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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sophia, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
+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: Sophia
+       A Romance
+
+Author: Stanley J. Weyman
+
+Release Date: March 16, 2012 [EBook #39168]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOPHIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=gIQ1AAAAMAAJ
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+                                SOPHIA
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         By STANLEY J. WEYMAN
+
+                              *   *   *
+
+THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF. A Romance. With Frontispiece and Vignette.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
+
+THE STORY OF FRANCIS CLUDDE. A Romance. With four Illustrations. Crown
+8vo, $1.25.
+
+A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE. Being the Memoirs of Gaston de Bonne, Sieur de
+Marsac. With Frontispiece and Vignette. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
+
+UNDER THE RED ROBE. With twelve full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, $1.25.
+
+MY LADY ROTHA. A Romance of the Thirty Years' War. With eight
+Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
+
+FROM THE MEMOIRS OF A MINISTER OF FRANCE. With thirty-six
+Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
+
+SHREWSBURY. A Romance. With twenty-four Illustrations. Crown 8vo,
+$1.50.
+
+THE RED COCKADE. A Novel. With 48 Illustrations by R. Caton Woodville.
+Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+THE CASTLE INN. A Novel. With six full-page Illustrations by Walter
+Appleton Clark. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+SOPHIA. A Romance. With twelve full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo,
+$1.50.
+
+
+                  New York: Longmans, Green, And Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "ONE MINUTE!" SHE CRIED. P. 118.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                SOPHIA
+
+
+                              A ROMANCE
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          STANLEY J. WEYMAN
+
+   AUTHOR OF "THE CASTLE INN," "A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "UNDER THE
+                   RED ROBE," "MY LADY ROTHA," ETC.
+
+
+
+
+                            _ILLUSTRATED_
+
+
+
+
+                       LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+                   91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+                          LONDON AND BOMBAY.
+                                 1900
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Copyright, 1899
+                                  BY
+                          STANLEY J. WEYMAN
+                              *   *   *
+                           Copyright, 1900
+                                  BY
+                          STANLEY J. WEYMAN
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TROW DIRECTORY
+                   PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
+                               NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  To
+
+                         THE GRACIOUS MEMORY
+
+                                  OF
+
+                              JAMES PAYN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+   CHAPTER
+
+         I. A Little Toad.
+
+        II. At Vauxhall.
+
+       III. The Clock-maker.
+
+        IV. A Discovery.
+
+         V. The World Well Lost.
+
+        VI. A Chair and a Coach.
+
+       VII. In Davies Street.
+
+      VIII. Unmasked.
+
+        IX. In Clarges Row.
+
+         X. Sir Hervey Takes the Field.
+
+        XI. The Tug of War.
+
+       XII. Don Quixote.
+
+      XIII. The Welcome Home.
+
+       XIV. The First Stage.
+
+        XV. A Squire of Dames.
+
+       XVI. The Paved Ford.
+
+      XVII. In the Valley.
+
+     XVIII. King Smallpox.
+
+       XIX. Lady Betty's Fate.
+
+        XX. A Friend In Need.
+
+       XXI. The Strolling Players.
+
+      XXII. 'Tis Go or Swim.
+
+     XXIII. Two Portraits.
+
+      XXIV. Who Plays, Pays.
+
+       XXV. Repentance at Leisure.
+
+      XXVI. A Dragon Disarmed.
+
+
+
+
+                        LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+'One Minute!' she cried.
+
+'Sir!' Sophia cried, her cheeks burning.
+
+Grocott ... stole forward, and ... leant over the flushed features of
+the unconscious lad.
+
+'This must be--must be stopped at once!'
+
+'Oh, la! I don't want to stay!' Mrs. Martha cried.
+
+'He cannot!'
+
+'About the two guineas--you stole this morning.'
+
+He stood, grinning in his finery, unable to say a word.
+
+Lady Betty wasted no time on words. She was already in the water and
+wading across.
+
+'Why, Betty,' Sophia cried in astonishment, 'What is it?'
+
+'Do you sit, and I'll make you a posy.'
+
+Her hair ... hung undressed on her neck. He touched it gently. It was
+the first caress he had ever given her.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                SOPHIA
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I
+
+                            A LITTLE TOAD
+
+
+In the dining-room of a small house on the east side of Arlington
+Street, which at that period--1742--was the Ministerial street, Mr.
+and Mrs. Northey sat awaiting Sophia. The thin face of the honourable
+member for Aldbury wore the same look of severity which it had worn a
+few weeks earlier on the eventful night when he had found himself
+called upon to break the ties of years and vote in the final division
+against Sir Robert; his figure, as he sat stiffly expecting his
+sister-in-law, reflected the attitudes of the four crude portraits of
+dead Northeys that darkened the walls of the dull little room. Mrs.
+Northey on the other hand sprawled in her chair with the carelessness
+of the fine lady fatigued; she yawned, inspected the lace of her
+negligée, and now held a loose end to the light, and now pondered the
+number of a lottery ticket. At length, out of patience, she called
+fretfully to Mr. Northey to ring the bell. Fortunately, Sophia entered
+at that moment.
+
+"In time, and no more, miss," madam cried with temper. Then as the
+girl came forward timidly, "I'll tell you what it is," Mrs. Northey
+continued, "you'll wear red before you're twenty! You have no more
+colour than a china figure this morning! What's amiss with you?"
+
+Sophia, flushing under her brother-in-law's eyes, pleaded a headache.
+
+Her sister sniffed. "Eighteen, and the vapours!" she cried scornfully.
+"Lord, it is very evident raking don't suit you! But do you sit down
+now, and answer me, child. What did you say to Sir Hervey last night?"
+
+"Nothing," Sophia faltered, her eyes on the floor.
+
+"Oh, nothing!" Mrs. Northey repeated, mimicking her. "Nothing! And
+pray, Miss Modesty, what did he say to you?"
+
+"Nothing; or--or at least, nothing of moment," Sophia stammered.
+
+"Of moment! Oh, you know what's of moment, do you? And whose fault was
+that, I'd like to know? Tell me that, miss!"
+
+Sophia, seated stiffly on the chair, her sandalled feet drawn under
+her, looked downcast and a trifle sullen, but did not answer.
+
+"I ask, whose fault was that?" Mrs. Northey continued impatiently. "Do
+you think to sit still all your life, looking at your toes, and
+waiting for the man to fall into your lap? Hang you for a natural, if
+you do! It is not that way husbands are got, miss!"
+
+"I don't want a husband, ma'am!" Sophia cried, stung at length into
+speech by her sister's coarseness.
+
+"Oh, don't you?" Mrs. Northey retorted. "Don't you, Miss Innocence?
+Let me tell you, I know what you want. You want to make a fool of
+yourself with that beggarly, grinning, broad-shouldered oaf of an
+Irishman, that's always at your skirts! That's what you want. And he
+wants your six thousand pounds. Oh, you don't throw dust into my
+eyes!" Mrs. Northey continued viciously, "I've seen you puling and
+pining and making Wortley eyes at him these three weeks. Ay, and half
+the town laughing at you. But I'd have you to know, miss, once for
+all, we are not going to suffer it!"
+
+"My life, I thought we agreed that I should explain matters," Mr.
+Northey said gently.
+
+"Oh, go on then!" madam cried, and threw herself back in her seat.
+
+"Only because I think you go a little too far, my dear," Mr. Northey
+said, with a cough of warning; "I am sure that we can count on
+Sophia's prudence. You are aware, child," he continued, directly
+addressing himself to her, "that your father's death has imposed on us
+the--the charge of your person, and the care of your interests. The
+house at Cuckfield being closed, and your brother wanting three years
+of full age, your home must necessarily be with us for a time, and we
+have a right to expect that you will be guided by us in such plans as
+are broached for your settlement. Now I think I am right in saying,"
+Mr. Northey continued, in his best House of Commons manner, "that your
+sister has communicated to you the very advantageous proposal with
+which my good friend and colleague at Aldbury, Sir Hervey Coke, has
+honoured us? Ahem! Sophia, that is so, is it not? Be good enough to
+answer me."
+
+"Yes, sir," Sophia murmured, her eyes glued to the carpet.
+
+"Very good. In that case I am sure that she has not failed to point
+out to you also that Sir Hervey is a baronet of an old and respectable
+family, and possessed of a competent estate. That, in a word, the
+alliance is everything for which we could look on your behalf."
+
+"Yes, sir," Sophia whispered.
+
+"Then, may I ask," Mr. Northey continued, setting a hand on each knee,
+and regarding her majestically, "in what respect you find the match
+not to your taste? If that be so?"
+
+The young girl slid her foot to and fro, and for a moment did not
+answer. Then, "I--I do not wish to marry him," she said, in a low
+voice.
+
+"You do not wish?" Mrs. Northey cried, unable to contain herself
+longer. "_You_ do not wish? And why, pray?"
+
+"He's--he's as old as Methuselah!" the girl answered with a sudden
+spirit of resentment; and she moved her foot more quickly to and fro.
+
+"As old as Methuselah?" Mr. Northey answered, staring at her in
+unfeigned astonishment; and then, in a tone of triumphant refutation,
+he continued, "Why, child, what are you dreaming of? He is only
+thirty-four! and I am thirty-six."
+
+"Well, at any rate, he is old enough--he is nearly old enough to be my
+father!" Sophia muttered rebelliously.
+
+Mrs. Northey could no longer sit by and hear herself flouted. She knew
+very well what was intended. She was twenty-nine, Sophia's senior by
+eleven years, and she felt the imputation that bounded harmlessly off
+her husband's unconsciousness. "You little toad!" she cried. "Do you
+think I do not know what you mean? I tell you, miss, you would smart
+for it, if I were your mother! Thirty-four, indeed; and you call him
+as old as Methuselah! Oh, thank you for nothing, ma'am! I understand
+you."
+
+"He's twice as old as I am!" Sophia whimpered, bending before the
+storm. And in truth to eighteen thirty-four seems elderly; if not old.
+
+"You! You're a baby!" Mrs. Northey retorted, her face red with
+passion. "How any man of sense can look at you or want you passes me!
+But he does, and if you think we are going to sit by and see our plans
+thwarted by a chit of a girl of your years, you are mistaken, miss.
+Sir Hervey's vote, joined to the two county votes which my lord
+commands, and to Mr. Northey's seat, will gain my lord a step in the
+peerage; and when Coke is married to you, his vote will be ours. As
+for you, you white-faced puling thing, I should like to know who you
+are that you should not be glad of a good match when it is offered
+you? It is a very small thing to do for your family."
+
+"For _your_ family!" Sophia involuntarily exclaimed; the next moment
+she could have bitten off her tongue.
+
+Fortunately a glance from Mr. Northey, who prided himself on his
+diplomacy, stayed the outburst that was on his wife's lips. "Allow me,
+my dear," he said. "And do you listen to me, Sophia. Apart from his
+age, a ridiculous objection which could only come into the mind of a
+schoolgirl, is there anything else you have to urge against Sir
+Hervey?"
+
+"He's as--as grave as death!" Sophia murmured tearfully.
+
+Mr. Northey shrugged his shoulders. "Is that all?" he said.
+
+"Yes, but--but----"
+
+"But what? But what, Sophia?" Mr. Northey repeated, with a fine show
+of fairness. "I suppose you allow him to be in other respects a
+suitable match?"
+
+"Yes, but--I do not wish to marry him, sir. That is all."
+
+"In that," Mr. Northey said firmly, "you must be guided by us. We have
+your interests at heart, your best interests. And--and that should be
+enough for you."
+
+Sophia did not answer, but the manner in which she closed her lips,
+and kept her gaze fixed steadfastly on the floor, was far from boding
+acquiescence. Every feature indeed of her pale face--which only a mass
+of dark brown hair and a pair of the most brilliant and eloquent eyes
+redeemed from the commonplace--expressed a settled determination. Mrs.
+Northey, who knew something of her sister's disposition, which was
+also that of the family in general, discerned this, and could restrain
+herself no longer.
+
+"You naughty girl!" she cried, with something approaching fury. "Do
+you think that I don't know what is at the bottom of this? Do you
+think I don't know that you are pining and sulking for that hulking
+Irish rogue that's the laughing-stock of every company his great feet
+enter? Lord, miss, by your leave I'd have you to know we are neither
+fools nor blind. I've seen your sighings and oglings, your pinings and
+sinkings. And so has the town. Ay, you may blush"--in truth, Sophia's
+cheeks were dyed scarlet--"my naughty madam! Blush you should, that
+can fancy a raw-boned, uncouth Teague a fine woman would be ashamed to
+have for a footman. But you shan't have him. You may trust me for
+that, as long as there are bars and bolts in this house, miss."
+
+"Sophia," Mr. Northey said in his coldest manner, "I trust that there
+is nothing in this? I trust that your sister is misinformed?"
+
+The girl, under the lash of her sister's tongue, had risen from her
+chair; she tried in vain to recover her composure.
+
+"There was nothing, sir," she cried hysterically. "But after
+this--after the words which my sister has used to me, she has only
+herself to thank if--if I please myself, and take the gentleman she
+has named--or any other gentleman."
+
+"Ay, but softly," Mr. Northey rejoined, with a certain unpleasant
+chill in his tone. "Softly, Sophia, if you please. Are you aware that
+if your brother marries under age and without his guardian's consent,
+he forfeits ten thousand pounds in your favour? And as much more to
+your sister? If not, let me tell you that it is so."
+
+Sophia stared at him, but did not answer.
+
+"It is true," Mr. Northey continued, "that your father's will contains
+no provision for your punishment in the like case. But this clause
+proves that he expected his children to be guided by the advice of
+their natural guardians; and for my part, Sophia, I expect you to be
+so guided. In the meantime, and that there may be no mistake in the
+matter, understand, if you please, that I forbid you to hold from this
+moment any communication with the person who has been named. If I
+cannot prescribe a match for you, I can at least see that you do not
+disgrace your family."
+
+
+[Illustration: "SIR!" SOPHIA CRIED, HER CHEEKS BURNING]
+
+
+"Sir!" Sophia cried, her cheeks burning.
+
+But Mr. Northey, a man of slow pulse and the least possible
+imagination, returned her fiery look unmoved. "I repeat it," he said
+coldly. "For that and nothing else an alliance with this--this person
+would entail. Let there be no misunderstanding on that point. You are
+innocent of the world, Sophia, and do not understand these
+distinctions. But I am within the truth when I say that Mr.
+Hawkesworth is known to be a broken adventurer, moving upon sufferance
+among persons of condition, and owning a character and antecedents
+that would not for a moment sustain inquiry."
+
+"How can that be?" Sophia cried passionately. "It is not known who he
+is."
+
+"He is not one of us," Mr. Northey answered with dignity. "For the
+rest, you are right in saying that it is not known who he is. I am
+told that even the name he bears is not his own."
+
+"No, it is not!" Sophia retorted; and then stood blushing and
+convicted, albeit with an exultant light in her eyes. No, his name was
+not his own! She knew that from his own lips; and knew, too, from his
+own lips, in what a world of romance he moved, what a future he was
+preparing, what a triumph might be, nay, would be, his by-and-by--and
+might be hers! But her mouth was sealed; already, indeed, she had said
+more than she had the right to say. When Mr. Northey, surprised by her
+acquiescence, asked with acerbity how she knew that Hawkesworth was
+not the man's name, and what the man's name was, she stood mute. Wild
+horses should not draw that from her.
+
+But it was natural that her brother-in-law should draw his
+conclusions, and his brow grew darker. "It is plain, at least, that
+you have admitted him to a degree of intimacy extremely improper," he
+said, with more heat than he had yet exhibited. "I fear, Sophia, that
+you are not so good a girl as I believed. However, from this moment
+you will see that you treat him as a stranger. Do you hear me?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Then--then I am not to go with you this evening?"
+
+"This evening! You mean to Vauxhall? And why not, pray?"
+
+"Because--because, if I go I must see him. And if I see him I--I must
+speak to him," Sophia cried, her breast heaving with generous
+resentment. "I will not pass him by, and let him think me--everything
+that is base!"
+
+For a moment Mr. Northey looked a little nonplussed. Then, "Well, you
+can--you can bow to him," he said, pluming himself on his discretion
+in leaving the rein a trifle slack to begin. "If he force himself upon
+you, you will rid yourself of him with as little delay as possible.
+The mode I leave to you, Sophia; but speech with him I absolutely
+forbid. You will obey in that on pain of my most serious displeasure."
+
+"On pain of bread and water, miss!" her sister cried venomously. "That
+will have more effect, I fancy. Lord, for my part, I should die of
+shame if I thought that I had encouraged a nameless Irish rogue not
+good enough to ride behind my coach. And all the town to know it."
+
+Rage dried the tears that hung on Sophia's lids. "Is that all?" she
+asked, her head high. "I should like to go if that is all you have to
+say to me?"
+
+"I think that is all," Mr. Northey answered.
+
+"Then--I may go?"
+
+He appeared to hesitate. For the first time his manner betrayed doubt;
+he looked at his wife and opened his mouth, then closed it. At length,
+"Yes, I think so," he said pompously. "And I trust you will regain our
+approbation by doing as we wish, Sophia. I am sorry to say that your
+brother's conduct at Cambridge has not been all that we could desire.
+I hope that you will see to it, and show yourself more circumspect. I
+truly hope that you will not disappoint us. Yes, you may go."
+
+Sophia waited for no second permission. Her heart bursting, her cheeks
+burning, she hurried from the room, and flew up the stairs to shut
+herself in her chamber. Here, on the second floor, in a room
+consecrated to thoughts of _him_ and dreams of _him_, where in a
+secret nook behind the bow-fronted drawer of her toilet table lay the
+withered flower he had given her the day he stole her glove, she felt
+the full wretchedness of her lot. She would see him no more! Her tears
+gushed forth, her bosom heaved at the thought. She would see him no
+more! Or worse, she would see him only in public, at a distance;
+whence his eyes would stab her for a jilt, a flirt, a cold, heartless,
+worldly creature, unworthy to live in the same world, unworthy to
+breathe the same air with Constancy.
+
+And he had been so good to her! He had been so watchful, so assiduous,
+so delicate, she had fondly, foolishly deemed his court a secret from
+all.
+
+The way to her heart had not been difficult. Her father's death had
+cast her, a timid country girl, into the vortex of the town, where for
+a time she had shrunk from the whirl of routs and masquerades, the
+smirking beaux and loud-voiced misses, among whom she found herself.
+She had sat mum and abashed in companies where her coarser sister
+ruled and ranted; where one had shunned and another had flouted the
+silent, pale-faced girl, whose eyes and hair and tall slender shape
+just redeemed her from insignificance. Only Mr. Hawkesworth, the
+Irishman, had discerned in her charms that in a remarkably short time
+won his regards and fixed his attentions. Only he, with the
+sensibility of an unspoiled Irish heart, had penetrated the secret of
+her loneliness; and in company had murmured sympathy in her ear, and
+at the opera, where he had not the entrée to her sister's box, had
+hung on her looks from afar, speaking more sweetly with his fine eyes
+than Monticelli or Amorevoli sang on the stage.
+
+For Sir Hervey, his would-be rival, the taciturn, middle-aged man, who
+was Hervey to half the men about town, and Coke to three-fourths of
+the women; who gamed with the same nonchalance with which he made his
+court--he might be the pink of fashion in his dull mooning way, but he
+had nothing that caught her eighteen-year-old fancy. On the contrary
+he had a habit of watching her, when Hawkesworth was present, at the
+mere remembrance of which her cheek flamed. For that alone, and in any
+event, she hated him; and would never, never marry him. They might rob
+her of her dear Irishman; they might break her heart--so her thoughts
+ran to the tremolo of a passionate sob; they might throw her into a
+decline; but they should never, never compel her to take _him!_ She
+would live on bread and water for a year first. She was fixed, fixed,
+fixed on that, and would ever remain so.
+
+Meanwhile downstairs the two who remained in the room she had left
+kept silence until her footsteps ceased to sound on the stairs. Then
+Mr. Northey permitted his discontent to appear. "I wish, after all, I
+had told her," he said, moving restlessly in his chair. "Hang it,
+ma'am, do you hear?" he continued, looking irritably at his wife, "I
+wish I had taken my own line, and that is a fact."
+
+"Then you wish you had been a fool, Mr. Northey!" the lady answered
+with fine contempt. "Do you think that this silly girl would rest
+content, or let us rest, until you had followed her dear brother Tom,
+and brought him back from his charmer? Not she! And for him, if you
+are thinking of him, he was always a rude cub, and bound for the dogs
+one day or other. What does it matter whether he is ruined before he
+is of age or after? Eh, Mr. Northey?"
+
+"It matters to us," Mr. Northey answered.
+
+"It may matter ten thousand to us, if we mind our own business," his
+wife answered coolly. "So do you let him be for a day or two."
+
+"It matters as much to Sophia," he said, trying to find excuses for
+himself and his inaction.
+
+"And why not? There will be so much the more to bind Coke to us."
+
+"He has plenty now."
+
+"Much wants more, Mr. Northey."
+
+"Of course the thing may be done already," he argued, striving to
+convince himself. "For all we know, the match is made, and 'tis too
+late to interfere. Your brother was always wilful; and it is not
+likely the woman would let him go for a word. On the other hand----"
+
+"There is no other hand!" she cried, out of patience with his
+weakness. "I tell you, let be. Let the boy marry whom he pleases, and
+when he pleases. 'Tis no matter of ours."
+
+"Still I wish this tutor had not written to us."
+
+"If the knot was not tied yesterday, there are persons enough will tie
+it to-day for half a guinea!" she said. "It is not as if you were his
+only guardian. His father chose another elsewhere. Let him look to it.
+The girl is charge enough for us; and, for her, she benefits as much
+as we do if he's foolish. I wish that were the worst of it. But I
+scent danger, Mr. Northey. I am afraid of this great Teague of hers.
+He's no Irishman if he doesn't scent a fortune a mile off. And once
+let him learn that she is worth sixteen thousand pounds instead of six
+thousand, and he'll off with her from under our very noses."
+
+"It's that Irish Register has done the mischief!" Mr. Northey cried,
+jumping up with an oath. "She's in there, in print!"
+
+"Under her own name?"
+
+"To be sure, as a fortune. And her address."
+
+"Do you mean it, Mr. Northey? Printed in the book, is it?"
+
+"It is; as I say."
+
+"Hang their impudence!" his wife cried in astonishment. "They ought to
+be pilloried! But there is just this, we can show the entry to the
+girl. And if it don't open her eyes, nothing will. Do you get a copy
+of the book, Mr. Northey, and we'll show it to her to-morrow, and put
+her on the notion every Irishman has it by heart. And as soon as we
+can we must get her married to Coke. There'll be no certainty till
+she's wedded. 'Twould have been done this fortnight if he were not
+just such a mumchance fool as the girl herself. He may look very wise,
+and the town may think him so. But there's more than looking wanted
+with a woman, Mr. Northey; and for what I see he's as big a fool as
+many that never saw Pall Mall."
+
+"I have never found him that," Mr. Northey answered with a dry cough.
+He spoke with reason, for he had more than once, as heir to a peerage,
+taken on himself to set Sir Hervey right; with so conspicuous a lack
+of success that he had begun to suspect that his brother member's
+silence was not dulness; nay, that he himself came late into that
+secret. Or why was Coke so well with that great wit and fashionable,
+Hanbury Williams? With Henry Fox, and my lord Chesterfield? With young
+Lord Lincoln, the wary quarry of match-making mothers, no less than
+with Tom Hervey, against whom no young virgin, embarking on life,
+failed of a warning? Mr. Northey knew that in the company of these,
+and their like, he was no favourite, whilst Coke was at home; and he
+hid with difficulty a sneaking fear of his colleague.
+
+What a man so highly regarded and so well received saw in a girl who,
+in Mr. Northey's eyes, appeared every way inferior to her loud, easy,
+fashionable sister, it passed the honourable member to conceive. But
+the thing was so. Sir Hervey had spoken the three or four words beyond
+which he seldom went--the venture had been made; and now if there was
+one thing upon which Mr. Northey's dogged mind was firmly fixed, it
+was that an alliance so advantageous should not be lost to the family.
+
+"But Sophia is prudent," he said, combating his own fears. "She has
+always been obedient and--and well-behaved. I am sure she's--she's a
+good girl, and will see what is right when it is explained to her."
+
+"If she does not, she will see sorrow!" his wife answered truculently.
+She had neither forgotten nor forgiven the sneer about Methuselah.
+"I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Northey," madam continued, "she takes
+you in with her pale, peaky face and her round eyes. But if ever there
+was a nasty, obstinate little toad, she is one. And you'll find it out
+by-and-by. And so will Coke to his cost some day."
+
+"Still you think--we can bend her this time?"
+
+"Oh, she'll marry him!" Mrs. Northey retorted confidently. "I'll
+answer for that. But I would not be Coke afterwards."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+                             AT VAUXHALL
+
+
+In a year when all the world was flocking to the new Rotunda in
+Ranelagh Gardens, Mrs. Northey would be particular, and have her
+evening party to Vauxhall. Open air was the fashion of the time, and
+it was from her seat at the open window in Arlington Street that she
+welcomed her guests. Thence, as each new-comer appeared she shouted
+her greeting, often in terms that convulsed the chairmen at the
+corner; or now and again, hanging far out, she turned her attention
+and wit to the carpenters working late on Sir Robert's house next
+door, and stated in good round phrases her opinion of the noise they
+made. When nearly all her company were assembled, and the room was
+full of women languishing and swimming, and of men mincing and
+prattling, and tapping their snuff-boxes, Sophia stole in, and,
+creeping into a corner, hid herself behind two jolly nymphs, who, with
+hoops six feet wide and cheeks as handsome as crimson could make them,
+were bandying jokes and horse-play with a tall admirer. In this
+retreat Sophia fancied that she might hide her sad looks until the
+party set out; and great was her dismay, when, venturing at last to
+raise her eyes, she discovered that she had placed herself beside,
+nay, almost touching the man whom of all others she wished to avoid,
+the detested Coke; who, singularly enough, had sought the same
+retirement a few moments earlier.
+
+In the confusion of the moment she recoiled a step; the events of the
+day had shaken her nerves. Then, "I beg your pardon, sir, I did not
+see that you were there," she stammered.
+
+"No," he said with a smile, "I know you did not, child. Or you would
+have gone to the other end of the room. Now, confess. Is it not so?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. "As you please, sir," she said, "I would
+not venture to contradict you," and curtseying satirically she turned
+away her face. At any rate he should lie in no doubt of her feelings.
+
+He did not answer. And, welcome as his silence was, something like
+contempt of a suitor who aspired to have without daring to speak took
+possession of her. Under the influence of this feeling, embittered by
+the rating she had received that morning, she fell to considering him
+out of the tail of her eye, but, in spite of herself, she could not
+deny that he was personable; that his features, if a trifle set and
+lacking vivacity, were good, and his bearing that of a gentleman at
+ease in his company. Before she had well weighed him, however, or done
+more than compare him with the fop who stood before her, and whose
+muff and quilted coat, long queue and black leather stock were in the
+extreme of the fashion, Sir Hervey spoke again.
+
+"Why does it not please you?" he asked, almost listlessly.
+
+"To do what, sir?"
+
+"To be beside me."
+
+"I did not say it did not," she answered, looking stiffly the other
+way.
+
+"But it does not," he persisted. "I suppose, child, your sister has
+told you what my views are?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And what do you say?" he murmured. "That--that I am much obliged to
+you, but they are not mine!" Sophia answered, with a rush of words and
+colour; and, punished as she had been that morning, it must be
+confessed, she cruelly enjoyed the stroke.
+
+For a moment only. Then to her astonishment and dismay Sir Hervey
+laughed. "That is what you say now," he answered lightly. "What will
+you say if, by-and-by, when we know one another better, we get on as
+well together as--as Lady Sophia there, and----"
+
+"And Lord Lincoln?" she cried, seeing that he hesitated. "Never!"
+
+"Indeed!" he retorted. "But, pray, what do you know about Lord
+Lincoln?"
+
+"I suppose you think I know no scandal?" she cried.
+
+"I would prefer you to know as little as possible," he answered
+coolly; in the tone she fancied which he would have used had she been
+already his property. "And there is another thing I would also prefer
+you did not know," he continued.
+
+"Pray, what is that?" she cried, openly scornful; and she flirted her
+fan a little faster.
+
+"Mr. Hawkesworth."
+
+The blood rushed to her cheeks. This was too much. "Are you jealous?
+or only impertinent?" she asked, her voice not less furious because it
+was low and guarded. "How noble, how chivalrous, to say behind a
+gentleman's back what you would not dare to say to his face!"
+
+Sir Hervey shrugged his shoulders. "He is not a gentleman," he said.
+"He is not one of us, and he is not fit company for you. I do not know
+what story he has told you, nor what cards he has played, but I know
+that what I say is true. Be advised, child," he continued earnestly,
+"and look on him coldly when you see him next. Be sure if you do
+not----"
+
+"You will speak to my sister?" she cried. "If you have not done it
+already? Lord, sir, I congratulate you. I'm sure you have discovered
+quite a new style of wooing. Next, I suppose, you will have me sent to
+my room, and put on bread and water for a week? Or buried in a
+parsonage in the country with Tillotson's Sermons and the 'Holy
+Living'?"
+
+"I spoke to you as I should speak to my sister," Sir Hervey said, with
+something akin to apology in his tone.
+
+"Say, rather, as you would speak to your daughter!" she replied, quick
+as lightning; and, trembling with rage, she drove home the shaft with
+a low curtsey. "To be sure, sir, now I think of it, the distance
+between us justifies you in giving me what advice you please."
+
+He winced at last, and was even a trifle out of countenance. But he
+did not answer, and she, furiously angry, turned her back on him, and
+looked the other way. Young as she was, all the woman in her rose in
+revolt against the humiliation of being advised in such a matter by a
+man. She could have struck him. She hated him. And they were all in
+the same story. They were all against her and her dear Irishman, who
+alone understood her. Tears rose in Sophia's eyes as she pictured her
+present loneliness and her happiness in the past; as she recalled the
+old home looking down the long avenue of chestnut trees, the dogs, the
+horses, the boisterous twin brother, and the father who by turns had
+coarsely chidden and fondly indulged her. In her loss of all this, in
+a change of life as complete as it was sudden, she had found one only
+to comfort her, one only who had not thought the whirl of strange
+pleasures a sufficient compensation for a home and a father. One only
+who had read her silence, and pitied her inexperience. And him they
+would snatch from her! Him they would----
+
+But at this point her thoughts were interrupted by a general movement
+towards the door. Bent on an evening's frolic the party issued into
+Arlington Street with loud laughter and louder voices, and in a moment
+were gaily descending St. James's Street. One or two of the elder
+ladies took chairs, but the greater part walked, the gentlemen with
+hats under their arms and canes dangling from their wrists, the more
+foppish with muffs. Passing down St. James's, where Betty, the fruit
+woman, with a couple of baskets of fruit, was added to the company,
+they crossed the end of Pall Mall, now inviting a recruit, after the
+easy fashion of the day, and now hailing a friend on the farther side
+of the street. Thence, by the Mall and the Horse Guards, and so to the
+Whitehall Stairs, where boats were waiting for them on the grey
+evening surface of the broad river.
+
+Sophia found herself compelled to go in the same boat with Sir Hervey,
+but she took good heed to ensconce herself at a distance from him;
+and, successful in this, sat at her end, moody, and careless of
+appearances. There was singing and a little romping in the stern of
+the boat, where the ladies principally sat, and where their hoops
+called for some arrangement. Presently a pert girl, Lady Betty
+Cochrane, out at sixteen, and bent on a husband before she was
+seventeen, marked Sophia's silence, nudged those about her, and took
+on herself to rally the girl.
+
+"La, miss, you must have been at a Quakers' meeting!" she cried,
+simpering. "It is easy to see where your thoughts are."
+
+"Where?" Sophia murmured, abashed by this public notice.
+
+"I believe there is very good acting in--_Doblin!_" the provoking
+creature answered, with her head on one side, and a sentimental air;
+and the ladies tittered and the gentlemen smiled. "Have you ever been
+to--Doblin, miss?" she continued, with a look that winged the
+innuendo.
+
+Sophia, her face on fire, did not answer.
+
+"Oh, la, miss, you are not offended, I hope!" the tormentor cried
+politely. "Sure, I thought the gentleman had spoken, and all was
+arranged. To be sure--
+
+
+                    "O'Rourke's noble fare
+                       Will ne'er be forgot
+                     By those who were there,
+                       And those who were not!
+
+
+_And those who were not!_" she hummed again, with a wink that drove
+the ladies to hide their mirth in their handkerchiefs. "A fine man,
+O'Rourke, and I have heard that he was an actor in--Doblin!" the
+little tease continued.
+
+Sophia, choking with rage, and no match for her town-bred antagonist,
+could find not a word to answer; and worse still, she knew not where
+to look. Another moment and she might even have burst into tears, a
+mishap which would have disgraced her for ever in that company. But at
+the critical instant a quiet voice at the stern was heard, quoting--
+
+
+             "Whom Simplicetta loves the town would know,
+              Mark well her knots, and name the happy beau!"
+
+
+On which it was seen that it is one thing to tease and another to be
+teased. Lady Betty swung round in a rage, and without a word attacked
+Sir Hervey with her fan with a violence that came very near to
+upsetting the boat. "How dare you, you horrid man?" she cried, when
+she thought she had beaten him enough. "I wish there were no men in
+the world, I declare I do! It's a great story, you ugly thing! If Mr.
+Hesketh says I gave him a knot, he is just a----"
+
+A shout of laughter cut her short. Too late she saw that she had
+betrayed herself, and she stamped furiously on the bottom of the boat.
+"He cut it off!" she shrieked, raising her voice above the laughter.
+"He cut it off! He would cut it off! 'Tis a shame you will not believe
+me. I say----"
+
+A fresh peal of laughter drowned her voice, and brought the boat to
+the landing-place.
+
+"All the same, Lady Betty," the nearest girl said as they prepared to
+step out, "you'd better not let your mother hear, or you'll go milk
+cows, my dear, in the country! Lord, you little fool, the boy's not
+worth a groat, and should be at school by rights!"
+
+Miss Betty did not answer, but cocking her chin with disdain, which
+made her look prettier than ever, stepped out, sulking. Sophia
+followed, her cheeks a trifle cooler than they had been; and the
+party, once more united, proceeded on foot from the river to the
+much-praised groves of Pleasure; where ten thousand lamps twinkled and
+glanced among the trees, or outlined the narrowing avenue that led to
+the glittering pavilion. In the wide and open space before this Palace
+of Aladdin a hundred gay and lively groups were moving to and fro to
+the strains of the band, or were standing to gaze at the occupants of
+the boxes; who, sheltered from the elements, and divided from the
+humbler visitors by little gardens, supped _al fresco_, their ears
+charmed by music, and their eyes entertained by the ever-changing
+crowd that moved below them.
+
+Two of the best boxes had been retained for Mrs. Northey's party, but
+before they proceeded to them her company chose to stroll up and down
+a time or two, diverting themselves with the humours of the place and
+the evening. More than once Sophia's heart stood still as they walked.
+She fancied that she saw Hawkesworth approaching, that she
+distinguished his form, his height, his face amid the crowd; and
+conscious of the observant eyes around her, as well as of her sister's
+displeasure, she knew not where to look for embarrassment. On each
+occasion it turned out that she was mistaken, and to delicious tremors
+succeeded the chill of a disappointment almost worse to bear. After
+all, she reflected, if she must dismiss him, here were a hundred
+opportunities of doing so in greater freedom than she could command
+elsewhere. The turmoil of the press through which they moved, now in
+light and now in shadow, now on the skirts of the romantic, twilit
+grove, and now under the blaze of the pavilion lamps, favoured the
+stolen word, the kind glance, the quick-breathed sigh. But though he
+knew that she was to be there, though of late he had seldom failed her
+in such public resorts as this, he did not appear; and by-and-by her
+company left the parade, and, entering the boxes, fell to mincing
+chickens in china bowls, and cooking them with butter and water over a
+lamp, all with much romping and scolding, and some kissing and
+snatching of white fingers, and such a fire of jests and laughter as
+soon drew a crowd to the front of the box, and filled the little
+gardens on either side of them with staring groups.
+
+Gayest, pertest, most reckless of all, Lady Betty was in her glory.
+Never was such a rattle as she showed herself. Her childish treble and
+shrill laugh, her pretty flushed face and tumbled hair were
+everywhere. Apparently bent on punishing Coke for his interference she
+never let him rest, with the result that Sophia, whose resentment
+still smouldered, was free to withdraw to the back of the box, and
+witness rather than share the sport that went forward. To this a new
+zest was given when Lord P----, who had been dining at a tavern on the
+river, arrived very drunk, and proceeded to harangue the crowd from
+the front of the box.
+
+Sophia's seat at the back was beside the head of the half-dozen stairs
+that descended to the gardens. The door at her elbow was open. On a
+sudden, while the hubbub was at its height, and a good half of the
+party were on their feet before her--some encouraging his lordship to
+fresh vagaries, and others striving to soothe him--she heard a
+stealthy hist! hist! in the doorway beside her, as if some one sought
+to gain her attention. With Hawkesworth in her mind she peered that
+way in trembling apprehension; immediately a little white note dropped
+lightly at her feet, and she had a glimpse of a head and shoulders,
+withdrawn as soon as seen.
+
+With a tumultuous feeling between shame and joy, Sophia, who, up to
+this moment, had had nothing clandestine on her conscience, slipped
+her foot over the note? and glanced round to see if any one had seen
+her. That moment an eager childish voice cried in her ear, "Give me
+that! Give it me!" And then, more urgently, "Do you hear? It is mine!
+Please give it me!"
+
+The voice was Lady Betty's; and her flushed pleading face backed the
+appeal. At which, and all it meant, it is not to be denied that a
+little malice stirred in Sophia's breast. The chit had so tormented
+her an hour earlier, had so held her up to ridicule, so shamed her. It
+was no wonder she was inclined to punish her now. "Yours, child," she
+said, looking coldly at her. "Impossible."
+
+"Yes, miss. Please--please give it me--at once, please, before it is
+too late."
+
+"I do not know that I shall," Sophia answered virtuously, from the
+height of her eighteen years. "Children have no right to receive
+notes. I ought to give it to your mother." Then, with an unexpected
+movement, she stooped and possessed herself of the folded scrap of
+paper. "I am not sure that I shall not," she continued.
+
+Lady Betty's face was piteous. "If you do, I--I shall be sent into the
+country," she panted. "I--I don't know what they'll do to me. Oh,
+please, please, will you give it me!"
+
+Sophia had a kindly nature, and the girl's distress appealed to her.
+But it appealed in two ways.
+
+"No, I shall not give it you," she answered firmly. "But I shall not
+tell your mother, either. I shall tear it up. You are too young, you
+little baby, to do this!" And suiting the action to the word, she tore
+the note into a dozen pieces and dropped them.
+
+Lady Betty glared at her between relief and rage. At last "Cat! Cat!"
+she whispered with childish spite. "Thank you for nothing, ma'am. I'll
+pay you by-and-by, see if I don't!" And with a spring, she was back at
+the front of the box, her laugh the loudest, her voice the freshest,
+her wit the boldest and most impertinent of all. Sophia, who fancied
+that she had made an enemy, did not notice that more than once this
+madcap looked her way; nor that in the midst of the wildest outbursts
+she had an eye for what happened in her direction.
+
+Sophia, indeed, had food for thought more important than Lady Betty,
+for the girl had scarcely left her side when Mrs. Northey came to her,
+shook her roughly by the shoulder--they had direct ways in those
+days--and asked her in a fierce whisper if she were going to sulk
+there all the evening. Thus adjured, Sophia moved reluctantly to a
+front seat at the right-hand corner of the box. Lord P---- had been
+suppressed, but broken knots of people still lingered before the
+garden of the box expecting a new escapade. To the right, in the open,
+fireworks were being let off, and the grounds in that direction were
+as light as in the day. Suddenly, Sophia's eyes, roving moodily hither
+and thither, became fixed. She rose to her feet with a cry of
+surprise, which must have been heard by her companions had they not
+been taken up at that moment with the arrest of a cutpurse by two
+thief-takers, a drama which was going forward on the left.
+
+"There's--there's Tom!" she cried, her astonishment extreme, since Tom
+should have been at Cambridge. And raising her voice she shouted "Tom!
+Tom!"
+
+Her brother did not hear. He was moving across the open lighted space,
+some fifteen paces from the box; a handsome boy, foppishly dressed,
+moving with the affected indifference of a very young dandy. Sophia
+glanced round in an agony of impatience, and found that no one was
+paying any attention to her; there was no one she could send to call
+him. She saw that in a twinkling he would be lost in the crowd, and,
+acting on the impulse of the moment, she darted to the stairs, which
+were only two paces from her, and flew down them to overtake him.
+Unfortunately, she tripped at the bottom and almost fell, lost a
+precious instant, and lost Tom. When she reached the spot where she
+had last seen him, and looked round, her brother was not to be seen.
+
+Or yes, there he was, in the act of vanishing down one of the dim
+alleys that led into the grove. Half laughing, half crying, innocently
+anticipating his surprise when he should see her, Sophia sped after
+him. He turned a corner--the place was a maze and dimly lighted--she
+followed him; she thought he met some one, she hurried on, and the
+next moment was all but in the arms of Hawkesworth.
+
+"Sophia!" the Irishman cried, pressing his hat to his heart as he
+bowed before her. "Oh, my angel, that I should be so blest! This is
+indeed a happy meeting."
+
+But she was far at the moment from thinking of him. Her brother
+occupied her whole mind. "Where is he," she cried, looking every way.
+"Where is Tom? Mr. Hawkesworth, you must have seen him. He must have
+passed you."
+
+"Seen whom, ma'am?" her admirer asked with eager devotion. He was
+tall, with a certain florid grace of carriage; and ready, for his hand
+was on his heart, and his eyes expressed the joy he felt, almost
+before she knew who stood before her. "If it is any one I know, make
+me happy by commanding me. If he be at the ends of the earth, I will
+bring him back."
+
+"It is my brother!"
+
+"Your brother?"
+
+"Yes--but you would not know him," she cried, stamping her foot with
+impatience. "How annoying!"
+
+"Not know him?" he answered gallantly. "Oh, ma'am, how little you know
+me!" And Hawkesworth extended his arm with a gesture half despairing,
+half reproachful. "How little you enter into my feelings if you think
+that I should not know _your_ brother! My tongue I know is clumsy, and
+says little, but my eyes"--and certainly they dwelt boldly enough on
+her blushing face, "my eyes must inform you more correctly of my
+feelings."
+
+"Please, please do not talk like that!" she cried in a low voice, and
+she wrung her hands in distress. "I saw my brother, and I came down to
+overtake him, and--and somehow I have missed him."
+
+"But I thought that he was at Cambridge?" he said.
+
+"He should be," she replied. "But it was he. It was he indeed. I ran
+to catch him, and I have missed him, and I must go back at once. If
+you please, I must go back at once."
+
+"In one moment you shall!" he cried, barring the road, but with so
+eloquent a look and a tone so full of admiration that she could not
+resent the movement. "In one moment you shall. But, my angel, heaven
+has sent you to my side, heaven has taken pity on my passion, and
+given me this moment of delight--will you be more cruel and snatch it
+from me? Nay, but, sweet," he continued with ardour, making as if he
+would kneel, and take possession of her hand, "sweetest one, say that
+you, too, are glad! Say----"
+
+"Mr. Hawkesworth, I am glad," she murmured, trembling; while her face
+burned with blushes. "For it gives me an opportunity I might otherwise
+have lacked of--of--oh, I don't know how I can say it!"
+
+"Say what, madam?"
+
+"How I can take--take leave of you," she murmured, turning away her
+head.
+
+"Take leave of me?" he cried. "Take leave of me?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes! Believe me, Mr. Hawkesworth," Sophia continued,
+beginning to stammer in her confusion, "I am not ungrateful for your
+attentions, I am not, indeed, ungrateful, but we--we must part."
+
+"Never!" he cried, rising and looking down at her. "Never! It is not
+your heart that speaks now, or it speaks but a lesson it has learned."
+
+Sophia was silent.
+
+"It is your friends who would part us," he continued, with stern and
+bitter emphasis. "It is your cold-blooded, politic brother-in-law; it
+is your proud sister----"
+
+"Stay, sir," Sophia said unsteadily. "She _is_ my sister."
+
+"She is; but she would part us!" he retorted. "Do you think that I do
+not understand that? Do you think that I do not know why, too? They
+see in me only a poor gentleman. I cannot go to them, and tell them
+what I have told you! I cannot," he continued, with a gesture that in
+the daylight might have seemed a little theatrical, but in the dusk of
+the alley and to a girl's romantic perceptions commended itself
+gallantly enough, "put my life in their hands as I have put it in
+yours! I cannot tell them that the day will come when Plomer
+Hawkesworth will stand on the steps of a throne and enjoy all that a
+king's gratitude can confer. When he who now runs daily, nightly,
+hourly the risk of Layer's fate, whose head may any morning rot on
+Temple Bar and his limbs on York Gates----"
+
+Sophia interrupted him; she could bear no more. "Oh, no, no!" she
+cried, shuddering and covering her eyes. "God forbid! God forbid, sir!
+Rather----"
+
+"Rather what, sweet?" he cried, and he caught her hand in rapture.
+
+"Rather give up this--this dangerous life," she sobbed, overcome by
+the horror of the things his words had conjured up. "Let others tread
+such dangerous ways and run such risks. Give up the Jacobite cause,
+Mr. Hawkesworth, if you love me as you say you do, and I----"
+
+"Yes? Yes?" he cried; and across his handsome face, momentarily turned
+from her as if he would resist her pleading, there crept a look half
+of derision, half of triumph. "What of you, sweet?"
+
+But her reply was never spoken, for as he uttered the word the
+fireworks died down with startling abruptness, plunging the alley in
+which they stood into gloom. The change recalled the girl to a full
+and sudden sense of her position; to its risks and to its
+consequences, should her absence, even for a moment, be discovered.
+Wringing her hands in distress, in place of the words that had been on
+her lips, "Oh, I must go!" she cried. "I must get back at once!" And
+she looked for help to her lover.
+
+He did not answer her, and she turned from him, fearing he might try
+to detain her. But she had not taken three steps before she paused in
+agitation, uncertain in the darkness which way she had come. A
+giggling, squealing girl ran by her into the grove, followed by a man;
+at the same moment a distant fanfare of French horns, with the
+confused noise of a multitude of feet trampling the earth at once,
+announced that the entertainment was over, and that the assembly was
+beginning to leave the gardens.
+
+Sophia's heart stood still. What if she were missed? Worse still, what
+if she were left behind? "Oh," she cried, turning again to him, her
+hands outstretched, "which is the way? Mr. Hawkesworth, please, please
+show me the way! Please take me to them!"
+
+But the Irishman did not move.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III
+
+                           THE CLOCK-MAKER
+
+
+It even seemed to Sophia that his face, as he stood watching her, took
+on a smirk of satisfaction, faint, but odious; and in that moment, and
+for the moment, she came near to hating him. She knew that in the set
+in which she moved much might be overlooked, and daily and hourly was
+overlooked, in the right people. But to be lost at Vauxhall at
+midnight, in the company of an unauthorised lover--this had a horribly
+clandestine sound; this should be sufficient to blacken the fame of a
+poor maid--or her country education was at fault. And knowing this,
+and hearing the confused sounds of departure rise each moment louder
+and more importunate, the girl grew frantic with impatience.
+
+"Which way? Which way?" she cried. "Do you hear me? Which way are the
+boxes, Mr. Hawkesworth? You know which way I came. Am I to think you a
+dolt, sir, or--or what?"
+
+"Or what?" he repeated, grinning feebly. To be candid, the occasion
+had not been foreseen, and the Irishman, though of readiest wit, could
+not on the instant make up his mind how he would act.
+
+"Or a villain?" she cried, with a furious glance. And in the effort to
+control herself, the ivory fan-sticks snapped in her small fingers as
+if they had been of glass. "Take me back this instant, sir," she
+continued, her head high, "or never presume to speak to me again!"
+
+What he would have said to this is uncertain, for the good reason that
+before he answered, two men appeared at the end of the alley. Catching
+the sheen of Sophia's hoop skirt, where it glimmered light against the
+dark of the trees, they espied the pair, took them for a pair of
+lovers, and with a whoop of drunken laughter came towards them. One
+was Lord P----, no soberer than before; the other a brother buck
+flushed with wine to the same pitch of insolence, and ready for any
+folly or mischief. Crying "So ho! A petticoat! A petticoat!" the two
+Mohocks joined hands, and with a tipsy view-halloa! swept down the
+green walk, expecting to carry all before them.
+
+But it was in such an emergency as this that the Irishman was at his
+best. Throwing himself between the shrinking, frightened girl and the
+onset of the drunken rakes, he raised his cane with an air so
+determined that the assailants thought better of their plan, and,
+pausing with a volley of drunken threats, parted hands and changed
+their scheme of attack. While one prepared to rush in and overturn the
+man, the other made a feint aside, and, thrusting himself through the
+shrubs, sprang on the girl. Sophia screamed, and tried to free
+herself; but scream and effort were alike premature. With a rapid
+twirl Hawkesworth avoided my lord's rush, caught him by the waist as
+he blundered by, and, swinging him off his legs, flung him crashing
+among the undergrowth. Then, whipping out his sword, he pricked the
+other who had seized Sophia, in the fleshy part of the shoulder, and
+forced him to release her; after which, plying his point before the
+bully's eyes, he drove him slowly back and back. Now the man shrieked
+and flinched as the glittering steel menaced his face; now he poured
+forth a volley of threats and curses, as it was for a moment
+withdrawn. But Hawkesworth was unmoved by either, and at length the
+fellow, seeing that he was not to be intimidated either by his
+lordship's name or his own menaces, thought better of it--as these
+gentlemen commonly did when they were resisted; and springing back
+with a parting oath, he took to his heels, and saved himself down a
+bypath.
+
+The Irishman, a little breathed by his victory, wasted no time in
+vaunting it. The girl had witnessed it with worshipping eyes; he could
+trust her to make the most of it. "Quick," he cried, "or we shall be
+in trouble!" And sheathing his sword, he caught the trembling Sophia
+by the hand, and ran with her down the path. They turned a corner; a
+little way before her she saw lights, and the open space near the
+booths which she had seen her brother cross. But now Hawkesworth
+halted; his purpose was still fluid and uncertain. But the next moment
+a shrill childish voice cried "Here she is; I've found her!" and Lady
+Betty Cochrane flew towards them. A little behind her, approaching at
+a more leisurely pace, was Sir Hervey Coke.
+
+Lady Betty stared at Hawkesworth with all her eyes, and giggled. "Oh,
+lord, a man!" she cried, and veiled her face, pretending to be
+overcome.
+
+"I saw my brother," Sophia faltered, covered with confusion, "and ran
+down--ran down to--to meet him."
+
+"Just so! But see here, _brother!_" Lady Betty answered with a wink.
+"Go's the word, now, if you are not a fool."
+
+Hawkesworth hesitated an instant, looking from Sophia to Sir Hervey
+Coke; but he saw that nothing more could be done on the occasion, and
+muttering "Another time," he turned away, and in a moment was lost in
+the grove.
+
+"She was with her brother," Lady Betty cried, turning, and
+breathlessly explaining the matter to Coke, who had seen all. "Think
+of that! She saw him, and followed him. That's all. Lord, I wonder,"
+she continued, with a loud giggle, "if they would make such a fuss if
+I were missing. I declare to goodness I'll try." And, leaving Sophia
+to follow with Sir Hervey, she danced on in front until they met Mrs.
+Northey, who, with her husband and several of her party, was following
+in search of the culprit. Seeing she was found, the gentlemen winked
+at one another behind backs, while the ladies drew down the corners of
+their mouths. One of the latter laughed, maliciously expecting the
+scene that would follow.
+
+But Lady Betty had the first word, and kept it. "Lord, ma'am, what
+ninnies we are!" she cried. "She was with her brother. That's all!"
+
+"Hee, hee!" the lady tittered who had laughed before. "That's good!
+Her brother!"
+
+"Yes, she was!" Betty cried, turning on her, a very spitfire. "I
+suppose seeing's believing, ma'am, though one is only fifteen, and not
+forty. She saw her brother going by the--the corner there, and ran
+after him while we were watching--watching the---- But oh, I beg your
+pardon, ma'am, you were otherwise engaged, I think!" with a derisive
+curtsey.
+
+Unfortunately the lady who had laughed had a weakness for one of the
+gentlemen in company; which was so notorious that on this even her
+friends sniggered. With Mrs. Northey, however, Lady Betty's advocacy
+was less effective. That pattern sister, from the moment she
+discovered Sophia's absence, and divined the cause of it, had been fit
+to burst with spleen. Fortunately, the coarse rating which she had
+prepared, and from which neither policy nor mercy could have persuaded
+her to refrain, died on her shrewish lips at the word "brother."
+
+"Her brother?" she repeated mechanically, as she glowered at Lady
+Betty. "Her brother here? What do you mean?"
+
+"To be sure, ma'am, what I say. She saw him."
+
+"But how did she know--that he was in London?" Mrs. Northey stammered,
+forgetting herself for the moment.
+
+"She didn't know! That's the strange part of it!" Lady Betty replied
+volubly. "She saw him, ma'am, and ran after him."
+
+"Well, anyway, you have given us enough trouble!" Mrs. Northey
+retorted, addressing her sister; who stood before them trembling with
+excitement, and overcome by the varied emotions of the scene through
+which she had passed in the alley. "Thank you for nothing, and Master
+Tom, too! Perhaps if you have quite done you'll come home. Sir Hervey,
+I'll trust her to you, if you'll be troubled with her. Now, if your
+ladyship will lead the way? I declare it's wondrous dark of a sudden."
+
+The party, taking the hint, turned, and quickly made its way along the
+deserted paths towards the entrance. As they trooped by twos and
+threes down the Avenue of Delight many of the lamps had flickered out,
+and others were guttering in the sockets, fit images of wit and
+merriment that had lost their sparkle, and fell dull on jaded ears.
+Coke walked in silence beside his companion until a little interval
+separated them from the others. Then, "Child," he said in a tone grave
+and almost severe, "are you fixed to take no warning? Are you
+determined to throw away your life?"
+
+It was his misfortune--and hers--that he chose his seasons ill. At
+that moment her heart was filled to overflowing with her lover, and
+her danger; his prowess, and his brave defence of her. Her eyes were
+hot with joyful, happy tears hardly pent back. Her limbs trembled with
+a delicious agitation; all within her was a tumult of warm feelings,
+of throbbing sensibilities.
+
+For Sir Hervey to oppose himself to her in that mood was to court
+defeat; it was to associate himself with the worldliness that to her
+in her rapture was the most hateful thing on earth; and he had his
+reward. "Throw away my life," she cried, curtly and contemptuously,
+"'tis just that, sir, I am determined not to do!"
+
+"You are going the way to do it," he retorted.
+
+"I should be going the way--were I to entertain the suit of a spy!"
+she cried, her voice trembling as she hurled the insult at him. "Were
+I to become the wife of a man who, even before he has a claim on me,
+dogs my footsteps, watches my actions, defames my friends! Believe me,
+sir, I thank you for nothing so much as for opening my eyes to your
+merits."
+
+"Oh, Lord!" he exclaimed in despair almost comic.
+
+"Thank you," she said. "I see your conduct is of a piece, sir. From
+the first you treated me as a child; a chattel to be conveyed to you
+by my friends, with the least trouble to yourself. You scarcely
+stooped to speak to me until you found another in the field, and then
+'twas only to backbite a gentleman whom you dared not accuse to his
+face?"
+
+As she grew hotter he grew cool. "Well, well," he said, tapping his
+snuff-box, "be easy; I sha'n't carry you off against your will."
+
+"No, you will not!" she cried. "You will not! Don't think, if you
+please, that I am afraid of you. I am afraid of no one!"
+
+And in the fervour of her love she felt that she spoke the truth. At
+that moment she was afraid of no one.
+
+"'Tis a happy state; I hope it may continue," Coke answered placidly.
+"You never had cause to fear me. After this you shall have no cause to
+reproach me. I ask only one thing in return."
+
+"You will have nothing," she said rudely.
+
+"You will grant me this, whether you will or no!"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Yes," he said, "for it is but this, and you cannot help yourself.
+When you have been married to that man a month think of this moment
+and of me, and remember that I warned you."
+
+He spoke soberly, but he might have spoken to the winds for all the
+good he did. She was in air, picturing her lover's strength and
+prowess, his devotion, his gallantry. Once again she saw the drunken
+lord lifted and flung among the shrubs, and Hawkesworth's figure as he
+stood like Hector above his fallen foe. Again she saw the other bully
+flinching before his steel, cursing, reviling and hiccoughing by
+turns, and Hawkesworth silent, inexorable, pressing on him. She forgot
+the preceding moment of dismay when she had turned to her lover for
+help, and read something less than respect in his eyes; that short
+moment during which he had hung in the wind uncertain what course he
+would take with her. She forgot this, for she was only eighteen, and
+the scene in which he had championed her had cast its glamour over
+her, distorting all that had gone before. He had defended her; he was
+her hero, she was his chosen. What girl of sensibility could doubt it?
+
+Coke, who left them at the door of the house in Arlington Street,
+finished the evening at White's, where, playing deep for him, he won
+three hundred at hazard without speaking three unnecessary words.
+Returning home with the milk in the morning, he rubbed his eyes,
+surprised to find himself following Hawkesworth along Piccadilly. The
+Irishman had a companion, a young lad who reeled and hiccoughed in the
+cool morning air; who sung snatches of tipsy songs, and at the corner
+of Berkeley Street would have fought with a night chairman if the
+elder man had not dragged him on by force. The two turned up Dover
+Street and Sir Hervey, after following them with his eyes, lost sight
+of them, and went on, wondering why a drunken boy's voice, heard at
+haphazard in the street, reminded him of Sophia.
+
+He would have wondered less and known more had he followed them
+farther. At the bottom of Hay Hill the lad freed himself from his
+companion's arm, propped his shoulders against the wall of Berkeley
+Gardens, and with drunken solemnity proceeded to argue a point. "I
+don't understand," he said. "Why shouldn't I speak to S'phia, if I
+please. Eh? S'phia's devilish good girl, why do you go and drag her
+off? That's what I want to know."
+
+"My dear lad," Hawkesworth answered with patience, "if she saw you
+she'd blow the whole thing."
+
+"Not she!" the lad hiccoughed obstinately. "She's a good little girl.
+She's my twin, I tell you."
+
+"But the others were with her."
+
+"What others?"
+
+"Northey."
+
+"I shall kick Northey, when I am married," the lad proclaimed with
+drunken solemnity. "That's all."
+
+"Well, you'll be married to-morrow."
+
+"Why not to-day? That's what I want to know. Eh? Why not to-day?"
+
+"Because the fair Oriana is at Ipswich, and you are here," the
+Irishman answered with a trace of impatience in his tone. Then under
+his breath he added, "D--n the jade! This is one of her tricks. She's
+never where she is wanted."
+
+In the meantime the lad had been set in motion again, and the two had
+reached the end of Davies Street at the north-west corner of the
+square. Here, perceiving the other mutter, Tom--for Sophia's brother,
+Tom, it was--stopped anew. "Eh? What's that?" he said. "What's that
+you are saying, old tulip?"
+
+"I was saying you were a monstrous clever fellow to win her--to-day or
+to-morrow," Hawkesworth answered coolly. "And I am hanged if I know
+how you did it. I can tell you a hundred gay fellows in the town are
+dying to marry her. And no flinchers, either."
+
+"'Pon honour?"
+
+"Ay, and a hundred more would give their ears for a kiss. But lord,
+out of all she must needs choose you! I vow, lad," Hawkesworth
+continued with enthusiasm, "it is the most extraordinary thing that
+ever was. The finest shape this side of Paris, eyes that would melt a
+stone, ankles like a gossamer, a toast wherever she goes, and the
+prettiest wit in the world; sink me, lad, she might have had the
+richest buck in town, and she chooses you."
+
+"Might she really? Honest now, might she?"
+
+"That she might!"
+
+Tom was so moved by this picture of his mistress's devotion and his
+own bliss that he found it necessary to weep a little, supporting
+himself by the huge link-extinguisher at the corner of Davies Street.
+His wig awry, and his hat clapped on the back of it, he looked as
+abandoned a young rake as the five o'clock sun ever shone upon; and
+yet under his maudlin tears lay a real if passing passion. "She's an
+angel!" he sobbed presently. "I shall never forget it! Never! And to
+think that but for you, if your chaise had not broken down at my
+elbow, just when you had picked her up after the accident at
+Trumpington, I should never have known her! And--and I might have been
+smugging at Cambridge now, instead of waiting to be made the happiest
+of men. Oriana," he continued, clinging to the railings in a tipsy
+rhapsody, "most beautiful of your sex, I vow----"
+
+A couple of chairmen and a milk-girl were looking on grinning. "There,
+bed's the word now!" Hawkesworth cried, seizing him and dragging him
+on. "Bed's the word! I said we would make a night of it, and we have.
+What's more, my lad," he continued in a tone too low for Tom's ear,
+"if you're not so cut to-morrow, you're glad to keep the house--I'm a
+Dutchman!"
+
+This time his efforts were successful. His lodging, taken a week
+before in the name of Plomer, was only a few doors distant. In two
+minutes he had got Tom thither; in three, the lad, divested of his
+coat, boots and neckcloth, was snoring heavily on the bed; while the
+Irishman, from an armchair on the hearth, kept dark watch over him. At
+length he too fell asleep, and slumbered as soundly as an innocent
+child, until a muffled hammering in the parlour roused him, and he
+stood up yawning and looked about him. The room, stiflingly close, lay
+in semi-darkness; on the bed sprawled the young runagate, dead asleep,
+his arms tossed wide. Hawkesworth stared awhile, still half asleep; at
+last, thirsting for small beer, he opened the door and went into the
+parlour. Here the windows were open: it was high noon. The noise the
+Irishman had heard was made by a man whose head and, shoulders were
+plunged in a tall clock that stood in one corner. The man was kneeling
+at his task mending something in the works of the clock. The Irishman
+touched him roughly with his foot.
+
+"Sink that coffin-making!" he cried coarsely. "Do you hear? Get up!"
+
+The clock-maker withdrew his head, looked up meekly to see who
+disturbed him, and--and swore. Simultaneously Hawkesworth drew back
+with a cry, and the two glared at one another. Then the man on the
+floor--he wore a paper cap, and below it his fat elderly face shone
+with sweat--rose quickly to his feet. "You villain!" he cried, in a
+voice tremulous and scarcely articulate, so great was his passion. "I
+have found you at last, have I? Where's my daughter?" and he stretched
+out his open hands, crook-fingered, and shook them in the younger
+man's face. "Where is my daughter?"
+
+"Lord, man, how do I know?" Hawkesworth answered. He tried to speak
+lightly, but with all his impudence he was taken aback, and showed it.
+
+"How do you know?" the clock-maker retorted, again shaking his hands
+in his face. "If you don't know, who should? Who should? By heaven, if
+you don't tell me, and truly, I'll rouse the house on you. Do you
+hear! I'll make you known here, you scoundrel, for what you are. This
+is a respectable house, and they'll have none of you. I'll so cry you,
+you shall trick no man of his daughter again. No, for I'll set the
+crowd on you, and mark you."
+
+"Hush, man, hush!" Hawkesworth answered, with an anxious glance at the
+door of the chamber he had left. "You do yourself no good by this."
+
+"No; but by heaven I can do you harm!" the other replied, and nimbly
+stepping to the door that led to the stairs, he opened it, and held it
+ajar. "I can do you harm! A silver tankard and twenty-seven guineas
+she took with her, and I'll swear them to you. By God, I will!"
+
+Hawkesworth's face turned a dull white. Unwelcome as the meeting and
+the recognition were, he had not realised his danger until now. The
+awkward circumstances connected with the tankard and the guineas had
+escaped his memory. Now it was clear he must temporise. "You need not
+threaten," he said doggedly. "I'll tell you all I know. She's--she's
+not with me; she is on the stage. She's not in London."
+
+"She's not with you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You're a liar!" the clock-maker cried, brutally.
+
+"I swear it is true!" Hawkesworth protested.
+
+"She is not living with you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Did you marry her?"
+
+"Ye--ye--No!" Hawkesworth answered, uncertain for a moment which reply
+would be the better taken. "No; I--she left me, I tell you," he
+continued hurriedly, "and went on the stage against my will."
+
+The clock-maker laughed cunningly, and his face was not pleasant to
+see. "She's not with you," he said, "she's not married to you, and
+she's not in London? You deceived her, my fine fellow, and left her.
+That's the story, is it? That's the story I've waited two years to
+hear."
+
+"She left me," Hawkesworth answered. "Against my will, I tell you."
+
+"Anyway she's gone, and 'twill make no difference to her what happens
+to you. So I'll hang you, you devil," the old man continued, with a
+cold chuckling determination, that chilled Hawkesworth's blood. "No,
+you don't," he continued, withdrawing one half of his body through the
+doorway, as Hawkesworth took a step towards him. "You don't pinch me
+that way! Another step, and I give the alarm."
+
+Hawkesworth recalled the opinion he had held of this grasping old
+curmudgeon, his former landlord--who had loved his gay, flirty
+daughter a little, and his paltry savings more; and his heart misgave
+him. The alarm once given, the neighbourhood roused, at the best, and
+if no worse thing befel him, he would be arrested. Arrest meant the
+ruin of his present schemes. "Oh, come, Mr. Grocott," he faltered.
+"You will not do it. You'll not be so foolish."
+
+"Why not?" the other snarled, in cruel enjoyment of his fears. "Eh!
+Tell me that. Why not?"
+
+But even as he spoke Hawkesworth saw the way out of his dilemma.
+"Because you'll not do a thing you will repent all your life," he
+said, his brazen assurance returning as quickly as it had departed.
+"Because you'll not ruin your daughter. Have done, hold your hand,
+man, and in two days I'll make her a grand lady."
+
+"You'll marry her, I suppose," old Grocott answered with a savage
+sneer.
+
+"Yes, to a man of title and property."
+
+"You're a great liar."
+
+Hawkesworth spread out his hands in remonstrance. "Judge for
+yourself," he said. "Have a little patience. Listen to me two minutes,
+my good fellow; and then say if you'll stand in your daughter's
+light."
+
+"Hang the drab! She's no daughter of mine," the old man cried
+fiercely. Nevertheless he listened, and Hawkesworth, sinking his
+voice, proceeded to tell in tones, always earnest, and at times
+appealing, a story that little by little won the hearer's attention.
+First Grocott, albeit he listened with the same apparent incredulity,
+closed the door. Later, his interest growing, he advanced into the
+room. Then he began to breathe more quickly; at length, with an oath,
+he struck his hand on the table beside him.
+
+"And you say the lad is here?" he cried.
+
+"He is here."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In that room."
+
+"By gole, let me see him!"
+
+"If he is asleep," Hawkesworth answered, assenting with reluctance. He
+crossed the room and cautiously opened the door of the chamber in
+which Tom lay snoring. Beckoning the old man to be wary, he allowed
+him to peer in. Grocott looked and listened, stole forward, and, like
+some pale-faced ghoul, leant over the flushed features of the
+unconscious lad. Then he stealthily returned to the parlour, and the
+door between the two rooms was shut.
+
+"Well," the Irishman asked, "are you satisfied?"
+
+"What do you say his name is?"
+
+"Maitland--Sir Thomas Maitland of Cuckfield."
+
+"She'll be Lady Maitland?"
+
+"To be sure."
+
+"And what do you call--her now?" the clock-maker asked. He seemed to
+find a difficulty in pronouncing the last words.
+
+"Clark--Mistress Oriana Clark," Hawkesworth answered. "She's at
+Ipswich, or was, and should be here to-morrow."
+
+Grocott's nose curled at the name. "And what are you going to get out
+of this?" he continued, eyeing the other with intense suspicion.
+
+The Irishman hesitated, but in the end determined to tell the truth,
+and trust to the other's self-interest. "A wife, and a plum," he said
+jauntily. "There's a girl, his sister, I'm going to marry; she takes
+ten thousand out of his share if he marries without his guardians'
+consent. That's it."
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GROCOTT ... STOLE FORWARD, AND ... LEANT OVER THE
+FLUSHED FEATURES OF THE UNCONSCIOUS LAD]
+
+
+"Lord, you're a rascal!" Grocott ejaculated, and stared in admiration
+of the other's roguery. "To take ten thousand of my son-in-law's
+money, and tell me of it to my face. By gole, you're a cool one!"
+
+"You can choose between that and nothing," Hawkesworth answered,
+confident in his recovered mastery. "You can do nothing without me,
+you see. No more can Oriana."
+
+The old man winced. Somehow the name--her name had been Sarah--hurt
+him. "What's the name of--of the other one?" he said. "His
+sister--that you're going to marry?"
+
+"Sophia," the Irishman answered.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+                             A DISCOVERY
+
+
+The scene in the gardens had moved Sophia's feelings so deeply that,
+notwithstanding the glamour Hawkesworth's exploit had cast over her, a
+word of kindness addressed to her on her arrival in Arlington Street
+might have had far-reaching results. Unfortunately her sister's temper
+and Mr. Northey's dulness gave sweet reasonableness small place.
+Scarcely had the chairmen been dismissed, the chairs carried out, and
+the door closed on them before Mr. Northey's indignation found vent.
+"Sophia, I am astonished!" he said in portentous tones; and, dull as
+he was, he _was_ astonished. "I could not have believed you would
+behave in this way!"
+
+"The more fool you!" Mrs. Northey snapped; while the girl, white and
+red by turns, too proud to fly, yet dreading what was to come, hung
+irresolute at the foot of the stairs, apparently fumbling with her
+hood, and really growing harder and harder with each reproach that was
+levelled at her.
+
+"After all I said to you this morning!" Mr. Northey continued, glaring
+at her as if he found disobedience to orders such as his a thing
+beyond belief. "When I had prohibited in the most particular manner
+all communications with that person, to go and--and meet him in a
+place of all places the most scandalous in which to be alone with a
+man."
+
+"La, Northey, it was that made her do it!" his wife rejoined sourly.
+"Go to bed, miss, and we will talk to you to-morrow. I suppose you
+thought we were taken in with your fine tale of your brother?"
+
+"I never said it was my brother!" Sophia cried, hotly.
+
+"Go to bed. Do you hear? I suppose you have sense enough to do that
+when you are told," her sister rejoined. "We will talk to you
+to-morrow."
+
+Sophia choked, but thought better of it, and turning away, crept
+upstairs. After all, she whispered, as her hands squeezed convulsively
+the poor hood that had not offended her, it mattered little. If he
+were good to her what recked it of others, their words, or their
+opinion? What had they ever done for her that she should be guided by
+them, or what, that she should resign the happiness of her life at
+their bidding? They had no real care for her. Here was no question of
+father or mother, or the respect due to their wishes; of kindness,
+love, or gratitude. Of her brother-in-law, who bullied her in his
+dull, frigid fashion, she knew little more than she knew of a man in
+the street; and her sister spared her at the best a cold selfish
+affection, the affection of the workman for the tools by which he
+hopes he may some day profit.
+
+Naturally, her thoughts reverted to the lover who that evening had
+shown himself in his true colours, a hero worthy of any poor girl's
+affection. Sophia's eyes filled with tears, and her bosom rose and
+fell with soft emotion as she thought of him and pictured him; as she
+flushed anew beneath his ardent glances, as she recalled the past and
+painted a future in which she would lie safe in the haven of his love,
+secured from peril by the strength of his arm. What puny figures the
+beaux and bloods of town looked beside him! With what grace he moved
+among them, elbowing one and supplanting another. It was no wonder
+they gazed after him enviously, or behind his back vented their petty
+spite in sneers and innuendos, called him Teague, and muttered of
+Murphies and the bog of Arran. The time would come--and oh, how she
+prayed it might come quickly--when the world would discover the part
+he had played; when, in a Stuart England, he would stand forward the
+friend of Cecil, the agent of Ormonde, and the town would recognise in
+the obscurity in which he now draped himself and at which they
+scoffed, the cloak of the most daring and loyal conspirator that ever
+wrought for the rightful king!
+
+For this was the secret he had whispered in Sophia's ear; this was the
+explanation he had given of the cold looks men cast on him in public.
+Nor was it too incredible for the belief of a romantic girl. In that
+year, 1742, the air in London was full of such rumours, and London,
+rumour said, was full of such men. The close of Sir Robert Walpole's
+long and peaceful administration, and the imminence of war with
+France, had raised the hopes of the Jacobites to the highest pitch.
+Though the storm did not break in open war until three years later, it
+already darkened the sky, and filled the capital with its rumblings.
+Alike in the Cabinet, where changes were frequent and great men few,
+and in the country where people looked for something, they hardly knew
+what, unrest and uneasiness prevailed. Many a sturdy squire in
+Lancashire and Shropshire, many a member at Westminster, from Shippon
+and Sir Watkyn downwards, passed his glass over the water-jug as he
+drank the King; and if Sophia, as she drew her withered flower from
+its hiding-place, that it might lie beneath her pillow through the
+night, prayed for King James and his cause, she did only what many a
+pretty Jacobite, and some who passed for Whigs, were doing at the same
+hour.
+
+In the meantime, and pending the triumph for which she longed so
+passionately, her dear hero's pretensions helped her not a whit; on
+the contrary, were they known, or suspected, they would sink him lower
+than ever in the estimation of her family. This thought it was that,
+as she lay revolving matters, raised in her mind an increasing barrier
+between her and her sister. The Northeys were firm Whigs, pledged not
+less by interest than by tradition to the White Horse of Hanover. They
+had deserted Sir Robert at his utmost need, but merely to serve their
+own turn; because his faction was drooping, and another, equally
+Whiggish, was in the ascendant, certainly with no view to a Stuart
+Restoration. Her Hawkesworth's success, therefore, meant their defeat
+and downfall; his triumph must cost them dear. To abide by them, and
+abide by him, were as inconsistent as to serve God and Mammon.
+
+Sophia, drawn to her lover by the strength of maiden fancy, saw this;
+she felt the interval between her and her family increase the longer
+she dwelt on the course to which her mind was being slowly moved. The
+consciousness that no compromise was possible had its effect upon her.
+When she was summoned to the parlour next day, a change had come over
+her; she went not shyly and shamefacedly, open to cajolery and
+kindness, as she had gone the previous day, when her opinion of her
+lover's merit had fallen short of the wrapt assurance that this
+morning uplifted her. On the contrary, she went armed with
+determination as solemn in her own sight as it was provoking in the
+eyes of older and more sagacious persons.
+
+Mrs. Northey discerned the change the moment Sophia entered the room;
+and she was proportionately exasperated. "Oh, miss, so you'll follow
+Miss Howe, will you?" she sneered, alluding to a tale of scandal that
+still furnished the text for many a sermon to the young and flighty.
+"You'll take no advice!"
+
+"I hope I shall know how to conduct myself better, ma'am," Sophia said
+proudly.
+
+Mr. Northey was less clear-sighted than his wife. He saw no change; he
+thought in all innocence that the matter was where he had left it.
+After clearing his throat, therefore, "Sophia," he said with much
+majesty, "I hope you have recovered your senses, and that conduct such
+as that of which you were guilty last night will not be repeated while
+you are in our charge. Understand me; it must not be repeated. You are
+country bred, and do not understand that what you did is a very
+serious matter, and quite enough to compromise a young girl."
+
+Sophia, disdaining to answer, spent her gaze on the picture above his
+head. The withered flower was in her bosom; the heart that beat
+against it was full of wondering pity for her sister, who had been
+compelled to marry this man--this man, ugly, cold, stiff, with no
+romance in his life, no secret--this man, at the touch of whose hand
+she, Sophia, shuddered.
+
+"I consider it so--so serious a transgression," Mr. Northey resumed
+pompously--little did he dream what she was thinking of him--"that the
+only condition on which I can consent to overlook it is that you at
+once, Sophia, do your duty by accepting the husband on whom we have
+fixed for you."
+
+"No," Sophia said, in a low but determined tone, "I cannot do that!"
+
+Mr. Northey fancied that he had not heard aright. "Eh," he said,
+"you----"
+
+"I cannot do that, sir; my mind is quite made up," she repeated.
+
+From her chair Mrs. Northey laughed scornfully at her husband's
+consternation. "Are you blind?" she said. "Cannot you see that the
+Irishman has turned the girl's head?"
+
+"Impossible!" Mr. Northey said.
+
+"Don't you hear her say that her mind is made up?" Mrs. Northey
+continued contemptuously. "You may talk till you are hoarse, Northey,
+you'll get nothing; I know that. She's a pig when she likes."
+
+Mr. Northey glowered at the girl as if she had already broken all
+bounds. "But does she understand," he said, breathing hard, "that
+marriage with a person of--of that class, is impossible? And surely no
+modest girl would continue to encourage a person whom she cannot
+marry?"
+
+Still Sophia remained silent, her eyes steadily fixed on the picture
+above his head.
+
+"Speak, Sophia!" he cried imperatively. "This is impertinence."
+
+"If I cannot marry him," she said in a low voice, "I shall marry no
+one!"
+
+"If you cannot marry that--that Irish footman?" he gasped, bursting
+into rage. "A penniless adventurer, who has not even asked you."
+
+"He has asked me," she retorted.
+
+"Oh, by Gad, ma'am, I've done with you," Mr. Northey cried, striking
+his fist on the table; and he added an expletive or two. "I hand you
+over to madam, there. Perhaps she can bring you to your senses. I
+might have known it," he continued bitterly, addressing his wife.
+"Like and like, madam! It's bred in the bone, I see!"
+
+"I don't know what you mean, Northey," his wife answered with a sneer
+of easy contempt. "If you had left the matter to me from the
+beginning, 'twould have been done by now. Listen to me, Miss
+Obstinate. Is that the last word you'll give us?"
+
+"Yes," Sophia said, pluming herself a little on her victory.
+
+"Then you'll go into the country to-morrow! That's all!" was Mrs.
+Northey's reply. "We'll see how you like that!"
+
+The blow was unexpected. The girl's lips parted, and she looked wildly
+at her sister. "Into the country?" she stammered.
+
+"Ay, sure."
+
+"To--to Cuckfield?" she asked desperately. After all, were she sent to
+her old home all was not lost. He had heard her speak of it; he knew
+where it was; he could easily trace her thither.
+
+"No, miss, not to Cuckfield," her sister replied, triumphing cruelly,
+for she read the girl's thoughts. "You'll go to Aunt Leah at
+Chalkhill, and I wish you joy of her tantrums and her scraping. You'll
+go early to-morrow; Mr. Northey will take you; and until you are away
+from here I'll answer there shall be no note-palming. When you are in
+a better mind, and your Teague's in Bridewell, you may come back. I
+fancy you'll be tamed by that time. It will need mighty little
+persuasion, I'm thinking, to bring you to marry Sir Hervey when you've
+been at Aunt Leah's for three months."
+
+Sophia's lip began to tremble; her eyes roved piteously. Well might
+the prospect terrify her, for it meant not only exile from her lover,
+but an exile which she saw might be permanent. For how was he to find
+her? To Cuckfield, the family seat, he might trace her easily; but in
+the poor hamlet on the Sussex coast, where her aunt, who had tripped
+in her time and paid the penalty, dragged on a penurious existence as
+the widow of a hedge-parson, not so easily. There a poor girl might
+eat out her heart, even as her aunt had eaten out hers, and no redress
+and no chance of rescue. Even had she the opportunity of writing to
+her lover she did not--unhappy thought--know where he lived.
+
+Mrs. Northey read her dismay, saw the colour fade in her cheek, and
+the tears gather in her eyes, and with remorseless determination, with
+cruel enjoyment, drove the nail home.
+
+"There'll be no Vauxhall there," she sneered, "and mighty few drums or
+routs, my dear! It's likely your first masquerade will be your last;
+and for the wine-merchant actor that you were to see at Goodman's
+Fields tomorrow, you may whistle for him; and for your dear Amorevoli.
+It's to be hoped, Miss Lucy, you'll find your Thomas worth it," she
+continued, alluding to the farce that held the town, "when you get
+him." And then, changing her ground, with no little skill, "See here,
+child," she said, in the tone of one willing to argue, "are you going
+on with this silliness? Think, my dear, think, while it is time, for
+'twill be too late at Chalkhill. You don't want to go and be buried in
+that hole till your brother comes of age?"
+
+Sophia, resentful but terrified, subdued both by the prospect and by
+the appeal to her reasonableness, had hard work to refrain from tears
+as she uttered her negative. "No, I--I don't want to go," she
+stammered.
+
+"I thought not; then you shall have one more chance," Mrs. Northey
+answered, with a fair show of good nature. "If you'll give me your
+word not to write to him, you shall have a week to think of it before
+you go. But you'll keep your room--on that I must insist; there you'll
+have time to think, and I hope by the end of the week you'll have come
+to your senses, my dear. If not, you'll go to Aunt Leah."
+
+The mixture of severity and kindness was clever, and it had its effect
+upon poor Sophia, who stood weighing the alternatives with a rueful
+face. While she remained in town, if she might not see him, she was
+still near him, and he near her. She would not be lost to him nor he
+to her; and then, what might not happen in a week? "I will promise,"
+she murmured, in a low uncertain tone.
+
+"Good," Mrs. Northey answered; "then you may go to your room."
+
+And to her room Sophia would have gone, in a mood fairly open to the
+influence of reason and solitude. But in an evil moment for himself
+Mr. Northey, smarting under a defeat which his wife's victory rendered
+the more humiliating, thought he espied an opportunity of restoring
+his dignity.
+
+"Yes, you may go," he said sourly; "but take this with you. You will
+see there," he continued, fussily selecting a letter from a pile on
+the table, and handing it to her, "what are the terms in which a
+gentleman seeks an alliance with a lady. It is from Sir Hervey, and I
+shall be much surprised if it does not produce a very different
+impression on you from that which that person has made."
+
+"I do not want it," Sophia answered; and held out the letter between
+her finger and thumb, as if it had an evil odour.
+
+"But I insist on your taking it," Mr. Northey replied with temper; and
+in spite of the warnings which his wife's contemptuous shrugs should
+have conveyed to him, he repeated the command.
+
+"Then I will read it now," the girl answered, standing very upright,
+"if you order me to do so."
+
+"I do order you," he said; and still holding the folded sheet a little
+from her, she opened it, and with a curling lip and half averted eye,
+began to read the contents. Suddenly Mrs. Northey took fright; Mr.
+Northey even was surprised by the change. For the girl's face grew red
+and redder; she stared at the letter, her lips parting widely, as in
+astonishment. At last, "What? What is this?" she cried, "Tom? Then it
+was--it was Tom I saw last night."
+
+"Tom!" Mr. Northey exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, it was Tom!" Sophia cried; "and--oh, but this is dreadful! This
+must be--must be stopped at once!" she continued, looking from the
+paper to them and back again with distended eyes. "He is mad to think
+of such a thing at his age; he is only a boy; he does not know what he
+is doing." Her voice shook with agitation.
+
+"What the deuce do you mean, miss?" her brother-in-law thundered,
+rising furious from his chair. "Have you taken leave of your senses?
+What do you mean by this--this nonsense."
+
+
+[Illustration: "THIS MUST BE--MUST BE STOPPED AT ONCE!"]
+
+
+"Mean?" his wife answered with bitter emphasis. "She means that,
+instead of giving her Coke's letter, you have given her the Cambridge
+letter; the letter from Tom's tutor. You have done it, like the fool
+you always are, Northey."
+
+Mr. Northey swore violently. "Give it me!" he cried harshly. "Do you
+hear, girl? Give it me!" And he stretched out his hand to recover the
+letter.
+
+But something in the excess of his chagrin, or in the words of the
+reproach Mrs. Northey had flung at him roused suspicion in the girl's
+mind. She recoiled, holding the paper from him. "It is five days old!"
+she gasped; "you have had it four days--three at least; and you have
+said nothing about it. You have not told me! And you have done
+nothing!" she continued, her mind jumping instinctively to the truth,
+at which Mr. Northey's guilty face hinted not obscurely. "He is on the
+brink of ruining himself with this woman, and you stand by though you
+are told what she is, and were told three days ago. Why? Why?" Sophia
+cried, as Mr. Northey, with an oath, snatched the letter from her.
+"What does it mean?"
+
+"Mean? Why, that one unruly child is enough to manage at a time!" Mrs.
+Northey answered, rising to the occasion. She spoke with venom, and no
+wonder; her hands tingled for her husband's ears. He had improved
+matters with a vengeance. "It's fine talking, you little toad," she
+continued, with a show of reason; "but if you don't listen to sense
+who are here, how are we to persuade him, and he not here? Tell me
+that, miss. A nice pattern of discretion and prudence you are to talk.
+Hang your impudence!"
+
+"But you have done nothing," Sophia wailed, her affection for her
+brother keeping her to the point. "And I saw him last night; it was he
+whom I saw at Vauxhall. I could have spoken to him, and I am sure he
+would have listened to me."
+
+"Listened to his grandmother!" Mrs. Northey retorted, with acrid
+contempt. "We have done what we think right, and that is enough for
+you, you baby. A nasty disobedient little toad, running into the very
+same folly yourself, and then prating of us, and what we should do!
+Hang your fine talking; I've no patience with you, and so I tell you,
+miss."
+
+"But," Sophia said slowly, her voice grown timid, "I don't
+understand----"
+
+"Who cares whether you understand!"
+
+"Why--why you make so much of marrying me the way you wish, and yet
+let him go his way? If he does this, you'll get some of his money I
+know, but it cannot be that. It couldn't be that. And yet--and
+yet--" she cried, with a sudden flush of generous indignation, as
+conviction was borne in upon her by Mr. Northey's hang-dog
+face--"yes, it is that! Oh, for shame! for shame! Are you his sister,
+and will ruin him? Will ruin him for the sake of--of money!"
+
+"Silence, you minx!" Mrs. Northey cried; and she rose, her face white
+with rage, and seizing her sister's arm, she shook her violently. "How
+dare you say such things? Do you hear? Be silent!"
+
+But Sophia was beside herself with passion, she would not be silent.
+Neither the dead Northeys on the walls, nor the living sister should
+stifle the expression of her feelings.
+
+"I take back my promise," she cried, panting with excitement; her
+words were scarcely coherent. "Do you hear? Do you understand? I
+promise nothing after this. You may beat me if you like; you may lock
+me up, it will be all the same. I'll go into the country to-morrow,
+but I'll make no promise. I shall see Hawkesworth if I can! I shall
+run away to him if I can! I'd rather do anything--anything in the
+world after this, than go on living with you."
+
+"You'll not go on living with me!" Mrs. Northey answered through
+pinched lips, and her eyes glittered after an ugly fashion. "I'll see
+to that, you little scald-tongue! You'll go to Aunt Leah and feed
+pigs, and do plain-stitch; I hope it may agree with those dainty hands
+of yours. And you'll run away from there if you can. She'll see to
+that. I'll be bound she'll break some of that pretty spirit of yours,
+grand as you think yourself. So because your precious Tom chooses to
+take up with some drab or other, you put it on us, do you? Go, you
+little vixen," Mrs. Northey continued harshly, "go to your room before
+I do you a mischief! You'll not promise, but the key shall. Up, miss,
+up, we will have no more of your tantrums!"
+
+Reduced to tears, and broken down by the violence of her emotions,
+Sophia asked nothing better than to escape, and be alone with her
+misery. She turned, and as quickly as she could she hurried from the
+room. Fast as she went, however, Mrs. Northey pushed after her,
+treading on her heels, and forcing her on. What passed between them
+Mr. Northey could not hear, but in no long time Mrs. Northey was down
+again, and flung a key on the table. "There," she cried, her nose
+twitching with the constraint she put upon her rage. "And what do you
+think of your management now, Mr. Imbecile?"
+
+"I always said," he answered sullenly, "that we ought to tell her."
+
+"You always said."
+
+"Yes, I did."
+
+"_You_ always said!" his wife cried, her eyes flashing with the scorn
+she made no attempt to hide. "And was not that a very good reason for
+doing the other thing? Wasn't it, Mr. Northey? Wasn't it? Oh, Lord!
+why did God give me a fool for a husband?"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V
+
+                         THE WORLD WELL LOST
+
+
+Mrs. Northey was no novice. She knew something of intrigue, something
+of her sex. Her first step was to discharge Sophia's woman, a village
+maid, who had come with her young mistress from the country. The key
+of the offender's chamber was then intrusted to madam's own woman,
+Mrs. Martha, a sour spinster, matured not by years only, but by an
+unfortunate experience of the other sex, which secured her from the
+danger of erring on the side of leniency where they were concerned.
+Mr. Northey could not immediately leave London, therefore it was
+necessary that arrangements for the culprit's transport to the surer
+custody of Aunt Leah at Chalkhill should be postponed, but all that
+Mrs. Northey could do short of this she did. And these dispositions
+made, she prepared to await events with a mind tolerably at ease.
+
+In every net, however, there are meshes, and small is the mesh through
+which a large fish cannot escape. It is probable that poor blubbering
+Dolly, the dismissed maid, innocent as she declared herself, was in
+somebody's pay, and knew where information could be sold. For before
+Sophia had been confined to her room for four hours, before the first
+passionate tears were dried on her cheeks, a clock-maker, who had come
+in to regulate the tall clock on the stairs, made the odd mistake of
+mounting, when no one was looking, to the second floor. A moment later
+a fingernail scraped Sophia's door, a note was thrust under it, and
+deftly as he had come, the workman, a pale, fat, elderly man, crept
+down again. He made little noise, for, to save his honour's drugget,
+he had left his boots in the hall.
+
+Sophia, recovering from a momentary astonishment, pounced on the note,
+opened it and read it; and, alas for her discretion, her eyes sparkled
+through her tears as she did so. Thus it ran:--
+
+
+"Sweetest and Best Beloved of your Sex,--
+
+"The raptures of my heart when my eyes dwell on yours cannot be
+hidden, and must have convinced you that on you depends the life or
+death, happiness or misery, of your Hector. If you will, you can
+plunge me into an abyss of hopelessness, in which I must spend the
+rest of my existence; or if you will, you can make me in possessing
+you the happiest, as I am already in aspiring to you the boldest, of
+mankind. Oh, my Sophia, dare I call you that? Can such bliss be
+reserved for me? Can it be my lot to spend existence in the worship of
+those charms, for which the adoration of the longest life passed in
+thinking of you and serving you were an inadequate price! May I dream
+that I shall one day be the most enviable of men? If so, there is but
+one course to be taken. Fly, dearest, fly, your cruel relatives, who
+have already immured you, and will presently sacrifice you, innocent
+and spotless, on the vile altar of their ambition. Hold a white
+handkerchief against your window at six this evening, and the rest is
+easy. At dusk the day after to-morrow--so much time I need--I will
+find means to remove you. A few minutes later, Dr. Keith, of Mayfair
+Chapel, a reverend divine, who will be in waiting at my lodging, will
+unite you in indissoluble bonds to one whose every thought
+thenceforth--not given to his King--will be consecrated to the
+happiness of his Sophia.
+
+"Already my heart beats with rapture; I swoon at the thought. The pen
+falls from the hand of your humble, adoring lover,
+
+                                        "HECTOR (Count Plomer)."
+
+
+Need we wonder that Sophia held the letter from her and held it to
+her, scanned it this way, and scanned it that way, kissed it, and
+kissed it again; finally, with a glance at the door, hid it jealously
+within her dress? She would have done these things had she been as
+much in the dark about Tom, and the machinations formed to rob him, as
+she had been when she rose that morning. But she would have halted
+there. She would have pardoned her lover his boldness, perhaps have
+liked him the better for it; but she would not have granted his
+prayer. Now, her one aspiration was for the moment when she might take
+the leap. Her one feeling was impatience for the hour when she might
+give the signal of surrender. The pillars of her house were shaken;
+her faith in her sister, in her friends, in her home was gone. Only
+her lover remained, and if he were not to be trusted she had no one.
+She did not tell herself that girls had done this thing before, maiden
+modesty notwithstanding, and had found no cause to repent their
+confidence; for her determination needed no buttressing. Her cheek
+flamed, and she thrilled and trembled from head to foot as she
+pictured the life to which she was flying; but the cheek flamed as
+hotly when she painted the past and the intolerable craft and coldness
+of the world on which she turned her back.
+
+The window of her room looked into Arlington Street. She stood at it
+gazing down on the stand of chairmen and sedans that stretched up to
+Portugal Street, a thoroughfare now part of Piccadilly. The end of the
+scaffolding outside Sir Robert Walpole's new house--the house next
+door--came within a few feet of the sill on which she leaned; the
+hoarse, beery voices of the workmen, and the clangour of the hammers,
+were destined to recall that day to her as long as she lived. Yet for
+the time she was scarcely conscious of the noise, so close was the
+attention with which she surveyed the street. Below, as on other days,
+beaux sauntered round the corner of Bennet Street on their way to
+White's, or stood to speak to a pretty woman in a chair. Country folk
+paused to look at Sir Bluestring's new house; a lad went up and down
+crying the _Evening Post_, and at the corner at the lower end of
+Arlington Street, then open at the south, a group of boys sat gambling
+for half-pence.
+
+Sophia saw all this, but she saw no sign of him she sought, though St.
+James's clock tolled the three quarters after five. Eagerly she looked
+everywhere, her heart beating quickly. Surely Hawkesworth would be
+there to see the signal, and to learn his happiness with his own eyes?
+She leaned forward, then on a sudden she recoiled; Sir Hervey Coke,
+passing on the other side, had looked up; he knew, then, that she was
+a prisoner! Her woman's pride rebelled at the thought, and hot with
+anger she stood awhile in the middle of the room. Whereon St. James's
+clock struck six; it was the hour appointed. Without hesitation,
+without the loss of a moment, Sophia sprang to the window, and with a
+steady hand pressed her handkerchief to the pane. The die was cast.
+
+She thought that on that something would happen; she felt sure that
+she would see him, would catch his eye, would receive some mark of his
+gratitude. But she was disappointed; and in a minute or two, after
+gazing with a bold bashfulness this way and that, she went back into
+the room, her spirits feeling the reaction. For eight and forty hours
+from this she had naught to do but wait; for all that time she was
+doomed to inaction. It seemed scarcely possible that she could wait so
+long; scarcely possible that she could possess herself in patience.
+The first hour indeed tried her so sharply that when Mrs. Martha
+brought her supper she was ready to be humble even to her, for the
+sake of five minutes' intercourse.
+
+But Mrs. Martha's conversation was as meagre as the meal she brought,
+and the girl had to pass the night as best she could. Next morning,
+however, when the woman--after jealously unlocking the door and
+securing it behind her after a fashion that shook the girl with
+rage--set down her breakfast, the crabbed old maid was more
+communicative.
+
+"Thank the Lord, it is a'most the last time I shall have to climb
+those stairs," she grumbled. "Aye, you may look, miss"--for Sophia was
+gazing at her resentfully enough--"and think yourself mighty clever!
+It's little you think of the trouble your fancies give such as me.
+There!" putting down the tray. "You may take your fill of that and not
+burst, either. Maybe 'tain't delicate enough for your stomach, but
+'twas none of my putting."
+
+Sophia was hungry and the meal was scanty, but pride made her avert
+her eyes. "Why is it almost the last time?" she asked sharply. "If
+they think they can break my spirit by starving me----"
+
+"Hoity toity!" the woman said, with more than a smack of insolence.
+"I'd keep my breath to cool my porridge if I were you! Lord, I
+wouldn't have your hot temper, miss, for something. But 'twon't help
+you much with your Aunt Leah, from all I hear. They say she was just
+such a one as you once, and wilful is no word for her."
+
+Sophia's heart began to beat. "Am I to go to her?" she asked.
+
+"Aye, that you are, and the sooner the better for my legs, miss!"
+
+"When?" Sophia's voice was low.
+
+"To-morrow, no later. The chaise is ordered for six. His honour will
+take you himself, and I doubt you'll wish you'd brought your pigs to
+another market before you've been there many days. Leastways, from
+what I hear. 'Tis no place for a decent Christian, I'm told," the
+woman continued, spitefully enjoying the dismay which Sophia could not
+conceal. "Just thatch and hogs and mud to your knees, and never a
+wheeled thing, John says, in the place, nor a road, nor a mug of beer
+to be called beer. All poor as rats, and no one better than the other,
+as how should they be and six miles of a pack-road to the nearest
+highway? You'll whistle for your lover there, miss."
+
+Sophia swallowed her rage. "Go down!" she said.
+
+
+[Illustration: "OH, LA! I DON'T WANT TO STAY!" MRS. MARTHA CRIED]
+
+
+"Oh, la! I don't want to stay!" Mrs. Martha cried, tossing her head.
+"It's not for my own amusement I've stayed so long. And no thanks for
+my kindness, either! I've my own good dinner downstairs, and the
+longer I'm here the cooler it'll be. Which some people like their
+dinner hot and behave themselves accordingly. But I know my duty, and
+by your leave, miss, I shall do it."
+
+She bounced out of the room with that and turned the key on the
+outside with a noisy care that hurt the ear if it did not wound the
+spirit. "Nasty proud-stomached thing!" she muttered as she descended
+the stairs. "I hope Madam Leah will teach her what's what! And for all
+she's monstrous high now, I warrant she'll come to eating breast of
+veal as well as another. And glad to get it. What Sir 'Ervey can see
+in her passes me, but men and fools are all one, and it takes mighty
+little to tickle them if it be red and white. For my part I'm glad to
+be rid of her. One's tantrums is as much as I can put up with, duty or
+no duty."
+
+Mrs. Martha might have taken the matter more easily had she known what
+was passing in the locked room she had left. Sophia's indifference was
+gone; she paced the floor in a fever of uncertainty. How was she to
+communicate with her lover? How tell him that his plans were
+forestalled, and that on the morrow, hours before his arrangements
+were mature, she would be whisked away and buried in the depths of the
+country, in a spot the most remote from the world? True, at the foot
+of his letter was the address of his lodging--at Mr. Wollenhope's in
+Davies Street, near Berkeley Square. And Dolly--though Sophia had
+never yet stooped to use her--might this evening have got a letter to
+him. But Dolly was gone; Dolly and all her friends were far away, and
+Mrs. Martha was stone. Sophia wrung her hands as she walked feverishly
+from door to window.
+
+She knew nothing of the hundred channels through which a man of the
+world could trace her. To her eyes the door of Chalkhill bore the
+legend Dante had made famous. To her mind, to go to Aunt Leah was to
+be lost to her lover, to be lost to the world. And yet what chance of
+escape remained? Vainly thinking, vainly groping, she hung at the
+window tearing a handkerchief to pieces, while her eyes raked the
+street below for the least sign of him she sought. There were the same
+beaux strutting round the same corner, hanging on the same arms,
+bowing to the same chairs, ogled from the shelter of the same fans.
+The same hackney-coachmen quarrelled, the same boys gambled at the
+corner. Even Sir Hervey paused at the same hour of the afternoon,
+looked up as he had looked up yesterday, seemed to hesitate, finally
+went on. But Hawkesworth--Hawkesworth was nowhere.
+
+Her eyes aching with long watching, the choke of coming tears in her
+throat, Sophia drew back at last, and was in the act of casting
+herself on her bed in a paroxysm of despair, when a shrill voice
+speaking outside her door reached her ears. The next moment she heard
+her name.
+
+She sprang to the door, the weight lifted from her heart. Any
+happening was better than none. "Here!" she cried. "Here!" And she
+struck the panels with her hands.
+
+"Where? Oh, I see," the voice answered. Then "Thank you, my good
+woman," it went on, "I'll trouble you no farther. I can open for
+myself. I see the key is in the lock."
+
+But on that Mrs. Martha's voice was raised, loudly remonstrant.
+"My lady," she cried, "you don't understand! I've the strictest
+orders----"
+
+"To keep her in? Just so, you foolish thing. And so you shall. But not
+to keep me out. Still--just to be sure I'll take the key in with me!"
+On which Sophia heard the key turn sharply in the lock, the door flew
+open, and in bounced Lady Betty. To insert the key on the inside and
+secure the door behind her was the work of a moment. Then she dropped
+the astonished Sophia an exaggerated curtsey.
+
+"La, miss, I crave your pardon, I'm sure," she said, "for calling your
+name so loud on the stairs, but that silly thing would do nothing but
+her orders. So as she would not show me the way, I ran up myself."
+
+"You're very kind!" Sophia said. And she stood, trembling, and feeling
+sudden shame of her position.
+
+Lady Betty seemed to see this. "La! is it true they won't let you
+out?" she said.
+
+Sophia muttered that it was.
+
+The visitor's eyes roved from the meagre remains of the midday meal to
+the torn shreds of handkerchief that strewed the floor. "Then it's a
+shame! It's a black monstrous shame!" she cried, stamping on the
+floor. "I know what I should do if they did it to me! I should break,
+I should burn, I should tear! I should tear that old fright's wig off
+to begin! But I suppose it's your sister?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Lady Betty made a face. "Horrid thing!" she exclaimed. "I never did
+like her! Is it because you won't--is it because you have a lover,
+miss?"
+
+Sophia hesitated. "La, don't mind me. I have five!" the child cried
+naïvely. "I'll tell you their names if you like. They are nothing to
+me, the foolish things, but I should die if I hadn't as many as other
+girls. To see them glare at one another is the finest sport in the
+world."
+
+"But you love one of them?" Sophia said shyly.
+
+"La, no, it's for them to love me!" Lady Betty cried, tossing her
+head. "I _should_ be a fool if I loved them!"
+
+"But the letter--that I tore up?" Sophia ventured.
+
+The child blushed, and with a queer laugh flung herself on the other's
+neck and kissed her. "That was from a--a lover I ought not to have,"
+she said. "If it had been found, I should have had my ears boxed, and
+been sent into the country. You saved me, you duck, and I'll never
+forget it!"
+
+Sophia bent on the most serious imprudence could be wise for another.
+"From a lover whom you ought not to have?" she said gravely. "You'll
+not do it again, will you? You'll not receive a second?"
+
+"La, no, I promise you," Lady Betty cried, volubly insistent.
+"He's--well, he's a nobody, but he writes such dear, darling, charming
+notes! There, now you know. Oh, yes, it was horrid of me. But I hate
+him. So that's enough."
+
+"You promise?" Sophia said, almost severely.
+
+"I vow I do," Lady Betty cried, hugging her. "The creature's a wretch.
+Now tell me, you poor thing, all about _him_. I've told you my
+affair."
+
+Here was indeed a blind leader of the blind, but after a little
+hesitation Sophia told her story. She was too proud to plead the
+justification her sister's treatment of Tom supplied; nor was there
+need of this. Even in the bud, Lady Betty found the story beautiful;
+and when Sophia went on to her lover's letter, and blushing and
+faltering owned that he had pressed her to elope, the listener could
+contain herself no longer. "Elope!" she cried, springing up with
+sparkling eyes. "Oh, the dear bold man! Oh, how I envy you!"
+
+"Envy me?"
+
+"Yes! To be locked in your room and starved--I hope they starve
+you--and scolded and threatened and perhaps carried into the country.
+And all the time to be begged and prayed and entreated to elope, and
+the dear creature wailing and sighing and consuming below. Oh, you
+lucky, lucky, lucky, girl!" And Lady Betty flung herself on Sophia's
+neck and embraced her again and again. "You lucky thing! And then
+perhaps to be forced to escape down a ladder----"
+
+"Escape?" Sophia said, shaking her head piteously. And she explained
+how far she was from escaping. "By this time to-morrow," she
+continued, choked by the bitter feelings the thought of to-morrow
+begot, "I shall be at Chalkhill!"
+
+"No, you will not!" Lady Betty cried, her eyes sparkling. "You will
+not!" she repeated. "By good luck 'tis between lights. Put on your
+hoop and sacque. Take my hat and laced jacket. Bend your knees as you
+go down the stairs, you gawk, and no one will be a bit the wiser."
+
+Sophia stared at her. "What do you mean?" she said.
+
+"Northey's at the House, your sister's at Lady Paget's," the girl
+explained breathlessly. "There is only the old fright outside, and
+she's had a taste of my tongue and won't want another. You may walk
+straight out before they bring candles. I shall wait ten minutes until
+you are clear, and then, though they'll know it's a bite, they won't
+dare to stop my ladyship, and--oh, you darling, it will be the purest,
+purest fun. It will be all over the town to-morrow, and I shall be
+part of it!"
+
+Sophia shuddered. "Fun?" she said. "Do you call it fun?"
+
+"Why, of course it will be the purest, purest fun!" the other cried.
+"The prettiest trick that ever was played! You darling, we shall be
+the talk of the town!" And in the gaiety of her heart, Lady Betty
+lifted her sacque, and danced two or three steps of a minuet. "We
+shall--but how you look, miss! You are not going to disappoint me?"
+
+Sophia stood silent. "I am afraid," she muttered.
+
+"Afraid? Afraid of what?"
+
+"I am afraid."
+
+"But you were going to him to-morrow?"
+
+Sophia blushed deeply. "He was coming for me," she murmured.
+
+"Well, and what is the difference?"
+
+The elder girl did not answer, but her cheeks grew hotter and hotter.
+"There is a difference," she said.
+
+"Then you'll go to Chalkhill!" Lady Betty cried in derision, her voice
+betraying her chagrin. "La, miss, I vow I thought you'd more spirit!
+or I would not have troubled you!"
+
+Sophia did not retort; indeed, she did not hear. In her heart was
+passing a struggle, the issue of which must decide her lot. And she
+knew this. She was young, but she knew that as her lover showed
+himself worthy or unworthy of her trust so must her fate be happy or
+most miserable, if she went to him. And she trembled under the
+knowledge. Chalkhill, even Chalkhill and Aunt Leah's stinging tongue
+and meagre commons seemed preferable to a risk so great. But then she
+thought of Tom, and of the home that had grown cold; of the
+compensations for home in which others seemed to find pleasure, the
+flippant existence of drums and routs, the card-table and the
+masquerade. And in dread, not of Chalkhill, but of a loveless life, in
+hope, not of her lover, but of love, she wrung her hands. "I don't
+know!" she cried, the burden of decision forcing the words from her as
+from one in pain. "I don't know!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Whether I dare go!"
+
+"Why," Lady Betty asked eagerly, "there is no risk."
+
+"Child! child, you don't understand," poor Sophia wailed. "Oh, what,
+oh, what am I to do? If I go it is for life. Don't you understand?"
+she added feverishly. "Cannot you see that? It is for life!"
+
+Lady Betty, startled by the other's passion, could only answer, "But
+you were going to-morrow, miss? If you were not afraid to go
+to-morrow----"
+
+"Why to-day?" Sophia asked bitterly. "If I could trust him to-morrow,
+why not to-day? Because--because--oh, I cannot tell you!" And she
+covered her face with her hands.
+
+The other saw that she was shaking from head to foot, and reluctantly
+accepted a situation she only partly understood. "Then you won't go?"
+she said.
+
+The word "No" trembled on Sophia's lips. But then she saw as in a
+glass the life to which she condemned herself if she pronounced it;
+the coldness, the worldliness, the lovelessness, the solitude in a
+crowd, all depicted, not with the compensating lights and shadows
+which experience finds in them, but in crude lines such as they wear
+in a young girl's fancy. In the past was nothing to retain her; in the
+future her lover beckoned; only maiden modesty and dread of she knew
+not what withstood a natural impulse. She would and she would not.
+Painfully she twisted and untwisted her fingers, while Lady Betty
+waited and looked.
+
+On a sudden in Arlington Street a small-coalman raised his shrill cry;
+she had heard it a score of times in the last two days; now she felt
+that she could not bear to hear it again. It was a small thing, but
+her gorge rose against it. "I will go!" she cried hoarsely. "Give me
+the clothes."
+
+Lady Betty clapped her hands like a child at play. "You will? Oh,
+brave!" she cried. "Then there's not a minute to be lost, miss. Take
+my laced jacket and hat. But stay--you must put on your sacque and
+hoop. Where are they? Let me help you. And won't you want to take
+some--la, you'll have nothing but what you stand up in!"
+
+Sophia winced, but pursued her preparations as if she had not heard.
+In feverish haste she dragged out what she wanted, and in five minutes
+stood in the middle of the room, arrayed in Lady Betty's jacket and
+hat, which, notwithstanding the difference in height, gave her such a
+passing resemblance to the younger girl as might deceive a person in a
+half light.
+
+"You'll do!" Lady Betty cried; all to her was sport. "And you'll just
+take my chair: it's a hack, but they know me. Mutter 'home,' and stop
+'em where you like--and take another! D'you see?"
+
+The two girls--their united ages barely made up thirty-four--flung
+themselves into one another's arms. Held thus, the younger felt the
+wild beating of Sophia's heart, and put her from her and looked at her
+with a sudden qualm of doubt and fear and perception.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "if he is not good to you! If he--don't! don't!" she
+continued, trembling herself in every limb. "Let me take off your
+things. Let me! Don't go!"
+
+But Sophia's mind was now made up. "No," she said firmly; and then,
+looking into the other's eyes, "Only speak of me kindly, child, if--if
+they say things."
+
+And before Lady Betty, left standing in the middle of the darkening
+room--where the reflection of the oil lamps in the street below was
+beginning to dance and flicker on the ceiling--had found words to
+answer, Sophia was half-way down the stairs. The staircase was darker
+than the room, and detection, as Lady Betty had foreseen, was almost
+impossible. Mrs. Martha, waiting spitefully outside her mistress's
+door on the first floor landing, saw as she thought, "that little
+baggage of a ladyship" go down; and she followed her muttering, but
+with no intention of intercepting her. John in the hall, too, saw her
+coming, and threw wide the door, then flew to open the waiting chair.
+"Home, my lady?" he asked obsequiously, and passed the word; finally,
+when the chair moved off, he looked up and down, and came in slowly,
+whistling. Another second, and the door of the house in Arlington
+Street slammed on Sophia.
+
+"And a good riddance!" muttered Mrs. Martha, looking over the
+balusters. "I never could abear her!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+                         A CHAIR AND A COACH
+
+
+The glasses of the chair, which had been standing some time at the
+door, were dimmed by moisture, and in the dusk of the evening its
+trembling occupant had no cause to fear recognition. But as the men
+lifted and bore her from the door, every blurred light that peeped in
+on her, and in an instant was gone, every smoking shop-lamp that
+glimmered a moment through the mist, and betrayed the moving forms
+that walked the sideway, was, to Sophia, an eye noting and condemning
+her. As the chairmen swung into Portugal Street, and, turning
+eastwards, skirted the long stand of coaches and the group of link-men
+that waited before Burlington House, she felt that all eyes were upon
+her, and she shrank farther and farther into the recesses of the
+chair.
+
+A bare-footed orange girl, who ran beside the window waving ballads or
+bills of the play, a coach rattling up behind and bespattering the
+glass as it passed, a link-boy peering in and whining to be hired,
+caused her a succession of panics. On top of these, the fluttering
+alarms of the moment, pressed the consciousness of a step taken that
+could never be retraced; nor was it until the chairmen, leaving
+Piccadilly behind them, had entered the comparative quiet of Air
+Street, and a real difficulty rose before her, that she rallied her
+faculties.
+
+The men were making for Soho, and if left to take their course, would,
+in a quarter of an hour set her down at the door of Lady Betty's home
+in King's Square. That would not do. But to stay them, and to vary the
+order from "Home" to Mr. Wollenhope's house in Davies Street, where
+her lover lodged, did not now seem the simple and easy step it had
+appeared a few minutes earlier, when the immediate difficulty was to
+escape from the house. Lady Betty had said that the men knew her. In
+that case, as soon as Sophia spoke to them they would scent something
+wrong, and, apprised of the change of fares, might wish to know more.
+They might even decline to take her whither she bade them!
+
+The difficulty was real, but for that very reason Sophia's courage
+rose to meet it. At present she knew where she was; a minute or two
+later she might not know. The sooner she took the route into her own
+hands, therefore, the better it would be; and as the men turned from
+the narrow street of Air into Brewer Street and swung to the right
+towards Soho, she tapped the glass. The chair moved on. With
+impatience, natural in the circumstances, Sophia tapped again and more
+sharply. This time the front bearer heard, and gave the word. The
+chair was set down, and the man, wiping his brow, raised the lid.
+
+"What is it, my lady?" he said, with a rich Irish accent. "Shure, and
+isn't it right ye are? If we went by Windmill Street, which some would
+be for going, there's a sight of coaches that way."
+
+"I don't want to go to King's Square," Sophia answered firmly.
+
+"Eh, my lady, no? But you said 'Home.'"
+
+"I want to go to the West End again," Sophia said.
+
+"I've remembered something; I want to go to Davies Street."
+
+"Faith, but it's a fine trate your ladyship's had," the Irishman
+cried good-humouredly, "and finely I should be scolded if his noble
+lordship your father knew 'twas with us you went; but it's home now
+you must go; you've played truant long enough, my lady! And--holy
+Mother!"--with a sudden exclamation--"'Tis not your ladyship! Oh, the
+saints, Micky, she's changed!"
+
+The second chairman came round the chair, stared, and rubbed his head;
+and the two gazed in perplexity at poor Sophia, whose face alone
+appeared above the side of the conveyance. "Take me to Davies Street
+by Berkeley Square," she commanded, tapping the front impatiently. "To
+Mr. Wollenhope's house. What does it matter to you where I go?"
+
+"To Davies Street?"
+
+"Yes; cannot you hear?"
+
+"Faith, and I hear," the Irishman answered, staring. "But then, the
+saints help us, 'tis not yourself. 'Twas her ladyship hired me to go
+to Arlington Street, and to take her home, and it's not leaving her
+I'll be!"
+
+"But her ladyship lent me the chair!" Sophia cried desperately.
+"She'll take another. Cannot you understand? She knows all about it.
+Now take me to Davies Street."
+
+Her voice trembled with anxiety, for at any moment she might be seen
+and recognised. A lamp in an oilman's window, one of the few lights
+that at long intervals broke the dull gloom of Brewer Street, shone on
+the group. Already a couple of chairs had swung by, the carriers
+casting, as they passed, a curious look at the stationary chair; and
+now a coach, approaching from the Soho direction, was near at hand.
+Every second she delayed there was a second on the rack. What would
+Sir Hervey or Lord Lincoln, what would any of the hundred
+acquaintances she had made since she came to town say of a girl found
+unprotected, after nightfall, astray in the public streets?
+
+Alas, the men still hesitated, and while they stood staring the coach
+came up. Before Sophia could add reproaches to her commands, it was
+checked opposite the group. The coachman leant down, and in a tone of
+disappointment--as if it were only then he saw that the chair was
+occupied--"You've a fare, have you?" he said. "You can't take a lady
+to Crown Court, King Street?"
+
+Before the Irishman could answer, "Here my man," a woman's voice cried
+from the coach, "I want to go to Crown Court, St. James's, and the
+coach can't enter. Double fare if you are quick! Here, let me out!"
+
+"But, faith, ma'am, I've a fare," Mick cried.
+
+"They've a fare," the coachman explained, leaning down anew.
+
+"The fare can take my coach," the voice answered imperiously; and in a
+twinkling, a smartly dressed woman, wearing red and white and plenty
+of both, yet handsome after a fashion, had pushed, first her hoop and
+then herself out of the coach. "See here, ma'am," she cried, seeing
+Sophia's scared face, "the coach is paid, and will take you anywhere
+in reason. 'Twill make no difference to you and all to me, and a mite
+of good nature is never thrown away! I've to go where a coach cannot
+go. Up a court, you understand."
+
+Sophia hesitated. Why did not the lady, whose bold eyes did not much
+commend her, pursue her way to Portugal Street, and descend there,
+where chairs might be had in plenty? Or why, again, was she in such a
+clamorous hurry and so importunate? On the other hand, if all were
+right, nothing could have fallen out more happily for herself; it was
+no wonder that, after a momentary hesitation, she gave a grudging
+assent. One of the chairmen, who seemed willing enough to make the
+change, opened the door; she stepped out and mechanically climbed into
+the coach. "To Davies Street, Mayfair," she said, sinking back. "To
+Mr. Wollenhope's, if you please."
+
+Quickly as she took her part, the strange lady was quicker; in a
+second she was in the chair and the chair was gone. It seemed to
+vanish. A moment and the coach also started, and lumbered westwards
+along Brewer Street. Now at last Sophia was at liberty to
+consider--with no obstacle short of Mr. Wollenhope's door--how she
+should present herself to her lover, and how it behoved him to receive
+her.
+
+She found it more easy to answer the second question than the first.
+Well indeed she knew how it became him to receive her. If in men
+survived any delicacy, any reverence, any gratitude, these were her
+due who came to him thus; these must appear in his greeting, or the
+worst guided, the most hapless of maids, was happy beside her. He must
+show himself lover, brother, parent, friend, in his one person; for he
+was her all. The tenderest homage, the most delicate respect, a tact
+that foreran offence, a punctilio that saw it everywhere, the devotion
+of a Craven, the gratitude of a Peterborough, were her right who came
+to him thus, a maiden trusting in his honour. She was clear on this;
+and not once or twice, but many times, many times as she pressed one
+hand on the other and swallowed the tell-tale lump that rose and rose
+in her throat, she swore that if she did not meet with these, if he
+did not greet her with them, plain in eye and lip--aye, and with a
+thousand dainty flowers of love, a thousand tender thoughts and
+imaginings, not of her, but for her--she had better have been the mud
+through which the wheels of her coach rolled!
+
+It was natural enough that, so near, so very near the crisis, she
+should feel misgiving. The halt in the dark street, the chill of the
+night air, had left her shivering; had left her with an overwhelming
+sense of loneliness and homelessness. The question was no longer how
+to escape from a prison, but how, having escaped, she would be
+received by him, who must be her all. The dice were on the table, the
+throw had been made, and made for life; it remained only to lift the
+box. For a little, a very little while, since a matter of minutes only
+divided her from Davies Street, she hung between the old life and the
+new, her heart panting vaguely for the sympathy that had been lacking
+in the old life, for the love that the new life had in store. Would
+she find them? Child as she was, she trembled now that she stood on
+the brink. A few minutes and she would know. A few minutes, and----
+
+The coach stopped suddenly, with a jerk that flung her forward. She
+looked out, her heart beating. She was ready to descend. But surely
+this was not Davies Street? The road was very dark. On the left, the
+side on which the door opened, a dead wall, overhung by high trees,
+confronted her.
+
+"Where am I?" she cried, her hand on the fastening of the door, her
+voice quivering with sudden fright. "We are not there?"
+
+"You are as far as you'll go, mistress," a rough voice answered from
+the darkness. "Sorry to alter your plans. A fine long chase you've
+given us." And from the gloom at the horses' heads, two men advanced
+to the door of the coach.
+
+She took them for footpads. The dead wall had much the appearance of
+the wall of Burlington Gardens, where it bounds Glasshouse Street; at
+that spot, she remembered, a coach had been robbed the week before.
+She prepared to give up her money, and was groping with a trembling
+hand for a little knitted purse, when the men, still grumbling, opened
+the door.
+
+"I suppose you know what's what," the foremost said. "At suit of
+Margott's of Paul's Churchyard. You'll go to my house, I take it?
+You'll be more genteel there."
+
+"I don't understand," Sophia muttered, her heart sinking.
+
+"Oh, don't come the innocent over us!" the man answered coarsely.
+"Here's the _capias_. Forty-eight, seven, six, debt and costs. It's my
+house or the Marshalsea. One or the other, and be quick about it. If
+you've the cash you'd better come to me."
+
+"There's some mistake," Sophia gasped, involuntarily retreating into
+the furthest corner of the coach. "You take me for some one else."
+
+The bailiffs--for such they were--laughed at the joke. "I take you for
+Mrs. Clark, alias Grocott, alias anything else you please," the
+spokesman answered. "Come, no nonsense, mistress; it's not the first
+time you've been behind bars. I warrant with that face you'll soon
+find some one to open the door for you."
+
+"But I'm not Mrs. Clark," Sophia protested. "I'm not indeed."
+
+"Pooh, pooh!"
+
+"I tell you I am not Mrs. Clark!" she cried. "Indeed, indeed, I am
+not! It has nothing to do with me," she continued desperately. "Please
+let me go on." And in great distress she tried to close the door on
+them.
+
+The bailiff prevented her. "Come, no nonsense, mistress," he repeated.
+"These tricks won't serve you. We were waiting for you at the Ipswich
+stage; you got the start there, and very cleverly, I will allow. But
+my mate got the number of the coach, and if we had not overtaken you
+here we'd have nabbed you in Davies Street. You see we know all about
+you, and where you were bound. Now where's it to be?"
+
+Sophia, at the mention of Davies Street, began to doubt her own
+identity; but still repeated, with the fierceness of despair, that she
+was not the person they sought. "I am not Mrs. Clark!" she cried. "I
+only took this coach in Brewer Street. You can ask the coachman."
+
+"Ah, I might, but I shouldn't get the truth!"
+
+"But it is the truth!" Sophia cried piteously; truly punishment had
+fallen on her quickly! "It is the truth! It is indeed!"
+
+The bailiff seemed to be a little shaken by her earnestness. He
+exchanged a few words with his fellow. Then, "We'll take the risk," he
+said. "Will you come out, ma'am, or shall I come in?"
+
+Sophia trembled. "Where are you going to take me?" she faltered.
+
+"To my house, where it's ten shillings a day and as genteel company as
+you'd find in St. James's!" the fellow answered. "S'help me, you'll be
+at home in an hour! I've known many go in all of a shake, that with a
+glass of mulled wine and cheerful company were as jolly by nightfall
+as Miss at a fair!" And without waiting for more, the man climbed into
+the coach and plumped down beside her.
+
+Sophia recoiled with a cry of alarm. "La!" he said, with clumsy good
+nature, "you need not be afraid. I'm a married man. You sit in your
+corner, ma'am, and I'll sit in mine. Bless you, I'm sworn to do my
+duty. Up you get, Trigg!"
+
+The second bailiff mounted beside the coachman, the coach was turned,
+and in a trice Sophia was once more trundling eastwards through the
+streets. But in what a condition!
+
+In the power of a vulgar catchpoll, on her way to a low sponging
+house, she saw herself borne helpless past the house that, until
+to-day, she had called her home! True, she had only to prove who she
+was in order to be released. She had only to bid them turn aside and
+stop at Mr. Northey's mansion, and a single question and answer would
+set her free. But at what a cost! Overwhelmed and terrified, at her
+wits' end how to bear herself, she yet shrank from such a return as
+that!
+
+Gladly would she have covered her face with her hands and wept tears
+of bitter mortification. But the crisis was too sharp, the difficulty
+too urgent for tears. What was she to do? Allow herself to be carried
+to her destination, and there incarcerated with vile persons in a
+prison which her ignorance painted in the darkest colours? Or avow the
+truth, bid them take her to her brother-in-law's, and there drain the
+cup of ignominy to the dregs? In either case decision must be speedy.
+Already Arlington Street lay behind them; they were approaching St.
+James's Church. They were passing it. Another minute and they would
+reach the end of the Haymarket.
+
+Suddenly she clapped her hands. "Stop!" she cried. "Tell them to stop!
+There's Lane's. They know me there. They'll tell you that I am not the
+person you think. Please stop!"
+
+The bailiff nodded, put out his head, and gave the order. Then, as the
+coach drew up to the shop, he opened the door, "Now, no tricks!
+ma'am," he said. "If you go a yard from me I nab you. Smooth's my name
+when I'm well treated; but if Mr. Lane knows you I'll take his word,
+and ask your pardon. I'm not unreasonable."
+
+Sophia did not pause to reply, but descended, and with hot cheeks
+hurried across the roadway into the well-known silk-mercer's.
+Fortunately, the shop, at certain times of the day the resort of
+Piccadilly bloods, was deserted at this late hour. All the lamps but
+one were extinguished, and by the light of this one, Mr. Lane and two
+apprentices were stowing goods under the counter. A third young man
+stood looking on and idly swinging a cane; but to Sophia's relief he
+retired through the open door at the back, which revealed the cosy
+lights of a comfortable parlour.
+
+The tradesman advanced, bowing and rubbing his hands. "Dear me," he
+said, "you are rather late, ma'am, but anything we can do--William,
+relight the lamps."
+
+"No," Sophia cried. "I do not want anything. I only--Mr. Lane," she
+continued, blushing deeply, "will you be good enough to tell this
+person who I am."
+
+"Dear, dear, my lady," Mr. Lane exclaimed, becoming in a moment a very
+Hector, "you don't mean that--what is this, my man, what does it mean?
+Let me tell you I've several stout fellows on the premises, and----"
+
+"No need," the bailiff answered gruffly. "I only want to know who
+the--who the lady is." He looked crestfallen already. He saw by the
+lamp-light that his prisoner was too young; a mere girl in her teens.
+And his heart misgave him.
+
+"This is Miss Maitland, sister-in-law to the honourable Mr. Northey,
+of Arlington Street, and the House," the tradesman answered
+majestically. "Now, my man, what is it?"
+
+"You are sure that she is not a--a Mrs. Oriana Clark?" the bailiff
+asked, consulting his writ for the name.
+
+"No more than I am!" Mr. Lane retorted, sniffing contemptuously. "What
+do you mean by such nonsense?"
+
+"Nothing now," the discomfited bailiff answered; and muttering "I am
+sure I beg her ladyship's pardon! Beg her pardon! No offence!" he bent
+his head with ready presence of mind and hurried out of the shop; his
+retreat facilitated by the fact that Sophia, overcome by her sudden
+release, was seized with a fit of giddiness, which compelled her to
+cling to the shop-board.
+
+In a moment the good Lane was all solicitude. He placed a chair for
+her, called for volatile salts, and bade them close the door into the
+street. Sending the staring apprentices about their business, he
+hustled out to procure some water; but in this he was anticipated by
+the young man whom she had seen in the shop when she entered. Too
+faint at the moment to remark from what hand she took it, Sophia
+drank, and returned the glass. Then, a little revived by the draught,
+and sensible of the absurdity of the position, she tried to rise, with
+a smile at her weakness. But the young man who had brought the water,
+and who had something of the air of a gentleman, foppishly and
+effeminately dressed, implored her to sit awhile.
+
+"Sure, ma'am, you can't be rested yet!" he cried, hanging over her
+with a solicitude that seemed a little excessive. "Such an outrage on
+divine beauty merits--stap me! the severest punishment. I shall not
+fail, ma'am, to seek out the low beast and chastise him as he
+deserves."
+
+"There is no need," Sophia answered, looking at the spark with mild
+surprise: she was still too faint to resent his manner. "I am better
+now, I thank you, sir. I will be going."
+
+"Stap me, not yet!" he cried effusively. "A little air, ma'am?" and he
+fell to fanning her with his hat, while his black eyes languished on
+hers. "'Twill bring back the colour, ma'am. Has your ladyship ever
+tried Florence water in these attacks? It is a monstrous fine
+specific, I am told."
+
+"I am not subject to them," Sophia answered, forced to avert her eyes.
+This movement, as it happened, brought her gaze to the open door of
+the parlour; where, to her astonishment, she espied Mr. Lane,
+standing, as it were, in ambush, dwelling on the scene in the shop
+with a face of childish pleasure. Now he softly rubbed his hands; now
+he nodded his head in an ecstasy. A moment Sophia watched him, her own
+face in shadow; then she rose a little displeased, and more puzzled.
+
+"I must go now," she said, bowing stiffly. "Be good enough to see if
+my coach is there."
+
+The beau, taken aback by her manner, turned to the silk mercer, who
+came slowly forward. "Is her ladyship's coach there?" the young
+gentleman cried with great stateliness.
+
+Mr. Lane hurried obsequiously to the door, looked out, and returned.
+"Dear, dear, ma'am," he said, "I fear those wretches took it. But I
+can send for a chair."
+
+"Call one, call one!" the gentleman commanded. "I shall see the lady
+to her door."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" Sophia answered quickly. "It is not necessary."
+
+"It is very necessary at this hour," Mr. Lane interposed; and then
+apologised for his intervention by rubbing his hands. "I could not
+think of--of letting you go from here, ma'am, without an escort!" he
+continued, with another low bow. "And this gentleman, Mr.----"
+
+"Fanshaw, man, Fanshaw," the young spark said, stroking his cravat and
+turning his head with an absurd air of importance. "Your humble
+servant to command, ma'am. Richard Fanshaw, Esquire, of Warwickshire.
+'Tis certain I must attend you so far; and--and oh, hang this!" he
+continued, breaking off in a sudden fit of rage. For in the act of
+bowing to her, he had entangled his sword in a roll of Lyons that
+stood behind him. "Fellow, what the deuce do you mean by leaving
+rubbish in a gentleman's way?" and he struggled furiously with it.
+
+Sophia could scarcely forbear a smile as Mr. Lane ran to the rescue.
+Yet with all his efforts
+
+
+                     The bold knight was red
+                     And the good stuff was shred
+
+
+before the little beau was freed. He cursed all tailors, and, to hide
+his confusion, hastened rather clumsily to hand her to the chair.
+
+She was now in a new difficulty. Lane would give the order "Arlington
+Street"; Mr. Fanshaw, smirking and tip-tapping at the side, would
+insist on seeing her home. And she herself for an instant, as the cold
+night air met her on the threshold of the oil-lit street, and she
+shivered under its touch, hesitated. For an instant her fears pleaded
+with her, bade her take warning from the thing that had already
+befallen her, whispered "Home!" At that hour the future, mirrored on
+the gloomy surface of the night-street, on the brink of which she
+stood, seemed dark, forlorn, uncertain.
+
+But her pride was not yet conquered; and without a vast sacrifice of
+pride she could not return. Her escapade would be remembered against
+her; she would be condemned for the attempt, and despised for its
+failure. Home, in her case, meant no loving mother longing to forgive,
+no fond tears, no kisses mingled with reproaches; but sneers and
+stinging words, disgrace and exile, a child's punishment. Little
+wonder that she grew hard again, since, on the other side, a girl's
+first fancy beckoned roseate; or that, when she announced with an easy
+air that she had to go to Davies Street, Mr. Lane detected nothing
+suspicious in her tone.
+
+"Dear, dear, ma'am, it's rather late," he said. "And the streets not
+too secure. But Rich--Mr. Fanshaw will see you safe. Much honoured.
+Oh, much honoured, I am sure, ma'am. Delighted to be of service. My
+humble obedience to your sister and Mr. Northey."
+
+A last backward glance as she was lifted and borne from the door
+showed her Mr. Lane standing in his shop-entrance. He was looking
+after her with the same face of foolish admiration which she had
+before surprised; and she wondered afresh what it meant. Soon,
+however, her thoughts passed from him to the over-dressed little fop
+who had added himself to her train, and whose absurd attempts to
+communicate with her as he strutted beside the glass, his sword under
+his arm and his laced hat cocked, were almost as amusing as the air of
+superb protection which he assumed when he caught her eye. Really, he
+was too ridiculous. Moreover, she did not want him. His presence was
+uncalled for now; and when she reached Davies Street, might involve
+her in new embarrassment. She would have dismissed him, but she
+doubted if he would go; and to open the glass and make the attempt
+might only incite him to greater freedoms. Sophia bit her lip to
+repress a smile; the little beau took the smile for encouragement, and
+kissed his hand through the glass.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII
+
+                          IN DAVIES STREET
+
+
+The chairmen pushed on briskly through Piccadilly and Portugal Street
+until they reached the turnpike on the skirts of the town. There,
+turning to the right by Berkeley Row, they reached Berkeley Square, at
+that time a wide, implanted space, surrounded on three sides by new
+mansions, and on the fourth by the dead wall of Berkeley House. For
+lack of lighting, or perhaps by reason of the convenience the building
+operations afforded, it was a favourite haunt of footpads. Sophia was
+a prey to anxieties that left no room in her mind for terrors of this
+class; and neither the dark lane, shadowed by the dead wall of
+Berkeley Gardens nor the gloomy waste of the square, held any tremors
+for her; but the chairmen hastened over this part of their journey,
+and for a time her attendant squire was so little in evidence that in
+the agitation into which the prospect of arrival at her lover's threw
+her, she forgot his presence. She strained her eyes through the
+darkness to distinguish the opening of Davies Street, and at once
+longed and feared to see it. When at last the chair halted, and,
+pressing her hand to her heart to still the tumult that almost stifled
+her, she prepared to descend, it was with a kind of shock that she
+discovered the little dandy mincing and bowing on the pavement, his
+hand extended to aid her in stepping from the chair.
+
+The vexation she had suppressed before broke out at the sight. She
+bowed slightly, and avoided his hand. "I am obliged to you, sir," she
+said ungraciously; "I won't trouble you farther. Good night, sir."
+
+"But--I shall see you back to Arlington Street, ma'am?" he lisped.
+"Surely at this hour an escort is more than ever necessary. I declare
+it is past eight, ma'am."
+
+It was; but the fact put in words stung her like a whip. She winced
+under all that the lateness of the hour implied. It seemed intolerable
+that in a crisis in which her whole life lay in the balance, in which
+her being was on the rack until she found the reception that should
+right her, converting her boldness into constancy, her forwardness
+into courage--when she trembled on the verge of the moment in which
+her lover's eyes should tell her all--it was intolerable that she
+should be harassed by this prating dandy. "I shall find an escort
+here," she cried harshly. "I need you no longer, sir. Good night."
+
+"Oh, but ma'am," he protested, bowing like a Chinese mandarin, "it is
+impossible I should leave you so. Surely, there is something I can do
+for your ladyship."
+
+"You can pay the chairmen!" she cried contemptuously; and turning from
+him to the door before which the chair had halted, she found it half
+open. In the doorway a woman, her back to the light, stood blocking
+the passage. Doubtless, she had heard what had passed.
+
+Sophia's temper died down on the instant. "Is this Mr. Wollenhope's?"
+she faltered.
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+An hour before it had seemed simple to ask for her lover. Now the
+moment was come she could not do it. "May I come in?" she muttered, to
+gain time.
+
+"You wish to see me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is the chair to wait, ma'am?"
+
+Sophia trembled. It was a moment before she could find her voice.
+Then, "No," she answered faintly.
+
+The woman looked hard at her, and having the light at her back, had
+the advantage. "Oh!" she said at last, addressing the men, "I think
+you had better wait a minute." And grudgingly making way for Sophia to
+enter, she closed the door. "Now, ma'am, what is it?" she said,
+standing four-square to the visitor. She was a stout, elderly woman,
+with a bluff but not unkindly face.
+
+"Mr. Hawkesworth lodges here?"
+
+"He does, ma'am."
+
+"Is he at home?" Sophia faltered. Under this woman's gaze she felt a
+sudden overpowering shame. She was pale and red by turns. Her eyes
+dropped, her confusion was not to be overlooked.
+
+"He is not at home," the woman said shortly. And her look, hostile
+before, grew harder.
+
+Sophia caught her breath. She had not thought of this, and for a
+moment she was so overpowered by the intelligence, that she had to
+support herself against the wall. "When will he return, if you
+please?" she asked at length, her lip quivering.
+
+"I'm sure I couldn't say. I couldn't say at all," Mrs. Wollenhope
+answered curtly. "All I know is he went out with the young gentleman
+at five, and as like as not he won't be home till morning."
+
+Sophia had much ado not to burst into tears. Apparently the woman
+perceived this, and felt a touch of pity for her, for, in an altered
+tone, "Is it possible," she asked, "you're the young lady he's to
+marry to-morrow?"
+
+The words were balm to the girl's heart. Here was sure footing at
+last; here was something to go upon. "Yes," she said, more boldly. "I
+am."
+
+"Oh!" Mrs. Wollenhope ejaculated. "Oh!" After which she stared at the
+girl, as if she found a difficulty in fitting her in with notions
+previously formed. At last, "Well, miss," she said, "I think if you
+could call tomorrow?" with a dry cough. "If you are to be married
+to-morrow--it seems to me it might be better."
+
+Sophia shivered. "I cannot wait," she said desperately. "I must see
+him. Something has happened which he does not know, and I must see
+him, I must indeed. Can I wait here? I have no where to go."
+
+"Well, you can wait here till nine o'clock," Mrs. Wollenhope answered
+less dryly. "We shut up at nine." Then, after glancing behind her, she
+laid her hand on Sophia's sleeve. "My dear," she said, lowering her
+voice, "begging pardon for the liberty, for I see you are a lady,
+which I did not expect--if you'll take my advice you'll go back. You
+will indeed. I am sure your father and mother----"
+
+"I have neither!" Sophia said.
+
+"Oh, dear, dear! Still, I can see you've friends, and if you'll take
+my advice----"
+
+She was cut short. "There you are again, Eliza!" cried a loud voice,
+apparently from an inner room. "Always your advice! Always your
+advice! Have done meddling, will you, and show the lady upstairs."
+
+Mrs. Wollenhope shrugged her shoulders as if the interruption were no
+uncommon occurrence. "Very well," she said curtly; and turning, led
+the way along the passage. Sophia followed, uncertain whether to be
+glad or sorry that the good woman's warning had been cut short. As she
+passed the open door of a room at the foot of the stairs she had a
+glimpse of a cheery sea-coal fire, and a bald-headed man in his shirt
+sleeves, who was sitting on a settle beside it, a glass of punch in
+his hand. He rose and muttered, "Your servant, ma'am!" as she passed;
+and she went on and saw him no more. But the vision of the snug
+back-parlour, with its fire and lights, and a red curtain hanging
+before the window, remained with her, a picture of comfort and quiet,
+as far as possible removed from the suspense and agitation in which
+she had passed the last two hours.
+
+And in which she still found herself, for as she mounted the stairs
+her knees quaked under her. She was ashamed, she was frightened. At
+the head of the flight, when the woman opened the door of the room and
+by a gesture bade her enter, she paused and felt she could sink into
+the ground. For the veriest trifle she would have gone down again. But
+behind her--behind her, lay nothing that had power to draw her; to
+return was to meet abuse and ridicule and shame, and that not in
+Arlington Street only, for the story would be over the town: Lane the
+mercer, whose shop was a hotbed of gossip, the little dandy who had
+thrust himself into her company, and tracked her hither, the coachman
+who had witnessed the arrest, even her own friend Lady Betty--all
+would publish the tale. Girls whom she knew, and from whose
+plain-spoken gossip she had turned a prudish ear, would sneer in her
+face. Men like Lord Lincoln would treat her with the easy familiarity
+she had seen them extend to Lady Vane, or Miss Edwards. Women she
+respected, Lady Pomfret, the duchess, would freeze her with a look.
+Girls, good girls like Lady Sophia, or little Miss Hamilton--no longer
+would these be her company.
+
+No, she had gone too far; it was too late to turn back; yet she felt,
+as she crossed the threshold, it was the one thing she longed to do.
+Though Mrs. Wollenhope hastened to light two candles that stood on a
+table, the parlour and the shapes of the furniture swam before
+Sophia's eyes. The two candles seemed to be four, six, eight; nay, the
+room was all candles, dancing before her. She had to lean on a chair
+to steady herself.
+
+By-and-by Mrs. Wollenhope's voice, for a time heard droning dully,
+became clear. "He was up above," the good woman was saying. "But he's
+not here much. He lives at the taverns of the quality, mostly. 'Twas
+but yesterday he told me, ma'am, he was going to be married. You can
+wait here till nine, and I'll come and fetch you then, if he has not
+come in. But you'd best be thinking, if you'll take my advice, what
+you'll do."
+
+"Now, Eliza!" Mr. Wollenhope roared from below; to judge from the
+sound of his voice he had come to the foot of the stairs. "Advising
+again, I'm bound. Always advising! Some day your tongue will get you
+into trouble, my woman. You come down and leave the young lady to
+herself."
+
+"Oh, very well," Mrs. Wollenhope muttered, tossing her head
+impatiently. "I'm coming. Coming!" And shielding her light with her
+hand, she went out and left Sophia alone.
+
+The girl remained where she had paused on entering, a little within
+the door, her hand resting on a chair. And presently, as she looked
+about her, the colour began to creep into her face. This was his home,
+and at the thought she forgot the past; she dreamed of the future. His
+home! Here he had sat thinking of her. Here he had written the letter!
+Here, perhaps in that cupboard set low in the wainscot beside the
+fire, lay the secret papers of which he had told her, the Jacobite
+lists that held a life in every signature, the Ormonde letters, the
+plans for the Scotch Rising, the cipher promises from France! Here,
+surrounded by perils, he wrote and studied far into the night, the
+pistol beside the pen, the door locked, the keyhole stopped. Here he
+had lain safe and busy, while the hated Whig approvers drew their nets
+elsewhere. Sophia breathed more quickly as she pictured these things;
+as she told herself the story Othello told the Venetian maid. The
+attraction of the man, the magic of the lover, dormant during the
+stress she had suffered since she left Arlington Street, revived; the
+girl's eyes grew soft, blushes mantled over her cheeks. She looked
+round timidly, almost reverently, not daring to advance, not daring to
+touch anything.
+
+The room, which was not large, was wainscotted from ceiling to floor
+with spacious panels, divided one from the other by fluted pillars in
+shallow relief, after the fashion of that day. The two windows were
+high, narrow, and roundheaded, deeply sunk in the panelling. The
+fireplace, in which a few embers smouldered, was of Dutch tiles. On
+the square oak table in the middle of the floor, a pack of cards lay
+beside the snuffer tray, between the tall pewter candlesticks.
+
+She noted these things greedily, and then, alas, she fell from the
+clouds. Mrs. Wollenhope had said that he had lived in the rooms above
+until lately! Still, he had sat here, and these were his belongings,
+which she saw strewn here and there. The book laid open on the
+high-backed settle that flanked one side of the hearth, and masked the
+door of an inner room, had been laid there by his hand. The cloak that
+hung across the back of one of the heavy Cromwell chairs was his. The
+papers and inkhorn, pushed carelessly aside on one of the plain wooden
+window-seats, had been placed there by him. His were the black
+riding-wig, the whip, and spurs, and tasselled cane, that hung on a
+hook in a corner, and the wig-case that stood on a table against the
+wall, alongside a crumpled cravat, and a jug and two mugs. All
+these--doubtless all these were his. Sophia, flustered and softened,
+her heart beating quick with a delicious emotion, half hope, half
+fear, sat down on the chair by the door and gazed at them.
+
+He was more to her now, while she sat in his room and looked at these
+things, than he had ever been; and though the moment was at hand when
+his reception of her must tell her all, her distrust of him had never
+been less. If he did not love her with the love she pictured, why had
+he chosen her? He whose career promised so much, who under the cloak
+of frivolity pursued aims so high, amid perils so real. He must love
+her! He must love her! She thought this almost aloud, and seeing the
+wicks of the candles growing long, rose and snuffed them; and in the
+performance of this simple act of ownership, experienced a strange
+thrill of pleasure.
+
+After that she waited awhile on her feet, looking about her shyly, and
+listening. Presently, hearing no sound, she stepped timidly and on
+tip-toe to the side table, and lifting the crumpled cravat, smoothed
+it, then, with caressing fingers, folded it neatly and laid it back.
+Again she listened, wondering how long she had waited. No, that was
+not a step on the stairs; and thereat her heart began to sink. The
+reaction of hope deferred began to be felt. What if he did not come?
+What if she waited, and nine found her still waiting--waiting vainly
+in this quiet room where the lights twinkled in the polished panels,
+and now and again the ash of the coal fell softly to the hearth? It
+might--it might be almost nine already!
+
+She began to succumb to a new fever of suspense, and looked about
+for something to divert her thoughts. Her eyes fell on the book that
+lay open on the seat of the settle. Thinking, "He has read this
+to-day--his was the last hand that touched it--on this page his eyes
+rested," Sophia stooped for it, and holding it carefully that she
+might keep the place for him, reverently, for it was his, she carried
+it to the light. The title at the head of the page was _The Irish
+Register_. The name smacked so little of diversion, she thought it a
+political tract--for the book was thin, no more than fifty pages or
+so; and she was setting it back on the table when her eye, in the very
+act of leaving the page, caught the glint, as it were, of a name.
+Beside the name, on the margin, were a few pencilled words and
+figures; but these, faintly scrawled, she did not heed at the moment.
+
+"Cochrane, the Lady Elizabeth?" she muttered, repeating the name that
+had caught her eye, "How strange! What can the book have to do with
+Lady Betty? It must be some kind of peerage. But she is not Irish!"
+
+To settle the question, she raised the book anew to the light, and saw
+that it consisted of a list of persons' names arranged in order of
+rank. Only--which seemed odd--all the names were ladies' names. Above
+Cochrane, the Lady Elizabeth, appeared Cochrane, the Lady Anne; below
+came Coke, the Lady Catherine, and after each name the address of the
+lady followed if she were a widow, of her parents or guardians if she
+were unmarried.
+
+Sophia wondered idly what it meant, and with half her mind bent on the
+matter, the other half intent on the coming of a footstep, she turned
+back to the title-page of the book. She found that the fuller
+description there printed ran _The Irish Register, or a list of the
+Duchess Dowagers, Countesses, Widow Ladies, Maiden Ladies, Widows, and
+Misses of Great Fortunes in England, as registered by the Dublin
+Society_.
+
+Even then she was very, very far from understanding. But the baldness
+of the description sent a chill through her. Misses of large fortunes
+in England! As fortunes went, she was a miss of large fortune. Perhaps
+that was why the words grated upon her; why her heart sank, and the
+room seemed to grow darker. Turning to look at the cover of the book,
+she saw a slip of paper inserted towards the end to keep a place. It
+projected only an eighth of an inch, but she marked it, and turned to
+it; something or other--it may have been only the position of the
+paper in that part of the book, it may have been the presence of the
+book in her lover's room--forewarning her; for in the act of turning
+the leaves, and before she came to the marker, she knew what she would
+find.
+
+And she found it. First, her name, "Maitland, Miss Sophia, at the Hon.
+Mr. Northey's in Arlington Street". Then--yes, then, for that was not
+all or the worst--down the narrow margin, starting at her name, ran a
+note, written faintly, in a hand she knew; the same hand that had
+penned her one love letter, the hand from which the quill had fallen
+in the rapture of anticipation, the hand of her "humble, adoring
+lover, Hector, Count Plomer"!
+
+She knew that the note would tell her all, and for a moment her
+courage failed her; she dared not read it. Her averted eyes sought
+instead the cupboard in the lower wainscot, which she had fancied the
+hiding place of the Jacobite cipher, the muniment chest where lay,
+intrusted to his honour, the lives and fortunes of the Beauforts and
+Ormondes, the Wynns and Cottons and Cecils. Was the cupboard that
+indeed? Or--what was it? The light reflected from the surface of the
+panels told her nothing, and she lowered the book and stood pondering.
+If the note proved to be that which she still shrank from believing
+it, what had she done? Or rather, what had she not done? What warnings
+had she not despised, what knowledge had she not slighted, what
+experience had she not overridden? How madly, how viciously, in the
+face of advice, in the face of remonstrance, in modesty's own despite,
+had she wrought her confusion, had she flung herself into the arms of
+this man! This man who--but that was the question!
+
+She asked herself trembling, was he what this book seemed to indicate,
+or was he what she had thought him? Was he villain, or hero?
+Fortune-hunter, or her true lover? The meanest of tricksters, or the
+high-spirited, chivalrous gentleman, laughing at danger and smiling at
+death, in whom great names and a great cause were content to place
+their trust?
+
+At last she nerved herself to learn the answer to the question. The
+wicks of the candles were burning long; she snuffed them anew, and
+holding the book close to the light, read the words that were
+delicately traced beside her name.
+
+"_Has 6000 guineas charged on T. M.'s estate. If T. M. marries without
+consent of guardians has £10,000 more. Mrs. N. the same. T. is at
+Cambridge, aged eighteen. To make all sure, T. must be married
+first--query Oriana, if she can be found? Or Lucy Slee--but boys like
+riper women. Not clinch with S. M. until T. is mated, nor at all if
+the little Cochrane romp_ (_page 7_) _can be brought to hand. But I
+doubt it, but S. M. is an easy miss, and swallows all. A perfect
+goose_."
+
+Sophia sat awhile in a chair and shivered, her face white, her head
+burning. The words were so clear that, the initials notwithstanding,
+it was not possible to misinterpret them; or to set on them any
+construction save one. They cut her as the lash of a whip cuts the
+bare flesh. It was for this--thing that she had laid aside her maiden
+pride, had risked her good name, had scorned her nearest, had thrown
+away all in life that was worth keeping! It was for this creature,
+this thing in the shape of man, that she had over-leapt the bounds,
+had left her home, had risked the perils of the streets, and the
+greater perils of his company. For this--but she had not words
+adequate to the loathing of her soul. Outraged womanhood, wounded
+pride, contemned affection--which she had fancied love--seared her
+very soul. She could have seen him killed, she could have killed him
+with her own hand--or she thought she could; so completely in a moment
+was her liking changed to hatred, so completely destroyed on the
+instant was the trust she had placed in him.
+
+"_And S. M. is an easy miss, and swallows all. A perfect goose!_"
+Those words cut more deeply than all into her vanity. She winced, nay,
+she writhed under them. Nor was that all. They had a clever, dreadful
+smartness that told her they were no mere memorandum, but had served
+in a letter, and tickled at once a man's conceit and a woman's ears.
+Her own ears burned at the thought. "_S. M. is an easy miss, and
+swallows all. A perfect goose!_" Oh, she would never recover it! She
+would never regain her self-respect!
+
+The last embers had grown grey behind the bars; the last ash had
+fallen from the grate while she sat. The room was silent save for her
+breathing, that now came in quick spasms as she thought of the false
+lover, and now was slow and deep as she sat sunk in a shamed reverie.
+On a sudden the cooling fireplace cracked. The sound roused her. She
+sprang up and gazed about her in affright, remembering that she had no
+longer any business there, nay, that in no room in the world had she
+less business.
+
+In the terror of the moment she flew to the door; she must go, but
+whither? More than ever, now that she recognised her folly, she shrank
+from her sister's scornful eyes, from Mr. Northey's disapproving
+stare, from the grins of the servants, the witticisms of her friends.
+The part she had played, seen as she now saw it, would make her the
+laughing-stock of the town. It was the silliest, the most romantic; a
+school-girl would cry fie on it. Sophia's cheek burned at the thought
+of facing a single person who had ever known her; much more at the
+thought of meeting her sister or Mrs. Martha, or the laced bumpkins
+past whom she had flitted in that ill-omened hour. She could not go
+back to Arlington Street. But then--whither could she go?
+
+Whither indeed? It was nine o'clock; night had fallen. At such an hour
+the streets were unsafe for a woman without escort, much more for a
+girl of gentility. Drunken roysterers on their way from tavern to
+tavern, ripe for any frolic, formed a peril worse than footpads; and
+she had neither chair nor link-boys, servants nor coach, without one
+or other of which she had never passed through the streets in her
+life. Yet she could not stay where she was; rather would she lie
+without covering in the wildest corner of the adjacent parks, or on
+the lonely edge of Rosamond's pond! The mere thought that she lingered
+there was enough; she shuddered with loathing, grew hot with rage. And
+the impulse that had hastened her to the door returning, she hurried
+out and was half-way down the stairs, when the sound of a man's voice,
+uplifted in the passage below, brought her up short where she stood.
+
+An instant only she heard it clearly. Then the tramp of feet along
+the passage, masked the voice. But she had heard enough--it was
+Hawkesworth's--and her eyes grew wide with terror. She should die of
+shame if he found her there! If he learned, not by hearsay, but eye to
+eye, that she had come of her own motion, poor, silly dupe of his
+blandishments, to throw herself into his arms! That were too much; she
+turned to fly.
+
+Her first thought was to take refuge on the upper floor until he had
+gone into his room and closed the door; two bounds carried her to the
+landing she had left. But here she found an unexpected obstacle in a
+wicket, set at the foot of the upper flight of stairs; one of those
+wickets that are still to be seen in old houses, in the neighbourhood
+of the nursery. By the light that issued from the half-open doorway of
+the room, Sophia tugged at it furiously, but seeking the latch at the
+end of the gate where the hinges were, she lost a precious moment.
+When she found the fastening, the steps of the man she had fancied she
+loved, and now knew she hated, were on the stairs. And the gate would
+not yield! Penned on the narrow landing, with discovery tapping her on
+the shoulder, she fumbled desperately with the latch, even, in
+despair, flung her weight against the wicket. It held; in another
+second, if she persisted, she would be seen.
+
+With a moan of anguish she turned and darted into Hawkesworth's room,
+and sprang to the table where the candles stood. Her thought was to
+blow them out, then to take her chance of passing the man before they
+were relighted. But as she gained the table and stooped to extinguish
+them, she heard his step so near the door that she knew the sudden
+extinction of the light must be seen; and her eyes at the same moment
+alighting on the high-backed settle, in an instant she was behind it.
+
+It was a step she would not have taken had she acted on anything but
+the blind, unthinking impulse to hide herself. For here retreat was
+cut off; she was now between her enemy and the inner room. She dared
+not move, and in a few minutes at most must be discovered. But the
+thing was done; there was no time to alter it. As her hoop slipped
+from sight behind the wooden seat, the Irishman entered, and with a
+laugh flung his hat and cane on the table. A second person appeared to
+cross the threshold after him; and crouching lower, her heart beating
+as if it would choke her, Sophia heard the door flung to behind them.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+                               UNMASKED
+
+
+There are men who find as much pleasure in the intrigue as in the
+fruits of the intrigue; who take huge credit for their own finesse and
+others' folly, and find a chief part of their good in watching, as
+from a raised seat, the movements of their dupes, astray in a maze of
+their planting. The more ingenious the machination they have
+contrived, the nicer the calculations and the more narrow the point on
+which success turns, the sweeter is the sop to their vanity. To
+receive Lisette and Fifine in the same apartment within the hour; to
+divide the rebel and the minister by a door; to turn the scruple of
+one person to the hurt of another, and know both to be ignorant--these
+are feats on which they hug themselves as fondly as on the substantial
+rewards which crown their man[oe]uvres.
+
+Hawkesworth was of this class; and it was with feelings such as these
+that he saw his nicely jointed plans revolving to the end he desired.
+To mould the fate of Tom Maitland at Cambridge, and of Sophia in town,
+and both to his own profit, fulfilled his sense of power. To time the
+weddings as nearly as possible, to match the one at noon and to marry
+the other at night, gratified his vanity at the same time that it
+tickled his humour. But the more delicate the machinery, the smaller
+is the atom, and the slighter the jar that suffices to throw all out
+of gear. For a time, Oriana's absence, at a moment when every instant
+was of price, and the interference of Tom's friends was hourly
+possible, threatened to ruin all. It was in the enjoyment of the
+relief, which the news of her arrival afforded, that he returned to
+his lodging this evening. He was in his most rollicking humour, and
+overflowed with spirits; Tom's innocence and his own sagacity
+providing him with ever fresh and more lively cause for merriment.
+
+Nor was the lad's presence any check on his mood. Hawkesworth's
+joviality, darkling and satirical as it was, passed with Tom for
+lightness of heart. What he did not understand, he set down for Irish,
+and dubbed his companion the prince of good fellows. As they climbed
+the stairs, he was trying with after-supper effusiveness to impress
+this on his host. "I swear you are the best friend man ever had," he
+cried, his voice full of gratitude. "I vow you are."
+
+Hawkesworth laughed, as he threw his hat and cane on the table, and
+proceeded to take off his sword that he might be more at ease. His
+laughter was a little louder than the other's statement seemed to
+justify; but Tom was in no critical mood, and Hawkesworth's easy
+answer "You'll say so when you know all, my lad," satisfied the boy.
+
+"I do say it," he repeated earnestly, as he threw himself on the
+settle, and, taking the poker, stirred the embers to see if a spark
+survived. "I do say it."
+
+"And I say, well you may," Hawkesworth retorted, with a sneer from
+which he could not refrain. "What do you think, dear lad, would have
+happened, if I'd tried for the prize myself?" he continued. "If I'd
+struck in for your pretty bit of red and white on my own account? Do
+you remember Trumpington, and our first meeting? I'd the start of you
+then, though you are going to be her husband."
+
+"Twenty minutes' start," Tom answered.
+
+Hawkesworth averted his face to hide a grin. "Twenty minutes?" he
+said. "Lord, so it was! Twenty minutes!" The boy reddened. "Why do you
+laugh?" he asked.
+
+"Why? Why, because twenty minutes is a long time--sometimes,"
+Hawkesworth answered. "But there, be easy, lad," he continued, seeing
+that he was going too far, "be easy--no need to be jealous of me--and
+I'll brew you some punch. There is one thing certain," he continued,
+producing a squat Dutch bottle and some glasses from a cupboard by the
+door. "You have me to thank for her! There is no doubt about that."
+
+"It's what I've always said," Tom answered. He was easily appeased.
+"If you'd not asked my help when your chaise broke down at
+Trumpington--you'd just picked her up, you remember?--I should never
+have known her! Think of that!" he continued, his eyes shining with a
+lover's enthusiasm; and he rose and trod the floor this way and that.
+"Never to have known her, Hawkesworth!"
+
+"Whom, to know was to love," the Irishman murmured, with thinly veiled
+irony.
+
+"Right! Right, indeed!"
+
+"And to love was to know--eh?"
+
+"Right! Right, again!" poor Tom cried, striking the table.
+
+For a moment Hawkesworth contemplated him with amusement. Then--"Well,
+here's to her!" he cried, raising his glass. "The finest woman in the
+world!"
+
+"And the best! And the best!" Tom answered.
+
+"And the best! The toast is worthy the best of liquor," Hawkesworth
+continued, pushing over the other's glass; "but you'll have to drink
+it cold, for the fire is out."
+
+"The finest woman in the world, and the best!" the lad cried; his eyes
+glowed as he stood up reverently, his glass in his hand. "She is that,
+isn't she, Hawkesworth?"
+
+"She is all that, I'll answer for it!" the Irishman replied, with a
+stifled laugh. Lord! what fools there were in the world! "By this time
+to-morrow she'll be yours! Think of it, lad!" he continued, with an
+ugly-sounding, ugly-meaning laugh; at which one of his listeners
+shuddered.
+
+But Tom, in the lover's seventh heaven, was not that one. His Oriana,
+who to others was a handsome woman, bold-eyed and free-tongued, was a
+goddess to him. He saw her through that glamour of first love that
+blesses no man twice. He felt no doubt, harboured no suspicion, knew
+no fear; he gave scarce one thought to her past. He was content to
+take for gospel all she told him, and to seek no more. That he--he
+should have gained the heart of this queen among women seemed so
+wonderful, so amazing, that nothing else seemed wonderful at all.
+
+"You think she'll not fail?" he cried, presently, as he set down his
+glass. "It's a week since I saw her, and--and you don't think she'll
+have changed her mind, do you?"
+
+"Not she!" Hawkesworth answered.
+
+"She'll come, you are certain."
+
+"As certain," Hawkesworth cried gaily, "as that Dr. Keith will be
+ready at the chapel at twelve to the minute, dear lad. And, by the
+way, here's his health! Dr. Keith, and long may he live to bless the
+single and crown the virtuous! To give to him that hath not, and from
+her that hath to take away! To be the plague of all sour guardians,
+lockers-up of maidens, and such as would cheat Cupid; and the
+guardian-angel of all Nugents, Husseys, and bold fellows! Here's to
+the pride of Mayfair, the curse of Chancery, and the god-father of
+many a pretty couple--Dr. Keith!"
+
+"Here's to him!" Tom cried, with ready enthusiasm. And then more
+quietly as he set down his glass, "There's one thing I'd like, to be
+perfectly happy, Hawkesworth, only one. I wish it were possible, but I
+suppose it isn't."
+
+"What is it, lad?"
+
+"If Sophia, my sister, could be there. They'll be sisters, you see,
+and--and, of course, Sophia's a girl, but there are only the two of
+us, for Madam Northey doesn't count. But I suppose it is not possible
+she should be told?"
+
+"Quite impossible!" Hawkesworth answered with decision; and he stooped
+to hide a smile. The humour of the situation suited him. "Quite
+impossible! Ten to one she'd peach! No, no, we must not initiate her
+too soon, my boy; though it is likely enough she'll have her own
+business with Dr. Keith one of these days!"
+
+The boy stared at him. "My sister?" he said slowly, his face growing
+red. "With Dr. Keith? What business could she have with him?"
+
+"With Dr. Keith?" Hawkesworth asked lightly. "Why not the same as
+yours, dear boy?"
+
+"The same as mine?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure. Why not? Eh, why not?"
+
+"Why not? Because she's a Maitland!" the lad answered, and his eyes
+flashed. "Our women don't marry that way, I'd have you to know! Why,
+I'd--I'd rather see her buried."
+
+"But you're going to marry that way yourself!" Hawkesworth reasoned.
+The boy's innocence surprised him a little and amused him more.
+
+"I? But I'm a man," Tom answered with dignity. "I'm different.
+And--and Oriana," he continued, plunging on a sudden into dreadful
+confusion and redness of face, "is--is different of course,
+because--well, because if we are not married in this way, my brother
+Northey would interfere, and we could not be married at all. Oriana is
+an angel, and--and because she loves me, is willing to be married in
+this way. That's all, you see."
+
+"I see. But you would not like your sister to be married on the
+quiet?"
+
+Tom glared at him. "No," he said curtly. "And for the why, it is my
+business."
+
+"To be sure it is! Of course it is. And yet, Sir Tom," Hawkesworth
+continued, his tone provoking, "I would not mind wagering you a
+hundred it is the way she will be married, when her time comes."
+
+"My sister?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Done with you!" the lad cried.
+
+"Nay, I don't mind going farther," Hawkesworth continued. "I'll wager
+you the same sum that she does it within the year."
+
+"This year?"
+
+"A year from to-day."
+
+Tom jumped up in heat. "What the devil do you mean?" he cried. Then he
+sat down again. "But what matter!" he said, "I'll take you."
+
+Hawkesworth as he pulled out his betting book turned his head aside to
+hide a smile. "I note it," he said. "'P. H. bets Sir Thomas Maitland a
+hundred that Miss Sophia Maitland is married at Dr. Keith's chapel;
+and another hundred that the marriage is within the year.'"
+
+"Right!" Tom said, glowering at him. His boyish estimate of the
+importance of his family, and of the sacredness of his womankind,
+sucked the flavour from the bet; ordinarily the young scapegrace loved
+a wager.
+
+Hawkesworth put up his book again. "Good," he said. "You'll see that
+that will be two hundred in my pocket some day."
+
+"Not it!" Tom answered, rudely. "My sister is not that sort! And
+perhaps the sooner you know it, the better," he added, aggressively.
+
+"Why, lad, what do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I said!" Tom answered shortly. "It was English. When my
+sister is to be married, we shall make a marriage for her. She's
+not--but the less said the better," he continued, breaking off with a
+frown.
+
+Hawkesworth knew that it would be prudent to quit the subject, but his
+love of teasing, or his sense of the humour of the situation, would
+not let him be silent. "She's not for such as me, you mean?" he said,
+with a mocking laugh.
+
+"You can put it that way if you choose!"
+
+"And yet, I think--if I were to try?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I say, if I were to try?"
+
+Sir Tom scowled across the table. "Look here!" he said, striking it
+heavily with his hand, "I don't like this sort of talk. I don't
+suppose you wish to be offensive; and we'll end it, if you please."
+
+Hawkesworth shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, by all means, if you feel
+that way," he said. "Only it looks a little as if you feared for your
+charming sister. After all, women are women. Even Miss Sophia Maitland
+is a woman, and no exception to the rule, I presume?"
+
+"Oh, hang you!" the boy cried, in a fury; and again struck his hand on
+the table. "Will you leave my sister's name alone? Cannot you
+understand--what a gentleman feels about it?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "HE CANNOT!"]
+
+
+"_He cannot!_"
+
+The words came from behind Sir Tom, who forthwith sprang a yard from
+the settle, and stood gaping; while Hawkesworth, his glass going to
+shivers on the floor, clutched the table as he rose. Both stood
+staring, both stood amazed, and scarce believed their eyes, when
+Sophia, stepping from the shelter of the settle, stood before them.
+
+"He cannot!" she repeated, with a gesture, a look, an accent that
+should have withered the man. "He cannot! For he does not know what a
+gentleman feels about anything. He does not know what a gentleman is.
+Look at him! Look at him!" she continued, her face white with scorn;
+and she fixed the astonished Irishman with an outstretched finger that
+could scarce have confounded him more had it been a loaded pistol set
+to his head. "A gentleman!" she went on passionately. "That a
+gentleman? Why, the air he breathes pollutes us! To be in one room
+with him disgraces us! That such an one should have tricked us will
+shame us all our lives!"
+
+Hawkesworth tried to speak, tried to carry off the surprise; but a
+feeble smile was all he could compass. Even Irish wit, even native
+impudence were unequal to this emergency. The blow was so sudden, so
+unexpected, he could not in a moment arrange his thoughts, or discern
+his position. He saw that for some reason or other she had come to him
+before the time; but he could not on the instant remember how far he
+had disclosed his hand before her, or what she had learned from him
+while she lay hidden.
+
+Naturally Tom was the quicker to recover himself. His first thought on
+seeing his sister was that she had got wind of his plans, and was here
+to prevent his marriage. And it was in this sense that he interpreted
+her opening words. But before she had ceased to speak, the passion
+which she threw into her denunciation of Hawkesworth, turned his
+thoughts into a new and a fiercer channel. With an oath, "Never mind
+him!" he cried, and stepping forward gripped her, almost brutally, by
+the wrist. "I'll talk with him afterwards. First, miss, what the devil
+are you doing here?"
+
+"Ask him," she answered; and again pointed her finger at Hawkesworth.
+"Or no, I will tell you, Tom. That man, the man who calls himself your
+friend, and called himself my lover, has plotted to ruin us. He has
+schemed to get us into his net. To-morrow he would have married you
+to--to, I know not, whom. And when he had seen you married, and knew
+you had forfeited a fortune to me, then--then I should have been a fit
+match for him! I! I! And in the evening he would have married me! Oh,
+shame, shame on us, Tom, that we should have let ourselves be so
+deluded!"
+
+"He would have married you!" Tom cried, dropping her hand in sheer
+astonishment.
+
+"The same day!"
+
+"Hawkesworth? This man here? He would have married you?"
+
+"You may well say, he!" she answered, a wave of crimson flooding her
+cheeks and throat. "The thought kills me."
+
+Tom looked from one to the other. "But I can't understand," he said.
+"I didn't know--that he knew you, even."
+
+"And I didn't know that he knew you!" she answered bitterly. "He is a
+villain, and that was his plan. We were not to know."
+
+Tom turned to the Irishman; and the latter's deprecatory shrug was
+vain. "What have you to say?" Tom cried in a voice almost terrible.
+
+But Hawkesworth, who did not lack courage, was himself again, easy,
+alert, plausible. "Much," he said coolly. "Much, dear lad. The whole
+thing is a mistake. I loved your sister"--he bowed gravely in her
+direction, and stole a glance as he did so, to learn how she took it,
+and how far he still had a chance with her. "I loved her, I say, I
+still love her, though she has shown that she puts as little faith in
+me, as she can ever have entertained affection for me. But I knew her
+as Miss Maitland, I did not know that she was your sister. Once I
+think she mentioned a brother; but no more, no name. For the rest, I
+had as little reason to expect to find her here as you had. That I
+swear!"
+
+The last words hit Tom uncomfortably; her presence in this man's room
+was a fact hard to swallow. The brother turned on the sister. "Is this
+true?" he hissed.
+
+Sophia winced. "It is true," she faltered.
+
+"Then what brought you here?" Tom cried, with brutal frankness.
+
+The girl shivered; she never forgot the pain of that moment, never
+forgot the man who had caused her that humiliation. "Ask him!" she
+panted. "Or no, I will tell you, Tom. He swore that he loved me. He
+made me, poor silly fool that I was, believe him. He said that if I
+would elope with him to-morrow, he would marry me at Dr. Keith's
+chapel; and fearing they--my sister--would marry me against my will
+to--to another man, I consented. Then--they were going to send me away
+in the morning, and it would have been too late. I came away this
+afternoon to tell him, and--and----"
+
+"There you have the explanation, Sir Thomas," Hawkesworth interposed,
+with an air of candid good nature. "And in all you'll say, I think,
+that there is nothing of which I need be ashamed. I loved your sister,
+she was good enough to fancy that she was not indifferent to me. My
+intentions were honourable, but her friends were opposed to my suit. I
+had her consent to elope, and if she had not on a sudden discovered,
+as she apparently has discovered, that her heart is not mine, we
+should have been married within a few days."
+
+"To-morrow, sir, to-morrow!" Sophia cried. And would have confronted
+him with his letter; but it was in the folds of her dress, and she
+would not let him see where she kept it.
+
+"To-morrow, certainly, if it had been your pleasure," Hawkesworth
+answered smoothly. "The sole, the only point it concerns me to show,
+is, Sir Tom, that I did not know my Miss Maitland to be your sister. I
+give you my word, Sir Tom, I did not!"
+
+"Liar!" she cried, unable to contain herself.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, and smiled. "There is but one Sir Thomas
+Maitland," he said, "but there are many Maitlands. Miss Maitland may
+hold what opinion she pleases, and express what view of my character
+commends itself to her, without fear that I shall call her natural
+guardians to account. But I cannot allow a gentleman to doubt my word.
+I repeat, Sir Tom, that I did not know that this lady was your
+sister."
+
+The boy listened, scowling and thinking. He had no lack of courage,
+and was as ready to fly at a man's throat as not. But he was young; he
+was summoned, suddenly and in conditions most perplexing, to protect
+the family honour; it was no wonder that he hesitated. At this,
+however, "Then why the deuce were you so ready to bet," he blurted
+out, "that she would be married at Keith's?"
+
+Before Hawkesworth could frame the answer, "That is not all!" Sophia
+cried; and with a rapid movement she snatched from the table the book
+that had first opened her eyes. "Here, here," she cried, tapping it
+passionately. "In his own handwriting is the plot! The plot against us
+both! Tom, look; find it! You will find it under my name. And then he
+cannot deny it."
+
+She held out the book to Tom; he went to take it. But Hawkesworth, who
+knew the importance of the evidence, was too quick for them. With an
+oath he sprang forward, held Tom back with one hand, and with the
+other seized the volume, and tried to get possession of it. But Sophia
+clung to it, screaming; and before he could wrest it from her hold,
+Tom, maddened by the insult and her cries, was at his breast like a
+wild cat.
+
+The fury of the assault took the Irishman by surprise. He staggered
+against the wall, and alarmed by the girl's shrieks, let the book go.
+By that time, however, Sophia had had enough of the struggle. The
+sight of the two locked in furious conflict horrified her, her grasp
+relaxed, she let the book fall; and as Hawkesworth, recovering from
+his surprise, gripped her brother's throat and by main force bent him
+backwards--the lad never ceasing to rain blows on the taller man's
+face and shoulders--she fled to the door, opened it, and screamed for
+help.
+
+Fortunately it was already on the road. Mr. Wollenhope, crying, "Lord,
+what is it? What is it?" was halfway up the stairs when she appeared,
+and close on his heels followed his wife, with a scared face. Sophia
+beckoned them to hasten, and wringing her hands, flew back. They
+followed.
+
+They found Hawkesworth dragging the boy about, and striving savagely
+to force him to the floor. As soon as he saw Wollenhope, he cried with
+fury, "Will some one take this mad dog off me? He has tried his best
+to murder me. If I had not been the stronger, he would have done it!"
+
+Wollenhope, panting with the haste he had made, seized Tom from behind
+and held him, while Hawkesworth disengaged himself. "You'll--you'll
+give me satisfaction for this!" the lad cried, gasping, and almost
+blubbering with rage. His wig was gone, so was his cravat; the ruffle
+of his shirt was torn from top to bottom.
+
+The other was busy readjusting his dress, and staunching the blood
+that flowed from a cut lip. "Satisfaction, you young booby?" he
+answered, with savage contempt. "Send you back to school and whip you!
+Turn 'em out, Wollenhope! Turn them both out! That devil's cub sprang
+on me and tried to strangle me. It's lucky for you, sir, I don't send
+you to Hicks's Hall!"
+
+"Oh, Lord, let's have none of that!" Wollenhope interposed hastily.
+"Mine's a respectable house, and there's been noise enough already. A
+little more and I shall be indicted. March, young sir, if you please.
+And you too, miss."
+
+Tom swelled with fresh rage. "Do you know who I am, fellow?" he cried.
+"I'd have you to know----"
+
+"I don't want to know!" Wollenhope rejoined, cutting him short. "I
+won't know! It's march--that's all I know. And quick, if you please,"
+he continued, trying to edge the lad out of the room.
+
+"But, William," his wife protested, and timidly touched his arm, "it's
+possible that they may not be in fault. I'm sure the young lady was
+very well spoken when she came."
+
+"None of your advice!" her husband retorted.
+
+"But, William----"
+
+"None of your advice, I say! Do you hear? Do you understand? This
+gentleman is our lodger. Who the others are, I don't know, nor care.
+And I don't want to know, that's more."
+
+"You'll smart for this!" Tom cried, getting in a word at last. He was
+almost bursting with chagrin and indignation. "I'd have you know, my
+fine fellow, I am Sir----"
+
+"I don't want to know," Wollenhope retorted, stubbornly. "I don't care
+who you are; and for smarting, perhaps I may. When you are sober, sir,
+we'll talk about it. In the meantime, this is my house, and you'll go,
+unless you want me to fetch the constable. And that mayn't be best for
+the young lady, who seems a young lady. I don't suppose she'll like to
+be taken to the Round house, nor run the risk of it. Take my advice,
+young sir, take my advice; and go quietly while you can."
+
+Tom, half-choked with rage, was for retorting, but Sophia, who had
+quite broken down and was weeping hysterically, clutched his arm. "Oh,
+come," she cried piteously, "please come!" And she tried to draw him
+towards the door.
+
+But the lad resisted. "You'll answer to me for this," he said,
+scowling at Hawkesworth, who remained in an attitude, eyeing the two
+with a smile of disdain. "You know where to find me, and I shall be at
+your service until to-morrow at noon."
+
+"I'll find you when you are grown up," the Irishman answered, with a
+mocking laugh. "Back to your books, boy, and be whipped for playing
+truant!"
+
+The taunt stung Tom to fresh fury. With a scream of rage he sprang
+forward, and, shaking off Wollenhope's grasp, tried to close with his
+enemy. But Sophia hung on him bravely, imploring him to be calm; and
+Wollenhope seized him again and held him back, while Mrs. Wollenhope
+supplied, for assistance, a chorus of shrieks. Between the three he
+was partly led and partly dragged to the door, and got outside. From
+the landing he hurled a last threat at the smiling Hawkesworth, now
+left master of the field; and then, with a little rough persuasion, he
+was induced to descend.
+
+In the passage he had a fresh fit of stubbornness, and wished to state
+his wrongs and who he was. But Sophia's heart was pitifully set on
+escaping from the house--to her a house of bitter shame and
+humiliation--and the landlord's desire was to see the last of them;
+and in a moment the two were outside. Wollenhope lost not a moment,
+but slammed the door on them; they heard the chain put up, and, an
+instant later, the man's retreating footsteps as he went back to his
+lodger.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+                            IN CLARGES BOW
+
+
+If Tom had been alone when he was thus ejected, it is probable
+that his first impulse would have been either to press his forehead
+against the wall and weep with rage, or to break the offender's
+windows--eighteen being an age at which the emotions are masters of
+the man. But the noise of the fracas within, though dulled by the
+walls, had reached the street. A window here and a window there stood
+open, and curious eyes, peering through the darkness, were on the two
+who had been put out. Tom was too angry to heed these on his own
+account, or care who was witness of his violence; but for Sophia's
+sake, whose state as she clung to his arm began to appeal to his
+manhood, he was willing to be gone without more.
+
+After shaking his fist at the door, therefore, and uttering a furious
+word or two, he pressed the weeping girl's hand to his side. "All
+right," he said, "we'll go. It'll not be long before I'm back again,
+and they'll be sorry! A houseful of cheats and bullies! There, there,
+child, I'll come. Don't cry," he continued, patting her hand with an
+air that, after the reverse he had suffered, was not without its
+grandeur. "I'll take care of you, never fear. I've rooms a little way
+round the corner, taken to-day, and you shall have my bed. It's too
+late to go to Arlington Street to-night."
+
+Sophia, sobbing and frightened, hung down her head, and did not
+answer; and Tom, forgetting in his wrath against Hawkesworth the cause
+he had to be angry with her, said nothing to increase her misery or
+aggravate her sense of the folly she had committed. His lodgings were
+in Clarges Row, a little north of Shepherd's Market, and almost
+within a stone's throw of Mayfair Chapel. Four minutes' walking
+brought the two to the house, where Tom rapped in a peculiar manner
+at the window-shutter; when this had been twice repeated, the door
+was opened grudgingly by a pale-faced, elderly man, bearing a lighted
+candle-end in his fingers.
+
+He muttered his surprise on seeing Tom, but made way for him,
+grumbling something about the late hour. When he saw the girl about to
+follow, however, he started, and seemed to be going to refuse her
+entrance. But Tom was of those who carry off by sheer force of
+arrogance a difficult situation. "My sister, Miss Maitland, is with
+me," he said. "She'll have my room to-night. Don't stare, fellow, but
+hold a light for the lady to go up."
+
+The man's reluctance was evident; but he let them enter, and barred
+the door after them. Then snuffing his candle with his fingers, he
+held it up and surveyed them. "By gole," he said, chuckling, "you
+don't look much like bride and bridegroom!"
+
+Tom stormed at him, but he only continued to grin. "You've been
+fighting!" he said.
+
+"Well what's that to you, you rogue!" the lad answered sharply. "Light
+the lady up, do you hear?"
+
+"To be sure! To be sure! But you'll be wanting a light in each room,"
+he continued with a cunning look, as he halted at the head of a narrow
+boarded staircase, up which he had preceded them. "That's over and
+above, you'll remember. Candles here and candles there, a man's soon
+ruined!"
+
+Tom bade him keep a civil tongue, and himself led the way into a
+quaint little three-cornered parlour, boarded like the staircase;
+beyond it was a bedroom of the same shape and size. The rooms had a
+small window apiece looking on the Row, and wore an air of snugness
+that would have appealed to Sophia had her eyes been open to anything
+but her troubles. Against the longer wall of the little parlour stood
+a couple of tall clocks; a third eked out the scanty furniture of the
+bedroom, and others, ticking with stealthy industry in the lower part
+of the house, whispered that it was a clock-maker's shop.
+
+Sophia cared not. She felt no curiosity. She put no questions, but
+accepted in silence the dispositions her brother made for her comfort.
+Bruised and broken, fatigued in body, with a sorely aching heart she
+took the room he gave her, sleep offering all she could now hope for
+or look for, sleep bounding all her ambitions. In sleep--and at that
+moment the girl would fain have lain down not to rise again--she hoped
+to find a refuge from trouble, a shelter from thought, a haven where
+shame could not enter. To one in suspense, in doubt, in expectation,
+bed is a rack, a place of torture; but when the blow has fallen, the
+lot been drawn, the dulled sensibilities sink to rest in it as
+naturally as a bird in the nest--and as quickly find repose.
+
+She slept as one stunned, but weak is the anodyne of a single night.
+She awoke in the morning, cured indeed of love by a radical operation,
+but still bleeding; still in fancy under the cruel knife, still
+writhing in remembered torture. To look forward, to avert her eyes
+from the past, was her sole hope; and speedily her mind grew clear;
+the future began to take shape. She would make use of Tom's good
+offices, and through him she would negotiate terms with her sister.
+She would not, could not, go back to Arlington Street! But any
+penance, short of that, she would undergo. If it pleased them she
+would go to Chalkhill; or in any other way that seemed good to them,
+she would expiate the foolish, and worse than foolish escapade of
+which she had been guilty. Life henceforth could be but a grey and
+joyless thing; provided she escaped the sneers and gibes of Arlington
+Street, she cared little where it was spent.
+
+She was anxious to broach the subject at breakfast; but, through a
+natural reluctance to open it, she postponed the discussion as long as
+she dared. It was not like Tom to be over careful of her feelings; but
+he, too, appeared to be equally unwilling to revert to past
+unpleasantness. He fidgeted and seemed preoccupied; he rose frequently
+and sat down again; more than once he went to the window and looked
+out. At last he rose impulsively and disappeared in the bedroom.
+
+By-and-by he returned. He was still in his morning cap and loose
+wrapper, but he carried a shirt over each arm. "Which ruffles do you
+like the better, Sophy?" he asked; and he displayed one after the
+other before her eyes. "Of course I'd like to look my best to-day," he
+added, shamefacedly.
+
+She stared at him, in perplexity at first, not understanding him; then
+in horror, as she discerned on a sudden what he meant. "To-day?" she
+faltered. "Why to-day, Tom, more than on other days?"
+
+His face fell. "Is't odd," he said, "to want to look one's best to be
+married? At any rate, I never thought so. Until yesterday," he added
+with a glance at her dress.
+
+She was sitting on the narrow window-seat; she stood up, her back to
+the window. "To be married?" she exclaimed. "Oh, Tom! It is
+impossible--impossible you intend to go on with it, after all you have
+heard!"
+
+His face grew darker and more sullen. "At any rate I am not going
+to marry Hawkesworth!" he sneered. And then as she winced under the
+cruel stroke he repented of it. "I only mean," he said hurriedly,
+"that--that I don't see what he and his villainy have to do with my
+marriage."
+
+"But, oh, Tom, it is all one!" Sophia cried, clasping her hands
+nervously. "He was with--with her, when you met her. I heard you say
+so last night. I heard you say that if it had not been for him you
+would never have seen her, or known her."
+
+"Weil!" Tom answered. "And what of that? If her chaise had not broken
+down, I should never have seen her, or known her. That is true, too.
+But what has that to do with it, I'd like to know?"
+
+"He planned it!"
+
+"He could not plan my falling in love," Tom answered, stroking his
+chin fatuously.
+
+"But if you had seen the book," Sophia retorted, "the book he snatched
+from me, you would have seen it written there! His plan was to procure
+you to be married first. You know you forfeit ten thousand pounds to
+me, Tom, and ten to Anne, if you marry without your guardian's
+consent?"
+
+"Hang them and the ten thousand!" Tom cried grandly. "Lord, miss, I've
+plenty left! You are welcome to it, and so is sister. As for their
+consent, they'd not give it till I was Methuselah!"
+
+"But surely you're not that yet!" she pleaded. "Nor near! You are only
+eighteen."
+
+"Well, and what are you?" he retorted. "And you were for being married
+yesterday!"
+
+"I was!" she cried, wringing her hands. "And to what a fate! I am
+unhappy to-day, unhappy, indeed; but I shall be thankful all my life
+that I escaped that! Oh, Tom, for my sake take care! Don't do it!
+Don't do it! Wait, at least, until----"
+
+"Till I am Methuselah?" he cried. "It's likely!"
+
+"No, but until you have taken advice!" she answered. "Till you know
+more about her. Tom, don't be angry," Sophia pleaded, as he turned
+away with an impatient gesture. "Or if you will not be guided, tell
+me, at least, who she is. I am your sister, surely I have the right to
+know who is to be your wife?"
+
+"I am sure I don't mind your knowing!"
+
+"I have only your interests at heart," she cried.
+
+"I have no reason to be ashamed of her, I am sure," he answered,
+colouring. "Though I don't know that she is altogether one of your
+sort. She is the most beautiful woman in the world that I know! And so
+you will say when you see her!" he added, his eyes sparkling. "She has
+as much wit in her little finger as I have in my head. And you'll find
+that out, too. She don't look at most people, but she took to me at
+once. It seems wonderful to me now," he continued rapturously.
+"Wonderful! But you should see her! You must see her! You can't fancy
+what she is until you see her!"
+
+It was on the tip of Sophia's tongue to ask, "But is she good?" Like
+a wise girl, however, she refrained; or rather she put the question
+in another form. "Her name," she said timidly; "is it by any
+chance--Oriana?"
+
+Tom was pacing the room, his back to her, his thoughts occupied with
+his mistress's charms. He whirled about so rapidly that the tassels of
+his morning wrapper--at that period the only wear of a gentleman until
+he dressed for the day--flew out level with the horizon. "How did you
+know?" he cried, his face flushed, his eyes reading her suspiciously.
+"Who told you?"
+
+"Because I read that name in the book," Sophia answered, her worst
+fears confirmed. "Because----"
+
+"Did you see Oriana only, or her full name?"
+
+"What is her full name?"
+
+"You don't know? Then you cannot have seen it in the book!" Tom
+retorted triumphantly. "But I am not ashamed of it. Her name is
+Clark."
+
+"Clark? Oriana Clark?" Sophia repeated. And she wondered where she had
+heard the name. Why did it seem familiar to her?
+
+"What does her name matter?" Tom answered irritably. "It will be Lady
+Maitland by night."
+
+"She's a widow?" Sophia asked. She did not know how she knew.
+
+Tom scowled. "Well, and what if she is?" he cried. "What was her
+husband, Tom? I suppose she had a husband?"
+
+"Look here, take care what you are saying!" Tom returned, with an ugly
+look. "Don't be too free with your tongue, miss. Her husband, if you
+must know, was a--a Captain Clark of--of Sabine's foot, I think it
+was. He was a man of the first fashion, so that's all you know about
+it! But he treated her badly, spent all her money, you know, and--and
+when he died," Tom added vaguely, "she had to look out for herself,
+you understand."
+
+"But she must be years and years older than you!" Sophia answered,
+opening her eyes. "And a widow! Oh, Tom, think of it! Think of it
+again! And be guided! Wait at least until you know more about it," she
+pleaded earnestly, "and have learned what life she has led, and----"
+
+But Tom would hear no more. "Wait?" he cried rudely. "You're a nice
+person to give that advice! You were for waiting, of course, and doing
+what you were told. And what life she has led? I tell you what it is,
+miss; I kept my mouth shut last night, but I might have said a good
+deal! Who got us into the trouble? What were you doing in his room?
+The less you say and the quieter you keep, the better for all, I
+think! A man's one thing but a girl's another, and she should do what
+she's bid and take care of herself, and not run the risk of shaming
+her family!"
+
+"Oh, Tom!"
+
+"Oh, ifs every word true!" the lad answered cruelly. "And less than
+you deserve, ma'am! Wait till sister sees you, and you'll hear more.
+Now, cry, cry, that's like a girl!" he continued contemptuously. "All
+the same a little plain truth will do you good, miss, and teach you
+not to meddle. But I suppose women will scratch women as long as the
+world lasts!"
+
+"Oh, Tom, it is not that!" Sophia cried between her sobs. "I've
+behaved badly, if you please. As badly as you please! But take me for
+a warning. I thought--I thought him all you think her!"
+
+"Oh, d----n!" Tom cried, and flung away in a rage, went into the
+bedroom and slammed the door. Sophia heard him turn the key, and a
+minute later, when she had a little recovered herself, she heard him
+moving to and fro in the room. He was dressing. He had not, then,
+changed his mind.
+
+She waited awhile, trying to believe that her words might still
+produce some effect. But he made no sign, he did not emerge. Presently
+she caught the rustle of his garments as he changed his clothes; and
+in a fever of anxiety she began to pace the room. Nature has provided
+no cure for trouble more wholesome or more powerful than a generous
+interest in another's fate. Gone was the apathy, gone were the dulness
+of soul and the greyness of outlook with which Sophia had risen from
+her bed. Convinced of the villainy of the man who had nearly snared
+her, she foresaw nothing but ruin in an alliance between her brother
+and a person who was connected, ever so remotely, with him. Nor did
+the case rest on this only; or on Tom's youth; or on the secrecy of
+the marriage. Oriana was the name she had spelt in the book, the name
+of one of the women suggested in Hawkesworth's sordid calculations. No
+wonder Sophia shrank from thinking what manner of woman she was, or
+what her qualifications for a part in the play. It was enough that she
+knew Hawkesworth, and was known by him.
+
+The cruel lesson which she had learned in her own person, the glimpse
+she had had of the abyss into which her levity had all but cast her,
+even the gratitude in which she held the brother who had protected
+her, rendered her feelings trebly poignant now; her view of the case
+trebly serious. To see the one relation she loved falling into the pit
+which she had escaped, and to be unable to save him; to know him
+committed to this fatal step, and to foresee that his whole life would
+be blasted by it, these prospects awoke no less pity in her breast,
+because her eyes were open to-day to her madness of yesterday.
+Something, something must be done for him; something, but what?
+
+Often through the gloom of reflections, alien from them, shoot strange
+flashes of memory. "Oriana? Oriana Clark?" Sophia muttered, and she
+stood still, remembered. Oriana Clark! Surely that was the name of the
+woman in whose stead she had been arrested, the woman whose name the
+bailiff had read from the writ in Lane's shop. Sophia had only heard
+the name once, and the press of after events and crowding emotions had
+driven it for the time into a side cell of the brain, whence it now as
+suddenly emerged. Her eyes sparkled with hope. Here, at last, was a
+fact, here was something on which she could go. She stepped to Tom's
+door, and rapped sharply on it.
+
+"Well?" he called sourly. "What is it?"
+
+"Please, come out!" she cried eagerly. "I have something to tell you.
+I have, indeed!"
+
+"Can't come now," he answered. "I'm in a hurry."
+
+It seemed he was; or he wished to avoid further discussion, for when
+he appeared a few minutes later--long minutes to Sophia, waiting and
+listening in the outer room--he snatched up his hat and malacca and
+made for the door. "I can't stop now," he cried, and he waived her off
+as he raised the latch. "I shall be back in an hour--in an hour, and
+if you like to behave yourself, you--you may be at it. Though you re
+not very fine, I'm bound to say!" he concluded with a grudging glance.
+Doubtless he was comparing her draggled sacque and unpowdered hair
+with the anticipated splendours of his bride. He was so fine himself,
+he seemed to fill the little room with light.
+
+"Oh, but, Tom, one minute!" she cried, following him and seizing his
+arm. "Have a little patience, I only want to tell you one thing."
+
+"Well, be quick about it," he answered, ungraciously, his hand still
+on the latch. "And whatever you do, miss, keep your tongue off her, or
+it will be the worse for you. I'll not have my wife miscalled," he
+continued, looking grand, and a trifle sulky, "as you'll have to
+learn, my lady."
+
+"But she is not your wife yet," Sophia protested earnestly. "And, Tom,
+she only wants you to pay her debts. She only wants a husband to pay
+her debts. She was arrested yesterday."
+
+"Arrested!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," Sophia answered; and then, beginning to flounder, "at least, I
+mean," she stammered, "I was arrested--in her place. That is to say,
+on a writ against her."
+
+"You were arrested on a writ against her!" Tom cried again. "On a writ
+against Oriana? You must be mad! Mad, girl! Why, you've never seen her
+in your life. You did not know her name!" He had not heard, it will be
+remembered, a word of her adventures on the way to Davies Street, and
+the statement she had just made seemed to him the wanton falsehood of
+a foolish girl bent on mischief. "Oh, this is too bad!" he continued,
+shaking her off in a rage. "How dare you, you little vixen? You
+cowardly little liar!" he added, pale with anger. And he raised his
+hand as if he would strike her.
+
+She recoiled. "Don't hurt me, Tom," she cried.
+
+"I'll not! but--but you deserve it, you little snake!" he retorted.
+"You are bad! You are bad right through!" he continued from a height
+of righteous indignation. "What you did yesterday was nothing in
+comparison to this! You let me hear another word against her, make up
+another of your lies, and you are no sister of mine! That's all! So
+now you know, and if you are wise you will not try it again!"
+
+As he uttered the last word Tom jerked up the latch, and strode out;
+but only to come into violent collision, at the head of the stairs,
+with his landlord; who appeared to be getting up from his knees. "Hang
+you, Grocott, what the deuce are you doing here?" the lad cried,
+backing from him in a rage.
+
+"Cleaning the stairs, your honour," the man pleaded.
+
+"You rascal, I believe you were listening!" Tom retorted. "Is the room
+below stairs ready? We go at noon, mark me, and shall be back to dine
+at one."
+
+"To be sure, sir, all will be ready. Does the lady come here first?"
+
+"Yes. Have the cold meats come from the White Horse?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And the Burgundy from Pontack's?"
+
+"Yes, your honour."
+
+Tom nodded his satisfaction, and, his temper a little improved,
+stalked down the stairs. Sophia, who had heard every word, ran to the
+window and saw him cross Clarges Row in the direction of Shepherd's
+Market. Probably he was gone to assure himself that the clergyman was
+at home, and ready to perform the ceremony.
+
+The girl watched him out of sight; then she dried her tears. "I
+mustn't cry!" she murmured. "I must do something! I must do
+something!"
+
+But there was only one thing she could do, and that was a thing that
+would cost her dear. Only by returning to Arlington Street, at once,
+that moment, and giving information, could she prevent the marriage.
+Mr. Northey was Tom's guardian; he had the power, and though he had
+shirked his duty while the thing was _in nubibus_, he would not dare
+to stand by when time and place, the house and the hour were pointed
+out to him. In less than ten minutes she could be with him; in half as
+many the facts could be made known. Long before the hour elapsed Mr.
+Northey might be in Clarges Row, or, if he preferred it, at Dr.
+Keith's chapel, ready to forbid the marriage.
+
+The thing was possible, nay it was easy; and it would withhold Tom
+from a step which he must repent all his life. But it entailed the one
+penance from which she was anxious to be saved, the one penalty from
+which her wounded pride shrank, as the bleeding stump shrinks from the
+cautery. To execute it she must return to Arlington Street; she must
+return into her sister's power, to the domination of Mrs. Martha, and
+the daily endurance, not only of many an ignoble slight, but of coarse
+jests and gibes and worse insinuations. An hour earlier she had
+conceived the hope of escaping this, either through Tom's mediation,
+or by a voluntary retreat to Chalkhill. Now she had to choose this or
+his ruin.
+
+She did not hesitate. Even in her folly of the previous day, even in
+her reckless self-abandonment to a silly passion, Sophia had not
+lacked the qualities that make for sacrifice--courage, generosity,
+staunchness. Here was room for their display in a better cause, and
+without a moment's delay, undeterred by the reflection that far from
+earning Tom's gratitude, she would alienate her only friend, she
+hurried into the bedroom and donned Lady Betty's laced jacket and
+Tuscan. With a moan on her own account, a pitiful smile on his, she
+put them on; and then paused, remembering with horror that she must
+pass through the streets in that guise. It had done well enough at
+night, but in the day the misfit was frightful. Not even for Tom could
+she walk through Berkeley Square and Portugal Street, the figure it
+made her. She must have a chair.
+
+She opened the door and was overjoyed to find that the landlord was
+still on the stairs. "Will you please to get me a chair," she said
+eagerly. "At once, without the loss of a minute."
+
+The man looked at her stupidly, his heavy lower lip dropped and
+flaccid; his fat, whitish face evinced a sort of consternation. "A
+chair?" he repeated slowly. "Certainly. But if your ladyship is going
+any distance, would not a coach be better?"
+
+"No, I am only going as far as Arlington Street," Sophia answered, off
+her guard for the moment. "Still, a coach will do if you cannot get a
+chair. I have not a moment to lose."
+
+"To be sure, ma'am, to be sure," he answered, staring at her heavily.
+"A chair you'll have then?"
+
+"Yes, and at once! At once, you understand."
+
+"If you are in a hurry, maybe there is one below," he said, making as
+if he would enter the room and look from the windows. "Sometimes there
+is."
+
+"If there were," she retorted, irritated by his slowness, "I should
+not have asked you to get one. I suppose you know what a chair is?"
+she continued. For the man stood looking at her so dully and strangely
+that she began to think he was a natural.
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered, his eyes twinkling with sudden intelligence,
+as if at the notion. "I know a chair, and I'd have had one for you by
+now. But, by gole, I've no one to leave with the child, in case it
+awakes."
+
+"The child?" Sophia cried, quite startled. The presence of a child in
+a house is no secret as a rule.
+
+"'Tis here," he said, indicating a door that stood ajar at his elbow.
+"On the bed in the inner room, ma'am. I'm doing the stairs to be near
+it."
+
+"Is it a baby?" Sophia cried. "To be sure. What else?"
+
+"I'll stay with it, then," she said. "May I look at it? And will you
+get the chair for me, while I watch it?"
+
+"To be sure, ma'am! 'Tis here," he continued, as he pushed the door
+open, and led the way through a tiny room; the outer of two that,
+looking to the back, corresponded with Tom's apartments at the front.
+He pushed open the door of the inner room, the floor of which was a
+step higher. "If you'll see to it while I am away, ma'am, and not be
+out of hearing?"
+
+"I will," Sophia said softly. "Is it yours?"
+
+"No, my daughter's."
+
+Sophia tip-toed across the floor to the bed side. The room was poorly
+lighted by a window, which was partially blocked by a water-cistern;
+the bed stood in the dark corner beside the window; Sophia, turning up
+her nose at the close air of the room, hesitated for an instant to
+touch the dirty, tumbled bed-clothes. She could not see the child.
+"Where is it?" she asked, stooping to look more closely.
+
+The answer was the dull jar of the door as it closed behind her; a
+sound that was followed by the click of a bolt driven home in the
+socket. She turned swiftly, her heart standing still, her brain
+already apprised of treachery. The man was gone.
+
+Sophia made but one bound to the threshold, lifted the latch, and
+threw her weight against the door. It was fastened.
+
+"Open!" she cried, enraged at the trick which had been played her. "Do
+you hear me? Open the door this minute!" she repeated, striking it
+furiously with her hands. "What do you mean? How dare you shut me in?"
+
+This time the only response was the low chuckling laugh of the
+clock-maker as he turned away. She heard the stealthy fall of his
+footsteps as he went through the outer room; then the grating of the
+key, as he locked the farther door behind him. Then--silence.
+
+"Tom!" Sophia shrieked, kicking the door, and pounding it with her
+little fists. "Tom, help! help, Tom!" And then, as she realised how
+she had been trapped, "Oh, poor Tom!" she sobbed. "Poor Tom! I can do
+nothing now!"
+
+While Grocott, listening on the stairs, chuckled grimly. "You thought
+you were going to stop my girl's marriage, did you?" he muttered,
+shaking his fist in the direction of the sounds. "You thought you'd
+stop her being my lady, did you? Stop her now if you can, my little
+madam. I have you like a mouse in a trap; and when you are cooler, my
+Lady Maitland shall let you out. My lady, ha! ha! What a sound it has.
+My Lady Maitland!"
+
+Then reflecting that Hawkesworth, whom he hated, and had cause to
+hate, had placed this triumph in his grasp--and would now, as things
+had turned out, get nothing by it--he shook with savage laughter.
+"Lady Maitland!" he chuckled. "Ho! ho! And he gets--the shells! The
+shells, ho! ho!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X
+
+                      SIR HERVEY TAKES THE FIELD
+
+
+In his rooms at the corner house between Portugal Street and Bolton
+Street, so placed that by glancing a trifle on one side of the oval
+mirror before him he could see the Queen's Walk and the sloping
+pastures of the Green Park, Sir Hervey Coke was being shaved. A pile
+of loose gold which lay on the dressing-table indicated that the
+evening at White's had not been unpropitious. An empty chocolate cup
+and half-eaten roll stood beside the money, and, with Sir Hervey's
+turban-cap and embroidered gown, indicated that the baronet, who in
+the country broke his fast on beef and small beer, and began the day
+booted, followed, in town, town fashions. To-day, however, early as it
+was--barely ten--his wig hung freshly curled on the stand, and a
+snuff-coloured coat and long-flapped waistcoat, plainly laced, were
+airing at the fire; signs that he intended to be abroad betimes, and
+on business.
+
+Perhaps the business had to do with an open letter in his lap, at
+which the man who was shaving him cocked his eye inquisitively between
+strokes. Or perhaps not, for Sir Hervey did not seem to heed this
+curiosity; but the valet had before had reason--and was presently to
+have fresh reason--to know that his taciturn master saw more than he
+had the air of seeing.
+
+Suddenly Sir Hervey raised his hand. Watkyns, the valet, stood back.
+"Bring it me!" Coke said.
+
+The man had heard without hearing, as he now understood without
+explanation. He went softly to the door, received a note, and brought
+it to his master.
+
+"An answer?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then finish."
+
+The valet did so. When he had removed the napkin, Sir Hervey broke the
+seal, and, after reading three or four lines of the letter, raised his
+eyes to the mirror. He met the servant's prying gaze, and abruptly
+crumpled the paper in his hand. Then, "Watkyns," he said, in his
+quietest tone.
+
+"Sir?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "ABOUT THE TWO GUINEAS--YOU STOLE THIS MORNING ..."]
+
+
+"About the two guineas you--stole this morning. For this time you may
+keep them; but in the future kindly remember two things."
+
+The razor the man was cleaning fell to the floor. His face was a
+sickly white; his knees shook under him. He tried to frame words, to
+deny, to say something, but in vain. He was speechless.
+
+"Firstly," Coke continued blandly, "that I count the money I bring
+home--at irregular intervals. Secondly, that two guineas is a larger
+sum than forty shillings. Another time, Watkyns, I would take less
+than forty shillings. You will understand why. That is all."
+
+The man, still pale and trembling, found his tongue. "Oh, sir!" he
+cried, "I swear, if you'll--if you'll forgive me----"
+
+Coke stopped him. "That is all," he said, "that is all. The matter is
+at an end. Pick that up, go downstairs, and return in five minutes."
+
+When the man was gone, Sir Hervey smoothed the paper, and, with a face
+that grew darker and darker as he proceeded, read the contents of the
+letter from beginning to end. They were these:--
+
+
+"Dear Sir,
+
+"The honour you intended my family by an alliance with a person so
+nearly related to us as Miss Maitland renders it incumbent on me to
+inform you with the least possible delay of the unfortunate event
+which has happened in our household, an event which, I need not say, I
+regret on no account more than because it must deprive us of the
+advantage we rightly looked to derive from that connection. At a late
+hour last evening the misguided (and I fear I must call her the
+unfortunate) girl, whom you distinguished by so particular a mark of
+your esteem, left the shelter of her home, it is now certain, to seek
+the protection of a lover.
+
+"While the least doubt on this point remained, I believed myself
+justified in keeping the matter even from you, but I have this morning
+learned from a sure source--Lane, the mercer, in Piccadilly--that she
+was set down about nine o'clock last night at a house in Davies
+Street, kept by a man of the name of Wollenhope, and the
+residence--alas, that I should have to say it!--of the infamous
+Irishman whose attentions to her at one time attracted your notice.
+
+"You will readily understand that from the moment we were certified of
+this we ceased to regard her as a part of our family; a choice so
+ill-regulated can proceed only from a mind naturally inclined to vice.
+Resentment on your account no less than a proper care of our
+household, dictates this course, nor will any repentance on her part,
+nor any of those misfortunes to which as I apprehend her misconduct
+will surely expose her, prevail on us to depart from it.
+
+"Forgive me, dear sir, if, under the crushing weight of this
+deplorable matter, I confine myself to the bare fact and its
+consequence, adding only the expression of our profound regret and
+consideration.
+
+"I have the honour to remain,
+
+                           "Dear sir,
+
+             "Your most obedient, humble servant,
+
+                                     "J. NORTHEY."
+
+
+"A d----d cold-blooded fish!" Sir Hervey muttered when he had
+finished, and he cast the letter on the table with a gesture of
+disgust. Then he sat motionless for several minutes, gazing at
+nothing, with a strange expression of pain in his eyes. Perhaps he was
+thinking of the old mansion in Sussex, standing silent and lonely in
+its widespread park, awaiting--still awaiting, a mistress. Perhaps of
+plans late made, soon wrecked, yet no less cherished. Perhaps of a
+pale young face wide-browed and wilful, with eyes more swift to blame
+than praise; eyes which he had seen seeking--seeking pathetically
+they knew not what. Or perhaps he was thinking of the notorious Lady
+Vane--of what she had been once, of what Sophia might be some day. For
+he swore softly, and the look of pain deepened in his eyes. And then
+Watkyns returned.
+
+Sir Hervey stood up. "You'll go to Wollenhope's," he said without
+preface. "Wollenhope's, in Davies Street, and learn--you'll know
+how--whether the young lady who alighted there last night from a chair
+or coach is still there. And whether a person of the name of
+Hawkesworth is there. And whether he is at home. You will not tell my
+name. You understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You've half an hour."
+
+The man slid out of the room, his face wearing a look of relief,
+almost of elation. It was true then. He was forgiven!
+
+After that Coke walked up and down, his watch in his hand, until the
+valet returned. In the interval he spoke once only. "She is but a
+child!" he muttered, "she's but a child!" and he followed it with a
+second oath. When his man returned, "Well?" he said, without looking
+round.
+
+"The young lady is not there, sir," Watkyns replied. "She arrived at
+eight last evening in a chair, and left a little after nine with a
+young gentleman."
+
+"The person Hawkesworth?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"No?" Sir Hervey turned as he spoke, and looked at him.
+
+"No, sir. Who it was the landlord of the house did not know or would
+not tell me. He was not in the best of tempers, and I could get no
+more from him. He told me that the young gentleman came in with his
+lodger about a quarter to nine."
+
+"With Hawkesworth?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and found the young lady waiting for them. That the two
+gentlemen quarrelled almost immediately, and that the young lady went
+off with the young gentleman. Who was very young, sir, not much more
+than a boy."
+
+"What address?"
+
+"I could not learn, sir."
+
+"Watkyns!"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You may take two guineas."
+
+The man hesitated, his face scarlet. "If you please, sir," he
+muttered, "I'll consider I have them."
+
+"Very good. I understand you. Now dress me."
+
+It took about five minutes, as London then lay, to walk from Bolton
+Street to Davies Street, by way of Bolton Bow and Berkeley Square. At
+that hour, it was too early for fine gentlemen of Sir Hervey's stamp
+to be abroad, and fine ladies were still abed, so that he fell in with
+no acquaintances. He had ascertained from Watkyns in what part of the
+street Wollenhope's house was situate, and, well within the prescribed
+space of time, he found himself knocking at the door. It was opened
+pretty promptly by Mrs. Wollenhope.
+
+"Does Mr. Hawkesworth lodge here?" Sir Hervey asked, without preamble.
+
+"Yes, sir, he does," the good woman answered, curtseying low at the
+sight of his feathered hat and laced waistcoat; and instinctively she
+looked up and down the street in search of his chair or coach. "But he
+is out at present," she continued, her eyes returning to him. "He left
+the house about half an hour ago, your honour."
+
+"Can you tell me where he may be found?"
+
+"No, sir, I have no notion," Mrs. Wollenhope answered, wiping her
+hands on her apron.
+
+"Still," Sir Hervey rejoined, "you can, perhaps, tell me the name of
+the young gentleman who was here last evening and took a lady away."
+
+Mrs. Wollenhope raised her hands. "There!" she exclaimed. "I said we
+should hear of it again! Not that we are to blame, no, sir, no! Except
+in the way of saving bloodshed! And as for the name, I don't know it.
+But the address now," dropping her voice and looking nervously behind
+her, "the young gentleman did give an address, and----" with a sudden
+change of manner. "Are these with you, sir?"
+
+Coke, following the direction of her gaze, turned about, and found two
+rough-looking men standing at his elbow. "No," he said, "they are not.
+What do you want, my men?"
+
+"Lord, your honour, no hurry, we can wait till you've done," the
+foremost answered, tugging obsequiously at the uncocked flap of his
+hat; while his companion sucked his stick and stared. "Or after all,
+what's the odds? Time's money, and there's many go in front of us
+would rather see our backs! Is the lady that came last night in the
+house, mistress?"
+
+Sir Hervey stared, while Mrs. Wollenhope eyed the speaker with great
+disfavour. "No," she said, "if that's what you want, she is not!"
+
+The man slowly expectorated on the ground. "Oh," he said, "that being
+the case, when did she leave? No harm in telling that, mistress!"
+
+"She left within the hour," Mrs. Wollenhope snapped. "And that's all
+I'll tell you about her, so there! And take yourself off, please!"
+
+"If the matter of half a crown, now----?"
+
+Mrs. Wollenhope shook her head vigorously. "No!" she cried. "No! I
+don't sell my lodgers. I know your trade, my man, and you'll get
+nothing from me."
+
+The bailiff grinned and nodded. "All right," he said. "No need to grow
+warm! Easy does it. She gave us the slip yesterday, but we're bound to
+nab her by-and-by. We knew she was coming here, and if we'd waited
+here yesterday instead of at the coach office, we'd have took her.
+Come, Trigg, we'll to the Blue Posts; if she's had a coach or a chair
+we'll hear of it there!" And with a "No offence, your honour!" and a
+clumsy salute, the two catchpolls lounged away, the one a pace behind
+the other, his knobby stick still in his mouth, and his sharp eyes
+everywhere.
+
+Coke watched them go, and a more talkative man would have expressed
+his astonishment. He fancied that he knew all that was to be known of
+Sophia's mode of life. She might have spent a little more than her
+allowance at Margam's or Lane's, might have been tempted by lace at
+Doiley's, or ribbons at the New Exchange. But a writ and bailiffs? The
+thing was absurd, and for a good reason. Mr. Northey was rich, yet not
+so rich as he was penurious; the tradesman did not exist, who would
+not trust, to the extent of his purse, any member of that family. Coke
+was certain of this; and that there was something here which he did
+not understand. But all he said was "They are bailiffs, are they?"
+
+"For sure, sir," Mrs. Wollenhope answered. "I've a neighbour knows one
+by sight. All day yesterday they were hanging about the door, probing
+if the young lady was come. 'Twas on that account she surprised me,
+for I'd been led to look for a fine spendthrift madam, and when she
+came--Lord ha' mercy, my husband's coming down! If you want the
+address," she continued in a lower tone, as Wollenhope appeared at the
+foot of the stairs, "'twas in Clarges Row, at Grocott's."
+
+"Thank you," Coke said.
+
+"Grocott's," she repeated in a whisper. Then in a louder tone, "No,
+sir, I can't say when he will be at home."
+
+"Thank you," Sir Hervey said; and having got what he wanted he did not
+stay to waste time with the man, but made the best of his way to
+Charles Street, into which the north end of Clarges Row, now Clarges
+Street, opened at that date. Deeply engaged with the paramount
+question in his mind, the identity of the young man in whose company
+Sophia had left Hawkesworth's lodgings, he forgot the bailiffs; and it
+was with some annoyance that, on reaching the Row, he espied one of
+them lurking in a doorway in Charles Street. It was so plain that they
+were watching him that Sir Hervey lost patience, turned, and made
+towards the man to question him. But the fellow also turned on his
+heel, and retreating with an eye over his shoulder, disappeared in the
+square. To follow was to be led from the scent; Coke wheeled again,
+therefore, and meeting a potboy who knew the street, he was directed
+to Grocott's. The house the lad pointed out was one of the oldest in
+the Row; a small house of brick, the last on the east side going
+north. Sir Hervey scanned the five windows that faced the street, but
+they told him nothing. He knocked--and waited. And presently, getting
+no answer, he knocked again. And again--the pot-boy looking on from a
+little distance.
+
+After that Coke stood back, saw that the windows were still without
+sign of life, and would have gone away--thinking to return in an hour
+or two--but a woman came to the door of the next house, and told him,
+"the old man is at home, your honour; it is not ten minutes since he
+was at the door." On which he knocked again more loudly and
+insistently. Suspicions were taking shape in his mind. The house
+seemed too quiet to be innocent.
+
+He had his hand raised to repeat the summons once more, when he heard
+a dragging, pottering step moving along the passage towards him. A
+chain was put up, a key turned, the door was opened a little, a very
+little way. A pale, fat face, with small, cunning eyes, peered out at
+him. Unless he was mistaken, it was the face of a frightened man.
+
+"I want to see Miss Maitland," Sir Hervey said.
+
+"To be sure, sir," the man answered, while his small eyes scanned the
+visitor sharply. "Is it about a clock?"
+
+"No," Coke answered. "Are you deaf, man? I wish to see the young lady
+who is here; who came last night."
+
+"You're very welcome, I am sure, but there is no young lady here, your
+honour."
+
+Sir Hervey did not believe it. The man's sly face, masking fear under
+a smirk, inspired no confidence; this talking over a chain, at that
+hour, in the daylight, of itself imported something strange.
+Apparently Grocott--for he it was--read the last thought in his
+visitor's eyes, for he dropped the chain and opened the door. "Was it
+about a clock," he asked, the hand that held the door trembling
+visibly, "that the lady came?"
+
+"No," Sir Hervey answered curtly; he was not deceived by this apparent
+obtuseness. "I wish, I tell you, to see the young lady who came here
+with a gentleman last night. She came here from Davies Street."
+
+"There is a lady here," the clock-maker answered, slowly. "But I don't
+know that she will see any one."
+
+"She will see me," Coke replied with decision. "You don't want me to
+summon her friends, and cause a scandal, I suppose?"
+
+"Well, sir, for her friends," Grocott answered, smiling unpleasantly,
+"I know nothing about them, begging your honour's pardon. And, it is
+all one to me whom she sees. If you'll give me your name, sir, I'll
+take it to her."
+
+"Sir Hervey Coke."
+
+"Dear, dear, I beg your honour's pardon, I am sure," Grocott
+exclaimed, bowing and wriggling obsequiously. "It's not to be thought
+that she'll not see a gentleman of your honour's condition. But I'll
+take her pleasure if you'll be so good as to wait a minute."
+
+He left Coke standing on the threshold, and retreated up the passage
+to the door of a room on the left. Here he went in, closing the door
+after him. Sir Hervey waited until he was out of sight, then in three
+strides he reached the same door, lifted the latch, and entered.
+
+"'Twill take him finely, Sal!"
+
+The words were in the air--they were all he caught, then silence; and
+he stood staring. Abrupt as had been his entrance, he was the most
+completely surprised of the three. For the third in the room, the lady
+to whom Grocott's words were addressed, was not Sophia, but a
+stranger; a tall, handsome woman, with big black eyes, fashionably
+dressed and fashionably painted. The surprise drew from her a hasty
+exclamation; she rose, her eyes sparkling with anger. Then, as Sir
+Hervey, recovering from his astonishment, bowed politely, she sat down
+again with an assumption of fineness and languor. And, taking a fan,
+she began to fan herself.
+
+"A thousand pardons, madam," Coke said. "I owe you every apology. I
+came in under a misapprehension. I expected to find a friend here."
+
+"That's very evident, I think, sir!" madam replied, tossing her head.
+"And one you were in a hurry to see, I should fancy."
+
+"Yes," Sir Hervey answered. He noted that the table, laid with more
+elegance than was to be expected from Grocott's appearance, displayed
+a couple of chickens, pigeons, and a galantine, besides a pretty
+supply of bottles and flasks. "I trust you will pardon my mistake. I
+was informed that a young lady came here last evening with a
+gentleman."
+
+Madam flamed up. "And what, sir, is it to you if I did!" she cried.
+And she rose sharply.
+
+"Your pardon! I did not mean----"
+
+"I say, sir, what is it to you if I did?" she repeated in a tone of
+the utmost resentment. "If I did come from Davies Street, and come
+here? I don't remember to have met you before, and I fail to see what
+ground you had for following me or for watching my movements. I am
+sure I never gave you any, and I am not used to impertinence. For the
+rest, I am expecting some friends--Grocott?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Show this gentleman out. Or--or perhaps I am hasty," she continued,
+in a lower tone and with an abrupt return of good nature. "The last
+thing I should wish to be to any gentleman," with a glance from a pair
+of handsome eyes. "If I have met you at any time--at my Lady Bellamy's
+perhaps, sir?"
+
+"No, ma'am, I think not."
+
+"Or at that good-natured creature, Conyers'--dear delightful woman;
+you know her, I am sure?"
+
+"No," Coke said, bluntly, "I have not the honour of her ladyship's
+acquaintance; and I don't think I need trouble you farther. If there
+is no one else in the house, it is evident I have made a mistake. I
+offer my apologies, ma'am, regretting extremely that I trespassed on
+you."
+
+"I occupy the only rooms," she answered drily. "And--Grocott, if the
+gentleman is quite satisfied--the door please! And send my woman to
+me."
+
+Sir Hervey bowed, muttered a last word of apology, and with a look
+round the room, which brought to light nothing new except a handsome
+mail that stood packed and strapped in a corner, he passed out. After
+all, his discovery explained the appearance of the bailiffs outside
+Wollenhope's. The over-dressed air and easy manners of the lady he had
+seen were those of one not given to economy, nor, probably, too
+particular as to ways and means. It accounted, also, for the lady's
+departure from Davies Street immediately after her arrival. Clearly
+Lane had misinformed the Northeys. It was not Sophia who had gone to
+the house in Davies Street; nor Sophia who had left that house in a
+gentleman's company. Then where was she?
+
+As he paused in the passage revolving the question and seeking half a
+crown to give to the man whom he had suspected without reason, a dull
+sound as of a muffled hammer beating wood caught his ear. He had heard
+it indistinctly in the parlour--it appeared to come from the upper
+floor; but he had given no heed to it. "What's that?" he asked, idly,
+as he drew out a coin.
+
+"That noise, your honour?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"My journeyman. Perhaps you'd like to see him," Grocott continued with
+a malicious grin. "May be he's the young lady you're looking for. Oh,
+make yourself at home, sir," he added bitterly. "A poor man mustn't
+grumble if his house isn't his own and his lodgers are insulted."
+
+"Here," Coke said, and dropping the half-crown into the dirty hand
+extended for it, he passed out. Instantly the door clanged behind him,
+the chain was put up, a bolt was shot; but although Sir Hervey stood a
+moment uncertain which way he should go, or what he should do next, he
+did not notice these extreme precautions, nor the pale, ugly face of
+triumph that watched him from the window as he turned south to go to
+Arlington Street.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+                            THE TUG OF WAR
+
+
+At the corner of Bolton Row Sir Hervey paused. He felt, to be candid,
+a trifle awkward in the _rôle_ of knight-errant, a part reserved in
+those days for Lord Peterborough. The Northeys' heartless cynicism,
+and their instant and cruel desertion of the girl, had stirred the
+chivalry that underlay his cold exterior. But from the first he had
+been aware that his status in the matter was ill-defined; he now began
+to see it in a worse, an absurd light. He had taken the field in the
+belief that Sophia had not stayed in Davies Street; that Hawkesworth,
+therefore, was beside the question; and that whatever folly she had
+committed, she had not altogether compromised herself; he now found
+the data on which he had acted painfully erroneous. She had not stayed
+in Davies Street, because she had not gone to Davies Street. But she
+might have joined Hawkesworth elsewhere; she might by this time be his
+wife; she might be gone with him never to return!
+
+In that event Coke began to see that his part in the matter would
+prove to be worse than ridiculous; and he paused at the corner of
+Bolton Row, uncertain whether he should not go home and erase with a
+sore heart a foolish child's face from his memory. His was a day of
+coarse things; of duchesses who talked as fishwives talk now, of
+madcap maids of honour, such as she--
+
+
+              Who, as down the stairs she jumps,
+                Sings over the hills and far away,
+              Despising doleful dumps!
+
+
+of bishops seen at strange levées, of clergy bribed with livings to
+take strange wives; of hoyden lady Kitties, whose talk was a jumble of
+homely saws and taproom mock-modesties; of old men still swearing as
+they had sworn in Flanders in their youth. At the best it was not an
+age of ideals; but neither was it an age of hypocrisy, and women were
+plentiful. Why, then, all this trouble for one? And for one who had
+showed him plainly what she thought of him.
+
+For a moment, at the corner of Bolton Row, Sophia's fate hung in the
+balance. Hung so nicely, that if Coke had not paused there, but had
+proceeded straight through Bolton Street, to Piccadilly, and so to
+Arlington Street, her lot would have been very different. But the
+debate kept him standing long enough to bring to a point--not many
+yards from the corner--two figures, which had just detached themselves
+from the crowd about Shepherd's Market. In the act of stepping across
+the gutter, he saw them, glanced carelessly at them, and stood. As the
+two, one behind the other, came up, almost brushing him, and turned to
+enter Clarges Row, he reached out his cane and touched the foremost.
+
+"Why, Tom!" he cried. "Is it you, lad? Well met!"
+
+
+[Illustration: HE STOOD, GRINNING IN HIS FINERY, UNABLE TO SAY A WORD]
+
+
+Tom--for it was he--turned at the sound of his name, and seeing who it
+was recoiled, as if the cane that touched him had been red hot. The
+colour mounted to his wig; he stood, grinning in his finery, unable to
+say a word. "Why, Tom!" Sir Hervey repeated, as he held out his hand,
+"What is it, lad? Have you bad news? You are on the same business as I
+am, I take it?"
+
+Tom blushed redder and redder, and shifted his feet uneasily. "I don't
+know, Sir Hervey," he stammered. "I don't know what your business is,
+you see."
+
+"Well, you can easily guess," Coke answered, never doubting that Tom
+had heard what was forward, and had posted from Cambridge in pursuit
+of his sister. "Have you news? That's the point."
+
+Tom had only his own affair in his mind. He wondered how much the
+other knew, and more than half suspected that he was being roasted. So
+"News?" he faltered. "What sort of news, sir?" He had known Sir Hervey
+all his life, and still felt for him the respect which a lad feels for
+the man of experience and fashion.
+
+Coke stared at him. "What sort of news?" he exclaimed. "It isn't
+possible you don't know what has happened, boy?" Then, seeing that the
+person who had come up with Tom was at his elbow, listening, "Is this
+fellow with you?" he cried angrily. "If so, bid him stand back a
+little."
+
+"Yes, he's with me," Tom answered, sheepishly; and turning to the lad,
+who was laden with a great nosegay of flowers as well as a paper
+parcel from which some white Spitalfields ribbons protruded, he bade
+him go on. "Go on," he said, "I'll follow you. The last house on the
+right."
+
+Sir Hervey heard, and stared afresh. "What?" he cried. "Grocott's?"
+
+Tom winced, and changed his feet uneasily, cursing his folly in
+letting out so much. "It's only something that--that he's taking
+there," he muttered.
+
+"But you know about your sister?"
+
+"Sophia?" Tom blurted out. "Oh, she's all right. She's all right, I
+tell you. You need not trouble about her."
+
+"Indeed? Then where is she? Where is she, man? Out with it."
+
+"She's with me."
+
+"With you?" Sir Hervey cried, his cynicism quite gone. "With you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was it you who--who took her from Davies Street, then?"
+
+"To be sure," Tom said. In his preoccupation with his own affairs his
+sister's position had been forgotten. Now he began to recover himself;
+he began, too, to see that he had done rather a clever thing. "Yes, I
+was there when she met that fellow," he continued. "Hawkesworth, you
+know, and I brought her away. I tell you what, Sir Hervey, that
+fellow's low. He should be in the Clink. She found him out sharp,
+before he had time to sit down, and it's lucky I was there to bring
+her away, or Lord knows what would have happened. For he's a monstrous
+rascal, and the people of the house are none too good!"
+
+"Last night was it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you took her to Grocott's?" Sir Hervey could not make the tales
+agree.
+
+"Ye--es," Tom faltered; but the word died on his lips, and he grew hot
+again. He saw too late that he had put his foot in a hobble from which
+he would find it hard to extricate himself, with all his skill. For it
+wanted only a few minutes of noon, and at Grocott's, a hundred paces
+away, his bride was expecting him. Presently Keith, the Mayfair
+parson, from whom he had just come after making the last arrangements,
+would be expecting both! Even now he ought to be at Grocott's; even
+now he ought to be on his way to the chapel in Curzon Street. And
+Grocott's was in sight; from where he stood he could see the boy with
+the flowers and wedding favours waiting at the door. But Coke--Coke
+the inopportune--had hold of his elbow, and if he went to Grocott's,
+would wish to go with him--would wish to see his sister, and from her
+would hear all about the marriage. Aye, and hearing, would interfere!
+
+The cup of Tantalus was a little thing beside this, and Tom's cheeks
+burned; the wildest projects flashed through his brain. Should he take
+Sir Hervey to Grocott's, inveigle him into a bedroom and lock him up
+till the wedding was over? Or should he turn that instant, and take to
+his heels like any common pickpocket, without word or explanation, and
+so lead him from the place? He might do that, and return by coach
+himself, and----
+
+Coke broke the tangled thread of thought. "There is something amiss,
+here," he said with decision. "She is not at Grocott's. Or they lied
+to me."
+
+"She's not?" Tom cried, with a sigh of relief. "You've been there?
+Then you may be sure she has gone to Arlington Street. That is it, you
+may be sure!"
+
+"Aye, but they said at Grocott's that she had not been there," Coke
+retorted, looking more closely at Tom, and beginning to discern
+something odd in his manner. "If she's been there at all, how do you
+explain that, my boy?"
+
+"She's been there all right," Tom answered eagerly. "I'm bail she has!
+I tell you it is so! And you may be sure she has gone to Arlington
+Street. Go there and you'll find her."
+
+"I don't know about that. You don't think that when your back was
+turned----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"She went off again!"
+
+"With Hawkesworth?" Tom cried impatiently. "I tell you she's found him
+out! He's poison to her! She's there I tell you. Or she was."
+
+"But Grocott denied her!"
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" Tom said--he was as red as fire with asking himself
+whom Sir Hervey had seen. "Oh, nonsense," he repeated, hurriedly; he
+felt he could bear it no longer. "She was there, and she has gone to
+Arlington Street."
+
+"Very good," Sir Hervey replied. "Then we'll ask again. The man
+at the house lied to me, and I'll have an explanation, or I'll lay
+my cane across his shoulders, old as he is! There was some one I did
+see---- But come along! Come along. We'll look into this, Tom."
+
+It was in vain Tom hung back, feebly protesting that she had
+gone--there was no doubt that she had gone to Arlington Street.
+Will-he, nill-he, he was dragged along. A moment and the two, Coke
+swinging his cane ominously, were half-way up the Row. In the midst of
+his agony Tom got a notion that his companion was taking sidelong
+looks at his clothes; and he grew hot and hotter, fearing what was to
+come. When they were within a few yards of the door, a hackney coach
+passed them, and, turning, came to a stand before the house.
+
+"There! What did I say?" Sir Hervey muttered. "I take it, we are only
+just in time."
+
+"Perhaps it's the coach that took her away," Tom suggested, trying to
+restrain his companion. "Shall I go in--I know the people--and--and
+inquire? Yes, you'd better let me do that," he continued eagerly,
+buttonholing Sir Hervey, "perhaps they did not know you. I really
+think you had better leave it to me, Sir Hervey. I----"
+
+"No, thank you," Coke answered drily. "There's a shorter way. Are you
+here to take up, my man?"
+
+"To be sure, your honour," the coachman answered readily. "And long
+life to her!"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Long life to the bride, your honour!"
+
+"Ah!" Sir Hervey said, his face growing dark. "I thought so. I think,
+my lad," he continued to Tom, as he knocked at the door, "she and
+somebody have made a fool of you!"
+
+"No, no," Tom said, distractedly. "It's--it's not for her."
+
+"We shall soon learn!" Coke answered. And he rapped again
+imperatively.
+
+Tom tried to tell him the facts; but his throat was dry, his head
+whirled, he could not get out a word. And by-and-by Grocott's dragging
+steps were heard in the passage, the latch was raised, and the door
+opened.
+
+"Now, sir!" Coke cried, addressing him sharply. "What did you mean by
+lying to me just now? Here is the gentleman who brought Miss Maitland
+to your house. And if you don't tell me, and tell me quickly, where
+she is, I'll--I'll send for the constable!"
+
+Grocott was pale, but his face did not lose its sneering expression.
+"She's gone," he said.
+
+"You said she had not been here."
+
+"Well, it was her order. I suppose," with a touch of insolence, "a
+lady can be private, sir, if she chooses."
+
+"What time did she go?"
+
+"Ten minutes gone."
+
+Tom heaved a sigh of relief. "I told you so," he muttered. "She's gone
+to Arlington Street. It's what I told you."
+
+"I don't believe it," Coke answered. "This coach is for her. It is
+here to take her to the rascal we know of; and I'll not leave till
+I've seen her. Why, man," he continued, incensed as well as perplexed
+by Tom's easiness, "have you no blood in your body that you're ready
+to stand by while your sister's fooled by a scoundrel?"
+
+Tom smiled pitifully, and passed his tongue over his lips; he looked
+guiltily at Grocott, and Grocott at him. The lad's face was on fire,
+the sweat stood in beads on Grocott's forehead. Neither knew with
+precision the other's position nor how much he had told. And while the
+two stood thus, Sir Hervey looking suspiciously from one to the other,
+the same dull sound Coke had heard before--a sound as of the drumming
+of heels on the floor--continued in the upper part of the house. The
+hackney coachman, an interested spectator of the scene, heard it, and
+looked at the higher windows in annoyance. The sound drowned the
+speaker's words.
+
+"Are you going to let me search?" Coke said at last.
+
+Grocott shook his head. He could not speak. He was wondering what they
+would call the offence at the Old Bailey or Hicks's Hall. He saw
+himself in the dock, with the tall spikes and bunches of herbs before
+him, and the gross crimson face of the Red Judge glowering at him
+through horn-rimmed spectacles--glowering death. Should he confess and
+bring her down, and with that put an end to his daughter's hopes? Or
+should he stand it out, defy them all, gain time, perhaps go scot free
+at last?
+
+"Well?" Coke repeated sternly; "have you made up your mind? Am I to
+send for the constable?"
+
+Still Grocott found no answer. His wits were so jumbled by fear and
+the predicament in which he found himself, that he could not decide
+what to do. And while he hesitated, gaping, the matter was taken out
+of his hands. The door behind him opened, and the lady whom Sir Hervey
+had seen before came out of the room.
+
+She looked at the group with a mixture of weariness and impatience.
+"Is the gentleman not satisfied yet?" she said. "What is all this?"
+
+"I am satisfied, madam," Sir Hervey retorted, "that I did not hear the
+truth before."
+
+"Well, you are too late now," she answered, "for she's gone. She
+didn't wish to see you, and there's an end."
+
+"I shall not believe, ma'am----"
+
+"Not believe?" she cried, opening her eyes with sudden fire. "I
+thought you were a gentleman, sir. I suppose you will take a lady's
+word?"
+
+"If the lady will tell me for whom the coach at the door is waiting,"
+Sir Hervey answered quietly; and as he spoke he made good his footing
+by crossing the threshold. He could not see the hot, foolish face that
+followed him in to the passage, or he might have been enlightened
+sooner.
+
+"The coach?" she said. "It is for me."
+
+"It is for a bride."
+
+"I am the bride."
+
+"And the bridegroom?"
+
+Her eyes sparkled. "Come!" she cried. "How is that your affair? We
+poor women have impertinences enough to suffer on these occasions; but
+it is new to me that the questions of chance visitors are part of
+them! Room's more than company, sometimes," she added, tossing her
+head, her accent not quite so genteel as it had been, when she was
+less moved. "And I'll be glad to see your back."
+
+"I beg your pardon a thousand times, ma'am," Coke replied unmoved.
+"But I see no impertinence in my question--unless, indeed, you are
+ashamed of your bridegroom."
+
+"That I'm not!" she cried. "That I'm not! And"--snapping her fingers
+in his face--"that for you. You are impertinent! Ashamed? No, sir, I
+am not!"
+
+"And God forbid I should be ashamed of my bride!" cried a husky voice
+behind Sir Hervey; who turned as if he had been pinched. "No, I'll be
+silent no longer," Tom continued, his face the colour of a beet,
+albeit his eyes overflowed with honest devotion. "I've played coward
+too long!" he went on, stretching out his arms as if he were throwing
+off a weight. "Let go, man"--this to Grocott, as the latter stealthily
+plucked his sleeve. "Sir Hervey, I didn't tell you before, but it
+wasn't because I was ashamed of my bride. Not I!" poor Tom cried
+bravely. "It was because I--I thought you might do something to thwart
+me. This lady has done me the honour of entrusting her happiness to
+me, and before one o'clock we shall be married. Now you know."
+
+"Indeed!" Sir Hervey said. And great as was his amazement, he managed
+to cloak it after a fashion. In the first burst of Tom's confession he
+had glanced from him to the lady, and had surprised a black--a very
+black look. That same look he caught on Grocott's face; and in a
+wonderfully short space of time he had drawn his conclusions.
+"Indeed!" he repeated. "And whom have I--perhaps we might step into
+this room, we shall be more of a family party, eh?--whom have I to
+felicitate on the possession of Sir Thomas Maitland's heart?"
+
+He bowed so low before madam that she was almost deceived; but not
+quite. She did not answer.
+
+"Oriana, tell him," Tom cried humbly. He was deceived. His eyes were
+shining with honest pride.
+
+Coke caught at the name. "Oriana!" he repeated, bowing still lower.
+"Mistress Oriana----"
+
+"Clark," she said drily. And then, "You are not much wiser now."
+
+"My loss, ma'am," Sir Hervey answered politely. "One of Sir Robert
+Clark of Snailwell's charming daughters, perhaps? Until now I had only
+the pleasure of knowing the elder, but----"
+
+"You know no more now," she retorted, with an air of low breeding that
+must have opened any eyes but a lover's. "I don't know your Sir
+Robert."
+
+"Indeed!" Sir Hervey said. "One of the Leicestershire Clarks, of Lawnd
+Abbey, perhaps?"
+
+"No," madam answered sullenly, hating him more and more, yet not
+daring to show it. How she cursed her booby for his indiscretion!
+
+"Surely not a daughter of my old friend, Dean Clark of Salisbury? You
+don't say so?"
+
+She bit her lip with mortification. "No," she said, "I don't say so. I
+ain't that either."
+
+Tom intervened hurriedly. "You are under a misapprehension, Sir
+Hervey," he said. "Clark was Oriana's--her husband's name. Captain
+Clark, of Sabine's Foot. He did not treat her well," poor Tom
+continued, leaning forward, his hands resting on the table--they were
+all in the room now. "But I hope to make the rest of her life more
+happy than the early part."
+
+"Oh, I beg pardon," Sir Hervey said, a trifle drily. "A widow! Your
+humble servant, ma'am, to command. You will excuse me, I am sure. You
+are waiting for Mrs. Northey, I suppose?" he continued, looking from
+one to the other in seeming innocence.
+
+Tom's face flamed. It was in vain Grocott from the doorway made signs
+to him to be silent. "They don't know," he blurted out.
+
+Sir Hervey looked grave. "I am sorry for that," he said. "I am sure
+this lady would not wish you, Sir Tom, to do anything--anything
+underhand. You have your guardians' consent, of course?"
+
+"No," Tom said flatly; "and I am not going to ask for it."
+
+Outwardly, Sir Hervey raised his eyebrows in protest; inwardly, he saw
+that argument would be thrown away, and wondered what on earth he
+should do. He had no authority over the boy, and it was not likely
+that Dr. Keith, an irregular parson, would pay heed to him.
+
+Madam Oriana, scared for a moment, discerned that he was at a loss,
+and smiled in triumph.
+
+"Well, sir, have you anything more to say?" she cried.
+
+"Not to Tom," Sir Hervey answered.
+
+"And to me?"
+
+"Only, ma'am, that a marriage is not valid if a false name be used."
+
+The shot was not fired quite at large, for he had surprised Grocott
+calling her not Oriana, but Sallie. And, fired at large or not, her
+face showed that it reached the mark. Whether Captain Clark of
+Sabine's Foot still lived, or there had never been a Clark; whether
+she had foreseen the difficulty and made up her mind to run the risk,
+or had not thought of it at all, her scowling, beautiful face betrayed
+dismay as well as rage.
+
+"What have you to do with my name?" she hissed.
+
+"Nothing," he said politely. "But my friend here, much. I hope he
+knows it, and knows it correctly. That is all."
+
+But Tom was at the end of his patience.
+
+"I do," he cried hotly, "I do know it! And I'll trouble you, Sir
+Hervey, to let it alone. Oriana, don't think that anything he can say
+can move me. I see, Sir Hervey, that you are no true friend to us. I
+might have known it," he continued bitterly. "You have lived all your
+life where--where marriage is a bargain, and women are sold, and--you
+don't believe in anything else. You can't; you can't believe in
+anything else. But I am only sorry for you! Only--only you'll please
+to remember that this lady is as good as my wife, and I expect her to
+be treated as such. She'll not need a defender as long as I live,"
+poor Tom continued, gallantly, though his voice shook. "Come, Oriana,
+the coach is waiting. In a few minutes I shall have a better right to
+protect you; and then let any one say a word!"
+
+"Tom," Sir Hervey said gravely, "don't do this."
+
+Madam marked his altered tone, and laughed derisively. "Now he's in
+his true colours!" she cried. "What will you do, Sir Thomas? La! they
+shall never say that I dragged a man to church against his will. I've
+more pride than that, though I may not be a dean's daughter."
+
+Tom raised her hand and kissed it, his boyish face aglow with love.
+"Come, dear," he said. "What is his opinion to us? A little room, if
+you please, Sir Hervey. We are going."
+
+"No," Coke answered. "You are not going! I'll not have this on my
+head. Hear sense, boy. If this lady be one whom you may honestly make
+your wife, you cannot lose, and she must gain, by waiting to be
+married in a proper fashion."
+
+"And at a nice expense, too!" she cried, with a sneer.
+
+"She is right," Tom said manfully. "I'm not going to waste my life
+waiting on the pleasure of a set of old fogies. Make way, Sir Hervey."
+
+"I shall not," Coke returned, maintaining his position between the two
+and the door. "And if you come near me, boy----"
+
+"Don't push me too far," Tom cried. From no one else in the world
+would he have endured so much. "Sir Hervey, make way!"
+
+"If he does not, we will have him put out!" madam cried, pale with
+rage. "This is my room, sir! and I order you to leave it. If you are a
+gentleman you will go."
+
+"I shall not," Coke said. He was really at his wits' end to know what
+to do. "And if the boy comes near me," he continued, "I will knock him
+down and hold him. He's only fit for Bedlam!"
+
+Tom would have flown at his throat, but madam restrained him.
+"Grocott," she cried, "call in a couple of chairmen, and put this
+person out. Give them a guinea apiece, and let them throw him into the
+street."
+
+Grocott hung a moment in the doorway, pale, perspiring, irresolute. He
+could not see the end of this.
+
+"Do you hear, man?" madam repeated, and stamped her foot on the floor.
+"Call in two men. A guinea apiece if they turn him out. Go at once.
+I'll know whether the room is mine or his," she continued, in a fury.
+
+"Yours, ma'am," Sir Hervey answered coolly, as Grocott shambled out.
+"I ask nothing better than to leave it, if Sir Thomas Maitland goes
+with me."
+
+"You'll leave it without him!" she retorted contemptuously. And, as
+Tom made a forward movement, "Sir Thomas, you'll not interfere in
+this. I've had to do with nasty rogues like him before," she
+continued, with growing excitement and freedom, "and know the way.
+You're mighty fine, sir, and think to tread on me. Oh, for all your
+bowing, I saw you look at me when you came in as if I was so much
+dirt! But I'll not be put upon, and I'll let you know it. You are a
+jackanapes and a finicky fool, that's what you are! Aye, you are! But
+here they come. Now we'll see. Grocott!"
+
+"They are coming," the clock-maker muttered, cringing in the doorway.
+The fine of action adopted was too violent for his taste. "But I hope
+the gentleman will go out quietly," he rejoined. "He must see he has
+no right here."
+
+It was no question of courage; Sir Hervey had plenty of that. But he
+had no stomach for a low brawl; and at this moment he wished very
+heartily that he had let the young scapegrace go his own way. He had
+put his foot down, however, wisely or unwisely; and he could not now
+retreat.
+
+"I shall not go," he said firmly. And as heavy, lumbering footsteps
+were heard coming along the passage, he turned to face the door.
+
+"We'll see about that," Mrs. Clark cried spitefully. "Come in, men;
+come in! This is your gentleman."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII
+
+                             DON QUIXOTE
+
+
+Coke had spent a dozen seasons in London; and naturally to those who
+lived about town his figure was almost as familiar as that of Sir
+Hanbury Williams, the beau of the last generation, or that of Lord
+Lincoln, the pride and hope of the golden youth of '42. The chairman
+who had never left the rank in St. James's Street in obedience to his
+nod was as likely as not to ask the way to Mrs. Cornely's rooms; the
+hackney-coachman who did not know his face and liveries was a stranger
+also to the front of White's, and to the cry of "Who goes home?" that
+on foggy evenings drew a hundred link-boys to New Palace Yard. In his
+present difficulty his principal, and almost his only hope of escaping
+from a degrading scuffle lay in this notoriety.
+
+It bade fair to be justified. The two men who slouched into the room
+in obedience to Mrs. Clark's excited cry had scarcely crossed the
+threshold when they turned to him and grinned, and the foremost
+made him a sort of bow. Sir Hervey stared, and wondered where he had
+seen the men before; but in a twinkling his doubt, as well as the
+half-smothered cry that at the same instant burst from madam's lips,
+were explained.
+
+"Mrs. Oriana Clark, otherwise Grocott?" the elder man muttered, and,
+stepping forward briskly, he laid a slip of paper on the table before
+her. "At suit of Margam's, of Paul's Churchyard, for forty-seven, six,
+eight, debt and costs. Here's the _capias_. And there's a detainer
+lodged." So much said, he seemed to feel the official part of his duty
+accomplished, and he turned with a wink to Grocott. "Much obliged to
+the old gentleman for letting us in. As pretty a capture as I ever
+made! Trigg, mind the door."
+
+The miser who sees his hoarded all sink beneath the waves; the leader
+who, in the flush of victory, falls into the deadly ambush and knows
+all lost; the bride widowed on her wedding morn--these may in some
+degree serve to image madam at that moment. White to the lips, her
+eyes staring, she plucked at the front of her dress with one hand,
+and, leaning with the other against the wall, seemed to struggle for
+speech.
+
+It was Tom who stepped forward, Tom who instinctively, like the brave
+soul he was, screened her from their eyes. "What is it?" he said
+hoarsely. "Have a care, man, whom you speak to! What do you mean, and
+who are you?"
+
+"Easy asked and soon answered," the fellow replied, civilly enough.
+"I'm a sworn bailiff, it's a _capias_ forty-seven, six, eight, debt
+and costs--that's what it is. And there's a detainer lodged, so it's
+no use to pay till you know where you are. The lady is here, and I am
+bound to take her."
+
+"It's a mistake," Tom muttered, his voice indistinct. "There's some
+mistake, man. What is the name?"
+
+"Well, it's Clark, _alias_ Grocott on the writ; and it's Clark,
+_alias_ Hawkesworth----"
+
+"Hawkesworth?"
+
+"Yes, Hawkesworth, on the detainer," the bailiff answered, smiling. "I
+don't take on myself to say which is right, but the old gentleman here
+should know."
+
+At that word the unhappy woman, thwarted in the moment of success,
+roused herself from the first stunning effects of the blow. With a cry
+she tore her handkerchief into two or three pieces, and, thrusting one
+end into her mouth, bit on it. Then, "Silence!" she shrieked.
+"Silence, you dirty dog!" she continued coarsely. "How dare you lay
+your tongue to me? Do you hear me?"
+
+But Tom interfered. "No, one moment," he said grimly. That word,
+Hawkesworth, had chilled his blood. "Let us hear what he has to say.
+Listen to me, man. Why should the old gentleman know?"
+
+The man hesitated, looking from one to the other. "Well, they say he's
+her father," he answered at last. "At any rate he brought her up; that
+is, until--well, I suppose you know."
+
+She shrieked out a denial; but Tom, without taking his eyes from the
+bailiff's face, put out his hand, and, gripping her arm, held her
+back. "Yes, man, until what?" he said hoarsely. "Speak out. Until
+what?"
+
+"Well, until she went to live with Hawkesworth, your honour."
+
+"Ah!" Tom said, his face white; only that word. But, dropping his hand
+from her arm, he stood back.
+
+She should have known that all was lost then; that the game was played
+out. But, womanlike, she could not accept defeat. "It's a lie!" she
+shrieked. "A dirty, cowardly lie! It's not true! I swear it is not
+true! It's not true!" And breathless, panting, furious, she turned
+first to one and then to another, stretching out her hands, heaping
+senseless denial on denial. At last, when she read no relenting in the
+boy's face, but only the quivering of pain as he winced under the
+lash of her loosened tongue, she cast the mask--that had already
+slipped--completely away, and, turning on the old man, "You fool! oh,
+you fool!" she cried. "Have you nothing to say now that you have
+ruined me? Pay the beast, do you hear? Pay him, or I'll ruin you!"
+
+But the clock-maker, terrified as he was, clung sullenly to his money.
+"There's a detainer," he muttered. "It's no good, Bess. If s no good,
+I tell you!"
+
+"Well, pay the detainer! Pay that, too!" she retorted. "Pay it, you
+old skinflint, or I'll swear to you for gold clipping! and you'll hang
+at Tyburn, as your friend Jonathan Thomas did! Have a care, will you,
+or I'll do it, so help me!"
+
+The old man screamed a palsied curse at her. Sir Hervey touched the
+lad's arm. "Come," he said sternly. And he turned to the door.
+
+Tom shuddered, but followed at his heels as a beaten hound follows.
+The woman saw her last chance passing from her, sprang forward, and
+tried to seize his arm; tried to detain him, tried to gain his ear for
+a final appeal. But the bailiff interfered. "Softly, mistress,
+softly," he said. "You know the rules. Get the old 'un to pay, and you
+may do as you please."
+
+He held her while Tom was got out, dizzy and shaking, his eyes opened
+to the abyss from which he had been plucked back. But, though Coke
+closed the door behind them, the woman's voice still followed them,
+and shocked and horrified them with its shrill clamour. Tom shuddered
+at the dreadful sound; yet lingered.
+
+"I must get something," he muttered, avoiding his companion's eyes.
+"It is upstairs."
+
+"What is it?" Coke answered impatiently. And, anxious to get the lad
+out of hearing, he took his arm, and urged him towards the street.
+"Whatever it is, I'll send my man for it."
+
+But Tom hung back. "No," he said. "It's money. I must get it."
+
+"For goodness' sake don't stay now," Sir Hervey protested.
+
+But Tom, instead of complying, averted his face. "I want to pay this,"
+he muttered. "I shall never see her again. But I would rather she--she
+were not taken now. That's all."
+
+Coke stared. "Oh Lord!" he said; and he wondered. But he let Tom go
+upstairs; and he waited himself in the passage to cover his retreat.
+He heard the lad go up and push open the door of the little
+three-cornered room, which had been his abode for a week; the little
+room where he had tasted to the full of anticipation, and whence he
+had gone aglow with fire and joy an hour before. Coke heard him no
+farther, but continued to listen, and "What is that?" he muttered
+presently. A moment, and he followed his companion up the stairs; at
+the head of the flight he caught again the sound he had heard below;
+the sound of a muffled cry deadened by distance and obstacles, but
+still almost articulate. He looked after Tom; but the door of the room
+in which he had disappeared was half open. The sound did not issue
+thence. Then he thought it came from the room below; and he was on the
+point of turning when he saw a door close beside him in the angle of
+the stairs, and he listened at that. For the moment all was silent,
+yet Sir Hervey had his doubts. The key was in the lock, he turned it
+softly, and stepped into an untidy little bedroom, sordid and dull;
+the same, in fact, through which Sophia had been decoyed. He noticed
+the door at the farther end, and was crossing the floor towards it,
+with an unpleasant light in his eyes--for he began to guess what he
+should find--when the door of the room below opened, and a man came
+out, and came heavily up the stairs. Sir Hervey paused and looked
+back; another moment and Grocott reaching the open door stood glaring
+in.
+
+Sir Hervey spoke only one word. "Open!" he said; and he pointed with
+his cane to the door of the inner room. The key was not in the lock.
+
+The clock-maker, cringing almost to the boards, crept across the
+floor, and producing the key from his pocket, set it in the lock. As
+he did so Coke gripped him on a sudden by the nape of the neck, and
+irresistibly but silently forced him to his knees. And that was what
+Sophia saw when the door opened. Grocott kneeling, his dirty, flabby
+face quivering with fear, and Sir Hervey standing over him.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, and stepped back in amazement; but, so much
+thought given to herself, her next was for Tom. She had been a
+prisoner nearly two hours, in fear as well as in suspense, assailed at
+one time by the fancy that those who had snared her had left her to
+starve, at another by the dread of ill-treatment if they returned. But
+the affection for her brother, which had roused her from her own
+troubles, was still strong, and her second thought was of Tom.
+
+She seized Sir Hervey's arm, "Thank Heaven you have come!" she cried.
+"Did he send you? Where is he?"
+
+"Tom?" Coke answered cheerily. "He is all right. He is here."
+
+"Here? And he is not married?"
+
+"No, he is not married," Sir Hervey answered; "nor is he going to be
+yet awhile."
+
+"Thank God!" she exclaimed. And then, as their eyes met, she
+remembered herself, and quailed, the blushes burning in her cheeks.
+She had not seen him since the evening at Vauxhall, when he had
+laboured to open her eyes to Hawkesworth's true character. The things
+that had happened, the things she had done since that evening crowded
+into her mind; she could have sunk into the floor for very shame. She
+did not know how much he knew or how much worse than she was he might
+be thinking her; and in an agony of recollection she covered her face
+and shrank from him.
+
+"Come, child, come, you are safe now," he said hurriedly; he
+understood her feelings. "I suppose they locked you here that you
+might not interfere? Eh, was that it?" he continued, seizing Grocott's
+ear and twisting it until the old rogue grovelled on the floor. "Eh,
+was that it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes," the clock-maker cried. "That was it! I'll beg the
+lady's pardon. I'll do anything! I'll----"
+
+"You'll hang--some day!" Sir Hervey answered, releasing him with a
+final twist. "Begone for this time, and thank your stars I don't haul
+you to the nearest justice! And do you, child, come to your brother.
+He is in the next room."
+
+But when Sophia had so far conquered her agitation as to be able to
+comply, they found no Tom there; only a scrap of paper, bearing a line
+or two of writing, lay on the table.
+
+"I'm gone to enlist, or something, I don't care what. It doesn't
+matter," it ran. "Don't come after me, for I shan't come back. Let
+Sophy have my setter pup, it's at the hall. I see it now; it was a
+trap. If I meet H. I shall kill him.--T. M."
+
+"He has found her out, then?" Sophia said tearfully.
+
+"Yes," Sir Hervey answered, standing at the table and drumming on it
+with his fingers, while he looked at her and wondered what was to be
+done next. "He has found her out. In a year he will be none the worse
+and a little wiser."
+
+"But if he enlists?" she murmured.
+
+"We shall hear of it," Coke answered, "and can buy him out." And then
+there was silence again. And he wondered again what was to be done
+next.
+
+Below, the house was quiet. Either the bailiffs had removed their
+prisoner, or she had been released, and she and they had gone their
+ways. Even Grocott, it would seem, terrified by the position in which
+he found himself, had taken himself off for a while, for not a sound
+save the measured ticking of clocks broke the silence of the house,
+above stairs or below. After a time, as Sophia said nothing, Sir
+Hervey moved to the window and looked into the Row. The coach that had
+waited so long was gone. A thin rain was beginning to fall, and
+through it a pastrycook's boy with a tray on his head was approaching
+the next house. Otherwise the street was empty.
+
+"Did--did my sister send you?" she faltered at last.
+
+"No."
+
+"How did you find me?"
+
+"I heard from your brother-in-law," he answered, his face still
+averted.
+
+"What?"
+
+"That you had gone to Davies Street."
+
+"He knew?" she muttered.
+
+"Yes."
+
+She caught her breath. "Is it public?" she whispered. "I suppose
+everybody--knows."
+
+"Well, some do, I've no doubt," he answered bluntly. "Women will worry
+something, and, of course, there is a--sort of a bone in it."
+
+She shivered, humiliated by the necessity that lay upon her. She must
+clear herself. It had come to this, she had brought it to this, that
+she must clear herself even in his eyes. "My brother was there," she
+said indistinctly, her face covered from his gaze.
+
+"I know," he answered.
+
+"Do they know?"
+
+He understood that she meant the Northeys. "No," he answered. "Not
+yet."
+
+She was silent a moment. Then--"What am I to do?" she asked faintly.
+
+She had gone through so many strange things in the last twenty-four
+hours that this which should have seemed the strangest of all--that
+she should consult him--passed with her for ordinary. But not with
+Coke. It showed him more clearly than before her friendlessness, her
+isolation, her forlornness, and these things moved him. He knew what
+the world would think of her escapade, what sharp-tongued gossips like
+Lady Harrington would make of it, what easy dames like Lady Walpole
+and Lady Townshend would proclaim her; and his heart was full of pity
+for her. He knew her innocent; he had the word of that other innocent,
+Tom, for it; but who would believe it? The Northeys had cast her off;
+perhaps when they knew all they would still cast her off. Her brother,
+her only witness, had taken himself away, and was a boy at most. Had
+he been older, he might have given the gossips the lie and forced the
+world to believe him, at the point of the small sword. As it was she
+had no one. Her aunt's misfortune was being repeated in a later
+generation. The penalty must be the same.
+
+Must it? In the silence Sir Hervey heard her sigh, and his heart beat
+quickly. Was there no way to save her? Yes, there was one. He saw it,
+and with the coolness of the old gamester he took it.
+
+"What are you to do?" he repeated thoughtfully; and turning, he sat
+down, and looked at her across the table, his face, voice, manner all
+business-like. "Well, it depends, child. I suppose you have no feeling
+left for--for that person?"
+
+She shook her head, her face hidden.
+
+"None at all?" he persisted, toying with his snuff-box, while he
+looked at her keenly. "Pardon me, I wish to have this clear
+because--because it's important."
+
+"I would rather die," she cried passionately, "than be his wife."
+
+He nodded. "Good," he said. "It was to be expected. Well, we must make
+that clear, quite clear, and--and I can hardly think your sister will
+still refuse to receive you."
+
+Sophia started; her face flamed. "Has she said anything?" she
+muttered.
+
+"Nothing," Coke answered. "But you left her yesterday--to join him;
+and you return to-day. Still--still, child, I think if we make all
+clear to her, quite clear, and to your brother Northey, they will be
+willing to overlook the matter and find you a home."
+
+She shuddered. "You speak very plainly," she murmured faintly.
+
+"I fear," he said, "you will hear plainer things from her. But," he
+continued, speaking slowly now, and in a different tone, "there is
+another way, child, if you are willing to take it. One other way. That
+way you need not see her unless you choose, you need see none of them,
+you need hear no plain truths. That way you may laugh at them, and
+what they say will be no concern of yours, nor need trouble you. But
+'tisn't to be supposed that with all this you will take it."
+
+"You mean I may go to Chalkhill?" she cried, rising impetuously. "I
+will, I will go gladly, I will go thankfully! I will indeed!"
+
+"No," he said, rising also, so that only the table stood between them.
+"I did not mean that. There is still another way. But you are young,
+child, and it isn't to be supposed that you will take it."
+
+"Young!" she exclaimed in bitter self-contempt. And then, "What way is
+it?" she asked. "And why should I not take it, take it gladly if I can
+escape--all that?"
+
+"Because--I am not very young," he said grimly.
+
+"You?" she exclaimed in astonishment. And then, as her eyes met his
+across the table, the colour rose in her cheeks. She began to
+understand; and she began to tremble.
+
+"Yes," he said bluntly, "I. It shocks you, does it? But, courage,
+child; you understand a little, you do not understand all. Suppose for
+a moment that you return to Arlington Street to-day as Lady Coke; the
+demands of the most exacting will be satisfied. Lady Harrington
+herself will have nothing to say. You left yesterday, you return
+to-day--my wife. Those who have borne my mother's name have been wont
+to meet with respect; and, I doubt not, will continue to meet with
+it."
+
+"And you--would do that?" she cried aghast
+
+"I would."
+
+"You would marry me?"
+
+"I would."
+
+"After all that has passed? Here? To-day?"
+
+"Here, to-day."
+
+For a moment she was silent. Then, "And you imagine I could consent?"
+she cried. "You imagine I could do that? Never! Never! I think you
+good, I think you noble, I thank you for your offer, Sir Hervey; I
+believe it to be one the world would deem you mad to make, and me mad
+to refuse! But," and suddenly she covered her face with her hands, as
+if his eyes burned her, "from what a height you must look down on me."
+
+"I look down?" he said lamely. "Not at all. I don't understand you."
+
+"You do not understand?" she cried, dropping her hands and meeting his
+eyes as suddenly as she had avoided them. "You think it possible,
+then, that I, who yesterday left my home, poor fool that I was, to
+marry one man, can give myself a few hours later to another man? You
+think I hold love so light a thing I can take it and give it again as
+I take or give a kerchief or a riband? You think I put so small a
+price on myself--and on you? Oh, no, no, I do not. I see, if you do
+not, or will not, that your offer, noble, generous, magnanimous as it
+is, is the sharpest taunt of all that you have it in your power to
+fling at me."
+
+"That," Sir Hervey said, placidly, "is because you don't understand."
+
+"It is impossible!" she repeated. "It is impossible!"
+
+"What you have in your mind may be impossible," he retorted; "but not
+what I have in mine. I should have thought, child, that on your side,
+also, you had had enough of romance."
+
+She looked at him in astonishment.
+
+"While I," he continued, raising his eyebrows, "have outgrown it.
+There is no question, at least, in my offer there was no question, of
+love. For one thing it is out of fashion, my dear; for another, at the
+age I have reached, not quite the age of Methuselah, perhaps," with a
+smile, "but an age, as you once reminded me, at which I might be your
+father, I need only a lady to sit at the head of my table, to see that
+the maids don't rob me, or burn the Hall, and to show a pretty face to
+my guests when they come from town. My wife will have her own wing of
+the house, I mine; we need meet only at meals. To the world we shall
+be husband and wife; to one another, I hope, good friends. Of course,"
+Sir Hervey continued, with a slight yawn, "there was a time when I
+should not have thought this an ideal marriage; when I might have
+looked for more. Nor should I then have--you might almost call
+it--insulted you, _ma chère_, by proposing it. But I am old enough to
+be content with it; and you are in an awkward position from which my
+name may extricate you; while you have probably had enough of what
+children call love. So, in fine, what do you say?"
+
+After a long pause, "Do you mean," she asked in a low voice, "that we
+should be only--friends?"
+
+"Precisely," he said. "That is just what I do mean. And nothing more."
+
+"But have you considered," she asked, her tone still low, her voice
+trembling with agitation. "Have you thought of--of yourself? Why
+should you be sacrificed to save me from the punishment of my folly?
+Why should you do out of pity what you may repent all your life? Oh,
+it cannot, it cannot be!" she continued more rapidly and with growing
+excitement. "I thank you, I thank you from my heart, Sir Hervey, I
+believe you mean it generously, nobly, but----"
+
+"Let us consider the question--without fudge!" he retorted, stolidly
+forestalling her. "Pity has little to do with it. Your folly, child,
+has much; because apart from that I should not have made the
+suggestion. For the rest, put me out of the question. The point is,
+will it suit you? Of course you might wish to marry some one else. You
+might wish to marry in fact and not in name----"
+
+"Oh, no, no!" she cried, shuddering; and, shaken by the cruel
+awakening through which she had gone, she fancied that she spoke the
+truth.
+
+"You are sure?"
+
+"Quite, quite sure."
+
+"Then I think it lies between Chalkhill and Coke Hall," he said,
+cheerfully. "Read that, child." And drawing from his pocket the letter
+in which Mr. Northey had announced her flight, he laid it before her.
+"If I thought you were returning to your sister I would not show it to
+you," he continued, watching her as she read. And then, after an
+interval, "Well, shall it be Coke Hall?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," she said, shivering under the cruel, heartless phrases of the
+letter as under a douche of cold water. "If you really are in earnest,
+if you mean what you say?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And you will be satisfied with--that?" she murmured, averting her
+eyes. "With my friendship?"
+
+"I will," he answered. "You have my word for it."
+
+"Then, I thank you," she muttered faintly.
+
+And that was all, absolutely all. He opened the door, and in her
+sacque and Lady Betty's Tuscan, as she stood--for she had no change to
+make--she passed down the stairs before him, and walked beside him
+through the rain across a corner of Shepherd's Market. Thence they
+passed along Curzon Street in the direction of the little chapel with
+the country church porch--over against Mayfair Chapel, and
+conveniently near the Hercules Pillars--in which the Rev. Alexander
+Keith held himself ready to marry all comers, at all hours, without
+notice or licence.
+
+It was the common dinner time, and the streets were quiet; they met no
+one whom they knew. Sophia, dazed and shaken, had scarcely power to
+think; she walked beside him mechanically, as in a dream, and could
+never remember in after days the way she went to be married, or
+whether she travelled the route on foot or in a chair. The famous Dr.
+Keith, baulked of one couple and one guinea--for that was his fee, and
+it included the clerk and a stamped certificate--welcomed the pair
+with effusion. Accustomed to unite at one hour a peer of the realm to
+a reigning toast, at another an apprentice to his master's daughter,
+he betrayed no surprise even when he recognised Sir Hervey Coke; but
+at once he led the way to the chapel, set the kneelers, called the
+witnesses, and did his part. He wondered a little, it is true, when he
+noticed Sophia's pallor and strange dress; but the reasons people had
+for marrying were nothing to him; the fee was everything, and in ten
+minutes the tie was tied.
+
+Then only, as they stood waiting in the parlour while the certificate
+was being written, fear seized her, and a great horror, and she knew
+what she had done. She turned to Sir Hervey and held out her shaking
+hands to him, her face white and piteous. "You will be good to me?"
+she cried. "You will be good to me? You will keep your word?"
+
+"While I live," he said quietly. "Why not, child?"
+
+But, calmly as he spoke, his face, as they went out together, wore the
+look it wore at White's when he played deep; when, round the shaded
+candles, oaks, noted in Domesday, crashed down, and long-descended
+halls shook, and the honour of great names hung on the turn of a die.
+For, deep as he had played, much as he had risked, even to his home,
+even to his line, he had made to-day the maddest bet of all. And he
+knew it.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+                           THE WELCOME HOME
+
+
+"Your Grace is very good to call," Mrs. Northey said, working her fan
+with a violence that betrayed something of the restraint which she was
+putting on her feelings. "But, of course, the mischief is done now,
+the girl is gone, and----"
+
+"I know, my dear, I know," the duchess answered soothingly. "Believe
+me, I am almost as sorry as if she were one of my own daughters."
+
+"La, for the matter of that, it may be yet!" Mrs. Northey answered,
+unable to behave herself longer. "Begging your Grace's pardon. Of
+course, I hope not," she continued sourly, "but, indeed, and in truth,
+young ladies who show the road are very apt to follow it themselves."
+
+"Indeed, I fear that is so; too often," her Grace answered patiently.
+"Too often!" She had come prepared to eat humble pie, and was not
+going to refuse the dish.
+
+"I hope, at any rate, that the young lady will take the lesson to
+heart!" Mrs. Northey continued, with a venomous glance at Lady Betty;
+who, much subdued, sat half-sullen and half-frightened on a stool
+beside and a little behind her mother. "I hope so for her own sake."
+
+"It is for that reason I brought her," the duchess said with dignity.
+"She has behaved naughtily, very naughtily. His Grace is so angry that
+he will not see her. To-morrow she goes into the country, where she
+will return to the schoolroom until we leave town. I hope that that
+and the scandal she has brought upon us may teach her to be more
+discreet in future."
+
+"And more steady! I trust it may," Mrs. Northey said, biting her lip
+and looking daggers at the culprit. "I am sure she has done mischief
+enough. But it is easier to do than to undo, as she would find to her
+sorrow if it were her own case."
+
+"Very true! Very true, indeed! Do you hear, miss?" the duchess asked,
+turning and sharply addressing her daughter.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," Lady Betty whispered meekly. Quick of fence as she was
+with men, or with girls of her own age, she knew better than to
+contradict her mother.
+
+"Go, and sit in the window, then. No, miss, with your back to it. And
+now," the duchess continued, when Lady Betty had withdrawn out of
+earshot, "tell me what you wish to be known, my dear. Anything I can
+do for the foolish child--she is very young, you know--I will do. And,
+if I make the best of it, I have friends, and they will also make the
+best of it."
+
+But Mrs. Northey's face was hard as stone. "There is no best to it,"
+she said.
+
+"Oh, but surely in your sister's interest?" the duchess expostulated.
+
+"Your Grace was misinformed. I have no sister," Mrs. Northey replied,
+her voice a trifle high, and her thin nostrils more pinched than
+usual. "From the moment Miss Maitland left this house in such a way as
+to bring scandal on my husband's name, she ceased to be my sister.
+Lord Northey has claims upon us. We acknowledge them."
+
+The duchess stared, but did not answer.
+
+"My husband has claims upon me, I acknowledge them," Mrs. Northey
+continued with majesty.
+
+The duchess still stared; her manner betrayed that she was startled.
+
+"Well, of course," she said at last, "that is what we all wish other
+people to do in these cases; for the sake of example, you know, and to
+warn the--the young. But, dear me," rubbing her nose reflectively with
+the corner of her snuff-box, "it's very sad! I don't know, I really
+don't know that I should have the courage to do it--in Betty's case
+now. His Grace would--would expect it, of course. But really I don't
+know!"
+
+"Your Grace is the best judge in your own case," Mrs. Northey said,
+her breath coming a little quickly. "For our part," she added, looking
+upward with an air of self-denial, "Mr. Northey and I have determined
+to give no sanction to a connection so discreditable!"
+
+The duchess had a vision of her own spoiled daughter laid ill in a
+six-shilling lodging, of a mother stealing to her under cover of
+darkness, and in his Grace's teeth; of a tiny baby the image of Betty
+at that age. And she clutched her snuff-box tightly, "I suppose the
+man is--is impossible?" she said impulsively.
+
+"He is quite impossible."
+
+"Mr. Northey has not seen him?"
+
+"Certainly not," Mrs. Northey exclaimed, with a virtuous shudder.
+
+"But if she--if she were brought to see what she has done in its true
+light?" the duchess asked weakly; her motherly instinct still
+impelling her to fight the young thing's battle.
+
+"Not even then," Mrs. Northey replied with Roman firmness. "Under no
+circumstances, no circumstances whatever, could Mr. Northey and I
+countenance conduct such as hers."
+
+"You are sure that there's--there's no mistake, my dear?"
+
+"Not a shadow of a mistake!" madam answered with acrimony. "We have
+traced her to the man's lodging. She reached it after dark, and
+under--under the most disgraceful circumstances."
+
+Mrs. Northey referred to the arrest by bailiffs, the news of which had
+reached Arlington Street through Lane the mercer. But the duchess took
+her to mean something quite different; and her Grace was shocked.
+
+"Dear, dear," she said in a tone of horror; and looking instinctively
+at her daughter, she wished that Lady Betty had not seen so much of
+the girl, wished still more fervently that she had not mixed herself
+up with her flight. "I am infinitely sorry to hear it," she said.
+"Infinitely sorry! I confess I did not think her that kind of girl. My
+dear, you have indeed my sympathy."
+
+Mrs. Northey, though she knew quite well what the duchess was
+thinking, shook her head as if she could add much more, but would not;
+and the duchess, her apologies made, rose to take leave; resolved to
+give her daughter such a wigging by the way as that young lady had
+never experienced. But while they stood in the act of making their
+adieux, Mr. Northey entered; and his dolorous head shaking, which
+would have done credit to a father's funeral, detained her so long,
+that she was still where he found her, when an exclamation from Lady
+Betty, who had profited by her mother's engrossment to look out of the
+window, startled the party.
+
+"Oh, la, ma'am, here she is!" the girl cried. "I vow and declare she
+is!"
+
+"Betty!" her Grace cried sharply. "Remember yourself. What do you
+mean? Come, we must be going."
+
+"But, ma'am, she's at the door," Lady Betty replied with a giggle. And
+turning and thrusting her muff into her mouth--as one well
+understanding the crisis--she looked over it at the party, her eyes
+bright with mischief.
+
+Mrs. Northey's face turned quite white. "If this--if your daughter
+means that the misguided girl is returning here," she cried, "I will
+not have it."
+
+"It is not to be thought of!" Mr. Northey chimed in. "She would not
+have the audacity," he added more pompously, "after her behaviour."
+And he was moving to the window--while the kind-hearted duchess wished
+herself anywhere else--when the door opened, and the servant
+announced, "Sir Hervey Coke!"
+
+The duchess gave vent to a sigh of relief, while the Northeys looked
+daggers at Lady Betty, the author of the false alarm. Meantime Coke
+advanced, his hat under his arm. "I am really no more than an
+ambassador," he said gaily. "My principal is downstairs waiting leave
+to ascend. Duchess, your humble servant! Lady Betty, yours--you grow
+prettier every day. Mrs. Northey, I have good news for you. You will
+be glad to hear that you were misinformed as to the object of your
+sister's departure from the house--about which you wrote to me."
+
+"Misinformed!" Mrs. Northey exclaimed with a freezing look. "I was
+misinformed, sir?"
+
+"Completely, at the time you wrote to me," Sir Hervey answered,
+smiling on the party. "As you will acknowledge in one moment."
+
+"On whose authority, pray?" with a sniff.
+
+"On mine," Coke replied. "'Twas an odd coincidence that you wrote to
+me, of all people."
+
+"Why, sir, pray?"
+
+"Because----" he began; and there he broke off and turned to the
+duchess, who had made a movement as if she would withdraw. "No," he
+said, "I hope your Grace will not go. The matter is not private."
+
+"Private?" Mrs. Northey cried shrilly--she could control her feelings
+no longer. "The hussy has taken good care it shall not be that!
+Private, indeed? It is not her fault if there is a man in the town who
+is ignorant of her disgrace!"
+
+"Nay, ma'am, softly, if you please," Sir Hervey interposed, with the
+least touch of sternness in his tone. "You go too far."
+
+Mrs. Northey glared at him; she was pale with anger. "What?" she
+cried. "Hoity-toity! do you think I shall not say what I like about my
+own sister?"
+
+"But not about my wife!" he answered firmly.
+
+She stepped back as if he had aimed a blow at her, so great was her
+surprise. "What?" she shrieked. "Your wife?" While the others looked
+at him, thunderstruck; and Lady Betty, who, on the fringe of the
+group, was taking in all with childish dilated eyes, uttered a scream
+of delight.
+
+"Your wife?" Mr. Northey gasped.
+
+"Precisely," Coke answered. "My wife."
+
+But Mrs. Northey could not, would not, believe it. She thought that he
+was lending himself to some cunning scheme; some plan for bringing
+about a reconciliation. "Your wife?" she repeated. "Do you mean that
+Sophia, my sister----"
+
+"Preferred a quiet wedding _à deux_," he answered, helping himself to
+a pinch of snuff, and smiling slightly, as at the recollection. "Your
+Grace will understand," he continued, turning with easy politeness to
+the duchess, "how it amused me to read Mrs. Northey's letter under
+such circumstances."
+
+But Mrs. Northey was furious. "If this be true," she said hoarsely,
+"but I do not believe it is, why did you do it? Tell me that? Until I
+know that I shall not believe it!"
+
+Sir Hervey shrugged his shoulders. "Mr. Northey will believe it, I am
+sure," he said, with a look in that gentleman's direction. "For the
+rest, ma'am, it was rather Lady Coke's doing than mine. She heard that
+her brother was about to make a ruinous marriage, and discovered that
+he was actually in the company and under the influence of the
+Irishman, Hawkesworth, whom you know. There were those who should more
+properly have made the effort to save him, but these failed him; and
+the result of it was, thanks to her, he was saved. Thanks to her, and
+to her only," Sir Hervey repeated with a look, beneath which Mr.
+Northey quailed, and his wife turned green with rage, "since, as I
+said, those who should have interfered did not. But this effected, and
+Keith, who should have married her brother, being in attendance--well,
+we thought it better to avail ourselves of his services. 'Twould have
+been a pity, your Grace, to lose a guinea," Coke added, his eyes
+twinkling, as he turned to the duchess. "It was the best instance I've
+ever known of 'a guinea in time saves ninety!'"
+
+The duchess laughed heartily. "'Twas cheap at any rate, Sir Hervey,"
+she said. "I am sure for my part I congratulate you."
+
+"I don't!" Mrs. Northey cried, before he could answer. "She has
+behaved abominably! Abominably!" she repeated, her voice quivering
+with spite. For, strange human nature! here was the match made, on
+making which she had set her heart; yet so far was she from being
+pleased, or even satisfied, she could have cried with mortification.
+"She has behaved infamously!"
+
+"Tut, tut!" Sir Hervey cried.
+
+But the angry woman was not to be silenced. "I shall say it!" she
+persisted. "I think it, and I shall say it."
+
+"Of Miss Maitland, as often as you please," he retorted, bowing. "Of
+Lady Coke only at your husband's peril. Of course, if you do not wish
+to receive her, ma'am, that is another matter."
+
+But on this Mr. Northey interposed. "No, no," he cried, fussily. "Mrs.
+Northey is vexed, if I may say so, not unnaturally vexed by the lack
+of confidence in her, which Sophia has shown. But that--that is quite
+another thing from--from disowning her. No, no, let me be the first to
+wish you happiness, Coke!" And with an awkward essay at heartiness,
+and an automaton-like grin, he shook Sir Hervey by the hand. "I'll
+fetch her up," he continued, "I'll fetch her up! My dear, ahem!
+Congratulate Sir Hervey. It is what we wanted from the first, and
+though it has not come about quite as we expected, nothing could give
+us greater pleasure. It's an alliance welcome in every respect. Yes,
+yes, I'll bring her up."
+
+He hurried away, while the duchess hastened to add a few words of
+further congratulation, and Mrs. Northey stood silent and waiting, her
+face now red, now pale. She had every reason to be satisfied, for
+except in the matter of Tom--and there Sophia had thwarted her selfish
+plans--all had turned out as she wished. But not through her, there
+was the rub! On the contrary, she had been duped, she felt it. She had
+been tricked into betraying how little heart she had, how little
+affection for her sister; and bitterly she resented the exposure.
+
+But even her face cleared in a degree when Sophia appeared. As the
+girl moved forward on Sir Hervey's arm--who went gallantly to the door
+to meet her--so far from exhibiting the blushing pride of a woman vain
+of her conquest, glorying in the trick she had played the world, she
+showed but the timid, frightened face of a shrinking child. Her eyes
+sought the floor, nervously; her bearing was the farthest removed from
+exultation it was possible to conceive. So different, indeed, was she
+from all they had looked to see in the new Lady Coke, the heroine of
+this odd romance, that even Mrs. Northey found the cold reconciliation
+on which her husband was bent more feasible, the frigid kiss more
+possible than she had thought; while to the duchess the bride's aspect
+seemed so unnatural, that she drew Sir Hervey aside and questioned him
+keenly.
+
+"What have you done to her?" she said. "That a runaway bride? Why, if
+she had been dragged to the altar and sold to a Jew broker she could
+hardly look worse, or more down-hearted! Sho, man, what is it?"
+
+"She's troubled about her brother," Coke explained elaborately. "She's
+saved him from a wretched match, but he's taken himself off, and we
+don't know where to look for him."
+
+The good-natured duchess struck him on the shoulder with her fan.
+"Fudge!" she cried. "Her brother? I don't believe it."
+
+"My dear duchess," Coke remonstrated. "Half a dozen witnesses are
+prepared to swear to it."
+
+"I don't believe it any the more for that!"
+
+"You think she's unhappy?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"Well," Sir Hervey answered, and for a moment a gleam which the
+duchess could not interpret, shone in his eyes, "wait six months! If
+she is not happy then--I mean," he added, hastily correcting himself,
+"if she does not look happy then, I have made a mistake."
+
+The duchess stared. "Or she?"
+
+"No, I," he answered, almost in a whisper. "I only, duchess."
+
+She nodded, understanding somewhat; not all. "Oh!" she said; and
+looked him over, considering what kind of a lover she would have
+thought him in the old days when all men presented themselves in
+that capacity, and were measured by maiden eyes. She found him
+satisfactory. "What are your plans?" she said.
+
+"I am going to Coke Hall to-night, to give the necessary orders. There
+are changes to be made."
+
+"Quick work!" she said smiling. "Leaving her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are not killing her with kindness then, my friend?"
+
+"She will follow in two or three days."
+
+"In the meantime--does she stay here?" she asked; with a glance round
+the room that said much.
+
+"Well, no," Sir Hervey answered slowly, his face growing hard. "I
+don't quite know--it has all been very sudden, you know."
+
+"I'll take her if you like," the duchess said impulsively.
+
+Sir Hervey's face grew pink. "You dear, good, great lady!" he said.
+"Will you do that?"
+
+"For you, I will," she said, "if it will help you?"
+
+"Will it not," he cried; and, stooping over her hand, he kissed it
+after the fashion of the day; but a little more warmly--we were going
+to say, a little more warmly than the duke would have approved.
+
+While they talked, Mrs. Northey had left the room, to take order
+for "my lady's" packing; and Mr. Northey, who was dying for a word
+with her on the astonishing event, had followed, after murmuring an
+apology and an indistinct word about a carriage. Sophia was thus left
+_tête-à-tête_ with the one person in the room who had not approached
+her, or offered felicitation or compliment; but who now, after
+assuring herself by a hurried glance that the duchess was out of
+hearing, hastened to deliver her mind.
+
+"Wait till you want to elope again, miss," Lady Betty hissed, in a
+fierce whisper. "And see if I'll help you! Oh, you deceitful cat, you!
+To trick me with a long story of your lover and your wrongs, and your
+dear, dear Irishman! And then to come back 'my lady,' and we're all to
+bow down to you. Oh, you false, humdrum creature!"
+
+Sophia, in spite of her depression, could not refrain from a smile.
+"My dear Lady Betty," she whispered gratefully. "I shall ever remember
+your kindness."
+
+"Don't Lady Betty me, miss!" the girl retorted, thrusting her pretty,
+eager face close to the other's. "Do you know that I am to go into the
+country, ma'am? and be put to school again, and the blackboard; and
+lose the Ridotto on the 17th, and the frolic at the King's House Miss
+Ham had arranged--and all for helping you? All for helping you, ma'am!
+See if I ever do a good-natured thing again, as long as I live!"
+
+"My poor Lady Betty! I am so sorry!"
+
+"But that's not all," the angry little beauty cried. "Didn't you lead
+me to think, ma'am--oh yes, madam, you are now," with a swift little
+curtsey--"to think that 'twas all for love and the world lost! That
+'twas a dear delicious elopement, almost as good as running away
+myself! And that all the town would be wild to hear of it, and every
+girl envy me for being in it! Romance? And the world well lost! Oh,
+you deceitful madam! But see if I ever speak to you again! That's all,
+my lady!"
+
+Sophia, with a smile that trembled on the brink of tears, was about to
+crave her pardon, when the approach of the duchess and Sir Hervey
+closed her mouth. "Your sister has gone upstairs?" her Grace said.
+
+"Only to take order for my packing," Sophia answered.
+
+"I have just been talking to your husband," the duchess continued, and
+smiled faintly at the hot blush that at the word rose to Sophia's
+brow. "If you are willing, my dear, you shall keep Lady Betty company
+until he returns."
+
+"Returns?" Sophia exclaimed.
+
+"From Coke Hall," Sir Hervey interposed glibly. "Whither I must go
+to-night, sweet, to give orders for our reception. In the meantime the
+duchess has most kindly offered to take care of you, and has also
+promised that when you go into the country Lady Betty shall go with
+you and keep you company until the duke leaves town."
+
+The tears rose in Sophia's eyes at this double, this wonderful proof
+of his thought for her; and through her tears her eyes thanked him
+though it was only by a swift glance, averted as soon as perceived. In
+a tremulous voice she made her acknowledgments to the duchess. It was
+most kind of her Grace. And any--any arrangement that Sir Hervey
+thought fit to make for her--would be to her liking.
+
+"Dear me," the duchess said laughing, "a most obedient wife. My dear,
+how long do you think you will play the patient Grizel?"
+
+Poor Sophia drooped, blushing under the question, but was quickly
+relieved by Lady Betty. "Oh la!" the young lady cried, "am I really,
+really, to go with her? When ma'am? When?"
+
+"When I choose," the duchess answered sharply. "That's enough for you.
+Thank your stars, and Sir Hervey, miss, that it's not back to the
+schoolroom, as it was to be."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," Lady Betty murmured obediently.
+
+But a little later, when they were alone together in her room, she
+fell upon Sophia, and pinched and tweaked her in a way that implied a
+full pardon. "Oh, you double-faced madam!" she cried. "You sly thing!
+But I'll be even with you! I'll make love to him before your eyes, see
+if I don't! After all I like him better than O'Rourke! You remember:
+
+
+            "'O'Rourke's noble fare
+                Will ne'er be forgot,
+              By those who were there
+                And those who were not!'
+
+
+For Coke, he's as grave as grave! But he's a dear for all that!"
+
+"A dear!" Sophia repeated, opening her eyes.
+
+"Yes, a dear! Not that you need be proud, my lady! I'll soon have his
+heart from you, see if I don't. What'll you say to that?"
+
+But Lady Coke, from whom Sir Hervey had parted gravely a few minutes
+before, did not answer. She sat silent, conjuring up his face--in a
+new light. She did not acknowledge that he was a dear. She felt the
+same shrinking from him, the same fear of him, that had depressed her
+from the moment she knew the knot tied, the thing done. But she began
+to see him in a new light. The duchess liked him, and Lady Betty
+thought him a dear? Would Lady Betty--even Lady Betty have taken him?
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+At that moment, in the little house at the end of Clarges Row, three
+persons sat vowing vengeance over Tom's wedding feast. One with the
+rage of a gamester baffled by an abnormal run of the cards, beaten by
+the devil's own luck, breathed naught but flames and fury, pistols,
+and nose-slitting. The second, who stormed and wept by turns, broke
+things with her hands and gnawed them, in futile passion, with her
+strong white teeth, could have kissed him for that last word. The
+third, mulcted in purse, and uncertain on whom to turn, chattered
+impotent, senile curses. "I shall die a beggar!" he cried; and cursed
+his companions. "I shall die in a ditch! But I'll not die alone, I'll
+not be the only one to suffer!"
+
+"By G----d, I'll show you better than that!" the Irishman answered
+between oaths. "They are three and we are three. Wait! I'll have them
+watched every minute of the day, and by-and-by it'll be our turn. A
+little money----"
+
+"Money!" old Grocott shrieked, clawing the air. And he got up
+hurriedly, and sat down again. "Always money! More money! But you'll
+have none of mine! Not a farthing! Not a farthing more!"
+
+"Why not, fool, if it will bring in a thousand per cent.," Hawkesworth
+growled. The thin veneer of fashion that had duped poor Sophia was
+gone. With the loss of the venture, on which he had staked his all,
+the man stood forth a plain unmitigated ruffian. "Why not?" he
+continued, bending his brows. "D'you think anything is to be done
+without money? And I shall risk more than money, old skinflint!"
+
+The woman looked at the man, her eyes gleaming; her face, under the
+red that splashed it, was livid. "What'll you do?" she muttered,
+"what'll you do?" She had been--almost a lady. The chance would never,
+never, never recur! When she thought of what she had lost, and how
+nearly she had won it, she was frantic. "What'll you do?" she
+repeated.
+
+
+             "Hark, I hear the sound of coaches
+              The hour of attack approaches,
+              And turns our lead to gold!"
+
+
+Hawkesworth hummed for answer. "Gold is good, but I'll wait my
+opportunity, and I'll have gold and--a pound of flesh!"
+
+"Ah!" she said thirstily. And then to her father: "Do you hear, old
+man? You'll give him what he wants."
+
+"I'll not!" he screamed. "I shall die a beggar! I shall die in a
+ditch! I tell you I----" his voice suddenly quavered off as he met his
+daughter's eyes. He was silent.
+
+"I think you will," she said.
+
+"I think so," the Irishman murmured grimly.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV
+
+                           THE FIRST STAGE
+
+
+A week later the sun of a bright May morning shone on King's Square,
+once known as Monmouth, now as Soho, Square. Before the duke's town
+house on the east side of the Square--on the left of the King's Statue
+which then, and for many years to come, faced Monmouth House--a
+travelling carriage waited, attended by a pair of mounted grooms, and
+watched at a respectful distance by a half-circle of idle loungers. It
+was in readiness to convey Lady Coke and Lady Betty Cochrane into
+Sussex. On the steps of the house lounged no less a person than the
+duke himself; who, unlike his proud Grace of Petworth, was at no pains
+to play a part. On the contrary, he sunned himself where he pleased,
+nor thought it beneath him to display the anxiety on his daughter's
+account which would have become a meaner man. He knew, too, what he
+was about in the present matter; neither the four sturdy big-boned
+horses, tossing their tasselled heads, nor the pair of armed
+outriders, nor Watkyns, Sir Hervey's valet, waiting hat in hand at the
+door of the chariot, escaped his scrutiny. He had the tongue of a
+buckle secured here, and a horse's hoof lifted there--and his Grace
+was right, there was a stone in it. He inquired if the relay at
+Croydon was ordered, he demanded whether it was certain that Sir
+Hervey's horses would meet them at Lewes. Finally--for he knew that
+part of the country--he asked what was the state of the roads beyond
+Grinstead, and whether the Ouse was out.
+
+"Not to hurt, your Grace," Watkyns who had come up with the carriage
+answered. "The roads will be good if no more rain falls, if your Grace
+pleases."
+
+"You will make East Grinstead about five, my man?"
+
+"'Tween four and five, your Grace, we should."
+
+"And Lewes--by two to-morrow?"
+
+The servant was about to answer when the duchess and the two young
+ladies, followed by Lady Betty's woman, appeared at the duke's elbow.
+The duchess, holding a fan between her eyes and the sun, looked
+anxiously at the horses. "I don't like them to be on the road alone,"
+she said. "Coke should have come for them. My dear," she continued,
+turning to Sophia, "your husband should have come for you instead of
+sending. I don't understand such manners, and a week married."
+
+Sophia, blushing deeply, did not answer. She knew quite well why Sir
+Hervey had not come, and she was thankful when Lady Betty took the
+word.
+
+"Oh ma'am," the child cried, "I am sure we shall do well enough; 'tis
+the charmingest thing in the world to be going a journey, and this
+morning the most delicious of all mornings. We are going to drive all
+day, and at night lie at an inn, and tell one another a world of
+secrets. I declare I could jump out of my skin! I never was so happy
+in my life!"
+
+"And leaving us!" her Grace said in a tone of reproach.
+
+Lady Betty looked a trifle dashed at that, but her father pinched her
+ear. "Leaving town, too, Bet," he said good-naturedly. "That's more
+serious, isn't it?"
+
+"I am sure, sir, I--if my mother wishes me to stay!"
+
+"No, go, child, and enjoy yourself," the duchess answered kindly. "And
+I hope Lady Coke may put some sense into that feather brain of yours.
+My dear," she continued, embracing Sophia, "you'll take care of her?"
+
+"I will, I will indeed!" Sophia cried, clinging to her. "And thank you
+a thousand times, ma'am, for your kindness to me."
+
+"Pooh, pooh, 'tis nothing," her Grace said. "But all the same," she
+added, her anxiety returning, "I wish Sir Hervey were with you, or you
+had not those jewels."
+
+"Coke should have thought of it," the duke answered. "But there, kiss
+Bet, my love, and tell her to be a good puss. The sooner they are
+gone, the sooner they will be there."
+
+"You have your cordial, Betty?" the duchess asked anxiously.
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"And the saffron drops, and your 'Holy Living'? Pettitt," to the
+woman; "you'll see her Ladyship uses the face wash every morning, and
+wears her warm night-rail. And see that the flowered chintz is aired
+before she puts it on."
+
+"Yes, sure, your Grace."
+
+"And I hope you'll come back safe, and won't be robbed!"
+
+"Pooh, pooh!" the duke said. "Since Cook was hanged last year--and he
+was ten times out of eleven at Mimms and Finchley--there has been
+nothing done on the Lewes Road. And they are too strong to be stopped
+by one man. You have been reading Johnson's _Lives_, and are
+frightening yourself for nothing, my dear. There, let them go, and
+they'll be in Lewes two hours before nightfall. A good journey, my
+lady, and my service to Sir Hervey."
+
+"I should not mind if it were not for the child's jewels," her Grace
+muttered in a low tone.
+
+"Pooh, the carriage might be robbed twenty times," the duke answered,
+"and they would not be found--where they are. Good-bye, Bet. Good-bye!
+Be a good girl, and say your prayers!"
+
+"And mind you use the almond wash," her Grace cried.
+
+Lady Betty cried "yes," to everything, and, amid a fire of similar
+advices, the two were shut into the chariot. From the window Lady
+Betty continued to wave her handkerchief, until, Watkyns and the woman
+having taken their seats outside, the postboys cracked their whips
+and the heavy vehicle moved forward. A moment, and the house and the
+kind wistful faces on the steps disappeared, the travellers swung
+right-handed into Sutton Street, and, rolling briskly through St.
+Giles's and Holborn, were presently on London Bridge, at that time the
+only link connecting London and Southwark.
+
+Lady Betty was in a humour that matched the sparkle of the bright May
+morning. She was leaving the delights of town, but she had a journey
+before her, a thing exhilarating in youth; and at the end of that she
+had a vision of lordlings, knights, and country squires, waiting in
+troops to be reduced to despair by her charms. The dazzling surface of
+the stream, as the tide running up from the pool sparkled and
+glittered in the sun, was not brighter than her eyes--that now were
+here, now there, now everywhere. Now she stuck her head out of one
+window, now out of the other; now she flashed a smile at a passing
+apprentice, and left him gasping, now she cast a flower at an
+astonished teamster, or tilted her pretty nose at the odours that
+pervaded the Borough. The grooms rode more briskly for her presence,
+the postboys looked grinning over their shoulders; even the gibbet
+that marked the turn to Tooting failed to depress her airy spirits.
+
+And Sophia? Sophia sat fighting for contentment. By turns the better
+and the worse mood possessed her. In the better, she thought with
+gratitude of her lot--a lot happy in comparison of the fate which she
+had so narrowly escaped; happy, even in comparison of that fate which
+would have been hers, if, after escaping from Hawkesworth, she had
+been forced to return to her sister's house. If it was good-bye to
+love, if the glow of passion could never be hers, she was not alone.
+She had a friend from whose kindness she had all to expect that any
+save a lover could give; a firm and true friend whose generosity and
+thoughtfulness touched her every hour, and must have touched her more
+deeply, but for that other mood which in its turn possessed her.
+
+In that mood she lived the past again, she thirsted for that which had
+not been hers. She regretted, not her dear Irishman--for he had never
+existed save in her fancy, and she knew it now--but the delicious
+thrill, the warm emotion which the thought of him, the sight of him,
+the sound even of his voice, had been wont to arouse. In this mood she
+could not patiently give up love; she could not willingly resign the
+woman's dream. In this mood she cried out on the prudence that, to
+save her from the talk of a week, had deprived her of love for a life.
+She saw in her husband's kindness, calculation; in his thoughtfulness,
+the wisdom of the serpent. She shook with resentment, and burnt with
+shame.
+
+And then, even while she thought of him most harshly, her conscience
+pricked her, and in a moment she was in the melting temper; while Lady
+Betty chattered by her side, and town changed to country, and, leaving
+Brixton Causey, they rattled by the busy inns of Streatham, with the
+church on their right and the hills rolling upward leftwise to the
+blue.
+
+Four and a half miles to Croydon and then dinner. "Now let me see
+them," Lady Betty urged. "Do, that's a dear creature! Here we are
+quite safe!"
+
+Sophia pleaded that it was too near town. "Wait until we are through
+Croydon," she said. "They say, you know, the nearer town, the greater
+the danger!"
+
+"Then, as soon as we are out of Croydon?" Lady Betty cried, hugging
+her. "You promise?"
+
+"Yes, I promise."
+
+"Oh, I know if they were mine I should be looking at them all day!"
+Lady Betty rejoined; and then shrieked and threw herself back in the
+carriage as they passed Croydon gibbet that stood at the ninth
+milestone, opposite the turn to Wellington. The empty irons swaying in
+the wind provided her with shudders until the carriage drew up in
+Croydon Street, where with recovered cheerfulness, the ladies alighted
+and dined at the Crown, under the eye and protection of Watkyns. After
+a stay of an hour, they took the road again up Banstead Downs, where
+they walked a little at the steeper part of the way, but presently
+outstripping the carriage above the turn to Reigate, grew frightened
+in that solitude, and were glad to step in again. So down and up, and
+down again through the woods about Coulsdon, where the rabbits peered
+at them through the bracken, and raising their white scuts, loped away
+at leisure to their burrows.
+
+"Now!" Lady Betty cried, when they were again in the full glare of the
+afternoon sun. "Now is the time! There is no one within a mile of us.
+The grooms," she continued, after putting out her head and looking
+back, "are half a mile behind."
+
+Sophia nodded reluctantly. "You must get up, then," she said.
+
+Lady Betty did so, and Sophia, to whom the secret had been committed
+the day before, lifted the leather valance that hung before the seat.
+Touching a spring she drew from the apparently solid woodwork of the
+seat--which was no more than three inches thick, so that a mail could
+be placed beneath it--a shallow covered drawer about twenty inches
+wide. She held this until Lady Betty had dropped the valance, and the
+two could take their seats again. Then she inserted a tiny key which
+she took from her bodice, into a keyhole cunningly placed at the side
+of the drawer--so that when the latter was in its place the keyhole
+was invisible. She turned the key, but before she raised the lid, bade
+Lady Betty look out of the window again, and assure herself that the
+grooms were at a distance.
+
+"You provoking creature!" Lady Betty cried. "They are where they
+were--a good half-mile behind. And--yes, one of them has dismounted,
+and is doing something to his saddle. Oh! let me look, I am dying to
+see them!"
+
+Sophia raised the lid, and her companion gasped, then screamed with
+delight. Over the white Genoa of the jewel case shone, and rippled,
+and sparkled in rills of liquid fire, a necklace, tiara, and bracelet
+of perfect stones, perfectly matched. Lady Betty had expected much;
+her mother had told her that, at the coronation of '27, Lady Coke's
+jewels had taken the world by storm; and that no one under the rank of
+a peeress had worn any like them. But reality exceeded imagination;
+she could not control her delight, admiration, envy. She hung over the
+tray, her eyes bright as the stones they reflected, her cheeks
+catching the soft lustre of the jewels.
+
+"Oh, ma'am, now I know you are married!" she cried. "Things like these
+are not for poor lambkins! I vow I grow afraid of you. My Lady Brook
+will have nothing like them, and couldn't carry them if she had! She'd
+sink under them, the wee thing! And my Lady Carteret won't do better,
+though she is naught but airs and graces, and he's fifty-five if he's
+a day! When you go to the Drawing-Room, they'll die of envy. And to
+think the dear things lie under that dingy valance! I declare, I
+wonder they don't shine through!"
+
+"Sir Hervey's father planned the drawer," Sophia explained, "for the
+carriage he built for his wife's foreign tour. And when Sir Hervey had
+a new carriage about six years ago, the drawer was repeated as a
+matter of course. Once his mother was stopped and robbed when she had
+the diamonds with her, but they were not found."
+
+"And had you never seen them until yesterday?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"And he'd never told you about them until they sent them from the
+bank, with that note?"
+
+Sophia sighed as she glanced at the jewels. "He had not mentioned
+them," she said.
+
+Lady Betty hugged her ecstatically: "The dear devoted man!" she cried.
+"I vow you are the luckiest woman in the world! There's not a girl in
+town would not give her two eyes for them! And mighty few would not be
+ready to sell themselves body and soul for them! And he sends them to
+you with scarce a word, but 'Lady Coke from her husband!'--and where
+they are to be hidden to travel. I vow," Lady Betty continued gaily,
+"if I were in your shoes, my dear, I should jump out of my skin with
+joy! I--why what's the matter, are you ill?"
+
+For Sophia had suddenly burst into violent weeping; and now, with the
+diamonds lying in her lap, was sobbing on the other's shoulder as if
+her heart would break. "If you knew!" was all she could say: "If you
+knew!"
+
+The young girl, amazed and frightened, patted her shoulder, tried to
+soothe her, asked her again and again: What? If she only knew what?
+
+"The sight of them kills me!" Sophia cried, struggling in vain with
+her emotion. "They are not mine! I have no--no right to them!"
+
+Lady Betty raised her pretty eyebrows in despair. "But they are
+yours," she said. "Your husband has given them to you."
+
+"I would rather he killed me!" Sophia cried; her feelings, overwrought
+for a week past, finding sudden vent.
+
+Lady Betty gasped. "Oh!" she said. "I don't understand, I am afraid.
+Doesn't he"--in an awestruck tone--"doesn't he love you, then?"
+
+"He?" Sophia cried bitterly. "Oh yes, I suppose he does. He pities me
+at any rate. It's I----"
+
+"You don't love him?"
+
+Sophia shook her head.
+
+The younger girl shivered. "That must be--horrible," she whispered.
+
+Her tone was so grave that Sophia raised her head, and smiled drearily
+through her tears. "You don't understand yet," she said. "It's only a
+form, our marriage. He offered to marry me to save me from scandal.
+And I agreed. But since he gave me the jewels that were his mother's,
+I--I am frightened, child. I know now that I have done wrong. I should
+not have let him persuade me."
+
+"Why did you?" Lady Betty asked softly.
+
+Sophia told her, with all the circumstances of Hawkesworth's villainy,
+Tom's infatuation, her own dilemma, Sir Hervey's offer, and the terms
+of it.
+
+After a brief silence, "It was generous," Lady Betty said, her eyes
+shining. "I think I should--I think I could love him, my Lady Coke.
+And since that, you have only seen him one day?"
+
+"That is all."
+
+"And he kept his word? I mean--he wasn't silly?"
+
+"No."
+
+"He has been kind too. There is no denying that?"
+
+"It is that which is killing me!" Sophia cried with returning
+excitement. "It is his kindness kills me, girl! Cannot you understand
+that?"
+
+Lady Betty declined to say she could. And for quite a long time she
+was silent. She sat gazing from the carriage, her eyes busied, to all
+appearance, with the distant view of Godstone Church; but a person
+watching her closely might have detected a gleam of mischief, a sudden
+flash of amusement that leapt into them as she looked; and that could
+scarcely have had to do with this church. She seemed at a loss,
+however, for matter of comfort; or she was singularly unfortunate in
+the choice of it. For when she spoke again she could hit on no better
+topic to compose Sophia's mind than a long story, which the naughty
+girl had no right to know, of Sir Hervey's dealings with his old
+flames. It is true, nods and winks formed so large a part of the tale,
+and the rest was so involved, that Sophia could not even arrive at the
+ladies' names. "But," as Lady Betty concluded mysteriously, "it may
+serve to ease your mind, my dear. You may be sure he won't trouble you
+long. La! child, the things I've heard of him--but there, I mustn't
+tell you."
+
+"No," Sophia answered primly. "Certainly not, if you please."
+
+"Of course not. But you may take it from me, the first pretty face he
+sees----why, Sophy! what is it! What is it?"
+
+No wonder she screamed. Sophia had gripped her arm with one hand; with
+the other she was striving to cover the treasure that lay forgotten on
+her lap. "What is it?" Betty repeated frantically. There is nothing
+more terrifying than a silent alarm ill-understood.
+
+The next moment she saw--and understood. Beside Sophia's window,
+riding abreast of the carriage, in such a position that only his
+horse's head, by forging an instant to the front, had betrayed his
+presence, was a cloaked stranger. Lady Betty caught no more than a
+glimpse of him, but that was enough. Apart from the doubt how long he
+had ridden there, inspecting the jewels at his leisure, his appearance
+was calculated to scare less nervous travellers. Though the day was
+mild, he wore a heavy riding cloak, the collar of which rose to the
+height of his cheek bone, where it very nearly met the uncocked leaf
+of his hat. Between the two, an eye bright and threatening gleamed
+forth. The rest of his features were lost in the depths of a fierce
+black riding wig; but his great holsters, and long swinging sword,
+seemed to show that his errand was anything but peaceful.
+
+The moment his one eye met Lady Betty's gaze, he fell back; and that
+instant Sophia used to close the jewel case, and turn the key. To
+lower the drawer to the floor of the carriage, and cover it with her
+skirts was the work of a second, then still trembling, she put out her
+head, and looked back along the road. The man had pulled his horse
+into a walk, and was now a hundred paces behind them. Even at that
+distance, his cloaked figure as he lounged along the turf beside the
+track, loomed a dark blot on the road.
+
+Sophia drew in her head. "Quick!" she cried. "Do you stand up and
+watch him, Betty, while I put the case away. Tell me in a moment if he
+comes on or is likely to overtake us."
+
+Lady Betty complied. "He is walking still," she said, her head out
+on one side. "Now the grooms--lazy beasts, they should have been
+here--are passing him, La, what a turn it gave me. He had an eye--I
+hope to goodness we shall never meet the wretch again."
+
+"I hope we may never meet him after nightfall," Sophia answered with a
+shudder. And she clicked the drawer home, dropped the valance in front
+of the seat, and rose from her knees.
+
+"I noticed one thing, the left hand corner of his cloak was patched,"
+Lady Betty said, as she drew in her head. "And I should know his horse
+among a hundred: chestnut, with white forelegs and a scarred knee."
+
+"He saw them, he must have seen them!" Sophia cried in great distress.
+"Oh, why did I take them out!"
+
+"But if he meant mischief he would have stopped us then," Lady Betty
+replied. "The grooms were half a mile behind, and I'll be bound
+Watkyns was asleep."
+
+"He dared not here, because of these houses," Sophia moaned, as they
+rolled by a small inn, the outpost of the little hamlet of New Chapel
+Green, between Lingfield and Turner's Heath. "He will wait until we
+are in some lonely spot, in a wood, or crossing a common, or----"
+
+"Sho!" Lady Betty cried contemptuously--the jewels were not hers, and
+weighed less heavily on her mind. "We are only five miles from
+Grinstead, see, there is the milestone, and it is early in the
+afternoon. He'll not rob us here if he be Turpin himself."
+
+"All the same," Sophia cried, "I wish the diamonds were safe at
+Lewes."
+
+"Why, child, they are your own!" Lady Betty answered. "If you lose
+them, whose is the loss?"
+
+But Sophia, whether she agreed or had her own views of the fact,
+appeared to draw little comfort from it. As the horses slowly climbed
+the hill and again descended the slope to Felbridge, her head was more
+often out of the window than in the carriage. She beckoned to the
+grooms to come on; she prayed Watkyns, who, sure enough, was asleep,
+to be on the alert; she bade the post-boys whip on. Nor did she show
+herself at ease, or heave a sigh of relief, until the gibbet at the
+twenty-ninth milestone was safely passed, and the carriage rattled
+over the pavement of East Grinstead.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+                          A SQUIRE OF DAMES
+
+
+To one of the travellers the bustle of the town was more than welcome.
+It was Thursday, market day at East Grinstead, and the post-boys
+pushed their way with difficulty through streets teeming with chapmen
+and butter women, and here bleating with home-going sheep, there alive
+with the squeaking of pigs. Outside the White Lion a jovial half-dozen
+of graziers were starting home in company; for the roads were less
+safe on market evenings than on other days. In front of the Dorset
+Arms, where our party was to lie, a clumsy carrier's wain, drawn by
+oxen, stood waiting. The horse-block was beset by country bucks
+mounting after the ordinary; and in the yard a post-chaise was being
+wheeled into place for the night by the united efforts of two or three
+stable-boys. Apparently it had just arrived, for the horses, still
+smoking, were being led to the stable, through the press of beasts and
+helpers.
+
+Sophia heaved a sigh of relief as the stir of the crowd sank into her
+mind. When Lady Betty, after they had washed and refreshed themselves,
+suggested that, until the disorder in the house abated, they would be
+as well strolling through the town, she made no demur; and, followed
+at a distance by one of the grooms, they sallied forth. The first
+thing they visited was the half-ruined church. After this they sat
+awhile in the churchyard, and then from the Sackville Almshouses
+watched the sun go down behind the heights of Worth Forest. They were
+both pleased with the novel scene, and Lady Betty, darting her arch
+glances hither and thither, and counting a score of conquests, drew
+more than one smile from her grave companion. True, these were but
+interludes, and poor Sophia, brooding on the future, looked sad twice
+for once she looked merry; but their fright in the carriage had no
+part in her depression. She had forgotten it in the sights of this
+strange place, when, almost at the inn door, it was forced on her
+attention.
+
+She happened to look back to see if the groom was following, and to
+her horror caught sight, not of the groom, but of the cloaked
+stranger. It was evident he was dogging them, for the moment his eyes
+met hers he vanished from sight. There were still many abroad, belated
+riders exchanging last words before they parted, or topers cracking
+jokes through open windows; and the man was lost among these before
+Lady Betty had even seen him.
+
+But Sophia had seen him; and she felt all her terrors return upon her.
+Trembling at every shadow--and the shadows were thickening, the
+streets were growing dark--she hurried her companion into the inn, nor
+rested until she had assured herself that the carriage was under lock
+and key in the chaise-house. Even then she was in two minds;
+apprehending everything, seeing danger in either course. Should she
+withdraw the diamonds from their hiding-place and conceal them about
+her person, or in the chamber which she shared with Lady Betty? Or
+should she leave them where they were in accordance with Sir Hervey's
+directions?
+
+She decided on the last course in the end, but with misgivings. The
+fate of the jewels had come in her mind to be one with her fate. To
+lose them while they were in her care seemed to her one with
+appropriating them; and from that she shrank with an instinctive,
+overmastering delicacy, that spoke more strongly than any words of the
+mistake she had made in her marriage. They were his family jewels, his
+mother's jewels, the jewels of the women of his house; and she panted
+to restore them to his hands. She felt that only by restoring them to
+him safe, unaccepted, unworn, could she retain her self-respect, or
+her independence.
+
+Naturally, Lady Betty found her anxiety excessive; and at supper,
+seeing her start at every sound, rallied her on her timidity. Their
+bedroom was at the back of the house, and looked through one window on
+the inn-yard and the door of the chaise-house. "I see clearly you
+would have been happier supping upstairs," Lady Betty whispered,
+taking advantage of an instant when the servants were out of earshot.
+"You do nothing but listen. Shall I go up, as if for my handkerchief,
+and see that all is right?"
+
+"Oh, no, no!" Sophia cried.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, is what you mean," the other retorted good-naturedly;
+and was half-way across the room before Sophia could protest. "I am
+going upstairs for something I've forgotten, Watkyns," Lady Betty
+cried, as she passed the servant.
+
+Sophia, listening and balancing her spoon in her hands, awaited her
+return; and the moments passed, and passed, and still Lady Betty did
+not come back. Sophia grew nervous and more nervous; rose at last to
+follow her, and sat down again, ashamed of the impulse. At length,
+when the waiter had gone out to hasten the second course, and Watkyns'
+back was turned, she could bear it no longer. She jumped up and
+slipped out of the room, passed two gaping servants at the foot of the
+stairs, and in a moment had darted up. Without waiting for a light,
+she groped her way along the narrow passage that led to the room she
+shared with Lady Betty. A window on the left looked into the inn-yard
+and admitted a glimmer of reflected light; but it was not this, it was
+something she heard as she passed it, that brought her to a sudden
+stand beside the casement. From the room she was seeking came the
+sound of a low voice and a stifled laugh. An instant Sophia fancied
+that Lady Betty was lingering there talking to her woman; and she felt
+a spark of annoyance. Then--what she thought she could never remember.
+For her eyes, looking mechanically through the panes beside her, saw,
+a little short of the fatal chaise-house, a patch of bright light,
+proceeding doubtless from the unshuttered window of the bedroom, and
+erect in the full of it the cloaked figure of the strange rider--of
+the man who had dogged them!
+
+He was looking upwards at the illumined window, his hat raised a
+little from his head, the arm that held it interposed between Sophia's
+eyes and his face. Still she knew him. She had not a doubt of his
+identity. The candle rays fell brightly on the thick black wig, on the
+patched corner of the cloak, raised by the pose of his arm; and in a
+whirl of confused thoughts and fears, Sophia felt her knees shake
+under her.
+
+A fresh whisper in the room was the signal for a low giggle. The man
+bowed and moved a step nearer, still bowing; which brought his knees
+against the sloping shaft of a cart that was set conveniently beneath
+the window. Sophia--a shiver running down her back as she saw how
+easily he could ascend--began to understand. The villain was tampering
+with Lady Betty's maid! Probably he was already in league with the
+woman; certainly, to judge by the sounds that reached the listener's
+ear--for again she caught a suppressed titter--he was on terms with
+her.
+
+Sophia felt all a woman's rage against a woman, and wasted no further
+time on thought. She had courage and to spare, her fears for the
+jewels notwithstanding. In a twinkling she was at the door, had flung
+it open, and, burning with indignation, had bounced into the middle of
+the room, prepared to annihilate the offender. Yet not prepared for
+what she saw. In the room was only Lady Betty; who, as she entered,
+sprang from the window and stood confronting her with crimson cheeks.
+
+"Betty!" Sophia gasped. "Betty?" And stood as if turned to stone; her
+face growing harder and harder, and harder. At last--"Lady Betty, what
+does this mean?" she asked in icy accents.
+
+The girl giggled and shook her hair over her flushed face and wilful
+eyes; but did not answer.
+
+"What does it mean?" Sophia repeated. "I insist on an answer."
+
+Lady Betty pouted and half turned her back. "Oh, la!" she cried, at
+last, pettishly shrugging her shoulders, "Don't talk like that! You
+frighten me out of my wits! Instead of talking, we'd better close the
+window, unless you want him to be as wise as we are."
+
+"Him!" Sophia cried, out of patience with the girl's audacity. "Him?
+Am I to understand, then, that you have been talking through the
+window? You a young lady in my company, to a man whom you never saw
+until to-day? A strange man met on the road, and of whose designs you
+have been warned? I cannot, I cannot believe it! I cannot believe my
+eyes, Lady Betty!" she continued warmly. "You, at this window, at this
+hour, talking to a common stranger? A stranger of whose designs I have
+warned you? Why, if your woman, miss, if your woman were to be guilty
+of such conduct, I could hardly believe it! I could hardly believe
+that I saw aright!"
+
+And honestly Sophia was horrified; shocked, as well as puzzled. So
+that it seemed to her no more than fitting, no more than a late
+awakening to decency when the culprit, who had accomplished--but with
+trembling fingers--the closing of the window, pressed her handkerchief
+to her eyes, and flung herself on the bed. Sophia saw her shoulders
+heave with emotion, and hoped that at last she understood what she had
+done; that at last she appreciated what others would think of such
+reckless, such inexplicable conduct. And my lady prepared to drive
+home the lesson. Judge of her surprise, when Lady Betty cut her first
+word short by springing up as hastily as she had thrown herself down,
+and disclosed a face convulsed not with sorrow, but with laughter.
+
+"Oh, you silly, silly thing!" she cried; and before Sophia could
+prevent her, she had cast her arms round her neck, and was hugging her
+in a paroxysm of mirth: "Oh, you dear, silly old thing! And it's only
+a week since you eloped yourself!"
+
+"I!" Sophia cried, enraged by the ungenerous taunt. And she tried
+fiercely but vainly to extricate herself.
+
+"Yes, you! You! And were married at Dr. Keith's chapel! And now how
+you talk! Mercy, ma'am, butter won't melt in your mouth now!"
+
+"Lady Betty!" Sophia cried, in a cold rage, "let me go! Do you hear?
+Let me go! How dare you talk to me like that? How dare you?" she
+continued, trembling with indignation. "What has my conduct to do with
+yours? Or how can you presume to mention it in the same breath? I may
+have been foolish, I may have been indiscreet, but I never, never,
+stooped to----"
+
+"Call it the highway at once," said the unrepentant one, "for I know
+that is what you have in your mind."
+
+Sophia gasped. "If you can put it so clearly," she said, "I hope you
+have more sense than appears from the--the----"
+
+"Lightness of my conduct!" Lady Betty cried, with a fresh peal of
+laughter. "Oh, you dear, silly old thing, I would not be your daughter
+for something!"
+
+"Lady Betty?"
+
+"You dear, don't you Lady Betty me! A highwayman? Oh, it is too
+delicious! Too diverting! Are you sure it isn't Turpin come to life
+again? Or Cook of Barnet? Or the gallant Macheath from the Opera? Why,
+you old dear, the man is nothing better nor worse than a--lover!"
+
+"A lover?" Sophia cried.
+
+"Well, yes--a lover," Lady Betty repeated, lightly enough; but to her
+credit be it said, she did blush at last--a little, and folded her
+handkerchief into a hard square and looked at it with an air of--of
+comparative bashfulness. "Dear me, yes--a lover. He followed us from
+London; and, to make the deeper impression, I suppose, made a Guy
+Fawkes of himself! That's all!"
+
+"All?" Sophia said in amazement.
+
+"Yes, all, all, all!" Lady Betty retorted, ridding herself in an
+instant of her penitent air. "All! And aren't you glad, my dear, to
+find that you were frightening yourself for nothing!"
+
+"But who is he--the gentleman?" Sophia asked faintly.
+
+"Oh, he is not a gentleman," the little flirt answered, tossing her
+head with pretty but cruel contempt. "He's"--with a giggle--"at least
+he calls himself--Mr. Fanshaw."
+
+"Mr. Fanshaw?" Sophia repeated; and first wondered and then remembered
+where she had heard the name. "Can it be the same?" she exclaimed,
+reddening in spite of herself as she met Lady Betty's eye. "Is he a
+small, foppish man, full of monstrous airs and graces, and--and rather
+underbred?"
+
+Lady Betty clapped her hands. "Yes," she cried. "Drawn to the life!
+Where did you see him? But I'll tell you if you like. 'Twas at Lane's,
+ma'am!"
+
+"Yes, it was," Sophia answered a trifle sternly. "But how do you know,
+miss?"
+
+"Well, I do know," Lady Betty answered. And again she had the grace to
+blush and look down. "At least--I thought it likely. Because, you old
+dear, don't you remember a note you picked up at Vauxhall gardens,
+that was meant for me? Yes, I vow you do. Well, 'twas from him."
+
+"But that doesn't explain," Sophia said keenly, "why you guessed that
+I saw him at Lane's shop?"
+
+"Oh," Lady Betty answered, wincing a little. "To be sure, no, it
+doesn't. But he's--he's just Lane's son. There, now you know it!"
+
+"Mr. Fanshaw?"
+
+Lady Betty nodded, a little shamefacedly. "'Tis so," she said. "For
+the name, it's his vanity. He's the vainest creature, he thinks every
+lady is in love with him. Never was such sport as to lead him on. I am
+sure I thought I should have died of laughing before you came in and
+frightened me out of my wits!"
+
+Sophia looked at her gravely. "I am sure of something else," she said.
+
+"Now you are going to preach!" Lady Betty cried; and tried to stop her
+mouth.
+
+"No, I am not, but you gave me a promise, in my room in Arlington
+Street, Betty. That you would have nothing more to do with the writer
+of that note."
+
+Lady Betty sat down on the bed and looked piteously at her companion.
+"Oh, I didn't, did I?" she said; and at last she seemed to be really
+troubled. "I didn't, did I? 'Twas only that I would not correspond
+with him. I protest it was only that. And I have not. I've not,
+indeed," she protested. "But when I found him under the window, and
+heard that he was Mohocking about the country in that monstrous cloak
+and hat, for all the world like the Beggar's Opera on horseback, and
+all for the love of me, it was not in flesh and blood not to divert
+oneself with him! He's such a creature! You've no notion what a
+creature it is!"
+
+"I've this notion," Sophia answered seriously. "If you did not
+promise, you will promise. What is more, I shall send for him, and I
+shall tell him, in your presence, that this ridiculous pursuit must
+cease."
+
+"But if he will not?" Lady Betty asked, with an arch look. "I am
+supposed--to have charms, you know?"
+
+"I shall tell your father."
+
+"La, ma'am," the child retorted, with a curtsey, "you are married!
+There is no doubt about that!"
+
+Sophia reddened, but did not answer; and for a moment Betty sat on the
+bed, picking the coverlet with her fingers and looking sulky. On a
+sudden she leapt up and threw her arms round Sophia's neck. "Well, do
+as you like!" she cried effusively. "After all, 'twill be a charming
+scene, and do him good, the fright! Don't think," the little minx
+continued, tossing her head disdainfully, "that I ever wish to see
+him again, or would let him touch me with his little finger! Not I!
+But--one does not like to----"
+
+"We'll have no _but_, if you please," Sophia said gently, but firmly.
+She had grown wondrous wise in the space of a short month. "Whatever
+he is, he is no fit mate for Lady Betty Cochrane, and shall not get
+her into trouble! I'll call your woman, and bid her go find him."
+
+Fortunately the maid knocked at the door at that moment. She came,
+anxious to learn if anything ailed them, and why they did not return
+to finish their supper. They declined to do so, bade her have it
+removed, and a pot of tea brought; then Sophia told her what she
+wanted, and having instructed her, despatched her on her errand.
+
+An assignation, through her woman, was the guise in which the affair
+appeared to Mr. Fanshaw's eyes when he got the message. And great was
+his joy nor less his triumph. Was ever lover, he asked himself, more
+completely or more quickly favoured? Could Rochester or Bellamour, Tom
+Hervey or my Lord Lincoln have made a speedier conquest? No wonder his
+thoughts, always on the sanguine side, ran riot as he mounted the
+stairs; or that his pulses beat to the tune of--
+
+
+              But he so teased me,
+              And he so pleased me,
+              What I did, you must have done!
+
+
+as he followed the maid along the passage.
+
+The only sour in his cup, indeed, arose from his costume. That he knew
+to be better fitted for the road than for a lady's chamber; to be
+calculated rather to strike the youthful eye and captivate the
+romantic imagination at a distance than to become a somewhat puny
+person at short range. As he passed an old Dutch mirror, that stood in
+an angle of the stairs, he made a desperate attempt to reduce the wig,
+and control the cloak; but in vain, it was only to accentuate the
+boots. Worse, his guide looked to see why he lingered, caught him in
+the act, and tittered; after which he was forced to affect a haughty
+contempt and follow. But what would he not have given at that moment
+for his olive and silver, a copy of Mr. Walpole's birth-night suit? Or
+for his French grey and Mechlin, and the new tie-wig that had cost his
+foolish father seven guineas at Protin, the French perruquier's? Much,
+yet what mattered it, since he had conquered? Since even while he
+thought of these drawbacks, he paused on the threshold of his lady's
+chamber, and saw before him his divinity--pouting, mutinous, charming.
+She was standing by the table waiting for him with down cast eyes, and
+the most ravishing air in the world.
+
+Strange to say he felt no doubt. It was his firm belief, born of
+Wycherley and fostered on Crébillon that all women were alike, and
+from the three beauty Fitzroys to Oxford Kate, were wax in the hands
+of a pretty fellow. It was this belief that had spurred him to great
+enterprises, if not as yet, to great conquests; and yet so powerfully
+does virtue impress even the sceptics, that he faltered as he entered
+the room. Besides that ladyship of hers dashed him! He could not deny
+that his heart bounced painfully. But courage! As he recalled the
+invitation he had received, he recovered himself. He advanced,
+simpering; he was ready, at a word, to fall at her feet. "Oh, ma'am,
+'tis a happiness beyond my desert," he babbled--in his heart damning
+his boots, and trying to remember M. Siras' first position. "Only to
+be allowed to wait on your ladyship places me in the seventh heaven!
+Only to be allowed to worship at the shrine of beauty is--is a great
+privilege, ma'am. But to be permitted to hope--that I am not
+altogether--I mean, my lady," he amended, growing a little flustered,
+"that I am not entirely----"
+
+"What?" Lady Betty asked, eyeing him archly, her finger in her mouth,
+her head on one side.
+
+"Indifferent to your ladyship! Oh, I assure your ladyship never in all
+my life have I felt so profound a----"
+
+"Really?"
+
+"A--an admiration of any one, never have I----"
+
+"Said so much to a lady! That, sir, I can believe!"
+
+This time the voice was not Betty's, and he started as if he had been
+pricked. He spun round, and saw Sophia standing beside the fire, a
+little behind the door through which he had entered. He had thought
+himself alone with his inamorata; and his face of dismay was
+ludicrous. "Oh!" he faltered, bowing hurriedly, "I beg your pardon,
+ma'am, I--I did not see you."
+
+"So I suppose," she answered, coldly, "or you would not have presumed
+to say such words to a lady."
+
+He cringed. "I am sure," he stammered, "if I have been wanting in
+respect, I beg her ladyship's pardon! I am sure, I know----"
+
+"Are you sure--you know who you are?" Sophia asked with directness.
+
+He was all colours at once, but strove to mask the wound under a
+pretty sentence. "I trust a gentleman may aspire to--to all that
+beauty has to give," he simpered. "I may not, ma'am, be of her
+ladyship's rank."
+
+"No, it is clear that you are not!" Sophia answered.
+
+"But I am a gentleman."
+
+"The question is, are you?" she retorted. "There are gentlemen and
+gentlemen. What is your claim to that name, sir?"
+
+"S'help me, ma'am!" he exclaimed, affecting the utmost surprise and
+indignation. "The Fanshaws of Warwickshire have been commonly taken
+for such."
+
+"The Fanshaws of Warwickshire?"
+
+"Yes, my lady."
+
+"Perhaps so. It may be so. I do not know them. But the Fanshaws of
+nowhere in particular? Or shall I say the Lanes of Piccadilly?"
+
+His face flamed scarlet below the black wig. His tongue stuck to the
+roof of his mouth. His eyes flickered as if she had threatened to
+strike him. For a moment he was a pitiable sight. Then with a
+prodigious effort, "I--I don't know what you are talking about," he
+muttered hoarsely. "I don't understand you, ma'am." But his smile was
+sickly, and his eye betrayed his misery.
+
+"Don't lie, sir," Sophia said sternly; and, poor little wretch, found
+out and exposed, he writhed under her look of scorn. "We know who you
+are, a tradesman's son, parading in borrowed plumes. What we do not
+know, what we cannot understand," she continued with ineffable
+disdain, "is how you can think to find favour in a lady's eyes. In a
+lady's eyes--you! An under-bred, over-dressed apprentice, who have
+never done anything to raise yourself from the rank in which you were
+born! Do you know, have you an idea, sir, what you are in our eyes? Do
+you know that a lady would rather marry her footman; for, at least, he
+is a man. If you do not, you must be taught, sir, as the puppy is
+taught with the whip. Do you understand me?"
+
+In his deserved degradation, his eyes sought Lady Betty's face. She
+was looking at him gravely; he read no hope in her eyes. What the
+other woman told him then was true; and, ah, how he hated her! Ah, how
+he hated her! He did not know that she scourged in him another's
+offence. He did not know that of her scorn a measure fell on her own
+shoulders; that she had been deluded by such an one as he was himself.
+Above all, he did not know that she was resolved that the child with
+her should not suffer as she had suffered!
+
+He thought that she was moved by sheer wanton brutality; and cringing,
+smarting under the lash of her tongue, seeing himself for the moment
+as others saw him--a mean little jackanapes mimicking his betters--he
+could have strangled her. But he was dumb.
+
+"You had the audacity," Sophia continued, gravely, "to attend me once,
+I remember, and ply me with your foolish compliments! And you have
+written to this lady, you, a shopman----"
+
+"I am not a--a shopman!" he stuttered, writhing.
+
+"In grade you are; it were more honour to you were you one in
+reality!" she retorted. "But I repeat it, you have written to this
+lady, who, the better to teach you a lesson, did not at once betray
+what she thought you. For the future, however, understand, sir. If you
+pester her with attentions, or even cross her path, I will find those
+who will cane you into behaviour. And in such a way that you will not
+forget it! For the rest, let me advise you to get rid of those
+preposterous clothes, change that sword for an ell-wand, and go back
+to your counter. You may retire now. Or no! Pettitt!" Sophia
+continued, as she opened the door, "Pettitt!" to Lady Betty's woman,
+"show this person downstairs."
+
+He sneaked out, dumb. For what was he to say? They were great ladies,
+and he a person, fit company for the steward's room, a little above
+the servants' hall. He bent his head under the maid's scornful eye,
+hurried, stumbling in his boots, down the narrow stairs, nor did he
+breathe until he reached the dark street, where his little chest
+beginning to heave, he burst into scalding tears of rage.
+
+He suffered horribly in his tenderest part--his conceit. He burned
+miserably, impotently, poor weakling, to be revenged. If he could
+bring those proud women to their knees! If he could see them humbled,
+as they had humbled him! If he could show them that he was not the
+poor creature they deemed him! If he could sear their insolent
+faces--the smallpox seize them! If he could--aye, the smallpox seize
+them!
+
+Presently he slunk back to the White Lion, where he had his bed; and,
+finding a fire still burning in the empty taproom--for the evening was
+chilly--he took refuge there, and, laying his head on the beer-stained
+table, wept anew. The next time he looked up he found that a man and
+woman had entered the room, and were standing on the hearth, gazing
+curiously at him.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI
+
+                            THE PAVED FORD
+
+
+If Lady Betty's sprightliness ever deserted her, it returned with the
+morning as regularly as the light. But by Sophia the depressing
+influence of a strange place, viewed through sheets of rain, was felt
+to the full next day. The mind must be strong that does not tinge the
+future with the colours which the eye presents at the moment; and
+her's was nowise superior to the temptation. Her spirits, as she rose
+amid the discomforts of a Sussex inn--and Sussex inns and Sussex roads
+were then reputed among the worst in England--and prepared to continue
+the journey, were at their lowest ebb. She dreaded the meeting, now so
+imminent, with Sir Hervey. She shrank as the bather on the verge of
+the stream shrinks, from the new sphere, the new home, the new duties
+on which the day must see her enter; and enter unsupported by love.
+She was cold, she shook, her knees quaked under her; she had golden
+visions of what might have been, and her heart sobbed as she plucked
+herself from them. To Lady Betty's eye, and in the phrase of the day,
+she had the vapours; alas, she suffered with better reason that the
+fine ladies who had lately made them the fashion.
+
+When they had once set forth, however, the motion and the change of
+outlook, even though it was but a change from dripping eaves to woods
+thrashing in the wet wind, gave something of a fillip to her spirits.
+Moreover, the nearer we come to a dreaded event, the more important
+loom the brief stages that divide us from it. We count by months, then
+by days; at length, when hours only remain, the last meal is an epoch
+on the hither side of which we sit almost content. It was so with
+Sophia when she had once started. They were to dine at Lewes; until
+Lewes was reached she put away the future, and strove to enjoy the
+hours that intervened.
+
+The weather was so foul that at starting they took Lady Betty's maid
+into the carriage, and pitied Watkyns, who had no choice but to sit
+outside, with his hat pulled down to his collar, and the rain running
+out of his pockets. The wild hilly road through Ashdown Forest, that
+on a fine day charms the modern eye, presented to them only dreary
+misty tops and deep sloughy bottoms; the latter so delaying them--for
+twice in the first six miles they stuck fast--that it was noon when
+they reached Sheffield Green. Dane Hill was slowly climbed, the horses
+straining and the wheels creaking; but, this difficulty surmounted,
+they had a view of flatter country ahead, though spread out under
+heavy rains; and they became more hopeful. "We cannot be far from
+Lewes, now," Lady Betty said cheerfully. "I wonder what Watkyns
+thinks. Pettitt, put your head out and ask him."
+
+Pettitt did so, not very willingly, and after exchanging a few words
+with the man drew in a scared face. "He says, my lady, we sha'n't be
+there till half after two at the best," she announced. "Nor then if
+the water is out. He says if it goes on raining another hour, he does
+not know if we shall ever reach it." It will be noticed that Watkyns,
+with the rain running down his back, was a pessimist.
+
+"Ever reach it?" Lady Betty retorted. "What rubbish! But, la, suppose
+we are stopped, and have to lie in the fields? Pettitt, did you ever
+sleep in a field?"
+
+Pettitt fairly jumped with indignation. "Me, my lady!" she cried. "I
+should think I knew better! And was brought up better. Not _I_,
+indeed!"
+
+"Well," Betty answered mischievously, "if we have to sleep in the
+carriage, I give you notice, Pettitt, there'll not be room for you!
+But I daresay you'll be dry enough--underneath, if we choose a nice
+place."
+
+Pettitt's eyes were wide with horror. "Underneath?" she gasped.
+
+"To be sure! Or we might find a haystack," Lady Betty continued, with
+a face of the greatest seriousness. "The men could lie on one side and
+you on the other----"
+
+"Me, my lady! A haystack? Never!"
+
+"Oh, it is no use to say never," Lady Betty answered; "these things
+often happen when one travels. And after all, you would have the one
+side to yourself, and it would be quite nice and proper. And if there
+were no mice or rats in the stack----"
+
+The maid shrieked feebly.
+
+"As there often are in haystacks, I am sure you would do as well as we
+should in the carriage. And--oh, la!" in a different tone, "who is
+that? How he scared me!"
+
+A horseman going the same way had come up with the carriage; as she
+spoke, he passed it at a rapid trot. The two ladies poked their heads
+forward, and followed him with their eyes. "It's Mr. Fanshaw," Sophia
+muttered in great surprise.
+
+"Fanshaw?" Lady Betty cried, springing up in excitement, and as
+quickly sitting down again. "La, so it is! You don't think the
+stupid is going to follow us after what you said? If he does"--with a
+giggle--"I don't know what they'll say at Coke Hall. How he does bump,
+to be sure! And how hot he is!"
+
+"He ought to have returned to London!"
+
+"Well, I'm sure I thought you'd frightened him!" Lady Betty answered
+demurely.
+
+Sophia said nothing, but thought the more. What did the man mean? He
+had collapsed so easily the night before, he had been so completely
+prostrated by her hard words, she had taken it for certain he would
+abandon the pursuit. Yet here he was, still with his back to London,
+still in attendance on them. Was it possible that he had some hold
+over Lady Betty? She asked Pettitt, whose face, as she sat clutching a
+basket and looking nervously out of the window, was a picture of
+misery, where he had lain at East Grinstead.
+
+"At the other inn," Pettitt answered tearfully. "I saw him in the
+street this morning, my lady, talking to two men. I'm sure I little
+thought then that I might have to lie in--oh, Lord ha' mercy, we're
+over!"
+
+She squealed, the ladies clutched one another, the carriage lurched
+heavily. It jolted forward a yard or two at a dangerous slant, and
+came to a sudden stand. The road undermined by the heavy rain had
+given way; and the near wheels had sunk into the hole, while those on
+the other side stood on solid ground. A little more and the carriage
+must have turned over. While Watkyns climbed down in haste, and the
+grooms dismounted, the three inside skipped out, to find themselves
+standing in the rain, in a little valley between two softly-rounded
+hills, that sloped upwards until they were lost in the fog. There was
+nothing else for it; they had to wait with what patience they might,
+until the three servants with a couple of bars, which travellers in
+those days carried for the purpose, had lifted the vehicle by sheer
+strength from the pit into which it had settled. Then word was passed
+to the horses, the postboys cracked their whips, and, with a bound,
+the carriage stood again on firm ground.
+
+So far good; but in surmounting the difficulty, half an hour had been
+wasted. It was nearly two o'clock; they were barely half way to Lewes.
+The patient Watkyns, holding the door for them to enter, advised that
+they could not now be in before four. "If then," he added ominously.
+"I fear, my lady, the ford on this side of Chayley is like to be deep.
+I don't know how 'twill be, my lady, but we'll do our best."
+
+"You must not drown us!" Lady Betty cried gaily; but had better have
+held her tongue, for her woman, between damp and fright, began to cry,
+and was hardly scolded into silence.
+
+So, half-past two, which should have seen them at Lewes, found them
+ploughing through heavy mud at a foot's pace behind sobbing horses;
+the rain, the roads, and the desolate landscape, all bearing out the
+evil repute of Sussex highways. Abreast of the windmill at Plumpton
+by-road they found dry going, which lasted for half a mile, and the
+increase of speed cheered even the despairing Pettitt. But at the foot
+of the descent they stuck fast once more, in a hole ill-mended with
+faggots; and for a fair hundred yards the men had to push and pull.
+They lost another half-hour here, so that it wanted little of
+half-past three when they came, weary and despondent, to the ford
+below Chayley, about six miles short of Lewes. The grooms were mired
+to the knees, Watkyns was little better, all were in a poor humour.
+Lady Betty's woman clung and screeched on the least alarm; and on all
+the steady drizzle and the heavy road had wrought depressingly.
+
+"Shall we have difficulty in crossing?" Sophia asked nervously, as
+they drew towards the ford, and saw a brown line of water swirling
+athwart the road. A horseman and two or three country folk were on the
+bank, gauging the stream with their eyes.
+
+Watkyns shook his head. "I doubt it's not to be done at all, my lady,"
+he said. "Here's one stopped already, unless I am mistaken."
+
+"But we can't stay here," Sophia protested, looking with longing at
+the roofs and spire that rose above the trees beyond the stream. On
+the bank on which they stood was a single hovel of mud, fast melting
+under the steady downpour.
+
+"I'll see what they say, my lady," Watkyns answered, and leaving the
+carriage thirty paces from the water, he went forward and joined the
+little group that conferred on the brink. The grooms moved on also,
+while the leading postboy, standing up in his stirrups, scanned the
+current with evident misgiving.
+
+"'Tis Fanshaw on the horse," Sophia said in a low tone.
+
+"So it is!" Lady Betty answered. "He's afraid to cross, it is clear!
+You don't think we shall have to spend the night here?"
+
+The horses hanging their heads in the rain, the dripping postboys, the
+splashed carriage, the three faces peering anxiously at the flood,
+through which they must pass to gain shelter--a more desolate group it
+were hard to conceive; unless it was that which talked and argued on
+the bank, and from which Watkyns presently detached himself. He came
+back to the carriage.
+
+"It's not to be done, my lady," he said, his face troubled. "There's
+but one opinion of that. It's a mud bottom, they tell me, and if the
+horses dragged the carriage in, they could never pull it through. Most
+likely they wouldn't face the water. It must fall a foot they say,
+before it'll be safe to try it."
+
+The maid shrieked. Even Sophia looked scared. "But what are we to do?"
+she said. "We cannot spend the night here."
+
+"Well, my lady, the gentleman says if we keep down the water this
+side, there's a paved ford a mile lower that should be passable. It's
+not far from Fletching, and we could very likely cross there or get
+shelter in Fletching, if your ladyship should not choose to risk it."
+
+"But how does the gentleman know?" Sophia asked sharply.
+
+"He's of this country," Watkyns answered. "Leastwise bred here, my
+lady, this side of Lewes, and says he knows the roads. It's what he's
+going to do himself. And I don't know what else we can do, if your
+ladyship pleases."
+
+"Well," Sophia said doubtfully, "if you think so?"
+
+"Oh, yes," Lady Betty cried impulsively. "Let us go! We can't sit here
+all night. It must be nearly four now."
+
+"It's all that, my lady."
+
+"And we shall have it dark, if we stay here. And shall really have to
+lie under a haystack. Besides, you may be sure he'll not lead us into
+much danger!" she continued, with a contemptuous look at Mr. Fanshaw.
+"If we take care to go only where he goes we shall not run much risk."
+
+As if he heard what she was saying, Mr. Fanshaw at that moment turned
+his horse, and passed the carriage; he was on his way to take the lane
+that ran down stream. A countryman plodded at his stirrup, and Sir
+Hervey's grooms followed. After them came a second countryman with a
+sack drawn over his shoulders. As this man passed the carriage Sophia
+leaned from the window and called to him.
+
+"Does this lane lead to a better ford, my man?" she asked.
+
+The fellow stared at Lady Betty's pretty face and eager eyes. "Aye,
+there's a ford," he answered, the rain dripping off his nose.
+
+"A better ford than this?"
+
+"Ay, 'tis paved."
+
+"And how far from here is it?"
+
+"A mile, or may be a mile and a bit."
+
+Sophia gave him a shilling. She nodded to Watkyns. "I think we had
+better go," she said. "But I hope it may not be a long round," she
+continued with a sort of foreboding. "I shall be glad when we are in
+the main road again."
+
+The horses' heads once turned, however, things seemed to go better.
+The sky grew lighter, the rain ceased, the lane, willow-lined, and in
+places invaded by the swollen stream that ran beside it, proved to be
+passable. Even the mile and a bit turned out to be no more than two
+miles, and in half an hour, the cavalcade, to which Mr. Fanshaw,
+moving in front, had the air of belonging, reached the ford.
+
+The stream was wide here, but so full that the brown water swept
+swiftly and silently over the shallows. Nevertheless it was evident
+that Lane knew his ground, for, to Lady Betty's astonishment, he rode
+in gallantly, and spurred his horse to the other side, the water
+barely reaching its knees. Encouraged, the postboys cracked their
+whips and followed, the carriage swayed, Pettitt screamed; for a
+moment the water seemed rising all round them, the next they were
+across and jolting up the farther bank.
+
+"There!" Lady Betty cried with a laugh of triumph. "I'd have bet that
+would be all right! When I saw him go through I knew that there was
+not much danger. Six miles more and we shall be in Lewes."
+
+Suddenly, on the bank they had left, a man appeared, waving his arms
+to them. The carriage had turned to the left after crossing, and the
+movement brought the man full into view from the window. "What is it?"
+Sophia asked anxiously. "What is he shouting?" And she called to
+Watkyns to learn what it was.
+
+"I think he wants help to come over, my lady," Watkyns answered. "But
+I'll ask, if your ladyship pleases." And he went back and exchanged
+shouts with the stranger, while the carriage plodded up the ascent.
+By-and-by Watkyns overtook them. "It was only to tell me, my lady,
+that there was a second ford we should have to pass," he explained.
+
+"A second ford?"
+
+"Yes, but the gentleman in front had told me so already, and that it
+was no worse than this, or not much; and a farm close to it, with men
+and a team of oxen, if we had need. I told the man that, my lady, and
+all he answered was, that they had only one small ox at the farm, and
+he kept shouting that, and nothing else. But I could not make much of
+him. And any way we must go on now," Watkyns continued, with just so
+much sullenness as showed he had his doubts. "We came through that
+grandly; and with luck, my lady, we should be in Lewes before dark."
+
+"At any rate let us go as fast as we can," Sophia answered. This late
+mention of a second ford disturbed her, and she looked ahead with
+increasing anxiety.
+
+It was soon plain that to travel quickly in the country in which they
+now found themselves, was impossible. The road followed a shallow
+valley which wound among low hills, crowned with trees. Now the
+carriage climbed slowly over a shoulder, now plunged into a
+roughly-wooded bottom, now dragged painfully up the other side, the
+ladies walking. In places the road was so narrow that the wheels
+barely passed. It was in vain Sophia fretted, in vain Lady Betty
+ceased to jest, that Pettitt cast eyes to heaven in token of
+speechless misery, Watkyns swore and sweated to think what Sir Hervey
+would say of it. There was no place where the carriage could be
+turned; and if there had been, to go back seemed as bad as to go
+forward.
+
+By way of compensation the sky had grown clear; a flood of pale
+evening sunshine gilded the western slopes of the hills. The clumps
+that here and there crowned the summits rose black against an evening
+sky, calm and serene. But far as the eye could reach not a sign of man
+appeared; the country seemed without population. Once indeed through
+an opening on the left, they made out a village spire peeping above a
+distant shoulder; but it was two miles away, and far from their
+direction. The road, at the moment the sun set, wound round a hill and
+began to descend following the bottom of a valley. By-and-by they saw
+before them a row of trees running athwart the way, and marking water.
+Here, then, was the second ford.
+
+The two grooms had ridden for a time with Lane--to give Fanshaw his
+proper name--a couple of hundred yards ahead of the carriage. The
+countrymen had dropped off by tracks invisible to the strange eye, and
+gone to homes as invisible. Watkyns alone was beside the carriage,
+which was still a hundred yards short of the crossing, when one of the
+grooms was seen riding back to it.
+
+He waved his hand in the air as he reined up. "It won't do!" he cried
+loudly. "We can never get over. You can see for yourself, Mr.
+Watkyns."
+
+"I can see a fool for myself!" the valet answered sharply. "What do
+you mean by frightening the ladies?"
+
+The groom--Sophia noticed that his face was flushed--fell sullenly
+behind the carriage without saying more; but the mischief was done.
+Pettitt was in tears, even Sophia and Lady Betty were shaken. They
+insisted on alighting, and joined Lane and the other groom who stood
+silenced by the prospect.
+
+The stream that barred the way was a dozen yards wide from bank to
+bank, the water running strong and turbid with ugly eddies, and a
+greedy swirl. Nor was this the worst. The road on the side on which
+they stood sloped gently into the stream. But on the farther side, the
+bank was high and precipitous, and the road rose so steeply out of the
+water that the little hamlet which crowned the ridge beyond hung high
+above their heads. It needed no experience to see that tired horses,
+fagged by a journey and by the labour of wading through the deep ford,
+would never drag the carriage up so steep a pitch.
+
+Sophia took it all in. She took in also the late evening light, and
+the desolate valley, strewn with sparse thorn trees, down which they
+had come--and from which this was their exit; and her eyes flashed
+with anger. Hitherto, in her desire to have no dealings with Lane, but
+to ignore, if she must bear, his company, she had refrained from
+questioning him; though with each mile of the lengthening distance the
+temptation had grown. Now she turned to him.
+
+"What do you mean, sir," she cried harshly, "by bringing us to such a
+place as this? Is this your good ford?"
+
+He did not look at her, but continued to stare at the water. "It's
+generally low enough," he muttered sulkily.
+
+"Did you expect to find it low to-day? After the rain?"
+
+He did not answer, and Watkyns took the word. "If we had oxen and some
+ropes, or even half a dozen men," he said, "we could get the carriage
+across."
+
+"Then where is his farm? And the team of oxen of which you told us?"
+Sophia continued, addressing Lane again. "Explain, sir, explain! Why
+have you brought us to this place? You must have had some motive."
+
+"The farm is there," he answered sulkily, pointing to the buildings on
+the ridge across the water. "And it would be all right, but--but it
+has changed hands since I was here. And the people are--they tell, me
+that the place has a bad name."
+
+She fancied that he exchanged a look with the groom who stood nearest;
+at any rate the man hastened to corroborate him. "That's true enough!"
+he cried with a hiccough. "It's dangerous, my lady, so they tell me."
+
+Sophia stared. The servant's manner was odd and free. And how did he
+know? "Who told you?" she asked sharply.
+
+"The men who came part of the way with us, my lady."
+
+Sophia turned to Watkyns. "It's a pity you did not learn this before,"
+she said severely. "You should not have allowed this person to decoy
+us from the road. For you, sir," she continued, addressing Lane, "I
+cannot conceive why you have done this, or why you have brought us
+here, but of one thing you may be sure. If there be roguery in this
+you will pay a sharp reckoning for it."
+
+He stood by his horse's head, looking doggedly at the stream, and
+avoiding their eyes. In the silence Lady Betty's woman began to sob,
+until her mistress bade her be quiet for a fool. Yet there was excuse
+for her. With the fading of the light the valley behind them had taken
+on a sinister look. The gnarled thorn trees of the upper part, the
+coarse marsh-grass of the lower, through which a small stream
+trickled, forming sullen pools among stunted alders, spoke of
+desolation and the coming of night. On the steep slopes above them no
+life moved; from the silent hamlet beyond the water came no sound or
+shout of challenge.
+
+Suddenly one of the postboys found a voice. "We could get two of the
+horses through," he said, "and fetch help from Lewes. It cannot be
+more than four or five miles from here, and we could get a fresh team
+there, and with ropes and half a dozen men we could cross well
+enough!"
+
+Sophia turned to him. "You are a man," she said. "A guinea apiece, my
+lads, if you are back with fresh horses in two hours."
+
+"We'll do our best, my lady," the lad answered, touching his cap.
+"'Twill be no fault of ours, if we are not back. We'll try the house
+first. We're six men," he continued, looking round, "and need not be
+afraid of one or two, if they ben't of the best."
+
+But as he turned the nearest groom whispered something in his ear, and
+his face fell. His eyes travelled to the little cluster of buildings
+that crowned the opposite ridge. On the left of the steep road stood
+two cottages; on the right the gable end of a larger house rose
+heavily from the hillside, and from the sparse gorse bushes that
+bestrewed it.
+
+None of the chimneys emitted smoke; but Sophia, following the man's
+eyes, saw that, early as it was, and barely inclining to dusk, a small
+window in the gable end showed a light. "Why," she exclaimed, "they
+have a light! Let us all shout, and they must hear. Why should we be
+afraid? Shout!" she continued, turning to Watkyns. "Do you hear, man?
+What are you afraid of?"
+
+"Nothing, my lady," Watkyns stammered; and he hastened to shout
+"Halloa! Halloa there! House!" But his pale face, and the quaver in
+his voice, betrayed that, in spite of his boast, he was afraid; while
+the faces of the other men, as they stood waiting for an answer, their
+eyes riveted on the house, seemed to show that they shared the
+feeling.
+
+Sophia noticed this, and was puzzled. But the next moment the postboys
+began to free the leaders from the harness, and to mount and ride them
+into the water; and in the excitement of the scene, she forgot her
+suspicions. One of the horses refused to cross, and, wheeling round in
+the stream, came near to unseating its rider. But the postboy
+persisted gamely, the beast was driven in again, and, after hesitating
+awhile, snorting in the shallows, it went through with a rush, and
+plunged up the bank amid an avalanche of mud and stones. The summit of
+the ridge gained, the postboys rose in their stirrups and looked back,
+waving a farewell. The next moment they passed between the cottages
+and the house, and disappeared.
+
+The group, left below, strained their eyes after them. But nothing
+rewarded expectation. No cry came back, no hurrying band appeared,
+laden with help, and shouting encouragement. From the buildings, that
+each moment loomed darker and darker, came no sign of life. Only, as
+the dusk grew, and minute by minute night fell in the valley, the
+light in the window of the gable end waxed brighter and brighter,
+until it shone a single mysterious spark in a wall of blackness.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+                            IN THE VALLEY
+
+
+When Sophia at last lowered her eyes, and with a sigh of
+disappointment turned to her companions--when she awoke, as it were,
+and saw how fast the dusk had gathered round them, and what strides
+towards shutting them in night had made in those few minutes, she had
+much ado to maintain her composure. Lady Betty, little more than a
+child, and but one remove from a child's fear of the dark, clung to
+her; the girl, though a natural high spirit forbade her to expose her
+fears, was fairly daunted by the gloom and eeriness of the scene.
+Pettitt seated on a step of the carriage, weeping at a word and
+shrieking on the least alarm, was worse than useless; while the men,
+now reduced to four, had withdrawn to a distance, whence their voices,
+subdued in earnest colloquy, came at intervals to her ears.
+
+What was to be done? Surely something? Surely they were not going to
+sit there, perhaps through the whole night, doing nothing to help
+themselves, wholly depending on the success of the postboys? That
+could not be; and impatiently Sophia summoned Watkyns. "Are we going
+to do nothing," she asked sharply, "until they come back? Cannot one
+of the grooms return the way we came? There was the man at the
+mill--who warned us? He may know what to do. Send one of the servants
+to him."
+
+"I did ask the gentleman to go," Watkyns answered with a sniff of
+contempt, "or else to ride on with the postboys and guide them. He's
+got us into this scrape, begging your ladyship's pardon, and he ought
+to get us out! But he's all for not separating; says that it isn't
+safe, and he won't leave the ladies. He'll do nothing. He's turned
+kind of stupid like," the valet added with a snort of temper.
+
+Sophia's lip curled. "Then let one of the grooms go," she said, "if
+he's afraid."
+
+Watkyns hesitated. "Well, the truth is, my lady," he said, speaking
+low, and looking warily behind him, "they are fuddled with drink, and
+that's all about it. Where they got the stuff I don't know, but I've
+suspicions."
+
+Sophia stared.
+
+"I think I can guess what is in the gentleman's holsters," Watkyns
+continued, nodding mysteriously. "And I've a notion they had a share
+of it, when my back was turned. But why I cannot say. Only they are
+not to be trusted. I'd go back myself, for it is well to have two
+strings; and I could take one of their horses. But I don't like to
+leave you with him, my lady."
+
+"With the gentleman?"
+
+"Yes, my lady. Seeing he has given the men drink."
+
+Sophia laughed in scorn. "You need not trouble yourself about him,"
+she said. "We are not afraid of him. Besides it is not as if I were
+alone. There are three of us. As to the house opposite, however,
+that's another matter."
+
+He was off his guard. "Oh, there's no fear of that!" he said.
+
+"No? But I thought you said there was."
+
+"This side of the water, my lady--I mean," he answered hurriedly.
+"There are stepping-stones you see a little above here; but they are
+covered now, and the people can't come over."
+
+"You are sure of that?"
+
+"Quite sure, my lady."
+
+"Then you had better go," Sophia said with decision. "We've had nothing
+to eat since midday, and we are half famished. We cannot stay here all
+night."
+
+Watkyns hesitated. "Your ladyship is right," he said, "it is not as if
+you were alone. And the moon will be up in an hour. Still, my lady, I
+don't know as Sir Hervey would like me to leave you?"
+
+But in the end he gave way and went; and was scarcely out of hearing
+before she was sorry that she had sent him, and would fain, had it
+been possible, have recalled him.
+
+Still the darkness was not yet Egyptian; night had not yet completely
+fallen. She could see the figures of Lane and the two servants, seated
+a score of paces away on a fallen thorn tree, to which they had
+tethered their horses. She could dimly make out Lady Betty's face, as
+the girl sat beside her in the carriage, getting what comfort she
+could from squeezing her hand; and Pettitt's, who sat with them, for
+it would have been cruel to exclude her in her state of terror. But
+the knowledge that by-and-by she would lose all this, the knowledge
+that by-and-by they must sit in that gloomy hollow, ignorant of what
+was passing near them, and at the mercy of the first comer, began to
+fill even Sophia with dread. She began to fear even Lane. She
+remembered that he had cause to dislike her; that he might harbour
+thoughts of revenge. If it were true that he had made the men
+drunk----
+
+"It's absurd," Lady Betty whispered, pressing her hand. "He would not
+dare! He's just a clothes peg! You're not afraid of him?"
+
+"No," Sophia answered bravely, "I don't know that I am afraid of any
+one. Only----"
+
+"Only you wish you had not let Watkyns go?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"So do I!" Lady Betty whispered eagerly. "But I did not like to say
+so. I was afraid you would think me afraid. What I can't make out is,
+why some of the men don't go over and get help where the light is,
+instead of riding miles and miles for it."
+
+"They seem to think that the people are not to be trusted."
+
+"But why? What do they think that they are?" Lady Betty asked
+nervously.
+
+"I don't know! Watkyns said something of smugglers from Goudhurst."
+
+"And how does he know?"
+
+"From Lane, I suppose."
+
+"Who brought us here, the little wretch! There!" Betty exclaimed,
+clutching her companion, "what is that? Oh, they have got a candle."
+
+Lane had produced one from his holsters; the men had lighted it.
+By-and-by, he brought it to the carriage, shading it with his hat;
+with a sheepish air he prayed the ladies to make use of it. Sophia
+added distrust to her former contempt of him, and would have declined
+the gift; but Lady Betty's trembling hand prayed mutely for the
+indulgence, and she let him place it in the lanthorn in the carriage.
+It conferred a kind of protection; at least they could now see one
+another's faces.
+
+She soon regretted her easiness, however, for instead of withdrawing
+when he had performed the office, Lane lingered beside the door. He
+asked Lady Betty the time, he went away a little, returned, a flitting
+shadow on the fringe of light; finally he stood irresolute watching
+them, at a distance of a couple of yards. Sophia bore this as long as
+she could; at last, out of patience, she asked him coldly if he had
+not another candle. It was now quite dark.
+
+"No, my lady," he said humbly, "I've no other."
+
+She wished that she had bitten her tongue off before she put the
+question, for now it appeared barbarous to send him into the darkness.
+He seemed, too, to see the advantage he had gained, and by-and-by he
+ventured to take his seat on a log beside the carriage. He cast a
+timid look at Lady Betty, and heaved an audible sigh.
+
+If he hoped to move that hard little heart by sighing, however, he was
+much mistaken. Cheered by the light, Lady Betty was herself again.
+Sophia felt her begin to shake, and knew that in a moment the laugh,
+half hysterical, half mirthful, would break all bounds; and she sought
+to save the situation. "Where are the men?" she said hurriedly. "Will
+you be good enough to ask one of them to come to me?"
+
+Lane rose, and went reluctantly; soon he came stumbling back into the
+circle of light.
+
+"I cannot find them," he stammered, standing by the carriage.
+
+"Not find them?" Sophia answered, staring at him. "Are they not
+there?"
+
+"No, my lady," he returned, glancing nervously over his shoulder and
+back again. "At least I--I can't find them, ma'am. It is very dark.
+You don't think," he continued--and for the first time she discerned
+by the poor light of the candle that he was trembling, "that--that
+they can have fallen into the river?"
+
+His tone alarmed her, even while she thought his fears preposterous.
+"Fallen into the river?" she exclaimed contemptuously. "Nonsense, sir!
+Are you trying to frighten us?" And without waiting for an answer, she
+raised her voice and called "George! George!"
+
+No answer. She stepped quickly from the carriage. "Take me," she said
+imperiously, "to where you left them."
+
+Lady Betty protested; Pettitt clutched at her habit, begged her to
+stay. But Sophia persisted, and groped her way after Lane until he
+came to a stand, his hand on the bark of the fallen blackthorn, beside
+which she had last seen the men. "They were here," he said, in the
+tone of one half dazed. "They were. They were just here."
+
+"Yes, I remember," she answered. And undeterred by Pettitt's frantic
+appeals to her to return, she called the man again and again; still
+she got no answer.
+
+At length, fear of she knew not what came on her, and shaken by the
+silence of the valley through which her voice rang mournfully, she
+hurried back to the carriage, and sprang into it in a panic; the man
+Lane following close at her elbow. It was only when she had taken her
+seat, and found him clutching the door of the carriage and pressing as
+near as he could come, that she saw he was ashake with fear; that his
+eyes were staring, his hair almost on end.
+
+"They've fallen into the river," he cried wildly, his teeth
+chattering. "I never thought of that! They have fallen in, and are
+drowned!"
+
+"Don't be a fool, man!" Sophia answered sharply. She was striving to
+keep fear at bay, while Lady Betty awestricken, clung to her arm. "We
+should have heard a cry or something."
+
+"They were drunk," he whispered. "They were drunk! And now they are
+dead! They are dead! Dead!"
+
+Pettitt shrieked at the word; and Sophia, between fear and rage,
+uncertain whether he was frightened or was trying to frighten them,
+bade him be silent. "If you can do nothing, at least be still," she
+cried wrathfully. "You are worse than a woman. And do you, Pettitt,
+behave yourself. You should be taking care of your mistress, instead
+of scaring her."
+
+The man so far obeyed that he sank on the step of the carriage, and
+was silent. But she heard him moan; and despite her courage she
+shuddered. Fear is infectious; it was in vain she strove against the
+uneasy feelings communicated by his alarm. She caught herself looking
+over her shoulder, starting at a sound; trembling when the candle
+flickered in the lanthorn or the feeble ring of light in which they
+sat, in that hollow of blackness, wavered or varied. By-and-by the
+candle would go out; there was but an inch of it now. Then they would
+be in the dark; three women and this craven, with the hidden river
+running silent, bankful beside them, and she knew not what, prowling,
+hovering, groping at their backs.
+
+On a sudden Lane sprang up. "What is that?" he cried, cowering against
+the door, and clutching it as if he would drag it open and force
+himself in among them. "See, what is it? What is it?"
+
+But it was only the first shaft of light, shot by the rising moon
+through a notch in the hills, that had scared him. It struck the thorn
+tree where the men had sat, and slowly the slender ray widened and
+grew until all the upper valley through which they had come lay bathed
+in solemn radiance. Gradually it flooded the bottom, and dimmed the
+yellow, ineffectual light of their taper; at length only the ridge
+beyond the water remained dark, pierced by the one brooding spark that
+seemed to keep grave vigil in the hill of shadow.
+
+The women breathed more freely; even Pettitt ceased to bewail herself.
+"They will be back soon, with the horses," Sophia said, gazing with
+hopeful eyes into the darkness beyond the ford. "They must have left
+us an hour and more."
+
+"An hour?" Lady Betty answered with a shiver. "Three, I vow! But what
+is the man doing?" she continued, directing Sophia's attention to
+Lane. "I declare he's a greater coward than any of us!"
+
+He was, if the fact that the light which had relieved their fears had
+not removed his stood for anything. He seemed afraid to move a yard
+from them; yet he seldom looked at them, save when a gust of terror
+shook him, and he turned as if to grip their garments. His hand on the
+door of the carriage, he gazed now along the valley down which they
+had come, now towards the solitary light beyond the stream; and it was
+impossible to say which prospect alarmed him the more. Sophia, whom
+his restlessness filled with apprehension, noticed that he listened;
+and that more than once, when Lady Betty spoke or Pettitt complained,
+he raised his hand, as if he took the interruption ill. And the longer
+she watched him, the more she was infected with his uneasiness.
+
+On a sudden he turned to her. "Do you hear anything?" he asked.
+
+She listened. "No," she answered, "I hear nothing but the wind passing
+through the trees."
+
+"Not horses?"
+
+She listened again, inclining her head to catch any sound that might
+come from the other side of the stream. "No," she replied, "I don't."
+
+He touched her shoulder. "Not that way!" he exclaimed. "Not that way!
+Behind us!"
+
+Suddenly Lady Betty spoke. "I do!" she said. "But they are a long way
+off. It's Watkyns coming back. He must have found horses, for I hear
+more than one!"
+
+"It's not Watkyns!" Lane answered and he took two steps from the
+carriage, then came back. "Get out!" he cried hoarsely. "Do you hear?
+Get out! Or don't say I didn't warn you. Do you hear?" he repeated,
+when no one stirred; for Sophia, her worst suspicions confirmed, was
+speechless with surprise, and the others cowered in their places,
+thinking him gone mad. "Get out, get out, and hide if you can. They
+are coming!" he continued wildly. "I tell you they are coming. And it
+is off my shoulders. In ten minutes they'll be here, and if you're not
+hidden, it'll be the worse for you. I've told you!"
+
+"Who are coming!" Sophia said, her lips forming the words with
+difficulty.
+
+"Hawkesworth!" he answered. "Hawkesworth! He and two more, as big
+devils as himself. If you don't want to be robbed and worse, hide,
+hide! Do you hear me?" he continued, pulling frantically at Sophia's
+habit. "I've told you! I've done all I can! It's not on my head!"
+
+For an instant she sat, turned to stone; deaf to the cries, to the
+prayers, to the lamentations of the others. Hawkesworth? The mere name
+of him, with whom she had once fancied herself in love, whom now she
+feared and loathed, as she feared and loathed no other man, stopped
+the current of her blood. "Hawkesworth," she whispered, "Hawkesworth?
+Here? Following us? Do you mean it?"
+
+"Haven't I told you?" Lane answered with angry energy. "He was at
+Grinstead, at the White Lion, last night. I saw him, and--and the
+woman. You'd made me mad, you know, and--and they tempted me! They
+tempted me!" he whined. "And they're coming. Can't you hear them now?
+They are coming!"
+
+Yes, she could hear them now. In the far distance up the valley the
+steady fall of horses' hoofs broke the night silence. Steadily,
+steadily, the hoof-beats drew nearer and nearer. Now they were hushed;
+the riders were crossing a spongy bit, where a spring soaked the
+road--Sophia could remember the very place. Now the sound rose louder,
+nearer, more fateful. Trot-trot, trot-trot, trot-trot! Yes, they were
+coming. They were coming! In five minutes, in ten minutes at most they
+would be here!
+
+It was a crisis to try the bravest. Round them the moonlight flooded
+the low wide mouth of the valley. As far as the eye reached, all was
+bare and shelterless. A few scattered thorn trees, standing singly and
+apart, mocked the eye with a promise of safety, which a second glance
+showed to be futile. The only salient object was the carriage stranded
+beside the ford, a huge dark blot, betraying their presence to eyes a
+furlong away. Yet if they left its shelter, whither were they to turn,
+where to hide themselves? Sophia, her heart beating as if it would
+suffocate her, tried to think, tried to remember; while Lady Betty
+clung to her convulsively, asking what they were to do, and Pettitt,
+utterly overcome, sobbed at the bottom of the carriage, as if she were
+safer there.
+
+And all the time the tramp of the approaching horses, borne on the
+night breeze, came clearer and sharper, clearer and sharper to the
+ear; until she could distinguish the ring of bit and bridle as
+the men descended the valley. She looked at Lane. The craven was
+panic-stricken, caught hither and thither, by gusts of cowardice;
+there was no help there. Her eye passed to the river, and her heart
+leapt, for in the shadowed bank on the other side she read hope and a
+chance. There in the darkness they could hide; there--if only they
+could find the stepping-stones which Watkyns had said were upstream.
+
+Quick as thought she had Lady Betty out, and seizing her woman by the
+shoulder, shook her impatiently. "Come," she cried, "come, we must
+run. We must run! Come, or we shall leave you."
+
+But Pettitt only grovelled lower on the floor, deaf to prayers,
+orders, threats. At last, "We must leave her," Sophia cried, when she
+had wasted a precious minute in vain appeals. "Come! We must find the
+stepping-stones. It is the only chance."
+
+"But is the danger--so great?" the child panted.
+
+"It's--oh, come! Come!" Sophia groaned. "You don't understand." And
+seizing Lady Betty by the hand she ran with her to the water's edge,
+and in breathless haste turned up the stream. They had gone twenty
+yards along the bank, the elder's eyes searching the dark full
+current, when Sophia stopped as if she had been shot. "The jewels!"
+she gasped.
+
+"The jewels?"
+
+"Yes, I've left them."
+
+"Oh, never mind them now!" Betty wailed, "never mind them now!"
+and she caught at her to stay her, but in vain. Already Sophia was
+half-way back to the carriage. She vanished inside it; in an
+incredibly short space--though it seemed long to Betty, trembling with
+impatience and searching the valley with eyes of dread--she was out
+again with the jewel-case in her hand, and flying back to her
+companion. "They are his!" she muttered, as she urged her on again. "I
+couldn't leave them. Now, the stones! The stepping-stones! Oh, child,
+use your eyes! Find them, or we are lost!"
+
+The fear of Hawkesworth lay heavy on her; she felt that she should die
+if his hand touched her. It was unfortunate that all the bank on which
+they stood was light; it was in their favour that the moon had now
+risen high enough to shine on the stream. They ran fifty yards without
+seeing a sign of what they sought. Then--at the very moment when the
+pursuers' voices broke on their ears, and they realised that in a
+minute or two they must be espied--they came to a couple of thorn
+trees, standing not far apart, that afforded a momentary shelter. A
+yard farther, and Lady Betty stumbled over something that lay in the
+shadow of the trees. She recoiled with a cry. "It's a man!" she
+murmured.
+
+"The grooms!" Sophia answered, her wits sharpened by necessity; and
+she felt for and shook one of the sleepers, tugged at his clothes,
+even buffeted him in a frenzy of impatience. "George! George!" she
+muttered; and again she shook him. But in vain; and as quickly as she
+had knelt she was on foot again, and had drawn the child on.
+"Drugged!" she muttered. "They are drugged! We must cross! We must
+cross! It's our one chance!"
+
+She hurried her on, bending low; for beyond the two thorn trees all
+lay bare and open. Suddenly a cry rent the night; an oath, and a
+woman's scream followed and told them that their flight was known.
+Their hands clasped, their knees shaking under them, they pressed on,
+reckless now, expecting every moment to hear footsteps behind them.
+And joy! Sophia nearly swooned, as she saw not five yards ahead of
+them a ripple of broken water that ran slantwise across the silver;
+and in a line with it a foot above the surface, a rope stretched taut
+from bank to bank.
+
+The stones were covered, all save one; but the rope promised a
+passage, more easy than she had dared to expect. "Will you go first,
+or shall I?" was on the tip of her tongue; but Lady Betty wasted no
+time on words. She was already in the water, and wading across, her
+hands sliding along the rope, her petticoats floating out on the
+surface of the current. The water was cold, and though it rose no
+higher than her knees, ran with a force that but for the rope must
+have swept her off her feet. She reached the middle in safety,
+however, and Sophia who dared not throw the weight of two on the rope,
+was tingling to follow, when the dreaded sound of feet on the bank
+warned her of danger. She turned her head sharply. A man stood within
+five paces of her.
+
+A pace nearer, and Sophia would have flung herself into the stream!
+heedless of the rope, heedless of all but the necessity of escape. In
+the nick of time, however, she saw that it was not Hawkesworth who had
+found her, but Lane the poor rogue who had ruined them. In a low harsh
+voice, she bade him keep his distance.
+
+"I don't know what to do!" he faltered, wringing his hands and looking
+back in terror. "They'll murder me! I know they will! But there's
+smallpox the other side! You're going into it! There are three dead in
+the house, and everybody's fled. I don't know what to do," he whined.
+
+
+[Illustration: LADY BETTY WASTED NO TIME ON WORDS. SHE WAS ALREADY IN
+THE WATER AND WADING ACROSS]
+
+
+Sophia answered nothing, but slid into the stream and waded across. As
+she drew her wet skirts out of the water, and, helped by Lady Betty,
+climbed the bank, she heard the chase come down the side she had left;
+and thankful for the deep shadow in which they stood, she pressed the
+girl's hand to enjoin silence, as step by step they groped their way
+from the place. To go as far as possible from the crossing was her
+object; her fear that a stumble or a rolling stone--for the side of
+the ridge below the houses was steep and rough--would discover their
+position. Fortunately the darkness which lay there was deepened by
+contrast with the moonlit country on the farther side; and they crept
+some forty yards along the hill before they were brought up short by a
+wattled fence. They would have climbed this, but as they laid hands on
+it they heard men shouting, and saw two figures hurry along the
+opposite bank, and come to a stand, at the point where they had
+crossed. A moment Sophia hung in suspense; then Hawkesworth's voice
+thrilled her with terror. "Over!" he cried. "Over, fool, and watch the
+top!" And she heard the splashing of a horse as it crossed the ford,
+and the thud of its hoofs as it dashed up the road.
+
+The two fugitives had turned instinctively down stream, in the
+direction of the road and the houses. The rider's movement up the road
+therefore tended to cut off their farther retreat; while the distance
+they had been able to put between themselves and the stepping-stones
+was so short that they dared not move again, much less make the
+attempt to repass their landing-place, and go up stream. For the
+moment, close as they were to their enemies, the darkness shielded
+them; but Sophia's heart beat thickly, and she crouched lower against
+the wattle as she heard Hawkesworth step into the stream and splash
+his way across, swearing at the coldness of the water.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                            KING SMALLPOX
+
+
+He drew himself out on their side and shook himself; then for a time
+it seemed that the earth had swallowed him, so still was he. But
+Sophia knew that he was listening, standing in the dark a few paces
+from them, in the hope of hearing the rustle of their skirts or their
+footsteps as they stole away. Disappointed in this he began to move to
+and fro, beating the bushes this way and that; now loudly threatening
+them with horrid penalties if they did not show themselves, now
+asserting that he saw them, and now calling to his fellow who kept
+guard on the farther bank to know if he heard them. It was clear that
+he knew, probably from Pettitt, that they had not had time to go far
+from the carriage.
+
+Fortunately the trend of his search was from them, and as he receded
+up stream they breathed more freely. But when the sound of his
+movements was beginning to grow faint, and Sophia to think of
+continuing their flight, he turned, and she heard him come back on his
+tracks. This time, if the ear could be trusted, he was making directly
+for the place where they cowered beside the wattle fence.
+
+Yes, he was drawing nearer--and nearer; now a stick snapped under his
+foot, now he stumbled and swore, as he recovered himself. Sophia felt
+the younger girl shake under her hand, and instinctively drew the
+child's face against her shoulder that she might not see. Presently
+she could make out his head and shoulders dark against the sky; and
+still she watched him, fascinated. Three more steps and he would be on
+them! Two more--the impulse to shriek, to spring up and fly at all
+risks was scarcely to be controlled. One more--there was a sudden
+rustle, a fathom below them, he sprang that way, something whisked
+from a gorse-bush, and he stood.
+
+"What was it?" cried the man on the other side.
+
+"A rabbit!" he answered with an oath. "So they're not this way. I
+don't believe they crossed. Are you sure they're not in that thorn
+tree behind you? One of them might hide in it."
+
+Apparently the man went to see, for half a minute later, a shriek,
+followed by a thud, as of a heavy body brought hurriedly to earth,
+proved the success of his search. Hawkesworth sprang towards the
+stepping-stones.
+
+"Which is it?" he cried.
+
+"Neither," the fellow answered. "It's the whippersnapper you sent for
+a decoy."
+
+"D----n it!" Hawkesworth exclaimed, and he came to a stand. "But if
+you've got him, they are not far off. We'll wring his neck if he does
+not say where they are! Prick him, man, prick him with your knife."
+
+But the poor fop's squeals showed that little cruelty would be needed
+to draw from him all he knew. "Don't! Don't!" he screamed. "They're on
+the other side! I swear they are!"
+
+"None of your lies now, or I'll slit your throat!" the ruffian
+growled. He appeared to be kneeling on Lane's breast.
+
+"It's the truth! I swear it is! They were just across when you came!"
+Lane cried. "They can't be fifty yards from the bank! If they'd moved
+I should have seen them. Let me up, and I'll help you to find them."
+
+"Tie him up," Hawkesworth cried. "Tie him up. And if he's lied to us,
+we shall soon know. If we don't find them, we'll drop him in the
+water. Tell him that, and ask him again."
+
+"They're by yon!" Lane cried. "I swear they are!"
+
+Sophia felt, she could not see, that Hawkesworth was peering round
+him. Even now he was not more than ten or twelve paces from them; but
+the gorse-bush, from which the rabbit had darted, formed a black blurr
+against the fence, and deepened the obscurity in which they lay.
+Unless he came on them they were safe; but at any moment he might
+discover the fence, and guess it had brought them up, and beat along
+it. And--and while she thought of this she heard him chuckle.
+
+"Be still, man," he cried to the other, "and keep your ears open. The
+moon will be over the hill in five minutes, and we'll have them safe,
+if they are here. Meantime, stand and listen, will you? or they may
+creep off."
+
+Sophia swallowed a sob. It seemed so hard--so hard after all they had
+done to escape--that nature itself should turn against them. Yet, it
+was so; the man was right. Already the moonlight touched the crest of
+a gorse-bush that grew a little higher than its neighbours; and
+overhead the sky was growing bright where the ridge line cut it. In
+five minutes the disc of the moon, sailing high, would rise above that
+spot, and all the hill side, that now lay veiled in shadow, would be
+flooded with light. Then----
+
+She shuddered, watching paralysed the oncoming of this new and
+inexorable foe. Slowly the light was creeping down the gorse-bush.
+Minute by minute, sure as the tide that surges to the lips of the
+stranded mariner, the pale rays silvered this spray and that spray,
+dark before; touched the fence, and now lay a narrow streak along the
+nearer margin of the stream. And the streak widened; not slowly now
+but quickly. Even while she watched it, from the shelter of the fence,
+feeling her heart beat sickening bumps against her side, the light
+crept nearer and nearer. In three or four minutes it would be upon
+them.
+
+Sophia was brave, but there was something in the sure and stealthy
+approach of this danger that sapped her will, and robbed her limbs of
+strength. Unable to think, unable to act, she crouched panic-stricken
+where she was; as the hare surprised in her form awaits the hunter's
+hand. Until only a minute remained; then with a groan she shook off
+the spell. To run, even to be caught running, was better than to be
+taken so. But whither could they run with the least chance of escape?
+She turned her head to see, and her eyes, despairing, climbed the
+slope behind her until they rested on the faint yellow spark that,
+solemn and unchanged, shone from the window of the dark house on the
+crest.
+
+That way lay some chance, a desperate chance. She warned Lady Betty by
+a touch. "We must run!" she breathed in the girl's ear. "Look at the
+fence, and when I tap your shoulder, climb over, and run to the
+house!"
+
+Lady Betty disengaged herself softly and nodded. Then, as if she was
+granted some new insight into the character of the woman whose arms
+were round her, as if she saw more clearly than before the other's
+courage, and understood the self-denial that gave her the first and
+better chance, she drew Sophia's face to her, and clinging to her,
+kissed it. Then she crouched, waiting, waiting, her eyes on the fence.
+
+Very, very gently Sophia lifted her head, saw that Hawkesworth was
+looking the other way, and gave the signal. Betty, nimble and active,
+was over in a moment unseen, unheard. Sophia followed, but the fence
+creaked under her, and Hawkesworth heard it and turned. He saw her
+poised on the fence, in the full moonlight, so that not a line of her
+figure escaped him; with a yell of triumph he darted towards her. But
+directly in his path lay a low gorse-bush, still in shadow. He did not
+see it, tripped over it, and fell all his length on the grass. By the
+time he was up again, the two were dim flying shadows, all but lost in
+the darkness that lay beyond the fence.
+
+All but lost; not quite. In three seconds he was at the fence, he was
+over it, he was beginning to gain on them. They strained every nerve,
+but they had to breast the steep side of the hill, and though fear and
+the horror of his hand upon their shoulders gave them wings, breath
+was lacking. Then Betty fell, and lost a precious yard; and though she
+was up again, and panting onwards gallantly, for a few seconds he
+thought that he would catch them with ease. Then the ascent began to
+tell on him also. The fall had shaken him. He began to pant and
+labour; he saw that he was not gaining on them, but rather losing
+ground, and he slackened his pace, and shouted to the man on guard in
+the road above, bidding him stop them.
+
+The man with an answering shout reined back his horse to the narrow
+pass where the road ran between the house and the cottages. There,
+peering forward, he made ready to intercept them. Fortunately, the
+moon, above and a little behind him, showed his figure in silhouette
+in the gap; and Sophia clutching Betty's hand, dragged her back at the
+moment she was stepping into the moonlit road. An instant the two
+listened, trembling, palpitating, staring, like game driven into the
+middle of the field. But behind them Hawkesworth's scrambling
+footsteps and heavy breathing still came on; they could not wait. A
+moment's sickening doubt, and Sophia pressed Betty's hand, and the two
+darted together across the road, and took cover in a space still dark,
+between the two cottages that flanked it on the farther side.
+
+The man in the gap gave the alarm, shouting that they had crossed the
+road; and Hawkesworth, coming up out of breath, asked with a volley of
+curses why he had not stopped them.
+
+"Because they did not come my way!" the fellow answered bluntly. "Why
+didn't you catch 'em, captain?"
+
+"Where are they?" Hawkesworth panted fiercely.
+
+"Straight over they went. No! Between the hovels here!"
+
+But Hawkesworth had a little recovered his breath, and with it his
+cunning. Instead of following his prey into the dark space between the
+buildings, he darted round the other side of the lower cottage, and in
+a twinkling was on the open slope beyond. Here the moonlight fell
+evenly, the hillside was clear of gorse, he could see a hundred yards.
+But he caught no glimpse of fleeing figures, he heard no sound of
+retiring footsteps; and quick as thought he turned up the hill, and
+learned the reason.
+
+A high wall ran from cottage to cottage, rendering exit that way
+impossible. Sophia had trapped herself and her companion; they were in
+a _cul de sac!_ With a cry of triumph he turned to go back; as he ran
+he heard the horseman he had left call to him. Opportunely, as he
+gained the road, he was joined by the third of the band, the rogue he
+had left at the stepping stones.
+
+"Have you nabbed them?" the fellow panted.
+
+"They're here!" Hawkesworth answered. "I think he's got them."
+
+"And the sparklers?"
+
+Hawkesworth nodded; but the next instant swore and stood. The man on
+the horse, who should have been guarding the mouth of the dark entry,
+where the girls lay trapped, was a dozen yards farther up the road,
+his back to the cottages, and his face to the house with the gable
+end.
+
+"What the devil are you doing?" Hawkesworth roared. "They are here,
+man!"
+
+"They have bolted!" the fellow answered sullenly. "Or one of them has.
+She shook a shawl in this brute's face, and he reared. Before I could
+get him round----"
+
+"She got off?" the Irishman shrieked.
+
+"No! She's here, in the house! Burn her, when I get hold of her I'll
+make her smart for it!"
+
+"She? Then where's the other?"
+
+"She's where she was, for all I know," the man answered. "I've seen
+nothing of her."
+
+But he lied in that. While he had been marking down the woman who had
+frightened his horse with her shawl--and who then had glided coolly
+into the house, the door of which stood ajar--he had seen with the
+tail of his eye a flying skirt vanish down the road behind him. He had
+a notion that one had got clear, but he was not sure; and if he said
+anything he would be blamed. So he stood while Hawkesworth and the
+other searched the dark space between the cottages.
+
+A few seconds sufficed to show that there was no one there, and
+Hawkesworth turned and swore at him.
+
+"Well, there's one left!" the offender answered sulkily. "We've got
+her in the house, and there's no back door. Take your change out of
+her."
+
+"Aye, but who's going in to fetch her?" Hawkesworth snarled. "I've not
+had the smallpox. Perhaps you have. In that case, in you go, man. You
+run no risk, or but little."
+
+The rogue's face fell. "Oh Lord!" he said. "I'd not thought of that!
+What a vixen it is!"
+
+"In you go, man, and have her out!"
+
+"I'm hanged if I do!" was the answer; and the fellow reined back his
+horse in a hurry. "Faugh! I can smell the vinegar from here!" he
+cried. And he spat on the ground.
+
+"Will you go, Clipper? Come, man, you're not afraid?"
+
+But Clipper, the third of the band, so called because he had once lain
+in the condemned hold for the offence of reducing His Majesty's gold
+coin, declined in terms not doubtful; and for a few seconds the three
+glared at one another, rage in the greater villain's eyes, a dogged
+resolution, not unmingled with shame, in his hirelings'. To be
+baffled, and by a girl! To have her at bay, and fear the encounter! To
+be outwitted, outdared, and by a woman! The moonlight that lay on the
+lonely country side, the night wind that stirred the willows by the
+stream, the height of blue above them with its myriad watching eyes,
+these things had no awe for them, touched no chord in their dulled
+consciences; but the smoky yellow gleam that shone from the window of
+the dark gable, and was visible where two of them stood--that and the
+dread terror that lay behind it scared even these hardened men.
+
+"Will you let all go?" Hawkesworth cried in rage. "We have the girl,
+and not a soul within four miles to interfere! We've jewels to the
+tune of thousands! And you'll let them go when it's only to pick them
+up!"
+
+"Aye, and the smallpox with them!" Clipper retorted grimly. "I've seen
+a man that died of that," with a shudder, "and I don't want to see
+another. Go yourself, captain," he sneered, "it's your business."
+
+The thrust went home. "So I will, by----!" the Irishman cried
+passionately. "I'll have her out, and the stuff! But I'll think twice
+before I pay you, you lily-livers! You chicken hearts. Give me a
+light!"
+
+"There's light enough upstairs!" the Clipper answered mockingly. But
+the other man, more amenable, produced a flint and steel and a candle
+end, and lighting the one from the other handed it to Hawkesworth.
+"Likely enough you'll find her behind the door, captain," he said
+civilly. "'Twon't be much risk after all."
+
+"Then go yourself, you cur," Hawkesworth answered brutally. He was
+torn this way and that; between fear and rage, cupidity and cowardice.
+The ardour of the chase grew cool in this atmosphere of disease; the
+courage of the man failed before this house given up to the fell
+plague, that in those days took pitiless toll of rich and poor, of old
+and young, of withered cheeks and bright eyes, of kings and joiners'
+daughters. His gorge rose at the sharp scent of vinegar, at the duller
+odour of burnt rags with which the air was laden; they were the rough
+disinfectants of the time, used before the panic-stricken survivors
+fled the place. In face of the danger he had to confront, women have
+ever been bolder than men, though they have more to lose. He was no
+exception.
+
+Yet he would go. To flinch was to be lessened for ever in the eyes of
+the meaner villains, his hirelings; to dare was to confirm the evil
+pre-eminence he claimed. Bitter black rage in his heart--rage in
+especial against the woman who laid this necessity upon him--he thrust
+the door wide open, and shielding the candle, of which the light but
+feebly irradiated the black cavern before him, he crossed the
+threshold.
+
+The place he entered seemed all dark to eyes fresh from the moonbeams;
+but some light there was beside that which he carried. From the open
+door of a narrow staircase that led to the upper rooms a faint
+reflection of the candles that burned above issued; by aid of which he
+saw that he stood in the great kitchen of the farm. But the black pot
+that tenanted the vast gloomy recess of the fireplace, hung over dead,
+white ashes--cold relics of the cheer that had once reigned there. The
+cradle in the corner was still and shrouded. In the middle of the
+stone floor a bench, a mere slab on four-straddling legs, lay
+overturned, upset by the panic-stricken survivors in their hurried
+flight; and beside it, stiff and grinning, sprawled the body of a
+black cat, killed in some frenzy of fear or superstition ere the
+living left the house to the care of the dead. A brooding odour of
+disease filled the gaunt, wide-raftered room, infected the shadowy
+hanging flitches, and grew stronger and more sickly towards the
+staircase at the farther end.
+
+Yet it was there he saw her, as he paused uncertain, his heart like
+water. She was standing on the lowest step of the stairs as if she had
+retreated thither on his entrance. Her one hand held her skirt a
+little from the floor, and close to her; the other hung by her side.
+Her eyes shone large in her white face; and in her look and in her
+attitude was something solemn and unearthly, that for a moment awed
+him.
+
+He stared spell-bound. She was the first to speak. "What do you want?"
+she whispered--as if the dead in the room above could hear her.
+
+"The jewels!" he muttered, his voice subdued to the pitch of hers.
+"The jewels! Give me the jewels, and I will go!"
+
+"They are not here," she said. "They are far away. Here is only death.
+Death is here, death is above," she continued solemnly. "The air is
+full of death. If you would not die, go! Go before it be too late."
+
+He battled with the dark fear which her words fluttered before him;
+the fear that was in the air of the room, the fear that made his light
+burn more dimly than was natural. He battled with it, and hated her
+for it, and for his cowardice. "You she-devil!" he cried, "where are
+the jewels?"
+
+"Gone," she answered solemnly.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Where you will never find them."
+
+"And you think to get off with that?" he hissed; and advanced a step
+towards her. "You lie!" he cried furiously. "You have them. And if you
+do not give them up----"
+
+"I have them not!" she answered firmly; and little did he suspect how
+wildly her heart was leaping behind the bold front she showed him.
+Little did he suspect, the deadly terror she had had to surmount
+before she penetrated so far into this loathsome house. "I have them
+not," she repeated. "Nor have I any fear of you. There is that here
+that is your master and mine. Come up, come up," she continued, a
+touch of wildness in her manner, and she mounted a step or two of the
+narrow staircase, and beckoned him to follow her. "Come up and you
+will see him."
+
+"You drab!" he cried, "do you come down, or it will be the worse for
+you! Do you hear me? Come down, you slut, or when I fetch you I will
+have no mercy. You don't know what I shall do to you; I do, and----"
+
+He stood, he was silent, he choked with rage; for as if he had not
+spoken, her figure first and then her feet, mounting without pause or
+hesitation, vanished from sight. He was left, scared and baffled,
+alone in the great desolate kitchen where his light shone a mere
+spark, making visible the darkness that canopied him. A rat moving in
+the dim fringe between light and shadow startled him. A rope of onions
+swayed by the draught of air that blew through the open door, brought
+the sweat to his brow. He took two steps forward and one backward; the
+shroud on the cradle fluttered, and but for the men waiting outside,
+he would have fled at once and given up woman and booty. But fear of
+ridicule still conquered fear of death; conquered even the
+superstition that lay dormant in his Irish blood; he forced himself
+onward. His eyes fixed balefully, his hands withheld from contact with
+the wall--as if he had been a woman with skirts--he crept upwards till
+his gaze rose above the level of the upper floor; then for a moment
+the light of two thick candles, half-burned, gave him back his
+courage. His brow relaxed, he sprang with a cry up the upper stairs,
+set his foot in the room and stood!
+
+On the huge low wooden bed from which the coarse blue and white
+bedding protruded, two bodies lay sheeted. At their feet the candles
+burned dull before the window that should have been open, but was
+shut; as the thick noisome air of the room, that turned him sick and
+faint, told him. Near the bed, on the farther side, stood that he
+sought; Sophia, her eyes burning, her face like paper. His prey then
+was there, there, within his reach; but she had not spoken without
+reason. Death, death in its most loathsome aspect lay between them;
+and the man's heart was as water, his feet like lead.
+
+"If you come near me," she whispered, "if you come a step nearer, I
+will snatch this sheet from them, and I will wrap you in it! And you
+will die! In eight days you will be dead! Will you see them? Will you
+see what you will be?" And she lowered her hand to raise the sheet.
+
+He stepped back a pace, livid and shaking. "You she-devil!" he
+muttered. "You witch!"
+
+"Go!" she answered, in the same low tone. "Go! Or I will bring your
+death to you! And you will die! As you have lived, foul, noisome,
+corrupt, you will die! In eight days you will die--if you come one
+step nearer!"
+
+She took a step forward herself. The man turned and fled.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+                          LADY BETTY'S FATE
+
+
+Lady Betty had left the house on the hill a mile behind, her breath
+came in heavy gasps, her heart seemed to be bursting through her
+bodice; still she panted bravely along the road that stretched before
+her, white under the moonbeams. Sophia had bidden her run, the moment
+the man's back was turned. "Give the alarm, get help," she had
+whispered as she thrust the diamonds into the child's hand; and acting
+on that instinct of obedience, prompt and unquestioning, which the
+imminence of peril teaches, Betty had fled on the word. She had
+slipped behind the man's back, passed between the houses, and escaped
+into the open, unseen, as she fancied.
+
+For a time she had sped along the road, looking this way and that,
+expecting at each turn to discover a house, a light, the help she
+sought. At length, coming on none of these, she began to suspect the
+truth, and that Sophia had saved her at her own cost; and she paused
+and turned, and even in her distraction made as if she would go back.
+But in the end, with a sob of grief, she hurried on, seeing in this
+their only chance.
+
+At length her strength began to fail. Presently she could go no
+farther, and with a cry of anguish came to a stand in a dark part of
+the road. She was alone, in an unknown country, with the night before
+her, with the sounds of the night round her; and commonly she was
+afraid of the night. But now all the child's thought was for Sophia;
+her heart was breaking for her friend. And by-and-by she pressed on
+again, her breath fluttering between sobs and exhaustion. She turned a
+corner--and oh, sweet, she saw a light before her!
+
+She struggled towards it. The spark grew larger and larger; finally it
+became the open doorway of an alehouse, from which the company were
+departing. The goodman and two or three topers were on their feet
+having a last crack, the goodwife from her bed above was demanding
+lustily why they lingered, when the girl, breathless and dishevelled,
+her hair hanging about her face, appeared on the threshold. For a
+moment she could not speak; her face was white, her eyes stared
+wildly. The men fell back from her, as a flock of sheep crowd away
+from the dog.
+
+"What beest 'ee?" the landlord bleated faintly. "Lord save us and help
+us! Be 'ee mortal?"
+
+"Help!" she muttered, as she leaned almost swooning, against the
+doorpost. "Help! Come quickly! They'll--they'll murder her--if you
+don't!" And she stretched out her hands to them.
+
+But the men only shuddered. "Lord save us!" one of them stammered.
+"It's mostly for murder they come."
+
+She saw that no one moved, and she could have screamed with
+impatience. "Don't you hear me?" she cried hoarsely. "Come, or they'll
+kill her! They'll kill her! I've left her with them. Come, if you are
+men!"
+
+They began to see that the girl was flesh and blood; but their minds
+were rustic, and none of the quickest, and they might have continued
+to gape at her for some time longer, if the goodwife, who had heard
+every word, had not looked through the trap in the ceiling. She saw
+the girl. "Lord sake!" she cried, struck with amazement. "What is it?"
+
+"Help!" Betty answered, clasping her hands, and turning her eyes in
+that direction. "For pity's sake send them with me! There's murder
+being done on the road! Tell them to come with me."
+
+"What is it? Footpads?" the woman asked sharply.
+
+"Yes, oh yes! They have stopped Lady Coke's carriage"
+
+The woman waited to hear no more. "Quick, you fools!" she cried. "Get
+sticks, and go! Lady Coke's carriage, eh? You'll be her woman, I
+expect. They'll come, they'll come. But where is't? Speak up, and
+don't be afraid!"
+
+"At a house on a hill," Lady Betty answered rapidly. "She's there,
+hiding from them. And oh, be quick! be quick, if you please!"
+
+But at that word the goodman, who had snatched up a thatching stake,
+paused on the threshold. "A house on a hill?" he said. "Do you mean
+Beamond's farm?"
+
+"I don't know," she answered. "It's on a hill about a mile or
+more--oh, more from here--on the way I came! You must know it!"
+
+"This side of a ford?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"They've the smallpox there?"
+
+"Yes, I think so!"
+
+The man flung down the stake. "No," he said. "It's no! I don't go
+there. Devil take me if I do. And she don't come here. If you are of
+my mind," he continued, looking darkly at his fellows, "you'll leave
+this alone!"
+
+The men were evidently of that mind; they threw down their weapons,
+some with a curse, some with a shiver. Betty saw, and frantic, could
+not believe her eyes. "Cowards!" she cried. "You cowards!"
+
+The woman alone looked at her uncertainly. "I've children, you see,"
+she said. "I've to think of them. But there's Crabbe could go. He's
+neither chick nor child."
+
+But the lout she named backed into a corner, sullen and resolute; as
+if he feared they would force him to go. "Not I," he said. "I don't go
+near it, neither. There's three there dead and stiff, and three's
+enough."
+
+"You cowards!" Betty repeated, sobbing with passion.
+
+The woman, too, looked at them with no great favour. "Will none of you
+go?" she said. "Mind you, if you go I'll be bound you'll be paid! Or
+perhaps the young sir there will go!"
+
+She turned as she spoke, and Betty, looking in the same direction, saw
+a young man seated on the side of a box bed in the darkest part of the
+kitchen. Apparently her entrance had roused him from sleep, for his
+hair was rough, and he was in his shirt and breeches. His boots,
+clay-stained to the knees, stood beside the bed; his coat and cravat,
+which were drying in the chimney corner, showed that he had been out
+in bad weather. The clothes he retained bore traces of wear and usage;
+but, though plain, they seemed to denote a higher station than that of
+the rustics in his company. As his eyes met Lady Betty's, "I'll come,"
+he said gruffly. And he reached for his boots and began to put them
+on; but with a yawn.
+
+Still she was thankful. "Oh, will you!" she cried. "You're a man. And
+the only one here!"
+
+"He won't be one long!" the nearest boor cried spitefully.
+
+But the lad, dropping for a moment his listless manner, took a step in
+the speaker's direction; and the clown recoiled. The young fellow
+laughed, and, snatching up a stout stick that rested against his
+truckle bed, said he was ready. "You know the way?" he said; and then,
+as he read exhaustion written on her face, "Quick, mother," he cried
+in an altered tone, "have you naught you can give her? She will drop
+before she has gone a mile!"
+
+The woman hurried up the ladder and fetched a little spirit in a mug.
+She handed it to the girl at arm's length, telling her to drink it, it
+would do her good. Then, cutting a slice from a loaf of coarse bread
+that lay on the table, she pushed it over to her. "Take that in your
+hand," she said, "and God keep you."
+
+Betty did as she was bidden, though she was nearly sick with suspense.
+Then she thanked the woman, turned, and, deaf to the boors' gibes,
+passed into the road with her new protector. She showed him the way
+she had come, and the two set off walking at the top of her pace.
+
+She swallowed a morsel of bread, then ran a little, the tears rising
+in her eyes as she thought of Sophia. A moment of this feverish haste,
+and the lad bade her walk. "If we've a mile to go," he said wisely,
+"you cannot run all the way. Slow and steady kills the hare, my dear.
+How many are there of these gentry?"
+
+"Three," she answered; and as she pictured Sophia and those three a
+lump rose in her throat.
+
+"Any servants? I mean had your mistress any men with her?"
+
+Betty told him, but incoherently. The postboys, the grooms, Watkyns,
+Pettitt, all were mixed up in her narrative. He tried to follow it,
+then gave up the attempt. "Anyway, they have all fled," he said. "It
+comes to that."
+
+She admitted with a sob that it was so; that Sophia was alone.
+
+The moonlight lay on the road; as she tripped by his side, he turned
+and scanned her. He took her for my lady's woman, as the mistress at
+the alehouse had taken her. He had caught the name of Coke, but he
+knew no Lady Coke; he had not heard of Sir Hervey's marriage, and, to
+be truthful, his mind was more concerned for the maid than the
+mistress. Through the disorder of Betty's hair and dress, her youth
+and something of her beauty peeped out; it struck him how brave she
+had been to come for help, through the night, alone; how much more
+brave she was to be willing to return, seeing that he was but one to
+three, and there was smallpox to face. As he considered this he felt a
+warmth at his heart which he had not felt for days. And he sighed.
+
+Presently her steps began to lag; she stood. "Where are we?" she
+cried, fear in her voice. "We should be there!"
+
+"We've come about a mile," he said, peering forward through the
+moonlight. "Is it on a hill, did you say?"
+
+"Yes, and I see no hill."
+
+"No," he answered, "but perhaps the fall this way is gentle."
+
+She muttered a word of relief. "That is so," she said. "It's above the
+water, on the farther side, that it is steep. Come on, please come on!
+I think I see a house."
+
+But the house she saw proved to be only a deserted barn, at the
+junction of two roads; and they stood dismayed. "Did you pass this?"
+he asked.
+
+"I don't know," she cried. "Yes, I think so."
+
+"On your right or your left?"
+
+She wrung her hands. "I think it was on my right," she said.
+
+He took the right-hand turn without more ado, and they hurried along
+the road for some minutes. At length her steps began to flag. "I must
+be wrong," she faltered. "I must be wrong! Oh, why," she cried, "why
+did I leave her?" And she stood.
+
+"Courage!" he answered. "I see a rising ground on the left. And
+there's a house on it. We ought to have taken the other turning. Now
+we are here we had better cross the open. Shall I lift you over the
+ditch, child? Or shall I leave you and go on?"
+
+But she scrambled into the ditch and out again; on the other side the
+two set off running with one accord, across an open field, dim and
+shadowy, that stretched away to the foot of the ascent. Soon he
+outpaced her, and she fell to walking. "Go on!" she panted bravely.
+"On, on, I will follow!"
+
+He nodded, and clutching his stick by the middle, he lengthened his
+stride. She saw him come to a blurred line at the foot of the hill,
+and heard him break through the fence. Then the darkness that lay
+on the hither slope of the hill--for the moon was beginning to
+decline--swallowed him, and she walked on more slowly. Each moment she
+expected to hear a cry, an oath, the sudden clash of arms would break
+the silence of the night.
+
+But the silence held; and still silence. And now the fence brought her
+up also; and she stood waiting, trembling, listening, in a
+prolongation of suspense almost intolerable. At length, unable to bear
+it longer, she pushed her way into the hedge, and struggled, panting
+through it; and was starting to clamber up the ascent on the other
+side when a dark form loomed beside her.
+
+It was her companion. What had happened?
+
+"We are wrong," he muttered. "It's a clump of trees, not a house. And
+there are clouds coming up to cover the moon. Let us return to the
+road while we can, my girl."
+
+But this was too much. At this, the last of many disappointments, the
+girl's courage snapped, as a rush snaps. With a wild outburst of
+weeping, she flung herself down on the sloping ground, and rubbed her
+face in the grass, and tore the soil with her fingers in an agony of
+abandonment. "Oh, I left her! I left her!" she wailed, when sobs
+allowed words to pass. "I left her, and saved myself. And she's dead!
+Oh, why didn't I stay with her? Why didn't I stay with her?"
+
+The young man listened awhile, awkward, perturbed; when he spoke his
+voice was husky. "'Tis no use," he said peevishly. "No use, child!
+Don't--don't go on like this! See here, you'll have a fever, if you
+lie there. You will, I know," he repeated.
+
+"I wish I had!" she cried with passion, and beat her hands on the
+ground. "Oh why did I leave her?"
+
+He cleared his throat. "It's folly this!" he urged. "It's--it's of no
+use to any one. No good! And there, now it's dark. I told you so--and
+we shall have fine work getting to the road again!"
+
+She did not answer, but little by little his meaning reached her
+brain, and after a minute or two she sat up, her crying less violent.
+"That's better," he said. "But you are too tired to go farther. Let me
+help you to climb the fence. There's a log the other side--I stumbled
+over it. You can sit on it until you are rested."
+
+She did not assent, but she suffered him to help her through the hedge
+and seat her on the fallen tree. The tide of grief had ebbed; she was
+regaining her self-control, though now and again a sob shook her. But
+he saw that an interval must pass before she could travel, and he
+stood, shy and silent, seeing her dimly by the light which the moon
+still shed through a flying wrack of clouds. Round and below them lay
+the country, still, shadowy, mysterious; stretching away into unknown
+infinities, framing them in a solitude perfect and complete. They
+might have been the only persons in the world.
+
+By-and-by, whether he was tired, or really had a desire to comfort her
+at closer quarters, he sat down on the tree; and by chance his hand
+touched her hand. She sprang a foot away, and uttered a cry. He
+laughed softly.
+
+"You need not be afraid," he said. "I've seen enough of women to last
+me my life. If you were the only woman in the world, and the most
+beautiful, you would be safe enough for me. You may be quite easy, my
+dear."
+
+She ceased to sob, but her voice was a little broken and husky when
+she spoke. "I'm very sorry," she said humbly. "I am afraid I have
+given you a vast deal of trouble, sir."
+
+"Not so much as a woman has given me before this," he answered.
+
+She looked at him furtively out of the tail of her eye, as a woman at
+that would be likely to look. And if the truth be told she felt, amid
+all her grief, an inclination to laugh. But with feminine tact she
+suppressed this. "And yet--and yet you came to help me?" she muttered.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders. "One has to do certain things," he said.
+
+"I am afraid somebody has--has behaved badly to you," she murmured;
+and she sighed.
+
+Somehow the sigh flattered him. "As women generally behave," he
+replied with a sneer. "She lied to me, she cheated me, she robbed me,
+and she would have ruined me."
+
+"And men don't do those things," she answered meekly, "to women." And
+she sighed again.
+
+He started. It could not be that she was laughing at him. "Anyway, I
+have done with women," he said brusquely.
+
+"And you'll never marry, sir?"
+
+"Marry? Oh, I say nothing as to that," he answered contemptuously.
+"Marry I may, but it won't be for love. And 'twill be a lady anyway;
+I'll see to that. I'll know her father and her mother, and her
+grandfather and her grandmother," Tom continued. For poor Tom it was,
+much battered and weathered by a week spent on the verge of 'listing.
+"I'll have her pedigree by heart, and she shall bring her old nurse
+with her to speak for her, if marry I must. But no more ladies in
+distress for me. No more ladies picked up off the road, I thank you.
+That's all."
+
+"You are frank, sir, at any rate," she said; and she laughed in a sort
+of wonder, taking it to herself.
+
+At the sound, Tom, who had meant nothing personal, felt ashamed of
+himself. "I beg your pardon, my dear," he answered. "But--but I wished
+to put you at your ease. I wished to show you, you were safe with me;
+as your mistress would be."
+
+"Oh, thank you," Betty answered. "For the matter of that, sir, I've
+had a lover myself, and said no to him, as well as my betters. But it
+wasn't before he asked me," she continued ironically. And she tossed
+her head again.
+
+"I didn't mean--I mean I thought you were afraid of me," Tom
+stammered, wondering she took it so ill.
+
+"No more than my mistress would be," she retorted sharply. "And I'm
+just as particular as she is--in one thing."
+
+"What's that?" he asked.
+
+"I don't take gentlemen off the road, either."
+
+He laughed, seeing himself hit; and as if that recalled her to
+herself, she sprang up with a sob of remorse. "Oh," she said, wringing
+her hands, "we sit here and play, while she suffers! We don't think of
+her! Do something! do something if you are a man!"
+
+"But we don't know where we are, or where she is."
+
+"Then let us find her," she cried; "let us find her!"
+
+"We can do nothing in the dark," he urged. "It is dark as the pit now.
+If we can find our way to the road again, it will be as much as we can
+do."
+
+"Let us try! let us try!" she answered, growing frantic. "I shall go
+mad if I stay here."
+
+He gave way at that, and consented to try. But they had not gone fifty
+yards before she tripped and fell, and he heard her gasp for breath.
+
+"Are you hurt?" he asked, stooping anxiously over her.
+
+"No," she said. But she rose with difficulty, and he knew by her voice
+that she was shaken.
+
+"It's of no use to go on," he said. "I told you so. We must stay here.
+It is after midnight now. In an hour, or a little more, dawn will
+appear. If we find the road now we can do no good."
+
+She shivered. "Take me back," she said miserably. "I--I don't know
+where we are."
+
+He took her hand, and with a little judgment found the tree again. "If
+you could sleep awhile," he said, "the time would pass."
+
+"I cannot," she cried, "I cannot." And then, "Oh Sophy! Sophy!" she
+wailed, "why did I leave you? Why did I leave you?"
+
+He let her weep a minute or two, and then as much to distract her as
+for any other reason, he asked her if she had been brought up with her
+mistress.
+
+She ceased to sob. "Why?" she asked, startled.
+
+"Because--you called her by her name," he said. "I noticed because
+I've a sister of that name."
+
+"Sophia?"
+
+"Yes. If I had listened to her--but there, what is the use of
+talking?" And he broke off brusquely.
+
+Lady Betty was silent awhile, only betraying her impatience by sighing
+or beating the trunk with her heels. By-and-by, the hour before the
+dawn came, and it grew cold. He heard her teeth chatter, and after
+fumbling with his coat, he took it off, and, in spite of her
+remonstrances, wrapped her in it.
+
+"Don't!" she said, feebly struggling with him. "Don't! You're a
+gentleman, and I am only----"
+
+"You're a woman as much as your mistress," he answered roughly.
+
+"But--you hate women!" she cried.
+
+"You don't belong to me," he answered with disdain, "and you'll not
+die on my hands! Do as you are bidden, child!"
+
+After that he walked up and down before the tree; until at last the
+day broke, and the grey light, spreading and growing stronger, showed
+them a sea of mist, covering the whole world--save the little eminence
+on which they sat--and flowing to their very feet. It showed them also
+two haggard faces--his weary, hers beautiful in spite of its pallor
+and her long vigil. For in some mysterious way she had knotted up her
+hair and tied her kerchief. As she gave him back his coat, and their
+eyes met, he started and grew red.
+
+"Good heavens, child!" he cried, "you are too handsome to be wandering
+the country alone; and too young."
+
+She had nothing to say to that, but her cheeks flamed, and she begged
+him to come quickly--quickly; and together they went down into the
+mist. At that hour the birds sing in chorus as they never sing in the
+day; and, by the time the two reached the road the sun was up and the
+world round them was joyous with warmth and light and beauty. The dew
+besprinkled every bush with jewels as bright as those which Betty
+carried in her bosom--for she had thrown away the case--and from the
+pines on the hill came the perfume of a hundred Arabys. Tom wondered
+why his heart beat so lightly, why he felt an exhilaration to which he
+had been long a stranger. Heartbroken, a woman-hater, a cynic, it
+could not be because a pair of beautiful eyes had looked kindly into
+his? because a waiting-maid had for a moment smiled on him? That was
+absurd.
+
+For her, left to herself, she would have pursued the old plan, and
+gone wildly, frantically up and down, seeking at random the place
+where she had left Sophia. But he would not suffer it. He led her to
+the nearest cottage, and learning from the staring inhabitants the
+exact position of Beamond's Farm, got his companion milk and bread,
+and saw her eat it. Then he announced his purpose.
+
+"I shall leave you here," he said. "In two hours at the most I shall
+be back with news."
+
+"And you think I'll stay?" she cried.
+
+"I think you will, for I shall not take you," he answered coolly. "Do
+you want the smallpox, silly child? Do you think your ladies will be
+as ready to hire you when you have lost your looks? Stay here, and in
+two hours I shall be back."
+
+She cried that she would not stay; she would not stay! "I shall not!"
+she cried a third time. "Do you hear me? I shall go with you!"
+
+"You will not!" Tom said. "And for a good reason, my girl. You heard
+that woman ask us whether we came from Beamond's, and you saw the way
+she looked at us. If it's known we've been there, there's not a house
+within ten miles will take us in, nor a coach will give us a lift. You
+have had one night out, you'll not bear another. Now, with me it is
+different."
+
+"It is not," she cried. "I shall go."
+
+"You will not," he said; and their eyes met. And presently hers
+dropped. "You will not," he repeated masterfully; "because I am the
+stronger, and I will tie you to a gate before you shall go. And you,
+little fool, will be thankful to me to-morrow. It's for your own
+good."
+
+She gave way at that, crying feebly, for the night had shaken her.
+"Sit here in sight of the cottage," he continued, thrusting aside the
+brambles and making a place for her beside a tree, "and if you can
+sleep a little, so much the better. In two hours at the farthest I
+will be back."
+
+She obeyed, watched him go, and saw his figure grow smaller and
+smaller, until it vanished at a turn of the road. She watched the
+woman of the cottage pass in and out with pail and pattens, and
+by-and-by she had to parry her questions. She saw the sun climb higher
+and higher in the sky, and heard the hum of the bees grow loud and
+louder, and felt the heat of the day take hold; and yet he did not
+return. And while she watched for him most keenly, as she imagined,
+she fell asleep.
+
+When she awoke he was standing over her, and his face told her all.
+She sprang up. "You've not found her!" she cried, clasping her hands,
+and holding them out to him.
+
+"No," he said. "There's no one in the house. No one but the dead."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+                           A FRIEND IN NEED
+
+
+Sophia's knees shook under her, her flesh shuddered in revolt, but she
+held her ground until Hawkesworth's footsteps and the murmur of his
+companions' jeering voices sank and died in the distance. Then, with
+eyes averted from the bed, she crept to the head of the stairs and
+descended, her skirts gathered jealously about her. She reached the
+kitchen. Here, in the twilight that veiled the shrouded cradle, and
+mercifully hid worse things, she listened awhile; peering with scared
+eyes into the corners, and prepared to flee at the least alarm.
+Satisfied at last that those she feared had really withdrawn, she
+passed out into the open, and under the night sky, with the fresh
+breeze cooling her fevered face, she drank in with ecstasy a first
+deep breath of relief. Oh, the pureness of that draught! Oh, the
+freedom and the immensity of the vault above her--after that
+charnel-house!
+
+She felt sure that the men had retired the way they had come, and
+after a moment's hesitation she turned in the other direction, and
+venturing into the moonlight, took the road that Betty had taken. Now
+she paused to listen, now on some alarm effaced herself in the shadow
+cast by a tree. By-and-by, when she had left the plague-stricken house
+two or three hundred paces behind her, her ear caught the pleasant
+ripple of water. Her throat was parched, and she stopped, and traced
+the sound to a spring that, bubbling from a rock, filled a mossy
+caldron sunk in the earth, then ran to waste in a tiny rill beside the
+road. The hint was enough; in a second she had dragged off her outer
+garment, a green riding-coat, and shuddering, flung it from her; in
+another she had thrown off her shoes and loosened her hair. A moment
+she listened; then, having assured herself that she was not pursued,
+she plunged head and hair and hands in the fountain, let the cool
+water run over her fevered arms and neck, revelled in the purifying
+touch that promised to remove from her the loathsome infection of the
+house. She was a woman, she had not only death, but disfigurement to
+fear. One of the happy few who, under the early Georges, when even
+inoculation was in its infancy, had escaped the disease, she clung to
+her immunity with a nervous dread.
+
+When she had done all she could, she rose to her feet and knotted up
+her hair. She had Betty on her mind; she must follow the girl. But
+midnight was some time past, the moon was declining, and her strength,
+sapped by the intense excitement under which she had laboured, was
+nearly spent. The chances that she would alight on Betty were slight,
+while it was certain that the girl would eventually return, or would
+send to the place where they had parted company. Sophia determined to
+remain where she was; and with the music of the rill for company, and
+a large stone that stood beside it for a seat, hard but dry, the worst
+discomfort which she had to fear was cold; and this, in her fervent
+gratitude for rescue from greater perils, she bore without complaint.
+
+The solemnity of the night, as it wore slowly to morning, the depth of
+silence--as of death--that preceded the dawn, the stir of thanksgiving
+that greeted the birth of another day, these working on a nature
+stirred by strange experiences and now subject to a strange solitude,
+awoke in her thoughts deeper than ordinary. She saw in Betty's
+recklessness the mirror of her own; she shuddered at Hawkesworth,
+disclosed to her in his true colours; and considered Sir Hervey's
+patience with new wonder. Near neighbour to death, she viewed life as
+a thing detached and whole; with its end as well as its beginning. And
+she formed resolutions, humble at the least.
+
+By-and-by she had to rise and be walking to keep herself warm; for she
+would not resume her riding-coat, and her arms were bare. A little
+later, however, the sun rose high enough to reach her. In the great
+oak that overhung the spring, the birds began to flit like moving
+shadows; a squirrel ran down the bark and looked at her. And in her
+veins a strange exhilaration began to stir. She was alive! She was
+safe! And then, on a sudden, she heard a footstep close at hand.
+
+She cowered low, seized with terror. It might be Hawkesworth! The
+villain might have repented of his fears, have gathered courage with
+the light, have returned more ruthless than he had gone. Fortunately,
+the panic which the thought bred in her was short-lived. An asthmatic
+cough, followed by the noise of heavy breathing, put an end to her
+suspense. Next moment an elderly man wearing a rusty gown and a shabby
+hat decked with a rosette, came in sight. He leant on a stout stick,
+and carried a cloak on his arm. He had white hair and a benevolent
+aspect, with features that seemed formed by nature for mirth, and
+compelled by circumstance to soberer uses.
+
+Aware of the oddity of her appearance--bare-armed and in her stocking
+feet--Sophia hung back, hesitating to address him; he was quite close
+to her when he lifted his eyes and saw her. The good man's surprise
+could scarcely have been greater had he come upon the nymph of the
+spring. He started, dropped his stick and cloak, and stared, his jaw
+fallen; it even seemed to her that a little of the colour left his
+face.
+
+At last, "My child," he cried, "what are you doing here, of all
+places? D'you come from the house above?"
+
+"I have been there," she answered.
+
+He stared. "But they have the smallpox!" he exclaimed. "Did you know
+it?"
+
+"I went there to avoid worse things," she cried; and fell to
+trembling. "Do you live here, sir?"
+
+"Here? No; but I live in the valley below," he answered, still
+contemplating her with astonishment. "I am only here," he continued,
+with a touch of sternness which she did not understand, "because my
+duty leads me here. I am told--God grant it be not true--that there
+are three dead at the farm, and that the living are fled."
+
+"It is true," she answered briefly. And against the verdure, framed in
+the beauty of this morning world, with its freshness, its dancing
+sunlight, and its flitting birds, she saw the death-room, the f[oe]tid
+mist about the smoking guttering candles, the sheeted form. She
+shuddered.
+
+"You are sure?" he said.
+
+"I have seen them," she answered.
+
+"Then I need go no farther now," he replied in a tone of relief. "I
+can do no good. I must return and get help to bury them. It will be no
+easy task; my parishioners are stricken with panic, they think only of
+their wives and families. Even in my own household--but I am
+forgetting, child. You are a stranger here? And, Lord bless me, what
+has become of your gown?"
+
+She pointed to the place where it lay a little apart, in a heap on the
+ground. "I've taken it off," she explained, colouring slightly. "I
+fear it carries the infection. I was attacked in my carriage on the
+other side of the ford. And robbed. And to avoid worse things I took
+refuge in the house above."
+
+"Lord save us!" he cried, lifting his hands in astonishment. "I never
+heard of such a thing! Never! We have had no such doings in these
+parts these twenty years!"
+
+"Perhaps you could lend me your cloak, sir?" she said. "Until I can
+get something."
+
+He handed it to her. "To be sure, to be sure," he answered. And then,
+"In your carriage?" he continued. "Dear, dear, and had you any one
+with you, ma'am?"
+
+"My friend escaped," she explained, "with--with some jewels I had. The
+postboys had been sent ahead to Lewes to get fresh horses. Watkyns,
+one of the servants, had returned towards Fletching, to see if he
+could get help in that quarter. My woman was so frightened that she
+was useless, and the two grooms had been made drunk on the road, and
+were useless also!"
+
+She did not notice, that with each item in her catalogue, the old
+clergyman's eyes grew wider and wider; nor that towards the end
+surprise began to give place to incredulity. This talk of horses, and
+grooms, and servants, and maids, and postboys in the mouth of a girl
+found hatless and shoeless by the roadside--a creature with tumbled
+hair, without a gown, and in petticoats soaked with water, and stained
+with dust and dirt, over-stepped the bounds of reason. Unfortunately,
+a little before this a young woman had appeared in a town not far off,
+in the guise of a countess; and with all the apparatus of the rank had
+taken in no less worshipful a body than the mayor and corporation of
+the place, who in the issue had been left to bewail their credulity.
+The tale was rife along the country-side; the old clergyman knew it,
+and being by nature a simple soul--as his wife often told him--had the
+cunning of simplicity. He bade himself be cautious--be cautious; and
+as he listened bethought him of a test. "Your carriage should be
+there, then?" he said. "Where you left it, ma'am?"
+
+"I have not dared to return and see," she answered. "We might do so
+now, if you will be kind enough to accompany me."
+
+"To be sure, to be sure. Let us go, child."
+
+But when they had crossed the ridge--keeping as far as they could from
+the door of the plague-stricken house--he was no whit surprised to
+find no carriage, no servants, no maid. From the brow of the hill they
+could trace with their eyes the desolate valley and the road by which
+she had come; but nowhere on the road, or beside it, was any sign of
+life. Sophia had been so much shaken by the events of the night that
+she had forgotten the possibility of rescue at the hands of her own
+people. Now that the notion was suggested to her, she found the
+absence of the carriage, of Watkyns, of the grooms, inexplicable. And
+she said so; but the very expression of her astonishment, following
+abruptly on his suggestion that the carriage should be there, did but
+deepen the good parson's doubts. She had spun her tale, he thought,
+without providing for this point, and now sought to cover the blot by
+exclamations of surprise.
+
+He had not the heart, however, good honest soul as he was, to unmask
+her; on the contrary, he suffered as great embarrassment as if the
+deceit had been his own. He found himself constrained to ask in what
+way he could help her; and when she suggested that she should rest at
+his house, he assented. But with little spirit.
+
+"If it be not too far?" she said; struck by his tone, and with a
+thought also for her unshod feet.
+
+"It's--it's about a mile," he answered.
+
+"Well, I must walk it."
+
+"You don't think--I could send," he suggested weakly, "and--and make
+inquiries--for your people, ma'am?"
+
+"If you please, when I am there," she said; and that left him no
+resource but to start with her. But as they went, amid all the care
+she was forced to give to her steps, she noticed that he regarded her
+oddly; that he looked askance at her when he thought her eyes
+elsewhere, and looked away guiltily when she caught him in the act.
+
+They plodded some half-mile, then turned to the right, and a trifle
+farther came in sight of a little hamlet that nestled among chestnut
+trees in a dimple of the hill-face. As they approached this, his
+uneasiness became more marked; nor was Sophia left in ignorance of its
+cause. The first house to which they came was a neat thatched cottage
+beside the church. A low wicket-gate gave access to the garden, and
+over this appeared for a moment an angry woman's face, turned in the
+direction whence they came. It was gone as soon as seen; but Sophia,
+from a faltered word which dropped from her companion, learned to whom
+it belonged; and when he tried the wicket-gate she was not surprised
+to see it was fastened. He tried it nervously, his face grown red;
+then he raised his voice. "My love," he cried, "I have come back. I
+think you did not see us. Will you please to open the gate?"
+
+An ominous silence was the only answer. He tried the gate a second
+time, in a shamefaced way. "My dear," he cried aloud, a quaver in his
+patient tone, "I have come back."
+
+"And more shame to you," a shrill voice answered, the speaker
+remaining unseen. "Do you hear me, Michieson? More shame to you, you
+unnatural father! Didn't you hear me say I would not have you going to
+that place? And didn't I tell you if you went you would not come here
+again! You thought yourself mighty clever, I'll be bound," the
+termagant continued, "to go off while I was asleep, my man! But now
+you'll sleep in the garden house, for in here you don't come! Who's
+that with you?"
+
+"A--a young lady in trouble," he stammered.
+
+"Where did you find her?"
+
+"On the road, my love! In great trouble."
+
+"Then on the road you may leave her," the shrew retorted. "No, my man,
+you don't come over me that way. You brought the hussy from that
+house. Tell me she's not been in it, if you dare? And you'd bring her
+in among your innocent, lawful children, would you, and give 'em their
+deaths! Fie," with rising indignation, "you silly old fool! If you
+weren't a natural, in place of such rubbish, you'd have been over to
+Sir Hervey's and complimented madam this fine morning, and been
+'pointed chaplain. But 'tis like you. Instead of providing for your
+wife and children, as a man should, you're trying to give 'em their
+deaths, among a lot of dead people that'll never find you in a bit of
+bread to put in their bellies, or a bit of stuff to put on their
+backs! I tell you, Michieson, I've no patience with you."
+
+"But, my dear----"
+
+"Now send her packing. Do you hear me, Michieson?"
+
+He was going to remonstrate, but Sophia intervened. Spent with
+fatigue, her feet sore and blistered, she felt that she could not go a
+yard further. Moreover, to eyes dazed by the horrors of the night, the
+thatched house among the rose-briars, with its hum of bees and scent
+of woodbine and honey-suckle, seemed a haven of peace. She raised her
+voice. "Mrs. Michieson," she said, "your husband need not go to Sir
+Hervey's. I am Lady Coke."
+
+With a cry of amazement a thin, red-faced woman, scantily dressed in
+an old soiled wrapper that had known a richer wearer--for Mrs.
+Michieson had been a lady's maid--pushed through the bushes. She
+stared a moment with all her eyes; then she burst into a rude laugh.
+"You mean her woman, I should think," she said. "Why, you saucy piece,
+you must think us fine simpletons to try for to come over us with that
+story. Lady Coke in her stockinged feet, indeed!"
+
+"I have been robbed," Sophia faltered, trying not to break down. "You
+are a woman. Surely you have some pity for another woman in trouble?"
+
+"Aye, you are like enough to have been in trouble! That I can see!"
+the parson's lady answered with a sneer. "But I'll trouble you not to
+call me a woman!" she continued, tossing her head. "Woman, indeed! A
+pretty piece you are to call names, trapesing the country like a guy,
+and--why, whose cloak have you there? _Michieson!_" in a voice like
+vinegar. "What does this mean?"
+
+"My dear," he said humbly--Sophia, on the verge of tears, could say no
+more lest she should break down, "the--the lady was robbed on the
+road. She was travelling in her carriage----"
+
+"In her carriage?"
+
+"And her servants ran away--as I understand," he explained, rubbing
+his hands, and smiling in a sickly way, "and the postboys did not
+return, and--and her woman----"
+
+"Her woman!"
+
+"Well, yes, my dear, so she tells me, was so frightened she stayed
+with the carriage. And her friend, a--another lady, escaped in the
+dark with some jewels--and----"
+
+"_Michieson!_" madam cried, in her most awful voice, "did you believe
+this--this cock and bull story that you dare to repeat to me?"
+
+He glanced from one to the other. "Well, my dear," he answered in
+confusion, "I--at least, the lady told me----"
+
+"Did you believe it? Yes or no! Did you believe it?"
+
+"Well, I----"
+
+"Did you go to look for the carriage?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, I did."
+
+"And did you find it?"
+
+"Well, no," the clergyman confessed. "I did not."
+
+"Nor the servants?"
+
+"No, but----"
+
+She did not let him explain. "Now," she cried, with shrill triumph,
+"you see what a fool you are! And where you'd be if it were not for
+me. Did she say a word about being Lady Coke until she heard her name
+from me? Eh? Answer me that, did she?"
+
+Very miserable, he glanced at Sophia. "Well, no, my dear, I don't
+think she did!" he admitted.
+
+"So I thought!" madam cried. And then with a cruel gesture, "off with
+it, you baggage! Off with it!" she continued. "Do you think I don't
+know that the moment my back is turned you'll be gone, and a good
+cloak with you! No, off with it, my ragged madam, and thank your stars
+I don't send you to the stocks!"
+
+But her husband plucked up spirit at that.
+
+"No," he said firmly. "No, she shall keep the cloak till she can get a
+covering. For shame, wife, for shame," he continued with a smack of
+dignity. "Do you never think that a daughter of yours may some day
+stand in her shoes?"
+
+"You fool, she has got none!" his wife snarled. "And you'll give her
+that cloak, at your peril."
+
+"She shall keep it, till she gets a covering," he answered.
+
+"Then she'll keep it somewhere else, not here!" the termagant answered
+in a fury. "Do you call yourself a parson and go trapesing the country
+with a slut like that! And your lawful wife left at home?"
+
+Sophia, white with exhaustion, could scarcely keep her feet, but at
+that she plucked up spirit. "The cloak I shall keep, for it is your
+husband's," she said. "For yourself, ma'am, you will bitterly repent
+before the day is out that you have treated me in this way."
+
+"Hoity-toity! you'd threaten me, would you?" the other cried
+viciously. "Here, Tom, Bill! Ha' you no stones. Here's a besom
+ill-speaking your mother. Ah, I thought you'd be going, ma'am," she
+continued, leaning over the gate, with a grin of satisfaction. "It'll
+be in the stocks you'll sit before the day is out, I'm thinking."
+
+But Sophia was out of hearing; rage and indignation gave her strength.
+But not for long. The reception with which she had met, in a place
+where, of all places, peace and charity and a seat for the wretched
+should have been found, broke down the last remains of endurance. As
+soon as the turn in the road hid her from the other woman's eyes, she
+sank on a bank, unable to go farther. She must eat and drink and rest,
+or she must die.
+
+Fortunately, the poor vicar, worthy of a better mate, had not quite
+abandoned her cause. After standing a moment divided between
+indignation and fear, he allowed the more generous impulse to have
+way; he followed and found her. Shocked to read exhaustion plainly
+written on her face, horrified by the thought that she might die at
+his door, that door which day and night should have been open to the
+distressed, he half led and half carried her to the little garden
+house to which his wife had exiled him; and which by good fortune
+stood in an orchard, beyond, but close to the curtilage of the house.
+Here he left her a moment, and procuring the drudge of a servant to
+hand him a little bread and milk over the fence, he fed her with his
+own hands, and waited patiently beside her until the colour returned
+to her face.
+
+Relieved by the sight, and satisfied that she was no longer in danger,
+he began to be troubled; glancing furtively at her and away again, and
+often moving to the door of the shed, which looked out on a pleasant
+plot of grass dappled with sunlight, and overhung by drooping boughs
+on which the late blossom lingered. Finally, seeing her remain languid
+and spiritless, he blurted out what was in his mind. "I daren't keep
+you here," he muttered, with a flush of shame. "If my wife discovers
+you, she may do you a mischief. And the fear of the smallpox is such,
+they'd stone you out of the parish if they knew you had been at
+Beamond's--God forgive them!"
+
+Sophia looked at him in astonishment. "But I have told you who I am,"
+she said. "I am Lady Coke. Surely you believe me."
+
+"Child!" he said in a tone of gentle reproof. "Let be. You don't know
+what you say. There's not an acre in this parish is not Sir Hervey's,
+nor a house, nor a barn. Is it likely his honour's lady would be
+wandering shoeless in the road?"
+
+She laughed hysterically. Tragedy and comedy were strangely mingled
+this morning. "Yet it is so," she said. "It is so."
+
+He shook his head in reproof, but did not answer.
+
+"You don't believe me?" she cried. "How far is it to Coke Hall?"
+
+"About three miles," he answered unwillingly.
+
+"Then the doubt is solved. Go thither! Go thither at once!" she
+continued, the power to think returning, and with it the remembrance
+of Lady Betty's danger. "At once!" she repeated, rising in her
+impatience, while a flood of colour swept over her face. "You must see
+Sir Hervey, and tell him that Lady Coke is here, and that Lady Betty
+Cochrane is missing; that we have been robbed, and he must instantly,
+instantly before he comes here, make search for her."
+
+The old parson stared. "For whom?" he stammered.
+
+"For Lady Betty Cochrane, who was with me."
+
+He continued to stare; with the beginnings of doubt in his eyes.
+"Child," he said, "are you sure you are not bubbling me? 'Twill be a
+poor victory over a simple old man."
+
+"I am not! I am not!" she cried. And suddenly bethinking her of the
+pocket that commonly hung between the gown and petticoat, she felt for
+it. She had placed her rings as well as her purse in it. Alas, it was
+gone! The strings had yielded to rough usage.
+
+None the less, the action went some way with him. He saw her
+countenance fall, he read the disappointment it expressed, he told
+himself that if she acted, she was the best actress in the world.
+"Enough," he said, almost persuaded of the truth of her story. "I will
+go, ma'am. If 'tis a cheat, I forgive you beforehand. And if it is the
+cloak you want, take it honestly. I give it you."
+
+But she looked at him so wrathfully at that, that he said no more, but
+went. He took up his stick, and as he passed out of sight among the
+trees he waved his hand in token of forgiveness--if after all she was
+fooling him.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI
+
+                        THE STROLLING PLATERS
+
+
+He pushed on sturdily until he came to the high road, and the turn
+that led to Beamond's farm. There his heart began to misgive him. The
+impression which Sophia's manner had made on his mind was growing
+weak; the improbability of her story rose more clearly before him.
+That a woman tramping the roads in her petticoats could be Lady Coke,
+the young bride of the owner of all the country side, seemed, now that
+he weighed it in cold blood, impossible. And from misgiving he was not
+slow in passing to repentance. How much better it would have been, he
+thought, had he pursued his duty to the dead and the parish with a
+single eye, instead of starting on this wild-goose chase. How much
+better--and even now it was not too late. He paused; he as good as
+turned. But in the end he remembered that he had given the girl his
+word, and, turning his back on Beamond's farm, he walked in the
+opposite direction.
+
+He had not gone far when he saw a young man of a strange raffish
+appearance coming along the road to meet him. The man swung a stick as
+he walked, and looked about him with a devil-may-care air which on the
+instant led the good parson to set him down for a strolling player. As
+such he was for passing him with a good day, and no more. But the
+other, who had also marked him from a distance, stopped when they came
+to close quarters.
+
+"Well met, Master Parson!" he cried. "And how far may you have come?"
+
+"A mile or a little less," the vicar answered mildly. And seeing, now
+that they were face to face, that the stranger was little more than a
+lad, he went on to ask him if he could be of service to him.
+
+"Have you seen a lady on the road?"
+
+The clergyman started. "Dear, dear!" he said. "'Tis well met, indeed,
+sir, and a mercy you stayed me. To be sure I have! She is no farther
+away than my house at this moment!"
+
+"The devil she is!" the young man answered heartily. "That's to the
+purpose then. I was beginning to think--but never mind! Come on, and
+tell her woman where she is."
+
+"Certainly I will. Is she here?"
+
+"She's sitting in the hedge at the next corner. It's on your way.
+Lord!" with a sigh of relief, not unmixed with pride, "what a night I
+have had of it!"
+
+"Indeed, sir," his reverence said with sympathy; and as they turned to
+proceed side by side, he eyed his neighbour curiously.
+
+"Aye, indeed, and indeed!" Tom answered. "You'd say so if you'd been
+called out of bed the moment you were in it, and after a long day's
+tramp too! And been dragged up and down the country the whole
+live-long night, my friend."
+
+"Dear me; is it so, sir? And you were in her ladyship's company when
+she was stopped, I suppose, sir?"
+
+"I? Not at all, or it would not have happened. I've never set eyes on
+her."
+
+"Her servants fetched you then?"
+
+"Her woman did! I've seen no more of them."
+
+The vicar pricked up his ears. "Nor the carriage?" he ventured.
+
+"Not I. Hasn't she got the carriage with her?"
+
+Mr. Michieson rubbed his head. "No," he said slowly; "no, she has not.
+Do I understand then, sir, that--that you are yourself a complete
+stranger to the parties?"
+
+"I? Totally. But here's her woman. She can tell you about it. Oh, you
+need not look at me," Tom continued with a grin, as the vicar,
+startled by the sight of the handsome gipsy-like girl, looked at him
+dubiously. "She's a pretty piece, I know, to be straying the country,
+but I'm not in fault. I never set eyes on the little witch until last
+night." And then, "Here, child," he cried, waving his hat to her,
+"I've news! Your lady is at the parson's, and all's well! Now you can
+thank me that I did not let you go into the smallpox."
+
+Lady Betty clasped her hands. Her face was radiant. "Are you sure? Are
+you quite sure?" she cried, her voice trembling. "Are you sure she is
+safe?"
+
+"She is quite safe," Mr. Michieson answered slowly; and he looked in
+wonder from one to the other. There was something suspiciously alike
+in their tumbled finery, their dishevelled appearance. "I was even now
+on my way," he continued, "to Coke Hall to convey the news to Sir
+Hervey."
+
+It was Tom's turn to utter a cry of astonishment. "To Sir Hervey?" he
+said. "To Sir Hervey Coke, do you mean?"
+
+"To be sure, sir."
+
+"But--why, to be sure, I might have known," Tom cried. "Was she going
+there?"
+
+"She is his wife, sir."
+
+Tom laughed with a knowing air. "Oh, but that's a flam at any rate!"
+he said. "Sir Hervey's not married. I saw him myself, ten days ago."
+
+The girl stood up. "Where?" she said.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Aye, where, sir, where, since you are so free with his name?"
+
+"In Clarges Row, in London, if you must know," Tom answered, his face
+reddening at the reminiscence. "And if he'd been married, or had
+thoughts of being married then, he'd have told me."
+
+Lady Betty stared at him, her breath coming quickly; something began
+to dawn in her eyes. "Told you, would he?" she said slowly. "He'd have
+told you? And who may you be, if you please?"
+
+"Well," Tom answered a trifle sharply, "my name is Maitland, and for
+the matter of that, my girl, you need not judge me by my clothes. I
+know Sir Hervey, and----"
+
+He did not finish. To his indignation, to the clergyman's
+astonishment, the girl went into a fit of laughter; laughing till she
+cried, and drying her eyes only that she might laugh again. Sir Tom
+stared and fumed and swore; while the vicar looked from one to the
+other, and asked himself--not for the first time--whether they were
+acting together, or the man was as innocent as he appeared to be.
+
+One thing he could make clear, and he hastened to do it. "I don't know
+why you laugh, child," he said patiently. "At the same time, the
+gentleman is certainly wrong in the fact. Sir Hervey Coke is married,
+for I had it from the steward some days ago, and I am to go with the
+tenants to the Hall to see her ladyship."
+
+Tom stared. "Sir Hervey Coke married!" he cried in amazement, and
+forgot the girl's rudeness. "Since I saw him? Married? Impossible!
+Whom do you say he has married?"
+
+The vicar coughed. "Well, 'tis odd, sir, but it's a lady of the same
+name--as yourself."
+
+"Maitland?"
+
+"Yes, sir! A Miss Maitland, a sister of Sir Thomas Maitland, of
+Cuckfield."
+
+Sir Tom's eyes grew wide. "Good Lord!" he cried; "Sophia!"
+
+"A relation, sir? Do I understand you that she's of your family?"
+
+"My sister, sir; my sister."
+
+The clergyman stared a moment, and then without comment he walked
+aside and looked over the hedge. He smiled feebly at the well-known
+prospect. Was it possible, he asked himself, that they thought he
+could swallow this? That they deemed him so simple, so rustic, that
+such a piece of play-acting as this could impose upon him? Beyond a
+doubt they were in league together; with their fine story and their
+apt surprise, and "my lady" in his garden. The only point on which he
+felt doubt was the advantage they looked to draw from it, since the
+moment he reached the Hall the bubble must burst.
+
+He turned by-and-by, thinking in his honest cunning to resolve that
+doubt. He found Tom in a sort of maze staring at the ground, and the
+girl watching him with a strange smile. For the first time the good
+vicar had recourse to the wisdom of the serpent. "Had I not better go
+to the Hall at once," he said blandly, "and send a carriage for my
+lady?"
+
+"Go to the Hall without seeing her?" Tom cried, awakening from his
+reverie. "Not I! I go to her straight. Sophia? Sophia? Good Lord!"
+
+"And so do I, sir, by your leave," the girl cried pertly. "And at
+once. I know my duty."
+
+"And you're the man to show us the way," Tom continued heartily,
+slapping his reverence on the back. "No more going up and down at
+random for me! Let's to her at once! We can find a messenger to go to
+the Hall, when we have seen her. But Lord! I can't get over it! When
+was she married, my girl?"
+
+"Well," Betty answered demurely, "'twas the same day, I believe, as
+your honour was to have been married."
+
+Tom winced and looked at her askance. "You know that, you baggage, do
+you?" he cried.
+
+"So it went in the steward's room, sir!"
+
+But the vicar, his suspicions confirmed by their decision not to go to
+the Hall, hung back. "I think I had better go on," he said. "I think
+Sir Hervey should be warned."
+
+"Oh, hang Sir Hervey!" Tom answered handsomely. "Why is he not looking
+after his wife? Lead on! Lead on, do you hear, man? How far is it?"
+
+"About a mile," the vicar faltered; "I should say a--a long mile," he
+added, as he reluctantly obeyed the pressure of Tom's hand.
+
+"Well, I am glad it's no further!" the young man answered. "For I'm so
+sharp set I could eat my sister. You've parson's fare, I suppose?
+Bacon and eggs and small beer?" he continued, clapping the unfortunate
+clergyman on the back with the utmost good humour. "Well, sir, you
+shall entertain us! And while we are dining, the messenger can be
+going to the Hall. Soap and a jack-towel will serve my turn, but the
+girl--what's your name, child?"
+
+"Betty, sir."
+
+"Will be the better for the loan of your wife's shoes and a cap! And
+Sophy is married? Where was it, my girl?"
+
+"At Dr. Keith's, sir."
+
+"The deuce it was!" Tom cried ruefully. "Then that's two hundred out
+of my pocket! Were you with her, child?"
+
+"No, sir, her ladyship hired me after she was married."
+
+Tom looked at her. "But--but I thought," he said, "that you told me
+last night that you had been brought up with your mistress?"
+
+Betty bit her lip, unable to remember if she had told him so. "Oh,
+yes, sir," she said hastily, "but that was another mistress."
+
+"Also of the name of Sophia?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And for which Sophia--were you weeping last night?" Tom asked with
+irony.
+
+Betty's face flamed; her fingers tingled also, though the slip was her
+own. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to throw off
+the mask, and tell the young man who she was. But for a reason, Betty
+did not choose to adopt this course. Instead, she stooped, pretending
+that her shoe-buckle was unfastened; when she rose there were tears in
+her eyes.
+
+"You are very unkind, sir," she said in a low voice. "I took a--a
+liberty with my mistress in calling her by her name, and I--I had to
+account for it, and didn't tell quite the truth."
+
+Tom was melted, yet his eye twinkled. "Last night or to-day?" he said.
+
+"Both, sir," she whispered demurely. "And I'm afraid, sir, I took a
+liberty with you, too, talking nonsense and such like. But I'm sure,
+sir--I am very sorry, and I hope you won't tell my mistress."
+
+The girl looked so pretty, so absurdly pretty in her penitence, and
+there was something so captivating in her manner, that Tom was seized
+with an inordinate desire to reassure her. "Tell, child? Not I!" he
+cried generously. "But I'll have a kiss for a forfeit. You owe me
+that," he continued, with one eye on the vicar, who had gone on while
+she tied her shoe. "Will you pay it now, my dear, or to-morrow with
+interest?"
+
+"A kiss? Oh, fie, sir!"
+
+"Why, what is the harm in a kiss?" Tom asked; and the rogue drew a
+little nearer.
+
+"Oh, fie, sir!" Betty retorted, tossing her head, and moving farther
+from him. "What harm indeed? And you told me last night I should be as
+safe with you as my mistress need be!"
+
+"Well?" Tom exclaimed triumphantly. "And shouldn't I kiss your
+mistress? Isn't she my sister? And--pooh, child, don't be silly. Was
+ever waiting-maid afraid of a kiss? And in daylight?"
+
+But Betty continued to give him a wide berth. "No, sir, I'll not
+suffer it!" she cried tartly. "It's you who are taking the liberty
+now! And you told me last night you had seen enough of women to last
+you your life!"
+
+"That was before I saw you, my dear!" Tom answered with impudence. But
+he desisted from the pursuit, and resuming a sober course along the
+middle of the road, became thoughtful almost to moodiness; as if he
+were not quite so sure of some things as he had been. At intervals he
+glanced at Betty; who walked by his side primly conscious of his
+regards, and now blushing a little, and now pouting, and now when he
+was not looking, with a laughing imp dancing in her eyes that must
+have effected his downfall in a moment, if he had met her gaze. As it
+was he lost himself in thinking how pretty she was, and how fresh; how
+sweet her voice, and how dainty her walk; how trim her figure, and----
+
+And then he groaned; calling himself a fool, a double, treble,
+deepest-dyed fool! After the lesson he had learned, after the
+experience through which he had passed, was he really, really going to
+fall in love again? And with his sister's maid? With a girl picked
+up--his vows, his oaths, his resolutions notwithstanding--in the road!
+It was too much!
+
+And Lady Betty walking beside him, knowing all and telling nothing,
+Betty the flirt? "He put his coat on me; I have worn his coat. He said
+he would tie me to the gate, and he would have tied me," with a
+furtive look at him out of the tail of her eye--that was the air that
+ran in her mind as she walked in the sunshine. A kiss? Well, perhaps;
+sometime. Who knew? And Lady Betty blushed at her thoughts. And they
+came to a corner where the garden house lay off the road. The vicarage
+was not yet in sight.
+
+At the gate of the orchard the poor parson waited for them, smiling
+feebly, but not meeting their eyes. He was in a state of piteous
+embarrassment. Persuaded that they were cheats and adventurers,
+hedge-players, if nothing worse, he knew that another man in his place
+would have told them as much, and sent them about their business. But
+in the kindness of his heart he could no more do this than he could
+fly. On the other hand, his hair rose on end when he pictured his
+wife, and what she would say when he presented them to her. What she
+would do were he to demand the good fare they expected, he failed to
+conceive; but at the thought, the dense holly hedge that screened the
+house seemed all too thin. Alas, the thickest hedge is pervious to a
+woman's tongue!
+
+In the others' ease and unconsciousness he found something pitiful; or
+he would have done so, if their doom had not involved his own
+punishment. "She is here, is she?" Tom said, his hand on the gate.
+
+The vicar nodded, speechless; he pointed in the direction of the
+garden house.
+
+Betty slipped through deftly. "Then, if you please, sir, I'll go
+first," she said. "Her ladyship may need something before she sees
+you--by your leave, sir?" And dropping a smiling curtsey, she coolly
+closed the gate on them, and flew down the path in the direction the
+vicar had indicated.
+
+"Well, there's impudence!" Tom exclaimed. "Hang me if I know why she
+should go first!" And then, as a joyful cry rang through the trees, he
+looked at the vicar.
+
+But Michieson looked elsewhere. He was listening, he was shivering
+with anticipation. If that cry reached her! Tom, however, failed to
+notice this; innocent and unconscious, he opened the gate and passed
+through; and, thinking of his sister and his last parting from her,
+went slowly across the sunlit grass until the low-hanging boughs of
+the apple-trees hid him.
+
+The parson looked up and down the road with a hunted eye. The position
+was terrible. Should he go to his wife, confess and prepare her? Or
+should he wait until his unwelcome guests returned to share the brunt.
+Or--or should he go? Go about his business--was there not sad,
+pressing business at Beamond's farm?--until the storm was overpast.
+
+He was a good man, but he was weak. A few seconds of hesitation, and
+he skulked down the road, his head bent, his eyes glancing backwards.
+He fancied that he heard his wife's voice, and hurried faster and
+faster from the dreaded sound. At length he reached the main road and
+stood, his face hot with shame. He considered what he should do.
+
+Beamond's? Yes, he must go about that. He must, to save his
+self-respect, go about business of some kind. At a large farm two
+miles away his churchwarden lived; there he could get help. The farmer
+and his wife had had the disease, and were in less terror of it than
+some. At any rate he could consult them: in a Christian parish people
+could not lie unburied. In vital matters he was no coward, and he knew
+that if no one would help him--which was possible, so great was the
+panic--he would do all himself, if his strength held out.
+
+In turning this over he tried to forget the foolish imbroglio of the
+morning; yet now and again he winced, pricked in his conscience and
+his manhood. After all, they had come to him for help, for food and
+shelter; and who so proper to afford these as God's minister in that
+place. At worst he should have sent them to one of the farms, and
+allowed it out of the tithe, and taken the chance when Easter came,
+and Peg discovered it. Passing the branch-road on his left, which Tom
+and Betty had taken in the night, he had a distant view of a horseman
+riding that way at speed: and he wondered a little, the sight being
+unusual. Three minutes later he came to the roadside ale-house which
+Betty had visited. The goodwife was at the door, and watched him come
+up. As he passed she cried out, to learn if his reverence had news.
+
+"None that's good, Nanny," he answered; never doubting but she had the
+illness at Beamond's on her mind. And declining her offer of a mug of
+ale he went on, and half a mile farther turned off the road by a lane
+that led to the churchwarden's farm. He crossed the farmyard, and
+found Mrs. Benacre sitting within the kitchen door, picking over
+gooseberries. He begged her not to move, and asked if the goodman was
+at home.
+
+"No, your reverence, he's at the Hall," she answered. "He was leaving
+hay in the Furlongs, and was fetched all in a minute this hour past,
+and took the team with him. The little lad came home and told me."
+
+The vicar started, and looked a little odd. "I wanted to see him about
+poor Beamond," he said.
+
+"'Tis true, then, your reverence?"
+
+"Too true. There's nothing like it happened in the parish in my time."
+
+"Dear, dear, it gives one the creeps! After all, when you've got a
+good husband, what's a little marking, and be safe? There should be
+something done, your reverence. 'Tis these gipsies bring it about."
+
+The vicar set back the fine gooseberry he had selected. "What time did
+her ladyship arrive yesterday?" he asked.
+
+Mrs. Benacre lifted up her hands in astonishment. "La, didn't you
+hear?" she cried. "But to be sure, you're off the road a good bit, and
+all your people so taken up with they poor Beamonds too? No time at
+all, your reverence! She didn't come. I take it, it's about that, Sir
+Hervey has sent for Benacre. He thinks a deal of him, as his father
+before him did of the old gaffer! I remember a cocking was at the
+Hall," Mrs. Benacre continued, "when I was a girl--'twas a match
+between the gentlemen of Sussex and the gentlemen of Essex--and the
+old squire would have Benacre's father to dine with them, and made so
+much of him as never was!"
+
+The vicar had listened without hearing. "She stopped the night in
+Lewes, I suppose?" he said, his eyes on the gooseberries, his heart
+bumping.
+
+"'Twasn't known, the squire being at Lewes to meet her. And to-day
+I've had more to do than to go fetching and carrying, and never a soul
+to speak to but they two hussies and the lad, since Benacre went on
+the land. There, your reverence, there's a berry should take a prize
+so far away as Croydon."
+
+"Very fine," the parson muttered. "But I think I'll walk to the Hall
+and inquire."
+
+"'Twould be very becoming," Mrs. Benacre allowed; and made him promise
+he would bring back the news.
+
+As he went down the lane, he saw two horsemen pass the end of it at a
+quick trot. When he reached the road, the riders were out of sight;
+but his heart misgave him at this sign of unusual bustle. A quarter of
+an hour's walking along a hot road brought him to the park gate; it
+was open, and in the road was the lodge-keeper's wife, a child
+clinging to her skirts. Before he could speak, "Has your reverence any
+news?" she cried.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Well, was ever such a thing?" she exclaimed, lifting up her hands.
+"They're gone to be sure, as if the ground had swallowed them. It's
+that, or the rogues ha' drowned them in the Ouse!"
+
+He felt himself shrinking in his clothes. "How--how did it happen?" he
+muttered faintly. What had he done? What had he done?
+
+"The postboys left them in the carriage the other side of Beamond's,"
+the woman answered, delighted to gain a listener. "And went back with
+fresh horses, I suppose it would be about seven this morning; they
+could not get them in the night. They found the carriage gone, and
+tracked it back so far almost as Chayley, and there found it, and the
+woman and the two grooms with it; but not one of them could give any
+account, except that their ladyships had been carried off by a gang of
+men, and they three had harnessed up and escaped. The postboys came
+back with the news, and about the same time Mr. Watkyns came by the
+main road through Lewes, and knew naught till he was here! He was fit
+to kill himself when he found her ladyship was gone," the woman
+continued with zest; "and Sir Hervey was lit to kill 'em all, and
+serve 'em right; and now they are searching the country, and a score
+with them; but it's tolerable sure the villains ha' got away with my
+lady, some think by Newhaven and foreign parts! What? Isn't your
+reverence going to the house?"
+
+"No," his reverence muttered, with a sickly smile. "No." And he turned
+from the cool shadows of the chestnut avenue, that led to the Hall,
+and setting his face the way he had come, hastened through the heat.
+He might still prevent the worst! He might still--but he must get
+home. He must get home. He had walked three miles in forty minutes in
+old days; he must do it now. True, the sun was midsummer high, the
+time an hour after noon, the road straight and hot, and unshaded, his
+throat was parched, and he was fasting. But he must press on. He must
+press on, though his legs began to tremble under him--and he was not
+so young as he had been. There was the end of Benacre's Lane! He had
+done a mile; but his knees were shaky, he must sit a moment on the
+bank. He did so, and found the trees begin to dance before his eyes,
+his thoughts to grow confused; frightened he tried to rise, but
+instead he sank in a swoon, and lay inert at the foot of the bank.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII
+
+                           'TIS GO OR SWIM
+
+
+It was a strange meeting between brother and sister. Tom, mindful how
+they had parted in Clarges Row, and with what loyalty she had striven
+to save him from himself--at a time when he stood in the utmost need
+of such efforts--was softened and touched beyond the ordinary. While
+Sophia, laughing and crying at once in the joy of a meeting as
+unexpected as it was welcome, experienced as she held Tom in her arms
+something nearer akin to happiness than had been hers since her
+marriage. The gratitude she owed to Providence for preservation amid
+the dangers of the night strengthened this feeling; the sunshine that
+flooded the orchard, the verdure under foot, the laden sprays of
+blossom overhead, the songs of the birds, the very strangeness of the
+retreat in which they met, all spoke to a heart peculiarly open at
+that moment to receive impressions. Tom recovered, Tom kind, formed
+part of the world which welcomed her back, and shamed her repining;
+while her brother, sheepish and affectionate, marvelled to see the
+little sister whom he had patronised all his life, suddenly and
+wonderfully transmogrified into Lady Coke.
+
+He asked how she came to be so oddly dressed, learned that she also
+had fallen in with the vicar; and, when he had heard: "Well," he
+exclaimed, "'tis the luckiest thing your woman met me I ever knew!"
+
+"You might have been in any part of England!" she answered, smiling
+through her tears. "Where were you going, Tom?"
+
+"Why, to Coke's to be sure," he replied; "and wanted only two or three
+miles of it!"
+
+"Not--not knowing?" she asked. And she blushed.
+
+"Not the least in life! I was on the point of enlisting," he
+explained, colouring in his turn, "at Reading, in Tatton's foot, when
+a man he had sent in search of me, found me and gave me a note."
+
+"From Sir Hervey?"
+
+"Of course," Tom answered, "telling me I could stay at the Hall until
+things blew over. And--and not to make a fool of myself," he added
+ingenuously. "'Twas like him and I knew it was best to come, but when
+I was nearly there--that was last night, you know--I thought I would
+wait until morning and hear who were in the house before I showed
+myself. That is why Mistress Betty found me where she did."
+
+Sophia could not hide her feelings on learning what Sir Hervey had
+done for Tom and for her; what he had done silently, without boasting,
+without telling her. Tom saw her tremble, saw that for some reason she
+was on the verge of tears, and he wondered.
+
+"Why," he said, "what is the matter, Sophy? What is it now?"
+
+"It's nothing, nothing," she answered hurriedly.
+
+"I know what it is!" he replied. "You've been up all night, and had
+nothing to eat. You will be all right when you have had a meal. The
+old parson said he'd give us bacon and eggs. It should be ready by
+this time."
+
+Sophia laughed hysterically. "I fear it doesn't lie with him," she
+said. "His wife would not let me into the house. She's afraid of the
+smallpox."
+
+"Pooh!" Tom said contemptuously. "When she knows who we are she'll
+sing another tune."
+
+"She won't believe," Sophia answered.
+
+"She'll believe me," Tom said. "So let us go."
+
+"Do you go first, sir, if you please," Lady Betty cried pertly,
+intervening for the first time. She had stood a little apart to allow
+the brother and sister to be private. "I'm sure her ladyship's not fit
+to be seen. And I'm not much better," she added; and then, a sudden
+bubble of laughter rising to the surface, she buried her face in
+Sophia's skirts, and affected to be engaged in repairing the disorder.
+Tom saw his sister's face relax in a smile, and he eyed the maid
+suspiciously; but before he could speak, Sophia also begged him to go,
+and see what reception the old clergyman had secured for them. He
+turned and went.
+
+At the gate he looked back, but a wealth of apple blossom intervened;
+he did not see that the girls had flown into one another's arms, nor
+did he hear them laughing, crying, asking, answering, all at once, and
+out of the fulness of thankful hearts. Tom's wholesome appetite began
+to cry cupboard. He turned briskly up the road, discovered the
+wicket-gate of the parsonage, and marching to it, found to his
+surprise that it was locked. The obstacle was not formidable to youth,
+but the welcome was cold at best; and where was his friend the parson?
+In wonder he rattled the gate, thinking some one would come; but no
+one came, and out of patience he vaulted over the post, and passing
+round a mass of rose bushes that grew in a tangle about the pot-herb
+garden, he saw the door of the house standing ajar before him.
+
+One moment; the next and before he could reach it, a boy about twelve
+years old, with a shock of hair and sullen eyes, looked out, saw him,
+and hastened to slam the door in his face. The action was
+unmistakable, the meaning plain; Sir Tom stood, stared, and after a
+moment swore. Then in a rage he advanced and kicked the door. "What do
+you mean?" he cried. "Open, sirrah, do you hear? Are these your
+manners?"
+
+For a few seconds there was silence in the sunny herb garden with its
+laden air and perfumed hedges. Then a casement above creaked open, and
+two heads peered cautiously over the window-ledge. "Do you hear?" Tom
+cried, quickly espying them. "Come down and open the door, or you'll
+get a whipping."
+
+But the boys, the one he had seen at the door, and another, a year or
+two older, preserved a sulky silence; eyeing him with evident dread
+and at the same time with a kind of morbid curiosity. Tom threatened,
+stormed, even took up a stone; they answered nothing and it was only
+when he had begun to retreat, fuming, towards the gate that one of
+them found his voice.
+
+"You'd better be gone!" he cried shrilly. "They are coming for you."
+
+Sir Tom turned at the sound, and went back at a white heat. "What do
+you mean, you young cubs?" he cried, looking up. "Who are coming for
+me?"
+
+But they were dumb again, staring at him over the ledge with sombre
+interest. Tom repeated his question, scolded, even raised his stone,
+but without effect. At last he turned his back on them, and in a rage
+flung out of the garden.
+
+He went out as he had entered, by vaulting the gate. As he did so, he
+heard a woman's shrill voice raised in anger; and he looked in the
+direction whence it came. He saw a knot of people coming down the
+road. It consisted of three or four women, and a rough-looking
+labourer; but while he stood eyeing them a second party, largely made
+up of men and boys, came in sight, following the other; and tailing
+behind these again came a couple of women and last of all two or three
+lads. The women speaking loudly, with excited gestures, appeared to be
+scolding the men; those on the outside of each rank hurrying a step in
+advance of the others, and addressing them with turned heads. Tom
+watched them a moment, thinking that they might be a search party sent
+by Coke; then he reflected that the noise would alarm his sister, and
+turning in at the gate he crossed the orchard.
+
+Sophia came to meet him. "What is it?" she asked anxiously. "What is
+the matter, Tom?" The clamour of strident voices, the scolding of the
+women had preceded him. "Have you seen the clergyman? Why, they are
+coming here!"
+
+"The deuce they are!" Tom answered. He looked back, and seeing through
+the trees that the man with the first gang had opened the gate of the
+orchard, he went to meet him.
+
+"What is it?" he asked. "What are you doing here? Has Sir Hervey sent
+you?"
+
+"We want no sending!" one of the women cried sharply. "'Tis enough to
+send us of ourselves."
+
+"Aye, so it is!" a second chimed in with violence. "And do you keep
+your distance if you be one of them! Let's have no nonsense, master,
+for we won't stand it!"
+
+"No, no nonsense!" cried another, as the larger party arrived and
+raised the number to something like a score. "She's got to go, and you
+with her if you be one of her company! Ain't that so?" the speaker
+continued, turning to her backers.
+
+"Aye, she must go!" cried one. "We'll ha' no smallpox here!" cried
+another. "She'll go or swim! Out of the parish, I say!" shrieked a
+third.
+
+Tom looked along the line of excited faces, faces stupid or cruel; at
+the best of a low type, and now brutalised by selfish panic. And his
+heart sank. But for the present he neither blenched nor lost his
+temper.
+
+"Why, you fools," he said, thinking to reason with them, "don't you
+know who the lady is?"
+
+"No, nor care!" was the shrill retort. "Nor care, do you understand
+that?"
+
+And then a man stepped forward. "She's got to go," he said, "whoever
+she be. That's all."
+
+"I tell you, you don't know who she is," Tom answered stubbornly.
+"Whose tenant are you, my man?"
+
+"Sir Hervey's, to be sure," the fellow answered, surprised at the
+question.
+
+"Well, she's his wife," Tom answered. "Do you hear? Do you
+understand?" he repeated, with growing indignation. "She is Lady Coke,
+Sir Hervey's wife. Lady Coke, Sir Hervey's wife! Get that into your
+heads, will you! His wife, I tell you. And if you raise a finger or
+wag a tongue against her, you'll repent it all your lives."
+
+The man stared, doubting, hesitating, in part daunted. But a woman
+behind him--a lean vixen, her shoulders barely covered by a meagre
+kerchief, pushed herself to the front, and snapped her fingers in
+Tom's face. "That, my lady?" she cried. "That for the lie. You be a
+liar, my lad, that's what you be! A liar, and ought to swim with her.
+Neighbours," the shrew continued volubly, "she be no more my lady than
+I be. Madam told me she faked for to be it, but was a gipsy wench as
+had laid the night at Beamond's, and now was for 'fecting us."
+
+"Anyway she don't go another step into this parish," pronounced an
+elderly man, something better off than the others. "We don't want to
+swim her, and we don't want to stone her, but she must go, or worse
+come of it. And you, my lad, if you be with her, and the other." For
+Lady Betty had crept timidly out of the garden-shed and joined the
+pair.
+
+Tom was bursting with passion. "I!" he cried. "You clod, do you know
+who I am? I am Sir Thomas Maitland, of Cuckfield."
+
+"Sir, or no sir, you'll ha' to go," the man retorted stubbornly. He
+was a dull fellow, and an unknown Sir Thomas was no more to him than
+plain Tom or Dick. "And 'tis best, with no more words," he continued
+heavily.
+
+Tom, enraged, was for answering in the same strain, but Sophia plucked
+his sleeve, and took the word herself. "I am quite willing to go," she
+said, holding her head up bravely. "If you let me pass safely to the
+Hall, that is all I ask."
+
+"To the Hall?"
+
+"Yes, to my husband."
+
+"To the Hall indeed! No! No! That's likely," cried the crowd; and were
+not to be silenced till the elderly farmer who had spoken before
+raised his hand for a hearing.
+
+"'Tis no wonder they shout," he said, with a smile half-cunning,
+half-stupid. "The Hall? No, no. Back by Beamond's and over the water,
+my girl, you'll go, same as Beamond's folk did. There's few live the
+other side, and so the fewer to take it, d'ye see. Besides, 'tis every
+one for himself."
+
+"Aye! aye!" the crowd cried. "He's right; that way, no other! Hall
+indeed?" And at the back they began to jeer.
+
+"You've no law for this?" Tom cried, furious and panting.
+
+"Then we'll make a law," they answered, and jeered again, with some
+words that were not very fit for the ladies to hear.
+
+Tom, at that, would have sprung at the nearest and punished him; but
+Sophia held him back. "No, no," she said in a low tone. "We had better
+go. Sir Hervey is surely searching for us. We may meet him, and they
+will learn their mistake. Please let us go. Let us go quickly, or they
+may--I do not know what they may do."
+
+Tom suffered himself to be convinced; but he made the mistake of doing
+with a bad grace that which he had to do whether he would or no.
+
+"Out of the way, you clods!" he cried, advancing on them with his
+stick raised. "You'll sing another tune before night! Do you hear, I
+say? Out of the way!"
+
+Moving sullenly, they left his front open; and he marched proudly
+through the gate of the orchard, Sophia and Betty beside him. But his
+challenge had raised the devil that lies dormant in the most peaceful
+crowd. He had no sooner passed than the women closed in upon his rear,
+and followed him with taunts and laughter. And presently a boy threw a
+stone.
+
+It fell short of the mark; but another stone followed, and another;
+and the third struck Tom on the leg. He wheeled round in a towering
+passion, caught sight of the offender, and made for him. The boy
+tripped in trying to escape, and fell, shrieking. Tom got home two
+cuts; then a virago, her tongue spitting venom, her nails in the air,
+confronted him over the body of the fallen, and he returned sullenly
+to his charges, and resumed his retreat.
+
+But the boy's screams had exasperated the rabble. Groans took the
+place of laughter, curses succeeded jeers. The bolder threw dirt, the
+more timid hooted and booed, while all pressed more and more closely
+on his heels, threatening every moment to jostle him. Tom had to turn
+and brandish his stick to drive them back, and finding that even so he
+could scarcely secure the briefest respite, he began to grow hot and
+confused, and looked about for a way of escape in something between
+rage and terror.
+
+To run, he knew, would only precipitate the disaster. To defend
+himself was scarcely possible, for Sophia, fearing he would attempt
+reprisals, hampered him on one side, while Betty, in pure fear, clung
+to him on the other. Both were sinking with apprehension, while his
+ears tingled under the coarse jeers and coarser epithets that were
+hurled at them. Yet he dared not suffer them to move a pace from him.
+Cries of "Roll them! Duck them! To the pond!" began to be heard; and
+once he barely checked an ugly rush by facing about at the last
+moment. At last he espied a little before him the turning into the
+main road, and whispering to the women to keep up their courage, he
+pressed sullenly towards it.
+
+He had as good as reached it, when a stone more weighty and better
+aimed than those which had preceded it, struck Lady Betty fairly
+between the shoulders. The girl stumbled forward with a gasp, and
+Sophia, horror-stricken and uncertain how much she was hurt, sprang to
+her side to hold her up. The movement freed Tom's arm; his sister's
+furious cry, "You cowards! Oh, you cowards!" burned up the last shred
+of his self-control.
+
+In a tempest of rage he rushed on the nearest hobbledehoy, and felling
+him with his stick, rained blows upon him. In an instant he was
+engaged, hand to hand, with half a dozen combatants.
+
+Unfortunately the charge had carried him a dozen yards from his
+companions; the more timid of the rascals, who were not eager to
+encounter him or his stick, saw their opportunity. In a twinkling they
+cut off the two girls, and hemmed them in. Beginning with pushing and
+jostling them they would soon have gone on to further insults if
+Sophia had not flown at them in her turn, and repelled them with a
+rage that for a few seconds daunted them. Tom, too, heard the girls'
+cries, and turned to relieve them; but as he sprang forward a boy
+tripped him up, and he fell prone on the road.
+
+That gave the last impulse to the evil instincts of the crowd. The
+louts darted on him with a savage yell, and began to pommel him; and
+ill it must have gone with Tom as well as with his womenfolk if the
+crowd had had their way with them for many seconds.
+
+But at that critical instant, without warning, or any at least that
+the victors regarded, the long lash of a hunting-whip flickered in the
+air, and fell as by magic between the girls and their assailants; it
+seared, as with a red-hot iron, the hand which a sturdy young clown,
+half-boy, half-man, was brandishing under Sophia's nose; it stung with
+the sharpness of a dozen wasps the mocking face that menaced Betty on
+the other side. The lads who had flung themselves on Tom, awoke with
+yells of pain to find the same whip curling about their shoulders, and
+to see behind it, set in grim rage, the face of their landlord.
+
+That instant, the harpies, who had been hounding them on, vanished as
+by magic, scuttling all ways like frightened hens. And Sir Hervey let
+them go--for the time; but behind the lads and louts, fleeing and
+panting and racing and sweating down the road, and aiming fruitlessly
+at gates and gaps, the lash fell ever and mercilessly on sturdy backs
+and fleshy legs. The horse he rode was an old hunter, known in the
+district, quick and cunning, broken to all turns of the hare; and that
+day it carried fate, and punishment with no halting foot followed hard
+upon the sin!
+
+Sobbing with exhaustion, with labouring chests that at intervals shot
+forth cries of pain, as the flickering thong licked their hams, and
+they bounded like deer under the sting, the bullies came at last to
+the vicarage gate. There Sir Hervey left them, free at last to rub
+their weals and curse their folly; sorer, but it is to be hoped wiser
+men.
+
+Sophia, supporting herself by a gate, and now laughing hysterically,
+now repressing with difficulty the inclination to weep, watched him
+return. She saw him through a mist of smiles and tears. For the moment
+she forgot that he was her husband, forgot that this was the meeting
+so long and greatly dreaded.
+
+He sprang from his horse.
+
+"You're not hurt?" he cried. "Child----" and then, with astonishment
+she saw that he was speechless.
+
+Her own words came easily; even her manner was eager and
+unembarrassed. "No," she cried, "nor Lady Betty! You came just in
+time, Sir Hervey."
+
+"Thank God, I did," he answered; "thank God! And you are sure, child,
+you are none the worse? You are not hurt?"
+
+"No," she answered, laughing, as people laugh in moments of agitation.
+"Not a bit! You are looking at my dress? Oh, we have had adventures, a
+vast lot of adventures, Sir Hervey! It would take a day to tell them,
+wouldn't it, Betty? Betty's my maid, Sir Hervey." She was above
+herself. She spoke gaily and archly, as Betty might have spoken.
+
+"Lady Betty your maid?" he exclaimed, turning to Betty, who blushed
+and laughed. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Mean? Why only--hush, where is Tom? Oh, repairing himself! Why, only
+a frolic, Sir Hervey! Tom took her for my woman, and we want to keep
+him in it! So not a word, if you please. This is Betty the maid,
+you'll remember?"
+
+"I obey," Sir Hervey answered. "But to tell the truth," he continued
+soberly, "my head turns. Where did you meet Tom, my dear? What has
+happened to you? And why are you wearing--that queer cloak? And where
+are your shoes?"
+
+"It's not very becoming, is it?" she cried, and she looked at him.
+Never before in her life had she played the coquette, never; now in
+this moment of unrestrained feeling, her eyes, provocative as Lady
+Betty's, challenged the compliment. And she wondered at herself.
+
+"You are always--the same to me," he said simply. And then: "You are
+really all of you unhurt? Well, thank God for it! And, Tom, my lad,
+you know, I suppose, how you came to be in this? I am sure I don't;
+but I thought it was you when I came up."
+
+"I hope you flayed them!" Tom growled, as they gripped hands. "See,
+she's barefoot! They hunted us half a mile, I should think."
+
+Sir Hervey looked and grew red. "I did!" he answered. "I think they
+have learned a lesson. And they have not heard the last of it!" Then
+the post-chaise, which he had escorted to Beamond's Farm on a
+fruitless search, came up, and behind it a couple of mounted servants,
+whose training scarce enabled them to conceal their surprise, when
+they saw the condition of their new mistress.
+
+Sir Hervey postponed further inquiry. He hurried the two ladies into
+the carriage, set Tom on a servant's horse, and gave the word. A
+moment later the party were travelling rapidly in the direction of the
+Hall. Coke rode on the side next his wife, Tom by Lady Betty. But the
+noise of the wheels made conversation difficult, and no one spoke.
+
+Presently Sophia stole a glance at Sir Hervey; and whether his country
+costume and the flush of colour which exercise had brought to his
+cheek became him, or he had a better air, as some men have, on
+horseback, it is certain that she wondered she had ever thought him
+old. The moment in which he had appeared, towering on his horse above
+the snarling, spitting rabble, and driven them along the road as a man
+drives sheep, remained in her memory. He had wielded, and grimly and
+ably wielded, the whip of authority. He had ridden as if horse and man
+were one; he had disdained weapons, and had flogged the hounds into
+submission and flight. Now in repose his strong figure in its plain
+dress wore in her eyes a new air of distinction.
+
+She looked away and looked again, wondering if it really was so. And
+slowly a vivid blush spread over her pale face. The man who rode
+beside the wheel, the man whose figure she was appraising was--her
+husband. At the thought she turned with a guilty start to Lady Betty;
+but the poor girl, worn out by excitement and the night's vigil, had
+fallen asleep. Sophia's eyes went slowly back to her husband, and the
+carriage, leaving the road, swept through the gates into the park.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                            TWO PORTRAITS
+
+
+Tom rubbed his hands in cruel anticipation. "They are coming to the
+Hall at four o'clock," he said. "And I wouldn't be in their shoes for
+a mug and a crust. Coke will swinge them," he continued with zest. "He
+must swinge them, like it or not! It'll be go, bag and baggage, for
+most of them, and some, I'm told, have been on the land time out of
+mind!"
+
+He had seated himself on the broad balustrade of the terrace, with his
+back to the park, and his eyes on the windows of the house. Sophia, on
+a stone bench not far from him, gazed thoughtfully over the park as if
+she found refreshment merely in contemplating the far stretch of fern
+and sward, that, set with huge oak trees, fell away into half-seen
+dells of bracken and fox-gloves. Recreated by a long night's rest, her
+youth set off, and her freshness heightened by the dainty Tuscan and
+chintz sacque she had put on that morning, she was not to be known for
+the draggled miss who had arrived in so grievous a plight the day
+before. From time to time she recalled her gaze to fix it dreamily on
+her left hand; now reviewing the fingers, bent or straight, now laying
+them palm downwards on the moss-stained coping. She was so employed
+when the meaning of her brother's last words came tardily home to her
+and roused her from her reverie.
+
+"Do you mean," she cried, "that he will put them out of their farms?"
+
+"I should rather think he would!" said Tom. "Wouldn't you? And serve
+them right, the brutes!"
+
+"But what will they do?"
+
+"Starve for all I care!" Tom answered callously; and he flipped a
+pebble from the balustrade with his forefinger. He was not at his best
+a soft-hearted young gentleman. "And teach them to know better!" he
+added presently.
+
+Sophia's face betrayed her trouble. "I don't think he would do that,"
+she said, slowly.
+
+"Coke?" Tom answered. "He won't have much choice, my dear. For the
+sake of your _beaux yeux_ he will have to swinge them, and lustily. To
+let them off lightly would be to slight you; and 'twouldn't look very
+well, and a fortnight married. No, no, my girl. And that reminds me.
+Where is he? And where has he been since yesterday?"
+
+Sophia reddened. "He has some business," she said, "which took him
+away at once."
+
+"I don't think you know."
+
+Sophia blushed more warmly, but added nothing; and fortunately Tom
+caught sight of a certain petticoat disappearing down the steps at the
+end of the terrace. It is not impossible that he had been expecting
+it, for he rose on the instant, muttered an unintelligible word, and
+went in pursuit.
+
+Sophia sat awhile, pondering on what he had said. It was right that
+the offenders of yesterday should be punished; their conduct had been
+cruel, inhuman, barbarous. But that her home-coming should mean to any
+man the loss of home, shocked her. Yet she thought it possible that
+her brother was right; that pride, if not love, the wish to do his
+duty by her, if not the desire to commend himself to her, would move
+Sir Hervey to especial severity. What bridegroom indeed, what lover
+could afford to neglect so obvious a flattery? And if in her case Coke
+counted neither for lover nor bridegroom, what husband?
+
+She rose. She must go at once and seek him, intercede with him,
+convince him that it would not please her. But two steps taken she
+paused, her pride in arms. After she had changed her dress and
+repaired her disorder the day before, she had waited, expecting that
+he would come to her. But he had not done so, he had not come near
+her; at length she had asked for him. Then she had learned with
+astonishment, with humiliation, that immediately after her arrival he
+had left the house on business.
+
+If he could slight her in that fashion, was there any danger that out
+of regard to her he would do injustice to others? She laughed at the
+thought--yet believed all the same that there was, for men were
+inconsistent. But the position made intercession difficult, and
+instead of calling a servant and asking if he had returned she
+wandered into the house. She remembered that the housekeeper had
+begged to know when her ladyship would see the drawing-rooms; and she
+sent for Mrs. Stokes.
+
+That good lady found her young mistress waiting for her in the larger
+of the two rooms. It was scantily furnished after the fashion of the
+early part of the century, with heavy chairs and a table, set at wide
+intervals on a parquet floor, with a couple of box-like settees, and
+as many buhl tables, the latter bought by Sir Hervey's mother on her
+wedding tour, and preserved as the apple of her eye. On either side of
+the open blue-tiled fire-place a roundheaded alcove exhibited shelves
+of Oriental china, and on the walls were half a dozen copies of
+Titians and Raphaels, large pictures at large intervals. All was
+stately, proper, a little out of fashion, but decently so. Sophia
+admired, yawned, said a pleasant word to Mrs. Stokes and passed into
+the smaller room.
+
+There she stood, suddenly engrossed. On each side of the fireplace
+hung a full-length portrait. The one on the right hand, immediately
+before her, represented a girl in the first bloom of youth, lovely as
+a rose-bud, graceful as a spray of jessamine, with eyes that charmed
+and chained the spectator by their pure maidenliness. A great painter
+in his happiest vein had caught the beauty and innocence of a chosen
+model; as she smiled from the canvas, the dull room--for the windows
+were curtained--grew brighter and lighter. The visitor, as he entered,
+saw only that sweet face, and saw it ever more clearly; as the
+play-goer sees only the limited space above the footlights, and sees
+that grow larger the longer he looks.
+
+It was with an effort and a sigh Sophia turned to the other picture;
+she looked at it and stood surprised, uncertain, faintly embarrassed.
+She turned to the housekeeper, "It is Sir Hervey, is it not?" she
+said.
+
+"Yes, my lady," the woman answered. "At the age of twenty-one. But he
+is not much changed to my eyes," she added jealously.
+
+"Of course, I did not know him then," Sophia murmured apologetically;
+and after a long thoughtful look she went back to the other picture.
+"What a very, very lovely face!" she said. "I did not know that Sir
+Hervey had ever had a sister. She is dead, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, my lady, she is dead."
+
+"It is his sister?" with a look at the other.
+
+The housekeeper gave back the look uncomfortably. "No, my lady," she
+said at last.
+
+"No!" Sophia exclaimed, raising her eyebrows. "Then who is it, pray?"
+
+"Well, my lady, it--it should have been removed," Mrs. Stokes
+explained, her embarrassment evident. "At one time it was to go to Sir
+Hervey's library, but 'twas thought it might be particular there. And
+so nothing was done about it. Sir Hervey wouldn't let it go anywhere
+else. But I was afraid that your ladyship might not be pleased."
+
+Sophia stared coldly at her. "I don't understand," she said stiffly.
+"You have not told me who it is."
+
+"It's Lady Anne, my lady."
+
+"What Lady Anne?"
+
+"Lady Anne Thoresby. I thought," the housekeeper added in a faltering
+tone, "your ladyship would have heard of her."
+
+Sophia looked at the lovely young face, looked at the other
+portrait--of Sir Hervey in his gallant hunting-dress, gay, laughing,
+debonair--and she understood. "She was to have married Sir Hervey?"
+she said.
+
+"Yes, my lady."
+
+"And she died?"
+
+"Yes, my lady, two days before their wedding-day," Mrs. Stokes
+answered, her garrulity beginning to get the better of her fears. "Sir
+Hervey was never the same again--that is to say, in old days, my
+lady," she added hurriedly. "He grew that silent it was wonderful, and
+no gentleman more pleasant before. He went abroad, and 'tis said he
+lost twenty thousand pounds in one night in Paris. And before that he
+had played no more than a gentleman should."
+
+Sophia's eyes were full of tears.
+
+"How did she die?" she whispered.
+
+"Of the smallpox, my lady. And that is why Sir Hervey is so particular
+about it."
+
+"How do you mean? Is he afraid of it?"
+
+"Oh, no, my lady, far from it! He had it years ago himself. But
+wherever it is, he's for giving help. That's why we kept it from him
+that 'twas at Beamond's Farm, thinking that as your ladyship was
+coming, he would not wish to be in the way of it. But he was wonderful
+angry when he learned about it, and went off as soon as news came from
+his reverence; who would have sent sooner, but he was took ill
+yesterday. I can pretty well guess what Sir Hervey's gone about," she
+added sagaciously.
+
+"What?" Sophia asked.
+
+Mrs. Stokes hesitated, but decided to speak.
+
+"Well, it happened once before, my lady," she said, "that they could
+get no one to help bury; and Sir Hervey went and set the example. You
+may be sure there were plenty then, as had had it, and had no cause to
+fear, ready to come forward to do the work. And I've not much doubt,
+my lady, it's for that he's gone this time. He'd stay away a night at
+the keeper's cottage, I expect," Mrs. Stokes continued, nodding her
+head sagely, "just to see to his clothes being destroyed and the like.
+For there's no one more careful to carry no risks, I will say that for
+his honour."
+
+Sophia stared.
+
+"But do you mean," she cried, her heart beating strangely, "that Sir
+Hervey would do the work with his own hands?"
+
+"Well, it's what he did once, I know, my lady," the housekeeper
+answered apologetically. "It was not very becoming, to be sure, but he
+was not the less thought of about here, I assure your ladyship. You
+see, my lady, 'tis in the depth of the country, and the land is his
+own, and it's not as if it was in London. Where I know things are very
+different," Mrs. Stokes continued with pride, "for I have been there
+myself with the family. But about here I'm sure he was not the less
+considered, begging your ladyship's pardon."
+
+"I can believe it," Sophia said, in a voice suspiciously quiet and
+even. And then, "Thank you, Mrs. Stokes, you can leave me now," she
+continued. "I shall sit here a little."
+
+But when Mrs. Stokes, feeling herself a trifle snubbed, had withdrawn
+and closed the door of the outer room upon her, Sophia's eyes grew
+moist with tears, and the nosegay that filled the open bodice of her
+sacque rose and fell strangely. In that age philanthropy was not a
+fashion. Pope indeed had painted the Man of Ross, and there was a
+Charitable Corporation, lately in difficulties, and there was a
+Society of the Sons of the Clergy, and there were other societies of a
+like kind; and in the country infirmaries were beginning to be founded
+on the patterns of Winchester and Shrewsbury, and to subscribe to such
+objects after dining well and drinking deeply, was already, under the
+Walpoles and the Pelhams, a part of a fine gentleman's life. But for a
+man of condition to play the Borromeo--to stoop to give practical help
+and run risks among the vulgar, was still enough to earn for him a
+character as eccentric as that of the famous nobleman who had seen
+more kings and more postilions than any of his contemporaries.
+
+In the eyes of the world, but not in Sophia's, or why this dimness of
+vision, as she gazed at Sir Hervey's picture? Why the unrest of the
+bodice that threatened to find vent in sobs? Why the sudden rush of
+self-reproach? More sharply than any kindness shown to her in the long
+consistent course of his dealings with her, more keenly than his
+forethought for her brother, this stabbed her. This was the man she
+had flouted, the man whose generous, whose unselfish offer she had
+accepted to save her reputation; but whose love she had deemed a
+floor-clout, not worthy the picking up! Was it wonderful that cynical,
+taciturn, almost dull as the world thought him, he was not the less
+considered here?
+
+At twenty-one he had been handsome, with wit and laughter and the gay
+insouciance of youth written on his face. Time, the lapse of thirteen
+years, had robbed his features of their bloom, his lips of their easy
+curve, his eyes of their sparkle. But something, surely, time had
+given in return. Something, Sophia could not say what. She could not
+remember; she could only recall a smile, kindly, long-suffering, a
+little quizzical, with which he had sometimes met her eyes. That she
+could recall; and as she did so, before his portrait in the stillness
+of this long-abandoned room, with the dead air of old pot-pourris in
+her nostrils, she grew frightened. What was it she had thrown away?
+And how would it fare with her if she could not recover it?
+
+Twisting one hand in the other, she turned to the second portrait, and
+looked, and looked. At length she glanced round with a guilty air,
+perceived a tall, narrow mirror that stood framed between the windows,
+and went towards it. Furtively assuring herself that she was not
+watched from the terrace, she viewed herself in it.
+
+She saw a pale grave face, barely redeemed from plainness by eloquent
+eyes and a wealth of hair; a face that looked sombrely into hers, and
+grew graver and more sombre as she looked. "He is more like his old
+self than I am like her," she thought. "Why did he choose me! Why did
+he not choose Lady Betty? She is such another now as Lady Anne was
+then!"
+
+She was still peering at herself when she heard his voice in the hall,
+and started guiltily. She would not for the world he caught her in
+that room, and she darted to the door, dragged it open, and was
+half-way across the long drawing-room when he entered. She felt that
+her face was on fire, but he did not seem to notice it.
+
+"A thousand pardons that I was not with you before," he cried
+pleasantly. "I'd business, and--no I must not touch you, my dear. I
+have been nearer than was pleasant to one of your friends with the
+smallpox."
+
+"You have run--no risk, I hope?" she asked faintly.
+
+"Not a whit!" he answered, striking his boot with his whip and looking
+round the room as if he seldom entered it. "I've had it, you know.
+I've also had the whole story of your adventures from Betty, whom I
+met as I was going to my room."
+
+She was agitated; he was at his ease. "I am sorry that we managed so
+clumsily," she murmured.
+
+"So bravely, I think," he answered lightly; and then, looking round,
+"This is your part of the house, you know, Sophia. You must make what
+changes you please here."
+
+"Thank you," she said. "You are very good."
+
+"These rooms have been little used since my mother's death," he
+continued, again surveying them. "So I have no doubt they want
+refurnishing. You must talk it over with Lady Betty. And that reminds
+me, I saw your brother slipping away a few minutes ago, and he had
+something--the air of following her." And Sir Hervey laughed and sat
+down on one of the stiff-backed chairs. "For my part, I think he ought
+to be told," he continued, tapping the toe of his boot with his whip.
+
+Sophia smiled faintly. "You think he is taken with her?"
+
+"Who would not be?" Sir Hervey answered bluntly. "Maid or mistress,
+he'll be head over ears in love with her before twenty-four hours are
+out!"
+
+Sophia sat down. "It's her fancy that he should not know," she said
+languidly. "Of course, if you wish it I will tell him."
+
+"No, no, child, have it your own way," he answered with good humour.
+"I suppose she is prepared to pay for her frolic."
+
+"Well--I think she likes him."
+
+"And 'twould do very well on both sides--in a year or two!"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+Sir Hervey rose. "Then let be," he said. And he wandered across the
+room, taking up things and setting them down again as if he did not
+think it quite polite to leave her, yet had nothing more to say.
+Sophia watched him with growing soreness. Was it fancy, or was it the
+fact that she had never seen him so cold, so indifferent, so little
+concerned for her, so well satisfied with himself as now? A change, so
+subtle she could not define it, had come over him. Or was it that a
+change had come over her?
+
+She wondered, and at length plunged desperately into speech. "Is it
+true," she asked, "that the people who treated us so ill yesterday are
+coming to see you to-day?"
+
+"Those of them who are householders are coming," he answered soberly.
+"At four o'clock. But I do not wish you to see them."
+
+"You will not be--too severe with them?"
+
+"I shall not be more severe, I hope, than the occasion requires," he
+answered.
+
+But his tone was hard, and she felt that what she had heard was true.
+"Will you grant me a favour?" she blurted out, her voice trembling a
+little.
+
+"I would like to grant you many," he answered, smiling at her.
+
+"It's only that you will not send them away," she said.
+
+"Send them away?"
+
+"I mean, send them off their farms," she explained hurriedly. "I was
+told--Tom told me that you were going to do so; and that some had held
+the land for generations, and would be heartbroken as well as ruined."
+
+He did not answer at once, and his silence confirmed her in her fears.
+"I don't say that they have not deserved to be punished," she urged.
+"But--but I should not like my coming here to be remembered by this.
+And it seems out of proportion to the crime, since they did me no
+harm."
+
+"Whatever they intended?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He looked at her gravely. "What led you to think," he said, "that I
+had it in my mind to punish them in that way?"
+
+"Well, Tom told me," she explained in growing confusion, "that you
+might do it to--that you might think it would please me. He said that
+any one in your place--I mean----"
+
+"Any one newly married?"
+
+Sophia's face flamed. "I suppose so," she murmured"--would do it."
+
+"To please his bride? And you agreed with him, Sophia? You thought it
+was probable?"
+
+"I thought it was possible," she said.
+
+He walked across the room, came back, and stood before her. He looked
+down at her. "My dear," he said soberly--but she winced under the
+altered tone of his voice--"you will learn to know me better in a
+little while. Let me tell you at once that the purpose you have
+mentioned never entered my head, and that I am, I hope, incapable of
+it. There are people who might entertain it, and might carry it out to
+please a mistress or gratify a whim. There are, I know. But I am not
+one of that kind. I am too old to misuse power to please a woman, even
+the woman I have chosen. Nor," he continued, stopping her as she tried
+to speak, "is that all. In the management of an estate we do not act
+so hurriedly as you appear to think, my dear. Old tenants, like old
+wine, are the best, and, where it is possible, we keep them. I have
+sent, it is true, for those who were guilty yesterday, and I shall see
+that they are made to smart for it. But not to the extent of loss of
+home and livelihood."
+
+"I am sorry," she muttered.
+
+"There is no need, child," he answered. "And while we are on this,
+I may as well deal with another matter. I found your note and the
+jewel case on my table, and as you wish, so it shall be. I might
+prefer--indeed, I should prefer," he continued prosaically, "to see my
+wife properly equipped when she goes into the world. But that's a
+small matter. Lady Coke will always be Lady Coke, and if you will feel
+more free and more happy without them----"
+
+"I shall," she muttered hurriedly, "if you please."
+
+"So be it. They shall be returned to my goldsmith's as soon as a safe
+conveyance can be found. I wish, my dear," he added good-naturedly, "I
+could rid you of all troubles as easily."
+
+"I am much obliged to you," she muttered, and could have shrunk into
+the floor with shame. For on a sudden she saw herself a horrid
+creature, imposing all, taking nothing, casting all the burden and all
+the stress, and all the inconvenience of their strange relations on
+him. In town and on the road she had fancied that there was something
+fine, something of the nature of abnegation and dignity in the return
+of the jewels, and in her determination that she would not go decked
+in them. But the simplicity with which he had accepted her whim and
+waived his own wishes, tore away the veil of self-deception, and
+showed Sophia the childishness of her conduct. She would not wear his
+jewels; but his name and his title, his freedom and his home she had
+not scrupled to take from him with scarce a word of gratitude, with
+scarce one thought for him!
+
+The very distress she was feeling gave her, she knew, a sullen air,
+and must set her in a worse light than ever. Yet she was tongue-tied.
+He yielded freely, handsomely, generously; and that bare, that cold "I
+am much obliged to you" was all she could force her tongue to utter.
+She was beginning to feel that she was growing afraid of him; and then
+he spoke.
+
+"There is one other matter," he said, "I wish to name. It touches Mrs.
+Stokes. She has been here a number of years, and I dare say like this
+room, smacks a little of good Queen Anne. If you think it necessary to
+discharge her----"
+
+Sophia started.
+
+"I?" she said.
+
+
+[Illustration: "WHY, BETTY," SOPHIA CRIED IN ASTONISHMENT, "WHAT IS
+IT?"]
+
+
+"To be sure. I should at the worse pension her. But she has served us
+faithfully, I believe--beginning, I think," Sir Hervey continued with
+a slight touch of constraint, "by whipping me when I needed it; and
+she would be distressed, I fear, if she had to go. If you could
+contrive to do with her for a while, therefore, I should be much
+obliged to you."
+
+Sophia had risen and moved a little way from him.
+
+"Did you think I should discharge her?" she said, without turning her
+head.
+
+"Well," he answered, "I did not know, my dear. Young housekeepers----"
+
+"Why did you think I should discharge her?" she cried, interrupting
+him sharply; and then, "Pray forgive me," she continued hurriedly, yet
+stiffly, "I--you hurt me a little in what you said of--the tenants. I
+only ask you to believe that I am as incapable of dismissing an old
+servant for a trifle as you are of behaving unjustly to your tenants!"
+
+He did not appear to notice her emotion.
+
+"Thank you," he said. "Then we understand one another. Of course, I
+don't wish you to feel this an obligation. Mrs. Stokes is growing
+old----"
+
+"It is no obligation," she said coldly. And then, "I think it will be
+more pleasant on the terrace," she continued; and she moved towards
+the door.
+
+He held it open that she might pass through; and he followed her into
+the hall. He little dreamt that, as she walked before him, she was
+wondering, almost with terror, whether he would go out with her or
+leave her; whether this was all she was to see of him, day by day. The
+doubt was not solved; for they were interrupted. As they entered the
+shady hall by one door Lady Betty darted into it from the terrace, her
+face scarlet, her hat crushed, her eyes sparkling with rage. They were
+so near her she could not escape them; nor could she hide her
+disorder. "Why, Betty," Sophia cried in astonishment, "what is it?
+What in the world is the matter?"
+
+"Don't ask me," Betty cried, almost weeping. "You ought to be ashamed
+of yourself. You--your brother has insulted me! He has held me and
+kissed me against my will! And he laughed at me! He laughed at me! Oh,
+I could kill him!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV
+
+                           WHO PLAYS, PAYS
+
+
+It must be confessed that the flicker of skirts with which Lady Betty
+ran down the steps when she started for her airing, still more a
+certain toss of the head that was its perfect complement, gave her
+mischievous soul huge delight; for she had watched a French maid, and
+knew them to be pure nature, and the very quintessence of the singing
+chambermaid's art. It was not impossible that as she executed them she
+had a person in her eye and meant him to profit by them; for by-and-by
+she repeated the performance at a point where two paths diverged, and
+where it put the fitting close to a very pretty pause of indecision.
+Tom was so hard on her heels that ordinary ears must have detected his
+tread; but that my lady heard nothing was proved by the fact that she
+chose the more retired track and tripped along it, humming and darting
+from flower to flower like some dainty insect let loose among the
+bracken.
+
+She plucked at will, and buried her shapely little nose in the
+blossoms; she went on, she stopped, she went on again, and Tom let her
+go; until the path, after winding round a low spreading oak that
+closed the view from the house, began to descend into a sunny dell
+where it ran, a green ribbon of sward, through waist-high fern, leapt
+the brook by a single plank, and scaled the steeper side by tiny
+zig-zags.
+
+On the hither side of this summer hollow, sleepy with the warm hum of
+bees and scent of thyme, Tom overtook her, and never sure was any one
+so surprised and overwhelmed as this poor maid.
+
+"La, sir, I declare you frightened my heart into my mouth," she cried,
+pressing a white hand to her bodice and looking timidly at him from
+the shelter of her straw hat. "I'm sure I beg your pardon, sir," with
+a curtsey. "I would not have come here, if I'd known, for the world."
+
+"No, child?"
+
+"No, sir, indeed I would not!"
+
+"And why not?" Tom asked pertinently. "Why should you not come here?"
+
+"Why?" she retorted, properly scandalised. "What! Come where the
+family walk? I should hope I know my place better than that, sir. And
+to behave myself in it."
+
+"Very prettily, I am sure," Tom declared, with a bold stare of
+admiration.
+
+"As becomes me, sir, I hope," Betty answered demurely, and to show
+that the stare had no effect upon her, primly turned her head away.
+
+"Though you were brought up with your mistress? Or was it with your
+late mistress?" Tom asked slily. "Or have you forgotten which it was,
+Betty?"
+
+"I hope I've never forgotten any one who was kind to me," she
+whispered, her head drooping so that he could not see her face.
+"There's not many think of a poor girl in service; though I come of
+some that ha' seen better days."
+
+"Indeed, Betty. Is that so?"
+
+"So I've heard, sir."
+
+"Well, will you count me among your friends, Betty?"
+
+"La, no, sir!" with vivacity, and she shot him with an arch glance. "I
+should think not indeed! I should like to know why, sir?" and she
+tossed her head disdainfully. "But there, I've talked too long. I'm
+sure her ladyship would not like it, and asking your pardon, sir, I'll
+go on."
+
+"But I'm coming your way."
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"But I am," Tom persisted. "Why shouldn't I? You are not afraid of me,
+child? You were not afraid of me in the dark on the hill, when we sat
+on the tree together, and you wore my coat."
+
+Betty sighed. "'Twas different then, sir," she murmured, hanging her
+head, and tracing a pattern on the sward with the point of her toe.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I'd no choice, sir."
+
+"Then you would choose to leave me, would you?"
+
+"And I didn't know that you belonged to the family," she continued,
+evading the question, "or I should not have made so free, sir. And
+besides, asking your pardon, you told me that you had seen enough of
+women to last you your life, sir. You know you did."
+
+"Oh, d----n!" Tom cried. The reminder was not welcome.
+
+Betty recoiled virtuously. "There, sir," she cried, "now I know what
+you think of me! If I were a lady, you'd not have said that to me,
+I'll be bound. Swearing, indeed? For shame, sir! But I'm for home, and
+none too soon!"
+
+"No, no!" Tom cried. "Don't be silly!"
+
+"It's yes, yes, sir, by your leave," she retorted. "I'm none such a
+fool as you'd make me. That shows me what you think of me."
+
+And turning with an offended air, she began to retrace her steps. Tom
+called to her, but fruitlessly. She did not answer nor pause. He had
+to follow her, feeling small and smaller. A little farther, and they
+would be again within sight of the house.
+
+The track was narrow, the fern on each side grew waist high; he could
+not intercept her without actual violence. At length, "See here,
+child," he said humbly, "if you'll turn and chat a bit, I'll persuade
+you it was not meant. I'll treat you every bit as if you were a lady.
+I swear I will!"
+
+"I don't know," she cried. "I don't know that I can trust you." But
+she went more slowly.
+
+"'Pon honour I will," he protested. "I swear I will!"
+
+She stopped at that, and turned to him. "You will?" she said
+doubtfully. "You really will? Then will you please----" with a
+charming shyness, "pick me a nosegay to put in my tucker, as my lady's
+beaux used to do? I should like to feel like a lady for once," she
+continued eagerly. "'Twould be such a frolic as you gentlefolk have,
+sir, when you pretend to be poor milk-maids and make syllabub, and
+will not have a bandbox or a hoop-petticoat near you!"
+
+"Your ladyship shall have a nosegay," Tom answered gaily. "But I must
+first see the colour of your eyes that I may match them."
+
+She clapped her hands in a rapture. "Oh, how you act, to be sure!" she
+cried. "'Tis too charming. And for my eyes, sir, it's no more than
+matching wools." And she looked at him shyly, dropping a curtsey the
+while.
+
+"Oh, isn't it?" he retorted. "Matching wools indeed. Wool does not
+change, nor shift its hues. Nor glance, nor sparkle, nor ripple like
+water running now on the deeps, now on the shallows. Nor mirror the
+clouds, nor dance like wheat in the sunshine. Nor melt like summer,"
+he continued rapidly, "nor freeze like the Arctic. Nor say a thousand
+things in a thousand seconds."
+
+"La! And do my eyes do all that?" Betty cried, opening them very wide
+in her innocent astonishment. "What a thing it is, to be sure, to be a
+lady. I declare, sir, you are quite out of breath with the fine things
+you've said. All the same they are blue in the main, and I'll have
+forget-me-nots, if you please, sir. There's plenty in the brook, and
+while your honour fetches them I'll sit here and do nothing, like the
+gentlefolks."
+
+The brook ran a hundred paces below them, and the sun was hot in the
+dell, but Tom had no fair excuse. He ran down with a good grace, and
+in five minutes was back again, his hands full of tiny blossoms.
+
+"They're like a bit of the sky," said Betty, as he pinned them in her
+bodice.
+
+"Then they are like your eyes, sweet," he answered, and he stooped to
+pay himself for the compliment with a kiss.
+
+But Betty slipped from him without betraying, save by a sudden blush,
+that she understood.
+
+
+[Illustration: "DO YOU SIT, AND I'LL MAKE YOU A POSY"]
+
+
+"Now, it's my turn," she cried gaily. "Do you sit, and I'll make you a
+posy!" And humming an air she floated through the fern to a tree of
+wild cherry that hung low boughs to meet the fern and fox-gloves. She
+began to pluck the blossom while Tom watched her and told himself that
+never was sweeter idyll than this, nor a maid more entrancingly fair,
+nor eyes more blue, nor lips more inviting, nor manners more daintily
+sweet and naïve. He sighed prodigiously, for he swore that not for the
+world would he hurt her, though it was pretty plain how it would go if
+he chose, and he knew that
+
+
+              Pride lures the little warbler from the skies!
+              The light-enamoured bird eluded dies.
+
+
+And--and then, while his thoughts were full of this, he saw her coming
+back, her arms full of blossom.
+
+"Lord, child!" he cried, "you've plucked enough for a Jack o' the
+Green."
+
+She shot an arch glance at him. "It is for my Jack o' the Green," she
+murmured.
+
+He ogled her and she blushed. But he had his misgivings when he saw
+that she was making a nosegay as big as his head. Present it was done,
+and she found a pin and advanced upon him.
+
+"But you're not going to put that on me!" he cried. He had a boy's
+horror of the ridiculous.
+
+She stopped, offended. "Oh," she said, "if you don't wish it?" and
+with lips pouting and tears ill-repressed, she turned away.
+
+He sprang up. "My dear child, I do wish it!" he cried. "'Pon honour I
+do! But it's--it's immense."
+
+She did not answer. Already she was some way up the slope. He ran
+after her, and told her he would wear it, begged her to pin it for
+him.
+
+She stood looking at him languidly.
+
+"Are you sure?" she said.
+
+He vowed he was by all his gods, and still pouting she pinned the
+flowers to the breast of his coat. Now, if ever, he thought was his
+opportunity. Alas, the nosegay was so large, the cherry twigs of which
+it was composed were so stiff and sharp, he might as well have kissed
+her over a hedge! It was provoking in the last degree, and so were her
+smiling lips. And yet--he could not be angry with her. The very
+artlessness with which she had made up this huge cabbage and fixed it
+on him was one charm the more.
+
+"There," she said, stepping back and viewing him with innocent
+satisfaction, "I'm sure a real lady could not have managed that
+better. It does not prick your chin, does it?"
+
+"No, child."
+
+"And it isn't in your way? Of course, if it is in your way, sir?"
+
+"No, no!"
+
+"That's well. I'm so glad." And with a final nod of approval--with
+that, and no more--Betty turned, actually turned, and began to walk
+back towards the Hall.
+
+Tom stood, looking after her in astonishment. "But you are not going?"
+he cried.
+
+"To be sure, sir," she answered, looking back and smiling, "my lady'll
+be waiting for me."
+
+"What? This minute?"
+
+"Indeed, sir, and indeed, sir, yes, it is late already," she said.
+"But you can come with me a little way, if you like," she added
+modestly. And she looked back at him.
+
+He was angry. He had even a suspicion, a small, but growing suspicion,
+that she was amusing herself with him! But he could not withstand her
+glance; and as she turned for the last time, he made after her. He
+overtook her in a few strides, and fell in beside her. But he sulked.
+His vanity was touched, and willing to show her that he was offended,
+he maintained a cold silence.
+
+On a sudden he caught the tail of her eye fixed on him, saw that she
+was shaking with secret laughter; and felt his cheeks begin to burn.
+The conviction that the little hussy was making fun of him, that she
+had dared to put this great cabbage upon him for a purpose, burst on
+him in a flash. It pricked his vanity to the very quick. His heart
+burned as well as his face; but if she thought to have all the
+laughing on her side he would teach her better! He lagged a step or
+two behind, and stealthily tore off the hateful nosegay. The next
+moment his hot breath was on her neck, his arm was round her; and
+despite her scream of rage, despite her frantic, furious attempt to
+push him away, he held her to him while he kissed her twice.
+
+"There, my girl," he cried, as he released her with a laugh of
+triumph. "That's for making fun of me."
+
+For answer she struck him a sounding slap on the cheek; and as he
+recoiled, surprised by her rage, she dealt him another on his ear.
+
+Tom's head rung. "You cat!" he cried. "I've a good mind to take
+another! And I will if you don't behave yourself!"
+
+But the little madcap's face of scarlet fury, her eyes blazing with
+passion, daunted him. "How dare you?" she hissed. "How dare you touch
+me? You creature! You----" And then, even in the same breath and while
+he stared, she turned and was gone, leaving the sentence unfinished;
+and he watched her flee across the sward, a tumultuous raging little
+figure, with hanging hat, and hair half down, and ribbons that flew
+out and spoke her passion.
+
+Tom was so taken by surprise he did not attempt to follow, much less
+to detain her. His sister's maid to take a kiss so? A waiting-woman? A
+chit of a servant? And after she had played for it, as it seemed to
+him, aye, and earned it and over-earned it by her impudent trick and
+her confounded laughter. He had never been so astonished in his life.
+The world was near its end, indeed, if there was to be this bother
+about a kiss. Why, his head hummed, and his cheek would show the mark
+for an hour to come. Nor was that the worst. If she went to the house
+in that state and published the thing, he would have an awkward five
+minutes with his sister. Hang the prude! And yet what a charming
+little vixen it was.
+
+He stood awhile in the sunshine, boring the turf with his heel,
+uncertain what to do. At length, feeling that anything was better than
+sneaking there, like a boy who had played truant and feared to go
+home, he started for the Hall. He would not allow that he was afraid,
+but as he approached the terrace he had an uneasy feeling; first of
+the house's many windows, and then of an unnatural silence that
+prevailed about it, as if something had happened or was preparing. To
+prove his independence he whistled, but he whistled flat, and stopped.
+
+Outside he met no one, and he plucked up a spirit. After all the girl
+would not be such a fool as to tell. And what was there to tell? A
+kiss? What was a kiss? But the moment he was out of the glare and over
+the threshold of the Hall, he knew that she had told. For there in the
+cool shadow stood Sophia waiting for him, and behind her Sir Hervey,
+seated on a corner of the great oak table and whistling softly.
+
+Sophia's tone was grave, her face severe. "Tom," she said, "what have
+you been doing?"
+
+"I?" he cried.
+
+"Yes, you, young man," his brother-in-law answered sharply. "I see no
+one else."
+
+"Why, what's the bother?" Tom asked sulkily. "If you mean about the
+girl, I kissed her, and what's the harm? I'm not the first that's
+stolen a kiss."
+
+"Oh, Tom!"
+
+"And I sha'n't be the last."
+
+"Nor the last that'll get his face smacked!" Sir Hervey retorted
+grimly.
+
+Tom winced. "She has told you that, has she?" he muttered.
+
+"No," Sir Hervey answered. "Your cheek told me."
+
+Tom winced again. "Well, we're quits then," he said sullenly. "She
+needn't have come Polly Peachuming here!"
+
+Sophia could contain herself no longer. "Oh, Tom, you don't know what
+you have done," she cried impetuously. "You don't indeed. You thought
+she was my maid. You took her for my woman that night we were out, you
+know--and she let you think it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"But she is not."
+
+"Then," Tom cried in a rage, "who the devil is she?"
+
+"She's Lady Betty Cochrane, the duke's daughter."
+
+"And the apple of his eye," Sir Hervey added with a nod. "I tell you
+what, my lad, I would not be in your shoes for something."
+
+Tom stared, gasped, seemed for a moment unable to take it in. But the
+next, a wicked gleam shone in his eyes, and he smacked his lips.
+
+"Well, Lady Betty or no, I've kissed her," he cried. "I've kissed her,
+and she can't wipe it off!"
+
+"You wicked boy!" Sophia cried, with indignation. "Do you consider
+that she was my guest, under my care, and you have insulted her?
+Grossly and outrageously insulted her, sir! She leaves to-morrow in
+consequence, and what am I to say to her people? What am I to tell
+them? Oh, Tom, it was cruel! it was cruel of you!"
+
+"I'm afraid," Sir Hervey said, with a touch of sternness, "you were
+rough with her."
+
+Tom's momentary jubilation died away. His face was gloomy.
+
+"I'll say anything you like," he muttered doggedly, "except that I'm
+sorry, for I'm not. But I'll beg her pardon humbly. Of course, I
+should not have done it if I'd known who she was."
+
+"She won't see you," Sophia answered.
+
+"You might try her again," Sir Hervey suggested, beginning to take the
+culprit's part. "Why not? She need not see Tom or speak to him unless
+she wishes."
+
+"I'll try," Sophia answered; and she went and presently came back.
+Lady Betty would stay, and, of course, "she couldn't forbid Sir Thomas
+Maitland his sister's house." But she desired that all intercourse
+between them should be restricted to the barest formalities.
+
+Tom looked glum. "Look here," he said, "if she'll see me alone I'll
+beg her pardon, and let us have done with it!"
+
+"She won't see you alone! It is particularly that she wishes to
+avoid."
+
+"All right," Tom answered sulkily. But he made up his mind that before
+many hours elapsed he would catch my lady and make her come to terms
+with him.
+
+He was mistaken, however; as he was also in his expectation that when
+they met she would be covered with shame and confusion of face. When
+the time came it was he who was embarrassed. The young lady appeared,
+and was an icicle; stiff, pale and reserved, she made it clear that
+she did not desire to speak to him, did not wish to look at him, and
+much preferred to take things at table from any hand but his. Beyond
+this she did not avoid his eyes, and in hers was no shadow of
+consciousness. Tom's face grew hot where she had slapped it, he
+chafed, fretted, raged, but he got no word with her. He was shut out,
+he was not of the party, she made him feel that; and at the end of
+twenty-four hours he was her serf, her slave, watching her eye,
+consumed with a desire to throw himself at her feet, ready to
+anticipate her wishes, as a dog those of his master, anxious to abase
+himself no matter how low, if she would give him a word or a look.
+
+Even Sir Hervey marvelled at her coldness and perfect self-control. "I
+suppose she likes him," he said, as he and Sophia walked on the
+terrace that evening.
+
+"She did, I fancy," Sophia answered, "before this happened."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"She does not like him. I'm sure of that."
+
+"But she may love him, you mean?" Sir Hervey said, interpreting her
+tone rather than her words.
+
+"Yes, or hate him," she answered. "It is the one or the other."
+
+"Since he kissed her?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," and then on a sudden Sophia faltered. She felt the
+blood begin to rise to her cheeks in one of those blushes, the most
+trying of all, that commence uncertainly, mount slowly, but persist,
+and at length deepen into pain. She remembered that the man walking
+beside her, talking of these others' love affairs, had never kissed
+her! He must think, he could not but think, of their own case. He
+might even fancy that she meant her words for a hint.
+
+He saw her distress, understood it, and took pity on her. But the
+abruptness with which he changed the conversation, and by-and-by
+withdrew, persuaded her that he had read her thoughts, and long after
+he had left her, her face burned.
+
+The whole matter, Tom's misbehaviour and the rest, had upset her; she
+told herself that this was what ailed her and made her restless. Nor
+was she quick to regain her balance. She found the house, new as all
+things in it were to her, dull and over-quiet; she found Lady Betty,
+once so lively, no company; she found Tom snappish and ill-tempered.
+And she blamed Tom for all; or told herself that town and the opera
+and the masquerade had spoiled her for a country life. She did not lay
+the blame elsewhere. Even to herself she did not admit that Sir
+Hervey, polite and considerate as he was, to the point of leaving her
+much to herself, would have pleased her better had he left her less.
+But she did think--and with soreness--that he would have been wiser
+had he given her more frequent opportunities of learning to be at ease
+with him.
+
+She did not go further than this even in her thoughts until three days
+after Tom's escapade. Then, feeling dull herself, she came on Tom
+moping on the terrace, and undertook to rally him on his humour. "If
+you would really be in her good graces again, 'tis not the way to do
+it, Tom; I can tell you that," she said. "Laugh and talk, and she'll
+wish you. Pluck up a spirit, and 'twill win more on her than a million
+sighs."
+
+"What's the good?" he muttered sourly.
+
+"Well, at any rate, you do no good by moping."
+
+Tom sat silent awhile, his head buried between his hands, his elbows
+resting on the balustrade. "I don't see that anything's any good," he
+muttered at last. "We're both in one case, I think. You know your own
+business, I suppose. You know, I take it, what you were doing when you
+married in such a hurry; but I'm d----d," with sudden violence, "if I
+understand it. Three weeks married, and put on one side for another!"
+
+"Tom!"
+
+"Oh, you may Tom me, you don't alter it," he answered roughly. "I am
+hanged if I understand or know what's a-foot. Here are you and I
+sitting at home like sick cats, and my lord and my lady up and down
+and in and out, as thick as thieves. That is what it comes to. 'Tis
+vastly pretty, isn't it?" Tom continued with a cynical laugh. "I think
+you said she was under your protection. Oh, Lord."
+
+Hitherto, astonishment had robbed Sophia of speech. But with Tom's
+last word her sense of her duty to herself and to her husband awoke,
+and found her words.
+
+"You wicked boy!" she cried with indignation. "You wicked, miserable
+boy! How dare you even think such things, much more say them, and say
+them to me! Never hint at such things again if you wish to--to keep
+your sister. Sir Hervey and I understand one another, you may be sure
+of that."
+
+"Well, I am glad you do," Tom muttered. "For I don't!" But he spoke
+shamefacedly, and only to cover his discomfiture.
+
+"We understand one another perfectly," Sophia replied with pride, and
+drew herself to her full height. "For my friend, she is above your
+suspicions, as far above them as, I thank God, is my husband. No, not
+another word, I have heard too much already. I don't wish to speak to
+you again until you are in a better mind, sir."
+
+She turned from him, crossed the terrace with her proudest step,
+and entered the house. But underneath she was panting with excitement,
+her head was in a whirl. She dared not think; and to avoid
+thought--thought that might lower her in her own eyes, thought that
+might wrong her husband--she hastened through the hall to the
+still-room; and finding that the ash-keys which she had ordered to be
+done with green whey had been boiled with white, was sharp with the
+maid, and tart with Mrs. Stokes. Thence she flew in a bustle up the
+wide staircase, and along the corridor under portraits of dead Cokes,
+to her room; but there, thought seemed inevitable, it was in vain she
+paced the floor. And feverishly tying the strings of her hat she
+hurried down again, her face burning. She would walk.
+
+At the outer door she paused. She saw that Tom was still there, and
+she was unwilling to pass him, lest he read in this sudden activity
+the sign of disturbance. The pause was fatal. A moment she stood
+irresolute, fighting with herself and her cowardly impulses. Then she
+opened the door of the grand drawing-room, and gliding like a culprit
+down its shadowy length, opened the door of the smaller' room, and
+closed that too behind her. This inner room was little used in the
+daytime, and though the windows were open the curtains were drawn
+across them. Stealthily, fearing to be observed, she raised the corner
+of the nearest curtain and turned to look at Lady Anne's picture; the
+lodestone that had drawn her hither as the candle draws the moth. But
+she never looked; for as she turned she met her own face, pale,
+anxious, plain--yes plain--staring from the mirror at her shoulder,
+and what use to look after that? To look would not make Lady Anne less
+comely or herself more fair. She let the curtain fall.
+
+But she stood. Some one was passing the open window. A voice she knew
+spoke, a second voice answered. And from where she stood Sophia heard
+their words as if they had spoken in the room.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV
+
+                        REPENTANCE AT LEISURE
+
+
+The first speaker was Lady Betty, and her first remark seemed to be an
+answer to a question. "Well, 'tis as you like," she said. "But if
+you'll be guided by me you'll not tell her. Then, when you go, it will
+put the finishing touch to our--friendship"--with a sly laugh--"if
+that be your wish, sir. On the other hand, if you tell madam, who is
+beginning to be jealous, take my word for it, there's an end of that!
+And there's this besides. If you tell her, it's not to be said what
+she will do, I warn you."
+
+"She might insist on going?" Sir Hervey's voice answered. "That's what
+you mean?"
+
+"If she knew she would go! I think she would, at any rate. At the best
+there's danger. On the other hand, say nothing to her, and here's the
+opportunity you said you desired. Of course, if you are weakening,"
+Lady Betty continued in the tone of one ready to take offence, "and
+don't desire it any longer, that's another matter, sir."
+
+"My dear girl," Sir Hervey cried eagerly, "have I not done everything
+to show her that she is indifferent to me? Do you want any other
+proof? Have I omitted anything? Have not I"--and then his voice died
+abruptly. The two speakers had turned the corner of the house, and
+Sophia heard no more. But she had heard enough. She had heard too
+much!
+
+It is sadly trite that that we cannot have we want. It is an old tale
+that it is for the sour grapes the mouth waters, and not for the bunch
+within reach. A thousand kindnesses, the hand ever waiting, the smile
+ever ready, gain no response; until a thousand rebuffs have earned
+their due, and the smile and the hand are another's. Then, on a
+sudden, the heart learns its own bitterness. Then we would give the
+world for the look we once flouted, for the kind word from lips grown
+silent. And it is too late. Too late!
+
+In the gloom of the inner drawing-room, where she sat with fingers
+feverishly interlaced, Sophia remembered his longsuffering with her,
+his thoughtfulness for her, his watchfulness over her, proved by a
+hundred acts of kindness and consideration. By a word at a drum when
+she was strange to town, and knew few. By countenance and a jest when
+Madam Harrington snubbed her. By the recovery of a muff--of value and
+her sister's--before it was known that she had lost it. By the gift of
+a birthnight fan which she had never carried; and the arrangement of a
+party to which she had not gone. By a word of caution when her
+infatuation for the Irishman began to be noticed; by a second word and
+a third. Through all he had been patience, she had been scorn. Now, on
+a sudden, she was in the dust before him. The smile that had never
+failed her in a difficulty, nor been wanting in a strait, had its
+value at last; and she felt that to read it once more in those eyes
+she would give the world, herself, all!
+
+But too late. She had lost his love as she deserved to lose it. It was
+her doing. She had but herself to thank that this was the end. Only,
+she whispered, if he had had a little, a very little more patience! A
+day even! If he had given her one day more. That, or left her to her
+fate!
+
+Fearful at last of being found in that room, seated before his
+picture, she crept out into the hall, and stood, marking the silence
+that prevailed in the house; listening to the dull tick of the clock
+that stood in the corner; watching the motes that danced in the dusty
+bars of sunshine before the door. With pathetic self-pity she found in
+these things--and in the faint taste of dry rot that told of the
+generations that had walked the old floor--the echo of her thoughts.
+Such, so quiet, so still, so regular, so far removed from the joy of
+the world was her life to be henceforth. "And I am young! I am young!"
+she whispered.
+
+If he had only, when he met her in Clarges Row, left her to her fate!
+Nothing worse could have happened to her than this which had happened;
+and he might have wedded Lady Betty in innocence and honour. The fault
+was hers, and yet it was his too. A wild infatuation had brought her
+to the brink of ruin; an impulse of chivalry, scarcely less foolish,
+had led him to save her. The end for both must be misery. For him God
+knew what! For her, loneliness and this silent, empty, ordered house
+with its faint dead perfume, its aroma of long-stored linen, its
+savour of the dead and the by-gone.
+
+As she stood in the middle of the floor, thinking these thoughts, the
+shadow of a bird flitted across the patch of sunshine that lay within
+the doorway. It startled her, and she looked up, just as Lady Betty,
+swinging her hat by its strings, and humming a gay air, appeared on
+the threshold. The girl hung an instant as in doubt, and then, whether
+she espied Sophia standing in the shadow and did not want to meet her,
+or she changed her mind for another reason, she turned and left the
+doorway empty.
+
+The sight was too much for Sophia's composure. That airy, laughing
+figure--youthful, almost infantine--poised in sunshine--that and her
+own brooding face, seen lately in the glass, suggested a comparison
+that filled her heart to bursting. She crept to the oak side table
+that stood in the bayed recess behind the door, and leaning her arms
+upon it, hid her face in them. She did not weep, but from time to time
+she shivered, as if the June air chilled her.
+
+She had sat in this position some minutes when a faint sound roused
+her. Ashamed of being found in that posture, she looked up, and saw
+Lady Betty in the act of crossing the hall on tip-toe. Apparently the
+girl had just entered from the terrace and thought herself alone; for
+when she reached the middle of the floor, she stood weighing a letter
+in her hand, as if she doubted what to do with it. Her eyes travelled
+slowly from the long oak table to an almoner; and thence to a chest
+that stood beside the inner door. In the end she chose the chest, and,
+gliding to the door, placed the letter on it, arranging its position
+with peculiar care. Then she turned to go out again by the terrace
+door, but had not taken two steps before her eyes met Sophia's. She
+uttered a low cry, and stood, arrested.
+
+Sophia did not speak, but she rose, crossed the hall, and as the
+other, with a rapid movement, recovered the letter from the chest, she
+extended her hand for it.
+
+"Give it to me," she said.
+
+For a moment Lady Betty confronted her, holding the letter hidden.
+Then, whether Sophia's pale set face cowed her, or she really had no
+choice, she held out the letter. "It is for you," she faltered.
+"But----"
+
+"But," Sophia answered, taking her up with quiet scorn, "I was not to
+know the bearer! I am obliged to you."
+
+Again for a moment the two women looked at one another. And Lady
+Betty's face grew slowly scarlet. "You have his confidence," Sophia
+continued in the same tone. "It's fitting you wait, miss, and take the
+answer."
+
+"But he's gone," Betty stammered.
+
+"Then I do not think you will take the answer!" Sophia retorted. "But
+you will wait, nevertheless! You will wait my pleasure." She broke the
+seal as she spoke, and began to read the contents of the note. They
+were short. A moment and she crumpled the paper in her hand and
+dropped it on the floor. "A very proper letter," she said with a
+sneer. "There's no fault to be found with it, I am sure. He is my
+affectionate husband, I can be no less than his dutiful wife. 'Tis no
+part of a dutiful wife to find fault with her husband's letter, I
+suppose."
+
+"I don't know what you would be at," Lady Betty muttered, looking more
+and more frightened.
+
+"No? That's what I'm going to explain--if you'll sit, miss? Sit,
+girl!"
+
+Lady Betty shrugged her shoulders, but obeyed, an uneasy look in her
+eyes. Sophia sat also, on the farther side of the small oak table; but
+for a full minute she did not speak. When she did her voice had lost
+its bitterness, and was low and absent and passionless. "There are two
+things to be talked about--you and I," she said, drumming slowly on
+the table with her fingers. "And by your leave I'll speak of myself
+first. If I could set him free I would! D'you hear me? D'you
+understand? If the worst that could have befallen me in Clarges Row,
+the worst that he had in his mind when he married me, were the price
+to be paid, I would pay it to-day. He should be free to marry whom he
+would; and if by raising my hand I could come between him and her I
+would not! Nay, if by raising my hand I could bring them together I
+would! And that though when he married me, he did me as great a wrong
+as a man can do a woman!"
+
+Suddenly, without warning, Lady Betty burst into irrepressible
+sobbing. "Oh," she cried, "do you hate him so!"
+
+"Hate him?" Sophia answered. "Hate him? No, fool, I love him so!" And
+then in a strain of bitterness, the more intense as she spoke in a
+tone little above a whisper. "You start, miss? You think me a fool,
+I know, to tell you that! But see how proud I am! I will not keep
+from the woman he loves the least bit of her triumph! Let her enjoy
+it--though 'tis an empty one--for I cannot free him, do what I will!
+Let her know, for her pleasure, that she is fairer than I, as I know
+it! Let her know that she has won the heart that should be mine,
+and--which will be sweetest of all to her--that I would fain have won
+it myself and could not! Let her but you are crying, miss? And I'd
+forgotten. What's all this to you?" with a change to quiet irony. "You
+are too young to understand such things! And, of course, 'twas not of
+this that I wished to speak to you; but of yourself, and of--Tom. Of
+course--Tom," with a faint laugh. "I'm sorry that he misbehaved to you
+in the park. I've had it on my mind ever since. There's but one thing
+to be done, I am sure, and that is what your own judgment, Lady
+Betty----"
+
+"Sophy!"
+
+But Sophia continued without heeding the remonstrance--"pointed out to
+you! I mean, to return to your mother without loss of time. It is best
+for you, and best for--Tom," with a crooked smile. "Best, indeed, for
+all of us."
+
+Lady Betty, her face held aloof, was busy drying her tears; her
+position such that it was not possible to say what her sentiments
+were, nor whether her emotion was real or assumed. But at that she
+looked up, startled; she met the other's eyes. "Do you mean," she
+muttered, "that I am to go home?"
+
+"To be sure," Sophia answered coldly. "'Tis only what you wished
+yourself, three days ago."
+
+"But--but Sir Tom hasn't--hasn't troubled me again," Betty faltered.
+
+"Tom?" Sophia answered, in a peculiar tone. "Ah, no. But--I doubt if
+he's to be trusted. Meanwhile, I gather from the letter you gave me
+that Sir Hervey will not return until to-morrow noon. We must act then
+without him. You will start at daybreak to-morrow. I shall accompany
+you as far as Lewes. Thence Mrs. Stokes, who has been in London, and
+Watkyns, with sufficient attendance, will see you safe to her Grace's
+house. You are in my care----"
+
+"And you send me home in disgrace!"
+
+"Not at all!" my lady answered, with coldness. "The fault is Tom's."
+
+"And I suffer! Do you mean, do you really mean----" Betty protested,
+in a tone of astonishment, "that I am to go back to-morrow--at
+daybreak--by myself?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Before Sir Hervey returns?"
+
+"To be sure."
+
+"But it is monstrous!" Betty cried, grown indignant; and in her
+excitement she rose and stood opposite Sophia. "It is absurd! Why
+should I go? In this haste, and like a thing disgraced? I've done
+nothing! I don't understand."
+
+Sophia rose also; her face still pale, a fire smouldering in her eyes.
+"Don't you?" she said. "Don't you understand?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Think again, girl. Think again!"
+
+"N-no," Betty repeated; but this time her voice quavered. Her eyes
+sank before Sophia's, and a fresh wave of colour swept over her face.
+There is an innocent shame as well as a guilty shame; a shame caused
+by that which others think us, as well as by that which we are. Betty
+sank under this, yet made a fight. "Why should I go?" she repeated
+weakly.
+
+"Not for my sake," Sophia answered gravely. "For your own. Because I
+have more thought for you, more mercy for you, more compassion for you
+than you have for yourself. You say you go in disgrace? It is not
+true; but were you to stay, you would stay in disgrace! From that I
+shall save you whether you will or no. Only----" and suddenly
+stretching out her hand she seized Betty's shoulder and swayed the
+slighter girl to and fro by it--"only," she cried, with sudden
+vehemence, "don't think I do it to rid myself of you! To keep him, or
+to hold him, or to glean after you! If I could give him the woman he
+loves I would give her to him, though you were that woman! If I could
+set her in my place, I would set her there, though her foot were on my
+breast! But I cannot. I cannot, girl. And you must go."
+
+She let her hand fall with the last word; but not so quickly that
+Betty had not time to snatch it to her lips and kiss it--kiss it with
+an odd strangled cry. The next instant the girl flung herself on the
+bench beside the table, and hiding her head on her arms--as Sophia had
+hidden hers a while before--she gave herself up to unrestrained
+weeping. For a few seconds Sophia stood watching her with a cold,
+grave face; then she shivered, and turning in silence, left the hall.
+
+Strange to say, the door had barely fallen to behind her when a change
+came over Lady Betty. She raised her head and looked round, her eyes
+shining through her tears. As soon as she was certain that she was
+alone, she sprang to her feet, and waving her hat by its ribands round
+her head, spun round the table in a frantic dance of triumph, her hoop
+sweeping the hall from end to end, yet finding it too small for the
+exuberance of her joy. Pausing at last, breathless and dishevelled,
+"Oh, you dear! Oh, you angel!" she cried. "You'd give him the woman he
+loves, would you, ma'am--if you could! You'd set her foot on your
+breast, if 'twould make him happy? Oh, it was better than the best
+play that ever was, it was better than 'Goodman's Fields,' or 'Mr.
+Quinn,' to hear her stab herself, and stab herself, and stab herself!
+If he doesn't kiss her shoes, if he does not kneel in the dust to her,
+I'll never believe in man again! I'll die a maid at forty and content!
+I'll--but oh, la!" And Lady Betty broke off suddenly with a look of
+consternation, "I'd forgotten! What am I to do? She's a dragon. She'll
+not let me stay till he returns, no, not if I go on my knees to her!
+And if I go, I lose all! Oh, la, sweet, what am I to do?"
+
+She thought awhile with a face full of mischief. "Coke might meet us
+in Lewes," she muttered, "and cut the knot, but that's a chance. Or I
+might tell her--and that's to spoil sport. I must get a note to him
+to-night. But she'll be giving her orders now, I expect; and it's odds
+the men won't carry it. There's only Tom, and that's putting my hand
+in very far!"
+
+She thought awhile, then rubbed her lips with her handkerchief, and
+laughing and blushing looked at it. "Well it leaves no mark," she
+muttered with a grimace. "And if he's rude I can pay him as I paid him
+before."
+
+Apparently she would face the risk, for she set herself busily to
+search among the dog-leashes and powder-horns, holsters, and tattered
+volumes of farriery, that encumbered the great table. Presently she
+unearthed a pewter ink-pot and an old swan-quill; and bearing these,
+and a flyleaf ruthlessly torn from a number of the _Gentleman's
+Magazine_, to a table in the bay window, she sat down and scrawled a
+few lines. She folded the note into the shape of a cocked hat, bound
+it deftly about with a floss of silk torn from her ribands; and having
+succeeded so far, lacked only a postman. She had a good idea where he
+was to be found, and having donned her hat and tied the strings more
+nicely than usual, went on the terrace. There she was not long in
+discovering him. He was kicking his heels on the horseblock under the
+oak, between the terrace and the stables.
+
+No one knew better than her ladyship how to play the innocent; but on
+this occasion she had neither time nor mind to be taken by surprise.
+She tripped down the steps, crossed the intervening turf, and pausing
+before him opened her fire.
+
+"Do you wish to earn your pardon, sir?" she asked. Her manner was as
+cold and formal as it had been for the last three days.
+
+Tom rose sheepishly, his mind in a whirl. For days she had avoided
+him. She had drawn in her skirts if he passed near her; she had
+ignored his hand at table; she had looked through him when he spoke.
+Until she paused, until her voice sounded in his ears, he had thought
+she would go by him; and for a moment he could not find his tongue to
+answer her. Then "I don't understand," he muttered sullenly.
+
+"I spoke plainly," Lady Betty answered, in a voice clear as a bell.
+"But I will say it again. Do you wish, sir, to earn your pardon?"
+
+Tom's face flamed. Unfortunately, his ill-conditioned side was
+uppermost. "I don't want another slap in the face," he grumbled.
+
+"And I do not want what I have found," Lady Betty retorted with
+dignity, though the rebuff, which she had not expected, stung her. "I
+came in search of a gentleman willing to do a lady a service, and I
+have not found one. After this our acquaintance is at an end, sir. You
+will oblige me by not speaking to me. Good evening." And she swept
+away her head in the air.
+
+Tom was not of the softest material, but at that, brute and boor were
+the best names he gave himself. The love that resentment had held at
+bay, returned in a flood and overwhelmed him. Sinking under remorse,
+feeling that he would now die for a glance from her eyes whom he had
+again and hopelessly offended, he rushed after her. Overtaking her at
+the foot of the steps, he implored her, with humble, incoherent
+prayers, to forgive him--to forgive him once more, only once more, and
+he would be her slave for ever!
+
+"It's only one chance I ask," he panted. "Give me one more chance
+of--of showing that I am not the brute you think me. Oh, Lady Betty,
+forgive me, and--and forget what I said. You've cut me to the heart
+every hour for days past; you haven't looked at me; you've treated me
+as if I were something lower than a thief-taker. And--and when I was
+smarting under this, because I'd rather have a word from your lips
+than a kiss from another, you came to me, and I--I've misbehaved
+myself worse than before."
+
+"No, not worse," Lady Betty said, in her cold, clear voice. "That was
+impossible."
+
+"But as bad as I could," Tom confessed, not over-comforted. "Oh why,
+oh why," he continued, piteously, "am I always at my worst with you?
+For I think more of you than of any one. I'm always thinking of you. I
+can't sleep for thinking--what you are thinking of me, Lady Betty. I'd
+lie down in the dust, and let you walk over me if it would give you
+any pleasure. If it weren't for those d----d windows I'd kneel down
+now and ask your pardon."
+
+"I don't see what difference the windows make," Lady Betty said, in
+her coldest tone. "They don't make your offence any less."
+
+Tom might have answered that they made his punishment the greater;
+but, instead, he plumped down on the lowest step, careless who saw him
+if only Betty forgave him. "Oh, Lady Betty," he cried, "forgive me!"
+
+"That is better," she said, judiciously.
+
+"Oh, Lady Betty," he cried, "I humbly ask you to forgive me."
+
+Lady Betty looked at him quietly from an upper step.
+
+"You may get up," she said. "But I warn you, sir, you have yet to earn
+your pardon. You have promised much, I want but a little. Will you
+take a note from me to Lewes to-night?"
+
+"If I live!" he cried, his eyes sparkling. "But that's a small thing."
+
+"I trust in small things first," she answered.
+
+"And great afterwards!"
+
+She had much ado not to laugh, he looked at her so piteously, his
+hands clasped. "Perhaps," she said. "At any rate the future will show.
+Here is the note." She passed it to him quickly, with one eye on the
+windows. "You will tell no one, you will mention it to no one; but you
+will see that it reaches his hands to-night."
+
+"It shall if I live," Tom answered fervently. "To whom am I to deliver
+it?"
+
+"To Sir Hervey."
+
+Tom swore outright, and turned crimson. They looked at one another,
+the man and the maid.
+
+When Betty spoke again--after a long, strange pause, during which he
+stood holding the note loosely in his fingers as if he would drop
+it--it was in a tone of passion which she had not used before.
+"Listen!" she said. "Listen, sir, and understand if you can--for it
+behoves you! There is an offence that passes forgiveness. I believe
+that a moment ago you were on the point of committing it. If so, and
+if you have not yet repented, think, think before you do commit it.
+For there will be no place for repentance afterwards. It is not for me
+to defend my conduct, nor for you to suspect it," the young girl
+continued proudly. "That is my father's right, and my husband's when I
+have one. It imports no one else. But I will stoop to tell you this,
+sir. If you had said the words that were on your lips a moment ago, as
+surely as you stand there to-day, you would have come to me to-morrow
+to crave my pardon, and to crave it in shame, in comparison of which
+anything you have felt to-day is nothing. And you would have craved it
+in vain!" she continued vehemently. "I would rather the lowest servant
+here--soiled my lips--than you!"
+
+Her passion had so much the better of her, when she came to the last
+words, that she could scarcely utter them. But she recovered herself
+with marvellous rapidity. "Do you take the note, sir," she said
+coldly, "or do you leave it?"
+
+"I will take it, if it be to the devil!" he cried.
+
+"No," she answered quickly; and she stayed him by a haughty gesture.
+"That will not do! Do you take it, thinking no evil? Do you take it,
+thinking me a good woman? Or do you take it thinking me something
+lower, infinitely lower, than the creatures you make your sport and
+pastime?"
+
+"I do, I do believe!" Tom cried; and, dropping on his knees, he hid
+his face against her hoop-skirt, and pressed his lips to the stuff.
+And strange to say when he had risen and gone--without another
+word--there were tears in the girl's eyes. Tom had touched her.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI
+
+                          A DRAGON DISARMED
+
+
+It was five o'clock in the morning. The low sun shone athwart the
+cool, green sward of the park, leaving the dells and leafy retreats of
+the deer in shadow. In the window recess of the hall, whence the eye
+had that view, and could drink in the freshness of the early morning,
+the small oak table was laid for breakfast. Old plate that had escaped
+the melting-pot and the direful year of the new coinage, dragon china
+imported when Queen Anne was young, linen, white as sun and dew or
+D'Oyley could make it, gave back the pure light of early morning, and
+bade welcome a guest as dainty as themselves. Yet Lady Betty, for whom
+the table was prepared, and who stood beside it in an attitude of
+expectation, tapped the floor with her foot and looked but half
+pleased. "Is Lady Coke not coming?" she asked at last.
+
+"No, my lady," Mrs. Stokes answered. "Her ladyship is taking her meal
+in her room."
+
+"Oh!" Lady Betty rejoined drily. "She's not ailing, I hope?"
+
+"No, my lady. She bade me say that the chariot would be at the door at
+half after five."
+
+Betty grimaced, but took her seat in silence, and kept one eye on the
+clock. Had her messenger played her false? Or was Coke incredulous? Or
+what kept him? Even if he did not come before they set out, he might
+meet them on the hither side of Lewes; but that was a slender thread
+to which to trust, and Lady Betty had no mind to be packed home in
+error. As the finger of the clock in the corner moved slowly
+downwards, as the sun drank up the dew on leaf and bracken, and the
+day hardened, she listened, and more intently listened for the foot
+that was overdue. It wanted but five minutes of the half hour now! Now
+it wanted but three minutes! Two minutes! Now the rustle of my lady's
+skirts was on the stairs, the door was opened for her to enter
+and--and then at last, Betty caught the ring of spurred heels on the
+pavement of the terrace.
+
+"He's come!" she cried, springing from her seat, and forgetting
+everything else in her relief. "He's come!"
+
+Sophia from the inner threshold stared coldly. "Who?" she asked. It
+was the first time the two had met in the morning and had not kissed;
+but there are bounds to the generosity of woman, and Sophia could not
+stoop to kiss her rival. "Who?" she repeated, standing stiffly aloof,
+near the door by which she had entered.
+
+"You will see!" Betty cried, with a bubble of laughter. "You will
+see."
+
+The next moment Sir Hervey's figure darkened the open doorway, and
+Sophia saw him and understood. For an instant surprise drove the blood
+from her cheeks; then, as astonishment gave place to indignation, and
+to all the feelings which a wife--though a wife in name only--might be
+expected to experience in such a position, the tide returned in double
+volume. She, did not speak, she did not move; but she saw that they
+understood one another, she felt that this sudden return was concerted
+between them; and her eyes sparkled, her bosom rose. If she had never
+been beautiful before, Sophia was beautiful at that moment.
+
+Sir Hervey smiled, as he looked at her. "Good morning, my dear," he
+said cheerily. "I'm of the earliest, or thought I was. But you had
+nearly stolen a march on me."
+
+She did not answer him. "Lady Betty," she said, without turning her
+head or looking at the girl, "you had better leave us."
+
+"Yes, Betty, away with you!" he cried, good humouredly. "You'll find
+Tom outside." And as Betty whisked away through the open door, "You'll
+pardon me, my dear," he continued quietly, but with dignity, "I have
+countermanded the carriage. When you have heard what I have to say you
+will agree with me, I am sure, that there is no necessity for our
+guest to leave us to-day." He laid his whip aside, as he spoke, and
+turned to the table from which Lady Betty had lately risen. "I have
+not broken my fast," he said. "Give me some tea, child."
+
+A wild look, as of a creature caged and beating vain wings against
+bars, darkened Sophia's eyes. She was trembling with agitation,
+panting to resist, outraged in her pride if not in her love; and he
+asked for tea! Yet words did not come at once, his easy manner had its
+effect; as if she acknowledged that he had still a right to her
+service, she sat down at the little table in the window bay. He passed
+his legs over the bench on the other side, and sat waiting, the width
+of the table only--and it was narrow--between them. As she washed
+Betty's cup in the basin the china tinkled, and betrayed her
+agitation; but she managed to make his tea and pass it to him.
+
+"Thank you," he said quietly. "And now for what I was saying. Lady
+Betty sent me a note last night, stating that she was to go to-day,
+unless I interceded for her. It was that brought me back this
+morning."
+
+Sophia's eyes burned, but she forced herself to speak with calmness.
+"Did she tell you," she asked, "why she was to go?"
+
+Sir Hervey shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said, with a smile, "she
+hinted at the reason."
+
+"Did she tell you what I had said to her?"
+
+"I am afraid not," he said politely. "Probably space----"
+
+"Or shame!" Sophia cried; and the next moment could have bitten her
+tongue. "Pardon me," she said in an altered tone, "I had no right to
+say that. But if she has not told you, 'tis I must tell you, myself.
+And it is more fitting. I am aware that you have discovered--all too
+soon, Sir Hervey--that our marriage, if it could be called a marriage,
+was a mistake. I cannot--I cannot," Sophia continued, trembling from
+head to foot, "take all the blame of that to myself, though I know
+that the first cause was my fault, and that it was I led you to commit
+the error. But I cannot take all the blame," she repeated, "I cannot!
+For you knew the world, you should have known yourself, and what was
+likely, what was certain to come of it! What has come of it!"
+
+Sir Hervey drummed on the table with his fingers, and when he spoke,
+it was in a tone of apology. "The future is hard to read," he said.
+"It is easy, child, to be wise after the event."
+
+Her next words seemed strangely ill-directed to the issue. "You never
+told me that you had been betrothed before," she said, "and that she
+died. If you had told me, and if I had seen her face--I should have
+been wiser. I should have foreseen what would happen. I do not wonder
+that such a face seen again has"--she paused, stammering and pale,
+"has recalled old times and your youth. I have no right to blame you.
+I do not blame you. At least, I--I try not to blame you," she
+repeated, her voice sinking lower and lower. "I have told her, and it
+is true, that if I could bear all the consequences of our error I
+would bear them. That if I could release you and set you free to marry
+the--the woman you have learned to love--I would, sir, willingly.
+That, at any rate, I would not raise a finger to prevent such a
+marriage."
+
+"And did you--mean that," he asked in a low voice, his face averted.
+
+"As God sees me, I did."
+
+"You are in earnest, Sophia?" For an instant he turned his head and
+looked at her.
+
+"I am."
+
+"Yet--you were for sending her away," he said. "This morning? Before I
+could return? That I might not see her again."
+
+She looked at him with astonishment, with indignation. "Cannot you
+understand," she cried, "that that was not on my account, but on
+hers?"
+
+"It seems to have been rather on my account," he muttered doggedly,
+his fingers toying with the teaspoon, his eyes on the table. He seemed
+strangely changed. He did not seem to be himself.
+
+She shuddered. "At any rate, it was not on my account," she said.
+
+"And you are still fixed that she must go?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I'll tell you what it is," he answered with sudden
+determination, "I'll take you at your word!" He raised his cup, which
+was half full, and held it in front of his lips, looking at her across
+it as he spoke. "You said just now that if there was a way to--to give
+me the woman I loved--you would take it."
+
+She started. For a moment she did not answer.
+
+He waited. At last: "You didn't mean it?" he said, his tone cold.
+
+The room, the high window with its stained escutcheons, the dark oak
+walls, the dark oak table, the leafage reflected cool and green in the
+tall mirror opposite the door, went round with her; she swallowed
+something that rose in her throat, and set her teeth hard, and at
+length she found her voice. "Yes," she said, "I meant it."
+
+"Well, there is a way," he answered; and he rose from the table, and,
+moving to the door which led to the main hall and the staircase, he
+closed it. "There is a way of doing it. But it is not quite easy to
+explain it to you in a moment. 'Twas a hurried marriage, as you know,
+and informal, and a marriage only in name. And something has happened
+since then."
+
+He paused there; she asked in a low tone, "What?"
+
+"Well, it is what took me to Lewes yesterday," he answered. "I should
+have told you of it then, but I was in doubt how you would take it.
+And Betty persuaded me not to tell it. The man Hawkesworth----"
+
+He paused, as she rose stiffly from the table. "Have they taken him?"
+she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," he said gently. "They took him in hiding near Chichester. But
+he was ill, dying, it was thought, when they surprised him."
+
+She had a strange prevision. "Of the smallpox?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," he answered. And then, "He died last night," he continued
+softly. "My dear, let me get you a little cordial."
+
+"No, no! Did you see him?"
+
+"I did. And I did what I could for him. I was with him when he died."
+
+She sat down at the table, hiding her face in her hands. Presently she
+shuddered. "Heaven forgive him!" she whispered. "Heaven forgive him,
+as I do!" And again she was silent for some minutes, while he stood
+watching her. At last, "Was it about him," she asked in a low voice,
+"that Lady Betty was talking to you on the terrace yesterday?"
+
+"Yes. I asked her advice. I did not know what you might do, if you
+knew. And I did not wish you to see him."
+
+"But she had another reason," Sophia murmured, behind her hands.
+"There was another motive, which she urged for keeping it from me.
+What was it?"
+
+He did not answer.
+
+"What was it?" she repeated, and lowered her hands and looked at him,
+her lips parted.
+
+He walked up the hall and back again under her eyes. "Well," he said,
+in a tone elaborately easy, "she is but a child, you know, and does
+not understand things. She knew a little of the circumstances of our
+marriage, and she thought she knew more. She fancied that a little
+jealousy might foster love; and so it may, perhaps, where a spark
+exists. But not otherwise. That was her mistake."
+
+"But--but I do not understand!" Sophia cried, her hands shaking, her
+face bewildered. "You said--you told her that you were perfectly
+indifferent to me."
+
+"Oh, pardon me," Sir Hervey answered lightly. "Never, I am sure. I
+said, perhaps, that I had done everything to _show_ that I was
+indifferent to you. That was part of her foolish plan. But there is a
+distinction, you see?"
+
+"Yes," Sophia faltered, her face growing slowly scarlet. "There is a
+distinction, I see."
+
+She wanted to cry, and she wanted to think; and she wanted to hide her
+face from his eyes, but had not the will to do it while he looked at
+her. Her head was going round. If she had misinterpreted Betty's words
+on the terrace, and it seemed certain now that she had, what had she
+done? Or, rather, what had she not done? She had fallen into Betty's
+trap; she had proclaimed her own folly; she had misjudged her--and
+him! She had done them foul, dreadful wrong; she had insulted them
+horribly, horribly insulted them by her suspicions! She had proved the
+meanness and lowness of her mind! While he had been thinking of her,
+and for her, still shielding her, as he had shielded her from the
+beginning--she had been slandering him, accusing him, wronging him,
+and along with him this young girl, her guest, her friend, living
+under her roof! It was infamous! Infamous! What had so warped her?
+
+And then, as she sat overwhelmed by shame, a ray of light pierced the
+darkness. She looked at him, feeling on a sudden cold and weak. "But
+you--you have not yet explained!" she muttered.
+
+"What?"
+
+"How I can help you to--to----" Her voice failed her.
+
+She could not finish.
+
+"To Betty," he said, seeing her stuck in a quagmire of perplexities.
+"I do not want Betty."
+
+"Then what did you mean?" she stammered.
+
+"I never said I wanted Betty," he answered, smiling.
+
+"But you said----"
+
+"I said that there was a way by which you could help me to the woman I
+loved. And there is a way. Betty, in her note to me, will have it that
+you can do it at slight cost to yourself. That is for you to decide.
+Only remember, Sophia," Sir Hervey continued gravely, "you are free,
+free as air. I have kept my word to the letter. I shall continue to
+keep it. If there is to be a change, if we are to come nearer to one
+another, it must come from you, not from me."
+
+She turned to the window; and waiting for her answer--which did not
+come quickly--he saw that she was shaking. "You don't help me," she
+whispered at last.
+
+"What, child?"
+
+"You don't help me. You don't make it easy for me." And then she
+turned abruptly to him and he saw that the tears were running down her
+face. "Don't you know what you ought to do?" she cried, holding out
+her hands and lifting her face to him. "You ought to beat me, you
+ought to shake me, you ought to lock me in a dark room! You ought to
+tell me every hour of the day how mean, how ungrateful, how poor and
+despicable a thing I am--to take all and give nothing!"
+
+"And that would help you?" he said. "'Tis a new way of making love,
+sweet."
+
+"'Tis an old one," she cried impetuously. "You are too good to me. But
+if you will take me, such as I am--and--and I suppose you have not
+much choice," she continued, with an odd, shy laugh, "I shall be very
+much obliged to you, sir. And--and I shall thank you all my life."
+
+He would have taken her in his arms, but she dropped, as she spoke, on
+the bench beside the table, and hiding her face in her hands, began to
+weep softly--in the same posture, and in the same place, in which she
+had sat the day before, but with feelings how different! Ah, how
+different!
+
+Sir Hervey stood over her a moment, watching her. Her riding-cap had
+fallen off and lay on the table beside her. Her hair, clubbed for the
+journey, hung undressed and without powder on her neck. He touched it
+gently, almost reverently with his hand. It was the first caress he
+had ever given her.
+
+
+[Illustration: HER HAIR ... HUNG UNDRESSED  ON HER NECK. HE TOUCHED IT
+GENTLY ... IT WAS THE FIRST CARESS HE HAD EVER GIVEN HER]
+
+
+"Child," he whispered, "you are not unhappy?"
+
+"Oh, no, no," she cried. "I am thankful, I am so thankful!"
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+"I said I would let you kiss me?" Lady Betty exclaimed with
+indignation. And her eyes scorched poor Tom. "It's quite sure, sir, I
+said nothing of the kind."
+
+"But you said," Tom stammered, "that if I didn't do what you wanted,
+you wouldn't! And that meant that if I did, you would. Now, didn't
+it?"
+
+Lady Betty shrugged her shoulders in utter disdain of such reasoning.
+"Oh, la, sir, you are too clever for me!" she cried. "I wasn't at
+college." And she turned from him contemptuously.
+
+They were at the horseblock under the oak, whither Tom had followed
+her, with thoughts bent on bold emprise. And at the first he had put a
+good face on it; but the lesson of the day before, and of the day
+before that, had not been lost. The spirit had gone out of him. The
+pout of her lips silenced him, a glance from her eyes--if they were
+cold or distant, harsh or contemptuous--sent his heart into his boots.
+He grovelled before her; it may be that he was of a nature to benefit
+by the experience.
+
+Having snubbed him, she was silent awhile, that the iron might enter
+into his soul. Then she looked to see if he was sullen; she found that
+he was not. He was only heartbroken, and her majesty relented. "I
+said, it is true," she continued, "that--that you might earn your
+pardon. Well, you are pardoned, sir; and we are where we were."
+
+"May I call you Betty, then?"
+
+Lady Betty's eyes fell modestly on her fan. "Well, you may," she said.
+"I think that is part of your pardon, if it gives you any pleasure to
+call me by my name. It seems vastly foolish to me."
+
+He was foolish. "Betty!" he cried softly. "Betty! Betty! It'll be the
+only name for me as long as I live. Betty! Betty! Betty!"
+
+"What nonsense!" Lady Betty answered; but her gaze fell before his.
+
+"Do you remember," he ventured, "what it was I said of your eyes?"
+
+"Of my eyes?" she cried, recovering herself. "No; of the maid's eyes,
+if you please. There was some nonsense said of them, I remember."
+
+"It was all true of your eyes!" Tom said, gathering courage and
+fluency. "It's true of them now! And all I said to the maid, I say to
+you. And I wish, oh, I wish you were the maid again!"
+
+"That you might be rude to me, I suppose?" she answered, tracing a
+figure with her fan on the horseblock.
+
+"No," Tom cried. "That I might show you how much I love you. That I
+might get nothing by you but yourself. Oh, Betty, give me a little
+hope! Say that--that some day I shall--I shall kiss you again."
+
+Betty, blushing and but half disdainful, studied the ground with a
+gravity that was not natural to her.
+
+"Well, perhaps--in a year," she faltered. "Always supposing that you
+kiss no one in the meantime, sir."
+
+"A year, a whole year, Betty!" Tom protested.
+
+"Yes, a year, not a day less," she answered firmly. "You are only a
+boy. You don't know your own mind. I don't know yet whether you would
+treat me well. And for waiting, I'll have no one kiss me," Betty
+continued, steadfastly, "that cannot wait and wait, and doesn't think
+me worth the waiting. So, sir, if you wish to show that you are a man,
+you must show it by waiting."
+
+"A year!" Tom moaned. "It's an age!"
+
+"So it is to a boy," she retorted. "To a man it's a year. And as you
+don't wish to wait----"
+
+"I will wait! I will indeed!" Tom cried.
+
+"Remember you must kiss no one in the meantime," Betty continued,
+drawing patterns on the block, "nor write, nor speak, nor look a word
+of love. You will be on your honour, and--and you will wait till this
+day twelvemonth, sir."
+
+"I will," Tom cried. "I will, and thankfully, if you on your side,
+Betty----"
+
+She sprang up. "What?" she cried, on fire in an instant. "You would
+make terms with me, would you?"
+
+Tom, the bold, the bully, cringed. "No," he said. "No, of course not.
+I beg your pardon, Betty."
+
+She was silent for a full half minute, and he thought her hopelessly
+offended. But when she spoke again it was hurriedly, and in a tone of
+strange, new shyness. "Still, I--I don't ask what I won't give," she
+said. "You've kissed me, and you are not the same to me as--as others.
+I don't mind telling you that. And--and what is law for you shall be
+law for me. I suppose you understand," she added, her face naming more
+and more. And in her growing bashfulness she glanced at him angrily.
+"I never--I never have flirted, of course," she continued, despairing
+of making him understand; "but I--I won't flirt this year if you are
+in earnest."
+
+Somehow Tom had got her hand, and was kissing it. And the two formed a
+pretty picture. But the time allowed them was short. Tom's ecstasy was
+interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Sir Hervey and
+Sophia had descended the steps of the terrace followed by the old
+vicar, who looked little the worse for his fainting-fit. He bore on
+his arm a new gown, the gift of his patron, and the token of his own
+favour, if not of his wife's forgiveness. The three were so closely
+engaged in talk that until they came face to face with the other pair
+they were not conscious of their presence. Then for a moment Sophia
+faltered and hung back, shamed and conscience-stricken, reminded of
+the things she had said, and the worse things she had thought, of her
+friend. But in a breath the two girls were in one another's arms.
+
+Tom looked and groaned. "Oh, Lord!" he said. "A year! A whole year!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sophia, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
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