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diff --git a/39422.txt b/39422.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c85c2c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/39422.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13581 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vanity Girl, by Compton Mackenzie + +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/license + + +Title: The Vanity Girl + +Author: Compton Mackenzie + +Release Date: April 10, 2012 [EBook #39422] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANITY GIRL *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +THE +VANITY GIRL + +_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + +THE VANITY GIRL +POOR RELATIONS +SYLVIA & MICHAEL +PLASHERS MEAD +SYLVIA SCARLETT + +Harper & Brothers +_Publishers_ + + + + +THE VANITY GIRL + +_By COMPTON MACKENZIE_ + +_Author of_ "POOR RELATIONS" "SYLVIA SCARLETT" "SYLVIA & MICHAEL" + +[Illustration: colophon] + +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS +NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + +THE VANITY GIRL + +Copyright, 1920, by Harper & Brothers +Printed in the United States of America +Published September, 1920 + + +_TO FAY COMPTON_ + +_My dear Fay._ + +_For several reasons I am anxious to inscribe this book to you. Unless +somehow or other I safeguard you publicly, you are liable to be accused +by gossip of having written it, an accusation that both you and I might +be justified in resenting. Many people suppose that you wrote an earlier +novel of mine called_ Carnival, _which, were it true, would make you out +to be considerably older than you are, since I take it that even your +precocity, though it did run to marriage at the age of seventeen (or was +it sixteen?), would hardly have allowed you to write_ Carnival _at the +same age. One day, if Mr. Matheson Lang will allow me to use my own +title--at present he is using it for a play that he and somebody else +have adapted from an Italian original--you may act the part of Jenny +Pearl; but that is as near as you will ever get to her creation. Then +lately a young gentleman wrote to ask me if I would inform him whether +the generally accepted theory that you had written the first two +chapters of_ Sinister Street _had any existence in fact. So you see, I +do not exaggerate when I say that you are liable to be credited with_ +The Vanity Girl. _Equally I should not like gossip to pretend that the +heroine if not drawn by you was certainly drawn from you; and though any +friend of yours or mine would laugh at such a suggestion, it is just as +well to kill the cacklers before they lay their eggs. But the chief +reason for inscribing this book to you is my desire to record, however +inadequately, what pleasure and pride, dear Fay, your charm, your +talents, your beauty, and success have given to_ + +_Your affectionate brother,_ + +_Compton Mackenzie._ + +_Capri_, August 4, 1919. + + + + +THE +VANITY GIRL + + + + +_The Vanity Girl_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +I + + +West Kensington relies for romance more upon the eccentricities of +individual residents than upon any variety or suggestiveness in the +scenery of its streets, which indeed are mostly mere lines of uniform +gray or red houses drearily elongated by constriction. Yet the suburb is +too near to London for some relics of a former rusticity not to have +survived; and it is refreshing for the casual observer of a city's +growth to find here and there a row of old cottages, here and there a +Georgian house rising from sooty flower-gardens and shadowed by rusty +cedars, occasionally even an open space of building land, among the +weeds of which ragged hedgerows and patches of degenerate oats still +endure. + +How Lonsdale Road, where the Caffyns lived, should have come to obtrude +itself upon the flimsy architecture of the neighborhood is not so +obvious. Situated near what used to be the western terminus of the old +brown-and-blue horse-omnibuses, it is a comparatively wide road of +detached, double-fronted, three-storied, square houses (so square that +after the rows of emaciated residences close by they seem positively +squat), built at least thirty years before anybody thought of following +the District Railway out here. Each front door is overhung by a heavy +portico, the stout pillars of which, painted over and over again +according to the purse and fancy of the owner, vary in color from shades +of glossy blue and green to drabs and buffs and dingy ivories. The +steps, set some ten yards back from the pavement, are flanked by +well-grown shrubs; the ground floor is partially below the level of the +street, but there are no areas, and only a side entrance marked +"Tradesmen" seems to acknowledge the existence of a more humble world. + +There are thirty-six houses in Lonsdale Road, not one of which makes any +sharper claim for distinction than is conferred by the number plainly +marked upon the gas-lamp suspended from the ceiling of its portico. Here +are no "Bellevues" or "Ben Lomonds" to set the neighborhood off upon the +follies of competitive nomenclature; and although at the back of each +house a large oblong garden contains a much better selection of trees +and flowering shrubs than the average suburban garden, not even the mild +pretentiousness of an appropriate arboreal name is tolerated. Away from +the traffic of the main street with its toy dairies and dolls' shops, +its omnibuses and helter-skelter of insignificant pedestrians, Lonsdale +Road comes to an abrupt end before a tumble-down tarred fence that +guards some allotments beside the railway, on the other side of which a +high rampart with the outline of cumulus marks the reverse of the +panoramic boundary of Earl's Court Exhibition. The road is a +thoroughfare for hawkers, policemen, and lovers, because a narrow lane +follows the line of the tumble-down fence, leading on one side to the +hinterland of West Kensington railway station and on the other gradually +widening into a terrace of small red-brick houses, the outworks of +similar terraces beyond. Why anybody at least fifty years ago should +have built in what must then have been open country or nursery gardens +along the North End Road these thirty-six porticoed houses remains +inexplicable. Whoever it was may fairly be honored as one of the +founders of West Kensington, perhaps second only to the one who divined +that by getting it called West Kensington instead of East Fulham or +South Hammersmith, and so maintaining in the minds of the professional +classes a consciousness of their gentility, he was doing as much for the +British Empire as if he had exploited their physique in a new colony. + +With whatever romance one might be tempted to embellish the origin of +Lonsdale Road on account of an architectural superiority to the streets +around, it would be fanciful merely for that to endow it with any +influence upon the character of the people who live there. Apart from a +house where the drains are bad, that has achieved the reputation of +being haunted, because the landlord prefers to let it stay empty rather +than spend money on putting the drains in order, Lonsdale Road possesses +as unromantic a lot of residences as the most banal of West Kensington +streets. The nearest approach to a scandal is the way human beings and +cats go courting in the lane at the end; but since the former do not +live in Lonsdale Road and the latter are not amenable to any ethical +code administered by the police, the residents do not feel the burden of +a moral responsibility for their behavior. + +Such a dignified road within seven minutes of the railway station had in +the year 1881 made a strong appeal to Mr. Gilbert Caffyn, who, having +just been appointed assistant secretary to the Church of England Purity +Society at the early age of twenty-six, with a salary of L150 a year, +was emboldened by his father's death and the inheritance of another L200 +a year in brewery shares to persuade Miss Charlotte Doyle that their +marriage was immediately feasible. Mr. Caffyn had been all the more +anxious to press for a happy conclusion of a two years' engagement +because Mrs. Doyle was showing every sign of imminent decease, an event +which would eliminate a traditionally unsatisfactory relationship and +enrich her daughter with L300 a year of her own. Mr. Caffyn therefore +sold a quarter of his shares, purchased a ninety-nine years' lease of +17 Lonsdale Road, the last house on the right-hand side away from the +growing traffic of West Kensington, and got married. If No. 17 was +nearest the railway, it was also rather larger than the other houses, an +important consideration for the assistant secretary of the Church of +England Purity Society, who was bound to expect at least as many +children as a clergyman. Still, for all its extra windows, it was not a +very large house; and when in the year 1902 Mr. Caffyn, now secretary of +the Church of England Purity Society, with a salary of L400 a year, +looked at his wife, his nine children, his two servants, and himself, he +wondered how they all managed to squeeze in. He hoped that his wife, who +had been mercifully fallow for seven years, would not have any more +children, though it might almost be easier to have more children than to +provide for the rapid growing up of those he had already. Why, his +eldest son Roland was twenty. The question of his moving into cheap +rooms to suit his position as the earner of a guinea a week at a branch +bank had been mooted several times already, and Mr. Caffyn had been +compelled to turn his study (which he never used) into a bedroom for him +and his brother Cecil, now a lanky schoolboy of fifteen, rather than +expose himself to the likelihood of having to supplement the bank +clerk's salary from his own. Then there was Norah, who was eighteen ... +but at this moment Mr. Caffyn realized that he had only eight minutes to +catch his train up to Blackfriars, and the problem of Norah was put +aside. It was a hot morning in late September, and he had long ceased to +enjoy running to catch a train. + +The departure of the head of the house shortly after his eldest son was +followed by Cecil's hulking off to St. James's with half a dozen books +under his arm, then by Agnes's and Edna's chattering down the road like +a pair of wagtails to their school, and last of all by Vincent's +apprehensive scamper to his school. In comparison with the noise during +breakfast, the house was quiet; but Dorothy, the second girl, was +fussing in the pantry, and Mrs. Caffyn was fussing in the dining-room, +while Gladys and Marjorie, two very pretty children of eight and seven, +were reiterating appeals to be allowed to play in the front garden. All +these noises, added to the noises made by the servants about their +household duties, seemed an indication to Norah Caffyn that she ought to +take advantage of such glorious weather to wash her hair. She withdrew +to the room shared with Dorothy and, having promised her mother to keep +an eye on the children, devoted all her attention to herself. She set +about the business of washing her hair with the efficiency she applied +to everything personal; it used to annoy her second sister that, while +she showed herself so practical in self-adornment, she would always be +so wantonly obtuse about household affairs. + +"I believe you make muddles on purpose," her sister used to declare. + +"I don't want to be domestic, if that's what you mean," Norah would +reply. + +"Wasting your time always in front of a glass!" + +"Sour grapes, my dear! If your hair waved like mine you'd look at +yourself often enough." + +But this morning Dorothy was making a cake, and Norah was able to linger +affectionately over the shampoo, safe from her jealous sneers. When she +had dried away with a towel enough of the unbecoming lankness she went +over to the open window to recapture from the rich September sun the +gold that should flash among her fawn-soft hair. Down below among the +laurels and privets of the front garden her two youngest sisters were +engaged upon some grubby and laborious task which, though they looked +like two fat white rabbits, did not involve, so far as Norah could see, +without leaning out of the window, any actual burrowing; and she was +much too pleasantly occupied with her own thoughts to take the risk of +having to interfere. She had propped against the frame of the wide-open +window a looking-glass in which she was admiring herself; but the mirror +was not enough, and she often glanced over with a toss of her head to +the houses opposite, whence the retired colonel in No. 18 or the young +heir of No. 16 might perhaps be able to admire her, too. But Norah was +not only occupied in contemplating the beauty of her light-brown hair; +she was equally engaged with her heart's desire. For the ninth time in +two years she was deep in love, this time so deep indeed that she was +trying to bring her mind to bear seriously upon the future and the +problem of convincing her father that the affection she had for Wilfred +Curlew was something far beyond the capacity of a schoolgirl presented +itself anew for urgent solution. Yesterday, when her suitor had joined +the family in the dining-room after supper, her father had looked at him +with an expression of most discouraging surprise; if he should visit +them again to-night, as he probably would, her father might pass from +discouraging glances to disagreeable remarks, and might even attempt, +when Wilfred was gone, to declare positively that he visited Lonsdale +Road too often. Intolerable though it was that she at eighteen should +still be exposed to the caprice of paternal taboos, it was obvious that +until she made the effort to cut herself free from these antiquated +leading-strings she should remain in subjection. + +Norah regarded the not very costly engagement-ring of intertwined +pansies bedewed with diminutive diamonds. In her own room this ring +always adorned the third finger of her left hand, and while she was +about the house during the day the third finger of her right hand; but +when her father came back from the city it had to be concealed, with old +letters and dance programs and moldering flowers, in a basket of girlish +keepsakes, the key of which was continually being left on her +dressing-table and causing her moments of acute anxiety in the middle +of supper. If it was not a valuable ring, it was much the prettiest she +had ever possessed, and it seemed to Norah monstrous that a father +should have the power to banish such a token of seniority from the +admiration of the world. What would happen if after supper to-night she +announced her engagement? Some time or other in the future of family +events one of the daughters would have to announce her engagement, and +who more suitable than herself, the eldest daughter? Was there, after +all, so much to be afraid of in her father? Was not this tradition of +his fierceness sedulously maintained by her mother for her own +protection? When she looked back at the past, Norah could see plainly +enough how all these years the mother had hoodwinked her children into +respecting the head of the family. He might not be conspicuously less +worthy of reverence than the fathers of many other families she knew, +but he was certainly not conspicuously more worthy of it. The romantic +devotion their mother exacted for him might have been accorded to a +parent who resembled George Alexander or Lewis Waller! But as he +was--rather short than tall (he was the same height as herself), fussy +(the daily paper must remain folded all day while he was at the office, +so that he could be helped first to the news as he was helped first to +everything else), mean (how could she possibly dress herself on an +allowance of L6 5s. a quarter?)--such a parent was not entitled to +dispose of his daughter; a daughter was not a newspaper to be kept +folded up for his gratification. + +"For I am beautiful," she assured her reflection. "It's not conceit on +my part. Even my girl friends admit that I'm beautiful--yes, beautiful, +not just pretty. Father ought to be jolly grateful to have such a +beautiful daughter. I'm sure _he_ has no right to expect beautiful +children." + +A figure moved like a shadow in the depths of one of the rooms in the +house opposite, and Norah leaned a little farther out of the window to +catch more sunbeams for her hair; but when the figure came into full +view she was disgusted to find it was only the servant, who flapped a +duster and withdrew without a glance at herself. "If father persists in +keeping me hidden away in West Kensington," she grumbled, "he can't +expect me to marry a duke. No, I'm eighteen, and I'll marry Wilfred--at +least I'll marry him when he can afford to be married, but meanwhile I +_will_ be engaged. I'm tired of all this deception." Norah was pondering +the virtue of frankness, when she heard a step behind her and, turning +round, saw her mother's wonted expression of anxiety and mild +disapproval. + +"Oh well," said Norah, quickly, to anticipate the reproach on her lips, +"this is the only place I can dry my hair. And, mother, I can't wait any +longer to be engaged to Wilfred. I'm going to have it out with father +to-night." + +Mrs. Caffyn looked frightened, which was what Norah intended, for she +felt in no mood to argue the propriety of sitting at an open window with +her hair down, and had deliberately introduced the larger issue. + +"My dear child, I hope you will do nothing of the kind. Father has been +very worried during the last month by that horrid theater advertisement +which upset Canon Wilbraham so much, and he won't be at all in the right +mood." + +Norah sighed patiently, avoided pouting, because she had been warned by +a girl friend whose opinion she valued against spoiling the shape of her +mouth, and with a shrug of her shoulders turned away and went on +brushing her hair. + +"My dear child," Mrs. Caffyn began, deprecatingly. + +"Oh well, I can't sit in any other room! Besides, the kids are playing +down below, and I can't keep an eye on them from anywhere else as well +as I can from here." + +"Playing in the front garden?" repeated Mrs. Caffyn, anxiously. +Anything positive done by any of her children always made her anxious, +and she hurried across to the window to call down to them. The two +little girls had managed to smear themselves from head to foot with +grimy garden-mold, and most unreasonably Mrs. Caffyn could not see that +their grubbiness was of no importance compared with the question of +whether Norah's hair was not always exactly the color of mignonette +buds. She began to admonish them from the window, and they defended +themselves against her reproaches by calling upon their eldest sister to +testify that what they had done they had done with her acquiescence, +since she had not uttered a word against their behavior. Norah declared +that she could not possibly go down-stairs without undoing all the good +of her shampoo, and in the end Mrs. Caffyn, after ringing ineffectually +for her second daughter or one of the servants, had to go down herself +and rescue Gladys and Marjorie from the temptations of the front garden. + +"Thank Heaven for a little peace," sighed Norah to herself. She sat +there in a delicious paradise of self-esteem and, looking at herself in +the glass, was so much thrilled in the contemplation of her own beauty +that she forgot all about her engagement, all about the lack of +spectators, all about everything except the way her features conformed +to what in women she most admired. She thought compassionately of her +mother's faded fairness, and wondered with a frown of esthetic concern +why her mother's face was so downy. If her own chin began to show signs +of fluffing over like that, she would spend her last halfpenny on +removing hairs that actually in some lights glistened like a smear of +honey; luckily there was nothing in her own face that she wanted to +change. Her mother must have been pretty once, but never more than +pretty, because she had blue eyes. How glad she was that with her light +hair went deep brown eyes instead of commonplace blue eyes, and that +her mouth instead of being rather full and indefinite was a firm bow +the beauty of which did not depend upon the freshness of youth. Not that +she need fear even the far-off formidable thirties with such a +complexion and such teeth. Apart from superfluous hairs her mother's +complexion was still good, and even her father had white teeth. Her own +nose, straight and small, was neither so straight nor so small as to be +insipid, and her chin, tapering exquisitely, was cleft, not dimpled. +Dimples seemed to Norah vulgar, and she could not imagine why they were +ever considered worthy of admiration. No, with all her perfection of +color and form she was mercifully free from the least suggestion of +"dolliness"; she was too tall, and had much too good a figure ever to +run any risk of that. + +"I'm really more beautiful even than I thought, now that I'm looking at +myself very critically. And, of course, I shall get more beautiful, +especially when I've found out what way my hair suits me best. I shall +make all sorts of experiments with it. There's bound to be one way that +suits me better than others, if only it isn't too unfashionable. I +suppose father hopes secretly that I shall make a brilliant marriage, +because even he must realize that I am exceptionally beautiful." + +She played condescendingly with the notion of being able to announce +that she was engaged to a viscount, and imagined with what awe the +family would receive the news. + +"However, that's my affair," she decided. "It's not likely father will +bring back a viscount to supper. Besides, I'm not mercenary, and if I +choose to love a poor man I will. My looks were given to me, not to +father, and if he thinks he's going to get the benefit of them he's made +a great mistake." + +Norah's meditations were suddenly interrupted by the entrance of her +sister Dorothy, a dark, pleasant, practical girl of sixteen, who was +already so much interested in household affairs that Norah feared her +indifference to dress was due to something more than immaturity, was +indeed the outcome of an ineradicable propensity toward dowdiness. + +"I wish you wouldn't burst into rooms like that," she protested, +crossly. + +But Dorothy only hummed round the room in search of what she was looking +for, and paid no more attention to her elder sister than a bee would +have done. + +"And if you've got to come up-stairs to our room when you're in the +middle of cooking," Norah went on, "you might at least wipe your hands +and your arms first. You're covering everything with flour," she +grumbled. + +"That's better than covering it with powder," retorted Dorothy. + +"What a silly remark!" + +"Is it, my dear? Sorry the cap fits so well." + +Norah turned away from this obtrusive sister in disdain, asking herself +for perhaps the thousandth time what purpose in life she was possibly +intended to serve. Apart from the fact that she was dark and distinctly +not even good-looking, there seemed no excuse for Dorothy's existence, +and Norah made up her mind that she would not bother any more about +trying to make her dress with good taste; it simply was not worth while. + +"Eureka!" cried Dorothy, triumphantly waving an egg-beater. + +"What a disgusting thing to leave in a bedroom!" Norah exclaimed. + +Her sister courtesied exasperatingly in the doorway for answer, and +before Norah could say another word was charging down the stairs three +at a time in a series of diminishing thuds. + +Norah turned back, with a shudder for her sister's savagery, to the +contemplation of her own hair. In a revulsion against the indecency of +family life she resolved firmly that, whatever the fuss, she would be +engaged to Wilfred Curlew immediately, and that Wilfred himself must at +all costs quickly accumulate enough money to enable her to marry him and +escape from this den of sisters and brothers and parents. + +"If father had only one child, or perhaps two, he might be entitled to +interference with our private lives; but when he's got nine, he must +expect us to look after ourselves. It's bad enough now when Cecil, +Agnes, Edna, and Vincent are all at school and out of the way, at any +rate for some of the time, but what will it be like in a few years?" + +Norah shrank from the prospect of that overpopulated future for which +the temporary emptiness of Lonsdale Road was no consolation, and, +removing the mirror from the window-sill, she sat down at her +dressing-table and devoted herself to the adjustment of the arcuated pad +of mock hair that was an indispensable adjunct to the pompadour style +then in vogue. + +Norah had just succeeded in achieving what was hitherto her most +successful effort with the pompadour when she heard somebody whistling +for her from the pavement; going to the window, she saw that it was her +friend, Lily Haden, whom she had known and hated at school two years +ago, but whom now, by one of those unaccountably abrupt changes of +feminine predilection, she liked very much. The new intimacy had only +lately been begotten out of a chance rencounter, and perhaps it would +never have been born if Roland, her eldest brother, had not condemned +Lily from the altitude of his twenty-year-old priggishness and found in +Dorothy a supporter of his point of view. That the brother and sister on +either side of her should be hostile to a friend of hers was enough to +make Norah fond of Lily, who belonged to a type of ethereal blonde that +she hoped did not compete too successfully with herself. Occasionally, +at the beginning of the new friendship, Norah was assailed by doubts +about this, which intensified her prejudice against blue eyes, not to +mention excessive slimness and immoderate length of neck. However, +though Lily was not really at all interesting, it was impossible to deny +that she was something more than pretty, and when, after a few carefully +observed walks, Norah discovered that the percentage of people who +looked twice at herself exceeded the percentage of those who looked +twice at Lily, she was almost inclined to admit that Lily was beautiful. +Quite sincerely, therefore, she was able to call down that she was +awfully glad to see her friend; quite honestly, too, she was able to +admire her standing there on the sunny pavement below. + +The fine autumn weather had allowed the young women of West Kensington +to prolong their summery charms with brightly tinted dresses, and in all +the dull decades of their existence the houses of Lonsdale Road, even in +their first lilac-scented May, had perhaps never beheld a truer picture +of spring than this autumnal picture now before them of that tall, slim +girl in her linen dress of powder-blue swaying gently as a fountain is +swayed by the wind, and above her, framed by dingy bricks that +intensified the brilliance of the subject, that other girl in a kimono +tea-rose hued from many washings, herself like a tea-rose of exquisite +color and form. Yet Mrs. Caffyn, when she hurried into Norah's room, +could deduce no more from this rebirth of spring in autumn than a cause +for the critical stares of neighbors, and begged her either to invite +her friend indoors or to come away from the window. + +"I wanted to ask Lily to lunch," said Norah, fretfully. + +Mrs. Caffyn was in despair at the notion. + +"You have plenty of time to talk to her. It's not yet twelve o'clock," +she urged, "and with the children coming home from school and having to +be got off again it _is_ so difficult to manage with extra people at +meals." + +"Everything seems difficult to manage in this house." + +"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you must try to think of other people +a little." + +"It would be difficult to think of anything else in Lonsdale Road, +mother dear. Lily," she called out from the window, "come up and talk to +me before the animals come roaring home to be fed." + +"Norah dear, I'd rather you didn't refer to your brothers and sisters +like that," Mrs. Caffyn rebuked, with an attempt at authority that only +made her daughter laugh. It may not have been a pleasant laugh to hear, +and Mrs. Caffyn may have been right to leave the room with a shake of +the head; but Norah's teeth were so white and regular that it was a +delightful laugh to look at, and Norah was so intent on watching its +effect in the glass that she did not notice her mother had gone away in +vexation. Presently she and Lily were deep in the discussion of +pompadour pads, so enthralling a subject that when Norah wanted to talk +about her engagement it was nearly dinner-time, and she felt more than +ever the injustice of not being able to invite her friend to the family +meal. + +"I must talk to you about Wilfred," she said. "We must have a long talk, +because I'm determined to have it settled." + +At that moment, with swinging of satchels and banging of doors and much +noisy laughter, Agnes and Edna, getting on, respectively, for thirteen +and fourteen, arrived back from the school that not so long ago Norah +and Lily had themselves attended. + +"But it's impossible to talk now," grumbled Norah; and as if to +accentuate the truth of this remark her brother Vincent, aged ten, came +tearing down the road, dribbling a tin can before him and intoxicated +with the news of having been chosen to play half-back for his class. In +another two years, he boasted, he would be in the Eleven. + +"Why don't you come round to Shelley Mansions this evening?" Lily +suggested. "We've invited some friends in." + +One of the stipulations made about Norah's friendship with Lily had been +that she should never visit the home of her friend, about whose mother +all sorts of queer stories were current in West Kensington. To challenge +family opinion on this point seemed to her an excellent preliminary to +challenging it more severely by insisting on being openly engaged to +Wilfred Curlew. She hesitated for a moment, and then announced that she +would come. + +"To supper?" Lily asked. + +After another moment's hesitation Norah promised firmly that she would, +and her friend hurried away just as Cecil, a loutish boy with sleeves +and trousers much too short for him, slouched back from St. James's. The +house which a little while ago had been gently murmurous with that +absorbing conversation about pompadour pads now reverberated with the +discordant cries of a large family; an overpowering smell of boiled +mutton and caper sauce ousted the perfumes from Norah's room; her eyes +flashed with resentment, and she went down-stairs to take her place at +table. + + +II + +If Norah had been a journalist like her suitor, Wilfred Curlew, she +would have described the resolution she made on that September morning +as an epoch-making resolution, for since the effect of it was rapidly +and firmly to set her on the path of independence it certainly deserved +one of the great antediluvian epithets. + +Some months ago the Hadens had moved from their house in Trelawney Road +because the landlord was so disobliging--as a matter of fact, he was +unwilling to wait any longer for the arrears of rent--and they were now +inhabiting Shelley Mansions, a gaunt block of flats built on the +frontier of West Kensington to withstand the vulgar hordes of Fulham, +and as such considered the ultimate outpost of gentility. Most of the +tenants, indeed, like the Foreign Legion, were recruited from people who +found that their native land was barred to them for various reasons; but +if Shelley Mansions lacked the conveniences of civilized flat-life, such +as lifts and hall-porters, they possessed one great convenience that was +peculiar in West Kensington--nobody bothered about his neighbor's +business. Mrs. Haden's elder daughter, Doris, was no longer at home, +having recently gone on the stage and almost immediately afterward +married; and the small flat, with two empty spare rooms so useful for +boxes, was comparatively much larger than the Caffyns' house in Lonsdale +Road, the respectability and solid charms of which were spoiled by +overcrowding. + +Mr. Haden was supposed to be in Burma; but people in the secure heart of +West Kensington used to say that Mr. Haden had never existed, a topic +that Norah remembered being debated at school, to the great perplexity +of the younger girls, who could not imagine how, if there was no Mr. +Haden, there could possibly be a Doris and Lily Haden. Nowadays, with +years of added knowledge, Norah would have liked to ask her friend more +particularly about her absent father; but she was of a cautious +temperament, and decided it was easier to accept the Oriental interior +of the Shelley Mansions drawing-room as evidence of the truth of the +Burmese legend. Her instinct was always against too much intimacy with +anybody, and she rather dreaded the responsibility of a secret that +might interfere with the freedom of her relations with Lily. Whatever +the origins of the household, she decided it was a much more amusing +household than the one in Lonsdale Road, and if No. 17 could have +achieved the same atmosphere by banishing Mr. Caffyn to Burma, Norah +would willingly have packed him off by the next boat. + +Mrs. Haden had a loud voice, an effusive manner, and a complexion like +a field of clover seen from the window of a passing train. Her coiffure +resembled in shape and texture a tinned pineapple; it was, too, almost +the same color, probably on account of experimenting with henna on top +of peroxide. Norah's inclination to be shocked at her hostess's +appearance was mitigated by the pleasure it gave her in demonstrating +that Lily's really golden hair was not more likely to prove permanent. +Mrs. Haden earned her living by teaching elocution and by reciting. +These recitations were mostly interruptions to the conversation of +afternoon parties in private houses; but once a year at the Bijou +Theater, Notting Hill, she gave a grand performance advertised in the +press, when her own recitations were supplemented by a couple of one-act +plays never acted before or since, for the production of which some +moderately well-known professional friends used to give their services +free in order to help Mrs. Haden and the authors. Notwithstanding her +energy, she found it very hard to make both ends meet. Norah distinctly +remembered that Doris and Lily Haden had left school on account of +unpaid fees, and some of the objections raised now to her friendship +with Lily were due to Mrs. Caffyn's knowledge that the tradesmen of West +Kensington would not allow even a week's credit to the residents of +Shelley Mansions. If Mrs. Haden could have overcome their prejudice, her +hospitality would doubtless have been illimitable; with all the +difficulties they made, it was extensive enough, and she need not have +bothered to consecrate a special day to it. But perhaps it pleased her +to think that she owned one of the days of the week, for she used to +refer to the fame of her Thursdays with as much pride as if they were +family jewels. + +It was to one of these enslaved Thursdays that Lily had invited Norah, +who at first sat shyly back in a wicker chair within the shade of a +palm, afraid, so fiercely did Mrs. Haden fix her during a recitation of +"Jack Barrett Went to Quetta," that the creakings of her chair were +irritating the reciter. Gradually the general atmosphere of freedom and +jollity communicated itself to the strange guest, and when the room was +so full of tobacco smoke that it was impossible for anybody to recite or +to sing or to dance without being almost asphyxiated, she had no qualms +about obeying Mrs. Haden's deafening proclamation that everybody must +stay to supper. A young man with a long nose, a long neck, an +extravagantly V-shaped waistcoat like a medieval doublet, and a skin +like a Blue Dorset cheese attached himself to Norah and advised her to +sit close to him because he knew his way about the flat. Presumably the +advantage of knowing your way about the flat was that you sat still +while other people waited on you, and that you obtained second helpings +from dishes that did not go round once. Norah seldom resisted an +invitation that enabled her to keep quiet while others worked, not +because she was lazy, but because rushing about was inclined to heighten +her complexion unbecomingly; moreover, since the young man in the +V-shaped waistcoat was enough like her notion of a distinguished actor +to rouse a mild interest in him, and not sufficiently unlike a gentleman +to destroy that interest, she was ready to listen to the advice he was +anxious to give her about all sorts of things, but chiefly about the +stage. + +"Are you studying with Mrs. Haden?" he asked; and when Norah shook her +head he turned to her gravely and said: "Oh, but you ought, you know. +They may tell you she's a bit old-fashioned, but don't you believe them. +Pearl Haden knows her job in and out, and if you've got any talent +she'll produce it. Look at me. I was going out with Ma Huntley this +autumn as her second walking gentleman, but she wouldn't offer more than +two ten, and, as I told her, I really didn't feel called upon to accept +less than three. After all, I can always get seven by waiting, and I +didn't see why Ma should have me for two ten, especially as she expected +me to find my own wigs and ruffles. No, you take my advice and study +with Pearl Haden." + +"You really recommend her, do you?" asked Norah, condescendingly. + +She had never until that moment thought of going on the stage or of +taking lessons in elocution from anybody, but the idea of being able to +patronize the mother of a friend appealed to her, and, though she was a +little doubtful of the way her brothers and sisters would accept her +rendering of "Jack Barrett Went to Quetta," she supposed that Wilfred +would admire it. One of the charms of being engaged was the security of +admiration it provided. + +"Though, of course," continued the gentleman in the V-shaped waistcoat, +"with your appearance you oughtn't to have to bother much about anything +else." + +This was very gratifying to Norah; even if there should be trouble when +she got home, the evening would have been worth while for this assurance +that her looks were capable of making an impression upon artistic +society. + +"You really think I ought to go on the stage?" she asked, assuming the +manner of a person who for a long while has been trying to make up her +mind on this very point. + +"Everybody ought to go on the stage," the gentleman in the V-shaped +waistcoat enthusiastically announced; "at least, of course, not +everybody, but certainly everybody who is obviously cut out for the +profession like you. But don't be in a hurry to make up your mind," he +added. "You're very young." He must have been nearly twenty-five +himself. "There's no need to hurry. I was driven to it." + +Norah appeared interested and sympathetic. She really was rather +interested, because the idea had passed through her mind that Wilfred +might go on the stage. If this young man could earn seven pounds a week, +surely Wilfred, who was much better looking, could earn ten pounds a +week, in which case they might be married at once. + +"What drove you to it?" she asked, and then blushed in confusion; being +driven to anything was associated in Norah's mind with drink, and she +thought the young man might be embarrassed by her question. + +"Oh, a woman!" he replied, in a lofty tone. "But don't let's talk about +things that are past and over. Let's eat and drink to-day, for +to-morrow--Did you ever read Omar Khayyam? A man in our crowd introduced +me to him last year. I tell you, after Omar Khayyam Kipling isn't in it. +I suppose you read a good deal of poetry?" + +"A good deal," Norah admitted. "At least, I used to read a good deal." + +This was true; she had read several volumes at school under the menaces +of the literature mistress. + +"Well, if I may offer you some advice," said the young man, "go on +reading poetry. I may as well confess right out that poetry has been my +salvation. Have some more of this shape? It's a little soft, but the +flavor's excellent." After supper Norah took Lily aside and told her she +must go home at once. + +"But, Norah," protested the daughter of the flat, without being able to +conceal a slight inflection of scorn, "the evening's only just +beginning. Lots of people come in after supper always." + +Norah resented Lily's tone of superiority; but inasmuch as this was her +first experiment in open defiance, she decided not to go too far this +time, especially as she was not quite sure how far her father's +unreasonableness might not extend. + +"Cyril Vavasour will see you home," said Lily. "He's awfully gone on +you. He told me you were one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever met." + +Norah could not help feeling flattered by such a testimonial from one +whose experience among women had evidently been immense, and though she +might have expected a superlative without qualification from somebody +who met her in a West Kensington drawing-room, she realized that she +must expect a slight qualification from a world-wanderer like Mr. +Vavasour. A few minutes later Norah and her appreciative new +acquaintance descended the echoing steps of Shelley Mansions and were +soon safe from any suggestion of Fulham in the landscape and walking +slowly through the familiar streets of West Kensington, which in the +autumnal mistiness looked grave and imposing. The sky was clear above +them, and a fat, yellow moon was rolling along behind a battlement of +chimney-tops. + +"O moon of my delight who know'st no wane!" quoted Mr. Vavasour, in a +devout apostrophe. + +Perhaps it was because he imagined himself in a Persian garden much +farther away from West Kensington than even Fulham was that he allowed +himself to take Norah's arm; nor did she make any objection. After all, +he considered her one of the most beautiful girls he had ever met, and, +being engaged to be married, she could allow her arm to be taken without +danger or loss of dignity. + +"And so you really advise me to go on the stage?" she asked, as if she +would insinuate that the taking of her arm was only a gesture of +interrogation. + +"Absolutely," Mr. Vavasour replied. + +"Yes, but of course my father's awfully old-fashioned, and he may think +I oughtn't to go on the stage." + +"Too much exposed to temptation and all that, I suppose?" suggested Mr. +Vavasour. + +"Oh no," said Norah, irritably, withdrawing her arm. "I didn't mean +that. I meant he might think the family wouldn't like it." + +She had intended to give the impression of belonging to a poor but noble +family without giving the impression of being snobbish, and she was +rather annoyed with Mr. Vavasour for not understanding at once what she +meant. + +"Oh, but people from the best families go on the stage nowadays," he +assured her. + +"Yes, I suppose they do," Norah agreed. + +"And of course you could always change your name," he added. + +"Yes, of course I could do that," she admitted. + +"I changed mine, for instance," he told her. + +"I like the name Vavasour." + +"Yes, I rather liked it myself," he said; but he did not volunteer his +own name, and she did not ask him to reveal what Howards or Montagus had +plucked him forever from their family tree. In any case this was not the +moment to embark on fresh confidences, for they were approaching the +main street and Norah was almost sure that the figure standing at the +corner of Lonsdale Road on the other side was her eldest brother, +Roland. + +"Don't come any farther," she said. "Perhaps we'll meet again at Lily's +some day." + +"We shall," Mr. Vavasour announced, with conviction. "Good night." He +swept his hat from his head with a flourish and Norah shook hands with +him. She had been rather afraid all the way back that he would try to +kiss her good night, but gentle blood and the bright arc-lamp under +which they were standing combined to deter him, and they parted as +ceremoniously as if his V-shaped waistcoat was really a medieval +doublet. + +"Oh, it _was_ you," said Roland. + +"How do you mean it _was_ me? Who did you think it was?" + +"Do you know what the time is? Half past ten!" + +"Thanks very much," said Norah, sarcastically. "The wrist-watch you gave +me at Christmas is not yet broken." + +"Don't be silly, Norah," he protested. "Father's in an awful wax. I've +been hanging about here for the last half-hour, because I couldn't stand +it." + +They were walking quickly down Lonsdale Road, and Norah was thinking how +clumsily he walked compared with Mr. Vavasour and yet how much better +looking he was. + +"Did Wilfred come?" she asked. + +Her brother nodded. "Yes, but I told him you weren't in, and he went off +in a bit of a gloom." + +They had reached the gate of No. 17 by now, and the house seemed to +Norah unreasonably hushed for this hour of the evening. Beyond the +railway line the sky was lit up with the glare of the Exhibition, and +the music that the military band was playing--it was a selection from +"The Earl and the Girl"--was distinctly audible. + +"Why should father object to my going out in the evening?" she asked, +turning to her brother sharply. "He used to object to your smoking." + +Roland removed from his mouth the large pipe and thought ponderously for +a minute. It was quite true that only two years ago his father had +objected to his smoking, and that with great difficulty he had been able +to persuade him that bank clerks always smoked. Since that struggle his +father had yielded him a grudging admission that he was grown up. The +long years before he should be a bank manager rose like a huge array of +black clouds before his vision, and though he disapproved of sisters +acting on their own initiative, something in this autumnal +night--perhaps it was only the sound of the distant band--created in him +a sudden sympathy with any aspirations to freedom. Perhaps, if Norah had +encouraged him at that moment, he would have stood up for her +independence; but he felt that his company only irritated her and +without a word he led the way up the steps, dimly aware that he and she +had already set foot upon the diverging paths of their lives. + +The dining-room had been cleared for action. Ordinarily at this hour the +room was full of young people playing billiards on the convertible +dining-table; but to-night the table had not been uncovered, the +children had all gone to bed, and Mr. Caffyn was reading the _Daily +Telegraph_, not as one might have supposed with enjoyment of the unusual +peace, but, on the contrary, in a vague annoyance that his perusal of +the leading article was not being interrupted by the butt-end of a cue +or the chronicle of London Day by Day being punctuated by billiard-balls +leaping into his lap. His patriarchal feelings had, in fact, been deeply +wounded by his daughter's behavior, and though for the first time in +months he had been able to put on his slippers without having to hold up +a noisy game while they were being looked for, he was not at all +grateful. + +"I've had my supper," Norah informed him, brightly. + +This really annoyed Mr. Caffyn extremely, for he had been looking +forward to telling his daughter that her supper had been kept waiting +until ten o'clock, when it had finally been removed in order to allow +the servants to go to bed. At this moment Mrs. Caffyn, who had hurried +down-stairs to the kitchen as soon as she heard Norah coming, arrived in +the dining-room with a tray. + +"She's had her supper," said Mr. Caffyn, indignantly. + +"Oh, I was afraid--" his wife began. + +"Oh no, she's had her supper," said Mr. Caffyn. "Good Heavens! I don't +know what the world's coming to!" + +Since her father was making a cosmic affair of her behavior in going out +to supper without leave, Norah decided to give him something to worry +about in earnest, and, seating herself in the arm-chair on the other +side of the fireplace, she prepared to argue with him. Mrs. Caffyn began +to murmur about going to bed and talking things over when father came +back from the office to-morrow, but Norah waved aside all +procrastination. + +"I want to talk about my engagement," she began. + +Roland, who had just reached the door, stopped. Wilfred Curlew was a +friend of his; in fact, it was he who had first brought him to the +house, and though he knew that anything in the nature of an engagement +between him and one of his sisters was ridiculous, he hoped that a +soothing testimony from him would prevent Wilfred's final exclusion from +the family circle. + +"Norah, dear child, it isn't nice to begin playing jokes upon your +father at this hour, especially when he isn't very pleased with you," +Mrs. Caffyn said, waving her eyes in the direction of the door. + +"I'm not at all sleepy," said Norah, coldly. "And I'm not joking. I want +to know if father is going to let Wilfred and me be openly engaged?" she +persisted, holding up her left hand so that the gaslight illuminated the +ring upon the third finger. + +"And who may Wilfred be?" demanded Mr. Caffyn. + +This seemed to Roland a suitable moment for his intervention, and, +though he had for some time been aware that his father was growing +impatient of their habitual visitor, he pretended to accept this +attitude of Olympian ignorance and reminded him that Wilfred was a +friend who sometimes came in during the evening. + +"You said once, if you remember, that he was rather a clever fellow. As +a matter of fact he's doing well, you know, considering that he's not +long gone in for journalism. He's just been taken on the staff of the +_Evening Herald_. He's been doing that murder in Kentish Town." + +Mr. Caffyn rose from his chair and with an elaborate assumption of irony +inquired if his daughter proposed to engage herself on the strength of a +murder in Kentish Town. Norah had got up when her father did and was +listening with a contemptuous expression while he dilated on the folly +of long engagements. + +"Yes, but I don't intend it to be a long engagement," Norah proclaimed, +when he paused for a moment to chew his heavy mustache. "I intend to get +married." + +Mr. Caffyn swung round upon his heels and faced his daughter. + +"This, I suppose, is the result of the education I've given you. +Insolence and defiance! Don't say another word or you'll make me lose my +temper. Not another word. Norah, I insist on silence. Do you hear me? +You have grievously disappointed my fondest hopes. I have not been a +strict father. Indeed, I have been too indulgent. But I never imagined +_my_ daughter capable of a folly like this. If I'd thought, twenty-one +years ago, when I bought this house with the idea of creating a happy +home for you all, that I should be repaid like this I would have.... I +would have...." + +But Mr. Caffyn's apodosis was never divulged, because, seized with an +access of rage, he turned out the gas and hurried from the room. In the +hall he shouted back to know if his wife was going to sit up all night. +Mrs. Caffyn hurried after her husband as fast as she was able across the +darkened room. + +"I'm coming, dear, now. Yes, dear, I'm coming now. Ouch! My knee!... I'm +sure Norah will be more sensible in the morning," she was heard +murmuring on her way up-stairs. + +"I suppose he thinks I shall go on living with him forever," exclaimed +Norah, savagely throwing herself down into her father's arm-chair. "In +my opinion most parents are fit to be only children. Light the gas +again, Roland; I want to write a note to Wilfred." + + +III + +By the time morning was come Norah had decided that she would rather go +on the stage than be engaged to Wilfred Curlew. The extraordinary thing +was that she should never have realized, before her conversation with +Mr. Vavasour, how obviously the stage was indicated as the right career +for her. It was true that she had never until now seriously contemplated +a career, and the mild way she had accepted herself merely as the most +important member of a large family was sufficient answer to the silly +accusations made by her father last night. Perhaps he would begin to +appreciate her now when he was on the point of losing her; perhaps he +would regret that he had ever suggested she was indifferent to the +claims of family life; in future she should take care to be indifferent +to everybody's feelings except her own; she would teach her father a +lesson. It never entered Norah's head that there would be any difficulty +about going on the stage apart from paternal opposition, and she +wondered how many famous people had owed their careers to a fortuitous +event like her meeting with Mr. Vavasour. At any rate, it would not be +more difficult to obtain her father's permission to embark on this +suddenly conceived adventure than it would be to obtain his permission +to wear on the third finger of her left hand the rather cheap ring that +was the outward sign of her intention to marry Wilfred. Confronted by +the two alternatives--success in the theater and matrimony with +Wilfred--she felt that success was much the less remote of the two; in +fact, the more she thought about it the farther away receded matrimony +and the more clearly defined became success. "I don't want to be a great +actress," she explained to herself; "I want to be a successful actress." +She half made up her mind to go out and talk to Lily about the new +project, but on second thoughts she decided not to alarm her parents by +any prospect so definite as would be implied in availing herself of the +practical assistance that Lily and her mother could afford her in +carrying out her plan. It would be more tactful to present as +alternatives the definite fact of being engaged to Wilfred or the +indefinite idea of being able some time or other in the future to adopt +the stage as a profession. The more Norah thought about Wilfred the less +in love with him she felt, and the less in love with him she felt the +easier would be her task to-night. In her note she had told him to come +in after supper, as usual, but she had not said a word about her +intention to precipitate their affair. Would it impress her father if +she and Wilfred were to meet him at the station and approach the subject +before supper? No, on the whole, she decided, it would be more prudent +to provoke the final scene otherwise, and her heart quickened slightly +at the thought of the surprise she was going to spring upon the family +that evening. + +Norah was unusually pleasant to everybody all day: she gave Vincent some +sweets that she did not like herself; she offered to take Gladys and +Marjorie for a walk in Kensington Gardens, because a rumor had reached +her of a wonderful display of hats in one of the big shops in Kensington +High Street. She noticed that when her father came back from the office +he seemed to have forgotten about the scene of last night, and she saw +her mother's spirits rising at the prospect of an undisturbed evening. +After supper Mr. Caffyn sat down as usual in his arm-chair; Gladys and +Marjorie, tired after their long walk and exhausted with the +contemplation of shop-windows in which they had perceived nothing to +interest themselves, went off to bed without trying for a moment's +grace. The upper leaves of the dining-table were removed, and a party of +billiards was made up with Norah and Cecil matched against Roland and +Dorothy; Vincent was allowed to chalk the tips of the cues, Agnes and +Edna to quarrel over the marking. Mrs. Caffyn, with a sigh of relief for +the comfortable wheels on which the evening was running, took the +arm-chair opposite her husband and read with unusual concentration what +she imagined was yesterday's morning paper, but which, as a matter of +fact, was the morning paper of a month ago. Soon the front-door bell +rang, and a friend of Roland's, called Arthur Drake, with whom Norah had +been in love for a week about a year ago and of whom Dorothy was +slightly enamoured at the present, came in full of a new round game for +the billiard-table that he had just learned in another house. Cecil went +off to his home-work and left Arthur to explain the new game--a +complicated invention in which five small skittles, a cork, and a bell +suspended from the gas-bracket each played a part. Mr. Caffyn fended +off the butt-ends of the cues that were continually bumping into him +amid a great deal of shouting and laughter; Agnes trod on her mother's +corn; Vincent grazed his knuckles in fielding a billiard-ball that was +bound for his father's head. + +"And where's old Wilfred?" Arthur Drake suddenly inquired. + +Another ring at the front door answered his question and Norah's suitor +came in. He was a loose-jointed young man of about twenty-two, with +tumbled wavy hair, bright gray eyes, and a trick, when he was feeling +shy, of supporting with one arm the small of his back. His long, +dogmatic chin was balanced by an irregular and humorous mouth; his +personality was attractive, and if he had earned five times as much as +he earned as reporter on the staff of the _Evening Herald_, or even if +he had been paid for the fierce and satirical articles he wrote on the +condition of modern society for a socialist weekly called _The Red +Lamp_, he might not have been considered an unsuitable mate for Norah. +As it was, Mr. Caffyn looked up at him with as much abhorrence as he +would have betrayed at the entrance into his dining-room of the dog that +his children were always threatening to procure and the purchase of +which he was constantly forbidding. Wilfred tried hard to lose himself +in the round game, and whenever he was called upon to make a shot from +the corner where Mr. Caffyn was sitting he did so with such +unwillingness to disturb Mr. Caffyn that he always missed it. Every time +he found an opportunity to pass Norah in the narrow gangway between the +wall and the table he tried to squeeze her hand; and he did his best by +bribing Vincent with some horse-chestnuts he had collected that morning +at Kew, where his work had taken him to investigate an alleged outrage +in the Temperate House, to inspire Vincent with an unquenchable desire +to play Up Jenkins. Norah, however, had a plan of her own that made the +notion of occasionally clasping Wilfred's hand under the table during +Up Jenkins seem colorless, and Wilfred, who in his most optimistic +prevision of the evening had not counted upon more than two or three +kisses snatched by ruse, suddenly found himself invited by her to +abandon the game and come into the drawing-room next door. + +The drawing-room of No. 17 was invested every Wednesday afternoon by a +quantity of punctilious ladies who came to call on Mrs. Caffyn. Owing to +the number of its ornaments and the flimsiness of its furniture, it was +not considered a suitable room for general use; moreover, as secretary +of the Church of England Purity Society, it occasionally fell to Mr. +Caffyn's lot to interview various clergymen there on confidential +matters, and in a house like 17 Lonsdale Road, worn and torn by +children, it was essential to preserve one room in a condition of gelid +perfection. So rarely was the room used that the over-worked servants +had not bothered to draw the curtains at dusk, and when Wilfred and +Norah retired into its seclusion the chilly gloom was accentuated by the +street-lamps gleaming through the bare lime-trees at the end of the +garden. Norah told her lover to light the gas, and not even the sickly +green incandescence availed to make her appear less beautiful to him in +this desert of ugly knickknacks. + +"No, don't pull the curtains," she said, quickly, "and don't kiss me +here, because people might see you from the street. I didn't ask you to +come in here to make love." + +Perhaps a sense of the theater had always been dormant in Norah, for she +went on as if she were making a set speech; but Wilfred was much too +deep in love to let the cynicism upon which he plumed himself apply to +her, and he listened humbly. + +"We can't go on like this forever," she wound up. "We must be engaged +openly. I told father that last night, but he won't hear of it, so what +are we to do?" + +"Darling, I'm ready to do anything." + +"Oh, anything!" she repeated, petulantly. "What is anything? He'll be +here in a minute, and you've got to tell him that unless he consents to +our being engaged you'll persuade me to elope." + +"Do you think he'd give way then?" Wilfred asked, doubtfully. He was +very much in love with Norah, but he could not help remembering that he, +too, had a father who, after an argument every Sunday evening, still +allowed him ten shillings a week for pocket-money. If he were to elope, +he should not only be certain to lose that supplement to his own +earnings, but he should also involve in deeper discredit the profession +he had adopted instead of the law, which Mr. Curlew, senior, had +designed him to enter by way of the office of an old friend who was a +solicitor. + +Norah wished that her father would come in and interrupt what should +have been a passionate scene, but which was in reality as cold as the +room where it was being played. She watched herself and Wilfred, whom +the incandescent gas did not set off to advantage, in the large mirror +that formed the over-mantel of the fireplace, and she realized now, as +she had never realized before in her life, how amazingly she stood out +from her surroundings. + +"You haven't kissed me once this evening," Wilfred began; but she shook +herself free from his tentative embrace, and with one eye on the door +for her father's entrance and the other on the mirror, or rather with +both eyes at one moment on the door and immediately afterward on the +mirror--a movement which displayed their brilliancy and depth--she went +on enumerating to her suitor the material difficulties that made their +engagement so hopeless. + +"But I'm getting on," he insisted. "The editor was very pleased with the +way I handled that Kentish Town murder. They don't consider me at all a +dud in Fleet Street. I'm sure I give everybody in this house quite a +wrong impression of myself because I feel nervous and awkward when I'm +here; but I don't think there's really much doubt that in another couple +of years I shall be in quite a different position financially. Besides, +I hope to do original work, and if a friend of mine can raise the money +to start this new weekly--" + +"Oh, if, if, if!" interrupted Norah, impatiently. + +"Norah, don't you love me any more?" + +"Of course I love you," she said. "Don't be so stupid." + +"You seem different to-night." + +"You wouldn't like me to be always the same, would you?" + +"No, but--" He broke off, and turned away with a sigh to regard the +melancholy street-lamps twinkling through the lime-trees at the end of +the garden. + +"I think it's I who ought to be angry, not you," said Norah. "I offered +to marry you at once, and you instantly began to make excuses." + +"Norah!" protested the young man. + +"Oh, how I hate everything!" she burst out, looking round her with a +sharper consciousness than she had ever experienced before of the +drawing-room's ugliness and life's banality. At this moment Mrs. Caffyn +put her head timidly round the door. + +"You'd better come back to the dining-room, dear," she advised. "I think +father's just noticed you're not there." + +"That's exactly what I meant him to do." + +"Norah!" exclaimed her mother, in a shocked voice. "What has come over +you these last two days?" + +Wilfred was supporting the small of his back in an unsuccessful effort +to look at ease, and Norah was wondering more than ever how she could +ever have fancied herself in love with him. How awkward he appeared +standing there, almost--she hesitated a moment before she allowed +herself to think the worst it was possible to think of anybody--almost +common! She looked half apprehensively at Wilfred to see if he had +divined her unspoken thought. She would not like him to know that she +was thinking him--almost common; he might never get over it. She was +sure he was particularly sensitive on that point because in _The Red +Lamp_ he was always declaiming against snobbery. + +Suddenly they heard the dining-room door open, and Mrs. Caffyn had +barely time to breathe an agonized, "Oh, dear, what did I tell you would +happen?" before the head of the house came in. Upon the dining-room an +appalled silence must have fallen when Mr. Caffyn rose from his chair, +and one could fancy the frightened players, cues in hands, huddled +against the wall in dread of the imminent catastrophe. The whole house +was electric as before an impending storm, and above the stillness the +mutter of a passing omnibus sounded like remote thunder. With so much +atmospheric help Mr. Caffyn ought to have been able to achieve something +more impressive than his, "Oh, you're in here, are you? I wish you +wouldn't light the gas in the drawing-room when there's no need for it." + +"I thought you wouldn't like us to sit in the dark," Norah murmured, +primly. + +"Don't deliberately misunderstand me. You know perfectly well what I +mean. Moreover, I don't think it's nice for the children; it may put all +sorts of ideas into their young heads." + +Inasmuch as Mr. Caffyn was secretary of the Church of England Purity +Society with private means of his own, while his daughter's suitor was +an agnostic journalist who had never yet earned more than thirty-five +shillings in one week, it is perhaps not astonishing that the young man +should have begun to apologize for lighting the gas needlessly. To +Norah, however, these apologies sounded infinitely pusillanimous; from +having been very much in love yesterday morning she had already reached +indifference, and this final exhibition of cowardice brought her to the +point of positively disliking Wilfred. Nevertheless, she managed somehow +to impress her father with her intention to die rather than give him up, +and after an argument of about ten minutes, in the course of which Norah +did all the talking, her father all the shouting, and her mother and +suitor all the fidgeting, Mr. Caffyn was at last sufficiently +exasperated and ordered Wilfred Curlew to leave the house immediately. +In spite of Mrs. Caffyn's entreaties the pitch of her husband's voice +had been so piercing that he had probably managed not merely to put +ideas into the heads of the children still in the dining-room, but even +to corrupt the dreams of the sleeping innocents up-stairs. + +"Gilbert dear," his wife besought. "The servants!" + +"I pay my servants to attend to me, not to my affairs," said Mr. Caffyn, +majestically. His wife might have replied that under the terms of their +marriage contract it was she who paid the servants out of her own money; +but having been married twenty-one years she had long ceased to derive +any satisfaction from putting herself in the right. Poor Wilfred, +finding that he must either say something to break the silence which had +succeeded Mr. Caffyn's denunciation of his behavior or retire, preferred +to retire, and with one arm firmly wedged into the small of his back he +stumbled awkwardly down the hall to the front door. Norah made no +attempt to alleviate the discomfiture of his exit; but Arthur Drake, +with a chivalry, or, to put it at its lowest valuation, with a social +tact that amazed her, covered Wilfred's retreat by such a display of +farewell courtesies as made even the practical Dorothy pause and +consider if there might not be something in love, after all. + +"Bolt the door," Mr. Caffyn commanded. "And be sure that the chain is +properly fastened." + +Then rather at a loss how to maintain the level of his majesty and +wrath, he luckily discovered that Vincent had not yet gone to bed, and +exhorted the assembled family to tell him if he paid L8 a term to Mr. +Randell for Vincent to grow up into a pot-boy or a billiard-marker. +Cecil, the recent winner of a senior scholarship at St. James's, had +been grinding at his home-work in the bedroom, and he came out into the +hall at this moment to plead pathetically for a few doors to be shut. +His father improved the occasion by holding up Cecil as a moral example +to the rest of the family, who were made to feel that if Gilbert Caffyn +had not produced Cecil Caffyn, Gilbert Caffyn's life would have been +wasted. The more he descanted upon Cecil's diligence and dutifulness the +more sheepish Cecil himself became, so that with every fresh encomium +his sleeves revealed another inch of ink-stained cuff. The only way to +stop Mr. Caffyn and restore Cecil to the algebraical problem from which +he had been raped by the noise outside his room seemed to be for +everybody to go to bed. Agnes and Edna, their heads stuffed full of new +ideas, went giggling up-stairs, whither Dorothy, yawning very +elaborately, followed them. Roland decided that Cecil groaning over an +algebra problem would be more endurable than having to listen to a +renewal of the argument between Norah and his father, and he, too, +retired. The gradual melting away of the audience quieted Mr. Caffyn, +who, when he had lowered or extinguished all the gas-jets except those +in the dining-room, felt that he had shown himself master of his own +house, and returned to his arm-chair with the intention of nodding over +the minor news in the paper until he was ready for bed himself. Norah, +however, in spite of her mother's prods and whispered protests, brought +him sharply back to the matter in dispute. + +"Suppose I insist on being engaged to Wilfred?" she began. + +"Good Heavens!" cried Mr. Caffyn. "Am I never to be allowed a little bit +of peace? Here am I working all day to keep you clothed and fed, and +every night of my life is made a burden to me. You don't appreciate +what it is to have a father like me." His wife patted him soothingly and +flatteringly upon the shoulder as if she would assure him that they all +really appreciated the quality of his fatherhood very much. "Why, I know +fathers," went on Mr. Caffyn, indignantly, "who spend every evening at +their clubs, and upon my soul, I don't blame them. I was talking to the +Bishop of Chelsea to-day. He came into the office to consult me about +the scandalous language used at the whelk-stalls in Walham Road on +Saturday nights--we're taking up the question with the municipal +authorities. He told me I looked tired out. 'You look tired out, Mr. +Caffyn,' he said. 'I am tired out, my lord,' I answered. And _he_ was +very sympathetic." + +"You hear that, Norah dear?" said Mrs. Caffyn, twitching her fingers +with nervousness. "Now don't worry your father any more." + +"As soon as he answers my question I sha'n't worry him any more. Suppose +I insist on being engaged to Wilfred Curlew? Suppose I run away and get +married to him?" + +"Have you any conception what marriage means?" demanded Mr. Caffyn. "Do +you realize that I waited two years to marry your mother, and that I +didn't propose to her until it was quite evident that my poor father +must soon die? I suppose you don't want me to die, do you? Don't imagine +that my death will make any difference, please." + +"Gilbert, Gilbert!" begged his wife. + +"Well, really, nowadays children behave in such an extraordinary fashion +that it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear Norah was counting on my +death." + +"Gilbert, Gilbert!" she repeated, and looked in agony at the gas, as if +she expected it to turn blue at such a horrible suggestion. + +"If I don't marry Wilfred," Norah went on, "I must earn my own living." + +"How?" inquired her father, with an assumption of blustering +incredulity. + +"By going on the stage." + +"On the stage?" he repeated. "Do you realize that only yesterday I had +to deal with the question of our attitude toward the posters of several +theaters?" + +"That wouldn't have anything to do with me," said Norah. + +"But how are you going on the stage?" her father continued. + +"I should try to get an engagement." + +"Oh, would you, indeed? Ha-ha! Your mind seems to be running on +engagements, my child. However, this engagement is even more visionary +and improbable than the other one," said Mr. Caffyn, with a laugh. "I'm +afraid you think it's easier than it is, my dear girl. I have a little +experience of the stage--I regret to say chiefly of its worst side--and +I can assure you that it's not at all easy, really." + +"But if I can get an engagement?" persisted Norah. + +"Why, in that case we'll talk about it," said her father. "Yes, yes, +there'll be plenty of time to talk about that later on. And now if you +have no objection I should like to read what Mr. Balfour is saying about +Protection. It's a pity you don't try to take some interest in the +affairs of your country instead of-- However, I suppose that's _too_ much +to expect from the younger generation." + +"I must have your promise," Norah insisted. "If I write to Wilfred +to-night and tell him he mustn't come to the house any more, will you +let me go on the stage?" + +"We'll see about it," parried Mr. Caffyn. + +"No, I must have a definite promise." + +"Must, Norah? Do, dear child, remember that you're speaking to your +father," murmured her mother. + +"Oh, that's the modern way we bring up our children," said Mr. Caffyn. +"Before I know where I am I shall have Vincent ordering me up to bed." + +His wife laughed with such conjugal enthusiasm at his joke that the last +vestige of Mr. Caffyn's ill humor disappeared, and, being suddenly +struck with the extreme beauty of his eldest daughter as she waited +there bright-eyed in expectation of his answer, he promised her that if +she would break off all communication with that confounded young Curlew +and could obtain an engagement for herself, he would probably not create +any difficulties. Her face lit up with satisfaction and, bending over, +she kissed her father on the forehead with as much good will as a young +woman kisses an elderly lover who has promised her some diamonds she has +long desired. + + +IV + +Norah kept her word and wrote a letter to Wilfred Curlew in which she +pointed out the impossibility of embarking on a prolonged and quite +indefinite engagement, wished him good luck for the future, and made it +clear that she did not intend to have anything more to do with him. The +portion of the letter on which she most prided herself was the +postscript: "_Don't think that I bear you any ill will. I don't._" The +peace that had lately fallen over South Africa left Wilfred no +opportunity of putting his despair at the service of his country; but +Norah's behavior benefited the young journalist in the long run by +teaching him to mistrust human nature as much as God, a useful lesson +for a democrat. Norah, having disembarrassed herself of her suitor, set +out in earnest to get on the stage and confided her ambition to Lily. +Mrs. Haden's advice was asked, and Norah as a friend of her daughter was +given lessons in elocution and deportment without being charged a penny. +Mrs. Haden demonstrated to her that she stood very little chance of +getting on the stage until she could recite "Jack Barrett Went to +Quetta" or "Soldier, Soldier, Come from the Wars" with what she called +as much intention as herself; in other words, until the story of Jack +Barrett was awarded as much pomp of utterance as the Messenger's speech +in Hippolytus and the demobilized soldier greeted with Ophelia's +driveling whine. Mrs. Haden would not allow that her pupil's looks were +nearly as important as her ability to mouth Rudyard Kipling--perhaps, +the pupil thought, because her mistress had a pretty daughter of her +own. September deepened to October, October dimmed to November while +Norah was wrestling with her dread of seeming ridiculous and was +acquiring the unnatural diction that was to be of such value to her +first appearance. The lessons came to an abrupt end soon after Mrs. +Haden had begun upon her deportment, which to Norah seemed to consist of +holding her hands as if she were waiting to rinse them after eating +bread and treacle, and of sitting down on a chair as if she had burst +one suspender and expected the other to go every minute. One morning +when she arrived at Shelley Mansions for her lesson Lily came to the +door of the flat and with fearful backward glances cried out that her +mother was lying dead in bed. + +"Dead?" echoed Norah, irritably. She was always irritated by a sudden +alarm. "I wish you wouldn't--" She was going to say "play jokes," but +she saw that Lily was speaking the truth, and, having been taught by +Mrs. Haden how to suit the action to the word, the expression to the +emotion, she contrived to look sympathetic. + +"She must have died of heart, the doctor says. I went to see why she +didn't ring for her tea and she didn't answer, and when I thought she +was asleep she was really dead." + +Norah shuddered. + +"I'm awfully sorry I've disturbed you in the middle of all this," she +murmured. + +"But I'm glad you've come," said Lily. + +"It's awfully sweet of you, my dear, to be glad; but I wouldn't dream of +worrying you at such a moment. And don't stand there shivering in your +nightgown. Take my advice and dress yourself. It will distract your mind +from other things. You must come round and see me this afternoon, and +I'll try to cheer you up. I shall stay in for you. Don't forget." + +Norah hurried away from Shelley Mansions, thinking while she walked home +how easily this untoward event in the Haden household might hasten the +achievement of her own ambition. Lily would obviously have to do +something at once, and it would be nice for her to have a companion with +whom she could start her career upon the stage. Norah had not intended +to take any definite steps until her nineteenth birthday in March, but +she was anxious to show her sympathy with Lily, and it was much kinder, +really, to make useful plans for the future than to hang about the +stricken flat, getting in everybody's light. If Lily came this afternoon +they would be able to discuss ways and means; it would be splendid for +Lily to be taken right out of herself; it would be nice to invite her +after the funeral to come and stay in Lonsdale Road, so that they could +talk over things comfortably without always having to go out in this wet +weather; yet such an excellent suggestion would be opposed by the family +on the ground that there was no room for a stranger. How intolerable +that the existence of so many brothers and sisters should interfere with +the claims of friendship! Perhaps she could persuade Dorothy to sleep +with Gladys and Marjorie for a week or two. She and Lily should have so +much to talk over, and if Dorothy were in the room with them it would be +an awful bore. Full of schemes for Lily's benefit, she approached her +sister on the subject of giving up her bed. + +"Anything more you'd like?" asked Dorothy, indignantly. + +"I think," said Norah, "that you are without exception the most selfish +girl I ever met in all my life." + +Dorothy grunted at this accusation, but she refused to surrender her +bed, and Norah soon gave up talking in general terms about people who +were afraid to expose themselves to a little inconvenience for the sake +of doing a kind action, because Lily arrived next day with the news that +her sister had obtained leave to be "off" for a week and was advising +her to do everything she could to get an engagement as soon as possible. +There were problems of arrears of rent and unpaid bills from the +solution of which it would be advantageous for Lily to escape by going +on tour. The few personal possessions of their mother the sisters would +divide between them, and the undertaker was to be satisfied at the +expense of a fishmonger who, being new to West Kensington, had let Mrs. +Haden run an account. + +"And your father?" Norah could not help asking; but Lily avoided a +reply, and Norah, who had been too well brought up to ask twice, formed +her own conclusions. + +"Anyway, my dear," she assured her friend, "you can count on me. I +hadn't intended to do anything definite until I was nineteen, but of +course I'm not going to desert you. So we'll go and interview managers +together." + +"Doris advises me to try Walter Keal," said Lily. "Dick--her +husband--has given me a letter for him which may be useful, he says." + +"Who's Walter Keal?" + +"Don't you know?" exclaimed Lily. "He sends out all the Vanity shows." + +Norah bit her lips in mortification. She hated not to know things and +decided to avoid meeting Doris, who as a professional actress of at +least a year's standing would be likely to patronize her. + +"You see," Lily went on, "he'll be sending out 'Miss Elsie of Chelsea' +at the end of December, and if we could get in the chorus we should be +all right till June." + +"The chorus?" echoed Norah, disdainfully. "I never thought of joining +the chorus of a musical comedy." + +"It might only be for a few months, and when you're with Walter Keal +there's always the chance of getting to the Vanity." + +"A Vanity girl!" repeated Norah, scornfully. "For everybody to look at!" + +Lily told her friend that it was better to be looked at as a Vanity girl +than to spend her life looking at other people from a window in West +Kensington. + +"But I can't sing," Norah objected. + +"Sing! Who ever heard of a chorus-girl that could sing?" + +The lowly position of a Vanity girl was not proof against the alchemy of +Norah's self-esteem; she made up her mind to renounce Pinero and all his +works and go into musical comedy. + +When the two friends reached the small street off Leicester Square and +saw extending up the steps of the building in which the offices of Mr. +Walter Keal were situated an endless queue of girls waiting to interview +the manager, Norah was discouraged. + +"Oh, he has lots of companies," Lily explained. Then she addressed +herself to a dirty-faced man with a collar much too large for him who +was in charge of the entrance. + +"You give me your letter, and it'll be all right." + +"But it's for Mr. Keal himself," Lily protested. + +"That's all right, my dear; your turn'll come." + +The women immediately in front looked round indignantly at Lily, and +Norah, who was beginning to feel self-conscious, begged her not to make +a fuss. This was advice Lily always found easy to take, and, the +introduction from her brother-in-law stowed away in the dirty-faced +man's pocket, she and Norah took their places in the queue. Every ten +minutes or so a good-looking girl, obviously well pleased with herself, +would descend briskly from the glooms above; but mostly at intervals of +about thirty seconds depressed women, powdering their noses as +nonchalantly as possible, came down more slowly. Foot by foot Norah and +Lily, who by now had a trail of women behind them, struggled higher up +the steps. There was a continuous murmur of sibilant talk punctuated by +shrill laughter, and the atmosphere, thickly flavored with cheap scent, +perspiration, damp, clothes, and cigarette smoke, grew more oppressive +with each step of the ascent. At last they turned the corner of the +first landing and saw ahead of them a shorter flight; half-way up this, +another landing crowded with girls came into view, the three doors +opening on which were inscribed "Walter Keal's Touring Companies" in +white paint; a muffled sound of typewriting seemed auspiciously +business-like amid this babbling, bedraggled, powdered mass of anxious +women. By the central door another dirty-faced man was ushering in the +aspirants one at a time. + +"We ought to have given my letter to him," said Lily. + +"Well, don't go back for it now," Norah begged, looking in dismay at the +throng behind. + +They must have been waiting over two hours when at last they found +themselves face to face with the janitor. A bell tinkled as a bright +figure emerged from the door on the left and hurried away down the steps +without regarding the envious glances of the unadmitted; immediately +afterward the door in front of them opened, and they passed through to +the office. + +"One at a time," the janitor called; but Norah quickly shut the door +behind them, and she and Lily were simultaneously presented for the +inspection of Mr. Walter Keal. + +The office was furnished with a large roll-top desk, three chairs, and a +table littered with papers which a dowdy woman in pince-nez was trying +to put in some kind of order. The walls were hung with playbills; the +room was heavy with cigar smoke. Mr. Walter Keal, a florid, clean-shaven +man with a diamond pin in his cravat, a Malmaison carnation in his +buttonhole, and a silk hat on the back of his head, was bending over the +desk without paying the least attention to the new-comers. Standing +behind him in an attitude that combined deference toward Mr. Keal with +insolence toward the rest of the world was a young man of Jewish +appearance who stared critically at the two girls. + +"You don't remember me, Mr. Keal," began Lily, timidly. "I was +introduced to you once in the Strand by my brother-in-law, Richard +Granville." + +"I'm sure you were," interrupted Mr. Keal, curtly; but when he looked up +and saw that Lily was pretty he changed his tone. "That's all right; +don't be frightened. I've met so many girls in my time. Well, what can I +do for you?" + +"I had a letter of introduction from my brother-in-law, Mr. Granville," +Lily began again. + +"Never heard of the gentleman," said Mr. Keal. + +Norah, feeling that she and Lily stood once more on an equality, came +forward with assurance. + +"We thought you were choosing girls for the chorus in 'Miss Elsie of +Chelsea.'" + +"Full up," the manager snapped. + +The Jewish young man bent over and whispered something to his master, +who took a long look at the girls. + +"However, I might find you two extra places. What experience have you +had? None, eh? Can you sing? You think so. Um--yes--all girls think they +can sing. Well, I'll give you a chance, but I can't offer more than a +guinea a week of seven performances. If you don't like to take that, +there are plenty who will and be grateful. It's my Number One company." + +Norah did not wait for Lily, but accepted for both of them. + +"Are they going to let us have the club in Lisle Street, Fitzmaurice?" +the manager turned to inquire of his assistant. + +"Yes, Mr. Keal. The club has arranged to lend their concert-room every +morning and afternoon this week, but if you want any evening calls we +shall have to make other arrangements." + +"But ---- it all," Mr. Keal exclaimed, "when are we going to get the +stage?" + +"They won't be able to let us have it till the week before Christmas." + +"That's a nice ruddy job," grumbled Mr. Keal. "All right, dears," he +said, "go in there and get your contracts." He pointed to the room +adjoining, where, amid an infernal rattle of typewriters, Lily and Norah +sold their untried talents to Mr. Keal for a guinea a week of seven +performances, extra matinees to be paid for at half rate, and a +fortnight's salary in lieu of notice to be considered just. When she +took up the pen to sign the contract Norah paused. + +"You've put your own name, Lily," she said, doubtfully. + +"Oh, I can't be bothered to think of a new name. Besides, my own is +quite a good one for the stage." + +"Yes, but I ought to change mine. I think I shall call myself Dorothy +Lonsdale. Do you like that?" + +"You've got a sister called Dorothy. Won't she be rather annoyed?" + +Norah tried to think of another name, but she was confused by the noise +of the typewriters, and at last she ejaculated, impatiently: + +"Oh, bother, I must be Dorothy! I've always known it would suit me much +better than her. I shouldn't mind if she called herself Norah. Besides, +I sha'n't be Dorothy Caffyn, so what does it matter?" + +They were told that their contracts would be handed to them at the +rehearsal called for to-morrow morning at the Hungarian Artistes' Club, +Lisle Street, Leicester Square. + +"How easy it is, really," said Norah, when she and Lily were going +down-stairs again, past the line of tired women still waiting to be +admitted. "Though I thought his language was rather disgusting. Didn't +you?" + +"I didn't notice it," said Lily. "But you'll have to get used to bad +language on the stage." + +"I shall never get used to it," Norah vowed, with a disdainful glance at +a particularly common-looking girl who, tossing the feathers in her hat +like a defiant savage, called out: + +"God! Flo, look at Mrs. Walter Keal coming down-stairs." + +The girls round her laughed, and Norah hurried past angrily. She had +been intending to patronize Lily; after that remark it was not so easy. + +Just as they reached the foot of the first flight of steps the +dirty-faced janitor bawled over the balustrade, "Mr. Keal can't see any +more ladies to-day." + +Sighs of disappointment and murmurs of indignation rose from the +actresses; then they turned wearily round and prepared to encounter the +December rain. + +"You'd better come and call for me to-morrow," said Norah, "so that we +can go to the rehearsal together. Think of me to-night when I'm trying +to explain to father what I've done." + +"Will he be very angry?" + +"Yes, I expect he will, and though I know how to manage him it's always +a nuisance having to argue," said Norah. "You're lucky not to have a +father." + +Lily looked at her friend quickly and suspiciously. + +"I mean you're lucky to be quite on your own," she explained. + +The moment Mr. Caffyn came home from the city that evening Norah +revealed to him that she had got an engagement in a touring company and +reminded him of his promise. As she had expected, he tried to go back on +his word, and even brought up the old objection to a daughter of his +going on the stage. + +"Nobody will know that I'm your daughter," she said. "I shall change my +name, of course." + +"But people are sure to hear about it," Mr. Caffyn argued. + +Norah pulled him up suddenly. + +"It's no good going on about it, father. I've got an engagement and I'm +going to accept it. If you try to prevent me I shall do something much +worse." + +Mr. Caffyn's dislike of the stage may not have been as deep as he +pretended, or he may have thought that his daughter really intended to +do something desperate and that he might be called upon to support her +in married life, which would be more expensive than supporting her on +the stage. Moreover, she seemed so confident that perhaps he might never +have to support her on the stage, and what a delightful solution of her +future that would be! After all, she was the eldest of six girls, and +six girls rapidly growing up might become too much even for the +secretary of the Church of England Purity Society to control +successfully. + +Mrs. Caffyn melted into tears at the idea of her eldest daughter's +earning her own living, and Norah decided to profit by maternal +weakness. + +"The only thing, mother dear, is that I shall be very poor." + +"Darling child!" + +"You see, I don't like to ask father to make me a larger allowance than +he makes at present." + +"Oh no," agreed Mrs. Caffyn, apprehensively. "I beg you won't ask him to +do that." + +"So my idea was--" Norah began. She paused for a moment to think how she +could express herself most tactfully. "Mother, you have a certain amount +of money of your own, haven't you?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"And I suppose it's really you who makes me my allowance of twenty-five +pounds a year? What I thought was that perhaps you'd rather give me a +lump sum now when it would be more useful than go on paying me an +allowance. Another thing is that I should hate to feel I was coming into +money when you died, and, of course, if you gave me my money now I +shouldn't feel that." + +"My dear child, how am I to find any large sum of money now? It's very +sweet of you to put it in that way, but you don't understand how +difficult these matters are." + +"How much money have you got of your own?" asked Norah. + +Mrs. Caffyn thought this was rather an improper question; but Norah was +looking so very grown up that she did not like to elude the answer as +she had been wont to elude many answers of many childish questions +through all these years of married life. + +"Well, dear," she said, with the air of one who was revealing a +dangerous family secret, "I suppose you're old enough to hear these +things now. I have three hundred pounds a year of my own--at least, when +I say of my own, you mustn't think that means three hundred a year to +spend on myself. Your father is very just, and though he helps me as +much as he is able, all the money is taken up in household expenses." + +"Well, twenty-five pounds a year," said Norah, "at five per cent. is the +interest on five hundred pounds." + +"Is it, dear?" asked her mother, in a frightened voice. + +"If you give me five hundred pounds now you wouldn't have to pay me +twenty-five pounds a year. And if you lived for another twenty-five +years you'd save one hundred and twenty-five pounds that way." + +Mrs. Caffyn looked as if she would soon faint at these rapid +calculations. + +"How am I to get five hundred pounds?" she asked, hopelessly. + +"You must go and see the manager of your bank." + +"But Roland is a clerk in my bank," Mrs. Caffyn objected. "And what +would _he_ say?" + +"Roland!" repeated Norah, with scorn. "You don't suppose Roland knows +everything that goes on in the bank?" + +"No, I suppose he doesn't," agreed Mrs. Caffyn, wonderingly. + +"If you like _I'll_ go and see the bank manager," Norah offered. "He +took rather a fancy to me, I remember, when he came to supper with us +once." + +"Norah, how recklessly you talk!" protested Mrs. Caffyn. But Norah was +firm and she did not rest until she had persuaded her mother to ask for +an interview with the manager, to whom she made herself so charming and +with whom she argued so convincingly that in the end she succeeded in +obtaining the L500. + +"Though what your father will say I don't like to think, dear," said +Mrs. Caffyn, as she tremblingly mounted an omnibus to go home. + +"I don't see why father should know anything about it, and if he does he +can't say anything. It's your money." + +"Let's hope he'll never find out," Mrs. Caffyn sighed, though she had +little hope really of escaping from detection in what she felt was +something perilously like a clever bank robbery--the sort of thing one +read about in illustrated magazines. + +Norah determined to be very cautious at rehearsals and she advised Lily +to be the same. + +"Of course, we shall gradually make friends with the other girls, but +don't let's be in too much of a hurry, especially as we've got each +other. And if you take my advice you'll be very reserved with the men." + +Since Norah had found how easy it was to get on the stage her opinion of +Mr. Vavasour had sunk, and since she had found how easy it was to get +out of love her opinion of men in general had sunk. On the other hand, +her opinion of herself as an actress and as a woman had risen +proportionately. Meanwhile the rehearsals proceeded as rehearsals do, +and the No. I company of "Miss Elsie of Chelsea" was harried from +club-room to club-room, from suburban theater to metropolitan theater, +until it was ready to charm the city of Manchester on Boxing Night. + +On Christmas Eve, the last evening that Norah would spend at home for +some time, she decided in an access of honesty to tell Dorothy that she +had taken her name for purposes of the stage. Most unreasonably, Dorothy +protested loudly against this, and it transpired in the course of the +dispute that she had all her life resented being the only one of the +family who had not been given two names. Norah's own second name, +Charlotte, which was also her mother's, had never struck her before as +anything in the nature of an asset, but now with much generosity she +offered to lend it to Dorothy, who refused it as scornfully as she could +without hurting her mother's feelings. + +"Why couldn't you have taken Lina or Florence or Amy or Maud?" Dorothy +demanded. These were the second names of the other sisters. "And, +anyway, what's the matter with your own name?" + +"I don't know," said Norah. "Dorothy Lonsdale struck me as a good +combination, and the more I think of it the better I like it." + +"Lonsdale," everybody repeated. "Are you going to call yourself +Lonsdale?" + +"It's the family name," Norah reminded them. + +This was quite true; Lonsdale had been the maiden name of Mrs. Caffyn's +mother, who, according to a family legend, had been a distant kinswoman +of Lord Cleveden. Indeed, before Mr. Caffyn was married he had often +used this connection to overcome his father's opposition to a long +engagement. When he had bought the house in Lonsdale Road he had liked +to think for a while that in a way he was doing something to restore the +prestige of a distant collateral branch; the transaction had possessed a +flavor of winning back an old estate. Naturally, as he grew older, he +ceased to attach the same importance to mere birth, especially when he +found that he did not require any self-assertion to get on perfectly +well with the bishops who came to consult him about diocesan scandals. +Therefore he was inclined to take his eldest daughter's part and +applaud her choice of a stage name. + +"But suppose I wanted to go on the stage myself?" Dorothy insisted. "I +might want to use my own name." + +"Well, so you could," Norah urged. "You could be Miss Dorothy Caffyn. +But you won't go on the stage, so what's the good of arguing like that? +Anyway, I've signed the contract as Dorothy Lonsdale, so there's nothing +to be done. _I_ can't change." + +"I do think it's mean of you," expostulated the real Dorothy, bursting +into tears. + +Norah would not allow anybody to come and see her off at Euston on +Christmas morning, and Mr. Caffyn, who did not at all like the idea of a +four-wheeler's waiting outside his house on such a day, helped his +daughter's plans by marshaling the whole family for church half an hour +earlier than usual, so that the farewells were said indoors. Lily had +left the flat a fortnight ago and, having been staying in some +Bloomsbury lodgings recommended by her sister, was to meet her friend at +the station. At a quarter to eleven, amid the clangor of church bells, +the cab of Norah Caffyn turned out of Lonsdale Road into the main street +of West Kensington, and at noon on the platform at Euston Miss Lily +Haden wished a Merry Christmas to Miss Dorothy Lonsdale. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +I + +The ostriches of northern Patagonia are said to indulge in co-operative +nesting: half a dozen hens one after another proceed to lay in a shallow +cavity numerous eggs, the incubation of which is left to a male bird. +Similarly, for the consummation of a musical comedy half a dozen +lyrists, librettists, and composers lay their heads together in a +shallow cavity and leave the result of their labor to be given life by a +producer. "Miss Elsie of Chelsea," not being an exceptional musical +comedy, will not repay a more thorough analysis. The first act developed +in a painter's studio; in the second act everybody from the models in +the chorus to the millionaire and his daughter whom the painter wanted +to marry were transported to Honolulu. It was produced at the Vanity +Theater under Mr. John Richards's management in the early autumn of the +year 1902, and for many seasons it attracted large audiences all over +the civilized world. + +During the first fortnight of the tour, a fortnight of unending rain in +Manchester, Dorothy, as she must be called henceforth, was inclined to +think that life on the stage was not much more exciting than life in +West Kensington, and certainly twice as tiring. It was holiday time, +with two performances a day for eight days, and only in the second +week--or more strictly in the third week, for Boxing Day fell upon a +Friday that year--was she able to look about her in the small world +where she must spend the next six months of her existence. She soon came +to the conclusion that such an environment would not be tolerable for +longer, and she made up her mind to escape from touring as soon as +possible into a London engagement. + +While she was still rehearsing in town she had paid one or two visits to +the Vanity Theater, partly because it pleased her to hand in a card +inscribed, "Miss Dorothy Lonsdale. Mr. Walter Keal's Miss Elsie of +Chelsea Co.," but chiefly with the object of studying the demeanor, +dress, appearance, and talents of the various members of the Vanity +chorus, especially of the show-girls. The result of her observations was +a strong belief that she was as graceful, as well able to set off +clothes, as beautiful, and as good an actress as any of them. At the +same time, she had begun to hear girls in the company talk about +"getting across the footlights" and had realized that her own +personality's powers of projection were still untested. If at the end of +the tour it was brought home to her that with all her qualities "off" +she lacked the most important one of all "on," she should immediately +retire from the stage forever. The life itself did not attract her, and +to spend years growing older and older in the environment of a +provincial company seemed to Dorothy wilful self-deception; liberty at +such a price would be worse than a comfortable servitude to suburban +convention. + +When on that wet Christmas morning at Euston she had seen the companions +to close contact with whom she was bound for six months--a polychromatic +group of crude pink complexions, mauve veils, electric seal, and +exaggerated boots, looking in the mass like a shop-window in a +second-rate thoroughfare, the sort of shop-window that has bundles of +overcoats hanging outside the doorway, which indeed the men +resembled--she had felt a sudden revulsion from them all, which those +days in Manchester had done nothing to cure. + +The first fortnight's bills for board and lodging had already shown +Dorothy that existence on a guinea a week was not going to be easy; if +she were ever engaged for London, she should require money to dress +herself well at the beginning of her career, and it was imperative to +save every penny she possibly could now in order to preserve intact the +L500 she had obtained from her mother. An immediate economy would be +effected in their weekly expenses if she and Lily could persuade another +girl to share lodgings with them, and Dorothy began to study the ranks +of the chorus for a suitable partner. Of course, from a social point of +view she would have preferred to live with one of the principals, but +the principals had not yet paid any attention to her, and she would not +risk making advances first; besides, their standard of living might be +too high for one who did not intend to waste money on the provinces. But +when she considered her companions of the chorus, the dreadful language +many of them used, the outrageous stories they told at the top of their +voices, and, worst of all, their cockney accents, Dorothy shrank from +extending the enforced intimacy of the dressing-room to her weekly home. +This problem had not been solved when on the third Sunday after +Christmas the company left Manchester for Birmingham, and by the newly +arranged order of traveling Miss Dorothy Lonsdale found herself allotted +to share a compartment with Miss Lily Haden, Miss Fay Onslow, and Miss +Sylvia Scarlett. + +Miss Onslow was unmistakably the senior member of the chorus and had +reached the happy period of an actress's life when she has no more need +to bother about keeping her reminiscences too nicely in focus. She was, +in fact, as even she herself admitted, not far off forty; in a railway +train on a wet January afternoon the kindest observer would have assumed +that her next landmark was fifty. A month ago Dorothy would have +shuddered to find herself on an equality with such a person; but +asperous is the astral road, and she had to make the best of Miss Onslow +by treating her with at least as much cordiality as she would have shown +to a small dressmaker from whom she wanted a dress by the end of the +week. Gradually, as her new surroundings became familiar, Dorothy had +brought herself to call Miss Onslow "Onzie," and though the abbreviation +made her gorge rebel as from cod-liver oil, she bravely persevered. +Instinctively she knew that this was the only woman in the chorus whose +counsel she could trust, the only one who would honestly tell her if she +looked better with or without an artificial teardrop. The sum of Onzie's +experience was hers for the asking; the middle-aged actress was an +academician of grease-paint, serving alike as a warning and an example +to the student; while her knowledge of the various towns in which the +company had dates was evidently profound. Already she had provided +Dorothy with an address for Birmingham; but these rooms to be enjoyed +without the prickings of extravagance required a third partner. Dorothy, +anxious to profit still further by Onzie's experience, suggested that +she should join Lily and herself; but that very experience for which the +novice was greedy made the old professional shake her head: + +"No, thank you, ducky," she said. "I always live alone nowadays. You +see, I've got my own little peculiarities. Besides, when my best boy +comes down to see me he likes to see me alone. When I was with the +'Geisha' crowd last year I obliged one of the girls by sharing rooms +with her in Middlesbrough, and as luck would have it George selected +Middlesbrough to pay me a little visit. He was really very aggravated +indeed, and he said to me, 'Fay,' he said, 'whatever's the use of me +coming all the way up to Middlesbrough if I can't ever see you?' So I +had to tell the other girl--Lexie Sharp her name was--that the +arrangement didn't work, and what do you think she did? Well, if you'll +believe me, she went about telling everybody that I was jealous of her +over George! Luckily for me she was a girl who was very well known for +her tongue and nobody paid any attention to her; still, it was +uncomfortable for me, though I deserved it for breaking one of my rules. +Who knows? George may come up to Birmingham. It's just the sort of place +he would select for a visit, because, being a London fellow, he feels +out of it in too small a town. Of course, he has nothing to do with the +stage himself. Oh dear me, no, nothing whatever! He lives at Tulse Hill +with two aunts, one of which has a growth in the throat and may go off +at any moment, which prevents George working, as she's so particular +about having him always close at hand. Well, any one ought to understand +an aunt's feelings--I'm sure I can--but some of the girls last year used +to criticize him something dreadful behind my back, until really I was +glad to say good-by to them all. But this seems a much nicer crowd we're +in now." + +"We've only been in it a fortnight," said Miss Scarlett from the other +corner of the carriage. + +Dorothy looked at the speaker curiously. She was a girl who had joined +the company for the last three rehearsals and during this first +fortnight in Manchester had kept herself apart. Lily had spoken to her +once or twice, but Dorothy, who was afraid there might be an unpleasant +reason for such deliberate seclusion, had begged Lily not to be in too +great a hurry to make friends with her. During Onzie's monologue Miss +Scarlett had apparently been unconscious of what was happening in the +compartment, and from the corner opposite Lily she had been staring out +at the landscape, that was scarred and grimed and misshapen by industry +like the hands of the toilers who lived in it. She was different from +all the other girls, Dorothy was thinking--rather foreign-looking with +her deep, brown, slanted eyes and mass of untidy brown hair, her wide +nose, high cheek-bones, and distinctly ugly mouth, the underlip of which +only just escaped protruding. She was dressed, too, in a style that was +quite unlike that of anybody else and without any regard for the +prevailing fashion. Dorothy remembered with a flickering smile that +when she had first seen her at rehearsals she had thought she was one of +the Hungarian artistes who had come to see why her club-room was being +used by a theatrical company. Now when in a deep voice she suddenly +turned round and commented on Fay Onslow's last remark Dorothy was +astonished to hear that she spoke the same kind of English as herself; +she indeed, in her surprise, almost gave utterance aloud to her thought +that this gipsy creature was a lady. + +"Hell! I've left my cigarettes behind," the lady ejaculated. + +"There now, what a nuisance for you!" said the good-natured Onzie. "Have +one of mine, dear." + +"Which are they? Turks or Virgins?" asked Miss Scarlett, leaning over +and screwing up her eyes to see what Onzie was offering. + +Dorothy corrected her opinion and decided that Miss Scarlett had been a +lady once upon a time; yet even while she was condemning her vulgarity +she was thinking that her ladyhood was not so far away in the past. Her +speech and manner had the assurance of age, but she could not be much +more than twenty-two or twenty-three, perhaps not even so much as that. + +Presently the train stopped for a dreary Sunday wait, and while some of +the gentlemen of the company, with a view to future favors, were +scuttling about the platform in search of tea for the ladies from whom +they would demand them, Dorothy took this opportunity of asking Lily +what she thought about inviting Sylvia Scarlett to share their rooms at +Birmingham. + +"She seems quite different from the other girls," Dorothy explained. "I +mean, she talked as if she was a lady. Don't you think so? And really, +you know, we can't afford these rooms unless we do get a third person." + +Lily was quite ready to accept Miss Scarlett's company, though, as +Dorothy thought impatiently, she would have been equally willing to +accept the dresser's, if Dorothy had thought of inviting the dresser to +share rooms with them. + +"Do you want a cup of tea, Lil?" a young man came along and asked at +this moment. When Lily declared that she should love a cup of tea, he +hurried off toward the buffet. + +"Do you know him?" asked Dorothy, in surprise. + +"Only since we joined the company." + +"But he's one of the chorus-boys, isn't he?" + +"Yes." + +"And you let him call you Lily already?" Dorothy hoped it was no worse +than Lily; it had sounded dreadfully like Lil. + +"Why shouldn't I?" + +"Of course, it's your own business," said Dorothy, turning coldly away +to eye Sylvia Scarlett, who was striding up and down the platform with +both hands in the pockets of a frieze overcoat and looking so +independent of everybody in the world that she felt shy of interrupting +her. At that moment Lily was carried off by the chorus-boy for a cup of +tea, which, had it been arsenic, Dorothy could not have declined more +indignantly, and she found herself alone upon the platform and exposed +to the glances of the comedian, a debased sport from the famous Vanity +comedian whose mannerisms he had reproduced in the provinces as well as +he was able for fifteen years, and would probably continue to reproduce +for as many more. A small and ugly man, Joe Wiltshire had become so +hardened to women's snubs that by sheer recklessness and +indiscrimination he managed to fill his bag. If he was weak with +rocketing pheasants he never hesitated to pot a sitting rabbit; in other +words, he made love to every woman he met and found 5 per cent. of them +amenable. Now with a view to impressing the prettiest girl in the chorus +he was being funny with two bottles of stout and a corkscrew; but though +he managed to cheer up the porter on duty, he failed to amuse Dorothy, +who seized an opportunity of escaping from the performance by attaching +herself to Sylvia Scarlett on her return promenade. + +"I say," she began, in her best West Kensington manner. "I hope you +won't think it awful cheek on my part, but my friend and I--you know, +that pretty, fair girl who was in our carriage--would be awfully glad if +you'd join us this week in our digs. Awfully nice rooms, but rather +expensive for two, though we ought to be able to manage quite reasonably +with three. Of course, if you're already fixed--" + +"I've never been fixed in my life," said Miss Scarlett, sharply, "and I +certainly don't intend to be fixed in Birmingham." + +"No, I say, shut up; don't laugh. Have you been on the stage long?" + +"Two weeks and two days." + +"Oh, I say, really, then this is your first shop?" + +Dorothy felt more at ease now that she knew she had not got to deal with +a veteran of the profession; this new girl was obviously not one to be +patronized, but there was now no reason to anticipate patronage on her +side. With the removal of this danger Dorothy became more natural in her +manner, and by the time the line was cleared for the theatrical special +to proceed the bargain had been struck by which Sylvia Scarlett would +share rooms with herself and Lily. + +"I say, I hope you don't mind my making personal remarks," said Dorothy, +"but you're looking most awfully tired." + +She had intended this remark to effect a breach in the other girl's +reserve, but it apparently had the contrary effect of raising the +barrier still higher. She drew back slightly huffed, and Sylvia, leaning +over, with a quick expansive gesture put a hand on her arm and told her +not to be offended if she was not being confidential, but that she was +enjoying the luxury of complete privacy after a period of disagreeable +publicity. Dorothy would have preferred more exact information; even in +childhood she had always felt inclined to cry when people had asked her +riddles, and Roland's favorite way of teasing her had been to invent +riddles without answers; however, she comforted herself with the +reflection that Sylvia really was a lady, which at any rate ought to be +a guaranty that the answer to that conundrum was not vulgar like the +dreadful answers to dressing-room conundrums. + +The train dragged on through the wet January dusk and into the dripping +night of blurred lamps and distant furnaces, of ghostly Sunday travelers +and long platforms like stagnant streams. Conversation in the +compartment hung heavily upon the air like the moist breath of the tired +women in the four corners of it. Dorothy, whose touchstone of behavior +was self-respect, asked herself why Fay Onslow should mind living with +other girls, such intimate revelations of her private habits was she +making in the course of this journey. If a woman as fat as she was did +not feel the loss of her dignity in searching for a flea like that, why +should she want to live alone? And that was by no means the least +dignified thing she had done. This ostentatious disregard of life's +little decencies was certainly a regrettable side of theatrical life. +However, the fact that she herself had gone on the stage prevented +Dorothy from betraying her disapproval of such behavior. It would have +been contrary to her method of dealing with life to admit that she could +even expose herself to anything unseemly, still less that she might +succumb to it. From the moment that Dorothy went on the stage the +profession became above criticism, and the sense of collective propriety +that she inherited as her father's daughter was no longer capable of +being shocked. She crucified her fastidiousness; she was persecutor and +martyr at the same time and derived an equal consciousness of +superiority from either aspect of herself; in fact, the only thing in +life that seriously troubled Dorothy was a minute bleb of skin on her +left eyelid, and even that could be removed by a beauty doctor. + +It was raining harder than ever when the train reached Birmingham, and +the girls decided to indulge in the luxury of a cab. The rooms looked as +if they really would be very comfortable, and the landlady insisted +proudly that managers had been known to stay in them, not mere business +managers whose only aim in life seemed to be making fusses about the +starching of their white shirts, but acting managers, one of whom had +even brought his children, which, as she pointed out, proved that the +lodgings were homely. + +Sylvia was some time getting ready for supper, and Dorothy, thinking it +would not be nice to begin without her, made Lily wait quite half an +hour. When Sylvia did come down at last, Dorothy was nearly sure that +she had been crying, and the mystery of her origin once more obtruded +itself. Dorothy wished now that she had arranged for Sylvia and herself +to share the second room instead of Lily and herself. This strange new +girl perplexed her self-assurance, and she proposed that if the new +association prospered--they drank to its success in the pale India ale +which the landlady provided--they should take it week about to sleep in +the single room. Dorothy tried to extract confidences from Sylvia by +confiding in her the history of Lily as far as she knew it; when that +did not elicit anything she offered a gilded version of her own prior +circumstances. The following week at Derby she shared the bedroom with +Sylvia and went so far as to give her an almost truthful account of the +Wilfred Curlew business, but nothing could she get from Sylvia in +return. Moreover, there was nothing in her belongings that afforded a +clue to her history; there was not a single photograph or initialed +ornament; all her possessions were left lying about the room, and her +trunk was never locked; and when every morning the girls called at the +stage door for their correspondence she only in the company never +received a letter, nor even bothered to look if there was one waiting +for her in the rack. But if Sylvia was mute about the past she was not +at all reserved about the present. There was nobody like her for seizing +upon the eccentricities of the various members of the company to make +merry with, and if sometimes Dorothy felt that she went too far in +laughing at herself, she could not be angry because she used to laugh as +much, indeed more, at Lily. She was a match, too, for any landlady; and +gradually, as the association begun at Birmingham hardened into +permanency, Dorothy and Lily left the entire management of their weekly +home to Sylvia: who had a delightful capacity for keeping the weekly +bills reasonable without ever seeming to be economical. + +Dorothy was too firmly convinced of the reality of her own beauty to be +an idealist, but if in after life any portion of her early experience on +the stage seemed to her worthy of idealization these first weeks with +Sylvia and Lily seemed so. Partly this was due to her discovery that +touring was not so unpleasant when she did not have to bother about +anything except her own appearance; but chiefly it was due to her +growing conviction of ultimate success. There was beginning to be no +doubt that even from the chorus of a musical comedy company on tour her +personality was getting across the footlights. Even Sylvia, the +mercilessly critical Sylvia, had prophesied success for her, and +Dorothy's dreams went past to the music of approaching triumphs. Her +mind was all a pageant, and the commonplace of touring existence--the +aroma of the theater, the flight from the great manufacturing towns on +still Sabbath mornings of black frost, the kaleidoscopic mustering of +the company at railway stations, the emptiness of new rooms untouched as +yet by the transience of the three girls, the garish mirrors hung with +velvet that held her beauty, the undulating horsehair sofas, the +sea-shells on the mantelpiece, the fire glowing in the grate, the dim +gas when they came home from the performance, the smell of Cheddar +cheese in the little room, the bright gas shining on the three places +laid for supper, the petticoats hanging over the bed up-stairs, the +oil-cloth in the passages, the noise of the landlady's family in the +stuffy kitchen--all these and a hundred more externals of touring +existence were in the years to come regarded affectionately as winter is +beheld from the radiance of a summer afternoon. + +So from Derby "Miss Elsie of Chelsea" went to Leeds, from Leeds to +Bradford, from Bradford to Liverpool, from Liverpool to Newcastle. Then +from Newcastle the company ascended into Scotland, where genial +landladies and cakes and enthusiastic audiences compensated for east +winds. + + +II + +Gradually, under the pressure of Sylvia's teasing, Dorothy allowed +herself to make friends with the other girls and to be superficially +polite with the men. She was never popular in the company in the way +that for different reasons Sylvia and Lily were popular; but perhaps her +disdain and conceit were pardoned as tokens of future success, because +she was not ostracized as she certainly would have been ostracized +without the fascination that favorites of fortune always exert upon the +rest of mankind. Besides, people said such spiteful things behind her +back that they had to be fairly pleasant to her face. The men in the +chorus one after another tried in vain to attract her attention whenever +the requirements of the scene gave them an excuse for talking to her. +But Dorothy used to respond as if the dialogue could really be heard by +the audience, which may have been artistic, but did not allow her +admirers much opportunity of cultivating a friendship. Off the stage she +would have nothing to do with any of them. The comedian made one or two +more attempts to charm her with buffoonery, but she told him that he was +even less funny off the stage than on, upon which he lost his temper +and swore she was a stuck-up cow; an alleged lack of humor in Scotland +had recently deprived Mr. Wiltshire of some of his best laughs, and he +was in no mood to be criticized by a chorus-girl. + +"If you speak to me again like that," said Dorothy, primly, "I shall +complain to Mr. Warren." + +"Wow-wow-wow!" the comedian mimicked. + +"Never mind, Joe," said Sylvia, who was standing close by in the wings. +"If you manage to break your leg with your next entrance you'll get a +laugh, all right." + +"You think yourself very funny, don't you?" growled Mr. Wiltshire. + +"Yes, but I haven't got to convince a Scotch audience that I am," said +Sylvia. + +The comedian's cue came before he could retort, and, falling over his +feet in a way that would have made a more southerly audience rock with +mirth, he took the stage. + +"Vulgar little beast!" said Dorothy. + +Mr. Wiltshire never relaxed his efforts to charm the people of +Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen to laughter, but he gave up +trying to amuse Dorothy, and thenceforth devoted himself to girls with a +keener sense of humor. + +Once when Dorothy had refused to go for a long walk in the country round +Aberdeen, the glittering of the granite buildings on a fine March +morning tempted her out too late, and she wandered by herself along the +sea-shore toward the mouth of the Don until she was able, so windless +was the day, so warm the sun against the low sandy cliffs, to sit down +on the beach. It happened that Mr. David Bligh, the tenor in "Miss Elsie +of Chelsea," passed that way, and, seeing Dorothy, took a seat beside +her. She had never intended her reserve with the other men in the +company to include David Bligh, and from having felt rather sad at being +left behind by Sylvia and Lily she now congratulated herself on her good +fortune. + +"All alone?" asked the tenor, fluting with his voice, as he always did +when he was speaking to a woman. + +"All alone," said Dorothy. "Isn't it too bad?" + +They discussed loneliness with poetic similes harvested from the sea, +upon the horizon of which nothing but a solitary tramp, hull down, was +visible. So long as Mr. David Bligh's attention had been devoted to Miss +May Seymour, the leading lady, Dorothy had been inclined to think that +he was not very good-looking, that he did not possess a very good voice, +and that probably he was not quite a gentleman. Now that he was beside +her on this lonely beach she was inclined to modify all these judgments +in his favor, and when suddenly he burst forth into "_Che gelido +manino_," suiting the action to the word by simultaneously taking hold +of her hand, she decided that not merely was his voice rather good, but +that it was lovely. + +"You really have a lovely voice," she told him. + +He shrugged his shoulders, sighed, and with his stick drew some notes of +music in the sand. + +"I wonder why you never took up opera," she inquired, in tender +astonishment. + +"What's the good? The British public doesn't want British singers. Oh +no," he said, with a glance full of reproach for the indifference of the +sky, "I'm not fat enough for opera." + +He went up the tonic scale to "la," frightening away some small +sea-birds that had just alighted on the gleaming sand by the tide's +edge. + +"Let me hear your voice," he asked, abruptly. + +Dorothy was gratified by this request. She had taken for granted the +tenor's interest in her appearance, but that this should extend to her +voice seemed to indicate something more profound than a casual +attraction. She assured him that she was too shy, but he continued to +persuade her, and at last she sang a part of one of the leading lady's +songs. + +"Yes, it would be worth while taking some trouble with it," he judged. +"If you like I'll give you lessons. Have you got a piano in your rooms?" + +"We have got a piano this week, as it happens," said Dorothy, "though I +should doubt if it had ever been played on. Come to tea this afternoon, +and we'll try it." + +"You live with that Haden girl, don't you?" + +"Do you think she's pretty?" Dorothy asked. + +The tenor shrugged his shoulders. + +"Oh yes, so-so. I really haven't noticed her much. She dyes her hair, I +suppose." + +"No, it's natural," said Dorothy, resisting the temptation to insert a +qualifying, "I believe." + +They discussed the varieties of feminine beauty; when the tenor had +managed to convey without direct compliments that Dorothy had every +feature a woman ought to have, she was convinced by his good taste that +her voice must be out of the ordinary. + +"Good gracious! It's past two o'clock," she exclaimed, at last, when her +appetite began to assert itself in spite of ozone and flattery. "How +time flies!" + +"_I_ dine at half past two. We'd better be strolling back." + +It was after that hour when they reached Aberdeen, because David Bligh +was continually stopping on the desolate roads that led across the +low-lying lands between the city and the sea to illustrate with snatches +of song many episodes of his adventurous life as an actor in musical +comedy. Dorothy might have been bored by all this talk about himself if +he had not made it so clear that he really did admire her; as it was, +she assented warmly when he murmured, outside her lodgings: + +"How quickly one can make friends sometimes!" + +How quickly, indeed, when a man will show his admiration with his eyes +and a woman with her ears. + +The others had not returned from their expedition along Deeside when tea +was finished, so Dorothy and the tenor took down the photographs and +china ornaments from the top of the piano, and presently an unfamiliar +sound brought in Mrs. Maclachlan, the landlady, to say that the piano +had not been used since her eldest daughter died ten years ago, and that +she would prefer that it was not used now. This was the kind of occasion +on which Dorothy missed Sylvia, who would have known how to deal with +the old woman; but David Bligh, without heeding her protests, continued +to strum. Mrs. Maclachlan at once put the bass clef out of action by +sitting down upon the notes, where, with arms akimbo, she maintained her +position and poured forth a torrent of unintelligible Scots labials. +Dorothy, horrified at the idea of a brawl with a woman who, even if she +did let rooms, obviously belonged to the servant class, begged the actor +not to play any more. In the end he agreed to resign from the contest +with Mrs. Maclachlan on condition that Dorothy would try her voice on +the piano in his rooms, where he was so encouraging about its quality +that she gave herself up to serious study, one result of which was that +henceforth she always had the second bedroom to herself, because her +voice seemed to require most exercise when Sylvia and Lily required most +sleep. The other girls in the company showed no inclination to believe +that Dorothy's friendship with David Bligh was founded upon his skill in +voice-production and they used to declare with conscious virtue that +such singing-lessons were merely an excuse for making love. + +"Be careful, dear, with Bligh," Fay Onslow warned Dorothy. "He's known +all over the road for the way he treats girls. Look at May Seymour! +Really, I'm quite sorry for the poor thing. I'm sure she's beginning to +look her age." + +This was good news about May Seymour, who had ignored her when she +joined the company; but though in other respects the leading lady's fate +might serve as a warning, Dorothy was much too secure of herself to +need any advice about David Bligh. To be sure, he had several times +seized the opportunity of examining his pupil's throat to kiss her, but +she had accepted the kisses with no more sense of their reality than if +they had been a doctor's bill, which in a way they were. However, +Dorothy was not accustomed to let herself be over-charged, and these +kisses were the only honorarium Mr. Bligh ever got. He was so much +piqued by her indifference that he mistook for a grand passion the +mortification set up by his failure to get her hopelessly in love with +him, and he made such a complete fool of himself over Dorothy that the +girls of the company were more annoyed than ever, and from having at +first been charitably anxious about her virtue they now became equally +severe upon her cruelty. + +"The poor boy's getting quite thin," Fay Onslow declared. "You really +oughtn't to treat him like that. It's beginning to show in his acting." + +Dorothy consulted Sylvia about David Bligh's decline, not because she +cared whether he was declining or not, but because it was an excuse to +talk about herself. + +"Serve him right," said Sylvia. + +"But I shouldn't like to think that he was really suffering on my +account." + +"Lily and I are the only people who really suffer," said Sylvia. + +"What do you mean?" + +"My dear Dorothy, _we_ have to listen to the practising." + +"You don't really mind my practising, do you?" + +"I get rather bored with it sometimes." + +"Yes, I suppose it is rather boring sometimes." + +Dorothy decided that it was also rather boring of Sylvia to switch the +topic from her effect on David Bligh to the slight annoyance her +practising might sometimes cause her friends. However, she forgave her +by remembering that Sylvia had not the same inducement as herself to +study singing. + +Meanwhile, Dorothy's occupation of the leading man left Lily free to +develop her deplorable taste for chorus-boys, and Dorothy found that her +own habit of practising scales in the morning and going out for walks +with David Bligh in the afternoon had resulted in continuous tea-parties +at their rooms, to which, whenever she wanted to stay at home in the +afternoon, she was most unfairly exposed. She might have put up with +Lily's behavior for the rest of the tour if at last a moment had not +come when it inconvenienced her personally. At Nottingham, which the +company reached in mid-April, the weather was so fine that Dorothy +accepted an invitation from an admirer in the front of the house to go +for a picnic on the river Trent. Until now she had discouraged all +introductions effected by the footlights, and she often marveled to +Sylvia at the way other girls accepted invitations to private houses +without knowing anything about their hosts. Perhaps she was already +beginning to feel that David Bligh had taught her all he knew about +voice-production, or perhaps the exceptionally smart automobile +grumbling outside the stage-door struck her as a proper credential, or +perhaps these April airs were irresistible. + +"Really, you know, Sylvia," she said, "I think it would be rather fun to +go. But I'm shocked at myself for suddenly breaking my rules like this. +I wonder why I am breaking them. It must be the spring." + +"The what?" repeated Sylvia. + +"The spring," said Dorothy, hoping she did not look as affected as she +felt. + +"If you had said the springs," said Sylvia, "I would have agreed +with you." + +The owner of the car was the spoiled son of a rich lace manufacturer, +and, according to the stage-door keeper, famous in Nottingham for his +entertainment of actresses. What seemed more important to Dorothy was +that he had just arrived from Cambridge for the Easter vacation, which +decided her to accept his hospitality. + +"You'll bring two friends?" suggested the young man. + +"I'll bring the two girls with whom I share rooms." + +"Topping!" he ejaculated, and with a sympathetic tootle of satisfaction +the champing car leaped forward into the night. + +"You can't come to-morrow?" gasped Dorothy, when with much graciousness +she had advised Lily of the treat in store for her. + +"No; I've promised to go with Tom to Sherwood Forest." + +"Never mind, Maid Marian," said Sylvia. "We shall get along without you. +If you see the ghost of my namesake Will in the greenwood, give him my +love." + +Dorothy was too angry to speak, and her resentment against Lily was +increased next morning when the big car arrived with three young men, +one of whom would have to spend an acrobatic day balancing himself on +tete-a-tetes. Nor was the picnic a great success; early in the afternoon +it came on to rain, and anything more dreary than the appearance of the +river Trent was unimaginable. + +"Never mind," said the host, "you'll have to come up to Cambridge; we'll +entertain you properly there." + +Apart from the rain which spoiled her hat, and the absence of Lily which +ruined any intimate conversation about herself, Dorothy was chiefly +upset by the contemptuous way in which these young Cambridge men +referred to the leading man. + +"Why on earth do managers dress actors up in yachting costume?" asked +one of them. "I never saw such an ass as that man looked--David Blighter +or whatever he calls himself." + +Dorothy could see Sylvia checking an impulse not to accentuate her +discomfiture by announcing her friendship with the despised tenor; but +she felt sufficiently humiliated without that, and when they got back to +their rooms she implored Sylvia to speak to Lily on the subject of +being too friendly with the men in the company. + +"It makes us all so cheap," Dorothy pointed out. "Of course, we're on +tour and not likely to meet many friends who know us in London. Still, +it is unpleasant. You heard the way those boys talked about David? What +would they have said to Tom Hewitt? Besides, I get worried about Lily. +She _is_ very weak and she has been badly brought up. I'm awfully fond +of her, as you know, and I'd do anything for her; but really I cannot +stand that Hewitt creature, and I don't see why Lily should force him +upon us." + +"I think it's rather foolish of her myself," agreed Sylvia. "At the same +time, I'm afraid that with Lily it's inevitable." + +"Yes, but she lets him make love to her," protested Dorothy. "She +doesn't care a bit about him, really, but she's too lazy to say 'no'. I +came down the other day to find her sitting on his lap! Well, I think +that's disgusting. _You_ don't sit on people's laps; _I_ don't sit on +people's laps. Why should she? I know perfectly well what it is to be in +love; I've been in love lots of times. I don't want you to think I'm +setting out to make myself seem better than I am. As I told you, the +only reason I went on the stage was because I couldn't marry the man I +loved. So who more likely to have sympathy with people in love than +myself? What I object to is playing about with boys of the company. Look +at them! The most awful set of bounders imaginable. It's so bad for you +and me to have them coming in and out of our rooms at all hours. That +Hewitt creature actually proposed to come back to supper the other +night. However, I told Lily that if he did I should go to a hotel. After +all, we are a little different from the other girls of the company." + +"I wonder if we are?" Sylvia queried. + +"Of course we are," said Dorothy. "You surely don't consider yourself +on a level with Fay Onslow? Or with Sadie Moore and Clarice Beauchamp? +Those awful girls!" + +"I think we're all about the same," said Sylvia. "Some of us drop our +aitches, some of us our p's and q's, some of us sing flat and the others +sing sharp; but alas! my dear Dorothy, we all look very much alike when +we're waiting for the train on Sunday morning." + +"I sing perfectly in tune," said Dorothy, coldly. + +"Please don't snub, me, Dorothy," Sylvia begged. "I can hardly bear it." + +"There's no need for you to be sarcastic; you must admit I'm right about +Lily." + +Sylvia suddenly produced an eye-glass and, fixing it in her eye, stared +mockingly at Dorothy. + +"What about David?" she asked. + +"You can't compare me with Lily." + +"No, but I might compare David with Tom," she said, letting the +eye-glass drop in a way that Dorothy found extremely irritating. + +After their host's remarks about the tenor Dorothy felt she could not +argue the point farther, and now in addition to her anger against Lily +she began to hate her singing-master. However, Sylvia must have felt +that she was right and have spoken to Lily, because the following week +at Leicester Lily, with most unwonted energy, attacked her on the +subject: + +"I don't know why you should grumble to Sylvia about me. I don't grumble +to her about you. When have I ever grumbled about your practising? You +say the only reason you let yourself get talked about with David Bligh +is because he's useful to you. You say he's helping you with your voice. +Well, Tom helps me with my bag. What's the difference? It's only since +you were asked out by those men who had a car that you suddenly +discovered how impossible Tom was and began laughing at his waistcoats. +I didn't laugh at Cyril Vavasour's waistcoat, which was more +extraordinary than Tom's." + +"I've never grumbled about Tom's carrying your bag," Dorothy explained, +patiently. "What I said to Sylvia was that I didn't think you ought to +let him kiss you. I don't think it's dignified." + +"Well, as long as he doesn't want to kiss you, I don't see what you've +got to complain about." + +The bare notion of Tom's wanting to kiss her was so unpleasant to +Dorothy that she had to withdraw from the conversation. Thenceforth the +breach between her and Lily began to widen; in fact, if it had not been +for Sylvia she would have told Lily that she could not share rooms with +her any longer. She was afraid, however, that Sylvia might be so sorry +for Lily that she would find herself left alone, which would put her in +an undignified position, because the other girls might say that it was +because she wanted to carry on, as they would vulgarly express it, with +Bligh; besides, living alone was too expensive. + +Since Nottingham, Dorothy had been criticizing the tenor almost as +sharply as she criticized Tom Hewitt, and she was in no mood to +encourage the idea that there was anything between him and her; all her +lessons now were merely repetitions of what he had taught her already, +and it became obvious to Dorothy that he was what he was in the +profession simply because he was not good enough to be anything better. +He had so often bragged to her about his success with other girls that +he deserved to suffer on her account, and she felt quite like Nemesis +when soon after this, while they were walking in the town of Leicester, +she told him that this was to be their last walk together. + +"Don't stand still in that theatrical way," she commanded. "Everybody's +looking at you." + +The kidney-stones of the Leicester streets had been hurting her feet, +and she was in no mood for mercy. + +"So this is the end," fluted David Bligh, with such emotion that the top +note narrowly escaped being falsetto. "After all these weeks you're +going to throw me away like an old chocolate-box." + +He swished his cane with such demonstrative violence that, without +seeing what he was doing, he cut a passer-by hard on the knuckle and +thereby provoked a scene of humble apologies that made Dorothy more +furious than ever. + +"At least you might not make me look a fool in a public thoroughfare," +she told him. + +"I'm awfully sorry, Dolly. I didn't know what I was doing for the +moment." + +"Don't call me Dolly," she said. "You know how I hate abbreviations." + +"I don't seem to be able to do anything right this morning." + +"Look at the ridiculous walk you've brought me! Nothing but +cobble-stones, and passers-by bumping into one, and now we're getting +down among the factories. You know how I hate being stared at." + +"You didn't mind being stared at in Nottingham the week before last." + +"Oh God! aren't you impossible!" cried Dorothy, herself now dramatically +turning right round and leaving him undecided whether to follow her or +retire in the opposite direction. + +Half a dozen factory-girls, arm in arm, who, with the horrible quickness +of their class for anything that causes discomfort to other people, had +noticed the quarrel, began to shout after Dorothy that her little boy +was crying for his mother; while she, in torments of rage and +humiliation, and of hatred for the man who was the cause of them, +hurried uphill toward a more civilized quarter of the town. Five minutes +later the tenor overtook Dorothy and begged pardon for losing her like +that; he explained that, having got involved in a crowd of +factory-girls, he could not hurry without making himself more +ridiculous. + +"You don't mind making me ridiculous," she said, bitterly. + +"My dear girl, it was you that turned away, not me." + +"Oh, go to the devil!" she burst out. "I'll have nothing more to do with +you. You can console yourself with May Seymour." + +The people who turned to stare after the lovely girl that seemed an +incarnation of this blue-and-white April day might have been as shocked +as Dorothy was at herself to think that she had just descended to the +level of an actor by telling him to go to the devil. + + +III + +The month of May found the "Miss Elsie of Chelsea" company billed to +appear in the suburban theaters, and Dorothy was called upon to make up +her mind whether she should take rooms with Sylvia and Lily in the +center of London or economize for a few weeks by staying at home. Four +months of separation from her family had not made her particularly +anxious to return to them. At the same time, since she was not yet a +London actress, it might be more prudent to wait a little while before +she cut herself off too completely from Lonsdale Road. The only thing +that worried her about staying at home was the thought that all the +members of her family would inevitably insist on going to see her act +during the week that they were to play at the Grand Theater, Fulham. +Even if her father should be shy of patronizing a musical comedy so near +the Bishop of London's palace, she saw no way of preventing at any rate +Roland and her sister Dolly from going; since she had stolen her +sister's name, Dorothy, notwithstanding her dislike of abbreviations, +had always managed to think of her as Dolly. Yes; it was obvious that +whether she stayed up in town or stayed in West Kensington, she should +be unable to prevent some of the family from going to see her, and, as +they would not appreciate the fact that not even the greatest actresses +begin by playing Lady Macbeth, she must make the best of their +inspection. + +So, one Sunday afternoon when the laburnum buds were yellowing in +Lonsdale Road, Dorothy drove back to No. 17. Everything was much the +same except that Dolly--Dorothy was firm from the moment she entered the +house about refusing to answer any more to Norah--had, presumably in +revenge for the loss of her name, taken her sister's bed. Mr. Caffyn was +glad to hear that the difficulties and dangers of stage life had been +exaggerated, and promised that he would warn the Bishop of Hampstead, +who was billed to preside at a forthcoming meeting of the Church and +Stage Society, not to make too much of them in his anxiety about +theatrical souls. Dorothy succeeded in deterring her relations from +going to the theater the first week at Camberwell; but the following +week, when the playbills of "Miss Elsie of Chelsea" flaunted themselves +in every shop-window of West Kensington, a large party, not merely of +the immediate family, but of uncles and aunts and cousins raked together +from every obscure suburb in London, swarmed for the Thursday matinee, +and, what was worse, insisted on buzzing round Dorothy outside the +stage-door in order to take her out to tea between the performances. +They alluded with some disappointment to the inconspicuousness of the +part she played, and they all agreed that the outstanding feature of the +performance was the comedian. They thought it must be very nice for +Dorothy to have such a splendid humorist perpetually at hand. + +"But he's not funny off the stage," explained Dorothy, crossly. + +This seemed greatly to surprise the aunts and uncles, who evidently did +not believe her. In the middle of tea the party was joined by Roland, +Cecil, and Vincent; not having been able to get away for the matinee, +they had arrived to swell the family reunion before going to the evening +performance, for which they had booked stalls in the very front row, +where, later on, to Dorothy's intense disgust, she saw Wilfred Curlew +sitting with them'. However, he did have the decency not to wait after +the play to accompany herself and her brothers back to West Kensington. + +The next morning, before she was dressed, Dorothy was informed that a +young gentleman was waiting to see her in the drawing-room, and +discovered, when she got down, that a representative of a monthly +magazine called _The Boudoir_ had come to ask for an interview. The +young man, talking rather as if the magazine was a draper's shop, told +her that his paper was making a special feature of beautiful actresses. +He cannonaded Dorothy with all sorts of questions, and forced her to +surrender the information that her favorite parts were Lady Teazle, +Viola, Portia, and Beatrice. + +"Comedy, in fact?" said the young man. + +"Oh yes, comedy," Dorothy agreed, after a moment's hesitation to decide +whether Portia, whose speech about the quality of mercy she had once +declaimed at a school breaking-up, ought to be considered a comic +figure. + +"You have no ambitions for tragedy?" + +"No," she told him. "I think there's enough tragedy in ordinary life." + +"Would you recommend the stage as a profession?" he inquired. + +"Rather a difficult question. It depends so much on the girl." + +"Quite," agreed the young man, wisely. "But have you any advice for +beginners?" + +"My advice is to be natural," said Dorothy. + +"Quite," agreed the young man again. + +"Natural both on the stage and off," she added. + +The young man, with an air of devout concentration, wrote down this +valuable maxim, while Dorothy, looking at herself in the mirror, allowed +various expressions of delicious naturalness to stand the test of her +own critical observation. + +"With whom did you study?" the interviewer inquired next. + +"Principally with the late Mrs. Haden," said Dorothy, feeling very +generous in mentioning Lily's mother after the way the daughter had +behaved with Tom Hewitt. "A delightful teacher of the old school, now, +alas! no longer with us." + +The young man shook his head sadly. + +"But my real lessons," Dorothy added, brightly, lest the loss of Mrs. +Haden to art might be too much for the interviewer's emotions--"my real +lessons were derived from watching famous actresses. No famous actress, +continental or English, ever came to London whom I did not go to see. I +often went without"--she paused to think what she could have gone +without, for it might sound absurd to say that she went without +clothes--"I often walked," she corrected herself, "in order to have the +necessary money to buy a seat." + +"That'll interest our readers very much," said the young man. "Yes, +that's the personal note which always appeals to our readers." He sucked +his pencil with relish. "And who is your favorite actress?" + +"In England or abroad?" + +"Oh, in England," the young man hurriedly explained; probably he was +jibbing at the prospect of having to write a foreign name. + +"In England, Ellen Terry, decidedly," Dorothy replied. + +"Quite"; the young man sighed with relief. "Perhaps you would care to +give me a photograph of yourself," he suggested. + +"With pleasure," she said, taking from the mantelpiece one that she had +sent her mother about a month ago. + +"Of course," the interviewer hemmed, nervously, "that will be twelve and +sixpence for the cost of reproduction." + +"Twelve and six?" repeated Dorothy. + +"The block will cost twelve and sixpence, that is to say." + +"Twelve and six?" she repeated once more. + +But she gave him the money; controlling her annoyance at the idea that +this young man might be making a profit out of her innocence, she +conducted him cheerfully to the door and presented him with a tulip from +one of Dolly's flower-pots. + +"You're fond of gardening?" he asked, with half-open note-book. + +"I adore flowers," said Dorothy. "Good-by." + +To her mother she explained the sad necessity she had been under of +having to give away her favorite photograph. + +"But, mother, I'll write for another one," she promised. + +"Oh, Norah dear, I hope you will," said Mrs. Caffyn, much distressed. + +"Only, as they're rather expensive, you won't mind giving me a guinea, +will you?" Dorothy murmured, with a frown for the old "Norah." + +"No, darling Norah--darling child, I mean, of course not. I'd no idea +you were spending your salary like that," said Mrs. Caffyn, searching in +her purse for the money. + +That evening, during the first act a note was sent round to Dorothy from +Wilfred Curlew to say that he had been to see her every night this week, +and that he had persuaded a friend of his to give her some publicity in +a magazine with which he was connected. + +"At a cost of twelve and six," Dorothy scoffed to herself. + +She did not send a word of thanks to Wilfred, and being unable from the +stage to perceive his presence anywhere in the theater, she supposed +that, having been there every night this week, he must by now have +reached the gallery. + +When the interview appeared the other girls were very jealous, and all +of them vowed that they had never heard of _The Boudoir_. + +"With a blush Miss Lonsdale handed our interviewer an exquisite bunch of +flowers culled by the beautiful young actress from her garden, a 'thing +of beauty' in the dreary desert of London streets," read out one of the +girls. + +"Good God, have mercy on us!" exclaimed Clarice Beauchamp, holding a +hairpin dipped in eye-black over the gas. "It's a wonder the editor +hasn't written before now to ask if he can't keep you." + +The irritation in the dressing-room caused by the interview was allayed +by a rumor that John Richards would visit the Alexandra Theater, Stoke +Newington, where they were playing their last week in the suburbs, with +a view to choosing girls for the Vanity production in the autumn. No +confirmation could be obtained of this; but the chorus put on extra +make-up and acted with all its eyes and all its legs for a shadowy +figure at the back of one of the private boxes. After the first act the +business manager, who had come behind for some purpose, was surrounded +by all the girls, each of whom in turn begged him to tell her +confidentially what Mr. Richards had said about the show and if he had +had any criticisms to make about herself. + +"Mr. Richards?" repeated the manager. + +"Now, don't pretend you know nothing about it," they expostulated. "_We_ +know he's in front." + +"Well, you know more than I do," said the manager. + +"Then who is it at the back of the box on the prompt side?" + +"You silly girls! That's the late mayor of Hackney." + +"Then why do they make such a fuss of him?" persisted the girl who had +started the rumor. "There was a carriage outside the box-office half an +hour before the overture, and people were all round it, staring as if it +was the king." + +"It's a very sad story," the manager explained. "He's blind, poor +fellow, and now, whenever he goes to the theater, they watch him being +helped out of his brougham." + +During the second act not an eye nor a leg was thrown in the direction +of the mysterious stranger, whose identity was a great disappointment to +the girls; they had counted on Mr. Richards visiting them in the course +of the tour, and here it was coming to an end without a sign of him. + +However, they were consoled by being told at the last minute that they +were going to play three nights at Oxford before the tour came to a +definite conclusion. Everybody agreed that it would be a delightful way +to wind up, and when the company assembled at Paddington on a brilliant +morning in earliest June, they seemed, in the new clothes they had been +able to buy during the last month in London, more like a large +picnic-party going up to Maidenhead than a touring company. + +Dorothy had decided that the visit to Oxford was an occasion to justify +breaking into the L500 she had got out of her mother, which was still +practically intact, owing to the economy exerted all these weeks. Her +new dresses and new hats, combined with that interview in _The Boudoir_, +gave the rest of the chorus an impression that there was somebody behind +Dorothy, and they regarded her with a jealous curiosity that was most +encouraging. + + +IV + +The three girls had only just finished dinner at their lodgings in Eden +Square when Sylvia proposed a walk round Oxford. Dorothy agreed to go +out if she were allowed time to change her things; but Lily declared +that she was tired after the journey, and preferred to look at +illustrated papers in deshabille. Many undergraduates turned their heads +to stare at Dorothy's beauty or Sylvia's eye-glass when the two girls +were walking down the High toward St. Mary's College, through the gates +of which Sylvia calmly suggested that they should pass in order to +explore the gardens. + +"But suppose they tell us that girls aren't allowed to go in," Dorothy +demanded, in a panic. + +"We'll go out again." + +"But we should look so foolish." + +"We always look foolish," said Sylvia. "Anything more foolish than you +look at the present moment I can't imagine, except myself." + +Before Dorothy could prevent her, Sylvia had asked a tall and haughty +undergraduate if there was any reason why they should not take a walk in +the college grounds. The young man blushed painfully, and Dorothy, who +could see that his embarrassment at being spoken to by an actress was +causing intense delight to a group of idlers in the college lodge, was +angry with Sylvia for exposing the two of them to a share in the +ridicule. + +"All right, Dorothy," said Sylvia, cheerfully. "He says we can." + +The tall and haughty undergraduate strode away up the High to escape +from his friends' chaff, and the two girls wandered about the college +until they found themselves in the famous St. Mary's Walks, where upon a +seat embowered in foliage they listened to the bells that were ringing +down the golden day and ringing in the unhastening Sabbath eve. Close at +hand, but hidden from view by leafy banks, the pleasurable traffic of +the Cherwell sounded continuously in a low murmur of talk that, blending +with the swish of paddles and comfortable sound of jostling punts, +seemed the very voice of indolent June. Dorothy supposed that she, like +nature, must be looking most beautiful in this bewitching light, and +regretted that the only passers-by should be ecclesiastical figures bent +in grave intercourse, or a few young men arguing in throaty voices about +topics she did not recognize. + +"I don't think we've chosen a very good place," she complained, with a +discontented pout. + +"We've chosen the place," said Sylvia, "where nearly four years ago, on +a Sunday afternoon in August, I agreed to get married." + +"Married?" repeated Dorothy, in amazement. "Are you married?" + +"Yes, I believe I'm married for the present; but I sha'n't be soon." + +"Oh, Sylvia, do tell me about it! I won't say a word to anybody else." + +But Sylvia, having said so much, would say no more; jumping up and +insisting that she was thirsty, she reminded Dorothy that they had +promised to help Charlie Clinton entertain his brother and some +undergraduate friends. Charlie Clinton was an obscure member of the +company who had suddenly sprung into considerable prominence by +revealing that he had a brother at Oxford and was himself the black +sheep of a respectable family. Dorothy, realizing that the blackest +sheep is better form than the whitest goat, had accepted the invitation, +but she was not much impressed by the collection of undergraduates +gathered in his rooms, and was vexed that she had wasted her most +becoming hat on young men who wanted to talk about nothing but music. +She was vexed, too, at finding that David Bligh had been invited, and +that he was talking affectedly about good music and sounding with his +fluty voice rather like an undergraduate himself. Lily came and danced a +classical dance which seemed to please everybody else, though Dorothy +could not see anything in it. Bligh sang German songs, and was so much +applauded that he condescendingly proposed that his pupil should sing, +who refused so angrily that none of the undergraduates dared approach +her. It was indeed a thoroughly boring evening, and she wondered if +Oxford was going to produce nothing better than this. + +The theater on Monday night, notwithstanding the fine weather, was +packed; but the audience was noisy, and the men in the chorus who had +not been invited to Charlie Clinton's party severely condemned the bad +manners of undergraduates. + +"They're a rowdy lot of bounders, that's what they are," Tom Hewitt +proclaimed, loosening the collar around his aggressive neck. + +Dorothy, who had been looking forward to astonishing some of the girls +in the dressing-room with her news about Sylvia, forgot everything in a +delightful triumph she was able to enjoy at the expense of Clarice +Beauchamp. A note was brought round after the first act addressed: + + To the fair artist's model in pink. Front row. O. P. side. + +Clarice Beauchamp had the impudence to contest Dorothy's right to open +this note, and while some of the artist's models were rapidly +transforming themselves into Polynesian beauties and others as rapidly +assuming the aristocratic costumes of a millionaire's yachting-party, +Clarice and Dorothy, who belonged to the latter division, argued +heatedly. At last Fay Onslow, to whom the note could not possibly refer, +was allowed to open it and give her verdict: + + Fair lady, my name is Lonsdale. On the Grampian hills my father + feeds his flock! In other words, will you and the lady with the + monocle who yesterday afternoon picked out quite the most + unattractive man in St. Mary's as your guide come and picnic with + me on the upper river to-morrow? A friend of mine at the House is + dying to meet you, but he is much too shy to write himself. If you + can come, just send back your address by bearer and I'll send my + tame cab to fetch you to-morrow at twelve o'clock. + + Yours sincerely, + + ARTHUR LONSDALE. + +"I knew it was for me," said Dorothy. "Sylvia and I were in St. Mary's +College yesterday afternoon." + +Clarice Beauchamp, much mortified, had to surrender her claim to the +note. + +"But what a strange coincidence that he should be called Lonsdale!" +Onzie exclaimed. "Most extraordinary, I call it. Who knows? He might be +a relation." + +"He might be," said Dorothy, calmly. + +Lily looked up from her place as if she were going to speak, but, though +she said nothing, Dorothy was glad that the terms of the note gave her +no excuse for asking her to-morrow, even if Sylvia did maliciously +propose that Lily should go instead of herself. + +"Oh, but they particularly want you," Dorothy protested. + +"Anyway, I can't go," Lily said; "I've promised to go round some of the +colleges with Tom." + +Dorothy winced at the threatened sacrilege. + +Next morning a cab jingled up to the girls' lodgings, and they were +driven to the nearest point of embarkation for a picnic on the upper +river. Their host, a short young man with very fair hair and a round +pink face, introduced himself and led the way to the Rollers, over which +punts and canoes were dragged from the lower level of the Cherwell to +the wider sweeps of the Isis. A tall young man who was standing by a +couple of canoes moored to the bank came forward to greet them. His most +immediately conspicuous feature was a pair of white flannel trousers +down the seams of which ran stripes of vivid blue ribbon; but when he +was introduced to Dorothy as Lord Clarehaven she forgot about his +trousers in the more vivid blue of his name. All sorts of ideas rushed +through her mind--a sudden dread that he might think Sylvia more +attractive than herself, a sudden contempt for the party of the evening +before, a sudden rapture in which blue sky, blue blood, and the blue +stripes of the trousers merged exquisitely, and a sudden apprehension +created by her pleated reflection in the water that she was not looking +her best. After Lord Clarehaven she should not have been surprised if +the first young man had also had a title; but he was apparently only Mr. +Lonsdale, and, though entitled to respect as a friend of Lord +Clarehaven, would probably interest Sylvia more than herself. + +Dorothy's dread that she and Lord Clarehaven might not find themselves +in the same canoe was soon dispelled, because Lord Clarehaven was +evidently as eager for her company as she was for his, and they were +soon leaving the others behind. There is no form of conveyance which +makes for so much intimacy of regard as a canoe, and Dorothy, when she +had once been able to reassure herself by means of a pocket-mirror that +she had not been ruffled by the cab-drive or by the nervous business of +getting gracefully into a wabbling canoe, settled herself down to be +admired at a distance of about four feet. Moreover, she indulged for the +first time in her life in the pleasure of admiring somebody else, a +state of mind which doubled her charm by taking away much of her +self-consciousness. If Lord Clarehaven was below the standard of +aristocracy set by our full-blooded lady novelists, he was equally far +removed from the chinless convention of banal caricature. He had the +long legs, the narrow hips and head, and the big teeth of the Norman; +but his fair hair was already thinning upon a high, retreating forehead, +his nose was small, and if the protuberant eyes that one sees in +Pekinese spaniels and other well-bred mammals were a faint intimation of +approaching degeneracy in the stock, Dorothy was not sufficiently versed +in physiognomy to recognize such symptoms; already fascinated by his +title and his trousers, she was quite ready to be fascinated by his +eyes. + +"I was lunching in St. Mary's yesterday with Arthur Lonsdale," he was +explaining, "and I noticed you from the lodge. I should have come up and +spoken to you myself, but I was rather frightened by your friend's +eye-glass. In fact, I'm still not at all at ease with her. She looks +deuced clever, I mean, don't you think?" + +"She is awfully clever." + +"Poor girl, but I suppose it's not such a bore for a girl as it would +be for a man. I'm an awful ass myself, you know. I mean, I'm absolutely +incapable of doing anything." + +"How did you know we belonged to the company?" asked Dorothy, implying +that with all his modesty he must possess acute powers of judgment +hidden away somewhere. + +"Well, to tell you the truth, we didn't know. Somebody said your friend +was a medical student, only I wasn't going to have that, and some man +said he'd noticed you at the station, so Lonnie and I went to the +theater on the off-chance and tried to spot you." + +"Which you did?" + +"Oh, rather. Only, then we couldn't spot your name. I was all for +Clarice Beauchamp." + +"She's an awfully horrid girl," said Dorothy, quickly. + +"Is she? I'm sorry to hear that. And Lonnie betted you were Fay Onslow. +So we were quits. Funny thing you should have the same name as Lonnie. +No relation, I suppose?" + +He was evidently so sure of this that Dorothy was rather piqued and +asked, loftily, which Lonsdale he was. + +"Cleveden's son." + +"Oh, then I am a relation," said Dorothy. "Though of course a very, very +distant one." + +"By Jove! that's great!" said Clarehaven. + +He seemed enthusiastic, but Dorothy could not make out whether he +believed her or not, and she rather wished she had kept the relationship +for the dressing-room. She hoped that Sylvia would not give Lonsdale an +impression that she claimed to be his first cousin; this abrupt plunge +into the whirlpool of society might make her act extravagantly. What a +pity that she had not known who he was before they met, and "Oh!" she +cried, aloud. + +"What's the matter?" Clarehaven asked. + +"Nothing. At least I think I touched a fish," said Dorothy. + +But her exclamation was caused by dismay at recalling that she had +addressed him as "Arthur Lonsdale, Esquire," when for the first time in +her life she might have written "The Honorable Arthur Lonsdale," for +everybody to see. What must he have thought of her ignorance? And now +here in a canoe with her was Lord Clarehaven, but, owing to the foolish +modesty that English titles affect, she did not know if he was a +marquis, an earl, a viscount, or a mere baron. The prospect of the green +river was leaden with the thought of her stupidity. + +"You're looking very sad," said Clarehaven. "What's the matter?" + +"I was thinking how beautiful it was here," she sighed. + +"Topping, isn't it?" + +"Topping," she echoed, awarding to the utterance of the epithet as much +emotion as if it were robbed from Shakespeare's magic store. Amid a +sweet smell of grass and to the accompaniment of lapping water and a +small sibilant wind they lunched on the salmon and mayonnaise, the +prawns in aspic, the galantine and cold chicken, the meringues and +strawberries of how many Oxford picnics. Above them dreamed a huge sky; +elm-trees guarded the near horizon; wasps had not begun, nor did Sylvia +tease Dorothy about being related to Lonsdale when Clarehaven presented +them as long-lost cousins. + +By the end of the afternoon Dorothy had sufficiently confirmed her +admirer's first impression to be invited to lunch with him at Christ +Church the following day, in which invitation Sylvia was of course +included. Then slowly they drifted back down the river, on the dimples +and eddies of which the overhanging trees cast a patina as upon the +muscles of an ancient bronze. + +"How unreal the theater seems!" sighed Dorothy when they drove up to the +stage-door. + +"Does it?" Sylvia laughed. "It seems to me much more real than our +pretty behavior this afternoon." + + +V + +Dorothy slept badly that night. Her regret for the mistake she had made +in addressing Arthur Lonsdale as esquire magnified itself horribly in +the mean little bedroom of the lodgings in Eden Square. All night long +she was waking up to reproach herself for her stupidity in not taking +the trouble to make sure who he was before she sent back the note. Her +blunder was all the more unpardonable because she should have been +sufficiently interested in receiving a letter from a namesake to take +this trouble. And now suppose Lord Clarehaven were to put her under the +necessity of addressing him on the outside of an envelope? How was she +to know what to write? "Lord Clarehaven, Christ Church College"? It +sounded rather empty. In any case, she should have to ask for him at the +lodge to-morrow, and how the porter would sneer behind her back if she +should make a mistake! In despair Dorothy wandered into the next room +where Sylvia and Lily were sleeping tranquilly. + +"Oh dear!" she lamented. + +"What's the matter?" asked Sylvia, jumping up in bed. + +"Sylvia, I can't sleep. I think there's a rat in my room. I suppose +Arthur Lonsdale didn't say if Lord Clarehaven was a marquis, did he?" + +"Damn your eyes, Dorothy, did you wake me up to ask that? Go and get +hold of Debrett, if you want to know so badly." + +Dorothy went back to her bedroom in peace of mind. Of course! How easy +it was, really, and she fell into a delicious sleep, from which, +notwithstanding her disturbed night, she was early awake to dress and be +out of the house by ten o'clock in order to search the Oxford bookshops +for a _Peerage_. + +"We have a _Baronetage_" said one bookseller. + +Dorothy shrugged her shoulders compassionately, and went from shop to +shop until she found the big red volume of her desire. She paid without +a moment's hesitation the price of it, called a cab, and drove back to +Eden Square, that she might have plenty of time to devour the contents +before going to Christ Church. Her breath came fast when she actually +read Clarehaven and began to absorb the wonderful information below: + + +CLAREHAVEN, EARL OF. (Clare) [Earl U.K. 1816. Bt. E. 1660.] + +ANTHONY GILBERT CLARE, 5th Earl, and 10th Baronet; _b._ Oct. 15, 1882; +_s._ 1896; ed. at Eton and Christ Church; is 2d Lieut, in North Devon +Dragoons, and patron of one living. + +_Arms_--Purpure, two flanches ermine, on a chief sable a moon in her +complement argent. _Crest_--A moon in her complement argent, arising +from a cloud proper. _Supporters_--Two angels vested purpure, winged and +crined or, each holding in the exterior hand a key or. _Motto_--_Claro +non clango_. + +_Seat_--Clare Court, Devonshire. _Town residence_--129 Curzon Street, W. +_Club_--Bachelors'. + + +SISTERS LIVING + +_Lady_ Arabella. b. 1885. + +_Lady_ Constantia. b. 1887. + + +WIDOW LIVING OF FOURTH EARL + +Augusta (Countess of Clarehaven) 2d dau. of 9th Earl of Chatfield: _m._ +1880 the 4th Earl who _d._ 1896. _Residence_--Clare Court, Devonshire. + +PREDECESSORS--[1] Anthony Clare, _M.P._ for Devon (a descendant of +Richard Fitzgilbert, Baron of Clare, a companion of the Conqueror, son +of Gilbert Crispin, Earl of Brione in Normandy, who was son of Geoffrey, +a natural son of Richard I. Duke of Normandy), was cr. a Bt. 1660; _d._ +1674; _s._ by his son [2] _Sir_ Gilbert, 2d Bt.; _d._ 1710; _s._ by his +son [3] _Sir_ Anthony, 3d Bt.; _d._ 1747; _s._ by his nephew [4] _Sir_ +William, 4th Bt.; _d._ 1764; _s._ by his cousin [5] _Sir_ Anthony, 5th +Bt.; cr. _Baron Clarehaven_ (peerage of Great Britain) 1796; _d._ 1802; +_s._ by his son [6] Gilbert, 2d Baron; cr. _Viscount Clare_ and _Earl of +Clarehaven_ (peerage of United Kingdom) 1816; _d._ 1826; _s._ by his son +[7] Richard Crispin, 2d Earl. _b._ 1788. _m._ 1818 Lady Caroline Lacey +who _d._ 1859, 2d dau. of 3d Marquess of Longlan; _d._ 1864; s. by his +son [8] Geoffrey William, _P.C._, 3d Earl. _b._ 1820; sometime Lord +Lieut. of Devon; M.P. for S. Devon (C); Vice-Chamberlain of H. M. Queen +Victoria's Household. _m._ 1845 the Hon. Louisa Travers, who _d._ 1890, +dau. of the 26th Baron Travers; _d._ 1867; _s._ by his son [9] Gilbert +Crispin, 4th Earl, _b._ 1845; Lieut. Royal Horse Guards, 1866-67: _m._ +1880 Lady Augusta Fanhope, 2d dau. of 9th Earl of Chatfield; _d._ 1896; +_s._ by his son [10] Anthony Gilbert, 5th Earl and present peer; also +Viscount Clare and Baron Clarehaven. + + +Half a dozen times word for word she read through these magic pages, +until she felt that she simply could not make a mistake at lunch. Then a +page or two farther on, past Clarendon and Clarina, she came to: + + +CLEVEDEN, BARON. (Lonsdale) [Baron G.B. 1762.] + +CHARLES ARTHUR BRABAZON LONSDALE. _G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E._ 5th Baron; _b._ +Oct. 10, 1858; _s._ 1888; ed. at Eton and at Ch. Ch. Oxford. (B.A. +1880); is a J.P. and D.L. for Warwickshire and Verderer of the Forest of +Arden; Hon. Col. of Yeo.; sat as M.P. for West Warwick--(C) 1880-1884; +was Assist. Private Sec. to the Premier--(M. Salisbury) 1885-6; Gov. and +Com. in Ch. of E. Australia. 1893-99; and Gov. of Central India. +1899-1901; _K.C.M.G._ 1893; _G.C.M.G._ 1898; _G.C.I.E._ 1899: _m._ 1882 +Lady Helen Druce (an Extra Woman of the Bed-chamber to H.M. Queen +Victoria), dau. of 10th Earl of Monteith and has issue. + +_Arms_--Argent, an oak tree englante vert. _Crest_--A bugle horn or, +enguiche and stringed vert. _Supporters_--On either side a forester +sounding a horn proper. _Motto_--J'y serai. + +_Seat_--Cressingham Hall, Warwick. _Clubs_--Carlton. Travellers'. + + +SON LIVING + +_Hon._ ARTHUR GEORGE MORNINGTON. _b._ Feb. 24, 1883. + + +DAUGHTER LIVING + +_Hon._ Sylvia May. _b._ 1885. + +"Sylvia?" Dorothy said to herself. But she decided to stick to the name +Dorothy, and went on reading about her family. + + +BROTHER LIVING + +_Rev_. the Hon. George, _b._ 1860; ed. at Eton, and at St. Mary's Coll. +Oxford. (B.A. 1883. M.A. 1886); is R. of Bingham-cum-Bingham Monachorum; +_m._ 1894 Mary Alice, dau. of the late Rev. Francis Greville, V. of St. +Wilfred's, Tilchester, and Hon. Canon of Tilchester, and has issue +living, Arthur Brabazon--_b._ 1896. Mary--_b._ 1898. Georgina Maud--_b._ +1900. _Residence_--Bingham Rectory, Hants. + + +SISTERS LIVING + +_Hon._ Frances Louisa, _b._ 1863. _m._ 1885 Sir William +Honeywood-Greene, 6th Bt. _Residence_--Arden Towers, Warwick. + +_Hon._ Caroline, _b._ 1865. _m._ 1886 Sir Stanley Pinkerton, K.C.V.O. +Master of the King's Spaniels. _Residence_--210 Eaton Square, S.W. + +_Hon._ Horatia. _b._ 1867. + +There followed a couple of pages devoted to collateral branches of the +Lonsdales. These were something new: the Clares apparently lacked +collaterals. Presently it dawned on Dorothy that these collaterals +treated of the more distant relations of the family, and in a fever she +began to search for confirmation of the legend in Lonsdale Road that +through their grandmother, Mrs. Doyle, the Caffyns were connected with +Lord Cleveden. On and on she read through colonels and rectors with +their numerous offspring, through consuls and captains and judges and +doctors even; but there was no mention of Doyles, still less of Caffyns. +The connection must indeed be very remote: perhaps it was hidden among +the predecessors. + +PREDECESSORS.--[1] George Lonsdale, Verderer of the Forest of Arden; +M.P. for Warwickshire 1740-62; cr. _Baron Cleveden_, of Cressingham, co. +Warwick (peerage of Great Britain) 1762; _d._ 1764; _s._ by his son [2] +Arthur, 2d Baron; _d._ 1822; _s._ by his son [3] Charles, 3d Baron; _b._ +1790: _m._ 1830 the Hon. Horatia Brabazon, who _d._ 1851, dau. of 3d +Viscount Brabazon; _d._ 1840; _s._ by his son [4] George Brabazon, 4th +Baron; _b._ 1832; a Lord-in-Waiting to H. M. Queen Victoria 1858-64: +_m._ 1856 Lady May Mornington, who _d._ 1895, 3d dau. of 11th Earl of +Belgrove; _d._ 1888; _s._ by his son [5] Charles Arthur Brabazon, 5th +Baron and present peer. + +Dorothy sighed her disappointment, but resolved that she would adopt the +family crest and motto as her own. _J'y serai_ underneath a bugle-horn: +how well it would look on her note-paper. Fired by its inspiration, she +began to dress herself for lunch with the Earl of Clarehaven, and when, +an hour later, she ushered Sylvia into the Christ Church lodge with a +hardihood that contrasted strongly with the reluctance she had shown +when Sylvia had dragged her into St. Mary's on Sunday, there was no need +to inquire for Lord Clarehaven by his correct title, because the host +was there himself to meet his guests and escort them across the +spaciousness of Tom Quad to his rooms in Peckwater. It appeared that at +the last minute an urgent summons to play cricket for the Eton Ramblers +had prevented Lonsdale from coming. Dorothy, notwithstanding her +knowledge of the Lonsdale collaterals, was not sorry, for she did not +wish to discuss the relationship with one of the family, especially +before Sylvia, to whom she now turned with a hint of patronage. + +"My dear, you will be disappointed. Mr. Lonsdale is not coming to +lunch." + +Sylvia said she would try to put up with the disappointment and hoped +that an equally entertaining substitute had been provided. + +"I've asked a fellow called Tufton," said Clarehaven. "His father's a +sleeping partner or something of jolly old John Richards at the Vanity, +and I thought he might be useful. Besides, he's not at all a bad egg. We +elected him to the Bullingdon this term." + +Dorothy looked at her host gratefully and admiringly. + +"How awfully sweet of you!" she murmured, with the lightest, briefest +touch of her fingers on his wrist, and thinking how well the people who +mattered knew how to do things. + +They had reached Peckwater by now, the architecture of which, brightened +by many window-boxes in full bloom, reminded Dorothy of streets in +Mayfair. Her morning with Debrett had in fact turned her head so +completely that she sought everywhere for illustrations of grandeur in +the life around her; in this regard Clarehaven's rooms, by conforming +perfectly to her notions of what they should be, made her want to kiss +herself with satisfaction. To begin with, the door of his bedroom, +slightly ajar, allowed a glimpse of numerous pairs of boots running up +the scale from brogues to waders, which somehow spoke more eloquently of +riches and leisure than if the luncheon-table had been laid with gold. +Dorothy was contemplating the tints of these boots like a poet in an +autumnal glade when Clarehaven presented Mr. Tufton, who, to do him +justice, looked as well turned out as one of his host's hunting-tops and +in a chestnut-colored suit with extravagantly rolled collar maintained +his personality against the boots and the cigars and the brown sherry +and the old paneling and the studies of grouse by Thorburn that gave +this room its air of mellow opulence. + +Dorothy told Mr. Tufton brightly that he had missed a wonderful +afternoon yesterday. + +"I was playing polo," he explained. + +Dorothy, having an idea that polo was nearly as dangerous as +bull-fighting, shuddered. + +"I say, do you feel a draught?" inquired the host, anxiously. + +"Oh no, it's delicious here." + +A voice from the quad was shouting "Tony," and Dorothy, remembering +Anthony from Debrett, could not resist telling Clarehaven that he was +being called. Clarehaven was moving over to the window to discourage +whoever was demanding his presence, when another voice came clearly up +through the June air. + +"Shut up, Ridgway! Tony's lunching some does, you silly ass!" + +Dorothy could not help thinking that Sylvia ought to have pretended not +to hear this allusion instead of bursting out into what was really a +vulgar peal of laughter. + +"I think there _is_ a draught," said Mr. Tufton, closing the windows so +gravely that one felt much of his inmost meditation was devoted to the +tactful handling of moments like this. + +"Are these your sisters?" Dorothy asked, picking up a photograph of two +girls, each holding a foxhound. + +"Yes, those are my sisters Bella and Connie," Clarehaven replied. +"They're awful keen on puppy-walking." + +Perhaps, after all, abbreviations were sometimes tolerable, and names +like Arabella and Constantia were rather long. + +"Isn't your second name Gilbert?" she asked. + +"Yes. Dreadful infliction, isn't it?" + +Dorothy decided not to say that her father's name was Gilbert, to which +she had been leading up, and took her seat at table, noticing with +pleasure that the full moon of the house of Clare adorned the silver. +After lunch they looked at albums of snapshots, during the examination +of which Mr. Tufton was most useful, because he was continually saying: +"By Jove! Isn't that Lady Connie?" or: "By Gad! Isn't that the covert +where Lady Bella got her left and right last October?" or: "Hello! I see +Lady Clarehaven has followed my advice about the pergola." If Mr. Tufton +could advise countesses as stately as the Countess of Clarehaven and +refer to the daughters of an earl as Lady Bella and Lady Connie, what +might not Dorothy do with patience and discretion? Meanwhile she took no +risks, and if she had to mention the members of her host's family she +alluded to them as "your mother" or "your elder sister" or "your younger +sister." + +"But what a glorious place Clare Court must be!" she exclaimed. + +"Oh, I don't know," said the owner of it. "The train service is +absolutely rotten." + +"You'll have your new car this vac.," Mr. Tufton reminded him. "I wrote +the firm a very strong letter yesterday." Then seeing that his friend +was growing gloomy at the prospect of Devonshire even with a new car, he +suggested a stroll round Meadows, and cleverly arranged to lag behind +with Sylvia. + +Clarehaven when he was alone with Dorothy did not find much more to say, +but he was able to look at her with a more open admiration than when his +glances had been disconcerted by Sylvia's monocle. + +"You know I'm tremendously quelled by your friend," he avowed. "By Jove! +you know, I feel she's always criticizing a fellow. Now with you I feel +absolutely at my ease." + +"I'm glad," Dorothy murmured. Then for two full moments she let her deep +eyes flash into his. + +"I say, when you look at me like that," said Clarehaven, solemnly, "you +absolutely bring my heart into my mouth. By Gad! I feel it being hooked +up like a trout." + +"I'm afraid it's a very easy heart to hook," she laughed. + +"Oh no, it's not! Oh no, really it's not! I can assure you that I'm not +in the least susceptible." + +"Ah, you'll forget all about me to-morrow." + +"My dear Dorothy! You don't object to my calling you Dorothy? My dear +Dorothy, if you knew how unlikely I am to forget all about you +to-morrow...." + +"Well?" + +"Well, I'm not going to forget about you, that's all." + +"We shall see." + +"Yes, we shall," said Clarehaven, fiercely. + +Dorothy was anxious to add still a small touch to his obvious +appreciation, and she conceived the daring idea of inviting him back to +tea in the lodgings. She felt that there in the dingy little room her +grace and beauty would appear more desirable than ever, and if he +should fancy from her invitation that she intended to make herself cheap +he would soon perceive from her behavior how far removed she was from +the average chorus-girl. Clarehaven applauded the suggestion, and though +Sylvia looked rather bored by it, Tufton was enthusiastic; so they +visited a pastry-cook's and bought lots of expensive cakes and +chocolates, for which the guest of honor paid. + +"How the poor live!" exclaimed Dorothy, pointing with a dramatic gesture +at the drab little houses of Eden Square as if she would comment upon an +aspect of Oxford that was hardly credible after Christ Church. + +"Yes, this is our quad," chuckled Sylvia. "Old Tom!" + +"I've never been here before," said Clarehaven, anxious to convince +Dorothy that really he was not susceptible. "I've heard of Eden Square, +of course, but this is my first visit. It's where all the theatrical +people stay, isn't it, Tuffers?" + +"It may be," replied Mr. Tufton, who, having paid for everything he +possessed with money his father was making out of the theater, naturally +did not wish to show himself too familiar with its domestic life. + +"Number ten," said Dorothy, gaily. "Here we are!" + +She opened the front door and led the way along a narrow passage to the +sitting-room, and, flinging wide open the door, drew back for Clarehaven +to enter first. + +"You'll have to excuse the general untidiness," she warned him. + +The sentence was out before she had time to realize that the general +untidiness included a searing vision of Lily in an arm-chair, +imparadised upon the lap of the impossible Tom Hewitt. Sylvia dashed +forward to the rescue of Dorothy, who was standing speechless with +mortification, and began introducing everybody to one another as fast as +she could. Clarehaven's devotion to the stage did not seem impaired by +this abrupt manifestation of low life behind the scenes, and Tufton, who +in other company would probably have been as much outraged as Dorothy +herself by such a reflection upon the source of his wealth, copied his +friend's lead. Tom Hewitt with a mumbled excuse about having to see the +manager retired as soon as possible. Lily, notwithstanding that her left +cheek was flushed and that the hair on the left side of her head was +more conspicuously a part of the general untidiness than the hair on the +right, seemed utterly unconscious of having as good as torn up the +Debrett in which Dorothy had invested this morning, and actually talked +away in her languorous style to Clarehaven and Tufton as if Tom Hewitt's +lap was the natural place on which to pass a lovely summer afternoon. + +For Dorothy that tea-party was a martyrdom from which she began to think +that she should never recover. Wherever she looked she saw that horrible +picture of Lily and Tom. Once Clarehaven asked for another lump of +sugar, and, tormented by the vision, she put two chocolates in his cup. +Tufton passed his cup for a little more milk, and she emptied it away +into the slop-bowl. Finally in an effort to restore her equanimity she +took a chocolate that concealed a sticky caramel within, and when her +mouth was all twisted and her teeth felt as if they were being pulled +out by the roots Clarehaven asked if she could not spare him a +photograph. He was being kind, thought Dorothy, miserably; the +Fitzgilberts and Crispins and Clares of all those generations were +gathering to help him hide the contempt he must feel for this tea-party; +Lacy and Travers and Fanhope were behind him, pleading the obligations +of nobility. And if he were not being kind she must suppose that he +rather liked Lily, which would be worst of all. But what a lesson she +had been given, what a lesson, indeed! If but once it might be granted +to her that a folly should be expiated in the pain of the moment, she +would never play tricks with fortune again. + +When Clarehaven rose to make his farewells Dorothy did not attempt to +detain him, but with a sorrowful grace shook his hand and would not even +give him the photograph. + +"No, no, I'd rather send you one from London." + +"But you'll forget," he protested. + +"No, I sha'n't. One hundred and twenty-nine Curzon Street. Or will you +be at Clare Court?" + +"I'll write to you." + +"No, no," said Dorothy. It would never do for him to write to Lonsdale +Road; besides, he might take it into his head to visit her there, which +might be more disastrous than this tea-party. What would he think, for +instance, of the misshapen boots that were usually waiting outside +Roland's room like two large black-beetles? No, when she had thought out +her campaign she would send him a photograph, and if, looking back on +this afternoon, he decided that she was not worth while--well, she must +put up with it. Dorothy was so sorry for herself that Clarehaven was +flattered by her melancholy countenance into supposing that he had made +a deep impression. In the narrow passage Tufton slipped behind and +whispered to her that she must look her best to-night. + +"Why?" + +"Stable information," he said, and hurried after his friend, Lord +Clarehaven. + +When the three girls were alone together in the fatal sitting-room +Dorothy's repressed rage with Lily broke out uncontrollably. + +"I hope you don't think I'll ever live with you again after that +disgusting exhibition. I suppose you think just because you went with me +to Walter Keal that you can do as you like. I don't know what Sylvia +thinks of you, but I can tell you what I think. You make me feel +absolutely sick. That beastly chorus-boy! The idea of letting anybody +like that even look at you! Thank Heaven, the tour's over. I'm going +down to the theater. I can't stay in this room. It makes me blush to +think of it. I'll take jolly good care who I live with in future." + +Something in Lily's fragility, something in her still untidy hair and +uncomprehending muteness, inflamed Dorothy beyond the bounds of +toleration, and in despair of just words to humiliate her sufficiently +she slapped her face. + +"Hit her back, my lass," cried Sylvia, putting up her eye-glass to watch +the fray; but Lily collapsed tearfully into the arm-chair, and Dorothy +rushed out of the room. + +The sight of Debrett's scarlet and gold upon her dressing-table was +enough to reconjure all her mortification, and she was just going to +weep her heart out upon the bed as, no doubt, below Lily was weeping +hers out upon the shoulders of a ghostly Tom Hewitt, when Tufton's +parting advice recurred to her. She had to look her best to-night. Why? +He must have some reason to say that. + +"_J'y serai_?" cried Dorothy, mustering all her family pride to keep +back her tears. + + +VI + +Although fortified by the motto, Dorothy was still suffering from the +memory of that afternoon, and when she arrived at the theater to dress +and saw Tom Hewitt standing by the stage-door she tried to pass him +without acknowledging his salute. + +"Mr. Richards will be in front to-night," he told her, portentously. + +"Oh, we're always hearing that," said Dorothy. "I don't believe it." + +"It's a fact. Warren told me so himself. And Mr. Keal's come down with +him." + +So this was why Tufton had advised her to look her best to-night; the +visit could only mean that the great man wanted girls for the autumn +production at the Vanity. Dorothy began to cheer up. Even if Lily's +behavior had disgusted Lord Clarehaven irreparably, such behavior would +not spoil her own chance of being engaged by John Richards, and at the +Vanity there would be plenty of titled admirers. No doubt most of them +would be younger sons or elder sons who had not yet succeeded, but ... +"_j'y serai_," murmured Dorothy. "It's a good thing that I don't fall in +love very easily. And it's lucky I didn't let myself cry," she added, +congratulating her reflection in the dressing-room mirror. + +Every girl was painting herself and powdering herself and pulling up her +stockings and patting her hair and, regardless of the undergraduates she +had met during the week, preparing to act as she had never acted before. +Dorothy took neither more nor less trouble with her appearance than she +took every night. + +This time rumor was incarnate in fact, for the great Mr. Richards came +and stood in the wings during a large portion of the play, and Dorothy, +convinced that the one thing she ought not to do was to throw a single +glance in his direction, devoted all her attention to the front of the +house. There were lots of flowers; but nobody, neither principal nor +chorus-girl, was handed such a magnificent basket of pink roses as +herself, and nobody who had not suffered as she had suffered that +afternoon in the depths could have been so gloriously thrilled on the +heights as Dorothy was when the curtain fell at the close of the +performance amid the shouts and cheers of youthful art-loving England, +and she was stopped in the wings by Mr. Water Keal. + +"Come here, dear," he said. "I want to introduce you to Mr. Richards." + +The impresario was a large and melancholy man whose voice reverberated +in the back of a cavernous throat with so high a palate that consonants +were lost in its echoes and his speech seemed to consist entirely of +vowels. + +"Who sent you the prehy flowers, dear?" he asked, lugubriously. + +"The Earl of Clarehaven," said Dorothy, with a brilliant smile. + +"Ha--ha, vehy 'ice, vehy 'ice," he muttered, fondling the card attached. +"Goo' gir'! Goo' gir'!" + +The millionaire's yachting friends wore evening gowns for the latter +part of the second act, and Dorothy in old rose, with her basket of +flowers and exquisite neck and shoulders, was indeed looking her best. + +"Goo' gir'!" Mr. Richards boomed once more; then as she passed from the +royal presence he patted her shoulder in congratulation, dusted the +powder from his fingers, lit an enormous cigar, and wandered away with +Mr. Keal. + +When Dorothy reached the dressing-room every girl was speculating on the +depth of the impression she had made upon Mr. Richards, but not one of +them could claim that the great man had patted her on the back or +noticed her flowers. Presently the call-boy came with a message that +Miss Lonsdale was to be at the theater to-morrow morning at eleven +o'clock without fail, and it was obvious to the most jealous observer +that Dorothy's chance had come. She was so much elated by her good +fortune that she was reconciled to Lily, told everybody what a +delightful lunch she had had with Lord Clarehaven and what a delightful +picnic she had had with Lord Clarehaven and how she had met a cousin of +hers, Arthur Lonsdale, who was the only son of Lord Cleveden. + +"You know, he was governor of Central India," Dorothy reminded the +dressing-room. + +"India!" echoed Miss Onslow. "That sounds hot stuff, anyway." + +Dorothy buried her face in the roses to get rid of the effluvium of such +vulgarity. And then in the middle of her success, just when her true +friends should have been most pleased, Sylvia, who had shared--well, +not shared, but had been allowed to assist at her triumph--Sylvia it +was who asked, in a voice audible to the whole dressing-room: + +"On which side of the road are you related to young Lonsdale?" + +Luckily the joke was too obscure to be generally understood; but Dorothy +decided to banish Sylvia from the list of her friends that in Lily's +company she might henceforth inhabit an outer darkness unlit by +Debrett's scarlet and gold. + +"I expect I shall soon forget what an awful life touring is," said +Dorothy to herself that night, as she turned back the limp cotton sheets +and looked distastefully at the hummocky mattress. There was a trenchant +symbolism, too, in massacring a flea with Debrett; no other volume would +have been heavy enough. + +The next morning Mr. Richards seemed to be inviting her--so gentle were +his accents, so soft his intonation--to join the Vanity company next +September at three pounds a week. Mr. Keal and his Jewish assistant, Mr. +Fitzmaurice, were present at her triumph; and when Dorothy was going +down-stairs from the manager's office, Mr. Fitzmaurice hurried after her +and begged her not to forget that it was he who had been the first to +recognize her talents. + +"Well, call me a cab, there's a good boy," said Dorothy, to reward him; +and Mr. Fitzmaurice, who only six months ago had looked at her so +critically on that wet December morning in Leicester Square, now ran +hither and thither in the summer weather until he had found her a cab. + +"What swank!" Dorothy heard Clarice Beauchamp say when, with a rattle +and a dash, she drove up to the station, where the company were +mustering for their last journey together. But she had only a gracious +smile for poor Clarice; and at Paddington, although she parted with +Sylvia and Lily cordially enough, she did not invite either of them to +come and see her in Lonsdale Road. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +I + +Not even the Irishman's passion for originality is strong enough to +resist the common impulse of human nature to follow the course of the +sun; he must migrate westward like the Saxon before him, and it is +surely remarkable to find a theater holding out against a social +tendency to which an Irishman succumbs. When a flood of new +thoroughfares submerged old theatrical London in the last years of the +nineteenth century and created a new theaterdom farther west; when the +barbarous hoardings of the Strand Improvement obliterated so many +resorts of leisure, and, like the people of Croton, the London County +Council diverted a stream of traffic to flow where once was the Sybaris +of Holywell Street and the Opera Comique; when the Lyceum and the +Adelphi changed the quality of their wares; when Terry's became a cinema +palace and His Grace of Bedford sold Drury Lane overnight--the Vanity +was almost the only theater that preserved its position and its +character. The peak of Ararat was not more welcome to the water-weary +eyes of Noah than to patrons of a theater as old-fashioned as the Ark +was the sight of that little island upon which the Vanity maintained +itself amid the wrecks and ruins of the engulfed Strand. Close by, as if +to commemorate the friendly rivalry of Church and Stage, upon another +island St. Clement Dane's cleft the traffic of Fleet Street long after +Temple Bar had been swept away; and it was agreeably appropriate that +the church where Doctor Johnson, our greatest conservative, was wont to +bow his head before the slow grinding of God's mills should have for +company in a visible protest against the illusion of progress that +monument of English conservatism, the Vanity Theater. More secure upon +its island in the Strand than the Eddystone Lighthouse upon its rock in +the Channel, the illuminated portico of the Vanity blazed away as +brightly as it ever did before the destruction of the mean streets that +used to obscure its glory. Not far off, the Savoy Hotel served as +prologue and epilogue to its entertainments; and no alliance between one +of the new theaters in Piccadilly and the Ritz or Carlton could yet +claim to have superseded that time-honored alliance between the Vanity +and the Savoy. + +In the early 'seventies the sacred lamp of burlesque, as journalists +moved to poesy by their theme have it, was lighted at the Vanity, and in +the waning 'eighties the gas-lamp of burlesque, with nothing but an +added brightness to mark the change, became the electric bulb of musical +comedy. Time moved slowly at the Vanity; tenors grew hoarse and +comedians grew stiff, but they were not easily superseded; many ladies +grew stout, but the boards of the Vanity were strong, and even the +places of those dearly loved by the gods who married young were only +taken by others equally beloved and exactly like their predecessors; +puns disappeared gradually from the librettos; the frocks of the chorus +exaggerated the fashion of the hour; very seldom a melody was +sufficiently novel to escape being whistled by the town; but in the +opening years of the twentieth century the Vanity was intrinsically what +the Vanity had been thirty years before and what no doubt it would be +thirty years thence. The modish young men who applauded "Miss Elsie of +Chelsea" sat in the stalls where their fathers and in some cases their +grandfathers had applauded "Hamlet Up to Date." The fathers vowed that +the Vanity had deteriorated since the days when mutton-chop whiskers +were cultivated and the ladies of the chorus flirted bustles on the +outside of a coach-and-four; but the sons were quite content with the +present regime and considered jolly old John Richards as good as any +impresario of the 'eighties. Unless the standard of beauty had +universally declined at the dawn of the new century, that opinion of +youth must be indorsed; it is doubtful if twenty more beautiful girls +than the Vanity chorus contained in the autumn of 1903 could have been +found in any other city or in any other country, and certainly not in +any other theater. When a few years after this date John Richards was +knighted for his services to human nature and applied to the College of +Heralds for a grant of arms, a friend with a taste for Latin robbed +Propertius for the motto and gave him _Tot milia formosarum_, which, +though lending itself to a ribald translation of "The foremost harem of +smiling Totties," was not less well deserved by John Richards than by +Pluto, to whom the poet addressed the original observation. + +Dorothy, by spending in complete seclusion the two months before +rehearsals began, prepared herself to shimmer as clearly as she could in +the shimmering galaxy that was to make "The River Girl" as big a hit as +"Miss Elsie of Chelsea." She declined to accompany her family to the +seaside in August, being sure that August at Eastbourne would be bad for +her complexion; therefore she remained behind in Lonsdale Road with the +cook, who by the time Dorothy had finished with her began to have +ambitions to be a lady's maid. Nothing is more richly transfigured by +unfamiliarity than the empty streets of a London suburb in mid-August, +when their sun-dyed silence quivers upon the air like noon in Italy. At +such a season the sorceress Calypso might not have disdained West +Kensington for her spells; Dorothy, dream-haunted and with nothing more +strenuous than singing-lessons and fashion papers to impinge upon the +drowsy days, lived on self-enchantment. She never sent Lord Clarehaven +the promised photograph, not did she even write him a letter; after +deliberation she had decided that it would be more effective to appear +upon his next horizon like a new planet rather than to wane slowly from +his recollection like a summer moon. To write from an address at which +it would be impossible to renew their acquaintance would be foolish. +Besides, with such a future as hers at the Vanity was surely bound to +be, did one Clarehaven more or less matter? He had served his purpose in +demonstrating the ease with which she could reach beyond other girls; +but, as Mary, the cook, had observed last night in recounting her +rupture with the milkman, "plenty more mothers had sons," and if +Clarehaven arrived impatiently at the same conclusion about the supply +of daughters, that was better than exposing herself to the greater +humiliation of being taken up in an idle moment and as readily dropped +again. Dorothy's imagination had been touched by reading of three Vanity +marriages that were now sharing the attention of the holiday press with +giant gooseberries and vegetable marrows of mortal seeming. The younger +son of a duke, the eldest son of a viscount, a Welsh baronet had, one +after another, made those gaps in the Vanity chorus, to fill one of +which Dorothy had been chosen by the provident Mr. Richards; she +accepted the omen, and made up her mind that for her it should always be +marriage or nothing. + +It would be unfair at this stage in Dorothy's career to accuse her of +formulating any definite plan to win a coronet, still less of casting +her eye upon Lord Clarehaven's coronet in particular; but during these +sun-drenched August days she did resolve to do nothing that might spoil +the fulfilment of the augury. Left to herself, and free from the +criticism of friends or relations, it would have been strange if +Dorothy's estimate of her own powers had not been rather heightened by +so much lazy self-contemplation. One day she had met an acquaintance +marooned like herself upon this desert isle of holidays, and on being +asked what she was doing in London at such a season, had replied +truthfully enough that she was just looking round; but she did not add +that she was looking round at herself in a mirror. This cloistral +felicity lasted as long as the lime-trees in West Kensington kept their +summer greenery; at the end of August the leaves began to wither, the +rumble of returning cabs was heard more often every day, and the first +rehearsal of "The River Girl" was called. Dorothy's seclusion was over; +of the girls who passed through the Vanity stage-door that August +morning there was none so fresh as she. + +"How odd," she thought, "that only this time last year the notion of +going on the stage had never even entered my head." + +Dorothy had paused for a moment on the threshold of the theater, and was +listening while the door swung to and fro behind her and syncopated the +dull beat of the traffic in the Strand to a sort of ragtime tune. How +different these rehearsals were going to be from those of last year in +the Lisle Street club-room, and how right she had been to escape from +the provinces so quickly. + +From the first moment Dorothy felt more herself in the Vanity than she +had felt all those six months of touring. She was, of course, stared at +and criticized, but she was never acutely conscious of the jealousy that +had glared from the eyes of her companions in the provinces. The beauty +of her rivals in this metropolitan chorus only made her own beauty more +remarkable; she, being the first to recognize this, accorded to her +associates such a frank and such an obviously sincere admiration that +she gained a reputation for simplicity, which the other girls ascribed +to innocence. From innocence to mystery is but a short step in an +ambient like the Vanity, and without a Lily or a Sylvia to tell the +other girls too much about her, Dorothy developed the mysterious aspect +of herself and left her innocence undefined. At the Vanity there was +none of the destructive intimacy of touring life. Nobody ever saw the +ladies of this chorus in polychrome on the wet platform of a Yorkshire +railway station; nobody ever saw the ladies of this chorus tilting with +a hatpin at pickled onions; nobody, in fact, had any excuse for being +disillusioned by the ladies of the Vanity, because, being individually +and collectively aware of their national importance, they were never +really off the stage; indeed, except occasionally in their bedrooms, +perhaps, they were never really behind the scenes. The fancy of a casual +observer, who lingered for a moment at the stage-door to watch the +ladies of the Vanity tripping out of their hansoms, was as much +stimulated by the sight as the fancy of the regular patron who from the +front of the house was privileged to observe them tripping on to the +stage. They were brilliant butterflies by day and gorgeous moths by +night; though nature forbids us to suppose that they never were +caterpillars, their larval state is as unimaginable as the touch of time +that worked the metamorphosis. + +Dorothy did not allude to the chrysalis of West Kensington from which +she had just emerged, nor did she mention more than she could help the +caterpillar existence of touring. True to her native caution, she +avoided committing herself to any sudden friendships that might +afterward be regretted, but she fluttered round all the girls in turn, +and with Miss Birdie Underhill and Miss Maisie Yorke, two members of the +sextet sung from punts in the first act, she made a tolerably high +excursion into the empyrean. Birdie and Maisie were tall blondes of the +same type as herself, but, being some years older, they were beginning +to think that, inasmuch as they had not been able to find even the +younger son of a baron whose attentions conformed to his title, they +ought to accept the hands of two devoted and moderately rich +stock-brokers who had long and patiently admired them. Perhaps it was +the first faint intimations of maternity demanding expression that led +these two queens of the chorus to hint so graciously to Dorothy at the +inheritance they designed for her. To pass from butterflies to bees for +a metaphor, they fed her with queens' food (prepared by Romano's) and +taught her that the drones must either be married or massacred--even +both if necessary. Dorothy was too wise to think she knew everything, +and, being acquisitive rather than mimetic, she gained from the two +queens the cynicism of a wide experience without subjecting herself to +the wear and tear of the process. + +Lest a too exclusive attention to Miss Underhill and Miss Yorke should +leave her stranded when they quitted the chorus, Dorothy frequented +equally the company of a very lovely brunette called Olive Fanshawe, who +was certainly the most popular girl in the dressing-room and of a sweet +and gentle disposition, without either affectation or duplicity. Apart +from the advantage of being friends with a girl so genuinely beloved, +Dorothy was attracted to Olive Fanshawe's ivory skin and lustrous dark +hair; that would set off her own roses and mignonette to perfection, and +she was glad when Olive proposed that perhaps later on they might share +a flat. She decided, however, to stay at home during the winter, or at +any rate until she should have obtained a more prominent place in the +chorus and be justified in launching out on her own with some prospect +of practical homage in return. + +Dorothy's early confidence in herself had been slightly shaken in the +first six weeks of "The River Girl," because Clarehaven had not once +been to see her, or, if he had, had never written to tell her how lovely +she looked on the banks of a scene-painter's Thames. If he still took +the least interest in her, he could easily have found out where she was, +and it was significant that she had seen nothing of Tufton, either. +Dorothy began to be afraid that those two days at Oxford had vanished +from Clarehaven's memory; so, lacking as yet any great incentive to make +the best of herself off the stage, she decided not to waste money +either on a flat or on winter clothes. No address out of Mayfair would +suit her, and no furs less expensive than sables would become her fair +beauty. At nineteen she need not be in too much of a hurry, and she +should certainly be wise to wait until the springtime would provide her +with the prettiest frocks for much less outlay. As for taking a flat, +why, anything might have happened by the spring. + +Dorothy's plans, however, were precipitated by the behavior of her +father. It appeared that a friendly archdeacon had warned Mr. Caffyn +privately of the forthcoming sale of some church schools in the center +of a large maritime town in the west of England in order that a cinema +theater might be erected on their site to the glory of God, the profit +of His Church, and the convenience of His little ones. The archdeacon +drew Mr. Caffyn's attention to the clause in the contract by which the +morality of every performance was secured, and strongly advised him to +follow his own example and invest in the theater. Mr. Caffyn, who was +not of a speculative temperament, felt that, though he should be unwise +to risk brewery stock profitable enough at a date when the Liberal party +had scarcely yet swelled the womb of politics, he was being offered an +excellent opportunity to add to his wife's income, which was not +yielding more than three and a half per cent. upon her capital. It was +on top of this important decision that Dorothy came back from the +theater one foggy November night to be met by her mother in the dim hall +of No. 17. + +"A most terrible thing has occurred," Mrs. Caffyn whispered. "Hush! +Don't disturb Cecil. Tread quietly. The poor boy is tired out with +working for his Christmas examinations, and father might hear us." + +To Mrs. Caffyn the drawing-room seemed the only fit environment for an +appalling problem the day had brought her, the only atmosphere that +could brace her to confront its solution, but Dorothy, who was cold +after her nerves by drinking the fresh tea brought in for a late +arrival. Dorothy came down-stairs, rather cross at having been disturbed +from her afternoon nap, and Mr. Caffyn, a Cenci of suburban prose, +confronted his wife and daughter. + +"I have seldom felt such a fool," he began upon a note of pompous +reminiscence that whistled in his mustache like a wind through withered +sedge on the margin of a December stream. "I have _never_ felt such a +fool," he corrected himself, "as I was made to feel this afternoon by my +own wife and my own daughter. I go to your bank," he proclaimed, fixing +his wife's wavering eye--"I go to your bank, and there, in the presence +of my eldest son, I ask to see Mr. Jones, the manager, with a view to +improving your financial position." + +"How kind of you, dear," she murmured, in an attempt to propitiate him +before it was too late. + +"Yes," Mr. Caffyn went on, apparently not in the least softened by the +compliment. "In your interest I abandon for a whole hour my own +work--the work of the society I represent, although, mark you, I knew +full well that by so doing I should be kept in the office another whole +hour after my usual time." + +Dorothy looked sarcastically at her wrist-watch, and her father bellowed +like a bull on the banks of that stream in midsummer. + +"Silence, Norah!" + +"Are you speaking to me?" she inquired. "Because if you are, I'd rather, +firstly, that you spoke to me without shouting; secondly, that you +didn't call me Norah; and thirdly, that you didn't say I was talking +when I was only looking at my watch." + +Mr. Caffyn, throwing up his head in a mute appeal for Heaven to note his +daughter's unnatural behavior, swallowed a crumb the wrong way, the +noisy attempts to rescue which allowed his wife a moment's grace to dab +her forehead with a handkerchief; her tears, like the crumb, had chosen +another route, and the fresh tea was excessively hot. + +"Where was I?" Mr. Caffyn demanded, indignantly, when he had disposed of +the crumb. + +"I think you'd just got to my bank, dear," his wife suggested, timidly. + +"Ah yes! Well, Jones and I were going into the details of your +investments, and I was just calculating what would be the amount of your +extra income should I consent to your investing your capital in +accordance with the advice of the Archdeacon of Brismouth, when Jones, +who I may remark _en passant_ has been a friend of mine for twenty years +and should know better, calmly informs me that without consulting your +husband you have withdrawn five hundred pounds from your capital in +order to fling it away upon your daughter. I thought he was perpetrating +a stupid joke; but he actually showed me a record of this abominable +transaction, and I had no alternative but to accept his word. I need +hardly say that any chance I might have had of finishing off my work at +the society vanished as far as this afternoon was concerned, and +so"--here Mr. Caffyn became bitterly ironical--"I ventured to permit +myself the luxury of a hansom-cab from the offices of your bank to the +corner of Carlington Road, where the four-mile circle of fares +terminates, and now, if you please, I should like an explanation of this +outrage." + +"The explanation is perfectly simple," Dorothy began. + +"I was speaking to your mother, not to you. The money is hers." + +"Precisely," said his daughter, "and that is the explanation." + +"Dearest child," Mrs. Caffyn implored her, "don't aggravate dear father. +We must admit that we were both very much in the wrong, particularly +myself." + +"Not at all," said Dorothy, quickly cutting short her father's sigh of +satisfaction at the admission. "Not at all. We were both absolutely in +the right. The transaction was a purely business one. Mother has allowed +me twenty-five pounds a year since my seventeenth birthday." + +"Mother has allowed you?" echoed Mr. Caffyn. "Even if we grant that this +sum was technically paid out of your mother's income, you must +understand that it should be considered as coming from me--from me, your +father." + +"You and mother can settle that afterward. It doesn't invalidate my +argument, which is that such a lump sum is likely to be more useful to +me at the beginning of my career on the stage than an annual pittance--" + +"Pittance?" repeated Mr. Caffyn, aghast. "Do you call twenty-five pounds +a pittance?" + +"Please don't go on interrupting me," said Dorothy, coldly. "I'm now +doing a calculation in my head. Twenty-five pounds a year is five per +cent.--" + +"Five per cent.!" shouted Mr. Caffyn. "Your mother was only getting +three and a half per cent." + +"Oh, please don't interrupt," Dorothy begged, "because this is getting +very complicated. In that case mother owes me, roughly, about another +two hundred and fifty pounds. However, we'll let that pass. You are both +released from all responsibility for me, and if you both live more than +twenty years longer you will actually be making twenty-five pounds a +year out of this arrangement. In twenty years you'll be sixty-eight, +won't you? Well, there's no reason why you shouldn't live to +seventy-two, and if you do you'll make one hundred pounds out of me. So +I don't think you can grumble." + +"Dear child," sobbed Mrs. Caffyn, "I don't think it's very polite, and +it certainly isn't kind, to talk about poor father's age like that. +Let's admit we both did wrong and ask him to forgive us." + +"I am not going into the question of right and wrong," replied Dorothy, +loftily. "It's quite obvious to me that you have a perfect right to do +what you like with your own money and that I have a perfect right to +avail myself of your kindness. Father's extraordinary behavior has made +it equally clear to me that I can't possibly stay on in this house; in +any case, the noise the children make in the morning will end by driving +me away, and the sooner I go the better." + +"I forbid you to speak to your parents like that," said Mr. Caffyn. + +Dorothy could not help laughing at his authority, and he played his last +card: + +"Do you realize that you are not yet of age and that if I choose I can +compel you to remain at home?" + +"I don't think it would be worth your while," she told him, "for the +sake of five hundred pounds, which in that case you'd certainly never +see again. I don't want to break with my family completely, but if I +find that your prehistoric way of behaving is liable to spoil my career, +I sha'n't hesitate to do so." + +Dorothy guessed that she had defeated her father; Mrs. Caffyn, too, must +have guessed it, for she suddenly gasped: + +"I think I must be going to faint." + +And by summoning the memories of a mid-Victorian childhood she actually +succeeded. Luckily her husband had eaten most of the cakes; so that when +she was rescued from the wreck of the tea-table and helped up to her +room only one sandwich was adhering to her best gown. + + +II + +It is hardly necessary to say that Dorothy did not confide in the girls +at the theater what had happened at home, but she let it be generally +understood that she was now looking out for rooms, and she talked a good +deal of where one could and where one could not live in a flat. About a +week later Olive Fanshawe took her aside and asked if she was serious +about moving into a flat at last; and, upon Dorothy's assuring her that +she was, Olive divulged under the seal of great secrecy that a friend of +hers, a man of high rank with much power and influence in the country, +was anxious to do something for her. + +"He's a strange man," she told Dorothy, "and though I know you'll think +it's impossible for anybody to want to look after a girl in a flat +without other things in return, he really doesn't make love to me at +all. He gets tired of society and political dinners and the Palace." + +"The Palace?" Dorothy repeated. + +"Buckingham Palace. You didn't think I meant the Crystal Palace?" said +Olive, with a laugh. + +Dorothy, with Debrett for a footstool, when she chose to treat the +volume thus, was offended by this raillery, and explained that she had +only wished to know whether she meant St. James's Palace or Buckingham +Palace. + +"Darling, I was only teasing you.... Well, my friend wants to have a +place where he can lunch quietly sometimes or have tea and forget about +the cares of grandeur. You won't mind if I don't tell you his name, will +you?" + +Dorothy did mind extremely, but inasmuch as she had affected an air of +mystery about herself and her origin, she felt she could not reasonably +object to Olive's secrecy. + +"He told me to find another girl to live with me," Olive continued, "and +he said he would pay the rent of the flat and find all that's necessary +in the way of decorations and furniture. I've been waiting such a long +time for the right girl; I thought you didn't want to live up in town or +I should have suggested it sooner. He's seen you from the front, and he +admired you very much and couldn't understand why I didn't ask you at +once." + +Dorothy was struck by Olive's frankness and still more was she struck by +her incapacity for jealousy. She could not think of any other girl who +would have been so obviously pleased as Olive was to hear a friend +admired by their own man. Three months at the Vanity had made Dorothy +chary of believing the assertion that there was nothing more between +her and the mysterious great one than good-fellowship, because she was +quite sure by now that all men expected more, and her judgment of +Olive's character led her to suppose that Olive would be too kind to +refuse him more. However, that was her business, and since there was +evidently going to be a simulation of complete innocence about the +transaction, no offer could have suited her better. + +"My dear Olive," she said, "nothing could be nicer for me, and of course +I happen to be one of the few girls who would or could understand that +there is nothing in it. What a pity the weather's so wet for +house-hunting." + +"That's what the great man said, and he told me to hire an electric +brougham until I've found the place I want." + +"Of course," said Dorothy, as if the idea of searching for a flat +outside an electric brougham, a rare luxury in those days, was +inconceivable. + +For a fortnight she and Olive glided here and there along the dim, +wintry streets, until at last they noticed that the stiff Georgian +houses at the far end of Halfmoon Street bulged out into an +efflorescence of bright new flats, which on inspection seemed to provide +exactly the address and the comfort they required. + +"It's an awfully good address," said Dorothy. "Clarges Street would have +been a little nearer to Berkeley Square, but...." She forgave the extra +block or two with a gesture. + +"It's so quiet," added Olive. + +"And really not far from Devonshire House, though from Stratton Street +we should have overlooked the garden." + +"But we can take San Toy for her walks in Green Park." San Toy was +Olive's Pekinese spaniel. + +"I shall have my bedroom in apple green," Dorothy announced. "Apple +green with rose-du-barri curtains; and you'd better have cream with +cafe-au-lait in yours, unless you have eau-de-nil and sage.... I think +the fourth-story flat was the nicest." + +"Yes, it's more romantic to be high up," Olive agreed. + +"And the light is better for one's dressing-table," Dorothy added. + +In dread of a maternal attempt to bring about a reconciliation between +herself and her father, Dorothy had hoped to avoid spending Christmas at +home. But the flat could not be ready until February; so, partly to keep +her mother quiet, partly because she was a little apprehensive of the +paternal prerogative with which Mr. Caffyn had threatened her minority, +she consented on Christmas morning to be kissed by his mustache. Perhaps +he was more willing to forgive her owing to his wife's conduct of her +financial affairs having provided an excuse to transfer them into his +own hands. + +Dorothy's absence from the last Christmas gathering at home had not +sharpened her appetite for this kind of celebration, and she did not at +all like the sensation of being in the bosom of her family; Gulliver was +scarcely more disgusted by the Brobdingnagian maids of honor. Seizing +the occasion to impress upon her younger brothers and sisters her +disapproval of any inclination to boast about having a famously +beautiful sister at the Vanity, she was mortified to learn that her +career was regarded by the juniors as a slur upon their social standing. +Cecil informed her bluntly that in his society--the society of +industrious scholars at St. James's--actresses were regarded with +horror, and that though an unpleasant rumor had pervaded the school of +Caffyn's having a sister on the stage, he had managed to stifle such +deleterious gossip. It seemed that the traditions of the preparatory +school responsible for Vincent's budding social sense strictly forbade +any allusion to family life in any form whatsoever; at Randell's _all_ +relatives were regarded as a disgrace, and only last term a boy had been +called upon to apologize for the extraordinary appearance his mother +had presented at the prize-giving. Another boy, whose father was reputed +to belong to the Royal Academy, had been forced to allay with largess of +tuck the hostile criticism leveled against a flowing cravat his parent +had worn at the school sports. As for sisters, Vincent affirmed, their +very existence was regarded as a shameful secret; but a sister on the +stage ... he turned away in despair of words to express what a +humiliation that would bring upon him were it known. Agnes and Edna +assured Dorothy they had far too many enthralling topics of conversation +already to bother about her; but when one or two of the mistresses had +inquired how she was getting on and had regretted that she was not +acting in Shakespeare, they had certainly not revealed that she was now +called Dorothy Lonsdale, because the real Dorothy was also an old girl; +so that even if one of the mistresses in an unbridled moment should +visit the Vanity, she would search for Miss Norah Caffyn upon the +program and come away no wiser than she went. + +Meanwhile, the decoration and furnishing of the flat went on in strict +accordance with Dorothy's ideas, since she had better taste than Olive, +who, besides, was too much afraid of spending another person's money. +Dorothy had not yet been introduced to the great man, but she was sure +that he would like Olive to have all she wanted, or, in other words, all +she herself wanted. They moved in during February, and it was arranged +that the first Sunday evening should be dedicated to the entertainment +of their benefactor, who had returned to town for the opening of +Parliament. About six o'clock on the evening in question Dorothy rose +from a deliciously deep and comfortable Chesterfield sofa, looked round +her affectionately at her own drawing-room aglow with chintz and +daffodils, and in her bedroom, when she sat down in front of a triple +mirror to do her light-brown hair before dressing for dinner, +apostrophized her good fortune aloud, and admired herself more than +ever. + +Dorothy acknowledged to herself that Olive's great man surpassed her +preconception of him kindled by dressing-room legends; at first she had +been inclined to criticize her friend's occasional ventures into +political prophecy as self-importance or girlish credulity; but as soon +as she saw the source of them she admitted that this time Olive's +romanticism was justified. Their guest was a tall, grizzled man, more +military to the outward eye than political, and he treated Olive with +just the god-fatherly manner she had led Dorothy to expect. She made a +good deal of fuss over him in the way of finding cushions for his head +and mixing his cocktail with extra care; but nothing in her obviously +sincere affection conveyed a hint of cloaking another kind of emotion. +Although the great man preserved his own anonymity, he talked so freely +about people of whom Dorothy had often read in the papers that his +absorbing conversation soon made her forget the strain upon her +curiosity to know who he was. He approved of the way the flat had been +decorated and complimented the two girls on their good taste, all the +credit of which Olive at once ascribed to her companion. About eleven +o'clock the great man passed his hand over his eyes in a way that seemed +to hint at a deep-seated, perhaps an incurable, fatigue, and announced +that he must be going to bed. + +"Though, unfortunately," he added, "I must write one or two letters +first at my club. Happy children," he said, turning to them in the hall +and holding a hand of each. "We must try to meet next Sunday evening; +but I'm dreadfully busy, and I may not be able to get away." + +Turning up the collar of his fur coat, he told Olive not to ring for the +lift and walked very wearily, it seemed to Dorothy, down the stairs of +the flats. + +"I don't want to be inquisitive," she said, when they were back in the +drawing-room still haunted by the ghost of an excellent cigar. "But I +should like to know who he really is." + +"Dorothy," her friend begged, "it's the only stipulation he's made, and +I don't think it would be fair to break it." + +"You don't trust me," Dorothy complained. + +"My dear, it isn't that; but I certainly should have to tell him that I +told you, and I'm sure he wouldn't like it. After all, we ought to be +very grateful for this jolly flat where we're perfectly free and have +nothing to bother about. Remember what happened to Psyche." + +Dorothy was inclined to add "and also to Fatima"; but since she could +not pretend that the great man did in any way remind her of Bluebeard +and since the flat undoubtedly was delightful, she did her best to +restrain her curiosity, even though sometimes it irritated her like +prickly heat. + +"It's a pity he had to go away to write his letters at a club," she +said. + +"But he couldn't write from this address." + +"No, but we could keep some plain paper for him," said Dorothy. "And +that reminds me, what is your crest?" + +Olive looked alarmed. + +"I don't think I've got a crest," she said. "My father's a solicitor in +Warwickshire." + +"Warwickshire?" repeated Dorothy. "That's an odd coincidence. I wonder +if he knows Lord Cleveden." + +Olive shook her head vaguely. + +"He knows a good deal about Warwickshire; in fact, he's writing a book +called _Warwickshire Worthies_. He's been writing it for years. Does +Lord Cleveden come from Warwickshire?" + +"Of course," said Dorothy, and then after a minute with a far-away look +she added, "So do I." + +"Oh, Dorothy, then there really is a mystery? I thought it was only +dressing-room gossip." + +"You have your secrets, Olive. Mayn't I be allowed mine? Though I +suppose I haven't any legal right to it, I am going to put my crest on +my note-paper, because I like the motto. It's a bugle-horn, and the +motto is _J'y serai_. I needn't translate it for you, as you went to a +convent in Belgium." + +Olive laughed affectionately at her friend's little joke, and they +decided to reap the full advantage of a quiet Sunday by going to bed +early. + +"He's a great dear, isn't he?" said Olive by the door of her room. + +"Oh, a great dear. How horrid it is that a man like that would be so +misjudged by the world that he has to keep his name a secret. But, of +course, I understand his point of view. I've had some experience of +family pride, and it's a tremendous thing to be up against. However, it +will be all the same a hundred years hence. Good night, darling. Your +great man is a great, great success." + +"I'm so glad you like him, Dorothy dear." + +"I like him immensely." + +Just before Dorothy got into bed she called out to her friend, who in a +dressing-gown of amber silk hurried to know what she wanted. + +"I only wanted to tell you that you simply must get this new +tooth-paste. I like it immensely." + +"Oh, I'm glad it's a success," Olive exclaimed. + +"It's a great, great success." + +Dorothy wondered when she was fading into sleep how long it would be +before she should be able to recommend a tooth-paste to the world at +large, recommend it in glowing words with a photograph of herself +smiling at the delicious tube. + + +III + +Soon after Dorothy and Olive were established in Halfmoon Street Birdie +Underhill and Maisie Yorke, by getting married on the same day at the +same church to bridegrooms in the same profession, obtained as much +publicity in the newspapers as was possible for two Vanity girls who +had failed to acquire a title on abandoning the stage. The service in a +double sense was fully choral, and the two queens had a train of +bridesmaids from the Vanity, all looking as demure as Quakeresses in +their dove-gray frocks, and certainly holding their own in the mere +externals of maidenhood with the sisters of the bridegrooms, who were as +fresh and rural as if Bayswater, their home, was in the Lake district +and had been immortalized by Wordsworth in a sonnet. One reporter was so +much impressed by the ceremony that his account of it was headed +"Dignified Wedding of Two Vanity Girls." + +"Yes," said Dorothy, when with Olive she was driving away from the +reception, "it was charmingly done, of course; but, poor dears, it is +rather a come-down." + +"But I thought their men were awfully twee," said Olive. + +"Twee" was society's attempt at this date to voice the ineffable, in +which respect it was at least as successful as the terminology of most +mystics and philosophers: yet although Plotinus might have been glad of +it in the sunset-stained fog of neo-Platonism, the practical Dorothy +considered that this was too transcendental for stock-brokers. + +"After all," she said, poised serenely above the abyss of reality, "what +is a stock-broker?" + +"They'll be fairly well off, and they'll have nice houses, and children +perhaps," Olive argued. "And I expect they're tired of the theater by +now. I don't think either of them would ever have got anything better +than the Punt Sextet; and Maisie told me when I was kissing her good-by +and wishing her all happiness that she was twenty-seven. Isn't it +terrible to think of?" + +"Twenty-seven!" Dorothy echoed. She would have been less shocked if the +sum had referred to Maisie's lovers rather than to her years. "Well, of +course, she admitted once to me that she was twenty-four. I only hope +that when I'm twenty-seven I sha'n't be singing with five other girls in +punts." + +"You won't be, darling. You'll either be a great star or you'll be +brilliantly and happily married." + +Olive was really a very easy girl to live with; and the former of these +predictions seemed likely to come true when Dorothy was actually +promoted to occupy one of the punts after the girl first selected had +proved a failure in such a conspicuous position; the other vacant punt +had been successfully filled by Queenie Molyneux. This girl, though she +was not nearly so beautiful as Dorothy, had a good deal of talent, which +gave even the two solo lines she was allowed in the sextet what any +serious dramatic critic who had learned French at school would have +called _espieglerie_. Miss Molyneux had reason to hope that such a +phrase would one day be applied to her acting, because people whose +judgment was to be trusted went about saying that she had a career +before her, not merely in musical comedy, but perhaps even in real +comedy, where she would be written about by critics who were not afraid +to use foreign words at what they would call the "psychological moment." +In view of the fact that Miss Molyneux might henceforth be considered a +rival, Dorothy took care to be very friendly with her, and to be seen +fairly often lunching with her at Romano's or supping at the Savoy, +although she was a girl whose reputation even at the Vanity was +whispered about, and whose private life far exceeded in _espieglerie_ +her two lines in the sextet. Notwithstanding this, it was Queenie +Molyneux whom Dorothy chose to be her companion at a supper-party given +by Lord Clarehaven soon after the beginning of the Easter holidays, +seven months after the production of "The River Girl." + +Clarehaven had reappeared without a word of warning, and in a note that +he sent round to invite Dorothy and a friend to supper he seemed quite +unconscious that there was anything in his behavior to be excused. He +hoped that she had not forgotten him, as if his silence of nearly a +year was perfectly natural; he mentioned that Lonsdale was with him, +congratulated her upon her singing in the sextet, and begged for an +answer to be sent down to the stage-door. Somehow it was not very +difficult for Dorothy to forgive him, and she accepted the invitation. +The obvious friend to have taken out with her would have been Olive +Fanshawe, because Olive was a brunette and Queenie was not. However, if +Clarehaven was capable of being even temporarily fascinated by another +girl's outward charms, Dorothy felt that she might as well give him up +at once; she did not intend her life to be spoiled by beauty +competitions. Dorothy wanted to impress Clarehaven more deeply than with +the skin-deep loveliness that belonged in her own style as much to Olive +as to herself, and in order to impress him she felt that a moral +contrast would be more effective than the hackneyed contrast between +brunette and blonde. Of course, she did not mean the kind of moral +contrast that Lily had provided on that dreadful afternoon in Oxford; +that had been merely a painful exhibition of vulgarity. Olive was so +sweet and good and well behaved that between them they might achieve the +insipid, to obviate which Dorothy chose Queenie, who would set off, if +not her complexion, at any rate her point of view. + +At the end of the evening, when Clarehaven, hesitating for a barely +perceptible moment, had said good-by to Dorothy outside Halfmoon +Mansions and stepped reproachfully back into his hansom, she decided on +her way up-stairs that the supper-party might be considered a success. +To begin with, all the other people supping at the Savoy had stared at +their table more than at any other. Then, Arthur Lonsdale had evidently +taken a fancy to Queenie Molyneux, and if Dorothy was not mistaken +Queenie had taken a fancy to him. His way of talking had been just the +foil she required for her own, and when they drove away together to +Ridgemount Mansions there was no doubt in Dorothy's mind that Lonsdale +would tell the cab not to wait and end by missing that last train at +Goodge Street. However, what happened to the cab or, for that matter, to +Lonsdale and Queenie Molyneux was of slight importance beside the fact +that Clarehaven had evidently lost nothing of his admiration for +herself, or, if he had lost it, had regained it all and more this +evening. When he and his friend compared notes to-morrow how sharply the +difference between herself and some other Vanity girls would be brought +home to him. + +Yet, successful as the supper-party had been, it remained for the time +another isolated event in the relations between herself and Clarehaven, +from whom she had not heard another word during the vacation. + +"He's frightened of you, that's what it is," said Miss Molyneux, whose +friendship with Lonsdale, begun that night, was being hotly kept up, +though she was running no risks by inviting Dorothy to be a spectator of +it. + +"Frightened of what?" + +"Oh, he thinks you're too good to be amusing and not good enough for +anything else. Arthur told me so. Not in so many words, but his lordship +found the drive home rather lonely." + +"Anything else?" repeated Dorothy. "What do you mean by anything else?" + +"Why, to marry, of course," replied her friend. + +It was strange that the first girl to express in words the thought that +was haunting the undiscovered country at the back of Dorothy's mind +should be the one girl at the Vanity to whom marriage probably meant +less than to any other. + +"But why not?" thought Dorothy, in bed that night. "He's independent. +Nobody can stop him. Countess of Clarehaven," she murmured. The title +took away her breath for a moment, and it seemed as if the very traffic +of Piccadilly paused in the presence of a solemn mystery. "Countess of +Clarehaven!" + +The omnibuses rolled on their way again, and the idea took its place in +the natural scheme of things. Queenie little thought that her scoffing +allusion to the state of affairs between Clarehaven and herself would +have such a contrary effect to what she intended. Queenie had meant to +crow over her, but she had made a slip when she had let out that +Clarehaven was frightened. It was not Clarehaven who was frightened; it +was his friend Lonsdale. No doubt, Clarehaven had not yet whispered of +marriage even to himself; no doubt he was merely thinking at present +what a much luckier chap Lonsdale was than himself. But Lonsdale was +frightened.... + +"And he has reason to be," said Dorothy, turning on the light and +picking up Debrett. + +It happened that the great man telephoned next morning to say that he +was coming to lunch that day, and after lunch Dorothy alluded lightly to +Lord Clarehaven. + +"I believe I once met his mother," said the great man. "Wasn't she a +daughter of Chatfield?" + +Dorothy nodded. + +"Yes, I remember the story now," he went on. "She had a good deal of +trouble with her husband. But he's been dead some years, eh?" + +"Eighteen ninety-six," said Dorothy. + +"Yes, I thought so. I don't know anything about the son; he sounds, from +your description, rather a young ass." + +However deeply Dorothy would have resented such a comment from any one +else, she accepted it from the great man as merited; she was even +grateful to him for it; from the instant that Clarehaven presented +himself to her vision as rather a young ass, it did not seem so +impossible that she should one day marry him. These months at the Vanity +had already considerably cheapened the peerage in Dorothy's estimation, +and intercourse with the great man had imparted to her some of his own +worldly contempt for inconspicuous young peers. Dorothy began to ponder +the likelihood of being able to elevate Clarehaven from single "young +assishness" to the dignity of the great man himself; a clever wife could +do much, a beautiful wife more. She was so serenely confident of herself +that when, a few days after this conversation, the subject of it +telegraphed from Oxford to say he should call for her the following day +to take her out to lunch, she was neither astonished nor at all unduly +elated. + +"You wouldn't mind his lunching here?" she asked Olive. "He's quite a +nice boy. Rather young, of course, after the great man; but he'll +improve." + +Olive was delighted to welcome Clarehaven, and Dorothy was glad of an +opportunity to display her independence and pleasant surroundings. She +had warned Olive not to leave her alone with their guest after lunch, +because she was anxious to avoid discouraging him too much by positively +refusing to let him make love to her, although she wished him to go away +with the impression that only luck had been against him. + +"You seem very comfortable here," he commented, suspiciously, when, on +his departure, Dorothy escorted him to the door of the flat. + +"I am very comfortable," she admitted. + +"Is it your flat or Miss Fanshawe's?" + +"Both." + +He looked round at the paneled hall and frowned. + +"I can't make you out," he confessed. + +"Isn't mystery woman's prerogative?" she asked, and then in case she had +frightened him with such a long word she let him kiss her hand before he +went away. + +Certainly for a girl who was not much over twenty Dorothy could not be +accused of clumsiness. Her admirer had gone away piqued by the richness +of her surroundings, the correctness of her demeanor, most of all by the +touch of her hand upon his lips. Yes, she might congratulate herself. + +"Rather a dear!" said Olive. + +"Yes," Dorothy agreed. "Rather--but dreadfully young. Though his title +only dates back to the eighteenth century, the baronetcy is older, and +his ancestors really did come over with the Conqueror." + +And one felt that such antiquity compensated Dorothy for some of that +youthfulness she deplored. + +During the next fortnight Clarehaven paid several visits to town, but +Dorothy was steadily unwilling to be much alone with him, and, finally, +one hot afternoon in mid-May, exasperated by her indifference and +caution, he went back to Oxford in a fit of petulance (temper would have +been too strong a word to describe his behavior, which was like a +spoiled child's) and relapsed into another spell of silence. A week or +so after this Queenie Molyneux asked Dorothy one day how long it was +since she had heard from Clarehaven, and when Dorothy countered the +awkward question by asking, rather bitterly, how long it was since she +had heard from Lonsdale, Queenie admitted that he, too, had been silent +for some time. + +"I'm afraid I'm too expensive for Lonnie," she laughed, lightly. "He's a +nice boy, but love in a cottage would never suit me, and love anywhere +else wouldn't suit him. So that's that." + +"You don't know what it is to be in love," said Dorothy. + +"Cut it out!" said Miss Molyneux. "I'd rather not learn." + +Dorothy would have liked to cut her own tongue out for playing her false +by uttering such a sentiment to a girl like Queenie. However, she had no +wish to seem a whit less hard than her rival--Dorothy was beginning to +achieve such a projection of her personality across the footlights that +Queenie really had become a rival, though Queenie might have put it the +other way round--and she consoled herself for Clarehaven's absence by +giving a great deal of attention to the new frocks that the fine +weather demanded; also in consequence of a suggestion by the great man +she began to take riding-lessons, with which she made as rapid progress +as with her dancing, to which she had already been devoting herself for +some time. + +Toward the end of the month Dorothy and Olive were criticizing the +fashions in the windows of Bond Street when somebody slapped her on the +back and, turning round with half a thought that she was being called +upon to reply to a novel method of attack by Clarehaven, she perceived +Sylvia Scarlett. It was typical of Sylvia to greet her like this on +meeting her again for the first time after a year, but the old awe of +Sylvia prevented her from expressing her dislike of such horseplay in +Bond Street, and a sudden shyness drove her into self-assertion. She +began to talk about lunching at Romano's and supping at the Savoy and of +the success she had made in "The River Girl" sextet, to all of which +Sylvia listened with a smile until she broke abruptly into her discourse +with: + +"Look here! A little less of the Queen of Sheba, if you don't mind. +Don't forget I'm one of the blokes as is glad to smell the gratings +outside a baker's." + +Dorothy did not think this remark particularly amusing; there was quite +enough genuine cockney to be endured on the stage without having to +listen to an exaggerated imitation of it in Bond Street. Olive, however, +was laughing, and Dorothy decided to take Sylvia down a peg by asking +what she was doing now. + +"Resting, Dolly, but always open to a good offer. Same old firm. Lily +and Skinner. The original firm makes boots; we mar them. The trouble is +that I can't find anything to skin; I tried Rabbit's, the rival +boot-shop, but even they wanted cash. However, Lily's quite content to +go on resting, so that's all right." + +"My dear," exclaimed Dorothy, in affected dismay, "you're not still +living with that dreadful girl?" + +"Oh, go to hell!" said Sylvia, sharply, and strode off down Bond Street. + +"What an attractive girl!" Olive exclaimed. + +Dorothy stared at her in bewilderment. + +"What do _you_ see attractive in _her_?" + +"She's just the sort of person who would amuse the great man," Olive +declared. + +"I'm sorry that I bore him so much." + +Olive seized her hand. + +"Dorothy," she murmured, reproachfully, "you know you don't bore him. He +was only saying yesterday that he wished he could ride with you in the +Row." + +"You'd better get Sylvia Scarlett to share the flat with you," went on +Dorothy. + +"How can you say things like that? You know I love you better than +anybody in the world. You know how beautiful I think you, how clever, +Dorothy; it's really unkind to suggest that any other girl could take +your place." + +"If you're so anxious to know her," Dorothy continued, "I'll write and +ask her to come and see us." + +"Dorothy, you quite misunderstand me." + +"I shouldn't like you to think I would stand in the way of your meeting +anybody you took a fancy to, man or woman." + +Olive protested again and again that Dorothy had utterly misjudged her +and that she never wished to see Sylvia Scarlett again. The argument +lasted so long and the whole question of whether or not Sylvia should be +invited to Halfmoon Mansions assumed such importance that after lunch +Dorothy wrote and invited Sylvia, and not merely Sylvia, but Lily as +well, to come and have tea with them the next day. She told herself when +she had posted the letter that she was probably committing a great folly +by introducing to her friends two people who knew so much about her, and +she asked herself in amazement what mad obstinacy had led her into such +a course of action. + +"Most girls would avoid her," she thought. "But if I avoid her, she'll +despise me; and I _do_ hate the way she can make people look idiotic." + +Dorothy was not accustomed to analyze her emotions much; she was usually +too fully occupied with the analysis of her features; but before she +went to sleep that night she had admitted to herself that she was +thoroughly frightened of Sylvia. + +In the morning a messenger-boy brought the answer. + + MULBERRY COTTAGE, + + TINDERBOX LANE, W. + + DEAR DOROTHY,--Rudeness evidently pays, and as Lily is bursting + with curiosity to see you, we'll come to tea to-morrow. I'm + tremendously impressed by your note-paper. Is the trumpet hanging + in the corner a crest or a trade-mark? I thought when I first + opened your letter that you had gone into the motor business. "_J'y + serai_" is good, but I suggest "I blow my own trumpet" would be + better, or, if you must have a French motto, you could change your + crest to a whip and put underneath "_Je fais claquer mon fouet_." + But perhaps this would suit me better than you. Lily has buried at + least half a dozen Tom Hewitts since last June, so we'll come + unaccompanied by any skeletons to your feast. Don't mind my teasing + you. I believe you wish me well. I much look forward to hearing + your Abyssinian friend singing of Mount Abora. Forgive my allusions + to literature and display of idiomatic French. They're the only + things I can set off against Romano's and the Savoy. + + Yours ever, + + SYLVIA. + + P.S.--It was decent of you to apologize for what you said about + Lily, and perhaps you were right to be a little haughty with me + after that remark of mine in the dressing-room at Oxford. I'll try + to keep a check on myself in future if you'll be as charming as you + know how to be when you choose. + +"I'm afraid," said Dorothy, when she read this letter, "that Sylvia has +grown rather affected. Poor girl, it will be good for her to meet some +nice people again." + +She did not read the postscript to Olive, but she was much relieved by +it, and she showed her relief by praising Lily's beauty and telling +Olive that in taking a fancy to Sylvia she had once more evinced her +good taste. + +"If one could only cure her of her affectations she would be a charming +companion for the great man, but as it is.... We must get some people +for this afternoon," she broke off, going to the telephone. + +Dorothy took more trouble over Sylvia's party than over anything since +she chose the decorations of the flat; difficult though it was, she +managed to collect several men whom she supposed to be intelligent, +chiefly because they had less money than her other friends. It was like +looking for gold in an alms-bag to find in their circle enough men to +whose intelligence even Dorothy could subscribe, and she asked herself +doubtfully what the great man would have thought of the result. Well, +well--Sylvia might be critical, but she had no right to be as critical +as that, and perhaps one or two of them were more intelligent than she +thought. + +Among the men invited that afternoon was Harry Tufton, who had just been +sent down from Oxford. Anxious to show himself worthy of his election to +the Bullingdon, he had let himself be driven from his wonted gravity and +discretion by some ambitious demon, and, after mixing his wine with this +fiery spirit, had painted either the dean's nose or the dean's door +red--the story varied with his listeners' credulity. Hence his arrival +in London, where he had made haste to invite Dorothy out to supper and +give her some news of his friend Lord Clarehaven. She had been engaged +that evening, and now she bethought herself of asking him to tea. It was +a daring move, but somehow she believed that Tufton would appreciate it, +and perhaps be impressed by her ability to keep friends with girls like +Sylvia and Lily. Nevertheless, it certainly was daring to invite the +very person who had seen with his own eyes of what Lily was capable; it +was also a temptation to Sylvia's tongue. + +Dorothy considered that her party was a success, and she was pleased to +observe that Sylvia was evidently struck by the intelligence of a young +Liberal journalist called Vernon Townsend. This young man, lately down +from Oxford, was delighting the select minority who read a brilliant +weekly called _The Point of View_ with his hebdomadal destructiveness as +a critic of the drama. The Aristotelian way in which he used to prove in +two thousand words winged with scorn that "The River Girl" was not so +good a play as "John Gabriel Borkmann" was a great consolation to his +readers, who were mostly unacted playwrights. After a column of +Townsend's smoke they were sure that they were in the van of progress, +riding, one might say, in the engine-driver's cab upon a mighty express +that was thundering away from mediocrity. If sometimes in the course of +their journey the coal-dust of realism made them look a little dirty, +that was a small penalty to pay for riding in front of the common herd. + +"It must be jolly to run the funicular up Parnassus," said Sylvia to +this young man. "And jolly to drink of the Pierian spring or from the +well of truth without either of them leaving a nasty taste in the +mouth." + +"Very good," he allowed, and laughed with the serious attention that +critics give to jokes. "But you must take in _The Point of View_." + +"I will. From your description it must have all the feverish brilliance +of a young consumptive. I suppose the air on the top of Parnassus is +good for this Keats of weekly reviews?" + +"That's an extremely intelligent girl," said Mr. Townsend to his +hostess. "Why haven't I ever noticed her on the stage?" + +Mr. Townsend went often to the Vanity because he was searching for +talent; he had a theory that all good actresses and all good plays were +born to blush unseen. + +"It's a good theory," said Sylvia, "and of course you'll add the +audience. One might extract a moral from the fact that they're much more +careless about turning down the lights during the performance of a play +in Paris than they are in London. Dorothy, Mr. Townsend assures me that +I ought to be a great actress." + +Dorothy smiled encouragingly and passed on to see that her guests were +well supplied with cakes. Yes, the party was going well. Sylvia was +entertaining other people and herself being entertained. Lily was +sitting languorously back in a deep chair, listening to a young +candidate for Parliament whose father had so successfully imposed a +patent medicine upon his contemporaries that there seemed no reason why +his son should not as successfully cure the body politic. Dorothy +frankly admitted Lily's beauty when Olive commented upon it. + +"She's like a lovely spray of flowers," said Olive. + +Dorothy thought that this was rather an exaggerated simile, and she +could not help adding that she hoped Lily would not fade as quickly. + +Presently Tufton came up to his hostess and begged her to do him the +honor of a little talk. + +"Everybody is very happy. Charming little party. Yes," he assured her. +"But you mustn't tire yourself. Let me get you an ice." + +Dorothy was flattered by this almost obsequious manner, and it flashed +upon her that he was trying to get in with her, not, as the girls at the +theater would have put it, "get off" like most men. + +"Your two friends from Oxford are much improved," he began. "Do you +remember our little scene after lunch? I felt for you tremendously. It's +good of you to carry your old friends along with you on the path to +success." + +"You think I'm going to be successful?" + +"You _are_ successful. In confidence, you'll be encouraged to hear that +Richards expects a lot from you. Yes, he told my father. You've not seen +Clarehaven lately?" Dorothy shook her head, and Mr. Tufton nodded +gravely; behind those solemn indications of cerebral activity two twin +souls rubbed noses. + +"Of course I haven't seen him just lately. You heard of my little joke? +It had quite a 'varsity success. Yes, I painted the dean's door. Well, +somebody had to pull the evening together, and I tossed up with +Ulster--the Duke of Ulster--you haven't run across him? No? Awful good +chap. Yes. 'Look here, Harry,' he said to me, 'something's got to be +done. Which of us two is going to paint Dickie's door vermilion?' Dickie +is the dean. 'Toss you,' said I. 'Right, said he. 'Woman,' said I, and +lost. So I got a bucket of paint and splashed it around, don't you know. +Everybody shouted, 'Jolly old Tuffers,' and the authorities handed me my +passports. But, after all, what earthly use is a degree to me?" + +Dorothy looked a wise negative and brought the conversation back to +Clarehaven. + +"I suppose you'll be seeing him again very soon now?" + +Mr. Tufton nodded. "And I can prophesy that you'll be seeing him again +very soon." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"You mustn't be cynical," he warned her. + +"Can one help it?" + +"You've no reason to be cynical. I suppose Clarehaven is almost my most +intimate friend, and I can assure you that you have no reason to be +cynical. Difficulties there have been, difficulties there will be, but +always remember that I'm your friend whatever happens." + +And most of all her friend, Dorothy thought, if she happened to become a +countess. + +After this tea-party Sylvia and Lily often came to Halfmoon Mansions; +when in July Dorothy and Olive took a cottage at Sonning they were often +invited down there for picnics on the Thames. The other girls at the +theater could not understand why it was necessary to look beyond +Maidenhead for repose and refreshment from singing in a punt every +night; and although such of them as were invited to Sonning enjoyed +themselves, they always went back to town more firmly convinced than +ever that Dolly Lonsdale was a most mysterious girl. Yet it ought not to +have been impossible to understand the pleasure of hurrying away from +the Vanity to catch the eleven forty-five at Paddington, and of +alighting from the hot train about a quarter to one of a warm summer +night to be met by a scent of honeysuckle in the station road, to see +the white flowers in their garden and the thatched roof of their cottage +against the faintly luminous sky, and, while they paused for a moment to +fumble in their bags among the powder-puffs and pocket-mirrors for the +big key of their door, to listen to the train's murmur still audible far +away in the stillness of the level country beyond. + +"I ought always to live in the country," said Dorothy, gravely. + +But in August rehearsals for "The Duke and the Dairymaid" began, and the +cottage at Sonning had to be given up. The new production at the Vanity +included a trio between the ducal tenor and two subsidiary dairymaids, +to be one of whom Dorothy was chosen by the management. She might fairly +consider that her new part was exactly three times as good as that she +had played in the sextet; moreover, her salary was doubled, and by what +could only be considered a stroke of genuine luck Queenie Molyneux, who +would certainly have been chosen for the other dairymaid, was lured away +to the rival production of "My Mistake" at the Frivolity Theater. Millie +Cunliffe, who took her place, had a finer mouth than Queenie's, which +was too large and expressive for anything except lines like those with +which she led the Pink Quartet at the Frivolity; but Millie had not such +a beautiful mouth as Dorothy, and it was not nearly so apt at singing or +speaking; her ankles, too, were not so slim and shapely as Dorothy's, +nor were they made for dancing like hers. So Dorothy enjoyed a vogue +with gods and mortals, and was now plainly visible to the naked eye in +the constellation of musical comedy. + + +IV + +The departure of Queenie Molyneux to the Frivolity had a more intimate +bearing on Dorothy's future than the mere removal of a rival of the +footlights to a safe distance: it gave her back Clarehaven. + +That Savoy supper-party last Easter had not seemed likely at the time to +lead to a situation even as much complicated as Dorothy's ambition to +marry an earl. When Arthur Lonsdale escorted Queenie home afterward, he +had probably counted upon such a climax to the entertainment; but he +must have been astonished to hear from his friend next morning that +Dorothy was not to be won lightly by a Savoy supper nor kept with the +help even of the tolerably large income that friend enjoyed. From the +moment that the immediate gratification of Clarehaven's passion was +denied him, Lonsdale must have divined a danger of the affair's turning +out serious, and he had obviously done all he could to discourage him +from frequenting Dorothy's unresponsive company; she learned, indeed, +from various sources that he was devoting his leisure to curing +Clarehaven. Then suddenly the melody of Queenie's Pink Quartet enchained +him, and he was always to be seen at the Frivolity. Long days cramming +for the Foreign Office were followed by long evenings at the Frivolity +and ... anyway, Queenie seemed to have decided she liked Lonsdale better +than wealth. But if the melody of the Pink Quartet in "My Mistake" was +an eternal joy, so, too, was the melody of the trio in "The Duke and the +Dairymaid"; henceforth Clarehaven from his stall could nightly feed his +passion for Dorothy without being subjected to the mockery and tutelage +of his former companion. What between lunches at Verrey's and suppers at +the Savoy it was not surprising that before the leaves had fallen from +the London plane-trees he should have hung a necklace of pearls round +her neck. Unfortunately, though Clarehaven showed his appreciation of +Dorothy by figuratively robbing his coronet of its pearls, he did not go +so far as to offer her the coronet itself; and when he suggested that +she should leave Halfmoon Street for an equally pleasant flat round the +corner, she was naturally very indignant and asked him what kind of a +girl he thought she was. + +"You don't care twopence about me," he said, woefully. + +"How can I let myself care about you?" she countered. "You ought to know +me well enough by this time to be sure that I would never accept such an +offer as you've just made me. I know that you can't marry me. I know +that you have your family to consider. In the circumstances, isn't it +better, my dear Tony, that we should part? I'm dreadfully sorry that our +parting should come after your proposal rather than before it. But +horribly as you've misjudged me, somehow I can't bear you any ill will, +and in token of my forgiveness I shall always wear these pearls. Pearls +for tears, they say. I'm afraid that sometimes these old sayings come +only too true." + +"Yes, but I can't get along without you," protested Clarehaven. + +She smiled sadly. + +"I'm afraid you can get along without me in every way except one, only +too easily." + +"Why did you lead me on, if you weren't in earnest?" + +"Lead you on?" + +"You asked me back to the flat. You gave me every encouragement. +Obviously somebody is paying for this flat, so why shouldn't I?" + +"Lord Clarehaven!" exclaimed Dorothy, with the stern grandeur of an +Atlantic cliff rebuffing a wave. "You have said enough." + +She rang the bell and asked Effie, the maid whose attentions she shared +with Olive, to show his lordship the door. His poor lordship left +Halfmoon Mansions in such perturbation that he forgot to slip the usual +sovereign into Effie's hand, and she cordially agreed with her mistress +when he was gone that kind hearts are indeed more than coronets. +Dorothy's simple faith in her own abilities had received such a shock +that she began to cry; but it was restored by a sudden suspicion that +she possessed a latent power for tragedy that might take her out of the +squalid world of the Vanity into the ether of the legitimate drama. She +had never suspected this inner fountain that grief had thus unsealed, +and she let her tears go trickling down her cheeks with as much pleasure +as a small boy who has found a watering-can on a secluded garden path. + +"Don't carry on so, miss," Effie begged. "Men are brutes, and that's +what all us poor women have to learn sooner or later. Don't take on +about his lordship. A fine lordship, I'm sure. Give me plain Smith, if +that's a lordship. Look at your poor eyes, miss, and don't cry any +more." + +Dorothy did look at her poor eyes, and immediately compromised with her +emotions by going out and ordering a new dress. When she came back +Olive, who had been given a heightened account of the scene by Effie, +was exquisitely sympathetic; and the great man, when he was informed of +Clarehaven's disgraceful offer, was full of good worldly advice and +consolation. + +"I think you can rely upon your powers of catalysis, Dorothy," he said. + +She did not think her failure to understand such a strange word +reflected upon her education, and asked him what it meant. + +"In unchemical English, as unchemical as your own nice light-brown hair, +_you_ won't change; but if I'm not much mistaken you'll play the very +deuce with Master Clarehaven's mental constitution." + +This was encouraging; if Dorothy's faith in her beauty and abilities +had been slightly shaken by Clarehaven's omission to marry her, the loss +was more than made up for by an added belief in her own importance and +in the beauty of her character. + +Among the men who sometimes came to the flat was a certain Leopold +Hausberg, a financier reputed to be already fabulously rich at the age +of thirty-five, but endowed with an unfortunately simian countenance by +the wicked fairy not invited to his circumcision. He possessed in +addition to his wealth the superficial geniality and humor of his race, +and was not accustomed to find that Englishwomen were better able than +any others to resist Oriental domination. Hausberg had not concealed his +partiality for Lily, and Dorothy, in her desire to accentuate her own +virtue, told Sylvia, soon after Clarehaven's proposal, that it would be +useful for Lily to have a rich friend like that. Sylvia flashed at her +some objectionable word out of Shakespeare and would not be mollified by +Dorothy's exposition of the difference between her character and Lily's, +although Dorothy took care to remind her of a remark she had once made +when they were on tour together about the inevitableness of Lily's +decline. + +Dorothy had good reason, therefore, to feel annoyed with Sylvia when she +found out presently that Sylvia was apparently working on Leopold +Hausberg to do exactly what she herself had been so rudely scolded for +suggesting. As much fuss was being made about Lily's behavior as if she +had refused the dishonorable attentions of an earl; yet with all this +ridiculous pretense Sylvia was taking care to do for Lily what she was +either too stupid or too hypocritical to do for herself. If Lily's +happiness lay in the devotion of vulgar young men, she might at least +get the money she wanted for them out of Hausberg without letting a +friend do her dirty work. When the continually cheated suitor approached +Dorothy with complaints about the way Sylvia was managing the business +she listened sympathetically to his hint that Sylvia was trying to keep +Lily from him until she had made enough money for herself, and she took +the first opportunity of being revenged upon Sylvia for the horrid +Shakespearian epithet by telling her what Hausberg had said. + +One Saturday night in November Olive and Dorothy came home immediately +after the performance to rest themselves in preparation for a long drive +in the country with the great man, who seldom had an opportunity for +motoring and had made a great point of the enjoyment he was expecting +to-morrow. They had not long finished supper when there was a furious +ringing at the bell, and Hausberg, in a state of blind anger, was +admitted to the flat by the frightened maid. + +"By God!" he shouted to Dorothy. "Come with me!" + +She naturally demurred to going out at this time of night, but Hausberg +insisted that she was deeply involved in whatever it was that had put +him in this rage, and in the end, partly from curiosity, partly from +fear, she consented to accompany him. While they were driving along, +Hausberg explained that he had at last persuaded Lily to abandon Sylvia +and accept an establishment in Lauriston Mansions, St. John's Wood. He +had furnished the flat regardless of expense, and this afternoon, when +Lily was supposed to have been moving in, he had been sent the latch-key +and bidden to present himself at midnight. + +"Very well," said Hausberg between his teeth. "Wait until you see +what.... You wait...." he became inarticulate with rage. + +They had reached Lauriston Mansions and, though it was nearly one +o'clock in the morning, a group of figures could be seen in silhouette +against the lighted entrance, among which the helmets of a couple of +policemen supplied the traditional touch of the sinister. + +"Haven't you got it out yet?" Hausberg demanded of the porter, who +replied in a humble negative. + +"What _are_ you talking about?" Dorothy asked, and then with authentic +suddenness she felt the authentic nameless dread clutching authentically +at her heart. Why, _it_ must be a dead body; grasping Hausberg's arm and +turning pale, she asked if Lily had killed herself. + +"Killed herself?" echoed Hausberg. "Not she. I'm talking about this +damned monkey that your confounded friends have left in my flat." + +The porter came forward to say that there was a gentleman present who +had a friend who he thought knew the address of one of the keepers of +the monkey-house at the Zoo, and that if Mr. Hausberg would give orders +for this gentleman to be driven in the car to his friend's address no +doubt something could be done about expelling the monkey. The gentleman +in question, a battered and crapulous cab-tout, presented himself for +inspection, and one of the policemen offered to accompany him and +impress the reported keeper with the urgency of the situation. While +everybody was waiting for the car to return, the lobby of the flat +became like the smoking-room of a great transatlantic steamer where +travelers' tales are told, such horrible speculations were indulged in +about the fierceness of the monkey. + +"So long as it ain't a yourang-gatang," said one, "we haven't got +nothing to be afraid of. But a yourang-gatang's something chronic if you +can believe all they say." + +"A griller's worse," said another. + +"Is it? Who says so?" + +"Why, any one knows there ain't nothing worse than a griller," declared +the champion of that variety. "A griller 'll bite a baby's head off the +same as any one else might look at you. A griller's worse than chronic; +it's ferocious." + +"Would it bite the head off of an yourang-gatang?" demanded the first +theorist, truculently. + +"Certainly it would; so when he's let out you'd better get behind George +here so as to hide your ugly mug." + +This caused a general laugh, and the upholder of the orang-utan seemed +inclined to back his favorite with an appeal to force, until the porter +interposed to prevent a squabble. + +"Now, what's the good in arguing if it's a griller or a yourang-gatang?" +he demanded, in a nasal whine. "All I know is it got my poor trouser leg +into a rare old yourang-atangle when I was 'oppin it out of the front +hall." + +"Is there much damage done?" Hausberg asked. + +"Damage?" repeated the porter. "Damage ain't the word. It looks as if +there'd been a young volcano turned loose in the flat." + +"But what I don't understand," Dorothy began, primly, "is why I have +been brought into this." + +Various ladies in light attire from the upper flats were beginning to +peer over into the well of the staircase, and Dorothy was wondering if +she were not being compromised by this midnight adventure. + +"Let's get the monkey out first," said Hausberg, "and then I'll tell you +why." + +After listening for another three-quarters of an hour to disputes +between the various supporters of the gorilla and the orang-utan, which +extended to a heated argument about the comparative merits of Mr. +Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain, the car came back, and the intruder, which +was announced to be a chimpanzee, was ejected by the keeper, and, after +an attempt to hand it over to the police, shut up till morning in a +boot-hole. + +The flat presented a desolate spectacle when Dorothy and Hausberg +entered it; the chimpanzee had smashed the ornaments, ripped up the +curtains, tore the paper from the walls, and wrenched off all the +lamp-brackets; he had then apparently been seized with a revulsion +against the bananas and nuts strewn about the passage for his supper and +had gnawed the porter's hat. + +"Now," said Hausberg, sternly, to the owner of the hat, who was tenderly +nursing it, "just tell this lady exactly what has happened here." + +"Well, sir, about twelve o'clock this morning a gentleman drove up to +the mansions with a crate and said he was a friend of Mr. Hausberg's and +had brought him a marble Venus for a present, and I was to put it in the +hall of the flat. I particularly remember he said a Venus, because I +thought he said a green'ouse, which surprised me for the moment, and I +asked him if he didn't, mean a portable aquarium, which is what my +wife's brother has in the window of his best parlor." + +"Go on, you fool!" Hausberg commanded. "We don't want to hear about your +wife's brother." + +"Well, I accepted delivery of this Venus and between us we got this +Venus--" + +"Don't go on rhyming like that," said Hausberg. "Tell the story properly +in plain prose." + +"Between us--I mean to say me and the lift-boy together--we deposited in +the hall this crate which had a tin lining for the chim-pansy to breathe +with according to instructions duly received. When I turned up my nose +at this Venus, which smelled very heavy, the gentleman, who didn't give +his name, explained that you was intending to use it for a hat-stand, +and told us not to wait, as he'd unpack the crate hisself. I looked at +him a bit hard, but he give me something for me and the boy between us +before we come down-stairs again, and I thought no more about it. The +gentleman drove off about ten minutes afterward with a friendly nod, and +I was just sitting down to my dinner in the domestic office on the +ground floor when the people underneath--of course you'll understand I'm +referring to the flat now--the people underneath came down and +complained that something must have happened over their heads, as the +noise was something shocking and bits of the ceiling was coming down, or +they said it would be coming down in two two's if the noise wasn't +stopped. Well, of course up I went to investigate, and when I opened the +door and seed all the wall-paper hanging in strips I thought something +funny must have occurred, and I felt a bit nervous and began swallering. +Then all of a sudding, before I knew where I was, something had me by +the trouser leg, and if I'd of been a religious man I'd of said right +out it was the devil himself; but when I seed it was a great hairy +animal I run for the front door and slammed it to behind me, it being on +the jar for a piece of luck, because if it hadn't of been on the jar my +calf was a goner." + +"Why didn't you send for me at once?" + +"Well, sir, how was I to know you hadn't put the chim-pansy there for +the purpose?" + +"Do you think I take flats for chimpanzees?" demanded Hausberg. + +"No, sir, I don't, but if you'll pardon me, there's a lot of queer +things goes on in these mansions, and I've learned not to interfere +before I'm asked to, and sometimes not then. Only last week Number +Fourteen got the D. T.'s on him and threw a sewing-machine at me when +his young lady called me up to see what could be done about quieting him +down. And now this here monkey has cost me a pair of trousers and a new +hat with the name of the mansions worked on the front which I shall have +to replace, and I only hope I sha'n't be the loser by it." + +"Get out," snarled Hausberg. + +He was in such a rage that he looked more like a large monkey than ever +while he was striding in and out of every dismantled room; and Dorothy +realized the extreme malice of the joke that had been played upon him. + +"You know who did this?" he said to her, wrathfully. + +She shook her head. + +"Do you mean to tell me you don't know that it was your friend Lord +Clarehaven?" + +"Rubbish!" said Dorothy. "Why should he shut a chimpanzee in _your_ +flat?" + +"Your friend Clarehaven," Hausberg went on, "and that little swine +Lonsdale are responsible for this; but when I tell you that they drove +down this afternoon to Brighton with Lily and that cursed friend of +hers--" + +"How do you know?" she interrupted, with some emotion. + +"You don't suppose I set a girl up in a flat without having her watched +first, do you? When I buy," said Hausberg, "I buy in the best market. +Here's the detective's report." + +He handed her a half-sheet of note-paper written in a copperplate hand +with a record of Lily's day, ending up with the information that she and +her friend Sylvia Scarlett, accompanied by the Earl of Clarehaven and +the Honorable Arthur Lonsdale, had driven down to Brighton immediately +after lunch and reached the Britannia Hotel at five o'clock, "as +confirmed per telephone." + +"Well," said Hausberg, grimly, "Lily has been paid out by losing my +protection, but, by God! I'll get even with the rest of them soon or +late." + +"You don't really think that I had anything to do with this?" asked +Dorothy. "Why, I haven't seen either Clarehaven or Lonsdale for a month! +I didn't even know that they had met Sylvia and Lily. They didn't meet +them in Halfmoon Street. Why do you drag me here at this hour of the +night?" + +Hausberg seemed convinced by her denials, and his manner changed +abruptly. + +"I'm sorry I suspected you as well. I might have known better. I see now +that we've both been made to look foolish. What can I do to show you I'm +sorry for behaving like this? We're old pals, Dorothy. I was off my head +when I came round here and they told me the trick that had been played +on me. Damn them! Damn them! I'll--But what can I do to show you I'm +sorry?" + +"You'd better invest some money for me," said Dorothy, severely. + +"How much do you want?" + +"No, no," she said. "I've got two hundred and fifty pounds that I want +to invest; only, of course, I must have a really good investment." + +"That's all right," he promised. "I'll do a bit of gambling for you." + +They had left the flat behind them and were walking slowly down-stairs +when suddenly from one of the doors on the landing immediately below a +man slipped out, paused for a moment when he heard their footsteps +descending, thought better of his timidity, hurried on down, and was out +of sight before they reached the landing. + +"Good Heavens!" Dorothy ejaculated, seizing her companion's arm. + +"I'm afraid I've made you jumpy," he said. "Poor old Dorothy, I shall +have to find a jolly good investment to make up for it." + +Hausberg was quite his old suave self again; it was Dorothy who was pale +and agitated now. + +"It was nothing," she murmured; but it was really a great deal, because +the man she had seen was Mr. Gilbert Caffyn, the secretary of the Church +of England Purity Society. + +Dorothy did not enjoy her motor drive that Sunday. It was pale-blue +November weather with the sun like a topaz hanging low in the haze above +the Surrey hills, but the knowledge that Clarehaven all this month, +perhaps even for longer, had been carrying on with Lily and Sylvia when +she had taken such care to keep them apart tormented her beyond any +capacity to enjoy the landscape or the weather. Heartless treachery, +then, was the result of being kind to old friends--and oh, what an +odious world it was! There would have to be a grand breaking of +friendships presently--yes, and a grand dissolution of family ties as +well, for, at any rate, in the midst of this miserable and humiliating +affair she had at least been granted the consolation of catching out her +father, which might be useful one day. Olive wondered, when the great +man left them after supper, why Dorothy had been so gloomy on the drive. +She had told the story of the chimpanzee so well, and the great man had +laughed more heartily over it than over anything she could remember. Why +was Dorothy so sad? Was there something she had left out? Surely on +Hausberg's mere word she was not thinking anything horrid about Sylvia's +going for a drive with Clarehaven? They had probably just driven down to +Brighton for dinner to laugh over the chimpanzee. + +"I shall see Sylvia once more," said Dorothy, "and that will be for the +last time." + +"But I'm sure you'll find Hausberg has made everything appear in the +worst light," Olive protested. "I'm sure Sylvia would never snatch a man +away from any girl." + +"I don't understand how you can go on being friends with me and yet +defend her," said Dorothy. + +Olive begged her dearest Dorothy to wait for Sylvia's explanation before +she got angry with herself, and on Monday afternoon Sylvia of her own +accord came to the flat. + +"I know everything," said Dorothy, frigidly. + +"Then for Heaven's sake tell me what Hausberg said when he opened the +door and saw the chimpanzee. Did he say, 'Are you there, Lily?' and did +the chimpanzee answer with a cocoanut?" + +"Chimpanzee," repeated Dorothy, wrathfully. "You who call yourself my +friend deliberately set out to ruin my whole life, and when I reproach +you with it you talk about chimpanzees!" + +"Don't be silly, Dorothy," Sylvia scoffed. "Hausberg wanted a lesson for +saying I was living on Lily, and with Arthur Lonsdale's help I gave him +one." + +"And what about Clarehaven?" asked Dorothy. "Did he help you?" + +"Oh, that foolish fellow wanted a lesson, too. So I took him down to +Brighton and gave him a jolly good one, though it wasn't so brutal as +Hausberg's." + +"Thanks very much," said Dorothy, sarcastically. "In future when +my--my--" + +"Your man. Say it out," Sylvia advised. + +"When a friend of mine requires a lesson I prefer to give it him +myself." + +"My dear Dorothy," exclaimed Sylvia, with a laugh, "you're not upsetting +yourself by getting any ridiculous ideas into your head about Clarehaven +and myself? I assure you that--" + +"I don't want your assurances," Dorothy interrupted. "It doesn't matter +to me what you do with Clarehaven, except that as a friend of mine I +think you might have been more loyal." + +"Don't be foolish. I'm the last person to do anything in the least +disloyal." + +"Really?" sneered Dorothy. + +"Clarehaven simply came down to Brighton to talk about you. He's +suffering from the moth and star disease. Though you won't believe me, I +was very fond of you, Dorothy dear; I am still, really," she added, with +a little movement of affection that Dorothy refused to notice. "But I do +think you're turning into a shocking little snob. That's the Vanity +_galere_. No girl there could help being a snob unless she were as +simple and sweet as Olive." + +"Perhaps you'd like to steal Olive from me, too?" Dorothy asked, +bitterly. + +"I tell you," the other answered, "it's not a question of stealing +anybody. I kept Clarehaven up all night drinking whiskies-and-sodas +while I lectured him on his behavior to you. We sat in the sitting-room. +If you want a witness, ask the waiter, who has varicose veins and didn't +forget to remind us of the fact." + +"I suppose Lonsdale and Lily were sitting up with you at this +conference? Do you think I was born yesterday? Well, I warn you that I +shall tell Queenie Molyneux what's happened." + +"If you do," said Sylvia, "I've an idea that Lonsdale will be only too +delighted. I fancy that's exactly what he wanted." + +"This is all very sordid," said Dorothy, loftily. Then she told Sylvia +that she never wished to see her again, and they parted. + +Dorothy insisted that Olive ought also to quarrel with Sylvia, but, much +to her annoyance, Olive dissented. She said that in any case the dispute +had nothing to do with her, and actually added that in her opinion +Sylvia had behaved rather well. + +"I'm sure she's speaking the truth," she said. + +Dorothy thought how false all friends were, and promised that henceforth +she would think about no one except her own much-injured self. + +"One starts with good resolutions not to be selfish," she told Olive, +"and then one is driven into it by one's friends." + +Sylvia's story seemed contradicted next day by the arrival of Clarehaven +in a most complacent mood, for when Dorothy asked how he had enjoyed his +week-end he did not seem at all taken aback and hoped that her Jew +friend had enjoyed his. + +"I wish I could make you understand just how little you mean to me," she +raged. "How dare you come here and brag about your--your-- Oh, I wish I'd +never met you." + +"If you don't care anything about me," he said, "I can't understand why +you should be annoyed at my taking Sylvia Scarlett down to Brighton. I +don't pretend to be in love with her. I'm in love with you." + +Dorothy interrupted him with a contemptuous gesture. + +"But it's true, Dorothy. I'm no good at explaining what I feel, don't +you know; but ever since that day I first saw you in St. Mary's I've +been terrifically keen on you. You drove me into taking up Sylvia. I +don't care anything about Sylvia. Why, great Scot! she bores me to +death. She talks forever until I don't know where I am. But I must do +something. I can't just mope round London like an ass. You know, you're +breaking my heart, that's what you're doing." + +"You'd better go abroad," said Dorothy. "They mend hearts very well +there." + +"If you're not jolly careful I shall go abroad." + +"Then go," she said, "but don't talk about it. I hate people who talk, +just as much as you do." + +Within a week Lord Clarehaven had equipped himself like the hero of a +late nineteenth-century novel to shoot big game in Somaliland, and on +the vigil of his departure Arthur Lonsdale came round to see Dorothy. + +"Look here. You know," he began, "I'm the cause of all this. +Hard-hearted little girls and all that who require a lesson." + +"Yes, it's evident you've been spending a good deal of time lately with +Sylvia," said Dorothy. + +"Now don't start backfiring, Doodles. I've come here as a friend of the +family and I don't want to sprain my tongue at the start. Poor old Tony +came weeping round to me and asked what was to be done about it." + +"It?" asked Dorothy, angrily. "What is _it_? The chimpanzee?" + +"No, no, no. _It_ is you and Tony. If you go on interrupting like this +you'll puncture my whole speech. When Tony skidded over that rope of +pearls and you froze him with a look, he came and asked my advice about +what to do next. So I loosened my collar like Charles Wyndham and said: +'Make her jealous, old thing. There's only one way with women, which is +to make them jealous. I'm going to make the Molyneux jealous. If you +follow my advice, you'll do the same with the Lonsdale.'" + +Dorothy nearly put her fingers in her ears to shut out any more horrible +comparisons between herself and Queenie, but she assumed, instead, a +martyred air and submitted to the gratification of her curiosity. + +"Well, just about that fatal time," Lonsdale continued, "Tony and I went +for a jolly little bump round at Covent Garden and bumped into Sylvia +and Lily _en pierrette_, as they say at my crammer's, where they're +teaching me enough French to administer the destinies of Europe for ten +years to come. Where were we? Oh yes, _en pierrette_. 'Hello, hello' I +said. 'Two jolly little girls _en pierrette_, and what about it? Well, +we had two or three more bumps round, and Tony was getting more and more +depressed about himself, and so I said, 'Why don't we go down to +Brighton and cheer ourselves up?' 'That's all right,' said Sylvia, 'if +you'll help me put a jolly old chimpanzee in a fellow's flat.' I said, +I'll put a jolly old elephant, if you like.' You see, the notion was +that when Hausberg opened the door of the flat he should say, 'Are you +there, Lily?' It was all to be very amusing and jolly." + +"And what has this to do with Clarehaven?" asked Dorothy. + +"Wait a bit. Wait a bit. I'm changing gears at this moment, and if you +interrupt I shall jam. You see, my notion was that Tony should buzz down +to Brighton with us and ... well ... there's a nasty corner here.... I +told you, didn't I, that the only way with hard-hearted little girls is +to make them jealous? And the proof of the pudding, as they say, is in +the eating, what? Anyway, no sooner did Queenie hear I'd eloped with an +amorous blonde than we made it up. Look here, the road's clear now, so +let's be serious. Tony's madly in love with you. It's no use telling me +you're a good little girl, because look round you. Where's the evidence? +I mean to say, your salary's six pounds a week. So, I repeat, where's +the evidence? You may dream that you dwell in marble halls on six pounds +a week, but you can't really do it." + +"If Lord Clarehaven has sent you here to insult me," said Dorothy, "he +might at least have had the courage to come and do it himself." + +"You're taking this very unkindly. On my word of honor I assure you, +Doodles, that Tony's trip to Brighton ended in talk. I know this, +because I heard them. In fact, I summoned the night porter and asked him +to stop the beehive next door." + +"This conversation is not merely insulting," said Dorothy, "it's very +coarse." + +"I see you're prejudiced, Doodles. Now Queenie was also prejudiced; in +fact, at one point she was so prejudiced that she jabbed me with a comb. +But I calmed her down and she gradually began to appreciate the fact +that not only is there a silver lining to every cloud, but that there is +also a cloud to most silver linings. Bored with mere luxury, she +realized that a good man's love--soft music, please--should not be +lightly thrown away; and now, to be absolutely serious for one moment, +what about commissioning me to buzz down to Devonshire and tell Tony +that there's no need for him to go chasing the okapi through equatorial +Africa?" + +"All this levity may be very amusing to you, Mr. Lonsdale, but to me it +is only painful." + +"Well, of course, if you're going to take my friendly little run round +the situation like that, there's nothing more to be said." + +"Nothing whatever," Dorothy agreed. + +Lonsdale retired with a shrug, and a day or two later Lord Clarehaven's +departure for Mombasa was duly recorded in the _Morning Post_. Dorothy's +self-importance had been so deeply wounded by the manner in which +Lonsdale had commented upon her position in the world that for some time +she could scarcely bear to meet people, and she even came near to +relinquishing the publicity of the stage, because she began to feel that +the nightly audience was sneering at her discomfiture. The gift of a +set of Russian sables from Hausberg and the news that her investments +were prospering failed to rouse her from the indifference with which she +was regarding life. All that had seemed so rich in the flat now merely +oppressed her with a sense of useless display. The continual assurances +she received that only the melodious trio had saved "The Duke and the +Dairymaid" from being something like a failure gave her no elation. Her +silks and sables were no more to her than rags; her crystal flasks of +perfumes, and those odorous bath-salts, in which the lemon and the +violet blended so exquisitely the sharp with the sweet, had lost their +savor; even her new manicure set of ivory-and-gold did not pass the +unprofitable hours so pleasantly as that old ebony set of which she had +been so proud in West Kensington, it seemed a century ago. Lonsdale by +his attitude had made her feel that the luxury of her surroundings was +not the natural expression of a personality predestined to find in rank +its fit expression, but merely the stock-in-trade of a costly doll. + +It was Tufton who provided Dorothy with a new elixir of life that was +worth all the scent in Bond Street, and a restorative that made the most +pungent toilet vinegar insipid as water. + +"I don't think you ought to take it so badly," he said. "Shooting the +rhino for the sake of a woman is better than throwing the other kind of +rhino at her head. It shows that he's pretty badly hit." + +"The rhino?" asked Dorothy, with a pale smile. + +"No, no," protested Tufton, shocked at carrying a joke too far. +"Clarehaven. Wait till he comes back. If he comes back as much in love +as he went away you'll hear nothing more about flats round the corner. +Curzon Street is also round the corner, don't forget, and my belief is +that you'll move straight in from here." + +"You're a good pal, Harry." + +"Well, I don't think my worst enemy has ever accused me of not sticking +to my friends." + +This was true; but then Mr. Tufton did not make friends lightly. Old +walls afford a better foothold to the climber than new ones. + +When Dorothy pondered these words of encouragement she cheered up; and +that night John Richards, who had watched her performance from the +stage-box, told his sleeping partner that he intended to bring her along +in the next Vanity production. + +"She gets there," he boomed. "Goo' gir'! Goo' gir'!" + + +V + +Dorothy indulged her own renewed _joie de vivre_ by investigating the +glimpse of her father's private _joie de vivre_ vouchsafed to her that +night in St. John's Wood, and without much difficulty she found out that +for the last two years he had been maintaining there a second +establishment, which at the very lowest calculation must be costing him +L400 a year. It was not remarkable that he had wanted to obtain a higher +rate of interest on his wife's capital. His daughter debated with +herself how to play this unusual hand, and she decided not to lead these +black trumps too soon, but to reserve them for the time when they might +threaten her ace of hearts and that long suit of diamonds. At present +she was not suffering the least inconvenience from her family, and since +she went to live in Halfmoon Street it had not been her habit to visit +Lonsdale Road more often than once a month. These visits, rare as winter +sunshine in England, were not much warmer: the family basked for a while +in the radiance of Dorothy's rich clothes, but they soon found that +clothes only give heat to the person who wears them, and since Dorothy +did not encourage them to follow the sun like visitors to the azure +coast, they made the best of their own fireside and avoided any risk of +taking cold by depending too much on her deceptive radiance. + +Meanwhile, Hausberg had turned Dorothy's L250 into L500 by nothing more +compromising than good advice; and by March, to celebrate her +twenty-first birthday, the L500 had become L2,000. Not even then did +Hausberg ask anything from her in return; occasionally a dim suspicion +crossed her mind that a profound cause must lie underneath this display +of good will, and she asked herself if he was patiently, very patiently, +angling for her; but when time went by without his striking, the +suspicions died away and did not recur. Moreover, her financial adviser +was engaged in dazzling Queenie Molyneux with diamonds, to the manifest +chagrin of Lonsdale, who had let the liaison between himself and Queenie +come to mean much more to him than he had ever intended that evening at +the Savoy. In the end his mistress was so much dazzled by the diamonds +that she put on rose-colored spectacles to save her eyes and, looking +through them at Hausberg, decided to accept his devotion. Lonsdale took +the theft of his love hardly; whatever chance he might have had of +entering the Foreign Office disappeared under an emotional strain that +in so round and pink a young man was nearly grotesque. This seemed to +Dorothy a suitable moment to repay evil with good, and when, shortly +afterward, she saw the disconsolate lover gloomily contemplating a +half-bottle of Pol Roger '98 on a solitary table at the Savoy she went +over to him and offered to be reconciled. + +He squeezed Dorothy's hand gratefully, sighed, and shook his head. + +"I can't keep away from the old place. Every night we used to come here +and--" The recollection was too much for him; he could do nothing but +point mutely to the half-bottle. + +"That makes you think," he said, at last. "After the dozens of bottles +we've had together, to come down to that beastly little dwarf alone." + +"And you've failed in your examination, too?" inquired Dorothy, tenderly +rubbing it in. + +"Just as well, Doodles, just as well. I should be afraid to attach +myself even to an embassy at present." + +The band struck up the music of the Pink Quartet. + +"Good God!" he exclaimed. "This is too much. Here, Carlo, Ponto, +Rover--What's your name?" + +The waiter leaned over obsequiously. + +"Here, take this fiver with my compliments to Herr Rumpelstiltzkin and +ask him to cut out that tune and give us the 'Dead March' instead." + +"Why not the 'Wedding March'?" asked Dorothy, maliciously. + +"I give you my solemn word of honor," said Lonsdale, "that if only +Queenie--well, I think I can get up this hill on the top speed--if I +were the first, I _would_ marry Queenie. You know, I'm beginning to +think Tony made rather an ass of himself, buzzing off like that to +Basutoland or wherever it is. By the way, has it ever struck you what an +anomaly--that's a good word--I got that word out of a _precis_ at my +crammer's. It's a splendid word and can be used in summer and winter +with impunity, what? Has it ever struck you what an anomaly it is that +you can get a license to shoot big game and drive a car, but that you +can't get a license to shoot Hausbergs? Well, well, if Queenie had your +past and your own future and could cut out some of the presents, by +Jove! I would marry her. I really would." + +Dorothy said to herself that she had always liked Arthur Lonsdale in +spite of everything, and when he asked her now if her friends were not +waiting for her she told him that they could wait and gratified the +forsaken one by sitting down at his table. + +"Of course, when Queenie and I parted," he went on, "she made it +absolutely clear to me that this fellow Hausberg meant nothing to her; +in fact, between ourselves, she rather gave me to understand that things +might go on as they were. But you know, hang it! I can't very well do +that sort of thing. The funny thing is that the more I refuse, the more +keen she gets. I mean to say it is ridiculous, really, because of course +she can't be very much in love with _me_. To begin with, well, she's +about twice my height, what? No, I think I shall have to go in for +motor-cars. They used to be nearly as difficult to manage as women not +so long ago, but they seem to be answering to civilization much more +rapidly. It's a pity somebody can't blow along with some invention to +improve women. Skidding all over the place, don't you know, as they do +now ... but I cannot understand why Hausberg should have fixed on +Queenie. I always thought he was after you, and I'm not sure he isn't. +Did you turn him down?" + +"He has only been helping me with some investments." + +"I never heard of a Jew helping people with their investments just for +the pleasure of helping." + +"I had money of my own to invest," Dorothy explained. "Family money." + +"Lonsdale money, in fact, eh?" laughed the heir of the house. + +"Well, if you really want to know, it is Lonsdale money. Money left in +trust for me by my grandmother, who was a Lonsdale. I know you laugh at +this, but it's perfectly true." + +"Oh no, I don't laugh at you," said Lonsdale. "I never thought you were +a joke. In fact, I asked the governor if he could trace anything about +your branch in the family history. But the trouble with him is that he's +not very interested in anything except politics. Frightfully +narrow-minded old boy. He's been abroad most of his life, poor devil. +He's out of touch with things." + +Dorothy thought that if her Lonsdale ancestry could appear sufficiently +genuine to induce the heir of the family to consult his father about it +there was not much doubt of its impressing the rest of the world. It +happened that among the party with which she was supposed to be supping +that night was a young Frenchman with some invention that was going to +revolutionize the manufacture of motor-cars. She decided to introduce +him to Lonsdale, and a month or two later she had the gratification of +hearing that Lord Cleveden had been persuaded to allow his son the +capital necessary to begin a motor business in which the Frenchman, with +his invention, was to be one of the partners, and a well-known +professional racing-motorist another. The firm expressed their gratitude +to Dorothy not only by presenting her with a car, but also by paying her +a percentage on orders that came through her discreet advertisement of +their wares. If Clarehaven came back now and asked Lonsdale what she had +been doing since he left England, surely he would no longer try to damn +the course of their true love. + +Just after Dorothy and Olive had left town for their holiday in July the +great man died suddenly, and, naturally, Olive was very much upset by +the shock. + +"Never mind," said Dorothy. "Luckily I've made some money, so we needn't +leave the flat." + +"I wasn't thinking of that point of view," Olive sobbed. "I was thinking +how good he'd always been to me and how much I shall miss him." + +"Well, now you can tell me who he was," Dorothy suggested, consolingly. + +"No, darling, oh no; this is the very time of all others when I wouldn't +have anybody know who he was." + +Dorothy, however, searched the papers, and she soon came to the +conclusion that the great man was none other than the Duke of Ayr. Such +a discovery thrilled her with the majesty of her retrospect, and she +fancied that even Clarehaven would be a little impressed if he knew who +Olive's friend was: + +John Charles Chisholm-Urquhart, K.T., 9th and last Duke of Ayr; also +Marquess and Earl of Ayr, Marquess and Earl of Dumbarton, Earl of +Kilmaurs and Kilwinning, Viscount Dalry and Dalgarven, Viscount of +Brackenbrae, Lord Urquhart, Inverew, and Troon, Baron Chisholm, Earl +Chisholm, Baron Hurst, Baron Urquhart of Coylton, Lord Urquhart of +Dumbarton, and Baron Dalgarven. + +The last Duke of Ayr! Nobody in the world to inherit one of all those +splendid titles! Not even a duchess to survive him! + +The press commented just as ruefully as Dorothy upon the extinction of +another noble house. Dukes and dodos, great families and great auks, one +felt that they would soon all be extinct together. + +"It's a great responsibility to marry a peer," Dorothy thought. + +She gently and tactfully let Olive know that she had found out the +identity of the great man, and they went together to stand for a minute +or two outside Ayr House, where the hatchment, crape-hung, was all that +was left of so much grandeur and of such high dignities and honors. Nor +did Dorothy allude to the duke's omission to provide for Olive in his +will, though, being a bachelor without an heir, he might easily have +done so. No doubt death had found him unprepared; but the funeral must +have been wonderful, with the pipers sounding "The Lament" for Chisholm +when the coffin was lowered into the grave. + +"I'm very glad they're closing 'The Duke and the Dairymaid' this week," +said Dorothy. "I should hate to see that title now on every 'bus and +every hoarding." + +The Vanity's last production had not been such a success as either of +its two predecessors, and many people about town began to say that if +John Richards was not careful the Frivolity was going to cut out the +Vanity. Therefore in the autumn of 1905 a tremendous effort was made to +eclipse all previous productions with "The Beauty Shop." Early in August +John Richards sent for Dorothy, gave her a song to study, and told her +to come again in a week's time to let him hear what she made of it. To +print baldly the words of this great song without the melody, without +the six beauties supporting it from the background, without the +entranced scene-shifters and the bewitched audience, without even a +barrel-organ to recall it, is something like sacrilege, but here is one +verse: + + When your head is in a whirl. + And your hair won't curl, + And you feel such a very, very ill-used girl. + _Chorus._ Little girl! + + Then that is the time-- + _Chorus._ Every time! Every time! + + To visit a Bond Street Beauty Shop. + _Chorus._ To visit our Bond Street Beauty Shop. + + And when you come out, + And you're seen about + In the places you formerly frequented-- + _Chorus._ On the arm of her late-lamented. + + Why every one will cry, + Oh dear, oh lord, oh my! + There's Dolly with her collie! + All scented and contented! + _Chorus._ She's forgotten the late-lamented. + + For Dolly's out and about again, + She doesn't give a damn for a shower of rain. + Here's Dolly with her collie! + And London! _Chorus._ Dear old London! + London is itself again! + +"Goo' gir' said Mr. Richards when Dorothy had finished and the dust in +his little office in the cupola of the Vanity had subsided. "Goo' gir'. +I thi' you'll ma' a 'ice 'ihel hit in that song." + +The impresario was right: Dorothy did make a resounding hit; and a more +welcome token of it than her picture among the letterpress and +advertisements of every illustrated paper, the dedication of a new +face-cream, and the christening of a brand of cigarettes in her honor, +was the reappearance of Clarehaven with character and complexion much +matured by the sun of Africa, so ripe, indeed, that he was ready to fall +at her feet. She received him gently and kindly, but without +encouragement; he was given to understand that his treatment had driven +her to take refuge in art, the result of which he had just been +witnessing from the front of the house. Besides, she told him, now that +Olive's friend was dead, she must stay and look after her. People had +misjudged Olive and herself so much in the past that she did not intend +to let them misjudge her in future. She was making money at the Vanity +now, and she begged Lord Clarehaven, if he had ever felt any affection +for her, to go away again and shoot more wild animals. Cupid himself +would have had to use dum-dum darts to make any impression on Dorothy in +her present mood. + +Such nobility of bearing, such wounded beauty, such weary grace, could +only have one effect on a man who had spent so many months among hippos +and black women, and without hesitation Clarehaven proposed marriage. +Dorothy's heart leaped within her; but she preserved a calm exterior, +and a sad smile expressed her disbelief in his seriousness. He +protested; almost he declaimed. She merely shook her head, and the +desperate suitor hurried down to Devonshire in order to convince his +mother that he must marry Dorothy at once, and that she must +demonstrate, either by visit or by letter, what a welcome his bride +would receive from the family. Clarehaven lacked eloquence, and the +dowager was appalled. Lonsdale was telegraphed for, and presently he +came up to town to act as her emissary to beg Dorothy to refuse her son. + +"It'll kill the poor lady," he prophesied. "I know you're not wildly +keen on Tony, so let him go, there's a dear girl." + +"I never had the slightest intention of doing anything else. You don't +suppose that just when I've made my first success I'm going to throw +myself away on marriage. You ought to know me better, Lonnie." + +Lonsdale was frankly astonished at Dorothy's attitude; but he was glad +to be excused from having to argue with her about the unsuitableness of +the match, because he did sincerely admire her, and, moreover, had some +reason to be grateful for her practical sympathy at the time of his +break with Queenie Molyneux. He went away from Halfmoon Street with +reassurances for the countess. + +It was at this momentous stage in Dorothy's career that Mr. Caffyn, awed +by the evidence of his daughter's fame he beheld on every side, chose to +call for her one evening at the stage-door with a box of chocolates, in +which was inclosed a short note of congratulation and an affectionately +worded request that she would pay the visit to her family that was now +long overdue. Dorothy pondered for a minute her line of action before +sending down word that she would soon be dressed and that the gentleman +was to wait in her car. When she came out of the theater and told the +chauffeur to drive her to West Kensington, Mr. Caffyn expressed his +pleasure at her quick response to his appeal. They drove along, talking +of matters trivial enough, until in the silence of the suburban night +the car stopped before 17 Lonsdale Road. + +"Good-by," said Dorothy. + +"You'll come in for a bit?" asked her father, in surprise. + +"Oh no; you'll be wanting to get to bed," she said. + +"Well, it's very kind of you to drive me back," Mr. Caffyn told her, +humbly. "Very kind indeed. You'll be interested to know that this is a +much nicer motor than the Bishop of Chelsea's. He was kind enough to +drive me back from the congress of Melanesian Missions the other day, +and so I'm acquainted with his motor." + +"He didn't drive you to Lauriston Mansions, did he?" Dorothy asked. + +The sensitive springs of the car quivered for a moment in response to +Mr. Caffyn's jump. + +"What do you mean?" he stammered. + +"Oh, I know all about it," his daughter began, with cold severity. "It's +all very sordid, and I don't intend to go into details; but I want you +quite clearly to understand once and for all that communication between +you and me must henceforth cease until I wish to reopen it. It's +extremely possible, in fact it's probable, in fact I may say it's +certain that I'm shortly going to marry the Earl of Clarehaven, and +inasmuch as one of the charms of my present position is the fact that I +have no family, I want you all quite clearly to understand that after my +marriage any recognition will have to come from me first." + +Mr. Caffyn was too much crushed at being found out in his folly and +hypocrisy to plead his own case, but he ventured to put in a word for +his wife's feelings and begged Dorothy not to be too hard on her. + +"You're the last person who has any right to talk about my mother. Come +along, jump out, father. I must be getting back. I've a busy day +to-morrow, with two performances." + +The sound of Mr. Caffyn's pecking with his latch-key at the lock was +drowned in the noise of the car's backing out of Lonsdale Road. Dorothy +laughed lightly to herself when she compared this interview with the one +she had had not so many months ago about the L500, which, by the way, +she must send back to her mother if Hausberg advised her to sell out +those shares. No doubt, such a sum would be most useful to her father +with his numerous responsibilities. + +"And now," she murmured to herself, "I see no reason why I shouldn't +meet Tony's mother." + + +VI + +Dorothy had not been entirely insincere with Lonsdale in comparing +marriage with success to the detriment of marriage. Success is a +wonderful experience for the young, in spite of the way those who obtain +it too late condemn it as a delusion; few girls of twenty-one, +luxuriously independent and universally flattered, within two years of +going on the stage would have seen marriage even with an earl in quite +such wonderful colors as formerly. Fame may have its degrees; but when +Dorothy, traveling in her car, heard errand-boys upon the pavement +whistling "Dolly and her Collie" she had at least as much right to feel +proud of herself as some wretched novelist traveling by tube who sees a +young woman reading a sixpenny edition of one of his works, or a mother +whose dribbling baby is prodded by a lean spinster in a tram, or a hen +who lays a perfectly ordinary egg and makes as much fuss over it as if +it were oblong. + +It was certain that if Dorothy chose she could have one of the two +principal parts in the next Vanity production and be earning in another +couple of years at least L60 a week. There was no reason why she should +remain in musical comedy; there was no reason why she should not take to +serious comedy with atmosphere and surreptitious curtains at the close +of indefinite acts; there was no reason why some great dramatist should +not fall in love with her and invert the usual method of sexual +procedure by laying upon her desk the offspring of their spiritual +union. The possibilities of the future in every direction were +boundless. + +At the same time even as a countess her starry beams would not +necessarily be obscured. As Countess of Clarehaven she might have as +many pictures of herself in the illustrated papers as now; she could not +give her name to face-creams, but she might give it to girls' clubs: one +countess had even founded a religious sect, and another countess had ... +but when one examined the history of countesses there was as much +variety as in the history of actresses. And yet as a Vanity countess +would it not be most distinguished of all not to appear in the +illustrated papers, not to found sects and dress extravagantly at +Goodwood? Would it not be more distinguished to live quietly down in +Devonshire and make no more startling public appearances than by +sometimes opening a bazaar or judging a collection of vegetables? Would +it not be more distinguished to be the mother of young Lord Clare and +Lady Dorothy Clare, and Lady Cynthia Clare, and the Honorable Arthur +Clare.... Dorothy paused; she was thinking how improper it was that the +younger sons of an earl should be accorded no greater courtesy than +those of a viscount or a baron, when his daughters were entitled to as +much as the daughters of a duke or a marquess. And after all, why +shouldn't Tony be created a marquess? That was another career for a +countess she had omitted to consider--the political hostess, the +inspiration and amanuensis of her husband's speeches to the House of +Lords. Some infant now squalling in his perambulator would write his +reminiscences of a great lady's _salon_ in the early years of the +twentieth century, when the famous Dorothy Lonsdale stepped out of the +public eye, but kept her hold upon the public pulse as the wise and +beautiful Marchioness of Clarehaven. The second Marquess of Clarehaven, +she dreamed; and beneath this heading in a future Debrett she read +below, "Wife Living of the First Marquess. Dorothy (Marchioness of +Clarehaven)"; if Arthur Lonsdale married well, that marchioness might +not object to one of her younger daughters marrying his eldest son. +Dorothy started. How should she herself be recorded in Debrett? +"Dorothy, daughter of Gilbert Caffyn"? Even that would involve a mild +falsification of her birth certificate, and if her sister Dorothy +married that budding young solicitor from Norbiton they might take +action against her. She hurriedly looked up in Debrett and _Who's Who_ +all the other actresses who had married into the peerage. In Debrett +their original names in their stark and brutal ugliness were immortally +inscribed; but in _Who's Who_ their stage names were usually added +between brackets. "The Earl of Clarehaven, _m._ 1905 Norah _d._ of G. +Caffyn (known on the stage as Dorothy Lonsdale)." Ugh! At least she +would not advertise the obvious horror of her own name so blatantly. She +would not be more conspicuous than "Norah (Dorothy) _d._ of G. Caffyn." +But how the girls at the theater would laugh! The girls at the theater? +Why should the girls at the theater be allowed any opportunity of +laughter--at any rate in her hearing? No, if she decided to accept Tony +she should obliterate the theater. There should be no parade about her +marriage; she would be married simply, quietly, and ruthlessly. + +At the Vanity, Dorothy and her collie were a ravishing success; but she +was a better actress off the stage than she was on, and she had soon +persuaded herself that she really was still uncertain whether to accept +Clarehaven's hand or not. The minor perplexities of stage name and real +name, of town and country life, of publicity and privacy as a countess, +magnified themselves into serious doubts about the prudence of marrying +at all, and by the month of December Clarehaven was nearly distracted by +her continuous refusals of him. The greater favorite she became with the +public the more he desired her; and she would have found it hard to +invent any condition, however flagrantly harsh, that would have deterred +him from the match. Tufton almost went down on his knees to implore her +to marry the lovesick young earl, his greatest friend; and even Lonsdale +talked to Dorothy about her cruelty, and from having been equipped a +month ago with invincible arguments against the match, now told her that +in spite of everything, he thought she really ought to make the poor lad +happy. + +"He's as pale as a fellow I bumped in the back last Thursday, cutting +round Woburn Square on the wrong side," he declared. + +"No, he's not so sunburnt as he was," Dorothy agreed. + +"Sunburnt? He's moonburnt--half-moonburnt--starburnt! But sunburnt! My +dear Doodles, you're indulging in irony. That's what you're doing." + +"I don't see why I should marry him when his mother hasn't even written +me a letter. I don't want his family to feel that he's disgracing them +by marrying me. If Lady Clarehaven will tell me with her own lips that +she'll be proud for her son to marry me, why, then I'll think about it." + +"No, really, dash it, my dear girl," Lonsdale expostulated. "You're +being unreasonable. You're worse than a Surrey magistrate. Let the old +lady alone until you're married and she has to make the best of a bad +bargain." + +"Thanks very much," Dorothy said. "That's precisely the attitude I wish +to guard myself against." + +Lonsdale's failure to soften Dorothy's heart made Clarehaven hopeless; +he reached Devonshire to spend Christmas with his family in a mood so +desperate that his mother began to be nervous. The head-keeper at Clare +Court spoke with alarm of the way his lordship held his gun while +getting over stiles. + +"Maybe, my lady, that after lions our pheasants seem a bit tame to his +lordship, though I disremember as I ever saw them wilder than what they +be this year--but if you'll forgive the liberty, my lady, a gun do be as +dangerous in Devonshire as in Africa, and 'tis my belief that his +lordship has summat on his mind, as they say." + +A shooting accident upon a neighboring estate the very day after this +warning from the keeper determined Lady Clarehaven to put her pride in +her pocket and write to Dorothy. + + CLARE COURT, DEVON, + + _January 2, 1906_. + + DEAR MISS LONSDALE,--I fear you must have thought me most remiss in + not writing to you before, but you will, perhaps, understand that + down here in the country the notion of marrying an actress presents + itself as a somewhat alarming contingency, and I was anxious to + assure myself that my son's future happiness was so completely + bound up in such a match that any further opposition on my part + would be useless and unkind. Our friend Arthur Lonsdale spoke so + highly of you and of the dignity of your attitude that I was much + touched, and I must ask you to forgive my lack of generosity in not + writing before to tell you how deeply I appreciated your refusal to + marry my son. I understand now that his departure from England a + year ago was due to this very cause, and I can only bow before the + strength of such an affection and withdraw my opposition to the + marriage. I am assuming, perhaps unjustifiably, that you love Tony + as much as he loves you. Of course, if this is not so, it would be + an impertinence on my part to interfere in your private affairs, + and if you write and tell me that you cannot love Tony I must do my + best as a mother to console him. But if you do love him, as I can't + help feeling that you must, and if you will write to me and say + that no barrier exists between you and him except the old-fashioned + prejudice against what would no doubt be merely superficially an + ill-assorted union, I shall welcome you as my daughter-in-law and + pray for your happiness. I must, indeed, admit to being grievously + worried about Tony. He has not even bothered to keep up the + shooting-book, and such extraordinary indifference fills me with + alarm. + + Yours sincerely, + + AUGUSTA CLAREHAVEN. + +Dorothy debated many things before she answered this letter; but she +debated longest of all the question of whether she should write back on +crested note-paper or simple note-paper. Finally she chose the latter. + + 7 HALFMOON MANSIONS, + + HALFMOON STREET, W + + _January 6, 1906._ + + DEAR LADY CLAREHAVEN,--Your letter came as a great joy to me. I + don't think I have ever pretended that I did not love Tony with all + my heart, and it was just because I did love him so much that I + would not marry him without his mother's consent. + + My own Puritan family disowned me when I went on the stage, and I + said to myself then that I would never again do anything to bring + unhappiness into a family. I should prefer that if I marry Tony the + wedding should be strictly quiet. I cannot bear the way the papers + advertise such sacred things nowadays. Having had no communication + with my own family for more than two years, I do not want to reopen + the painful memories of our quarrel. My only ambition is to lead a + quiet, uneventful life in the depths of the country, and I hope you + will do all you can to persuade Tony to remain in Devonshire. You + will not think me rude if I do make one condition beforehand. I + will marry him if you will promise to remain at Clare Court and + help me through the difficult first years of my new position. + Please write and let me have your promise to do this. You don't + know how much it would help me to think that you and his sisters + will be at my side. Perhaps you will think that I am assuming too + much in asking this. I need not say that if you find me personally + unsympathetic I shall not bear any resentment, and in that case + Tony and I can always live in Curzon Street. But I do so deeply + pray that you will like me and that his sisters will like me. Your + letter has given me much joy, and I only wait for your answer to + leave the stage (which I hate) forever. + + Yours sincerely, + + DOROTHY LONSDALE. + + The dowager was won. By return of post she wrote: + + MY DEAR DOROTHY,--Thank you extremely for your very nice letter. + Please do exactly as you think best about the details of your + wedding. You will receive a warm welcome from us all. + + Yours affectionately, + + AUGUSTA CLAREHAVEN. + +During these negotiations Olive had been away at Brighton getting over +influenza, and Dorothy decided to join her down there and be married out +of town to avoid public curiosity. She had telegraphed to Clarehaven to +leave Devonshire, and Mr. Tufton was enraptured by being called in to +help with advice about the special license. + +"My dear Dorothy," he assured her, enthusiastically, "you deserve the +best--the very best." + +"I don't want any one at the Vanity to know what's going to happen." + +Tufton waved his hands to emphasize how right she was. + +"It'll be a terrible blow to the public," he said, "and also to John +Richards. You were his favorite, you know. Yes. And think of the +beautiful women he has known! But you're right, you mustn't consider +anybody except yourself." + +"It's rather difficult for me to do that," Dorothy sighed. + +"I know. I know. But you must do it. Clarehaven and I will come down +with the license, and then ... my dear Dorothy, I really can't tell you +how pleased I am. Do, do beg the dowager not to change that pergola. But +I shall be down, I hope, some time in the spring." + +"Of course." + +"And what about Olive?" he asked. + +"Poor Olive," she sighed. "And only last week she lost dear little San +Toy. Yes, she'll miss me, I'm afraid, but she'll be glad I'm going to be +so happy." + +"All your friends will be glad." + +"And now, Harry, please get me a really nice hansom, because I must +simply tear round hard for frocks and frills." + +Dorothy spent most of the money that Hausberg had made for her on old +pieces of family jewelry; she also ordered numerous country tweeds; of +frills she had enough. + +A few days later Clarehaven, accompanied by Tufton and the special +license, reached Brighton, where he and Dorothy were quietly married in +the Church of the Ascension. Lady Clarehaven thought, when she drove +back to the rooms to break the news to Olive, how few of the passers-by +would think that she had just been married. She commented upon this to +Tony, who replied with a laugh that Brighton was the last place in +England where passers-by stopped to inquire if people were married. + +"Tony," she said, with a pout, "I don't like that sort of joke, you +know." + +"Sorry, Doodles." + +"And don't call me Doodles any more. Call me Dorothy." + +Olive was, of course, tremendously surprised by her friend's +announcement; but she tried not to show how much hurt she was by not +having been taken into her confidence beforehand. + +"I wanted it to be a complete secret," Dorothy explained. "And I didn't +want all the papers in London to write a lot of rubbish about me." + +"Darling, you can count on me as a pal to help you all I know. You've +only got to tell me what you want." + +Dorothy pulled herself together to do something of which she was rather +ashamed, but for which she could perceive no alternative. + +"Olive, I hate having to say what I'm going to say, and you must try to +understand my point of view. I never intend to go near the stage-door of +a theater again. I don't want to know any of my friends on the stage any +more. If you want to help me, the best way you can help me is not to see +me any more." + +Clarehaven came into the room at this moment, and Dorothy rose to make +her farewells. + +"Good-by, Olive," she said. "We're going down to Clare Court to-morrow, +and I don't expect we shall see each other again for a long time." + +"I say," Clarehaven protested. "What rot, you know! Of course you'll +meet again. Why, Olive must come down and recover from her next illness +in Devonshire. We shall be pining for news of town by the spring, and--" + +Lady Clarehaven looked at her husband, who was silent. + +"Have you wired to your mother when we arrive to-morrow?" she asked. + +"You're sure you won't drive down?" + +"In January?" Dorothy exclaimed. + +"Well, I've told the car to meet us at Exeter. That will only mean a +seventy-mile drive--you won't mind that--and we'll get to Clare before +dark." + +"Forgive these family discussions in front of you," said Dorothy to her +friend. Then shaking her hand formally, she went out of the room. + +During the drive up to town, while Clarehaven was sitting back playing +with his wife's wrist and looking fatuously content, he turned to her +once and said: + +"Dorothy, you _were_ rather brutal with poor old Olive." + +She withdrew her hand from his grasp, and not until he ceased condoling +with Olive did she let him pick it up again. + +"And oh dear, oh lord, oh my!" he exclaimed, "we must have the jolly old +collie down at Clare." + +"The collie?" she repeated. "What collie?" + +"Your collie." He began to whistle the bewitching tune. + +"Please don't. One hears it everywhere," she said, fretfully. "Olive +will look after the dog. She's just lost her Pekinese." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +I + +About the time that the fifth Earl of Clarehaven upset the lares and +penates of his house by marrying a Vanity girl the people of Great +Britain, having baited with red rags the golden calf of Victorianism +until the poor beast had leaped from its pedestal and disappeared in the +flowing tide, were now accepting from a lamasery of Liberal reformers +the idol of silver speech, forgetting either that silver tarnishes more +quickly than gold or that new brooms sweep clean, but soon wear out. +However, the new era lasted for quite a month, and long enough for the +Dowager Countess of Clarehaven to reach the conclusion that her son's +marriage was a sign of the times. Poets extract consolation for their +private woes and joys from observing that nature sympathizes with them. +When they are fain to weep, the skies weep with them; April's weather +follows the caprice of the girl next door; even great Ocean laughs when +his little friend the rhymester gets two guineas for a sonnet. What is +permitted to a poet will not be denied to a countess, and if the dowager +considered her chagrin to be a feather in the mighty wing of +revolution--to the widows of Conservative peers down in Devonshire the +return of the Liberal party in 1906 seemed nothing less than +revolution--she should not, therefore, be accused of exaggeration. + +When in 1880 Lady Augusta Fanhope married the fourth Earl of Clarehaven +she brought neither beauty nor wealth to that dissolute and extravagant +man of thirty-five, who as a subaltern in the Blues had earned a kind +of fame by the size of his debts and by the length of his whiskers. Soon +after he succeeded to the title fashion made him cut short the whiskers; +but his debts increased yearly, and if he had not died during his son's +minority there would have been little left for that son to inherit. +Nobody understood why he married Lady Augusta, herself least of all. +Even when he was still alive she had taken refuge in the Anglican +religion; when he died she presented a memorial window by Burne-Jones to +Little Cherrington church. By now, when he had been dead ten years and +his son was bringing an actress to rule over Clare Court, the dowager +had come to regard her late husband as a saint. Fashion had trimmed his +whiskers; time had softened his memory; the stained-glass window had +done the rest. + +"I'm glad your father never lived to see these dreadful Radicals +sweeping the country," she said to her daughters on this January day +that before it faded into darkness would bring such changes to Clare. +What the dowager really meant to express was her relief that the last +earl was not alive to meet his daughter-in-law; he ought not to have +been easily shocked, but marriage with an actress would certainly have +shocked him greatly, and his language when shocked was bad. The effect +of Dorothy's letter had already worn a little thin; the dowager's +pre-figuration of her approximated more closely every moment to an old +standing opinion of actresses she had formed from a large collection of +letters and photographs left behind by her husband, which she had lacked +the courage to burn unread. Her daughters Arabella and Constantia argued +that this Dorothy must be a "top-holer" to make their brother so +desperate. Last month he had taken them for several long walks and waxed +so eloquent over her beauty and charm and virtue that they had accepted +his point of view; with less to lose than their mother and unaware of +their father's weakness, they saw no reason why an actress should not +make Tony as good a wife as anybody. + +"But love is blind," said the dowager. None knew the truth of this +better than she. "And in any case, dear children, beauty is only +skin-deep." + +"Luckily for us, mother," said Arabella. + +"I think you exaggerate your plainness," the dowager observed. "You do +not make the least attempt to bring out your good features. You, dearest +Bella, have very nice ankles; but if you wear shoes like that and never +pull up your stockings their slimness escapes the eye. And you, Connie, +have really beautiful ears; but when you jam your cap down on your head +like that you cause them to protrude in a way that cannot be considered +becoming." + +The girls laughed; they were too much interested in country life to +bother about their appearance. Boots were made to keep out moisture and +get a good grip of muddy slopes: caps were meant to stay on one's head, +not to show off one's ears. Besides, they were ugly; they had decided as +much when they were still children, and, now that they were twenty-one +and nineteen, would be foolish to begin repining. Arabella's ankles +might be slim, but her teeth were large and prominent; her eyes were +pale as the wintry sky above them; her hands were knotted and raw; her +nose stuck to her face like a piece of mud thrown at a fence; her hair +resembled seaweed. As for Constantia, her nose was much too large; so +was her tongue; so were her hands; her eyes were globular, like marbles +of brown agate; everything protruded; she was like a person who has been +struck on the back of the head in a crowd. + +"The question is," said Arabella, "are we to drive over to Exeter to +meet them? Because if we are I must tell Crowdy to see about putting us +up some sandwiches." + +"Well, unless you're very eager to go," the dowager pleaded, "I should +appreciate your company. Were I left quite alone, I might get a +headache, and I am so anxious to appear cheerful. I think we ought to +assume that Dorothy will be as nervous as we are. I think it would be +kind to assume that." + +"I vote for letting Deacock take the car by himself," Constantia +declared. "I always feel awkward at meeting even old friends at a +station, and it'll be so awfully hard to talk with the wind humming in +my ears." + +When the noise of the car had died away among the knolls and hollows of +the great park the dowager turned to her daughters: + +"It's such a fine day for the season of the year that perhaps I might +take a little drive in the chaise." + +It was indeed a fine day of silver and faint celeste, such a one as in +January only the West Country can give. The leafless woods and isolated +clumps of trees breathed a dusky purple bloom like fruit; the grass was +peacock green. The dowager, moved by the brilliance of the landscape and +the weather to a complete apprehension of the fact that she was no +longer mistress of Clare, had been seized with a desire to take a last +sentimental survey of her dominion. Although her daughters had made +other plans for the morning, they willingly put them aside to encourage +such unwonted energy. While the pony was being harnessed, the dowager +took Arabella's arm and walked up and down the pergola that ran like a +battlement along a spur of the gardens and was the most conspicuous +object to those approaching Clare Court through the park. + +"It's too late to change it before Dorothy comes," she decided, +mournfully. "But I do hope that there will be no more taking of Mr. +Tufton's advice. I'm sure that curved seat he persuaded me to put at the +end was a mistake. People deposit seats in gardens without thinking. +Nobody will ever sit there. It simply means that one will always have to +walk round it. So unnecessary! I do hope that Dorothy will give orders +to remove it." + +"Connie," Arabella exclaimed, with a joyful gurgle, "don't you love the +way mother practises the idea of Dorothy? She used to be just the same +when we were expecting a new governess." + +Her sister, who was munching an apple, nodded her agreement without +speaking. + +The dowager was about to propose a descent by the terraces to visit her +water-lily pool (which would have involved a tiresome climb up again for +nothing, because the rose-hearted water-lilies of summer were nothing +now but blobs of decayed vegetation) when the wheels of the chaise +crackled on the drive and the girls insisted that if she were going to +have enough time for an expedition before lunch she must start at once. + +Clare Court viewed from the southeast appeared as a long, low house of +gray stone with no particular indication of its age for the +unprofessional observer, to whom, indeed, the chief feature might have +seemed the four magnolias that covered it with their large glossy +leaves, the rufous undersides of which, mingling with the stone, gave it +a warmth of color that otherwise it would have lacked. The house was +built on a moderate elevation, the levels of which were spacious enough +to allow for ornamental gardens on the south side of the drive; these +had been laid out in the Anglo-Italian manner with pergolas and +statuary, yews instead of cypresses, and box-bordered terraces leading +gradually down to the ornamental pool overhung on the far side by +weeping willows. The kitchens and servants' quarters on either side of +the house were masked by shrubberies and groves of tall pines, in the +ulterior gloom of which the drive disappeared on the way to the stables +and the home farm. + +The dowager got into the chaise, and the pony, a dapple gray of some +antiquity, proceeded at a pace that did not make it difficult for the +two girls, who by now had summoned to heel half a dozen dogs of various +breeds, to keep up with it on foot. + +"Shall we turn aside and look at the farm?" Constantia suggested, where +the road forked. + +"No, I think I'd like to drive down to the sea first of all," said the +dowager. + +"Bravo, mother!" both her daughters applauded. + +The dogs, understanding from their mistresses' accents that some +delightful project was in the air, began to bark loudly while they +scampered through the scraggy rhododendrons and put up shrilling +blackbirds with as much gusto as if they were partridges. The drive kept +in the shadow of the pines for about two hundred yards, until where the +trees began to grow smaller and sparser it emerged upon a spacious sward +that between bare uplands went rolling down to the sea a mile away. To +one looking back Clare Court now appeared under a strangely altered +aspect as a gray pile rising starkly from a wide lawn and unmellowed by +anything except the salt northwest wind; even the dowager and her +daughters, who had lived in it all these years, could never repress an +exclamation of wonder each time they emerged from the dim pinewood and +beheld it thus. On the other side of the house there had been sunlight +and a rich prospect of parkland losing itself in trees and a carefully +cultivated seclusion. Here was nothing except a line of gray-green downs +undulating against space, in a dip of which was the shimmer of fusing +sky and sea. Except at midsummer the pines were tall enough to cut off +the low westering sun from the house, and on this January day from where +they were standing in pale sunlight the gray pile seemed frozen. The +sense of desolation was increased by a walled-up door in the center of +the house, above which angelic supporters sustained the full moon of +Clare on a stone escutcheon. The first baronet had failed to establish +his right to the three chevronels originally borne by that great family +and had been granted arms that accorded better with the rococo taste of +his period. + +"I've always wanted to plant a hedge of those hydrangeas with black +stalks in front of the pines," said the dowager, pensively, "but unless +they come blue they wouldn't look nice, and perhaps they wouldn't be +able to stand the wind on this side. But the effect would be lovely in +summer. Blue sky! Blue sea! Blue hydrangeas! Dark pine-trees and vivid +grass! It really would be a wonderful effect. Of course, it may be that +Tony's wife will be quite interested in flowers. One never can tell. +Come along, Clement." Clement was the pony, so-called because he was +such a saint. + +The drive now skirted the edge of the downs in a gradual descent to +Clarehaven, a small cove formed by green headlands as if earth had +thrust out a pair of fists to scoop up some of the sea for herself. The +ruins of two round towers were visible on both headlands; on the slopes +of the westernmost stood a little church surrounded by tumble-down +tombstones that, even as the bodies of those whom they recorded had +become part of the earth on which they lived, were themselves growing +yearly less distinguishable from the outcrops of stone that no mortal +had set upon these cliffs. Two cottages marked the end of the drive, +which lost itself beyond them in a rocky beach that was strewn with +fragments of ancient masonry. At sight of the chaise several children +had bolted into the cottages like disturbed rabbits, and presently a +couple of women tying on clean aprons came out to greet the countess and +offer the hospitality of their homes. Their husbands, one of whom was +called Bitterplum, the other less picturesquely Smith, were mermen of +toil, fishers in summer and for the rest of the year agricultural +laborers. + +"It's very kind of you, Mrs. Smith, and of you, too, Mrs. Bitterplum," +said the dowager, "but I can only stay a few minutes. What a beautiful +day, isn't it? You must get ready to welcome his lordship, you know. +He'll be bringing her ladyship to see you very shortly. Are Bitterplum +and Smith quite well?" + +"Oh ess, ess, ess," murmured the wives, wiping their mouths with their +aprons. Then Mrs. Smith volunteered: + +"Parson Beadon's to the church." + +At this moment a black figure appeared from the little building, and +after experiencing some difficulty in locking the church door behind him +hurried down the path to meet the important visitors. Mr. Beadon, the +rector of Clarehaven-cum-Cherringtons, was a tall, lean man, the ascetic +cast of whose countenance had been tempered by matrimony as the +indigestible loaf of his dogma had been leavened by expediency. Although +Lord Clarehaven was patron of the living that included Great +Cherrington, its church warden was a fierce squire who owned most of the +land round; here Mr. Beadon was nearly evangelical, with nothing more +vicious than a surpliced choir to mark the corruption of nineteen +hundred years of Christianity. At Little Cherrington, where the dowager +worshiped and where she had her stained-glass window of the fourth earl, +he indulged in linen vestments as a dipsomaniac might indulge in herb +beer; but at Clarehaven, with none except Mrs. Bitterplum and Mrs. Smith +to mark his goings on, he used to have private orgies of hagiolatry, +from one of which he was now returning. + +After Mr. Beadon had greeted the dowager and the two girls he asked, +anxiously, if Tony had arrived, and confided with the air of a very +naughty boy that he had been holding a little celebration of St. Anthony +with special intention for the happiness of the marriage. St. Anthony +was not on the dowager's visiting-list, having no address in the Book of +Common Prayer; but she could hardly be cross with the rector for +observing his festival, inasmuch as he had the same name as her son. Mr. +Beadon was a good man whose services at Little Cherrington were exactly +what she wanted and who had, moreover, written an excellent history of +Clarehaven and the Devonshire branch of the Clare family. At the same +time, the bishop was also a good man, and she devoutly hoped that the +Bohemianism of Mr. Beadon's services at Clarehaven would not take away +what was left to his episcopal appetite from the claims of diabetes. + +"One of Mrs. Bitterplum's children has been serving me," said Mr. +Beadon. "Yes, it was an impressive little--Eucharist." He had brought +his lips together for Mass, and Eucharist came out with such a cough +that the dowager begged him not to take cold. Mrs. Bitterplum brought +him out a cup of chocolate, a supply of which he kept in her cottage to +assuage the pangs of hunger after his long walk and arduous ritual on an +empty stomach. He swallowed the chocolate quickly, not to lose the +pleasure of company back to Little Cherrington; but with all the heat +and hurry of his late breakfast he could not stop talking. + +"Mrs. Bitterplum is always kind enough--yes--curious old West Country +name...." + +Arabella and Constantia had turned away to hide their smiles. + +"I have failed hitherto to trace its origin. No.... Oh, indeed yes, when +you're ready, Lady Clarehaven. Good day to you, Mrs. Smith. Good day, +and thank you, Mrs. Bitterplum." + +The pony's head had been turned inland, and Mr. Beadon talked earnestly +to the dowager while the chaise was driving slowly back. The topic of +the marriage led him along the by-paths of family lore in numerous +allusions to the historical importance of the various spots where the +dowager lingered during her last drive as mistress of Clare; but the +rector's discourse was so much intruded upon by gossip of nothing more +than parochial interest that it will be simpler to give a direct +abstract of the family history. + +In the middle of the thirteenth century a younger member of the great +family of Clare whose demesnes stretched east and west from Suffolk to +Wales fell in with one of those pirate Mariscos that from Lundy Island +swept the Bristol Channel for ships laden with food and wine; in the +course of his seafaring he had discovered a cove on the north coast of +Devonshire that struck him as an excellent center for piracy on his own +account, notwithstanding that his chief patron had recently been hanged, +drawn, and quartered. He fortified his cove with round towers at either +entrance and thus created Clarehaven, where his descendants for a +hundred years or more levied toll on passing traffic and made an +alliance with the gentleman pirates of Fowey, whom in the reign of +Edward III they helped to drive back the discomfited men of Kent from +the west. The baser sort of pirates that in time came to haunt Lundy +made the less professional exploits of the Clares no longer worth while, +and before the close of the fourteenth century they had for many years +abandoned the sea and were reaping a more peaceful harvest from the +land. During the great days of Elizabeth the old spirit was reincarnate +in one or two members of the family, who fared farther than the Bristol +Channel and rounded fiercer capes than Land's End; but when in the early +years of the seventeenth century a great storm drove the sea to +overwhelm Clarehaven, there was not more to destroy than a few cottages +belonging to the fishermen that were now all that remained of the +medieval pirates. Then came the Great Rebellion, when Anthony Clare, +Esquire, mustered his grooms and fishermen to meet Sir Bevil Grenville +marching from Cornwall for the king. Finding large Roundhead forces at +Bideford between him and Sir Bevil, he retired again to the obscurity of +North Devon until the glorious Restoration, when with a relative he +appeared in Parliament as member for the borough of Clarehaven, and was +created a baronet by Charles II for his loyalty. Sir Anthony, with a +borough in his pocket and two thousand acres of land on which to develop +agriculture and choose a site for a house, abandoned what was left of +the old pirate's keep and began to build Clare Court. He chose an +aspect facing the sea, but died before the house was finished; Sir +Gilbert, his son, being more interested in digging for badgers than for +foundations, suspended building and contented himself with half a house. +Sir Anthony, the third baronet, took after his great-grandfather and +dreamed of sailing north to help the Earl of Mar in 1715. He must often +have stood in that now walled-up doorway under the escutcheon of his +house and gazed northward between the uplands to the sea; luckily for +his successors the days were long past when a Clare could go on board +his own ship lying at anchor in Clarehaven as snug as a horse in his +stable. Sheriffmuir was far from Devon, but the news of that ambiguous +battle reached the baronet before he had taken a rash step forward for a +lost cause. Every night for thirty years he was carried to bed drunk, +and, though he was never too drunk to sip from a goblet which had not +been previously passed across a finger-bowl to the king over the water, +he was too drunk and gouty to come out in '45. The nephew who succeeded +him two years later worked hard for the second George to atone for his +uncle's disaffection, and the family came to be favorably regarded at +court. Sir William was a bachelor and hated the sea. When not at St. +James's he used to live in Clare Lodge, a trim, red-brick house he had +built for himself about a mile eastward of the family mansion, +overlooking the hamlet of Little Cherrington and many desirable acres of +common land. + +Mr. Beadon was discoursing of Sir William when the dowager paused to +admire the view from Clare Lodge. An excellent tenant had lately vacated +it, and she was wondering how long it would be before she and the girls +should be living there. She turned her attention once more to the +rector's mild criticism of Sir William, who had not attempted to make +Clarehaven a real borough, but who had bought Little Cherrington, and +inclosed all the acres he coveted. When he died in 1764, his cousin +Anthony enjoyed a tolerably rich inheritance, to which he added by +marrying a Miss Arabella Hopley with a dowry of L10,000. This lady, by +the death of her brother in a hunting accident, some years later became +heiress of Hopley Hall and three thousand acres of good land adjoining +the Clare estate; Sir Anthony loyally sent the two members for his +borough, which by now was reduced to three or four cottages moldering at +the tide's edge, to vote for the government; and on being rewarded in +the year 1796 with the barony of Clarehaven, he decided to finish Clare +Court. Before his succession he had spent a good deal of time at the +famous health resort of Curtain Wells, and he was not satisfied with the +sea view that did not include sunshine; it was he who pulled down the +kitchens and stables behind and built the present front of Clare Court. +His son Gilbert was prominent during the Napoleonic wars for seeing that +his tenantry kept a lookout for Bonaparte; and by putting down smuggling +he performed a vicarious penance for the deeds of his ancestors. It was +he who completed Clare Court; and in 1816, ten years before his death, +he was created Earl of Clarehaven and Viscount Clare, a peer of that +United Kingdom lately achieved by Pitt with such a mixture of glory and +shame. To mark his appreciation of the divine favor the first earl built +at Little Cherrington a chapel-of-ease to Clarehaven church, the +congregation of which by that time was the three electors of the +borough. He then bought the living of Great Cherrington, and presented +this shamrock of a cure to his natural son, who became rector of +Clarehaven-cum-Cherringtons. This gentleman paid a curate L40 a year to +look after the three churches and was last seen in an intoxicated +condition on the quay of Boulogne harbor. + +The present incumbent, who was anxious that the dowager should not +object to a step up he proposed to take next Easter by introducing +colored vestments at Little Cherrington and linen vestments at Great +Cherrington for those very early services that fierce Squire Kingdon +would never get up to attend, perhaps alluded to the history of his +predecessor in order to emphasize his own superiority. It was all very +discreetly done, even to selecting the moment when the two girls were +examining a shepherd's sick dog and therefore out of hearing. + +"How different from the late lord," Mr. Beadon sighed. "Mrs. +Beadon"--the rector paid tribute to his outraged celibacy by never +referring to her as his wife--"Mrs. Beadon often wonders why I don't +write a special memoir of him." + +The dowager gazed affectionately at the chlorotic window by Burne-Jones. + +"Perhaps his life was too quiet," she said. "I think the window is +enough." + +"_Claro non clango._ But when Mr. Kingdon dies," said the rector, +tartly, "I understand that Mrs. Kingdon will erect an organ to _his_ +memory." + +They passed out of the church and stood looking down into the lap of the +fair landscape outspread before them, talking of other ancestors: of +Richard, the second earl, who married the daughter of a marquis and saw +Clarehaven disfranchised in 1832, by which time the borough was so +rotten that there was nothing perceptible of it except a few +seaweed-covered stones at low tide; it was he who destroyed a couple of +good farms to provide himself with a park worthy of his rank, which he +inclosed with a stone wall and planted trees, the confines of which his +descendants now tried proudly to trace in the wintry haze. Lest any want +of patriotism should be imputed to the second earl, Mr. Beadon reminded +his listeners of how Geoffrey, the third earl, did his duty to his +country, first as a member of Parliament for one of the divisions of +Devonshire, when he showed the Whigs that the disfranchisement of his +borough was not enough to keep a Clare out of Parliament, and afterward +as Lord Lieutenant of the county; his duty to his sovereign by acting as +Vice-Chamberlain to her Majesty's household. Of his son Gilbert, the +fourth earl, enough has been said; though it may be added here that he +sold Hopley Hall and many acres besides. + +"On the whole, though, I think he was right," said Mr. Beadon. "These +Radicals, you know." + +"Come and have lunch with us," the dowager invited. + +It would be the last independent hospitality she could offer at Clare +Court. + + +II + +While the dowager was presiding over lunch at Clare for the last time, +while her daughters were getting more and more openly excited about the +arrival of their sister-in-law, and while even Mr. Beadon partook of +their excitement to such an extent that he ate much less than usual, +Dorothy was sitting down to lunch in the restaurant-car of the Western +express. Her old life was being left behind more rapidly and with less +regret than the country through which the train was traveling. Happiness +always widens the waist of an hour-glass. Dorothy was so happy in being +a countess that on this railway journey time and space passed with equal +speed; and she looked so happy that all those who recognized her or were +informed by one of the waiters who she was commented upon her radiant +air. They decided with that credulous sentimentality imported into Great +Britain with Hengist and Horsa that she must be very deeply in love with +her husband; no one suspected that she might be more deeply in love with +herself. The head waiter, anxious to pay his own humble tribute to the +happy pair, removed the vase of faded flowers from the table they +occupied and put in its place another vase of equally faded flowers. If +he could have changed the lunch as easily, no doubt he would have done +so, but train lunches are as immemorial as elms, and it would have taken +more than the marriage of a Vanity girl to a Devonshire nobleman to +persuade the Great Western Railway Company that sauce tartare is not +the only condiment, and that there are more fish in the sea than the +anemic brill. + +In days now mercifully forever fled Dorothy had often admired with a +touch of envy the select minority of the human race that seemed able to +obtain from the staff of a great railway station all the attention it +wanted. Now she had entered that select minority, and perhaps nothing +brought home more sharply the fact that she was a countess than the +attitude of the station-master at Exeter. + +"Welcome back to the West, my lord," he said to Clarehaven, who thanked +him for his good wishes with the casual rudeness that minor officials of +all countries find so attractive in their acknowledged patrons. + +A perspiring woman with a little boy in her arms clutched the +station-master's sleeve and begged to be informed if the express that +was now lying along the platform like a great sleek snake was the slow +train to whatever insignificant market-town she was bound. It was +annoying for the station-master to have his little chat with Lord +Clarehaven interrupted like this, especially by a woman who seemed under +the impression that he was a porter. However, the official possessed a +store of nobility from which to oblige an importunate inferior, and +majestically he condescended to reveal that the slow train would leave +in half an hour from the obscure platform it haunted. The station-master +was forthwith invited to look after a much-dinted tin box while the +perspiring and anxious creature's little boy was accommodated in the +cloak-room; before he could protest she had darted off. + +"Wonderful what they expect you to do for them, isn't it?" he laughed, +with the lordly magnanimity that once inspired the English nation with +confidence in the capacity of its chosen representatives to rule the +world. At this moment a porter announced that his lordship's car was in +the station-yard. + +"Be under no apprehensions about your baggage, my lord," said the +station-master. "I shall expedite it myself. Be under no apprehensions," +he repeated; "it will certainly reach Cherrington Lanes to-night." + +The porter, who was as eager as his chief to show his appreciation of +being employed at a railway station patronized by Lord and Lady +Clarehaven, overstepped the bounds of good will by picking up the +perspiring woman's tin box in order to place it in the car. Luckily his +chief perceived the horrible mistake in time and bellowed at him to take +it out and leave it on the pavement outside the station. Then raising +his cap, a gesture reserved for noblemen and irritation of the scalp, +the station-master bowed Lord and Lady Clarehaven upon their way. + +"Car going well, Deacock?" + +"Not too well, my lord." + +"Make the old thing hum, because I want her ladyship to reach Clarehaven +before dark." + +The chauffeur touched his cap, and the car answered generously to his +efforts in spite of continual criticisms leveled against it by the +owner. + +"We must get a Lee-Lonsdale," he said to his wife. + +"That would be very nice for Lonnie," she agreed. "Mine, of course, was +more a car for town. So I sold it." + +She did not add that her own Lee-Lonsdale had provided her with a +bracelet of rubies. + +"The setting is new," she had said to Tony when she showed him this +heirloom. "But the stones are old." + +And who should have contradicted her? + +The green miles were rolled up like a length of silk; milestones +fluttered like paper in the wake of the car; and by five o'clock they +were driving through the lodge gates. Mrs. Crawley with nine little +Crawleys, the fruit of Mr. Crawley's spare time from the peach-house at +Clare, flung a few primroses into the car and cheered their new lady. +Dorothy thought the primroses were very pretty and stood up to nod her +thanks; she did not realize that even an earl's estate in Devonshire +might find it hard to produce so many primroses in the month of January; +but she looked so beautiful standing up in the car that Mrs. Crawley +felt the exertions of her large and ubiquitous family were well +rewarded. The car leaped forward again, followed by shrill cheers that +lingered upon the evening air and echoed many times in Dorothy's heart. +The spellbound hush of landed property held earth in thrall, and the +countess wished to enjoy it. + +"Not too fast through the park," she begged. + +The car slowed down; at the top of the first incline from which the +house was visible it stopped to give Dorothy a moment in which to admire +her great possessions. The whole sky was plumed with multitudinous small +clouds rosy as the ruffled throats of linnets in spring; on the summit +of the last long incline before them Clare Court with its gardens and +terraces and gleaming pergola dreamed in the enchantment of the wintry +sunsets; in the dark groves on either side the trunks of the pines +glowed like pillars of fire. Nothing broke the stillness except a +mistlethrush singing very loud from an oak-tree close at hand, and when +the bird was silent the lowing of a cow far away on some other earth, it +seemed. Suddenly from woodland near the drive came a sound like +pattering leaves; a line of fallow deer rippled forth and broke into +startled groups that nosed the air now vibrant with the noise of dogs +approaching. + +"How lovely!" Dorothy exclaimed. "You never told me there were deer," +she added, reproachfully, as if the absence of deer had been the one +thing that all this time had kept her from accepting Clarehaven's hand. +"And how divine it must be here in summer." + +"Well, if you hadn't been such a timid little deer, we might have been +here, anyway, last October." + +Dorothy might have retorted that if Clarehaven had not been so bold a +hart she might have been here the summer before last; but she did not +remind him of that little flat round the corner, because the herd +dashed off to a more remote corner of the park at sight of several dogs +scampering down the drive with loud yaps of excitement, and Tony's +sisters running behind. Dorothy jumped out of the car to meet her +relations for the first time, glad to encounter them like this with dogs +barking and so much of the conversation directed to keeping them in +order, for she had half expected in that preludial hush to behold the +dowager materializing from the misty dusk like a gigantic genie from an +uncorked jar. + +"Only two hours from Exeter. Pretty good for the old boneshaker, what?" +said Tony. "Deacock drove her along like a thoroughbred." + +The chauffeur touched his cap and, smiling complacently, leaned over to +pat the tires of the car. + +"Mother's waiting at the house," said Arabella. "She would have driven +down in the chaise to meet Dorothy, but she didn't know exactly when +you'd be here and was so afraid of catching cold just when she most +wanted not to." + +There followed a stream of gossip about the health of various animals, +and about the way Marlow, the head-keeper, was looking forward to +shooting Cherrington Long Covert, and how much afraid he had been that +Tony would not be back before the end of the month, and how glad he was +that he was back, in the middle of which Constantia informed Dorothy +that there was a meet at Five Tree Farm two days hence and asked her if +she was going to hunt for the rest of the season. Arabella kicked her +sister so clumsily that Dorothy noticed the warning, and with a sudden +impulse to risk all, even death, in the attempt, she replied that of +course she intended to hunt for the rest of the season. Tony began to +protest, but she cut him short. + +"My dear boy, when I lived with my grandmother I always hunted. And I've +kept up riding ever since." + +"Well, that's topping," exclaimed Connie. + +"Yes, that really is topping," echoed Arabella. + +"But alas! I don't shoot," Dorothy confessed, "so if it won't bore you +too much you'll have to give me lessons." + +"Oh, rather," began Connie, immediately. "Well, you see, the most +important thing is not to look across your barrels. I find that most +people--Well, for instance, supposing you put up a woodcock...." + +"I say, Connie, shut up, shut up," Tony exclaimed. "You can't begin at +once. You'll put our eyes out in the car with that stick." + +The shooting-lesson was postponed; and clambering into the car, in +another five minutes they had all reached the house. Dorothy's first +emotion at sight of the dowager was relief at finding that she was quite +a head shorter than herself. In spite of Napoleon, height is, on the +whole, an advantage to human beings in moments of stress. Dorothy had +involuntarily imagined her mother-in-law as a tall, beaked woman with a +cold and flashing eye, in fact with all the attributes the well-informed +novelist usually awards to dowagers. This dowdy little woman, whose +slight resemblance to a beaver was emphasized by wearing a cape made of +that animal's fur, had to stand on tiptoe to greet her daughter-in-law, +and it was unreasonable to be frightened of a woman who in an emotional +crisis had to stand on tiptoe. Nevertheless, Dorothy was sincerely +grateful for her kindly welcome, and took the first opportunity of +whispering some of her hopes and fears for the future to her +mother-in-law, who invited her, after tea, to come up-stairs to her den +and have a little talk. When they entered the small square room in an +angle of the house twilight was still sapphire upon the window-panes, +one of which looked out over the park and the other mysteriously down +into the grove of pines. Fussing about with matches, the dowager +explained apologetically that she preferred always to trim and light her +own lamp. + +"One gets these little fads living in the depths of the country." + +"Of course," Dorothy agreed, planning with herself some similar fad for +the near future. + +The lamp was lighted; the windows changed from sapphire to indigo as the +jewel changes when it is no longer held against the light; in the golden +glow the walls of the room broke into blossom, it seemed. Dorothy, +reacting from Mr. and Mrs. Caffyn's taste in domestic decoration, had +supposed that all well-bred and artistic people devoted themselves to +plain color schemes such as she had elaborated in the Halfmoon Street +flat; but here was a kind of decoration that, though she knew +instinctively it could not be impeached on the ground of bad taste, did +astonish her by its gaudiness. Such a prodigality of brilliant +red-and-blue macaws, of claret-winged pompadouras and birds of paradise +swooping from bough to bough of such brilliant foliage; such sprawling +purple convolvuluses and cleft crimson pomegranates on the trellised +screen; such quaint old china groups on the mantelpiece; such +tumble-down chairs and faded holland covers; and everywhere, like fruit +fallen from those tropic boughs, such vividly colored balls of wool. + +"Oh," exclaimed Dorothy, divining in a flash of inspiration how to make +the most of her totem, "it's exactly like my grandmother's room!" + +"I am fond of my little den," said the dowager, "and as long as you so +kindly want me to stay on at Clare I hope you won't turn me out of it." + +Dorothy expostulated with a gesture; she would have liked to show her +appreciation of the room in some perfect compliment, but she could think +of nothing better than to suggest sharing it, a prospect that she did +not suppose would attract her mother-in-law. + +"I feel a dreadful intruder," she sighed. + +"My dear child, please. I might have known that Tony would have chosen +well for himself, and I do hope you understand--I tried to explain to +you in my letter--how old-fashioned and out of the world we are down +here. My husband was a very quiet man, and for the last ten years of his +life a great invalid. The result was that I scarcely appreciated how +things had changed in the world, and I foolishly fancied that Tony was +just as much of a country cousin as myself. His sudden departure to +Africa like that came as a great shock to me. One scarcely realizes down +here that there is such a place as Africa." Heaven and her wall-paper +were the only scenes of tropical luxuriance in the imagination of which +the dowager indulged herself. "And, of course, my mother was very much +upset at the idea of the marriage." + +Dorothy started. Was there, then, a super-dowager to be encountered? + +"I see that Tony has not told you about her. Chatfield Hall, where my +brother lives, whom you will learn to know and love as Uncle Chat, is +only fifteen miles from Clare." + +Dorothy did not know how to prevent her mother-in-law's perceiving her +mortification; to think that in her long study of Debrett she had +omitted to make herself acquainted with what was therein recorded of the +family of Fanhope! Really she did not deserve to be a countess! + +"My mother," went on the dowager, "who as you've no doubt guessed is now +an extremely old lady, was inclined to blame me for Tony's choice. She +has always been accustomed to expect a good deal from her children. Even +Uncle Chat has never yet ventured to introduce a motor-car to Chatfield. +So you must not be disappointed if at first she's a little brusk. Poor +old darling, she's almost blind, but her hearing is as acute as ever, +and oh dear, I am so glad you have a pretty voice." + +"Did you think I should have a cockney accent?" Dorothy asked. + +"Well, to be frank, the contingency had presented itself," the dowager +admitted. "And I am so glad you don't use too much scent. I know +everybody uses scent nowadays, but my mother, whose sense of smell is +even more acute than her hearing, abominates scent. It does seem so +ironical that she should have kept her sense of smell and almost lost +her sight. You mustn't be frightened by her; but if you are you must +remember that we're all frightened by her, which ought to be a great +consolation. I thought we would drive over and see her to-morrow. It +would be nice to feel that the ice was broken." + +"Even if I do get rather wet," Dorothy laughed. + +The dowager smiled anxiously; she was not used to extensions of familiar +phrases, and her daughter-in-law's remark made her sharply aware that a +stranger was in the house. + +"You think you'd rather wait a day or two before you go?" she suggested. + +"Oh no, I think we ought to go and see Lady Chatfield as soon as +possible," said Dorothy. + +"I'm so glad you agree with me." + +"I'm rather sensitive where mothers are concerned," said Dorothy. + +She felt that now was her moment to win the dowager immovably to her +side. There was something in the atmosphere of this gay little room, +some intimacy as of a garden long tended by a gentle and lonely soul, +that invited a contribution from one who was privileged to enter it like +this. Dorothy felt that the room needed "playing up to." The medium that +tempted her was the fairy-tale; a room like this was meant for +fairy-tales. + +"I told you, didn't I, that this room reminded me of my grandmother's +room, and what you tell me about Lady Chatfield reminds me a little of +her character. My grandmother was a Lonsdale, a descendant of a younger +branch of the Cleveden Lonsdales. Her husband was an Irish landowner +called Doyle who was involved somehow with political troubles. I don't +quite know what happened, but he lost most of his money and died quite +suddenly soon after my mother was born. My grandmother came back to +England with her little daughter and settled down in Warwickshire, her +native county. When my mother was quite young--about twenty--she fell in +love with my father, who was reading for Holy Orders in the +neighborhood. My grandmother opposed the match, but my mother ran away, +and my father, instead of becoming a clergyman, took up rescue work in +the slums." + +"A fine thing to do," the dowager commented, approvingly. + +"Yes, but unfortunately my grandmother was very proud and very +unreasonable. She never forgave my mother, although she had me to live +with her until I was eleven, when she died. I was brought up in the +depths of the country and ever since I have always longed to get back to +it. I used to ride with friends of my grandmother. One of them was the +Duke of Ayr. Did you ever meet him? He died the other day, but of course +I hadn't seen him for many years." + +"I did meet him long ago," said the dowager. "He was a great influence +for good in the country." + +"Oh, a wonderful man," Dorothy agreed. "Well, the few family heirlooms +my grandmother still possessed were left to me, together with a small +sum of money, which I'm sorry to say my father spent. That was my excuse +for going on the stage. I told him that it was his fault and his fault +only that I had to earn my own living. But the rescue work had affected +his common sense. He turned me out of the house. I lived for a whole +year on fifty pounds. But I was determined to succeed, and when I met +Tony and he asked me to marry him I refused, because I had grown proud. +You can understand that, can't you? Tell me, dear Lady Clarehaven, that +you can understand my anxiety to prove that I could be a success. +Besides, when I was a child the estrangement between my mother and my +grandmother had greatly affected my imagination. I didn't want to find +myself the cause of estranging another mother from her son. Have you +forgiven me? Do you think that you will ever love me?" + +The dowager wept and declared that as soon as her own mother was +pacified she should make it her business to reconcile Dorothy with hers. + +"Oh no," cried Dorothy, "that's impossible. My father must learn a +little humility first. When he has learned his lesson I will be +reconciled with my family, but meanwhile haven't you a place in your +heart for me?" + +The dowager, so far as it was possible for a small woman to perform the +action with one so much taller than herself, clasped Dorothy to her +heart. + +"How I wish my husband were alive to be with us this evening," she +exclaimed. + +It was probably as well that he was not; if he had been, neither age nor +decency would have intervened to prevent the fourth earl from making +love to his daughter-in-law. The fifth earl interrupted any further +exchanges of confidences by bursting into the room to protest against +his wife's desertion. + +"Your mother has been so sweet to me, Tony," she said. + +"Of course she has," he answered. "She knows what I've had to go through +to bring off this coup." + +"Indeed," the dowager confessed, "I never suspected he had such +determination. Dear old boy, it only seems yesterday that he was such a +little boy, and now--" She broke off with a sigh and patted him on the +shoulder. + +"Your mother and I have just decided that it would be best if I am +presented to Lady Chatfield to-morrow," Dorothy announced. + +"What?" cried Clarehaven. "No. Look here! Steady, mother! I'm absolutely +against that. I'm sorry to appear the undutiful grandson and all that, +but really, don't you know, I must discourage her a bit. I didn't bring +Dorothy down to Clare to be buzzing over to Chatfield all the time. +We'll get Uncle Chat over here to dinner one night, and that'll be quite +enough." + +The dowager looked appealingly at her daughter-in-law, who at once took +matters into her own hands. + +"Don't be absurd, Tony. Of course we shall go to-morrow." + +He would have continued to protest, but his wife fixed him with those +deep-brown eyes of hers. + +"Now, don't go on arguing, there's a dear boy, or your mother will think +we do nothing but quarrel." + +Tony was silent, and the dowager regarded her daughter-in-law with open +admiration. She had never seen one of the males of Clare or Fanhope +quelled so completely since the days when she was a little girl and saw +her own fierce old mother quell her husband. + +That night in the bridal chamber of Clare the fifth earl chose a not +altogether suitable costume of pink-silk pajamas in which to give +utterance to his plans for the future. If Dorothy had been beautiful in +the dowager's bower, she was much more fatally beautiful now in a +dishabille of peach bloom and with her fawn-colored hair glinting in the +candle-light against the dark panels of this ancient and somber room. +When Clarehaven began to walk up and down in the excitement of his +projects she went slowly across to a Caroline chair with high wicker +back, sitting down in which she waited severely and serenely until he +had finished. Tony might prance about in his pajamas, but he was no more +free than a colt which a horse-breaker holds in tether to be jerked down +upon his four legs when he has kicked his heels long enough. + +"I didn't marry you," her husband was protesting, "to come and live down +here and be ruled by Grandmother Chatfield. I don't give a damn for my +grandmother; she's a meddlesome old woman who ought to have been dead +ten years ago. As for Uncle Chat, he bores me to death. He can only talk +about cigars and pigs. Look here, Doodles, we're going to stay here +three or four more days, and then we're off to the Riviera. We'll make +Lonnie come with us and drive down through France--topping roads--and I +want to try the pigeons at Monte. After that I thought we'd go to Cairo, +or perhaps we might go to Cairo first and take Monte on the way back. +Anyway, Curzon Street will be ready by the beginning of May. I'm having +it devilishly comfortably done up. I didn't tell you about that; it's +going to be the most comfortable house in London. I tried every chair +myself in Waring's. I'm sorry I had to bore you at all with my family, +but I'm awfully fond of my mother, and I knew she wouldn't be happy till +she'd seen you, and all that. Well, now it's done, and we can buzz on +again as soon as possible." + +"Any more plans?" asked Dorothy. + +"No, I thought we'd go up to Scotland for August, and after that I don't +see why we shouldn't have a good shoot here in September. But I haven't +thought much about next autumn." + +"That's where I'm cleverer than you," said his wife. "I've not only +thought about next autumn, but about next week, and about next year, and +the year after that, and the year after that, too. Listen, old thing. +When you first met me you wanted to put me in a little flat round the +corner, didn't you? Please don't interrupt me. You couldn't understand +then why I wouldn't accept your offer; I don't think you really +understand very much better even now. London for me doesn't exist any +longer. How you can possibly expect me to go away from this glorious +place, which I already love as if I'd lived here all my life, to tear +about the Continent with you as if I wasn't your wife at all, I don't +know. If you don't realize what you owe to your name, I realize it. I +don't choose that people should say: 'There goes that ass Clarehaven who +married a girl from the Vanity. Look at him!' I don't choose that people +should point you out as my husband. I choose to be your wife, and I +intend that all your family--and when I say your family I mean your +mother's family, too--shall go down on their knees and thank God that +you did marry a Vanity girl, and that a Vanity girl knew what she owed +to her country in these dreadful days when common Radicals are trying to +destroy all that we hold most sacred. I want you to take your place in +the House of Lords, when you've lost that trick of talking to everybody +as if they were waiters at the Savoy. Why, you don't deserve to be an +earl!" + +"My dear thing, you mustn't attach too much importance to a title. You +must remember...." + +"Are you trying to correct my tone?" she asked, coldly. "Because, let me +tell you that all this false modesty about your position is only +snobbery dressed out in a new disguise. Anyway, I didn't marry you to be +criticized." + +"Oh well, of course, if you insist on staying down here for the present +I suppose I must," said Tony. "Anyway, I dare say we can have some jolly +parties to cheer the place up a bit." + +"No, we sha'n't have any jolly parties--at any rate yet awhile," said +Dorothy. "I don't intend to begin by turning Clare gardens into bear +gardens." + +"Good Heavens! what is the matter with you?" he demanded. "What has my +mother been saying?" + +"Your mother hasn't been saying anything. I said all these things over +to myself a thousand thousand times before I married you." + +"Well, why didn't you tell me some of your ideas before you did marry +me?" he muttered. + +"Do you regret it?" she asked, standing up. + +"Don't be a silly old thing, Doodles. Of course I don't regret it. But +having married the loveliest girl in London, I should like to splash +around a bit with you. My tastes are bonhomous. I'd always thought.... +Dash it, I love you madly, you know that. I'm proud of you." + +"Aren't you proud that the loveliest girl in London is willing to be +loved by you only? God! my dear boy, you ought to be grateful that +you've got me to yourself." + +She held out her arms, and it was not remarkable that in those arms and +with those lips Clarehaven forgot all about driving along the topping +roads of France in a Lee-Lonsdale car. When his wife released him from +the first real embrace she had ever given him he staggered like one who +has been enchanted. + +"Dash it...." he murmured, blinking his eyes to quench the fire that +burned them. "I'm not very poetical, don't you know--but your +kisses--well, really, do you know I think I shall take to reading +poetry?" + + +III + +The next morning Dorothy paced the picture-gallery of Clare that ran the +whole length of the north side of the house. She had several ordeals to +pass in the few days immediately ahead, and she derived much help from +the contemplation of her predecessors at Clare. Gradually from the +glances of those tranquil dames, some of whom for more than two +centuries had gazed seaward through the panes of those high narrow +windows mistily iridescent from a thousand salt gales, Dorothy caught an +attitude toward life; from their no longer perturbable expressions, from +their silent testimony to the insignificance of everything in the +backward of time, she acquired confidence in herself. What was old Lady +Chatfield except a picture, and how could she harm an interloper even +more vulnerable than an actress? She should try this afternoon to think +of the super-dowager as one of the long row of noble dames and console +herself with the thought that in another hundred years the fifth +Countess of Clarehaven would be accounted the loveliest of all the +ladies in this gallery. Who was there to outmatch her? Even the first +countess, with all Romney had yielded from his magic store of roses, +would have to admit she was surpassed by her successor. + +"But who shall paint my portrait?" Dorothy asked herself. "Romney should +be alive now. There's no painter as good as he for my style of beauty. +And how shall I be painted? If I manage to ride to hounds as +triumphantly as I hope I shall, I might be painted in a riding-habit. +The black would set off my hair and my complexion and my figure. I don't +want everybody at the Academy to say that my dress is so wonderful, as +if without a dress I should be nothing. Thirty years from now I will be +painted again in some wonderful dress. But oh, if only I don't fail at +the meet on Monday! If only--if only...." + +At lunch Tony suggested that he should drive Dorothy to Chatfield in the +car and that his mother and sisters should go in the barouche. The +dowager reminded him how much his grandmother objected to motor-cars at +Chatfield and urged that it was unfair on Dorothy to irritate the old +lady wantonly. + +"I never heard such nonsense," Tony exclaimed. "She'll soon be expecting +us to row over to Chatfield in the Ark. Well, I sha'n't go at all. You +and Dorothy had better drive over together in the victoria." + +The dowager threw out a signal of distress to her daughter-in-law, who +said firmly but kindly that they would all drive over together in the +drag. + +"We shall look like a village treat," muttered Tony, sulkily. + +"But I'm anxious to see the country," said Dorothy. "And you drive much +too fast in the car for me to see anything. I don't want to arrive blown +to pieces." + +Naturally in the end Dorothy had her way about going in the drag, and +she wondered what Tony could have wished better than to swing through +the gates of Chatfield Park and pull up with a clatter at the gates of +Chatfield Hall. The very sound of the footman's feet alighting on the +gravel drive was like a seal upon the dignity of their arrival. Uncle +Chat came out to greet them, a round, red-faced man with short +side-whiskers, dressed in a pepper-and-salt suit. He had been a widower +for ten years, but his wife before she died--slowly frightened to death +by her mother-in-law, as malicious story-tellers said--had left him two +sons and two daughters. Paignton, the eldest boy, was a freshman at +Trinity, Cambridge, and was at present away on a visit; Charles, the +second boy, was still at home, with Eton looming in a day or so; Dorothy +liked his fresh complexion and the schoolboy impudence that not even his +grandmother had been able to squash. She told him that she was going to +hunt on Monday for the first time for several years, and he promised to +be her equerry and show her some gaps that might be welcome. + +"But it's not difficult country," he assured her. "Not like Ireland." + +"No. My great-grandfather was killed by an Irish wall," she said. + +Tony looked up at this. Perhaps he was thinking that if she rode as +recklessly as she talked she really would be killed out hunting. Of the +other easy members of the family Mary and Maud were jolly girls still in +the thrall of a governess, while Lady Jane, Tony's aunt, was milder even +than his mother, and, having now been for over fifty years at the +super-dowager's beck and call, had the look of one who is always +listening for bells. + +The super-dowager herself lived in a self-propelling invalid chair in +which, though she was reputed to be blind, she propelled herself about +the ground floor of Chatfield with as much agility as the mole, another +animal whose blindness is probably exaggerated. Beyond occasionally +knocking over a table, she did more damage with her tongue than with her +chair and kept the kitchen in a state of continuous alarm. One of her +favorite pastimes was to coast down the long corridor that divided them +from the rest of the house, and, pulling up suddenly beside the cook, to +accuse her of burning whatever dish she was preparing. The only servants +at Chatfield who felt at all secure were those high-roosting birds, the +housemaids. + +"Who's making all this noise?" demanded the super-dowager, advancing +rapidly into the hall soon after the Clarehaven party had arrived, and +scattering the group right and left. + +"Tony has brought his wife to see you," said her daughter. "They only +reached Clare last night." + +"Tony's wife?" repeated the old lady. "And who may she be? Chatfield, if +Paignton marries an actress you understand that I leave here at once? +I've made that quite clear, I hope?" + +"If you have, Lady Chatfield," said Dorothy, "I'm sure that Paignton +won't marry an actress." + +"Who's that talking to me?" + +At this moment Arabella and Constantia, who, because their noses were +respectively too small and too large, easily caught cold, sneezed +simultaneously. + +"Augusta," said the super-dowager. + +"Yes, mamma." + +"Don't tell me that's not Bella and Connie, because I know it is. Can +nothing be done about their taking cold like this? They never come here +but they must go sneezing and sniffing about, until one might suppose +Chatfield was draughty." + +Considering that for her peregrinations the super-dowager insisted upon +every door of the ground floor's being left open, one might have been +justified in supposing so. + +"Where's that girl?" demanded the old lady. "Why doesn't she come close? +Has she got a cold, too?" + +"No, no," laughed Dorothy, "I haven't got a cold." + +"Your voice is pleasant, child," said the super-dowager. "Augusta, her +voice is pleasant. Chatfield, her voice is pleasant. Clarehaven, come +here. Your wife has a pleasant voice." + +"Of course she has," said the grandson. "You ought to have heard her +sing 'Dolly and her Collie.'" + +If looks could have killed her husband, Dorothy would have been the +third dowager present at that moment; but strange to say, the old lady +seemed to like the idea of Dorothy's singing. + +"She _shall_ sing me 'Dolly and her Collie'; she shall sing it to me +after tea. Come, let's have tea," and, giving a violent twirl to her +wheel, the old lady shot forward in advance of the party toward the +drawing-room, beating by a neck the footman at the door, who in order to +avoid dropping the tray had to perform a pirouette like a comic juggler. + +"Why did you make me look such a fool?" Dorothy muttered to Tony at the +first opportunity. + +"My dear girl, believe me, I'm the only person who knows how to manage +the silly old thing." + +Dorothy was miserable all through tea, wondering if the super-dowager +was really in earnest about making her sing. She wondered what the +servants would think, what her mother-in-law would think, what her uncle +would think, what her new cousins would think, what the whole county of +Devon would think, what all England would think of her humiliation. +Perhaps the old lady was not in earnest. Perhaps it was merely a test of +her dignity. Were ever sandwiches in the world so dry as these? + +"What's that?" the super-dowager was exclaiming. "Certainly not! Nobody +can hear this song except myself. I should never dream of allowing a +public performance at Chatfield. This is not a performance. This is a +contribution to my miserable old age." + +The old lady swooped about the room like a hen driving intruding +sparrows from her grain; when all were banished she swung rapidly +backward and commanded Dorothy to begin. Poor Dorothy tried to explain +how the effect of the song had depended upon the accessories. There had +been the music, for instance. + +"Never mind about the music," said the super-dowager. + +"And there was a chorus of six." + +"Never mind about the chorus." + +"And then I haven't got my dog." + +"Never mind about the dog." + +Dorothy, who had thought that she had put "Dolly and her Collie" behind +her forever, had to stand up and sing to Lady Chatfield as she had sung +to Mr. Richards in the cupola of the Vanity not so many months ago. + +"The words are rubbish," said the old lady. "The tune is catchy, but not +so catchy as the tunes they used to write. Your voice is pleasant. Come +nearer to me, child. They tell me you're handsome. Yes, well, I can +almost see that you are. And I'm glad of it, for the Clares are an ugly +race." + +Considering that the super-dowager was directly responsible for Tony's +mother, and therefore partially responsible for Arabella and Constantia, +this opinion struck Dorothy as lacking proportion. + +"Beauty is required in the family. You understand what I mean? Let's +have none of these modern notions of waiting five or six years before +you do your duty. Produce an heir." + +The old lady said this so sharply that Dorothy felt as if she ought to +put her hand in her pocket and produce one then and there. + +"Call Tony in to me. Tony," she said, "you're an ass; but not such an +ass as I thought you were." + +"Good song, isn't it, grandmother?" he chuckled. + +"Don't interrupt me. I said you were only not such an ass as I thought. +You're still an ass. Your wife isn't. You understand what I mean? +Produce an heir. Now I must go to bed." She swept out of the room like a +swallow from under the eaves of a house. + +On the way back to Clare, Bella and Connie could not contain their +delight at the success Dorothy had made with their grandmother. +Tompkins, the Chatfield butler, had confided in Connie just before she +left that her ladyship had been heard to hum on entering her bedroom--an +expression of superfluous good temper in which she had not indulged +within his memory. The old lady was always cross at going to bed, +probably because she could not wheel it about like her chair. Nor was +grandmother the only victim to Dorothy's charm: Uncle Chat had been full +of compliments; Charles and the girls had declared she was a stunner; +Aunt Jane had corroborated Tompkins's story about humming. + +The dowager, who always came away from Chatfield with a sense of renewed +youth, though sometimes, indeed, feeling like a naughty little girl, was +almost sprightly on the drive back to Clare. She had expected to be +roundly scolded by her mother, and here she was going away with her +pockets full of nuts, as it were; the little anxieties of daily life +dropped from her shoulders, and when the drag met a very noisy motor in +a narrow stretch of road she sat perfectly still and listened to the +coachman's soothing clicks with profound trust in his ability to calm +the horses. + +"By the way, I hope you won't mind the suggestion, dear," she said to +Dorothy, "but I think it would be nice to arrange a little dinner-party +for Saturday night--just our particular neighbors, you know--Mr. and +Mrs. Kingdon, Mr. and Mrs. Beadon, Mr. Hemming the curate, Doctor Lane, +and Mr. Greenish of Cherrington Cottage." + +Tony groaned. + +"What could be nicer?" said Dorothy. "But...." + +"You're going to say it sounds rather sudden. Yes--well, it will be +sudden. But it struck me that it would be much nicer if we were a little +sudden. You see, your wedding was rather sudden, and our neighbors will +appreciate such a mark of intimacy. No doubt the Kingdons and the +Beadons will have called this afternoon, and I thought that if you don't +object I would send out the invitations myself and make it a sort of +wedding breakfast. I know it all sounds very muddled, but my +inspirations nearly always turn out well. I should like to feel on +Sunday that we were all old friends. Besides, if you're really going to +hunt on Monday, it will be nice for you to meet Mr. Kingdon, who is +master of the Horley." + +"I think it's a delightful idea," Dorothy exclaimed. "Thank you so much +for suggesting it." + +"This is going to be a terrible winter and spring," Clarehaven groaned. + +"Tony, please don't be discouraging," said his mother. "I'm feeling so +optimistic since our visit to Chatfield. Why, I'm even hoping to +reconcile Mr. Kingdon and Mr. Beadon. Not, of course, that they're open +enemies, but I should like the squire to appreciate the rector's +beautiful character, and it seems such a pity that a few lighted candles +should blind him to it. Mr. Kingdon will take in Dorothy; the rector +will take me; you, Tony dear--please don't look so cross--ought to take +in Mrs. Kingdon, who's a great admirer of yours--such a nice woman, +Dorothy dear, with a most unfortunate inability to roll her r's--it's so +sad, I think. Then the doctor will take in Mrs. Beadon; Mr. Greenish, +Arabella; and Mr. Hemming, Connie." + +"I like Tommy Hemming," said Connie. "He's a sport." + +"I should call him a freak," Clarehaven muttered. + +"We ought to do some riding to-morrow and Friday," his sister went on, +quite unconcerned by his opinion of the curate. "I think Dorothy ought +to ride Mignonette on Monday. She's a perfect ripper--a chestnut." + +Dorothy liked the name, which reminded her of her own hair, and +certainly had she chosen for herself she would have chosen a chestnut +for the meet at Five Tree Farm. The dowager's forecast was right--both +the Kingdons and the Beadons had called upon the new countess, and the +dowager pattered up-stairs to her bird-bright room to send out +invitations for Saturday. + +"You see what you've let yourself in for," said Tony to his wife that +night. "However, you'll be as fed up as I am when you've had one or two +of these neighborly little dinners. And look here, Doodles, seriously I +don't think you ought to hunt. I'm not saying you can't ride, but you +ought to wait till next season, at any rate. You may have a nasty +accident, and--well, yes, I'm the one to say it, after all--you may make +a priceless fool of yourself." + +"Do you think so?" Dorothy asked. "Do you think I made a priceless fool +of myself when I sang to your grandmother this afternoon? If I can carry +that off, I can certainly ride after a fox. Kiss me. You mean well, but +you don't yet know what I can do." + +A former Anthony kissed away kingdoms and provinces; this Anthony kissed +away doubts and fears and scruples as easily. + +Dorothy dressed herself very simply for the neighborly little +dinner-party. She decided that white would be the best sedative for any +tremors felt by the neighbors at the prospect of finding their society +led by an actress; and she made up her mind to cast a special spell upon +the M. F. H. and so guard herself from the consequences of any mistake +she might make at the meet. There was nothing about Mr. Kingdon that +diverged the least from the typical fox-hunting squire that for two +hundred years has been familiar to the people of Great Britain. His neck +was thick and red; his voice came in gusts; and he recounted as good +stories of his own the jokes in _Punch_ of the week before last. What +deeper sense in Squire Kingdon was outraged by the rector's ritualism it +would be hard to say, for his body did not appear to be the temple of +anything except food and drink; perhaps, like the bull that he so much +resembled, an imperfectly understood nervous system was wrought upon by +certain colors. The congregation of Great Cherrington would scarcely +have been stirred from their lethargic worship to see the squire with +lowered head charge up the aisle, when Mr. Beadon began to play the +picador with a colored stole, and toss Mr. Beadon over his shoulders +into the font. Mrs. Kingdon was to her husband as a radish is to a +beet-root. The weather is a bad lady's maid, and the weather had made of +Mrs. Kingdon's complexion something that ought to have infuriated her +husband as much as Mr. Beadon's colored stoles. In spite of her hard and +highly colored appearance, she was a mild enough woman, given to deep +sighs in pauses of the conversation, when she was probably thinking +about the rolling of her r's and regretting that three of her children +had inherited this impotency of palate or tongue. + +"We must all pull together," she said to Dorothy, who expressed her +anxiety to find herself lugging at the same rope as Mrs. Kingdon against +whatever team opposed them. + +"Very true, Mrs. Kingdon," the rector observed. "I wish the squire was +always of your opinion." + +"Mr. Beadon can never forget that he is a clergyman," whispered Mrs. +Kingdon when the rector passed on. + +Yet the monotone of Mr. Beadon's clericality had once been illuminated +when he had broken that vow of celibacy to which he had attached such +importance in order to marry Mrs. Beadon. In the confusion of the Sabine +rape Mrs. Beadon might have found herself wedded, but that any man in +cold blood and with many women to choose from should have deliberately +chosen Mrs. Beadon passed normal comprehension. Her husband treated her +in the same way as he treated the crucifix from Oberammergau that he +kept in a triptych by his bed. He would admire her, respect her, almost +worship her, and then abruptly he would shut her up with a little click. +Mrs. Beadon was much thinner even than her husband; while she was +eating, the upper part of her chest resembled a musical box, her throat +a violin played pizzicato, the accumulated music of which expressed +itself during digestion in remote trills and far-off scales. She was +seldom vocal in conversation, but voluble in psalms and hymns; she +performed many kind actions such as blowing little boys' noses on the +way to school, and though she did not blow Dorothy's nose, she squeezed +her hand and confided that the news of Lord Clarehaven's marriage had +meant a great deal to her. + +"Oh, so much!" she had time to repeat before her husband closed the +doors of the triptych. + +Mr. Hemming, the curate, was a muscular and, did not his clerical collar +forbid one to suppose so, a completely fatuous young man. When he was +pleased about anything he said, "Oh, cheers!" When he was displeased he +shook his head in silence. Mr. Beadon told Dorothy that he was a loyal +churchman, and certainly once in the course of the evening he came to +the rescue of his rector, who had been pinned in a corner of the room, +by asking the squire, why he wore a pink coat when he hunted. The squire +replied that such was the custom for an M. F. H., and Mr. Hemming, with +a guffaw, said that it was also the custom for a fisher of men to wear +sporting colors. This irreverent attempt to put fishing on an equality +with fox-hunting naturally upset the squire, and the dowager's hopes, of +an early reconciliation between him and the rector were destroyed. + +Of the other two guests, Doctor Lane was a pleasant, elderly gentleman +whose chief pride was that he still read _The Lancet_ every week. One +felt in talking to him that a man who still read _The Lancet_ after +twenty-five years of Cherrington evinced a sensitiveness to medical +progress that was laudable and peculiar. He was a widower without +children and devoted what little leisure he had to the study of newts, +salamanders, and olms; a pair of olms, which a friend had brought him +back from Carniola, he kept in a subterranean tank in his garden, +enhancing thereby in the eyes of the village his reputation as a +physician. The last guest, Mr. Greenish, was a well-groomed bachelor of +about forty, one of that class who suddenly appear for no obvious reason +in remote country villages and devote themselves to gardening or other +forms of outdoor life, who are useful about the parish, and who often +play billiards well. They may be criminals hiding from justice; more +probably they are people who have inherited money late in life from +aunts, and who, having long dreamed of retiring into the country, do so +at the first opportunity. Mr. Greenish did not hunt, but he was a good +shot, and Clarehaven found him the least intolerable of his immediate +neighbors. + +It cannot be said that Dorothy found it difficult to shine at such a +party; indeed, she was such a success that when the evening came to an +end no doubt remained in the dowager's mind that to-morrow morning +Little Cherrington church would have double its usual congregation to +see the new countess. In fact, Mr. Kingdon was so much taken with her +that he announced his own intention of worshiping at Little Cherrington, +and the rector regretted that he had not known of this beforehand in +order that he might have seized the opportunity, in the absence of the +squire, to test the congregation of Great Cherrington with a linen +chasuble. As a matter of fact, on the way home he plotted with Mr. +Hemming to do this, and was successful in passing off the vestment on +the congregation as a flaw in the curate's surplice. + +Dorothy looked particularly attractive that Sunday in her coat and skirt +of lavender box-cloth, for the fashion of the moment was one that well +showed off a figure like hers. The rector's sermon on a text from the +Song of Solomon alluded with voluptuous imagery to the romance of the +married state, and, being entirely unintelligible to the congregation, +was considered round the parishes to be one of the best sermons he had +ever preached. If only to-morrow, thought Dorothy, when she walked out +of the churchyard through a crowd of uncovered rustics, she could leave +the hunting-field as triumphantly. Her rides on the preceding days with +Clarehaven and the girls had been successful. They had all congratulated +her, and any lingering anxiety in her husband's mind seemed to have +passed away. As the moment drew near, however, Dorothy began to be +nervous about breaches of hunting etiquette, and she spent Sunday +afternoon in turning over the pages of bound volumes of _Punch_ in order +to extract from the weekly hunting joke hints what not to do. A +succession of irate M. F. H.'s, purple in the face and shaking crops at +presumptuous cockneys, haunted her dreams that night; when she woke to a +moist gray morning, for the first time in her life she felt really +nervous. It was in vain that she sought to reassure herself by recalling +past triumphs on the stage or by telling herself how easily she had +dealt with Lady Chatfield. Failure in either of those cases would not +have been irremediable; but let her make no mistake, before to-day's +dusk she should have settled the whole of her future life. If she made a +fool of herself she should never escape from being pointed out as a +Vanity girl; if she succeeded, the Vanity girl would be forgotten, and +by sheer personal prowess she might lead the county. It was a tribute to +Dorothy's complexion that not even on this rather shaky morning did she +feel the need for rouge. Five Tree Farm was only three miles from Clare +Court, and the meets there, being considered the best of the season, +always had very large fields. She was disappointed that Tony was not in +pink, but he told her he did not care enough about hunting to dress up +for it. + +"That's what I like about shooting," he said, "there isn't all this +confounded putting it on." + +The master cantered up and congratulated Dorothy on her first appearance +with the Horley Hunt. + +"We're going to draw Dedenham Copse first," he informed her, and +cantered off again, shouting loudly to two unfortunate young men with +bicycles who were doing no harm at all, but whom he persisted in abusing +as "damned socialists." Suddenly, hounds gave tongue with changed, +almost intolerable eager note; there was a thud of hoofs all round her; +confused cries; the sound of a horn shrilling to the gray sky.... + +"Wonderful morning for scent," she heard somebody say, and flushed +because she thought a personal remark had been passed about herself; but +before she had time to worry who had said it and why it had been said +Mignonette was nearly leading the field. + +"Dorothy," shouted her husband, "for God's sake don't get too far in +front. Hold your mare in a bit. And for God's sake don't ride over +hounds." + +But Dorothy paid no attention to him and was soon galloping with the +first half-dozen. By her side appeared Charlie Fanhope. + +"Topping run," he breathed. "I say, you're looking glorious. Awful to +think I shall be on the way to Eton this time to-morrow." + +She smiled at him; from out of the past came the memory of an old +colored Christmas supplement on the walls of the nursery in Lonsdale +Road. A girl and a boy on rocking-horses, brown and dapple-gray, the boy +wearing a green-velvet cap and jacket, the girl befrilled and besashed, +were both plunging forward with rosy smiles. Underneath it had been +inscribed: "Yoicks! Tally-ho!" While her mare's heels thudded over the +soft turf, Dorothy kept saying to herself, "Yoicks! Yoicks! Yoicks!" +Charlie Fanhope, riding beside her, was as fresh and rosy as the boy in +the picture. + +"You can't take that gate, can you?" he was saying. + +Before her like a ladder rose a five-barred gate. At the riding-school +in Knightsbridge Dorothy had jumped obstacles quite as high; but those +had been obstacles that collapsed conveniently when touched by the heels +of her horse. + +"I say I don't think you can take that gate," Charlie Fanhope repeated, +anxiously. "I'll open it. I'll open it." + +But Dorothy in a dream left all to Mignonette; remembering from real +life to grip the pommel, to keep her wrists down, and to sit well back, +she seemed to be uttering a prolonged gasp that was carried away by the +wind as a diver's gasp is lost in the sound of the water. Where was her +cousin? Left behind to crackle through one of those gaps he knew of. +Yoicks! Yoicks! Yoicks! They were in a wide, down-sloping meadowland +intensely green, and checkered with the black and red riders in groups; +hounds were disappearing at the bottom of the slope in a thick coppice. +Nursery pictures of Caldecott came back to Dorothy when she saw the +squire with his horn and his mulberry-colored face and his huge bay +horse go puffing past to investigate the check, which lasted long enough +for Dorothy to receive many felicitations upon her horsewomanship. + +"My word! Doodles," said her husband, cantering up to her side. "You +really are a wonder, but for the Lord's sake be careful." + +"I told you that you didn't yet really know me," she murmured; before he +could reply, from the farthest corner of the coppice came the whip's +"Viewhalloo." Hounds gave tongue again with high-pitched notes of +excitement as of children playing. Forrard away! For-rard! They were off +again with the fox gone away toward Maidens' Common, and before the +merry huntsmen the prospect of the finest run in Devonshire. Thirty +minutes at racing speed and never a check; wind singing; hoofs thudding; +a view of the fox; Dorothy always among the first half-dozen riders. + +They killed some twelve miles away from Clare in Tangley Bottom, and +nobody would have accused the master, when he handed Dorothy the brush, +of being influenced by the countess's charming company at dinner on +Saturday night. Best of all in a day of superlatives, Clarehaven had +taken a nasty toss; his wife had him in hand as securely as she had +Mignonette. + +"Glorious day," Connie sighed when at last they were walking through the +gates of the park. + +"Glorious," echoed Dorothy. + +A faint flush low on the western sky symbolized her triumph. And though +one or two malicious women said that it was a pity Lord Clarehaven +should have married a circus girl, the legend never spread. Besides, +they had not been introduced to the Diana of Clare, who soon had the +county as securely in hand as her horse and her husband. + +Dorothy, tired though she was, felt the need of confiding in somebody +the tale of her triumph. She was even tempted to write to Olive. In the +end she chose her mother; perhaps the kindness of the dowager had +stirred a dormant piety. + +She wrote: + + MY DEAR MOTHER,--I am sorry I could not come and see you before I + got married, but you can understand how delicate and difficult my + position was, and how much everything depended on myself. No doubt, + later on when I am thoroughly at home in my new surroundings, it + will be easier for us to meet again. I don't know if father told + you that I did explain to him my motives in treating you all rather + abruptly. Or did he never refer to a little talk we once had? You + will be glad to hear that I am very, very happy. My husband adores + me, my mother-in-law has been more than kind, and my sisters-in-law + equally so. On Thursday we drove over to Chatfield Hall to see my + husband's grandmother, old Lady Chatfield, who is famous for + speaking her mind, and of course not at all prejudiced in my favor + by my having been on the stage. However, we had a jolly little talk + together and everybody is delighted with the impression I made. On + Saturday we had a small dinner-party. The rector, who is very High + Church and would not, therefore, appeal to father, was there. Mr. + Kingdon, the squire, would be more his style. There was also a Mr. + Greenish, who promised to teach me gardening. Quite a jolly + evening. Yesterday morning all the villagers cheered when I came + out of church, and to-day I hunted with the Horley. I was rather a + success. I hope you got the check for L500 I sent you, and that you + will buy yourself something nice with it. It isn't exactly a + present, but in a way it counts as one, doesn't it? You must try to + be a little more firm with father in future. Don't forget that + though I may seem heartless I am not really so. I hope you will + write to me sometimes. You should address the envelope to The + Countess of Clarehaven, but if you speak about me to your friends + you should speak about me as Lady Clarehaven. + + Your loving daughter, + + DOROTHY CLAREHAVEN. + + +IV + +For two years Dorothy's life as a countess went quietly along, gathering +in its train a number of pleasant little memories that in after years +were to mean something more than pleasure. The major difficulties of her +new position were all encountered and defeated in that first week; +thenceforward nothing seriously disturbed her for long. In the autumn of +the year in which Clarehaven married, the dowager, after consulting +Dorothy, decided that his restlessness was finally cured and that the +danger of his wanting to tear about the Continent in Lee-Lonsdale cars +no longer threatened the family peace. In these circumstances the +dowager thought it would be tactful to move into Clare Lodge with +Arabella and Constantia. + +She should not be too far away if her daughter-in-law had need of her, +and by moving that little way off she should do much to prevent her +son's chafing against the barriers of domesticity. It would be easier +for Dorothy to act as hostess of the shooting-parties that were arranged +for the autumn if she were apparent as the only hostess. In the +administration of the village the two countesses shared equally--the +dowager by superintending the making of soup and gruel for sick +villagers, Dorothy by assisting at its distribution. The rector won +Dorothy's heart by his readiness to discuss with her the history of the +great family into which she had married, and by preparing a second +edition of his _Clarehaven and the Clares_ for when it should be wanted, +affixing against the fifth earl's name an asterisk, like a second star +of Bethlehem, that should direct the wise reader to this foot-note: + + ...The present Earl in January, 1906, delighted his many friends + and well-wishers in the county by wedding the beautiful Miss + Dorothy Lonsdale, a distant connection of that Lord Cleveden who is + famous as a most capable administrator in the land of the golden + wattle and upon "India's coral strand." + +She for her part won Mr. Beadon's heart by often attending his services +at Clarehaven, and not merely by attending herself, but by insisting +upon Mrs. Bitterplum's and Mrs. Smith's attending, too. This arrangement +suited everybody, because the dowager at Little Cherrington was able to +worship her stained-glass window without a sense that, whatever she +might be before God's throne, she was now of secondary importance in the +church. The step up that the rector had promised himself for Easter was +effected without an apoplexy from Mr. Kingdon, possibly because the +white stole did not inflame his taurine eye. At Whitsuntide, however, +when a red stole appeared, his face followed the liturgical sequence, +and there was a painful scene in the churchyard on a hot morning in +early June. Dorothy, on being appealed to by the rector, drove over to +Cherrington Hall that afternoon and remonstrated with Mr. Kingdon on his +inconsiderate behavior. She pointed out that Mrs. Beadon was in an +interesting condition at the moment and that if Mr. Kingdon had his +prejudices to consider, Mr. Beadon had his conscience; that it was not +right for the squire to add fuel to the ancient rivalry between Great +and Little Cherrington; and finally that inasmuch as the bishop was +shortly coming to stay at Clare for a confirmation, it would be unkind +to pain his sensitive diocesan spirit with these parochial disputes. +Dorothy's arguments may not have convinced the squire, but her beauty +and condescension penetrated where logic was powerless, and Mr. Beadon +was allowed to preach for more than twenty bee-loud Sundays after +Trinity wearing a grass-green stole round his neck and with never a word +of protest from the squire. Nor were the Sundays within the octaves of +St. Peter or St. James, of St. Lawrence or St. Bartholomew, profaned by +the squire's objections to the tribute of red silk that Mr. Beadon paid +to the blood of the martyrs. His wife celebrated her husband's victory +by producing twins at Lammastide, and everybody in the neighborhood said +that the religious tone of Cherrington was remarkably high. + +In September Dorothy had her first shooting-party, to which, among +others, Arthur Lonsdale and Harry Tufton were invited. Tony had been in +camp with his yeomanry regiment during most of August; he seemed glad to +be back at Clare; the shooting was good; the visits of his old friends +from London did not apparently disturb him. Notwithstanding Connie's +lessons, Dorothy never became a good shot; she really hated killing +birds. However, she encouraged Clarehaven to go on with his favorite +sport, and herself hunted hard all the season. She was much admired as a +horsewoman, and the fact that she had not so long ago been a Vanity girl +was already as dim as most old family curses are. In early spring Tony +suggested that it would be a good idea to go up to town for the season. + +"A very good idea," she agreed. "Bella and Connie ought to be +presented." Dorothy spoke as calmly as if she had been presented +herself. "It's a pity I can't present them," she added, "but I should +not like to be presented myself. I don't think that actresses ought to +be presented, even if they do retire from the stage when they marry. +Sometimes an individual suffers unjustly; but it's better that one +person should suffer than that all sorts of precedents should be +started. Of course, your mother will present them." + +"But look here, I thought we'd go up alone," Tony argued. "I told you +I'd had the house done up very comfortably. I don't think the girls +would enjoy London a bit." + +"They may not enjoy it," said Dorothy, "but they ought to go." + +May and June were spent in town in an unsuccessful attempt to induce +many eligible bachelors even to dance with Arabella and Constantia, let +alone to propose to them. Dorothy condoled with the dowager on Arthur +Lonsdale's bad taste in not wanting to marry Arabella; Arthur himself +was lectured severely on his obligations, and she could not understand +why he would not stop laughing, particularly as Lady Cleveden herself +had been in favor of the match. Dorothy went to the opera twice a week; +but she refused to go near the Vanity. Once she drove over to West +Kensington to see her mother, whose chin had more hairs than ever, but +who otherwise was not much changed. The rest of the family alarmed her +with the flight of time. Gladys and Marjorie were the Agnes and Edna of +four years ago; Agnes and Edna themselves were getting perilously like +the Norah and Dorothy of four years ago; Cecil was a medical student +smoking bigger pipes than Roland, who himself had grown a very heavy +black mustache. The countess managed to avoid seeing her father, and +when her mother protested his disappointment she said that he would +understand. Mrs. Caffyn was too much awed by having a countess for a +daughter to insist, and she assured her that not only did she fully +appreciate her reasons for withdrawing from open intercourse with her +family, but that she approved of them. The countess gave her a sealskin +coat for next winter, kissed her on both cheeks, and disappeared as +abruptly from West Kensington as Enoch from the antediluvian landscape. + +The responsibility of two plain sisters became too much for Clarehaven; +after Ascot he admitted that he should be thoroughly glad to get back +to Clare, which was exactly what his wife had hoped. + +While Dorothy was studying with the rector the lives of obscure saints +and the histories of prominent noblemen, she took lessons with the +doctor in natural history and with Mr. Greenish in horticulture. Mr. +Greenish enjoyed sending off on her account large orders to nursery +gardeners all over England for rare shrubs that he had neither the money +nor the space to buy for himself. Both at the Temple Show and at Holland +House he had been continually at Lady Clarehaven's elbow with a +note-book; and the glories of next summer in the Clare gardens made +bright his wintry meditations. Mr. Greenish himself looked rather like a +tuber, and it became a current joke that one day Dorothy would plant him +in a secluded border. The dowager was delighted by her daughter-in-law's +hobby, for which, though it ran to the extravagance of ordering the +whole stock of a new orange tulip at a guinea a bulb, not to mention +twenty roots of sunset-hued _Eremurus warer_ at forty shillings apiece, +and a hundred of topaz-hung _Eremurus bungei_ at ten shillings, she had +nothing but enthusiasm. + +"My golden border will be lovely," Dorothy announced. + +"It will be unique," Mr. Greenish added. "Lady Clarehaven is +specializing in shades of gold, copper, and bronze," he explained to the +dowager. + +"These roots oddly resemble echinoderms," said Doctor Lane, looking at +the roots of the _Eremurus_. + +"I should have said starfish," Mr. Greenish put in. + +"Starfish _are_ echinoderms," said the doctor, severely. + +"Wonderful!" the dowager exclaimed, with the eyes of a child looking +upon the fairies. She herself never rose to the height of her +daughter-in-law's Incalike ambitions; but her own Japanese tastes +(expensive enough) were gratified. Those black-stemmed hydrangeas were +ordered by the hundred to bloom by the edge of the pines, and Dorothy +presented her with twenty-four of M. Latour-Marlias's newest and most +expensive hybrid water-lilies. Nor did the hydrangeas come pink; they +knew that they were being employed by a noble family and preserved the +authentic blue of their patrons' blood. As the rector hoped before he +died that popular clamor in the Cherringtons would compel him to flout +his bishop by holding an open-air procession upon the feast of Corpus +Christi, so Dorothy aspired to convert the two villages from vegetables +to flowers. She knew, however, that it would be useless to attempt too +much at first in this direction, and at Mr. Greenish's suggestion she +decided to open her campaign by organizing a grand entertainment for the +two Cherringtons, Clarehaven, and the several villages and hamlets in +the neighborhood. Uncle Chat was called in to help with his advice, and +while Tony was in camp she made her preparations. Marquees were hired +from Exeter; the countryside pulsated with the spirit of competition. +Dorothy drew up the bills herself with a nice compromise between the +claims of age and strict precedence in her list of patrons. + + +CLAREHAVEN AND CHERRINGTON + + AGRICULTURAL FETE AND + + FLOWER SHOW + +Saturday, August 31, 1907 + +UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF + +The Earl of Chatfield; the Earl and Countess of Clarehaven; Lavinia, +Countess of Chatfield; Augusta, Countess of Clarehaven; the Viscount +Paignton; the Lady Jane Fanhope; the Lady Arabella Clare; the Lady +Constantia Clare; the Lady Mary Fanhope; the Lady Maud Fanhope; George +Kingdon, Esq., J.P., M.F.H., and Mrs. Kingdon; the Rev. Claude Conybeare +Beadon, M.A., and Mrs. Beadon; Dr. Eustace Lane; Horatio Greenish, Esq. + +Prizes for live stock, including poultry, pigeons, and rabbits. + +Prizes for collections of mixed vegetables. + +A special prize offered by the Earl of Chatfield for the best collection +of runner-beans. + +A special and very _valuable_ prize offered by the Countess of +Clarehaven for the best collection of _flowers_ from a cottage garden. + +A special prize offered by the Dowager Countess of Clarehaven for the +best collection of wild flowers made by a village child within a +four-mile radius of Clare Court. + +A special prize offered by Doctor Lane for a collection of insect pests +set and mounted by the scholars of Cherrington Church Schools and Horley +Board Schools. + +The Countess of Clarehaven has kindly consented to give away the prizes. + +The band of the Loyal North Devon Dragoons (by kind permission of +Colonel Budding-Robinson, M.V.O., and officers) will play during the +afternoon. + +Swings, roundabouts, cocoanut-shies, climbing greasy pole for a side of +bacon offered by H. Greenish, Esq., sack-races, egg-and-spoon races, +hat-trimming competition for agricultural laborers. + + +ILLUMINATIONS AND FIREWORKS + +Entrance, one shilling. After five o'clock, sixpence. After eight, +threepence. Children free. + + +REFRESHMENTS + + +It was a blazing day, one of those typical days when rustic England +seems to consist entirely of large cactus dahlias and women perspiring +in bombazine. Tony, to Dorothy's annoyance, had declined to open the +proceedings with a speech, and with Uncle Chat also refusing, Mr. +Kingdon had to be asked to address the competitors. He bellowed a number +of platitudes about the true foundations of England's greatness, told +everybody that he was a Conservative--a Tory of the old school. He might +say amid all this floral wealth a Conservatory. Ha-ha! He had no use for +new-fangled notions, and, by Jove! when he looked round at the +magnificent display that owed so much to the energy and initiative of +Lady Clarehaven, by Jove! he couldn't understand why anybody wanted to +be anything else except a Conservative. + +"No politics, squire," the village atheist cried from the back of the +tent, and Mr. Kingdon, who had been badly heckled by that gentleman at a +recent election meeting, descended from the rostrum. + +When the time came to distribute the awards Dorothy sprang the little +surprise of which only Mr. Greenish was in the secret, by making a +speech herself. She spoke with complete self-assurance and, as the +_North Devon Courant_ said, "with a gracious comprehension of what life +meant to her humbler neighbors." + +"Fellow-villagers of the two Cherringtons and of Clarehaven," she began, +evoking loud applause from Mr. and Mrs. Bitterplum and Mr. and Mrs. +Smith, who between them had raised the largest marrow, for which they +would shortly receive ten shillings as a token of England's gratitude, +"in these days when so much is heard of rural depopulation I confess +that looking round me at this crowded assembly I am not one of the +alarmists. I confess that I see no signs of rural depopulation among the +merry faces of the little children of our healthy North Devon breed. I +regret that the committee did not include in its list of prizes another +for the best collection of home-grown children." (Loud cheers from the +audience, in the middle of which one of the little Smiths of Clarehaven +had to be led out of the tent because there was some doubt whether in +chewing one of the prize dahlias he had not swallowed an earwig.) +"Meanwhile, I can only marvel at the enthusiasm and good will with which +you have all worked to make our first agricultural fete the success it +undoubtedly has been. I am told by people who understand these things +that no finer runner-beans have ever appeared than the collection of +runner-beans for which, after long deliberation by the judges, Mr. Isaac +Hodge of Little Cherrington has been awarded the prize." (Cheers.) "I +will not detain you with eulogies of the potatoes shown by our worthy +neighbor, Mr. Blundell of Great Cherrington. Nor shall I detain you by +singing the praises of the really noble beet-roots from the garden of +Mr. Adam Crump of Horley Hill. But I should like to say here how much I +regret that the collections of flowers fell so far below the standard +set by the vegetables. We must remember that without beauty utility is +of little use. This autumn I shall be happy to present flower seeds to +all cottage gardens who apply for them. Mr. Greenish has kindly +consented to act as my distributer. Next year I shall present five +pounds and a silver cup for the best exhibit from these seeds. And now +nothing remains for me except to congratulate once more the winners on +their well-deserved success, and the losers on a failure that only the +exceptional quality of the winning exhibits prevented being a success, +too." + +Amid loud cheers Dorothy pinned rosettes to the lapels of the perspiring +competitors, shook hands with each one, to whom she handed his prize +wrapped in tissue-paper, and, bowing graciously, descended from the +dais. + +"Now if I can make a speech like that at a flower-show," she said to her +husband that evening, "why can't you speak in the House of Lords?" + +The fact of the matter was that Dorothy was beginning to worry herself +over Clarehaven's lack of interest in the affairs of his country. Since +they had been married the only additional entry in Debrett under his +title was the record of his being a J.P. for the county of Devon. +Dorothy felt that this was not enough; he should be preparing himself by +his demeanor in the House of Lords to be offered at least an +under-secretaryship when the Radicals should be driven from power. + +"All right," said Tony. "But I can't very well play the hereditary +legislator and all that if you insist upon keeping me down in the +country." + +"When does Parliament reassemble?" she asked. + +"Oh, I don't know. Some time in the autumn, I suppose." + +"Very well, then, we'll go up to town on one condition, which is that +you will make a speech. If you haven't spoken within a week of the +opening I shall come back here." + +Tony, in order to get away from Devonshire, was ready to promise +anything, but at the end of October, on a day also memorable in the +history of Clare for the largest battue ever held in those coverts, +Dorothy told her husband that she was going to have a baby. + +He flushed with the slaughter of hundreds of birds, she flushed with +what all this meant to her and him and England, faced each other in the +bridal chamber of Clare that itself was flushed with a crimson October +sunset. + +"Tony, aren't you wildly happy?" + +"Why, yes ... of course I am ... only, Doodles, I suppose this means you +won't go up to town? Oh well, never mind. Gad! you look glorious this +evening." He put his arms round her and kissed her. + +"Not that way," she murmured. "Not that way now." + + +V + +The pride and joy that Dorothy felt were so complete that she would take +no risk of spoiling them by allowing her husband to intrude upon her at +such a time. This boy of hers--there was no fear in her sanguine and +circumspect mind that she might produce a daughter--was the fruit of +herself and the earldom. To this end had she let Clarehaven make love to +her, and if now she should continue to allow him such liberty she should +be cheapening herself like a woman of pleasure. If at first she had +rejoiced in her own position as a countess, all that self-satisfaction +was now incorporated in this unborn son to be magnified by him into +nobility and all that was expressed by nobility in its fullest sense. +The thrill that every woman, however much she may dread or resent it, +feels at the first prospect of maternity was for Dorothy heightened +beyond any comparison that would not be blasphemous. On this small green +earth would walk a Viscount Clare that, having taken flesh from a Vanity +girl, should be the savior of his country. It no longer mattered that +her husband was blind to the duties of his rank when she held in her +womb, not some political pawn-broker like Disraeli, but an incarnation +of the benign genius of aristocracy, a being that would indeed ennoble +herself. Yet the father of this prodigy regarded him merely as an +unwelcome hindrance to his plan for spending the winter in London. If it +were not for the duty she owed to a great house to produce other +children, and so by every means in mortal power save the family from +extinction, she should never again live with Tony as his wife. What had +been all their kisses except the prelude to this event? Did he with his +boots and his guns suppose that as a man he counted with this unborn son +within her? Poor vain fool, not to have comprehended that every conjugal +duty, every social obligation, every movement of her head, every flash +of her eye, every offer of her hand since she came to Clare had been +consecrated to this great issue. Yet his flimsy imagination, which, were +it never so flimsy, might at such a moment have managed to spur his body +to kneel in awe of the future, had thought of nothing except to make +love as lightly as he had made incessant love to her ever since they +were married. Love! What did she care for that kind of love? Only for +this result, only because she had believed that perfect fruit comes from +perfect blossom, had she yielded to him all of herself with passion, +sometimes with ecstasy. And now her reward was at hand. The wild +autumnal gales might sweep round the ancient house, but at last it was +secure; she, Dorothy Lonsdale, had secured it. + +There was no hunting, of course, for Dorothy this season, not even in +so mild a form as cubbing, and, amorous of solitude, she often used to +walk by herself to Clarehaven; there, on one of those green headlands +that had withstood the sea when the fortifications of Clare had crumbled +in the foaming tide, she would sit by the hour, drinking in from the +salt blast strength and endurance for this son of hers dedicate from the +womb to his country and to his order. On those wild days the little +church, which belonged to the dim origins of the family and had been +built by sea-rovers to abide in their hearts while they were seafaring, +became a true shrine for her. She would take refuge there from the fury +of the storm, and there sit in an ancient chair bleached and worm-eaten, +her eyes fixed upon that east window stained by nothing save spindrift +and scud from the sea. The wind would howl and shriek, would rattle at +the hasps of the narrow windows like hands entreating shelter, would +drum and whistle and moan by the old oaken doors, while Dorothy sat in a +stillness of gray light, herself radiant with that first beauty of +coming motherhood before the weary months of waiting have begun to drag +the cheeks. There for hours she would sit, her eyes shining, her neck +blue-veined with blood coursing to reinforce the second life that was in +the making, her complexion not paragoned by the petal of any rose in all +the roses that ever had or ever would bloom at Clare. + +Everything in the little church had taken on a luminous gray from the +open space of light by which it was surrounded. The altar was of +granite; the candlesticks of pewter; the crucifix of silver. Wise with +all his follies, the rector had chosen this church to express whatever, +still untainted by expediency or snobbery, was left of his inmost +aspirations, and here he had allowed nothing to affront the stark +simplicity of such architecture. Here there were no chrysanthemums in +brazen vases, only sprigs of sea-holly gathered by children on the salt +edge of the downs, sea-holly from the fled summer that preserved the +illusion of having been gathered yesterday. The benches had not been +varnished; year by year they had slowly assumed that desiccated +appearance of age which gives to wood thus mellowed a strangely +immaterial look, a lightness and a grace, rough-hewn though it be, that +varnished wood never acquires. In this building, wrought, it seemed, by +labor of wind and cloud, of air and rain, Dorothy's coloring exceeded +richness; when the yellow winter sun shone through the landward windows +the effulgence mingled with the hue of her cheeks to incarnadine the +very air around her and blush upon the stones beyond. How often had she +sat thus in meditation upon nothing except the power and strength of her +unborn son! Could her husband wait beside her in this church where his +pirate ancestors, dripping with sea-water, had thanked God for their +deliverance and for booty stacked upon the beach below? Not he! He would +be trying to play with her wrist all the time, pecking at her with +kisses like a canary at a lump of sugar. + +Dorothy had no desire to make a secret of her condition; she was only +too anxious that everybody who could appreciate its importance should be +made aware of it. Yet there was nothing in her of the gross femininity +that takes a pleasure in accentuating the outward signs of approaching +motherhood and, as if it had done something unusual, rejoices in a +physical condition that is attainable by all women. Dorothy's pride lay +in giving an heir to a great family, not in adding another piece of +carnality to the human race. Compared with most women, the grace and +beauty with which she expressed her state was that of a budding daffodil +beside a farrowing sow. So little indeed did Tony realize her condition +that in January, on the anniversary of their wedding, he half jestingly +rallied her on simulating it to keep him down in Clare. He added other +reasons, which offended her so deeply that for the rest of these months +she demanded a room to herself. Dorothy knew that by loosening the +physical hold she had over him she was taking a risk, but she staked +everything in the future upon the birth of this son, and she declined to +imperil his perfection upon earth by unpleasant thoughts in these +crucial months of his making. Perhaps, if she had been patient and taken +a little trouble to explain her point of view more fully to Tony, he +might have understood, but she was so intent upon aiding this other life +within her that she could not spare a moment to educate her husband. + +The super-dowager of Chatfield had kissed her grandson's wife on +Christmas Eve, and when at Candlemas the old lady died Dorothy was sad +to think she had not lived to kiss her son. The manner of her death was +characteristic. February had come in with a spell of balmy weather, and +Lady Chatfield, according to her habit on fine days, insisted upon going +out to sun herself in front of the house. In this occupation she was +often annoyed by hens invading the drive; to guard herself against their +aggression she used always to be armed with several bundles of fagots, +which she kept at her side to fling at the aggressive birds. Her son had +often begged that she would allow the hens to be kept far enough away +from the house to secure her against their trespassing; but the old lady +really enjoyed the sport and passed many contented hours shooting at +them like this with fagots. Unfortunately, that Candlemas morning, +either she had come out insufficiently provided with ammunition or the +birds were particularly venturesome. When the luncheon-bell rang there +was not a fagot left, and a quantity of hens were clucking with impunity +round her still form. At such a crisis her self-propelling chair must +have refused to work for the first time; with ammunition exhausted, +transport destroyed, communications cut, and the enemy advancing from +every point, the old lady had died of exasperation. The dowager, grieved +by what in her heart she felt was an unseemly way of dying and faintly +puzzled how to picture her mother in the heavenly courts, spent a good +deal of time in Little Cherrington church, praying that she would be +humble in Paradise. The dowager's childlike and apprehensive fancy +played round an apocalyptic vision of her mother criticizing the sit of +a halo, or poking with a palm-branch just men in the eye. She confided +some of these fears to Mr. Beadon, who tried to impress upon her his own +conceptions of Eternal Life, gently and respectfully rebuking her for +the materialism of which she was guilty. Dorothy found something most +admirable in the super-dowager's death; she wished her own unborn son +might inherit his great-grandmother's pertinacity and defiance for the +time when, like intrusive poultry, democracy should invade the +privileges of his order. + +The dowager's loss of her mother was followed in March by a blow that +upset her more profoundly. During a fierce gale a large elm-tree in +Little Cherrington churchyard was blown down and in its fall broke the +Burne-Jones window that commemorated the fourth earl. It was no great +loss to art, but the effect upon the dowager was tremendous. The shock +of seeing the irreverent winds of March blowing through that colored +screen she had set up between herself and the reality of her husband +destroyed the figment of him that her pampered imagination had +elaborated, and she remembered him as he was--an ill-tempered gambler, a +drunken spendthrift, always with that fixed leer of ataxy for a pretty +woman ... she remembered how once she had overheard somebody say that +Clarehaven was now a rake without a handle. Her conscience was pricked; +she must warn Dorothy of what the Clare inheritance might include. + +"Dorothy dear," she implored. "I don't like to seem interfering, but I +do beg you not to leave Tony alone too much. I fear for him. I--" with +whispers and head-shakes she poured out the true story of her married +life. + +But Dorothy, with her whole being concentrated upon that unborn son, had +no vigilance to waste on Tony. If he should go to the bad, let him go. +The sins of the fourth earl and the follies of the fifth should all be +forgotten in that paragon the sixth. At the same time, the dowager's +story left its mark on Dorothy; thenceforward, when she paced the long +picture-gallery of Clare, she would often ask herself in affright what +passions and vices, what weakness, shame, and folly, had been cloaked by +those painted forms of ancestors. She would give him her flesh; but he +must inherit from them also; from those unblinking eyes he must derive +some of the gleams in his own. But it should be from his mother that he +derived most ... then she caught her breath. If that were so he would +have in him something of Gilbert Caffyn, of that hypocrite her father. +When the dowager's window was broken air was let in upon Dorothy's +painted screen as well. She was honest with herself on those mornings +when she paced the long gallery; she made no more pretense of romantic +origins; the Lonsdale bugle-horn was cracked and useless. By what she +was should her son live, not by what she liked to think she might be. +Some of the strength that she had summoned for him during those autumnal +hours in the little church by the sea she begged now for herself; while +she defied those frigid glances that ever watched her progress up and +down, up and down that long gallery, she stripped herself of all sham +glories and for the sake of him within her dedicated herself to truth. +Lady Godiva, riding naked through the streets of Coventry, was not more +heroic than Dorothy riding naked through her own mind for the sake of +that Lucius-Clare-to-be called by courtesy Viscount Clare. + +Dorothy had chosen Lucius for his name after that other viscount who was +Secretary of State to Charles I, that Lucius Cary who was killed at +Newbury and whose story she had happened upon while reading tales of the +great dead. If Lucius, Viscount Clare, could be like Lucius, Viscount +Falkland, what would West Kensington matter? What would the Vanity mean, +or that flat round the corner? What would signify the plebeian soul of +her father? + +The only person at present to whom Dorothy confided the name she had +chosen was Arabella. The two girls had been very sympathetic during +those winter months, and had entirely devoted themselves to their +sister-in-law. At first, when she had withdrawn herself every day to go +and meditate in Clarehaven church, they had been shy of intruding upon +her; but their interest in family affairs, from those of guinea-pigs to +those of cottagers, had become so much a part of their ordinary life +that they could not resist trying to obtain Dorothy's permission for +them to be interested in hers. Connie, whose main object was to watch +over Dorothy's physical well-being, was ready to give it as much +devotion as she would have given to a favorite mare in foal or to a +litter of blind retriever pups; Arabella, who had inherited some of the +dowager's ability to dream, was content to sit for as long as Dorothy +wanted her company and talk of nothing except the future greatness of +her nephew. Connie brought pillows for Dorothy's back; Arabella brought +her books, in one of which Dorothy read about that very noble gentleman, +Lucius Cary. + +In February Clarehaven went up to town, partly because shooting was +over, partly because he did not want to attend his grandmother's +funeral. His behavior was commented upon harshly by Fanhopes and Clares +alike; barely two years after her marriage Dorothy found that she, who +was supposed to have been going to bring the families to ruin and +disgrace, was now regarded as their salvation. Whatever she said was +listened to with respect, whatever she did was regarded with approval. +Before her pregnancy, Dorothy's conceit would have been gratified by +such deference; now it only possessed a value for her son's sake. She +longed more than ever for general esteem; but she coveted it for him, +that he might grow up with pride and confidence in his mother. + +When primroses lightened the woods of Clare like an exquisite dawn +between the dusk of violets and the deep noon of bluebells, Connie +exercised her authority over her half of Dorothy, forbade so much +reading indoors, and prescribed walks. Dorothy now haunted the recesses +of the woodland; when Tony, who had received a number of reproachful +letters for staying in town at such a time, came back, she was gentler +with him than any of the others were. + +Those days spent in watching the deer, already snow-flecked to match the +dappled sunlight of the woods, had been so enriched by contemplation of +the active grace and beauty of these wild things that Dorothy discovered +in herself a new affection for Tony, an affection born of gratitude to +him, because it was he who had given her all this. He came back on a +murmurous afternoon of mid-May. Dorothy was sitting upon the summit of a +knoll where a few tall beeches scarcely troubled the sunlight with their +high fans of lucent green. Beneath her ran a meadow threaded with the +gold of cowslips, and while she stared into cuckoo-haunted distances she +heard above the buzzing of the bees the sound of his car. Starting up, +she waved to him, so that he stopped the car and ran up the slope to +greet her. + +"Why, Doodles, what's the matter?" he exclaimed. "You've been crying." + +He was embarrassed by her hot wet cheeks when she pressed them to his. + +"No, they're happy tears," she said. "I was thinking of him and that one +day all this will be his." She caught the landscape in a gesture. "All +the autumn, Tony, I prayed for him to be great and strong, and all the +winter that he might be great and good. Now I think I should be happy if +he did nothing more remarkable than love this land--his land. Tony, +don't you feel how wonderful it is that you and I should give somebody +all this?" + +Formerly, when Dorothy had talked about their son, the father had not +been able to grasp that there would ever be such a person. Now in this +month before the birth he experienced a sudden awe in regarding his +wife. That embrace she had given him for welcome, her figure, the look +in her eyes--they were strange to him; she was strange to him--a new +mysterious creature that awed him as an abstraction of womanhood, not as +a lovely girl that granted or refused him kisses. + +"I say, Doodles, I feel an awful brute for going away like that." + +She laughed lightly. + +"You needn't. I was happier alone. Don't look so disconsolate. I'm glad +you've come now." + +"I didn't stay up for the Derby," he pleaded, in extenuation of his +neglect. + +She laughed again. + +"Tony, you haven't yet heard his name. I've chosen Lucius." + +"That's a rum name. Why Latin all of a sudden? Or if Latin, why not +Marcus Antoninus, don't you know?" + +"It's a name I like very much." + +He looked at her suspiciously. + +"Who did you know called Lucius?" + +"Nobody. It's a name I like. That's all." + +"You promise me you never knew anybody called Lucius?" He had caught her +hand. + +"Never." + +"All right. You can have it." + +But the nimbus round her motherhood was for the husband melted by the +breath of jealousy. Let children come to interrupt their love, she would +be his again soon; and what trumpery she made of those women with whom +he had played in London as a lonely child plays with dolls. + +Dorothy's confinement was expected about the middle of June. When the +nurse arrived, for the first time in all these months she began to have +fears. She never doubted that the baby would be a boy; but she had dark +fancies of monstrosity and madness, and the nurse had all she could do +to reassure her. The weather during the first week of the month was damp +and gusty; after that gilded May-time it seemed worse than it really +was. The rustling of the vexed foliage held a menace that the sharp +whistle of the winter gales had lacked. However, by the middle of the +month the weather had changed for the better, and the last day was +perfect. + +When Dorothy's travail began in the afternoon, the nurse asked for the +mowing of the lawns to be stopped, because she thought the noise would +irritate her patient. Dorothy, however, told her that she liked the +noise; in the comparatively long intervals between the first pains the +mower consoled her with its pretense of mowing away the minutes and thus +of audibly bringing the time of her achievement nearer. + +The car was sent off to Exeter for another doctor, notwithstanding +Dorothy's wish that nobody except Doctor Lane should attend her. The old +gentleman had much endeared himself by his lessons in natural history, +and that he should crown his teaching by a practical demonstration of +his knowledge struck her as singularly appropriate. Doctor Lane himself +expressed great anxiety for assistance, because it looked as if the +confinement was going to be long and difficult. So hard was her labor, +indeed, that when the Exeter doctor arrived it was decided to give her +chloroform. + +"Nothing's the matter, is it?" she murmured, perceiving that +preparations were going on round her. "Why doesn't he come? Nurse," she +called, "if babies take a long time, it means usually that the head is +very large, doesn't it?" + +"Very often, my lady, yes. Oh yes, it does mean that very often. Try and +lie a little bit easier, dear. That's right." + +"I think I'm rather glad," said Dorothy, painfully. "Lord Salisbury had +an enormous head." + +"Fever?" whispered Doctor Lane, in apprehensively questioning tones. +"Tut, tut!" + +Dorothy tried to smile at the silly old thing; but the pain was too much +for smiles. + +There was another long consultation, and presently she heard Lord +Clarehaven being sent for. + +"What's the matter?" she asked, sharply. "I'm not going to die, am I? I +won't. I won't. He mustn't be brought up by anybody else." + +The nurse patted her hand. Outside some argument was going on, rising +and falling like the lawn-mower. + +"A pity it's so dark," Dorothy murmured. "The mower had stopped, and I +liked the humming. All that talking in the corridor isn't so restful. +What's the time?" + +"About half past ten, my lady." + +A mighty pain racked her, a rending pain that seemed to leave her with +reluctance as if it had failed to hurt her enough. Her whole body +shivered when the pain passed on, and she had a feeling that it was a +personality, so complete was it, a personality that was only waiting in +a corner of the room and gathering new strength to rend her again. + +Delirium touched her with hot fingers. It seemed that her body was like +the small triangle of uncut corn round which the reaper relentlessly +hums. It was coming again; it would tear the fibers of her again; it was +coming; the humming was nearer every moment. In an effort to check the +incommunicable experiences of fever, she asked if it was not the +lawn-mower that was humming. + +"No, dear, it's the doctors talking to his lordship." + +"What about?" + +The humming ceased, for they gave her chloroform. When she came to +herself she lay for a second or two with closed eyes; then slowly, +luxuriously nearly, she opened them wide to look at her son. There was +nobody. + +"Where is he?" she gasped, sitting up, dizzy and sick with the drug, +but with all her nerves strung to unnatural, uncanny perceptiveness. + +The dowager was leaning over the bed and begging her to lie down. + +"What's burning my face?" cried Dorothy. + +"It must be my tears," her mother-in-law sobbed. + +"Why are you crying? My boy, where is he? Where is he? Oh, tell me, tell +me, please tell me!" + +The dowager and the nurse were looking at each other pitifully. + +"Dorothy, my poor child, he was born dead." + +The mother shrieked, for a pain that cut her ten thousand times more +sharply than all the pains of her travail united in a single spasm. + +"It was a question, dear, of saving your life or losing the baby's." + +"You're lying to me," Dorothy shrieked. "It was a monster! I know that. +It was a monster, and it had to be strangled. Oh, Doctor Lane, Doctor +Lane, why did you let them bring another doctor? You promised me you +wouldn't." + +"No, no," said the dowager. "It was a perfect little boy with such +lovely little hands and toes. Everything perfect; but his head was too +large, dear. It was a question of you or him, and of course Tony +insisted that he should be sacrificed." + +"Where is he? Tony!" + +Her husband came in and knelt by the bed. + +"Why did you do that? Why? Why didn't you let me die? He would have been +so much better than me. Can't you understand? Can't you understand?" + +Everybody had stolen from the room to leave them together; but when he +leaned over to kiss her she struck him on the mouth. + +"You only wanted me for one thing," she cried. + +"Doodles, don't treat me like this. I can't express myself. I never +imagined that anything could be so horrible. I was asked to decide. You +don't suppose I could have lived with a cursed child who had killed +you!" + +"How dare you curse him?" + +"Dorothy, we'll have another. Don't be so miserable." + +Suddenly she felt that nothing mattered. + +"Will we?" she asked, indifferently. + +"And we'll go up to town this autumn." + +"Yes, there's nothing to keep us here," she said, "now." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +I + +One Hundred and Twenty-nine Curzon Street was the dowry that the third +Marquess of Longlan provided for his daughter, Lady Caroline Lacey, on +her marriage in 1818 with Viscount Clare, the only son of the second +Earl of Clarehaven. It was a double-fronted Georgian house with a +delicate fanlight over the door, from which a fan-shaped flight of steps +guarded by a pair of tall iron flambeau-stands led down to the pavement. +That famous old beau, the first marquess, had given an eye to the +architecture, and, being himself a man of fine proportions, had seen to +it that the rooms of his new house would set off his figure to +advantage. Solid without being stolid, dignified but never pompous, +graceful but nowhere flimsy, and for everybody except the servants, who +lived like corpses in a crypt, convenient--the town residence of Lord +Clarehaven was as desirable as those desirable young men of Assyria upon +whom in their blue clothes Aholah doted not less promiscuously than +house-agents have doted upon a good biblical word. + +When the second earl took charge of his wife's dowry, the fashions of +the Regency were in the meridian, and the house was decorated and +furnished to suit the prevailing mode. Apart from the verse of the +period, there have been few manifestations of art and craft more +detestable either for beauty or for comfort than those of the Regency. +Great bellying lumps of furniture as fat and foul as the First Gentleman +himself, and with as much superfluity of ornament as the First +Gentleman's own clothes, were introduced into 129 Curzon Street to spoil +the fine severity of the Georgian structure. Ugly furniture was added by +the third earl, whose taste--he was a vice-chamberlain of the royal +household in the 'fifties--was affected by his position as a mind is +affected by misfortune. The dowager during the esthetic ardors that +glowed upon the first years of her married life hung a few green and +yellow draperies in the drawing-room, and during the early 'nineties she +stocked these with woolen spiders or with butterflies of silk and +velvet; in fact, when the fifth earl took over the control of his town +house it was filled from the cellars to the attics with the accumulated +abominations of eighty-five barbarous years. No doubt he would never +have noticed the ugliness of the furniture if the discomfort of it had +not been so obtrusive; but when he was planning to live merrily with his +bride in Curzon Street he invited Messrs. Waring & Gillow to bring the +house up to date with its own period and the present, allowing them a +free hand with everything except the chairs, beds, and sofas, of which +it was stipulated that none was to rate form or style above comfort. On +the whole the result was an improvement; and since there are always +enough relays of new competitors in the race for originality, purchasers +were soon found even for those triads of chairs that are still seen in +mid-Victorian drawing-rooms like empty cruets upon the mantelpiece of a +coffee-room, and Tony was able to get a good price for the furniture of +Gillows, who were by now as thoroughly worm-eaten as their handicraft. +The arrangement with the decorators being modified by Dorothy's +unwillingness to live in London, he postponed the complete renovation of +the house to that happy date in the future when he and she should agree +that East West, town's best. + +Now at Clare, when Dorothy was lying in bed, careless of everything, +Tony invited her to choose patterns from the books of wall-papers and +chintzes sent down by Messrs. Waring & Gillow. Finding his wife in no +mood to choose anything, he decided to gratify as well as he was able +the taste she had expressed five or six years ago in the Halfmoon Street +flat. The result was a series of what are called "chaste color schemes," +which after being debauched by numerous chairs upholstered in glossy +scarlet leather became positively meretricious under the temptation of +silver-cased blotters and almanacs; four months after Dorothy's +confinement the transformation of 129 Curzon Street into the dream of a +Vanity girl was complete. She was still in too listless a mood to do +anything except give a tired assent to whatever her husband proposed; +physically and emotionally she was worn out, and when a second +agricultural fete and flower-show was billed for August 25, 1908, she +scarcely had the heart to present in person the silver cup and five +pounds for the best flowers grown from the seeds she had supplied with +such enthusiasm. Every adjunct of the show accentuated her own failure; +from the women with their new babies to the chickens and the parsnips, +everything seemed a rebuke to her own sterility. + +Dorothy's pride might often degenerate into mere self-confidence, but it +had hitherto been her mainstay in life; her failure to produce that son +had sapped the foundations of pride by destroying self-confidence; her +dignity as Tony's wife had been assailed, and she began to fret about +the shallowness of her feeling for her husband. She would have been able +to support a blow that fell with equal heaviness upon both, because she +would have rejoiced in proving to Tony that she was more courageous than +he; but he, from want of imagination, had let her feel that she had made +a fuss about nothing; his attitude had been such, indeed, that in +resuming relations with him she could not dispel the morbid fancy that +she was behaving like his kept mistress. Once, in her determination to +define their respective views of marriage, she asked him how he could +bear to make love to a woman who was apparently so cold; in his answer +he implied that her coldness was rather attractive than otherwise. + +"But if you thought I really hated you to come near me?" she pressed. + +"You don't really," he replied, and she turned away with a sigh of +exasperation at the astonishing lack of sensitiveness in the male. + +"You're nervy and strung up just at present," he went on. "And perhaps +it has been bad for you to have so much of me all the time. But when you +go back to town and find that you're envied by other women...." + +"Because I'm married to you?" she interrupted, sharply. + +"No, no, Doodles, I'm not so conceited as all that. Envied because you +will be the loveliest of them all. But other men will envy me because +I've got you for a wife. I don't think you realize how lovely you are." + +She did realize it perfectly; but she resented a compliment that was +inspired by self-satisfaction. + +"The pleasure in being married to me, then," she challenged, "is that +you're keeping me from other men? You wouldn't mind if I told you that I +hated you, that I only married you to have rank and money, that I hooked +you in the way an angler hooks a fat trout?" + +"I was quite content to be hooked," said Tony. + +"If I were unfaithful to you?" + +His eyes hardened for a moment, like those of a groom who is being +defied by a jibbing horse. + +"Try it, old thing," he advised, and the whistle that lisped gently +between his set teeth made expressive the quick breaths of rage that +such a question evoked. + +It was the day after the flower-show; they were sitting on the curved +seat at the end of the pergola. Dorothy's question had an effect upon +the conversation as if a painter had begged them to sustain a certain +attitude until he could perpetuate it by his art; the stillness of deep +summer undisturbed by a bird's note or by a whisper of a falling leaf +was like thick green paint from which their forms, hastily sketched in, +faintly emerged. Tony's whistle had ceased and he was stroking his +mustache as if the action could help him to realize that he was alive. +There seemed no reason why they should not sit there forever, like the +statues all round, or the ladies and lovers in a picture by Mr. Marcus +Stone. It was Tony who broke the spell by getting up and announcing +business with somebody somewhere. + +Dorothy, left alone on the seat, watched his form recede along the +pergola, and asked herself in perplexity what she wanted as a substitute +for that well-groomed, easy, and assured piece of manhood. If she was +trying to tell herself that she pined to love a man without thought of +children or considerations of rank and fortune, she could always elope +with the first philanderer that presented himself. But she could not +imagine any man for whose sake she would sacrifice as much. To be sure, +she was not yet twenty-five; there lay before her many long years, one +of which a grand passion might shorten to an hour. But could she ever +fall in love? It was not merely because she was hard and ambitious that +she was not in love with Tony and that she could not imagine herself in +love with anybody else. In all her life no man had presented himself +whom she could imagine in the occupation of anything like the half of +one's personality that being in love would imply. Indeed, if she looked +back upon the men she had known, she liked Tony best personally, apart +from the material advantages that being married to him offered. Perhaps +the mood she was in was nothing more than a morbid fastidiousness caused +by physical exhaustion; perhaps by going up to town and leading another +sort of life she should be able to view marriage more naturally. She had +always criticized other women for the ease with which they fell into a +habit of indulging themselves with the traditional prerogatives of their +sex. Her own path had always lain so obviously in front of her nose that +she had been impatient of the incommunicable aspirations expressed by +other women with sighs and yearning glances; to her such women had +always appeared like the tiresome people who are proud of not possessing +what they would call "the bump of locality." Such dubious and +apprehensive temperaments had always irritated her; madness itself was +for Dorothy the result of a carefully cultivated hysteria; even illness +had always seemed to her only a fraudulent method of securing attention. +Was she now to array herself in the trappings of conventional +femininity? She bent her mind--and it was not a pliable mind--as +straight as she was able, and told herself that even if she failed +ultimately to produce an heir no one could question her fitness and +willingness to produce an heir. Anything that went wrong in the marriage +would not be her fault. As a wife she had justified herself; and if +motherhood was to be denied her--oh well, what did all this matter? She +was too much exhausted to keep her mind straight, and at the first +relaxation of her will it jumped away from her control like the +mainspring of a watch, the quivering coils of which, though they were +all of a piece, were impossible to trace consecutively to their +beginning or end. The monotonous green of late summer depressed her +wherever she looked; earth was hot and tired, as hot and tired as one of +the women at the show yesterday. Life was not much more varied than a +big turnip-field in which two or three coveys of birds were put up, some +to be killed, some to be wounded, some to whir away into turnip-fields +beyond. + +"Which means that I'm still thoroughly exhausted," Dorothy murmured. +"But I can't think of the past because he is there, and the future seems +dreary because he will never be there." + +When at the beginning of October the moment came to drive up to London, +the problems of birth and death, of love and happiness, were +overshadowed by the refusal of the car to go even as far as Exeter. + +"We really must get a Lee-Lonsdale," said Tony. He made this +announcement in the same tone, Dorothy reflected bitterly, as he had +announced that they would have another baby. + +When the butler opened the door of 129 Curzon Street, the house was full +of birds' singing. + +"Canaries, don't you know, and all that," Tony explained. "I thought +you'd like to be reminded of the country." + +Dorothy looked at him sharply to see if he was teasing her, but he was +serious enough, and for the first time since that night in June when her +son was born dead she was able to feel an affection for him so personal +and so intimate that if they had been alone at the moment she might have +flung herself into his arms. He had taken a box for the theater that +night and was most eager for her to dine out with him, but she was much +tired after the journey and excused herself. Since he was evidently +dismayed by the prospect of an unemployed evening, she begged him to go +without her, which after a short and not very stoutly contested argument +he agreed to do. + +Dorothy went up early to her bedroom, where for a long while she sat at +the open window, listening to the traffic. How often she had sat thus at +the window of her bedroom in Halfmoon Street and what promises of +grandeur had then seemed implicit in the majestic sound. Only three +years ago she had still been in Halfmoon Street; she could actually +remember one October night like this, an October night when the still +warm body of a dead summer was being pricked by wintry spears. On such a +night as this Olive had called to her not to take cold, had warned her +that it was bad for her voice to sit at an open window. She had been +thinking about herself in Debrett and planning to be a marchioness; it +was Olive's interruption which had brought home sharply to her the +necessity of cutting herself off forever from the theater if she married +Clarehaven. Yes, it had been a night just like this, and that other +window was not five minutes away from where she was sitting now. + +A taxi humming round a distant corner reminded Dorothy of an evening on +the lawns at Clare when Doctor Lane had lectured her on the habits of +night-jars. + +"Country sights and country sounds," she exclaimed, and she shivered in +a revulsion against them all, because, though she had proved her ability +to share in that country life, the blind overseer Fate had withdrawn her +to another environment and the overseer must always be propitiated. + +The sound of the traffic was casting a spell upon Dorothy's tired +nerves; she began to take pleasure in it, welcoming it as a sound +familiar and cherished over many years. She looked back at herself a +year ago sitting in Clarehaven church, with almost a blush for the +affectation of it all, or rather for what must have seemed like +affectation to other people. She had allowed herself to exaggerate +everything, to dream sublimely and wake ridiculously, to be more than +she was ever meant to be. Not music of wind and sea, but this dull music +of London traffic was the fit accompaniment for her. She knew that now, +when her own sighs absorbed in the countless sighs of the millions round +her took their place in the great harmony of human sorrow. Above the +castanets of hansoms and the horns of motors the omnibuses rolled like +drums ... the hansoms were going back, back, the motors were going +forward; but the omnibuses were going home, home, home. And was not her +own journey through life like journeys she had taken as a child when the +omnibus after a glittering evening went home, rumbling and rolling home? + +Dorothy had nearly fallen asleep; waking to full consciousness with a +start, she laughed at her fancies; quickly shutting the window, she drew +the curtains and walked about the golden bedroom as if she would assure +herself that the evening was not nearly spent yet, that not for her was +some dim omnibus waiting to carry her home ... home. She checked the +fresh impulse to dwell upon the monotonous rumble of the traffic and +drove the sound from her mind. Of what could she complain, really? What +other girl like herself would not envy her good fortune? What other girl +would not laugh at her for thinking that life was dull because she had +failed at the first attempt to produce a son? In this comfortable +bedroom, amid flowers of chintz, was she not already more at home than +she had ever been along the herbaceous borders of Clare? The fact was +that her life at Clare had been a part sustained with infinite verve and +accomplishment through many months, but always a part. Yes, it had been +a part which she had sustained so brilliantly that she had nearly ruined +the well-mounted but not very brilliant play in which she had been +performing. The dowager had been right when she had expressed her fears +for the effect upon Tony of his wife's behavior. She had considered her +warning as kindly, but quite unnecessary; she had even pitied the poor +little beaver-like dowager for likening her own position with that rake +of a husband to that which Dorothy occupied in respect of the son. But +the dowager had been right. Herself had risked the substance for the +shadow, and in her lust for personal success she might abruptly have +found that the play had stopped running. Luckily, it was not too late to +remedy the mistake. Here was the scene set for a new act in which Tony +must be allowed his chance. Poor old boy, he was not asking for much, +and he was still so dependent upon her that it would be a pleasure to +spoil him a little now. Should she not really be flattered that he loved +her more than an heir to his name, his rank, and his fortune? What would +it signify if the house of Clare became extinct? Would those ladies in +the long gallery, those ladies simpering eternally at sea and sky, be a +whit less immobile if children laughed on the lawns below? Would they +blink their eyes or move a muscle of their rosy lips? Not they. And if +strangers held their beauty in captivity, would they care? Not they. +And if the earth fell into the sun so that nothing of poor mortality, +not even Shakespeare, endured, would they simper less serenely in the +moment before their painted lips blistered and were consumed? Not a whit +less serenely. None of the people on other planets would care if the +fifth Earl of Clarehaven was the last; even if the people of Mars had a +telescope big enough to see what was happening on earth, they would only +watch us with less compassion than we watch ants on a burning log. + +"And if by chance they have got such a telescope," Dorothy murmured, +"how absurd we must look." + +Earth shrank to nothing even as she spoke, for on that thought she fell +asleep where she was sitting and did not wake until Tony came back. + +"Hullo, Doodles! Why do you go to sleep in your chair?" he asked. + +"Did you enjoy the theater?" + +"Well, as a matter of fact," he admitted, "I didn't use the box. I +thought, as you wouldn't come, I'd drop in and have a look at the new +show at the Vanity. Pretty good, really. Your friend Olive Fanshawe was +in a quintet. She has a few lines to speak, too, and looks very jolly. I +wish you'd come with me one night. I think you'd enjoy it." + +"I will if you like," said Dorothy. + +"No, really?" he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "Now, isn't that +splendid! I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll have a party for my +birthday next week. Dine at the Carlton. Two boxes at the Vanity, and +supper afterward at the Savoy. I say I shall enjoy it, Doodles!" + +"How old will you be?" she asked, with a smile. + +"Twenty-six. Aging fast. Have to hurry up and enjoy ourselves while we +can." + +"I shall be twenty-five in March," she said. + +Then suddenly she seemed able to throw off all her fatigue and to forget +all her disappointment. + +"Sorry I've been so dull these last few weeks," she murmured. "Tony, do +you still love me?" + +"You never need ask me that," he said. "But do you love me?" + +She nodded. + +"Couldn't you say it? You never have, you know. Couldn't you just +whisper 'yes'?" + +"Yes." + +"Cleared it," he shouted, and while he was in his dressing-room she +heard him singing: + + "For Dolly's out and about again, + She doesn't give a damn for a shower of rain. + Here's Dolly with her collie! + And London, dear old London, + London is itself again." + +This outburst was followed by a silence which was presently broken by a +sound of torn paper. + +"What are you tearing up, Tony?" + +"Oh, nothing," he called back, in accents of elaborate indifference. +"Only an old program." + +In the morning Dorothy looked in the paper-basket, the bottom of which +was lightly powdered by the fragments of a letter. She stooped to pick +up the pieces; then she stopped. + +"What does it matter who it was for? It was never sent. But I was only +just in time." + +On October 15th a party of eight visited "The Belle of Belgravia" at the +Vanity. Besides Tony and Dorothy, there were Arthur Lonsdale, who had +long forgotten all about Queenie Molyneux and could now watch a musical +comedy as coldly as a dramatic critic whose paper did not depend on the +theatrical advertisements. He brought his partner, Adrian Lee, whose +pretty little wife, all cheeks and hair, looked much more like an +actress than Dorothy, though she was really the daughter of a bishop. +People used to wonder how a bishop came to have such a daughter; they +forgot that while he was a vicar he had written a commentary on the Song +of Solomon, with foot-notes as luscious as the plums that sink to the +bottom of a cake. Harry Tufton came, and a Mrs. Foster-ffrench who went +everywhere except where she most wanted to go and was always a little +resentful that even with her two "f's" she could not hook herself up to +some altitudes. However, that was Mrs. Foster-ffrench's private sorrow, +and she did not let it mar a jolly evening. The other guests were Capt. +Archibald Keith, late of the 16th Hussars, who had abandoned the cavalry +in order to write the librettos of musical comedies, and a Mrs. +Mainwaring, who kept a fashionable hat-shop in Bruton Street and was the +widow of poor Dick Mainwaring, a brother of Lord Hughenden. Everybody +always spoke about him as poor Dick Mainwaring, but whether because he +had been killed at Paardeburg or because he had married Rita Daubeny was +uncertain; it probably varied with the point of view of the speaker. The +friends of Mrs. Mainwaring put down any oddness in her behavior to +French creole blood and a childhood in Martinique; to the former was +also attributable her chic in hats; to the latter the dryness and pallor +of her complexion; French blood or French brandy, Martinique or Martell, +the Hon. Mrs. Richard Mainwaring certainly did stimulate conversation +just as paprika stimulates the appetite. But however jocund her life, +her hats were chaste, and however sharp her play, her name was +honorable. Moreover, so many people owed her money that they had to be +pleasant to her. Mrs. Foster-ffrench, in spite of her name, had no +French blood to excuse her odd behavior; in fact, she had nothing except +a hyphen and those two "f's." Mr. Foster-ffrench was a younger son who, +having failed to grow sisal profitably in the Bahamas, was now +experimenting in Mozambique with the jikungo or Inhambane nut, and +liable at any moment to experiment with vanila in Tahiti or pearls on +the Great Barrier Reef; the only experiment he was never likely to make +was going back to Mrs. Foster-ffrench. Dorothy wondered what Tony found +to attract him in such a gathering; yet he was in tremendous spirits, +obviously delighted that Archie Keith should have met the Vanity +comedian that afternoon and warned him who would be in front. He was +proud that all the girls on the stage kept their eyes on Dorothy +throughout the evening, proud that the comedian inserted two special +gags for the benefit of the jolly party, which were rewarded by a loud +burst of laughter; and when the alarmed audience trained their +opera-glasses upon the boxes as a beleagured garrison might train their +guns upon the wild yell of savages he was radiant. After the performance +they sat round a large circular table in the Savoy, and when the +orchestra played "Dolly and her Collie" there was so much applause from +the tables all round that Dorothy could not help feeling rather proud of +the pleasure her return to town had given and was touched to think that +her memory was still green. The evening wound up at the Lees' flat in +Berkeley Street, when Adrian Lee and Clarehaven hospitably lost a good +deal of money to their guests in the course of three hours' baccarat. + +Now that Dorothy had broken her rule and had visited the Vanity for the +first time since she had left the boards, she felt that she could not +maintain her policy of isolation any longer; she told Clarehaven as much +when they were strolling back down Curzon Street and breathing in the +air of night after those feverish rooms. + +"Doodles, my dear thing, I'm delighted! I never wanted you to give up +any of your old friends. It was you who insisted on cutting them out +like that." + +"And if," she went on, "we can sit in a box with Rita Mainwaring, I +don't think I can keep up this pretense of not being able to meet +Olive." + +"I quite agree with you. I should love to meet Olive again." + +"Then what about asking her to lunch?" Dorothy suggested. + +"The sooner the better," he assented, enthusiastically. + +A note was sent round to the Vanity, in which Dorothy, without making +the least allusion to anything that had happened in the past, most +cordially invited Olive to lunch with them two days later. Olive +replied, thanking Dorothy for the invitation, but mentioned that she was +now living with Sylvia Scarlett, and, since she did not like to go +without her and since she knew Dorothy and Sylvia were no longer on good +terms, was afraid she must decline lunch, though she promised to come +and see her old friend some afternoon. + +"Living with Sylvia Scarlett, eh?" commented Tony, with raised eyebrows. + +They were sitting in the smoking-room, where in the silence that ensued +the red arm-chairs seemed to be commenting upon this problem raised so +suddenly, seemed, like wise and rubicund ministers of state, to be +bringing their minds to bear silently upon things in general. "Sylvia +Scarlett!" Dorothy kept saying to herself, while the scarlet leather +answered her. She was perplexed. For one reason she should like to meet +Sylvia again, because she felt that better, perhaps, than anybody Sylvia +would appreciate her point of view. Could she but bring herself to be +frank with Sylvia, she could think of no one who would respond with a +more intelligent sympathy to the tale of her disappointment. Moreover, +if she showed the least disinclination to exclude Sylvia she might give +Tony the impression that she was still resenting that week-end at +Brighton, a notion which her pride was not sufficiently subdued to +contemplate with equanimity. Yet to make friends again with Sylvia +openly would be to penetrate rather more deeply into the hinterland of +the bohemian seacoast than she had intended, even after going to the +Vanity with Mrs. Mainwaring and Mrs. Foster-ffrench. + +"I suppose you wouldn't care to have Sylvia here," Tony said at last; +"though of course...." + +Dorothy interrupted him sharply. "Why not?" she asked. "Why should I +object to have Sylvia here any more than I should object to being seen +at the theater with Rita Mainwaring?" + +"I thought that perhaps...." he began again. + +She told him to ring for a messenger-boy and immediately wrote to invite +Sylvia to lunch as well. + +It was difficult, considering the circumstances in which Dorothy had +parted from Sylvia and Olive, for any of the girls to avoid a feeling of +constraint when they met again; Dorothy, for her part, had to make a +great effort not to let her nervousness give an impression that she was +being reserved with her old friends. Lonsdale, however, who had +fortunately been invited, was very talkative, and Tony was in boisterous +spirits, so boisterous, indeed, that once or twice Dorothy looked at him +in surprise. When he returned her glance defiantly she wondered if she +had not made a mistake in her policy; if before consenting to come down +to her husband's level she had properly safeguarded herself. No doubt in +spite of her disapproval he would have gambled and drunk and made an ass +of himself with the Mainwarings and the Foster-ffrenches, but by +withholding herself she would have retained, at any rate, as much power +over him as would have kept him outwardly deferential to his wife. Now +he was no longer afraid of her. + +Dorothy was roused from her abstraction by hearing herself addressed as +Cousin Dorothy by Lonsdale. He was in a corner with Sylvia, and they +were amusing themselves, presumably at her expense; Dorothy darted an +angry look at Sylvia, who shook her head with so mocking a disclaimer +that Dorothy gave up the notion of confiding in her old friend. Sylvia +evidently still regarded her with hostility and contempt, and was as +ready to pour ridicule upon her now as she used to be in the +dressing-room on tour. On tour! The days on tour crowded upon her +memory. From the corner where Sylvia and Lonsdale were chatting she +heard Lily's name mentioned. What was that? Lily had married a croupier +in Rio de Janeiro? But how unimportant it was who married what in this +world. After so short a time, life lost its tender hues of sunrise or +sunset and became garish or dim. On tour! The funny old life trickled +confusedly past her vision like a runaway film, and she took Olive's +hand affectionately. Olive was as sympathetic as if she had never been +treated so heartlessly that day in Brighton, as eager to hear that +Dorothy was happy, as eager to accept her assurances that she was. Tears +stood in her eyes when she was told about the baby; but somehow her +sympathy was not enough for Dorothy, who only awarded her a half-hearted +sort of confidence that was sentimentalized to suit the listener. If she +could have confided in Sylvia she would have told the story without +sparing herself, but Sylvia had snubbed her; and, anyway, the past was +not to be recaptured by talking about it. + +Notwithstanding Sylvia's indifference, Dorothy went out of her way to +invite her often to Curzon Street that autumn and early winter. She was +fascinated by her play at baccarat and _chemin de fer_; she wondered +upon what mysterious capital she was drawing, for, though her name was +not coupled with any man who would pay her debts, she was apparently +able to lose as much money as she chose. It seemed impossible that it +should be her own money; but so many things about Sylvia seemed +impossible. In January Olive showed symptoms of a tendency to +consumption; Sylvia, without waiting an instant to win back any of her +losses, took her off to Italy for a long rest. + +"_I_ despise Tony, and _she_ despises me," Dorothy thought. "But isn't +she right?" + +She looked round her at the drawing-room of 129 Curzon Street, where in +a foliage of tobacco smoke the faces of the gamblers stared out like +fruit, and upon the green tablecloth the cards lay like fallen petals. +Was not Sylvia right to despise her for encouraging Mrs. Mainwaring and +Captain Keith and Mrs. Foster-ffrench and half a dozen others like them? +Was not Sylvia right to despise her for setting out as a countess so +haughtily and coming down to this? How she must have laughed when Olive +told her about the parting in Brighton, and how little she would believe +her tales of rural triumphs like the meet at Five Tree Farm. Sylvia +probably considered that she had found her true level in seeing that her +gambling guests were kept well supplied with refreshments. + +In March even Clarehaven grew tired of baccarat with Captain Keith and +the rest of them, and one morning a big new six-cylinder Lee-Lonsdale +was driven up to 129 Curzon Street by the junior member of the firm, who +wanted to advertise his wares on the Continent. Clarehaven's man and +Dorothy's maid took the heavy luggage by train; the car with Dorothy, +Lonsdale, Clarehaven, and a chauffeur swept like an arpeggio the road +from London to Dover, transhipped to Calais, and made a touring-car +record from Paris to Monte Carlo, whence Lonsdale, after booking some +orders, returned to England without it. Tony lost five thousand pounds +at roulette, a small portion of which he recovered over pigeons. He +would probably have lost much more had not Dorothy told him, on a +rose-hung night of stars and lamplight, that she was going to have +another baby and that she must go back to Clare. + +The prospective father was so pleased with the news that he set out to +beat the record established by Lonsdale on the way down, drove into a +poplar-tree, and smashed the car. Dorothy had a miscarriage and lay ill +for a month at a small village between Grenoble and Lyons. Tony was +penitent; but he was obviously bored by having to spend this idle month +in France, and as soon as Dorothy was well enough to travel and he had +assured himself that she was not nervous after the accident, he drove +northward faster than ever. They reached Clare at the end of May. + + +II + +The bluebells were out when Dorothy came home, their pervasive sweetness +sharpened by the pungency of young bracken; even as sometimes the +heavenly clouds imitate the hills and valleys of earth or lie about at +sunset like islands in a luminous and windless ocean, so now earth +imitated heaven, and the bluebells lay along the woodland like drifts of +sky. May was not gone when Dorothy came back; the cuckoo was not even +yet much out of tune; the fallow deer did not yet display all their +snowy summer freckles; the whitethroat still sang to his lady sitting +close in the nettles by the orchard's edge; apple-blossom was still +strewn upon the lengthening grass; the orange-tip still danced along the +glades; the red and white candles upon the horse-chestnuts were not yet +burned out. It was still May; but June like a grave young matron stood +close at hand, and May like a girl grown tired of her flowers and of her +finery would presently fall asleep in her arms. And like the merry month +Dorothy pillowed her head upon the green lap of June. For several weeks +she made no allusion to the accident on the way home from Monte Carlo; +nor, beyond the perpetually manifest joy she took in the seasonable +pageant, did she give any sign of her distaste for the way she and Tony +had spent the past year. The problem of what was to happen next autumn +was not yet ripe for discussion, and in order to enjoy fully the present +peace Dorothy persuaded Clarehaven to accept an invitation to go fishing +in Norway, after which he would camp with the yeomanry for three weeks; +and then another year would have to be catered for so that not one +minute of it should be wasted--in other words, that it should be +squeezed as dry as an orange to extract from it the last drop of +pleasure. Tony wanted her to come with him to Norway, but she made her +health an excuse and sent him off alone. + +In July the countess and the dowager were pacing the turf that ran by +the edge of that famous golden border now in its prime. The rich light +of the summer afternoon flattered the long line of massed hues which had +been so artfully contrived. The unfamiliar beauty of the bronzed +Himalayan asphodels, of citron kniphofias from Abyssinia and +sulphur-lilies from the Caucasus, of ixias tawny as their own African +lions, of canary-colored Mexican tigridias and primrose-hooded gladioli +that bloom in the rain forest of the Victoria Falls, mingled with the +familiar forms of lemon-pale hollyhocks and snapdragons, with violas +apricot-stained, and with many common yellow flowers of cottage gardens +to which the nurserymen had imparted a subtle and aristocratic shade. + +"What a success your golden border has been," the dowager exclaimed. + +Dorothy felt suddenly that she could not any longer tolerate such +compliments. The life-blood of her marriage seemed to be running dry +before her eyes while she was amusing herself with golden borders, and +she wanted her mother-in-law to understand how critical the position +was, and what disasters lurked in the future while the sun flattered the +flowers, and she flattered her son's wife. + +"I'm going to be very frank," Dorothy began. "I want to know more about +Tony's father." + +The dowager with a look of alarm leaned over the border to hide her +embarrassment. + +"My dear," she said, "how cleverly you've combined this little +St.-John's-wort with these copper-colored rock-roses. They look +delightful together." + +"Why did you marry him?" Dorothy asked. + +"Dorothy! Such a question, but really, I suppose--well, I don't know. I +suppose really because he asked me." + +"Your mother didn't insist upon it?" + +"Well, of course, my mother didn't oppose it," the dowager admitted. +"No, certainly not ... she didn't actually oppose it; in fact possibly +... yes ... well.... I think one might almost say that she.... Oh, +aren't these trolliums gorgeous? They are trolliums, aren't they? I +always get confused between trilliums and trolliums?" + +"Trolli_us_. Persuaded you into it?" Dorothy supplemented. "Did you love +him?" + +This was altogether too intimate an inquiry, and the dowager, failing to +bury her blushes in the opulent group of butter-colored flowers that she +was bending over to admire, took refuge in her bringing-up. + +"We were brought up differently in those days," she said. "I don't think +that men depended upon their wives to quite the same extent they do +now." + +"I'm asking you all this," Dorothy explained, "because as far as the +future is concerned Tony and I are standing now at crossroads. If I +oppose or, even without opposing them, if I fail to share in his +pleasures, my attitude won't have any sobering effect. But if I take +part with him willingly and enjoy what he enjoys, it may be that I shall +have enough influence to prevent his going too far. Frankly, he doesn't +seem to have an idea that there may be something else in life besides +self-indulgence, the instant and complete self-indulgence that he always +allows himself. Money and rank only exist for him because they are +useful to that end. The only thing he was ever denied for five minutes +of his life was myself, and after a period of active sulking he got me. +I suppose you spoiled him, really." + +The dowager looked melancholy. + +"I'm not reproaching you," said Dorothy. "I quite understand the +temptation. That's why I asked if you ever loved your husband. I thought +that perhaps you didn't and that you'd had to love Tony much more in +consequence. I'm sorry about that son of mine, because I should have +liked to prove that it is possible to devote oneself utterly to a son +without spoiling him. Meanwhile, I'm afraid it's too late to do anything +with Tony. You must forgive me for this attack upon illusions. I shall +never make another. I only wanted you to know, because you were kind to +me when I first came here, that I've done my best and that there's +nothing more to be done." + +"But you're so beautiful," said the dowager. "I was never beautiful." + +"Oh, so far as keeping him more or less faithful is worth while, I don't +suppose I shall have the least difficulty," Dorothy admitted. "But each +time I tame him with a kiss I reduce my own self-respect a little bit, +and I blunt his respect for me. If I were his mistress, my kisses would +be bribes to make him spend money on me; as his wife my kisses are +bribes to prevent his spending money on other women. Anyway, this is the +last that you or any one else shall ever hear on this rather unpleasant +subject. I think these tigridias that Mr. Greenish was so keen to +combine with the ixias were a mistake. They are quite faded by the +afternoon." + +It was now Dorothy's turn to direct the conversation toward flowers, +while the dowager endeavored to keep it personal. + +"I've often thought," she began, "what a pity it was for you to cut +yourself off so completely from your own family." + +"I certainly shouldn't find them of any help to me now," said Dorothy. + +"Well, I don't know. I think that a mother can always be helpful," the +dowager argued. "I think it's a pity that you should have felt the +necessity of eliminating your family like this. I dare say I was to +blame in the first place, and I'm afraid that I gave you the impression +that we were much more snobbish down here than we really are. Your +impulse was natural in the circumstances, but I had hoped that I had +been able to prove to you that my opposition was only directed against +your profession, and you who know what Tony is will surely appreciate my +alarm at the idea of his marrying merely to gratify himself at the +moment. My own dear old mother was perhaps a little more sensitive than +I am to old-fashioned ideas of rank. She belonged to a period when such +opinions were widely spread in the society she frequented. I confess +that since she died I have found myself inclining more and more every +day to what would once have been called Red Radicalism. You know, I +really can't help admiring some of the things that this dreadful +government is trying to do." The epithet was so persistently applied by +the county that for the dowager it had lost any independent +significance; it was like calling a tradesman "dear sir." + +Dorothy was tempted to ask the dowager if she did believe the account +she had given of her family, but she felt that if she suggested even the +possibility of such skepticism she should be admitting its +justification. And then suddenly she had a profound regret that her +mother had never seen Clare, had never trodden this ancient turf nor sat +beneath those cedar-trees. If the dowager had extended the courtesy of +breeding to accept those legends her daughter-in-law had spread about +herself, her courtesy would certainly not be withheld from accepting +that daughter-in-law's mother. The idea took shape; it positively would +be jolly to invite her mother to stay for a month at Clare. Tony would +not be bored; he would be away all the time. + +"And not merely your family," the dowager was saying. "Oh no, it's not +merely cutting yourself from them, but also from your friends. I've +heard somebody called Olive alluded to once or twice, and surely she +would enjoy visiting here. Though please don't think me a foolish +busybody. Perhaps Olive prefers London." + +"Olive has just got married. She was married last week." + +"Then I've heard you talk about a Sylvia, who possibly might care to +stay down here. Dear child, don't misunderstand me, I beg. I'm only +trying to suggest that you are conceivably making a mistake in dividing +your life into two. After all, look at this border. See how the +old-fashioned favorites of us all are improved by these rarer flowers. +And do notice how well the simple flowers hold their own with those +exotics that have been planted out from the greenhouse. You see what I'm +trying to tell you? If Tony has certain tastes, if he likes people of +whom you and I might even mildly disapprove, let him see them here in +another setting. However, that you must decide later on. The only thing +I should like to lay stress upon is your duty toward your family...." + +"To my mother only," Dorothy interrupted. "I have no duty toward my +father." + +"Perhaps you will think differently when you have seen your mother. I +like her so much already. How could I do otherwise when she has given me +a daughter-in-law for whom I have such a great admiration?" + +Dorothy took the dowager's hand and looked down earnestly and +affectionately into her upturned gaze. + +"Why are you always so sweet to me?" she asked. + +"Whatever I am, my dear child, it is only the expression of what I +feel." + +That evening Dorothy wrote to her mother. + + CLARE COURT, DEVON, + + _July 8, 1909_. + + MY DEAR MOTHER,--Such a long time since I saw you. Don't you think + you could manage a visit to Clare next week? Come for at least a + month. It will do you all the good in the world and I should so + much enjoy seeing you. You will find my mother-in-law very + sympathetic. I had thought of suggesting that you should bring + Agnes and Edna with you, but I think that perhaps for the first + time you'd rather be alone. The best train leaves Paddington at + eleven-twenty. Book to Cherrington Lanes and change at Exeter. On + second thoughts I'll meet you at Exeter on Wednesday next. So don't + make any excuses. + + Your loving daughter, + + DOROTHY. + +The prospect of her mother's visit was paradoxically a solace for +Dorothy's disappointed maternity. The relation between them was turned +upside down, and her mother became a little girl who must be looked +after and kept from behaving badly, and who when she behaved well would +be petted and spoiled. + +Heaven knows what domestic convulsions and spiritual agitations braced +Mrs. Caffyn to telegraph presently: + + Am bringing three brats will they be enough. + +For a moment Dorothy thought that she was coming with Vincent, Gladys, +and Marjorie, so invariably did she picture her family as all of the +same age as when seven years ago she first left Lonsdale Road to go to +the stage. A little consideration led her to suppose that _hats_ not +_brats_ were intended, and she telegraphed back: + + You will want a nice shady hat for the garden. + +Dorothy went to meet Mrs. Caffyn at Exeter in order that the three hours +in the slow train between there and Cherrington Lanes might give her an +opportunity of recovering herself from that agitation which had made her +telegram so ambiguous. It was impossible to avoid a certain amount of +pomp at the station, because the station-master, on hearing that her +ladyship was expecting her ladyship's mother, led the way to the +platform where the express would arrive and unrolled before her a red +carpet of good intentions. + +"Stand aside there," he said, severely, to a boy with a basket of +newspapers. + +"First stop Plymouth," shouted the porters when the express came +thundering in. + +"Stand aside," thundered the station-master, more loudly; perhaps he was +addressing the train this time. + +Mrs. Caffyn looked out of a second-class compartment and popped in again +like some shy burrowing animal that fears the great world. + +"What name, my lady, would be on the luggage?" asked the station-master +when, notwithstanding her emersion from a second-class compartment, he +had seen Mrs. Caffyn embraced by her ladyship. + +"Caffyn! Caffyn!" he bellowed. "Stand aside there, will you? Both vans +are being dealt with, my lady," he informed her. + +The luggage was identified; a porter was bidden to carry it to No. 5 +platform; and the station-master, taking from Mrs. Caffyn a string-bag +in which nothing was left except a paper bag of greengages, led the way +to the slow train for Cherrington. + +"I traveled second-class," Mrs. Caffyn whispered, nervously, while the +station-master was stamping about in a first-class compartment, dusting +the leather seats and arranging the small luggage upon the rack. "I +hesitated whether I ought not to travel third, but father was very nice +about it." + +"Please change this ticket to first-class as far as Cherrington Lanes, +Mr. Thatcher," said Dorothy. + +"Immediately, my lady," he announced; and as he hurried away down the +platform Mrs. Caffyn regarded him as the Widow Twankay may have regarded +the Genie of the Lamp. + +"I've brought five hats with me," Mrs. Caffyn announced when the slow +train was on its way and Mr. Thatcher was left standing upon the +platform and apparently wondering if he could not give it a push from +behind as a final compliment to her ladyship. "And now--oh dear, I must +remember to call you Dorothy, mustn't I? By the way, you know that +Dorothy is going to have a baby in November? Her husband is so pleased +about it. He's doing very well, you know. Oh yes, the Norbiton Urban +District Council have intrusted him with--well, I'm afraid I've +forgotten just what it is, but he's doing very well, and I thought you'd +be interested to hear about Dorothy. But I really _must_ remember not to +call you Norah." + +"It wouldn't very much matter, mother." + +"Oh, wouldn't it?" Mrs. Caffyn exclaimed, brightening. "Well, now, I'm +sure that's a great weight off my mind. All the way down I've been +worrying about that. And now just tell me, because I don't want to do +anything that will make you feel uncomfortable. What am I to call your +sisters-in-law? I understand about your mother-in-law. She will be Lady +Clarehaven. Is that right? But your sisters-in-law?" + +"Bella and Connie." + +"Bella and Connie?" repeated Mrs. Caffyn. "Nothing else? I see. Well, of +course, in that case I don't think I shall feel at all shy." + +Although Dorothy was no longer concerned whether her mother did or did +not behave as if she were in the habit of visiting at great houses +during the summer, she could not resist indulging her own knowledge a +little, not with any idea of display, but because she enjoyed the +feeling that somebody was dependent upon her superior wisdom in worldly +matters. Mrs. Caffyn enjoyed her lessons, just as few women--or men, for +that matter--can resist opening a book of etiquette that lies to hand. +They would not buy one for themselves, because that would seem to +advertise their ignorance; but if it can be read without too much +publicity it will be read, for it makes the same appeal to human egoism +that is made by a medical dictionary or a work on palmistry. One topic +Dorothy did ask Mrs. Caffyn to avoid, which was the life of her own +mother. After that conversation by the golden border she had little +doubt that the dowager did not accept as genuine the tapestry she had +woven of her life; but that was no reason for drawing attention to all +the fabulous beasts in the background. + +"Perhaps you'd better not say anything about Grandmother Doyle," Dorothy +advised. "I had to give an impression that she was related to Lord +Cleveden, and if you talk too much about her it would make me look +rather foolish." + +"But she did belong to the same family," said Mrs. Caffyn. + +"Yes, but I'd rather you didn't mention it. You can talk about Roland +and Cecil and Vincent, only please avoid the topic of Grandmother +Doyle." + +"Of course I'll avoid anything you like," Mrs. Caffyn offered. "And +perhaps I'd better throw these greengages out of the window." + +The dowager was much too tactful, as Dorothy had foreseen, to ask Mrs. +Caffyn any questions; she, with a license to talk about her children, +was never at a loss for conversation. There is no doubt that she +thoroughly enjoyed herself at Clare, and with two garden hats worn +alternately she sat in placid survey of her daughter's grandeur, drove +with the dowager in the chaise, congratulated Mrs. Beadon and Mrs. +Kingdon upon their children, patted every dog she met, and went home +first-class surrounded by baskets of peaches. + +Notwithstanding the dowager's advice, Dorothy sent her mother home +before Tony came back, not because she was ashamed of her, but because +she dreaded his geniality and cordial invitations to bring the whole +family to Curzon Street. She could not bear the idea of her father's +arriving at all hours, for since the revelation of his tastes that night +in St. John's Wood she fancied that he would rather enjoy the excuse his +son-in-law's house would offer him of forgetting that he was still +secretary of the Church of England Purity Society. So long as Tony did +not meet any of her family he would not bother about them; but if he +did, the temptation to his uncritical hospitality would be too strong. + +The partridges were very plentiful that autumn at Clare; the pheasants +never gave better sport. Dorothy invited Olive and her husband, a +pleasant young actor called Airdale, to visit Clare, but Olive had to +decline, because she was going to have a baby. Sylvia Scarlett Dorothy +did not invite; but Sylvia Lonsdale came with her brother, and late in +the autumn the Clarehavens went to stay with the Clevedens in +Warwickshire. Lord Cleveden talked to Tony about the need for a strong +colonial policy, and Lady Cleveden talked to Dorothy about the +imperative necessity of finding a wife for Arthur at once. The shooting +was not so good as at Clare, and Tony decided that he required London as +a tonic for the rural depopulation of his mind. + +"These fellows who've been in administrative posts get too +self-important," he confided to Dorothy. "Now I don't take any interest +in the colonies. Except, of course, British East and the Straits. When a +fellow talks to me about Queensland my mind becomes a blank. I feel as +if I was being prepared for Confirmation, don't you know?" + +They reached town toward the end of November, and within a week the old +set was round them. Baccarat and _chemin de fer_, the Vanity and the +Orient, smart little dances and rowdy little suppers, Mrs. +Foster-ffrench and the Hon. Mrs. Richard Mainwaring, they were back in +the middle of them all. Sylvia Scarlett turned up again, still +apparently with plenty of money to waste on gambling. She and Dorothy +drifted farther apart, if that were possible, and their coolness was +added to by Sylvia's recommendation of a rising young painter called +Walker for Dorothy's portrait, which Dorothy considered a failure, +though when afterward she was painted by an artist who had already risen +that was a failure, too. Sylvia seemed to misunderstand her wantonly; +Dorothy armed herself against her old friend's contempt and tried to +create an impression of complete self-sufficiency. Once in the spring an +occasion presented itself for knocking down the barrier they had erected +between themselves. Sylvia had just brought the sum of her losses at +cards to over six hundred pounds, and Dorothy, on hearing of it, +expressed her concern. + +"I suppose you wonder where I find the money to lose?" Sylvia asked. + +"Oh no, I wasn't thinking that. I'm not interested in your private +affairs," said Dorothy, freezing at the other's aggressive tone. + +"No?" said Sylvia. "You easily forget about your friends' private +affairs, don't you? But I warned Olive that your chauffeur wouldn't be +able to find the way to West Kensington." + +"How can you...." the countess broke out. Then she stopped herself. If +she tried to explain what had kept her from visiting Olive Airdale all +these months, she should have to reveal her own intimate hopes, her own +jealousy and disillusionment; she would prefer that Sylvia supposed it +was nothing more than snobbery that kept her away from Olive. If once +she began upon explanations she should have to explain why she so seldom +visited or spoke of her family. She should have to admit that she could +no longer answer for Tony, even so far as to be sure that he would not +invite her father to sit down with him to baccarat. And even those +explanations would not be enough; she should have to go back to the +beginning of her married life and expose such rags and tatters of +dreams. Her mind went back to that railway carriage on a wet January +afternoon when "Miss Elsie of Chelsea" traveled from Manchester to +Birmingham. She remembered the supper that was kept waiting for Sylvia +and her cheeks all dabbled with tears and a joke she had made about +trusting in God and keeping her powder dry. She had tried to win +Sylvia's confidence then and she had been snubbed. Should she volunteer +her own confidence now? + +"I'm sorry you've lost so much money in my house," said the countess. + +Then she blushed; the very pronoun seemed boastful. + +"Never mind. I'm going down to Warwickshire to-morrow to help Olive +bring an heir into the world." + +"Does she want a girl or a boy?" Dorothy asked. + +"My dear," said Sylvia, "she is so anxious not to show the least sign of +favoritism even before birth that in order to achieve a perfect +equipoise she'll either have to have twins or a hermaphrodite." + +In April Dorothy heard that her friend actually had produced twins. + +"It seems so easy," she sighed, "when one hears about other people." + +"Cheer up, Doodles," said Tony. "I won four hundred last night. It's +about time I got some of my own back from Archie Keith; he's been +plucking us all for months, lucky devil. I shall chuck shimmy." + +"I wish you would," said Dorothy. + +"Solemn old Doodles," he laughed. "Harry Tufton wants me to take up +racing. By Jove, I'm not sure I sha'n't. You'd like that better, +wouldn't you?" + +"I'd like anything better than these eternal cards," she declared, +passionately. + +At the same time she was a little nervous of the new project, and she +took an early opportunity of speaking about it to Tufton, who addressed +her with the accumulated wisdom of the several thousand hours he had +spent in the Bachelors' Club. + +"My dear Dorothy," he began, flashing her Christian name as his mother +flashed her diamonds. "I'm very glad you've broached this subject. The +fact is, Tony really must draw in a little bit. I don't know how much +he's lost these last two years; but he has lost a good deal, and it +certainly isn't worth while losing for the benefit of people like Archie +Keith and Rita Mainwaring. Only the other day at the Bachelors' I was +speaking to Hughenden, and he said to me, 'Harry, my boy, why don't you +exercise your influence with Tony Clarehaven and get rid of that harpy +who unfortunately has the right to call herself my sister-in-law?' Well, +that was rather strong, don't you know? And your cousin Paignton spoke +to me about him, told me his father was rather worried about Tony--the +Chatfield push feel it's not dignified. As I said to him: 'My dear +fellow, if you want to lose money, why don't you lose money in a +gentlemanly way? There are always horses.'" + +"But I don't want him to lose his money at all," Dorothy protested. + +"Quite, quite," Mr. Tufton quacked. "But you'd prefer him to lose money +over horses than present it free of income tax to Archie Keith and Rita +Mainwaring? At this rate he'll soon lose all his old friends, as well as +his money." + +Dorothy looked at the speaker; she was wondering if this was the +fidgeting of a more than usually apprehensive ship's rat. + + +III + +The Clarehaven property outside the park itself did not now include more +than three thousand acres; but some speculations in which the fourth +earl indulged after selling the old Hopley estate had grown considerably +in value during his son's minority; and when Tony came of age, in +addition to his land, which, after the payment of the dowager's jointure +and all taxes, brought him in a net income of about three thousand +pounds a year, he had something like seventy thousand pounds invested in +Malayan enterprises which paid 10 per cent, and brought up his net +income to well over eight thousand pounds. He had already been forced to +sell out a considerable sum for the benefit of Captain Keith, Mrs. +Mainwaring, and the rest of them; but should he decide to start a +racing-stable he would have plenty of capital left on which to draw. +Dorothy protested that he ought not to look upon a racing-stable as a +sound and safe investment for capital that was now producing a steady +income and that, with rubber booming as it was, would probably be much +augmented in the near future. Yet she was afraid to be too discouraging, +for, whatever might be urged against horse-racing, it offered a more +dignified activity to a gambler than baccarat. + +Clarehaven began his career on the turf with a sobriety which contrasted +with his extravagance at cards. He bought the stable of Mr. Tufton, +senior, and, leaving it in the cautious hands of old William Cobbett at +Newmarket, was content during his first season to compete in a few minor +handicaps and selling-plates. Such betting as he did was, on the whole, +lucky; he found himself toward the end of the season with a margin of +profit; and triumphantly he announced to Dorothy that he was going to +invest in some really first-class yearlings at Tattersall's and +Doncaster. She did not dissuade him, because she had had a talk with +honest old William Cobbett, who had assured her that his lordship was +willing to listen to his advice, and that if he would be guided by him +there was no reason why his lordship should not win some of the great +classic races the year after next, fortune being favorable. He spoke of +the black, white, and purple of Clarehaven as of colors once famous upon +famous courses, and implied that Saturday afternoons at Windsor or +Lingfield Park were hardly worthy of the time-honored combination. +Dorothy could not help agreeing with the trainer; throughout this first +season there had been a great deal too much of Captain Keith and Mrs. +Foster-ffrench, too much of a theatrical garden-party about those +Saturday afternoons, and although this year Tony had been lucky, another +year he might be unlucky and fritter away his money and his reputation +in the company of people who saw no difference between the green baize +of a card-table and the green turf of a racecourse. Several people had +talked of the fourth earl's great deeds upon the turf during the +'seventies; she, still susceptible to intimations of grandeur, viewed +with dismay these degenerate week-ends and encouraged Tony to aim +higher. If he would not speak in the House of Lords, he might at least +win the Derby; and if he won the Derby, surely his lust for gambling +would be satiated and he might retire to Clare to raise blood-stock. The +idea of owning some mighty horse, the paragon of Ormonde or Eclipse or +Flying Childers, obsessed her; she pictured ten years hence a small boy +attired in Gainsborough blue, proudly mounted upon a race-horse that +should be the sire and grandsire and great-grandsire of a hundred +classic winners. She became poetical, so keen was her ambition, so vivid +her hope; this mighty horse should be called Moonbeam, should be a ray +from the full moon of Clare to illuminate them all--Anthony--herself, +that son, who might almost be called Endymion. Why not? Disraeli had +called one of his heroes Endymion. Affected? Yes, but Endymion Viscount +Clare! Why should Endymion for a boy be more affected than Diana for a +girl? And why not Diana, too? Lady Diana Clare! They might be twins. Why +not? Mrs. Beadon had produced twins, Olive had produced twins. Moonshine +suffused Dorothy's castle in Spain, and moonstruck she paced the +battlements. + +Tony bought a string of horses at Tattersall's, and at Doncaster paid +L600 and L750, respectively, for two yearlings with which old William +Cobbett expressed himself particularly well satisfied. It happened that +year that a young Greek called Christides, who had lately come of age, +won the Champagne Stakes and, in his elation, bought a yearling for +three thousand guineas. It further happened that after a triumphal +dinner he gave to several friends, among whom was Tony, he lost twice +that sum at auction bridge. Though Mr. Christides was extremely rich, +his native character asserted itself by an abrupt return to prudence. He +had allowed himself a fixed sum to spend at Doncaster, and, having +exceeded his calculations, he must sell the yearling--a black colt by +Cyllene out of Maid of the Mist. There was no question that he was the +pick of the yearlings; if old William Cobbett had not protested so +firmly against the price, Clarehaven would have been tempted to buy him +at the sale. Dorothy, with her mind still a tenant of Spanish castles, +saw in the Maid of the Mist colt the horse of her dreams, and by letting +her superstition play round the animal she became convinced that it held +the fortunes of Clare. Was not the sire Cyllene, which easily became +Selene--Dorothy was deep in moon-lore--and would not the offspring of +Selene and Maid of the Mist be well called Moonbeam? Moreover, was not +the colt black with one splash of white on the forehead? When, +therefore, Mr. Christides offered the yearling to settle his losses with +Tony, in other words for L2,722, Dorothy was anxious for him to accept. +Old William Cobbett was frightened by the price, but he could urge +nothing against the colt except, perhaps, the slightest tendency to a +dipped back, so slight, however, that when Mr. Christides, still true to +his native character, knocked off the odd L22, the small sum was enough +to cure the slight depression. + +Dorothy thoroughly enjoyed the winter that followed the purchase of the +colt. As soon as Moonbeam--of course he was given the name at once--was +safe in William Cobbett's stable the trainer admitted that there was not +another yearling to touch him. In the two colts which he himself had +advised his patron to buy he could hardly bring himself to take the +least interest, and in fact both of them afterward did turn out +disappointments, one bursting blood-vessels when called upon for the +least effort, and the other a duck-hearted beast that for all his fine +appearance never ran out a race. But Moonbeam was everything that a colt +could be. + +"The heart of a lion," said honest old William, "and as gentle as a dove +with it all. Be gad! my lady, I believe you're a real judge of +horseflesh, and damme--forgive the uncouth expression--but damme, if +ever I go to another sale without you." + +"But will he win the Derby?" Dorothy asked. + +"Well now, come, come, come! This is early days to begin prophesying. +But I wouldn't lay against him, no, begad! I wouldn't lay ten to one +against him--not now I wouldn't. Dipped back? Not a bit. If ever I said +his back was dipped I must have been dipped myself. You beauty! You +love! You jewel!" + +After which honest old William took out a bandana handkerchief as big +and bright as the royal standard and blew his nose till the stable +reverberated with the sound. + +"See that? Not a blink," he chuckled. "Not a blink, begad! That colt, my +lady, is the finest colt ever seen at Cobbett House. You bird! You gem!" + +Tony himself was as enthusiastic as Dorothy or the trainer, and there +was no talk of London for a long while. He rented a small hunting-lodge +in the neighborhood to please Dorothy, and what between shooting over +the Cambridgeshire turnips and hunting hard with two or three noted +packs the winter went past quickly enough. Even better than the shooting +and the hunting were the February days when Moonbeam was put into +stronger work and, in the trainer's words, "ate it." + +"He's a glutton for work," said honest old William. + +Dorothy and he used to ride on the Heath and watch the horses at +exercise, and if only Moonbeam was successful next season with his +two-year-old engagements and if only he would win the Derby and if only +next year she might have a son.... + +Moonbeam's first public appearance was at the Epsom Spring Meeting when +he ran unplaced in the Westminster Plate, much to Dorothy's alarm. + +"He wasn't intended to do anything," the trainer explained, soothingly. +"This was just to see how he and Joe Flitten took to each other. Well, +Joe, what do you think of him?" + +"All right, Mr. Cobbett," said the young jockey, who was considered to +be the most promising apprentice at headquarters. + +The colt's next engagement was for the Woodcote Stakes at the Epsom +Summer Meeting, when he was ridden by Harcourt, one of the leading +jockeys of the day, and was backed to win a large sum. Something did go +wrong this time, for, though he was running on strongly at the finish, +he was again unplaced. + +"Dash it!" Clarehaven exclaimed, ruefully. "I hope this isn't going to +happen every time. You and her ladyship have made a mistake, I'm afraid, +Cobbett. If you ask me, he pecked." + +Honest old William looked very grave. + +"If you ask _me_, my lord, it was his jockey. The colt was badly ridden. +Still, it was a disappointment, there's no getting over it. But it's +early days to begin fretting, and he was running on. No doubt about +that. Tell you what, my lord, if you'll take my advice you'll give Joe +Flitten the mount for Ascot, and if Joe doesn't bring out what there is +in him, why then we'll have to put our heads together, that's all about +it." + +So Joe Flitten, the Cobbett Lodge apprentice, rode Moonbeam in the New +Stakes, when the colt made most of his rivals at Epsom look like +platers; although it was to be noted that Sir James Otway's unnamed colt +by Desmond out of Diavola, which had won the Woodcote Stakes, did not +run. + +"Like common ordinary platers," honest old William avowed. + +After this performance the racing-press began to pay attention to +Moonbeam, and when in July he won the Hurst Park Foal Plate with +ridiculous ease they admitted that his victory at Ascot was no fluke. + +In August Tony rented a grouse-moor in Yorkshire. His other horses were +not doing too well, but he was feeling prosperous, for Moonbeam had +already repaid him several times over his losses at Epsom; and at the +end of the month a jolly party drove over to York in a four-in-hand to +see the colt canter away with the Gimcrack Stakes. At this meeting +Dorothy really felt that Tony was what in another sense the press would +have called "an ornament to the turf." There were no Mrs. Mainwarings +and Captain Keiths with them at York, and she never felt less like a +Vanity girl than when she heard the crowd cheering Moonbeam's +victory--he was by now a popular horse--and looked round proudly at her +party; at Uncle Chat with Paignton and Charlie Fanhope; at Bella and +Connie, both bright red with joy; at Arthur and Sylvia Lonsdale, and at +Miss Horatia Lonsdale, a delightful aunt who was helping Dorothy +chaperon the girls, an easy enough task as regards Bella and Connie and +not very difficult as regards her niece. + +Finally in the autumn Moonbeam won the Middle Park Plate and was voted +the finest two-year-old seen at Newmarket for several seasons. + +"And now let him keep quiet till the Guineas," said William Cobbett, +with a sigh of satisfaction. + +"You wouldn't run him in the Dewhurst?" + +"No, no, let him rest with what he's done." + +"Cobbett is right," said Lord Stilton, one of the stewards of the Jockey +Club, who came into the paddock at that moment. "You've got the Derby +next year, Clarehaven, if you don't overwork him. That apprentice of +yours is a treasure, Cobbett." + +"A good boy, my lord." + +"You don't know my wife," Tony was saying. + +"My congratulations, Lady Clarehaven. I hear you picked out with my old +friend William here." + +Later on Dorothy was presented to Lady Stilton. She in turn presented +her daughter, the beautiful and charming Lady Anne Varley, whose +engagement to the young Duke of Ulster had just been announced. + +"My dear Dorothy," said Harry Tufton that evening, "you must admit that +my advice was good. How much better this sort of thing becomes you than +..." He waved his arms in a gesture of despair at finding any adjective +sufficiently contemptuous for those evenings at Curzon Street before his +lifelong friend, Tony Clarehaven, had followed his advice and sported +the black, white, and purple colors so famous forty years ago. + +The prospect of winning the Derby next year really did seem to have +completed Tony's cure. He raised no objections when Dorothy insisted +that his mother and his sisters should spend the autumn in town, and he +actually went three times to the House of Lords to vote against some +urgent measure of reform. He did not make a speech, but he coughed once +in the middle of an oration by a newly created Radical peer, so +significant and so nearly vocally expressive a cough that it deserved to +be recorded in Hansard as a contribution to the debate. + +Dorothy had been desirous of the dowager's help to consolidate a +position in London society that now for the first time appeared tenable. +Her meeting with Lady Stilton had given her a foothold on the really +high cliffs, and if Tony did not spoil everything she saw no reason why +she should not repeat on a larger scale in town her success in +Devonshire. It was a pity that Bella and Connie were so ugly; if she +could bring off brilliant matches for them, what a help that would be. +Of course, it was not the season; most people were out of town +notwithstanding that Parliament was sitting; but still surely somewhere +in the crowded pages of Debrett could be found suitors for the hands of +her sisters-in-law. The nearest approach to a match was when Lord +Beccles, the lunatic heir of the Marquis of Norwich, became perfectly +manageable if he was allowed to drive with Bella in Hyde Park, +chaperoned by his nurse and watched by a footman who held a certificate +from one of the largest private asylums in England. If Lord Beccles was +a congenital idiot, there were three other sons of Lord Norwich who were +sane enough, the eldest of whom, Lord Alistair Gay, agreed with Dorothy +that, if Lady Arabella was willing, the marriage would be a kindness to +his poor brother. Bella would not take the proposal seriously, and it +was evident that she regarded her drives with the poor idiot in the +light of a minor charity ranking with the care of a distempered dog or +of a cottager's baby. + +"You surely aren't serious, Dorothy," she laughed. + +"Well, it would give you a splendid position. You would be a countess +now and probably a marchioness very soon. Lady Norwich is dead. Lord +Norwich is very old, and idiots often live a long time. I'm not +suggesting that it would be anything more than a formal marriage, but +you apparently don't mind his dribbling with excitement when he sees the +Albert Memorial and.... However, I wouldn't persuade you into a match +for anything. Only it doesn't seem to me that it would imply anything +more than you do for him at present." + +The dowager told Dorothy that she would rather dear Bella married +somebody simpler than poor Lord Beccles, to which Dorothy retorted that +it might be difficult to find even a commoner more simple. Moonbeam's +victories as a two-year-old had restored that self-confidence which had +been so shaken since her marriage; Dorothy, like most nations and most +human beings, was more admirable in adversity than in triumph. The +disposition she had shown to recognize her suburban family did not last; +she knew that the integument with which she was so carefully wrapping up +her reality could be stripped from it by her relations in a second. Only +now, after she had been a countess for six years, had Dorothy +discovered the narrow bridge that is swung over the center of the +universe--the well-laid and lighted bridge so delicately adjusted to +eternity that the least divergence from correctness by one of its +frequenters might be enough to imperil its balance. That bridge Dorothy +was now crossing with all her eyes for her feet, as it were, and she +certainly could not afford to be distracted by a family. If Sylvia +Scarlett had been in London to watch this new progress she would have +made many unkind jokes about the countess; but Sylvia was away acting in +America, and in any case she would have found the door of 129 Curzon +Street closed against her. + +The dowager worried over the way Dorothy was ignoring her mother, and, +fortified with strong smelling-salts, she braved the Underground to pay +a visit to West Kensington, an experience she so thoroughly enjoyed that +she could not keep it a secret for long, but one day began to praise the +beauty of Edna and Agnes. + +"Frankly, my dear Dorothy," she told her daughter-in-law, "I must say I +think that you would be likely to have much more success as a +match-maker for your sisters than for dear Bella and dear Connie, who +even in London seem unable to avoid that appearance of having just run +up and down a very windy hill. Why not have Edna and Agnes to live with +you until they're married? And when they are married invite the youngest +two, who will also be very beautiful girls, I'm convinced. Really, I +never saw such complexions as you and all your sisters have." + +Dorothy thought the dowager's suggestion most impracticable. + +"Yes, but my most impracticable suggestions nearly always turn out +well." + +Perhaps, so sure was she of the impression that Agnes and Edna would +create in a London ballroom, the dowager would have had her way if she +had remained in town for the spring, but in the month of February, +anticipating St. Valentine's Day by a week, the Rev. Thomas Hemming +wrote from Cherrington to say that Mrs. Paxton, his godmother, had just +offered him the living of Newton Candover in Hampshire and would Lady +Constantia Clare become Lady Constantia Hemming? Lady Constantia would. +The trousseau was bought under the eyes of Dorothy, who, regardless of +the fact that she was going to marry a parson, insisted that Connie +should look beyond viyella for certain items. Soon after Easter Mr. +Beadon had to find another curate and Connie's room at Clare Lodge was +empty. + +Tony was too much occupied with Moonbeam's chances of winning the two +thousand guineas at the end of April to bother who married his sister; +but he wrote her a generous check that compensated for the decline in +value of the vicar's glebe at Newton Candover. + +"And I suppose," said Dorothy, "that next January Connie will have a +son." + +"Never mind," said her husband. "Next June you and I shall have the +Derby winner." + +Honest William Cobbett had made no secret of his conviction that +Moonbeam was going to canter away with the Guineas, and in the ring his +patron's horse was favorite at five to two. + +"It'll have to be something very hot and dark that can beat him," he +told Clarehaven. "Has your lordship betted very plentiful?" + +"I shall drop about ten thousand if the colt fails," said Clarehaven, +airily. "But most of my big bets are for the Derby. I got sixes against +him twice over to two thousand and fives twelve times in thousands. If +he wins to-day I shall plunge a bit." + +The trainer blinked his limpid blue eyes. + +"Oh, then you don't consider you've done anything in the way of plunging +so far?" + +"Nothing," said Clarehaven, flicking his mount and calling to Dorothy +to ride along with him to the Birdcage. They had taken a small house for +the meeting, and they were just off to escort Moonbeam to the +starting-post. Lonsdale and Tufton had also come down to Newmarket, the +former mounted under protest on a hack which he rode as if he were +driving a car. + +"Well, so long, Cobbett," the owner cried. "Hope we shall all be feeling +as happy in another half-hour as we are now." + +"Never fear, my lord. As I told you, there's only the Diavola colt to be +afraid of. There's not a bit of doubt he won the Dewhurst in rare +fashion, and of course that made his win at Epsom in the Woodcote look +good. And now Sir James has gone and sold him for seven thousand guineas +with a contingency to this man Houston--somebody new to racing. Well, +seven thousand guineas is a nice little price, and there's been a lot of +money forthcoming from the Winsley crowd. Dick Starkey always tries to +serve up something extra hot for Newmarket. There's nothing gives +greater delight to a provincial stable like Starkey Lodge than to do us +headquarter folk out of the Guineas, which, as you may say, is our +specialty. Stupid name, though, to give such a nice-looking animal. +Chimpanzee!" + +Dorothy uttered an exclamation. She divined the owner's name at once, +and when Lonsdale told her it was Leopold Hausberg who had been away in +South Africa and returned more rich than ever with a license to call +himself Lionel Houston in future, she was not at all surprised, but her +heart began to beat faster. + +"Come along, come along, you two. We sha'n't be in time to escort the +horses from the Birdcage." + +"I say, Tony," said Lonsdale, anxiously, "the bookies are shouting +twenty to one bar two, and Moonbeam has gone out to eleven to four." + +"Damn!" ejaculated his owner. "I wonder if there's time for me to get +any more money on?" + +"No, leave it alone," Lonsdale begged. "Good Heavens! It makes me feel +absolutely sick when I think of having ten thousand pounds on the result +of one race. Why, compared with that, flying is safer than walking." + +Two Cambridge undergraduates riding by jostled his cob so roughly that +for the next few moments his attention was bent on maintaining himself +in the saddle. + +"Flying would certainly be safer than riding for you," Clarehaven +laughed. + +"The horse's mechanism is primitive, that's what it is--it's primitive," +said Lonsdale. "And to risk ten thousand pounds on a primitive mechanism +like a horse--Shut up, you brute, _you're_ not entered for the Guineas. +I say, this steering-gear is very unreliable, you know." + +Dorothy had wanted to ask Lonsdale more about the owner of Chimpanzee; +but at this moment the sun burst forth from behind a great white April +cloud full-rigged, the shadow of which floated over the glittering green +of the Heath just as the horses emerged from the Birdcage, escorted on +either side by horsemen and horsewomen of fame and beauty. It was a fair +scene, to play a part in which Dorothy exultantly felt that it was worth +while to lose even more than L10,000. The coats of the horses shimmered +in the sunlight; the colors of the jockeys blended and shifted like +flowers in the wind; no tournament of the Middle Ages with all its +plumes and pennons could have offered a fairer scene. + +Tufton joined his friends, and, turning their mounts, they rode back +toward the winning-post. + +"I say, Tony, Chimpanzee has shunted to three's--only a fraction's +difference now between him and Moonbeam," he was murmuring. + +"Tell me more about Houston," said Dorothy to Lonsdale. "I don't think I +can bear to watch the race." + +"Cheer-oh, Doodles! You can't feel more queasy than I do. And I've told +you all I know about Houston." + +"But why should he call his horse Chimpanzee?" + +There was a roar from the crowd. + +"They're off!" + +They were off on that royal mile of Newmarket. + +"Flitten was told to ride him out from the start. Damn him, why doesn't +he do so?" said Tony. + +"He is, old boy. He's all right. Don't get nervy," said Tufton. + +"Which is Chimpanzee?" + +"That bay on the outside." + +"What colors?" + +"Yellow. Harcourt up." + +"Take him along! Take him along! Good God, he's not using the whip +already, is he?" + +"No, no! No, no!" + +"Damnation!" cried Tony, "why didn't we keep to the inclosure? I believe +my horse is beaten. Don't look round, you little blighter! It's not an +egg-and-spoon race." + +The spectators were roaring like the sea. + +"Moonbeam! Chimpanzee! Moonbeam! Moonbeam!" was shouted in a crescendo +of excitement. + +There was a momentary lull. + +"Moonbeam by a head," floated in a kind of unisonant sigh along the +rails. + +"O Lord!" Lonsdale gulped. "I'd sooner drive a six-cylinder Lee-Lonsdale +at sixty miles an hour through a school treat." + +The strain was over; the noble owner had led in the noble winner; the +ceremonies of congratulation were done; there was a profitable +settlement to expect on Monday; yet Dorothy was ill at ease. The +resuscitation of Hausberg clouded her contentment. Coincidence would not +explain his purchase of the Diavola colt, his naming of it Chimpanzee, +and his running it to beat Moonbeam. To be sure, he had failed, but a +man who had taken so much trouble to create an effect would be more +eager than ever after such a failure to ... "to do what?" she asked +herself. Was he aiming at revenge? Such a fancy was melodramatic, absurd +... after all these years deliberately to aim at revenge for a practical +joke. Besides, she had had nothing to do with the affair in St. John's +Wood. Nor had Tony except as an accessory after the fact. Yet it was +strange; it was even sinister. And how odd that Lonsdale should be +present at this sinister resurrection. + +"Lonnie," she said, "do you remember about the monkey?" + +"What monkey? Did you have a monkey on Moonbeam?" + +"Not money, you silly boy--the chimpanzee you put in Hausberg's rooms." + +"Of course I remember it. So does he, apparently, as he's called his +horse after it." + +"I know. I feel nervous. I think he's going to bring us bad luck." + +"Hello, Doodles, you're looking very gloomy for the wife of the man who +is going to win the Derby," said Tony, coming up at that moment, all +smiles. "I've just bet fifty pounds for you on one of Cobbett's fillies, +which he says is a good thing for the Wilbraham. And the stable's in +luck." + +Dorothy won L250 in a flash, it seemed--the race was only four +furlongs--and when in the last race of the day she backed the winner of +the Bretby Handicap and won another L250 Tony told her cheerfully that +she ought not to gamble because she was now a monkey to the good. +Dorothy was depressed. The L500, outside the ill omen of its being +called a monkey in slang, assumed a larger and more portentous +significance by reminding her of the L500 she had borrowed from her +mother when she first went on the stage and of the way she had invested +some of it afterward with Leopold Hausberg. All her delight in +Moonbeam's victory had been destroyed by a dread of the unknown, and she +suddenly pulled Tony's sleeve, who was busily engaged in taking bets +against his horse for the Derby. He turned round rather irritably. + +"What is the matter with you?" + +"Give it up," she begged. "Don't bet any more." + +"Give up betting when I've just won twenty-five thousand pounds over the +Guineas and am going to win one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds +over the Derby? Besides, I thought you were going to live happily ever +afterward if Moonbeam won?" + +He turned away again with a laugh, and Tufton's grave head-shake was not +much consolation to Dorothy. She was walking away a few paces in order +not to overhear Tony's jovial badinage with the bookmakers, when a suave +voice addressed her over the shoulder and, looking round, she saw +Leopold Hausberg. + +"You've forgotten me, Lady Clarehaven," he was saying. "I must explain +that I--" + +"Yes, yes," Dorothy interrupted, quickly, "you're Mr. Houston. I've just +been told so by Mr. Lonsdale, whom no doubt you also remember." + +She mentioned Lonsdale's name deliberately to see if Houston would speak +about the monkey or even show a hint of displeasure at the mention of +Lonsdale's name, but there was no shadow on his countenance, and he only +asked her if she would not introduce him to her husband. + +"I should like to congratulate him," he said, "though his win hit me +pretty hard." + +At this moment Tony with a laugh closed his betting-book and joined +them. + +"By Jove! there's not a sportsman among you," he called back to the +bookmakers. "What do you think, Doodles? There's not one of them who'll +give me four thousand to a thousand against Moonbeam for the Derby.... +I'm sorry, I didn't see you were talking to somebody." + +Dorothy made the introduction. + +"I'll give you four thousand to a thousand, Lord Clarehaven," the +new-comer offered. "Or more if you wish to bet. I don't think my horse +showed his true form to-day. He swerved badly at the start, and my +jockey says he was kicked." + +Clarehaven was delighted to find somebody who would lay against +Moonbeam, and he entered in his book a bet of L20,000 to L5,000. + +"I had the pleasure of meeting Lady Clarehaven before her marriage," +Houston was explaining. "I should have called upon you long ago, but +I've been away for some years in South Africa." + +"Making money, eh?" said Tony, holding in his mouth like a cigarette the +pencil that was going to make money for him. + +"I've not done so badly," said the other, deprecatingly. + +"Look here, you must dine with us to-night," Tony declared, cheerily. +"We're having a little celebration at the Blue Boar." + +"Delighted, I'm sure. That's what I always like about racing," said +Houston, "it brings out all our best sporting qualities as a nation." + +Dorothy thought her husband was going to say something rude, but she +need not have been worried. He had no intention of being rude to a man +who would lay so heavily against the horse he thought was bound to win. +In fact, he went out of his way to be specially friendly to Houston, and +during the month of May the financier was at Curzon Street almost every +day. Moreover, he brought with him others like himself who were willing +to bet heavily with Clarehaven, and Dorothy began to think that even +Captain Keith and Mrs. Mainwaring and those Saturday afternoons of +peroxide and pink powder at Windsor or Lingfield Park were better than +this nightmare of hooked noses and splay mouths. + +"Well," said Lonsdale, "if anybody ever talks to me again about the +'lost' tribes or the missing link, I shall ask him if he's looked in +Curzon Street. He'll find both there." + +"Tony's being a little bit promiscuous," said Henry Tufton. "But of +course one _must_ remember that the king was very fond of Jews. And then +there was Disraeli, don't you know, and the late queen." + +Just before the Derby, Houston, whom, in spite of the menace he seemed +to hold out against the future of Tony's career on the turf, Dorothy +could not help liking in the intervals when she forgot about her +premonitions of misfortune, said to her in a tone that it would have +been hard to accuse of insincerity: + +"Look here, I want to show you I'm a true friend, and I warn you that my +horse is going to win the Derby. Nothing can beat him. Tell Clarehaven +to hedge. I wish I'd not laid that bet now, for I hate taking his money. +I suppose he'd be insulted if I offered to cancel the bet? But I would, +if he would." + +Dorothy told Tony about Houston's offer; but he laughed at her and said +that, like all Jews, Houston did not relish losing his money. +Nevertheless, finding that his liabilities were alarmingly high and +knowing that Houston, not content with laying against Moonbeam, was +backing Chimpanzee wherever he could, Tony invested some money on the +second favorite and declined to lay another halfpenny against him. As a +matter of fact, the money he invested thus was in comparison with the +thousands for which he had backed Moonbeam a trifle; but rumor +exaggerated the sum, and when Chimpanzee won the Derby, with Moonbeam +just shut out of a place, there were unpleasant rumors in the clubs. + +Dorothy did not go to Epsom--her nerves could not have stood the +strain--and when she heard of Moonbeam's defeat she was grateful to her +impulse. Nowadays her self-confidence was very easily upset, and from +the moment Houston had appeared upon the scene at Newmarket she had +never in her heart expected that Moonbeam would win the great race. + +It was Tony himself who brought her the bad news. In a gray tail-coat +and with gray top-hat set askew upon his flushed face--flushed with +more than temper and disappointment, she thought--he strode up and down +the smoking-room at Curzon Street, swinging his field-glasses round and +round by their straps, until she begged him not to break the chandelier. + +"Break the chandelier," he laughed. "That's good, by Jove! What about +breaking myself? You don't seem to understand what this means, my dear +Doodles. I've lost sixty thousand pounds over that cursed animal. Sixty +thousand pounds! Do you hear? And I've got four days to find the money. +Do you realize I shall have to mortgage Clare in order to settle up on +Monday?" + +"Mortgage Clare?" Dorothy gasped; she turned white and swayed against +the table. At that moment Tony let the straps escape from his hand and +the glasses went crashing into a large mirror. + +"Yes, mortgage Clare," he repeated, savagely. + +It was only the noise of the broken glass that kept her from fainting; +weakly she pointed at the mirror and with a wavering smile upon her +usually firm lips she whispered something about seven years of bad luck. + +"Well, it's nothing to laugh about," said Tony. + +"I wasn't laughing. Oh, Tony, you can't lose Clare; you mustn't." + +"Oh well, I mayn't lose it. I may have some luck late in the season. But +my other horses have let me down badly so far." + +"You won't go on betting?" + +"How else am I to get back what I've lost? I can't make sixty thousand +pounds by selling papers!" + +"Oh, but you...." She put her hand up to her forehead and sank into one +of those comfortable chairs upholstered in red leather. "How did Cobbett +explain Moonbeam's defeat?" She felt that, however agonizing, she must +have the tale of the race to give her an illusion of action, and to +silence these bells that were ringing in her brain: "Clare! Clare! +Clare!" + +"Cobbett?" exclaimed Tony, viciously. "He's about fit to train a +bus-horse to jog from Piccadilly to Sloane Street. 'The colt doesn't +like the Epsom course, and that's about the size of it,' said Mr. +Cobbett to me. 'Course be damned, you old plowboy!' I told him. 'If you +hadn't insisted upon giving the mount to that cursed apprentice of yours +my horse would have won.' 'I don't think it was the lad's fault, my +lord,' said Cobbett, getting as red as a turkey-cock. 'Don't you dare to +contradict me,' I said. By God! Doodles, I was in such a rage that it +was all I could do not to take the obstinate old fool by the shoulders +and shake the truth into him. 'I'd contradict the King of England, my +lord, if I trained his horses and he told me I didn't know my business,' +'Well, I tell you that you don't know your business,' I answered. 'Why +didn't you let me do as I wanted and get O'Hara over from France to ride +him?' 'If you remember, my lord, in the Woodcote Stakes, we gave the +mount to Harcourt, and he made a mess of the race.' I couldn't stand +there shouting 'O'Hara! Not Harcourt!' It wouldn't have been dignified +in the paddock, and so I just told him quietly that I should have to +consider if after to-day's fiasco I could still intrust my horses to a +man who wouldn't listen to reason; after that I pulled myself together +with a couple of stiff brandies and drove the car home myself. By the +way, I ran over a kid in Hammersmith and broke its leg or something. +Altogether it's been my worst day from birth up." + +Dorothy would have liked to reproach him for drinking, to have expressed +her dismay at the accident to the child, to have whispered a word of +hope for the future, to have taken his foolish flushed face between her +hands and kissed it ... but the only speech and action she could trust +herself to make or take was to ring for a footman to sweep up the broken +glass from the floor of the smoking-room. + +Two days later, while Tony was hard at work raising the money to pay +his debts on Monday, a letter came from Newmarket: + + COBBETT HOUSE, NEWMARKET, + + _June 7, 1912._ + + _To the Earl of Clarehaven._ + + MY LORD,--After our conversation in the paddock at Epsom on + Wednesday I must give your lordship notice that I must respectfully + decline to train your horses any longer in my stables. I would be + much obliged if your lordship will give instructions to who I must + transfer them. + + I am, + + Yours respectfully, + + W. COBBETT. + +Houston, who happened to be with Tony when this letter arrived, asked +him why he did not train with Richard Starkey at Winsley on the +Berkshire Downs. + +"Yes, that's all very well," said Clarehaven, "but what about the +Leger?" + +"I'm not going to run Chimpanzee for the Leger. In fact, I've sold him +to an Australian syndicate for the stud. Your horse will be the only +representative of the stable." + +Finally Clarehaven's horses were transferred to Starkey Lodge, and +Moonbeam, as the obvious choice of the stable, gave the public a good +win at Doncaster. The victory did not do Clarehaven much good in +narrower circles, where many people had backed Chimpanzee to win the +Leger. The rumors that had gone round the clubs after the Derby sprang +to life again, and with an added virulence circulated freely. Lord +Stilton, as a friend of his father, warned Tony in confidence that he +would not be elected to the Jockey Club and advised him to go slow for a +while. + +"If the Stewards wish for an explanation," said Tony, loftily, "they can +have an explanation." + +"It is not a question of your horse's running," said Lord Stilton. +"Technically there are no grounds for criticism. But a certain amount of +comment has been aroused by your change of stables and by your +friendship with this man Houston. Altogether, my dear fellow, I advise +you to go slow--yes, to go slow." + +Tony, with the amount of money he had won back by Moonbeam's victory in +the Leger, did not feel at all inclined to go slow, and with Richard +Starkey at his elbow he bought several highly priced yearlings at the +Doncaster sales. He would show that pompous old bore Stilton that the +Derby could be won without being a member of the Jockey Club. + + +IV + +Moonbeam's victory in the St. Leger had apparently freed Clare from +mortgages, and it enabled the owner to meet a large number of bills that +fell due shortly afterward. Dorothy, who was continually hearing from +Tony how decently Houston was behaving to him, began to wonder if her +dread of the Jew had not been hysterical; and when in October he +proposed a cruise round the Mediterranean in his new yacht she did not +attribute to the proposal a new and subtle form of danger. She and +Houston were talking together in the drawing-room at Curzon Street while +Tony was occupied with somebody who had called on business. During the +summer these colloquies down in the smoking-room had kept Dorothy's +nerves strung up to expect the worst when she used to hear Tony +accompany the visitor to the door and come so slowly up-stairs after he +was gone. But since Doncaster the interviews had been much shorter, and +Tony had often run up-stairs at the end of them, leaving the visitor to +be shown out by a footman. Throughout that trying time Houston had been +always at hand, suave and attentive, not in the least attentive beyond +the limits of an old friendship, but rather in the manner of Tufton, +though of course with greater age and experience at the back of it. His +ugliness, which, when Dorothy had first beheld it again so abruptly +that afternoon in the ring at Newmarket had appalled her, was by now so +familiar again that she was no longer conscious of it, or if she was +conscious of it she rather liked it. Such ugliness strengthened +Houston's background, and when Tony's affairs seemed most desperate gave +Dorothy a hope; the more rugged the cliff the more easily will the +wrecked mariner scale its forbidding face. Yes, Houston had really been +invaluable during an exhausting year, and when now he proposed this +yachting trip she welcomed the project. + +"I think it would be good for Clarehaven to get him away from England +for a while--to give him a change of air and scene. We'll lure him with +the promise of a few days at Monte Carlo, and something will happen to +make it impossible to go near Monte Carlo, eh? A nice, quiet little +party. I have cabins for eight guests. Three hundred ton gross. Nothing +extravagant as a yacht goes." + +"And what do you call her? _The Chimpanzee?_" asked Dorothy, with a +smile. + +"No, no, no," he replied. "_The Whirligig._ A good name for a small +yacht, don't you think?" + +"Tell me," said Dorothy, earnestly. "Why did you call your horse +Chimpanzee? You know, when I first heard it, I felt you were still +brooding over that stupid business in those flats. What were they +called?" + +"Lauriston Mansions." + +"Ah, you haven't forgotten the name. I had. But what centuries ago all +that seems." + +"Does it?" + +"To me, oh, centuries!" she exclaimed, vehemently. + +Houston's eyes narrowed, as if he were seeking to bring that far-off +scene into focus with the present. + +"I oughtn't to have reminded you of it," said Dorothy, lightly. "It was +tactless of me." + +"Not at all," said Houston. "Besides, contemporary with that there are +many pleasant hours to remember" ... he hesitated for a second and blew +out the end of the sentence in a puff of cigarette smoke ... "with you." + +"Yes, I have often wondered why you were so kind to me. I think I must +have been very tiresome in those days." + +"On the contrary, you were the loveliest girl in London." + +"Girl," Dorothy half sighed. + +"Come, my dear Lady Clarehaven." Was he mocking her with the title? "My +dear Lady Clarehaven," he repeated, with the least trace of emphasis +upon the conventional epithet. "You don't expect me to be so bold as to +say what you are now?" + +For one moment he opened wide his dark eyes, and in that moment Dorothy +decided that the party on the yacht should include the dowager and +Bella. Simultaneously with this decision she was saying, with a laugh of +affected dismay, "Oh no, please, Mr. Houston." + +Tony was not at first in favor of the proposed trip, and pleaded that he +wanted to see how his yearlings wintered; but Houston insisted that +Starkey would look after them better without being worried by the owner. +Then Tony urged the claims of pheasants. He had neglected his pheasants +of late, and it would be a pity to let the Clare coverts alone for +another year. + +"Besides, I ought to look after the property," he added. + +Dorothy had heard this declaration of duty urged too often to be taken +in by it any longer. A week in Devonshire would cure Tony of a +landowner's anxiety whether about his pheasants or his peasants; after +that he would discover in his bland way that London was more convenient +than the country. + +"You can get plenty of shooting in the Mediterranean," said Houston. +"There's a desert island in the AEgean with mouflon that nobody ever +succeeds in getting." + +"What? I'll bet you two hundred to one in sovereigns that I bag a +couple," Tony cried. + +"I won't bet, because you'll lose your money. A friend of mine lay off +for a week of fine weather--that's a rare occurrence in those +waters--lost nearly a stone climbing the rocks, and at the end of it +came away without hitting one." + +"Ridiculous," Tony scoffed. "What gun did he use?" + +"Don't ask me," laughed Houston. "All I know is he was a first-class +shot, and if he couldn't succeed I don't believe anybody can." + +"That's rot," Tony declared, angrily. "When are we going to start?" + +"She's in commission and now lying at Plymouth, which will save your +mother a long journey by train." + +"My mother?" Tony echoed, in astonishment. + +Dorothy revealed her plan for inviting the dowager and Bella, and Tony +was so anxious to prove he was right about the mouflon that he made no +objections. + +"Then," Dorothy continued, "I thought Harry Tufton had better be asked. +He'll be so good at buying souvenirs in port. Your mother is sure to +want souvenirs, and you'd hate to scour round for them yourself." + +"I suppose Lonnie couldn't come," Tony suggested. + +Houston knitted his brows, but said hurriedly that Lonsdale would be an +ideal passenger for a cruise. Dorothy did not like to oppose the +suggestion; yet she was relieved when Lonsdale replied that, having +luckily arrived on this earth many years after the Flood, he did not +propose to slight dry land. "Sea-trips," he wrote, "beginning with the +Ark's have always been crowded and unpleasant. Besides, I'm learning to +fly." + +"Silly ass!" said Tony, tearing up the note. + +The dowager was rather fluttered by the notion of a cruise in a yacht. +Her knowledge of the sea was chiefly derived from Lady Brassey's journal +of a voyage in the _Sunbeam_, the continual references of which to +seasickness were not encouraging. Bella, who since Connie's marriage had +taken to writing short stories, was as eager for local color as a child +for a box of paints, and her enthusiasm at the idea of visiting the +classic sea was so loudly expressed that the dowager had not the heart +to disappoint her. She did, however, make one stipulation that surprised +her daughter-in-law. + +"If I go," she said, "you must promise me to invite one of your sisters. +Now please, Dorothy, listen to me. You owe it to them. Of course, I +should like you to invite them all and your mother, who could talk to me +while you were all climbing volcanoes and searching for the ruins of +Carthage; but I dare say Mr. Houston won't have room. However, one of +them you must invite." + +And then suddenly the dowager's suggestion seemed to provide a perfect +solution of a problem that had been vexing Dorothy. In thinking over +Houston's attitude she had been forced to explain it by the existence of +something like a tender feeling for herself. To speak of tenderness in +connection with him seemed absurd; but she was beginning to fancy that +perhaps in the old days he had in his heart all the time wanted her for +himself. If that were so, he had certainly behaved very well both now +and then. No doubt he had realized that so long as her marriage with +Clarehaven was attainable he stood no chance; but if that should have +definitely come to nothing, he must have intended to ask her to marry +him. It was with that idea he had helped her with investments, had +avoided the least hint of an ulterior motive, and had always treated her +so irreproachably. If he had concealed his love so carefully in the +past, it was not ridiculous to suppose that he might be in love with her +now. The other day he had been on the verge of saying something much +more intimate than anything in the most intimate conversation they had +ever had together. Perhaps he fancied that she and Tony were nothing to +each other now--alas! with gambling as his ruling passion Tony might +have given Houston some reason to suppose that she no longer stood where +she used to stand in his eyes--or perhaps with a real chivalry he had +perceived the dangerous course that Tony was taking and wished to save +her without obtruding himself too much. Poor ugly man, with all his +wealth he was a pathetic figure. He would suffer when he saw how devoted +she was to Tony; she had made up her mind to charm Tony back to his old +adoration of herself; this cruise might be her last opportunity. + +Then why not ask one of her sisters? Such a sister, reflecting if +somewhat faintly her own glories, might console Houston for an eternal +impossibility. In that case she must invite the eldest now at home, and +with her roses and rich brown hair might serve as a substitute for +herself. + +"Of course she hasn't my personality," Dorothy admitted. "And she hasn't +my brown eyes. But she is beautiful, and what an excellent thing it +would be if Houston should marry her. Jews have such a sense of family +duty." + +With the inclusion of Agnes the party was complete, and in the middle of +November _The Whirligig_ left Plymouth for the Mediterranean. Tony's +astonishment at the production of this beautiful sister-in-law was +laughable; but if heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay had not blanched +most of her roses, while Dorothy's own throve in the fierce Atlantic +airs, that astonishment might have turned to something less laughable. +Houston, indeed, did ask Dorothy once in an undertone if it was not +rather imprudent of her deliberately to create a rival for herself; but +by the time the yacht had rounded Cape St. Vincent and was lying at ease +in the harbor of Cadiz Tony was nearly as much his wife's slave as he +was in the first days of their marriage. Dorothy, who had felt a +momentary qualm about the success of her project when she saw the effect +of Agnes's fair form of England against this passionate beauty of the +south, decided that, on the contrary, it would be this very effect that +would impress Houston much more than Tony. So far as mortal women are +concerned, she had never had to bother much about Tony except when she +herself had been cold with him. The fickle goddess of fortune was her +only rival; but on board _The Whirligig_ he seemed out of reach of +temptation by her. Yes, the party was well chosen. Tufton by this time +had recovered sufficiently from the heavy seas to help the dowager +obtain her souvenirs of the various ports at which they called, and she +at last forgave him for his advice about the pergola; Bella, inspired by +a visit to Fielding's tomb at Lisbon, which was the first assurance she +had received that England even existed since the Lizard Light had +dropped below the horizon, was much occupied with a diary of her +impressions; Tony was occupied by herself; and what should Houston do +except occupy himself with Agnes? At the same time Dorothy had her +doubts. Whenever she was sitting quietly with Tony in some snug windless +corner of the yacht their host would always find an excuse to intervene. + +After Cadiz they called at Malaga, Cartagena, and Alicante, whence by +Valencia and Barcelona they were to sail by the shores of France toward +the lights of Monte Carlo, which Houston now wanted to visit, although +in London he had said that nothing should induce him to take the yacht +there. Tony unexpectedly argued against a visit to Monte Carlo, and was +only eager to attack the mouflon on that inaccessible AEgean isle. So the +yacht's course was set eastward from Alicante. + +"Why did you change your mind about Monte Carlo?" Dorothy asked Houston. + +"Isn't it fairly obvious?" + +She thought he was going to seize her hand and plunge headlong into a +declaration of passion; but he turned away quickly and called her +attention to the view. They were passing the southern shores of +Formentera, so close that upon the sandy beach flamingos preening their +wings in the sunset were plainly visible. The yacht called at Cagliari +and Palermo, visited the Ionian islands, and reached the AEgean by way +of the Corinth canal. The bet about the mouflon had to be canceled in +the end, because the sea was never sufficiently calm to allow a boat to +be lowered off Antaphros, and was still less likely to remain calm long +enough for a boat to leave the deserted island again. They made several +attempts to land, sailing there from their headquarters at Aphros, the +white houses of which, stained with the purple Bougainvillea and +mirrored in the calm waters of the harbor, seemed eternally to promise +fine weather. Luckily the island also offered sufficient entertainment +to compensate Tony for the loss of the mouflon; there was a club of +which many rich ship-owners were members, where high play at ecarte was +the rule, and Tony, with the good luck that often attends strangers, +repaid his hosts by winning from them nearly twenty thousand drachmas. +The war in the Balkans made it difficult for the yacht to visit +Constantinople, which was her original destination; and it was decided +to substitute Alexandria and allow the members of the party to spend a +few days in Cairo; from Egypt they would cruise along the coast of +Syria, turn westward again by Cyprus and Rhodes, and with luck land a +boat at Antaphros on the journey home, for Tony still regretted those +mouflon. + +Agnes would probably have found her stay in Aphros romantic enough at +any time; but now with the supreme romance of war added and with +handsome young Aphriotes going north upon their country's business by +every steamer, she wished no higher ecstasy from this wonderful voyage. +Agnes had enjoyed a great success on the island, where she had taught +the young men and maidens to dance whatever ragtime was then the mode in +West Kensington; where with them, when the dancing was done, she had +climbed to the ruined temple of Aphrodite on the heights above the town +and sat beneath a waning semilune that emptied her silver upon the bare +and rounded hills, upon the sea, and upon a necklace of sapphire +islands, past which the troopship now winking in the harbor below would +sail at dawn. Like father, like son, even love shoots more arrows than +usual in time of war. Agnes did not think that Egypt or Palestine could +offer better than this, and when the parents of her new friends Antonia +and Ariadne Venieris invited her to stay with them in their ancient +house until the yacht came back, she begged her sister to make it easy +for her to accept this invitation. Dorothy saw no reason to refuse, and +they sailed away without her. + +Three weeks later, when the yacht reached Rhodes, Dorothy found a letter +from Madame Venieris awaiting her arrival, in which she announced that +Agnes had married a young lieutenant called Sommaripa; she did not know +what Lady Clarehaven would think of her; she did not know how to make +her excuses; but at least she could assure Lady Clarehaven that the +bridegroom, who was now in Thrace, was an excellent young man, an orphan +with plenty of money and well regarded at court. Meanwhile, the bride +must be her guest until peace was signed and her husband was released +from service. + +Agnes herself wrote as follows: + + APHROS, + + _January 19, 1913._ + + MY DEAR DOODLES,--I suppose you're awfully fed up with me; but he + is such a perfect darling and so frightfully good-looking. He owns + a lot of land and a castle in Aphros that belonged to the + Venetians. His ancestors were Dukes of Aphros. He's an orphan and + his name is--don't laugh--Phragkiskos (Francis!) Sommaripa. I + shouldn't have married in such a tearing hurry if he hadn't been + going to the front. I'm writing to mother and father, etc. I + suppose they'll have fits; but I really don't believe there is such + a place as Lonsdale Road any more. He told me I was another + Aphrodite risen from the foam. Aphros is Greek for foam. I dare say + it sounds rather exaggerated when written down, but when he said it + with his foreign accent I collapsed in his arms. Oh, my dear, don't + be cross when you come back with the yacht. Love to everybody on + board. + + Your loving sister, AGNES SOMMARIPA. + +The news of her sister's escapade--well, it was something more than an +escapade--affected Dorothy with a jealousy that she recognized for what +it was in time to prevent herself from betraying the emotion she felt; +so eager, indeed, was she to hide it that she proclaimed her approval of +what Agnes had done, and so emphatically that the dowager was much +agitated lest Bella should follow her example; but Bella did nothing +more alarming than to sit down forthwith in the saloon and begin a very +passionate and romantic story founded upon fact and drenched in local +color. + +Meanwhile, the Italian governor of Rhodes was taking steps to assure +himself that _The Whirligig_ was not a Greek war-ship with evil designs +upon the Turkish population, which he was petting as a nurse pets a +child she has lately had the gratification of smacking. As soon as the +police spies guaranteed the harmlessness of the yacht the governor was +hospitable and invited the members of the party to shoot the red-legged +partridges and woodcock upon the Rhodian uplands. Tony, Bella, and +Tufton accepted the invitation; the dowager, fearful lest Bella should +envy the repose of some fascinating Turk's harem in the interior, +accompanied them in the motor-car as far as the road permitted, where +she alighted and passed the time in picking the red and purple anemones +that blew in myriads all around, until the sportsmen had killed enough +birds and were ready for lunch. + +Houston suggested to Dorothy that they should take a walk round the town +while the others were away; she accepted, for she was anxious to shake +off this brooding jealousy which had oppressed her since the news in +Agnes's letter. + +"I shouldn't worry myself about your sister," he was saying. + +Dorothy frowned to think he should have read her thoughts so easily. + +"I'm not worrying. I think she has done exactly right." + +"Envying her, in fact," Houston added. + +"Why should I envy her?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"Don't we always rather envy the people who do things with such +decision? Don't we sometimes feel that we're wasting time?" + +He said this so meaningly that Dorothy pretended not to hear what he had +said and looked up to admire the fortified gate of St. Catherine through +which they were passing. + +"It's like Oxford!" she exclaimed. + +Her jealousy of Agnes was stimulated by this comparison, for when they +came to the Street of the Knights she was reminded of that day when she +walked down the High with Sylvia, that Sunday afternoon which had been +the prelude of everything. How many years ago? + +"O God!" she exclaimed, reverting in her manner, as she often used in +Houston's company, to that hard Vanity manner. "O God! I shall be +twenty-nine in March!" + +"I'm over forty." + +"But you're a man. What does your age matter?" + +She was looking at him, and thinking while she spoke how ugly he was. +Perhaps he realized her thought, for his face darkened with that blush +of the very sallow complexion, that blush which seems more like a +bruise. + +"You mean I'm too hideous?" + +"Don't be silly. Let's explore this gateway." + +They passed under a Gothic arch and found themselves in a cloistered +quadrangle, so much like a small Oxford college that only a tall palm +against the blue sky above the roofs told how far they were from Oxford. + +"It's uncanny," said Dorothy. "How stupid Tony was to go off shooting +without first exploring the town. How stupid of him!" + +Dorothy wanted her husband's presence as she had never wanted it; she +wanted to help the illusion that she was back in Oxford with all the +adventure of life before her. She wanted to see him here in this +familiar setting and revive ... what? + +"I hope Agnes will be happy," she sighed. + +Close by a couple of Jews in wasp-striped gabardines were arguing about +something in a mixture of Spanish and Yiddish; without thinking and +anxious only to get back to the present, Dorothy asked Houston if he +could understand what they were talking about. Again that dark blush +showed like a bruise. + +"Why should I understand them?" he asked, savagely. + +"No, of course. I really don't know," she stammered, in confusion, for +she was thinking how much better a gabardine would suit Houston than his +yachting-suit and how exactly his pendulous under lip resembled the +under lips of the two disputants. An odd fancy came into her mind that +she would rather like to be carried off by Houston, to be held in +captivity by him in the swarming ghetto through which they had picked +their way a few minutes ago, to sit peering mysteriously through the +lattice of some crazy balcony ... to surrender to some one strong and +Eastern and.... Oh, but this was absurd! The sun was hot in this +quadrangle; she was in an odd state; it must be that the news about +Agnes had upset her more than she had thought. At that moment her eyes +rested upon the broken headpiece of a tomb that was leaning against the +cloister, and she found herself reading in a dream: "Gilbert Clare of +Clarehaven. With God. 1501." The palm still swayed against the blue sky; +the Jews still chattered at one another. Dorothy looked round her with a +dazed expression, and then impulsively knelt down among the rubble that +surrounded the tombstone and read the words again: "Gilbert Clare of +Clarehaven. With God. 1501." The Italian curator of the museum that was +being formed in the old hospital drew near and explained to Dorothy in +French that this was the tombstone of an English knight. + +"An ancestor of mine," Dorothy told him. + +The curator smiled politely; being a Latin, he certainly did not believe +her. + +"I've never seen you so much interested by anything," said Houston. + +"I never have been so thrilled by anything," she declared. "Gilbert +Clare of Clarehaven! Clarehaven! And when he left it he must have often +thought of our little church on the headland; and when he died here, how +he must have longed to be at home." + +"Does Clare mean very much to you?" Houston asked. + +"_You_ could never imagine how much. For Clare I would do anything!" + +"Anything? That's a rash statement." + +"Anything," she repeated. + +Houston tried to persuade the curator to let him have the tombstone for +Dorothy to take away with her; but the curator was shocked at such a +suggestion and explained that it was an unusual inscription--the +earliest of the kind in English that he knew; he should have expected +Latin at such a date. + +The countess failed to rouse much enthusiasm in the earl about the tomb +of his ancestor, but the dowager was glad he was with God; Bella had a +subject for another story; and Tufton photographed it. The next day the +wind seemed likely to shift round into the north, and _The Whirligig_ +left the exposed harbor, traveling past the mighty limestone cliffs of +the Dorian promontory, past Cos and many other islands, until once more +her anchor was dropped in the sheltered blue waters of Aphros. + +There were interminable discussions at the house of Monsieur and Madame +Venieris; but there was no doubt whatever that Agnes was married. + +"And do you know, my dear Doodles," her sister added, when they were +alone, "do you know I believe I'm already going to have a baby?" + +Dorothy could stand no more; but when she begged that all speed should +be made for England there came a series of breathless days during which +Tony stalked the mouflon on the heights of Antaphros. In the end he +actually did hit one, and though it fell at the foot of a difficult +precipice he scrambled down somehow, raised the carcass with ropes, and +rowed triumphantly away with it to the yacht. Houston tossed him double +or quits for the sovereign he had won; Tony won five tosses in +succession and thirty-two pounds. + +"My luck's in," he shouted, gleefully. "Come on, Houston, full speed +ahead. I want to see my horses again." + +When the yacht reached Plymouth the whole party went ashore and traveled +up to Clare. + +"Yes," Houston admitted to Dorothy, "I can understand the appeal this +sort of thing must have for anybody. It must be glorious here in summer. +I suppose the deer look after themselves? Yes, it's a wonderful old +place." + +A week after their guests had left Tony and Dorothy followed them to +London. + +"Oh, by the way, Doodles," said Tony at Paddington, "I ought to have +explained before, but I've got a little surprise for you. I had to sell +one hundred and twenty-nine. I was offered a nailing good price." + +"And where are we going to live?" she asked. + +"Well, that's the surprise. You'll never guess. I've taken your old flat +in Halfmoon Street." + +Dorothy looked at Tony. + +"You're not angry?" he asked. + +"I think I'm past anger," she said, dully. + +While they were driving to their new abode Dorothy decided that it would +be easy to convince her family that such a romantic marriage was the +right thing for Agnes, because her arguments would come from the depths +of her heart. + +"And _I_ shall be twenty-nine in March," she kept thinking. + +"Of course I kept all your favorite things," Tony was saying. "I sold +the rest. The pictures fetched a deuced poor price. I hope that if the +Clare pictures ever have to go I shall have more luck with them." + +"I wonder you don't offer to sell me," said Dorothy, bitterly. + +He squeezed her arm affectionately. + +"Sha'n't have to do that just yet awhile. I'm going to have a lucky +year. I felt that when I pipped that mouflon. Ever since I broke the +glass at one hundred and twenty-nine I've been deuced uneasy. As soon as +the house was sold I began winning at ecarte, and then I pipped that +mouflon." + + +V + +The sale of the house in Curzon Street revived all Dorothy's worst +fears. If Tony could successfully hide from her knowledge such a +transaction he was capable of announcing one day that Clare itself was +gone. Life had not offered much stability since that fatal June except +for the brief period when Tony's career upon the turf had accorded with +the traditions of his order and had seemed to possess the dignity that +confers itself automatically upon those who put forth their hands to +claim their due, her existence had been periodically shaken like a town +in the shadow of a volcano. Was not his marriage judged from the outside +a contribution to failure similar to the running of Moonbeam in the +Derby? Was she herself much more than a disappointing race-horse? She +had failed to keep her classic engagements at Clare; she had failed to +carry her weight in the big handicap at Curzon Street. Was the flat in +Halfmoon Street a selling-plate? Oh, this flat, how it was haunted with +the ghosts of old ambitions! The color schemes and patterns of the +chintz might be different, but how familiarly the bells rang, how +familiar was the sound of the doors opening and shutting, and the light +upon her dressing-table ... and the rumble of the traffic ... leading +whither? + +"Tony, what _do_ you want?" she asked, passionately, one morning when +the sparrows were maddening her with their monotonous chirping praise of +the sunshine. + +"I want to win the Derby," he said. + +"And lose everything else, even me?" she asked. + +"And lose nothing," he maintained, obstinately. "Starkey fears nothing." + +Starkey feared nothing! Starkey with his long, thin nose and red hair! + +By now two of Tony's yearlings stood out well above the rest. Of these a +bay colt by Cyllene out of Midsummer Night and, therefore, a +half-brother of Moonbeam, had run well in the Brocklesby Stakes at +Lincoln, still better in the Westminster Plate at the Epsom Spring +Meeting, and had cantered away with the Spring Two-year-old Stakes at +Newmarket. He was considered to be a certainty for the Woodcote Stakes; +but on Starkey's advice Tony ran instead a chestnut filly by Spearmint +out of Blushrose, who won with considerable ease, beating horses that +had shown up well in the previous races. Clarehaven was jubilant; +Starkey feared nothing; they had next year's Derby in their hands. It +had been just after this last victory that Tony had affirmed his only +ambition in life to be the Derby. At Ascot, still running unnamed, the +filly won the Coventry Stakes; half an hour afterward Moonbeam took the +Ascot Stakes by five lengths, and two days later, starting as an odds on +favorite, he won the Gold Cup without being extended; finally on the +same day the Midsummer Night colt won the New Stakes and was named Full +Moon, for certainly the fortunes of Clare seemed in their complement. + +"There's never been such an Ascot," said Tony to his wife. + +Houston had had to go to South Africa soon after he returned from the +Mediterranean cruise; while he was still away, Tony's luck touched its +zenith when Moonbeam won the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park. + +"Though it's lucky Mr. Houston sold Chimpanzee to that Australian +syndicate," said Starkey. "Because I give you my word, my lord, that +Chimpanzee was a better horse than Moonbeam, just as the filly is better +than the colt." + +"I think you're wrong about Moonbeam," Tony argued, "though you may be +right about the filly." + +When Houston reached England in July he motored down to Winsley with the +Clarehavens to discuss future plans with the trainer, and when the old +argument about the respective merits of Chimpanzee and Moonbeam began, +as usual, he laughed, saying that for him the discussion was a barren +one, because after this Derby victory he did not intend to tempt fortune +any more. + +"I wish you could persuade Tony to follow your example," said Dorothy. + +"Don't be silly, old thing. I haven't won the Derby yet," Tony +proclaimed, in a hurt voice. + +"Don't be afraid, my lord; you can't lose it next year, not if you +tried. Of course I'm not going to say yet for certain whether it'll be +with the colt or with the filly; but I think it'll be with the filly." + +"Which reminds me," said Tony. "We haven't given the lady a name yet." + +"Why not Vanity Girl?" Houston suggested. + +"Of course," Tony shouted, gleefully. "Vanity Girl she is." + +Dorothy protested that the name would bring bad luck and begged for +Mignonette instead. + +"Mignonette won a race at Liverpool only yesterday," said the trainer. + +"But there must be plenty of other names that haven't been used," +Dorothy insisted. "As we've got the Full Moon of Clare, why shouldn't we +call the filly Supporting Angel?" + +"Well," said Mr. Starkey, "with her ladyship's permission, I prefer +Vanity Girl. It sounds like a winner." + +Tony and Houston were emphatically in favor of Vanity Girl, and the +filly was named accordingly. Dorothy stayed behind to contemplate the +beautiful creature in her box, the fair, shimmering creature lately +anonymous and now burdened with what was surely a title of ill omen. + +"But you have no ambitions," said Dorothy. "If you fail you won't mind. +What do you care about your purple clothing with its black border and +its silver coronet?" + +Dorothy left the dim, cool stable and emerged into the glare of the July +noon. She felt sad about the filly's name, and, unwilling to meet the +others until she had recovered from her depression, she walked away from +Starkey Lodge, walked up the sloping single street of the little village +of Winsley, the houses of which seemed to have drifted like leaves into +this cranny of the bare downs. At the top of the street the village +ended abruptly where a white road ran like a line of foam between a sea +of grass that stretched skyward to right and left until the horizon +faded into the summer haze. + +"Thirty next March," said Dorothy, aloud. "And what have I done with my +life?" + +She envied the thistledown that floated by, envied its busy air and +effect of traveling whither it would; compared with those winged seeds +the blue butterflies seemed as irresolute and timorous of the future as +herself ... herself.... A voice shouted that lunch was waiting, and +there was Tony waving to her from the road. Lunch was waiting for +herself; but for that thistledown what was waiting? Dorothy's clear-cut +personality was becoming blurred; she never used to speculate about +thistledown in cloud cuckoo land. Everybody noticed the change. Some had +heard that there really was something between Dorothy Clarehaven and +that fellow Houston; others knew for a positive fact that Tony +Clarehaven neglected his wife; and all the women decided that she must +be well over thirty by now. + +Tony began to bet recklessly as soon as Houston returned, and by the +autumn he was again in difficulties. Moonbeam failed to give two stone +to a smart three-year-old in the Jockey Club Stakes, and he lost much +more than Full Moon had made for him by winning the Boscawen Stakes the +day before. But there had been no purchase at Tattersall's, no ambitious +yearlings from Doncaster, for Tony had given his word to Dorothy that +after next year's Derby he would retire from racing. In fact, to show +that this time he was in earnest he sold all his horses except the two +sons of Cyllene and Vanity Girl. The filly had just won a severe trial +and on Starkey's advice was preferred to Full Moon for the Middle Park +Plate. She was heavily backed, started a hot favorite, and was not +placed. Tony declined to accept her running as true and backed her +heavily to win the Dewhurst Plate. O'Hara was brought over from France +to ride her, and she was again unplaced. Some people declared she was no +stayer, some that her victories at Epsom and Ascot had been flukes; +others spoke of coughing in the Starkey Lodge Stables; a few murmured +that a coup for next year's Derby was being carefully engineered. + +"I knew it would bring bad luck to call her Vanity Girl," Dorothy +lamented. "Sell her. Get rid of her. Get rid of them all." + +"Sell the Derby winner?" Tony ejaculated. "My dear Doodles, you surely +must realize that her form at Newmarket was too bad to be true. If she +can beat Full Moon at home, and if Full Moon can beat the winner of the +Middle Park as he did in the Boscawen Stakes, one or other of them +_must_ win the Derby. We'll see how they winter. Meanwhile I've sold +Moonbeam to Houston. He paid me twenty-six thousand pounds. He intends +to start a stud; I'm bound to say he got my horse cheap; whatever +Starkey says, Chimpanzee would never have beaten him again; but I wanted +the money." + +"I'm sorry you've had to sell Moonbeam, but do sell Vanity Girl, too. +Don't bet any more on any of them. Run Full Moon for the Derby, and if +he wins be content with that. Then we could start a stud at Clare +ourselves. But do get rid of Vanity Girl." + +She felt as the dowager must have felt when she was trying to dissuade +Tony from marrying an actress; she instanced every disadvantage she +could think of for the filly; but Tony was obstinate. + +They were going out that afternoon to the Pierian Hall. Sylvia Scarlett, +after over two years' absence in America, had returned to England and +suddenly taken the fancy of the public with a new form of entertainment +that was considered very futurist. Dorothy did not think that her +performance deserved all the praise it had received, but she felt +jealous of Sylvia's success and, turning to Tony in the interval, said, +fiercely, that sometimes she wished she had never married him. + +"I should have done better to stick to the stage," she vowed. + +"If you're wishing you hadn't married me because you'd like to be doing +this sort of thing," said Tony, "you can spare your regrets. This, my +dear Doodles, is the rottenest show I ever saw in my life." + +"But it's a success." + +"Only because it's so devilish peculiar. If I walked down Bond Street in +pajamas I should attract a certain amount of attention the first time I +did it, but people would get used to it, and I should soon be forgotten. +By the way, would you like to send round a card?" + +"No, no," said Dorothy. "I've seen quite enough of her from where we +are." + +"Don't get bitter, Doodles. I don't know what's come over you lately. +You seem to hate everything and everybody." + +That winter was a miserable one, because Tony took to baccarat again, +and, having been accustomed to bet on the turf in large sums, he carried +his methods to the tables with such recklessness that Dorothy, unable to +stand the strain, left him in London and went down to Clare. She had a +notion to kill herself out hunting, but even in this she was +unsuccessful, for in February all the hunters, including Mignonette, +were sold. Moreover, at the end of the month a valuer arrived with an +authorization from Tony to complete the details for a forthcoming +auction of the whole property as it stood, pictures and all. Dorothy +hastened up to London and demanded what was the matter. + +"The matter is that I've got to sell Clare." + +"Sell Clare?" she repeated. "I suppose you mean mortgage it?" + +"Mortgage it? It's mortgaged already." + +"But you paid that off." + +"Yes, once. But you don't suppose that I've always got money handy?" he +asked, petulantly. "Some damned firm has bought up all my bills; I'm +being pressed all round; and the Jews won't lend me another farthing." + +"Then you must sell the horses." + +"The Derby winner? They're my only chance of keeping out of the +bankruptcy court. They're all we have, Doodles." + +"You have Clare." + +"How can I pay the interest on the mortgages and live at Clare? Try to +be a little reasonable. I've got a good offer, and the money will come +in very handy for the final plunge." + +"You're mad." + +"All right. I'm mad." + +"But your mother?" + +"I've given Greenish notice to leave Cherrington Cottage and I'm +reserving that from the sale." + +"But what will your mother live on?" + +"Oh, of course her jointure will be paid. Besides, I tell you that this +season with Full Moon and Vanity Girl I simply can't go wrong. The +mistake I made was playing baccarat with my ready cash." + +"Won't Houston help you?" + +"My dear Doodles, it's Houston who's going to buy Clare." + +She was silent before the revelation of what for long she had surmised. +The quadrangle of the hospital in Rhodes where she had admitted openly +that for Clare she would do anything flashed upon her vision, and the +thought of that Oriental patience practised for so long terrified her. +His desire for her must have been kindled years ago, a desire that, once +kindled, had been fed by the will to revenge himself for being what he +was upon Clarehaven for being what _he_ was. It was Houston who had +subtly helped his rival along the road to ruin, taking him by the arm as +it were to the edge of the precipice and toppling him over. Now it was +her place to interview this enemy, plead with him, entreat him to be +content with what he had done already ... but of what use would +entreaties be? Of no use except to stimulate the lust of victory. + +"You can't sell Clare to Houston," she was saying, mechanically, lest +her silence should be noticed. "You can't sell Clare to Houston," she +was repeating; and then she was off again, chasing the excited, restless +ideas in her brain until she should have driven them like poultry into a +corner and be able to pick the victim that should serve her best. Yes, +yes, if Houston really did covet her, she still had a chance to preserve +Clare. There was no weaker adversary for a woman whose heart was +untouched than a man who was madly in love ... no weaker adversary.... +Should she write to Houston and give him the idea that by pressing her +hard he could win? In the past she had known how to cook a dozen geese +in fierce ovens without cooking her own by mistake, without even +burning her fingers. If Houston had waited years, he would surely be +willing to risk a few more weeks. + +"You can't sell Clare to Houston," she said, once more. + +"For God's sake, don't go on repeating that like a parrot," said Tony. +"I'm going round to settle the matter now." + +A few moments later the door of the flat slammed behind him. Houston +lived in Albany, not five minutes away, and Dorothy went across to the +telephone. + +"Yes? Who's speaking?" + +"Dorothy Clarehaven. Listen," she said, hurriedly. "Once you lent me +money, or at any rate you helped me make money, and you were always very +decent about it. Won't you do the same thing again? You know that Tony +is putting everything on the ability of one of our two horses to win the +Derby. Tell me--there's every reason to suppose he will win the +Derby--why shouldn't you lend him enough to prevent his selling Clare?" + +"Why not, indeed?" said Mr. Houston. "But what's the security?" + +"Aren't the horses a security?" + +"Horses are very capricious, almost as capricious as women." + +"Would you prefer a woman as security?" she asked, trying to rake up +from nine years ago a coquetry that had once been so profitable. It was +easier by telephone. "Supposing I offered myself as security?" + +So much was she playing a part of long ago that instinctively she had +used her old invincible gesture of lightly touching a man's sleeve. That +also was easier by telephone. + +"I could lend a good deal," twanged the voice of the buyer along the +wires. "I could lend a good deal." + +"Very well then," said Dorothy. "Lend _me_ the money." + +"By telephone? Not good enough. Come, come, let's be frank, let's be +brutally frank. You know you're worth twenty Derby winners to me; but, +as I said, women are more capricious than horses. I'm no longer a +schoolboy. Are you in earnest or not?" + +"Of course I'm in earnest," she said. "Why should you think I wasn't?" + +"So much in earnest that you'll come to my rooms this afternoon and tell +me so?" + +"Yes, if you like," she replied, without hesitating. "But you must prove +to me that you're in earnest too. Send me something on account." + +"How much do you want?" + +"Oh, I don't know," she said. "About fifty thousand pounds I suppose." + +Dorothy's sense of proportion about large sums of money had been +destroyed by her husband's extravagant betting. When one lives with a +man who will win L50,000 at Ascot and lose it all and more the following +week, it is difficult to preserve a table of comparative values. She +supposed that L50,000 would represent about half the price of Clare, and +the importance she attributed to Clare gave money such a relative +unimportance that she saw nothing even faintly ridiculous in demanding a +sum of this magnitude from Houston. Perhaps he was impressed by the size +of her demand into believing that she really was in earnest about +accepting his proposals; even a financier like himself might be excused +for supposing that a woman, one of the most beautiful women in England +and a countess to boot, does not ask for L50,000 without being in +earnest. At the same time it appealed to his sense of humor that any +woman, even England's most beautiful countess, should ask for L50,000 by +telephone. + +"Why, it's not even a note of hand," he chuckled, and his laugh, +traveling from Albany to Halfmoon Street along the wires, lost its mirth +on the way and reached Dorothy with the sound of a dropped banjo. + +"Well, I must have something to prove you're in earnest," she argued, +fiercely. "Tony is on his way to see you now. He'll be with you in +another minute. Tell him that as a friend you can't let him sell Clare. +Offer him enough to tide him over the Derby. I'm willing to risk +everything on that." + +"Are you trying to tell me that if Clarehaven pulls off the Derby our +arrangement is canceled? Ring off. Nothing doing, dear lady." + +Away in Albany she heard a bell shrill; it was like a prompter's warning +of the play's ending. + +"That's Tony now," she cried. "Do what I ask. Give him enough. He'll say +how much is necessary for the moment. Lend it to him on the security of +Clare. Buy up his mortgages. Do what you like, and if Tony comes back +with Clare still his, at any rate until he has lost all or saved all on +the Derby, I'll come to Albany this afternoon and thank you." + +"Tangibly?" murmured Houston. + +"Tangibly." + +Her agitated breath had so bedewed the mouthpiece that when with +trembling hands she replaced the holder it was like being released from +a kiss. + + +VI + +Tony came back from his visit to Houston in a temper of serene optimism. + +"Well, Doodles," he cried, gaily, "I've saved Clare for you." + +"Oh, you've saved Clare, have you?" She could not resist a slight +accentuation of the pronoun, but he did not notice it. + +"Yes, Houston was very decent. I told him how much I hated getting rid +of the old place, and he was very decent. Of course he knows from +Starkey that the Derby is a certainty and that in Full Moon and Vanity +Girl I've got the two best three-year-olds in England." + +"You're still infatuated with the filly?" + +"Now wait a minute. Don't begin arguing till you hear what's been +decided. Houston is going to lend me enough cash to pay off the present +mortgages of Clare, and when that is done I'm going to mortgage the +place to him on the understanding that if I don't settle up on the +Monday after the Derby he takes immediate possession. I told him that I +should want some ready money, and he offers to buy whichever horse I +don't run in the Derby." + +"Then sell him Vanity Girl," said Dorothy, quickly. She could hardly +refrain from adding, "One of us he must have." + +"Don't be in such a hurry. At present Full Moon has engagements in the +Two Thousand Guineas and the Derby, also in the Grand Prix and the +Leger. Vanity Girl is entered for the Thousand Guineas, the Derby, and +the Oaks. I shall run Full Moon for the Guineas; if he wins he will be +the Derby favorite. In that case I shall scratch Vanity Girl for the +Thousand Guineas, and we'll have a secret trial at Winsley. Houston +hasn't taken Moonbeam away yet, and Starkey is to put him into strong +work for this trial. If Full Moon shows up best in the trial I shall +sell Vanity Girl to Houston, who will run her in the Oaks; then I shall +back Full Moon for the Derby till the cows come home. But if, as Starkey +thinks and as I think, Vanity Girl is the goods, Houston is to have Full +Moon for ten thousand pounds as soon as I've scratched him for the +Derby. I don't want to scratch him until I've got my money out on the +filly, but I shall get busy quickly, and the public will have plenty of +time to know which horse I think is going to win. Then you and I, +Doodles dear, will retire from the turf and live ever afterward at +Clare." + +"And if Full Moon doesn't win the Guineas?" + +"Oh, I've thought of that. In that case I shall run Vanity Girl in the +Thousand Guineas, declare to win with either in the Derby, and Houston +is to have his pick after the race for ten thousand pounds." + +"And you've thought out all this wonderful and complicated plan of +campaign?" + +"Not entirely," Tony admitted. + +"Not at all," said Dorothy, sharply. "You know perfectly well that +Houston thought out every detail of it." + +She wondered if a man who could juggle like this with the future of +horses might not be equally expert with women. But no, he wanted the +woman; he did not want the horses. She sent a note round to Albany +saying that a bad headache kept her at home that afternoon, but that she +fully appreciated the good will he had just shown and that she hoped to +see him at dinner to-morrow. She knew that she could not keep Houston at +arm's-length indefinitely, but if she could keep him there until, at any +rate, Clare was temporarily safe she should have a breathing-space until +June. Then if Tony lost the Derby, she should have to offer herself to +preserve Clare; but if he won, she and Clare would both be saved. + +"God!" she cried to her soul, "with me it always seems that June is to +decide everything." + +When the following night Houston reproached her for breaking the +appointment of yesterday she reminded him that he, too, had only made +promises so far; but when Houston kept his word and freed Clare until +the settling day after Epsom, she still held back. + +"You'll appreciate me all the more for being kept waiting." + +"I've waited years," he said. + +"I'll go for a drive with you to-morrow." + +So it went on until the week before the Guineas. + +"You're trying to fool me. You think you can get something for nothing +as easily now as you could when you were at the Vanity." + +"Be reasonable, my dear man," she begged. "Your money is perfectly safe. +What are you risking? If Tony loses the Derby you win me the moment you +put in my hands the title-deeds of Clare. If Tony wins the Derby...." +She let her deep-brown eyes gaze into his. + +"Kiss me," said Houston. "Kiss me once and I'll believe you." + +A good lady's maid is bound to enjoy a considerable amount of intimacy +in her relationship with her mistress; no lover is allowed as much. +Dorothy from youth had trained her kisses to be her servants; they had +always served her well, and if a degree of intimacy was unavoidable it +was always the intimacy of a servant, which does not count. One of these +kisses she summoned to her aid now. + +Tony proposed that Lonsdale should drive them down to Newmarket for the +Guineas, but Lonsdale said he was booked to fly on that day. + +"You never come near us now," said Dorothy, reproachfully. + +"I can't stand that fellow Houston. I can't think how you can bear him +around all the time." + +"He's very amusing," said Dorothy. + +"So's a bishop in a bathing-dress. If you want amusement you can get +plenty of it," Lonsdale growled, "without having to depend on a fellow +like that." + +Tufton, who was as sensitive as a tress of seaweed to the atmosphere, +had also neglected his old friends recently, and Dorothy knew by his +manner that people must now be talking very hard about herself and +Houston. + +Tony kept his promise not to bet heavily on the result of the Guineas, +and Full Moon's win did not do more than keep quiet a certain number of +low-class creditors who had for some time been supplying Lord and Lady +Clarehaven with such trifles as wine, food, and clothes. However, the +win did seem to make the Derby a certainty for the stable; Full Moon and +Vanity Girl, unlike Moonbeam, had both won at Epsom as two-year-olds, +and if Vanity Girl could beat Full Moon, surely no horse in England +could beat her on a course to which she had already shown her +partiality. When the filly did not appear in the Thousand Guineas the +quidnuncs, the how-nows, and the what-nots of the turf said she had +wintered disappointingly and that she would never be seen in the Oaks. +There was scarcely a sporting paper that did not assure its readers that +they would soon hear of Vanity Girl's having been scratched for both the +Derby and the Oaks. She was a flier, but a non-stayer, and the Stewards' +Cup at Goodwood was her journey. + +At the same time the quidnuncs, the how-nows, and the what-nots of the +turf were puzzled to find that after Full Moon's victory in the Guineas +no money from Starkey Lodge seemed to be going on the colt's chances for +the Derby. All the touts set hard to work to solve what was called the +Starkey Lodge Puzzle; Winsley and the hamlets round were frequented by +inquisitive men whose pockets were bulging with sheaves of telegraph +forms. + +"They think we've got something up our sleeves," said the trainer to the +owner. It was half past four o'clock of a morning early in May; Tony, +Dorothy, Houston, and Starkey had just taken up their positions to watch +the trial that was to decide which horse should carry the Clarehaven +colors a month hence. They had motored down to Winsley the night before; +and under a cold sky of turquoise scattered with pearls and amethysts +they had ridden up here at dawn; but when their clothing had been taken +off the horses, heads had popped up like rabbits from behind every +hillock along the course. + +"No good running it this morning," said the trainer, shouting some abuse +at the touts and galloping his hack in the direction of the horses. + +The sun was now well about the rounded edge of the downs; the air of the +morning was lustrous and scented with young grass upon which the dew lay +like golden wine. + +"You can't get up too early for these touts," Starkey told them at +breakfast, "and if we want to know where we are for the Derby a bit +before any one else, we'll have to run the trial by moonlight. I'll keep +'em on the hop all the day before and tire some of these Nosey Parkers +into staying at home for once in their lives." + +Dorothy was never sorry of an excuse to spend a few days with the +horses. They had caused her so much misery; but she had no ill will when +she saw them. + +"Yes," said the trainer. "A moonlight trial. That's the ticket. What +with Full Moon and Moonbeam you can't say it isn't highly suitable. I'm +not going to pretend that Moonbeam is up to his best form. Thinking Mr. +Houston was going to take him to the stud, I only began putting him into +strong work a month ago. So I thought we'd run them at weights for sex, +and put in a couple of good handicappers belonging to Mr. Ginsberg to +make a bit of a field." + +At two o'clock there was the clank of a pail in the stable-yard, +followed by a low murmur of voices and the grumble of the big yard gates +being cautiously opened. Presently the team emerged and walked slowly up +the village street, where half a dozen touts were fast asleep, because +they must be up at dawn to haunt the entrance to the Starkey Lodge +Stables. By the magic of the moon the horses in their clothing were +turned into the caparisoned steeds of knights-at-arms setting forth upon +a romantic quest. Dorothy, Houston, Tony, and the trainer followed on +hacks; and even when far out of hearing of the most vigilant tout they +continued to talk in half-tones. So breathless was the night that the +thundering of the hoofs coming nearer and nearer over the turf seemed to +vibrate the stars, and Dorothy had a fancy that presently all the people +in the little villages below the rim of the downs would wake and run +with lanterns up here to know if the moon had fallen down upon the great +world. + +Vanity Girl won the trial; Moonbeam was second; the winner of the +Guineas was third. + +"Well, I hope that's decisive enough," said Tony, gleefully. "Starkey, +you were right!" + +He and the trainer moved off in excited conversation. Houston took +Dorothy's hand, and she did not try to withdraw it from his grasp; +Vanity Girl was going to win the Derby; Clare would be safe in June; she +should be safe in June. The benevolent moon, quite undisturbed by all +this mad nocturnal galloping, gazed blandly at Dorothy's complaisance; +she would not have put a cloud up to her face for much more than that, +the unscrupulous old bawd. + +A week later the following paragraph appeared in one of the sporting +weeklies: + + THE STARKEY LODGE PUZZLE + + Rumor says that the young Earl of Clarehaven, who has recently had + very heavy losses on the turf, positively intends to capture the + Derby this year. It was only a few months ago that we had to + condole with the gallant young nobleman on the sad necessity which + forced him to sell that great horse Moonbeam last year to the + well-known South African capitalist, Mr. Lionel Houston, who + indorsed the public view that Moonbeam's defeat in the Derby by his + own horse Chimpanzee was not true form when he sold Chimpanzee to + an Australian syndicate of breeders and bought Moonbeam for the + stud he is now forming, and which we have no doubt will give many + famous new names to the history of English racing. But our readers' + present concern is what is popularly known as the Starkey Lodge + Puzzle. We have the highest authority for saying that this is no + longer a puzzle. At an important trial held in great secrecy on the + Starkey Lodge training-grounds it was conclusively established that + Vanity Girl is more than likely to give the Blue Riband of the turf + to Lord Clarehaven and console him for the failure of Moonbeam. It + will interest our readers from the smallest punter upward to hear + that Full Moon, the victor of the Two Thousand Guineas and the + present Derby favorite, will not run at Epsom, having been sold + like his half-brother to Mr. Lionel Houston, who no doubt intends + to keep him for the St. Leger, a race which he is ambitious of + winning. We need scarcely point out to our readers the obvious tip + for this year's Derby, and we do not hesitate to plump right out + for Vanity Girl as the winner. We were the only paper to advise our + readers not to back Full Moon until the intentions of the stable + were a little plainer, and to all those who failed to follow our + advice we can only say, "I told you so." Lord Clarehaven has done + well to scratch the winner of the Guineas, for there is no doubt + that if both the colt and his stable companion had faced the + starter at Epsom the public would have followed the son of Cyllene. + As it is, we confidently expect to see Vanity Girl a raging + favorite before the week is out, and we may remind our readers that + Lord Clarehaven's beautiful chestnut has already shown that she + likes the Epsom course by winning the Woodcote Stakes last year. + Her running at Newmarket last autumn may be discounted. We happened + to know that the stable was coughing; as we have hinted, the + gallant young nobleman who sports the black, white, and purple was + very hard hit by her defeats, and this expression of renewed + confidence in the chestnut daughter of Spearmint cannot be + disregarded. + +The people who had hurried to put their money on Full Moon grumbled +loudly; but the public appreciated the clear lead that Tony had given +them. He had put his own money on Vanity Girl before the result of the +trial leaked out, and though he had obtained tens against the first two +thousand he wagered, the news ran round the clubs so quickly that even +before the public was warned by the scratching of Full Moon that Vanity +Girl was the hope of Clare, he was finding it hard to get fours against +the filly; after that her price shortened to five to two; in the week +before the race it was only six to four; in the ring on the day itself +not a bookmaker was risking more than eleven to ten, and with money +still pouring in faster than ever she seemed likely to start at odds on, +an unprecedented price for a horse that had not been seen in public +since two consecutive defeats in the autumn of the year before. The +public could not be blamed for their eagerness to back the filly. It was +generally known that Clarehaven either had to win the Derby or be +ruined, and if he preferred Vanity Girl to the winner of the Guineas at +such a crisis in his affair she must indeed be sure of her success. If +the public had known that even his wife's honor was in pawn besides his +house and his lands they could not have been more confident. + +"If Vanity Girl fails," Dorothy asked, on the morning of the race, "you +won't have a halfpenny left?" + +"I might have an odd hundred pounds," Tony reckoned. + +"And your mother--and Bella?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I suppose Uncle Chat will look after them." + +"And us?" + +"Oh, we'll emigrate or something. Rather fun, don't you know. I shall +wangle something. The going will be hardish," he said, looking at the +sky, "and that's always in her favor. She hated that Newmarket mud last +autumn. Come on, Doodles, the car's waiting." + +They walked down the steps of the flat, and the porter who had hurried +out to shut the door of the car touched his cap. + +"Good luck, my lady! Good luck, my lord! Shepherd's Market is on Vanity +Girl to the last copper." + +"Put on a sovereign for yourself, Galloway," said his lordship, grandly +proffering the coin. + +Several loafers who had sometimes run for his lordship's cabs shouted, +"Hurrah for the Derby favorite!" and Tony flung them some silver to back +his filly. The road to Epsom was thronged; Tony, who was obviously +feeling nervous, had left the driving to the chauffeur, and was sitting +back with Dorothy in the body of the car. + +"I think Lonnie might have come with us," he said, fretfully. + +"Does it bore you so much driving with me alone?" she asked. + +"Don't be silly! Of course not. But I'm nervy and.... Oh, but what rot! +Nothing can go wrong." + +They were passing a four-in-hand with loud toots upon their Gabriel +horn, which were being answered by the guard of the coach, when he +suddenly recognized the occupants of the car. Standing up, he blew a +dear "Viewhalloo!" and shouted: "Berkshire's on the filly, my lord, to +the last baby! Hurrah for Vanity Girl!" There was a block in the +traffic; the occupants of every vehicle in earshot, from the gray hats +and laces of the four-in-hand to the pearlies and plumes of a coster's +cart, applauded the earl and countess, each after his own fashion. + +"Don't forget the Mile End Road, Mr. Hearl of Clarehaven," bawled one of +the costers, "if that's who you are. Hoobeeluddiray!" he went on, and +caught his moke an ecstatic thwack on the crupper. + +In the ring friends and acquaintances crowded round them, eager to say +how they had backed Vanity Girl and how fervently they hoped for her +victory. There was no doubt that if the filly was beaten a groan of +disappointment would resound through England. + +"I think it's so sweet that Lord Clarehaven's horse should be called +Vanity Girl," some foolish woman was babbling. "So sweet and romantic," +she twittered on. + +"Yes, what devotion," chirped another as foolish. + +Tony wanted to go round to the paddock to have a few last words with +Starkey and the jockey O'Hara, but Dorothy did not think she could bear +to see the filly before the race. + +"I'm so nervous," she said, "that I feel I should communicate my nerves +to her. But don't you bother about me. I'll wait for you in the +inclosure." + +"Where's Houston?" said Tony, irritably. "I thought he was going to meet +us." + +At that moment a messenger-boy came up. "Are you the Earl of +Clarehaven?" he asked, perkily, and handed Tony a note, which the latter +read out: + + "DEAR CLAREHAVEN,--To what will I'm sure be my lifelong regret, + important business prevents me from being at Epsom to see your + triumph. Believe me, my dear fellow, that there is no one who hopes + more cordially than I do for your success to-day. My kindest + regards to your wife and tell her from me that I'm looking forward + to our Derby dinner at the Carlton to-night. + + Yours ever sincerely, + + LIONEL HOUSTON." + +"Funny chap! But I believe he's sincere," Tony muttered, "though it +would be all to his interest if I lost." + +But how much to his interest, Dorothy thought, how little did Tony know. + +She waited for him in the company of the twittering women until he +returned from the paddock. + +"They're going down now," he told her. + +"Everything all right?" she asked. + +"Yes, yes." He was biting his nails and cursing the focusing +arrangements of his field-glasses. + +"They're off!" + +The roar of the crowd was like a mighty storm within which isolated +remarks were heard like the spars of a ship going one by one. + +"She isn't finding it so easy." + +"He's taking her into the rails too soon." + +"My God! I wouldn't lay sixpence there won't be an objection for +crossing. Did you see that?" + +"Go on, Vanity Girl! Go on!" + +"Go on, you blasted favorite!" + +"She's swishing her tail." + +"No, she's not. That's ... yes, it's her. Vanity Girl! Vanity Girl!" + +"Go on, Vanity Girl!" + +The roaring died down to a suppressed murmur of agitation. + +"What's the matter with the favorite?" + +"O'Hara's flogging her along." + +The horses flashed past the stand with the black, white and purple of +Clarehaven twinkling in the ruck like a setting star. + +"Tony!" Dorothy screamed. "She's beaten!" + +"Oh well," said the owner, "don't make such a noise about it." + +He was smiling a foolish, fixed smile, but he let his glasses drop from +his hands on the toes of a lady close by. + +"I'm very sorry, ma'am," said Tony, raising his hat. "I hope I didn't +hurt you." + +The injured lady glared at him; it was her first Derby, and perhaps she +did not realize that it mattered who won or lost. + +"Come on, Doodles," said Tony. "Home. For God's sake, let's get home." + +He would not wait to hear any explanation of the filly's defeat, but +pushed his way savagely through the crowd to find the car. + +"Gorblime!" a ragged vender of unauthorized race-cards was ejaculating +near the garage. "Gor strike me blurry well pink! She'd make a blurry +tortoise crick his blurry neck looking round to see why she was dawdling +behind. Race-horse? Why, I reckon a keb-horse could give her three stone +and win in a blurry canter, I do. Vanity Girl? Vanity Bitch, that's what +she ought to have been called." + + +VII + +The news of the defeat had already reached Halfmoon Street, and Galloway +inclined his head when they passed quickly from the car into the hall of +the flats, as if his patrons were returning from a funeral. + +"We must telephone round to the Carlton to say that the dinner is off," +said Tony; even that small action he left to his wife, himself sitting +for the rest of the evening mute of speech, but drumming upon the table +with his fingers or sometimes tambourinating upon an ash-tray. His +dinner consisted of anchovy sandwiches washed down by brandy. There was +no word from Houston, and Dorothy supposed that he was waiting to hear +from her. "Going! Going! Clare! Clare! Clare!" The auctioneer's hammer +seemed to be striking her temples, and, passing her hand over her +forehead, she realized that it was only Tony who was drumming upon the +table or tambourinating upon the ash-tray. She went to bed before he did +and, lying awake in the rosy light of the reading-lamp, she wondered if, +perhaps, he would try to forget this day in her arms, half hoped he +would, and picked up the hand-mirror beside her bed to see how she was +looking. He must have sat up drinking till very late--she had fallen +asleep and did not hear him come to bed--and in the morning his eyes +were bloodshot, his razor tremulous. + +The letter-box was choked with bills; but there were several letters of +condolence, and a reminder of the Day of Judgment from an enthusiastic +enemy of the turf who, with ill-concealed relish, advised his lordship +to observe the hand of God in the retribution which had been meted out +to him and to turn away from his wickedness. Finally there were letters +from O'Hara, the jockey, and Houston. + + EPSOM SUMMER MEETING 1914. + + _Wednesday evening._ + + MY LORD,--I had hoped to have a few words with your lordship after + the race, but was told you already left the course. I was intending + to say that I could not go through what I suffered to-day on + Friday, and would be obliged if your lordship wouldn't insist I + would ride Vanity Girl in the Oaks. My lord, the filly is tired, + and I wouldn't say another race mightn't kill her dead. It's not + for me to give advice to your lordship, but how you ever come to + run her in the Derby I don't know. She never was a stayer. I saw + that plainly enough last autumn at Newmarket. I'm going back to + France as soon as I hear from your lordship you won't run her in + the Oaks. I'm engaged to ride Full Moon in the Grand Prix by Mr. + Houston, and I hope I won't have to suffer what I suffered this + afternoon. It's enough to make a jockey chuck riding for good and + all. + + I am, + + Your lordship's obedient servant, + + PATRICK O'HARA. + + Pardon me if I've written a bit unfeelingly. It wasn't the filly's + fault. She was tired. She didn't seem to know where she was, + somehow, and when I flogged her along it near broke my heart to do + it. She couldn't seem to understand what she was wanted to do. Poor + little lady, I was so savage I could have shot her. But afterward I + went and had a look at her, and had a few words with Mr. Starkey + when he was abusing her. + + QZI ALBANY, W. + + _Wednesday._ + + DEAR CLAREHAVEN,--I'm not going to worry you with sympathy at such + a moment. But I'm writing as soon as possible to let you know that + last week, owing to circumstances which would not interest anybody + except a business man, I was compelled to part with my Clare + mortgages for ready money, and I'm afraid that without doubt + Reinhardt and Co. will foreclose on Monday. I wish I could offer to + lend you the money to put yourself straight again, but I have been + speculating myself and for the moment am a little short. By the + way, I think Full Moon is a good thing for the Grand Prix. Perhaps + you might get a bit on. Kindest regards to Lady Clarehaven. + + Sincerely, + + LIONEL HOUSTON. + +Tony telegraphed to scratch Vanity Girl for the Oaks and ordered that +she should be sold outright for what she would fetch; L200 was the +figure, a tenth of what she had cost as a yearling and an insignificant +fraction of what she had cost in ruinous disappointment, to which, +perhaps, dishonor was soon to be added. + +Houston's letter showed plainly that nothing was to be hoped for in that +quarter. + +"Reinhardt and Co.," scoffed Tony. "In my opinion Reinhardt and Co. +includes Houston." + +Dorothy wondered if the communication was intended to bring her quickly +to heel, to show her brutally that unless she kept her bargain Clare was +lost. She supposed that somehow Houston would be ingenious enough to +keep Tony from being suspicious when he found his house and lands +restored to him, and she even wondered if under the demoralizing effect +of gambling he would much mind if he did know. She looked at him with a +feeling half compassionate, half contemptuous while he was calculating, +with an optimism rapidly rising, every knickknack in the flat at four +times its value in the sale-room. She persuaded him to go out and forget +his troubles at the theater, and telephoned to the Albany that she was +coming to see Mr. Houston after dinner. + +Dorothy dressed herself in a frock of champagne silk and wore no jewelry +except a drop pendant of black pearls, thinking ironically, when she +fastened it round her neck, how premature Tony had been in estimating +that it would fetch L500 at auction. She flung over her shoulders a +diaphanous black opera-cloak stenciled in gold and, covering her face +with a heavy veil of black Maltese lace, she passed out of Halfmoon +Street and walked slowly up Piccadilly in the June starlight. On second +thought she decided to enter Albany from Burlington Street instead of +through the courtyard, and, turning into Bond Street, moved like a ghost +along the pavements where on thronged mornings in old Vanity days her +radiance and roses used to compete for the public regard with the +luxurious shops on either side. Burlington Street at this hour was +deserted, and the porter of Albany with his appearance of an antique +coachman, and his manner between a butler's and a beadle's, dared not +hesitate to admit such an empress, and perhaps marveled, when he watched +her walk imperiously along the glass-roofed cloister that smelled of +freshly watered geraniums toward QZI, with what honey the ugly tenant of +it was able to attract this proud-pied moth. + +Lady Clarehaven might have been excused for feeling a heroine, a Monna +Vanna in the tent of the conqueror, when she found herself in the big +square room which she now visited for the first time. She did not +indulge herself with heroics, however; it seemed to her so natural for +her to save Clare that the adventure was as commonplace as when once in +early days on the stage she had pawned a piece of jewelry she did not +like in order to save a set of furs to which she attached a great +importance. She threw back the opera-cloak and sat down in an arm-chair +to wait for Houston with as little perturbation as if she were waiting +for a dinner guest in her own drawing-room. + +Suddenly he appeared from an inner doorway and, turning on several more +lights, looked at her. He was in evening dress, and the sudden glare +gave the impression that he was going to perform; he looked more like an +intelligent ape than ever when he was in evening dress. + +"Well, here I am," she said. + +Her coolness seemed to confuse him, and he began to ask her how she +liked his rooms, to say that he had been lucky enough to take them on as +they stood from a man called Prescott who had killed himself here. One +had the impression that he had bought the furniture for a song on +account of the unpleasant associations with a suicide. + +"I'm rather tired of values," said Dorothy. "Clarehaven has been valuing +the flat at Halfmoon Street." + +"Will you have something to drink?" + +"Do you think that I require stimulating? Thanks, I don't." + +It was curious that this man, who in Rhodes had appeared so sinister and +powerful and almost irresistible, should here in this decorous room with +only a background of good-breeding appear fussy and ineffective. + +"But let me recommend you to have a drink," Dorothy laughed. "For, now +that you've got me, you're as awkward as a baboon with a porcelain +teacup." + +Her instinct told her that she must dispel this atmosphere of +embarrassment unless she wanted to be bowed out of the chambers as from +those of a money-lender who had been compelled most respectfully and +without offense to refuse a loan to her ladyship. The allusion to the +baboon was sufficient. The decorum of Albany was shattered and Houston +held her in his arms. + +At that moment the servant tapped at the door and announced that Lord +Clarehaven was in the anteroom; before Houston could hustle his quaking +servant outside and lock the door Tony appeared in the entrance, a +riding-crop in his hands. + +"My God! you rascal," he was saying, "I've just found out all about you. +I've been fooled by you and that scoundrel of a trainer you recommended. +I've been ... That trial.... I've seen.... I've understood ... you +blackguard!" Without noticing Dorothy he had forced Houston across a +chair and was thumping him with the crop. "Yes, I've heard all about +you.... Of course people tell me afterward ... damned cowards.... You +damned sneaking hound ... I.D.B.... hound.., you dog ... and there's +nothing to be done because you were too clever ... curse you ... but +I'll have you booted off every racecourse in England...." + +By this time he had beaten Houston insensible, and, looking up, +perceived his wife. + +"Tony," she cried, "you really are rather an old darling." + +"What are you doing here?" he panted. + +"I was pleading for Clare." + +"You oughtn't to have done that," he said, roughly. "You might get +yourself talked about, don't you know. Come along. It's rather lucky I +blew in. I met old Cobbett, who talked to me like a father. Too late, of +course, and nothing can be done. Besides.... However, come along. As +you're dressed we might see the last act." + +"We've seen that already," said Dorothy. So brilliant and gay was she +that Tony forgot about everything. So did she, and they walked home arm +in arm along the deserted streets of Mayfair like lovers. + +The scene in Albany was not made public property; Houston came to +himself in time to prevent that. Dorothy accepted Tony's interruption as +a sign that fortune did not intend her to preserve Clare, and she now +watched almost with equanimity the fabric of a great family crumble +daily to irreparable ruin. Then Full Moon, the winner of the Guineas, +scratched ignominiously for the Derby, won the Grand Prix in a canter, +and the following letter from the Earl of Stilton, K.G., appeared in the +_Times_: + + SIR,--In the interests of our national sport, which all Englishmen + rightly regard as our most cherished possession, I call upon Lord + Clarehaven to give a public explanation of his recent behavior. The + facts are probably only too painfully known to many of your + readers. In May Lord Clarehaven's horse, Full Moon, won the Two + Thousand Guineas; two years ago his horse Moonbeam won the same + race. Moonbeam ran fourth in the Derby and was transferred to the + same stable as the winner, Chimpanzee. This horse, owned by Mr. + Lionel Houston, was scratched for the St. Leger, and the race was + won by Moonbeam. This was explicable; but when two years later + another of Lord Clarehaven's horses wins the Two Thousand Guineas + and finds his stable companion preferred to him to carry Lord + Clarehaven's colors in the Derby, when, furthermore, the chosen + filly runs like a plater, and when this morning we read that Full + Moon, now in the ownership of Mr. Lionel Houston, has won the Grand + Prix in a canter at a price which the totalizator puts at + sixty-three to one, a proof that nobody in Paris considered the + chances of this animal, the public may, perhaps, demand what it all + means. They will ask still more when I inform them that I have + absolute authority for saying that this horse was heavily backed in + England, which proves that by some his chance was considered + excellent. I have no wish to accuse his lordship of having + deliberately deceived the public for his own advantage; but I do + accuse him of folly that can only be characterized as criminal. + Perhaps he has been the victim of his friend and of his trainer; at + any rate, if his lordship was deceived about the chance of Vanity + Girl, and if it is true that the defeat of Vanity Girl in the Derby + represented to his lordship a loss of thousands of pounds in bets, + he should make this clear. In that case I have no hesitation in + accusing Mr. Lionel Houston, formerly known as Leopold Hausberg, of + having deliberately conspired with the Starkey Lodge trainer to + perpetrate a fraud not only upon their friend and patron, but also + upon the public. + + I have the honor to be, sir, + + Your obedient servant, + + STILTON. + +Although Lord Stilton's letter hit the nail on the head, Tony was so +furious at being called a fool in public that he sent the following +letter to the paper: + + SIR,--If Lord Stilton had not been my father's friend and a much + older man than myself, I would pull his nose for the impudent + letter he has written about me. The running of my filly in the + Derby is an instance of the uncertainty of fortune, by which I am + the greatest loser. I was convinced by a trial which I saw with my + own eyes between Full Moon and Vanity Girl that the former did not + stand a chance against the filly. It was I who insisted upon + scratching him for the Derby so that the public might be spared the + unpleasant doubt that always exists when an owner runs two horses + in the same race. I sold the colt shortly after this trial to Mr. + Houston, because I wished to put every halfpenny I could raise upon + Vanity Girl. When I say that Mr. Houston is so little a friend of + mine that I was unfortunately compelled to horsewhip him in his + rooms on the day after the Derby, it will be understood even by + Lord Stilton that there can be no possible suggestion of any + collusion between myself and Mr. Houston. I do not know if Lord + Stilton seriously means to insinuate that I have benefited by Full + Moon's victory in the Grand Prix. If he does, the insinuation is + cowardly and unjust. If Lord Stilton is so much concerned for the + future of English sport, let him think twice before he hits a man + who is down. Full Moon did not carry a halfpenny of my money. + + I am, sir, etc., + + CLAREHAVEN. + +This letter, with the reference to Lord Stilton's nose excised by a +judicious editor, rehabilitated Tony in the eyes of the public and +earned him a gracious apology from Lord Stilton, who also had to +apologize much less graciously to Houston and Starkey, being threatened +with legal proceedings unless he did so. Had there been the least chance +of substantiating the ugly rumors, both earls might have gone to law; +unfortunately legal advice said that neither of them stood a chance with +the astute pair, and public opinion contented itself with compassion for +the gallant young nobleman who had been thus victimized. + +It may have been the victory of Full Moon in the Grand Prix with its +suggestion of what might have been, or it may have been only the +invincible optimism of the gambler, that started Tony off again upon his +vice. When by the middle of July he and Dorothy found themselves with +the rent of the flat paid up to Michaelmas, with enough furniture and +enough clothes for present needs and with L250 in ready money, he told +Dorothy that their only chance was for him to make money at cards. It +was in vain that she argued with him; he seemed to have learned nothing +from this disastrous summer, and with L100 in his pocket he went out one +night, to return at six o'clock the next morning with L1,000. + +"My luck's in again," he declared, "and I've got a thundering good +system. You shall come with me every night, and I will give you two +hundred pounds, which I must not exceed. Nothing that I say must induce +you to give me another halfpenny. If I lose the two hundred pounds I +must go away. It'll be all right, you'll see. I'm playing at +Arrowsmith's place in Albemarle Street. Arrowsmith himself has promised +not to advance me anything above two hundred pounds, so it'll be all +right." + +Dorothy begged him to be satisfied with the L1,000; but it was useless, +and the following night she accompanied him. He won another L1,000, and +when they had walked back under a primrose morning sky to Halfmoon +Street Tony was so elated that he handed over all his winnings to +Dorothy. The next night he lost the stipulated L200, but he came away +still optimistic. + +"I'm not going to touch that two thousand" he assured her. "I've got +fifty left of my own, and one always wins when one's down to nothing; +but on no account are you to offer me a halfpenny from your money. It's +absolutely essential that you should bank everything I make." + +The next evening Tony took the keeper of the hell aside and told him +that he was to be sure not to let him exceed L50; if he should lose +that, Arrowsmith was not to accept his I.O.U. and on no condition to +allow him to go on. They were playing _chemin de fer_ and Tony's luck +had been poor; when his turn came to take the bank and he was stretching +out his hand for the box of cards Arrowsmith told him he had already +reached his limit. + +"Oh, that's all right, Arrowsmith. I only meant that to count if I'd +already had a bank." + +"Excuse me, Lord Clarehaven, but I never go back on my word. The +agreement we came to was...." + +"That's all right," Tony interrupted, impatiently. "Dorothy, lend me +some money." + +"No, no. You made a promise, and really you must stick to it." + +"Dash it! I haven't had a single bank this evening." + +"You should have thought of that before." + +"But, my dear girl, our agreement was that I shouldn't lose more than +two hundred pounds at a sitting. I've only lost fifty pounds to-night." + +"If I lend you any more," she said, "I must break into the two thousand +pounds, which you told me I was not to do on any account." + +The other players, with heavy, doll-like faces, sat round the table, +waiting until the argument stopped and the game could be resumed. The +keeper of the hell was firm; so was Dorothy; and Clarehaven had to yield +his turn to his neighbor. + +"I'll just stay and watch the play for a bit," he said. "It's only three +o'clock." He took a banana from the sideboard and sat down behind the +player who held the bank. + +"No, no, come away," Dorothy begged him. "What is the good of tormenting +yourself by watching other people play when you can't play yourself?" + +"Damn it, Dorothy," he exclaimed, turning round angrily. "I wish to God +I'd never brought you here. You always interfere with everything I want +to do." + +It happened that the bank which Tony had missed won steadily, and while +the heavy-jowled man who held it raked in money from everybody, Tony +watched him like a dog that watches his master eating. At last the bank +was finished, and with a heavy sigh of satisfaction the owner of it +passed on the box to his neighbor. + +"How much did you make?" asked Tony, enviously. + +"About two thousand five hundred. I'm not sure. I never count my +winnings." + +Tears of rage stood in Tony's eyes. + +"God! Do you see what you've done for me by your confounded obstinacy?" +he exclaimed to his wife. + +All the way home he raged at her, and when they were in the flat he +demanded that she should give him back all his L2,000. + +"So you've reached the point," she said, bitterly, "when not even +promises count?" + +"If you don't give it back to me," Tony vowed, "I'll sell up the whole +flat. Damn it, I'll even sell my boots," he swore, as he tripped over +some outposts for which there was no place in the line that extended +along the wall of his dressing-room. + +Dorothy thought of that lunch-party in Christ Church and of the first +time she had beheld those boots. She remembered that then she had beheld +in them a symbol of boundless wealth. Now they represented a few +shillings in a gambler's pocket. And actually next morning, in order to +show that he had been serious the night before, Tony summoned two buyers +of old clothes to make an offer for them. + +"Don't be so childish," Dorothy exclaimed. "You can't sell your boots! +Aren't you going down to camp this year?" + +"To camp?" he echoed. "How the deuce do you think I'm going to camp +without a halfpenny? No, my dear girl, a week ago I wrote to resign my +commission in the N.D.D. You might make a slight effort to realize +that we are paupers. And if you won't let me have any of that two +thousand pounds we shall remain paupers." + +At that moment a telegram was handed in: + + All officers of North Devon Dragoons to report at depot + immediately. + +"Hasn't that fool of an adjutant got my letter?" Tony exclaimed. + +Another telegram arrived: + + Thought under circumstances you would want to cancel letter holding + it till I see you. + +"Circumstances? What circumstances?" + +In the street outside a newspaper-boy was crying, "Austrian hultimatum! +Austrian hultimatum!" + +"My God!" Tony cried, a light coming into his eyes. "It can't really +mean war? How perfectly glorious! Wonderful! Get out, you rascals!" and +he hustled the old-clothes men out of the flat. + +Three weeks later Dorothy received the following letter from Flanders: + + DEAREST DOODLES,--You'd simply love this. I never enjoyed myself so + much in all my life. Can't write you a decent letter because I'm + just off chivvying Uhlans. It's got fox-hunting beat a thousand + times. Sorry we had that row when I made such an ass of myself at + Arrowsmith's that night. It's a lucky thing you were firm, because + you've got just enough to go on with until I get back. Mustn't say + too much in a letter; but I suppose we shall have chivvied these + bounders back to Berlin in two or three months. Then I shall really + have to settle down and do something in earnest. A man in ours says + that Queensland isn't such a bad sort of hole. Old Cleveden put me + against it by cracking it up so. It's suddenly struck me that + Houston is probably a spy. If he is, you might make it rather + unpleasant for him. I feel I haven't explained properly how sorry I + am, but it's so deuced hard in a letter. By the way, Uncle Chat has + just written rather a stupid letter about my mother's jointure. + Perhaps you'd go down and talk to him about it. He ought to + understand I'm too busy to bother about domestic finance at + present. I had another notion--rather a bright one--that when I get + back you and I could appear on the stage together. Rather a rag, + eh? The captain of my troop was pipped last week. Awful good egg. + I'm acting captain now. Paignton sends his love. Dear old thing, I + wish you were out here with me. + + Yours ever, + + TONY. + +A week later the fifth Earl of Clarehaven was killed in action. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +I + +Dorothy was at Little Cherrington when the news of Tony's death reached +her. The dowager had already vacated Clare Lodge, and with a few of her +dearest possessions was now established in Cherrington Cottage. Only +extreme necessity could have driven her into that particular abode, +because in order for her to go into it, Mr. Greenish had to go out of +it, which upset Mr. Greenish so much that he went out of Cherrington +altogether, out of Devonshire, even, and as far away as Hampshire. His +choice of a county was the dowager's only consolation; Connie lived in +Hampshire; the world was small; Mr. Greenish and Bella might even yet +come together. Bella, absorbed in her short stories--one of which had +been accepted, but not published, and another of which had been +published but not paid for--found that the chief objection to being in +Cherrington Cottage was the noise that the children made going to and +from school. It was strange to find Bella, who in her youth had made as +much noise even as Connie, so dependent now upon quiet; but in whatever +divine hands mortals fall, their behavior usually changes radically +afterward. We all know what love can do for anybody; we all know what +the Salvation Army can do for anybody; and if Virgil's account of the +Cumaean Sibyl may be trusted, the transforming influence of Apollo is +second to none. + +Tony's consideration in securing Cherrington Cottage to his mother could +only have been bettered if he had made some provision for a sum of +money to maintain it, or, for that matter, herself; delicious as the +exterior of it undoubtedly was, the walls were not edible. The sudden +stoppage in the payment of her jointure put the dowager in the +humiliating position of having to ask her brother, Lord Chatfield, to +pay the weekly bills, and it was with the intention of dealing with this +matter that Dorothy had gone down much against her will to the scene +that was consecrated to her greatest triumph and her greatest failure. +Perhaps the nerves of the usually so genial Uncle Chat had been too much +wrought upon by the outbreak of war. As deputy lieutenant of the county +he had been harried by a series of telegrams from the War Office, each +of which had contradicted its predecessor. He had had to lend not merely +all his own horses to England, but to arrange to lend most of his +neighbors', some of whom were not quite such willing lenders as his +lordship. His eldest son, Paignton, was already at the front in the +North Devon Dragoons, and his second son was assisting an elderly +gentleman who had lived in obscurity since Tel-el-Kebir--where he had +been jabbed in the liver by a dervish--to command, drill, and generally +produce for their country's need the two hundred and ten rustics that at +present constituted the Seventh Service Battalion of the King's Own +Devon Light Infantry. His daughters, Lady Maud and Lady Mary, had given +him no rest till they were allowed to do something or other; though +before he understood what exactly this was the war had lasted many +months longer than the greatest pessimist had believed possible. His +sister, Lady Jane, in despair of finding anything else to do, was +collecting mittens for the soldiers, a hobby which made the ground floor +of Chatfield Hall look like a congested wool-warehouse in the city. + +At such a moment the problem of his younger sister's financial future +struck poor Uncle Chat as much more hopelessly insoluble than it would +have seemed in those happy days when he had nothing to talk about +except cigars and pigs. Bella immediately after the outbreak of war put +down the pen and took up the sword, or in other words yearned to join +the V.A.D., and it was the imperative need of finding money for Bella to +gratify her patriotism in London that drove the dowager into discussing +her finances with her brother. Dorothy, who could not bear the +suggestion that Tony had heartlessly left for France without any heed of +his family obligations, a suggestion that reflected upon herself, at +once turned over to the dowager half of the L2,000 in the bank. +Actually, she only left herself with something over L600, for extra +money had had to be found for Tony's equipment and for the payment of +bills he had overlooked. There was no reason to suppose that Uncle Chat +was really criticizing her behavior in the least; but his air of general +irritation gave her the impression that he was, which preyed upon her +mind so much that she began to feel almost on a level with her +unfortunate namesake who had lost the Derby. She fancied that everybody +was ascribing Tony's mad career to his marriage, and thinking that if he +had only married a nice girl in his own class none of these disasters +would have happened. She fancied that the disapproval of the family +which had been carefully concealed all these years out of deference to +Tony's feelings was now making itself known, she was embittered by the +imagined atmosphere of hostility, and she made up her mind that as soon +as possible she would cut herself off from the Fanhopes and from what +was left of the Clares. + +Tony in his last letter had proposed that he and she should go on the +stage when he came home, which of course would have been ridiculous; +but, now that Tony was dead, there was surely nothing to prevent her +return to the stage. When she got back to town she might go and ask Sir +John Richards if he could not find a part in the autumn production at +the Vanity Theater. Whatever was now lacking to her voice, whatever the +years had added to her appearance, and notwithstanding the wear and tear +that had added very little, would be counterbalanced in the eyes of the +British public by the privilege of reading upon the program the name of +the Countess of Clarehaven. Nothing was any longer owing to the family +name; no, indeed, except Bella still bore it, and if third-rate stories +were to appear in third-rate magazines under the signature of Arabella +Clare, there was no reason why a bill of the play should not advertise +the Countess of Clare. It happened that Harry Tufton had come down to +Cherrington to assist at the memorial service which was to be held in +Clarehaven church. Dorothy supposed that he was anxious to keep in with +the Chatfields, and in speaking to him about her project she was not +actuated by any desire for the sympathy of an old friend. She asked his +advice in a practical spirit, because he was connected with the theater, +and when he tried to discourage her by hinting at the fickleness of +public affection, she discerned in his opposition to her plan nothing +except the tired anxiety of one who was being importuned by an old +friend to give the best advice compatible with the minimum of trouble to +himself. Tufton's doubtfulness of her capacity still to attract the +favor of an audience had the effect of strengthening her resolve to test +his opinion; she asked him with that indifferent smile of hers, which +had lost none of its magic of provocation, if he really thought that the +British public was as fickle as himself. Tufton protested against the +imputation, and excused himself for the evasion of friendship implicit +in his attitude by pleading that the War Office kept him so very busy +nowadays. + +"Of course it was an awful blow when they wouldn't accept me for active +service," he said, earnestly. "Heart, don't you know." + +"Oh, your heart is weak," she inquired, with a mocking air of concern. +"I suppose the very idea of war produced palpitations. Don't strain it +going up-stairs in Whitehall." + +"Somebody must do the work at home," he said, irritably. + +"Yes, I feel so sorry for you poor Cinderellas," she murmured. "But +never mind, you'll always be able to feel that if it wasn't for you the +poor fellows at the front, don't you know, wouldn't be able to get +along. I suppose you call yourselves the noble army of martyrs?" + +It had been fun to twist the tail of that ship's rat, Dorothy thought, +when she saw him hurry away from Cherrington to catch the first train +back to town after the service. + +The news of Tony's death had reached Cherrington on the morning of the +day that Dorothy was going back to the flat. When she had made over half +of her money to the dowager and was clear of the fancied atmosphere of +hostility at Chatfield, she had begun to feel penitently that she had +misjudged her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. It had seemed dreadful to +leave them here in this cottage almost within sight and sound of the +changes at Clare Court, and she had invited them to come and stay with +her in Halfmoon Street until the flat was given up. The dowager had been +unwilling to leave the country, and when the news of her son's death +arrived was firm in her determination to remain in Cherrington. + +"He was born here," she said, "and it is here that I shall always think +of him best. I don't think I can afford to put up a window to his +memory; he must just have a simple stone slab. I should like to copy +that inscription at Rhodes. Do you remember it? 'Anthony, Fifth Earl of +Clarehaven. With God. 1914.'" + +Dorothy's grief at the death of Tony had for the moment been kept in +control by the tremendous effort she had been called upon to make in +facing the future; it was the future which had occupied her mind to the +exclusion of any contemplation of the past. Now when her mother-in-law +spoke these simple words she burst into tears. They linked Tony with so +many generations of his house; and they brought home to her almost as a +visible fact his death. She had spent so many years perpetually on the +verge, as it were, of broken promises, of resolutions never carried out, +of little optimisms and extenuations, that when the announcement of his +death arrived it was more than usually true in her case that she did not +at first realize it. The telegraphic form in which the news had been +conveyed to her involuntarily merged itself with so many telegrams in +the past which had turned out false, and only when the dowager stated +his death like this in terms that admitted of no doubt did Dorothy +suddenly confront the reality. She remembered that once a telegram had +arrived almost on this very date to say that Tony could not get away +from camp in time to be present at the annual show. There was no annual +show this year--war had obliterated it--but on the afternoon of this day +on which she had meant to return to town she walked, instead, about the +field where the show had customarily been held, and so vivid was the +familiar scene of hot women and blazing dahlias that she was transported +back in imagination and found herself excusing on the ground of his +military duties her husband's absence from this spectral exhibition. A +farmer, one of her late tenants, passed her while she was wandering over +the field, touched his cap, and begged to express his sorrow at the +news. + +"'Tis going to be a handsome year for partridges, too," he said. "But +there, my lady, his lordship of late never seemed to care for partridges +so much as he belonged. I remember when he was a youngster he'd regular +walk me off my feet, as the saying is, after they birds. And he was +uncommon fond of land-rails. Yes, it always seemed to give him a sort of +extra pleasure, as you might say, when he could get a shot at a +land-rail." + +The reproach that was implied in the farmer's first words was mitigated +by these reminiscences of Tony as a boy, and Dorothy thought that if her +son had lived he would already be over six years old and within +measurable distance of shooting his first land-rail in the company of +the burly farmer beside her. Her son! Would it have made any difference +to Tony if he had had an heir? Ought she to thank God or reproach Him +for her childlessness? + +Three days later Mr. Beadon sang for the late earl a requiem at +Clarehaven church. Whoever should be the new owner of Clare--nobody had +materialized from that mysterious firm of Reinhardt & Co.--he was not +yet flaunting his proprietorship. The mourners passed slowly through the +somber groves of pines and looked back at the empty house across the +short herbage burnished by the drought of August, and the house empty +and solemn, perhaps more solemn because it had not been dressed for +grief, eyed with all its windows their progress seaward. + +It would be cynical to say that at such a moment Mr. Beadon derived a +positive pleasure from conducting a mass of requiem for the dead earl, +and if for a moment he regarded with a kind of gloomy triumph Squire +Kingdon's inevitable conformity to the majestic ritual of woe expressed +by the catafalque from which depended the dead earl's hatchment, he made +up by the grave eloquence of his funeral oration for any fleeting +pettiness. The windows of the little church on the cliff were wide open +to the serene air, and if ever the preacher fell mute for a space to +recover from his emotion the plaint of the tide was heard in a monody +above the mourners' tears; but above the preacher's voice, above all the +sounds of nature in communion with human grief, there was continuously +audible a gay chattering of birds among the tombs, of whinchats and +stonechats that were mobilizing along these cliffs, unaware that there +was anything very admirable or very adventurous about their impending +migration. A cynic listening to those birds might have criticized the +rector's sermon for its exaggeration of the spirit in which the young +earl had set out to Flanders; a cynic might have given himself leave to +doubt if the fifth Earl of Clarehaven was inspired by the same spirit as +inspired Sir Gilbert Clare to defend Rhodes against the Moslem; but, +whatever the spirit in which he had set forth, no cynic could impugn the +spirit in which he had died; no living man, indeed, had any longer the +right to sneer at his frailties and follies or to condemn his vices and +his extravagance. Besides, a cynic contemporary with Sir Gilbert Clare +may have questioned the spirit in which the Hospitaller had watched the +cliffs of Devon fade out in the sunset. Who knows? There were stonechats +and whinchats then as now. + +On the morning after the requiem Dorothy was confronted with the +possibility of an event that in its significance, should it come to +fruition, would obliterate all that had happened in the past and would +provide her in the future with a task so tremendous that she almost fell +on her knees then and there to pray for strength and wisdom to sustain +it. This was the possibility that she was going to have a child. + +Such a prospect changed every plan for the future that she had been +making and destroyed her freedom in the very moment it had been given +back to her by the death of her husband. Her intention of proving to +Harry Tufton that she could again be a favorite of the public must now +be relinquished; her ambition to withdraw haughtily from the protection +of Lord Chatfield must presumably be abandoned. Yet need they? She +should not be too impulsive. Who now except herself had the right to say +a word about her child's future? Who else could claim to be the guardian +of its destiny? If she was right about her condition, she should rejoice +that Tony was dead. If he had been alive and in that mood he was in +before the outbreak of war solved his future so rapidly and so +completely, this wonderful prospect would only have led to +recriminations, even to open hatred. It would have been he who had +robbed their child of its inheritance, and she could never have +refrained from taunting him with his egotism. Nor was it likely that he +would have been reformed by the prospect of being a father; he had not +shown much inclination that way in the early years of their marriage; +and even if for a while he had changed his habits, he would gradually +have relapsed, and, moreover, with his genial and indulgent character he +would have held out not merely a bad, but also an attractive, example, +which would doubtless have been eagerly and assiduously imitated by any +child of his. Yes, but now the future lay in her hands ... and meanwhile +she must not be too sure that she was going to have a child at all, nor, +even if it were established that she was, must she make too many plans +in advance, because everything would be ruled by whether it was a boy or +a girl. If it should be a girl, she might go back to the stage next +year; she would only be thirty-one next March. It was odd how much +younger thirty-one seemed than thirty. But if it should be a boy ... +well, even if it should be a boy, why should she not go back to the +stage and by her own exertions keep him, educate him, prepare him to be +what he must be--landless, houseless, moneyless, but still the sixth +Earl of Clarehaven? Stoic, indeed, should be his training, and his +nobility should be won as well as conferred. + +Several days of uncertainty went by, and finally Dorothy decided to ask +Doctor Lane his opinion of her condition. He was a very old man now and +no longer in practice, but at least he would know how to keep a secret, +and a secret she intended his opinion to remain at present. Already +plans were seething in her head for the immediate future, and when +Doctor Lane assured her that she was going to have a baby, without +saying a word even to the dowager she left next day for London. + +Dorothy, who had been fancying that Tony's family wanted to be rid of +her, soon found that, on the contrary, they would not let her alone, +and when the lease expired at Michaelmas and while she was still +wondering where she was going to live next, she received an invitation +to join the dowager, Bella, and Lady Jane at the Chatfield town mansion +in Grosvenor Square. It appeared that Lady Jane had by this time become +so inextricably entangled in unknitted wool that the only way she could +disentangle herself was by coming up to town to continue there with +proper help the preparation of mittens against the winter cold. + +"Not that it will be necessary," everybody said, "but it's as well to be +prepared, and of course it _might_ drag on till the spring." + +The dowager, who had been worked up by her sister to feel that even +though she had given a son to England she was still in debt, and Bella +were among the twenty ladies collected by Lady Jane to make mittens, and +the spinster was anxious to add Dorothy to her flock, for what between +wool and ladies she was become very pastoral. So great pressure was put +on Dorothy to make mittens, too. Uncle Chat was very penitent for his +behavior over the jointure, and he now insisted that the money Dorothy +had shared with her mother-in-law should be returned to her. Had it not +been for her condition, she would have taken pleasure in refusing this; +in the circumstances she accepted it, but she still did not say a word +about her pregnancy, for reasons compounded of superstition and pride. +Her experience of child-bearing had destroyed her self-confidence and +she felt that she could not bear to have a great fuss made about her and +to be installed in state at Chatfield Hall to wait there doing nothing +through all this anxious winter of war. Nor did the manufacture of +mittens in Grosvenor Square appeal to her. Moreover, it was possible +that the news would not be welcome. She could not have borne to see +Uncle Chat's face fall again at the prospect of having to support a +grandnephew of the same rank as himself, and though she did not think +that the dowager would attempt to interfere, or that she would be +anything but delighted and tactful, there was the chance that after her +son's death she might arrogate to herself a right to spoil her grandson. +If Dorothy accepted for him the charity of his grandmother's family, she +could not avoid admitting the dowager to the privilege of maternity; but +if during the months of expectation she kept close her secret and if it +were a boy, untrammeled by any obligations she should be at liberty to +make her own decision about his up-bringing. More and more she was +forming all her plans to fit the future of a boy, and one of her chief +reasons for not relying upon the good will of the family was her desire +to spare this son prenatal coddling by coddling herself. + +Dorothy might have found it hard to analyze justly all the motives that +inspired her to take the step she did; but whatever they were, a hot +morning in late September found her sitting at the window of her old +room in Lonsdale Road. + + +II + +If outwardly Lonsdale Road presented the same appearance as it had +presented on that September morning twelve years ago when Dorothy, after +washing her hair, made up her mind to be engaged to Wilfred Curlew, the +standpoint from which she now looked out of her window was so profoundly +changed that the road itself was transmuted by the alchemy of her mind +to achieve the significant and incommunicable landscape of a dream. It +was as if in looking at Lonsdale Road she were looking at herself, and a +much truer self than she ever used to see portrayed in that old mirror +upon her dressing-table. + +In an upper room of the house opposite a servant was dusting. Down +below, amid that immemorial acrid smell of privet, two little girls were +busily digging in the front garden. These were the daughters of her +second sister, the rightful Dorothy, who was staying with her parents +because her husband, Claude Savage, had left Norbiton for France with +his regiment of territorials. Mrs. Savage, a dark, neat little woman, as +capable a housewife as she had promised to become, and at twenty-eight +not quite so annoying as formerly, came into the room from time to time +and glanced out of the window to see that her little girls were not +making themselves too dirty. + +"Hope they're not disturbing you with their chattering." + +"No, no," said the countess. "I like listening to them." + +Ah, there was Edna down below, not as twelve years ago giggling back +from school with Agnes, but wheeling a perambulator and from time to +time bending cautiously over to arrange the coverlet over her sleeping +baby. Edna was a dull edition of Agnes, and already at twenty-six much +more like Mrs. Caffyn than any of her sisters. Her chin was rather +furry; she was indefinite, not so indefinite as her mother because +modern education had not permitted to her what was formerly considered a +prerogative of woman. Edna had been married for about three years to +Walter Hume, a young doctor in Golders Green, who was stationed at some +northern camp with the R.A.M.C. She, too, was staying with her +parents. + +"Edna keeps on fussing with the coverlet," said Mrs. Savage, critically. +"But she ought not to be walking along the sunny side of the pavement." + +The countess did not pay much attention to the practical sister looking +over her shoulders; she was thinking of Agnes and wondering what she was +doing, and how her baby was getting on. + +"Have you heard from Agnes lately?" she asked. + +"Yes. Her husband has gone in for politics. But of course politics out +there must be very different from what they are in England. You can't +imagine Agnes as the wife of a politician. Tut-tut! Ridiculous!" + +"What did she call her little boy?" + +"Oh, gracious, don't ask me! Some perfectly absurd name. Could it be +Xenophon? I know Claude laughed muchly when he heard it. Thank goodness, +he wouldn't have let me choose such names for Mary and Ethel. I suppose +Agnes is happy. She seems to be. I sometimes wonder where some of the +members of our family get their taste for adventure." + +"But you've no idea what a lovely place Aphros is ... it lies in the +middle of a circle of islands and...." + +"Yes, yes," Mrs. Savage interrupted, "but it's a long way from England, +and the idea of living abroad doesn't appeal to me." + +"Don't you ever want to travel?" + +"Well, Claude and I had planned to go to Switzerland with a party this +August, but of course the war put a stop to that." + +"By the way, isn't the war rather an adventure for Claude?" the countess +asked, with a smile. + +"An adventure?" Mrs. Savage echoed. "It's a great inconvenience." + +She bustled out of the room to look after her own daughters and give +Edna some advice about hers; soon after she was gone Gladys and +Marjorie, the prototypes of those little girls in the front garden, +strolled in to gossip with their eldest sister. Although it was nearly +noon, they were only just out of bed, because they had been up late at a +dance on the night before. Gladys, a girl of twenty, was very like her +eldest sister at the same age. She was not quite so tall and perhaps she +lacked her air of having been born to grandeur, but she was sufficiently +like to make Dorothy wonder if her career would at all resemble her own. +On the whole, she thought that probably herself and Agnes had exhausted +the right of the Caffyns to astonish their neighbors. Gladys and +Marjorie, the latter a charming new edition of the original Dorothy, +with flashing deep-blue eyes, dark hair, and an Irish complexion, were +already, at twenty and nineteen, too free to be ambitious. Twelve years +had made a great difference to the liberty of girls in West Kensington, +and Mr. Caffyn no longer objected to the young men who came to his +house, mostly in uniform nowadays, which provided one more excuse for +emancipation. Gladys and Marjorie frequently arrived home unchaperoned +from dances at three o'clock in the morning, and their father did not +turn a hair; perhaps he was already so white that he was incapable of +showing any more marks of life's fitful fever. No doubt he had long ago +given up the ladies of Lauriston Mansions, and probably at no period in +his career was he more qualified to be the secretary of the Church of +England Purity Society than upon the eve of his retirement from the +post. Dorothy had not seen her father since that night she drove him +back in her car from the Vanity. Tacitly they had been friends at once +when the countess came to live at home for a while; indeed, she fancied +that she could grow quite fond of him, and she was even compelled to +warn herself against a slight inclination to accept his flattery a +little too complacently. Mrs. Caffyn, with a perversity that is often +shown by blondes upon the verge of sixty, would not go white, and her +hair was of so indefinite a shade as to be quite indescribably the very +expression of her own indefinite personality. + +Of the boys--it was odd to hear of the boys again--Roland had long been +married and already had four children. At this rate he was likely to +surpass his father, whom on a larger scale he was beginning to resemble. +Roland was continually in a state of being expected to come and look the +family up. He was so long in doing so that he became almost a myth to +his eldest sister, and when at last, one afternoon, he did materialize +with the largest mustache she had ever seen, his appearance gave her the +same kind of thrill that she used to get at the Zoo, when at short +intervals the sea-lion would emerge from the water and flap about among +the rocks of his cage. It was obvious that Roland regarded her with a +mixture of suspicion, jealousy, and disapproval, for he had not brought +his wife with him, and when the countess asked him if he had also left +his pipe at home, he growled out that he supposed she was far too grand +for pipes. Dorothy remembered that sometimes when they were children he +and she had seemed upon the path of mutual understanding, and, feeling +penitent for her share in the way they had for twelve years been walking +away from each other, she tried to be specially affectionate with +Roland; but he was already out of earshot. He evidently was thinking +that her abrupt re-entry into the family circle would probably mean a +reduction in his share of any money left by their parents, because he +was continually alluding to her financial state and his own. She tried +to ascribe this to his position as the manager of a branch bank; but she +knew in her heart that he was dividing L500 a year first by eight and +then by nine and thinking what a difference to his holiday that extra L7 +would make. Of Dorothy's other brothers, Cecil was in camp somewhere, +and hoping to get to France soon with the R.A.M.C.; he had been married +only a few months, and his wife was living in the nearest town to his +quarters. Vincent, who had won a scholarship at Sydney Sussex College, +Cambridge, had already enlisted and wrote home as confidently of +promotion in the near future as twelve years ago he had boasted that he +would soon be in the eleven of St. James's Preparatory School. + +Perhaps the most striking result of the countess's return was the +impetus it gave to Mrs. Caffyn's Wednesday afternoons. The punctilious +ladies came as they had been coming steadily for twelve years; but a +quantity of less punctilious ladies also came and were so much over-awed +by meeting a countess in a West Kensington drawing-room that they had no +appetite for cakes, which was just as well because otherwise the strain +put upon the normal provision by so many extra visitors might have been +too much for it. In addition to the Wednesday ladies, several friends of +Dorothy's youth visited No. 17 in the evenings, and though by now the +billiard-table was more like a neglected tennis-lawn, she played one or +two games to remind her of old times, thinking how scornful she would +have been twelve years ago if any one had prophesied to her such +indulgence in sentiment. Among these friends of youth came Wilfred +Curlew, who in outward appearance was the least changed of all. His +career had been successful, if the editorship of a society paper can be +considered success. Being a journalist, he rightly considered himself +indispensable at home, and it is unlikely that his inaccurate and cheery +paragraphs in _The Way of the World_ did any more to make the war +ridiculous than some of the inaccurate and cheery despatches sent home +from the front by generals. A slight tendency which he had formerly had +toward a cockney accent had been checked by an elocutionist who had +imprisoned his voice in his throat, whence it was never allowed to +stray. If Lady Clarehaven had once been a Vanity girl, Mr. Wilfred +Curlew, the editor of _The Way of the World_, had once written fierce +revolutionary articles about Society in _The Red Lamp_; and whereas Lady +Clarehaven had long been indifferent to her past, Mr. Curlew was still +sensitive about his, as sensitive as a man who oils the wheels of +railway-coaches in termini would be if it were known that he had once +been a train-wrecker. + +After the first awkwardness of such a rencounter had worn off Dorothy +found Wilfred entertaining. It was astonishing to learn how accurately +the failings and follies of so many of her friends and acquaintances +were known to the editor, who had never met one of them. At first he +pretended that he had met them; but as gradually he saw more of the +countess he gave up this pretense, and finally he revealed the existence +in his mind of a perpetual and abominable dread that soon or late in one +of his cheery paragraphs he should make a mistake, not, of course, a +mistake of fact or even an unjust imputation--that would be nothing--but +a mistake of form. He was really haunted day and night by such bogies as +referring to a maid of honor after marriage without her prefix, though +to have suggested that her behavior with somebody else's husband was +less honorable than that would no more have troubled him than to state +positively that her main hobby was breeding Sealyham terriers, when it +was really communicating every Sunday at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. If +in Lonsdale Road Dorothy beheld her present self, in Wilfred Curlew she +saw the reflection of what she was twelve years ago, enough of which old +self still existed to make her feel proud that never in her most anxious +moments had she revealed to another person her own dread of making a +mistake. + +One day after a long talk about well-known people in society, Curlew +exclaimed from the depths of his inmost being, "If only I had you +always!" + +"Is this a proposal?" she laughed. + +He rose and walked about the room in his agitated fashion; then +supporting with one arm the small of his back as he used, and wrenching +his voice back into his throat whence in his emotion it had nearly +escaped, he paused to mutter: + +"Presumptuous, I know, but sincere." + +This phrase remained in Dorothy's mind for long afterward, and in her +gloomiest hours she could always smile when she repeated gently to +herself, "Presumptuous, I know, but sincere." + +Naturally, she told Curlew as kindly as she could that his proposal was +far outside the remotest bounds of possibility. + +"Besides," she added, "you'd really be much better off without my help. +Readers of your paper will always greatly prefer your view of society to +my view. My view would pull your circulation down to nothing in less +than no time." + +"It's true," Curlew groaned. "How wise you are!" + +Only that morning he had received a sharp reminder from the great brain +of which _The Way of the World_ was merely an inquisitive and +insignificant tentacle, to say that the last three or four numbers of +the paper had shown a marked falling off in their ability to provide +what the public required. + +"You have to admit that I am right," Dorothy pointed out kindly. + +"Yes, but if you'd marry me, in a year or two I would give up journalism +and write novels. I've got a theory about the form of the English novel +which I should like to put into practice." + +"I'm afraid," said Dorothy, "I have heard too many theories about the +form of race-horses to believe much in theories of form about anything. +Form is a capricious quality." + +"It's an awful thing," poor Wilfred groaned, "for a man who knows he can +write good stuff never to have an opportunity of doing so. I'm afraid +I've sold my soul," he murmured, in a transport of remorse. + +"We all of us do that sooner or later," she said. "And it's only when we +don't get a good price for it that we repent." + +Dorothy's faculty for aphorisms had no doubt been fostered by the +respect which was accorded to her at Lonsdale Road, but she was far from +talking merely for the sake of talking, and her inspiration was really +the fruit of experience, not the mere flowering of words. She had, +perhaps, been wiser than she had realized in coming home for a while. +Notwithstanding those two younger sisters nearly as beautiful as +herself, notwithstanding the knowledge generally diffused that she was +without money, her beauty and rank were still sufficiently remarkable in +West Kensington to preserve her dignity. Here she ran no risks of +acquiring a deeper cynicism from the behavior of old friends like +Tufton, and inasmuch as misfortune had made her more truly the equal of +those around her she had no temptation now to lord it over her sisters, +as no doubt they had expected she would; in the homage of West +Kensington she let the pleasant side of herself develop and, by a strong +effort resisting an inclination to worry about the future, she resigned +herself to whatever fortune had in store for her. + +Dorothy was not content with waiting for all her old friends to visit +her; there was one whom she herself sought out soon after she reached +West Kensington. She had not seen Olive Airdale since her marriage, and +she was glad she was visiting her for the first time humbly and on foot, +even if Olive should think that it was only in adversity that she cared +to seek out the companions of her early days. What rubbish! As if Olive +would think anything except that she was glad to see her old friend. It +was an opalescent afternoon in mid-October when Dorothy rang the bell of +the little red house in Gresley Road, and Olive's welcome of her was as +if the mist over London had suddenly melted to reveal that very paradise +which for the fanciful wayfarer existed somewhere behind these +enchanting and transfigurative autumnal airs. + +"My dearest Dorothy," she exclaimed. "But why do you reproach yourself? +As if I hadn't always perfectly understood! I've been so worried about +you. And I wish you could have met Jack--but of course he enlisted at +once. You don't know him or you'd realize that of course he had to." + +They talked away as if there had never been the smallest break in their +association; Rose and Sylvius, those nice fat twins who would be five +years old next April, interested the countess immensely now that she +would soon be a mother herself. + +"And Sylvia?" Dorothy asked. + +"Oh, my dear, we don't know. Isn't it dreadful? None of us knows. She +was engaged to be married to Arthur Madden--you remember him, perhaps at +the Frivolity last year--and suddenly he married another girl and +Sylvia vanished--utterly and completely. She went abroad, that's all we +know." + +So Sylvia with all her self-assurance had not been able to escape a +fall. In Dorothy's present mood it would have been unfair to say that +she was glad to find that Sylvia was vulnerable, but she did feel that +if she ever met Sylvia again she should perhaps get back her old +affection for her more easily. And while she was thinking this about +Sylvia she suddenly realized that all these other people must be feeling +the same about herself. + +The revival of her intimacy with Olive made a great difference to +Dorothy's stay in West Kensington, and she might even have stayed on at +Lonsdale Road until her baby was born had not her two married sisters +turned out to be going to have babies also. Though Dorothy had never +possessed a very keen sense of humor, her sense of the ridiculous had +been sufficiently developed to make her feel that the sight of three +young women in an interesting condition round the dining-room table of +No. 17 would be a little too much of a good thing. She therefore wrote +to Doctor Lane to say that she wanted her child to be born in +Devonshire, and asked for his advice. He suggested that she should go to +a nursing-home he knew of in Ilfracombe. Thither she went in the month +of January, taking with her from Lonsdale Road that old colored +supplement inscribed "Yoicks! Tally-Ho"; and there, without any of those +raptures that marked her first pregnancy, but with abundant health and +serenity of purpose, she waited for her time to come, and at the end of +April bore a posthumous son to Clarehaven. + + +III + +Not until her son was actually born did Dorothy apprise the dowager of +the event. It was lucky that spring was already warm over France and +that the sudden famine of mittens did not inconvenience the troops at +this season, because the instant withdrawal of the dowager, Lady Jane, +and Lady Arabella from the house in Grosvenor Square left the twenty +ladies they had gathered together with neither wool to continue their +good work nor with addresses to which it could be sent. The dowager in a +state of perfect happiness began to trace in the lineaments of the baby +a strong likeness to her dead son, and, as Dorothy had expected, to +lament loudly his disinheritance; Lady Jane insisted that he must be +taken at once to Chatfield, where Uncle Chat would be more than +delighted to look after him entirely; Bella, who had been working +herself up into a state of great excitement over a baby that Connie +expected to bring into the world at the end of May, ceased to take the +least interest in Connie or her child and celebrated the advent of her +nephew, the sixth earl, by abandoning prose for a paean of rhapsodic +verse. As for Dorothy, she who during the months of waiting had supposed +that she had at last reached that high summit of complete indifference +to the world, lost nearly all her superiority, and with her strength +renewed and increasing every day was on fire to secure somehow or other +to her son the material prosperity that his rank demanded. She was still +averse to taking him to Chatfield, because even if at such an early age +it was improbable that the externals of Chatfield would make the least +impression upon his character, she did not like to surrender all her +fine schemes of independence at once. She compromised by consenting to +take the baby to Cherrington Cottage, where his arrival elicited from +their former tenants a most moving demonstration of affection for the +family. + +Clare Court was still vacant, and during that summer Dorothy used to +wheel the perambulator of her baby round and round the domains of which +he had been robbed. For his name she had gone back to her old choice of +Lucius, and she felt that by doing so she was conferring upon this +posthumous son the greatest compliment in her capacity. The dowager was +at first a little distressed that he was not christened Anthony, but +when Dorothy read to her, out of a volume of Clarendon she borrowed from +the rector, that this namesake was "'a person of such prodigious parts +of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness and delight in +conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity and goodness to +mankind, and of that primitive simplicity and integrity of life, that if +there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed civil war than +that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable to all +posterity.' 'Thus,'" Dorothy read on, "'fell that incomparable young +man, in the four-and-thirtieth year of his age, having so much +despatched the true business of life that the eldest rarely attain to +that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not into the world with +more innocency.'" + +"Yes, yes," sighed the dowager. "Dear old Tony! He was in his +thirty-second year. Dear old boy!" + +Dorothy looked at her mother-in-law to see if she were serious; when she +saw that indeed she was she had not the heart to say that the eulogy +might as a description of Tony's life be considered somewhat elevated. +After all, Tony had died for his king and his country; Lord Falkland had +died for his king only. + +On the anniversary of the fifth earl's death, when the wind at dusk was +cooing round Cherrington Cottage like a mighty dove, Dorothy was seized +with a sudden restlessness and a desire to encounter the mysterious and +uneasy air of this gusty twilight of late summer. Her son was fast +asleep, with both his grandmother and his aunt Arabella ready to +minister to his most incomprehensible baby wish and serve him, were it +possible, with the paradisal milk of which he dreamed. He had been +restless all day, and now that he was sleeping so calmly Dorothy felt +that she could allow herself to take air and exercise. Owing to the +continued emptiness of the Court, she had grown into the habit of +walking about the park whenever she felt inclined, and except for the +solemnity and silence of the house itself she was hardly conscious that +she was no longer the mistress of Clare, because the lodge-keepers and +various servants of the estate were familiar to her and always showed +how glad they were to see her among them. + +The park that evening was haunted by strange noises; but Dorothy's mind +never ran on the supernatural, and neither swooping owl, nor flitting +bat, nor weasel swiftly jigging across her path, nor sudden scurry of +deer startled at their drinking-pool alarmed her. She walked on until +the dusk had deepened to a wind-blown starlight, and she found herself +in the gardens, where on the curved seat of the pergola she sat until +the moon rose and the statues shivered like ghosts in a light changing +from silver to gray, from gray to silver, as the scud traveled over the +moon's face. But Dorothy had no eyes that night for shadows. She was +keeping the anniversary of the fifth earl's death by concentrating upon +one supreme problem--the restoration of all these moonlit acres, of all +these surging yews and cedars, of every stone and statue, to the +rightful heir. If any ghost had walked in Clare that night she would +have thought of nothing but the best way to retain him for her son's +service. Each extravagant idea that came into her head seemed to stay +there but for an instant before it was caught by the wind and blown out +of reach forever. Restlessly she left the pergola and wandered round the +empty house where the wind in the pines on either side was like a sea +and the scent of the magnolias in bloom against the walls swirled upon +the air with an extraordinary sweetness. She entered one of the groves +and passed through to the lawn behind, where a wild notion came into her +head, inspired by the wild night and this mad close of summer, to find +an ax and deface the escutcheon of Clare, to mutilate the angelic +supporters, to eclipse forever that stone moon in her complement, and so +spoil for the intruding owner at least one of his trophies. The +unheraldic moon was not yet above the pine-trees on the eastern side of +the house, and such was the force of the wind blowing straight off the +sea from the northwest--blowing here with redoubled force on account of +the gap in the cliffs through which it had to travel--that when a cloud +passed over the still invisible moon on the far side, Dorothy had the +impression that the luminary was being blown out like a lamp, so dark +did it then become here in the shadow of the house. She had an impulse +to defy this wind, to walk down to the headland's edge and watch the +waves leaping like angry, foaming dogs against the face of the cliff; +but half-way to the sea she had to turn round, exhausted, and surrender +to the will of the wind. Her hair blown all about her shoulders, +spindrift and spume racing at her side, she let herself sail back along +the lea toward the house, looking to any one who should see her like a +mermaid cast up by the tempest upon a haunted island. Haunted it was, +indeed, for just as the moon shining down a gorge of clouds rose above +the pines she met the Caliban of this island. + +"You!" she cried. "I knew it was you the whole time." + +Houston was unable to speak for a minute, so frightened had he been by +this apparition from the sea, so frightened was he to be wandering round +this stolen house and in his wanderings to have provoked this spirit of +the place, and in the end more frightened than ever, perhaps, to find +who the spirit really was. Dorothy did not realize how strange she +looked, how magical and debonair, how perilous, how wild; she whose +brain was throbbing with one thought perceived in Houston's expression +only the shame he should naturally feel for having robbed her son. + +"You look tremendously blown about," he managed to say, finally. "Won't +you come inside for a minute?" + +Then suddenly as if the wind had got into his brain he said to her, +"Dorothy, why don't you marry me and take all this back for yourself?" + +"Could I?" + +She had appealed to herself, not to him; but he, misunderstanding her +question, began like a true Oriental to praise the gifts he would offer +her. + +"Stop," she commanded. "All these things that you want to give to me, +will you give them to my son? Don't be so bewildered. You knew I had a +son? I can't stop here to argue about myself and what I can give you or +you can give me. If you will make over Clare as it stands with all its +land--oh yes, and buy back the Hopley estate which Tony's father +sold--to my son, I'll marry you." + +"If you'll marry me I'll do anything," he vowed. + +There was a momentary lull in the wind, and as if in the silence that +followed he was able to grasp how much he had undertaken, he stammered, +nervously: + +"And you and I? Suppose you and I have children?" + +"Well," said Dorothy, "they'll be half brothers and sisters of the sixth +Earl of Clarehaven, which will be quite enough for _them_, won't it?" + +And that night, while the wind still cooed round Cherrington Cottage, +Dorothy, Countess of Clarehaven, wrote out for Debrett and read to +Augusta, Countess of Clarehaven: + +"Clarehaven, Earl of (Clare.) (Earl. U.K. 1816. Bt. 1660.) Lucius Clare; +6th Earl and 11th Baronet; _b._ April 25, 1915; _s._ 1915; is patron of +one living. + +"_Arms_--Purpure, two flanches ermine, on a chief sable a moon in her +complement argent. _Crest_--A moon in her complement argent, arising +from a cloud proper. _Supporters_--Two angels, vested purpure, winged +and crined, or, each holding in the exterior hand a key or. + +"_Seat_--Clare Court, Devonshire." + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vanity Girl, by Compton Mackenzie + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANITY GIRL *** + +***** This file should be named 39422.txt or 39422.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/4/2/39422/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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