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+Project Gutenberg's An Engagement of Convenience, by Louis Zangwill
+
+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: An Engagement of Convenience
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Louis Zangwill
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2010 [EBook #33747]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ENGAGEMENT OF CONVENIENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Pat McCoy and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  _An Engagement
+  of Convenience_
+
+  _A Novel_
+
+  _By_
+
+  _Louis Zangwill_
+
+  _Author of "The World and a Man,"
+  "One's Womenkind," &c., &c._
+
+  _London
+  Brown, Langham & Co., Ltd.
+  78 New Bond Street, W.
+  1908_
+
+
+
+
+        "In tragic life, God wot,
+  No villain need be!"
+
+  GEORGE MEREDITH.
+
+
+
+
+  An
+  Engagement of Convenience
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Miss Robinson had first seen Wyndham and fallen in love with him on the
+day that he appeared in the road as a neighbour and set up his studio
+there. But that was years before, and she had never made his
+acquaintance. He was the Prince Charming of the romances, handsome, of
+knightly bearing, with a winning smile on his frank face. From her magic
+window in the big corner house where the road branched off into two, she
+had narrowly observed his goings and comings, had watched eagerly all
+that was visible of his romantic, mysterious profession--the picturesque
+Italian models that pulled his bell, the great canvasses and frames
+that, during the earlier years at least, were borne in through his door,
+to reappear in due course as finished pictures on their way to the
+exhibitions--and it was sometimes possible to catch glimpses of stately
+figure-paintings and fascinating scenes and landscapes.
+
+Then, too, there was the suggestion of his belonging to a brilliant
+social world: she had indeed felt that at her first sight of him. Smart
+broughams and victorias in which nestled stylish people not unfrequently
+drew up at his studio about tea-time, and in the season he could be seen
+going off every night in garb of ceremony; not to speak of his
+occasional departures--to important country-houses, no doubt--with
+portmanteaus and dressing-bags stacked on the roof of his hansom.
+
+And not less eagerly had Miss Robinson followed his work, scanning the
+magazines for his drawings, and haunting the galleries in the search for
+his paintings. No one guessed how much he was the interest of her life:
+her parents had no suspicion at all, though they knew of their unusual
+neighbour, and spoke of him occasionally at table. But Alice Robinson
+was the humblest of womankind. Her youth lay already in the past: she
+accounted herself the plainest of the plain. So she idealised and
+worshipped her hero at a distance, feeling immeasurably farther from him
+than the hundred yards of respectable Hampstead pavement that separated
+their lives.
+
+One morning at breakfast her father read out from his paper the news of
+a sensational bankruptcy. A world-famous house of solicitors had
+fallen, and some of the first families in England were losers. Immense
+trust funds had gone for building speculations, and amongst the
+fashionable creditors who had been hit the worst were Mr. Walter Lloyd
+Wyndham, the artist, of Hampstead, and Miss Mary Wyndham, his sister. It
+seemed a curious little fact to Mr. Robinson that this affair should
+vibrate so near to them, and a mild and not unpleasant stimulation was
+thereby imparted to the breakfast-table. But Miss Robinson was hard put
+to it to dissimulate her deeper interest in the announcement. Her
+agitation was profound, shattering: she was glad to escape, and sit
+alone with her secret. It seemed a sacrilege that earthly vicissitude
+should touch this brilliant existence. And thereafter she watched her
+hero more narrowly than ever, reading in his bearing a stern defiance of
+adversity.
+
+At first indeed there was little difference visible in Wyndham's outward
+seemings, and Miss Robinson was thankful that the calamity had ruffled
+him so imperceptibly. Yet, as the year went by, it began to dawn upon
+her that things nevertheless were changing. She had learnt to read with
+consummate skill all the little activities that beat around the studio,
+and it did not escape her attention that he was going into society
+rarely, that smart visitors were fewer, and that pictures were being
+returned to him after astonishingly brief intervals. And gradually, as
+if in corroboration of her own conclusions, she found his work missing
+from the exhibitions, and knew with a sinking of her heart that his
+brilliant days were waning.
+
+And as time further passed, and one year merged into another, she
+realised definitely that his vogue had ended. She could not even find
+anything of his in the magazines, though she purchased them prodigally,
+and searched them through with a hope that was desperation, and a fear
+that was well-nigh frenzy.
+
+The last year or two a dead unnatural calm had settled over the studio.
+Pictures were neither despatched nor returned: if models rang the bell,
+it was only to turn away the next minute with disappointed faces. Of
+fashionable visitors there was never a sign now: not even a comrade or
+fellow-artist came to look him up. But only a tall, sad-faced girl, who
+somehow resembled him, called there at long intervals, and Miss Robinson
+envied this sister the sympathy she could bring him.
+
+He did not leave London now. All through the summer he kept in town,
+lying low, as Miss Robinson could well see from the pallor of his face
+on her return from her own conventional holiday at the seaside. She
+could cherish no delusions--he was a beaten man!
+
+Time and again she brushed close to him, passing him by chance in the
+street, and observed the languor of his step, the growing sadness of his
+features. Other details did not escape her. There was no one to attend
+on him; no one to care for him. Even a charwoman was a rarity at last,
+and Wyndham could be seen shopping almost furtively in the adjoining
+streets, and bearing back his own provisions to the studio. Miss
+Robinson divined, under their wrappings, the tin of sardines, the potted
+tongue, the loaf of bread. She knew that he never took a meal out now,
+and that, if he left the studio in the daytime, it was only to escape
+from the misery of solitude and hopelessness.
+
+She alone observed him so minutely. Her mother had in some degree shared
+her interest in his work, and had sometimes accompanied her to the
+galleries; but the common interest of the family in their neighbour was
+casual and fitful. Miss Robinson hardly dared mention his name now: it
+seemed to her that to draw attention to his poverty was to humiliate
+him. Besides, she feared to reveal her own emotion.
+
+One day Miss Robinson's own life caught her with a breathless upheaval.
+An honoured and intimate friend of her father's, successful, opulent,
+came forward with an avowal of esteem for her; deferentially desired her
+association with him in his second essay in matrimony! Mr. Shanner
+seemed to spring it on her with untempered abruptness; though the
+attentive courtesies that had preceded the crisis might have glimmered
+some little warning. But Mr. Shanner's footing in the house was as
+old-established as the rest of his appertainings; and Miss Robinson's
+spirit was ever at the nadir of diffidence. Men as a rule shunned her:
+women cared as little to talk to her. That anybody might ever wish to
+marry her had seemed impossible, inconceivable. Mr. Shanner had many
+pretensions to style, yet, to her spoiled eye, he seemed merely of clay
+indifferent.
+
+She strung herself to the ordeal of refusing him, though her real
+strength knew no faltering. For he proved insistent; wooed
+her--soberly--decorously--as became the dignity of five decades
+completed; wooed her with reasons of urgency, and implications of
+sentiment. He was to depart on a mission to the New World; wished to
+bear her promise with him. He would treasure it; would think of the new
+light to shine in his household. But within her lay an unfailing
+inspiration, and her innermost soul stood like a tower impregnable;
+though she was all wounds and distress, and quivered with the hurt. Was
+not her heart with her Prince Charming? her one dream in life the
+privilege of helping him?
+
+Mr. Shanner had to sail away disconsolate!
+
+But, though Miss Robinson's mind was occupied day and night with this
+problem of Wyndham's salvation, she could arrive at no plausible
+solution. For how should she ever dare to give him a sign? She who would
+have yielded her life for him could only watch him drifting downwards
+with an agonised sense of her helplessness.
+
+And he all the while unsuspecting of this obscure, loving historian of
+his existence; of the warm heart that beat for him in these evil days on
+which he had fallen!
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+For hours the rain had beaten against his windows, and at last, now that
+a lull had declared itself, Wyndham dragged himself to the door, and
+looked out into the gray afternoon. His eye took in the familiar vista,
+but, as it rested on the great bow-windowed house at the corner where
+the road branched into two, he turned away with a shudder. For years the
+sight of that house had irritated him: its ugly brick bulk had been
+symbolic of all Suburbia, of everything in life to which he was
+instinctively hostile as an artist and a gentleman.
+
+But presently he laughed: it had struck him as comic that he should have
+preserved in its freshness his full youthful contempt for all this
+Philistine universe!--he, a half-starved devil of an artist, down in the
+mouth, with a solitary half-crown in his pocket, speculating with bitter
+humiliation whether his hard-worked sister had yet a little to spare for
+him, after all the life-blood which, leech-like, he had sucked out of
+her! Nay, more, he was conscious that his distaste for this surrounding
+wilderness of affluent homes, in the midst of which he had so long
+dwelt as an isolated superior intelligence, had grown more marked in
+direct proportion as he had become poorer and poorer.
+
+The prosperous figure of the owner of the bow-windowed house rose before
+him. Immersed in his own existence, Wyndham had deigned to notice very
+few indeed of his neighbours. But old Mr. Robinson was one of the few,
+not only because of the regularity with which he passed the studio every
+day at six o'clock as he came home from business, but also because he
+invariably bore something in a plaited rush-bag that had a skewer thrust
+through it, suggesting visits to Leadenhall Market, and purchases of
+game or salmon for the good wife according to season. But Mr. Robinson's
+mild aspect, benevolent white beard, and gentle amble had never
+impressed Wyndham with much of a sense of human fellowship. He might
+concede that the old man was "a decent sort, no doubt, in his own way";
+but they were creatures belonging to different planets.
+
+Still amused at his own disdain, though the corners of his mouth were
+set a trifle grimly, Wyndham turned back into the studio with the idea
+of making himself presentable and going to see his sister--since it now
+seemed possible to get across town without the prospect of an absolute
+drenching. Happily his wardrobe had substantial resources: in the old
+days he had kept it well replenished, and his simple life of late here
+in the studio had made small demands on it. Thus he could still go out
+faultlessly clad and shod. Nobody need suspect his poverty, he flattered
+himself, if he ever chose to dip into his own world again. Only he did
+not choose; there was always so much questioning to face. "We've seen
+nothing of yours in the last two or three Academies--when are you going
+to give us another masterpiece?" "Still on the big picture? How is it
+getting along?" However genially thrown out, such usual interrogation
+annoyed him beyond measure. It was so long since anything had been
+"getting along." On all sides he was regarded as a doomed man, and
+suspected it: suspecting it, he was morbidly sensitive. His life was
+unnatural and not worth the living. Months and months had been wasted in
+apathy. Each day he dreamt of a new lease of energy and courage to begin
+on the morrow; but, after making his bed and clearing away his breakfast
+and purchasing his food for the day, he would find himself dejected and
+incapable of a single stroke.
+
+And yet he could not wholly realise the change that had come over the
+scene. He rubbed his eyes sometimes, as if expecting to awake from an
+unhappy dream. Was not the flourish of early trumpets still in his ears?
+The dazzle of admiration still on his retina? The gush of extensive and
+important family connections still tickling his self-esteem? The
+sweeter approval of a superior art-clique still flattering his deeper
+vanity?
+
+He had been born with a silver spoon; his childhood and youth had been
+ideally happy. From the playing-fields of Eton he had passed to the
+quadrangles of Oxford. A distinguished student of his college?--not in
+the ordinary grooves; yet favourably known as an intellect with
+enthusiasms. Phidias was more of an inspiration to him than Aristotle;
+Titian more actual than Todhunter. Ruskin, Pater, Turner, had stirred
+him; left his mind subdued to their colours. From boyhood had been his
+the swift skill with pencil that ran as easily to grace as to mockery.
+And, left early arbiter of his own existence, with gold enough for
+freedom, he had made for the one career that called to him.
+
+Genius cannot prove itself at a stroke: it has its adventurings to make.
+Seldom it realises at the outset that it is adventuring in the dark,
+therein to grope as best it may to self-discovery. Even this first stage
+may be long deferred; yet, however sure of himself at last, the artist
+has still to tread the unending road with the great light of
+self-realisation ever in the distance. There are the years of strenuous
+search, of faithful labour; of bitterest failure on failure to bring the
+deep, mysterious impulses to bloom and fruition. But there is yet
+another, if independent, adventuring. The great light that crowns the
+artist's journey shines only in his own spirit. The world sees and knows
+nothing of it. He has none the less to find his way into that other
+light--the lurid, mocking limelight of the world's acceptance; to seek a
+place beside or beneath the charlatan. This is the bitterest stage of
+all--- to stand shivering in marketplaces that are knee-deep with dung
+and offal; to be upholding precious things to the vision of swine. What
+wonder if in the course of so harsh a journeying, as he lives and
+breathes in his own universe of striving, his precise moral relation to
+things external grows dim, intangible; and, if money one day give out,
+he clutches at any crust for sustenance.
+
+Wyndham began his journeyings. His advantages were many and obvious; his
+disadvantages subtle and unseen. There was the danger that facile talent
+and social prestige might bring him an early delusive success; a
+failure, rightly seen, however tricked out with glamour.
+
+His beginnings, indeed, were pleasant: it was great fun throwing himself
+into this new queer Bohemian world of art. He worked hard as a student,
+the sheer interest of his labours lightening them astonishingly. And,
+after some preliminary swayings in varying directions, he at last "found
+himself," as he supposed; developing a dexterous imitative craft, and
+joining an advanced crowd with Whistler and Sargent for his deities.
+
+Wherever he pursued his studies--in London, or Paris, or Italy--there he
+was remarkably popular. Everybody said: "Wyndham belongs to very good
+people. They're swells--tip-top!" And indeed he had obviously the stamp
+of being "the real thing," and even the elect of Bohemia were flattered
+and fascinated by personal association with him.
+
+When ultimately he set up his studio here in Hampstead, he had his
+policy definitely before him. With the means and the leisure to aim at a
+high career, he would make no concessions to popularity or the market.
+He had chosen the locality deliberately. It was London, and within reach
+of the world; but not so near the world as to endanger his labours. The
+little tide of fashion that rolled up to his door was not a tribute to
+fame, but merely the fuss and interest of his non-Bohemian circle
+pleased for a time with the novelty of having a studio and a genius
+connected with them.
+
+So in the early years he worked enthusiastically, and was able to win
+some footing in the galleries. But, in the eyes of his numerous family
+connections, he was seriously launched; especially when a couple of his
+pictures at last attracted buyers, and he moreover found himself earning
+guineas from the patronage of friendly editors whose humbler commissions
+he carried out in the same spirit of the dignified, ambitious worker.
+
+Then the financial crash came, leaving brother and sister entirely
+dependent on their labours. Both met the crisis with commendable
+philosophy. Mary, who had long before taken up educational work as an
+amateur, was soon able to establish herself as a professional, and had
+taught ever since at a high school in Kensington; picturesquely settling
+herself in a tiny flat in an artisan's building, and living as a homely
+worker. The dignity and serene simplicity of her life had of late
+furnished the one ideal thing for Wyndham's contemplation.
+
+Wyndham himself had stood up straight and felt very strong; had
+reassured his fussy, frightened folk that he could rely on his
+profession. He felt in himself an endless ardour for achievement, a
+confidence of triumph in the contest with men. Nay, more, he would gain
+his bread without descending from his high standpoint! The task was
+fully as difficult as he had anticipated; but at any rate he contrived
+to live for a couple of years. Then, somewhat to his surprise, the
+Academy began to return his pictures; and somehow, to his greater
+surprise, everything else went against him at the same time. He could
+not even get "illustrating" to do. Those who had acclaimed him before
+because he was a "swell" were now turning against him apparently for the
+same reason. Your aristocrats were never to be taken seriously; they
+were necessarily amateurs! It was all so unanimous, so settled and
+persistent, that it had almost the air of a conspiracy. Wyndham saw well
+enough that everybody had tired of his work, that he had had his hour
+and his vogue; his career lay like a squib that had blazed itself out.
+All bangs and fizzings, and then a blackened bit of casing, silent,
+extinguished! Yet he had the discernment to recognise that the
+dying-down had been really inevitable; that his present relative poverty
+had little or nothing to do with it. He had been dexterous on the
+surface, but the sameness of his note--without even the saving grace of
+convention--had destroyed him commercially.
+
+Well, he believed in himself, and he refused to accept this erasure. On
+the contrary, he would launch out more daringly than ever. An end to
+facile imitation of other people's styles! He must express his own
+deeper self. The strict Whistlerian creed was much too narrow. Art was
+not merely a bare abstract aesthetics: humanity counted for something
+after all. Was woman's loveliness something really apart from woman
+herself? True that art meant beauty--in the largest sense, of course;
+but why should not humanity and beauty fuse together?
+
+So, scraping together all he could command in the way of money, he set
+himself to work out a large dramatic idea, suggested by the sight of a
+May-day demonstration. The canvas was gigantic, and he strove to depict
+a mob of strikers straggling out of the Park after their great meeting,
+with elements of fashion caught in this _mêlée_ of labour. The pictorial
+irony had greatly interested him, and he felt that this painting on the
+grand scale was being sincerely born out of his own emotion, that it
+would trumpet out a warning to the age.
+
+The beginnings were full of promise, and he decided to stake everything
+on it. But for so realistic a representation of Hyde Park Corner he
+needed to make a great many sketches on the spot. So, through the
+friendly offices of an amiable acquaintance, he obtained access to a
+convenient window in Grosvenor Place, and made free use of the
+privilege. The master of the house, a nobleman of the old school, who at
+first sight seemed stately as the portraits in his own dining-room,
+proved on acquaintance to be singularly bluff and genial, sometimes
+almost slap-dash. He had made Wyndham welcome and at his ease, bidding
+him come and go as he pleased, and "never to mind a bit about turning
+the room into a studio." And this charming nobleman had likewise a
+charming daughter, who sometimes came for a minute or two to talk to
+Wyndham and interest herself in the sketches. Lady Betty was a brilliant
+figure of a girl; had travelled a good deal and knew the world. She was
+sunny and friendly, yet naturally on a pedestal. She was clear-headed
+and capable; in the home supreme mistress. Wyndham was the subject of
+many graceful little attentions. If he came in the morning she saw that
+his glass of sherry and biscuit was never neglected; in the afternoon
+she presided over tea in the drawing-room and expected him to appear
+there.
+
+Of course poor Wyndham never dared tell himself that he was in love with
+her. A girl like that must naturally be reserved for a great match, as
+regards both position and fortune. He could not think of her save as
+presiding over a plurality of palaces or voyaging in a magnificent
+yacht. Palaces and yachts were not the rewards of painters, so Wyndham
+kept his mind sternly fixed on the purpose for which he was there. Even
+so, the intervals between his appearances grew wider and wider. And
+when, after some couple of years of toil, discipline, searching, it had
+come home to him that in this terrible picture he had undertaken a task
+beyond his strength and experience, he found himself too shamefaced to
+"abuse" further the courtesy that had been extended to him. The
+consciousness, too, of his growing poverty was becoming acuter and
+acuter. Already he was drawing back into his shell, and, once he had
+ceased going to Grosvenor Place for the sake of his work, he had not the
+heart to continue his visits as an ordinary acquaintance. More than a
+year afterwards he read of Lady Betty's engagement in the papers--it
+was the very match one would naturally look for. Yet the news "shattered
+him to bits"--absurdly enough, he told himself, since he had known her
+at best irregularly, and not in the ordinary course of social intimacy.
+He was really half-surprised at receiving an invitation to the wedding.
+He could not prevail on himself to go; but, remembering she had once
+admired one of his Academy pictures, he sent her a photograph of it on a
+miniature silver easel as a trifling wedding gift. She wrote back a
+gracious acknowledgment, which had since remained one of his treasures.
+
+Meanwhile he had been struggling on with the picture, determined to
+conquer. But its difficulties and problems were endless. After all his
+toil it stood on his easel in a terribly unfinished condition, though he
+had stinted his own body to lavish his money on it. At last, gulping
+down the humiliation, he was forced to accept of Mary's little store of
+savings to pay his rent and his models. It was his first step of the
+kind, and he paid the full proverbial cost of it. But he had still the
+hope of returning the loan a thousandfold. Was not his success to redeem
+her life as well as his?
+
+Certainly Mary believed in him and the picture, and looked forward to
+its scoring a great triumph. The whole heart and hope of the sister
+centred on that vast canvas. She sometimes ran across town to see it,
+though--poor child!--Hyde Park Corner always looked the same to her at
+every stage of its long creation. But the picture was Wyndham's
+backbone; it was his stock-in-trade before his world. He was more and
+more of a recluse now, refusing all invitations, discouraging his
+friends from coming to interrupt him--as he put it. Certainly Wyndham
+would rather have died than confess to failure after all the magnificent
+trumpeting. Even as it was, the time came soon enough when the big
+picture no longer served to protect his dignity. He imagined
+half-pitying glances and ironic smiles, and so eventually he found
+himself avoiding everybody without exception.
+
+It was only on Lady Betty's wedding day, after more than three years of
+futile striving, that he had the resolution to remove the great canvas
+from the easel and stand it with its face to the wall.
+
+He was tired now, but he must make an effort to emancipate himself from
+Mary's exchequer. Till then he could not hold his head up. So he painted
+some smaller and pleasanter pictures, but again he could do nothing with
+them. The Academy sent them back, the minor galleries sent them back,
+the Salon sent them back the following year. The dealers offered less
+than the cost of the frames. Meantime he had ceased to count up the
+five-pound notes Mary had starved herself to keep for him. He knew he
+was a coward and dared not. He had reached that stage of moral
+confusion which Nietzsche registers as in the natural history of the
+artist-type, and which may not be eyed too harshly from the point of
+vantage of ordered and organised existence in this outer universe. One
+idea stood clear beyond all others; grew into his mind; grew till it
+became his mind. He must cling to his studio, hold desperately to this
+atmosphere of paint and canvasses.
+
+He was getting on in years now--past thirty-three. It was like the
+striking of a pitiless clock, this adding of swift year after year to
+his unsuccessful life. His hand began to fail him. The necessity of now
+doing his own house-work; of bothering with coals and cinders, preparing
+his makeshift monotonous meals, pouring oil into lamps, and boiling
+kettles, and washing plates and teacups, had begun by encroaching on his
+time and energies, and ended by absorbing them altogether. The care of
+ministering to his own primary needs had at last superseded art as his
+profession. Even so, the cobwebs multiplied and the dust lay thick.
+
+Months now slipped by, he scarcely knew how; he was astonished to
+realise how time might elude one, how a colourless day might be trifled
+away without appearing to hold the possibility of even a morsel of
+achievement. Yet he still grasped the hope that something would
+"arrive"--an unexpected magazine commission, a request from a dealer.
+Ideas for a new start would teem in his head as he lay tossing on the
+narrow iron bed up in the gallery at the end of the studio. Why not do
+some pretty little things--to fetch ten guineas apiece, say--Cupids
+playing amid wreathed flowers with pale Doric structures in the
+background? If Mary could manage just another few pounds for him, he
+would have time to turn out a number of such decorative trifles. Such
+things were in constant demand and were a sure source of livelihood. He
+had stood out long enough, much longer indeed than he had had the right.
+He had consistently worked on a basis of high endeavour, but now he must
+withdraw his dignity and enter on the pot-boiler phase. Better that than
+this abominable leech-like existence. Continued misfortune had befogged
+his wits, and this last year certainly he had been half mad.
+
+So be it! He must wake up now, and no longer lose his days in this
+stupid pottering about!
+
+Every dog had his day, and his own turn would come in time. He was an
+artist. He felt it in his bones and blood. Art was his life and destiny.
+He had blundered in attempting too big a feat too early in his career,
+but he did not intend that that should wreck his existence. No, no! he
+would never throw up the sponge. He would rather die than admit defeat,
+with all those who knew him looking on at the game.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+He dressed himself carefully to go to Mary's, trying hard not to think
+of the real purpose of his visit--he had merely informed her that he
+would be in the neighbourhood and would look in for a cup of tea. But,
+though it was distasteful to dwell on these unending demands on her
+earnings, he was anything but profligate in spending them. He had spun
+out her previous five-pound note so that it had kept him going for weeks
+and weeks, and he had grudged himself even a newspaper. In view of the
+newly-projected work to tickle the dealers, he regretted more than ever
+that he had not been able to pull himself together sooner: in these past
+precious weeks he might have knocked off half a dozen of such
+pretty-pretty things.
+
+A series of omnibuses took him across London to Kensington Church, where
+he descended, presently turning out of the High Street. The "Buildings"
+where Mary resided were in a side alley at the back, and Wyndham made
+direct for them. He walked straight in through the large front door that
+stood perennially open, and followed the trail of muddy footmarks up
+the worn stone stairway. On the third landing he came to a stop, and
+pulled a bell half hidden in the obscurity of a corner. The door opened,
+and Mary stood before him. He could not help seeing how unnaturally slim
+she appeared to-day; how her simple stuff dress seemed to hang loosely
+on her.
+
+"This is so good of you. I am so glad to see you, dear." Her earnest
+face brightened with a wistful yet pleasant smile.
+
+He stooped and kissed her, then followed her into her tiny sitting-room.
+It was evidently the home of a gentlewoman. With the shelf or two of
+books, the escritoire, the few prints, and the little trinkets and
+photographs she valued, she had contrived to make a dainty little nest
+of it, and all these simple things gave the place a peculiar personal
+stamp. The table was laid for tea, and the kettle sang on the fire.
+
+"You have had a dreary journey," she said, as she gave him a chair.
+
+"No, the weather has been unexpectedly kind," he reassured her. "The sun
+peeped out just for one moment. I believe I was the only person in
+London that noticed it: the rest of the world were intent on other
+things. Have you been keeping well?"
+
+"You forget I am just back from vacation."
+
+"Of course--I had forgotten," he laughed. "How did you spend your time?"
+
+"I passed the first three weeks with Aunt Eleanor, as I told you I
+should. We were a big, merry party, and everybody made a great fuss of
+your little sister." Again that wistful smile. "They all spoiled and
+petted me shamefully."
+
+"Ah, that was good for you."
+
+"I am not so sure about that," she returned thoughtfully. "I am
+certainly not used to the sort of thing, and I really found it restful
+and refreshing to go on to old Lady Glynn, who had me to herself."
+
+"So that's your idea of a holiday--taking care of paralytic, deaf old
+people whom everybody else shuns like the plague." He shook his finger
+at her. "And you call it restful and refreshing."
+
+"Service is the greatest of all happiness," she answered gently. "Even
+as it is, I'm sadly afraid I'm a sham and a fraud. I'm not really a
+worker--in the same sense as others I know. They have no fashionable
+friends with big houses in the country."
+
+She brewed the tea and gave him his cup.
+
+"Do people inquire much about me?" he asked, as the uncomfortable
+thought recurred to him.
+
+"Certainly not of me," she returned. "You neglect them, you refuse their
+invitations, they never hear a word from you, and naturally they suppose
+you wish to be quit of them all. And so, no doubt, they feel it the
+proper thing not to appear to wish to discuss you with your sister."
+There was a pause. Both seemed lost in thought for the moment. "And so
+you, poor Walter, have had no holiday at all!"
+
+"Ah, well," he sighed. "I try to content myself with the thought that
+I'm saving it up. One of these days I daresay I shall go off to Rome or
+Venice, and recuperate from several points of view. I daresay a bit of
+luck will be coming my way presently, and I'm keen on getting back to
+Italy again. I've often planned it out. A month or so at Paris, a couple
+of months in the South of France, three at Rome, and three at
+Venice--with a look-in at Naples some time, of course."
+
+"What a lovely holiday that would be!" He did not surprise her quick
+flash of longing. Both remained pensive.
+
+"But tell me about everybody," he said at last. "You see I take more
+interest in them all than they suppose."
+
+"That's natural enough. After all, Hertfordshire's your home."
+
+He winced visibly, half sorry that he had set her mind in that
+direction. She, however, proceeded to draw for him various pictures, and
+he presently found himself listening with a deeper eagerness than he had
+foreseen. She brought him close again to his own world, uplifted him in
+his own eyes: he had almost the sensation of being restored to a sphere
+which it had been more painful to abandon than he had ever admitted.
+The minutes passed, bringing him a warm, happy sense of social
+comradeship with his sister. The little fire burned brightly, and the
+feeling of the well-ordered nest was fragrant and exquisite. He felt his
+bitterness softening under its influence; a deep peace seemed to
+surround him, filling the little haven, radiating from Mary's wistful
+face, from her gentle smile and voice. How thankful he was this terrible
+London yet held her sympathy!
+
+"It is a great thing for me to have you to come to, Mary," he broke in
+on her suddenly. "It helps me tremendously."
+
+"Poor Walter!" she breathed. Her eyes filled with tears.
+
+For a moment both were too moved to speak again. But abruptly, as with a
+courage and firmness long since resolved upon, she looked straight at
+him.
+
+"Why don't you give it up, darling? This art is ruining your life."
+
+He did not seem surprised at this sudden turn of the conversation,
+though such a suggestion had never before fallen from her lips. He took
+her words as a cry of despair rather than an attempt at a stern
+reckoning.
+
+"Why don't I give it up?" he echoed. "That's an easy question to ask.
+The answer is difficult. But I can't give it up. It is impossible."
+
+"It is not so impossible as it seems."
+
+"What can I turn to? I am fitted for nothing."
+
+"Go to the Colonies. Labour on the soil--or work with hammer and saw."
+
+"I am willing to labour, willing to face anything in life. But,
+Mary--the confession of failure--you don't see how deep, how mad the
+pride is in me."
+
+"You have nothing to confess. The whole world knows you are a failure.
+They talk about it openly. They spare me as much as possible, but I
+can't shut my ears."
+
+It was a staggering blow. "They despise me!" he breathed.
+
+Her lips hesitated, clenched together, the corners convulsed with pain.
+
+"They despise you!"
+
+He found his defence. "Because I have not succeeded commercially." His
+voice was full of scorn. "It matters little that these gross Philistines
+misjudge me. They will yet regret it. I shall yet show them that I am
+not so self-deceived as they imagine. I am an artist--art was born in my
+blood, art is my whole existence. I shall stick to it till I fall dead.
+I ask you, Mary, to believe in me a little longer."
+
+"Heaven knows I have never wavered in my belief a moment. But it is not
+my belief that can save you. You have made a brave attempt, but you have
+been defeated. I am only facing the simple facts. The present position
+seems to me a hopeless one to start from. You have no means behind you
+now, so what is there before you save to go on in the same miserable way
+as you have lived the last year or two? I see no possibility of anything
+but repetition of the same unhappy experience--the world is not going to
+step out of its way for your sake. And remember it has already made up
+its mind about you."
+
+"Then I have lost your sympathy!" he exclaimed. He stared gloomily into
+the fire.
+
+She saw now that the morbid sensibility of the man who had failed would
+never face clear, cold reason, however gently administered.
+
+"No, dear; you have not lost my sympathy. Please don't think that," she
+pleaded. "Don't you see I want to be a real friend to you; don't you see
+that you are more to me than your art?"
+
+"I must fight it out," he insisted. "To-morrow I am starting a fresh lot
+of things--to sell! I have always stood out for the big accomplishment,
+but now I offer my labour in the market. Pretty designs, prettily
+coloured--Cupids and pearly clouds and wreaths of flowers. The dealers
+will take them. You will see, Mary, I shall manage to pull through yet."
+
+She shook her head incredulously. "Better to give it up altogether
+before it is too late."
+
+"You can't mean it," he exclaimed. "You have stood by me so long that I
+can't believe you are going to turn against me."
+
+"I repeat that I care for you more than for your art, and I cannot see
+you sacrificed. No, I have not turned against you. I have been against
+you all this long, unhappy time. To-day I am your friend for the first
+time. Listen, darling. When I got your letter yesterday, I knew that
+things were as bad as ever, that you were at your wits' ends again for
+money."
+
+He maintained a shamefaced silence, not daring to make any pretence to
+the contrary. She looked straight at him as she continued: "I am sure
+you will be the last to think I have ever considered the few pounds I
+have been able to put aside for you--my heart's best affection has
+always gone out to you with them. But the whole of last night I kept
+awake, and prayed for strength to refuse you any more money."
+
+He held his head down; he was too abased to speak.
+
+"Strength has been granted me at last. You are dear to me, and I will
+not help to continue this unhappy state of affairs. Sell off your
+studio, try your fortune in the Colonies, and you will yet pull your
+life out of the mire."
+
+He rose, and took up his hat. "I daresay you are right, Mary. But I am
+an artist. Art is my life. Outside that there is nothing for me. Don't
+think I am ungrateful for all you have done. Goodbye!"
+
+"Goodbye, darling. Perhaps you will yet think it over."
+
+He shook his head wearily and turned away, not seeing that she had held
+her lips to him. The next moment he was descending the muddy staircase,
+slipping and stumbling on the bare stone. He was conscious that Mary was
+standing in the doorway a moment, but he did not see the convulsive
+working of her face, nor know that as soon as he was out of sight she
+had thrown herself on her bed, heart-broken, her body shaken in a
+terrible burst of sobbing.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+In the High Street Wyndham waited impatiently for an omnibus to take him
+home again. Instinctively he turned for refuge to the bleak studio, from
+whose loneliness he had so often been impelled to escape. But it was his
+own corner, and all he had. He would not light his lamp; he would lie
+there in the gloom till his pain and self-abasement should have worn
+themselves out. Merciful sleep might come; perhaps--and the idea seemed
+sweet to him--the sleep of all sleeps.
+
+So he possessed his spirit as best he could, while the vehicle lumbered
+along through the endless streets; shivering a little in the autumn dusk
+as now and then a gust of wind arose. The sky clouded heavily, and, when
+finally he descended, the rain was falling swiftly again.
+
+At last he was at home! He thought of the studio now with affection, and
+quickened his pace feverishly. Then he became aware that a familiar
+figure, holding a familiar rush-bag with a skewer thrust through it, was
+trudging just ahead of him in the growing darkness. But he was not
+surprised at catching sight of Mr. Robinson, since it was the regular
+hour of the merchant's appearance after his homeward journey from the
+City. As usual, Mr. Robinson's house filled the centre of vision,
+looming vast at the cross-roads, and softened in the evening mist; and
+for the first time the figure plodding towards it under the dripping
+umbrella struck Wyndham as interesting and strangely human.
+
+Steadily, steadily, Wyndham gained on his neighbour; then, acting on
+some vague instinct, slackened his step so as not to have to pass him to
+get to his own door. But just outside the studio Mr. Robinson slipped,
+swayed, then came to the ground heavily. Wyndham at once hurried
+forward, and helped him to his feet.
+
+"You are not hurt, I hope?" he inquired.
+
+"I think not," returned the old man. He leaned against the studio door,
+whilst Wyndham took the rush-bag from his clenched fingers, and gathered
+up the umbrella from the gutter into which it had rolled. Mr. Robinson
+surveyed his soiled garments ruefully, and shook his head sadly.
+
+"It _is_ beastly," assented Wyndham.
+
+"It can't be helped," said the old man; "though mud like this on a new
+suit of clothes puts a hard strain on a man's philosophy." There was a
+good-natured gleam in his eye and a brave smile on his face. Wyndham
+found himself unexpectedly attracted, and was much concerned when Mr.
+Robinson tried to take a step or two, but was pulled up painfully.
+
+"Pray, don't alarm yourself, sir," said Mr. Robinson, as Wyndham caught
+at his arm solicitously. "I am only a little bruised, and have had
+rather a wrench. I must just breathe for an instant."
+
+"Won't you come into my studio, and rest for a moment or two?" suggested
+Wyndham. "I shall be delighted if you will."
+
+He produced the key from his pocket, turned it in the lock, and threw
+open the door. Then he offered Mr. Robinson the support of his arm.
+
+"It is very kind of you, sir," said the old man, as he linked his arm in
+Wyndham's. "My name is Robinson. I live just up the road. I daresay you
+may have noticed me: I have often noticed you."
+
+"I am enchanted to make your acquaintance, though I regret the
+particular circumstances," said Wyndham, as they passed through the
+little ante-room into the dim interior.
+
+"I cannot share your regret," returned Mr. Robinson, with a touch of
+suave conviction. "No, not even if the accident were more serious, since
+I have been afforded the pleasure of knowing you."
+
+Wyndham was surprised at the sweetness and old-world courtesy revealed
+in the old man's personality. "You are very kind," he said with a smile.
+"I hope indeed I am worth so pretty a sentiment. But please take this
+arm-chair."
+
+He pushed it forward, then set the rush-bag down on the table, hastily
+throwing a serviette over the litter of his last meal, which he had not
+had the energy to clear away, and which now brusquely offended his
+fastidiousness. But as Mr. Robinson, good careful soul, hesitated to
+soil the chair, Wyndham got a rag and wiped away the more lurid splashes
+from his garments. Then, whilst the old man rested, Wyndham trimmed his
+lamp; and presently the glooms vanished before a cosy illumination. Mr.
+Robinson at once began to scrutinise the studio on all sides with
+amusingly deep interest. The old Normandy presses, the model's throne,
+the giant easel, the well-worn Persian carpet, the hosts of canvasses of
+all sizes standing with their faces to the wall, the disorder and
+informality everywhere--all seemed to strike for him a note of youth and
+gaiety, to animate him with a sense of a new romantic universe. His face
+lighted with pleasure. He gazed up at the lofty roof and the oak
+cross-beams that supported it, and finally his eye rested on the little
+stairway and gallery at the far end, now almost lost in the shadows.
+
+"Is your bedroom up there?" he hazarded, his naïve interest slipping out
+on his tongue.
+
+"Yes," smiled Wyndham, as he tackled the dying fire. "It's the
+traditional arrangement."
+
+"What a fascinating place you've got here! It's all a new world to me."
+
+"Ah, it's a very ordinary sort of world--when once you've settled down
+to work."
+
+"I have never known an artist before," pursued the old man, "and it is
+all fresh to me. I think that if I were a youngster again, I shouldn't
+at all dislike having a place like this, and making my home of it. Not
+that I mean I should ever have made anything of an artist," he added
+with a smile. "It's the spirit of the thing that appeals to me. You must
+be very happy here."
+
+"Not necessarily," said Wyndham. He saw the old man's eyes fixed on him
+gravely. "You see, I'm not one of your successful artists, and the years
+have a way of passing on." He struggled with the fire, making the sticks
+blaze, then piled up the coals unsparingly. Mr. Robinson was the only
+person in the world to whom he had ever admitted failure, but somehow it
+did not seem to matter.
+
+The old man gazed at him in frank astonishment. "Why, you are in the
+prime of early manhood!" he exclaimed. "Really it is most extraordinary
+to hear a splendid young man like you complain of the years passing!"
+
+"I'm thirty-three," volunteered Wyndham. "And an unlucky devil of
+thirty-three, who has as much trouble in getting rid of his work as I,
+feels old enough in all conscience."
+
+"But you artists have to expect these adverse experiences," said Mr.
+Robinson. "Art of course isn't like other things--it isn't exactly a
+business or profession in the ordinary sense, and so long as a man has
+the gift, he ought not to get disheartened. In our business world, of
+course, pounds, shillings and pence are everything, but in the world of
+art it wouldn't do to set up a standard of that kind."
+
+Such sentiments on the part of a Philistine who came home every evening
+from the City at six o'clock struck Wyndham speechless.
+
+"The struggle of genius is proverbial," Mr. Robinson added, before the
+younger man could find his tongue; "and genius wouldn't be genius
+without it."
+
+"Ah, if I were only a genius!" said Wyndham, laughing.
+
+"I am sure you are a genius," said the old man very gravely. "I have
+often thought what a clever face yours was. At home we have often spoken
+of you."
+
+"I suppose then I must be a conspicuous figure in the road. I had no
+idea of it!" Wyndham laughed again.
+
+"You've been in the neighbourhood some years now," said Mr. Robinson
+half apologetically; "and neighbours naturally notice one another.
+Besides, if I may say so, you are quite unlike the ordinary run of
+people. You are not the sort of man one sees in the City."
+
+"You interest me. In what way do I differ from others?"
+
+"You have the stamp of belonging to leisured people; it is plain from
+your walk and bearing, from your voice and manner of speech. And then
+there is something about your clothes even--I don't quite know what."
+The old man's eyes rested on him with a sort of approval and
+satisfaction.
+
+Wyndham was amused. "You are really an original character," he
+exclaimed. "I like you."
+
+Mr. Robinson smiled with gratification. "I more than return the
+compliment, I can assure you."
+
+"But pray go on," said Wyndham. "I believe you're a wizard. I must get
+you to cast my horoscope."
+
+Mr. Robinson raised his hands. "I don't think I could manage that," he
+laughed. "I am only a quiet observer of my fellow-men. In the present
+case it is very easy to see that yours is the face of a gentleman by
+birth. There is a certain composure in your whole style. Whatever you
+had to face, you would never have that appearance that men get in the
+City--of wearing themselves out."
+
+"Better to wear out than to rust out," said Wyndham meditatively. "I
+rust out."
+
+He was astonished at his own frankness. But there was a deep pleasure in
+being natural for once, in throwing off the cover of sham and pretence
+that had characterised his intercourse with his kind in the past. He did
+not even consider it was strange that the person he should be baring
+himself to so freely was one whose existence hitherto he had merely
+deigned to notice. But nothing could exceed Mr. Robinson's amazement at
+this last profession of his.
+
+"Rust out!" The old man's eyes opened wide. "Why, you have done an
+immense amount of work!" He waved his hand significantly towards the
+army of canvasses ranged against the walls.
+
+Wyndham affected to be impressed by the consideration. "Yes," he
+admitted; "I have used up a considerable amount of material in my time,
+I must admit." He had suddenly perceived that Mr. Robinson was largely
+discounting his ingenuous frankness, and was really taking his
+profession of failure, which, as it happened, he had thrown out in an
+offhand way, as rather affectation than literal truth.
+
+"And no doubt will be using up still larger amounts in the future." The
+old man smiled and rose. "But I am taking up your time!"
+
+"No, indeed," Wyndham assured him. "I hope you have quite recovered
+now."
+
+"Oh, quite," returned Mr. Robinson. "I had altogether forgotten the
+little accident in the pleasure of our conversation."
+
+There was a pause. "I am sorry there's no light," said Wyndham; "else I
+should show you some of my work--that is, if you cared to see it."
+
+The old man looked eager. "Couldn't you make the lamp do?" he exclaimed.
+"I'm sure it would give me a very good idea of your pictures. But I am
+presuming on your kindness."
+
+"Oh, no," protested Wyndham.
+
+He began to move about the studio, conscious of a new energy. Somebody
+was here to appreciate him; somebody desired to see his work, was
+looking up to him in admiration! He felt strangely rejuvenated--it was
+as if he had taken a dose of some wonderful elixir. He selected half a
+dozen of the smaller pictures, and brought them forward. Then, as he
+wheeled the great easel into position, the whim took him to see how his
+huge "masterpiece" looked after all this long interval of time.
+
+For, since he had stood it with its face to the wall on Lady Betty's
+wedding-day, he had never had the heart to glance at it again. Not
+merely failure and wasted years were associated with it, but it stirred
+memories of the hours he had spent at Grosvenor Place in the first
+freshness of his hopes, when he had worked with the passion of youth.
+Then, too, there was the silent drama that had played itself out in the
+depths of his own spirit. Looking back, it seemed to him that no man
+could ever have cherished a more hopeless love, or have encountered a
+more inevitable one. Nor had the lapse of time softened the bitterness
+of that strange romantic chapter. Lady Betty's figure and personality
+would remain with him as his ideal of woman for the rest of his life;
+and he clung to the memory of his hurt as typical of his whole fortune.
+
+But though the thought of the picture to-night inevitably stirred up
+some of these old emotions, there was joined to them a sudden
+overwhelming curiosity. What would be his impression at the first
+glance? Would all its deficiencies and crudities stand out in relief,
+and make him turn away from it in sickness and loathing? Or would it
+strike him, however unfinished it might be, as having yet promise in it,
+as justifying some at least of the time--nay, even life-blood--he had
+consecrated to it?
+
+"What a huge thing!" ejaculated Mr. Robinson, as Wyndham tilted it back
+from the wall.
+
+"It _is_ tremendous," smiled Wyndham. "I'm afraid I shall have to ask
+you to give me a hand with it."
+
+Together they carried it to the easel, and Wyndham hoisted it to its old
+place. "I don't know whether we shall be able to make head or tail of
+it," he said; "but I'll do what I can with the lamp. As you see, it's a
+powerful one."
+
+"Of course I don't profess to be a connoisseur of oil paintings," Mr.
+Robinson warned him. "But I know what I like, though I daresay you will
+think me extremely benighted."
+
+"No, indeed," protested Wyndham; "I shall value your opinion highly." He
+worked away at the little wheel at the back of the easel as he inclined
+the canvas at the most favourable angle, whilst the old man watched the
+process fascinated.
+
+The next moment Wyndham was holding the big lamp high in the air, and
+carefully illumining the surface of the picture. For a moment everything
+before his eyes was blurred, and he could see nothing at all; but he
+stood his ground firmly, and gripped the lamp heroically. And before the
+mist could clear he heard Mr. Robinson's voice rise in admiration.
+
+"Wonderful!" exclaimed the old man, his tone vibrating with an immense
+conviction; and at that moment Wyndham received the picture full on his
+vision and felt at once he had there a basis that could be worked up
+into a splendid achievement.
+
+"The crowd of strikers with their banner is the most life-like thing
+I've ever seen. Wonderful!" Mr. Robinson gazed and gazed, his interest
+overflowing into a running comment. "It's Hyde Park Corner! Why, of
+course--there's the Duke of Wellington's house, and there's Lord
+Rothschild's. Marvellous! What a variety of faces and characters! And
+the old fellow there in the corner--what powerful features full of
+despair! And the old woman with the red shawl--she hasn't had a morsel
+of food, poor creature, for twenty-four hours, I'll wager. Why don't you
+leave her alone, you old ruffian of a policeman! And then that
+fashionable lady in her brougham with her over-fed poodle--what contempt
+on her face for all these artizans! How real everything is--the
+perspective is grand! Why, you could take a walk out there in the
+distance! Marvellous! It doesn't need an art education to see that's a
+work of genius."
+
+Wyndham stood listening in elation, though, in his own perception of the
+work just now, he felt as aloof from it as if it had sprung from
+another's labours. His brain seemed emancipated from the tangle of its
+old problems and all his old flounderings. And as Mr. Robinson continued
+his admiring ejaculations, Wyndham put in now and again a word of
+explanation, drawing attention to a point here and there, though this
+was at first rather by way of soliloquy than conversation. But,
+presently, as he moved the lamp to and fro, up and down, he warmed to
+the occasion; even enlarging on his pet ideas, and pointing out where he
+had failed to realise his own scheme and formula. Mr. Robinson listened,
+wholly absorbed and fascinated by these new horizons that opened before
+him. His respect and worship for art was contagious: Wyndham began to
+worship it more himself.
+
+And the younger man grew eloquent, expatiated on the old art and the
+new, on academies and masters, on realism and symbolism, on plein air
+and sunlight, on colour and technique. And as he spoke, he was enchanted
+with his own voice. It was splendid to feel himself speaking again after
+all this long suppression--he was realising the strength and
+infallibility of his own artistic convictions. Never before had he felt
+so sure of his conceptions; his former humility had only led to
+confusion and hesitation. In future, his own mind should dominate--he
+would not be blown about by all these conflicting schools and critics.
+
+He was conscious of standing more vigorously upright; and, as he
+enlarged on the picture, he seemed to get a new and sure hold of it,
+seeing more and more the potentiality of a great and powerful structure
+that no Academy could dare refuse to recognise. He saw now that his long
+interval of hibernation had not been unfruitful. And it had made a
+necessary sharp division between the two parts of his life--the first,
+uncertain, stumbling, unsuccessful; the second, confident, mature,
+triumphant.
+
+The picture before him was transformed. Problems that had baffled him
+seemed to solve themselves in a flash. Effects he had vainly sought
+through maddening months stood at once revealed, flowing naturally out
+of what he had already set down. His hand longed to be wielding the
+brush again.
+
+"But if I may make the remark," interposed Mr. Robinson at length; "it
+seems matter for surprise that a gentleman like you should be attracted
+to the choice of such a subject. I should hardly suppose that you have
+ever come into any real contact with labour, and workmen on strike would
+therefore scarcely come within the sphere of your sympathy."
+
+"The artist is of universal sympathy," said Wyndham gravely, and himself
+believed it. At that moment he felt his endless sympathy spreading
+itself out, embracing all creation. "And then it was not only the
+humanity of the scene that touched me, and inspired me to attempt to put
+it down finely and greatly; there was also the pure art part as it
+appealed to the trained vision--the splendid difficulties to be
+vanquished, the opportunities for draughtsmanship and subtle colour, the
+sense of far-stretching space to be produced from only a narrow gamut of
+light and shade."
+
+"Marvellous!" echoed Mr. Robinson again.
+
+"But if I may make the remark in my turn," said Wyndham, "your sympathy
+with labour surprises me equally."
+
+"Why so?" asked Mr. Robinson.
+
+"The natural antagonism between capital and labour!" smiled Wyndham.
+
+"Oh, I started as a poor boy--right at the foot of the ladder,"
+explained Mr. Robinson. "My father was a carpenter. Wages were low in
+those days, and prices of all necessaries were high. I remember in my
+childhood we had a pretty hard time of it. In my own firm we share the
+profits with all the employees. So you see I'm rather partial to labour
+so long as it's decent and reasonable. When I think of my own struggles,
+I like to see every man get fair opportunities. When a man has no
+particular talent--such as myself, for instance--it is ever so much the
+harder to go through discouragements. But, at the worst of times, it
+must be a great thing for a gifted man like yourself to be conscious of
+his own powers."
+
+"So you set up to have no particular talent!" explained Wyndham. "You
+amuse me. Haven't you made your fortune unaided? I confess that that
+seems to me the most difficult thing in the world--immensely cleverer
+than anything in the way of art or painting."
+
+Mr. Robinson laughed. "Now you're making fun of me."
+
+"I was never more serious in my life," insisted Wyndham, now wheeling
+forward a smaller easel, in order to display the pictures he had at
+first selected. "I consider it frightfully clever to make money."
+
+"My dear sir, fools often make money," Mr. Robinson assured him.
+
+Wyndham shook his head incredulously. "Do you care much about this
+landscape?" he asked.
+
+"Very much indeed. It is so green and fresh and airy, and those are
+grand old trees."
+
+"It's our old home in Hertfordshire. I lost the property and a modest
+fortune through a rascally set of lawyers."
+
+Mr. Robinson's face expressed deep concern. "Yes, I remember the affair
+well," he said. "I remember reading it over the breakfast-table to my
+wife and daughter. We saw your name among the creditors. It was a bad
+business."
+
+"They had managed all our family concerns for thirty years."
+
+Wyndham was now wound up to enter into more personal matters than he had
+so far touched upon. As before, he was perfectly frank, recounting in
+the intimacy of the moment all the details of this financial
+catastrophe. He spoke freely of his relations in the country, and of his
+sister Mary, and the independent way in which she was earning her bread;
+passing from canvas to canvas the while, and breaking off frequently to
+discuss the paintings.
+
+At last they had gone through all the selection, but the unfailing
+appreciation of his visitor was so pleasant to the artist that he could
+not help bringing forward two or three more, and then finally another.
+And still yet another after!--like the preacher's "one word more."
+
+"I have passed a very happy time here with you," the old man declared,
+as Wyndham restored the lamp to its usual place on the table. "You see I
+was right; the occasion was well worth the accident that brought it
+about."
+
+"Happily you were not really hurt. So all's well that ends well."
+
+The old man took hold of his rush-bag. "I mustn't forget my middle of
+salmon," he smiled. "I generally fetch something home for my wife--some
+game or fish fresh from the market."
+
+"You make me wish _I_ had a husband in the City," sighed Wyndham.
+
+Mr. Robinson laughed. "Well, I suppose I must make up my mind to be off,
+else my wife and daughter will be wondering what has become of me."
+
+Wyndham came forward hurriedly. "I hope I have not been keeping you," he
+murmured. Somehow he did not like being left alone now. The old man's
+coming had saved him for the time being from the clutch of a terrible
+despair, and he saw it waiting to descend swiftly on him. The half-hour
+of self-respect would vanish like an illusion.
+
+But Mr. Robinson's voice was breaking in on his mood again.
+
+"Would it be presuming too much on our slight acquaintance if I
+suggested----" The old man hesitated with an evident shyness that was
+very winning.
+
+"Pray suggest anything you like," said Wyndham.
+
+Thus encouraged, Mr. Robinson launched out boldly. "Would you come home
+and dine with us--quite without ceremony. We're the simplest of people,
+but we shall offer you the heartiest of welcomes."
+
+"That is very kind of you," said Wyndham. "I should not be deranging
+your household?"
+
+"I am sure my wife and daughter will be as delighted to see you as I am.
+Will you not come home with me now--in a simple, friendly way?"
+
+"Since I am to meet ladies," smiled Wyndham, "I should like to make
+myself presentable. I have just been across town, and in this filthy,
+murky atmosphere one gets to feel so utterly unclean."
+
+"Oh, yes; am I not in the same plight myself?" smiled Mr. Robinson.
+
+Wyndham escorted him to the door, and the old man again thanked him for
+the pleasure the visit had afforded him.
+
+"We dine at half-past seven," was his parting reminder, and Wyndham,
+promising faithfully to be punctual, closed the door after him.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+But his visitor had no sooner departed than Wyndham experienced a sharp
+revulsion of feeling. How stupid to have accepted this invitation! His
+isolation in this suburban wilderness had always afforded him a certain
+satisfaction--he had consistently maintained his magnificent want of
+interest in all this Philistine population. His studio was his castle,
+and if he chose to starve therein it was at least a mitigation of his
+misery to be able to do so without the sense of others' eyes prying at
+him. And now he had surrendered his privacy. The indiscretion was really
+inexplicable! And he had let his tongue run on so recklessly and
+confidentially! He might even have drawn back at the very last--alleged
+an engagement, and cut short the acquaintanceship there and then.
+Perhaps it was not yet too late!
+
+In his annoyance he started pacing the length of the studio. But the
+great canvas, still glistening there on the easel, suddenly claimed his
+attention again, and brought him to a standstill. Impulsively he caught
+up the lamp, and once more directed its light on to the surface. The
+picture took deep hold of him, and he stood absorbed in it. And somehow
+Mr. Robinson's wondering voice began to sound its praises. "Marvellous!"
+the old man seemed to be saying. "It doesn't need an art education to
+see that's a work of genius." And as he recalled each stroke of
+admiration, he nodded his head in agreement.
+
+Was not the old man's appreciation of good augury? Surely it
+foreshadowed a popular Academy success. Whatever one's personal art
+ideals, it did not detract from their worth if one could carry them out
+and please the crowd at the same time--incidentally, of course--without
+deliberate intention. Did not Molière first try his comedies on his
+housekeeper? Mr. Robinson's tastes were the tastes of the great
+public--nay, of even the better classes that went to the galleries. Like
+him, they dwelt entirely on the illustrative aspect of painting, and
+were altogether swayed by the humanity of a picture, by its dramatic or
+anecdotal interest. No wonder some of his fellow-craftsmen had been
+driven to the opposite extreme, and tried to rule out humanity
+altogether. But the human side of art need not be necessarily on a low
+plane, or descend to mere anecdote. In his hands art should be the
+vehicle of real intellect and emotion.
+
+If only he were not forced to do those idiotic trifles! After holding
+out so long, to capitulate absolutely for want of bread! No, he would
+not dine with Mr. Robinson--he would starve rather!
+
+"Better to starve than stoop to inferiors!" he exclaimed, as he set down
+the lamp again. How little, indeed, he had eaten all that day! And with
+the thought a distressing weakness came over him. There was a humming at
+his temples: the studio disappeared in a mist, then reappeared
+oscillating. He was constrained to steady himself by clutching at the
+table.
+
+In a minute or two the vertigo passed off, leaving him with a dull
+craving for food and drink. He might make some sort of a meal from such
+poor provender as his larder afforded--a portion of a loaf, the
+remainder of a tin of sardines, a hunk of cheese; but somehow the
+prospect was singularly uninviting. He might, indeed, add variety to the
+store by laying out his last shilling in the streets adjoining, but the
+shilling was too precious, and anyway he had not the energy to go
+shopping. There swam up before him the picture of a well-lighted,
+comfortable dining-room with a heavily laden table, and of a middle of
+salmon, piping hot, that was being served with a dainty white sauce. And
+then there were hosts of bottles on a mahogany sideboard: fat,
+gold-tipped bottles; tall, long-necked bottles; fantastic twisted
+bottles. Good well-cooked food was nourishing him, a delicate wine was
+moistening his feverish palate, touching his whole dull self to a
+lighter mood.
+
+He had accepted the invitation. The Robinsons were expecting him, would
+be troubled and put out if he did not arrive. He carried the lamp up to
+the gallery, and began his preparations. And then the whim took him to
+change his clothes again. Not that he supposed the Robinsons affected to
+be fashionable of an evening, but the pride of the half-starved man rose
+in irrational self-assertion.
+
+So he dressed carefully, tying his bow to perfection, and arranging the
+set of his waistcoat fastidiously. It was so long since he had put on
+evening clothes, and as he saw himself in the glass, well set up, and
+bearing himself exquisitely, the fact of his poverty seemed absurd and
+incredible. His face, too, seemed to have recovered some of its olden
+confidence as he scanned it critically. True the cheeks were a trifle
+thin and shrunken, but the lines of dejection and sadness had lightened
+at the new stirring within him.
+
+Then for the first time in all these years he made his way up the road
+to the ugly house at the corner that had stamped itself upon him as the
+symbol of all Suburbia, as the stronghold of a type of life that Bohemia
+mocked at and Belgravia waved aside as impossible.
+
+If he had not yet entirely overcome his distaste, it was at least
+mitigated by a splendid sense of condescension.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+A handsome Phyllis, in cap and apron, opened the door, and Wyndham
+stepped into a broad corridor, carpeted in red, and hung with popular
+engravings that he had seen in the windows of all the carvers and
+gilders in London. Next, he was ushered under a crimson door-hanging
+into a resplendent drawing-room, lighted by a dazzling crystal
+chandelier, and sensuously warmed by a great red-hot fire. There was
+nobody to receive him yet, and he was left to amuse himself with the
+show-books on the tables--padded photograph albums full of old-fashioned
+naïve people posing against rococo backgrounds, collections of views of
+the Valley of the Thames and of the Lake District, and richly bound
+volumes of Tennyson and Sir Walter Scott.
+
+The interest of these treasures was soon exhausted, and Wyndham, sinking
+into a remarkably soft arm-chair, impatiently beat with his foot at a
+cluster of roses on the brand-new "Aubusson" carpet. The room was almost
+triangular, a large bow window commanding the vista of the main road,
+and pairs of other windows, straight and tall, overlooking the streets
+that branched on either hand. And all these windows were elaborately
+draped in a would-be Renaissance style, with many loops and festoons,
+and with big gilt cornices above. And between each pair of them stood a
+gilded consol table surmounted by a mirror that reached to the ceiling.
+Oval mirrors with lighted candles in sconces glittered from several
+points of vantage, and crimson couches and the immense piano completed
+the tale of splendours.
+
+At length the door opened softly, and Mr. Robinson entered. Wyndham
+rose, not displeased to observe that his host was likewise in evening
+clothes; as he had been already regretting the self-assertion to which
+he had yielded.
+
+"Ah, you are in good time," said the old man, coming forward in his
+quiet, gentle way, and shaking hands again. "I am sorry to say that my
+wife and daughter are not down yet."
+
+His tone was apologetic, and Wyndham smiled, readily understanding that
+the announcement of a guest to arrive had scared the ladies to a more
+elaborate toilette than usual.
+
+"They were enchanted when I told them you were coming," Mr. Robinson
+continued. "As for commiseration over my fall--not a word!"
+
+The two men had conversed for some few minutes before the hostess and
+her daughter came sweeping into the room; and, as he had half expected,
+Wyndham found he knew them more or less vaguely by sight. Mrs. Robinson
+was a tall dame, fully sixty, with gray hair, and a most amiable
+expression; stately, even handsome, in her black silk dress with its
+tasteful lace at the throat and wrists. The daughter who followed rather
+shyly behind her gave Wyndham the impression that he was beholding the
+most simple, homely person he had ever met; and this despite the
+complexity of her costume, which seemed to be built up almost entirely
+of old lace that lay over itself in thick folds and rich creamy masses.
+Timidity of temperament and modesty to the verge of self-distrust were
+at once suggested by the almost awkward constraint of her bearing and
+the quiet, half-averted glance of her dark eyes. He could see that she
+hardly dared look at him. He gallantly supposed that she was a year or
+two younger than himself, and as he met her desperately friendly smile
+(intended for him but hardly bestowed in his direction) with his
+choicest bow, he received a further impression that was distinctly more
+favourable than the first of unrelieved plainness. For, once his eye had
+taken in her features, the artist in him was ready to do justice to her
+throat and arms, which were really good: and her dark hair, her greatest
+glory, lay in a superb coil, which, with a surprising touch of
+coquetry, was set off by a velvet band and some lilies of the valley. It
+was curious that the figure of Lady Betty should swim up before him just
+then, as if to emphasise his real ideal of woman's beauty, and to make
+him feel once for all how impossible it was ever to step down from that
+standard. But he could not help smiling covertly at the thought that the
+family were making such a serious business of so casual an
+invitation--these toilettes were really so very much more elaborate than
+anything he might conceivably have looked for; though at any rate it
+reassured his pride in the fullest degree--evidently, his frank
+admissions to Mr. Robinson notwithstanding, they were not taking him as
+a poor devil of an artist, but were looking up to him with a perfect
+appreciation of the respect that was his due.
+
+Wyndham's presentation to the ladies over, there followed an instant of
+general embarrassment. Mrs. Robinson smiled again, and quickly tried to
+make conversation.
+
+"How pleasant to become acquainted at last, after being neighbours so
+many years!" she murmured. "And so unexpectedly, too."
+
+"When the unexpected does happen," said Wyndham, "it generally is
+delightful. I suppose that's because most of us in this hard life get
+into the habit of expecting only the opposite sort of thing."
+
+Miss Robinson laughed shyly, whilst her mother seemed somewhat puzzled.
+
+"They say that the unexpected always happens," ventured the younger
+woman tremulously. "I'm sure the proverb must be wrong, because nice
+things happen so seldom." Her voice was soft, vibrating with gracious
+amiability.
+
+"I disagree with Mr. Wyndham," said her father. "I was not at all
+expecting to slip down. When the unexpected happened, I am bound to say
+I did not find it delightful."
+
+They all laughed; and then Mrs. Robinson resumed the interrupted tenour
+of her discreet, agreeable way. She herself had often thought how
+pleasant it would be to know him; but in London one could live for ever
+so many years and yet know absolutely nothing of one's next-door
+neighbour. In the country, of course, things were different: there
+etiquette was more human, and people called of their own accord. Was Mr.
+Wyndham exhibiting anything just now? They had seen pictures of his in
+the Academy in past years, and were great admirers of his. Wyndham was
+by now too faint and exhausted to do more than hold his own in a
+smiling, conventional way: the splendours of the room, too, dazzled him
+to the verge of confusion. He was thankful when Phyllis appeared with
+the announcement that dinner was served; and Mr. Robinson, giving his
+arm to his daughter, led the way across the hall, under another crimson
+door-hanging, and into a long dining-room, wherein was set out a great
+table with flowers and fruit and silver. The covers were laid at one
+end, which gave the dinner an air of informality and family intimacy.
+
+A glass of sherry at the start revived Wyndham considerably, and soon he
+fell to conversing at his ease. Presently he found he was somehow taking
+the lead, and their evident respect and admiration for his lightest word
+made him clearly perceive that he was an important and brilliant figure
+for them. Such grains of resentment as he still cherished at having
+entered on the acquaintanceship were dying away. Meanwhile the seductive
+prevision of material joys that had risen before him at the studio at
+that moment of physical weakness was being literally realised, almost
+comically so. There on the immense mahogany sideboard stood bottles and
+decanters galore, and now up came the middle of salmon with a piquant
+sauce accompanying it! God! how delicious it tasted, after all these
+months of bread and cheese! Wine gave him inspiration, and food the
+strength to live up to the rôle they were allotting to him. He was
+good-looking and knew it; his voice, his bearing, his choice of words,
+were alike distinguished; his experiences were of worlds that were to
+them far-seeming and romantic. He was the sort of hero they had read
+about in novels--a handsome guardsman nonchalantly looking in at a Park
+Lane dance at midnight, or a brilliant attaché to an embassy in touch
+with wonderful horizons.
+
+Meanwhile the supply of dainty food continued; a leg of lamb, spinach,
+fat, luscious asparagus, a melon from a Southern clime, a chicken, and
+the juiciest of French lettuces. The hock was of the most delicate, the
+champagne subtle and sparkling. Even so he felt himself sparkling in the
+eyes of the others. He was the lion to whom all this homage was his
+rightful due, holding them fascinated with his wide knowledge of men and
+cities, of social life in European capitals. He drew upon his wanderings
+in by-ways known only of artists; fascinated them with sketches of the
+art life of Rome and Paris. Reminiscences bubbled up of his student
+days, and with them were mingled deft touches of Eton and Oxford, and
+charming cameos of county life; this last developing insensibly into
+discussions of Anglo-Saxon character, its comparison with the Latin,
+relative estimations of intelligence, industry, ambition. Mr. Robinson
+here had many shrewd observations to offer, for they had now wandered
+into the domain of affairs. Wyndham was genuinely interested in his
+host's experiences, in his accounts of unusual men of business from
+strange, even barbarous parts of the world, with whom he had had
+personal relations. They even touched upon financial operations; and
+Wyndham felt perfectly at ease amid complications in which millions were
+bandied about like tennis-balls, and the credit of banks and States was
+pawned as simply and swiftly as he might pawn his own watch. At last,
+over the dessert, there was a perceptible slackening. Wyndham, who so
+far had taken care not to let his eye rest on the many heavy-framed "oil
+paintings" that hung on the walls, for fear some discussion of them
+might thence arise, was now incautious enough to fix his gaze markedly
+on some sheep pasturing just opposite him. But Mr. Robinson seemed to
+welcome the opportunity thus afforded.
+
+"Oh, of course I know you won't find any of _those_ things worth
+glancing at," he threw out with a laugh; and the others chimed in,
+highly amused at the thought of the impression "the things" must be
+making on their guest.
+
+"Oh, some aren't at all half bad," conceded Wyndham politely, his eye
+now promenading freely. "The girl with the mandoline is laid in with
+rather a charming touch, and the fruit-and-flower piece is really
+decorative."
+
+"We always considered those two the best," declared Mr. Robinson. "I
+bought them at an auction in the City, many years ago now--more, in
+fact, than I care to remember."
+
+Wyndham still affected to be examining the collection.
+
+"Now, of course," resumed Mr. Robinson, "that Highland scene is the
+merest pot-boiler--a stream in the middle, a mountain on one side, and a
+cow on the other. I've seen hundreds of them for sale. But it's not
+likely I shall ever be taken in again that way, especially after
+examining the work I saw at your studio, Mr. Wyndham."
+
+Wyndham inclined his head smilingly, and Mr. Robinson duly proceeded to
+describe to the others the great masterpiece which that afternoon he had
+had the privilege of inspecting. His memory of the details proved to be
+extraordinarily minute, and his face glowed all over again with the
+wonder and enthusiasm he had displayed at the studio. "The figures, the
+faces," he wound up, "were simply marvellous. I can't give you the
+faintest idea of how magnificent it all is. I could spend hours looking
+at it."
+
+Wyndham could do no less than suggest that the ladies should come and
+see the picture for themselves, though just then a whiff of unpleasant
+thoughts urged on him again the imprudence of such further social
+developments.
+
+"We shall be only too delighted; it will be a great pleasure," exclaimed
+Mrs. Robinson, and Miss Robinson's eyes shone with unmistakable
+excitement.
+
+"We must really take down that Highland scene, my dear," proceeded Mrs.
+Robinson, addressing her husband. "It is altogether too bad. We ought
+to have something better in its place."
+
+It passed through Wyndham's mind that one of his projected panels would
+do excellently, but of course it was far too below the dignity of the
+brilliant lion to appear to snatch at the opportunity of turning a few
+honest guineas through the grace of his humble entertainers.
+
+"Let us have the Highland scene down by all means," said Mr. Robinson.
+"And I've an idea! If we can induce Mr. Wyndham to paint our Alice's
+portrait, why, then we should have something first-rate to hang in its
+place."
+
+Miss Robinson turned fiery red; the quick glance she flashed at her
+father was the more conspicuous. "How splendid!" she exclaimed
+breathlessly. Her bosom heaved. Wyndham was almost painfully aware of
+the thumping of her heart.
+
+But he himself was caught quite unprepared. True that the unexpected had
+happened again, but that very quality of the event was in this instance
+disconcerting. No doubt they observed his slight hesitation.
+
+"Of course it would be a great privilege for us," interposed Mrs.
+Robinson; "but it seems to me we are counting without Mr. Wyndham's
+authority."
+
+Wyndham inclined his head graciously with a smile; swiftly master of the
+situation again, and improving the occasion with a compliment.
+
+"Oh! I shall be most delighted." He gave his proposed subject the
+professional glance that the occasion authorised. "Miss Robinson will
+afford me the opportunity of a most distinguished piece of portraiture."
+
+Miss Robinson gazed at her plate, nervously peeling a banana. She had
+not spoken much during the dinner, but she had hung on Wyndham's words
+with a naïve, unconscious admiration, which, from a prettier and more
+brilliant woman, he would scarcely have passed with so little a sense of
+appreciation.
+
+"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Wyndham," she said simply. "I am
+afraid the distinction will be due more to your work than to your
+sitter."
+
+"No, indeed, Miss Robinson," he protested, with a suave gravity that
+made his polished assurance the more impressive and charming. "I did not
+intend any compliment--I spoke only as the artist." He was rather
+surprised that a woman should display so little vanity. And, in a subtle
+way, it did not enhance his estimation of her.
+
+Miss Robinson's banana occupied her more earnestly than ever; but her
+mother came to the rescue by raising the important question of costume.
+Wyndham, after further professional consideration of his client,
+preferred to paint Miss Robinson as he saw her now. And with a ready
+sense of detail he saw, too, that certain rings she wore, though he had
+not observed them closely at first, would make excellent spots in a
+scheme of decoration. These rings were unusually chosen, and were more
+artistic than extravagant. The one on her right hand was a small, subtle
+cat's-eye surrounded by fine pearls. On her left hand were an
+aquamarine, and a scarab that shone like the patina of an ancient
+bronze. Almost without a pause he dashed at once at a scheme, which he
+elucidated there and then, much to their overwhelming. He would pose her
+on an Empire chair. In a blue and white Oriental vase on a high stand at
+the side should be arranged three tall arum lilies amid some vivid
+carnation blossoms. Why, the Nankin bowl on the mantelpiece was the very
+thing! The background of the picture should be vague and of an
+olive-grey tone, laid in with free brushwork, against which the masses
+of creamy lace would show deliciously decorative. The great surmounting
+coil of hair would give character to the whole scheme, and the lilies of
+the valley in the velvet band afford a final contrast of lightness and
+graciousness against the intense note of the coiffure.
+
+The parents were radiant with pleasure, though poor Miss Robinson looked
+more and more scared each instant. In her trepidation she could only
+echo stammeringly the elder people's wonder at his great skill and
+cleverness. The scheme unfolded itself before them richly beautiful--not
+one of your dull black portraits, but a canvas glowing with exquisite
+light and colour.
+
+"There, Alice, you ought to be proud of yourself," said her father,
+rallying her good-naturedly as a parting shot, when the women rose to
+retire; and Wyndham attended their exit under the crimson hanging with
+his most engaging air.
+
+Left alone, the men drew their chairs to the fire, and Mr. Robinson
+brought forward boxes of fragrant-smelling cigars, large and rotund. The
+atmosphere of comfort enveloped Wyndham soothingly: the sense of
+unlimited abundance seemed a miracle after his long privation.
+Fortunately he had not been tempted to have his glass filled too often:
+he had appreciated all these good and luscious things with commendable
+moderation, and had been stimulated to brilliancy without losing cool
+command of himself. He lighted his cigar at the little silver smoker's
+lamp that just then came in with the coffee, and, as he puffed, a
+splendid warm feeling of well-being took possession of him. He helped
+himself to cream and sugar with the masterful calm and something of the
+gesture of a stage hero.
+
+Presently Mr. Robinson raised the subject of Wyndham's fee for the
+portrait, approaching the point apologetically.
+
+"Of course, we could hardly discuss this side of the matter before my
+wife and daughter," said the old man. "But I must insist on your
+accepting a fair remuneration for the work--shall we say two hundred
+guineas?"
+
+"To be frank," said Wyndham, "if you had left it to me, I should hardly
+have mentioned so large a sum."
+
+"Naturally a gentleman of your disposition would think more of the
+artistic pleasure of the work than of the money it brought. Still, in
+this life money has to be considered. In all things, sublime or humble,
+the labourer is worthy of his hire. I do not for a moment suggest that
+the sum I have named in any way expresses our appreciation of the work,
+even in anticipation, and certainly not in any way our sense of the
+privilege and honour you are bestowing upon us."
+
+"I shall endeavour to merit your kind words," said Wyndham, not to be
+outdone in polished courtesy, though he conceded that, by force of
+simple sincerity and good feeling, Mr. Robinson seemed a past master in
+the delicate art. "At any rate," he pursued, "the work is developing in
+my mind. The more I dwell upon it, the better and better I like the
+scheme, and I shall work at it enthusiastically from start to finish."
+
+It being thus assumed that two hundred guineas were to be the artist's
+reward, Mr. Robinson seemed by no means loth to wander from a point
+which he had approached with great hesitation and an immense sense of
+its difficult delicacy. As yet Wyndham did not measure the radical
+change in his personal situation; nor did he display any undue elation.
+But his cool demeanour was no mere pose. Indeed, he was surprised
+himself at the ease with which he was accepting the transaction, as if
+it were commonplace in his experience. But he merely supposed that he
+was meeting good fortune with the natural dignity of the artist--to whom
+commissions are due as a matter of right, however long they may be
+deferred.
+
+They did not linger in the dining-room, but joined the ladies after
+their first cigar; though not before Mr. Robinson had sedulously
+inquired as to his liking for the particular brand, which, he assured
+Wyndham, was not readily obtainable in London, and had made, him promise
+to take a box away with him.
+
+In the drawing-room Miss Robinson played to them, at first tremulously,
+but gaining confidence with the experience. She displayed a degree of
+trained taste and a certain individual choice, favouring the tenderer
+and gentler works of Mendelssohn and Mozart. She sang also one or two of
+Heine's love songs in the German with a touch of passion and regret,
+whilst Wyndham accompanied her; and he himself wound up the evening in
+more jovial mood with a rousing student's song from his old Munich days.
+
+Their parting with him had almost a touch of affection; and the final
+understanding was that he was to plan out the arrangements for the
+sittings, and to communicate with them in the morning.
+
+He was forgetting his box of cigars at the end, but Mr. Robinson
+carefully caught it up from the hall table, and brought it after him
+just as the servant was opening the door.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+The next morning early Wyndham jumped out of bed with a bewildered sense
+of some change in his life, and it was an instant or two before his
+faculties cleared and he remembered his adventure of the previous
+evening. His next thought was one of pleasure that he had at last
+carried out his resolution of rising early. The autumn had developed
+with unusual severity, but the morning was intensely clear, and the
+studio full of a strong light. He pushed aside the hanging, and looked
+down from the gallery on the familiar scene below. Ordinarily, on
+rising, the sight had filled him with disgust and apathy, but now a
+freshness and vigour pervaded him, a new imperious desire, not merely in
+his mind but in all his limbs and muscles, to enter again on the contest
+with men. As his thought ran back through the past intolerable year or
+two, his inaction and sloth seemed almost incredible. He saw himself
+rising at midday, suffering moral tortures before the work he was
+powerless to begin, letting the barren hours drift away into the deep,
+then regretting them passionately. Was it not all a nightmare from which
+he had been curiously released?
+
+He dressed, and, whilst his little kettle was boiling, took careful
+stock of his professional materials. Colours, brushes, varnishes--all
+needed renewing; there seemed nothing but impracticable odds and ends,
+mere bits of wreckage from his disastrous life's venture. Then, too, the
+filth and disorder all around him struck him brusquely, stung him to
+annoyance. On every surface where dust might accumulate it lay in serene
+possession. Wherever spiders could spin, there the webs hung thick,
+amazing and complicated citadels, prodigious masses and networks.
+
+He felt he could not endure it a day longer. There must be a thorough
+physical cleansing at once. And he must return to the luxury of a daily
+bed-maker. This preoccupation with household things took off the keenest
+edge of one's first energy and enthusiasm; he must reserve himself
+jealously for his high calling.
+
+As he sipped his coffee he mused over the little financial difficulties
+that immediately beset him. Now that at last he had a valid ground for
+appealing to Mary, he felt reluctant; anxious to bring her only the
+sense of his success without alloy. He might explain the situation to
+Mr. Robinson, and ask for money in advance; but that seemed as impolitic
+as it was repugnant in this new rapture of fine upstanding dignity.
+Payment of the quarter's rent that was already due could be easily
+deferred--for the bare humiliation of making the request. But he needed
+something for equipment, and must face the sacrifice of some of the
+older pictures to which he had clung so long, accepting any sum in
+exchange, if only shillings.
+
+He still felt no disposition to invest the accident that had turned the
+tide for him with any touch of superstition or romance. He regarded the
+whole matter in the same dry light as at his first acceptance of it the
+evening before. He had sat waiting for clients, and at last they had
+turned up. But he did not at all dislike the Robinsons: they were very
+much better than the great run of their class--they had evidently
+ideals, and aspired to a higher degree of refinement than they as yet
+possessed, or, perhaps, were capable of possessing. They were neither
+smug nor self-satisfied, and, in giving him this work, they had avoided
+indulging in any semblance of bourgeois patronage, whereas other people
+of their class, even if well meaning, might easily have been gross and
+intolerable.
+
+He had studied his sitter pretty closely. The profile, as is not
+unfrequently the case with "plain" women, had a curious individual
+interest. He felt it offered scope for "construction," and he could
+import subtly into the drawing a certain distinguished sentiment that
+was not really in the original, though somehow it might easily have been
+there, and, in moments of enthusiasm on the part of the observer, might
+even be conceived to be there. Yes, the profile was undoubtedly the
+thing: that way, too, the great coil of hair could be handled the more
+effectively. Indeed, it seemed to him that, taking into consideration
+her dark eye with its soft lashes, and the long shapely arms, and the
+exquisite ivory tones of the old lace dress, the scheme should really
+turn out, as he had so promptly put it to Miss Robinson herself, "a most
+distinguished piece of portraiture." He was shrewd enough to understand
+the essential shyness of her disposition, and he felt he might well
+invest her expression with some suggestion of this, though it should
+come out as a sort of gentle spiritual modesty.
+
+And now his imagination returned to the contemplation of his own
+fortunes, and went soaring skywards. His luck having once changed, who
+could say what might not turn up next? Another sitter might appear, one
+of your great heroines, stately and brilliant--a sort of Lady Betty, in
+fact: he might as well admit he _had_ Lady Betty in mind! Such a
+portrait, appropriately conceived, would form a remarkable pendant to
+this one. Then, too, he might make another dash at his masterpiece! Such
+a display of versatility in the next year's exhibitions must place his
+name on everybody's lips, must surely pave the way to his reputation not
+only as a great decorative portrait painter, but also as a modern of the
+moderns, touched to inspiration by all the stress and striving of his
+age!
+
+This roseate flight was abruptly disturbed by the advent of the postman.
+The rat-tat, one of the double sort, imperiously summoned him to the
+door. Had the "something else" already turned up? He rather prided
+himself on the coolness with which he rose to meet it. The postman
+handed him a packet and a letter. But at a glance he saw that the packet
+was a rejected drawing and the letter Mary's, and he went straight down
+into the depths again. He, however, affected a cheerful good morning to
+the postman; then, no sooner alone, tore open the letter, with the
+bitter taste of yesterday's scene with his sister full in his throat. To
+his astonishment, he pulled out two five-pound Bank of England notes,
+and only a few words accompanied them. "DEAREST," she wrote,--
+"Since you left me to-day I have suffered beyond endurance. That you
+will ever forgive me for my harshness I cannot hope. I am the only soul
+you have to turn to, and yet I struck at you as with a whip. Your face
+as you turned away will haunt me for the rest of my life. I have been
+sobbing and sobbing, feeling my heart must break. I ask you to be good
+to me now, and take this little money. Darling, don't punish me by
+sending it back. Better times are coming presently, and, if God is good,
+this little help now may bring you the best of fortune.--Your loving
+sister, MARY."
+
+Wyndham was unnerved; realising to the full the torture her gentle,
+sympathetic nature was inflicting on her. What it must have cost her to
+gather up her strength for that critical interview he could only
+remotely surmise. Yet it had failed her after all!
+
+However touched he was by her sweetness, however much he was moved to
+respond to this prostration and surrender, he yet saw only too clearly
+that at bottom it _was_ a failure of strength. The idea of using the
+money was singularly distasteful; even though he told himself he would
+have his hand cut off rather than doubt her perfect goodness and
+sincerity in sending it.
+
+This necessity of a difficult decision disturbed the nice cool balance
+with which he had started out to face the day. There was nothing for it
+but to put aside the letter for the present in the hope that counsel
+would come to him later. And in the meanwhile he went on with his
+programme. He tidied his papers, went to hunt out his old charwoman,
+and, ultimately leaving her in possession of the studio, he ran into
+town to get his new materials, and look up the various accessories for
+the scheme of the picture.
+
+His first visit was to a shop in Oxford Street, where he had dealt ever
+since his student days, and where he could order what he needed without
+immediate payment. A burly man in a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers
+was making purchases at one of the counters, and his back seemed not
+unfamiliar. Wyndham brought out his list and was going through the
+various items with one of the assistants when a heavy hand was placed on
+his shoulder, and, turning, he beheld the big powerful head and pointed
+beard of one of the old gang of his Latin Quarter days.
+
+"Sadler!" he exclaimed.
+
+The big head was convulsed with laughter, and Wyndham's hand wrung in a
+mighty grip.
+
+"How jolly! I was coming to look you up! I've just ferreted out your
+address; you're still fixed out there at Hampstead?"
+
+"Oh, do come--I shall be delighted," said Wyndham genially. "Have you
+been in London long?"
+
+"Three weeks. After knocking about for five years--what do you think of
+that, my boy? First went all over Spain--made scores of studies. Gee!
+First-rate! Cheapest place in Europe--exchange thirty-five to the
+sovereign--and lots of good eating. Went to see a bit of Velasquez down
+at Madrid. Gee-rusalem! And the Titans, stuck up in a funny little
+room! You never see anything so fine in your life."
+
+"Oh, I've been there," smiled Wyndham.
+
+The vigour and enthusiasm of his old friend, the nasalities of the deep
+voice, had almost a complete freshness for him, after the long interval
+since their last meeting. He was pleased at the encounter--it brought
+him whiffs of old days of happy comradeship. He felt the stirring of the
+war-horse.
+
+"Then I put in a nice couple of years at Munich; saw some Boecklin. Gee!
+He's great!"
+
+"I once saw some wretched things of his, though," said Wyndham. "I
+remember--at a modern exhibition at Venice."
+
+"I grant there are one or two rotten ones," conceded Sadler; "but
+they're interesting, if you take them in the right way--experiments that
+failed, though they were fine as he had them in him. Well--then I did a
+bit of a tour all over the shop--came along through Holland--made
+cart-loads of sketches; and then I came right along here. Been getting
+lots of fun in London; been round with the boys, and had a rattling good
+time. Taking the opportunity, too, of getting some nice suits of
+clothes." And here Sadler turned abruptly from art, and plunged into
+sartorial details. His interest in such matters was astonishing, almost
+touching. He revelled in fancy waistcoats and rioted in tweeds and
+broadcloths. London was the only place in the world where you could get
+the rakish cut. He, Sadler, had never suspected what a lovely figure he
+had, till this latest cutter had revealed him to himself!
+
+He paused at last for breath.
+
+"Anything particular on with you?" he was presently impelled to ask,
+observing that Wyndham was exercising a marked fastidiousness in the
+choice of his canvas.
+
+"A portrait," said Wyndham. "Not a bad little commission."
+
+"Good!" ejaculated Sadler, his face shining enthusiastically. "A lady?"
+
+"Yes," answered Wyndham, "and I've rather a charming scheme."
+
+"Good!" roared Sadler again. "I heard you hadn't been doing much of
+late. They were running your work down--some of the boys, and I said
+they were talking rot. We nearly came to blows about it. I think I
+fairly shut them up."
+
+Wyndham had at first winced a little. Then he felt like shrugging his
+shoulders. After all, the past had to be lived down. Besides, Sadler's
+championship was genuine and influential.
+
+"That was very kind of you. You always did stick up for me."
+
+"Don't you mind 'em a bit, my boy. You just go ahead, and you'll come
+out at the top of the tree."
+
+"I'll do my best," said Wyndham, smiling.
+
+"That'll be good enough, I guess," said Sadler. "Perhaps this portrait
+will open up other things for you."
+
+"How so?" inquired Wyndham.
+
+"It all depends on the crowd you strike--I heard you came a bit of a
+cropper, and I daresay you're not too well off now to despise a job or
+two--you can always put decent work into them. Now there's Jim
+Harley--he struck a rich middle-class lot ten years ago, rotten
+out-and-out Philistines, twenty guineas apiece--and they've been keeping
+him going ever since. Does fifty of 'em a year."
+
+"The prospect hardly tempts me. After all, the main thing is to get back
+to big work."
+
+Sadler smiled. "I guess I should be the first to drag you back
+again--after a while. But Jimmy married young. A boy and girl affair.
+His wife's family weren't satisfied with his financial position, and
+there was a mighty row at the time. Of course the girl had only her
+pretty eyes."
+
+"Ah, you don't approve of idealistic love affairs."
+
+"Not of that kind. I'm forty, and I've seen something in my time."
+
+Wyndham had finished his purchases, and was telling the assistant to
+send the parcel to his studio. As they left the shop presently, Sadler
+pressed Wyndham very hard to lunch with him at a particular restaurant
+he mentioned, and Wyndham could not do otherwise than accept the
+invitation, though he confessed the place was unknown to him. Whereat
+Sadler expressed great astonishment. It was one of the very few places
+in London where the food was fit to eat! Why, the cooking was even
+better than at Lavenue's in the Quarter, and that was saying a great
+deal. He, Sadler, could not endure any other place during his
+sojournings in London. Wyndham let the dear fellow gallop on to his
+heart's content. Sadler was a fine painter, and in the old days Wyndham
+as the junior had sat at his feet, and in the matter of technique had
+been greatly indebted to him. But he had observed with covert amusement
+at a very early stage in the acquaintanceship that Sadler, like so many
+others in the hard-working, hand-to-mouth world of the arts, had an
+amiable weakness for "being in the know" anent the good things of life,
+and affected a lavishness in public that was off-set by a sharp economy
+in the less visible phases of his existence.
+
+At the restaurant Sadler scrutinised the carte with the confident eye of
+a man about town, grumbled a little, held a fussy colloquy with the
+waiter, and finally ordered oysters and chablis to begin upon, the while
+a chateaubriand was being prepared for them.
+
+Over the meal Sadler talked a great deal of old times. He seemed to have
+kept himself well in touch with scores of men they had known in common,
+despite scatterings and vicissitudes. His mind kept leaping across the
+world, beating them all out of their lairs for Wyndham's enlightenment.
+Did he remember Pycherley--the biggest duffer of them all? Well, he had
+married an heiress on the strength of his genius, and was painting awful
+stuff out in California; and Snyders, who had shared his studio, had
+built himself a Moorish house high up on a mountain-side overlooking the
+Gulf of Salerno; a third had settled down to "black-and-white" in a
+queer little creeper-clad house in St. John's Wood; a fourth was
+decorating a municipal building at Toronto. Marlowe was still in the
+avenue du Maine, where the fascinating American actress he had wed had
+since borne him a sheaf of daughters: and the beautiful Mrs. Smith they
+had known at Fontainebleau, the summer they had spent there together,
+had long ago divorced her husband, and married the Italian sculptor, in
+whose studio she had made such sensational progress. She now exhibited
+regularly, and had already received a gold medal of the second class.
+
+And so the conversation continued--for the most part about men who were
+now pretty well getting on into middle life, whose destinies had found
+definite declaration and were visible to all Wyndham expressed his
+pleasure that his own future, on the contrary, still lay wrapped in
+mystery; that, though the curtain was full up, the interest of the drama
+was by no means played out.
+
+"You can afford to talk like that, Wyndham," shouted Sadler. "What are
+you? You're only a boy! But I'm forty, and I tell you I'd give up the
+interest of the drama for a safe income, and think it a damned good
+bargain. I get along, I sell my stuff, but I tell you I sweat and
+groan."
+
+"I admit I should like my old income back again," said Wyndham; "not for
+itself, but for the sake of the splendid freedom to work."
+
+"That's just my point," shouted Sadler. "What the hell do I care about
+money for itself? And I tell you what, my boy, the right thing for an
+artist is to marry a woman with money." He struck the table hard with
+his big fist, making the whole restaurant rattle.
+
+Wyndham almost jumped. "Good gracious! So that's what you were driving
+at! The idea to me is perfectly loathsome."
+
+"That's just what I used to think," exclaimed Sadler. "But you can't go
+on for ever with your head in the clouds."
+
+"The thing's so awfully brutal and sordid," insisted Wyndham, shuddering
+visibly. "It makes my blood run cold."
+
+"You make me tired," snapped Sadler pettishly. "Where's the sordidness?
+I don't say a man ought to run after a fortune--but enough to steady
+things. Taking it all round, we artists have less chance of making money
+for ourselves than other men of the same worth; and since most of us do
+marry some time or other, we ought to look to marriage to help our work,
+and not to drag it down."
+
+Wyndham was unconvinced. "If you take away the poetry out of life, the
+rest of it is too hideous to bother about. If a man marries to make
+himself comfortable, he's no better than a contented pig wallowing in
+muck. Rather than surrender the ideal, I'd give up marriage altogether,
+stand by my guns, and die fighting."
+
+"We artists are a damned sentimental lot," shouted Sadler. He lifted a
+juicy morsel to his mouth. "This chateau's jolly good, isn't it?"
+
+"Excellent," admitted Wyndham.
+
+"Now you see I wasn't exaggerating when I said it's as good here as at
+Lavenue's." Sadler swallowed his mouthful. "We all begin with your
+idyllic ideas--Rossetti, Meredith, and all the rest of it. But I tell
+you it's hell! You dig the work out of yourself with sweat, with blood!"
+The veins began to swell in Sadler's mighty forehead. "And when you're
+not one of the lucky ones, what does the world do to help you to work
+for it?" He had wrought himself up to a tense excitement, and put the
+question with a hoarse shout. "Nothing! It prints your name in the
+papers, it talks about you at dinner parties! Painting is
+starvation--painting is death! By the time you've worried along till
+you're forty, you begin to see a bit straight, my boy. Look around
+you--what do you see on all sides? You see the best of us and the
+luckiest of us fixing up some pretty little nook here in town or in the
+country, and then trying to clear a few hundreds or so by tempting
+somebody to buy it for double what it cost. We begin with ideals, and
+afterwards we are glad to come down to the level of the common
+speculator. Let us have no delusions about it--there's nobody keener for
+necessary money than we artists when we begin to feel the years slipping
+by. I tell you it's hell!" He gulped down a glass of wine and wiped his
+lips.
+
+"I see your point of view," said Wyndham; "but I detest it. Better to
+fight to the end, and stand alone."
+
+"You make me tired," snapped Sadler again. "There are plenty of women of
+the right sort who'd prefer an artist with a name to some damned bore of
+a booby who hasn't an idea in his head. They're not fools, those women,
+I tell you. They know there's no money in the profession; they know you
+can't get everything in life. Life's a compromise. You've got to give
+and take. And when women have money, you'll find they understand these
+things better than when they haven't. A romantic boy runs after a
+rosy-cheeked, bread-and-butter miss with nothing. The chit gives
+herself airs, expects what they call 'an establishment'--the rotten
+Philistines!--and then starts out to please herself in every way, places
+her whims and caprices first, and the happiness of the household
+nowhere. The brute exacts every sacrifice, and if she has to make the
+tiniest concession, it rankles in her all her life."
+
+Wyndham dissented. The same things might happen even if the chit were a
+millionaire.
+
+Sadler dissented in his turn. He insisted that in woman money and good
+sense somehow went together. It was a fact. "Look how much happier
+French marriages are; look how the husband and wife are comrades and
+stick together. I tell you the French system is the best in the world.
+Every girl brings her husband a dowry of some kind, and they both work
+together for the common good. When the time comes it is easier to pass
+on the money to their own daughter in their turn."
+
+Wyndham contended that these things were all a matter of temperament.
+"Even at the best you'd have to keep your mind very elastic as to the
+type of person, whereas, for my own part," he declared, with the Lady
+Betty type in his mind, "I not only hold on to my poetic standpoint, but
+there are certain personal ideals I couldn't possibly surrender."
+
+"If you stick out too much for ideals, you'll never get anywhere at
+all," said Sadler.
+
+"There are things one must stick out for," insisted Wyndham. "For
+instance, I could never marry a woman who wasn't intelligent, and
+certainly never one who wasn't beautiful."
+
+"Intelligent--yes. But what is beauty?" asked Sadler, shrugging his
+shoulders. "And if you get a woman too obviously beautiful, you'll have
+every man a mile round making love to her, like flies round a honey-pot.
+It's a sort of primitive law of the universe, and it'll hold good for
+all time, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, I should chance all that," said Wyndham.
+
+"But what is beauty?" insisted Sadler.
+
+"I know when I see it," laughed Wyndham.
+
+"Give me character," said Sadler. "Unselfishness and loyalty are the
+chief points, and a sort of sweet reasonableness, of course. If a
+woman's features aren't quite classical, it's wonderful what a good
+dressmaker can do to set them off. Waiter! Cigarettes!"
+
+When ultimately the waiter brought the bill, Sadler produced a silver
+sovereign purse, saw with unconcealed horror that it contained only half
+a sovereign, then felt in his pockets for loose silver. "It's rather
+awkward," he said, pulling the longest of faces. "I'm afraid I haven't
+enough left on me after paying for my colours and materials this
+morning. I shall have to ask you to lend me a little."
+
+A flash of surprise, an imperceptible raising of the eyebrows; then
+swiftly Wyndham accepted the situation, and threw down one of Mary's
+banknotes. "Sorry I've nothing smaller," he said, smiling.
+
+"All right, old fellow," said Sadler. "You pay this time, I'll pay next
+time."
+
+By the time the waiter brought Wyndham his change, the conversation had
+passed on to the last exhibition of the New English Art Club.
+
+Wyndham arrived home, after completing all his business calls, late in
+the afternoon, and found that the charwoman had finished her work, and
+was replacing the furniture. A not unpleasant tinge of turpentine
+permeated the atmosphere. The oak presses, newly polished with beeswax,
+shone and glowed even in the shadow of the afternoon. For the first time
+for months the hearth was clear of ashes and cinders, and the stone
+scoured and whitened.
+
+When the woman had gone he devoted a few minutes to wandering about his
+domain, enjoying this new sensation of spotlessness, appreciating the
+professional hand, the skill of which had never before seemed so
+legitimate a theme for admiration. Then he sat down and wrote to Mary as
+follows:--
+
+ "MY DEAR LITTLE MARY,--Your sweet little letter came this morning,
+ and at a moment to be of the greatest service to me. Fortune has
+ already smiled on me again. For the immediate present I have a
+ portrait commission for a couple of hundred guineas! A great
+ fortune--is it not?--after all these seasons of leanness! You will
+ guess that I am now ambitious of getting to grips again with the big
+ picture. I have taken a deep and engrossing look at it again, and I
+ see how to resolve all its difficulties, I daresay, by the spring. I
+ know this letter will make you happy, so, for Heaven's sake, don't
+ give another thought to yesterday afternoon. I have been a great
+ trial to you for so long, and I want to recognise your goodness and
+ kindness in the only way I can, and that is by--succeeding. My heart
+ is in the work, and your belief in me shall find justification.
+
+ "I am keeping your money; it will remove my last anxiety and enable
+ me to work at ease. I want you to come here as soon as I have made
+ some headway with the new work, as I should like you to carry away
+ the impression on your next visit of something real that has been
+ accomplished.
+
+    "Your loving brother,
+
+      "WALTER."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The first sitting was eminently satisfactory. Miss Robinson and her
+mother were punctual to the very stroke of the clock, the new canvas
+stood waiting on the smaller easel, and everything was ready for an
+immediate start. Wyndham had been able to obtain on hire a most lovely
+Empire chair, with swans' heads for armrests, and exquisitely mounted
+with chiselled garlands. It did not take him long to find his
+arrangement, and he saw now how shrewd had been his idea of the Empire
+chair. It was remarkable how Miss Robinson and the chair composed
+together: it gave her distinction, heightened her personality, and the
+profile at once seemed to take precisely the quality which he considered
+essential to his scheme. Her right arm rested lightly along the swan's
+neck, and the subtle cat's-eye, with its border of tiny pearls, showed
+deliciously against the long hand and fingers that emerged from the lace
+lying loosely about the wrist. Her left hand lay on her lap, and here
+the ancient green scarab and the aquamarine made important decorative
+spots amid so great a mass of lace-work. The nankin vase had been sent
+to the studio during the morning, so that Wyndham was practically able
+to build up his picture before him. Indeed, so interesting was the
+result that it promised to lessen by half the labour of creation.
+
+And, now that he had taken the measure of the Robinsons, he was easily
+master of the situation. They were not merely in his hands as clients
+who were availing themselves of his skill; but surrendered as to one
+naturally high above them. In posing Miss Robinson, he had once or twice
+given utterance to his satisfaction in so spontaneous a way that the
+tremulous sitter had no easy task to maintain her immobility. And then
+the kind and condescending explanations with which he accompanied the
+many little changes and refinements in the arrangement from moment to
+moment were so clever and penetrating! It was really wonderful how
+points struck him, and what surprising improvements he accomplished with
+a wave of the hand and imperceptible subtle shiftings of Miss Robinson's
+position. At last, after many scrutinisings of his sitter from varying
+standpoints he suddenly expressed the conviction "Splendid!"
+Then--"Wait; the left hand slightly forward, I think; so as to soften
+the bend of the elbow.... Ah, that's better. Now it couldn't possibly be
+improved upon. Don't you think so, Mrs. Robinson?"
+
+And the mother was as fluttered as her daughter at this sudden appeal.
+"Alice looks lovely," she broke out. "You know so well how to make the
+best of people. I've never seen her so beautiful."
+
+"It's the beautiful accessories that produce the effect," stammered
+Alice.
+
+"They certainly produce some effect," conceded Wyndham. "That is why
+they are there. But it's you I'm painting, Miss Robinson. You are the
+picture, and the picture will be you--and not the surroundings."
+
+He had arranged his palette, and fell to with the brush in earnest,
+bidding her speak the moment she felt fatigued. And, indeed, he insisted
+on her resting frequently, though she struggled bravely to keep the
+spells of work as long as possible, and confessed to cherishing
+ambitions in that direction.
+
+Altogether the ladies were enchanted with their experience. Like Mr.
+Robinson, they had never before visited a studio, and it stirred them
+with a sense of play rather than of work, suggesting to them endless fun
+and merriment. Pleased with the promise of the picture itself, Wyndham
+chatted to them charmingly. Miss Robinson, reassured and encouraged by
+his gracious suavity, soon felt at her ease, and spoke more freely than
+was her wont at any time. A shade of animation came into her features,
+and she was ready to break into a laugh at a jest, or to listen to a
+more serious little disquisition with the intensest absorption. They
+were not infrequent these charming little disquisitions of Wyndham's,
+and his visitors thought it wonderful (and told him so with engaging
+frankness) that he should be able to go on speaking so beautifully, and
+yet never relax his attention from the painting.
+
+He did not prolong the whole sitting beyond two hours, when he expressed
+himself delighted with this beginning, and offered them tea.
+
+They accepted eagerly. "Will you be making it, Mr. Wyndham?" they asked,
+their eyes shining with amusement.
+
+"Oh, I'm an old hand at it," he assured them. He threw open a door which
+they had imagined to indicate a cupboard. "Kitchen, scullery, and every
+kind of domestic office rolled into one," he explained, and promptly
+disappeared inside it. They came peeping in gleefully, fascinated by the
+rough white-washed doll's interior with its miniature dresser, and they
+watched him fill his kettle and put together the tea-things. Then he
+emerged, set the kettle over the fire, spread the table with a fresh
+cloth, and emptied a large bag of cakes on to a fascinating plate of
+old-seeming majolica.
+
+"How nice!" said Miss Robinson, her face shining with make-believe
+gluttony.
+
+"There are some chocolate fingers among them--just the sort you like,"
+said her mother.
+
+"And tiny cream-cakes--just the sort you like, mamma," returned Alice.
+
+"How much tea do you put in the pot?" inquired Mrs. Robinson.
+
+"One spoonful for the pot, and one for each cup," quoted Wyndham
+promptly. "And I am always careful to warm the pot first with a little
+of the hot water, and, in scalding the leaves, I am equally careful to
+catch the water at the exact moment it boils."
+
+"If only our cook were as careful!" sighed Mrs. Robinson.
+
+Wyndham asked them if they would like their tea in the Russian style.
+They didn't quite know what it was, but it sounded interesting, so they
+said they'd certainly like to try it. Whereupon he fished out a large
+lemon, and, cutting it up, put slices into their cups. They were in a
+happy mood. They kept him sternly to the rôle of host, refusing to spoil
+the fun by moving a finger to help him. And when he had completed all
+the processes, and poured the tea for them, they praised its fragrance
+and delicacy to the skies, and in a trice he was called upon to renew
+the supply. They likewise declared the cakes delicious, and ate them
+with affected greed. Meanwhile he let them see some of his pictures;
+showing off his tall, handsome figure, and occasionally balancing his
+cup to a nicety, as he talked and manipulated the canvasses from his
+point of vantage. And when tea was over, he kept them some little time
+further, whilst he exhibited his overwhelming masterpiece, which he had
+kept to the end with its face turned away from them. As he wheeled the
+big easel round, and the picture came into view, a cry of admiration
+broke from their lips. They were indeed surprised to learn that it was
+"impossibly" unfinished; to them it seemed that, if justice were done,
+it should go straightway into the National Gallery. Their pleasure and
+gratification were extreme: they made not the least attempt to hide
+their sense of the privilege of sitting at his feet.
+
+And, when they rose to depart, they were absurdly grateful for the
+lovely afternoon he had given them. Still staggering under the
+magnificent impression of his brilliancy as an artist, Mrs. Robinson
+summoned her courage, and suggested that, if he hadn't any other
+engagement that evening, he might as well dine with them as dine alone.
+The argument struck him as forcible, and he accepted with an
+unhesitating simplicity that won her heart still further. He was
+thanking her for her kindness, but she raised her hands in horrified
+deprecation to check him.
+
+"Kindness," she cried. "Not at all, Mr. Wyndham. We know we are not
+worthy of the honour you do us."
+
+"Yes, it is very good indeed of you to come," chimed in Miss Robinson,
+as they shook hands. She smiled at him quite frankly now, and her soft
+fingers lingered a friendly moment in his.
+
+He shut the door and turned back into the studio; then, as the thought
+struck him for the first time, his lips murmured almost involuntarily,
+"I do believe Miss Robinson's half in love with me." But he checked
+himself abruptly. "Good heavens! what a caddish thing to say." For, with
+his innate chivalry, he had certainly never been addicted to the habit
+of imagining that this or that woman was immediately enamoured of him.
+
+He returned to the portrait, lingered over it a moment or two, putting
+in here a stroke, there a touch or a smear. And somehow the train of
+"caddish" thought persisted in his mind; mastered his will and desire to
+suppress it. Suppose Miss Robinson should fall in love with him! He
+recognised her worth as a human being, but instinctively he placed her
+beyond a certain pale. It was not with that kind of woman that one
+connected the idea of loving or falling in love; the true type had been
+fixed for him once for all. The person, too, perhaps! As he had all but
+felt in his discussion of the subject with Sadler, matrimony was really
+excluded from his mind. His business in life was work, achievement--his
+spirit was almost one of revenge for the past.
+
+Yet, suppose she _should_ fall in love with him! The speculation
+persisted, and again he tried to brush it aside. Well, he hoped to
+goodness that she would not, and brusquely wielded his paintbrush. In
+any case, it was all in the day's work. Take his own case, for instance!
+Had he not suffered atrociously during all the time he had known Lady
+Betty? In his bitter poverty he had hardly dared say even to himself
+that he had met the woman of his aspirations!
+
+Thus reflecting, he wheeled forward his masterpiece again, and worked on
+it tentatively, though he did not hope to make serious headway till he
+should be able to do some fresh sketches on the spot, and have a few at
+least of the models pose to him over again. But it was a pleasure to
+feel himself so eager-spirited and hopeful. The Academy dare not refuse
+it! The picture must establish his reputation!
+
+He went on till the light failed, then, after reading an hour or two, he
+dressed for his engagement with the Robinsons.
+
+He found the family had in no wise relaxed from the pitch of ceremony to
+which his first acquaintanceship had wrought them up. But he reflected
+that, however indifferent the point might be to him, it was just as well
+they should feel it the right thing to meet him on his own plane--as
+they understood it. Certainly it was not without its amusing side--the
+spectacle of a good honest family stimulated out of their customary
+simplicity merely because a starving artist was to regale himself at
+their table! And fare sumptuously again the artist did with a vengeance!
+
+He ate, too, with the satisfied contemplation of a good day's work
+behind him. He had somehow earned this provender, and the meal had on
+that account an extra subtle relish. Besides, he felt so much more at
+leisure and at ease than on the former occasion. Then, his visit had
+been an uncertain and not over-willing experiment; now, he was
+acclimatised, his impression of everything was cooler. The greater
+self-possession of the family, too, made the evening distinctly less of
+an effort for him. Miss Robinson had largely got the better of her
+distressing shyness, and her personality was more in evidence. In her
+gentle way she was rising to fill her important position as daughter of
+the house.
+
+Wyndham's impression of the Robinsons was thus definite and final; as
+much derived from their surroundings as from themselves. He noticed, for
+example, that the house itself and everything in it was of an extreme
+solidity. Indeed, the substantial walls and solid wood-work were so
+unusual in suburban construction, which was associated in Wyndham's mind
+with jerry-building, that he could not help remarking thereon when he
+and Mr. Robinson were left to their coffee and cigars. The old man was
+greatly pleased at this piece of discernment and observation. He
+explained that he had had the house built for him twenty years before,
+and this solidity represented his dearest philosophy. He hated nothing
+so much as a superficial appearance which affected to be superior to the
+underlying reality. "Soundness and sincerity" had been his motto
+throughout his life, and on that principle his prosperity had been
+founded. Wyndham grew infected with this unmetaphysical philosophy. The
+ground he had trodden these last years seemed hideously unstable to look
+back upon: there was really a wonderful comfort in feeling himself here,
+supported on so sure a flooring, surrounded by these strong walls, and
+seated on this thickly-cut mahogany arm-chair that was framed to last
+three generations. The entire furniture of the house was of the like
+soundness--even the crimson couches of the drawing-room were of a
+massive build, and the grand piano, like this great dining-room table,
+had the fattest of legs, and was resonant of strength and durability.
+
+And in tune with all this solidity was the solid prosperity of Mr.
+Robinson himself: his banking account seemed an embodiment of his
+life-principles, supporting all this substantiality on its imperturbable
+back, like the fabled Buddhistic tortoise nonchalantly supporting the
+world. Wyndham's own existence seemed feeble by contrast, ready to go
+down before the merest puff of wind. He stretched himself luxuriously,
+half incredulous, as if to assure himself it was all no vain imagining;
+permitted Mr. Robinson to recharge his glass with port; and lighted
+another of those fragrant unpurchasable cigars. It was so good to savour
+to the full this sensation of prodigious security! Here one might repose
+one's head: might hear the trump of doom ring out, and pity the rest of
+the universe.
+
+After all, was there not more than a grain of truth in Sadler's gospel?
+In boyhood you could be adventurous; life stretched before you so
+endlessly that you could afford to gamble with it. But, when the years
+were racing by, you longed for a little peace, a little happiness. This
+constant uncertainty of outlook, this perpetual wear of heart and brain,
+how it sapped life at the very foundation!
+
+To be "safe!" To be solidly established! The import and significance of
+the conception sank deep into him. Sadler was an older man, had gone
+through all these phases. "Safety!" No wonder his friend would not
+hesitate to barter romance for all that the magic word doubtless meant
+to him.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+It was this keynote of "safety" that sounded more in his mind, this
+appreciation of the stability and comfort of the house at the corner
+that grew upon him as his visits to the Robinsons continued; for it
+naturally came to be the settled thing that he should dine with the
+Robinsons on most of the evenings that he was not engaged elsewhere or
+otherwise. The argument at first had been the same simple one that he
+might as well join them as dine alone, and there seemed no reason for
+refusing their excellent fare and their admiring society. On the other
+hand, as his ever-insistent pride demanded that they should not suppose
+he was cut off from his own world; and as, too, he felt subtly required
+to live up to the social rôle which he fancied they as yet attributed to
+him, he was thus stimulated to pick up again some of the old threads of
+his existence. He called on remote aunts in Eaton Square; on retired
+military uncles in South Kensington. And as the winter advanced he began
+to find a pleasure in renewing old acquaintanceships, enjoying
+everybody's surprise at his turning up again, smiling and prosperous.
+It almost amounted to a self-vindication, and he chuckled in secret,
+imagining to himself their confusion.
+
+And since he _was_ emerging from his retirement, there seemed no longer
+any reason why he should not mix again in the art world, and Sadler, who
+had come up to his studio on one or two occasions, induced him to show
+himself at some of the clubs. At the same time he began to cultivate
+again some of the smaller coteries of which he had once been so popular
+a light. Other men, too, began to look him up, and, best of all, an
+editor one day sent him an unhoped-for commission--half-a-dozen drawings
+for a magazine story by a widely-read author.
+
+On the whole he was well satisfied to get back into the world. It
+raised, or rather confirmed, him in his own esteem, and saved him--as he
+put it--from attaching too cheap a price to himself. He was thus able to
+meet the Robinsons from a real plane of vantage, and to purge his mind
+of that slight consciousness of charlatanism which had haunted him at
+the outset.
+
+Were he not taking ultimate success for granted, without a renewal of
+the more bitter side of the struggle, he would scarcely have resumed all
+these old relationships. Yet the precariousness of the future, summon
+his coolness and confidence as he might, was a thing to be actively,
+even desperately, reckoned with. The editor's cheque was a god-send,
+relieving him of immediate anxieties, but he dared not relax his
+efforts. His mornings were entirely devoted to the big canvas now, and
+he rose early to avail himself of every minute of light during these
+short wintry days. He worked with a passion and a concentration that he
+had never yet known. Every fibre of his body bent to the strain; every
+drop of his blood seemed to drain its life into this frenzy to achieve.
+Withal, a delightful sense of emancipation from the old tired vision; a
+splendid consciousness of some rich new store that had gathered in him
+during the long period he had lain fallow!
+
+Yet he shuddered and grew sick at the possibility that the Academy might
+still reject him! In that case, what had he to build upon beyond the
+coming fee for Miss Robinson's portrait? As the weeks went by, something
+of a panic began to overtake him; the future seemed to be bearing down
+on him grim and remorseless.
+
+It was then that the well-garnished atmosphere of the house at the
+corner seemed more and more desirable and alluring. The flow and
+abundance, the great glowing fires in this raw winter, the naïve burning
+of incense at his altar--all these things wooed him, wrapped him in a
+certain balm. Ensconced with Mr. Robinson, and sipping his after-dinner
+coffee, he felt the load of his anxieties falling away from him, The
+heavy decanters of cut glass glowed richly at him--the softness of old
+whiskey, the ruby and golden glint of wines, the clear light of cunning
+distillations. The great pineapples, the clusters of grapes, the baskets
+of peaches, all the fragrant store of Nature's bounty set out on a table
+that yet, by no stretch of imagination, could be conceived as
+"groaning"--all seemed to shine fatter and finer than at the houses of
+his society friends. And here, too, his footing was of an unique,
+admirable character. He had his place at the board practically as a
+matter of right. They ranked him as a god; yet felt that the balance of
+debt was heavily against them. Whereas, elsewhere, he was one of a
+crowd, a merely casual figure among others not less important even where
+he had been most intimate. He knew that his own world, despite its
+breeding and traditions, would yet at bottom despise him and his art if
+he could not earn an excellent livelihood by its practice. But the
+Robinsons worshipped him for himself; and money was almost a vulgarity
+sullying the high artistic universe in which he moved and breathed and
+had his being.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+Meanwhile the sittings were progressing in a manner to gratify the
+artist beyond his hopes. Miss Robinson seemed to find some mysterious
+inspiration in this decorative scheme, seemed to fuse into it, to lend
+herself to design and draughtmanship. Her face, too, took on subtler
+phases, was touched to a measure of nobility! Her dark eyes shone softly
+under their long lashes; her expression was full of goodness and
+charity. Wyndham prided himself that he had put on the canvas something
+remote from the lines of ordinary portraiture--a simple soul, a gentle
+Lady Bountiful, yet not less dignified in her way than the heroines of
+the grand portraiture.
+
+Mrs. Robinson did not insist on uninterrupted chaperonage of her
+daughter; the ladies evinced little fanaticism on this head. Often they
+brought knitting or needle-work with them, which occupied the mother in
+a peaceful, old-fashioned way that Wyndham even found himself admiring.
+Sometimes Mrs. Robinson would appear only towards the end of the
+sitting, and sometimes she considerately announced that Alice would
+have to come alone for the next occasion as she herself was otherwise
+busy. They both showed a tact and a good taste in the matter which he
+fully recognised, and for which in a way he was grateful.
+
+In the natural resulting intimacy between artist and sitter, Miss
+Robinson expanded, opened out her mind; at first timidly and
+tentatively, ultimately with freedom and confidence. She confessed that
+her experience of life had been nothing at all, since she had always
+lived in quiet shelter. Her unsophisticated simplicity was certainly
+engaging; he could see that she was a sheet entirely unwritten upon,
+that her soul was as naïve and trusting as her outward being. She was
+refreshingly a child of nature--no bewildering complexity here--no
+shadow of affectation. She spoke without reserve of the poverty of her
+childhood, and admitted that she had disagreeable qualms of conscience
+about their present riches. Was it right to enjoy so much when one
+thought of the state of the world generally? They debated the subject
+endlessly; considering it elaborately from every conceivable standpoint:
+and his personal authority went far to allay her disquietude. His
+theories, backed up by high philosophy and poetry, fascinated her with
+their harmony and originality; he had such a charming way of arranging
+the order of things into a beautiful artist's scheme, whilst yet his
+sympathies were deep, true, and universal!
+
+Sometimes he was conscious of his sophistry, and felt ashamed of it
+afterwards. Was he playing a comedy of sentiment? he asked himself.
+Well, why not? Men and women made a careful toilette for an evening
+party: why not a spiritual toilette for their sentimental relations?
+
+The last words of his own thought, startled him. Then it _was_ a
+sentimental relation. "By Jove, I must be careful!" he murmured to
+himself. "She's an awfully good soul, and it isn't fair to either of
+us." But the next moment he shrugged his shoulders. Why trouble his mind
+at all? Every relation between a man and a woman who came into such
+close personal touch was in a way sentimental--for the time being! That
+was only the game of life, and everybody had to play at it: the main
+thing was to bow to the rules. Such temporary relations might well be
+made as pleasant as possible; but, when they were at an end, it was
+incumbent on both parties to realise that.
+
+Yet he could not help being increasingly conscious of his power over
+her; it was so pathetically visible. Their conversations were often
+amusingly like those of kindly tutor and obedient, inquiring child; she
+hanging on his words in entire self-surrender, as he discoursed so
+graciously and brought his points so lightly and simply within the
+range of her comprehension. Sometimes, in following up an explanation,
+he would be carried away by the flow of his own ideas and his personal
+interest in the matter, and then he would almost seem to be addressing
+an equal in knowledge and experience. But whenever that happened;
+whenever, for example, he had let himself go too far into the subtle
+mysteries of technique, he would find himself regretting the unchecked
+surrender to impulse, and remain strangely vexed about it long
+afterwards. It was really soaring right outside her limitations! She was
+not a Lady Betty!
+
+Lady Betty was so often in his mind now: she seemed to have established
+herself more definitely there than ever before, as if to keep him up to
+the proper pitch in his judgments of women. He bowed his head low to
+Lady Betty, recognised her as his full intellectual equal--in some
+aspects his superior. She was brains and beauty. She was stateliness
+itself. She was sunshine and sweetness. What was Miss Robinson by the
+side of her? And as he asked himself the question, an impression of Miss
+Robinson, as he had recently come upon her suddenly in the streets,
+blotted out the more dignified version on his own canvas. How plain and
+homely she had seemed in her unobtrusive walking-costume; how
+insignificant her whole meek bearing! Yes, that was the true Miss
+Robinson; caught photographically in the act of being herself, and
+fixed by his vision for always--extinguishing the gorgeously-dressed
+person of these incessant festal evenings no less than his own artistic
+edition of her.
+
+In no respect could she claim to come up to his measure. He appreciated
+all her virtues, recognised her exceptional womanhood: by the side of
+Lady Betty she was insipid, _bourgeoise_, monotonously amiable.
+
+Yet he could never arrive at so harsh a verdict without relenting at a
+rebound. "It is curious," was his thought, "that in proportion as I get
+more friendly with her and really like her, I yet get harder and harder
+on her, poor child! She's a jolly good sort! What a decent world it
+would be if only there were ever so many more women like her!"
+
+And, by way of atonement, his manner at their next meeting would warm
+and soften sensibly; and it came upon him always with a degree of
+surprise that, however he might feel about Miss Robinson theoretically,
+her actual society was always pleasant and comrade-like.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+By mid-December the portrait needed only the finishing touches, and, at
+his invitation, several of his artist-friends came to see it.
+Commendation of the work was general, combined with a certain admiration
+of the unknown sitter. Wyndham could not help feeling that there was
+much speculation as to her identity, and he gave himself all the more
+credit as an artist for the qualities with which he had endowed her, and
+which alone bestowed upon her this interesting individuality.
+
+Wyndham, who made it a point never to have his work interrupted, had so
+arranged these visits that none of his friends had stumbled upon the
+Robinsons. To the not infrequent query of "Who is she?" he usually
+responded, with a half-humorous gleam in his eye, "She might be Brown or
+Jones: as a matter of fact she is Robinson--the daughter of a
+respectable citizen of that ilk." Yet what more, in sober truth, could
+he tell them about her? He might have put it differently, but it was
+the information he supposed they wanted. Yet one day he was to learn
+that this conciseness had been construed as reserve. Sadler lounged in
+one Sunday afternoon, when, as it happened, Wyndham was awaiting his
+sister, whose long-deferred visit had at last been arranged for that
+day. And, in the course of conversation, the visitor soon let slip out a
+word that struck Wyndham like a blow. Sadler had begun by referring to
+Miss Robinson as "your friend;" but, presently, as he still reviewed the
+painting, out came "your _fiancée_."
+
+"My _fiancée_! What the devil----?"
+
+Sadler apologised; a shrewd meaning smile clung about his massive jaws.
+"Of course everybody understands that it's a secret, but when you've
+heard of a thing, it's difficult to keep it from slipping out, don't y'
+know."
+
+"This is all too absurd!" Wyndham was suddenly impelled to laugh.
+
+"What's absurd about it? It seems likely enough to me; else I shouldn't
+have believed it."
+
+"An artist cannot accept a commission without being engaged to his
+sitter?" urged Wyndham indignantly.
+
+"Things have a way of getting about, you know," maintained Sadler.
+
+"They have indeed," said Wyndham.
+
+"Well, what are you so annoyed at?" shouted Sadler. "You make me tired.
+There's nothing discreditable in being engaged by rumour to a wealthy
+and beautiful woman."
+
+Wyndham laughed again. Beautiful! he thought. If only Sadler had met the
+everyday Miss Robinson shopping with her mother in the Finchley Road!
+
+"Seriously, do you consider her beautiful?" he asked in a more genial
+tone, suddenly curious to hear Sadler's real impression.
+
+"What is beauty?" demanded Sadler. "The moment you can define it, it
+ceases to be beauty. Its essence is elusiveness. A touch, a flash--and
+you've got it! The lines here are not classical, but your Miss Robinson
+has distinct individuality. The eyes are fine. She looks the sort that
+would stick to a man. Gee-rusalem! I shouldn't mind having a shot at her
+myself. Look here, old fellow, will you introduce me to her? If there's
+nothing in it for you, give me a chance."
+
+"Goodbye," said Wyndham sweetly. "You won't think me rude, but I've an
+engagement in a minute or two."
+
+"Right!" said Sadler. "I'll be off. Goodbye, Wyndham, old chap. You're a
+real damned old swell. Gee-rusalem! you're just great at getting rid of
+people."
+
+Left alone, Wyndham gave way to annoyance again. It was a fine thing!
+Artists themselves ought to know better than to indulge in
+tittle-tattle of that kind. He worked himself up into a towering rage.
+Then Mary rang the bell, and he had abruptly to recall his graciousness.
+
+It was her first visit to the studio since the new turn of affairs; her
+multifarious duties as worker among the sick and poor after her day's
+teaching leaving her so little freedom. They had of course seen each
+other in the interim; for Wyndham had himself looked in at the
+"Buildings" in Kensington whenever his engagements had taken him that
+way, and he had been fortunate enough just to catch her at home for a
+few moments on several occasions. The poor girl had been overflowing
+with happiness--had not a window on the skies been opened, too, for her?
+And though both had so far delicately avoided all reference to that old
+painful interview, she had yet often been impelled to throw herself at
+his feet in contrition. Only she felt that he, in his great magnanimity,
+would be hurt by such an abasement.
+
+When he brought the picture well into the light, her first exclamation
+was, "Oh, how beautiful!" Then she kissed him impulsively.
+
+The tribute gave him more pleasure than all the professional praise that
+had been showered on the portrait.
+
+"What a charming girl! I should like to know her," were her next words.
+"She has such a good face, and I'm sure she's every bit as beautiful as
+you've painted her."
+
+Wyndham's vexation at his rumoured engagement seemed to take wing and be
+off into the airs. He even felt a shy pride in Miss Robinson. "I'm sure
+you'll like her," he said. "Shall I arrange a tea here one of these days
+before Christmas?"
+
+"That would be lovely." Mary's voice was full of enthusiasm. "School
+breaks up in a day or two, and I shall have so much more time to
+myself," she added, still gazing at the picture.
+
+"Any criticism?"
+
+"None," she returned. "You have caught the character with rare genius.
+She is so simple and unaffected; one could repose absolute trust in
+her.... You see," she continued, smiling, "I feel so strong an interest
+in her as being the beginning of your good fortune. I have a sort of
+conviction--don't laugh at me, please--that it has come to stay."
+
+When he poured out her tea, she suddenly laughed, remembering she had a
+message for him which she had forgotten to deliver in the absorption of
+contemplating Miss Robinson; in fact, there was a heap of things she had
+wanted to talk over. The most important, at any rate, was the question
+of his Christmas holiday. Aunt Eleanor wanted Mary to spend the two or
+three weeks with her, but she was anxious that Wyndham, too, should
+join their little party over the New Year--since she now understood that
+he had emerged to some extent from his austere seclusion. A refusal Aunt
+Eleanor would take to heart--she naturally regarded her own home as his,
+as the place to which his mind should spontaneously turn at such a
+season.
+
+Wyndham welcomed the invitation. It was more than two years since he had
+passed any time in Hertfordshire, and the visit itself, which last
+Christmas he had sullenly avoided, would afford him the greatest
+satisfaction. Much as he appreciated the Robinson housekeeping, it was a
+relief to feel definitely that he was not staying the year-end at his
+studio, with no resource save their cordial hospitality.
+
+Mary went off in great elation. "I don't know when I have felt so happy
+as to-day," she declared, as she kissed him. "I leave my best love for
+the work--and for the lady as well," she added, smiling.
+
+It was arranged on the door-step that they should travel down to
+Hertfordshire together, and Mary insisted he must leave her to look up
+the trains, and make all the arrangements.
+
+"It is just the sort of task I enjoy," she assured him. "Looking up
+trains to get into the country always sends me into a sort of happy
+excitement; it is part of the joy of anticipation."
+
+Wyndham was left, somehow, a greater admirer of Miss Robinson. He
+studied her again in his own picture, and accepted her as a far finer
+creature than he had realised--even allowing for this idealisation of
+her in paint. "My feeling against her must be purely morbid, and it's
+really too bad when she likes my society so much!--she has no idea how
+much she shows it." Her unsophistication, hitherto a deficiency, began
+to take on a certain charm. How refreshing this womanly simplicity in a
+world of showy coquettes and chattering, feather-headed females! Even
+Mary, who was so shrewd and fastidious, had been compelled to pay her
+homage. The Robinson family was charming! What fine old-world courtesy
+in the father--many a born aristocrat might well take a lesson from him!
+How unassuming, too, the mother, full of quiet virtues and womanly
+excellencies!
+
+And Mary's significant smile remained with him. Good gracious! was she,
+too, taking the sort of thing for granted? This power of suggestion from
+every side was annoying: still--it would not be right to let that
+prejudice him!
+
+Wyndham paced to and fro feverishly. Why should he not----?
+
+It was the first time he was impelled to put the question to himself in
+clear seeking. Obscure in his mind these last weeks, it crystallised
+itself brusquely--surprised him with its swift definiteness: but he
+broke it off, all unprepared to meet it yet. He had a shamefaced
+remembrance of his matrimonial conversation with Sadler, of the lofty
+convictions he had then expressed.
+
+Well, he had spoken honestly, he argued, and his convictions had changed
+not a jot. "Only now that I am face to face with the actual possibility,
+I see aspects of the case that then escaped me. Till now I have always
+viewed marriage as the great central fact to which the whole of life has
+to converge, from which everything else takes its significance. Hence it
+was a case of the ideal or nothing--there seemed no other choice. But
+now I recognise that matrimony that is not ideal may yet take its place
+as an accessory to life, may be accepted as a good without filling the
+whole horizon."
+
+He resumed his feverish pacing. Well, why should he not seize an
+opportunity which presented itself so favourably? By the loss of his
+money he had become reduced in his own world to the rank of a mere
+"detrimental." Had he not already felt that sufficiently? He laughed
+harshly at the memory. No, no, a Lady Betty he could not hope to marry.
+Such wondrous beings did not grow on every bush; nor did life permit of
+his setting out in search of one. This holding out for the perfect ideal
+only meant humiliation and sadness in the end. The world--the hard world
+of fact--was like that, and you had to take it as you found it. No
+folly could be greater than to forget that life was as it was, and not
+as you thought it ought to be!
+
+Yet he vacillated again. Did he really want to marry at all? Had he not
+decided--wholly, absolutely, irrevocably--that his business in life was
+work? Though he would never have spoken of it to another, he was proud
+in his heart of his sentimental loyalty to Lady Betty, and marriage
+seemed almost an unfaithfulness. Better perhaps to bend himself sternly
+to the task before him!
+
+Yes, but this task before him--unaided, he could never accomplish it.
+Let him confess it now, since he was master again of his full sanity. He
+had been beaten, smashed! But for this timely piece of good fortune all
+would have been at an end by now. The Robinson support once withdrawn,
+he would not be strong enough to stand. He had gauged his powers in the
+great contest, and, in this moment of supreme lucidity, he foresaw he
+must be conquered again. One portrait could not suffice for the
+rebuilding of his future; even on the money side his fee would be
+absorbed immediately. And the finishing of the great picture meant more
+outlay. To try to "fake" it without proper models would be a folly of
+follies--far better to abandon it altogether. His blind optimism at the
+turn of things had certainly been of benefit to him, had stimulated him
+to his best; but with this first piece of work practically
+accomplished, the moment for estimating and facing the situation with
+mathematical exactitude had certainly arrived.
+
+He could not fight the world alone. However he might desire nothing in
+life save self-consecration to work, he could not even achieve that much
+without reinforcing his own strength by means that were unexceptionable
+and honourable.
+
+He came to an abrupt stop as the words swept from his brain. "By Jove,
+that hits the nail pretty square!" he murmured, his lips ashen. Naked
+and ugly, his primary motive stood before him as in a mirror. For one
+clear moment he saw himself brutally, and shuddered. "I am not in love
+with her. If she were dowerless, I should never have worked myself up to
+this stage of appreciation; I should never have dressed up the Robinson
+menage to make it palatable. The portrait would never have come out like
+this. I should have dashed in a brutal modern study of a plain woman,
+full of bravura passages. If I am going in for a thing of this kind, let
+me at least be honest with myself."
+
+And then he laughed with the irony of it all. He, the lover of poesie;
+he, the fastidious gourmet in things of the spirit; who had followed the
+cult of all that was lyrical and exquisite; he planned to mate beneath
+him for the sake of crude money. Faugh! A vulture hovering over a heap
+of carrion!
+
+But the violence of the metaphor brought a reaction. "Rubbish!" he
+murmured, and paced again. The pacing grew into a striding. Up and down
+the length of the studio he stamped, face and eyes working intensely. "I
+am exaggerating. I am morbid about it all; I am rushing to the other
+extreme. When have I ever hidden from myself that the thing would be
+primarily a means to my great impersonal end--I may as well admit it has
+been in my mind all along! What could be a greater degradation than my
+old way of living? Poor Mary! Why, I owe it to her as a duty to put an
+end to all this misery. I'd face anything on earth now to make up to her
+for the past! Besides, the idea is not at all so inhuman as I am trying
+to make out. In a mildish sort of way, of course, I am really fond of
+Miss Robinson. Her virtues _are_ a reality! She is plain, I admit--very
+plain; but my eye has learnt to see her its own way--the way of the
+portrait!"
+
+Brusquely he flung his hesitations from him. Why should he not marry
+Miss Robinson? Even in the driest aspect of the case, the match was not
+inequitable. The "crude money"--yes, let him use the words
+deliberately--the "crude money" on her side; on his a full equivalent in
+his personal self, his no doubt brilliant career once sordid matters
+were disposed of, and a sphere of existence that was obviously
+interesting to her. If he brought no immediate fortune himself, his
+future earnings, once he were free to work without anxiety, might well
+be considerable. What was there in the idea to wound his pride? How
+absurd his metaphor of the vulture!
+
+And then he turned to dwell again with relief at the pleasanter aspects
+of the case. Even if he were not attaining to passionate poetic dreams,
+he would yet be carrying into effect a charming domestic ideal of peace
+and tranquillity. And the very poetry of marriage began to invest Miss
+Robinson with something of its own glamour. He saw her in a bridal veil
+holding a big bouquet. His enthusiasm mounted.
+
+And Mary's voice seemed to echo again in the studio: "What a charming
+girl! She has such a good face, and I'm sure she's every bit as
+beautiful as you've painted her." He almost felt himself blushing in
+embarrassment; it was as if he himself were being commended. "She is so
+simple and unaffected," went on Mary's voice with its unmistakable ring
+of conviction. "One could repose absolute trust in her."
+
+How shrewd and true was his sister's reading of the character! Moreover,
+Mary had confessed to an almost superstitious thrill at gazing on the
+features of the woman who had been the beginning of his good fortune.
+Could he say that he was entirely free from the same sort of
+superstitious sentiment? Alice Robinson had begun his good fortune; why
+should she not complete it? If only that confounded set of fools hadn't
+started their silly tittle-tattle!
+
+Undoubtedly there was a substratum of truth and good sense in the views
+so stoutly and passionately maintained by Sadler; only Sadler imagined
+it was possible to compromise, to step down from the ideal and yet find
+great happiness. He himself would give up the dream of happiness in the
+ideal sense: his would be frankly a case of convenience, though were it
+not for the many virtues of Miss Robinson, his mind would never have
+become reconciled to it. No! not even were she as rich as Croesus. He
+must do that amount of justice to himself. At his age he could
+appreciate the importance of the rarer qualities of character in his
+life's mate--loyalty, modesty, devotion! He would be making a wise
+marriage! not a sordid one. He would be choosing the deep calm of life
+instead of the elusive and often mocking flash of superficial passion
+and beauty.
+
+And, on his part, he was prepared to be the best and most dutiful of
+husbands!
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+When, that same evening, Wyndham was ushered into the Robinsons'
+drawing-room, he was mildly surprised to find a sedate gentleman there
+in familiar conversation with the family. The stranger vibrated with
+neuter lights; yet dry, clean lights. Tall spare figure, hair and
+close-trimmed beard, tailed morning coat and sharp-creased trousers,
+brow and visage, air and movement--all a chiaroscuro in grey;
+accentuated curiously, too, against the host's correct black and white,
+and the laces and chiffons and shimmering brilliance of the ladies.
+
+"My friend, Mr. Shanner," said Mr. Robinson, introducing them; and
+Wyndham remembered at once that the Robinsons had mentioned Mr. Shanner
+occasionally as an intimate of the house who was away in the New World
+for the interests of the concern in which he was junior partner.
+
+But Mr. Shanner, though he shook hands cordially, yet gave him a swift
+look up and down that had something of antagonism in it. And in Wyndham,
+too, arose some obscure enmity, likewise masked by the conventional
+friendliness of greeting.
+
+"As I was just telling Mr. Robinson," said Mr. Shanner, with an
+obviously forced smile that yet illumined the man, broke through and
+flashed away the greyness for an instant, "I hadn't the least idea that
+I was going to stumble on an evening party. I feel quite out of it." His
+voice was full of affable vibrations, and he smiled again, with a
+general nod that indicated all this ceremonial get-up around him.
+
+"I am sure we shall do our best to amuse you," returned Wyndham,
+naturally associating himself with the family, but feeling hopelessly
+out of sympathy with the new-comer.
+
+Miss Robinson had reddened as the two men approached each other, but on
+her father's again mentioning that Mr. Shanner was just back from his
+tour in the New World, she came into the conversation bravely, and rose
+above her shade of embarrassment.
+
+"Have _you_ ever crossed to America, Mr. Wyndham?" she asked, smiling at
+him.
+
+"No," he confessed; "though America has largely crossed to me."
+
+Mr. Shanner looked puzzled.
+
+"How do you mean--America has crossed to you, Mr. Wyndham?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I hope I did not seem to suggest that I have been a centre of
+pilgrimage," laughed Wyndham. "Only, in past years, when I was running
+a good deal about the Continent, I often used to live with New York,
+Chicago, and Boston, for considerable periods."
+
+"Mr. Wyndham has often given us charming sketches of the Americans,"
+chimed in Miss Robinson.
+
+"Oh, I don't pretend to be much of a hand at that sort of thing," said
+Mr. Shanner, with pleasant humility. "I can only just give my
+impressions as a plain observer. But then I'm a man of affairs, and
+nothing at all of an artist or a literary man." Wyndham observed how
+careful and honeyed his delivery was; it seemed to advertise a perpetual
+self-consciousness of being a gentleman.
+
+"Mr. Shanner is unduly modest," put in Mr. Robinson. "His descriptions
+are most entertaining."
+
+"Well, of course, I can speak of things within my experience, and make
+myself fairly clear--in my own way, of course. But, from all that you
+people have been telling me, I shouldn't attempt to emulate Mr.
+Wyndham."
+
+Mr. Shanner gave a strange little laugh, full of insincere echoes; which
+failed in its implication of good-fellowship, and only emphasised the
+ill-nature it was meant to cover. Wyndham was not a little bewildered;
+conscious of some suppressed excitement in the man, some ruffling of the
+ashen chiaroscuro. This impression was deepened when dinner was
+announced, and Mr. Shanner made what was perilously like a dart to the
+side of Miss Robinson and offered his arm. Wyndham stepped out of their
+way, bowing as they passed him.
+
+At table Mr. Shanner gave no undue signs of modesty or self-distrust,
+but talked about "things within his experience" with the utmost
+unconstraint. An unmistakable note of assurance animated the honeyed
+voice, which soared away occasionally, yet sedulously recollected
+itself; drew back within bounds, reverted to the lesser pitch and the
+deliberate pace. Mr. Shanner was at pains to let it be seen that he was
+a man of affairs on the grand scale, one to be ranked with diplomatists
+and ambassadors. In the course of business he had come into contact with
+exalted personages of almost every kingdom, and had corresponded
+voluminously with some of them. He carried an assortment of their
+letters in his pocketbook, which lay on the table as a perpetual source
+of illustration. He spoke of some of these great ones of the earth with
+extreme familiarity--he had been closeted with them on confidential
+business, and he flattered himself he had counted for something in
+certain important decisions of policy. And, as he warmed to the
+conversation, far from being "out of it," he was king of the table, his
+honeyed words emerged endlessly. There was a distinct flash of challenge
+in his occasional glances at Wyndham--he was not to be overborne by the
+presence of any aristocrat on earth. And not content with all this
+insistent implication of his personal importance, he even related by way
+of pleasant interlude how, with ear to one private telephone and mouth
+to another, he had smartly seized a sudden opportunity, and, buying an
+incoming cargo through the first telephone and selling it through the
+second, had netted twenty thousand pounds for his firm. Whereas Wyndham
+amused himself trying to measure the depths of Mr. Shanner's contempt
+should he suspect that the sole resources of his vis-à-vis were the
+guineas to be paid him from Mr. Robinson's treasury.
+
+It was evident, too, that Mr. Shanner was more familiarly at home in the
+house than Wyndham. He called its master "Robinson"; most significant of
+all, Miss Robinson was Alice to him. Indeed, his manner, as he sat next
+to her, was almost proprietorial; at any rate it had easy, affectionate
+suggestions about it. She, however, had fallen back into a shy
+constraint; though she emerged at moments, lifting her deep-glancing
+eyes to Wyndham and flashing him the friendliest of messages. Wyndham
+understood by now; knew also that it was clear to Mr. Shanner that they
+were rivals--that a mutual detestation lurked beneath their pleasant
+amenities. He had gathered also that Mr. Shanner meant to show that he
+did not concern himself one jot about the new star that had appeared in
+the firmament during his absence. But Wyndham came off easily the
+victor, displaying for Mr. Shanner a charming deference, and pursuing
+the unruffled tenour of his entertaining conversation without
+manifesting in the slightest degree any of the emotions that the evening
+had raised in his breast. Such perfect unconsciousness of matters
+intensely present, Mr. Shanner could not hope to emulate. It was clear
+he was uneasily alive to the contrast--that he had the growing
+consciousness of defeat. His note of self-emphasis rang louder, though
+smothered continuously.
+
+The war continued after dinner; Mr. Shanner eagerly turning the pages of
+Miss Robinson's music, and so entirely appropriating her that Wyndham
+could scarcely contrive to approach her during the rest of the evening.
+However, Wyndham smilingly kept his place in the background, disdaining
+to assert himself or to enter openly into emulation; though there were
+opportunities he, the socially experienced, might have seized adroitly.
+After all, why annoy this admirable, upright gentleman? Even as it was,
+poor Mr. Shanner was fated to receive one or two sharp slashes; as when,
+in the course of describing the sittings, Mrs. Robinson let it be
+clearly seen that she was not always present to chaperone her daughter
+in the studio. At that moment Mr. Shanner's face was an extraordinary
+face to look upon; although he affected to laugh and smile, and packed
+even more honey into his voice. All of which forced sweetness
+notwithstanding, it began to be evident that the topic of the picture,
+and of Wyndham's work in general, bored him considerably. At last, when
+Mrs. Robinson innocently suggested that Wyndham should ask him to come
+to see the portrait at the studio, he deprecated the idea with some
+degree of vehemence. He really was very busy in the daytime now.
+Besides, he added pleasantly, on principle he never cared to see an
+article whilst yet on order; time enough to examine it when it was
+tendered for delivery. He smiled meaningly at Wyndham as if to
+accentuate that these commercial metaphors were merely by way of
+pleasantry.
+
+"And then it's so extremely difficult for an outsider to get any idea of
+an unfinished picture, and of course I don't profess to be a judge of
+art in any case, though I know what I like."
+
+So, if Mr. Wyndham would excuse him, he added, he would rather wait till
+the portrait had come home, and had been hung in the house.
+
+It was not without difficulty that Wyndham found his opportunity of
+arranging the little tea-party at which the ladies were to meet his
+sister. Miss Robinson was to give him the final sitting on the Tuesday;
+so it was therefore agreed that the tea should take place on that day
+after work was over. The sitter herself crimsoned deeply at learning
+that Mary "had admired her immensely," and her eyes glistened in a way
+that showed her pleasure and rapturous appreciation.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+The definite figure of Mr. Shanner with his magnificent appropriation of
+Miss Robinson merely impelled Wyndham to smash up this rival at once and
+have done with the business. The evening had obscured all the repugnance
+that lay in the depths of him; had stimulated roseate conceivings of
+possible felicity.
+
+On the Tuesday he found his opportunity. Miss Robinson came alone,
+explaining that her mother would not appear till the time fixed for the
+tea-party. The weather was rigorously wintry now, and a biting wind blew
+in as the door was opened. A new layer of snow had fallen during the
+last hour, and Miss Robinson had come across wrapped in a big, heavy
+cloak. He ushered her through the ante-room with a charming air of
+solicitude, to which she vibrated like a struck harp, and gave him the
+softest and tenderest intonations of her voice. He helped her off with
+the cloak, and hung it away carefully, the whilst she stooped and warmed
+her long hands at the lavishly heaped-up fire. Her throat and arms now
+showed at their best, and her face had some strange, almost mystic
+undertone of happiness. As she bent down there before his eyes, she
+completely blotted out the impression of the insignificant plain woman
+whom he had suddenly come upon in the streets; of the everyday Miss
+Robinson that at one time had almost become an obsession. At that moment
+she was well-nigh the idealised figure he had painted. Yet there was
+something even subtler in her which he had missed, and knew that he had
+missed. But, studying his own work again, he saw that that was just as
+well; for the picture existed as a separate creation, a piece of
+painting first and foremost, in which he had exhibited the cleverness of
+his brush. It was paint--distinguished, intellectual paint--more than it
+was human portraiture; in spite of all the significance with which he
+had tried to invest it. As this new truth dawned upon him, he kept
+glancing from sitter to canvas, and from canvas to sitter, with a
+strange, surprised interest. But her hands suddenly arrested his
+attention, and he became aware that, for the first time since he had
+known her, they were absolutely bare of rings.
+
+"You have no rings to-day," he remarked, his voice showing his surprise.
+"I might have wanted to touch up the hands."
+
+Her colour deepened unaccountably. "I thought the hands were finished,"
+she breathed, all of a flutter. "Shall I go back for them?"
+
+"What a goose it is!" he said lightly, and she smiled again, as if
+pleased they were on so charmingly intimate a footing.
+
+"Shall we not need them?" she asked.
+
+"I think not," he answered, studying the hands a little. "You were
+perfectly right; they had best remain as they are."
+
+She took the pose, and for a minute or two he worked silently; she
+maintaining the perfect stillness that had at first been her cherished
+ambition. He was still pondering about her bare hands and her confusion
+at his having observed them, and light came to him. Was it to show him
+that no man--not even Mr. Shanner--had any claim on her? After the close
+attentions he had witnessed the other evening, was she afraid he might
+infer that some understanding existed between herself and Mr.
+Shanner?--that one of these rings, even if not a formal pledge, might be
+his and worn for his sake? Her neglect of such favourite trinkets to-day
+was then to indicate that no one of them had any special sentimental
+interest for her!
+
+"You are sitting perfectly to-day," he presently remarked. "It doesn't
+tire you?"
+
+"What an unkind suggestion! I thought I had got beyond the amateur stage
+long ago."
+
+"I'm sorry. You didn't hear, though, the beginning of my remark."
+
+"I agreed with that," she answered with a sly humour.
+
+"So that it hadn't to be reckoned. Do you know all women are like that?"
+
+She considered. His brush made strokes. "Like what?" she asked at last.
+
+"If you pay them the greatest of tributes, but are incautious enough to
+hint the tiniest of qualifications, the tribute dwindles to nothing, and
+they remain tremendously annoyed at the suggestion of imperfection."
+
+"Am I like that?"
+
+"You were just now."
+
+"I was such a bother and a hindrance to you when we started," she
+explained. "I used to get tired every few minutes. And now at last, just
+when I am flattering myself on my improvement----"
+
+"You take me too seriously," he broke in.
+
+"You _were_ serious," she insisted.
+
+"Serious--yes; in so far as I was afraid you were tired. I didn't even
+mean it as a qualification of my tribute; it was only genuine concern
+for you."
+
+"How stupid of me!" she exclaimed. "I ought to have felt that at once."
+
+There was another spell of silence; he intensely absorbed in his brush,
+she obviously considering.
+
+"I am not really like that," she said at last.
+
+He stood away from the canvas, glanced critically at certain points,
+levelled his mahl-stick at her, took up a rag, and wiped a bit out.
+"Like what?" he asked.
+
+"Like women."
+
+"But you are. You see, it is sticking in your mind." He smiled wickedly.
+
+"You fight too hard," she pleaded.
+
+"I'm sorry," he said remorsefully. "I shall not do it again."
+
+"Oh, I'm not a bit hurt," she protested. "I was only thinking the point
+over."
+
+"I want to hear what you were thinking." His smile and tone were
+meaningly affectionate, as if they would add "little child."
+
+"I meant that I should never really be hurt by qualifications. I have
+never been used to having nice things said to me. I certainly do not
+deserve tributes, but I know I deserve all possible qualifications."
+
+"Oh, if you please! I'll not allow even Miss Robinson to say such
+slanderous things about so valued a friend of mine."
+
+"So I have been slandering a friend of yours! I'm so sorry. Forgive me."
+
+"I suppose I must--though I find it hard--very hard."
+
+"I do believe you are paying me a tribute," she laughed. "Now for the
+qualifications. You shall see how stoical I am."
+
+"Qualifications--none!" He threw down his brushes and palette, as if to
+emphasise the declaration. "I'm tired first," he sang out gaily. "Let
+us rest."
+
+"There!" she exclaimed. "What a triumph for me!"
+
+"But you say it so gently that it is a pleasure to concede you the
+victory. You are an ideal foe."
+
+"Oh, if you please, I don't want to be a foe.... How cold it is!" She
+stooped and held her hands again to the fire.
+
+"No, child," he said gently, "of course we aren't foes. We are very good
+friends indeed, aren't we?" He held out his hand, as if to clench the
+understanding, so clearly and warmly acknowledged.
+
+She was all a-flutter again, though, as was her habit, she covered it up
+with a smile. "Very good friends!" she returned, with conviction, and
+she put her hand in his, and let it linger there. "I have always lived
+reserved and to myself," she added thoughtfully. "You may think it
+strange, but I have never had a friend before--not even a woman friend."
+
+"I can well understand your shrinking away from people. No doubt most
+people would jar on you."
+
+"It would hurt me if I thought that. I should not like to despise
+anybody. I should have loved to have friends: only I have never had the
+gift of making them. Sometimes I am thankful that I am not brilliant--I
+might so easily have become unendurable and full of self-conceit."
+
+"Ah, you are something better than brilliant," he exclaimed. "It needs
+an exceptional spirit to appreciate you. You are so much out of the
+ordinary in every way, in looks----"
+
+"No, no," she interrupted in protest. "I have no looks. I have no
+illusions about that."
+
+"Look at your own portrait," he insisted. "I say it is the kind of
+beauty it needs a gift to appreciate. In beauty--as in everything
+else--the crowd runs after the obvious and the commonplace."
+
+"You are the first that ever thought I possessed good looks. You have
+given them to me."
+
+"I have not even done you justice. I have omitted more than I have
+suggested. My sister thinks you are beautiful; all my artist friends who
+have seen the picture share her opinion."
+
+She was silent, almost distressed; she could not meet his gaze, but
+turned her eyes away.
+
+"It gave me pleasure to hear you appreciated," he continued. "You are
+above conventional compliments. I withdraw what I said before. You are
+_not_ like other women."
+
+Her breath came and went as she listened, but she smiled bravely.
+
+"At any rate I am not like _some_ women. I never could take any of the
+deeper aspects of life in a merely frivolous spirit. With me it is a
+loyal, deep friendship, or nothing."
+
+He took her hand again. "Believe me, dear child, the friendship on my
+part is equally loyal and deep. It is for life."
+
+"For life," she murmured, suddenly grown pale.
+
+He dashed in, determined to strike home.
+
+"I prize you at your full worth, since I am one of those who can measure
+it. I have the deepest affection for you. I believe I could make you
+happy. Don't you understand? I offer you my whole life--that is, if you
+think me worthy."
+
+"Worthy!" she echoed, in dazed distress. "How can you think me worthy of
+you! I have lived in narrow retirement. I am nothing."
+
+He seized both her hands now. "No more of this. I ask for your promise."
+
+"I love you with all my heart and soul. But I am not good enough for
+you."
+
+"I thought we agreed you were not like other women, and yet there is
+this stiff-necked obstinacy." He drew her nearer to him, and kissed her
+on the lips. "It is settled--you are to be my wife."
+
+His domination seemed to hypnotise her. "Yes, I will do my best to make
+you a perfect wife, dear," she murmured, as if bowing to his
+irresistible will.
+
+He held her hands tighter, and looked into her face as if proudly. She
+met his look with glistening eyes: she was deathly pale now, and her
+lips, too, were colourless. Then abruptly she drew her hands from him,
+and, as if impelled on some tide of womanhood that rose in high music
+above all hesitations, above the fluttering timidity of her whole life,
+she threw her arms round his neck, and kissed his lips with a long
+abandonment.
+
+"I am now almost afraid of your sister," she whispered presently. "I
+shall feel on my trial."
+
+"But she has fallen in love with you already," he reassured her again.
+"And Mary is the sweetest and gentlest soul in the world."
+
+"I know I shall love her," she said. Her head hung down a moment in
+meditation. "But let us continue the work now, dear. I know you wish to
+have it finished to-day."
+
+But he had little now to add to it, and he had made his last stroke
+before the dusk of the afternoon overtook him.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+Wyndham's career as an engaged man began amid a radiance of enthusiasm.
+When his prospective mother-in-law arrived for the tea-party, she was
+enchanted at the news, declaring, after the first joyous surprise, that
+it was the wish that lay nearest to the hearts of herself and her
+husband. And, presently, when Mary appeared, and was introduced not only
+to "the original of the portrait she had so admired," but also to "a
+very sweet Alice" who was to be her sister, "I guessed it," she broke
+out, kissing Miss Robinson impulsively. "I am so delighted."
+
+Heigh, presto! In a trice the three women were chatting away like a
+group of old neighbours! Wyndham became discreetly busy with tea-things.
+
+Of course the Robinsons insisted on Mary's dining with them, and so
+there was a happy little reunion in the evening. Mr. Robinson thrilled
+visibly with the honour of having Mary at his board, and he
+congratulated Wyndham with pathetic cordiality, his voice husky with
+emotion, his eyes streaming with tears.
+
+Such was the auspicious beginning. But the universe seemed to vibrate to
+white heat as a wider population entered into the jubilation. Mary was
+the first to spread the news, her letters reaching the Hertfordshire
+circle express. In the twinkling of an eye, as it appeared to Wyndham, a
+flood of letters poured through the slit in his door. He had done that
+which makes every man a hero for the moment, and dim figures with whom
+he had been out of touch for endless years started up again on the
+horizon, palpitatingly actual, athrob with goodwill. In the Bohemian
+world, too, confirmation of the former rumour was not slow to be noised
+abroad, and Sadler hastened to Hampstead and burst in upon him, the
+massive head enthusiastically aglow; declaring that he had never for a
+moment taken Wyndham's denial seriously, and roaring out his
+congratulations and envy with an exuberance of virile expletive.
+
+At Aunt Eleanor's the Christmas festivities were struck in a gayer key
+in his honour. Odes of welcome and triumph were in the air. And he was
+glad enough to be among his own world again; living in the way that
+meant civilisation to him, and breathing homage and consideration--
+lionised by his equals! It was as though the fatted calf had been killed
+for him, after his prodigal riot of penury. He expanded in this
+atmosphere of adulation, amid all these manifestations in honour of the
+brilliant artist and the Prince Charming who loved and was loved
+idyllically. His engagement seemed to him now most admirable--the
+world's sanction had invested it with warm and pleasant lights.
+Certainly nobody deprecated or criticised the projected alliance; though
+it was known to be with middle-class people who were not in Society, but
+merely quiet folk of wealth and respectability. Mary's enthusiasm had
+gone a long way in anticipating any possible caste objections, and the
+word of approval went round from one to another in the usual parrot-like
+way in which public opinion has formed itself since creation. There
+seemed in fact to be a very conspiracy of approbation. Wyndham had done
+wisely; and voices dropped impressively to dwell on the Robinson
+millions--with the obvious implication that that is what wealthy
+middle-class people are for--to have the most promising of their kind
+promoted into the upper classes.
+
+But the Robinson fortune, though not inconsiderable, was not the
+romantic one of rumour. Mr. Robinson had already performed his duty of
+writing to Wyndham on the financial aspect of the alliance, and in so
+charming a way that Wyndham had at once paid him the tribute of "jolly
+decent." Since they had not had the opportunity of disposing of the
+subject _viva voce_, had said the old man, he conceived it perhaps to be
+an obligation on his part to do so without delaying further; after
+which these matters would of course pass entirely into the realm of
+Wyndham's private affairs, where he was well content to leave them.
+Alice's fortune, such as it was, had been placed under her own control
+absolutely when she had attained the age of twenty-five, and probably
+now, with certain accumulations, amounted to some thirty thousand
+pounds. She was a wise and prudent child, well capable of controlling
+those money matters that were naturally distasteful to so gifted an
+artist, and in that way he would no doubt find her a most useful
+companion. However, he now left it to him and Alice to plan out their
+future together, and wished them all good luck. At the same time, if
+Wyndham had no objection, he would like to give them as a
+wedding-present any house they might fancy, and his wife desired to
+furnish it or give them a cheque for that purpose.
+
+Wyndham was in reality deeply moved by so much considerate kindness and
+rare delicacy. He wrote Mr. Robinson a charming note of acknowledgment;
+though he touched just briefly on the main theme, diverging into a
+chatty account of his visit, and letting his pen run on and on till he
+had covered several sheets.
+
+Each morning during his visit a letter from Alice awaited him on the
+breakfast-table. For a week or two the chant was timorous, uncertain; of
+a pitch to soothe his self-complacency, to stir no ruffle in his
+holiday mood. But towards the end of his time she found herself--she
+tuned up, and adventured. And then followed Wyndham's awakening; taking
+him with the force of cataclysm, and dashing him out of his drowsy mood
+of contentment. Evidently the poor child was not living in this world.
+If her feet touched earth, her head at any rate was in a heaven of its
+own. She poured herself out with a lyric fervour that was like the song
+of a lark for rapture. All the years of her life she had saved herself
+for this, not frittered her emotions away in flirtations or frivolous
+love-affairs--as the soberer Wyndham now reflected. Her ideals were as
+unsullied as in her childhood. Her spirit soared up with a tremulous
+eager joy--without doubts, without cynicism, with a simple sure faith in
+love's paradise. Reserved, shrinking away from men, her heart yet held
+rich store of treasure, and she poured all out at his feet. Timorousness
+had vanished; the soul that had woven its own music in solitude had been
+translated to a higher universe. There were no barriers now, nothing but
+this joyous, confident life into which her womanhood had passed at that
+moment when, swept onward by the flood, she had thrown her arms around
+him.
+
+"Dearest," she wrote, "my whole past life seems like a half-slumber from
+which I have awakened into a world almost too dazzling with light and
+joy. Yet who am I that this joy should have come to me? When I think of
+the years when I lived alone with my own thoughts, it seems wonderful
+that your love should have been granted to me. The world is full of pale
+ghosts that come and go, not knowing what life is, and it amuses me to
+wonder if any of them will ever turn into real people.
+
+"Oh, my dear love, you are so far, far off. I want you here, here again
+with me, happy that you love me, happy that I love you, wanting no other
+life than this with your arms round me and your heart beating close to
+me. And yet I like to think that you are happy amid your own family, in
+the place where your childhood was spent. I love, dear, to dwell on the
+thought of your childhood, and fancy I see you now, a beautiful child in
+velvet, with a feather in your hat and a toy sword. And I see myself a
+child again, playing with this fairy little prince in the meadows. How
+beautiful if we were children like that! Impossible does it seem? Yet is
+anything impossible in this enchanted world?
+
+"Think of me, dearest, with the deepest and truest love of your heart,
+as I am thinking of you every moment of this wonderful life."
+
+And another time: "It is strange to feel how everything is transformed
+since you came into my life and made me understand what this great
+happiness is. I laugh gaily at nothing; yet tears come into my eyes
+quickly at unhappiness or suffering. It seems as if I were born to love
+you with a yearning and a passion that sometimes frighten me, yet which
+I would rather die than live without. When I first loved you, I did not
+know that this would come, that I should not be able to imagine it to be
+otherwise. The thought is frightful; indeed, if anything were to happen
+to change the present, I think my heart would give one great, great
+throb, and all would be over. I draw my breath hard at the thought;
+there is a deep pain at my breast; my teeth are set. But how morbid I am
+to-day! how ungrateful for this splendid gift of your love that has been
+bestowed upon me! But somehow I feel frightened; I don't believe that
+anybody will be allowed to keep such happiness on this earth. So come to
+me quickly, dearest; you seem so far, far away from me. I kiss your dear
+letters, I wear them near my heart, at night they are under my pillow. I
+love you, I love you."
+
+And this heart-cry broke down all the strong fibre of the man. Poor
+Alice! He must take care of such a child; he must cherish her life and
+make it perfect! Not in the least detail must he fail in his duty. Never
+for a moment must she think that this was--he flinched now before the
+words--an engagement of convenience!
+
+An engagement of convenience! He slipped away to his room--away from the
+rest of the world!--and sat staring into the dusk. He knew now that he
+was face to face with the actuality that lay before him in all its
+horror. An engagement of convenience! He would have given the world to
+recall it. His eyes saw clear again--the enthusiasm that swirled and
+whirled around him had thus far sustained him: vibrations of romance had
+arisen within him, had resounded with a certain music. But these letters
+of Alice, this crescendo series, each soaring beyond the other, had
+illumined the horrible poverty of his own emotion. The freshness of her
+note was a revelation and yet an agony to him. If only he could have
+piped with half the thrill!
+
+He could see at last that in his specious reasonings he had somehow
+assumed a largely passive attitude on her part. Indeed, egotistically
+preoccupied with his own side of the case, he had scarcely bestowed a
+thought on hers. This reality--immense--overpowering--of the romance in
+her heart terrified him. He had given her empty words, and she had given
+him--love! And what else, indeed, but empty words had he to offer her
+now?--had he to offer her in the whole long vista of their future? At
+the best a studied kindness, an acceptance of duty. He had entered on a
+rôle of mockery, and he knew now he was utterly unfitted to play it. His
+whole nature rose and cried aloud in revolt.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+At the beginning of the New Year Wyndham hastened back to town, and was
+soon at his post striving to adapt himself to the outlook of his life.
+He had tried to steel himself to confess the miserable truth to Alice,
+to lay it before her with a fidelity as unswerving as Nature, merciless
+both to him and to her. But her letters continued to shake him, and he
+had not the strength to face the inevitable wreckage. To break was to
+punish her: to continue was only to punish himself. His course was
+obvious: he must play the game _à outrance_. Yet he sought temporarily
+to escape the actuality by immersing himself desperately in routine.
+
+So, for the present, his days were mapped out simply enough. He was up
+early, for the winter hours of light were precious. Braced for a great
+effort, he found himself drawing on unexpected stores of vitality; he
+flung himself on his masterpiece like a Viking into the mêlée of battle,
+and had the reward of splendid conquest. This sense of power, this
+subjugation of his material, made his old foiled strivings and strivings
+incomprehensible, incredible!
+
+Meanwhile the domesticity of the house at the corner invaded his studio,
+and surrounded him with comforts and attentions that but threw up the
+more vividly the issues he sought to preclude. But he kept stifling down
+his rebellion; struggling to accept the position unreservedly, though
+sick with the sense of hypocrisy. He laughingly surrendered to Alice a
+duplicate key of the studio in token of their good-fellowship, and she
+and her mother devoted themselves to the loving task of smoothing his
+path, letting no point that might ruffle his inspiration elude their
+vigilance. Their whole life and activities seemed to converge to the
+studio. Mrs. Robinson kept discreetly in the background, though her
+brain planned and her tongue discussed, and she often went joyfully
+a-purchasing. Shortly before one o'clock Alice would march across,
+attended by a servant carrying his lunch, of temptations compact,
+imprisoned in shining caskets; and by the time Wyndham was ready to sit
+down, his table would be nicely set out, and the temptations spread to
+his view.
+
+Many precious minutes were thus saved for him, and his train of ideas
+was luxuriously unbroken. This tact and thoughtfulness was
+characteristic of all the devotion that was cherished on him. Wyndham
+deeply appreciated its quality, and despite the pressure--with
+sending-in day looming barely three months ahead--gratitude no less than
+conscience drove him to acknowledgement, to contrive that the artist
+should not entirely swallow up Miss Robinson's future husband; though
+her expectations were considerately of the slightest. Thus his negative
+policy was answering effectively. With the passage of the days, he found
+himself sliding into a lethargy of acquiescence in the position. The
+mere physical fatigues of his labours dulled the unrest within him, and
+his brain fermented incessantly with the problems of masses and values
+which his great canvas still pressed upon him. He was glad he found it
+possible at last to be accepting all outer things so calmly. He told
+himself repeatedly: "Your revolt is over. You have decided there can be
+no break. So be as decent and affectionate as you can."
+
+Thus his attentions seemed to her gallant and charming, to hold their
+touch of poetry. Flowers and bonbons, a book of verses or a novel were
+frequent tributes: after his work was done they went into town
+occasionally to a concert or a theatre, and if his conversation was of
+the theme with which his mind was most saturated, she did not regard
+that as otherwise than a compliment.
+
+And so these winter days sped, and January was running its course. And
+out of this not unsuccessful routine there came to him the sense that
+his life was very full and singularly complete. Of perturbation or
+unforeseen excitement there was never a thrill. The only moment that
+held a flutter for him was when Mr. Shanner descended on the Robinsons,
+grey, decorous, and austere; congratulated the pair with an ashen smile,
+in the honeyed accents that had charmed so many diplomatists; and
+bestowed solemn formal attentions on the engaged lady throughout the
+evening.
+
+The whole plot of his drama had in verity been revealed, was Wyndham's
+frequent reflection; and with that final comedy-scene the curtain had
+seemed to fall, and he knew all that there was to know.
+
+But his own wretched money affairs were soon to give him food for
+pondering. Alice's portrait had gone home in a splendid frame to find a
+temporary resting-place before being tossed to the Academy; and Mr.
+Robinson, though seeing him face to face almost daily, delicately sent
+his cheque by post. Wyndham grasped it with relief: but it proved merely
+the illumination that accentuated the darkness. For overdue rent and
+many other calls made it melt away with terrifying swiftness; and
+Wyndham had indebted himself to the family jeweller for presents to Miss
+Robinson. Impecuniosity approached him again with no vague menace;
+kicked him brutally out of his ostrich-like attitude. Nevertheless he
+shrank in terror from the definite thought of pressing forward the
+marriage; though, in the clear light of these latter self-communings,
+money was the sole reason why he had sought it. Not only did he fear
+that life of simulation with a sickness immeasurable: but he foresaw
+endless money humiliations at the very outset.
+
+He would fulfil his promise honourably, whatever the spiritual cost of
+it! But he could not face money humiliations in the eyes of his
+inferiors! A thousand times "no"! He must trust, despite all, to his own
+strength and performance!--he would do brilliantly with his pictures in
+the spring!--he would follow up the success and conquer London! He waved
+aside all his past disasters: he saw his good star in the ascendant,
+shining--he fixed his eyes on it fanatically. It was an irony of ironies
+that, after his great surrender, his pride should still flame up
+unconquered. Before the moral tragedy of love yoked to mockery, he might
+bow his head in resignation; but Miss Robinson's fortune loomed up as a
+ridiculous and contemptible complication in a situation already nigh
+impossible.
+
+The metaphor of the vulture was often back in his mind now! The heap of
+carrion!--he had stooped for the sake of it, and it was now even more
+loathsome than his former morbid perception of it. His poverty seemed
+suddenly unbearable. In the past he had endured it. Now, for the first
+time, he was ashamed of it.
+
+So he spoke to the Robinsons of a six months' engagement or
+thereabouts--which, to their ideas, was reputable and in order; and then
+felt he had time before him to fling down the gauntlet to fortune again.
+
+But in estimating his resources he had counted without his new allies.
+Alice whispered into her father's ears her conviction that he might
+easily influence commissions for her _fiancé_; and, after thinking about
+it, Mr. Robinson felt he would like to have a try.
+
+A rich, powerful Insurance Corporation had voted a portrait of its
+retiring president for the adornment of its board-room. Mr. Robinson set
+to work astutely, and the commission came to Wyndham. Item, three
+hundred guineas. But, before this new portrait had progressed very far,
+Wyndham had fascinated his subject--a tall, white-bearded merchant
+prince who sat to him with mysterious insignia, and resplendent chains
+and emblems. "A marvellous young fellow," he confided to Mr. Robinson.
+"I must really congratulate you on him--it's a treat to be in his
+society. And gifted! That great picture of Hyde Park Corner is worthy of
+Raphael." And for the pleasure of his company, and out of admiration for
+his talent, this bluff, good-natured president had at once arranged for
+paintings of himself and his wife for his own dining-room.
+
+He generously and spontaneously made the fee seven hundred guineas.
+"There are two of us this time, and why should I get off cheaper than
+the Insurance Company?" he asked genially; in a spirit rare enough in
+the twentieth century, but nothing out of the way in the days of the
+grand patrons. "Besides, you're worth it," he roared out bluffly. "And
+the privilege of going down to posterity in your society can hardly be
+appraised at all."
+
+Wyndham relished the compliment, though wincing inwardly at the thought
+that the wind that blew him good came always from the same quarter: yet
+in view of other important sitters he began to think of a more
+accessible studio.
+
+"Why not a house with the studio?" suggested the Robinsons. "You could
+move in now, and furnish the rooms at your leisure, so as to have them
+ready for the marriage."
+
+Wyndham fell in with the idea. He thought the locality had better be
+Chelsea, somewhere near the Embankment; a long distance from Hampstead,
+it was true, but an ideal situation for an artist. Somehow the sense of
+the distance, as he lingered on it, was not unacceptable. Alice
+flinched. "We could still look after you," she murmured bravely.
+
+"Besides, I could easily cut to and fro in a hansom," put in Wyndham.
+
+So off the old pair started at once on the quest, drawing some renewal
+of zestful youth from its absorbing interest. One day they reported a
+stroke of fortune; they had come upon the ideal thing. The rent was not
+impossible, and the tenant could have the option of purchasing the
+freehold. The next evening they took Wyndham to see it--a charming
+artist's house in Tite Street, with a broad frontage and a luxurious and
+unconventional interior. On the entrance floor--an unusual hall and
+three fine rooms. Above--a great studio and another excellent room.
+Below were the domestic regions with many household refinements, and
+bedrooms for the servants. Wyndham and Alice were enchanted.
+
+Mr. Robinson was anxious to purchase this property outright as his
+promised wedding-gift; but Wyndham, again shrinking inwardly,
+diplomatically deferred the project. So the lease was signed, and the
+removal at once effected. Wyndham's belongings were swiftly installed on
+the upper floor of the house, at the loss of only a single day to him;
+and, leaving him to his labours, the others, in the enjoyment of their
+unlimited leisure, saw that the hall and stairway were made presentable
+for callers.
+
+But at this point Wyndham came to a dead stop with his labour-canvas, to
+which he had of late devoted his mornings entirely, keeping the
+afternoons for his sitters. He saw that it was imperative he should now
+make some fresh sketches on the spot. But to regain his exact vision he
+must have access to the old window in Grosvenor Place. Yet the very
+thought of the house and the memory of those former visits had a
+strange shattering effect on him. And some warning voice rose sternly,
+bade him not renew these old associations.
+
+He reasoned the matter out, and hesitation seemed absurd. For the sake
+of his picture, it was essential he should occupy a certain point of
+view. Though he had let the acquaintanceship lapse entirely ever since
+Lady Betty's marriage, access to that point of view was no doubt a
+simple matter. A mere letter of request, and the old earl would readily
+give his permission. This time he would probably come and go without
+seeing anybody at all.
+
+Wyndham sat down to write the letter, the interest of the composition
+ousting for the time his irrational misgivings. He recalled himself to
+the earl's recollection, explained that the picture for which he had
+made the former sketches had unavoidably been put aside; but now that he
+was at last able to take it up again he desired to make some fresh
+sketches, and begged the use of his old post of vantage for a few
+mornings. He concluded with the hope that the earl was in the best of
+health, and sent his respects and remembrances to his daughter, should
+the earl be seeing her just then.
+
+It was the merest courtesy on his part to show he had not forgotten Lady
+Betty! After all, their lives were so entirely alien now!
+
+He addressed and stamped the letter; then his strong instinct against
+the whole proceeding reasserted itself. He rose and paced about. The
+warning voice said, "Keep away from Grosvenor Place. No good will come
+of it." "But it's absurd," he said aloud. "The thing's an absolute
+necessity--I can't throw over the picture at this stage. My whole
+artistic future depends upon it. What harm can possibly arise from my
+going there? Lady Betty? Why, she's a matron by now! And probably not
+even in England. And if she were, what is she to me now? And at any rate
+I am certainly nothing to her. If I stumbled up against her the very
+first morning I went there, we should still be far as the poles asunder.
+She was certainly a wonderful girl, and I of course fell headlong in
+love with her. Put any impressionable fellow with poetic ideals in the
+way of a lovely, clever girl and I suppose he's bound to feel cut up
+when somebody else marries her. But it's all as dead as King John now.
+I'll go there and do my work and wind up with a letter of thanks."
+
+He put on his hat and coat, and took up the letter. "Don't go there,"
+repeated the voice. "No good will come of it."
+
+"Rubbish!" he said. "I can't chuck up the picture. It's all right."
+
+He went downstairs and out into Tite Street, a little confused by all
+this current of doubt and reasoning, and by no means absolutely sure of
+himself. But, annoyed at realising this, he began to go forward
+sturdily, and flung the letter into the first pillar-box he
+encountered.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+As Wyndham read the reply to his letter, it seemed as if the kind, bluff
+voice of the old earl were itself speaking. "A few mornings! Come along
+and make your nice little sketches for the next half-century. We have
+often thought of you, and wondered what you were up to. I think we may
+say with truth that we've missed you. This is a dull house now, and I
+suppose I'm getting old and dull myself. At any rate I've many a twinge
+in the joints, and am inclined to shut myself up in my library, though
+I'm never much of a reader." Then there was a PS. "Somebody or other
+tells me that you are contemplating matrimony. Well, you're a brave
+young fellow, and I like you for it. I congratulate you, and wish you
+luck."
+
+As the next morning turned out fairly clear, Wyndham took his materials
+with him into a hansom, and rang the bell at Grosvenor Place at about
+ten o'clock. Not only had he decided that his misgivings were entirely
+morbid, but as a matter of course he had been quite open with the
+Robinsons about the arrangement. He had indeed explained to Alice some
+considerable time ago that he should in all likelihood find it necessary
+to make these fresh sketches on the very scene of the picture. It did
+not seem anything out of the way to her; she regarded it as a pure
+matter of work. It was sufficient that she understood his disappearance
+from the studio in the midst of these busy times. And as he had made it
+a point that she should possess a key of the new house just as she had
+had one of the old studio, she and her mother could come and go as they
+pleased in his absence, and proceed with their engrossing business of
+embellishing his hall and stairway.
+
+But as he set foot in the house at Grosvenor Place after this long
+interval of years, Wyndham could not maintain his reasoned conviction of
+the simplicity and insignificance of the occasion.
+
+He had the very real thrill of embarking on some extraordinary
+adventure; even of stepping outside his own existence--that theatre
+where he had been the spectator of his own fate, whose curtain--fire-proof
+--had already fallen on a played-out drama. But here was a strange
+theatre, with a curtain to rise, fascinating with promise of other drama
+to be revealed; yet the stillness and the dim light cast some spell of
+awe upon him.
+
+A hand seemed to clutch at him and pull him back out of the house at the
+last moment. He was penetrating here against the warning of his deeper
+self; his heart beat fast not merely with the consciousness of
+imprudence, but of downright disloyalty to the settled destiny before
+which he had bowed his head so profoundly. The warning voice, too, was
+stern; but the sense of daring, of courting and facing some unknown
+delicious danger, lured him forward.
+
+His lordship had already gone across to his club, the butler informed
+him; but he had half-expected Wyndham and had left orders in case he
+should present himself. As he followed the man up to the room he had
+used of old, he felt, despite the lofty well of the staircase, that the
+air hung heavy in the great house, muffled and silent with gigantic
+hangings, and thick carpets underfoot. Wyndham stood at the well-known
+window a leisurely moment, then arranged a chair or two, and unpacked
+his materials. The butler helped him to open the casement at the side of
+the bay and to rearrange the curtain, then asked if there was anything
+more he could do for him.
+
+"Oh, would you get my hat again?" returned Wyndham, as a current of
+wintry air flowed in. He laughed; having forgotten he could not work
+uncovered.
+
+When finally the man had complied with his request, and left him again,
+Wyndham looked out on the scene before him, his eye lingering for a
+moment on the royal gardens, then trying to catch the exact view he had
+painted. But as yet his mind was in too great a turmoil to concentrate
+itself sternly on the business in hand. "I shall be acclimatised in a
+minute or two," he reassured himself. "The atmosphere of this house is
+so oppressive--it upset me the first moment." He stood gratefully
+inhaling the fresher draught that streamed against his face; and when he
+had calmed down he took a turn or two about the room, observing it with
+interest. He had scarcely received any impression of it yet, but now he
+perceived that it was greatly changed in some respects. A new fireplace,
+and a mantel of a dainty cabinet-like design, replaced the former
+streaked framework of marble that had enshrined a great rococo grate.
+The double leaf door that led to some adjoining room had had its hanging
+stripped away, and the beauty of panelling showed naked and unashamed.
+The former carpet had gone; there were now soft Eastern rugs on the
+floor lying closely side by side, and covering it entirely. But though
+the Chippendale bookcases and the rest of the furniture had been left
+untouched, there was somehow a more intimate personal note about the
+room; accentuated perhaps by the trifles and photographs clustered
+about the mantelshelf. And then Wyndham came to an abrupt stop as if
+some sheet of flame had flashed by and seared him. There in the centre
+of the mantel, next to a tiny clock shaped like a Gothic arch, stood the
+silver easel bearing the framed photograph of his old Academy
+picture--his wedding present to Lady Betty!
+
+Why was it here in this house? he asked himself, trembling. Had she left
+it behind because she esteemed it so lightly? Or was there perhaps some
+special significance in the fact; something his thought groped for
+wildly and blindly as if in panic?
+
+He staggered back to the window, astonished to find how overcome he had
+been. The air revived him, and then a new and sterner spirit came upon
+him. Was he going to waste his whole morning by yielding himself to
+these idle and futile emotions? Resolutely he prepared his palette, and
+bent his mind by force to his task. He was pleased presently to find how
+exactly his eye recovered his scene; he felt he could almost lay the one
+he had painted over this one, and that it would fit like a transfer.
+Slowly and carefully he let the view sink into him, estimating the
+tones, the masses, the spaces; peopling it in his mind with all the
+figures and accessories that went to build up his great symbolic
+representation. Then he set one of the smaller canvasses on his knee,
+and started his note-making. Soon he was absorbed in the work, glad
+that he had forced himself to begin, and that the little wheels of his
+mind were turning so smoothly.
+
+At eleven the butler appeared with wine and sandwiches, moved a little
+table over near Wyndham, and set down the tray within reach of his hand.
+Wyndham was glad of this refreshment; he had been in too uncertain a
+mood to do more than gulp down his coffee at breakfast, and the raw air
+had roused a craving for some sort of sustenance--a desire for
+stimulation rather than a keen hunger. He swallowed a glass of the wine,
+then began to nibble a sandwich slowly; but his mind was still in his
+work. He half-knew that the great folding door at the bottom of the room
+had opened, that somebody had entered. But it was as in a dream, and he
+did not look up. He considered his results, then poured more wine, and
+was in the act of raising it to his lips. God! what was this gracious,
+willowy figure, with the wonderful sheen on the fresh hair, and the
+girlish rounded cheeks! She was smiling at him, her eyes strangely
+alight under their long, soft lashes, her lips half parted; she was
+advancing towards him with outstretched hand. He put back the glass on
+the table and rose hastily, holding his sketch suspended from one hand;
+but his wits left him and he stared as at a ghost.
+
+"Lady Betty!" he stammered.
+
+"I am not an apparition," she reassured him; "but only a simple
+flesh-and-blood creature. Won't you put down your picture?" She smiled
+again at his embarrassment.
+
+He laughed, and stood the sketch on a chair.
+
+"Your presence certainly startled me," he confessed. "I had an idea you
+were thousands of miles away." They took hands--a good, comrade-like
+clasp. "Fortunately the idea was erroneous."
+
+"Fortunately," she echoed, laughingly capping his gallantry.
+
+"Oh, but how stupid I am! Forgive me!" He almost swept the hat from his
+head. "You see how I was scared; how ill prepared to cope with
+apparitions."
+
+She laughed again. "You are to keep your hat on," she commanded. "My
+presence is easily accounted for; out of sheer restlessness of spirit I
+thought I should like to try London again--I had shunned it like the
+plague for ever so long. As all the nice little hotels were full, I
+descended on my father here, and practically appropriated this room."
+
+"I fear I'm an intruder," he stammered.
+
+"You had my permission; it was obtained in due form. Only I insisted my
+name was to be held back. I wanted to play the apparition, and my father
+entered into the whim of the thing. It seems like old times again."
+
+Wyndham tried to transport himself back along the years. "I wonder
+whether there's anything better in life than to repeat the best moments
+of the past," he said pensively; "that is, if we can catch them with all
+the original magic in them." He saw her head drop a little; her
+expression was full of musing, half-sad and tender. Then he remembered
+that things had indeed changed since those old days, that Lady Betty had
+a husband! It was strange, but the apparition, besides the rest of the
+mischief, had momentarily driven the fact from the store of his
+knowledge. He had had absolutely the delusion that this was the
+brilliant Lady Betty, still unwed, to whom no suitor might aspire save
+with yachts and palaces.
+
+"I have been calling you Lady Betty!" he exclaimed. "The delusion of old
+times was very strong."
+
+"Please to keep on with the Lady Betty--I come back to it so easily. It
+quite pleased me when it slipped from your lips. You have stepped out of
+the long ago; I step back to meet you. You must still think of me as
+Lady Betty."
+
+"And Lord Lakeden?" he murmured, though he felt the inquiry was rather a
+belated courtesy.
+
+She stared at him, her cheeks white, her eyes growing unnaturally large.
+
+"Your husband--I hope he is well," he explained, bewildered by this new
+expression that seemed to hold mingled amazement and horror.
+
+"My husband!" She laughed--a weird peal that filled him with a fear as
+of blinding flashes to come. "Did you not know? I thought the whole
+world knew. I have no husband!"
+
+He looked at her. "I don't understand," he stammered.
+
+"I really believe you don't," she said, her face still blanched. "My
+married life was a short one. Lord Lakeden met with an accident on the
+Alps--the summer before last. He went out without a guide. The details
+were in all the papers. It was one of the sensations of the silly
+season." Again a nervous laugh, but more than ever it was full of
+unnatural echoes.
+
+Instinctively Wyndham took off his hat again, and stood with his head
+bowed. "I am sorry. My condolences are late, but they are sincere."
+
+"I somehow expected you would write to me at the time. Hosts and hosts
+wrote to me--till my head went dizzy; but never a word from you." She
+was speaking with greater command of herself now, but he felt in her
+words a world of reproach.
+
+"I was living as a hermit at the time. I saw nobody for--shall I say it
+seemed to me a lifetime--save the poor old woman who came to turn out my
+studio once in every three months perhaps."
+
+"Ah, you were unhappy!" Her face softened, telling of a swift,
+spontaneous sympathy.
+
+"I was nigh starving. I never saw a newspaper unless by chance; my
+pennies were too precious."
+
+"My poor friend!" Her eyes gleamed as if tears were about to come.
+
+"I played the game up to a certain point with all my strength, but
+everything went against me from every quarter. I know there are men that
+would have risen triumphant above all these evils and difficulties. But
+I was not one of those men. I was beaten--smashed--utterly and
+hopelessly. I had not the smallest reserve of power to carry on the
+fight. I lived cut off from the world like a man in a tomb. I am ashamed
+to think that I kept myself alive----"
+
+"No, no," she interrupted, shivering. "I can't bear it."
+
+"I am ashamed that I did not die," he persisted. "It is the truth. It is
+the first time I say it either to myself or to another. In order to live
+I stepped below myself."
+
+She covered her face with her hands. "I know you are misjudging. You are
+harsh with yourself. I hold to my faith in you."
+
+"I lived on the earnings of my sister, who stinted herself in food and
+went shabbily clad that she might foster my work. Yet, for terrible
+months and months, I deceived her. I did no work. My will was dead. As a
+man I seemed to collapse physically and morally."
+
+"You were not responsible. There is a limit to human endurance. You
+needed a delicious rest in some blue sunny place, in one of those
+earthly paradises where the orange-trees are golden in the sun. Your
+sister's love consecrated her sacrifice. She saved you for a great
+future. Her reward is yet to come."
+
+"You see everything in so sweet a light; I can only hope that the issue
+will be as you say. It is on my future work that I have staked the
+redemption of my manhood in my own eyes. My work! That is where my real
+heart lies. Outside of that my life will be a mere appearance."
+
+"But you have somebody else in your life now," she broke in, pale as
+death. "We heard a rumour that you were about to marry. Is it not true?"
+
+He gasped at the bitter reminder. He hung his head. "It is true," he
+breathed.
+
+"Then you have given your affections: you are happy?"
+
+He wavered for a deep instant, the whilst her eyes rested on him
+gravely. "I have given my affections--I am happy." To himself he added:
+"I must be loyal to Alice, if indeed I have not gone too far already.
+But Lady Betty has made me see the truth. I understand now what I felt
+only obscurely--I bartered my life to the Robinsons, kind as they are,
+that I might repair the hurt and wrong to Mary."
+
+"I congratulate you from my heart." She held out her hand again with a
+wan smile. He took it limply; feeling he held it on false pretences,
+that the sudden check he had put on his impulsive outpouring had raised
+a barrier between them.
+
+"But forgive me for my stupid egotism. Here am I, a great strapping
+fellow, pitying myself because of a very ordinary sort of dismal
+failure; more than commonplace by the side of the great sorrow that came
+to you."
+
+"Great sorrow!" Again that wild peal of laughter. "It was a great joy,
+the greatest joy I have ever known. When they brought me the news, I
+went out into the garden of our chalet, and, sure that no eyes were upon
+me, I danced on the green in the sunlight--with the blood pulsing so
+deliciously through my veins. I was free--I was free! The world seemed
+so beautiful! the sky and the mountains so exquisite! Life was such a
+gift! I was free--free!"
+
+She stood up straight, all her muscles tense, her limbs quivering. The
+pallor had gone; her face glowed with an exultation that was almost of
+triumph. He stood spellbound at her revelation, unable to find a word.
+
+"Ah, you don't understand what it is to be free again! Degradation! I
+tasted it to its depths. Yours was no degradation! You know nothing of
+it. I was tied to a brute--no, the brutes are decent and lovable. He was
+lower--he was lower."
+
+Her voice broke in a sob, though no tears came. Wyndham was still
+silent; he would not seek to penetrate her last reserve. "Don't think me
+too horrible," she pleaded. "You are the only living being to whom I
+have bared my soul. You were the one to whom my mind flew as my
+friend--I have waited for this moment. You must not set me down as a
+monster."
+
+"A monster!" he exclaimed. He was thrown off his irksome guard, and the
+instant was fatal! "Oh, no, no! I shall always hold you for what you
+are, for what you have always been to me--a rare princess!"
+
+"I have always been to you--" she echoed, then broke off, her bosom
+heaving, her eyes flashing out with the full comprehension of his almost
+unwitting avowal. Then she went pale to the lips again. "You never
+spoke," she breathed, "and I did not guess."
+
+He realised, half in a daze, that his secret had escaped him; yet--with
+swift change of mood--he was recklessly glad that she understood at
+last: even as, standing before her, he, too, understood at last--reading
+her distress, treasuring her implied reproach for its clear
+significance, though it put him on his defence.
+
+"I was not even on the footing of a guest in this house. The very bread
+that kept me alive was not my own. It is the law of the world."
+
+"You were wrong. There is no law."
+
+"There is the law of pride," he argued. "We men do not stoop to
+happiness, we stoop only to degradation.... And then I feared to break
+the spell," he went on, seeking a lighter strain. "The wonderful
+princess would disappear, and I should be left rubbing my eyes."
+
+"But it was you who disappeared. The princess thought you shunned her,
+and she was left--to weep--"
+
+He hung his head like a broken reed. He had no longer anything to hide;
+he had already sufficiently disclosed to her that his marriage was to be
+a loveless one. She would understand and respect his first desire to
+keep his true relation to Alice sacred from her gaze. But Lady Betty's
+revelation of tragic experience had swept him off his feet. He had
+responded to her great emotion; had confessed his allegiance to her
+through all and despite all. His life seemed linked to hers with a
+mystic, enduring passion. And yet were they not hopelessly sundered?
+
+"'Men must work and women must weep,'" she quoted. "Ah, well! we never
+can win our ideals; life is always a compromise. Perhaps it's a blessing
+to see our clear obligations."
+
+"Yes--if one has the strength to turn one's eyes aside from the dreams;
+but saddening otherwise."
+
+"Saddening otherwise," she echoed pensively. "But I thank you that I am
+still the wonderful princess, even after my terrible confession."
+
+He took a step forward, and seized her hand impulsively.
+
+"Never believe otherwise, no matter what you may hear of me. Whether
+this be the last time I see you or not, whether I fail and be broken
+again, my last breath shall proclaim my allegiance to--the wonderful
+princess! Listen, the woman I am marrying is more than goodness itself.
+I cannot pretend to match her; my manhood falls below her womanhood. But
+into the inner chamber of my life she can never enter. Out of loyalty to
+her I gave you to understand that I had given my affections. That is
+true, but not in the sense I led you to believe. There is no reason why
+I should not be open now; it would be a poor compliment to you after all
+this mutual confidence if I could not bare to you the absolute truth.
+And the absolute truth is--I have sold myself for safety, for the sake
+of my art, and for the sake of my sister. It would be unendurable were
+there not the mitigation of the esteem I have for the woman I am
+marrying, and for the many qualities of kindness and goodness in that
+whole household. But she is not my true mate. Unlimited as is her virtue
+in a hundred ways, she herself is yet limited. My work must find
+inspiration entirely apart from her. May I think of you, princess, as my
+inspiration?"
+
+"She is a good woman. You must be loyal to her."
+
+"It would be no disloyalty; I should be cherishing the ideal."
+
+She was smiling and radiant again. "I can scarcely stop you--I see it
+would certainly be rash to try. Well, goodbye now; I have a thousand
+little neglected things crying to me. And your moments, too, are
+precious. You will be here again one of these mornings?"
+
+"To-morrow," he said. "For the present, we may be friends?"
+
+"Till the tide sweeps us apart."
+
+"The cruel tide!" he murmured. "But you will always be the wonderful
+princess," he insisted again.
+
+"I shall try to be worthy of the title."
+
+She gave him a charming curtsey, flitted away down the room, threw him
+yet a smile, and disappeared behind the panelled door through which she
+had come.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+For some time Wyndham stood with his head still bowed as Lady Betty's
+voice lingered in his ear. Her figure was still there before him, her
+lovely girl's face radiant with the smile with which she had vanished,
+her slender form in all its upright grace; a nymph of whom Botticelli
+had caught a glimpse on a spring morn when the world was rediscovering
+beauty.
+
+He tried to recall the scene that had just been enacted, and dizzily
+held it all in a flash. He and Lady Betty were in love with each other!
+The fact that he had always cherished the thought of her held a deeper
+significance than he had known! Throughout all his sufferings--throughout
+all her sufferings--an ideal friendship for each other had subsisted in
+their minds. He had supposed her as indifferent as she was unattainable;
+that his love was one of those secret, mocking dramas that sometimes
+play themselves out in the souls of men and women. Yet it was to him
+that her deepest thought had turned! She had enshrined him in her
+heart! And he lying the whilst in darkness and misery!
+
+It was precious now--this new sweetness that had come to him. Sweetness!
+His thought broke off at the word. Rather was it a bitter irony! Lady
+Betty and he had been cheated by life. Could he be even sure his eyes
+would behold her again? Was she not the soul of honour and rectitude!
+For a deep instant they had been swept towards each other; but at once
+her attitude towards his marriage had been clear and pronounced, and she
+might even now be bitterly regretting their meeting.
+
+He sat down at last, and took up his work again; but his mind was
+utterly unfitted for concentration on any task. Better to get back again
+to his own studio, he told himself. So he stowed away his materials in a
+corner, and presently slipped downstairs; telling the butler, whom he
+met in the hall, that he would be there again at ten the following day.
+
+At Tite Street men were tacking down a thick green length of Turkey
+carpet on his staircase, and Alice was superintending the operation.
+Here was his comfortable future in active preparation! And already he
+felt the atmosphere swallowing him up, claiming him body and soul.
+
+He stayed a moment on the landing, affecting an interest in the
+proceedings. When he turned into the studio Alice came after him.
+
+"You hardly seem well, dear," she said, observing him anxiously.
+
+"You surprise me," he returned. "I am not conscious of any aches or
+pains," he added, with an implication of gaiety.
+
+She did not seem convinced. "This malarial air must have affected you,"
+she insisted.
+
+"I don't say I find it pleasant." He seized the poker, as if glad to
+make a diversion, and stirred the fire energetically. "I'm a little bit
+disgusted, too; the day wasn't as clear as I hoped--there was a good
+deal of mist about."
+
+"Better luck to-morrow!" she said.
+
+He struck hard at a knob of coal, making a dreadful clatter. "I hope so,
+indeed," he answered, thinking it curious that Alice should now be
+expecting him to go to Grosvenor Place as a matter of course. "At any
+rate," he added, as it struck him Alice might reasonably be hoping for
+some account of his morning's visit, "they were kind to me--just as of
+old. Lady Lakeden sent me refreshments, and afterwards came herself to
+see how things were progressing."
+
+"I suppose Lady Lakeden is a sister of the earl," she conjectured.
+
+"No, his daughter--a mere girl," he explained, with the flicker of a
+laugh. "It was a great surprise. It is only a few years back that I was
+asked to her wedding. After that, I got out of touch with them, and I
+did not know she had lost her husband very soon after the marriage. He
+met with an accident on the Alps."
+
+Alice was blanched. "How terrible!" she whispered.
+
+There was a silence. Wyndham held his hands to the flame he had been at
+such pains to create. He hoped he had satisfied her interest
+sufficiently; for, of course, the whole scene between himself and Lady
+Betty must be kept from her inviolate. Was it not for Alice's own sake
+and happiness?
+
+"It makes me afraid!" said Alice, breaking the silence. "Perhaps nobody
+is allowed to keep too great a happiness."
+
+He winced. "She was always kind to me," he said, evading the train of
+her reflection. "I spent many hours at my post in those ancient times,
+and there were always unobtrusive attentions that made my work the
+easier."
+
+"I should like to know and love her," said Alice pensively.
+
+Wyndham was silent. Her words startled and embarrassed him, since he had
+been taking it for granted that she and Lady Betty would never come into
+contact. Besides, in a way, Alice had given utterance to more of a
+thought than a wish, so that a response hardly seemed necessary. They
+lunched together, and Alice went off soon after, leaving him to receive
+his sitters--the president and his wife, who were both to arrive that
+afternoon.
+
+"Of course, you won't expect me at Hampstead," he reminded her. "You
+remember I put my name down for a club dinner to-night."
+
+"Of course I remember," she said. "But I shall write you a letter
+instead. Please look for it when you come home to-night."
+
+But Wyndham did not dine at the club after all; at the last moment he
+decided to spend the evening alone at his studio. It seemed a long time
+since he had had a few quiet hours all to himself. Moreover, it was
+strangely a boon to hear no other voices for once, and he lay back
+pleasantly in his chair, though conscious of an uncommon degree of
+weariness. And, in the calm and solitude of the studio, intensified by
+the echoing of his occasional movements through the empty rooms beneath
+him, the Robinsons seemed indeed a long way off up at Hampstead there,
+and for the first time it seemed a positive bondage to him, this
+constant duty of journeying across town to dine with them.
+
+The nine o'clock post brought the promised letter from Alice, but from
+amid the little heap in the box he picked out another eagerly. The
+writing was Lady Betty's. He had never seen very much of it in the old
+days, yet he recognised it at once.
+
+He remembered just then a shrewd dictum of Schopenhauer--that, if we
+wished to learn our real attitude towards any person, we should watch
+and estimate our exact emotion at catching sight of the well-known
+handwriting on a letter we are just receiving. He certainly could not
+help observing the contrasting emotions with which he welcomed these two
+letters. Alice's, at his first glimpse of it, had given him a deepened
+sense of the irrevocable. Yet there went with this a kind, affectionate
+thought in which was a world of appreciation. But he knew pretty nearly
+what the letter would contain; it could well be read at leisure.
+
+He tore open Lady Betty's at once, and read it feverishly as he stood
+there in the hall. "MY DEAR FRIEND," it ran--"My father was so
+disappointed when he got home at hearing that you had been, and had
+already flown. He suggests that you should stay to-morrow and join us at
+luncheon, and he asks me to bend your mind well in advance to the
+contemplation of such an ordeal--as he seriously considers it. The
+present cook doesn't meet with his approval, but be reassured! It was
+only a new sauce sent up one day with pride; but that unfortunate sauce
+has since flavoured everything. My father has naturally imagination; at
+his age he has prejudices. Could even a Vatel face the combination?
+
+"And now that I have performed my filial duty, I will add a few lines
+for my own pleasure. I humbly proffer a request. An idea has come to me
+that seems most charming--before we part again! Since you are working
+here, won't you make a small sketch of me?--a tiny, typical thing, hit
+off all in a dash--and give it to me as a souvenir of your work? Nothing
+that would steal much of your time. I understand that every moment is
+precious just now, with the exhibitions so near, and I wish you not to
+do it if you are very pressed. In return I shall have a souvenir to give
+you--a strange, strange thought of mine. Please feel very curious about
+what it is to be, for you are certainly not going to be told till the
+time comes. _Au revoir._ Your friend, BETTY."
+
+Wyndham mounted the stairs again slowly, and in the studio he re-read
+these precious lines, lingering on each individual word, and setting a
+marvellous price on it. He was happy yet terrified at this flash from
+fairyland into his strenuous existence.
+
+But her words, "before we part again," rang in his mind, lurid,
+persistent. Yes, Lady Betty would vanish out of his life soon enough;
+even though her letter confirmed the respite which she had indeed seemed
+to grant that morning, but which nevertheless--anticipating regret--he
+had scarcely ventured to dream of! There could clearly be no question as
+to her attitude towards his marriage; he told himself that even the
+crime (flashing splendidly through his brain) of cutting himself free
+from the Robinsons with one heroic stroke in order to throw his whole
+life into this wonderful romance would be futile. Would Lady Betty ever
+consent to happiness purchased at such a price?--woo her as he might!
+
+But this sweet, dainty dream of her brief companionship--was he called
+upon to turn away from it? Surely, no; else she had been the last to
+dazzle him with it. Her lead could be trusted to be beyond reproach.
+And, however she regarded it in her heart, would there not be for him a
+little of strangely deep happiness; something to remember always, to
+leave a smile on his face at the moment of death?
+
+The charm of the thought won him almost irresistibly. Lady Betty was his
+inspiration for ever; nay, that ideal elusive face would have been his
+inspiration even if he had never encountered her again. The harm--if
+harm there was in their meeting again--had been done irreparably in the
+past!
+
+All would be over soon enough! What could emphasise it more than this
+very letter of hers he held in his hand? Was it not Lady Betty's
+underlying thought in this desire for an exchange of souvenirs?
+
+All would be over soon enough! Life would bear them apart, but the touch
+of sweetness would remain as an illumination. He could never be cheated
+out of that.
+
+What was this souvenir she intended for him--this "strange, strange
+thought" of hers? She had in truth piqued his curiosity, and he foresaw
+her delight at his admitting it. What, indeed, could it be? And,
+occupied now with this fascinating speculation, he languidly took up his
+other letters, his fingers turning them over with an extreme
+indifference. Presently, with a sudden decision, he broke Alice's
+envelope, and began to read her note. Three of the sides out of four
+were exactly as he had anticipated, but towards the end he lighted on a
+passage that unnerved him abruptly. "I have been thinking of your
+friends in Grosvenor Place. My heart goes out to Lady Lakeden. How hers
+must lie broken and bleeding! To lose a husband after only a few months
+of wedded life! I shut my eyes and try to think that such a thing cannot
+happen! And she and her father have always been so kind to you. My love
+for you is so great that I love everybody that spares one little thought
+specially for you."
+
+Wyndham threw the letter down. That was enough; he must sacrifice all to
+the duties he had undertaken. He and Lady Betty must not see each other
+again. Could he not hear her dear voice saying, "Life is always a
+compromise. Perhaps it's a blessing to see our clear obligations." Well,
+he at any rate saw his clear obligations. He would reply to Lady Betty;
+he would enter into the situation in all sincerity. He would paint her
+some little thing for the souvenir, and send it to her, and perhaps she
+might care to send him hers in return. His meeting her to-day and this
+loving exchange of gifts would remain in his thought as the most poetic
+episode of his life; but an episode that must speedily be closed.
+
+She would understand and approve. Was she not the very spirit of
+chivalry, of honour and goodness? Since fate had given its decree, let
+them both bow to it!
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+But the next morning he dressed with care, choosing with fastidiousness
+among his flowing silk ties, and went off to Grosvenor Place, stopping
+only on the way to get a new canvas for Lady Betty's portrait. It was as
+if some great arm had encircled him irresistibly, and hurried him out of
+his studio, and jerked him into a hansom.
+
+The first thing that caught his eye as he entered the usual room was a
+travelling easel opened out at its full length, brass-jointed, proudly
+agleam; and he marked his appreciation of the significance of its
+presence in equally significant fashion--by standing the newly-acquired
+canvas upon it. Then he installed himself at his window, and after a
+little preliminary fumbling he found himself well under weigh. At last
+he had struck the clear, even light he wanted, and he worked rapidly
+with his note-taking till the time the butler appeared with
+refreshments.
+
+He sipped his wine, with one eye on the folding-door and the other
+maintaining some interest in the sketches before him. But the more
+vigilant eye of the two soon found its reward. Lady Betty appeared on
+the very stroke of noon, and came to him all fresh and smiling, in sunny
+contrast to his sense of the dull wintry universe.
+
+"You seem a trifle thoughtful," she observed.
+
+"I was speculating about the mysterious gift you promise."
+
+She laughed merrily. "I observe, then, it is a bargain." She nodded
+towards the easel.
+
+"I have had a charming idea as well," he said. "Could you give me two
+hours a day till the end of the month?"
+
+"By all means."
+
+"I should like to send you to the Salon."
+
+"That is indeed a charming idea. But you must not risk your big work,"
+she reminded him. "That, too, has to be ready in a few weeks."
+
+"I shall have the whole of March for it exclusively. I am finishing my
+portraits this month."
+
+"Your sketches are satisfactory?"
+
+"One or two mornings more, and I shall have as much as I need. My
+difficulty with the picture all these years has been that I have had to
+build it up largely out of my own mind. My actual scene has of course
+never really existed in nature--though once or twice I managed to catch
+something of the kind here on the spot. But that was quite tumultuous
+and indiscriminate, whereas I wanted to catch the essence of the thing."
+
+"You frighten the poor little amateur out of her wits."
+
+They both laughed. "I had to snatch bits as best I could. Whilst
+striving to suggest the tumult and movement, I yet picked my material so
+as to give contrast and symbolism. Then I had to get my workmen and all
+the other kinds of folk to pose separately in the studio. Fortunately my
+old studio opened at the back into a little glass-house, and so I was
+able to pose the model as in the open. Naturally with the work on so
+huge a scale, I was wrestling with almost every drawback that could be
+conceived. It was no doubt a great mistake to have planned it at all,
+but I have learnt lessons I shall never forget."
+
+"But you have conquered at last."
+
+"Honestly, no. But it will succeed. My first idea was that the whole
+scene should be bathed in sunlight. But this, by throwing a vibration
+and glow over everything, would have submerged the social contrast of
+Fashion and Labour--would have made the whole thing primarily a piece of
+pure technique, and weakened its human significance. I did not want the
+sunshine to be the motive of the picture; I wanted the human side to
+stand out first, and speak with its full force. I therefore chose a
+dull light, so that the smartness of Fashion glows in relief against the
+drab tones of Labour. I am afraid though I am exaggerating the contrast
+more than I really like. That, however, will help it with the great
+public."
+
+"I don't think I approve of such sentiments. I want you to strive for
+the highest."
+
+"That is the future. But here it was a question of extricating myself
+from wreckage. As art it is far from perfect. But its success will help
+me to higher things."
+
+"On that ground only we must pass it this time. But I have been
+wondering how you will use these last sketches you have been making."
+She examined them attentively awhile. "To me they are not very
+intelligible, though I have a vague idea of their purpose."
+
+"They are mere notes," he explained. "If you will come here by the
+window and get the point of view, I think I can make them perfectly
+intelligible."
+
+She came and stood by his side, and one by one he took up the little
+canvasses, explaining his tones and masses and relative values. As he
+spoke his words seemed to evoke a strange life from the blurs and brush
+marks. A splash of colour changed before her eyes into an omnibus; a
+darker blob into a brougham; vistas and spaces, buildings and foliage
+stood revealed out of chaos. She listened with a pretty interest, her
+lips daintily parted, her breath coming lightly, yet her features
+composed into a characteristic stateliness--of which catching a sudden
+glimpse as she brushed close to him, he mentally registered the judgment
+"surpassingly fine!" He was glad he had caught that aspect; it summed
+her up in a way so perfectly. There was his Salon picture!
+
+"And while you have been listening I have been studying you," he
+confessed, as he placed the sketches aside.
+
+"I should have thought you knew me by heart."
+
+"You are not so definite and limited. Beauty is always flashing
+surprises on the eye that can see."
+
+"I think I like that," she said gaily. "I must bear it in mind.... It's
+only a toy easel," she flew off as he drew it forward. "In spite of its
+excellent preservation, it is a relic of my childhood: in the family I
+was supposed to have talent, so an aunt gave it to me for a birthday
+present, pegs and all, to take into the country and sketch all sorts of
+pretty bits. There was a little stool that went with it."
+
+"It will serve admirably--without the stool," he added, with a smile. "I
+should like you to stand with the folding-door as a background. I think
+we're lucky to have such an interesting stretch of panelling in the
+room. We must get all the light on it we can."
+
+She tripped down the room gaily, and stood as he indicated. Then he
+manipulated the blinds and the curtain till a clear, soft light, melting
+gradually into the surrounding greyer tones, fell on the wood-work, and
+Lady Betty stood illuminated with a suggestion of airy phantasm.
+
+"The face a shade more to the left," he commanded. "There! Now I have
+caught you again."
+
+He worked with an appearance of rapidity. "A very dream of elusiveness!"
+he exclaimed presently. "I must seize it whilst I'm in form."
+
+"Ah, I was just thinking it over," she said gravely. "I am not sure that
+I am really so pleased at being 'elusive.' If my features are not to be
+seized, how are they to be remembered? Definite women have the best of
+it--they are less easily forgotten, I should say."
+
+"That would be true if one had any desire to remember them," he
+returned. "But no," he corrected himself; "it is not true in any case.
+Where there is only one definite set of features to forget, it is
+forgotten wholly and absolutely, once that point is reached. But the
+woman with the elusive features has so many sides that it would take a
+long time to forget them all. And then a man is always so entrancingly
+occupied calling up her picture. You let all the fleeting phases float
+around you. What more engrossing than to choose among these rival
+gleams of loveliness, yet find them all enchanting and precious?"
+
+"You convince me of the absolute unforgetableness of the elusive woman,"
+she laughed. Then, abruptly, she grew grave again.
+
+When he stopped work for that morning, they both inspected the canvas
+critically. "I think I have made the right beginning--you see the spirit
+of the idea is all there."
+
+"With the help of the lesson you gave me before," she ventured.
+
+"If I continue equally well, we shall find oceans of time before the end
+of the month. Wouldn't it be splendid if the Salon received it!"
+
+She was full of joyous delight at the prospect, but, glancing at the
+clock, gave an exclamation of horror. "We are forgetting lunch!"
+
+A minute or two later Wyndham was shaking hands with the old earl, who
+was gazing into his face with apparently affectionate interest.
+
+"This is very pleasant," said the earl. "Why, bless my soul, I haven't
+caught a glimpse of you for--let me see--three or four years is it? What
+has been amiss? Genius starving in a garret?--eh?"
+
+"Pretty good guess," said Wyndham.
+
+"You look fat enough, and sleek enough," laughed the earl. "On the face
+of things, I should have taken it that you've done very much better than
+I have. Now, if you had had to put up with my scoundrel of a cook----"
+
+"There was only one sauce on one occasion, father."
+
+"So you insist, so you insist. Well, you seem pretty straight on your
+feet again, my boy; so all's well that ends well."
+
+They sat down to table.
+
+"Making lots of nice little pictures?--eh?" recommenced the earl
+genially.
+
+"Oh, the one I am making sketches for here is rather tremendous--the
+size of a wall!"
+
+"The size of a wall!" echoed the earl. "My gracious!"
+
+"And now Mr. Wyndham has started a tiny one of me," put in Lady Betty.
+"I'm going to stand to him an hour or two every morning, and we'll send
+it to the Salon next month."
+
+"Bless my soul! That'll be a very pretty little thing."
+
+"It's only one side of me. Mr. Wyndham thinks I've so many sides, and he
+selected just one of them."
+
+"Mr. Wyndham's a genius, but, with all deference to him, I don't see
+that you've any more sides to you than I have or Mr. Wyndham has. We
+have each two sides and no more." He raised his tumbler of egg-and-milk
+and whiskey, and drank deeply. The others laughed.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Wyndham thinks I'm so many persons rolled into one," explained
+Lady Betty, "and that you can take your choice."
+
+"Many persons rolled into one! You are!" said the earl emphatically,
+setting down his glass. "Only I never _can_ take my choice. If Mr.
+Wyndham has succeeded in doing so, I offer him my congratulations. Oh,
+by the way, talking of congratulations, it is true, I suppose, that you
+are going to be married!"
+
+Lady Betty looked down and manipulated her fish.
+
+"One of these days," said Wyndham lightly. "There is no date fixed yet."
+
+"Ah," said the earl. "How is your _fiancée_?"
+
+"Perfectly well," said Wyndham. "First-rate."
+
+"A Miss--er--Llewellyn--wasn't it?"
+
+"Miss Robinson," corrected Wyndham.
+
+"Oh, ah--Miss Robinson! Yes, yes, that was the name--perfectly!" said
+the earl. "Mind you give her my compliments and respects.... By the way,
+Betty, did I tell you I'm sick of the climate? We shall have thrown out
+the Embankment Bill by the end of the week, and then I can turn my back
+on the House. It'll be Egypt or a voyage to Japan--why, I might meet Mr.
+Wyndham on his honeymoon!--eh?--what? I'll go across to Cockspur Street
+this afternoon, and see what's sailing."
+
+"Shall I come with you, father, and help you to make up your mind?"
+
+"If you'll be so kind," said the earl. "It was my intention to suggest
+that you should accompany me a great deal further than that, but I
+changed my mind just now."
+
+"That is very considerate of you, father."
+
+"Not at all, not at all." The earl made a movement of deprecation. "You
+couldn't come till the end of the month, so I simply make a virtue of
+necessity."
+
+"You horrify me, father. You are making Mr. Wyndham think you are sorry
+I am standing to him."
+
+"It's only my fun, little girl. You don't really suppose I want my own
+daughter trotting behind my tail, and keeping her watchful, charming eye
+on all my doings. No, no, no! I had it in mind to suggest your joining
+me as a matter of form. You might have liked it, and I wanted to do the
+proper thing. But I'm only too glad of the opportunity of having you off
+my hands. Mr. Wyndham was really providential. Meanwhile I shall be
+proud to think of the nice little picture of you--I beg your pardon, of
+one side of you--hanging in the Salon."
+
+"If you take one of the long voyages, I presume you'll be away some
+months," ventured Wyndham.
+
+"Probably till the autumn. I assure you my daughter long since washed
+her hands of me. She carries off her maid and disappears for years at
+the time. When I think she's in Paris, somebody says, 'I saw your
+daughter last week at Baden-Baden. How well she's looking!' When I
+imagine she's in Baden-Baden, somebody says, 'I met your daughter at
+Florence last week. How well she's looking!' Nowadays I never speculate
+as to her whereabouts. I give her absolutely _carte blanche_. I'm
+prepared to hear and believe anything of her, and what's more! to
+approve of it and give her my blessing. On one point, you will observe,
+the testimony is unanimous: 'How well she's looking!' That's the one
+settled thing about her--and the sides of her. For I suppose no two
+people ever do see the same side of her." He scrutinised her beamingly.
+
+"Very well, father. It shall be goodbye till the autumn. We shall part
+friends."
+
+"So far as I see at present. We've to get through the week yet. You'll
+lunch with us these days, Mr. Wyndham?"
+
+Wyndham murmured his acceptance, enchanted at being so cordially
+recognised as a friend of the house.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+Wyndham told Alice of the happy chance that had presented itself of a
+dash at Lady Lakeden's portrait, and held out the possibility of the
+Salon's finding a corner for it.
+
+"How delightful!" she exclaimed. "Wouldn't it be brilliant to be in the
+Salon as well as in the Academy?"
+
+"It's just a dainty little study, and of course I'm doing it for the
+pure pleasure of the thing. But the committee may not consider it
+important enough for serious consideration, though that depends on what
+I make of it. In any case I'll present it to her afterwards in
+acknowledgment of all their past kindness."
+
+"It's the nicest acknowledgment you could possibly make them. I am so
+glad you thought of it." Her approval of the idea was generous and
+eager. And she was excitedly interested in the Grosvenor Place
+household. She plied him with questions. Was it an old peerage? Was
+there a great country house? Had Lady Lakeden a brother? Then who was
+the heir to the title?--would it pass to a collateral line? He
+enlightened her on all these matters, sketching out for her the grooves
+which the lives of such people generally occupied. And he threw out the
+reflection that it was lucky indeed the renewal of his relations with
+Grosvenor Place had not been delayed any further. He had gone back there
+in the very nick of time, for the house was going to be shut up; the
+earl leaving in a week or so to take a long sea voyage, whilst Lady
+Lakeden meditated departure as soon as the portrait was done. Alice
+remarked that they seemed to be fond of roaming about a great deal, and
+Wyndham pointed out that Lady Lakeden and her father were exceptionally
+placed, were to a great extent emancipated from the "swim." The earl had
+practically retired from society, and his daughter, as a young widow,
+naturally sought distraction in her own way, though of course she could
+float brilliantly back into the world whenever the mood took her.
+
+Since the portrait was going to the Salon, he was naturally compelled to
+tell Alice about it. But the intense way in which she seemed to be
+fixing her eyes on the Grosvenor Place household disconcerted him beyond
+measure. This fresh interest of his had become her interest too; she had
+fastened on it out of all proportion to its visible importance. At
+uneasy moments he asked himself if she suspected that something lay
+behind this apparently simple and innocent acquaintanceship; for her
+insistent and almost morbid return to the subject on the following days
+indicated its amazing hold of her.
+
+Yet, obviously, it was impossible that she should be cherishing any
+ideas of that kind. He flattered himself that his demeanour towards her,
+in this trying and difficult period, was perfect; that he was as tender
+in all their relations as if his heart were truly hers. Nay, he was
+devoting even more of his leisure to her than ever before. And for the
+very reason that the evening journeys to Hampstead had become
+distasteful, he was the more careful that there should be no falling off
+in his attendance there. In no wise could he have betrayed himself to
+his affianced wife. No, she could not possibly have any suspicion of the
+truth: he was satisfied that her preoccupation with the Grosvenor Place
+household all arose out of womanly sympathy on her part; that Lady
+Lakeden's tragic widowhood had touched the depths of her imagination.
+
+Poor Alice! How simple and trusting her surface reading of the facts!
+How ignorant of the brutal complications, as grotesque as incredible, in
+which Nature often wrapped up human unhappiness!
+
+What a terrible tangle it was for them all! Were he free now, how gladly
+would his princess have placed her hand in his! In the old days the
+possible marriage of the brilliant girl had been hedged around with
+extraordinary limitations--to which he too had bowed as to something in
+the order of nature. But, as a widow, she would naturally be expected to
+please herself when matrimonially inclined. By common social
+understanding, even the noblest and richest of widows may permit herself
+a considerable latitude of choice, and no word of criticism can lie
+against her unless she has travelled rather far out of the conventional
+grooves. A marriage between him and Lady Betty now might raise a flicker
+of interest beyond what was usual--considering his notorious
+poverty--but it could call down nobody's censure.
+
+But all this, alas! was but an idle speculation now. The time sped; the
+earl bade him goodbye; and he realised that the end was fast
+approaching. The few days that remained to him of Lady Betty's
+companionship became trebly precious, to be counted with despair! Though
+only an hour or two out of the twenty-four was spent in her society, his
+whole heart and mind, his whole life, were concentrated there. Each day
+he brought her a bunch of lilies of the valley, which she fixed in her
+bosom and insisted he must include in the picture. And during the
+enchanted time they were together, they talked freely and in perfect
+trust. It was more than a friendship--more than an exchange of
+confidences; it was more than the intimacy of a soul with itself--for
+that is not always honest even at its most courageous moments. In this
+free, splendid realm of communion with her, he stood up in all his
+manhood: rising to that simple truth which is yet of the heavens and the
+spaces; measuring himself against great standards; seeing and regretting
+his egotisms, vanities, self-deceptions; valuing himself humbly. The
+depths of Lady Betty's sympathy were indeed profound. She could enter
+into his life, appreciate motives barely realised by himself, and, with
+charming broad humanity, understand and forgive his actions even when he
+felt ashamed of them as unworthy and discreditable. No comedy of
+sentiment here--no playing of the saint on either side; but a noble
+simplicity, a serene good faith, a spontaneous self-revelation!
+
+He recounted to her, as naturally as everything else, the whole history
+of his acquaintanceship with the Robinsons. He spared himself not a
+detail: how he had first dallied with temptation, his moment of panic,
+his specious reasoning, his ignoble surrender! He laid himself bare as
+with a scalpel. Yet of Alice he spoke always with reverence and loyalty,
+dwelling on her devotion, on the little she needed from him to give her
+happiness. And Lady Betty caught his appreciation of her. "I seem to
+know and understand her well," she said. "She is a delicate, untarnished
+soul. She seems more real to me than people who have lived near me all
+my life. And so her heart has gone out to me! I feel I could never bear
+to meet her--the moment would be too terrible! Ah, why did you not speak
+in the old days?"
+
+"I repeat I had not the right. And then I did not dream I was worth one
+single thought of yours."
+
+"I gave you all my thoughts. You were so serious. You sat with knitted
+brow, sternly in your work, and I hardly dared to come near you. You
+seemed remote from women; grimly devoted to your purpose--to triumph or
+to die! At poor me you scarcely deigned to look. And then you
+disappeared, and I knew you would not return."
+
+"I disappeared. I left happiness behind me, and retired into my living
+tomb."
+
+"My heart bleeds for you." There was a pause. Her eyes were full of
+pain. But presently she broke the silence, as if discovering some crumb
+of comfort. "This time at least you will not be going to privation."
+
+"In my heart of hearts privation is preferable."
+
+"Ah, no. Remember it is the call of duty. It is the sacrifice we must
+make for Alice's sake. She is a good woman. Her life must not be
+broken."
+
+"I promise I shall try to make her happy--whatever the cost. But think
+how happy we should have been together, you and I, darling."
+
+"We should have been happy together," she said in a low voice. "It
+would have been a perfect union. But I say again that life is a
+compromise. Our demands are great; we have to accept the little that is
+granted."
+
+"Yet the door still stands open," he mused. "We may yet take our fate
+into our own hands."
+
+"The door stands open, but we turn our backs upon it."
+
+"We are too strong," he groaned. "I am tempted to pray for weakness."
+
+She drew herself up, her face alight with a noble radiance. "Let us both
+be proud of our strength. We have set right above everything."
+
+"But suppose we are mistaken--" he urged tensely.
+
+"We cannot strike her down! No, no, we must not take away her great
+happiness--you have given it to her! I depute you, if you love me, to
+guard her welfare--on my behalf and on your own. Remember, too, she is
+happy with so little!"
+
+"I shall be a loyal husband. But, in the realms that lie outside her
+penetration, you have promised that I may cherish the thought of you as
+an inspiration."
+
+"To speak to you with my own voice--to help you to the strength that
+cannot falter!"
+
+But the end was close upon them. He could not linger over the picture,
+even had he wished. As the last days slipped by his face saddened
+visibly. Lady Betty begged him to bear up. He was so changed in aspect
+that Alice could not fail to notice it.
+
+"There is no danger," he returned. "She has already spoken of it, and I
+have put it down to fatigue. She has seen how desperately I have been
+working for months on end, and she is satisfied I need rest."
+
+One day, he ventured to question Lady Betty about her plans, but she
+replied that they were vague. She only knew that she would travel for
+the present; she would not make up her mind as to details till the last
+moment.
+
+"But even then I should not tell you," she added, with a wan smile. "Our
+parting must be decisive. I shall read of your career, and my mind shall
+be always with you in your work; but I shall not cross your path again.
+There is one last thing I suggest. When you have finished the picture,
+let us spend the whole of our last day together."
+
+"I shall set it apart. We shall consecrate it with our farewell."
+
+"I shall give you the souvenir I promised. I shall keep it till the end;
+and then it will be goodbye."
+
+"Goodbye?" he breathed. "Oh, it is cruel!"
+
+He was shaken again. Some wild rebellion was rising in him, and vainly
+Lady Betty tried to calm him with pleading--even with tears. But she
+revealed only the more her own anguish.
+
+At last she had command of herself again, and put a stern inflection
+into her voice.
+
+"For Alice's sake you must conquer yourself. No, let it be for my sake.
+I put it as the test of your love for me. Otherwise I shall believe that
+your love is selfish."
+
+"I promise I shall conquer myself, but I must have time."
+
+"You make me terribly afraid--you may wound her by a chance word."
+
+"That is impossible. Her mind is serene--no word of mine shall disturb
+it."
+
+But Lady Betty's fears were by no means allayed. She wrote him long
+letters, imploring him to keep command of himself, else she would regret
+bitterly that they had ever met again. They had both fought this
+terrible battle: they were neither of them emerging unscathed, but their
+wounds and hurt were the price of honourable victory. She was sure of
+herself; but was he--the man!--to shrink back when the supreme moment
+came? The thought of loyal duty accomplished would bring equanimity
+hereafter.
+
+"Ah, if all were only a dream!" he exclaimed sadly, as he lay thinking
+of nights. And then he would try to believe that he had not met Lady
+Betty again, had never even heard of her since her wedding-day. He had
+never made the acquaintance of the Robinsons, had never set foot in
+their great ugly house at the corner. Were not all these things the
+fancies of a disordered imagination, and was he not still here in
+Hampstead, in his narrow iron bed up on the gallery? To-morrow he would
+jump up and make his miserable breakfast as usual, would think of
+working without being able to raise a hand, and would potter away the
+hours. And at six in the evening he would see his prosperous neighbour
+from the City go past with noiseless, gentle step, bearing a plaited
+rush-bag with a skewer thrust through it. Yet what a relief to throw off
+the illusions of these latter days, and find himself again as of old,
+free of all the tangle; even though the problem of bread still faced
+him, and the vista of hopeless days stretched away endlessly!
+
+Alas! the morning light, filling his panelled bedroom and revealing to
+his eyes the many luxuries of these prosperous days, testified only too
+convincingly to the reality of recent developments.
+
+And yet, as he turned up the well-known Hampstead street of an evening
+on his way to the Robinsons, he would still struggle again to recover
+the illusion that the old days were yet. Approaching the house as it
+loomed in the near distance through the wintry mist, he would imagine
+himself supremely unconcerned with it. And then he would stop outside
+his own former door, and fumble in his pocket a moment as if to find the
+key. Like lessons learnt after the mind is set, all these later
+accretions to his existence were ready to drop away, to have a shadowy
+relation to him. It made him realise with astonishment how easily he
+might cut the Robinsons out of his life, and proceed as if he had never
+known them. His bond of obligation was more real to him than the people
+to whom he was bound!
+
+He was shrewd enough to see that in his heart of hearts he was sullenly
+and perpetually angry that so much had come to him from so extraneous a
+source. Where his own strength and gifts had failed, these people from a
+world that was not his world, either in thought or mode, had come in and
+brought him prosperity. This galling sense of absolute dependence on the
+Robinsons seemed the deepest humiliation he had known. They had given
+him food when he was nigh starvation; they had given work when the
+prospect of work had vanished--had showered on him benefits and
+kindnesses innumerable. They had restored him to society and to the
+world of art and letters. He owed them the confidence of his bearing
+before the world, the manly swing of his step, the pride of his glance.
+
+That this should be his destiny was horrible! He rebelled and cried out
+with all his might. Oh! to wield the sceptre of destiny himself!--to
+shape the evolution of a brilliant career and merit the crown of a
+great love by his own power and performance!
+
+And yet at the back of his troubled mind there lay in terrible calm the
+stern determination to stand by his obligations. His promise to Lady
+Betty was in no danger. All this feverish agitation was but as the surf
+beating on a granite shore. He knew that he would bow his head in
+resignation; that, after the parting with Lady Betty, he would settle
+down as the most attentive of husbands; acquiescent of an atmosphere of
+physical well-being, yet paradoxically living from hand to mouth, so far
+as his deeper life was concerned; thankful for any morsel of good each
+day might bring him, and looking not beyond its horizon.
+
+Alice should have her happiness, never guessing what turmoil and torture
+two souls had voluntarily undergone for her.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+In the silence and privacy of her room Alice was sobbing her life away.
+Like an opium eater, she had sought magnificent dreams, had surrendered
+herself to beautiful illusions, had duped herself supremely. But the
+awakening was fraught with fever and suffering.
+
+On that memorable afternoon when her father had brought home the
+wonderful announcement that Wyndham was to follow him, Alice had looked
+at herself in the glass, and though her favourite dress lay ready for
+her, she knew he would not of his own impulse bestow a second glance
+upon her.
+
+The evening had come and passed. As by some enchantment Wyndham had
+appeared, was seated at the same table with herself, engaged in intimate
+conversation with the family, left alone to wine and cigars with her
+father; rejoining them in the drawing-room, listening to her playing,
+singing to her accompaniment! Then, lo, he was gone; and she was left to
+ponder on the swift, surprising turn of events. After all these years of
+emotion, the acquaintanceship was an accomplished fact. She was to
+penetrate within his door at last, to become, for the time being, part
+of the very business of his life!
+
+She retired that night still with the sense of miracle; yet infinitely
+grateful to her father for his charming concession to her whim. And her
+first subtle move had been crowned with success! At least there was work
+where work was needed so sorely; work, too, that brought her so near to
+him, annihilating a distance she had reconciled herself to think of as
+impassable, and opening up potentialities of service which her fertile
+wits would not be slow to seize upon. Would it not be a joy to help him
+to a firm footing again, to raise this gifted life of which she had
+watched the long slow sinking! It was miraculous that this privilege
+should fall to her! But everything must appear to flow naturally to him
+of itself; he should never suspect that the unseen hand at work was
+hers, any more than he should ever know that this was what she, who
+loved him, had for years worked out in fancy.
+
+And she!--she should have no thought but the unselfish desire of serving
+him! What matter if she carried in her heart the cold conviction that he
+could never love her--since all she had dared aspire to had fallen to
+her lot! For who was she to cherish vain hopes? She had not the
+commonest touch of beauty; she was hopelessly out of his sphere. She
+felt herself appallingly ignorant and inexperienced. In her easy shelter
+the years had slipped by in monotonous quiet. In the world outside there
+beat a life that was strenuous, entrancing, dramatic--the struggle of
+the realm of affairs, the pomp and colour of courts and society, the
+important events of politics, the field of view that opened in the
+novels, or lay spread behind the footlights of the theatres. Wyndham
+belonged to all this brilliant universe, had walked with firm tread amid
+it all, breathing its airs with an assurance born of right and nature.
+No poverty could destroy his inalienable privileges, could render him
+less by a hair's breadth; indeed, save for the manifest inconveniences
+of the former, poverty or riches seemed irrelevant on that plane of high
+humanity; where differences of fortune were obscured by the highness of
+the humanity, however fertile in distinctions these differences might be
+in a lower world.
+
+But as the acquaintance ripened, as she tasted of the gracious intimacy
+of the long sittings, his perfect kindness, his chivalry, his constant
+solicitude began to undermine the attitude with which she had embarked
+on the adventure. They had become such good friends, and she could not
+blind herself to the fact that he was pressing his personality on her
+beyond what mere courtesy and friendliness demanded. But she still
+fought to stand firm, and her humility was her strength. It was even
+more than her strength--it read for her his doubts and hesitations.
+
+Not that she crudely supposed that, in his conduct to her, he was swayed
+by ulterior considerations. She saw that he had genuinely an affection
+for her, more kind and brotherly than a lover's affection; she knew that
+he was trying to like her better, to raise her in his estimation far
+higher than the truth. And she conceded that his hesitation was natural,
+that she was no mate for him, that his world would openly despise her.
+No, he must not marry her for the safety her fortune would bring him.
+She would marry only for love, and, as that she could never win, she
+would consequently never marry.
+
+She dreaded now lest the situation should take a more definite turn,
+lest he should begin to woo her in earnest. She wished to be left in
+contentment with her deep secret happiness which could never be effaced
+from her life. She had had her way. It was she who had brought him the
+succour he needed; she--of whose existence he had never dreamed, whom he
+had often met face to face yet never glanced at. It was she who had
+rescued for the world's benefit this splendid genius that the world had
+rejected. This was joy enough. To anything else the end must be
+disillusion.
+
+For awhile she lived in terror lest he might speak. But as the work
+progressed, and he became more and more enthusiastic over her portrait,
+she could not but fall a victim to the subtle implication, and begin to
+believe that he must really think more of her than she had ever dared to
+imagine. It was then that her stern control of herself began to slip
+away. Wilfully she shut her eyes to all that she understood only too
+well, and surrendered herself to the spell and wonder of the vista that
+opened before her. It was the best thing that life had brought her, she
+told herself, and in an impulse of pagan desire she was impelled to
+wring from it the last drop of passionate happiness it could afford her.
+Her love for him reached out into new depths; the dull, despairing,
+impossible love of before became a fever, a frenzy, a great yearning
+passion that must pour itself out or kill her.
+
+Then came the supreme moment in which she let the belief that he loved
+her seize entire possession of her. Must he not have for his mate a
+woman who would love him and make him a perfect wife? He was a being
+apart from his own world, devoted to serener and higher ambitions. Had
+she not seen the glow with which he expounded his ideas and purposes,
+forgetting she was a humble, uninstructed listener, and surrounding her
+soul with the sweet unction of the implied perfect equality? Perhaps it
+had dawned upon him at last that devotion greater than hers the world
+could not hold. In his consecration to his high calling he did not need
+a wife to figure brilliantly amid social pleasures and functions, but a
+helpmeet whom perhaps he could not so easily find in those exalted
+spheres; one who needed no pleasures for herself, no triumphs; who had
+no purposes of her own, no desires, save the supreme end of
+self-sacrifice on the altar of his happiness and achievement. Only a
+woman absolutely capable of such self-effacement could understand the
+perfect bliss of it. If every man could find such faithfulness at his
+own hearth, how the world would thrive and grow blessed! And she thanked
+Heaven for the little fortune she could bring him, for this precious
+money to establish his life on a safe and sure footing.
+
+And when he had spoken at last, she, casting away the last doubt, had
+thrown herself headlong into the dream. With her arms round him, and her
+lips to his, she felt that she had always been destined for this high
+bliss, that rendered by contrast the quiet stream of her life a mockery
+of life.
+
+The joyous period of intoxication was all too short. With the sobering
+of the world to its work again in the new year, she, too, sobered a
+little, and the old questioning revived in her. Was it really the truth
+that he loved her? Where was the note of passion she herself had poured
+out so recklessly? His personal magnetism, his urbane, affectionate
+friendliness, the caressing vibrations of his voice, his delicate and
+considerate dealing with the gaps of ignorance she daily revealed--all
+this held her in an invincible spell. But the deep, irresistible
+conviction for which her heart yearned was unmistakably absent in his
+whole relation to her.
+
+Perhaps some terrible struggle was going on within him. Was he recoiling
+in terror sometimes from the thought of the mate he had chosen? Surely
+at times he was arguing himself into acceptance and contentment. What
+meant the strange, furtive glances he sometimes directed at her?--not
+the soft glances of love, but glances bewildering, baffling! She watched
+him with a supernaturally sensitive insight, appraising his every
+expression, following the imagined see-saw of his doubts and
+reassurances.
+
+Yet when he had told her of his meeting with Lady Lakeden again, and of
+the new portrait he had engaged upon, no shade of jealousy had arisen in
+her. Her sense of the calamity that had befallen Lady Lakeden was so
+infinitely distressing that she could have fallen upon her knees and
+prayed. To lose a dear husband after only a few months of wedded
+happiness!--what more crushing grief could a woman's destiny hold? She
+shut her eyes and shuddered, as she tried to realise the depths of its
+meaning. It seemed to her that no wife with the least spark of womanhood
+could recover from such a blow; that sorrow and weeping must be her
+portion for the rest of her days.
+
+She redoubled her devotion to Wyndham, suddenly full of fear lest she
+should have been betrayed into injustice to him out of mere morbidity.
+And her mind lingered gently on the figure of this other woman whom she
+had never seen, but to whom her heart went out in an impulsive flood of
+love and pity. If only she could know her, and let her understand how
+deeply she realised her grief! But Wyndham had made no response to her
+first involuntary expression of this desire, and she was too diffident
+to recur to the point again. Perhaps if she waited patiently he might
+suggest such a meeting of his own accord. But the days went, and Wyndham
+was silent.
+
+And not only silent, but changed. "Yes, yes. He is changed in a hundred
+ways," she cried, "though he does not know he has shown it."
+
+If, for a moment, she had been willing to take refuge in the belief that
+over-sensitiveness and diffidence had been leading her into distrust of
+the situation, her eyes were suddenly too wide open to allow of any
+further indulgence in comfort of that kind. There was no mistaking this
+unprecedented self-abstraction, the curious, far-away expression that
+was almost stereotyped on his features, the continued inattentiveness to
+her words that often required her to repeat her remarks and not
+unfrequently ignored them, so that she was continually shrinking into
+herself, too wounded to insist again. By the side of this, his former
+attitude, little as it had satisfied her, seemed impulsive and
+passionate!
+
+His face was grave and sad for the most part, but sometimes it shone
+with a rapture which she knew had not been inspired by her! He was not
+himself in any way; his smile and laugh had not the old spontaneous
+charm. Every note of his affection rang false. And yet, in form, his
+solicitude and loving care for her remained the same as always. But this
+could not blind her; she knew he was trying his best, but his heart and
+mind were not with her. Ah, well, if he cared for anybody, it was
+certainly not for her!
+
+"Who has drawn him away from me? Who has robbed me?--who has robbed me?"
+
+For days she had pondered and pondered, her mind faltering, her lips
+dreading to whisper the name. Wyndham was painting Lady Lakeden. She was
+young; she must be interesting and beautiful.
+
+"He is in love with Lady Lakeden!" It escaped from her lips at last, and
+then she remained ashen--trembling.
+
+Nay, surely he had loved Lady Lakeden in the old days--loved her
+secretly and despairingly, seeing her often, but too poor to woo her!
+Moreover, Lady Lakeden had then loved another. "Yes, yes, that is the
+truth--the truth!" she cried; "And now he has been seeing her again
+daily, and the old love has been reborn!"
+
+A pall descended over Alice's spirit. What a cruel situation! Here was
+Wyndham pledged to a woman he could not care for, yet in love with
+another whose whole heart was with the dear husband that had been taken
+from her. "He is struggling bravely to be true to me--I see it all
+now--he is breaking his heart. It is my duty to release him from his
+word--ah! no, no!" She shuddered and covered her face, shaken and
+shaken. "Even if I gave him his freedom," she argued presently, clinging
+on to the wreck with might and main, "it would only be freedom to find
+despair. Lady Lakeden loved her husband. I know she is great and true.
+She knows he is mine. I trust her--I must trust her--I will pray for
+strength to trust her. Heaven help me!--Heaven help me!"
+
+A terrible pang of jealousy smote her. Detesting herself for it, she
+tried hard to repress the flood of bitter hatred she felt rising in her
+against Lady Lakeden. Poor Lady Lakeden! She had suffered enough and was
+blameless. She could not help it if Wyndham loved her.
+
+An overwhelming curiosity to know what manner of woman Lady Lakeden was,
+took possession of her. Of course, she was young and beautiful. But what
+colour were her eyes? Were they large and deep and brilliant? What
+expression had she habitually? What colour was her hair? And was it
+abundant? And how arranged? Was she slim and tall? How did she dress?
+And in what costume was Wyndham painting her? Were not these the
+questions that had been a thousand times on her lips, and yet remained
+unuttered?
+
+And why had she not asked of him these questions as clearly and boldly
+as she had thought them? Had there been some obscure suspicion in her
+mind all along, and she had feared to embarrass her affianced husband?
+
+Poor Wyndham! She told herself she had the most perfect understanding of
+his mind. She held him in honour as a noble gentleman, and knew surely
+that he would fret his heart away rather than wound her by word or deed.
+She would have put her hand in the fire for the certainty that he would
+never withdraw from the compact; that he would go through with the
+marriage, and die rather than relax the effort to simulate perfect
+happiness in their after life.
+
+Could she accept such a sacrifice? Could she spoil his life for him,
+when she had only meant to set it straight, and had asked for no greater
+privilege? Would that she had been able, by some miracle, to help him
+from across the old impassable distance without coming into his life at
+all! It was for her to choose--to keep him and all that the future with
+him might hold, or to tell him frankly that she thought it best to set
+him free and return to the simple paths of her old existence.
+
+But, ah, no, she could not give him up--she could not give him up! She
+had possessed his lips, she had possessed his thought and solicitude.
+The echoes of his voice caressed her. Break with him! She shut her eyes
+and shuddered again; her whole soul grew sick, and she writhed in
+agony.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+
+Calling one day and finding her alone in the drawing-room, Mr. Shanner,
+after some moments of unruffled demeanour and honeyed conversation,
+abruptly launched into a piteous outbreak.
+
+"I tell you, Alice, you've made a fine mistake with that swell of
+yours," he exclaimed, his eyes flashing with resentment.
+
+Alice stared at him in deep distress. Ever since the engagement Mr.
+Shanner had been all decorousness and deference. As he broke now through
+his ashen shell of propriety, his sedate person seemed to relapse, to
+stand limp, a trifle greyer, a trifle less well trimmed.
+
+"Oh," she gasped at last, "you are under some misapprehension."
+
+"Come, come, Alice," he said; "don't you suppose I've two eyes--and
+wide-open ones, too?"
+
+"I don't really understand what you're alluding to, Mr. Shanner," she
+returned as coldly as she could find it in her.
+
+"I am alluding to your engagement, of course," he insisted. His tone
+showed he was determined to force the subject on her. "What do you
+suppose the fellow is going to marry you for? Men of his class do not
+come out of their way to look for a wife amongst people of our class.
+You mustn't mind my not mincing words, but it's clear to me he doesn't
+care a fig about you, and that your money is the attraction. There,
+that's plain!"
+
+Alice felt herself turn scarlet. Mr. Shanner suddenly stood revealed to
+her--of roughness and coarseness unendurable.
+
+"I don't understand you," she exclaimed, feeling she was floundering,
+and with an acute sense of her lack of social skill to meet the
+contingency and cut short the interview.
+
+"Oh, yes you do, Alice. Only you are too proud to say so."
+
+"You are mistaken. My intended husband and I are on the best of terms. I
+am very much surprised to hear this from you."
+
+"You mean that for a snubbing, no doubt. Well, I suppose I brought it on
+myself." He smiled uneasily and bit his lip. "Only I did think that,
+being so old a friend of the family, I had the right to give you a word
+of advice when the happiness of your life is at stake."
+
+"Oh! please, Mr. Shanner--I'm very sorry," she breathed, all gasps and
+palpitations. "But really, truly, you're mistaken."
+
+"I have used my eyes and head. I am not mistaken. Everything's all
+wrong, and you know it, Alice. I have been reading it in your face of
+late--I tell you you show it. Give up the swell before things go to the
+devil."
+
+"I'm sorry, Mr. Shanner," she said, with all the kindness in her tone
+that she could muster, "but if you will get these extraordinary ideas
+into your head, I certainly am not going to fight them."
+
+He smiled wanly, droopingly. "Another snubbing, I suppose. But you
+needn't take it in such ill part. I don't profess to belong to the
+aristocracy: I do profess to be a friend, one of the sort that's to be
+trusted. And I think you'll come to recognise that in the long run.
+Whatever happens, John Shanner's your friend, and when the time comes,
+you'll find him ready to hand. But I earnestly advise you not to delay.
+Throw up all this business before there's mischief."
+
+Alice smiled bravely. "I repeat that Mr. Wyndham and myself are on the
+happiest of terms, though I am sure you mean your advice for the
+kindest."
+
+She took up her stand behind this simple assertion, so that he could not
+beat down her refusal to be drawn into a deeper discussion. By degrees
+he pulled together his decorum, recovered his frigidity, and ultimately
+retired with the dignified utterance, "Well, I hope you are not going to
+be disillusionised, my child, but I have my doubts. At any rate, as I
+say, I stand by you in any case. Only promise me one thing, that if ever
+you find my warning was not mistaken, you will do me the justice to
+admit it."
+
+She thanked him gravely, and assured him that she fully appreciated his
+kindness, and willingly made the promise. She was glad indeed of the
+chance of winding up the interview thus amicably. Yet, when he had gone,
+she felt panic-stricken at this revelation of how openly she had been
+wearing her heart--as if veritably on her sleeve. How fortunate her
+parents had observed nothing yet! But they, of course, were taking the
+perfection of everything so entirely for granted, and were so happy
+themselves over the beautiful romance which had transformed their
+household and their lives, that it was difficult for any suspicion to
+enter their heads. Certainly they had never read any expression in her
+face save that of rapture and contentment.
+
+She must try to control herself. If only, like other women, she were
+more practised in assuming a surface self that won acceptance, that none
+could penetrate!
+
+But Mr. Shanner was so absolutely in the right. Was it really worth
+while going on as at present? Could anything be more unhappy than all
+this uncertainty and perplexity? Something must be done. Things must
+come soon to a crisis.
+
+And then, one morning, some two or three days before the end of the
+month she received a letter from Wyndham, who had dined with them the
+evening before, announcing that he would be absent from the studio the
+whole day practically, as he had made club engagements for the entire
+afternoon and evening. As, too, he would be lunching out, it would not
+be worth her while to come to the studio at all on that day. He was
+sorry he had forgotten to mention all this when saying goodbye, but he
+was scribbling the note immediately on entry, and in a hurry to catch
+the post.
+
+This letter gave Alice food for reflection. She did not attach any
+significance to the alleged club engagements; she had never grudged him
+the occasional evenings he spent in that way, since it kept him in touch
+with the art-world. But in this present instance there was certainly a
+suggestion of anxiety on his part that she should keep away from the
+studio over the day. "Ah--I understand!" she flashed, clenching her
+fingers; "Lady Lakeden's portrait is to be brought there to-day, and he
+does not wish me to see it! She is beautiful--beautiful!--he fears her
+beauty will sting me to jealousy."
+
+He had never wished her to see the portrait! Had he not always turned
+the conversation whenever she had mentioned it? And only last night, as
+if in anticipation of so natural a desire on her part, he had had to
+confess that it was finished, but had added that it was going straight
+to Paris, as he preferred to feel it was safe there in the hands of his
+agent. He had thus led her to conclude that the picture would not be
+passing through the studio at all; but, with his letter now before her,
+she felt certain that his aim was to get the portrait framed, to touch
+it up, and then send it off without showing it to her.
+
+But she had the right to see it, if she so desired, she told herself
+bitterly. If the Salon accepted it, nothing could prevent her going to
+Paris with her mother; though so enterprising an adventure was quite
+outside the habits of their life--a consideration on which he was
+counting, perhaps. But the Salon might not accept it, and in any case
+two or three months might elapse before such a possible visit, and in
+that time who could say how things might turn?
+
+Entrance to the studio was a privilege that had been freely bestowed
+upon her. He had not forbidden her to come; he had merely tried to stop
+her by suggestion and diplomacy. But she would not be denied.
+
+She would meet strategy with strategy: she would take care to arrive
+late in the evening, so as to be alone there. In the afternoon, or
+earlier in the evening, there was the danger of just catching him
+between his engagements, since he would no doubt come home to change.
+
+She would see the portrait at her leisure; she would at last study the
+features of the woman--the beautiful, brilliant woman--who had
+unwittingly robbed her.
+
+"And I have no beauty," she sobbed; "I am plain and insignificant. I
+have no cleverness, no experience; not one little weapon to fight with,
+to win him back to me!"
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+
+Wyndham had finished Lady Betty's portrait on the previous morning, and
+had taken it back with him to his studio. To-day the frame, a copy of a
+fine old Venetian model, came early in the morning, and Wyndham had soon
+fixed the canvas within it. He was enchanted with the effect. If the
+Salon had only a corner to spare for it, he was certain they would not
+turn it away. And--entrancing idea!--why should not Lady Betty deign to
+come here on this last day, and snatch a glimpse of herself in this
+charming setting which he had selected with such loving interest. There
+was a long day before them, and he might well seize the mood and the
+auspicious moment.
+
+He lingered before his picture, then brusquely tore himself away from
+it, and sat down and wrote instructions to the frame-maker, who was to
+come and fetch it away on the morrow, and despatch it to Paris
+immediately.
+
+For this was his great day; that was to leave with him for ever the
+memory of gracious companionship and irrevocable farewell! The day on
+which he would live for Lady Betty and forget all else! Then she would
+pass out of his life. He strove to face the stern decree. But only a
+blank met his vision. He turned his eyes away; his thoughts should be of
+the day only.
+
+He had hardly considered what their programme should be. But now, on his
+way, he began to ponder it lazily, dwelling fancifully on possibilities
+rather than arriving at anything rigid or definite. They would roam
+about at random, like two sweethearts of the people; their evening they
+would spend at a theatre, no doubt something out of the way, and they
+would find their meals as the bizarre occasion might offer itself. They
+would invest this everyday London with the romantic light of their own
+spirit; they would wander as through a strange capital, and observe
+humanity with a new eye. And then, of course, he must keep before him
+the possibility of the visit to his own studio, in which Lady Betty had
+never as yet set foot.
+
+At midday he rang the bell at Grosvenor Place, and was shown up into the
+great drawing-room. In a minute or two Lady Betty came tripping in. A
+glance showed she was ready to go out at once; her simple coat and skirt
+formed a costume unobtrusive enough for any expedition, and her hat and
+veil matched the occasion to a nicety.
+
+She was radiant with an unaffected gaiety; he could hardly conceive the
+weight of sadness that must lie at the bottom of her heart.
+
+"We shall have a happy day," she said, smiling at the thought of it;
+"something to remember always."
+
+He was quick to grasp her spirit. They were to have this happiness as if
+the day were one of many days, some past, more to come. They were to
+give themselves up to the joy of each other's companionship in simple
+acceptance of the passing hour; not dilating on the occasion as a
+parting; not letting it be overshadowed by the sense of what they had so
+tragically missed in life. Parting there would be; and then sadness
+would descend swiftly enough. Till that bitter moment--sparkle and
+enjoyment! He had come prepared to talk much of themselves; but he saw
+she was wiser than he, and at once fell in with her mood. There would be
+all the rest of his life to lament in.
+
+"Have you thought of any plan?" he asked.
+
+"None," she replied. "To tell the truth, I rather shrank from anything
+definite. 'The wind bloweth as it listeth.' Let us go on without end or
+purpose. That seems to me the ideal way."
+
+"But we are bound to make a beginning. After that the game may play
+itself."
+
+"Let us get away from the London we know; let us go to a romantic,
+wonderful London that we have never seen." She was almost echoing his
+thought. "We shall glide discreetly among the crowds as if we belonged
+to them."
+
+"Then away!" he laughed. "To horse--or rather, to omnibus! Or is it to
+be hansom?"
+
+"Everything in turn, and nothing long."
+
+It was a cold day, yet though the sky was lightly clouded, the air was
+free from mist. As they stepped into the street a few patches of blue
+were visible, and a wintry sunshine filtered down with a pleasant sense
+of promise. The neighbouring houses were for the most part shuttered and
+silent, but the outlook on the great triangular space before them was
+cheerfully busy.
+
+"How unlike the scene of your painting!" she exclaimed. "There is no
+suggestion of drama here, but just the average feeling of the London
+thoroughfare--busy people going their way, and a procession of omnibuses
+mixed up with carts and hansoms."
+
+"Yet my own scene swims before my eyes--I have lived with it so long."
+
+"You have still to live with it," she reminded him.
+
+"If I do not die of it," he answered pleasantly. "Seriously, I came near
+to doing so."
+
+"This omnibus is marked 'Aldgate,'" she flew off. "Now that makes me
+think of Aldgate Pump. I wonder if it goes near the Pump?"
+
+Wyndham jumped on the foot-board, and put the question to the conductor.
+
+"We pass within a yard of it," was the reply.
+
+"Good," said Wyndham. The omnibus drew up, and Lady Betty mounted the
+stairway, and they seated themselves on the roof.
+
+"Look!" he exclaimed. "The clouds are suddenly breaking; it will be all
+blue and sunshine soon."
+
+"A grey ghostly blue, a cold, charming sunshine."
+
+"Yet the promise is splendid after all this winter."
+
+"The promise is splendid," she echoed; "and we are so happy to-day."
+
+"We are so happy," he repeated.
+
+He let himself lapse into a dreamy mood; he was enchanted to have her so
+near him, to feel the afternoon and evening stretching endlessly before
+them--a veritable lifetime of golden moments. Lady Betty's manner
+offered a marked contrast. Hers was a frank exhilaration, an excited
+gaiety, of which he had the full impression; though she kept it in a low
+key, like love's whisper intended for his ear alone. Soon, as he had
+predicted, the sky grew bluer, the sunshine warmer; the traffic and the
+bustle of the streets were cheerfully pleasant to the eye and the ear in
+the fresh day.
+
+"Even the London we know seems delightful," he remarked.
+
+"London, though sometimes impelling to revolt, is always wonderful--it
+has always the fascination of the unknown."
+
+"And is as supremely problematic as the unknowable of the philosophers."
+
+"But it is solid and real, comes to us through all the five senses. Look
+at that strange old man with the tiger-lilies. I wonder how he comes by
+them at this time of year."
+
+"That is one of the wonders of London," said Wyndham. "One sees the
+flowers of all seasons at every season."
+
+"And sometimes the weather of all seasons at every season. Has Aldgate
+Pump a history?"
+
+He confessed to ignorance, though he had an idea that he had read much
+about it in his boyhood, an epoch when he had been fascinated by all the
+odd monuments of the town. He recalled, however, after a time, that
+there was a legend connected with it, not unlike that of the wandering
+Jew.
+
+"Is it actually a pump?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, it's a real pump," he assured her.
+
+"Because I had a suspicion just now; it struck me it might be a sort of
+old coaching-inn or something of the kind. I've often been deceived like
+that, have gone off to see strange things, and have found a
+coaching-inn."
+
+"At least there is the consolation of refreshment at the inn."
+
+"Not a bad idea," she conceded. "It would be a thing to boast about for
+the rest of one's life--to have refreshed one's self at the Aldgate
+Pump."
+
+Both laughed. The omnibus pursued its way with a steady rumble. They had
+turned out of Piccadilly and passed through Waterloo Place, and soon
+after through Trafalgar Square into the Strand, where the scene proved
+much busier. The pavements were thronged; people were pressing forward
+with an appearance of being very much in earnest. A sprinkling of
+tourists, clearly self-proclaimed by their holiday air and the style of
+their attire and grooming, paraded at leisure or gazed into the
+shop-windows. Here and there a young girl, in a picture frock and a big
+hat, tripped along daintily, holding her skirt with a touch that
+suggested Paris, and swinging her little bag from her free hand.
+
+"Actresses going to rehearsal?" hazarded Wyndham, in response to his
+companion's interrogation.
+
+"How charming they are!" she exclaimed. "And they are most of them
+frightfully poor. They struggle for years, and then drop out gradually.
+Fortunately we women have the gift of living intensely for the day. A
+few weeks' engagement, the guinea or two assured for the time being, and
+see how we bloom."
+
+"Ah, yes," said Wyndham reflectively; "life for them, as for many
+others, is pretty much of a game of roulette. They stake their all on
+the table, fortune fluctuates during a few turns of the wheel, and
+then--everything is swept away."
+
+"Away, please, with these sad reflections! Why look too searchingly at
+things? The world is pleasant; why spoil it by examining it? Why turn
+one's eyes willingly away from the good to see the evil?"
+
+"And at any rate the good is as real as the evil," he agreed.
+
+"We must make things contribute to our happiness while we may. All these
+crowds of people have no idea that they are there for our entertainment;
+they do not know, poor things, that we have willed they should be
+masquerading to please us. They have the delusion they are going about
+their own affairs, and they see only an ordinary omnibus, full on the
+roof--that is, if they cared to look at us. To them what more
+commonplace than a journey on an omnibus from Hyde Park Corner to
+Aldgate Pump? Yet, to us, what a whimsical universe it is!"
+
+The omnibus rattled along with a not unpleasing vibration. They passed
+through the heart of the City, swept alongside St. Paul's, and then the
+humour of country cousins took possession of them. They pretended to be
+roused to excitement by all these guide-book regions and monuments,
+affected to be seeing them for the first time and to be recognising them
+from the engravings. Down Leadenhall Street they clattered at last, and
+presently to their surprise the conductor's head appeared above the
+stairway with the announcement of "Aldgate Pump, sir."
+
+They descended. The omnibus passed on, and they stood hesitating, a
+little lost, but greatly amused.
+
+"Here it is!" she exclaimed. "And a street arab in the very act of
+pumping! Why, it's real water."
+
+They contemplated it for a moment or two. "Well, what do you think of
+it?" he asked.
+
+"Thrilling," she admitted. "All pumps are interesting--in these days of
+universal taps. But look at those warehouses opposite, beyond the
+hoarding. Aren't they fascinating?"
+
+"I believe the river lies beyond." Probably no existence had been less
+intertwined with the City of London than his, but he remembered the
+immediate neighbourhood pretty well from ancient wanderings, and he told
+her as an interesting fact that Mark Lane and Mincing Lane lay
+thereabouts.
+
+"I think I have heard of them." Her face lighted with the pleasure of
+recognition. "Indeed, I'm sure I've seen them mentioned in the
+newspapers."
+
+He tried to plumb her knowledge, but found no deeps. She knitted her
+brows prettily, or at least he imagined she did, under her veil. "A sort
+of Latin Quarter--an artist's colony?" she hazarded. "No, wait a bit,
+there was a wealthy, humdrum sort of man I once met, and everybody
+whispered he came out of Mincing Lane. He was not artistic. I give it
+up."
+
+"He imported tea?"
+
+"That's not unlikely," she agreed.
+
+"That's what Mincing Lane is for. And Mark Lane is for corn and
+produce."
+
+"How useful! What a good world it is! I think I like this part."
+
+"Beyond is Eastcheap, famous for groceries, and beyond that again the
+water-side where all these things are landed."
+
+"Let us come to Eastcheap." She was eager to see all the places he had
+enumerated, so he took her through the famous side-streets.
+
+"I certainly do like this part of the world," she repeated emphatically.
+"And do you know, your talk of tea, and corn, and produce, and
+warehouses has made me very hungry. If we stumble up against a charming
+place, we shall lunch."
+
+And, a minute or two later, as they strolled down Eastcheap, at the
+corner of a narrow winding lane, they came upon a sort of café, which
+nice-looking merchants were entering, besides a goodly sprinkling of
+brisk young women. Lady Betty peered in through the door. The place
+seemed pretty full, but a stairway led to regions below. In a box, at
+the head of the stairway, and busily taking the cash, was a charming old
+man of mildest aspect.
+
+Lady Betty declared it all fascinating, especially the part below
+stairs, which had the attraction of the as yet unseen.
+
+Wyndham hesitated. "There is smoking below. You may not like it."
+
+"There are other women going down," she insisted. "I can't resist the
+temptation."
+
+It was an average type of City lunching place, but Lady Betty had never
+before tried the sort of thing, so Wyndham fell in with her whim. Down
+the stairs they went into a spacious cellar, lighted with jets of gas,
+though the sun was still shining outside. Wreaths and clouds of smoke
+floated in the atmosphere, and a clatter of dominoes and crockery
+dominated the buzz of voices that rose from the chaos of people at the
+marble tables. The central tables seemed given up to chess-play, each
+game surrounded by onlookers, all with patient cups of coffee beside
+them. And here and there an exceptional table, laid with a napkin, and
+in possession of vigorous eaters, gave the note of the restaurant.
+Wyndham and Lady Betty found a snug place on one side from which they
+could survey the room; and a neat little waitress, scarcely more than a
+child, came briskly forward to serve them, handing them with a sweet
+professional smile a long slip headed "Bill of Fare." They were glad to
+note that their entrance had attracted no attention. Lady Betty studied
+the bill excitedly. They made their decision, and Wyndham imparted it to
+the waitress.
+
+"Thank you, sir," she said; "And what'll you have to drink, please?"
+
+Again an eager colloquy, with the prosaic result of "two ginger-beers."
+"A true old English beverage," declared Lady Betty, and her approval
+seemed to flash the æsthetic quality into it, to invest it with rank and
+nobility. "Small or large?" persisted the waitress, her tone and
+demeanour of the gravest.
+
+"Oh, large," said Lady Betty, and the girl's face brightened at the
+definiteness of the information.
+
+"Two large ginger-beers--thank you, ma'am," she said, and went off
+sharply, leaving them to their amusement.
+
+Whilst waiting, they surveyed the place at their leisure. "I like it
+here," exclaimed Lady Betty again. "Look at the old chess player there,
+with the bald pate and the eagle's nose. Watch him considering his move,
+with his hand hovering in the air, hesitating, yet ready to swoop down
+to capture a piece."
+
+But the hand did not capture the piece. Instead, the shoulders shrugged,
+an expression of disgust overclouded the face, and the hand descended,
+dashing all the pieces from the board with one sweep. A roar of delight
+broke from the onlookers, and mingling with it from another part of the
+room came a sudden fresh clatter of dominoes, rapidly shuffled.
+
+"What fresh, frank enjoyment! So this is the strenuous commercial life
+of London--gingerbeer and dominoes!"
+
+"A strange set of people!" commented Wyndham. "Study these faces--from
+each shines a different life. I almost want to put my enormous
+accumulation of art theories on the fire, and to paint only human faces
+for the rest of my life."
+
+"Wonderful! There seem at least fifty different races here--to judge
+from the shapes of the skulls and the varying types of features."
+
+"The thought often strikes me as I watch people in the streets or in
+omnibuses," said Wyndham. "No matter how dull or repulsive a human face
+at first sight, I believe it can always be painted so as to be
+interesting, and that without departing from truth."
+
+The waitress reappeared with their lunch which had been simply chosen so
+as to admit of no possible failure, and in their present mood they were
+charmed with it. Lady Betty was enraptured by the experience, and
+chatted in an undertone, every now and then breaking into a spontaneous
+"I am so happy to-day," and flashing him a glance of light and radiance.
+
+They wound up with black coffee, and then the little waitress made out
+the account, which, after leaving her demurely astonished with her big
+silver tip, Wyndham paid to the nice old man in the box at the top of
+the stairs.
+
+"The sun is still shining--look!" she exclaimed.
+
+Wyndham stepped after her into the air gratefully. "It is fresh and
+almost summery. Heaven smiles at us. Shall we stroll down this winding
+lane? I fancy it must lead to the water-side."
+
+"Hurrah for the winding lane!" she said, and stepped out merrily. At the
+bottom they entered a street full of black brick warehouses with cranes
+at work, and huge carts with ponderous horses. "An antediluvian breed!"
+whispered Lady Betty. They strolled along, peering into dim doorways at
+vast interiors where a strange universe of life flourished in the glooms
+amid prodigious collections of barrels and boxes.
+
+"We are almost on Tower Hill," he said suddenly.
+
+"An unexpected fantasy!" she exclaimed, as the Tower of London itself
+came into view at the end of the narrow street, the grey far-stretching
+ramparts looming up ghost-like and romantic. "A mediæval mirage amid all
+this grimy commerce. I wonder if it will vanish presently! But let us
+try the opposite direction now--are we not vowed to-day to the
+unfamiliar and unknown?"
+
+They retraced their steps, and, ere long, lighted on an iron gate that
+led visibly to the water-side.
+
+"The gate is inviting," she said. "I hope it isn't forbidden."
+
+"Ah, here is a notice. I see we shall not be trespassers."
+
+They entered, and, passing through the preliminary alley, found
+themselves on a broad, open gravelled space beyond which flowed the
+water. Save for a couple of pigeons wandering about, they had the place
+all to themselves.
+
+"This is a discovery," declared Lady Betty. "It is as interesting here
+in its way as the Rialto at Venice."
+
+And indeed they had reason to admire. To the right lay the Bridge of
+Bridges, whose endlessly rolling traffic was at this distance softened
+to an artistic suggestion that by no means disturbed their sense of
+solitude. At the adjoining wharf on the left a Dutch boat was being
+unladen, actively, yet with a strange sense of stillness and calm. And
+over all the river and shipping hung a faint grey-blue mist, muffling
+and enveloping all things out of proportion to its density, and
+absorbing the sunlight into a haze that already seemed to foretell the
+chills of the coming twilight of the winter's day. They saw the sun, a
+large red ball, hanging extraordinarily low in the sky over a long squat
+warehouse with symmetrical rows of windows. And across the river, under
+the shadow of the opposite structures, lay strange families of craft and
+barges, moored in the water, or high on the mud; rusty and silent, some
+half-broken up, some swinging lazily, touched with the mellow decay of
+the centuries.
+
+Lady Betty thought it would be ideal to stay here awhile, so they
+settled down on one of the garden-seats, and sat in quiet happiness,
+unheeding of the sharp touch of the afternoon air. More pigeons flew
+down from neighbouring roofs and walked tamely around them. And from all
+the mighty activity of surrounding London, that beat strenuous,
+feverish, far-reaching, there flowed to them only a serenity, an almost
+phantasmal calm: they were alone, supremely alone--far from their world
+of everyday existence.
+
+The time slipped by deliciously. Their enjoyment was as spontaneous as
+of two children at play. And children they were in the perfect
+simplicity of their happiness. They watched the afternoon deepen, the
+haze of sunshine weaken and yield to greyer moods; they rose, too, and
+moved along the edge of the waters, and examined the shipping and
+barges. They spoke to the pigeons, gave them names, endowed them with
+romances; they spoke to each other endearingly, yet still as the two
+children who had played together always, who had wandered into this
+strange world, and were as enchanted with it as with each other.
+
+At last they realised the light was already fading; the mist on all
+things was ghostlier, and damp in the throat and nostrils. Now and again
+a spasmodic wind caught up dry leaves and swirled them around playfully.
+Lady Betty gave a little shiver.
+
+"Night will soon be on us," she said. "A million points of light will be
+springing up as by magic. It would be enchanting to stay and watch the
+darkness deepen and the river-fog steal down; to sit here through the
+mysterious hours, and study the shadows and silhouettes, and listen to
+all the strange sounds of the night, and watch all those lights glimmer
+on and on, till at last they show yellow in the pale dawn, and life
+again is swarming over the bridges. Must we go back, dear?--we have left
+our world ever so far away--and years ago, was it not, dear?"
+
+A sadness had descended on them both. With the approach of evening, they
+could not but feel the precious time was fleeting; they could no longer
+immerse themselves with such wholeheartedness in the simple appreciation
+of the moment. The terror of the parting to come rose in the hearts of
+both. Yet they made a brave resistance.
+
+"Come, darling," she said at last; "the hours still belong to us. We
+have indulged our day-mood. Let us search for something fresh now; our
+good star shall watch over us and send us happy adventures."
+
+So they passed again into the street, and, absorbed in their talk, were
+scarcely aware whither they were turning. They knew they were in a
+network of by-ways, flanked by warehouses and offices, and sometimes
+they stumbled on terraces of decrepit old dwelling-houses. They were
+vaguely conscious that they were leaving the river far behind, and that
+they must have crossed Eastcheap again at some narrower part without
+recognising it. After some leisurely wandering they came into a more
+important thoroughfare with pretentious edifices, yet with archaic
+touches here and there, the relics of another epoch, worn and decaying,
+yet more suggestive of coming stone buildings to supplant them than of
+the glory of their own century.
+
+At a street-corner, under the light of a lamp that was still pale in the
+gathering dusk, a shivering flower-seller with a red shawl over her
+shoulders stood with a basket of deliciously fresh violets, and Wyndham
+stopped to get a big bunch of them put together for his companion. Lady
+Betty was immensely gratified; she breathed in the odour of the violets
+with rapture, then fastened them in her bosom. She was herself again
+now, overflowing with good fellowship, and amused at every trifle. He
+caught her exhilaration. "We shall fill our evening with a whirl of
+gaiety!" he cried. "Rockets and fireworks; I wonder if the good star you
+spoke of will be kind enough to set down in our path some unheard-of
+theatre."
+
+She suggested they should study the hoardings as they went along, and
+both undertook to keep a look-out. But they were absorbed again in each
+other, having only a vague pleasurable sense of the crowded roads into
+which their steps now took them. Eventually they were in a main
+thoroughfare, with bustling shops brilliantly alight, and endless lines
+of stalls a-blazing; the roadway full of traffic and tram-cars and
+amazingly gigantic hay-carts, the pavements thick with a working
+population pressing forward and forward in multitudes. It was night now,
+absolutely; but it had stolen on them so gradually, they were astonished
+it was so definitely manifest. The hours of light were fresh and vivid
+in their minds, they could almost hear and feel the unending clatter of
+the omnibus that had carried them across the town, and the riverside
+picture was still before them. The change that had come over the world,
+this transition to absolute darkness illumined by street-lamps and
+flaring naphtha, seemed mystic and amazing. And a subtle warmth from
+all this illumination and from all this press and bustle, from all these
+close-packed moving vans and cars and hay-carts, pervaded the wintry
+air; a sense of exhilaration, too; a sense of life in all its unrefined,
+joyous reality, intense and vigorous, accepting itself unquestioningly,
+too sure of the worth of the gift ever to doubt it--even as the hungry
+ploughboy does not speculate metaphysically about the fat pork on his
+plate, but simply falls thereon and devours it.
+
+"Book-stalls!" cried Lady Betty, "and piled up ever and ever so high.
+And look, rusty Wellington boots on the one hand, and rusty tools and
+bits of iron on the other."
+
+They stayed a few minutes, and turned over some of the books, as
+interesting and varied as those in any more pretentious bookman's
+paradise. They both grew selfishly absorbed, each striking out an
+individual path, though remembering the other's existence at moments of
+extraordinary interest. In the end each became the possessor of a
+volume. Wyndham's was a facsimile of the first edition of the "Pilgrim's
+Progress," a fattish octavo with the loveliest of wide margins, and the
+exact reproduction of the original engravings. Lady Betty's treasure was
+an old copy of the Dramatic Poems of Browning. Each paid the same
+one-and-sixpence, and as they bore away their prizes they discovered
+that each had been inspired by the same motive--of giving the other a
+memento of this wonderful day. Laughingly they exchanged their volumes,
+and the presentations thus formally carried out, Wyndham took possession
+of the Bunyan again in the mere capacity of carrier.
+
+At last a hoarding with a great glare of light on it.
+
+Wyndham let his eye roam over the posters. "The very thing," he cried.
+"A fine old-fashioned melodrama!"
+
+"Splendid!" echoed Lady Betty, gazing at the many-coloured scenes that
+promised a generous measure of thrills and emotions.
+
+"We shall have a box to ourselves," said Wyndham. "As you see, it is not
+so very extravagant. Only there is the problem of dining."
+
+"What healthy little children we are!" she laughed.
+
+"Oh, we must dine," he protested.
+
+"I have faith," she declared. "Our good star has served us till now, it
+is not going to desert us. We shall light upon some quaint place
+presently."
+
+The confident prediction justified itself, for, later on, they stopped
+before a Jewish restaurant that proudly announced itself as "kosher."
+And it proved immediately irresistible to the wanderers, who entered
+straightway, and found themselves in a simple sort of room with freshly
+papered walls, full of neatly laid tables, the very antithesis of the
+familiar formal restaurant of ornate intention. The place was empty of
+diners as yet--no doubt it was early for the usual clients; but the
+proprietor, a grave bearded personage in spotless broad-cloth and with
+the air of an ambassador, come forward bowing profoundly, and escorted
+them to a choice corner. Through a half-open door at the back they had a
+glimpse of a neat, comely Jewish woman busy amid pots and pans, whilst a
+boy and a girl, who both looked good and intelligent, were industriously
+doing their lessons at a side-table. The host waited on the adventurers
+in person, taking the dishes from a younger and shyer assistant who
+brought them from behind the scenes.
+
+Despite the magnificent gravity of his presence, their host turned out
+to be an unaffected human being, whom they encouraged to talk of his own
+affairs, and who was pleased at their manifest interest in his homely
+establishment and in his little family. His wife and he worked together,
+and it was her cooking on which they were now being regaled. Their
+favourable verdict gave him an almost naïve gratification; a radiance
+and an illumination broke brilliantly across his features. He told them
+the Jewish names of the various dishes, but though they repeated them
+sedulously, the strange, charming words would not remain in their heads
+a moment. Meanwhile the kitchen was being stimulated to a display of
+delicate skill and finesse; the fish was as good, declared Lady Betty,
+as anything she had tasted at the Maison d'Or. A few other clients began
+to appear--a long-bearded Russian, carefully dressed, accompanied by a
+simple, buxom daughter of rosy complexion and deep, serious, aspiring
+eyes; then a middle-aged man, with a leonine mane that was dashed with
+grey and suggested the poor composer of genius; and finally a spectacled
+German in a threadbare cut-away coat, carefully brushed, who suggested
+unrequited scholarship. But all these, after the first distinguished bow
+and salutation on the part of the host, were left to the attentions of
+the assistant; the host himself being magnetised by the unaccustomed
+guests with whom he was deep in conversation. But, though he waited on
+them perfectly, there was yet conveyed in his bearing such a touch of
+distinction and courteous affability that they were sensible as of an
+honour that was being bestowed upon them. And that he was no mere
+small-souled tradesman was abundantly evident when he brought them a
+bottle of claret with the romantic recommendation that it had been grown
+on Palestine soil, and that, in its passage from the wine-press to their
+table here, it had never left the hands of his compatriots. He handled
+the bottle with pride and certainly emotion, and begged them to accept
+of it, and to allow him to fill their glasses. They were touched by the
+invitation, though they were naturally unwilling to accept such a gift
+from a poor man, but he understood their doubts and laughingly explained
+that, as he did not possess a wine licence, he could not possibly accept
+payment; a piece of reasoning which drew them into the laugh and
+disposed of their hesitations.
+
+They made him join them, however, and they drank to the prosperity of
+the Palestine colonies, irrelevantly but charmingly coupling the toast
+with that of their host and hostess, the children and the restaurant.
+The other visitors smiled quietly, and, with conspicuous good breeding,
+scarcely turned their eyes towards this convivial table, the Russian
+conversing in an undertone with his daughter, and the musician with the
+scholar.
+
+And at the end the host did not give himself any false airs, but made
+out their modest reckoning and handed Wyndham the change, all with the
+same courtesy and with a distinction of manner which seemed to lift
+trade to a higher plane than it occupies in Occidental prejudice. And as
+the wife appeared hovering with a shy smile in the kitchen doorway, she
+was invited to join the group, and warmly complimented on her culinary
+skill. Then Lady Betty asked for the children, and presently their
+bright faces were illumining the room with a warmer and sweeter light.
+Wyndham and Lady Betty spoke to them a little, then Lady Betty slipped a
+fragile ring with a single small fine pearl off her finger, and put it
+on the girl's. The little thing blushed and hung down her head. But the
+jewel became the tiny hand immensely. Meanwhile the boy's eyes were
+glued on the books.
+
+"I can see you like books, little man," said Wyndham.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the child, "better than anything else."
+
+"His ambition is to become a scholar," put in his father proudly.
+
+"He is to have the Browning as a memento," said Lady Betty. She handed
+it to the child. "Keep this volume carefully. When you are older, I am
+sure you will love and treasure it." Then she unfastened her big bunch
+of violets and pressed the flowers on his mother, who took them shyly
+but coloured with pleasure.
+
+When they were in the street again they walked on silently for a while.
+Wyndham saw that Lady Betty had been deeply touched; that something
+wonderful had been revealed to her of which, perhaps, she had never
+caught a glimpse in her whole existence. Presently she turned to Wyndham
+with a quiet smile that was the natural reflection of her thought.
+
+"You do forgive me, dear," she asked, "for my arbitrary disposal of
+your Browning, my own present to you!"
+
+"You sacrificed my gift of violets, so we are quits."
+
+"After this we shall scarcely need any memento of the day--who could
+ever forget?" Then with a little thrill of joy: "But I've my Pilgrim all
+the same." She touched the book lovingly as he held it, and he was aware
+of her movement as of a caress. It was his gift to her, and what a world
+of affection in this implication of the value she set on it!
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+
+They found the theatre easily, and, from their snug box, enjoyed a most
+lurid melodrama, which amply redeemed the promise of the hoarding, and
+was played by a vigorous company who seemed in no wise dismayed by
+yawning spaces and a thin scattering of audience. Nay, the thrills were
+even more than the adventurers had reckoned on, for pistol shots
+suddenly rang out in the third act, and Lady Betty clutched hard at the
+curtain of the box. She presently realised, however, that the iniquitous
+foreign nobleman with the fur overcoat and large moustachios, whose
+veiled hand had directed the remorseless persecution of the good and
+righteous, had at last paid for his misdeeds, and with this passing of
+the villain Lady Betty found that her sense of poetic justice was
+abundantly satisfied; though the luckless heroine, appearing on the
+scene just then, and incautiously picking up the fallen pistol, was at
+once arrested as the manifest murderess. Then the curtain went down, and
+Lady Betty rose.
+
+"We must not stay to the end. Our day is over, and I want to give you
+the promised souvenir of our brief friendship."
+
+There was a catch in her voice, and he understood that the sob had been
+suppressed with difficulty. He felt it was for him now to be strong; to
+set the note of stoic resignation, even as she had led off their
+adventures with a mood that had made this day the most wonderful of all
+his life.
+
+"Ah, your strange, strange souvenir!" he laughed. "You must admit I have
+waited patiently."
+
+"It was very wicked of me," she admitted. "But I shall keep you tortured
+with curiosity till the moment I give it to you. I have it at home. We
+had better drive back all the way, if we can find a vehicle."
+
+They slipped out of the box and along the corridor and into the open
+road. It was a keen night, but very clear. The perspective of street
+lamps stretched endlessly on either hand. There was a plentiful
+sprinkling of people about, and the tram-cars were still passing. At the
+kerb were a few cabs, waiting for possible clients, so they selected the
+smartest of the vehicles; and the driver, who had been standing flinging
+his arms about for warmth, climbed into his seat, stolidly indifferent
+that "fares" from the theatre should wish to go so far afield into the
+regions of the elect.
+
+No doubt the horse was glad to be off, for they started at an
+astonishingly brisk pace. Outside lay the endless road and all the
+shuttered world of streets and houses, over which still hung the romance
+of their splendid day. Quietly they had their last glimpses, as if
+fearing to speak, and yet thrillingly conscious of their proximity to
+each other. Lady Betty was sunk in sadness; as if she recognised now
+that any affectation of cheerfulness was utterly vain. And Wyndham was
+thinking of the definite moment of parting. He had resigned himself to
+saying "goodbye" at the door of her home; not daring to suggest now that
+she should visit his studio, even for the first time and last--since the
+chance had not naturally arisen in the course of the day's wanderings,
+and she had not even expressed the desire for it. Indeed, in all these
+weeks she had thrown out no hint of such a wish, and he had felt that
+she considered the ground as within Alice's absolute sphere, and would
+not intrude on it. No doubt many mingled shades of feeling went to
+create this attitude of hers. Still, Wyndham, having dreamed of her
+coming there on this last day, was to that extent unsatisfied. Time and
+again the suggestion mounted to his lips even at this eleventh hour, but
+he had not the confidence to let the words fall.
+
+Perhaps they had both fallen into reverie, for Wyndham found himself
+saying suddenly, "Why, here is the Bank of England!" And Lady Betty
+started, too, astonished at the stillness and the solitude here in the
+heart of the City.
+
+"The night seems darker now, and how ghostly and silent the lights are!"
+she said. "The sky has clouded. Goodbye, dreamland," she added in
+meditation. "I shall never dare revisit the ground we have covered. I
+don't want to see it again; I couldn't bear it. But I shall always think
+and dream of it."
+
+He dared not answer. The least false note, and she would be unnerved.
+Since the parting had to be, let them grip hands silently for the last
+time, almost without realising it; let them go off as if they were to
+meet again on the morrow--as in so many partings that life itself brings
+about.
+
+And as they were borne westwards, signs of life began to appear again;
+as they approached the Strand they came full upon the torrents of
+population pouring out from their amusements. At Trafalgar Square the
+town was alive with masses of hansoms in motion that broke into jets and
+streams flashing and darting into all the avenues. They seemed to have
+returned into this familiar, dazzling London of the night as from a long
+journey. They were giddy with the impression of it all, and winced as if
+they had long grown disaccustomed to it. But, definitely, they were at
+home again; soon the houses of Grosvenor Place would loom up before
+them, though somehow their everyday universe had taken on some subtle
+quality of unreality since the morning.
+
+And yet how small the distance they had gone afield, how soon
+annihilated! Up St. James's Street went the cab, alongside the Green
+Park, and in a few minutes it had pulled up in Grosvenor Place. Wyndham
+sprang out with a forced alertness, and helped his companion to descend.
+The house was quite dark. Lady Betty led the way to the door-step and
+produced a latch key from her purse. Wyndham stood by, strained and
+nervous.
+
+"You must come in to receive your souvenir," she said. "You have well
+deserved it," she added with a brave smile.
+
+He followed her in as she pushed the door open; then she switched on the
+light. "You had best wait in the dining-room, I shall join you again
+presently."
+
+Wyndham stood alone in the spacious room, with a sense of chill and
+desolation. The thought of his marriage and life to come flashed on him
+with a stroke of terror. Suddenly he shivered. Ah, it was bleak here in
+this deadly, all-pervading stillness. The very lights seemed to flood
+the room mournfully. How tired he was! Everything seemed to swim before
+him.
+
+And then he was aware she was in the room again, smiling at him and
+exhibiting a package. Her presence seemed to revive him.
+
+"At last I am to be enlightened," he murmured.
+
+"I am afraid you are doomed to be disappointed," she said, as she came
+and stood by his side at the table. "I have made such a mystery of it,
+whereas, no doubt, you will find it trivial."
+
+"You said it was a weird idea. I am sure it is a charming one. Whatever
+it is, you know what it will be to me."
+
+"I know, darling," she said, suddenly grave again.
+
+She bade him cut the string and open the package. At last, as he was
+removing the many wrappings, "It is an old door-knocker," she said; "the
+figure of a lovely grotesque old wizard, wrought in bronze. I came
+across it on the door of a fifteenth-century house in Delft a year or
+two ago, and it so fascinated me that I bargained for it with the owner.
+It has ever since remained one of my pet possessions, and I at once
+thought of it for you. Tell me truly what you think of it!"
+
+Wyndham held up the strange bronze man, slim and long, with fantastic
+bearded head, and grasping in one hand a rod that merged into a huge
+serpent that lay coiled round the body. The two legs were welded at the
+bottom into one big foot, the heel of which formed the hammer. It was a
+piece of grotesqueness worthy of the East, finely and subtly modelled,
+and quaint rather than grim in its suggestiveness.
+
+"A masterpiece!" he said at last. "I have never seen anything of the
+kind to match it."
+
+"I should say it is by an artist of at any rate the early renaissance,"
+she ventured, her face agleam, for she had awaited his verdict with
+anxiety. "The modelling is so careful and scientific."
+
+"Those were the days when artists still thought only of their work, and
+so much forgot their own existence that they took no pains to proclaim
+themselves to the world. The work of the so-called dark ages remains,
+the artists lie unknown and unheard of, if indeed they were known to the
+world at any time."
+
+"You will set up my wizard on the door of your house. Every time you
+hear it you will think of me as floating there like a spirit. Isn't that
+weird? I have the idea that if an enemy should touch it, you would
+somehow know at once, and be on your guard. Oh, yes, I was convinced it
+was a magic knocker the moment I saw it."
+
+He was still staring at it gravely, as if he, too, felt some eerie
+quality in it. She looked at him, then broke into laughter. "Aren't we a
+charming pair of children, taking our own make-believe so seriously?"
+
+He laughed, too, though uneasily. "It is good to be children again."
+
+"Like all good things, it is cut short so soon," she responded
+meditatively.
+
+He replaced the old wizard in its wrappings. "It is true," he murmured,
+pale and haggard. "Time is flying."
+
+"Ah, well," she said with a catch in her breath.
+
+They were looking at each other brokenly. The air echoed and echoed with
+the "goodbye" that was not spoken.
+
+He took her hand in his. "Princess," he whispered huskily, "I had
+dreamed of your seeing my studio ere we said goodbye. It would be for
+the first time and last, remember. Won't you come with me now,
+dear?--the merest glimpse--if only to see where your magic knocker is to
+hang--You understand, dear?"
+
+Her eyes glistened. "Yes, I understand, dear. I will come with you."
+
+"This is one of the kindest things that even your life will hold!" he
+exclaimed.
+
+So again they were in the street, and the door swung to behind them.
+Wyndham was carrying his package, unexpectedly heavy, all concentrated
+weight, like a dumb-bell. The point caught her attention, and in a flash
+she changed again, was once more the amused laughing comrade, even
+though the sky was clouded now and tiny specks of rain flew in their
+faces.
+
+"A midnight expedition!" she cried. "Let it be a hansom this time."
+
+At the corner of Knightsbridge they found one, and they were off again
+at a trot; a fact so astonishing that they could hardly grasp it. And
+then, instead of feeling broken with fatigue at the end of a long day,
+they found themselves fresh and spirited, as at the beginning of a new
+adventure.
+
+Soon they were cutting down Sloane Street, and then Wyndham suggested
+they should go the more interesting way round, so as to take in the
+Embankment, and drive into the Tite Street at the river end. It would
+leave a pleasanter impression with her, he argued, and Lady Betty
+readily assented. He gave the man the word, but straightway again the
+pair were deep in conversation, and lost all sense of the outer world.
+
+Some minutes passed. Suddenly their driver gave a shout, the hansom
+jerked violently, and Lady Betty, clutching at Wyndham's hand, saw a
+woman just step back in time from under the horse's head. The driver
+cracked his whip and shouted something angrily, and then the hansom
+moved on again. Wyndham stared out into the night. He saw the line of
+lights gleaming along the parapet of the river, and recognised they were
+within a short distance of Tite Street. But the woman was already lost
+in the gloom.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+
+At the table that evening, Alice Robinson announced that she was going
+to meet Wyndham immediately after dinner. Had her parents not been
+accustomed to her departure at such summary notice, they might have
+observed the touch of embarrassment that accompanied it. For, although
+the expedition had been planned and considered for twenty-four hours on
+end, Alice found the initial falsehood singularly agitating. Painfully
+conscious of this lack of sangfroid, and fearful of betraying herself,
+she felt she must escape from the house as soon as was plausible. So, a
+little later, she rose in feverish haste from the dinner-table, and went
+to her room to put on her wrappings. No one was to wait up for her, in
+case she might be late, she said; she was taking a latch-key as usual.
+Then she slipped out of the house, and went down the street rapidly.
+
+Some little time had elapsed before she had control of her wits and
+began to reflect. She had been impelled to start far earlier than she
+had calculated, and thus she undoubtedly ran the danger of finding
+Wyndham there, if she went straight to the studio. It was half-past
+eight; by taking various omnibuses she could fill out the time and be
+there by half-past nine. But even that seemed too early--he might be
+only just on the point of going out to his club engagement. No, to be
+absolutely safe, she would not venture actually to intrude till ten
+o'clock.
+
+However, she decided to make the journey at once, and to pass the
+remaining time in that neighbourhood. So she mounted the first omnibus
+that came along, and, once settled down for the long drive, she drew a
+deep breath of relief. Now that she was definitely on the way, some of
+the stress and pressure seemed to leave her, and the expedition seemed
+less terrible. She pictured herself stealing down Tite Street, standing
+nervously on the opposite pavement in the shadow, and looking up to see
+if the studio were illuminated. Even if all were dark, Wyndham might
+still be dressing in the room at the back; for, from the state of the
+hall, nothing could be deduced, as often he would not take the trouble
+to light the oil-lamp on which he at present depended. No, it would be
+certainly more prudent to wait long enough for certainty. Should she
+once break in upon him, she knew he would take good care she should not
+see the picture; for no doubt he had taken measures against such a
+surprise visit.
+
+Immersed in these reflections, Alice was dimly aware of the miles of
+streets through which she was being carried. Indeed, she forgot to
+change omnibuses at Oxford Street, and was borne some distance out of
+her way before she discovered the omission. The whole town seemed to her
+like a dream; the street and the studio at her journey's end were all
+that existed for her. And even when she gazed at the world around her,
+it refused to take on any reality; the people that were abroad, going
+their way and standing out brilliantly in the night wherever a blaze of
+light fell upon them, seemed all strangely irrelevant. The only figures
+that mattered were her affianced husband and the beautiful, sad woman of
+stately presence, whose loveliness and nobility had drawn him from her.
+She knew now she hated Lady Lakeden--definitely, terribly. It was
+shameful, it was wicked--to hate like that! Lady Lakeden was blameless,
+and had not the least idea of all this suffering which her loveliness
+had caused to a fellow-woman, and to Wyndham, too. Yet how good it was
+to let this mad fury against Lady Lakeden develop in her heart!
+
+She pictured the portrait as standing with its face to the wall,
+unobtrusive, even lost, amid the hosts of other canvasses. With what
+terrible eagerness she would dart on it, turn it again, and let the
+light fall on it! At last she should gaze on the face, should satiate
+her consuming curiosity!
+
+At Sloane Square she alighted, deciding to eke out the time by walking
+the rest of the distance. As she plunged into the heart of Chelsea, and
+was so sensibly near her journey's end, her pulse beat faster, her
+breath came irregularly, and again her whole mind was concentrated
+vividly on her goal. The streets through which she passed were almost
+deserted. The old houses, the gardens, the stretches of brand-new
+buildings, the great Hospital itself, were all vague silhouettes; above,
+the stars were keen, but her eyes were fixed rigidly before her.
+
+At the corner of Tite Street she stopped to draw breath, for her heart
+was now thumping painfully. At the same time she felt almost afraid to
+set foot in the street itself. The hesitation was unexpected; she had
+imagined herself going straight to the studio, all of the same impulse.
+But here a sense of wrong-doing came upon her; the underhandedness of
+the whole proceeding stood out in that moment, curiously revealed,
+strangely impressive. A strong temptation assailed her to turn, to run
+off with all her force, to go back home. But she set her teeth, again.
+No, she must not go back without seeing Lady Lakeden's portrait. She
+must not yield to these moments of cowardice. It was stupid. Other women
+dared much greater things; would hesitate at nothing, however false and
+ignoble, to gain their own end!
+
+She crossed to the opposite side, and flitted down the street like a
+shadow. She had so effectively lengthened out her journey that it was at
+last nearly ten o'clock. Wyndham's whole house was dark, and she had
+little doubt but that he was already out. Yet she wanted to be
+absolutely certain, so she moved on again, and sauntered off into a
+network of neighbouring streets. But she was too impatient to go far
+afield, and, after a few minutes, she retraced her steps till once more
+she found herself looking across the street at the silent house that lay
+all in deep shadow. How dark and deserted; how unnaturally still the
+whole quarter! Then tramp, tramp, tramp, came the heavy foot of a
+policeman, and she made him out dimly approaching her. She crossed the
+road, nervous indeed of any human scrutiny, and walked on briskly, only
+venturing to turn back when he had finally passed out of the street.
+Now, she told herself, was the moment.
+
+With every muscle tense, her heart beating now with terrible strokes, so
+that she felt she might fall swooning at any moment, she approached the
+house, and mounted the few steps that led to the doorway. Her key was in
+her little purse-bag, and she extricated it tremblingly. At last she had
+the door open, gave a last, quick, furtive, glance around, and then
+stepped into the hall. For a moment she stood listening, her ears
+intensely on the alert for the least sound in the house. But the sense
+of absolute emptiness was too profound: the measured ticking of the tall
+hall-clock seemed to be sounding a curiously vigorous note. She let the
+door slam behind her, and moved forward a step or two, her feet sinking
+into the deep Turkey carpet that she herself had chosen; then she sank
+on a hard oak chair, and sat there gratefully, trying to master her
+breath, and waiting for her heart to thump itself through sheer
+weariness into a gentler measure. She unfastened her wraps and threw her
+coat open, for from head to foot she was burning. She did not note the
+time that passed, but when she rose again with a start she heard from
+some neighbouring church clock the single stroke of a quarter. She
+hesitated no longer, but determined to go up at once to the studio.
+
+But first she lighted the hall lamp. Now that she was here she intended
+to take possession openly, as was her right. If he should come back
+suddenly, he at least should not imagine that she was there in secret.
+But the cunning of the reasoning gave her a twinge of shame; she knew
+that she was throwing dust in her own eyes in thus spouting of her
+right. Admit at once that this liberal illumination was a piece of
+craft, was intended to maintain the surface of innocence that was the
+cover for woman's guile from time immemorial. Well, so be it! She had
+been a child all her life. If perhaps she had been less truly innocent,
+even she might have kept the man who had slipped from her. She was
+graduating in womanhood now; how splendid it was to be unscrupulous, to
+do absolutely what you wished, yet skilfully maintain the blind belief
+and confidence of those you tricked! What great power, what joy could be
+gathered for yourself that way! Yes, that was the only thing for woman
+in this world; otherwise she was left to rot!
+
+And, as if to emphasise the conviction, she deliberately lighted a
+second spare lamp that stood in the hall, so that the spaces were
+illumined resplendently. Then she mounted the flight of stairs, letting
+her hand trail along the graceful sweep of balustrade, and pushed open
+the door of the studio.
+
+Peering into the darkness, her eyes at first could distinguish nothing
+save the objects in the spaces near her, as some of the light flowed up
+from below. But presently she was able to distinguish the familiar
+furniture, and cautiously felt her way across to the mantelpiece. Soon
+two powerful lamps were in full flame, and she sat down again to rest
+for a minute, whilst her eyes wandered round seeking for the portrait
+that was the object of her pilgrimage. She did not remove her coat and
+wraps, although, spacious as the room was, the atmosphere felt
+oppressive and the slow fire, banked up with ashes, seemed to give out
+an immense heat. Yet she felt singularly at leisure, in full possession
+of her purpose.
+
+Obviously Lady Lakeden's portrait was not on any of the easels; nor
+could she distinguish any fresh unit amid these many canvasses, all
+individually familiar to her--like a card-sharper, she could identify
+any one of them immediately from its apparently featureless back. Her
+first feeling was one of astonished disappointment, and she rose now,
+ready to institute a closer search. The possibility of being baulked of
+her purpose stirred a sudden rage in her. She no longer knew herself. "I
+am mad--mad," was the thought that echoed through her brain. "But if I
+am," she reasoned grimly, "my sufferings all these weeks have made me
+so. I would sooner die than endure this all over again." Then she set
+about examining all the canvasses, turning them one after the other to
+the light, in the vain hope that her too accurate knowledge of them
+might prove in some instance mistaken. But in vain! Was it possible that
+the portrait was already on its way to Paris?
+
+But wait, was there anything behind the screen so carelessly sprawling
+in the corner there under the great window? In a moment she had dashed
+across, and had half-dragged, half-flung it out of its place. Ah! she
+could almost have screamed with fury at Wyndham's cautious
+foresight--this unmistakable provision against an accidental visit from
+her. It was then true; definitely, absolutely true! The man whom she
+loved to madness, who had professed to love her for herself alone,
+belonged heart and soul to another woman!
+
+A mist palpitated in the air before her, and the gold foliage and
+convolutions of the ornate Venetian frame shone through it distorted and
+terrible. But the canvas itself was a vague blur to her. She staggered
+over to the nearer lamp and bore it over to the corner, kneeling so as
+to bring the light full on the picture and her own face opposite Lady
+Lakeden's. And as now she saw this rare princess, bathed in a mystic
+light, this figure, full of a sweet dignity and a stately grace; as her
+eyes rested on the girlish face whose character yet shone out in a
+splendid illumination, though the rounded, youthful features were free
+from any stamp that might have touched the bloom of their spring-tide
+beauty, a cruel knife worked in Alice's heart, a knife that seared as
+well as stabbed. For a long minute she gazed at the portrait, letting it
+burn itself on her vision in its every shade and detail--the fresh sheen
+on the hair, the proud yet sweet tilt of the face, the wonderfully fresh
+and deep violet-grey eyes, the veritable rose-bud mouth that was yet so
+firm and true! This, then, was her rival! How could she, the plainest
+of the plain, hope to struggle against the irresistible might of this
+loveliness! A sense of absolute defeat, of complete hopelessness invaded
+her whole being; it was the same submissive acquiescence with which she
+had contemplated herself in the glass on that momentous evening when
+Wyndham had appeared in her father's house for the first time. But then
+the hope had never been roused; now the joy was literally snatched from
+her lips. But, though her intelligence saw the hopelessness, her heart
+was full of desperation. And while yet her eyes were riveted on the
+picture, fascinated, yet loathing it with a passion that seemed to flame
+and to dominate her as though her real self were too puny to stir
+against it, a wild whirling thought came to her that made her body rock
+and shiver, and she set the lamp on the floor to save it from crashing
+down out of her hand. What if this woman were as guilty as the man?
+
+"I understand now," her lips broke out involuntarily. "They loved each
+other from the beginning, but she married another for convention's sake.
+Now they have resumed their old love, but I am in the way. He will not
+jilt me, because his honour is at stake, but as a man of honour he would
+not think it dishonourable to deceive me." She laughed aloud in
+bitterness. That was it! They would both deceive her, though he would
+never break his word. Had she not seen the point exemplified in a
+hundred books and plays?
+
+Ah, this honour of the fashionable classes! And she had believed Lady
+Lakeden to be true; had, in pity and sympathy, set her on the highest
+pedestal of womanhood. How her belief in her rival's perfect goodness
+had blinded her! What a fool she had been, going through life with such
+simplicity! With a heart so open and trusting! No wonder nothing had
+come to illumine her existence!--that what had seemed to hold the
+promise was a cheat and a delusion!
+
+And, as her mind ran back over the past weeks, a thousand things seemed
+to confirm her new inspiration at every turn. Ah, God! how she had been
+tricked! Was there another woman in the world who would have been so
+trustingly stupid? The blood seemed to surge all to her temples:
+everything before her faded. An impulse to give vent to her fury seized
+her. She longed to tear and rend the canvas, to crush and break it with
+her fingers, to bite it through and through with her teeth. And she
+would have carried the imperious impulse into effect, had not a new
+thought, like a zigzag of lightning, come flashing through her brain.
+Lady Lakeden had no doubt written him letters; there must be a whole
+packet of them somewhere here in the studio! She would read them; they
+would not lie!
+
+Intent on this new end, she darted across to the bureau (of which the
+lid was permanently down and laden with papers and portfolios), and
+scrutinised the pigeon-holes. These were always open to her without
+restriction, but she had never thought of examining the contents, though
+she had often put away papers and receipts for him. She made a quick,
+feverish inspection of them now, not hoping to find the letters she
+sought in a place thus conspicuous, but yet fearful of overlooking them.
+The pigeon-holes yielded in fact nothing to interest her, and then with
+trembling fingers she turned out the little drawers, one at a time,
+replacing the contents of each carefully before proceeding to the next.
+She was reckless now, having no control over itself. She did not fear
+his sudden arrival on the scene; she would face him--she would taunt him
+with the truth!
+
+Suddenly her physical powers seemed to break down, and she clutched at
+the bureau for support. And as soon as she had steadied herself, she was
+glad to drag over a chair, and continue her search with feeble, tired
+movements. And with this abrupt collapse, her crude, violent emotions
+seemed to have blazed themselves out. She felt now a poor forlorn,
+helpless creature; her eyes were wet with tears, and she was choking
+down her sobs. And it seemed to her that she was gulping down an
+infinite bitterness. "I have it," she said suddenly, a momentary
+illumination flitting across her features. He had once shown her in
+this old provincial French bureau a receptacle which he had spoken of as
+his secret drawer, a space neatly stowed away amid the other surrounding
+spaces so that its ingenious existence might remain reasonably
+unsuspected. She immediately stopped her operations, replacing things
+with a movement that was increasingly languid and feeble; and eventually
+opened the principal compartment in the centre which was on a level with
+the writing-lid. Removing all its contents, she inserted her nail in a
+little innocent slit, made the floor of the compartment slide along,
+then thrust her hand into the space revealed.
+
+Clearly a packet of letters was there. She drew it forth--over a dozen
+of them, carefully preserved in their fashionable-looking envelopes and
+tied together with a broad piece of tape. A faint perfume of violets was
+in her nostrils as she handled them. And this packet, too, seemed
+strangely imbued with the personality of their writer, reminiscent of a
+world of dream and books. How remote from her they seemed! How remote
+from her, indeed, all the amazing history of these past months! That,
+too, belonged rather to a world of dream and books. What! these great
+tragic complications and emotions had sprung up in her simple,
+uneventful existence! had related themselves to a brick bow-windowed
+house in the suburbs!
+
+She gazed at the packet again, conscious that her fingers were
+faltering. How mean, low, hateful to read letters that had not been
+meant for others' eyes! And what purpose would be served by her reading
+them? She needed no further proof of the intrigue that had been carried
+on in the shelter of her own credulity and simplicity. Besides, she
+could divine what passionate vows of love were written herein, and to
+pry into them would be to renew her tortures beyond human endurance. She
+feared and turned away from them as from a furnace heated seven times
+hot. The packet dropped amid the masses of papers that encumbered the
+desk. Her tears came anew, and she gave them full vent; a storm of
+hysteric sobbing shook her convulsively.
+
+When eventually the attack had spent itself, she sat there listlessly,
+without the force to stir hand or foot. But her brain was working
+feverishly, definitely recognising that her life was spoilt. She had
+made her great cry of revolt in this mad dash and underhanded search;
+better perhaps to have made it in the silent depths of her heart! Ah,
+God, it was bitter, it was cruel! But what had she expected? Had she not
+known from the beginning that she ought never to accept one so far above
+her?--that she was not the ideal his heart would crave for, but that, at
+the best, a deep secret dissatisfaction would rankle in him all his
+life? Had she not steadily seen this, while yet a shred of sanity
+remained to her? But it had all happened in spite of herself; she had
+been stricken with blindness, and her clear-seeing mind had been
+possessed with inexplicable folly. She--Alice Robinson!--and the thought
+made her laugh out aloud--had wholly believed that this man sincerely
+loved her! She laughed again and again, seized suddenly by the pitifully
+comic spectacle she presented to herself--Alice Robinson, shy, awkward,
+devoid of all the graces, lacking _savoir-faire_, neglected not only by
+men, but even by her own sex: Alice Robinson, the granddaughter of a
+carpenter, seriously beloved by an aristocrat with all the graces and
+culture, an artist, moreover, for whom beauty was always the primal
+appeal! She--Alice Robinson--had been under this wondrous delusion! Was
+there anything more ridiculous since men and women were? Her laughter
+could not be repressed, but it rang out through the studio weirdly, with
+a strange note of hardness and bitterness, and somehow it echoed and
+re-echoed through all the house, coming back to her mockingly from the
+empty rooms beneath her.
+
+Even when her laughter had died away she sat there brooding. And for the
+first time there was mingled in her emotions a touch of pity for
+Wyndham. She was conscious now of a softening, in spite of all. Poor
+Wyndham! Had he not loved Lady Lakeden years before he had set eyes on
+the Robinsons? If only he had not possessed that terrible code of
+honour! He might then have come to her frankly and begged her
+compassion! She would have released him. But he could not break his
+word. His honour only allowed him to carry on an intrigue!
+
+But time was passing, and she told herself she must not stay. She knew
+she was defeated and must accept it: she must leave him to his intrigue,
+whilst she herself stepped back into the old suburban existence!
+
+She replaced the letters in the secret receptacle, and restored
+everything in the bureau as it had been before. Then she dragged back
+the screen before the picture, turning away her eyes resolutely so as
+not to catch sight again of that gracious figure gleaming out in
+exquisite radiance. The lamps were put back as she had found them, then
+carefully extinguished. But the difficulty she had with them revealed to
+her the tense nervous condition under which she was still labouring,
+though she had appeared to herself quiet and resigned now. She stood in
+the dark a moment, conscious of the suffocating closeness of the
+atmosphere. How good it would be to be out in the air again! She would
+walk on the Embankment for a few minutes, and then ingloriously go home
+as fast as possible--in a hansom! having yielded to ignoble impulses and
+played the rôle of a common spy. But in one way she at least had no
+regret She was enlightened, knew as much of the position as Wyndham.
+
+She descended the stairs, put out the lamps in the hall, and stepped
+into the streets again. The cold air beat in her face deliciously; the
+stars were brilliant in the pure sky. She looked up to them now
+yearningly--their calm and beauty shamed the storm and fever in her own
+mind. The street, too, seemed so exquisitely still in the splendid
+darkness. She let her wraps hang loosely about her, and did not fasten
+her coat. She breathed the air greedily, and it seemed to allay the
+stress at her heart. Then somehow she turned her steps towards the
+river, wondering where Wyndham and Lady Lakeden were passing their
+evening! She could take that for granted now, she felt. How carefully he
+had built up the wall around his romance!
+
+At the bottom of the street the river night-scene, scintillating with
+points of light, burst on her vision, and seemed to draw her into its
+own strange mood of mystery. It was as though a new universe of stars
+had come into being, wafting some fascinating message which baffled her
+reading. And as she stood in the great avenue, under the far-spreading
+arch of foliage, a deeper calm seemed to fall upon her. She went to the
+parapet, and looked over. The long stretch of water, all gleams and
+shadows, lay gently between the two gray bridges that hung suspended
+from their steel network in soft silhouette.
+
+Alice strolled some distance down the bank, then turned and retraced her
+steps. She told herself it was foolish to linger here, that she ought to
+make at once for the busier streets, and take the first vehicle that
+offered itself. But it was so deliciously silent, so majestic, that it
+comforted her to stay here. Besides, somehow, she could not tear herself
+away from the neighbourhood of the studio. She looked at her watch; to
+her surprise it was nearly half-past eleven; she had been at the studio
+a full hour and more! Surely he must be coming home soon. Perhaps,
+indeed, he had returned already!
+
+She found herself instinctively turning up Tite Street again, keeping as
+before to the opposite side of the road. But all was as dark and still
+in the house as when she had left it. Then the idea came to her that she
+would wait and see. It was a mere whim perhaps; but she could not go
+home till she had watched him enter. Still, she could not wait here in
+one fixed spot; she had almost the sense of being observed by she knew
+not whom. Besides, she must be cautious; she did not intend that he
+should suspect she was actually so near to him at that hour of the
+night. It gave her an anguished thrill to think he would pass close by
+her, and yet never give her a thought.
+
+She was, however, loth to move away, for she could not know from which
+end of the street he would come. If she waited too long near one end, he
+might slip by from the other. And this, whether he came on foot or in a
+hansom. Feverishly she paraded the street, stopping here a minute, there
+a minute; keeping well within the shadow, and avoiding the encounter of
+every chance passer-by. Now and again she heard the ring of a hansom,
+the smart trot of a horse, and she held her breath with excitement. And
+there was even a minute when hansoms came dashing into the street one
+after the other; most of them to pass right through it, and only one or
+two to draw up in the street itself.
+
+Midnight sounded, but still no sign of Wyndham. She looked up at the
+sky, but was surprised to find the stars were blotted out. A spot of
+rain fell on her upturned face. Her sense of misery reasserted itself,
+and with it came a sullen resolution to stay out till dawn, if needs be.
+Again she went to the Hospital end of the road and took up a discreet
+point of vantage. But again the tramp of a policeman scared her away,
+and accepting this as a sort of unpropitious omen she definitely decided
+to keep to the other end. She was like a gambler uncertain how to stake,
+but at last abruptly deciding for any irrelevant reason.
+
+The minutes passed, infinitely long to her now impatient mood. The
+spots of rain kept falling. The neighbouring clock boomed out the
+quarters. At last another hansom--coming from the abandoned direction!
+Back she went again into the road, but it had stopped short farther
+down. The studio was still in darkness. Strangely disappointed and
+fatigued almost to the point of falling, she dragged her worn feet once
+more down to the Embankment, keeping her wits alert with a sustained
+effort, that grew harder and harder. This time she did not cross to the
+parapet, but walked under the great red brick houses, noticing idly
+their gates and doorways as they loomed on her. And her eyes were half
+closed in spite of her struggle. The trot of a horse, and the rattle and
+tinkle of a hansom sounded just then, coming smartly along the avenue.
+But she went on more and more as if in a dream, taking one step only
+because she had taken the last. Nearer and nearer came the hansom,
+louder and louder beat the horse's hoofs on the asphalte, but she
+pursued her meaningless way, without paying any heed to it. Her senses
+had almost left her. She opened her eyes suddenly, and, looking towards
+the river, saw that a greyish mist hung over it, that the pavements were
+wet and glistening. Ah, yes, the water lay below, dark and soft, full of
+an eternal peace. The message that had baffled her!--she understood it
+now! She had nothing to live for! In a flash all would be finished.
+Impulsively she stepped into the roadway to cross to the parapet.
+
+"Hallo, hallo!" The horse's head was almost on her, and she drew back
+with a natural unreasoned movement. The driver shook his whip and
+shouted angrily, then went onwards. But a moment's vision had burnt
+itself on her consciousness as deep as that first sight of the portrait
+of Lady Lakeden. Wyndham was seated in the vehicle side by side with
+Lady Lakeden, his face turned towards her, whilst her hand clutched his
+convulsively. And in that same swift moment Alice had felt Lady
+Lakeden's face encounter hers with mutual intensity. The sudden backward
+movement had almost paralysed her muscles; an agonising pain racked her
+at her knees and ankles. She dragged herself to the nearest wall and
+leaned against it. The picture of those two side by side was always with
+her: of Lady Lakeden's eyes flashing full on her own.
+
+She knew not how many minutes had passed when she was called to herself
+by the inexorable clock that had sounded its notes throughout this
+strange evening, and that now seemed to fling its boom through all the
+spaces of the night. Was the universe resounding with a peal of
+mockery?--disproportionately Titanic for so humble a soul as hers, so
+paltry a destiny? Ah, she remembered now her frustrated purpose; the
+instant when death had beckoned her imperiously and she had responded
+with every fibre of her soul and body. Why, then, had she not let the
+wheels crush her?
+
+But she shuddered. Ah, no, no! Thank Heaven she had been inspired to
+save herself. How his life would have been saddened and embittered by so
+ironic an accident! She had meant only to help him; never to be a cause
+of grief to him! Since apparently it had been thus fated, better perhaps
+to live on. "I have others as well to think of--father and mother!" she
+murmured. "How wicked it was of me to forget them! Besides, as I never
+expected anything in life, why should I be disappointed now at getting
+nothing?" The argument seemed convincing, so painfully she began to
+hobble along the Embankment, moving again towards the familiar street,
+why she knew not. But her lips kept muttering, to herself. "She has gone
+with him alone to his studio. She is a wicked woman."
+
+And opposite the house, that had held her brilliant hopes of love and
+wonderful happiness for so brief a period, she stood still again, and
+looked up to the great window of the studio that was now illumined with
+a warm light, though everywhere else the house was dark. She saw a
+shadow flit across the blind, and then another shadow. They were there
+together.
+
+How they would stare if she boldly used her key and intruded upon them!
+How they would tremble if they knew she was there, straining for a
+glimpse of their shadows!
+
+But she had no impulse now to disturb them. The game had been played,
+and she had been thrown out.
+
+With a sigh she moved away, turning her painful steps up the street,
+more instinctively than consciously. She walked and walked mechanically,
+retracing the route she had taken on her way there. The rain descended
+in thin, sharp lines, but she took no heed. But suddenly an arm was
+thrust through hers, and she looked round with a terrible start. A burly
+flush-faced man with a ruffled silk hat was holding an umbrella over
+her, was speaking to her. Her eye noticed irrelevantly they were just by
+a closed dark public-house whose nickel reflectors caught the light from
+an adjoining street-lamp.
+
+"Hadn't you better take me home with you, my dear?"
+
+For a second she stared at him, then, with a hoarse cry, she shook
+herself free, and with a supreme effort rushed off like a frightened
+fawn. As she turned into another street she overtook a hansom going at a
+snail's pace.
+
+"Where to?" asked the man through the roof, after she had got in.
+
+"Straight home as fast as you can," was her strange answer.
+
+The man looked down upon her. "Where's that?" he asked good-humouredly.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she exclaimed, vainly attempting to control her
+breath. She gave him the address, and off they went.
+
+At the end of the journey she paid him profusely, and he thanked her
+with as profuse a civility. She let herself in with her key, went up at
+once to her room, and threw herself across her bed. Her sobs broke out
+afresh. "Darling," she called; "I want you back again to be mine, and
+mine only."
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+
+Lady Betty did not let go the hand which she had clutched in terror, and
+her companion responded with a touch of caressing reassurance.
+
+"My heart is still beating," she said, as they turned off the river bank
+into Tite Street. "Suppose we had crushed that poor creature. What a
+terrible memory it would have left with us!"
+
+"Happily she wasn't in the least hurt," he replied. "She must have been
+in a fit of abstraction."
+
+"I caught sight of her face," said Lady Betty; "and I shall not easily
+forget it. Such a wild, haggard look I have seldom seen. She must have
+been labouring under some terrible stress of emotion." She gently
+withdrew her hand, and appeared lost in thought. "I hope, dear," she
+exclaimed suddenly, "that there is nothing horrible happening."
+
+"No, indeed! The thing has got a little bit on your nerves."
+
+"You did not see her," she insisted. "She came full into the light of
+our lamp, though it was barely for an instant. My face was turned that
+way and yours away from hers."
+
+"Naturally she was startled at the moment!" he ventured. He was certain
+Lady Betty's nervous imagination had deceived her, and that her alarm
+was groundless.
+
+"It was not a startled look. It was a set look, something like the
+desperation of a hunted animal. Some man has treated her badly. Darling,
+you don't think she was going to throw herself into the river?"
+
+"Seriously--I don't think anything of the kind. If she had wanted to
+take her life, would she have stepped back so promptly?" he argued.
+
+"I daresay you are right," she conceded, though her tone was not wholly
+one of conviction.
+
+The hansom pulled up, and he helped her down. They mounted the
+house-steps in silence, she unusually engrossed in thought, and with an
+unmistakable air of sadness, as if her mind still lingered on this
+woman's figure that had flashed on them out of the darkness.
+
+They entered the hall, and after some searching and fumbling he lighted
+one of the lamps. His companion shook herself out of her abstraction,
+and surveyed the place with affectionate interest. He was anxious she
+should take away with her a very definite impression of his future
+home, and threw open the various rooms, and led the way into them, as he
+held the lamp aloft. They went, too, below stairs, and here Lady Betty's
+eyes beheld the many evidences of domestic comfort and foresight that
+the Robinsons had established in these regions where they had reigned
+supreme. Her face lighted in comprehension, though her thought remained
+unexpressed. At last, after they had completely explored the rest of the
+house, he led the way up to the studio, and soon had it brilliantly
+illuminated. Lady Betty refused the chair he wheeled forward for her.
+She preferred to be moving about, to be examining everything at
+leisure--his bureau, his great oak worm-eaten armoires, his long, low
+chests on whose panels Gothic Church dignitaries stood solemnly in high
+relief, his wonderful easels, his model's throne, his draperies and
+costumes, and, so far as it was possible by this lamp-light, his old
+canvasses. She did not ask for Miss Robinson's portrait, as she knew it
+was at the house in Hampstead, and would remain there till its despatch
+to the Academy. She saw, however, the large picture; and although she
+did not love it (for she knew at what a cost it had been brought up to
+its present pitch, and felt, moreover, that it was too sensational a bid
+for public attention), she yet recognised that there was much excellence
+in it, and that it would probably bring him the actual success which was
+of importance even to genius. Her ideal for him, she repeated, would
+have been the most absolute "no compromise." "But I agree that we must
+take a strictly practical view of the situation. It is not really
+compromise," she added, "but only a surer grasping of the ideal in the
+future. The idealist who does not know when to make his concessions in
+practice is just the one who loses his ideal altogether, and never comes
+down from the realm of abstractions."
+
+He seized a favourable moment, whilst her attention was otherwise
+engaged, to fetch her own portrait from behind the screen and arrange it
+on one of the smaller easels. Then she turned with some curiosity to see
+what he had prepared for her, and gave a little cry of delight.
+
+"You are pleased with it?" he asked, gratified.
+
+"And touched--deeply," she answered. "You have chosen the setting with
+excellent judgment. But what pleases me most is the absolutely fresh
+impression I now get of the picture itself. Though I have seen it grow,
+and have lived with it every day, I am really seeing it for the first
+time. It is a beautiful piece of work--I speak for the moment as if I
+were entirely unconnected with it." She stood examining it in silence,
+and he watched her face and every shade of expression that declared
+itself.
+
+"And this truly is your personal impression of me?" she asked, with a
+new flash of the joyous, eager comrade.
+
+"My everyday impression of you! I have another which I keep for
+Sundays--something with more of the stateliness of an olden time, with a
+far graver outlook and a deeper thoughtfulness."
+
+"But this one is thoughtful and dignified, too, is it not?"
+
+"Most decidedly. But it is a real warm human being as well. To tell the
+truth, I stand a little bit in awe of the other one."
+
+"Poor me!" she laughed. She stood yet a moment contemplating the
+portrait, then turned her eyes away. "Oh, well," she said. "It will be a
+happiness to possess it, but a greater one to feel that, in some
+measure, it has helped to gain you the recognition that must be yours--a
+little sooner, a little later, signifies nothing. But I leave you in
+perfect confidence as to your career."
+
+He bowed his head. "I shall not dare to disappoint your confidence. To
+justify it is what I shall live for before all things."
+
+"I am content," she said. "I ask for nothing better than that our hopes
+shall be realised. I am glad you have chosen so charming a home for your
+labours. I hope you will be happy here."
+
+He did not reply at once, not trusting himself to speak. Lady Betty,
+too, looked sadly down.
+
+"Ah, yes," he conceded at last. "It is an ideal home for an artist!"
+
+There were bitter implications in his tone, and she made no pretence of
+not perceiving them.
+
+"Darling," she said, "you know it would be the dream of my life to help
+you. That is the only meaning happiness would have for me--to live by
+your side and help your work and your life. Before everything else, I am
+not the solemn, dignified being--the thought of me you keep for Sunday,"
+she interposed smilingly--"but a mere human being, a simple woman, for
+whom the love of the right man, once she has found him, is the principal
+thing in life."
+
+"I can't realise that you are going away," he broke out. "I want to keep
+you with me always. Don't leave me, darling! Let us begin our life
+anew--now, this minute! An ideal home here! I hate and loathe it. Let us
+make a home together--a home of our very own--far away from all these
+associations. Let us laugh at all else. I am strong enough to throw over
+everything, to fight!"
+
+She read the passion in his vivid face, in his terrible movement towards
+her. She stepped back, and held up her hands to check him.
+
+"It cannot be," she said. "Perhaps we are to blame for delaying our
+parting. Believe me, I thought and thought about it after our first
+meeting till I feared I should go mad. I felt I had already made my
+great blunder--I had revealed the awful secret of my life. I had till
+then nursed it all alone, but when I saw you again, after those
+miserable years, I had to pour it out. I did so recklessly,
+unthinkingly; it was such a joy to feel there was one friend in the
+world to whom such things could be said, and I put no curb on myself.
+And afterwards I was bitterly sorry."
+
+"No, no, darling," he interposed. "You hurt me."
+
+"Don't misunderstand, please. It was splendid to think that you shared
+my confidence; above all that you had cared for me as I had cared for
+you in the old days. But yet I was tortured incessantly. You had
+contracted other ties; there were your duties to others, and the tangle
+was horrible! After I left you on that first day I was determined that,
+if I was to be an influence in your life at all, I must be the first to
+keep you true to your duties. You and I are enlightened, you see. We
+have the advantage over these simpler souls. Therefore we must efface
+ourselves to leave them their simple rights."
+
+He stood humbly; silent before her gentle and unanswerable rebuke.
+
+"I struggled terribly with myself. I felt it would hardly be right to
+see you even a second time, and I was almost on the point of leaving
+London at once, perhaps without sending you a single line of adieu. But
+then the thought came to me that that perhaps would be a worse blunder
+than the first. My intrusion into your life might in that case have
+disturbed it to no purpose. I thought my sudden departure might leave a
+bitter memory for years. So I determined to stay long enough to soften
+the parting for both of us--for me as well as for you. And during all
+the time I meant to influence you to be loyal to your engagements. I had
+made the first mistake; on me lay the obligation of mending things. I
+stayed only to mend them! That was my sincere motive in asking you to do
+the sketch. I know I have had my moments of weakness; it is hard to live
+with one's hand in the fire without flinching now and again. Darling, I
+must go--far away from you, and you must not follow me. Your honour,
+dearest, is precious to me. The thought of your perfect loyalty to Alice
+will help me. I only ask you to remember the high standard I have set
+for you. Strive for the best; let your watchword be 'No compromise!' You
+will let me go now, darling. Say you understand my motives, and forgive
+me if they were mistaken. Perhaps, instead of mending things, I have
+only added mischief to mischief. I throw myself on your generosity and
+magnanimity. Promise me you will be the truest husband to her, that you
+will do everything in your power to promote her happiness."
+
+He seized her hands; his flesh burnt hers. "I love you, darling, I love
+you," he cried hoarsely. "I cannot let you go."
+
+She looked him frankly and firmly in the face. "Don't break my heart,
+dear," she said gently. "It is as hard for me as it is for you. Think,
+darling, what it might be, if you gave her up. If she were to kill
+herself, our love would be a curse to us. Dearest, the face of that
+woman we saw on the Embankment still haunts me. It was the face of a
+woman whose heart had been broken. I tell you, dear, that if I had not
+of myself the strength to part from you to-night, the awful glimpse I
+had of her face would have given it to me. I have always seen where our
+duty lay; yet I read it in that poor face a thousand times more.
+Darling, it must now be goodbye. I shall often think of you here, and of
+this evening--and of our whole glorious day," she added, smiling. "Come,
+you do promise all that I ask of you?"
+
+Her smile and her cheerful note won his surrender. "I promise," he said
+slowly and solemnly, yet with distinct decision. "All that you have
+urged on me shall be sacred, shall be the principle of my life."
+
+"Thank you, darling," she said simply. "I believe you, and I trust you
+absolutely."
+
+They gripped hands, looking each other full in the face. The
+neighbouring church clock sounded its preliminary change, then struck
+two sonorous notes. It recalled them to the sense of the night and the
+silent world without. "Come," he said at last. "I will escort you back."
+
+They went down, and out into the street again. "The clouds and the rain
+have vanished. It is a beautiful night again," she said. "Even that
+helps to soften the moment."
+
+He strolled along by her side; they spoke now of matter-of-fact points.
+If the picture were accepted by the Salon he was to send it eventually
+to her father's country-house in the North. She hoped, too, he would not
+entirely forget her father, but that he and his wife would call and see
+him at Grosvenor Place--they could count on finding him there most years
+during the height of the London season. And, by the way, she was curious
+to know how the picture would fare when it got to Paris. Was the Salon
+so considerate to foreigners that it took the trouble to open
+packing-cases and take care of them? Wyndham gravely explained that
+pictures were usually consigned to the good offices of a French
+frame-maker who unpacked and delivered them to the Salon, afterwards
+collecting them and sending them back to England when the show was over.
+Some of these people had a large foreign clientèle, and put only a
+moderate value on their services. Thus chatting in this trivial fashion,
+they were fortunate to meet a hansom, though they had abandoned the hope
+of one at that hour, and were prepared to stroll all the way.
+
+"Let us say goodbye here," she insisted. "It is simpler, and perhaps
+easier. We part just as two friends who have met casually."
+
+"Goodbye, then," he said huskily. "I wish you many happy days and dreams
+in your wanderings in the sun-lands."
+
+"And I wish you the power to be as great in your life as I am sure you
+will be in your work." She held his hand with a gentle pressure. "You
+will be loyal to her," was her last wistful whisper. Then she gave him a
+parting smile, full of sweetness and affection, and he heard the driver
+crack his whip, and the horse started off briskly.
+
+Wyndham was left standing on the pavement, his head bowed. For a long
+minute he did not stir, and when he roused himself again to look after
+the hansom, it was already in the distance, though the trot, trot, of
+the horse came sharply to him. He watched it till it was out of sight,
+then turned slowly and gently homewards.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+
+"Father," said Alice Robinson the next morning at the breakfast-table,
+"I want you to find some more portraits for us. This whole month has to
+be given up to the big thing for the Academy, and then we shall come to
+a stop for the present, at any rate so far as immediately remunerative
+work is concerned, and you must not forget we have a heavy rent to pay
+now."
+
+"I shall certainly keep my weather eye open," declared Mr. Robinson,
+"and my ears too. Portraits in oils are rather the thing just now in the
+City, and I daresay we shall be able to find something for you."
+
+"That is nice of you, father. I think I am just beginning to like you."
+
+Mr. Robinson smiled, and looked across at her affectionately. "You know
+it is my greatest pleasure to work for you both," he said.
+
+Alice bore his gaze heroically, sustained by the curious satisfaction
+she felt at having thus set the never-failing machinery in motion. But
+his trusting belief that all was well touched the tenderest chords of
+her nature. She longed to throw herself into his arms, to tell him the
+terrible truth. But why cause him suffering when she still hoped to
+avert it from everybody, and let the whole burden rest on her shoulders
+alone? She must do nothing abrupt, nothing to cause any trouble or
+scandal; above all, she must pay the most watchful regard to the peace
+of those around her.
+
+For she had seen the quietest and simplest solution of the tangle;
+nobody but herself need suffer a single pang! Since she had endured so
+much, she might now as well offer herself for the sake of everybody
+else's happiness.
+
+Such had been her dominating thought, as she had lain thinking through
+the night. And the moment had come when she held the solution clear in
+her mind. How glad she was that she had decided to live! Her parents had
+been spared a cruel grief, and her affianced husband would be left to
+his happiness without any alloy of remorse or tragic memories.
+
+There was only one worthy and rational path before her. She must break
+with Wyndham and leave him free. Mr. Shanner wanted her; she would give
+herself to Mr. Shanner. His ashen figure, gray-clad, rose before her,
+wistful, pleading, pathetic. She remembered his touch of sentiment, his
+hint of deeper feeling--how he would have treasured her promise; how he
+would have looked forward to "the new light to shine in his household."
+He was good and honourable; full of kind actions. She knew that Mr.
+Shanner had not found felicity in his first marriage. After all, if she
+could bring somebody a little happiness she might as well do so; and she
+could make this ostensibly the ground for her action. She and Wyndham
+were unsuited to each other--could anything be truer? She had made a
+mistake, since she now found she cared for Mr. Shanner, who reciprocated
+the sentiment, and for whom, as regards upbringing and ideas, she would
+make so much more suitable a wife. That was less true, and, after her
+surrender of the evening before to her ignobler side, she now loathed
+the idea of playing a further part. But the fiction that she cared for
+Mr. Shanner, and her actual marriage with him, constituted in essence
+the sacrifice that the position demanded of her. To Mr. Shanner she
+could atone by incessant devotion--she would illumine the light in his
+household he had spoken of so yearningly; her parents would be spared
+all but the first painful surprise; to Wyndham the break would come as a
+splendid release. It would restore to him his honour and self-respect,
+since in his eyes, and in the world's eyes, she would be taking all the
+blame for his freedom.
+
+Wyndham had told her that Lady Lakeden was leaving England indefinitely,
+and that he did not know when he was likely to see her again. But Alice
+now did not believe that. That was part of the wall he had been building
+behind which to pursue his romance; she had tested things far enough to
+feel sure of it. And even if Lady Lakeden was really going to travel for
+a time, there would be correspondence between them, and their relations
+would be renewed on her return. Since he loved this woman he should be
+free to love her openly.
+
+And all the world would be left at peace!
+
+In the days before she had come into his consciousness, had she not
+longed and prayed in vain for the joy of helping him to rise again; had
+she not dreamed of stretching out a helping hand across the abyss that
+separated them, telling herself that that alone would mean supreme
+happiness for her? It now came strongly upon her that that mission had
+been granted her, and the knowledge that she had achieved it should help
+her to be strong! Had not her love for him held a perfect unselfishness?
+Was not her goal his happiness before everything? Ah, there was far too
+much self in the earthly love of woman for man. This note of self, at
+first so carefully suppressed, had yet asserted itself insidiously. Yes,
+that had been the cause of all her suffering--poignant, shattering,
+almost beyond human endurance. It had been wrong of her; she ought to
+have kept closer watch over herself. She had not meant to be a source of
+pain and embarrassment to him. To burden his life with a marriage
+against his heart and true self were hate, not love. Let him mate with
+this brilliant, beautiful woman of his own world, who could tranquilly
+breathe the air of the great heights--of Society, of Art--in which his
+destiny had placed him. What more could she wish him than that he should
+find in life all that he desired?--all the joy, all the achievement, all
+the love! Was not this the supreme self-sacrifice of love?
+
+And she must be content with the privilege of the high mission that had
+been hers, nay, she must be proud of it--to have entered into his life
+at his moment of blackest despair, and set him on the road to heaven!
+Let her go back into the darkness now with the ecstasy of sacrifice for
+a great love, keeping herself for such service to others as she might
+find to her hand.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+
+But her mission was not yet complete. She thought of his inadequate
+resources, of the uncertainty of the future, if his exhibition pictures
+were not successful with the Press and the public. She wished to see him
+embarked on the full tide of success before she retired, so that all joy
+should flow to him at once. Her retirement must cause him some little
+emotion, but the intoxication of success would soon thrust that aside,
+and the lapse of a day would find him in full appreciation of his
+freedom. The projected period of their engagement had of itself three
+full months to run; there was time to withdraw at any moment she chose.
+And these months that remained should be devoted to her finding more
+work for him, so that he should be left with a substantial balance at
+his bankers.
+
+She thus attached some importance to his not yet suspecting any change;
+so she decided to go across to Tite Street at tea-time, and see him, and
+do things below stairs just as on a normal day. But she feared to face
+the experience alone; she did not trust her own sangfroid. As the
+afternoon proved a fine one, she pressed her mother to join her in the
+journey across town, throwing out the inducement that they would look at
+the shops in town _en route_.
+
+They found Wyndham putting his brushes in order after his long day. He
+had risen early, he explained, and had started work with the light. A
+month was not too long to finish off this great picture; he really saw a
+year's work yet to be done on it! So therefore he was making a
+tremendous effort and giving himself up to it, body and soul.
+
+"And I'm afraid I must claim your indulgence. If I appear neglectful,
+you will really understand, and put up with me. I shall make it up to
+you afterwards," he added, smiling.
+
+Alice was surprised at her calm, once she had mastered the first tremor
+at the moment of arrival. It gave her confidence, too, for the future,
+since it was good to know she could trust herself.
+
+And this strange, almost inhuman, calm which had succeeded to the
+tempests that had swept through her of late did not desert her. She knew
+that the storms had worn themselves out, and that she had found a
+strange, an almost baffling peace.
+
+Wyndham, for his part, only rejoiced that she seemed so contented and
+happy; so ready to overlook his shortcomings in the rôle of affianced
+husband. Poor child, how good and devoted she was! If only out of his
+brotherly tenderness for her, and appreciation and gratitude for all she
+had planned and done to smoothe his life, he would take care that his
+promise to Lady Betty should be carried out, not grudgingly and
+according to the letter, but in a generously full and human way.
+
+Perhaps now, in this last critical month, when every stroke of the brush
+seemed a stroke of fate, he threw more frenzy into his work than ever
+before. His mind struck deep roots in it, so that the passion of it was
+ever in him. Yet a sense of suffering and defeat stirred sometimes in
+him, so that he dared not be alone with himself. He spent some of his
+evenings in coteries where art and other things were hotly debated, and
+this, too, helped him, furnishing food for reflection and sending him to
+books as an interested reader in search of enlightenment and suggestion.
+
+Thus the month flew away with almost unprecedented rapidity. Show Sunday
+arrived, and the great picture (on which he had worked till the last
+moment) was revealed to the world at large. The house was thrown open,
+the empty dining-room improvised into a commodious buffet, and the great
+studio arranged as a gallery, with the new portraits and the best of the
+old work all brilliantly framed and lining the walls. Alice's portrait,
+which had been brought across for the occasion, occupied a central place
+of honour immediately facing the masterpiece.
+
+The function was eminently successful, and a great many people of the
+very pink of fashion came to lend it the light of their countenances.
+The Robinsons had worked hard the previous fortnight preparing for it,
+and had arranged the house and buffet, and had seen to the framing of
+the pictures, and attended to the catering arrangements, without taking
+a moment of the precious time away from Wyndham. Everybody said the
+house was charming and the pictures works of genius. People could be
+overheard asking each other, "Well, what do you think of it all?" and
+then eyes would be turned up in ecstasy, and faces would glow with
+enthusiasm, and the long-drawn "Beautiful," full of conviction, was the
+epithet most largely utilised. There was in the air the dominant note of
+triumph, the unmistakable feeling of Success. Alice, who flitted about
+quietly, showing herself as much as good taste demanded, yet by no means
+in the centre of the world's eye, was keenly sensitive to the prevailing
+spirit of the afternoon, feeling closely the pulse of the assembly, and
+she knew at last that Wyndham's barque was to sail in full career.
+
+Mary, too, was there, immensely important as the host's sister,
+conducting special friends of her own round the walls, and talking
+ubiquitously in an unusual glow of zest and animation. If for Alice the
+occasion happily revealed the future, for Mary that future had
+emphatically arrived already!
+
+And in the midst of all the crush Sadler arrived, extraordinarily smart
+in an immaculate frock-coat and a beautifully embroidered tie, his big
+powerful face shining with friendliness. "Gee! What a swell affair
+you've got on!" he shouted in Wyndham's ear. "I thought there'd be
+something of the kind, you old brute, so I rigged myself out."
+
+"You are certainly fascinating," smiled Wyndham.
+
+"Yes, it's a jolly good coat!" declared Sadler, glancing down at
+himself. "I gave the tailor hell over it. Gee! you've fetched them this
+time! We shan't be able to squeeze past your damned picture at the
+Academy!"
+
+The crowd still kept surging up the stairs, and Sadler was swept aside.
+But Wyndham was not only receiving his visitors; with great address he
+was here and there, pointing out his Exhibition pictures, explaining his
+ideas and motives, accepting choruses of laudation. He had good reason
+to be elated with this afternoon of tribute and foreshadowing!
+
+In the last two or three weeks, moreover, Mr. Robinson had been drumming
+up the further commission for which his daughter had enlisted his good
+services. He had heard that one of the great joint-stock banks meditated
+presenting their retiring general manager with his portrait; the gift to
+be made with full ceremonial at the next meeting of the shareholders.
+Mr. Robinson was himself an important shareholder, and two of the
+directors were his personal friends, but although they worked strongly
+on his side, he had a far more difficult task than usual in achieving
+his purpose. He was forced to expend his choicest diplomacy and pull
+enough strings for a piece of international politics, but the majority
+of the directors, who knew what was appropriate to the dignity of the
+bank, wanted a full-blown Royal Academician, and were strongly in favour
+of following the lead of another great institution, which, under the
+like circumstances, had approached one of the most learned of the body
+Academic, and had honoured him and themselves with their command. There
+were dissensions at several board meetings, but the opposition,
+sedulously fanned by Mr. Robinson, could not be beaten down.
+Academicians, they argued, sometimes went down wofully in the sale-room
+only a few years after their demise. Surely it was better to choose a
+genius, the connection with whom would be everlastingly honourable to
+the bank, whose insight might become historic. In the end a small
+sub-committee was appointed to investigate and report on the matter. The
+members of this sub-committee were invited to Tite Street for Show
+Sunday, arrived together, were received by Wyndham with charming
+urbanity, had every attention showered on them, and were greatly
+impressed by this society gathering. They were enchanted at their
+reception, and, being kept and marshalled together, stimulated each
+other's enthusiasm. This great display of Wyndham's work astonished and
+dazzled them. Above all, the amazing _pièce de résistance_ of the
+afternoon won their obeisance to the genius. They stared at the vast
+canvas in wonder, at once conquered by this crowd of tattered labour
+intermingled with the silk hats and frock-coats of Bond Street, the
+smart brougham rolling along with its aristocratic occupant and her
+poodle, the pillared structure in the background, the vista of roadway,
+the trees and the foliage. At the buffet they talked it over among
+themselves, and presently Wyndham himself appeared again, and with a
+discreet introduction here and there to people of social importance, he
+quietly and swiftly sealed his victory. Such civility indeed was the
+only part that had fallen on him in the matter, and the commission was
+well obtained at that outlay of trouble, he told himself, since, with so
+fairly an expensive place on his hands, he could not yet despise so
+solid a piece of business. But with the new little heap of guineas to
+accrue from the month's work or thereabouts that would be involved, he
+felt he could face marriage and the beginnings of housekeeping with
+dignity, and yet carry out any artistic schemes he might next conceive.
+And he welcomed the work, too, as likely to keep him busily occupied
+during the time his great picture was in the balance at the Academy.
+
+When Alice reached home after the reception, with the full confidence of
+his success in her heart, she realised the end was now fast approaching.
+The afternoon had excited and unnerved her again, and she had once more
+to reassure herself that she had the strength to go through with the
+coming breach. Since her memorable secret visit to the studio she had
+borne up with firm strength, but to-night she felt frail and broken! A
+storm of sobbing shook her, but when at last she had controlled herself
+she knew that she would never weep again for her lost dream of
+happiness.
+
+And now all things began to go incredibly well with Wyndham. No sooner
+was he flourishing and doing work that was well paid for, than every
+other horizon opened out before him. The Academy received both his
+portrait of Miss Robinson and his great piece of allegory; and a couple
+of the other paid portraits found a niche in the New Gallery. The Salon,
+too, presently notified him of their acceptance of Lady Betty's
+portrait, but that he had really been counting on with an almost
+fatalistic confidence.
+
+On varnishing day he was delighted that both his Academy exhibits were
+hung on the line. His Press, too, was unmistakably good; the critics
+seemed all to conspire to hail him as the man of the year. At the clubs
+those who knew him accosted him enthusiastically, came thronging round
+and pressing hospitality upon him. There were so many anxious to "get"
+him for this and that occasion, to take possession of him, and have the
+honour of dragging him here and there. New names and faces bombarded
+him, and even his own special coterie were anxious to intensify their
+various degrees of intimacy with him, contending for the privilege of
+entertaining him, of being able to boast of an almost proprietorial
+friendship. In Society, too, he felt himself the object of a curious
+_empressement_; on all sides he was courted and flattered, and rival
+dealers were inquiring the price he set on his wares. It was the
+stampede of the world to acclaim Success!
+
+Well might his eyes be dazzled by all this glare of sunshine! Was not
+this success as persistent as the failure that had been his lot
+previously? It made him think of the run of red that sometimes followed
+a run of black at roulette. He was indeed a public personage now! And
+rolling in prosperity to boot!
+
+A touch of worldly bitterness indeed lingered with him; there was the
+remembrance of the lean years behind him. But his nature was too
+mercurial, too affable and genial, to dwell on that aspect of his career
+for long. He took all this homage very seriously, and thought
+tremendously well of himself as an artist, walking through the world
+with elastic step and as one of the elect of the earth.
+
+Yet in the still moments when he sat alone at night with his lamp for
+sole company, he would lose himself in reverie; and then he would feel
+saddened ineffably by the ironic side of the case, since the more
+brilliant the success that came to him, the deeper his sense of the
+mockery of things! How splendid if the woman he loved were by his side
+to share it all with him! How near too he had come to attainment, yet
+destiny had played him this shameful, this merciless trick!
+
+And just as his absorption in work had helped him hitherto in the
+situation, so now this new excitement of business and the world coloured
+his everyday demeanour and conversation; wrapped the Robinsons, too, in
+the whirl of busy interests, and carried him safely towards the
+inevitable time when he must seriously discuss the date of the wedding.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+
+One morning early, towards the end of May, Alice sat down at her desk,
+and wrote the following brief letter to Mr. Shanner.
+
+"MY DEAR FRIEND,--I owe you an acknowledgment. When you ventured
+to raise the question of the wisdom of my engagement to Mr. Wyndham, you
+were right in one respect. He is in every way a man of honour, and I
+have nothing against him. But, as the time goes by, it grows upon me
+more and more that he and I have made a mistake, as you were first to
+see, and that we are not suited to each other. His world and his ideas
+of life are not mine, and I have decided that it is wiser for me not to
+attempt to adapt myself to them. I recognise this before it is too late,
+and I have determined, not lightly, but after full and serious
+consideration, to draw back. I promised you that I should let you know
+if ever I arrived at such a conclusion. I now carry out my promise."
+
+
+She directed it to his office, carefully marking it "Personal and
+Confidential." Shortly after noon she was startled by the rat-tat of a
+telegraph boy. "Approve of your decision with all my heart. Please
+remember that I am the first applicant for the privilege." Such was the
+answer he had flashed back the moment her letter had reached him, and
+the perusal of it gave her the satisfaction that accompanies the
+realisation step by step of an elaborate purpose. "So be it," she
+exclaimed. "To-day I shall ask for my release."
+
+Wyndham was expecting her to join him at the studio. They were to dine
+together, then go to a Paderewski recital. But now she decided she would
+not go. What good to face him personally? Besides, it was easier to feel
+that she had already seen him for the last time. She went back to her
+desk, and began the laborious composition of a long letter. On and on
+she wrote, breaking off only to join her mother at lunch, and returning
+to her desk at the earliest moment. She had covered several sheets, when
+brusquely she changed her mind. Perhaps this was not really fair to him,
+and, besides, he might feel he ought to come to the house to see her
+again. Surely they might at least shake hands and part as friends. So
+she tore up the letter, and went to prepare herself for the journey to
+Chelsea. "I have been brave all through," she murmured; "and I mustn't
+spoil it at the end by turning coward. I am taking all the blame--let me
+be strong enough to take it face to face with him."
+
+And now she was impatient to have done with it all. Her mission was
+ended. So, although he would not be looking for her yet, she would
+descend on him, even at the risk of disturbing him. The commission from
+the bank had already been completed, and at present he was making
+cartoons and sketches for new pictures. But he would be all the more
+grateful afterwards that she had not delayed her coup.
+
+She got into a hansom, which, choosing its route through unobstructed
+back streets, arrived at her goal wonderfully soon. She got down firmly,
+paid the driver, and walked up the steps unfalteringly. She felt her
+calm and self-control as a great blessing; she had so long schooled
+herself for this moment, and it was splendid to feel how actual a fact
+was her resignation, how completely ingrained in her this acceptance of
+the inevitable.
+
+She let herself in with her key for the last time, and put it on the
+hall table lest she should forget to leave it afterwards. Then she went
+upstairs, and tapped gently at the door of the studio, though it stood
+half open. She found Wyndham in a mood that was even a shade more
+affable than usual. Indeed, he seemed almost light-hearted to-day as he
+came forward with a friendly alertness to greet her, and pressed his
+lips affectionately to her forehead, and wheeled forward a chair for
+her. She was in a close-fitting coat and skirt, of a heliotrope shade,
+and there were roses in her hat. But, in spite of this burst of spring
+gaiety, her face retained the marked pallor that had characterised it of
+late. He indeed observed it for the first time.
+
+"You must have a little of this light Chambery," he said. "It clears the
+head and nerves. I remembered I used to have a glass at the Café des
+Lilas in the old days whenever I felt done up, so I laid in a few
+bottles."
+
+"Do I seem so unusually flurried?" she asked.
+
+She smiled, but he saw at once that the note was forced, and began to
+suspect that something was amiss.
+
+"It's rather close to-day--the heat has come upon us all of a rush. It's
+sure to be crowded and stuffy at the concert to-night. Now do try my
+remedy, child."
+
+"If you don't mind, we'll not go to the concert."
+
+"By all means," he agreed. "We'll dine early, take a stroll on the
+Embankment, and if there's a boat going up or down, it doesn't matter
+which, we'll get on, and see where it takes us. Not a bad idea, little
+girl, eh?"
+
+"I'm sorry," she said, "but I meant that we were not to pass the evening
+together at all. I came now, instead of later on, to see you and talk to
+you."
+
+He looked at her hard. "You rather mystify me."
+
+"I'm sorry," she said again. "I sat down to write you a long letter
+to-day," she resumed, after an almost imperceptible hesitation. "In
+fact, I really began it, or rather I wrote a good many pages, and then I
+thought it would be fairer and braver to come here to you at once
+instead."
+
+He leaned up against the table for support. "My dear child, I don't in
+the least understand your drift--I am bewildered."
+
+She smiled wanly; yet the smile of one about to set forth in a cool,
+reasonable way a case that needed exposition, and that necessarily must
+carry conviction. "I was writing to ask you a favour. Now I have come to
+ask for it in person."
+
+"It is yours to command." He inclined his head graciously and gallantly.
+
+"You are sweet to me, as always," she returned. "But, as you will see, I
+am quite undeserving of your graciousness on this present occasion."
+
+He laughed. "Modest as usual, my dear child! I'm afraid it's going to be
+one of the tasks of my life to impress you with a sense of your own
+merits."
+
+"Please don't say any more nice things to me," she implored. "Your
+kindness hurts me."
+
+He looked hard at her again, then passed his hand across his face. "Let
+me see," he said; "where were we? I confess I'm rather confused. Ah,
+yes, you said you preferred that we shouldn't go to the concert."
+
+She drew her breath hard; her bosom palpitated. "Because I want you to
+set me free altogether." Her face was suddenly on fire, but an
+exultation thrilled through her. At last the words had been spoken; she
+was near the end.
+
+But she felt his eyes upon her; she saw his face set in a strange
+expression, half-vacant, half-surprised. "To set you free?" he murmured.
+
+"To break off our engagement," she launched out. "Oh, I know it is
+horrible of me," she went on quickly, feeling herself giving way at this
+moment of trial, despite all her fortitude and all her schooling. She
+saw that his lips made as if he were about to speak, but, dreading to
+hear him yet, she gathered up her force and hurried on piteously.
+"Please don't think that I have anything against you, that you are in
+the least to blame. You have been chivalrous and kind throughout. The
+responsibility must all rest on my shoulders."
+
+He winced at the pain she was visibly enduring, the expression of her
+eyes, the convulsive catch of her breath.
+
+"But what on earth has come between us?" he exclaimed, in a sort of dull
+despair. He felt no joyous glow at the return of his liberty. The
+occasion seemed too miserably tragic, and his human association with
+her had made him care for her enough to be deeply distressed at the
+agony under which she was labouring. Even now, if it could have made her
+happy, if it could have induced her to withdraw all she had said, he
+would have taken her hand tenderly, and melted away every cloud between
+them. "Yesterday all was well, and to-day----" He gave a gesture of
+blank bewilderment.
+
+"I have arrived at the conviction that we are not suited for each other,
+that I am not the sort of woman to make your life all that it should
+be."
+
+"Oh, come," he said. "I am surprised to find such morbid nonsense
+running in your head."
+
+She was taken aback at this resistance on his part; and she rightly set
+it down to pure fraternal consideration for her. She let herself go now;
+best to give her explanation at full length.
+
+"It is not a sudden impulse I have yielded to, or a passing wave of
+depression," she urged, trying to conjure up the ghost of a smile again.
+"Believe me, I have seen the right path before me only after the deepest
+consideration."
+
+He interrupted her with a gesture.
+
+"But what has come between us?" he insisted again. "You do not say you
+have ceased to love me."
+
+With a great effort she looked straight at him. "Yes," she said with
+steady voice, and no physical flinching. "I have ceased to love you. I
+searched into my heart before it was too late, and I found my affections
+had gone to another."
+
+A flash of understanding seemed to come to him. "Mr. Shanner!" he
+exclaimed.
+
+She averted her eyes. "He was my friend before I knew you," she pleaded,
+as if driven to defence.
+
+"I see now you are perfectly serious," he murmured, hurt at last, and
+firmly believing her. "Does love come and go in women with such
+momentary capriciousness?"
+
+"Perhaps," she said with a weird dreaminess. "It comes and goes like the
+blossoming of a flower in the sunlight--beautiful for the day or two it
+lives. My love for you is dead. I should not be happy with you, so why
+make the pretence? I should not ask you to forgive me, only I am not
+worth your remembrance for any reason. Let us shake hands and part not
+too bitterly."
+
+He stood silent, his head bowed. There was no thought in his mind, only
+a sense of shame and of poignant regret.
+
+"Believe me, it is for the best," she resumed, trying to smile. "And be
+assured, the guilty party alone shall be condemned, should the world
+discuss us!" She held out her hand. He took it and held it gently, in
+sign that he bore her no ill-will.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+
+In the first profound depression into which this unforeseen occurrence
+had plunged him, Wyndham remained totally indifferent to his freedom.
+His thought in a feeble way reached out, recalling her words, lingering
+on her crowning confession. Suddenly he laughed out aloud. How much
+greater the irony of his life than even he had imagined! For the second
+time he and Lady Betty had come together, only voluntarily to part that
+they might not disturb the happiness of this other life! How they had
+tortured themselves; how Lady Betty had sought deliberate martyrdom,
+staying near him only long enough to school him to perfect loyalty to
+Alice! "Whilst I was fretting my heart away," his lips murmured, "lest I
+should wound her with a chance word, she was vibrating again towards her
+own kind, and was planning her retreat. Surely the gods are pulling the
+strings and making us poor puppets dance for their amusement!"
+
+And then he thought of the Hampstead street miles away, where he had
+passed so many years of his life in suffering and degradation; and the
+sense of its distance helped him. Were he still in the old studio, the
+sense of the Robinsons' house within a stone's throw would have been
+intolerable. He would hardly have dared to set foot out of doors for
+fear of the painful accident of stumbling up against one of the family.
+He desired no further explanations and apologies. He shuddered at the
+very idea. Here at least he could take shelter silently within his own
+pride.
+
+And the thought of his pride made him rise up again, and pace to and fro
+vigorously. It was beneath him to admit that that had been wounded. But
+he came to a standstill, and the blood rushed to his temples at the
+abrupt remembrance that all the prosperity and success that must still
+remain his had come to him through the Robinsons. Were not the
+humiliating evidences here before his eyes? This charming house and
+studio, the successful pictures hung in the galleries, the money at his
+bankers, the promise of unlimited treasure yet to flow into his coffers,
+the acclamation of the world and his social lionising--how much of all
+this would have been achieved without the timely co-operation of the
+Robinsons? He staggered in moral agony under the burden of good they had
+heaped on him so lavishly.
+
+Nothing of course could be undone. Wisest to acquiesce silently, and
+start forward afresh from the point at which he stood. But since it was
+now only the end of May, and the best of the season was yet to follow,
+he felt that to stay in London would be intolerable.
+
+The world seemed to swarm with people, all intent on chattering about
+his affairs, on discussing and misunderstanding this sensation in the
+life of the lion of the season. A lovely titbit for the social gossips
+to relish! He could not possibly meet people, shake their hands, answer
+their stupid questions, listen to the hateful sympathy of the more
+intimate. He must shut up the house and fly from London. But where could
+he hide himself for the time?
+
+He resumed his pacing to and fro, sometimes perambulating the studio to
+vary his movement. So far he was under the influence of the first
+excitement attendant on the rupture. Whatever his astonishment at having
+been ousted in the affections of a woman by a man whom he had more or
+less despised, whose rivalry he had brushed aside as easily as a cobweb;
+the bare idea that a broken engagement should figure in his life was so
+distasteful that it made the wound to his mere vanity a secondary
+matter. He could not at once extricate his mind from the contemplation
+of these immediate bearings of the event. His relation to Lady Betty,
+indeed, was present to him, but he had not yet turned the flood of his
+thought in that direction.
+
+In the reaction of feeling, however, when the first sting and shock had
+somewhat lightened, it was natural for his whole soul to turn to Lady
+Betty longingly; not with the joyous impulse of one unexpectedly free to
+claim his true comrade, but like a bruised child to find relief for his
+hurt. But how to reach her again he did not know. So thorough had been
+their sacrifice that he had even promised never to write to her.
+Besides, letters would only follow her if sent through a certain banker,
+whose name she had withheld from him. And though now he felt that
+circumstances absolved him from the promise, he did not care that such a
+letter as he must write, once he put pen to paper, should go to her
+father's deserted house, and thence be tossed about the world in perhaps
+a futile pursuit, with the possible fate of being read in a dead-letter
+office, and finally returned to him. He would wait awhile. Perhaps, if
+the gossip got abroad, it might by some circuitous route arrive even as
+far as Lady Betty's ears, and then no doubt she would announce her
+whereabouts to him. The pressing problem before him was to decide on his
+own plans for the immediate present.
+
+How stale and tired he was! How terribly he had toiled these past
+months, sustained by he knew not what mysterious energy. It seemed
+almost as if he had exerted a supernatural strength, and the work he had
+accomplished might well have claimed double the period. And now,
+something had suddenly gone snap. He was finished; a mere hollow shell
+of a man.
+
+His mind turned again towards other climes and other skies. It seemed so
+long since he had crossed the Channel; so many years indeed that it was
+hateful to count them. It reminded him too much of the big slice of his
+life, the years of his prime, that had been so miserably sterile.
+
+But his face brightened as his thought played again amid the haunts of
+his early manhood. Ah, those were happy times--the work in the schools,
+the discussions in the café, the pleasant camaraderie, the freedom to
+laugh, to feel master of one's own soul. The brilliance and green
+avenues of Paris beckoned him; his blood beat pleasurably. And then of
+course there was his portrait of Lady Betty in the Salon. What better
+shrine for a pilgrimage!
+
+He would linger a little in Paris, then proceed further South. He was
+not of the great crowd that refuses to venture in those regions during
+the summer. He knew well how to adapt himself to the conditions, and the
+lands of the South would be soon in their full glory. His imagination
+dwelt on the prospect, and sunshine broke in on his mood. Perhaps, too,
+there was the hope, deep in his heart, that he might encounter Lady
+Betty somewhere--by some charming train of events! Heigho for the
+orange trees, for the old Italian palaces, the Venetian canals, the
+coast-line of Salerno! He would make a leisurely progression, working a
+little as he went--just a few distinguished sketches, odd impressions of
+light and beauty caught on the wing! Late in the year when time had done
+its work, when the wretched affair was forgotten, and himself recovered
+from the sordid experience, he might return to London. But never here to
+this studio again!
+
+The prospect of departure stirred him! "Here I cannot breathe another
+day!" he kept murmuring to himself.
+
+Then why not start this very evening?
+
+He glanced at his watch; it was not yet four. There would be time to
+dash round to a local bank and provide himself with funds for the start.
+But on investigation he found he had enough to take him to Paris, so he
+could devote the whole time to his preparations and necessary
+correspondence.
+
+And no sooner was the decision arrived at than he adjusted his outlook
+to it as an accomplished fact. Without any further delay, he got ready
+his trunk and dressing-case, and started his packing in earnest.
+
+The train left at nine that evening. He had five good hours to catch it.
+So he worked deliberately and carefully, overlooking nothing in the
+haste of departure. Lady Betty's wizard, his most cherished possession,
+went down deep into the trunk, and he did not forget his cheque-book and
+his private papers. Otherwise, everything was in such excellent order
+that his task was comparatively simple. Whatever he lacked for his
+journey he could count on purchasing in Paris, where also he could renew
+his funds for travelling.
+
+At last everything was ready, and he had ample time for his
+correspondence. This was speedily disposed of, since his letters were
+mostly to cry "off" from invitations already accepted. Only one was of a
+more intimate character, and that was to his sister Mary. But even that
+was brief and to the point. "Dearest Mary," he wrote,--"I regret I have
+rather disagreeable news for you, but I trust you will not take too
+serious a view of it. Alice asked me to release her to-day, and of
+course I had no alternative but to accede to her wishes. I cannot bear
+to stay in London just now, so I leave this evening for a long stay
+abroad. Forgive this brief note, forgive me also for not coming to kiss
+you goodbye, but, as you may guess, I am off on impulse, time is short,
+and there were a few matters to arrange. Perhaps you may be able to join
+me later when your vacation comes, and then we shall have a happy time
+together. I am all right, so please don't worry about me. I shall write
+to you soon, and keep you posted as to my adventures."
+
+He took out the batch of letters to the post, picking up a cab on his
+way back. In a few minutes his traps were on the roof, and he was being
+driven to the station.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a serene summer night, and the crossing was ideal. As he
+promenaded the deck, and looked into the spacious darkness, and let the
+breeze play free about his face, the sense of strain and fatigue, all
+the broken feeling that remained from the stress of his tussle with the
+world, seemed to be swept away. His early manhood, when he had gone to
+and fro as he listed, began to stir in him again, and the consciousness
+of mature power and ripe experience which were now added to it awakened
+an almost overweening sense of well-being and confidence.
+
+The episode of his broken engagement already began to look absurd rather
+than tragic in this new spirited mood of his. The whole thing seemed
+beneath his dignity. Of course, in some ways, he would always look back
+upon it as a bitterly unpleasant incident; but, in this life, you were
+necessarily called upon to be a stoic in some degree. The point was to
+choose the degree yourself. In face of unpleasant things stoicism was no
+doubt the wisest; but where good things were concerned it was best to
+preserve all the fresh feelings of the natural human being.
+
+The Robinsons were already receding into the mists of distance. Despite
+the reality and the closeness of his connection with them, they were
+taking their place among the shadows that peopled the past. His own
+vision was turned forward--ever forward!
+
+"Strange," he thought, "how things and people cease to have any
+consequence, once you have turned your back upon them!"
+
+The night passed like a dream. In the train from Calais to Paris he
+dozed lightly, and woke only at dawn. The sky was cloudless and
+wonderfully blue, but the sun shone as yet coldly over the landscape,
+and the fat fields sparkled with dew. Save for the quiet herds of
+cattle, the world was deserted. Immediately all his faculties were
+pleasurably alert again. He noticed with delight the hamlets and
+sleeping villages, the still wayside stations where moustachioed old
+women, who surely dated from the Revolution, stood on guard with flags
+at the cross-ways. At last they were running through the environs of the
+capital, and Wyndham tasted the sensation of entering the great city of
+light and intellect as keenly as in his jubilant boyhood.
+
+The drive through Paris in the early morning was exhilarating and
+enchanting. At that hour the streets at first were surprisingly
+thronged, the roadway sometimes blocked with a heavy traffic of carts
+all converging to the Halles. But soon they were passing through quieter
+neighbourhoods, through stately avenues lined by vast hotels with
+far-stretching lines of shuttered windows. Wyndham surrendered himself
+to the charm of steeping himself again in this atmosphere, drawing freer
+breaths, subtly attuned to it, aided by golden memories.
+
+The brisk buxom matron, who was already at her post in the hotel bureau,
+recognised her old client, and welcomed him with a cry of joy. Her face
+beamed with pleasure as he shook hands with her, and he had a joyous
+sense of home-coming!
+
+"But one has not seen you for eternities," she exclaimed. "We had
+thought that you had quite abandoned us!"
+
+"The loss has been more mine than yours, madame," he returned. "I should
+have announced my arrival beforehand, if I had not left London so
+suddenly."
+
+Presently he took possession of his room, and, as it was not yet seven,
+he sank into an arm-chair and dozed for a time. At nine he awoke,
+washed, changed into more civilised clothes, then strolled out
+cheerfully on to the Boulevards, and had his morning coffee at a little
+table in the open, with a budget of French papers to look through, and
+the spectacle of the passing world in the sunshine for his
+entertainment.
+
+He sat on for a long while in leisurely enjoyment, then proceeded to
+stroll by way of the Place de la Concorde (which looked vaster and
+finer than it had ever appeared to him) round to the great Palace of Art
+off the Champs Elysées. It had sprung up during these years of his
+absence, and he wandered round it delightedly, examining all the
+façades, familiarising himself with all the points of view.
+
+At last he entered through the nearest turnstile and went straight to
+see how Lady Betty's portrait was hung.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But Wyndham did not linger in Paris as he had intended. He had found
+Lady Betty beautifully placed on the line, and had returned to her
+daily, not to gaze at the painting, but at the features of the woman he
+loved. And then there surged in him a fever of impatience. He had not
+the least hope of finding her here in Paris--he took it for granted she
+had long since seen the Salon, and he had the strangely settled
+belief--he did not know why--that she was not then in France at all. And
+somehow he was unable to conceive of himself now save as actively in
+search of her. All the first impulsion towards holiday and repose that
+had swept him headlong across the Channel had mysteriously died away, to
+give place to this haunting, this imperious, idea of a mission. He must
+push on with it at once!
+
+He chose his route largely haphazard, yet zigzagging through her
+favourite cities. His heart thrilled with hope as he was borne again
+through the outskirts, and Paris lay behind him. In this dash through
+Europe, the happy chance might perhaps befall him! He knew the quest in
+that way was wholly irrational, but it had its charm. He might pass
+within a stone's throw of her a score of times, and yet remain
+unconscious of the proximity. A billion to one at least against him!
+
+Yet he pursued his journey feverishly; passing through Belgium swiftly,
+thence to Dresden by stages, then hurrying down to Munich, next on to
+Vienna, and passing further southwards; vibrating off the beaten path at
+every turn; staying here a day, there a night, rarely anywhere longer;
+guided by no principle, but darting about at random, often doubling back
+on his track, and yielding to every fantastic impulse that rose in him.
+
+At Belgrade, where he found himself some four weeks after leaving Paris
+(though the days, packed with changing scenes and impressions, had
+seemed to run into months), he had an inspiration, and abruptly took the
+train straight back again. Might not Lady Betty gravitate once more to
+the portrait, before the Salon closed its doors for the season? Even
+though it was to be her own possession in the end, she might well desire
+to pay it that tribute. Had it not given them their brief companionship
+in avowed affection? He would haunt the Salon daily; he would wait and
+watch for her. He journeyed all day, all night, and all the next day,
+impelled by the same fever of impatience, which now oppressed him
+tenfold. He stepped out of the train in the evening amid the bustle and
+lights of the terminus. He was in Paris again! He breathed with relief
+as at a goal accomplished.
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+
+One blue summer morning, Wyndham, for the twentieth time at least,
+entered the Salon through his customary turnstile, and stood in the
+great central court, under the crystal roof, amid the gleaming display
+of statuary. There was already a goodly number of people about; not yet
+a crowd, but enough for the costumes and hats of the fair sex to colour
+the whole place like a flower-garden. He moved about among them for
+awhile, his eye keen and ready; then ascended the staircase, and entered
+the nearest doorway. He spent an hour or two in leisurely progression
+through the galleries, long since familiar with all the pictures, and
+staying only before the interesting ones, yet with attention ever on the
+alert.
+
+At last he had set foot in the particular room, which was to him the
+shrine, the inner sanctuary, of this Temple of the Arts. It was already
+crowded here, and his first impression was of a mass of silk hats and
+beflowered millinery rather than of pictures. He hesitated in the
+doorway an instant, then began the slow tour of the room, pausing
+before every picture in turn, so as to indulge in the pleasurable
+make-believe of coming on Lady Betty again suddenly. Gradually he worked
+his way along and it was not till he had come again within reach of his
+starting-point that his own frame gleamed on his vision. He manoeuvred
+through a bevy of ladies, and then found himself side by side with a
+girlish figure in a light flowered muslin costume and a pretty hat
+trimmed with violets. He had stepped quite close to her out of the
+crowd, by which she had been entirely hidden; but, his eyes drawn
+imperiously to the portrait of Lady Betty, he was merely aware of his
+neighbour as one of the crowd, and he did not even look at her
+definitely. He saw just her gloved hand holding her catalogue, and, in a
+vague way, he wondered what she was thinking of the picture. He felt
+rather than saw that his neighbour had stepped back a little, as if
+naturally to make way for him. Then some mysterious impulse made him
+turn, and their eyes met. In all those winter days that were past he had
+never seen her so bright and gracious as she appeared now, clad for the
+summer, and in this sparkling universe. Never before had those violet
+eyes shone with so perfect a light, as of the full freshness of
+childhood. Yet her face was pallid and awestruck as she gazed at him.
+But a wild joy sang at his heart, and he felt his blood pulsing with a
+glad note that seemed to be at one with the note that sang to him from
+horizons of enchantment opening before him; at one, too, with the note
+that sang to him out of all this exquisite Paris!
+
+"I am free," he whispered. "Do you understand? Free!"
+
+"Free?"
+
+He divined rather than heard the breathed exclamation from the movement
+of her lips--read the amazed questioning of her eyes.
+
+"I have not broken my promise to you!" The crowd surged round them,
+struggling to see his picture, ejaculating banal words of admiration.
+"You do not doubt!" he whispered tensely.
+
+The blood came back to her face at last. "No! But the how?--the why?"
+
+"She sought her release!"
+
+"She suspected the truth!" She was pale again.
+
+"We cheated ourselves. She cared for one of her own kind. Our
+renunciation was an irony."
+
+Lady Betty bent her head. Her brow was wrinkled for a moment in thought,
+and her hand trembled visibly.
+
+"An irony--no," she said gently. "We were true to ourselves--the future
+lies the fairer before us."
+
+The press around them grew closer.
+
+"Mais c'est chic ça!"
+
+"Un beau talent!"
+
+"C'est exquis!"
+
+She took his arm, as if seeking freer air, and they moved through the
+throng that continued its compliments, unsuspecting of the proximity of
+either artist or subject. They stood at last on the great balcony, and
+looked down on the splendid court agleam with sculpture and greenery.
+
+"I have searched Europe for you!" he said.
+
+"This great change in our lives--it is too wonderful to grasp all at
+once," she murmured musingly.
+
+"I do not see why we should not stroll round to the Embassy now, and
+inquire," he suggested stoutly.
+
+"Inquire about what?" she asked, her deep absent look changing to
+bewilderment.
+
+"As to when they can marry us, of course!"
+
+"Oh, I see," she said, with a quick smile; but her glance was inward
+again.
+
+"You don't think me precipitate?" he asked uneasily.
+
+"I am thinking of Alice," she returned. "I could have sworn she was the
+soul of constancy."
+
+    THE END.
+
+
+UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRAHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+  LIST OF BOOKS PUBLISHED BY
+  BROWN, LANGHAM & CO.,
+  78 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON, W.
+
+
+
+
+  Life of the Right Hon Thomas Burt, M.P.
+
+  By AARON WATSON.
+
+  With Portrait and Illustrations. 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+Mr. Burt's life is indissolubly bound up with the rise of the Labour
+Movement in this country.
+
+ "Mr. Aaron Watson places at the beginning of his deeply interesting
+ biography of Mr. Thomas Burt the following tribute, paid to the
+ veteran labour leader by Earl Grey: 'The finest gentleman I ever knew
+ was a working miner in England, whose gentleness, absolute fairness,
+ instinctive horror of anything underhand or mean, or anything that
+ was not the strictest fair-play, gave him a character that enabled
+ him to rise to the position of Privy Councillor.' Never was eulogy
+ better deserved.... Mr. Burt's host of friends will be grateful to
+ Mr. Aaron Watson for his excellent work."--_Daily News._
+
+
+  The Automobilist Abroad.
+
+  By FRANCIS MILTOUN.
+
+  Author of "Castles and Châteaux of Old Touraine," "Cathedrals of
+  Northern France," &c.
+
+  With Illustrations and Decorations by BLANCHE McMANUS, a number being in
+  full colour. 8vo. boxed. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+Mr. Miltoun's new book of travel "_en automobile_" is the record of
+hundreds of miles of motoring through regions rich in beautiful views,
+in strange costumes, and quaint peoples, whose pictured and narrated
+charms form a volume of exceptional attractiveness.
+
+The trip is across seven frontiers, through the British Isles, France,
+Belgium, Holland, and Germany, and contains much of historical sentiment
+and romance that could only have been gleaned by leisurely travellers.
+
+
+  England and America, 1763 to 1783.
+
+  The History of a Reaction.
+
+  By MARY A. M. MARKS.
+
+  2 vols. Demy 8vo, gilt top. £1 10s. net.
+
+An important historical work dealing with the War of Independence.
+
+
+  Letters of Christina Rossetti.
+
+  With Memoir and Introduction.
+
+  By W. M. ROSSETTI.
+
+Many interesting Portraits and Facsimiles. 8vo. 15s. net. _Shortly._
+
+Miss Rossetti had many correspondents among the distinguished artists
+and literary personages of the day.
+
+
+  Diary of Dr. Polidori.
+
+  Edited, with Introduction and Notes by his nephew,
+  W. M. ROSSETTI.
+
+  Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. _Shortly._
+
+Dr. Polidori was travelling physician to Lord Byron during his tour in
+Europe in 1816. His diary gives an account of this tour, in which
+Shelley and many other interesting personages appear.
+
+
+  SECOND EDITION.
+
+  Some Reminiscences.
+
+  By W. M. ROSSETTI.
+
+  2 Vols. 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt top. 42s. net.
+
+This important work contains a full account of the early days of the
+Rossetti family, with most interesting side-lights of the Pre-Raphaelite
+movement, and the literary and artistic career of Dante Gabriel
+Rossetti. The volumes are illustrated with numerous reproductions, very
+few of which have been published before. Mr. Rossetti's "Reminiscences"
+are very complete, dating from his birth in London, 1829, down to the
+present day. Most of the great names in the art and literature of this
+epoch are to be met with in his pages.
+
+
+  The Western Avernus.
+
+  By MORLEY ROBERTS.
+
+  Crown 8vo, cloth gilt. Price 3s. 6d.
+
+ "All who think of going to the far West of America or British
+ Columbia, would do well to read this book carefully before booking
+ their passage."--_To-Day._
+
+ "These powerful sketches of life in the Western States of America are
+ written from first-hand knowledge, and are memorable pictures of a
+ period which has largely passed away."--_Echo._
+
+ "This story of his wanderings and hardships in Western America reads
+ like a novel--even like a novel by Mr. Roberts himself. As a picture
+ of earlier days in British Columbia, it should soon be
+ invaluable."--_St. James's Gazette._
+
+
+  Moons and Winds of Araby.
+
+  By ROMA WHITE.
+
+  Crown 8vo, cloth gilt. 5s.
+
+Amusing sketches of official life in Egypt.
+
+
+  Pranks in Provence.
+
+  By PERCY WADHAM, A.R.E.
+
+  With coloured Cover-design by Cecil Aldin. Profusely Illustrated.
+
+  Square 8vo, gilt top. 5s.
+
+An amusing skit on modern books of travel.
+
+
+  Si Mihi
+
+  By "Egomet."
+
+  Crown 8vo. 3s. net.
+
+A volume of thoughtful, personal essays, by a new writer of very
+considerable promise.
+
+
+  Going Through the Mill.
+
+  By Mrs. GERALD PAGET.
+
+  Crown 8vo, gilt top. 5s. net.
+
+ "It is impossible to deny the force of much which she avers. She
+ throbs with indignation, and her book raises many thoughts, unusual
+ to mankind (in the narrow sense), but none the less salutary.
+ Possibly all will be remedied if women get the vote; certainly the
+ case could not more effectively be put. The beauty of the language
+ and the intense conviction which lies behind the polemic cannot be
+ gainsaid. In many respects Mrs. Paget contrives to say fresh things
+ on old subjects, and certain very awkward subjects are most
+ delicately handled."--_Liverpool Post._
+
+
+  Auction Bridge.
+
+  By VANE PENNELL.
+
+  2s. 6d. net.
+
+A treatise on the new variation of bridge as now generally played.
+
+ "To any lover of bridge the new game will prove most fascinating, and
+ intending players cannot do better than study Mr. Vane Pennell's
+ book."--_Western Mail._
+
+
+  POETRY.
+
+  Nineveh and other Poems.
+
+  By GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK.
+
+  Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 5s. net.
+
+Mr. Viereck is a poet who will have to be reckoned with seriously. The
+son of a German father and an American mother, he has "listened to the
+music of two worlds." This volume is his introduction to English
+readers.
+
+
+  FICTION.
+
+  An Engagement of Convenience.
+
+  By LOUIS ZANGWILL.
+
+  6s.
+
+ "He is one of the forces to be counted with in contemporary
+ literature.... Mr. Louis Zangwill is bound to travel far."--_Weekly
+ Sun._
+
+
+  The Brotherhood of Wisdom.
+
+  By FRANCES J. ARMOUR.
+
+  6s.
+
+  A Story dealing with the occult.
+
+
+  Follow Up!
+
+  By ARCHIBALD D. FOX.
+
+  6s.
+
+  A Story of Harrow School.
+
+
+  Faith Unfaithful.
+
+  By FRED E. WYNNE.
+
+  Author of "Fortune's Fool." 6s.
+
+
+  A Mirror of Folly.
+
+  By HAROLD WINTLE.
+
+  6s.
+
+ "A powerful tale of modern society."--_Spectator._
+
+
+  The Barony of Brendon.
+
+  By E. H. LACON WATSON.
+
+  6s.
+
+ "The plot is excellent and it is handled with delicacy."--_Daily
+ News._
+
+ "Cannot but add to his already considerable reputation."--_Daily
+ Mail._
+
+
+  Fortune's Fool.
+
+  By FRED E. WYNNE.
+
+  6s.
+
+ "A remarkable achievement for a first book."--_Daily Graphic._
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+  The Nancy Manoeuvres.
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+  By CHARLES GLEIG.
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+  6s.
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+ "A very droll mixture of Fleet Street, Bohemia, and life on board a
+ man-of-war."--_Country Life._
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+  The Feast of Bacchus.
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+  6s.
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+
+  One or Two.
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+  By THEO. DOUGLAS.
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+  6s.
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+  Two stories of the occult world that have met with considerable
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+
+
+  The Builders.
+
+  By W. G. EMERSON.
+
+  6s.
+
+ "There is no story of the West like it. There are no dull patches in
+ it."--_Boston Globe._
+
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+  Eve and the Wood God.
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+  By HELEN MAXWELL.
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+  Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 6s.
+
+  A new novel by the author of that very successful book, "A DAUGHTER OF
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+ "She writes admirably, and in 'Eve and the Wood God' she has given us
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+ applicable to novels of present-day life."--_Black and White._
+
+
+  NEW EDITION.
+
+  The Gaiety of Fatma.
+
+  By KATHLEEN WATSON.
+
+  Author of "Litanies of Life." Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 6s.
+
+This is a novel in quite an unusual vein. Fatma is a maiden of Arabian
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+English nobleman wintering in Algeria. The bulk of the book is taken up
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+
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+  NEW EDITION.
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+  It Happened in Japan.
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+  By the BARONESS ALBERT d'ANETHAN.
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+  The Voyage of the Arrow.
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+  By T. JENKINS HAINS.
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+
+ "It stirs the pulse like a close ride to hounds or a stiff finish to
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+
+  The Sunset Trail.
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+  By A. H. LEWIS.
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+  Author of "The President," and "Wolfville Days." Illustrated. 6s.
+
+ "The smell of the open air haunts every page. One could hardly say
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+ Harte at his best, and that can be said without hesitation."--_Daily
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+
+
+  The Making of a Man.
+
+  By E. H. LACON WATSON.
+
+  Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt. 6s.
+
+ "All may read it for the sake of the light and genial touch displayed
+ in the treatment of life. Comedy is here plentifully provided and is
+ of the best."--_Daily Graphic._
+
+
+  Christopher Deane.
+
+  By E. H. LACON WATSON.
+
+  A New and Cheaper Edition of this Story of Winchester and Cambridge.
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+  With Frontispiece. 3s. 6d.
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+ of the best public school and University type which does not deserve
+ one or both of these adjectives."--_Week's Survey._
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+
+  Playmates; or, Studies in Child Life.
+
+  By Rev. H. MAYNARD SMITH, M.A.
+
+  Author of "In Playtime" and "Church Teaching at Home."
+
+  Crown 8vo, cloth, extra, 2s. 6d. net.
+
+ "We conclude our too brief notice of the volume by saying that the
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+ from the error of his ways. As we read, we were startled by coming
+ upon a short paper on Charles Lamb, whose mantle, by the way, it
+ seems to us, has fallen, in no slight degree, upon Mr. Maynard Smith;
+ nor can we repress the thought that if the great essayist had had the
+ privilege of reading these pages, he would never have perpetrated the
+ atrocity, with which tradition charges him, of toasting the memory of
+ Herod the Great."--_Church Family Newspaper._
+
+
+  NEW AND CHEAP EDITION.
+
+  Reflections of a Householder.
+
+  By E. H. LACON WATSON.
+
+  With Cover Design in Colour. 1s. net.
+
+
+  Benedictine.
+
+  By E. H. LACON WATSON.
+
+  With Cover Design in Colour. 1s. net.
+
+  Cheap editions of Mr. Watson's sketches and light essays.
+
+ "It is a compliment to the much-maligned tribe of the general reader
+ that a second edition has been called for of Mr. E. H. Lacon Watson's
+ genial sketches of married life, which he calls 'Benedictine.' In
+ their new and revised edition (Brown, Langham & Co., 1s. net) they
+ make a sober-looking, tasteful volume, which is wonderfully cheap
+ when we consider the humour and literary quality of the
+ writing."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+
+  Hints to Young Authors.
+
+  By E. H. LACON WATSON.
+
+  Crown 8vo. Cloth extra, gilt top. 2s. net.
+
+ "We unhesitatingly recommend young authors to accept the advice
+ tendered as that of one who knows what he is writing about."--_St.
+ James's Gazette._
+
+
+  THIRD EDITION.
+
+  Litanies of Life.
+
+  By KATHLEEN WATSON.
+
+  Cloth extra, gilt top. 2s. 6d. net.
+
+ "A little book containing five short stories, but every one of them
+ is worth reading, and the note of all sounds sweet and free. The
+ reader will lay down the book, as I did, with a feeling of profound
+ sympathy and gratitude to the writer."--Mr. W. T. STEAD.
+
+
+  Three Little Gardeners.
+
+  By L. AGNES TALBOT.
+
+  With Illustrations by GERTRUDE BRADLEY. Cover Design in
+  Colour. 2s. 6d. net.
+
+A charming book for children who wish to learn how to manage a
+small garden.
+
+ "This book should be given to every little girl or boy who has a
+ garden, and who is anxious to do things properly."--_Examiner._
+
+
+  THE HANDY VOLUME EDITION OF
+
+  Nathaniel Hawthorne's Romances.
+
+  14 vols. 12mo. Cloth, gilt top, 1s. 6d. net.
+
+  Lambskin, 2s. 6d. net, each.
+
+
+  London: BROWN, LANGHAM & Co., Ltd., 78, New Bond Street, W.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+
+  Punctuation has been normalized.
+
+  Page 106, "unobstrusive" changed to "unobtrusive". (her unobtrusive
+    walking-costume)
+
+  Page 273, "any thing" changed to "anything". (was there anything more
+    ridiculous)
+
+  Page 343, "ne" changed to "net". (2s. 6d. net)
+
+  Chapter numbers at end of the book have been corrected so as to be
+    sequential. (Chapter XXVIII, XXIX, and XXX)
+
+
+
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