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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39217-8.txt b/39217-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b062941 --- /dev/null +++ b/39217-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5024 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The King's Stratagem and Other Stories, 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: The King's Stratagem and Other Stories + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: March 20, 2012 [EBook #39217] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING'S STRATAGEM, OTHER STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the +Web Archive (Harvard University) + + + + + +no gutcheck/jeebies/gutspell + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + + 1. Page scan source: + + http://www.archive.org/details/kingsstratagema00weymgoog + (Harvard University) + + + + + + +[Illustration: "HE WAS ALONE WITH HIS TRIUMPH."] + + + + + + + + THE + + + KING'S STRATAGEM + + + _AND OTHER STORIES_ + + + + + BY + + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + + _Author of "A Gentleman of France," "Under the Red Robe," + + "My Lady Rotha," etc., etc_. + + + + + * * * + + + + + NEW YORK + + A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY + + 70 Fifth Avenue + + + + + + + + Copyright, 1891, + + + BY + + + A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY. + + + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + + The King's Stratagem, + + + The Body-birds Of Court, + + + In Cupid's Toils, + + + The Drift Of Fate, + + + A Blore Manor Episode, + + + The Fatal Letter, + + + + + + THE KING'S STRATAGEM. + + +In the days when Henry IV. of France was King of Navarre only, and in +that little kingdom of hills and woods which occupies the southwest +corner of the larger country, was with difficulty supporting the +Huguenot cause against the French court and the Catholic League--in +the days when every isolated castle, from the Garonne to the Pyrenees, +was a bone of contention between the young king and the crafty +queen-mother, Catherine de Medicis, a conference between these notable +personages took place in the picturesque town of La Réole. + +La Réole still rises gray, time-worn, and half-ruined on a lofty cliff +above the broad green waters of the Garonne, forty odd miles from +Bordeaux. But it is a small place now. In the days of which we are +speaking, however, it was important, strongly fortified, and guarded +by a castle which looked down on a thousand red-tiled roofs, rising in +terraces from the river. As the meeting-place of the two sovereigns it +was for the time as gay as Paris itself, Catherine having brought with +her a bevy of fair maids of honor, in the effect of whose charms she +perhaps put as much trust as in her own diplomacy. But the peaceful +appearance of the town was delusive, for even while every other house +in it rang with music and silvery laughter, each party was ready to +fly to arms without warning, if it saw that any advantage was to be +gained thereby. + +On an evening shortly before the end of the conference two men sat at +play in a room, the deep-embrasured window of which looked down from a +considerable height upon the river. The hour was late, and the town +silent. Outside, the moonlight fell bright and pure on sleeping fields +and long, straight lines of poplars. Within the room a silver lamp +suspended from the ceiling threw light upon the table, leaving the +farther parts of the room in shadow. The walls were hung with faded +tapestry. On the low bedstead in one corner lay a handsome cloak, a +sword, and one of the clumsy pistols of the period. Across a chair lay +another cloak and sword, and on the window seat, beside a pair of +saddlebags, were strewn half a dozen such trifles as soldiers carried +from camp to camp--a silver comfit-box, a jeweled dagger, a mask, and +velvet cap. + +The faces of the players, as they bent over the dice, were in shadow. +One--a slight, dark man of middle height, with a weak chin, and a +mouth as weak, but shaded by a dark mustache--seemed, from the +occasional oaths which he let drop, to be losing heavily. Yet his +opponent, a stouter and darker man, with a sword-cut across his left +temple, and that swaggering air which has at all times marked the +professional soldier, showed no signs of triumph or elation. On the +contrary, though he kept silence, or spoke only a formal word or two, +there was a gleam of anxiety and suppressed excitement in his eyes, +and more than once he looked keenly at his companion, as if to judge +of his feelings or learn whether the time had come for some experiment +which he meditated. But for this, an observer looking in through the +window would have taken the two for only one more instance of the hawk +and pigeon. + +At last the younger player threw down the caster, with a groan. + +"You have the luck of the Evil One," he said bitterly. "How much is +that?" + +"Two thousand crowns," replied the other without emotion. "You will +play no more?" + +"No! I wish to Heaven I had never played at all!" was the answer. As +he spoke the loser rose, and going to the window stood looking moodily +out. + +For a few moments the elder man remained seated, gazing at him +furtively, but at length he too rose, and, stepping softly to his +companion, touched him on the shoulder. "Your pardon a moment, M. le +Vicomte," he said. "Am I right in concluding that the loss of this sum +will inconvenience you?" + +"A thousand fiends!" exclaimed the young vicomte, turning on him +wrathfully. "Is there any man whom the loss of two thousand crowns +would not inconvenience? As for me----" + +"For you," continued the other, smoothly filling up the pause, "shall +I be wrong in saying that it means something like ruin?" + +"Well, sir, and if it does?" the young man retorted, drawing himself +up haughtily, his cheek a shade paler with passion. "Depend upon it +you shall be paid. Do not be afraid of that!" + +"Gently, gently, my friend," the winner answered, his patience in +strong contrast with the other's violence. "I had no intention of +insulting you, believe me. Those who play with the Vicomte de +Lanthenon are not wont to doubt his honor. I spoke only in your own +interest. It has occurred to me, vicomte, that the matter might be +arranged at less cost to yourself." + +"How?" was the curt question. + +"May I speak freely?" The vicomte shrugged his shoulders, and the +other, taking silence for consent, proceeded: "You, vicomte, are +Governor of Lusigny for the King of Navarre; I, of Créance, for the +King of France. Our towns lie only three leagues apart. Could I, by +any chance, say on one of these fine nights, become master of Lusigny, +it would be worth more than two thousand crowns to me. Do you +understand?" + +"No," the young man answered slowly, "I do not." + +"Think over what I have said, then," was the brief answer. + +For a full minute there was silence in the room. The vicomte gazed out +of the window with knitted brows and compressed lips, while his +companion, sitting down, leaned back in his chair, with an air of +affected carelessness. Outside, the rattle of arms and hum of voices +told that the watch were passing through the street. The church bell +struck one. Suddenly the vicomte burst into a hoarse laugh, and, +turning, snatched up his cloak and sword. "The trap was very well +laid, M. le Capitaine," he said almost jovially; "but I am still sober +enough to take care of myself--and of Lusigny. I wish you good-night. +You shall have your money, never fear." + +"Still, I am afraid it will cost you dearly," the captain answered, as +he rose and moved toward the door to open it for his guest. His hand +was already on the latch when he paused. "Look here," he said, "what +do you say to this, then? I will stake the two thousand crowns you +have lost to me, and another thousand besides against your town. Fool! +no one can hear us. If you win, you go off a free man with my +thousand. If you lose, you put me in possession one of these fine +nights. What do you say to that? A single throw to decide." + +The young man's pale face reddened. He turned, and his eyes sought the +table and the dice irresolutely. The temptation indeed came at an +unfortunate moment, when the excitement of play had given way to +depression, and he saw nothing before him outside the door, on which +his hand was laid, but the cold reality of ruin. The temptation to +return, and by a single throw set himself right with the world was too +much for him. Slowly he came back to the table. "Confound you!" he +said irritably. "I think you are the devil himself, captain." + +"Don't talk child's talk!" said the other coldly, drawing back as his +victim advanced. "If you do not like the offer you need not take it." + +But the young man's fingers had already closed on the dice. Picking +them up he dropped them once, twice, thrice on the table, his eyes +gleaming with the play-fever. "If I win?" he said doubtfully. + +"You carry away a thousand crowns," answered the captain quietly. "If +you lose you contrive to leave one of the gates of Lusigny open for me +before next full moon. That is all." + +"And what if I lose, and not pay the forfeit?" asked the vicomte, +laughing weakly. + +"I trust to your honor," said the captain. And, strange as it may +seem, he knew his man. The young noble of the day might betray his +cause and his trust, but the debt of honor incurred at play was +binding on him. + +"Well," said the vicomte, "I agree. Who is to throw first?" + +"As you will," replied the captain, masking under an appearance of +indifference a real excitement which darkened his cheek, and caused +the pulse in the old wound on his face to beat furiously. + +"Then do you go first," said the vicomte. + +"With your permission," assented the captain. And taking the dice up +in the caster he shook them with a practiced hand, and dropped them on +the board. The throw was seven. + +The vicomte took up the caster and, as he tossed the dice into it, +glanced at the window. The moonlight shining athwart it fell in +silvery sheen on a few feet of the floor. With the light something of +the silence and coolness of the night entered also, and appealed to +him. For a few seconds he hesitated. He even made as if he would have +replaced the box on the table. But the good instinct failed. It was +too late, and with a muttered word, which his dry lips refused to +articulate, he threw the dice. Seven! + +Neither of the men spoke, but the captain rattled the cubes, and again +flung them on the table, this time with a slight air of bravado. They +rolled one over the other and lay still. Seven again. + +The young vicomte's brow was damp, and his face pale and drawn. He +forced a quavering laugh, and with an unsteady hand took his turn. The +dice fell far apart, and lay where they fell. Six! + +The winner nodded gravely. "The luck is still with me," he said, +keeping his eyes on the table that the light of triumph which had +suddenly leapt into them might not be seen. "When do you go back to +your command, vicomte?" + +The unhappy man stood like one stunned, gazing at the two little cubes +which had cost him so dearly. "The day after to-morrow," he muttered +hoarsely, striving to collect himself. + +"Then we shall say the following evening?" asked the captain. + +"Very well." + +"We quite understand one another," continued the winner, eyeing his +man watchfully, and speaking with more urgency. "I may depend on you, +M. le Vicomte, I presume?" + +"The Lanthenons have never been wanting to their word," the young +nobleman answered, stung into sudden haughtiness. "If I live I will +put Lusigny into your hands, M. le Captaine. Afterward I will do my +best to recover it--in another way." + +"I shall be entirely at your disposal," replied the captain, bowing +lightly. And in a moment he was alone--alone with his triumph, his +ambition, his hopes for the future--alone with the greatness to which +his capture of Lusigny was to be the first step, and which he should +enjoy not a whit the less because as yet fortune had dealt out to him +more blows than caresses, and he was still at forty, after a score of +years of roughest service, the governor of a paltry country town. + +Meanwhile, in the darkness of the narrow streets the vicomte was +making his way to his lodgings in a state of despair and unhappiness +most difficult to describe. Chilled, sobered, and affrighted he looked +back and saw how he had thrown for all and lost all, how he had saved +the dregs of his fortune at the expense of his loyalty, how he had +seen a way of escape and lost it forever! No wonder that as he trudged +alone through the mud and darkness of the sleeping town his breath +came quickly and his chest heaved, and he looked from side to side as +a hunted animal might, uttering great sighs. Ah, if he could only have +retraced the last three hours! + +Worn out and exhausted, he entered his lodging, and, securing the door +behind him, stumbled up the stone stairs and entered his room. The +impulse to confide his misfortunes to someone was so strong upon him +that he was glad to see a dark form half sitting, half lying in a +chair before the dying embers of a wood fire. In those days a +man's natural confidant was his valet, the follower, half-friend, +half-servant, who had been born on his estate, who lay on a pallet at +the foot of his bed, who carried his _billets-doux_ and held his cloak +at the duello, who rode near his stirrup in fight and nursed him in +illness, who not seldom advised him in the choice of a wife, and lied +in support of his suit. + +The young vicomte flung his cloak over a chair. "Get up, you rascal!" +he cried impatiently. "You pig, you dog!" he continued, with +increasing anger. "Sleeping there as though your master were not +ruined by that scoundrel of a Breton! Bah!" he added, gazing bitterly +at his follower, "you are of the _canaille_, and have neither honor to +lose nor a town to betray!" + +The sleeping man moved In his chair and half turned. The vicomte, his +patience exhausted, snatched the bonnet from his head, and threw it on +the ground. "Will you listen?" he said. "Or go, if you choose look for +another master. I am ruined! Do you hear? Ruined, Gil! I have lost +all--money, land, Lusigny itself, at the dice!" + +The man, aroused at last, stooped with a lazy movement, and picking up +his hat dusted it with his hand, and rose with a yawn to his feet. + +"I am afraid, vicomte," he said, his tones, quiet as they were, +sounding like thunder in the vicomte's astonished and bewildered ears, +"I am afraid that if you have lost Lusigny, you have lost something +which was not yours to lose!" + +As he spoke he struck the embers with his foot, and the fire, blazing +up, shone on his face. The vicomte saw, with unutterable confusion and +dismay, that the man before him was not Gil at all, but the last +person in the world to whom he should have betrayed himself. The +astute smiling eyes, the aquiline nose, the high forehead, and +projecting chin, which the short beard and mustache scarcely +concealed, were only too well known to him. He stepped back with a cry +of horror. "Sire!" he said, and then his tongue failed him. He stood +silent, pale, convicted, his chin on his breast. The man to whom he +had confessed his treachery was the master whom he had conspired to +betray. + +"I had suspected something of this," Henry of Navarre continued, after +a pause, a tinge of irony in his tone. "Rosny told me that that old +fox, the Captain of Créance, was affecting your company a good deal, +M. le Vicomte, and I find that, as usual, his suspicions were well +founded. What with a gentleman who shall be nameless, who has bartered +a ford and a castle for the favor of Mlle. de Luynes, and yourself, I +am blest with some faithful followers! For shame!" he continued, +seating himself with dignity, "have you nothing to say for yourself?" + +The young noble stood with his head bowed, his face white. This was +ruin, indeed, absolutely irremediable. "Sire," he said at last, "your +Majesty has a right to my life, not to my honor." + +"Your honor!" quoth Henry, biting contempt in his tone. + +The young man started, and for a second his cheek flamed under the +well-deserved reproach; but he recovered himself. "My debt to your +Majesty," he said, "I am willing to pay." + +"Since pay you must," Henry muttered softly. + +"But I claim to pay also my debt to the Captain of Créance." + +"Oh," the king answered. "So you would have me take your worthless +life, and give up Lusigny?" + +"I am in your hands, sire." + +"Pish, sir!" Henry replied in angry astonishment. "You talk like a +child. Such an offer, M. de Lanthenon, is folly, and you know it. Now +listen to me. It was lucky for you that I came in to-night, intending +to question you. Your madness is known to me only, and I am willing to +overlook it. Do you hear? Cheer up, therefore, and be a man. You are +young; I forgive you. This shall be between you and me only," the +young prince continued, his eyes softening as the other's head +drooped, "and you need think no more of it until the day when I shall +say to you, 'Now, M. de Lanthenon, for France and for Henry, strike!'" + +He rose as the last word passed his lips, and held out his hand. The +vicomte fell on one knee, and kissed it reverently, then sprang to his +feet again. "Sire," he said, standing erect, his eyes shining, "you +have punished me heavily, more heavily than was needful. There is only +one way in which I can show my gratitude, and that is by ridding you +of a servant who can never again look your enemies in the face." + +"What new folly is this?" said Henry sternly. "Do you not understand +that I have forgiven you?" + +"Therefore I cannot give up Lusigny, and I must acquit myself of my +debt to the Captain of Créance in the only way which remains," replied +the young man, firmly. "Death is not so hard that I would not meet it +twice over rather than again betray my trust." + +"This is midsummer madness!" said the king hotly. + +"Possibly," replied the vicomte, without emotion; "yet of a kind to +which your Majesty is not altogether a stranger." + +The words appealed strongly to that love of the chivalrous which +formed part of the king's nature, and was one cause alike of his +weakness and his strength, which in its more extravagant flights gave +opportunity after opportunity to his enemies, in its nobler and saner +expressions won victories which all his astuteness and diplomacy could +not have compassed. He stood looking with half-hidden admiration at +the man whom two minutes before he had despised. + +"I think you are in jest," he said presently. + +"No, sire," the young man answered gravely. "In my country they have a +proverb about us. 'The Lanthenons,' say they, 'have ever been bad +players, but good payers.' I will not be the first to be worse than my +name!" + +He spoke with so quiet a determination that the king was staggered, +and for a minute or two paced the room in silence, inwardly reviling +the generous obstinacy of his weak-kneed supporter, yet unable to +withhold his admiration from it. At length he stopped, with a low, +abrupt exclamation. + +"Wait!" he cried. "I have it! _Ventre Saint Gris_, man, I have it!" +His eyes sparkled, and, with a gentle laugh, he hit the table a +sounding blow. "Ha! ha! I have it!" he repeated joyously. + +The young noble gazed at him in surprise, half sullen, half +incredulous. But when Henry, in low, rapid tones, had expounded his +plan, the vicomte's face underwent a change. Hope and life sprang into +it. The blood flew to his cheeks. His whole aspect softened. In a +moment he was on his knee, mumbling the king's hand, his eyes full of +joy and gratitude. After that the two talked long, the murmur of their +voices broken more than once by the ripple of low laughter. When they +at length separated, and Henry, his face hidden by the folds of his +cloak, had stolen away to his lodgings, where, no doubt, more than one +watcher was awaiting him with a mind full of anxious fears, the +vicomte threw open his window and looked out on the night. The moon +had set, but the stars still shone peacefully in the dark canopy +above. He remembered on a sudden, his throat choking with silent +repressed emotion, that he was looking toward his home--the stiff gray +pile among the beech woods of Navarre which had been in his family +since the days of St. Louis, and which he had so lightly risked. And +he registered a vow in his heart that of all Henry's servants he would +henceforth be the most faithful. + +Meanwhile the Captain of Créance was enjoying the sweets of coming +triumph. He did not look out into the night, it is true, but pacing up +and down the room he planned and calculated, considering how he might +make the most of his success. He was still comparatively young. He had +years of strength before him. He would rise. He would not easily be +satisfied. The times were troubled, opportunities many, fools many; +bold men with brains and hands few. + +At the same time he knew that he could be sure of nothing until +Lusigny was actually his, and he spent the next few days in +considerable suspense. But no hitch occurred. The vicomte made the +necessary communications to him; and men in his own pay informed him +of dispositions ordered by the governor of Lusigny which left him in +no doubt that the loser intended to pay his debt. + +It was, therefore, with a heart already gay with anticipation that the +Captain rode out of Créance two hours before midnight on an evening +eight days later. The night was dark, but he knew the road well. He +had with him a powerful force, composed in part of thirty of his own +garrison, bold, hardy fellows, and in part of six score horsemen, lent +him by the governor of Montauban. As the vicomte had undertaken to +withdraw, under some pretense or other, one-half of his command, and +to have one of the gates opened by a trusty hand, the captain trotted +along in excellent spirits, and stopped to scan with approval the dark +line of his troopers as they plodded past him, the jingle of their +swords and corselets ringing sweet music in his ears. He looked for an +easy victory; but it was not any slight misadventure that would rob +him of his prey. As his company wound on by the riverside, their +accouterments reflected in the stream, or passed into the black shadow +of the olive grove which stands a mile to the east of Lusigny, he felt +little doubt of the success of his enterprise. + +Treachery apart, that is; and of treachery there was no sign. The +troopers had scarcely halted under the last clump of trees before a +figure detached itself from one of the largest trunks, and advanced to +their leader's rein. The captain saw with surprise that it was the +vicomte himself. For a second he thought something had gone wrong, but +the young noble's first words reassured him. "It is all right," M. de +Lanthenon whispered, as the captain bent down to him. "I have kept my +word, and I think that there will be no resistance. The planks for +crossing the moat lie opposite the gate. Knock thrice at the latter, +and it will be opened. There are not fifty armed men in the place." + +"Good!" the captain answered, in the same cautious tone. "But you----" + +"I am believed, to be elsewhere, and must be gone. I have far to ride +tonight. Farewell." + +"Till we meet again," the captain answered; and with that his ally +glided away and was lost in the darkness. A cautious word set the +troop again in motion, and a very few minutes saw them standing on +the edge of the moat, the outline of the gateway tower looming above +them, a shade darker than the wrack of clouds which overhead raced +silently across the sky. A moment of suspense, while one and another +shivered--for there is that in a night attack which touches the nerves +of the stoutest--and the planks were found, and as quietly as possible +laid across the moat. This was so successfully done that it evoked no +challenge, and the captain crossing quickly with some picked men stood +almost in the twinkling of an eye under the shadow of the gateway. +Still no sound was heard save the hurried breathing of those at his +elbow or the stealthy tread of others crossing. Cautiously he knocked +three times and waited. The third rap had scarcely sounded, however, +before the gate rolled silently open, and he sprang in, followed by +his men. + +So far so good. A glance at the empty street and the porter's pale +face told him at once that the vicomte had kept his word. But he was +too old a soldier to take anything for granted, and forming up his men +as quickly as they entered, he allowed no one to advance until all +were inside, and then, his trumpet sounding a wild note of defiance, +his force sprang forward in two compact bodies and in a moment the +town awoke to find itself in the hands of the enemy. + +As the vicomte had promised, there was no resistance. In the small +keep a score of men did indeed run to arms, but only to lay them down +without striking a blow when they became aware of the force opposed to +them. Their leader, sullenly acquiescing, gave up his sword and the +keys of the town to the victorious captain, who, as he sat his horse +in the middle of the market-place, giving his orders and sending off +riders with the news, already saw himself in fancy governor of a +province and Knight of the Holy Ghost. + +As the red light of the torches fell on steel caps and polished +hauberks, on the serried ranks of pikemen, and the circle of +white-faced townsmen, the picturesque old square looked doubly +picturesque. Every five minutes, with a clatter of iron on the rough +pavement and a shower of sparks, a horseman sprang away to tell the +news at Montauban or Cahors; and every time that this occurred, the +captain, astride on his charger, felt a new sense of power and +triumph. + +Suddenly the low murmur of voices was broken by a new sound, the +hurried clang of hoofs, not departing but arriving. There was +something in the noise which made the captain prick his ears, and +secured for the messenger a speedy passage through the crowd. Even at +the last the man did not spare his horse, but spurring to the +captain's side, then and then only sprang to the ground. His face was +pale, his eyes were bloodshot. His right arm was bound up in +bloodstained cloths. With an oath of amazement, the captain recognized +the officer whom he had left in charge of Créance and thundered out, +"What is it?" + + +[Illustration: "THEY HAVE GOT CRÉANCE!"] + + +"They have got Créance!" the man gasped, reeling as he spoke. "They +have got Créance!" + +"Who?" the captain shrieked, his face purple with rage. + +"The little man of Béarn! He assaulted it five hundred strong an hour +after you left, and had the gate down before we could fire a dozen +shots. We did what we could, but we were but one to seven. I swear, +captain, we did all we could. Look at this!" + +Almost black in the face, the captain swore another frightful oath. +It was not only that he saw governorship and honors vanish like +will-o'-the-wisps, but that he saw even more quickly that he had made +himself the laughing-stock of a kingdom! And he had. To this day among +the stories which the southern French love to tell of the prowess and +astuteness of the great Henry, there is none more frequently told, or +more frequently laughed over, than that of the famous exchange of +Créance for Lusigny. + + + + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF + COURT. + + +"Eighty-eight when he died! That is a great age," I said. + +"Yes indeed. But he was a very clever man, was Robert Evans, Court, +and brewed good beer," my companion answered. "His home-brewed was +known, I am certain, for more than ten miles. You will have heard of +his body-birds, sir?" + +"His body-birds?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, to be sure. Robert Evans Court's body-birds!" And he looked at +me, quick to suspect that his English was deficient. He had learned it +in part from books; and hence the curious mixture I presently noted of +Welsh idioms and formal English phrases. It was his light trap in +which I was being helped on my journey, and his genial chat which was +lightening that journey; which lay through a part of Carnarvonshire +usually traversed only by wool merchants and cattle dealers--a country +of upland farms swept by the sea breezes, where English is not spoken +even now by one person in a hundred, and even at inns and post-offices +you get only "_Dim Sassenach_," for your answer. "Do you not say," he +went on, "body-birds in English? Oh, but to be sure, it is in the +Bible!" with a sudden recovery of his self-esteem. + +"To be sure!" I replied hurriedly. "Of course it is! But as to Mr. +Robert Evans, cannot you tell me the story?" + +"I'll be bound there is no man in North or South Wales, or +Carnarvonshire, that could tell it better, for Gwen Madoc, of whom you +shall hear presently, was aunt to me. You see Robert Evans"--and my +friend settled himself in his seat and prepared to go slowly up the +long, steep hill of Rhiw which rose before us--"Robert Evans lived in +an old house called Court, near the sea, very windy and lonesome. He +was a warm man. He had Court from his father, and he had mortgages, +and as many as four lawsuits. But he was unlucky in his family. He had +years back three sons who helped on the farm, or at times fished; for +there is a cove at Court, and good boats. Of these sons only one was +married--to a Scotchwoman from Bristol, I have heard, who had had a +husband before, a merchant captain, and she brought with her to Court +a daughter, Peggy, ready-made as we say. Well, of those three fine +men, there was not one left in a year. They were out fishing in a boat +together, and Evan--that was the married one--was steering as they +came into the cove on a spring tide running very high with a south +wind. He steered a little to one side--not more than six inches, upon +my honor--and pah! in an hour their bodies were thrown up on Robert +Evans' land just like bits of seaweed. But that was not all. Evan's +wife was on the beach at the time, so near she could have thrown a +stone into the boat. They do say that before she was pining away at +Court--it was bleak and lonesome and cold, in the winters, and she had +been used to live in the towns. But, however, she never held up her +head after Evan was drowned. She took to her bed, and died in the +short month. And then of all at Court there were left only Robert +Evans and the child Peggy." + +"How old was she then?" I asked. He had paused, and was looking +thoughtfully before, as striving, it would seem, to make the situation +quite clear to himself. + +"She was twelve, and the old man eighty and more. She was in no way +related to him, you will remember, but he had her stop, and let her +want for nothing that did not cost money. He was very careful of +money, as was right. It was that made him the man he was. But there +were some who would have given money to be rid of her. Year in and +year out they never let the old man rest but that he should send her +to service at least--though her father had been the captain of a big +ship; and if Robert Evans had not been a stiff man of his years, they +would have had their will." + +"But who----" + +By a gesture he stopped the words on my lips as there rose +mysteriously out of the silence about us a sound of wings, a chorus +of shrill cries. A hundred white forms swept overhead, and fell a +white cluster about something in a distant field. They were sea gulls. +"Just those same!" he said proudly, jerking his whip in their +direction--"body-birds. When the news that Robert Evans' sons were +drowned got about, there was a pretty uprising in Carnarvonshire. +There seemed to be Evanses where there had never been Evanses before. +As many as twenty walked in the funeral, and you may be sure that +afterward they did not leave the old man to himself. The Llewellyn +Evanses were foremost. They had had a lawsuit with Court, but made it +up now. Besides there were Mr. and Mrs. Evan Bevan, and the three +Evanses of Nant, and Owen Evans, and the Evanses of Sarn, and many +more, who were all forward to visit Court and be friendly with old +Gwen Madoc, Robert's housekeeper. I am told they could look black at +one another, but in this they were all in one tale, that the foreign +child should be sent away; and at times one and another would give her +a rough word." + +"She must have had a bad time," I observed. + +"You may say that. But she stayed, and it was wonderful how strong and +handsome she grew up, where her mother had just pined away. The +sailors said it was her love of the sea; and I have heard that people +who live inland about here come to think of nothing but the land--it +is certain that they are good at a bargain--while the fishermen who +live with a great space before them are finer men, I have heard, in +their minds as well as their bodies; and Peggy _bach_ grew up like +them, free and open and upstanding, though she lived inland. When she +was in trouble she would run down to the sea, where the salt spray +washed away her tears and the wind blew her hair, that was of the +color of seaweed, into a tangle. She was never so happy as when she +was climbing the rocks among the sea gulls, or else sitting with her +books at the cove where the farm people would not go for fear of +hearing the church bells that bring bad luck. Books? Oh, yes, indeed! +next to the sea she was fond of books. There were many volumes, I have +been told, that were her mother's; then Robert Evans, though he was a +Wesleyan, went to church because there was no Wesleyan chapel, the +Calvinistic Methodists being in strength about here; and the minister +lent her many English books and befriended her. And I have heard that +once, when the Llewellyn Evanses had been about the girl, he spoke to +them so that they were afraid to drive down Rhiw hill that night, but +led the horse; and I think it may be true, for they were Calvinists. +Still, he was a good man, and I know that many Calvinists walked in +his funeral." + +"_Requiescat in pace_," said I. + +"Eh! Well, I don't know how that may be," he replied, "but you must +understand that all this time the Llewellyn Evanses, and the Evanses +of Nant, and the others would be over at Court once or twice a week, +so that all the neighborhood called them Robert Evans' body-birds; and +when they were there Peggy McNeill would be having an ill time, since +even the old man would be hard to her; and more so as he grew older. +But, however, there was a better time coming, or so it seemed at +first, the beginning of which was through Peter Rees' lobster pots. He +was a great friend of hers. She would go out with him to take up his +pots--oh! it might be two or three times a week. So it happened one +day, when they had pushed off from the beach, and Peggy was steering, +that old Rees stopped rowing on a sudden. + +"'Why don't you go on, Peter?' said Peggy. + +"'Bide a bit,' said old Rees. + +"'What have you forgotten?' said she, looking about in the bottom of +the boat. For she knew what he used very well. + +"'Nought,' said he. But all the same he began to put the boat about in +a stupid fashion, afraid of offending her, and yet loath to lose a +shilling. And so, when Peggy looked up, what should she see but a +gentleman--whom Rees had perceived, you will understand--stepping into +the boat, and Peter Rees not daring to look her in the face because he +knew well that she would never go out with strangers. + +"Of course the young gentleman thought no harm, but said gayly, 'Thank +you! I am just in time.' And what should he do, but go aft and sit +down on the seat by her, and begin to talk to Rees about the weather +and the pots. And presently he said to her, 'I suppose you are used to +steering, my girl?' + +"'Yes,' said Peggy, but very grave and quiet-like, so that if he had +not determined that she was old Rees' daughter he would have taken +notice of it. But she was wearing a short frock that she used for the +fishing, and was wet with getting into the boat, moreover. + +"'Will you please to hold my hat a minute,' he said, and with that he +put it in her lap while he looked for a piece of string with which to +fasten it to his button. Well, she said nothing, but her cheeks were +scarlet, and by and by, when he had called her 'my girl' two or three +times more--not roughly, but just off-hand, taking her for a +fisher-girl--Peter Rees could stand it no longer, shilling or no +shilling. + +"'You mustn't speak that fashion to her, master,' he said gruffly. + +"'What?' said the gentleman, looking up. He was surprised, and no +wonder, at the tone of the man. + +"'You mustn't speak like that to Miss McNeill, Court,' repeated old +Rees more roughly than before. 'You are to understand she is not a +common girl, but like yourself.' + +"The young gentleman turned and looked at her just once, short and +sharp, and I am told that his face was as red as hers when their eyes +met. 'I beg Miss McNeill's pardon--humbly,' he said, taking off his +hat grandly, yet as if he meant it too; 'I was under a great +misapprehension.' + +"After that you may believe they did not enjoy the row much. There was +scarcely a word said by anyone until they came ashore again. The +visitor, to the great joy of Peter, who was looking for a sixpence, +gave him half a crown; and then walked away with the young lady, side +by side with her, but very stiff and silent. However, just as they +were parting, Peter could see that he said something, having his hat +in his hand the while, and that Miss Peggy, after standing and +listening, bowed as grand as might be. Upon which they separated for +that time. + +"But two things came of this; first, that everyone began to call her +Miss McNeill, Court, which was not at all to the pleasure of the +Llewellyn Evanses. And then that, whenever the gentleman, who was a +painter lodging at Mrs. Campbell's of the shop, would meet her, he +would stop and say a few words, and more as the time went on. +Presently there came some wet weather; and Mrs. Campbell borrowed for +his use books from her, which had her name within; and later he sent +for a box of books from London, and then the lending was on the other +side. So it was not long before people began to see how things were, +and to smile when the gentleman treated old Robert Evans at the Newydd +Inn. The fishermen, when he was out with them, would tack so that he +might see the smoke of Court over the cliffs; and there was no more +Peggy _bach_ to be met, either rowing with Peter Rees or running wild +among the rocks, but a very sedate young lady who yet did not seem to +be unhappy. + +"The old man was ailing in his limbs at this time, but his mind was as +clear as ever, and his grip of the land as tight. He could not bear, +now that his sons were dead, that anyone should come after him. I am +thinking that he would be taking everyone for a body-bird. Still the +family were forward with presents and such like, and helped him +perhaps about the farm; so that though there was talk in the village, +no one could say what will he would make. + + +[Illustration: "YOU HAVE BEEN COURTING."] + + +"However, one day toward winter Miss Peggy came in late from a walk, +and found the old man very cross. 'Where have you been?' he cried +angrily. Then without any warning, 'You have been courting,' he said, +'with that fine gentleman from the shop?' + +"'Well,' my lady replied, putting a brave face upon it, as was her +way, 'and what then, grandfather? I am not ashamed of it.' + +"'You ought to be!' he cried, banging his stick upon the floor. 'Do +you think that he will marry you?' + +"'Yes, I do,' she replied stoutly. 'He has told you so to-day, I +know.' + +"Robert Evans laughed, but his laugh was not a pleasant one. 'You are +right,' he said. 'He has told me. He was very forward to tell me. He +thought I was going to leave you my money. But I am not! Mind you +that, my girl.' + +"'Very well,' she answered, white and red by turns. + +"'You will remember that you are no relation of mine!' he went on +viciously, for he had grown very crabbed of late. 'And I am not +going to leave you money. He is after my money. He is nothing but a +fortune-catcher!' + +"'He is not!' she exclaimed, as hot as fire, and began to put on her +hat again. + +"'Very well! We shall see!' answered Robert Evans. 'Do you tell +him what I say, and see if he will marry you. Go! Go now, girl, and +you need not come back! You will get nothing by staying here!' he +cried, for what with his jealousy and the mention of money he was +furious--'not a penny! You had better be off at once!' + +"She did not answer for a minute or so, but she seemed to change +her mind about going, for she laid down her hat, and went about the +house place getting tea ready--and no doubt her fingers trembled a +little--until the old man cried, 'Well, why don't you go? You will get +nothing by staying.' + +"'I shall stay to take care of you all the same,' she answered +quietly. 'You need not leave me anything, and then--and then I shall +know whether you are right.' + +"'Do you mean it?' asked he sharply, after looking at her in silence +for a moment. + +"'Yes,' said she. + +"'Then it's a bargain!' cried Robert Evans--'it's a bargain!' And he +said not a word more about it, but took his tea from her and talked of +the Llewellyn Evanses, who had been to pay him a visit that day. It +seemed, however, as if the matter had upset him, for he had to be +helped to bed, and complained a good deal, neither of which things +were usual with him. + +"Well, it is not unlikely that the young lady promised herself to tell +her lover all about it next day, and looked to hear many times over +from his own lips that it was not her money he wanted. But this was +not to be, for early the next morning Gwen Madoc was at her door. + +"'You are to get up, miss,' she said. 'The master wants you to go to +London by the first train.' + +"'To London!' cried Peggy, very much astonished. 'Is he ill? Is +anything the matter, Gwen?' + +"'No,' answered the old woman very short. 'It is just that.' + +"And when the girl, having dressed hastily, came down to Robert Evans' +room, she found that this was pretty nearly all she was to learn. 'You +will go to Mrs. Richard Evans, who lives at Islington,' he said, as if +he had been thinking about it all night. 'She is my second cousin, and +will find house room for you, and make no charge. A telegram shall be +sent to her this morning. To-morrow you will take this packet to the +address upon it, and the next day a packet will be returned to you, +which you will bring back to me. I am not well to-day, and I want to +have the matter settled and off my mind, Peggy.' + +"'But could not someone else go, if you are not well?' she objected, +'and I will stop and take care of you.' + +"He grew very angry at that. 'Do as you are bidden, girl,' he said. 'I +shall see the doctor to-day, and for the rest, Gwen can do for me. I +am well enough. Do you look to the papers. Richard Evans owes me +money, and will make no charge for your living.' + +"So Miss Peggy had her breakfast, and in a wonderfully short time, as +it seemed to her, was on the way to London, with plenty of leisure on +her hands for thinking--very likely for doubting and fearing as well. +She had not seen her sweetheart, that was one thing. She had been +dispatched in a hurry, that was another. And then, to be sure, the big +town was strange to her. + +"However, nothing happened there, I may tell you. But on the third +morning she received a short note from Gwen Madoc, and suddenly rose +from breakfast with Mrs. Richard, her face very white. There was news +in the letter--news of which all the neighborhood for miles round +Court was by that time full. Robert Evans, if you will believe it, was +dead. After ailing for a few hours he had died, with only Gwen Madoc +to smooth his pillow. + +"It was late when she reached the nearest station to Court on her way +back, and found a pony trap waiting for her. She was stepping into it +when Mr. Griffith Hughes, the lawyer, saw her, and came up to speak. + +"'I am sorry to have bad news for you, Miss McNeill,' he said in a low +voice, for he was a kind man, and what with the shock and the long +journey she was looking very pale. + +"'Oh, yes!' she answered, with a sort of weary surprise; 'I know it +already. That is why I am come home--to Court, I mean.' + +"He saw that she was thinking only of Robert Evans' death, which was +not what was in his mind. 'It is about the will,' he said in a +whisper, though he need not have been so careful, for everyone in the +neighborhood had learned all about it from Gwen Madoc. 'It is a cruel +will. I would not have made it for him, my dear. He has left Court to +the Llewellyn Evanses, and the money between the Evanses of Nant and +the Evan Bevans.' + +"'It is quite right,' she answered, so calmly that he stared. 'My +grandfather explained it to me. I fully understood that I was not to +be in the will.' + +"Mr. Hughes looked more and more puzzled. 'Oh, but,' he replied, 'it +is not so bad as that. Your name is in the will. He has laid it upon +those who get the land and money to provide for you--to settle a +proper income upon you. And you may depend upon me for doing my best +to have his wishes carried out, my dear.' + +"The young lady turned very red, and raised her eyes sharply. + +"'Who are to provide for me?' she asked. + +"'The three families who divide the estate,' he said. + +"'And are they obliged to do so?' + +"'Well--no,' said he unwillingly. 'I am not sure that they are exactly +obliged. But no doubt----' + +"'I doubt very much,' she answered, taking him up with a smile. And +then she shook hands with him and drove away, leaving him wondering at +her courage. + +"Well, you may suppose it was a dreary house to which she came home. +Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was executor, had been before the Llewellyn +Evanses in taking possession, so that, besides a lad or two in the +kitchen, there were only Gwen Madoc and the servant there, and they +seemed to have very little to tell her about the death. When she had +heard what they had to say, and they were all on their way to bed, +'Gwen,' she said softly, 'I think I should like to see him.' + +"'So you shall, to-morrow, honey,' answered the old woman. 'But do you +know, _bach_, that he has left you nothing?' and she held up her +candle suddenly, so as to throw the light on the girl's tired face. + +"'Oh!' she answered, with a shudder, 'how can you talk about that +now?' But presently she had another question ready. 'Have you seen Mr. +Venmore since--since my grandfather's death, Gwen?' she asked timidly. + +"'Yes, indeed, _bach_,' answered the housekeeper. 'I met him at the +door of the shop this morning. I told him where you were, and that you +would be back tonight. And about the will, moreover.' + +"The girl stopped at her own door and snuffed her candle. Gwen Madoc +went slowly up the next flight, groaning over the steepness of the +stairs. Then she turned to say good-night. The girl was at her side +again, her eyes shining in the light of the two candles. + +"'Oh, Gwen,' she whispered breathlessly, 'didn't he say anything?' + +"'Not a word, _bach_,' answered the old woman, stroking her hair +tenderly. 'He just went into the house in a hurry.' + +"Miss Peggy went into her room much in the same way. No doubt she +would be telling herself a great many times over before she slept that +he would come and see her in the morning; and in the morning she would +be saying, 'He will come in the afternoon;' and in the afternoon, 'He +will come in the evening.' But evening came, and darkness, and still +he did not appear. Then she could endure it no longer. She let herself +out of the front door, which there was no one now to use but herself, +and with a shawl over her head ran all the way down to the shop. There +was no light in his window upstairs: but at the back door stood Mrs. +Campbell, looking after someone who had just left her. + +"The girl came, strangely shrinking at the last moment, into the ring +of light about the door. 'Why, Miss McNeill!' cried the other, +starting visibly at sight of her. 'Is it you, honey? And are you +alone?' + +"'Yes; and I cannot stop. But oh, Mrs. Campbell, where is Mr. +Venmore?' + +"'I know no more than yourself, my dear,' said the good woman +reluctantly. 'He went from here yesterday on a sudden--to take the +train, I understood.' + +"'Yesterday? When? At what time, please?' asked the young lady. There +was a fear, which she had been putting from her all day. It was +getting a footing now. + +"'Well, it would be about midday. I know it was just after Gwen Madoc +called in about the----' + +"But the girl was gone. It was not to Mrs. Campbell she could make a +moan. It was only the night wind that caught the 'Oh, cruel! cruel!' +which broke from her as she went up the hill. Whether she slept that +night at all I am not able to say. Only that when it was dawn she was +out upon the cliffs, her face very white and sad-looking. The +fishermen who were up early, going out with the ebb, saw her at times +walking fast and then standing still and looking seaward. But I do not +know what she was thinking, only I should fancy that the gulls had a +different cry for her now, and it is certain that when she had +returned and came down into the parlor at Court for the funeral, there +were none of the Evanses could look her in the face with comfort. + +"They were all there, of course. Mr. Llewellyn Evans--he was an +elderly man, with a gray beard like a bird's nest, and very thick +lips--was sitting with his wife on the horsehair sofa. The Evanses of +Nant, who were young men with lank faces and black hair combed upward, +were by the door. The Evan Bevans were at the table; and there were +others, besides Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was undoing some papers when +she entered. + +"He rose and shook hands with her, marking pitifully the dark hollows +under her eyes, and inwardly confirming his resolution to get her a +substantial settlement. Then he hesitated, looking doubtfully at the +others. 'We are going to read the will before the funeral instead of +afterward,' he said. + +"'Oh!' she answered, taken aback--for in truth she had forgotten all +about the will. 'I did not know. I will go, and come back later.' + +"'No, indeed!' cried Mrs. Llewellyn Evans, 'you had better stop and +hear the will--though no relation, to be sure.' + +"But at that moment Gwen Madoc came in, and peered round with a grim +air of importance. 'Maybe someone,' she said in a low voice, 'would +like to take a last look at the poor master?' + +"But no one moved. They sighed and shook their heads at one another as +if they would like to do so--but no one moved. They were anxious, you +see, to hear the will. Only Peggy, who had turned to go out, said, +'Yes, Gwen, I should,' and slipped out with the old woman. + +"'There is nothing to keep us now?' said Mr. Hughes briskly when the +door was closed again. And everyone nodding assent the lawyer went on +to read the will, which was not a long one. It was received with a +murmur of satisfaction, and much use of pocket-handkerchiefs. + +"'Very fair!' said Mr. Llewellyn Evans, 'He was a clever man, our old +friend.' All the legatees murmured after him 'Very fair!' and a word +went round about the home-brewed, and Robert Evans' recipe for it. +Then Llewellyn, who thought he ought to be taking the lead at Court +now, said it was about time to be going to church. + +"'There is one matter,' put in Mr. Griffith Hughes, 'which I think +ought to be settled while we are all together. You see that there is +a--what I may call a charge on the three main portions of the property +in favor of Miss McNeill.' + +"'Indeed, but what is that you are saying?' cried Llewellyn sharply. +'Do you mean that there is a rent charge?' + +"'Not exactly a rent charge,' said the lawyer. + +"'No!' cried Llewellyn with a twinkle in his eyes. 'Nor any obligation +in law, sir?' + +"'Well, no,' assented Mr. Hughes grudgingly. + +"'Then,' said Llewellyn Evans, getting up and putting his hands in his +pockets, while he winked at the others, 'we will talk of that another +time.' + +"But Mr. Hughes said, 'No!' He was a kind man, and very anxious to do +the best for the girl, but he somewhat lost his temper. 'No!' he said, +growing red. 'You will observe, if you please, Mr. Evans, that the +testator says, "Forthwith---forthwith." So that, as sole executor, it +is my duty to ask you to state your intentions now.' + +"'Well, indeed, then,' said Llewellyn, changing his face to a kind of +blank, 'I have no intentions. I think that the family has done more +than enough for the girl already.' + +"And he would say no otherwise. Nor was it to any purpose that the +lawyer looked at Mrs. Llewellyn. She was examining the furniture, and +feeling the stuffing of the sofa, and did not seem to hear. He could +make nothing of the three Evanses, Nant. They all cried, 'Yes, +indeed!' to what Llewellyn said. Only the Evan Bevans remained, and he +turned to them in despair. + +"'I am sure,' he said, addressing himself to them, 'that you will do +something to carry out the testator's wishes? Your share under the +will, Mr. Bevan, will amount to three hundred a year. This young +lady has nothing--no relations, no home. May I take it that you will +settle--say fifty pounds a year upon her? It need only be for her +life.' + +"Mr. Bevan fidgeted under this appeal. His wife answered it. +'Certainly not, Mr. Hughes. If it were twenty pounds now, once for +all, or even twenty-five--and Llewellyn and my nephews would say the +same--I think we might manage that?' + +"But Llewellyn shook his head obstinately. 'I have said I have no +intentions, and I am a man of my word!' he answered. 'Let the girl go +out to service. It is what we have always wanted her to do. Here are +my nephews. They won't mind a young housekeeper.' + +"Well, they all laughed at this except Mr. Hughes, who gathered up his +papers looking very black, and not thinking of future clients. +Llewellyn, however, did not care a bit for that, but walked to the +bell, masterful-like, and rang it. 'Tell the undertaker,' he said to +the servant, 'that we are ready.' + +"It was as if the words had been a signal, for they were followed +almost immediately by an outcry overhead and quick running upon the +stairs. The legatees looked uncomfortably at the carpet: the lawyer +was blacker than before. He said to himself, 'Now that poor child has +fainted!' The confusion seemed to last some minutes. Then the door was +opened, not by the undertaker, but by Gwen Madoc. The mourners rose +with a sigh of relief; to their surprise she passed by even Llewellyn, +and with a frightened face walked across to the lawyer. She whispered +something in his ear. + +"'What!' he cried, starting back a pace from her, and speaking so that +the wine-glasses on the table rattled again. 'Do you know what you are +saying, woman?' + +"'It is true,' she answered, half crying, 'and no fault indeed of mine +neither.' + +"Gwen added more in quick, short sentences, which the family, strain +their ears as they might, could not overhear. + +"'I will come! I will come!' cried the lawyer. He waved his hand to +them as a sign to make room for her to pass out. Then he turned to +them, a queer look upon his face; it was not triumph altogether, +for there was discomfiture and apprehension in it as well. 'You +will believe me, he said, 'that I am as much taken aback as +yourselves--that till this moment I have been honestly as much in the +dark as anyone. It seems--so I am told--that our old friend is not +dead.' + +"'What!' cried Llewellyn in his turn. 'What do you mean?' and he +raised his black-gloved hands as in refutation. + +"'What I say,' replied Mr. Hughes patiently. 'I hear--wonderful as it +sounds--that he is not dead. Something about a trance, I believe--a +mistake happily discovered in time. I tell you all I know; and however +it comes about, it is clear we ought to be glad that Mr. Robert Evans +is spared to us.' + +"With that he was glad to escape from the room. I am told that their +faces were very strange to see. There was a long silence. Llewellyn +was the first to speak: He swore a big oath and banged his great hand +upon the table. 'I don't 'believe it!' he cried. 'I don't believe it! +It is a trick!' + +"But as he spoke the door opened behind him, and he and all turned to +see what they had never thought to see, I am sure. They had come to +walk in Robert Evans' funeral; and here was the gaunt, stooping form +of Robert Evans himself coming in, with an arm of Gwen Madoc on one +side and of Miss Peggy on the other--Robert Evans beyond doubt, alive. +Behind him were the lawyer and Dr. Jones, a smile on their lips, and +three or four women half frightened, half wondering. + +"The old man was pale, and seemed to totter a little, but when the +doctor would have placed a chair for him, he declined it, and stood +gazing about him, wonderfully composed for a man just risen from his +coffin. He had all his old grim aspect as he looked upon the family. +Llewellyn's declaration was still in their ears. They could find not a +word to say either of joy or grief. + +"'Well, indeed,' said Robert, with a dry chuckle, 'have none of you a +word to throw at me? I am a ghost, I suppose? Ha!' he exclaimed, as +his eye fell on the papers which Mr. Hughes had left upon the table, +'so! so! That is why you are not overjoyed at seeing me. You have been +reading my will. Well, Llewellyn! Have not you a word to say to me now +you know for what I had got you down?' + +"At that Llewellyn found his tongue, and the others chimed in finely. +Only there was something in the old man's manner that they did not +like; and presently, when they had all told him how glad they were to +see him again--just for all the world as if he had been ill for a few +days--Robert Evans turned again to Llewellyn. + +"'You had fixed what you would do for my girl here, I suppose?' he +said, patting her shoulder gently, at which the family winced. 'It was +a hundred a year you promised to settle, you know. You will have +arranged all that.' + +"Lewellyn looked stealthily at Mr. Hughes, who was standing at +Robert's elbow, and muttered that they had not reached that stage. + +"'What?' cried the old man sharply. 'How was that?' + +"'I was intending,' Llewellyn began lamely, 'to settle----' + +"'You were intending!' Robert Evans burst forth in a voice so changed +that they all started back. 'You are a liar! You were intending to +settle nothing! I know it well! I knew it long ago! Nothing, I say! As +for you,' he went on, wheeling furiously round upon the Evanses of +Nant, 'you knew my wishes. What were you going to do for her? What, I +say? Speak, you hobbledehoys!' + +"For they were backing from him in absolute fear of his passion, +looking at one another or at the sullen face of Llewellyn Evans, or +anywhere save at him. At length the eldest blurted out, 'Whatever +Llewellyn meant to do we were going to do, sir.' + +"'You speak the truth there,' cried old Robert bitterly; 'for that was +nothing, you know. Very well! I promise you that what Llewellyn gets +of my property you shall get too--and it will be nothing! You, Bevan,' +and he turned himself toward the Evan Bevans, who were shaking in +their shoes, 'I am told, did offer to do something for my girl.' + +"'Yes, dear Robert,' cried Mrs. Bevan, radiant and eager, 'we did +indeed.' + +"'So I hear. Well, when I make my next will, I will take care to set +you down for just so much as you proposed to give her! Peggy, _bach_,' +he continued, turning from the chapfallen lady, and putting into the +girl's hands the will which the lawyer had given him, 'tear up this +rubbish! Tear it up! Now let us have something to eat in the other +room. What, Llewellyn, no appetite?' + +"But the family did not stay even to partake of the home-brewed. They +were out of the house, I am told, before the coffin and the +undertaker's men. There was big talking among them, as they went, of a +conspiracy and a lunatic asylum. But though, to be sure, it was a +wonderful recovery, and the doctor and Mr. Hughes, as they drove away +after dinner, were very friendly together--which may have been only +the home-brewed--at any rate the sole outcome of Llewellyn's talking +and inquiries was that everyone laughed very much, and Robert Evans' +name for a clever man was known beyond Carnarvon. + +"Of course it would be open house at Court that day, with plenty of +eating and drinking and coming and going. But toward five o'clock the +place grew quiet again. The visitors had gone home, and Gwen Madoc was +upstairs. The old man was sleeping in his chair opposite the settle, +and Miss Peggy was sitting on the window-seat watching him, her hands +in her lap, her thoughts far away. Maybe she was trying to be really +glad that the home, about which the cows lowed and the gulls screamed +in the afternoon stillness and made it seem home each minute, was hers +still; that she was not quite alone, nor friendless, nor poor. Maybe +she was striving not to think of the thing which had been taken from +her and could not be given back. Whatever her thoughts, she was +aroused by some sound to find her eyes full of hot tears, through +which she could dimly see that the old man was awake and looking at +her with a strange expression, which disappeared as she became aware +of it. + +"He began to speak. 'Providence has been very good to us, Peggy,' he +said, with grim meaning. 'It is well for you, my girl, that our eyes +are open to see our kind friends as they are. There is one besides +those who were here this morning that will wish he had not been so +hasty.' + +"She rose quickly and looked out of the window. 'Don't speak of him. +Let us forget him,' she pleaded, in a low tone. + +"But Robert Evans seemed to take a delight in the--well, the goodness +of Providence. 'If he had come to see you only once, when you were in +trouble,' he went on, as if he were summing up the case in his own +mind, and she were but a stick or a stone, 'we could have forgiven +him, and I would have said you were right. Or even if he had written, +eh?' + +"'Oh, yes, yes!' sobbed the girl, her tears raining down her averted +face. 'Don't torture me! You were right and I was wrong--all wrong!' + +"'Well, yes, yes! Just so. But come here, my girl,' said the old man. +'Come!' he repeated imperiously, as, surprised in the midst of her +grief, she wavered and hesitated, 'sit here,' and he pointed to the +settle opposite to him. 'Now, suppose I were to tell you he had +written, and that the letter had been--mislaid, shall we say? and come +somehow to my hands? Now, don't get excited, girl!' + +"'Oh!' cried Peggy, her hands fallen, her lips parted, her eyes wide +and frightened, her whole form rigid with questioning. + +"'Just suppose that, my dear,' continued Robert, 'and that the letter +were now before us--would you abide by its contents? Remember, he must +have much to explain. Would you let me decide whether his explanation +were satisfactory or not?" + +"She was trembling with expectation, hope. But she tried to think of +the matter calmly, to remember her lover's hurried flight, the lack of +word or message for her, her own misery. She nodded silently, and held +out her hand. + +"He drew a letter from his pocket. 'You will let me see it?' he said +suspiciously. + +"'Oh, yes!' she cried, and fled with it to the window. He watched her +while she tore it open and read first one page and then another--there +were but two, it was very short--watched her while she thrust it from +her and looked at it as a whole, then drew it to her and kissed it +again and again. + +"'Wait a bit! wait a bit!' cried he testily. 'Now, let me see it.' + +"She turned upon him almost fiercely, holding it away behind her, as +if it were some living thing he might hurt. 'He thought he would meet +me at the junction,' she stammered between laughing and crying. 'He +was going to London to see his sister--that she might take me in. And +he will be here to fetch me this evening. There! Take it!' and +suddenly remembering herself she stretched out her hand and gave him +the letter. + +"'You promised to abide by my decision, you know,' said the old man +gravely. + +"'I will not!' she cried impetuously. 'Never!' + +"'You promised,' he said. + +"'I don't care! I don't care!' she replied, clasping her hands +nervously. 'No one shall come between us.' + +"'Very well,' said Robert Evans, 'then I need not decide. But you had +better tell Owen to take the trap to the station to meet your man.'" + + + + + IN CUPID'S TOILS. + + + I. + HER STORY. + +"Clare," I said, "I wish that we had brought some better clothes, if +it were only one frock. You look the oddest figure." + +And she did. She was lying head to head with me on the thick moss that +clothed one part of the river bank above Breistolen near the Sogn +Fiord. We were staying at Breistolen, but there was no moss +thereabouts, nor in all the Sogn district, I often thought, so deep +and soft, and so dazzling orange and white and crimson as that +particular patch. It lay quite high upon the hills, and there were +great gray bowlders peeping through the moss here and there, very fit +to break your legs, if you were careless. Little more than a mile +higher up was the watershed, where our river, putting away with +reluctance a first thought of going down the farther slope toward +Bysberg, parted from its twin brother, who was thither bound with +scores upon scores of puny, green-backed fishlets; and instead, +came down our side gliding and swishing and swirling faster and +faster, and deeper and wider every hundred yards to Breistolen, full +of red-speckled yellow trout, all half a pound apiece, and very good +to eat. + +But they were not so sweet or toothsome to our girlish tastes as the +tawny-orange cloud-berries which Clare and I were eating as we lay. So +busy was she with the luscious pile we had gathered that I had to wait +for an answer. And then, "Speak for yourself," she said. "I'm sure you +look like a short-coated baby. He is somewhere up the river, too." +Munch, munch, munch! + +"Who is, you impertinent, greedy little chit?" + +"Oh, you know!" she answered. "Don't you wish you had your gray plush +here, Bab?" + +I flung a look of calm disdain at her; but whether it was the berry +juice which stained our faces that took from its effect, or the free +mountain air which papa says saps the foundations of despotism, that +made her callous, at any rate she only laughed scornfully and got +up and went off down the stream with her rod, leaving me to finish +the cloud-berries, and stare lazily up at the snow-patches on the +hillside--which somehow put me in mind of the gray plush--and follow +or not, as I liked. + +Clare has a wicked story of how I gave in to papa, and came to start +without anything but those rough clothes. She says he said--and Jack +Buchanan has told me that lawyers put no faith in anything that he +says she says, or she says he says, which proves how much truth there +is in this--that if Bab took none but her oldest clothes, and fished +all day, and had no one to run upon her errands--he meant Jack and the +others, I suppose--she might possibly grow an inch in Norway. Just as +if I wanted to grow an inch? An inch indeed! I am five feet one and a +half high, and papa, who puts me an inch shorter, is the worst +measurer in the world. As for Miss Clare, she would give all her +inches for my eyes. So there! + +After Clare left it began to be dull and chilly. When I had pictured +to myself how nice it would be to dress for dinner again, and chosen +the frock I would wear upon the first evening, I grew tired of the +snow-patches, and started up stream, stumbling and falling into holes, +and clambering over rocks, and only careful to save my rod and my +face. It was no occasion for the gray plush, but I had made up my mind +to reach a pool which lay, I knew, a little above me; having filched a +yellow-bodied fly from Clare's hat, with a view to that particular +place. + +Our river did the oddest things hereabouts--pleased to be so young, I +suppose. It was not a great churning stream of snow-water, foaming and +milky, such as we had seen in some parts--streams that affected to be +always in flood, and had the look of forcing the rocks asunder and +clearing their path, even while you watched them with your fingers in +your ears. Our river was none of these: still it was swifter than +English rivers are wont to be, and in parts deeper, and transparent as +glass. In one place it would sweep over a ledge and fall wreathed in +spray into a spreading lake of black, rock-bound water. Then it would +narrow again until, where you could almost jump across, it darted +smooth and unbroken down a polished shoot with a swoop like a +swallow's. Out of this it would hurry afresh to brawl along a gravelly +bed, skipping jauntily over first one and then another ridge of stones +that had silted up weir-wise and made as if they would bar the +channel. Under the lee of these there were lovely pools. + +To be able to throw into mine, I had to walk out along the ridge, on +which the water was shallow, yet sufficiently deep to cover my boots. +But I was well rewarded. The "forellin"--the Norse name for trout, +and as pretty as their girls' wavy fair hair--were rising so merrily +that I hooked and landed one in five minutes, the fly falling from its +mouth as it touched the stones. I hate taking out hooks. I used at one +time to leave the fly in the fish's mouth to be removed by papa at the +weighing house; until Clare pricked her tongue at dinner with an +almost new, red hackle, and was so mean as to keep it, though I +remembered then what I had done with it, and was certain it was +mine-which was nothing less than dishonest of her. + +I had just got back to my place and made a fine cast, when there +came--not the leap, and splash, and tug which announced the +half-pounder--but a deep, rich gurgle as the fly was gently sucked +under, and then a quiet, growing strain upon the line, which began to +move away down the pool in a way that made the winch spin again and +filled me with mysterious pleasure. I was not conscious of striking or +of anything but that I had hooked a really good fish, and I clutched +the rod with both hands and set my feet as tightly as I could upon the +slippery gravel. The line moved up and down, and this way and that, +now steadily and as with a purpose, and then again with an eccentric +rush that made the top of the rod spring and bend so that I looked +for it to snap each moment. My hands began to grow numb, and the +landing-net, hitherto an ornament, fell out of my waist-belt and went +I knew not whither. I suppose I must have stepped unwittingly into +deeper water, for I felt that my skirts were afloat, and altogether +things were going dreadfully against me, when the presence of an ally +close at hand was announced by a cheery shout from the far side of the +river. + +"Keep up your point! Keep up your point!" someone cried briskly. "That +is better!" + +The unexpected sound--it was a man's voice--did something to keep my +heart up. But for answer I could only shriek, "I can't! It will +break!" watching the top of my rod as it jigged up and down, very much +in the fashion of Clare performing what she calls a waltz. She dances +as badly as a man. + +"No, it will not," he cried back bluntly. "Keep it up, and let out a +little line with your fingers when he pulls hardest." + +We were forced to shout and scream. The wind had risen and was adding +to the noise of the water. Soon I heard him wading behind me. "Where's +your landing-net?" he asked, with the most provoking coolness. + +"Oh, in the pool! Somewhere about. I am sure I don't know," I answered +wildly. + +What he said to this I could not catch, but it sounded rude. And then +he waded off to fetch, as I guessed, his own net. By the time he +reached me again I was in a sad plight, feet like ice, and hands +benumbed, while the wind, and rain, and hail, which had come down upon +us with a sudden violence, unknown, it is to be hoped, anywhere else, +were mottling my face all sorts of unbecoming colors. But the line was +taut. And wet and cold went for nothing five minutes later, when the +fish lay upon the bank, its prismatic sides slowly turning pale and +dull, and I knelt over it half in pity and half in triumph, but wholly +forgetful of the wind and rain. + +"You did that very pluckily, little one," said the on-looker; "but I +am afraid you will suffer for it by and by. You must be chilled +through." + +Quickly as I looked up at him, I only met a good-humored smile. He did +not mean to be rude. And after all, when I was in such a mess, it was +not possible that he could see what I was like. He was wet enough +himself. The rain was streaming from the brim of the soft hat which he +had turned down to shelter his face, and trickling from his chin, and +turning his shabby Norfolk jacket a darker shade. As for his hands, +they looked red and knuckly enough, and he had been wading almost to +his waist. But he looked, I don't know why, all the stronger and +manlier and nicer for these things, because, perhaps, he cared for +them not one whit. What I looked like myself I dared not think. My +skirts were as short as short could be, and they were soaked; most of +my hair was unplaited, my gloves were split, and my sodden boots were +out of shape. I was forced, too, to shiver and shake from cold, which +was provoking, for I knew it made me seem half as small again. + +"Thank you, I am a little cold, Mr.---- Mr.----" I said gravely, +only my teeth would chatter so that he laughed outright as he took me +up with---- + +"Herapath. And to whom have I the honor of speaking?" + +"I am Miss Guest," I said miserably. It was too cold to be frigid to +advantage. + +"Commonly called Bab, I think," the wretch answered. "The walls of our +hut are not sound-proof, you see. But come, the sooner you get back to +dry clothes and the stove, the better, Bab. You can cross the river +just below, and cut off half a mile that way." + +"I can't," I said obstinately. Bab, indeed! How dared he? + +"Oh yes, you can," with intolerable good temper. "You shall take your +rod and I the prey. You cannot be wetter than you are now." + +He had his way, of course, since I did not foresee that at the ford he +would lift me up bodily and carry me over the deeper part without a +pretense of asking leave, or a word of apology. It was done so quickly +that I had no time to remonstrate. Still I was not going to let it +pass, and when I had shaken myself straight again, I said, with all +the haughtiness I could assume, "Don't you think, Mr. Herapath that it +would have been more--more----" + +"Polite to offer to carry you over, child? No, not at all. It will be +wiser and warmer for you to run down the hill. Come along!" + +And without more ado, while I was still choking with rage, he seized +my hands and set off at a trot, lugging me through the sloppy places +much as I have seen a nurse drag a fractious child down Constitution +Hill. It was not wonderful that I soon lost the little breath his +speech had left me, and was powerless to complain when we reached the +bridge. I could only thank Heaven that there was no sign of Clare. I +think I should have died of mortification if she had seen us come down +the hill hand-in-hand in that ridiculous fashion. But she had gone +home, and at any rate I escaped that degradation. + +A wet stool-car and wetter pony were dimly visible on the bridge; to +which, as we came up, a damp urchin creeping from some crevice added +himself. I was pushed in as if I had no will of my own, the gentleman +sprang up beside me, the boy tucked himself away somewhere behind, and +the little "teste" set off at a canter, so deceived by the driver's +excellent imitation of "Pss," the Norse for "Tchk," that in ten +minutes we were at home. + +"Well, I never!" Clare said, surveying me from a respectful distance, +when at last I was safe in our room. "I would not be seen in such a +state by a man for all the fish in the sea!" + + +[Illustration: "BAB."] + + +And she looked so tall, and trim, and neat, that it was the more +provoking. At the moment I was too miserable to answer her, and had to +find comfort in promising myself that when we were back in Bolton +Gardens I would see that Fräulein kept Miss Clare's pretty nose to the +grindstone though it were ever so much her last term, or Jack were +ever so fond of her. Papa was in the plot against me, too. What right +had he to thank Mr. Herapath for bringing "his little girl" home safe? +He can be pompous enough at times. I never knew a stout Queen's +Counsel--and papa is stout--who was not, any more than a thin one who +did not contradict. It is in their patents, I think. + +Mr. Herapath dined with us that evening--if fish and potatoes and +boiled eggs, and sour bread and pancakes, and claret and coffee can be +called a dinner--but nothing I could do, though I made the best of my +wretched frock and was as stiff as Clare herself, could alter his +first impression. It was too bad; he had no eyes! He either could not +or would not see anyone but the draggled Bab--fifteen at most and a +very tom-boy---whom he had carried across the river. He styled Clare, +who talked Baedeker to him in her primmest and most precocious way, +Miss Guest, and once at least during the evening dubbed me plain Bab. +I tried to freeze him with a look then, and papa gave him a taste of +the pompous manner, saying coldly that I was older than I seemed. But +it was not a bit of use; I could see that he set it all down to the +grand airs of a spoiled child. If I had put my hair up, it might have +opened his eyes, but Clare teased me about it and I was too proud for +that. + +When I asked him if he was fond of dancing, he said good-naturedly, "I +don't visit very much, Miss Bab. I am generally engaged in the +evening." + +Here was a chance. I was going to say that that, no doubt, was the +reason why I had never met him, when papa ruthlessly cut me short by +asking, "You are not in the law?" + +"No," he replied, "I am in the London Fire Brigade." + +I think that we all upon the instant saw him in a helmet, sitting at +the door of the fire station by St. Martin's Church. Clare turned +crimson, and papa seemed on a sudden to call his patent to mind. The +moment before I had been as angry as angry could be with our guest, +but I was not going to look on and see him snubbed when he was dining +with us and all. So I rushed into the gap as quickly as surprise would +let me with, "Good gracious, how nice! Do tell me all about a fire!" + +It made matters--my matters--worse, for I could have cried with +vexation when I read in his face next moment that he had looked for +their astonishment; while the ungrateful fellow set down my eager +remark to mere childish ignorance. + +"Some time I will," he said, with a quiet smile _de haut en bas_; "but +I do not often attend one in person. I am Captain's private secretary, +aid-de-camp, and general factotum." + +And it turned out that he was the son of a certain Canon Herapath, so +that papa lost sight of his patent box altogether, and they set to +discussing Mr. Gladstone, while I slipped off to bed, feeling as small +as I ever did in my life and out of temper with everybody. It was a +long time since I had been used to young men talking politics to papa +when they could talk--politics--to me. + +Possibly I deserved the week of vexation which followed; but it was +almost more than I could bear. He--Mr. Herapath, of--course--was +always about fishing or lounging outside the little white +posting-house, taking walks and meals with us, and seeming heartily to +enjoy papa's society. He came with us when we drove to the top of the +pass to get a glimpse of the Sulethid peak; and it looked so +brilliantly clear and softly beautiful as it seemed to float, just +tinged with color, in a far-off atmosphere of its own beyond the dark +ranges of nearer hills, that I began to think at once of the drawing +room in Bolton Gardens, with a cozy fire burning and afternoon tea +coming up. The tears came into my eyes, and he saw them before I could +turn away from the view; and said to papa that he feared his little +girl was tired as well as cold, and so spoiled all my pleasure. I +looked back afterward as papa and I drove down. He was walking by +Clare's carcole, and they were laughing heartily. + +And that was the way always. He was such an elder brother to me--a +thing I never had and do not want--that a dozen times a day I set my +teeth viciously together and said to myself that if ever we met in +London--but what nonsense that was, because, of course, it mattered +nothing to me what he was thinking, only he had no right to be so +rudely familiar. That was all; but it was quite enough to make me +dislike him. + +However, a sunny morning in the holidays is a cheerful thing, and when +I strolled down stream with my rod on the day after our expedition, I +felt I could enjoy myself very nearly as much as I had before his +coming spoiled our party. I dawdled along, now trying a pool, now +clambering up the hill-sides to pick raspberries, and now counting the +magpies that flew across, feeling altogether very placid and good and +contented. I had chosen the lower river because Mr. Herapath usually +fished the upper part, and I would not be ruffled this nice day. So I +was the more vexed to come suddenly upon him fishing; and fishing +where he had no right to be. Papa had spoken to him about the danger +of it, and he had as good as said he would not do it again. Yet there +he was, thinking, I dare say, that we should not know. It was a spot +where one bank rose into quite a cliff, frowning over a deep pool at +the foot of some falls. Close to the cliff the water still ran with +the speed of a millrace, so fast as to endanger a good swimmer. But on +the far side of this current there was a bit of slack water, which was +tempting enough to have set someone's wits to work to devise means to +fish it, which from the top of the cliff was impossible. Just above +the water was a ledge, a foot wide, perhaps, which might have done, +only it did not reach to this end of the cliff. However, that +foolhardy person had espied this, and got over the gap by bridging the +latter with a bit of plank, and then had drowned himself or gone away, +in either case leaving his board to tempt others to do likewise. + +And there was Mr. Herapath fishing from the ledge. It made me giddy to +look at him. The rock overhung the water so much that he could not +stand upright; the first person who got there must surely have learned +to curl himself up from much sleeping in Norwegian beds, which were +short for me. I thought of this oddly enough as I watched him, and +laughed, and was for going on. But when I had walked a few yards, +meaning to pass round the rear of the cliff, I began to fancy all +sorts of foolish things would happen. I felt sure that I should have +no more peace or pleasure if I left him there. I hesitated. Yes, I +would. I would go down, and ask him to leave the place; and, of +course, he would do it. + +I lost no time, but ran down the slope smartly and carelessly. My way +lay over loose shale mingled with large stones, and it was steep. It +was wonderful how quickly an accident happens; how swiftly a thing +that cannot be undone is done, and we are left wishing--oh, so +vainly--that we could put the world, and all things in it, back by a +few seconds. I was checking myself near the bottom, when a big stone +on which I stepped moved under me. The shale began to slip in a mass, +and the stone to roll. It was all done in a moment. I stayed myself, +that was easy enough, but the stone took two bounds, jumped sideways, +struck the piece of board, which was only resting lightly at either +end, and before I could take it all in the little bridge plunged end +first into the current, which swept it out of sight in an instant. + +He threw up his hands in affright, for he had turned, and we both +saw it happen. He made indeed as if he would try to save it, but +that was impossible; and then, while I cowered in dismay, he waved his +arm to me in the direction of home--again and again. The roar of the +falls drowned what he said, but I guessed his meaning. I could not +help him myself, but I could fetch help. It was three miles to +Breistolen,--rough, rocky ones,--and I doubted whether he could keep +his cramped position with that noise deafening him, and the endless +whirling stream before his eyes, while I was going and coming. But +there was no better way I could think of; and even as I wavered, he +signaled to me again imperatively. For an instant everything seemed to +go round with me, but it was not the time for that yet, and I tried to +collect myself and harden my heart. Up the bank I went steadily, and +once at the top set off at a run homeward. + +I cannot tell at all how I did it; how I passed over the uneven +ground, or whether I went quickly or slowly save by the reckoning papa +made afterward. I can only remember one long hurrying scramble; now I +panted uphill, now I ran down, now I was on my face in a hole, +breathless and half-stunned, and now I was up to my knees in water. I +slipped and dropped down places I should at other times have shrunk +from, and hurt myself so that I bore the marks for months. But I +thought nothing of these things: all my being was spent in hurrying on +for his life, the clamor of every cataract I passed seeming to stop my +heart's beating with very fear. So I reached Breistolen and panted +over the bridge and up to the little white house lying so quiet in the +afternoon sunshine, papa's stool-car even then at the door ready to +take him to some favorite pool. Somehow I made him understand in +broken words that Herapath was in danger, drowning already, for all I +knew, and then I seized a great pole which was leaning against the +porch, and climbed into the car. Papa was not slow, either; he +snatched a coil of rope from the luggage, and away we went, a man and +boy whom he had hastily called running behind us. We had lost very +little time, but so much may happen in so little time. + +We were forced to leave the car a quarter of a mile from that part of +the river, and walk or run the rest of the way. We all ran, even papa, +as I had never known him run before. My heart sank at the groan he let +escape him when I pointed out the spot. We came to it one by one. The +ledge was empty. Jem Herapath was gone. I suppose it startled me. At +any rate I could only look at the water in a dazed way and cry +quietly, without much feeling that it was my doing; while the men, +shouting to one another in strange, hushed voices, searched about for +any sign of his fate. "Jem! Jem Herapath!" So he had written his name +only yesterday in the travelers' book at the posting-house, and I had +sullenly watched him from the window, and then had sneaked to the book +and read it. That was yesterday, and now! Oh, Jem, to hear you say +"Bab" once more! + +"Bab! Why, Miss Bab, what is the matter?" + +Safe and sound! Yes, there he was when I turned, safe and strong and +cool, rod in hand and a quiet smile in his eyes. Just as I had seen +him yesterday, and thought never to see him again; and saying "Bab," +exactly as of old, so that something in my throat--it may have been +anger at his rudeness, but I do not think it was--prevented me saying +a word until all the others came around us, and a babel of Norse and +English, and something that was neither, yet both, set in. + +"But how is this?" objected my father, when he could be heard, "you +are quite dry, my boy?" + +"Dry! Why not, sir? For goodness' sake, what is the matter?" + +"The matter? Didn't you fall in, or something of the kind?" papa +asked, bewildered by this new aspect of the case. + +"It does not look like it, does it? Your daughter gave me a very +uncomfortable start by nearly doing so." + +Everyone looked at him for an explanation. "How did you manage to get +from the ledge?" I said feebly. Where was the mistake? I had not +dreamed it. + +"From the ledge? Why, by the other end, to be sure, so that I had to +walk back round the hill. Still, I did not mind, for I was thankful +that it was the plank and not you that fell in." + +"I--I thought--you could not get from the ledge," I muttered. The +possibility of getting off at the other end had never occurred to me, +and so I had made such a simpleton of myself. It was too absurd, too +ridiculous! It was no wonder that they all screamed with laughter at +the fool's errand they had come upon, and stamped about and clung to +one another. But when _he_ laughed too,--and he did until the tears +came into his eyes,--there was not an ache or pain in my body--and I +had cut my wrist to the bone against a splinter of rock--that hurt me +one-half as much. Surely _he_ might have seen another side to it. But +he did not; and so I managed to hide my bandaged wrist from him, and +papa drove me home. There I broke down entirely, and Clare put me to +bed and petted me, and was very good to me. And when I came down next +day, with an ache in every part of me, he was gone. + +"He asked me to tell you," said Clare, not looking up from the fly she +was tying at the window, "that he thought you were the bravest girl he +had ever met." + +So he understood now, when others had explained it to him. "No, +Clare," I said coldly; "he did not say that exactly. He said, 'the +bravest little girl.'" For, indeed, lying upstairs with the window +open, I had heard him set off on his long drive to Laerdalsören. As +for papa, he was half-proud and half-ashamed of my foolishness, and +wholly at a loss to think how I could have made the mistake. + +"You've generally some common sense, my dear," he said that day at +dinner, "and how in the world you could have been so ready to fancy +the man in danger, I--can--not--imagine!" + +"Papa," put in Clare suddenly, "your elbow is upsetting the salt." + +And as I had to move my seat just then to avoid the glare of the +stove, which was falling on my face, we never thought it out. + + + II. + HIS STORY. + +I was not dining out much at that time, partly because my acquaintance +in town was limited, and somewhat too because I cared little for it. +But these were pleasant people, the old gentleman witty and amusing, +the children, lively girls, nice to look at and good to talk with. The +party had too a holiday flavor about them wholesome to recall in +Scotland Yard: and as I had thought, playtime over, I should see no +more of them, I was proportionately pleased to find that Mr. Guest had +not forgotten me, and pleased also--shrewdly expecting that we might +kill our fish over again--to regard his invitation to dinner at a +quarter to eight as a royal command. + +But if I took it so, I was sadly wanting in the regal courtesy to +match. What with one delay owing to work that would admit of none, +and another caused by a cabman strange to the ways of town, it was +twenty-five minutes after the hour named when I reached Bolton +Gardens. A stately man, so like the Queen's Counsel that it was plain +upon whom the latter modeled himself, ushered me straight into the +dining room, where Guest greeted me very kindly, and met my excuses by +apologies on his part--for preferring, I suppose, the comfort of +eleven people to mine. Then he took me down the table, and said, "My +daughter," and Miss Guest shook hands with me and pointed to the chair +at her left. I had still, as I unfolded my napkin, to say "Clear, if +you please," and then I was free to turn and apologize to her; being a +little shy, and, as I have said, a somewhat infrequent diner out. + +I think that I never saw so remarkable a likeness--to her younger +sister--in my life. She might have been little Bab herself, but for +her dress and some striking differences. Miss Guest could not be more +than eighteen, in form almost as fairy-like as the little one, with +the same child-like, innocent look on her face. She had the big gray +eyes, too, that were so charming in Bab; but in her they were more +soft and tender and thoughtful, and a thousand times more charming. +Her hair too was brown and wavy: only, instead of hanging loose or in +a pig-tail, anywhere and anyhow, in a fashion I well remembered, it +was coiled in a coronal on the shapely little head, that was so Greek, +and in its gracious, stately, old-fashioned pose, so unlike Bab's. Her +dress, of some creamy, gauzy stuff, revealed the prettiest white +throat in the world, and arms decked in pearls, and, so far, no more +recalled my little fishing-mate than the sedate self-possession and +assured dignity of this girl, as she talked to her other neighbor, +suggested Bab making pancakes and chattering with the landlady's +children in her strangely and wonderfully acquired Norse. It was not +Bab in fact: and yet it almost might have been: an etherealized, +queenly, womanly Bab--who presently turned to me: + +"Have you quite settled down after your holiday?" she asked, staying +the apologies I was for pouring into her ear. + +"I had until this evening, but the sight of your father is like a +breath of fiord air. I hope your sisters are well." + +"My sisters?" she murmured wonderingly, her fork halfway to her pretty +mouth and her attitude one of questioning. + +"Yes," I said, rather puzzled. "You know they were with your father +when I had the good fortune to meet him. Miss Clare and Bab." + +"Eh?" dropping her fork on the plate with a great clatter. + +"Yes, Miss Guest; Miss Clare and Miss Bab." + +I really began to feel uncomfortable. Her color rose, and she looked +me in the face in a half-proud, half-fearful way as if she resented +the inquiry. It was a relief to me, when, with some show of confusion, +she at length stammered, "Oh, yes, I beg your pardon, of course they +were! How very foolish of me! They are quite well, thank you," and so +was silent again. But I understand now. Mr. Guest had omitted to +mention my name, and she had taken me for someone else of whose +holiday she knew. I gathered from the aspect of the table and the room +that the Guests saw a good deal of company, and it was a very natural +mistake, though by the grave look she bent upon her plate it was clear +that the young hostess was taking herself to task for it: not without, +if I might judge from the lurking smile at the corners of her mouth, a +humorous sense of the slip, and perhaps of the difference between +myself and the gentleman whose part I had been unwittingly supporting. +Meanwhile I had a chance of looking at her unchecked; and thought of +Dresden china, she was so frail and pretty. + +"You were nearly drowned, or something of the kind, were you not?" she +asked, after an interval during which we had both talked to others. + +"Well, not precisely. Your sister fancied I was in danger, and behaved +in the pluckiest manner--so bravely that I can almost feel sorry that +the danger was not there to dignify her heroism." + +"That was like her," she answered, in a tone just a little scornful. +"You must have thought her a terrible tomboy." + +While she was speaking there came one of those terrible lulls in the +talk, and Mr. Guest, overhearing, cried: "Who is that you are abusing, +my dear? Let us all share in the sport. If it's Clare, I think I can +name one who is a far worse hoyden upon occasion." + +"It is no one of whom you have ever heard, papa," she answered archly. +"It is a person in whom Mr.--Mr. Herapath"--I had murmured my name as +she stumbled--"and I are interested. Now, tell me, did you not think +so?" she murmured graciously, leaning the slightest bit toward me, and +opening her eyes as she looked into mine in a way that to a man who +had spent the day in a dusty room in Great Scotland Yard was +sufficiently intoxicating. + +"No," I said, lowering my voice in imitation of hers. "No, Miss Guest, +I did not think so at all. I thought your sister a brave little +thing--rather careless, as children are apt to be, but likely to grow +into a charming girl." + +I wondered, marking how she bit her lip and refrained from assent, +whether, impossible as it must seem to anyone looking in her face, +there might not be something of the shrew about my beautiful neighbor. +Her tone, when she spoke of her sister, seemed to import no great good +will. + +"So that is your opinion?" she said, after a pause. "Do you know," +with a laughing glance, "that some people think I am like her?" + +"Yes?" I answered gravely. "Well, I should be able to judge, who have +seen you both and yet am not an old friend. And I think you are both +like and unlike. Your sister has very beautiful eyes"--she lowered +hers swiftly--"and hair like yours, but her manner and style were very +different. I can no more fancy Bab in your place than I can picture +you, Miss Guest, as I saw her for the first time--and on many after +occasions," I added, laughing as much to cover my own hardihood as at +the queer little figure I had conjured up. + +"Thank you,' Mr. Herapath," she replied with coldness, though she had +blushed darkly to her ears. "That, I think, must be enough of +compliments for to-night--as you are not an old friend." And she +turned away, leaving me to curse my folly in saying so much, when our +acquaintance was as yet in the bud, and as susceptible to overwarmth +as to a temperature below zero. + +A moment later the ladies left us. The flush I had brought to her +cheek still lingered there, as she swept past me with a wondrous show +of dignity in one so young. Mr. Guest came down and took her place, +and we talked of the "land of berries," and our adventures there, +while the rest--older friends--listened indulgently or struck in from +time to time with their own biggest fish and deadliest flies. + +I used to wonder why women like to visit dusty chambers; why they get +more joy--I am fain to think they do--out of a scrambling tea up three +pairs of stairs in Pump Court, than from the very same materials--and +comfort withal--in their own house. I imagine it is for the same +reason that the bachelor finds a singular charm in a lady's drawing +room, and there, if anywhere, sees her with a reverent mind--a charm +and a subservience which I felt to the full in the Guests' drawing +room--a room rich in subdued colors and a cunning blending of luxury +and comfort. Yet it depressed me. I felt alone. Mr. Guest had passed +on to others and I stood aside, the sense that I was not of these +people troubling me in a manner as new as it was absurd: for I had +been in the habit of rather despising "society." Miss Guest was at the +piano, the center of a circle of soft light, which showed up also a +keen-faced, dark-whiskered man leaning over her with the air of one +used to the position. Everyone else was so fully engaged that I may +have looked, as well as felt, forlorn, and meeting her eyes could have +fancied she was regarding me with amusement--almost triumph. It must +have been mere fancy, bred of self-consciousness, for the next moment +she beckoned me to her, and said to her cavalier: + +"There, Jack; Mr. Herapath is going to talk to me about Norway now, so +that I don't want you any longer. Perhaps you won't mind stepping up +to the schoolroom--Fräulein and Clare are there--and telling Clare, +that--that--oh, anything!" + +There is no piece of ill-breeding so bad to my mind as for a man who +is at home in a house to flaunt his favor in the face of other guests. +That young lawyer's manner as he left her, and the smile of perfect +intelligence which passed between them were such a breach of good +manners as would have ruffled anyone. They ruffled me--yes, me, +although it was no concern of mine what she called him, or how he +conducted himself--so that I could do nothing but stand by the piano +and sulk. One bear makes another, you know. + +She did not speak, and I, content to watch the slender hands stealing +over the keys, would not, until my eyes fell upon her right wrist. She +had put off her bracelets and so disclosed a scar upon it, something +about which--not its newness--so startled me that I said abruptly, +"That is very strange! Pray tell me how you did it!" + +She looked up, saw what I meant, and, stopping hastily, put on her +bracelets; to all appearance so vexed by my thoughtless question, and +anxious to hide the mark, that I was quick to add humbly, "I asked +because your sister hurt her wrist in nearly the same place on the day +when she thought I was in trouble, and the coincidence struck me." + +"Yes, I remember," looking at me I thought with a certain suspicion, +as though she were not sure that I was giving the right motive. "I did +this much in the same way. By falling, I mean. Isn't it a hateful +disfigurement?" + +No, it was no disfigurement. Even to her, with a woman's love of +conquest, it must have seemed anything but a disfigurement had she +known what the quiet, awkward man at her side was thinking, who stood +looking shyly at it and found no words to contradict her, though she +asked him twice, and thought him stupid enough. A great longing to +kiss that soft, scarred wrist was on me--and Miss Guest had added +another to the number of her slaves. I don't know now why that little +scar should have so touched me any more than I then could guess why, +being a commonplace person, I should fall in love at first sight, and +feel no surprise at my condition, only a half consciousness (seeming +fully to justify it) that in some former state of being I had met my +love, and read her thoughts, and learned her moods, and come to know +the bright womanly spirit that looked from her frank eyes as well as +if she were an old, old friend. And so vivid was this sensation, that +once or twice, then and afterward, when I would meet her glance, +another name than hers trembled on my tongue and passed away before I +could shape it into sound. + +After an interval, "Are you going to the Goldmaces' dance?" + +"No," I answered her humbly. "I go out so little." + +"Indeed," with an odd smile not too kindly; "I wish--no, I don't--that +we could say the same. We are engaged, I think"--she paused, her +attention divided between myself and Boccherini's minuet, the low +strains of which she was sending through the room--"for every +afternoon--this week--except Saturday. By the way, Mr. Herapath--do +you remember what was the name--Bab told me you teased her with?" + +"Wee bonnie Bab," I answered absently. My thoughts had gone forward to +Saturday. We are always dropping to-day's substance for the shadow of +tomorrow; like the dog--a dog was it not?--in the fable. + +"Oh, yes, wee bonnie Bab," she murmured softly. "Poor Bab!" and +suddenly cut short Boccherini's music and our chat by striking a +terrific discord and laughing merrily at my start of discomfiture. +Everyone took it as a signal to leave. They all seemed to be going to +meet her again next day, or the day after that; they engaged her for +dances, and made up a party for the law courts, and tossed to and fro +a score of laughing catchwords, that were beyond my comprehension. +They all did this, except myself. + +And yet I went away with something before me--that call upon Saturday +afternoon. Quite unreasonably I fancied I should see her alone. And so +when the day came and I stood outside the opening door of the drawing +room, and heard voices and laughter within, I was hurt and aggrieved +beyond measure. There was quite a party, and a merry one, assembled, +who were playing at some game as it seemed to me, for I caught sight +of Clare whipping off an impromptu bandage from her eyes, and striving +by her stiffest air to give the lie to a pair of flushed cheeks. The +black-whiskered man was there, and two men of his kind, and a German +governess, and a very old lady in a wheel-chair, who was called +"grandmamma," and Miss Guest herself looking, in the prettiest dress +of silvery plush, to the full as bright and fair and graceful as I had +been picturing her each hour since we parted. + +She dropped me a stately courtesy. "Will you play the part of Miss +Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, Mr. Herapath, while I act honest +Burchell, and say 'Fudge!' or will you burn nuts and play games with +neighbor Flamborough? You will join us, won't you? Clare does not so +misbehave every day, only it is such a wet afternoon and so cold and +wretched, and we did not think there would be any more callers--and +tea will be up in five minutes." + +She did not think there would be any more callers! Something in her +smile belied the words and taught me that she had thought--she had +known--that there would be one more caller--one who would burn nuts +and play games with her, though Rome itself were afire, and Tooley +Street and the Mile End Road to boot. + +It was a simple game enough, and not likely, one would say, to afford +much risk of that burning the fingers which gave a zest to the Vicar +of Wakefield's nuts. One sat in the middle blind-folded, while the +rest disguised their own or assumed each other's voices, and spoke one +by one some gibe or quip at his expense. When he succeeded in naming +the speaker, the detected satirist put on the poke, and in his turn +heard things good--if he had a conceit of himself--for his soul's +health. Now this _rôle_ unhappily soon fell to me, and proved a +heavy one, because I was not so familiar with the other's voices as +were the rest; and Miss Guest--whose faintest tones I thought to have +known--had a wondrous knack of cheating me, now taking off Clare's +voice, and now--after the door had been opened to admit the tea--her +father's. So I failed again and again to earn my release. But when a +voice behind me cried with well-feigned eagerness: + +"How nice! Do tell me all about a fire!" + +Though no fresh creaking of the door had reached me, nor warning been +given of an addition to the players, I had not the smallest doubt who +was the speaker; but exclaimed at once, "That is Bab' Now I cry you +mercy. I am right this time. That was Bab!" + +I looked for a burst of applause and laughter, such as had before +attended a good thrust home, but none came. On the contrary, with my +words so odd a silence fell upon the room that it was clear that +something was wrong, and I pulled off my handkerchief in haste, +repeating, "That was Bab, I am sure." + +But if it was, I could not see her. What had come over them all? +Jack's face wore a provoking smile, and his friends were clearly bent +upon sniggering. Clare looked horrified, and grandmamma gently +titillated, while Miss Guest, who had risen and half turned away +toward the windows, seemed to be in a state of proud confusion. What +was the matter? + +"I beg everyone's pardon by anticipation," I said, looking round in a +bewildered way, "but have I said anything wrong?" + +"Oh, dear no!" cried the fellow they called Jack, with a familiarity +that was in the worst taste--as if I had meant to apologize to him! +"Most natural thing in the world!" + +"Jack, how dare you!" exclaimed Miss Guest, stamping her foot. + +"Well, it seemed all right. It sounded very natural, I am sure." + +"Oh, you are unbearable! Why don't you say something, Clare?" + +"Mr. Herapath, I am sure that you did not know that my name was +Barbara." + +"Certainly not," I cried. "What a strange thing!" + +"But it is, and that is why grandmamma is looking so shocked, and Mr. +Buchanan is wearing threadbare an old friend's privilege of being +rude. I freely forgive you if you will make allowance for him. And you +shall come off the stool of repentance and have your tea first, since +you are the greatest stranger. It is a stupid game, after all!" + +She would hear no apologies from me. And when I would have asked why +her sister bore the same name, and thus excused myself, she was intent +upon tea-making, and the few moments I could with decency add to my +call gave me scant opportunity. I blush to think how I eked them out, +by what subservience to Clare, by what a slavish anxiety to help even +Jack to muffins--each piece I hoped might choke him. How slow I was to +find hat and gloves, calling to mind with terrible vividness, as I +turned my back upon the circle, that again and again in my experience +an acquaintance begun by a dinner had ended with the consequent call. +And so I should have gone--it might have been so here--but that the +door-handle was stiff, and Miss Guest came to my aid as I fumbled with +it. "We are always at home on Saturdays, if you like to call, Mr. +Herapath," she murmured carelessly, not lifting her eyes--and I found +myself in the street. + +So carelessly she said it that, with a sudden change of feeling, I +vowed I would not call. Why should I? Why should I worry myself with +the sight of those other fellows parading their favor? With the babble +of that society chit-chat, which I had so often scorned, and--and +still scorned, and had no part or concern in. They were not people to +suit me or do me good. I would not go, I said, and repeated it firmly +on Monday and Tuesday; on Wednesday only so far modified it that I +thought at some distant time to leave a card--to avoid discourtesy; on +Friday preferred an earlier date as wiser and more polite, and on +Saturday walked shame-faced down the street, and knocked and rang and +went upstairs--to taste a pleasant misery. Yes, and on the next +Saturday too, and the next, and the next; and that one on which we +all went to the theater, and that other one on which Mr. Guest kept +me to dinner. Aye, and on other days that were not Saturdays, among +which two stand high out of the waters of forgetfulness--high days, +indeed--days like twin pillars of Hercules, through which I thought to +reach, as did the seamen of old, I knew not what treasures of unknown +lands stretching away under the setting sun. First that one on which I +found Barbara Guest alone and blurted out that I had the audacity to +wish to make her my wife; and then heard, before I had well--or +badly--told my tale, the wheels of grandmamma's chair outside. + +"Hush!" the girl said, her face turned from me. "Hush, Mr. Herapath! +You don't know me, indeed. You have seen so little of me. Please say +nothing more about it. You are completely under a delusion." + +"It is no delusion that I love you, Barbara!" I cried. + +"It is! it is!" she repeated, freeing her hand. "There, if you will +not take an answer--come--come at three to-morrow. But mind, I promise +you nothing--I promise nothing," she added feverishly, and fled from +the room, leaving me to talk to grandmamma as best, and escape as +quickly as, I might. + +I longed for a great fire that evening, and, failing one, tired myself +by tramping unknown streets of the East End, striving to teach myself +that any trouble to-morrow might bring was but a shadow, a sentiment, +a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath with the want and toil +of which I caught glimpses up each street and lane that opened to +right and left. In the main, of course, I failed; but the effort +did me good, sending me home tired out, to sleep as soundly as if I +were going to be hanged next day, and not--which is a very different +thing--to be put upon my trial. + +"I will tell Miss Guest you are here, sir," the man said. I looked at +all the little things in the room which I had come to know well--her +work basket, the music upon the piano, the table easel, her +photograph, and wondered if I were to see them no more, or if they +were to become a part of my everyday life. Then I heard her come in, +and turned quickly, feeling that I should learn my fate from her +greeting. + +"Bab!" The word was wrung from me perforce. And then we stood and +looked at one another, she with a strange pride and defiance in her +eyes, though her cheek was dark with blushes, and I with wonder and +perplexity in mine. Wonder and perplexity that quickly grew into a +conviction, a certainty that the girl standing before me in the +short-skirted brown dress with tangled hair and loose neck-ribbon was +the Bab I had known in Norway; and yet that the eyes--I could not +mistake them now, no matter what unaccustomed look they might +wear--were Barbara Guest's! + +"Miss Guest--Barbara," I stammered, grappling with the truth, "why +have you played this trick upon me?" + +"It is Miss Guest and Barbara now," she cried, with a mocking +courtesy. "Do you remember, Mr. Herapath, when it was Bab? When you +treated me as a kind of toy and a plaything, with which you might be +as intimate as you liked; and hurt my feelings--yes, it is weak to +confess it, I know--day by day and hour by hour?" + +"But, surely, that is forgiven now?" I said, dazed by an attack so +sudden and so bitter. "It is atonement enough that I am at your feet +now, Barbara!" + +"You are not," she retorted hotly. "Don't say you have offered love to +me, who am the same with the child you teased at Breistolen. You have +fallen in love with my fine clothes and my pearls and my maid's work, +not with me! You have fancied the girl you saw other men make much of. +But you have not loved the woman who might have prized that which Miss +Guest has never learned to value." + +"How old are you?" I said hoarsely. + +"Nineteen!" she snapped out. And then for a moment we were both +silent. + +"I begin to understand now," I answered slowly as soon as I could +conquer something in my throat. "Long ago, when I hardly knew you, I +hurt your woman's pride; and since that you have plotted----" + +"No, you have tricked yourself!" + +"And schemed to bring me to your feet that you might have the pleasure +of trampling on me. Miss Guest, your triumph is complete, more +complete than you are able to understand. I loved you this morning +above all the world--as my own life--as every hope I had. See, I tell +you this that you may have a moment's keener pleasure when I am gone." + +"Don't! Don't!" she cried, throwing herself into a chair and covering +her face. + +"You have won a man's heart and cast it aside to gratify an old pique. +You may rest content now, for there is nothing wanting to your +vengeance. You have given me as much pain as a woman, the vainest and +the most heartless, can give a man. Good-by." + +And with that I was leaving her, fighting my own pain and passion, so +that the little hands she raised as though they would ward off my +words were nothing to me. I felt a savage delight in seeing that I +could hurt her, which deadened my own grief. The victory was not; all +with her lying there sobbing. Only where was my hat? Let me get my hat +and go. Let me escape from this room wherein every trifle upon which +my eye rested awoke some memory that was a pang. Let me get away, and +have done with it all. + +Where was the hat? I had brought it up. I could not go without it. It +must be under her chair, by all that was unlucky, for it was nowhere +else. I could not stand and wait, and so I had to go up to her, with +cold words of apology upon my lips, and being close to her and seeing +on her wrist, half hidden by fallen hair, the scar she had brought +home from Norway, I don't know how it was that I fell on my knees by +her and cried: + +"Oh, Bab, I loved you so! Let us part friends." + +For a moment, silence. Then she whispered, her hand in mine: "Why did +you not say Bab to begin? I only told you that Miss Guest had not +learned to value your love." + +"And Bab?" I murmured, my brain in a whirl. + +"Learned long ago, poor girl!" + +And the fair, tear-stained face of my tyrant looked into mine for a +moment, and then came quite naturally to its resting place. + +"Now," she said, when I was leaving, "you may have your hat, sir." + +"I believe," I replied, "that you sat upon this chair on purpose." + +And Bab blushed. I believe she did. + + + + + THE DRIFT OF FATE. + + +On a certain morning in last June I was stooping to fasten a shoelace, +having taken advantage for the purpose of the step of a corner house +in St. James' Square, when a man passing behind me stopped. + +"Well!" said he aloud, after a short pause during which I wondered--I +could not see him--what he was doing, "the meanness of these rich folk +is disgusting! Not a coat of paint for a twelvemonth! I should be +ashamed to own a house and leave it like that!" + +The man was a stranger to me, and his words seemed as uncalled for as +they were ill-natured. But being thus challenged I looked at the +house. It was a great stone mansion with a balustrade atop, with many +windows and a long stretch of area railings. And, certainly it was +shabby. I turned from it to the critic. He was shabby, too--a little +red-nosed man, wearing a bad hat. "It is just possible," I suggested, +"that the owner may be a poor man and unable to keep it in order." + +"Ugh! What has that to do with it?" my new friend answered +contemptuously. "He ought to think of the public." + +"And your hat?" I asked, with wining politeness. "It strikes me, an +unprejudiced observer, as a bad hat. Why do you not get a new one?" + +"Cannot afford it!" he snapped out, his dull eyes sparkling with rage. + +"Cannot afford it? But, my good man, you ought to think of the +public." + +"You tom-cat! What have you to do with my hat? Smother you!" was his +kindly answer; and he went on his way muttering things uncomplimentary. + +I was about to go mine, and was first falling back to gain a better +view of the house in question, when a chuckle close to me betrayed the +presence of a listener, a thin, gray-haired man, who, hidden by a +pillar of the porch, must have heard our discussion. His hands were +engaged with a white tablecloth, from which he had been shaking the +crumbs. He had the air of an upper servant of the best class. As our +eyes met he spoke. + +"Neatly put, sir, if I may take the liberty of saying so," he observed +with a quiet dignity it was a pleasure to witness, "and we are very +much obliged to you. The man was a snob, sir." + +"I am afraid he was," I answered; "and a fool too." + +"And a fool, sir. Answer a fool after his folly. You did that, and he +was nowhere; nowhere at all, except in the swearing line. Now might I +ask," he continued, "if you are an American, sir?" + +"No, I am not," I answered; "but I have spent some time in the +States." + +I could have fancied that he sighed. + +"I thought--but never mind, sir," he began, "I was wrong, It is +curious how very much alike gentlemen, that are real gentlemen, speak. +Now, I dare swear, sir, that you have a taste for pictures." + +I was inclined to humor the old fellow's mood. "I like a good picture, +I admit," I said. + +"Then perhaps you would not be offended if I asked you to step inside +and look at one or two," he suggested timidly. "I would not take a +liberty, sir, but there are some Van Dycks and a Rubens in the dining +room that cost a mint of money in their day, I have heard; and there +is no one else in the house but my wife and myself." + +It was a strange invitation, strangely brought about. But I saw no +reason for myself why I should not accept it, and I followed him into +the hall. It was spacious, but sparsely furnished. The matted floor +had a cold look, and so had the gaunt stand which seemed to be a +fixture, and boasted but one umbrella, one sunshade, and one dog-whip. +As I passed a half-open door I caught a glimpse of a small room +prettily furnished, with dainty prints and water-colors on the walls. +But these were of a common order. A dozen replicas of each and all +might be seen in a walk through Bond Street. Even this oasis of taste +and comfort told the same story as had the bare hall and dreary +exterior; and laid, as it were, a finger on one's heart. I trod softly +as I followed my guide along the strip of matting toward the rear of +the house. + +He opened a door at the inner end of the hall, and led me into a large +and lofty room, built out from the back, as a state dining room or +ballroom. At present it rather resembled the latter, for it was +without furniture. "Now," said the old man, turning and respectfully +touching my sleeve to gain my attention, "now you will not consider +your labor lost in coming to see that, sir. It is a portrait of the +second Lord Wetherby by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and is judged to be one +of the finest specimens of his style in existence." + +I was lost in astonishment; amazed, almost appalled! My companion +stood by my side, his face wearing a placid smile of satisfaction, his +hand pointing slightly upward to the blank wall before us. The blank +wall! Of any picture, there or elsewhere in the room, there was no +sign. I turned to him and then from him, and I felt very sick at +heart. The poor old fellow was--must be--mad. I gazed blankly at the +blank wall. "By Van Dyck?" I repeated mechanically. + +"Yes, sir, by Van Dyck," he replied, in the most matter-of-fact +tone imaginable. "So, too, is this one;" he moved, as he spoke, a few +feet to his left. "The second peer's first wife in the costume of a +lady-in-waiting. This portrait and the last are in as good a state of +preservation as on the day they were painted." + +Oh, certainly mad! And yet so graphic was his manner, so crisp and +realistic were his words, that I rubbed my eyes; and looked and looked +again, and almost fancied that Lord Walter and Anne, his wife, grew +into shape before me on the wall. Almost, but not quite; and it was +with a heart full of wondering pity that I accompanied the old man, in +whose manner there was no trace of wildness or excitement, round the +walls; visiting in turn the Cuyp which my lord bought in Holland, the +Rubens, the four Lawrences, and the Philips--a very Barmecide feast of +art. I could not doubt that the old man saw the pictures. But I saw +only bare walls. + +"Now I think you have seen them, family portraits and all," he +concluded, as we came to the doorway again; stating the fact, which +was no fact, with complacent pride. "They are fine pictures, sir. +They, at least, are left, although the house is not what it was." + +"Very fine pictures!" I remarked. I was minded to learn if he were +sane on other points. "Lord Wetherby," I said; "I should suppose that +he is not in London?" + +"I do not know, sir, one way or the other," the servant answered with +a new air of reserve. "This is not his lordship's house. Mrs. Wigram, +my late lord's daughter-in-law, lives here." + +"But this is the Wetherbys' town house," I persisted. I knew so much. + +"It was my late lord's house. At his son's marriage it was settled +upon Mrs. Wigram; and little enough besides, God knows!" he exclaimed +querulously. "It was Mr. Alfred's wish that some land should be +settled upon his wife, but there was none out of the entail, and my +lord, who did not like the match, though he lived to be fond enough of +the mistress afterward, said, 'Settle the house in town!' in a bitter +kind of joke like. So the house was settled, and five hundred pounds a +year. Mr. Alfred died abroad, as you may know, sir, and my lord was +not long in following him." + +He was closing the shutters of one window after another as he spoke. +The room had sunk into deep gloom. I could imagine now that the +pictures were really where he fancied them. "And Lord Wetherby, the +late peer?" I asked, after a pause, "did he leave his daughter-in-law +nothing?" + +"My lord died suddenly, leaving no will," he replied sadly. "That +is how it all is. And the present peer, who was only a second +cousin--well, I say nothing about him." A reticence which was well +calculated to consign his lordship to the lowest deep. + +"He did not help?" I asked. + +"Devil a bit, begging your pardon, sir. But there--it is not my place +to talk of these things. I doubt I have wearied you with talk about +the family. It is not my way," he added, as if wondering at himself, +"only something in what you said seemed to touch a chord like." + +By this time we were outside the room, standing at the inner end of +the hall, while he fumbled with the lock of the door. Short passages +ending in swing doors ran out right and left from this point, and +through one of these a tidy, middle-aged woman, wearing an apron, +suddenly emerged. At sight of me she looked greatly astonished. "I +have been showing the gentleman the pictures," said my guide, who was +still occupied with the door. + +A quick flash of pain altered and hardened the woman's face. "I have +been very much interested, madam," I said softly. + +Her gaze left me, to dwell upon the old man with infinite affection. +"John had no right to bring you in, sir," she said primly. "I have +never known him do such a thing before, and--Lord 'a' mercy! there is +the mistress's knock. Go, John, and let her in; and this gentleman," +with an inquisitive look at me, "will not mind stepping a bit aside, +while her ladyship goes upstairs." + +"Certainly not," I answered. I hastened to draw back into one of the +side passages, into the darkest corner of it, and there stood leaning +against the cool panels, my hat in my hand. + +In the short pause which ensued before John opened the door she +whispered to me, "You have not told him, sir?" + +"About the pictures?" + +"Yes, sir. He is blind, you see." + +"Blind?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, sir, this year and more; and when the pictures were taken +away--by the present earl--that he had known all his life, and +been so proud to show to people just the same as if they had been his +own--why, it seemed a shame to tell him. I have never had the heart to +do it, and he thinks they are there to this day." + +Blind! I had never thought of that; and while I was grasping the idea +now, and fitting it to the facts, a light footstep sounded in the hall +and a woman's voice on the stairs; such a voice and such a footstep, +that, as it seemed to me, a man, if nothing else were left to him, +might find home in them alone. "Your mistress," I said presently, when +the sounds had died away upon the floor above, "has a sweet voice; but +has not something annoyed her?" + + +[Illustration: "LORD 'A' MERCY! THERE IS THE MISTRESS'S KNOCK."] + + +"Well, I never should have thought that you would have noticed that!" +exclaimed the housekeeper, who was, I dare say, many other things +besides housekeeper. "You have a sharp ear, sir; that I will say. Yes, +there is a something has gone wrong; but to think that an American +gentleman should have noticed it!" + +"I am not American," I said, perhaps testily. + +"Oh, indeed, sir. I beg your pardon, I am sure. It was just your way +of speaking made me think it," she replied; and then there came a +second louder rap at the door, as John, who had gone upstairs with his +mistress, came down in a leisurely fashion. + +"That is Lord Wetherby, drat him!" he said, on his wife calling to him +in a low voice; he was ignorant, I think, of my presence. "He is to be +shown into the library, and the mistress will see him there in five +minutes; and you are to go to her room. Oh, rap away!" he added, +turning toward the door, and shaking his fist at it. "There is many a +better man than you has waited longer at that door." + +"Hush, John! Do you not see the gentleman?" interposed his wife, with +the simplicity of habit. "He will show you out," she added rapidly to +me, "as soon as his lordship has gone in, if you do not mind waiting +another minute." + +"Not at all," I said, drawing back into the corner as they went on +their errands; but though I said, "Not at all," mine was an odd +position. The way in which I had come into the house, and my present +situation in a kind of hiding, would have made most men only anxious +to extricate themselves. But I, while listening to John parleying with +someone at the door, conceived a strange desire, or a desire which +would have been strange in any other man, to see this thing to the +end; conceived it and acted upon it. + +The library? That was the room on the right of the hall, opposite to +Mrs. Wigram's sitting room. Probably, nay I was certain, it had +another door opening on the passage in which I stood. It would cost me +but a step or two to confirm my opinion. When John ushered in the +visitor by one door I had already, by way of the other, ensconced +myself behind a screen, that I seemed to know would face it. I was +going to listen. Perhaps I had my reasons. Perhaps--but there, what +matter? I, as a fact, listened. + +The room was spacious but somber, wainscoted and vaulted with oak. Its +only visible occupant was a thin, dark man of middle size, with a +narrow face, and a stubborn feather of black hair rising above his +forehead; a man of Welsh type. He was standing with his back to the +light, a roll of papers in one hand. The fingers of the other, +drumming upon the table, betrayed that he was both out of temper and +ill at ease. While I was still scanning him stealthily--I had never +seen him before--the door was opened, and Mrs. Wigram came in. I sank +back behind the screen. I think some words passed, some greeting of +the most formal, but though the room was still, I failed to hear it, +and when I recovered myself he was speaking. + +"I am here at your wish, Mrs. Wigram, and your service, too," he was +saying, with an effort at gallantry which sat very ill upon him, +"although I think it would have been better if we had left the matter +to our solicitors." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes. I fancied you were aware of my opinion." + +"I was; and I perfectly understand, Lord Wetherby, your preference for +that course," she replied, with sarcastic coldness, which did not hide +her dislike for him. "You naturally shrink from telling me your terms +face to face." + +"Now, Mrs. Wigram! Now, Mrs. Wigram! Is not this a tone to be +deprecated?" he answered, lifting his hands. "I come to you as a man +of business upon business." + +"Business! Does that mean wringing advantage from my weakness?" she +retorted. + +He shrugged his shoulders. "I do deprecate this tone," he repeated. "I +come in plain English to make you an offer; one which you can accept +or refuse as you please. I offer you five hundred a year for this +house. It is immensely too large for your needs, and too expensive for +your income, and yet you have in strictness no power to let it. Very +well, I, who can release you from that restriction, offer you five +hundred a year for the house. What can be more fair?" + +"Fair? In plain English, Lord Wetherby, you are the only possible +purchaser, and you fix the price. Is that fair? The house would let +easily for twelve hundred." + +"Possibly," he retorted, "if it were in the open market. But it is +not." + +"No," she answered rapidly. "And you, having the forty thousand a year +which, had my husband lived, would have been his and mine; you who, a +poor man, have stepped into this inheritance--you offer me five +hundred for the family house! For shame, my lord! for shame!" + +"We are not acting a play," he said doggedly, showing that her words +had stung him in some degree. "The law is the law. I ask for nothing +but my rights, and one of those I am willing to waive in your favor. +You have my offer." + +"And if I refuse it? If I let the house? You will not dare to enforce +the restriction." + +"Try me," he rejoined, again drumming with his fingers upon the table. +"Try me, and you will see." + +"If my husband had lived----" + +"But he did not live," he broke in, losing patience, "and that makes +all the difference. Now, for Heaven's sake, Mrs. Wigram, do not make a +scene! Do you accept my offer?" + +For a moment she had seemed about to break down, but her pride coming +to the rescue, she recovered herself with wonderful quickness. + +"I have no choice," she said, with dignity. + +"I am glad you accept," he answered, so much relieved that he gave way +to an absurd burst of generosity. "Come!" he cried, "we will say +guineas instead of pounds, and have done with it!" + +She looked at him in wonder. "No, Lord Wetherby," she said, "I +accepted your terms. I prefer to keep to them. You said that you would +bring the necessary papers with you. If you have done so I will sign +them now, and my servants can witness them." + +"I have the draft, and the lawyer's clerk is no doubt in the house," +he answered. "I left directions for him to be here at eleven." + +"I do not think he is in the house," the lady answered. "I should know +if he were here." + +"Not here!" he cried angrily. "Why not, I wonder! But I have the +skeleton lease. It is very short, and to save delay I will fill in the +particulars, names, and so forth myself, if you will permit me to do +so. It will not take me twenty minutes." + +"As you please. You will find a pen and ink on the table. If you will +kindly ring the bell when you are ready, I will come and bring the +servants." + +"Thank you; you are very good," he said smoothly; adding, when she had +left the room. "And the devil take your impudence, madam! As for your +cursed pride--well, it has saved me twenty-five pounds a year, and so +you are welcome to it. I was a fool to make the offer." And with that, +now grumbling at the absence of the lawyer's clerk and now +congratulating himself on the saving of a lawyer's fee, my lord sat +down to his task. + +A hansom cab on its way to the East India Club rattled through the +square, and under cover of the noise I stole out from behind the +screen, and stood in the middle of the room, looking down at the +unconscious worker. If for a minute I felt strongly the desire to +raise my hand and give his lordship such a surprise as he had never in +his life experienced, any other man might have felt the same; and, as +it was, I put it away and only looked quietly about me. Some rays of +sunshine, piercing the corner pane of a dulled window, fell on and +glorified the Wetherby coat of arms blazoned over the wide fireplace, +and so created the one bright spot in the bare, dismantled room, which +had once, unless the tiers of empty shelves and the yet lingering odor +of Russia lied, been lined from floor to ceiling with books. My lord +had taken the furniture; my lord had taken the books; my lord had +taken--nothing but his rights. + +Retreating softly to the door by which I had entered, and rattling the +handle, I advanced afresh into the room. "Will your lordship allow +me?" I said, after I had in vain coughed twice to gain his attention. + +He turned hastily and looked at me with a face full of suspicion. Some +surprise on finding another person in the room and close to him was +natural; but possibly, also, there was something in the atmosphere of +that house which threw his nerves off their balance. "Who are you?" he +cried, in a tone which matched his face. + +"You left orders, my lord," I explained, "with Messrs. Duggan & Poole +that a clerk should attend here at eleven. I very much regret that +some delay has unavoidably been caused." + +"Oh, you are the clerk!" he replied ungraciously. "You do not look +much like a lawyer's clerk." + +Involuntarily I glanced aside and saw in a mirror the reflection of a +tall man with a thick beard and mustaches, gray eyes, and an ugly scar +seaming the face from ear to ear. "Yet I hope to give you full +satisfaction, my lord," I murmured, dropping my eyes. "It was +understood that you needed a confidential clerk." + +"Well, well, sir, to your work!" he replied irritably. "Better late +than never. And after all it may be preferable for you to be here and +see it duly executed. Only you will not forget," he continued hastily, +with a glance at the papers, "that I have myself copied four--well, +three--three full folios, sir, for which an allowance must be made. +But there! Get on with your work. The handwriting will speak for +itself." + +I obeyed, and wrote on steadily, while the earl walked up and down the +room, or stood at a window. Upstairs sat Mrs. Wigram, schooling +herself, I dare swear, to take this one favor that was no favor from +the man who had dealt out to her such hard measure. Outside a casual +passer through the square glanced up at the great house, and seeing +the bent head of the secretary and the figure of his companion moving +to and fro, saw, as he thought, nothing unusual; nor had any +presentiment--how should he?--of the strange scene which the room with +the dingy windows was about to witness. + +I had been writing for perhaps five minutes when Lord Wetherby stopped +in his passage behind me and looked over my shoulder. With a jerk his +eye-glasses fell, touching my shoulder. + +"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "I have seen your handwriting +somewhere; and lately too. Where could it have been?" + +"Probably among the family papers, my lord," I answered. "I have +several times been engaged in the family business in the time of the +late Lord Wetherby." + +"Indeed!" There were both curiosity and suspicion in his utterance of +the word. "You knew him?" + +"Yes, my lord. I have written for him in this very room, and he has +walked up and down, and dictated to me, as you might be doing now," I +explained. + +His lordship stopped his pacing to and fro, and retreated to the +window on the instant. But I could see that he was interested, and I +was not surprised when he continued, with transparent carelessness, "A +strange coincidence! And may I ask what it was upon which you were +engaged?" + +"At that time?" I answered, looking him in the face. "It was a will, +my lord." + +He started and frowned, and abruptly resumed his walk up and down. But +I saw that he had a better conscience than I had given him the credit +of possessing. My shot had not struck fairly where I had looked to +place it; and finding this was so, I turned the thing over afresh, +while I pursued my copying. When I had finished, I asked him--I think +he was busy at the time cursing the absence of tact in the lower +orders--if he would go through the instrument; and he took my seat. + +Where I stood behind him, I was not far from the fireplace. While he +muttered to himself the legal jargon in which he was as well versed as +a lawyer bred in an office, I moved to it; and, neither missed nor +suspected, stood looking from his bent figure to the blazoned shield +which formed part of the mantelpiece. If I wavered, my hesitation +lasted but a few seconds. Then, raising my voice, I called sharply, +"My lord, there used to be here----" + +He turned swiftly, and saw where I was. + +"What the deuce are you doing there, sir?" he cried, in boundless +astonishment, rising to his feet and coming toward me, the pen in his +hand and his face aflame with anger. "You forget----" + +"A safe--a concealed safe for papers," I continued, cutting him short +in my turn. "I have seen the late Lord Wetherby place papers in it +more than once. The spring worked from here. You touch this knob----" + +"Leave it alone, sir!" cried the peer furiously. + +He spoke too late. The shield had swung gently outward on a hinge, +door-fashion, and where it had been gaped a small open safe, lined +with cement. The rays of sunshine, that a few minutes before had +picked out so brightly the gaudy quarterings, now fell on a large +envelope which lay apart on a shelf. It was as clean as if it had been +put there that morning. No doubt the safe was airtight. I laid my hand +upon it. "My lord!" I cried, turning to look at him with ill-concealed +exultation, "here is a paper--I think, a will!" + +A moment before the veins of his forehead had been swollen, his face +dark with the rush of blood. His anger died down, at sight of the +packet, with strange abruptness. He regained his self-control, and a +moment saw him pale and calm, all show of resentment confined to a +wicked gleam in his eye. "A will!" he repeated, with a certain kind of +dignity, though the hand he stretched out to take the envelope shook. +"Indeed! Then it is my place to examine it. I am the heir-at-law, and +I am within my rights, sir." + +I feared that he was going to put the parcel into his pocket and +dismiss me, and I was considering what course I should take in that +event, when instead he carried the envelope to the table by the +window, and tore off the cover without ceremony. "It is not in your +handwriting?" were his first words, and he looked at me with a +distrust that was almost superstitious. No doubt my sudden entrance, +my ominous talk, and my discovery seemed to him to savor of the devil. + +"No," I replied, unmoved. "I told your lordship that I had written a +will at the late Lord Wetherby's dictation. I did not say--for how +could I know?--that it was this one." + +"Ah!" He hastily smoothed the sheets, and ran his eyes over their +contents. When he reached the last page there was a dark scowl on his +face, and he stood a while staring at the signatures; not now reading, +I think, but collecting his thoughts. "You know the provisions of +this?" he presently burst forth with violence, dashing the back of his +hand against the paper. "I say, sir, you know the provisions of this?" + +"I do not, my lord," I answered. Nor did I. + +"The unjust provisions of this will!" he repeated, passing over my +negative as if it had not been uttered. "Fifty thousand pounds to a +woman who had not a penny when she married his son! Ay, and the +interest on another hundred thousand for her life! Why, it is a +prodigious income, an abnormal income, for a woman! And out of whose +pocket is it to come? Out of mine, every stiver of it! It is +monstrous! I say it is! How am I to keep up the title on the income +left to me, I should like to know?" + +I marveled. I remembered how rich he was. I could not refrain from +suggesting that he had still remaining all the real property. "And," I +added, "I understood, my lord, that the testator's personalty was +sworn under four hundred thousand pounds." + +"You talk nonsense!" he snarled. "Look at the legacies! Five thousand +here, and a thousand there, and hundreds like berries on a bush! It is +a fortune, a decent fortune, clean frittered away! A barren title is +all that will be left to me!" + +What was he going to do? His face was gloomy, his hands were +twitching. "Who are the witnesses, my lord?" I asked, in a low voice. + +So low--for, under certain conditions, a tone conveys much, very +much--that he shot a stealthy glance toward the door before he +answered, "John Williams." + +"Blind," I replied, in the same low tone. + +"William Williams." + +"He is dead. He was Mr. Alfred's valet. I remember reading in the +newspaper that he was with his master, and was killed by the Indians +at the same time." + +"True. I remember that that was the case," he answered huskily. "And +the handwriting is Lord Wetherby's." I assented. Then for fully a +minute we were silent, while he bent over the will, and I stood behind +him looking down at him, with thoughts in my mind which he could as +little fathom as could the senseless wood upon which I leaned. Yet I, +too, mistook him. I thought him, to be plain, a scoundrel; and--well, +so he was, but a mean one. "What is to be done?" he muttered at +length, speaking rather to himself than to me. + +I answered softly, "I am a poor man, my lord," while inwardly I was +quoting, "_Quem Deus vult perdere_." + +My words startled him. He answered hurriedly: "Just so! just so! So +shall I be when this cursed paper takes effect. A very poor man! A +hundred and fifty thousand gone at a blow! But there, she shall have +it! She shall have every penny of it; only," he continued slowly, "I +do not see what difference one more day will make." + +I followed his downcast eyes, which moved from the will before him to +the agreement for the lease of the house; and I did see what +difference a day would make. I saw and understood and wondered. He had +not the courage to suppress the will; but if he could gain a slight +advantage by withholding it for a few hours, he had the mind to do +that. Mrs. Wigram, a rich woman, would no longer let the house; she +would be under no compulsion to do so; and my lord would lose a cheap +residence as well as his hundred and fifty thousand pounds. To the +latter loss he could resign himself with a sigh; but he could not bear +to forego the petty gain for which he had schemed. "I think I +understand, my lord," I replied. + +"Of course," he resumed nervously, "you must be rewarded for making +this discovery. I will see that it is so. You may depend upon me. I +will mention the case to Mrs. Wigram, and--and, in fact, my friend, +you may depend upon me." + +"That will not do," I said firmly. "If that be all, I had better go to +Mrs. Wigram at once, and claim my reward a day earlier." + +He grew very red in the face at receiving this check. "You will not, +in that event, get my good word," he said. + +"Which has no weight with the lady," I answered politely but plainly. + +"How dare you speak so to me?" his lordship cried. "You are an +impertinent fellow! But there! How much do you want?" + +"A hundred pounds." + +"A hundred pounds for a mere day's delay, which will do no one any +harm!" + +"Except Mrs. Wigram," I retorted dryly. "Come, Lord Wetherby, this +lease is worth a thousand a year to you. Mrs. Wigram, as you well +know, will not voluntarily let the house to you. If you would have +Wetherby House you must pay me. That is the long and the short of it." + +"You are an impertinent fellow!" he repeated. + +"So you have said before, my lord." + +I expected him to burst into a furious passion, but I suppose there +was a something of power in my tone, beyond the mere defiance which +the words expressed; for, instead of doing so, he eyed me with a +thoughtful, malevolent gaze, and paused to consider. "You are at +Duggan & Poole's," he said slowly. "How was it that they did not +search this cupboard, with which you were acquainted?" + +I shrugged my shoulders. "I have not been in the house since Lord +Wetherby died," I said. "My employers did not consult me when the +papers he left were examined." + +"You are not a member of the firm?" + +"No, I am not," I answered. I was thinking that, so far as I knew +those respectable gentlemen, no one of them would have helped my lord +in this for ten times a hundred pounds. My lord! Faugh! + +He seemed satisfied, and taking out a notecase laid on the table a +little pile of notes. "There is your money," he said, counting them +over with reluctant fingers. "Be good enough to put the will and +envelope back into the cupboard. Tomorrow you will oblige me by +rediscovering it--you can manage that, no doubt--and giving +information at once to Messrs. Duggan & Poole, or Mrs. Wigram, as you +please. Now," he continued, when I had obeyed him, "will you be good +enough to ask the servants to tell Mrs. Wigram that I am waiting?" + +There was a slight noise behind us. "I am here," said someone. I am +sure that we both jumped at the sound, for though I did not look that +way, I knew that the voice was Mrs. Wigram's, and that she was in the +room. "I have come to tell you, Lord Wetherby," she went on, "that I +have an engagement from home at twelve. Do I understand, however, that +you are ready? If so, I will call in Mrs. Williams." + +"The papers are ready for signature," the peer answered, betraying +some confusion, "and I am ready to sign. I shall be glad to have the +matter settled as agreed." Then he turned to me, where I had fallen +back, as seemed becoming, to the end of the room, and said, "Be good +enough to ring the bell, if Mrs. Wigram permit it." + +As I moved to the fireplace to do so, I was conscious that the lady +was regarding me with some faint surprise. But when I had regained my +position and looked toward her, she was standing near the window, +gazing steadily out into the square, an expression of disdain rendered +by face and figure. Shall I confess that it was a joy to me to see her +fair head so high, and to read, even in the outline of her girlish +form, a contempt which I, and I only, knew to be so justly based? For +myself, I leaned against the edge of the screen by the door, and +perhaps my hundred pounds lay heavily on my heart. As for him, he +fidgeted with his papers, although they were all in order, and was +visibly impatient to get his bit of knavery accomplished. Oh, he was a +worthy man! And Welshman! + +"Perhaps," he presently suggested, for the sake of saying something, +"while your servant is coming, you will read the agreement, Mrs. +Wigram. It is very short, and, as you know, your solicitors have +already seen it in the draft." + +She bowed, and took the paper negligently. She read some way down the +first sheet with a smile, half careless, half contemptuous. Then +I saw her stop--she had turned her back to the window to obtain more +light--and dwell on a particular sentence. I saw--God! I had forgotten +the handwriting!--I saw her gray eyes grow large, and fear leap into +them, as she grasped the paper with her other hand, and stepped nearer +to the peer's side. "Who?" she cried. "Who wrote this? Tell me! Do you +hear? Tell me quickly!" + +He was nervous on his own account, wrapped in his own piece of +scheming, and obtuse. + +"I wrote it," he said, with maddening complacency. He put up his +glasses and glanced at the top of the page she held out to him. "I +wrote it myself, and I can assure you that it is quite right, and a +faithful copy. You do not think----" + +"Think! think! No! no. This, I mean! Who wrote this?" she cried, awe +in her face, and a suppliant tone, strange as addressed to that man, +in her voice. + +He was confounded by her vehemence, as well as hampered by his own +evil conscience. + +"The clerk, Mrs. Wigram, the clerk," he said petulantly, still in his +fog of selfishness. "The clerk from Messrs. Duggan & Poole's." + +"Where is he?" she cried out breathlessly. I think she did not believe +him. + +"Where is he?" he repeated, in querulous surprise. "Why here, of +course. Where should he be, madam? He will witness my signature." + +Would he? Signatures! It was little of signatures I recked at that +moment. I was praying to Heaven that my folly might be forgiven me; +and that my lightly planned vengeance might not fall on my own head. +"Joy does not kill," I was saying to myself, repeating it over and +over again, and clinging to it desperately. "Joy does not kill!" But +oh! was it true? in face of that white-lipped woman! + +"Here!" She did not say more, but gazing at me with great dazed eyes, +she raised her hand and beckoned to me. And I had no choice but to +obey; to go nearer to her, out into the light. + +"Mrs. Wigram," I said hoarsely, my voice sounding to me only as a +whisper, "I have news of your late--of your husband. It is good news." + +"Good news?" Did she faintly echo my words? or, as her face, from +which all color had passed, peered into mine, and searched it in +infinite hope and infinite fear, did our two minds speak without need +of physical lips? "Good news?" + +"Yes," I whispered. "He is alive. The Indians did not----" + +"Alfred!" Her cry rang through the room, and with it I caught her in +my arms as she fell. Beard and long hair, and scar and sunburn, and +strange dress--these which had deceived others were no disguise to +her--my wife. I bore her gently to the couch, and hung over her in a +new paroxysm of fear. "A doctor! Quick! A doctor!" I cried to Mrs. +Williams, who was already kneeling beside her. "Do not tell me," I +added piteously, "that I have killed her!" + +"No! no! no!" the good woman answered, the tears running down her +face. "Joy does not kill!" + + +An hour later this fear had been lifted from me, and I was walking up +and down the library alone with my thankfulness; glad to be alone, yet +more glad, more thankful still, when John came in with a beaming face. +"You have come to tell me," I cried eagerly, pleased that the tidings +had come by his lips, "to go to her? That she will see me?" + +"Her ladyship is sitting up," he replied. + +"And Lord Wetherby?" I asked, pausing at the door to put the question. +"He left the house at once?" + +"Yes, my lord, Mr. Wigram has been gone some time." + + + + + A BLORE MANOR + EPISODE. + + +Not very remarkable was this courtship: there was nothing very strange +about it, or more romantic than is apt to be the case with such +things. I doubt not that since the daughters of the children of men +were wooed, there have been many millions of such May-time passages of +greater interest, and that countless Pauls and Virginias have plucked +the sweet spring flowers together amid more picturesque surroundings. +Every matron--and some maids, if they will, though we deprecate the +omen--can recall at least one wooing which she can vouch as a thousand +million times more extraordinary than that of my commonplace hero and +heroine. That is so: but for that very reason let her read of this +one, and taking off the cover of her own potpourri savor some faint +scent of the dewy roses of the past springtime. + +It had its origin in the 12:10 down train from Euston to Holyhead, +which carried, among other passengers, Charles Maitland of the Temple, +barrister by theory and idler by, or for want of, practice. He +traveled first-class. When you come to know him better you will +understand how superfluous was this last piece of information. Ten +minutes before the train was due out, he arrived at the station +in a hansom. A silk hat, a well-fitting light overcoat--the weather, +for March, was mild--gray trousers, and brown gaiters over his +patent-leather boots were the most salient details of a costume of +which the chief characteristic was an air of perfect correctness. At +the bookstall he did not linger, culling with loving eyes the backs of +many books, and reveling in his choice with florin in hand, as do +second-class passengers, but without hesitation he purchased a +_Saturday Review_ and a _Cornhill Magazine_. After he had taken his +seat a Smith's boy invited him to select from a tray, upon which +glowed half a dozen novels; but he gazed sublimely into vacancy over +the boy's head; who soon left him, and prompted by a vengeful spirit +only inferior to his precocious knowledge of passenger nature, +directed upon him the attacks of two kindred sprites with Banbury +cakes and British sherry. The window was slight protection against +their shrill voices, but soon the train started and freed him from +them. He changed his hat for a brown deer-stalker, and having the +compartment to himself, had recourse to his own thoughts. It was not +unlikely, he told himself, that he had been precipitate in undertaking +this journey. An Easter, coming somewhat early, seemed to have +forestalled his wonted invitations for that season: and, to stay in +London being out of the question, he had accepted Tom Quaritch's +offer. He began to have doubts of the wisdom of this course now, but +it was too late. He was bound for Tom Quaritch's. He had known +something of Tom at college; and recently he had done him a slight +service in town. No more genial soul than the latter existed, and he +did not rest satisfied until he had won from Maitland a half promise +to come and see his beagles at Easter. At the time our traveler had +but the remotest idea of doing so. He did not know enough of Tom's +people, while to have the acquaintance of the right people and of no +one else was part of his creed. But now he was between the horns of a +dilemma. These people, of whom he knew nothing, might not be the right +people; that was one horn. The other consisted in the fact that to +spend a vacation in town was not the thing. When we have chosen our +horn it is natural it should seem the sharper of the two. Mr. Charles +Maitland frowned as he cut the pages of his _Cornhill_. And then he +made up his mind to two things. Firstly, to bring his stay at Blore +Manor within the smallest possible limits, and secondly, to comport +himself while there with such a formal courtesy as should encourage +only the barest familiarity. + +At Stafford he had to change into another train, which he did, even as +he cut his magazine, with characteristic precision and coolness. And +so he reached Blore Station about half-past five, still neat and +unsullied, with all the aroma of the street of scents about him. + +He let down the window and put out his head. The country thereabouts +was flat and uninteresting, the farming untidy, the fences low, yet +straggling. A short distance away a few roofs peeping forth from a +clump of trees, above which the smoke gently curled, marked the +village. The station consisted of a mere shed and a long, bare +platform. There were but five persons visible, and of these one was a +porter, and one a man servant in a quiet, countrified livery. The +latter walked quickly toward him, but was forestalled by three girls, +the other occupants of the platform, who, at sight of the stranger, +came tearing from the far end of it at a headlong pace. + +"Here he is! Here he is!" cried the foremost, her shrill voice drawing +a dozen heads to the windows of the train. She owed her success to an +extempore tug in the form of an excited bull terrier, which, dragging +violently at a strap attached to her wrist, jerked her after him much +as if she had been a kettle tied to his tail. She might be anything +between twenty and five-and-twenty--a tiny little creature of almost +fairylike proportions. Her color was high and her hair brown; she had +curiously opaque brown eyes, bright as well as opaque. Gloves she had +none, and her hair was disordered by her struggles with the dog. But, +after all, the main impression she made upon Maitland was that she was +excessively small. He had no eyes for the others at present. But one, +owing to the reckless method of her progression, gave him a dim notion +of being all legs. + +"You are Mr. Maitland, are you not?" the first comer began volubly, +though loss of breath interfered a little with the symmetry of her +sentences. "Tom had to attend a meeting of the fox committee at +Annerley. I'm Maggie Quaritch, and this is Dubs--I beg your pardon, +how silly of me--Joan, I mean, and this is Agnes. Why, child, what +have you done with your hat? Pick it up at once! What wild things Mr. +Maitland will think us!" + +The youngest girl, whose hat was lying upon the platform some distance +away, hung her head in a very pretty attitude of shy _gaucherie_. She +was about fifteen--rising sixteen in her brother's phrase--and taller +than the elder girls, with a peculiarly pale complexion, greenish-gray +eyes, and a mass of brownish-red hair. Her loosely made dress was more +in consonance with her style than Maitland, staggering under the shock +of such a reception, had time or mind to observe. He formally +acknowledged the introductions, but words did not come easily to him. +He was dumfounded. He was so unaccustomed to this, or to people like +these. + +"And we must not forget Bill," resumed Miss Quaritch, if possible, +faster than before. "Isn't he a beauty now, Mr. Maitland? Look at his +chest, look at his head, look at his eyes. Yes, he lost that one in a +fight with Jack Madeley's retriever, and I'm afraid the sight of the +other is going, but he's the most beautiful, loveliest, faithfullest +dog in the whole world for all that, and his mother loves him, she +does!" All in a shrill tone, rising a note perhaps with the final +words. + +The train was moving out. The last that the twelve faces, still glued +to the carriage windows, beheld of the scene was Miss Quaritch +rapturously kissing and hugging the bull terrier, while the Londoner +looked on sheepishly. He was horribly conscious of the presence of +those grinning faces and suffered as much until the train left as if +the onlookers had been a dozen of his club comrades. Whereas the fact +was that they found whatever amusement the scene afforded them not in +the girl's enthusiasm--she was young enough to gush prettily--but in +the strange gentleman's awkward consciousness. + +"Now, Mr. Maitland, shall Abiah drive you up in the dog cart, or will +you walk with us? Agnes!" this suddenly in a loud scream to the +youngest girl, who had moved away, "you can let out the dogs! Down, +Juno! Go down, Jack o' Pack! Roy, you ill-conditioned little dog, you +are always quarreling! I'm afraid they will make you in a dreadful +pickle." + +Indeed it seemed to Maitland that they would. An avalanche of +scurrying dogs descended upon him from some receptacle where they had +been penned. He had a vision of a red Irish setter with soft brown +eyes, not unlike to, but far finer than Miss Maggie's, with its paws +momentarily upon the breast of his overcoat; of a couple of wiry fox +terriers skirmishing and snarling round his trousers, and of a shy, +lop-eared beagle puppy casting miserable glances at them from an +outside place. And then the party got under way in some sort of order. +At first Maitland had much ado to answer yes and no. + +He was still bewildered by these things, crushed, confounded. + +He could have groaned as he sedately explained at what time he left +Euston, and where he changed. He was conscious that when their +attention was not demanded by the pack of dogs, the girls were +covertly scrutinizing him; but in his present state of mind, it +mattered not a straw to him whether they were calling him a prig, and +a "stick," and affected, and supercilious, or were admiring half in +scorn the fit of his clothes and boots, and his lordly air. All these +remarks were in fact made by some one or other of them before the day +was over. But he was, and would have been, supremely indifferent to +their criticisms. + +The weight of the conversation did not fall heavily upon him: indeed, +when Miss Quaritch had a share in it, no one else was overburdened. +And from time to time they met upon the road old women or children to +whom the girls had always something to say. It was, "Well, Mrs. +Marjoram, and so the donkey is better," or, "Now, Johnny, get along +home to your mother," or, "How are you, daddy?" in the high-pitched +key so trying to the cockney's ear. + +In these parleys Joan, the second girl, was foremost. Maitland glanced +at her. A young man may be very fastidious, but neck-ribbons awry and +brown hair in rich disorder do not entirely close his eyes to a +maiden's comeliness. It would be strange if they did, were she such an +one as Joan Quaritch. Not tall, yet tall enough, with a full, rounded +figure, to which her dress hardly did, hardly could do, justice, she +moved with the grace and freedom of perfect health. Her fair +complexion could afford to have its clearness marred by a freckle or +two, such as hers, mere clots in cream; and if her features were not +perfect, yet a nose too straight and a chin too heavy were more than +redeemed by great gray eyes that, sunny or tearful, could be nothing +but true--eyes whose frankness and good fellowship aggravated the +wounds they inflicted. Why she was called "Dubs" I cannot tell. +Perhaps no one can. But, in her good nature and her truth, her simple +pride and independence, it suited her. + +He had just, to quote the language of this cynic's thoughts, +catalogued the last of the Graces, when the party reached the house, +which stood some way back from the road. Tom Quaritch had just +returned, and welcomed the guest warmly; his mother met Maitland at +the drawing-room door. She was a singularly comely woman, stately and +somewhat formal. Her greeting so differed from that of her daughters +that the visitor found himself speculating upon the extraordinary +flightiness of the late Mr. Quaritch. Wherein I doubt not he did him +injustice. + +At dinner our hero had in some degree recovered himself, and he told +them the latest news of the theaters, the clubs, and the book world, +and while their ignorance filled him with a wonder he did not hide, +their attention propitiated him. He talked well, and if he was +inclined to lord it a little, a shrewd word from Mrs. Quaritch, or a +demure glance from Miss Joan's eyes, would lower his didactic tone. +The youngest girl promised to be an especial thorn in his side. + +"Does everyone in London wear shiny boots in the daytime, Mr. +Maitland?" she asked suddenly, _à propos des bottes_, and nothing +else. + +"A considerable number do, Miss Agnes." + +"What sort of people? No, I'm not being rude, mother." + +"Well, I hardly know how to answer that. The idle people, perhaps." He +smiled indulgently, which aggravated the young lady. She replied, +crumbling her bread the while in an absent, meditative way, her eyes +innocently fixed on his face: + +"Then you are one of the idle people, Mr. Maitland? I don't think I +like idle people." + +"How singularly unselfish of you, my dear Agnes!" put in Joan +vigorously--more vigorously than politely. + +Maitland's last reflection as he got into bed was that he was quite +out of place here. These might be very nice people in their way, but +not in his way. He must make his visit as short as possible, and +forget all about it as quickly as he could. The girls would be +insufferable when they came to know him familiarly. Good gracious! +fancy young ladies who had never heard of "John Inglesant," or of W. +D. Howells' books, and confused the Grosvenor Gallery with the Water +Color Exhibition! and read Longfellow! and had but vague ideas of the +æsthetic! Miss Joan was pretty too, yes, really pretty, and had fine +eyes and a pleasant voice, and fine eyes--yes, fine eyes. And with +this thought he fell comfortably asleep. + +He came down next morning to find her alone in the breakfast room. A +short-skirted beagling costume of scarlet and blue allowed him a +glimpse of neat ankles in scarlet hose. She was kneeling before the +fire playing with Roy. Her brown wavy hair fell in a heavy loose loop +upon her neck, and there was something wonderfully bright and fresh in +her whole appearance. + +"How quickly you have fallen in with our barbarous ways!" she said +with a smile, as she rose. "I did not expect you to be up for hours +yet." + +"I generally breakfast at nine, and it is nearly that now," he +answered, annoyed by some hint of raillery in her tone, and yet unable +to conceal a glance of admiration. "I think I must adopt the Blore +breakfast hour; it seems, Miss Joan, to agree with you all so well." + +"Yes," was the indifferent reply; "we get the first of the three +rewards for early rising. The other two we leave for our betters." + +And she turned away with a little nod as the others came in. In five +minutes a noisy, cheerful breakfast was in progress, and the chances +of finding a hare formed the all-engrossing subject of conversation. + +On this calm gray morning, warm rather than cold, the little pack, to +the great delight of the household, found quickly, and found well. No +October leveret was before them, but a good, stout old hare, who gave +them a ringing run of two hours, the pleasure of which was not +materially diminished when she baffled them at last in the mysterious +way these old hares affect and huntsmen fail to fathom. The visitor +performed creditably, though in indifferent training. At Oxford he had +been something of a crack, and could still upon occasion forget to +keep his boots clean and his clothes intact. + +Returning home, Maitland found himself again with Joan. The heat and +pleasure of the chase had for the time melted his reserve and thawed +his resolution. He talked well and freely to her of a great London +hospital over which one of the house surgeons had recently taken him; +of the quiet and orderliness of the lone, still wards; of the feeling +that came over him there that life was all suffering and death; and +how quickly in the bustle of the London streets, where the little +world of the hospital seemed distant and unreal, this impression faded +away. She listened eagerly, and he, tasting a stealthy and stolen +pleasure in seeing how deep and pitiful the gray eyes could grow, +prolonged his tale. + +"I have enjoyed hearing about it so much," she said gratefully, as +they entered the village. And indeed she had passed several people +upon the road without a word of greeting. "I hope to be a nurse soon. +The dear mother does not think me old enough yet." + +"You are going to be a nurse!" he said in tones of such incredulous +surprise that the amusement which first appeared in her face changed +to annoyance. + +"Why not? One does not need a knowledge of art and the newest books +for that," she sharply answered. + +"Perhaps not," he said feebly. "But after such a life as this, it--the +change I mean--would be so complete." + +She looked at him, an angry gleam in her eyes, and the color high in +her cheeks. + +"Do you think, Mr. Maitland, that because we run wild--oh, no, you +have not said so--and seem to do nothing but enjoy ourselves, we are +incapable of anything beyond hunting and playing tennis, and feeding +the dogs and the hens and the chickens? That we cannot have a thought +beyond pleasure, or a wish to do good like other people--people in +London? That we can never look beyond Blore--though Blore, I can tell +you, would manage ill without some of us!--nor have an aspiration +above the kennels and the--and the stables? If you do think so, I +trust you are wrong." + +He would have answered humbly, but she was gone into the house in huge +indignation, leaving our friend strangely uncomfortable. It was just +twenty-four hours since his arrival: the opinion of one at least of +the madcaps had ceased to be a matter of indifference to him. The +change occurred to himself as he mounted the stairs, so that he +laughed when alone in his room and resolved to keep away from that +girl for the future. How handsome she had looked when she was flying +out at him, and how generous seemed her anger even at the time! +Somehow the prospect of the four days he had still to spend at Blore +was not so depressing as at first. Certainly the vista was shortened +by one day, and that may have been the reason. + +Meanwhile Maggie, in her sister's bedroom, had much to say of the +day's doings. "Didn't he go well? My word! he is not half so stiff as +I thought him. I believe he'd be a very good fellow if he had some of +the conceit taken out of him." + +"I think he's insufferable," was the chilling answer from Joan; "he +considers us savages, and treats us as such." + +"He may consider us fit for the Zoo, if he likes; it won't hurt us," +quoth Maggie indifferently. With which Joan expressed neither assent +nor dissent, but brushed her hair a little faster. + +Maitland did not for a moment abandon his fresh resolution. Still he +thought he owed it to himself to set the matter right with the young +lady before he stiffened anew. As he descended he met her running up +two steps at a time. + +"Miss Joan, I am afraid I vexed you just now," he said, with grave +humility. "Will you believe it unintentional--stupid, on my part, and +grant me your pardon?" + +"Oh, dear!" she cried gayly. "We are not used to this here. It is +quite King Cophetua and the beggar maid." She dropped him a mock +courtesy, and held out her hand in token of amity, when the full +signification of what she had said rushed into her mind and flooded +her face with crimson. Without another word or look she fled upstairs, +and he heard her door bang behind her. + +Mr. Charles Maitland, after this _rencontre_, went down smiling +grimly. In the hall he stood for a moment in deep thought; then sagely +shook his head several times at a stuffed fox and joined the party in +the drawing room. + + +[Illustration: MR. CHARLES MAITLAND, AFTER THIS RENCONTRE, WENT DOWN +SMILING GRIMLY.] + + +The next day and the next passed with surprising quickness, as the +latter days of a visit always do. In another forty-eight hours +Maitland's would be over. Yet singularly enough his spirits did not +rise, as he expected they would, at the near prospect of release. As +he closed his bedroom door he had a vision of a pair of gray eyes +smiling into his, and his palm seemed still to tingle with the touch +of a soft, warm hand. He had kept his resolution well--small credit to +him. Joan had seemed to avoid him since her unlucky speech upon the +stairs; when she did speak to him her words, or more often her tone, +stung him, and he smarted under a sense that she repaid with interest +the small account in which he was inclined to hold the family +generally. He resented her veiled contempt with strange bitterness, so +that Agnes remarked with her usual candor that he and Joan never spoke +to one another save to "jangle." Afterward, walking on the lawn, some +line about "sweet bells jangled out of tune," ran in his head. The +girl was a vixen, he said to himself, yet he tried to imagine how +tender and glorious the great gray eyes, that he only knew as cold or +saucy or defiant, could be when their depths were stirred by love. But +his imagination failing to satisfy even himself, he went to put on his +beagling dress in the worst of humors. + +Possibly this made him a trifle reckless, for a promising run ended in +ten minutes so far as he was concerned, in a sprained ankle. In +jumping over a low fence into a lane his one foot came down sideways +on a large stone upon which some pauper had scamped his work, and the +mischief was done. The ominous little circle that hunting men know so +well soon gathered round him, and he was helped to his feet, or rather +foot. Then Agnes fetched the carriage, and he was driven back to +Blore. Now, under the circumstances, what could Mrs. Quaritch, without +an _arrière pensée_ in the world, do but press him to stay until at +least he could put the foot to the ground? Nothing. And what could he +do but consent? At any rate, that is what he did. + +So he was established in the drawing room, a pretty, cozy room, and +told himself it was a terrible nuisance. But, for a cripple confined +to a couple of rooms, and surrounded by uncongenial people, without a +single new magazine or a word of the world's gossip, he kept up his +spirits wonderfully well. The ways of the three girls, and the calm +approval of their sedate mother, could not fail to amuse him. Lying +there and seeing and hearing many things which would not have come to +his knowledge as a mere visitor, he found them not quite what he had +judged them to be. He missed Joan one morning, and when with an +unconscious fretfulness he inquired the reason, learned that she had +been sitting up through the night with an old servant who was ill in +the village. He said some word about it to her--very diffidently, for +she took his compliments but ill at all times; now she flamed out at +him with twice her ordinary bitterness and disdain, and punished him +by taking herself out of the room at once. + +"Confound it!" he cried, beating up his pillow fiercely, "I believe +the girl hates me." + +Did he? and did she? + +Then he fell into a fit of musing such as men approaching thirty, who +have lived in London, are very apt to indulge in. A club was not +everything, be it as good as it might be. And life was not a lounge in +Bond Street and Pall Mall, and nothing more. He thought how dull a +week spent on his sofa in the Adelphi would have been, even with the +newest magazines and the fifth and special _Globes_. In three days was +his birthday--his twenty-ninth. And did the girl really hate him? It +was a nice name, Joan; Dubs, umph! Dubs? Joan? And so he fell asleep. + +How long he slept and whether he carried something of his dreams into +his waking he could only guess, but he was aroused by a singular +sensation--singular in that, though once familiar enough, it was now +as strange to him as the sight of his dead mother's face. If his +half-recalled senses did not deceive him, if he was not still dreaming +of Joan, the warm touch of a pair of soft lips was yet lingering upon +his forehead, the rustle of a dress very near his ear yet sounded +crisply in it. And then someone glided from him, and he heard a hasty +exclamation and opened his eyes dreamily. By the screen which +concealed the door and sheltered him from its draughts was standing +Joan, a-tiptoe, poised as in expectation, something between flight and +amusement in her face, her attitude full of unconscious grace. He was +still bewildered, and hardly returned from a dreamland even less +conventional than Blore. Without as much surprise as if he had thought +the matter out--it seemed then almost a natural thing--he said: + +"You shall have the gloves, Dubs, with pleasure." + +The girl's expression, as he spoke, changed to startled astonishment. +She became crimson from her hair to her throat. She stepped toward +him, checked herself, then made a quick movement with her hand as if +about to say something, and finally covered her face with her hands +and fled from the room. Before he was wide awake he was alone. + +At first he smiled pleasantly at the fire, and patted Roy, Joan's +terrier, who was lying beside him, curled up snugly in an angle of the +sofa. Afterward he became grave and thoughtful, and finally shook his +head very much as he had at the stuffed fox in the hall. And so he +fidgeted till Roy, who was in a restful mood, retired to the +hearthrug. + +It would be hard to describe Joan's feelings that afternoon. She was +proud, and had begun by resenting for all of them the ill-concealed +contempt of Tom's London friend--this man of clubs and chit-chat. She +was quite prepared to grant that he was different from them, but not +superior. A kind of contempt for the veneer and polish which were his +pride was natural to her, and she showed this, not rudely nor +coquettishly, but with a hearty sincerity. Still, it is seldom a girl +is unaware of admiration, and rare that she does not in secret respect +self-assertion in the male creature. This man knew much too, and could +tell it well, that was strange and new and delightful to the country +maiden. If he had any heart at all--and since he was from London town +she supposed he had not, though she granted him eyes and fine +perceptions of the beautiful--she might have, almost, some day, +promised herself to like him, had he been of her world--not reflecting +that this very fact that he was out of her world formed the charm by +which he evoked her interest. As things were, she more than doubted of +his heart, and had no doubt at all that between their worlds lay a +great, impassable, unbridgeable abyss. + +But this afternoon the dislike, which had been fading day by day along +with those feelings in another which had caused it, was revived in its +old strength upon the matter of the kiss. Alone in her own room the +thought made her turn crimson with vexation, and she stamped the floor +with annoyance. He had made certain overtures to her--slender and +meaningless in all probability. Still, if he could believe her capable +after such looks and words as he had used--if after these he thought +her capable of this, then indeed, were there no abyss at all, he could +be nothing to her. Oh, it was too bad, too intolerable! She would +never forgive him. How indeed could she be anything to him, if she +could do such a thing, as dreadful, as unmaidenly to her as to the +proudest beauty among his London friends. She told herself again that +he was insufferable; and determined to slap Roy well, upon the first +opportunity, if that mistaken little pearl of price would persist in +favoring the stranger's sofa. + +Until this was cleared up she felt her position the very worst in the +world, and yet would not for a fortune give him an opportunity of +freeing her from it. The very fact that he addressed her with, as it +seemed, a greater show of respect, chafed her. Agnes, with a +precocious cleverness, a penetration quite her own, kept herself and +her dog, Jack o' Pack _alias_ Johnny Sprawn, out of her sister's way, +and teased her only before company. + +But at last Maitland caught Miss Joan unprotected. + +"I hope that these are the right size, Miss Joan--they are six and a +quarter," he said boldly, yet with, for a person of his disposition +and breeding, a strange amount of shamefacedness; producing at the +same time a pair of gloves, Courvoisier's best, many-buttoned, fit for +a goddess. + +"I beg your pardon?" she said, breathing quickly. But she guessed what +he meant. + +"Let me get out of your debt." + +"Out of my debt, Mr. Maitland?" taking the gloves mechanically. + +"Please. Did you think I had forgotten? I should find it hard to do +that," he continued, encouraged and relieved by having got rid of the +gloves, and inattentive at the moment to her face. Yet she looked long +at him searchingly. + +"I have found it hard to understand you," she said at last, with +repressed anger in voice and eye; "very hard, Mr. Maitland; but I +think I do so now. Do you believe that it was I who kissed you +when you were asleep on Wednesday afternoon? Can you think so? You +force me to presume it is so. Your estimate of my modesty and of your +own deserts must differ considerably. I had not the honor. Your +gloves"--and she dropped them upon the floor as if the touch +contaminated her, the act humiliating the young gentleman at least as +much as her words--"you had better give to Agnes, if you wish to +observe a silly custom. They are due to her, not to me. I thank you, +Mr. Maitland, for having compelled me to give this pleasant +explanation." + +She turned away with a gesture of such queenly contempt that our poor +hero--now most unheroic, and dumb as Carlyle would have had his, only +with mortification and intense disgust at his stupidity--amazed that +he could ever have thought meanly of this girl, "who moved most +certainly a goddess," had not a word to express his sorrow. A hero +utterly crestfallen! But at the door she looked back, for some strange +reason known perchance to female readers. The gloves were on the +floor, just beyond his reach--poor, forlorn, sprawling objects, their +fingers and palms spread as in ridiculous appeal. As for him, he was +lying back on the sofa, in appearance so crushed and helpless that the +woman's pity ever near her eyes moved her. She went slowly back, and +picked up the gloves, and put them on the table where he could take +them. + +"Miss Joan," he said, in a tone of persistence that claimed a hearing, +and, starting far from the immediate trouble, was apt to arouse +curiosity; "we are always, as Agnes says, jangling--on my side, of +course, is the false note. Can we not accord better, and be better +friends?" + +"Not until we learn to know one another better," she said coldly, +looking down at him, "or become more discerning judges." + +"I was a fool, an idiot, an imbecile!" She nodded gravely, still +regarding him from a great height. "I was mad to believe it possible!" + +"I think we may be better friends," she responded, smiling faintly, +yet with sudden good humor. "We are beginning to know--one another." + +"And ourselves," almost under his breath. Then, "Miss Joan, will you +ever forgive me? I shall never err again in that direction," he +pleaded. "I am humiliated in my own eyes until you tell me it is +forgotten." + +She nodded, and this time with her own frank smile. + +Then she turned away and did leave the room, this time taking Roy with +her. Her joyous laughter and his wild, excited barking proclaimed +through the length and breadth of Blore that he was enjoying the rare +indulgence of a good romp on the back lawn. It was Roy's day. + +And can a dog ever hope for a better day than that upon which his +mistress becomes aware that she is also another's mistress: becomes +aware that another is thinking of her and for her, nay, that she is +the very center of that other's thoughts? What a charming, pleasantly +bewildering discovery it is, this learning that for him when she is in +the room it is full, and wanting her it is empty, be it never so +crowded; that all beside, though they be witty or famous, or what they +will, or can or would, are but lay figures, _umbræ_, shadow guests in +his estimation. She learns with strange thrills, that in moments of +meditation will flash to eye and cheek, that her slightest glance and +every change of color, every tone and smile, are marked with jealous +care; that pleasure which she does not share is tasteless, and a +dinner of herbs, if she be but at a far corner, is a feast for +princes. That is her dog's day, or it may be his dog's day. It is a +pleasant discovery for a man, _mutatis mutandis_; but for a girl, a +sweet, half fearful consciousness, the brightest part of love's young +dream--even when the kindred soul is of another world, and an abyss, +wide, impassable, unbridgeable lies between. + +But these things come to sudden ends sometimes. Sprains, however +severe, have an awkward knack of getting well. Swellings subside from +inanition, and doctors insist for their credit's sake that the stick +or ready arm be relinquished. Certainly a respite or a relapse--call +it which you will--is not impossible with care, but it is brief. A +singular shooting pain, not easily located with exactness, but +somewhere in the neighborhood of the calf, has been found useful; and +a strange rigidity of the tendon Achilles in certain positions may +gain a day or two. But at last not even these will avail, and the +doubly injured one must out and away from among the rose leaves. Twice +Maitland fixed his departure for the following morning, and each time +when pressed to stay gave way, after so feeble, so ludicrous a +resistance, if it deserved the name, that Agnes scarcely concealed her +grimace, and Joan looked another way. She did not add anything to the +others' hospitable entreaties. If she guessed what made Maggie's +good-night kiss so fervent and clinging, she made no sign and offered +no opening. + +In the garden next morning, Maitland taxed her with her neutrality. It +was wonderful how his sense of humor had become developed at Blore. + +"I thought that you did not need so much pressure as to necessitate +more than four people's powers of persuasion being used," she +answered, in the same playful spirit. "And besides, now you are well +enough, must you not leave?" + +"Indeed, Miss Joan?" + +"And go back to your own way of life? It is a month since you saw the +latest telegrams, and there is a French company at the Gaiety, I learn +from the _Standard_. We have interests and duties, though you were so +hard of belief about them, at Blore, but you have none." + +"No interests?" + +She shook her head. "No duties, at any rate." + +"And so you think," he asked, his eyes fixed upon her changing +features, "that I should go back to my old way of life--of a century +ago?" + +"Of course you must!" But she was not so rude as to tell him what a +very foolish question this was. Still it was, was it not? + +"So I will, or to something like it, and yet very unlike. But not +alone. Joan, will you come with me? If I have known you but a month, I +have learned to love your truth and goodness and you, Joan, so that if +I go away alone, to return to the old life would be bitterly +impossible. You have spoiled that; you must make for me a fresh life +in its place. Do you remember you told me that when we knew one +another we might be better friends? I have come to know you better, +but we cannot be friends. We must be something more, more even than +lovers, Joan--husband and wife, if you can like me enough." + +It was not an unmanly way of putting it, and he was in earnest. But so +quiet, so self-restrained was his manner that it savored of coldness. +The girl whose hand he held while he spoke had no such thought. Her +face was turned from him. She was gazing over the wall across the +paddock where Maggie's mare was peaceably and audibly feeding, and so +at the Blore Ash on its mimic hill, every bough and drooping branchlet +dark against the sunset sky; and this radiant in her eyes with a +beauty its deepest glow had never held for her before. The sweetest +joy was in her heart, and grief in her face. He had been worthy of +himself and her love. While he spoke she told herself, not that some +time she might love him, but that she had given him all her true heart +already. And yet as he was worthy, so she must be worthy and do her +part. + +"You have done me a great honor," she said at last, drawing away her +hand from his grasp, though she did not turn her face, "but it cannot +be, Mr. Maitland. I am very grateful to you--I am indeed, and sorry." + +"Why can it not be?" he said shortly; startled, I am bound to say, and +mortified. + +"Because of--of many things. One is that I should not make you happy, +nor you me. I am not suited to your way of life. I am of the country, +and I love to be free and unconstrained, while you are of the town. +Oh, we should not get on at all! Perhaps you would not be ashamed of +me as your wife, but you might be, and I could not endure the chance +even of it. There," she added, with a laugh in which a woman's ear +might have detected the suppression of a sob, "is one sober reason +where none can be needed." + +"Is that your only reason?" + +She was picking the mortar out of the wall. "Oh, dear me, no! I have a +hundred, but that is a sufficient one," she answered almost +carelessly, flirting a scrap of lime from the wall with her +forefinger. + +"And you have been playing with me all this time!" cried he, obtusely +enraged by her flippancy. + +"Not knowingly, not knowingly, indeed!" + +"Can you tell me that you were not aware that I loved you?" + +"Well, I thought--the fact is, I thought that you were amusing +yourself--in West End fashion." + +"Coquette!" + +"Mr. Maitland!" she cried vehemently, "how dare you? There is proof, +if any were needed, that I am right. You would not have dared to say +that to any of your town acquaintances. I am no coquette. If I have +given you pain, I am very sorry. And--I beg that we may part friends." + +She had begun fiercely, with all her old spirit. He turned away, and +she ended with a sudden, anxious, pitiful lameness, that yet, so angry +and dull of understanding was he, taught him nothing. + +"Friends!" he cried impatiently. "I told you that it was impossible. +Oh, Joan, think again! Have I been too hasty? Have I given you no time +to weigh it? Have I just offended you in some little thing? Then let +me come to you again in three months, after I have been back among my +old friends?" + +"No, don't do that, Mr. Maitland. It will be of no use and will but +give us pain." + +"And yet I will come," he replied firmly, endeavoring by the very +eager longing of his own gaze to draw from her fair, downcast face +some sign of hope. "I will come, if you forbid me a hundred times. And +if you have been playing with me--true, I am in no mood for soft words +now--it shall be your punishment to say me nay, again. I shall be +here, Joan, to ask you in three months from to-day." + +"I cannot prevent you," she said. "Believe me, I shall only have the +same answer for you." + +"I shall come," he said doggedly, and looked at her with eyes +reluctant to quit her drooping lashes lest they should miss some +glance bidding his heart take courage. But none came, only the color +fluttered uncertainly in her face. So he slowly turned away from her +at last and walked across the garden, and out of sight by the gate +into the road. He saw nothing of the long, dusty track, and straggling +hedges bathed in the last glows of sunset. Those big gray eyes, so +frank and true, came again and again between him and the prospect, and +blinded his own with a hot mist of sorrow and anger. Ah, Blore, thou +wast mightily avenged! + + * * * * * + +It is a hot afternoon in August, laden with the hum of dozing life. +The sun has driven the less energetic members of the Quaritch family +into the cool gloom of the drawing room, where the open windows are +shaded by the great cedar. Mrs. Quaritch, upon the sofa, is nodding +over a book. Joan, in a low wicker seat, may be doing the same; while +Agnes, pursuing a favorite employment upon the hearthrug, is now and +again betrayed by a half stifled growl from one or other of the dogs +as they rise and turn themselves reproachfully, and flop down again +with a sigh in a cool place. + +"Agnes," cries her mother, upon some more distinct demonstration of +misery being made, "for goodness' sake leave the dogs alone. They have +not had a moment's peace since lunch." + +"A dog's life isn't peace, mamma," she answers, with the simple air of +a discoverer of truth. But, nevertheless, she looks about for fresh +worlds to conquer. + +"Even Mr. Maitland was better than this," she announces, after a long +yawn of discontent, "though he was dull enough, I wonder why he did +not come in July. Do you know, Joan?" + +"Oh, Agnes, do let us have a moment's peace for once! We are not +dogs," cried Joan fretfully. + +Wonder! she was always wondering. This very minute, while her eyes +were on the page, it was in her mind. Through all those three months +passing hour by hour and day by day, she could assure herself that +when he had come and gone, she would be at rest again; things would be +as before with her. Let him come and go! But when July arrived, and he +did not, a sharper pain made itself felt. Bravely as she strove to +beat it down, well as she might hide it from others, the certainty +that it had needed no second repulse to balk his love sorely hurt her +pride. Just her pride, she told herself; nothing else. That he had not +stood the test he had himself proposed; that any unacknowledged +faintest hope she might have cherished, deep down in her heart, that +he might master her by noble persistence, must now be utterly +quenched; these things of course had no bitterness for her through the +hot August days; had nothing to do with the wearied look that +sometimes dulled the gray eyes, nor with the sudden indifference or as +sudden enthusiasms for lawn tennis and dogs and pigeons, that marked +her daily moods. + +Agnes' teasing, by putting her meditations into words, has disturbed +her. She gets up and moves restlessly about, touching this thing and +that, and at last leaves the room and stands in the hall, thinking. +Here, too, it is dark and cool, and made to seem more so--the door +into the garden being open--by the hot glare of sunshine falling upon +the spotless doorstep. She glances at this listlessly. The house is +still, the servants are at the back; the dogs all worn out by the +heat. Then, as she hesitates, a slight crunching of footsteps upon the +gravel comes to her ear, breaking the silence. A sudden black shadow +falls upon the sunny step and tells of a visitor. Someone chases away +his shadow, and steps upon the stone, and raises his gloved hand to +the bell. Charles Maitland at last! + +Coming straight in from the sunshine he cannot see the swift welcome +that springs to eye and cheek, a flash of light and color, quick to +come and go. He is too much moved himself to mark how her hand shakes. +He sees no difference in her. But she sees a change in him. She +detects some subtle difference that eludes her attempt to define its +nature and only fills her with a vague sense that this is not the +Charles Maitland from whom she parted. + +It is a meeting she has pictured often, but not at all like this. He +signs to her to take him into the dining room, the door of which +stands open. + +"I have come back, Miss Joan." + +"Yes?" she answers, sitting down with an attempt to still the tumult +within, with such success that she brings herself for the moment +nearly to the frame of mind in which they parted, and there is the +same weary sufferance in her tone. + +"I have come back as I said I would. I have overstepped the three +months, but I had a good reason for my delay. Indeed I have been in +doubt whether I ought to see you again at all, only I could not bear +you to think what you naturally would. I felt that I must see you, +even if it cost us both pain." There is a new awkwardness in his tone +and pose. + +"I told you that it was--quite unnecessary--and useless," she answers, +with a strange tightening in her throat. + +"Then it can do you no harm," he assents quietly. "I have come back +not to repeat my petition, but to tell you why I do not and cannot." + +"I think," she puts in coldly, "that upon the whole you had better +spare yourself the unpleasantness of explaining anything to me. Don't +you think so? I asked you for no proof, and held out no hope. Why do +you trouble me? Why have you come back?" + +"You have not changed!" + +For the first time a ring of contempt in her voice takes the place of +cold indifference. "I do not change in three months, Mr. Maitland. But +there! my mother will wish to see you, and so will Agnes, who is +hankering after something to happen. They are in the drawing room." + +"But, Miss Joan, grant me one moment! You have not heard my reasons." + +"Your reasons! Is it absolutely necessary?" she asks, half fretfully, +half scornfully; her uppermost thought an intense desire to be by +herself in her own room, with the door safely locked. + +"I think so, at any rate. Why, I see! By Jove! of course you must +be thinking the worst of me now! Oh, no! if you could not love me, +Joan--pray pardon me, I had no right to call you by your name--you +need not despise me. I cannot again ask you to be my wife, because," +he laughs uneasily, "fortune has put it out of my power to take a +wife. My trustee has made ducks and drakes of my property, or rather +bulls and bears. I have but a trifle left to begin the world upon, and +far too little to marry upon." + +"I read of it in the papers. I saw that a Mr. Maitland was the chief +sufferer, but I did not connect him with you," she says, in a low +voice. + +"No, of course not. How should you?" he answers lightly. But +nevertheless her coldness is dreadful to him. He had thought she would +express some sympathy. And gayly as he talks of it, he feels something +of the importance of a ruined man and something of his claim to pity. + +"And what are you going to do?" + +"Do? We've arranged all that. They say there is a living to be made at +the Bar in New Zealand, if one does not object to riding boots and +spurs as part of the professional costume. Of course it will be a +different sort of life, and Agnes' favorite patent leathers will +be left behind in every sense. This would have been a bad blow to +me"--there is a slight catch in his voice, and he gets up, and looks +out of one of the windows with his back to her--"now I have learned +from you that life should not be all lounging round the table and +looking over other people's cards. It has been a sharp lesson, but +very opportune as things have turned out. I am ready to take a hand +myself now--even without a partner." + +He does not at once turn round. He had not fancied she would take it +like this, and he listens for a word to tell him that at any rate she +is sorry--is grieved as for a stranger. Then he feels a sudden light, +timid touch upon his arm. Joan is standing quite close to him, and +does not move or take away her hand as he turns. Only she looks down +at the floor when she speaks: + +"I think I should be better than--than dummy--if you will take me to +New Zealand." + +Half laughing, half crying, and wholly confused, she looks up into his +astonished face with eyes so brimful of love and tenderness that they +tell all her story. For just an instant his eyes meet hers. Then, with +a smothered exclamation, he draws her to him--and--in fact smothers +the exclamation. + +"I am so glad you've lost your money," she sobs, hiding her face, +as soon as she can, upon his shoulder. "I should not have done at +all--for you--in London, Charley." + +There let us leave her. But no, another is less merciful. Neither of +them hears the door open or sees Agnes' face appear at it. But she +both sees and hears, and says very distinctly and clearly: + +"Well!" + +But even Agnes is happy and satisfied. Something _has_ happened. + + + + + THE FATAL LETTER. + + +I have friends who tell me that they seldom walk the streets of London +without wondering what is passing behind the house-fronts; without +picturing a comedy here, a love-scene there, and behind the dingy cane +blinds a something ill-defined, a something odd and _bizarre_. They +experience--if you believe them--a sense of loneliness out in the +street, an impatience of the sameness of all these many houses, their +dull bricks and discreet windows, and a longing that someone would +step out and ask them to enter and see the play. + +Well, I have never felt any of these things; but as I was passing +through Fitzhardinge Square about half-past ten o'clock one evening in +last July, after dining, if I remember rightly, in Baker Street, +something happened to me which I fancy may be of interest to such +people. + +I was passing through the square from north to south, and to avoid a +small crowd, which some reception had drawn together, I left the +pavement and struck across the road to the path around the oval +garden; which, by the way, contains a few of the finest trees in +London. This part was in deep shadow, so that when I presently emerged +from it and recrossed the road to the pavement near the top of +Fitzhardinge Street, I had an advantage over any persons on the +pavement. They were under the lamps, while I, coming from beneath the +trees, was almost invisible. + +The door of the house immediately in front of me as I crossed was +open, and an elderly man servant out of livery was standing at it, +looking up and down the pavement by turns. It was his air of furtive +anxiety that drew my attention to him. He was not like a man looking +for a cab, or waiting for his sweetheart; and I had my eye upon him as +I stepped upon the pavement before him. But my surprise was great when +he uttered a low exclamation of dismay at sight of me, and made as if +he would escape; while his face, in the full glare of the light, grew +so pale and terror-stricken that he might before have been completely +at his ease. I was astonished and instinctively stood still returning +his gaze; for perhaps twenty seconds we remained so, he speechless, +and his hands fallen by his side. Then, before I could move on, as I +was in the act of doing, he cried, "Oh, Mr. George! Oh! Mr. George!" +in a tone that rang out in the stillness rather as a wail than an +ordinary cry. + +My name, my surname, I mean, is George. For a moment I took the +address to myself, forgetting that the man was a stranger, and my +heart began to beat more quickly with fear of what might have +happened. "What is it?" I exclaimed. "What is it?" and I shook back +from the lower part of my face the silk muffler I was wearing. The +evening was close, but I had been suffering from a sore throat. + +He came nearer and peered more closely at me, and I dismissed my fear; +for I thought that I could see the discovery of his mistake dawning +upon him. His pallid face, on which the pallor was the more noticeable +as his plump features were those of a man with whom the world as a +rule went well, regained some of its lost color, and a sigh of relief +passed his lips. But this feeling was only momentary. The joy of +escape from whatever blow he had thought imminent gave place at once +to his previous state of miserable expectancy of something or other. + +"You took me for another person," I said, preparing to pass on. At +that moment I could have sworn--I would have given one hundred to one +twice over--that he was going to say yes. To my intense astonishment, +he did not. With a very visible effort he said, "No." + +"Eh! What?" I exclaimed. I had taken a step or two. + +"No, sir." + +"Then what is it?" I said. "What do you want, my good fellow?" + +Watching his shuffling, indeterminate manner, I wondered if he were +sane. His next answer reassured me on that point. There was an almost +desperate deliberation about its manner. "My master wishes to see you, +sir, if you will kindly walk in for five minutes," was what he said. + +I should have replied, "Who is your master?" if I had been wise; or +cried, "Nonsense!" and gone my way. But the mind, when it is spurred +by a sudden emergency, often overruns the more obvious course to adopt +a worse. It was possible that one of my intimates had taken the house, +and said in his butler's presence that he wished to see me. Thinking +of that I answered, "Are you sure of this? Have you not made a +mistake, my man?" + +With an obstinate sullenness that was new in him, he said, No he had +not. Would I please to walk in? He stepped briskly forward as he +spake, and induced me by a kind of gentle urgency to enter the house, +taking from me, with the ease of a trained servant, my hat, coat, and +muffler. Finding himself in the course of his duties he gained more +composure; while I, being thus treated, lost my sense of the +strangeness of the proceeding, and only awoke to a full consciousness +of my position when he had softly shut the door behind us and was in +the act of putting up the chain. + +Then I confess I looked round, a little alarmed at my precipitancy. +But I found the hall spacious, lofty, and dark-paneled, the ordinary +hall of an old London house. The big fireplace was filled with plants +in flower. There were rugs on the floor and a number of chairs with +painted crests on the backs, and in a corner was an old sedan chair, +its poles upright against the wall. + +No other servants were visible, it is true. But apart from this all +was in order, all was quiet, and any idea of violence was manifestly +absurd. + +At the same time the affair seemed of the strangest. Why should the +butler in charge of a well-arranged and handsome house--the house of +an ordinary wealthy gentleman--why should he loiter about the open +doorway as if anxious to feel the presence of his kind? Why should he +show such nervous excitement and terror as I had witnessed? Why should +he introduce a stranger? + +I had reached this point when he led the way upstairs. The staircase +was wide, the steps were low and broad. On either side at the head of +the flight stood a beautiful Venus of white Parian marble. They were +not common reproductions, and I paused. I could see beyond them a +Hercules and a Meleager of bronze, and delicately tinted draperies and +ottomans that under the light of a silver hanging lamp--a gem from +Malta--changed a mere lobby to a fairies' nook. The sight filled me +with a certain suspicion; which was dispelled, however, when my hand +rested for an instant upon the reddish pedestal that supported one of +the statues. The cold touch of the marble was enough for me. The +pillars were not of composite; of which they certainly would have +consisted in a gaming house, or worse. + +Three steps carried me across the lobby to a curtained doorway +by which the servant was waiting. I saw that the "shakes" were upon +him again. His impatience was so ill concealed that I was not +surprised--though I was taken aback--when he dropped the mask +altogether, and as I passed him--it being now too late for me to +retreat undiscovered, if the room were occupied--laid a trembling hand +upon my arm and thrust his face close to mine. "Ask how he is! Say +anything," he whispered, trembling, "no matter what, sir! Only, for +the love of Heaven, stay five minutes!" + +He gave me a gentle push forward as he spoke--pleasant, all this!--and +announced in a loud, quavering voice, "Mr. George!" which was true +enough. I found myself walking round a screen at the same time that +something in the room, a long, dimly lighted room, fell with a brisk, +rattling sound, and there was the scuffling noise of a person, still +hidden from me by the screen, rising to his feet in haste. + +Next moment I was face to face with two men. One, a handsome elderly +gentleman, who wore gray mustaches and would have seemed in place at a +service club, was still in his chair, regarding me with a perfectly +calm, unmoved face, as if my entrance at that hour were the commonest +incident of his life. The other had risen and stood looking at me +askance. He was five-and-twenty years younger than his companion and +as good-looking in a different way. But now his face was white and +drawn, distorted by the same expression of terror--ay, and a darker +and fiercer terror than that which I had already seen upon the +servant's features; it was the face of one in a desperate strait. He +looked as a man looks who has put all he has in the world upon an +outsider--and done it twice. In that quiet drawing room by the side of +his placid companion, with nothing whatever in their surroundings to +account for his emotion, his panic-stricken face shocked me +inexpressibly. + +They were in evening dress; and between them was a chess table, its +men in disorder: almost touching this was another small table bearing +a tray of Apollinaris water and spirits. On this the young man was +resting one hand as if, but for its support, he would have fallen. + +To add one more fact, I had never seen either of them in my life. + +Or wait; could that be true? If so, it must indeed have been a +nightmare I was suffering. For the elder man broke the silence by +addressing me in a quiet, ordinary tone that exactly matched his face. +"Sit down, George," he said, "don't stand there. I did not expect you +this evening." He held out his hand, without rising from his chair, +and I advanced and shook it in silence. "I thought you were in +Liverpool. How are you?" he continued. + +"Very well, I thank you," I muttered mechanically. + +"Not very well, I should say," he retorted. "You are as hoarse as a +raven. You have a bad cold at best. It is nothing worse, my boy, is +it?" with anxiety. + +"No, a throat cough; nothing else," I murmured, resigning myself to +this astonishing reception--this evident concern for my welfare on the +part of a man whom I had never seen in my life. + +"That is well!" he answered cheerily. Not only did my presence cause +him no surprise. It gave him, without doubt, actual pleasure! + +It was otherwise with his companion; grimly and painfully so indeed. +He had made no advances to me, spoken no word, scarcely altered +his position. His eyes he had never taken from me. Yet in him there +was a change. He had discovered, exactly as had the butler before +him, his mistake. The sickly terror was gone from his face, and a +half-frightened malevolence, not much more pleasant to witness, had +taken its place. Why this did not break out in any active form was +part of the general mystery given to me to solve. I could only surmise +from glances which he later cast from time to time toward the door, +and from the occasional faint creaking of a board in that direction, +that his self-restraint had to do with my friend the butler. The +inconsequences of dreamland ran through it all: why the elder man +remained in error; why the younger with that passion on his face was +tongue-tied; why the great house was so still; why the servant should +have mixed me up with this business at all--these were questions as +unanswerable, one as the other. + +And the fog in my mind grew denser when the old gentleman turned from +me as if my presence were a usual thing, and rapped the table before +him impatiently. "Now, Gerald!" cried he, in sharp tones, "have you +put those pieces back? Good Heavens! I am glad that I have not nerves +like yours! Don't you remember the squares, boy? Here, give them to +me!" With a hasty gesture of his hand, something like a mesmeric pass +over the board, he set down the half dozen pieces with a rapid tap! +tap! tap! which made it abundantly clear that he, at any rate, had no +doubt of their former positions. + +"You will not mind sitting by until we have finished the game?" he +continued, speaking to me, and in a voice I fancied more genial than +that which he had used to Gerald. "You are anxious to talk to me about +your letter, George?" he went on when I did not answer. "The fact is +that I have not read the inclosure. Barnes, as usual, read the outer +letter to me, in which you said the matter was private and of grave +importance; and I intended to go to Laura to-morrow, as you suggested, +and get her to read the news to me. Now you have returned so soon, I +am glad that I did not trouble her." + +"Just so, sir," I said, listening with all my ears; and wondering. + +"Well, I hope there is nothing very bad the matter, my boy?" he +replied. "However--Gerald! it is your move! ten minutes more of such +play as your brother's, and I shall be at your service." + +Gerald made a hurried move. The piece rattled upon the board as if he +had been playing the castanets. His father made him take it back. I +sat watching the two in wonder and silence. What did it all mean? Why +should Barnes--doubtless behind the screen, listening--read the outer +letter? Why must Laura be employed to read the inner? Why could not +this cultivated and refined gentleman before me read his---- Ah! that +much was disclosed to me. A mere turn of the hand did it. He had made +another of those passes over the board, and I learned from it what an +ordinary examination would not have detected. He, the old soldier with +the placid face and light-blue eyes, was blind! Quite blind! + +I began to see more clearly now, and from this moment I took up, at +any rate in my own mind, a different position. Possibly the servant +who had impelled me into the middle of this had had his own good +reasons for doing so, as I now began to discern. But with a clew to +the labyrinth in my hand, I could no longer move passively at any +other's impulse. I must act for myself. For a while I sat still and +made no sign. My suspicions were presently confirmed. The elder man +more than once scolded his opponent for playing slowly. In one of +these intervals he took from an inside pocket of his dress waistcoat a +small package. + +"You had better take your letter, George," he said. "If there are, as +you mentioned, originals in it, they will be more safe with you than +with me. You can tell me all about it, _viva voce_, now you are here. +Gerald will leave us alone presently." + +He held the papers toward me. To take them would be to take an active +part in the imposture, and I hesitated, my own hand half outstretched. +But my eyes fell at the critical instant upon Master Gerald's face, +and my scruples took themselves off. He was eying the packet with an +intense greed and a trembling longing--a very itching of the fingers +and toes to fall upon the prey--that put an end to my doubts. I rose +and took the papers. With a quiet, but I think significant look in his +direction, I placed them in the breast pocket of my evening coat. I +had no safer receptacle about me, or into that they would have gone. + +"Very well, sir," I said, "there is no particular hurry. I think the +matter will keep, as things now are, until to-morrow." + +"To be sure. You ought not to be out with such a cold at night, my +boy," he answered. "You will find a decanter of the Scotch whisky you +gave me last Christmas on the tray. Will you have some with hot water +and a lemon, George? The servants are all at the theater--Gerald +begged a holiday for them--but Barnes will get you the things in a +minute." + +"Thank you; I won't trouble him. I will take some with cold water," I +replied, thinking I should gain in this way what I wanted--time to +think; five minutes to myself while they played. + +But I was out of my reckoning. "I will have mine now, too," he said. +"Will you mix it, Gerald?" + +Gerald jumped up to do it, with tolerable alacrity. I sat still, +preferring to help myself when he should have attended to his father, +if his father it was. I felt more easy now that I had those papers in +my pocket. The more I thought of it the more certain I became that +they were the object aimed at by whatever deviltry was on foot, and +that possession of them gave me the whip hand. My young gentleman +might snarl and show his teeth, but the prize had escaped him. + +Perhaps I was a little too confident, a little too contemptuous of my +opponent; a little too proud of the firmness with which I had taken at +one and the same time the responsibility and the post of vantage. A +creak of the board behind the screen roused me from my thoughts. It +fell upon my ear trumpet-tongued, a sudden note of warning. I glanced +up with a start and a conviction that I was being caught napping, and +looked instinctively toward the young man. He was busy at the tray, +his back to me. Relieved of my fear of I did not know what,--perhaps a +desperate attack upon my pocket,--I was removing my eyes, when, in +doing so, I caught sight of his reflection in a small mirror beyond +him. Ah! + +What was he busy about? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, at the moment. He +was standing motionless,--I could fancy him breathless also,--a +strange, listening expression on his face, which seemed to me to have +faded to a grayish tinge. His left hand was clasping a half-filled +tumbler, the other was at his waistcoat pocket. So he stood during +perhaps a second or two, a small lamp upon the tray before him +illumining his handsome figure; and then his eyes, glancing up, met +the reflection of mine in the mirror. Swiftly as the thought itself +could pass from brain to limb, the hand which had been resting in the +pocket flashed with a clatter among the glasses; and, turning almost +as quickly, he brought one of the latter to the chess table, and set +it down unsteadily. + +What had I seen? Nothing, actually nothing. Just what Gerald had been +doing. Yet my heart was going as many strokes to the minute as a +losing crew. I rose abruptly. + +"Wait a moment, sir," I said, as the elder man laid his hand upon the +glass. "I don't think that Gerald has mixed this quite as you like +it." + +He had already lifted it to his lips. I looked from him to Gerald. +That young gentleman's color, though he faced me hardily, shifted more +than once, and he seemed to be swallowing a succession of oversized +fives balls; but his eyes met mine in a vicious kind of smile that was +not without its gleam of triumph. I was persuaded that all was right +even before his father said so. + +"Perhaps you have mixed for me, Gerald?" I suggested pleasantly. + +"No!" he answered in sullen defiance. He filled a glass with +something--perhaps it was water--and drank it, his back toward me. He +had not spoken so much as a single word to me before. + +The blind man's ear recognized the tone now. "I wish you boys would +agree better," he said wearily. "Gerald, go to bed. I would as soon +play chess with an idiot from Earlswood. Generally you can play the +game, if you are good for nothing else; but since your brother came +in, you have not made a move which anyone not an imbecile would make. +Go to bed, boy! go to bed!" + +I had stepped to the table while he was speaking. One of the glasses +was full. I lifted it, with seeming unconcern, to my nose. There was +whisky in it as well as water. Then _had_ Gerald mixed for me? At any +rate, I put the tumbler aside, and helped myself afresh. When I set +the glass down empty, my mind was made up. + +"Gerald does not seem inclined to move, sir, so I will," I said +quietly. "I will call in the morning and discuss that matter, if it +will suit you. But to-night I feel inclined to get to bed early." + +"Quite right, my boy. I would ask you to take a bed here instead of +turning out, but I suppose that Laura will be expecting you. Come in +any time tomorrow morning. Shall Barnes call a cab for you?" + +"I think I will walk," I answered, shaking the proffered hand. "By the +way, sir," I added, "have you heard who is the new Home Secretary?" + +"Yes, Henry Matthews," he replied. "Gerald told me. He had heard it at +the club." + +"It is to be hoped that he will have no womanish scruples about +capital punishment," I said, as if I were incidentally considering the +appointment. And with that last shot at Mr. Gerald--he turned green, I +thought, a color which does not go well with a black mustache--I +walked out of the room, so peaceful, so cozy, so softly lighted as it +looked, I remember, and downstairs. I hoped that I had paralyzed the +young fellow, and might leave the house without molestation. + +But, as I gained the foot of the stairs, he tapped me on the shoulder. +I saw, then, looking at him, that I had mistaken my man. Every trace +of the sullen defiance which had marked his manner throughout the +interview upstairs was gone. His face was still pale, but it wore a +gentle smile as we confronted one another under the hall lamp. "I have +not the pleasure of knowing you, but let me thank you for your help," +he said in a low voice, yet with a kind of frank spontaneity. "Barnes' +idea of bringing you in was a splendid one, and I am immensely obliged +to you." + + +[Illustration: "YOU ARE FORGETTING THE PAPERS," HE REMINDED ME.] + + +"Don't mention it," I answered stiffly, proceeding with my +preparations for going out as if he had not been there, although I +must confess that this complete change in him exercised my mind no +little. + +"I feel so sure that we may rely upon your discretion," he went on, +ignoring my tone, "that I need say nothing about that. Of course, we +owe you an explanation, but as your cold is really yours and not my +brother's, you will not mind if I read you the riddle to-morrow +instead of keeping you from your bed to-night?" + +"It will do equally well; indeed better," I said, putting on my +overcoat and buttoning it carefully across my chest, while I affected +to be looking with curiosity at the sedan chair. + +He pointed lightly to the place where the packet lay. "You are +forgetting the papers," he reminded me. His tone almost compelled the +answer: "To be sure." + +But I had pretty well made up my mind, and I answered instead: "Not at +all. They are quite safe, thank you." + +"But you don't---- I beg your pardon," he said, opening his eyes very +wide, as if some new light were beginning to shine upon his mind and +he could scarcely believe its revelations. "You don't really mean that +you are going to take those papers away with you?" + +"Certainly!" + +"My dear sir!" he remonstrated earnestly. "This is preposterous. Pray +forgive me the reminder, but those papers, as my father gave you to +understand, are private papers, which he supposed himself to be +handing to my brother George." + +"Just so," was all I said. And I took a step toward the door. + +"You really mean to take them?" he asked seriously. + +"I do; unless you can satisfactorily explain the part I have played +this evening, and also make it clear to me that you have a right to +the possession of the papers." + +"Confound it! If I must do so tonight, I must!" he said reluctantly. +"I trust to your honor, sir, to keep the explanation secret." I bowed, +and he resumed: "My elder brother and I are in business together. +Lately we have had losses which have crippled us so severely that we +decided to disclose them to Sir Charles and ask his help. George did +so yesterday by letter, giving certain notes of our liabilities. You +ask why he did not make such a statement by word of mouth? Because he +had to go to Liverpool at a moment's notice to make a last effort to +arrange the matter. And as for me," with a curious grimace, "my father +would as soon discuss business with his dog! Sooner!" + +"Well?" I said. He had paused, and was absently nicking the blossoms +off the geraniums in the fireplace with his pocket handkerchief, +looking moodily at his work the while. I cannot remember noticing the +handkerchief, yet I seem to be able to see it now. It had a red +border, and was heavily scented with white rose. "Well?" + +"Well," he continued, with a visible effort, "my father has been +ailing lately, and this morning his usual doctor made him see +Bristowe. He is an authority on heart disease, as you doubtless know; +and his opinion is," he added, in a lower voice and with some emotion, +"that even a slight shock may prove fatal." + +I began to feel hot and uncomfortable. What was I to think? The packet +was becoming as lead in my pocket. + +"Of course," he resumed more briskly, "that threw our difficulties +into the shade at once; and my first impulse was to get these papers +from him. Don't you see that? All day I have been trying in vain to +effect it. I took Barnes, who is an old servant, partially into my +confidence, but we could think of no plan. My father, like many people +who have lost their sight, is jealous, and I was at my wits' end, when +Barnes brought you up. Your likeness," he added in a parenthesis, +looking at me reflectively, "to George put the idea into his head, I +fancy? Yes, it must have been so. When I heard you announced, for a +moment I thought that you were George." + +"And you called up a look of the warmest welcome," I put in dryly. + +He colored, but answered almost immediately, "I was afraid that he +would assume that the governor had read his letter, and blurt out +something about it. Good Lord! if you knew the funk in which I have +been all the evening lest my father should ask either of us to read +the letter!" and he gathered up his handkerchief with a sigh of +relief, and wiped his forehead. + +"I could see it very plainly," I answered, going slowly in my mind +over what he had told me. If the truth must be confessed, I was in no +slight quandary what I should do, or what I should believe. Was this +really the key to it all? Dared I doubt it? or that that which I had +constructed was a mare's nest--the mere framework of a mare's nest. +For the life of me I could not tell! + +"Well?" he said presently, looking up with an offended air. "Is there +anything else I can explain? or will you have the kindness to return +my property to me now?" + +"There is one thing, about which I should like to ask a question," I +said. + +"Ask on!" he replied; and I wondered whether there was not a little +too much of bravado in the tone of sufferance he assumed. + +"Why do you carry"--I went on, raising my eyes to his, and pausing on +the word an instant--"that little medicament--you know what I mean--in +your waistcoat pocket, my friend?" + +He perceptibly flinched. "I don't quite--quite understand," he began +to stammer. Then he changed his tone and went on rapidly, "No! I will +be frank with you, Mr.--Mr.----" + +"George," I said calmly. + +"Ah, indeed?" a trifle surprised, "Mr. George! Well, it is something +Bristowe gave me this morning to be administered to my father--without +his knowledge, if possible--whenever he grows excited. I did not think +that you had seen it." + +Nor had I. I had only inferred its presence. But having inferred +rightly once, I was inclined to trust my inference farther. Moreover, +while he gave this explanation, his breath came and went so quickly +that my former suspicions returned. I was ready for him when he said, +"Now I will trouble you, if you please, for those papers?" and held +out his hand. + +"I cannot give them to you," I replied, point-blank. + +"You cannot give them to me now?" he repeated. + +"No. Moreover, the packet is sealed. I do not see, on second thoughts, +what harm I can do you--now that it is out of your father's hands--by +keeping it until to-morrow, when I will return it to your brother, +from whom it came." + +"He will not be in London," he answered doggedly. He stepped between +me and the door with looks which I did not like. At the same time I +felt that some allowance must be made for a man treated in this way. + +"I am sorry," I said, "but I cannot do what you ask. I will do this, +however. If you think the delay of importance, and will give me your +brother's address in Liverpool, I will undertake to post the letters +to him at once." + +He considered the offer, eying me the while with the same disfavor +which he had exhibited in the drawing room. At last he said slowly, +"If you will do that?" + +"I will," I repeated. "I will do it immediately." + +He gave me the direction--"George Ritherdon, at the London and +Northwestern Hotel, Liverpool"--and in return I gave him my own name +and address. Then I parted from him, with a civil good-night on either +side--and little liking, I fancy--the clocks striking midnight, and +the servants coming in as I passed out into the cool darkness of the +square. + +Late as it was I went straight to my club, determined that, as I had +assumed the responsibility, there should be no laches on my part. +There I placed the packet, together with a short note explaining how +it came into my possession, in an outer envelope, and dropped the +whole, duly directed and stamped, into the nearest pillar box. I could +not register it at that hour, and rather than wait until next morning, +I omitted the precaution; merely requesting Mr. Ritherdon to +acknowledge its receipt. + +Well, some days passed; during which it may be imagined that I thought +no little about my odd experience. It was the story of the Lady and +the Tiger over again. I had the choice of two alternatives at least. I +might either believe the young fellow's story, which certainly had the +merit of explaining in a fairly probable manner an occurrence of so +odd a character as not to lend itself freely to explanation. Or I +might disbelieve his story, plausible in its very strangeness as it +was, in favor of my own vague suspicions. Which was I to do? + +Well, I set out by preferring the former alternative. This, +notwithstanding that I had to some extent committed myself against it +by withholding the papers. But with each day that passed without +bringing me an answer from Liverpool, I leaned more and more to the +other side. I began to pin my faith to the Tiger, adding each morning +a point to the odds in the animal's favor. So it went on until ten +days had passed. + +Then a little out of curiosity, but more, I gravely declare, because I +thought it the right thing to do, I resolved to seek out George +Ritherdon. I had no difficulty in learning where he might be found. +I turned up the firm of Ritherdon Brothers (George and Gerald), +cotton-spinners and India merchants, in the first directory I +consulted. And about noon the next day I called at their place of +business, and sent in my card to the senior partner. I waited five +minutes--curiously scanned by the porter, who no doubt saw a likeness +between me and his employer--and then I was admitted to the latter's +room. + +He was a tall man with a fair beard, not one whit like Gerald, and yet +tolerably good looking; if I say more I shall seem to be describing +myself. I fancied him to be balder about the temples, however, and +grayer and more careworn than the man I am in the habit of seeing in +my shaving glass. His eyes, too, had a hard look, and he seemed in ill +health. All these things I took in later. At the time I only noticed +his clothes. "So the old gentleman is dead," I thought, "and the young +one's tale is true, after all?" George Ritherdon was in deep mourning. + +"I wrote to you," I began, taking the seat to which he pointed, "about +a fortnight ago." + +He looked at my card, which he held in his hand. "I think not," he +said slowly. + +"Yes," I repeated. "You were then at the London and Northwestern +Hotel, at Liverpool." + +He was stepping to his writing table, but he stopped abruptly. "I was +in Liverpool," he answered, in a different tone, "but I was not at +that hotel. You are thinking of my brother, are you not?" + +"No," I said. "It was your brother who told me you were there." + +"Perhaps you had better explain what was the subject of your letter," +he suggested, speaking in the weary tone of one returning to a painful +matter. "I have been through a great trouble lately, and this may well +have been overlooked." + +I said I would, and as briefly as possible I told the main facts of my +strange visit in Fitzhardinge Square. He was much moved, walking up +and down the room as he listened, and giving vent to exclamations from +time to time, until I came to the arrangement I had finally made with +his brother. Then he raised his hand as one might do in pain. + +"Enough!" he said abruptly. "Barnes told me a rambling tale of some +stranger. I understand it all now." + +"So do I, I think!" I replied dryly. "Your brother went to Liverpool, +and received the papers in your name?" + +He murmured what I took for "Yes." But he did not utter a single word +of acknowledgment to me, or of reprobation of his brother's deceit. I +thought some such word should have been spoken; and I let my feelings +carry me away. "Let me tell you," I said warmly, "that your brother is +a----" + +"Hush!" he said, holding up his hand again. "He is dead." + +"Dead!" I repeated, shocked and amazed. + +"Have you not read of it in the papers? It is in all the papers," he +said wearily. "He committed suicide--God forgive me for it!--at +Liverpool, at the hotel you have mentioned, and the day after you saw +him." + +And so it was. He had committed some serious forgery--he had always +been wild, though his father, slow to see it, had only lately closed +his purse to him--and the forged signatures had come into his +brother's power. He had cheated his brother before. There had long +been bad blood between them; the one being as cold, businesslike, and +masterful as the other was idle and jealous. + +"I told him," the elder said to me, shading his eyes with his hand, +"that I should let him be prosecuted--that I would not protect or +shelter him. The threat nearly drove him mad; and while it was hanging +over him, I wrote to disclose the matter to Sir Charles. Gerald +thought his last chance lay in recovering this letter unread. The +proofs against him destroyed, he might laugh at me. His first attempts +failed; and then he planned, with Barnes' cognizance, to get +possession of the packet by drugging my father's whisky. Barnes' +courage deserted him; he called you in, and--and you know the rest." + +"But," I said softly, "your brother did get the letter--at Liverpool." + +George Ritherdon groaned. "Yes," he said, "he did. But the proofs were +not inclosed. After writing the outside letter I changed my mind, and +withheld them, explaining my reasons within. He found his plot laid in +vain; and it was under the shock of this disappointment--the packet +lay before him, resealed and directed to me--that he--that he did it. +Poor Gerald!" + +"Poor Gerald!" I said. What else remained to be said? + +It may be a survival of superstition, yet, when I dine in Baker Street +now, I take some care to go home by any other route than that through +Fitzhardinge Square. + + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The King's Stratagem and Other Stories, by +Stanley J. 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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: The King's Stratagem and Other Stories + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: March 20, 2012 [EBook #39217] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING'S STRATAGEM, OTHER STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the +Web Archive (Harvard University) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> +<br> +1. Page scan source:<br> +<br> +http://www.archive.org/details/kingsstratagema00weymgoog<br> +(Harvard University)</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p class="center"><img src="images/front.png" alt="front"><br> +"HE WAS ALONE WITH HIS TRIUMPH."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE</h3> +<br> + +<h1>KING'S STRATAGEM</h1> +<br> + +<h3><i>AND OTHER STORIES</i></h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h5>BY</h5> + + +<h2>STANLEY J. WEYMAN</h2> + + +<h5><i>Author of "A Gentleman of France," "Under the Red Robe,"<br> + +"My Lady Rotha," etc., etc</i>.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="W10"> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>NEW YORK</h4> + +<h3>A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY</h3> + +<h5><span class="sc">70 Fifth Avenue</span></h5> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1891,<br> + +BY</span><br> + +A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<div style="margin-left:30%"> +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01"><span class="sc">The King's Stratagem</span></a>,</p> + + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02"><span class="sc">The Body-birds Of Court,</span></a>,</p> + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03"><span class="sc">In Cupid's Toils,</span></a>,</p> + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04"><span class="sc">The Drift Of Fate,</span></a>,</p> + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05"><span class="sc">A Blore Manor Episode,</span></a>,</p> + +<p class="continue"><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06"><span class="sc">The Fatal Letter</span></a>,</p> +</div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h2><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">THE KING'S STRATAGEM.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">In the days when Henry IV. of France was King of Navarre only, and in +that little kingdom of hills and woods which occupies the southwest +corner of the larger country, was with difficulty supporting the +Huguenot cause against the French court and the Catholic League--in +the days when every isolated castle, from the Garonne to the Pyrenees, +was a bone of contention between the young king and the crafty +queen-mother, Catherine de Medicis, a conference between these notable +personages took place in the picturesque town of La Réole.</p> + +<p class="normal">La Réole still rises gray, time-worn, and half-ruined on a lofty cliff +above the broad green waters of the Garonne, forty odd miles from +Bordeaux. But it is a small place now. In the days of which we are +speaking, however, it was important, strongly fortified, and guarded +by a castle which looked down on a thousand red-tiled roofs, rising in +terraces from the river. As the meeting-place of the two sovereigns it +was for the time as gay as Paris itself, Catherine having brought with +her a bevy of fair maids of honor, in the effect of whose charms she +perhaps put as much trust as in her own diplomacy. But the peaceful +appearance of the town was delusive, for even while every other house +in it rang with music and silvery laughter, each party was ready to +fly to arms without warning, if it saw that any advantage was to be +gained thereby.</p> + +<p class="normal">On an evening shortly before the end of the conference two men sat at +play in a room, the deep-embrasured window of which looked down from a +considerable height upon the river. The hour was late, and the town +silent. Outside, the moonlight fell bright and pure on sleeping fields +and long, straight lines of poplars. Within the room a silver lamp +suspended from the ceiling threw light upon the table, leaving the +farther parts of the room in shadow. The walls were hung with faded +tapestry. On the low bedstead in one corner lay a handsome cloak, a +sword, and one of the clumsy pistols of the period. Across a chair lay +another cloak and sword, and on the window seat, beside a pair of +saddlebags, were strewn half a dozen such trifles as soldiers carried +from camp to camp--a silver comfit-box, a jeweled dagger, a mask, and +velvet cap.</p> + +<p class="normal">The faces of the players, as they bent over the dice, were in shadow. +One--a slight, dark man of middle height, with a weak chin, and a +mouth as weak, but shaded by a dark mustache--seemed, from the +occasional oaths which he let drop, to be losing heavily. Yet his +opponent, a stouter and darker man, with a sword-cut across his left +temple, and that swaggering air which has at all times marked the +professional soldier, showed no signs of triumph or elation. On the +contrary, though he kept silence, or spoke only a formal word or two, +there was a gleam of anxiety and suppressed excitement in his eyes, +and more than once he looked keenly at his companion, as if to judge +of his feelings or learn whether the time had come for some experiment +which he meditated. But for this, an observer looking in through the +window would have taken the two for only one more instance of the hawk +and pigeon.</p> + +<p class="normal">At last the younger player threw down the caster, with a groan.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have the luck of the Evil One," he said bitterly. "How much is +that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Two thousand crowns," replied the other without emotion. "You will +play no more?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! I wish to Heaven I had never played at all!" was the answer. As +he spoke the loser rose, and going to the window stood looking moodily +out.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a few moments the elder man remained seated, gazing at him +furtively, but at length he too rose, and, stepping softly to his +companion, touched him on the shoulder. "Your pardon a moment, M. le +Vicomte," he said. "Am I right in concluding that the loss of this sum +will inconvenience you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A thousand fiends!" exclaimed the young vicomte, turning on him +wrathfully. "Is there any man whom the loss of two thousand crowns +would not inconvenience? As for me----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"For you," continued the other, smoothly filling up the pause, "shall +I be wrong in saying that it means something like ruin?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, sir, and if it does?" the young man retorted, drawing himself +up haughtily, his cheek a shade paler with passion. "Depend upon it +you shall be paid. Do not be afraid of that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gently, gently, my friend," the winner answered, his patience in +strong contrast with the other's violence. "I had no intention of +insulting you, believe me. Those who play with the Vicomte de +Lanthenon are not wont to doubt his honor. I spoke only in your own +interest. It has occurred to me, vicomte, that the matter might be +arranged at less cost to yourself."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How?" was the curt question.</p> + +<p class="normal">"May I speak freely?" The vicomte shrugged his shoulders, and the +other, taking silence for consent, proceeded: "You, vicomte, are +Governor of Lusigny for the King of Navarre; I, of Créance, for the +King of France. Our towns lie only three leagues apart. Could I, by +any chance, say on one of these fine nights, become master of Lusigny, +it would be worth more than two thousand crowns to me. Do you +understand?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," the young man answered slowly, "I do not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Think over what I have said, then," was the brief answer.</p> + +<p class="normal">For a full minute there was silence in the room. The vicomte gazed out +of the window with knitted brows and compressed lips, while his +companion, sitting down, leaned back in his chair, with an air of +affected carelessness. Outside, the rattle of arms and hum of voices +told that the watch were passing through the street. The church bell +struck one. Suddenly the vicomte burst into a hoarse laugh, and, +turning, snatched up his cloak and sword. "The trap was very well +laid, M. le Capitaine," he said almost jovially; "but I am still sober +enough to take care of myself--and of Lusigny. I wish you good-night. +You shall have your money, never fear."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Still, I am afraid it will cost you dearly," the captain answered, as +he rose and moved toward the door to open it for his guest. His hand +was already on the latch when he paused. "Look here," he said, "what +do you say to this, then? I will stake the two thousand crowns you +have lost to me, and another thousand besides against your town. Fool! +no one can hear us. If you win, you go off a free man with my +thousand. If you lose, you put me in possession one of these fine +nights. What do you say to that? A single throw to decide."</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man's pale face reddened. He turned, and his eyes sought the +table and the dice irresolutely. The temptation indeed came at an +unfortunate moment, when the excitement of play had given way to +depression, and he saw nothing before him outside the door, on which +his hand was laid, but the cold reality of ruin. The temptation to +return, and by a single throw set himself right with the world was too +much for him. Slowly he came back to the table. "Confound you!" he +said irritably. "I think you are the devil himself, captain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't talk child's talk!" said the other coldly, drawing back as his +victim advanced. "If you do not like the offer you need not take it."</p> + +<p class="normal">But the young man's fingers had already closed on the dice. Picking +them up he dropped them once, twice, thrice on the table, his eyes +gleaming with the play-fever. "If I win?" he said doubtfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You carry away a thousand crowns," answered the captain quietly. "If +you lose you contrive to leave one of the gates of Lusigny open for me +before next full moon. That is all."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what if I lose, and not pay the forfeit?" asked the vicomte, +laughing weakly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I trust to your honor," said the captain. And, strange as it may +seem, he knew his man. The young noble of the day might betray his +cause and his trust, but the debt of honor incurred at play was +binding on him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," said the vicomte, "I agree. Who is to throw first?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you will," replied the captain, masking under an appearance of +indifference a real excitement which darkened his cheek, and caused +the pulse in the old wound on his face to beat furiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then do you go first," said the vicomte.</p> + +<p class="normal">"With your permission," assented the captain. And taking the dice up +in the caster he shook them with a practiced hand, and dropped them on +the board. The throw was seven.</p> + +<p class="normal">The vicomte took up the caster and, as he tossed the dice into it, +glanced at the window. The moonlight shining athwart it fell in +silvery sheen on a few feet of the floor. With the light something of +the silence and coolness of the night entered also, and appealed to +him. For a few seconds he hesitated. He even made as if he would have +replaced the box on the table. But the good instinct failed. It was +too late, and with a muttered word, which his dry lips refused to +articulate, he threw the dice. Seven!</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither of the men spoke, but the captain rattled the cubes, and again +flung them on the table, this time with a slight air of bravado. They +rolled one over the other and lay still. Seven again.</p> + +<p class="normal">The young vicomte's brow was damp, and his face pale and drawn. He +forced a quavering laugh, and with an unsteady hand took his turn. The +dice fell far apart, and lay where they fell. Six!</p> + +<p class="normal">The winner nodded gravely. "The luck is still with me," he said, +keeping his eyes on the table that the light of triumph which had +suddenly leapt into them might not be seen. "When do you go back to +your command, vicomte?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The unhappy man stood like one stunned, gazing at the two little cubes +which had cost him so dearly. "The day after to-morrow," he muttered +hoarsely, striving to collect himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then we shall say the following evening?" asked the captain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"We quite understand one another," continued the winner, eyeing his +man watchfully, and speaking with more urgency. "I may depend on you, +M. le Vicomte, I presume?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Lanthenons have never been wanting to their word," the young +nobleman answered, stung into sudden haughtiness. "If I live I will +put Lusigny into your hands, M. le Captaine. Afterward I will do my +best to recover it--in another way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall be entirely at your disposal," replied the captain, bowing +lightly. And in a moment he was alone--alone with his triumph, his +ambition, his hopes for the future--alone with the greatness to which +his capture of Lusigny was to be the first step, and which he should +enjoy not a whit the less because as yet fortune had dealt out to him +more blows than caresses, and he was still at forty, after a score of +years of roughest service, the governor of a paltry country town.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile, in the darkness of the narrow streets the vicomte was +making his way to his lodgings in a state of despair and unhappiness +most difficult to describe. Chilled, sobered, and affrighted he looked +back and saw how he had thrown for all and lost all, how he had saved +the dregs of his fortune at the expense of his loyalty, how he had +seen a way of escape and lost it forever! No wonder that as he trudged +alone through the mud and darkness of the sleeping town his breath +came quickly and his chest heaved, and he looked from side to side as +a hunted animal might, uttering great sighs. Ah, if he could only have +retraced the last three hours!</p> + +<p class="normal">Worn out and exhausted, he entered his lodging, and, securing the door +behind him, stumbled up the stone stairs and entered his room. The +impulse to confide his misfortunes to someone was so strong upon him +that he was glad to see a dark form half sitting, half lying in a +chair before the dying embers of a wood fire. In those days a +man's natural confidant was his valet, the follower, half-friend, +half-servant, who had been born on his estate, who lay on a pallet at +the foot of his bed, who carried his <i>billets-doux</i> and held his cloak +at the duello, who rode near his stirrup in fight and nursed him in +illness, who not seldom advised him in the choice of a wife, and lied +in support of his suit.</p> + +<p class="normal">The young vicomte flung his cloak over a chair. "Get up, you rascal!" +he cried impatiently. "You pig, you dog!" he continued, with +increasing anger. "Sleeping there as though your master were not +ruined by that scoundrel of a Breton! Bah!" he added, gazing bitterly +at his follower, "you are of the <i>canaille</i>, and have neither honor to +lose nor a town to betray!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The sleeping man moved In his chair and half turned. The vicomte, his +patience exhausted, snatched the bonnet from his head, and threw it on +the ground. "Will you listen?" he said. "Or go, if you choose look for +another master. I am ruined! Do you hear? Ruined, Gil! I have lost +all--money, land, Lusigny itself, at the dice!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The man, aroused at last, stooped with a lazy movement, and picking up +his hat dusted it with his hand, and rose with a yawn to his feet.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid, vicomte," he said, his tones, quiet as they were, +sounding like thunder in the vicomte's astonished and bewildered ears, +"I am afraid that if you have lost Lusigny, you have lost something +which was not yours to lose!"</p> + +<p class="normal">As he spoke he struck the embers with his foot, and the fire, blazing +up, shone on his face. The vicomte saw, with unutterable confusion and +dismay, that the man before him was not Gil at all, but the last +person in the world to whom he should have betrayed himself. The +astute smiling eyes, the aquiline nose, the high forehead, and +projecting chin, which the short beard and mustache scarcely +concealed, were only too well known to him. He stepped back with a cry +of horror. "Sire!" he said, and then his tongue failed him. He stood +silent, pale, convicted, his chin on his breast. The man to whom he +had confessed his treachery was the master whom he had conspired to +betray.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had suspected something of this," Henry of Navarre continued, after +a pause, a tinge of irony in his tone. "Rosny told me that that old +fox, the Captain of Créance, was affecting your company a good deal, +M. le Vicomte, and I find that, as usual, his suspicions were well +founded. What with a gentleman who shall be nameless, who has bartered +a ford and a castle for the favor of Mlle. de Luynes, and yourself, I +am blest with some faithful followers! For shame!" he continued, +seating himself with dignity, "have you nothing to say for yourself?"</p> + +<p class="normal">The young noble stood with his head bowed, his face white. This was +ruin, indeed, absolutely irremediable. "Sire," he said at last, "your +Majesty has a right to my life, not to my honor."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your honor!" quoth Henry, biting contempt in his tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">The young man started, and for a second his cheek flamed under the +well-deserved reproach; but he recovered himself. "My debt to your +Majesty," he said, "I am willing to pay."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Since pay you must," Henry muttered softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I claim to pay also my debt to the Captain of Créance."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh," the king answered. "So you would have me take your worthless +life, and give up Lusigny?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am in your hands, sire."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Pish, sir!" Henry replied in angry astonishment. "You talk like a +child. Such an offer, M. de Lanthenon, is folly, and you know it. Now +listen to me. It was lucky for you that I came in to-night, intending +to question you. Your madness is known to me only, and I am willing to +overlook it. Do you hear? Cheer up, therefore, and be a man. You are +young; I forgive you. This shall be between you and me only," the +young prince continued, his eyes softening as the other's head +drooped, "and you need think no more of it until the day when I shall +say to you, 'Now, M. de Lanthenon, for France and for Henry, strike!'"</p> + +<p class="normal">He rose as the last word passed his lips, and held out his hand. The +vicomte fell on one knee, and kissed it reverently, then sprang to his +feet again. "Sire," he said, standing erect, his eyes shining, "you +have punished me heavily, more heavily than was needful. There is only +one way in which I can show my gratitude, and that is by ridding you +of a servant who can never again look your enemies in the face."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What new folly is this?" said Henry sternly. "Do you not understand +that I have forgiven you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Therefore I cannot give up Lusigny, and I must acquit myself of my +debt to the Captain of Créance in the only way which remains," replied +the young man, firmly. "Death is not so hard that I would not meet it +twice over rather than again betray my trust."</p> + +<p class="normal">"This is midsummer madness!" said the king hotly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Possibly," replied the vicomte, without emotion; "yet of a kind to +which your Majesty is not altogether a stranger."</p> + +<p class="normal">The words appealed strongly to that love of the chivalrous which +formed part of the king's nature, and was one cause alike of his +weakness and his strength, which in its more extravagant flights gave +opportunity after opportunity to his enemies, in its nobler and saner +expressions won victories which all his astuteness and diplomacy could +not have compassed. He stood looking with half-hidden admiration at +the man whom two minutes before he had despised.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think you are in jest," he said presently.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, sire," the young man answered gravely. "In my country they have a +proverb about us. 'The Lanthenons,' say they, 'have ever been bad +players, but good payers.' I will not be the first to be worse than my +name!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke with so quiet a determination that the king was staggered, +and for a minute or two paced the room in silence, inwardly reviling +the generous obstinacy of his weak-kneed supporter, yet unable to +withhold his admiration from it. At length he stopped, with a low, +abrupt exclamation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait!" he cried. "I have it! <i>Ventre Saint Gris</i>, man, I have it!" +His eyes sparkled, and, with a gentle laugh, he hit the table a +sounding blow. "Ha! ha! I have it!" he repeated joyously.</p> + +<p class="normal">The young noble gazed at him in surprise, half sullen, half +incredulous. But when Henry, in low, rapid tones, had expounded his +plan, the vicomte's face underwent a change. Hope and life sprang into +it. The blood flew to his cheeks. His whole aspect softened. In a +moment he was on his knee, mumbling the king's hand, his eyes full of +joy and gratitude. After that the two talked long, the murmur of their +voices broken more than once by the ripple of low laughter. When they +at length separated, and Henry, his face hidden by the folds of his +cloak, had stolen away to his lodgings, where, no doubt, more than one +watcher was awaiting him with a mind full of anxious fears, the +vicomte threw open his window and looked out on the night. The moon +had set, but the stars still shone peacefully in the dark canopy +above. He remembered on a sudden, his throat choking with silent +repressed emotion, that he was looking toward his home--the stiff gray +pile among the beech woods of Navarre which had been in his family +since the days of St. Louis, and which he had so lightly risked. And +he registered a vow in his heart that of all Henry's servants he would +henceforth be the most faithful.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the Captain of Créance was enjoying the sweets of coming +triumph. He did not look out into the night, it is true, but pacing up +and down the room he planned and calculated, considering how he might +make the most of his success. He was still comparatively young. He had +years of strength before him. He would rise. He would not easily be +satisfied. The times were troubled, opportunities many, fools many; +bold men with brains and hands few.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the same time he knew that he could be sure of nothing until +Lusigny was actually his, and he spent the next few days in +considerable suspense. But no hitch occurred. The vicomte made the +necessary communications to him; and men in his own pay informed him +of dispositions ordered by the governor of Lusigny which left him in +no doubt that the loser intended to pay his debt.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was, therefore, with a heart already gay with anticipation that the +Captain rode out of Créance two hours before midnight on an evening +eight days later. The night was dark, but he knew the road well. He +had with him a powerful force, composed in part of thirty of his own +garrison, bold, hardy fellows, and in part of six score horsemen, lent +him by the governor of Montauban. As the vicomte had undertaken to +withdraw, under some pretense or other, one-half of his command, and +to have one of the gates opened by a trusty hand, the captain trotted +along in excellent spirits, and stopped to scan with approval the dark +line of his troopers as they plodded past him, the jingle of their +swords and corselets ringing sweet music in his ears. He looked for an +easy victory; but it was not any slight misadventure that would rob +him of his prey. As his company wound on by the riverside, their +accouterments reflected in the stream, or passed into the black shadow +of the olive grove which stands a mile to the east of Lusigny, he felt +little doubt of the success of his enterprise.</p> + +<p class="normal">Treachery apart, that is; and of treachery there was no sign. The +troopers had scarcely halted under the last clump of trees before a +figure detached itself from one of the largest trunks, and advanced to +their leader's rein. The captain saw with surprise that it was the +vicomte himself. For a second he thought something had gone wrong, but +the young noble's first words reassured him. "It is all right," M. de +Lanthenon whispered, as the captain bent down to him. "I have kept my +word, and I think that there will be no resistance. The planks for +crossing the moat lie opposite the gate. Knock thrice at the latter, +and it will be opened. There are not fifty armed men in the place."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good!" the captain answered, in the same cautious tone. "But you----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am believed, to be elsewhere, and must be gone. I have far to ride +tonight. Farewell."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Till we meet again," the captain answered; and with that his ally +glided away and was lost in the darkness. A cautious word set the +troop again in motion, and a very few minutes saw them standing on +the edge of the moat, the outline of the gateway tower looming above +them, a shade darker than the wrack of clouds which overhead raced +silently across the sky. A moment of suspense, while one and another +shivered--for there is that in a night attack which touches the nerves +of the stoutest--and the planks were found, and as quietly as possible +laid across the moat. This was so successfully done that it evoked no +challenge, and the captain crossing quickly with some picked men stood +almost in the twinkling of an eye under the shadow of the gateway. +Still no sound was heard save the hurried breathing of those at his +elbow or the stealthy tread of others crossing. Cautiously he knocked +three times and waited. The third rap had scarcely sounded, however, +before the gate rolled silently open, and he sprang in, followed by +his men.</p> + +<p class="normal">So far so good. A glance at the empty street and the porter's pale +face told him at once that the vicomte had kept his word. But he was +too old a soldier to take anything for granted, and forming up his men +as quickly as they entered, he allowed no one to advance until all +were inside, and then, his trumpet sounding a wild note of defiance, +his force sprang forward in two compact bodies and in a moment the +town awoke to find itself in the hands of the enemy.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the vicomte had promised, there was no resistance. In the small +keep a score of men did indeed run to arms, but only to lay them down +without striking a blow when they became aware of the force opposed to +them. Their leader, sullenly acquiescing, gave up his sword and the +keys of the town to the victorious captain, who, as he sat his horse +in the middle of the market-place, giving his orders and sending off +riders with the news, already saw himself in fancy governor of a +province and Knight of the Holy Ghost.</p> + +<p class="normal">As the red light of the torches fell on steel caps and polished +hauberks, on the serried ranks of pikemen, and the circle of +white-faced townsmen, the picturesque old square looked doubly +picturesque. Every five minutes, with a clatter of iron on the rough +pavement and a shower of sparks, a horseman sprang away to tell the +news at Montauban or Cahors; and every time that this occurred, the +captain, astride on his charger, felt a new sense of power and +triumph.</p> + +<p class="normal">Suddenly the low murmur of voices was broken by a new sound, the +hurried clang of hoofs, not departing but arriving. There was +something in the noise which made the captain prick his ears, and +secured for the messenger a speedy passage through the crowd. Even at +the last the man did not spare his horse, but spurring to the +captain's side, then and then only sprang to the ground. His face was +pale, his eyes were bloodshot. His right arm was bound up in +bloodstained cloths. With an oath of amazement, the captain recognized +the officer whom he had left in charge of Créance and thundered out, +"What is it?"</p> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/p24.png" alt="p24"><br> +"THEY HAVE GOT CRÉANCE!"</p> + + +<p class="normal">"They have got Créance!" the man gasped, reeling as he spoke. "They +have got Créance!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who?" the captain shrieked, his face purple with rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The little man of Béarn! He assaulted it five hundred strong an hour +after you left, and had the gate down before we could fire a dozen +shots. We did what we could, but we were but one to seven. I swear, +captain, we did all we could. Look at this!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Almost black in the face, the captain swore another frightful oath. +It was not only that he saw governorship and honors vanish like +will-o'-the-wisps, but that he saw even more quickly that he had made +himself the laughing-stock of a kingdom! And he had. To this day among +the stories which the southern French love to tell of the prowess and +astuteness of the great Henry, there is none more frequently told, or +more frequently laughed over, than that of the famous exchange of +Créance for Lusigny.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">THE BODY-BIRDS OF +COURT.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Eighty-eight when he died! That is a great age," I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes indeed. But he was a very clever man, was Robert Evans, Court, +and brewed good beer," my companion answered. "His home-brewed was +known, I am certain, for more than ten miles. You will have heard of +his body-birds, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"His body-birds?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, to be sure. Robert Evans Court's body-birds!" And he looked at +me, quick to suspect that his English was deficient. He had learned it +in part from books; and hence the curious mixture I presently noted of +Welsh idioms and formal English phrases. It was his light trap in +which I was being helped on my journey, and his genial chat which was +lightening that journey; which lay through a part of Carnarvonshire +usually traversed only by wool merchants and cattle dealers--a country +of upland farms swept by the sea breezes, where English is not spoken +even now by one person in a hundred, and even at inns and post-offices +you get only "<i>Dim Sassenach</i>," for your answer. "Do you not say," he +went on, "body-birds in English? Oh, but to be sure, it is in the +Bible!" with a sudden recovery of his self-esteem.</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure!" I replied hurriedly. "Of course it is! But as to Mr. +Robert Evans, cannot you tell me the story?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I'll be bound there is no man in North or South Wales, or +Carnarvonshire, that could tell it better, for Gwen Madoc, of whom you +shall hear presently, was aunt to me. You see Robert Evans"--and my +friend settled himself in his seat and prepared to go slowly up the +long, steep hill of Rhiw which rose before us--"Robert Evans lived in +an old house called Court, near the sea, very windy and lonesome. He +was a warm man. He had Court from his father, and he had mortgages, +and as many as four lawsuits. But he was unlucky in his family. He had +years back three sons who helped on the farm, or at times fished; for +there is a cove at Court, and good boats. Of these sons only one was +married--to a Scotchwoman from Bristol, I have heard, who had had a +husband before, a merchant captain, and she brought with her to Court +a daughter, Peggy, ready-made as we say. Well, of those three fine +men, there was not one left in a year. They were out fishing in a boat +together, and Evan--that was the married one--was steering as they +came into the cove on a spring tide running very high with a south +wind. He steered a little to one side--not more than six inches, upon +my honor--and pah! in an hour their bodies were thrown up on Robert +Evans' land just like bits of seaweed. But that was not all. Evan's +wife was on the beach at the time, so near she could have thrown a +stone into the boat. They do say that before she was pining away at +Court--it was bleak and lonesome and cold, in the winters, and she had +been used to live in the towns. But, however, she never held up her +head after Evan was drowned. She took to her bed, and died in the +short month. And then of all at Court there were left only Robert +Evans and the child Peggy."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How old was she then?" I asked. He had paused, and was looking +thoughtfully before, as striving, it would seem, to make the situation +quite clear to himself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was twelve, and the old man eighty and more. She was in no way +related to him, you will remember, but he had her stop, and let her +want for nothing that did not cost money. He was very careful of +money, as was right. It was that made him the man he was. But there +were some who would have given money to be rid of her. Year in and +year out they never let the old man rest but that he should send her +to service at least--though her father had been the captain of a big +ship; and if Robert Evans had not been a stiff man of his years, they +would have had their will."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But who----"</p> + +<p class="normal">By a gesture he stopped the words on my lips as there rose +mysteriously out of the silence about us a sound of wings, a chorus +of shrill cries. A hundred white forms swept overhead, and fell a +white cluster about something in a distant field. They were sea gulls. +"Just those same!" he said proudly, jerking his whip in their +direction--"body-birds. When the news that Robert Evans' sons were +drowned got about, there was a pretty uprising in Carnarvonshire. +There seemed to be Evanses where there had never been Evanses before. +As many as twenty walked in the funeral, and you may be sure that +afterward they did not leave the old man to himself. The Llewellyn +Evanses were foremost. They had had a lawsuit with Court, but made it +up now. Besides there were Mr. and Mrs. Evan Bevan, and the three +Evanses of Nant, and Owen Evans, and the Evanses of Sarn, and many +more, who were all forward to visit Court and be friendly with old +Gwen Madoc, Robert's housekeeper. I am told they could look black at +one another, but in this they were all in one tale, that the foreign +child should be sent away; and at times one and another would give her +a rough word."</p> + +<p class="normal">"She must have had a bad time," I observed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You may say that. But she stayed, and it was wonderful how strong and +handsome she grew up, where her mother had just pined away. The +sailors said it was her love of the sea; and I have heard that people +who live inland about here come to think of nothing but the land--it +is certain that they are good at a bargain--while the fishermen who +live with a great space before them are finer men, I have heard, in +their minds as well as their bodies; and Peggy <i>bach</i> grew up like +them, free and open and upstanding, though she lived inland. When she +was in trouble she would run down to the sea, where the salt spray +washed away her tears and the wind blew her hair, that was of the +color of seaweed, into a tangle. She was never so happy as when she +was climbing the rocks among the sea gulls, or else sitting with her +books at the cove where the farm people would not go for fear of +hearing the church bells that bring bad luck. Books? Oh, yes, indeed! +next to the sea she was fond of books. There were many volumes, I have +been told, that were her mother's; then Robert Evans, though he was a +Wesleyan, went to church because there was no Wesleyan chapel, the +Calvinistic Methodists being in strength about here; and the minister +lent her many English books and befriended her. And I have heard that +once, when the Llewellyn Evanses had been about the girl, he spoke to +them so that they were afraid to drive down Rhiw hill that night, but +led the horse; and I think it may be true, for they were Calvinists. +Still, he was a good man, and I know that many Calvinists walked in +his funeral."</p> + +<p class="normal">"<i>Requiescat in pace</i>," said I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eh! Well, I don't know how that may be," he replied, "but you must +understand that all this time the Llewellyn Evanses, and the Evanses +of Nant, and the others would be over at Court once or twice a week, +so that all the neighborhood called them Robert Evans' body-birds; and +when they were there Peggy McNeill would be having an ill time, since +even the old man would be hard to her; and more so as he grew older. +But, however, there was a better time coming, or so it seemed at +first, the beginning of which was through Peter Rees' lobster pots. He +was a great friend of hers. She would go out with him to take up his +pots--oh! it might be two or three times a week. So it happened one +day, when they had pushed off from the beach, and Peggy was steering, +that old Rees stopped rowing on a sudden.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Why don't you go on, Peter?' said Peggy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Bide a bit,' said old Rees.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What have you forgotten?' said she, looking about in the bottom of +the boat. For she knew what he used very well.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Nought,' said he. But all the same he began to put the boat about in +a stupid fashion, afraid of offending her, and yet loath to lose a +shilling. And so, when Peggy looked up, what should she see but a +gentleman--whom Rees had perceived, you will understand--stepping into +the boat, and Peter Rees not daring to look her in the face because he +knew well that she would never go out with strangers.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course the young gentleman thought no harm, but said gayly, 'Thank +you! I am just in time.' And what should he do, but go aft and sit +down on the seat by her, and begin to talk to Rees about the weather +and the pots. And presently he said to her, 'I suppose you are used to +steering, my girl?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes,' said Peggy, but very grave and quiet-like, so that if he had +not determined that she was old Rees' daughter he would have taken +notice of it. But she was wearing a short frock that she used for the +fishing, and was wet with getting into the boat, moreover.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Will you please to hold my hat a minute,' he said, and with that he +put it in her lap while he looked for a piece of string with which to +fasten it to his button. Well, she said nothing, but her cheeks were +scarlet, and by and by, when he had called her 'my girl' two or three +times more--not roughly, but just off-hand, taking her for a +fisher-girl--Peter Rees could stand it no longer, shilling or no +shilling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You mustn't speak that fashion to her, master,' he said gruffly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What?' said the gentleman, looking up. He was surprised, and no +wonder, at the tone of the man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You mustn't speak like that to Miss McNeill, Court,' repeated old +Rees more roughly than before. 'You are to understand she is not a +common girl, but like yourself.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The young gentleman turned and looked at her just once, short and +sharp, and I am told that his face was as red as hers when their eyes +met. 'I beg Miss McNeill's pardon--humbly,' he said, taking off his +hat grandly, yet as if he meant it too; 'I was under a great +misapprehension.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"After that you may believe they did not enjoy the row much. There was +scarcely a word said by anyone until they came ashore again. The +visitor, to the great joy of Peter, who was looking for a sixpence, +gave him half a crown; and then walked away with the young lady, side +by side with her, but very stiff and silent. However, just as they +were parting, Peter could see that he said something, having his hat +in his hand the while, and that Miss Peggy, after standing and +listening, bowed as grand as might be. Upon which they separated for +that time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But two things came of this; first, that everyone began to call her +Miss McNeill, Court, which was not at all to the pleasure of the +Llewellyn Evanses. And then that, whenever the gentleman, who was a +painter lodging at Mrs. Campbell's of the shop, would meet her, he +would stop and say a few words, and more as the time went on. +Presently there came some wet weather; and Mrs. Campbell borrowed for +his use books from her, which had her name within; and later he sent +for a box of books from London, and then the lending was on the other +side. So it was not long before people began to see how things were, +and to smile when the gentleman treated old Robert Evans at the Newydd +Inn. The fishermen, when he was out with them, would tack so that he +might see the smoke of Court over the cliffs; and there was no more +Peggy <i>bach</i> to be met, either rowing with Peter Rees or running wild +among the rocks, but a very sedate young lady who yet did not seem to +be unhappy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old man was ailing in his limbs at this time, but his mind was as +clear as ever, and his grip of the land as tight. He could not bear, +now that his sons were dead, that anyone should come after him. I am +thinking that he would be taking everyone for a body-bird. Still the +family were forward with presents and such like, and helped him +perhaps about the farm; so that though there was talk in the village, +no one could say what will he would make.</p> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/p36.png" alt="p36"><br> +"YOU HAVE BEEN COURTING."</p> + + +<p class="normal">"However, one day toward winter Miss Peggy came in late from a walk, +and found the old man very cross. 'Where have you been?' he cried +angrily. Then without any warning, 'You have been courting,' he said, +'with that fine gentleman from the shop?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well,' my lady replied, putting a brave face upon it, as was her +way, 'and what then, grandfather? I am not ashamed of it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You ought to be!' he cried, banging his stick upon the floor. 'Do +you think that he will marry you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes, I do,' she replied stoutly. 'He has told you so to-day, I +know.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Robert Evans laughed, but his laugh was not a pleasant one. 'You are +right,' he said. 'He has told me. He was very forward to tell me. He +thought I was going to leave you my money. But I am not! Mind you +that, my girl.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very well,' she answered, white and red by turns.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You will remember that you are no relation of mine!' he went on +viciously, for he had grown very crabbed of late. 'And I am not +going to leave you money. He is after my money. He is nothing but a +fortune-catcher!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'He is not!' she exclaimed, as hot as fire, and began to put on her +hat again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very well! We shall see!' answered Robert Evans. 'Do you tell +him what I say, and see if he will marry you. Go! Go now, girl, and +you need not come back! You will get nothing by staying here!' he +cried, for what with his jealousy and the mention of money he was +furious--'not a penny! You had better be off at once!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She did not answer for a minute or so, but she seemed to change +her mind about going, for she laid down her hat, and went about the +house place getting tea ready--and no doubt her fingers trembled a +little--until the old man cried, 'Well, why don't you go? You will get +nothing by staying.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I shall stay to take care of you all the same,' she answered +quietly. 'You need not leave me anything, and then--and then I shall +know whether you are right.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Do you mean it?' asked he sharply, after looking at her in silence +for a moment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes,' said she.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Then it's a bargain!' cried Robert Evans--'it's a bargain!' And he +said not a word more about it, but took his tea from her and talked of +the Llewellyn Evanses, who had been to pay him a visit that day. It +seemed, however, as if the matter had upset him, for he had to be +helped to bed, and complained a good deal, neither of which things +were usual with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, it is not unlikely that the young lady promised herself to tell +her lover all about it next day, and looked to hear many times over +from his own lips that it was not her money he wanted. But this was +not to be, for early the next morning Gwen Madoc was at her door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You are to get up, miss,' she said. 'The master wants you to go to +London by the first train.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'To London!' cried Peggy, very much astonished. 'Is he ill? Is +anything the matter, Gwen?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No,' answered the old woman very short. 'It is just that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"And when the girl, having dressed hastily, came down to Robert Evans' +room, she found that this was pretty nearly all she was to learn. 'You +will go to Mrs. Richard Evans, who lives at Islington,' he said, as if +he had been thinking about it all night. 'She is my second cousin, and +will find house room for you, and make no charge. A telegram shall be +sent to her this morning. To-morrow you will take this packet to the +address upon it, and the next day a packet will be returned to you, +which you will bring back to me. I am not well to-day, and I want to +have the matter settled and off my mind, Peggy.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'But could not someone else go, if you are not well?' she objected, +'and I will stop and take care of you.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"He grew very angry at that. 'Do as you are bidden, girl,' he said. 'I +shall see the doctor to-day, and for the rest, Gwen can do for me. I +am well enough. Do you look to the papers. Richard Evans owes me +money, and will make no charge for your living.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"So Miss Peggy had her breakfast, and in a wonderfully short time, as +it seemed to her, was on the way to London, with plenty of leisure on +her hands for thinking--very likely for doubting and fearing as well. +She had not seen her sweetheart, that was one thing. She had been +dispatched in a hurry, that was another. And then, to be sure, the big +town was strange to her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"However, nothing happened there, I may tell you. But on the third +morning she received a short note from Gwen Madoc, and suddenly rose +from breakfast with Mrs. Richard, her face very white. There was news +in the letter--news of which all the neighborhood for miles round +Court was by that time full. Robert Evans, if you will believe it, was +dead. After ailing for a few hours he had died, with only Gwen Madoc +to smooth his pillow.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was late when she reached the nearest station to Court on her way +back, and found a pony trap waiting for her. She was stepping into it +when Mr. Griffith Hughes, the lawyer, saw her, and came up to speak.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I am sorry to have bad news for you, Miss McNeill,' he said in a low +voice, for he was a kind man, and what with the shock and the long +journey she was looking very pale.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh, yes!' she answered, with a sort of weary surprise; 'I know it +already. That is why I am come home--to Court, I mean.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"He saw that she was thinking only of Robert Evans' death, which was +not what was in his mind. 'It is about the will,' he said in a +whisper, though he need not have been so careful, for everyone in the +neighborhood had learned all about it from Gwen Madoc. 'It is a cruel +will. I would not have made it for him, my dear. He has left Court to +the Llewellyn Evanses, and the money between the Evanses of Nant and +the Evan Bevans.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'It is quite right,' she answered, so calmly that he stared. 'My +grandfather explained it to me. I fully understood that I was not to +be in the will.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Hughes looked more and more puzzled. 'Oh, but,' he replied, 'it +is not so bad as that. Your name is in the will. He has laid it upon +those who get the land and money to provide for you--to settle a +proper income upon you. And you may depend upon me for doing my best +to have his wishes carried out, my dear.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The young lady turned very red, and raised her eyes sharply.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Who are to provide for me?' she asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'The three families who divide the estate,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'And are they obliged to do so?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well--no,' said he unwillingly. 'I am not sure that they are exactly +obliged. But no doubt----'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I doubt very much,' she answered, taking him up with a smile. And +then she shook hands with him and drove away, leaving him wondering at +her courage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, you may suppose it was a dreary house to which she came home. +Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was executor, had been before the Llewellyn +Evanses in taking possession, so that, besides a lad or two in the +kitchen, there were only Gwen Madoc and the servant there, and they +seemed to have very little to tell her about the death. When she had +heard what they had to say, and they were all on their way to bed, +'Gwen,' she said softly, 'I think I should like to see him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'So you shall, to-morrow, honey,' answered the old woman. 'But do you +know, <i>bach</i>, that he has left you nothing?' and she held up her +candle suddenly, so as to throw the light on the girl's tired face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh!' she answered, with a shudder, 'how can you talk about that +now?' But presently she had another question ready. 'Have you seen Mr. +Venmore since--since my grandfather's death, Gwen?' she asked timidly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes, indeed, <i>bach</i>,' answered the housekeeper. 'I met him at the +door of the shop this morning. I told him where you were, and that you +would be back tonight. And about the will, moreover.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The girl stopped at her own door and snuffed her candle. Gwen Madoc +went slowly up the next flight, groaning over the steepness of the +stairs. Then she turned to say good-night. The girl was at her side +again, her eyes shining in the light of the two candles.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh, Gwen,' she whispered breathlessly, 'didn't he say anything?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Not a word, <i>bach</i>,' answered the old woman, stroking her hair +tenderly. 'He just went into the house in a hurry.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Peggy went into her room much in the same way. No doubt she +would be telling herself a great many times over before she slept that +he would come and see her in the morning; and in the morning she would +be saying, 'He will come in the afternoon;' and in the afternoon, 'He +will come in the evening.' But evening came, and darkness, and still +he did not appear. Then she could endure it no longer. She let herself +out of the front door, which there was no one now to use but herself, +and with a shawl over her head ran all the way down to the shop. There +was no light in his window upstairs: but at the back door stood Mrs. +Campbell, looking after someone who had just left her.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The girl came, strangely shrinking at the last moment, into the ring +of light about the door. 'Why, Miss McNeill!' cried the other, +starting visibly at sight of her. 'Is it you, honey? And are you +alone?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes; and I cannot stop. But oh, Mrs. Campbell, where is Mr. +Venmore?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I know no more than yourself, my dear,' said the good woman +reluctantly. 'He went from here yesterday on a sudden--to take the +train, I understood.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yesterday? When? At what time, please?' asked the young lady. There +was a fear, which she had been putting from her all day. It was +getting a footing now.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, it would be about midday. I know it was just after Gwen Madoc +called in about the----'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the girl was gone. It was not to Mrs. Campbell she could make a +moan. It was only the night wind that caught the 'Oh, cruel! cruel!' +which broke from her as she went up the hill. Whether she slept that +night at all I am not able to say. Only that when it was dawn she was +out upon the cliffs, her face very white and sad-looking. The +fishermen who were up early, going out with the ebb, saw her at times +walking fast and then standing still and looking seaward. But I do not +know what she was thinking, only I should fancy that the gulls had a +different cry for her now, and it is certain that when she had +returned and came down into the parlor at Court for the funeral, there +were none of the Evanses could look her in the face with comfort.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They were all there, of course. Mr. Llewellyn Evans--he was an +elderly man, with a gray beard like a bird's nest, and very thick +lips--was sitting with his wife on the horsehair sofa. The Evanses of +Nant, who were young men with lank faces and black hair combed upward, +were by the door. The Evan Bevans were at the table; and there were +others, besides Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was undoing some papers when +she entered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He rose and shook hands with her, marking pitifully the dark hollows +under her eyes, and inwardly confirming his resolution to get her a +substantial settlement. Then he hesitated, looking doubtfully at the +others. 'We are going to read the will before the funeral instead of +afterward,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh!' she answered, taken aback--for in truth she had forgotten all +about the will. 'I did not know. I will go, and come back later.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No, indeed!' cried Mrs. Llewellyn Evans, 'you had better stop and +hear the will--though no relation, to be sure.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But at that moment Gwen Madoc came in, and peered round with a grim +air of importance. 'Maybe someone,' she said in a low voice, 'would +like to take a last look at the poor master?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But no one moved. They sighed and shook their heads at one another as +if they would like to do so--but no one moved. They were anxious, you +see, to hear the will. Only Peggy, who had turned to go out, said, +'Yes, Gwen, I should,' and slipped out with the old woman.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'There is nothing to keep us now?' said Mr. Hughes briskly when the +door was closed again. And everyone nodding assent the lawyer went on +to read the will, which was not a long one. It was received with a +murmur of satisfaction, and much use of pocket-handkerchiefs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very fair!' said Mr. Llewellyn Evans, 'He was a clever man, our old +friend.' All the legatees murmured after him 'Very fair!' and a word +went round about the home-brewed, and Robert Evans' recipe for it. +Then Llewellyn, who thought he ought to be taking the lead at Court +now, said it was about time to be going to church.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'There is one matter,' put in Mr. Griffith Hughes, 'which I think +ought to be settled while we are all together. You see that there is +a--what I may call a charge on the three main portions of the property +in favor of Miss McNeill.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Indeed, but what is that you are saying?' cried Llewellyn sharply. +'Do you mean that there is a rent charge?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Not exactly a rent charge,' said the lawyer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'No!' cried Llewellyn with a twinkle in his eyes. 'Nor any obligation +in law, sir?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, no,' assented Mr. Hughes grudgingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Then,' said Llewellyn Evans, getting up and putting his hands in his +pockets, while he winked at the others, 'we will talk of that another +time.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Mr. Hughes said, 'No!' He was a kind man, and very anxious to do +the best for the girl, but he somewhat lost his temper. 'No!' he said, +growing red. 'You will observe, if you please, Mr. Evans, that the +testator says, "Forthwith---forthwith." So that, as sole executor, it +is my duty to ask you to state your intentions now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, indeed, then,' said Llewellyn, changing his face to a kind of +blank, 'I have no intentions. I think that the family has done more +than enough for the girl already.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"And he would say no otherwise. Nor was it to any purpose that the +lawyer looked at Mrs. Llewellyn. She was examining the furniture, and +feeling the stuffing of the sofa, and did not seem to hear. He could +make nothing of the three Evanses, Nant. They all cried, 'Yes, +indeed!' to what Llewellyn said. Only the Evan Bevans remained, and he +turned to them in despair.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I am sure,' he said, addressing himself to them, 'that you will do +something to carry out the testator's wishes? Your share under the +will, Mr. Bevan, will amount to three hundred a year. This young +lady has nothing--no relations, no home. May I take it that you will +settle--say fifty pounds a year upon her? It need only be for her +life.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Bevan fidgeted under this appeal. His wife answered it. +'Certainly not, Mr. Hughes. If it were twenty pounds now, once for +all, or even twenty-five--and Llewellyn and my nephews would say the +same--I think we might manage that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Llewellyn shook his head obstinately. 'I have said I have no +intentions, and I am a man of my word!' he answered. 'Let the girl go +out to service. It is what we have always wanted her to do. Here are +my nephews. They won't mind a young housekeeper.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, they all laughed at this except Mr. Hughes, who gathered up his +papers looking very black, and not thinking of future clients. +Llewellyn, however, did not care a bit for that, but walked to the +bell, masterful-like, and rang it. 'Tell the undertaker,' he said to +the servant, 'that we are ready.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was as if the words had been a signal, for they were followed +almost immediately by an outcry overhead and quick running upon the +stairs. The legatees looked uncomfortably at the carpet: the lawyer +was blacker than before. He said to himself, 'Now that poor child has +fainted!' The confusion seemed to last some minutes. Then the door was +opened, not by the undertaker, but by Gwen Madoc. The mourners rose +with a sigh of relief; to their surprise she passed by even Llewellyn, +and with a frightened face walked across to the lawyer. She whispered +something in his ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What!' he cried, starting back a pace from her, and speaking so that +the wine-glasses on the table rattled again. 'Do you know what you are +saying, woman?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'It is true,' she answered, half crying, 'and no fault indeed of mine +neither.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gwen added more in quick, short sentences, which the family, strain +their ears as they might, could not overhear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I will come! I will come!' cried the lawyer. He waved his hand to +them as a sign to make room for her to pass out. Then he turned to +them, a queer look upon his face; it was not triumph altogether, +for there was discomfiture and apprehension in it as well. 'You +will believe me, he said, 'that I am as much taken aback as +yourselves--that till this moment I have been honestly as much in the +dark as anyone. It seems--so I am told--that our old friend is not +dead.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What!' cried Llewellyn in his turn. 'What do you mean?' and he +raised his black-gloved hands as in refutation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What I say,' replied Mr. Hughes patiently. 'I hear--wonderful as it +sounds--that he is not dead. Something about a trance, I believe--a +mistake happily discovered in time. I tell you all I know; and however +it comes about, it is clear we ought to be glad that Mr. Robert Evans +is spared to us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"With that he was glad to escape from the room. I am told that their +faces were very strange to see. There was a long silence. Llewellyn +was the first to speak: He swore a big oath and banged his great hand +upon the table. 'I don't 'believe it!' he cried. 'I don't believe it! +It is a trick!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But as he spoke the door opened behind him, and he and all turned to +see what they had never thought to see, I am sure. They had come to +walk in Robert Evans' funeral; and here was the gaunt, stooping form +of Robert Evans himself coming in, with an arm of Gwen Madoc on one +side and of Miss Peggy on the other--Robert Evans beyond doubt, alive. +Behind him were the lawyer and Dr. Jones, a smile on their lips, and +three or four women half frightened, half wondering.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old man was pale, and seemed to totter a little, but when the +doctor would have placed a chair for him, he declined it, and stood +gazing about him, wonderfully composed for a man just risen from his +coffin. He had all his old grim aspect as he looked upon the family. +Llewellyn's declaration was still in their ears. They could find not a +word to say either of joy or grief.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, indeed,' said Robert, with a dry chuckle, 'have none of you a +word to throw at me? I am a ghost, I suppose? Ha!' he exclaimed, as +his eye fell on the papers which Mr. Hughes had left upon the table, +'so! so! That is why you are not overjoyed at seeing me. You have been +reading my will. Well, Llewellyn! Have not you a word to say to me now +you know for what I had got you down?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"At that Llewellyn found his tongue, and the others chimed in finely. +Only there was something in the old man's manner that they did not +like; and presently, when they had all told him how glad they were to +see him again--just for all the world as if he had been ill for a few +days--Robert Evans turned again to Llewellyn.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You had fixed what you would do for my girl here, I suppose?' he +said, patting her shoulder gently, at which the family winced. 'It was +a hundred a year you promised to settle, you know. You will have +arranged all that.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Lewellyn looked stealthily at Mr. Hughes, who was standing at +Robert's elbow, and muttered that they had not reached that stage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'What?' cried the old man sharply. 'How was that?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I was intending,' Llewellyn began lamely, 'to settle----'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You were intending!' Robert Evans burst forth in a voice so changed +that they all started back. 'You are a liar! You were intending to +settle nothing! I know it well! I knew it long ago! Nothing, I say! As +for you,' he went on, wheeling furiously round upon the Evanses of +Nant, 'you knew my wishes. What were you going to do for her? What, I +say? Speak, you hobbledehoys!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"For they were backing from him in absolute fear of his passion, +looking at one another or at the sullen face of Llewellyn Evans, or +anywhere save at him. At length the eldest blurted out, 'Whatever +Llewellyn meant to do we were going to do, sir.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You speak the truth there,' cried old Robert bitterly; 'for that was +nothing, you know. Very well! I promise you that what Llewellyn gets +of my property you shall get too--and it will be nothing! You, Bevan,' +and he turned himself toward the Evan Bevans, who were shaking in +their shoes, 'I am told, did offer to do something for my girl.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Yes, dear Robert,' cried Mrs. Bevan, radiant and eager, 'we did +indeed.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'So I hear. Well, when I make my next will, I will take care to set +you down for just so much as you proposed to give her! Peggy, <i>bach</i>,' +he continued, turning from the chapfallen lady, and putting into the +girl's hands the will which the lawyer had given him, 'tear up this +rubbish! Tear it up! Now let us have something to eat in the other +room. What, Llewellyn, no appetite?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the family did not stay even to partake of the home-brewed. They +were out of the house, I am told, before the coffin and the +undertaker's men. There was big talking among them, as they went, of a +conspiracy and a lunatic asylum. But though, to be sure, it was a +wonderful recovery, and the doctor and Mr. Hughes, as they drove away +after dinner, were very friendly together--which may have been only +the home-brewed--at any rate the sole outcome of Llewellyn's talking +and inquiries was that everyone laughed very much, and Robert Evans' +name for a clever man was known beyond Carnarvon.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course it would be open house at Court that day, with plenty of +eating and drinking and coming and going. But toward five o'clock the +place grew quiet again. The visitors had gone home, and Gwen Madoc was +upstairs. The old man was sleeping in his chair opposite the settle, +and Miss Peggy was sitting on the window-seat watching him, her hands +in her lap, her thoughts far away. Maybe she was trying to be really +glad that the home, about which the cows lowed and the gulls screamed +in the afternoon stillness and made it seem home each minute, was hers +still; that she was not quite alone, nor friendless, nor poor. Maybe +she was striving not to think of the thing which had been taken from +her and could not be given back. Whatever her thoughts, she was +aroused by some sound to find her eyes full of hot tears, through +which she could dimly see that the old man was awake and looking at +her with a strange expression, which disappeared as she became aware +of it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He began to speak. 'Providence has been very good to us, Peggy,' he +said, with grim meaning. 'It is well for you, my girl, that our eyes +are open to see our kind friends as they are. There is one besides +those who were here this morning that will wish he had not been so +hasty.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She rose quickly and looked out of the window. 'Don't speak of him. +Let us forget him,' she pleaded, in a low tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But Robert Evans seemed to take a delight in the--well, the goodness +of Providence. 'If he had come to see you only once, when you were in +trouble,' he went on, as if he were summing up the case in his own +mind, and she were but a stick or a stone, 'we could have forgiven +him, and I would have said you were right. Or even if he had written, +eh?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh, yes, yes!' sobbed the girl, her tears raining down her averted +face. 'Don't torture me! You were right and I was wrong--all wrong!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Well, yes, yes! Just so. But come here, my girl,' said the old man. +'Come!' he repeated imperiously, as, surprised in the midst of her +grief, she wavered and hesitated, 'sit here,' and he pointed to the +settle opposite to him. 'Now, suppose I were to tell you he had +written, and that the letter had been--mislaid, shall we say? and come +somehow to my hands? Now, don't get excited, girl!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh!' cried Peggy, her hands fallen, her lips parted, her eyes wide +and frightened, her whole form rigid with questioning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Just suppose that, my dear,' continued Robert, 'and that the letter +were now before us--would you abide by its contents? Remember, he must +have much to explain. Would you let me decide whether his explanation +were satisfactory or not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"She was trembling with expectation, hope. But she tried to think of +the matter calmly, to remember her lover's hurried flight, the lack of +word or message for her, her own misery. She nodded silently, and held +out her hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He drew a letter from his pocket. 'You will let me see it?' he said +suspiciously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Oh, yes!' she cried, and fled with it to the window. He watched her +while she tore it open and read first one page and then another--there +were but two, it was very short--watched her while she thrust it from +her and looked at it as a whole, then drew it to her and kissed it +again and again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Wait a bit! wait a bit!' cried he testily. 'Now, let me see it.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She turned upon him almost fiercely, holding it away behind her, as +if it were some living thing he might hurt. 'He thought he would meet +me at the junction,' she stammered between laughing and crying. 'He +was going to London to see his sister--that she might take me in. And +he will be here to fetch me this evening. There! Take it!' and +suddenly remembering herself she stretched out her hand and gave him +the letter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You promised to abide by my decision, you know,' said the old man +gravely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I will not!' she cried impetuously. 'Never!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'You promised,' he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'I don't care! I don't care!' she replied, clasping her hands +nervously. 'No one shall come between us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Very well,' said Robert Evans, 'then I need not decide. But you had +better tell Owen to take the trap to the station to meet your man.'"</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">IN CUPID'S TOILS.</a></h2> +<br> +<br> +<h3>I.</h3> +<h3>HER STORY.</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">"Clare," I said, "I wish that we had brought some better clothes, if +it were only one frock. You look the oddest figure."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she did. She was lying head to head with me on the thick moss that +clothed one part of the river bank above Breistolen near the Sogn +Fiord. We were staying at Breistolen, but there was no moss +thereabouts, nor in all the Sogn district, I often thought, so deep +and soft, and so dazzling orange and white and crimson as that +particular patch. It lay quite high upon the hills, and there were +great gray bowlders peeping through the moss here and there, very fit +to break your legs, if you were careless. Little more than a mile +higher up was the watershed, where our river, putting away with +reluctance a first thought of going down the farther slope toward +Bysberg, parted from its twin brother, who was thither bound with +scores upon scores of puny, green-backed fishlets; and instead, +came down our side gliding and swishing and swirling faster and +faster, and deeper and wider every hundred yards to Breistolen, full +of red-speckled yellow trout, all half a pound apiece, and very good +to eat.</p> + +<p class="normal">But they were not so sweet or toothsome to our girlish tastes as the +tawny-orange cloud-berries which Clare and I were eating as we lay. So +busy was she with the luscious pile we had gathered that I had to wait +for an answer. And then, "Speak for yourself," she said. "I'm sure you +look like a short-coated baby. He is somewhere up the river, too." +Munch, munch, munch!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Who is, you impertinent, greedy little chit?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you know!" she answered. "Don't you wish you had your gray plush +here, Bab?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I flung a look of calm disdain at her; but whether it was the berry +juice which stained our faces that took from its effect, or the free +mountain air which papa says saps the foundations of despotism, that +made her callous, at any rate she only laughed scornfully and got +up and went off down the stream with her rod, leaving me to finish +the cloud-berries, and stare lazily up at the snow-patches on the +hillside--which somehow put me in mind of the gray plush--and follow +or not, as I liked.</p> + +<p class="normal">Clare has a wicked story of how I gave in to papa, and came to start +without anything but those rough clothes. She says he said--and Jack +Buchanan has told me that lawyers put no faith in anything that he +says she says, or she says he says, which proves how much truth there +is in this--that if Bab took none but her oldest clothes, and fished +all day, and had no one to run upon her errands--he meant Jack and the +others, I suppose--she might possibly grow an inch in Norway. Just as +if I wanted to grow an inch? An inch indeed! I am five feet one and a +half high, and papa, who puts me an inch shorter, is the worst +measurer in the world. As for Miss Clare, she would give all her +inches for my eyes. So there!</p> + +<p class="normal">After Clare left it began to be dull and chilly. When I had pictured +to myself how nice it would be to dress for dinner again, and chosen +the frock I would wear upon the first evening, I grew tired of the +snow-patches, and started up stream, stumbling and falling into holes, +and clambering over rocks, and only careful to save my rod and my +face. It was no occasion for the gray plush, but I had made up my mind +to reach a pool which lay, I knew, a little above me; having filched a +yellow-bodied fly from Clare's hat, with a view to that particular +place.</p> + +<p class="normal">Our river did the oddest things hereabouts--pleased to be so young, I +suppose. It was not a great churning stream of snow-water, foaming and +milky, such as we had seen in some parts--streams that affected to be +always in flood, and had the look of forcing the rocks asunder and +clearing their path, even while you watched them with your fingers in +your ears. Our river was none of these: still it was swifter than +English rivers are wont to be, and in parts deeper, and transparent as +glass. In one place it would sweep over a ledge and fall wreathed in +spray into a spreading lake of black, rock-bound water. Then it would +narrow again until, where you could almost jump across, it darted +smooth and unbroken down a polished shoot with a swoop like a +swallow's. Out of this it would hurry afresh to brawl along a gravelly +bed, skipping jauntily over first one and then another ridge of stones +that had silted up weir-wise and made as if they would bar the +channel. Under the lee of these there were lovely pools.</p> + +<p class="normal">To be able to throw into mine, I had to walk out along the ridge, on +which the water was shallow, yet sufficiently deep to cover my boots. +But I was well rewarded. The "forellin"--the Norse name for trout, +and as pretty as their girls' wavy fair hair--were rising so merrily +that I hooked and landed one in five minutes, the fly falling from its +mouth as it touched the stones. I hate taking out hooks. I used at one +time to leave the fly in the fish's mouth to be removed by papa at the +weighing house; until Clare pricked her tongue at dinner with an +almost new, red hackle, and was so mean as to keep it, though I +remembered then what I had done with it, and was certain it was +mine-which was nothing less than dishonest of her.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had just got back to my place and made a fine cast, when there +came--not the leap, and splash, and tug which announced the +half-pounder--but a deep, rich gurgle as the fly was gently sucked +under, and then a quiet, growing strain upon the line, which began to +move away down the pool in a way that made the winch spin again and +filled me with mysterious pleasure. I was not conscious of striking or +of anything but that I had hooked a really good fish, and I clutched +the rod with both hands and set my feet as tightly as I could upon the +slippery gravel. The line moved up and down, and this way and that, +now steadily and as with a purpose, and then again with an eccentric +rush that made the top of the rod spring and bend so that I looked +for it to snap each moment. My hands began to grow numb, and the +landing-net, hitherto an ornament, fell out of my waist-belt and went +I knew not whither. I suppose I must have stepped unwittingly into +deeper water, for I felt that my skirts were afloat, and altogether +things were going dreadfully against me, when the presence of an ally +close at hand was announced by a cheery shout from the far side of the +river.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Keep up your point! Keep up your point!" someone cried briskly. "That +is better!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The unexpected sound--it was a man's voice--did something to keep my +heart up. But for answer I could only shriek, "I can't! It will +break!" watching the top of my rod as it jigged up and down, very much +in the fashion of Clare performing what she calls a waltz. She dances +as badly as a man.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, it will not," he cried back bluntly. "Keep it up, and let out a +little line with your fingers when he pulls hardest."</p> + +<p class="normal">We were forced to shout and scream. The wind had risen and was adding +to the noise of the water. Soon I heard him wading behind me. "Where's +your landing-net?" he asked, with the most provoking coolness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, in the pool! Somewhere about. I am sure I don't know," I answered +wildly.</p> + +<p class="normal">What he said to this I could not catch, but it sounded rude. And then +he waded off to fetch, as I guessed, his own net. By the time he +reached me again I was in a sad plight, feet like ice, and hands +benumbed, while the wind, and rain, and hail, which had come down upon +us with a sudden violence, unknown, it is to be hoped, anywhere else, +were mottling my face all sorts of unbecoming colors. But the line was +taut. And wet and cold went for nothing five minutes later, when the +fish lay upon the bank, its prismatic sides slowly turning pale and +dull, and I knelt over it half in pity and half in triumph, but wholly +forgetful of the wind and rain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You did that very pluckily, little one," said the on-looker; "but I +am afraid you will suffer for it by and by. You must be chilled +through."</p> + +<p class="normal">Quickly as I looked up at him, I only met a good-humored smile. He did +not mean to be rude. And after all, when I was in such a mess, it was +not possible that he could see what I was like. He was wet enough +himself. The rain was streaming from the brim of the soft hat which he +had turned down to shelter his face, and trickling from his chin, and +turning his shabby Norfolk jacket a darker shade. As for his hands, +they looked red and knuckly enough, and he had been wading almost to +his waist. But he looked, I don't know why, all the stronger and +manlier and nicer for these things, because, perhaps, he cared for +them not one whit. What I looked like myself I dared not think. My +skirts were as short as short could be, and they were soaked; most of +my hair was unplaited, my gloves were split, and my sodden boots were +out of shape. I was forced, too, to shiver and shake from cold, which +was provoking, for I knew it made me seem half as small again.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you, I am a little cold, Mr.---- Mr.----" I said gravely, +only my teeth would chatter so that he laughed outright as he took me +up with----</p> + +<p class="normal">"Herapath. And to whom have I the honor of speaking?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am Miss Guest," I said miserably. It was too cold to be frigid to +advantage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Commonly called Bab, I think," the wretch answered. "The walls of our +hut are not sound-proof, you see. But come, the sooner you get back to +dry clothes and the stove, the better, Bab. You can cross the river +just below, and cut off half a mile that way."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I can't," I said obstinately. Bab, indeed! How dared he?</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh yes, you can," with intolerable good temper. "You shall take your +rod and I the prey. You cannot be wetter than you are now."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had his way, of course, since I did not foresee that at the ford he +would lift me up bodily and carry me over the deeper part without a +pretense of asking leave, or a word of apology. It was done so quickly +that I had no time to remonstrate. Still I was not going to let it +pass, and when I had shaken myself straight again, I said, with all +the haughtiness I could assume, "Don't you think, Mr. Herapath that it +would have been more--more----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Polite to offer to carry you over, child? No, not at all. It will be +wiser and warmer for you to run down the hill. Come along!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And without more ado, while I was still choking with rage, he seized +my hands and set off at a trot, lugging me through the sloppy places +much as I have seen a nurse drag a fractious child down Constitution +Hill. It was not wonderful that I soon lost the little breath his +speech had left me, and was powerless to complain when we reached the +bridge. I could only thank Heaven that there was no sign of Clare. I +think I should have died of mortification if she had seen us come down +the hill hand-in-hand in that ridiculous fashion. But she had gone +home, and at any rate I escaped that degradation.</p> + +<p class="normal">A wet stool-car and wetter pony were dimly visible on the bridge; to +which, as we came up, a damp urchin creeping from some crevice added +himself. I was pushed in as if I had no will of my own, the gentleman +sprang up beside me, the boy tucked himself away somewhere behind, and +the little "teste" set off at a canter, so deceived by the driver's +excellent imitation of "Pss," the Norse for "Tchk," that in ten +minutes we were at home.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I never!" Clare said, surveying me from a respectful distance, +when at last I was safe in our room. "I would not be seen in such a +state by a man for all the fish in the sea!"</p> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/p72.png" alt="p72"><br> +"BAB."</p> + + +<p class="normal">And she looked so tall, and trim, and neat, that it was the more +provoking. At the moment I was too miserable to answer her, and had to +find comfort in promising myself that when we were back in Bolton +Gardens I would see that Fräulein kept Miss Clare's pretty nose to the +grindstone though it were ever so much her last term, or Jack were +ever so fond of her. Papa was in the plot against me, too. What right +had he to thank Mr. Herapath for bringing "his little girl" home safe? +He can be pompous enough at times. I never knew a stout Queen's +Counsel--and papa is stout--who was not, any more than a thin one who +did not contradict. It is in their patents, I think.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Herapath dined with us that evening--if fish and potatoes and +boiled eggs, and sour bread and pancakes, and claret and coffee can be +called a dinner--but nothing I could do, though I made the best of my +wretched frock and was as stiff as Clare herself, could alter his +first impression. It was too bad; he had no eyes! He either could not +or would not see anyone but the draggled Bab--fifteen at most and a +very tom-boy---whom he had carried across the river. He styled Clare, +who talked Baedeker to him in her primmest and most precocious way, +Miss Guest, and once at least during the evening dubbed me plain Bab. +I tried to freeze him with a look then, and papa gave him a taste of +the pompous manner, saying coldly that I was older than I seemed. But +it was not a bit of use; I could see that he set it all down to the +grand airs of a spoiled child. If I had put my hair up, it might have +opened his eyes, but Clare teased me about it and I was too proud for +that.</p> + +<p class="normal">When I asked him if he was fond of dancing, he said good-naturedly, "I +don't visit very much, Miss Bab. I am generally engaged in the +evening."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here was a chance. I was going to say that that, no doubt, was the +reason why I had never met him, when papa ruthlessly cut me short by +asking, "You are not in the law?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," he replied, "I am in the London Fire Brigade."</p> + +<p class="normal">I think that we all upon the instant saw him in a helmet, sitting at +the door of the fire station by St. Martin's Church. Clare turned +crimson, and papa seemed on a sudden to call his patent to mind. The +moment before I had been as angry as angry could be with our guest, +but I was not going to look on and see him snubbed when he was dining +with us and all. So I rushed into the gap as quickly as surprise would +let me with, "Good gracious, how nice! Do tell me all about a fire!"</p> + +<p class="normal">It made matters--my matters--worse, for I could have cried with +vexation when I read in his face next moment that he had looked for +their astonishment; while the ungrateful fellow set down my eager +remark to mere childish ignorance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some time I will," he said, with a quiet smile <i>de haut en bas</i>; "but +I do not often attend one in person. I am Captain's private secretary, +aid-de-camp, and general factotum."</p> + +<p class="normal">And it turned out that he was the son of a certain Canon Herapath, so +that papa lost sight of his patent box altogether, and they set to +discussing Mr. Gladstone, while I slipped off to bed, feeling as small +as I ever did in my life and out of temper with everybody. It was a +long time since I had been used to young men talking politics to papa +when they could talk--politics--to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">Possibly I deserved the week of vexation which followed; but it was +almost more than I could bear. He--Mr. Herapath, of--course--was +always about fishing or lounging outside the little white +posting-house, taking walks and meals with us, and seeming heartily to +enjoy papa's society. He came with us when we drove to the top of the +pass to get a glimpse of the Sulethid peak; and it looked so +brilliantly clear and softly beautiful as it seemed to float, just +tinged with color, in a far-off atmosphere of its own beyond the dark +ranges of nearer hills, that I began to think at once of the drawing +room in Bolton Gardens, with a cozy fire burning and afternoon tea +coming up. The tears came into my eyes, and he saw them before I could +turn away from the view; and said to papa that he feared his little +girl was tired as well as cold, and so spoiled all my pleasure. I +looked back afterward as papa and I drove down. He was walking by +Clare's carcole, and they were laughing heartily.</p> + +<p class="normal">And that was the way always. He was such an elder brother to me--a +thing I never had and do not want--that a dozen times a day I set my +teeth viciously together and said to myself that if ever we met in +London--but what nonsense that was, because, of course, it mattered +nothing to me what he was thinking, only he had no right to be so +rudely familiar. That was all; but it was quite enough to make me +dislike him.</p> + +<p class="normal">However, a sunny morning in the holidays is a cheerful thing, and when +I strolled down stream with my rod on the day after our expedition, I +felt I could enjoy myself very nearly as much as I had before his +coming spoiled our party. I dawdled along, now trying a pool, now +clambering up the hill-sides to pick raspberries, and now counting the +magpies that flew across, feeling altogether very placid and good and +contented. I had chosen the lower river because Mr. Herapath usually +fished the upper part, and I would not be ruffled this nice day. So I +was the more vexed to come suddenly upon him fishing; and fishing +where he had no right to be. Papa had spoken to him about the danger +of it, and he had as good as said he would not do it again. Yet there +he was, thinking, I dare say, that we should not know. It was a spot +where one bank rose into quite a cliff, frowning over a deep pool at +the foot of some falls. Close to the cliff the water still ran with +the speed of a millrace, so fast as to endanger a good swimmer. But on +the far side of this current there was a bit of slack water, which was +tempting enough to have set someone's wits to work to devise means to +fish it, which from the top of the cliff was impossible. Just above +the water was a ledge, a foot wide, perhaps, which might have done, +only it did not reach to this end of the cliff. However, that +foolhardy person had espied this, and got over the gap by bridging the +latter with a bit of plank, and then had drowned himself or gone away, +in either case leaving his board to tempt others to do likewise.</p> + +<p class="normal">And there was Mr. Herapath fishing from the ledge. It made me giddy to +look at him. The rock overhung the water so much that he could not +stand upright; the first person who got there must surely have learned +to curl himself up from much sleeping in Norwegian beds, which were +short for me. I thought of this oddly enough as I watched him, and +laughed, and was for going on. But when I had walked a few yards, +meaning to pass round the rear of the cliff, I began to fancy all +sorts of foolish things would happen. I felt sure that I should have +no more peace or pleasure if I left him there. I hesitated. Yes, I +would. I would go down, and ask him to leave the place; and, of +course, he would do it.</p> + +<p class="normal">I lost no time, but ran down the slope smartly and carelessly. My way +lay over loose shale mingled with large stones, and it was steep. It +was wonderful how quickly an accident happens; how swiftly a thing +that cannot be undone is done, and we are left wishing--oh, so +vainly--that we could put the world, and all things in it, back by a +few seconds. I was checking myself near the bottom, when a big stone +on which I stepped moved under me. The shale began to slip in a mass, +and the stone to roll. It was all done in a moment. I stayed myself, +that was easy enough, but the stone took two bounds, jumped sideways, +struck the piece of board, which was only resting lightly at either +end, and before I could take it all in the little bridge plunged end +first into the current, which swept it out of sight in an instant.</p> + +<p class="normal">He threw up his hands in affright, for he had turned, and we both +saw it happen. He made indeed as if he would try to save it, but +that was impossible; and then, while I cowered in dismay, he waved his +arm to me in the direction of home--again and again. The roar of the +falls drowned what he said, but I guessed his meaning. I could not +help him myself, but I could fetch help. It was three miles to +Breistolen,--rough, rocky ones,--and I doubted whether he could keep +his cramped position with that noise deafening him, and the endless +whirling stream before his eyes, while I was going and coming. But +there was no better way I could think of; and even as I wavered, he +signaled to me again imperatively. For an instant everything seemed to +go round with me, but it was not the time for that yet, and I tried to +collect myself and harden my heart. Up the bank I went steadily, and +once at the top set off at a run homeward.</p> + +<p class="normal">I cannot tell at all how I did it; how I passed over the uneven +ground, or whether I went quickly or slowly save by the reckoning papa +made afterward. I can only remember one long hurrying scramble; now I +panted uphill, now I ran down, now I was on my face in a hole, +breathless and half-stunned, and now I was up to my knees in water. I +slipped and dropped down places I should at other times have shrunk +from, and hurt myself so that I bore the marks for months. But I +thought nothing of these things: all my being was spent in hurrying on +for his life, the clamor of every cataract I passed seeming to stop my +heart's beating with very fear. So I reached Breistolen and panted +over the bridge and up to the little white house lying so quiet in the +afternoon sunshine, papa's stool-car even then at the door ready to +take him to some favorite pool. Somehow I made him understand in +broken words that Herapath was in danger, drowning already, for all I +knew, and then I seized a great pole which was leaning against the +porch, and climbed into the car. Papa was not slow, either; he +snatched a coil of rope from the luggage, and away we went, a man and +boy whom he had hastily called running behind us. We had lost very +little time, but so much may happen in so little time.</p> + +<p class="normal">We were forced to leave the car a quarter of a mile from that part of +the river, and walk or run the rest of the way. We all ran, even papa, +as I had never known him run before. My heart sank at the groan he let +escape him when I pointed out the spot. We came to it one by one. The +ledge was empty. Jem Herapath was gone. I suppose it startled me. At +any rate I could only look at the water in a dazed way and cry +quietly, without much feeling that it was my doing; while the men, +shouting to one another in strange, hushed voices, searched about for +any sign of his fate. "Jem! Jem Herapath!" So he had written his name +only yesterday in the travelers' book at the posting-house, and I had +sullenly watched him from the window, and then had sneaked to the book +and read it. That was yesterday, and now! Oh, Jem, to hear you say +"Bab" once more!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bab! Why, Miss Bab, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Safe and sound! Yes, there he was when I turned, safe and strong and +cool, rod in hand and a quiet smile in his eyes. Just as I had seen +him yesterday, and thought never to see him again; and saying "Bab," +exactly as of old, so that something in my throat--it may have been +anger at his rudeness, but I do not think it was--prevented me saying +a word until all the others came around us, and a babel of Norse and +English, and something that was neither, yet both, set in.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But how is this?" objected my father, when he could be heard, "you +are quite dry, my boy?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dry! Why not, sir? For goodness' sake, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"The matter? Didn't you fall in, or something of the kind?" papa +asked, bewildered by this new aspect of the case.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It does not look like it, does it? Your daughter gave me a very +uncomfortable start by nearly doing so."</p> + +<p class="normal">Everyone looked at him for an explanation. "How did you manage to get +from the ledge?" I said feebly. Where was the mistake? I had not +dreamed it.</p> + +<p class="normal">"From the ledge? Why, by the other end, to be sure, so that I had to +walk back round the hill. Still, I did not mind, for I was thankful +that it was the plank and not you that fell in."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I--I thought--you could not get from the ledge," I muttered. The +possibility of getting off at the other end had never occurred to me, +and so I had made such a simpleton of myself. It was too absurd, too +ridiculous! It was no wonder that they all screamed with laughter at +the fool's errand they had come upon, and stamped about and clung to +one another. But when <i>he</i> laughed too,--and he did until the tears +came into his eyes,--there was not an ache or pain in my body--and I +had cut my wrist to the bone against a splinter of rock--that hurt me +one-half as much. Surely <i>he</i> might have seen another side to it. But +he did not; and so I managed to hide my bandaged wrist from him, and +papa drove me home. There I broke down entirely, and Clare put me to +bed and petted me, and was very good to me. And when I came down next +day, with an ache in every part of me, he was gone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He asked me to tell you," said Clare, not looking up from the fly she +was tying at the window, "that he thought you were the bravest girl he +had ever met."</p> + +<p class="normal">So he understood now, when others had explained it to him. "No, +Clare," I said coldly; "he did not say that exactly. He said, 'the +bravest little girl.'" For, indeed, lying upstairs with the window +open, I had heard him set off on his long drive to Laerdalsören. As +for papa, he was half-proud and half-ashamed of my foolishness, and +wholly at a loss to think how I could have made the mistake.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You've generally some common sense, my dear," he said that day at +dinner, "and how in the world you could have been so ready to fancy +the man in danger, I--can--not--imagine!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Papa," put in Clare suddenly, "your elbow is upsetting the salt."</p> + +<p class="normal">And as I had to move my seat just then to avoid the glare of the +stove, which was falling on my face, we never thought it out.</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>II.</h3> +<h3>HIS STORY.</h3> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I was not dining out much at that time, partly because my acquaintance +in town was limited, and somewhat too because I cared little for it. +But these were pleasant people, the old gentleman witty and amusing, +the children, lively girls, nice to look at and good to talk with. The +party had too a holiday flavor about them wholesome to recall in +Scotland Yard: and as I had thought, playtime over, I should see no +more of them, I was proportionately pleased to find that Mr. Guest had +not forgotten me, and pleased also--shrewdly expecting that we might +kill our fish over again--to regard his invitation to dinner at a +quarter to eight as a royal command.</p> + +<p class="normal">But if I took it so, I was sadly wanting in the regal courtesy to +match. What with one delay owing to work that would admit of none, +and another caused by a cabman strange to the ways of town, it was +twenty-five minutes after the hour named when I reached Bolton +Gardens. A stately man, so like the Queen's Counsel that it was plain +upon whom the latter modeled himself, ushered me straight into the +dining room, where Guest greeted me very kindly, and met my excuses by +apologies on his part--for preferring, I suppose, the comfort of +eleven people to mine. Then he took me down the table, and said, "My +daughter," and Miss Guest shook hands with me and pointed to the chair +at her left. I had still, as I unfolded my napkin, to say "Clear, if +you please," and then I was free to turn and apologize to her; being a +little shy, and, as I have said, a somewhat infrequent diner out.</p> + +<p class="normal">I think that I never saw so remarkable a likeness--to her younger +sister--in my life. She might have been little Bab herself, but for +her dress and some striking differences. Miss Guest could not be more +than eighteen, in form almost as fairy-like as the little one, with +the same child-like, innocent look on her face. She had the big gray +eyes, too, that were so charming in Bab; but in her they were more +soft and tender and thoughtful, and a thousand times more charming. +Her hair too was brown and wavy: only, instead of hanging loose or in +a pig-tail, anywhere and anyhow, in a fashion I well remembered, it +was coiled in a coronal on the shapely little head, that was so Greek, +and in its gracious, stately, old-fashioned pose, so unlike Bab's. Her +dress, of some creamy, gauzy stuff, revealed the prettiest white +throat in the world, and arms decked in pearls, and, so far, no more +recalled my little fishing-mate than the sedate self-possession and +assured dignity of this girl, as she talked to her other neighbor, +suggested Bab making pancakes and chattering with the landlady's +children in her strangely and wonderfully acquired Norse. It was not +Bab in fact: and yet it almost might have been: an etherealized, +queenly, womanly Bab--who presently turned to me:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you quite settled down after your holiday?" she asked, staying +the apologies I was for pouring into her ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I had until this evening, but the sight of your father is like a +breath of fiord air. I hope your sisters are well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"My sisters?" she murmured wonderingly, her fork halfway to her pretty +mouth and her attitude one of questioning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I said, rather puzzled. "You know they were with your father +when I had the good fortune to meet him. Miss Clare and Bab."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eh?" dropping her fork on the plate with a great clatter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Miss Guest; Miss Clare and Miss Bab."</p> + +<p class="normal">I really began to feel uncomfortable. Her color rose, and she looked +me in the face in a half-proud, half-fearful way as if she resented +the inquiry. It was a relief to me, when, with some show of confusion, +she at length stammered, "Oh, yes, I beg your pardon, of course they +were! How very foolish of me! They are quite well, thank you," and so +was silent again. But I understand now. Mr. Guest had omitted to +mention my name, and she had taken me for someone else of whose +holiday she knew. I gathered from the aspect of the table and the room +that the Guests saw a good deal of company, and it was a very natural +mistake, though by the grave look she bent upon her plate it was clear +that the young hostess was taking herself to task for it: not without, +if I might judge from the lurking smile at the corners of her mouth, a +humorous sense of the slip, and perhaps of the difference between +myself and the gentleman whose part I had been unwittingly supporting. +Meanwhile I had a chance of looking at her unchecked; and thought of +Dresden china, she was so frail and pretty.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You were nearly drowned, or something of the kind, were you not?" she +asked, after an interval during which we had both talked to others.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, not precisely. Your sister fancied I was in danger, and behaved +in the pluckiest manner--so bravely that I can almost feel sorry that +the danger was not there to dignify her heroism."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That was like her," she answered, in a tone just a little scornful. +"You must have thought her a terrible tomboy."</p> + +<p class="normal">While she was speaking there came one of those terrible lulls in the +talk, and Mr. Guest, overhearing, cried: "Who is that you are abusing, +my dear? Let us all share in the sport. If it's Clare, I think I can +name one who is a far worse hoyden upon occasion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is no one of whom you have ever heard, papa," she answered archly. +"It is a person in whom Mr.--Mr. Herapath"--I had murmured my name as +she stumbled--"and I are interested. Now, tell me, did you not think +so?" she murmured graciously, leaning the slightest bit toward me, and +opening her eyes as she looked into mine in a way that to a man who +had spent the day in a dusty room in Great Scotland Yard was +sufficiently intoxicating.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I said, lowering my voice in imitation of hers. "No, Miss Guest, +I did not think so at all. I thought your sister a brave little +thing--rather careless, as children are apt to be, but likely to grow +into a charming girl."</p> + +<p class="normal">I wondered, marking how she bit her lip and refrained from assent, +whether, impossible as it must seem to anyone looking in her face, +there might not be something of the shrew about my beautiful neighbor. +Her tone, when she spoke of her sister, seemed to import no great good +will.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So that is your opinion?" she said, after a pause. "Do you know," +with a laughing glance, "that some people think I am like her?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes?" I answered gravely. "Well, I should be able to judge, who have +seen you both and yet am not an old friend. And I think you are both +like and unlike. Your sister has very beautiful eyes"--she lowered +hers swiftly--"and hair like yours, but her manner and style were very +different. I can no more fancy Bab in your place than I can picture +you, Miss Guest, as I saw her for the first time--and on many after +occasions," I added, laughing as much to cover my own hardihood as at +the queer little figure I had conjured up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you,' Mr. Herapath," she replied with coldness, though she had +blushed darkly to her ears. "That, I think, must be enough of +compliments for to-night--as you are not an old friend." And she +turned away, leaving me to curse my folly in saying so much, when our +acquaintance was as yet in the bud, and as susceptible to overwarmth +as to a temperature below zero.</p> + +<p class="normal">A moment later the ladies left us. The flush I had brought to her +cheek still lingered there, as she swept past me with a wondrous show +of dignity in one so young. Mr. Guest came down and took her place, +and we talked of the "land of berries," and our adventures there, +while the rest--older friends--listened indulgently or struck in from +time to time with their own biggest fish and deadliest flies.</p> + +<p class="normal">I used to wonder why women like to visit dusty chambers; why they get +more joy--I am fain to think they do--out of a scrambling tea up three +pairs of stairs in Pump Court, than from the very same materials--and +comfort withal--in their own house. I imagine it is for the same +reason that the bachelor finds a singular charm in a lady's drawing +room, and there, if anywhere, sees her with a reverent mind--a charm +and a subservience which I felt to the full in the Guests' drawing +room--a room rich in subdued colors and a cunning blending of luxury +and comfort. Yet it depressed me. I felt alone. Mr. Guest had passed +on to others and I stood aside, the sense that I was not of these +people troubling me in a manner as new as it was absurd: for I had +been in the habit of rather despising "society." Miss Guest was at the +piano, the center of a circle of soft light, which showed up also a +keen-faced, dark-whiskered man leaning over her with the air of one +used to the position. Everyone else was so fully engaged that I may +have looked, as well as felt, forlorn, and meeting her eyes could have +fancied she was regarding me with amusement--almost triumph. It must +have been mere fancy, bred of self-consciousness, for the next moment +she beckoned me to her, and said to her cavalier:</p> + +<p class="normal">"There, Jack; Mr. Herapath is going to talk to me about Norway now, so +that I don't want you any longer. Perhaps you won't mind stepping up +to the schoolroom--Fräulein and Clare are there--and telling Clare, +that--that--oh, anything!"</p> + +<p class="normal">There is no piece of ill-breeding so bad to my mind as for a man who +is at home in a house to flaunt his favor in the face of other guests. +That young lawyer's manner as he left her, and the smile of perfect +intelligence which passed between them were such a breach of good +manners as would have ruffled anyone. They ruffled me--yes, me, +although it was no concern of mine what she called him, or how he +conducted himself--so that I could do nothing but stand by the piano +and sulk. One bear makes another, you know.</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not speak, and I, content to watch the slender hands stealing +over the keys, would not, until my eyes fell upon her right wrist. She +had put off her bracelets and so disclosed a scar upon it, something +about which--not its newness--so startled me that I said abruptly, +"That is very strange! Pray tell me how you did it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked up, saw what I meant, and, stopping hastily, put on her +bracelets; to all appearance so vexed by my thoughtless question, and +anxious to hide the mark, that I was quick to add humbly, "I asked +because your sister hurt her wrist in nearly the same place on the day +when she thought I was in trouble, and the coincidence struck me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, I remember," looking at me I thought with a certain suspicion, +as though she were not sure that I was giving the right motive. "I did +this much in the same way. By falling, I mean. Isn't it a hateful +disfigurement?"</p> + +<p class="normal">No, it was no disfigurement. Even to her, with a woman's love of +conquest, it must have seemed anything but a disfigurement had she +known what the quiet, awkward man at her side was thinking, who stood +looking shyly at it and found no words to contradict her, though she +asked him twice, and thought him stupid enough. A great longing to +kiss that soft, scarred wrist was on me--and Miss Guest had added +another to the number of her slaves. I don't know now why that little +scar should have so touched me any more than I then could guess why, +being a commonplace person, I should fall in love at first sight, and +feel no surprise at my condition, only a half consciousness (seeming +fully to justify it) that in some former state of being I had met my +love, and read her thoughts, and learned her moods, and come to know +the bright womanly spirit that looked from her frank eyes as well as +if she were an old, old friend. And so vivid was this sensation, that +once or twice, then and afterward, when I would meet her glance, +another name than hers trembled on my tongue and passed away before I +could shape it into sound.</p> + +<p class="normal">After an interval, "Are you going to the Goldmaces' dance?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I answered her humbly. "I go out so little."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed," with an odd smile not too kindly; "I wish--no, I don't--that +we could say the same. We are engaged, I think"--she paused, her +attention divided between myself and Boccherini's minuet, the low +strains of which she was sending through the room--"for every +afternoon--this week--except Saturday. By the way, Mr. Herapath--do +you remember what was the name--Bab told me you teased her with?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wee bonnie Bab," I answered absently. My thoughts had gone forward to +Saturday. We are always dropping to-day's substance for the shadow of +tomorrow; like the dog--a dog was it not?--in the fable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, yes, wee bonnie Bab," she murmured softly. "Poor Bab!" and +suddenly cut short Boccherini's music and our chat by striking a +terrific discord and laughing merrily at my start of discomfiture. +Everyone took it as a signal to leave. They all seemed to be going to +meet her again next day, or the day after that; they engaged her for +dances, and made up a party for the law courts, and tossed to and fro +a score of laughing catchwords, that were beyond my comprehension. +They all did this, except myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet I went away with something before me--that call upon Saturday +afternoon. Quite unreasonably I fancied I should see her alone. And so +when the day came and I stood outside the opening door of the drawing +room, and heard voices and laughter within, I was hurt and aggrieved +beyond measure. There was quite a party, and a merry one, assembled, +who were playing at some game as it seemed to me, for I caught sight +of Clare whipping off an impromptu bandage from her eyes, and striving +by her stiffest air to give the lie to a pair of flushed cheeks. The +black-whiskered man was there, and two men of his kind, and a German +governess, and a very old lady in a wheel-chair, who was called +"grandmamma," and Miss Guest herself looking, in the prettiest dress +of silvery plush, to the full as bright and fair and graceful as I had +been picturing her each hour since we parted.</p> + +<p class="normal">She dropped me a stately courtesy. "Will you play the part of Miss +Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, Mr. Herapath, while I act honest +Burchell, and say 'Fudge!' or will you burn nuts and play games with +neighbor Flamborough? You will join us, won't you? Clare does not so +misbehave every day, only it is such a wet afternoon and so cold and +wretched, and we did not think there would be any more callers--and +tea will be up in five minutes."</p> + +<p class="normal">She did not think there would be any more callers! Something in her +smile belied the words and taught me that she had thought--she had +known--that there would be one more caller--one who would burn nuts +and play games with her, though Rome itself were afire, and Tooley +Street and the Mile End Road to boot.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a simple game enough, and not likely, one would say, to afford +much risk of that burning the fingers which gave a zest to the Vicar +of Wakefield's nuts. One sat in the middle blind-folded, while the +rest disguised their own or assumed each other's voices, and spoke one +by one some gibe or quip at his expense. When he succeeded in naming +the speaker, the detected satirist put on the poke, and in his turn +heard things good--if he had a conceit of himself--for his soul's +health. Now this <i>rôle</i> unhappily soon fell to me, and proved a +heavy one, because I was not so familiar with the other's voices as +were the rest; and Miss Guest--whose faintest tones I thought to have +known--had a wondrous knack of cheating me, now taking off Clare's +voice, and now--after the door had been opened to admit the tea--her +father's. So I failed again and again to earn my release. But when a +voice behind me cried with well-feigned eagerness:</p> + +<p class="normal">"How nice! Do tell me all about a fire!"</p> + +<p class="normal">Though no fresh creaking of the door had reached me, nor warning been +given of an addition to the players, I had not the smallest doubt who +was the speaker; but exclaimed at once, "That is Bab' Now I cry you +mercy. I am right this time. That was Bab!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I looked for a burst of applause and laughter, such as had before +attended a good thrust home, but none came. On the contrary, with my +words so odd a silence fell upon the room that it was clear that +something was wrong, and I pulled off my handkerchief in haste, +repeating, "That was Bab, I am sure."</p> + +<p class="normal">But if it was, I could not see her. What had come over them all? +Jack's face wore a provoking smile, and his friends were clearly bent +upon sniggering. Clare looked horrified, and grandmamma gently +titillated, while Miss Guest, who had risen and half turned away +toward the windows, seemed to be in a state of proud confusion. What +was the matter?</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg everyone's pardon by anticipation," I said, looking round in a +bewildered way, "but have I said anything wrong?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, dear no!" cried the fellow they called Jack, with a familiarity +that was in the worst taste--as if I had meant to apologize to him! +"Most natural thing in the world!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Jack, how dare you!" exclaimed Miss Guest, stamping her foot.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, it seemed all right. It sounded very natural, I am sure."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you are unbearable! Why don't you say something, Clare?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Herapath, I am sure that you did not know that my name was +Barbara."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly not," I cried. "What a strange thing!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it is, and that is why grandmamma is looking so shocked, and Mr. +Buchanan is wearing threadbare an old friend's privilege of being +rude. I freely forgive you if you will make allowance for him. And you +shall come off the stool of repentance and have your tea first, since +you are the greatest stranger. It is a stupid game, after all!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She would hear no apologies from me. And when I would have asked why +her sister bore the same name, and thus excused myself, she was intent +upon tea-making, and the few moments I could with decency add to my +call gave me scant opportunity. I blush to think how I eked them out, +by what subservience to Clare, by what a slavish anxiety to help even +Jack to muffins--each piece I hoped might choke him. How slow I was to +find hat and gloves, calling to mind with terrible vividness, as I +turned my back upon the circle, that again and again in my experience +an acquaintance begun by a dinner had ended with the consequent call. +And so I should have gone--it might have been so here--but that the +door-handle was stiff, and Miss Guest came to my aid as I fumbled with +it. "We are always at home on Saturdays, if you like to call, Mr. +Herapath," she murmured carelessly, not lifting her eyes--and I found +myself in the street.</p> + +<p class="normal">So carelessly she said it that, with a sudden change of feeling, I +vowed I would not call. Why should I? Why should I worry myself with +the sight of those other fellows parading their favor? With the babble +of that society chit-chat, which I had so often scorned, and--and +still scorned, and had no part or concern in. They were not people to +suit me or do me good. I would not go, I said, and repeated it firmly +on Monday and Tuesday; on Wednesday only so far modified it that I +thought at some distant time to leave a card--to avoid discourtesy; on +Friday preferred an earlier date as wiser and more polite, and on +Saturday walked shame-faced down the street, and knocked and rang and +went upstairs--to taste a pleasant misery. Yes, and on the next +Saturday too, and the next, and the next; and that one on which we +all went to the theater, and that other one on which Mr. Guest kept +me to dinner. Aye, and on other days that were not Saturdays, among +which two stand high out of the waters of forgetfulness--high days, +indeed--days like twin pillars of Hercules, through which I thought to +reach, as did the seamen of old, I knew not what treasures of unknown +lands stretching away under the setting sun. First that one on which I +found Barbara Guest alone and blurted out that I had the audacity to +wish to make her my wife; and then heard, before I had well--or +badly--told my tale, the wheels of grandmamma's chair outside.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" the girl said, her face turned from me. "Hush, Mr. Herapath! +You don't know me, indeed. You have seen so little of me. Please say +nothing more about it. You are completely under a delusion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is no delusion that I love you, Barbara!" I cried.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is! it is!" she repeated, freeing her hand. "There, if you will +not take an answer--come--come at three to-morrow. But mind, I promise +you nothing--I promise nothing," she added feverishly, and fled from +the room, leaving me to talk to grandmamma as best, and escape as +quickly as, I might.</p> + +<p class="normal">I longed for a great fire that evening, and, failing one, tired myself +by tramping unknown streets of the East End, striving to teach myself +that any trouble to-morrow might bring was but a shadow, a sentiment, +a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath with the want and toil +of which I caught glimpses up each street and lane that opened to +right and left. In the main, of course, I failed; but the effort +did me good, sending me home tired out, to sleep as soundly as if I +were going to be hanged next day, and not--which is a very different +thing--to be put upon my trial.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will tell Miss Guest you are here, sir," the man said. I looked at +all the little things in the room which I had come to know well--her +work basket, the music upon the piano, the table easel, her +photograph, and wondered if I were to see them no more, or if they +were to become a part of my everyday life. Then I heard her come in, +and turned quickly, feeling that I should learn my fate from her +greeting.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bab!" The word was wrung from me perforce. And then we stood and +looked at one another, she with a strange pride and defiance in her +eyes, though her cheek was dark with blushes, and I with wonder and +perplexity in mine. Wonder and perplexity that quickly grew into a +conviction, a certainty that the girl standing before me in the +short-skirted brown dress with tangled hair and loose neck-ribbon was +the Bab I had known in Norway; and yet that the eyes--I could not +mistake them now, no matter what unaccustomed look they might +wear--were Barbara Guest's!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Guest--Barbara," I stammered, grappling with the truth, "why +have you played this trick upon me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is Miss Guest and Barbara now," she cried, with a mocking +courtesy. "Do you remember, Mr. Herapath, when it was Bab? When you +treated me as a kind of toy and a plaything, with which you might be +as intimate as you liked; and hurt my feelings--yes, it is weak to +confess it, I know--day by day and hour by hour?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, surely, that is forgiven now?" I said, dazed by an attack so +sudden and so bitter. "It is atonement enough that I am at your feet +now, Barbara!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are not," she retorted hotly. "Don't say you have offered love to +me, who am the same with the child you teased at Breistolen. You have +fallen in love with my fine clothes and my pearls and my maid's work, +not with me! You have fancied the girl you saw other men make much of. +But you have not loved the woman who might have prized that which Miss +Guest has never learned to value."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How old are you?" I said hoarsely.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nineteen!" she snapped out. And then for a moment we were both +silent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I begin to understand now," I answered slowly as soon as I could +conquer something in my throat. "Long ago, when I hardly knew you, I +hurt your woman's pride; and since that you have plotted----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, you have tricked yourself!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And schemed to bring me to your feet that you might have the pleasure +of trampling on me. Miss Guest, your triumph is complete, more +complete than you are able to understand. I loved you this morning +above all the world--as my own life--as every hope I had. See, I tell +you this that you may have a moment's keener pleasure when I am gone."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Don't! Don't!" she cried, throwing herself into a chair and covering +her face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have won a man's heart and cast it aside to gratify an old pique. +You may rest content now, for there is nothing wanting to your +vengeance. You have given me as much pain as a woman, the vainest and +the most heartless, can give a man. Good-by."</p> + +<p class="normal">And with that I was leaving her, fighting my own pain and passion, so +that the little hands she raised as though they would ward off my +words were nothing to me. I felt a savage delight in seeing that I +could hurt her, which deadened my own grief. The victory was not; all +with her lying there sobbing. Only where was my hat? Let me get my hat +and go. Let me escape from this room wherein every trifle upon which +my eye rested awoke some memory that was a pang. Let me get away, and +have done with it all.</p> + +<p class="normal">Where was the hat? I had brought it up. I could not go without it. It +must be under her chair, by all that was unlucky, for it was nowhere +else. I could not stand and wait, and so I had to go up to her, with +cold words of apology upon my lips, and being close to her and seeing +on her wrist, half hidden by fallen hair, the scar she had brought +home from Norway, I don't know how it was that I fell on my knees by +her and cried:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Bab, I loved you so! Let us part friends."</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment, silence. Then she whispered, her hand in mine: "Why did +you not say Bab to begin? I only told you that Miss Guest had not +learned to value your love."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Bab?" I murmured, my brain in a whirl.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Learned long ago, poor girl!"</p> + +<p class="normal">And the fair, tear-stained face of my tyrant looked into mine for a +moment, and then came quite naturally to its resting place.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now," she said, when I was leaving, "you may have your hat, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I believe," I replied, "that you sat upon this chair on purpose."</p> + +<p class="normal">And Bab blushed. I believe she did.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">THE DRIFT OF FATE.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">On a certain morning in last June I was stooping to fasten a shoelace, +having taken advantage for the purpose of the step of a corner house +in St. James' Square, when a man passing behind me stopped.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well!" said he aloud, after a short pause during which I wondered--I +could not see him--what he was doing, "the meanness of these rich folk +is disgusting! Not a coat of paint for a twelvemonth! I should be +ashamed to own a house and leave it like that!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The man was a stranger to me, and his words seemed as uncalled for as +they were ill-natured. But being thus challenged I looked at the +house. It was a great stone mansion with a balustrade atop, with many +windows and a long stretch of area railings. And, certainly it was +shabby. I turned from it to the critic. He was shabby, too--a little +red-nosed man, wearing a bad hat. "It is just possible," I suggested, +"that the owner may be a poor man and unable to keep it in order."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ugh! What has that to do with it?" my new friend answered +contemptuously. "He ought to think of the public."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And your hat?" I asked, with wining politeness. "It strikes me, an +unprejudiced observer, as a bad hat. Why do you not get a new one?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cannot afford it!" he snapped out, his dull eyes sparkling with rage.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Cannot afford it? But, my good man, you ought to think of the +public."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You tom-cat! What have you to do with my hat? Smother you!" was his +kindly answer; and he went on his way muttering things uncomplimentary.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was about to go mine, and was first falling back to gain a better +view of the house in question, when a chuckle close to me betrayed the +presence of a listener, a thin, gray-haired man, who, hidden by a +pillar of the porch, must have heard our discussion. His hands were +engaged with a white tablecloth, from which he had been shaking the +crumbs. He had the air of an upper servant of the best class. As our +eyes met he spoke.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Neatly put, sir, if I may take the liberty of saying so," he observed +with a quiet dignity it was a pleasure to witness, "and we are very +much obliged to you. The man was a snob, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am afraid he was," I answered; "and a fool too."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And a fool, sir. Answer a fool after his folly. You did that, and he +was nowhere; nowhere at all, except in the swearing line. Now might I +ask," he continued, "if you are an American, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I am not," I answered; "but I have spent some time in the +States."</p> + +<p class="normal">I could have fancied that he sighed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought--but never mind, sir," he began, "I was wrong, It is +curious how very much alike gentlemen, that are real gentlemen, speak. +Now, I dare swear, sir, that you have a taste for pictures."</p> + +<p class="normal">I was inclined to humor the old fellow's mood. "I like a good picture, +I admit," I said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then perhaps you would not be offended if I asked you to step inside +and look at one or two," he suggested timidly. "I would not take a +liberty, sir, but there are some Van Dycks and a Rubens in the dining +room that cost a mint of money in their day, I have heard; and there +is no one else in the house but my wife and myself."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a strange invitation, strangely brought about. But I saw no +reason for myself why I should not accept it, and I followed him into +the hall. It was spacious, but sparsely furnished. The matted floor +had a cold look, and so had the gaunt stand which seemed to be a +fixture, and boasted but one umbrella, one sunshade, and one dog-whip. +As I passed a half-open door I caught a glimpse of a small room +prettily furnished, with dainty prints and water-colors on the walls. +But these were of a common order. A dozen replicas of each and all +might be seen in a walk through Bond Street. Even this oasis of taste +and comfort told the same story as had the bare hall and dreary +exterior; and laid, as it were, a finger on one's heart. I trod softly +as I followed my guide along the strip of matting toward the rear of +the house.</p> + +<p class="normal">He opened a door at the inner end of the hall, and led me into a large +and lofty room, built out from the back, as a state dining room or +ballroom. At present it rather resembled the latter, for it was +without furniture. "Now," said the old man, turning and respectfully +touching my sleeve to gain my attention, "now you will not consider +your labor lost in coming to see that, sir. It is a portrait of the +second Lord Wetherby by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and is judged to be one +of the finest specimens of his style in existence."</p> + +<p class="normal">I was lost in astonishment; amazed, almost appalled! My companion +stood by my side, his face wearing a placid smile of satisfaction, his +hand pointing slightly upward to the blank wall before us. The blank +wall! Of any picture, there or elsewhere in the room, there was no +sign. I turned to him and then from him, and I felt very sick at +heart. The poor old fellow was--must be--mad. I gazed blankly at the +blank wall. "By Van Dyck?" I repeated mechanically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir, by Van Dyck," he replied, in the most matter-of-fact +tone imaginable. "So, too, is this one;" he moved, as he spoke, a few +feet to his left. "The second peer's first wife in the costume of a +lady-in-waiting. This portrait and the last are in as good a state of +preservation as on the day they were painted."</p> + +<p class="normal">Oh, certainly mad! And yet so graphic was his manner, so crisp and +realistic were his words, that I rubbed my eyes; and looked and looked +again, and almost fancied that Lord Walter and Anne, his wife, grew +into shape before me on the wall. Almost, but not quite; and it was +with a heart full of wondering pity that I accompanied the old man, in +whose manner there was no trace of wildness or excitement, round the +walls; visiting in turn the Cuyp which my lord bought in Holland, the +Rubens, the four Lawrences, and the Philips--a very Barmecide feast of +art. I could not doubt that the old man saw the pictures. But I saw +only bare walls.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I think you have seen them, family portraits and all," he +concluded, as we came to the doorway again; stating the fact, which +was no fact, with complacent pride. "They are fine pictures, sir. +They, at least, are left, although the house is not what it was."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very fine pictures!" I remarked. I was minded to learn if he were +sane on other points. "Lord Wetherby," I said; "I should suppose that +he is not in London?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not know, sir, one way or the other," the servant answered with +a new air of reserve. "This is not his lordship's house. Mrs. Wigram, +my late lord's daughter-in-law, lives here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But this is the Wetherbys' town house," I persisted. I knew so much.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It was my late lord's house. At his son's marriage it was settled +upon Mrs. Wigram; and little enough besides, God knows!" he exclaimed +querulously. "It was Mr. Alfred's wish that some land should be +settled upon his wife, but there was none out of the entail, and my +lord, who did not like the match, though he lived to be fond enough of +the mistress afterward, said, 'Settle the house in town!' in a bitter +kind of joke like. So the house was settled, and five hundred pounds a +year. Mr. Alfred died abroad, as you may know, sir, and my lord was +not long in following him."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was closing the shutters of one window after another as he spoke. +The room had sunk into deep gloom. I could imagine now that the +pictures were really where he fancied them. "And Lord Wetherby, the +late peer?" I asked, after a pause, "did he leave his daughter-in-law +nothing?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My lord died suddenly, leaving no will," he replied sadly. "That +is how it all is. And the present peer, who was only a second +cousin--well, I say nothing about him." A reticence which was well +calculated to consign his lordship to the lowest deep.</p> + +<p class="normal">"He did not help?" I asked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Devil a bit, begging your pardon, sir. But there--it is not my place +to talk of these things. I doubt I have wearied you with talk about +the family. It is not my way," he added, as if wondering at himself, +"only something in what you said seemed to touch a chord like."</p> + +<p class="normal">By this time we were outside the room, standing at the inner end of +the hall, while he fumbled with the lock of the door. Short passages +ending in swing doors ran out right and left from this point, and +through one of these a tidy, middle-aged woman, wearing an apron, +suddenly emerged. At sight of me she looked greatly astonished. "I +have been showing the gentleman the pictures," said my guide, who was +still occupied with the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">A quick flash of pain altered and hardened the woman's face. "I have +been very much interested, madam," I said softly.</p> + +<p class="normal">Her gaze left me, to dwell upon the old man with infinite affection. +"John had no right to bring you in, sir," she said primly. "I have +never known him do such a thing before, and--Lord 'a' mercy! there is +the mistress's knock. Go, John, and let her in; and this gentleman," +with an inquisitive look at me, "will not mind stepping a bit aside, +while her ladyship goes upstairs."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly not," I answered. I hastened to draw back into one of the +side passages, into the darkest corner of it, and there stood leaning +against the cool panels, my hat in my hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the short pause which ensued before John opened the door she +whispered to me, "You have not told him, sir?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"About the pictures?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir. He is blind, you see."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blind?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, sir, this year and more; and when the pictures were taken +away--by the present earl--that he had known all his life, and +been so proud to show to people just the same as if they had been his +own--why, it seemed a shame to tell him. I have never had the heart to +do it, and he thinks they are there to this day."</p> + +<p class="normal">Blind! I had never thought of that; and while I was grasping the idea +now, and fitting it to the facts, a light footstep sounded in the hall +and a woman's voice on the stairs; such a voice and such a footstep, +that, as it seemed to me, a man, if nothing else were left to him, +might find home in them alone. "Your mistress," I said presently, when +the sounds had died away upon the floor above, "has a sweet voice; but +has not something annoyed her?"</p> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/p120.png" alt="p120"><br> +"LORD 'A' MERCY! THERE IS THE MISTRESS'S KNOCK."</p> + + +<p class="normal">"Well, I never should have thought that you would have noticed that!" +exclaimed the housekeeper, who was, I dare say, many other things +besides housekeeper. "You have a sharp ear, sir; that I will say. Yes, +there is a something has gone wrong; but to think that an American +gentleman should have noticed it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am not American," I said, perhaps testily.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, indeed, sir. I beg your pardon, I am sure. It was just your way +of speaking made me think it," she replied; and then there came a +second louder rap at the door, as John, who had gone upstairs with his +mistress, came down in a leisurely fashion.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is Lord Wetherby, drat him!" he said, on his wife calling to him +in a low voice; he was ignorant, I think, of my presence. "He is to be +shown into the library, and the mistress will see him there in five +minutes; and you are to go to her room. Oh, rap away!" he added, +turning toward the door, and shaking his fist at it. "There is many a +better man than you has waited longer at that door."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush, John! Do you not see the gentleman?" interposed his wife, with +the simplicity of habit. "He will show you out," she added rapidly to +me, "as soon as his lordship has gone in, if you do not mind waiting +another minute."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not at all," I said, drawing back into the corner as they went on +their errands; but though I said, "Not at all," mine was an odd +position. The way in which I had come into the house, and my present +situation in a kind of hiding, would have made most men only anxious +to extricate themselves. But I, while listening to John parleying with +someone at the door, conceived a strange desire, or a desire which +would have been strange in any other man, to see this thing to the +end; conceived it and acted upon it.</p> + +<p class="normal">The library? That was the room on the right of the hall, opposite to +Mrs. Wigram's sitting room. Probably, nay I was certain, it had +another door opening on the passage in which I stood. It would cost me +but a step or two to confirm my opinion. When John ushered in the +visitor by one door I had already, by way of the other, ensconced +myself behind a screen, that I seemed to know would face it. I was +going to listen. Perhaps I had my reasons. Perhaps--but there, what +matter? I, as a fact, listened.</p> + +<p class="normal">The room was spacious but somber, wainscoted and vaulted with oak. Its +only visible occupant was a thin, dark man of middle size, with a +narrow face, and a stubborn feather of black hair rising above his +forehead; a man of Welsh type. He was standing with his back to the +light, a roll of papers in one hand. The fingers of the other, +drumming upon the table, betrayed that he was both out of temper and +ill at ease. While I was still scanning him stealthily--I had never +seen him before--the door was opened, and Mrs. Wigram came in. I sank +back behind the screen. I think some words passed, some greeting of +the most formal, but though the room was still, I failed to hear it, +and when I recovered myself he was speaking.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am here at your wish, Mrs. Wigram, and your service, too," he was +saying, with an effort at gallantry which sat very ill upon him, +"although I think it would have been better if we had left the matter +to our solicitors."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes. I fancied you were aware of my opinion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was; and I perfectly understand, Lord Wetherby, your preference for +that course," she replied, with sarcastic coldness, which did not hide +her dislike for him. "You naturally shrink from telling me your terms +face to face."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, Mrs. Wigram! Now, Mrs. Wigram! Is not this a tone to be +deprecated?" he answered, lifting his hands. "I come to you as a man +of business upon business."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Business! Does that mean wringing advantage from my weakness?" she +retorted.</p> + +<p class="normal">He shrugged his shoulders. "I do deprecate this tone," he repeated. "I +come in plain English to make you an offer; one which you can accept +or refuse as you please. I offer you five hundred a year for this +house. It is immensely too large for your needs, and too expensive for +your income, and yet you have in strictness no power to let it. Very +well, I, who can release you from that restriction, offer you five +hundred a year for the house. What can be more fair?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Fair? In plain English, Lord Wetherby, you are the only possible +purchaser, and you fix the price. Is that fair? The house would let +easily for twelve hundred."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Possibly," he retorted, "if it were in the open market. But it is +not."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," she answered rapidly. "And you, having the forty thousand a year +which, had my husband lived, would have been his and mine; you who, a +poor man, have stepped into this inheritance--you offer me five +hundred for the family house! For shame, my lord! for shame!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"We are not acting a play," he said doggedly, showing that her words +had stung him in some degree. "The law is the law. I ask for nothing +but my rights, and one of those I am willing to waive in your favor. +You have my offer."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And if I refuse it? If I let the house? You will not dare to enforce +the restriction."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Try me," he rejoined, again drumming with his fingers upon the table. +"Try me, and you will see."</p> + +<p class="normal">"If my husband had lived----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"But he did not live," he broke in, losing patience, "and that makes +all the difference. Now, for Heaven's sake, Mrs. Wigram, do not make a +scene! Do you accept my offer?"</p> + +<p class="normal">For a moment she had seemed about to break down, but her pride coming +to the rescue, she recovered herself with wonderful quickness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have no choice," she said, with dignity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am glad you accept," he answered, so much relieved that he gave way +to an absurd burst of generosity. "Come!" he cried, "we will say +guineas instead of pounds, and have done with it!"</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him in wonder. "No, Lord Wetherby," she said, "I +accepted your terms. I prefer to keep to them. You said that you would +bring the necessary papers with you. If you have done so I will sign +them now, and my servants can witness them."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have the draft, and the lawyer's clerk is no doubt in the house," +he answered. "I left directions for him to be here at eleven."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not think he is in the house," the lady answered. "I should know +if he were here."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not here!" he cried angrily. "Why not, I wonder! But I have the +skeleton lease. It is very short, and to save delay I will fill in the +particulars, names, and so forth myself, if you will permit me to do +so. It will not take me twenty minutes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"As you please. You will find a pen and ink on the table. If you will +kindly ring the bell when you are ready, I will come and bring the +servants."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you; you are very good," he said smoothly; adding, when she had +left the room. "And the devil take your impudence, madam! As for your +cursed pride--well, it has saved me twenty-five pounds a year, and so +you are welcome to it. I was a fool to make the offer." And with that, +now grumbling at the absence of the lawyer's clerk and now +congratulating himself on the saving of a lawyer's fee, my lord sat +down to his task.</p> + +<p class="normal">A hansom cab on its way to the East India Club rattled through the +square, and under cover of the noise I stole out from behind the +screen, and stood in the middle of the room, looking down at the +unconscious worker. If for a minute I felt strongly the desire to +raise my hand and give his lordship such a surprise as he had never in +his life experienced, any other man might have felt the same; and, as +it was, I put it away and only looked quietly about me. Some rays of +sunshine, piercing the corner pane of a dulled window, fell on and +glorified the Wetherby coat of arms blazoned over the wide fireplace, +and so created the one bright spot in the bare, dismantled room, which +had once, unless the tiers of empty shelves and the yet lingering odor +of Russia lied, been lined from floor to ceiling with books. My lord +had taken the furniture; my lord had taken the books; my lord had +taken--nothing but his rights.</p> + +<p class="normal">Retreating softly to the door by which I had entered, and rattling the +handle, I advanced afresh into the room. "Will your lordship allow +me?" I said, after I had in vain coughed twice to gain his attention.</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned hastily and looked at me with a face full of suspicion. Some +surprise on finding another person in the room and close to him was +natural; but possibly, also, there was something in the atmosphere of +that house which threw his nerves off their balance. "Who are you?" he +cried, in a tone which matched his face.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You left orders, my lord," I explained, "with Messrs. Duggan & Poole +that a clerk should attend here at eleven. I very much regret that +some delay has unavoidably been caused."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, you are the clerk!" he replied ungraciously. "You do not look +much like a lawyer's clerk."</p> + +<p class="normal">Involuntarily I glanced aside and saw in a mirror the reflection of a +tall man with a thick beard and mustaches, gray eyes, and an ugly scar +seaming the face from ear to ear. "Yet I hope to give you full +satisfaction, my lord," I murmured, dropping my eyes. "It was +understood that you needed a confidential clerk."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, well, sir, to your work!" he replied irritably. "Better late +than never. And after all it may be preferable for you to be here and +see it duly executed. Only you will not forget," he continued hastily, +with a glance at the papers, "that I have myself copied four--well, +three--three full folios, sir, for which an allowance must be made. +But there! Get on with your work. The handwriting will speak for +itself."</p> + +<p class="normal">I obeyed, and wrote on steadily, while the earl walked up and down the +room, or stood at a window. Upstairs sat Mrs. Wigram, schooling +herself, I dare swear, to take this one favor that was no favor from +the man who had dealt out to her such hard measure. Outside a casual +passer through the square glanced up at the great house, and seeing +the bent head of the secretary and the figure of his companion moving +to and fro, saw, as he thought, nothing unusual; nor had any +presentiment--how should he?--of the strange scene which the room with +the dingy windows was about to witness.</p> + +<p class="normal">I had been writing for perhaps five minutes when Lord Wetherby stopped +in his passage behind me and looked over my shoulder. With a jerk his +eye-glasses fell, touching my shoulder.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "I have seen your handwriting +somewhere; and lately too. Where could it have been?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Probably among the family papers, my lord," I answered. "I have +several times been engaged in the family business in the time of the +late Lord Wetherby."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed!" There were both curiosity and suspicion in his utterance of +the word. "You knew him?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, my lord. I have written for him in this very room, and he has +walked up and down, and dictated to me, as you might be doing now," I +explained.</p> + +<p class="normal">His lordship stopped his pacing to and fro, and retreated to the +window on the instant. But I could see that he was interested, and I +was not surprised when he continued, with transparent carelessness, "A +strange coincidence! And may I ask what it was upon which you were +engaged?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"At that time?" I answered, looking him in the face. "It was a will, +my lord."</p> + +<p class="normal">He started and frowned, and abruptly resumed his walk up and down. But +I saw that he had a better conscience than I had given him the credit +of possessing. My shot had not struck fairly where I had looked to +place it; and finding this was so, I turned the thing over afresh, +while I pursued my copying. When I had finished, I asked him--I think +he was busy at the time cursing the absence of tact in the lower +orders--if he would go through the instrument; and he took my seat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Where I stood behind him, I was not far from the fireplace. While he +muttered to himself the legal jargon in which he was as well versed as +a lawyer bred in an office, I moved to it; and, neither missed nor +suspected, stood looking from his bent figure to the blazoned shield +which formed part of the mantelpiece. If I wavered, my hesitation +lasted but a few seconds. Then, raising my voice, I called sharply, +"My lord, there used to be here----"</p> + +<p class="normal">He turned swiftly, and saw where I was.</p> + +<p class="normal">"What the deuce are you doing there, sir?" he cried, in boundless +astonishment, rising to his feet and coming toward me, the pen in his +hand and his face aflame with anger. "You forget----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A safe--a concealed safe for papers," I continued, cutting him short +in my turn. "I have seen the late Lord Wetherby place papers in it +more than once. The spring worked from here. You touch this knob----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Leave it alone, sir!" cried the peer furiously.</p> + +<p class="normal">He spoke too late. The shield had swung gently outward on a hinge, +door-fashion, and where it had been gaped a small open safe, lined +with cement. The rays of sunshine, that a few minutes before had +picked out so brightly the gaudy quarterings, now fell on a large +envelope which lay apart on a shelf. It was as clean as if it had been +put there that morning. No doubt the safe was airtight. I laid my hand +upon it. "My lord!" I cried, turning to look at him with ill-concealed +exultation, "here is a paper--I think, a will!"</p> + +<p class="normal">A moment before the veins of his forehead had been swollen, his face +dark with the rush of blood. His anger died down, at sight of the +packet, with strange abruptness. He regained his self-control, and a +moment saw him pale and calm, all show of resentment confined to a +wicked gleam in his eye. "A will!" he repeated, with a certain kind of +dignity, though the hand he stretched out to take the envelope shook. +"Indeed! Then it is my place to examine it. I am the heir-at-law, and +I am within my rights, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">I feared that he was going to put the parcel into his pocket and +dismiss me, and I was considering what course I should take in that +event, when instead he carried the envelope to the table by the +window, and tore off the cover without ceremony. "It is not in your +handwriting?" were his first words, and he looked at me with a +distrust that was almost superstitious. No doubt my sudden entrance, +my ominous talk, and my discovery seemed to him to savor of the devil.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I replied, unmoved. "I told your lordship that I had written a +will at the late Lord Wetherby's dictation. I did not say--for how +could I know?--that it was this one."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah!" He hastily smoothed the sheets, and ran his eyes over their +contents. When he reached the last page there was a dark scowl on his +face, and he stood a while staring at the signatures; not now reading, +I think, but collecting his thoughts. "You know the provisions of +this?" he presently burst forth with violence, dashing the back of his +hand against the paper. "I say, sir, you know the provisions of this?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do not, my lord," I answered. Nor did I.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The unjust provisions of this will!" he repeated, passing over my +negative as if it had not been uttered. "Fifty thousand pounds to a +woman who had not a penny when she married his son! Ay, and the +interest on another hundred thousand for her life! Why, it is a +prodigious income, an abnormal income, for a woman! And out of whose +pocket is it to come? Out of mine, every stiver of it! It is +monstrous! I say it is! How am I to keep up the title on the income +left to me, I should like to know?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I marveled. I remembered how rich he was. I could not refrain from +suggesting that he had still remaining all the real property. "And," I +added, "I understood, my lord, that the testator's personalty was +sworn under four hundred thousand pounds."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You talk nonsense!" he snarled. "Look at the legacies! Five thousand +here, and a thousand there, and hundreds like berries on a bush! It is +a fortune, a decent fortune, clean frittered away! A barren title is +all that will be left to me!"</p> + +<p class="normal">What was he going to do? His face was gloomy, his hands were +twitching. "Who are the witnesses, my lord?" I asked, in a low voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">So low--for, under certain conditions, a tone conveys much, very +much--that he shot a stealthy glance toward the door before he +answered, "John Williams."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Blind," I replied, in the same low tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"William Williams."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He is dead. He was Mr. Alfred's valet. I remember reading in the +newspaper that he was with his master, and was killed by the Indians +at the same time."</p> + +<p class="normal">"True. I remember that that was the case," he answered huskily. "And +the handwriting is Lord Wetherby's." I assented. Then for fully a +minute we were silent, while he bent over the will, and I stood behind +him looking down at him, with thoughts in my mind which he could as +little fathom as could the senseless wood upon which I leaned. Yet I, +too, mistook him. I thought him, to be plain, a scoundrel; and--well, +so he was, but a mean one. "What is to be done?" he muttered at +length, speaking rather to himself than to me.</p> + +<p class="normal">I answered softly, "I am a poor man, my lord," while inwardly I was +quoting, "<i>Quem Deus vult perdere</i>."</p> + +<p class="normal">My words startled him. He answered hurriedly: "Just so! just so! So +shall I be when this cursed paper takes effect. A very poor man! A +hundred and fifty thousand gone at a blow! But there, she shall have +it! She shall have every penny of it; only," he continued slowly, "I +do not see what difference one more day will make."</p> + +<p class="normal">I followed his downcast eyes, which moved from the will before him to +the agreement for the lease of the house; and I did see what +difference a day would make. I saw and understood and wondered. He had +not the courage to suppress the will; but if he could gain a slight +advantage by withholding it for a few hours, he had the mind to do +that. Mrs. Wigram, a rich woman, would no longer let the house; she +would be under no compulsion to do so; and my lord would lose a cheap +residence as well as his hundred and fifty thousand pounds. To the +latter loss he could resign himself with a sigh; but he could not bear +to forego the petty gain for which he had schemed. "I think I +understand, my lord," I replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," he resumed nervously, "you must be rewarded for making +this discovery. I will see that it is so. You may depend upon me. I +will mention the case to Mrs. Wigram, and--and, in fact, my friend, +you may depend upon me."</p> + +<p class="normal">"That will not do," I said firmly. "If that be all, I had better go to +Mrs. Wigram at once, and claim my reward a day earlier."</p> + +<p class="normal">He grew very red in the face at receiving this check. "You will not, +in that event, get my good word," he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Which has no weight with the lady," I answered politely but plainly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How dare you speak so to me?" his lordship cried. "You are an +impertinent fellow! But there! How much do you want?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"A hundred pounds."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A hundred pounds for a mere day's delay, which will do no one any +harm!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Except Mrs. Wigram," I retorted dryly. "Come, Lord Wetherby, this +lease is worth a thousand a year to you. Mrs. Wigram, as you well +know, will not voluntarily let the house to you. If you would have +Wetherby House you must pay me. That is the long and the short of it."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are an impertinent fellow!" he repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So you have said before, my lord."</p> + +<p class="normal">I expected him to burst into a furious passion, but I suppose there +was a something of power in my tone, beyond the mere defiance which +the words expressed; for, instead of doing so, he eyed me with a +thoughtful, malevolent gaze, and paused to consider. "You are at +Duggan & Poole's," he said slowly. "How was it that they did not +search this cupboard, with which you were acquainted?"</p> + +<p class="normal">I shrugged my shoulders. "I have not been in the house since Lord +Wetherby died," I said. "My employers did not consult me when the +papers he left were examined."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are not a member of the firm?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, I am not," I answered. I was thinking that, so far as I knew +those respectable gentlemen, no one of them would have helped my lord +in this for ten times a hundred pounds. My lord! Faugh!</p> + +<p class="normal">He seemed satisfied, and taking out a notecase laid on the table a +little pile of notes. "There is your money," he said, counting them +over with reluctant fingers. "Be good enough to put the will and +envelope back into the cupboard. Tomorrow you will oblige me by +rediscovering it--you can manage that, no doubt--and giving +information at once to Messrs. Duggan & Poole, or Mrs. Wigram, as you +please. Now," he continued, when I had obeyed him, "will you be good +enough to ask the servants to tell Mrs. Wigram that I am waiting?"</p> + +<p class="normal">There was a slight noise behind us. "I am here," said someone. I am +sure that we both jumped at the sound, for though I did not look that +way, I knew that the voice was Mrs. Wigram's, and that she was in the +room. "I have come to tell you, Lord Wetherby," she went on, "that I +have an engagement from home at twelve. Do I understand, however, that +you are ready? If so, I will call in Mrs. Williams."</p> + +<p class="normal">"The papers are ready for signature," the peer answered, betraying +some confusion, "and I am ready to sign. I shall be glad to have the +matter settled as agreed." Then he turned to me, where I had fallen +back, as seemed becoming, to the end of the room, and said, "Be good +enough to ring the bell, if Mrs. Wigram permit it."</p> + +<p class="normal">As I moved to the fireplace to do so, I was conscious that the lady +was regarding me with some faint surprise. But when I had regained my +position and looked toward her, she was standing near the window, +gazing steadily out into the square, an expression of disdain rendered +by face and figure. Shall I confess that it was a joy to me to see her +fair head so high, and to read, even in the outline of her girlish +form, a contempt which I, and I only, knew to be so justly based? For +myself, I leaned against the edge of the screen by the door, and +perhaps my hundred pounds lay heavily on my heart. As for him, he +fidgeted with his papers, although they were all in order, and was +visibly impatient to get his bit of knavery accomplished. Oh, he was a +worthy man! And Welshman!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps," he presently suggested, for the sake of saying something, +"while your servant is coming, you will read the agreement, Mrs. +Wigram. It is very short, and, as you know, your solicitors have +already seen it in the draft."</p> + +<p class="normal">She bowed, and took the paper negligently. She read some way down the +first sheet with a smile, half careless, half contemptuous. Then +I saw her stop--she had turned her back to the window to obtain more +light--and dwell on a particular sentence. I saw--God! I had forgotten +the handwriting!--I saw her gray eyes grow large, and fear leap into +them, as she grasped the paper with her other hand, and stepped nearer +to the peer's side. "Who?" she cried. "Who wrote this? Tell me! Do you +hear? Tell me quickly!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He was nervous on his own account, wrapped in his own piece of +scheming, and obtuse.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wrote it," he said, with maddening complacency. He put up his +glasses and glanced at the top of the page she held out to him. "I +wrote it myself, and I can assure you that it is quite right, and a +faithful copy. You do not think----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Think! think! No! no. This, I mean! Who wrote this?" she cried, awe +in her face, and a suppliant tone, strange as addressed to that man, +in her voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was confounded by her vehemence, as well as hampered by his own +evil conscience.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The clerk, Mrs. Wigram, the clerk," he said petulantly, still in his +fog of selfishness. "The clerk from Messrs. Duggan & Poole's."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he?" she cried out breathlessly. I think she did not believe +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Where is he?" he repeated, in querulous surprise. "Why here, of +course. Where should he be, madam? He will witness my signature."</p> + +<p class="normal">Would he? Signatures! It was little of signatures I recked at that +moment. I was praying to Heaven that my folly might be forgiven me; +and that my lightly planned vengeance might not fall on my own head. +"Joy does not kill," I was saying to myself, repeating it over and +over again, and clinging to it desperately. "Joy does not kill!" But +oh! was it true? in face of that white-lipped woman!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here!" She did not say more, but gazing at me with great dazed eyes, +she raised her hand and beckoned to me. And I had no choice but to +obey; to go nearer to her, out into the light.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mrs. Wigram," I said hoarsely, my voice sounding to me only as a +whisper, "I have news of your late--of your husband. It is good news."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Good news?" Did she faintly echo my words? or, as her face, from +which all color had passed, peered into mine, and searched it in +infinite hope and infinite fear, did our two minds speak without need +of physical lips? "Good news?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I whispered. "He is alive. The Indians did not----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Alfred!" Her cry rang through the room, and with it I caught her in +my arms as she fell. Beard and long hair, and scar and sunburn, and +strange dress--these which had deceived others were no disguise to +her--my wife. I bore her gently to the couch, and hung over her in a +new paroxysm of fear. "A doctor! Quick! A doctor!" I cried to Mrs. +Williams, who was already kneeling beside her. "Do not tell me," I +added piteously, "that I have killed her!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No! no! no!" the good woman answered, the tears running down her +face. "Joy does not kill!"</p> +<br> + +<p class="normal">An hour later this fear had been lifted from me, and I was walking up +and down the library alone with my thankfulness; glad to be alone, yet +more glad, more thankful still, when John came in with a beaming face. +"You have come to tell me," I cried eagerly, pleased that the tidings +had come by his lips, "to go to her? That she will see me?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Her ladyship is sitting up," he replied.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And Lord Wetherby?" I asked, pausing at the door to put the question. +"He left the house at once?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, my lord, Mr. Wigram has been gone some time."</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">A BLORE MANOR +EPISODE.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">Not very remarkable was this courtship: there was nothing very strange +about it, or more romantic than is apt to be the case with such +things. I doubt not that since the daughters of the children of men +were wooed, there have been many millions of such May-time passages of +greater interest, and that countless Pauls and Virginias have plucked +the sweet spring flowers together amid more picturesque surroundings. +Every matron--and some maids, if they will, though we deprecate the +omen--can recall at least one wooing which she can vouch as a thousand +million times more extraordinary than that of my commonplace hero and +heroine. That is so: but for that very reason let her read of this +one, and taking off the cover of her own potpourri savor some faint +scent of the dewy roses of the past springtime.</p> + +<p class="normal">It had its origin in the 12:10 down train from Euston to Holyhead, +which carried, among other passengers, Charles Maitland of the Temple, +barrister by theory and idler by, or for want of, practice. He +traveled first-class. When you come to know him better you will +understand how superfluous was this last piece of information. Ten +minutes before the train was due out, he arrived at the station +in a hansom. A silk hat, a well-fitting light overcoat--the weather, +for March, was mild--gray trousers, and brown gaiters over his +patent-leather boots were the most salient details of a costume of +which the chief characteristic was an air of perfect correctness. At +the bookstall he did not linger, culling with loving eyes the backs of +many books, and reveling in his choice with florin in hand, as do +second-class passengers, but without hesitation he purchased a +<i>Saturday Review</i> and a <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>. After he had taken his +seat a Smith's boy invited him to select from a tray, upon which +glowed half a dozen novels; but he gazed sublimely into vacancy over +the boy's head; who soon left him, and prompted by a vengeful spirit +only inferior to his precocious knowledge of passenger nature, +directed upon him the attacks of two kindred sprites with Banbury +cakes and British sherry. The window was slight protection against +their shrill voices, but soon the train started and freed him from +them. He changed his hat for a brown deer-stalker, and having the +compartment to himself, had recourse to his own thoughts. It was not +unlikely, he told himself, that he had been precipitate in undertaking +this journey. An Easter, coming somewhat early, seemed to have +forestalled his wonted invitations for that season: and, to stay in +London being out of the question, he had accepted Tom Quaritch's +offer. He began to have doubts of the wisdom of this course now, but +it was too late. He was bound for Tom Quaritch's. He had known +something of Tom at college; and recently he had done him a slight +service in town. No more genial soul than the latter existed, and he +did not rest satisfied until he had won from Maitland a half promise +to come and see his beagles at Easter. At the time our traveler had +but the remotest idea of doing so. He did not know enough of Tom's +people, while to have the acquaintance of the right people and of no +one else was part of his creed. But now he was between the horns of a +dilemma. These people, of whom he knew nothing, might not be the right +people; that was one horn. The other consisted in the fact that to +spend a vacation in town was not the thing. When we have chosen our +horn it is natural it should seem the sharper of the two. Mr. Charles +Maitland frowned as he cut the pages of his <i>Cornhill</i>. And then he +made up his mind to two things. Firstly, to bring his stay at Blore +Manor within the smallest possible limits, and secondly, to comport +himself while there with such a formal courtesy as should encourage +only the barest familiarity.</p> + +<p class="normal">At Stafford he had to change into another train, which he did, even as +he cut his magazine, with characteristic precision and coolness. And +so he reached Blore Station about half-past five, still neat and +unsullied, with all the aroma of the street of scents about him.</p> + +<p class="normal">He let down the window and put out his head. The country thereabouts +was flat and uninteresting, the farming untidy, the fences low, yet +straggling. A short distance away a few roofs peeping forth from a +clump of trees, above which the smoke gently curled, marked the +village. The station consisted of a mere shed and a long, bare +platform. There were but five persons visible, and of these one was a +porter, and one a man servant in a quiet, countrified livery. The +latter walked quickly toward him, but was forestalled by three girls, +the other occupants of the platform, who, at sight of the stranger, +came tearing from the far end of it at a headlong pace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Here he is! Here he is!" cried the foremost, her shrill voice drawing +a dozen heads to the windows of the train. She owed her success to an +extempore tug in the form of an excited bull terrier, which, dragging +violently at a strap attached to her wrist, jerked her after him much +as if she had been a kettle tied to his tail. She might be anything +between twenty and five-and-twenty--a tiny little creature of almost +fairylike proportions. Her color was high and her hair brown; she had +curiously opaque brown eyes, bright as well as opaque. Gloves she had +none, and her hair was disordered by her struggles with the dog. But, +after all, the main impression she made upon Maitland was that she was +excessively small. He had no eyes for the others at present. But one, +owing to the reckless method of her progression, gave him a dim notion +of being all legs.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are Mr. Maitland, are you not?" the first comer began volubly, +though loss of breath interfered a little with the symmetry of her +sentences. "Tom had to attend a meeting of the fox committee at +Annerley. I'm Maggie Quaritch, and this is Dubs--I beg your pardon, +how silly of me--Joan, I mean, and this is Agnes. Why, child, what +have you done with your hat? Pick it up at once! What wild things Mr. +Maitland will think us!"</p> + +<p class="normal">The youngest girl, whose hat was lying upon the platform some distance +away, hung her head in a very pretty attitude of shy <i>gaucherie</i>. She +was about fifteen--rising sixteen in her brother's phrase--and taller +than the elder girls, with a peculiarly pale complexion, greenish-gray +eyes, and a mass of brownish-red hair. Her loosely made dress was more +in consonance with her style than Maitland, staggering under the shock +of such a reception, had time or mind to observe. He formally +acknowledged the introductions, but words did not come easily to him. +He was dumfounded. He was so unaccustomed to this, or to people like +these.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And we must not forget Bill," resumed Miss Quaritch, if possible, +faster than before. "Isn't he a beauty now, Mr. Maitland? Look at his +chest, look at his head, look at his eyes. Yes, he lost that one in a +fight with Jack Madeley's retriever, and I'm afraid the sight of the +other is going, but he's the most beautiful, loveliest, faithfullest +dog in the whole world for all that, and his mother loves him, she +does!" All in a shrill tone, rising a note perhaps with the final +words.</p> + +<p class="normal">The train was moving out. The last that the twelve faces, still glued +to the carriage windows, beheld of the scene was Miss Quaritch +rapturously kissing and hugging the bull terrier, while the Londoner +looked on sheepishly. He was horribly conscious of the presence of +those grinning faces and suffered as much until the train left as if +the onlookers had been a dozen of his club comrades. Whereas the fact +was that they found whatever amusement the scene afforded them not in +the girl's enthusiasm--she was young enough to gush prettily--but in +the strange gentleman's awkward consciousness.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now, Mr. Maitland, shall Abiah drive you up in the dog cart, or will +you walk with us? Agnes!" this suddenly in a loud scream to the +youngest girl, who had moved away, "you can let out the dogs! Down, +Juno! Go down, Jack o' Pack! Roy, you ill-conditioned little dog, you +are always quarreling! I'm afraid they will make you in a dreadful +pickle."</p> + +<p class="normal">Indeed it seemed to Maitland that they would. An avalanche of +scurrying dogs descended upon him from some receptacle where they had +been penned. He had a vision of a red Irish setter with soft brown +eyes, not unlike to, but far finer than Miss Maggie's, with its paws +momentarily upon the breast of his overcoat; of a couple of wiry fox +terriers skirmishing and snarling round his trousers, and of a shy, +lop-eared beagle puppy casting miserable glances at them from an +outside place. And then the party got under way in some sort of order. +At first Maitland had much ado to answer yes and no.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was still bewildered by these things, crushed, confounded.</p> + +<p class="normal">He could have groaned as he sedately explained at what time he left +Euston, and where he changed. He was conscious that when their +attention was not demanded by the pack of dogs, the girls were +covertly scrutinizing him; but in his present state of mind, it +mattered not a straw to him whether they were calling him a prig, and +a "stick," and affected, and supercilious, or were admiring half in +scorn the fit of his clothes and boots, and his lordly air. All these +remarks were in fact made by some one or other of them before the day +was over. But he was, and would have been, supremely indifferent to +their criticisms.</p> + +<p class="normal">The weight of the conversation did not fall heavily upon him: indeed, +when Miss Quaritch had a share in it, no one else was overburdened. +And from time to time they met upon the road old women or children to +whom the girls had always something to say. It was, "Well, Mrs. +Marjoram, and so the donkey is better," or, "Now, Johnny, get along +home to your mother," or, "How are you, daddy?" in the high-pitched +key so trying to the cockney's ear.</p> + +<p class="normal">In these parleys Joan, the second girl, was foremost. Maitland glanced +at her. A young man may be very fastidious, but neck-ribbons awry and +brown hair in rich disorder do not entirely close his eyes to a +maiden's comeliness. It would be strange if they did, were she such an +one as Joan Quaritch. Not tall, yet tall enough, with a full, rounded +figure, to which her dress hardly did, hardly could do, justice, she +moved with the grace and freedom of perfect health. Her fair +complexion could afford to have its clearness marred by a freckle or +two, such as hers, mere clots in cream; and if her features were not +perfect, yet a nose too straight and a chin too heavy were more than +redeemed by great gray eyes that, sunny or tearful, could be nothing +but true--eyes whose frankness and good fellowship aggravated the +wounds they inflicted. Why she was called "Dubs" I cannot tell. +Perhaps no one can. But, in her good nature and her truth, her simple +pride and independence, it suited her.</p> + +<p class="normal">He had just, to quote the language of this cynic's thoughts, +catalogued the last of the Graces, when the party reached the house, +which stood some way back from the road. Tom Quaritch had just +returned, and welcomed the guest warmly; his mother met Maitland at +the drawing-room door. She was a singularly comely woman, stately and +somewhat formal. Her greeting so differed from that of her daughters +that the visitor found himself speculating upon the extraordinary +flightiness of the late Mr. Quaritch. Wherein I doubt not he did him +injustice.</p> + +<p class="normal">At dinner our hero had in some degree recovered himself, and he told +them the latest news of the theaters, the clubs, and the book world, +and while their ignorance filled him with a wonder he did not hide, +their attention propitiated him. He talked well, and if he was +inclined to lord it a little, a shrewd word from Mrs. Quaritch, or a +demure glance from Miss Joan's eyes, would lower his didactic tone. +The youngest girl promised to be an especial thorn in his side.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Does everyone in London wear shiny boots in the daytime, Mr. +Maitland?" she asked suddenly, <i>à propos des bottes</i>, and nothing +else.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A considerable number do, Miss Agnes."</p> + +<p class="normal">"What sort of people? No, I'm not being rude, mother."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I hardly know how to answer that. The idle people, perhaps." He +smiled indulgently, which aggravated the young lady. She replied, +crumbling her bread the while in an absent, meditative way, her eyes +innocently fixed on his face:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then you are one of the idle people, Mr. Maitland? I don't think I +like idle people."</p> + +<p class="normal">"How singularly unselfish of you, my dear Agnes!" put in Joan +vigorously--more vigorously than politely.</p> + +<p class="normal">Maitland's last reflection as he got into bed was that he was quite +out of place here. These might be very nice people in their way, but +not in his way. He must make his visit as short as possible, and +forget all about it as quickly as he could. The girls would be +insufferable when they came to know him familiarly. Good gracious! +fancy young ladies who had never heard of "John Inglesant," or of W. +D. Howells' books, and confused the Grosvenor Gallery with the Water +Color Exhibition! and read Longfellow! and had but vague ideas of the +æsthetic! Miss Joan was pretty too, yes, really pretty, and had fine +eyes and a pleasant voice, and fine eyes--yes, fine eyes. And with +this thought he fell comfortably asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came down next morning to find her alone in the breakfast room. A +short-skirted beagling costume of scarlet and blue allowed him a +glimpse of neat ankles in scarlet hose. She was kneeling before the +fire playing with Roy. Her brown wavy hair fell in a heavy loose loop +upon her neck, and there was something wonderfully bright and fresh in +her whole appearance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"How quickly you have fallen in with our barbarous ways!" she said +with a smile, as she rose. "I did not expect you to be up for hours +yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I generally breakfast at nine, and it is nearly that now," he +answered, annoyed by some hint of raillery in her tone, and yet unable +to conceal a glance of admiration. "I think I must adopt the Blore +breakfast hour; it seems, Miss Joan, to agree with you all so well."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," was the indifferent reply; "we get the first of the three +rewards for early rising. The other two we leave for our betters."</p> + +<p class="normal">And she turned away with a little nod as the others came in. In five +minutes a noisy, cheerful breakfast was in progress, and the chances +of finding a hare formed the all-engrossing subject of conversation.</p> + +<p class="normal">On this calm gray morning, warm rather than cold, the little pack, to +the great delight of the household, found quickly, and found well. No +October leveret was before them, but a good, stout old hare, who gave +them a ringing run of two hours, the pleasure of which was not +materially diminished when she baffled them at last in the mysterious +way these old hares affect and huntsmen fail to fathom. The visitor +performed creditably, though in indifferent training. At Oxford he had +been something of a crack, and could still upon occasion forget to +keep his boots clean and his clothes intact.</p> + +<p class="normal">Returning home, Maitland found himself again with Joan. The heat and +pleasure of the chase had for the time melted his reserve and thawed +his resolution. He talked well and freely to her of a great London +hospital over which one of the house surgeons had recently taken him; +of the quiet and orderliness of the lone, still wards; of the feeling +that came over him there that life was all suffering and death; and +how quickly in the bustle of the London streets, where the little +world of the hospital seemed distant and unreal, this impression faded +away. She listened eagerly, and he, tasting a stealthy and stolen +pleasure in seeing how deep and pitiful the gray eyes could grow, +prolonged his tale.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have enjoyed hearing about it so much," she said gratefully, as +they entered the village. And indeed she had passed several people +upon the road without a word of greeting. "I hope to be a nurse soon. +The dear mother does not think me old enough yet."</p> + +<p class="normal">"You are going to be a nurse!" he said in tones of such incredulous +surprise that the amusement which first appeared in her face changed +to annoyance.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why not? One does not need a knowledge of art and the newest books +for that," she sharply answered.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps not," he said feebly. "But after such a life as this, it--the +change I mean--would be so complete."</p> + +<p class="normal">She looked at him, an angry gleam in her eyes, and the color high in +her cheeks.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do you think, Mr. Maitland, that because we run wild--oh, no, you +have not said so--and seem to do nothing but enjoy ourselves, we are +incapable of anything beyond hunting and playing tennis, and feeding +the dogs and the hens and the chickens? That we cannot have a thought +beyond pleasure, or a wish to do good like other people--people in +London? That we can never look beyond Blore--though Blore, I can tell +you, would manage ill without some of us!--nor have an aspiration +above the kennels and the--and the stables? If you do think so, I +trust you are wrong."</p> + +<p class="normal">He would have answered humbly, but she was gone into the house in huge +indignation, leaving our friend strangely uncomfortable. It was just +twenty-four hours since his arrival: the opinion of one at least of +the madcaps had ceased to be a matter of indifference to him. The +change occurred to himself as he mounted the stairs, so that he +laughed when alone in his room and resolved to keep away from that +girl for the future. How handsome she had looked when she was flying +out at him, and how generous seemed her anger even at the time! +Somehow the prospect of the four days he had still to spend at Blore +was not so depressing as at first. Certainly the vista was shortened +by one day, and that may have been the reason.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile Maggie, in her sister's bedroom, had much to say of the +day's doings. "Didn't he go well? My word! he is not half so stiff as +I thought him. I believe he'd be a very good fellow if he had some of +the conceit taken out of him."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think he's insufferable," was the chilling answer from Joan; "he +considers us savages, and treats us as such."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He may consider us fit for the Zoo, if he likes; it won't hurt us," +quoth Maggie indifferently. With which Joan expressed neither assent +nor dissent, but brushed her hair a little faster.</p> + +<p class="normal">Maitland did not for a moment abandon his fresh resolution. Still he +thought he owed it to himself to set the matter right with the young +lady before he stiffened anew. As he descended he met her running up +two steps at a time.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Joan, I am afraid I vexed you just now," he said, with grave +humility. "Will you believe it unintentional--stupid, on my part, and +grant me your pardon?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, dear!" she cried gayly. "We are not used to this here. It is +quite King Cophetua and the beggar maid." She dropped him a mock +courtesy, and held out her hand in token of amity, when the full +signification of what she had said rushed into her mind and flooded +her face with crimson. Without another word or look she fled upstairs, +and he heard her door bang behind her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Mr. Charles Maitland, after this <i>rencontre</i>, went down smiling +grimly. In the hall he stood for a moment in deep thought; then sagely +shook his head several times at a stuffed fox and joined the party in +the drawing room.</p> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/p164.png" alt="p164"><br> +MR. CHARLES MAITLAND, AFTER THIS RENCONTRE, WENT DOWN<br> +SMILING GRIMLY.</p> + + +<p class="normal">The next day and the next passed with surprising quickness, as the +latter days of a visit always do. In another forty-eight hours +Maitland's would be over. Yet singularly enough his spirits did not +rise, as he expected they would, at the near prospect of release. As +he closed his bedroom door he had a vision of a pair of gray eyes +smiling into his, and his palm seemed still to tingle with the touch +of a soft, warm hand. He had kept his resolution well--small credit to +him. Joan had seemed to avoid him since her unlucky speech upon the +stairs; when she did speak to him her words, or more often her tone, +stung him, and he smarted under a sense that she repaid with interest +the small account in which he was inclined to hold the family +generally. He resented her veiled contempt with strange bitterness, so +that Agnes remarked with her usual candor that he and Joan never spoke +to one another save to "jangle." Afterward, walking on the lawn, some +line about "sweet bells jangled out of tune," ran in his head. The +girl was a vixen, he said to himself, yet he tried to imagine how +tender and glorious the great gray eyes, that he only knew as cold or +saucy or defiant, could be when their depths were stirred by love. But +his imagination failing to satisfy even himself, he went to put on his +beagling dress in the worst of humors.</p> + +<p class="normal">Possibly this made him a trifle reckless, for a promising run ended in +ten minutes so far as he was concerned, in a sprained ankle. In +jumping over a low fence into a lane his one foot came down sideways +on a large stone upon which some pauper had scamped his work, and the +mischief was done. The ominous little circle that hunting men know so +well soon gathered round him, and he was helped to his feet, or rather +foot. Then Agnes fetched the carriage, and he was driven back to +Blore. Now, under the circumstances, what could Mrs. Quaritch, without +an <i>arrière pensée</i> in the world, do but press him to stay until at +least he could put the foot to the ground? Nothing. And what could he +do but consent? At any rate, that is what he did.</p> + +<p class="normal">So he was established in the drawing room, a pretty, cozy room, and +told himself it was a terrible nuisance. But, for a cripple confined +to a couple of rooms, and surrounded by uncongenial people, without a +single new magazine or a word of the world's gossip, he kept up his +spirits wonderfully well. The ways of the three girls, and the calm +approval of their sedate mother, could not fail to amuse him. Lying +there and seeing and hearing many things which would not have come to +his knowledge as a mere visitor, he found them not quite what he had +judged them to be. He missed Joan one morning, and when with an +unconscious fretfulness he inquired the reason, learned that she had +been sitting up through the night with an old servant who was ill in +the village. He said some word about it to her--very diffidently, for +she took his compliments but ill at all times; now she flamed out at +him with twice her ordinary bitterness and disdain, and punished him +by taking herself out of the room at once.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Confound it!" he cried, beating up his pillow fiercely, "I believe +the girl hates me."</p> + +<p class="normal">Did he? and did she?</p> + +<p class="normal">Then he fell into a fit of musing such as men approaching thirty, who +have lived in London, are very apt to indulge in. A club was not +everything, be it as good as it might be. And life was not a lounge in +Bond Street and Pall Mall, and nothing more. He thought how dull a +week spent on his sofa in the Adelphi would have been, even with the +newest magazines and the fifth and special <i>Globes</i>. In three days was +his birthday--his twenty-ninth. And did the girl really hate him? It +was a nice name, Joan; Dubs, umph! Dubs? Joan? And so he fell asleep.</p> + +<p class="normal">How long he slept and whether he carried something of his dreams into +his waking he could only guess, but he was aroused by a singular +sensation--singular in that, though once familiar enough, it was now +as strange to him as the sight of his dead mother's face. If his +half-recalled senses did not deceive him, if he was not still dreaming +of Joan, the warm touch of a pair of soft lips was yet lingering upon +his forehead, the rustle of a dress very near his ear yet sounded +crisply in it. And then someone glided from him, and he heard a hasty +exclamation and opened his eyes dreamily. By the screen which +concealed the door and sheltered him from its draughts was standing +Joan, a-tiptoe, poised as in expectation, something between flight and +amusement in her face, her attitude full of unconscious grace. He was +still bewildered, and hardly returned from a dreamland even less +conventional than Blore. Without as much surprise as if he had thought +the matter out--it seemed then almost a natural thing--he said:</p> + +<p class="normal">"You shall have the gloves, Dubs, with pleasure."</p> + +<p class="normal">The girl's expression, as he spoke, changed to startled astonishment. +She became crimson from her hair to her throat. She stepped toward +him, checked herself, then made a quick movement with her hand as if +about to say something, and finally covered her face with her hands +and fled from the room. Before he was wide awake he was alone.</p> + +<p class="normal">At first he smiled pleasantly at the fire, and patted Roy, Joan's +terrier, who was lying beside him, curled up snugly in an angle of the +sofa. Afterward he became grave and thoughtful, and finally shook his +head very much as he had at the stuffed fox in the hall. And so he +fidgeted till Roy, who was in a restful mood, retired to the +hearthrug.</p> + +<p class="normal">It would be hard to describe Joan's feelings that afternoon. She was +proud, and had begun by resenting for all of them the ill-concealed +contempt of Tom's London friend--this man of clubs and chit-chat. She +was quite prepared to grant that he was different from them, but not +superior. A kind of contempt for the veneer and polish which were his +pride was natural to her, and she showed this, not rudely nor +coquettishly, but with a hearty sincerity. Still, it is seldom a girl +is unaware of admiration, and rare that she does not in secret respect +self-assertion in the male creature. This man knew much too, and could +tell it well, that was strange and new and delightful to the country +maiden. If he had any heart at all--and since he was from London town +she supposed he had not, though she granted him eyes and fine +perceptions of the beautiful--she might have, almost, some day, +promised herself to like him, had he been of her world--not reflecting +that this very fact that he was out of her world formed the charm by +which he evoked her interest. As things were, she more than doubted of +his heart, and had no doubt at all that between their worlds lay a +great, impassable, unbridgeable abyss.</p> + +<p class="normal">But this afternoon the dislike, which had been fading day by day along +with those feelings in another which had caused it, was revived in its +old strength upon the matter of the kiss. Alone in her own room the +thought made her turn crimson with vexation, and she stamped the floor +with annoyance. He had made certain overtures to her--slender and +meaningless in all probability. Still, if he could believe her capable +after such looks and words as he had used--if after these he thought +her capable of this, then indeed, were there no abyss at all, he could +be nothing to her. Oh, it was too bad, too intolerable! She would +never forgive him. How indeed could she be anything to him, if she +could do such a thing, as dreadful, as unmaidenly to her as to the +proudest beauty among his London friends. She told herself again that +he was insufferable; and determined to slap Roy well, upon the first +opportunity, if that mistaken little pearl of price would persist in +favoring the stranger's sofa.</p> + +<p class="normal">Until this was cleared up she felt her position the very worst in the +world, and yet would not for a fortune give him an opportunity of +freeing her from it. The very fact that he addressed her with, as it +seemed, a greater show of respect, chafed her. Agnes, with a +precocious cleverness, a penetration quite her own, kept herself and +her dog, Jack o' Pack <i>alias</i> Johnny Sprawn, out of her sister's way, +and teased her only before company.</p> + +<p class="normal">But at last Maitland caught Miss Joan unprotected.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I hope that these are the right size, Miss Joan--they are six and a +quarter," he said boldly, yet with, for a person of his disposition +and breeding, a strange amount of shamefacedness; producing at the +same time a pair of gloves, Courvoisier's best, many-buttoned, fit for +a goddess.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I beg your pardon?" she said, breathing quickly. But she guessed what +he meant.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Let me get out of your debt."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Out of my debt, Mr. Maitland?" taking the gloves mechanically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Please. Did you think I had forgotten? I should find it hard to do +that," he continued, encouraged and relieved by having got rid of the +gloves, and inattentive at the moment to her face. Yet she looked long +at him searchingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have found it hard to understand you," she said at last, with +repressed anger in voice and eye; "very hard, Mr. Maitland; but I +think I do so now. Do you believe that it was I who kissed you +when you were asleep on Wednesday afternoon? Can you think so? You +force me to presume it is so. Your estimate of my modesty and of your +own deserts must differ considerably. I had not the honor. Your +gloves"--and she dropped them upon the floor as if the touch +contaminated her, the act humiliating the young gentleman at least as +much as her words--"you had better give to Agnes, if you wish to +observe a silly custom. They are due to her, not to me. I thank you, +Mr. Maitland, for having compelled me to give this pleasant +explanation."</p> + +<p class="normal">She turned away with a gesture of such queenly contempt that our poor +hero--now most unheroic, and dumb as Carlyle would have had his, only +with mortification and intense disgust at his stupidity--amazed that +he could ever have thought meanly of this girl, "who moved most +certainly a goddess," had not a word to express his sorrow. A hero +utterly crestfallen! But at the door she looked back, for some strange +reason known perchance to female readers. The gloves were on the +floor, just beyond his reach--poor, forlorn, sprawling objects, their +fingers and palms spread as in ridiculous appeal. As for him, he was +lying back on the sofa, in appearance so crushed and helpless that the +woman's pity ever near her eyes moved her. She went slowly back, and +picked up the gloves, and put them on the table where he could take +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Miss Joan," he said, in a tone of persistence that claimed a hearing, +and, starting far from the immediate trouble, was apt to arouse +curiosity; "we are always, as Agnes says, jangling--on my side, of +course, is the false note. Can we not accord better, and be better +friends?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not until we learn to know one another better," she said coldly, +looking down at him, "or become more discerning judges."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was a fool, an idiot, an imbecile!" She nodded gravely, still +regarding him from a great height. "I was mad to believe it possible!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think we may be better friends," she responded, smiling faintly, +yet with sudden good humor. "We are beginning to know--one another."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And ourselves," almost under his breath. Then, "Miss Joan, will you +ever forgive me? I shall never err again in that direction," he +pleaded. "I am humiliated in my own eyes until you tell me it is +forgotten."</p> + +<p class="normal">She nodded, and this time with her own frank smile.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then she turned away and did leave the room, this time taking Roy with +her. Her joyous laughter and his wild, excited barking proclaimed +through the length and breadth of Blore that he was enjoying the rare +indulgence of a good romp on the back lawn. It was Roy's day.</p> + +<p class="normal">And can a dog ever hope for a better day than that upon which his +mistress becomes aware that she is also another's mistress: becomes +aware that another is thinking of her and for her, nay, that she is +the very center of that other's thoughts? What a charming, pleasantly +bewildering discovery it is, this learning that for him when she is in +the room it is full, and wanting her it is empty, be it never so +crowded; that all beside, though they be witty or famous, or what they +will, or can or would, are but lay figures, <i>umbræ</i>, shadow guests in +his estimation. She learns with strange thrills, that in moments of +meditation will flash to eye and cheek, that her slightest glance and +every change of color, every tone and smile, are marked with jealous +care; that pleasure which she does not share is tasteless, and a +dinner of herbs, if she be but at a far corner, is a feast for +princes. That is her dog's day, or it may be his dog's day. It is a +pleasant discovery for a man, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>; but for a girl, a +sweet, half fearful consciousness, the brightest part of love's young +dream--even when the kindred soul is of another world, and an abyss, +wide, impassable, unbridgeable lies between.</p> + +<p class="normal">But these things come to sudden ends sometimes. Sprains, however +severe, have an awkward knack of getting well. Swellings subside from +inanition, and doctors insist for their credit's sake that the stick +or ready arm be relinquished. Certainly a respite or a relapse--call +it which you will--is not impossible with care, but it is brief. A +singular shooting pain, not easily located with exactness, but +somewhere in the neighborhood of the calf, has been found useful; and +a strange rigidity of the tendon Achilles in certain positions may +gain a day or two. But at last not even these will avail, and the +doubly injured one must out and away from among the rose leaves. Twice +Maitland fixed his departure for the following morning, and each time +when pressed to stay gave way, after so feeble, so ludicrous a +resistance, if it deserved the name, that Agnes scarcely concealed her +grimace, and Joan looked another way. She did not add anything to the +others' hospitable entreaties. If she guessed what made Maggie's +good-night kiss so fervent and clinging, she made no sign and offered +no opening.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the garden next morning, Maitland taxed her with her neutrality. It +was wonderful how his sense of humor had become developed at Blore.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I thought that you did not need so much pressure as to necessitate +more than four people's powers of persuasion being used," she +answered, in the same playful spirit. "And besides, now you are well +enough, must you not leave?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Indeed, Miss Joan?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"And go back to your own way of life? It is a month since you saw the +latest telegrams, and there is a French company at the Gaiety, I learn +from the <i>Standard</i>. We have interests and duties, though you were so +hard of belief about them, at Blore, but you have none."</p> + +<p class="normal">"No interests?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She shook her head. "No duties, at any rate."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And so you think," he asked, his eyes fixed upon her changing +features, "that I should go back to my old way of life--of a century +ago?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course you must!" But she was not so rude as to tell him what a +very foolish question this was. Still it was, was it not?</p> + +<p class="normal">"So I will, or to something like it, and yet very unlike. But not +alone. Joan, will you come with me? If I have known you but a month, I +have learned to love your truth and goodness and you, Joan, so that if +I go away alone, to return to the old life would be bitterly +impossible. You have spoiled that; you must make for me a fresh life +in its place. Do you remember you told me that when we knew one +another we might be better friends? I have come to know you better, +but we cannot be friends. We must be something more, more even than +lovers, Joan--husband and wife, if you can like me enough."</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not an unmanly way of putting it, and he was in earnest. But so +quiet, so self-restrained was his manner that it savored of coldness. +The girl whose hand he held while he spoke had no such thought. Her +face was turned from him. She was gazing over the wall across the +paddock where Maggie's mare was peaceably and audibly feeding, and so +at the Blore Ash on its mimic hill, every bough and drooping branchlet +dark against the sunset sky; and this radiant in her eyes with a +beauty its deepest glow had never held for her before. The sweetest +joy was in her heart, and grief in her face. He had been worthy of +himself and her love. While he spoke she told herself, not that some +time she might love him, but that she had given him all her true heart +already. And yet as he was worthy, so she must be worthy and do her +part.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have done me a great honor," she said at last, drawing away her +hand from his grasp, though she did not turn her face, "but it cannot +be, Mr. Maitland. I am very grateful to you--I am indeed, and sorry."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why can it not be?" he said shortly; startled, I am bound to say, and +mortified.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Because of--of many things. One is that I should not make you happy, +nor you me. I am not suited to your way of life. I am of the country, +and I love to be free and unconstrained, while you are of the town. +Oh, we should not get on at all! Perhaps you would not be ashamed of +me as your wife, but you might be, and I could not endure the chance +even of it. There," she added, with a laugh in which a woman's ear +might have detected the suppression of a sob, "is one sober reason +where none can be needed."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Is that your only reason?"</p> + +<p class="normal">She was picking the mortar out of the wall. "Oh, dear me, no! I have a +hundred, but that is a sufficient one," she answered almost +carelessly, flirting a scrap of lime from the wall with her +forefinger.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you have been playing with me all this time!" cried he, obtusely +enraged by her flippancy.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not knowingly, not knowingly, indeed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Can you tell me that you were not aware that I loved you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I thought--the fact is, I thought that you were amusing +yourself--in West End fashion."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Coquette!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Mr. Maitland!" she cried vehemently, "how dare you? There is proof, +if any were needed, that I am right. You would not have dared to say +that to any of your town acquaintances. I am no coquette. If I have +given you pain, I am very sorry. And--I beg that we may part friends."</p> + +<p class="normal">She had begun fiercely, with all her old spirit. He turned away, and +she ended with a sudden, anxious, pitiful lameness, that yet, so angry +and dull of understanding was he, taught him nothing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Friends!" he cried impatiently. "I told you that it was impossible. +Oh, Joan, think again! Have I been too hasty? Have I given you no time +to weigh it? Have I just offended you in some little thing? Then let +me come to you again in three months, after I have been back among my +old friends?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, don't do that, Mr. Maitland. It will be of no use and will but +give us pain."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And yet I will come," he replied firmly, endeavoring by the very +eager longing of his own gaze to draw from her fair, downcast face +some sign of hope. "I will come, if you forbid me a hundred times. And +if you have been playing with me--true, I am in no mood for soft words +now--it shall be your punishment to say me nay, again. I shall be +here, Joan, to ask you in three months from to-day."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot prevent you," she said. "Believe me, I shall only have the +same answer for you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I shall come," he said doggedly, and looked at her with eyes +reluctant to quit her drooping lashes lest they should miss some +glance bidding his heart take courage. But none came, only the color +fluttered uncertainly in her face. So he slowly turned away from her +at last and walked across the garden, and out of sight by the gate +into the road. He saw nothing of the long, dusty track, and straggling +hedges bathed in the last glows of sunset. Those big gray eyes, so +frank and true, came again and again between him and the prospect, and +blinded his own with a hot mist of sorrow and anger. Ah, Blore, thou +wast mightily avenged!</p> + +<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a hot afternoon in August, laden with the hum of dozing life. +The sun has driven the less energetic members of the Quaritch family +into the cool gloom of the drawing room, where the open windows are +shaded by the great cedar. Mrs. Quaritch, upon the sofa, is nodding +over a book. Joan, in a low wicker seat, may be doing the same; while +Agnes, pursuing a favorite employment upon the hearthrug, is now and +again betrayed by a half stifled growl from one or other of the dogs +as they rise and turn themselves reproachfully, and flop down again +with a sigh in a cool place.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Agnes," cries her mother, upon some more distinct demonstration of +misery being made, "for goodness' sake leave the dogs alone. They have +not had a moment's peace since lunch."</p> + +<p class="normal">"A dog's life isn't peace, mamma," she answers, with the simple air of +a discoverer of truth. But, nevertheless, she looks about for fresh +worlds to conquer.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Even Mr. Maitland was better than this," she announces, after a long +yawn of discontent, "though he was dull enough, I wonder why he did +not come in July. Do you know, Joan?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Oh, Agnes, do let us have a moment's peace for once! We are not +dogs," cried Joan fretfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wonder! she was always wondering. This very minute, while her eyes +were on the page, it was in her mind. Through all those three months +passing hour by hour and day by day, she could assure herself that +when he had come and gone, she would be at rest again; things would be +as before with her. Let him come and go! But when July arrived, and he +did not, a sharper pain made itself felt. Bravely as she strove to +beat it down, well as she might hide it from others, the certainty +that it had needed no second repulse to balk his love sorely hurt her +pride. Just her pride, she told herself; nothing else. That he had not +stood the test he had himself proposed; that any unacknowledged +faintest hope she might have cherished, deep down in her heart, that +he might master her by noble persistence, must now be utterly +quenched; these things of course had no bitterness for her through the +hot August days; had nothing to do with the wearied look that +sometimes dulled the gray eyes, nor with the sudden indifference or as +sudden enthusiasms for lawn tennis and dogs and pigeons, that marked +her daily moods.</p> + +<p class="normal">Agnes' teasing, by putting her meditations into words, has disturbed +her. She gets up and moves restlessly about, touching this thing and +that, and at last leaves the room and stands in the hall, thinking. +Here, too, it is dark and cool, and made to seem more so--the door +into the garden being open--by the hot glare of sunshine falling upon +the spotless doorstep. She glances at this listlessly. The house is +still, the servants are at the back; the dogs all worn out by the +heat. Then, as she hesitates, a slight crunching of footsteps upon the +gravel comes to her ear, breaking the silence. A sudden black shadow +falls upon the sunny step and tells of a visitor. Someone chases away +his shadow, and steps upon the stone, and raises his gloved hand to +the bell. Charles Maitland at last!</p> + +<p class="normal">Coming straight in from the sunshine he cannot see the swift welcome +that springs to eye and cheek, a flash of light and color, quick to +come and go. He is too much moved himself to mark how her hand shakes. +He sees no difference in her. But she sees a change in him. She +detects some subtle difference that eludes her attempt to define its +nature and only fills her with a vague sense that this is not the +Charles Maitland from whom she parted.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is a meeting she has pictured often, but not at all like this. He +signs to her to take him into the dining room, the door of which +stands open.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have come back, Miss Joan."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes?" she answers, sitting down with an attempt to still the tumult +within, with such success that she brings herself for the moment +nearly to the frame of mind in which they parted, and there is the +same weary sufferance in her tone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have come back as I said I would. I have overstepped the three +months, but I had a good reason for my delay. Indeed I have been in +doubt whether I ought to see you again at all, only I could not bear +you to think what you naturally would. I felt that I must see you, +even if it cost us both pain." There is a new awkwardness in his tone +and pose.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I told you that it was--quite unnecessary--and useless," she answers, +with a strange tightening in her throat.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it can do you no harm," he assents quietly. "I have come back +not to repeat my petition, but to tell you why I do not and cannot."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think," she puts in coldly, "that upon the whole you had better +spare yourself the unpleasantness of explaining anything to me. Don't +you think so? I asked you for no proof, and held out no hope. Why do +you trouble me? Why have you come back?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"You have not changed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">For the first time a ring of contempt in her voice takes the place of +cold indifference. "I do not change in three months, Mr. Maitland. But +there! my mother will wish to see you, and so will Agnes, who is +hankering after something to happen. They are in the drawing room."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But, Miss Joan, grant me one moment! You have not heard my reasons."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Your reasons! Is it absolutely necessary?" she asks, half fretfully, +half scornfully; her uppermost thought an intense desire to be by +herself in her own room, with the door safely locked.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think so, at any rate. Why, I see! By Jove! of course you must +be thinking the worst of me now! Oh, no! if you could not love me, +Joan--pray pardon me, I had no right to call you by your name--you +need not despise me. I cannot again ask you to be my wife, because," +he laughs uneasily, "fortune has put it out of my power to take a +wife. My trustee has made ducks and drakes of my property, or rather +bulls and bears. I have but a trifle left to begin the world upon, and +far too little to marry upon."</p> + +<p class="normal">"I read of it in the papers. I saw that a Mr. Maitland was the chief +sufferer, but I did not connect him with you," she says, in a low +voice.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, of course not. How should you?" he answers lightly. But +nevertheless her coldness is dreadful to him. He had thought she would +express some sympathy. And gayly as he talks of it, he feels something +of the importance of a ruined man and something of his claim to pity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"And what are you going to do?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Do? We've arranged all that. They say there is a living to be made at +the Bar in New Zealand, if one does not object to riding boots and +spurs as part of the professional costume. Of course it will be a +different sort of life, and Agnes' favorite patent leathers will +be left behind in every sense. This would have been a bad blow to +me"--there is a slight catch in his voice, and he gets up, and looks +out of one of the windows with his back to her--"now I have learned +from you that life should not be all lounging round the table and +looking over other people's cards. It has been a sharp lesson, but +very opportune as things have turned out. I am ready to take a hand +myself now--even without a partner."</p> + +<p class="normal">He does not at once turn round. He had not fancied she would take it +like this, and he listens for a word to tell him that at any rate she +is sorry--is grieved as for a stranger. Then he feels a sudden light, +timid touch upon his arm. Joan is standing quite close to him, and +does not move or take away her hand as he turns. Only she looks down +at the floor when she speaks:</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I should be better than--than dummy--if you will take me to +New Zealand."</p> + +<p class="normal">Half laughing, half crying, and wholly confused, she looks up into his +astonished face with eyes so brimful of love and tenderness that they +tell all her story. For just an instant his eyes meet hers. Then, with +a smothered exclamation, he draws her to him--and--in fact smothers +the exclamation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am so glad you've lost your money," she sobs, hiding her face, +as soon as she can, upon his shoulder. "I should not have done at +all--for you--in London, Charley."</p> + +<p class="normal">There let us leave her. But no, another is less merciful. Neither of +them hears the door open or sees Agnes' face appear at it. But she +both sees and hears, and says very distinctly and clearly:</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well!"</p> + +<p class="normal">But even Agnes is happy and satisfied. Something <i>has</i> happened.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">THE FATAL LETTER.</a></h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">I have friends who tell me that they seldom walk the streets of London +without wondering what is passing behind the house-fronts; without +picturing a comedy here, a love-scene there, and behind the dingy cane +blinds a something ill-defined, a something odd and <i>bizarre</i>. They +experience--if you believe them--a sense of loneliness out in the +street, an impatience of the sameness of all these many houses, their +dull bricks and discreet windows, and a longing that someone would +step out and ask them to enter and see the play.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, I have never felt any of these things; but as I was passing +through Fitzhardinge Square about half-past ten o'clock one evening in +last July, after dining, if I remember rightly, in Baker Street, +something happened to me which I fancy may be of interest to such +people.</p> + +<p class="normal">I was passing through the square from north to south, and to avoid a +small crowd, which some reception had drawn together, I left the +pavement and struck across the road to the path around the oval +garden; which, by the way, contains a few of the finest trees in +London. This part was in deep shadow, so that when I presently emerged +from it and recrossed the road to the pavement near the top of +Fitzhardinge Street, I had an advantage over any persons on the +pavement. They were under the lamps, while I, coming from beneath the +trees, was almost invisible.</p> + +<p class="normal">The door of the house immediately in front of me as I crossed was +open, and an elderly man servant out of livery was standing at it, +looking up and down the pavement by turns. It was his air of furtive +anxiety that drew my attention to him. He was not like a man looking +for a cab, or waiting for his sweetheart; and I had my eye upon him as +I stepped upon the pavement before him. But my surprise was great when +he uttered a low exclamation of dismay at sight of me, and made as if +he would escape; while his face, in the full glare of the light, grew +so pale and terror-stricken that he might before have been completely +at his ease. I was astonished and instinctively stood still returning +his gaze; for perhaps twenty seconds we remained so, he speechless, +and his hands fallen by his side. Then, before I could move on, as I +was in the act of doing, he cried, "Oh, Mr. George! Oh! Mr. George!" +in a tone that rang out in the stillness rather as a wail than an +ordinary cry.</p> + +<p class="normal">My name, my surname, I mean, is George. For a moment I took the +address to myself, forgetting that the man was a stranger, and my +heart began to beat more quickly with fear of what might have +happened. "What is it?" I exclaimed. "What is it?" and I shook back +from the lower part of my face the silk muffler I was wearing. The +evening was close, but I had been suffering from a sore throat.</p> + +<p class="normal">He came nearer and peered more closely at me, and I dismissed my fear; +for I thought that I could see the discovery of his mistake dawning +upon him. His pallid face, on which the pallor was the more noticeable +as his plump features were those of a man with whom the world as a +rule went well, regained some of its lost color, and a sigh of relief +passed his lips. But this feeling was only momentary. The joy of +escape from whatever blow he had thought imminent gave place at once +to his previous state of miserable expectancy of something or other.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You took me for another person," I said, preparing to pass on. At +that moment I could have sworn--I would have given one hundred to one +twice over--that he was going to say yes. To my intense astonishment, +he did not. With a very visible effort he said, "No."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Eh! What?" I exclaimed. I had taken a step or two.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, sir."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then what is it?" I said. "What do you want, my good fellow?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Watching his shuffling, indeterminate manner, I wondered if he were +sane. His next answer reassured me on that point. There was an almost +desperate deliberation about its manner. "My master wishes to see you, +sir, if you will kindly walk in for five minutes," was what he said.</p> + +<p class="normal">I should have replied, "Who is your master?" if I had been wise; or +cried, "Nonsense!" and gone my way. But the mind, when it is spurred +by a sudden emergency, often overruns the more obvious course to adopt +a worse. It was possible that one of my intimates had taken the house, +and said in his butler's presence that he wished to see me. Thinking +of that I answered, "Are you sure of this? Have you not made a +mistake, my man?"</p> + +<p class="normal">With an obstinate sullenness that was new in him, he said, No he had +not. Would I please to walk in? He stepped briskly forward as he +spake, and induced me by a kind of gentle urgency to enter the house, +taking from me, with the ease of a trained servant, my hat, coat, and +muffler. Finding himself in the course of his duties he gained more +composure; while I, being thus treated, lost my sense of the +strangeness of the proceeding, and only awoke to a full consciousness +of my position when he had softly shut the door behind us and was in +the act of putting up the chain.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then I confess I looked round, a little alarmed at my precipitancy. +But I found the hall spacious, lofty, and dark-paneled, the ordinary +hall of an old London house. The big fireplace was filled with plants +in flower. There were rugs on the floor and a number of chairs with +painted crests on the backs, and in a corner was an old sedan chair, +its poles upright against the wall.</p> + +<p class="normal">No other servants were visible, it is true. But apart from this all +was in order, all was quiet, and any idea of violence was manifestly +absurd.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the same time the affair seemed of the strangest. Why should the +butler in charge of a well-arranged and handsome house--the house of +an ordinary wealthy gentleman--why should he loiter about the open +doorway as if anxious to feel the presence of his kind? Why should he +show such nervous excitement and terror as I had witnessed? Why should +he introduce a stranger?</p> + +<p class="normal">I had reached this point when he led the way upstairs. The staircase +was wide, the steps were low and broad. On either side at the head of +the flight stood a beautiful Venus of white Parian marble. They were +not common reproductions, and I paused. I could see beyond them a +Hercules and a Meleager of bronze, and delicately tinted draperies and +ottomans that under the light of a silver hanging lamp--a gem from +Malta--changed a mere lobby to a fairies' nook. The sight filled me +with a certain suspicion; which was dispelled, however, when my hand +rested for an instant upon the reddish pedestal that supported one of +the statues. The cold touch of the marble was enough for me. The +pillars were not of composite; of which they certainly would have +consisted in a gaming house, or worse.</p> + +<p class="normal">Three steps carried me across the lobby to a curtained doorway +by which the servant was waiting. I saw that the "shakes" were upon +him again. His impatience was so ill concealed that I was not +surprised--though I was taken aback--when he dropped the mask +altogether, and as I passed him--it being now too late for me to +retreat undiscovered, if the room were occupied--laid a trembling hand +upon my arm and thrust his face close to mine. "Ask how he is! Say +anything," he whispered, trembling, "no matter what, sir! Only, for +the love of Heaven, stay five minutes!"</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave me a gentle push forward as he spoke--pleasant, all this!--and +announced in a loud, quavering voice, "Mr. George!" which was true +enough. I found myself walking round a screen at the same time that +something in the room, a long, dimly lighted room, fell with a brisk, +rattling sound, and there was the scuffling noise of a person, still +hidden from me by the screen, rising to his feet in haste.</p> + +<p class="normal">Next moment I was face to face with two men. One, a handsome elderly +gentleman, who wore gray mustaches and would have seemed in place at a +service club, was still in his chair, regarding me with a perfectly +calm, unmoved face, as if my entrance at that hour were the commonest +incident of his life. The other had risen and stood looking at me +askance. He was five-and-twenty years younger than his companion and +as good-looking in a different way. But now his face was white and +drawn, distorted by the same expression of terror--ay, and a darker +and fiercer terror than that which I had already seen upon the +servant's features; it was the face of one in a desperate strait. He +looked as a man looks who has put all he has in the world upon an +outsider--and done it twice. In that quiet drawing room by the side of +his placid companion, with nothing whatever in their surroundings to +account for his emotion, his panic-stricken face shocked me +inexpressibly.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were in evening dress; and between them was a chess table, its +men in disorder: almost touching this was another small table bearing +a tray of Apollinaris water and spirits. On this the young man was +resting one hand as if, but for its support, he would have fallen.</p> + +<p class="normal">To add one more fact, I had never seen either of them in my life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Or wait; could that be true? If so, it must indeed have been a +nightmare I was suffering. For the elder man broke the silence by +addressing me in a quiet, ordinary tone that exactly matched his face. +"Sit down, George," he said, "don't stand there. I did not expect you +this evening." He held out his hand, without rising from his chair, +and I advanced and shook it in silence. "I thought you were in +Liverpool. How are you?" he continued.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, I thank you," I muttered mechanically.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Not very well, I should say," he retorted. "You are as hoarse as a +raven. You have a bad cold at best. It is nothing worse, my boy, is +it?" with anxiety.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No, a throat cough; nothing else," I murmured, resigning myself to +this astonishing reception--this evident concern for my welfare on the +part of a man whom I had never seen in my life.</p> + +<p class="normal">"That is well!" he answered cheerily. Not only did my presence cause +him no surprise. It gave him, without doubt, actual pleasure!</p> + +<p class="normal">It was otherwise with his companion; grimly and painfully so indeed. +He had made no advances to me, spoken no word, scarcely altered +his position. His eyes he had never taken from me. Yet in him there +was a change. He had discovered, exactly as had the butler before +him, his mistake. The sickly terror was gone from his face, and a +half-frightened malevolence, not much more pleasant to witness, had +taken its place. Why this did not break out in any active form was +part of the general mystery given to me to solve. I could only surmise +from glances which he later cast from time to time toward the door, +and from the occasional faint creaking of a board in that direction, +that his self-restraint had to do with my friend the butler. The +inconsequences of dreamland ran through it all: why the elder man +remained in error; why the younger with that passion on his face was +tongue-tied; why the great house was so still; why the servant should +have mixed me up with this business at all--these were questions as +unanswerable, one as the other.</p> + +<p class="normal">And the fog in my mind grew denser when the old gentleman turned from +me as if my presence were a usual thing, and rapped the table before +him impatiently. "Now, Gerald!" cried he, in sharp tones, "have you +put those pieces back? Good Heavens! I am glad that I have not nerves +like yours! Don't you remember the squares, boy? Here, give them to +me!" With a hasty gesture of his hand, something like a mesmeric pass +over the board, he set down the half dozen pieces with a rapid tap! +tap! tap! which made it abundantly clear that he, at any rate, had no +doubt of their former positions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You will not mind sitting by until we have finished the game?" he +continued, speaking to me, and in a voice I fancied more genial than +that which he had used to Gerald. "You are anxious to talk to me about +your letter, George?" he went on when I did not answer. "The fact is +that I have not read the inclosure. Barnes, as usual, read the outer +letter to me, in which you said the matter was private and of grave +importance; and I intended to go to Laura to-morrow, as you suggested, +and get her to read the news to me. Now you have returned so soon, I +am glad that I did not trouble her."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so, sir," I said, listening with all my ears; and wondering.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well, I hope there is nothing very bad the matter, my boy?" he +replied. "However--Gerald! it is your move! ten minutes more of such +play as your brother's, and I shall be at your service."</p> + +<p class="normal">Gerald made a hurried move. The piece rattled upon the board as if he +had been playing the castanets. His father made him take it back. I +sat watching the two in wonder and silence. What did it all mean? Why +should Barnes--doubtless behind the screen, listening--read the outer +letter? Why must Laura be employed to read the inner? Why could not +this cultivated and refined gentleman before me read his---- Ah! that +much was disclosed to me. A mere turn of the hand did it. He had made +another of those passes over the board, and I learned from it what an +ordinary examination would not have detected. He, the old soldier with +the placid face and light-blue eyes, was blind! Quite blind!</p> + +<p class="normal">I began to see more clearly now, and from this moment I took up, at +any rate in my own mind, a different position. Possibly the servant +who had impelled me into the middle of this had had his own good +reasons for doing so, as I now began to discern. But with a clew to +the labyrinth in my hand, I could no longer move passively at any +other's impulse. I must act for myself. For a while I sat still and +made no sign. My suspicions were presently confirmed. The elder man +more than once scolded his opponent for playing slowly. In one of +these intervals he took from an inside pocket of his dress waistcoat a +small package.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You had better take your letter, George," he said. "If there are, as +you mentioned, originals in it, they will be more safe with you than +with me. You can tell me all about it, <i>viva voce</i>, now you are here. +Gerald will leave us alone presently."</p> + +<p class="normal">He held the papers toward me. To take them would be to take an active +part in the imposture, and I hesitated, my own hand half outstretched. +But my eyes fell at the critical instant upon Master Gerald's face, +and my scruples took themselves off. He was eying the packet with an +intense greed and a trembling longing--a very itching of the fingers +and toes to fall upon the prey--that put an end to my doubts. I rose +and took the papers. With a quiet, but I think significant look in his +direction, I placed them in the breast pocket of my evening coat. I +had no safer receptacle about me, or into that they would have gone.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Very well, sir," I said, "there is no particular hurry. I think the +matter will keep, as things now are, until to-morrow."</p> + +<p class="normal">"To be sure. You ought not to be out with such a cold at night, my +boy," he answered. "You will find a decanter of the Scotch whisky you +gave me last Christmas on the tray. Will you have some with hot water +and a lemon, George? The servants are all at the theater--Gerald +begged a holiday for them--but Barnes will get you the things in a +minute."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thank you; I won't trouble him. I will take some with cold water," I +replied, thinking I should gain in this way what I wanted--time to +think; five minutes to myself while they played.</p> + +<p class="normal">But I was out of my reckoning. "I will have mine now, too," he said. +"Will you mix it, Gerald?"</p> + +<p class="normal">Gerald jumped up to do it, with tolerable alacrity. I sat still, +preferring to help myself when he should have attended to his father, +if his father it was. I felt more easy now that I had those papers in +my pocket. The more I thought of it the more certain I became that +they were the object aimed at by whatever deviltry was on foot, and +that possession of them gave me the whip hand. My young gentleman +might snarl and show his teeth, but the prize had escaped him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Perhaps I was a little too confident, a little too contemptuous of my +opponent; a little too proud of the firmness with which I had taken at +one and the same time the responsibility and the post of vantage. A +creak of the board behind the screen roused me from my thoughts. It +fell upon my ear trumpet-tongued, a sudden note of warning. I glanced +up with a start and a conviction that I was being caught napping, and +looked instinctively toward the young man. He was busy at the tray, +his back to me. Relieved of my fear of I did not know what,--perhaps a +desperate attack upon my pocket,--I was removing my eyes, when, in +doing so, I caught sight of his reflection in a small mirror beyond +him. Ah!</p> + +<p class="normal">What was he busy about? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, at the moment. He +was standing motionless,--I could fancy him breathless also,--a +strange, listening expression on his face, which seemed to me to have +faded to a grayish tinge. His left hand was clasping a half-filled +tumbler, the other was at his waistcoat pocket. So he stood during +perhaps a second or two, a small lamp upon the tray before him +illumining his handsome figure; and then his eyes, glancing up, met +the reflection of mine in the mirror. Swiftly as the thought itself +could pass from brain to limb, the hand which had been resting in the +pocket flashed with a clatter among the glasses; and, turning almost +as quickly, he brought one of the latter to the chess table, and set +it down unsteadily.</p> + +<p class="normal">What had I seen? Nothing, actually nothing. Just what Gerald had been +doing. Yet my heart was going as many strokes to the minute as a +losing crew. I rose abruptly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Wait a moment, sir," I said, as the elder man laid his hand upon the +glass. "I don't think that Gerald has mixed this quite as you like +it."</p> + +<p class="normal">He had already lifted it to his lips. I looked from him to Gerald. +That young gentleman's color, though he faced me hardily, shifted more +than once, and he seemed to be swallowing a succession of oversized +fives balls; but his eyes met mine in a vicious kind of smile that was +not without its gleam of triumph. I was persuaded that all was right +even before his father said so.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you have mixed for me, Gerald?" I suggested pleasantly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No!" he answered in sullen defiance. He filled a glass with +something--perhaps it was water--and drank it, his back toward me. He +had not spoken so much as a single word to me before.</p> + +<p class="normal">The blind man's ear recognized the tone now. "I wish you boys would +agree better," he said wearily. "Gerald, go to bed. I would as soon +play chess with an idiot from Earlswood. Generally you can play the +game, if you are good for nothing else; but since your brother came +in, you have not made a move which anyone not an imbecile would make. +Go to bed, boy! go to bed!"</p> + +<p class="normal">I had stepped to the table while he was speaking. One of the glasses +was full. I lifted it, with seeming unconcern, to my nose. There was +whisky in it as well as water. Then <i>had</i> Gerald mixed for me? At any +rate, I put the tumbler aside, and helped myself afresh. When I set +the glass down empty, my mind was made up.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Gerald does not seem inclined to move, sir, so I will," I said +quietly. "I will call in the morning and discuss that matter, if it +will suit you. But to-night I feel inclined to get to bed early."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Quite right, my boy. I would ask you to take a bed here instead of +turning out, but I suppose that Laura will be expecting you. Come in +any time tomorrow morning. Shall Barnes call a cab for you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I think I will walk," I answered, shaking the proffered hand. "By the +way, sir," I added, "have you heard who is the new Home Secretary?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes, Henry Matthews," he replied. "Gerald told me. He had heard it at +the club."</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is to be hoped that he will have no womanish scruples about +capital punishment," I said, as if I were incidentally considering the +appointment. And with that last shot at Mr. Gerald--he turned green, I +thought, a color which does not go well with a black mustache--I +walked out of the room, so peaceful, so cozy, so softly lighted as it +looked, I remember, and downstairs. I hoped that I had paralyzed the +young fellow, and might leave the house without molestation.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, as I gained the foot of the stairs, he tapped me on the shoulder. +I saw, then, looking at him, that I had mistaken my man. Every trace +of the sullen defiance which had marked his manner throughout the +interview upstairs was gone. His face was still pale, but it wore a +gentle smile as we confronted one another under the hall lamp. "I have +not the pleasure of knowing you, but let me thank you for your help," +he said in a low voice, yet with a kind of frank spontaneity. "Barnes' +idea of bringing you in was a splendid one, and I am immensely obliged +to you."</p> + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/p211.png" alt="p211"><br> +"YOU ARE FORGETTING THE PAPERS," HE REMINDED ME.</p> + + +<p class="normal">"Don't mention it," I answered stiffly, proceeding with my +preparations for going out as if he had not been there, although I +must confess that this complete change in him exercised my mind no +little.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I feel so sure that we may rely upon your discretion," he went on, +ignoring my tone, "that I need say nothing about that. Of course, we +owe you an explanation, but as your cold is really yours and not my +brother's, you will not mind if I read you the riddle to-morrow +instead of keeping you from your bed to-night?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"It will do equally well; indeed better," I said, putting on my +overcoat and buttoning it carefully across my chest, while I affected +to be looking with curiosity at the sedan chair.</p> + +<p class="normal">He pointed lightly to the place where the packet lay. "You are +forgetting the papers," he reminded me. His tone almost compelled the +answer: "To be sure."</p> + +<p class="normal">But I had pretty well made up my mind, and I answered instead: "Not at +all. They are quite safe, thank you."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But you don't---- I beg your pardon," he said, opening his eyes very +wide, as if some new light were beginning to shine upon his mind and +he could scarcely believe its revelations. "You don't really mean that +you are going to take those papers away with you?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Certainly!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"My dear sir!" he remonstrated earnestly. "This is preposterous. Pray +forgive me the reminder, but those papers, as my father gave you to +understand, are private papers, which he supposed himself to be +handing to my brother George."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Just so," was all I said. And I took a step toward the door.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You really mean to take them?" he asked seriously.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I do; unless you can satisfactorily explain the part I have played +this evening, and also make it clear to me that you have a right to +the possession of the papers."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Confound it! If I must do so tonight, I must!" he said reluctantly. +"I trust to your honor, sir, to keep the explanation secret." I bowed, +and he resumed: "My elder brother and I are in business together. +Lately we have had losses which have crippled us so severely that we +decided to disclose them to Sir Charles and ask his help. George did +so yesterday by letter, giving certain notes of our liabilities. You +ask why he did not make such a statement by word of mouth? Because he +had to go to Liverpool at a moment's notice to make a last effort to +arrange the matter. And as for me," with a curious grimace, "my father +would as soon discuss business with his dog! Sooner!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" I said. He had paused, and was absently nicking the blossoms +off the geraniums in the fireplace with his pocket handkerchief, +looking moodily at his work the while. I cannot remember noticing the +handkerchief, yet I seem to be able to see it now. It had a red +border, and was heavily scented with white rose. "Well?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well," he continued, with a visible effort, "my father has been +ailing lately, and this morning his usual doctor made him see +Bristowe. He is an authority on heart disease, as you doubtless know; +and his opinion is," he added, in a lower voice and with some emotion, +"that even a slight shock may prove fatal."</p> + +<p class="normal">I began to feel hot and uncomfortable. What was I to think? The packet +was becoming as lead in my pocket.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Of course," he resumed more briskly, "that threw our difficulties +into the shade at once; and my first impulse was to get these papers +from him. Don't you see that? All day I have been trying in vain to +effect it. I took Barnes, who is an old servant, partially into my +confidence, but we could think of no plan. My father, like many people +who have lost their sight, is jealous, and I was at my wits' end, when +Barnes brought you up. Your likeness," he added in a parenthesis, +looking at me reflectively, "to George put the idea into his head, I +fancy? Yes, it must have been so. When I heard you announced, for a +moment I thought that you were George."</p> + +<p class="normal">"And you called up a look of the warmest welcome," I put in dryly.</p> + +<p class="normal">He colored, but answered almost immediately, "I was afraid that he +would assume that the governor had read his letter, and blurt out +something about it. Good Lord! if you knew the funk in which I have +been all the evening lest my father should ask either of us to read +the letter!" and he gathered up his handkerchief with a sigh of +relief, and wiped his forehead.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I could see it very plainly," I answered, going slowly in my mind +over what he had told me. If the truth must be confessed, I was in no +slight quandary what I should do, or what I should believe. Was this +really the key to it all? Dared I doubt it? or that that which I had +constructed was a mare's nest--the mere framework of a mare's nest. +For the life of me I could not tell!</p> + +<p class="normal">"Well?" he said presently, looking up with an offended air. "Is there +anything else I can explain? or will you have the kindness to return +my property to me now?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"There is one thing, about which I should like to ask a question," I +said.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ask on!" he replied; and I wondered whether there was not a little +too much of bravado in the tone of sufferance he assumed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Why do you carry"--I went on, raising my eyes to his, and pausing on +the word an instant--"that little medicament--you know what I mean--in +your waistcoat pocket, my friend?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He perceptibly flinched. "I don't quite--quite understand," he began +to stammer. Then he changed his tone and went on rapidly, "No! I will +be frank with you, Mr.--Mr.----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"George," I said calmly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Ah, indeed?" a trifle surprised, "Mr. George! Well, it is something +Bristowe gave me this morning to be administered to my father--without +his knowledge, if possible--whenever he grows excited. I did not think +that you had seen it."</p> + +<p class="normal">Nor had I. I had only inferred its presence. But having inferred +rightly once, I was inclined to trust my inference farther. Moreover, +while he gave this explanation, his breath came and went so quickly +that my former suspicions returned. I was ready for him when he said, +"Now I will trouble you, if you please, for those papers?" and held +out his hand.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I cannot give them to you," I replied, point-blank.</p> + +<p class="normal">"You cannot give them to me now?" he repeated.</p> + +<p class="normal">"No. Moreover, the packet is sealed. I do not see, on second thoughts, +what harm I can do you--now that it is out of your father's hands--by +keeping it until to-morrow, when I will return it to your brother, +from whom it came."</p> + +<p class="normal">"He will not be in London," he answered doggedly. He stepped between +me and the door with looks which I did not like. At the same time I +felt that some allowance must be made for a man treated in this way.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am sorry," I said, "but I cannot do what you ask. I will do this, +however. If you think the delay of importance, and will give me your +brother's address in Liverpool, I will undertake to post the letters +to him at once."</p> + +<p class="normal">He considered the offer, eying me the while with the same disfavor +which he had exhibited in the drawing room. At last he said slowly, +"If you will do that?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"I will," I repeated. "I will do it immediately."</p> + +<p class="normal">He gave me the direction--"George Ritherdon, at the London and +Northwestern Hotel, Liverpool"--and in return I gave him my own name +and address. Then I parted from him, with a civil good-night on either +side--and little liking, I fancy--the clocks striking midnight, and +the servants coming in as I passed out into the cool darkness of the +square.</p> + +<p class="normal">Late as it was I went straight to my club, determined that, as I had +assumed the responsibility, there should be no laches on my part. +There I placed the packet, together with a short note explaining how +it came into my possession, in an outer envelope, and dropped the +whole, duly directed and stamped, into the nearest pillar box. I could +not register it at that hour, and rather than wait until next morning, +I omitted the precaution; merely requesting Mr. Ritherdon to +acknowledge its receipt.</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, some days passed; during which it may be imagined that I thought +no little about my odd experience. It was the story of the Lady and +the Tiger over again. I had the choice of two alternatives at least. I +might either believe the young fellow's story, which certainly had the +merit of explaining in a fairly probable manner an occurrence of so +odd a character as not to lend itself freely to explanation. Or I +might disbelieve his story, plausible in its very strangeness as it +was, in favor of my own vague suspicions. Which was I to do?</p> + +<p class="normal">Well, I set out by preferring the former alternative. This, +notwithstanding that I had to some extent committed myself against it +by withholding the papers. But with each day that passed without +bringing me an answer from Liverpool, I leaned more and more to the +other side. I began to pin my faith to the Tiger, adding each morning +a point to the odds in the animal's favor. So it went on until ten +days had passed.</p> + +<p class="normal">Then a little out of curiosity, but more, I gravely declare, because I +thought it the right thing to do, I resolved to seek out George +Ritherdon. I had no difficulty in learning where he might be found. +I turned up the firm of Ritherdon Brothers (George and Gerald), +cotton-spinners and India merchants, in the first directory I +consulted. And about noon the next day I called at their place of +business, and sent in my card to the senior partner. I waited five +minutes--curiously scanned by the porter, who no doubt saw a likeness +between me and his employer--and then I was admitted to the latter's +room.</p> + +<p class="normal">He was a tall man with a fair beard, not one whit like Gerald, and yet +tolerably good looking; if I say more I shall seem to be describing +myself. I fancied him to be balder about the temples, however, and +grayer and more careworn than the man I am in the habit of seeing in +my shaving glass. His eyes, too, had a hard look, and he seemed in ill +health. All these things I took in later. At the time I only noticed +his clothes. "So the old gentleman is dead," I thought, "and the young +one's tale is true, after all?" George Ritherdon was in deep mourning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I wrote to you," I began, taking the seat to which he pointed, "about +a fortnight ago."</p> + +<p class="normal">He looked at my card, which he held in his hand. "I think not," he +said slowly.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Yes," I repeated. "You were then at the London and Northwestern +Hotel, at Liverpool."</p> + +<p class="normal">He was stepping to his writing table, but he stopped abruptly. "I was +in Liverpool," he answered, in a different tone, "but I was not at +that hotel. You are thinking of my brother, are you not?"</p> + +<p class="normal">"No," I said. "It was your brother who told me you were there."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Perhaps you had better explain what was the subject of your letter," +he suggested, speaking in the weary tone of one returning to a painful +matter. "I have been through a great trouble lately, and this may well +have been overlooked."</p> + +<p class="normal">I said I would, and as briefly as possible I told the main facts of my +strange visit in Fitzhardinge Square. He was much moved, walking up +and down the room as he listened, and giving vent to exclamations from +time to time, until I came to the arrangement I had finally made with +his brother. Then he raised his hand as one might do in pain.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Enough!" he said abruptly. "Barnes told me a rambling tale of some +stranger. I understand it all now."</p> + +<p class="normal">"So do I, I think!" I replied dryly. "Your brother went to Liverpool, +and received the papers in your name?"</p> + +<p class="normal">He murmured what I took for "Yes." But he did not utter a single word +of acknowledgment to me, or of reprobation of his brother's deceit. I +thought some such word should have been spoken; and I let my feelings +carry me away. "Let me tell you," I said warmly, "that your brother is +a----"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hush!" he said, holding up his hand again. "He is dead."</p> + +<p class="normal">"Dead!" I repeated, shocked and amazed.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Have you not read of it in the papers? It is in all the papers," he +said wearily. "He committed suicide--God forgive me for it!--at +Liverpool, at the hotel you have mentioned, and the day after you saw +him."</p> + +<p class="normal">And so it was. He had committed some serious forgery--he had always +been wild, though his father, slow to see it, had only lately closed +his purse to him--and the forged signatures had come into his +brother's power. He had cheated his brother before. There had long +been bad blood between them; the one being as cold, businesslike, and +masterful as the other was idle and jealous.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I told him," the elder said to me, shading his eyes with his hand, +"that I should let him be prosecuted--that I would not protect or +shelter him. The threat nearly drove him mad; and while it was hanging +over him, I wrote to disclose the matter to Sir Charles. Gerald +thought his last chance lay in recovering this letter unread. The +proofs against him destroyed, he might laugh at me. His first attempts +failed; and then he planned, with Barnes' cognizance, to get +possession of the packet by drugging my father's whisky. Barnes' +courage deserted him; he called you in, and--and you know the rest."</p> + +<p class="normal">"But," I said softly, "your brother did get the letter--at Liverpool."</p> + +<p class="normal">George Ritherdon groaned. "Yes," he said, "he did. But the proofs were +not inclosed. After writing the outside letter I changed my mind, and +withheld them, explaining my reasons within. He found his plot laid in +vain; and it was under the shock of this disappointment--the packet +lay before him, resealed and directed to me--that he--that he did it. +Poor Gerald!"</p> + +<p class="normal">"Poor Gerald!" I said. What else remained to be said?</p> + +<p class="normal">It may be a survival of superstition, yet, when I dine in Baker Street +now, I take some care to go home by any other route than that through +Fitzhardinge Square.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>THE END.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The King's Stratagem and Other Stories, by +Stanley J. 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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: The King's Stratagem and Other Stories + +Author: Stanley J. Weyman + +Release Date: March 20, 2012 [EBook #39217] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING'S STRATAGEM, OTHER STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the +Web Archive (Harvard University) + + + + + +no gutcheck/jeebies/gutspell + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + + 1. Page scan source: + + http://www.archive.org/details/kingsstratagema00weymgoog + (Harvard University) + + + + + + +[Illustration: "HE WAS ALONE WITH HIS TRIUMPH."] + + + + + + + + THE + + + KING'S STRATAGEM + + + _AND OTHER STORIES_ + + + + + BY + + + STANLEY J. WEYMAN + + + _Author of "A Gentleman of France," "Under the Red Robe," + + "My Lady Rotha," etc., etc_. + + + + + * * * + + + + + NEW YORK + + A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY + + 70 Fifth Avenue + + + + + + + + Copyright, 1891, + + + BY + + + A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY. + + + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + + The King's Stratagem, + + + The Body-birds Of Court, + + + In Cupid's Toils, + + + The Drift Of Fate, + + + A Blore Manor Episode, + + + The Fatal Letter, + + + + + + THE KING'S STRATAGEM. + + +In the days when Henry IV. of France was King of Navarre only, and in +that little kingdom of hills and woods which occupies the southwest +corner of the larger country, was with difficulty supporting the +Huguenot cause against the French court and the Catholic League--in +the days when every isolated castle, from the Garonne to the Pyrenees, +was a bone of contention between the young king and the crafty +queen-mother, Catherine de Medicis, a conference between these notable +personages took place in the picturesque town of La Reole. + +La Reole still rises gray, time-worn, and half-ruined on a lofty cliff +above the broad green waters of the Garonne, forty odd miles from +Bordeaux. But it is a small place now. In the days of which we are +speaking, however, it was important, strongly fortified, and guarded +by a castle which looked down on a thousand red-tiled roofs, rising in +terraces from the river. As the meeting-place of the two sovereigns it +was for the time as gay as Paris itself, Catherine having brought with +her a bevy of fair maids of honor, in the effect of whose charms she +perhaps put as much trust as in her own diplomacy. But the peaceful +appearance of the town was delusive, for even while every other house +in it rang with music and silvery laughter, each party was ready to +fly to arms without warning, if it saw that any advantage was to be +gained thereby. + +On an evening shortly before the end of the conference two men sat at +play in a room, the deep-embrasured window of which looked down from a +considerable height upon the river. The hour was late, and the town +silent. Outside, the moonlight fell bright and pure on sleeping fields +and long, straight lines of poplars. Within the room a silver lamp +suspended from the ceiling threw light upon the table, leaving the +farther parts of the room in shadow. The walls were hung with faded +tapestry. On the low bedstead in one corner lay a handsome cloak, a +sword, and one of the clumsy pistols of the period. Across a chair lay +another cloak and sword, and on the window seat, beside a pair of +saddlebags, were strewn half a dozen such trifles as soldiers carried +from camp to camp--a silver comfit-box, a jeweled dagger, a mask, and +velvet cap. + +The faces of the players, as they bent over the dice, were in shadow. +One--a slight, dark man of middle height, with a weak chin, and a +mouth as weak, but shaded by a dark mustache--seemed, from the +occasional oaths which he let drop, to be losing heavily. Yet his +opponent, a stouter and darker man, with a sword-cut across his left +temple, and that swaggering air which has at all times marked the +professional soldier, showed no signs of triumph or elation. On the +contrary, though he kept silence, or spoke only a formal word or two, +there was a gleam of anxiety and suppressed excitement in his eyes, +and more than once he looked keenly at his companion, as if to judge +of his feelings or learn whether the time had come for some experiment +which he meditated. But for this, an observer looking in through the +window would have taken the two for only one more instance of the hawk +and pigeon. + +At last the younger player threw down the caster, with a groan. + +"You have the luck of the Evil One," he said bitterly. "How much is +that?" + +"Two thousand crowns," replied the other without emotion. "You will +play no more?" + +"No! I wish to Heaven I had never played at all!" was the answer. As +he spoke the loser rose, and going to the window stood looking moodily +out. + +For a few moments the elder man remained seated, gazing at him +furtively, but at length he too rose, and, stepping softly to his +companion, touched him on the shoulder. "Your pardon a moment, M. le +Vicomte," he said. "Am I right in concluding that the loss of this sum +will inconvenience you?" + +"A thousand fiends!" exclaimed the young vicomte, turning on him +wrathfully. "Is there any man whom the loss of two thousand crowns +would not inconvenience? As for me----" + +"For you," continued the other, smoothly filling up the pause, "shall +I be wrong in saying that it means something like ruin?" + +"Well, sir, and if it does?" the young man retorted, drawing himself +up haughtily, his cheek a shade paler with passion. "Depend upon it +you shall be paid. Do not be afraid of that!" + +"Gently, gently, my friend," the winner answered, his patience in +strong contrast with the other's violence. "I had no intention of +insulting you, believe me. Those who play with the Vicomte de +Lanthenon are not wont to doubt his honor. I spoke only in your own +interest. It has occurred to me, vicomte, that the matter might be +arranged at less cost to yourself." + +"How?" was the curt question. + +"May I speak freely?" The vicomte shrugged his shoulders, and the +other, taking silence for consent, proceeded: "You, vicomte, are +Governor of Lusigny for the King of Navarre; I, of Creance, for the +King of France. Our towns lie only three leagues apart. Could I, by +any chance, say on one of these fine nights, become master of Lusigny, +it would be worth more than two thousand crowns to me. Do you +understand?" + +"No," the young man answered slowly, "I do not." + +"Think over what I have said, then," was the brief answer. + +For a full minute there was silence in the room. The vicomte gazed out +of the window with knitted brows and compressed lips, while his +companion, sitting down, leaned back in his chair, with an air of +affected carelessness. Outside, the rattle of arms and hum of voices +told that the watch were passing through the street. The church bell +struck one. Suddenly the vicomte burst into a hoarse laugh, and, +turning, snatched up his cloak and sword. "The trap was very well +laid, M. le Capitaine," he said almost jovially; "but I am still sober +enough to take care of myself--and of Lusigny. I wish you good-night. +You shall have your money, never fear." + +"Still, I am afraid it will cost you dearly," the captain answered, as +he rose and moved toward the door to open it for his guest. His hand +was already on the latch when he paused. "Look here," he said, "what +do you say to this, then? I will stake the two thousand crowns you +have lost to me, and another thousand besides against your town. Fool! +no one can hear us. If you win, you go off a free man with my +thousand. If you lose, you put me in possession one of these fine +nights. What do you say to that? A single throw to decide." + +The young man's pale face reddened. He turned, and his eyes sought the +table and the dice irresolutely. The temptation indeed came at an +unfortunate moment, when the excitement of play had given way to +depression, and he saw nothing before him outside the door, on which +his hand was laid, but the cold reality of ruin. The temptation to +return, and by a single throw set himself right with the world was too +much for him. Slowly he came back to the table. "Confound you!" he +said irritably. "I think you are the devil himself, captain." + +"Don't talk child's talk!" said the other coldly, drawing back as his +victim advanced. "If you do not like the offer you need not take it." + +But the young man's fingers had already closed on the dice. Picking +them up he dropped them once, twice, thrice on the table, his eyes +gleaming with the play-fever. "If I win?" he said doubtfully. + +"You carry away a thousand crowns," answered the captain quietly. "If +you lose you contrive to leave one of the gates of Lusigny open for me +before next full moon. That is all." + +"And what if I lose, and not pay the forfeit?" asked the vicomte, +laughing weakly. + +"I trust to your honor," said the captain. And, strange as it may +seem, he knew his man. The young noble of the day might betray his +cause and his trust, but the debt of honor incurred at play was +binding on him. + +"Well," said the vicomte, "I agree. Who is to throw first?" + +"As you will," replied the captain, masking under an appearance of +indifference a real excitement which darkened his cheek, and caused +the pulse in the old wound on his face to beat furiously. + +"Then do you go first," said the vicomte. + +"With your permission," assented the captain. And taking the dice up +in the caster he shook them with a practiced hand, and dropped them on +the board. The throw was seven. + +The vicomte took up the caster and, as he tossed the dice into it, +glanced at the window. The moonlight shining athwart it fell in +silvery sheen on a few feet of the floor. With the light something of +the silence and coolness of the night entered also, and appealed to +him. For a few seconds he hesitated. He even made as if he would have +replaced the box on the table. But the good instinct failed. It was +too late, and with a muttered word, which his dry lips refused to +articulate, he threw the dice. Seven! + +Neither of the men spoke, but the captain rattled the cubes, and again +flung them on the table, this time with a slight air of bravado. They +rolled one over the other and lay still. Seven again. + +The young vicomte's brow was damp, and his face pale and drawn. He +forced a quavering laugh, and with an unsteady hand took his turn. The +dice fell far apart, and lay where they fell. Six! + +The winner nodded gravely. "The luck is still with me," he said, +keeping his eyes on the table that the light of triumph which had +suddenly leapt into them might not be seen. "When do you go back to +your command, vicomte?" + +The unhappy man stood like one stunned, gazing at the two little cubes +which had cost him so dearly. "The day after to-morrow," he muttered +hoarsely, striving to collect himself. + +"Then we shall say the following evening?" asked the captain. + +"Very well." + +"We quite understand one another," continued the winner, eyeing his +man watchfully, and speaking with more urgency. "I may depend on you, +M. le Vicomte, I presume?" + +"The Lanthenons have never been wanting to their word," the young +nobleman answered, stung into sudden haughtiness. "If I live I will +put Lusigny into your hands, M. le Captaine. Afterward I will do my +best to recover it--in another way." + +"I shall be entirely at your disposal," replied the captain, bowing +lightly. And in a moment he was alone--alone with his triumph, his +ambition, his hopes for the future--alone with the greatness to which +his capture of Lusigny was to be the first step, and which he should +enjoy not a whit the less because as yet fortune had dealt out to him +more blows than caresses, and he was still at forty, after a score of +years of roughest service, the governor of a paltry country town. + +Meanwhile, in the darkness of the narrow streets the vicomte was +making his way to his lodgings in a state of despair and unhappiness +most difficult to describe. Chilled, sobered, and affrighted he looked +back and saw how he had thrown for all and lost all, how he had saved +the dregs of his fortune at the expense of his loyalty, how he had +seen a way of escape and lost it forever! No wonder that as he trudged +alone through the mud and darkness of the sleeping town his breath +came quickly and his chest heaved, and he looked from side to side as +a hunted animal might, uttering great sighs. Ah, if he could only have +retraced the last three hours! + +Worn out and exhausted, he entered his lodging, and, securing the door +behind him, stumbled up the stone stairs and entered his room. The +impulse to confide his misfortunes to someone was so strong upon him +that he was glad to see a dark form half sitting, half lying in a +chair before the dying embers of a wood fire. In those days a +man's natural confidant was his valet, the follower, half-friend, +half-servant, who had been born on his estate, who lay on a pallet at +the foot of his bed, who carried his _billets-doux_ and held his cloak +at the duello, who rode near his stirrup in fight and nursed him in +illness, who not seldom advised him in the choice of a wife, and lied +in support of his suit. + +The young vicomte flung his cloak over a chair. "Get up, you rascal!" +he cried impatiently. "You pig, you dog!" he continued, with +increasing anger. "Sleeping there as though your master were not +ruined by that scoundrel of a Breton! Bah!" he added, gazing bitterly +at his follower, "you are of the _canaille_, and have neither honor to +lose nor a town to betray!" + +The sleeping man moved In his chair and half turned. The vicomte, his +patience exhausted, snatched the bonnet from his head, and threw it on +the ground. "Will you listen?" he said. "Or go, if you choose look for +another master. I am ruined! Do you hear? Ruined, Gil! I have lost +all--money, land, Lusigny itself, at the dice!" + +The man, aroused at last, stooped with a lazy movement, and picking up +his hat dusted it with his hand, and rose with a yawn to his feet. + +"I am afraid, vicomte," he said, his tones, quiet as they were, +sounding like thunder in the vicomte's astonished and bewildered ears, +"I am afraid that if you have lost Lusigny, you have lost something +which was not yours to lose!" + +As he spoke he struck the embers with his foot, and the fire, blazing +up, shone on his face. The vicomte saw, with unutterable confusion and +dismay, that the man before him was not Gil at all, but the last +person in the world to whom he should have betrayed himself. The +astute smiling eyes, the aquiline nose, the high forehead, and +projecting chin, which the short beard and mustache scarcely +concealed, were only too well known to him. He stepped back with a cry +of horror. "Sire!" he said, and then his tongue failed him. He stood +silent, pale, convicted, his chin on his breast. The man to whom he +had confessed his treachery was the master whom he had conspired to +betray. + +"I had suspected something of this," Henry of Navarre continued, after +a pause, a tinge of irony in his tone. "Rosny told me that that old +fox, the Captain of Creance, was affecting your company a good deal, +M. le Vicomte, and I find that, as usual, his suspicions were well +founded. What with a gentleman who shall be nameless, who has bartered +a ford and a castle for the favor of Mlle. de Luynes, and yourself, I +am blest with some faithful followers! For shame!" he continued, +seating himself with dignity, "have you nothing to say for yourself?" + +The young noble stood with his head bowed, his face white. This was +ruin, indeed, absolutely irremediable. "Sire," he said at last, "your +Majesty has a right to my life, not to my honor." + +"Your honor!" quoth Henry, biting contempt in his tone. + +The young man started, and for a second his cheek flamed under the +well-deserved reproach; but he recovered himself. "My debt to your +Majesty," he said, "I am willing to pay." + +"Since pay you must," Henry muttered softly. + +"But I claim to pay also my debt to the Captain of Creance." + +"Oh," the king answered. "So you would have me take your worthless +life, and give up Lusigny?" + +"I am in your hands, sire." + +"Pish, sir!" Henry replied in angry astonishment. "You talk like a +child. Such an offer, M. de Lanthenon, is folly, and you know it. Now +listen to me. It was lucky for you that I came in to-night, intending +to question you. Your madness is known to me only, and I am willing to +overlook it. Do you hear? Cheer up, therefore, and be a man. You are +young; I forgive you. This shall be between you and me only," the +young prince continued, his eyes softening as the other's head +drooped, "and you need think no more of it until the day when I shall +say to you, 'Now, M. de Lanthenon, for France and for Henry, strike!'" + +He rose as the last word passed his lips, and held out his hand. The +vicomte fell on one knee, and kissed it reverently, then sprang to his +feet again. "Sire," he said, standing erect, his eyes shining, "you +have punished me heavily, more heavily than was needful. There is only +one way in which I can show my gratitude, and that is by ridding you +of a servant who can never again look your enemies in the face." + +"What new folly is this?" said Henry sternly. "Do you not understand +that I have forgiven you?" + +"Therefore I cannot give up Lusigny, and I must acquit myself of my +debt to the Captain of Creance in the only way which remains," replied +the young man, firmly. "Death is not so hard that I would not meet it +twice over rather than again betray my trust." + +"This is midsummer madness!" said the king hotly. + +"Possibly," replied the vicomte, without emotion; "yet of a kind to +which your Majesty is not altogether a stranger." + +The words appealed strongly to that love of the chivalrous which +formed part of the king's nature, and was one cause alike of his +weakness and his strength, which in its more extravagant flights gave +opportunity after opportunity to his enemies, in its nobler and saner +expressions won victories which all his astuteness and diplomacy could +not have compassed. He stood looking with half-hidden admiration at +the man whom two minutes before he had despised. + +"I think you are in jest," he said presently. + +"No, sire," the young man answered gravely. "In my country they have a +proverb about us. 'The Lanthenons,' say they, 'have ever been bad +players, but good payers.' I will not be the first to be worse than my +name!" + +He spoke with so quiet a determination that the king was staggered, +and for a minute or two paced the room in silence, inwardly reviling +the generous obstinacy of his weak-kneed supporter, yet unable to +withhold his admiration from it. At length he stopped, with a low, +abrupt exclamation. + +"Wait!" he cried. "I have it! _Ventre Saint Gris_, man, I have it!" +His eyes sparkled, and, with a gentle laugh, he hit the table a +sounding blow. "Ha! ha! I have it!" he repeated joyously. + +The young noble gazed at him in surprise, half sullen, half +incredulous. But when Henry, in low, rapid tones, had expounded his +plan, the vicomte's face underwent a change. Hope and life sprang into +it. The blood flew to his cheeks. His whole aspect softened. In a +moment he was on his knee, mumbling the king's hand, his eyes full of +joy and gratitude. After that the two talked long, the murmur of their +voices broken more than once by the ripple of low laughter. When they +at length separated, and Henry, his face hidden by the folds of his +cloak, had stolen away to his lodgings, where, no doubt, more than one +watcher was awaiting him with a mind full of anxious fears, the +vicomte threw open his window and looked out on the night. The moon +had set, but the stars still shone peacefully in the dark canopy +above. He remembered on a sudden, his throat choking with silent +repressed emotion, that he was looking toward his home--the stiff gray +pile among the beech woods of Navarre which had been in his family +since the days of St. Louis, and which he had so lightly risked. And +he registered a vow in his heart that of all Henry's servants he would +henceforth be the most faithful. + +Meanwhile the Captain of Creance was enjoying the sweets of coming +triumph. He did not look out into the night, it is true, but pacing up +and down the room he planned and calculated, considering how he might +make the most of his success. He was still comparatively young. He had +years of strength before him. He would rise. He would not easily be +satisfied. The times were troubled, opportunities many, fools many; +bold men with brains and hands few. + +At the same time he knew that he could be sure of nothing until +Lusigny was actually his, and he spent the next few days in +considerable suspense. But no hitch occurred. The vicomte made the +necessary communications to him; and men in his own pay informed him +of dispositions ordered by the governor of Lusigny which left him in +no doubt that the loser intended to pay his debt. + +It was, therefore, with a heart already gay with anticipation that the +Captain rode out of Creance two hours before midnight on an evening +eight days later. The night was dark, but he knew the road well. He +had with him a powerful force, composed in part of thirty of his own +garrison, bold, hardy fellows, and in part of six score horsemen, lent +him by the governor of Montauban. As the vicomte had undertaken to +withdraw, under some pretense or other, one-half of his command, and +to have one of the gates opened by a trusty hand, the captain trotted +along in excellent spirits, and stopped to scan with approval the dark +line of his troopers as they plodded past him, the jingle of their +swords and corselets ringing sweet music in his ears. He looked for an +easy victory; but it was not any slight misadventure that would rob +him of his prey. As his company wound on by the riverside, their +accouterments reflected in the stream, or passed into the black shadow +of the olive grove which stands a mile to the east of Lusigny, he felt +little doubt of the success of his enterprise. + +Treachery apart, that is; and of treachery there was no sign. The +troopers had scarcely halted under the last clump of trees before a +figure detached itself from one of the largest trunks, and advanced to +their leader's rein. The captain saw with surprise that it was the +vicomte himself. For a second he thought something had gone wrong, but +the young noble's first words reassured him. "It is all right," M. de +Lanthenon whispered, as the captain bent down to him. "I have kept my +word, and I think that there will be no resistance. The planks for +crossing the moat lie opposite the gate. Knock thrice at the latter, +and it will be opened. There are not fifty armed men in the place." + +"Good!" the captain answered, in the same cautious tone. "But you----" + +"I am believed, to be elsewhere, and must be gone. I have far to ride +tonight. Farewell." + +"Till we meet again," the captain answered; and with that his ally +glided away and was lost in the darkness. A cautious word set the +troop again in motion, and a very few minutes saw them standing on +the edge of the moat, the outline of the gateway tower looming above +them, a shade darker than the wrack of clouds which overhead raced +silently across the sky. A moment of suspense, while one and another +shivered--for there is that in a night attack which touches the nerves +of the stoutest--and the planks were found, and as quietly as possible +laid across the moat. This was so successfully done that it evoked no +challenge, and the captain crossing quickly with some picked men stood +almost in the twinkling of an eye under the shadow of the gateway. +Still no sound was heard save the hurried breathing of those at his +elbow or the stealthy tread of others crossing. Cautiously he knocked +three times and waited. The third rap had scarcely sounded, however, +before the gate rolled silently open, and he sprang in, followed by +his men. + +So far so good. A glance at the empty street and the porter's pale +face told him at once that the vicomte had kept his word. But he was +too old a soldier to take anything for granted, and forming up his men +as quickly as they entered, he allowed no one to advance until all +were inside, and then, his trumpet sounding a wild note of defiance, +his force sprang forward in two compact bodies and in a moment the +town awoke to find itself in the hands of the enemy. + +As the vicomte had promised, there was no resistance. In the small +keep a score of men did indeed run to arms, but only to lay them down +without striking a blow when they became aware of the force opposed to +them. Their leader, sullenly acquiescing, gave up his sword and the +keys of the town to the victorious captain, who, as he sat his horse +in the middle of the market-place, giving his orders and sending off +riders with the news, already saw himself in fancy governor of a +province and Knight of the Holy Ghost. + +As the red light of the torches fell on steel caps and polished +hauberks, on the serried ranks of pikemen, and the circle of +white-faced townsmen, the picturesque old square looked doubly +picturesque. Every five minutes, with a clatter of iron on the rough +pavement and a shower of sparks, a horseman sprang away to tell the +news at Montauban or Cahors; and every time that this occurred, the +captain, astride on his charger, felt a new sense of power and +triumph. + +Suddenly the low murmur of voices was broken by a new sound, the +hurried clang of hoofs, not departing but arriving. There was +something in the noise which made the captain prick his ears, and +secured for the messenger a speedy passage through the crowd. Even at +the last the man did not spare his horse, but spurring to the +captain's side, then and then only sprang to the ground. His face was +pale, his eyes were bloodshot. His right arm was bound up in +bloodstained cloths. With an oath of amazement, the captain recognized +the officer whom he had left in charge of Creance and thundered out, +"What is it?" + + +[Illustration: "THEY HAVE GOT CREANCE!"] + + +"They have got Creance!" the man gasped, reeling as he spoke. "They +have got Creance!" + +"Who?" the captain shrieked, his face purple with rage. + +"The little man of Bearn! He assaulted it five hundred strong an hour +after you left, and had the gate down before we could fire a dozen +shots. We did what we could, but we were but one to seven. I swear, +captain, we did all we could. Look at this!" + +Almost black in the face, the captain swore another frightful oath. +It was not only that he saw governorship and honors vanish like +will-o'-the-wisps, but that he saw even more quickly that he had made +himself the laughing-stock of a kingdom! And he had. To this day among +the stories which the southern French love to tell of the prowess and +astuteness of the great Henry, there is none more frequently told, or +more frequently laughed over, than that of the famous exchange of +Creance for Lusigny. + + + + + THE BODY-BIRDS OF + COURT. + + +"Eighty-eight when he died! That is a great age," I said. + +"Yes indeed. But he was a very clever man, was Robert Evans, Court, +and brewed good beer," my companion answered. "His home-brewed was +known, I am certain, for more than ten miles. You will have heard of +his body-birds, sir?" + +"His body-birds?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, to be sure. Robert Evans Court's body-birds!" And he looked at +me, quick to suspect that his English was deficient. He had learned it +in part from books; and hence the curious mixture I presently noted of +Welsh idioms and formal English phrases. It was his light trap in +which I was being helped on my journey, and his genial chat which was +lightening that journey; which lay through a part of Carnarvonshire +usually traversed only by wool merchants and cattle dealers--a country +of upland farms swept by the sea breezes, where English is not spoken +even now by one person in a hundred, and even at inns and post-offices +you get only "_Dim Sassenach_," for your answer. "Do you not say," he +went on, "body-birds in English? Oh, but to be sure, it is in the +Bible!" with a sudden recovery of his self-esteem. + +"To be sure!" I replied hurriedly. "Of course it is! But as to Mr. +Robert Evans, cannot you tell me the story?" + +"I'll be bound there is no man in North or South Wales, or +Carnarvonshire, that could tell it better, for Gwen Madoc, of whom you +shall hear presently, was aunt to me. You see Robert Evans"--and my +friend settled himself in his seat and prepared to go slowly up the +long, steep hill of Rhiw which rose before us--"Robert Evans lived in +an old house called Court, near the sea, very windy and lonesome. He +was a warm man. He had Court from his father, and he had mortgages, +and as many as four lawsuits. But he was unlucky in his family. He had +years back three sons who helped on the farm, or at times fished; for +there is a cove at Court, and good boats. Of these sons only one was +married--to a Scotchwoman from Bristol, I have heard, who had had a +husband before, a merchant captain, and she brought with her to Court +a daughter, Peggy, ready-made as we say. Well, of those three fine +men, there was not one left in a year. They were out fishing in a boat +together, and Evan--that was the married one--was steering as they +came into the cove on a spring tide running very high with a south +wind. He steered a little to one side--not more than six inches, upon +my honor--and pah! in an hour their bodies were thrown up on Robert +Evans' land just like bits of seaweed. But that was not all. Evan's +wife was on the beach at the time, so near she could have thrown a +stone into the boat. They do say that before she was pining away at +Court--it was bleak and lonesome and cold, in the winters, and she had +been used to live in the towns. But, however, she never held up her +head after Evan was drowned. She took to her bed, and died in the +short month. And then of all at Court there were left only Robert +Evans and the child Peggy." + +"How old was she then?" I asked. He had paused, and was looking +thoughtfully before, as striving, it would seem, to make the situation +quite clear to himself. + +"She was twelve, and the old man eighty and more. She was in no way +related to him, you will remember, but he had her stop, and let her +want for nothing that did not cost money. He was very careful of +money, as was right. It was that made him the man he was. But there +were some who would have given money to be rid of her. Year in and +year out they never let the old man rest but that he should send her +to service at least--though her father had been the captain of a big +ship; and if Robert Evans had not been a stiff man of his years, they +would have had their will." + +"But who----" + +By a gesture he stopped the words on my lips as there rose +mysteriously out of the silence about us a sound of wings, a chorus +of shrill cries. A hundred white forms swept overhead, and fell a +white cluster about something in a distant field. They were sea gulls. +"Just those same!" he said proudly, jerking his whip in their +direction--"body-birds. When the news that Robert Evans' sons were +drowned got about, there was a pretty uprising in Carnarvonshire. +There seemed to be Evanses where there had never been Evanses before. +As many as twenty walked in the funeral, and you may be sure that +afterward they did not leave the old man to himself. The Llewellyn +Evanses were foremost. They had had a lawsuit with Court, but made it +up now. Besides there were Mr. and Mrs. Evan Bevan, and the three +Evanses of Nant, and Owen Evans, and the Evanses of Sarn, and many +more, who were all forward to visit Court and be friendly with old +Gwen Madoc, Robert's housekeeper. I am told they could look black at +one another, but in this they were all in one tale, that the foreign +child should be sent away; and at times one and another would give her +a rough word." + +"She must have had a bad time," I observed. + +"You may say that. But she stayed, and it was wonderful how strong and +handsome she grew up, where her mother had just pined away. The +sailors said it was her love of the sea; and I have heard that people +who live inland about here come to think of nothing but the land--it +is certain that they are good at a bargain--while the fishermen who +live with a great space before them are finer men, I have heard, in +their minds as well as their bodies; and Peggy _bach_ grew up like +them, free and open and upstanding, though she lived inland. When she +was in trouble she would run down to the sea, where the salt spray +washed away her tears and the wind blew her hair, that was of the +color of seaweed, into a tangle. She was never so happy as when she +was climbing the rocks among the sea gulls, or else sitting with her +books at the cove where the farm people would not go for fear of +hearing the church bells that bring bad luck. Books? Oh, yes, indeed! +next to the sea she was fond of books. There were many volumes, I have +been told, that were her mother's; then Robert Evans, though he was a +Wesleyan, went to church because there was no Wesleyan chapel, the +Calvinistic Methodists being in strength about here; and the minister +lent her many English books and befriended her. And I have heard that +once, when the Llewellyn Evanses had been about the girl, he spoke to +them so that they were afraid to drive down Rhiw hill that night, but +led the horse; and I think it may be true, for they were Calvinists. +Still, he was a good man, and I know that many Calvinists walked in +his funeral." + +"_Requiescat in pace_," said I. + +"Eh! Well, I don't know how that may be," he replied, "but you must +understand that all this time the Llewellyn Evanses, and the Evanses +of Nant, and the others would be over at Court once or twice a week, +so that all the neighborhood called them Robert Evans' body-birds; and +when they were there Peggy McNeill would be having an ill time, since +even the old man would be hard to her; and more so as he grew older. +But, however, there was a better time coming, or so it seemed at +first, the beginning of which was through Peter Rees' lobster pots. He +was a great friend of hers. She would go out with him to take up his +pots--oh! it might be two or three times a week. So it happened one +day, when they had pushed off from the beach, and Peggy was steering, +that old Rees stopped rowing on a sudden. + +"'Why don't you go on, Peter?' said Peggy. + +"'Bide a bit,' said old Rees. + +"'What have you forgotten?' said she, looking about in the bottom of +the boat. For she knew what he used very well. + +"'Nought,' said he. But all the same he began to put the boat about in +a stupid fashion, afraid of offending her, and yet loath to lose a +shilling. And so, when Peggy looked up, what should she see but a +gentleman--whom Rees had perceived, you will understand--stepping into +the boat, and Peter Rees not daring to look her in the face because he +knew well that she would never go out with strangers. + +"Of course the young gentleman thought no harm, but said gayly, 'Thank +you! I am just in time.' And what should he do, but go aft and sit +down on the seat by her, and begin to talk to Rees about the weather +and the pots. And presently he said to her, 'I suppose you are used to +steering, my girl?' + +"'Yes,' said Peggy, but very grave and quiet-like, so that if he had +not determined that she was old Rees' daughter he would have taken +notice of it. But she was wearing a short frock that she used for the +fishing, and was wet with getting into the boat, moreover. + +"'Will you please to hold my hat a minute,' he said, and with that he +put it in her lap while he looked for a piece of string with which to +fasten it to his button. Well, she said nothing, but her cheeks were +scarlet, and by and by, when he had called her 'my girl' two or three +times more--not roughly, but just off-hand, taking her for a +fisher-girl--Peter Rees could stand it no longer, shilling or no +shilling. + +"'You mustn't speak that fashion to her, master,' he said gruffly. + +"'What?' said the gentleman, looking up. He was surprised, and no +wonder, at the tone of the man. + +"'You mustn't speak like that to Miss McNeill, Court,' repeated old +Rees more roughly than before. 'You are to understand she is not a +common girl, but like yourself.' + +"The young gentleman turned and looked at her just once, short and +sharp, and I am told that his face was as red as hers when their eyes +met. 'I beg Miss McNeill's pardon--humbly,' he said, taking off his +hat grandly, yet as if he meant it too; 'I was under a great +misapprehension.' + +"After that you may believe they did not enjoy the row much. There was +scarcely a word said by anyone until they came ashore again. The +visitor, to the great joy of Peter, who was looking for a sixpence, +gave him half a crown; and then walked away with the young lady, side +by side with her, but very stiff and silent. However, just as they +were parting, Peter could see that he said something, having his hat +in his hand the while, and that Miss Peggy, after standing and +listening, bowed as grand as might be. Upon which they separated for +that time. + +"But two things came of this; first, that everyone began to call her +Miss McNeill, Court, which was not at all to the pleasure of the +Llewellyn Evanses. And then that, whenever the gentleman, who was a +painter lodging at Mrs. Campbell's of the shop, would meet her, he +would stop and say a few words, and more as the time went on. +Presently there came some wet weather; and Mrs. Campbell borrowed for +his use books from her, which had her name within; and later he sent +for a box of books from London, and then the lending was on the other +side. So it was not long before people began to see how things were, +and to smile when the gentleman treated old Robert Evans at the Newydd +Inn. The fishermen, when he was out with them, would tack so that he +might see the smoke of Court over the cliffs; and there was no more +Peggy _bach_ to be met, either rowing with Peter Rees or running wild +among the rocks, but a very sedate young lady who yet did not seem to +be unhappy. + +"The old man was ailing in his limbs at this time, but his mind was as +clear as ever, and his grip of the land as tight. He could not bear, +now that his sons were dead, that anyone should come after him. I am +thinking that he would be taking everyone for a body-bird. Still the +family were forward with presents and such like, and helped him +perhaps about the farm; so that though there was talk in the village, +no one could say what will he would make. + + +[Illustration: "YOU HAVE BEEN COURTING."] + + +"However, one day toward winter Miss Peggy came in late from a walk, +and found the old man very cross. 'Where have you been?' he cried +angrily. Then without any warning, 'You have been courting,' he said, +'with that fine gentleman from the shop?' + +"'Well,' my lady replied, putting a brave face upon it, as was her +way, 'and what then, grandfather? I am not ashamed of it.' + +"'You ought to be!' he cried, banging his stick upon the floor. 'Do +you think that he will marry you?' + +"'Yes, I do,' she replied stoutly. 'He has told you so to-day, I +know.' + +"Robert Evans laughed, but his laugh was not a pleasant one. 'You are +right,' he said. 'He has told me. He was very forward to tell me. He +thought I was going to leave you my money. But I am not! Mind you +that, my girl.' + +"'Very well,' she answered, white and red by turns. + +"'You will remember that you are no relation of mine!' he went on +viciously, for he had grown very crabbed of late. 'And I am not +going to leave you money. He is after my money. He is nothing but a +fortune-catcher!' + +"'He is not!' she exclaimed, as hot as fire, and began to put on her +hat again. + +"'Very well! We shall see!' answered Robert Evans. 'Do you tell +him what I say, and see if he will marry you. Go! Go now, girl, and +you need not come back! You will get nothing by staying here!' he +cried, for what with his jealousy and the mention of money he was +furious--'not a penny! You had better be off at once!' + +"She did not answer for a minute or so, but she seemed to change +her mind about going, for she laid down her hat, and went about the +house place getting tea ready--and no doubt her fingers trembled a +little--until the old man cried, 'Well, why don't you go? You will get +nothing by staying.' + +"'I shall stay to take care of you all the same,' she answered +quietly. 'You need not leave me anything, and then--and then I shall +know whether you are right.' + +"'Do you mean it?' asked he sharply, after looking at her in silence +for a moment. + +"'Yes,' said she. + +"'Then it's a bargain!' cried Robert Evans--'it's a bargain!' And he +said not a word more about it, but took his tea from her and talked of +the Llewellyn Evanses, who had been to pay him a visit that day. It +seemed, however, as if the matter had upset him, for he had to be +helped to bed, and complained a good deal, neither of which things +were usual with him. + +"Well, it is not unlikely that the young lady promised herself to tell +her lover all about it next day, and looked to hear many times over +from his own lips that it was not her money he wanted. But this was +not to be, for early the next morning Gwen Madoc was at her door. + +"'You are to get up, miss,' she said. 'The master wants you to go to +London by the first train.' + +"'To London!' cried Peggy, very much astonished. 'Is he ill? Is +anything the matter, Gwen?' + +"'No,' answered the old woman very short. 'It is just that.' + +"And when the girl, having dressed hastily, came down to Robert Evans' +room, she found that this was pretty nearly all she was to learn. 'You +will go to Mrs. Richard Evans, who lives at Islington,' he said, as if +he had been thinking about it all night. 'She is my second cousin, and +will find house room for you, and make no charge. A telegram shall be +sent to her this morning. To-morrow you will take this packet to the +address upon it, and the next day a packet will be returned to you, +which you will bring back to me. I am not well to-day, and I want to +have the matter settled and off my mind, Peggy.' + +"'But could not someone else go, if you are not well?' she objected, +'and I will stop and take care of you.' + +"He grew very angry at that. 'Do as you are bidden, girl,' he said. 'I +shall see the doctor to-day, and for the rest, Gwen can do for me. I +am well enough. Do you look to the papers. Richard Evans owes me +money, and will make no charge for your living.' + +"So Miss Peggy had her breakfast, and in a wonderfully short time, as +it seemed to her, was on the way to London, with plenty of leisure on +her hands for thinking--very likely for doubting and fearing as well. +She had not seen her sweetheart, that was one thing. She had been +dispatched in a hurry, that was another. And then, to be sure, the big +town was strange to her. + +"However, nothing happened there, I may tell you. But on the third +morning she received a short note from Gwen Madoc, and suddenly rose +from breakfast with Mrs. Richard, her face very white. There was news +in the letter--news of which all the neighborhood for miles round +Court was by that time full. Robert Evans, if you will believe it, was +dead. After ailing for a few hours he had died, with only Gwen Madoc +to smooth his pillow. + +"It was late when she reached the nearest station to Court on her way +back, and found a pony trap waiting for her. She was stepping into it +when Mr. Griffith Hughes, the lawyer, saw her, and came up to speak. + +"'I am sorry to have bad news for you, Miss McNeill,' he said in a low +voice, for he was a kind man, and what with the shock and the long +journey she was looking very pale. + +"'Oh, yes!' she answered, with a sort of weary surprise; 'I know it +already. That is why I am come home--to Court, I mean.' + +"He saw that she was thinking only of Robert Evans' death, which was +not what was in his mind. 'It is about the will,' he said in a +whisper, though he need not have been so careful, for everyone in the +neighborhood had learned all about it from Gwen Madoc. 'It is a cruel +will. I would not have made it for him, my dear. He has left Court to +the Llewellyn Evanses, and the money between the Evanses of Nant and +the Evan Bevans.' + +"'It is quite right,' she answered, so calmly that he stared. 'My +grandfather explained it to me. I fully understood that I was not to +be in the will.' + +"Mr. Hughes looked more and more puzzled. 'Oh, but,' he replied, 'it +is not so bad as that. Your name is in the will. He has laid it upon +those who get the land and money to provide for you--to settle a +proper income upon you. And you may depend upon me for doing my best +to have his wishes carried out, my dear.' + +"The young lady turned very red, and raised her eyes sharply. + +"'Who are to provide for me?' she asked. + +"'The three families who divide the estate,' he said. + +"'And are they obliged to do so?' + +"'Well--no,' said he unwillingly. 'I am not sure that they are exactly +obliged. But no doubt----' + +"'I doubt very much,' she answered, taking him up with a smile. And +then she shook hands with him and drove away, leaving him wondering at +her courage. + +"Well, you may suppose it was a dreary house to which she came home. +Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was executor, had been before the Llewellyn +Evanses in taking possession, so that, besides a lad or two in the +kitchen, there were only Gwen Madoc and the servant there, and they +seemed to have very little to tell her about the death. When she had +heard what they had to say, and they were all on their way to bed, +'Gwen,' she said softly, 'I think I should like to see him.' + +"'So you shall, to-morrow, honey,' answered the old woman. 'But do you +know, _bach_, that he has left you nothing?' and she held up her +candle suddenly, so as to throw the light on the girl's tired face. + +"'Oh!' she answered, with a shudder, 'how can you talk about that +now?' But presently she had another question ready. 'Have you seen Mr. +Venmore since--since my grandfather's death, Gwen?' she asked timidly. + +"'Yes, indeed, _bach_,' answered the housekeeper. 'I met him at the +door of the shop this morning. I told him where you were, and that you +would be back tonight. And about the will, moreover.' + +"The girl stopped at her own door and snuffed her candle. Gwen Madoc +went slowly up the next flight, groaning over the steepness of the +stairs. Then she turned to say good-night. The girl was at her side +again, her eyes shining in the light of the two candles. + +"'Oh, Gwen,' she whispered breathlessly, 'didn't he say anything?' + +"'Not a word, _bach_,' answered the old woman, stroking her hair +tenderly. 'He just went into the house in a hurry.' + +"Miss Peggy went into her room much in the same way. No doubt she +would be telling herself a great many times over before she slept that +he would come and see her in the morning; and in the morning she would +be saying, 'He will come in the afternoon;' and in the afternoon, 'He +will come in the evening.' But evening came, and darkness, and still +he did not appear. Then she could endure it no longer. She let herself +out of the front door, which there was no one now to use but herself, +and with a shawl over her head ran all the way down to the shop. There +was no light in his window upstairs: but at the back door stood Mrs. +Campbell, looking after someone who had just left her. + +"The girl came, strangely shrinking at the last moment, into the ring +of light about the door. 'Why, Miss McNeill!' cried the other, +starting visibly at sight of her. 'Is it you, honey? And are you +alone?' + +"'Yes; and I cannot stop. But oh, Mrs. Campbell, where is Mr. +Venmore?' + +"'I know no more than yourself, my dear,' said the good woman +reluctantly. 'He went from here yesterday on a sudden--to take the +train, I understood.' + +"'Yesterday? When? At what time, please?' asked the young lady. There +was a fear, which she had been putting from her all day. It was +getting a footing now. + +"'Well, it would be about midday. I know it was just after Gwen Madoc +called in about the----' + +"But the girl was gone. It was not to Mrs. Campbell she could make a +moan. It was only the night wind that caught the 'Oh, cruel! cruel!' +which broke from her as she went up the hill. Whether she slept that +night at all I am not able to say. Only that when it was dawn she was +out upon the cliffs, her face very white and sad-looking. The +fishermen who were up early, going out with the ebb, saw her at times +walking fast and then standing still and looking seaward. But I do not +know what she was thinking, only I should fancy that the gulls had a +different cry for her now, and it is certain that when she had +returned and came down into the parlor at Court for the funeral, there +were none of the Evanses could look her in the face with comfort. + +"They were all there, of course. Mr. Llewellyn Evans--he was an +elderly man, with a gray beard like a bird's nest, and very thick +lips--was sitting with his wife on the horsehair sofa. The Evanses of +Nant, who were young men with lank faces and black hair combed upward, +were by the door. The Evan Bevans were at the table; and there were +others, besides Mr. Griffith Hughes, who was undoing some papers when +she entered. + +"He rose and shook hands with her, marking pitifully the dark hollows +under her eyes, and inwardly confirming his resolution to get her a +substantial settlement. Then he hesitated, looking doubtfully at the +others. 'We are going to read the will before the funeral instead of +afterward,' he said. + +"'Oh!' she answered, taken aback--for in truth she had forgotten all +about the will. 'I did not know. I will go, and come back later.' + +"'No, indeed!' cried Mrs. Llewellyn Evans, 'you had better stop and +hear the will--though no relation, to be sure.' + +"But at that moment Gwen Madoc came in, and peered round with a grim +air of importance. 'Maybe someone,' she said in a low voice, 'would +like to take a last look at the poor master?' + +"But no one moved. They sighed and shook their heads at one another as +if they would like to do so--but no one moved. They were anxious, you +see, to hear the will. Only Peggy, who had turned to go out, said, +'Yes, Gwen, I should,' and slipped out with the old woman. + +"'There is nothing to keep us now?' said Mr. Hughes briskly when the +door was closed again. And everyone nodding assent the lawyer went on +to read the will, which was not a long one. It was received with a +murmur of satisfaction, and much use of pocket-handkerchiefs. + +"'Very fair!' said Mr. Llewellyn Evans, 'He was a clever man, our old +friend.' All the legatees murmured after him 'Very fair!' and a word +went round about the home-brewed, and Robert Evans' recipe for it. +Then Llewellyn, who thought he ought to be taking the lead at Court +now, said it was about time to be going to church. + +"'There is one matter,' put in Mr. Griffith Hughes, 'which I think +ought to be settled while we are all together. You see that there is +a--what I may call a charge on the three main portions of the property +in favor of Miss McNeill.' + +"'Indeed, but what is that you are saying?' cried Llewellyn sharply. +'Do you mean that there is a rent charge?' + +"'Not exactly a rent charge,' said the lawyer. + +"'No!' cried Llewellyn with a twinkle in his eyes. 'Nor any obligation +in law, sir?' + +"'Well, no,' assented Mr. Hughes grudgingly. + +"'Then,' said Llewellyn Evans, getting up and putting his hands in his +pockets, while he winked at the others, 'we will talk of that another +time.' + +"But Mr. Hughes said, 'No!' He was a kind man, and very anxious to do +the best for the girl, but he somewhat lost his temper. 'No!' he said, +growing red. 'You will observe, if you please, Mr. Evans, that the +testator says, "Forthwith---forthwith." So that, as sole executor, it +is my duty to ask you to state your intentions now.' + +"'Well, indeed, then,' said Llewellyn, changing his face to a kind of +blank, 'I have no intentions. I think that the family has done more +than enough for the girl already.' + +"And he would say no otherwise. Nor was it to any purpose that the +lawyer looked at Mrs. Llewellyn. She was examining the furniture, and +feeling the stuffing of the sofa, and did not seem to hear. He could +make nothing of the three Evanses, Nant. They all cried, 'Yes, +indeed!' to what Llewellyn said. Only the Evan Bevans remained, and he +turned to them in despair. + +"'I am sure,' he said, addressing himself to them, 'that you will do +something to carry out the testator's wishes? Your share under the +will, Mr. Bevan, will amount to three hundred a year. This young +lady has nothing--no relations, no home. May I take it that you will +settle--say fifty pounds a year upon her? It need only be for her +life.' + +"Mr. Bevan fidgeted under this appeal. His wife answered it. +'Certainly not, Mr. Hughes. If it were twenty pounds now, once for +all, or even twenty-five--and Llewellyn and my nephews would say the +same--I think we might manage that?' + +"But Llewellyn shook his head obstinately. 'I have said I have no +intentions, and I am a man of my word!' he answered. 'Let the girl go +out to service. It is what we have always wanted her to do. Here are +my nephews. They won't mind a young housekeeper.' + +"Well, they all laughed at this except Mr. Hughes, who gathered up his +papers looking very black, and not thinking of future clients. +Llewellyn, however, did not care a bit for that, but walked to the +bell, masterful-like, and rang it. 'Tell the undertaker,' he said to +the servant, 'that we are ready.' + +"It was as if the words had been a signal, for they were followed +almost immediately by an outcry overhead and quick running upon the +stairs. The legatees looked uncomfortably at the carpet: the lawyer +was blacker than before. He said to himself, 'Now that poor child has +fainted!' The confusion seemed to last some minutes. Then the door was +opened, not by the undertaker, but by Gwen Madoc. The mourners rose +with a sigh of relief; to their surprise she passed by even Llewellyn, +and with a frightened face walked across to the lawyer. She whispered +something in his ear. + +"'What!' he cried, starting back a pace from her, and speaking so that +the wine-glasses on the table rattled again. 'Do you know what you are +saying, woman?' + +"'It is true,' she answered, half crying, 'and no fault indeed of mine +neither.' + +"Gwen added more in quick, short sentences, which the family, strain +their ears as they might, could not overhear. + +"'I will come! I will come!' cried the lawyer. He waved his hand to +them as a sign to make room for her to pass out. Then he turned to +them, a queer look upon his face; it was not triumph altogether, +for there was discomfiture and apprehension in it as well. 'You +will believe me, he said, 'that I am as much taken aback as +yourselves--that till this moment I have been honestly as much in the +dark as anyone. It seems--so I am told--that our old friend is not +dead.' + +"'What!' cried Llewellyn in his turn. 'What do you mean?' and he +raised his black-gloved hands as in refutation. + +"'What I say,' replied Mr. Hughes patiently. 'I hear--wonderful as it +sounds--that he is not dead. Something about a trance, I believe--a +mistake happily discovered in time. I tell you all I know; and however +it comes about, it is clear we ought to be glad that Mr. Robert Evans +is spared to us.' + +"With that he was glad to escape from the room. I am told that their +faces were very strange to see. There was a long silence. Llewellyn +was the first to speak: He swore a big oath and banged his great hand +upon the table. 'I don't 'believe it!' he cried. 'I don't believe it! +It is a trick!' + +"But as he spoke the door opened behind him, and he and all turned to +see what they had never thought to see, I am sure. They had come to +walk in Robert Evans' funeral; and here was the gaunt, stooping form +of Robert Evans himself coming in, with an arm of Gwen Madoc on one +side and of Miss Peggy on the other--Robert Evans beyond doubt, alive. +Behind him were the lawyer and Dr. Jones, a smile on their lips, and +three or four women half frightened, half wondering. + +"The old man was pale, and seemed to totter a little, but when the +doctor would have placed a chair for him, he declined it, and stood +gazing about him, wonderfully composed for a man just risen from his +coffin. He had all his old grim aspect as he looked upon the family. +Llewellyn's declaration was still in their ears. They could find not a +word to say either of joy or grief. + +"'Well, indeed,' said Robert, with a dry chuckle, 'have none of you a +word to throw at me? I am a ghost, I suppose? Ha!' he exclaimed, as +his eye fell on the papers which Mr. Hughes had left upon the table, +'so! so! That is why you are not overjoyed at seeing me. You have been +reading my will. Well, Llewellyn! Have not you a word to say to me now +you know for what I had got you down?' + +"At that Llewellyn found his tongue, and the others chimed in finely. +Only there was something in the old man's manner that they did not +like; and presently, when they had all told him how glad they were to +see him again--just for all the world as if he had been ill for a few +days--Robert Evans turned again to Llewellyn. + +"'You had fixed what you would do for my girl here, I suppose?' he +said, patting her shoulder gently, at which the family winced. 'It was +a hundred a year you promised to settle, you know. You will have +arranged all that.' + +"Lewellyn looked stealthily at Mr. Hughes, who was standing at +Robert's elbow, and muttered that they had not reached that stage. + +"'What?' cried the old man sharply. 'How was that?' + +"'I was intending,' Llewellyn began lamely, 'to settle----' + +"'You were intending!' Robert Evans burst forth in a voice so changed +that they all started back. 'You are a liar! You were intending to +settle nothing! I know it well! I knew it long ago! Nothing, I say! As +for you,' he went on, wheeling furiously round upon the Evanses of +Nant, 'you knew my wishes. What were you going to do for her? What, I +say? Speak, you hobbledehoys!' + +"For they were backing from him in absolute fear of his passion, +looking at one another or at the sullen face of Llewellyn Evans, or +anywhere save at him. At length the eldest blurted out, 'Whatever +Llewellyn meant to do we were going to do, sir.' + +"'You speak the truth there,' cried old Robert bitterly; 'for that was +nothing, you know. Very well! I promise you that what Llewellyn gets +of my property you shall get too--and it will be nothing! You, Bevan,' +and he turned himself toward the Evan Bevans, who were shaking in +their shoes, 'I am told, did offer to do something for my girl.' + +"'Yes, dear Robert,' cried Mrs. Bevan, radiant and eager, 'we did +indeed.' + +"'So I hear. Well, when I make my next will, I will take care to set +you down for just so much as you proposed to give her! Peggy, _bach_,' +he continued, turning from the chapfallen lady, and putting into the +girl's hands the will which the lawyer had given him, 'tear up this +rubbish! Tear it up! Now let us have something to eat in the other +room. What, Llewellyn, no appetite?' + +"But the family did not stay even to partake of the home-brewed. They +were out of the house, I am told, before the coffin and the +undertaker's men. There was big talking among them, as they went, of a +conspiracy and a lunatic asylum. But though, to be sure, it was a +wonderful recovery, and the doctor and Mr. Hughes, as they drove away +after dinner, were very friendly together--which may have been only +the home-brewed--at any rate the sole outcome of Llewellyn's talking +and inquiries was that everyone laughed very much, and Robert Evans' +name for a clever man was known beyond Carnarvon. + +"Of course it would be open house at Court that day, with plenty of +eating and drinking and coming and going. But toward five o'clock the +place grew quiet again. The visitors had gone home, and Gwen Madoc was +upstairs. The old man was sleeping in his chair opposite the settle, +and Miss Peggy was sitting on the window-seat watching him, her hands +in her lap, her thoughts far away. Maybe she was trying to be really +glad that the home, about which the cows lowed and the gulls screamed +in the afternoon stillness and made it seem home each minute, was hers +still; that she was not quite alone, nor friendless, nor poor. Maybe +she was striving not to think of the thing which had been taken from +her and could not be given back. Whatever her thoughts, she was +aroused by some sound to find her eyes full of hot tears, through +which she could dimly see that the old man was awake and looking at +her with a strange expression, which disappeared as she became aware +of it. + +"He began to speak. 'Providence has been very good to us, Peggy,' he +said, with grim meaning. 'It is well for you, my girl, that our eyes +are open to see our kind friends as they are. There is one besides +those who were here this morning that will wish he had not been so +hasty.' + +"She rose quickly and looked out of the window. 'Don't speak of him. +Let us forget him,' she pleaded, in a low tone. + +"But Robert Evans seemed to take a delight in the--well, the goodness +of Providence. 'If he had come to see you only once, when you were in +trouble,' he went on, as if he were summing up the case in his own +mind, and she were but a stick or a stone, 'we could have forgiven +him, and I would have said you were right. Or even if he had written, +eh?' + +"'Oh, yes, yes!' sobbed the girl, her tears raining down her averted +face. 'Don't torture me! You were right and I was wrong--all wrong!' + +"'Well, yes, yes! Just so. But come here, my girl,' said the old man. +'Come!' he repeated imperiously, as, surprised in the midst of her +grief, she wavered and hesitated, 'sit here,' and he pointed to the +settle opposite to him. 'Now, suppose I were to tell you he had +written, and that the letter had been--mislaid, shall we say? and come +somehow to my hands? Now, don't get excited, girl!' + +"'Oh!' cried Peggy, her hands fallen, her lips parted, her eyes wide +and frightened, her whole form rigid with questioning. + +"'Just suppose that, my dear,' continued Robert, 'and that the letter +were now before us--would you abide by its contents? Remember, he must +have much to explain. Would you let me decide whether his explanation +were satisfactory or not?" + +"She was trembling with expectation, hope. But she tried to think of +the matter calmly, to remember her lover's hurried flight, the lack of +word or message for her, her own misery. She nodded silently, and held +out her hand. + +"He drew a letter from his pocket. 'You will let me see it?' he said +suspiciously. + +"'Oh, yes!' she cried, and fled with it to the window. He watched her +while she tore it open and read first one page and then another--there +were but two, it was very short--watched her while she thrust it from +her and looked at it as a whole, then drew it to her and kissed it +again and again. + +"'Wait a bit! wait a bit!' cried he testily. 'Now, let me see it.' + +"She turned upon him almost fiercely, holding it away behind her, as +if it were some living thing he might hurt. 'He thought he would meet +me at the junction,' she stammered between laughing and crying. 'He +was going to London to see his sister--that she might take me in. And +he will be here to fetch me this evening. There! Take it!' and +suddenly remembering herself she stretched out her hand and gave him +the letter. + +"'You promised to abide by my decision, you know,' said the old man +gravely. + +"'I will not!' she cried impetuously. 'Never!' + +"'You promised,' he said. + +"'I don't care! I don't care!' she replied, clasping her hands +nervously. 'No one shall come between us.' + +"'Very well,' said Robert Evans, 'then I need not decide. But you had +better tell Owen to take the trap to the station to meet your man.'" + + + + + IN CUPID'S TOILS. + + + I. + HER STORY. + +"Clare," I said, "I wish that we had brought some better clothes, if +it were only one frock. You look the oddest figure." + +And she did. She was lying head to head with me on the thick moss that +clothed one part of the river bank above Breistolen near the Sogn +Fiord. We were staying at Breistolen, but there was no moss +thereabouts, nor in all the Sogn district, I often thought, so deep +and soft, and so dazzling orange and white and crimson as that +particular patch. It lay quite high upon the hills, and there were +great gray bowlders peeping through the moss here and there, very fit +to break your legs, if you were careless. Little more than a mile +higher up was the watershed, where our river, putting away with +reluctance a first thought of going down the farther slope toward +Bysberg, parted from its twin brother, who was thither bound with +scores upon scores of puny, green-backed fishlets; and instead, +came down our side gliding and swishing and swirling faster and +faster, and deeper and wider every hundred yards to Breistolen, full +of red-speckled yellow trout, all half a pound apiece, and very good +to eat. + +But they were not so sweet or toothsome to our girlish tastes as the +tawny-orange cloud-berries which Clare and I were eating as we lay. So +busy was she with the luscious pile we had gathered that I had to wait +for an answer. And then, "Speak for yourself," she said. "I'm sure you +look like a short-coated baby. He is somewhere up the river, too." +Munch, munch, munch! + +"Who is, you impertinent, greedy little chit?" + +"Oh, you know!" she answered. "Don't you wish you had your gray plush +here, Bab?" + +I flung a look of calm disdain at her; but whether it was the berry +juice which stained our faces that took from its effect, or the free +mountain air which papa says saps the foundations of despotism, that +made her callous, at any rate she only laughed scornfully and got +up and went off down the stream with her rod, leaving me to finish +the cloud-berries, and stare lazily up at the snow-patches on the +hillside--which somehow put me in mind of the gray plush--and follow +or not, as I liked. + +Clare has a wicked story of how I gave in to papa, and came to start +without anything but those rough clothes. She says he said--and Jack +Buchanan has told me that lawyers put no faith in anything that he +says she says, or she says he says, which proves how much truth there +is in this--that if Bab took none but her oldest clothes, and fished +all day, and had no one to run upon her errands--he meant Jack and the +others, I suppose--she might possibly grow an inch in Norway. Just as +if I wanted to grow an inch? An inch indeed! I am five feet one and a +half high, and papa, who puts me an inch shorter, is the worst +measurer in the world. As for Miss Clare, she would give all her +inches for my eyes. So there! + +After Clare left it began to be dull and chilly. When I had pictured +to myself how nice it would be to dress for dinner again, and chosen +the frock I would wear upon the first evening, I grew tired of the +snow-patches, and started up stream, stumbling and falling into holes, +and clambering over rocks, and only careful to save my rod and my +face. It was no occasion for the gray plush, but I had made up my mind +to reach a pool which lay, I knew, a little above me; having filched a +yellow-bodied fly from Clare's hat, with a view to that particular +place. + +Our river did the oddest things hereabouts--pleased to be so young, I +suppose. It was not a great churning stream of snow-water, foaming and +milky, such as we had seen in some parts--streams that affected to be +always in flood, and had the look of forcing the rocks asunder and +clearing their path, even while you watched them with your fingers in +your ears. Our river was none of these: still it was swifter than +English rivers are wont to be, and in parts deeper, and transparent as +glass. In one place it would sweep over a ledge and fall wreathed in +spray into a spreading lake of black, rock-bound water. Then it would +narrow again until, where you could almost jump across, it darted +smooth and unbroken down a polished shoot with a swoop like a +swallow's. Out of this it would hurry afresh to brawl along a gravelly +bed, skipping jauntily over first one and then another ridge of stones +that had silted up weir-wise and made as if they would bar the +channel. Under the lee of these there were lovely pools. + +To be able to throw into mine, I had to walk out along the ridge, on +which the water was shallow, yet sufficiently deep to cover my boots. +But I was well rewarded. The "forellin"--the Norse name for trout, +and as pretty as their girls' wavy fair hair--were rising so merrily +that I hooked and landed one in five minutes, the fly falling from its +mouth as it touched the stones. I hate taking out hooks. I used at one +time to leave the fly in the fish's mouth to be removed by papa at the +weighing house; until Clare pricked her tongue at dinner with an +almost new, red hackle, and was so mean as to keep it, though I +remembered then what I had done with it, and was certain it was +mine-which was nothing less than dishonest of her. + +I had just got back to my place and made a fine cast, when there +came--not the leap, and splash, and tug which announced the +half-pounder--but a deep, rich gurgle as the fly was gently sucked +under, and then a quiet, growing strain upon the line, which began to +move away down the pool in a way that made the winch spin again and +filled me with mysterious pleasure. I was not conscious of striking or +of anything but that I had hooked a really good fish, and I clutched +the rod with both hands and set my feet as tightly as I could upon the +slippery gravel. The line moved up and down, and this way and that, +now steadily and as with a purpose, and then again with an eccentric +rush that made the top of the rod spring and bend so that I looked +for it to snap each moment. My hands began to grow numb, and the +landing-net, hitherto an ornament, fell out of my waist-belt and went +I knew not whither. I suppose I must have stepped unwittingly into +deeper water, for I felt that my skirts were afloat, and altogether +things were going dreadfully against me, when the presence of an ally +close at hand was announced by a cheery shout from the far side of the +river. + +"Keep up your point! Keep up your point!" someone cried briskly. "That +is better!" + +The unexpected sound--it was a man's voice--did something to keep my +heart up. But for answer I could only shriek, "I can't! It will +break!" watching the top of my rod as it jigged up and down, very much +in the fashion of Clare performing what she calls a waltz. She dances +as badly as a man. + +"No, it will not," he cried back bluntly. "Keep it up, and let out a +little line with your fingers when he pulls hardest." + +We were forced to shout and scream. The wind had risen and was adding +to the noise of the water. Soon I heard him wading behind me. "Where's +your landing-net?" he asked, with the most provoking coolness. + +"Oh, in the pool! Somewhere about. I am sure I don't know," I answered +wildly. + +What he said to this I could not catch, but it sounded rude. And then +he waded off to fetch, as I guessed, his own net. By the time he +reached me again I was in a sad plight, feet like ice, and hands +benumbed, while the wind, and rain, and hail, which had come down upon +us with a sudden violence, unknown, it is to be hoped, anywhere else, +were mottling my face all sorts of unbecoming colors. But the line was +taut. And wet and cold went for nothing five minutes later, when the +fish lay upon the bank, its prismatic sides slowly turning pale and +dull, and I knelt over it half in pity and half in triumph, but wholly +forgetful of the wind and rain. + +"You did that very pluckily, little one," said the on-looker; "but I +am afraid you will suffer for it by and by. You must be chilled +through." + +Quickly as I looked up at him, I only met a good-humored smile. He did +not mean to be rude. And after all, when I was in such a mess, it was +not possible that he could see what I was like. He was wet enough +himself. The rain was streaming from the brim of the soft hat which he +had turned down to shelter his face, and trickling from his chin, and +turning his shabby Norfolk jacket a darker shade. As for his hands, +they looked red and knuckly enough, and he had been wading almost to +his waist. But he looked, I don't know why, all the stronger and +manlier and nicer for these things, because, perhaps, he cared for +them not one whit. What I looked like myself I dared not think. My +skirts were as short as short could be, and they were soaked; most of +my hair was unplaited, my gloves were split, and my sodden boots were +out of shape. I was forced, too, to shiver and shake from cold, which +was provoking, for I knew it made me seem half as small again. + +"Thank you, I am a little cold, Mr.---- Mr.----" I said gravely, +only my teeth would chatter so that he laughed outright as he took me +up with---- + +"Herapath. And to whom have I the honor of speaking?" + +"I am Miss Guest," I said miserably. It was too cold to be frigid to +advantage. + +"Commonly called Bab, I think," the wretch answered. "The walls of our +hut are not sound-proof, you see. But come, the sooner you get back to +dry clothes and the stove, the better, Bab. You can cross the river +just below, and cut off half a mile that way." + +"I can't," I said obstinately. Bab, indeed! How dared he? + +"Oh yes, you can," with intolerable good temper. "You shall take your +rod and I the prey. You cannot be wetter than you are now." + +He had his way, of course, since I did not foresee that at the ford he +would lift me up bodily and carry me over the deeper part without a +pretense of asking leave, or a word of apology. It was done so quickly +that I had no time to remonstrate. Still I was not going to let it +pass, and when I had shaken myself straight again, I said, with all +the haughtiness I could assume, "Don't you think, Mr. Herapath that it +would have been more--more----" + +"Polite to offer to carry you over, child? No, not at all. It will be +wiser and warmer for you to run down the hill. Come along!" + +And without more ado, while I was still choking with rage, he seized +my hands and set off at a trot, lugging me through the sloppy places +much as I have seen a nurse drag a fractious child down Constitution +Hill. It was not wonderful that I soon lost the little breath his +speech had left me, and was powerless to complain when we reached the +bridge. I could only thank Heaven that there was no sign of Clare. I +think I should have died of mortification if she had seen us come down +the hill hand-in-hand in that ridiculous fashion. But she had gone +home, and at any rate I escaped that degradation. + +A wet stool-car and wetter pony were dimly visible on the bridge; to +which, as we came up, a damp urchin creeping from some crevice added +himself. I was pushed in as if I had no will of my own, the gentleman +sprang up beside me, the boy tucked himself away somewhere behind, and +the little "teste" set off at a canter, so deceived by the driver's +excellent imitation of "Pss," the Norse for "Tchk," that in ten +minutes we were at home. + +"Well, I never!" Clare said, surveying me from a respectful distance, +when at last I was safe in our room. "I would not be seen in such a +state by a man for all the fish in the sea!" + + +[Illustration: "BAB."] + + +And she looked so tall, and trim, and neat, that it was the more +provoking. At the moment I was too miserable to answer her, and had to +find comfort in promising myself that when we were back in Bolton +Gardens I would see that Fraeulein kept Miss Clare's pretty nose to the +grindstone though it were ever so much her last term, or Jack were +ever so fond of her. Papa was in the plot against me, too. What right +had he to thank Mr. Herapath for bringing "his little girl" home safe? +He can be pompous enough at times. I never knew a stout Queen's +Counsel--and papa is stout--who was not, any more than a thin one who +did not contradict. It is in their patents, I think. + +Mr. Herapath dined with us that evening--if fish and potatoes and +boiled eggs, and sour bread and pancakes, and claret and coffee can be +called a dinner--but nothing I could do, though I made the best of my +wretched frock and was as stiff as Clare herself, could alter his +first impression. It was too bad; he had no eyes! He either could not +or would not see anyone but the draggled Bab--fifteen at most and a +very tom-boy---whom he had carried across the river. He styled Clare, +who talked Baedeker to him in her primmest and most precocious way, +Miss Guest, and once at least during the evening dubbed me plain Bab. +I tried to freeze him with a look then, and papa gave him a taste of +the pompous manner, saying coldly that I was older than I seemed. But +it was not a bit of use; I could see that he set it all down to the +grand airs of a spoiled child. If I had put my hair up, it might have +opened his eyes, but Clare teased me about it and I was too proud for +that. + +When I asked him if he was fond of dancing, he said good-naturedly, "I +don't visit very much, Miss Bab. I am generally engaged in the +evening." + +Here was a chance. I was going to say that that, no doubt, was the +reason why I had never met him, when papa ruthlessly cut me short by +asking, "You are not in the law?" + +"No," he replied, "I am in the London Fire Brigade." + +I think that we all upon the instant saw him in a helmet, sitting at +the door of the fire station by St. Martin's Church. Clare turned +crimson, and papa seemed on a sudden to call his patent to mind. The +moment before I had been as angry as angry could be with our guest, +but I was not going to look on and see him snubbed when he was dining +with us and all. So I rushed into the gap as quickly as surprise would +let me with, "Good gracious, how nice! Do tell me all about a fire!" + +It made matters--my matters--worse, for I could have cried with +vexation when I read in his face next moment that he had looked for +their astonishment; while the ungrateful fellow set down my eager +remark to mere childish ignorance. + +"Some time I will," he said, with a quiet smile _de haut en bas_; "but +I do not often attend one in person. I am Captain's private secretary, +aid-de-camp, and general factotum." + +And it turned out that he was the son of a certain Canon Herapath, so +that papa lost sight of his patent box altogether, and they set to +discussing Mr. Gladstone, while I slipped off to bed, feeling as small +as I ever did in my life and out of temper with everybody. It was a +long time since I had been used to young men talking politics to papa +when they could talk--politics--to me. + +Possibly I deserved the week of vexation which followed; but it was +almost more than I could bear. He--Mr. Herapath, of--course--was +always about fishing or lounging outside the little white +posting-house, taking walks and meals with us, and seeming heartily to +enjoy papa's society. He came with us when we drove to the top of the +pass to get a glimpse of the Sulethid peak; and it looked so +brilliantly clear and softly beautiful as it seemed to float, just +tinged with color, in a far-off atmosphere of its own beyond the dark +ranges of nearer hills, that I began to think at once of the drawing +room in Bolton Gardens, with a cozy fire burning and afternoon tea +coming up. The tears came into my eyes, and he saw them before I could +turn away from the view; and said to papa that he feared his little +girl was tired as well as cold, and so spoiled all my pleasure. I +looked back afterward as papa and I drove down. He was walking by +Clare's carcole, and they were laughing heartily. + +And that was the way always. He was such an elder brother to me--a +thing I never had and do not want--that a dozen times a day I set my +teeth viciously together and said to myself that if ever we met in +London--but what nonsense that was, because, of course, it mattered +nothing to me what he was thinking, only he had no right to be so +rudely familiar. That was all; but it was quite enough to make me +dislike him. + +However, a sunny morning in the holidays is a cheerful thing, and when +I strolled down stream with my rod on the day after our expedition, I +felt I could enjoy myself very nearly as much as I had before his +coming spoiled our party. I dawdled along, now trying a pool, now +clambering up the hill-sides to pick raspberries, and now counting the +magpies that flew across, feeling altogether very placid and good and +contented. I had chosen the lower river because Mr. Herapath usually +fished the upper part, and I would not be ruffled this nice day. So I +was the more vexed to come suddenly upon him fishing; and fishing +where he had no right to be. Papa had spoken to him about the danger +of it, and he had as good as said he would not do it again. Yet there +he was, thinking, I dare say, that we should not know. It was a spot +where one bank rose into quite a cliff, frowning over a deep pool at +the foot of some falls. Close to the cliff the water still ran with +the speed of a millrace, so fast as to endanger a good swimmer. But on +the far side of this current there was a bit of slack water, which was +tempting enough to have set someone's wits to work to devise means to +fish it, which from the top of the cliff was impossible. Just above +the water was a ledge, a foot wide, perhaps, which might have done, +only it did not reach to this end of the cliff. However, that +foolhardy person had espied this, and got over the gap by bridging the +latter with a bit of plank, and then had drowned himself or gone away, +in either case leaving his board to tempt others to do likewise. + +And there was Mr. Herapath fishing from the ledge. It made me giddy to +look at him. The rock overhung the water so much that he could not +stand upright; the first person who got there must surely have learned +to curl himself up from much sleeping in Norwegian beds, which were +short for me. I thought of this oddly enough as I watched him, and +laughed, and was for going on. But when I had walked a few yards, +meaning to pass round the rear of the cliff, I began to fancy all +sorts of foolish things would happen. I felt sure that I should have +no more peace or pleasure if I left him there. I hesitated. Yes, I +would. I would go down, and ask him to leave the place; and, of +course, he would do it. + +I lost no time, but ran down the slope smartly and carelessly. My way +lay over loose shale mingled with large stones, and it was steep. It +was wonderful how quickly an accident happens; how swiftly a thing +that cannot be undone is done, and we are left wishing--oh, so +vainly--that we could put the world, and all things in it, back by a +few seconds. I was checking myself near the bottom, when a big stone +on which I stepped moved under me. The shale began to slip in a mass, +and the stone to roll. It was all done in a moment. I stayed myself, +that was easy enough, but the stone took two bounds, jumped sideways, +struck the piece of board, which was only resting lightly at either +end, and before I could take it all in the little bridge plunged end +first into the current, which swept it out of sight in an instant. + +He threw up his hands in affright, for he had turned, and we both +saw it happen. He made indeed as if he would try to save it, but +that was impossible; and then, while I cowered in dismay, he waved his +arm to me in the direction of home--again and again. The roar of the +falls drowned what he said, but I guessed his meaning. I could not +help him myself, but I could fetch help. It was three miles to +Breistolen,--rough, rocky ones,--and I doubted whether he could keep +his cramped position with that noise deafening him, and the endless +whirling stream before his eyes, while I was going and coming. But +there was no better way I could think of; and even as I wavered, he +signaled to me again imperatively. For an instant everything seemed to +go round with me, but it was not the time for that yet, and I tried to +collect myself and harden my heart. Up the bank I went steadily, and +once at the top set off at a run homeward. + +I cannot tell at all how I did it; how I passed over the uneven +ground, or whether I went quickly or slowly save by the reckoning papa +made afterward. I can only remember one long hurrying scramble; now I +panted uphill, now I ran down, now I was on my face in a hole, +breathless and half-stunned, and now I was up to my knees in water. I +slipped and dropped down places I should at other times have shrunk +from, and hurt myself so that I bore the marks for months. But I +thought nothing of these things: all my being was spent in hurrying on +for his life, the clamor of every cataract I passed seeming to stop my +heart's beating with very fear. So I reached Breistolen and panted +over the bridge and up to the little white house lying so quiet in the +afternoon sunshine, papa's stool-car even then at the door ready to +take him to some favorite pool. Somehow I made him understand in +broken words that Herapath was in danger, drowning already, for all I +knew, and then I seized a great pole which was leaning against the +porch, and climbed into the car. Papa was not slow, either; he +snatched a coil of rope from the luggage, and away we went, a man and +boy whom he had hastily called running behind us. We had lost very +little time, but so much may happen in so little time. + +We were forced to leave the car a quarter of a mile from that part of +the river, and walk or run the rest of the way. We all ran, even papa, +as I had never known him run before. My heart sank at the groan he let +escape him when I pointed out the spot. We came to it one by one. The +ledge was empty. Jem Herapath was gone. I suppose it startled me. At +any rate I could only look at the water in a dazed way and cry +quietly, without much feeling that it was my doing; while the men, +shouting to one another in strange, hushed voices, searched about for +any sign of his fate. "Jem! Jem Herapath!" So he had written his name +only yesterday in the travelers' book at the posting-house, and I had +sullenly watched him from the window, and then had sneaked to the book +and read it. That was yesterday, and now! Oh, Jem, to hear you say +"Bab" once more! + +"Bab! Why, Miss Bab, what is the matter?" + +Safe and sound! Yes, there he was when I turned, safe and strong and +cool, rod in hand and a quiet smile in his eyes. Just as I had seen +him yesterday, and thought never to see him again; and saying "Bab," +exactly as of old, so that something in my throat--it may have been +anger at his rudeness, but I do not think it was--prevented me saying +a word until all the others came around us, and a babel of Norse and +English, and something that was neither, yet both, set in. + +"But how is this?" objected my father, when he could be heard, "you +are quite dry, my boy?" + +"Dry! Why not, sir? For goodness' sake, what is the matter?" + +"The matter? Didn't you fall in, or something of the kind?" papa +asked, bewildered by this new aspect of the case. + +"It does not look like it, does it? Your daughter gave me a very +uncomfortable start by nearly doing so." + +Everyone looked at him for an explanation. "How did you manage to get +from the ledge?" I said feebly. Where was the mistake? I had not +dreamed it. + +"From the ledge? Why, by the other end, to be sure, so that I had to +walk back round the hill. Still, I did not mind, for I was thankful +that it was the plank and not you that fell in." + +"I--I thought--you could not get from the ledge," I muttered. The +possibility of getting off at the other end had never occurred to me, +and so I had made such a simpleton of myself. It was too absurd, too +ridiculous! It was no wonder that they all screamed with laughter at +the fool's errand they had come upon, and stamped about and clung to +one another. But when _he_ laughed too,--and he did until the tears +came into his eyes,--there was not an ache or pain in my body--and I +had cut my wrist to the bone against a splinter of rock--that hurt me +one-half as much. Surely _he_ might have seen another side to it. But +he did not; and so I managed to hide my bandaged wrist from him, and +papa drove me home. There I broke down entirely, and Clare put me to +bed and petted me, and was very good to me. And when I came down next +day, with an ache in every part of me, he was gone. + +"He asked me to tell you," said Clare, not looking up from the fly she +was tying at the window, "that he thought you were the bravest girl he +had ever met." + +So he understood now, when others had explained it to him. "No, +Clare," I said coldly; "he did not say that exactly. He said, 'the +bravest little girl.'" For, indeed, lying upstairs with the window +open, I had heard him set off on his long drive to Laerdalsoeren. As +for papa, he was half-proud and half-ashamed of my foolishness, and +wholly at a loss to think how I could have made the mistake. + +"You've generally some common sense, my dear," he said that day at +dinner, "and how in the world you could have been so ready to fancy +the man in danger, I--can--not--imagine!" + +"Papa," put in Clare suddenly, "your elbow is upsetting the salt." + +And as I had to move my seat just then to avoid the glare of the +stove, which was falling on my face, we never thought it out. + + + II. + HIS STORY. + +I was not dining out much at that time, partly because my acquaintance +in town was limited, and somewhat too because I cared little for it. +But these were pleasant people, the old gentleman witty and amusing, +the children, lively girls, nice to look at and good to talk with. The +party had too a holiday flavor about them wholesome to recall in +Scotland Yard: and as I had thought, playtime over, I should see no +more of them, I was proportionately pleased to find that Mr. Guest had +not forgotten me, and pleased also--shrewdly expecting that we might +kill our fish over again--to regard his invitation to dinner at a +quarter to eight as a royal command. + +But if I took it so, I was sadly wanting in the regal courtesy to +match. What with one delay owing to work that would admit of none, +and another caused by a cabman strange to the ways of town, it was +twenty-five minutes after the hour named when I reached Bolton +Gardens. A stately man, so like the Queen's Counsel that it was plain +upon whom the latter modeled himself, ushered me straight into the +dining room, where Guest greeted me very kindly, and met my excuses by +apologies on his part--for preferring, I suppose, the comfort of +eleven people to mine. Then he took me down the table, and said, "My +daughter," and Miss Guest shook hands with me and pointed to the chair +at her left. I had still, as I unfolded my napkin, to say "Clear, if +you please," and then I was free to turn and apologize to her; being a +little shy, and, as I have said, a somewhat infrequent diner out. + +I think that I never saw so remarkable a likeness--to her younger +sister--in my life. She might have been little Bab herself, but for +her dress and some striking differences. Miss Guest could not be more +than eighteen, in form almost as fairy-like as the little one, with +the same child-like, innocent look on her face. She had the big gray +eyes, too, that were so charming in Bab; but in her they were more +soft and tender and thoughtful, and a thousand times more charming. +Her hair too was brown and wavy: only, instead of hanging loose or in +a pig-tail, anywhere and anyhow, in a fashion I well remembered, it +was coiled in a coronal on the shapely little head, that was so Greek, +and in its gracious, stately, old-fashioned pose, so unlike Bab's. Her +dress, of some creamy, gauzy stuff, revealed the prettiest white +throat in the world, and arms decked in pearls, and, so far, no more +recalled my little fishing-mate than the sedate self-possession and +assured dignity of this girl, as she talked to her other neighbor, +suggested Bab making pancakes and chattering with the landlady's +children in her strangely and wonderfully acquired Norse. It was not +Bab in fact: and yet it almost might have been: an etherealized, +queenly, womanly Bab--who presently turned to me: + +"Have you quite settled down after your holiday?" she asked, staying +the apologies I was for pouring into her ear. + +"I had until this evening, but the sight of your father is like a +breath of fiord air. I hope your sisters are well." + +"My sisters?" she murmured wonderingly, her fork halfway to her pretty +mouth and her attitude one of questioning. + +"Yes," I said, rather puzzled. "You know they were with your father +when I had the good fortune to meet him. Miss Clare and Bab." + +"Eh?" dropping her fork on the plate with a great clatter. + +"Yes, Miss Guest; Miss Clare and Miss Bab." + +I really began to feel uncomfortable. Her color rose, and she looked +me in the face in a half-proud, half-fearful way as if she resented +the inquiry. It was a relief to me, when, with some show of confusion, +she at length stammered, "Oh, yes, I beg your pardon, of course they +were! How very foolish of me! They are quite well, thank you," and so +was silent again. But I understand now. Mr. Guest had omitted to +mention my name, and she had taken me for someone else of whose +holiday she knew. I gathered from the aspect of the table and the room +that the Guests saw a good deal of company, and it was a very natural +mistake, though by the grave look she bent upon her plate it was clear +that the young hostess was taking herself to task for it: not without, +if I might judge from the lurking smile at the corners of her mouth, a +humorous sense of the slip, and perhaps of the difference between +myself and the gentleman whose part I had been unwittingly supporting. +Meanwhile I had a chance of looking at her unchecked; and thought of +Dresden china, she was so frail and pretty. + +"You were nearly drowned, or something of the kind, were you not?" she +asked, after an interval during which we had both talked to others. + +"Well, not precisely. Your sister fancied I was in danger, and behaved +in the pluckiest manner--so bravely that I can almost feel sorry that +the danger was not there to dignify her heroism." + +"That was like her," she answered, in a tone just a little scornful. +"You must have thought her a terrible tomboy." + +While she was speaking there came one of those terrible lulls in the +talk, and Mr. Guest, overhearing, cried: "Who is that you are abusing, +my dear? Let us all share in the sport. If it's Clare, I think I can +name one who is a far worse hoyden upon occasion." + +"It is no one of whom you have ever heard, papa," she answered archly. +"It is a person in whom Mr.--Mr. Herapath"--I had murmured my name as +she stumbled--"and I are interested. Now, tell me, did you not think +so?" she murmured graciously, leaning the slightest bit toward me, and +opening her eyes as she looked into mine in a way that to a man who +had spent the day in a dusty room in Great Scotland Yard was +sufficiently intoxicating. + +"No," I said, lowering my voice in imitation of hers. "No, Miss Guest, +I did not think so at all. I thought your sister a brave little +thing--rather careless, as children are apt to be, but likely to grow +into a charming girl." + +I wondered, marking how she bit her lip and refrained from assent, +whether, impossible as it must seem to anyone looking in her face, +there might not be something of the shrew about my beautiful neighbor. +Her tone, when she spoke of her sister, seemed to import no great good +will. + +"So that is your opinion?" she said, after a pause. "Do you know," +with a laughing glance, "that some people think I am like her?" + +"Yes?" I answered gravely. "Well, I should be able to judge, who have +seen you both and yet am not an old friend. And I think you are both +like and unlike. Your sister has very beautiful eyes"--she lowered +hers swiftly--"and hair like yours, but her manner and style were very +different. I can no more fancy Bab in your place than I can picture +you, Miss Guest, as I saw her for the first time--and on many after +occasions," I added, laughing as much to cover my own hardihood as at +the queer little figure I had conjured up. + +"Thank you,' Mr. Herapath," she replied with coldness, though she had +blushed darkly to her ears. "That, I think, must be enough of +compliments for to-night--as you are not an old friend." And she +turned away, leaving me to curse my folly in saying so much, when our +acquaintance was as yet in the bud, and as susceptible to overwarmth +as to a temperature below zero. + +A moment later the ladies left us. The flush I had brought to her +cheek still lingered there, as she swept past me with a wondrous show +of dignity in one so young. Mr. Guest came down and took her place, +and we talked of the "land of berries," and our adventures there, +while the rest--older friends--listened indulgently or struck in from +time to time with their own biggest fish and deadliest flies. + +I used to wonder why women like to visit dusty chambers; why they get +more joy--I am fain to think they do--out of a scrambling tea up three +pairs of stairs in Pump Court, than from the very same materials--and +comfort withal--in their own house. I imagine it is for the same +reason that the bachelor finds a singular charm in a lady's drawing +room, and there, if anywhere, sees her with a reverent mind--a charm +and a subservience which I felt to the full in the Guests' drawing +room--a room rich in subdued colors and a cunning blending of luxury +and comfort. Yet it depressed me. I felt alone. Mr. Guest had passed +on to others and I stood aside, the sense that I was not of these +people troubling me in a manner as new as it was absurd: for I had +been in the habit of rather despising "society." Miss Guest was at the +piano, the center of a circle of soft light, which showed up also a +keen-faced, dark-whiskered man leaning over her with the air of one +used to the position. Everyone else was so fully engaged that I may +have looked, as well as felt, forlorn, and meeting her eyes could have +fancied she was regarding me with amusement--almost triumph. It must +have been mere fancy, bred of self-consciousness, for the next moment +she beckoned me to her, and said to her cavalier: + +"There, Jack; Mr. Herapath is going to talk to me about Norway now, so +that I don't want you any longer. Perhaps you won't mind stepping up +to the schoolroom--Fraeulein and Clare are there--and telling Clare, +that--that--oh, anything!" + +There is no piece of ill-breeding so bad to my mind as for a man who +is at home in a house to flaunt his favor in the face of other guests. +That young lawyer's manner as he left her, and the smile of perfect +intelligence which passed between them were such a breach of good +manners as would have ruffled anyone. They ruffled me--yes, me, +although it was no concern of mine what she called him, or how he +conducted himself--so that I could do nothing but stand by the piano +and sulk. One bear makes another, you know. + +She did not speak, and I, content to watch the slender hands stealing +over the keys, would not, until my eyes fell upon her right wrist. She +had put off her bracelets and so disclosed a scar upon it, something +about which--not its newness--so startled me that I said abruptly, +"That is very strange! Pray tell me how you did it!" + +She looked up, saw what I meant, and, stopping hastily, put on her +bracelets; to all appearance so vexed by my thoughtless question, and +anxious to hide the mark, that I was quick to add humbly, "I asked +because your sister hurt her wrist in nearly the same place on the day +when she thought I was in trouble, and the coincidence struck me." + +"Yes, I remember," looking at me I thought with a certain suspicion, +as though she were not sure that I was giving the right motive. "I did +this much in the same way. By falling, I mean. Isn't it a hateful +disfigurement?" + +No, it was no disfigurement. Even to her, with a woman's love of +conquest, it must have seemed anything but a disfigurement had she +known what the quiet, awkward man at her side was thinking, who stood +looking shyly at it and found no words to contradict her, though she +asked him twice, and thought him stupid enough. A great longing to +kiss that soft, scarred wrist was on me--and Miss Guest had added +another to the number of her slaves. I don't know now why that little +scar should have so touched me any more than I then could guess why, +being a commonplace person, I should fall in love at first sight, and +feel no surprise at my condition, only a half consciousness (seeming +fully to justify it) that in some former state of being I had met my +love, and read her thoughts, and learned her moods, and come to know +the bright womanly spirit that looked from her frank eyes as well as +if she were an old, old friend. And so vivid was this sensation, that +once or twice, then and afterward, when I would meet her glance, +another name than hers trembled on my tongue and passed away before I +could shape it into sound. + +After an interval, "Are you going to the Goldmaces' dance?" + +"No," I answered her humbly. "I go out so little." + +"Indeed," with an odd smile not too kindly; "I wish--no, I don't--that +we could say the same. We are engaged, I think"--she paused, her +attention divided between myself and Boccherini's minuet, the low +strains of which she was sending through the room--"for every +afternoon--this week--except Saturday. By the way, Mr. Herapath--do +you remember what was the name--Bab told me you teased her with?" + +"Wee bonnie Bab," I answered absently. My thoughts had gone forward to +Saturday. We are always dropping to-day's substance for the shadow of +tomorrow; like the dog--a dog was it not?--in the fable. + +"Oh, yes, wee bonnie Bab," she murmured softly. "Poor Bab!" and +suddenly cut short Boccherini's music and our chat by striking a +terrific discord and laughing merrily at my start of discomfiture. +Everyone took it as a signal to leave. They all seemed to be going to +meet her again next day, or the day after that; they engaged her for +dances, and made up a party for the law courts, and tossed to and fro +a score of laughing catchwords, that were beyond my comprehension. +They all did this, except myself. + +And yet I went away with something before me--that call upon Saturday +afternoon. Quite unreasonably I fancied I should see her alone. And so +when the day came and I stood outside the opening door of the drawing +room, and heard voices and laughter within, I was hurt and aggrieved +beyond measure. There was quite a party, and a merry one, assembled, +who were playing at some game as it seemed to me, for I caught sight +of Clare whipping off an impromptu bandage from her eyes, and striving +by her stiffest air to give the lie to a pair of flushed cheeks. The +black-whiskered man was there, and two men of his kind, and a German +governess, and a very old lady in a wheel-chair, who was called +"grandmamma," and Miss Guest herself looking, in the prettiest dress +of silvery plush, to the full as bright and fair and graceful as I had +been picturing her each hour since we parted. + +She dropped me a stately courtesy. "Will you play the part of Miss +Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, Mr. Herapath, while I act honest +Burchell, and say 'Fudge!' or will you burn nuts and play games with +neighbor Flamborough? You will join us, won't you? Clare does not so +misbehave every day, only it is such a wet afternoon and so cold and +wretched, and we did not think there would be any more callers--and +tea will be up in five minutes." + +She did not think there would be any more callers! Something in her +smile belied the words and taught me that she had thought--she had +known--that there would be one more caller--one who would burn nuts +and play games with her, though Rome itself were afire, and Tooley +Street and the Mile End Road to boot. + +It was a simple game enough, and not likely, one would say, to afford +much risk of that burning the fingers which gave a zest to the Vicar +of Wakefield's nuts. One sat in the middle blind-folded, while the +rest disguised their own or assumed each other's voices, and spoke one +by one some gibe or quip at his expense. When he succeeded in naming +the speaker, the detected satirist put on the poke, and in his turn +heard things good--if he had a conceit of himself--for his soul's +health. Now this _role_ unhappily soon fell to me, and proved a +heavy one, because I was not so familiar with the other's voices as +were the rest; and Miss Guest--whose faintest tones I thought to have +known--had a wondrous knack of cheating me, now taking off Clare's +voice, and now--after the door had been opened to admit the tea--her +father's. So I failed again and again to earn my release. But when a +voice behind me cried with well-feigned eagerness: + +"How nice! Do tell me all about a fire!" + +Though no fresh creaking of the door had reached me, nor warning been +given of an addition to the players, I had not the smallest doubt who +was the speaker; but exclaimed at once, "That is Bab' Now I cry you +mercy. I am right this time. That was Bab!" + +I looked for a burst of applause and laughter, such as had before +attended a good thrust home, but none came. On the contrary, with my +words so odd a silence fell upon the room that it was clear that +something was wrong, and I pulled off my handkerchief in haste, +repeating, "That was Bab, I am sure." + +But if it was, I could not see her. What had come over them all? +Jack's face wore a provoking smile, and his friends were clearly bent +upon sniggering. Clare looked horrified, and grandmamma gently +titillated, while Miss Guest, who had risen and half turned away +toward the windows, seemed to be in a state of proud confusion. What +was the matter? + +"I beg everyone's pardon by anticipation," I said, looking round in a +bewildered way, "but have I said anything wrong?" + +"Oh, dear no!" cried the fellow they called Jack, with a familiarity +that was in the worst taste--as if I had meant to apologize to him! +"Most natural thing in the world!" + +"Jack, how dare you!" exclaimed Miss Guest, stamping her foot. + +"Well, it seemed all right. It sounded very natural, I am sure." + +"Oh, you are unbearable! Why don't you say something, Clare?" + +"Mr. Herapath, I am sure that you did not know that my name was +Barbara." + +"Certainly not," I cried. "What a strange thing!" + +"But it is, and that is why grandmamma is looking so shocked, and Mr. +Buchanan is wearing threadbare an old friend's privilege of being +rude. I freely forgive you if you will make allowance for him. And you +shall come off the stool of repentance and have your tea first, since +you are the greatest stranger. It is a stupid game, after all!" + +She would hear no apologies from me. And when I would have asked why +her sister bore the same name, and thus excused myself, she was intent +upon tea-making, and the few moments I could with decency add to my +call gave me scant opportunity. I blush to think how I eked them out, +by what subservience to Clare, by what a slavish anxiety to help even +Jack to muffins--each piece I hoped might choke him. How slow I was to +find hat and gloves, calling to mind with terrible vividness, as I +turned my back upon the circle, that again and again in my experience +an acquaintance begun by a dinner had ended with the consequent call. +And so I should have gone--it might have been so here--but that the +door-handle was stiff, and Miss Guest came to my aid as I fumbled with +it. "We are always at home on Saturdays, if you like to call, Mr. +Herapath," she murmured carelessly, not lifting her eyes--and I found +myself in the street. + +So carelessly she said it that, with a sudden change of feeling, I +vowed I would not call. Why should I? Why should I worry myself with +the sight of those other fellows parading their favor? With the babble +of that society chit-chat, which I had so often scorned, and--and +still scorned, and had no part or concern in. They were not people to +suit me or do me good. I would not go, I said, and repeated it firmly +on Monday and Tuesday; on Wednesday only so far modified it that I +thought at some distant time to leave a card--to avoid discourtesy; on +Friday preferred an earlier date as wiser and more polite, and on +Saturday walked shame-faced down the street, and knocked and rang and +went upstairs--to taste a pleasant misery. Yes, and on the next +Saturday too, and the next, and the next; and that one on which we +all went to the theater, and that other one on which Mr. Guest kept +me to dinner. Aye, and on other days that were not Saturdays, among +which two stand high out of the waters of forgetfulness--high days, +indeed--days like twin pillars of Hercules, through which I thought to +reach, as did the seamen of old, I knew not what treasures of unknown +lands stretching away under the setting sun. First that one on which I +found Barbara Guest alone and blurted out that I had the audacity to +wish to make her my wife; and then heard, before I had well--or +badly--told my tale, the wheels of grandmamma's chair outside. + +"Hush!" the girl said, her face turned from me. "Hush, Mr. Herapath! +You don't know me, indeed. You have seen so little of me. Please say +nothing more about it. You are completely under a delusion." + +"It is no delusion that I love you, Barbara!" I cried. + +"It is! it is!" she repeated, freeing her hand. "There, if you will +not take an answer--come--come at three to-morrow. But mind, I promise +you nothing--I promise nothing," she added feverishly, and fled from +the room, leaving me to talk to grandmamma as best, and escape as +quickly as, I might. + +I longed for a great fire that evening, and, failing one, tired myself +by tramping unknown streets of the East End, striving to teach myself +that any trouble to-morrow might bring was but a shadow, a sentiment, +a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath with the want and toil +of which I caught glimpses up each street and lane that opened to +right and left. In the main, of course, I failed; but the effort +did me good, sending me home tired out, to sleep as soundly as if I +were going to be hanged next day, and not--which is a very different +thing--to be put upon my trial. + +"I will tell Miss Guest you are here, sir," the man said. I looked at +all the little things in the room which I had come to know well--her +work basket, the music upon the piano, the table easel, her +photograph, and wondered if I were to see them no more, or if they +were to become a part of my everyday life. Then I heard her come in, +and turned quickly, feeling that I should learn my fate from her +greeting. + +"Bab!" The word was wrung from me perforce. And then we stood and +looked at one another, she with a strange pride and defiance in her +eyes, though her cheek was dark with blushes, and I with wonder and +perplexity in mine. Wonder and perplexity that quickly grew into a +conviction, a certainty that the girl standing before me in the +short-skirted brown dress with tangled hair and loose neck-ribbon was +the Bab I had known in Norway; and yet that the eyes--I could not +mistake them now, no matter what unaccustomed look they might +wear--were Barbara Guest's! + +"Miss Guest--Barbara," I stammered, grappling with the truth, "why +have you played this trick upon me?" + +"It is Miss Guest and Barbara now," she cried, with a mocking +courtesy. "Do you remember, Mr. Herapath, when it was Bab? When you +treated me as a kind of toy and a plaything, with which you might be +as intimate as you liked; and hurt my feelings--yes, it is weak to +confess it, I know--day by day and hour by hour?" + +"But, surely, that is forgiven now?" I said, dazed by an attack so +sudden and so bitter. "It is atonement enough that I am at your feet +now, Barbara!" + +"You are not," she retorted hotly. "Don't say you have offered love to +me, who am the same with the child you teased at Breistolen. You have +fallen in love with my fine clothes and my pearls and my maid's work, +not with me! You have fancied the girl you saw other men make much of. +But you have not loved the woman who might have prized that which Miss +Guest has never learned to value." + +"How old are you?" I said hoarsely. + +"Nineteen!" she snapped out. And then for a moment we were both +silent. + +"I begin to understand now," I answered slowly as soon as I could +conquer something in my throat. "Long ago, when I hardly knew you, I +hurt your woman's pride; and since that you have plotted----" + +"No, you have tricked yourself!" + +"And schemed to bring me to your feet that you might have the pleasure +of trampling on me. Miss Guest, your triumph is complete, more +complete than you are able to understand. I loved you this morning +above all the world--as my own life--as every hope I had. See, I tell +you this that you may have a moment's keener pleasure when I am gone." + +"Don't! Don't!" she cried, throwing herself into a chair and covering +her face. + +"You have won a man's heart and cast it aside to gratify an old pique. +You may rest content now, for there is nothing wanting to your +vengeance. You have given me as much pain as a woman, the vainest and +the most heartless, can give a man. Good-by." + +And with that I was leaving her, fighting my own pain and passion, so +that the little hands she raised as though they would ward off my +words were nothing to me. I felt a savage delight in seeing that I +could hurt her, which deadened my own grief. The victory was not; all +with her lying there sobbing. Only where was my hat? Let me get my hat +and go. Let me escape from this room wherein every trifle upon which +my eye rested awoke some memory that was a pang. Let me get away, and +have done with it all. + +Where was the hat? I had brought it up. I could not go without it. It +must be under her chair, by all that was unlucky, for it was nowhere +else. I could not stand and wait, and so I had to go up to her, with +cold words of apology upon my lips, and being close to her and seeing +on her wrist, half hidden by fallen hair, the scar she had brought +home from Norway, I don't know how it was that I fell on my knees by +her and cried: + +"Oh, Bab, I loved you so! Let us part friends." + +For a moment, silence. Then she whispered, her hand in mine: "Why did +you not say Bab to begin? I only told you that Miss Guest had not +learned to value your love." + +"And Bab?" I murmured, my brain in a whirl. + +"Learned long ago, poor girl!" + +And the fair, tear-stained face of my tyrant looked into mine for a +moment, and then came quite naturally to its resting place. + +"Now," she said, when I was leaving, "you may have your hat, sir." + +"I believe," I replied, "that you sat upon this chair on purpose." + +And Bab blushed. I believe she did. + + + + + THE DRIFT OF FATE. + + +On a certain morning in last June I was stooping to fasten a shoelace, +having taken advantage for the purpose of the step of a corner house +in St. James' Square, when a man passing behind me stopped. + +"Well!" said he aloud, after a short pause during which I wondered--I +could not see him--what he was doing, "the meanness of these rich folk +is disgusting! Not a coat of paint for a twelvemonth! I should be +ashamed to own a house and leave it like that!" + +The man was a stranger to me, and his words seemed as uncalled for as +they were ill-natured. But being thus challenged I looked at the +house. It was a great stone mansion with a balustrade atop, with many +windows and a long stretch of area railings. And, certainly it was +shabby. I turned from it to the critic. He was shabby, too--a little +red-nosed man, wearing a bad hat. "It is just possible," I suggested, +"that the owner may be a poor man and unable to keep it in order." + +"Ugh! What has that to do with it?" my new friend answered +contemptuously. "He ought to think of the public." + +"And your hat?" I asked, with wining politeness. "It strikes me, an +unprejudiced observer, as a bad hat. Why do you not get a new one?" + +"Cannot afford it!" he snapped out, his dull eyes sparkling with rage. + +"Cannot afford it? But, my good man, you ought to think of the +public." + +"You tom-cat! What have you to do with my hat? Smother you!" was his +kindly answer; and he went on his way muttering things uncomplimentary. + +I was about to go mine, and was first falling back to gain a better +view of the house in question, when a chuckle close to me betrayed the +presence of a listener, a thin, gray-haired man, who, hidden by a +pillar of the porch, must have heard our discussion. His hands were +engaged with a white tablecloth, from which he had been shaking the +crumbs. He had the air of an upper servant of the best class. As our +eyes met he spoke. + +"Neatly put, sir, if I may take the liberty of saying so," he observed +with a quiet dignity it was a pleasure to witness, "and we are very +much obliged to you. The man was a snob, sir." + +"I am afraid he was," I answered; "and a fool too." + +"And a fool, sir. Answer a fool after his folly. You did that, and he +was nowhere; nowhere at all, except in the swearing line. Now might I +ask," he continued, "if you are an American, sir?" + +"No, I am not," I answered; "but I have spent some time in the +States." + +I could have fancied that he sighed. + +"I thought--but never mind, sir," he began, "I was wrong, It is +curious how very much alike gentlemen, that are real gentlemen, speak. +Now, I dare swear, sir, that you have a taste for pictures." + +I was inclined to humor the old fellow's mood. "I like a good picture, +I admit," I said. + +"Then perhaps you would not be offended if I asked you to step inside +and look at one or two," he suggested timidly. "I would not take a +liberty, sir, but there are some Van Dycks and a Rubens in the dining +room that cost a mint of money in their day, I have heard; and there +is no one else in the house but my wife and myself." + +It was a strange invitation, strangely brought about. But I saw no +reason for myself why I should not accept it, and I followed him into +the hall. It was spacious, but sparsely furnished. The matted floor +had a cold look, and so had the gaunt stand which seemed to be a +fixture, and boasted but one umbrella, one sunshade, and one dog-whip. +As I passed a half-open door I caught a glimpse of a small room +prettily furnished, with dainty prints and water-colors on the walls. +But these were of a common order. A dozen replicas of each and all +might be seen in a walk through Bond Street. Even this oasis of taste +and comfort told the same story as had the bare hall and dreary +exterior; and laid, as it were, a finger on one's heart. I trod softly +as I followed my guide along the strip of matting toward the rear of +the house. + +He opened a door at the inner end of the hall, and led me into a large +and lofty room, built out from the back, as a state dining room or +ballroom. At present it rather resembled the latter, for it was +without furniture. "Now," said the old man, turning and respectfully +touching my sleeve to gain my attention, "now you will not consider +your labor lost in coming to see that, sir. It is a portrait of the +second Lord Wetherby by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and is judged to be one +of the finest specimens of his style in existence." + +I was lost in astonishment; amazed, almost appalled! My companion +stood by my side, his face wearing a placid smile of satisfaction, his +hand pointing slightly upward to the blank wall before us. The blank +wall! Of any picture, there or elsewhere in the room, there was no +sign. I turned to him and then from him, and I felt very sick at +heart. The poor old fellow was--must be--mad. I gazed blankly at the +blank wall. "By Van Dyck?" I repeated mechanically. + +"Yes, sir, by Van Dyck," he replied, in the most matter-of-fact +tone imaginable. "So, too, is this one;" he moved, as he spoke, a few +feet to his left. "The second peer's first wife in the costume of a +lady-in-waiting. This portrait and the last are in as good a state of +preservation as on the day they were painted." + +Oh, certainly mad! And yet so graphic was his manner, so crisp and +realistic were his words, that I rubbed my eyes; and looked and looked +again, and almost fancied that Lord Walter and Anne, his wife, grew +into shape before me on the wall. Almost, but not quite; and it was +with a heart full of wondering pity that I accompanied the old man, in +whose manner there was no trace of wildness or excitement, round the +walls; visiting in turn the Cuyp which my lord bought in Holland, the +Rubens, the four Lawrences, and the Philips--a very Barmecide feast of +art. I could not doubt that the old man saw the pictures. But I saw +only bare walls. + +"Now I think you have seen them, family portraits and all," he +concluded, as we came to the doorway again; stating the fact, which +was no fact, with complacent pride. "They are fine pictures, sir. +They, at least, are left, although the house is not what it was." + +"Very fine pictures!" I remarked. I was minded to learn if he were +sane on other points. "Lord Wetherby," I said; "I should suppose that +he is not in London?" + +"I do not know, sir, one way or the other," the servant answered with +a new air of reserve. "This is not his lordship's house. Mrs. Wigram, +my late lord's daughter-in-law, lives here." + +"But this is the Wetherbys' town house," I persisted. I knew so much. + +"It was my late lord's house. At his son's marriage it was settled +upon Mrs. Wigram; and little enough besides, God knows!" he exclaimed +querulously. "It was Mr. Alfred's wish that some land should be +settled upon his wife, but there was none out of the entail, and my +lord, who did not like the match, though he lived to be fond enough of +the mistress afterward, said, 'Settle the house in town!' in a bitter +kind of joke like. So the house was settled, and five hundred pounds a +year. Mr. Alfred died abroad, as you may know, sir, and my lord was +not long in following him." + +He was closing the shutters of one window after another as he spoke. +The room had sunk into deep gloom. I could imagine now that the +pictures were really where he fancied them. "And Lord Wetherby, the +late peer?" I asked, after a pause, "did he leave his daughter-in-law +nothing?" + +"My lord died suddenly, leaving no will," he replied sadly. "That +is how it all is. And the present peer, who was only a second +cousin--well, I say nothing about him." A reticence which was well +calculated to consign his lordship to the lowest deep. + +"He did not help?" I asked. + +"Devil a bit, begging your pardon, sir. But there--it is not my place +to talk of these things. I doubt I have wearied you with talk about +the family. It is not my way," he added, as if wondering at himself, +"only something in what you said seemed to touch a chord like." + +By this time we were outside the room, standing at the inner end of +the hall, while he fumbled with the lock of the door. Short passages +ending in swing doors ran out right and left from this point, and +through one of these a tidy, middle-aged woman, wearing an apron, +suddenly emerged. At sight of me she looked greatly astonished. "I +have been showing the gentleman the pictures," said my guide, who was +still occupied with the door. + +A quick flash of pain altered and hardened the woman's face. "I have +been very much interested, madam," I said softly. + +Her gaze left me, to dwell upon the old man with infinite affection. +"John had no right to bring you in, sir," she said primly. "I have +never known him do such a thing before, and--Lord 'a' mercy! there is +the mistress's knock. Go, John, and let her in; and this gentleman," +with an inquisitive look at me, "will not mind stepping a bit aside, +while her ladyship goes upstairs." + +"Certainly not," I answered. I hastened to draw back into one of the +side passages, into the darkest corner of it, and there stood leaning +against the cool panels, my hat in my hand. + +In the short pause which ensued before John opened the door she +whispered to me, "You have not told him, sir?" + +"About the pictures?" + +"Yes, sir. He is blind, you see." + +"Blind?" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, sir, this year and more; and when the pictures were taken +away--by the present earl--that he had known all his life, and +been so proud to show to people just the same as if they had been his +own--why, it seemed a shame to tell him. I have never had the heart to +do it, and he thinks they are there to this day." + +Blind! I had never thought of that; and while I was grasping the idea +now, and fitting it to the facts, a light footstep sounded in the hall +and a woman's voice on the stairs; such a voice and such a footstep, +that, as it seemed to me, a man, if nothing else were left to him, +might find home in them alone. "Your mistress," I said presently, when +the sounds had died away upon the floor above, "has a sweet voice; but +has not something annoyed her?" + + +[Illustration: "LORD 'A' MERCY! THERE IS THE MISTRESS'S KNOCK."] + + +"Well, I never should have thought that you would have noticed that!" +exclaimed the housekeeper, who was, I dare say, many other things +besides housekeeper. "You have a sharp ear, sir; that I will say. Yes, +there is a something has gone wrong; but to think that an American +gentleman should have noticed it!" + +"I am not American," I said, perhaps testily. + +"Oh, indeed, sir. I beg your pardon, I am sure. It was just your way +of speaking made me think it," she replied; and then there came a +second louder rap at the door, as John, who had gone upstairs with his +mistress, came down in a leisurely fashion. + +"That is Lord Wetherby, drat him!" he said, on his wife calling to him +in a low voice; he was ignorant, I think, of my presence. "He is to be +shown into the library, and the mistress will see him there in five +minutes; and you are to go to her room. Oh, rap away!" he added, +turning toward the door, and shaking his fist at it. "There is many a +better man than you has waited longer at that door." + +"Hush, John! Do you not see the gentleman?" interposed his wife, with +the simplicity of habit. "He will show you out," she added rapidly to +me, "as soon as his lordship has gone in, if you do not mind waiting +another minute." + +"Not at all," I said, drawing back into the corner as they went on +their errands; but though I said, "Not at all," mine was an odd +position. The way in which I had come into the house, and my present +situation in a kind of hiding, would have made most men only anxious +to extricate themselves. But I, while listening to John parleying with +someone at the door, conceived a strange desire, or a desire which +would have been strange in any other man, to see this thing to the +end; conceived it and acted upon it. + +The library? That was the room on the right of the hall, opposite to +Mrs. Wigram's sitting room. Probably, nay I was certain, it had +another door opening on the passage in which I stood. It would cost me +but a step or two to confirm my opinion. When John ushered in the +visitor by one door I had already, by way of the other, ensconced +myself behind a screen, that I seemed to know would face it. I was +going to listen. Perhaps I had my reasons. Perhaps--but there, what +matter? I, as a fact, listened. + +The room was spacious but somber, wainscoted and vaulted with oak. Its +only visible occupant was a thin, dark man of middle size, with a +narrow face, and a stubborn feather of black hair rising above his +forehead; a man of Welsh type. He was standing with his back to the +light, a roll of papers in one hand. The fingers of the other, +drumming upon the table, betrayed that he was both out of temper and +ill at ease. While I was still scanning him stealthily--I had never +seen him before--the door was opened, and Mrs. Wigram came in. I sank +back behind the screen. I think some words passed, some greeting of +the most formal, but though the room was still, I failed to hear it, +and when I recovered myself he was speaking. + +"I am here at your wish, Mrs. Wigram, and your service, too," he was +saying, with an effort at gallantry which sat very ill upon him, +"although I think it would have been better if we had left the matter +to our solicitors." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes. I fancied you were aware of my opinion." + +"I was; and I perfectly understand, Lord Wetherby, your preference for +that course," she replied, with sarcastic coldness, which did not hide +her dislike for him. "You naturally shrink from telling me your terms +face to face." + +"Now, Mrs. Wigram! Now, Mrs. Wigram! Is not this a tone to be +deprecated?" he answered, lifting his hands. "I come to you as a man +of business upon business." + +"Business! Does that mean wringing advantage from my weakness?" she +retorted. + +He shrugged his shoulders. "I do deprecate this tone," he repeated. "I +come in plain English to make you an offer; one which you can accept +or refuse as you please. I offer you five hundred a year for this +house. It is immensely too large for your needs, and too expensive for +your income, and yet you have in strictness no power to let it. Very +well, I, who can release you from that restriction, offer you five +hundred a year for the house. What can be more fair?" + +"Fair? In plain English, Lord Wetherby, you are the only possible +purchaser, and you fix the price. Is that fair? The house would let +easily for twelve hundred." + +"Possibly," he retorted, "if it were in the open market. But it is +not." + +"No," she answered rapidly. "And you, having the forty thousand a year +which, had my husband lived, would have been his and mine; you who, a +poor man, have stepped into this inheritance--you offer me five +hundred for the family house! For shame, my lord! for shame!" + +"We are not acting a play," he said doggedly, showing that her words +had stung him in some degree. "The law is the law. I ask for nothing +but my rights, and one of those I am willing to waive in your favor. +You have my offer." + +"And if I refuse it? If I let the house? You will not dare to enforce +the restriction." + +"Try me," he rejoined, again drumming with his fingers upon the table. +"Try me, and you will see." + +"If my husband had lived----" + +"But he did not live," he broke in, losing patience, "and that makes +all the difference. Now, for Heaven's sake, Mrs. Wigram, do not make a +scene! Do you accept my offer?" + +For a moment she had seemed about to break down, but her pride coming +to the rescue, she recovered herself with wonderful quickness. + +"I have no choice," she said, with dignity. + +"I am glad you accept," he answered, so much relieved that he gave way +to an absurd burst of generosity. "Come!" he cried, "we will say +guineas instead of pounds, and have done with it!" + +She looked at him in wonder. "No, Lord Wetherby," she said, "I +accepted your terms. I prefer to keep to them. You said that you would +bring the necessary papers with you. If you have done so I will sign +them now, and my servants can witness them." + +"I have the draft, and the lawyer's clerk is no doubt in the house," +he answered. "I left directions for him to be here at eleven." + +"I do not think he is in the house," the lady answered. "I should know +if he were here." + +"Not here!" he cried angrily. "Why not, I wonder! But I have the +skeleton lease. It is very short, and to save delay I will fill in the +particulars, names, and so forth myself, if you will permit me to do +so. It will not take me twenty minutes." + +"As you please. You will find a pen and ink on the table. If you will +kindly ring the bell when you are ready, I will come and bring the +servants." + +"Thank you; you are very good," he said smoothly; adding, when she had +left the room. "And the devil take your impudence, madam! As for your +cursed pride--well, it has saved me twenty-five pounds a year, and so +you are welcome to it. I was a fool to make the offer." And with that, +now grumbling at the absence of the lawyer's clerk and now +congratulating himself on the saving of a lawyer's fee, my lord sat +down to his task. + +A hansom cab on its way to the East India Club rattled through the +square, and under cover of the noise I stole out from behind the +screen, and stood in the middle of the room, looking down at the +unconscious worker. If for a minute I felt strongly the desire to +raise my hand and give his lordship such a surprise as he had never in +his life experienced, any other man might have felt the same; and, as +it was, I put it away and only looked quietly about me. Some rays of +sunshine, piercing the corner pane of a dulled window, fell on and +glorified the Wetherby coat of arms blazoned over the wide fireplace, +and so created the one bright spot in the bare, dismantled room, which +had once, unless the tiers of empty shelves and the yet lingering odor +of Russia lied, been lined from floor to ceiling with books. My lord +had taken the furniture; my lord had taken the books; my lord had +taken--nothing but his rights. + +Retreating softly to the door by which I had entered, and rattling the +handle, I advanced afresh into the room. "Will your lordship allow +me?" I said, after I had in vain coughed twice to gain his attention. + +He turned hastily and looked at me with a face full of suspicion. Some +surprise on finding another person in the room and close to him was +natural; but possibly, also, there was something in the atmosphere of +that house which threw his nerves off their balance. "Who are you?" he +cried, in a tone which matched his face. + +"You left orders, my lord," I explained, "with Messrs. Duggan & Poole +that a clerk should attend here at eleven. I very much regret that +some delay has unavoidably been caused." + +"Oh, you are the clerk!" he replied ungraciously. "You do not look +much like a lawyer's clerk." + +Involuntarily I glanced aside and saw in a mirror the reflection of a +tall man with a thick beard and mustaches, gray eyes, and an ugly scar +seaming the face from ear to ear. "Yet I hope to give you full +satisfaction, my lord," I murmured, dropping my eyes. "It was +understood that you needed a confidential clerk." + +"Well, well, sir, to your work!" he replied irritably. "Better late +than never. And after all it may be preferable for you to be here and +see it duly executed. Only you will not forget," he continued hastily, +with a glance at the papers, "that I have myself copied four--well, +three--three full folios, sir, for which an allowance must be made. +But there! Get on with your work. The handwriting will speak for +itself." + +I obeyed, and wrote on steadily, while the earl walked up and down the +room, or stood at a window. Upstairs sat Mrs. Wigram, schooling +herself, I dare swear, to take this one favor that was no favor from +the man who had dealt out to her such hard measure. Outside a casual +passer through the square glanced up at the great house, and seeing +the bent head of the secretary and the figure of his companion moving +to and fro, saw, as he thought, nothing unusual; nor had any +presentiment--how should he?--of the strange scene which the room with +the dingy windows was about to witness. + +I had been writing for perhaps five minutes when Lord Wetherby stopped +in his passage behind me and looked over my shoulder. With a jerk his +eye-glasses fell, touching my shoulder. + +"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "I have seen your handwriting +somewhere; and lately too. Where could it have been?" + +"Probably among the family papers, my lord," I answered. "I have +several times been engaged in the family business in the time of the +late Lord Wetherby." + +"Indeed!" There were both curiosity and suspicion in his utterance of +the word. "You knew him?" + +"Yes, my lord. I have written for him in this very room, and he has +walked up and down, and dictated to me, as you might be doing now," I +explained. + +His lordship stopped his pacing to and fro, and retreated to the +window on the instant. But I could see that he was interested, and I +was not surprised when he continued, with transparent carelessness, "A +strange coincidence! And may I ask what it was upon which you were +engaged?" + +"At that time?" I answered, looking him in the face. "It was a will, +my lord." + +He started and frowned, and abruptly resumed his walk up and down. But +I saw that he had a better conscience than I had given him the credit +of possessing. My shot had not struck fairly where I had looked to +place it; and finding this was so, I turned the thing over afresh, +while I pursued my copying. When I had finished, I asked him--I think +he was busy at the time cursing the absence of tact in the lower +orders--if he would go through the instrument; and he took my seat. + +Where I stood behind him, I was not far from the fireplace. While he +muttered to himself the legal jargon in which he was as well versed as +a lawyer bred in an office, I moved to it; and, neither missed nor +suspected, stood looking from his bent figure to the blazoned shield +which formed part of the mantelpiece. If I wavered, my hesitation +lasted but a few seconds. Then, raising my voice, I called sharply, +"My lord, there used to be here----" + +He turned swiftly, and saw where I was. + +"What the deuce are you doing there, sir?" he cried, in boundless +astonishment, rising to his feet and coming toward me, the pen in his +hand and his face aflame with anger. "You forget----" + +"A safe--a concealed safe for papers," I continued, cutting him short +in my turn. "I have seen the late Lord Wetherby place papers in it +more than once. The spring worked from here. You touch this knob----" + +"Leave it alone, sir!" cried the peer furiously. + +He spoke too late. The shield had swung gently outward on a hinge, +door-fashion, and where it had been gaped a small open safe, lined +with cement. The rays of sunshine, that a few minutes before had +picked out so brightly the gaudy quarterings, now fell on a large +envelope which lay apart on a shelf. It was as clean as if it had been +put there that morning. No doubt the safe was airtight. I laid my hand +upon it. "My lord!" I cried, turning to look at him with ill-concealed +exultation, "here is a paper--I think, a will!" + +A moment before the veins of his forehead had been swollen, his face +dark with the rush of blood. His anger died down, at sight of the +packet, with strange abruptness. He regained his self-control, and a +moment saw him pale and calm, all show of resentment confined to a +wicked gleam in his eye. "A will!" he repeated, with a certain kind of +dignity, though the hand he stretched out to take the envelope shook. +"Indeed! Then it is my place to examine it. I am the heir-at-law, and +I am within my rights, sir." + +I feared that he was going to put the parcel into his pocket and +dismiss me, and I was considering what course I should take in that +event, when instead he carried the envelope to the table by the +window, and tore off the cover without ceremony. "It is not in your +handwriting?" were his first words, and he looked at me with a +distrust that was almost superstitious. No doubt my sudden entrance, +my ominous talk, and my discovery seemed to him to savor of the devil. + +"No," I replied, unmoved. "I told your lordship that I had written a +will at the late Lord Wetherby's dictation. I did not say--for how +could I know?--that it was this one." + +"Ah!" He hastily smoothed the sheets, and ran his eyes over their +contents. When he reached the last page there was a dark scowl on his +face, and he stood a while staring at the signatures; not now reading, +I think, but collecting his thoughts. "You know the provisions of +this?" he presently burst forth with violence, dashing the back of his +hand against the paper. "I say, sir, you know the provisions of this?" + +"I do not, my lord," I answered. Nor did I. + +"The unjust provisions of this will!" he repeated, passing over my +negative as if it had not been uttered. "Fifty thousand pounds to a +woman who had not a penny when she married his son! Ay, and the +interest on another hundred thousand for her life! Why, it is a +prodigious income, an abnormal income, for a woman! And out of whose +pocket is it to come? Out of mine, every stiver of it! It is +monstrous! I say it is! How am I to keep up the title on the income +left to me, I should like to know?" + +I marveled. I remembered how rich he was. I could not refrain from +suggesting that he had still remaining all the real property. "And," I +added, "I understood, my lord, that the testator's personalty was +sworn under four hundred thousand pounds." + +"You talk nonsense!" he snarled. "Look at the legacies! Five thousand +here, and a thousand there, and hundreds like berries on a bush! It is +a fortune, a decent fortune, clean frittered away! A barren title is +all that will be left to me!" + +What was he going to do? His face was gloomy, his hands were +twitching. "Who are the witnesses, my lord?" I asked, in a low voice. + +So low--for, under certain conditions, a tone conveys much, very +much--that he shot a stealthy glance toward the door before he +answered, "John Williams." + +"Blind," I replied, in the same low tone. + +"William Williams." + +"He is dead. He was Mr. Alfred's valet. I remember reading in the +newspaper that he was with his master, and was killed by the Indians +at the same time." + +"True. I remember that that was the case," he answered huskily. "And +the handwriting is Lord Wetherby's." I assented. Then for fully a +minute we were silent, while he bent over the will, and I stood behind +him looking down at him, with thoughts in my mind which he could as +little fathom as could the senseless wood upon which I leaned. Yet I, +too, mistook him. I thought him, to be plain, a scoundrel; and--well, +so he was, but a mean one. "What is to be done?" he muttered at +length, speaking rather to himself than to me. + +I answered softly, "I am a poor man, my lord," while inwardly I was +quoting, "_Quem Deus vult perdere_." + +My words startled him. He answered hurriedly: "Just so! just so! So +shall I be when this cursed paper takes effect. A very poor man! A +hundred and fifty thousand gone at a blow! But there, she shall have +it! She shall have every penny of it; only," he continued slowly, "I +do not see what difference one more day will make." + +I followed his downcast eyes, which moved from the will before him to +the agreement for the lease of the house; and I did see what +difference a day would make. I saw and understood and wondered. He had +not the courage to suppress the will; but if he could gain a slight +advantage by withholding it for a few hours, he had the mind to do +that. Mrs. Wigram, a rich woman, would no longer let the house; she +would be under no compulsion to do so; and my lord would lose a cheap +residence as well as his hundred and fifty thousand pounds. To the +latter loss he could resign himself with a sigh; but he could not bear +to forego the petty gain for which he had schemed. "I think I +understand, my lord," I replied. + +"Of course," he resumed nervously, "you must be rewarded for making +this discovery. I will see that it is so. You may depend upon me. I +will mention the case to Mrs. Wigram, and--and, in fact, my friend, +you may depend upon me." + +"That will not do," I said firmly. "If that be all, I had better go to +Mrs. Wigram at once, and claim my reward a day earlier." + +He grew very red in the face at receiving this check. "You will not, +in that event, get my good word," he said. + +"Which has no weight with the lady," I answered politely but plainly. + +"How dare you speak so to me?" his lordship cried. "You are an +impertinent fellow! But there! How much do you want?" + +"A hundred pounds." + +"A hundred pounds for a mere day's delay, which will do no one any +harm!" + +"Except Mrs. Wigram," I retorted dryly. "Come, Lord Wetherby, this +lease is worth a thousand a year to you. Mrs. Wigram, as you well +know, will not voluntarily let the house to you. If you would have +Wetherby House you must pay me. That is the long and the short of it." + +"You are an impertinent fellow!" he repeated. + +"So you have said before, my lord." + +I expected him to burst into a furious passion, but I suppose there +was a something of power in my tone, beyond the mere defiance which +the words expressed; for, instead of doing so, he eyed me with a +thoughtful, malevolent gaze, and paused to consider. "You are at +Duggan & Poole's," he said slowly. "How was it that they did not +search this cupboard, with which you were acquainted?" + +I shrugged my shoulders. "I have not been in the house since Lord +Wetherby died," I said. "My employers did not consult me when the +papers he left were examined." + +"You are not a member of the firm?" + +"No, I am not," I answered. I was thinking that, so far as I knew +those respectable gentlemen, no one of them would have helped my lord +in this for ten times a hundred pounds. My lord! Faugh! + +He seemed satisfied, and taking out a notecase laid on the table a +little pile of notes. "There is your money," he said, counting them +over with reluctant fingers. "Be good enough to put the will and +envelope back into the cupboard. Tomorrow you will oblige me by +rediscovering it--you can manage that, no doubt--and giving +information at once to Messrs. Duggan & Poole, or Mrs. Wigram, as you +please. Now," he continued, when I had obeyed him, "will you be good +enough to ask the servants to tell Mrs. Wigram that I am waiting?" + +There was a slight noise behind us. "I am here," said someone. I am +sure that we both jumped at the sound, for though I did not look that +way, I knew that the voice was Mrs. Wigram's, and that she was in the +room. "I have come to tell you, Lord Wetherby," she went on, "that I +have an engagement from home at twelve. Do I understand, however, that +you are ready? If so, I will call in Mrs. Williams." + +"The papers are ready for signature," the peer answered, betraying +some confusion, "and I am ready to sign. I shall be glad to have the +matter settled as agreed." Then he turned to me, where I had fallen +back, as seemed becoming, to the end of the room, and said, "Be good +enough to ring the bell, if Mrs. Wigram permit it." + +As I moved to the fireplace to do so, I was conscious that the lady +was regarding me with some faint surprise. But when I had regained my +position and looked toward her, she was standing near the window, +gazing steadily out into the square, an expression of disdain rendered +by face and figure. Shall I confess that it was a joy to me to see her +fair head so high, and to read, even in the outline of her girlish +form, a contempt which I, and I only, knew to be so justly based? For +myself, I leaned against the edge of the screen by the door, and +perhaps my hundred pounds lay heavily on my heart. As for him, he +fidgeted with his papers, although they were all in order, and was +visibly impatient to get his bit of knavery accomplished. Oh, he was a +worthy man! And Welshman! + +"Perhaps," he presently suggested, for the sake of saying something, +"while your servant is coming, you will read the agreement, Mrs. +Wigram. It is very short, and, as you know, your solicitors have +already seen it in the draft." + +She bowed, and took the paper negligently. She read some way down the +first sheet with a smile, half careless, half contemptuous. Then +I saw her stop--she had turned her back to the window to obtain more +light--and dwell on a particular sentence. I saw--God! I had forgotten +the handwriting!--I saw her gray eyes grow large, and fear leap into +them, as she grasped the paper with her other hand, and stepped nearer +to the peer's side. "Who?" she cried. "Who wrote this? Tell me! Do you +hear? Tell me quickly!" + +He was nervous on his own account, wrapped in his own piece of +scheming, and obtuse. + +"I wrote it," he said, with maddening complacency. He put up his +glasses and glanced at the top of the page she held out to him. "I +wrote it myself, and I can assure you that it is quite right, and a +faithful copy. You do not think----" + +"Think! think! No! no. This, I mean! Who wrote this?" she cried, awe +in her face, and a suppliant tone, strange as addressed to that man, +in her voice. + +He was confounded by her vehemence, as well as hampered by his own +evil conscience. + +"The clerk, Mrs. Wigram, the clerk," he said petulantly, still in his +fog of selfishness. "The clerk from Messrs. Duggan & Poole's." + +"Where is he?" she cried out breathlessly. I think she did not believe +him. + +"Where is he?" he repeated, in querulous surprise. "Why here, of +course. Where should he be, madam? He will witness my signature." + +Would he? Signatures! It was little of signatures I recked at that +moment. I was praying to Heaven that my folly might be forgiven me; +and that my lightly planned vengeance might not fall on my own head. +"Joy does not kill," I was saying to myself, repeating it over and +over again, and clinging to it desperately. "Joy does not kill!" But +oh! was it true? in face of that white-lipped woman! + +"Here!" She did not say more, but gazing at me with great dazed eyes, +she raised her hand and beckoned to me. And I had no choice but to +obey; to go nearer to her, out into the light. + +"Mrs. Wigram," I said hoarsely, my voice sounding to me only as a +whisper, "I have news of your late--of your husband. It is good news." + +"Good news?" Did she faintly echo my words? or, as her face, from +which all color had passed, peered into mine, and searched it in +infinite hope and infinite fear, did our two minds speak without need +of physical lips? "Good news?" + +"Yes," I whispered. "He is alive. The Indians did not----" + +"Alfred!" Her cry rang through the room, and with it I caught her in +my arms as she fell. Beard and long hair, and scar and sunburn, and +strange dress--these which had deceived others were no disguise to +her--my wife. I bore her gently to the couch, and hung over her in a +new paroxysm of fear. "A doctor! Quick! A doctor!" I cried to Mrs. +Williams, who was already kneeling beside her. "Do not tell me," I +added piteously, "that I have killed her!" + +"No! no! no!" the good woman answered, the tears running down her +face. "Joy does not kill!" + + +An hour later this fear had been lifted from me, and I was walking up +and down the library alone with my thankfulness; glad to be alone, yet +more glad, more thankful still, when John came in with a beaming face. +"You have come to tell me," I cried eagerly, pleased that the tidings +had come by his lips, "to go to her? That she will see me?" + +"Her ladyship is sitting up," he replied. + +"And Lord Wetherby?" I asked, pausing at the door to put the question. +"He left the house at once?" + +"Yes, my lord, Mr. Wigram has been gone some time." + + + + + A BLORE MANOR + EPISODE. + + +Not very remarkable was this courtship: there was nothing very strange +about it, or more romantic than is apt to be the case with such +things. I doubt not that since the daughters of the children of men +were wooed, there have been many millions of such May-time passages of +greater interest, and that countless Pauls and Virginias have plucked +the sweet spring flowers together amid more picturesque surroundings. +Every matron--and some maids, if they will, though we deprecate the +omen--can recall at least one wooing which she can vouch as a thousand +million times more extraordinary than that of my commonplace hero and +heroine. That is so: but for that very reason let her read of this +one, and taking off the cover of her own potpourri savor some faint +scent of the dewy roses of the past springtime. + +It had its origin in the 12:10 down train from Euston to Holyhead, +which carried, among other passengers, Charles Maitland of the Temple, +barrister by theory and idler by, or for want of, practice. He +traveled first-class. When you come to know him better you will +understand how superfluous was this last piece of information. Ten +minutes before the train was due out, he arrived at the station +in a hansom. A silk hat, a well-fitting light overcoat--the weather, +for March, was mild--gray trousers, and brown gaiters over his +patent-leather boots were the most salient details of a costume of +which the chief characteristic was an air of perfect correctness. At +the bookstall he did not linger, culling with loving eyes the backs of +many books, and reveling in his choice with florin in hand, as do +second-class passengers, but without hesitation he purchased a +_Saturday Review_ and a _Cornhill Magazine_. After he had taken his +seat a Smith's boy invited him to select from a tray, upon which +glowed half a dozen novels; but he gazed sublimely into vacancy over +the boy's head; who soon left him, and prompted by a vengeful spirit +only inferior to his precocious knowledge of passenger nature, +directed upon him the attacks of two kindred sprites with Banbury +cakes and British sherry. The window was slight protection against +their shrill voices, but soon the train started and freed him from +them. He changed his hat for a brown deer-stalker, and having the +compartment to himself, had recourse to his own thoughts. It was not +unlikely, he told himself, that he had been precipitate in undertaking +this journey. An Easter, coming somewhat early, seemed to have +forestalled his wonted invitations for that season: and, to stay in +London being out of the question, he had accepted Tom Quaritch's +offer. He began to have doubts of the wisdom of this course now, but +it was too late. He was bound for Tom Quaritch's. He had known +something of Tom at college; and recently he had done him a slight +service in town. No more genial soul than the latter existed, and he +did not rest satisfied until he had won from Maitland a half promise +to come and see his beagles at Easter. At the time our traveler had +but the remotest idea of doing so. He did not know enough of Tom's +people, while to have the acquaintance of the right people and of no +one else was part of his creed. But now he was between the horns of a +dilemma. These people, of whom he knew nothing, might not be the right +people; that was one horn. The other consisted in the fact that to +spend a vacation in town was not the thing. When we have chosen our +horn it is natural it should seem the sharper of the two. Mr. Charles +Maitland frowned as he cut the pages of his _Cornhill_. And then he +made up his mind to two things. Firstly, to bring his stay at Blore +Manor within the smallest possible limits, and secondly, to comport +himself while there with such a formal courtesy as should encourage +only the barest familiarity. + +At Stafford he had to change into another train, which he did, even as +he cut his magazine, with characteristic precision and coolness. And +so he reached Blore Station about half-past five, still neat and +unsullied, with all the aroma of the street of scents about him. + +He let down the window and put out his head. The country thereabouts +was flat and uninteresting, the farming untidy, the fences low, yet +straggling. A short distance away a few roofs peeping forth from a +clump of trees, above which the smoke gently curled, marked the +village. The station consisted of a mere shed and a long, bare +platform. There were but five persons visible, and of these one was a +porter, and one a man servant in a quiet, countrified livery. The +latter walked quickly toward him, but was forestalled by three girls, +the other occupants of the platform, who, at sight of the stranger, +came tearing from the far end of it at a headlong pace. + +"Here he is! Here he is!" cried the foremost, her shrill voice drawing +a dozen heads to the windows of the train. She owed her success to an +extempore tug in the form of an excited bull terrier, which, dragging +violently at a strap attached to her wrist, jerked her after him much +as if she had been a kettle tied to his tail. She might be anything +between twenty and five-and-twenty--a tiny little creature of almost +fairylike proportions. Her color was high and her hair brown; she had +curiously opaque brown eyes, bright as well as opaque. Gloves she had +none, and her hair was disordered by her struggles with the dog. But, +after all, the main impression she made upon Maitland was that she was +excessively small. He had no eyes for the others at present. But one, +owing to the reckless method of her progression, gave him a dim notion +of being all legs. + +"You are Mr. Maitland, are you not?" the first comer began volubly, +though loss of breath interfered a little with the symmetry of her +sentences. "Tom had to attend a meeting of the fox committee at +Annerley. I'm Maggie Quaritch, and this is Dubs--I beg your pardon, +how silly of me--Joan, I mean, and this is Agnes. Why, child, what +have you done with your hat? Pick it up at once! What wild things Mr. +Maitland will think us!" + +The youngest girl, whose hat was lying upon the platform some distance +away, hung her head in a very pretty attitude of shy _gaucherie_. She +was about fifteen--rising sixteen in her brother's phrase--and taller +than the elder girls, with a peculiarly pale complexion, greenish-gray +eyes, and a mass of brownish-red hair. Her loosely made dress was more +in consonance with her style than Maitland, staggering under the shock +of such a reception, had time or mind to observe. He formally +acknowledged the introductions, but words did not come easily to him. +He was dumfounded. He was so unaccustomed to this, or to people like +these. + +"And we must not forget Bill," resumed Miss Quaritch, if possible, +faster than before. "Isn't he a beauty now, Mr. Maitland? Look at his +chest, look at his head, look at his eyes. Yes, he lost that one in a +fight with Jack Madeley's retriever, and I'm afraid the sight of the +other is going, but he's the most beautiful, loveliest, faithfullest +dog in the whole world for all that, and his mother loves him, she +does!" All in a shrill tone, rising a note perhaps with the final +words. + +The train was moving out. The last that the twelve faces, still glued +to the carriage windows, beheld of the scene was Miss Quaritch +rapturously kissing and hugging the bull terrier, while the Londoner +looked on sheepishly. He was horribly conscious of the presence of +those grinning faces and suffered as much until the train left as if +the onlookers had been a dozen of his club comrades. Whereas the fact +was that they found whatever amusement the scene afforded them not in +the girl's enthusiasm--she was young enough to gush prettily--but in +the strange gentleman's awkward consciousness. + +"Now, Mr. Maitland, shall Abiah drive you up in the dog cart, or will +you walk with us? Agnes!" this suddenly in a loud scream to the +youngest girl, who had moved away, "you can let out the dogs! Down, +Juno! Go down, Jack o' Pack! Roy, you ill-conditioned little dog, you +are always quarreling! I'm afraid they will make you in a dreadful +pickle." + +Indeed it seemed to Maitland that they would. An avalanche of +scurrying dogs descended upon him from some receptacle where they had +been penned. He had a vision of a red Irish setter with soft brown +eyes, not unlike to, but far finer than Miss Maggie's, with its paws +momentarily upon the breast of his overcoat; of a couple of wiry fox +terriers skirmishing and snarling round his trousers, and of a shy, +lop-eared beagle puppy casting miserable glances at them from an +outside place. And then the party got under way in some sort of order. +At first Maitland had much ado to answer yes and no. + +He was still bewildered by these things, crushed, confounded. + +He could have groaned as he sedately explained at what time he left +Euston, and where he changed. He was conscious that when their +attention was not demanded by the pack of dogs, the girls were +covertly scrutinizing him; but in his present state of mind, it +mattered not a straw to him whether they were calling him a prig, and +a "stick," and affected, and supercilious, or were admiring half in +scorn the fit of his clothes and boots, and his lordly air. All these +remarks were in fact made by some one or other of them before the day +was over. But he was, and would have been, supremely indifferent to +their criticisms. + +The weight of the conversation did not fall heavily upon him: indeed, +when Miss Quaritch had a share in it, no one else was overburdened. +And from time to time they met upon the road old women or children to +whom the girls had always something to say. It was, "Well, Mrs. +Marjoram, and so the donkey is better," or, "Now, Johnny, get along +home to your mother," or, "How are you, daddy?" in the high-pitched +key so trying to the cockney's ear. + +In these parleys Joan, the second girl, was foremost. Maitland glanced +at her. A young man may be very fastidious, but neck-ribbons awry and +brown hair in rich disorder do not entirely close his eyes to a +maiden's comeliness. It would be strange if they did, were she such an +one as Joan Quaritch. Not tall, yet tall enough, with a full, rounded +figure, to which her dress hardly did, hardly could do, justice, she +moved with the grace and freedom of perfect health. Her fair +complexion could afford to have its clearness marred by a freckle or +two, such as hers, mere clots in cream; and if her features were not +perfect, yet a nose too straight and a chin too heavy were more than +redeemed by great gray eyes that, sunny or tearful, could be nothing +but true--eyes whose frankness and good fellowship aggravated the +wounds they inflicted. Why she was called "Dubs" I cannot tell. +Perhaps no one can. But, in her good nature and her truth, her simple +pride and independence, it suited her. + +He had just, to quote the language of this cynic's thoughts, +catalogued the last of the Graces, when the party reached the house, +which stood some way back from the road. Tom Quaritch had just +returned, and welcomed the guest warmly; his mother met Maitland at +the drawing-room door. She was a singularly comely woman, stately and +somewhat formal. Her greeting so differed from that of her daughters +that the visitor found himself speculating upon the extraordinary +flightiness of the late Mr. Quaritch. Wherein I doubt not he did him +injustice. + +At dinner our hero had in some degree recovered himself, and he told +them the latest news of the theaters, the clubs, and the book world, +and while their ignorance filled him with a wonder he did not hide, +their attention propitiated him. He talked well, and if he was +inclined to lord it a little, a shrewd word from Mrs. Quaritch, or a +demure glance from Miss Joan's eyes, would lower his didactic tone. +The youngest girl promised to be an especial thorn in his side. + +"Does everyone in London wear shiny boots in the daytime, Mr. +Maitland?" she asked suddenly, _a propos des bottes_, and nothing +else. + +"A considerable number do, Miss Agnes." + +"What sort of people? No, I'm not being rude, mother." + +"Well, I hardly know how to answer that. The idle people, perhaps." He +smiled indulgently, which aggravated the young lady. She replied, +crumbling her bread the while in an absent, meditative way, her eyes +innocently fixed on his face: + +"Then you are one of the idle people, Mr. Maitland? I don't think I +like idle people." + +"How singularly unselfish of you, my dear Agnes!" put in Joan +vigorously--more vigorously than politely. + +Maitland's last reflection as he got into bed was that he was quite +out of place here. These might be very nice people in their way, but +not in his way. He must make his visit as short as possible, and +forget all about it as quickly as he could. The girls would be +insufferable when they came to know him familiarly. Good gracious! +fancy young ladies who had never heard of "John Inglesant," or of W. +D. Howells' books, and confused the Grosvenor Gallery with the Water +Color Exhibition! and read Longfellow! and had but vague ideas of the +aesthetic! Miss Joan was pretty too, yes, really pretty, and had fine +eyes and a pleasant voice, and fine eyes--yes, fine eyes. And with +this thought he fell comfortably asleep. + +He came down next morning to find her alone in the breakfast room. A +short-skirted beagling costume of scarlet and blue allowed him a +glimpse of neat ankles in scarlet hose. She was kneeling before the +fire playing with Roy. Her brown wavy hair fell in a heavy loose loop +upon her neck, and there was something wonderfully bright and fresh in +her whole appearance. + +"How quickly you have fallen in with our barbarous ways!" she said +with a smile, as she rose. "I did not expect you to be up for hours +yet." + +"I generally breakfast at nine, and it is nearly that now," he +answered, annoyed by some hint of raillery in her tone, and yet unable +to conceal a glance of admiration. "I think I must adopt the Blore +breakfast hour; it seems, Miss Joan, to agree with you all so well." + +"Yes," was the indifferent reply; "we get the first of the three +rewards for early rising. The other two we leave for our betters." + +And she turned away with a little nod as the others came in. In five +minutes a noisy, cheerful breakfast was in progress, and the chances +of finding a hare formed the all-engrossing subject of conversation. + +On this calm gray morning, warm rather than cold, the little pack, to +the great delight of the household, found quickly, and found well. No +October leveret was before them, but a good, stout old hare, who gave +them a ringing run of two hours, the pleasure of which was not +materially diminished when she baffled them at last in the mysterious +way these old hares affect and huntsmen fail to fathom. The visitor +performed creditably, though in indifferent training. At Oxford he had +been something of a crack, and could still upon occasion forget to +keep his boots clean and his clothes intact. + +Returning home, Maitland found himself again with Joan. The heat and +pleasure of the chase had for the time melted his reserve and thawed +his resolution. He talked well and freely to her of a great London +hospital over which one of the house surgeons had recently taken him; +of the quiet and orderliness of the lone, still wards; of the feeling +that came over him there that life was all suffering and death; and +how quickly in the bustle of the London streets, where the little +world of the hospital seemed distant and unreal, this impression faded +away. She listened eagerly, and he, tasting a stealthy and stolen +pleasure in seeing how deep and pitiful the gray eyes could grow, +prolonged his tale. + +"I have enjoyed hearing about it so much," she said gratefully, as +they entered the village. And indeed she had passed several people +upon the road without a word of greeting. "I hope to be a nurse soon. +The dear mother does not think me old enough yet." + +"You are going to be a nurse!" he said in tones of such incredulous +surprise that the amusement which first appeared in her face changed +to annoyance. + +"Why not? One does not need a knowledge of art and the newest books +for that," she sharply answered. + +"Perhaps not," he said feebly. "But after such a life as this, it--the +change I mean--would be so complete." + +She looked at him, an angry gleam in her eyes, and the color high in +her cheeks. + +"Do you think, Mr. Maitland, that because we run wild--oh, no, you +have not said so--and seem to do nothing but enjoy ourselves, we are +incapable of anything beyond hunting and playing tennis, and feeding +the dogs and the hens and the chickens? That we cannot have a thought +beyond pleasure, or a wish to do good like other people--people in +London? That we can never look beyond Blore--though Blore, I can tell +you, would manage ill without some of us!--nor have an aspiration +above the kennels and the--and the stables? If you do think so, I +trust you are wrong." + +He would have answered humbly, but she was gone into the house in huge +indignation, leaving our friend strangely uncomfortable. It was just +twenty-four hours since his arrival: the opinion of one at least of +the madcaps had ceased to be a matter of indifference to him. The +change occurred to himself as he mounted the stairs, so that he +laughed when alone in his room and resolved to keep away from that +girl for the future. How handsome she had looked when she was flying +out at him, and how generous seemed her anger even at the time! +Somehow the prospect of the four days he had still to spend at Blore +was not so depressing as at first. Certainly the vista was shortened +by one day, and that may have been the reason. + +Meanwhile Maggie, in her sister's bedroom, had much to say of the +day's doings. "Didn't he go well? My word! he is not half so stiff as +I thought him. I believe he'd be a very good fellow if he had some of +the conceit taken out of him." + +"I think he's insufferable," was the chilling answer from Joan; "he +considers us savages, and treats us as such." + +"He may consider us fit for the Zoo, if he likes; it won't hurt us," +quoth Maggie indifferently. With which Joan expressed neither assent +nor dissent, but brushed her hair a little faster. + +Maitland did not for a moment abandon his fresh resolution. Still he +thought he owed it to himself to set the matter right with the young +lady before he stiffened anew. As he descended he met her running up +two steps at a time. + +"Miss Joan, I am afraid I vexed you just now," he said, with grave +humility. "Will you believe it unintentional--stupid, on my part, and +grant me your pardon?" + +"Oh, dear!" she cried gayly. "We are not used to this here. It is +quite King Cophetua and the beggar maid." She dropped him a mock +courtesy, and held out her hand in token of amity, when the full +signification of what she had said rushed into her mind and flooded +her face with crimson. Without another word or look she fled upstairs, +and he heard her door bang behind her. + +Mr. Charles Maitland, after this _rencontre_, went down smiling +grimly. In the hall he stood for a moment in deep thought; then sagely +shook his head several times at a stuffed fox and joined the party in +the drawing room. + + +[Illustration: MR. CHARLES MAITLAND, AFTER THIS RENCONTRE, WENT DOWN +SMILING GRIMLY.] + + +The next day and the next passed with surprising quickness, as the +latter days of a visit always do. In another forty-eight hours +Maitland's would be over. Yet singularly enough his spirits did not +rise, as he expected they would, at the near prospect of release. As +he closed his bedroom door he had a vision of a pair of gray eyes +smiling into his, and his palm seemed still to tingle with the touch +of a soft, warm hand. He had kept his resolution well--small credit to +him. Joan had seemed to avoid him since her unlucky speech upon the +stairs; when she did speak to him her words, or more often her tone, +stung him, and he smarted under a sense that she repaid with interest +the small account in which he was inclined to hold the family +generally. He resented her veiled contempt with strange bitterness, so +that Agnes remarked with her usual candor that he and Joan never spoke +to one another save to "jangle." Afterward, walking on the lawn, some +line about "sweet bells jangled out of tune," ran in his head. The +girl was a vixen, he said to himself, yet he tried to imagine how +tender and glorious the great gray eyes, that he only knew as cold or +saucy or defiant, could be when their depths were stirred by love. But +his imagination failing to satisfy even himself, he went to put on his +beagling dress in the worst of humors. + +Possibly this made him a trifle reckless, for a promising run ended in +ten minutes so far as he was concerned, in a sprained ankle. In +jumping over a low fence into a lane his one foot came down sideways +on a large stone upon which some pauper had scamped his work, and the +mischief was done. The ominous little circle that hunting men know so +well soon gathered round him, and he was helped to his feet, or rather +foot. Then Agnes fetched the carriage, and he was driven back to +Blore. Now, under the circumstances, what could Mrs. Quaritch, without +an _arriere pensee_ in the world, do but press him to stay until at +least he could put the foot to the ground? Nothing. And what could he +do but consent? At any rate, that is what he did. + +So he was established in the drawing room, a pretty, cozy room, and +told himself it was a terrible nuisance. But, for a cripple confined +to a couple of rooms, and surrounded by uncongenial people, without a +single new magazine or a word of the world's gossip, he kept up his +spirits wonderfully well. The ways of the three girls, and the calm +approval of their sedate mother, could not fail to amuse him. Lying +there and seeing and hearing many things which would not have come to +his knowledge as a mere visitor, he found them not quite what he had +judged them to be. He missed Joan one morning, and when with an +unconscious fretfulness he inquired the reason, learned that she had +been sitting up through the night with an old servant who was ill in +the village. He said some word about it to her--very diffidently, for +she took his compliments but ill at all times; now she flamed out at +him with twice her ordinary bitterness and disdain, and punished him +by taking herself out of the room at once. + +"Confound it!" he cried, beating up his pillow fiercely, "I believe +the girl hates me." + +Did he? and did she? + +Then he fell into a fit of musing such as men approaching thirty, who +have lived in London, are very apt to indulge in. A club was not +everything, be it as good as it might be. And life was not a lounge in +Bond Street and Pall Mall, and nothing more. He thought how dull a +week spent on his sofa in the Adelphi would have been, even with the +newest magazines and the fifth and special _Globes_. In three days was +his birthday--his twenty-ninth. And did the girl really hate him? It +was a nice name, Joan; Dubs, umph! Dubs? Joan? And so he fell asleep. + +How long he slept and whether he carried something of his dreams into +his waking he could only guess, but he was aroused by a singular +sensation--singular in that, though once familiar enough, it was now +as strange to him as the sight of his dead mother's face. If his +half-recalled senses did not deceive him, if he was not still dreaming +of Joan, the warm touch of a pair of soft lips was yet lingering upon +his forehead, the rustle of a dress very near his ear yet sounded +crisply in it. And then someone glided from him, and he heard a hasty +exclamation and opened his eyes dreamily. By the screen which +concealed the door and sheltered him from its draughts was standing +Joan, a-tiptoe, poised as in expectation, something between flight and +amusement in her face, her attitude full of unconscious grace. He was +still bewildered, and hardly returned from a dreamland even less +conventional than Blore. Without as much surprise as if he had thought +the matter out--it seemed then almost a natural thing--he said: + +"You shall have the gloves, Dubs, with pleasure." + +The girl's expression, as he spoke, changed to startled astonishment. +She became crimson from her hair to her throat. She stepped toward +him, checked herself, then made a quick movement with her hand as if +about to say something, and finally covered her face with her hands +and fled from the room. Before he was wide awake he was alone. + +At first he smiled pleasantly at the fire, and patted Roy, Joan's +terrier, who was lying beside him, curled up snugly in an angle of the +sofa. Afterward he became grave and thoughtful, and finally shook his +head very much as he had at the stuffed fox in the hall. And so he +fidgeted till Roy, who was in a restful mood, retired to the +hearthrug. + +It would be hard to describe Joan's feelings that afternoon. She was +proud, and had begun by resenting for all of them the ill-concealed +contempt of Tom's London friend--this man of clubs and chit-chat. She +was quite prepared to grant that he was different from them, but not +superior. A kind of contempt for the veneer and polish which were his +pride was natural to her, and she showed this, not rudely nor +coquettishly, but with a hearty sincerity. Still, it is seldom a girl +is unaware of admiration, and rare that she does not in secret respect +self-assertion in the male creature. This man knew much too, and could +tell it well, that was strange and new and delightful to the country +maiden. If he had any heart at all--and since he was from London town +she supposed he had not, though she granted him eyes and fine +perceptions of the beautiful--she might have, almost, some day, +promised herself to like him, had he been of her world--not reflecting +that this very fact that he was out of her world formed the charm by +which he evoked her interest. As things were, she more than doubted of +his heart, and had no doubt at all that between their worlds lay a +great, impassable, unbridgeable abyss. + +But this afternoon the dislike, which had been fading day by day along +with those feelings in another which had caused it, was revived in its +old strength upon the matter of the kiss. Alone in her own room the +thought made her turn crimson with vexation, and she stamped the floor +with annoyance. He had made certain overtures to her--slender and +meaningless in all probability. Still, if he could believe her capable +after such looks and words as he had used--if after these he thought +her capable of this, then indeed, were there no abyss at all, he could +be nothing to her. Oh, it was too bad, too intolerable! She would +never forgive him. How indeed could she be anything to him, if she +could do such a thing, as dreadful, as unmaidenly to her as to the +proudest beauty among his London friends. She told herself again that +he was insufferable; and determined to slap Roy well, upon the first +opportunity, if that mistaken little pearl of price would persist in +favoring the stranger's sofa. + +Until this was cleared up she felt her position the very worst in the +world, and yet would not for a fortune give him an opportunity of +freeing her from it. The very fact that he addressed her with, as it +seemed, a greater show of respect, chafed her. Agnes, with a +precocious cleverness, a penetration quite her own, kept herself and +her dog, Jack o' Pack _alias_ Johnny Sprawn, out of her sister's way, +and teased her only before company. + +But at last Maitland caught Miss Joan unprotected. + +"I hope that these are the right size, Miss Joan--they are six and a +quarter," he said boldly, yet with, for a person of his disposition +and breeding, a strange amount of shamefacedness; producing at the +same time a pair of gloves, Courvoisier's best, many-buttoned, fit for +a goddess. + +"I beg your pardon?" she said, breathing quickly. But she guessed what +he meant. + +"Let me get out of your debt." + +"Out of my debt, Mr. Maitland?" taking the gloves mechanically. + +"Please. Did you think I had forgotten? I should find it hard to do +that," he continued, encouraged and relieved by having got rid of the +gloves, and inattentive at the moment to her face. Yet she looked long +at him searchingly. + +"I have found it hard to understand you," she said at last, with +repressed anger in voice and eye; "very hard, Mr. Maitland; but I +think I do so now. Do you believe that it was I who kissed you +when you were asleep on Wednesday afternoon? Can you think so? You +force me to presume it is so. Your estimate of my modesty and of your +own deserts must differ considerably. I had not the honor. Your +gloves"--and she dropped them upon the floor as if the touch +contaminated her, the act humiliating the young gentleman at least as +much as her words--"you had better give to Agnes, if you wish to +observe a silly custom. They are due to her, not to me. I thank you, +Mr. Maitland, for having compelled me to give this pleasant +explanation." + +She turned away with a gesture of such queenly contempt that our poor +hero--now most unheroic, and dumb as Carlyle would have had his, only +with mortification and intense disgust at his stupidity--amazed that +he could ever have thought meanly of this girl, "who moved most +certainly a goddess," had not a word to express his sorrow. A hero +utterly crestfallen! But at the door she looked back, for some strange +reason known perchance to female readers. The gloves were on the +floor, just beyond his reach--poor, forlorn, sprawling objects, their +fingers and palms spread as in ridiculous appeal. As for him, he was +lying back on the sofa, in appearance so crushed and helpless that the +woman's pity ever near her eyes moved her. She went slowly back, and +picked up the gloves, and put them on the table where he could take +them. + +"Miss Joan," he said, in a tone of persistence that claimed a hearing, +and, starting far from the immediate trouble, was apt to arouse +curiosity; "we are always, as Agnes says, jangling--on my side, of +course, is the false note. Can we not accord better, and be better +friends?" + +"Not until we learn to know one another better," she said coldly, +looking down at him, "or become more discerning judges." + +"I was a fool, an idiot, an imbecile!" She nodded gravely, still +regarding him from a great height. "I was mad to believe it possible!" + +"I think we may be better friends," she responded, smiling faintly, +yet with sudden good humor. "We are beginning to know--one another." + +"And ourselves," almost under his breath. Then, "Miss Joan, will you +ever forgive me? I shall never err again in that direction," he +pleaded. "I am humiliated in my own eyes until you tell me it is +forgotten." + +She nodded, and this time with her own frank smile. + +Then she turned away and did leave the room, this time taking Roy with +her. Her joyous laughter and his wild, excited barking proclaimed +through the length and breadth of Blore that he was enjoying the rare +indulgence of a good romp on the back lawn. It was Roy's day. + +And can a dog ever hope for a better day than that upon which his +mistress becomes aware that she is also another's mistress: becomes +aware that another is thinking of her and for her, nay, that she is +the very center of that other's thoughts? What a charming, pleasantly +bewildering discovery it is, this learning that for him when she is in +the room it is full, and wanting her it is empty, be it never so +crowded; that all beside, though they be witty or famous, or what they +will, or can or would, are but lay figures, _umbrae_, shadow guests in +his estimation. She learns with strange thrills, that in moments of +meditation will flash to eye and cheek, that her slightest glance and +every change of color, every tone and smile, are marked with jealous +care; that pleasure which she does not share is tasteless, and a +dinner of herbs, if she be but at a far corner, is a feast for +princes. That is her dog's day, or it may be his dog's day. It is a +pleasant discovery for a man, _mutatis mutandis_; but for a girl, a +sweet, half fearful consciousness, the brightest part of love's young +dream--even when the kindred soul is of another world, and an abyss, +wide, impassable, unbridgeable lies between. + +But these things come to sudden ends sometimes. Sprains, however +severe, have an awkward knack of getting well. Swellings subside from +inanition, and doctors insist for their credit's sake that the stick +or ready arm be relinquished. Certainly a respite or a relapse--call +it which you will--is not impossible with care, but it is brief. A +singular shooting pain, not easily located with exactness, but +somewhere in the neighborhood of the calf, has been found useful; and +a strange rigidity of the tendon Achilles in certain positions may +gain a day or two. But at last not even these will avail, and the +doubly injured one must out and away from among the rose leaves. Twice +Maitland fixed his departure for the following morning, and each time +when pressed to stay gave way, after so feeble, so ludicrous a +resistance, if it deserved the name, that Agnes scarcely concealed her +grimace, and Joan looked another way. She did not add anything to the +others' hospitable entreaties. If she guessed what made Maggie's +good-night kiss so fervent and clinging, she made no sign and offered +no opening. + +In the garden next morning, Maitland taxed her with her neutrality. It +was wonderful how his sense of humor had become developed at Blore. + +"I thought that you did not need so much pressure as to necessitate +more than four people's powers of persuasion being used," she +answered, in the same playful spirit. "And besides, now you are well +enough, must you not leave?" + +"Indeed, Miss Joan?" + +"And go back to your own way of life? It is a month since you saw the +latest telegrams, and there is a French company at the Gaiety, I learn +from the _Standard_. We have interests and duties, though you were so +hard of belief about them, at Blore, but you have none." + +"No interests?" + +She shook her head. "No duties, at any rate." + +"And so you think," he asked, his eyes fixed upon her changing +features, "that I should go back to my old way of life--of a century +ago?" + +"Of course you must!" But she was not so rude as to tell him what a +very foolish question this was. Still it was, was it not? + +"So I will, or to something like it, and yet very unlike. But not +alone. Joan, will you come with me? If I have known you but a month, I +have learned to love your truth and goodness and you, Joan, so that if +I go away alone, to return to the old life would be bitterly +impossible. You have spoiled that; you must make for me a fresh life +in its place. Do you remember you told me that when we knew one +another we might be better friends? I have come to know you better, +but we cannot be friends. We must be something more, more even than +lovers, Joan--husband and wife, if you can like me enough." + +It was not an unmanly way of putting it, and he was in earnest. But so +quiet, so self-restrained was his manner that it savored of coldness. +The girl whose hand he held while he spoke had no such thought. Her +face was turned from him. She was gazing over the wall across the +paddock where Maggie's mare was peaceably and audibly feeding, and so +at the Blore Ash on its mimic hill, every bough and drooping branchlet +dark against the sunset sky; and this radiant in her eyes with a +beauty its deepest glow had never held for her before. The sweetest +joy was in her heart, and grief in her face. He had been worthy of +himself and her love. While he spoke she told herself, not that some +time she might love him, but that she had given him all her true heart +already. And yet as he was worthy, so she must be worthy and do her +part. + +"You have done me a great honor," she said at last, drawing away her +hand from his grasp, though she did not turn her face, "but it cannot +be, Mr. Maitland. I am very grateful to you--I am indeed, and sorry." + +"Why can it not be?" he said shortly; startled, I am bound to say, and +mortified. + +"Because of--of many things. One is that I should not make you happy, +nor you me. I am not suited to your way of life. I am of the country, +and I love to be free and unconstrained, while you are of the town. +Oh, we should not get on at all! Perhaps you would not be ashamed of +me as your wife, but you might be, and I could not endure the chance +even of it. There," she added, with a laugh in which a woman's ear +might have detected the suppression of a sob, "is one sober reason +where none can be needed." + +"Is that your only reason?" + +She was picking the mortar out of the wall. "Oh, dear me, no! I have a +hundred, but that is a sufficient one," she answered almost +carelessly, flirting a scrap of lime from the wall with her +forefinger. + +"And you have been playing with me all this time!" cried he, obtusely +enraged by her flippancy. + +"Not knowingly, not knowingly, indeed!" + +"Can you tell me that you were not aware that I loved you?" + +"Well, I thought--the fact is, I thought that you were amusing +yourself--in West End fashion." + +"Coquette!" + +"Mr. Maitland!" she cried vehemently, "how dare you? There is proof, +if any were needed, that I am right. You would not have dared to say +that to any of your town acquaintances. I am no coquette. If I have +given you pain, I am very sorry. And--I beg that we may part friends." + +She had begun fiercely, with all her old spirit. He turned away, and +she ended with a sudden, anxious, pitiful lameness, that yet, so angry +and dull of understanding was he, taught him nothing. + +"Friends!" he cried impatiently. "I told you that it was impossible. +Oh, Joan, think again! Have I been too hasty? Have I given you no time +to weigh it? Have I just offended you in some little thing? Then let +me come to you again in three months, after I have been back among my +old friends?" + +"No, don't do that, Mr. Maitland. It will be of no use and will but +give us pain." + +"And yet I will come," he replied firmly, endeavoring by the very +eager longing of his own gaze to draw from her fair, downcast face +some sign of hope. "I will come, if you forbid me a hundred times. And +if you have been playing with me--true, I am in no mood for soft words +now--it shall be your punishment to say me nay, again. I shall be +here, Joan, to ask you in three months from to-day." + +"I cannot prevent you," she said. "Believe me, I shall only have the +same answer for you." + +"I shall come," he said doggedly, and looked at her with eyes +reluctant to quit her drooping lashes lest they should miss some +glance bidding his heart take courage. But none came, only the color +fluttered uncertainly in her face. So he slowly turned away from her +at last and walked across the garden, and out of sight by the gate +into the road. He saw nothing of the long, dusty track, and straggling +hedges bathed in the last glows of sunset. Those big gray eyes, so +frank and true, came again and again between him and the prospect, and +blinded his own with a hot mist of sorrow and anger. Ah, Blore, thou +wast mightily avenged! + + * * * * * + +It is a hot afternoon in August, laden with the hum of dozing life. +The sun has driven the less energetic members of the Quaritch family +into the cool gloom of the drawing room, where the open windows are +shaded by the great cedar. Mrs. Quaritch, upon the sofa, is nodding +over a book. Joan, in a low wicker seat, may be doing the same; while +Agnes, pursuing a favorite employment upon the hearthrug, is now and +again betrayed by a half stifled growl from one or other of the dogs +as they rise and turn themselves reproachfully, and flop down again +with a sigh in a cool place. + +"Agnes," cries her mother, upon some more distinct demonstration of +misery being made, "for goodness' sake leave the dogs alone. They have +not had a moment's peace since lunch." + +"A dog's life isn't peace, mamma," she answers, with the simple air of +a discoverer of truth. But, nevertheless, she looks about for fresh +worlds to conquer. + +"Even Mr. Maitland was better than this," she announces, after a long +yawn of discontent, "though he was dull enough, I wonder why he did +not come in July. Do you know, Joan?" + +"Oh, Agnes, do let us have a moment's peace for once! We are not +dogs," cried Joan fretfully. + +Wonder! she was always wondering. This very minute, while her eyes +were on the page, it was in her mind. Through all those three months +passing hour by hour and day by day, she could assure herself that +when he had come and gone, she would be at rest again; things would be +as before with her. Let him come and go! But when July arrived, and he +did not, a sharper pain made itself felt. Bravely as she strove to +beat it down, well as she might hide it from others, the certainty +that it had needed no second repulse to balk his love sorely hurt her +pride. Just her pride, she told herself; nothing else. That he had not +stood the test he had himself proposed; that any unacknowledged +faintest hope she might have cherished, deep down in her heart, that +he might master her by noble persistence, must now be utterly +quenched; these things of course had no bitterness for her through the +hot August days; had nothing to do with the wearied look that +sometimes dulled the gray eyes, nor with the sudden indifference or as +sudden enthusiasms for lawn tennis and dogs and pigeons, that marked +her daily moods. + +Agnes' teasing, by putting her meditations into words, has disturbed +her. She gets up and moves restlessly about, touching this thing and +that, and at last leaves the room and stands in the hall, thinking. +Here, too, it is dark and cool, and made to seem more so--the door +into the garden being open--by the hot glare of sunshine falling upon +the spotless doorstep. She glances at this listlessly. The house is +still, the servants are at the back; the dogs all worn out by the +heat. Then, as she hesitates, a slight crunching of footsteps upon the +gravel comes to her ear, breaking the silence. A sudden black shadow +falls upon the sunny step and tells of a visitor. Someone chases away +his shadow, and steps upon the stone, and raises his gloved hand to +the bell. Charles Maitland at last! + +Coming straight in from the sunshine he cannot see the swift welcome +that springs to eye and cheek, a flash of light and color, quick to +come and go. He is too much moved himself to mark how her hand shakes. +He sees no difference in her. But she sees a change in him. She +detects some subtle difference that eludes her attempt to define its +nature and only fills her with a vague sense that this is not the +Charles Maitland from whom she parted. + +It is a meeting she has pictured often, but not at all like this. He +signs to her to take him into the dining room, the door of which +stands open. + +"I have come back, Miss Joan." + +"Yes?" she answers, sitting down with an attempt to still the tumult +within, with such success that she brings herself for the moment +nearly to the frame of mind in which they parted, and there is the +same weary sufferance in her tone. + +"I have come back as I said I would. I have overstepped the three +months, but I had a good reason for my delay. Indeed I have been in +doubt whether I ought to see you again at all, only I could not bear +you to think what you naturally would. I felt that I must see you, +even if it cost us both pain." There is a new awkwardness in his tone +and pose. + +"I told you that it was--quite unnecessary--and useless," she answers, +with a strange tightening in her throat. + +"Then it can do you no harm," he assents quietly. "I have come back +not to repeat my petition, but to tell you why I do not and cannot." + +"I think," she puts in coldly, "that upon the whole you had better +spare yourself the unpleasantness of explaining anything to me. Don't +you think so? I asked you for no proof, and held out no hope. Why do +you trouble me? Why have you come back?" + +"You have not changed!" + +For the first time a ring of contempt in her voice takes the place of +cold indifference. "I do not change in three months, Mr. Maitland. But +there! my mother will wish to see you, and so will Agnes, who is +hankering after something to happen. They are in the drawing room." + +"But, Miss Joan, grant me one moment! You have not heard my reasons." + +"Your reasons! Is it absolutely necessary?" she asks, half fretfully, +half scornfully; her uppermost thought an intense desire to be by +herself in her own room, with the door safely locked. + +"I think so, at any rate. Why, I see! By Jove! of course you must +be thinking the worst of me now! Oh, no! if you could not love me, +Joan--pray pardon me, I had no right to call you by your name--you +need not despise me. I cannot again ask you to be my wife, because," +he laughs uneasily, "fortune has put it out of my power to take a +wife. My trustee has made ducks and drakes of my property, or rather +bulls and bears. I have but a trifle left to begin the world upon, and +far too little to marry upon." + +"I read of it in the papers. I saw that a Mr. Maitland was the chief +sufferer, but I did not connect him with you," she says, in a low +voice. + +"No, of course not. How should you?" he answers lightly. But +nevertheless her coldness is dreadful to him. He had thought she would +express some sympathy. And gayly as he talks of it, he feels something +of the importance of a ruined man and something of his claim to pity. + +"And what are you going to do?" + +"Do? We've arranged all that. They say there is a living to be made at +the Bar in New Zealand, if one does not object to riding boots and +spurs as part of the professional costume. Of course it will be a +different sort of life, and Agnes' favorite patent leathers will +be left behind in every sense. This would have been a bad blow to +me"--there is a slight catch in his voice, and he gets up, and looks +out of one of the windows with his back to her--"now I have learned +from you that life should not be all lounging round the table and +looking over other people's cards. It has been a sharp lesson, but +very opportune as things have turned out. I am ready to take a hand +myself now--even without a partner." + +He does not at once turn round. He had not fancied she would take it +like this, and he listens for a word to tell him that at any rate she +is sorry--is grieved as for a stranger. Then he feels a sudden light, +timid touch upon his arm. Joan is standing quite close to him, and +does not move or take away her hand as he turns. Only she looks down +at the floor when she speaks: + +"I think I should be better than--than dummy--if you will take me to +New Zealand." + +Half laughing, half crying, and wholly confused, she looks up into his +astonished face with eyes so brimful of love and tenderness that they +tell all her story. For just an instant his eyes meet hers. Then, with +a smothered exclamation, he draws her to him--and--in fact smothers +the exclamation. + +"I am so glad you've lost your money," she sobs, hiding her face, +as soon as she can, upon his shoulder. "I should not have done at +all--for you--in London, Charley." + +There let us leave her. But no, another is less merciful. Neither of +them hears the door open or sees Agnes' face appear at it. But she +both sees and hears, and says very distinctly and clearly: + +"Well!" + +But even Agnes is happy and satisfied. Something _has_ happened. + + + + + THE FATAL LETTER. + + +I have friends who tell me that they seldom walk the streets of London +without wondering what is passing behind the house-fronts; without +picturing a comedy here, a love-scene there, and behind the dingy cane +blinds a something ill-defined, a something odd and _bizarre_. They +experience--if you believe them--a sense of loneliness out in the +street, an impatience of the sameness of all these many houses, their +dull bricks and discreet windows, and a longing that someone would +step out and ask them to enter and see the play. + +Well, I have never felt any of these things; but as I was passing +through Fitzhardinge Square about half-past ten o'clock one evening in +last July, after dining, if I remember rightly, in Baker Street, +something happened to me which I fancy may be of interest to such +people. + +I was passing through the square from north to south, and to avoid a +small crowd, which some reception had drawn together, I left the +pavement and struck across the road to the path around the oval +garden; which, by the way, contains a few of the finest trees in +London. This part was in deep shadow, so that when I presently emerged +from it and recrossed the road to the pavement near the top of +Fitzhardinge Street, I had an advantage over any persons on the +pavement. They were under the lamps, while I, coming from beneath the +trees, was almost invisible. + +The door of the house immediately in front of me as I crossed was +open, and an elderly man servant out of livery was standing at it, +looking up and down the pavement by turns. It was his air of furtive +anxiety that drew my attention to him. He was not like a man looking +for a cab, or waiting for his sweetheart; and I had my eye upon him as +I stepped upon the pavement before him. But my surprise was great when +he uttered a low exclamation of dismay at sight of me, and made as if +he would escape; while his face, in the full glare of the light, grew +so pale and terror-stricken that he might before have been completely +at his ease. I was astonished and instinctively stood still returning +his gaze; for perhaps twenty seconds we remained so, he speechless, +and his hands fallen by his side. Then, before I could move on, as I +was in the act of doing, he cried, "Oh, Mr. George! Oh! Mr. George!" +in a tone that rang out in the stillness rather as a wail than an +ordinary cry. + +My name, my surname, I mean, is George. For a moment I took the +address to myself, forgetting that the man was a stranger, and my +heart began to beat more quickly with fear of what might have +happened. "What is it?" I exclaimed. "What is it?" and I shook back +from the lower part of my face the silk muffler I was wearing. The +evening was close, but I had been suffering from a sore throat. + +He came nearer and peered more closely at me, and I dismissed my fear; +for I thought that I could see the discovery of his mistake dawning +upon him. His pallid face, on which the pallor was the more noticeable +as his plump features were those of a man with whom the world as a +rule went well, regained some of its lost color, and a sigh of relief +passed his lips. But this feeling was only momentary. The joy of +escape from whatever blow he had thought imminent gave place at once +to his previous state of miserable expectancy of something or other. + +"You took me for another person," I said, preparing to pass on. At +that moment I could have sworn--I would have given one hundred to one +twice over--that he was going to say yes. To my intense astonishment, +he did not. With a very visible effort he said, "No." + +"Eh! What?" I exclaimed. I had taken a step or two. + +"No, sir." + +"Then what is it?" I said. "What do you want, my good fellow?" + +Watching his shuffling, indeterminate manner, I wondered if he were +sane. His next answer reassured me on that point. There was an almost +desperate deliberation about its manner. "My master wishes to see you, +sir, if you will kindly walk in for five minutes," was what he said. + +I should have replied, "Who is your master?" if I had been wise; or +cried, "Nonsense!" and gone my way. But the mind, when it is spurred +by a sudden emergency, often overruns the more obvious course to adopt +a worse. It was possible that one of my intimates had taken the house, +and said in his butler's presence that he wished to see me. Thinking +of that I answered, "Are you sure of this? Have you not made a +mistake, my man?" + +With an obstinate sullenness that was new in him, he said, No he had +not. Would I please to walk in? He stepped briskly forward as he +spake, and induced me by a kind of gentle urgency to enter the house, +taking from me, with the ease of a trained servant, my hat, coat, and +muffler. Finding himself in the course of his duties he gained more +composure; while I, being thus treated, lost my sense of the +strangeness of the proceeding, and only awoke to a full consciousness +of my position when he had softly shut the door behind us and was in +the act of putting up the chain. + +Then I confess I looked round, a little alarmed at my precipitancy. +But I found the hall spacious, lofty, and dark-paneled, the ordinary +hall of an old London house. The big fireplace was filled with plants +in flower. There were rugs on the floor and a number of chairs with +painted crests on the backs, and in a corner was an old sedan chair, +its poles upright against the wall. + +No other servants were visible, it is true. But apart from this all +was in order, all was quiet, and any idea of violence was manifestly +absurd. + +At the same time the affair seemed of the strangest. Why should the +butler in charge of a well-arranged and handsome house--the house of +an ordinary wealthy gentleman--why should he loiter about the open +doorway as if anxious to feel the presence of his kind? Why should he +show such nervous excitement and terror as I had witnessed? Why should +he introduce a stranger? + +I had reached this point when he led the way upstairs. The staircase +was wide, the steps were low and broad. On either side at the head of +the flight stood a beautiful Venus of white Parian marble. They were +not common reproductions, and I paused. I could see beyond them a +Hercules and a Meleager of bronze, and delicately tinted draperies and +ottomans that under the light of a silver hanging lamp--a gem from +Malta--changed a mere lobby to a fairies' nook. The sight filled me +with a certain suspicion; which was dispelled, however, when my hand +rested for an instant upon the reddish pedestal that supported one of +the statues. The cold touch of the marble was enough for me. The +pillars were not of composite; of which they certainly would have +consisted in a gaming house, or worse. + +Three steps carried me across the lobby to a curtained doorway +by which the servant was waiting. I saw that the "shakes" were upon +him again. His impatience was so ill concealed that I was not +surprised--though I was taken aback--when he dropped the mask +altogether, and as I passed him--it being now too late for me to +retreat undiscovered, if the room were occupied--laid a trembling hand +upon my arm and thrust his face close to mine. "Ask how he is! Say +anything," he whispered, trembling, "no matter what, sir! Only, for +the love of Heaven, stay five minutes!" + +He gave me a gentle push forward as he spoke--pleasant, all this!--and +announced in a loud, quavering voice, "Mr. George!" which was true +enough. I found myself walking round a screen at the same time that +something in the room, a long, dimly lighted room, fell with a brisk, +rattling sound, and there was the scuffling noise of a person, still +hidden from me by the screen, rising to his feet in haste. + +Next moment I was face to face with two men. One, a handsome elderly +gentleman, who wore gray mustaches and would have seemed in place at a +service club, was still in his chair, regarding me with a perfectly +calm, unmoved face, as if my entrance at that hour were the commonest +incident of his life. The other had risen and stood looking at me +askance. He was five-and-twenty years younger than his companion and +as good-looking in a different way. But now his face was white and +drawn, distorted by the same expression of terror--ay, and a darker +and fiercer terror than that which I had already seen upon the +servant's features; it was the face of one in a desperate strait. He +looked as a man looks who has put all he has in the world upon an +outsider--and done it twice. In that quiet drawing room by the side of +his placid companion, with nothing whatever in their surroundings to +account for his emotion, his panic-stricken face shocked me +inexpressibly. + +They were in evening dress; and between them was a chess table, its +men in disorder: almost touching this was another small table bearing +a tray of Apollinaris water and spirits. On this the young man was +resting one hand as if, but for its support, he would have fallen. + +To add one more fact, I had never seen either of them in my life. + +Or wait; could that be true? If so, it must indeed have been a +nightmare I was suffering. For the elder man broke the silence by +addressing me in a quiet, ordinary tone that exactly matched his face. +"Sit down, George," he said, "don't stand there. I did not expect you +this evening." He held out his hand, without rising from his chair, +and I advanced and shook it in silence. "I thought you were in +Liverpool. How are you?" he continued. + +"Very well, I thank you," I muttered mechanically. + +"Not very well, I should say," he retorted. "You are as hoarse as a +raven. You have a bad cold at best. It is nothing worse, my boy, is +it?" with anxiety. + +"No, a throat cough; nothing else," I murmured, resigning myself to +this astonishing reception--this evident concern for my welfare on the +part of a man whom I had never seen in my life. + +"That is well!" he answered cheerily. Not only did my presence cause +him no surprise. It gave him, without doubt, actual pleasure! + +It was otherwise with his companion; grimly and painfully so indeed. +He had made no advances to me, spoken no word, scarcely altered +his position. His eyes he had never taken from me. Yet in him there +was a change. He had discovered, exactly as had the butler before +him, his mistake. The sickly terror was gone from his face, and a +half-frightened malevolence, not much more pleasant to witness, had +taken its place. Why this did not break out in any active form was +part of the general mystery given to me to solve. I could only surmise +from glances which he later cast from time to time toward the door, +and from the occasional faint creaking of a board in that direction, +that his self-restraint had to do with my friend the butler. The +inconsequences of dreamland ran through it all: why the elder man +remained in error; why the younger with that passion on his face was +tongue-tied; why the great house was so still; why the servant should +have mixed me up with this business at all--these were questions as +unanswerable, one as the other. + +And the fog in my mind grew denser when the old gentleman turned from +me as if my presence were a usual thing, and rapped the table before +him impatiently. "Now, Gerald!" cried he, in sharp tones, "have you +put those pieces back? Good Heavens! I am glad that I have not nerves +like yours! Don't you remember the squares, boy? Here, give them to +me!" With a hasty gesture of his hand, something like a mesmeric pass +over the board, he set down the half dozen pieces with a rapid tap! +tap! tap! which made it abundantly clear that he, at any rate, had no +doubt of their former positions. + +"You will not mind sitting by until we have finished the game?" he +continued, speaking to me, and in a voice I fancied more genial than +that which he had used to Gerald. "You are anxious to talk to me about +your letter, George?" he went on when I did not answer. "The fact is +that I have not read the inclosure. Barnes, as usual, read the outer +letter to me, in which you said the matter was private and of grave +importance; and I intended to go to Laura to-morrow, as you suggested, +and get her to read the news to me. Now you have returned so soon, I +am glad that I did not trouble her." + +"Just so, sir," I said, listening with all my ears; and wondering. + +"Well, I hope there is nothing very bad the matter, my boy?" he +replied. "However--Gerald! it is your move! ten minutes more of such +play as your brother's, and I shall be at your service." + +Gerald made a hurried move. The piece rattled upon the board as if he +had been playing the castanets. His father made him take it back. I +sat watching the two in wonder and silence. What did it all mean? Why +should Barnes--doubtless behind the screen, listening--read the outer +letter? Why must Laura be employed to read the inner? Why could not +this cultivated and refined gentleman before me read his---- Ah! that +much was disclosed to me. A mere turn of the hand did it. He had made +another of those passes over the board, and I learned from it what an +ordinary examination would not have detected. He, the old soldier with +the placid face and light-blue eyes, was blind! Quite blind! + +I began to see more clearly now, and from this moment I took up, at +any rate in my own mind, a different position. Possibly the servant +who had impelled me into the middle of this had had his own good +reasons for doing so, as I now began to discern. But with a clew to +the labyrinth in my hand, I could no longer move passively at any +other's impulse. I must act for myself. For a while I sat still and +made no sign. My suspicions were presently confirmed. The elder man +more than once scolded his opponent for playing slowly. In one of +these intervals he took from an inside pocket of his dress waistcoat a +small package. + +"You had better take your letter, George," he said. "If there are, as +you mentioned, originals in it, they will be more safe with you than +with me. You can tell me all about it, _viva voce_, now you are here. +Gerald will leave us alone presently." + +He held the papers toward me. To take them would be to take an active +part in the imposture, and I hesitated, my own hand half outstretched. +But my eyes fell at the critical instant upon Master Gerald's face, +and my scruples took themselves off. He was eying the packet with an +intense greed and a trembling longing--a very itching of the fingers +and toes to fall upon the prey--that put an end to my doubts. I rose +and took the papers. With a quiet, but I think significant look in his +direction, I placed them in the breast pocket of my evening coat. I +had no safer receptacle about me, or into that they would have gone. + +"Very well, sir," I said, "there is no particular hurry. I think the +matter will keep, as things now are, until to-morrow." + +"To be sure. You ought not to be out with such a cold at night, my +boy," he answered. "You will find a decanter of the Scotch whisky you +gave me last Christmas on the tray. Will you have some with hot water +and a lemon, George? The servants are all at the theater--Gerald +begged a holiday for them--but Barnes will get you the things in a +minute." + +"Thank you; I won't trouble him. I will take some with cold water," I +replied, thinking I should gain in this way what I wanted--time to +think; five minutes to myself while they played. + +But I was out of my reckoning. "I will have mine now, too," he said. +"Will you mix it, Gerald?" + +Gerald jumped up to do it, with tolerable alacrity. I sat still, +preferring to help myself when he should have attended to his father, +if his father it was. I felt more easy now that I had those papers in +my pocket. The more I thought of it the more certain I became that +they were the object aimed at by whatever deviltry was on foot, and +that possession of them gave me the whip hand. My young gentleman +might snarl and show his teeth, but the prize had escaped him. + +Perhaps I was a little too confident, a little too contemptuous of my +opponent; a little too proud of the firmness with which I had taken at +one and the same time the responsibility and the post of vantage. A +creak of the board behind the screen roused me from my thoughts. It +fell upon my ear trumpet-tongued, a sudden note of warning. I glanced +up with a start and a conviction that I was being caught napping, and +looked instinctively toward the young man. He was busy at the tray, +his back to me. Relieved of my fear of I did not know what,--perhaps a +desperate attack upon my pocket,--I was removing my eyes, when, in +doing so, I caught sight of his reflection in a small mirror beyond +him. Ah! + +What was he busy about? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, at the moment. He +was standing motionless,--I could fancy him breathless also,--a +strange, listening expression on his face, which seemed to me to have +faded to a grayish tinge. His left hand was clasping a half-filled +tumbler, the other was at his waistcoat pocket. So he stood during +perhaps a second or two, a small lamp upon the tray before him +illumining his handsome figure; and then his eyes, glancing up, met +the reflection of mine in the mirror. Swiftly as the thought itself +could pass from brain to limb, the hand which had been resting in the +pocket flashed with a clatter among the glasses; and, turning almost +as quickly, he brought one of the latter to the chess table, and set +it down unsteadily. + +What had I seen? Nothing, actually nothing. Just what Gerald had been +doing. Yet my heart was going as many strokes to the minute as a +losing crew. I rose abruptly. + +"Wait a moment, sir," I said, as the elder man laid his hand upon the +glass. "I don't think that Gerald has mixed this quite as you like +it." + +He had already lifted it to his lips. I looked from him to Gerald. +That young gentleman's color, though he faced me hardily, shifted more +than once, and he seemed to be swallowing a succession of oversized +fives balls; but his eyes met mine in a vicious kind of smile that was +not without its gleam of triumph. I was persuaded that all was right +even before his father said so. + +"Perhaps you have mixed for me, Gerald?" I suggested pleasantly. + +"No!" he answered in sullen defiance. He filled a glass with +something--perhaps it was water--and drank it, his back toward me. He +had not spoken so much as a single word to me before. + +The blind man's ear recognized the tone now. "I wish you boys would +agree better," he said wearily. "Gerald, go to bed. I would as soon +play chess with an idiot from Earlswood. Generally you can play the +game, if you are good for nothing else; but since your brother came +in, you have not made a move which anyone not an imbecile would make. +Go to bed, boy! go to bed!" + +I had stepped to the table while he was speaking. One of the glasses +was full. I lifted it, with seeming unconcern, to my nose. There was +whisky in it as well as water. Then _had_ Gerald mixed for me? At any +rate, I put the tumbler aside, and helped myself afresh. When I set +the glass down empty, my mind was made up. + +"Gerald does not seem inclined to move, sir, so I will," I said +quietly. "I will call in the morning and discuss that matter, if it +will suit you. But to-night I feel inclined to get to bed early." + +"Quite right, my boy. I would ask you to take a bed here instead of +turning out, but I suppose that Laura will be expecting you. Come in +any time tomorrow morning. Shall Barnes call a cab for you?" + +"I think I will walk," I answered, shaking the proffered hand. "By the +way, sir," I added, "have you heard who is the new Home Secretary?" + +"Yes, Henry Matthews," he replied. "Gerald told me. He had heard it at +the club." + +"It is to be hoped that he will have no womanish scruples about +capital punishment," I said, as if I were incidentally considering the +appointment. And with that last shot at Mr. Gerald--he turned green, I +thought, a color which does not go well with a black mustache--I +walked out of the room, so peaceful, so cozy, so softly lighted as it +looked, I remember, and downstairs. I hoped that I had paralyzed the +young fellow, and might leave the house without molestation. + +But, as I gained the foot of the stairs, he tapped me on the shoulder. +I saw, then, looking at him, that I had mistaken my man. Every trace +of the sullen defiance which had marked his manner throughout the +interview upstairs was gone. His face was still pale, but it wore a +gentle smile as we confronted one another under the hall lamp. "I have +not the pleasure of knowing you, but let me thank you for your help," +he said in a low voice, yet with a kind of frank spontaneity. "Barnes' +idea of bringing you in was a splendid one, and I am immensely obliged +to you." + + +[Illustration: "YOU ARE FORGETTING THE PAPERS," HE REMINDED ME.] + + +"Don't mention it," I answered stiffly, proceeding with my +preparations for going out as if he had not been there, although I +must confess that this complete change in him exercised my mind no +little. + +"I feel so sure that we may rely upon your discretion," he went on, +ignoring my tone, "that I need say nothing about that. Of course, we +owe you an explanation, but as your cold is really yours and not my +brother's, you will not mind if I read you the riddle to-morrow +instead of keeping you from your bed to-night?" + +"It will do equally well; indeed better," I said, putting on my +overcoat and buttoning it carefully across my chest, while I affected +to be looking with curiosity at the sedan chair. + +He pointed lightly to the place where the packet lay. "You are +forgetting the papers," he reminded me. His tone almost compelled the +answer: "To be sure." + +But I had pretty well made up my mind, and I answered instead: "Not at +all. They are quite safe, thank you." + +"But you don't---- I beg your pardon," he said, opening his eyes very +wide, as if some new light were beginning to shine upon his mind and +he could scarcely believe its revelations. "You don't really mean that +you are going to take those papers away with you?" + +"Certainly!" + +"My dear sir!" he remonstrated earnestly. "This is preposterous. Pray +forgive me the reminder, but those papers, as my father gave you to +understand, are private papers, which he supposed himself to be +handing to my brother George." + +"Just so," was all I said. And I took a step toward the door. + +"You really mean to take them?" he asked seriously. + +"I do; unless you can satisfactorily explain the part I have played +this evening, and also make it clear to me that you have a right to +the possession of the papers." + +"Confound it! If I must do so tonight, I must!" he said reluctantly. +"I trust to your honor, sir, to keep the explanation secret." I bowed, +and he resumed: "My elder brother and I are in business together. +Lately we have had losses which have crippled us so severely that we +decided to disclose them to Sir Charles and ask his help. George did +so yesterday by letter, giving certain notes of our liabilities. You +ask why he did not make such a statement by word of mouth? Because he +had to go to Liverpool at a moment's notice to make a last effort to +arrange the matter. And as for me," with a curious grimace, "my father +would as soon discuss business with his dog! Sooner!" + +"Well?" I said. He had paused, and was absently nicking the blossoms +off the geraniums in the fireplace with his pocket handkerchief, +looking moodily at his work the while. I cannot remember noticing the +handkerchief, yet I seem to be able to see it now. It had a red +border, and was heavily scented with white rose. "Well?" + +"Well," he continued, with a visible effort, "my father has been +ailing lately, and this morning his usual doctor made him see +Bristowe. He is an authority on heart disease, as you doubtless know; +and his opinion is," he added, in a lower voice and with some emotion, +"that even a slight shock may prove fatal." + +I began to feel hot and uncomfortable. What was I to think? The packet +was becoming as lead in my pocket. + +"Of course," he resumed more briskly, "that threw our difficulties +into the shade at once; and my first impulse was to get these papers +from him. Don't you see that? All day I have been trying in vain to +effect it. I took Barnes, who is an old servant, partially into my +confidence, but we could think of no plan. My father, like many people +who have lost their sight, is jealous, and I was at my wits' end, when +Barnes brought you up. Your likeness," he added in a parenthesis, +looking at me reflectively, "to George put the idea into his head, I +fancy? Yes, it must have been so. When I heard you announced, for a +moment I thought that you were George." + +"And you called up a look of the warmest welcome," I put in dryly. + +He colored, but answered almost immediately, "I was afraid that he +would assume that the governor had read his letter, and blurt out +something about it. Good Lord! if you knew the funk in which I have +been all the evening lest my father should ask either of us to read +the letter!" and he gathered up his handkerchief with a sigh of +relief, and wiped his forehead. + +"I could see it very plainly," I answered, going slowly in my mind +over what he had told me. If the truth must be confessed, I was in no +slight quandary what I should do, or what I should believe. Was this +really the key to it all? Dared I doubt it? or that that which I had +constructed was a mare's nest--the mere framework of a mare's nest. +For the life of me I could not tell! + +"Well?" he said presently, looking up with an offended air. "Is there +anything else I can explain? or will you have the kindness to return +my property to me now?" + +"There is one thing, about which I should like to ask a question," I +said. + +"Ask on!" he replied; and I wondered whether there was not a little +too much of bravado in the tone of sufferance he assumed. + +"Why do you carry"--I went on, raising my eyes to his, and pausing on +the word an instant--"that little medicament--you know what I mean--in +your waistcoat pocket, my friend?" + +He perceptibly flinched. "I don't quite--quite understand," he began +to stammer. Then he changed his tone and went on rapidly, "No! I will +be frank with you, Mr.--Mr.----" + +"George," I said calmly. + +"Ah, indeed?" a trifle surprised, "Mr. George! Well, it is something +Bristowe gave me this morning to be administered to my father--without +his knowledge, if possible--whenever he grows excited. I did not think +that you had seen it." + +Nor had I. I had only inferred its presence. But having inferred +rightly once, I was inclined to trust my inference farther. Moreover, +while he gave this explanation, his breath came and went so quickly +that my former suspicions returned. I was ready for him when he said, +"Now I will trouble you, if you please, for those papers?" and held +out his hand. + +"I cannot give them to you," I replied, point-blank. + +"You cannot give them to me now?" he repeated. + +"No. Moreover, the packet is sealed. I do not see, on second thoughts, +what harm I can do you--now that it is out of your father's hands--by +keeping it until to-morrow, when I will return it to your brother, +from whom it came." + +"He will not be in London," he answered doggedly. He stepped between +me and the door with looks which I did not like. At the same time I +felt that some allowance must be made for a man treated in this way. + +"I am sorry," I said, "but I cannot do what you ask. I will do this, +however. If you think the delay of importance, and will give me your +brother's address in Liverpool, I will undertake to post the letters +to him at once." + +He considered the offer, eying me the while with the same disfavor +which he had exhibited in the drawing room. At last he said slowly, +"If you will do that?" + +"I will," I repeated. "I will do it immediately." + +He gave me the direction--"George Ritherdon, at the London and +Northwestern Hotel, Liverpool"--and in return I gave him my own name +and address. Then I parted from him, with a civil good-night on either +side--and little liking, I fancy--the clocks striking midnight, and +the servants coming in as I passed out into the cool darkness of the +square. + +Late as it was I went straight to my club, determined that, as I had +assumed the responsibility, there should be no laches on my part. +There I placed the packet, together with a short note explaining how +it came into my possession, in an outer envelope, and dropped the +whole, duly directed and stamped, into the nearest pillar box. I could +not register it at that hour, and rather than wait until next morning, +I omitted the precaution; merely requesting Mr. Ritherdon to +acknowledge its receipt. + +Well, some days passed; during which it may be imagined that I thought +no little about my odd experience. It was the story of the Lady and +the Tiger over again. I had the choice of two alternatives at least. I +might either believe the young fellow's story, which certainly had the +merit of explaining in a fairly probable manner an occurrence of so +odd a character as not to lend itself freely to explanation. Or I +might disbelieve his story, plausible in its very strangeness as it +was, in favor of my own vague suspicions. Which was I to do? + +Well, I set out by preferring the former alternative. This, +notwithstanding that I had to some extent committed myself against it +by withholding the papers. But with each day that passed without +bringing me an answer from Liverpool, I leaned more and more to the +other side. I began to pin my faith to the Tiger, adding each morning +a point to the odds in the animal's favor. So it went on until ten +days had passed. + +Then a little out of curiosity, but more, I gravely declare, because I +thought it the right thing to do, I resolved to seek out George +Ritherdon. I had no difficulty in learning where he might be found. +I turned up the firm of Ritherdon Brothers (George and Gerald), +cotton-spinners and India merchants, in the first directory I +consulted. And about noon the next day I called at their place of +business, and sent in my card to the senior partner. I waited five +minutes--curiously scanned by the porter, who no doubt saw a likeness +between me and his employer--and then I was admitted to the latter's +room. + +He was a tall man with a fair beard, not one whit like Gerald, and yet +tolerably good looking; if I say more I shall seem to be describing +myself. I fancied him to be balder about the temples, however, and +grayer and more careworn than the man I am in the habit of seeing in +my shaving glass. His eyes, too, had a hard look, and he seemed in ill +health. All these things I took in later. At the time I only noticed +his clothes. "So the old gentleman is dead," I thought, "and the young +one's tale is true, after all?" George Ritherdon was in deep mourning. + +"I wrote to you," I began, taking the seat to which he pointed, "about +a fortnight ago." + +He looked at my card, which he held in his hand. "I think not," he +said slowly. + +"Yes," I repeated. "You were then at the London and Northwestern +Hotel, at Liverpool." + +He was stepping to his writing table, but he stopped abruptly. "I was +in Liverpool," he answered, in a different tone, "but I was not at +that hotel. You are thinking of my brother, are you not?" + +"No," I said. "It was your brother who told me you were there." + +"Perhaps you had better explain what was the subject of your letter," +he suggested, speaking in the weary tone of one returning to a painful +matter. "I have been through a great trouble lately, and this may well +have been overlooked." + +I said I would, and as briefly as possible I told the main facts of my +strange visit in Fitzhardinge Square. He was much moved, walking up +and down the room as he listened, and giving vent to exclamations from +time to time, until I came to the arrangement I had finally made with +his brother. Then he raised his hand as one might do in pain. + +"Enough!" he said abruptly. "Barnes told me a rambling tale of some +stranger. I understand it all now." + +"So do I, I think!" I replied dryly. "Your brother went to Liverpool, +and received the papers in your name?" + +He murmured what I took for "Yes." But he did not utter a single word +of acknowledgment to me, or of reprobation of his brother's deceit. I +thought some such word should have been spoken; and I let my feelings +carry me away. "Let me tell you," I said warmly, "that your brother is +a----" + +"Hush!" he said, holding up his hand again. "He is dead." + +"Dead!" I repeated, shocked and amazed. + +"Have you not read of it in the papers? It is in all the papers," he +said wearily. "He committed suicide--God forgive me for it!--at +Liverpool, at the hotel you have mentioned, and the day after you saw +him." + +And so it was. He had committed some serious forgery--he had always +been wild, though his father, slow to see it, had only lately closed +his purse to him--and the forged signatures had come into his +brother's power. He had cheated his brother before. There had long +been bad blood between them; the one being as cold, businesslike, and +masterful as the other was idle and jealous. + +"I told him," the elder said to me, shading his eyes with his hand, +"that I should let him be prosecuted--that I would not protect or +shelter him. The threat nearly drove him mad; and while it was hanging +over him, I wrote to disclose the matter to Sir Charles. Gerald +thought his last chance lay in recovering this letter unread. The +proofs against him destroyed, he might laugh at me. His first attempts +failed; and then he planned, with Barnes' cognizance, to get +possession of the packet by drugging my father's whisky. Barnes' +courage deserted him; he called you in, and--and you know the rest." + +"But," I said softly, "your brother did get the letter--at Liverpool." + +George Ritherdon groaned. "Yes," he said, "he did. But the proofs were +not inclosed. After writing the outside letter I changed my mind, and +withheld them, explaining my reasons within. He found his plot laid in +vain; and it was under the shock of this disappointment--the packet +lay before him, resealed and directed to me--that he--that he did it. +Poor Gerald!" + +"Poor Gerald!" I said. What else remained to be said? + +It may be a survival of superstition, yet, when I dine in Baker Street +now, I take some care to go home by any other route than that through +Fitzhardinge Square. + + + + + THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The King's Stratagem and Other Stories, by +Stanley J. 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