my prospective host into the cab. Was it altogether a
+coincidence, I wondered, that we were bound for the same restaurant
+whither the man and the girl had preceded us a few minutes before?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIIA" id="CHAPTER_IIIA"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten, as my new acquaintance called himself, belied neither his
+appearance nor his modest reference to himself. He proved at once that
+he knew how to order a satisfactory luncheon, going through the <i>menu</i>
+with the quiet deliberation of a connoisseur, neither seeking nor
+accepting any advice from the dark-visaged waiter who stood by his side,
+and finally writing out his few carefully chosen dishes with a special
+postscript as to the coffee, which, by-the-bye, we were never to taste.
+He then leaned over the table and began to talk.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently my host had been in every country of the world, and mixed
+with people of note in each. His anecdotes were always pungent, personal
+without being egotistical, and savoured always with a certain dry and
+perfectly natural humour. I found myself both interested and fascinated
+by his constant flow of reminiscences, and yet at times my attention
+wandered. For within a few yards of us were seated the man and the
+child.</p>
+
+<p>Everything that was noticeable in their demeanour towards one another at
+the station was even more apparent here. A bottle of champagne stood
+upon the table. The man had ordered such a luncheon that the head-waiter
+was seldom far from his side, and the manager in person had come to pay
+his respects. He himself was apparently doing full justice to it. His
+cheeks were flushed, his eyes moist, and his little bursts of laughter
+as he persevered in his attentions to his companion grew louder and more
+frequent. But opposite to him, the child's face was unchanged. Her glass
+was full of wine, but she seemed never to touch it. Her long white
+fingers played with her bread, but she seemed to eat little or nothing.
+Her face was pallid and drawn; there was terror&mdash;absolute, undiluted
+terror&mdash;in her unnaturally large eyes. Often when the man spoke to her
+she shivered. Her eyes seemed constantly trying to escape his gaze,
+wandering round the room, the terror of a hunted animal in their soft,
+luminous depths. Once they rested upon mine&mdash;I was seated in the corner
+facing her&mdash;and it seemed to me that there was appeal&mdash;desperate,
+frenzied appeal&mdash;in that long, tense look which thrilled all my pulses
+with passionate sympathy. Yet she held herself all the while stiff and
+erect. There was a certain sustaining pride in her close, firm-set
+mouth. There was never any sign of tears, though more than once her lips
+parted for a moment in a pitiful quiver.</p>
+
+<p>The table at which we were sitting was just inside the door, in the
+left-hand corner. The man and the girl were upon the opposite side, and
+a few yards further in the room. My host, with his face to the door,
+could see neither of them, therefore, without turning round, and owing
+to our table being pushed far into the corner, only his back was visible
+to the people in the restaurant. I, sitting facing him, had an excellent
+view of the girl and her companion, and I was all the while a witness of
+the silent drama being played out between the two. There came a time
+when I felt that I could stand it no longer. I leaned over our small
+table, and interrupted my companion in the middle of a story.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me," I said, "but I wish you could see that child's face. There
+is something wrong, I am sure. She is terrified to death. Look, that
+brute is trying to force her to drink her wine. I really can't sit and
+watch it any longer."</p>
+
+<p>The man who was my host, and who had called himself Mr. Grooten, nodded
+his head slightly. I knew at once, however, that he was in close
+sympathy with me.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been watching them," he said. "There is a mirror over your head;
+I have seen everything. It is a hideous-looking affair, but what can one
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know what I am going to do, at any rate," I said, laying my serviette
+deliberately upon the table. "I don't care what happens, but I am going
+to speak to the child."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten raised his eyebrows. Beyond this faint expression of
+surprise his face betrayed neither approval nor disapproval.</p>
+
+<p>"What will you gain?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably nothing," I answered. "And yet I shall try all the same. I
+dare not go away with the memory of that child's face haunting me. I
+must make an effort, even though it seems ridiculous. I can't help it."</p>
+
+<p>My companion smiled softly.</p>
+
+<p>"As you will, my impetuous young friend," he said. "This promises to be
+interesting. I will await your return."</p>
+
+<p>I did not hesitate any longer. I rose to my feet, and crossed the space
+which lay between the two tables. As I drew nearer to her I watched the
+child's face. At first a flash of desperate hope seemed suddenly to
+illumine it; then a fear more abject even than before took its place as
+she glanced at her companion. She watched me come, reading without a
+doubt the purpose in my mind with a sort of fascinated wonder. Her eyes
+were still fastened upon mine when at last I paused before her. I leaned
+over the table, keeping my shoulder turned upon the man.</p>
+
+<p>"You will forgive me," I said to her in a low tone, "but I believe that
+you are in trouble. Can I help you? Don't be afraid to tell me if I
+can."</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you are very kind, sir," she began, breathlessly; "I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her companion intervened. Astonishment and anger combined to render his
+voice unsteady.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What's this? Who the devil are you, sir, and what do you mean by
+speaking to my ward?"</p>
+
+<p>I disregarded his interruption altogether. I still addressed myself only
+to the child, and I spoke as encouragingly as I could.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid to tell me," I said. "Think that I am your brother. I
+want to help you if I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you only could!" she moaned.</p>
+
+<p>Her companion seized me by the arm and forced me to turn round. His face
+was red almost to suffocation, and two thick blue veins stood out upon
+his forehead in ugly fashion. His voice was scarcely articulate by
+reason of his attempt to keep it low.</p>
+
+<p>"Of all the infernal impertinence! What do you mean by it, sir? Who are
+you? How dare you force yourself upon strangers in this fashion?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite aware that I am doing an unusual thing," I answered, "and I
+perhaps deserve all that you can say to me. At the same time, I am here
+to have my question answered. You have a child with you who is
+apparently terrified to death. I insist upon hearing from her own lips
+whether she is in need of friends."</p>
+
+<p>White and mute, she looked from one to the other. It was the man who
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>"If this were not a public place," he said, still struggling with his
+anger, "I'd punish you as you deserve, you impudent young cub. This
+young lady is my ward, and I have just brought her from a convent, where
+she has lived since she was three years old. She is strange and shy, of
+course, and I was perhaps wrong to bring her to a public place. I did
+it, however, out of kindness. I wanted her to enjoy herself, but I
+perhaps did not appreciate her sensitiveness and the fact that only a
+few days ago she parted with the friends with whom she has lived all her
+life. Now, sir," he added, with a sneer upon his coarse lips, "I have
+been compelled to answer your questions to avoid a disturbance in a
+public place; but I promise you that if you do not make yourself scarce
+in thirty seconds I will send for the manager."</p>
+
+<p>I looked once more at the child, from whose white, set face every gleam
+of hope seemed to have fled.</p>
+
+<p>"I can do nothing for you, then?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes met mine helplessly. She shook her head. She did not speak at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true&mdash;what he has told me?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>She murmured an assent so faint, that though I was bending over her, it
+scarcely did more than reach my ears. I could do no more. I turned away
+and resumed my seat. Grooten smiled at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Sir Knight Errant," he said lightly; "so you could not free the
+maiden?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was made to feel and look like a fool, of course," I answered, "but I
+don't mind about that. To tell you the truth, I am not satisfied now.
+The man says that he is her guardian, and that he has just brought her
+from a convent, where she has lived all her life. He vouchsafed to
+explain things to me to avoid a row, but he was desperately angry. She
+has never been out of the convent since she was three years old, and she
+is very nervous and shy. That was his story, and he told it plausibly
+enough. I could not get anything out of her, except an admission that
+what he said was the truth."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten nodded thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"After all," he said, "she is only a child, fourteen or fifteen at the
+most, I should suppose. I have paid the bill, and, as you see, I have my
+coat on. Are you ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Directly I have finished my coffee," I answered. "It looks too good to
+leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Finish it, by all means," he answered. "I am in no particular hurry.
+By-the-bye, I forget whether I showed you this."</p>
+
+<p>He drew a small shining weapon, with rather a long barrel, from his
+pocket, but though he invited me to inspect it, he retained it in his
+own hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I bought it in New York a few months ago," he remarked; "it is the
+latest weapon of destruction invented."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a revolver?" I asked, a little puzzled by its shape.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly," he answered, fingering it carelessly; "it is in reality a
+sort of air-gun, with a wonderful compression, and a most ingenious
+silencer; quite as deadly, they say, as any firearm ever invented. It
+ejects a cylindrically-shaped bullet, tapered down almost to the
+fineness of a needle. Now," he added, with a faint smile and a rapid
+glance round the room, "if only one dared&mdash;" he turned in his chair, and
+I saw the thing steal out below his cuff, "one could free the child
+quite easily&mdash;quite easily."</p>
+
+<p>It was all over in a moment&mdash;a wonderful, tense moment, during which I
+sat frozen to my chair, stricken dumb and motionless with the tragedy
+which it seemed that I alone had witnessed. For there had been a little
+puff of sound, so slight that no other ears had noticed it. The seat in
+front of me was empty, and the man on my right had fallen forwards, his
+hand pressed to his side, his face curiously livid, patchy with streaks
+of dark colour, his eyes bulbous. Waiters still hurried to and fro, the
+hum of conversation was uninterrupted. And then suddenly it came&mdash;a cry
+of breathless horror, of mortal unexpected agony&mdash;a cry, it seemed, of
+death. The waiters stopped in their places to gaze breathlessly at the
+spot from which the cry had come, a silver dish fell clattering from the
+fingers of one, and its contents rolled unnoticed about the floor. The
+murmur of voices, the rise and fall of laughter and speech, ceased as
+though an unseen finger had been pressed upon the lips of everyone in
+the room. Men rose in their places, women craned their necks. For a
+second or two the whole place was like a tableau of arrested motion.
+Then there was a rush towards the table across which the man had fallen,
+a doubled-up heap. A few feet away, with only that narrow margin of
+table-cloth between them, the girl sat and stared at him, still white
+and panic-stricken, yet with a curious change in her face from which all
+the dumb terror which had first attracted my attention seemed to have
+passed away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IVA" id="CHAPTER_IVA"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>The manager, who was very flurried, closed the door of the little room
+into which the wounded man had been carried.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me his name, or shall we look for his card-case?" he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>I glanced towards the child. She was by far the most composed of the
+three. Only she remained with her back turned steadily upon the sofa.</p>
+
+<p>"His name is Delahaye," she said; "Major Sir William Delahaye, I think
+they called him."</p>
+
+<p>"And where does he live&mdash;in London? Tell me his address. I will send a
+cab there at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know his address," the child answered. "I do not know where he
+lives."</p>
+
+<p>The manager stared at her.</p>
+
+<p>"You were with him, were you not?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then surely you must know something more about him than just his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"He called himself my guardian. I believe that when I was very young he
+took me to the convent where I have been ever since. Two days ago he
+came to fetch me away."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel de Sorrens!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are not related to him, then?"</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not," she said simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, where was he taking you to?" the manager asked impatiently.
+"Surely there must be someone I can send to."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that he has a house in London," the child said. "I really do
+not know anything more. You could send to Madame Richard at the Convent
+St. Argueil. I suppose she knows all about him. She told me that I was
+to consider him my guardian."</p>
+
+<p>The manager turned to me. I was an occasional customer, and he knew who
+I was.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me anything about him, Mr. Greatson? The doctor will be
+here in a moment, but I feel that I ought to be sending for some of his
+friends. I am afraid that he is very ill."</p>
+
+<p>"You were not in the room at the time it happened?" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>The manager shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I was in the office."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you sent for the police?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Police, no!" he exclaimed. "What have the police to do with it? It was
+an ordinary fit, surely."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that I had held my peace long enough.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not a fit at all," I said gravely. "He was shot with a sort of
+air-gun by a man sitting at my table. I think that you ought to send for
+the police at once. The man's name was Grooten, but I know nothing else
+about him."</p>
+
+<p>The manager was for a moment speechless. The child looked at me eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the little old gentleman who was sitting with you who did it,"
+she exclaimed. "I saw him at Charing Cross."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was he!" I answered.</p>
+
+<p>The child turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps after all, then," she murmured to herself, "I may have friends
+in the world."</p>
+
+<p>The manager, whose name was Huber, was inclined to be incredulous.</p>
+
+<p>"An air-gun would have made as much noise as a revolver," he said. "Are
+you sure of what you say, Mr. Greatson?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt at all about it," I answered, "and you ought to
+inform the police at once. This man&mdash;Grooten, he called himself&mdash;pulled
+the pistol out of his pocket, and was pretending to show it to me when
+he fired the shot. He told me that it was a new invention which he had
+bought in America, and which was quite noiseless."</p>
+
+<p>The manager hurried from the room. The child and I were alone, except
+for the man on the couch. Every now and then he groaned&mdash;a sound I could
+not hear without a shiver. The child, however, was unmoved. She fixed
+her dark eyes on me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that he will get away?" she asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the man who shot Major Delahaye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that it is very likely. He has a good start, and I expect that
+he had made his arrangements."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he does," she murmured passionately. "I wish that I could help
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"You have no idea who he was?" I asked. "I do not believe that Grooten
+was his real name."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never seen him before in my life," she said. "If I did know I
+should not tell anyone."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor came at last. In reality it was barely five minutes since he
+had been sent for, but time dragged itself along slowly in that little
+room. Directly afterwards Huber, the manager, returned, followed by a
+sergeant of the police. We all waited for the doctor's examination. I
+fetched a chair for the child, and she thanked me with a wan little
+smile. Always she sat with her back to the sofa. There was something
+terribly suggestive in her utter lack of sympathy with the wounded man.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor finished his examination at last. He came towards us.</p>
+
+<p>"The wound is a very curious one," he said, "and I am afraid that the
+bullet will be difficult to extract, but it is not in itself serious. It
+is really only a flesh wound, but the man is suffering from severe
+shock, and I don't like the action of his heart. He can be removed quite
+safely. If you like I will telephone for an ambulance and take him to
+the hospital. Do you know anything about this affair, sergeant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very little as yet, sir," the man answered. "I want this gentleman's
+description of the person who showed him the pistol. The commissionaire
+saw him leave, I understand, and one of the waiters saw something in his
+hand. Was he a friend of yours, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only know his name," I answered. "He called himself Mr. Grooten, and
+I judged him to be a foreigner, though he spoke perfect English. He
+seemed to be about fifty years old, clean-shaven, and of under medium
+height."</p>
+
+<p>"Too vague," the sergeant remarked. "Had he any peculiarity of feature
+or expression, anything which would help towards identification?"</p>
+
+<p>"None that I can remember," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"How was he dressed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quietly. I could not remember anything that he wore."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he give you any idea of his intention? Did he speak of Major
+Delahaye at all as though he knew him?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"We simply both remarked," I said slowly, "that this&mdash;young lady seemed
+to be very frightened of her companion, and I do not think that we
+formed a favourable impression of him. He gave me not the slightest
+intimation, however, of his intention to interfere."</p>
+
+<p>"It could not have been an accident, I suppose?" Mr. Huber suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"I might have thought so," I answered, "if he had not immediately left
+the place. He disappeared so quickly that I did not even see him go."</p>
+
+<p>"You sat by accident at the same table?" the sergeant asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, we came together," I answered. "We met at Charing Cross, and he
+spoke to me. He knew my name, and reminded me that we had once met at
+the 'Vagabonds' Club.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you remember him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say that I did," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"And afterwards?"</p>
+
+<p>"We talked together for some time, and when we left the station he asked
+me to lunch here."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he arrive by train, or was he meeting anyone at Charing Cross?" the
+sergeant asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither, so far as I could see," I answered. "He seemed to be simply
+loitering. I ought to tell you, though, that we saw Major Delahaye and
+this young lady arrive by the Continental train, and he seemed to be
+interested in them."</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant turned to Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know him?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she answered. "I did not notice him at the station at all. I saw
+that he was sitting at the same table downstairs as this gentleman, but
+I am quite sure that I have never seen him before in my life."</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant put away his pocket-book.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry to trouble you," he said, "but I think it would be
+better for you all to come to Bow Street and see the superintendent."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite willing to do so," I answered, "though I can tell him no
+more than I have told you."</p>
+
+<p>The child moved suddenly towards me. Her thin, shabbily gloved fingers
+gripped my arm with almost painful force. Her eyes were full of
+passionate appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"I may go with you," she murmured. "You will not leave me alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady will be required also," the sergeant remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"We will go together, of course," I said gently. "Come!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VA" id="CHAPTER_VA"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+
+<p>We crossed the road from the police-station, and found ourselves in one
+of the narrow streets fringing Covent Garden. The air was fragrant here
+with the perfume of white and purple lilac, great baskets full of which
+were piled up in the gutter. The girl half closed her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Delicious!" she murmured. "This reminds me of St. Argueil! You have
+flowers too, then, in London?"</p>
+
+<p>I bought her a handful, which she sniffed and held to her face with
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" she said a little sadly. "I had forgotten that there were any
+beautiful things left in the world. Thank you so much, Mr. Arnold."</p>
+
+<p>"At your age," I said cheerfully, "you will soon find out that the
+world&mdash;even London&mdash;is a treasure-house of beautiful things."</p>
+
+<p>She looked down the narrow, untidy street, strewn with the refuse from
+the market waggons and trucks which blocked the way, making all but
+pedestrian traffic an impossibility&mdash;at the piles of empty baskets in
+the gutter, and the slatternly crowd of loiterers. Then she looked up at
+me with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>"London&mdash;is not all like this, then?" she remarked.</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a back street, almost a slum," I said. "I daresay you have
+lived in the country always, and just at first it does not seem possible
+that there should be anything beautiful about a great city. When you get
+a little older I think that you will see things differently. The beauty
+of a great city thronged with men and women is a more subtle thing than
+the mere joy of meadows and hills and country lanes&mdash;but it exists all
+the same. And now," I continued, stopping short upon the pavement, "I
+must take you to your friends. Tell me where they live. You have the
+address, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"What friends?" she asked me, with wide-open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You told the superintendent of police that you had friends in London,"
+I reminded her.</p>
+
+<p>Then she smiled at me&mdash;a very dazzling smile, which showed all her white
+teeth, and which seemed somehow to become reflected in her dark blue
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"But I meant you!" she exclaimed. "I thought that you knew that! There
+is no one else. You are my friend, I know very well, for you came and
+spoke kindly to me when I was terrified&mdash;terrified to death."</p>
+
+<p>The shadow of gravity rested only for a moment upon her face. She
+laughed gaily at my consternation.</p>
+
+<p>"Then where am I to take you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Stupid," she murmured; "I am going with you, of course. Why&mdash;why&mdash;you
+don't mind, do you?" she asked, with a sudden catch in her throat.</p>
+
+<p>I felt like a brute, and I hastened to make what amends I could. I
+smiled at her reassuringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Mind! Of course I don't mind," I declared. "Only, you see, there are
+three of us&mdash;all men&mdash;and we live together. I was afraid&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not mind that at all," she interrupted cheerfully. "If they are
+nice like you, I think that it will be delightful. There were only girls
+at the convent, you know, and the sisters, and a few masters who came to
+teach us things, but they were not allowed to speak to us except to give
+out the lessons, and they were very stupid. I do not think that I shall
+be any trouble to you at all. I will try not to be."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her&mdash;a little helplessly. After all, though she was tall for
+her years, she was only a child. Her dress was of an awkward length, her
+long straight fringe and plaited hair the coiffure of the schoolroom.
+The most surprising thing of all in connection with her was that she
+showed no signs of the tragedy which had so recently been played out
+around her. Her eyes had lost their nameless fear; there was even colour
+in her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, then!" I said. "We will turn into the Strand and take a
+hansom."</p>
+
+<p>She walked buoyantly along by my side, as tall within an inch or so as
+myself, and with a certain elegance in her gait a little hard to
+reconcile with her years. All the while she looked eagerly about her,
+her eyes shining with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"We passed through Paris at night," she said, with a little reminiscent
+shudder, as though every thought connected with that journey were a
+torture, "and I have never really been in a great city before. I hope
+you meant what you said," she added, looking up at me with a quick
+smile, "and that there are parts of London more beautiful than this."</p>
+
+<p>"Many," I assured her. "You shall see the parks. The rhododendrons will
+be out soon, and I think that you will find them beautiful, though, of
+course, the town can never be like the country. Here's a hansom with a
+good horse. Jump in!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I think that our arrival at Number 4, Earl's Crescent, created quite as
+much sensation as I had anticipated. When I opened the door of the
+large, barely-furnished room, which we called our workshop, Arthur
+sprang from the table on which he had been lounging, and Mabane, who was
+still working, dropped his brush in sheer amazement. I turned towards
+the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"These are my friends, Isobel, of whom I have been telling you," I said.
+"This is Mr. Arthur Fielding, who is the ornamental member of the
+establishment, and that is Mr. Allan Mabane, who paints very bad
+pictures, but who contrives to make other people think that they are
+worth buying. Allan, this young lady, Miss Isobel de Sorrens, and I have
+had a little adventure together. I will explain all about it later on."</p>
+
+<p>They both advanced with extended hands. The girl, as though suddenly
+conscious of her position, gave a hand to each, and looked at them
+almost piteously.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not mind my coming," she begged, with a tremulous little note
+of appeal in her tone. "I do not seem to have any friends, and Mr.
+Arnold has been so kind to me. If I may stay here for a little while I
+will try&mdash;oh, I am sure, that I will not be in anyone's way!"</p>
+
+<p>The pathos of her breathless little speech was almost irresistible. The
+child, as she stood there in the centre of the room, looking eagerly
+from one to the other, conquered easily. I do not know if either of the
+other two were conscious of the new note of life which she seemed to
+bring with her into our shabby, smoke-smelling room, but to me it came
+home, even in those first few moments, with wonderful poignancy. An
+alien note it was, but a wonderfully sweet one. We three men had drifted
+away from the whole world of our womenkind. She seemed to bring us back
+instantly into touch with some of the few better and rarer memories
+round which the selfishness of life is always building a thicker crust.
+For one thing, at that moment I was deeply grateful&mdash;that I knew my
+friends. My task was made a sinecure.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady," Mabane exclaimed, with unmistakeable earnestness,
+"you are heartily welcome. We are delighted to see you here!"</p>
+
+<p>"More than welcome," Arthur declared. "We are all one here, you know,
+Miss de Sorrens; and if you are Arnold's friend, you must be ours."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time tears stood in her eyes. She brushed them proudly
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very, very kind," she said. "I cannot tell you how grateful I
+am to you both."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur rushed for our one easy-chair, and insisted upon installing her
+in it. Mabane lit a stove and left the room swinging a kettle. I drew a
+little sigh of relief, and threw my hat into a corner. Apparently she
+had conquered my friends as easily as she had conquered me.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur," I said, "please entertain Miss de Sorrens for a few moments,
+will you. I must go and interview Mrs. Burdett."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best, Arnold," he assured me. "Mrs. Burdett's in the
+kitchen, I think. She came in just before you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burdett was our housekeeper and sole domestic. She was a
+hard-featured but kindly old woman, with a caustic tongue and a soft
+heart. She heard my story unmoved, betraying neither enthusiasm or
+disapproval. When I had finished, she simply set her cap straight and
+rubbed her hands upon her apron.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to see the child, as you call her, Mr. Arnold," she said. "You
+young gentlemen are so easy deceived, and it's an unusual thing that
+you're proposing, not to say inconvenient."</p>
+
+<p>So I took Mrs. Burdett back with me to the studio. As we opened the door
+the music of the girl's strange little foreign laugh was ringing through
+the room. Arthur was mounted upon his hobby, talking of the delights of
+motoring, and she was listening with sparkling eyes. They stopped at
+once as we entered.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Mrs. Burdett, Isobel," I said, "who looks after us here, and
+who is going to take charge of you. She will show you your room. I'm
+sorry that you will find it so tiny, but you can see that we are a
+little cramped here!"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel rose at once.</p>
+
+<p>"You should have seen our cells at St. Argueil," she exclaimed, smiling.
+"Some of us who were tall could scarcely stand upright. May I come with
+you, Mrs. Burdett?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Burdett's tone and answer relieved me of one more anxiety. The door
+closed upon them. We three men were alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this," Mabane asked curiously, "a practical joke, or a part of your
+plot? What does it all mean? Where on earth did you come across the
+child? Who is she?"</p>
+
+<p>I took a cigarette from my case and lit it.</p>
+
+<p>"The responsibility for the whole affair," I declared, "remains with
+Arthur."</p>
+
+<p>The boy whistled softly. He looked at me with wide-open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," he declared, "I like that. Why, I have never seen the girl
+before in my life, or anyone like her. Where do I come in, I should like
+to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was you," I said, "who started me off to Charing Cross."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to say that you picked her up there?" Mabane exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you the whole story," I answered. "She comes with the halo
+of tragedy about her. Listen!"</p>
+
+<p>Then I told them of the things which had happened to me during the last
+few hours.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIA" id="CHAPTER_VIA"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>I certainly could not complain of any lack of interest on the part of my
+auditors. They listened to every word of my story with rapt attention.
+When I had finished they were both silent for several moments. Mabane
+eyed me curiously. I think that at first he scarcely knew whether to
+believe me altogether serious.</p>
+
+<p>"The man who was with the girl," Arthur asked at last&mdash;"this Major
+Delahaye, or whatever his name was&mdash;is he dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was alive two hours ago," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Will he recover?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that there is just a bare chance&mdash;no more," I answered. "He
+had a weak heart, and the shock was almost enough to kill him."</p>
+
+<p>"And your friend&mdash;the man who shot him&mdash;where is he?" Mabane asked. "Is
+he in custody?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"He disappeared," I answered, "as though by magic. You see, we were
+sitting at the table next the door, and he had every opportunity for
+slipping out unnoticed."</p>
+
+<p>"It was at the Caf&eacute; Grand, you said, wasn't it?" Arthur asked.</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"How about the commissionaire, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"He saw the man come out, but he took no particular notice of him," I
+answered. "He crossed the street at an ordinary walking pace, and he was
+out of sight before the commotion inside began."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me," Mabane remarked, "that you must have found yourself in
+rather an awkward position."</p>
+
+<p>"I did," I answered grimly. "Of course my story sounded a bit thin, and
+the police made me go to the station with them. As luck would have it,
+however, I knew the inspector, and I managed to convince him that I was
+telling the truth, or I doubt whether they would have let me go. I
+suppose," I added, a little doubtfully, "that you fellows must think me
+a perfect idiot for bringing the child here, but upon my word I don't
+know what else I could have done. I simply couldn't leave her there, or
+in the streets. I'm awfully sorry&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be an ass," Arthur interrupted energetically. "Of course you
+couldn't do anything but bring her here. You acted like a sensible chap
+for once."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you questioned her," Mabane asked, "about her friends? If she has
+none in London, she must have some somewhere!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have questioned her," I answered, "but not very successfully. She
+appears to know nothing about her relations, or even her parentage. She
+has been at the convent ever since she can remember, and she has seen no
+one outside it except this man who took her there and came to fetch her
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"And what relation is he?" Allan asked.</p>
+
+<p>"None! He called himself simply her guardian."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur walked across the room for his pipe, and commenced to fill it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "you are like the man in the Scriptures, who found what
+he went out for to see. You've got your adventure, at any rate. All
+owing to my advice, too. Hullo!"</p>
+
+<p>We all turned round. The door of the room was suddenly opened and
+closed. My host of a few hours ago stood upon the threshold, smiling
+suavely upon us. He wore a low black hat, and a coat somewhat thicker
+than the season of the year seemed to demand. Every article of attire
+was different, but his face seemed to defy disguise. I should have known
+Mr. Grooten anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>His unexpected presence seemed to deprive me almost of my wits. I simply
+gaped at him like the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "You here!"</p>
+
+<p>He stood quite still for a moment, listening. Then he glanced sharply
+around the room. He looked at Mabane, and he looked at Arthur. Finally
+he addressed me.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy that I am a fairly obvious apparition," he remarked. "Where is
+the child?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is here," I answered, "in another room with our housekeeper just
+now. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have only a few seconds to spare," Mr. Grooten interrupted
+ruthlessly. "Listen to me. You have chosen to interfere in this concern,
+and you must take your part in it now. You have the child, and you must
+keep her for a time. You must not let her go, on any account.
+Unfortunately, the man who sold me that pistol was a liar. Delahaye is
+not dead. It is possible even that he may recover. Will you swear to
+keep the child from him?"</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated. It seemed to me that Grooten was taking a great deal for
+granted.</p>
+
+<p>"You must remember," I said, "that I have absolutely no legal hold upon
+her. If Delahaye is her guardian it will be quite easy for him to take
+her away."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not her legal guardian," Grooten said sharply. "He has no just
+claim upon her at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither have I," I reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>"You have possession," Grooten exclaimed. "I tell you that neither
+Delahaye, if he lives, nor any other person, will appeal to the law to
+force you to give the child up. This is the truth. I see you still
+hesitate. Listen! This also is truth. The child is in danger from
+Delahaye&mdash;hideous, unmentionable danger."</p>
+
+<p>I never thought of doubting his word. Truth blazed out from his keen
+grey eyes; his words carried conviction with them.</p>
+
+<p>"I will keep the child," I promised him. "But tell me who you are, and
+what you have to do with her."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter," he answered swiftly. "I lay this thing upon you, a charge
+upon your honour. Guard the child. If Delahaye recovers there will be
+trouble. You must brave it out. You are an Englishman; you are one of a
+stubborn, honourable race. Do my bidding in this matter, and you shall
+learn what gratitude can mean."</p>
+
+<p>Once more he listened for a moment intently. Then he continued.</p>
+
+<p>"I am followed by the police," he said. "They may be here at any moment.
+You can tell them of my visit if it is necessary. My escape is provided
+for."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely you will tell me something else about the child," I
+exclaimed. "Tell me at least&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You are safer to know nothing," he said quickly. "Be faithful to what
+you have promised, and you will never regret it."</p>
+
+<p>With almost incredible swiftness he disappeared. We all three looked at
+one another, speechless. Then from outside came the sound of light
+footsteps, and a laugh as from the throat of a singing bird. The door
+was thrown open, and Isobel entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a funny little man has just gone out!" she exclaimed. "He had a
+handkerchief tied round his face as though he had been fighting. What
+lazy people!" she added, looking around. "I expected to find tea ready.
+Will you please tell me some more about motor-cars, Mr. Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>She sat on a stool in our midst, and chattered while we fed her with
+cakes, and screamed with laughter at Mabane's toast. The tragedy of a
+few hours ago seemed to have passed already from her mind. She was all
+charm and irresponsibility. The gaunt, bare room, which for years had
+mocked all our efforts at decoration, seemed suddenly a beautiful place.
+Easily, and with the effortless grace of her fifteen years, she laughed
+her way into our hearts.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIIA" id="CHAPTER_VIIA"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Arnold!"</p>
+
+<p>I waved my left hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't disturb me for a few minutes, Allan, there's a good chap," I
+begged. "I'm hard at it."</p>
+
+<p>"Found your plot, then, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a start, anyhow! Give me half an hour. I only want to set the
+thing going."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane grunted, and took up his brush. For once I was thankful that we
+were alone. At last I saw my way. After weeks of ineffective scribbling
+a glimpse of the real thing had come to me.</p>
+
+<p>The stiffness had gone from my brain and fingers. My pen flew over the
+paper. The joy of creation sang once more in my heart, tingled in all my
+pulses. We worked together and in silence for an hour or more. Then,
+with a little sigh of satisfaction, I leaned back in my chair.</p>
+
+<p>"The story goes, then?" Mabane remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it goes," I assented, my eyes fixed absently upon the loose sheets
+of manuscript strewn all over my desk. Already I was finding it hard to
+tear my thoughts away from it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a short silence. Then Mabane, who had been filling his pipe,
+came over to my side.</p>
+
+<p>"You heard from the convent this morning, Arnold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! The letter is here. Read it!"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't read French," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"They want her back again," I told him, thoughtfully. "The woman appears
+to be honest enough. She admits that they have no absolute claim&mdash;they
+do not even know her parentage. They have been paid, she says, regularly
+and well for the child's education, and if she is now without a home
+they would like her to go back to them. She thinks it possible that
+Major Delahaye's relatives, or the people for whom he acted, might
+continue the payments, but they are willing to take their risk of that.
+The long and short of it is, that they want her back again."</p>
+
+<p>"As a pupil still?" Mabane asked.</p>
+
+<p>"They would train her for a teacher. In that case she would have to
+serve a sort of novitiate. She would practically become a nun."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane withdrew his pipe from his mouth, and looked thoughtfully into
+the bowl of it.</p>
+
+<p>"I never had a sister," he said, "and I really know nothing whatever
+about children. But does it occur to you, Arnold, that this&mdash;young lady
+seems particularly adapted for a convent?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe," I said firmly, "that it would be misery for her."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane walked over to his canvas and came back again.</p>
+
+<p>"What about Delahaye?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"He is still unconscious at the hospital," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not wish to seem intrusive, Arnold," he said, "but I can't help
+remembering that a certain lady with whom you were very friendly once
+married a Delahaye!"</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have told you, in any case," I said. "This is the man&mdash;Major
+Sir William Delahaye, whom Eileen Marigold married."</p>
+
+<p>"Then surely you recognized him in the restaurant?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never met him," I answered. "This marriage was arranged very quickly,
+as you know, and I was abroad when it took place. I called on Lady
+Delahaye twice, but I did not meet her husband on either occasion."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane fingered the loose sheets of my manuscript idly.</p>
+
+<p>"Your story, Arnold," he said, "is having a tragic birth. Will Delahaye
+really die, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"The doctors are not very hopeful," I told him. "The wound itself is not
+mortal, but the shock seems to have affected him seriously. He is not a
+young man, and he has lived hard all his days."</p>
+
+<p>"If he dies," Mabane said thoughtfully, "your friend Grooten, I think
+you said he called himself, will have to disappear altogether. In that
+case I suppose we&mdash;shall be compelled to send the child back to the
+convent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unless&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Unless what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unless we provide for her ourselves," I answered boldly.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane smoked furiously for a few moments. His hands were thrust deep
+down in his trousers pockets. He looked fixedly out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," he said abruptly, "do you believe in presentiments?"</p>
+
+<p>"It depends whether they affect me favourably or the reverse," I
+answered carelessly. "You Scotchmen are all so superstitious."</p>
+
+<p>"You may call it superstition," Mabane continued. "Everything of the
+sort which an ignorant man cannot understand he calls superstition. But
+if you like, I will tell you something which is surely going to happen.
+I will tell you what I have seen."</p>
+
+<p>I leaned forward in my chair, and looked curiously into Allan's face.
+His hard, somewhat commonplace features seemed touched for the moment by
+some transfiguring fire. His keen, blue-grey eyes were as soft and
+luminous as a girl's. He had actually the appearance of a man who sees a
+little way beyond the border. Even then I could not take him seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak, Sir Prophet!" I exclaimed, with a little laugh. "Let my eyes
+also be touched with fire. Let me see what you see."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane showed no sign of annoyance. He looked at me composedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be a fool, Arnold," he said. "You may believe or disbelieve, but
+some day you will know that the things which I have in my mind are
+true."</p>
+
+<p>I think that I was a little bewildered. I realized now what at first I
+had been inclined to doubt&mdash;that Mabane was wholly in earnest.
+Unconsciously my attitude towards him changed. It is hard to mock a man
+who believes in himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead, then, Allan," I said quietly. "Remember that you have told me
+nothing yet."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane turned towards me. He spoke slowly. His face was serious&mdash;almost
+solemn.</p>
+
+<p>"The man Delahaye will never claim the child," he said. "I think that he
+will die. The man who shot him has gone&mdash;we shall not hear of him again,
+not for many years, if at all. He has gone like a stone dropped into a
+bottomless tarn. We shall not send the child back to the convent. She
+will remain here."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, as though expecting me to speak. I shrugged my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," I said, "I shall not quarrel with your prophecy so far, Allan.
+The introduction of a feminine element here seems a little incongruous,
+but after all she is very young."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane unclasped his arms, and looked thoughtfully around the room.
+Already there was a change since a few days ago. The ornaments and
+furniture were free from dust. There were two great bowls of flowers
+upon the table, some studies which had hung upon the wall were replaced
+with others of a more sedate character. The atmosphere of the place was
+different. Wild untidiness had given place to some semblance of order.
+There was an attempt everywhere at repression. Mabane knocked the ashes
+from his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"For five years," he said abstractedly, "you and I and Arthur have lived
+here together. Are you satisfied with those five years? Think!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked from my desk out of the window, over the housetops up into the
+sunshine, and I too was grave. Satisfied! Is anyone short of a fool ever
+satisfied?</p>
+
+<p>"No! I am not," I admitted, a little bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me what you think of these five years, Arnold. Tell me the truth,"
+Mabane persisted. "Let me know if your thoughts are the same as mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Drift," I answered. "We have worked a little, and thought a little&mdash;but
+our feet have been on the earth a great deal oftener than our heads have
+touched the clouds."</p>
+
+<p>"Drift," Mabane repeated. "It is a true word. We have gained a little
+experience of the wrong sort: we have learnt how to adapt our poor
+little gifts to the whim of the moment. Such as our talent has been, we
+have made a servant of it to minister to our physical necessities. We
+have lived little lives, Arnold&mdash;very little lives."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," I murmured. "This at least is truth!"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane paused. He looked at his pipe, but he did not relight it.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a change coming," he said, slowly. "We are going to drift no
+longer. We are going to be drawn into the maelstrom of life. What it may
+mean for you and for me and for the boy, I do not know. It will change
+us&mdash;it must change our work. I shall paint no more guesses at
+realism&mdash;after someone else; and you will write no more of princesses,
+or pull the strings of tinsel-decked puppets, so that they may dance
+their way through the pages of your gaily-dressed novels. And an end has
+come to these things, Arnold. No, I am not raving, nor is this a jest.
+Wait!"</p>
+
+<p>"You speak," I told him, "like a seer. Since when was it given to you to
+read the future so glibly, my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane looked at me with grave eyes. There was no shadow of levity in
+his manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a superstitious man, Arnold," he said, "but I come, after all,
+of hill-folk, and I believe that there are times when one can feel and
+see the shadow of coming things. My grandfather knew the day of his
+death, and spoke of it; my father made his will before he set foot on
+the steamer which went to the bottom on a calm day between Dover and
+Ostend. Nothing of this sort has ever come to me before. You yourself
+have called me too hard-headed, too material for an artist. So I have
+always thought myself&mdash;until to-day. To-day I feel differently."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it this child, then, who is to open the gates of the world to us?" I
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember," Mabane answered, "that before many months have passed she
+will be a woman."</p>
+
+<p>I moved in my chair a little uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," I said, half to myself, "whether I did well to bring her
+here!"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane laughed shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not you who brought her," he declared. "She was sent."</p>
+
+<p>"Sent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, these things are not of our choosing, Arnold. There is something
+behind which drives the great wheels. You can call it Fate or God,
+according to your philosophy. It is there all the time, the one eternal
+force."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at Mabane steadfastly. He did not flinch.</p>
+
+<p>"Psychologically, my dear Allan," I said, "you appear to be in a very
+interesting state just now."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane shrugged his shoulders. He crossed the room for some tobacco, and
+began to refill his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I have finished. To-morrow, I suppose, I shall want to
+kick myself for having said as much as I have. Listen! Here they come."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel came into the room, followed by Arthur in a leather jacket and
+breeches. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes danced with excitement. She
+threw off her tam-o'-shanter, and stood deftly re-arranging for a moment
+her wind-tossed hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Glorious!" she exclaimed. "Oh, it has been glorious! Mr. Arthur, how
+can I thank you? I have never enjoyed myself so much in my life. If the
+Sister Superior could only have seen me&mdash;and the girls!"</p>
+
+<p>"Motoring, I presume," Mabane remarked, "is amongst the pleasures denied
+to the young ladies of the convent?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed gaily.</p>
+
+<p>"Pleasures! Why, there are no pleasures for those poor girls. One may
+not even smile, and as for games, even they are not permitted. I think
+that it is shameful to make such a purgatory of a place. One may not,
+one could not, be happy there. It is not allowed."</p>
+
+<p>She caught the look which flashed from Mabane to me, and turned
+instantly around.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Monsieur Arnold," she cried breathlessly, "you do not think&mdash;I
+shall not have to return there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not likely!" Arthur interposed with vigour. "By Jove! if anyone shut
+you up there again I'd come and fetch you out."</p>
+
+<p>She threw a quick glance of gratitude towards him, but her eyes returned
+almost immediately to mine. She waited anxiously for me to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you shall never return
+there. I do not think that it is at all the proper place for you. But
+you must remember that we are, after all, people of no authority.
+Someone might come forward to-morrow with a legal right to claim you,
+and we should be helpless."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a>
+<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you shall never return there."</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Slowly the colour died away from her cheeks. Her eyes became
+preternaturally bright and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one," she faltered, "except that man. He called himself my
+guardian."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you seen him before he came to the convent and fetched you away?" I
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Only once," she answered. "He came to St. Argueil about a year ago. I
+hated him then. I have hated him ever since. I think that if all men
+were like that I would be content to stay in the convent all my life."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't remember the circumstances under which he took you there, I
+suppose?" Mabane asked thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not remember being taken there at all," she answered. "I think
+that I was not more than four or five years old."</p>
+
+<p>"And all the time no one else has been to see you or written to you?" I
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No one!"</p>
+
+<p>She smothered a little sob as she answered me. It was as though my
+questions and Mabane's, although I had asked them gently enough, had
+suddenly brought home to her a fuller sense of her complete loneliness.
+Her eyes were full of tears. She held herself proudly, and she fought
+hard for her self-control. Arthur glanced indignantly at both of us. He
+had the wit, however, to remain silent.</p>
+
+<p>"There are just one or two more questions, Isobel," I said, "which I
+must ask you some time or other."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, please, then," she begged.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Major Delahaye ever mention his wife to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not even know, then, when you arrived in London where he was
+taking you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I knew nothing," she admitted. "He behaved very strangely, and I was
+miserable every moment of the time I was with him. I understood that I
+was to have a companion and live in London."</p>
+
+<p>I felt my blood run cold for a moment. I did not dare to look at Mabane.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think," I said, "that you need fear anything more from Major
+Delahaye, even if he should recover."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;?" she cried breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"We should never give you up to him," I declared firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!" she murmured. "Mr. Arnold," she added, looking at me
+eagerly, "I can paint and sing and play the piano. Can't people earn
+money sometimes by doing these things? I would work&mdash;oh, I am not afraid
+to work. Couldn't I stay here for a little while?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you can," I assured her. "And there is no need at all for you
+to think about earning money yet. It is not that which troubles us at
+all. It is the fact that we have no legal claim upon you, and people may
+come forward at any moment who have."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur glanced towards her triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>"What did I tell you?" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>She looked timidly across at Mabane.</p>
+
+<p>"The other gentleman won't mind?" she asked timidly.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane smiled at her, and his smile was a revelation even to us who knew
+him so well.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady," he said, "you will be more than welcome. I have
+just been telling Arnold that your coming will make the world a
+different place for us."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's smile was illumining. It seemed to include us all. She held
+out both her hands. Mabane seized one and bent over it with the air of a
+courtier. The other was offered to me. Arthur was content to beam upon
+us all from the background. At that precise moment came a tap at the
+door. Mrs. Burdett brought in a telegram.</p>
+
+<p>I tore it open, and hastily reading it, passed it on to Mabane. He
+hesitated for a moment, and then turned gravely to Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"Major Delahaye will not trouble you any more," he said. "He died in the
+hospital an hour ago."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIIIA" id="CHAPTER_VIIIA"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>"A shade more to the right, please. There, just as you are now! Don't
+move! In five minutes I shall have finished for the day."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that your five minutes," she said, "last sometimes for a very
+long time. But I am not tired&mdash;no, not at all. I can stay like this if
+you wish until the light goes."</p>
+
+<p>"You are splendid," Mabane murmured. "The best sitter&mdash;oh, hang it,
+who's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is certainly some one at the door," Isobel remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane paused in his work to shout fiercely, "Come in!" I too looked up
+from my writing. A woman was ushered into the room&mdash;a woman dressed in
+fashionable mourning, of medium height, and with a wealth of fair,
+fluffy hair, which seemed to mock the restraining black bands. Mrs.
+Burdett, visibly impressed, lingered in the background.</p>
+
+<p>The woman paused and looked around. She looked at me, and the pen
+slipped from my nerveless fingers. I rose to my feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Eil&mdash;Lady Delahaye!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>She inclined her head. Her demeanour was cold, almost belligerent.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to find you here, Arnold Greatson," she said. "You are a
+friend, I believe, of the man who murdered my husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have been misinformed, Lady Delahaye," I answered quietly. "I was
+not even an acquaintance of his. We met that day for the first time."</p>
+
+<p>By the faintest possible curl of the lips she expressed her contemptuous
+disbelief.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" she said. "I remember your story at the inquest. You will forgive
+me if, in company, I believe, with the majority who heard it, I find it
+a trifle improbable."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her gravely. This was the woman with whom I had once
+believed myself in love, the woman who had jilted me to marry a man of
+whom even his friends found it hard to speak well.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "my story may have sounded strangely, but it
+was true. I presume that you did not come here solely with the purpose
+of expressing your amiable opinion of my veracity?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right," she admitted drily. "I did not."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent for a few moments. Her eyes were fixed upon Isobel, and I
+did not like their expression.</p>
+
+<p>"May I offer you a chair, Lady Delahaye?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, I prefer to stand&mdash;here," she answered. "This, I believe, is
+the young person who was with my husband?"</p>
+
+<p>She extended a sombrely gloved forefinger towards Isobel, who met her
+gaze unflinchingly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the young lady," I answered. "Have you anything to say to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"My errand here is with her," Lady Delahaye declared. "What is it that
+you call yourself, girl?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel was a little bewildered. She seemed scarcely able to appreciate
+Lady Delahaye's attitude.</p>
+
+<p>"My name," she said, "is Isobel de Sorrens."</p>
+
+<p>"You asserted at the inquest," Lady Delahaye continued, "that my husband
+was your guardian. What did you mean by such an extraordinary
+statement?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel seemed suddenly to grasp the situation. Her finely arched
+eyebrows were raised, her cheeks were pink, her eyes sparkling. She rose
+slowly to her feet, and, child though she was, the dignity of her
+demeanour was such that Lady Delahaye with her accusing forefinger
+seemed to shrink into insignificance.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she said, "that you are a very rude person. Major Delahaye
+took me to the convent of St. Argueil when I was four years old, and
+left me there. He visited me twelve months ago, and brought me to
+England you know when. I was with him for less than twenty-four hours,
+and I was very unhappy indeed all the time. I did not understand the
+things which he said to me, nor did I like him at all. I think that if
+he had left me out of his sight for a moment I should have run away."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye was very pale, and her eyes were full of unpleasant
+things. I found myself looking at her, and marvelling at the folly which
+I had long since forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>"You perhaps complained of him&mdash;to his murderer! It is you, no doubt,
+who are responsible for my husband's death!"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel's lips curled contemptuously.</p>
+
+<p>"Major Delahaye," she said, "did not permit me to speak to anyone. As
+for the man whom you call his murderer, I never saw him before in my
+life, nor should I recognize him again if I saw him now. I do not know
+why you come here and say all these unkind things to me. I have done you
+no harm. I am very sorry about Major Delahaye, but&mdash;but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her lips quivered. I hastily interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "I do not know what the immediate object of
+your visit here may be, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The immediate object of my visit," she interrupted coldly, "is as
+repugnant to me, Mr. Greatson, as it may possibly be disappointing to
+you. I am here, however, to carry out my husband's last wish. This child
+herself has asserted that he was her guardian. By his death that most
+unwelcome post devolves upon me."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel turned white, as though stung by a sudden apprehension. She
+looked towards me, and I took her hand in mine. Lady Delahaye smiled
+unpleasantly upon us both.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," I said, "that you wish to take her away from us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wish!" Lady Delahaye repeated coldly. "I can assure you that I am not
+consulting my own wishes upon the subject at all. What I am doing is
+simply my duty. The child had better get her hat on."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel did not move, but she turned very pale. Her eyes seemed fastened
+upon mine. She waited for me to speak. The situation was embarrassing
+enough so far as I was concerned, for Lady Delahaye was obviously in
+earnest. I tried to gain time.</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask what your intentions are with regard to the child? You intend
+to take her to your home&mdash;to adopt her, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye regarded me with cold surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," she answered. "I shall find a fitting position for her
+in her own station of life."</p>
+
+<p>"May I assume then," I continued, with some eagerness, "that you know
+what that is? You are acquainted, perhaps, with her parentage?"</p>
+
+<p>She returned my gaze steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"I may be," she answered. "That, however, is beside the question. I
+intend to do my duty by the child. If you have been put to any expense
+with regard to her, you can mention the amount and I will defray it. I
+have answered enough questions. What is your name, child&mdash;Isobel? Get
+ready to come with me."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel answered her steadily, but her eyes were filled with shrinking
+fear.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not wish to come with you," she said. "I do not like you at all."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye raised her eyebrows. It seemed to me that in a quiet way
+she was becoming angry.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately," she said, "your liking or disliking me makes very
+little difference. I have no choice in the matter at all. The care of
+you has devolved upon me, and I must undertake it. You had better come
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel trembled where she stood. I judged it time to intervene.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "the duty of looking after this child is
+evidently a distasteful one to you. We will relieve you of it. She can
+remain with us."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye looked at me in astonishment. Then she laughed, and it
+seemed to all of us that we had never heard a more unpleasant travesty
+of mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" she exclaimed. "And may I ask of whom your household
+consists?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of myself and my two friends, Mabane and Fielding. We have a most
+responsible housekeeper, however, who will be able to look after the
+child."</p>
+
+<p>"Until she herself can qualify for the position, I presume," Lady
+Delahaye remarked drily. "What a delightful arrangement! A sort of
+co-operative household. Quite Arcadian, I am sure, and so truly
+philanthropic. You have changed a good deal during the last few years,
+Mr. Arnold Greatson, to be able to stand there and make such an
+extraordinary proposition to me."</p>
+
+<p>I was determined not to lose my temper, though, as a matter of fact, I
+was fiercely angry.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "we are not prepared to give this child up to
+you. It will perhaps help to shorten a&mdash;a painful interview if you will
+accept that from me as final."</p>
+
+<p>The change in Isobel was marvellous. The brilliant colour streamed into
+her cheeks. Her long-drawn, quivering sigh of relief seemed in the
+momentary silence which followed my pronouncement a very audible thing.
+Lady Delahaye looked at me as though she doubted the meaning of my
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"You are aware," she said, "that this will mean great unpleasantness for
+you. You know the law?"</p>
+
+<p>"I neither know it nor wish to know it," I answered. "We shall not give
+up the child."</p>
+
+<p>I glanced at Mabane. His confirmation was swift and decisive.</p>
+
+<p>"I am entirely in accord with my friend, madam," he said, with grim
+precision.</p>
+
+<p>"The law will compel you," she declared.</p>
+
+<p>"We will do our best, then," he answered, "to cheat the law."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to add, Lady Delahaye," I continued, "that our
+housekeeper, who has been in the service of my family for over thirty
+years, has willingly undertaken the care of the child, and I can assure
+you, in case you should have any anxieties concerning her, that she will
+be as safe under our charge as in your own."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye moved towards the door. On the threshold she turned and
+laid her hand upon my arm. I was preparing to show her out. There was
+meaning in her eyes as she leaned towards me.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said, "we were once friends, or I should drive
+straight from here to my solicitors. I presume you are aware that your
+present attitude is capable of very serious misrepresentation?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must take the risk of that, Lady Delahaye," I answered. "I ask you to
+remember, however, that the law would also require you to prove your
+guardianship. Do you yourself know anything of the child's parentage?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer me directly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall give you," she said, "twenty-four hours for reflection. At the
+end of that time, if I do not hear from you, I shall apply to the
+courts."</p>
+
+<p>I held the door open and bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"You will doubtless act," I said, "according to your discretion."</p>
+
+<p>The moment seemed propitious for her departure. All that had to be said
+had surely passed between us. Yet she seemed for some reason unwilling
+to go.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure, Mr. Greatson," she said, "that I can find my way out.
+Will you be so good as to see me to my carriage?"</p>
+
+<p>I had no alternative but to obey. Our rooms were on the fifth floor of a
+block of flats overlooking Chelsea Embankment, and we had no lift. We
+descended two flights of the stone stairs in silence. Then she suddenly
+laid her fingers upon my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she said softly, "I never thought that we should meet again
+like this."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I, Lady Delahaye," I answered, truthfully enough.</p>
+
+<p>"You have changed."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her. She had the grace to blush.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know that I behaved badly," she murmured, "but think how poor we
+were, and oh, how weary I was of poverty. If I had refused Major
+Delahaye I think that my mother would have turned me out of doors. I
+wrote and told you all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I admitted, "you wrote!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you never answered my letter."</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed to me," I remarked, "that it needed no answer."</p>
+
+<p>"And afterwards," she said, "I wrote and asked you to come and see me."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye&mdash;&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>"Eileen!" she interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, if you will have it so, Eileen," I said. "You have
+alluded to events which I have forgotten. Whether you or I behaved well
+or ill does not matter in the least now. It is all over and done with."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, then, that I am unforgiven?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," I assured her, "I have nothing to forgive."</p>
+
+<p>She flashed a swift glance of reproach up on me. To my amazement there
+were tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said, "I can find my way to the street alone. I will
+not trouble you further."</p>
+
+<p>She swept away with a dignity which became her better than her previous
+attitude. There was nothing left for me to do but to turn back.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IXA" id="CHAPTER_IXA"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>Isobel was standing quite still in the middle of the room, her hands
+tightly clenched, a spot of colour aflame in her cheeks. Arthur, who had
+passed Lady Delahaye and me upon the stairs, had apparently just been
+told the object of her visit.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hate that woman!" Isobel exclaimed as I entered, "I hate her! I
+would rather die than go to her. I would rather go back to the convent.
+She looks at me as though I were something to be despised, something
+which should not be allowed to go alive upon the earth!"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur would have spoken, but Mabane interrupted him. He laid his hand
+gently upon her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel," he said gently, "you need have no fear. I know how Arnold
+feels about it, and I can speak for myself also. You shall not go to
+her. We will not give you up. I do not believe that she will go to the
+courts at all. I doubt if she has any claim."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we'd hide you, run away with you, anything," Arthur declared
+impetuously. "Don't you be scared, Isobel, I don't believe she can do a
+thing. The law's like a great fat animal. It takes a plaguey lot to move
+it, and then it moves as slowly as a steam-roller. We'll dodge it
+somehow."</p>
+
+<p>She gave them a hand each. Her action was almost regal. It some way, it
+seemed that in according her our protection we were receiving rather
+than conferring a favour.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," she said, "you are so kind that I have no words with which
+to thank you. But you will believe that I am grateful."</p>
+
+<p>It was then for the first time that they saw me upon the threshold.
+Isobel looked at me anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone?"</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that she will trouble us again just yet," I said. "At
+the same time, we must be prepared. Tell me, whereabouts is this school
+from which you came, Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"St. Argueil? It is about three hours' journey from Paris. Why do you
+ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I think that I must go there," I answered. "We must try and
+find out what legal claims Major Delahaye had upon you. What is the name
+of the Principal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Richard is the lay principal," Isobel answered, "but Sister
+Ursula is really the head of the place. We girls saw her, though, very
+seldom&mdash;only those who were going to remain," she added, with a little
+shudder.</p>
+
+<p>"And this Madame Richard," I asked, "is she a kindly sort of a person?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel shook her head doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not like her," she said. "She is very stern. She is not kind to
+anyone."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, I suppose she will tell me what she knows," I said. "Give
+me the Bradshaw, Allan, and that old Continental guide."</p>
+
+<p>I presently became immersed in planning out my route. When at last I
+looked up, Mabane was working steadily. The others had gone. I looked
+round the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are Arthur and Isobel?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Like calling to like," he remarked tersely. "They have gone trailing."</p>
+
+<p>I put the Bradshaw down.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall leave for Paris at midnight, Mabane," I said.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to be the most sensible thing to do," he remarked. "There is
+no other way of getting to the bottom of the affair."</p>
+
+<p>So I went to pack my bag. And within an hour I was on my way to France.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I rose to my feet, after a somewhat lengthy wait, and bowed. Between
+this newcomer and myself, across the stone floor, lay the sunlight, a
+long, yellow stream which seemed to me the only living thing which I had
+as yet seen in this strange, grim-looking building. I spoke in
+indifferent French. She answered me in perfect English.</p>
+
+<p>"I have the honour to address&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Richard. I am the lay principal of the convent. Will you permit
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>The blind fell, and there was no more sunlight. I was conscious of a
+sudden chill. The bare room, with its stone-flagged floor, its plain
+deal furniture, depressed me no less than the cold, forbidding
+appearance of the woman who stood now motionless before me. She was
+paler than any woman whom I had ever seen in my life. A living person,
+she seemed the personification of lifelessness. Her black hair was
+streaked with grey; her dress, which suggested a uniform in its
+severity, knew no adornment save the plain ivory cross which hung from
+an almost invisible chain about her neck. Her expression indicated
+neither curiosity nor courtesy. She simply waited. I, although as a rule
+I had no great difficulty in finding words, felt myself almost
+embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come from London to see you," I said. "My name is
+Greatson&mdash;Arnold Greatson."</p>
+
+<p>There was not a quiver of expression in her cold acknowledgment of my
+declaration. Nevertheless, at that moment I received an inspiration. I
+was perfectly sure that she knew who I was and what I had come for.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to know," I continued, "if you can give me any information
+as to the friends or parentage of a young lady who was recently, I
+believe, a pupil of yours&mdash;a Miss Isobel de Sorrens?"</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady is still in your charge, I hear," Madame Richard
+remarked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding my inspiration I was startled.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"We despatched a messenger only yesterday to escort Isobel back here,"
+Madame Richard answered. "Your address was the destination given us."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask who gave it you? At whose instigation you sent?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the instigation of those who have the right to consider themselves
+Isobel's guardians," Madame Richard said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel's guardians!" I repeated softly. "But surely you know, Madame
+Richard&mdash;you have heard of the tragedy which happened in London? Major
+Delahaye died last week."</p>
+
+<p>"We have been informed of the occurrence," she answered, her tone as
+perfectly emotionless as though she had been discussing the veriest
+trifle. "We were content to recognize Major Delahaye as representing
+those who have the right to dispose of Isobel's future. His death,
+however, alters many things. Isobel will be placed in even surer hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel has, I presume, then, relatives living?" I remarked. "May I know
+their names?"</p>
+
+<p>Madame Richard was silent for a moment. She was regarding me steadily. I
+even fancied that the ghost of a hard smile trembled upon her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no authority to disclose any information whatever," she said.</p>
+
+<p>I bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no desire to seem inquisitive," I said. "On the other hand, I
+and my friends are greatly interested in the child. I will be frank with
+you, Madame Richard. We have no claim upon her, I know, but we should
+certainly require to know something about the people into whose charge
+she was to pass before we gave her up."</p>
+
+<p>"She is to come back here," Madame Richard answered calmly. "We are
+ready to receive her. She has lived with us for ten years. I presume
+under the circumstances, and when I add that it is the desire of those
+who are responsible for her that she should immediately return to us,
+that you will not hesitate to send her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Richard," I answered gravely, "you who live so far from the
+world lose touch sometimes with its worst side. We others, to our
+sorrow, know more, though our experience is dearly enough bought. Let me
+tell you that I should hesitate at any time to give back the child into
+the care of those who sent her out into the world alone with such a man
+as Major Delahaye."</p>
+
+<p>Madame Richard touched the cross which hung upon her bosom. Her eyes, it
+seemed to me, narrowed a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Major Delahaye," she said, "was the nominee of those who have the right
+to dispose of the child."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," I answered, "I shall require their right proven before Isobel
+leaves us. I do not wish to speak ill of the dead, but I was present
+when Major Delahaye was shot, and I am not sure that the bullet of his
+assassin did not prevent a worse crime. The child was terrified to
+death. It is my honest conviction that her fear was not uncalled for."</p>
+
+<p>Madame Richard raised her hand slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she said, "such matters are not our concern. It is because
+of the passions and evil doing of the world outside that we cling so
+closely here to our own doctrine of isolation. Whatever she may have
+suffered, Isobel will learn to forget here. In the blessed years which
+lie before her, the memory of her unhappy pilgrimage will grow dim and
+faint. It may even be for the best that she has realized for a moment
+the shadow of evil things."</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel is intended, then?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"For the Church," Madame Richard answered. "That is the present decision
+of those who have the right to decide for her. We ourselves do not care
+to take pupils who have no idea at all of the novitiate. Occasionally we
+are disappointed, and those in whom we have placed faith are tempted
+back into the world. But we do our best while they are here to show them
+the better way. We feared that we had lost Isobel. We shall be all the
+more happy to welcome her back."</p>
+
+<p>I shivered a little. I could not help feeling the cold repression of the
+place. A vision of thin, grey-gowned figures, with pallid faces and
+weary, discontented eyes, haunted me. I tried to fancy Isobel amongst
+them. It was preposterous.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I said, "I do not believe that Isobel is adapted by nature or
+disposition for such a life."</p>
+
+<p>"The desire for holiness," Madame Richard answered, "is never very
+apparent in the young. It is the child's great good fortune that she
+will grow into it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," I answered, "that our views upon this matter are too far
+apart to render discussion profitable. You have spoken of those who have
+the right to dispose of the child's future. I will go and see them."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary," Madame Richard answered. "We will send to England
+for the child."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I understand, Madame Richard," I said, "that you decline to give me
+the address of those who stand behind you in the disposal of Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"They would not discuss the matter with you," she answered calmly.
+"Their decision is already made. Isobel is for the Church."</p>
+
+<p>I took up my hat.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not detain you any further, Madame," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"A messenger is already in London to bring back the child," she
+remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"As to that," I answered, "it is perhaps better to be frank with you,
+Madame Richard. Your messenger will return alone."</p>
+
+<p>For the first time the woman's face showed some signs of feeling. Her
+dark eyebrows contracted a little. Her expression was coldly repellent.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no claim upon the child," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither do I know of any other person who has," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"We have had the charge of her for ten years. That itself is a claim. It
+is unseemly that she should remain with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I answered, "Isobel is meant for life&mdash;not a living death."</p>
+
+<p>The woman crossed herself.</p>
+
+<p>"There is but one life," she said. "We wish to prepare Isobel for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I said, "as to that, argument between us is impossible. I
+shall consult with my friends. Your messenger shall bring back word as
+to our decision."</p>
+
+<p>The face of the woman grew darker.</p>
+
+<p>"But surely," she protested, "you will not dare to keep the child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I answered, "humanity makes sometimes strange claims upon us.
+Isobel is as yet a child. She came into my keeping by the strangest of
+chances. I did not seek the charge of her. It was, to tell the truth, an
+embarrassment to me. Yet she is under my care to-day, and I shall do
+what I believe to be the right thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she said, "you are interfering in matters greater than you
+have any knowledge of."</p>
+
+<p>"It is in your power," I reminded her, "to enlighten me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a power which I am able to use," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will not detain you further, Madame," I said.</p>
+
+<p>As I passed out she leaned over towards me. She had already rung a bell,
+and outside I could hear the shuffling footsteps of the old servant who
+had admitted me.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she said, "if you keep the child you make enemies&mdash;very
+powerful enemies. It is long since I lived in the world, but I think
+that the times have not changed very much. Of the child's parentage I
+may not tell you, but as I hope for salvation I will tell you this. It
+will be better for you, and better for the child, that she comes back
+here, even to embrace what you have called the living death."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I said, "I will consider all these things."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be well for you to do so, Monsieur," she said with meaning. "An
+enemy of those in whose name I have spoken must needs be a holy man, for
+he lives hand in hand with death."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XA" id="CHAPTER_XA"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+
+<p>So I was driven back to Argueil, the red-tiled, sleepy old town, with
+its great gaunt church, whose windows, as the lumbering cart descended
+the hill, were stained blood-red by the dying sunset. Behind, on the
+hillside, was the convent, with its avenue of stunted elms, its
+close-barred windows, its terrible prison-like silence. As I looked
+behind, holding on to the sides of the springless cart to avoid being
+jostled into the road, I found myself shivering. The convent
+boarding-schools which I had heard of had been very different sort of
+places. Even after my brief visit there this return into the fresh
+country air, the smell of the fields, the colour and life of the rolling
+landscape, were blessed things. I was more than ever satisfied with my
+decision. It was not possible to send the child back to such a place.</p>
+
+<p>Across a great vineyard plain, through which the narrow white road ran
+like a tightly drawn band of ribbon, I came presently to the village of
+Argueil. The street which led to the inn was paved with the most
+abominable cobbles, and I was forced to hold my hat with one hand and
+the side of the cart with the other. My blue-smocked driver pulled up
+with a flourish in front of the ancient gateway of the <i>Leon d'Or</i>, and
+I was very nearly precipitated on to the top of the broad-backed horse.
+As I gathered myself together I was conscious of a soft peal of
+laughter&mdash;a woman's laughter, which came from the arched entrance to the
+inn. I looked up quickly. A too familiar figure was standing there
+watching me,&mdash;Lady Delahaye, trim, elegant, a trifle supercilious. By
+her side stood the innkeeper, white-aproned and obsequious.</p>
+
+<p>I clambered down on to the pavement, and Lady Delahaye advanced a little
+way to meet me. She held out a delicately gloved hand, and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You must forgive my laughing, Arnold," she said. "Really, you looked
+too funny in that terrible cart. What an odd meeting, isn't it? Have you
+a few minutes to spare?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe," I answered, "that I cannot get away from this place till
+the evening. Shall we go in and sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"The inn-parlour is too stuffy," she answered. "I was obliged to come
+out myself for some fresh air. Let us walk up the street."</p>
+
+<p>I paid for my conveyance, and we strolled along the broad sidewalk. Lady
+Delahaye seemed inclined to thrust the onus of commencing our
+conversation upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"I presume," I said, "that we are here with the same object?"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at me curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" she remarked. "Then tell me why you came."</p>
+
+<p>"To discover that child's parentage, if possible," I answered promptly.
+"I want to discover who her friends are, who really has the right to
+take charge of her."</p>
+
+<p>"You perplex me, Arnold," she said thoughtfully. "I do not understand
+your position in the matter. I always looked upon you as a somewhat
+indolent person. Yet I find you now taking any amount of trouble in a
+matter which really does not concern you at all. Whence all this
+good-nature?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Eileen," she interrupted softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I answered firmly. "You must forgive me if I remind you
+that I have no longer the right to call you by any other name. I am not
+good-natured, and I am afraid that I am still indolent. Nevertheless, I
+am interested in this child, and I intend to do my utmost to prevent her
+returning to this place."</p>
+
+<p>"I am still in the dark," she said, looking at me curiously. "She is
+nothing to you. A more unsuitable home for her than with three young men
+I cannot imagine. You seem to want to keep her there. Why? She is a
+child to-day, it is true&mdash;but in little more than a year's time she will
+be a woman. The position then for you will be full of embarrassments."</p>
+
+<p>"I find the position now," I answered, "equally embarrassing. We can
+only give the child up to you, send her back to the convent, or keep her
+ourselves. Of the three we prefer to keep her."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to have a great distaste for the convent," she remarked, "but
+that is because you are not a Catholic, and you do not understand these
+things. She would at least be safe there, and in time, I think, happy."</p>
+
+<p>We were at the head of the village street now, upon a slight eminence. I
+pointed backwards to the prison-like building, standing grim and
+desolate on the bare hillside.</p>
+
+<p>"I should consider myself no less a murderer than the man who shot your
+husband," I answered, "if I sent her there. I have made all the
+enquiries I could in the neighbourhood, and I have added to them my own
+impressions. The secular part of the place may be conducted as other
+places of its sort, but the great object of Madame Richard's sister is
+to pass her pupils from that into the religious portion. Isobel is not
+adapted for such a life."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, "I am a Catholic, so of course I don't agree with you.
+But why do you hesitate to give the child up to me?"</p>
+
+<p>I was silent for a moment. It was not easy to put my feeling into words.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "you must forgive my reminding you that on the
+occasion of your visit to us you did not attempt to conceal the fact
+that your feelings towards her were inimical. Beyond that, I was pledged
+not to hand her back into your husband's care, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pledged by whom?" she asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," I said, "that I cannot answer you that question."</p>
+
+<p>She flashed an angry glance upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"You pretend that the man who called himself Grooten was not your
+friend. Yet you have been in communication with him since!"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw Mr. Grooten for the first time in my life on the morning of that
+day," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You know where he is now?" she asked, watching me keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the slightest idea. I wish that I did know," I declared
+truthfully. "There is no man whom I am more anxious to see."</p>
+
+<p>"You would, of course, inform the police?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid not," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>Again she was angry. This time scarcely without reason.</p>
+
+<p>"Your sympathies, in short, are with the murderer rather than with his
+victim&mdash;the man who was shot without warning in the back? It accords, I
+presume, with your idea of fair play?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "the subject is unpleasant and futile. Let us
+return to the inn."</p>
+
+<p>She turned abruptly around. She made a little motion as of dismissal,
+but I remained by her side.</p>
+
+<p>"By-the-bye," I said, "we were to exchange confidences. You are here, of
+course, to visit the convent? Why?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled enigmatically.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure, my very simple conspirator," she said, "whether I will
+imitate your frankness. You see, you have blundered into a somewhat more
+important matter than you have any idea of. But I will tell you this, if
+you like. You may call that place a prison, or any hard names you
+please&mdash;yet it is destined to be Isobel's home. Not only that, but it is
+her only chance. I am putting you on your guard, you see, but I do not
+think that it matters. You are fighting against hopeless odds, and if by
+any chance you should succeed, your success would be the most terrible
+thing which could happen to Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>I walked by her side for a moment in silence. There was in her words and
+tone some underlying note of fear, some suggestion of hidden danger,
+which brought back to my mind at once the farewell speech of Madame
+Richard. There was something ominous, too, in her presence here.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, as lightly as possible, "you have told me a
+great deal, and less than nothing at all. Yet I gather that you know
+more about the child and her history than you have led me to suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she admitted, "that is perhaps true."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not let me share your knowledge?" I suggested boldly.</p>
+
+<p>"You carry candour," she remarked, smiling, "to absurdity. We are on
+opposite sides. Ah, how delicious this is!"</p>
+
+<p>We were regaining the centre of the little town by a footpath which for
+some distance had followed the river, and now, turning almost at right
+angles, skirted a cherry orchard in late blossom. The perfume of the
+pink and white buds, swaying slightly in the breeze, came to us both&mdash;a
+waft of delicate and poignant freshness. Lady Delahaye stood still, and
+half closed her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"How perfectly delicious," she murmured. "Arn&mdash;Mr. Greatson, do get me
+just the tiniest piece. I can't quite reach."</p>
+
+<p>I broke off a small branch, and she thrust it into the bosom of her
+dress. The orchard was gay with bees and a few early butterflies, blue
+and white and orange coloured. In the porch of a red-tiled cottage a few
+yards away a girl was singing. Suddenly I stopped and pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!"</p>
+
+<p>An avenue with a gate at the end led through the orchard, and under the
+drooping boughs we caught a glimpse of the convent away on the hillside.
+Greyer and more stern than ever it seemed through the delicate framework
+of soft green foliage and blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "you are yourself a young woman. Could you bear
+to think of banishing from your life for ever all the colour and the
+sweet places, all the joy of living? Would you be content to build for
+yourself a tomb, to commit yourself to a living death?"</p>
+
+<p>She answered me instantly, almost impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"There is all the difference in the world," she declared. "I am a woman;
+although I am not old, I know what life is. I know what it would be to
+give it up. But the child&mdash;she knows nothing. She is too young to know
+what lies before her. As yet her eyes are not opened. Very soon she
+would be content there."</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head. I did not agree with Lady Delahaye.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed no!" I protested. "You reckon nothing for disposition. In her
+heart the song of life is already formed, the joy of it is already
+stirring in her blood. The convent would be slow torture to her. She
+shall not go there!"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye smiled&mdash;mirthlessly, yet as one who has some hidden
+knowledge which she may not share.</p>
+
+<p>"You think yourself her friend," she said. "In reality you are her
+enemy. If not the convent, then worse may befall her."</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"As to that," I said, "we shall see!"</p>
+
+<p>We resumed our walk. Again we were nearing the inn. Lady Delahaye looked
+at me every now and then curiously. My feeling towards her had grown
+more and more belligerent.</p>
+
+<p>"You puzzle me, Arnold," she said softly. "After all, Isobel is but a
+child. What cunning tune can she have played upon your heartstrings that
+you should espouse her cause with so much fervour? If she were a few
+years older one could perhaps understand."</p>
+
+<p>I disregarded her innuendo.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "if you were as much her friend as I believe
+that I am, you would not hesitate to tell me all that you know. I have
+no other wish than to see her safe, and amongst her friends, but I will
+give her up to no one whom I believe to be her enemy."</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she answered gravely, "I can only repeat what I have told you
+before. You are interfering in greater concerns than you know of. Even
+if I would, I dare not give you any information. The fate of this child,
+insignificant in herself though she is, is bound up with very important
+issues."</p>
+
+<p>Our eyes met for a moment. The expression in hers puzzled me&mdash;puzzled me
+to such an extent that I made her no answer. Slowly she extended her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"At least," she said, "let us part friends&mdash;unless you choose to be
+gallant and wait here for me until to-morrow. It is a dreary journey
+home alone."</p>
+
+<p>I took her hand readily enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends, by all means," I answered, "but I must get back to Paris
+to-night. A messenger from Madame Richard is already waiting for me in
+London."</p>
+
+<p>She withdrew her hand quickly, and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be as you will, of course," she said coldly. "I do not wish to
+detain you."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, her farewell look haunted me as I sped across the great
+fertile plain on my way to Paris.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIA" id="CHAPTER_XIA"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mabane laid down his brush, Arthur sprang from his seat upon the table
+and greeted me with a shout. Isobel said nothing, but her dark blue eyes
+were fastened upon my face as though seeking to read her fate there.
+They had evidently been waiting for my coming. I remember thinking it
+strange, even then, that these other two men should apparently share to
+the fullest degree my own interest in the child's fate.</p>
+
+<p>"I have failed," I announced shortly.</p>
+
+<p>I took Isobel's hand. It was cold as ice, and I could feel that she was
+trembling violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Richard would tell me nothing, Isobel," I said. "I believe that
+she knows all about you, and I believe that Lady Delahaye does too. But
+they will tell me nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"And?" she demanded, with quivering lips. "And?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is for you to decide," I said gravely. "Lady Delahaye wants you, so
+does Madame Richard. On the other hand, if you like to stay with us
+until someone proves their right to take you away, you will be very
+welcome, Isobel! Stop one moment," I added hastily, for I saw the quick
+colour stream into her cheeks, and the impetuous words already trembling
+upon her lips, "I want you to remember this: Madame Richard makes no
+secret of her own wishes as regards your future. She desires you to take
+the veil. You have lived at the convent, so I presume you are able to
+judge for yourself as regards that. Lady Delahaye, on the other hand, is
+a rich woman, and she professes to be your friend. Your life with her,
+if she chose to make it so, would be an easy and a pleasant one. We, as
+you know, are poor. We have very little indeed to offer you. We live
+what most people call a shiftless life. We have money one day, and none
+the next. Our surroundings and our associations are not in the least
+like what a child of your age should become accustomed to. Nine people
+out of ten would probably pronounce us utterly unsuitable guardians for
+you. It is only right that you should understand these things."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me with tear-bedimmed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to stay with you," she pleaded. "Don't send me away&mdash;oh, don't!
+I hate the convent, and I am afraid of Lady Delahaye. I will do
+everything I can not to be a nuisance to you. I am not afraid to work,
+or to help Mrs. Burdett. Only let me stay."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled, and looked around at the others.</p>
+
+<p>"It is settled," I declared. "We appoint ourselves your guardians. You
+agree, Mabane?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most heartily," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>"Great heavens, yes!" he answered vehemently.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," she murmured, "very good to me. All my life I shall
+remember this."</p>
+
+<p>She held out both her hands. Her eyes were fixed still upon mine. Mabane
+laid his hand upon her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear child," he said, "do not forget that there are three of us. I too
+am very happy to be one of your guardians."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him the hand which Arthur had seized upon. I think that we had
+none of us before seen a smile so dazzling as hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear friends," she murmured, "I only hope that you will never regret
+this great, great kindness."</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly she flitted away and went to her room. We three men were
+left alone.</p>
+
+<p>I think that for the first few moments there was some slight
+awkwardness, for we were men, and we spoke seldom of the things which
+touched us most. Arthur, however, broke almost immediately into speech,
+and relieved the tension.</p>
+
+<p>"And to think that it was I," he exclaimed, "who sent you out plot
+hunting to the station! Arnold, what a sensible chap you are!"</p>
+
+<p>We all laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"A good many people," Mabane remarked quietly, "would call us three
+fools. Tell us, Arnold, did you really discover nothing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely nothing," I declared. "Stop, though. I did find out this.
+There is some secret about the child's parentage. I have spoken with two
+people who know it, and one of them warned me that in keeping the child
+we were interfering in a greater matter than we had any idea of. Of
+course it might have been a bluff, but I fancy that Lady Delahaye was in
+earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not think," Mabane asked, "that she was Major Delahaye's
+daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not," I answered, with a little shudder. "I am sure that she was
+not."</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever she is," Arthur declared, "there's one thing jolly certain, and
+that is she's thoroughbred. She has the most marvellous nerve I ever
+knew. We got in a tight corner this morning. I took her down to
+Guildford in a trailer, and I had to jump the pavement to avoid a
+runaway. She never flinched for a moment. Half the girls I know would
+have squealed like mad. She only laughed, and asked whether she should
+get out. She's as thoroughbred as they make them."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," I answered, "but I'm not going to have you risk her life with
+your beastly motoring, Arthur. Take her out in a car, if you want to.
+Who's this?"</p>
+
+<p>We turned towards the door. Was it the ghost of Madame Richard who stood
+there pale, cold, and in the sombre garb of her sisterhood?</p>
+
+<p>"This lady has been before," Mabane said, placing a chair for her. "She
+has come from the convent, and she brought a letter from Madame
+Richard."</p>
+
+<p>"You are Mr. Greatson?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>I bowed, and took the letter which she handed to me. I tore it open. It
+contained a few lines only.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have been informed of the unfortunate event which has placed
+under your protection one of my late pupils, Isobel de Sorrens. We
+are willing and anxious to receive her back here, and I have sent
+the bearer to accompany her upon the journey. She will also defray
+what expenses her sojourn with you may have occasioned.</p>
+
+<p>"I am, sir, yours respectfully,</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Emily Richard</span>."</p></div>
+
+<p>I put the letter back in the envelope and laid it upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen Madame Richard," I said. "The child will remain with us for
+the present."</p>
+
+<p>The cold, dark eyes met mine searchingly.</p>
+
+<p>"But, monsieur," the woman said, "how can that be? You are not a
+relative, you surely have no claim&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It will save time, perhaps," I interrupted, "if I explain that I have
+discussed all these matters with Madame Richard, and the decision which
+I have come to is final. The child remains here."</p>
+
+<p>The woman looked at me steadfastly.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Richard will not be satisfied with that decision," she said.
+"You will be forced to give her up."</p>
+
+<p>"And why," I asked, "should a penniless orphan, as I understand Isobel
+is, be of so much interest to Madame Richard?"</p>
+
+<p>The woman watched me still, and listened to my words as though seeking
+to discover in them some hidden meaning. Then she leaned a little
+towards me.</p>
+
+<p>"Can I speak with you alone, monsieur?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"These are my friends," I answered, "from whom I have no secrets."</p>
+
+<p>"None?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," I repeated.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated. Then, although the door was fast closed, she dropped her
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"You know&mdash;who the child is," she said softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, I do not," I answered. "I saw the man, under whose care
+she was, shot, and I brought her here because she was friendless. I know
+no more about her."</p>
+
+<p>"That," she said quietly, "is hard to believe."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no interest in your belief or disbelief," I answered. "Pardon me
+if I add, madame, that I have no interest in the continuation of this
+conversation."</p>
+
+<p>She rose at once.</p>
+
+<p>"You are either a very brave man," she said, "or a very simple one. I
+shall await further instructions from Madame Richard."</p>
+
+<p>She departed silently and without any leave-taking. We all three looked
+at one another.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what in thunder did she mean by that!" Arthur exclaimed blankly.</p>
+
+<p>"It appears to me," Mabane said, "that you went plot hunting with a
+vengeance, Arnold."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur was walking restlessly up and down the room, his hands in his
+pockets, a discontented frown upon his smooth young face. He stopped
+suddenly in front of us.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know much about the law, you fellows," he said, "but it seems
+to me that any of these people who seem to want to take Isobel away from
+us have only to go before the court and establish some sort of a legal
+claim, and we should have to give her up."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true enough," I admitted. "The strange part of it is, though,
+that no one seems inclined to take this course."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur threw down a letter upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"This came for you yesterday, Arnold," he said. "I haven't opened it, of
+course, but you can see from the name at the back of the envelope that
+it is from a firm of solicitors."</p>
+
+<p>I took it up and opened it at once. I knew quite well what Arthur
+feared. This is what I read&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">17, Lincoln's Inn, London.</span></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We beg to inform you that we have been instructed by a client, who
+desires to remain anonymous, to open for you at the London and
+Westminster Bank an account on your behalf as guardian of Miss
+Isobel de Sorrens, a young lady who, we understand, is at present
+in your care.</p>
+
+<p>"The amount placed at our disposal is three hundred a year. We
+shall be happy to furnish you with cheque book and full authority
+to make use of this sum if you will favour us with a call,
+accompanied by the young lady, but we are not in a position to
+afford you any information whatever as to our client's identity.</p>
+
+<p>"Trusting to have the pleasure of seeing you shortly,</p>
+
+<p>"We are, yours truly,</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Hamilton &amp; Place</span>."</p></div>
+
+<p>I laid the letter on the table without a word. Mabane and Arthur in turn
+read it. Then there was an ominous silence. I think that we all had the
+same thought. It was Arthur, however, who expressed it.</p>
+
+<p>"What beastly rot!" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Mabane.</p>
+
+<p>"I imagine," he said, "that we should not be justified in refusing this
+offer. At the same time, if anyone has the right to provide for the
+child, why do they not come forward and claim her?"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Isobel came in. I took up the letter and placed it in her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel," I said, "we want you to read this."</p>
+
+<p>She read it, and handed it back to me without a word. We were all
+watching her eagerly. She looked at me appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it necessary," she asked, "for me to accept this money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us," I said, "exactly how you feel."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she said, "that if there is anyone from whom I have the right
+to accept all this money, I ought to know who they are. I do not want to
+be a burden upon anyone," she added hesitatingly, "but I would rather
+work every moment of the day&mdash;oh, I think that I would rather starve
+than touch this money, unless I know who it is that offers it."</p>
+
+<p>I laughed as I tore the letter in half.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear child," I said, resting my hand upon her shoulder, "that is what
+we all hoped that you would say!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIIA" id="CHAPTER_XIIA"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye sank down upon the couch against which I had been
+standing.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor, bored man!" she exclaimed, with mock sympathy. "I ought to have
+asked some entertaining people, oughtn't I? There isn't a soul here for
+you to talk to!"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," I answered, "there are a good many more people here
+than I expected to see. I understood that you were to be alone."</p>
+
+<p>"And you probably think that I ought to be," she remarked. "Well, I
+never was conventional. You know that. I shut myself up for a month. Now
+I expect my friends to come and console me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not likely," I said, "that you will be disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. Those whom I do not want will come, of course. As for the
+others&mdash;well!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at me. I sat down by her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! That is nice of you," she said softly. "I wanted to have a quiet
+talk. Tell me why you are looking so glum."</p>
+
+<p>"I was not conscious of it," I answered. "To tell you the truth, I was
+wondering whether Isobel were not a little young to bring to a gathering
+of this description."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Arnold," she murmured, "there are only one or two of my
+particular friends here. The rest dropped in by accident. Isobel does
+not seem to me to be particularly out of place, and she is certainly
+enjoying herself."</p>
+
+<p>The echoes of her light laugh reached us just then. Several men were
+standing over her chair. She was the centre of what seemed to be a very
+amusing conversation. Arthur was standing on the outskirts of the group,
+apparently a little dull.</p>
+
+<p>"She enjoys herself always," I answered. "She is of that disposition.
+Still&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She put her hands up to her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, I won't be lectured," she exclaimed. "Seriously, I wanted you
+here. I had something to say to you&mdash;something particular."</p>
+
+<p>"Waiving the other matter, then," I said, "I am wholly at your service."</p>
+
+<p>"I may be prolix," she said quietly. "Forgive me if I am, but I want you
+to understand me. I am beginning to see that I have adopted a wrong
+position with regard to a certain matter which we have discussed at your
+rooms and at Argueil. I want to reopen the subject from an entirely
+different point of view."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," I said, "the subject of Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! The first time I came to see you," Lady Delahaye said,
+looking up at me with penitence in her blue eyes, "I was horrid. I am
+very, very sorry. I did not know then who Isobel was, and I was angry
+with everyone&mdash;with poor Will, with the child herself, and with you. You
+must forgive me! I was very much upset."</p>
+
+<p>"I will never think of it again," I promised her.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, again, at Argueil," she continued, "I adopted a wrong tone
+altogether. Yours was the more natural, the more human point of view.
+There are certain very grave reasons why the child would be very much
+better out of the world. A life of seclusion would, I believe, in the
+end, when she is able to understand, be the happiest for her. And
+yet&mdash;she ought to have her chance!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad that you admit that," I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I am going to ask you something," she went on. "You will not be
+angry with me, I am sure. Do you think that a girl of Isobel's age and
+appearance is in her proper place in bachelor quarters, living with
+three young men?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not," I admitted. "I look upon it as a most regrettable necessity.
+Still, you must not make it sound worse than it is. We have a
+housekeeper who is the very essence of respectability, and Isobel is
+under her care."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to make it no longer a necessity," Lady Delahaye said, smiling.
+"I want to relieve you and your conscience at the same time of a very
+awkward incubus. Listen! This is what I propose. Let Isobel come to me
+for a year! I shall treat her as my own daughter. She will have plenty
+of amusement. There are the theatres, and no end of scratch
+entertainments where one can take a girl of her age who is too young for
+society. She will mix with young people of her own age, she will have
+every advantage which, to speak frankly, must be denied to her in her
+present position. At the end of that year I shall tell her her history.
+It is a sad and a miserable one. You may as well know that now. She can
+then take her choice of the convent, or any other mode of life which
+between us we can make possible for her. And I am very much inclined to
+believe, Arnold, that she will choose the convent."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any real reason, Lady Delahaye?" I asked, "why you should not
+tell me now what you propose to tell Isobel in a year's time? There have
+been so many mysterious circumstances in connection with this affair
+that it is hard to come to any decision when one is ignorant of so
+much."</p>
+
+<p>"There are reasons&mdash;grave reasons&mdash;why I can tell you nothing," she
+answered. "Indeed, I would like to, Arnold," she continued earnestly,
+"but my position is a very difficult one. I think that you might trust
+me a little."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure that you wish to do what is best," I said, a little
+awkwardly, "but you must see that my position also is a little
+difficult. I, too, am under a promise!"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes flashed indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"To the man who killed my husband! The man whom you are shielding!" she
+exclaimed indignantly. "I think that you might at least have the grace
+to leave him out of the conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never introduced him," I answered. "I do not wish to do so. As
+to shielding him, I have not the slightest idea as to his whereabouts.
+Be reasonable, Lady Delahaye. I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Reasonable," she interrupted. "That is what I want you to be! Ask
+yourself a plain question. Which is the more fitting place for her&mdash;my
+house, or your chambers?"</p>
+
+<p>She pointed to Isobel, who was leaning back in her chair laughing
+heartily into the face of a young man who was bending over her. By
+chance she looked just then older even than her years, and Arthur's glum
+figure, too, in the background was suggestive.</p>
+
+<p>"Your house, without a doubt," I answered gravely, "if it is the house
+of a friend."</p>
+
+<p>Her satin slipper beat the ground impatiently. She looked at me with a
+frown upon her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe, then," she asked, "that I am her enemy? Does my offer
+sound like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, no," I answered, rising. "I am going to give Isobel herself a
+chance of accepting or declining it."</p>
+
+<p>I crossed the room. Isobel, seeing me come, rose at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it time for us to go?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite!" I answered. "Go and talk to Lady Delahaye for a few
+minutes. She has something to say to you."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel made a little grimace, so slight that only I could notice it, and
+took my place upon the sofa. I talked for a few minutes with some of the
+men whom I knew, and then Arthur touched me on the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't we go, Arnold?" he exclaimed, a little peevishly. "I've never
+been so bored in all my life."</p>
+
+<p>"We must wait for a few minutes," I answered. "Isobel is talking to Lady
+Delahaye."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know a soul here, and I'm dying for a cigarette."</p>
+
+<p>I pointed through the curtain to the anteroom adjoining.</p>
+
+<p>"You can smoke in there," I remarked. "I'll introduce you to Miss
+Ernston if you like, the girl who drives the big Panhard in the park. I
+heard her say that she was going in there to get one of Lady Delahaye's
+Russian cigarettes!"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur shook his head. He was covertly watching Isobel, sitting on the
+sofa.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go in and have the cigarette," he said, "but, Arnold, there's no
+fresh move on, is there? You're looking pretty glum!"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, there is nothing exactly fresh," I answered. "Come along and smoke,
+will you! I want Lady Delahaye and Isobel to have their talk out."</p>
+
+<p>He followed me reluctantly into the smaller of Lady Delahaye's
+reception-rooms, where we smoked for a few minutes in silence. Then
+Mabel Ernston stopped to speak to me for a moment, and I introduced
+Arthur. I left them talking motors, and stepped back into the other
+room. Isobel had already risen to her feet, and Lady Delahaye was
+looking at her curiously as though uncertain how far she had been
+successful. She saw me enter, and beckoned me to approach.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that Isobel is tired," she said, in a tone which was meant to
+be kind. "She has promised to come and see me again."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked at me. Her mouth, which a few minutes before had been
+curved with smiles, was straight now, and resolutely set. She was
+distinctly paler, and her manner seemed to have acquired a new gravity.
+I must confess that my first impulse was one of relief. Isobel had not
+found Lady Delahaye's offer, then, so wonderfully attractive.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mind coming home now, Arnold?" she asked. "I did not know that
+it was so late."</p>
+
+<p>I saw Lady Delahaye's face darken at her simple use of my Christian
+name, and the touch of her fingers upon my arm. Arthur heard our voices,
+and came to us at once. So we took leave of our hostess, and turned
+homewards.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time we walked almost in silence. Then Isobel turned towards
+me with a new gravity in her face, and an unusual hesitation in her
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she said, "Lady Delahaye has been pointing out to me one or
+two things which I had not thought of before. I suppose she meant to be
+kind. I suppose it is right that I should know. But&mdash;&mdash;" her voice
+trembled&mdash;"I wish she had not told me."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye is an interfering old cat!" Arthur exclaimed viciously.
+"Don't take any notice of her, Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"But I must know," she answered, "whether the things which she said were
+true."</p>
+
+<p>"They were probably exaggerations," I said cheerfully; "but let us hear
+them, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"She said," Isobel continued, looking steadily in front of her, "that
+you were all three very poor indeed, and that I had no right to come and
+live with you, and make you poorer still, when I had a home offered me
+elsewhere. She said that I should disturb your whole life, that you
+would have to give up many things which were a pleasure to you, and you
+would not be able to succeed so well with your work, as you would have
+to write altogether for money. And she said that I should be grown up
+soon, and ought to live where there are women; and when I told her about
+Mrs. Burdett she laughed unpleasantly, and said that she did not count
+at all. And that is why&mdash;she wants me&mdash;to go there!"</p>
+
+<p>Again the shadow of tragedy gleamed in the child's white face. Her face
+was strained, her eyes had lost the deep softness of their colouring,
+and there lurked once more in their depths the terror of nameless
+things. To me the sight of her like this was so piteous that I wasted
+not a moment in endeavouring to reassure her.</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish!" I exclaimed cheerfully. "Sheer and unadulterated rubbish! We
+are not rich, Isobel, but the trifle the care of you will cost us
+amounts to nothing at all. We are willing and able to take charge of you
+as well as we can. You know that!"</p>
+
+<p>Ah! She drew a long sigh of relief. It was wonderful how her face
+changed.</p>
+
+<p>"But why is Lady Delahaye so cruel&mdash;why is she so anxious that I should
+not stay with you?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>I laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye is mysterious," I answered. "I have come to the
+conclusion, Isobel, that you must be a princess in disguise, and that
+Lady Delahaye wants to claim all the rewards for having taken charge of
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly!" she laughed. "Princesses are not brought up at Madame
+Richard's, without relations or friends to visit them, and no pocket
+money."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless," I answered, "when I consider the number of people who
+are interested in you, and Lady Delahaye's extraordinary persistence, I
+am inclined to stick to my theory. We shall look upon you, Isobel, as an
+investment, and some day you shall reward us all."</p>
+
+<p>Her hand slipped into mine. Her eyes were soft enough now.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear friend," she murmured, "I think that it is my heart only which
+will reward you&mdash;my great, great gratitude. I am afraid of Lady
+Delahaye, Arnold. There are things in her eyes when she looks at me
+which make me shiver. Do not let us go there again, please!"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur broke in impetuously.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall go nowhere you don't want to, Isobel. Arnold and I will see
+to that."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;about the other thing&mdash;she mentioned," Isobel began.</p>
+
+<p>"She was right and wrong," I answered. "Of course, it would be better
+for you if one of us had a sister or a mother living with us, but Mrs.
+Burdett has always seemed to us like a mother, and I think&mdash;that it will
+be all right," I concluded a little lamely. "We need not worry about
+that, at present at any rate. Come, we've had a dull afternoon, and I
+sold a story yesterday. Let's go to Fasolas, and have a half-crown
+dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm on," Arthur declared. "We'll go and fetch Allan."</p>
+
+<p>"You dear!" Isobel exclaimed. "I shall wear my new hat!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Book_II" id="Book_II"></a>Book II</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IB" id="CHAPTER_IB"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<p>"I have no doubt," Mabane said gloomily, "that Arthur is right. He ought
+to know more about it than old fogies like you and me, Arnold. We had
+the money, and we ought to have insisted upon it. You gave way far too
+easily."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well," I protested, "but I don't take in a woman's
+fashion paper, and Isobel assured us that the hat was all right. She
+looks well enough in it, surely!"</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel looks ripping!" Arthur declared, "but then, she looks ripping in
+anything. All the same, the hat's old-fashioned. You look at the hats
+those girls are wearing, who've just come in&mdash;flat, bunchy things, with
+flowers under the brim. That's the style just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel shall have one, then," I declared. "We will take her West
+to-morrow. We can afford it very well."</p>
+
+<p>She came up to us beaming. She was a year older, and her skirts were a
+foot longer. Her figure was, perhaps, a shade more developed, and her
+manner a little more assured. In other respects she was unchanged.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you two old dears worrying about?" she exclaimed lightly. "You
+have the air of conspirators. No secrets from me, please. What is it all
+about?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are lamenting the antiquity of your hat," Mabane answered gravely.
+"Arthur assures us that it is out of date. It ought to be flat and
+bunchy, and it isn't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Geese!" she exclaimed lightly, "both of you! Arthur, I'm ashamed of
+you. You may know something about motors, but you are very ignorant
+indeed about hats. Come along, all of you, and gaze at my miniatures. I
+am longing to see how they look framed."</p>
+
+<p>"As regards the hat&mdash;&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not hear anything more about it," she interrupted, laughing. "Of
+course, if you don't like to be seen with me&mdash;oh! Why, look! look!"</p>
+
+<p>We had stopped before a case of miniatures. In the front row were two
+somewhat larger than the others, and Isobel's first serious attempts.
+Behind each was stuck a little ivory board bearing the magic word
+"Sold."</p>
+
+<p>"Sold!" Arthur exclaimed incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be a mistake," I said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane and I exchanged glances. We knew very well that, though the
+miniatures showed promise of talent, they were amateurish and imperfect,
+and the reserve which we had placed upon them was quite out of all
+proportion to their merit. It must surely be a mistake! We followed
+Isobel across the room. A little elderly gentleman was sitting before a
+desk, engaged in the leisurely contemplation of a small open ledger.
+Isobel had halted in front of him. There was a delicate flush of pink on
+her cheeks, and her eyes were brilliant.</p>
+
+<p>"Are my miniatures sold, please?" she exclaimed. "My name is Miss de
+Sorrens. They have a small ivory board just behind them which says
+'Sold.'"</p>
+
+<p>The elderly gentleman looked up, and surveyed her calmly over the top of
+his spectacles.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say that your name was, madam, and the number of your
+miniatures?" he enquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Isobel de Sorrens," she answered breathlessly, "and my miniatures
+are number two hundred and seven and eight&mdash;a portrait of an elderly
+lady, and two hundred and eighty-nine&mdash;a child."</p>
+
+<p>The little old gentleman turned over the pages of his ledger in very
+leisurely fashion, and consulted a recent entry.</p>
+
+<p>"Your miniatures are sold, Miss de Sorrens," he said, "for the reserve
+price placed upon them&mdash;twenty guineas each. The money will be paid to
+you on the close of the Exhibition, according to our usual custom."</p>
+
+<p>"Please tell me who bought them," she begged. "I want to be quite sure
+that there is no mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"There is certainly no mistake," he answered, smiling. "The first one
+was bought by&mdash;let me see&mdash;a nobleman in the suite of the Archduchess of
+Bristlaw, the Baron von Leibingen. I believe that her Highness is
+proposing to visit the Exhibition this afternoon. The other purchaser
+paid cash, but refused his name. Ah! Excuse me!"</p>
+
+<p>He rose hastily, and moved towards the door. A little group of people
+were entering, before whom the bystanders gave way with all that respect
+which the British public invariably displays for Royalty. Isobel watched
+them with frank and eager interest. Mabane and I moved over to her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true?" I asked her.</p>
+
+<p>"He says so," she answered, still a little bewildered. "Arnold, can you
+imagine it? Forty guineas! I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There followed an amazing interlude. The little party of newcomers,
+before whom everyone was obsequiously giving way, came face to face with
+us. Mabane and I stepped back at once, but Isobel remained motionless.
+An extraordinary change had come over her. Her eyes seemed fastened upon
+the woman who was the central figure of the little procession, and the
+girl who walked by her side. Someone whispered to her to move back. She
+took no notice. She seemed as though she had not heard. Royalty raised
+its lorgnettes, and dropped them with a crash upon the polished wood
+floor. Then those who were quick to understand knew that something lay
+beneath this unusual awkwardness.</p>
+
+<p>The manager of the Gallery, who, catalogue in hand, had been prepared
+personally to conduct the Royal party round, looked about him, wondering
+as to the cause of the <i>contretemps</i>. His eyes fell upon Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"Please step back," he whispered to her, angrily. "Don't you see that
+the Princess is here, and the Archduchess of Bristlaw? Clear the way,
+please!"</p>
+
+<p>The manager was a small man, and Isobel's eyes travelled over his head.
+She did not seem to hear him speak. The Archduchess recovered herself.
+She took the shattered lorgnettes from the hand of her lady-in-waiting.
+She pointed to Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this young person?" she asked calmly. "Does she wish to speak to
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>A wave of colour swept into Isobel's cheeks. She drew back at once.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Madame," she said. But even when she had rejoined my
+side her eyes remained fixed upon the face of the Archduchess and her
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>There was a general movement forward. One of the ladies in the suite,
+however, lingered behind. Our eyes met, and Lady Delahaye held out her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Your ward is growing," she murmured, "in inches, if not in manners.
+When are you going to engage a chaperon for her?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I think it necessary, Lady Delahaye," I answered, with a bow.</p>
+
+<p>"You artists have&mdash;such strange ideas," she remarked, smiling up at me.
+"You wish Isobel to remain a child of nature, perhaps. Yet you must
+admit that a few lessons in deportment would be of advantage."</p>
+
+<p>"To the Archduchess, apparently," I answered. "One does not often see a
+great lady so embarrassed."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye shrugged her shoulders. She dropped her voice a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we never to meet without quarrelling, Arnold?" she whispered,
+looking up into my eyes. "It used not to be like this."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I said, "it is not my fault. We seem to have taken
+opposite sides in a game which I for one do not understand. Twice during
+the last six months you have made attempts which can scarcely be called
+honourable to take Isobel from us. Our rooms are continually watched. We
+dare not let the child go out alone. Now this woman from Madame
+Richard's has come to live in the same building. She, too, watches."</p>
+
+<p>"It is only the beginning, Arnold," she said quietly. "I told you more
+than a year ago that you were interfering in graver concerns than you
+imagined. Why don't you be wise, and let the child go? The care of her
+will bring nothing but trouble upon you!"</p>
+
+<p>Her words struck home more surely than she imagined, for in my heart had
+lain dormant for months the fear of what was to come, the shadow which
+was already creeping over our lives. Nevertheless, I answered her
+lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"You know my obstinacy of old, Lady Delahaye," I said. "We are wasting
+words, I think."</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders and passed on. Mabane touched me on the
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel would like to go," he said. "Arthur and she are at the door
+already."</p>
+
+<p>I turned to leave the place. We were already in the passage which led
+into Bond Street, when I felt myself touched upon the shoulder. A tall,
+fair young man, with his hair brushed back, and very blue eyes, who had
+been in the suite of the Archduchess, addressed me.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," he said, "but you are Mr. Arnold Greatson, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>I acknowledged the fact.</p>
+
+<p>"The Archduchess of Bristlaw begs that you will spare her a moment. She
+will not detain you longer."</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Mabane.</p>
+
+<p>"Take Isobel home," I said. "I will follow presently."</p>
+
+<p>We re-entered the Gallery. The majority of the Royal party were busy
+examining the miniatures. The Archduchess was talking earnestly to Lady
+Delahaye in a remote corner. My guide led me directly to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Her Highness permits me to present you," he said to me. "This is Mr.
+Arnold Greatson, your Highness."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess acknowledged my bow graciously.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the Mr. Arnold Greatson who writes such charming stories," she
+said. "Yes, it is so, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness is very kind," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I learn," she continued, "that you are also the guardian of the young
+lady who gave us all such a start. Pardon me, but you surely seem a
+little young for such a post."</p>
+
+<p>"The circumstances, your Highness," I answered, "were a little
+exceptional."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, so I have heard. Lady Delahaye has been telling me the story.
+I understand that you have never been able to discover the child's
+parentage. That is very strange!"</p>
+
+<p>"There are other things in connection with my ward, your Highness," I
+said, "which seem to me equally inexplicable."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? I am very interested. Will you tell me what they are?"</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," I answered. "I refer to the fact that though no one has
+come forward openly to claim the child, indirect efforts to induce her
+to leave us are continually being made by persons who seem to desire
+anonymity. Whenever she has been alone in the streets she has been
+accosted under various pretexts."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess was politely surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"But surely you are aware," she remarked, "of the source of some at
+least of these attempts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Richard," I said, "the principal of the convent where Isobel was
+educated, seems particularly anxious to have her return there."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess nodded her head slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, "is that so much to be wondered at? Even we who are of
+the world might consider&mdash;you must pardon me, Mr. Greatson, if I speak
+frankly&mdash;the girl's present position an undesirable one. How do you
+suppose, then, that the principal of a convent boarding-school, whose
+sister, I believe, is a nun, would be likely to regard the same thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness knows, then, of the convent?" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess lifted her eyebrows lightly. Her gesture seemed intended
+to convey to me the fact that she had not sent for me to answer my
+questions. I remained unabashed, however, and waited for her reply.
+Several curious facts were beginning to group themselves together in my
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of the place," she said coldly. "I believe it to be an
+excellent institution. I sent for you, Mr. Greatson, not, however, to
+discuss such matters, but solely to ask for information as to the
+child's parentage. It seems that you are unable to give me this."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye knows as much&mdash;probably more&mdash;than I," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that the Archduchess and Lady Delahaye exchanged quick
+glances. I affected, however, to have noticed nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"I will be quite candid with you, Mr. Greatson," the Archduchess
+continued. "My interest in the girl arises, of course, from the
+wonderful likeness to my own daughter, and to other members of my
+family. Your ward herself was obviously struck with it. I must confess
+that I, too, received something of a shock."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," I answered, "that it was apparent to all of us."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess coughed. For a Royal personage, she seemed to find some
+little difficulty in proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>"The history of our family is naturally a matter of common knowledge,"
+she said slowly. "Any connection with it, therefore, which this child
+might be able to claim would be of that order which you, as a man of the
+world, would doubtless understand. Nevertheless, I am sufficiently
+interested in her to be inclined to take any steps which might be
+necessary for her welfare. I propose to set some enquiries on foot.
+Providing that the result of them be as I suspect, I presume you would
+have no objection to relinquish the child to my protection?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness," I answered, "I could not answer such a question as that
+without consideration, or without consulting Isobel herself."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess frowned upon me, and I was at once made conscious that I
+had fallen under her displeasure. I fancy, however, that I appeared as I
+felt, quite unimpressed.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot understand any hesitation whatsoever upon your part, Mr.
+Greatson," she said. "Under my care the child's future would be
+fittingly provided for. Her position with you must be, at the best, an
+equivocal one."</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness," I answered steadily, "my friends and I are handicapped
+perhaps by our sex, but we have a housekeeper who is an old family
+servant, and a model of respectability. In all ways and at all times we
+have treated Isobel as a very dear sister. The position may seem an
+equivocal one&mdash;to a certain order of minds. Those who know us, I may
+venture to say, see nothing harmful to the child in our guardianship."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess stared at me, and I gathered that she was not used to
+anything save implicit obedience from those to whom she made
+suggestions. She stared, and then she laughed softly. There was more
+than a spice of malice in her mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"Which of you three young men are going to fall in love with her?" she
+asked bluntly. "You call her a child, but she is almost a woman, and she
+is beautiful. She will be very beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness," I answered coldly, "it is a matter which we have not as
+yet permitted ourselves to consider."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess was displeased with me, and she took no further pains to
+hide her displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said, with a little wave of dismissal, "for the
+present I have no more to say."</p>
+
+<p>She turned her back upon me, and I at once left the Gallery.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIB" id="CHAPTER_IIB"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+
+<p>I walked home with but one thought in my mind. The Archduchess had put
+into words&mdash;very plain, blunt words&mdash;what as yet I had scarcely dared
+harbour in my mind as a fugitive idea. She had done me in that respect
+good service. She had brought to a sudden crisis an issue which it was
+folly any longer to evade. I meant to speak now, and have done with it.
+I walked through the busy streets a dreaming man. It was for the last
+time. Henceforth, even the dream must pass.</p>
+
+<p>I found Mabane and Arthur alone, for which I was sufficiently thankful.
+There was no longer any excuse for delay. Mabane had taken possession of
+the easy-chair, and was smoking his largest pipe. Arthur was walking
+restlessly up and down the room. Evidently they had been discussing
+between them the events of the afternoon, for there was a sudden silence
+when I entered, and they both waited eagerly for me to speak. I closed
+the door carefully behind me, and took a cigarette from the box on my
+desk.</p>
+
+<p>"What did the Archduchess want?" Arthur asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you all that she said presently," I answered. "In effect,
+it was the same as the others. She, too, wanted Isobel!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we have to give her up?" Arthur demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"We will discuss that another time," I said. "I am glad to find that you
+are both here. There is another matter, concerning which I think that we
+ought to come to an understanding as soon as possible. It has been in my
+mind for a long while."</p>
+
+<p>"About Isobel?" Arthur interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"About Isobel!" I assented.</p>
+
+<p>They were both attentive. Mabane's expression was purely negative.
+Arthur, on the other hand, was distinctly nervous. I think that from the
+first he had some idea what it was that I wanted to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel, when she came to us little more than a year ago," I continued,
+"was a child. We have always treated her, and I believe thought of her,
+as a child. It was perhaps a daring experiment to have brought her here
+at all, and yet I am inclined to think that, under the circumstances, it
+was the best thing for her, and, from another point of view, an
+excellent thing for us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent! Why, it has made all the difference in the world," Arthur
+declared vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that you follow me," I agreed. "Her coming seems to have steadied
+us up all round. The changes which we were obliged to make in our manner
+of living have all been for the better. I am afraid that we were
+drifting, Allan and I, at any rate into a somewhat objectless sort of
+existence, and our work was beginning to show the signs of it. The
+coming of Isobel seems to have changed all that. You, Allan, know that
+you have never done better work in your life than during the last year.
+Your portrait of her was an inspiration. Some of those smaller studies
+show signs of a talent which I think has surprised everyone, except
+Arthur and myself, who knew what you could do when you settled down to
+it. I, too, have been more successful, as you know. I have done better
+work, and more of it. You agree with me so far, Allan?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt at all about it," Mabane said slowly. "There has been
+a different atmosphere about the place since the child came, and we have
+thrived in it. We are all better, much the better, for her coming!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad that you appreciate this, Allan," I said. "This sort of thing
+is rather hard to put into words, but I believe that you fellows
+understand exactly what I mean. We have had to amuse her, and in doing
+so we have developed simpler and better tastes for ourselves. We've had
+to give up a lot of things, and a lot of friends we've been much better
+without."</p>
+
+<p>"It's true, every word of it, Arnold," Mabane admitted, knocking out the
+ashes from his pipe. "We've chucked the music-halls for the theatres,
+and our lazy slacking Sundays, with a night at the club afterwards, for
+long wholesome days in the country&mdash;very jolly days, too. We're better
+men in our small way for the child's coming, Arnold. You can take that
+for granted. Now, go on with what you have to say. I suppose this is all
+a prelude to something or other."</p>
+
+<p>Even then I hesitated, for my task was not an easy one, and all the
+while Arthur, who maintained an uneasy silence, was watching me
+furtively. It was as though he knew from the first what it was that I
+was leading up to, and I seemed to be conscious already of his
+passionate though unspoken resistance.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a child," I said at last, "whom we took into our lives. To-day
+she is a woman!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Arthur could keep silence no longer. There was a pink flush in his
+cheeks, which were still as smooth as a girl's, but the passion in his
+tone was the passion of a man.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not thinking, Arnold&mdash;you would not be so mad as to think of
+giving her up to any of these people?" he exclaimed. "They are her
+enemies, all of them. I am sure of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming to that presently," I went on. "You know what happened this
+afternoon? You saw the likeness, the amazing likeness, between Isobel
+and that other girl, the daughter of the Archduchess. The Archduchess
+was herself very much impressed with it. Without a doubt she knows
+Isobel's history. She went so far as to tell me that she believed Isobel
+to be morganatically connected with her own family, the House of
+Waldenburg! She offered to take her under her own protection!"</p>
+
+<p>"You did not consent!" Arthur exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"I neither consented nor absolutely refused," I answered. "It was not a
+matter to be decided on the spur of the moment. But the more I think of
+it, the more I am puzzled. Madame Richard wants Isobel. She was not
+satisfied with our refusal to give her up. She sent that messenger of
+hers back with fresh offers, and when again we refused, the woman takes
+up her quarters here, always spying upon us, always accosting Isobel on
+any excuse. Madame Richard may be a very good woman, but I have seen and
+spoken with her, and I do not for one moment believe that her
+extraordinary persistence is for Isobel's sake alone. Then Lady Delahaye
+has never ceased from worrying us. She has tried threats, persuasions
+and entreaties. She has tried by every means in her power to induce us
+to give up the child to her. And now we have the Archduchess to deal
+with, and it seems to me that we are getting very near the heart of the
+matter. The Archduchess is a daughter of one of the Royal Houses of
+Europe, and Major Delahaye was once <i>attach&eacute;</i> at her father's Court.
+Then there is Grooten, the man who shot Delahaye. His interest in her is
+so strong that he risks his life and commits a crime to save her from a
+man whom he believes to be a source of danger to her. He sends her money
+every quarter, which, as you know, we have never touched&mdash;it stands in
+her name if ever she should require it. Grooten is a man into whose
+charge we could not possibly give her, and yet of all these people he is
+the only one whom I would trust&mdash;the only one whom I feel instinctively
+means well by her. Madame Richard wants her, Lady Delahaye wants her,
+and behind them both there is the Archduchess, who also wants her. I
+have thought this matter over, and, so far as I am concerned, I have
+decided&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to give her up to any of them!" Arthur exclaimed sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"To give her up to no one who is not prepared to go into court and
+establish a legal claim," I continued. "It is very simple, and I think
+very reasonable. When she leaves us, it shall be to take up an
+accredited and definite station in life. The time may come at any
+moment. We must always be prepared for it. But until it does, we will
+not even parley any longer with these people who come to us and hint at
+mysterious things."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur wrung my hand. He was apparently much relieved, and he did not
+know what was coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold, you are a brick!" he exclaimed. "That's sound
+common-sense&mdash;every word you've uttered. Let them prove their claim to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with every word you have spoken," Allan said quietly, in
+response to a look from me. "The child is at least safe with us, and she
+is not wasting her time. She has talent, and she has application. I, for
+my part, shall be very sorry indeed when the time comes, as I suppose it
+will come some day, for her to go."</p>
+
+<p>Then I mustered up my courage, and said that which I had known from the
+first would be difficult.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing more," I said, "and I want to say it to you now. It
+may seem to you both unnecessary. Perhaps it is. Still, it is better
+that we should come to an understanding about it. A year has passed
+since Isobel, the child, came to us. To-day she is a woman. If we still
+keep her with us there must be a bond, a covenant between us, and our
+honour must stand pledged to keep it. I think that you both know very
+well what I mean. I hope that you will both agree with me."</p>
+
+<p>I paused for a moment, but I received no encouragement from either of
+them. They were both silent, and Arthur's eyes were questioning mine
+fiercely. I addressed myself more particularly to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Allan and I are elderly persons compared with you, Arthur," I said,
+"but we might still be described at a stretch as young men. If we decide
+to remain Isobel's guardians, there is a further and a deeper duty
+devolving upon us than the obvious one of treating her with all respect.
+It is possible that she might come to feel a preference for one of us&mdash;a
+sense of gratitude, the natural sentiment of her coming womanhood, even
+the fact of continual propinquity might encourage it. Isobel is
+charming; she will be beautiful. The position, if any one of us relaxed
+in the slightest degree, might become critical. You must understand what
+I mean, I am sure, even if I am not expressing it very clearly. Isobel
+sees few, if any, other men. It is possible, it is almost certain, that
+she belongs to a class whose position and ideas are far removed from
+ours. There must be no sentimental relations established between her and
+any one of us. We are her brothers, she is our sister. So it must remain
+while she is under our charge. This must be agreed upon between us."</p>
+
+<p>There was a dead, almost an ominous, silence. Mabane was standing with
+his arms folded, and his face turned a little away. I appealed first to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Allan," I said, "you agree with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely!" he answered. "I agree with every word you have said."</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>He did not at once reply. The colour was coming and going in his cheeks,
+and he was playing nervously with his watchchain. When he raised his
+eyes to mine, the slight belligerency of his earlier manner was more
+clearly defined.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," he said, "that there is another side to the question. Isobel
+is the sort of girl whom fellows are bound to notice. Besides, being so
+jolly good-looking, she is such ripping good form, and that sort of
+thing. What you are proposing, Arnold, is simply that we should stand on
+one side altogether and leave Isobel for any other fellow who happens to
+come along."</p>
+
+<p>"It scarcely amounts to that," I answered. "No other man is likely to
+see much of her while she is under our care. Afterwards, of course, the
+conditions are different. Our covenant, the covenant to which I am
+asking you to agree, comes to an end when she leaves us."</p>
+
+<p>"You see," Arthur protested, "it is a little different, isn't it, for
+you fellows? Not that I'm comparing myself with you, of course, in any
+sort of way. You're both heaps cleverer than I am, and all that, but
+Isobel and I are nearer the same age, and we've been about together such
+a lot, motoring and all that, and had such good times. You understand
+what I mean, don't you? Of course, that sort of thing, that sort of
+thing&mdash;you know, brings a fellow and a girl together so, liking the same
+things, and being about the same age. It isn't quite like that with you
+two, is it now?"</p>
+
+<p>Again there was silence. Mabane had withdrawn his pipe from his mouth,
+and was looking steadfastly into the bowl. As for me, I found it wholly
+impossible to analyse my sensations. All the time Arthur was looking
+eagerly from one to the other of us. I recovered myself with an effort,
+and answered him.</p>
+
+<p>"We will not dispute the position with you, Arthur," I said quietly. "We
+will admit all that you say. We will admit, therefore, that by all
+natural laws you are the one on whom the burden of keeping this covenant
+must fall most heavily. That fact may make it a little harder for you
+than for us, but it does not alter the position in any way. There must
+be no attempt at sentiment between Isobel and any one of us. If by any
+chance the opening should come from her, it must be ignored and
+discouraged."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't for the life of me see why," Arthur declared. "And I&mdash;well,
+it's no use beating about the bush. Isobel is the only girl in the world
+I could ever look at. I am fond of her! I can't help it! I love her!
+There!"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane mercifully took up the burden of speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you said anything to her?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word," Arthur declared. "She is too young. She has not begun to
+think about those things yet. But she is wonderful, and I love her. It
+is all very well for you two," he continued earnestly. "You are both
+over thirty, and confirmed bachelors. I'm only just twenty-four, and
+I've never cared for a girl a snap of the fingers yet. I don't care any
+more about knocking about. Of course, I've done a bit at it like
+everyone else, but Isobel has knocked all that out of me. I should be
+quite content to settle down to-morrow!"</p>
+
+<p>I tried to put myself in his place, to enter for a moment into his point
+of view. Yet I am afraid that I must have seemed very unsympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur," I said, "I am sorry for you, but it won't do. I fancy that
+before long she will be removed from us altogether. For her sake, and
+the sake of our own honour, no word of what you have told us must pass
+your lips. Unless you can promise that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated. Arthur had risen to his feet. The colour had mounted to his
+temples, his eyes were bright with anger.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not promise it," he declared. "I love Isobel, and very soon I
+mean to tell her so."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it must be under another roof," I answered. "If you will not
+promise to keep absolutely silent until we at least know exactly what
+her parentage is, you must leave us."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur took up his hat.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he said shortly. "I will send for my things to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>He left the room without another word to either of us.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIIB" id="CHAPTER_IIIB"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+
+<p>"In diplomacy," the Baron remarked blandly, "as also, I believe, in
+affairs of commerce, the dinner-table is frequently chosen as a fitting
+place for the commencement of delicate negotiations. For a bargain&mdash;no!
+But when three men&mdash;take ourselves, for instance&mdash;have a matter of some
+importance to discuss, I can conceive no better opportunity for the
+preliminary&mdash;skirmishing, shall I say?&mdash;than the present."</p>
+
+<p>I raised my glass, and looked thoughtfully at the pale amber wine
+bubbling up from the stem.</p>
+
+<p>"From a certain point of view," I answered, "I entirely agree with you.
+Yet you must remember that the host has always the advantage."</p>
+
+<p>"In the present case," the Baron said with a smile, "that amounts to
+nothing, for you practically gave me my answer before we sat down to
+dinner. If I am able to induce you to change your mind&mdash;well, so much
+the better. If not&mdash;well, I can have nothing to complain of."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad," I answered, "that you appreciate our position. With regard
+to the present custody of the child, which I take it is what you want to
+discuss with us, our minds are practically made up. My friend and I have
+both agreed that we will continue the charge of her until she is claimed
+by someone who is in a position to do so openly&mdash;someone, in short, who
+has a legal right."</p>
+
+<p>The Baron nodded gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"An excellent decision," he said. "No one could possibly quarrel with
+it. Yet it is a privilege to be able to tell you some facts which may
+perhaps affect your point of view. I can explain to you <i>why</i> this open
+claim is not made."</p>
+
+<p>"We are here," I answered, "to listen to whatever you may have to say."</p>
+
+<p>We&mdash;Allan and I&mdash;were dining with the Baron at Claridge's. An
+appointment, which he had begged us to make, had been changed into a
+dinner invitation at his earnest request. There was a likelihood, he
+told us, of his being summoned abroad at any moment, and he was
+particularly anxious not to leave the hotel pending the arrival of a
+cablegram. So far his demeanour had been courtesy and consideration
+itself, but under the man's geniality and almost excessive <i>bonhomie</i>
+both Allan and myself were conscious of a certain nervous impatience,
+only partially concealed. Whatever proposal he might have to make to us,
+our acceptance of it was without doubt a matter of great importance to
+him. The more we realized this, the more we wondered.</p>
+
+<p>"I only wish," he said with emphasis, "that it was within my power to
+lay the cards upon the table before you, to tell you the whole truth. I
+do not think then that you would hesitate for a single second. But that
+I cannot do. The honour of a great house, Mr. Greatson, is involved in
+this matter, into which you have been so strangely drawn. I must leave
+blanks in my story which you must fill in for yourselves, you and Mr.
+Mabane. There are things which I may not&mdash;dare not&mdash;tell you. If I
+could, you would wonder no longer that those who desire to take over the
+charge of the child wish to do so without publicity, and without any
+appeal to the courts."</p>
+
+<p>"The Archduchess," I remarked, "gave me some hint as to the nature of
+these difficulties."</p>
+
+<p>The Baron emptied his glass and called for another bottle of wine. Then
+he looked carefully around him, a quite unnecessary precaution, for our
+table was in a remote corner of the room, and there were very few
+dining.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no longer," he said, "a matter of surmise with us as to who the
+child you call Isobel de Sorrens really is. She is of the House of
+Waldenburg. She carries her descent written in her face, a hall-mark no
+one could deny. Upon the Archduchess and others of her great family must
+rest always the shadow of a grave stigma so long as the child remains in
+the hands of strangers, an alien from her own country. The Archduchess
+wishes at once, and quietly, to assume the charge of her. She is
+conscious of your services; she feels that you have probably saved the
+child from a fate which it is not easy to contemplate calmly. She
+authorizes me, therefore, to treat with you in the most generous
+fashion."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a phrase," I remarked, "which I do not altogether understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Later," the Baron said, with a meaning look, "I will make myself clear.
+In the meantime, let me recommend this souffl&eacute;. Mr. Mabane, you are
+drinking nothing. Would you prefer your wine a shade colder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for me," Allan declared. "I prefer champagne at its natural
+temperature; the wine is far too good to have its flavour frozen out of
+it. Apropos of what you were saying, Baron, there is one question which
+I should like to ask you. Why was Major Delahaye sent to St. Argueil for
+Isobel, and what was he supposed to do with her?"</p>
+
+<p>I do not think that the Baron liked the question. He hesitated for
+several moments before he answered it.</p>
+
+<p>"Major Delahaye was not sent," he said. "He went on his own account. He
+was the only person who knew the child's whereabouts."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you suppose his object was in bringing her away from the
+convent?" Allan persisted.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," the Baron answered. "All I can say is that it pleases
+me vastly more to find the child in your keeping than in his."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the man who shot him," I asked, "concerned in the child's earlier
+history?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot place him at all," the Baron answered. "I should imagine that
+his quarrel with Major Delahaye was a personal one, and had no bearing
+upon the child. Few men had more enemies than Delahaye. One does not
+wish to speak ill of the dead, but he was a bully and a brute all his
+days."</p>
+
+<p>A servant in plain black livery brought a sealed note to our host, and
+stood respectfully by his side while he read it. It obviously consisted
+of but a few words, yet the Baron continued to hold it in front of him
+for nearly a minute. Finally, he crushed it in his hand, and dismissed
+the servant.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no answer," he said. "I shall wait upon her Highness in an
+hour."</p>
+
+<p>Our dinner was over. Both Mabane and myself had declined dessert. Our
+host rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he said, "I have ordered coffee in the smoking-room. The
+head-waiter has told me of some wonderful brandy, and I have some cigars
+which I am anxious for you to try. Will you come this way?"</p>
+
+<p>We were the only occupants of the smoking-room. The Baron appropriated a
+corner, and left us to fetch the cigars. Mabane lit a cigarette and
+leaned back in an easy-chair.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me, Arnold," he said, "that you are like the man who found
+what he went out for to see. You wanted tragedy&mdash;and you came very near
+it. I do not quite see what the end of all these things will be. Our
+host&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a disappointment in store for him, I fancy," I interrupted.
+"He is a very faithful servant of the Archduchess, and he has worked
+hard for her. From his point of view his arguments are reasonable
+enough. All that he says is plausible&mdash;and yet&mdash;one feels that there is
+something behind it all. Allan, I don't trust one of these people! I
+can't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I," Allan answered softly, for the Baron had already entered the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>He brought with him some wonderful cabanas, and immediately afterwards
+coffee and liqueurs were served. The moment the waiter had disappeared,
+he threw off all reserve.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," he said, "I am no longer your host. We meet here on equal terms.
+I have an offer to make to you which I think you will find astonishing.
+The fact is, her Highness is anxious to run no risk of any resurrection
+of a certain scandal. She has commissioned me to beg your
+acceptance&mdash;you and your friend&mdash;of these," he laid down two separate
+pieces of paper upon the table. "She wishes to relieve you as soon as
+possible to-night, if you can arrange it&mdash;of the care of a certain young
+lady. There need be no hesitation about your acceptance. Royalty, as you
+know, has special privileges so far as regards bounty, and her Highness
+appreciates most heartily the care and kindness which the child has
+received at your hands."</p>
+
+<p>I stared at my piece of paper. It was a cheque for five thousand pounds.
+I looked at Mabane's. It was a cheque for a like amount. Then I looked
+up at the Baron. The perspiration was standing out upon his forehead. He
+was watching us as a man might watch one in whose hands lay the power of
+life or death. I resisted my first impulse, which was simply to tear the
+cheque in two. I simply pushed it back across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Baron," I said, "if this is meant as a recompense for any kindness
+which we have shown to a friendless child, it is unnecessary and
+unacceptable. If it is meant," I added more slowly, "for a bribe, it is
+not enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Call it what you will," he answered quickly. "Name your own price for
+the child&mdash;brought here&mdash;to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"No price that you or your mistress could pay, Baron," I answered
+quietly. "I told you my ultimatum two hours ago. The child remains with
+us until she is claimed by one who has a legal right, and is not afraid
+to invoke the law."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have explained the position," the Baron protested. "You must
+understand why we cannot bring such a matter as this into the courts."</p>
+
+<p>"Your story is ingenious, and, pardon me, it may be true," I answered.
+"We require proof!"</p>
+
+<p>The Baron's face was not pleasant to look upon.</p>
+
+<p>"You doubt my word, sir&mdash;my word, and the word of the Archduchess?"</p>
+
+<p>I rose to my feet. Mabane followed my example. I felt that a storm was
+pending.</p>
+
+<p>"Baron," I said, "there are some causes which make strange demands upon
+the best of us. A man may lie to save a woman's honour, or, if he be a
+politician, for the good of his country. I cannot discuss this matter
+any further with you. My sole regret is that we ever discussed it at
+all. My friend and I must wish you good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"By heavens, you shall not go!" the Baron exclaimed. "What right have
+you to the child? None at all! Her Highness wishes to be generous. It
+pleases you to flout her generosity. Mr. Arnold Greatson, you are a
+fool! Don't you see that you are a pigmy, who has stolen through the
+back door into the world where great things are dealt with? You have no
+place there. You cannot keep the child away from us. You have no
+influence, no money. You are nobody. If you think&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"Baron," he said, "if you were not still, in a sense, our host, I should
+knock you down. As it is, permit me to tell you that you are talking
+nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>The Baron drew a sharp, quick breath.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," he said shortly. "I am a fool to discuss this with you
+at all. It is not worth while. The Archduchess, out of kindness, would
+have treated you as friends. You decline! Good! You shall be treated&mdash;as
+you deserve."</p>
+
+<p>The Baron threw open the door and bowed us out. The commissionaire
+helped us on with our coats and summoned a hansom. We were just driving
+off, when a man in a long travelling coat, who had been standing outside
+the swing-door of the hotel, calmly swung himself up into the cab and
+motioned to us to make room. I stared at him in blank amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo!" I exclaimed. "What&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is I, my friend," Mr. Grooten answered calmly. "Tell the man to
+drive to your rooms."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IVB" id="CHAPTER_IVB"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>"I am staying at Claridge's, or rather I was," Mr. Grooten remarked, as
+we turned into Brook Street. "I saw you with Leibingen, and I have been
+waiting for you. We will talk, I think, at your rooms."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon he lit a fresh cigarette, and did not speak a word until we
+had reached our destination. Isobel had gone to bed, and our
+sitting-room was empty. I turned up the lamp, and pushed a chair towards
+him. In various small ways he seemed to have succeeded in effecting a
+wonderful change in his appearance. His hair was differently arranged,
+and much greyer. His face was pale and drawn as though with illness. But
+for his voice and his broad, humorous mouth I doubt whether I should
+immediately have recognized him.</p>
+
+<p>"I perceive," he said, "that I am not forgotten. It is very flattering!
+My friends abroad tell me that I have altered a good deal during the
+last twelve months."</p>
+
+<p>"You have altered, without a doubt," I admitted. "But the circumstances
+connected with our first meeting were scarcely such as tend towards
+forgetfulness. You remember my friend, Mr. Allan Mabane?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," he assented, with a courteous little wave of the hand. "I
+am very glad to have come across you both again so opportunely. I only
+arrived in England a few days ago, but I did not hope to have this
+pleasure until the morning at the earliest. You expected to have heard
+from me, perhaps, before."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about that," I answered, "but I can assure you that we are
+both very glad to see you, for more reasons than one. There are a good
+many things which we are anxious to discuss with you."</p>
+
+<p>"The pleasure, then, is mutual," Mr. Grooten remarked affably. "Isobel
+is, I trust, well?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is quite well," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You are helping her to spend her time profitably, I am glad to find,"
+he continued. "I saw two miniatures of hers yesterday at the Mordaunt
+Rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel has gifts," I said. "We are doing our best to assist her in
+their development."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten raised his eyes to mine. He looked at me steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"Why have you refused to use the money which I placed to your credit at
+the National Bank for her?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because," I answered, "we are not aware what right you have to provide
+for her."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten smiled upon us&mdash;much as a sphynx might have smiled. It had
+the effect of making us both feel very young.</p>
+
+<p>"My claim," he murmured, "must surely be as good as yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," I admitted. "At any rate, the money remains there in her
+name. She may find herself in greater need of it later on in life."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten seemed to find some amusement in the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, "I do not think that that is likely. You could safely
+have used the money, but as you have not&mdash;well, it is of small
+consequence. I presume that attempts have been made to withdraw the
+child from your care?"</p>
+
+<p>"Several," I told him. "Madame Richard and Lady Delahaye were equally
+importunate."</p>
+
+<p>Grooten nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You have shown," he said, "an admirable discretion in refusing to give
+her up to either of them."</p>
+
+<p>"And to-day," I continued, "a third claimant to the care of her has
+intervened. The Archduchess of Bristlaw herself has offered to relieve
+us of our guardianship."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten dropped the cigarette which he had only just lit, and seemed
+for the moment unconscious of the fact. He made no effort to pick it up.
+He quivered as though someone had struck him a blow. For a man whose
+impassivity was almost a part of himself he was evidently deeply
+agitated.</p>
+
+<p>"The Archduchess&mdash;has seen Isobel!" he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"They met by chance at the Mordaunt Rooms a few afternoons ago," I told
+him. "The Archduchess was accompanied by a girl of about Isobel's age.
+We came upon them suddenly, and the likeness was so marvellous that we
+were all startled. There was something in the nature of a scene. We left
+the Gallery at once, but the Archduchess sent one of her suite for me. I
+had some conversation with her concerning Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you repeat it?" Grooten asked.</p>
+
+<p>"In substance&mdash;yes," I told him. "The Archduchess plainly hinted that
+she believed Isobel to be connected morganatically with her family. She
+wished to take her under her own charge and provide for her."</p>
+
+<p>"And you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it best to take some time for reflection. I had some idea of
+looking up the history of the Archduchess's family."</p>
+
+<p>"You made no promise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. To tell you the truth, I was influenced by the presence
+of Lady Delahaye amongst the royal party. I have no faith in Lady
+Delahaye's good intentions with regard to Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten flashed a quick glance upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet," he said softly, "report says that you and Lady Delahaye have been
+very good friends."</p>
+
+<p>"That," I answered, "is beside the mark. I knew her before her marriage,
+but I have seen very little of her since. As a matter of fact, our
+relations at the present time are scarcely amicable. We have had a
+difference of opinion concerning our guardianship of Isobel. Lady
+Delahaye does not approve of her presence here with us."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"That," he said, "is probable. May I proceed to ask a somewhat
+impertinent question? You were the guests to-night, I believe, of the
+Baron von Leibingen, who is, I understand, a <i>persona grata</i> with the
+Archduchess. I presume that your meeting in some way concerned Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel was the sole cause of it," I answered. "The Archduchess is a
+woman who perseveres. She declined to consider that my reply to her
+first tentative offer was in any way final. She passed the matter on to
+the Baron, and certainly until he lost his temper towards the end of our
+interview, he was a very efficient ambassador. He proved to us quite
+clearly that it was our duty to give Isobel up to those who had a better
+right to assume the charge of her, and he wound up by handing us cheques
+for&mdash;I think it was five thousand pounds each, wasn't it, Allan?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten leaned back in his chair and laughed silently, yet with
+obvious enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>"That poor von Leibingen," he murmured, "how he blunders his way through
+life! Yet, my friend, I am afraid that this charge which I so
+thoughtlessly laid upon you is proving very troublesome. And you
+perceive that I do not even offer you a cheque."</p>
+
+<p>Allan suddenly rose up and knocked the ashes from his pipe into the
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not offer us a cheque, Mr. Grooten," he said quietly, "because
+you have perceptions. But there is another way in which you can
+recompense us for the trifling inconveniences to which we have been put.
+You can make our task easier&mdash;and more dignified; you can answer a
+question which I think I may say that we have an absolute right to ask
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten inclined his head slightly. He made no remark. Allan turned
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," he said, "this is more your affair than mine, for it is you
+who have borne the brunt of it from the first. I do not wish to
+interfere in it unduly. But from every point of view, I think that the
+time has come when all this mystery concerning Isobel's antecedents
+should be, so far as we are concerned at any rate, cleared up. Our hands
+would be immensely strengthened by the knowledge of the truth. Your
+friend here, Mr. Grooten, can tell us if he will. Ask him to do so. I
+will go further. I will even say that we have a right to insist upon
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten sat immovable. One could scarcely gather from his face that
+he had heard a word of Allan's speech.</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right, Allan," I answered. "Mr. Grooten," I continued,
+turning towards him, "you are the best judge as to whether your presence
+in this country is altogether wise, but I can assure you that for the
+last six months we have looked for you every day, and for this same
+reason. We want that question answered. The time has come when, in
+common justice to us and the child, the whole thing should be cleared
+up. Whatever knowledge rests with you is safe also with us. I think that
+we have proved that. I think that we have earned our right to your
+complete confidence. Mabane and I you can consider as one in this
+matter. You can speak before him as though we were alone. Now tell us
+the whole truth."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot," Mr. Grooten answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>There was a certain crisp definiteness about those two words which
+carried conviction with them. Mabane and I were a little staggered. Our
+position was such a strong one, our request so reasonable, that I think
+that we had never realized the possibility of a refusal.</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask you this?" Mabane said. "Do you expect that we shall continue
+our&mdash;I suppose we may call it guardianship&mdash;of Isobel in the face of
+your present attitude?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, for the present," our visitor admitted softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Notwithstanding," Mabane continued, "our absolute ignorance of
+everything connected with her, our lack of any sort of claim or title to
+the charge of her, and the increasing number of people who still persist
+in trying to take her from us?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You omit to mention the factors in the situation which may be said to
+be on your side," he murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be interested to know what those are," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. The first and most powerful of all is, of course,
+possession."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"And after that?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fact that not one of the three people who have appealed to you for
+the charge of the child is in a position to use the only real force
+which exists in this land. I mean the law," Grooten continued.</p>
+
+<p>This kept us silent again for a moment. Mabane, I could see, was getting
+a little ruffled.</p>
+
+<p>"You pelt us with enigmas, sir," he said. "You answer our questions only
+by propounding fresh conundrums. One thing, at least, you may feel
+disposed to tell us. What is your own relationship to Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," Mr. Grooten answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Your interest, then?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grooten remained silent. He sat in his chair, very still and very
+quiet. Yet in his eyes there shone for a moment something which seemed
+to bring into the little room the shadow of great things. Mabane and I
+both felt it. We had the sense of having been left behind. The little
+man in his chair seemed to have been lifted out of our reach into the
+mightier world of passion and suffering and self-conquest.</p>
+
+<p>"I loved her mother," he said softly. "I was the man whom her mother
+loved."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence between us then. We had no more to say. We were at
+that moment his bounden slaves. But by some evil chance, after a
+lengthened pause, he continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I, alas, could do little for the child. Yet when I heard that harm was
+threatened to her through that scamp Delahaye, I crossed the ocean at an
+hour's notice. I saved her from him. He deserved his fate, but I am no
+murderer by profession, and the shock unnerved me for a time. Then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" Mabane cried.</p>
+
+<p>I sprang to the door. It had been thrust about a foot open. From outside
+came the sound of angry voices, followed by a moment's silence. Then a
+quick, shrill cry of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me in. Oh, you shall not stop me now. I am going to see the man who
+boasts of being my husband's murderer!"</p>
+
+<p>It was the voice of Lady Delahaye. She was already upon the threshold. I
+sprang to the table and saw her coming. Already she was behind the
+screen, stealing into the room, her head thrust forward, her lips
+parted, a peculiar glitter in her eyes. For a moment I stood rigid. The
+sight of her fascinated me&mdash;there was something so wholly animal-like in
+the stealthy triumph of her tiptoe approach. I recovered myself just in
+time. One more step, a turn of her head, and she would have seen
+Grooten. My finger pressed down the catch of the lamp, and a sudden
+darkness filled the room.</p>
+
+<p>She stopped short. Her fierce little cry of anger told me exactly where
+she was. I stepped forward and caught her wrists firmly. Then I faced
+where I knew Grooten was still sitting. I could see the red end of his
+cigarette still in his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave the room at once," I said. "You can push the screen on one side,
+and you are within a yard of the door then. Please do exactly as I say,
+and don't reply."</p>
+
+<p>"Let go my hands, sir! Arnold, how dare you! Let me go, or I'll scream
+the place down. Mr. Mabane, you will not permit this?" she cried, in a
+fury.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane closed the door through which Grooten had already issued, and I
+heard the key turn in the lock. I released Lady Delahaye's hands, and
+she sprang away from me. As the flame from the lamp which Allan had just
+rekindled gained in power we saw her, still shaking the handle, but with
+her back now against the wall turned to face us. She was calmer than I
+had expected, but it was a terrible look which she flashed upon us.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a>
+<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>She was calmer than I had expected, but it was a terrible look which she flashed upon us.</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"In how many minutes," she asked, "may I be released?"</p>
+
+<p>Allan whispered in my ear.</p>
+
+<p>"In five minutes, Lady Delahaye," I said. "I regret very much the
+necessity for keeping you at all. May I offer you a chair?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may offer me nothing, sir, except your silence," she answered
+swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>She meant it too. I know the signs of anger in a woman's face as well as
+most men, and they were written there plainly enough. So for a most
+uncomfortable period of time we waited there until Allan, after a glance
+at his watch, went and opened the door. She passed out without remark,
+but from the threshold outside she turned and looked at me.</p>
+
+<p>"I warned you once before, Arnold Greatson," she said, "that you were
+meddling with greater concerns than you knew of, and that harm would
+come to you for it. Now you have chosen to shield a murderer, and to use
+your strength upon a woman. These things will not go unforgotten!"</p>
+
+<p>Mabane closed the door, and threw himself into an easy chair.</p>
+
+<p>"For two easy-going sort of fellows, Arnold," he said to me, "we seem to
+be making a lot of enemies. Don't you think it would be a good idea if
+we drew stumps for a bit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meaning?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Roseleys!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go to-morrow," I declared.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VB" id="CHAPTER_VB"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+
+<p>"I have never seen anything like this," Isobel said softly. I looked up
+from the writing-pad on my knee, and she met my glance with a smile of
+contrition.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," she said. "I forgot that I must not talk. Indeed, I did not mean
+to, but&mdash;look!"</p>
+
+<p>I followed her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I said, "tell me what you see."</p>
+
+<p>"There are so many beautiful things," she murmured. "Do you see how
+thick and green the grass is in the meadows there? How the quaker
+grasses glimmer?&mdash;you call them so, do you not?&mdash;and how those yellow
+cowslips shine like gold? What a world of colour it all seems. London is
+so grey and cold, and here&mdash;look at the sea, and the sky, with all those
+dear little fleecy white clouds, and the pink and white of all those
+wild roses wound in and out of the hedges. Oh, Arnold, it is all
+beautiful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Even without a motor-car!" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me a little resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Motoring is very delightful," she said, "although you do not like it.
+Of course, it would be nice if Arthur were here!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked away from me seawards, and I found myself studying her
+expression with an interest which had something more in it than mere
+curiosity. At odd times lately I had fancied that I could see it coming.
+To-day, for the first time, I was sure. The smooth transparency of
+childhood, the unrestrained but almost animal play of features and eyes,
+reproducing with photographic accuracy every small emotion and
+joy&mdash;these things were passing away. Even before her time the child was
+seeking knowledge. As she sat there, with her steadfast eyes fixed upon
+the smooth blue line where sea and sky met, who could tell what thoughts
+were passing in her mind? Not I, not Mabane, nor any of us into whose
+care she had come. Only I knew that she saw new things, that the rush of
+a more complex and stronger life was already troubling her, the sweet
+pangs of its birth were already tugging at her heartstrings. My pencil
+rested idly in my fingers, my eyes, like hers, sought that distant line,
+beyond which lies ever the world of one's own creation. What did she see
+there, I wondered? Never again should I be able to ask with the full
+certainty of knowing all that was in her mind. The time had come for
+delicate reserves, the time when the child of yesterday, with the first
+faint notes of a new and wonderful song stealing into her heart, must
+fence her new modesty around with many sweet elusions and barriers,
+fairy creations to be swept aside later on in one glad moment&mdash;by the
+one chosen person. There was a coldness in my heart when I realized that
+the time had come even for the child who had tripped so lightly into our
+lives so short a time ago, to pass away from us into that other and more
+complex world. It was the decree of sex, nature's immutable law,
+sundering playfellows, severing friendships, driving its unwilling
+victims into opposite corners of the world, with all the pitilessness of
+natural law. Nevertheless, the thought of these things as I looked at
+Isobel made me sad. She was young indeed for these days to come, for the
+shadows to steal into her eyes, and the song of trouble to grow in her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," I asked softly, "what you see beyond that blue line."</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you more easily," she said, glancing down with a faint smile
+at my empty pages, "what I see by my side&mdash;a very lazy man. And," she
+continued, crumpling a little ball of heather in her fingers and
+throwing it with unerring aim at Allan, "another one over there!"</p>
+
+<p>"My picture," Allan protested, "is finished."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" she exclaimed, preparing to rise, but he waved her back.</p>
+
+<p>"In my mind," he added. "Don't misunderstand me. The casual and ignorant
+observer glancing just now at my canvas might come to the same
+conclusion as you&mdash;a conclusion, by-the-bye, entirely erroneous. I will
+admit that my canvas is unspoilt. Nevertheless, my picture is painted."</p>
+
+<p>She looked across at him reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Allan, how dare you!" she exclaimed. "Only Arnold has the right to be
+subtle. I have always regarded you as a straightforward and honest
+person. Don't disappoint me."</p>
+
+<p>"St. Andrew forbid it!" Allan declared. "My meaning is painfully simple.
+I build up my picture first in my mind. Its transmission to canvas is
+purely mechanical. Here goes!"</p>
+
+<p>He took up his palette, and in a few moments was hard at work. Isobel
+pointed downwards to my writing-pad.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you too match Allan's excuse?" she asked. "Is your story already
+written?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been watching you," I answered. "Besides, for a perfectly lazy
+person, are you not rather a hard task-mistress? Consider that this is
+our first day of summer&mdash;the first time we have seen the sun make
+diamonds on the sea, the first west wind which has come to us with the
+scent of cowslips and wild roses. I claim the right to be lazy if I want
+to be."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"The poet," she murmured, "finds these things inspiring."</p>
+
+<p>"The poet," I answered, "is an ordinary creature. Nowadays he eats
+mutton-chops, plays golf, and has a banking account. The real man of
+feeling, Isobel, is the man who knows how to be idle. Believe me, there
+is a certain vulgarity in seeking to make a stock-in-trade of these
+delicious moments."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not fair," she protested. "How should we all live if none of
+you did any work?"</p>
+
+<p>"For your age, Isobel," I declared seriously, "you are very nearly a
+practical person. You make me more than ever anxious for an answer to my
+last question. What were you thinking of just now?"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes seemed to drift away from mine. A touch of her new seriousness
+returned. She pointed to that thin blue line.</p>
+
+<p>"Beyond there," she said, "is to-morrow, and all the to-morrows to come.
+One sees a very little way."</p>
+
+<p>"Our limitations," I answered, "are life's lesson to us. If to-morrow is
+hidden, so much the more reason that we should live to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Without thought for the morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Without care for it," I answered. "Are we not Bohemians, and is it not
+our text?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not yours," she answered slowly. "I am sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just what I say," she answered gravely. "Men and women to whom the
+present is sufficient surely cannot achieve very much in life. All the
+time they must concentrate powers which need expansion. I think that it
+must be those who try to climb the walls, those even who tear their
+fingers and their hearts in the great struggle for freedom, who can make
+themselves capable of great things, even if escape is impossible. But I
+do not think that escape is so impossible after all, is it? There have
+been men, and women too, who have lived in all times, to whom there have
+been no to-morrows or any yesterdays. Only it seems rather hard that
+life for those who seek it must always be a battle!"</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer her for several minutes. It was true, then, that the
+old days had passed away. Isobel, the child whom we had known and loved
+so well, had disappeared. It was Isobel the incomprehensible who was
+taking her place. What might the change not mean for us?...</p>
+
+<p>Later we walked back over an open heath yellow with gorse, and faintly
+pink with the promise of the heather to come. Isobel carried her hat in
+her hand. She walked with her head thrown back, and a smile playing
+every now and then upon her lips. She was so completely absorbed that I
+found myself every now and then watching her, half expecting, I believe,
+to find some physical change to accord with that other more mysterious
+evolution. She walked with all the grace of long limbs and unfettered
+clothing. Her figure, though perfectly graceful, and with that same
+peculiar distinction which had first attracted me, was as yet wholly
+immature. But in the face itself there were signs of a coming change.
+Wherein it might lie I could not tell, but it was there, an intangible
+and wholly elusive thing. I think that a certain fear of it and what it
+might mean oppressed me with the sense of coming trouble. I was more
+fully conscious then than ever before of the moral responsibility of our
+peculiar charge.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed a straight dusty road, cleaving the rolling moor like a belt
+of ribbon. Isobel looked thoughtfully along it.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," she said, "when Arthur will come down!"</p>
+
+<p>The folly of a man is a thing sometimes outside his own power of
+control. A second before I had been wondering of whom and what she had
+been thinking.</p>
+
+<p>"Not just yet, I'm afraid," Allan answered, stopping to light his pipe.
+"It is not easy for him to get backwards and forwards, and I believe
+that he is by way of being rather busy just now."</p>
+
+<p>"What a nuisance!" Isobel declared, looking behind her regretfully. "The
+roads about here seem so good."</p>
+
+<p>"The roads are good, but the heath is better," Allan answered. "I will
+race you for half a pound of chocolates to that clump of pines!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are such a slow starter," she laughed, bounding away before he had
+time to drop his easel. "Make it a pound!"</p>
+
+<p>I picked up Allan's easel and strolled away after them. Was it the
+motoring, I wondered, which had prompted her half-wistful question, or
+had I been wise too late? Arthur had been very confident. So much that
+he had said had carried with it a certain ring of truth. Youth and the
+temperament of youth were surely irresistible. Like calls to like across
+the garden of spring flowers with a cry which no interloper can still,
+no wanderer of later years can stifle. Somehow it seemed to me just then
+that the sun had ceased to shine, and a touch of winter after all was
+lingering in the western breeze....</p>
+
+<p>They disappeared round the pine plantation, Isobel leading by a few
+yards, her skirts blowing in the wind, running still with superb and
+untired grace. I climbed a bank to gain a better view of the finish, and
+became suddenly aware that I was not the only interested spectator of
+their struggle. About a hundred yards to my left a man was standing on
+the top of the same bank, a pair of field-glasses glued to his eyes,
+watching intently the spot where they might be expected to reappear. The
+sight of him took me by surprise. A few moments ago I could have sworn
+that there was not a human being within a mile of us. There was only one
+explanation of his appearance. He must have been concealed in the dry
+mossy ditch at the foot of the bank. It was possible, of course, that he
+might have been like us, a casual way-farer, and yet the suddenness of
+his appearance, the intentness of his watch, both had their effect upon
+me. I moved a few yards towards him, with what object I perhaps scarcely
+knew. A dry twig snapped beneath my feet. He became suddenly aware of my
+approach. Then, indeed, my suspicions took definite shape, for without a
+moment's hesitation the man turned and strode away in the opposite
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>I shouted to him. He took no notice. I shouted again, and he only
+increased his pace. I watched him disappear, and I no longer had any
+doubts at all. He was not in the least like a tramp, and his flight
+could bear but one interpretation. Isobel was not safe even here. We had
+been followed from London&mdash;we were being watched every hour. For the
+first time I began seriously to doubt what the end of these things might
+be.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIB" id="CHAPTER_VIB"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Silence and perfume and moon-flooded meadows," Allan murmured. "Arnold,
+we shall all become corrupted. You will take to writing pastorals, and
+I&mdash;I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel, from her seat between us, smiled up at him. Touched by the
+yellow moonlight, her face seemed almost ethereal.</p>
+
+<p>"You," she said, "should paint a vision of the 'enchanted land.' You see
+those blurred woods, and the fields sloping up to the mists? Isn't that
+a perfect impression of the world unseen, half understood? Oh, how can
+you talk of such a place corrupting anybody, Allan!"</p>
+
+<p>"I withdraw the term," he answered. "Yet Arnold knows what I meant very
+well. This place soothes while the city frets. Which state of mind do
+you think, Miss Isobel, draws from a man his best work?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me enigmas, Allan," she murmured. "I am too happy to think,
+too happy to want to do anything more than exist. I wish we lived here
+always! Why didn't we come here long ago?"</p>
+
+<p>"You forget the wonders of our climate," I remarked. "A month ago you
+might have stood where you are now, and seen nothing. You would have
+shivered with the cold. The field scents, the birds, the very insects
+were unborn. It is all a matter of seasons. What to-day is beautiful was
+yesterday a desert."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head slowly. Bareheaded, she was leaning now over the
+little gate, and her eyes sought the stars.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not believe it," she declared. "I will not believe that it is
+not always beautiful here. Arnold, Allan, can you smell the
+honeysuckle?"</p>
+
+<p>"And the hay," Allan answered, smoking vigorously. "To-morrow we shall
+be sneezing every few minutes. Have you ever had hay fever, Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed at him scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You poor old thing!" she exclaimed. "You should wear a hat."</p>
+
+<p>"A hat," Allan protested, "is of no avail against hay fever. It's the
+most insidious thing in the world, and is no respecter of youth. You, my
+dear Isobel, might be its first victim."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! I catch nothing!" she declared, "and you mustn't either. I'm sure
+you ought to be able to paint some beautiful pictures down here, Allan.
+And, Arnold, you shall have your writing-table out under the chestnut
+tree there. You will be so comfortable, and I'm sure you'll be able to
+finish your story splendidly."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very anxious to dispose of us all here, Isobel," I remarked.
+"What do you propose to do yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, paint a little, I suppose," she answered, "and&mdash;think! There is so
+much to think about here."</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"I am beginning to wonder," I said, "whether we did wisely to bring
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"And why?"</p>
+
+<p>"This thinking you are speaking of. It is bad!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are foolish! Why should I not want to think?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you begin to think you will begin to doubt," I answered, "and if you
+begin to doubt you will begin to understand. The person who once
+understands, you know, is never again really happy."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel came and stood in front of me.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold!" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you wouldn't talk to me always as though I were a baby," she
+said thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>I took her hand and made her sit down by my side.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," I protested, "that is not at all fair. I can assure you that I
+was taking you most seriously. The people who get most out of life are
+the people who avoid the analytical attitude, who enjoy but who do not
+seek to understand, who worship form and external beauty without the
+desire to penetrate below to understand the inner meaning of what they
+find so beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"That," she said, "sounds a little difficult. But I do not see how
+people can enjoy meaningless things."</p>
+
+<p>"The source of all beauty is disillusioning."</p>
+
+<p>"Seriously," Mabane interrupted, "if this conversation develops I am
+going indoors. Does Arnold want to penetrate into the hidden meaning of
+that cricket's chirp&mdash;or is he going to give us the chemical formula for
+the smell of the honeysuckle?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"He is rather trying to-night, isn't he?" she declared. "Listen! Is that
+someone going by?"</p>
+
+<p>The footsteps of a man were clearly audible passing along the dusty
+little strip of road which fronted our cottage. Leaning forward I saw a
+tall, dark figure pass slowly by. From his height and upright carriage I
+thought that it must be the village policeman, and I called out
+good-night. My greeting met with no response. I shrugged my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of these village people are not particularly civil!" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane rose to his feet and strolled to the hedge.</p>
+
+<p>"Those were not the footsteps of a villager," he remarked. "Listen!"</p>
+
+<p>We stood quite still. The footsteps had ceased, although there was no
+other habitation for more than half a mile along the road. We could see
+nothing, but I noticed that Mabane was leaning a little forward and
+gazing with a curious intentness at the open common on the other side of
+the road. He stood up presently and knocked the ashes from his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say to a drink, Arnold?" he suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along!" I answered. "There's some whisky and soda on the
+sideboard."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel laughed at us. She would have lingered where she was, but Allan
+passed his arm through hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Sentiment must not make you lazy, Isobel," he declared. "I decline to
+mix my own whisky and soda. Arnold," he whispered, drawing me back as
+she stepped past us through the wide-open window, "I wonder if it has
+occurred to you that if any of our friends who are so anxious to obtain
+possession of Isobel were to attempt a coup down here, we should be
+rather in a mess. We're a mile from the village, and Lord knows how many
+from a police-station, and there isn't a door in the cottage a man
+couldn't break open with his fist."</p>
+
+<p>"What made you think of it&mdash;just now?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Three men passed by, following that last fellow&mdash;on the edge of the
+common. I've got eyes like a cat in the dark, you know, and I could see
+that they were trying to get by unnoticed. Of course, there may be
+nothing in it, but&mdash;thanks, Isobel! By Jove, that's good!"</p>
+
+<p>I slipped upstairs to my room, and on my return handed Allan something
+which he thrust quietly into his pocket. Then we went out again into the
+garden. I drew Mabane on one side for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there's anything in it, Allan," I whispered. "It would be
+too clumsy for any of our friends&mdash;and too risky."</p>
+
+<p>"It needn't be either," Allan answered, "but I daresay you're right."</p>
+
+<p>Then we hastened once more to the front gate, summoned there by Isobel's
+cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen!" she exclaimed, holding up her hand.</p>
+
+<p>We stood by her side. From somewhere out of the night there came to our
+ears the faint distant throbbing of an engine. Neither Allan nor I
+realized what it was, but Isobel, who had stepped out on to the road,
+knew at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" she cried suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>We followed her outstretched finger. Far away on the top of a distant
+hill, but moving towards us all the time with marvellous swiftness, we
+saw a small but brilliant light.</p>
+
+<p>"A motor bicycle!" she cried. "I believe it is Arthur. It sounds just
+like his machine."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur it was, white with dust and breathless. His first greeting was
+for Isobel, who welcomed him with both hands outstretched and a delight
+which she made no effort to conceal, overwhelming him with questions,
+frankly joyful at his coming. Mabane and I stood silent in the
+background, and we avoided each other's eyes. It was at that moment,
+perhaps, that I for the first time realized the tragedy into which we
+were slowly drifting. Isobel had forgotten us. She was wholly absorbed
+in her joy at Arthur's unexpected appearance. The thing which in my
+quieter moments had begun already vaguely to trouble me&mdash;a thing of slow
+and painful growth&mdash;assumed for the first time a certain definiteness. I
+looked a little way into the future, and it seemed to me that there were
+evil times coming.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur approached us presently with outstretched hand. His manner was
+half apologetic, half triumphant. He seemed to be saying to himself that
+Isobel's reception of him must surely have opened our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Your coming, I suppose, Arthur," Mabane said quietly, "signifies&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That I accept your terms for the present," Arthur answered, in a low
+tone. "I had to see you. There are strangers continually watching our
+diggings, and making inquiries about Isobel. There are things happening
+which I cannot understand at all."</p>
+
+<p>I glanced towards Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"We will talk about it after she has gone to bed," I said. "Come in and
+have some supper now."</p>
+
+<p>He drew me a little on one side.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember the chap who was with the Archduchess at the Mordaunt
+Rooms?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"He was at the hotel in Guildford when I stopped for tea, with two other
+men. They're in a great Daimter car, and they're coming this way. I
+heard them ask about the roads."</p>
+
+<p>"How far were they behind you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"They must be close up," he answered. "Listen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Another motor!" Isobel cried suddenly. "Can you not hear it?"</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistaking the sound, the deep, low throbbing of a powerful
+engine as yet some distance away. I was conscious of a curious sense of
+uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel," I said, "would you mind going indoors!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indoors indeed!" she laughed. "But no. I must see this motor-car."</p>
+
+<p>I stepped quickly up to her, and laid my hand upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel," I said earnestly, "you do not understand. I do not wish to
+frighten you, but I am afraid that the men in this car are coming here,
+and it is better that you should be out of the way. They want to take
+you from us. Go inside and lock yourself in your room."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me half puzzled, half resentful. The car was close at hand
+now. We ourselves were almost in the path of its flaring searchlights.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold, you are joking, of course!" she exclaimed. "They cannot take me
+away. I would not go."</p>
+
+<p>The car had stopped. It contained four men, one of whom at once alighted
+and advanced towards us. I knew him by his voice and figure. It was the
+Baron von Leibingen!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIIB" id="CHAPTER_VIIB"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>I made no movement towards opening the gate. The newcomer advanced to
+within a few feet of me, and then paused. He leaned a little forward. He
+was doubtful, as I could see, of my identity.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me," he asked, raising his hat, "if this is Roseleys
+Cottage, the residence of Mr. Arnold Greatson?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you forget all your acquaintances so quickly, Baron?" I answered.
+"This is Roseleys, and I am Arnold Greatson!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your voice," he declared, "is sufficient. I can assure you that it is a
+matter of eyesight, not of memory. In the dark I am always as blind as a
+bat."</p>
+
+<p>"It is," I remarked, "a very common happening. You are motoring, I see.
+You have chosen a very delightful night, but are you not&mdash;pardon me&mdash;a
+little off the track? You are on your way to the South Coast, I
+presume?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," the Baron answered, "our destination is here. Will
+you permit me to apologise for the lateness of my visit? We were
+unfortunately delayed for several hours by a mishap to our automobile,
+or I should have had the honour of presenting myself during the
+afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>I did not offer to move.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," I said, "as it is certainly very late, and we were on the
+point of retiring, you will permit me to inquire at once into the nature
+of the business which procures for me the honour of this visit."</p>
+
+<p>My visitor paused. His hand was upon the gate. So was mine, keeping it
+all the time fast closed.</p>
+
+<p>"You will permit me?" he said, making an attempt to enter.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret," I answered, "that at this late hour I am not prepared to
+offer you any hospitality. If you will come and see me to-morrow morning
+I shall be happy to hear what you have to say."</p>
+
+<p>My visitor did not remove his hand from the gate. It seemed to me that
+his tone became more belligerent.</p>
+
+<p>"You are discomposed to see us, Mr. Greatson," he said, "me and my
+friends. As you see," he added, with a little wave of his hand, "I am
+not alone. I have only to regret that you have made this visit
+necessary. We have come to induce you, if possible, to change your mind,
+and to give up the young lady in whom the Archduchess has been
+graciously pleased to interest herself to those who have a better claim
+upon her."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a matter," I answered, "which I am prepared to discuss at
+this hour&mdash;or with you!"</p>
+
+<p>"As to that," the young man answered, "I am the envoy of her Royal
+Highness, as I can speedily convince you if you will."</p>
+
+<p>"It is unnecessary," I answered. "The Archduchess has already had my
+answer. Will you allow me to wish you good-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish, Mr. Greatson," the young man said, "that you would discuss this
+matter with me in a reasonable spirit."</p>
+
+<p>"At a reasonable hour," I answered, "I might be prepared to do so. But
+certainly not now."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that his hand upon the gate tightened. He certainly
+showed no signs of accepting the dismissal which I was trying to force
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"I have endeavoured to explain my late arrival," he said. "You must not
+believe me guilty of wilful discourtesy. As for the rest, Mr. Greatson,
+what does it matter whether the hour is late or early? The matter is an
+important one. Between ourselves, her Highness has made up her mind to
+undertake the charge of the young lady, and I may tell you that when her
+Highness has made up her mind to anything she is not one to be
+disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>"In her own country," I said, "the will of the Archduchess is doubtless
+paramount. Out here, however, she must take her chance amongst the
+others."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have no claim&mdash;no shadow of a claim upon the child," the Baron
+declared.</p>
+
+<p>"If the Archduchess thinks she has a better," I answered, "the law
+courts are open to her."</p>
+
+<p>My visitor was apparently becoming annoyed. There were traces of
+irritation in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you imagine, my dear Mr. Greatson," he said, "that her Highness can
+possibly desire to bring before the notice of the world the peccadiloes
+of her illustrious relative? No, the law courts are not to be thought
+of. We rely upon your good sense!"</p>
+
+<p>"And failing that?"</p>
+
+<p>The Baron hesitated. It seemed to me that he was peering into the
+shadows beyond the hedge.</p>
+
+<p>"The position," he murmured, "is a singular one. Where neither side for
+different reasons is disposed to submit its case to the courts, then it
+must be admitted that possession becomes a very important feature in the
+case."</p>
+
+<p>"That," I remarked, "is entirely my view. May I take the liberty, Baron
+von Leibingen, of wishing you good-night? I see no advantage in
+continuing this discussion."</p>
+
+<p>"Possession for the moment," he said slowly, "is with you. Have you
+reflected, Mr. Greatson, that it may not always be so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you favour me," I said, "by becoming a little more explicit?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure," the Baron answered quickly. "I have three friends here
+with me, and we are all armed. Your cottage is surrounded by half a
+dozen more&mdash;friends&mdash;who are also armed. We are here to take Isobel de
+Sorrens back with us, and we mean to do it. On my honour, Mr. Greatson,
+no harm is intended to her. She will be as safe with the Archduchess as
+with her own mother."</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't take your hand off my gate in two seconds," I said, "you
+will regret it all your life."</p>
+
+<p>He sprang forward, but I fired over his shoulder, and with an oath he
+backed into the road. Isobel meanwhile, now thoroughly alarmed, turned
+and ran towards the house, only to find the path already blocked by two
+men, who had stepped silently out from the low hedge which separated the
+garden from the fields beyond. Allan promptly knocked one of them down,
+only to find himself struggling with the other. Isobel, whose skirts
+were caught by the fallen man, tried in vain to release herself. I dared
+scarcely turn my head, for my levelled revolver was keeping in check the
+Baron and his three friends.</p>
+
+<p>"Baron," I said, "your methods savour a little too much of comic opera.
+You have mistaken your country and&mdash;us. There are three of us, and if
+you force us to fight&mdash;well, we shall fight. The advantage of numbers is
+with you, I admit. For the rest, if you succeed to-night you will be in
+the police court to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>The Baron made no answer. I felt that he was watching the struggle which
+was going on behind my back. I heard Isobel shriek, and the sound
+maddened me. I left it to the Baron to do his worst. I sprang backwards,
+and brought the butt end of my revolver down upon the skull of the man
+who was dragging her across the lawn. Then I passed my arm round her
+waist, and called out once more to the Baron who had passed through the
+gate, and was coming rapidly towards us.</p>
+
+<p>"You fool!" I cried. "Unless you call off your hired gang and leave this
+place at once, every newspaper in London shall advertise Isobel's name
+and presence here to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>It was a chance shot, but it went home. I saw him stop short, and I
+heard his little broken exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"But you do not know who she is?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"I know very well indeed," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>Just then Mabane broke loose from the man with whom he had been
+struggling, and rushed to Arthur's assistance. The Baron raised his hand
+and shouted something in German. Instantly our assailants seemed to melt
+away. The Baron stepped on to the strip of lawn and raised his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I call a truce, Mr. Greatson," he said. "I desire to speak with you."</p>
+
+<p>I released my hold upon Isobel and turned to Mabane. Arthur too,
+breathless but unhurt, had struggled to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Take her into the house," I said quickly. But her grasp only tightened
+upon my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not leave you, Arnold," she said. "I shall stay here. They will
+not dare to touch me."</p>
+
+<p>I tried to disengage her arm, but she was persistent. She took no notice
+of Allan, who tried to lead her away. I stole a glance at her through
+the darkness. Her face was white, but there were no signs of fear there,
+nor were there any signs of childishness in her manner or bearing. She
+carried herself like an angry young princess, and her eyes seemed lit
+with smouldering fire, as clinging to my arm she leaned a little
+forwards toward the Baron.</p>
+
+<p>"Why am I spoken of," she cried passionately, "as though I were a baby,
+a thing of no account, to be carried away to your mistress or disposed
+of according to your liking? Do you think that I would come, Baron von
+Leibingen&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She broke off suddenly. She leaned a little further forward. Her lips
+were parted. The fire in her eyes had given way to a great wonder, and
+the breathlessness of her silence was like a thing to be felt. It held
+us all dumb. We waited&mdash;we scarcely knew for what. Only we knew that she
+had something more to say, and we were impelled to wait for her words.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen you before," she cried, with a strange note of wonder in
+her tone. "Your face comes back to me&mdash;only it was a long time ago&mdash;a
+long, long time! Where was it, Baron von Leibingen?"</p>
+
+<p>I heard his smothered exclamation. He drew quickly a step backwards as
+though he sought to evade her searching gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken, young lady," he said. "I know nothing of you beyond
+the fact that the lady whom I have the honour to serve desires to be
+your friend."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not true," she answered. "I remember you&mdash;a long way back&mdash;and
+the memory comes to me like an evil thought. I will not come to you. You
+may kill me, but I will not come alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed you are mistaken," he persisted, though he sought still the
+shadow of a rhododendron bush, and his voice quivered with nervous
+anxiety. "You have never seen me before. Surely the Archduchess, the
+daughter of a King, is not one whose proffered kindness it is well to
+slight? Think again, young lady. Her Highness will make your future her
+special charge!"</p>
+
+<p>"If your visit to-night, sir," she answered, "is a mark of the
+Archduchess's good-will to me, I can well dispense with it. I have given
+you my answer."</p>
+
+<p>"You will remember, Baron," I said, speaking at random, but gravely, and
+as though some special meaning lurked in my words, "that this young lady
+comes of a race who do not readily change. She has made her choice, and
+her answer to you is my answer. She will remain with us!"</p>
+
+<p>The Baron stepped out again into the rich-scented twilight.</p>
+
+<p>"You hold strong cards, Mr. Arnold Greatson," he said, "but I see their
+backs only. How do I know that you speak the truth? From whom have you
+learnt the story of this young lady's antecedents?"</p>
+
+<p>"From Mr. Grooten," I answered boldly.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know the name," the Baron protested.</p>
+
+<p>"He is the man," I said, "who set Isobel free!"</p>
+
+<p>The Baron said something to himself in German, which I did not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the man who shot Major Delahaye?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I do!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I would to Heaven I knew whose identity that name conceals," he
+cried fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"You would not dare to publish it," I answered, "for to do so would be
+to give Isobel's story to the world."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should I shrink from that?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>I laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask your august mistress," I declared. "It seems to me that we know
+more than you think."</p>
+
+<p>The Baron looked over his shoulder and spoke to his companions. From
+that moment I knew that we had conquered. One of them left and went
+outside to where the motor-car, with its great flaring lights, still
+stood. Then the Baron faced me once more.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," he said, "you are playing a game of your own, and for
+the moment I must admit that you hold the tricks against me. But it is
+well that I should give you once more this warning. If you should decide
+upon taking one false step&mdash;you perhaps know very well what I
+mean&mdash;things will go ill with you&mdash;very ill indeed."</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned away, and our little garden was freed from the presence
+of all of them. We heard the starting of the car. Presently it glided
+away. We listened to its throbbing growing fainter and fainter in the
+distance. Then there was silence. A faint breeze had sprung up, and was
+rustling in the shrubs. From somewhere across the moor we heard the
+melancholy cry of the corncrakes. A great sob of relief broke from
+Isobel's throat&mdash;then suddenly her arm grew heavy upon mine. We hurried
+her into the house.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIIIB" id="CHAPTER_VIIIB"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>The perfume from a drooping lilac-bush a few feet away from the open
+casement was mingled with the fainter odour of jessamine and homely
+stocks. In the soft morning sunshine the terrors of last night seemed a
+thing far removed from us. We sat at breakfast in our little
+sitting-room, and as though by common though unspoken consent we treated
+the whole affair as a gigantic joke. We ignored its darker aspect. We
+spoke of it as an "opera-bouffe" attempt never likely to be
+repeated&mdash;the hare-brained scheme of a mad foreigner, over anxious to
+earn the favour of his mistress. But beneath all our light talk was an
+undernote of seriousness. I think that Mabane and I, at any rate,
+realized perhaps for the first time that the situation, so far as Isobel
+was concerned, was fast becoming an impossible one.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast we all strolled out into the garden. Isobel, with her
+hands full of flowers, flitted in and out amongst the rose-bushes,
+laughing and talking with all the invincible gaiety of light-hearted
+youth, and Arthur hung all the while about her, his eyes following her
+every movement, telling her all the while by every action and look&mdash;if
+indeed the time had come for her to discern such things&mdash;all that our
+compact forbade him to utter. Presently I slipped away, and shutting
+myself up in the tiny room where I worked, drew out my papers. In a few
+minutes I had made a start. I passed with a little unconscious sigh of
+relief into the detachment which was fast becoming the one luxury of my
+life.</p>
+
+<p>An hour may have passed, perhaps more, when I was interrupted. I heard
+the door softly opened, and light footsteps crossed the room to my side.
+Isobel's hand rested on my shoulder, and she looked down at my work.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she exclaimed, "how dare you! You promised to read your story
+when you had finished six chapters, and you are working on chapter
+twenty now!"</p>
+
+<p>Her long white forefinger pointed accusingly to the heading of my last
+page. Then I realized with a sudden flash of apprehension why I had not
+kept my promise&mdash;why I could never keep it. The story which flowed so
+smoothly from my pen was a record of my own emotions, my own sufferings.
+Even her name had usurped the name of my heroine, and stared up at me
+from the half-finished page. It was my own story which was written
+there, my own unhappiness which throbbed through every word and
+sentence. With a little nervous gesture I covered over the open sheets.
+I rose hastily to my feet, and I drew her away from the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Another time, Isobel," I said. "It is too glorious a day to spend
+indoors, and Arthur has taken holiday too. Tell me, what shall we do?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me a little doubtfully. I had grown into the habit of
+consulting her about my work, of reading most of it to her. Sometimes,
+too, she acted as my secretary. Perhaps she saw something of the trouble
+in my face, for she answered me very softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like," she said, "to sit there before the open window on a
+cushion, and to have you sit down in that easy-chair and read to me.
+That is how I choose to spend the morning!"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"How about the others?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Arthur and Allan can go for a walk!" she declared.</p>
+
+<p>"What selfishness," I answered, as lightly as I could. "Arthur must go
+back to town to-night, he says. I think that we ought all to spend the
+day together, don't you? I rather thought that you young people would
+have been off somewhere directly after breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she said, "if you want to be left alone&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't," I interrupted, reaching for my hat. "I want to come too."</p>
+
+<p>"You nice old thing!" she exclaimed, passing her arm through mine.
+"We'll walk to Heather Hill. Arthur says that we can see the sea from
+there. Come along!"</p>
+
+<p>So we started away, the four of us together. Presently, however, Arthur
+and Isobel drew away in front. Allan, with a little grunt, stopped to
+light his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur may keep his compact in the letter," he said, "but in the spirit
+he breaks it every time their eyes meet. You can't blame him. It's human
+nature, after all&mdash;the gravitation of youth. Arnold, I'm afraid you
+awoke to your responsibilities too late."</p>
+
+<p>"You think&mdash;that she understands?" I asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? She is almost a woman, and she is older than her years. Look
+at them now. He wants to talk seriously, and she is teasing him all the
+time. She has the instinct of her sex. She will conceal what she feels
+until the&mdash;psychological moment. But she does feel&mdash;she begins to
+understand. I am sure of it. Watch them!"</p>
+
+<p>We kept silence for a while, I myself struggling with a sickening sense
+of despair against this newborn and most colossal folly. I think that I
+was always possessed of an average amount of self-control, but my great
+fear now was lest my secret should in any way escape me. Mabane's words
+had carried conviction with them. Life itself for these few deadly
+minutes seemed changed. The birds had ceased to sing, and the warmth of
+the sunshine had faded out of the fluttering east wind. I saw no longer
+the heath starred with yellow and purple blooms, the distant line of
+blue hills. The turf was no longer springy beneath my feet, a grey mist
+hung over the joyous summer morning. I was back again on my way from Bow
+Street, threading a difficult passage through the market baskets of
+Covent Garden, the child stepping blithely by my side, graceful even
+then, notwithstanding her immatureness, and quaintly attractive, though
+her deep blue eyes were full of tears, and the white terror had not
+passed wholly from her face. It was those few moments of her complete
+and trustful helplessness which had transformed my life for me, those
+few moments in which the huge folly of these later days had been born.
+For her very coming seemed to have been at a chosen time&mdash;at one of
+those periods of weariness which a man must feel whose sympathy with and
+desire for life leads him into many and devious forms of distraction,
+only to find in time the same dregs at the bottom of the cup. The joy of
+her fresh childish beauty, her pure sweet trustfulness, at all times a
+delicate flattery to any man, just the more so to me, a little inclined
+towards self-distrust, was like a fragrant, a heart-stirring memory even
+now. I looked back upon these years which lay between her youth and my
+fast approaching middle-age&mdash;grey, weary years, whose follies seemed now
+to rise up and stalk by my side, the ghosts of misspent days, ghosts of
+the sickly reasonings of a sham philosophy which lead into the broad way
+because its thoroughfares are easy and pleasant, and pressed by the
+feet of the great majority. I kept my eyes fixed upon the ground and
+I felt that strange thrill of despair pulling at my heartstrings,
+dragging me downwards&mdash;the despair which is almost akin to physical
+suffering.... And then a voice came floating back to me down the west
+wind. Its call at such a moment seemed almost symbolical.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, you very lazy people! Arnold, may I walk with you for a
+little way? Arthur is not at all brilliant this morning, and he does not
+amuse me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," I began, "that as an entertainer&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you want to smoke your pipe in peace, of course," she interrupted,
+laughing, and passing her arm through mine. "Well, I am not going to
+allow it. I want you&mdash;to tell me things."</p>
+
+<p>So our little procession was re-formed. Mabane, and Arthur with his
+hands deep in his pockets and an angry frown upon his forehead, walked
+on ahead. Behind came Isobel and I&mdash;Isobel with her hands clasped behind
+her, her head a little thrown back, a faint, wistful smile lightening
+the unusual gravity of her face. I looked at her in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," I said, "what are the things you want me to talk to you about,
+and why are you tired of talking nonsense with Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not look at me, but the smile faded from her lips. Her eyes were
+still fixed steadily ahead.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you think, Arnold," she said quietly, "that I am still a
+baby!"</p>
+
+<p>I saw her lips quiver for a moment, and my selfishness melted away. I
+thought only of her.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not think that, Isobel," I said gently. "Only if I were you I
+would not be in too great a hurry to grow up. It is when one is young,
+after all, that one walks in the gardens of life. Afterwards&mdash;when one
+has passed through the portals&mdash;outside the roads are dusty, and the way
+a little wearisome. Stay in the gardens, Isobel, as long as you can.
+Believe me, that life outside has many disappointments and many sorrows.
+Your time will come soon enough."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled at me a little enigmatically.</p>
+
+<p>"And you?" she asked, "have you closed the gates of the garden behind
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am nearer forty than thirty," I answered. "I have grey hairs, and I
+am getting a little bald. I may still be of some use in the world, and
+there are very beautiful places where I may rest, and even find
+happiness. But they are not like the gardens of youth. There is no other
+place like them. All of us who have hurried so eagerly away, Isobel,
+look back sometimes&mdash;and long!"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. Perhaps a little of the sadness of my mood had after
+all found its way into my tone, for she looked at me with the shadow of
+a reproach in her deep blue eyes, a faint tenderness which seemed to me
+more beautiful than anything I had ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that I like your allegory, Arnold," she said. "After
+all, the gardens are the nursery of life, are they not? The great things
+of the world are all outside."</p>
+
+<p>I held my breath for a moment in amazement. Since when had thoughts like
+this come to her? I knew then that the days of her childhood were
+numbered indeed, that, underneath the fresh joyous grace of her
+delightful youth, the woman's instincts were stirring. And I was afraid!</p>
+
+<p>"The great things, Isobel," I said slowly, "look very fine from a
+distance, but the power of accomplishment is not given to all of us.
+Every triumph and every success has its reverse side, its sorrowful
+side. For instance, the whole judgment of the world is by comparison. A
+great picture which brings fame to a man eclipses the work and lessens
+the reputation of another. A successful book takes not a place of its
+own, but the place of another man's work who must needs suffer for your
+success. Life is a battle truly enough, but it is always civil war, the
+striving of humanity against itself. That is why what looks so great to
+you from behind the hedge may seem a very hollow thing when you have won
+the power to call it your own."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me as though wondering how far I were in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she said, smiling, "that you are trying to confuse me. Of
+course, I have not thought much about such things, but when I am a
+little older, if there was anything I could do I should simply try to do
+it in the best possible way, and I should feel that I was doing what was
+right. There is room for a great many people in the world, Arnold&mdash;a
+great many novelists and a great many artists and a great many thinkers!
+Some of us must be content with lesser places. I for one!..."</p>
+
+<p>I walked home with Allan, and I spoke to him seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a duty before us," I said, "which up to now we have shirked.
+The time has come when we must undertake it in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must abandon our negative attitude. Isobel comes, I am very sure,
+from no ordinary people. We must find out her place in life and restore
+her to it. She is a child no longer. It is not fitting that she should
+stay with us."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane, too, was for a moment sad and silent. His face fell into stern
+lines, but when he answered me his tone was steady and resolute enough.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Arnold," he answered. "We had better go back to London
+and begin at once."</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps a little ominous that I should find waiting for me on our
+return a telegram from Grooten:</p>
+
+<p>"I must see you to-night. Shall call at your rooms twelve o'clock."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IXB" id="CHAPTER_IXB"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>Isobel interrupted the discussion with an imperative little tap upon the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"Please listen, all of you!" she exclaimed. "I have something to say,
+and an invitation for you all."</p>
+
+<p>We had been dining at a little Italian restaurant on our way home, and
+over our coffee had been considering how to spend the rest of the
+evening. Arthur had declared for a music hall; Mabane and I were
+indifferent. Isobel up to now had said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"All my life," she said slowly, "I have been wanting to see Feurg&eacute;res.
+He is in London for one week with Rejani, and if we can get seats I am
+going to take you all. I have twenty pounds in my pocket from that nice
+man Mr. Grooten, who bought my other miniature, and I want to spend some
+of it."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur, who understood no French, shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Not the slightest chance of seats," he declared. "They've all been
+booked for weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"They often have some returned at the theatre," Isobel answered. "At
+least, if you others do not mind, we will go and see."</p>
+
+<p>"Your proposal, Isobel," Allan said gravely, "indicates a certain amount
+of recklessness which reflects little credit upon us, your guardians. I
+propose&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please do not be tiresome!" she interrupted. "Arnold, you will come
+with me, will you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be delighted," I answered. "I am sure that we all shall. Only I
+am afraid that we shall not get in."</p>
+
+<p>We paid the bill and walked to the theatre. The man at the ticket-office
+shook his head at our request for seats. People had been waiting in the
+streets since morning for the unreserved places, and the others had been
+booked weeks ago. But as we were turning away the telephone in his
+office rang, and he called us back.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just had four stalls returned," he said. "You can have them, if
+you like."</p>
+
+<p>"We are in morning dress," I remarked doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"They are in the back row, so you can have them if you care to," he
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What luck!" Isobel exclaimed, delighted. "Arnold, how glorious! Here is
+my purse. Will you pay for me, please?"</p>
+
+<p>So we went in just as the curtain rose upon the first act of Rostand's
+great play. The house was packed with an immense audience. One box
+alone, the stage box on the left, was empty. I leaned over to Isobel,
+and would have told her the story which all the world knew.</p>
+
+<p>"You see that box?" I whispered. "Wherever he plays it is always empty."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," she answered. "His wife used to sit there&mdash;always in the same
+place; and after her death, whatever theatre he played at, he always
+insisted upon having it kept empty. They say that on great nights, when
+the people go almost wild with enthusiasm, he looks into the shadows
+there almost as though he really saw her still sitting in her old place.
+It is a beautiful story."</p>
+
+<p>"Done for effect!" Arthur muttered, and was promptly snubbed, as he
+deserved. They were friends again immediately afterwards, however, and I
+saw him attempt to hold her hand for a moment. Decidedly it was time
+that we carried out our new resolution.</p>
+
+<p>I think that from the moment I took my seat I was conscious in some
+mysterious way of the coming of great things. There was a thrill of
+excitement in the air, a sort of stifled electricity which one realizes
+often amongst a highly cultured audience awaiting the production of a
+great work. But apart from this sensation of which I was fully
+conscious, I felt a curious sense of nervousness stealing in upon me for
+which I could in no way account. I knew what it meant only when, amidst
+a storm of cheers, Feurg&eacute;res entered. Then indeed I knew.</p>
+
+<p>I kept silent, for which I was thankful, but the programme in my hand
+was crumpled into a little ball, and the figures upon the stage moved as
+though in a mist before my eyes. Isobel noticed nothing, for her whole
+breathless attention was riveted upon the play. I came to myself with
+the rich sweet voice of the man, so tender, so infinitely pathetic,
+ringing with a curious familiarity in my ears. From that moment I
+followed the movement of the play.</p>
+
+<p>The curtain went down upon the first act amidst a silence so intense
+that it seemed as though people might be listening still for the echoes
+of that sad, sweet voice which had been playing so effectively upon
+their heartstrings. Then came the storm of applause, which lasted for
+several minutes. I turned towards Isobel. She was sitting very still,
+and she did not join in the enthusiasm which seemed to find its way
+straight from the hearts of the men and women who sat about us. But her
+eyes were wet with tears, her lips a little parted. She gazed at the man
+whom incessant calls had brought at last a little wearily before the
+curtain, as one might look at a god. And their eyes met. He did not
+start or betray himself in any way&mdash;perhaps his training befriended him
+there, but as he left the stage he staggered, and I saw his hand go to
+clutch the curtain for support. I knew then that, before the night was
+over, Isobel's history would no longer be a secret to us.</p>
+
+<p>She turned to me with a little smile of apology. There was a new look in
+her face too. She spoke gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Was I very stupid? I am sorry, but I could not help it. I have never
+seen anything like this before. It is wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>We talked quietly of the play, and I was astonished at the keenness of
+her perceptions, the unerring ease with which she had realized and
+appreciated the self-abnegation which was the great underlying <i>motif</i>
+of the whole drama. And in the midst of our conversation, what I had
+expected happened. A note was brought to me by an attendant.</p>
+
+<p>"Come to me after the next act, and bring her. An attendant will be
+waiting for you at your left-hand door of egress."</p>
+
+<p>Mabane and Arthur had gone out to have a smoke. I had still a moment
+before the curtain went up. I leaned over towards Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel," I said, "I am going to tell you something which will surprise
+you very much. It is necessary that I tell you at once. If you answer me
+at all do not speak above a whisper."</p>
+
+<p>She only slightly moved her head. I had not any fear of her betraying
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"You have seen Feurg&eacute;res before. It was in the <i>caf&eacute;</i>. He was my
+companion when I saw you first."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Grooten!" she murmured, so softly that her lips seemed scarcely to
+move.</p>
+
+<p>I nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not until to-night."</p>
+
+<p>She was very pale, but her self-control was complete.</p>
+
+<p>"He wishes us&mdash;you and I&mdash;to go round to his room after this act. You
+will be prepared?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>Mabane and Arthur came back, and the latter whispered several times in
+her ear. I doubt, however, whether she heard anything. She sat through
+the whole of the next act like one in a dream, only her eyes never left
+the stage&mdash;never left, indeed, the figure of the man from whom all the
+greatness of the play seemed to flow. As the curtain fell I leaned over
+to Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel and I are going to pay a visit," I said. "We shall be back in
+time for the next act."</p>
+
+<p>"A visit!" he repeated doubtfully. "Is there anyone we know here, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Allan will explain," I answered. "You had better tell him," I whispered
+to Mabane.</p>
+
+<p>Allan was looking very serious. I think that he questioned the wisdom of
+what I was doing.</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to see him?" he asked, in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p>"He has sent for us," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>We found the attendant waiting, and by a devious route along many
+passages and through many doors we reached our destination at last. Our
+guide knocked at a door on which was hanging a little board with the
+name of "Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res" painted across it. Almost immediately we
+were bidden to enter. Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res was sitting with his back to us
+before a long dressing-table. He turned at once to the servant who stood
+by his side.</p>
+
+<p>"Come back five minutes before my call," he ordered. "That will be in
+about twenty minutes from now."</p>
+
+<p>The man bowed and silently withdrew. Not until he had left the room did
+Feurg&eacute;res move from his place. Then he arose to his feet and held out
+his hands to Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew your mother, Isobel!" he said simply.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XB" id="CHAPTER_XB"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+
+<p>Isobel never hesitated. I think that instinctively she accepted him
+without demur. Her eyes flashed back to him all those nameless things
+which his own greeting had left unspoken. She took his hands, and looked
+him frankly in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"All my life," she said softly, "I have wanted to meet someone who could
+say that to me."</p>
+
+<p>He was dressed in a suit of medi&aelig;val court clothes, black from head to
+foot, and fashioned according to the period of the play in which he was
+acting. But if he had worn the garments of a pierrot or a clown, one
+would never have noticed it. The man's individuality, magnetic and
+irresistible, triumphed easily. Mr. Grooten had passed away. It was the
+great Feurg&eacute;res, whose sad shining eyes lingered so wistfully upon
+Isobel's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I can say more than that," he went on. "And now that I see you, Isobel,
+I wonder that I have not said it long ago. You are like her, child&mdash;very
+like her!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad," Isobel murmured. "Please tell me&mdash;everything!"</p>
+
+<p>"Everything&mdash;for me&mdash;is soon told," he answered, his voice dropping
+almost to a whisper, his eyes still fixed upon Isobel's, yet looking her
+through as though she were a shadow. "I loved your mother. I was the
+man&mdash;whom your mother loved! The years of my life began and ended
+there."</p>
+
+<p>Their hands had fallen apart a little while before, but Isobel, with an
+impulsive gesture, stooped down and raised the fingers of his left hand
+to her lips. I turned away. It seemed like sacrilege to watch a man's
+soul shining in his eyes. I walked to the other end of the long narrow
+room, and examined the swords which lay ready for use against the wall.
+It was not many minutes, however, before Feurg&eacute;res recalled me.</p>
+
+<p>"To-night," he said, "I was coming to see Mr. Greatson."</p>
+
+<p>"It is better," she murmured, "to have met you like this."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled very slightly, yet it seemed to me that the curve of his lips
+was almost a caress. There was certainly nothing left now of Mr.
+Grooten.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that I, too, am glad," he said. "Your mother suffered all her
+life because she permitted herself to care for me. We mummers, you see,
+Isobel, though the world loves to be amused, are always a little outside
+the pale. I think," he added, with a curious little note of bitterness
+in his tone, "that we are not reckoned worthy or capable of the domestic
+affections."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not believe&mdash;you cannot believe," she murmured, "that there are
+many people who are so foolish! It is the dwellers in the world who are
+mummers&mdash;those who live their foolish, orderly lives with their eyes
+closed, and oppressed all the while with a nervous fear of what their
+neighbours are thinking of them. Those are the mummers&mdash;but you&mdash;you,
+Monsieur, are Feurg&eacute;res&mdash;the artist! You make music on the heartstrings
+of the world!"</p>
+
+<p>For myself I was astonished. I had not often seen Isobel so deeply
+moved. I had never known her so ready, so earnest of speech. But
+Feurg&eacute;res was almost agitated. For the first time I saw him without the
+mask of his perfect self-control. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes were
+soft as a woman's. He raised Isobel's hand to his lips, and his voice,
+when he spoke, shook with real emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the daughter of your mother, dear Isobel," he said. "Beyond
+that, what is there that I can say&mdash;I, who loved her!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can tell me about her," Isobel said gently. "That is what I have
+been hoping for!"</p>
+
+<p>"A little, a very little," he answered, "and more to-night, if you will.
+I have already written to Mr. Greatson, and I meant in a few hours to
+tell him everything. But I would have you know this, Isobel, and
+remember it always. Your mother was a holy woman. For my sake, for the
+sake of the love she bore me, she abandoned a great position. She broke
+down all the barriers of race, and all the conventions of a lifetime.
+She lost every friend she had in the world; she even, perhaps, in some
+measure, neglected her duty to you. Yet you were seldom out of her
+thoughts, and her last words committed you to my distant care. I have,
+perhaps, ill-fulfilled her charge, Isobel. Yet I have been watching over
+you sometimes when you have not known it."</p>
+
+<p>"You were my saviour once," she said, "you and Arnold here, when I
+sorely needed help."</p>
+
+<p>"I came from America at a moment's notice," he said, "when it seemed to
+me that you might need my help. I broke the greatest contract I had ever
+signed, and I placed my liberty, if not my life, at the mercy of your
+wonderful police system. But those things count for little. I have been
+forced, Isobel, to leave you very much to yourself. You come of a race
+who would regard any association with me as defilement. And there is
+always the chance that you may be able to take your proper position in
+the world. That is why it has been my duty to keep away from you, why I
+have been forced to leave to others what I would gladly have done
+myself. To-night you will understand everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing that you can tell me of my family or myself," she answered,
+"will ever make me forget that, whereas of them I know nothing, you have
+been my guardian angel. It was you who rescued me from the one person in
+this world of whom I have been miserably, hatefully afraid. It was not
+my family who saved me. It was you!"</p>
+
+<p>A shrill bell was ringing outside. We heard the commotion of hurrying
+footsteps, the call-boy's summons, the creaking of moving scenery.
+Feurg&eacute;res glanced at the watch which stood upon his table. His manner
+seemed to undergo a sudden change. The man no longer revealed himself.</p>
+
+<p>"The curtain is going up," he said. "I can stay with you but two minutes
+longer. I am coming to see Mr. Greatson to-night, Isobel, after the
+performance, and I wish to see him alone. This is at once our meeting
+and our farewell."</p>
+
+<p>"Our farewell!" she repeated doubtfully. "Surely you are not going to
+leave us&mdash;so soon! You cannot mean that?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow," he said, "I leave for St. Petersburg. My engagement there
+has been made many months ago. But even if it were not so, dear child,
+our ways through life must always lie far apart. If the necessity for it
+had not existed, I should not have left you to the care of&mdash;of even Mr.
+Greatson. To be your guardian, Isobel, would not be seemly. That you
+will better understand&mdash;to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" she protested, "I would sooner hear it now from your own
+lips&mdash;if, indeed, it must be so!"</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head very slowly, but with a decision more finite than the
+most emphatic negation which words could have framed.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go away, Isobel," he said, "and you and I must remain apart. I
+will only ask you to remember me by this. I am the man your mother
+loved. Nothing else in my life is worth considering&mdash;but that. I am one
+of those with whom fate has dealt a little hardly. I am as weary of my
+work as I am of life itself. I go on because it was her wish. But I
+cannot forget. The past remains&mdash;a blazing page of light. The present is
+a very empty and a very cold place. My days here are a sort of
+aftermath. My life ended with hers. To-night, for one moment&mdash;I want you
+to take her place."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked at him eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me how," she begged. "Tell me what to do!"</p>
+
+<p>"It may sound very foolish," he said, with a faint smile, "but I have a
+fancy, and I am sure that you will do as I ask. I want you to sit where
+she sat night after night. You will find some flowers in her chair. Keep
+them. They were the ones she preferred."</p>
+
+<p>There was an imperative knocking at the door. Feurg&eacute;res caught up his
+plumed hat and sword.</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready," he said quietly. "Mr. Greatson, my servant will take you
+to the box, which I beg that you and Isobel will occupy for the rest of
+the evening. It is a harmless whim of mine, and I trust that it will not
+inconvenience you."</p>
+
+<p>With scarcely another word he left us, and a moment later we heard the
+roar of applause which greeted his appearance on the stage. Isobel's
+eyes kindled, and she moved restlessly towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope," she said, "that someone will come for us soon. I want to
+hear every word. I hate to miss any of it."</p>
+
+<p>The dark-visaged servant stood upon the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>"I have orders from Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res," he announced respectfully, "to
+conduct you to his box. If Mademoiselle will permit!"</p>
+
+<p>We followed him on tiptoe to the front of the house. He unlocked the
+door of the left-hand stage box with a key which he took from his
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur will permit me to remark," he whispered, "that this is the
+first time since I have been in the service of Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res that
+anyone has occupied his private box. I trust that Mademoiselle will be
+comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>Then the door closed behind him, and we were left to ourselves.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIB" id="CHAPTER_XIB"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Isobel, her chair drawn a little behind the curtain, was almost
+invisible from the house. With both hands she held the cluster of pink
+roses which she had found upon the seat. Gravely, but with wonderful
+self-composure, she followed the action of the play with an intentness
+which never faltered. Occasionally she leaned a little forward, and at
+such moments her profile passed the droop of the curtain, and was
+visible to the greater part of the audience. It was immediately after
+one of such movements that I noticed some commotion amongst the
+occupants of the box opposite to us. Their attention seemed suddenly
+drawn towards Isobel&mdash;two sets of opera-glasses were steadily levelled
+at her. A woman, whose neck and arms were ablaze with diamonds, raised
+her lorgnettes, and, regardless of the progress of the play, kept them
+fixed in our direction. I changed my position to obtain a better view of
+these people, and immediately I understood.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the house now for the first time, and I saw something which
+pleased me very little. We were immediately opposite the Royal box,
+which, with the one adjoining, was occupied by a very brilliant little
+party. The Archduchess was there. It was she whose lorgnettes were still
+unfalteringly directed towards Isobel. Lady Delahaye sat in the
+background, and a greater personage than either occupied the chair next
+to the Archduchess. Soon I saw that they were all whispering together,
+all still looking from Isobel towards the stage, and from the stage to
+Isobel; and in the background was a man whose coat was covered with
+orders, and who held himself like a soldier. He looked at Isobel as one
+might look at a ghost. I stood back almost hidden in the shadows, and I
+wondered more than ever what the end of all these things might be.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the act that wonderful voice, with its low burden
+of sorrow so marvellously controlled, drew me against my will to the
+front of the box. He stood there with outstretched arms, the prototype
+of all pathos, and the low words, drawn as it were against his will from
+his tremulous lips, kept the whole house breathless. His arms dropped to
+his side, the curtain commenced to fall. In that moment his eyes,
+suddenly uplifted, met mine. It seemed to me that they were charged with
+meaning, and I read their message rightly. After all, though, I am not
+sure that I needed any warning.</p>
+
+<p>The curtain fell. There was twenty minutes' interval. Isobel sat back in
+her chair, and her hand lingered lovingly about the roses which lay upon
+her lap. I did not speak to her. I knew that she was living in a little
+world of her own, into which any ordinary intrusion was almost
+sacrilege. Arthur and Allan had left their places. I judged rightly that
+they had gone home. So I sat by myself, and waited for what I knew was
+sure to happen.</p>
+
+<p>And presently it came&mdash;the knock at the box door for which I had been
+listening. I rose and opened it. A tall young Englishman, with smooth
+parted hair, whose evening attire was so immaculate as to become almost
+an offence, stood and stared at me through his eyeglass.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson!" he suggested. "Mr. Arnold Greatson?"</p>
+
+<p>I acknowledged the fact with becoming meekness.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Milton," he said&mdash;"Captain Angus Milton. I am in the suite
+of the Archduchess for this evening. Her Highness occupies the box
+opposite to yours."</p>
+
+<p>I bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"I have noticed the fact," I answered. "The Archduchess has been good
+enough to favour us with some attention."</p>
+
+<p>The young man stared at me for some moments. I found myself able to
+endure his scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>"Her Highness desires that you and the young lady"&mdash;for the first time
+he bowed towards Isobel&mdash;"will be so good as to come to the anteroom of
+the Royal box. She is anxious for a few minutes' conversation with you."</p>
+
+<p>"The Archduchess," I answered, "does us too much honour! I shall be
+glad, however, if you will inform her that we will take another
+opportunity of waiting upon her. Miss de Sorrens is much interested in
+the play."</p>
+
+<p>The young man dropped his eyeglass. I was proud of the fact that I had
+succeeded in surprising him.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," he exclaimed softly, "that you won't&mdash;that you don't want to
+come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," I answered. "I have already had the honour of one interview
+with the Archduchess, and I imagine that no useful purpose would be
+served by re-opening the subject of our discussion!"</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady, then?" he remarked, turning again to Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady remains under my charge," I answered. "You will be so
+good as to express my regrets to the Archduchess."</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated for a moment, and then, with a slight bow to Isobel, left
+us. She spoke to me, and we had been so long silent that our voices
+sounded strange.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Arnold," she said quietly. "This is all so wonderful that I
+could not bear to have it disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"I pray that it may not be," I answered. "The Archduchess's interest is
+flattering, but mysterious. I for one do not trust her. I wish&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I broke off in my speech, for I saw that the principal seat in the
+opposite box was vacant. As for Isobel, I doubt whether she noticed my
+sudden pause. Her hands were still caressing the soft pink blossoms in
+her lap, her eyes were fixed upon vacancy. She was in a sort of dream,
+from which I did not care to rouse her. I knew very well that the
+awakening would come fast enough.</p>
+
+<p>Another imperative tap upon the door. I opened it, and the Archduchess
+swept past me. In the darkness of our box her diamonds glittered like
+fire, the perfume from her draperies was stronger by far than the
+delicate fragrance of the roses which Isobel still held. Me she ignored
+altogether. She went straight up to Isobel, and, stooping down, rested
+her gloved hand upon the girl's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"I sent for you just now," she said. "Did you not understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel raised her eyebrows. The Archduchess was angry, and her voice
+betrayed her.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know any reason," Isobel answered, "why I should do your
+bidding."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a>
+<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"I do not know any reason" Isobel answered, "why I should do your bidding."</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Archduchess was silent for a moment. I think that she was waiting
+until she could control her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel," she said, "I will tell you a very good reason. I cannot keep
+silence any longer. They will not give you up to me any other way, so I
+have come to claim you openly. You shall know the truth. I am your
+mother's sister!"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel rose slowly to her feet. She was as tall as the Archduchess, and
+the likeness which had always haunted me was unmistakable. Only Isobel
+was of the finer mould, and her eyes were different.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not tell me this before&mdash;at the Mordaunt Rooms, for
+instance?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You came upon me like a thunderclap," the Archduchess answered quickly.
+"For years we had lost all trace of you. Besides, there were
+reasons&mdash;you know that there were reasons why I might surely have been
+forgiven for hesitating. But let that go. We had better have your story
+blazoned out once more to the world than that you should live your life
+in this hole-and-corner fashion. I shall take you back to Waldenburg. I
+presume, sir!" she added, turning suddenly towards me, "that even you
+will not question my right to assume the guardianship of my own niece?"</p>
+
+<p>The memory of Feurg&eacute;res' look came to my aid, or I scarcely know how I
+should have answered her.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness," I said, "it is for Isobel to decide. She is no longer a
+child. Only I would remind you that you have on more than one occasion
+endeavoured to assume that guardianship without mentioning any such
+relationship."</p>
+
+<p>"You know Isobel's history," the Archduchess answered. "Can you wonder
+that I was anxious to avoid all publicity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness," I said, "we do not know Isobel's history&mdash;yet. We shall
+hear it to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"He has not told you&mdash;yet?" she asked incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"He is coming to my rooms to-night," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall hear it before then," she exclaimed, with a little laugh.
+"Put on your hat, child. We will drive to my house, you and I and Mr.
+Greatson, and I will tell you everything. You will know then how greatly
+that man insulted you by daring to allow you to occupy this box, to
+approach you at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," Isobel said, "I thank you, but I wish to hear the end of the
+play. And as for my history, Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res has promised to tell it
+to Mr. Greatson to-night."</p>
+
+<p>I saw the Archduchess's teeth meet, and a spot of colour that burned in
+her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"You talk like a fool, child," she said fiercely. "You are being
+deceived on every side. It is not fit that that man should come into
+your presence. It is a disgrace that you should mention his name."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr.&mdash;Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res has proved himself my friend," Isobel answered
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess's eyes were burning. She was a woman of violent temper,
+and it was fast becoming beyond her control.</p>
+
+<p>"Child," she said, "I am your aunt, the daughter of the King of
+Waldenburg. You, too, are of the same race. You know well that I speak
+the truth. How dare you talk to me of a creature like Feurg&eacute;res? You
+have our blood in your veins. I command you to come with me, and break
+off at once and for ever these remarkable associations. You shall make
+what return you will later on to those whom you may think"&mdash;she darted a
+contemptuous glance at me&mdash;"have been your friends. But from this moment
+I claim you. Come!"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel looked her aunt in the face. She spoke courteously, but without
+faltering.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," she said, "it is not possible for me to do as you ask.
+Whatever plans are made for my future, it is to my dear friend here,"
+she said, looking across at me with shining eyes, "that I owe
+everything. And as for Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res, I have promised him to occupy
+this box for this evening, and I shall do so."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess was very white.</p>
+
+<p>"You force me to tell you, child," she said. "This creature Feurg&eacute;res
+was your mother's&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>She stopped short and bit her lip. Isobel was very pale, but she pointed
+to the door. The orchestra had commenced to play.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," she said, "Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res loved my mother. I shall keep my
+word to him."</p>
+
+<p>There was a soft knock at the door. Captain Milton stood on the
+threshold.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness," he said, bowing low, "the curtain will rise in thirty
+seconds."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess left us without a word.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIIB" id="CHAPTER_XIIB"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was not often we permitted ourselves such luxuries, but as we left
+the theatre I caught a glimpse of Isobel's white face, more clearly
+visible now than in the dimly lit box, and I knew that, bravely though
+she had carried herself through the whole of that trying evening, she
+was not far from breaking down. So I called a hansom, and she sank back
+in a corner with a little sigh of relief. I lit a cigarette, and
+suddenly I felt a cold little hand steal into mine. I set my teeth and
+held it firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she whispered, and her voice was none too steady, "I hate that
+woman. I do not care if she is my aunt; and&mdash;Arnold&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that she hates me too. She looks at me as though I were
+something unpleasant, as though she wished me dead. I will not go to
+her, Arnold. Say that I shall not."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I was silent. Her little womanish airs of the last few
+months, the quaint effort of dignity with which it seemed to have
+pleased her to add all that was possible to her years, had wholly
+departed. She was a child again, with frightened eyes and quivering
+lips, the child who had walked so easily into our hearts in those first
+days of her terror. To think of her as such again was almost a relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Isobel," I said, "the Archduchess has told me now two different
+stories concerning you. She appears to be very anxious to have you in
+her care, but her methods up to the present have been very strange. We
+shall not give you up to her unless we are obliged. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please what, Arnold?" she interrupted anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"If the Archduchess is indeed your aunt, as she says she is, you must
+have hundreds of other relations, many of whom you would without doubt
+find very different people. Besides, in that case, you see, Isobel, you
+ought to be living altogether differently. It is absurd for you to be
+grubbing along with us in an attic when you ought to be living in a
+palace, with plenty of money and servants and beautiful frocks, and all
+that sort of thing. You understand me, don't you?" I concluded a little
+lamely, for the steady gaze of those deep blue frightened eyes was a
+little disconcerting.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not," she answered. "If I am a Waldenburg and the niece of the
+Archduchess, why was I left alone at that convent for all those years,
+and who was responsible for sending that man to fetch me away&mdash;that
+terrible man? How are they going to explain that, these wonderful
+relations of mine? Oh, Arnold, Arnold!" she cried, suddenly swaying over
+towards me in the cab, "I don't want to leave you&mdash;all. Do not send me
+away. Promise that you will not!"</p>
+
+<p>A child, I told myself fiercely, a mere child this! Nevertheless I was
+thankful for the darkness of the silent street into which we had turned,
+the darkness which hid my face from her. Her soft breath was upon my
+cheek, her beautiful head very near my shoulder. Oh, I had need of all
+my strength, of all my common-sense.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Isobel," I said, looking straight ahead of me out of the cab, "I
+cannot make you any promise. All must depend upon what Monsieur
+Feurg&eacute;res tells us to-night. Nothing would make me&mdash;all of us&mdash;happier
+than to keep you with us always. But it may not be our duty to keep you,
+or yours to stay. Until we have heard Feurg&eacute;res' story we are in the
+dark."</p>
+
+<p>She shrank, as it seemed, into herself. Her eyes followed mine
+hauntingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she said, with a little tremor in her tone, "you are not very
+kind to me to-night, and I feel&mdash;that I want&mdash;people to be kind to me
+just now."</p>
+
+<p>I bent down, and I raised her hands to my lips and kissed them.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child," I said, "don't forget that I am your guardian, and I
+have to think for you&mdash;a long way ahead. As for the rest, I have not a
+single thought or hope in life which is not concerned for your
+happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"I like that better," she murmured; "but&mdash;you are very fond of my
+hands."</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the cab pulled up with a jerk. I paid the man, and we
+commenced to climb up the stone steps towards our rooms. Isobel, who was
+generally a couple of flights ahead, slipped her hand through my arm and
+leaned heavily upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she whispered, "why would you not read your story to me. Tell
+me, please!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child!" I exclaimed, "what made you think of that just now?"</p>
+
+<p>She leaned forward. I think that she was trying to look into my face.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind! Please tell me," she begged.</p>
+
+<p>"I will read it some day," I answered. "It is so incomplete. I think I
+shall have to rewrite it."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"You have always read to me before just as you have written it. I think
+that you are not quite so nice to me, Arnold, as you were. I haven't
+done anything that you do not like, have I? Because I am sure that you
+are different!"</p>
+
+<p>"You absurd child," I answered, smiling at her as cheerfully as I could.
+"You are in an imaginative frame of mind to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not that! You look at me differently, you do not seem to want to
+have me with you so much, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I stopped her. We had reached the fourth floor, where our apartments
+were. With the key in the lock I turned and faced her for a moment. She
+was as tall as I, and a certain grace of carriage which she had always
+possessed, and which had grown with her years, redeemed her completely
+from the <i>gaucherie</i> of her uncomfortable age. Her features had gained
+in strength, and lost nothing in delicacy. She wore even her simple
+clothes with the nameless grace which must surely have come to her from
+inheritance. I spoke to her then seriously. Yet if I had tried I could
+not have kept the kindness from my tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Isobel," I said, "if there is any difference&mdash;think! A year ago
+you were a child. To-day you are a woman. You must understand that, side
+by side with the pleasure of having you with us&mdash;the greatest pleasure
+that has ever come into our lives, Isobel&mdash;has come a certain amount of
+responsibility."</p>
+
+<p>"I am becoming a trouble to you, then!" she exclaimed breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"A trouble, Isobel!"</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I weakened for a moment. Some trick of tone or expression must
+have let in the daylight, for she suddenly held out her hands with a
+soft little cry. And then as she stood there, her eyes shining, the old
+delightful smile curving her lips, the door before which she stood was
+thrown open, and Arthur stood there. He had on his hat and coat, and I
+saw at once that he was not himself. His cheeks were flushed with anger,
+and he looked at us with a black frown.</p>
+
+<p>"So you've come back, then!" he exclaimed. "Allan and I got tired of
+waiting. Just in time to say good-bye, Isobel. I'm off!"</p>
+
+<p>"Off? But where?" she asked, looking at him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>I left them, and passed on into our studio sitting-room, where Mabane
+was filling his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with Arthur?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Off his chump," Allan answered gravely. "Don't take any notice of him."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel and he were still talking together. Arthur's voice was a little
+raised&mdash;then it suddenly dropped.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," Allan said, "that you had better interfere. Arthur has lost
+his temper. I am afraid&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He will break the compact?" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid so!"</p>
+
+<p>I stepped back into the little hall. They were talking together
+earnestly. Arthur looked up and glared at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur," I said, "Allan and I want a few words with you before you
+go&mdash;if you are going out to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"In a moment," he answered. "I have something to say to Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>But Isobel had gone. He looked for a moment at the door of her room
+through which she had vanished, and then he turned on his heel and
+followed me. He threw his hat upon the table and faced us both
+defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I," he said, "who have something to say to you, and I'd like to
+get it over quick. D&mdash;n your hypocritical compact, Arnold Greatson!
+There! You're in love with Isobel! Any fool can see it, and you want to
+keep the child all to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Allan took a quick step forward, but I held out my hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't interfere, Allan," I said. "Let him say all that he has to say."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to!" Arthur continued, "and I hope you'll like it. The compact
+was a fraud from beginning to end, and I'll have no more to do with it.
+Isobel's too old to live here with you fellows, and I'm going to ask her
+to marry me. I'm going to advise her to go and stay with Lady Delahaye,
+who wants her, and I'm going to marry her from there if she'll have me."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," I repeated thoughtfully. "You have been in
+communication with her, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have! And I think she's right. Isobel ought to have some women
+friends. She may have enemies, but I'm not so sure about that. Lady
+Delahaye isn't one of them, at any rate. The people who want to get her
+away from here may be her best friends, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all, Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's enough, isn't it?" he answered doggedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite! Now listen," I said. "To-night we are going to hear Isobel's
+history. We are going to know who she is, and all about her. Stay with
+us, and you shall share the knowledge. As for the rest, you have been
+talking like a fool. We do not wish to take you seriously. We took up
+the charge of Isobel jointly. If the time has come now for us to give
+her up, I should like us all to be in agreement. It is very likely that
+the time has come. I, too, think that in many ways it would be for her
+benefit. We are prepared to give her up when we know the proper people
+to undertake the care of her&mdash;but never, Arthur, to Lady Delahaye."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur smiled slowly, but it was not a pleasant smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he said, "I forgot. Lady Delahaye is an old friend of yours, isn't
+she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your insinuations are childish, Arthur," I answered. "Lady Delahaye is
+an old friend of the Archduchess's, and their interest in Isobel is
+identical. For many reasons I am going to know Isobel's history before I
+give her up to either of them."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is going to tell it to you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Feurg&eacute;res," I answered. "He sent for us at the theatre to-night. He is
+coming on here."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sharp tapping at the door. I moved across the room to open
+it. Arthur threw his hat upon the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait!" he declared.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIIIB" id="CHAPTER_XIIIB"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>We all knew Isobel's history. It had taken barely twenty minutes to tell
+it, but they had been twenty minutes of tragedy. We were all, I think,
+in different ways affected. Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res alone sat back in his
+seat like a carved image, his face white and haggard, his deep-set eyes
+fixed upon vacancy. We felt that he had passed wholly away from the
+world of present things. He himself was lingering amongst the shadows of
+that wonderful past, upon which he had only a moment before dropped the
+curtain. He had told us to ask him questions, but I for my part felt
+that questions just then were a sacrilege. Arthur, however, seemed to
+feel nothing of this. It was he who took the lead.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel, then," he said, "is the granddaughter of the King of
+Waldenburg, the only child of his eldest daughter! Her mother was
+divorced from her husband, Prince of Herrshoff, and afterwards married
+to you. What about her father?"</p>
+
+<p>"He died two years after the divorce was granted," Feurg&eacute;res said
+without turning his head. "Isobel was hurried away from the Court
+through the influence of her aunt, the Archduchess of Bristlaw, and sent
+to a convent in France. It was not intended that she should ever
+reappear at the Court of Waldenburg."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"The King is very old, and he is the richest man in Europe. Isobel is
+the daughter of his eldest and favourite child. The Archduchess also has
+a daughter, and, failing Isobel, she will inherit."</p>
+
+<p>"Has the King," I asked, "taken any steps to discover Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has been told that she is dead," Feurg&eacute;res answered.</p>
+
+<p>We were all silent then for several minutes. The things which we had
+heard were strange enough, but they let in a flood of light upon all the
+events of the last few months. It was Feurg&eacute;res himself who broke in
+upon our thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he said, "there is another thing which I must tell you."</p>
+
+<p>His voice was very low but firm. He had turned in his chair, and was
+facing us all. His eyes were no longer vacant. He spoke as one speaks of
+sacred things.</p>
+
+<p>"All Europe," he said, "was pleased to discuss what was called the
+elopement of the Princess Isobel with Feurg&eacute;res the player. The
+gutter-press of the world filled their columns with sensational and
+scandalous lies. We at no time made any reply. There was no need. If now
+I break the silence of years it is that Isobel shall know the truth. It
+is you, Mr. Greatson, who will tell her this, and many other things.
+Listen carefully to what I say. The husband of the Princess Isobel was a
+blackguard, a man unfit for the society of any self-respecting woman.
+She was living in misery when I was bidden to the Court of Waldenburg. I
+was made the more welcome there, perhaps, because I myself am a
+descendant of an ancient and honourable French family. I met the
+Princess Isobel often, and we grew to love each other. Of the struggle
+which ensued between her sense of duty and my persuasions I say nothing.
+She was a highly sensitive and very intellectual woman, and she had a
+profound conviction of the unalienable right of a woman to live out her
+life to its fullest capacity, to gather into it to the full all that is
+best and greatest. Her position at Waldenburg was impossible. I proved
+it to her. I prevailed. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, and held up his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole story of our elopement was a lie. There was no elopement. The
+Princess Isobel left her husband accompanied only by a maid and a
+lady-in-waiting. They lived quietly in Paris until her husband procured
+his divorce. Then we were married, but until then we had not met since
+our parting at Waldenburg. Isobel's mother was ever a pure and holy
+woman. Let Isobel know that. Let her know that the greatest and most
+wonderful sacrifice a woman ever made was surely hers&mdash;when she denied
+herself her own daughter lest the merest shadow of shame should rest
+upon her in later years. It is for that same reason that I myself have
+kept away from Isobel. I have watched over her always, but at a
+distance. That is why I am content to stand aside even now and yield up
+my place to strangers."</p>
+
+<p>It was Arthur again who questioned him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Feurg&eacute;res," he said, "you have told us wonderful things about
+Isobel. You have told us wonderful things about the past, but you have
+not spoken at all about the future. Is it your wish that she returns to
+Waldenburg, or is she to remain Isobel de Sorrens?"</p>
+
+<p>Feurg&eacute;res turned his head and looked searchingly at Arthur. The boy's
+face was flushed with excitement. He made no effort to conceal his great
+interest. Feurg&eacute;res looked at him steadfastly, and it was long before he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"You are asking me," he said slowly, "the very question which I have
+been asking myself for a long time. Isobel's proper place is at
+Waldenburg, and yet there are many and grave reasons why I dread her
+going there. The King is an old man, the Court is ruled by the
+Archduchess, a hard, unscrupulous woman. Already she has schemed to get
+the child into her power. I dread the thought of her there, alone and
+friendless. Her mother spoke of this to me upon her deathbed. She shrank
+always from the idea that even the shadow of those hideous calumnies
+which oppressed her own life should darken a single moment of Isobel's.
+I believe that if she were here at this moment she would place the two
+issues before her and bid her take her choice. I think that it is what
+we must do."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur stood up. He looked very eager and handsome, though a little
+boyish.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res," he said, "I love Isobel. Give her to me, and I
+will look after her future. I am not rich, but I will make a home for
+her. She is too old to stay here with us any longer. I will make her
+happy! Indeed I will!"</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res looked back at that vacant spot upon the wall, and
+was silent for some time. It was impossible to gather anything from his
+face, though Arthur watched him fixedly all the time.</p>
+
+<p>"And Isobel?" he asked at length.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not spoken to her," Arthur said. "There was a compact between us
+that we should not whilst she was under our care."</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res turned to me.</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds like a compact of your making, Arnold Greatson," he said.
+"What am I to say to your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is surely," I said, "for Isobel to decide. It is only another issue
+to be placed before her with those others of which you have spoken. You
+say that you must leave for St. Petersburg to-morrow. Will you see her
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head. I might almost have imagined him indifferent but for
+the sudden twitching of his lips, the almost pitiful craving which
+flashed out for a moment from his deep-set eyes. These were signs which
+came and went so quickly that I doubt if either of the others observed
+them. But I at least understood.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not see her at all," he said. "It is better that I should not.
+If she should decide upon Waldenburg, the less she has seen of me the
+better. I leave it to you, Arnold Greatson, to put these matters
+faithfully before Isobel. I claim no guardianship over her. Her mother's
+sole desire was that when she had reached her present age the whole
+truth should be placed before her, and she should decide exactly as she
+thought best. That is my charge upon you," he continued, looking me
+steadfastly in the face, "and I know that you will fulfil it. I shall
+send you my address in case it is necessary to communicate with me."</p>
+
+<p>He rose to his feet, prepared for departure. Arthur intercepted him.</p>
+
+<p>"If Isobel will have me, then," he said, "you will not object?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel shall make her own choice of these various issues," he answered.
+"I claim no guardianship over her at all. If any further decision has to
+be given, you must look to Mr. Greatson."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur did look at me, but his eyes fell quickly. He turned once more to
+Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res.</p>
+
+<p>"Whether you claim it or not," he said, "you are really her guardian,
+not Arnold. I shall tell her that you left her free to choose."</p>
+
+<p>"I have said all that I have to say," Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res replied.
+"Except this to you, Mr. Greatson," he added, turning to me. "You can
+have no longer any hesitation in using the money which stands in
+Isobel's name at the National Bank. You will find that it has
+accumulated, and I have also added to it. Isobel will always be
+reasonably well off, for I have left all that I myself possess to her,
+with the exception of one legacy."</p>
+
+<p>Without any further form of farewell he passed away from us. It was so
+obviously his wish to be allowed to depart that we none of us cared to
+stop him. Then we all three looked at one another.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow," Mabane said, "you must tell Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not to-night?" Arthur interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not to-night, indeed?" Isobel's soft voice asked. "If, indeed,
+there is anything more to tell."</p>
+
+<p>We were all thunderstruck as she glided out from behind the screen which
+shielded the inner door, the door which led to her room. It needed only
+a single glance into her face to assure us that she knew everything. Her
+eyes were still soft with tears, shining like stars as she stood and
+looked at me across the floor; her cheeks were pale, and her lips were
+still quivering.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard my name," she said. "The door was unfastened, so I stole out.
+And I think that I am glad I did. I had a right to know all that I have
+heard. It is very wonderful. I keep thinking and thinking, and even now
+I cannot realize."</p>
+
+<p>"You heard everything, Isobel?" Arthur exclaimed meaningly.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything!" she answered, her eyes suddenly seeking the carpet. "I
+thank you all for what you have said and done for me. To-morrow, I
+think, I shall know better how I feel about these things."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, Isobel," Allan said quietly. "There are great issues
+before you, and you should live with them for a little while. Do not
+decide anything hastily!"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur pressed forward to her side.</p>
+
+<p>"You will give me your hand, Isobel?" he pleaded. "You will say
+good-night?"</p>
+
+<p>She gave it to him passively. He raised it to his lips. It was his
+active pronouncement of himself as her suitor. I watched her closely,
+and so did Allan. But she gave no sign. She held out her hand to us,
+too&mdash;a cold, sad little hand it felt&mdash;and turned away. There was
+something curiously subdued about her movements as well as her silence
+as she passed out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur took up his hat. He was nervous and uneasy. His tone was almost
+threatening.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be here early in the morning," he said. "I suppose you will
+allow me to see Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," I answered. "As things are now you need not go away
+unless you like. Your room is still empty. Our compact is at an end.
+Stay if you will."</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated for a moment, and then threw down his hat. He sank into an
+easy chair, and covered his face with his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been a beast, I know!" he half sobbed. "I can't help it. Isobel is
+everything in the world to me. You fellows can't imagine how I care for
+her."</p>
+
+<p>I laid my hand upon his shoulder&mdash;a little wearily, perhaps, though I
+tried to infuse some sympathy into my tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Cheer up, Arthur!" I said. "You have your chance. Don't make a trouble
+of it yet."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur shook his head despondently.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," he said, "that she will go to Waldenburg!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Book_III" id="Book_III"></a>Book III</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IC" id="CHAPTER_IC"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<p>Arthur flung himself into the room pale, hollow-eyed, the picture of
+despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Any news?" he cried, hopelessly enough, for he had seen my face.</p>
+
+<p>"None," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything from Feurg&eacute;res?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me again&mdash;where did you telegraph him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dover, Calais, Paris, Ostend, Brussels, Cologne!"</p>
+
+<p>"And no reply?"</p>
+
+<p>"As yet none."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us look again at the note you found."</p>
+
+<p>I smoothed it out upon the table. We had read it many times.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"There is something else which I must tell you before I leave
+England. Come to me at once. The bearer will bring you. Come alone.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Henri Feurg&eacute;res.</span></p>
+
+<p>"P.S.&mdash;You will be back in an hour. Disturb no one. It is possible
+that I may ask you to keep secret what I have to say."</p></div>
+
+<p>"This note," I remarked, tapping it with my forefinger, "was taken in to
+Isobel by Mrs. Burdett at a quarter to eight. It was brought, she said,
+by a respectable middle-aged woman, with whom Isobel left the place soon
+after eight. We heard of this an hour later. At eleven o'clock we began
+the search for Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res. At three, Allan discovered that he
+had left the <i>Savoy Hotel</i> at ten for St. Petersburg. Since then we have
+sent seven telegrams, the delivery of which is very problematical&mdash;and
+we have heard&mdash;nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>Allan laid his hand gently upon my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"We may get a reply from Feurg&eacute;res at any moment," he said, "but there
+will be no news of Isobel. That note is a forgery, Arnold."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid it is," I admitted. "Feurg&eacute;res was a man of his word. He
+would never have sent for Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she is lost to us," Arthur groaned.</p>
+
+<p>I caught up my hat and coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," I said. "I will go and see what Lady Delahaye has to say
+about this. It can do no harm, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I come?" Arthur asked, half rising from his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather go alone," I answered.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The butler, who knew me by sight, was courteous but doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>"Her ladyship has been receiving all the afternoon," he told me, "but I
+believe that she has gone to her rooms now. Her ladyship dines early
+to-night because of the opera. I will send your name up if you like,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>I walked restlessly up and down the hall for ten minutes. Then a lady's
+maid suddenly appeared through a green baize door and beckoned me to
+follow her.</p>
+
+<p>"Her ladyship will see you upstairs, sir, if you will come this way,"
+she announced.</p>
+
+<p>I followed her into a little boudoir. Lady Delahaye, in a blue
+dressing-gown, was lying upon a sofa. She eyed me as I entered with a
+curious smile.</p>
+
+<p>"This is indeed an unexpected pleasure," she murmured. "Do sit down
+somewhere. It is long past my hour of receiving, and I am just getting
+ready for dinner, but I positively could not send you away. Now, please,
+tell me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"You know why I have come, then?" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear man, I haven't the least idea," she protested. "It is sheer
+unadulterated curiosity which made me send Perkins for you up here.
+We're not at all upon the sort of terms, you know," she added, looking
+up at me with her big blue eyes, "for this sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel left us this morning!" I said bluntly. "She received a note
+signed Feurg&eacute;res, which I am sure was a forgery. She left us at eight
+o'clock, and she has not returned."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye looked at me with a faint smile. Her expression puzzled
+me. I was not even able to guess at the thoughts which lay underneath
+her words.</p>
+
+<p>"How anxious you must be," she murmured. "Do you know, I always wondered
+whether Isobel would not some day weary of your milk-and-water
+Bohemianism. Your Scotch friend is worthy, no doubt, but dull, and the
+boy was too hopelessly in love to be amusing. And as for you&mdash;well&mdash;you
+would do very nicely, no doubt, my dear Arnold, but you are too stuffed
+up with principles for a girl of Isobel's antecedents. So she has cut
+the Gordian knot herself! Well, I am sorry!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are sorry!" I repeated. "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled sweetly at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Because my dear friend has promised me that wonderful emerald necklace
+if I could get the child away from you, and I think that very soon, with
+the help of that stupid boy, I should have succeeded," she said
+regretfully. "Such emeralds, Arnold! and you know how anything green
+suits me."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not doubt, then, but that it is the Archduchess who has done
+this?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye lifted her eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"Either the Archduchess, or Isobel has walked off of her own sweet
+will," she remarked calmly. "In any case you have lost the child, and I
+have lost my necklace. I positively cannot risk losing my dinner too,"
+she added, with a glance at the clock, "so I am afraid&mdash;I am so sorry,
+but I must ask you to go away. Come and see me again, won't you? Perhaps
+we can be friends again now that this bone of contention is removed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never desired anything else, Lady Delahaye," I said. "But if my
+friendship is really of any value to you, if you would care to earn my
+deepest gratitude, you could easily do so."</p>
+
+<p>"Really! In what manner?"</p>
+
+<p>"By helping me to regain possession of the child."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed at me, softly at first, and then without restraint. Finally
+she rang the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Arnold," she exclaimed, wiping her eyes, "you are really too
+na&iuml;ve! You amuse me more than I can tell you. My maid will show you the
+way downstairs. Do come and see me again soon. Good-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>So that was the end of any hope we may have had of help from Lady
+Delahaye. I called a hansom outside and drove at once to Blenheim House,
+the temporary residence of the Archduchess and her suite. A footman
+passed me on to a more important person who was sitting at a round table
+in the hall with a visitor's book open before him. I explained to him my
+desire to obtain a few moments' audience with the Archduchess, but he
+only smiled and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite impossible for her Highness to see anyone now before her
+departure, sir," he said. "If you are connected with the Press, I can
+only tell you what I have told all the others. We have received a
+telegram from Illghera with grave news concerning the health of his
+Majesty the King of Waldenburg, and notwithstanding the indisposition of
+the Princess Adelaide, the Archduchess has arranged to leave for
+Illghera at once. A fuller explanation will appear in the <i>Court
+Circular</i>, and the Archduchess is particularly anxious to express her
+great regret to all those whom the cancellation of her engagements may
+inconvenience. Good-day, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>The man recommenced his task, which was apparently the copying out of a
+list of names from the visitor's book, and signed to the footman with
+his penholder to show me out. But I stood my ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You are leaving to-day, then?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"We are leaving to-day," the man assented, without glancing up from his
+task. "We are naturally very busy."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I see the Baron von Leibingen?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite impossible, sir," the man answered shortly. "He is engaged
+with her Highness."</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait!" I declared.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must trouble you, sir, to wait outside," he said, with a little
+gesture of impatience. "I do not wish to seem uncivil, but my orders
+to-day are peremptory."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a door opened and a man came across the hall, slowly
+drawing on his gloves. I looked up and saw the Baron von Leibingen. He
+recognized me at once, and bowed courteously. At the same time there was
+something in his manner which gave me the impression that he was not
+altogether pleased to see me.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Greatson?" he asked, pausing
+for a moment by my side.</p>
+
+<p>"I am anxious to obtain five minutes' interview with the Archduchess," I
+answered. "If you could manage that for me I should be exceedingly
+obliged."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite impossible!" he said decisively. "You have heard of the
+serious news from Illghera, without doubt. We shall be on our way there
+in a few hours."</p>
+
+<p>I drew him a little on one side.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Isobel here, Baron?" I asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon&mdash;is who here?" he inquired, with the air of one who
+is puzzled by an incomprehensible question.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel&mdash;the Princess Isobel, if you like&mdash;has been lured from our care
+by a forged message. We know her history now, and we are able to
+understand the nature of the interest which your mistress has shown in
+her. Therefore, when I find her missing I come to you. I want to know if
+she is in this house."</p>
+
+<p>"If she were," the Baron remarked, "I, and everyone else who knows
+anything about it, would say at once that she was in her proper place.
+If she were, I should most earnestly advise the Archduchess to keep her
+here. But I regret to say that she is not. To tell you the truth, the
+Archduchess is so annoyed at the young lady's refusal to accept her
+protection, that she has lost all interest in her. I doubt whether she
+would receive her now if she came."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," I remarked slowly, "she has gone to Illghera."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, of course," the Baron agreed, "not an impossibility."</p>
+
+<p>"If I do not succeed in my search," I said, "it is to Illghera that I
+shall come."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find it," the Baron assured me, with a smile, "a most charming
+place. I shall be delighted to renew our acquaintance there."</p>
+
+<p>"His Majesty," I continued, "is, I have heard, very accessible. I shall
+be able to tell him Isobel's story. You may keep the child away from
+him, Baron, but you cannot prevent his learning the fact of her
+existence and her history."</p>
+
+<p>"My young friend," the Baron answered, edging his way towards the door,
+"your enigmas at another time would be most interesting. But at present
+I have affairs on hand, and I am pressed for time. I will permit myself
+to say, however, that you are altogether deceiving yourself. It was the
+one wish of the Archduchess to have taken Isobel to her grandfather and
+begged him to recognize her."</p>
+
+<p>"You decline to meet me fairly, then&mdash;to tell me the truth? Mind, I
+firmly believe that Isobel is now under your control. I shall not rest
+until I have discovered her."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you may discover, my young friend," the Baron said, putting on his
+hat, and turning resolutely away, "the true meaning of the word
+weariness. You are a fool to ask me any questions at all. We are on
+opposite sides. If I knew where the child was you are the last person
+whom I should tell. Her place is anywhere&mdash;save with you!"</p>
+
+<p>He bowed and turned away, whispering as he passed to a footman, who at
+once approached me. I allowed myself to be shown out. As a matter of
+fact, I had no alternative. But on the steps was an English servant in
+the Blenheim livery. I slipped half a sovereign into his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me what time the Archduchess leaves, and from what
+station?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not quite sure about the time, sir," the man answered, "but the
+'buses are ordered from Charing Cross, and they are to be here at eight
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>It was already past seven. I lit a cigarette and strolled on towards the
+station.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIC" id="CHAPTER_IIC"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+
+<p>At Charing Cross station a strange thing happened. The Continental train
+arrived whilst I was sauntering about the platform, and out of it,
+within a few feet of me, stepped Feurg&eacute;res. He was pale and haggard, and
+he leaned heavily upon the arm of his servant as he stepped out of his
+carriage. When he saw me, however, he held out his hand and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You expected me, then?" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Not I," I answered. "You have taken my breath away."</p>
+
+<p>"I had your telegram at Brussels," he explained. "I wired St. Petersburg
+at once, and turned back. Any news?"</p>
+
+<p>"None," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>I told him in a few rapid words. He listened intently, nodding his head
+every now and then.</p>
+
+<p>"The Archduchess has her," he said, "and if only one of us had the ghost
+of a legal claim upon the child our difficulties would end. She is an
+unscrupulous woman, but there are things which even she dare not do.
+What are they doing over there?"</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to the next platform. I took him by the arm and dragged him
+along.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the special!" I exclaimed. "We must see them start."</p>
+
+<p>Red drugget was being stretched across the platform, and to my dismay
+the barricades were rolled across. The luggage was already in the van,
+and the guard was looking at his watch. Then a small brougham drove
+rapidly up and stopped opposite to the saloon. Baron von Leibingen
+descended, and was immediately followed by the Archduchess. Together
+they helped from the carriage and across the platform a dark, tall girl,
+at the first sight of whom my heart began to beat wildly. Then I
+remembered the likeness between the cousins and what I had heard of the
+Princess Adelaide's indisposition. She was almost carried into the
+saloon, and at the last moment she looked swiftly, almost fearfully,
+around her. I could scarcely contain myself. The likeness was
+marvellous! As the train steamed out of the station Feurg&eacute;res pushed
+aside the barricade and walked straight up to the station-master.</p>
+
+<p>"I want a special," he said, "to catch the boat. I am Feurg&eacute;res, and I
+am due at Petersburg Wednesday."</p>
+
+<p>The station-master shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You can have a special, sir, in twenty minutes, but you cannot catch
+the boat. The one I have just sent off would never do it, but the boat
+has a Royal command to wait for her."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you give me an engine which will make up the twenty minutes?"
+Feurg&eacute;res asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible, sir," the station-master answered. "We have not an
+engine built which would come within ten miles an hour of that one."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," Feurg&eacute;res said. "I will have the special, at any rate. Be
+so good as to give your orders at once."</p>
+
+<p>"You will gain nothing if you want to get on, sir," the station-master
+remarked. "An ordinary train will leave here in two hours, which will
+catch the next boat."</p>
+
+<p>"The special in twenty minutes," Feurg&eacute;res answered sharply. "Forty
+pounds, is it not? It is here!"</p>
+
+<p>The station-master hurried away. I scarcely understood Feurg&eacute;res' haste
+to reach Dover. When I told him so he only laughed and led me away
+towards the refreshment-room. He ordered luncheon baskets to be sent out
+to the train, and he made me drink a brandy-and-soda. Then he took me by
+the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not much of a conspirator, my friend, Arnold Greatson," he
+said. "You have been within a dozen yards of Isobel within the last few
+minutes, and you have not recognized her."</p>
+
+<p>I stopped short. That wonderful likeness flashed once more back upon my
+mind. Certainly in the Mordaunt Rooms it had not been so noticeable. And
+her eyes! I looked at Feurg&eacute;res, and he nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"The Princess Adelaide either remains in England or has gone on quietly
+ahead," he said. "They have dressed Isobel in her clothes, and the
+general public could never tell the difference. You see how difficult
+they have made it for us to approach her. They will be hedged around
+like this all across the Continent. Oh, it was a very clever move!"</p>
+
+<p>I scarcely answered him. My eyes were fixed upon the tangled wilderness
+of red and green lights, amongst which that train had disappeared. What
+had they done to her, these people, that she should scarcely have been
+able to crawl across the platform? What had they done to make her accept
+their bidding, and leave England without a word or message to any of us?
+It had not been of her own choice, I was sure enough of that.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" Feurg&eacute;res said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>I followed him to the platform, where the saloon carriage and engine
+were already drawn up. Feurg&eacute;res brought with him his servant and all
+his luggage. A few curious porters and bystanders saw us start. No one,
+however, manifested any particular interest in us. There was no one
+whose business it seemed to be to watch us.</p>
+
+<p>I sat back in my corner and looked out into the darkness. Feurg&eacute;res,
+opposite to me, was leaning back with half-closed eyes. From his soft,
+regular breathing it seemed almost as though he slept. For me there was
+no thought of rest or sleep. I made plans only to discard them,
+rehearsed speeches, appeals, threats, only to realize their hopeless
+ineffectiveness. And underneath it all was a dull constant pain, the
+pain which stays.</p>
+
+<p>Our journey was about three-parts over when Feurg&eacute;res suddenly sat up in
+his seat, and opening his dressing-case, drew out a Continental
+timetable.</p>
+
+<p>"In a sense that station-master was right," he remarked, turning over
+the leaves. "We shall not reach Paris any the sooner for taking this
+special train. On the other hand, we shall have time to ascertain in
+Dover whether our friends really have gone on to Calais, or whether they
+by any chance changed their minds and took the Ostend boat. I sincerely
+trust that that course will not have presented itself to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Somewhere on the journey," he remarked, "they must pause. They will
+have to exchange Isobel for the Princess Adelaide, and make their plans
+for the disposal of Isobel. If they should do this, say, in Brussels, we
+shall be at a great disadvantage. If, however, they should stay in
+Paris, we should be in a different position altogether. The chief of the
+police is my friend. I am known there, and can command as good service
+as the Archduchess herself. We must hope that it will be Paris. If so,
+we shall arrive&mdash;let me see, six hours behind them; but supposing they
+do break their connection, we shall have still five hours in Paris with
+them before they can get on. If they are cautious they will go to
+Illghera <i>vi&acirc;</i> Brussels and their own country. If, however, they do not
+seriously regard the matter of pursuit they will go direct."</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later we came to a standstill in the town station.
+Feurg&eacute;res let down the window, and talked for a few minutes with the
+station-master. Then he resumed his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"We will go on to the quay," he said. "It is almost certain that our
+friends left by the Paris boat. We shall have four hours to wait, but we
+can secure our cabins, and perhaps sleep."</p>
+
+<p>We moved slowly on to the quay. A few enquiries there completely assured
+us. Midway across the Channel, plainly visible still, was a disappearing
+green light.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the <i>Marie Louise</i>, sir," a seaman told me. "Left here five and
+twenty minutes ago. The parties you were enquiring about boarded her
+right enough. The young lady had almost to be carried. She's the new
+turbine boat, and she ought to be across in about half an hour from
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res engaged the best cabin on the steamer, and his
+servant fitted me up a dressing-case with necessaries for the journey
+from his master's ample store. Then we went into the saloon, and had
+some supper. Afterwards we stood upon deck watching the passengers come
+on board from the train which had just arrived. Suddenly I seized
+Feurg&eacute;res by the arm and dragged him inside the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>"The Princess Adelaide!" I exclaimed. "Look!"</p>
+
+<p>We saw her distinctly from the window. She was dressed very plainly, and
+wore a heavy veil which she had just raised. She stood within a few feet
+of us, talking to the maid, who seemed to be her sole companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Find my cabin, Mason," she ordered. "I shall lie down directly we
+start. I am always ill upon these wretched night boats. It is a most
+unpleasant arrangement, this."</p>
+
+<p>Feurg&eacute;res looked at me and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel's features," he remarked, "but not her voice. You see, we are on
+the right track. We must contrive to keep out of that young lady's way."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>To keep out of the way of the Princess Adelaide was easy enough,
+presuming that she kept her word and remained in her cabin. I watched
+her enter it and close the door. Afterwards I wrapped myself in an
+ulster of Feurg&eacute;res' and went out on deck. It was a fine night, but
+windy, and a little dark. I lit a pipe and leaned over the side. I had
+scarcely been there two minutes when I heard a light footstep coming
+along the deck and pause a few feet away. A girl's voice addressed me.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me what that light is?"</p>
+
+<p>I knew who it was at once. It was the most hideous ill-fortune. I
+answered gruffly, and without turning my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Folkestone Harbour!"</p>
+
+<p>I thought that after that she must surely go away. But she did nothing
+of the sort. She came and leaned over the rail by my side.</p>
+
+<p>"You are Mr. Arnold Greatson, are you not?"</p>
+
+<p>My heart sank, and I could have cursed my folly for leaving my cabin.
+However, since I was discovered there was nothing to do but to make the
+best of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am Arnold Greatson," I admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if you know who I am?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the Princess Adelaide of&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She held up her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, please! I see that you know. For some mysterious reason I am
+travelling almost alone, and under another name which I do not like at
+all. You are very fond of my cousin, Isobel, are you not, Mr. Greatson?"</p>
+
+<p>I tried to see her face, but it was half turned away from me. Her voice,
+however, reminded me a little of Isobel's.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I admitted slowly. "You see, she was under our care for some
+time, and we all grew very fond of her."</p>
+
+<p>"But you&mdash;you especially, I mean," she went on. "Do not be afraid of me,
+Mr. Greatson. I know that my mother is very angry with you, and has
+tried to take Isobel away, but if I were she I would not come. I think
+that she must be very much happier as she is."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am too old," I said slowly, "to dare to be fond of anyone&mdash;in that
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish!" she murmured. "Do you know, Mr. Greatson, that I am only
+eighteen, and that I am betrothed to the King of Saxonia. He is over
+forty, very short, and he has horrid turned-up black moustaches. He is
+willing to marry me because I am to have a great fortune, and my mother
+is willing for me to marry him because I shall be a Queen. But that is
+not happiness, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid not," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she continued, "I feel that I can talk to you like this
+because I have read your books. I like the heroes so much, and of course
+I like the stories too. I think that Isobel is very wise not to want to
+come back to Waldenburg. I wish that I were free as she is, and had not
+to do things because I am a Princess. And I am sure that she is very
+fond of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Princess&mdash;&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>She stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>"If you knew how I hated that word!" she murmured. "I may never see you
+again, you know, after this evening, so it really does not matter&mdash;but
+would you mind calling me Adelaide?"</p>
+
+<p>"Adelaide, then," I said, "may I ask you a question?"</p>
+
+<p>"As many as you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where Isobel is now?"</p>
+
+<p>Her surprise was obviously genuine.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course not! Is she not at your house in London?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a few hours in front of us on her way to Paris," I said, "with
+your mother and the Baron von Leibingen and the rest of your people. She
+is travelling in your clothes and in your name. That is why you were
+left to follow as quietly as possible."</p>
+
+<p>She laid her hand upon my arm. Her eyes were full of tears, and her
+voice shook.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am so sorry," she cried softly, "so very sorry. Why cannot my
+mother leave her alone with you? I am sure she would be happier."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so too," I answered. "That is why I am going to try and fetch
+her back."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me very anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said, "you do not know my mother. If she makes up
+her mind to anything she is terribly hard to change. I do hope that you
+succeed, though. Why ever did Isobel leave you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She received a forged letter, written in somebody else's name," I said.
+"How your mother has induced her to stay since, though, I do not know.
+She looked very ill at Charing Cross, and she had to be helped into the
+train."</p>
+
+<p>The Princess Adelaide went very white.</p>
+
+<p>"It was she I heard this morning&mdash;cry out," she murmured. "They told me
+it was one of the servants who had had an accident. Mr. Greatson, this
+is terrible!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head away, and I could see that she was crying.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not distress yourself," I said kindly. "I daresay that it will
+all come right. You will see Isobel, I think, in Paris. If you do, will
+you give her a message?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I will," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her that we are close at hand, and that we have powerful friends,"
+I whispered. "We shall get to see her somehow or other, and if she
+chooses to return she shall!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Anything else?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not want to send her your love?" she asked, with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," I said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>She leaned a little over towards me.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said, "do you know what I should want you to do if I
+were Isobel&mdash;what I am quite sure that she must want you to do now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, marry her! She would be quite safe then, wouldn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>I tried to smile in a non-committal sort of way, but I am afraid there
+were things in my face beyond my power to control.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget," I answered. "I am thirty-four, and Isobel is only
+eighteen. Besides, there is someone else who wants to marry Isobel. He
+is young, and they have been great friends always. I think that she is
+fond of him."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that thirty-four is old at all, and if you care for
+Isobel, I would not let anyone else marry her," she declared. "Is that
+Calais?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that I will go now in case my maid should see us together," she
+said. "Oh, I can tell you where we are going in Paris. Will that help
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it will," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Number 17, Rue Henriette," she whispered. "Please come a little further
+this way a moment."</p>
+
+<p>I obeyed her at once. We were quite out of sight now, in the quietest
+corner of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said, "you will think that I am a very strange girl.
+I am going to be married in a few months to a man I do not care for one
+little bit, and it seems to me that that will be the end of my life. I
+want you to marry Isobel, and I hope you will both be very
+happy&mdash;and&mdash;will you please kiss me once? I am Isobel's cousin, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>I leaned forward and touched her lips. Then I grasped her hands warmly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very, very kind," I said gratefully, "and you can't think how
+much happier you have made me feel. If only&mdash;you were not a Princess!"</p>
+
+<p>She flitted away into the darkness with a little broken laugh. She
+passed me half an hour later in the Customs' house with a languid
+impassive stare which even her mother could not have excelled.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IIIC" id="CHAPTER_IIIC"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+
+<p>Feurg&eacute;res looked at me in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you been doing to yourself?" he exclaimed. "Is the fresh air
+so wonderful a tonic, or have you been asleep and dreaming of Paradise?"</p>
+
+<p>I laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"The sea air was well enough," I answered, "but I have been having a
+most interesting conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"With whom?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The Princess Adelaide!"</p>
+
+<p>He drew a little closer to me.</p>
+
+<p>"You are serious?"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly. Listen!"</p>
+
+<p>Then I told him of my conversation with Isobel's cousin, excepting the
+last episode. His gratification was scarcely equal to mine. He was a
+little thoughtful for some time afterwards. I am sure he felt that I had
+been indiscreet.</p>
+
+<p>"The Princess Adelaide," I said, "will not betray us. I am sure of that.
+She will tell her mother nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"These Waldenburgs," he answered gravely, "are a crafty race. It is in
+their blood. They cannot help it."</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel is a Waldenburg," I reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>"She is her mother's daughter," he said. "There is always one alien
+temperament in a family."</p>
+
+<p>"In this case," I declared, "two!"</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall soon know," he said, "whether this young lady is honest or
+not. A man will meet us at Paris with an exact record of the doings of
+the Archduchess and her party. We shall know then where Isobel is. If
+the address is the same as that given you by the Princess Adelaide, I
+will believe in her."</p>
+
+<p>"But not till then?" I remarked, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Not till then!" he assented.</p>
+
+<p>Before we left Calais, Feurg&eacute;res sent more telegrams, and for an hour
+afterwards he sat opposite to me with wide-open eyes, seeing nothing, as
+was very evident, save the images created by his own thoughts. As we
+reached Amiens, however, he spoke to me.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better try and get some sleep," he said. "You may have little
+time for rest in Paris."</p>
+
+<p>"And you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is another matter," he answered. "I am accustomed to sleeping very
+little; and besides, it is probable that this affair may become one
+which it will be necessary for you to follow up alone. The sight of me,
+or the mention of my name, is like poison to all the Waldenburgs. They
+would only be the more bitter and hard to deal with if they knew that I,
+too, had joined in the chase. I hope to be able to do my share
+secretly."</p>
+
+<p>I followed his suggestion, and slept more or less fitfully all the way
+to Paris. I was awakened to find that the train had come to a
+standstill. We were already in the station, and as I hastily collected
+my belongings I saw that Feurg&eacute;res had left me, and was standing on the
+platform talking earnestly to a pale, dark young Frenchman, sombrely
+dressed and of insignificant appearance. I joined him just as his
+companion departed. He turned towards me with a peculiar smile.</p>
+
+<p>"My apologies to the Princess," he said. "The address is correct. They
+have gone to a suite of rooms belonging to the Baron von Leibingen."</p>
+
+<p>"They are there still, then?" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"They are there still," Feurg&eacute;res assented, "and they show no immediate
+signs of moving on. They are apparently waiting for someone&mdash;perhaps for
+the Princess Adelaide. Inside the house and out they are being closely
+watched, and directly their plans are made I shall know of them."</p>
+
+<p>I looked, as I felt, a little surprised. Feurg&eacute;res smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I am at home here," he said, "and I have friends. Come! My own
+apartments are scarcely a stone's-throw away from the Rue Henriette.
+Estere will see our things safely through the Customs."</p>
+
+<p>We drove through the cold grey twilight to the Rue de St. Antoine, where
+Feurg&eacute;res' apartments were. To my surprise servants were at hand
+expecting us, and I was shown at once into a suite of rooms, in one of
+which was a great marble bath all ready for use. Some coffee and a
+change of clothes were brought me. All my wants seemed to have been
+anticipated and provided for. I had always imagined Feurg&eacute;res to be a
+man of very simple and homely tastes, but there were no traces of it in
+his home. He showed me some of the rooms while we waited for breakfast,
+rooms handsomely furnished and decorated, full of art treasures and
+curios of many sorts collected from many countries.</p>
+
+<p>But, in a sense, it was like a dead house. One felt that it might be a
+dwelling of ghosts. There were nowhere any signs of the rooms being
+used, the habitable air was absent. Everything was in perfect order.
+There was no dust, none of the chilliness of disuse. Yet one seemed to
+feel everywhere the sadness of places which exist only for their
+history. One door only remained closed, and that Feurg&eacute;res unlocked with
+a little key which hung from his chain. But he did not invite me to
+enter.</p>
+
+<p>"You will excuse me for a few moments," he said. "My housekeeper will
+show you into the breakfast-room. Please do not wait for me."</p>
+
+<p>An old lady, very primly dressed in black, and wearing a curious cap
+with long white strings, bustled me away. As Feurg&eacute;res opened the door
+of the room, in front of which we had been standing, the air seemed
+instantly sweet with the perfume of flowers. The old lady sighed as she
+poured me out some coffee. I am ashamed to say that I felt, and
+doubtless I looked, curious.</p>
+
+<p>"Would it not be as well for me to wait for Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res?" I
+asked. "He will not be very long, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>The old lady shook her head sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but one cannot say!" she answered. "Monsieur had better begin his
+breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"Your master has perhaps someone waiting to see him?" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Tobain&mdash;she told me her name&mdash;shook her head once more. She spoke
+softly, almost as though she were speaking of something sacred.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur did not know, perhaps&mdash;it was the chamber of Madame. Always
+Monsieur spends several hours a day there when he is in Paris, and
+always after he has performed at the theatre he returns immediately to
+sit there. No one else is allowed to enter; only I, when Monsieur is
+away, am permitted once a day to fill it with fresh flowers&mdash;flowers
+always the most expensive and rare. Ah, such devotion, and for the dead,
+too! One finds it seldom, indeed! It is the great artists only who can
+feel like that!"</p>
+
+<p>She wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron, dropped me a curtsey,
+and withdrew. Feurg&eacute;res came in presently, and I avoided looking at him
+for the first few minutes. To tell the truth, there was a lump in my own
+throat. When he spoke, however, his tone was as usual.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall ask you," he said, "to stay indoors, but to be prepared to
+start away at a moment's notice. I am going to make a few enquiries
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>His voice drew my eyes to his face, and I was astonished at his
+appearance. The skin seemed tightly drawn about his cheeks, and he was
+very white. As though in contradiction to his ill-looks, however, his
+eyes were unusually brilliant and clear, and his manner almost buoyant.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res," I said, "but it seems to me that you
+had better rest for a while. You have been travelling longer than I
+have, and you are tired."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled at me almost gaily.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," he declared, "I never felt more vigorous. I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped short, and walked the length of the room. When he returned he
+was very grave, but the smile was still upon his lips. He laid his hand
+almost affectionately upon my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend," he said softly, "I think that you are the only one to
+whom I have felt it possible to speak of the things which lie so near my
+heart. For I think that you, too, are one of those who know, and who
+must know, what it is to suffer. We who carry the iron in our hearts,
+you know, are sometimes drawn together. The things which we may hide
+from the world we cannot hide from one another. Only for you there is
+hope, for me there has been the wonderful past. People have pitied me
+often, my friend, for what they have called my lonely life. They little
+know! I am not a sentimentalist. I speak of real things. Isobel, my
+wife, died to the world and was buried. To me she lives always. Just
+now&mdash;I have been with her. She sat in her old chair, and her eyes smiled
+again their marvellous welcome to me. Only&mdash;and this is why I speak to
+you of these things&mdash;there was a difference."</p>
+
+<p>He was silent for a few minutes. When he continued, his voice was a
+little softer but no less firm.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear friend," he said, "I will be honest. When Isobel was taken from me
+I had days and hours of hideous agony. But it was the craving for her
+body only, the touch of her lips, the caress of her hands, the sound of
+her voice. Her spirit has been with me always. At first, perhaps, her
+coming was faint and indefinable, but with every day I realized her more
+fully. I called her, and she sat in her box and watched me play, and
+kissed her roses to me. I close the door upon the world and call her
+back to her room, call her into my arms, whisper the old words, call her
+those names which she loves best&mdash;and she is there, and all my burden of
+sorrow falls away. My friend, a great love can do this! A great, pure
+love can mock even at the grave."</p>
+
+<p>I clasped his hand in mine.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," I said, "that I will never pity you again. You have triumphed
+even over Fate&mdash;even over those terrible, relentless laws which
+sometimes make a ghastly nightmare of life even to the happiest of us.
+You have turned sorrow into joy. It is a great deed. You have made my
+own suffering seem almost a vulgar thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no!" he said, "for you, too, there is hope. You, too, know that we
+need never be the idle, resistless slaves of Fate&mdash;like those others.
+Will and faith and purity can kindle a magic flame to lighten the
+darkness of the greatest sorrow. I speak to you of these
+things&mdash;now&mdash;because I think that the end is near."</p>
+
+<p>He suddenly sank into a chair. I looked at him in alarm, but his face
+was radiant. There was no sign of any illness there.</p>
+
+<p>"You are young, Arnold Greatson," he said. "They tell me that you will
+be famous. Yet you are not one of those to turn your face to the wall
+because the greatest gift of life is withheld from you. That is why I
+have lifted the curtain of my own days. I know you, and I know that you
+will triumph. It is a world of compensations after all for those who
+have the wit to understand."</p>
+
+<p>I think that he had more to say to me, but we were interrupted. There
+was a knock at the door, and the man entered whom I had seen talking
+with Feurg&eacute;res upon the platform of the railway station. Feurg&eacute;res rose
+at once, calm and prepared. They talked for a while so rapidly that I
+could not follow them. Then he turned to me.</p>
+
+<p>"They are preparing for a move," he announced. "They are going south as
+though for Marseilles and Illghera, but they insist upon a special
+train. They have declined a saloon attached to the train de luxe, and
+Monsieur Estere here has doubts as to their real destination. Wait here
+until I return. Be prepared for a journey."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>They left me alone. I lit a cigarette and settled down to read. In less
+than half an hour, however, I was disturbed. There was a knock at the
+door, and Madame Tobain entered.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a lady here, sir, who desires to see Monsieur!" she announced.</p>
+
+<p>A fair, slight woman in a long travelling cloak brushed past her. She
+raised her veil, and I started at once to my feet. It was Lady Delahaye.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IVC" id="CHAPTER_IVC"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>It did not need a word from Lady Delahaye to acquaint me fully with what
+had happened. Indeed, my only wonder had been that this knowledge had
+not come to her before. She greeted me with a smile, but her face was
+full of purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?" she asked simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Not here," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>She seated herself, and began to unpin the travelling veil from her hat.</p>
+
+<p>"So I perceive," she remarked. "He will return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I admitted, "he will return."</p>
+
+<p>She folded the veil upon her knee and looked across at me thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"What an idiot I have been!" she murmured. "After all, that emerald
+necklace might easily have been mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure about that," I answered. "I think I know what is in
+your mind, but I might remind you that suspicion is one thing and proof
+another."</p>
+
+<p>"The motive," she answered, "is the difficult thing, and that is found.
+I suppose the police are good for something. They should be able to work
+backwards from a certainty."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you," I asked, "going to employ the police? Don't you think that,
+for the good of everyone, and even for your husband's own sake, the
+thing had better remain where it is?"</p>
+
+<p>She laughed scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You would have me let the man go free who shot another in the back
+treacherously and without warning?" she exclaimed. "Thank you for your
+advice, Arnold Greatson. I have a different purpose in my mind."</p>
+
+<p>I moved my chair and drew a little nearer to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>"The use of my Christian name," she murmured, "would perhaps make your
+persuasions more effective. At any rate, you might try. I have never
+forbidden you to use it."</p>
+
+<p>"If you have any regard for me at all, then, Eileen," I said, "you will
+think seriously before you take any steps against Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res.
+Remember that he had, or thought he had, very strong reasons for acting
+as he did. Looking at it charitably, your husband's proceedings were
+open to very grave misconstruction. There will be a great deal of
+unpleasant scandal if the story is raked up again, and Isobel's whole
+history will be told in court. How will that suit the Archduchess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," Lady Delahaye admitted frankly; "but the Archduchess is
+not the only person to be considered. You seem to forget that this is no
+trifling matter. It is a murderer whom you are shielding, the man who
+killed my husband whom you would have me let go free."</p>
+
+<p>"Technically," I admitted, "not actually. Your husband did not die of
+his wound. He was in a very bad state of health."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot recognize the distinction," Lady Delahaye declared coldly. "He
+died from shock following it."</p>
+
+<p>"Consider for a moment the position of Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res," I pleaded.
+"Isobel was the only child of the woman whom he had dearly loved. The
+care of her was a charge upon his conscience and upon his honour. Any
+open association with him he felt might be to her detriment later on in
+life. All that he could do was to watch over her from a distance. He saw
+her, as he imagined, in danger. What course was open to him? Forget for
+the moment that Major Delahaye was your husband. Put yourself in the
+place of Feurg&eacute;res. What could he do but strike?"</p>
+
+<p>"He broke the law," she said coldly, "the law of men and of God. He must
+take the consequences. I am not a vindictive woman. I would have
+forgiven him for making a scene, for striking my husband, or taking away
+the child by force. But he went too far."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you," I asked, "been to the police?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet."</p>
+
+<p>I caught at this faint hope.</p>
+
+<p>"You came here to see him first? You have something to propose&mdash;some
+compromise?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Between Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res and myself," she said, "there can be no
+question of anything of the sort. There is nothing which he could offer
+me, nothing within his power to offer, which could influence me in the
+slightest."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why," I asked, "are you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"To see you," she answered. "I want to ask you this, Arnold. You wish
+Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res to go free. You wish to stay my hand. What price are
+you willing to pay?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her blankly. As yet her meaning was hidden from me.</p>
+
+<p>"Any price!" I declared.</p>
+
+<p>Then she leaned over towards me.</p>
+
+<p>"What is he to you, Arnold&mdash;this man?" she asked softly. "You are
+wonderfully loyal to some of your friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I know the story of his life," I answered, "and it is enough. Besides,
+he is an old man, and I fancy that his health is failing. Let him end
+his days in peace. You will never regret it, Eileen. If my gratitude is
+worth anything to you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I want," she interrupted, "more than your gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>We sat looking at each other for a moment in a silence which I for my
+part could not have broken. I read in her face, in her altered
+expression, and the softened gleam of her eyes, all that I was expected
+to read. I said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so very many years, Arnold," she went on, "since you cared
+for me, or said that you did. I have not changed so much, have I? Give
+up this senseless pursuit of a child. Oh, you guard your secret very
+bravely, but you cannot hide the truth from me. It is not all
+philanthropy which has made you such a squire of dames. You believe that
+you care for her&mdash;that child! Arnold, it is a foolish fancy. You belong
+to different hemispheres; you are twice her age. It will be years before
+she can even realize what life and love may be. Give it all up. She is
+in safe hands now. Come back to London with me, and Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res
+shall go free."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res, Madame, thanks you!"</p>
+
+<p>He had entered the room softly, and stood at the end of the screen. Lady
+Delahaye's face darkened.</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask, sir, how long you have been playing the eavesdropper?" she
+demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so long, Madame, as I should have desired," he answered, "yet long
+enough to understand this. My young friend here seems to be trying to
+bargain with you for my safety. Madame, I cannot allow it. If your
+silence is indeed to be bought, the terms must be arranged between you
+and me."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him a trifle insolently.</p>
+
+<p>"I have already explained to Mr. Greatson," she remarked, "that
+bargaining between you and me is impossible because you have nothing to
+offer which could tempt me."</p>
+
+<p>"And Mr. Greatson has?"</p>
+
+<p>"That, Monsieur," she answered, "is between Mr. Greatson and myself."</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res stood his ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Delahaye," he said, "I want you to listen to me for a moment. It
+is not a justification which I am attempting. It is just a word or two
+of explanation, to which I trust you will not refuse to listen."</p>
+
+<p>"If you think it worth while," she answered coldly.</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Who can tell! I have the fancy, however, to assure you that what took
+place that day at the Caf&eacute; Grand was not the impulsive act of a man
+inspired with a homicidal mania, but was the necessary outcome of a long
+sequence of events. You know the peculiar relations existing between
+Isobel and myself. I had not the right to approach her, or to assume any
+overt act of guardianship. Any association with me would at once have
+imperilled any chance she may have possessed of being restored to her
+rightful position at Waldenburg. I accordingly could only watch over her
+by means of spies. This I have always done."</p>
+
+<p>"With what object, Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res?" Lady Delahaye asked. "You could
+never have interfered."</p>
+
+<p>"The care of Isobel&mdash;the distant care of her&mdash;was a charge laid upon me
+by her mother," Feurg&eacute;res answered. "It was therefore sacred. I trusted
+to Fate to find those who might intervene where I dared not, and Fate
+sent me at a very critical moment Mr. Arnold Greatson. Lady Delahaye, to
+speak ill of a woman is no pleasant task&mdash;to speak ill of the dead is
+more painful still. Yet these are facts. The Archduchess was willing to
+go to any lengths to prevent Isobel's creditable and honourable
+appearance in Waldenburg. It was the Archduchess who, after what she has
+termed her sister's disgrace, sent Isobel secretly to the convent, and
+your husband, Lady Delahaye, who took her there. It was your husband who
+brought her away, and it was the announcement of his visit to the
+convent, and an ill-advised confidence to a friend at his club in Paris,
+which brought me home from America. I will only say that I had reason to
+suspect Major Delahaye as the guardian of Isobel&mdash;even the Archduchess
+was ignorant of the position which he had assumed. Since I became a
+player there are many who forget that my family is noble. Major Delahaye
+was one of these. He returned a letter which I wrote to him with a
+contemptuous remark only. My friend the Duc d'Autrien saw him on my
+behalf. From him your husband received a second and a very plain
+warning. He disregarded it. Once more I wrote. I warned him that if he
+took Isobel from the convent he went to his death. That is all!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence. Lady Delahaye was very pale. She looked imploringly
+at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res," she said, "I am not your judge. I do not wish to
+seem vindictive. Will you leave me with Mr. Greatson for a few minutes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Madame, I cannot," he answered gravely. "Apart from the fact that I
+decline to have my safety purchased for me, especially by one to whom I
+already owe too much, it is necessary that Mr. Greatson leaves this
+house within the next quarter of an hour."</p>
+
+<p>I sprang to my feet. I forgot Lady Delahaye. I forgot that this man's
+life and freedom rested at her disposal. The great selfishness was upon
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye looked, and she understood. Slowly she rose to her feet
+and crossed the room towards the door. I was tongue-tied. I made no
+protest&mdash;asked no questions. Feurg&eacute;res opened the door for her and
+summoned his servant, but no word of any sort passed between them. Then
+he turned suddenly to me. His tone was changed. He was quick and alert.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," he said, "the rest is with you. They are taking her to the
+convent. Madame Richard is here, and the Cardinal de Vaux. They have a
+plot&mdash;but never mind that. If she passes the threshold of the convent
+she is lost. It is for you to prevent it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>He opened a desk and tossed me a small revolver.</p>
+
+<p>"Estere waits below in the carriage. He will drive with you to the
+station. You take the ordinary express to Marcon. There an automobile
+waits for you, and you must start for the convent. The driver has the
+route. Remember this. You must go alone. You must overtake them. Use
+force if necessary. If you fail&mdash;Isobel is lost!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not fail!" I answered grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring her back, Arnold," he said, with a sudden change in his tone. "I
+want to see her once more."</p>
+
+<p>I left him there, and glancing upwards from the street as the carriage
+drove off, I waved my hand to the slim black figure at the window, whose
+wan, weary eyes watched our departure with an expression which at the
+time I could not fathom. It was not until I was actually in the train
+that I remembered what Lady Delahaye's silent departure might mean for
+him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VC" id="CHAPTER_VC"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+
+<p>Our plans were skilfully enough laid, but the Archduchess also had
+missed nothing. We rushed through the village of Argueil without having
+seen any sign of the carriage, and it was not until we had reached the
+vineyard-bordered road beyond that we saw it at last climbing the last
+hill to the convent.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we catch it?" I gasped.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>chauffeur</i> only smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur may rest assured," he answered, changing into his fourth
+speed, notwithstanding the slight ascent.</p>
+
+<p>Half-way up the hill we were barely one hundred yards behind. The man
+glanced at me for instructions.</p>
+
+<p>"Blow your horn," I said.</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed. The carriage drew to the side of the road. We rushed by, and
+I caught a glimpse of three faces. My spirits rose. There was only the
+Baron to deal with. Madame Richard and Isobel were the other occupants
+of the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, and draw the car across the road!" I ordered.</p>
+
+<p>The man obeyed. I sprang to the ground. The Baron had his head out of
+the window, and the driver was flogging his horses.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do not stop," I called out, "I shall shoot your horses."</p>
+
+<p>The driver took no notice. He had flogged his horses into a gallop, and
+was coming straight at me. I fired, and one of the horses, after a wild
+plunge came down, dragging the other with him, and breaking the pole.
+The driver was thrown on to the top of them and rolled off into the
+hedge, cursing volubly. The Baron leaned out of the window, and he had
+something in his hand which gleamed like silver in the sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had enough of you, my young friend," he said fiercely, and
+instantly fired.</p>
+
+<p>An unseen hand struck his arm as he pulled the trigger. I felt my hat
+quiver upon my head as I sprung forward. The Baron had no time to fire
+again. I caught him by the throat and dragged him into the road.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had more than enough of you, you blackguard," I muttered, and I
+shook him till he groaned, and threw him across the road.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel stretched out her arms to me&mdash;Isobel herself, but how pale and
+changed!</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold, Arnold, take me away!" she moaned.</p>
+
+<p>I would have lifted her out, but Madame Richard had seized her.</p>
+
+<p>"The child is vowed," she said. "You shall not touch her. She belongs to
+God."</p>
+
+<p>"Then give her to me," I cried, "for I swear she is nearer to Heaven in
+my arms than yours."</p>
+
+<p>The woman's black eyes flashed terrible things at me, and she wound
+herself round Isobel with a marvellous strength. For a moment I was
+helpless.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I said, "I have never yet raised my hand against a woman, but
+if you do not release that girl this moment I shall have to forget your
+sex."</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" she shrieked. "Help! Baron! Cocher!"</p>
+
+<p>Some blue-bloused men looked up from their work in the vineyards a long
+way off. It was no time for hesitation. I set my teeth, and I caught
+hold of the woman's arms. Her bones cracked in my hands before she let
+go. Isobel at last was free!</p>
+
+<p>"Jump up and get in the automobile, Isobel!" I said. "Bear up, dear! It
+is only for a moment now."</p>
+
+<p>Half fainting she staggered out and groped her way across the road. Once
+she nearly fell, but my <i>chauffeur</i> leaped down and caught her. Then
+Madame Richard looked in my eyes and cursed me with slow, solemn words.</p>
+
+<p>I sprang away from her. She followed. I jumped into the automobile. She
+stood in front of it and dared us to start. The driver backed a little,
+suddenly shot forward, and with a wonderful curve avoided her. She ran
+to meet the peasants who were streaming now across the fields. We could
+hear for a few minutes her shrill cries to them. Then the vineyards
+became patchwork, and the still air a rushing wind. Our <i>chauffeur</i> sat
+grim and motionless, like a figure of fate, and we did our forty miles
+an hour.</p>
+
+<p>"You have orders?" I asked him once.</p>
+
+<p>"But yes, Monsieur," he answered. "We go to Paris&mdash;and avoid the
+telegraph offices."</p>
+
+<p>All the while Isobel was only partially conscious. Gradually, however,
+her colour became more natural, and at last she opened her eyes and
+smiled at me. Her fingers faintly pressed mine. She said nothing then,
+but in about half an hour she made an effort to sit up.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Arnold," she murmured, "you are indeed my guardian. Oh&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She broke off, and shuddered violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't try to talk yet," I said. "I shouldn't have been much of a
+guardian, should I, if I hadn't fetched you out of this scrape? Besides,
+it was Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res who planned everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she murmured, "I&mdash;haven't eaten anything for some time. They
+put things in my food to make me drowsy, so I dared not."</p>
+
+<p>Under my breath I made large demands upon my stock of profanity. Then I
+leaned over and spoke to the <i>chauffeur</i>. We were passing through a
+small town, and he at once slackened pace and pulled up at a small
+restaurant. With the first mouthful of soup Isobel's youth and strength
+seemed to reassert themselves. After a cutlet and a glass of wine she
+had colour, and began to talk. She even grumbled when I denied her
+coffee, and hurried her off again. In the automobile she came close to
+my side, and with a shyness quite new to her linked her arm in mine. So
+we sped once more on our way to Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Conversation, had Isobel been fit for it, was scarcely possible. But in
+a disjointed sort of way she tried to tell me things.</p>
+
+<p>"I was inside the house," she said, "and the door of the room was locked
+before I knew that Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res was not there&mdash;that the letter was
+not a true one. My aunt came and talked to me. She tried to be kind at
+first. Afterwards she was very angry. She said that my grandfather was
+an old man, that he wished to see me before he died. I must go with her
+at once. I said that I would go if I might see you first, but that only
+made her more angry still. She said that my life had been a disgrace to
+our family, that I must not mention your name, that I must speak as
+though I had just left the convent. Then I, too, lost my temper. I said
+that I would not go to Illghera. I did not want to see my grandfather,
+or any of my relations. They had left me alone so many years that now I
+could do without them altogether. She never interrupted me. She looked
+at me all the time with a still, cold smile. When I had finished she
+said only, 'We shall see,' and she left me alone. They brought me food,
+and after I had taken some of it I was ill. After that everything seemed
+like a dream. I simply moved about as they told me, and I did not seem
+to care much what happened. Then in Paris Adelaide came into my room.
+She brought me some chocolate, and she told me that you were near. I
+think that I should have died but for her. I began to listen to what
+they said. I found out that they never meant to take me to Illghera. It
+was the convent all the time. Adelaide brought me more chocolate, and
+kissed me. Then I made up my mind to fight. I would not take their food.
+I told myself all the time that I was not ill&mdash;I would not be ill. That
+is why I was able to look out for you, to strike at the Baron when he
+tried to shoot you, and to walk by myself. Arnold, why does my aunt hate
+me so?"</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer her, for even as she talked her voice grew fainter and
+fainter, and in a moment or two she was in a dead sleep. Her head fell
+upon my shoulder, her hand rested in mine. So she remained until we
+reached the outskirts of Paris. Then the noise of passing vehicles, and
+the altered motion of the car over the large cobble-stones woke her. She
+pressed my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I am safe, Arnold?" she murmured, with a shade of anxiety still in her
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite," I assured her.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments we turned into the Rue de St. Antoine and drew up
+before Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res' house. In the hall we met Tobain. I could see
+that she had been weeping, and her tone, as she took me a little on one
+side, was full of anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she murmured, "I am afraid&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady first," I said. "She has been ill. Where shall I take
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>She threw open the door of the dining-room. A small round table,
+elegantly appointed, was spread with such a supper as Feurg&eacute;res knew
+well how to order. There was a gold foiled bottle, flowers, salads and
+fruits. Tobain nodded vigorously as she drew up a chair for Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Monsieur himself who ordered everything," she exclaimed. "He was
+so particular that everything should be of the best, and the wine he
+fetched himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res?" I asked, struck by some note of hidden
+feeling in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I will take you to him," she answered, "if Mademoiselle will wait
+here."</p>
+
+<p>In the hall she no longer concealed her fears.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," she said, "I am afraid. Soon after you had left, and the
+master had given his orders for the supper, he called me to him. He was
+standing before the door of Madame's chamber, the room which it is not
+permitted to enter, and his hands and arms were full of flowers. He had
+been to the florists himself, I knew, for there were more than usual.
+'Tobain,' he said, 'always, as you know, I lock the door of this room
+when I enter. To-day I shall not do so. But you must understand that no
+one is permitted to enter but my friend, Mr. Arnold Greatson, who will
+return this evening. Those are my orders, Tobain.' 'But, Monsieur,
+dejeuner?' 'Remember, Tobain&mdash;Mr. Arnold Greatson only.' Then I caught a
+glimpse of his face, Monsieur, and I was afraid. I have been afraid ever
+since. It was the face of a young man, so brilliant, so eager. I was at
+my master's marriage, and the look was there then. He went in and he
+closed the door, and since then, Monsieur, I have heard no sound, and
+many hours have passed. Monsieur will please enter quickly."</p>
+
+<p>For myself, I shared, too, Tobain's nameless apprehensions. I left her,
+and knocked softly at the door. There was no answer. So I entered.</p>
+
+<p>The room was in darkness, but the opening of the door touched a spring
+under the carpet, and several heavily-shaded electric lamps filled the
+apartment with a soft dim light. Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res was sitting opposite
+to me, his eyes closed, a faint smile upon his lips. He had the air of a
+man who slept with a good conscience, and whose dreams were of the
+pleasantest. Close drawn to his was another chair, against which he
+leaned somewhat, and over the arm of which one hand was stretched,
+resting gently upon the soft mass of deep pink roses, whose perfume made
+fragrant the whole room. I spoke to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res," I cried, "it is done. I have brought Isobel. She
+is here."</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer. Had I, indeed, expected any, I could almost have
+believed that the smile, so light and delicate a thing, which quivered
+upon his pale lips, deepened a little as I spoke. But that, of course,
+was fancy, for Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res had won his heart's desire. Softly,
+and with fingers which felt almost sacrilegious, I broke off one of the
+blossoms with which the empty chair was laden, and with it in my hands I
+went back to Isobel.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIC" id="CHAPTER_VIC"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Isobel knew the whole truth. I told her one evening&mdash;the only one on
+which we two had dined out together alone. I think that the weather had
+tempted me to this indulgence, which I had up to now so carefully
+avoided. An early summer, with its long still evenings, had driven us
+out of doors. The leaves which rustled over our heads, stirred by the
+faintest of evening breezes, made sweeter music for us than the violins
+of the more fashionable restaurants, and no carved ceiling could be so
+beautiful as the star-strewn sky above. I omitted nothing. I laid the
+whole situation before her. When I had finished, she was very white and
+very quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"And now that you have told me all this," she asked, after a long
+silence, "does it remain for me to make my choice? Even now I do not see
+my way at all clearly. My relations do not want me. Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res
+has left me some money. Cannot I choose for myself how I shall spend my
+life?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," I answered, "that you may not. For my part I am bound to
+say, Isobel, that I think Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res was right. The letter of
+which I have told you, and which I found in my room, was written only a
+few hours before his death. At such a time a man sees clearly. You are
+not only yourself the Princess Isobel of Waldenburg, but you have a
+grandfather who has never recovered the loss of your mother and of you.
+It was not his fault or by his wish that you were sent away from
+Waldenburg. He has been deceived all the time by your aunt the
+Archduchess. I think that it is your duty to go to him."</p>
+
+<p>"You will come with me?" she murmured anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not leave you," I answered slowly, "until you are in his
+charge. But afterwards&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" she interrupted anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Afterwards," I said, firmly keeping my eyes away from her and bracing
+myself for the effort, "our ways must lie apart, Isobel. You are the
+daughter of one of Europe's great families, you have a future which is
+almost a destiny. You must fulfil your obligations."</p>
+
+<p>I saw the look in her face, and my heart ached for her. I leaned forward
+in my chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear child," I said, "remember that this is what your mother would have
+wished. Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res believed this before he died, and I think
+that no one else could tell so well what she would have desired for you.
+Just now it may seem a little hard to go amongst strangers, to begin
+life all over again at your age. But, after all, we must believe that it
+is the right thing."</p>
+
+<p>Her face was turned away from me, but I could see that her cheeks were
+pale and her lips trembling. She said nothing, I fancied because she
+dared not trust her voice. Above the tops of the trees the yellow moon
+was slowly rising; from a few yards away came all the varied clatter of
+the Boulevard. And around us little groups and couples of people were
+gay&mdash;gay with the invincible, imperishable gaiety of the Frenchman who
+dines. The white-aproned waiters smiled as with deft hands they served a
+different course, or with a few wonderful touches removed all traces of
+the repast, and served coffee and liqueurs upon a spotless cloth. And
+amidst it all I watched with aching heart Isobel, the child of to-day,
+the woman of to-morrow, as she fought her battle.</p>
+
+<p>Her face seemed marble-white in the strange light, half natural, half
+artificial. When she spoke at last she still kept her face turned away
+from me.</p>
+
+<p>"The right thing!" she murmured. "That is what I want to do. I want to
+do what she would have wished. But just now it seems a little hard. I do
+not want to be a princess. I do not want to be rich. Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res
+has made me independent, and that is all I desire. I would like to be
+free to live always my own life&mdash;free like you and Allan, who paint and
+write and think, for I, too, would love so much to be an artist. But it
+seems that all these things have been decided for me&mdash;by you and
+Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res. No," she added quickly, "I know very well that you
+are right. I am willing to do what Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res thinks that my
+mother would have wished. I will go to my grandfather, and if he wishes
+it I will stay with him. But there will be a condition!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned at last and looked at me. The lines of her mouth had altered,
+the carriage of her head, a subtle change in her tone, told their own
+story. It was the Princess Isobel who spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not have my mother ignored or spoken of as one who forgot her
+rank and station. These are all very well, but they are trifles compared
+with the great things of life. I am proud of my mother's courage, I am
+proud of the love which made his life, after she had gone, so beautiful.
+I know that you understand me, Arnold, but I do not think that those
+others will. They must bear with me, or I shall not stay."</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her wonderingly. It seemed to me so strange that, under our
+very eyes, the child whom I had led by the hand through Covent Garden on
+that bright Spring morning should have developed in thought and mind
+under our own roof, and with so little conscious instruction, into a
+woman of perceptions and character. Somewhere the seed of these things
+must have lain hidden. One knows so little, after all, of those whom one
+knows best.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a fair condition, Isobel," I said. "You are going into a world
+which is hedged about with conventions and prejudices. The things which
+are so clear to you and to me, they may look at differently. You must be
+received as your mother's daughter, and not as the King's
+granddaughter."</p>
+
+<p>She nodded gravely. Then she leaned across the table and looked into my
+eyes. Notwithstanding her pallor and her black dress, I was forced to
+realize what I ever forbade my thoughts to dwell upon&mdash;her great and
+increasing beauty. She looked into my eyes, and my heart stood still.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she murmured, "shall you miss me?"</p>
+
+<p>My heel dug into the turf beneath my foot. My eyes fell from hers. I
+dared not look at her.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall all miss you so much," I said gravely, "that life will never
+be the same again to us. You made it beautiful for a little time, and
+your absence will be hard to bear. I suppose we shall all turn to hard
+work," I added, with an attempt at lightness. "Allan will paint his
+great picture, Arthur will invent a new motor and make his fortune, and
+I shall write my immortal story."</p>
+
+<p>"The story," she said, "which you would not show me?"</p>
+
+<p>Show her! How could I, when I knew that for one who read between the
+lines the story of my own suffering was there? My secret had been hard
+enough to keep faithfully, even from her to whom the truth, had she ever
+divined it, must have seemed so incredible.</p>
+
+<p>"That one, perhaps," I answered lightly, "or the next! Who can tell? One
+is never a judge of one's own work, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Why would you not show me that story, Arnold?" she asked softly.</p>
+
+<p>I met her eyes fixed upon me with a peculiar intentness. I tried to
+escape them, but I could not. It was impossible for me to lie to her. My
+voice shook as I answered her.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me, Isobel!" I said. "We all make mistakes sometime, you
+know. Not to show you that story when you asked me was one of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"If you had it here&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I had it here I would show it you," I declared.</p>
+
+<p>She sighed. She did not seem altogether satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes, Arnold," she said thoughtfully, "you puzzle me very much.
+You treat me always as though I were a child; you keep me at arm's
+length always, as though there were between us some impassable barrier,
+as though it could never be possible for you to come into my world or
+for me to pass into yours. I know that you are wiser and cleverer than I
+am, but I can learn. I have been learning all the time. Are we always to
+remain at this great distance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Isobel," I answered, "you forget that I am more than twice your
+age. You are eighteen, and I am thirty-four. I cannot make myself young
+like you. I cannot call back the years, however much I might wish to do
+so. And for the rest, I have been your guardian. I, a poor writer of no
+particular family and very meagre fortune, and you my ward, a princess
+standing at the opposite pole of life. I have had to remember these
+things, Isobel."</p>
+
+<p>She leaned a little further across the table. Again her eyes held mine,
+and I felt my heart beat like a boy's at the touch of her soft white
+fingers as she laid her hand on mine.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish," she murmured, "oh, I wish&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So we've found you at last, have we?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel's speech was never ended. Mabane and Arthur stood within a few
+feet of us, the former grave, the latter white and angry. I rose slowly
+to my feet and held out my hand to Allan.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see you, Allan!" I said.</p>
+
+<p>He looked first at my hand, and afterwards at me. Then, with a sigh of
+relief, he took it and nearly wrung it off.</p>
+
+<p>"And I can't tell you how glad I am to see you both again!" he
+exclaimed. "We've heard strange stories&mdash;or rather Arthur has&mdash;from his
+friend Lady Delahaye, and at last we decided to come over and find out
+all about it for ourselves. Don't take any notice of Arthur," he added
+under his breath, "he's not quite himself."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur was standing with his back to me, talking to Isobel. Certainly
+her welcome was flattering enough. I realized with a sudden gravity that
+I had not heard her laugh like this since she had been in England.
+Arthur continued talking in a low, earnest tone.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you find us?" I asked Allan.</p>
+
+<p>"We called at the Rue de St. Antoine," he answered. "The housekeeper
+said that she had heard you talk about dining at one of these places.
+Arnold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you and Isobel staying on in Paris?"</p>
+
+<p>"First of all," I answered promptly, "we had to stay for the funeral,
+and now there are some legal formalities which cannot be finished until
+to-morrow. I am Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res' executor, Allan, and he has left me
+twenty thousand pounds. Isobel has the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted, old chap," Mabane declared heartily. "In fact, I'll
+drink your health."</p>
+
+<p>I called a waiter and ordered liqueurs. Arthur took his with an ill
+grace, and he still avoided any direct speech with me. Isobel was
+evidently uneasy, and looked at me once or twice as though anxious that
+I should break up their <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i>. But when I had paid the bill and
+we rose to go, Allan passed his arm through mine, and I was forced to
+let the two go on.</p>
+
+<p>"Let the boy have his chance," Allan said, pausing a little as we turned
+into the Boulevard. "He's in such a state that he won't listen to reason
+only from her."</p>
+
+<p>"But," I protested, "it is absurd for him to speak to her. Does he know
+who she is? The Princess Isobel of Waldenburg! Their little kingdom is
+small enough, but they play at royalty there."</p>
+
+<p>Allan nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"He knows. But he's a good-looking boy, and the girls have spoilt him a
+little. He has an idea that she cares for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" I declared, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"No! Not impossible!" Allan answered, shaking his head. "They have been
+together a great deal, you must remember, and Arthur can be a very
+delightful companion when he chooses. No, it isn't impossible, Arnold."</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel's future is already arranged," I said. "In three days' time I am
+taking her to her grandfather. If he receives her, as I believe that he
+will receive her, she will pass out of our lives as easily as she came
+into them. She will marry a grand duke, perhaps even a petty king. She
+will be plunged into all manner of excitements and gaiety. Her years
+with us will never be mentioned at Court. She herself will soon learn to
+look back on them as a quaint episode."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not believe it, Arnold?" Mabane declared scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven only knows what I believe," I answered, with a little burst of
+bitterness. "Look at that!"</p>
+
+<p>We had reached the Rue de St. Antoine. Isobel stood in the doorway at
+the apartments waiting for us. But Arthur had already disappeared.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIIC" id="CHAPTER_VIIC"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>I examined the tickets carefully and placed them in my pocket-book. Then
+I paused to light a cigarette on my way out of the office, and almost
+immediately felt a hand upon my arm. I looked at first at the hand. It
+was feminine and delicately gloved. Then I looked upwards into the blue
+eyes of Lady Delahaye.</p>
+
+<p>"Abominable!" she murmured. "You are not glad to see me!"</p>
+
+<p>I raised my hat.</p>
+
+<p>"The Boulevard des Italiennes," I said, "has never seemed to me to be a
+place peculiarly suitable for the display of emotion."</p>
+
+<p>"Come and try the Rue Strelitz," she answered, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>I glanced down at her. She was gowned even more perfectly than
+usual&mdash;Parisienne to the finger-tips. She had too all the delightful
+confidence of a woman who knows that she is looking her best.</p>
+
+<p>I smiled back at her. It was impossible to take her seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Your invitation," I said, "sounds most attractive. But I am curious to
+know what would happen to me in the Rue Strelitz. Should I be offered
+poison in a jewelled cup, or disposed of in a cruder fashion? Let me
+make my will first, and I will come. I am really curious!"</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she said, looking up at me with very bright eyes, "you are
+brutal."</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite that, I hope," I protested.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me tell you something," she continued.</p>
+
+<p>We were in rather a conspicuous position. Lady Delahaye seemed suddenly
+to realize it.</p>
+
+<p>"May I beg for your escort a little way?" she said. "I am not
+comfortable upon the Boulevard alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You could scarcely fail," I remarked, throwing away my cigarette, "to
+be an object of attention from the Frenchman, who is above all things a
+judge of your sex. I will accompany you a little way with pleasure.
+Shall we take a fiacre?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather walk," she answered. "Do you mind coming this way? I
+will not take you far."</p>
+
+<p>"I have two whole unoccupied hours," I assured her, "which are very much
+at your service."</p>
+
+<p>"Where, then," she asked, "is Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shopping with Tobain," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not afraid," she asked with a smile, "to send her out alone
+with Tobain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," I answered. "Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res' only friend in
+Paris was the chief commissioner of police, and he has been good enough
+to take great interest in us. Isobel is well watched."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," she said, after a moment's pause, "whether you have still
+any faith in me!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear lady!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could make you believe me. The&mdash;her Highness&mdash;she prefers us
+here to call her Madame&mdash;has relinquished altogether her designs against
+you. She desires an alliance."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this," I asked, "an invitation to me to join in the spoils? Am I to
+become murderer, or poisoner, or abductor, or what?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye bit her lip.</p>
+
+<p>"You are altogether too severe," she said. "Madame simply realizes that
+she has been mistaken. She is willing for Isobel to be restored to her
+grandfather. It will mean a million or so less dowry for Adelaide, but
+that must be faced. Madame desires to make peace with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am charmed," I answered. "May I ask exactly what this means?"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye smiled up at me.</p>
+
+<p>"The Archduchess will explain to you herself," she said. "I am taking
+you to her."</p>
+
+<p>I slackened my pace.</p>
+
+<p>"I think not," I said. "To tell you the truth, the Archduchess terrifies
+me. I see myself inveigled into a room with a trap-door, or knocked on
+the head by hired bullies, and all manner of disagreeable things. No,
+Lady Delahaye, I think that I will not run the risk."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that you will come," she said softly.</p>
+
+<p>"And why?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are a man, and you do not know fear!"</p>
+
+<p>I raised my hat and proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>"My head is turned," I said. "Nothing flatters a coward so much as the
+imputation of bravery. I think that I shall go with you anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Even&mdash;to the Rue Strelitz?"</p>
+
+<p>"My courage may fail me at the last moment," I answered. "At present it
+feels equal even to the Rue Strelitz."</p>
+
+<p>Again she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a fraud, Arnold," she declared. "As if we did not know&mdash;I and
+Madame and all of us, that in Paris, even throughout France, you could
+walk safely into any den of thieves you choose. Your courage isn't worth
+a snap of the fingers. Any man can be brave who has the archangels of
+Dotant at his elbows."</p>
+
+<p>"What an easily pricked reputation," I answered regretfully. "Well, it
+is true. Dotant was Feurg&eacute;res' greatest friend, and even Isobel might
+walk the streets of Paris alone and in safety. Hence, I presume, the
+amiable desire of the Archduchess for an alliance."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye shrugged her lace-clad shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Arnold," she said, "for myself I adore candour, and why should
+I try and deceive you? Madame has played a losing game, and knows it.
+She has the courage to admit defeat. She can still offer enough to make
+an alliance desirable. For instance, those tickets in your pocket for
+Illghera will take you there, it is true, but they will not take you
+into the presence of the King."</p>
+
+<p>"The King," I remarked pensively, "leads a retired life."</p>
+
+<p>"He does," Lady Delahaye answered. "He has the greatest objection to
+visitors, and for a stranger to obtain an audience is almost an
+impossibility. He never leaves the grounds of the villa, and his
+secretary, who opens all his letters, is&mdash;a friend of Madame's."</p>
+
+<p>"You have put your case admirably," I remarked. "If Madame is sincere, I
+should at least like to hear what she has to say."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye drew a little sigh of content.</p>
+
+<p>"At last," she exclaimed, "I do believe that you are going to behave
+like a reasonable person."</p>
+
+<p>I could not refrain from the natural retort.</p>
+
+<p>"I have an idea," I said, "that up to now my actions have been fairly
+well justified."</p>
+
+<p>We were mounting the steps of her house. She looked round and raised her
+eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"We must let bygones be bygones!" she said. "Madame has declared that
+henceforth she adjures all intrigue."</p>
+
+<p>A footman took my hat and stick in the hall. Lady Delahaye led me into a
+small boudoir leading out of a larger room. She herself only opened the
+door and closed it, remaining outside. I was alone with the Archduchess.</p>
+
+<p>She rose slowly to her feet, a very graceful and majestic-looking
+person, with a suggestion of Isobel in her thin neck and the pose of her
+head. She did not hold out her hand, and she surveyed me very
+critically. I ventured to bestow something of the same attention upon
+her. She was certainly a very beautiful woman, and her expression by no
+means displeasing. She had Isobel's dark blue eyes, and there was a
+humorous line about her mouth which astonished me.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not offering you my hand, Mr. Greatson," she said, "because I
+presume that until we understand each other better it would be a mere
+matter of form. Still, I am glad that you have come to see me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad too, Madame," I answered, "especially if my visit leads
+to a cessation of the somewhat remarkable proceedings of the last few
+weeks."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, "I am forced to admit myself beaten. I have been
+ill-served, it is true, but I suppose my methods are antiquated."</p>
+
+<p>"They belong properly," I admitted, "to a few centuries ago."</p>
+
+<p>Madame smiled a little queerly.</p>
+
+<p>"A few centuries ago," she said, "I fancy that if our family history is
+true, the affair would have been more simple."</p>
+
+<p>"I can well believe it," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>Madame relapsed into her chair, from which I judged that the preliminary
+skirmishing was over.</p>
+
+<p>"You will please to be seated, Mr. Greatson!"</p>
+
+<p>I obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going to play the hypocrite with you, sir," she said quietly.
+"It is not worth while, is it? The object of the struggle between us has
+been, on my part, to keep Isobel and her grandfather apart. You have
+doubtless correctly gauged my motive. Isobel's mother was my father's
+favourite child. If he had an idea that her child was alive, he would
+receive her without a word. She would completely usurp the place of
+Adelaide, my own daughter, in his affection&mdash;and in his will."</p>
+
+<p>"In his will!" I repeated quietly. "Yes, I understand."</p>
+
+<p>Madame nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite simple," she said. "For myself I am willing to admit that I
+am an ambitious woman. Money for its own sake I take no heed of, but it
+remains always one of the great levers of the world, and it is the only
+lever by means of which I can gain what I desire. I never forget that
+the country over which my father rules was once an absolute kingdom, and
+semi-Royalty does not appeal to me. The betrothal of my daughter
+Adelaide to Ferdinand of Saxonia was of my planning entirely. The dowry
+required by the Council of Saxonia is so large that it could not
+possibly be paid if any portion of my father's fortune, great though it
+is, is diverted towards Isobel. Hence my desire to keep Isobel and her
+grandfather apart."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I said, "you are candour itself. I can only regret that it is
+my hard fate to oppose such admirable plans."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been given to understand," the Archduchess said, "that it is now
+your intention to take Isobel yourself to Illghera!"</p>
+
+<p>"The tickets," I murmured, "are in my pocket."</p>
+
+<p>Madame bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she said, "I have seen and heard enough of you to make no
+further effort to thwart or even to influence you. Yet I have a
+proposition to make. First of all, consider these things. If we come to
+no arrangement with each other I shall use every means I can to prevent
+your obtaining an interview with my father. Everything is in my favour.
+He is very old, he has a hatred of strangers, he grants audiences to no
+one. He never passes outside the grounds of the villa, and all the gates
+are guarded by sentries, who admit no one save those who have the
+entr&eacute;e. Then, if you attempt to approach him by correspondence, his
+private secretary, who opens every letter, is one of my own appointing.
+I have exaggerated none of these things. It will be difficult for you to
+approach the King. You may succeed&mdash;you seem to have the knack of
+success&mdash;but it will take time. Isobel's re-appearance will be without
+dignity, and open to many remarks for various reasons. You may even fail
+to convince my father, and if you failed the first time there would be
+no second opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>"What you say, Madame," I admitted, "is reasonable. I have never assumed
+that as yet my task is completed. I recognize fully the difficulties
+that are still before me."</p>
+
+<p>"You have common-sense, Mr. Greatson, I am glad to see," she continued.
+"I am the more inclined to hope that you will accede to my proposition.
+Briefly, it is this! Let me have the credit of bringing Isobel to her
+grandfather. Her year in London would at all times, in these days of
+scandal, be a somewhat delicate matter to publish. What you have done,
+you have done, as I very well know, from no hope of or desire for
+reward. Efface yourself. It will be for Isobel's good. I myself shall
+stand sponsor for her to the world. I shall have discovered her in the
+convent here, and I shall take her back to her rightful place with
+triumph. All your difficulties then will vanish, your end will have been
+creditably and adequately attained. For myself the advantage is obvious.
+A difference to Adelaide it must make, but it will inevitably be less if
+the credit of her discovery remains with me. Have I made myself clear,
+Mr. Greatson?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," I answered. "But you forget there is Isobel herself to be
+considered. She is no longer a child. She has opinions and a will of her
+own."</p>
+
+<p>"She owes too much to you," Madame replied quietly, "to disregard your
+wishes."</p>
+
+<p>I believed from the first that the woman was in earnest, and her
+proposal an honest one. And yet I hesitated. The past was a little
+recent. She showed that she read my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," she said, "I will prove to you that I mean what I say. To-night
+I will give a dinner-party&mdash;informal, it is true, but the Prince of
+Cleves, my cousin the Cardinal, and your own ambassador, shall come. I
+will introduce Isobel as my niece. The affair will then be established.
+Do you consent?"</p>
+
+<p>For one moment I hesitated. I knew very well what my answer meant.
+Absolute effacement, the tearing out of my life for ever of what had
+become the sweetest part of it. In that single moment it seemed to me
+that I realized with something like complete despair the barrenness of
+the days to come.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame, if Isobel is to be persuaded," I answered, "I consent."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIIIC" id="CHAPTER_VIIIC"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>"This, then," the Prince remarked, raising his eyeglass, "is the young
+lady whose romantic history you have been recounting to me? But, my dear
+lady, she is charming!"</p>
+
+<p>Madame held out her hands affectionately and kissed Isobel, who had
+entered the room with her cousin, on both cheeks. Then she took her by
+the hand and presented her to the Prince of Cleves and several others of
+the company. Isobel was a little pale, but her manner was perfectly easy
+and self-possessed. She was dressed, somewhat to my surprise, in the
+deepest mourning, and she even wore a band of black velvet around her
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child," her aunt said pleasantly, "I scarcely think that your
+toilette is a compliment to us all. White should be your colour for many
+years to come."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel raised her eyes. Her tone was no louder than ordinary, but
+somehow her voice seemed to be possessed of unusually penetrating
+qualities.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear aunt," she said, "you forget I am in mourning for my
+stepfather, Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res, who was very good to me."</p>
+
+<p>A company of perfectly bred people accepted the remark in sympathetic
+silence. There was not even an eyebrow raised, but I fancy that Isobel's
+words, calmly spoken and with obvious intent, struck the keynote of her
+future relations with her aunt.</p>
+
+<p>Isobel, a few minutes later, brought her cousin over to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Adelaide is very anxious to know you, Arnold!" she said quietly. This
+was all the introduction she offered. Immediately afterwards her aunt
+called Isobel away to be presented to a new arrival.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," Adelaide said earnestly, "I cannot tell you how
+delighted I am that all this trouble is over, and that Isobel is coming
+to us. But I think&mdash;I think she is paying too great a price. I think my
+mother is hatefully, wickedly cruel!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady," I protested, "I do not think that you must say
+that. Your mother's conditions are necessary. In fact, whether she made
+them or not, I think that they would be inevitable."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not even to come to Illghera with us? Not to visit us even?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"I belong to the great family of Bohemians," I reminded her, "who have
+no possessions and but one dress suit. What should I do at Court?"</p>
+
+<p>"What indeed!" she answered, with a little sigh, "for you are a citizen
+of the greater world!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no such thing," I answered. "We carry our own world with us.
+We make it small or large with our own hands."</p>
+
+<p>"For some," she murmured, "the task then is very difficult. Where one
+lives in a forcing-house of conventions, and the doors are fast locked,
+it is very easy to be stifled, but it is hard indeed to breathe."</p>
+
+<p>"Princess," I said gravely, "have you examined the windows?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is simple, surely," I declared. "Even if you must remain in the
+forcing-house, it is for you to open the windows and breathe what air
+you will. For your thoughts at least are free, and it is of our thoughts
+that our lives are fashioned."</p>
+
+<p>She sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr. Greatson," she said, "one does not talk like that at Court."</p>
+
+<p>"You have a great opportunity," I answered. "Character is a flower which
+blossoms in all manner of places. Sometimes it comes nearest to
+perfection in the most unlikely spots. Prosperity and sunshine are not
+the best things in the world for it. Sometimes in the gloomy and
+desolate places its growth is the sturdiest and its flowers the
+sweetest."</p>
+
+<p>The service of dinner had been announced. The English Ambassador took
+Adelaide away from me, but as she accepted his arm she looked me in the
+eyes with a grave but wonderfully sweet smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you very much, Mr. Greatson," she said. "Our little
+conversation has been most pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess swept up to me. She was looking a little annoyed.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said, "Isobel is pleading shyness&mdash;an absurd excuse.
+She insists that you take her in to dinner. I suppose she must have her
+own way to-night, but it is annoying."</p>
+
+<p>Madame looked at me as though it were my fault that her plans were
+disarranged, which was a little unfair. And then Isobel, very serene,
+but with that weary look about the eyes which seemed only to have
+increased during the evening, came quietly up and took my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"If this is to be our last evening, Arnold, we will at least spend as
+much of it as possible together," she said gently. "I will be a very
+dutiful niece, aunt, to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>We moved off together, but not before I was struck with something
+singular in Madame's expression. She stood looking at us two as though
+some wholly new idea had presented itself to her. She did not follow us
+into the dining-room for some few moments.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner itself, for an informal one, was a very brilliant function.
+There were eighteen of us at a large round table, which would easily
+have accommodated twenty-four. The Cardinal, whose scarlet robes in
+themselves formed a strange note of colour, sat on the Archduchess's
+right, touching scarcely any of the dishes which were continually
+presented to him, and sipping occasionally from the glass of water at
+his side. The other men and women were all distinguished, and their
+conversation, mostly carried on in French, was apt, and at times
+brilliant. Isobel and I perhaps, the former particularly, contributed
+least to the general fund. Isobel met the advances of her right-hand
+neighbour with the barest of monosyllables. Lady Delahaye, who sat on my
+left, left me for the most part discreetly alone. Yet we two spoke very
+little. I could see that Isobel was disposed to be hysterical, and that
+her outward calm was only attained by means of an unnatural effort. Yet
+I fancied that my being near soothed her, and every time I spoke to her
+or she to me, a certain relief came into her face. All the while I was
+conscious of one strange thing. The Archduchess, although she had the
+Cardinal on one side and the Prince of Cleves on the other, was
+continually watching us. Her interest in their conversation was purely
+superficial. Her interest in us, on the contrary, was an absorbing one.
+I could not understand it at all.</p>
+
+<p>The conclusion of dinner was marked by an absence of all ceremony. The
+cigarettes had already been passed round before the Archduchess rose,
+but those who chose to remain at the table did so. Isobel leaned over
+and whispered in my ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me into the drawing-room. I want to talk to you."</p>
+
+<p>I obeyed, and the Archduchess seemed to me purposely to leave us alone.
+We sat in a quiet corner, and when I saw that there were tears in
+Isobel's eyes, I knew that my time of trial was not yet over.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," she said quietly, "you care&mdash;whether I am happy or not? You
+have done so much for me&mdash;you must care!"</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot doubt it, Isobel," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not. This sort of life will not suit me at all. I do not trust my
+aunt. I am weary of strangers. Let us give it all up. Take me back to
+London with you. I feel as though I were going into prison."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Isobel," I said, "you must remember why we decided that it was
+right for you to rejoin your people."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know," she answered. "But even to the last Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res
+hesitated. My mother would never have wished me to be miserable."</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that Feurg&eacute;res was right," I answered. "I believe that your
+mother would wish to see you in your rightful place. I believe that it
+is your duty to claim it."</p>
+
+<p>Then I think that for the first time Isobel was unfair to me, and spoke
+words which hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not wish to have me back again," she said slowly. "I have been a
+trouble to you, I know, and I have upset your life. You want me to go
+away."</p>
+
+<p>I did not answer her. I could not. She leaned forward and looked into my
+face, and instantly her tone changed. Her soft fingers clutched mine for
+a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Arnold," she whispered, "I am sorry! Forgive me! I will do what
+you think best. I did not mean to hurt you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure that you did not, Isobel," I answered. "Listen! I am
+speaking now for Allan as well as for myself, and for Arthur too. To
+tear you out of our lives is the hardest thing we have ever had to do.
+Your coming changed everything for us. We were never so happy before. We
+shall never know anything like it again. If you were what we thought, a
+nameless and friendless child, you would be welcome back again, more
+welcome than I can tell you. But you have your own life to live, and it
+is not ours. You have your own place to fill in the world, and, forgive
+me, your mother's memory to vindicate. Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res was right. For
+her sake you must claim the things that are yours."</p>
+
+<p>"But shall I never see you again, Arnold?" she asked, with a little
+catch in her breath.</p>
+
+<p>I set my teeth. I could see that the Archduchess was watching us.</p>
+
+<p>"Our ways must lie far apart, Isobel," I said. "But who can say? Many
+things may happen. The Princess Isobel may visit the studios when she is
+in London or at Homburg. She may patronize the poor writer whose books
+she knows."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel sat and listened to me with stony face.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," she murmured, "why the way to one's duty lies always through
+Hell?"</p>
+
+<p>Isobel's lips were quivering, and I dared make no effort to console her.
+The Archduchess came suddenly across the room to us, and bent
+affectionately over Isobel.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child," she said, "you are overtired. Go and talk to Adelaide.
+She is alone in the music-room. I have something to say to Mr.
+Greatson."</p>
+
+<p>Isobel rose and left us at once. The Archduchess took her place. She was
+carrying a fan of black ostrich feathers, and she waved it languidly for
+some time as though in deep thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she said at length.</p>
+
+<p>I turned and found her eyes fixed curiously upon me. These were moments
+which I remembered all my life, and every little detail in connection
+with them seemed flashed into my memory. The strange perfume, something
+like the burning of wood spice, wafted towards me by her fan, the
+glitter of the blue black sequins which covered her magnificent gown,
+the faint smile upon her parted lips, and the meaning in her eyes&mdash;all
+these things made their instantaneous and ineffaceable impression. Then
+she leaned a little closer to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Greatson," she repeated, "I know your secret!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IXC" id="CHAPTER_IXC"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>I am afraid that for the moment I lost my self-possession. I had gone
+through so much during the last few hours, and this woman spoke with
+such confidence&mdash;so quietly, and yet with such absolute conviction&mdash;that
+I felt the barriers which I had built about myself crumbling away. I
+answered her lamely, and without conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"My secret! I do not know what you mean. I have no secret!"</p>
+
+<p>The black feathers fluttered backwards and forwards once more. She
+regarded me still with the same quiet smile.</p>
+
+<p>"You love my niece, Mr. Greatson," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I answered, "you are jesting!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I am not," she declared. "I have made a statement which is
+perfectly true."</p>
+
+<p>"I deny it!" I exclaimed hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"You can deny it as much as you like, if you think it worth while to
+perjure yourself," she replied coolly. "The truth remains. I have had a
+good deal of experience in such matters. You love Isobel, and I am not
+at all sure that Isobel does not love you."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I protested, "such statements are absurd. I am no longer a
+young man. I am thirty-four years old. I have no longer any thought of
+marriage. Isobel is no more than a child. I was nearly her present age
+when she was born. The whole idea, as I trust you will see, is
+ridiculous."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess regarded me still with unchanged face.</p>
+
+<p>"Your protestations, Mr. Greatson," she said, "amuse, but utterly fail
+to convince me."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us drop the subject, then," I said hastily. "At least, if you
+persist in your hallucination, I hope you will believe this. I have
+never spoken a word of what could be called love-making to the child in
+my life."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you implicitly," she answered promptly. "I believe that I
+know and can appreciate your position. Let me tell you that I honour you
+for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I murmured, "you are very good. Let us now abandon the
+subject."</p>
+
+<p>"By no means," she answered. "On the contrary, I should like to discuss
+it with you fully."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us suppose for a moment," she went on calmly, "that I am correct,
+that you really love Isobel, but that your peculiar position has imposed
+upon your sense of honour the necessity for silence. Well, your
+guardianship of her may now be considered to have ended. From to-night
+it has passed into my hands. Still, you would say the difference between
+your positions is immeasurable. You are, I doubt not, a gentleman by
+birth, but Isobel comes from one of the ancient and noble families of
+the world, and might almost expect to share a throne with the man whom
+she elects to marry. It is true, in effect, Mr. Greatson, that you are
+of different worlds."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I answered, "why do you trouble to demonstrate such obvious
+facts? They are incontestable. But supposing for a moment that your
+surmises concerning myself were true, you will understand that they are
+painful for me to listen to."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have patience, Mr. Greatson," she said quietly. "At present I
+am feeling my way through my thoughts. There is rash blood in Isobel's
+veins, and I should like her life to be happier than her mother's. She
+is unconventional and a lover of freedom. The etiquette of our Court at
+Illghera will chafe her continually. I wonder, Mr. Greatson, if she
+would not be happier&mdash;married to some one of humbler birth, perhaps, but
+who can give her the sort of life she desires."</p>
+
+<p>I was for a moment dumb with astonishment. Apart from the amazement of
+the whole thing, the Archduchess was not in the least the sort of person
+to be seriously interested in the abstract question of Isobel's
+happiness. At least, I should not have supposed her capable of it. I
+imagine that she must have read my thoughts, for after a searching
+glance at me she continued:</p>
+
+<p>"You doubt my disinterestedness, Mr. Greatson. Perhaps you are right. I
+wish the child well, but there is also this fact to be considered.
+Isobel married to an English gentleman such as, say, yourself, would be
+no longer a serious rival to my daughter in the affections of her
+grandfather."</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed I began to understand. What a woman of resource! She watched
+me closely behind the feathers of her fan.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," she said, "this time my plot is an innocent one, and it is for
+Isobel's happiness as well as for my daughter's benefit. Speak to her
+now. Marry her at once, here in Paris, and I will give her for dowry
+twenty thousand pounds!"</p>
+
+<p>I ground my heel into the carpet, and I was grateful for those long
+black feathers which waved gracefully in front of my face. For I was
+tempted&mdash;sorely tempted. The woman's words rang like mad music in my
+brain. Speak to her! Why not? It was the great joy of the world which
+waited for me to pluck it. Why not? I was not an old man, the child was
+fond of me, a single word of compliance, and I might step into my
+kingdom. Oh, the rapture of it, the wonderful joy of taking her hands in
+mine, of dropping once and for ever the mask from my face, the gag from
+my tongue! A rush of wild thoughts turned me dizzy. My secret was no
+longer a secret at all. The Archduchess leaned a little closer to me,
+and whispered behind those fluttering feathers&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are a very wonderful person, Mr. Greatson, that you have kept
+silence so long. The necessity for it has passed. The child loves you. I
+am sure of it."</p>
+
+<p>But my moment of weakness was over. I had a sudden vision of Feurg&eacute;res,
+standing on the stage, listening with bowed head to the thunder of
+applause, but with his eyes turned always to the darkened box, with its
+lonely bouquet of pink roses&mdash;lonely to all save him, who alone saw the
+hand which held them&mdash;of Feurg&eacute;res in his sanctuary, bending lovingly
+over that chair, empty to all save him, Feurg&eacute;res, with that smile of
+unearthly happiness upon his lips&mdash;calm, debonair and steadfast. This
+was the man who had trusted me. I raised my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame," I said quietly, "what you suggest is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>She stared at me in incredulous astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"But I do not understand," she exclaimed weakly. "You agree, surely?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, Madame," I said, "I beg that you will not allude
+further to the matter."</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess muttered something in German to herself which I did not
+understand. Perhaps it was just as well.</p>
+
+<p>"You will vouchsafe me," she begged, speaking very slowly, and keeping
+her eyes fixed on me, "some reason for your refusal?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will give you two," I answered. "First, it is contrary to the spirit
+of my promise to Monsieur Feurg&eacute;res."</p>
+
+<p>Her lip curled.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Secondly," I continued, "I should be taking a dishonourable advantage
+of my position with regard to Isobel. She is very grateful to me, and
+she would very likely mistake her sentiments if I were to speak to her
+as you suggest. She is too young to know what love is. She has met no
+young men of her own rank, she does not understand in the least what
+sort of position is in store for her."</p>
+
+<p>"These are your reasons, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I venture to think that they are sufficient ones, Madame," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess rose.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall need a new Cervantes," she remarked, "to do justice to the
+Englishman of to-day. I shall keep my word, Mr. Greatson, as regards
+Isobel, and I can promise you this. If gaiety and eligible suitors, and
+the luxury of her new life are not sufficient to stifle any sentimental
+follies she may be nursing just now, I will not rest till I find other
+means. Adelaide's future is arranged. I will set myself to make Isobel's
+equally brilliant. I will make her the beauty of Europe. She shall
+forget in a month the squalid days of her life with you and your friends
+in an attic."</p>
+
+<p>"So long as Isobel is happy," I answered, "my mission is accomplished,
+and I am content."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a fool and a liar!" she answered contemptuously. "You will love
+her all your days, and you know it. You will grow to curse the memory of
+this hour in which you threw away the only chance you will ever have of
+winning her. The only chance, mind, I will answer for that. I wish you
+good-evening, Mr. Greatson. You are excused. Isobel, as you are aware,
+remains here. You will find her in the music-room with Adelaide. Go and
+make your adieux, and make them quickly. You will be interrupted in
+three minutes."</p>
+
+<p>She swept away from me with only the slightest inclination of her head.
+I made my way to the music-room, where Isobel and her cousin were
+sitting together. Directly I entered, the latter, with a little nod of
+curious meaning to me, rose and left us alone. I held out my hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel, dear," I said, "this must be&mdash;our farewell, then&mdash;for a time!"</p>
+
+<p>She placed her hands in mine. They were as cold as ice. Her cheeks were
+white, her eyes seemed fastened upon mine. All the while her bosom was
+heaving convulsively, but she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"I can only wish you what Arthur and Allan have already wished you," I
+said, "happiness! You have every chance of it, dear. You surely deserve
+it, for you brightened up our dull lives so that we can, no one of us,
+ever forget you. Think of us sometimes. Good-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>I stooped and kissed her lightly on the cheek. But suddenly her arms
+were wound around my neck. With a strength which was amazing she held me
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold!" she sobbed. "Oh, Arnold!"</p>
+
+<p>Her lips were upon mine, and in another second I should have been lost,
+for my arms would have been around her. The door opened and closed. We
+heard the jingling of sequins, the sweep of a silken train. The
+Archduchess had entered. Isobel's arms fell from my neck, but her cheeks
+were scarlet, and her eyes like stars.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;are going?" she pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going," I answered huskily.</p>
+
+<p>The Archduchess came down the room, humming a light tune.</p>
+
+<p>"So the dread farewell is over, then!" she exclaimed, with light good
+humour. "Come, child, no red eyes. Remember, a Waldenburg weeps only
+twice in her life. Once more, good-night, Mr. Greatson."</p>
+
+<p>I had reached the door. Isobel was standing still with outstretched
+arms. The Archduchess glided between us&mdash;and I went.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The next morning I travelled unseen by the Riviera express, to which the
+saloon of the Archduchess had been attached, all the way to Illghera. I
+saw her driven with the others to the villa.</p>
+
+<p>Two days afterwards, from a hill overlooking the grounds, I saw an old
+gentleman in a pony chaise preceded by two footmen in dark green livery.
+Adelaide walked on one side, and Isobel on the other. That night I left
+Illghera for England.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XC" id="CHAPTER_XC"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+
+<p>I knew the moment I opened the door that changes were on foot. Our
+studio sitting-room was dismantled of many of its treasures. Allan, with
+his coat off and a pipe in his mouth, was throwing odds and ends in a
+promiscuous sort of way into a huge trunk which stood open upon the
+floor. Arthur, a few yards off, was rolling a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>Our meeting was not wholly free from embarrassment. I think that for the
+first time in our lives there was a cloud between Allan and myself. He
+stood up and faced me squarely.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," he said, "where is Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Illghera with her grandfather," I answered. "Where else should she
+be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen her there with my own eyes," I affirmed.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's pause. I saw the two exchange glances. Then Allan
+held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"That damned woman again!" he exclaimed. "Forgive me, Arnold!"</p>
+
+<p>"Willingly," I answered, "when I know what for."</p>
+
+<p>"Suspecting you. Lady Delahaye wrote Arthur a note, in which she said
+that the Archduchess and you had made fresh plans. You can guess what
+they were. And Illghera was off. You did hurry us away from Paris a bit,
+you know, and I was fool enough to imagine for a moment that there might
+be something in it. Forgive me, Arnold!" he added, holding out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"And me!" Arthur exclaimed, extending his.</p>
+
+<p>I held out a hand to each. There was something grimly humorous in this
+reception, after all that I had suffered during the last few days. My
+first impulse of anger died away almost as quickly as it had been
+conceived.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," I said, "the Archduchess did propose some such scheme to
+me, but you forget that my honour was involved, not only to you, not
+only to the child, but to a dead man. I can look you both in the face
+and assure you that in word and letter I have been faithful to my
+trust."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it!" Allan declared gruffly. "Dear old chap, forgive me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the brute who dangled the letter before his eyes," Arthur
+exclaimed bitterly, "and I am the only one of the three who has broken
+our covenant."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friends," I said slowly, "the things which are past, let us
+forget. Isobel has gone back to the life which claimed her. No barrier
+which human hand could rear could separate her from us so effectually
+and irrevocably as the mere fact that she has taken up the position
+which belongs to her. She is the Princess Isobel of Waldenburg, a king's
+grandchild. And we are&mdash;what we are! Let me now make my confession to
+you. I, too, loved her."</p>
+
+<p>The two hands which held mine tightened for a moment their grasp. The
+old "camaraderie" was established once more.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I who was responsible for her coming," I continued. "It is only
+fitting that I, too, should suffer. How she grew into our hearts you all
+know. She has gone, and nothing can ever be the same. Yet I for one do
+not regret it. I regret nothing! I am content to live with the memory of
+these wonderful days she spent with us."</p>
+
+<p>"And I!" Allan declared.</p>
+
+<p>"And I!" Arthur echoed.</p>
+
+<p>I wrung their hands, for it was a joy to me to feel that we had come
+once more into complete accord.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what sort of a state we were drifting into when she came," I
+continued. "We were like thousands of others. We were rubbing shoulders,
+hour by hour and day by day, with the world which takes no account of
+beautiful things. She came and laid the magician's hand upon our lives.
+We had perforce to alter our ways, to alter our surroundings, our
+amusements, our ideals. Joy came with her, and pain may find a secret
+place in our hearts now that she has gone, but I do not think that
+either of us would willingly blot out from his life these last two
+years. Would you, Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not I!" he declared. "We had to learn ourselves to teach her. To chuck
+the things that were rotten, anyhow, just because she was around. Jolly
+good for us, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with Arthur and you," Allan said. "I agree with all that you
+have said. The child was dear to me too. So dear, that I do not think
+that it would be easy to go back to our old life without her. That is
+why&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He glanced around the room. Our hands fell apart. I lit a cigarette and
+looked at the open trunk.</p>
+
+<p>"You are going away, Allan?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm off to Canada," he said. "I've an old uncle there who's worth
+looking after, and he's always bothering me to pay him a visit. Right
+time of the year, too&mdash;and hang it all, Arnold, I've sat here for a week
+in front of an empty canvas, and I'd go to hell sooner than stand it any
+longer!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Arthur?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been appointed manager of our Paris Dep&ocirc;t," Arthur answered a
+little grandiloquently. "I couldn't refuse it. Much better pay and more
+fun, and all that sort of thing, and&mdash;oh, hang it all, Arnold, is it
+likely a fellow could stay here now she's gone?" he wound up, with a
+little catch in his throat.</p>
+
+<p>So the old days were over! I looked at my desk, and by the side of it
+was the chair in which she used sometimes to sit while I read to her.
+Then I think that I, too, was glad that this change was to come.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing, Arnold," Mabane said quietly, "about her things. We
+locked the door of her room. Mrs. Burdett has packed up most of her
+clothes, but there are the ornaments and a few little things of her own.
+We should like to go in&mdash;Arthur and I. We have waited for you."</p>
+
+<p>"We will go now," I answered. "She will have no need of anything that
+she has left behind. We will each choose a keepsake, and lock the rest
+up."</p>
+
+<p>We entered the room all together, almost on tiptoe. If we had been
+wearing hats I am sure that we should have taken them off. How, with
+such trifling means at her command, she could have left behind in that
+tiny chamber so potent an impression of daintiness and comfort I cannot
+tell. But there it was. Her little bed, with its spotless counterpane,
+was hung with pink muslin. There was a lace spread upon her
+toilet-table, on which her little oddments of silver made a brave show.
+Only one thing seemed out of place, a worn little slipper peeping out
+from under a chair. I thrust it into my pocket. The others took some
+trifle from the table. Then, as silently as we had entered, we left the
+room. As I turned the key I choked down something in my throat, and did
+my best to laugh&mdash;a little unnaturally, I am afraid.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" I cried, "it is I who am responsible for this attack of
+sentiment. I will show you how to get rid of it. You dine with me at
+Hautboy's. I have money&mdash;lots of it. Feurg&eacute;res left me twenty thousand
+pounds. Hautboy's and a magnum of the best. How long will you fellows be
+dressing?"</p>
+
+<p>They tried to fall into my mood. Allan mixed cocktails. We drank and
+smoked and shouted to one another uproariously from our rooms as we
+changed our clothes. We drove to Hautboy's three in a hansom, and Arthur
+spent his usual five minutes chaffing the young lady behind the tiny
+bar. But when the wine came, and our glasses were filled, a sudden
+silence fell upon us. We looked at each other, and we all knew what was
+in the minds of all of us. It was Allan who spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"To Isobel!" he said softly.</p>
+
+<p>We drank in silence, each busy with his own thoughts. But afterwards
+Arthur raised his glass high above his head.</p>
+
+<p>"To the Princess Isobel!" he cried. "Long life and good luck to her!"</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards there were no more toasts.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Arthur and Allan went their several ways within twenty-four hours of our
+farewell dinner. I saw them both off, and I forced them with great
+difficulty to share to some small extent in Feurg&eacute;res' legacy. Then I
+took some rooms near my club in the heart of London, and line for line,
+word for word, I re-wrote the whole of the story which I had not dared
+to show to Isobel, determined that the one thing I still had which was
+part of her body and soul should be the best that my brain and skill
+could fashion. So the winter and the early spring passed, and then my
+story was published.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIC" id="CHAPTER_XIC"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>A miracle of white daintiness, from the spotless muslin of her gown to
+the creamy lace which hung from her parasol. So far as toilette went,
+Lady Delahaye was always an artist. Yet my pulses were unmoved, and my
+heart unstirred, as she stood under my dark cedar-tree and welcomed me
+with all the expression which her tone and eyes could command.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see, Sir Hermit," she murmured, "what happens to those who will
+not go to the mountain? Seriously, I hope you are glad to see me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" I answered calmly. "Will you come inside, or shall we sit
+here in the shade?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here, by all means," she answered, subsiding gracefully into a wicker
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>"You will let me order you some tea?"</p>
+
+<p>She checked my movement towards the house.</p>
+
+<p>"For Heaven's sake, no! I have been paying calls all the afternoon with
+Mrs. Jerningham, and you know what that means. She has gone to the Hall
+now, and I am to pick her up in half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"You are staying at Eastford House, then?" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"For a few days. Can you guess why?"</p>
+
+<p>"The house parties there have the reputation of being amusing," I
+suggested.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not that. Can you make no better guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a dunce at riddles," I admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a dunce at many things," she replied. "The reason I came was
+because I knew that you were living in these parts, and I had a fancy to
+see you again."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me critically.</p>
+
+<p>"You have not changed," she said slowly. "One would almost say that the
+life of a recluse agrees with you. You have by no means the white and
+wasted look which I expected. Is it fame which you have found so potent
+a tonic?"</p>
+
+<p>I laughed lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call it fame," I answered. "Success, if you will. My profession
+is so much of a lottery. A whiff of public opinion, a criticism which
+hits the popular fancy, and the bubble is floated. I'm not pretending
+that I don't appreciate it, but it was a stroke of luck all the same."</p>
+
+<p>She was silent for a few moments. From outside we could hear the
+jingling of harness as Mrs. Jerningham's fat bays resented the onslaught
+of officious flies. Nearer at hand there was only the lazy humming of
+bees to break the stillness of the summer afternoon. Lady Delahaye
+sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are talking nonsense, and you know it," she said. "I do not want to
+flatter you. Any man who has the trick of the pen, and chooses to give
+himself wholly and utterly away, can write a powerful story."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid that I do not understand you," I protested.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you do. You cut open your own heart, and you offered the world a
+magnifying glass to study its wounds. You wrote your own story. You told
+the tale of your own suffering. Of course it was strong, of course it
+rang with all the truth of genius. So you loved that child, Arnold! You,
+a man of the world, not a callow schoolboy. You loved her magnificently.
+Did she know?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did not know," I answered. "She never will know."</p>
+
+<p>"She may read the book!"</p>
+
+<p>"She may read it, and yet not know," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," she murmured. "Unless she loved herself she might not
+understand."</p>
+
+<p>Again we were silent for a while. The perfume of the cedars floated upon
+the hot breathless air. Lady Delahaye half closed her eyes and leaned
+back.</p>
+
+<p>"You read the newspapers, Sir Hermit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard the news from Waldenburg?"</p>
+
+<p>"I read of the King's death."</p>
+
+<p>"And of the betrothal of the Princess Isobel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I have read also of that."</p>
+
+<p>"The cousins will both be the consorts of reigning sovereigns, small
+though their kingdoms may be. One reads great things of Adelaide. Her
+people call her already 'the well-beloved.'"</p>
+
+<p>A swift rush of thought carried me back to the dark stormy crossing,
+when the rain had beaten in our faces, and the wind came booming down
+the Channel. Adelaide stood once more by my side. I heard the quiet,
+bitter words, the low, passionate cry of her troubled heart. "The
+well-beloved" of her people! After all, race tells.</p>
+
+<p>"I spoke but twice alone to the Princess Adelaide," I said. "I learnt
+enough of her, however, to be sure that in any position she would do the
+thing that was right and gracious."</p>
+
+<p>"And so will Isobel," Lady Delahaye said. "I know the race well. The men
+are degenerates, but the women have nerve to rule and courage to hold
+their own against the world. Isobel's future may well be the more
+brilliant of the two. Can you realize, I wonder, that Isobel of
+Waldenburg was once the child who filled your brain with such strange
+fancies?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never think," I answered, "of Isobel of Waldenburg."</p>
+
+<p>"You are wise," she answered. "She is as surely separated from us
+eternally as though she had made that little journey from which one does
+not return. Yet you&mdash;you are going to hug your wounds all your life. Is
+that wise, my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>I laughed softly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken," I assured her. "I have no wounds&mdash;not even regrets.
+I believe that there are few men happier. Look at my home!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is beautiful," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"My gardens, my flowers, my cedar-tree and my books," I said. "These are
+all a joy to me. What more can a man want? Friends have moods, and they
+pass away out of one's life. The friends who smile from my study wall
+are patient and always ready. There is one to fit every hour. They do
+not change. They are always ready to show me the way into the world
+beautiful, to cheer me when I am sad, to laugh with me when I am gay.
+You must not waste any sympathy on me, Lady Delahaye. The man who has
+learnt to live alone is the man who has learnt the greatest lesson life
+has to teach. He is the man for whom the sun shines always, who carries
+with him for ever the magic key."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Delahaye disturbed the smoothness of my turf with the point of her
+parasol.</p>
+
+<p>"Are there no times," she asked in a low tone, "when these things fail
+you? No times when like calls for like, when the human part of you finds
+the comfort of ashes a dead thing? You and your books and your flowers!"
+she cried scornfully, raising her head and looking at me with heightened
+colour. "Bah! You are a man, are you not, like the others? How long will
+these content you? How long will you stop your ears and forget that life
+has passions and joys which these dead things can never yield to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until," I answered, "the magician comes who can make me believe it. And
+I am afraid, Lady Delahaye, that he has passed me by."</p>
+
+<p>She rose to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I am answered," she said. "I promise you that I will not intrude again
+into this Paradise of wood and stone. Give me a cigarette to keep off
+these flies, and take me down to the carriage. Thanks! If one might
+venture upon a prophecy, my dear Arnold, I think that I can see your
+fate very clearly written. I do not even need your hand to read it."</p>
+
+<p>"Would the spell," I asked, "be broken if I shared the knowledge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," she answered, with a hard little laugh. "You will
+become one of those half-mad sort of creatures whom people call cranks,
+or you will marry your housekeeper. In either case you will deserve your
+fate."</p>
+
+<p>So Lady Delahaye drove away down the white dusty road, and I walked back
+to the study from whence her coming had brought me. As I sat down to my
+interrupted work I smiled. How little she understood!</p>
+
+<p>I wrote till seven o'clock. Punctually at that hour there was a discreet
+knock at the door, and my servant reminded me that it was time to
+change. At a quarter before eight I strolled into the garden and
+selected a piece of heliotrope for the buttonhole of my dinner coat. A
+few minutes later my dinner was served.</p>
+
+<p>My table was a small round one set in front of the open French windows.
+Looking a little to the right I could see the extent of my domain&mdash;a low
+laurel hedge, a sloping field beyond, in which my two Alderneys were
+standing almost knee-deep amongst the buttercups; a ring fence, a
+paddock, and, beyond, the road. To the left were my gardens, the
+sweetness of which came stealing through the window with the very
+faintest breath of the slowly moving air, bordered by that ancient red
+brick wall, mellowed and crumbling with the sun and west winds of
+generations, and in front of me my lawn and the cedar-tree under which
+Lady Delahaye had sat an hour or so ago and prophesied evil things. My
+lips parted into a smile as I thought of her words. Did she indeed think
+me a creature so weak as to pile gloom on the top of sorrow, to shut my
+eyes to all the joys of life, because supreme happiness was denied me,
+to play skittles with my self-respect, and&mdash;marry a kitchen-maid? I, who
+had turned over great pages in the book of life! I, who had known
+Feurg&eacute;res! Wallace had left the room for a moment, and I raised my glass
+full of clear amber wine, and drank silently my evening toast. I drank
+to the memory of the greatest love I had ever known, to the man whose
+strong and beautiful life had taught me how to fashion my own. Perhaps
+my thoughts flashed a little further afield. It was so always when I
+thought of Feurg&eacute;res, but it was to the joyous and wonderful memory of
+those earlier days, to Isobel the child I drank. Isobel of Waldenburg
+had passed away into the world of shadows. I courted no heartaches by
+vain thoughts of her. I pored over no papers to find mention of her
+name. I was content with what had gone before.</p>
+
+<p>I morbid! Lady Delahaye had judged me wrongly indeed. I, before whom two
+great worlds stretched themselves continually, full of countless
+treasures, always changing, yet always beautiful. Only yesterday I had
+seen the sun rise. I had seen the still slumbering world break into
+quivering life. I had seen the curtain roll up on a new act of this most
+wonderful of all plays to the music of an orchestra hidden indeed in my
+grove of chestnuts, but sweeter, more joyous, more full of the promise
+of perfect things than ever a violin touched by human fingers. Then the
+thrushes had hopped out on to my dew-spangled lawn, where before the hot
+sun the grey, gossamer-like mist was vanishing like breath from a
+mirror; my roses raised their heads, and the breeze from the west&mdash;a
+lazy, fluttering breeze&mdash;borrowed their sweetness; my peaches cracked
+through their full skins upon the wall, and the bees commenced their
+eternal lullaby of murmuring sounds. Then at night&mdash;such a night as
+this, too, promised to be&mdash;I had watched the shadows come creeping over
+the land when the sun had set and the moon had barely risen; a new order
+of things had come. The fire of the day was replaced by the infinite
+peace of night. Beyond the confines of my little domain the whole world
+lay hushed and hidden. There were few stars as yet to mock with their
+passionless serenity the toilers of the earth, worn out with the long
+day's struggle. Only a great quiet&mdash;a great, peaceful quiet&mdash;and the
+shadows of dim things!</p>
+
+<p>I morbid, with eyes to see these things, with a whole room full of
+waiting friends, ready at a touch of my fingers, the turning of a page,
+to take me by the hand and lead into even other worlds as beautiful as
+this, to scale with me the mountains, or to wander along the
+flower-strewn valleys. Lady Delahaye was a very foolish woman. She had
+seen nothing of my well-ordered household, of the ease, the
+luxury&mdash;simple, yet almost Sybaritic&mdash;with which I had surrounded
+myself. She did not understand life from my point of view&mdash;life as
+Feurg&eacute;res had lived it. The life sentimental, but not passionate; the
+life to be evolved by will from the tangle of bruised hopes and hot
+desires. The life&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I set down my glass empty. The last drop had tasted like vinegar. Always
+one has to fight, and for a while I sat in silence before my table piled
+now with dishes of fruit. My hands gripped the sides of my chair, my
+eyes were fixed upon a twinkling light which had shot out from the
+distant hillside. Always one has to fight for the things worth
+having&mdash;and the pain soon passes.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes I rose. I lit a cigarette from the box which Wallace
+had placed at my elbow, and with a handful more in my pocket I stepped
+outside. On the lawn under the cedar-tree something was lying&mdash;something
+pink and fluffy, and very soft to the fingers. As I held it at arm's
+length a faint, familiar perfume stole up from its flouncy depths. The
+pain was all gone now. I smiled as I looked at it. It was Lady
+Delahaye's parasol!</p>
+
+<p>I turned it over meditatively. The fancy seized me that it had been left
+there on purpose&mdash;my last chance! Eastford House was barely a mile and a
+half away&mdash;a very reasonable after-dinner stroll. I smiled to myself as
+I summoned Wallace from the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Take this parasol over to Eastford House as soon as you have served my
+coffee," I directed. "Lady Delahaye must have left it here this
+afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, sir," Wallace answered, relieving me of my burden and
+carrying it into the house.</p>
+
+<p>Then I departed on my usual evening pilgrimage. I entered the flower
+garden by a little iron gate, and walked slowly amongst my roses. Here
+the air was full of delicate scents&mdash;lavender insistent; mignonette
+faint, but penetrating; homely wall-flowers, sweet even as the roses
+themselves. Night insects now were buzzing around me; the bushes took to
+themselves phantasmal shapes; even the path, very narrow and overgrown,
+was hard to find. I filled my hand with flowers and made my way slowly
+back to the cedar-tree. The shadows were deeper now. It was the one hour
+of darkness before the rising of the late moon. I threw myself into a
+low chair, and the flowers on to the seat which encircled the
+cedar-tree. Oh, wonderful Feurg&eacute;res, who had taught me the sweetness of
+such moments as this!</p>
+
+<p>Always she came the same way; yet to-night it seemed to me that a
+startling note of reality heralded her coming. The ghostliness of her
+movements, that noiseless flitting across the lawn were changed. Almost
+I could have sworn that the little iron gate had indeed been opened and
+closed, that real footsteps had fallen lightly enough, but, with actual
+sound, upon the gravel path, that I could hear the soft swish of a real
+dress from the slim white figure which came hesitatingly across the
+lawn. Oh, Feurg&eacute;res was a great man! It was a great thing which he had
+taught me. My pulses were thrilled with expectant joy. Reality itself
+could be no more real. But to-night&mdash;to-night was a triumph indeed! She
+was dressed differently. She wore a long white travelling cloak, a veil
+pushed back from her hat. I did not understand. My fancy had never
+dressed her like this. That little cry, her pause. Had I indeed done
+greater things than Feurg&eacute;res, and summoned to my side real flesh and
+blood?</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold!"</p>
+
+<p>I gripped the sides of my chair. I felt my breath coming shorter. A cry.
+I could not keep it back from my quivering lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Isobel!"</p>
+
+<p>I could not move. I was afraid of what I had done. And then she dropped
+on her knees by my side, and real arms were about my neck, real kisses
+were upon my lips. Then I no longer had any fear, for from whatever
+world she had come the joy of it was like a foretaste of heaven. I drew
+her to me, held her passionately, and I knew that this was no creature
+of my mind's fashioning, but a live woman, whose heart beat so wildly
+against my own....</p>
+
+<p>"It was all Adelaide," she murmured presently. "She brought me your
+book, and afterwards we talked. She was alone with my grandfather&mdash;and
+then he sent for me. I was afraid, for this was in his last days. Shall
+I tell you what he said, Arnold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered, tightening my grasp upon her. "Go on talking!" For I
+was fighting still for belief.</p>
+
+<p>"He took my hand quite calmly, and I knew at once that I had nothing to
+fear. 'Isobel,' he said, 'they tell me that you have your mother's blood
+in your veins, that freedom means more to you than ambition, that you
+are a woman first and a Waldenburg afterwards. Is this true?' Then I
+told him everything, and he kissed me. 'Go your own way, Isobel,' he
+said, 'but stay with me while I live. Adelaide has shown me many things
+which I did not understand. Poor child!' He sent for his lawyers,
+Arnold, and he made me a poor woman. I am much too poor to be a princess
+any longer&mdash;unless I may be yours."</p>
+
+<p>Then I believed&mdash;this, the strangest of all things that may happen to a
+man. My garden of fancies, which Feurg&eacute;res had shown me so well how to
+cultivate, passed away into the mists. Before the moon rose, Paradise
+was there.</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_NOVELS_OF_E_PHILLIPS_OPPENHEIM" id="THE_NOVELS_OF_E_PHILLIPS_OPPENHEIM"></a>THE NOVELS OF E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A Prince of Sinners<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Anna the Adventuress<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Master Mummer<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Maker of History<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mysterious Mr. Sabin<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Yellow Crayon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Betrayal<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Traitors<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Enoch Strone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Sleeping Memory<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Malefactor<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Daughter of the Marionis<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Lost Leader<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Great Secret<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Avenger<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As a Man Lives<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Missioner<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Governors<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Man and His Kingdom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Millionaire of Yesterday<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Long Arm of Mannister<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Jeanne of the Marshes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Illustrious Prince<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Lost Ambassador<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Berenice<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Moving Finger<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Popular_Copyright_Books" id="Popular_Copyright_Books"></a>Popular Copyright Books</h2>
+
+<h3>AT MODERATE PRICES</h3>
+
+<h3>Any of the following titles can be bought of your bookseller at 50 cents
+per volume.</h3>
+
+<p>The Shepherd of the Hills. By Harold Bell Wright.</p>
+
+<p>Jane Cable. By George Barr McCutcheon.</p>
+
+<p>Abner Daniel. By Will N. Harben.</p>
+
+<p>The Far Horizon. By Lucas Malet.</p>
+
+<p>The Halo. By Bettina von Hutten.</p>
+
+<p>Jerry Junior. By Jean Webster.</p>
+
+<p>The Powers and Maxine. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>The Balance of Power. By Arthur Goodrich.</p>
+
+<p>Adventures of Captain Kettle. By Cutcliffe Hyne.</p>
+
+<p>Adventures of Gerard. By A. Conan Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>Arms and the Woman. By Harold MacGrath.</p>
+
+<p>Artemus Ward's Works (extra illustrated).</p>
+
+<p>At the Mercy of Tiberius. By Augusta Evans Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>Awakening of Helena Richie. By Margaret Deland.</p>
+
+<p>Battle Ground, The. By Ellen Glasgow.</p>
+
+<p>Belle of Bowling Green, The. By Amelia E. Barr.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Blair. By Will Lillibridge.</p>
+
+<p>Best Man, The. By Harold MacGrath.</p>
+
+<p>Beth Norvell. By Randall Parrish.</p>
+
+<p>Bob Hampton of Placer. By Randall Parrish.</p>
+
+<p>Bob, Son of Battle. By Alfred Ollivant.</p>
+
+<p>Brass Bowl, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.</p>
+
+<p>Brethren, The. By H. Rider Haggard.</p>
+
+<p>Broken Lance, The. By Herbert Quick.</p>
+
+<p>By Wit of Women. By Arthur W. Marchmont</p>
+
+<p>Call of the Blood, The. By Robert Hitchens.</p>
+
+<p>Cap'n Eri. By Joseph C. Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>Cardigan. By Robert W. Chambers.</p>
+
+<p>Car of Destiny, The. By C. N. and A. N. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine. By Frank R. Stockton.</p>
+
+<p>Cecilia's Lovers. By Amelia E. Barr.</p>
+
+<p>Circle, The. By Katherine Cecil Thurston (author of "The Masquerader,"
+"The Gambler").</p>
+
+<p>Colonial Free Lance, A. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.</p>
+
+<p>Conquest of Canaan, The. By Booth Tarkington.</p>
+
+<p>Courier of Fortune, A. By Arthur W. Marchmont.</p>
+
+<p>Darrow Enigma, The. By Melvin Severy.</p>
+
+<p>Deliverance, The. By Ellen Glasgow.</p>
+
+<p>Divine Fire, The. By May Sinclair.</p>
+
+<p>Empire Builders. By Francis Lynde.</p>
+
+<p>Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. By A. Conan Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>Fighting Chance, The. By Robert W. Chambers.</p>
+
+<p>For a Maiden Brave. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.</p>
+
+<p>Fugitive Blacksmith, The. By Chas. D. Stewart.</p>
+
+<p>God's Good Man. By Marie Corelli.</p>
+
+<p>Heart's Highway, The. By Mary E. Wilkins.</p>
+
+<p>Holladay Case, The. By Burton Egbert Stevenson.</p>
+
+<p>Hurricane Island. By H. B. Marriott Watson.</p>
+
+<p>In Defiance of the King. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.</p>
+
+<p>Indifference of Juliet, The. By Grace S. Richmond.</p>
+
+<p>Infelice. By Augusta Evans Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Betty Across the Water. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>Lady of the Mount, The. By Frederic S. Isham.</p>
+
+<p>Lane That Had No Turning, The. By Gilbert Parker.</p>
+
+<p>Langford of the Three Bars. By Kate and Virgil D. Boyles.</p>
+
+<p>Last Trail, The. By Zane Grey.</p>
+
+<p>Leavenworth Case, The. By Anna Katharine Green.</p>
+
+<p>Lilac Sunbonnet, The. By S. R. Crockett.</p>
+
+<p>Lin McLean. By Owen Wister.</p>
+
+<p>Long Night, The. By Stanley J. Weyman.</p>
+
+<p>Maid at Arms, The. By Robert W. Chambers.</p>
+
+<p>Man from Red Keg, The. By Eugene Thwing.</p>
+
+<p>Marthon Mystery, The. By Burton Egbert Stevenson.</p>
+
+<p>Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>Millionaire Baby, The. By Anna Katharine Green.</p>
+
+<p>Missourian, The. By Eugene P. Lyle, Jr.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Barnes, American. By A. C. Gunter.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Pratt. By Joseph C. Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>My Friend the Chauffeur. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>My Lady of the North. By Randall Parrish.</p>
+
+<p>Mystery of June 13th. By Melvin L. Severy.</p>
+
+<p>Mystery Tales. By Edgar Allan Poe.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy Stair. By Elinor Macartney Lane.</p>
+
+<p>Order No. 11. By Caroline Abbot Stanley.</p>
+
+<p>Pam. By Bettina von Hutten.</p>
+
+<p>Pam Decides. By Bettina von Hutten.</p>
+
+<p>Partners of the Tide. By Joseph C. Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>Phra the Phoenician. By Edwin Lester Arnold.</p>
+
+<p>President, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.</p>
+
+<p>Princess Passes, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>Princess Virginia, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>Prisoners. By Mary Cholmondeley.</p>
+
+<p>Private War, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.</p>
+
+<p>Prodigal Son, The. By Hall Caine.</p>
+
+<p>Quickening, The. By Francis Lynde.</p>
+
+<p>Richard the Brazen. By Cyrus T. Brady and Edw. Peple.</p>
+
+<p>Rose of the World. By Agnes and Egerton Castle.</p>
+
+<p>Running Water. By A. E. W. Mason.</p>
+
+<p>Sarita the Carlist. By Arthur W. Marchmont.</p>
+
+<p>Seats of the Mighty, The. By Gilbert Parker.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Nigel. By A. Conan Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Richard Calmady. By Lucas Malet.</p>
+
+<p>Speckled Bird, A. By Augusta Evans Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>Purple Parasol, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.</p>
+
+<p>Princess Dehra, The. By John Reed Scott.</p>
+
+<p>Making of Bobby Burnit, The. By George Randolph Chester.</p>
+
+<p>Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel, The. By Randall Parrish.</p>
+
+<p>Bronze Bell, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.</p>
+
+<p>Pole Baker. By Will N. Harben.</p>
+
+<p>Four Million, The. By O. Henry.</p>
+
+<p>Idols. By William J. Locke.</p>
+
+<p>Wayfarers, The. By Mary Stewart Cutting.</p>
+
+<p>Held for Orders. By Frank H. Spearman.</p>
+
+<p>Story of the Outlaw, The. By Emerson Hough.</p>
+
+<p>Mistress of Brae Farm, The. By Rosa N. Carey.</p>
+
+<p>Explorer, The. By William Somerset Maugham.</p>
+
+<p>Abbess of Vlaye, The. By Stanley Weyman.</p>
+
+<p>Alton of Somasco. By Harold Bindloss.</p>
+
+<p>Ancient Law, The. By Ellen Glasgow.</p>
+
+<p>Barrier, The. By Rex Beach.</p>
+
+<p>Bar 20. By Clarence E. Mulford.</p>
+
+<p>Beloved Vagabond, The. By William J. Locke.</p>
+
+<p>Beulah. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.</p>
+
+<p>Chaperon, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Greatheart. By H. C. Bailey.</p>
+
+<p>Dissolving Circle, The. By Will Lillibridge.</p>
+
+<p>Elusive Isabel. By Jacques Futrelle.</p>
+
+<p>Fair Moon of Bath, The. By Elizabeth Ellis.</p>
+
+<p>54-40 or Fight. By Emerson Hough.</p>
+
+<p>Spirit of the Border, The. By Zane Grey.</p>
+
+<p>Spoilers, The. By Rex Beach.</p>
+
+<p>Squire Phin. By Holman F. Day.</p>
+
+<p>Stooping Lady, The. By Maurice Hewlett.</p>
+
+<p>Subjection of Isabel Carnaby. By Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler.</p>
+
+<p>Sunset Trail, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.</p>
+
+<p>Sword of the Old Frontier, A. By Randall Parrish.</p>
+
+<p>Tales of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>That Printer of Udell's. By Harold Bell Wright.</p>
+
+<p>Throwback, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.</p>
+
+<p>Trail of the Sword, The. By Gilbert Parker.</p>
+
+<p>Treasure of Heaven, The. By Marie Corelli.</p>
+
+<p>Two Vanrevels, The. By Booth Tarkington.</p>
+
+<p>Up From Slavery. By Booker T. Washington.</p>
+
+<p>Vashti. By Augusta Evans Wilson.</p>
+
+<p>Viper of Milan, The (original edition). By Marjorie Bowen.</p>
+
+<p>Voice of the People, The. By Ellen Glasgow.</p>
+
+<p>Wheel of Life, The. By Ellen Glasgow.</p>
+
+<p>When Wilderness Was King. By Randall Parrish.</p>
+
+<p>Where the Trail Divides. By Will Lillibridge.</p>
+
+<p>Woman in Grey, A. By Mrs. C. N. Williamson.</p>
+
+<p>Woman in the Alcove, The. By Anna Katharine Green.</p>
+
+<p>Younger Set, The. By Robert W. Chambers.</p>
+
+<p>The Weavers. By Gilbert Parker.</p>
+
+<p>The Little Brown Jug at Kildare. By Meredith Nicholson.</p>
+
+<p>The Prisoners of Chance. By Randall Parrish.</p>
+
+<p>My Lady of Cleve. By Percy J. Hartley.</p>
+
+<p>Loaded Dice. By Ellery H. Clark.</p>
+
+<p>Get Rich Quick Wallingford. By George Randolph Chester.</p>
+
+<p>The Orphan. By Clarence Mulford.</p>
+
+<p>A Gentleman of France. By Stanley J. Weyman.</p>
+
+<p>Four Pool's Mystery, The. By Jean Webster.</p>
+
+<p>Ganton and Co. By Arthur J. Eddy.</p>
+
+<p>Heart of Jessy Laurie, The. By Amelia E. Barr.</p>
+
+<p>Inez. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.</p>
+
+<p>Into the Primitive. By Robert Ames Bennet.</p>
+
+<p>Katrina. By Roy Rolfe Gilson.</p>
+
+<p>King Spruce. By Holman Day.</p>
+
+<p>Macaria. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.</p>
+
+<p>Meryl. By Wm. Tillinghast Eldredge.</p>
+
+<p>Old, Old Story, The. By Rosa Nouchette Carey.</p>
+
+<p>Quest Eternal, The. By Will Lillibridge.</p>
+
+<p>Silver Blade, The. By Charles E. Walk.</p>
+
+<p>St. Elmo. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle William. By Jennette Lee.</p>
+
+<p>Under the Red Robe. By Stanley J. Weyman.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Master Mummer, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER MUMMER ***
+
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Master Mummer, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Master Mummer
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Release Date: February 23, 2009 [EBook #28161]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER MUMMER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              The Master Mummer
+
+                           By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+           Author of "Anna, the Adventuress," "A Prince of Sinners,"
+                             "The Betrayal," Etc.
+
+
+WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_A. L. BURT COMPANY_
+_Publishers New York_
+
+_Copyright_, 1904,
+BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Let the boy have his chance," said Allan.]
+
+
+
+
+The Master Mummer
+
+
+
+
+Book I
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Sheets of virgin manuscript paper littered my desk, the smoke of much
+uselessly consumed tobacco hung about the room in a little cloud. Many a
+time I had dipped my pen in the ink, only to find myself a few minutes
+later scrawling ridiculous little figures upon the margin of my
+blotting-pad. It was not at all an auspicious start for one who sought
+immortality.
+
+There came a growl presently from the other side of the room, where
+Mabane, attired in a disreputable smock, with a short black pipe in the
+corner of his mouth, was industriously defacing a small canvas. Mabane
+was tall and fair and lean, with a mass of refractory hair which was the
+despair of his barber; a Scotchman with keen blue eyes, and humorous
+mouth amply redeeming his face from the plainness which would otherwise
+have been its lot. He also was in search of immortality.
+
+"Make a start for Heaven's sake, Arnold," he implored. "To look at you
+is an incitement to laziness. The world's full of things to write about.
+Make a choice and have done with it. Write something, even if you have
+to tear it up afterwards."
+
+I turned round in my chair and regarded Mabane reproachfully.
+
+"Get on with your pot-boiler, and leave me alone, Allan," I said. "You
+do not understand my difficulties in the least. It is simply a matter of
+selection. My brain is full of ideas--brimming over. I want to be sure
+that I am choosing the best."
+
+There came to me from across the room a grunt of contempt.
+
+"Pot-boiler indeed! What about short stories at ten guineas a time, must
+begin in the middle, scented and padded to order, Anthony Hopeish, with
+the sugar of Austin Dobson and the pepper of Kipling shaken on _ad
+lib._? Man alive, do you know what pot-boilers are? It's a perfect
+conservatory you're living in. Got any tobacco, Arnold?"
+
+I jerked my pouch across the room, and it was caught with a deft little
+backward swing of the hand. Allan Mabane was an M.C.C. man, and a
+favourite point with his captain.
+
+"You've got me on the hip, Allan," I answered, rising suddenly from my
+chair and walking restlessly up and down the large bare room. "The devil
+himself might have put those words into your mouth. They are
+pot-boilers, every one of them, and I am sick of it. I want to do
+something altogether different. I am sure that I can, but I have got
+into the way of writing those other things, and I can't get out of it.
+That is why I am sitting here like an owl."
+
+Mabane refilled his pipe and smoked contentedly.
+
+"I know exactly how you're feeling, old chap," he said sympathetically.
+"I get a dash of the same thing sometimes--generally in the springtime.
+It begins with a sort of wistfulness, a sense of expansion follows, you
+go about all the time with your head in the clouds. You want to collect
+all the beautiful things in life and express them. Oh, I know all about
+it. It generally means a girl. Where were you last night?"
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Where I shall be to-night, to-morrow night--where I was a year ago.
+That is the trouble of it all. One is always in the same place."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is a very bad attack," he said. "Your generalities may be all right,
+but they are not convincing."
+
+"I have not spoken a word to a woman, except to Mrs. Burdett, for a week
+or more," I declared.
+
+Mabane resumed his work. Such a discussion, his gesture seemed to
+indicate, was not worth continuing. But I continued, following out my
+train of thought, though I spoke as much to myself as to my friend.
+
+"You are right about my stories," I admitted. "I have painted
+rose-coloured pictures of an imaginary life, and publishers have bought
+them, and the public, I suppose, have read them. I have dressed up
+puppets of wood and stone, and set them moving like mechanical
+dolls--over-gilded, artificial, vulgar. And all the time the real thing
+knocks at our doors."
+
+Mabane stepped back from his canvas to examine critically the effect of
+an unexpected dash of colour.
+
+"The public, my dear Greatson," he said abstractedly, "do not want the
+real thing--from you. Every man to his _metier_. Yours is to sing of
+blue skies and west winds, of hay-scented meadows and Watteau-like
+revellers in a paradise as artificial as a Dutch garden. Take my advice,
+and keep your muse chained. The other worlds are for the other writers."
+
+I was annoyed with Mabane. There was just sufficient truth in his words
+to make them sound brutal. I answered him with some heat.
+
+"Not if I starve for it, Allan? The whole cycle of life goes humming
+around us, hour by hour. It is here, there, everywhere. I will bring a
+little of it into my work, or I will write no more."
+
+Mabane shook his head. He was busy again upon his canvas.
+
+"It is always the humourist," he murmured, "who is ambitious to write a
+tragedy--and _vice versa_. The only sane man is he who is conscious of
+his limitations."
+
+"On the contrary," I answered quickly, "the man who admits them is a
+fool. I have made up my mind. I will dress no more dolls in fine
+clothes, and set them strutting across a rose-garlanded stage. I will
+create, or I will leave alone. I will write of men and women, or not at
+all."
+
+"It will affect your income," Mabane said. "It will cost you money in
+postage stamps, and your manuscripts will be declined with thanks."
+
+His gentle cynicism left me unmoved. I had almost forgotten his
+presence. I was standing over by the window, looking out across a
+wilderness of housetops. My own thoughts for the moment were sufficient.
+I spoke, it is true, but I spoke to myself.
+
+"A beginning," I murmured. "That is all one wants. It seems so hard, and
+yet--it ought to be so easy. If one could but lift the roofs--could but
+see for a moment underneath."
+
+"I can save you the trouble," Mabane remarked cheerfully, strolling over
+to my side. "Where are you looking? Chertsey Street, eh? Well, in all
+probability mamma is cooking the dinner, Mary is scrubbing the floor,
+Miss Flora is dusting the drawing-room, and Miss Louisa is practising
+her scales. You have got a maggot in your brain, Greatson. Life such as
+you are thinking of is the most commonplace thing in the world. The
+middle-classes haven't the capacity for passion--even the tragedy of
+existence never troubles them. Don't try to stir up the muddy waters,
+Arnold. Write a pretty story about a Princess and her lovers, and draw
+your cheque."
+
+"There are times, Allan," I remarked thoughtfully, "when you are an
+intolerable nuisance."
+
+Mabane shrugged his shoulders and returned to his work. Apparently he
+had reached a point in it which required his undivided attention, for he
+relapsed almost at once into silence. Following his example, I too
+returned to my desk and took up my pen. As a rule my work came to me
+easily. Even now there were shadowy ideas, well within my mental
+grasp--ideas, however, which I was in the humour to repel rather than to
+invite. For I knew very well whither they would lead me--back to the
+creation of those lighter and more fanciful figures flitting always
+across the canvas of a painted world. A certain facility for this sort
+of thing had brought me a reputation which I was already growing to
+hate. More than ever I was determined not to yield. Mabane's words had
+come to me with a subtle note of mockery underlying their undoubted
+common-sense. I thrust the memory of them on one side. Certain gifts I
+knew that I possessed. I had a ready pen and a facile invention.
+Something had stirred in me a late-awakened but irresistible desire to
+apply them to a different purpose than ever before. As I sat there the
+creations of my fancy flitted before me one by one--delicate, perhaps,
+and graceful, thoughtfully conceived, adequately completed. Yet I knew
+very well that they were like ripples upon the water, creatures without
+lasting forms or shape, images passing as easily as they had come into
+the mists of oblivion. The human touch, the transforming fire of life
+was wholly wanting. These April creations of my brain--carnival figures,
+laughing and weeping with equal facility, lacked always and altogether
+the blood and muscle of human creatures. The mishaps of their lives
+struck never a tragic note; always the thrill and stir of actual
+existence were wanting. I would have no more of them. I felt myself
+capable of other things. I would wait until other things came.
+
+The door was pushed open, and Arthur smiled in upon us. This third
+member of our bachelor household was younger than either Mabane or
+myself--a smooth-faced, handsome boy, resplendent to-day in frock-coat
+and silk hat.
+
+"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "Hard at work, both of you!"
+
+Mabane laid down his brush and surveyed the newcomer critically.
+
+"Arthur," he declared with slow emphasis, "you do us credit--you do
+indeed. I hope that you will show yourself to our worthy landlady, and
+that you will linger upon the doorstep as long as possible. This sort of
+thing is good for our waning credit. I am no judge, for I never
+possessed such a garment, but there is something about the skirts of
+your frock-coat which appeals to me. There is indeed, Arthur. And then
+your tie--the cunning arrangement of it----"
+
+"Oh, rats!" the boy exclaimed, laughing. "Give me a couple of
+cigarettes, there's a good chap, and do we feed at home to-night?"
+
+Mabane produced the cigarettes and turned back to his work.
+
+"We do!" he admitted with a sigh. "Always on Tuesdays, you know.
+By-the-bye, are you going to the works in that costume?"
+
+"Not likely! It's my day at the depot, worse luck," Arthur answered,
+pausing to strike a match. "What's up with Arnold?"
+
+"Got the blues, because his muse won't work," Mabane said. "He wants to
+strike out in a new line--something blood-curdling, you
+know--Tolstoi-like, or Hall Caineish--he doesn't care which. He wants to
+do what nobody else ever will--take himself seriously. I put it down in
+charity to dyspepsia."
+
+"Mabane is an ass!" I grunted. "Be off, Arthur, there's a good chap, and
+don't listen to him. He hasn't the least idea what he is talking about."
+
+Arthur, however, happened to be in no hurry. He tilted his hat on the
+back of his head, and leaned upon the table.
+
+"I have always noticed," he remarked affably, "that under Allan's most
+asinine speeches there usually lurks a substratum of truth. Are you
+really going to write a serious novel, Arnold?"
+
+I lit a cigarette and leaned back in my chair resignedly. Arthur was a
+most impenetrable person, and if he meant to stay, I knew very well that
+it was hopeless to attempt to hurry him.
+
+"I had some idea of it," I admitted. "By-the-bye, Arthur, you are a
+person with a deep insight into life. Can't you give me a few hints? I
+haven't even made a start."
+
+Arthur considered the matter in all seriousness.
+
+"It is a bit difficult for you, I daresay," he remarked. "You stop
+indoors so much, and when you do go out you mope off into the country by
+yourself. You want to knock about the restaurants and places to get
+ideas. That's what Gorman always does. You see you get all your
+characters from life in them, and they seem so much more natural."
+
+"And who," I asked, "is Mr. Gorman? I do not recognize the name."
+
+"Pal of mine," Arthur answered easily. "I don't bring him here because
+he's a bit loud for you chaps. Writes stories for no end of papers.
+_Illustrated Bits_ and the _Cigarette Journal_ print anything he cares
+to send. I thought perhaps you'd know the name."
+
+Mabane went off into a peal of laughter behind his canvas. The boy
+remained imperturbable.
+
+"Of course, I'm not comparing his work with Arnold's," he declared.
+"Arnold's stuff is no end better, of course. But, after all, the chap's
+got common-sense. If they want me to draw a motor I go and sit down in
+front of it. If Arnold wants to write of real things, real men and
+women, you know, he ought to go out and look for them. If he sits here
+and just imagines them, how can he be sure that they are the real thing?
+See what I mean?"
+
+There was a short silence. Arthur was swinging his long legs backwards
+and forwards, and whistling softly to himself. I looked at him for a
+moment curiously. The words of an ancient proverb flitted through my
+brain.
+
+"Arthur," I declared solemnly, laying down my pen, "you are a prophet in
+disguise, the prophet sent to lift the curtain which is before my eyes.
+Which way shall I go to find these real men and real women, to look upon
+these tragic happenings? For Heaven's sake direct me. Where, for
+instance, does Mr. Gorman go?"
+
+Arthur swung himself off, laughing.
+
+"Gorman goes everywhere," he answered. "If I were you I should try one
+of the big railway stations. So long!"
+
+I rose to my feet, and taking down my hat commenced to brush it. Mabane
+looked up from his work.
+
+"Where are you off to, Arnold?" he asked.
+
+Some curious instinct or power of divination might indeed have given me
+a passing glimpse of the things which lay beyond, through the portals of
+that day, for I answered him seriously enough--even gravely.
+
+"The prophet has spoken," I said. "I must obey! I shall start with
+Charing Cross."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Why the man should have spoken to me at all I could not tell. Yet it is
+certain that I heard his simple and courteous inquiry with a thrill of
+pleasure, not unmixed with excitement. From the first moment of my
+arrival upon the platform I had singled him out, the only interesting
+figure in a crowd of nonentities. Perhaps I had lingered a little too
+closely by his side, had manifested more curiosity in him than was
+altogether seemly. At any rate, he spoke to me.
+
+"Do you know if the Continental train is punctual?" he asked.
+
+"I have no idea," I answered. "This guard would tell us, perhaps."
+
+"Signalled in, sir," the man declared. "Two minutes late only."
+
+My new acquaintance thanked me and lit a cigarette. He seemed in no
+hurry to depart, and I was equally anxious to engage him in
+conversation. For although he was dressed with the trim and quiet
+precision of the foreigner or man of affairs, there was something about
+his beardless face, his broadly humorous mouth, and easy, nonchalant
+bearing which suggested the person who juggled always with the ball of
+life.
+
+"Marvellous!" he murmured, looking after the guard. "Two minutes late
+from Paris--and perhaps beyond. It is a wonderful service. Now, if I had
+come to meet any one, and had a pressing appointment immediately
+afterwards, this train would have been an hour late. As it is--ah, well,
+one is foolish to grumble," he added, with a little shrug of the
+shoulders.
+
+"You, like me, then," I remarked, "are a loiterer."
+
+He flashed a keen glance upon me.
+
+"I see that I have met," he said slowly, "with someone of similar tastes
+to my own. I will confess at once that you are right. For myself I feel
+that there is nothing more interesting in this great city of yours than
+to watch the people coming and going from it. All your railway stations
+fascinate me, especially those which are the connecting links with other
+countries. Perhaps it is because I am an idle man, and must needs find
+amusement somewhere."
+
+"Yet," I objected, "for a single face or personality which is
+suggestive, one sees a thousand of the type which only irritates--the
+great rank and file of the commonplace. I wonder, after all, whether the
+game is worth the candle."
+
+"One in a thousand," he repeated thoughtfully. "Yet think what that one
+may mean--a walking drama, a tragedy, a comedy, an epitome of life or
+death. There is more to be read in the face of that one than in the
+three hundred pages of the novel over which we yawn ourselves to sleep.
+Here is the train! Now let us watch the people together--that is, if you
+really mean that you have no friends to look out for."
+
+"I really mean it," I assured him. "I am here out of the idlest
+curiosity. I am by profession a scribbler, and I am in search of an
+idea."
+
+Once more he regarded me curiously.
+
+"Your name is Greatson, is it not--Arnold Greatson? You were pointed out
+to me once at the Vagabonds' Club, and I never forget a face. Here they
+come! Look! Look!"
+
+The train had come to a standstill. People were streaming out upon the
+platform. My companion laid his fingers upon my arm. He talked rapidly
+but lightly.
+
+"You see them, my young friend," he exclaimed. "Those are returning
+tourists from Switzerland; the thin, sharp-featured girl there, with a
+plaid skirt and a satchel, is an American. Heavens! how she talks! She
+has lost a trunk. The whole system will be turned upside down until she
+has found it or been compensated. The two young men with her are silent.
+They are wise. Alone she will prevail. You see the man of commerce; he
+is off already. He has been to France, perhaps to Belgium also, to buy
+silks and laces. And the stout old gentleman? See how happy he looks to
+be back again where English is spoken, and he can pay his way in
+half-crowns and shillings. You see the milliner's head-woman, dressed
+with obtrusive smartness, though everything seems a little awry. She has
+been over to Paris for the fashions; in a few days her firm will send
+out a little circular, and Hampstead or Balham will be much impressed.
+And--what do you make of those two, my young friend?"
+
+It seemed to me that my companion's tone was changed, that his whole
+appearance was different. I was suddenly conscious of an irresistible
+conviction. I did not believe any longer that he was, like me, an idle
+loiterer here. I felt that his presence had a purpose, and that it was
+connected in some measure with the two people to whom my attention was
+so suddenly drawn. They were, in that somewhat heterogeneous crowd,
+sufficiently noticeable. The man, although he assumed the jauntiness of
+youth, was past middle-age, and his mottled cheeks, his thin, watery
+eyes, and thick red neck were the unmistakeable hall-marks of years of
+self-indulgence. He was well dressed and groomed, and his demeanour
+towards his companion was one of deferential good humour. She, however,
+was a person of a very different order. She was a girl apparently
+between fifteen and sixteen, her figure as yet undeveloped, her dresses
+a little too short. Her face was small and white, her mouth had a most
+pathetic droop, and in her eyes--wonderful, deep blue eyes--there was a
+curious look of shrinking fear, beneath which flashed every now and then
+a gleam of positive terror. Her dark hair was arranged in a thick
+straight fringe upon her forehead, and in a long plait behind, after the
+schoolgirl fashion. Notwithstanding the _gaucherie_ of her years and her
+apparent unhappiness, she carried herself with a certain dignity and
+grace of movement which were wonderfully impressive. I watched her
+admiringly.
+
+"They are rather a puzzle," I admitted. "I suppose they might very well
+be father and daughter. It is certain that she is fresh from some
+convent boarding-school. I don't like the way she looks at the man, do
+you? It is as though she were terrified to death. I wonder if he is her
+father?"
+
+My companion did not answer me. He was straining forward as though
+anxious to hear the instructions which the man was giving to a porter
+about the luggage; my presence seemed to be a thing which he had wholly
+forgotten. The girl stood for a moment alone. More than ever one seemed
+to perceive in her eyes the nameless fear of the hunted animal. She
+looked around her furtively, yet with a strange, half-veiled wildness in
+her dilated eyes. I should scarcely have been surprised to have seen her
+make a sudden dash for freedom. Presently, however, the man, having
+identified all his luggage, turned towards her.
+
+"That's all right," he declared cheerfully. "Now I think that I shall
+take you straight away for lunch somewhere, and then we must go to the
+shops. Are you hungry, Isobel?"
+
+"I--I do not know," she answered, so tremulously that the words scarcely
+reached us, though we were standing only a few feet away.
+
+"We will soon find out," he said. "Hansom, there! Cafe Grand!"
+
+The cab drove off, and I realized then how completely for the last few
+moments I had forgotten my companion. I turned to look for him, and
+found him standing close to my side. He was apparently absorbed in
+thought, and seemed to have lost all interest in our surroundings. His
+hands were thrust deep in his overcoat pockets, and his eyes were fixed
+upon the ground. The stream of people from the train had melted away
+now, and we were almost alone upon the platform. I hesitated for a
+moment, and then walked slowly off. I did not wish to seem discourteous
+to the man with whom I had exchanged a few remarks more intimate than
+those which usually pass between strangers, but he had distinctly the
+air of one wishing to be alone, and I was unwilling to seem intrusive. I
+had barely taken a dozen steps, however, before I was overtaken. My
+companion of a few minutes before was again by my side. All traces of
+his recent preoccupation seemed to have vanished. He was smoking a fresh
+cigarette, and his bright, deep-set eyes were lit with gentle mirth.
+
+"Well, Mr. Novelist," he exclaimed, "have you succeeded? Is your languid
+muse stirred? Have you seen a face, a look, a gesture--anything to prick
+your imagination?"
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"I have seen one thing," I answered, "which it is not easy to forget. I
+have seen fear, and very pathetic it was."
+
+"You mean----?"
+
+"In the face of that child, or rather girl, with that coarse-looking
+brute of a man."
+
+The light seemed to die out from my companion's face. Once more he
+became stern and thoughtful.
+
+"Yes," he agreed; "I too saw that. If one were looking for tragedy, one
+might perhaps find it there."
+
+We stood now together on the pavement outside the station. My companion
+glanced at his watch.
+
+"Come," he said; "I have a fancy that you and I might exchange a few
+ideas. I am a lonely man, and to-day I am not in the humour for
+solitude. Do me the favour to lunch with me!"
+
+I did not hesitate for a moment. It was exactly the sort of invitation
+which I had coveted.
+
+"I shall be delighted," I answered.
+
+"I myself," my companion continued, "have no gift for writing. My
+talents, such as they are, lie in a different direction. But I have been
+in many countries, and adventures have come to me of various sorts. I
+may be able even to start you on your way--if, indeed, the author of
+_The Lost Princess_ is ever short of an idea."
+
+I smiled.
+
+"I can assure you," I said, "that my pilgrimage this morning has no
+other object than to find one. I begin to fear that I have written too
+much lately. At any rate, the well of my inspiration, if I may use so
+grandiloquent a term, has run dry."
+
+He put up his stick and hailed a hansom.
+
+"After all," he said, "it is possible--yes, it is possible that you may
+succeed. Adventures wait for us everywhere, if only we go about in a
+proper frame of mind. We will lunch, I think, at the Cafe Grand."
+
+I followed my prospective host into the cab. Was it altogether a
+coincidence, I wondered, that we were bound for the same restaurant
+whither the man and the girl had preceded us a few minutes before?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Mr. Grooten, as my new acquaintance called himself, belied neither his
+appearance nor his modest reference to himself. He proved at once that
+he knew how to order a satisfactory luncheon, going through the _menu_
+with the quiet deliberation of a connoisseur, neither seeking nor
+accepting any advice from the dark-visaged waiter who stood by his side,
+and finally writing out his few carefully chosen dishes with a special
+postscript as to the coffee, which, by-the-bye, we were never to taste.
+He then leaned over the table and began to talk.
+
+Apparently my host had been in every country of the world, and mixed
+with people of note in each. His anecdotes were always pungent, personal
+without being egotistical, and savoured always with a certain dry and
+perfectly natural humour. I found myself both interested and fascinated
+by his constant flow of reminiscences, and yet at times my attention
+wandered. For within a few yards of us were seated the man and the
+child.
+
+Everything that was noticeable in their demeanour towards one another at
+the station was even more apparent here. A bottle of champagne stood
+upon the table. The man had ordered such a luncheon that the head-waiter
+was seldom far from his side, and the manager in person had come to pay
+his respects. He himself was apparently doing full justice to it. His
+cheeks were flushed, his eyes moist, and his little bursts of laughter
+as he persevered in his attentions to his companion grew louder and more
+frequent. But opposite to him, the child's face was unchanged. Her glass
+was full of wine, but she seemed never to touch it. Her long white
+fingers played with her bread, but she seemed to eat little or nothing.
+Her face was pallid and drawn; there was terror--absolute, undiluted
+terror--in her unnaturally large eyes. Often when the man spoke to her
+she shivered. Her eyes seemed constantly trying to escape his gaze,
+wandering round the room, the terror of a hunted animal in their soft,
+luminous depths. Once they rested upon mine--I was seated in the corner
+facing her--and it seemed to me that there was appeal--desperate,
+frenzied appeal--in that long, tense look which thrilled all my pulses
+with passionate sympathy. Yet she held herself all the while stiff and
+erect. There was a certain sustaining pride in her close, firm-set
+mouth. There was never any sign of tears, though more than once her lips
+parted for a moment in a pitiful quiver.
+
+The table at which we were sitting was just inside the door, in the
+left-hand corner. The man and the girl were upon the opposite side, and
+a few yards further in the room. My host, with his face to the door,
+could see neither of them, therefore, without turning round, and owing
+to our table being pushed far into the corner, only his back was visible
+to the people in the restaurant. I, sitting facing him, had an excellent
+view of the girl and her companion, and I was all the while a witness of
+the silent drama being played out between the two. There came a time
+when I felt that I could stand it no longer. I leaned over our small
+table, and interrupted my companion in the middle of a story.
+
+"Forgive me," I said, "but I wish you could see that child's face. There
+is something wrong, I am sure. She is terrified to death. Look, that
+brute is trying to force her to drink her wine. I really can't sit and
+watch it any longer."
+
+The man who was my host, and who had called himself Mr. Grooten, nodded
+his head slightly. I knew at once, however, that he was in close
+sympathy with me.
+
+"I have been watching them," he said. "There is a mirror over your head;
+I have seen everything. It is a hideous-looking affair, but what can one
+do?"
+
+"I know what I am going to do, at any rate," I said, laying my serviette
+deliberately upon the table. "I don't care what happens, but I am going
+to speak to the child."
+
+Mr. Grooten raised his eyebrows. Beyond this faint expression of
+surprise his face betrayed neither approval nor disapproval.
+
+"What will you gain?" he asked.
+
+"Probably nothing," I answered. "And yet I shall try all the same. I
+dare not go away with the memory of that child's face haunting me. I
+must make an effort, even though it seems ridiculous. I can't help it."
+
+My companion smiled softly.
+
+"As you will, my impetuous young friend," he said. "This promises to be
+interesting. I will await your return."
+
+I did not hesitate any longer. I rose to my feet, and crossed the space
+which lay between the two tables. As I drew nearer to her I watched the
+child's face. At first a flash of desperate hope seemed suddenly to
+illumine it; then a fear more abject even than before took its place as
+she glanced at her companion. She watched me come, reading without a
+doubt the purpose in my mind with a sort of fascinated wonder. Her eyes
+were still fastened upon mine when at last I paused before her. I leaned
+over the table, keeping my shoulder turned upon the man.
+
+"You will forgive me," I said to her in a low tone, "but I believe that
+you are in trouble. Can I help you? Don't be afraid to tell me if I
+can."
+
+"You--you are very kind, sir," she began, breathlessly; "I----"
+
+Her companion intervened. Astonishment and anger combined to render his
+voice unsteady.
+
+"Eh? What's this? Who the devil are you, sir, and what do you mean by
+speaking to my ward?"
+
+I disregarded his interruption altogether. I still addressed myself only
+to the child, and I spoke as encouragingly as I could.
+
+"Don't be afraid to tell me," I said. "Think that I am your brother. I
+want to help you if I can."
+
+"Oh, if you only could!" she moaned.
+
+Her companion seized me by the arm and forced me to turn round. His face
+was red almost to suffocation, and two thick blue veins stood out upon
+his forehead in ugly fashion. His voice was scarcely articulate by
+reason of his attempt to keep it low.
+
+"Of all the infernal impertinence! What do you mean by it, sir? Who are
+you? How dare you force yourself upon strangers in this fashion?"
+
+"I am quite aware that I am doing an unusual thing," I answered, "and I
+perhaps deserve all that you can say to me. At the same time, I am here
+to have my question answered. You have a child with you who is
+apparently terrified to death. I insist upon hearing from her own lips
+whether she is in need of friends."
+
+White and mute, she looked from one to the other. It was the man who
+answered.
+
+"If this were not a public place," he said, still struggling with his
+anger, "I'd punish you as you deserve, you impudent young cub. This
+young lady is my ward, and I have just brought her from a convent, where
+she has lived since she was three years old. She is strange and shy, of
+course, and I was perhaps wrong to bring her to a public place. I did
+it, however, out of kindness. I wanted her to enjoy herself, but I
+perhaps did not appreciate her sensitiveness and the fact that only a
+few days ago she parted with the friends with whom she has lived all her
+life. Now, sir," he added, with a sneer upon his coarse lips, "I have
+been compelled to answer your questions to avoid a disturbance in a
+public place; but I promise you that if you do not make yourself scarce
+in thirty seconds I will send for the manager."
+
+I looked once more at the child, from whose white, set face every gleam
+of hope seemed to have fled.
+
+"I can do nothing for you, then?" I asked.
+
+Her eyes met mine helplessly. She shook her head. She did not speak at
+all.
+
+"Is it true--what he has told me?" I asked.
+
+She murmured an assent so faint, that though I was bending over her, it
+scarcely did more than reach my ears. I could do no more. I turned away
+and resumed my seat. Grooten smiled at me.
+
+"Well, Sir Knight Errant," he said lightly; "so you could not free the
+maiden?"
+
+"I was made to feel and look like a fool, of course," I answered, "but I
+don't mind about that. To tell you the truth, I am not satisfied now.
+The man says that he is her guardian, and that he has just brought her
+from a convent, where she has lived all her life. He vouchsafed to
+explain things to me to avoid a row, but he was desperately angry. She
+has never been out of the convent since she was three years old, and she
+is very nervous and shy. That was his story, and he told it plausibly
+enough. I could not get anything out of her, except an admission that
+what he said was the truth."
+
+Mr. Grooten nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"After all," he said, "she is only a child, fourteen or fifteen at the
+most, I should suppose. I have paid the bill, and, as you see, I have my
+coat on. Are you ready?"
+
+"Directly I have finished my coffee," I answered. "It looks too good to
+leave."
+
+"Finish it, by all means," he answered. "I am in no particular hurry.
+By-the-bye, I forget whether I showed you this."
+
+He drew a small shining weapon, with rather a long barrel, from his
+pocket, but though he invited me to inspect it, he retained it in his
+own hand.
+
+"I bought it in New York a few months ago," he remarked; "it is the
+latest weapon of destruction invented."
+
+"Is it a revolver?" I asked, a little puzzled by its shape.
+
+"Not exactly," he answered, fingering it carelessly; "it is in reality a
+sort of air-gun, with a wonderful compression, and a most ingenious
+silencer; quite as deadly, they say, as any firearm ever invented. It
+ejects a cylindrically-shaped bullet, tapered down almost to the
+fineness of a needle. Now," he added, with a faint smile and a rapid
+glance round the room, "if only one dared--" he turned in his chair, and
+I saw the thing steal out below his cuff, "one could free the child
+quite easily--quite easily."
+
+It was all over in a moment--a wonderful, tense moment, during which I
+sat frozen to my chair, stricken dumb and motionless with the tragedy
+which it seemed that I alone had witnessed. For there had been a little
+puff of sound, so slight that no other ears had noticed it. The seat in
+front of me was empty, and the man on my right had fallen forwards, his
+hand pressed to his side, his face curiously livid, patchy with streaks
+of dark colour, his eyes bulbous. Waiters still hurried to and fro, the
+hum of conversation was uninterrupted. And then suddenly it came--a cry
+of breathless horror, of mortal unexpected agony--a cry, it seemed, of
+death. The waiters stopped in their places to gaze breathlessly at the
+spot from which the cry had come, a silver dish fell clattering from the
+fingers of one, and its contents rolled unnoticed about the floor. The
+murmur of voices, the rise and fall of laughter and speech, ceased as
+though an unseen finger had been pressed upon the lips of everyone in
+the room. Men rose in their places, women craned their necks. For a
+second or two the whole place was like a tableau of arrested motion.
+Then there was a rush towards the table across which the man had fallen,
+a doubled-up heap. A few feet away, with only that narrow margin of
+table-cloth between them, the girl sat and stared at him, still white
+and panic-stricken, yet with a curious change in her face from which all
+the dumb terror which had first attracted my attention seemed to have
+passed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The manager, who was very flurried, closed the door of the little room
+into which the wounded man had been carried.
+
+"Can you tell me his name, or shall we look for his card-case?" he
+asked.
+
+I glanced towards the child. She was by far the most composed of the
+three. Only she remained with her back turned steadily upon the sofa.
+
+"His name is Delahaye," she said; "Major Sir William Delahaye, I think
+they called him."
+
+"And where does he live--in London? Tell me his address. I will send a
+cab there at once!"
+
+"I do not know his address," the child answered. "I do not know where he
+lives."
+
+The manager stared at her.
+
+"You were with him, were you not?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then surely you must know something more about him than just his name?"
+
+"He called himself my guardian. I believe that when I was very young he
+took me to the convent where I have been ever since. Two days ago he
+came to fetch me away."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Isobel de Sorrens!"
+
+"You are not related to him, then?"
+
+She shuddered a little.
+
+"I hope not," she said simply.
+
+"Well, where was he taking you to?" the manager asked impatiently.
+"Surely there must be someone I can send to."
+
+"I believe that he has a house in London," the child said. "I really do
+not know anything more. You could send to Madame Richard at the Convent
+St. Argueil. I suppose she knows all about him. She told me that I was
+to consider him my guardian."
+
+The manager turned to me. I was an occasional customer, and he knew who
+I was.
+
+"Can you tell me anything about him, Mr. Greatson? The doctor will be
+here in a moment, but I feel that I ought to be sending for some of his
+friends. I am afraid that he is very ill."
+
+"You were not in the room at the time it happened?" I remarked.
+
+The manager shook his head.
+
+"No, I was in the office."
+
+"Have you sent for the police?" I asked.
+
+"Police, no!" he exclaimed. "What have the police to do with it? It was
+an ordinary fit, surely."
+
+I felt that I had held my peace long enough.
+
+"It was not a fit at all," I said gravely. "He was shot with a sort of
+air-gun by a man sitting at my table. I think that you ought to send for
+the police at once. The man's name was Grooten, but I know nothing else
+about him."
+
+The manager was for a moment speechless. The child looked at me eagerly.
+
+"It was the little old gentleman who was sitting with you who did it,"
+she exclaimed. "I saw him at Charing Cross."
+
+"Yes, it was he!" I answered.
+
+The child turned away.
+
+"Perhaps after all, then," she murmured to herself, "I may have friends
+in the world."
+
+The manager, whose name was Huber, was inclined to be incredulous.
+
+"An air-gun would have made as much noise as a revolver," he said. "Are
+you sure of what you say, Mr. Greatson?"
+
+"There is no doubt at all about it," I answered, "and you ought to
+inform the police at once. This man--Grooten, he called himself--pulled
+the pistol out of his pocket, and was pretending to show it to me when
+he fired the shot. He told me that it was a new invention which he had
+bought in America, and which was quite noiseless."
+
+The manager hurried from the room. The child and I were alone, except
+for the man on the couch. Every now and then he groaned--a sound I could
+not hear without a shiver. The child, however, was unmoved. She fixed
+her dark eyes on me.
+
+"Do you think that he will get away?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"You mean the man who shot Major Delahaye?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I think that it is very likely. He has a good start, and I expect that
+he had made his arrangements."
+
+"I hope he does," she murmured passionately. "I wish that I could help
+him."
+
+"You have no idea who he was?" I asked. "I do not believe that Grooten
+was his real name."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I have never seen him before in my life," she said. "If I did know I
+should not tell anyone."
+
+The doctor came at last. In reality it was barely five minutes since he
+had been sent for, but time dragged itself along slowly in that little
+room. Directly afterwards Huber, the manager, returned, followed by a
+sergeant of the police. We all waited for the doctor's examination. I
+fetched a chair for the child, and she thanked me with a wan little
+smile. Always she sat with her back to the sofa. There was something
+terribly suggestive in her utter lack of sympathy with the wounded man.
+
+The doctor finished his examination at last. He came towards us.
+
+"The wound is a very curious one," he said, "and I am afraid that the
+bullet will be difficult to extract, but it is not in itself serious. It
+is really only a flesh wound, but the man is suffering from severe
+shock, and I don't like the action of his heart. He can be removed quite
+safely. If you like I will telephone for an ambulance and take him to
+the hospital. Do you know anything about this affair, sergeant?"
+
+"Very little as yet, sir," the man answered. "I want this gentleman's
+description of the person who showed him the pistol. The commissionaire
+saw him leave, I understand, and one of the waiters saw something in his
+hand. Was he a friend of yours, sir?"
+
+"I only know his name," I answered. "He called himself Mr. Grooten, and
+I judged him to be a foreigner, though he spoke perfect English. He
+seemed to be about fifty years old, clean-shaven, and of under medium
+height."
+
+"Too vague," the sergeant remarked. "Had he any peculiarity of feature
+or expression, anything which would help towards identification?"
+
+"None that I can remember," I answered.
+
+"How was he dressed?"
+
+"Quietly. I could not remember anything that he wore."
+
+"Did he give you any idea of his intention? Did he speak of Major
+Delahaye at all as though he knew him?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"We simply both remarked," I said slowly, "that this--young lady seemed
+to be very frightened of her companion, and I do not think that we
+formed a favourable impression of him. He gave me not the slightest
+intimation, however, of his intention to interfere."
+
+"It could not have been an accident, I suppose?" Mr. Huber suggested.
+
+"I might have thought so," I answered, "if he had not immediately left
+the place. He disappeared so quickly that I did not even see him go."
+
+"You sat by accident at the same table?" the sergeant asked.
+
+"No, we came together," I answered. "We met at Charing Cross, and he
+spoke to me. He knew my name, and reminded me that we had once met at
+the 'Vagabonds' Club.'"
+
+"Did you remember him?"
+
+"I cannot say that I did," I answered.
+
+"And afterwards?"
+
+"We talked together for some time, and when we left the station he asked
+me to lunch here."
+
+"Did he arrive by train, or was he meeting anyone at Charing Cross?" the
+sergeant asked.
+
+"Neither, so far as I could see," I answered. "He seemed to be simply
+loitering. I ought to tell you, though, that we saw Major Delahaye and
+this young lady arrive by the Continental train, and he seemed to be
+interested in them."
+
+The sergeant turned to Isobel.
+
+"Did you know him?" he asked.
+
+"No," she answered. "I did not notice him at the station at all. I saw
+that he was sitting at the same table downstairs as this gentleman, but
+I am quite sure that I have never seen him before in my life."
+
+The sergeant put away his pocket-book.
+
+"I am very sorry to trouble you," he said, "but I think it would be
+better for you all to come to Bow Street and see the superintendent."
+
+"I am quite willing to do so," I answered, "though I can tell him no
+more than I have told you."
+
+The child moved suddenly towards me. Her thin, shabbily gloved fingers
+gripped my arm with almost painful force. Her eyes were full of
+passionate appeal.
+
+"I may go with you," she murmured. "You will not leave me alone?"
+
+"The young lady will be required also," the sergeant remarked.
+
+"We will go together, of course," I said gently. "Come!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+We crossed the road from the police-station, and found ourselves in one
+of the narrow streets fringing Covent Garden. The air was fragrant here
+with the perfume of white and purple lilac, great baskets full of which
+were piled up in the gutter. The girl half closed her eyes.
+
+"Delicious!" she murmured. "This reminds me of St. Argueil! You have
+flowers too, then, in London?"
+
+I bought her a handful, which she sniffed and held to her face with
+delight.
+
+"Ah!" she said a little sadly. "I had forgotten that there were any
+beautiful things left in the world. Thank you so much, Mr. Arnold."
+
+"At your age," I said cheerfully, "you will soon find out that the
+world--even London--is a treasure-house of beautiful things."
+
+She looked down the narrow, untidy street, strewn with the refuse from
+the market waggons and trucks which blocked the way, making all but
+pedestrian traffic an impossibility--at the piles of empty baskets in
+the gutter, and the slatternly crowd of loiterers. Then she looked up at
+me with a faint smile.
+
+"London--is not all like this, then?" she remarked.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"This is a back street, almost a slum," I said. "I daresay you have
+lived in the country always, and just at first it does not seem possible
+that there should be anything beautiful about a great city. When you get
+a little older I think that you will see things differently. The beauty
+of a great city thronged with men and women is a more subtle thing than
+the mere joy of meadows and hills and country lanes--but it exists all
+the same. And now," I continued, stopping short upon the pavement, "I
+must take you to your friends. Tell me where they live. You have the
+address, perhaps."
+
+"What friends?" she asked me, with wide-open eyes.
+
+"You told the superintendent of police that you had friends in London,"
+I reminded her.
+
+Then she smiled at me--a very dazzling smile, which showed all her white
+teeth, and which seemed somehow to become reflected in her dark blue
+eyes.
+
+"But I meant you!" she exclaimed. "I thought that you knew that! There
+is no one else. You are my friend, I know very well, for you came and
+spoke kindly to me when I was terrified--terrified to death."
+
+The shadow of gravity rested only for a moment upon her face. She
+laughed gaily at my consternation.
+
+"Then where am I to take you?" I asked.
+
+"Stupid," she murmured; "I am going with you, of course. Why--why--you
+don't mind, do you?" she asked, with a sudden catch in her throat.
+
+I felt like a brute, and I hastened to make what amends I could. I
+smiled at her reassuringly.
+
+"Mind! Of course I don't mind," I declared. "Only, you see, there are
+three of us--all men--and we live together. I was afraid----"
+
+"I shall not mind that at all," she interrupted cheerfully. "If they are
+nice like you, I think that it will be delightful. There were only girls
+at the convent, you know, and the sisters, and a few masters who came to
+teach us things, but they were not allowed to speak to us except to give
+out the lessons, and they were very stupid. I do not think that I shall
+be any trouble to you at all. I will try not to be."
+
+I looked at her--a little helplessly. After all, though she was tall for
+her years, she was only a child. Her dress was of an awkward length, her
+long straight fringe and plaited hair the coiffure of the schoolroom.
+The most surprising thing of all in connection with her was that she
+showed no signs of the tragedy which had so recently been played out
+around her. Her eyes had lost their nameless fear; there was even colour
+in her cheeks.
+
+"Come along, then!" I said. "We will turn into the Strand and take a
+hansom."
+
+She walked buoyantly along by my side, as tall within an inch or so as
+myself, and with a certain elegance in her gait a little hard to
+reconcile with her years. All the while she looked eagerly about her,
+her eyes shining with curiosity.
+
+"We passed through Paris at night," she said, with a little reminiscent
+shudder, as though every thought connected with that journey were a
+torture, "and I have never really been in a great city before. I hope
+you meant what you said," she added, looking up at me with a quick
+smile, "and that there are parts of London more beautiful than this."
+
+"Many," I assured her. "You shall see the parks. The rhododendrons will
+be out soon, and I think that you will find them beautiful, though, of
+course, the town can never be like the country. Here's a hansom with a
+good horse. Jump in!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I think that our arrival at Number 4, Earl's Crescent, created quite as
+much sensation as I had anticipated. When I opened the door of the
+large, barely-furnished room, which we called our workshop, Arthur
+sprang from the table on which he had been lounging, and Mabane, who was
+still working, dropped his brush in sheer amazement. I turned towards
+the girl.
+
+"These are my friends, Isobel, of whom I have been telling you," I said.
+"This is Mr. Arthur Fielding, who is the ornamental member of the
+establishment, and that is Mr. Allan Mabane, who paints very bad
+pictures, but who contrives to make other people think that they are
+worth buying. Allan, this young lady, Miss Isobel de Sorrens, and I have
+had a little adventure together. I will explain all about it later on."
+
+They both advanced with extended hands. The girl, as though suddenly
+conscious of her position, gave a hand to each, and looked at them
+almost piteously.
+
+"You will not mind my coming," she begged, with a tremulous little note
+of appeal in her tone. "I do not seem to have any friends, and Mr.
+Arnold has been so kind to me. If I may stay here for a little while I
+will try--oh, I am sure, that I will not be in anyone's way!"
+
+The pathos of her breathless little speech was almost irresistible. The
+child, as she stood there in the centre of the room, looking eagerly
+from one to the other, conquered easily. I do not know if either of the
+other two were conscious of the new note of life which she seemed to
+bring with her into our shabby, smoke-smelling room, but to me it came
+home, even in those first few moments, with wonderful poignancy. An
+alien note it was, but a wonderfully sweet one. We three men had drifted
+away from the whole world of our womenkind. She seemed to bring us back
+instantly into touch with some of the few better and rarer memories
+round which the selfishness of life is always building a thicker crust.
+For one thing, at that moment I was deeply grateful--that I knew my
+friends. My task was made a sinecure.
+
+"My dear young lady," Mabane exclaimed, with unmistakeable earnestness,
+"you are heartily welcome. We are delighted to see you here!"
+
+"More than welcome," Arthur declared. "We are all one here, you know,
+Miss de Sorrens; and if you are Arnold's friend, you must be ours."
+
+For the first time tears stood in her eyes. She brushed them proudly
+away.
+
+"You are very, very kind," she said. "I cannot tell you how grateful I
+am to you both."
+
+Arthur rushed for our one easy-chair, and insisted upon installing her
+in it. Mabane lit a stove and left the room swinging a kettle. I drew a
+little sigh of relief, and threw my hat into a corner. Apparently she
+had conquered my friends as easily as she had conquered me.
+
+"Arthur," I said, "please entertain Miss de Sorrens for a few moments,
+will you. I must go and interview Mrs. Burdett."
+
+"I'll do my best, Arnold," he assured me. "Mrs. Burdett's in the
+kitchen, I think. She came in just before you."
+
+Mrs. Burdett was our housekeeper and sole domestic. She was a
+hard-featured but kindly old woman, with a caustic tongue and a soft
+heart. She heard my story unmoved, betraying neither enthusiasm or
+disapproval. When I had finished, she simply set her cap straight and
+rubbed her hands upon her apron.
+
+"I'd like to see the child, as you call her, Mr. Arnold," she said. "You
+young gentlemen are so easy deceived, and it's an unusual thing that
+you're proposing, not to say inconvenient."
+
+So I took Mrs. Burdett back with me to the studio. As we opened the door
+the music of the girl's strange little foreign laugh was ringing through
+the room. Arthur was mounted upon his hobby, talking of the delights of
+motoring, and she was listening with sparkling eyes. They stopped at
+once as we entered.
+
+"This is Mrs. Burdett, Isobel," I said, "who looks after us here, and
+who is going to take charge of you. She will show you your room. I'm
+sorry that you will find it so tiny, but you can see that we are a
+little cramped here!"
+
+Isobel rose at once.
+
+"You should have seen our cells at St. Argueil," she exclaimed, smiling.
+"Some of us who were tall could scarcely stand upright. May I come with
+you, Mrs. Burdett?"
+
+Mrs. Burdett's tone and answer relieved me of one more anxiety. The door
+closed upon them. We three men were alone.
+
+"Is this," Mabane asked curiously, "a practical joke, or a part of your
+plot? What does it all mean? Where on earth did you come across the
+child? Who is she?"
+
+I took a cigarette from my case and lit it.
+
+"The responsibility for the whole affair," I declared, "remains with
+Arthur."
+
+The boy whistled softly. He looked at me with wide-open eyes.
+
+"Come," he declared, "I like that. Why, I have never seen the girl
+before in my life, or anyone like her. Where do I come in, I should like
+to know?"
+
+"It was you," I said, "who started me off to Charing Cross."
+
+"You mean to say that you picked her up there?" Mabane exclaimed.
+
+"I will tell you the whole story," I answered. "She comes with the halo
+of tragedy about her. Listen!"
+
+Then I told them of the things which had happened to me during the last
+few hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+I certainly could not complain of any lack of interest on the part of my
+auditors. They listened to every word of my story with rapt attention.
+When I had finished they were both silent for several moments. Mabane
+eyed me curiously. I think that at first he scarcely knew whether to
+believe me altogether serious.
+
+"The man who was with the girl," Arthur asked at last--"this Major
+Delahaye, or whatever his name was--is he dead?"
+
+"He was alive two hours ago," I answered.
+
+"Will he recover?"
+
+"I believe that there is just a bare chance--no more," I answered. "He
+had a weak heart, and the shock was almost enough to kill him."
+
+"And your friend--the man who shot him--where is he?" Mabane asked. "Is
+he in custody?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"He disappeared," I answered, "as though by magic. You see, we were
+sitting at the table next the door, and he had every opportunity for
+slipping out unnoticed."
+
+"It was at the Cafe Grand, you said, wasn't it?" Arthur asked.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"How about the commissionaire, then?"
+
+"He saw the man come out, but he took no particular notice of him," I
+answered. "He crossed the street at an ordinary walking pace, and he was
+out of sight before the commotion inside began."
+
+"It seems to me," Mabane remarked, "that you must have found yourself in
+rather an awkward position."
+
+"I did," I answered grimly. "Of course my story sounded a bit thin, and
+the police made me go to the station with them. As luck would have it,
+however, I knew the inspector, and I managed to convince him that I was
+telling the truth, or I doubt whether they would have let me go. I
+suppose," I added, a little doubtfully, "that you fellows must think me
+a perfect idiot for bringing the child here, but upon my word I don't
+know what else I could have done. I simply couldn't leave her there, or
+in the streets. I'm awfully sorry--"
+
+"Don't be an ass," Arthur interrupted energetically. "Of course you
+couldn't do anything but bring her here. You acted like a sensible chap
+for once."
+
+"Have you questioned her," Mabane asked, "about her friends? If she has
+none in London, she must have some somewhere!"
+
+"I have questioned her," I answered, "but not very successfully. She
+appears to know nothing about her relations, or even her parentage. She
+has been at the convent ever since she can remember, and she has seen no
+one outside it except this man who took her there and came to fetch her
+away."
+
+"And what relation is he?" Allan asked.
+
+"None! He called himself simply her guardian."
+
+Arthur walked across the room for his pipe, and commenced to fill it.
+
+"Well," he said, "you are like the man in the Scriptures, who found what
+he went out for to see. You've got your adventure, at any rate. All
+owing to my advice, too. Hullo!"
+
+We all turned round. The door of the room was suddenly opened and
+closed. My host of a few hours ago stood upon the threshold, smiling
+suavely upon us. He wore a low black hat, and a coat somewhat thicker
+than the season of the year seemed to demand. Every article of attire
+was different, but his face seemed to defy disguise. I should have known
+Mr. Grooten anywhere.
+
+His unexpected presence seemed to deprive me almost of my wits. I simply
+gaped at him like the others.
+
+"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "You here!"
+
+He stood quite still for a moment, listening. Then he glanced sharply
+around the room. He looked at Mabane, and he looked at Arthur. Finally
+he addressed me.
+
+"I fancy that I am a fairly obvious apparition," he remarked. "Where is
+the child?"
+
+"She is here," I answered, "in another room with our housekeeper just
+now. But----"
+
+"I have only a few seconds to spare," Mr. Grooten interrupted
+ruthlessly. "Listen to me. You have chosen to interfere in this concern,
+and you must take your part in it now. You have the child, and you must
+keep her for a time. You must not let her go, on any account.
+Unfortunately, the man who sold me that pistol was a liar. Delahaye is
+not dead. It is possible even that he may recover. Will you swear to
+keep the child from him?"
+
+I hesitated. It seemed to me that Grooten was taking a great deal for
+granted.
+
+"You must remember," I said, "that I have absolutely no legal hold upon
+her. If Delahaye is her guardian it will be quite easy for him to take
+her away."
+
+"He is not her legal guardian," Grooten said sharply. "He has no just
+claim upon her at all."
+
+"Neither have I," I reminded him.
+
+"You have possession," Grooten exclaimed. "I tell you that neither
+Delahaye, if he lives, nor any other person, will appeal to the law to
+force you to give the child up. This is the truth. I see you still
+hesitate. Listen! This also is truth. The child is in danger from
+Delahaye--hideous, unmentionable danger."
+
+I never thought of doubting his word. Truth blazed out from his keen
+grey eyes; his words carried conviction with them.
+
+"I will keep the child," I promised him. "But tell me who you are, and
+what you have to do with her."
+
+"No matter," he answered swiftly. "I lay this thing upon you, a charge
+upon your honour. Guard the child. If Delahaye recovers there will be
+trouble. You must brave it out. You are an Englishman; you are one of a
+stubborn, honourable race. Do my bidding in this matter, and you shall
+learn what gratitude can mean."
+
+Once more he listened for a moment intently. Then he continued.
+
+"I am followed by the police," he said. "They may be here at any moment.
+You can tell them of my visit if it is necessary. My escape is provided
+for."
+
+"But surely you will tell me something else about the child," I
+exclaimed. "Tell me at least----"
+
+He held out his hand.
+
+"You are safer to know nothing," he said quickly. "Be faithful to what
+you have promised, and you will never regret it."
+
+With almost incredible swiftness he disappeared. We all three looked at
+one another, speechless. Then from outside came the sound of light
+footsteps, and a laugh as from the throat of a singing bird. The door
+was thrown open, and Isobel entered.
+
+"Such a funny little man has just gone out!" she exclaimed. "He had a
+handkerchief tied round his face as though he had been fighting. What
+lazy people!" she added, looking around. "I expected to find tea ready.
+Will you please tell me some more about motor-cars, Mr. Arthur?"
+
+She sat on a stool in our midst, and chattered while we fed her with
+cakes, and screamed with laughter at Mabane's toast. The tragedy of a
+few hours ago seemed to have passed already from her mind. She was all
+charm and irresponsibility. The gaunt, bare room, which for years had
+mocked all our efforts at decoration, seemed suddenly a beautiful place.
+Easily, and with the effortless grace of her fifteen years, she laughed
+her way into our hearts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+"Arnold!"
+
+I waved my left hand.
+
+"Don't disturb me for a few minutes, Allan, there's a good chap," I
+begged. "I'm hard at it."
+
+"Found your plot, then, eh?"
+
+"I've got a start, anyhow! Give me half an hour. I only want to set the
+thing going."
+
+Mabane grunted, and took up his brush. For once I was thankful that we
+were alone. At last I saw my way. After weeks of ineffective scribbling
+a glimpse of the real thing had come to me.
+
+The stiffness had gone from my brain and fingers. My pen flew over the
+paper. The joy of creation sang once more in my heart, tingled in all my
+pulses. We worked together and in silence for an hour or more. Then,
+with a little sigh of satisfaction, I leaned back in my chair.
+
+"The story goes, then?" Mabane remarked.
+
+"Yes, it goes," I assented, my eyes fixed absently upon the loose sheets
+of manuscript strewn all over my desk. Already I was finding it hard to
+tear my thoughts away from it.
+
+There was a short silence. Then Mabane, who had been filling his pipe,
+came over to my side.
+
+"You heard from the convent this morning, Arnold?"
+
+"Yes! The letter is here. Read it!"
+
+Mabane shook his head.
+
+"I can't read French," he said.
+
+"They want her back again," I told him, thoughtfully. "The woman appears
+to be honest enough. She admits that they have no absolute claim--they
+do not even know her parentage. They have been paid, she says, regularly
+and well for the child's education, and if she is now without a home
+they would like her to go back to them. She thinks it possible that
+Major Delahaye's relatives, or the people for whom he acted, might
+continue the payments, but they are willing to take their risk of that.
+The long and short of it is, that they want her back again."
+
+"As a pupil still?" Mabane asked.
+
+"They would train her for a teacher. In that case she would have to
+serve a sort of novitiate. She would practically become a nun."
+
+Mabane withdrew his pipe from his mouth, and looked thoughtfully into
+the bowl of it.
+
+"I never had a sister," he said, "and I really know nothing whatever
+about children. But does it occur to you, Arnold, that this--young lady
+seems particularly adapted for a convent?"
+
+"I believe," I said firmly, "that it would be misery for her."
+
+Mabane walked over to his canvas and came back again.
+
+"What about Delahaye?" he asked.
+
+"He is still unconscious at the hospital," I answered.
+
+Mabane hesitated.
+
+"I do not wish to seem intrusive, Arnold," he said, "but I can't help
+remembering that a certain lady with whom you were very friendly once
+married a Delahaye!"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"I should have told you, in any case," I said. "This is the man--Major
+Sir William Delahaye, whom Eileen Marigold married."
+
+"Then surely you recognized him in the restaurant?"
+
+"I never met him," I answered. "This marriage was arranged very quickly,
+as you know, and I was abroad when it took place. I called on Lady
+Delahaye twice, but I did not meet her husband on either occasion."
+
+Mabane fingered the loose sheets of my manuscript idly.
+
+"Your story, Arnold," he said, "is having a tragic birth. Will Delahaye
+really die, do you think?"
+
+"The doctors are not very hopeful," I told him. "The wound itself is not
+mortal, but the shock seems to have affected him seriously. He is not a
+young man, and he has lived hard all his days."
+
+"If he dies," Mabane said thoughtfully, "your friend Grooten, I think
+you said he called himself, will have to disappear altogether. In that
+case I suppose we--shall be compelled to send the child back to the
+convent?"
+
+"Unless----"
+
+"Unless what?"
+
+"Unless we provide for her ourselves," I answered boldly.
+
+Mabane smoked furiously for a few moments. His hands were thrust deep
+down in his trousers pockets. He looked fixedly out of the window.
+
+"Arnold," he said abruptly, "do you believe in presentiments?"
+
+"It depends whether they affect me favourably or the reverse," I
+answered carelessly. "You Scotchmen are all so superstitious."
+
+"You may call it superstition," Mabane continued. "Everything of the
+sort which an ignorant man cannot understand he calls superstition. But
+if you like, I will tell you something which is surely going to happen.
+I will tell you what I have seen."
+
+I leaned forward in my chair, and looked curiously into Allan's face.
+His hard, somewhat commonplace features seemed touched for the moment by
+some transfiguring fire. His keen, blue-grey eyes were as soft and
+luminous as a girl's. He had actually the appearance of a man who sees a
+little way beyond the border. Even then I could not take him seriously.
+
+"Speak, Sir Prophet!" I exclaimed, with a little laugh. "Let my eyes
+also be touched with fire. Let me see what you see."
+
+Mabane showed no sign of annoyance. He looked at me composedly.
+
+"Do not be a fool, Arnold," he said. "You may believe or disbelieve, but
+some day you will know that the things which I have in my mind are
+true."
+
+I think that I was a little bewildered. I realized now what at first I
+had been inclined to doubt--that Mabane was wholly in earnest.
+Unconsciously my attitude towards him changed. It is hard to mock a man
+who believes in himself.
+
+"Go ahead, then, Allan," I said quietly. "Remember that you have told me
+nothing yet."
+
+Mabane turned towards me. He spoke slowly. His face was serious--almost
+solemn.
+
+"The man Delahaye will never claim the child," he said. "I think that he
+will die. The man who shot him has gone--we shall not hear of him again,
+not for many years, if at all. He has gone like a stone dropped into a
+bottomless tarn. We shall not send the child back to the convent. She
+will remain here."
+
+He paused, as though expecting me to speak. I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Come," I said, "I shall not quarrel with your prophecy so far, Allan.
+The introduction of a feminine element here seems a little incongruous,
+but after all she is very young."
+
+Mabane unclasped his arms, and looked thoughtfully around the room.
+Already there was a change since a few days ago. The ornaments and
+furniture were free from dust. There were two great bowls of flowers
+upon the table, some studies which had hung upon the wall were replaced
+with others of a more sedate character. The atmosphere of the place was
+different. Wild untidiness had given place to some semblance of order.
+There was an attempt everywhere at repression. Mabane knocked the ashes
+from his pipe.
+
+"For five years," he said abstractedly, "you and I and Arthur have lived
+here together. Are you satisfied with those five years? Think!"
+
+I looked from my desk out of the window, over the housetops up into the
+sunshine, and I too was grave. Satisfied! Is anyone short of a fool ever
+satisfied?
+
+"No! I am not," I admitted, a little bitterly.
+
+"Tell me what you think of these five years, Arnold. Tell me the truth,"
+Mabane persisted. "Let me know if your thoughts are the same as mine."
+
+"Drift," I answered. "We have worked a little, and thought a little--but
+our feet have been on the earth a great deal oftener than our heads have
+touched the clouds."
+
+"Drift," Mabane repeated. "It is a true word. We have gained a little
+experience of the wrong sort: we have learnt how to adapt our poor
+little gifts to the whim of the moment. Such as our talent has been, we
+have made a servant of it to minister to our physical necessities. We
+have lived little lives, Arnold--very little lives."
+
+"Go on," I murmured. "This at least is truth!"
+
+Mabane paused. He looked at his pipe, but he did not relight it.
+
+"There is a change coming," he said, slowly. "We are going to drift no
+longer. We are going to be drawn into the maelstrom of life. What it may
+mean for you and for me and for the boy, I do not know. It will change
+us--it must change our work. I shall paint no more guesses at
+realism--after someone else; and you will write no more of princesses,
+or pull the strings of tinsel-decked puppets, so that they may dance
+their way through the pages of your gaily-dressed novels. And an end has
+come to these things, Arnold. No, I am not raving, nor is this a jest.
+Wait!"
+
+"You speak," I told him, "like a seer. Since when was it given to you to
+read the future so glibly, my friend?"
+
+Mabane looked at me with grave eyes. There was no shadow of levity in
+his manner.
+
+"I am not a superstitious man, Arnold," he said, "but I come, after all,
+of hill-folk, and I believe that there are times when one can feel and
+see the shadow of coming things. My grandfather knew the day of his
+death, and spoke of it; my father made his will before he set foot on
+the steamer which went to the bottom on a calm day between Dover and
+Ostend. Nothing of this sort has ever come to me before. You yourself
+have called me too hard-headed, too material for an artist. So I have
+always thought myself--until to-day. To-day I feel differently."
+
+"Is it this child, then, who is to open the gates of the world to us?" I
+asked.
+
+"Remember," Mabane answered, "that before many months have passed she
+will be a woman."
+
+I moved in my chair a little uneasily.
+
+"I wonder," I said, half to myself, "whether I did well to bring her
+here!"
+
+Mabane laughed shortly.
+
+"It was not you who brought her," he declared. "She was sent."
+
+"Sent?"
+
+"Aye, these things are not of our choosing, Arnold. There is something
+behind which drives the great wheels. You can call it Fate or God,
+according to your philosophy. It is there all the time, the one eternal
+force."
+
+I looked at Mabane steadfastly. He did not flinch.
+
+"Psychologically, my dear Allan," I said, "you appear to be in a very
+interesting state just now."
+
+Mabane shrugged his shoulders. He crossed the room for some tobacco, and
+began to refill his pipe.
+
+"Well," he said, "I have finished. To-morrow, I suppose, I shall want to
+kick myself for having said as much as I have. Listen! Here they come."
+
+Isobel came into the room, followed by Arthur in a leather jacket and
+breeches. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes danced with excitement. She
+threw off her tam-o'-shanter, and stood deftly re-arranging for a moment
+her wind-tossed hair.
+
+"Glorious!" she exclaimed. "Oh, it has been glorious! Mr. Arthur, how
+can I thank you? I have never enjoyed myself so much in my life. If the
+Sister Superior could only have seen me--and the girls!"
+
+"Motoring, I presume," Mabane remarked, "is amongst the pleasures denied
+to the young ladies of the convent?"
+
+She laughed gaily.
+
+"Pleasures! Why, there are no pleasures for those poor girls. One may
+not even smile, and as for games, even they are not permitted. I think
+that it is shameful to make such a purgatory of a place. One may not,
+one could not, be happy there. It is not allowed."
+
+She caught the look which flashed from Mabane to me, and turned
+instantly around.
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Arnold," she cried breathlessly, "you do not think--I
+shall not have to return there?"
+
+"Not likely!" Arthur interposed with vigour. "By Jove! if anyone shut
+you up there again I'd come and fetch you out."
+
+She threw a quick glance of gratitude towards him, but her eyes returned
+almost immediately to mine. She waited anxiously for me to speak.
+
+"If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you shall never return
+there. I do not think that it is at all the proper place for you. But
+you must remember that we are, after all, people of no authority.
+Someone might come forward to-morrow with a legal right to claim you,
+and we should be helpless."
+
+[Illustration: "If we can possibly prevent it," I said slowly, "you
+shall never return there."]
+
+Slowly the colour died away from her cheeks. Her eyes became
+preternaturally bright and anxious.
+
+"There is no one," she faltered, "except that man. He called himself my
+guardian."
+
+"Had you seen him before he came to the convent and fetched you away?" I
+asked.
+
+"Only once," she answered. "He came to St. Argueil about a year ago. I
+hated him then. I have hated him ever since. I think that if all men
+were like that I would be content to stay in the convent all my life."
+
+"You don't remember the circumstances under which he took you there, I
+suppose?" Mabane asked thoughtfully.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I do not remember being taken there at all," she answered. "I think
+that I was not more than four or five years old."
+
+"And all the time no one else has been to see you or written to you?" I
+asked.
+
+"No one!"
+
+She smothered a little sob as she answered me. It was as though my
+questions and Mabane's, although I had asked them gently enough, had
+suddenly brought home to her a fuller sense of her complete loneliness.
+Her eyes were full of tears. She held herself proudly, and she fought
+hard for her self-control. Arthur glanced indignantly at both of us. He
+had the wit, however, to remain silent.
+
+"There are just one or two more questions, Isobel," I said, "which I
+must ask you some time or other."
+
+"Now, please, then," she begged.
+
+"Did Major Delahaye ever mention his wife to you?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"You did not even know, then, when you arrived in London where he was
+taking you?"
+
+"I knew nothing," she admitted. "He behaved very strangely, and I was
+miserable every moment of the time I was with him. I understood that I
+was to have a companion and live in London."
+
+I felt my blood run cold for a moment. I did not dare to look at Mabane.
+
+"I do not think," I said, "that you need fear anything more from Major
+Delahaye, even if he should recover."
+
+"You mean--?" she cried breathlessly.
+
+"We should never give you up to him," I declared firmly.
+
+"Thank God!" she murmured. "Mr. Arnold," she added, looking at me
+eagerly, "I can paint and sing and play the piano. Can't people earn
+money sometimes by doing these things? I would work--oh, I am not afraid
+to work. Couldn't I stay here for a little while?"
+
+"Of course you can," I assured her. "And there is no need at all for you
+to think about earning money yet. It is not that which troubles us at
+all. It is the fact that we have no legal claim upon you, and people may
+come forward at any moment who have."
+
+Arthur glanced towards her triumphantly.
+
+"What did I tell you?" he exclaimed.
+
+She looked timidly across at Mabane.
+
+"The other gentleman won't mind?" she asked timidly.
+
+Mabane smiled at her, and his smile was a revelation even to us who knew
+him so well.
+
+"My dear young lady," he said, "you will be more than welcome. I have
+just been telling Arnold that your coming will make the world a
+different place for us."
+
+The girl's smile was illumining. It seemed to include us all. She held
+out both her hands. Mabane seized one and bent over it with the air of a
+courtier. The other was offered to me. Arthur was content to beam upon
+us all from the background. At that precise moment came a tap at the
+door. Mrs. Burdett brought in a telegram.
+
+I tore it open, and hastily reading it, passed it on to Mabane. He
+hesitated for a moment, and then turned gravely to Isobel.
+
+"Major Delahaye will not trouble you any more," he said. "He died in the
+hospital an hour ago."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"A shade more to the right, please. There, just as you are now! Don't
+move! In five minutes I shall have finished for the day."
+
+Isobel smiled.
+
+"I think that your five minutes," she said, "last sometimes for a very
+long time. But I am not tired--no, not at all. I can stay like this if
+you wish until the light goes."
+
+"You are splendid," Mabane murmured. "The best sitter--oh, hang it,
+who's that?"
+
+"There is certainly some one at the door," Isobel remarked.
+
+Mabane paused in his work to shout fiercely, "Come in!" I too looked up
+from my writing. A woman was ushered into the room--a woman dressed in
+fashionable mourning, of medium height, and with a wealth of fair,
+fluffy hair, which seemed to mock the restraining black bands. Mrs.
+Burdett, visibly impressed, lingered in the background.
+
+The woman paused and looked around. She looked at me, and the pen
+slipped from my nerveless fingers. I rose to my feet.
+
+"Eil--Lady Delahaye!" I exclaimed.
+
+She inclined her head. Her demeanour was cold, almost belligerent.
+
+"I am glad to find you here, Arnold Greatson," she said. "You are a
+friend, I believe, of the man who murdered my husband?"
+
+"You have been misinformed, Lady Delahaye," I answered quietly. "I was
+not even an acquaintance of his. We met that day for the first time."
+
+By the faintest possible curl of the lips she expressed her contemptuous
+disbelief.
+
+"Ah!" she said. "I remember your story at the inquest. You will forgive
+me if, in company, I believe, with the majority who heard it, I find it
+a trifle improbable."
+
+I looked at her gravely. This was the woman with whom I had once
+believed myself in love, the woman who had jilted me to marry a man of
+whom even his friends found it hard to speak well.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "my story may have sounded strangely, but it
+was true. I presume that you did not come here solely with the purpose
+of expressing your amiable opinion of my veracity?"
+
+"You are quite right," she admitted drily. "I did not."
+
+She was silent for a few moments. Her eyes were fixed upon Isobel, and I
+did not like their expression.
+
+"May I offer you a chair, Lady Delahaye?" I asked.
+
+"Thank you, I prefer to stand--here," she answered. "This, I believe, is
+the young person who was with my husband?"
+
+She extended a sombrely gloved forefinger towards Isobel, who met her
+gaze unflinchingly.
+
+"That is the young lady," I answered. "Have you anything to say to her?"
+
+"My errand here is with her," Lady Delahaye declared. "What is it that
+you call yourself, girl?"
+
+Isobel was a little bewildered. She seemed scarcely able to appreciate
+Lady Delahaye's attitude.
+
+"My name," she said, "is Isobel de Sorrens."
+
+"You asserted at the inquest," Lady Delahaye continued, "that my husband
+was your guardian. What did you mean by such an extraordinary
+statement?"
+
+Isobel seemed suddenly to grasp the situation. Her finely arched
+eyebrows were raised, her cheeks were pink, her eyes sparkling. She rose
+slowly to her feet, and, child though she was, the dignity of her
+demeanour was such that Lady Delahaye with her accusing forefinger
+seemed to shrink into insignificance.
+
+"I think," she said, "that you are a very rude person. Major Delahaye
+took me to the convent of St. Argueil when I was four years old, and
+left me there. He visited me twelve months ago, and brought me to
+England you know when. I was with him for less than twenty-four hours,
+and I was very unhappy indeed all the time. I did not understand the
+things which he said to me, nor did I like him at all. I think that if
+he had left me out of his sight for a moment I should have run away."
+
+Lady Delahaye was very pale, and her eyes were full of unpleasant
+things. I found myself looking at her, and marvelling at the folly which
+I had long since forgotten.
+
+"You perhaps complained of him--to his murderer! It is you, no doubt,
+who are responsible for my husband's death!"
+
+Isobel's lips curled contemptuously.
+
+"Major Delahaye," she said, "did not permit me to speak to anyone. As
+for the man whom you call his murderer, I never saw him before in my
+life, nor should I recognize him again if I saw him now. I do not know
+why you come here and say all these unkind things to me. I have done you
+no harm. I am very sorry about Major Delahaye, but--but--"
+
+Her lips quivered. I hastily interposed.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "I do not know what the immediate object of
+your visit here may be, but----"
+
+"The immediate object of my visit," she interrupted coldly, "is as
+repugnant to me, Mr. Greatson, as it may possibly be disappointing to
+you. I am here, however, to carry out my husband's last wish. This child
+herself has asserted that he was her guardian. By his death that most
+unwelcome post devolves upon me."
+
+Isobel turned white, as though stung by a sudden apprehension. She
+looked towards me, and I took her hand in mine. Lady Delahaye smiled
+unpleasantly upon us both.
+
+"You mean," I said, "that you wish to take her away from us?"
+
+"Wish!" Lady Delahaye repeated coldly. "I can assure you that I am not
+consulting my own wishes upon the subject at all. What I am doing is
+simply my duty. The child had better get her hat on."
+
+Isobel did not move, but she turned very pale. Her eyes seemed fastened
+upon mine. She waited for me to speak. The situation was embarrassing
+enough so far as I was concerned, for Lady Delahaye was obviously in
+earnest. I tried to gain time.
+
+"May I ask what your intentions are with regard to the child? You intend
+to take her to your home--to adopt her, I suppose?"
+
+Lady Delahaye regarded me with cold surprise.
+
+"Certainly not," she answered. "I shall find a fitting position for her
+in her own station of life."
+
+"May I assume then," I continued, with some eagerness, "that you know
+what that is? You are acquainted, perhaps, with her parentage?"
+
+She returned my gaze steadily.
+
+"I may be," she answered. "That, however, is beside the question. I
+intend to do my duty by the child. If you have been put to any expense
+with regard to her, you can mention the amount and I will defray it. I
+have answered enough questions. What is your name, child--Isobel? Get
+ready to come with me."
+
+Isobel answered her steadily, but her eyes were filled with shrinking
+fear.
+
+"I do not wish to come with you," she said. "I do not like you at all."
+
+Lady Delahaye raised her eyebrows. It seemed to me that in a quiet way
+she was becoming angry.
+
+"Unfortunately," she said, "your liking or disliking me makes very
+little difference. I have no choice in the matter at all. The care of
+you has devolved upon me, and I must undertake it. You had better come
+at once."
+
+Isobel trembled where she stood. I judged it time to intervene.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "the duty of looking after this child is
+evidently a distasteful one to you. We will relieve you of it. She can
+remain with us."
+
+Lady Delahaye looked at me in astonishment. Then she laughed, and it
+seemed to all of us that we had never heard a more unpleasant travesty
+of mirth.
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed. "And may I ask of whom your household
+consists?"
+
+"Of myself and my two friends, Mabane and Fielding. We have a most
+responsible housekeeper, however, who will be able to look after the
+child."
+
+"Until she herself can qualify for the position, I presume," Lady
+Delahaye remarked drily. "What a delightful arrangement! A sort of
+co-operative household. Quite Arcadian, I am sure, and so truly
+philanthropic. You have changed a good deal during the last few years,
+Mr. Arnold Greatson, to be able to stand there and make such an
+extraordinary proposition to me."
+
+I was determined not to lose my temper, though, as a matter of fact, I
+was fiercely angry.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "we are not prepared to give this child up to
+you. It will perhaps help to shorten a--a painful interview if you will
+accept that from me as final."
+
+The change in Isobel was marvellous. The brilliant colour streamed into
+her cheeks. Her long-drawn, quivering sigh of relief seemed in the
+momentary silence which followed my pronouncement a very audible thing.
+Lady Delahaye looked at me as though she doubted the meaning of my
+words.
+
+"You are aware," she said, "that this will mean great unpleasantness for
+you. You know the law?"
+
+"I neither know it nor wish to know it," I answered. "We shall not give
+up the child."
+
+I glanced at Mabane. His confirmation was swift and decisive.
+
+"I am entirely in accord with my friend, madam," he said, with grim
+precision.
+
+"The law will compel you," she declared.
+
+"We will do our best, then," he answered, "to cheat the law."
+
+"I should like to add, Lady Delahaye," I continued, "that our
+housekeeper, who has been in the service of my family for over thirty
+years, has willingly undertaken the care of the child, and I can assure
+you, in case you should have any anxieties concerning her, that she will
+be as safe under our charge as in your own."
+
+Lady Delahaye moved towards the door. On the threshold she turned and
+laid her hand upon my arm. I was preparing to show her out. There was
+meaning in her eyes as she leaned towards me.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "we were once friends, or I should drive
+straight from here to my solicitors. I presume you are aware that your
+present attitude is capable of very serious misrepresentation?"
+
+"I must take the risk of that, Lady Delahaye," I answered. "I ask you to
+remember, however, that the law would also require you to prove your
+guardianship. Do you yourself know anything of the child's parentage?"
+
+She did not answer me directly.
+
+"I shall give you," she said, "twenty-four hours for reflection. At the
+end of that time, if I do not hear from you, I shall apply to the
+courts."
+
+I held the door open and bowed.
+
+"You will doubtless act," I said, "according to your discretion."
+
+The moment seemed propitious for her departure. All that had to be said
+had surely passed between us. Yet she seemed for some reason unwilling
+to go.
+
+"I am not sure, Mr. Greatson," she said, "that I can find my way out.
+Will you be so good as to see me to my carriage?"
+
+I had no alternative but to obey. Our rooms were on the fifth floor of a
+block of flats overlooking Chelsea Embankment, and we had no lift. We
+descended two flights of the stone stairs in silence. Then she suddenly
+laid her fingers upon my arm.
+
+"Arnold," she said softly, "I never thought that we should meet again
+like this."
+
+"Nor I, Lady Delahaye," I answered, truthfully enough.
+
+"You have changed."
+
+I looked at her. She had the grace to blush.
+
+"Oh, I know that I behaved badly," she murmured, "but think how poor we
+were, and oh, how weary I was of poverty. If I had refused Major
+Delahaye I think that my mother would have turned me out of doors. I
+wrote and told you all about it."
+
+"Yes," I admitted, "you wrote!"
+
+"And you never answered my letter."
+
+"It seemed to me," I remarked, "that it needed no answer."
+
+"And afterwards," she said, "I wrote and asked you to come and see me."
+
+"Lady Delahaye----" I began.
+
+"Eileen!" she interrupted.
+
+"Very well, then, if you will have it so, Eileen," I said. "You have
+alluded to events which I have forgotten. Whether you or I behaved well
+or ill does not matter in the least now. It is all over and done with."
+
+"You mean, then, that I am unforgiven?"
+
+"On the contrary," I assured her, "I have nothing to forgive."
+
+She flashed a swift glance of reproach up on me. To my amazement there
+were tears in her eyes.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "I can find my way to the street alone. I will
+not trouble you further."
+
+She swept away with a dignity which became her better than her previous
+attitude. There was nothing left for me to do but to turn back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Isobel was standing quite still in the middle of the room, her hands
+tightly clenched, a spot of colour aflame in her cheeks. Arthur, who had
+passed Lady Delahaye and me upon the stairs, had apparently just been
+told the object of her visit.
+
+"Oh, I hate that woman!" Isobel exclaimed as I entered, "I hate her! I
+would rather die than go to her. I would rather go back to the convent.
+She looks at me as though I were something to be despised, something
+which should not be allowed to go alive upon the earth!"
+
+Arthur would have spoken, but Mabane interrupted him. He laid his hand
+gently upon her shoulder.
+
+"Isobel," he said gently, "you need have no fear. I know how Arnold
+feels about it, and I can speak for myself also. You shall not go to
+her. We will not give you up. I do not believe that she will go to the
+courts at all. I doubt if she has any claim."
+
+"Why, we'd hide you, run away with you, anything," Arthur declared
+impetuously. "Don't you be scared, Isobel, I don't believe she can do a
+thing. The law's like a great fat animal. It takes a plaguey lot to move
+it, and then it moves as slowly as a steam-roller. We'll dodge it
+somehow."
+
+She gave them a hand each. Her action was almost regal. It some way, it
+seemed that in according her our protection we were receiving rather
+than conferring a favour.
+
+"My friends," she said, "you are so kind that I have no words with which
+to thank you. But you will believe that I am grateful."
+
+It was then for the first time that they saw me upon the threshold.
+Isobel looked at me anxiously.
+
+"She has gone?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"I do not think that she will trouble us again just yet," I said. "At
+the same time, we must be prepared. Tell me, whereabouts is this school
+from which you came, Isobel?"
+
+"St. Argueil? It is about three hours' journey from Paris. Why do you
+ask?"
+
+"Because I think that I must go there," I answered. "We must try and
+find out what legal claims Major Delahaye had upon you. What is the name
+of the Principal?"
+
+"Madame Richard is the lay principal," Isobel answered, "but Sister
+Ursula is really the head of the place. We girls saw her, though, very
+seldom--only those who were going to remain," she added, with a little
+shudder.
+
+"And this Madame Richard," I asked, "is she a kindly sort of a person?"
+
+Isobel shook her head doubtfully.
+
+"I did not like her," she said. "She is very stern. She is not kind to
+anyone."
+
+"Nevertheless, I suppose she will tell me what she knows," I said. "Give
+me the Bradshaw, Allan, and that old Continental guide."
+
+I presently became immersed in planning out my route. When at last I
+looked up, Mabane was working steadily. The others had gone. I looked
+round the room.
+
+"Where are Arthur and Isobel?" I asked.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Like calling to like," he remarked tersely. "They have gone trailing."
+
+I put the Bradshaw down.
+
+"I shall leave for Paris at midnight, Mabane," I said.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"It seems to be the most sensible thing to do," he remarked. "There is
+no other way of getting to the bottom of the affair."
+
+So I went to pack my bag. And within an hour I was on my way to France.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I rose to my feet, after a somewhat lengthy wait, and bowed. Between
+this newcomer and myself, across the stone floor, lay the sunlight, a
+long, yellow stream which seemed to me the only living thing which I had
+as yet seen in this strange, grim-looking building. I spoke in
+indifferent French. She answered me in perfect English.
+
+"I have the honour to address----"
+
+"Madame Richard. I am the lay principal of the convent. Will you permit
+me?"
+
+The blind fell, and there was no more sunlight. I was conscious of a
+sudden chill. The bare room, with its stone-flagged floor, its plain
+deal furniture, depressed me no less than the cold, forbidding
+appearance of the woman who stood now motionless before me. She was
+paler than any woman whom I had ever seen in my life. A living person,
+she seemed the personification of lifelessness. Her black hair was
+streaked with grey; her dress, which suggested a uniform in its
+severity, knew no adornment save the plain ivory cross which hung from
+an almost invisible chain about her neck. Her expression indicated
+neither curiosity nor courtesy. She simply waited. I, although as a rule
+I had no great difficulty in finding words, felt myself almost
+embarrassed.
+
+"I have come from London to see you," I said. "My name is
+Greatson--Arnold Greatson."
+
+There was not a quiver of expression in her cold acknowledgment of my
+declaration. Nevertheless, at that moment I received an inspiration. I
+was perfectly sure that she knew who I was and what I had come for.
+
+"I have come to know," I continued, "if you can give me any information
+as to the friends or parentage of a young lady who was recently, I
+believe, a pupil of yours--a Miss Isobel de Sorrens?"
+
+"The young lady is still in your charge, I hear," Madame Richard
+remarked quietly.
+
+Notwithstanding my inspiration I was startled.
+
+"How do you know that?" I asked.
+
+"We despatched a messenger only yesterday to escort Isobel back here,"
+Madame Richard answered. "Your address was the destination given us."
+
+"May I ask who gave it you? At whose instigation you sent?"
+
+"At the instigation of those who have the right to consider themselves
+Isobel's guardians," Madame Richard said quietly.
+
+"Isobel's guardians!" I repeated softly. "But surely you know, Madame
+Richard--you have heard of the tragedy which happened in London? Major
+Delahaye died last week."
+
+"We have been informed of the occurrence," she answered, her tone as
+perfectly emotionless as though she had been discussing the veriest
+trifle. "We were content to recognize Major Delahaye as representing
+those who have the right to dispose of Isobel's future. His death,
+however, alters many things. Isobel will be placed in even surer hands."
+
+"Isobel has, I presume, then, relatives living?" I remarked. "May I know
+their names?"
+
+Madame Richard was silent for a moment. She was regarding me steadily. I
+even fancied that the ghost of a hard smile trembled upon her lips.
+
+"I have no authority to disclose any information whatever," she said.
+
+I bowed.
+
+"I have no desire to seem inquisitive," I said. "On the other hand, I
+and my friends are greatly interested in the child. I will be frank with
+you, Madame Richard. We have no claim upon her, I know, but we should
+certainly require to know something about the people into whose charge
+she was to pass before we gave her up."
+
+"She is to come back here," Madame Richard answered calmly. "We are
+ready to receive her. She has lived with us for ten years. I presume
+under the circumstances, and when I add that it is the desire of those
+who are responsible for her that she should immediately return to us,
+that you will not hesitate to send her?"
+
+"Madame Richard," I answered gravely, "you who live so far from the
+world lose touch sometimes with its worst side. We others, to our
+sorrow, know more, though our experience is dearly enough bought. Let me
+tell you that I should hesitate at any time to give back the child into
+the care of those who sent her out into the world alone with such a man
+as Major Delahaye."
+
+Madame Richard touched the cross which hung upon her bosom. Her eyes, it
+seemed to me, narrowed a little.
+
+"Major Delahaye," she said, "was the nominee of those who have the right
+to dispose of the child."
+
+"Then," I answered, "I shall require their right proven before Isobel
+leaves us. I do not wish to speak ill of the dead, but I was present
+when Major Delahaye was shot, and I am not sure that the bullet of his
+assassin did not prevent a worse crime. The child was terrified to
+death. It is my honest conviction that her fear was not uncalled for."
+
+Madame Richard raised her hand slightly.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "such matters are not our concern. It is because
+of the passions and evil doing of the world outside that we cling so
+closely here to our own doctrine of isolation. Whatever she may have
+suffered, Isobel will learn to forget here. In the blessed years which
+lie before her, the memory of her unhappy pilgrimage will grow dim and
+faint. It may even be for the best that she has realized for a moment
+the shadow of evil things."
+
+"Isobel is intended, then?" I asked.
+
+"For the Church," Madame Richard answered. "That is the present decision
+of those who have the right to decide for her. We ourselves do not care
+to take pupils who have no idea at all of the novitiate. Occasionally we
+are disappointed, and those in whom we have placed faith are tempted
+back into the world. But we do our best while they are here to show them
+the better way. We feared that we had lost Isobel. We shall be all the
+more happy to welcome her back."
+
+I shivered a little. I could not help feeling the cold repression of the
+place. A vision of thin, grey-gowned figures, with pallid faces and
+weary, discontented eyes, haunted me. I tried to fancy Isobel amongst
+them. It was preposterous.
+
+"Madame," I said, "I do not believe that Isobel is adapted by nature or
+disposition for such a life."
+
+"The desire for holiness," Madame Richard answered, "is never very
+apparent in the young. It is the child's great good fortune that she
+will grow into it."
+
+"I am afraid," I answered, "that our views upon this matter are too far
+apart to render discussion profitable. You have spoken of those who have
+the right to dispose of the child's future. I will go and see them."
+
+"It is not necessary," Madame Richard answered. "We will send to England
+for the child."
+
+"Do I understand, Madame Richard," I said, "that you decline to give me
+the address of those who stand behind you in the disposal of Isobel?"
+
+"They would not discuss the matter with you," she answered calmly.
+"Their decision is already made. Isobel is for the Church."
+
+I took up my hat.
+
+"I will not detain you any further, Madame," I said.
+
+"A messenger is already in London to bring back the child," she
+remarked.
+
+"As to that," I answered, "it is perhaps better to be frank with you,
+Madame Richard. Your messenger will return alone."
+
+For the first time the woman's face showed some signs of feeling. Her
+dark eyebrows contracted a little. Her expression was coldly repellent.
+
+"You have no claim upon the child," she said.
+
+"Neither do I know of any other person who has," I answered.
+
+"We have had the charge of her for ten years. That itself is a claim. It
+is unseemly that she should remain with you."
+
+"Madame," I answered, "Isobel is meant for life--not a living death."
+
+The woman crossed herself.
+
+"There is but one life," she said. "We wish to prepare Isobel for it."
+
+"Madame," I said, "as to that, argument between us is impossible. I
+shall consult with my friends. Your messenger shall bring back word as
+to our decision."
+
+The face of the woman grew darker.
+
+"But surely," she protested, "you will not dare to keep the child?"
+
+"Madame," I answered, "humanity makes sometimes strange claims upon us.
+Isobel is as yet a child. She came into my keeping by the strangest of
+chances. I did not seek the charge of her. It was, to tell the truth, an
+embarrassment to me. Yet she is under my care to-day, and I shall do
+what I believe to be the right thing."
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "you are interfering in matters greater than you
+have any knowledge of."
+
+"It is in your power," I reminded her, "to enlighten me."
+
+"It is not a power which I am able to use," she answered.
+
+"Then I will not detain you further, Madame," I said.
+
+As I passed out she leaned over towards me. She had already rung a bell,
+and outside I could hear the shuffling footsteps of the old servant who
+had admitted me.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "if you keep the child you make enemies--very
+powerful enemies. It is long since I lived in the world, but I think
+that the times have not changed very much. Of the child's parentage I
+may not tell you, but as I hope for salvation I will tell you this. It
+will be better for you, and better for the child, that she comes back
+here, even to embrace what you have called the living death."
+
+"Madame," I said, "I will consider all these things."
+
+"It will be well for you to do so, Monsieur," she said with meaning. "An
+enemy of those in whose name I have spoken must needs be a holy man, for
+he lives hand in hand with death."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+So I was driven back to Argueil, the red-tiled, sleepy old town, with
+its great gaunt church, whose windows, as the lumbering cart descended
+the hill, were stained blood-red by the dying sunset. Behind, on the
+hillside, was the convent, with its avenue of stunted elms, its
+close-barred windows, its terrible prison-like silence. As I looked
+behind, holding on to the sides of the springless cart to avoid being
+jostled into the road, I found myself shivering. The convent
+boarding-schools which I had heard of had been very different sort of
+places. Even after my brief visit there this return into the fresh
+country air, the smell of the fields, the colour and life of the rolling
+landscape, were blessed things. I was more than ever satisfied with my
+decision. It was not possible to send the child back to such a place.
+
+Across a great vineyard plain, through which the narrow white road ran
+like a tightly drawn band of ribbon, I came presently to the village of
+Argueil. The street which led to the inn was paved with the most
+abominable cobbles, and I was forced to hold my hat with one hand and
+the side of the cart with the other. My blue-smocked driver pulled up
+with a flourish in front of the ancient gateway of the _Leon d'Or_, and
+I was very nearly precipitated on to the top of the broad-backed horse.
+As I gathered myself together I was conscious of a soft peal of
+laughter--a woman's laughter, which came from the arched entrance to the
+inn. I looked up quickly. A too familiar figure was standing there
+watching me,--Lady Delahaye, trim, elegant, a trifle supercilious. By
+her side stood the innkeeper, white-aproned and obsequious.
+
+I clambered down on to the pavement, and Lady Delahaye advanced a little
+way to meet me. She held out a delicately gloved hand, and smiled.
+
+"You must forgive my laughing, Arnold," she said. "Really, you looked
+too funny in that terrible cart. What an odd meeting, isn't it? Have you
+a few minutes to spare?"
+
+"I believe," I answered, "that I cannot get away from this place till
+the evening. Shall we go in and sit down?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"The inn-parlour is too stuffy," she answered. "I was obliged to come
+out myself for some fresh air. Let us walk up the street."
+
+I paid for my conveyance, and we strolled along the broad sidewalk. Lady
+Delahaye seemed inclined to thrust the onus of commencing our
+conversation upon me.
+
+"I presume," I said, "that we are here with the same object?"
+
+She glanced at me curiously.
+
+"Indeed!" she remarked. "Then tell me why you came."
+
+"To discover that child's parentage, if possible," I answered promptly.
+"I want to discover who her friends are, who really has the right to
+take charge of her."
+
+"You perplex me, Arnold," she said thoughtfully. "I do not understand
+your position in the matter. I always looked upon you as a somewhat
+indolent person. Yet I find you now taking any amount of trouble in a
+matter which really does not concern you at all. Whence all this
+good-nature?"
+
+"Lady Delahaye----"
+
+"Eileen," she interrupted softly.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I answered firmly. "You must forgive me if I remind you
+that I have no longer the right to call you by any other name. I am not
+good-natured, and I am afraid that I am still indolent. Nevertheless, I
+am interested in this child, and I intend to do my utmost to prevent her
+returning to this place."
+
+"I am still in the dark," she said, looking at me curiously. "She is
+nothing to you. A more unsuitable home for her than with three young men
+I cannot imagine. You seem to want to keep her there. Why? She is a
+child to-day, it is true--but in little more than a year's time she will
+be a woman. The position then for you will be full of embarrassments."
+
+"I find the position now," I answered, "equally embarrassing. We can
+only give the child up to you, send her back to the convent, or keep her
+ourselves. Of the three we prefer to keep her."
+
+"You seem to have a great distaste for the convent," she remarked, "but
+that is because you are not a Catholic, and you do not understand these
+things. She would at least be safe there, and in time, I think, happy."
+
+We were at the head of the village street now, upon a slight eminence. I
+pointed backwards to the prison-like building, standing grim and
+desolate on the bare hillside.
+
+"I should consider myself no less a murderer than the man who shot your
+husband," I answered, "if I sent her there. I have made all the
+enquiries I could in the neighbourhood, and I have added to them my own
+impressions. The secular part of the place may be conducted as other
+places of its sort, but the great object of Madame Richard's sister is
+to pass her pupils from that into the religious portion. Isobel is not
+adapted for such a life."
+
+Lady Delahaye shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Well," she said, "I am a Catholic, so of course I don't agree with you.
+But why do you hesitate to give the child up to me?"
+
+I was silent for a moment. It was not easy to put my feeling into words.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "you must forgive my reminding you that on the
+occasion of your visit to us you did not attempt to conceal the fact
+that your feelings towards her were inimical. Beyond that, I was pledged
+not to hand her back into your husband's care, and----"
+
+"Pledged by whom?" she asked quickly.
+
+"I am afraid," I said, "that I cannot answer you that question."
+
+She flashed an angry glance upon me.
+
+"You pretend that the man who called himself Grooten was not your
+friend. Yet you have been in communication with him since!"
+
+"I saw Mr. Grooten for the first time in my life on the morning of that
+day," I answered.
+
+"You know where he is now?" she asked, watching me keenly.
+
+"I have not the slightest idea. I wish that I did know," I declared
+truthfully. "There is no man whom I am more anxious to see."
+
+"You would, of course, inform the police?" she asked.
+
+"I am afraid not," I answered.
+
+Again she was angry. This time scarcely without reason.
+
+"Your sympathies, in short, are with the murderer rather than with his
+victim--the man who was shot without warning in the back? It accords, I
+presume, with your idea of fair play?"
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "the subject is unpleasant and futile. Let us
+return to the inn."
+
+She turned abruptly around. She made a little motion as of dismissal,
+but I remained by her side.
+
+"By-the-bye," I said, "we were to exchange confidences. You are here, of
+course, to visit the convent? Why?"
+
+She smiled enigmatically.
+
+"I am not sure, my very simple conspirator," she said, "whether I will
+imitate your frankness. You see, you have blundered into a somewhat more
+important matter than you have any idea of. But I will tell you this, if
+you like. You may call that place a prison, or any hard names you
+please--yet it is destined to be Isobel's home. Not only that, but it is
+her only chance. I am putting you on your guard, you see, but I do not
+think that it matters. You are fighting against hopeless odds, and if by
+any chance you should succeed, your success would be the most terrible
+thing which could happen to Isobel."
+
+I walked by her side for a moment in silence. There was in her words and
+tone some underlying note of fear, some suggestion of hidden danger,
+which brought back to my mind at once the farewell speech of Madame
+Richard. There was something ominous, too, in her presence here.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, as lightly as possible, "you have told me a
+great deal, and less than nothing at all. Yet I gather that you know
+more about the child and her history than you have led me to suppose."
+
+"Yes," she admitted, "that is perhaps true."
+
+"Why not let me share your knowledge?" I suggested boldly.
+
+"You carry candour," she remarked, smiling, "to absurdity. We are on
+opposite sides. Ah, how delicious this is!"
+
+We were regaining the centre of the little town by a footpath which for
+some distance had followed the river, and now, turning almost at right
+angles, skirted a cherry orchard in late blossom. The perfume of the
+pink and white buds, swaying slightly in the breeze, came to us both--a
+waft of delicate and poignant freshness. Lady Delahaye stood still, and
+half closed her eyes.
+
+"How perfectly delicious," she murmured. "Arn--Mr. Greatson, do get me
+just the tiniest piece. I can't quite reach."
+
+I broke off a small branch, and she thrust it into the bosom of her
+dress. The orchard was gay with bees and a few early butterflies, blue
+and white and orange coloured. In the porch of a red-tiled cottage a few
+yards away a girl was singing. Suddenly I stopped and pointed.
+
+"Look!"
+
+An avenue with a gate at the end led through the orchard, and under the
+drooping boughs we caught a glimpse of the convent away on the hillside.
+Greyer and more stern than ever it seemed through the delicate framework
+of soft green foliage and blossoms.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "you are yourself a young woman. Could you bear
+to think of banishing from your life for ever all the colour and the
+sweet places, all the joy of living? Would you be content to build for
+yourself a tomb, to commit yourself to a living death?"
+
+She answered me instantly, almost impulsively.
+
+"There is all the difference in the world," she declared. "I am a woman;
+although I am not old, I know what life is. I know what it would be to
+give it up. But the child--she knows nothing. She is too young to know
+what lies before her. As yet her eyes are not opened. Very soon she
+would be content there."
+
+I shook my head. I did not agree with Lady Delahaye.
+
+"Indeed no!" I protested. "You reckon nothing for disposition. In her
+heart the song of life is already formed, the joy of it is already
+stirring in her blood. The convent would be slow torture to her. She
+shall not go there!"
+
+Lady Delahaye smiled--mirthlessly, yet as one who has some hidden
+knowledge which she may not share.
+
+"You think yourself her friend," she said. "In reality you are her
+enemy. If not the convent, then worse may befall her."
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"As to that," I said, "we shall see!"
+
+We resumed our walk. Again we were nearing the inn. Lady Delahaye looked
+at me every now and then curiously. My feeling towards her had grown
+more and more belligerent.
+
+"You puzzle me, Arnold," she said softly. "After all, Isobel is but a
+child. What cunning tune can she have played upon your heartstrings that
+you should espouse her cause with so much fervour? If she were a few
+years older one could perhaps understand."
+
+I disregarded her innuendo.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "if you were as much her friend as I believe
+that I am, you would not hesitate to tell me all that you know. I have
+no other wish than to see her safe, and amongst her friends, but I will
+give her up to no one whom I believe to be her enemy."
+
+"Arnold," she answered gravely, "I can only repeat what I have told you
+before. You are interfering in greater concerns than you know of. Even
+if I would, I dare not give you any information. The fate of this child,
+insignificant in herself though she is, is bound up with very important
+issues."
+
+Our eyes met for a moment. The expression in hers puzzled me--puzzled me
+to such an extent that I made her no answer. Slowly she extended her
+hand.
+
+"At least," she said, "let us part friends--unless you choose to be
+gallant and wait here for me until to-morrow. It is a dreary journey
+home alone."
+
+I took her hand readily enough.
+
+"Friends, by all means," I answered, "but I must get back to Paris
+to-night. A messenger from Madame Richard is already waiting for me in
+London."
+
+She withdrew her hand quickly, and turned away.
+
+"It must be as you will, of course," she said coldly. "I do not wish to
+detain you."
+
+Nevertheless, her farewell look haunted me as I sped across the great
+fertile plain on my way to Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Mabane laid down his brush, Arthur sprang from his seat upon the table
+and greeted me with a shout. Isobel said nothing, but her dark blue eyes
+were fastened upon my face as though seeking to read her fate there.
+They had evidently been waiting for my coming. I remember thinking it
+strange, even then, that these other two men should apparently share to
+the fullest degree my own interest in the child's fate.
+
+"I have failed," I announced shortly.
+
+I took Isobel's hand. It was cold as ice, and I could feel that she was
+trembling violently.
+
+"Madame Richard would tell me nothing, Isobel," I said. "I believe that
+she knows all about you, and I believe that Lady Delahaye does too. But
+they will tell me nothing."
+
+"And?" she demanded, with quivering lips. "And?"
+
+"It is for you to decide," I said gravely. "Lady Delahaye wants you, so
+does Madame Richard. On the other hand, if you like to stay with us
+until someone proves their right to take you away, you will be very
+welcome, Isobel! Stop one moment," I added hastily, for I saw the quick
+colour stream into her cheeks, and the impetuous words already trembling
+upon her lips, "I want you to remember this: Madame Richard makes no
+secret of her own wishes as regards your future. She desires you to take
+the veil. You have lived at the convent, so I presume you are able to
+judge for yourself as regards that. Lady Delahaye, on the other hand, is
+a rich woman, and she professes to be your friend. Your life with her,
+if she chose to make it so, would be an easy and a pleasant one. We, as
+you know, are poor. We have very little indeed to offer you. We live
+what most people call a shiftless life. We have money one day, and none
+the next. Our surroundings and our associations are not in the least
+like what a child of your age should become accustomed to. Nine people
+out of ten would probably pronounce us utterly unsuitable guardians for
+you. It is only right that you should understand these things."
+
+She looked at me with tear-bedimmed eyes.
+
+"I want to stay with you," she pleaded. "Don't send me away--oh, don't!
+I hate the convent, and I am afraid of Lady Delahaye. I will do
+everything I can not to be a nuisance to you. I am not afraid to work,
+or to help Mrs. Burdett. Only let me stay."
+
+I smiled, and looked around at the others.
+
+"It is settled," I declared. "We appoint ourselves your guardians. You
+agree, Mabane?"
+
+"Most heartily," he answered.
+
+"And you, Arthur?"
+
+"Great heavens, yes!" he answered vehemently.
+
+"You are very good," she murmured, "very good to me. All my life I shall
+remember this."
+
+She held out both her hands. Her eyes were fixed still upon mine. Mabane
+laid his hand upon her shoulder.
+
+"Dear child," he said, "do not forget that there are three of us. I too
+am very happy to be one of your guardians."
+
+She gave him the hand which Arthur had seized upon. I think that we had
+none of us before seen a smile so dazzling as hers.
+
+"Dear friends," she murmured, "I only hope that you will never regret
+this great, great kindness."
+
+Then suddenly she flitted away and went to her room. We three men were
+left alone.
+
+I think that for the first few moments there was some slight
+awkwardness, for we were men, and we spoke seldom of the things which
+touched us most. Arthur, however, broke almost immediately into speech,
+and relieved the tension.
+
+"And to think that it was I," he exclaimed, "who sent you out plot
+hunting to the station! Arnold, what a sensible chap you are!"
+
+We all laughed.
+
+"A good many people," Mabane remarked quietly, "would call us three
+fools. Tell us, Arnold, did you really discover nothing?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing," I declared. "Stop, though. I did find out this.
+There is some secret about the child's parentage. I have spoken with two
+people who know it, and one of them warned me that in keeping the child
+we were interfering in a greater matter than we had any idea of. Of
+course it might have been a bluff, but I fancy that Lady Delahaye was in
+earnest."
+
+"You do not think," Mabane asked, "that she was Major Delahaye's
+daughter?"
+
+"I do not," I answered, with a little shudder. "I am sure that she was
+not."
+
+"Whoever she is," Arthur declared, "there's one thing jolly certain, and
+that is she's thoroughbred. She has the most marvellous nerve I ever
+knew. We got in a tight corner this morning. I took her down to
+Guildford in a trailer, and I had to jump the pavement to avoid a
+runaway. She never flinched for a moment. Half the girls I know would
+have squealed like mad. She only laughed, and asked whether she should
+get out. She's as thoroughbred as they make them."
+
+"Perhaps," I answered, "but I'm not going to have you risk her life with
+your beastly motoring, Arthur. Take her out in a car, if you want to.
+Who's this?"
+
+We turned towards the door. Was it the ghost of Madame Richard who stood
+there pale, cold, and in the sombre garb of her sisterhood?
+
+"This lady has been before," Mabane said, placing a chair for her. "She
+has come from the convent, and she brought a letter from Madame
+Richard."
+
+"You are Mr. Greatson?" she asked.
+
+I bowed, and took the letter which she handed to me. I tore it open. It
+contained a few lines only.
+
+     "SIR,--
+
+     "I have been informed of the unfortunate event which has placed
+     under your protection one of my late pupils, Isobel de Sorrens. We
+     are willing and anxious to receive her back here, and I have sent
+     the bearer to accompany her upon the journey. She will also defray
+     what expenses her sojourn with you may have occasioned.
+
+     "I am, sir, yours respectfully,
+
+     "EMILY RICHARD."
+
+I put the letter back in the envelope and laid it upon the table.
+
+"I have seen Madame Richard," I said. "The child will remain with us for
+the present."
+
+The cold, dark eyes met mine searchingly.
+
+"But, monsieur," the woman said, "how can that be? You are not a
+relative, you surely have no claim----"
+
+"It will save time, perhaps," I interrupted, "if I explain that I have
+discussed all these matters with Madame Richard, and the decision which
+I have come to is final. The child remains here."
+
+The woman looked at me steadfastly.
+
+"Madame Richard will not be satisfied with that decision," she said.
+"You will be forced to give her up."
+
+"And why," I asked, "should a penniless orphan, as I understand Isobel
+is, be of so much interest to Madame Richard?"
+
+The woman watched me still, and listened to my words as though seeking
+to discover in them some hidden meaning. Then she leaned a little
+towards me.
+
+"Can I speak with you alone, monsieur?" she said.
+
+"These are my friends," I answered, "from whom I have no secrets."
+
+"None?"
+
+"None," I repeated.
+
+She hesitated. Then, although the door was fast closed, she dropped her
+voice.
+
+"You know--who the child is," she said softly.
+
+"Upon my word, I do not," I answered. "I saw the man, under whose care
+she was, shot, and I brought her here because she was friendless. I know
+no more about her."
+
+"That," she said quietly, "is hard to believe."
+
+"I have no interest in your belief or disbelief," I answered. "Pardon me
+if I add, madame, that I have no interest in the continuation of this
+conversation."
+
+She rose at once.
+
+"You are either a very brave man," she said, "or a very simple one. I
+shall await further instructions from Madame Richard."
+
+She departed silently and without any leave-taking. We all three looked
+at one another.
+
+"Now what in thunder did she mean by that!" Arthur exclaimed blankly.
+
+"It appears to me," Mabane said, "that you went plot hunting with a
+vengeance, Arnold."
+
+Arthur was walking restlessly up and down the room, his hands in his
+pockets, a discontented frown upon his smooth young face. He stopped
+suddenly in front of us.
+
+"I don't know much about the law, you fellows," he said, "but it seems
+to me that any of these people who seem to want to take Isobel away from
+us have only to go before the court and establish some sort of a legal
+claim, and we should have to give her up."
+
+"That is true enough," I admitted. "The strange part of it is, though,
+that no one seems inclined to take this course."
+
+Arthur threw down a letter upon the table.
+
+"This came for you yesterday, Arnold," he said. "I haven't opened it, of
+course, but you can see from the name at the back of the envelope that
+it is from a firm of solicitors."
+
+I took it up and opened it at once. I knew quite well what Arthur
+feared. This is what I read--
+
+     "17, LINCOLN'S INN, LONDON.
+
+     "DEAR SIR,--
+
+     "We beg to inform you that we have been instructed by a client, who
+     desires to remain anonymous, to open for you at the London and
+     Westminster Bank an account on your behalf as guardian of Miss
+     Isobel de Sorrens, a young lady who, we understand, is at present
+     in your care.
+
+     "The amount placed at our disposal is three hundred a year. We
+     shall be happy to furnish you with cheque book and full authority
+     to make use of this sum if you will favour us with a call,
+     accompanied by the young lady, but we are not in a position to
+     afford you any information whatever as to our client's identity.
+
+     "Trusting to have the pleasure of seeing you shortly,
+
+     "We are, yours truly,
+
+     "HAMILTON & PLACE."
+
+I laid the letter on the table without a word. Mabane and Arthur in turn
+read it. Then there was an ominous silence. I think that we all had the
+same thought. It was Arthur, however, who expressed it.
+
+"What beastly rot!" he exclaimed.
+
+I turned to Mabane.
+
+"I imagine," he said, "that we should not be justified in refusing this
+offer. At the same time, if anyone has the right to provide for the
+child, why do they not come forward and claim her?"
+
+At that moment Isobel came in. I took up the letter and placed it in her
+hand.
+
+"Isobel," I said, "we want you to read this."
+
+She read it, and handed it back to me without a word. We were all
+watching her eagerly. She looked at me appealingly.
+
+"Is it necessary," she asked, "for me to accept this money?"
+
+"Tell us," I said, "exactly how you feel."
+
+"I think," she said, "that if there is anyone from whom I have the right
+to accept all this money, I ought to know who they are. I do not want to
+be a burden upon anyone," she added hesitatingly, "but I would rather
+work every moment of the day--oh, I think that I would rather starve
+than touch this money, unless I know who it is that offers it."
+
+I laughed as I tore the letter in half.
+
+"Dear child," I said, resting my hand upon her shoulder, "that is what
+we all hoped that you would say!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Lady Delahaye sank down upon the couch against which I had been
+standing.
+
+"Poor, bored man!" she exclaimed, with mock sympathy. "I ought to have
+asked some entertaining people, oughtn't I? There isn't a soul here for
+you to talk to!"
+
+"On the contrary," I answered, "there are a good many more people here
+than I expected to see. I understood that you were to be alone."
+
+"And you probably think that I ought to be," she remarked. "Well, I
+never was conventional. You know that. I shut myself up for a month. Now
+I expect my friends to come and console me."
+
+"It is not likely," I said, "that you will be disappointed."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Perhaps not. Those whom I do not want will come, of course. As for the
+others--well!"
+
+She looked up at me. I sat down by her side.
+
+"Ah! That is nice of you," she said softly. "I wanted to have a quiet
+talk. Tell me why you are looking so glum."
+
+"I was not conscious of it," I answered. "To tell you the truth, I was
+wondering whether Isobel were not a little young to bring to a gathering
+of this description."
+
+"My dear Arnold," she murmured, "there are only one or two of my
+particular friends here. The rest dropped in by accident. Isobel does
+not seem to me to be particularly out of place, and she is certainly
+enjoying herself."
+
+The echoes of her light laugh reached us just then. Several men were
+standing over her chair. She was the centre of what seemed to be a very
+amusing conversation. Arthur was standing on the outskirts of the group,
+apparently a little dull.
+
+"She enjoys herself always," I answered. "She is of that disposition.
+Still----"
+
+She put her hands up to her ears.
+
+"Come, I won't be lectured," she exclaimed. "Seriously, I wanted you
+here. I had something to say to you--something particular."
+
+"Waiving the other matter, then," I said, "I am wholly at your service."
+
+"I may be prolix," she said quietly. "Forgive me if I am, but I want you
+to understand me. I am beginning to see that I have adopted a wrong
+position with regard to a certain matter which we have discussed at your
+rooms and at Argueil. I want to reopen the subject from an entirely
+different point of view."
+
+"You mean," I said, "the subject of Isobel?"
+
+"Of course! The first time I came to see you," Lady Delahaye said,
+looking up at me with penitence in her blue eyes, "I was horrid. I am
+very, very sorry. I did not know then who Isobel was, and I was angry
+with everyone--with poor Will, with the child herself, and with you. You
+must forgive me! I was very much upset."
+
+"I will never think of it again," I promised her.
+
+"Then, again, at Argueil," she continued, "I adopted a wrong tone
+altogether. Yours was the more natural, the more human point of view.
+There are certain very grave reasons why the child would be very much
+better out of the world. A life of seclusion would, I believe, in the
+end, when she is able to understand, be the happiest for her. And
+yet--she ought to have her chance!"
+
+"I am glad that you admit that," I murmured.
+
+"Now I am going to ask you something," she went on. "You will not be
+angry with me, I am sure. Do you think that a girl of Isobel's age and
+appearance is in her proper place in bachelor quarters, living with
+three young men?"
+
+"I do not," I admitted. "I look upon it as a most regrettable necessity.
+Still, you must not make it sound worse than it is. We have a
+housekeeper who is the very essence of respectability, and Isobel is
+under her care."
+
+"I want to make it no longer a necessity," Lady Delahaye said, smiling.
+"I want to relieve you and your conscience at the same time of a very
+awkward incubus. Listen! This is what I propose. Let Isobel come to me
+for a year! I shall treat her as my own daughter. She will have plenty
+of amusement. There are the theatres, and no end of scratch
+entertainments where one can take a girl of her age who is too young for
+society. She will mix with young people of her own age, she will have
+every advantage which, to speak frankly, must be denied to her in her
+present position. At the end of that year I shall tell her her history.
+It is a sad and a miserable one. You may as well know that now. She can
+then take her choice of the convent, or any other mode of life which
+between us we can make possible for her. And I am very much inclined to
+believe, Arnold, that she will choose the convent."
+
+"Is there any real reason, Lady Delahaye?" I asked, "why you should not
+tell me now what you propose to tell Isobel in a year's time? There have
+been so many mysterious circumstances in connection with this affair
+that it is hard to come to any decision when one is ignorant of so
+much."
+
+"There are reasons--grave reasons--why I can tell you nothing," she
+answered. "Indeed, I would like to, Arnold," she continued earnestly,
+"but my position is a very difficult one. I think that you might trust
+me a little."
+
+"I am sure that you wish to do what is best," I said, a little
+awkwardly, "but you must see that my position also is a little
+difficult. I, too, am under a promise!"
+
+Her eyes flashed indignantly.
+
+"To the man who killed my husband! The man whom you are shielding!" she
+exclaimed indignantly. "I think that you might at least have the grace
+to leave him out of the conversation."
+
+"I have never introduced him," I answered. "I do not wish to do so. As
+to shielding him, I have not the slightest idea as to his whereabouts.
+Be reasonable, Lady Delahaye. I----"
+
+"Reasonable," she interrupted. "That is what I want you to be! Ask
+yourself a plain question. Which is the more fitting place for her--my
+house, or your chambers?"
+
+She pointed to Isobel, who was leaning back in her chair laughing
+heartily into the face of a young man who was bending over her. By
+chance she looked just then older even than her years, and Arthur's glum
+figure, too, in the background was suggestive.
+
+"Your house, without a doubt," I answered gravely, "if it is the house
+of a friend."
+
+Her satin slipper beat the ground impatiently. She looked at me with a
+frown upon her face.
+
+"Do you believe, then," she asked, "that I am her enemy? Does my offer
+sound like it?"
+
+"Indeed, no," I answered, rising. "I am going to give Isobel herself a
+chance of accepting or declining it."
+
+I crossed the room. Isobel, seeing me come, rose at once.
+
+"Is it time for us to go?" she asked.
+
+"Not quite!" I answered. "Go and talk to Lady Delahaye for a few
+minutes. She has something to say to you."
+
+Isobel made a little grimace, so slight that only I could notice it, and
+took my place upon the sofa. I talked for a few minutes with some of the
+men whom I knew, and then Arthur touched me on the arm.
+
+"Can't we go, Arnold?" he exclaimed, a little peevishly. "I've never
+been so bored in all my life."
+
+"We must wait for a few minutes," I answered. "Isobel is talking to Lady
+Delahaye."
+
+"I don't know a soul here, and I'm dying for a cigarette."
+
+I pointed through the curtain to the anteroom adjoining.
+
+"You can smoke in there," I remarked. "I'll introduce you to Miss
+Ernston if you like, the girl who drives the big Panhard in the park. I
+heard her say that she was going in there to get one of Lady Delahaye's
+Russian cigarettes!"
+
+Arthur shook his head. He was covertly watching Isobel, sitting on the
+sofa.
+
+"I'll go in and have the cigarette," he said, "but, Arnold, there's no
+fresh move on, is there? You're looking pretty glum!"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"No, there is nothing exactly fresh," I answered. "Come along and smoke,
+will you! I want Lady Delahaye and Isobel to have their talk out."
+
+He followed me reluctantly into the smaller of Lady Delahaye's
+reception-rooms, where we smoked for a few minutes in silence. Then
+Mabel Ernston stopped to speak to me for a moment, and I introduced
+Arthur. I left them talking motors, and stepped back into the other
+room. Isobel had already risen to her feet, and Lady Delahaye was
+looking at her curiously as though uncertain how far she had been
+successful. She saw me enter, and beckoned me to approach.
+
+"I think that Isobel is tired," she said, in a tone which was meant to
+be kind. "She has promised to come and see me again."
+
+Isobel looked at me. Her mouth, which a few minutes before had been
+curved with smiles, was straight now, and resolutely set. She was
+distinctly paler, and her manner seemed to have acquired a new gravity.
+I must confess that my first impulse was one of relief. Isobel had not
+found Lady Delahaye's offer, then, so wonderfully attractive.
+
+"Do you mind coming home now, Arnold?" she asked. "I did not know that
+it was so late."
+
+I saw Lady Delahaye's face darken at her simple use of my Christian
+name, and the touch of her fingers upon my arm. Arthur heard our voices,
+and came to us at once. So we took leave of our hostess, and turned
+homewards.
+
+For a long time we walked almost in silence. Then Isobel turned towards
+me with a new gravity in her face, and an unusual hesitation in her
+tone.
+
+"Arnold," she said, "Lady Delahaye has been pointing out to me one or
+two things which I had not thought of before. I suppose she meant to be
+kind. I suppose it is right that I should know. But----" her voice
+trembled--"I wish she had not told me."
+
+"Lady Delahaye is an interfering old cat!" Arthur exclaimed viciously.
+"Don't take any notice of her, Isobel."
+
+"But I must know," she answered, "whether the things which she said were
+true."
+
+"They were probably exaggerations," I said cheerfully; "but let us hear
+them, at any rate."
+
+"She said," Isobel continued, looking steadily in front of her, "that
+you were all three very poor indeed, and that I had no right to come and
+live with you, and make you poorer still, when I had a home offered me
+elsewhere. She said that I should disturb your whole life, that you
+would have to give up many things which were a pleasure to you, and you
+would not be able to succeed so well with your work, as you would have
+to write altogether for money. And she said that I should be grown up
+soon, and ought to live where there are women; and when I told her about
+Mrs. Burdett she laughed unpleasantly, and said that she did not count
+at all. And that is why--she wants me--to go there!"
+
+Again the shadow of tragedy gleamed in the child's white face. Her face
+was strained, her eyes had lost the deep softness of their colouring,
+and there lurked once more in their depths the terror of nameless
+things. To me the sight of her like this was so piteous that I wasted
+not a moment in endeavouring to reassure her.
+
+"Rubbish!" I exclaimed cheerfully. "Sheer and unadulterated rubbish! We
+are not rich, Isobel, but the trifle the care of you will cost us
+amounts to nothing at all. We are willing and able to take charge of you
+as well as we can. You know that!"
+
+Ah! She drew a long sigh of relief. It was wonderful how her face
+changed.
+
+"But why is Lady Delahaye so cruel--why is she so anxious that I should
+not stay with you?" she said.
+
+I laughed.
+
+"Lady Delahaye is mysterious," I answered. "I have come to the
+conclusion, Isobel, that you must be a princess in disguise, and that
+Lady Delahaye wants to claim all the rewards for having taken charge of
+you!"
+
+"Don't be silly!" she laughed. "Princesses are not brought up at Madame
+Richard's, without relations or friends to visit them, and no pocket
+money."
+
+"Nevertheless," I answered, "when I consider the number of people who
+are interested in you, and Lady Delahaye's extraordinary persistence, I
+am inclined to stick to my theory. We shall look upon you, Isobel, as an
+investment, and some day you shall reward us all."
+
+Her hand slipped into mine. Her eyes were soft enough now.
+
+"Dear friend," she murmured, "I think that it is my heart only which
+will reward you--my great, great gratitude. I am afraid of Lady
+Delahaye, Arnold. There are things in her eyes when she looks at me
+which make me shiver. Do not let us go there again, please!"
+
+Arthur broke in impetuously.
+
+"You shall go nowhere you don't want to, Isobel. Arnold and I will see
+to that."
+
+"And--about the other thing--she mentioned," Isobel began.
+
+"She was right and wrong," I answered. "Of course, it would be better
+for you if one of us had a sister or a mother living with us, but Mrs.
+Burdett has always seemed to us like a mother, and I think--that it will
+be all right," I concluded a little lamely. "We need not worry about
+that, at present at any rate. Come, we've had a dull afternoon, and I
+sold a story yesterday. Let's go to Fasolas, and have a half-crown
+dinner."
+
+"I'm on," Arthur declared. "We'll go and fetch Allan."
+
+"You dear!" Isobel exclaimed. "I shall wear my new hat!"
+
+
+
+
+Book II
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"I have no doubt," Mabane said gloomily, "that Arthur is right. He ought
+to know more about it than old fogies like you and me, Arnold. We had
+the money, and we ought to have insisted upon it. You gave way far too
+easily."
+
+"That's all very well," I protested, "but I don't take in a woman's
+fashion paper, and Isobel assured us that the hat was all right. She
+looks well enough in it, surely!"
+
+"Isobel looks ripping!" Arthur declared, "but then, she looks ripping in
+anything. All the same, the hat's old-fashioned. You look at the hats
+those girls are wearing, who've just come in--flat, bunchy things, with
+flowers under the brim. That's the style just now."
+
+"Isobel shall have one, then," I declared. "We will take her West
+to-morrow. We can afford it very well."
+
+She came up to us beaming. She was a year older, and her skirts were a
+foot longer. Her figure was, perhaps, a shade more developed, and her
+manner a little more assured. In other respects she was unchanged.
+
+"What are you two old dears worrying about?" she exclaimed lightly. "You
+have the air of conspirators. No secrets from me, please. What is it all
+about?"
+
+"We are lamenting the antiquity of your hat," Mabane answered gravely.
+"Arthur assures us that it is out of date. It ought to be flat and
+bunchy, and it isn't!"
+
+"Geese!" she exclaimed lightly, "both of you! Arthur, I'm ashamed of
+you. You may know something about motors, but you are very ignorant
+indeed about hats. Come along, all of you, and gaze at my miniatures. I
+am longing to see how they look framed."
+
+"As regards the hat----" I began.
+
+"I will not hear anything more about it," she interrupted, laughing. "Of
+course, if you don't like to be seen with me--oh! Why, look! look!"
+
+We had stopped before a case of miniatures. In the front row were two
+somewhat larger than the others, and Isobel's first serious attempts.
+Behind each was stuck a little ivory board bearing the magic word
+"Sold."
+
+"Sold!" Arthur exclaimed incredulously.
+
+"It may be a mistake," I said slowly.
+
+Mabane and I exchanged glances. We knew very well that, though the
+miniatures showed promise of talent, they were amateurish and imperfect,
+and the reserve which we had placed upon them was quite out of all
+proportion to their merit. It must surely be a mistake! We followed
+Isobel across the room. A little elderly gentleman was sitting before a
+desk, engaged in the leisurely contemplation of a small open ledger.
+Isobel had halted in front of him. There was a delicate flush of pink on
+her cheeks, and her eyes were brilliant.
+
+"Are my miniatures sold, please?" she exclaimed. "My name is Miss de
+Sorrens. They have a small ivory board just behind them which says
+'Sold.'"
+
+The elderly gentleman looked up, and surveyed her calmly over the top of
+his spectacles.
+
+"What did you say that your name was, madam, and the number of your
+miniatures?" he enquired.
+
+"Miss Isobel de Sorrens," she answered breathlessly, "and my miniatures
+are number two hundred and seven and eight--a portrait of an elderly
+lady, and two hundred and eighty-nine--a child."
+
+The little old gentleman turned over the pages of his ledger in very
+leisurely fashion, and consulted a recent entry.
+
+"Your miniatures are sold, Miss de Sorrens," he said, "for the reserve
+price placed upon them--twenty guineas each. The money will be paid to
+you on the close of the Exhibition, according to our usual custom."
+
+"Please tell me who bought them," she begged. "I want to be quite sure
+that there is no mistake."
+
+"There is certainly no mistake," he answered, smiling. "The first one
+was bought by--let me see--a nobleman in the suite of the Archduchess of
+Bristlaw, the Baron von Leibingen. I believe that her Highness is
+proposing to visit the Exhibition this afternoon. The other purchaser
+paid cash, but refused his name. Ah! Excuse me!"
+
+He rose hastily, and moved towards the door. A little group of people
+were entering, before whom the bystanders gave way with all that respect
+which the British public invariably displays for Royalty. Isobel watched
+them with frank and eager interest. Mabane and I moved over to her side.
+
+"Is it true?" I asked her.
+
+"He says so," she answered, still a little bewildered. "Arnold, can you
+imagine it? Forty guineas! I--I----"
+
+There followed an amazing interlude. The little party of newcomers,
+before whom everyone was obsequiously giving way, came face to face with
+us. Mabane and I stepped back at once, but Isobel remained motionless.
+An extraordinary change had come over her. Her eyes seemed fastened upon
+the woman who was the central figure of the little procession, and the
+girl who walked by her side. Someone whispered to her to move back. She
+took no notice. She seemed as though she had not heard. Royalty raised
+its lorgnettes, and dropped them with a crash upon the polished wood
+floor. Then those who were quick to understand knew that something lay
+beneath this unusual awkwardness.
+
+The manager of the Gallery, who, catalogue in hand, had been prepared
+personally to conduct the Royal party round, looked about him, wondering
+as to the cause of the _contretemps_. His eyes fell upon Isobel.
+
+"Please step back," he whispered to her, angrily. "Don't you see that
+the Princess is here, and the Archduchess of Bristlaw? Clear the way,
+please!"
+
+The manager was a small man, and Isobel's eyes travelled over his head.
+She did not seem to hear him speak. The Archduchess recovered herself.
+She took the shattered lorgnettes from the hand of her lady-in-waiting.
+She pointed to Isobel.
+
+"Who is this young person?" she asked calmly. "Does she wish to speak to
+me?"
+
+A wave of colour swept into Isobel's cheeks. She drew back at once.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Madame," she said. But even when she had rejoined my
+side her eyes remained fixed upon the face of the Archduchess and her
+companion.
+
+There was a general movement forward. One of the ladies in the suite,
+however, lingered behind. Our eyes met, and Lady Delahaye held out her
+hand.
+
+"Your ward is growing," she murmured, "in inches, if not in manners.
+When are you going to engage a chaperon for her?"
+
+"When I think it necessary, Lady Delahaye," I answered, with a bow.
+
+"You artists have--such strange ideas," she remarked, smiling up at me.
+"You wish Isobel to remain a child of nature, perhaps. Yet you must
+admit that a few lessons in deportment would be of advantage."
+
+"To the Archduchess, apparently," I answered. "One does not often see a
+great lady so embarrassed."
+
+Lady Delahaye shrugged her shoulders. She dropped her voice a little.
+
+"Are we never to meet without quarrelling, Arnold?" she whispered,
+looking up into my eyes. "It used not to be like this."
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I said, "it is not my fault. We seem to have taken
+opposite sides in a game which I for one do not understand. Twice during
+the last six months you have made attempts which can scarcely be called
+honourable to take Isobel from us. Our rooms are continually watched. We
+dare not let the child go out alone. Now this woman from Madame
+Richard's has come to live in the same building. She, too, watches."
+
+"It is only the beginning, Arnold," she said quietly. "I told you more
+than a year ago that you were interfering in graver concerns than you
+imagined. Why don't you be wise, and let the child go? The care of her
+will bring nothing but trouble upon you!"
+
+Her words struck home more surely than she imagined, for in my heart had
+lain dormant for months the fear of what was to come, the shadow which
+was already creeping over our lives. Nevertheless, I answered her
+lightly.
+
+"You know my obstinacy of old, Lady Delahaye," I said. "We are wasting
+words, I think."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and passed on. Mabane touched me on the
+shoulder.
+
+"Isobel would like to go," he said. "Arthur and she are at the door
+already."
+
+I turned to leave the place. We were already in the passage which led
+into Bond Street, when I felt myself touched upon the shoulder. A tall,
+fair young man, with his hair brushed back, and very blue eyes, who had
+been in the suite of the Archduchess, addressed me.
+
+"Pardon me," he said, "but you are Mr. Arnold Greatson, I believe?"
+
+I acknowledged the fact.
+
+"The Archduchess of Bristlaw begs that you will spare her a moment. She
+will not detain you longer."
+
+I turned to Mabane.
+
+"Take Isobel home," I said. "I will follow presently."
+
+We re-entered the Gallery. The majority of the Royal party were busy
+examining the miniatures. The Archduchess was talking earnestly to Lady
+Delahaye in a remote corner. My guide led me directly to her.
+
+"Her Highness permits me to present you," he said to me. "This is Mr.
+Arnold Greatson, your Highness."
+
+The Archduchess acknowledged my bow graciously.
+
+"You are the Mr. Arnold Greatson who writes such charming stories," she
+said. "Yes, it is so, is it not?"
+
+"Your Highness is very kind," I answered.
+
+"I learn," she continued, "that you are also the guardian of the young
+lady who gave us all such a start. Pardon me, but you surely seem a
+little young for such a post."
+
+"The circumstances, your Highness," I answered, "were a little
+exceptional."
+
+She nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, yes, so I have heard. Lady Delahaye has been telling me the story.
+I understand that you have never been able to discover the child's
+parentage. That is very strange!"
+
+"There are other things in connection with my ward, your Highness," I
+said, "which seem to me equally inexplicable."
+
+"Yes? I am very interested. Will you tell me what they are?"
+
+"By all means," I answered. "I refer to the fact that though no one has
+come forward openly to claim the child, indirect efforts to induce her
+to leave us are continually being made by persons who seem to desire
+anonymity. Whenever she has been alone in the streets she has been
+accosted under various pretexts."
+
+The Archduchess was politely surprised.
+
+"But surely you are aware," she remarked, "of the source of some at
+least of these attempts?"
+
+"Madame Richard," I said, "the principal of the convent where Isobel was
+educated, seems particularly anxious to have her return there."
+
+The Archduchess nodded her head slowly.
+
+"Well," she said, "is that so much to be wondered at? Even we who are of
+the world might consider--you must pardon me, Mr. Greatson, if I speak
+frankly--the girl's present position an undesirable one. How do you
+suppose, then, that the principal of a convent boarding-school, whose
+sister, I believe, is a nun, would be likely to regard the same thing?"
+
+"Your Highness knows, then, of the convent?" I remarked.
+
+The Archduchess lifted her eyebrows lightly. Her gesture seemed intended
+to convey to me the fact that she had not sent for me to answer my
+questions. I remained unabashed, however, and waited for her reply.
+Several curious facts were beginning to group themselves together in my
+mind.
+
+"I have heard of the place," she said coldly. "I believe it to be an
+excellent institution. I sent for you, Mr. Greatson, not, however, to
+discuss such matters, but solely to ask for information as to the
+child's parentage. It seems that you are unable to give me this."
+
+"Lady Delahaye knows as much--probably more--than I," I answered.
+
+It seemed to me that the Archduchess and Lady Delahaye exchanged quick
+glances. I affected, however, to have noticed nothing.
+
+"I will be quite candid with you, Mr. Greatson," the Archduchess
+continued. "My interest in the girl arises, of course, from the
+wonderful likeness to my own daughter, and to other members of my
+family. Your ward herself was obviously struck with it. I must confess
+that I, too, received something of a shock."
+
+"I think," I answered, "that it was apparent to all of us."
+
+The Archduchess coughed. For a Royal personage, she seemed to find some
+little difficulty in proceeding.
+
+"The history of our family is naturally a matter of common knowledge,"
+she said slowly. "Any connection with it, therefore, which this child
+might be able to claim would be of that order which you, as a man of the
+world, would doubtless understand. Nevertheless, I am sufficiently
+interested in her to be inclined to take any steps which might be
+necessary for her welfare. I propose to set some enquiries on foot.
+Providing that the result of them be as I suspect, I presume you would
+have no objection to relinquish the child to my protection?"
+
+"Your Highness," I answered, "I could not answer such a question as that
+without consideration, or without consulting Isobel herself."
+
+The Archduchess frowned upon me, and I was at once made conscious that I
+had fallen under her displeasure. I fancy, however, that I appeared as I
+felt, quite unimpressed.
+
+"I cannot understand any hesitation whatsoever upon your part, Mr.
+Greatson," she said. "Under my care the child's future would be
+fittingly provided for. Her position with you must be, at the best, an
+equivocal one."
+
+"Your Highness," I answered steadily, "my friends and I are handicapped
+perhaps by our sex, but we have a housekeeper who is an old family
+servant, and a model of respectability. In all ways and at all times we
+have treated Isobel as a very dear sister. The position may seem an
+equivocal one--to a certain order of minds. Those who know us, I may
+venture to say, see nothing harmful to the child in our guardianship."
+
+The Archduchess stared at me, and I gathered that she was not used to
+anything save implicit obedience from those to whom she made
+suggestions. She stared, and then she laughed softly. There was more
+than a spice of malice in her mirth.
+
+"Which of you three young men are going to fall in love with her?" she
+asked bluntly. "You call her a child, but she is almost a woman, and she
+is beautiful. She will be very beautiful."
+
+"Your Highness," I answered coldly, "it is a matter which we have not as
+yet permitted ourselves to consider."
+
+The Archduchess was displeased with me, and she took no further pains to
+hide her displeasure.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, with a little wave of dismissal, "for the
+present I have no more to say."
+
+She turned her back upon me, and I at once left the Gallery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+I walked home with but one thought in my mind. The Archduchess had put
+into words--very plain, blunt words--what as yet I had scarcely dared
+harbour in my mind as a fugitive idea. She had done me in that respect
+good service. She had brought to a sudden crisis an issue which it was
+folly any longer to evade. I meant to speak now, and have done with it.
+I walked through the busy streets a dreaming man. It was for the last
+time. Henceforth, even the dream must pass.
+
+I found Mabane and Arthur alone, for which I was sufficiently thankful.
+There was no longer any excuse for delay. Mabane had taken possession of
+the easy-chair, and was smoking his largest pipe. Arthur was walking
+restlessly up and down the room. Evidently they had been discussing
+between them the events of the afternoon, for there was a sudden silence
+when I entered, and they both waited eagerly for me to speak. I closed
+the door carefully behind me, and took a cigarette from the box on my
+desk.
+
+"What did the Archduchess want?" Arthur asked bluntly.
+
+"I will tell you all that she said presently," I answered. "In effect,
+it was the same as the others. She, too, wanted Isobel!"
+
+"Shall we have to give her up?" Arthur demanded.
+
+"We will discuss that another time," I said. "I am glad to find that you
+are both here. There is another matter, concerning which I think that we
+ought to come to an understanding as soon as possible. It has been in my
+mind for a long while."
+
+"About Isobel?" Arthur interrupted.
+
+"About Isobel!" I assented.
+
+They were both attentive. Mabane's expression was purely negative.
+Arthur, on the other hand, was distinctly nervous. I think that from the
+first he had some idea what it was that I wanted to say.
+
+"Isobel, when she came to us little more than a year ago," I continued,
+"was a child. We have always treated her, and I believe thought of her,
+as a child. It was perhaps a daring experiment to have brought her here
+at all, and yet I am inclined to think that, under the circumstances, it
+was the best thing for her, and, from another point of view, an
+excellent thing for us!"
+
+"Excellent! Why, it has made all the difference in the world," Arthur
+declared vigorously.
+
+"I see that you follow me," I agreed. "Her coming seems to have steadied
+us up all round. The changes which we were obliged to make in our manner
+of living have all been for the better. I am afraid that we were
+drifting, Allan and I, at any rate into a somewhat objectless sort of
+existence, and our work was beginning to show the signs of it. The
+coming of Isobel seems to have changed all that. You, Allan, know that
+you have never done better work in your life than during the last year.
+Your portrait of her was an inspiration. Some of those smaller studies
+show signs of a talent which I think has surprised everyone, except
+Arthur and myself, who knew what you could do when you settled down to
+it. I, too, have been more successful, as you know. I have done better
+work, and more of it. You agree with me so far, Allan?"
+
+"There is no doubt at all about it," Mabane said slowly. "There has been
+a different atmosphere about the place since the child came, and we have
+thrived in it. We are all better, much the better, for her coming!"
+
+"I am glad that you appreciate this, Allan," I said. "This sort of thing
+is rather hard to put into words, but I believe that you fellows
+understand exactly what I mean. We have had to amuse her, and in doing
+so we have developed simpler and better tastes for ourselves. We've had
+to give up a lot of things, and a lot of friends we've been much better
+without."
+
+"It's true, every word of it, Arnold," Mabane admitted, knocking out the
+ashes from his pipe. "We've chucked the music-halls for the theatres,
+and our lazy slacking Sundays, with a night at the club afterwards, for
+long wholesome days in the country--very jolly days, too. We're better
+men in our small way for the child's coming, Arnold. You can take that
+for granted. Now, go on with what you have to say. I suppose this is all
+a prelude to something or other."
+
+Even then I hesitated, for my task was not an easy one, and all the
+while Arthur, who maintained an uneasy silence, was watching me
+furtively. It was as though he knew from the first what it was that I
+was leading up to, and I seemed to be conscious already of his
+passionate though unspoken resistance.
+
+"It was a child," I said at last, "whom we took into our lives. To-day
+she is a woman!"
+
+Then Arthur could keep silence no longer. There was a pink flush in his
+cheeks, which were still as smooth as a girl's, but the passion in his
+tone was the passion of a man.
+
+"You are not thinking, Arnold--you would not be so mad as to think of
+giving her up to any of these people?" he exclaimed. "They are her
+enemies, all of them. I am sure of it!"
+
+"I am coming to that presently," I went on. "You know what happened this
+afternoon? You saw the likeness, the amazing likeness, between Isobel
+and that other girl, the daughter of the Archduchess. The Archduchess
+was herself very much impressed with it. Without a doubt she knows
+Isobel's history. She went so far as to tell me that she believed Isobel
+to be morganatically connected with her own family, the House of
+Waldenburg! She offered to take her under her own protection!"
+
+"You did not consent!" Arthur exclaimed.
+
+"I neither consented nor absolutely refused," I answered. "It was not a
+matter to be decided on the spur of the moment. But the more I think of
+it, the more I am puzzled. Madame Richard wants Isobel. She was not
+satisfied with our refusal to give her up. She sent that messenger of
+hers back with fresh offers, and when again we refused, the woman takes
+up her quarters here, always spying upon us, always accosting Isobel on
+any excuse. Madame Richard may be a very good woman, but I have seen and
+spoken with her, and I do not for one moment believe that her
+extraordinary persistence is for Isobel's sake alone. Then Lady Delahaye
+has never ceased from worrying us. She has tried threats, persuasions
+and entreaties. She has tried by every means in her power to induce us
+to give up the child to her. And now we have the Archduchess to deal
+with, and it seems to me that we are getting very near the heart of the
+matter. The Archduchess is a daughter of one of the Royal Houses of
+Europe, and Major Delahaye was once _attache_ at her father's Court.
+Then there is Grooten, the man who shot Delahaye. His interest in her is
+so strong that he risks his life and commits a crime to save her from a
+man whom he believes to be a source of danger to her. He sends her money
+every quarter, which, as you know, we have never touched--it stands in
+her name if ever she should require it. Grooten is a man into whose
+charge we could not possibly give her, and yet of all these people he is
+the only one whom I would trust--the only one whom I feel instinctively
+means well by her. Madame Richard wants her, Lady Delahaye wants her,
+and behind them both there is the Archduchess, who also wants her. I
+have thought this matter over, and, so far as I am concerned, I have
+decided----"
+
+"Not to give her up to any of them!" Arthur exclaimed sharply.
+
+"To give her up to no one who is not prepared to go into court and
+establish a legal claim," I continued. "It is very simple, and I think
+very reasonable. When she leaves us, it shall be to take up an
+accredited and definite station in life. The time may come at any
+moment. We must always be prepared for it. But until it does, we will
+not even parley any longer with these people who come to us and hint at
+mysterious things."
+
+Arthur wrung my hand. He was apparently much relieved, and he did not
+know what was coming.
+
+"Arnold, you are a brick!" he exclaimed. "That's sound
+common-sense--every word you've uttered. Let them prove their claim to
+her."
+
+"I agree with every word you have spoken," Allan said quietly, in
+response to a look from me. "The child is at least safe with us, and she
+is not wasting her time. She has talent, and she has application. I, for
+my part, shall be very sorry indeed when the time comes, as I suppose it
+will come some day, for her to go."
+
+Then I mustered up my courage, and said that which I had known from the
+first would be difficult.
+
+"There is one thing more," I said, "and I want to say it to you now. It
+may seem to you both unnecessary. Perhaps it is. Still, it is better
+that we should come to an understanding about it. A year has passed
+since Isobel, the child, came to us. To-day she is a woman. If we still
+keep her with us there must be a bond, a covenant between us, and our
+honour must stand pledged to keep it. I think that you both know very
+well what I mean. I hope that you will both agree with me."
+
+I paused for a moment, but I received no encouragement from either of
+them. They were both silent, and Arthur's eyes were questioning mine
+fiercely. I addressed myself more particularly to him.
+
+"Allan and I are elderly persons compared with you, Arthur," I said,
+"but we might still be described at a stretch as young men. If we decide
+to remain Isobel's guardians, there is a further and a deeper duty
+devolving upon us than the obvious one of treating her with all respect.
+It is possible that she might come to feel a preference for one of us--a
+sense of gratitude, the natural sentiment of her coming womanhood, even
+the fact of continual propinquity might encourage it. Isobel is
+charming; she will be beautiful. The position, if any one of us relaxed
+in the slightest degree, might become critical. You must understand what
+I mean, I am sure, even if I am not expressing it very clearly. Isobel
+sees few, if any, other men. It is possible, it is almost certain, that
+she belongs to a class whose position and ideas are far removed from
+ours. There must be no sentimental relations established between her and
+any one of us. We are her brothers, she is our sister. So it must remain
+while she is under our charge. This must be agreed upon between us."
+
+There was a dead, almost an ominous, silence. Mabane was standing with
+his arms folded, and his face turned a little away. I appealed first to
+him.
+
+"Allan," I said, "you agree with me?"
+
+"Absolutely!" he answered. "I agree with every word you have said."
+
+I turned to Arthur.
+
+"And you, Arthur?"
+
+He did not at once reply. The colour was coming and going in his cheeks,
+and he was playing nervously with his watchchain. When he raised his
+eyes to mine, the slight belligerency of his earlier manner was more
+clearly defined.
+
+"I think," he said, "that there is another side to the question. Isobel
+is the sort of girl whom fellows are bound to notice. Besides, being so
+jolly good-looking, she is such ripping good form, and that sort of
+thing. What you are proposing, Arnold, is simply that we should stand on
+one side altogether and leave Isobel for any other fellow who happens to
+come along."
+
+"It scarcely amounts to that," I answered. "No other man is likely to
+see much of her while she is under our care. Afterwards, of course, the
+conditions are different. Our covenant, the covenant to which I am
+asking you to agree, comes to an end when she leaves us."
+
+"You see," Arthur protested, "it is a little different, isn't it, for
+you fellows? Not that I'm comparing myself with you, of course, in any
+sort of way. You're both heaps cleverer than I am, and all that, but
+Isobel and I are nearer the same age, and we've been about together such
+a lot, motoring and all that, and had such good times. You understand
+what I mean, don't you? Of course, that sort of thing, that sort of
+thing--you know, brings a fellow and a girl together so, liking the same
+things, and being about the same age. It isn't quite like that with you
+two, is it now?"
+
+Again there was silence. Mabane had withdrawn his pipe from his mouth,
+and was looking steadfastly into the bowl. As for me, I found it wholly
+impossible to analyse my sensations. All the time Arthur was looking
+eagerly from one to the other of us. I recovered myself with an effort,
+and answered him.
+
+"We will not dispute the position with you, Arthur," I said quietly. "We
+will admit all that you say. We will admit, therefore, that by all
+natural laws you are the one on whom the burden of keeping this covenant
+must fall most heavily. That fact may make it a little harder for you
+than for us, but it does not alter the position in any way. There must
+be no attempt at sentiment between Isobel and any one of us. If by any
+chance the opening should come from her, it must be ignored and
+discouraged."
+
+"I can't for the life of me see why," Arthur declared. "And I--well,
+it's no use beating about the bush. Isobel is the only girl in the world
+I could ever look at. I am fond of her! I can't help it! I love her!
+There!"
+
+Mabane mercifully took up the burden of speech.
+
+"Have you said anything to her?" he asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"Not a word?"
+
+"Not a word," Arthur declared. "She is too young. She has not begun to
+think about those things yet. But she is wonderful, and I love her. It
+is all very well for you two," he continued earnestly. "You are both
+over thirty, and confirmed bachelors. I'm only just twenty-four, and
+I've never cared for a girl a snap of the fingers yet. I don't care any
+more about knocking about. Of course, I've done a bit at it like
+everyone else, but Isobel has knocked all that out of me. I should be
+quite content to settle down to-morrow!"
+
+I tried to put myself in his place, to enter for a moment into his point
+of view. Yet I am afraid that I must have seemed very unsympathetic.
+
+"Arthur," I said, "I am sorry for you, but it won't do. I fancy that
+before long she will be removed from us altogether. For her sake, and
+the sake of our own honour, no word of what you have told us must pass
+your lips. Unless you can promise that----"
+
+I hesitated. Arthur had risen to his feet. The colour had mounted to his
+temples, his eyes were bright with anger.
+
+"I will not promise it," he declared. "I love Isobel, and very soon I
+mean to tell her so."
+
+"Then it must be under another roof," I answered. "If you will not
+promise to keep absolutely silent until we at least know exactly what
+her parentage is, you must leave us."
+
+Arthur took up his hat.
+
+"Very well," he said shortly. "I will send for my things to-morrow."
+
+He left the room without another word to either of us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+"In diplomacy," the Baron remarked blandly, "as also, I believe, in
+affairs of commerce, the dinner-table is frequently chosen as a fitting
+place for the commencement of delicate negotiations. For a bargain--no!
+But when three men--take ourselves, for instance--have a matter of some
+importance to discuss, I can conceive no better opportunity for the
+preliminary--skirmishing, shall I say?--than the present."
+
+I raised my glass, and looked thoughtfully at the pale amber wine
+bubbling up from the stem.
+
+"From a certain point of view," I answered, "I entirely agree with you.
+Yet you must remember that the host has always the advantage."
+
+"In the present case," the Baron said with a smile, "that amounts to
+nothing, for you practically gave me my answer before we sat down to
+dinner. If I am able to induce you to change your mind--well, so much
+the better. If not--well, I can have nothing to complain of."
+
+"I am glad," I answered, "that you appreciate our position. With regard
+to the present custody of the child, which I take it is what you want to
+discuss with us, our minds are practically made up. My friend and I have
+both agreed that we will continue the charge of her until she is claimed
+by someone who is in a position to do so openly--someone, in short, who
+has a legal right."
+
+The Baron nodded gravely.
+
+"An excellent decision," he said. "No one could possibly quarrel with
+it. Yet it is a privilege to be able to tell you some facts which may
+perhaps affect your point of view. I can explain to you _why_ this open
+claim is not made."
+
+"We are here," I answered, "to listen to whatever you may have to say."
+
+We--Allan and I--were dining with the Baron at Claridge's. An
+appointment, which he had begged us to make, had been changed into a
+dinner invitation at his earnest request. There was a likelihood, he
+told us, of his being summoned abroad at any moment, and he was
+particularly anxious not to leave the hotel pending the arrival of a
+cablegram. So far his demeanour had been courtesy and consideration
+itself, but under the man's geniality and almost excessive _bonhomie_
+both Allan and myself were conscious of a certain nervous impatience,
+only partially concealed. Whatever proposal he might have to make to us,
+our acceptance of it was without doubt a matter of great importance to
+him. The more we realized this, the more we wondered.
+
+"I only wish," he said with emphasis, "that it was within my power to
+lay the cards upon the table before you, to tell you the whole truth. I
+do not think then that you would hesitate for a single second. But that
+I cannot do. The honour of a great house, Mr. Greatson, is involved in
+this matter, into which you have been so strangely drawn. I must leave
+blanks in my story which you must fill in for yourselves, you and Mr.
+Mabane. There are things which I may not--dare not--tell you. If I
+could, you would wonder no longer that those who desire to take over the
+charge of the child wish to do so without publicity, and without any
+appeal to the courts."
+
+"The Archduchess," I remarked, "gave me some hint as to the nature of
+these difficulties."
+
+The Baron emptied his glass and called for another bottle of wine. Then
+he looked carefully around him, a quite unnecessary precaution, for our
+table was in a remote corner of the room, and there were very few
+dining.
+
+"It is no longer," he said, "a matter of surmise with us as to who the
+child you call Isobel de Sorrens really is. She is of the House of
+Waldenburg. She carries her descent written in her face, a hall-mark no
+one could deny. Upon the Archduchess and others of her great family must
+rest always the shadow of a grave stigma so long as the child remains in
+the hands of strangers, an alien from her own country. The Archduchess
+wishes at once, and quietly, to assume the charge of her. She is
+conscious of your services; she feels that you have probably saved the
+child from a fate which it is not easy to contemplate calmly. She
+authorizes me, therefore, to treat with you in the most generous
+fashion."
+
+"That is a phrase," I remarked, "which I do not altogether understand."
+
+"Later," the Baron said, with a meaning look, "I will make myself clear.
+In the meantime, let me recommend this souffle. Mr. Mabane, you are
+drinking nothing. Would you prefer your wine a shade colder?"
+
+"Not for me," Allan declared. "I prefer champagne at its natural
+temperature; the wine is far too good to have its flavour frozen out of
+it. Apropos of what you were saying, Baron, there is one question which
+I should like to ask you. Why was Major Delahaye sent to St. Argueil for
+Isobel, and what was he supposed to do with her?"
+
+I do not think that the Baron liked the question. He hesitated for
+several moments before he answered it.
+
+"Major Delahaye was not sent," he said. "He went on his own account. He
+was the only person who knew the child's whereabouts."
+
+"And what do you suppose his object was in bringing her away from the
+convent?" Allan persisted.
+
+"I do not know," the Baron answered. "All I can say is that it pleases
+me vastly more to find the child in your keeping than in his."
+
+"Was the man who shot him," I asked, "concerned in the child's earlier
+history?"
+
+"I cannot place him at all," the Baron answered. "I should imagine that
+his quarrel with Major Delahaye was a personal one, and had no bearing
+upon the child. Few men had more enemies than Delahaye. One does not
+wish to speak ill of the dead, but he was a bully and a brute all his
+days."
+
+A servant in plain black livery brought a sealed note to our host, and
+stood respectfully by his side while he read it. It obviously consisted
+of but a few words, yet the Baron continued to hold it in front of him
+for nearly a minute. Finally, he crushed it in his hand, and dismissed
+the servant.
+
+"There is no answer," he said. "I shall wait upon her Highness in an
+hour."
+
+Our dinner was over. Both Mabane and myself had declined dessert. Our
+host rose.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I have ordered coffee in the smoking-room. The
+head-waiter has told me of some wonderful brandy, and I have some cigars
+which I am anxious for you to try. Will you come this way?"
+
+We were the only occupants of the smoking-room. The Baron appropriated a
+corner, and left us to fetch the cigars. Mabane lit a cigarette and
+leaned back in an easy-chair.
+
+"It seems to me, Arnold," he said, "that you are like the man who found
+what he went out for to see. You wanted tragedy--and you came very near
+it. I do not quite see what the end of all these things will be. Our
+host----"
+
+"There is a disappointment in store for him, I fancy," I interrupted.
+"He is a very faithful servant of the Archduchess, and he has worked
+hard for her. From his point of view his arguments are reasonable
+enough. All that he says is plausible--and yet--one feels that there is
+something behind it all. Allan, I don't trust one of these people! I
+can't!"
+
+"Nor I," Allan answered softly, for the Baron had already entered the
+room.
+
+He brought with him some wonderful cabanas, and immediately afterwards
+coffee and liqueurs were served. The moment the waiter had disappeared,
+he threw off all reserve.
+
+"Come," he said, "I am no longer your host. We meet here on equal terms.
+I have an offer to make to you which I think you will find astonishing.
+The fact is, her Highness is anxious to run no risk of any resurrection
+of a certain scandal. She has commissioned me to beg your
+acceptance--you and your friend--of these," he laid down two separate
+pieces of paper upon the table. "She wishes to relieve you as soon as
+possible to-night, if you can arrange it--of the care of a certain young
+lady. There need be no hesitation about your acceptance. Royalty, as you
+know, has special privileges so far as regards bounty, and her Highness
+appreciates most heartily the care and kindness which the child has
+received at your hands."
+
+I stared at my piece of paper. It was a cheque for five thousand pounds.
+I looked at Mabane's. It was a cheque for a like amount. Then I looked
+up at the Baron. The perspiration was standing out upon his forehead. He
+was watching us as a man might watch one in whose hands lay the power of
+life or death. I resisted my first impulse, which was simply to tear the
+cheque in two. I simply pushed it back across the table.
+
+"Baron," I said, "if this is meant as a recompense for any kindness
+which we have shown to a friendless child, it is unnecessary and
+unacceptable. If it is meant," I added more slowly, "for a bribe, it is
+not enough."
+
+"Call it what you will," he answered quickly. "Name your own price for
+the child--brought here--to-night."
+
+"No price that you or your mistress could pay, Baron," I answered
+quietly. "I told you my ultimatum two hours ago. The child remains with
+us until she is claimed by one who has a legal right, and is not afraid
+to invoke the law."
+
+"But I have explained the position," the Baron protested. "You must
+understand why we cannot bring such a matter as this into the courts."
+
+"Your story is ingenious, and, pardon me, it may be true," I answered.
+"We require proof!"
+
+The Baron's face was not pleasant to look upon.
+
+"You doubt my word, sir--my word, and the word of the Archduchess?"
+
+I rose to my feet. Mabane followed my example. I felt that a storm was
+pending.
+
+"Baron," I said, "there are some causes which make strange demands upon
+the best of us. A man may lie to save a woman's honour, or, if he be a
+politician, for the good of his country. I cannot discuss this matter
+any further with you. My sole regret is that we ever discussed it at
+all. My friend and I must wish you good-night."
+
+"By heavens, you shall not go!" the Baron exclaimed. "What right have
+you to the child? None at all! Her Highness wishes to be generous. It
+pleases you to flout her generosity. Mr. Arnold Greatson, you are a
+fool! Don't you see that you are a pigmy, who has stolen through the
+back door into the world where great things are dealt with? You have no
+place there. You cannot keep the child away from us. You have no
+influence, no money. You are nobody. If you think----"
+
+Mabane interposed.
+
+"Baron," he said, "if you were not still, in a sense, our host, I should
+knock you down. As it is, permit me to tell you that you are talking
+nonsense."
+
+The Baron drew a sharp, quick breath.
+
+"You are right," he said shortly. "I am a fool to discuss this with you
+at all. It is not worth while. The Archduchess, out of kindness, would
+have treated you as friends. You decline! Good! You shall be treated--as
+you deserve."
+
+The Baron threw open the door and bowed us out. The commissionaire
+helped us on with our coats and summoned a hansom. We were just driving
+off, when a man in a long travelling coat, who had been standing outside
+the swing-door of the hotel, calmly swung himself up into the cab and
+motioned to us to make room. I stared at him in blank amazement.
+
+"Hullo!" I exclaimed. "What----"
+
+"It is I, my friend," Mr. Grooten answered calmly. "Tell the man to
+drive to your rooms."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"I am staying at Claridge's, or rather I was," Mr. Grooten remarked, as
+we turned into Brook Street. "I saw you with Leibingen, and I have been
+waiting for you. We will talk, I think, at your rooms."
+
+Whereupon he lit a fresh cigarette, and did not speak a word until we
+had reached our destination. Isobel had gone to bed, and our
+sitting-room was empty. I turned up the lamp, and pushed a chair towards
+him. In various small ways he seemed to have succeeded in effecting a
+wonderful change in his appearance. His hair was differently arranged,
+and much greyer. His face was pale and drawn as though with illness. But
+for his voice and his broad, humorous mouth I doubt whether I should
+immediately have recognized him.
+
+"I perceive," he said, "that I am not forgotten. It is very flattering!
+My friends abroad tell me that I have altered a good deal during the
+last twelve months."
+
+"You have altered, without a doubt," I admitted. "But the circumstances
+connected with our first meeting were scarcely such as tend towards
+forgetfulness. You remember my friend, Mr. Allan Mabane?"
+
+"Perfectly," he assented, with a courteous little wave of the hand. "I
+am very glad to have come across you both again so opportunely. I only
+arrived in England a few days ago, but I did not hope to have this
+pleasure until the morning at the earliest. You expected to have heard
+from me, perhaps, before."
+
+"I don't know about that," I answered, "but I can assure you that we are
+both very glad to see you, for more reasons than one. There are a good
+many things which we are anxious to discuss with you."
+
+"The pleasure, then, is mutual," Mr. Grooten remarked affably. "Isobel
+is, I trust, well?"
+
+"She is quite well," I answered.
+
+"You are helping her to spend her time profitably, I am glad to find,"
+he continued. "I saw two miniatures of hers yesterday at the Mordaunt
+Rooms."
+
+"Isobel has gifts," I said. "We are doing our best to assist her in
+their development."
+
+Mr. Grooten raised his eyes to mine. He looked at me steadily.
+
+"Why have you refused to use the money which I placed to your credit at
+the National Bank for her?" he asked.
+
+"Because," I answered, "we are not aware what right you have to provide
+for her."
+
+Mr. Grooten smiled upon us--much as a sphynx might have smiled. It had
+the effect of making us both feel very young.
+
+"My claim," he murmured, "must surely be as good as yours."
+
+"Perhaps," I admitted. "At any rate, the money remains there in her
+name. She may find herself in greater need of it later on in life."
+
+Mr. Grooten seemed to find some amusement in the idea.
+
+"No," he said, "I do not think that that is likely. You could safely
+have used the money, but as you have not--well, it is of small
+consequence. I presume that attempts have been made to withdraw the
+child from your care?"
+
+"Several," I told him. "Madame Richard and Lady Delahaye were equally
+importunate."
+
+Grooten nodded.
+
+"You have shown," he said, "an admirable discretion in refusing to give
+her up to either of them."
+
+"And to-day," I continued, "a third claimant to the care of her has
+intervened. The Archduchess of Bristlaw herself has offered to relieve
+us of our guardianship."
+
+Mr. Grooten dropped the cigarette which he had only just lit, and seemed
+for the moment unconscious of the fact. He made no effort to pick it up.
+He quivered as though someone had struck him a blow. For a man whose
+impassivity was almost a part of himself he was evidently deeply
+agitated.
+
+"The Archduchess--has seen Isobel!" he muttered.
+
+"They met by chance at the Mordaunt Rooms a few afternoons ago," I told
+him. "The Archduchess was accompanied by a girl of about Isobel's age.
+We came upon them suddenly, and the likeness was so marvellous that we
+were all startled. There was something in the nature of a scene. We left
+the Gallery at once, but the Archduchess sent one of her suite for me. I
+had some conversation with her concerning Isobel."
+
+"Can you repeat it?" Grooten asked.
+
+"In substance--yes," I told him. "The Archduchess plainly hinted that
+she believed Isobel to be connected morganatically with her family. She
+wished to take her under her own charge and provide for her."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I thought it best to take some time for reflection. I had some idea of
+looking up the history of the Archduchess's family."
+
+"You made no promise?"
+
+"Certainly not. To tell you the truth, I was influenced by the presence
+of Lady Delahaye amongst the royal party. I have no faith in Lady
+Delahaye's good intentions with regard to Isobel."
+
+Mr. Grooten flashed a quick glance upon me.
+
+"Yet," he said softly, "report says that you and Lady Delahaye have been
+very good friends."
+
+"That," I answered, "is beside the mark. I knew her before her marriage,
+but I have seen very little of her since. As a matter of fact, our
+relations at the present time are scarcely amicable. We have had a
+difference of opinion concerning our guardianship of Isobel. Lady
+Delahaye does not approve of her presence here with us."
+
+Mr. Grooten smiled.
+
+"That," he said, "is probable. May I proceed to ask a somewhat
+impertinent question? You were the guests to-night, I believe, of the
+Baron von Leibingen, who is, I understand, a _persona grata_ with the
+Archduchess. I presume that your meeting in some way concerned Isobel?"
+
+"Isobel was the sole cause of it," I answered. "The Archduchess is a
+woman who perseveres. She declined to consider that my reply to her
+first tentative offer was in any way final. She passed the matter on to
+the Baron, and certainly until he lost his temper towards the end of our
+interview, he was a very efficient ambassador. He proved to us quite
+clearly that it was our duty to give Isobel up to those who had a better
+right to assume the charge of her, and he wound up by handing us cheques
+for--I think it was five thousand pounds each, wasn't it, Allan?"
+
+Mr. Grooten leaned back in his chair and laughed silently, yet with
+obvious enjoyment.
+
+"That poor von Leibingen," he murmured, "how he blunders his way through
+life! Yet, my friend, I am afraid that this charge which I so
+thoughtlessly laid upon you is proving very troublesome. And you
+perceive that I do not even offer you a cheque."
+
+Allan suddenly rose up and knocked the ashes from his pipe into the
+fire.
+
+"You do not offer us a cheque, Mr. Grooten," he said quietly, "because
+you have perceptions. But there is another way in which you can
+recompense us for the trifling inconveniences to which we have been put.
+You can make our task easier--and more dignified; you can answer a
+question which I think I may say that we have an absolute right to ask
+you."
+
+Mr. Grooten inclined his head slightly. He made no remark. Allan turned
+to me.
+
+"Arnold," he said, "this is more your affair than mine, for it is you
+who have borne the brunt of it from the first. I do not wish to
+interfere in it unduly. But from every point of view, I think that the
+time has come when all this mystery concerning Isobel's antecedents
+should be, so far as we are concerned at any rate, cleared up. Our hands
+would be immensely strengthened by the knowledge of the truth. Your
+friend here, Mr. Grooten, can tell us if he will. Ask him to do so. I
+will go further. I will even say that we have a right to insist upon
+it."
+
+Mr. Grooten sat immovable. One could scarcely gather from his face that
+he had heard a word of Allan's speech.
+
+"You are quite right, Allan," I answered. "Mr. Grooten," I continued,
+turning towards him, "you are the best judge as to whether your presence
+in this country is altogether wise, but I can assure you that for the
+last six months we have looked for you every day, and for this same
+reason. We want that question answered. The time has come when, in
+common justice to us and the child, the whole thing should be cleared
+up. Whatever knowledge rests with you is safe also with us. I think that
+we have proved that. I think that we have earned our right to your
+complete confidence. Mabane and I you can consider as one in this
+matter. You can speak before him as though we were alone. Now tell us
+the whole truth."
+
+"I cannot," Mr. Grooten answered simply.
+
+There was a certain crisp definiteness about those two words which
+carried conviction with them. Mabane and I were a little staggered. Our
+position was such a strong one, our request so reasonable, that I think
+that we had never realized the possibility of a refusal.
+
+"May I ask you this?" Mabane said. "Do you expect that we shall continue
+our--I suppose we may call it guardianship--of Isobel in the face of
+your present attitude?"
+
+"I hope so, for the present," our visitor admitted softly.
+
+"Notwithstanding," Mabane continued, "our absolute ignorance of
+everything connected with her, our lack of any sort of claim or title to
+the charge of her, and the increasing number of people who still persist
+in trying to take her from us?"
+
+Mr. Grooten shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You omit to mention the factors in the situation which may be said to
+be on your side," he murmured.
+
+"I should be interested to know what those are," I remarked.
+
+"Certainly. The first and most powerful of all is, of course,
+possession."
+
+Mabane nodded.
+
+"And after that?"
+
+"The fact that not one of the three people who have appealed to you for
+the charge of the child is in a position to use the only real force
+which exists in this land. I mean the law," Grooten continued.
+
+This kept us silent again for a moment. Mabane, I could see, was getting
+a little ruffled.
+
+"You pelt us with enigmas, sir," he said. "You answer our questions only
+by propounding fresh conundrums. One thing, at least, you may feel
+disposed to tell us. What is your own relationship to Isobel?"
+
+"None," Mr. Grooten answered.
+
+"Your interest, then?"
+
+Mr. Grooten remained silent. He sat in his chair, very still and very
+quiet. Yet in his eyes there shone for a moment something which seemed
+to bring into the little room the shadow of great things. Mabane and I
+both felt it. We had the sense of having been left behind. The little
+man in his chair seemed to have been lifted out of our reach into the
+mightier world of passion and suffering and self-conquest.
+
+"I loved her mother," he said softly. "I was the man whom her mother
+loved."
+
+There was a silence between us then. We had no more to say. We were at
+that moment his bounden slaves. But by some evil chance, after a
+lengthened pause, he continued--
+
+"I, alas, could do little for the child. Yet when I heard that harm was
+threatened to her through that scamp Delahaye, I crossed the ocean at an
+hour's notice. I saved her from him. He deserved his fate, but I am no
+murderer by profession, and the shock unnerved me for a time. Then----"
+
+"Hush!" Mabane cried.
+
+I sprang to the door. It had been thrust about a foot open. From outside
+came the sound of angry voices, followed by a moment's silence. Then a
+quick, shrill cry of triumph.
+
+"Let me in. Oh, you shall not stop me now. I am going to see the man who
+boasts of being my husband's murderer!"
+
+It was the voice of Lady Delahaye. She was already upon the threshold. I
+sprang to the table and saw her coming. Already she was behind the
+screen, stealing into the room, her head thrust forward, her lips
+parted, a peculiar glitter in her eyes. For a moment I stood rigid. The
+sight of her fascinated me--there was something so wholly animal-like in
+the stealthy triumph of her tiptoe approach. I recovered myself just in
+time. One more step, a turn of her head, and she would have seen
+Grooten. My finger pressed down the catch of the lamp, and a sudden
+darkness filled the room.
+
+She stopped short. Her fierce little cry of anger told me exactly where
+she was. I stepped forward and caught her wrists firmly. Then I faced
+where I knew Grooten was still sitting. I could see the red end of his
+cigarette still in his mouth.
+
+"Leave the room at once," I said. "You can push the screen on one side,
+and you are within a yard of the door then. Please do exactly as I say,
+and don't reply."
+
+"Let go my hands, sir! Arnold, how dare you! Let me go, or I'll scream
+the place down. Mr. Mabane, you will not permit this?" she cried, in a
+fury.
+
+Mabane closed the door through which Grooten had already issued, and I
+heard the key turn in the lock. I released Lady Delahaye's hands, and
+she sprang away from me. As the flame from the lamp which Allan had just
+rekindled gained in power we saw her, still shaking the handle, but with
+her back now against the wall turned to face us. She was calmer than I
+had expected, but it was a terrible look which she flashed upon us.
+
+[Illustration: She was calmer than I had expected, but it was a terrible
+look which she flashed upon us.]
+
+"In how many minutes," she asked, "may I be released?"
+
+Allan whispered in my ear.
+
+"In five minutes, Lady Delahaye," I said. "I regret very much the
+necessity for keeping you at all. May I offer you a chair?"
+
+"You may offer me nothing, sir, except your silence," she answered
+swiftly.
+
+She meant it too. I know the signs of anger in a woman's face as well as
+most men, and they were written there plainly enough. So for a most
+uncomfortable period of time we waited there until Allan, after a glance
+at his watch, went and opened the door. She passed out without remark,
+but from the threshold outside she turned and looked at me.
+
+"I warned you once before, Arnold Greatson," she said, "that you were
+meddling with greater concerns than you knew of, and that harm would
+come to you for it. Now you have chosen to shield a murderer, and to use
+your strength upon a woman. These things will not go unforgotten!"
+
+Mabane closed the door, and threw himself into an easy chair.
+
+"For two easy-going sort of fellows, Arnold," he said to me, "we seem to
+be making a lot of enemies. Don't you think it would be a good idea if
+we drew stumps for a bit?"
+
+"Meaning?" I asked.
+
+"Roseleys!"
+
+"We'll go to-morrow," I declared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+"I have never seen anything like this," Isobel said softly. I looked up
+from the writing-pad on my knee, and she met my glance with a smile of
+contrition.
+
+"Ah," she said. "I forgot that I must not talk. Indeed, I did not mean
+to, but--look!"
+
+I followed her eyes.
+
+"Well," I said, "tell me what you see."
+
+"There are so many beautiful things," she murmured. "Do you see how
+thick and green the grass is in the meadows there? How the quaker
+grasses glimmer?--you call them so, do you not?--and how those yellow
+cowslips shine like gold? What a world of colour it all seems. London is
+so grey and cold, and here--look at the sea, and the sky, with all those
+dear little fleecy white clouds, and the pink and white of all those
+wild roses wound in and out of the hedges. Oh, Arnold, it is all
+beautiful!"
+
+"Even without a motor-car!" I remarked.
+
+She looked at me a little resentfully.
+
+"Motoring is very delightful," she said, "although you do not like it.
+Of course, it would be nice if Arthur were here!"
+
+She looked away from me seawards, and I found myself studying her
+expression with an interest which had something more in it than mere
+curiosity. At odd times lately I had fancied that I could see it coming.
+To-day, for the first time, I was sure. The smooth transparency of
+childhood, the unrestrained but almost animal play of features and eyes,
+reproducing with photographic accuracy every small emotion and
+joy--these things were passing away. Even before her time the child was
+seeking knowledge. As she sat there, with her steadfast eyes fixed upon
+the smooth blue line where sea and sky met, who could tell what thoughts
+were passing in her mind? Not I, not Mabane, nor any of us into whose
+care she had come. Only I knew that she saw new things, that the rush of
+a more complex and stronger life was already troubling her, the sweet
+pangs of its birth were already tugging at her heartstrings. My pencil
+rested idly in my fingers, my eyes, like hers, sought that distant line,
+beyond which lies ever the world of one's own creation. What did she see
+there, I wondered? Never again should I be able to ask with the full
+certainty of knowing all that was in her mind. The time had come for
+delicate reserves, the time when the child of yesterday, with the first
+faint notes of a new and wonderful song stealing into her heart, must
+fence her new modesty around with many sweet elusions and barriers,
+fairy creations to be swept aside later on in one glad moment--by the
+one chosen person. There was a coldness in my heart when I realized that
+the time had come even for the child who had tripped so lightly into our
+lives so short a time ago, to pass away from us into that other and more
+complex world. It was the decree of sex, nature's immutable law,
+sundering playfellows, severing friendships, driving its unwilling
+victims into opposite corners of the world, with all the pitilessness of
+natural law. Nevertheless, the thought of these things as I looked at
+Isobel made me sad. She was young indeed for these days to come, for the
+shadows to steal into her eyes, and the song of trouble to grow in her
+heart.
+
+"Tell me," I asked softly, "what you see beyond that blue line."
+
+"I can tell you more easily," she said, glancing down with a faint smile
+at my empty pages, "what I see by my side--a very lazy man. And," she
+continued, crumpling a little ball of heather in her fingers and
+throwing it with unerring aim at Allan, "another one over there!"
+
+"My picture," Allan protested, "is finished."
+
+"Nonsense!" she exclaimed, preparing to rise, but he waved her back.
+
+"In my mind," he added. "Don't misunderstand me. The casual and ignorant
+observer glancing just now at my canvas might come to the same
+conclusion as you--a conclusion, by-the-bye, entirely erroneous. I will
+admit that my canvas is unspoilt. Nevertheless, my picture is painted."
+
+She looked across at him reproachfully.
+
+"Allan, how dare you!" she exclaimed. "Only Arnold has the right to be
+subtle. I have always regarded you as a straightforward and honest
+person. Don't disappoint me."
+
+"St. Andrew forbid it!" Allan declared. "My meaning is painfully simple.
+I build up my picture first in my mind. Its transmission to canvas is
+purely mechanical. Here goes!"
+
+He took up his palette, and in a few moments was hard at work. Isobel
+pointed downwards to my writing-pad.
+
+"Can you too match Allan's excuse?" she asked. "Is your story already
+written?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I have been watching you," I answered. "Besides, for a perfectly lazy
+person, are you not rather a hard task-mistress? Consider that this is
+our first day of summer--the first time we have seen the sun make
+diamonds on the sea, the first west wind which has come to us with the
+scent of cowslips and wild roses. I claim the right to be lazy if I want
+to be."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"The poet," she murmured, "finds these things inspiring."
+
+"The poet," I answered, "is an ordinary creature. Nowadays he eats
+mutton-chops, plays golf, and has a banking account. The real man of
+feeling, Isobel, is the man who knows how to be idle. Believe me, there
+is a certain vulgarity in seeking to make a stock-in-trade of these
+delicious moments."
+
+"That is not fair," she protested. "How should we all live if none of
+you did any work?"
+
+"For your age, Isobel," I declared seriously, "you are very nearly a
+practical person. You make me more than ever anxious for an answer to my
+last question. What were you thinking of just now?"
+
+Her eyes seemed to drift away from mine. A touch of her new seriousness
+returned. She pointed to that thin blue line.
+
+"Beyond there," she said, "is to-morrow, and all the to-morrows to come.
+One sees a very little way."
+
+"Our limitations," I answered, "are life's lesson to us. If to-morrow is
+hidden, so much the more reason that we should live to-day."
+
+"Without thought for the morrow?"
+
+"Without care for it," I answered. "Are we not Bohemians, and is it not
+our text?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It is not yours," she answered slowly. "I am sure of that."
+
+I looked at her quickly.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say," she answered gravely. "Men and women to whom the
+present is sufficient surely cannot achieve very much in life. All the
+time they must concentrate powers which need expansion. I think that it
+must be those who try to climb the walls, those even who tear their
+fingers and their hearts in the great struggle for freedom, who can make
+themselves capable of great things, even if escape is impossible. But I
+do not think that escape is so impossible after all, is it? There have
+been men, and women too, who have lived in all times, to whom there have
+been no to-morrows or any yesterdays. Only it seems rather hard that
+life for those who seek it must always be a battle!"
+
+I did not answer her for several minutes. It was true, then, that the
+old days had passed away. Isobel, the child whom we had known and loved
+so well, had disappeared. It was Isobel the incomprehensible who was
+taking her place. What might the change not mean for us?...
+
+Later we walked back over an open heath yellow with gorse, and faintly
+pink with the promise of the heather to come. Isobel carried her hat in
+her hand. She walked with her head thrown back, and a smile playing
+every now and then upon her lips. She was so completely absorbed that I
+found myself every now and then watching her, half expecting, I believe,
+to find some physical change to accord with that other more mysterious
+evolution. She walked with all the grace of long limbs and unfettered
+clothing. Her figure, though perfectly graceful, and with that same
+peculiar distinction which had first attracted me, was as yet wholly
+immature. But in the face itself there were signs of a coming change.
+Wherein it might lie I could not tell, but it was there, an intangible
+and wholly elusive thing. I think that a certain fear of it and what it
+might mean oppressed me with the sense of coming trouble. I was more
+fully conscious then than ever before of the moral responsibility of our
+peculiar charge.
+
+We crossed a straight dusty road, cleaving the rolling moor like a belt
+of ribbon. Isobel looked thoughtfully along it.
+
+"I wonder," she said, "when Arthur will come down!"
+
+The folly of a man is a thing sometimes outside his own power of
+control. A second before I had been wondering of whom and what she had
+been thinking.
+
+"Not just yet, I'm afraid," Allan answered, stopping to light his pipe.
+"It is not easy for him to get backwards and forwards, and I believe
+that he is by way of being rather busy just now."
+
+"What a nuisance!" Isobel declared, looking behind her regretfully. "The
+roads about here seem so good."
+
+"The roads are good, but the heath is better," Allan answered. "I will
+race you for half a pound of chocolates to that clump of pines!"
+
+"You are such a slow starter," she laughed, bounding away before he had
+time to drop his easel. "Make it a pound!"
+
+I picked up Allan's easel and strolled away after them. Was it the
+motoring, I wondered, which had prompted her half-wistful question, or
+had I been wise too late? Arthur had been very confident. So much that
+he had said had carried with it a certain ring of truth. Youth and the
+temperament of youth were surely irresistible. Like calls to like across
+the garden of spring flowers with a cry which no interloper can still,
+no wanderer of later years can stifle. Somehow it seemed to me just then
+that the sun had ceased to shine, and a touch of winter after all was
+lingering in the western breeze....
+
+They disappeared round the pine plantation, Isobel leading by a few
+yards, her skirts blowing in the wind, running still with superb and
+untired grace. I climbed a bank to gain a better view of the finish, and
+became suddenly aware that I was not the only interested spectator of
+their struggle. About a hundred yards to my left a man was standing on
+the top of the same bank, a pair of field-glasses glued to his eyes,
+watching intently the spot where they might be expected to reappear. The
+sight of him took me by surprise. A few moments ago I could have sworn
+that there was not a human being within a mile of us. There was only one
+explanation of his appearance. He must have been concealed in the dry
+mossy ditch at the foot of the bank. It was possible, of course, that he
+might have been like us, a casual way-farer, and yet the suddenness of
+his appearance, the intentness of his watch, both had their effect upon
+me. I moved a few yards towards him, with what object I perhaps scarcely
+knew. A dry twig snapped beneath my feet. He became suddenly aware of my
+approach. Then, indeed, my suspicions took definite shape, for without a
+moment's hesitation the man turned and strode away in the opposite
+direction.
+
+I shouted to him. He took no notice. I shouted again, and he only
+increased his pace. I watched him disappear, and I no longer had any
+doubts at all. He was not in the least like a tramp, and his flight
+could bear but one interpretation. Isobel was not safe even here. We had
+been followed from London--we were being watched every hour. For the
+first time I began seriously to doubt what the end of these things might
+be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+"Silence and perfume and moon-flooded meadows," Allan murmured. "Arnold,
+we shall all become corrupted. You will take to writing pastorals, and
+I--I--"
+
+Isobel, from her seat between us, smiled up at him. Touched by the
+yellow moonlight, her face seemed almost ethereal.
+
+"You," she said, "should paint a vision of the 'enchanted land.' You see
+those blurred woods, and the fields sloping up to the mists? Isn't that
+a perfect impression of the world unseen, half understood? Oh, how can
+you talk of such a place corrupting anybody, Allan!"
+
+"I withdraw the term," he answered. "Yet Arnold knows what I meant very
+well. This place soothes while the city frets. Which state of mind do
+you think, Miss Isobel, draws from a man his best work?"
+
+"Don't ask me enigmas, Allan," she murmured. "I am too happy to think,
+too happy to want to do anything more than exist. I wish we lived here
+always! Why didn't we come here long ago?"
+
+"You forget the wonders of our climate," I remarked. "A month ago you
+might have stood where you are now, and seen nothing. You would have
+shivered with the cold. The field scents, the birds, the very insects
+were unborn. It is all a matter of seasons. What to-day is beautiful was
+yesterday a desert."
+
+She shook her head slowly. Bareheaded, she was leaning now over the
+little gate, and her eyes sought the stars.
+
+"I will not believe it," she declared. "I will not believe that it is
+not always beautiful here. Arnold, Allan, can you smell the
+honeysuckle?"
+
+"And the hay," Allan answered, smoking vigorously. "To-morrow we shall
+be sneezing every few minutes. Have you ever had hay fever, Isobel?"
+
+She laughed at him scornfully.
+
+"You poor old thing!" she exclaimed. "You should wear a hat."
+
+"A hat," Allan protested, "is of no avail against hay fever. It's the
+most insidious thing in the world, and is no respecter of youth. You, my
+dear Isobel, might be its first victim."
+
+"Pooh! I catch nothing!" she declared, "and you mustn't either. I'm sure
+you ought to be able to paint some beautiful pictures down here, Allan.
+And, Arnold, you shall have your writing-table out under the chestnut
+tree there. You will be so comfortable, and I'm sure you'll be able to
+finish your story splendidly."
+
+"You are very anxious to dispose of us all here, Isobel," I remarked.
+"What do you propose to do yourself?"
+
+"Oh, paint a little, I suppose," she answered, "and--think! There is so
+much to think about here."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I am beginning to wonder," I said, "whether we did wisely to bring
+you."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"This thinking you are speaking of. It is bad!"
+
+"You are foolish! Why should I not want to think?"
+
+"If you begin to think you will begin to doubt," I answered, "and if you
+begin to doubt you will begin to understand. The person who once
+understands, you know, is never again really happy."
+
+Isobel came and stood in front of me.
+
+"Arnold!" she said.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I wish you wouldn't talk to me always as though I were a baby," she
+said thoughtfully.
+
+I took her hand and made her sit down by my side.
+
+"Come," I protested, "that is not at all fair. I can assure you that I
+was taking you most seriously. The people who get most out of life are
+the people who avoid the analytical attitude, who enjoy but who do not
+seek to understand, who worship form and external beauty without the
+desire to penetrate below to understand the inner meaning of what they
+find so beautiful."
+
+"That," she said, "sounds a little difficult. But I do not see how
+people can enjoy meaningless things."
+
+"The source of all beauty is disillusioning."
+
+"Seriously," Mabane interrupted, "if this conversation develops I am
+going indoors. Does Arnold want to penetrate into the hidden meaning of
+that cricket's chirp--or is he going to give us the chemical formula for
+the smell of the honeysuckle?"
+
+Isobel laughed.
+
+"He is rather trying to-night, isn't he?" she declared. "Listen! Is that
+someone going by?"
+
+The footsteps of a man were clearly audible passing along the dusty
+little strip of road which fronted our cottage. Leaning forward I saw a
+tall, dark figure pass slowly by. From his height and upright carriage I
+thought that it must be the village policeman, and I called out
+good-night. My greeting met with no response. I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"Some of these village people are not particularly civil!" I remarked.
+
+Mabane rose to his feet and strolled to the hedge.
+
+"Those were not the footsteps of a villager," he remarked. "Listen!"
+
+We stood quite still. The footsteps had ceased, although there was no
+other habitation for more than half a mile along the road. We could see
+nothing, but I noticed that Mabane was leaning a little forward and
+gazing with a curious intentness at the open common on the other side of
+the road. He stood up presently and knocked the ashes from his pipe.
+
+"What do you say to a drink, Arnold?" he suggested.
+
+"Come along!" I answered. "There's some whisky and soda on the
+sideboard."
+
+Isobel laughed at us. She would have lingered where she was, but Allan
+passed his arm through hers.
+
+"Sentiment must not make you lazy, Isobel," he declared. "I decline to
+mix my own whisky and soda. Arnold," he whispered, drawing me back as
+she stepped past us through the wide-open window, "I wonder if it has
+occurred to you that if any of our friends who are so anxious to obtain
+possession of Isobel were to attempt a coup down here, we should be
+rather in a mess. We're a mile from the village, and Lord knows how many
+from a police-station, and there isn't a door in the cottage a man
+couldn't break open with his fist."
+
+"What made you think of it--just now?" I asked.
+
+"Three men passed by, following that last fellow--on the edge of the
+common. I've got eyes like a cat in the dark, you know, and I could see
+that they were trying to get by unnoticed. Of course, there may be
+nothing in it, but--thanks, Isobel! By Jove, that's good!"
+
+I slipped upstairs to my room, and on my return handed Allan something
+which he thrust quietly into his pocket. Then we went out again into the
+garden. I drew Mabane on one side for a moment.
+
+"I don't think there's anything in it, Allan," I whispered. "It would be
+too clumsy for any of our friends--and too risky."
+
+"It needn't be either," Allan answered, "but I daresay you're right."
+
+Then we hastened once more to the front gate, summoned there by Isobel's
+cry.
+
+"Listen!" she exclaimed, holding up her hand.
+
+We stood by her side. From somewhere out of the night there came to our
+ears the faint distant throbbing of an engine. Neither Allan nor I
+realized what it was, but Isobel, who had stepped out on to the road,
+knew at once.
+
+"Look!" she cried suddenly.
+
+We followed her outstretched finger. Far away on the top of a distant
+hill, but moving towards us all the time with marvellous swiftness, we
+saw a small but brilliant light.
+
+"A motor bicycle!" she cried. "I believe it is Arthur. It sounds just
+like his machine."
+
+Arthur it was, white with dust and breathless. His first greeting was
+for Isobel, who welcomed him with both hands outstretched and a delight
+which she made no effort to conceal, overwhelming him with questions,
+frankly joyful at his coming. Mabane and I stood silent in the
+background, and we avoided each other's eyes. It was at that moment,
+perhaps, that I for the first time realized the tragedy into which we
+were slowly drifting. Isobel had forgotten us. She was wholly absorbed
+in her joy at Arthur's unexpected appearance. The thing which in my
+quieter moments had begun already vaguely to trouble me--a thing of slow
+and painful growth--assumed for the first time a certain definiteness. I
+looked a little way into the future, and it seemed to me that there were
+evil times coming.
+
+Arthur approached us presently with outstretched hand. His manner was
+half apologetic, half triumphant. He seemed to be saying to himself that
+Isobel's reception of him must surely have opened our eyes.
+
+"Your coming, I suppose, Arthur," Mabane said quietly, "signifies----"
+
+"That I accept your terms for the present," Arthur answered, in a low
+tone. "I had to see you. There are strangers continually watching our
+diggings, and making inquiries about Isobel. There are things happening
+which I cannot understand at all."
+
+I glanced towards Isobel.
+
+"We will talk about it after she has gone to bed," I said. "Come in and
+have some supper now."
+
+He drew me a little on one side.
+
+"You remember the chap who was with the Archduchess at the Mordaunt
+Rooms?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"He was at the hotel in Guildford when I stopped for tea, with two other
+men. They're in a great Daimter car, and they're coming this way. I
+heard them ask about the roads."
+
+"How far were they behind you?" I asked.
+
+"They must be close up," he answered. "Listen!"
+
+"Another motor!" Isobel cried suddenly. "Can you not hear it?"
+
+There was no mistaking the sound, the deep, low throbbing of a powerful
+engine as yet some distance away. I was conscious of a curious sense of
+uneasiness.
+
+"Isobel," I said, "would you mind going indoors!"
+
+"Indoors indeed!" she laughed. "But no. I must see this motor-car."
+
+I stepped quickly up to her, and laid my hand upon her arm.
+
+"Isobel," I said earnestly, "you do not understand. I do not wish to
+frighten you, but I am afraid that the men in this car are coming here,
+and it is better that you should be out of the way. They want to take
+you from us. Go inside and lock yourself in your room."
+
+She looked at me half puzzled, half resentful. The car was close at hand
+now. We ourselves were almost in the path of its flaring searchlights.
+
+"Arnold, you are joking, of course!" she exclaimed. "They cannot take me
+away. I would not go."
+
+The car had stopped. It contained four men, one of whom at once alighted
+and advanced towards us. I knew him by his voice and figure. It was the
+Baron von Leibingen!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+I made no movement towards opening the gate. The newcomer advanced to
+within a few feet of me, and then paused. He leaned a little forward. He
+was doubtful, as I could see, of my identity.
+
+"Can you tell me," he asked, raising his hat, "if this is Roseleys
+Cottage, the residence of Mr. Arnold Greatson?"
+
+"Do you forget all your acquaintances so quickly, Baron?" I answered.
+"This is Roseleys, and I am Arnold Greatson!"
+
+"Your voice," he declared, "is sufficient. I can assure you that it is a
+matter of eyesight, not of memory. In the dark I am always as blind as a
+bat."
+
+"It is," I remarked, "a very common happening. You are motoring, I see.
+You have chosen a very delightful night, but are you not--pardon me--a
+little off the track? You are on your way to the South Coast, I
+presume?"
+
+"On the contrary," the Baron answered, "our destination is here. Will
+you permit me to apologise for the lateness of my visit? We were
+unfortunately delayed for several hours by a mishap to our automobile,
+or I should have had the honour of presenting myself during the
+afternoon."
+
+I did not offer to move.
+
+"Perhaps," I said, "as it is certainly very late, and we were on the
+point of retiring, you will permit me to inquire at once into the nature
+of the business which procures for me the honour of this visit."
+
+My visitor paused. His hand was upon the gate. So was mine, keeping it
+all the time fast closed.
+
+"You will permit me?" he said, making an attempt to enter.
+
+"I regret," I answered, "that at this late hour I am not prepared to
+offer you any hospitality. If you will come and see me to-morrow morning
+I shall be happy to hear what you have to say."
+
+My visitor did not remove his hand from the gate. It seemed to me that
+his tone became more belligerent.
+
+"You are discomposed to see us, Mr. Greatson," he said, "me and my
+friends. As you see," he added, with a little wave of his hand, "I am
+not alone. I have only to regret that you have made this visit
+necessary. We have come to induce you, if possible, to change your mind,
+and to give up the young lady in whom the Archduchess has been
+graciously pleased to interest herself to those who have a better claim
+upon her."
+
+"It is not a matter," I answered, "which I am prepared to discuss at
+this hour--or with you!"
+
+"As to that," the young man answered, "I am the envoy of her Royal
+Highness, as I can speedily convince you if you will."
+
+"It is unnecessary," I answered. "The Archduchess has already had my
+answer. Will you allow me to wish you good-night?"
+
+"I wish, Mr. Greatson," the young man said, "that you would discuss this
+matter with me in a reasonable spirit."
+
+"At a reasonable hour," I answered, "I might be prepared to do so. But
+certainly not now."
+
+It seemed to me that his hand upon the gate tightened. He certainly
+showed no signs of accepting the dismissal which I was trying to force
+upon him.
+
+"I have endeavoured to explain my late arrival," he said. "You must not
+believe me guilty of wilful discourtesy. As for the rest, Mr. Greatson,
+what does it matter whether the hour is late or early? The matter is an
+important one. Between ourselves, her Highness has made up her mind to
+undertake the charge of the young lady, and I may tell you that when her
+Highness has made up her mind to anything she is not one to be
+disappointed."
+
+"In her own country," I said, "the will of the Archduchess is doubtless
+paramount. Out here, however, she must take her chance amongst the
+others."
+
+"But you have no claim--no shadow of a claim upon the child," the Baron
+declared.
+
+"If the Archduchess thinks she has a better," I answered, "the law
+courts are open to her."
+
+My visitor was apparently becoming annoyed. There were traces of
+irritation in his tone.
+
+"Do you imagine, my dear Mr. Greatson," he said, "that her Highness can
+possibly desire to bring before the notice of the world the peccadiloes
+of her illustrious relative? No, the law courts are not to be thought
+of. We rely upon your good sense!"
+
+"And failing that?"
+
+The Baron hesitated. It seemed to me that he was peering into the
+shadows beyond the hedge.
+
+"The position," he murmured, "is a singular one. Where neither side for
+different reasons is disposed to submit its case to the courts, then it
+must be admitted that possession becomes a very important feature in the
+case."
+
+"That," I remarked, "is entirely my view. May I take the liberty, Baron
+von Leibingen, of wishing you good-night? I see no advantage in
+continuing this discussion."
+
+"Possession for the moment," he said slowly, "is with you. Have you
+reflected, Mr. Greatson, that it may not always be so?"
+
+"Will you favour me," I said, "by becoming a little more explicit?"
+
+"With pleasure," the Baron answered quickly. "I have three friends here
+with me, and we are all armed. Your cottage is surrounded by half a
+dozen more--friends--who are also armed. We are here to take Isobel de
+Sorrens back with us, and we mean to do it. On my honour, Mr. Greatson,
+no harm is intended to her. She will be as safe with the Archduchess as
+with her own mother."
+
+"If you don't take your hand off my gate in two seconds," I said, "you
+will regret it all your life."
+
+He sprang forward, but I fired over his shoulder, and with an oath he
+backed into the road. Isobel meanwhile, now thoroughly alarmed, turned
+and ran towards the house, only to find the path already blocked by two
+men, who had stepped silently out from the low hedge which separated the
+garden from the fields beyond. Allan promptly knocked one of them down,
+only to find himself struggling with the other. Isobel, whose skirts
+were caught by the fallen man, tried in vain to release herself. I dared
+scarcely turn my head, for my levelled revolver was keeping in check the
+Baron and his three friends.
+
+"Baron," I said, "your methods savour a little too much of comic opera.
+You have mistaken your country and--us. There are three of us, and if
+you force us to fight--well, we shall fight. The advantage of numbers is
+with you, I admit. For the rest, if you succeed to-night you will be in
+the police court to-morrow."
+
+The Baron made no answer. I felt that he was watching the struggle which
+was going on behind my back. I heard Isobel shriek, and the sound
+maddened me. I left it to the Baron to do his worst. I sprang backwards,
+and brought the butt end of my revolver down upon the skull of the man
+who was dragging her across the lawn. Then I passed my arm round her
+waist, and called out once more to the Baron who had passed through the
+gate, and was coming rapidly towards us.
+
+"You fool!" I cried. "Unless you call off your hired gang and leave this
+place at once, every newspaper in London shall advertise Isobel's name
+and presence here to-morrow."
+
+It was a chance shot, but it went home. I saw him stop short, and I
+heard his little broken exclamation.
+
+"But you do not know who she is?" he cried.
+
+"I know very well indeed," I answered.
+
+Just then Mabane broke loose from the man with whom he had been
+struggling, and rushed to Arthur's assistance. The Baron raised his hand
+and shouted something in German. Instantly our assailants seemed to melt
+away. The Baron stepped on to the strip of lawn and raised his hand.
+
+"I call a truce, Mr. Greatson," he said. "I desire to speak with you."
+
+I released my hold upon Isobel and turned to Mabane. Arthur too,
+breathless but unhurt, had struggled to his feet.
+
+"Take her into the house," I said quickly. But her grasp only tightened
+upon my arm.
+
+"I will not leave you, Arnold," she said. "I shall stay here. They will
+not dare to touch me."
+
+I tried to disengage her arm, but she was persistent. She took no notice
+of Allan, who tried to lead her away. I stole a glance at her through
+the darkness. Her face was white, but there were no signs of fear there,
+nor were there any signs of childishness in her manner or bearing. She
+carried herself like an angry young princess, and her eyes seemed lit
+with smouldering fire, as clinging to my arm she leaned a little
+forwards toward the Baron.
+
+"Why am I spoken of," she cried passionately, "as though I were a baby,
+a thing of no account, to be carried away to your mistress or disposed
+of according to your liking? Do you think that I would come, Baron von
+Leibingen----"
+
+She broke off suddenly. She leaned a little further forward. Her lips
+were parted. The fire in her eyes had given way to a great wonder, and
+the breathlessness of her silence was like a thing to be felt. It held
+us all dumb. We waited--we scarcely knew for what. Only we knew that she
+had something more to say, and we were impelled to wait for her words.
+
+"I have seen you before," she cried, with a strange note of wonder in
+her tone. "Your face comes back to me--only it was a long time ago--a
+long, long time! Where was it, Baron von Leibingen?"
+
+I heard his smothered exclamation. He drew quickly a step backwards as
+though he sought to evade her searching gaze.
+
+"You are mistaken, young lady," he said. "I know nothing of you beyond
+the fact that the lady whom I have the honour to serve desires to be
+your friend."
+
+"It is not true," she answered. "I remember you--a long way back--and
+the memory comes to me like an evil thought. I will not come to you. You
+may kill me, but I will not come alive."
+
+"Indeed you are mistaken," he persisted, though he sought still the
+shadow of a rhododendron bush, and his voice quivered with nervous
+anxiety. "You have never seen me before. Surely the Archduchess, the
+daughter of a King, is not one whose proffered kindness it is well to
+slight? Think again, young lady. Her Highness will make your future her
+special charge!"
+
+"If your visit to-night, sir," she answered, "is a mark of the
+Archduchess's good-will to me, I can well dispense with it. I have given
+you my answer."
+
+"You will remember, Baron," I said, speaking at random, but gravely, and
+as though some special meaning lurked in my words, "that this young lady
+comes of a race who do not readily change. She has made her choice, and
+her answer to you is my answer. She will remain with us!"
+
+The Baron stepped out again into the rich-scented twilight.
+
+"You hold strong cards, Mr. Arnold Greatson," he said, "but I see their
+backs only. How do I know that you speak the truth? From whom have you
+learnt the story of this young lady's antecedents?"
+
+"From Mr. Grooten," I answered boldly.
+
+"I do not know the name," the Baron protested.
+
+"He is the man," I said, "who set Isobel free!"
+
+The Baron said something to himself in German, which I did not
+understand.
+
+"You mean the man who shot Major Delahaye?" he asked.
+
+"I do!"
+
+"Then I would to Heaven I knew whose identity that name conceals," he
+cried fiercely.
+
+"You would not dare to publish it," I answered, "for to do so would be
+to give Isobel's story to the world."
+
+"And why should I shrink from that?" he asked.
+
+I laughed.
+
+"Ask your august mistress," I declared. "It seems to me that we know
+more than you think."
+
+The Baron looked over his shoulder and spoke to his companions. From
+that moment I knew that we had conquered. One of them left and went
+outside to where the motor-car, with its great flaring lights, still
+stood. Then the Baron faced me once more.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," he said, "you are playing a game of your own, and for
+the moment I must admit that you hold the tricks against me. But it is
+well that I should give you once more this warning. If you should decide
+upon taking one false step--you perhaps know very well what I
+mean--things will go ill with you--very ill indeed."
+
+Then he turned away, and our little garden was freed from the presence
+of all of them. We heard the starting of the car. Presently it glided
+away. We listened to its throbbing growing fainter and fainter in the
+distance. Then there was silence. A faint breeze had sprung up, and was
+rustling in the shrubs. From somewhere across the moor we heard the
+melancholy cry of the corncrakes. A great sob of relief broke from
+Isobel's throat--then suddenly her arm grew heavy upon mine. We hurried
+her into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The perfume from a drooping lilac-bush a few feet away from the open
+casement was mingled with the fainter odour of jessamine and homely
+stocks. In the soft morning sunshine the terrors of last night seemed a
+thing far removed from us. We sat at breakfast in our little
+sitting-room, and as though by common though unspoken consent we treated
+the whole affair as a gigantic joke. We ignored its darker aspect. We
+spoke of it as an "opera-bouffe" attempt never likely to be
+repeated--the hare-brained scheme of a mad foreigner, over anxious to
+earn the favour of his mistress. But beneath all our light talk was an
+undernote of seriousness. I think that Mabane and I, at any rate,
+realized perhaps for the first time that the situation, so far as Isobel
+was concerned, was fast becoming an impossible one.
+
+After breakfast we all strolled out into the garden. Isobel, with her
+hands full of flowers, flitted in and out amongst the rose-bushes,
+laughing and talking with all the invincible gaiety of light-hearted
+youth, and Arthur hung all the while about her, his eyes following her
+every movement, telling her all the while by every action and look--if
+indeed the time had come for her to discern such things--all that our
+compact forbade him to utter. Presently I slipped away, and shutting
+myself up in the tiny room where I worked, drew out my papers. In a few
+minutes I had made a start. I passed with a little unconscious sigh of
+relief into the detachment which was fast becoming the one luxury of my
+life.
+
+An hour may have passed, perhaps more, when I was interrupted. I heard
+the door softly opened, and light footsteps crossed the room to my side.
+Isobel's hand rested on my shoulder, and she looked down at my work.
+
+"Arnold," she exclaimed, "how dare you! You promised to read your story
+when you had finished six chapters, and you are working on chapter
+twenty now!"
+
+Her long white forefinger pointed accusingly to the heading of my last
+page. Then I realized with a sudden flash of apprehension why I had not
+kept my promise--why I could never keep it. The story which flowed so
+smoothly from my pen was a record of my own emotions, my own sufferings.
+Even her name had usurped the name of my heroine, and stared up at me
+from the half-finished page. It was my own story which was written
+there, my own unhappiness which throbbed through every word and
+sentence. With a little nervous gesture I covered over the open sheets.
+I rose hastily to my feet, and I drew her away from the table.
+
+"Another time, Isobel," I said. "It is too glorious a day to spend
+indoors, and Arthur has taken holiday too. Tell me, what shall we do?"
+
+She looked at me a little doubtfully. I had grown into the habit of
+consulting her about my work, of reading most of it to her. Sometimes,
+too, she acted as my secretary. Perhaps she saw something of the trouble
+in my face, for she answered me very softly.
+
+"I should like," she said, "to sit there before the open window on a
+cushion, and to have you sit down in that easy-chair and read to me.
+That is how I choose to spend the morning!"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"How about the others?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, Arthur and Allan can go for a walk!" she declared.
+
+"What selfishness," I answered, as lightly as I could. "Arthur must go
+back to town to-night, he says. I think that we ought all to spend the
+day together, don't you? I rather thought that you young people would
+have been off somewhere directly after breakfast."
+
+She looked at me earnestly.
+
+"Of course," she said, "if you want to be left alone----"
+
+"But I don't," I interrupted, reaching for my hat. "I want to come too."
+
+"You nice old thing!" she exclaimed, passing her arm through mine.
+"We'll walk to Heather Hill. Arthur says that we can see the sea from
+there. Come along!"
+
+So we started away, the four of us together. Presently, however, Arthur
+and Isobel drew away in front. Allan, with a little grunt, stopped to
+light his pipe.
+
+"Arthur may keep his compact in the letter," he said, "but in the spirit
+he breaks it every time their eyes meet. You can't blame him. It's human
+nature, after all--the gravitation of youth. Arnold, I'm afraid you
+awoke to your responsibilities too late."
+
+"You think--that she understands?" I asked quietly.
+
+"Why not? She is almost a woman, and she is older than her years. Look
+at them now. He wants to talk seriously, and she is teasing him all the
+time. She has the instinct of her sex. She will conceal what she feels
+until the--psychological moment. But she does feel--she begins to
+understand. I am sure of it. Watch them!"
+
+We kept silence for a while, I myself struggling with a sickening sense
+of despair against this newborn and most colossal folly. I think that I
+was always possessed of an average amount of self-control, but my great
+fear now was lest my secret should in any way escape me. Mabane's words
+had carried conviction with them. Life itself for these few deadly
+minutes seemed changed. The birds had ceased to sing, and the warmth of
+the sunshine had faded out of the fluttering east wind. I saw no longer
+the heath starred with yellow and purple blooms, the distant line of
+blue hills. The turf was no longer springy beneath my feet, a grey mist
+hung over the joyous summer morning. I was back again on my way from Bow
+Street, threading a difficult passage through the market baskets of
+Covent Garden, the child stepping blithely by my side, graceful even
+then, notwithstanding her immatureness, and quaintly attractive, though
+her deep blue eyes were full of tears, and the white terror had not
+passed wholly from her face. It was those few moments of her complete
+and trustful helplessness which had transformed my life for me, those
+few moments in which the huge folly of these later days had been born.
+For her very coming seemed to have been at a chosen time--at one of
+those periods of weariness which a man must feel whose sympathy with and
+desire for life leads him into many and devious forms of distraction,
+only to find in time the same dregs at the bottom of the cup. The joy of
+her fresh childish beauty, her pure sweet trustfulness, at all times a
+delicate flattery to any man, just the more so to me, a little inclined
+towards self-distrust, was like a fragrant, a heart-stirring memory even
+now. I looked back upon these years which lay between her youth and my
+fast approaching middle-age--grey, weary years, whose follies seemed now
+to rise up and stalk by my side, the ghosts of misspent days, ghosts of
+the sickly reasonings of a sham philosophy which lead into the broad way
+because its thoroughfares are easy and pleasant, and pressed by the
+feet of the great majority. I kept my eyes fixed upon the ground and
+I felt that strange thrill of despair pulling at my heartstrings,
+dragging me downwards--the despair which is almost akin to physical
+suffering.... And then a voice came floating back to me down the west
+wind. Its call at such a moment seemed almost symbolical.
+
+"Come along, you very lazy people! Arnold, may I walk with you for a
+little way? Arthur is not at all brilliant this morning, and he does not
+amuse me."
+
+"I am afraid," I began, "that as an entertainer----"
+
+"Oh, you want to smoke your pipe in peace, of course," she interrupted,
+laughing, and passing her arm through mine. "Well, I am not going to
+allow it. I want you--to tell me things."
+
+So our little procession was re-formed. Mabane, and Arthur with his
+hands deep in his pockets and an angry frown upon his forehead, walked
+on ahead. Behind came Isobel and I--Isobel with her hands clasped behind
+her, her head a little thrown back, a faint, wistful smile lightening
+the unusual gravity of her face. I looked at her in wonder.
+
+"Come," I said, "what are the things you want me to talk to you about,
+and why are you tired of talking nonsense with Arthur?"
+
+She did not look at me, but the smile faded from her lips. Her eyes were
+still fixed steadily ahead.
+
+"I believe you think, Arnold," she said quietly, "that I am still a
+baby!"
+
+I saw her lips quiver for a moment, and my selfishness melted away. I
+thought only of her.
+
+"No, I do not think that, Isobel," I said gently. "Only if I were you I
+would not be in too great a hurry to grow up. It is when one is young,
+after all, that one walks in the gardens of life. Afterwards--when one
+has passed through the portals--outside the roads are dusty, and the way
+a little wearisome. Stay in the gardens, Isobel, as long as you can.
+Believe me, that life outside has many disappointments and many sorrows.
+Your time will come soon enough."
+
+She smiled at me a little enigmatically.
+
+"And you?" she asked, "have you closed the gates of the garden behind
+you?"
+
+"I am nearer forty than thirty," I answered. "I have grey hairs, and I
+am getting a little bald. I may still be of some use in the world, and
+there are very beautiful places where I may rest, and even find
+happiness. But they are not like the gardens of youth. There is no other
+place like them. All of us who have hurried so eagerly away, Isobel,
+look back sometimes--and long!"
+
+She shook her head. Perhaps a little of the sadness of my mood had after
+all found its way into my tone, for she looked at me with the shadow of
+a reproach in her deep blue eyes, a faint tenderness which seemed to me
+more beautiful than anything I had ever seen.
+
+"I do not think that I like your allegory, Arnold," she said. "After
+all, the gardens are the nursery of life, are they not? The great things
+of the world are all outside."
+
+I held my breath for a moment in amazement. Since when had thoughts like
+this come to her? I knew then that the days of her childhood were
+numbered indeed, that, underneath the fresh joyous grace of her
+delightful youth, the woman's instincts were stirring. And I was afraid!
+
+"The great things, Isobel," I said slowly, "look very fine from a
+distance, but the power of accomplishment is not given to all of us.
+Every triumph and every success has its reverse side, its sorrowful
+side. For instance, the whole judgment of the world is by comparison. A
+great picture which brings fame to a man eclipses the work and lessens
+the reputation of another. A successful book takes not a place of its
+own, but the place of another man's work who must needs suffer for your
+success. Life is a battle truly enough, but it is always civil war, the
+striving of humanity against itself. That is why what looks so great to
+you from behind the hedge may seem a very hollow thing when you have won
+the power to call it your own."
+
+She looked at me as though wondering how far I were in earnest.
+
+"I think," she said, smiling, "that you are trying to confuse me. Of
+course, I have not thought much about such things, but when I am a
+little older, if there was anything I could do I should simply try to do
+it in the best possible way, and I should feel that I was doing what was
+right. There is room for a great many people in the world, Arnold--a
+great many novelists and a great many artists and a great many thinkers!
+Some of us must be content with lesser places. I for one!..."
+
+I walked home with Allan, and I spoke to him seriously.
+
+"There is a duty before us," I said, "which up to now we have shirked.
+The time has come when we must undertake it in earnest."
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"We must abandon our negative attitude. Isobel comes, I am very sure,
+from no ordinary people. We must find out her place in life and restore
+her to it. She is a child no longer. It is not fitting that she should
+stay with us."
+
+Mabane, too, was for a moment sad and silent. His face fell into stern
+lines, but when he answered me his tone was steady and resolute enough.
+
+"You are right, Arnold," he answered. "We had better go back to London
+and begin at once."
+
+It was perhaps a little ominous that I should find waiting for me on our
+return a telegram from Grooten:
+
+"I must see you to-night. Shall call at your rooms twelve o'clock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Isobel interrupted the discussion with an imperative little tap upon the
+table.
+
+"Please listen, all of you!" she exclaimed. "I have something to say,
+and an invitation for you all."
+
+We had been dining at a little Italian restaurant on our way home, and
+over our coffee had been considering how to spend the rest of the
+evening. Arthur had declared for a music hall; Mabane and I were
+indifferent. Isobel up to now had said nothing.
+
+"All my life," she said slowly, "I have been wanting to see Feurgeres.
+He is in London for one week with Rejani, and if we can get seats I am
+going to take you all. I have twenty pounds in my pocket from that nice
+man Mr. Grooten, who bought my other miniature, and I want to spend some
+of it."
+
+Arthur, who understood no French, shook his head.
+
+"Not the slightest chance of seats," he declared. "They've all been
+booked for weeks."
+
+"They often have some returned at the theatre," Isobel answered. "At
+least, if you others do not mind, we will go and see."
+
+"Your proposal, Isobel," Allan said gravely, "indicates a certain amount
+of recklessness which reflects little credit upon us, your guardians. I
+propose----"
+
+"Please do not be tiresome!" she interrupted. "Arnold, you will come
+with me, will you not?"
+
+"I shall be delighted," I answered. "I am sure that we all shall. Only I
+am afraid that we shall not get in."
+
+We paid the bill and walked to the theatre. The man at the ticket-office
+shook his head at our request for seats. People had been waiting in the
+streets since morning for the unreserved places, and the others had been
+booked weeks ago. But as we were turning away the telephone in his
+office rang, and he called us back.
+
+"I have just had four stalls returned," he said. "You can have them, if
+you like."
+
+"We are in morning dress," I remarked doubtfully.
+
+"They are in the back row, so you can have them if you care to," he
+answered.
+
+"What luck!" Isobel exclaimed, delighted. "Arnold, how glorious! Here is
+my purse. Will you pay for me, please?"
+
+So we went in just as the curtain rose upon the first act of Rostand's
+great play. The house was packed with an immense audience. One box
+alone, the stage box on the left, was empty. I leaned over to Isobel,
+and would have told her the story which all the world knew.
+
+"You see that box?" I whispered. "Wherever he plays it is always empty."
+
+"I know," she answered. "His wife used to sit there--always in the same
+place; and after her death, whatever theatre he played at, he always
+insisted upon having it kept empty. They say that on great nights, when
+the people go almost wild with enthusiasm, he looks into the shadows
+there almost as though he really saw her still sitting in her old place.
+It is a beautiful story."
+
+"Done for effect!" Arthur muttered, and was promptly snubbed, as he
+deserved. They were friends again immediately afterwards, however, and I
+saw him attempt to hold her hand for a moment. Decidedly it was time
+that we carried out our new resolution.
+
+I think that from the moment I took my seat I was conscious in some
+mysterious way of the coming of great things. There was a thrill of
+excitement in the air, a sort of stifled electricity which one realizes
+often amongst a highly cultured audience awaiting the production of a
+great work. But apart from this sensation of which I was fully
+conscious, I felt a curious sense of nervousness stealing in upon me for
+which I could in no way account. I knew what it meant only when, amidst
+a storm of cheers, Feurgeres entered. Then indeed I knew.
+
+I kept silent, for which I was thankful, but the programme in my hand
+was crumpled into a little ball, and the figures upon the stage moved as
+though in a mist before my eyes. Isobel noticed nothing, for her whole
+breathless attention was riveted upon the play. I came to myself with
+the rich sweet voice of the man, so tender, so infinitely pathetic,
+ringing with a curious familiarity in my ears. From that moment I
+followed the movement of the play.
+
+The curtain went down upon the first act amidst a silence so intense
+that it seemed as though people might be listening still for the echoes
+of that sad, sweet voice which had been playing so effectively upon
+their heartstrings. Then came the storm of applause, which lasted for
+several minutes. I turned towards Isobel. She was sitting very still,
+and she did not join in the enthusiasm which seemed to find its way
+straight from the hearts of the men and women who sat about us. But her
+eyes were wet with tears, her lips a little parted. She gazed at the man
+whom incessant calls had brought at last a little wearily before the
+curtain, as one might look at a god. And their eyes met. He did not
+start or betray himself in any way--perhaps his training befriended him
+there, but as he left the stage he staggered, and I saw his hand go to
+clutch the curtain for support. I knew then that, before the night was
+over, Isobel's history would no longer be a secret to us.
+
+She turned to me with a little smile of apology. There was a new look in
+her face too. She spoke gravely.
+
+"Was I very stupid? I am sorry, but I could not help it. I have never
+seen anything like this before. It is wonderful!"
+
+We talked quietly of the play, and I was astonished at the keenness of
+her perceptions, the unerring ease with which she had realized and
+appreciated the self-abnegation which was the great underlying _motif_
+of the whole drama. And in the midst of our conversation, what I had
+expected happened. A note was brought to me by an attendant.
+
+"Come to me after the next act, and bring her. An attendant will be
+waiting for you at your left-hand door of egress."
+
+Mabane and Arthur had gone out to have a smoke. I had still a moment
+before the curtain went up. I leaned over towards Isobel.
+
+"Isobel," I said, "I am going to tell you something which will surprise
+you very much. It is necessary that I tell you at once. If you answer me
+at all do not speak above a whisper."
+
+She only slightly moved her head. I had not any fear of her betraying
+herself.
+
+"You have seen Feurgeres before. It was in the _cafe_. He was my
+companion when I saw you first."
+
+"Mr. Grooten!" she murmured, so softly that her lips seemed scarcely to
+move.
+
+I nodded assent.
+
+"You knew?"
+
+"Not until to-night."
+
+She was very pale, but her self-control was complete.
+
+"He wishes us--you and I--to go round to his room after this act. You
+will be prepared?"
+
+"Of course," she answered simply.
+
+Mabane and Arthur came back, and the latter whispered several times in
+her ear. I doubt, however, whether she heard anything. She sat through
+the whole of the next act like one in a dream, only her eyes never left
+the stage--never left, indeed, the figure of the man from whom all the
+greatness of the play seemed to flow. As the curtain fell I leaned over
+to Arthur.
+
+"Isobel and I are going to pay a visit," I said. "We shall be back in
+time for the next act."
+
+"A visit!" he repeated doubtfully. "Is there anyone we know here, then?"
+
+"Allan will explain," I answered. "You had better tell him," I whispered
+to Mabane.
+
+Allan was looking very serious. I think that he questioned the wisdom of
+what I was doing.
+
+"You are going to see him?" he asked, in a low tone.
+
+"He has sent for us," I answered.
+
+We found the attendant waiting, and by a devious route along many
+passages and through many doors we reached our destination at last. Our
+guide knocked at a door on which was hanging a little board with the
+name of "Monsieur Feurgeres" painted across it. Almost immediately we
+were bidden to enter. Monsieur Feurgeres was sitting with his back to us
+before a long dressing-table. He turned at once to the servant who stood
+by his side.
+
+"Come back five minutes before my call," he ordered. "That will be in
+about twenty minutes from now."
+
+The man bowed and silently withdrew. Not until he had left the room did
+Feurgeres move from his place. Then he arose to his feet and held out
+his hands to Isobel.
+
+"I knew your mother, Isobel!" he said simply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Isobel never hesitated. I think that instinctively she accepted him
+without demur. Her eyes flashed back to him all those nameless things
+which his own greeting had left unspoken. She took his hands, and looked
+him frankly in the face.
+
+"All my life," she said softly, "I have wanted to meet someone who could
+say that to me."
+
+He was dressed in a suit of mediaeval court clothes, black from head to
+foot, and fashioned according to the period of the play in which he was
+acting. But if he had worn the garments of a pierrot or a clown, one
+would never have noticed it. The man's individuality, magnetic and
+irresistible, triumphed easily. Mr. Grooten had passed away. It was the
+great Feurgeres, whose sad shining eyes lingered so wistfully upon
+Isobel's face.
+
+"I can say more than that," he went on. "And now that I see you, Isobel,
+I wonder that I have not said it long ago. You are like her, child--very
+like her!"
+
+"I am glad," Isobel murmured. "Please tell me--everything!"
+
+"Everything--for me--is soon told," he answered, his voice dropping
+almost to a whisper, his eyes still fixed upon Isobel's, yet looking her
+through as though she were a shadow. "I loved your mother. I was the
+man--whom your mother loved! The years of my life began and ended
+there."
+
+Their hands had fallen apart a little while before, but Isobel, with an
+impulsive gesture, stooped down and raised the fingers of his left hand
+to her lips. I turned away. It seemed like sacrilege to watch a man's
+soul shining in his eyes. I walked to the other end of the long narrow
+room, and examined the swords which lay ready for use against the wall.
+It was not many minutes, however, before Feurgeres recalled me.
+
+"To-night," he said, "I was coming to see Mr. Greatson."
+
+"It is better," she murmured, "to have met you like this."
+
+He smiled very slightly, yet it seemed to me that the curve of his lips
+was almost a caress. There was certainly nothing left now of Mr.
+Grooten.
+
+"I think that I, too, am glad," he said. "Your mother suffered all her
+life because she permitted herself to care for me. We mummers, you see,
+Isobel, though the world loves to be amused, are always a little outside
+the pale. I think," he added, with a curious little note of bitterness
+in his tone, "that we are not reckoned worthy or capable of the domestic
+affections."
+
+"You do not believe--you cannot believe," she murmured, "that there are
+many people who are so foolish! It is the dwellers in the world who are
+mummers--those who live their foolish, orderly lives with their eyes
+closed, and oppressed all the while with a nervous fear of what their
+neighbours are thinking of them. Those are the mummers--but you--you,
+Monsieur, are Feurgeres--the artist! You make music on the heartstrings
+of the world!"
+
+For myself I was astonished. I had not often seen Isobel so deeply
+moved. I had never known her so ready, so earnest of speech. But
+Feurgeres was almost agitated. For the first time I saw him without the
+mask of his perfect self-control. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes were
+soft as a woman's. He raised Isobel's hand to his lips, and his voice,
+when he spoke, shook with real emotion.
+
+"You are the daughter of your mother, dear Isobel," he said. "Beyond
+that, what is there that I can say--I, who loved her!"
+
+"You can tell me about her," Isobel said gently. "That is what I have
+been hoping for!"
+
+"A little, a very little," he answered, "and more to-night, if you will.
+I have already written to Mr. Greatson, and I meant in a few hours to
+tell him everything. But I would have you know this, Isobel, and
+remember it always. Your mother was a holy woman. For my sake, for the
+sake of the love she bore me, she abandoned a great position. She broke
+down all the barriers of race, and all the conventions of a lifetime.
+She lost every friend she had in the world; she even, perhaps, in some
+measure, neglected her duty to you. Yet you were seldom out of her
+thoughts, and her last words committed you to my distant care. I have,
+perhaps, ill-fulfilled her charge, Isobel. Yet I have been watching over
+you sometimes when you have not known it."
+
+"You were my saviour once," she said, "you and Arnold here, when I
+sorely needed help."
+
+"I came from America at a moment's notice," he said, "when it seemed to
+me that you might need my help. I broke the greatest contract I had ever
+signed, and I placed my liberty, if not my life, at the mercy of your
+wonderful police system. But those things count for little. I have been
+forced, Isobel, to leave you very much to yourself. You come of a race
+who would regard any association with me as defilement. And there is
+always the chance that you may be able to take your proper position in
+the world. That is why it has been my duty to keep away from you, why I
+have been forced to leave to others what I would gladly have done
+myself. To-night you will understand everything."
+
+"Nothing that you can tell me of my family or myself," she answered,
+"will ever make me forget that, whereas of them I know nothing, you have
+been my guardian angel. It was you who rescued me from the one person in
+this world of whom I have been miserably, hatefully afraid. It was not
+my family who saved me. It was you!"
+
+A shrill bell was ringing outside. We heard the commotion of hurrying
+footsteps, the call-boy's summons, the creaking of moving scenery.
+Feurgeres glanced at the watch which stood upon his table. His manner
+seemed to undergo a sudden change. The man no longer revealed himself.
+
+"The curtain is going up," he said. "I can stay with you but two minutes
+longer. I am coming to see Mr. Greatson to-night, Isobel, after the
+performance, and I wish to see him alone. This is at once our meeting
+and our farewell."
+
+"Our farewell!" she repeated doubtfully. "Surely you are not going to
+leave us--so soon! You cannot mean that?"
+
+"To-morrow," he said, "I leave for St. Petersburg. My engagement there
+has been made many months ago. But even if it were not so, dear child,
+our ways through life must always lie far apart. If the necessity for it
+had not existed, I should not have left you to the care of--of even Mr.
+Greatson. To be your guardian, Isobel, would not be seemly. That you
+will better understand--to-morrow."
+
+"Indeed!" she protested, "I would sooner hear it now from your own
+lips--if, indeed, it must be so!"
+
+He shook his head very slowly, but with a decision more finite than the
+most emphatic negation which words could have framed.
+
+"I must go away, Isobel," he said, "and you and I must remain apart. I
+will only ask you to remember me by this. I am the man your mother
+loved. Nothing else in my life is worth considering--but that. I am one
+of those with whom fate has dealt a little hardly. I am as weary of my
+work as I am of life itself. I go on because it was her wish. But I
+cannot forget. The past remains--a blazing page of light. The present is
+a very empty and a very cold place. My days here are a sort of
+aftermath. My life ended with hers. To-night, for one moment--I want you
+to take her place."
+
+Isobel looked at him eagerly.
+
+"Tell me how," she begged. "Tell me what to do!"
+
+"It may sound very foolish," he said, with a faint smile, "but I have a
+fancy, and I am sure that you will do as I ask. I want you to sit where
+she sat night after night. You will find some flowers in her chair. Keep
+them. They were the ones she preferred."
+
+There was an imperative knocking at the door. Feurgeres caught up his
+plumed hat and sword.
+
+"I am ready," he said quietly. "Mr. Greatson, my servant will take you
+to the box, which I beg that you and Isobel will occupy for the rest of
+the evening. It is a harmless whim of mine, and I trust that it will not
+inconvenience you."
+
+With scarcely another word he left us, and a moment later we heard the
+roar of applause which greeted his appearance on the stage. Isobel's
+eyes kindled, and she moved restlessly towards the door.
+
+"I do hope," she said, "that someone will come for us soon. I want to
+hear every word. I hate to miss any of it."
+
+The dark-visaged servant stood upon the threshold.
+
+"I have orders from Monsieur Feurgeres," he announced respectfully, "to
+conduct you to his box. If Mademoiselle will permit!"
+
+We followed him on tiptoe to the front of the house. He unlocked the
+door of the left-hand stage box with a key which he took from his
+pocket.
+
+"Monsieur will permit me to remark," he whispered, "that this is the
+first time since I have been in the service of Monsieur Feurgeres that
+anyone has occupied his private box. I trust that Mademoiselle will be
+comfortable."
+
+Then the door closed behind him, and we were left to ourselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Isobel, her chair drawn a little behind the curtain, was almost
+invisible from the house. With both hands she held the cluster of pink
+roses which she had found upon the seat. Gravely, but with wonderful
+self-composure, she followed the action of the play with an intentness
+which never faltered. Occasionally she leaned a little forward, and at
+such moments her profile passed the droop of the curtain, and was
+visible to the greater part of the audience. It was immediately after
+one of such movements that I noticed some commotion amongst the
+occupants of the box opposite to us. Their attention seemed suddenly
+drawn towards Isobel--two sets of opera-glasses were steadily levelled
+at her. A woman, whose neck and arms were ablaze with diamonds, raised
+her lorgnettes, and, regardless of the progress of the play, kept them
+fixed in our direction. I changed my position to obtain a better view of
+these people, and immediately I understood.
+
+I saw the house now for the first time, and I saw something which
+pleased me very little. We were immediately opposite the Royal box,
+which, with the one adjoining, was occupied by a very brilliant little
+party. The Archduchess was there. It was she whose lorgnettes were still
+unfalteringly directed towards Isobel. Lady Delahaye sat in the
+background, and a greater personage than either occupied the chair next
+to the Archduchess. Soon I saw that they were all whispering together,
+all still looking from Isobel towards the stage, and from the stage to
+Isobel; and in the background was a man whose coat was covered with
+orders, and who held himself like a soldier. He looked at Isobel as one
+might look at a ghost. I stood back almost hidden in the shadows, and I
+wondered more than ever what the end of all these things might be.
+
+Towards the close of the act that wonderful voice, with its low burden
+of sorrow so marvellously controlled, drew me against my will to the
+front of the box. He stood there with outstretched arms, the prototype
+of all pathos, and the low words, drawn as it were against his will from
+his tremulous lips, kept the whole house breathless. His arms dropped to
+his side, the curtain commenced to fall. In that moment his eyes,
+suddenly uplifted, met mine. It seemed to me that they were charged with
+meaning, and I read their message rightly. After all, though, I am not
+sure that I needed any warning.
+
+The curtain fell. There was twenty minutes' interval. Isobel sat back in
+her chair, and her hand lingered lovingly about the roses which lay upon
+her lap. I did not speak to her. I knew that she was living in a little
+world of her own, into which any ordinary intrusion was almost
+sacrilege. Arthur and Allan had left their places. I judged rightly that
+they had gone home. So I sat by myself, and waited for what I knew was
+sure to happen.
+
+And presently it came--the knock at the box door for which I had been
+listening. I rose and opened it. A tall young Englishman, with smooth
+parted hair, whose evening attire was so immaculate as to become almost
+an offence, stood and stared at me through his eyeglass.
+
+"Mr. Greatson!" he suggested. "Mr. Arnold Greatson?"
+
+I acknowledged the fact with becoming meekness.
+
+"My name is Milton," he said--"Captain Angus Milton. I am in the suite
+of the Archduchess for this evening. Her Highness occupies the box
+opposite to yours."
+
+I bowed.
+
+"I have noticed the fact," I answered. "The Archduchess has been good
+enough to favour us with some attention."
+
+The young man stared at me for some moments. I found myself able to
+endure his scrutiny.
+
+"Her Highness desires that you and the young lady"--for the first time
+he bowed towards Isobel--"will be so good as to come to the anteroom of
+the Royal box. She is anxious for a few minutes' conversation with you."
+
+"The Archduchess," I answered, "does us too much honour! I shall be
+glad, however, if you will inform her that we will take another
+opportunity of waiting upon her. Miss de Sorrens is much interested in
+the play."
+
+The young man dropped his eyeglass. I was proud of the fact that I had
+succeeded in surprising him.
+
+"You mean," he exclaimed softly, "that you won't--that you don't want to
+come?"
+
+"Precisely," I answered. "I have already had the honour of one interview
+with the Archduchess, and I imagine that no useful purpose would be
+served by re-opening the subject of our discussion!"
+
+"The young lady, then?" he remarked, turning again to Isobel.
+
+"The young lady remains under my charge," I answered. "You will be so
+good as to express my regrets to the Archduchess."
+
+He hesitated for a moment, and then, with a slight bow to Isobel, left
+us. She spoke to me, and we had been so long silent that our voices
+sounded strange.
+
+"Thank you, Arnold," she said quietly. "This is all so wonderful that I
+could not bear to have it disturbed."
+
+"I pray that it may not be," I answered. "The Archduchess's interest is
+flattering, but mysterious. I for one do not trust her. I wish----"
+
+I broke off in my speech, for I saw that the principal seat in the
+opposite box was vacant. As for Isobel, I doubt whether she noticed my
+sudden pause. Her hands were still caressing the soft pink blossoms in
+her lap, her eyes were fixed upon vacancy. She was in a sort of dream,
+from which I did not care to rouse her. I knew very well that the
+awakening would come fast enough.
+
+Another imperative tap upon the door. I opened it, and the Archduchess
+swept past me. In the darkness of our box her diamonds glittered like
+fire, the perfume from her draperies was stronger by far than the
+delicate fragrance of the roses which Isobel still held. Me she ignored
+altogether. She went straight up to Isobel, and, stooping down, rested
+her gloved hand upon the girl's shoulder.
+
+"I sent for you just now," she said. "Did you not understand?"
+
+Isobel raised her eyebrows. The Archduchess was angry, and her voice
+betrayed her.
+
+"I do not know any reason," Isobel answered, "why I should do your
+bidding."
+
+[Illustration: "I do not know any reason" Isobel answered, "why I should
+do your bidding."]
+
+The Archduchess was silent for a moment. I think that she was waiting
+until she could control her voice.
+
+"Isobel," she said, "I will tell you a very good reason. I cannot keep
+silence any longer. They will not give you up to me any other way, so I
+have come to claim you openly. You shall know the truth. I am your
+mother's sister!"
+
+Isobel rose slowly to her feet. She was as tall as the Archduchess, and
+the likeness which had always haunted me was unmistakable. Only Isobel
+was of the finer mould, and her eyes were different.
+
+"Why did you not tell me this before--at the Mordaunt Rooms, for
+instance?" she asked.
+
+"You came upon me like a thunderclap," the Archduchess answered quickly.
+"For years we had lost all trace of you. Besides, there were
+reasons--you know that there were reasons why I might surely have been
+forgiven for hesitating. But let that go. We had better have your story
+blazoned out once more to the world than that you should live your life
+in this hole-and-corner fashion. I shall take you back to Waldenburg. I
+presume, sir!" she added, turning suddenly towards me, "that even you
+will not question my right to assume the guardianship of my own niece?"
+
+The memory of Feurgeres' look came to my aid, or I scarcely know how I
+should have answered her.
+
+"Your Highness," I said, "it is for Isobel to decide. She is no longer a
+child. Only I would remind you that you have on more than one occasion
+endeavoured to assume that guardianship without mentioning any such
+relationship."
+
+"You know Isobel's history," the Archduchess answered. "Can you wonder
+that I was anxious to avoid all publicity?"
+
+"Your Highness," I said, "we do not know Isobel's history--yet. We shall
+hear it to-night."
+
+"He has not told you--yet?" she asked incredulously.
+
+"He is coming to my rooms to-night," I answered.
+
+"You shall hear it before then," she exclaimed, with a little laugh.
+"Put on your hat, child. We will drive to my house, you and I and Mr.
+Greatson, and I will tell you everything. You will know then how greatly
+that man insulted you by daring to allow you to occupy this box, to
+approach you at all."
+
+"Madame," Isobel said, "I thank you, but I wish to hear the end of the
+play. And as for my history, Monsieur Feurgeres has promised to tell it
+to Mr. Greatson to-night."
+
+I saw the Archduchess's teeth meet, and a spot of colour that burned in
+her cheeks.
+
+"You talk like a fool, child," she said fiercely. "You are being
+deceived on every side. It is not fit that that man should come into
+your presence. It is a disgrace that you should mention his name."
+
+"Mr.--Monsieur Feurgeres has proved himself my friend," Isobel answered
+quietly.
+
+The Archduchess's eyes were burning. She was a woman of violent temper,
+and it was fast becoming beyond her control.
+
+"Child," she said, "I am your aunt, the daughter of the King of
+Waldenburg. You, too, are of the same race. You know well that I speak
+the truth. How dare you talk to me of a creature like Feurgeres? You
+have our blood in your veins. I command you to come with me, and break
+off at once and for ever these remarkable associations. You shall make
+what return you will later on to those whom you may think"--she darted a
+contemptuous glance at me--"have been your friends. But from this moment
+I claim you. Come!"
+
+Isobel looked her aunt in the face. She spoke courteously, but without
+faltering.
+
+"Madame," she said, "it is not possible for me to do as you ask.
+Whatever plans are made for my future, it is to my dear friend here,"
+she said, looking across at me with shining eyes, "that I owe
+everything. And as for Monsieur Feurgeres, I have promised him to occupy
+this box for this evening, and I shall do so."
+
+The Archduchess was very white.
+
+"You force me to tell you, child," she said. "This creature Feurgeres
+was your mother's----"
+
+"Your Highness!" I cried.
+
+She stopped short and bit her lip. Isobel was very pale, but she pointed
+to the door. The orchestra had commenced to play.
+
+"Madame," she said, "Monsieur Feurgeres loved my mother. I shall keep my
+word to him."
+
+There was a soft knock at the door. Captain Milton stood on the
+threshold.
+
+"Your Highness," he said, bowing low, "the curtain will rise in thirty
+seconds."
+
+The Archduchess left us without a word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+It was not often we permitted ourselves such luxuries, but as we left
+the theatre I caught a glimpse of Isobel's white face, more clearly
+visible now than in the dimly lit box, and I knew that, bravely though
+she had carried herself through the whole of that trying evening, she
+was not far from breaking down. So I called a hansom, and she sank back
+in a corner with a little sigh of relief. I lit a cigarette, and
+suddenly I felt a cold little hand steal into mine. I set my teeth and
+held it firmly.
+
+"Arnold," she whispered, and her voice was none too steady, "I hate that
+woman. I do not care if she is my aunt; and--Arnold----"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I believe that she hates me too. She looks at me as though I were
+something unpleasant, as though she wished me dead. I will not go to
+her, Arnold. Say that I shall not."
+
+For a moment I was silent. Her little womanish airs of the last few
+months, the quaint effort of dignity with which it seemed to have
+pleased her to add all that was possible to her years, had wholly
+departed. She was a child again, with frightened eyes and quivering
+lips, the child who had walked so easily into our hearts in those first
+days of her terror. To think of her as such again was almost a relief.
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, "the Archduchess has told me now two different
+stories concerning you. She appears to be very anxious to have you in
+her care, but her methods up to the present have been very strange. We
+shall not give you up to her unless we are obliged. But----"
+
+"Please what, Arnold?" she interrupted anxiously.
+
+"If the Archduchess is indeed your aunt, as she says she is, you must
+have hundreds of other relations, many of whom you would without doubt
+find very different people. Besides, in that case, you see, Isobel, you
+ought to be living altogether differently. It is absurd for you to be
+grubbing along with us in an attic when you ought to be living in a
+palace, with plenty of money and servants and beautiful frocks, and all
+that sort of thing. You understand me, don't you?" I concluded a little
+lamely, for the steady gaze of those deep blue frightened eyes was a
+little disconcerting.
+
+"No, I do not," she answered. "If I am a Waldenburg and the niece of the
+Archduchess, why was I left alone at that convent for all those years,
+and who was responsible for sending that man to fetch me away--that
+terrible man? How are they going to explain that, these wonderful
+relations of mine? Oh, Arnold, Arnold!" she cried, suddenly swaying over
+towards me in the cab, "I don't want to leave you--all. Do not send me
+away. Promise that you will not!"
+
+A child, I told myself fiercely, a mere child this! Nevertheless I was
+thankful for the darkness of the silent street into which we had turned,
+the darkness which hid my face from her. Her soft breath was upon my
+cheek, her beautiful head very near my shoulder. Oh, I had need of all
+my strength, of all my common-sense.
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, looking straight ahead of me out of the cab, "I
+cannot make you any promise. All must depend upon what Monsieur
+Feurgeres tells us to-night. Nothing would make me--all of us--happier
+than to keep you with us always. But it may not be our duty to keep you,
+or yours to stay. Until we have heard Feurgeres' story we are in the
+dark."
+
+She shrank, as it seemed, into herself. Her eyes followed mine
+hauntingly.
+
+"Arnold," she said, with a little tremor in her tone, "you are not very
+kind to me to-night, and I feel--that I want--people to be kind to me
+just now."
+
+I bent down, and I raised her hands to my lips and kissed them.
+
+"My dear child," I said, "don't forget that I am your guardian, and I
+have to think for you--a long way ahead. As for the rest, I have not a
+single thought or hope in life which is not concerned for your
+happiness."
+
+"I like that better," she murmured; "but--you are very fond of my
+hands."
+
+Fortunately the cab pulled up with a jerk. I paid the man, and we
+commenced to climb up the stone steps towards our rooms. Isobel, who was
+generally a couple of flights ahead, slipped her hand through my arm and
+leaned heavily upon me.
+
+"Arnold," she whispered, "why would you not read your story to me. Tell
+me, please!"
+
+"My dear child!" I exclaimed, "what made you think of that just now?"
+
+She leaned forward. I think that she was trying to look into my face.
+
+"Never mind! Please tell me," she begged.
+
+"I will read it some day," I answered. "It is so incomplete. I think I
+shall have to rewrite it."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You have always read to me before just as you have written it. I think
+that you are not quite so nice to me, Arnold, as you were. I haven't
+done anything that you do not like, have I? Because I am sure that you
+are different!"
+
+"You absurd child," I answered, smiling at her as cheerfully as I could.
+"You are in an imaginative frame of mind to-night."
+
+"It is not that! You look at me differently, you do not seem to want to
+have me with you so much, and----"
+
+I stopped her. We had reached the fourth floor, where our apartments
+were. With the key in the lock I turned and faced her for a moment. She
+was as tall as I, and a certain grace of carriage which she had always
+possessed, and which had grown with her years, redeemed her completely
+from the _gaucherie_ of her uncomfortable age. Her features had gained
+in strength, and lost nothing in delicacy. She wore even her simple
+clothes with the nameless grace which must surely have come to her from
+inheritance. I spoke to her then seriously. Yet if I had tried I could
+not have kept the kindness from my tone.
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, "if there is any difference--think! A year ago
+you were a child. To-day you are a woman. You must understand that, side
+by side with the pleasure of having you with us--the greatest pleasure
+that has ever come into our lives, Isobel--has come a certain amount of
+responsibility."
+
+"I am becoming a trouble to you, then!" she exclaimed breathlessly.
+
+"A trouble, Isobel!"
+
+I suppose I weakened for a moment. Some trick of tone or expression must
+have let in the daylight, for she suddenly held out her hands with a
+soft little cry. And then as she stood there, her eyes shining, the old
+delightful smile curving her lips, the door before which she stood was
+thrown open, and Arthur stood there. He had on his hat and coat, and I
+saw at once that he was not himself. His cheeks were flushed with anger,
+and he looked at us with a black frown.
+
+"So you've come back, then!" he exclaimed. "Allan and I got tired of
+waiting. Just in time to say good-bye, Isobel. I'm off!"
+
+"Off? But where?" she asked, looking at him in surprise.
+
+I left them, and passed on into our studio sitting-room, where Mabane
+was filling his pipe.
+
+"What's the matter with Arthur?" I asked.
+
+"Off his chump," Allan answered gravely. "Don't take any notice of him."
+
+Isobel and he were still talking together. Arthur's voice was a little
+raised--then it suddenly dropped.
+
+"I think," Allan said, "that you had better interfere. Arthur has lost
+his temper. I am afraid----"
+
+"He will break the compact?" I exclaimed.
+
+"I am afraid so!"
+
+I stepped back into the little hall. They were talking together
+earnestly. Arthur looked up and glared at me.
+
+"Arthur," I said, "Allan and I want a few words with you before you
+go--if you are going out to-night."
+
+"In a moment," he answered. "I have something to say to Isobel."
+
+But Isobel had gone. He looked for a moment at the door of her room
+through which she had vanished, and then he turned on his heel and
+followed me. He threw his hat upon the table and faced us both
+defiantly.
+
+"It is I," he said, "who have something to say to you, and I'd like to
+get it over quick. D--n your hypocritical compact, Arnold Greatson!
+There! You're in love with Isobel! Any fool can see it, and you want to
+keep the child all to yourself."
+
+Allan took a quick step forward, but I held out my hand.
+
+"Don't interfere, Allan," I said. "Let him say all that he has to say."
+
+"I mean to!" Arthur continued, "and I hope you'll like it. The compact
+was a fraud from beginning to end, and I'll have no more to do with it.
+Isobel's too old to live here with you fellows, and I'm going to ask her
+to marry me. I'm going to advise her to go and stay with Lady Delahaye,
+who wants her, and I'm going to marry her from there if she'll have me."
+
+"Lady Delahaye," I repeated thoughtfully. "You have been in
+communication with her, have you?"
+
+"Yes, I have! And I think she's right. Isobel ought to have some women
+friends. She may have enemies, but I'm not so sure about that. Lady
+Delahaye isn't one of them, at any rate. The people who want to get her
+away from here may be her best friends, after all."
+
+"Is that all, Arthur?"
+
+"It's enough, isn't it?" he answered doggedly.
+
+"Quite! Now listen," I said. "To-night we are going to hear Isobel's
+history. We are going to know who she is, and all about her. Stay with
+us, and you shall share the knowledge. As for the rest, you have been
+talking like a fool. We do not wish to take you seriously. We took up
+the charge of Isobel jointly. If the time has come now for us to give
+her up, I should like us all to be in agreement. It is very likely that
+the time has come. I, too, think that in many ways it would be for her
+benefit. We are prepared to give her up when we know the proper people
+to undertake the care of her--but never, Arthur, to Lady Delahaye."
+
+Arthur smiled slowly, but it was not a pleasant smile.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "I forgot. Lady Delahaye is an old friend of yours, isn't
+she?"
+
+"Your insinuations are childish, Arthur," I answered. "Lady Delahaye is
+an old friend of the Archduchess's, and their interest in Isobel is
+identical. For many reasons I am going to know Isobel's history before I
+give her up to either of them."
+
+"And who is going to tell it to you?" he asked.
+
+"Feurgeres," I answered. "He sent for us at the theatre to-night. He is
+coming on here."
+
+There was a sharp tapping at the door. I moved across the room to open
+it. Arthur threw his hat upon the table.
+
+"I will wait!" he declared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+We all knew Isobel's history. It had taken barely twenty minutes to tell
+it, but they had been twenty minutes of tragedy. We were all, I think,
+in different ways affected. Monsieur Feurgeres alone sat back in his
+seat like a carved image, his face white and haggard, his deep-set eyes
+fixed upon vacancy. We felt that he had passed wholly away from the
+world of present things. He himself was lingering amongst the shadows of
+that wonderful past, upon which he had only a moment before dropped the
+curtain. He had told us to ask him questions, but I for my part felt
+that questions just then were a sacrilege. Arthur, however, seemed to
+feel nothing of this. It was he who took the lead.
+
+"Isobel, then," he said, "is the granddaughter of the King of
+Waldenburg, the only child of his eldest daughter! Her mother was
+divorced from her husband, Prince of Herrshoff, and afterwards married
+to you. What about her father?"
+
+"He died two years after the divorce was granted," Feurgeres said
+without turning his head. "Isobel was hurried away from the Court
+through the influence of her aunt, the Archduchess of Bristlaw, and sent
+to a convent in France. It was not intended that she should ever
+reappear at the Court of Waldenburg."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"The King is very old, and he is the richest man in Europe. Isobel is
+the daughter of his eldest and favourite child. The Archduchess also has
+a daughter, and, failing Isobel, she will inherit."
+
+"Has the King," I asked, "taken any steps to discover Isobel?"
+
+"He has been told that she is dead," Feurgeres answered.
+
+We were all silent then for several minutes. The things which we had
+heard were strange enough, but they let in a flood of light upon all the
+events of the last few months. It was Feurgeres himself who broke in
+upon our thoughts.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "there is another thing which I must tell you."
+
+His voice was very low but firm. He had turned in his chair, and was
+facing us all. His eyes were no longer vacant. He spoke as one speaks of
+sacred things.
+
+"All Europe," he said, "was pleased to discuss what was called the
+elopement of the Princess Isobel with Feurgeres the player. The
+gutter-press of the world filled their columns with sensational and
+scandalous lies. We at no time made any reply. There was no need. If now
+I break the silence of years it is that Isobel shall know the truth. It
+is you, Mr. Greatson, who will tell her this, and many other things.
+Listen carefully to what I say. The husband of the Princess Isobel was a
+blackguard, a man unfit for the society of any self-respecting woman.
+She was living in misery when I was bidden to the Court of Waldenburg. I
+was made the more welcome there, perhaps, because I myself am a
+descendant of an ancient and honourable French family. I met the
+Princess Isobel often, and we grew to love each other. Of the struggle
+which ensued between her sense of duty and my persuasions I say nothing.
+She was a highly sensitive and very intellectual woman, and she had a
+profound conviction of the unalienable right of a woman to live out her
+life to its fullest capacity, to gather into it to the full all that is
+best and greatest. Her position at Waldenburg was impossible. I proved
+it to her. I prevailed. But----"
+
+He paused, and held up his hand.
+
+"The whole story of our elopement was a lie. There was no elopement. The
+Princess Isobel left her husband accompanied only by a maid and a
+lady-in-waiting. They lived quietly in Paris until her husband procured
+his divorce. Then we were married, but until then we had not met since
+our parting at Waldenburg. Isobel's mother was ever a pure and holy
+woman. Let Isobel know that. Let her know that the greatest and most
+wonderful sacrifice a woman ever made was surely hers--when she denied
+herself her own daughter lest the merest shadow of shame should rest
+upon her in later years. It is for that same reason that I myself have
+kept away from Isobel. I have watched over her always, but at a
+distance. That is why I am content to stand aside even now and yield up
+my place to strangers."
+
+It was Arthur again who questioned him.
+
+"Mr. Feurgeres," he said, "you have told us wonderful things about
+Isobel. You have told us wonderful things about the past, but you have
+not spoken at all about the future. Is it your wish that she returns to
+Waldenburg, or is she to remain Isobel de Sorrens?"
+
+Feurgeres turned his head and looked searchingly at Arthur. The boy's
+face was flushed with excitement. He made no effort to conceal his great
+interest. Feurgeres looked at him steadfastly, and it was long before he
+spoke.
+
+"You are asking me," he said slowly, "the very question which I have
+been asking myself for a long time. Isobel's proper place is at
+Waldenburg, and yet there are many and grave reasons why I dread her
+going there. The King is an old man, the Court is ruled by the
+Archduchess, a hard, unscrupulous woman. Already she has schemed to get
+the child into her power. I dread the thought of her there, alone and
+friendless. Her mother spoke of this to me upon her deathbed. She shrank
+always from the idea that even the shadow of those hideous calumnies
+which oppressed her own life should darken a single moment of Isobel's.
+I believe that if she were here at this moment she would place the two
+issues before her and bid her take her choice. I think that it is what
+we must do."
+
+Arthur stood up. He looked very eager and handsome, though a little
+boyish.
+
+"Monsieur Feurgeres," he said, "I love Isobel. Give her to me, and I
+will look after her future. I am not rich, but I will make a home for
+her. She is too old to stay here with us any longer. I will make her
+happy! Indeed I will!"
+
+Monsieur Feurgeres looked back at that vacant spot upon the wall, and
+was silent for some time. It was impossible to gather anything from his
+face, though Arthur watched him fixedly all the time.
+
+"And Isobel?" he asked at length.
+
+"I have not spoken to her," Arthur said. "There was a compact between us
+that we should not whilst she was under our care."
+
+Monsieur Feurgeres turned to me.
+
+"That sounds like a compact of your making, Arnold Greatson," he said.
+"What am I to say to your friend?"
+
+"It is surely," I said, "for Isobel to decide. It is only another issue
+to be placed before her with those others of which you have spoken. You
+say that you must leave for St. Petersburg to-morrow. Will you see her
+now?"
+
+He shook his head. I might almost have imagined him indifferent but for
+the sudden twitching of his lips, the almost pitiful craving which
+flashed out for a moment from his deep-set eyes. These were signs which
+came and went so quickly that I doubt if either of the others observed
+them. But I at least understood.
+
+"I will not see her at all," he said. "It is better that I should not.
+If she should decide upon Waldenburg, the less she has seen of me the
+better. I leave it to you, Arnold Greatson, to put these matters
+faithfully before Isobel. I claim no guardianship over her. Her mother's
+sole desire was that when she had reached her present age the whole
+truth should be placed before her, and she should decide exactly as she
+thought best. That is my charge upon you," he continued, looking me
+steadfastly in the face, "and I know that you will fulfil it. I shall
+send you my address in case it is necessary to communicate with me."
+
+He rose to his feet, prepared for departure. Arthur intercepted him.
+
+"If Isobel will have me, then," he said, "you will not object?"
+
+"Isobel shall make her own choice of these various issues," he answered.
+"I claim no guardianship over her at all. If any further decision has to
+be given, you must look to Mr. Greatson."
+
+Arthur did look at me, but his eyes fell quickly. He turned once more to
+Monsieur Feurgeres.
+
+"Whether you claim it or not," he said, "you are really her guardian,
+not Arnold. I shall tell her that you left her free to choose."
+
+"I have said all that I have to say," Monsieur Feurgeres replied.
+"Except this to you, Mr. Greatson," he added, turning to me. "You can
+have no longer any hesitation in using the money which stands in
+Isobel's name at the National Bank. You will find that it has
+accumulated, and I have also added to it. Isobel will always be
+reasonably well off, for I have left all that I myself possess to her,
+with the exception of one legacy."
+
+Without any further form of farewell he passed away from us. It was so
+obviously his wish to be allowed to depart that we none of us cared to
+stop him. Then we all three looked at one another.
+
+"To-morrow," Mabane said, "you must tell Isobel."
+
+"Why not to-night?" Arthur interposed.
+
+"Why not to-night, indeed?" Isobel's soft voice asked. "If, indeed,
+there is anything more to tell."
+
+We were all thunderstruck as she glided out from behind the screen which
+shielded the inner door, the door which led to her room. It needed only
+a single glance into her face to assure us that she knew everything. Her
+eyes were still soft with tears, shining like stars as she stood and
+looked at me across the floor; her cheeks were pale, and her lips were
+still quivering.
+
+"I heard my name," she said. "The door was unfastened, so I stole out.
+And I think that I am glad I did. I had a right to know all that I have
+heard. It is very wonderful. I keep thinking and thinking, and even now
+I cannot realize."
+
+"You heard everything, Isobel?" Arthur exclaimed meaningly.
+
+"Everything!" she answered, her eyes suddenly seeking the carpet. "I
+thank you all for what you have said and done for me. To-morrow, I
+think, I shall know better how I feel about these things."
+
+"Quite right, Isobel," Allan said quietly. "There are great issues
+before you, and you should live with them for a little while. Do not
+decide anything hastily!"
+
+Arthur pressed forward to her side.
+
+"You will give me your hand, Isobel?" he pleaded. "You will say
+good-night?"
+
+She gave it to him passively. He raised it to his lips. It was his
+active pronouncement of himself as her suitor. I watched her closely,
+and so did Allan. But she gave no sign. She held out her hand to us,
+too--a cold, sad little hand it felt--and turned away. There was
+something curiously subdued about her movements as well as her silence
+as she passed out of sight.
+
+Arthur took up his hat. He was nervous and uneasy. His tone was almost
+threatening.
+
+"I shall be here early in the morning," he said. "I suppose you will
+allow me to see Isobel?"
+
+"By all means," I answered. "As things are now you need not go away
+unless you like. Your room is still empty. Our compact is at an end.
+Stay if you will."
+
+He hesitated for a moment, and then threw down his hat. He sank into an
+easy chair, and covered his face with his hands.
+
+"I've been a beast, I know!" he half sobbed. "I can't help it. Isobel is
+everything in the world to me. You fellows can't imagine how I care for
+her."
+
+I laid my hand upon his shoulder--a little wearily, perhaps, though I
+tried to infuse some sympathy into my tone.
+
+"Cheer up, Arthur!" I said. "You have your chance. Don't make a trouble
+of it yet."
+
+Arthur shook his head despondently.
+
+"I think," he said, "that she will go to Waldenburg!"
+
+
+
+
+Book III
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Arthur flung himself into the room pale, hollow-eyed, the picture of
+despair.
+
+"Any news?" he cried, hopelessly enough, for he had seen my face.
+
+"None," I answered.
+
+"Anything from Feurgeres?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+"Tell me again--where did you telegraph him?"
+
+"Dover, Calais, Paris, Ostend, Brussels, Cologne!"
+
+"And no reply?"
+
+"As yet none."
+
+"Let us look again at the note you found."
+
+I smoothed it out upon the table. We had read it many times.
+
+     "There is something else which I must tell you before I leave
+     England. Come to me at once. The bearer will bring you. Come alone.
+
+     "HENRI FEURGERES.
+
+     "P.S.--You will be back in an hour. Disturb no one. It is possible
+     that I may ask you to keep secret what I have to say."
+
+"This note," I remarked, tapping it with my forefinger, "was taken in to
+Isobel by Mrs. Burdett at a quarter to eight. It was brought, she said,
+by a respectable middle-aged woman, with whom Isobel left the place soon
+after eight. We heard of this an hour later. At eleven o'clock we began
+the search for Monsieur Feurgeres. At three, Allan discovered that he
+had left the _Savoy Hotel_ at ten for St. Petersburg. Since then we have
+sent seven telegrams, the delivery of which is very problematical--and
+we have heard--nothing!"
+
+Allan laid his hand gently upon my shoulder.
+
+"We may get a reply from Feurgeres at any moment," he said, "but there
+will be no news of Isobel. That note is a forgery, Arnold."
+
+"I am afraid it is," I admitted. "Feurgeres was a man of his word. He
+would never have sent for Isobel."
+
+"Then she is lost to us," Arthur groaned.
+
+I caught up my hat and coat.
+
+"Not yet," I said. "I will go and see what Lady Delahaye has to say
+about this. It can do no harm, at any rate."
+
+"Shall I come?" Arthur asked, half rising from his chair.
+
+"I would rather go alone," I answered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The butler, who knew me by sight, was courteous but doubtful.
+
+"Her ladyship has been receiving all the afternoon," he told me, "but I
+believe that she has gone to her rooms now. Her ladyship dines early
+to-night because of the opera. I will send your name up if you like,
+sir."
+
+I walked restlessly up and down the hall for ten minutes. Then a lady's
+maid suddenly appeared through a green baize door and beckoned me to
+follow her.
+
+"Her ladyship will see you upstairs, sir, if you will come this way,"
+she announced.
+
+I followed her into a little boudoir. Lady Delahaye, in a blue
+dressing-gown, was lying upon a sofa. She eyed me as I entered with a
+curious smile.
+
+"This is indeed an unexpected pleasure," she murmured. "Do sit down
+somewhere. It is long past my hour of receiving, and I am just getting
+ready for dinner, but I positively could not send you away. Now, please,
+tell me all about it."
+
+"You know why I have come, then?" I remarked.
+
+"My dear man, I haven't the least idea," she protested. "It is sheer
+unadulterated curiosity which made me send Perkins for you up here.
+We're not at all upon the sort of terms, you know," she added, looking
+up at me with her big blue eyes, "for this sort of thing."
+
+"Isobel left us this morning!" I said bluntly. "She received a note
+signed Feurgeres, which I am sure was a forgery. She left us at eight
+o'clock, and she has not returned."
+
+Lady Delahaye looked at me with a faint smile. Her expression puzzled
+me. I was not even able to guess at the thoughts which lay underneath
+her words.
+
+"How anxious you must be," she murmured. "Do you know, I always wondered
+whether Isobel would not some day weary of your milk-and-water
+Bohemianism. Your Scotch friend is worthy, no doubt, but dull, and the
+boy was too hopelessly in love to be amusing. And as for you--well--you
+would do very nicely, no doubt, my dear Arnold, but you are too stuffed
+up with principles for a girl of Isobel's antecedents. So she has cut
+the Gordian knot herself! Well, I am sorry!"
+
+"You are sorry!" I repeated. "Why?"
+
+She smiled sweetly at me.
+
+"Because my dear friend has promised me that wonderful emerald necklace
+if I could get the child away from you, and I think that very soon, with
+the help of that stupid boy, I should have succeeded," she said
+regretfully. "Such emeralds, Arnold! and you know how anything green
+suits me."
+
+"You do not doubt, then, but that it is the Archduchess who has done
+this?" I said.
+
+Lady Delahaye lifted her eyebrows.
+
+"Either the Archduchess, or Isobel has walked off of her own sweet
+will," she remarked calmly. "In any case you have lost the child, and I
+have lost my necklace. I positively cannot risk losing my dinner too,"
+she added, with a glance at the clock, "so I am afraid--I am so sorry,
+but I must ask you to go away. Come and see me again, won't you? Perhaps
+we can be friends again now that this bone of contention is removed."
+
+"I have never desired anything else, Lady Delahaye," I said. "But if my
+friendship is really of any value to you, if you would care to earn my
+deepest gratitude, you could easily do so."
+
+"Really! In what manner?"
+
+"By helping me to regain possession of the child."
+
+She laughed at me, softly at first, and then without restraint. Finally
+she rang the bell.
+
+"My dear Arnold," she exclaimed, wiping her eyes, "you are really too
+naive! You amuse me more than I can tell you. My maid will show you the
+way downstairs. Do come and see me again soon. Good-bye!"
+
+So that was the end of any hope we may have had of help from Lady
+Delahaye. I called a hansom outside and drove at once to Blenheim House,
+the temporary residence of the Archduchess and her suite. A footman
+passed me on to a more important person who was sitting at a round table
+in the hall with a visitor's book open before him. I explained to him my
+desire to obtain a few moments' audience with the Archduchess, but he
+only smiled and shook his head.
+
+"It is quite impossible for her Highness to see anyone now before her
+departure, sir," he said. "If you are connected with the Press, I can
+only tell you what I have told all the others. We have received a
+telegram from Illghera with grave news concerning the health of his
+Majesty the King of Waldenburg, and notwithstanding the indisposition of
+the Princess Adelaide, the Archduchess has arranged to leave for
+Illghera at once. A fuller explanation will appear in the _Court
+Circular_, and the Archduchess is particularly anxious to express her
+great regret to all those whom the cancellation of her engagements may
+inconvenience. Good-day, sir!"
+
+The man recommenced his task, which was apparently the copying out of a
+list of names from the visitor's book, and signed to the footman with
+his penholder to show me out. But I stood my ground.
+
+"You are leaving to-day, then?" I said.
+
+"We are leaving to-day," the man assented, without glancing up from his
+task. "We are naturally very busy."
+
+"Can I see the Baron von Leibingen?" I asked.
+
+"It is quite impossible, sir," the man answered shortly. "He is engaged
+with her Highness."
+
+"I will wait!" I declared.
+
+"Then I must trouble you, sir, to wait outside," he said, with a little
+gesture of impatience. "I do not wish to seem uncivil, but my orders
+to-day are peremptory."
+
+At that moment a door opened and a man came across the hall, slowly
+drawing on his gloves. I looked up and saw the Baron von Leibingen. He
+recognized me at once, and bowed courteously. At the same time there was
+something in his manner which gave me the impression that he was not
+altogether pleased to see me.
+
+"Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Greatson?" he asked, pausing
+for a moment by my side.
+
+"I am anxious to obtain five minutes' interview with the Archduchess," I
+answered. "If you could manage that for me I should be exceedingly
+obliged."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is quite impossible!" he said decisively. "You have heard of the
+serious news from Illghera, without doubt. We shall be on our way there
+in a few hours."
+
+I drew him a little on one side.
+
+"Is Isobel here, Baron?" I asked bluntly.
+
+"I beg your pardon--is who here?" he inquired, with the air of one who
+is puzzled by an incomprehensible question.
+
+"Isobel--the Princess Isobel, if you like--has been lured from our care
+by a forged message. We know her history now, and we are able to
+understand the nature of the interest which your mistress has shown in
+her. Therefore, when I find her missing I come to you. I want to know if
+she is in this house."
+
+"If she were," the Baron remarked, "I, and everyone else who knows
+anything about it, would say at once that she was in her proper place.
+If she were, I should most earnestly advise the Archduchess to keep her
+here. But I regret to say that she is not. To tell you the truth, the
+Archduchess is so annoyed at the young lady's refusal to accept her
+protection, that she has lost all interest in her. I doubt whether she
+would receive her now if she came."
+
+"Perhaps," I remarked slowly, "she has gone to Illghera."
+
+"It is, of course," the Baron agreed, "not an impossibility."
+
+"If I do not succeed in my search," I said, "it is to Illghera that I
+shall come."
+
+"You will find it," the Baron assured me, with a smile, "a most charming
+place. I shall be delighted to renew our acquaintance there."
+
+"His Majesty," I continued, "is, I have heard, very accessible. I shall
+be able to tell him Isobel's story. You may keep the child away from
+him, Baron, but you cannot prevent his learning the fact of her
+existence and her history."
+
+"My young friend," the Baron answered, edging his way towards the door,
+"your enigmas at another time would be most interesting. But at present
+I have affairs on hand, and I am pressed for time. I will permit myself
+to say, however, that you are altogether deceiving yourself. It was the
+one wish of the Archduchess to have taken Isobel to her grandfather and
+begged him to recognize her."
+
+"You decline to meet me fairly, then--to tell me the truth? Mind, I
+firmly believe that Isobel is now under your control. I shall not rest
+until I have discovered her."
+
+"Then you may discover, my young friend," the Baron said, putting on his
+hat, and turning resolutely away, "the true meaning of the word
+weariness. You are a fool to ask me any questions at all. We are on
+opposite sides. If I knew where the child was you are the last person
+whom I should tell. Her place is anywhere--save with you!"
+
+He bowed and turned away, whispering as he passed to a footman, who at
+once approached me. I allowed myself to be shown out. As a matter of
+fact, I had no alternative. But on the steps was an English servant in
+the Blenheim livery. I slipped half a sovereign into his hand.
+
+"Can you tell me what time the Archduchess leaves, and from what
+station?" I asked.
+
+"I am not quite sure about the time, sir," the man answered, "but the
+'buses are ordered from Charing Cross, and they are to be here at eight
+to-night."
+
+It was already past seven. I lit a cigarette and strolled on towards the
+station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+At Charing Cross station a strange thing happened. The Continental train
+arrived whilst I was sauntering about the platform, and out of it,
+within a few feet of me, stepped Feurgeres. He was pale and haggard, and
+he leaned heavily upon the arm of his servant as he stepped out of his
+carriage. When he saw me, however, he held out his hand and smiled.
+
+"You expected me, then?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Not I," I answered. "You have taken my breath away."
+
+"I had your telegram at Brussels," he explained. "I wired St. Petersburg
+at once, and turned back. Any news?"
+
+"None," I answered.
+
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+I told him in a few rapid words. He listened intently, nodding his head
+every now and then.
+
+"The Archduchess has her," he said, "and if only one of us had the ghost
+of a legal claim upon the child our difficulties would end. She is an
+unscrupulous woman, but there are things which even she dare not do.
+What are they doing over there?"
+
+He pointed to the next platform. I took him by the arm and dragged him
+along.
+
+"It is the special!" I exclaimed. "We must see them start."
+
+Red drugget was being stretched across the platform, and to my dismay
+the barricades were rolled across. The luggage was already in the van,
+and the guard was looking at his watch. Then a small brougham drove
+rapidly up and stopped opposite to the saloon. Baron von Leibingen
+descended, and was immediately followed by the Archduchess. Together
+they helped from the carriage and across the platform a dark, tall girl,
+at the first sight of whom my heart began to beat wildly. Then I
+remembered the likeness between the cousins and what I had heard of the
+Princess Adelaide's indisposition. She was almost carried into the
+saloon, and at the last moment she looked swiftly, almost fearfully,
+around her. I could scarcely contain myself. The likeness was
+marvellous! As the train steamed out of the station Feurgeres pushed
+aside the barricade and walked straight up to the station-master.
+
+"I want a special," he said, "to catch the boat. I am Feurgeres, and I
+am due at Petersburg Wednesday."
+
+The station-master shook his head.
+
+"You can have a special, sir, in twenty minutes, but you cannot catch
+the boat. The one I have just sent off would never do it, but the boat
+has a Royal command to wait for her."
+
+"Can't you give me an engine which will make up the twenty minutes?"
+Feurgeres asked.
+
+"It is impossible, sir," the station-master answered. "We have not an
+engine built which would come within ten miles an hour of that one."
+
+"Very good," Feurgeres said. "I will have the special, at any rate. Be
+so good as to give your orders at once."
+
+"You will gain nothing if you want to get on, sir," the station-master
+remarked. "An ordinary train will leave here in two hours, which will
+catch the next boat."
+
+"The special in twenty minutes," Feurgeres answered sharply. "Forty
+pounds, is it not? It is here!"
+
+The station-master hurried away. I scarcely understood Feurgeres' haste
+to reach Dover. When I told him so he only laughed and led me away
+towards the refreshment-room. He ordered luncheon baskets to be sent out
+to the train, and he made me drink a brandy-and-soda. Then he took me by
+the arm.
+
+"You are not much of a conspirator, my friend, Arnold Greatson," he
+said. "You have been within a dozen yards of Isobel within the last few
+minutes, and you have not recognized her."
+
+I stopped short. That wonderful likeness flashed once more back upon my
+mind. Certainly in the Mordaunt Rooms it had not been so noticeable. And
+her eyes! I looked at Feurgeres, and he nodded.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide either remains in England or has gone on quietly
+ahead," he said. "They have dressed Isobel in her clothes, and the
+general public could never tell the difference. You see how difficult
+they have made it for us to approach her. They will be hedged around
+like this all across the Continent. Oh, it was a very clever move!"
+
+I scarcely answered him. My eyes were fixed upon the tangled wilderness
+of red and green lights, amongst which that train had disappeared. What
+had they done to her, these people, that she should scarcely have been
+able to crawl across the platform? What had they done to make her accept
+their bidding, and leave England without a word or message to any of us?
+It had not been of her own choice, I was sure enough of that.
+
+"Come!" Feurgeres said quietly.
+
+I followed him to the platform, where the saloon carriage and engine
+were already drawn up. Feurgeres brought with him his servant and all
+his luggage. A few curious porters and bystanders saw us start. No one,
+however, manifested any particular interest in us. There was no one
+whose business it seemed to be to watch us.
+
+I sat back in my corner and looked out into the darkness. Feurgeres,
+opposite to me, was leaning back with half-closed eyes. From his soft,
+regular breathing it seemed almost as though he slept. For me there was
+no thought of rest or sleep. I made plans only to discard them,
+rehearsed speeches, appeals, threats, only to realize their hopeless
+ineffectiveness. And underneath it all was a dull constant pain, the
+pain which stays.
+
+Our journey was about three-parts over when Feurgeres suddenly sat up in
+his seat, and opening his dressing-case, drew out a Continental
+timetable.
+
+"In a sense that station-master was right," he remarked, turning over
+the leaves. "We shall not reach Paris any the sooner for taking this
+special train. On the other hand, we shall have time to ascertain in
+Dover whether our friends really have gone on to Calais, or whether they
+by any chance changed their minds and took the Ostend boat. I sincerely
+trust that that course will not have presented itself to them."
+
+"Why?" I asked.
+
+"Somewhere on the journey," he remarked, "they must pause. They will
+have to exchange Isobel for the Princess Adelaide, and make their plans
+for the disposal of Isobel. If they should do this, say, in Brussels, we
+shall be at a great disadvantage. If, however, they should stay in
+Paris, we should be in a different position altogether. The chief of the
+police is my friend. I am known there, and can command as good service
+as the Archduchess herself. We must hope that it will be Paris. If so,
+we shall arrive--let me see, six hours behind them; but supposing they
+do break their connection, we shall have still five hours in Paris with
+them before they can get on. If they are cautious they will go to
+Illghera _via_ Brussels and their own country. If, however, they do not
+seriously regard the matter of pursuit they will go direct."
+
+A few moments later we came to a standstill in the town station.
+Feurgeres let down the window, and talked for a few minutes with the
+station-master. Then he resumed his seat.
+
+"We will go on to the quay," he said. "It is almost certain that our
+friends left by the Paris boat. We shall have four hours to wait, but we
+can secure our cabins, and perhaps sleep."
+
+We moved slowly on to the quay. A few enquiries there completely assured
+us. Midway across the Channel, plainly visible still, was a disappearing
+green light.
+
+"That's the _Marie Louise_, sir," a seaman told me. "Left here five and
+twenty minutes ago. The parties you were enquiring about boarded her
+right enough. The young lady had almost to be carried. She's the new
+turbine boat, and she ought to be across in about half an hour from
+now."
+
+Monsieur Feurgeres engaged the best cabin on the steamer, and his
+servant fitted me up a dressing-case with necessaries for the journey
+from his master's ample store. Then we went into the saloon, and had
+some supper. Afterwards we stood upon deck watching the passengers come
+on board from the train which had just arrived. Suddenly I seized
+Feurgeres by the arm and dragged him inside the cabin.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide!" I exclaimed. "Look!"
+
+We saw her distinctly from the window. She was dressed very plainly, and
+wore a heavy veil which she had just raised. She stood within a few feet
+of us, talking to the maid, who seemed to be her sole companion.
+
+"Find my cabin, Mason," she ordered. "I shall lie down directly we
+start. I am always ill upon these wretched night boats. It is a most
+unpleasant arrangement, this."
+
+Feurgeres looked at me and smiled.
+
+"Isobel's features," he remarked, "but not her voice. You see, we are on
+the right track. We must contrive to keep out of that young lady's way."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To keep out of the way of the Princess Adelaide was easy enough,
+presuming that she kept her word and remained in her cabin. I watched
+her enter it and close the door. Afterwards I wrapped myself in an
+ulster of Feurgeres' and went out on deck. It was a fine night, but
+windy, and a little dark. I lit a pipe and leaned over the side. I had
+scarcely been there two minutes when I heard a light footstep coming
+along the deck and pause a few feet away. A girl's voice addressed me.
+
+"Can you tell me what that light is?"
+
+I knew who it was at once. It was the most hideous ill-fortune. I
+answered gruffly, and without turning my head.
+
+"Folkestone Harbour!"
+
+I thought that after that she must surely go away. But she did nothing
+of the sort. She came and leaned over the rail by my side.
+
+"You are Mr. Arnold Greatson, are you not?"
+
+My heart sank, and I could have cursed my folly for leaving my cabin.
+However, since I was discovered there was nothing to do but to make the
+best of it.
+
+"Yes, I am Arnold Greatson," I admitted.
+
+"I wonder if you know who I am?" she asked.
+
+"You are the Princess Adelaide of----"
+
+She held up her hand.
+
+"Stop, please! I see that you know. For some mysterious reason I am
+travelling almost alone, and under another name which I do not like at
+all. You are very fond of my cousin, Isobel, are you not, Mr. Greatson?"
+
+I tried to see her face, but it was half turned away from me. Her voice,
+however, reminded me a little of Isobel's.
+
+"Yes," I admitted slowly. "You see, she was under our care for some
+time, and we all grew very fond of her."
+
+"But you--you especially, I mean," she went on. "Do not be afraid of me,
+Mr. Greatson. I know that my mother is very angry with you, and has
+tried to take Isobel away, but if I were she I would not come. I think
+that she must be very much happier as she is."
+
+"I--I am too old," I said slowly, "to dare to be fond of anyone--in that
+way."
+
+"How foolish!" she murmured. "Do you know, Mr. Greatson, that I am only
+eighteen, and that I am betrothed to the King of Saxonia. He is over
+forty, very short, and he has horrid turned-up black moustaches. He is
+willing to marry me because I am to have a great fortune, and my mother
+is willing for me to marry him because I shall be a Queen. But that is
+not happiness, is it?"
+
+"I am afraid not," I answered.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she continued, "I feel that I can talk to you like this
+because I have read your books. I like the heroes so much, and of course
+I like the stories too. I think that Isobel is very wise not to want to
+come back to Waldenburg. I wish that I were free as she is, and had not
+to do things because I am a Princess. And I am sure that she is very
+fond of you."
+
+"Princess----" I began.
+
+She stopped me.
+
+"If you knew how I hated that word!" she murmured. "I may never see you
+again, you know, after this evening, so it really does not matter--but
+would you mind calling me Adelaide?"
+
+"Adelaide, then," I said, "may I ask you a question?"
+
+"As many as you like."
+
+"Do you know where Isobel is now?"
+
+Her surprise was obviously genuine.
+
+"Why, of course not! Is she not at your house in London?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"She is a few hours in front of us on her way to Paris," I said, "with
+your mother and the Baron von Leibingen and the rest of your people. She
+is travelling in your clothes and in your name. That is why you were
+left to follow as quietly as possible."
+
+She laid her hand upon my arm. Her eyes were full of tears, and her
+voice shook.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry," she cried softly, "so very sorry. Why cannot my
+mother leave her alone with you? I am sure she would be happier."
+
+"I think so too," I answered. "That is why I am going to try and fetch
+her back."
+
+She looked at me very anxiously.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "you do not know my mother. If she makes up
+her mind to anything she is terribly hard to change. I do hope that you
+succeed, though. Why ever did Isobel leave you?"
+
+"She received a forged letter, written in somebody else's name," I said.
+"How your mother has induced her to stay since, though, I do not know.
+She looked very ill at Charing Cross, and she had to be helped into the
+train."
+
+The Princess Adelaide went very white.
+
+"It was she I heard this morning--cry out," she murmured. "They told me
+it was one of the servants who had had an accident. Mr. Greatson, this
+is terrible!"
+
+She turned her head away, and I could see that she was crying.
+
+"You must not distress yourself," I said kindly. "I daresay that it will
+all come right. You will see Isobel, I think, in Paris. If you do, will
+you give her a message?"
+
+"Of course, I will," she answered.
+
+"Tell her that we are close at hand, and that we have powerful friends,"
+I whispered. "We shall get to see her somehow or other, and if she
+chooses to return she shall!"
+
+"Yes. Anything else?"
+
+"I think not," I answered.
+
+"Do you not want to send her your love?" she asked, with a faint smile.
+
+"Of course," I said slowly.
+
+She leaned a little over towards me.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "do you know what I should want you to do if I
+were Isobel--what I am quite sure that she must want you to do now?"
+
+"Tell me!"
+
+"Why, marry her! She would be quite safe then, wouldn't she?"
+
+I tried to smile in a non-committal sort of way, but I am afraid there
+were things in my face beyond my power to control.
+
+"You forget," I answered. "I am thirty-four, and Isobel is only
+eighteen. Besides, there is someone else who wants to marry Isobel. He
+is young, and they have been great friends always. I think that she is
+fond of him."
+
+She shook her head doubtfully.
+
+"I do not think that thirty-four is old at all, and if you care for
+Isobel, I would not let anyone else marry her," she declared. "Is that
+Calais?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I think that I will go now in case my maid should see us together," she
+said. "Oh, I can tell you where we are going in Paris. Will that help
+you?"
+
+"Of course it will," I answered.
+
+"Number 17, Rue Henriette," she whispered. "Please come a little further
+this way a moment."
+
+I obeyed her at once. We were quite out of sight now, in the quietest
+corner of the ship.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "you will think that I am a very strange girl.
+I am going to be married in a few months to a man I do not care for one
+little bit, and it seems to me that that will be the end of my life. I
+want you to marry Isobel, and I hope you will both be very
+happy--and--will you please kiss me once? I am Isobel's cousin, you
+know."
+
+I leaned forward and touched her lips. Then I grasped her hands warmly.
+
+"You are very, very kind," I said gratefully, "and you can't think how
+much happier you have made me feel. If only--you were not a Princess!"
+
+She flitted away into the darkness with a little broken laugh. She
+passed me half an hour later in the Customs' house with a languid
+impassive stare which even her mother could not have excelled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Feurgeres looked at me in surprise.
+
+"What have you been doing to yourself?" he exclaimed. "Is the fresh air
+so wonderful a tonic, or have you been asleep and dreaming of Paradise?"
+
+I laughed.
+
+"The sea air was well enough," I answered, "but I have been having a
+most interesting conversation."
+
+"With whom?" he asked.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide!"
+
+He drew a little closer to me.
+
+"You are serious?"
+
+"Undoubtedly. Listen!"
+
+Then I told him of my conversation with Isobel's cousin, excepting the
+last episode. His gratification was scarcely equal to mine. He was a
+little thoughtful for some time afterwards. I am sure he felt that I had
+been indiscreet.
+
+"The Princess Adelaide," I said, "will not betray us. I am sure of that.
+She will tell her mother nothing."
+
+"These Waldenburgs," he answered gravely, "are a crafty race. It is in
+their blood. They cannot help it."
+
+"Isobel is a Waldenburg," I reminded him.
+
+"She is her mother's daughter," he said. "There is always one alien
+temperament in a family."
+
+"In this case," I declared, "two!"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"We shall soon know," he said, "whether this young lady is honest or
+not. A man will meet us at Paris with an exact record of the doings of
+the Archduchess and her party. We shall know then where Isobel is. If
+the address is the same as that given you by the Princess Adelaide, I
+will believe in her."
+
+"But not till then?" I remarked, smiling.
+
+"Not till then!" he assented.
+
+Before we left Calais, Feurgeres sent more telegrams, and for an hour
+afterwards he sat opposite to me with wide-open eyes, seeing nothing, as
+was very evident, save the images created by his own thoughts. As we
+reached Amiens, however, he spoke to me.
+
+"You had better try and get some sleep," he said. "You may have little
+time for rest in Paris."
+
+"And you?" I asked.
+
+"It is another matter," he answered. "I am accustomed to sleeping very
+little; and besides, it is probable that this affair may become one
+which it will be necessary for you to follow up alone. The sight of me,
+or the mention of my name, is like poison to all the Waldenburgs. They
+would only be the more bitter and hard to deal with if they knew that I,
+too, had joined in the chase. I hope to be able to do my share
+secretly."
+
+I followed his suggestion, and slept more or less fitfully all the way
+to Paris. I was awakened to find that the train had come to a
+standstill. We were already in the station, and as I hastily collected
+my belongings I saw that Feurgeres had left me, and was standing on the
+platform talking earnestly to a pale, dark young Frenchman, sombrely
+dressed and of insignificant appearance. I joined him just as his
+companion departed. He turned towards me with a peculiar smile.
+
+"My apologies to the Princess," he said. "The address is correct. They
+have gone to a suite of rooms belonging to the Baron von Leibingen."
+
+"They are there still, then?" I exclaimed.
+
+"They are there still," Feurgeres assented, "and they show no immediate
+signs of moving on. They are apparently waiting for someone--perhaps for
+the Princess Adelaide. Inside the house and out they are being closely
+watched, and directly their plans are made I shall know of them."
+
+I looked, as I felt, a little surprised. Feurgeres smiled.
+
+"I am at home here," he said, "and I have friends. Come! My own
+apartments are scarcely a stone's-throw away from the Rue Henriette.
+Estere will see our things safely through the Customs."
+
+We drove through the cold grey twilight to the Rue de St. Antoine, where
+Feurgeres' apartments were. To my surprise servants were at hand
+expecting us, and I was shown at once into a suite of rooms, in one of
+which was a great marble bath all ready for use. Some coffee and a
+change of clothes were brought me. All my wants seemed to have been
+anticipated and provided for. I had always imagined Feurgeres to be a
+man of very simple and homely tastes, but there were no traces of it in
+his home. He showed me some of the rooms while we waited for breakfast,
+rooms handsomely furnished and decorated, full of art treasures and
+curios of many sorts collected from many countries.
+
+But, in a sense, it was like a dead house. One felt that it might be a
+dwelling of ghosts. There were nowhere any signs of the rooms being
+used, the habitable air was absent. Everything was in perfect order.
+There was no dust, none of the chilliness of disuse. Yet one seemed to
+feel everywhere the sadness of places which exist only for their
+history. One door only remained closed, and that Feurgeres unlocked with
+a little key which hung from his chain. But he did not invite me to
+enter.
+
+"You will excuse me for a few moments," he said. "My housekeeper will
+show you into the breakfast-room. Please do not wait for me."
+
+An old lady, very primly dressed in black, and wearing a curious cap
+with long white strings, bustled me away. As Feurgeres opened the door
+of the room, in front of which we had been standing, the air seemed
+instantly sweet with the perfume of flowers. The old lady sighed as she
+poured me out some coffee. I am ashamed to say that I felt, and
+doubtless I looked, curious.
+
+"Would it not be as well for me to wait for Monsieur Feurgeres?" I
+asked. "He will not be very long, I suppose?"
+
+The old lady shook her head sadly.
+
+"Ah! but one cannot say!" she answered. "Monsieur had better begin his
+breakfast."
+
+"Your master has perhaps someone waiting to see him?" I remarked.
+
+Madame Tobain--she told me her name--shook her head once more. She spoke
+softly, almost as though she were speaking of something sacred.
+
+"Monsieur did not know, perhaps--it was the chamber of Madame. Always
+Monsieur spends several hours a day there when he is in Paris, and
+always after he has performed at the theatre he returns immediately to
+sit there. No one else is allowed to enter; only I, when Monsieur is
+away, am permitted once a day to fill it with fresh flowers--flowers
+always the most expensive and rare. Ah, such devotion, and for the dead,
+too! One finds it seldom, indeed! It is the great artists only who can
+feel like that!"
+
+She wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron, dropped me a curtsey,
+and withdrew. Feurgeres came in presently, and I avoided looking at him
+for the first few minutes. To tell the truth, there was a lump in my own
+throat. When he spoke, however, his tone was as usual.
+
+"I shall ask you," he said, "to stay indoors, but to be prepared to
+start away at a moment's notice. I am going to make a few enquiries
+myself."
+
+His voice drew my eyes to his face, and I was astonished at his
+appearance. The skin seemed tightly drawn about his cheeks, and he was
+very white. As though in contradiction to his ill-looks, however, his
+eyes were unusually brilliant and clear, and his manner almost buoyant.
+
+"Forgive me, Monsieur Feurgeres," I said, "but it seems to me that you
+had better rest for a while. You have been travelling longer than I
+have, and you are tired."
+
+He smiled at me almost gaily.
+
+"On the contrary," he declared, "I never felt more vigorous. I----"
+
+He stopped short, and walked the length of the room. When he returned he
+was very grave, but the smile was still upon his lips. He laid his hand
+almost affectionately upon my shoulder.
+
+"My dear friend," he said softly, "I think that you are the only one to
+whom I have felt it possible to speak of the things which lie so near my
+heart. For I think that you, too, are one of those who know, and who
+must know, what it is to suffer. We who carry the iron in our hearts,
+you know, are sometimes drawn together. The things which we may hide
+from the world we cannot hide from one another. Only for you there is
+hope, for me there has been the wonderful past. People have pitied me
+often, my friend, for what they have called my lonely life. They little
+know! I am not a sentimentalist. I speak of real things. Isobel, my
+wife, died to the world and was buried. To me she lives always. Just
+now--I have been with her. She sat in her old chair, and her eyes smiled
+again their marvellous welcome to me. Only--and this is why I speak to
+you of these things--there was a difference."
+
+He was silent for a few minutes. When he continued, his voice was a
+little softer but no less firm.
+
+"Dear friend," he said, "I will be honest. When Isobel was taken from me
+I had days and hours of hideous agony. But it was the craving for her
+body only, the touch of her lips, the caress of her hands, the sound of
+her voice. Her spirit has been with me always. At first, perhaps, her
+coming was faint and indefinable, but with every day I realized her more
+fully. I called her, and she sat in her box and watched me play, and
+kissed her roses to me. I close the door upon the world and call her
+back to her room, call her into my arms, whisper the old words, call her
+those names which she loves best--and she is there, and all my burden of
+sorrow falls away. My friend, a great love can do this! A great, pure
+love can mock even at the grave."
+
+I clasped his hand in mine.
+
+"I think," I said, "that I will never pity you again. You have triumphed
+even over Fate--even over those terrible, relentless laws which
+sometimes make a ghastly nightmare of life even to the happiest of us.
+You have turned sorrow into joy. It is a great deed. You have made my
+own suffering seem almost a vulgar thing."
+
+"Ah, no!" he said, "for you, too, there is hope. You, too, know that we
+need never be the idle, resistless slaves of Fate--like those others.
+Will and faith and purity can kindle a magic flame to lighten the
+darkness of the greatest sorrow. I speak to you of these
+things--now--because I think that the end is near."
+
+He suddenly sank into a chair. I looked at him in alarm, but his face
+was radiant. There was no sign of any illness there.
+
+"You are young, Arnold Greatson," he said. "They tell me that you will
+be famous. Yet you are not one of those to turn your face to the wall
+because the greatest gift of life is withheld from you. That is why I
+have lifted the curtain of my own days. I know you, and I know that you
+will triumph. It is a world of compensations after all for those who
+have the wit to understand."
+
+I think that he had more to say to me, but we were interrupted. There
+was a knock at the door, and the man entered whom I had seen talking
+with Feurgeres upon the platform of the railway station. Feurgeres rose
+at once, calm and prepared. They talked for a while so rapidly that I
+could not follow them. Then he turned to me.
+
+"They are preparing for a move," he announced. "They are going south as
+though for Marseilles and Illghera, but they insist upon a special
+train. They have declined a saloon attached to the train de luxe, and
+Monsieur Estere here has doubts as to their real destination. Wait here
+until I return. Be prepared for a journey."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They left me alone. I lit a cigarette and settled down to read. In less
+than half an hour, however, I was disturbed. There was a knock at the
+door, and Madame Tobain entered.
+
+"There is a lady here, sir, who desires to see Monsieur!" she announced.
+
+A fair, slight woman in a long travelling cloak brushed past her. She
+raised her veil, and I started at once to my feet. It was Lady Delahaye.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+It did not need a word from Lady Delahaye to acquaint me fully with what
+had happened. Indeed, my only wonder had been that this knowledge had
+not come to her before. She greeted me with a smile, but her face was
+full of purpose.
+
+"Where is he?" she asked simply.
+
+"Not here," I answered.
+
+She seated herself, and began to unpin the travelling veil from her hat.
+
+"So I perceive," she remarked. "He will return?"
+
+"Yes," I admitted, "he will return."
+
+She folded the veil upon her knee and looked across at me thoughtfully.
+
+"What an idiot I have been!" she murmured. "After all, that emerald
+necklace might easily have been mine."
+
+"I am not so sure about that," I answered. "I think I know what is in
+your mind, but I might remind you that suspicion is one thing and proof
+another."
+
+"The motive," she answered, "is the difficult thing, and that is found.
+I suppose the police are good for something. They should be able to work
+backwards from a certainty."
+
+"Are you," I asked, "going to employ the police? Don't you think that,
+for the good of everyone, and even for your husband's own sake, the
+thing had better remain where it is?"
+
+She laughed scornfully.
+
+"You would have me let the man go free who shot another in the back
+treacherously and without warning?" she exclaimed. "Thank you for your
+advice, Arnold Greatson. I have a different purpose in my mind."
+
+I moved my chair and drew a little nearer to her.
+
+"Lady Delahaye--" I began.
+
+"The use of my Christian name," she murmured, "would perhaps make your
+persuasions more effective. At any rate, you might try. I have never
+forbidden you to use it."
+
+"If you have any regard for me at all, then, Eileen," I said, "you will
+think seriously before you take any steps against Monsieur Feurgeres.
+Remember that he had, or thought he had, very strong reasons for acting
+as he did. Looking at it charitably, your husband's proceedings were
+open to very grave misconstruction. There will be a great deal of
+unpleasant scandal if the story is raked up again, and Isobel's whole
+history will be told in court. How will that suit the Archduchess?"
+
+"Not at all," Lady Delahaye admitted frankly; "but the Archduchess is
+not the only person to be considered. You seem to forget that this is no
+trifling matter. It is a murderer whom you are shielding, the man who
+killed my husband whom you would have me let go free."
+
+"Technically," I admitted, "not actually. Your husband did not die of
+his wound. He was in a very bad state of health."
+
+"I cannot recognize the distinction," Lady Delahaye declared coldly. "He
+died from shock following it."
+
+"Consider for a moment the position of Monsieur Feurgeres," I pleaded.
+"Isobel was the only child of the woman whom he had dearly loved. The
+care of her was a charge upon his conscience and upon his honour. Any
+open association with him he felt might be to her detriment later on in
+life. All that he could do was to watch over her from a distance. He saw
+her, as he imagined, in danger. What course was open to him? Forget for
+the moment that Major Delahaye was your husband. Put yourself in the
+place of Feurgeres. What could he do but strike?"
+
+"He broke the law," she said coldly, "the law of men and of God. He must
+take the consequences. I am not a vindictive woman. I would have
+forgiven him for making a scene, for striking my husband, or taking away
+the child by force. But he went too far."
+
+"Have you," I asked, "been to the police?"
+
+"Not yet."
+
+I caught at this faint hope.
+
+"You came here to see him first? You have something to propose--some
+compromise?"
+
+She shook her head slowly.
+
+"Between Monsieur Feurgeres and myself," she said, "there can be no
+question of anything of the sort. There is nothing which he could offer
+me, nothing within his power to offer, which could influence me in the
+slightest."
+
+"Then why," I asked, "are you here?"
+
+"To see you," she answered. "I want to ask you this, Arnold. You wish
+Monsieur Feurgeres to go free. You wish to stay my hand. What price are
+you willing to pay?"
+
+I looked at her blankly. As yet her meaning was hidden from me.
+
+"Any price!" I declared.
+
+Then she leaned over towards me.
+
+"What is he to you, Arnold--this man?" she asked softly. "You are
+wonderfully loyal to some of your friends."
+
+"I know the story of his life," I answered, "and it is enough. Besides,
+he is an old man, and I fancy that his health is failing. Let him end
+his days in peace. You will never regret it, Eileen. If my gratitude is
+worth anything to you----"
+
+"I want," she interrupted, "more than your gratitude."
+
+We sat looking at each other for a moment in a silence which I for my
+part could not have broken. I read in her face, in her altered
+expression, and the softened gleam of her eyes, all that I was expected
+to read. I said nothing.
+
+"It is not so very many years, Arnold," she went on, "since you cared
+for me, or said that you did. I have not changed so much, have I? Give
+up this senseless pursuit of a child. Oh, you guard your secret very
+bravely, but you cannot hide the truth from me. It is not all
+philanthropy which has made you such a squire of dames. You believe that
+you care for her--that child! Arnold, it is a foolish fancy. You belong
+to different hemispheres; you are twice her age. It will be years before
+she can even realize what life and love may be. Give it all up. She is
+in safe hands now. Come back to London with me, and Monsieur Feurgeres
+shall go free."
+
+"Monsieur Feurgeres, Madame, thanks you!"
+
+He had entered the room softly, and stood at the end of the screen. Lady
+Delahaye's face darkened.
+
+"May I ask, sir, how long you have been playing the eavesdropper?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Not so long, Madame, as I should have desired," he answered, "yet long
+enough to understand this. My young friend here seems to be trying to
+bargain with you for my safety. Madame, I cannot allow it. If your
+silence is indeed to be bought, the terms must be arranged between you
+and me."
+
+She looked at him a trifle insolently.
+
+"I have already explained to Mr. Greatson," she remarked, "that
+bargaining between you and me is impossible because you have nothing to
+offer which could tempt me."
+
+"And Mr. Greatson has?"
+
+"That, Monsieur," she answered, "is between Mr. Greatson and myself."
+
+Monsieur Feurgeres stood his ground.
+
+"Lady Delahaye," he said, "I want you to listen to me for a moment. It
+is not a justification which I am attempting. It is just a word or two
+of explanation, to which I trust you will not refuse to listen."
+
+"If you think it worth while," she answered coldly.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Who can tell! I have the fancy, however, to assure you that what took
+place that day at the Cafe Grand was not the impulsive act of a man
+inspired with a homicidal mania, but was the necessary outcome of a long
+sequence of events. You know the peculiar relations existing between
+Isobel and myself. I had not the right to approach her, or to assume any
+overt act of guardianship. Any association with me would at once have
+imperilled any chance she may have possessed of being restored to her
+rightful position at Waldenburg. I accordingly could only watch over her
+by means of spies. This I have always done."
+
+"With what object, Monsieur Feurgeres?" Lady Delahaye asked. "You could
+never have interfered."
+
+"The care of Isobel--the distant care of her--was a charge laid upon me
+by her mother," Feurgeres answered. "It was therefore sacred. I trusted
+to Fate to find those who might intervene where I dared not, and Fate
+sent me at a very critical moment Mr. Arnold Greatson. Lady Delahaye, to
+speak ill of a woman is no pleasant task--to speak ill of the dead is
+more painful still. Yet these are facts. The Archduchess was willing to
+go to any lengths to prevent Isobel's creditable and honourable
+appearance in Waldenburg. It was the Archduchess who, after what she has
+termed her sister's disgrace, sent Isobel secretly to the convent, and
+your husband, Lady Delahaye, who took her there. It was your husband who
+brought her away, and it was the announcement of his visit to the
+convent, and an ill-advised confidence to a friend at his club in Paris,
+which brought me home from America. I will only say that I had reason to
+suspect Major Delahaye as the guardian of Isobel--even the Archduchess
+was ignorant of the position which he had assumed. Since I became a
+player there are many who forget that my family is noble. Major Delahaye
+was one of these. He returned a letter which I wrote to him with a
+contemptuous remark only. My friend the Duc d'Autrien saw him on my
+behalf. From him your husband received a second and a very plain
+warning. He disregarded it. Once more I wrote. I warned him that if he
+took Isobel from the convent he went to his death. That is all!"
+
+There was a silence. Lady Delahaye was very pale. She looked imploringly
+at me.
+
+"Monsieur Feurgeres," she said, "I am not your judge. I do not wish to
+seem vindictive. Will you leave me with Mr. Greatson for a few minutes?"
+
+"Madame, I cannot," he answered gravely. "Apart from the fact that I
+decline to have my safety purchased for me, especially by one to whom I
+already owe too much, it is necessary that Mr. Greatson leaves this
+house within the next quarter of an hour."
+
+I sprang to my feet. I forgot Lady Delahaye. I forgot that this man's
+life and freedom rested at her disposal. The great selfishness was upon
+me.
+
+"I am ready!" I exclaimed.
+
+Lady Delahaye looked, and she understood. Slowly she rose to her feet
+and crossed the room towards the door. I was tongue-tied. I made no
+protest--asked no questions. Feurgeres opened the door for her and
+summoned his servant, but no word of any sort passed between them. Then
+he turned suddenly to me. His tone was changed. He was quick and alert.
+
+"Arnold," he said, "the rest is with you. They are taking her to the
+convent. Madame Richard is here, and the Cardinal de Vaux. They have a
+plot--but never mind that. If she passes the threshold of the convent
+she is lost. It is for you to prevent it."
+
+"I am ready!" I cried.
+
+He opened a desk and tossed me a small revolver.
+
+"Estere waits below in the carriage. He will drive with you to the
+station. You take the ordinary express to Marcon. There an automobile
+waits for you, and you must start for the convent. The driver has the
+route. Remember this. You must go alone. You must overtake them. Use
+force if necessary. If you fail--Isobel is lost!"
+
+"I shall not fail!" I answered grimly.
+
+"Bring her back, Arnold," he said, with a sudden change in his tone. "I
+want to see her once more."
+
+I left him there, and glancing upwards from the street as the carriage
+drove off, I waved my hand to the slim black figure at the window, whose
+wan, weary eyes watched our departure with an expression which at the
+time I could not fathom. It was not until I was actually in the train
+that I remembered what Lady Delahaye's silent departure might mean for
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Our plans were skilfully enough laid, but the Archduchess also had
+missed nothing. We rushed through the village of Argueil without having
+seen any sign of the carriage, and it was not until we had reached the
+vineyard-bordered road beyond that we saw it at last climbing the last
+hill to the convent.
+
+"Shall we catch it?" I gasped.
+
+The _chauffeur_ only smiled.
+
+"Monsieur may rest assured," he answered, changing into his fourth
+speed, notwithstanding the slight ascent.
+
+Half-way up the hill we were barely one hundred yards behind. The man
+glanced at me for instructions.
+
+"Blow your horn," I said.
+
+He obeyed. The carriage drew to the side of the road. We rushed by, and
+I caught a glimpse of three faces. My spirits rose. There was only the
+Baron to deal with. Madame Richard and Isobel were the other occupants
+of the carriage.
+
+"Stop, and draw the car across the road!" I ordered.
+
+The man obeyed. I sprang to the ground. The Baron had his head out of
+the window, and the driver was flogging his horses.
+
+"If you do not stop," I called out, "I shall shoot your horses."
+
+The driver took no notice. He had flogged his horses into a gallop, and
+was coming straight at me. I fired, and one of the horses, after a wild
+plunge came down, dragging the other with him, and breaking the pole.
+The driver was thrown on to the top of them and rolled off into the
+hedge, cursing volubly. The Baron leaned out of the window, and he had
+something in his hand which gleamed like silver in the sunlight.
+
+"I have had enough of you, my young friend," he said fiercely, and
+instantly fired.
+
+An unseen hand struck his arm as he pulled the trigger. I felt my hat
+quiver upon my head as I sprung forward. The Baron had no time to fire
+again. I caught him by the throat and dragged him into the road.
+
+"I have had more than enough of you, you blackguard," I muttered, and I
+shook him till he groaned, and threw him across the road.
+
+Isobel stretched out her arms to me--Isobel herself, but how pale and
+changed!
+
+"Arnold, Arnold, take me away!" she moaned.
+
+I would have lifted her out, but Madame Richard had seized her.
+
+"The child is vowed," she said. "You shall not touch her. She belongs to
+God."
+
+"Then give her to me," I cried, "for I swear she is nearer to Heaven in
+my arms than yours."
+
+The woman's black eyes flashed terrible things at me, and she wound
+herself round Isobel with a marvellous strength. For a moment I was
+helpless.
+
+"Madame," I said, "I have never yet raised my hand against a woman, but
+if you do not release that girl this moment I shall have to forget your
+sex."
+
+"Never!" she shrieked. "Help! Baron! Cocher!"
+
+Some blue-bloused men looked up from their work in the vineyards a long
+way off. It was no time for hesitation. I set my teeth, and I caught
+hold of the woman's arms. Her bones cracked in my hands before she let
+go. Isobel at last was free!
+
+"Jump up and get in the automobile, Isobel!" I said. "Bear up, dear! It
+is only for a moment now."
+
+Half fainting she staggered out and groped her way across the road. Once
+she nearly fell, but my _chauffeur_ leaped down and caught her. Then
+Madame Richard looked in my eyes and cursed me with slow, solemn words.
+
+I sprang away from her. She followed. I jumped into the automobile. She
+stood in front of it and dared us to start. The driver backed a little,
+suddenly shot forward, and with a wonderful curve avoided her. She ran
+to meet the peasants who were streaming now across the fields. We could
+hear for a few minutes her shrill cries to them. Then the vineyards
+became patchwork, and the still air a rushing wind. Our _chauffeur_ sat
+grim and motionless, like a figure of fate, and we did our forty miles
+an hour.
+
+"You have orders?" I asked him once.
+
+"But yes, Monsieur," he answered. "We go to Paris--and avoid the
+telegraph offices."
+
+All the while Isobel was only partially conscious. Gradually, however,
+her colour became more natural, and at last she opened her eyes and
+smiled at me. Her fingers faintly pressed mine. She said nothing then,
+but in about half an hour she made an effort to sit up.
+
+"Dear Arnold," she murmured, "you are indeed my guardian. Oh----"
+
+She broke off, and shuddered violently.
+
+"Please don't try to talk yet," I said. "I shouldn't have been much of a
+guardian, should I, if I hadn't fetched you out of this scrape? Besides,
+it was Monsieur Feurgeres who planned everything."
+
+"Arnold," she murmured, "I--haven't eaten anything for some time. They
+put things in my food to make me drowsy, so I dared not."
+
+Under my breath I made large demands upon my stock of profanity. Then I
+leaned over and spoke to the _chauffeur_. We were passing through a
+small town, and he at once slackened pace and pulled up at a small
+restaurant. With the first mouthful of soup Isobel's youth and strength
+seemed to reassert themselves. After a cutlet and a glass of wine she
+had colour, and began to talk. She even grumbled when I denied her
+coffee, and hurried her off again. In the automobile she came close to
+my side, and with a shyness quite new to her linked her arm in mine. So
+we sped once more on our way to Paris.
+
+Conversation, had Isobel been fit for it, was scarcely possible. But in
+a disjointed sort of way she tried to tell me things.
+
+"I was inside the house," she said, "and the door of the room was locked
+before I knew that Monsieur Feurgeres was not there--that the letter was
+not a true one. My aunt came and talked to me. She tried to be kind at
+first. Afterwards she was very angry. She said that my grandfather was
+an old man, that he wished to see me before he died. I must go with her
+at once. I said that I would go if I might see you first, but that only
+made her more angry still. She said that my life had been a disgrace to
+our family, that I must not mention your name, that I must speak as
+though I had just left the convent. Then I, too, lost my temper. I said
+that I would not go to Illghera. I did not want to see my grandfather,
+or any of my relations. They had left me alone so many years that now I
+could do without them altogether. She never interrupted me. She looked
+at me all the time with a still, cold smile. When I had finished she
+said only, 'We shall see,' and she left me alone. They brought me food,
+and after I had taken some of it I was ill. After that everything seemed
+like a dream. I simply moved about as they told me, and I did not seem
+to care much what happened. Then in Paris Adelaide came into my room.
+She brought me some chocolate, and she told me that you were near. I
+think that I should have died but for her. I began to listen to what
+they said. I found out that they never meant to take me to Illghera. It
+was the convent all the time. Adelaide brought me more chocolate, and
+kissed me. Then I made up my mind to fight. I would not take their food.
+I told myself all the time that I was not ill--I would not be ill. That
+is why I was able to look out for you, to strike at the Baron when he
+tried to shoot you, and to walk by myself. Arnold, why does my aunt hate
+me so?"
+
+I did not answer her, for even as she talked her voice grew fainter and
+fainter, and in a moment or two she was in a dead sleep. Her head fell
+upon my shoulder, her hand rested in mine. So she remained until we
+reached the outskirts of Paris. Then the noise of passing vehicles, and
+the altered motion of the car over the large cobble-stones woke her. She
+pressed my arm.
+
+"I am safe, Arnold?" she murmured, with a shade of anxiety still in her
+tone.
+
+"Quite," I assured her.
+
+In a few moments we turned into the Rue de St. Antoine and drew up
+before Monsieur Feurgeres' house. In the hall we met Tobain. I could see
+that she had been weeping, and her tone, as she took me a little on one
+side, was full of anxiety.
+
+"Monsieur," she murmured, "I am afraid----"
+
+I stopped her.
+
+"The young lady first," I said. "She has been ill. Where shall I take
+her?"
+
+She threw open the door of the dining-room. A small round table,
+elegantly appointed, was spread with such a supper as Feurgeres knew
+well how to order. There was a gold foiled bottle, flowers, salads and
+fruits. Tobain nodded vigorously as she drew up a chair for Isobel.
+
+"It was Monsieur himself who ordered everything," she exclaimed. "He was
+so particular that everything should be of the best, and the wine he
+fetched himself."
+
+"Where is Monsieur Feurgeres?" I asked, struck by some note of hidden
+feeling in her tone.
+
+"I will take you to him," she answered, "if Mademoiselle will wait
+here."
+
+In the hall she no longer concealed her fears.
+
+"Monsieur," she said, "I am afraid. Soon after you had left, and the
+master had given his orders for the supper, he called me to him. He was
+standing before the door of Madame's chamber, the room which it is not
+permitted to enter, and his hands and arms were full of flowers. He had
+been to the florists himself, I knew, for there were more than usual.
+'Tobain,' he said, 'always, as you know, I lock the door of this room
+when I enter. To-day I shall not do so. But you must understand that no
+one is permitted to enter but my friend, Mr. Arnold Greatson, who will
+return this evening. Those are my orders, Tobain.' 'But, Monsieur,
+dejeuner?' 'Remember, Tobain--Mr. Arnold Greatson only.' Then I caught a
+glimpse of his face, Monsieur, and I was afraid. I have been afraid ever
+since. It was the face of a young man, so brilliant, so eager. I was at
+my master's marriage, and the look was there then. He went in and he
+closed the door, and since then, Monsieur, I have heard no sound, and
+many hours have passed. Monsieur will please enter quickly."
+
+For myself, I shared, too, Tobain's nameless apprehensions. I left her,
+and knocked softly at the door. There was no answer. So I entered.
+
+The room was in darkness, but the opening of the door touched a spring
+under the carpet, and several heavily-shaded electric lamps filled the
+apartment with a soft dim light. Monsieur Feurgeres was sitting opposite
+to me, his eyes closed, a faint smile upon his lips. He had the air of a
+man who slept with a good conscience, and whose dreams were of the
+pleasantest. Close drawn to his was another chair, against which he
+leaned somewhat, and over the arm of which one hand was stretched,
+resting gently upon the soft mass of deep pink roses, whose perfume made
+fragrant the whole room. I spoke to him.
+
+"Monsieur Feurgeres," I cried, "it is done. I have brought Isobel. She
+is here."
+
+There was no answer. Had I, indeed, expected any, I could almost have
+believed that the smile, so light and delicate a thing, which quivered
+upon his pale lips, deepened a little as I spoke. But that, of course,
+was fancy, for Monsieur Feurgeres had won his heart's desire. Softly,
+and with fingers which felt almost sacrilegious, I broke off one of the
+blossoms with which the empty chair was laden, and with it in my hands I
+went back to Isobel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Isobel knew the whole truth. I told her one evening--the only one on
+which we two had dined out together alone. I think that the weather had
+tempted me to this indulgence, which I had up to now so carefully
+avoided. An early summer, with its long still evenings, had driven us
+out of doors. The leaves which rustled over our heads, stirred by the
+faintest of evening breezes, made sweeter music for us than the violins
+of the more fashionable restaurants, and no carved ceiling could be so
+beautiful as the star-strewn sky above. I omitted nothing. I laid the
+whole situation before her. When I had finished, she was very white and
+very quiet.
+
+"And now that you have told me all this," she asked, after a long
+silence, "does it remain for me to make my choice? Even now I do not see
+my way at all clearly. My relations do not want me. Monsieur Feurgeres
+has left me some money. Cannot I choose for myself how I shall spend my
+life?"
+
+"I am afraid," I answered, "that you may not. For my part I am bound to
+say, Isobel, that I think Monsieur Feurgeres was right. The letter of
+which I have told you, and which I found in my room, was written only a
+few hours before his death. At such a time a man sees clearly. You are
+not only yourself the Princess Isobel of Waldenburg, but you have a
+grandfather who has never recovered the loss of your mother and of you.
+It was not his fault or by his wish that you were sent away from
+Waldenburg. He has been deceived all the time by your aunt the
+Archduchess. I think that it is your duty to go to him."
+
+"You will come with me?" she murmured anxiously.
+
+"I shall not leave you," I answered slowly, "until you are in his
+charge. But afterwards----"
+
+"Well?" she interrupted anxiously.
+
+"Afterwards," I said, firmly keeping my eyes away from her and bracing
+myself for the effort, "our ways must lie apart, Isobel. You are the
+daughter of one of Europe's great families, you have a future which is
+almost a destiny. You must fulfil your obligations."
+
+I saw the look in her face, and my heart ached for her. I leaned forward
+in my chair.
+
+"Dear child," I said, "remember that this is what your mother would have
+wished. Monsieur Feurgeres believed this before he died, and I think
+that no one else could tell so well what she would have desired for you.
+Just now it may seem a little hard to go amongst strangers, to begin
+life all over again at your age. But, after all, we must believe that it
+is the right thing."
+
+Her face was turned away from me, but I could see that her cheeks were
+pale and her lips trembling. She said nothing, I fancied because she
+dared not trust her voice. Above the tops of the trees the yellow moon
+was slowly rising; from a few yards away came all the varied clatter of
+the Boulevard. And around us little groups and couples of people were
+gay--gay with the invincible, imperishable gaiety of the Frenchman who
+dines. The white-aproned waiters smiled as with deft hands they served a
+different course, or with a few wonderful touches removed all traces of
+the repast, and served coffee and liqueurs upon a spotless cloth. And
+amidst it all I watched with aching heart Isobel, the child of to-day,
+the woman of to-morrow, as she fought her battle.
+
+Her face seemed marble-white in the strange light, half natural, half
+artificial. When she spoke at last she still kept her face turned away
+from me.
+
+"The right thing!" she murmured. "That is what I want to do. I want to
+do what she would have wished. But just now it seems a little hard. I do
+not want to be a princess. I do not want to be rich. Monsieur Feurgeres
+has made me independent, and that is all I desire. I would like to be
+free to live always my own life--free like you and Allan, who paint and
+write and think, for I, too, would love so much to be an artist. But it
+seems that all these things have been decided for me--by you and
+Monsieur Feurgeres. No," she added quickly, "I know very well that you
+are right. I am willing to do what Monsieur Feurgeres thinks that my
+mother would have wished. I will go to my grandfather, and if he wishes
+it I will stay with him. But there will be a condition!"
+
+She turned at last and looked at me. The lines of her mouth had altered,
+the carriage of her head, a subtle change in her tone, told their own
+story. It was the Princess Isobel who spoke.
+
+"I will not have my mother ignored or spoken of as one who forgot her
+rank and station. These are all very well, but they are trifles compared
+with the great things of life. I am proud of my mother's courage, I am
+proud of the love which made his life, after she had gone, so beautiful.
+I know that you understand me, Arnold, but I do not think that those
+others will. They must bear with me, or I shall not stay."
+
+I looked at her wonderingly. It seemed to me so strange that, under our
+very eyes, the child whom I had led by the hand through Covent Garden on
+that bright Spring morning should have developed in thought and mind
+under our own roof, and with so little conscious instruction, into a
+woman of perceptions and character. Somewhere the seed of these things
+must have lain hidden. One knows so little, after all, of those whom one
+knows best.
+
+"It is a fair condition, Isobel," I said. "You are going into a world
+which is hedged about with conventions and prejudices. The things which
+are so clear to you and to me, they may look at differently. You must be
+received as your mother's daughter, and not as the King's
+granddaughter."
+
+She nodded gravely. Then she leaned across the table and looked into my
+eyes. Notwithstanding her pallor and her black dress, I was forced to
+realize what I ever forbade my thoughts to dwell upon--her great and
+increasing beauty. She looked into my eyes, and my heart stood still.
+
+"Arnold," she murmured, "shall you miss me?"
+
+My heel dug into the turf beneath my foot. My eyes fell from hers. I
+dared not look at her.
+
+"We shall all miss you so much," I said gravely, "that life will never
+be the same again to us. You made it beautiful for a little time, and
+your absence will be hard to bear. I suppose we shall all turn to hard
+work," I added, with an attempt at lightness. "Allan will paint his
+great picture, Arthur will invent a new motor and make his fortune, and
+I shall write my immortal story."
+
+"The story," she said, "which you would not show me?"
+
+Show her! How could I, when I knew that for one who read between the
+lines the story of my own suffering was there? My secret had been hard
+enough to keep faithfully, even from her to whom the truth, had she ever
+divined it, must have seemed so incredible.
+
+"That one, perhaps," I answered lightly, "or the next! Who can tell? One
+is never a judge of one's own work, you know."
+
+"Why would you not show me that story, Arnold?" she asked softly.
+
+I met her eyes fixed upon me with a peculiar intentness. I tried to
+escape them, but I could not. It was impossible for me to lie to her. My
+voice shook as I answered her.
+
+"Don't ask me, Isobel!" I said. "We all make mistakes sometime, you
+know. Not to show you that story when you asked me was one of mine."
+
+"If you had it here----?"
+
+"If I had it here I would show it you," I declared.
+
+She sighed. She did not seem altogether satisfied.
+
+"Sometimes, Arnold," she said thoughtfully, "you puzzle me very much.
+You treat me always as though I were a child; you keep me at arm's
+length always, as though there were between us some impassable barrier,
+as though it could never be possible for you to come into my world or
+for me to pass into yours. I know that you are wiser and cleverer than I
+am, but I can learn. I have been learning all the time. Are we always to
+remain at this great distance?"
+
+"Dear Isobel," I answered, "you forget that I am more than twice your
+age. You are eighteen, and I am thirty-four. I cannot make myself young
+like you. I cannot call back the years, however much I might wish to do
+so. And for the rest, I have been your guardian. I, a poor writer of no
+particular family and very meagre fortune, and you my ward, a princess
+standing at the opposite pole of life. I have had to remember these
+things, Isobel."
+
+She leaned a little further across the table. Again her eyes held mine,
+and I felt my heart beat like a boy's at the touch of her soft white
+fingers as she laid her hand on mine.
+
+"I wish," she murmured, "oh, I wish----"
+
+"So we've found you at last, have we?"
+
+Isobel's speech was never ended. Mabane and Arthur stood within a few
+feet of us, the former grave, the latter white and angry. I rose slowly
+to my feet and held out my hand to Allan.
+
+"I am glad to see you, Allan!" I said.
+
+He looked first at my hand, and afterwards at me. Then, with a sigh of
+relief, he took it and nearly wrung it off.
+
+"And I can't tell you how glad I am to see you both again!" he
+exclaimed. "We've heard strange stories--or rather Arthur has--from his
+friend Lady Delahaye, and at last we decided to come over and find out
+all about it for ourselves. Don't take any notice of Arthur," he added
+under his breath, "he's not quite himself."
+
+Arthur was standing with his back to me, talking to Isobel. Certainly
+her welcome was flattering enough. I realized with a sudden gravity that
+I had not heard her laugh like this since she had been in England.
+Arthur continued talking in a low, earnest tone.
+
+"How did you find us?" I asked Allan.
+
+"We called at the Rue de St. Antoine," he answered. "The housekeeper
+said that she had heard you talk about dining at one of these places.
+Arnold?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Why are you and Isobel staying on in Paris?"
+
+"First of all," I answered promptly, "we had to stay for the funeral,
+and now there are some legal formalities which cannot be finished until
+to-morrow. I am Monsieur Feurgeres' executor, Allan, and he has left me
+twenty thousand pounds. Isobel has the rest."
+
+"I am delighted, old chap," Mabane declared heartily. "In fact, I'll
+drink your health."
+
+I called a waiter and ordered liqueurs. Arthur took his with an ill
+grace, and he still avoided any direct speech with me. Isobel was
+evidently uneasy, and looked at me once or twice as though anxious that
+I should break up their _tete-a-tete_. But when I had paid the bill and
+we rose to go, Allan passed his arm through mine, and I was forced to
+let the two go on.
+
+"Let the boy have his chance," Allan said, pausing a little as we turned
+into the Boulevard. "He's in such a state that he won't listen to reason
+only from her."
+
+"But," I protested, "it is absurd for him to speak to her. Does he know
+who she is? The Princess Isobel of Waldenburg! Their little kingdom is
+small enough, but they play at royalty there."
+
+Allan nodded.
+
+"He knows. But he's a good-looking boy, and the girls have spoilt him a
+little. He has an idea that she cares for him."
+
+"Impossible!" I declared, sharply.
+
+"No! Not impossible!" Allan answered, shaking his head. "They have been
+together a great deal, you must remember, and Arthur can be a very
+delightful companion when he chooses. No, it isn't impossible, Arnold."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Isobel's future is already arranged," I said. "In three days' time I am
+taking her to her grandfather. If he receives her, as I believe that he
+will receive her, she will pass out of our lives as easily as she came
+into them. She will marry a grand duke, perhaps even a petty king. She
+will be plunged into all manner of excitements and gaiety. Her years
+with us will never be mentioned at Court. She herself will soon learn to
+look back on them as a quaint episode."
+
+"You do not believe it, Arnold?" Mabane declared scornfully.
+
+"Heaven only knows what I believe," I answered, with a little burst of
+bitterness. "Look at that!"
+
+We had reached the Rue de St. Antoine. Isobel stood in the doorway at
+the apartments waiting for us. But Arthur had already disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+I examined the tickets carefully and placed them in my pocket-book. Then
+I paused to light a cigarette on my way out of the office, and almost
+immediately felt a hand upon my arm. I looked at first at the hand. It
+was feminine and delicately gloved. Then I looked upwards into the blue
+eyes of Lady Delahaye.
+
+"Abominable!" she murmured. "You are not glad to see me!"
+
+I raised my hat.
+
+"The Boulevard des Italiennes," I said, "has never seemed to me to be a
+place peculiarly suitable for the display of emotion."
+
+"Come and try the Rue Strelitz," she answered, smiling.
+
+I glanced down at her. She was gowned even more perfectly than
+usual--Parisienne to the finger-tips. She had too all the delightful
+confidence of a woman who knows that she is looking her best.
+
+I smiled back at her. It was impossible to take her seriously.
+
+"Your invitation," I said, "sounds most attractive. But I am curious to
+know what would happen to me in the Rue Strelitz. Should I be offered
+poison in a jewelled cup, or disposed of in a cruder fashion? Let me
+make my will first, and I will come. I am really curious!"
+
+"Arnold," she said, looking up at me with very bright eyes, "you are
+brutal."
+
+"Not quite that, I hope," I protested.
+
+"Let me tell you something," she continued.
+
+We were in rather a conspicuous position. Lady Delahaye seemed suddenly
+to realize it.
+
+"May I beg for your escort a little way?" she said. "I am not
+comfortable upon the Boulevard alone."
+
+"You could scarcely fail," I remarked, throwing away my cigarette, "to
+be an object of attention from the Frenchman, who is above all things a
+judge of your sex. I will accompany you a little way with pleasure.
+Shall we take a fiacre?"
+
+"I would rather walk," she answered. "Do you mind coming this way? I
+will not take you far."
+
+"I have two whole unoccupied hours," I assured her, "which are very much
+at your service."
+
+"Where, then," she asked, "is Isobel?"
+
+"Shopping with Tobain," I answered.
+
+"Are you not afraid," she asked with a smile, "to send her out alone
+with Tobain?"
+
+"Not in the least," I answered. "Monsieur Feurgeres' only friend in
+Paris was the chief commissioner of police, and he has been good enough
+to take great interest in us. Isobel is well watched."
+
+"I wonder," she said, after a moment's pause, "whether you have still
+any faith in me!"
+
+"My dear lady!"
+
+"I wish I could make you believe me. The--her Highness--she prefers us
+here to call her Madame--has relinquished altogether her designs against
+you. She desires an alliance."
+
+"Is this," I asked, "an invitation to me to join in the spoils? Am I to
+become murderer, or poisoner, or abductor, or what?"
+
+Lady Delahaye bit her lip.
+
+"You are altogether too severe," she said. "Madame simply realizes that
+she has been mistaken. She is willing for Isobel to be restored to her
+grandfather. It will mean a million or so less dowry for Adelaide, but
+that must be faced. Madame desires to make peace with you."
+
+"I am charmed," I answered. "May I ask exactly what this means?"
+
+Lady Delahaye smiled up at me.
+
+"The Archduchess will explain to you herself," she said. "I am taking
+you to her."
+
+I slackened my pace.
+
+"I think not," I said. "To tell you the truth, the Archduchess terrifies
+me. I see myself inveigled into a room with a trap-door, or knocked on
+the head by hired bullies, and all manner of disagreeable things. No,
+Lady Delahaye, I think that I will not run the risk."
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+"I know that you will come," she said softly.
+
+"And why?" I asked.
+
+"Because you are a man, and you do not know fear!"
+
+I raised my hat and proceeded.
+
+"My head is turned," I said. "Nothing flatters a coward so much as the
+imputation of bravery. I think that I shall go with you anywhere."
+
+"Even--to the Rue Strelitz?"
+
+"My courage may fail me at the last moment," I answered. "At present it
+feels equal even to the Rue Strelitz."
+
+Again she laughed.
+
+"You are a fraud, Arnold," she declared. "As if we did not know--I and
+Madame and all of us, that in Paris, even throughout France, you could
+walk safely into any den of thieves you choose. Your courage isn't worth
+a snap of the fingers. Any man can be brave who has the archangels of
+Dotant at his elbows."
+
+"What an easily pricked reputation," I answered regretfully. "Well, it
+is true. Dotant was Feurgeres' greatest friend, and even Isobel might
+walk the streets of Paris alone and in safety. Hence, I presume, the
+amiable desire of the Archduchess for an alliance."
+
+Lady Delahaye shrugged her lace-clad shoulders.
+
+"My dear Arnold," she said, "for myself I adore candour, and why should
+I try and deceive you? Madame has played a losing game, and knows it.
+She has the courage to admit defeat. She can still offer enough to make
+an alliance desirable. For instance, those tickets in your pocket for
+Illghera will take you there, it is true, but they will not take you
+into the presence of the King."
+
+"The King," I remarked pensively, "leads a retired life."
+
+"He does," Lady Delahaye answered. "He has the greatest objection to
+visitors, and for a stranger to obtain an audience is almost an
+impossibility. He never leaves the grounds of the villa, and his
+secretary, who opens all his letters, is--a friend of Madame's."
+
+"You have put your case admirably," I remarked. "If Madame is sincere, I
+should at least like to hear what she has to say."
+
+Lady Delahaye drew a little sigh of content.
+
+"At last," she exclaimed, "I do believe that you are going to behave
+like a reasonable person."
+
+I could not refrain from the natural retort.
+
+"I have an idea," I said, "that up to now my actions have been fairly
+well justified."
+
+We were mounting the steps of her house. She looked round and raised her
+eyebrows.
+
+"We must let bygones be bygones!" she said. "Madame has declared that
+henceforth she adjures all intrigue."
+
+A footman took my hat and stick in the hall. Lady Delahaye led me into a
+small boudoir leading out of a larger room. She herself only opened the
+door and closed it, remaining outside. I was alone with the Archduchess.
+
+She rose slowly to her feet, a very graceful and majestic-looking
+person, with a suggestion of Isobel in her thin neck and the pose of her
+head. She did not hold out her hand, and she surveyed me very
+critically. I ventured to bestow something of the same attention upon
+her. She was certainly a very beautiful woman, and her expression by no
+means displeasing. She had Isobel's dark blue eyes, and there was a
+humorous line about her mouth which astonished me.
+
+"I am not offering you my hand, Mr. Greatson," she said, "because I
+presume that until we understand each other better it would be a mere
+matter of form. Still, I am glad that you have come to see me."
+
+"I am very glad too, Madame," I answered, "especially if my visit leads
+to a cessation of the somewhat remarkable proceedings of the last few
+weeks."
+
+The Archduchess smiled.
+
+"Well," she said, "I am forced to admit myself beaten. I have been
+ill-served, it is true, but I suppose my methods are antiquated."
+
+"They belong properly," I admitted, "to a few centuries ago."
+
+Madame smiled a little queerly.
+
+"A few centuries ago," she said, "I fancy that if our family history is
+true, the affair would have been more simple."
+
+"I can well believe it," I answered.
+
+Madame relapsed into her chair, from which I judged that the preliminary
+skirmishing was over.
+
+"You will please to be seated, Mr. Greatson!"
+
+I obeyed.
+
+"I am not going to play the hypocrite with you, sir," she said quietly.
+"It is not worth while, is it? The object of the struggle between us has
+been, on my part, to keep Isobel and her grandfather apart. You have
+doubtless correctly gauged my motive. Isobel's mother was my father's
+favourite child. If he had an idea that her child was alive, he would
+receive her without a word. She would completely usurp the place of
+Adelaide, my own daughter, in his affection--and in his will."
+
+"In his will!" I repeated quietly. "Yes, I understand."
+
+Madame nodded.
+
+"It is quite simple," she said. "For myself I am willing to admit that I
+am an ambitious woman. Money for its own sake I take no heed of, but it
+remains always one of the great levers of the world, and it is the only
+lever by means of which I can gain what I desire. I never forget that
+the country over which my father rules was once an absolute kingdom, and
+semi-Royalty does not appeal to me. The betrothal of my daughter
+Adelaide to Ferdinand of Saxonia was of my planning entirely. The dowry
+required by the Council of Saxonia is so large that it could not
+possibly be paid if any portion of my father's fortune, great though it
+is, is diverted towards Isobel. Hence my desire to keep Isobel and her
+grandfather apart."
+
+"Madame," I said, "you are candour itself. I can only regret that it is
+my hard fate to oppose such admirable plans."
+
+"I have been given to understand," the Archduchess said, "that it is now
+your intention to take Isobel yourself to Illghera!"
+
+"The tickets," I murmured, "are in my pocket."
+
+Madame bowed.
+
+"Well," she said, "I have seen and heard enough of you to make no
+further effort to thwart or even to influence you. Yet I have a
+proposition to make. First of all, consider these things. If we come to
+no arrangement with each other I shall use every means I can to prevent
+your obtaining an interview with my father. Everything is in my favour.
+He is very old, he has a hatred of strangers, he grants audiences to no
+one. He never passes outside the grounds of the villa, and all the gates
+are guarded by sentries, who admit no one save those who have the
+entree. Then, if you attempt to approach him by correspondence, his
+private secretary, who opens every letter, is one of my own appointing.
+I have exaggerated none of these things. It will be difficult for you to
+approach the King. You may succeed--you seem to have the knack of
+success--but it will take time. Isobel's re-appearance will be without
+dignity, and open to many remarks for various reasons. You may even fail
+to convince my father, and if you failed the first time there would be
+no second opportunity."
+
+"What you say, Madame," I admitted, "is reasonable. I have never assumed
+that as yet my task is completed. I recognize fully the difficulties
+that are still before me."
+
+"You have common-sense, Mr. Greatson, I am glad to see," she continued.
+"I am the more inclined to hope that you will accede to my proposition.
+Briefly, it is this! Let me have the credit of bringing Isobel to her
+grandfather. Her year in London would at all times, in these days of
+scandal, be a somewhat delicate matter to publish. What you have done,
+you have done, as I very well know, from no hope of or desire for
+reward. Efface yourself. It will be for Isobel's good. I myself shall
+stand sponsor for her to the world. I shall have discovered her in the
+convent here, and I shall take her back to her rightful place with
+triumph. All your difficulties then will vanish, your end will have been
+creditably and adequately attained. For myself the advantage is obvious.
+A difference to Adelaide it must make, but it will inevitably be less if
+the credit of her discovery remains with me. Have I made myself clear,
+Mr. Greatson?"
+
+"Perfectly," I answered. "But you forget there is Isobel herself to be
+considered. She is no longer a child. She has opinions and a will of her
+own."
+
+"She owes too much to you," Madame replied quietly, "to disregard your
+wishes."
+
+I believed from the first that the woman was in earnest, and her
+proposal an honest one. And yet I hesitated. The past was a little
+recent. She showed that she read my thoughts.
+
+"Come," she said, "I will prove to you that I mean what I say. To-night
+I will give a dinner-party--informal, it is true, but the Prince of
+Cleves, my cousin the Cardinal, and your own ambassador, shall come. I
+will introduce Isobel as my niece. The affair will then be established.
+Do you consent?"
+
+For one moment I hesitated. I knew very well what my answer meant.
+Absolute effacement, the tearing out of my life for ever of what had
+become the sweetest part of it. In that single moment it seemed to me
+that I realized with something like complete despair the barrenness of
+the days to come.
+
+"Madame, if Isobel is to be persuaded," I answered, "I consent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"This, then," the Prince remarked, raising his eyeglass, "is the young
+lady whose romantic history you have been recounting to me? But, my dear
+lady, she is charming!"
+
+Madame held out her hands affectionately and kissed Isobel, who had
+entered the room with her cousin, on both cheeks. Then she took her by
+the hand and presented her to the Prince of Cleves and several others of
+the company. Isobel was a little pale, but her manner was perfectly easy
+and self-possessed. She was dressed, somewhat to my surprise, in the
+deepest mourning, and she even wore a band of black velvet around her
+neck.
+
+"My dear child," her aunt said pleasantly, "I scarcely think that your
+toilette is a compliment to us all. White should be your colour for many
+years to come."
+
+Isobel raised her eyes. Her tone was no louder than ordinary, but
+somehow her voice seemed to be possessed of unusually penetrating
+qualities.
+
+"My dear aunt," she said, "you forget I am in mourning for my
+stepfather, Monsieur Feurgeres, who was very good to me."
+
+A company of perfectly bred people accepted the remark in sympathetic
+silence. There was not even an eyebrow raised, but I fancy that Isobel's
+words, calmly spoken and with obvious intent, struck the keynote of her
+future relations with her aunt.
+
+Isobel, a few minutes later, brought her cousin over to me.
+
+"Adelaide is very anxious to know you, Arnold!" she said quietly. This
+was all the introduction she offered. Immediately afterwards her aunt
+called Isobel away to be presented to a new arrival.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," Adelaide said earnestly, "I cannot tell you how
+delighted I am that all this trouble is over, and that Isobel is coming
+to us. But I think--I think she is paying too great a price. I think my
+mother is hatefully, wickedly cruel!"
+
+"My dear young lady," I protested, "I do not think that you must say
+that. Your mother's conditions are necessary. In fact, whether she made
+them or not, I think that they would be inevitable."
+
+"You are not even to come to Illghera with us? Not to visit us even?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I belong to the great family of Bohemians," I reminded her, "who have
+no possessions and but one dress suit. What should I do at Court?"
+
+"What indeed!" she answered, with a little sigh, "for you are a citizen
+of the greater world!"
+
+"There is no such thing," I answered. "We carry our own world with us.
+We make it small or large with our own hands."
+
+"For some," she murmured, "the task then is very difficult. Where one
+lives in a forcing-house of conventions, and the doors are fast locked,
+it is very easy to be stifled, but it is hard indeed to breathe."
+
+"Princess," I said gravely, "have you examined the windows?"
+
+"I do not understand you," she answered.
+
+"But it is simple, surely," I declared. "Even if you must remain in the
+forcing-house, it is for you to open the windows and breathe what air
+you will. For your thoughts at least are free, and it is of our thoughts
+that our lives are fashioned."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Greatson," she said, "one does not talk like that at Court."
+
+"You have a great opportunity," I answered. "Character is a flower which
+blossoms in all manner of places. Sometimes it comes nearest to
+perfection in the most unlikely spots. Prosperity and sunshine are not
+the best things in the world for it. Sometimes in the gloomy and
+desolate places its growth is the sturdiest and its flowers the
+sweetest."
+
+The service of dinner had been announced. The English Ambassador took
+Adelaide away from me, but as she accepted his arm she looked me in the
+eyes with a grave but wonderfully sweet smile.
+
+"I thank you very much, Mr. Greatson," she said. "Our little
+conversation has been most pleasant."
+
+The Archduchess swept up to me. She was looking a little annoyed.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said, "Isobel is pleading shyness--an absurd excuse.
+She insists that you take her in to dinner. I suppose she must have her
+own way to-night, but it is annoying."
+
+Madame looked at me as though it were my fault that her plans were
+disarranged, which was a little unfair. And then Isobel, very serene,
+but with that weary look about the eyes which seemed only to have
+increased during the evening, came quietly up and took my arm.
+
+"If this is to be our last evening, Arnold, we will at least spend as
+much of it as possible together," she said gently. "I will be a very
+dutiful niece, aunt, to-morrow."
+
+We moved off together, but not before I was struck with something
+singular in Madame's expression. She stood looking at us two as though
+some wholly new idea had presented itself to her. She did not follow us
+into the dining-room for some few moments.
+
+The dinner itself, for an informal one, was a very brilliant function.
+There were eighteen of us at a large round table, which would easily
+have accommodated twenty-four. The Cardinal, whose scarlet robes in
+themselves formed a strange note of colour, sat on the Archduchess's
+right, touching scarcely any of the dishes which were continually
+presented to him, and sipping occasionally from the glass of water at
+his side. The other men and women were all distinguished, and their
+conversation, mostly carried on in French, was apt, and at times
+brilliant. Isobel and I perhaps, the former particularly, contributed
+least to the general fund. Isobel met the advances of her right-hand
+neighbour with the barest of monosyllables. Lady Delahaye, who sat on my
+left, left me for the most part discreetly alone. Yet we two spoke very
+little. I could see that Isobel was disposed to be hysterical, and that
+her outward calm was only attained by means of an unnatural effort. Yet
+I fancied that my being near soothed her, and every time I spoke to her
+or she to me, a certain relief came into her face. All the while I was
+conscious of one strange thing. The Archduchess, although she had the
+Cardinal on one side and the Prince of Cleves on the other, was
+continually watching us. Her interest in their conversation was purely
+superficial. Her interest in us, on the contrary, was an absorbing one.
+I could not understand it at all.
+
+The conclusion of dinner was marked by an absence of all ceremony. The
+cigarettes had already been passed round before the Archduchess rose,
+but those who chose to remain at the table did so. Isobel leaned over
+and whispered in my ear.
+
+"Come with me into the drawing-room. I want to talk to you."
+
+I obeyed, and the Archduchess seemed to me purposely to leave us alone.
+We sat in a quiet corner, and when I saw that there were tears in
+Isobel's eyes, I knew that my time of trial was not yet over.
+
+"Arnold," she said quietly, "you care--whether I am happy or not? You
+have done so much for me--you must care!"
+
+"You cannot doubt it, Isobel," I answered.
+
+"I do not. This sort of life will not suit me at all. I do not trust my
+aunt. I am weary of strangers. Let us give it all up. Take me back to
+London with you. I feel as though I were going into prison."
+
+"Dear Isobel," I said, "you must remember why we decided that it was
+right for you to rejoin your people."
+
+"Oh, I know," she answered. "But even to the last Monsieur Feurgeres
+hesitated. My mother would never have wished me to be miserable."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I believe that Feurgeres was right," I answered. "I believe that your
+mother would wish to see you in your rightful place. I believe that it
+is your duty to claim it."
+
+Then I think that for the first time Isobel was unfair to me, and spoke
+words which hurt.
+
+"You do not wish to have me back again," she said slowly. "I have been a
+trouble to you, I know, and I have upset your life. You want me to go
+away."
+
+I did not answer her. I could not. She leaned forward and looked into my
+face, and instantly her tone changed. Her soft fingers clutched mine for
+a moment.
+
+"Dear Arnold," she whispered, "I am sorry! Forgive me! I will do what
+you think best. I did not mean to hurt you."
+
+"I am quite sure that you did not, Isobel," I answered. "Listen! I am
+speaking now for Allan as well as for myself, and for Arthur too. To
+tear you out of our lives is the hardest thing we have ever had to do.
+Your coming changed everything for us. We were never so happy before. We
+shall never know anything like it again. If you were what we thought, a
+nameless and friendless child, you would be welcome back again, more
+welcome than I can tell you. But you have your own life to live, and it
+is not ours. You have your own place to fill in the world, and, forgive
+me, your mother's memory to vindicate. Monsieur Feurgeres was right. For
+her sake you must claim the things that are yours."
+
+"But shall I never see you again, Arnold?" she asked, with a little
+catch in her breath.
+
+I set my teeth. I could see that the Archduchess was watching us.
+
+"Our ways must lie far apart, Isobel," I said. "But who can say? Many
+things may happen. The Princess Isobel may visit the studios when she is
+in London or at Homburg. She may patronize the poor writer whose books
+she knows."
+
+Isobel sat and listened to me with stony face.
+
+"I wonder," she murmured, "why the way to one's duty lies always through
+Hell?"
+
+Isobel's lips were quivering, and I dared make no effort to console her.
+The Archduchess came suddenly across the room to us, and bent
+affectionately over Isobel.
+
+"My dear child," she said, "you are overtired. Go and talk to Adelaide.
+She is alone in the music-room. I have something to say to Mr.
+Greatson."
+
+Isobel rose and left us at once. The Archduchess took her place. She was
+carrying a fan of black ostrich feathers, and she waved it languidly for
+some time as though in deep thought.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she said at length.
+
+I turned and found her eyes fixed curiously upon me. These were moments
+which I remembered all my life, and every little detail in connection
+with them seemed flashed into my memory. The strange perfume, something
+like the burning of wood spice, wafted towards me by her fan, the
+glitter of the blue black sequins which covered her magnificent gown,
+the faint smile upon her parted lips, and the meaning in her eyes--all
+these things made their instantaneous and ineffaceable impression. Then
+she leaned a little closer to me.
+
+"Mr. Greatson," she repeated, "I know your secret!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+I am afraid that for the moment I lost my self-possession. I had gone
+through so much during the last few hours, and this woman spoke with
+such confidence--so quietly, and yet with such absolute conviction--that
+I felt the barriers which I had built about myself crumbling away. I
+answered her lamely, and without conviction.
+
+"My secret! I do not know what you mean. I have no secret!"
+
+The black feathers fluttered backwards and forwards once more. She
+regarded me still with the same quiet smile.
+
+"You love my niece, Mr. Greatson," she said.
+
+"Madame," I answered, "you are jesting!"
+
+"Indeed I am not," she declared. "I have made a statement which is
+perfectly true."
+
+"I deny it!" I exclaimed hoarsely.
+
+"You can deny it as much as you like, if you think it worth while to
+perjure yourself," she replied coolly. "The truth remains. I have had a
+good deal of experience in such matters. You love Isobel, and I am not
+at all sure that Isobel does not love you."
+
+"Madame," I protested, "such statements are absurd. I am no longer a
+young man. I am thirty-four years old. I have no longer any thought of
+marriage. Isobel is no more than a child. I was nearly her present age
+when she was born. The whole idea, as I trust you will see, is
+ridiculous."
+
+The Archduchess regarded me still with unchanged face.
+
+"Your protestations, Mr. Greatson," she said, "amuse, but utterly fail
+to convince me."
+
+"Let us drop the subject, then," I said hastily. "At least, if you
+persist in your hallucination, I hope you will believe this. I have
+never spoken a word of what could be called love-making to the child in
+my life."
+
+"I believe you implicitly," she answered promptly. "I believe that I
+know and can appreciate your position. Let me tell you that I honour you
+for it."
+
+"Madame," I murmured, "you are very good. Let us now abandon the
+subject."
+
+"By no means," she answered. "On the contrary, I should like to discuss
+it with you fully."
+
+"Madame!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Let us suppose for a moment," she went on calmly, "that I am correct,
+that you really love Isobel, but that your peculiar position has imposed
+upon your sense of honour the necessity for silence. Well, your
+guardianship of her may now be considered to have ended. From to-night
+it has passed into my hands. Still, you would say the difference between
+your positions is immeasurable. You are, I doubt not, a gentleman by
+birth, but Isobel comes from one of the ancient and noble families of
+the world, and might almost expect to share a throne with the man whom
+she elects to marry. It is true, in effect, Mr. Greatson, that you are
+of different worlds."
+
+"Madame," I answered, "why do you trouble to demonstrate such obvious
+facts? They are incontestable. But supposing for a moment that your
+surmises concerning myself were true, you will understand that they are
+painful for me to listen to."
+
+"You must have patience, Mr. Greatson," she said quietly. "At present I
+am feeling my way through my thoughts. There is rash blood in Isobel's
+veins, and I should like her life to be happier than her mother's. She
+is unconventional and a lover of freedom. The etiquette of our Court at
+Illghera will chafe her continually. I wonder, Mr. Greatson, if she
+would not be happier--married to some one of humbler birth, perhaps, but
+who can give her the sort of life she desires."
+
+I was for a moment dumb with astonishment. Apart from the amazement of
+the whole thing, the Archduchess was not in the least the sort of person
+to be seriously interested in the abstract question of Isobel's
+happiness. At least, I should not have supposed her capable of it. I
+imagine that she must have read my thoughts, for after a searching
+glance at me she continued:
+
+"You doubt my disinterestedness, Mr. Greatson. Perhaps you are right. I
+wish the child well, but there is also this fact to be considered.
+Isobel married to an English gentleman such as, say, yourself, would be
+no longer a serious rival to my daughter in the affections of her
+grandfather."
+
+Then indeed I began to understand. What a woman of resource! She watched
+me closely behind the feathers of her fan.
+
+"Come," she said, "this time my plot is an innocent one, and it is for
+Isobel's happiness as well as for my daughter's benefit. Speak to her
+now. Marry her at once, here in Paris, and I will give her for dowry
+twenty thousand pounds!"
+
+I ground my heel into the carpet, and I was grateful for those long
+black feathers which waved gracefully in front of my face. For I was
+tempted--sorely tempted. The woman's words rang like mad music in my
+brain. Speak to her! Why not? It was the great joy of the world which
+waited for me to pluck it. Why not? I was not an old man, the child was
+fond of me, a single word of compliance, and I might step into my
+kingdom. Oh, the rapture of it, the wonderful joy of taking her hands in
+mine, of dropping once and for ever the mask from my face, the gag from
+my tongue! A rush of wild thoughts turned me dizzy. My secret was no
+longer a secret at all. The Archduchess leaned a little closer to me,
+and whispered behind those fluttering feathers--
+
+"You are a very wonderful person, Mr. Greatson, that you have kept
+silence so long. The necessity for it has passed. The child loves you. I
+am sure of it."
+
+But my moment of weakness was over. I had a sudden vision of Feurgeres,
+standing on the stage, listening with bowed head to the thunder of
+applause, but with his eyes turned always to the darkened box, with its
+lonely bouquet of pink roses--lonely to all save him, who alone saw the
+hand which held them--of Feurgeres in his sanctuary, bending lovingly
+over that chair, empty to all save him, Feurgeres, with that smile of
+unearthly happiness upon his lips--calm, debonair and steadfast. This
+was the man who had trusted me. I raised my head.
+
+"Madame," I said quietly, "what you suggest is impossible."
+
+She stared at me in incredulous astonishment.
+
+"But I do not understand," she exclaimed weakly. "You agree, surely?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"On the contrary, Madame," I said, "I beg that you will not allude
+further to the matter."
+
+The Archduchess muttered something in German to herself which I did not
+understand. Perhaps it was just as well.
+
+"You will vouchsafe me," she begged, speaking very slowly, and keeping
+her eyes fixed on me, "some reason for your refusal?"
+
+"I will give you two," I answered. "First, it is contrary to the spirit
+of my promise to Monsieur Feurgeres."
+
+Her lip curled.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Secondly," I continued, "I should be taking a dishonourable advantage
+of my position with regard to Isobel. She is very grateful to me, and
+she would very likely mistake her sentiments if I were to speak to her
+as you suggest. She is too young to know what love is. She has met no
+young men of her own rank, she does not understand in the least what
+sort of position is in store for her."
+
+"These are your reasons, then?"
+
+"I venture to think that they are sufficient ones, Madame," I answered.
+
+The Archduchess rose.
+
+"We shall need a new Cervantes," she remarked, "to do justice to the
+Englishman of to-day. I shall keep my word, Mr. Greatson, as regards
+Isobel, and I can promise you this. If gaiety and eligible suitors, and
+the luxury of her new life are not sufficient to stifle any sentimental
+follies she may be nursing just now, I will not rest till I find other
+means. Adelaide's future is arranged. I will set myself to make Isobel's
+equally brilliant. I will make her the beauty of Europe. She shall
+forget in a month the squalid days of her life with you and your friends
+in an attic."
+
+"So long as Isobel is happy," I answered, "my mission is accomplished,
+and I am content."
+
+"You are a fool and a liar!" she answered contemptuously. "You will love
+her all your days, and you know it. You will grow to curse the memory of
+this hour in which you threw away the only chance you will ever have of
+winning her. The only chance, mind, I will answer for that. I wish you
+good-evening, Mr. Greatson. You are excused. Isobel, as you are aware,
+remains here. You will find her in the music-room with Adelaide. Go and
+make your adieux, and make them quickly. You will be interrupted in
+three minutes."
+
+She swept away from me with only the slightest inclination of her head.
+I made my way to the music-room, where Isobel and her cousin were
+sitting together. Directly I entered, the latter, with a little nod of
+curious meaning to me, rose and left us alone. I held out my hands.
+
+"Isobel, dear," I said, "this must be--our farewell, then--for a time!"
+
+She placed her hands in mine. They were as cold as ice. Her cheeks were
+white, her eyes seemed fastened upon mine. All the while her bosom was
+heaving convulsively, but she said nothing.
+
+"I can only wish you what Arthur and Allan have already wished you," I
+said, "happiness! You have every chance of it, dear. You surely deserve
+it, for you brightened up our dull lives so that we can, no one of us,
+ever forget you. Think of us sometimes. Good-bye!"
+
+I stooped and kissed her lightly on the cheek. But suddenly her arms
+were wound around my neck. With a strength which was amazing she held me
+to her.
+
+"Arnold!" she sobbed. "Oh, Arnold!"
+
+Her lips were upon mine, and in another second I should have been lost,
+for my arms would have been around her. The door opened and closed. We
+heard the jingling of sequins, the sweep of a silken train. The
+Archduchess had entered. Isobel's arms fell from my neck, but her cheeks
+were scarlet, and her eyes like stars.
+
+"You--are going?" she pleaded.
+
+"I am going," I answered huskily.
+
+The Archduchess came down the room, humming a light tune.
+
+"So the dread farewell is over, then!" she exclaimed, with light good
+humour. "Come, child, no red eyes. Remember, a Waldenburg weeps only
+twice in her life. Once more, good-night, Mr. Greatson."
+
+I had reached the door. Isobel was standing still with outstretched
+arms. The Archduchess glided between us--and I went.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning I travelled unseen by the Riviera express, to which the
+saloon of the Archduchess had been attached, all the way to Illghera. I
+saw her driven with the others to the villa.
+
+Two days afterwards, from a hill overlooking the grounds, I saw an old
+gentleman in a pony chaise preceded by two footmen in dark green livery.
+Adelaide walked on one side, and Isobel on the other. That night I left
+Illghera for England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+I knew the moment I opened the door that changes were on foot. Our
+studio sitting-room was dismantled of many of its treasures. Allan, with
+his coat off and a pipe in his mouth, was throwing odds and ends in a
+promiscuous sort of way into a huge trunk which stood open upon the
+floor. Arthur, a few yards off, was rolling a cigarette.
+
+Our meeting was not wholly free from embarrassment. I think that for the
+first time in our lives there was a cloud between Allan and myself. He
+stood up and faced me squarely.
+
+"Arnold," he said, "where is Isobel?"
+
+"In Illghera with her grandfather," I answered. "Where else should she
+be?"
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"I have seen her there with my own eyes," I affirmed.
+
+There was a moment's pause. I saw the two exchange glances. Then Allan
+held out his hand.
+
+"That damned woman again!" he exclaimed. "Forgive me, Arnold!"
+
+"Willingly," I answered, "when I know what for."
+
+"Suspecting you. Lady Delahaye wrote Arthur a note, in which she said
+that the Archduchess and you had made fresh plans. You can guess what
+they were. And Illghera was off. You did hurry us away from Paris a bit,
+you know, and I was fool enough to imagine for a moment that there might
+be something in it. Forgive me, Arnold!" he added, holding out his hand.
+
+"And me!" Arthur exclaimed, extending his.
+
+I held out a hand to each. There was something grimly humorous in this
+reception, after all that I had suffered during the last few days. My
+first impulse of anger died away almost as quickly as it had been
+conceived.
+
+"My friends," I said, "the Archduchess did propose some such scheme to
+me, but you forget that my honour was involved, not only to you, not
+only to the child, but to a dead man. I can look you both in the face
+and assure you that in word and letter I have been faithful to my
+trust."
+
+"I knew it!" Allan declared gruffly. "Dear old chap, forgive me!"
+
+"I am the brute who dangled the letter before his eyes," Arthur
+exclaimed bitterly, "and I am the only one of the three who has broken
+our covenant."
+
+"My dear friends," I said slowly, "the things which are past, let us
+forget. Isobel has gone back to the life which claimed her. No barrier
+which human hand could rear could separate her from us so effectually
+and irrevocably as the mere fact that she has taken up the position
+which belongs to her. She is the Princess Isobel of Waldenburg, a king's
+grandchild. And we are--what we are! Let me now make my confession to
+you. I, too, loved her."
+
+The two hands which held mine tightened for a moment their grasp. The
+old "camaraderie" was established once more.
+
+"It is I who was responsible for her coming," I continued. "It is only
+fitting that I, too, should suffer. How she grew into our hearts you all
+know. She has gone, and nothing can ever be the same. Yet I for one do
+not regret it. I regret nothing! I am content to live with the memory of
+these wonderful days she spent with us."
+
+"And I!" Allan declared.
+
+"And I!" Arthur echoed.
+
+I wrung their hands, for it was a joy to me to feel that we had come
+once more into complete accord.
+
+"You know what sort of a state we were drifting into when she came," I
+continued. "We were like thousands of others. We were rubbing shoulders,
+hour by hour and day by day, with the world which takes no account of
+beautiful things. She came and laid the magician's hand upon our lives.
+We had perforce to alter our ways, to alter our surroundings, our
+amusements, our ideals. Joy came with her, and pain may find a secret
+place in our hearts now that she has gone, but I do not think that
+either of us would willingly blot out from his life these last two
+years. Would you, Arthur?"
+
+"Not I!" he declared. "We had to learn ourselves to teach her. To chuck
+the things that were rotten, anyhow, just because she was around. Jolly
+good for us, too!"
+
+"I agree with Arthur and you," Allan said. "I agree with all that you
+have said. The child was dear to me too. So dear, that I do not think
+that it would be easy to go back to our old life without her. That is
+why----"
+
+He glanced around the room. Our hands fell apart. I lit a cigarette and
+looked at the open trunk.
+
+"You are going away, Allan?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I'm off to Canada," he said. "I've an old uncle there who's worth
+looking after, and he's always bothering me to pay him a visit. Right
+time of the year, too--and hang it all, Arnold, I've sat here for a week
+in front of an empty canvas, and I'd go to hell sooner than stand it any
+longer!"
+
+"And you, Arthur?"
+
+"I have been appointed manager of our Paris Depot," Arthur answered a
+little grandiloquently. "I couldn't refuse it. Much better pay and more
+fun, and all that sort of thing, and--oh, hang it all, Arnold, is it
+likely a fellow could stay here now she's gone?" he wound up, with a
+little catch in his throat.
+
+So the old days were over! I looked at my desk, and by the side of it
+was the chair in which she used sometimes to sit while I read to her.
+Then I think that I, too, was glad that this change was to come.
+
+"There is one thing, Arnold," Mabane said quietly, "about her things. We
+locked the door of her room. Mrs. Burdett has packed up most of her
+clothes, but there are the ornaments and a few little things of her own.
+We should like to go in--Arthur and I. We have waited for you."
+
+"We will go now," I answered. "She will have no need of anything that
+she has left behind. We will each choose a keepsake, and lock the rest
+up."
+
+We entered the room all together, almost on tiptoe. If we had been
+wearing hats I am sure that we should have taken them off. How, with
+such trifling means at her command, she could have left behind in that
+tiny chamber so potent an impression of daintiness and comfort I cannot
+tell. But there it was. Her little bed, with its spotless counterpane,
+was hung with pink muslin. There was a lace spread upon her
+toilet-table, on which her little oddments of silver made a brave show.
+Only one thing seemed out of place, a worn little slipper peeping out
+from under a chair. I thrust it into my pocket. The others took some
+trifle from the table. Then, as silently as we had entered, we left the
+room. As I turned the key I choked down something in my throat, and did
+my best to laugh--a little unnaturally, I am afraid.
+
+"Come!" I cried, "it is I who am responsible for this attack of
+sentiment. I will show you how to get rid of it. You dine with me at
+Hautboy's. I have money--lots of it. Feurgeres left me twenty thousand
+pounds. Hautboy's and a magnum of the best. How long will you fellows be
+dressing?"
+
+They tried to fall into my mood. Allan mixed cocktails. We drank and
+smoked and shouted to one another uproariously from our rooms as we
+changed our clothes. We drove to Hautboy's three in a hansom, and Arthur
+spent his usual five minutes chaffing the young lady behind the tiny
+bar. But when the wine came, and our glasses were filled, a sudden
+silence fell upon us. We looked at each other, and we all knew what was
+in the minds of all of us. It was Allan who spoke.
+
+"To Isobel!" he said softly.
+
+We drank in silence, each busy with his own thoughts. But afterwards
+Arthur raised his glass high above his head.
+
+"To the Princess Isobel!" he cried. "Long life and good luck to her!"
+
+Afterwards there were no more toasts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Arthur and Allan went their several ways within twenty-four hours of our
+farewell dinner. I saw them both off, and I forced them with great
+difficulty to share to some small extent in Feurgeres' legacy. Then I
+took some rooms near my club in the heart of London, and line for line,
+word for word, I re-wrote the whole of the story which I had not dared
+to show to Isobel, determined that the one thing I still had which was
+part of her body and soul should be the best that my brain and skill
+could fashion. So the winter and the early spring passed, and then my
+story was published.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+A miracle of white daintiness, from the spotless muslin of her gown to
+the creamy lace which hung from her parasol. So far as toilette went,
+Lady Delahaye was always an artist. Yet my pulses were unmoved, and my
+heart unstirred, as she stood under my dark cedar-tree and welcomed me
+with all the expression which her tone and eyes could command.
+
+"So you see, Sir Hermit," she murmured, "what happens to those who will
+not go to the mountain? Seriously, I hope you are glad to see me."
+
+"Why not?" I answered calmly. "Will you come inside, or shall we sit
+here in the shade?"
+
+"Here, by all means," she answered, subsiding gracefully into a wicker
+chair.
+
+"You will let me order you some tea?"
+
+She checked my movement towards the house.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, no! I have been paying calls all the afternoon with
+Mrs. Jerningham, and you know what that means. She has gone to the Hall
+now, and I am to pick her up in half an hour."
+
+"You are staying at Eastford House, then?" I remarked.
+
+"For a few days. Can you guess why?"
+
+"The house parties there have the reputation of being amusing," I
+suggested.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"It was not that. Can you make no better guess?"
+
+"I am a dunce at riddles," I admitted.
+
+"You are a dunce at many things," she replied. "The reason I came was
+because I knew that you were living in these parts, and I had a fancy to
+see you again."
+
+"You are very good," I remarked.
+
+She looked at me critically.
+
+"You have not changed," she said slowly. "One would almost say that the
+life of a recluse agrees with you. You have by no means the white and
+wasted look which I expected. Is it fame which you have found so potent
+a tonic?"
+
+I laughed lightly.
+
+"Don't call it fame," I answered. "Success, if you will. My profession
+is so much of a lottery. A whiff of public opinion, a criticism which
+hits the popular fancy, and the bubble is floated. I'm not pretending
+that I don't appreciate it, but it was a stroke of luck all the same."
+
+She was silent for a few moments. From outside we could hear the
+jingling of harness as Mrs. Jerningham's fat bays resented the onslaught
+of officious flies. Nearer at hand there was only the lazy humming of
+bees to break the stillness of the summer afternoon. Lady Delahaye
+sighed.
+
+"You are talking nonsense, and you know it," she said. "I do not want to
+flatter you. Any man who has the trick of the pen, and chooses to give
+himself wholly and utterly away, can write a powerful story."
+
+"I am afraid that I do not understand you," I protested.
+
+"Yes, you do. You cut open your own heart, and you offered the world a
+magnifying glass to study its wounds. You wrote your own story. You told
+the tale of your own suffering. Of course it was strong, of course it
+rang with all the truth of genius. So you loved that child, Arnold! You,
+a man of the world, not a callow schoolboy. You loved her magnificently.
+Did she know?"
+
+"She did not know," I answered. "She never will know."
+
+"She may read the book!"
+
+"She may read it, and yet not know," I answered.
+
+"It is true," she murmured. "Unless she loved herself she might not
+understand."
+
+Again we were silent for a while. The perfume of the cedars floated upon
+the hot breathless air. Lady Delahaye half closed her eyes and leaned
+back.
+
+"You read the newspapers, Sir Hermit?"
+
+"Sometimes."
+
+"You have heard the news from Waldenburg?"
+
+"I read of the King's death."
+
+"And of the betrothal of the Princess Isobel?"
+
+"Yes. I have read also of that."
+
+"The cousins will both be the consorts of reigning sovereigns, small
+though their kingdoms may be. One reads great things of Adelaide. Her
+people call her already 'the well-beloved.'"
+
+A swift rush of thought carried me back to the dark stormy crossing,
+when the rain had beaten in our faces, and the wind came booming down
+the Channel. Adelaide stood once more by my side. I heard the quiet,
+bitter words, the low, passionate cry of her troubled heart. "The
+well-beloved" of her people! After all, race tells.
+
+"I spoke but twice alone to the Princess Adelaide," I said. "I learnt
+enough of her, however, to be sure that in any position she would do the
+thing that was right and gracious."
+
+"And so will Isobel," Lady Delahaye said. "I know the race well. The men
+are degenerates, but the women have nerve to rule and courage to hold
+their own against the world. Isobel's future may well be the more
+brilliant of the two. Can you realize, I wonder, that Isobel of
+Waldenburg was once the child who filled your brain with such strange
+fancies?"
+
+"I never think," I answered, "of Isobel of Waldenburg."
+
+"You are wise," she answered. "She is as surely separated from us
+eternally as though she had made that little journey from which one does
+not return. Yet you--you are going to hug your wounds all your life. Is
+that wise, my friend?"
+
+I laughed softly.
+
+"You are mistaken," I assured her. "I have no wounds--not even regrets.
+I believe that there are few men happier. Look at my home!"
+
+"It is beautiful," she admitted.
+
+"My gardens, my flowers, my cedar-tree and my books," I said. "These are
+all a joy to me. What more can a man want? Friends have moods, and they
+pass away out of one's life. The friends who smile from my study wall
+are patient and always ready. There is one to fit every hour. They do
+not change. They are always ready to show me the way into the world
+beautiful, to cheer me when I am sad, to laugh with me when I am gay.
+You must not waste any sympathy on me, Lady Delahaye. The man who has
+learnt to live alone is the man who has learnt the greatest lesson life
+has to teach. He is the man for whom the sun shines always, who carries
+with him for ever the magic key."
+
+Lady Delahaye disturbed the smoothness of my turf with the point of her
+parasol.
+
+"Are there no times," she asked in a low tone, "when these things fail
+you? No times when like calls for like, when the human part of you finds
+the comfort of ashes a dead thing? You and your books and your flowers!"
+she cried scornfully, raising her head and looking at me with heightened
+colour. "Bah! You are a man, are you not, like the others? How long will
+these content you? How long will you stop your ears and forget that life
+has passions and joys which these dead things can never yield to you?"
+
+"Until," I answered, "the magician comes who can make me believe it. And
+I am afraid, Lady Delahaye, that he has passed me by."
+
+She rose to her feet.
+
+"I am answered," she said. "I promise you that I will not intrude again
+into this Paradise of wood and stone. Give me a cigarette to keep off
+these flies, and take me down to the carriage. Thanks! If one might
+venture upon a prophecy, my dear Arnold, I think that I can see your
+fate very clearly written. I do not even need your hand to read it."
+
+"Would the spell," I asked, "be broken if I shared the knowledge?"
+
+"Not in the least," she answered, with a hard little laugh. "You will
+become one of those half-mad sort of creatures whom people call cranks,
+or you will marry your housekeeper. In either case you will deserve your
+fate."
+
+So Lady Delahaye drove away down the white dusty road, and I walked back
+to the study from whence her coming had brought me. As I sat down to my
+interrupted work I smiled. How little she understood!
+
+I wrote till seven o'clock. Punctually at that hour there was a discreet
+knock at the door, and my servant reminded me that it was time to
+change. At a quarter before eight I strolled into the garden and
+selected a piece of heliotrope for the buttonhole of my dinner coat. A
+few minutes later my dinner was served.
+
+My table was a small round one set in front of the open French windows.
+Looking a little to the right I could see the extent of my domain--a low
+laurel hedge, a sloping field beyond, in which my two Alderneys were
+standing almost knee-deep amongst the buttercups; a ring fence, a
+paddock, and, beyond, the road. To the left were my gardens, the
+sweetness of which came stealing through the window with the very
+faintest breath of the slowly moving air, bordered by that ancient red
+brick wall, mellowed and crumbling with the sun and west winds of
+generations, and in front of me my lawn and the cedar-tree under which
+Lady Delahaye had sat an hour or so ago and prophesied evil things. My
+lips parted into a smile as I thought of her words. Did she indeed think
+me a creature so weak as to pile gloom on the top of sorrow, to shut my
+eyes to all the joys of life, because supreme happiness was denied me,
+to play skittles with my self-respect, and--marry a kitchen-maid? I, who
+had turned over great pages in the book of life! I, who had known
+Feurgeres! Wallace had left the room for a moment, and I raised my glass
+full of clear amber wine, and drank silently my evening toast. I drank
+to the memory of the greatest love I had ever known, to the man whose
+strong and beautiful life had taught me how to fashion my own. Perhaps
+my thoughts flashed a little further afield. It was so always when I
+thought of Feurgeres, but it was to the joyous and wonderful memory of
+those earlier days, to Isobel the child I drank. Isobel of Waldenburg
+had passed away into the world of shadows. I courted no heartaches by
+vain thoughts of her. I pored over no papers to find mention of her
+name. I was content with what had gone before.
+
+I morbid! Lady Delahaye had judged me wrongly indeed. I, before whom two
+great worlds stretched themselves continually, full of countless
+treasures, always changing, yet always beautiful. Only yesterday I had
+seen the sun rise. I had seen the still slumbering world break into
+quivering life. I had seen the curtain roll up on a new act of this most
+wonderful of all plays to the music of an orchestra hidden indeed in my
+grove of chestnuts, but sweeter, more joyous, more full of the promise
+of perfect things than ever a violin touched by human fingers. Then the
+thrushes had hopped out on to my dew-spangled lawn, where before the hot
+sun the grey, gossamer-like mist was vanishing like breath from a
+mirror; my roses raised their heads, and the breeze from the west--a
+lazy, fluttering breeze--borrowed their sweetness; my peaches cracked
+through their full skins upon the wall, and the bees commenced their
+eternal lullaby of murmuring sounds. Then at night--such a night as
+this, too, promised to be--I had watched the shadows come creeping over
+the land when the sun had set and the moon had barely risen; a new order
+of things had come. The fire of the day was replaced by the infinite
+peace of night. Beyond the confines of my little domain the whole world
+lay hushed and hidden. There were few stars as yet to mock with their
+passionless serenity the toilers of the earth, worn out with the long
+day's struggle. Only a great quiet--a great, peaceful quiet--and the
+shadows of dim things!
+
+I morbid, with eyes to see these things, with a whole room full of
+waiting friends, ready at a touch of my fingers, the turning of a page,
+to take me by the hand and lead into even other worlds as beautiful as
+this, to scale with me the mountains, or to wander along the
+flower-strewn valleys. Lady Delahaye was a very foolish woman. She had
+seen nothing of my well-ordered household, of the ease, the
+luxury--simple, yet almost Sybaritic--with which I had surrounded
+myself. She did not understand life from my point of view--life as
+Feurgeres had lived it. The life sentimental, but not passionate; the
+life to be evolved by will from the tangle of bruised hopes and hot
+desires. The life----
+
+I set down my glass empty. The last drop had tasted like vinegar. Always
+one has to fight, and for a while I sat in silence before my table piled
+now with dishes of fruit. My hands gripped the sides of my chair, my
+eyes were fixed upon a twinkling light which had shot out from the
+distant hillside. Always one has to fight for the things worth
+having--and the pain soon passes.
+
+In a few minutes I rose. I lit a cigarette from the box which Wallace
+had placed at my elbow, and with a handful more in my pocket I stepped
+outside. On the lawn under the cedar-tree something was lying--something
+pink and fluffy, and very soft to the fingers. As I held it at arm's
+length a faint, familiar perfume stole up from its flouncy depths. The
+pain was all gone now. I smiled as I looked at it. It was Lady
+Delahaye's parasol!
+
+I turned it over meditatively. The fancy seized me that it had been left
+there on purpose--my last chance! Eastford House was barely a mile and a
+half away--a very reasonable after-dinner stroll. I smiled to myself as
+I summoned Wallace from the dining-room.
+
+"Take this parasol over to Eastford House as soon as you have served my
+coffee," I directed. "Lady Delahaye must have left it here this
+afternoon."
+
+"Very good, sir," Wallace answered, relieving me of my burden and
+carrying it into the house.
+
+Then I departed on my usual evening pilgrimage. I entered the flower
+garden by a little iron gate, and walked slowly amongst my roses. Here
+the air was full of delicate scents--lavender insistent; mignonette
+faint, but penetrating; homely wall-flowers, sweet even as the roses
+themselves. Night insects now were buzzing around me; the bushes took to
+themselves phantasmal shapes; even the path, very narrow and overgrown,
+was hard to find. I filled my hand with flowers and made my way slowly
+back to the cedar-tree. The shadows were deeper now. It was the one hour
+of darkness before the rising of the late moon. I threw myself into a
+low chair, and the flowers on to the seat which encircled the
+cedar-tree. Oh, wonderful Feurgeres, who had taught me the sweetness of
+such moments as this!
+
+Always she came the same way; yet to-night it seemed to me that a
+startling note of reality heralded her coming. The ghostliness of her
+movements, that noiseless flitting across the lawn were changed. Almost
+I could have sworn that the little iron gate had indeed been opened and
+closed, that real footsteps had fallen lightly enough, but, with actual
+sound, upon the gravel path, that I could hear the soft swish of a real
+dress from the slim white figure which came hesitatingly across the
+lawn. Oh, Feurgeres was a great man! It was a great thing which he had
+taught me. My pulses were thrilled with expectant joy. Reality itself
+could be no more real. But to-night--to-night was a triumph indeed! She
+was dressed differently. She wore a long white travelling cloak, a veil
+pushed back from her hat. I did not understand. My fancy had never
+dressed her like this. That little cry, her pause. Had I indeed done
+greater things than Feurgeres, and summoned to my side real flesh and
+blood?
+
+"Arnold!"
+
+I gripped the sides of my chair. I felt my breath coming shorter. A cry.
+I could not keep it back from my quivering lips.
+
+"Isobel!"
+
+I could not move. I was afraid of what I had done. And then she dropped
+on her knees by my side, and real arms were about my neck, real kisses
+were upon my lips. Then I no longer had any fear, for from whatever
+world she had come the joy of it was like a foretaste of heaven. I drew
+her to me, held her passionately, and I knew that this was no creature
+of my mind's fashioning, but a live woman, whose heart beat so wildly
+against my own....
+
+"It was all Adelaide," she murmured presently. "She brought me your
+book, and afterwards we talked. She was alone with my grandfather--and
+then he sent for me. I was afraid, for this was in his last days. Shall
+I tell you what he said, Arnold?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, tightening my grasp upon her. "Go on talking!" For I
+was fighting still for belief.
+
+"He took my hand quite calmly, and I knew at once that I had nothing to
+fear. 'Isobel,' he said, 'they tell me that you have your mother's blood
+in your veins, that freedom means more to you than ambition, that you
+are a woman first and a Waldenburg afterwards. Is this true?' Then I
+told him everything, and he kissed me. 'Go your own way, Isobel,' he
+said, 'but stay with me while I live. Adelaide has shown me many things
+which I did not understand. Poor child!' He sent for his lawyers,
+Arnold, and he made me a poor woman. I am much too poor to be a princess
+any longer--unless I may be yours."
+
+Then I believed--this, the strangest of all things that may happen to a
+man. My garden of fancies, which Feurgeres had shown me so well how to
+cultivate, passed away into the mists. Before the moon rose, Paradise
+was there.
+
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+
+    A Prince of Sinners
+    Anna the Adventuress
+    The Master Mummer
+    A Maker of History
+    Mysterious Mr. Sabin
+    The Yellow Crayon
+    The Betrayal
+    The Traitors
+    Enoch Strone
+    A Sleeping Memory
+    The Malefactor
+    A Daughter of the Marionis
+    The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown
+    A Lost Leader
+    The Great Secret
+    The Avenger
+    As a Man Lives
+    The Missioner
+    The Governors
+    The Man and His Kingdom
+    A Millionaire of Yesterday
+    The Long Arm of Mannister
+    Jeanne of the Marshes
+    The Illustrious Prince
+    The Lost Ambassador
+    Berenice
+    The Moving Finger
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Popular Copyright Books
+
+AT MODERATE PRICES
+
+Any of the following titles can be bought of your bookseller at 50 cents
+per volume.
+
+
+The Shepherd of the Hills. By Harold Bell Wright.
+
+Jane Cable. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+
+Abner Daniel. By Will N. Harben.
+
+The Far Horizon. By Lucas Malet.
+
+The Halo. By Bettina von Hutten.
+
+Jerry Junior. By Jean Webster.
+
+The Powers and Maxine. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+
+The Balance of Power. By Arthur Goodrich.
+
+Adventures of Captain Kettle. By Cutcliffe Hyne.
+
+Adventures of Gerard. By A. Conan Doyle.
+
+Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.
+
+Arms and the Woman. By Harold MacGrath.
+
+Artemus Ward's Works (extra illustrated).
+
+At the Mercy of Tiberius. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+
+Awakening of Helena Richie. By Margaret Deland.
+
+Battle Ground, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+
+Belle of Bowling Green, The. By Amelia E. Barr.
+
+Ben Blair. By Will Lillibridge.
+
+Best Man, The. By Harold MacGrath.
+
+Beth Norvell. By Randall Parrish.
+
+Bob Hampton of Placer. By Randall Parrish.
+
+Bob, Son of Battle. By Alfred Ollivant.
+
+Brass Bowl, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+
+Brethren, The. By H. Rider Haggard.
+
+Broken Lance, The. By Herbert Quick.
+
+By Wit of Women. By Arthur W. Marchmont
+
+Call of the Blood, The. By Robert Hitchens.
+
+Cap'n Eri. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
+
+Cardigan. By Robert W. Chambers.
+
+Car of Destiny, The. By C. N. and A. N. Williamson.
+
+Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine. By Frank R. Stockton.
+
+Cecilia's Lovers. By Amelia E. Barr.
+
+Circle, The. By Katherine Cecil Thurston (author of "The Masquerader,"
+"The Gambler").
+
+Colonial Free Lance, A. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.
+
+Conquest of Canaan, The. By Booth Tarkington.
+
+Courier of Fortune, A. By Arthur W. Marchmont.
+
+Darrow Enigma, The. By Melvin Severy.
+
+Deliverance, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+
+Divine Fire, The. By May Sinclair.
+
+Empire Builders. By Francis Lynde.
+
+Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. By A. Conan Doyle.
+
+Fighting Chance, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
+
+For a Maiden Brave. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.
+
+Fugitive Blacksmith, The. By Chas. D. Stewart.
+
+God's Good Man. By Marie Corelli.
+
+Heart's Highway, The. By Mary E. Wilkins.
+
+Holladay Case, The. By Burton Egbert Stevenson.
+
+Hurricane Island. By H. B. Marriott Watson.
+
+In Defiance of the King. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.
+
+Indifference of Juliet, The. By Grace S. Richmond.
+
+Infelice. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+
+Lady Betty Across the Water. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+
+Lady of the Mount, The. By Frederic S. Isham.
+
+Lane That Had No Turning, The. By Gilbert Parker.
+
+Langford of the Three Bars. By Kate and Virgil D. Boyles.
+
+Last Trail, The. By Zane Grey.
+
+Leavenworth Case, The. By Anna Katharine Green.
+
+Lilac Sunbonnet, The. By S. R. Crockett.
+
+Lin McLean. By Owen Wister.
+
+Long Night, The. By Stanley J. Weyman.
+
+Maid at Arms, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
+
+Man from Red Keg, The. By Eugene Thwing.
+
+Marthon Mystery, The. By Burton Egbert Stevenson.
+
+Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.
+
+Millionaire Baby, The. By Anna Katharine Green.
+
+Missourian, The. By Eugene P. Lyle, Jr.
+
+Mr. Barnes, American. By A. C. Gunter.
+
+Mr. Pratt. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
+
+My Friend the Chauffeur. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+
+My Lady of the North. By Randall Parrish.
+
+Mystery of June 13th. By Melvin L. Severy.
+
+Mystery Tales. By Edgar Allan Poe.
+
+Nancy Stair. By Elinor Macartney Lane.
+
+Order No. 11. By Caroline Abbot Stanley.
+
+Pam. By Bettina von Hutten.
+
+Pam Decides. By Bettina von Hutten.
+
+Partners of the Tide. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
+
+Phra the Phoenician. By Edwin Lester Arnold.
+
+President, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+
+Princess Passes, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+
+Princess Virginia, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+
+Prisoners. By Mary Cholmondeley.
+
+Private War, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+
+Prodigal Son, The. By Hall Caine.
+
+Quickening, The. By Francis Lynde.
+
+Richard the Brazen. By Cyrus T. Brady and Edw. Peple.
+
+Rose of the World. By Agnes and Egerton Castle.
+
+Running Water. By A. E. W. Mason.
+
+Sarita the Carlist. By Arthur W. Marchmont.
+
+Seats of the Mighty, The. By Gilbert Parker.
+
+Sir Nigel. By A. Conan Doyle.
+
+Sir Richard Calmady. By Lucas Malet.
+
+Speckled Bird, A. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+
+Purple Parasol, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+
+Princess Dehra, The. By John Reed Scott.
+
+Making of Bobby Burnit, The. By George Randolph Chester.
+
+Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel, The. By Randall Parrish.
+
+Bronze Bell, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+
+Pole Baker. By Will N. Harben.
+
+Four Million, The. By O. Henry.
+
+Idols. By William J. Locke.
+
+Wayfarers, The. By Mary Stewart Cutting.
+
+Held for Orders. By Frank H. Spearman.
+
+Story of the Outlaw, The. By Emerson Hough.
+
+Mistress of Brae Farm, The. By Rosa N. Carey.
+
+Explorer, The. By William Somerset Maugham.
+
+Abbess of Vlaye, The. By Stanley Weyman.
+
+Alton of Somasco. By Harold Bindloss.
+
+Ancient Law, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+
+Barrier, The. By Rex Beach.
+
+Bar 20. By Clarence E. Mulford.
+
+Beloved Vagabond, The. By William J. Locke.
+
+Beulah. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+
+Chaperon, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+
+Colonel Greatheart. By H. C. Bailey.
+
+Dissolving Circle, The. By Will Lillibridge.
+
+Elusive Isabel. By Jacques Futrelle.
+
+Fair Moon of Bath, The. By Elizabeth Ellis.
+
+54-40 or Fight. By Emerson Hough.
+
+Spirit of the Border, The. By Zane Grey.
+
+Spoilers, The. By Rex Beach.
+
+Squire Phin. By Holman F. Day.
+
+Stooping Lady, The. By Maurice Hewlett.
+
+Subjection of Isabel Carnaby. By Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler.
+
+Sunset Trail, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+
+Sword of the Old Frontier, A. By Randall Parrish.
+
+Tales of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.
+
+That Printer of Udell's. By Harold Bell Wright.
+
+Throwback, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+
+Trail of the Sword, The. By Gilbert Parker.
+
+Treasure of Heaven, The. By Marie Corelli.
+
+Two Vanrevels, The. By Booth Tarkington.
+
+Up From Slavery. By Booker T. Washington.
+
+Vashti. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+
+Viper of Milan, The (original edition). By Marjorie Bowen.
+
+Voice of the People, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+
+Wheel of Life, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+
+When Wilderness Was King. By Randall Parrish.
+
+Where the Trail Divides. By Will Lillibridge.
+
+Woman in Grey, A. By Mrs. C. N. Williamson.
+
+Woman in the Alcove, The. By Anna Katharine Green.
+
+Younger Set, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
+
+The Weavers. By Gilbert Parker.
+
+The Little Brown Jug at Kildare. By Meredith Nicholson.
+
+The Prisoners of Chance. By Randall Parrish.
+
+My Lady of Cleve. By Percy J. Hartley.
+
+Loaded Dice. By Ellery H. Clark.
+
+Get Rich Quick Wallingford. By George Randolph Chester.
+
+The Orphan. By Clarence Mulford.
+
+A Gentleman of France. By Stanley J. Weyman.
+
+Four Pool's Mystery, The. By Jean Webster.
+
+Ganton and Co. By Arthur J. Eddy.
+
+Heart of Jessy Laurie, The. By Amelia E. Barr.
+
+Inez. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+
+Into the Primitive. By Robert Ames Bennet.
+
+Katrina. By Roy Rolfe Gilson.
+
+King Spruce. By Holman Day.
+
+Macaria. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+
+Meryl. By Wm. Tillinghast Eldredge.
+
+Old, Old Story, The. By Rosa Nouchette Carey.
+
+Quest Eternal, The. By Will Lillibridge.
+
+Silver Blade, The. By Charles E. Walk.
+
+St. Elmo. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+
+Uncle William. By Jennette Lee.
+
+Under the Red Robe. By Stanley J. Weyman.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Master Mummer, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
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