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@@ -0,0 +1,23036 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shuttle, by Frances Hodgson Burnett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Shuttle + +Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett + +Release Date: March 18, 2006 [EBook #506] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHUTTLE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller and David Widger + + + + + +THE SHUTTLE + +By Frances Hodgson Burnett + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER + I. THE WEAVING OF THE SHUTTLE + II. A LACK OF PERCEPTION + III. YOUNG LADY ANSTRUTHERS + IV. A MISTAKE OF THE POSTBOY'S + V. ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC + VI. AN UNFAIR ENDOWMENT + VII. ON BOARD THE "MERIDIANA" + VIII. THE SECOND-CLASS PASSENGER + IX. LADY JANE GREY + X. "IS LADY ANSTRUTHERS AT HOME?" + XI. "I THOUGHT YOU HAD ALL FORGOTTEN" + XII. UGHTRED + XIII. ONE OF THE NEW YORK DRESSES + XIV. IN THE GARDENS + XV. THE FIRST MAN + XVI. THE PARTICULAR INCIDENT + XVII. TOWNLINSON & SHEPPARD + XVIII. THE FIFTEENTH EARL OF MOUNT DUNSTAN + XIX. SPRING IN BOND STREET + XX. THINGS OCCUR IN STORNHAM VILLAGE + XXI. KEDGERS + XXII. ONE OF MR. VANDERPOEL'S LETTERS + XXIII. INTRODUCING G. SELDEN + XXIV. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF STORNHAM + XXV. "WE BEGAN TO MARRY THEM, MY GOOD FELLOW!" + XXVI. "WHAT IT MUST BE TO BE YOU--JUST YOU!" + XXVII. LIFE + XXVIII. SETTING THEM THINKING + XXIX. THE THREAD OF G. SELDEN + XXX. A RETURN + XXXI. NO, SHE WOULD NOT + XXXII. A GREAT BALL + XXXIII. FOR LADY JANE + XXXIV. RED GODWYN + XXXV. THE TIDAL WAVE + XXXVI. BY THE ROADSIDE EVERYWHERE + XXXVII. CLOSED CORRIDORS + XXXVIII. AT SHANDY'S + XXXIX. ON THE MARSHES + XL. "DON'T GO ON WITH THIS" + XLI. SHE WOULD DO SOMETHING + XLII. IN THE BALLROOM + XLIII. HIS CHANCE + XLIV. A FOOTSTEP + XLV. THE PASSING BELL + XLVI. LISTENING + XLVII. "I HAVE NO WORD OR LOOK TO REMEMBER" + XLVIII. THE MOMENT + XLIX. AT STORNHAM AND AT BROADMORLANDS + L. THE PRIMEVAL THING + + + + + +THE SHUTTLE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WEAVING OF THE SHUTTLE + +No man knew when the Shuttle began its slow and heavy weaving from shore +to shore, that it was held and guided by the great hand of Fate. Fate +alone saw the meaning of the web it wove, the might of it, and its place +in the making of a world's history. Men thought but little of either web +or weaving, calling them by other names and lighter ones, for the time +unconscious of the strength of the thread thrown across thousands of +miles of leaping, heaving, grey or blue ocean. + +Fate and Life planned the weaving, and it seemed mere circumstance +which guided the Shuttle to and fro between two worlds divided by a gulf +broader and deeper than the thousands of miles of salt, fierce sea--the +gulf of a bitter quarrel deepened by hatred and the shedding of +brothers' blood. Between the two worlds of East and West there was no +will to draw nearer. Each held apart. Those who had rebelled against +that which their souls called tyranny, having struggled madly and +shed blood in tearing themselves free, turned stern backs upon their +unconquered enemies, broke all cords that bound them to the past, +flinging off ties of name, kinship and rank, beginning with fierce +disdain a new life. + +Those who, being rebelled against, found the rebels too passionate +in their determination and too desperate in their defence of their +strongholds to be less than unconquerable, sailed back haughtily to the +world which seemed so far the greater power. Plunging into new battles, +they added new conquests and splendour to their land, looking back with +something of contempt to the half-savage West left to build its own +civilisation without other aid than the strength of its own strong right +hand and strong uncultured brain. + +But while the two worlds held apart, the Shuttle, weaving slowly in the +great hand of Fate, drew them closer and held them firm, each of them +all unknowing for many a year, that what had at first been mere threads +of gossamer, was forming a web whose strength in time none could +compute, whose severance could be accomplished but by tragedy and +convulsion. + +The weaving was but in its early and slow-moving years when this +story opens. Steamers crossed and recrossed the Atlantic, but they +accomplished the journey at leisure and with heavy rollings and all such +discomforts as small craft can afford. Their staterooms and decks were +not crowded with people to whom the voyage was a mere incident--in many +cases a yearly one. "A crossing" in those days was an event. It was +planned seriously, long thought of, discussed and re-discussed, with and +among the various members of the family to which the voyager belonged. +A certain boldness, bordering on recklessness, was almost to be +presupposed in the individual who, turning his back upon New York, +Philadelphia, Boston, and like cities, turned his face towards "Europe." +In those days when the Shuttle wove at leisure, a man did not lightly +run over to London, or Paris, or Berlin, he gravely went to "Europe." + +The journey being likely to be made once in a lifetime, the traveller's +intention was to see as much as possible, to visit as many cities +cathedrals, ruins, galleries, as his time and purse would allow. People +who could speak with any degree of familiarity of Hyde Park, the Champs +Elysees, the Pincio, had gained a certain dignity. The ability to touch +with an intimate bearing upon such localities was a raison de plus for +being asked out to tea or to dinner. To possess photographs and relics +was to be of interest, to have seen European celebrities even at a +distance, to have wandered about the outside of poets' gardens and +philosophers' houses, was to be entitled to respect. The period was a +far cry from the time when the Shuttle, having shot to and fro, faster +and faster, week by week, month by month, weaving new threads into its +web each year, has woven warp and woof until they bind far shore to +shore. + +It was in comparatively early days that the first thread we follow +was woven into the web. Many such have been woven since and have +added greater strength than any others, twining the cord of sex and +home-building and race-founding. But this was a slight and weak +one, being only the thread of the life of one of Reuben Vanderpoel's +daughters--the pretty little simple one whose name was Rosalie. + +They were--the Vanderpoels--of the Americans whose fortunes were a +portion of the history of their country. The building of these fortunes +had been a part of, or had created epochs and crises. Their millions +could scarcely be regarded as private property. Newspapers bandied them +about, so to speak, employing them as factors in argument, using them +as figures of speech, incorporating them into methods of calculation. +Literature touched upon them, moral systems considered them, stories for +the young treated them gravely as illustrative. + +The first Reuben Vanderpoel, who in early days of danger had traded with +savages for the pelts of wild animals, was the lauded hero of stories +of thrift and enterprise. Throughout his hard-working life he had been +irresistibly impelled to action by an absolute genius of commerce, +expressing itself at the outset by the exhibition of courage in mere +exchange and barter. An alert power to perceive the potential value of +things and the possible malleability of men and circumstances, had stood +him in marvellous good stead. He had bought at low prices things which +in the eyes of the less discerning were worthless, but, having obtained +possession of such things, the less discerning had almost invariably +awakened to the fact that, in his hands, values increased, and methods +of remunerative disposition, being sought, were found. Nothing remained +unutilisable. The practical, sordid, uneducated little man developed the +power to create demand for his own supplies. If he was betrayed into +an error, he quickly retrieved it. He could live upon nothing and +consequently could travel anywhere in search of such things as he +desired. He could barely read and write, and could not spell, but he was +daring and astute. His untaught brain was that of a financier, his blood +burned with the fever of but one desire--the desire to accumulate. Money +expressed to his nature, not expenditure, but investment in such small +or large properties as could be resold at profit in the near or far +future. The future held fascinations for him. He bought nothing for his +own pleasure or comfort, nothing which could not be sold or bartered +again. He married a woman who was a trader's daughter and shared his +passion for gain. She was of North of England blood, her father having +been a hard-fisted small tradesman in an unimportant town, who had been +daring enough to emigrate when emigration meant the facing of unknown +dangers in a half-savage land. She had excited Reuben Vanderpoel's +admiration by taking off her petticoat one bitter winter's day to sell +it to a squaw in exchange for an ornament for which she chanced to know +another squaw would pay with a skin of value. The first Mrs. Vanderpoel +was as wonderful as her husband. They were both wonderful. They were +the founders of the fortune which a century and a half later was the +delight--in fact the piece de resistance--of New York society reporters, +its enormity being restated in round figures when a blank space must be +filled up. The method of statement lent itself to infinite variety and +was always interesting to a particular class, some elements of which +felt it encouraging to be assured that so much money could be a personal +possession, some elements feeling the fact an additional argument to be +used against the infamy of monopoly. + +The first Reuben Vanderpoel transmitted to his son his accumulations and +his fever for gain. He had but one child. The second Reuben built upon +the foundations this afforded him, a fortune as much larger than the +first as the rapid growth and increasing capabilities of the country +gave him enlarging opportunities to acquire. It was no longer necessary +to deal with savages: his powers were called upon to cope with those +of white men who came to a new country to struggle for livelihood and +fortune. Some were shrewd, some were desperate, some were dishonest. But +shrewdness never outwitted, desperation never overcame, dishonesty never +deceived the second Reuben Vanderpoel. Each characteristic ended by +adapting itself to his own purposes and qualities, and as a result of +each it was he who in any business transaction was the gainer. It was +the common saying that the Vanderpoels were possessed of a money-making +spell. Their spell lay in their entire mental and physical absorption in +one idea. Their peculiarity was not so much that they wished to be rich +as that Nature itself impelled them to collect wealth as the load-stone +draws towards it iron. Having possessed nothing, they became rich, +having become rich they became richer, having founded their fortunes +on small schemes, they increased them by enormous ones. In time they +attained that omnipotence of wealth which it would seem no circumstance +can control or limit. The first Reuben Vanderpoel could not spell, the +second could, the third was as well educated as a man could be whose +sole profession is money-making. His children were taught all that +expensive teachers and expensive opportunities could teach them. After +the second generation the meagre and mercantile physical type of the +Vanderpoels improved upon itself. Feminine good looks appeared and were +made the most of. The Vanderpoel element invested even good looks to an +advantage. The fourth Reuben Vanderpoel had no son and two daughters. +They were brought up in a brown-stone mansion built upon a fashionable +New York thoroughfare roaring with traffic. To the farthest point of +the Rocky Mountains the number of dollars this "mansion" (it was always +called so) had cost, was known. There may have existed Pueblo Indians +who had heard rumours of the price of it. All the shop-keepers and +farmers in the United States had read newspaper descriptions of its +furnishings and knew the value of the brocade which hung in the bedrooms +and boudoirs of the Misses Vanderpoel. It was a fact much cherished that +Miss Rosalie's bath was of Carrara marble, and to good souls actively +engaged in doing their own washing in small New England or Western +towns, it was a distinct luxury to be aware that the water in the +Carrara marble bath was perfumed with Florentine Iris. Circumstances +such as these seemed to become personal possessions and even to lighten +somewhat the burden of toil. + +Rosalie Vanderpoel married an Englishman of title, and part of the +story of her married life forms my prologue. Hers was of the early +international marriages, and the republican mind had not yet adjusted +itself to all that such alliances might imply. It was yet ingenuous, +imaginative and confiding in such matters. A baronetcy and a manor house +reigning over an old English village and over villagers in possible +smock frocks, presented elements of picturesque dignity to people whose +intimacy with such allurements had been limited by the novels of Mrs. +Oliphant and other writers. The most ordinary little anecdotes in which +vicarages, gamekeepers, and dowagers figured, were exciting in these +early days. "Sir Nigel Anstruthers," when engraved upon a visiting card, +wore an air of distinction almost startling. Sir Nigel himself was +not as picturesque as his name, though he was not entirely without +attraction, when for reasons of his own he chose to aim at agreeableness +of bearing. He was a man with a good figure and a good voice, and but +for a heaviness of feature the result of objectionable living, might +have given the impression of being better looking than he really was. +New York laid amused and at the same time, charmed stress upon the fact +that he spoke with an "English accent." His enunciation was in fact +clear cut and treated its vowels well. He was a man who observed with an +air of accustomed punctiliousness such social rules and courtesies as he +deemed it expedient to consider. An astute worldling had remarked that +he was at once more ceremonious and more casual in his manner than men +bred in America. + +"If you invite him to dinner," the wording said, "or if you die, +or marry, or meet with an accident, his notes of condolence or +congratulation are prompt and civil, but the actual truth is that he +cares nothing whatever about you or your relations, and if you don't +please him he does not hesitate to sulk or be astonishingly rude, which +last an American does not allow himself to be, as a rule." + +By many people Sir Nigel was not analysed, but accepted. He was of the +early English who came to New York, and was a novelty of interest, with +his background of Manor House and village and old family name. He was +very much talked of at vivacious ladies' luncheon parties, he was very +much talked to at equally vivacious afternoon teas. At dinner parties he +was furtively watched a good deal, but after dinner when he sat with +the men over their wine, he was not popular. He was not perhaps exactly +disliked, but men whose chief interest at that period lay in stocks +and railroads, did not find conversation easy with a man whose sole +occupation had been the shooting of birds and the hunting of foxes, +when he was not absolutely loitering about London, with his time on his +hands. The stories he told--and they were few--were chiefly anecdotes +whose points gained their humour by the fact that a man was a comically +bad shot or bad rider and either peppered a gamekeeper or was thrown +into a ditch when his horse went over a hedge, and such relations +did not increase in the poignancy of their interest by being filtered +through brains accustomed to applying their powers to problems of +speculation and commerce. He was not so dull but that he perceived +this at an early stage of his visit to New York, which was probably the +reason of the infrequency of his stories. + +He on his side was naturally not quick to rise to the humour of a "big +deal" or a big blunder made on Wall Street--or to the wit of jokes +concerning them. Upon the whole he would have been glad to have +understood such matters more clearly. His circumstances were such as +had at last forced him to contemplate the world of money-makers with +something of an annoyed respect. "These fellows" who had neither +titles nor estates to keep up could make money. He, as he acknowledged +disgustedly to himself, was much worse than a beggar. There was Stornham +Court in a state of ruin--the estate going to the dogs, the farmhouses +tumbling to pieces and he, so to speak, without a sixpence to bless +himself with, and head over heels in debt. Englishmen of the rank which +in bygone times had not associated itself with trade had begun at least +to trifle with it--to consider its potentialities as factors possibly +to be made useful by the aristocracy. Countesses had not yet spiritedly +opened milliners' shops, nor belted Earls adorned the stage, but certain +noblemen had dallied with beer and coquetted with stocks. One of +the first commercial developments had been the discovery of +America--particularly of New York--as a place where if one could make up +one's mind to the plunge, one might marry one's sons profitably. At +the outset it presented a field so promising as to lead to rashness and +indiscretion on the part of persons not given to analysis of character +and in consequence relying too serenely upon an ingenuousness which +rather speedily revealed that it had its limits. Ingenuousness combining +itself with remarkable alertness of perception on occasion, is +rather American than English, and is, therefore, to the English mind, +misleading. + +At first younger sons, who "gave trouble" to their families, were sent +out. Their names, their backgrounds of castles or manors, relatives of +distinction, London seasons, fox hunting, Buckingham Palace and Goodwood +Races, formed a picturesque allurement. That the castles and manors +would belong to their elder brothers, that the relatives of distinction +did not encourage intimacy with swarms of the younger branches of their +families; that London seasons, hunting, and racing were for their elders +and betters, were facts not realised in all their importance by the +republican mind. In the course of time they were realised to the full, +but in Rosalie Vanderpoel's nineteenth year they covered what was at +that time almost unknown territory. One may rest assured Sir Nigel +Anstruthers said nothing whatsoever in New York of an interview he had +had before sailing with an intensely disagreeable great-aunt, who was +the wife of a Bishop. She was a horrible old woman with a broad face, +blunt features and a raucous voice, whose tones added acridity to +her observations when she was indulging in her favourite pastime of +interfering with the business of her acquaintances and relations. + +"I do not know what you are going chasing off to America for, Nigel," +she commented. "You can't afford it and it is perfectly ridiculous of +you to take it upon yourself to travel for pleasure as if you were a man +of means instead of being in such a state of pocket that Maria tells me +you cannot pay your tailor. Neither the Bishop nor I can do anything +for you and I hope you don't expect it. All I can hope is that you know +yourself what you are going to America in search of, and that it is +something more practical than buffaloes. You had better stop in New +York. Those big shopkeepers' daughters are enormously rich, they say, +and they are immensely pleased by attentions from men of your class. +They say they'll marry anything if it has an aunt or a grandmother with +a title. You can mention the Marchioness, you know. You need not refer +to the fact that she thought your father a blackguard and your mother an +interloper, and that you have never been invited to Broadmere since you +were born. You can refer casually to me and to the Bishop and to the +Palace, too. A Palace--even a Bishop's--ought to go a long way with +Americans. They will think it is something royal." She ended her remarks +with one of her most insulting snorts of laughter, and Sir Nigel became +dark red and looked as if he would like to knock her down. + +It was not, however, her sentiments which were particularly revolting to +him. If she had expressed them in a manner more flattering to himself he +would have felt that there was a good deal to be said for them. In +fact, he had put the same thing to himself some time previously, and, in +summing up the American matter, had reached certain thrifty decisions. +The impulse to knock her down surged within him solely because he had a +brutally bad temper when his vanity was insulted, and he was furious at +her impudence in speaking to him as if he were a villager out of work +whom she was at liberty to bully and lecture. + +"For a woman who is supposed to have been born of gentle people," he +said to his mother afterwards, "Aunt Marian is the most vulgar old beast +I have ever beheld. She has the taste of a female costermonger." Which +was entirely true, but it might be added that his own was no better and +his points of view and morals wholly coincided with his taste. + +Naturally Rosalie Vanderpoel knew nothing of this side of the matter. +She had been a petted, butterfly child, who had been pretty and admired +and indulged from her infancy; she had grown up into a petted, butterfly +girl, pretty and admired and surrounded by inordinate luxury. Her world +had been made up of good-natured, lavish friends and relations, who +enjoyed themselves and felt a delight in her girlish toilettes and +triumphs. She had spent her one season of belledom in being whirled from +festivity to festivity, in dancing in rooms festooned with thousands of +dollars' worth of flowers, in lunching or dining at tables loaded with +roses and violets and orchids, from which ballrooms or feasts she had +borne away wonderful "favours" and gifts, whose prices, being recorded +in the newspapers, caused a thrill of delight or envy to pass over the +land. She was a slim little creature, with quantities of light feathery +hair like a French doll's. She had small hands and small feet and a +small waist--a small brain also, it must be admitted, but she was an +innocent, sweet-tempered girl with a childlike simpleness of mind. +In fine, she was exactly the girl to find Sir Nigel's domineering +temperament at once imposing and attractive, so long as it was cloaked +by the ceremonies of external good breeding. + +Her sister Bettina, who was still a child, was of a stronger and less +susceptible nature. Betty--at eight--had long legs and a square but +delicate small face. Her well-opened steel-blue eyes were noticeable +for rather extravagant ink-black lashes and a straight young stare +which seemed to accuse if not to condemn. She was being educated at +a ruinously expensive school with a number of other inordinately rich +little girls, who were all too wonderfully dressed and too lavishly +supplied with pocket money. The school considered itself especially +refined and select, but was in fact interestingly vulgar. + +The inordinately rich little girls, who had most of them pretty and +spiritual or pretty and piquant faces, ate a great many bon bons and +chattered a great deal in high unmodulated voices about the parties +their sisters and other relatives went to and the dresses they wore. +Some of them were nice little souls, who in the future would emerge from +their chrysalis state enchanting women, but they used colloquialisms +freely, and had an ingenuous habit of referring to the prices of +things. Bettina Vanderpoel, who was the richest and cleverest and most +promisingly handsome among them, was colloquial to slanginess, but she +had a deep, mellow, child voice and an amazing carriage. + +She could not endure Sir Nigel Anstruthers, and, being an American +child, did not hesitate to express herself with force, if with some +crudeness. "He's a hateful thing," she said, "I loathe him. He's stuck +up and he thinks you are afraid of him and he likes it." + +Sir Nigel had known only English children, little girls who lived in +that discreet corner of their parents' town or country houses known +as "the schoolroom," apparently emerging only for daily walks with +governesses; girls with long hair and boys in little high hats and with +faces which seemed curiously made to match them. Both boys and girls +were decently kept out of the way and not in the least dwelt on except +when brought out for inspection during the holidays and taken to the +pantomime. + +Sir Nigel had not realised that an American child was an absolute factor +to be counted with, and a "youngster" who entered the drawing-room when +she chose and joined fearlessly in adult conversation was an element he +considered annoying. It was quite true that Bettina talked too much +and too readily at times, but it had not been explained to her that +the opinions of eight years are not always of absorbing interest to the +mature. It was also true that Sir Nigel was a great fool for interfering +with what was clearly no affair of his in such a manner as would have +made him an enemy even had not the child's instinct arrayed her against +him at the outset. + +"You American youngsters are too cheeky," he said on one of the +occasions when Betty had talked too much. "If you were my sister and +lived at Stornham Court, you would be learning lessons in the schoolroom +and wearing a pinafore. Nobody ever saw my sister Emily when she was +your age." + +"Well, I'm not your sister Emily," retorted Betty, "and I guess I'm glad +of it." + +It was rather impudent of her, but it must be confessed that she was +not infrequently rather impudent in a rude little-girl way, but she was +serenely unconscious of the fact. + +Sir Nigel flushed darkly and laughed a short, unpleasant laugh. If she +had been his sister Emily she would have fared ill at the moment, for +his villainous temper would have got the better of him. + +"I 'guess' that I may be congratulated too," he sneered. + +"If I was going to be anybody's sister Emily," said Betty, excited a +little by the sense of the fray, "I shouldn't want to be yours." + +"Now Betty, don't be hateful," interposed Rosalie, laughing, and her +laugh was nervous. "There's Mina Thalberg coming up the front steps. Go +and meet her." + +Rosalie, poor girl, always found herself nervous when Sir Nigel and +Betty were in the room together. She instinctively recognised their +antagonism and was afraid Betty would do something an English baronet +would think vulgar. Her simple brain could not have explained to her +why it was that she knew Sir Nigel often thought New Yorkers vulgar. She +was, however, quite aware of this but imperfectly concealed fact, and +felt a timid desire to be explanatory. + +When Bettina marched out of the room with her extraordinary carriage +finely manifest, Rosy's little laugh was propitiatory. + +"You mustn't mind her," she said. "She's a real splendid little thing, +but she's got a quick temper. It's all over in a minute." + +"They wouldn't stand that sort of thing in England," said Sir Nigel. +"She's deucedly spoiled, you know." + +He detested the child. He disliked all children, but this one awakened +in him more than mere dislike. The fact was that though Betty herself +was wholly unconscious of the subtle truth, the as yet undeveloped +intellect which later made her a brilliant and captivating personality, +vaguely saw him as he was, an unscrupulous, sordid brute, as remorseless +an adventurer and swindler in his special line, as if he had been +engaged in drawing false cheques and arranging huge jewel robberies, +instead of planning to entrap into a disadvantageous marriage a girl +whose gentleness and fortune could be used by a blackguard of reputable +name. The man was cold-blooded enough to see that her gentle weakness +was of value because it could be bullied, her money was to be counted on +because it could be spent on himself and his degenerate vices and on his +racked and ruined name and estate, which must be rebuilt and restocked +at an early date by someone or other, lest they tumbled into ignominious +collapse which could not be concealed. Bettina of the accusing eyes did +not know that in the depth of her yet crude young being, instinct was +summing up for her the potentialities of an unusually fine specimen of +the British blackguard, but this was nevertheless the interesting truth. +When later she was told that her sister had become engaged to Sir +Nigel Anstruthers, a flame of colour flashed over her face, she stared +silently a moment, then bit her lip and burst into tears. + +"Well, Bett," exclaimed Rosalie, "you are the queerest thing I ever +saw." + +Bettina's tears were an outburst, not a flow. She swept them away +passionately with her small handkerchief. + +"He'll do something awful to you," she said. "He'll nearly kill you. I +know he will. I'd rather be dead myself." + +She dashed out of the room, and could never be induced to say a word +further about the matter. She would indeed have found it impossible to +express her intense antipathy and sense of impending calamity. She had +not the phrases to make herself clear even to herself, and after all +what controlling effort can one produce when one is only eight years +old? + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A LACK OF PERCEPTION + +Mercantile as Americans were proclaimed to be, the opinion of Sir +Nigel Anstruthers was that they were, on some points, singularly +unbusinesslike. In the perfectly obvious and simple matter of the +settlement of his daughter's fortune, he had felt that Reuben Vanderpoel +was obtuse to the point of idiocy. He seemed to have none of the +ordinary points of view. Naturally there was to Anstruthers' mind but +one point of view to take. A man of birth and rank, he argued, does not +career across the Atlantic to marry a New York millionaire's daughter +unless he anticipates deriving some advantage from the alliance. Such +a man--being of Anstruthers' type--would not have married a rich woman +even in his own country with out making sure that advantages were to +accrue to himself as a result of the union. "In England," to use his +own words, "there was no nonsense about it." Women's fortunes as well as +themselves belonged to their husbands, and a man who was master in his +own house could make his wife do as he chose. He had seen girls with +money managed very satisfactorily by fellows who held a tight rein, and +were not moved by tears, and did not allow talking to relations. If +he had been desirous of marrying and could have afforded to take a +penniless wife, there were hundreds of portionless girls ready to thank +God for a decent chance to settle themselves for life, and one need not +stir out of one's native land to find them. + +But Sir Nigel had not in the least desired to saddle himself with a +domestic encumbrance, in fact nothing would have induced him to consider +the step if he had not been driven hard by circumstances. His fortunes +had reached a stage where money must be forthcoming somehow--from +somewhere. He and his mother had been living from hand to mouth, so to +speak, for years, and they had also been obliged to keep up appearances, +which is sometimes embittering even to persons of amiable tempers. Lady +Anstruthers, it is true, had lived in the country in as niggardly +a manner as possible. She had narrowed her existence to absolute +privation, presenting at the same time a stern, bold front to the +persons who saw her, to the insufficient staff of servants, to the +village to the vicar and his wife, and the few far-distant neighbours +who perhaps once a year drove miles to call or leave a card. She was an +old woman sufficiently unattractive to find no difficulty in the way +of limiting her acquaintances. The unprepossessing wardrobe she had +gathered in the passing years was remade again and again by the village +dressmaker. She wore dingy old silk gowns and appalling bonnets, and +mantles dripping with rusty fringes and bugle beads, but these mitigated +not in the least the unflinching arrogance of her bearing, or the +simple, intolerant rudeness which she considered proper and becoming +in persons like herself. She did not of course allow that there existed +many persons like herself. + +That society rejoiced in this fact was but the stamp of its inferiority +and folly. While she pinched herself and harried her few hirelings at +Stornham it was necessary for Sir Nigel to show himself in town and +present as decent an appearance as possible. His vanity was far too +arrogant to allow of his permitting himself to drop out of the world to +which he could not afford to belong. That he should have been forgotten +or ignored would have been intolerable to him. For a few years he was +invited to dine at good houses, and got shooting and hunting as part +of the hospitality of his acquaintances. But a man who cannot afford to +return hospitalities will find that he need not expect to avail himself +of those of his acquaintances to the end of his career unless he is an +extremely engaging person. Sir Nigel Anstruthers was not an engaging +person. He never gave a thought to the comfort or interest of any other +human being than himself. He was also dominated by the kind of nasty +temper which so reveals itself when let loose that its owner cannot +control it even when it would be distinctly to his advantage to do so. + +Finding that he had nothing to give in return for what he took as if it +were his right, society gradually began to cease to retain any lively +recollection of his existence. The tradespeople he had borne himself +loftily towards awakened to the fact that he was the kind of man it was +at once safe and wise to dun, and therefore proceeded to make his life +a burden to him. At his clubs he had never been a member surrounded and +rejoiced over when he made his appearance. The time came when he began +to fancy that he was rather edged away from, and he endeavoured to +sustain his dignity by being sulky and making caustic speeches when he +was approached. Driven occasionally down to Stornham by actual pressure +of circumstances, he found the outlook there more embittering still. + +Lady Anstruthers laid the bareness of the land before him without any +effort to palliate unpleasantness. If he chose to stalk about and look +glum, she could sit still and call his attention to revolting truths +which he could not deny. She could point out to him that he had no +money, and that tenants would not stay in houses which were tumbling to +pieces, and work land which had been starved. She could tell him just +how long a time had elapsed since wages had been paid and accounts +cleared off. And she had an engaging, unbiassed way of seeming to drive +these maddening details home by the mere manner of her statement. + +"You make the whole thing as damned disagreeable as you can," Nigel +would snarl. + +"I merely state facts," she would reply with acrid serenity. + +A man who cannot keep up his estate, pay his tailor or the rent of his +lodgings in town, is in a strait which may drive him to desperation. +Sir Nigel Anstruthers borrowed some money, went to New York and made his +suit to nice little silly Rosalie Vanderpoel. + +But the whole thing was unexpectedly disappointing and surrounded by +irritating circumstances. He found himself face to face with a state of +affairs such as he had not contemplated. In England when a man married, +certain practical matters could be inquired into and arranged by +solicitors, the amount of the prospective bride's fortune, the +allowances and settlements to be made, the position of the bridegroom +with regard to pecuniary matters. To put it simply, a man found out +where he stood and what he was to gain. But, at first to his sardonic +entertainment and later to his disgusted annoyance, Sir Nigel gradually +discovered that in the matter of marriage, Americans had an ingenuous +tendency to believe in the sentimental feelings of the parties +concerned. The general impression seemed to be that a man married purely +for love, and that delicacy would make it impossible for him to ask +questions as to what his bride's parents were in a position to hand +over to him as a sort of indemnity for the loss of his bachelor freedom. +Anstruthers began to discover this fact before he had been many weeks +in New York. He reached the realisation of its existence by processes of +exclusion and inclusion, by hearing casual remarks people let drop, by +asking roundabout and careful questions, by leading both men and women +to the innocent expounding of certain points of view. Millionaires, it +appeared, did not expect to make allowances to men who married their +daughters; young women, it transpired, did not in the least realise that +a man should be liberally endowed in payment for assuming the duties +of a husband. If rich fathers made allowances, they made them to their +daughters themselves, who disposed of them as they pleased. In this +case, of course, Sir Nigel privately argued with fine acumen, it became +the husband's business to see that what his wife pleased should be what +most agreeably coincided with his own views and conveniences. + +His most illuminating experience had been the hearing of some men, +hard-headed, rich stockbrokers with a vulgar sense of humour, enjoying +themselves quite uproariously one night at a club, over a story one +of them was relating of an unsatisfactory German son-in-law who had +demanded an income. He was a man of small title, who had married the +narrator's daughter, and after some months spent in his father-in-law's +house, had felt it but proper that his financial position should be put +on a practical footing. + +"He brought her back after the bridal tour to make us a visit," said the +storyteller, a sharp-featured man with a quaint wry mouth, which seemed +to express a perpetual, repressed appreciation of passing events. "I had +nothing to say against that, because we were all glad to see her home +and her mother had been missing her. But weeks passed and months passed +and there was no mention made of them going over to settle in the +Slosh we'd heard so much of, and in time it came out that the Slosh +thing"--Anstruthers realised with gall in his soul that the "brute," +as he called him, meant "Schloss," and that his mispronunciation was +at once a matter of humour and derision--"wasn't his at all. It was his +elder brother's. The whole lot of them were counts and not one of them +seemed to own a dime. The Slosh count hadn't more than twenty-five cents +and he wasn't the kind to deal any of it out to his family. So Lily's +count would have to go clerking in a dry goods store, if he promised to +support himself. But he didn't propose to do it. He thought he'd got on +to a soft thing. Of course we're an easy-going lot and we should have +stood him if he'd been a nice fellow. But he wasn't. Lily's mother used +to find her crying in her bedroom and it came out by degrees that it was +because Adolf had been quarrelling with her and saying sneering things +about her family. When her mother talked to him he was insulting. Then +bills began to come in and Lily was expected to get me to pay them. And +they were not the kind of bills a decent fellow calls on another man to +pay. But I did it five or six times to make it easy for her. I didn't +tell her that they gave an older chap than himself sidelights on the +situation. But that didn't work well. He thought I did it because I had +to, and he began to feel free and easy about it, and didn't try to cover +up his tracks so much when he sent in a new lot. He was always working +Lily. He began to consider himself master of the house. He intimated +that a private carriage ought to be kept for them. He said it was +beggarly that he should have to consider the rest of the family when he +wanted to go out. When I got on to the situation, I began to enjoy it. +I let him spread himself for a while just to see what he would do. Good +Lord! I couldn't have believed that any fellow could have thought any +other fellow could be such a fool as he thought I was. He went perfectly +crazy after a month or so and ordered me about and patronised me as if I +was a bootblack he meant to teach something to. So at last I had a talk +with Lily and told her I was going to put an end to it. Of course she +cried and was half frightened to death, but by that time he had ill-used +her so that she only wanted to get rid of him. So I sent for him and had +a talk with him in my office. I led him on to saying all he had on his +mind. He explained to me what a condescension it was for a man like +himself to marry a girl like Lily. He made a dignified, touching picture +of all the disadvantages of such an alliance and all the advantages they +ought to bring in exchange to the man who bore up under them. I rubbed +my head and looked worried every now and then and cleared my throat +apologetically just to warm him up. I can tell you that fellow felt +happy, downright happy when he saw how humbly I listened to him. He +positively swelled up with hope and comfort. He thought I was going to +turn out well, real well. I was going to pay up just as a vulgar New +York father-in-law ought to do, and thank God for the blessed privilege. +Why, he was real eloquent about his blood and his ancestors and the +hoary-headed Slosh. So when he'd finished, I cleared my throat in +a nervous, ingratiating kind of way again and I asked him kind of +anxiously what he thought would be the proper thing for a base-born New +York millionaire to do under the circumstances--what he would approve of +himself." + +Sir Nigel was disgusted to see the narrator twist his mouth into a +sweet, shrewd, repressed grin even as he expectorated into the nearest +receptacle. The grin was greeted by a shout of laughter from his +companions. + +"What did he say, Stebbins?" someone cried. + +"He said," explained Mr. Stebbins deliberately, "he said that an +allowance was the proper thing. He said that a man of his rank must have +resources, and that it wasn't dignified for him to have to ask his wife +or his wife's father for money when he wanted it. He said an allowance +was what he felt he had a right to expect. And then he twisted his +moustache and said, 'what proposition' did I make--what would I allow +him?" + +The storyteller's hearers evidently knew him well. Their laughter was +louder than before. + +"Let's hear the rest, Joe! Let's hear it!" + +"Well," replied Mr. Stebbins almost thoughtfully, "I just got up and +said, 'Well, it won't take long for me to answer that. I've always +been fond of my children, and Lily is rather my pet. She's always had +everything she wanted, and she always shall. She's a good girl and she +deserves it. I'll allow you----" The significant deliberation of his +drawl could scarcely be described. "I'll allow you just five minutes to +get out of this room, before I kick you out, and if I kick you out of +the room, I'll kick you down the stairs, and if I kick you down the +stairs, I shall have got my blood comfortably warmed up and I'll kick +you down the street and round the block and down to Hoboken, because +you're going to take the steamer there and go back to the place you came +from, to the Slosh thing or whatever you call it. We haven't a damned +bit of use for you here.' And believe it or not, gentlemen----" looking +round with the wry-mouthed smile, "he took that passage and back he +went. And Lily's living with her mother and I mean to hold on to her." + +Sir Nigel got up and left the club when the story was finished. He took +a long walk down Broadway, gnawing his lip and holding his head in the +air. He used blasphemous language at intervals in a low voice. Some of +it was addressed to his fate and some of it to the vulgar mercantile +coarseness and obtuseness of other people. + +"They don't know what they are talking of," he said. "It is unheard of. +What do they expect? I never thought of this. Damn it! I'm like a rat in +a trap." + +It was plain enough that he could not arrange his fortune as he had +anticipated when he decided to begin to make love to little pink and +white, doll-faced Rosy Vanderpoel. If he began to demand monetary +advantages in his dealing with his future wife's people in their +settlement of her fortune, he might arouse suspicion and inquiry. He +did not want inquiry either in connection with his own means or his past +manner of living. People who hated him would be sure to crop up with +stories of things better left alone. There were always meddling fools +ready to interfere. + +His walk was long and full of savage thinking. Once or twice as he +realised what the disinterestedness of his sentiments was supposed to +be, a short laugh broke from him which was rather like the snort of the +Bishopess. + +"I am supposed to be moonstruck over a simpering American +chit--moonstruck! Damn!" But when he returned to his hotel he had made +up his mind and was beginning to look over the situation in evil cold +blood. Matters must be settled without delay and he was shrewd enough to +realise that with his temper and its varied resources a timid girl +would not be difficult to manage. He had seen at an early stage of their +acquaintance that Rosy was greatly impressed by the superiority of +his bearing, that he could make her blush with embarrassment when he +conveyed to her that she had made a mistake, that he could chill her +miserably when he chose to assume a lofty stiffness. A man's domestic +armoury was filled with weapons if he could make a woman feel gauche, +inexperienced, in the wrong. When he was safely married, he could pave +the way to what he felt was the only practical and feasible end. + +If he had been marrying a woman with more brains, she would be more +difficult to subdue, but with Rosalie Vanderpoel, processes were +not necessary. If you shocked, bewildered or frightened her with +accusations, sulks, or sneers, her light, innocent head was set in such +a whirl that the rest was easy. It was possible, upon the whole, that +the thing might not turn out so infernally ill after all. Supposing that +it had been Bettina who had been the marriageable one! Appreciating to +the full the many reasons for rejoicing that she had not been, he walked +in gloomy reflection home. + + + +CHAPTER III + +YOUNG LADY ANSTRUTHERS + +When the marriage took place the event was accompanied by an ingenuously +elate flourish of trumpets. Miss Vanderpoel's frocks were multitudinous +and wonderful, as also her jewels purchased at Tiffany's. She carried +a thousand trunks--more or less--across the Atlantic. When the ship +steamed away from the dock, the wharf was like a flower garden in the +blaze of brilliant and delicate attire worn by the bevy of relatives and +intimates who stood waving their handkerchiefs and laughingly calling +out farewell good wishes. + +Sir Nigel's mental attitude was not a sympathetic or admiring one as +he stood by his bride's side looking back. If Rosy's half happy, +half tearful excitement had left her the leisure to reflect on his +expression, she would not have felt it encouraging. + +"What a deuce of a row Americans make," he said even before they were +out of hearing of the voices. "It will be a positive rest to be in a +country where the women do not cackle and shriek with laughter." + +He said it with that simple rudeness which at times professed to be +almost impersonal, and which Rosalie had usually tried to believe was +the outcome of a kind of cool British humour. But this time she started +a little at his words. + +"I suppose we do make more noise than English people," she admitted +a second or so later. "I wonder why?" And without waiting for an +answer--somewhat as if she had not expected or quite wanted one--she +leaned a little farther over the side to look back, waving her small, +fluttering handkerchief to the many still in tumult on the wharf. She +was not perceptive or quick enough to take offence, to realise that the +remark was significant and that Sir Nigel had already begun as he meant +to go on. It was far from being his intention to play the part of an +American husband, who was plainly a creature in whom no authority vested +itself. Americans let their women say and do anything, and were capable +of fetching and carrying for them. He had seen a man run upstairs for +his wife's wrap, cheerfully, without the least apparent sense that +the service was the part of a footman if there was one in the house, a +parlour maid if there was not. Sir Nigel had been brought up in the good +Early Victorian days when "a nice little woman to fetch your slippers +for you" figured in certain circles as domestic bliss. Girls were +educated to fetch slippers as retrievers were trained to go into the +water after sticks, and terriers to bring back balls thrown for them. + +The new Lady Anstruthers had, it supervened, several opportunities to +obtain a new view of her bridegroom's character before their voyage +across the Atlantic was over. At this period of the slower and more +cumbrous weaving of the Shuttle, the world had not yet awakened even to +the possibilities of the ocean greyhound. An Atlantic voyage at times +was capable of offering to a bride and bridegroom days enough to begin +to glance into their future with a premonition of the waning of the +honeymoon, at least, and especially if they were not sea-proof, to wish +wearily that the first half of it were over. Rosalie was not weary, but +she began to be bewildered. As she had never been a clever girl or quick +to perceive, and had spent her life among women-indulging American men, +she was not prepared with any precedent which made her situation clear. +The first time Sir Nigel showed his temper to her she simply stared at +him, her eyes looking like those of a puzzled, questioning child. Then +she broke into her nervous little laugh, because she did not know what +else to do. At his second outbreak her stare was rather startled and she +did not laugh. + +Her first awakening was to an anxious wonderment concerning certain +moods of gloom, or what seemed to be gloom, to which he seemed prone. As +she lay in her steamer chair he would at times march stiffly up and +down the deck, apparently aware of no other existence than his own, +his features expressing a certain clouded resentment of whose very +unexplainableness she secretly stood in awe. She was not astute enough, +poor girl, to leave him alone, and when with innocent questionings she +endeavoured to discover his trouble, the greatest mystification she +encountered was that he had the power to make her feel that she was in +some way taking a liberty, and showing her lack of tact and perspicuity. + +"Is anything the matter, Nigel?" she asked at first, wondering if she +were guilty of silliness in trying to slip her hand into his. She was +sure she had been when he answered her. + +"No," he said chillingly. + +"I don't believe you are happy," she returned. "Somehow you seem so--so +different." + +"I have reasons for being depressed," he replied, and it was with a +stiff finality which struck a note of warning to her, signifying that it +would be better taste in her to put an end to her simple efforts. + +She vaguely felt herself put in the wrong, and he preferred that it +should be so. It was the best form of preparation for any mood he might +see that it might pay him to show her in the future. He was, in fact, +confronting disdainfully his position. He had her on his hands and he +was returning to his relations with no definite advantage to exhibit as +the result of having married her. She had been supplied with an income +but he had no control over it. It would not have been so if he had +not been in such straits that he had been afraid to risk his chance by +making a stand. To have a wife with money, a silly, sweet temper and no +will of her own, was of course better than to be penniless, head over +heels in debt and hemmed in by difficulties on every side. He had seen +women trained to give in to anything rather than be bullied in public, +to accede in the end to any demand rather than endure the shame of +a certain kind of scene made before servants, and a certain kind of +insolence used to relatives and guests. The quality he found +most maddeningly irritating in Rosalie was her obviously absolute +unconsciousness of the fact that it was entirely natural and proper that +her resources should be in her husband's hands. He had, indeed, even +in these early days, made a tentative effort or so in the form of a +suggestive speech; he had given her openings to give him an opening to +put things on a practical basis, but she had never had the intelligence +to see what he was aiming at, and he had found himself almost +floundering ungracefully in his remarks, while she had looked at him +without a sign of comprehension in her simple, anxious blue eyes. The +creature was actually trying to understand him and could not. That was +the worst of it, the blank wall of her unconsciousness, her childlike +belief that he was far too grand a personage to require anything. These +were the things he was thinking over when he walked up and down the deck +in unamiable solitariness. Rosy awakened to the amazed consciousness of +the fact that, instead of being pleased with the luxury and prettiness +of her wardrobe and appointments, he seemed to dislike and disdain them. + +"You American women change your clothes too much and think too much of +them," was one of his first amiable criticisms. "You spend more than +well-bred women should spend on mere dresses and bonnets. In New York it +always strikes an Englishman that the women look endimanche at whatever +time of day you come across them." + +"Oh, Nigel!" cried Rosy woefully. She could not think of anything more +to say than, "Oh, Nigel!" + +"I am sorry to say it is true," he replied loftily. That she was an +American and a New Yorker was being impressed upon poor little Lady +Anstruthers in a new way--somehow as if the mere cold statement of the +fact put a fine edge of sarcasm to any remark. She was of too innocent a +loyalty to wish that she was neither the one nor the other, but she did +wish that Nigel was not so prejudiced against the places and people she +cared for so much. + +She was sitting in her stateroom enfolded in a dressing gown covered +with cascades of lace, tied with knots of embroidered ribbon, and her +maid, Hannah, who admired her greatly, was brushing her fair long hair +with a gold-backed brush, ornamented with a monogram of jewels. + +If she had been a French duchess of a piquant type, or an English one +with an aquiline nose, she would have been beyond criticism; if she had +been a plump, over-fed woman, or an ugly, ill-natured, gross one, she +would have looked vulgar, but she was a little, thin, fair New +Yorker, and though she was not beyond criticism--if one demanded high +distinction--she was pretty and nice to look at. But Nigel Anstruthers +would not allow this to her. His own tailors' bills being far in +arrears and his pocket disgustingly empty, the sight of her ingenuous +sumptuousness and the gay, accustomed simpleness of outlook with which +she accepted it as her natural right, irritated him and roused his +venom. Bills would remain unpaid if she was permitted to spend her money +on this sort of thing without any consideration for the requirements of +other people. + +He inhaled the air and made a gesture of distaste. + +"This sachet business is rather overpowering," he said. "It is the sort +of thing a woman should be particularly discreet about." + +"Oh, Nigel!" cried the poor girl agitatedly. "Hannah, do go and call +the steward to open the windows. Is it really strong?" she implored as +Hannah went out. "How dreadful. It's only orris and I didn't know Hannah +had put it in the trunks." + +"My dear Rosalie," with a wave of the hand taking in both herself and +her dressing case, "it is all too strong." + +"All--wh--what?" gaspingly. + +"The whole thing. All that lace and love knot arrangement, the +gold-backed brushes and scent bottles with diamonds and rubies sticking +in them." + +"They--they were wedding presents. They came from Tiffany's. Everyone +thought them lovely." + +"They look as if they belonged to the dressing table of a French woman +of the demi-monde. I feel as if I had actually walked into the apartment +of some notorious Parisian soubrette." + +Rosalie Vanderpoel was a clean-minded little person, her people were of +the clean-minded type, therefore she did not understand all that this +ironic speech implied, but she gathered enough of its significance to +cause her to turn first red and then pale and then to burst into tears. +She was crying and trying to conceal the fact when Hannah returned. +She bent her head and touched her eyes furtively while her toilette was +completed. + +Sir Nigel had retired from the scene, but he had done so feeling that he +had planted a seed and bestowed a practical lesson. He had, it is true, +bestowed one, but again she had not understood its significance and was +only left bewildered and unhappy. She began to be nervous and uncertain +about herself and about his moods and points of view. She had never been +made to feel so at home. Everyone had been kind to her and lenient to +her lack of brilliancy. No one had expected her to be brilliant, and she +had been quite sweet-temperedly resigned to the fact that she was not +the kind of girl who shone either in society or elsewhere. She did not +resent the fact that she knew people said of her, "She isn't in the +least bit bright, Rosy Vanderpoel, but she's a nice, sweet little +thing." She had tried to be nice and sweet and had aspired to nothing +higher. + +But now that seemed so much less than enough. Perhaps Nigel ought to +have married one of the clever ones, someone who would have known how to +understand him and who would have been more entertaining than she could +be. Perhaps she was beginning to bore him, perhaps he was finding her +out and beginning to get tired. At this point the always too ready +tears would rise to her eyes and she would be overwhelmed by a sense of +homesickness. Often she cried herself silently to sleep, longing for +her mother--her nice, comfortable, ordinary mother, whom she had several +times felt Nigel had some difficulty in being unreservedly polite +to--though he had been polite on the surface. + +By the time they landed she had been living under so much strain in her +effort to seem quite unchanged, that she had lost her nerve. She did not +feel well and was sometimes afraid that she might do something silly and +hysterical in spite of herself, begin to cry for instance when there was +really no explanation for her doing it. But when she reached London the +novelty of everything so excited her that she thought she was going to +be better, and then she said to herself it would be proved to her that +all her fears had been nonsense. This return of hope made her quite +light-spirited, and she was almost gay in her little outbursts of +delight and admiration as she drove about the streets with her husband. +She did not know that her ingenuous ignorance of things he had known all +his life, her rapture over common monuments of history, led him to say +to himself that he felt rather as if he were taking a housemaid to see a +Lord Mayor's Show. + +Before going to Stornham Court they spent a few days in town. There had +been no intention of proclaiming their presence to the world, and they +did not do so, but unluckily certain tradesmen discovered the fact that +Sir Nigel Anstruthers had returned to England with the bride he had +secured in New York. The conclusion to be deduced from this circumstance +was that the particular moment was a good one at which to send in bills +for "acct. rendered." The tradesmen quite shared Anstruthers' point +of view. Their reasoning was delightfully simple and they were wholly +unaware that it might have been called gross. A man over his head and +ears in debt naturally expected his creditors would be paid by the young +woman who had married him. America had in these days been so little +explored by the thrifty impecunious well-born that its ingenuous +sentimentality in certain matters was by no means comprehended. + +By each post Sir Nigel received numerous bills. Sometimes letters +accompanied them, and once or twice respectful but firm male persons +brought them by hand and demanded interviews which irritated Sir Nigel +extremely. Given time to arrange matters with Rosalie, to train her to +some sense of her duty, he believed that the "acct. rendered" could be +wiped off, but he saw he must have time. She was such a little fool. +Again and again he was furious at the fate which had forced him to take +her. + +The truth was that Rosalie knew nothing whatever about unpaid bills. +Reuben Vanderpoel's daughters had never encountered an indignant +tradesman in their lives. When they went into "stores" they were +received with unfeigned rapture. Everything was dragged forth to be +displayed to them, attendants waited to leap forth to supply their +smallest behest. They knew no other phase of existence than the one in +which one could buy anything one wanted and pay any price demanded for +it. + +Consequently Rosalie did not recognise signs which would have been +obviously recognisable by the initiated. If Sir Nigel Anstruthers had +been a nice young fellow who had loved her, and he had been honest +enough to make a clean breast of his difficulties, she would have thrown +herself into his arms and implored him effusively to make use of all +her available funds, and if the supply had been insufficient, would have +immediately written to her father for further donations, knowing that +her appeal would be responded to at once. But Sir Nigel Anstruthers +cherished no sentiment for any other individual than himself, and he +had no intention of explaining that his mere vanity had caused him to +mislead her, that his rank and estate counted for nothing and that he +was in fact a pauper loaded with dishonest debts. He wanted money, but +he wanted it to be given to him as if he conferred a favour by receiving +it. It must be transferred to him as though it were his by right. What +did a man marry for? Therefore his wife's unconsciousness that she was +inflicting outrage upon him by her mere mental attitude filled his being +with slowly rising gall. + +Poor Rosalie went joyfully forth shopping after the manner of all newly +arrived Americans. She bought new toilettes and gewgaws and presents +for her friends and relations in New York, and each package which was +delivered at the hotel added to Sir Nigel's rage. + +That the little blockhead should be allowed to do what she liked with +her money and that he should not be able to forbid her! This he said +to himself at intervals of five minutes through the day--which led to +another small episode. + +"You are spending a great deal of money," he said one morning in his +condemnatory manner. Rosalie looked up from the lace flounce which +had just been delivered and gave the little nervous laugh, which was +becoming entirely uncertain of propitiating. + +"Am I?" she answered. "They say all Americans spend a good deal." + +"Your money ought to be in proper hands and properly managed," he went +on with cold precision. "If you were an English woman, your husband +would control it." + +"Would he?" The simple, sweet-tempered obtuseness of her tone was an +infuriating thing to him. There was the usual shade of troubled surprise +in her eyes as they met his. "I don't think men in America ever do that. +I don't believe the nice ones want to. You see they have such a pride +about always giving things to women, and taking care of them. I believe +a nice American man would break stones in the street rather than take +money from a woman--even his wife. I mean while he could work. Of course +if he was ill or had ill luck or anything like that, he wouldn't be so +proud as not to take it from the person who loved him most and wanted +to help him. You do sometimes hear of a man who won't work and lets his +wife support him, but it's very seldom, and they are always the low kind +that other men look down on." + +"Wanted to help him." Sir Nigel selected the phrase and quoted it +between puffs of the cigar he held in his fine, rather cruel-looking +hands, and his voice expressed a not too subtle sneer. "A woman is not +'helping' her husband when she gives him control of her fortune. She +is only doing her duty and accepting her proper position with regard to +him. The law used to settle the thing definitely." + +"Did-did it?" Rosy faltered weakly. She knew he was offended again and +that she was once more somehow in the wrong. So many things about her +seemed to displease him, and when he was displeased he always reminded +her that she was stupidly, objectionably guilty of not being an English +woman. + +Whatsoever it happened to be, the fault she had committed out of her +depth of ignorance, he did not forget it. It was no habit of his to +endeavour to dismiss offences. He preferred to hold them in possession +as if they were treasures and to turn them over and over, in the mental +seclusion which nourishes the growth of injuries, since within its +barriers there is no chance of their being palliated by the apologies or +explanations of the offender. + +During their journey to Stornham Court the next day he was in one of his +black moods. Once in the railway carriage he paid small attention to +his wife, but sat rigidly reading his Times, until about midway to their +destination he descended at a station and paid a visit to the buffet in +the small refreshment room, after which he settled himself to doze in +an exceedingly unbecoming attitude, his travelling cap pulled down, +his rather heavy face congested with the dark flush Rosalie had not yet +learned was due to the fact that he had hastily tossed off two or three +whiskies and sodas. Though he was never either thick of utterance or +unsteady on his feet, whisky and soda formed an important factor in his +existence. When he was annoyed or dull he at once took the necessary +precautions against being overcome by these feelings, and the effect +upon a constitutionally evil temper was to transform it into an infernal +one. The night had been a bad one for Rosy. Such floods of homesick +longing had overpowered her that she had not been able to sleep. She had +risen feeling shaky and hysterical and her nervousness had been added to +by her fear that Nigel might observe her and make comment. Of course +she told herself it was natural that he should not wish her to appear at +Stornham Court looking a pale, pink-nosed little fright. Her efforts +to be cheerful had indeed been somewhat touching, but they had met with +small encouragement. + +She thought the green-clothed country lovely as the train sped through +it, and a lump rose in her small throat because she knew she might have +been so happy if she had not been so frightened and miserable. The thing +which had been dawning upon her took clearer, more awful form. Incidents +she had tried to explain and excuse to herself, upon all sorts of +futile, simple grounds, began to loom up before her in something like +their actual proportions. She had heard of men who had changed their +manner towards girls after they had married them, but she did not know +they had begun to change so soon. This was so early in the honeymoon to +be sitting in a railway carriage, in a corner remote from that occupied +by a bridegroom, who read his paper in what was obviously intentional, +resentful solitude. Emily Soame's father, she remembered it against her +will, had been obliged to get a divorce for Emily after her two years +of wretched married life. But Alfred Soames had been quite nice for six +months at least. It seemed as if all this must be a dream, one of those +nightmare things, in which you suddenly find yourself married to +someone you cannot bear, and you don't know how it happened, because you +yourself have had nothing to do with the matter. She felt that presently +she must waken with a start and find herself breathing fast, and panting +out, half laughing, half crying, "Oh, I am so glad it's not true! I am +so glad it's not true!" + +But this was true, and there was Nigel. And she was in a new, unexplored +world. Her little trembling hands clutched each other. The happy, light +girlish days full of ease and friendliness and decency seemed gone +forever. It was not Rosalie Vanderpoel who pressed her colourless face +against the glass of the window, looking out at the flying trees; it was +the wife of Nigel Anstruthers, and suddenly, by some hideous magic, she +had been snatched from the world to which she belonged and was being +dragged by a gaoler to a prison from which she did not know how to +escape. Already Nigel had managed to convey to her that in England a +woman who was married could do nothing to defend herself against her +husband, and that to endeavour to do anything was the last impossible +touch of vulgar ignominy. + +The vivid realisation of the situation seized upon her like a possession +as she glanced sideways at her bridegroom and hurriedly glanced away +again with a little hysterical shudder. New York, good-tempered, +lenient, free New York, was millions of miles away and Nigel was so +loathly near and--and so ugly. She had never known before that he was so +ugly, that his face was so heavy, his skin so thick and coarse and his +expression so evilly ill-tempered. She was not sufficiently analytical +to be conscious that she had with one bound leaped to the appalling +point of feeling uncontrollable physical abhorrence of the creature +to whom she was chained for life. She was terrified at finding herself +forced to combat the realisation that there were certain expressions +of his countenance which made her feel sick with repulsion. Her +self-reproach also was as great as her terror. He was her husband--her +husband--and she was a wicked girl. She repeated the words to herself +again and again, but remotely she knew that when she said, "He is my +husband," that was the worst thing of all. + +This inward struggle was a bad preparation for any added misery, and +when their railroad journey terminated at Stornham Station she was met +by new bewilderment. + +The station itself was a rustic place where wild roses climbed down a +bank to meet the very train itself. The station master's cottage had +roses and clusters of lilies waving in its tiny garden. The station +master, a good-natured, red-faced man, came forward, baring his head, +to open the railroad carriage door with his own hand. Rosy thought him +delightful and bowed and smiled sweet-temperedly to him and to his +wife and little girls, who were curtseying at the garden gate. She was +sufficiently homesick to be actually grateful to them for their air of +welcoming her. But as she smiled she glanced furtively at Nigel to see +if she was doing exactly the right thing. + +He himself was not smiling and did not unbend even when the station +master, who had known him from his boyhood, felt at liberty to offer a +deferential welcome. + +"Happy to see you home with her ladyship, Sir Nigel," he said; "very +happy, if I may say so." + +Sir Nigel responded to the respectful amiability with a half-military +lifting of his right hand, accompanied by a grunt. + +"D'ye do, Wells," he said, and strode past him to speak to the footman +who had come from Stornham Court with the carriage. + +The new and nervous little Lady Anstruthers, who was left to trot after +her husband, smiled again at the ruddy, kind-looking fellow, this time +in conscious deprecation. In the simplicity of her republican sympathy +with a well-meaning fellow creature who might feel himself snubbed, +she could have shaken him by the hand. She had even parted her lips to +venture a word of civility when she was startled by hearing Sir Nigel's +voice raised in angry rating. + +"Damned bad management not to bring something else," she heard. "Kind of +thing you fellows are always doing." + +She made her way to the carriage, flurried again by not knowing whether +she was doing right or wrong. Sir Nigel had given her no instructions +and she had not yet learned that when he was in a certain humour there +was equal fault in obeying or disobeying such orders as he gave. + +The carriage from the Court--not in the least a new or smart +equipage--was drawn up before the entrance of the station and Sir Nigel +was in a rage because the vehicle brought for the luggage was too small +to carry it all. + +"Very sorry, Sir Nigel," said the coachman, touching his hat two or +three times in his agitation. "Very sorry. The omnibus was a little out +of order--the springs, Sir Nigel--and I thought----" + +"You thought!" was the heated interruption. "What right had you to +think, damn it! You are not paid to think, you are paid to do your +work properly. Here are a lot of damned boxes which ought to go with us +and--where's your maid?" wheeling round upon his wife. + +Rosalie turned towards the woman, who was approaching from the waiting +room. + +"Hannah," she said timorously. + +"Drop those confounded bundles," ordered Sir Nigel, "and show James the +boxes her ladyship is obliged to have this evening. Be quick about it +and don't pick out half a dozen. The cart can't take them." + +Hannah looked frightened. This sort of thing was new to her, too. She +shuffled her packages on to a seat and followed the footman to the +luggage. Sir Nigel continued rating the coachman. Any form of violent +self-assertion was welcome to him at any time, and when he was irritated +he found it a distinct luxury to kick a dog or throw a boot at a cat. +The springs of the omnibus, he argued, had no right to be broken when +it was known that he was coming home. His anger was only added to by the +coachman's halting endeavours in his excuses to veil a fact he knew his +master was aware of, that everything at Stornham was more or less out of +order, and that dilapidations were the inevitable result of there being +no money to pay for repairs. The man leaned forward on his box and spoke +at last in a low tone. + +"The bus has been broken some time," he said. "It's--it's an expensive +job, Sir Nigel. Her ladyship thought it better to----" Sir Nigel turned +white about the mouth. + +"Hold your tongue," he commanded, and the coachman got red in the face, +saluted, biting his lips, and sat very stiff and upright on his box. + +The station master edged away uneasily and tried to look as if he were +not listening. But Rosalie could see that he could not help hearing, nor +could the country people who had been passengers by the train and who +were collecting their belongings and getting into their traps. + +Lady Anstruthers was ignored and remained standing while the scene +went on. She could not help recalling the manner in which she had been +invariably received in New York on her return from any journey, how she +was met by comfortable, merry people and taken care of at once. This was +so strange, it was so queer, so different. + +"Oh, never mind, Nigel dear," she said at last, with innocent +indiscretion. "It doesn't really matter, you know." + +Sir Nigel turned upon her a blaze of haughty indignation. + +"If you'll pardon my saying so, it does matter," he said. "It matters +confoundedly. Be good enough to take your place in the carriage." + +He moved to the carriage door, and not too civilly put her in. She +gasped a little for breath as she sat down. He had spoken to her as if +she had been an impertinent servant who had taken a liberty. The poor +girl was bewildered to the verge of panic. When he had ended his tirade +and took his place beside her he wore his most haughtily intolerant air. + +"May I request that in future you will be good enough not to interfere +when I am reproving my servants," he remarked. + +"I didn't mean to interfere," she apologised tremulously. + +"I don't know what you meant. I only know what you did," was his +response. "You American women are too fond of cutting in. An Englishman +can think for himself without his wife's assistance." + +The tears rose to her eyes. The introduction of the international +question overpowered her as always. + +"Don't begin to be hysterical," was the ameliorating tenderness with +which he observed the two hot salt drops which fell despite her. "I +should scarcely wish to present you to my mother bathed in tears." + +She wiped the salt drops hastily away and sat for a moment silent in the +corner of the carriage. Being wholly primitive and unanalytical, she was +ashamed and began to blame herself. He was right. She must not be silly +because she was unused to things. She ought not to be disturbed by +trifles. She must try to be nice and look cheerful. She made an effort +and did no speak for a few minutes. When she had recovered herself she +tried again. + +"English country is so pretty," she said, when she thought she was quite +sure that her voice would not tremble. "I do so like the hedges and the +darling little red-roofed cottages." + +It was an innocent tentative at saying something agreeable which might +propitiate him. She was beginning to realise that she was continually +making efforts to propitiate him. But one of the forms of unpleasantness +most enjoyable to him was the snubbing of any gentle effort at +palliating his mood. He condescended in this case no response whatever, +but merely continued staring contemptuously before him. + +"It is so picturesque, and so unlike America," was the pathetic little +commonplace she ventured next. "Ain't it, Nigel?" + +He turned his head slowly towards her, as if she had taken a new liberty +in disturbing his meditations. + +"Wha--at?" he drawled. + +It was almost too much for her to sustain herself under. Her courage +collapsed. + +"I was only saying how pretty the cottages were," she faltered. "And +that there's nothing like this in America." + +"You ended your remark by adding, 'ain't it,'" her husband +condescended. "There is nothing like that in England. I shall ask you to +do me the favour of leaving Americanisms out of your conversation when +you are in the society of English ladies and gentlemen. It won't do." + +"I didn't know I said it," Rosy answered feebly. + +"That is the difficulty," was his response. "You never know, but +educated people do." + +There was nothing more to be said, at least for a girl who had never +known what it was to be bullied. This one felt like a beggar or a +scullery maid, who, being rated by her master, had not the refuge of +being able to "give warning." She could never give warning. The Atlantic +Ocean was between her and those who had loved and protected her all +her short life, and the carriage was bearing her onwards to the home in +which she was to live alone as this man's companion to the end of her +existence. + +She made no further propitiatory efforts, but sat and stared in simple +blankness at the country, which seemed to increase in loveliness at each +new point of view. Sometimes she saw sweet wooded, rolling lands made +lovelier by the homely farmhouses and cottages enclosed and sheltered by +thick hedges and trees; once or twice they drove past a park enfolding +a great house guarded by its huge sentinel oaks and beeches; once the +carriage passed through an adorable little village, where children +played on the green and a square-towered grey church seemed to watch +over the steep-roofed cottages and creeper-covered vicarage. If she had +been a happy American tourist travelling in company with impressionable +friends, she would have broken into ecstatic little exclamations of +admiration every five minutes, but it had been driven home to her that +to her present companion, to whom nothing was new, her rapture would +merely represent the crudeness which had existed in contentment in a +brown-stone house on a noisy thoroughfare, through a life which had been +passed tramping up and down numbered streets and avenues. + +They approached at last a second village with a green, a grass-grown +street and the irregular red-tiled cottages, which to the unaccustomed +eye seemed rather to represent studies for sketches than absolute +realities. The bells in the church tower broke forth into a chime and +people appeared at the doors of the cottages. The men touched their +foreheads as the carriage passed, and the children made bobbing +curtsies. Sir Nigel condescended to straighten himself a trifle in his +seat, and recognised the greetings with the stiff, half-military salute. +The poor girl at his side felt that he put as little feeling as possible +into the movement, and that if she herself had been a bowing villager +she would almost have preferred to be wholly ignored. She looked at him +questioningly. + +"Are they--must _I_?" she began. + +"Make some civil recognition," answered Sir Nigel, as if he were +instructing an ignorant child. "It is customary." + +So she bowed and tried to smile, and the joyous clamour of the bells +brought the awful lump into her throat again. It reminded her of +the ringing of the chimes at the New York church on that day of her +marriage, which had been so full of gay, luxurious bustle, so crowded +with wedding presents, and flowers, and warm-hearted, affectionate +congratulations, and good wishes uttered in merry American voices. + +The park at Stornham Court was large and beautiful and old. The trees +were magnificent, and the broad sweep of sward and rich dip of ferny +dell all that the imagination could desire. The Court itself was old, +and many-gabled and mellow-red and fine. Rosalie had learned from no +precedent as yet that houses of its kind may represent the apotheosis +of discomfort and dilapidation within, and only become more beautiful +without. Tumbled-down chimneys and broken tiles, being clambered over by +tossing ivy, are pictures to delight the soul. + +As she descended from the carriage the girl was tremulous and uncertain +of herself and much overpowered by the unbending air of the man-servant +who received her as if she were a parcel in which it was no part of his +duty to take the smallest interest. As she mounted the stone steps she +caught a glimpse of broad gloom within the threshold, a big, square, +dingy hall where some other servants were drawn up in a row. She had +read of something of the sort in English novels, and she was suddenly +embarrassed afresh by her realisation of the fact that she did not know +what to do and that if she made a mistake Nigel would never forgive her. + +An elderly woman came out of a room opening into the hall. She was an +ugly woman of a rigid carriage, which, with the obvious intention of +being severely majestic, was only antagonistic. She had a flaccid +chin, and was curiously like Nigel. She had also his expression when he +intended to be disagreeable. She was the Dowager Lady Anstruthers, +and being an entirely revolting old person at her best, she objected +extremely to the transatlantic bride who had made her a dowager, though +she was determinedly prepared to profit by any practical benefit likely +to accrue. + +"Well, Nigel," she said in a deep voice. "Here you are at last." + +This was of course a statement not to be refuted. She held out a +leathern cheek, and as Sir Nigel also presented his, their caress of +greeting was a singular and not effusive one. + +"Is this your wife?" she asked, giving Rosalie a bony hand. And as he +did not indignantly deny this to be the fact, she added, "How do you +do?" + +Rosalie murmured a reply and tried to control herself by making another +effort to swallow the lump in her throat. But she could not swallow +it. She had been keeping a desperate hold on herself too long. The +bewildered misery of her awakening, the awkwardness of the public row +at the station, the sulks which had filled the carriage to repletion +through all the long drive, and finally the jangling bells which had +so recalled that last joyous day at home--at home--had brought her to +a point where this meeting between mother and son--these two stony, +unpleasant creatures exchanging a reluctant rub of uninviting cheeks--as +two savages might have rubbed noses--proved the finishing impetus to +hysteria. They were so hideous, these two, and so ghastly comic and +fantastic in their unresponsive glumness, that the poor girl lost all +hold upon herself and broke into a trembling shriek of laughter. + +"Oh!" she gasped in terror at what she felt to be her indecent madness. +"Oh! how--how----" And then seeing Nigel's furious start, his mother's +glare and all the servants' alarmed stare at her, she rushed staggering +to the only creature she felt she knew--her maid Hannah, clutched her +and broke down into wild sobbing. + +"Oh, take me away!" she cried. "Oh, do! Oh, do! Oh, Hannah! Oh, +mother--mother!" + +"Take your mistress to her room," commanded Sir Nigel. "Go downstairs," +he called out to the servants. "Take her upstairs at once and throw +water in her face," to the excited Hannah. + +And as the new Lady Anstruthers was half led, half dragged, in +humiliated hysteric disorder up the staircase, he took his mother by the +elbow, marched her into the nearest room and shut the door. There they +stood and stared at each other, breathing quick, enraged breaths and +looking particularly alike with their heavy-featured, thick-skinned, +infuriated faces. + +It was the Dowager who spoke first, and her whole voice and manner +expressed all she intended that they should, all the derision, dislike +and scathing resignment to a grotesque fate. + +"Well," said her ladyship. "So THIS is what you have brought home from +America!" + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A MISTAKE OF THE POSTBOY'S + +As the weeks passed at Stornham Court the Atlantic Ocean seemed to +Rosalie Anstruthers to widen endlessly, and gay, happy, noisy New York +to recede until it was as far away as some memory of heaven. The girl +had been born in the midst of the rattling, rumbling bustle, and it +had never struck her as assuming the character of noise; she had only +thought of it as being the cheerful confusion inseparable from town. She +had been secretly offended and hurt when strangers said that New York +was noisy and dirty; when they called it vulgar, she never wholly +forgave them. She was of the New Yorkers who adore their New York +as Parisians adore Paris and who feel that only within its beloved +boundaries can the breath of life be breathed. People were often too hot +or too cold there, but there was usually plenty of bright glaring sun, +and the extremes of the weather had at least something rather dramatic +about them. There were dramatic incidents connected with them, at any +rate. People fell dead of sunstroke or were frozen to death, and the +newspapers were full of anecdotes during a "cold snap" or a "torrid +wave," which all made for excitement and conversation. + +But at Stornham the rain seemed to young Lady Anstruthers to descend +ceaselessly. The season was a wet one, and when she rose in the morning +and looked out over the huge stretch of trees and sward she thought she +always saw the rain falling either in hopeless sheets or more hopeless +drizzle. The occasions upon which this was a dreary truth blotted out or +blurred the exceptions, when in liquid ultramarine deeps of sky, floated +islands and mountains of snow-white fleece, of a beauty of which she had +before had no conception. + +In the English novels she had read, places such as Stornham Court were +always filled with "house parties," made up of wonderful town wits and +beauties, who provided endless entertainment for each other, who played +games, who hunted and shot pheasants and shone in dazzling amateur +theatricals. There were, however, no visitors at Stornham, and there +were in fact, no accommodations for any. There were numberless bedrooms, +but none really fit for guests to occupy. Carpets and curtains were +ancient and ragged, furniture was dilapidated, chimneys would not draw, +beds were falling to pieces. The Dowager Lady Anstruthers had never +either attracted desired, or been able to afford company. Her son's wife +suffered from the resulting boredom and unpopularity without being able +to comprehend the significance of the situation. + +As the weeks dragged by a few heavy carriages deposited at the Court +a few callers. Some of the visitors bore imposing titles, which made +Rosalie very nervous and caused her hastily to array herself to receive +them in toilettes much too pretty and delicate for the occasion. Her +innocent idea was that she must do her husband credit by appearing as +"stylish" as possible. + +As a result she was stared at, either with open disfavour, or with +well-bred, furtive criticism, and was described afterwards as being +either "very American" or "very over-dressed." When she had lived in +huge rooms in Fifth Avenue, Rosalie had changed her attire as many times +a day as she had changed her fancy; every hour had been filled with +engagements and amusements; the Vanderpoel carriages had driven up +to the door and driven away again and again through the mornings and +afternoons and until midnight and later. Someone was always going out or +coming in. There had been in the big handsome house not much more of an +air of repose than one might expect to find at a railway station; but +the flurry, the coming and going, the calling and chatting had all been +cheery, amiable. At Stornham, Rosalie sat at breakfast before unchanging +boiled eggs, unfailing toast and unalterable broiled bacon, morning +after morning. Sir Nigel sat and munched over the newspapers, his +mother, with an air of relentless disapproval from a lofty height of +both her food and companions, disposed of her eggs and her rasher at +Rosalie's right hand. She had transferred to her daughter-in-law her +previously occupied seat at the head of the table. This had been +done with a carefully prepared scene of intense though correct +disagreeableness, in which she had managed to convey all the rancour of +her dethroned spirit and her disapproval and disdain of international +alliances. + +"It is of course proper that you should sit at the head of your +husband's table," she had said, among other agreeable things. "A woman +having devoted her life to her son must relinquish her position to the +person he chooses to marry. If you should have a son you will give +up your position to his wife. Since Nigel has married you, he has, of +course, a right to expect that you will at least make an effort to learn +something of what is required of women of your position." + +"Sit down, Rosalie," said Nigel. "Of course you take the head of the +table, and naturally you must learn what is expected of my wife, but +don't talk confounded rubbish, mother, about devoting your life to your +son. We have seen about as little of each other as we could help. We +never agreed." They were both bullies and each made occasional efforts +at bullying the other without any particular result. But each could at +least bully the other into intensified unpleasantness. + +The vicar's wife having made her call of ceremony upon the new +Lady Anstruthers, followed up the acquaintance, and found her quite +exotically unlike her mother-in-law, whose charities one may be sure had +neither been lavish nor dispensed by any hand less impressive than her +own. The younger woman was of wholly malleable material. Her sympathies +were easily awakened and her purse was well filled and readily opened. +Small families or large ones, newly born infants or newly buried ones, +old women with "bad legs" and old men who needed comforts, equally +touched her heart. She innocently bestowed sovereigns where an +Englishwoman would have known that half-crowns would have been +sufficient. As the vicaress was her almoner that lady felt her +importance rapidly on the increase. When she left a cottage saying, +"I'll speak to young Lady Anstruthers about you," the good woman of the +house curtsied low and her husband touched his forehead respectfully. + +But this did not advance the fortunes of Sir Nigel, who personally +required of her very different things. Two weeks after her arrival at +Stornham, Rosalie began to see that somehow she was regarded as a person +almost impudently in the wrong. It appeared that if she had been an +English girl she would have been quite different, that she would have +been an advantage instead of a detriment. As an American she was a +detriment. That seemed to go without saying. She tried to do everything +she was told, and learn something from each cold insinuation. She did +not know that her very amenability and timidity were her undoing. Sir +Nigel and his mother thoroughly enjoyed themselves at her expense. They +knew they could say anything they chose, and that at the most she would +only break down into crying and afterwards apologise for being so badly +behaved. If some practical, strong-minded person had been near to defend +her she might have been rescued promptly and her tyrants routed. But she +was a young girl, tender of heart and weak of nature. She used to cry a +great deal when she was alone, and when she wrote to her mother she was +too frightened to tell the truth concerning her unhappiness. + +"Oh, if I could just see some of them!" she would wail to herself. "If +I could just see mother or father or anybody from New York! Oh, I know +I shall never see New York again, or Broadway or Fifth Avenue or Central +Park--I never--never--never shall!" And she would grovel among her +pillows, burying her face and half stifling herself lest her sobs should +be heard. Her feeling for her husband had become one of terror and +repulsion. She was almost more afraid of his patronising, affectionate +moments than she was of his temper. + +His conjugal condescensions made her feel vaguely--without knowing +why--as if she were some lower order of little animal. + +American women, he said, had no conception of wifely duties and +affection. He had a great deal to say on the subject of wifely duty. +It was part of her duty as a wife to be entirely satisfied with his +society, and to be completely happy in the pleasure it afforded her. It +was her wifely duty not to talk about her own family and palpitatingly +expect letters by every American mail. He objected intensely to this +letter writing and receiving, and his mother shared his prejudices. + +"You have married an Englishman," her ladyship said. "You have put it +out of his power to marry an Englishwoman, and the least consideration +you can show is to let New York and Nine-hundredth street remain upon +the other side of the Atlantic and not insist on dragging them into +Stornham Court." + +The Dowager Lady Anstruthers was very fine in her picture of her mental +condition, when she realised, as she seemed periodically to do, that it +was no longer possible for her son to make a respectable marriage with +a woman of his own nation. The unadorned fact was that both she and +Sir Nigel were infuriated by the simplicity which made Rosalie slow in +comprehending that it was proper that the money her father allowed +her should be placed in her husband's hands, and left there with no +indelicate questioning. If she had been an English girl matters would +have been made plain to her from the first and arranged satisfactorily +before her marriage. Sir Nigel's mother considered that he had played +the fool, and would not believe that New York fathers were such touchy, +sentimental idiots as not to know what was expected of them. + +They wasted no time, however, in coming to the point, and in a measure +it was the vicaress who aided them. Not she entirely, however. + +Since her mother-in-law's first mention of a possible son whose wife +would eventually thrust her from her seat at the head of the table, +Rosalie had several times heard this son referred to. It struck her +that in England such things seemed discussed with more freedom than in +America. She had never heard a young woman's possible family arranged +for and made the subject of conversation in the more crude atmosphere +of New York. It made her feel rather awkward at first. Then she began +to realise that the son was part of her wifely duty also; that she was +expected to provide one, and that he was in some way expected to provide +for the estate--to rehabilitate it--and that this was because her +father, being a rich man, would provide for him. It had also struck her +that in England there was a tendency to expectation that someone +would "provide" for someone else, that relatives even by marriage were +supposed to "make allowances" on which it was quite proper for other +persons to live. Rosalie had been accustomed to a community in which +even rich men worked, and in which young and able-bodied men would have +felt rather indignant if aunts or uncles had thought it necessary to +pension them off as if they had been impotent paupers. It was Rosalie's +son who was to be "provided for" in this case, and who was to "provide +for" his father. + +"When you have a son," her mother-in-law had remarked severely, "I +suppose something will be done for Nigel and the estate." + +This had been said before she had been ten days in the house, and had +set her not-too-quick brain working. She had already begun to see that +life at Stornham Court was not the luxurious affair it was in the +house in Fifth Avenue. Things were shabby and queer and not at all +comfortable. Fires were not lighted because a day was chilly and gloomy. +She had once asked for one in her bedroom and her mother-in-law had +reproved her for indecent extravagance in a manner which took her breath +away. + +"I suppose in America you have your house at furnace heat in July," she +said. "Mere wastefulness and self-indulgence! That is why Americans are +old women at twenty. They are shrivelled and withered by the unhealthy +lives they lead. Stuffing themselves with sweets and hot bread and never +breathing the fresh air." + +Rosalie could not at the moment recall any withered and shrivelled old +women of twenty, but she blushed and stammered as usual. + +"It is never cold enough for fires in July," she answered, "but we--we +never think fires extravagant when we are not comfortable without them." + +"Coal must be cheaper than it is in England," said her ladyship. "When +you have a daughter, I hope you do not expect to bring her up as girls +are brought up in New York." + +This was the first time Rosalie had heard of her daughter, and she was +not ready enough to reply. She naturally went into her room and cried +again, wondering what her father and mother would say if they knew that +bedroom fires were considered vulgarly extravagant by an impressive +member of the British aristocracy. + +She was not at all strong at the time and was given to feeling chilly +and miserable on wet, windy days. She used to cry more than ever and was +so desolate that there were days when she used to go to the vicarage for +companionship. On such days the vicar's wife would entertain her with +stories of the villagers' catastrophes, and she would empty her purse +upon the tea table and feel a little consoled because she was the means +of consoling someone else. + +"I suppose it gratifies your vanity to play the Lady Bountiful," Sir +Nigel sneered one evening, having heard in the village what she was +doing. + +"I--never thought of such a thing," she stammered feebly. "Mrs. Brent +said they were so poor." + +"You throw your money about as if you were a child," said her +mother-in-law. "It is a pity it is not put in the hands of some person +with discretion." + +It had begun to dawn upon Rosalie that her ladyship was deeply convinced +that either herself or her son would be admirably discreet custodians of +the money referred to. And even the dawning of this idea had frightened +the girl. She was so inexperienced and ignorant that she felt it might +be possible that in England one's husband and one's mother-in-law could +do what they liked. It might be that they could take possession of one's +money as they seemed to take possession of one's self and one's very +soul. She would have been very glad to give them money, and had indeed +wondered frequently if she might dare to offer it to them, if they would +be outraged and insulted and slay her in their wrath at her purse-proud +daring. She had tried to invent ways in which she could approach the +subject, but had not been able to screw up her courage to any sticking +point. She was so overpowered by her consciousness that they seemed +continually to intimate that Americans with money were ostentatious and +always laying stress upon the amount of their possessions. She had no +conception of the primeval simpleness of their attitude in such matters, +and that no ceremonies were necessary save the process of transferring +sufficiently large sums as though they were the mere right of the +recipients. She was taught to understand this later. In the meantime, +however, ready as she would have been to give large sums if she had +known how, she was terrified by the thought that it might be possible +that she could be deprived of her bank account and reduced to the +condition of a sort of dependent upon the humours of her lately acquired +relations. She thought over this a good deal, and would have found +immense relief if she dared have consulted anyone. But she could not +make up her mind to reveal her unhappiness to her people. She had been +married so recently, everybody had thought her marriage so delightful, +she could not bear that her father and mother should be distressed by +knowing that she was wretched. She also reflected with misery that +New York would talk the matter over excitedly and that finally the +newspapers would get hold of the gossip. She could even imagine +interviewers calling at the house in Fifth Avenue and endeavouring +to obtain particulars of the situation. Her father would be angry and +refuse to give them, but that would make no difference; the newspapers +would give them and everybody would read what they said, whether it was +true or not. She could not possibly write facts, she thought, so her +poor little letters were restrained and unlike herself, and to the +warm-hearted souls in New York, even appearing stiff and unaffectionate, +as if her aristocratic surroundings had chilled her love for them. In +fact, it became far from easy for her to write at all, since Sir Nigel +so disapproved of her interest in the American mail. His objections had +indeed taken the form of his feeling himself quite within his rights +when he occasionally intercepted letters from her relations, with a view +of finding out whether they contained criticisms of himself, which would +betray that she had been guilty of indiscreet confidences. He discovered +that she had not apparently been so guilty, but it was evident that +there were moments when Mrs. Vanderpoel was uneasy and disposed to ask +anxious questions. When this occurred he destroyed the letters, and as a +result of this precaution on his part her motherly queries seemed to be +ignored, and she several times shed tears in the belief that Rosy had +grown so patrician that she was capable of snubbing her mother in +her resentment at feeling her privacy intruded upon and an unrefined +effusiveness shown. + +"I just feel as if she was beginning not to care about us at all, +Betty," she said. "I couldn't have believed it of Rosy. She was always +such an affectionate girl." + +"I don't believe it now," replied Betty sharply. "Rosy couldn't grow +hateful and stuck up. It's that nasty Nigel I know it is." + +Sir Nigel's intention was that there should be as little intercourse +between Fifth Avenue and Stornham Court as was possible. Among other +things, he did not intend that a lot of American relations should come +tumbling in when they chose to cross the Atlantic. He would not have it, +and took discreet steps to prevent any accident of the sort. He wrote +to America occasionally himself, and knowing well how to make himself +civilly repellent, so subtly chilled his parents-in-law as to discourage +in them more than once their half-formed plan of paying a visit to their +child in her new home. He opened, read and reclosed all epistles to +and from New York, and while Mrs. Vanderpoel was much hurt to find +that Rosalie never condescended to make any response to her tentatives +concerning her possible visit, Rosalie herself was mystified by the fact +that the journey "to Europe" was never spoken of. + +"I don't see why they never seem to think of coming over," she said +plaintively one day. "They used to talk so much about it." + +"They?" ejaculated the Dowager Lady Anstruthers. "Whom may you mean?" + +"Mother and father and Betty and some of the others." + +Her mother-in-law put up her eye-glasses to stare at her. + +"The whole family?" she inquired. + +"There are not so many of them," Rosalie answered. + +"A family is always too many to descend upon a young woman when she is +married," observed her ladyship unmovedly. Nigel glanced over the top of +his Times. + +"I may as well tell you that it would not do at all," he put in. + +"Why--why not?" exclaimed Rosalie, aghast. + +"Americans don't do in English society," slightingly. + +"But they are coming over so much. They like London so--all Americans +like London." + +"Do they?" with a drawl which made Rosalie blush until the tears started +to her eyes. "I am afraid the sentiment is scarcely mutual." + +Rosalie turned and fled from the room. She turned and fled because she +realised that she should burst out crying if she waited to hear another +word, and she realised that of late she seemed always to be bursting out +crying before one or the other of those two. She could not help it. They +always seemed to be implying something slighting or scathing. They were +always putting her in the wrong and hurting her feelings. + +The day was damp and chill, but she put on her hat and ran out into the +park. She went down the avenue and turned into a coppice. There, among +the wet bracken, she sank down on the mossy trunk of a fallen tree and +huddled herself in a small heap, her head on her arms, actually wailing. + +"Oh, mother! Oh, mother!" she cried hysterically. "Oh, I do wish you +would come. I'm so cold, mother; I'm so ill! I can't bear it! It seems +as if you'd forgotten all about me! You're all so happy in New York that +perhaps you have forgotten--perhaps you have! Oh, don't, mother--don't!" + +It was a month later that through the vicar's wife she reached a +discovery and a climax. She had heard one morning from this lady of a +misfortune which had befallen a small farmer. It was a misfortune which +was an actual catastrophe to a man in his position. His house had caught +fire during a gale of wind and the fire had spread to the outbuildings +and rickyard and swept away all his belongings, his house, his +furniture, his hayricks, and stored grain, and even his few cows and +horses. He had been a poor, hard-working fellow, and his small insurance +had lapsed the day before the fire. He was absolutely ruined, and +with his wife and six children stood face to face with beggary and +starvation. + +Rosalie Anstruthers entered the vicarage to find the poor woman who was +his companion in calamity sobbing in the hall. A child of a few weeks +was in her arms, and two small creatures clung crying to her skirts. + +"We've worked hard," she wept; "we have, ma'am. Father, he's always been +steady, an' up early an' late. P'r'aps it's the Lord's 'and, as you +say, ma'am, but we've been decent people an' never missed church when we +could 'elp it--father didn't deserve it--that he didn't." + +She was heartbroken in her downtrodden hopelessness. Rosalie literally +quaked with sympathy. She poured forth her pity in such words as the +poor woman had never heard spoken by a great lady to a humble creature +like herself. The villagers found the new Lady Anstruthers' interviews +with them curiously simple and suggestive of an equality they could +not understand. Stornham was a conservative old village, where the +distinction between the gentry and the peasants was clearly marked. The +cottagers were puzzled by Sir Nigel's wife, but they decided that she +was kind, if unusual. + +As Rosalie talked to the farmer's wife she longed for her father's +presence. She had remembered a time when a man in his employ had lost +his all by fire, the small house he had just made his last payment upon +having been burned to the ground. He had lost one of his children in +the fire, and the details had been heartrending. The entire Vanderpoel +household had wept on hearing them, and Mr. Vanderpoel had drawn a +cheque which had seemed like a fortune to the sufferer. A new house +had been bought, and Mrs. Vanderpoel and her daughters and friends had +bestowed furniture and clothing enough to make the family comfortable to +the verge of luxury. + +"See, you poor thing," said Rosalie, glowing with memories of this +incident, her homesick young soul comforted by the mere likeness in the +two calamities. "I brought my cheque book with me because I meant to +help you. A man worked for my father had his house burned, just as yours +was, and my father made everything all right for him again. I'll make it +all right for you; I'll make you a cheque for a hundred pounds now, and +then when your husband begins to build I'll give him some more." + +The woman gasped for breath and turned pale. She was frightened. It +really seemed as if her ladyship must have lost her wits a little. She +could not mean this. The vicaress turned pale also. + +"Lady Anstruthers," she said, "Lady Anstruthers, it--it is too much. Sir +Nigel----" + +"Too much!" exclaimed Rosalie. "They have lost everything, you know; +their hayricks and cattle as well as their house; I guess it won't be +half enough." + +Mrs. Brent dragged her into the vicar's study and talked to her. She +tried to explain that in English villages such things were not done in +a manner so casual, as if they were the mere result of unconsidered +feeling, as if they were quite natural things, such as any human person +might do. When Rosalie cried: "But why not--why not? They ought to be." +Mrs. Brent could not seem to make herself quite clear. Rosalie only +gathered in a bewildered way that there ought to be more ceremony, more +deliberation, more holding off, before a person of rank indulged in +such munificence. The recipient ought to be made to feel it more, to +understand fully what a great thing was being done. + +"They will think you will do anything for them." + +"So I will," said young Lady Anstruthers, "if I have the money when they +are in such awful trouble. Suppose we lost everything in the world and +there were people who could easily help us and wouldn't?" + +"You and Sir Nigel--that is quite different," said Mrs. Brent. "I am +afraid that if you do not discuss the matter and ask advice from your +husband and mother-in-law they will be very much offended." + +"If I were doing it with their money they would have the right to be," +replied Rosalie, with entire ingenuousness. "I wouldn't presume to do +such a thing as that. That wouldn't be right, of course." + +"They will be angry with me," said the vicaress awkwardly. This queer, +silly girl, who seemed to see nothing in the right light, frequently +made her feel awkward. Mrs. Brent told her husband that she appeared to +have no sense of dignity or proper appreciation of her position. + +The wife of the farmer, John Wilson, carried away the cheque, quite +stunned. She was breathless with amazement and turned rather faint with +excitement, bewilderment and her sense of relief. She had to sit down +in the vicarage kitchen for a few minutes and drink a glass of the thin +vicarage beer. + +Rosalie promised that she would discuss the matter and ask advice +when she returned to the Court. Just as she left the house Mrs. Brent +suddenly remembered something she had forgotten. + +"The Wilson trouble completely drove it out of my mind," she said. "It +was a stupid mistake of the postboy's. He left a letter of yours among +mine when he came this morning. It was most careless. I shall speak +to his father about it. It might have been important that you should +receive it early." + +When she saw the letter Rosalie uttered an exclamation. It was addressed +in her father's handwriting. + +"Oh!" she cried. "It's from father! And the postmark is Havre. What does +it mean?" + +She was so excited that she almost forgot to express her thanks. +Her heart leaped up in her throat. Could they have come over from +America--could they? Why was it written from Havre? Could they be near +her? + +She walked along the road choked with ecstatic, laughing sobs. Her hand +shook so that she could scarcely tear open the envelope; she tore a +corner of the letter, and when the sheet was spread open her eyes were +full of wild, delighted tears, which made it impossible for her to see +for the moment. But she swept the tears away and read this: + + +DEAR DAUGHTER: + +It seems as if we had had pretty bad luck in not seeing you. We had +counted on it very much, and your mother feels it all the more because +she is weak after her illness. We don't quite understand why you did +not seem to know about her having had diphtheria in Paris. You did not +answer Betty's letter. Perhaps it missed you in some way. Things do +sometimes go wrong in the mail, and several times your mother has +thought a letter has been lost. She thought so because you seemed to +forget to refer to things. We came over to leave Betty at a French +school and we had expected to visit you later. But your mother fell ill +of diphtheria and not hearing from you seemed to make her homesick, +so we decided to return to New York by the next steamer. I ran over to +London, however, to make some inquiries about you, and on the first day +I arrived I met your husband in Bond Street. He at once explained to me +that you had gone to a house party at some castle in Scotland, and said +you were well and enjoying yourself very much, and he was on his way to +join you. I am sorry, daughter, that it has turned out that we could not +see each other. It seems a long time since you left us. But I am very +glad, however, that you are so well and really like English life. If we +had time for it I am sure it would be delightful. Your mother sends +her love and wants very much to hear of all you are doing and enjoying. +Hoping that we may have better luck the next time we cross-- + +Your affectionate father, + +REUBEN L. VANDERPOEL. + + +Rosalie found herself running breathlessly up the avenue. She was +clutching the letter still in her hand, and staggering from side to +side. Now and then she uttered horrible little short cries, like an +animal's. She ran and ran, seeing nothing, and now and then with the +clenched hand in which the letter was crushed striking a sharp blow at +her breast. + +She stumbled up the big stone steps she had mounted on the day she was +brought home as a bride. Her dress caught her feet and she fell on her +knees and scrambled up again, gasping; she dashed across the huge +dark hall, and, hurling herself against the door of the morning room, +appeared, dishevelled, haggard-eyed, and with scarlet patches on her +wild, white face, before the Dowager, who started angrily to her feet: + +"Where is Nigel? Where is Nigel?" she cried out frenziedly. + +"What in heaven's name do you mean by such manners?" demanded her +ladyship. "Apologise at once!" + +"Where is Nigel? Nigel! Nigel!" the girl raved. "I will see him--I +will--I will see him!" + +She who had been the mildest of sweet-tempered creatures all her life +had suddenly gone almost insane with heartbroken, hysteric grief and +rage. She did not know what she was saying and doing; she only realised +in an agony of despair that she was a thing caught in a trap; that these +people had her in their power, and that they had tricked and lied to her +and kept her apart from what her girl's heart so cried out to and longed +for. Her father, her mother, her little sister; they had been near her +and had been lied to and sent away. + +"You are quite mad, you violent, uncontrolled creature!" cried the +Dowager furiously. "You ought to be put in a straitjacket and drenched +with cold water." + +Then the door opened again and Nigel strode in. He was in riding dress +and was breathless and livid with anger. He was in a nice mood to +confront a wife on the verge of screaming hysterics. After a bad half +hour with his steward, who had been talking of impending disasters, +he had heard by chance of Wilson's conflagration and the hundred-pound +cheque. He had galloped home at the top of his horse's speed. + +"Here is your wife raving mad," cried out his mother. + +Rosalie staggered across the room to him. She held up her hand clenching +the letter and shook it at him. + +"My mother and father have been here," she shrieked. My mother has been +ill. They wanted to come to see me. You knew and you kept it from me. +You told my father lies--lies--hideous lies! You said I was away in +Scotland--enjoying myself--when I was here and dying with homesickness. +You made them think I did not care for them--or for New York! You have +killed me! Why did you do such a wicked thing! + +He looked at her with glaring eyes. If a man born a gentleman is ever in +the mood to kick his wife to death, as costermongers do, he was in that +mood. He had lost control over himself as completely as she had, and +while she was only a desperate, hysteric girl, he was a violent man. + +"I did it because I did not mean to have them here," he said. "I did it +because I won't have them here." + +"They shall come," she quavered shrilly in her wildness. "They shall +come to see me. They are my own father and mother, and I will have +them." + +He caught her arm in such a grip that she must have thought he would +break it, if she could have thought or felt anything. + +"No, you will not have them," he ground forth between his teeth. "You +will do as I order you and learn to behave yourself as a decent married +woman should. You will learn to obey your husband and respect his wishes +and control your devilish American temper." + +"They have gone--gone!" wailed Rosalie. "You sent them away! My father, +my mother, my sister!" + +"Stop your indecent ravings!" ordered Sir Nigel, shaking her. "I will +not submit to be disgraced before the servants." + +"Put your hand over her mouth, Nigel," cried his mother. "The very +scullery maids will hear." + +She was as infuriated as her son. And, indeed, to behold civilised human +beings in the state of uncontrolled violence these three had reached was +a sight to shudder at. + +"I won't stop," cried the girl. "Why did you take me away from +everything--I was quite happy. Everybody was kind to me. I loved people, +I had everything. No one ever--ever--ever ill-used anyone----" + +Sir Nigel clutched her arm more brutally still and shook her with +absolute violence. Her hair broke loose and fell about her awful little +distorted, sobbing face. + +"I did not take you to give you an opportunity to display your vulgar +ostentation by throwing away hundred-pound cheques to villagers," he +said. "I didn't take you to give you the position of a lady and be made +a fool of by you." + +"You have ruined him," burst forth his mother. "You have put it out of +his power to marry an Englishwoman who would have known it was her duty +to give something in return for his name and protection." + +Her ladyship had begun to rave also, and as mother and son were of equal +violence when they had ceased to control themselves, Rosalie began to +find herself enlightened unsparingly. She and her people were vulgar +sharpers. They had trapped a gentleman into a low American marriage and +had not the decency to pay for what they had got. If she had been an +Englishwoman, well born, and of decent breeding, all her fortune would +have been properly transferred to her husband and he would have had the +dispensing of it. Her husband would have been in the position to control +her expenditure and see that she did not make a fool of herself. As it +was she was the derision of all decent people, of all people who had +been properly brought up and knew what was in good taste and of good +morality. + +First it was the Dowager who poured forth, and then it was Sir +Nigel. They broke in on each other, they interrupted one another with +exclamations and interpolations. They had so far lost themselves that +they did not know they became grotesque in the violence of their fury. +Rosalie's brain whirled. Her hysteria mounted and mounted. She stared +first at one and then at the other, gasping and sobbing by turns; she +swayed on her feet and clutched at a chair. + +"I did not know," she broke forth at last, trying to make her voice +heard in the storm. "I never understood. I knew something made you +hate me, but I didn't know you were angry about money." She laughed +tremulously and wildly. "I would have given it to you--father would have +given you some--if you had been good to me." The laugh became hysterical +beyond her management. Peal after peal broke from her, she shook all +over with her ghastly merriment, sobbing at one and the same time. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" she shrieked. "You see, I thought you were so +aristocratic. I wouldn't have dared to think of such a thing. I thought +an English gentleman--an English gentleman--oh! oh! to think it was +all because I did not give you money--just common dollars and cents +that--that I daren't offer to a decent American who could work for +himself." + +Sir Nigel sprang at her. He struck her with his open hand upon the +cheek, and as she reeled she held up her small, feverish, shaking hand, +laughing more wildly than before. + +"You ought not to strike me," she cried. "You oughtn't! You don't know +how valuable I am. Perhaps----" with a little, crazy scream--"perhaps I +might have a son." + +She fell in a shuddering heap, and as she dropped she struck heavily +against the protruding end of an oak chest and lay upon the floor, her +arms flung out and limp, as if she were a dead thing. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC + +In the course of twelve years the Shuttle had woven steadily and--its +movements lubricated by time and custom--with increasing rapidity. +Threads of commerce it caught up and shot to and fro, with threads of +literature and art, threads of life drawn from one shore to the other +and back again, until they were bound in the fabric of its weaving. +Coldness there had been between both lands, broad divergence of taste +and thought, argument across seas, sometimes resentment, but the web in +Fate's hands broadened and strengthened and held fast. Coldness faintly +warmed despite itself, taste and thought drawn into nearer contact, +reflecting upon their divergences, grew into tolerance and the knowledge +that the diverging, seen more clearly, was not so broad; argument +coming within speaking distance reasoned itself to logical and practical +conclusions. Problems which had stirred anger began to find solutions. +Books, in the first place, did perhaps more than all else. Cheap, +pirated editions of English works, much quarrelled over by authors and +publishers, being scattered over the land, brought before American eyes +soft, home-like pictures of places which were, after all was said and +done, the homes of those who read of them, at least in the sense of +having been the birthplaces of fathers or grandfathers. Some subtle, +far-reaching power of nature caused a stirring of the blood, a vague, +unexpressed yearning and lingering over pages which depicted sweet, +green lanes, broad acres rich with centuries of nourishment and care; +grey church towers, red roofs, and village children playing before +cottage doors. None of these things were new to those who pondered over +them, kinsmen had dwelt on memories of them in their fireside talk, +and their children had seen them in fancy and in dreams. Old grievances +having had time to fade away and take on less poignant colour, the +stirring of the blood stirred also imaginations, and wakened something +akin to homesickness, though no man called the feeling by its name. And +this, perhaps, was the strongest cord the Shuttle wove and was the true +meaning of its power. Being drawn by it, Americans in increasing numbers +turned their faces towards the older land. Gradually it was discovered +that it was the simplest affair in the world to drive down to the +wharves and take a steamer which landed one, after a more or less +interesting voyage, in Liverpool, or at some other convenient port. +From there one went to London, or Paris, or Rome; in fact, whithersoever +one's fancy guided, but first or last it always led the traveller to +the treading of green, velvet English turf. And once standing on +such velvet, both men and women, looking about them, felt, despite +themselves, the strange old thrill which some of them half resented and +some warmly loved. + +In the course of twelve years, a length of time which will transform a +little girl wearing a short frock into a young woman wearing a long one, +the pace of life and the ordering of society may become so altered as +to appear amazing when one finds time to reflect on the subject. But one +does not often find time. Changes occur so gradually that one scarcely +observes them, or so swiftly that they take the form of a kind of amazed +shock which one gets over as quickly as one experiences it and realises +that its cause is already a fixed fact. + +In the United States of America, which have not yet acquired the serene +sense of conservative self-satisfaction and repose which centuries of +age may bestow, the spirit of life itself is the aspiration for change. +Ambition itself only means the insistence on change. Each day is to be +better than yesterday fuller of plans, of briskness, of initiative. Each +to-day demands of to-morrow new men, new minds, new work. A to-day which +has not launched new ships, explored new countries, constructed new +buildings, added stories to old ones, may consider itself a failure, +unworthy even of being consigned to the limbo of respectable yesterdays. +Such a country lives by leaps and bounds, and the ten years which +followed the marriage of Reuben Vanderpoel's eldest daughter made many +such bounds and leaps. They were years which initiated and established +international social relations in a manner which caused them to +incorporate themselves with the history of both countries. As America +discovered Europe, that continent discovered America. American beauties +began to appear in English drawing-rooms and Continental salons. They +were presented at court and commented upon in the Row and the Bois. +Their little transatlantic tricks of speech and their mots were repeated +with gusto. It became understood that they were amusing and amazing. +Americans "came in" as the heroes and heroines of novels and stories. +Punch delighted in them vastly. Shopkeepers and hotel proprietors +stocked, furnished, and provisioned for them. They spent money +enormously and were singularly indifferent (at the outset) under +imposition. They "came over" in a manner as epoch-making, though less +war-like than that of William the Conqueror. + +International marriages ceased to be a novelty. As Bettina Vanderpoel +grew up, she grew up, so to speak, in the midst of them. She saw her +country, its people, its newspapers, its literature, innocently rejoiced +by the alliances its charming young women contracted with foreign +rank. She saw it affectionately, gleefully, rubbing its hands over its +duchesses, its countesses, its miladies. The American Eagle spread its +wings and flapped them sometimes a trifle, over this new but so natural +and inevitable triumph of its virgins. It was of course only "American" +that such things should happen. America ruled the universe, and its +women ruled America, bullying it a little, prettily, perhaps. What could +be more a matter of course than that American women, being aided by +adoring fathers, brothers and husbands, sumptuously to ship themselves +to other lands, should begin to rule these lands also? Betty, in her +growing up, heard all this intimated. At twelve years old, though she +had detested Rosalie's marriage, she had rather liked to hear people +talk of the picturesqueness of places like Stornham Court, and of the +life led by women of rank in their houses in town and country. Such +talk nearly always involved the description of things and people, whose +colour and tone had only reached her through the medium of books, most +frequently fiction. + +She was, however, of an unusually observing mind, even as a child, and +the time came when she realised that the national bird spread its wings +less proudly when the subject of international matches was touched upon, +and even at such times showed signs of restlessness. Now and then things +had not turned out as they appeared to promise; two or three seemingly +brilliant unions had resulted in disaster. She had not understood all +the details the newspapers cheerfully provided, but it was clear to +her that more than one previously envied young woman had had practical +reasons for discovering that she had made an astonishingly bad bargain. +This being the case, she used frequently to ponder over the case of +Rosy--Rosy! who had been swept away from them and swallowed up, as it +seemed, by that other and older world. She was in certain ways a silent +child, and no one but herself knew how little she had forgotten Rosy, +how often she pondered over her, how sometimes she had lain awake in the +night and puzzled out lines of argument concerning her and things which +might be true. + +The one grief of poor Mrs. Vanderpoel's life had been the apparent +estrangement of her eldest child. After her first six months in England +Lady Anstruthers' letters had become fewer and farther between, and had +given so little information connected with herself that affectionate +curiosity became discouraged. Sir Nigel's brief and rare epistles +revealed so little desire for any relationship with his wife's family +that gradually Rosy's image seemed to fade into far distance and become +fainter with the passing of each month. It seemed almost an incredible +thing, when they allowed themselves to think of it, but no member of the +family had ever been to Stornham Court. Two or three efforts to arrange +a visit had been made, but on each occasion had failed through some +apparently accidental cause. Once Lady Anstruthers had been away, once +a letter had seemingly failed to reach her, once her children had had +scarlet fever and the orders of the physicians in attendance had +been stringent in regard to visitors, even relatives who did not fear +contagion. + +"If she had been living in New York and her children had been ill I +should have been with her all the time," poor Mrs. Vanderpoel had said +with tears. "Rosy's changed awfully, somehow. Her letters don't sound a +bit like she used to be. It seems as if she just doesn't care to see her +mother and father." + +Betty had frowned a good deal and thought intensely in secret. She did +not believe that Rosy was ashamed of her relations. She remembered, +however, it is true, that Clara Newell (who had been a schoolmate) had +become very super-fine and indifferent to her family after her marriage +to an aristocratic and learned German. Hers had been one of the +successful alliances, and after living a few years in Berlin she had +quite looked down upon New Yorkers, and had made herself exceedingly +unpopular during her one brief visit to her relatives. She seemed +to think her father and mother undignified and uncultivated, and she +disapproved entirely of her sisters dress and bearing. She said that +they had no distinction of manner and that all their interests were +frivolous and unenlightened. + +"But Clara always was a conceited girl," thought Betty. "She was always +patronising people, and Rosy was only pretty and sweet. She always said +herself that she had no brains. But she had a heart." + +After the lapse of a few years there had been no further discussion of +plans for visiting Stornham. Rosalie had become so remote as to appear +almost unreachable. She had been presented at Court, she had had three +children, the Dowager Lady Anstruthers had died. Once she had written +to her father to ask for a large sum of money, which he had sent to +her, because she seemed to want it very much. She required it to pay off +certain debts on the estate and spoke touchingly of her boy who would +inherit. + +"He is a delicate boy, father," she wrote, "and I don't want the estate +to come to him burdened." + +When she received the money she wrote gratefully of the generosity shown +her, but she spoke very vaguely of the prospect of their seeing each +other in the future. It was as if she felt her own remoteness even more +than they felt it themselves. + +In the meantime Bettina had been taken to France and placed at school +there. The resulting experience was an enlightening one, far more +illuminating to the quick-witted American child than it would have been +to an English, French, or German one, who would not have had so much to +learn, and probably would not have been so quick at the learning. + +Betty Vanderpoel knew nothing which was not American, and only vaguely +a few things which were not of New York. She had lived in Fifth Avenue, +attended school in a numbered street near her own home, played in and +been driven round Central Park. She had spent the hot months of the +summer in places up the Hudson, or on Long Island, and such resorts of +pleasure. She had believed implicitly in all she saw and knew. She +had been surrounded by wealth and decent good nature throughout her +existence, and had enjoyed her life far too much to admit of any doubt +that America was the most perfect country in the world, Americans the +cleverest and most amusing people, and that other nations were a little +out of it, and consequently sufficiently scant of resource to render +pity without condemnation a natural sentiment in connection with one's +occasional thoughts of them. + +But hers was a mentality by no means ordinary. Inheritance in her nature +had combined with circumstances, as it has a habit of doing in all human +beings. But in her case the combinations were unusual and produced a +result somewhat remarkable. The quality of brains which, in the first +Reuben Vanderpoel had expressed itself in the marvellously successful +planning and carrying to their ends of commercial and financial schemes, +the absolute genius of penetration and calculation of the sordid and +uneducated little trader in skins and barterer of goods, having +filtered through two generations of gradual education and refinement +of existence, which was no longer that of the mere trader, had +been transformed in the great-granddaughter into keen, clear sight, +level-headed perceptiveness and a logical sense of values. As the first +Reuben had known by instinct the values of pelts and lands, Bettina +knew by instinct the values of qualities, of brains, of hearts, of +circumstances, and the incidents which affect them. She was as unaware +of the significance of her great possession as were those around her. +Nevertheless it was an unerring thing. As a mere child, unformed and +uneducated by life, she had not been one of the small creatures to be +deceived or flattered. + +"She's an awfully smart little thing, that Betty," her New York aunts +and cousins often remarked. "She seems to see what people mean, it +doesn't matter what they say. She likes people you would not expect her +to like, and then again she sometimes doesn't care the least for people +who are thought awfully attractive." + +As has been already intimated, the child was crude enough and not +particularly well bred, but her small brain had always been at work, and +each day of her life recorded for her valuable impressions. The page of +her young mind had ceased to be a blank much earlier than is usual. + +The comparing of these impressions with such as she received when her +life in the French school was new afforded her active mental exercise. + +She began with natural, secret indignation and rebellion. There was no +other American pupil in the establishment besides herself. But for the +fact that the name of Vanderpoel represented wealth so enormous as +to amount to a sort of rank in itself, Bettina would not have been +received. The proprietress of the institution had gravely disquieting +doubts of the propriety of America. Her pupils were not accustomed +to freedom of opinions and customs. An American child might either +consciously or unconsciously introduce them. As this must be guarded +against, Betty's first few months at the school were not agreeable to +her. She was supervised and expurgated, as it were. Special Sisters +were told off to converse and walk with her, and she soon perceived +that conversations were not only French lessons in disguise, but were +lectures on ethics, morals, and good manners, imperfectly concealed +by the mask and domino of amiable entertainment. She translated into +English after the following manner the facts her swift young perceptions +gathered. There were things it was so inelegant to say that only +the most impossible persons said them; there were things it was so +inexcusable to do that when done their inexcusability assumed the +proportions of a crime. There were movements, expressions, points of +view, which one must avoid as one would avoid the plague. And they were +all things, acts, expressions, attitudes of mind which Bettina had +been familiar with from her infancy, and which she was well aware were +considered almost entirely harmless and unobjectionable in New York, +in her beloved New York, which was the centre of the world, which was +bigger, richer, gayer, more admirable than any other city known upon the +earth. + +If she had not so loved it, if she had ever dreamed of the existence of +any other place as being absolutely necessary, she would not have felt +the thing so bitterly. But it seemed to her that all these amiable +diatribes in exquisite French were directed at her New York, and it +must be admitted that she was humiliated and enraged. It was a personal, +indeed, a family matter. Her father, her mother, her relatives, and +friends were all in some degree exactly the kind of persons whose +speech, habits, and opinions she must conscientiously avoid. But for +the instinct of summing up values, circumstances, and intentions, it is +probable that she would have lost her head, let loose her temper and her +tongue, and have become insubordinate. But the quickness of perception +which had revealed practical potentialities to old Reuben Vanderpoel, +revealed to her the value of French which was perfectly fluent, a voice +which was musical, movements which were grace, manners which had a +still beauty, and comparing these things with others less charming +she listened and restrained herself, learning, marking, and inwardly +digesting with a cleverness most enviable. + +Among her fellow pensionnaires she met with discomforting illuminations, +which were fine discipline also, though if she herself had been a less +intellectual creature they might have been embittering. Without doubt +Betty, even at twelve years, was intellectual. Hers was the practical +working intellect which begins duty at birth and does not lay down its +tools because the sun sets. The little and big girls who wrote their +exercises at her side did not deliberately enlighten her, but she +learned from them in vague ways that it was not New York which was the +centre of the earth, but Paris, or Berlin, Madrid, London, or Rome. +Paris and London were perhaps more calmly positive of themselves than +other capitals, and were a little inclined to smile at the lack of +seriousness in other claims. But one strange fact was more predominant +than any other, and this was that New York was not counted as a +civilised centre at all; it had no particular existence. Nobody +expressed this rudely; in fact, it did not acquire the form of actual +statement at any time. It was merely revealed by amiable and ingenuous +unconsciousness of the circumstance that such a part of the world +expected to be regarded or referred to at all. Betty began early to +realise that as her companions did not talk of Timbuctoo or Zanzibar, +so they did not talk of New York. Stockholm or Amsterdam seemed, +despite their smallness, to be considered. No one denied the presence of +Zanzibar on the map, but as it conveyed nothing more than the impression +of being a mere geographical fact, there was no reason why one should +dwell on it in conversation. Remembering all she had left behind, the +crowded streets, the brilliant shop windows, the buzz of individual +people, there were moments when Betty ground her strong little teeth. +She wanted to express all these things, to call out, to explain, and +command recognition for them. But her cleverness showed to her that +argument or protestation would be useless. She could not make such +hearers understand. There were girls whose interest in America was +founded on their impression that magnificent Indian chieftains in +blankets and feathers stalked about the streets of the towns, and +that Betty's own thick black hair had been handed down to her by some +beautiful Minnehaha or Pocahontas. When first she was approached by +timid, tentative questionings revealing this point of view, Betty felt +hot and answered with unamiable curtness. No, there were no red Indians +in New York. There had been no red Indians in her family. She had +neither grandmothers nor aunts who were squaws, if they meant that. + +She felt so scornfully, so disgustedly indignant at their benighted +ignorance, that she knew she behaved very well in saying so little in +reply. She could have said so much, but whatsoever she had said would +have conveyed nothing to them, so she thought it all out alone. She +went over the whole ground and little realised how much she was teaching +herself as she turned and tossed in her narrow, spotlessly white bed at +night, arguing, comparing, drawing deductions from what she knew and +did not know of the two continents. Her childish anger, combining +itself with the practical, alert brain of Reuben Vanderpoel the first, +developed in her a logical reasoning power which led her to arrive at +many an excellent and curiously mature conclusion. The result was +finely educational. All the more so that in her fevered desire for +justification of the things she loved, she began to read books such as +little girls do not usually take interest in. She found some difficulty +in obtaining them at first, but a letter or two written to her father +obtained for her permission to read what she chose. The third Reuben +Vanderpoel was deeply fond of his younger daughter, and felt in secret +a profound admiration for her, which was saved from becoming too obvious +by the ever present American sense of humour. + +"Betty seems to be going in for politics," he said after reading the +letter containing her request and her first list of books. "She's about +as mad as she can be at the ignorance of the French girls about America +and Americans. She wants to fill up on solid facts, so that she can come +out strong in argument. She's got an understanding of the power of solid +facts that would be a fortune to her if she were a man." + +It was no doubt her understanding of the power of facts which led her +to learn everything well and to develop in many directions. She began to +dip into political and historical volumes because she was furious, and +wished to be able to refute idiocy, but she found herself continuing to +read because she was interested in a way she had not expected. She began +to see things. Once she made a remark which was prophetic. She made +it in answer to a guileless observation concerning the gold mines with +which Boston was supposed to be enriched. + +"You don't know anything about America, you others," she said. "But you +WILL know!" + +"Do you think it will become the fashion to travel in America?" asked a +German girl. + +"Perhaps," said Betty. "But--it isn't so much that you will go to +America. I believe it will come to you. It's like that--America. It +doesn't stand still. It goes and gets what it wants." + +She laughed as she ended, and so did the other girls. But in ten years' +time, when they were young women, some of them married, some of them +court beauties, one of them recalled this speech to another, whom she +encountered in an important house in St. Petersburg, the wife of the +celebrated diplomat who was its owner being an American woman. + +Bettina Vanderpoel's education was a rather fine thing. She herself +had more to do with it than girls usually have to do with their own +training. In a few months' time those in authority in the French school +found that it was not necessary to supervise and expurgate her. She +learned with an interested rapacity which was at once unusual and +amazing. And she evidently did not learn from books alone. Her voice, as +an organ, had been musical and full from babyhood. It began to modulate +itself and to express things most voices are incapable of expressing. +She had been so built by nature that the carriage of her head and limbs +was good to behold. She acquired a harmony of movement which caused her +to lose no shade of grace and spirit. Her eyes were full of thought, of +speculation, and intentness. + +"She thinks a great deal for one so young," was said of her frequently +by one or the other of her teachers. One finally went further and added, +"She has genius." + +This was true. She had genius, but it was not specialised. It was not +genius which expressed itself through any one art. It was a genius for +life, for living herself, for aiding others to live, for vivifying +mere existence. She herself was, however, aware only of an eagerness +of temperament, a passion for seeing, doing, and gaining knowledge. +Everything interested her, everybody was suggestive and more or less +enlightening. + +Her relatives thought her original in her fancies. They called them +fancies because she was so young. Fortunately for her, there was no +reason why she should not be gratified. Most girls preferred to spend +their holidays on the Continent. She elected to return to America every +alternate year. She enjoyed the voyage and she liked the entire change +of atmosphere and people. + +"It makes me like both places more," she said to her father when she was +thirteen. "It makes me see things." + +Her father discovered that she saw everything. She was the pleasure of +his life. He was attracted greatly by the interest she exhibited in +all orders of things. He saw her make bold, ingenuous plunges into all +waters, without any apparent consciousness that the scraps of knowledge +she brought to the surface were unusual possessions for a schoolgirl. +She had young views on the politics and commerce of different countries, +as she had views on their literature. When Reuben Vanderpoel swooped +across the American continent on journeys of thousands of miles, taking +her as a companion, he discovered that he actually placed a sort of +confidence in her summing up of men and schemes. He took her to see +mines and railroads and those who worked them, and he talked them over +with her afterward, half with a sense of humour, half with a sense of +finding comfort in her intelligent comprehension of all he said. + +She enjoyed herself immensely and gained a strong picturesqueness of +character. After an American holiday she used to return to France, +Germany, or Italy, with a renewed zest of feeling for all things +romantic and antique. After a few years in the French convent she asked +that she might be sent to Germany. + +"I am gradually changing into a French girl," she wrote to her father. +"One morning I found I was thinking it would be nice to go into a +convent, and another day I almost entirely agreed with one of the girls +who was declaiming against her brother who had fallen in love with a +Californian. You had better take me away and send me to Germany." + +Reuben Vanderpoel laughed. He understood Betty much better than most of +her relations did. He knew when seriousness underlay her jests and his +respect for her seriousness was great. He sent her to school in Germany. +During the early years of her schooldays Betty had observed that America +appeared upon the whole to be regarded by her schoolfellows principally +as a place to which the more unfortunate among the peasantry emigrated +as steerage passengers when things could become no worse for them in +their own country. The United States was not mentally detached from any +other portion of the huge Western Continent. Quite well-educated persons +spoke casually of individuals having "gone to America," as if there were +no particular difference between Brazil and Massachusetts. + +"I wonder if you ever saw my cousin Gaston," a French girl once asked +her as they sat at their desks. "He became very poor through ill living. +He was quite without money and he went to America." + +"To New York?" inquired Bettina. + +"I am not sure. The town is called Concepcion." + +"That is not in the United States," Betty answered disdainfully. "It is +in Chili." + +She dragged her atlas towards her and found the place. + +"See," she said. "It is thousands of miles from New York." Her companion +was a near-sighted, rather slow girl. She peered at the map, drawing a +line with her finger from New York to Concepcion. + +"Yes, they are at a great distance from one another," she admitted, "but +they are both in America." + +"But not both in the United States," cried Betty. "French girls always +seem to think that North and South America are the same, that they are +both the United States." + +"Yes," said the slow girl with deliberation. "We do make odd mistakes +sometimes." To which she added with entire innocence of any ironic +intention. "But you Americans, you seem to feel the United States, your +New York, to be all America." + +Betty started a little and flushed. During a few minutes of rapid +reflection she sat bolt upright at her desk and looked straight +before her. Her mentality was of the order which is capable of making +discoveries concerning itself as well as concerning others. She had +never thought of this view of the matter before, but it was quite true. +To passionate young patriots such as herself at least, that portion of +the map covered by the United States was America. She suddenly saw also +that to her New York had been America. Fifth Avenue Broadway, Central +Park, even Tiffany's had been "America." She laughed and reddened a +shade as she put the atlas aside having recorded a new idea. She had +found out that it was not only Europeans who were local, which was a +discovery of some importance to her fervid youth. + +Because she thought so often of Rosalie, her attention was, during the +passing years, naturally attracted by the many things she heard of such +marriages as were made by Americans with men of other countries than +their own. She discovered that notwithstanding certain commercial +views of matrimony, all foreigners who united themselves with American +heiresses were not the entire brutes primitive prejudice might lead +one to imagine. There were rather one-sided alliances which proved +themselves far from happy. The Cousin Gaston, for instance, brought home +a bride whose fortune rebuilt and refurnished his dilapidated chateau +and who ended by making of him a well-behaved and cheery country +gentleman not at all to be despised in his amiable, if light-minded good +nature and good spirits. His wife, fortunately, was not a young woman +who yearned for sentiment. She was a nice-tempered, practical American +girl, who adored French country life and knew how to amuse and manage +her husband. It was a genial sort of menage and yet though this was an +undeniable fact, Bettina observed that when the union was spoken of it +was always referred to with a certain tone which conveyed that though +one did not exactly complain of its having been undesirable, it was +not quite what Gaston might have expected. His wife had money and was +good-natured, but there were limitations to one's appreciation of a +marriage in which husband and wife were not on the same plane. + +"She is an excellent person, and it has been good for Gaston," said +Bettina's friend. "We like her, but she is not--she is not----" She +paused there, evidently seeing that the remark was unlucky. Bettina, who +was still in short frocks, took her up. + +"What is she not?" she asked. + +"Ah!--it is difficult to explain--to Americans. It is really not exactly +a fault. But she is not of his world." + +"But if he does not like that," said Bettina coolly, "why did he let her +buy him and pay for him?" + +It was young and brutal, but there were times when the business +perspicuity of the first Reuben Vanderpoel, combining with the fiery, +wounded spirit of his young descendant, rendered Bettina brutal. She saw +certain unadorned facts with unsparing young eyes and wanted to state +them. After her frocks were lengthened, she learned how to state them +with more fineness of phrase, but even then she was sometimes still +rather unsparing. + +In this case her companion, who was not fiery of temperament, only +coloured slightly. + +"It was not quite that," she answered. "Gaston really is fond of her. +She amuses him, and he says she is far cleverer than he is." + +But there were unions less satisfactory, and Bettina had opportunities +to reflect upon these also. The English and Continental papers did +not give enthusiastic, detailed descriptions of the marriages New York +journals dwelt upon with such delight. They were passed over with a +paragraph. When Betty heard them spoken of in France, Germany or Italy, +she observed that they were not, as a rule, spoken of respectfully. It +seemed to her that the bridegrooms were, in conversation, treated by +their equals with scant respect. It appeared that there had always been +some extremely practical reason for the passion which had led them to +the altar. One generally gathered that they or their estates were very +much out at elbow, and frequently their characters were not considered +admirable by their relatives and acquaintances. Some had been rather +cold shouldered in certain capitals on account of embarrassing little, +or big, stories. Some had spent their patrimonies in riotous living. +Those who had merely begun by coming into impoverished estates, and had +later attenuated their resources by comparatively decent follies, were +of the more desirable order. By the time she was nineteen, Bettina had +felt the blood surge in her veins more than once when she heard some +comments on alliances over which she had seen her compatriots glow with +affectionate delight. + +"It was time Ludlow married some girl with money," she heard said of one +such union. "He had been playing the fool ever since he came into +the estate. Horses and a lot of stupid women. He had come some awful +croppers during the last ten years. Good-enough looking girl, they tell +me--the American he has married--tremendous lot of money. Couldn't +have picked it up on this side. English young women of fortune are not +looking for that kind of thing. Poor old Billy wasn't good enough." + +Bettina told the story to her father when they next met. She had grown +into a tall young creature by this time. Her low, full voice was like a +bell and was capable of ringing forth some fine, mellow tones of irony. + +"And in America we are pleased," she said, "and flatter ourselves that +we are receiving the proper tribute of adoration of our American wit and +beauty. We plume ourselves on our conquests." + +"No, Betty," said her father, and his reflective deliberation had +meaning. "There are a lot of us who don't plume ourselves particularly +in these days. We are not as innocent as we were when this sort of thing +began. We are not as innocent as we were when Rosy was married." And +he sighed and rubbed his forehead with the handle of his pen. "Not as +innocent as we were when Rosy was married," he repeated. + +Bettina went to him and slid her fine young arm round his neck. It was +a long, slim, round arm with a wonderful power to caress in its curves. +She kissed Vanderpoel's lined cheek. + +"Have you had time to think much about Rosy?" she said. + +"I've not had time, but I've done it," he answered. "Anything that hurts +your mother hurts me. Sometimes she begins to cry in her sleep, and when +I wake her she tells me she has been dreaming that she has seen Rosy." + +"I have had time to think of her," said Bettina. "I have heard so much +of these things. I was at school in Germany when Annie Butterfield and +Baron von Steindahl were married. I heard it talked about there, and +then my mother sent me some American papers." + +She laughed a little, and for a moment her laugh did not sound like a +girl's. + +"Well, it's turned out badly enough," her father commented. "The papers +had plenty to say about it later. There wasn't much he was too good to +do to his wife, apparently." + +"There was nothing too bad for him to do before he had a wife," said +Bettina. "He was black. It was an insolence that he should have dared to +speak to Annie Butterfield. Somebody ought to have beaten him." + +"He beat her instead." + +"Yes, and I think his family thought it quite natural. They said that +she was so vulgar and American that she exasperated Frederick beyond +endurance. She was not geboren, that was it." She laughed her severe +little laugh again. "Perhaps we shall get tired in time," she added. "I +think we are learning. If it is made a matter of business quite open and +aboveboard, it will be fair. You know, father, you always said that I +was businesslike." + +There was interested curiosity in Vanderpoel's steady look at her. There +were times when he felt that Betty's summing up of things was well worth +listening to. He saw that now she was in one of her moods when it would +pay one to hear her out. She held her chin up a little, and her face +took on a fine stillness at once sweet and unrelenting. She was very +good to look at in such moments. + +"Yes," he answered, "you have a particularly level head for a girl." + +"Well," she went on. "What I see is that these things are not business, +and they ought to be. If a man comes to a rich American girl and says, +'I and my title are for sale. Will you buy us?' If the girl is--is that +kind of a girl and wants that kind of man, she can look them both over +and say, 'Yes, I will buy you,' and it can be arranged. He will not +return the money if he is unsatisfactory, but she cannot complain that +she has been deceived. She can only complain of that when he pretends +that he asks her to marry him because he wants her for his wife, because +he would want her for his wife if she were as poor as himself. Let it +be understood that he is property for sale, let her make sure that he is +the kind of property she wants to buy. Then, if, when they are married, +he is brutal or impudent, or his people are brutal or impudent, she can +say, 'I will forfeit the purchase money, but I will not forfeit myself. +I will not stay with you.'" + +"They would not like to hear you say that, Betty," said her father, +rubbing his chin reflectively. + +"No," she answered. "Neither the girl nor the man would like it, and it +is their business, not mine. But it is practical and would prevent silly +mistakes. It would prevent the girls being laughed at. It is when they +are flattered by the choice made of them that they are laughed at. No +one can sneer at a man or woman for buying what they think they want, +and throwing it aside if it turns out a bad bargain." + +She had seated herself near her father. She rested her elbow slightly +on the table and her chin in the hollow of her hand. She was a beautiful +young creature. She had a soft curving mouth, and a soft curving cheek +which was warm rose. Taken in conjunction with those young charms, her +next words had an air of incongruity. + +"You think I am hard," she said. "When I think of these things I +am hard--as hard as nails. That is an Americanism, but it is a good +expression. I am angry for America. If we are sordid and undignified, +let us get what we pay for and make the others acknowledge that we have +paid." + +She did not smile, nor did her father. Mr. Vanderpoel, on the contrary, +sighed. He had a dreary suspicion that Rosy, at least, had not received +what she had paid for, and he knew she had not been in the least aware +that she had paid or that she was expected to do so. Several times +during the last few years he had thought that if he had not been so hard +worked, if he had had time, he would have seriously investigated +the case of Rosy. But who is not aware that the profession of +multimillionaire does not allow of any swerving from duty or of any +interests requiring leisure? + +"I wonder, Betty," he said quite deliberately, "if you know how handsome +you are?" + +"Yes," answered Bettina. "I think so. And I am tall. It is the fashion +to be tall now. It was Early Victorian to be little. The Queen brought +in the 'dear little woman,' and now the type has gone out." + +"They will come to look at you pretty soon," said Vanderpoel. "What +shall you say then?" + +"I?" said Bettina, and her voice sounded particularly low and mellow. +"I have a little monomania, father. Some people have a monomania for one +thing and some for another. Mine is for NOT taking a bargain from the +ducal remnant counter." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AN UNFAIR ENDOWMENT + +To Bettina Vanderpoel had been given, to an extraordinary extent, the +extraordinary thing which is called beauty--which is a thing +entirely set apart from mere good looks or prettiness. This thing +is extraordinary because, if statistics were taken, the result would +probably be the discovery that not three human beings in a million +really possess it. That it should be bestowed at all--since it is so +rare--seems as unfair a thing as appears to the mere mortal mind the +bestowal of unbounded wealth, since it quite as inevitably places the +life of its owner upon an abnormal plane. There are millions of pretty +women, and billions of personable men, but the man or woman of entire +physical beauty may cross one's pathway only once in a lifetime--or not +at all. In the latter case it is natural to doubt the absolute truth of +the rumours that the thing exists. The abnormal creature seems a mere +freak of nature and may chance to be angel, criminal, total insipidity, +virago or enchanter, but let such an one enter a room or appear in the +street, and heads must turn, eyes light and follow, souls yearn or +envy, or sink under the discouragement of comparison. With the complete +harmony and perfect balance of the singular thing, it would be folly for +the rest of the world to compete. A human being who had lived in poverty +for half a lifetime, might, if suddenly endowed with limitless fortune, +retain, to a certain extent, balance of mind; but the same creature +having lived the same number of years a wholly unlovely thing, suddenly +awakening to the possession of entire physical beauty, might find the +strain upon pure sanity greater and the balance less easy to preserve. +The relief from the conscious or unconscious tension bred by the sense +of imperfection, the calm surety of the fearlessness of meeting in +any eye a look not lighted by pleasure, would be less normal than the +knowledge that no wish need remain unfulfilled, no fancy ungratified. +Even at sixteen Betty was a long-limbed young nymph whose small head, +set high on a fine slim column of throat, might well have been crowned +with the garland of some goddess of health and the joy of life. She was +light and swift, and being a creature of long lines and tender curves, +there was pleasure in the mere seeing her move. The cut of her spirited +lip, and delicate nostril, made for a profile at which one turned to +look more than once, despite one's self. Her hair was soft and black and +repeated its colour in the extravagant lashes of her childhood, which +made mysterious the changeful dense blue of her eyes. They were eyes +with laughter in them and pride, and a suggestion of many deep things +yet unstirred. She was rather unusually tall, and her body had the +suppleness of a young bamboo. The deep corners of her red mouth curled +generously, and the chin, melting into the fine line of the lovely +throat, was at once strong and soft and lovely. She was a creature of +harmony, warm richness of colour, and brilliantly alluring life. + +When her school days were over she returned to New York and gave +herself into her mother's hands. Her mother's kindness of heart and +sweet-tempered lovingness were touching things to Bettina. In the midst +of her millions Mrs. Vanderpoel was wholly unworldly. Bettina knew that +she felt a perpetual homesickness when she allowed herself to think of +the daughter who seemed lost to her, and the girl's realisation of this +caused her to wish to be especially affectionate and amenable. She was +glad that she was tall and beautiful, not merely because such physical +gifts added to the colour and agreeableness of life, but because +hers gave comfort and happiness to her mother. To Mrs. Vanderpoel, to +introduce to the world the loveliest debutante of many years was to be +launched into a new future. To concern one's self about her exquisite +wardrobe was to have an enlivening occupation. To see her surrounded, +to watch eyes as they followed her, to hear her praised, was to feel +something of the happiness she had known in those younger days when New +York had been less advanced in its news and methods, and slim little +blonde Rosalie had come out in white tulle and waltzed like a fairy with +a hundred partners. + +"I wonder what Rosy looks like now," the poor woman said involuntarily +one day. Bettina was not a fairy. When her mother uttered her +exclamation Bettina was on the point of going out, and as she stood near +her, wrapped in splendid furs, she had the air of a Russian princess. + +"She could not have worn the things you do, Betty," said the affectionate +maternal creature. "She was such a little, slight thing. But she was +very pretty. I wonder if twelve years have changed her much?" + +Betty turned towards her rather suddenly. + +"Mother," she said, "sometime, before very long, I am going to see." + +"To see!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderpoel. "To see Rosy!" + +"Yes," Betty answered. "I have a plan. I have never told you of it, but +I have been thinking over it ever since I was fifteen years old." + +She went to her mother and kissed her. She wore a becoming but resolute +expression. + +"We will not talk about it now," she said. "There are some things I must +find out." + +When she had left the room, which she did almost immediately, Mrs. +Vanderpoel sat down and cried. She nearly always shed a few tears +when anyone touched upon the subject of Rosy. On her desk were some +photographs. One was of Rosy as a little girl with long hair, one was of +Lady Anstruthers in her wedding dress, and one was of Sir Nigel. + +"I never felt as if I quite liked him," she said, looking at this last, +"but I suppose she does, or she would not be so happy that she could +forget her mother and sister." + +There was another picture she looked at. Rosalie had sent it with the +letter she wrote to her father after he had forwarded the money she +asked for. It was a little study in water colours of the head of her +boy. It was nothing but a head, the shoulders being fancifully draped, +but the face was a peculiar one. It was over-mature, and unlovely, but +for a mouth at once pathetic and sweet. + +"He is not a pretty child," sighed Mrs. Vanderpoel. "I should have +thought Rosy would have had pretty babies. Ughtred is more like his +father than his mother." + +She spoke to her husband later, of what Betty had said. + +"What do you think she has in her mind, Reuben?" she asked. + +"What Betty has in her mind is usually good sense," was his response. +"She will begin to talk to me about it presently. I shall not ask +questions yet. She is probably thinking things over." + +She was, in truth, thinking things over, as she had been doing for some +time. She had asked questions on several occasions of English people she +had met abroad. But a schoolgirl cannot ask many questions, and though +she had once met someone who knew Sir Nigel Anstruthers, it was a person +who did not know him well, for the reason that she had not desired +to increase her slight acquaintance. This lady was the aunt of one +of Bettina's fellow pupils, and she was not aware of the girl's +relationship to Sir Nigel. What Betty gathered was that her +brother-in-law was regarded as a decidedly bad lot, that since his +marriage to some American girl he had seemed to have money which he +spent in riotous living, and that the wife, who was said to be a silly +creature, was kept in the country, either because her husband did not +want her in London, or because she preferred to stay at Stornham. About +the wife no one appeared to know anything, in fact. + +"She is rather a fool, I believe, and Sir Nigel Anstruthers is the kind +of man a simpleton would be obliged to submit to," Bettina had heard the +lady say. + +Her own reflections upon these comments had led her through various +paths of thought. She could recall Rosalie's girlhood, and what +she herself, as an unconsciously observing child, had known of her +character. She remembered the simple impressionability of her mind. She +had been the most amenable little creature in the world. Her yielding +amiability could always be counted upon as a factor by the calculating; +sweet-tempered to weakness, she could be beguiled or distressed into any +course the desires of others dictated. An ill-tempered or self-pitying +person could alter any line of conduct she herself wished to pursue. + +"She was neither clever nor strong-minded," Betty said to herself. "A +man like Sir Nigel Anstruthers could make what he chose of her. I wonder +what he has done to her?" + +Of one thing she thought she was sure. This was that Rosalie's aloofness +from her family was the result of his design. + +She comprehended, in her maturer years, the dislike of her childhood. +She remembered a certain look in his face which she had detested. She +had not known then that it was the look of a rather clever brute, who +was malignant, but she knew now. + +"He used to hate us all," she said to herself. "He did not mean to know +us when he had taken Rosalie away, and he did not intend that she should +know us." + +She had heard rumours of cases somewhat parallel, cases in which girls' +lives had become swamped in those of their husbands, and their husbands' +families. And she had also heard unpleasant details of the means +employed to reach the desired results. Annie Butterfield's husband had +forbidden her to correspond with her American relatives. He had argued +that such correspondence was disturbing to her mind, and to the domestic +duties which should be every decent woman's religion. One of the +occasions of his beating her had been in consequence of his finding her +writing to her mother a letter blotted with tears. Husbands frequently +objected to their wives' relatives, but there was a special order +of European husband who opposed violently any intimacy with American +relations on the practical ground that their views of a wife's position, +with regard to her husband, were of a revolutionary nature. + +Mrs. Vanderpoel had in her possession every letter Rosalie or her +husband had ever written. Bettina asked to be allowed to read them, and +one morning seated herself in her own room before a blazing fire, with +the collection on a table at her side. She read them in order. Nigel's +began as they went on. They were all in one tone, formal, uninteresting, +and requiring no answers. There was not a suggestion of human feeling in +one of them. + +"He wrote them," said Betty, "so that we could not say that he had never +written." + +Rosalie's first epistles were affectionate, but timid. At the outset +she was evidently trying to conceal the fact that she was homesick. +Gradually she became briefer and more constrained. In one she said +pathetically, "I am such a bad letter writer. I always feel as if I want +to tear up what I have written, because I never say half that is in my +heart." Mrs. Vanderpoel had kissed that letter many a time. She was sure +that a mark on the paper near this particular sentence was where a tear +had fallen. Bettina was sure of this, too, and sat and looked at the +fire for some time. + +That night she went to a ball, and when she returned home, she persuaded +her mother to go to bed. + +"I want to have a talk with father," she exclaimed. "I am going to ask +him something." + +She went to the great man's private room, where he sat at work, even +after the hours when less seriously engaged people come home from balls. +The room he sat in was one of the apartments newspapers had with much +detail described. It was luxuriously comfortable, and its effect was +sober and rich and fine. + +When Bettina came in, Vanderpoel, looking up to smile at her in welcome, +was struck by the fact that as a background to an entering figure of +tall, splendid girlhood in a ball dress it was admirable, throwing up +all its whiteness and grace and sweep of line. He was always glad to see +Betty. The rich strength of the life radiating from her, the reality and +glow of her were good for him and had the power of detaching him from +work of which he was tired. + +She smiled back at him, and, coming forward took her place in a +big armchair close to him, her lace-frilled cloak slipping from +her shoulders with a soft rustling sound which seemed to convey her +intention to stay. + +"Are you too busy to be interrupted?" she asked, her mellow voice +caressing him. "I want to talk to you about something I am going to do." +She put out her hand and laid it on his with a clinging firmness which +meant strong feeling. "At least, I am going to do it if you will help +me," she ended. + +"What is it, Betty?" he inquired, his usual interest in her accentuated +by her manner. + +She laid her other hand on his and he clasped both with his own. + +"When the Worthingtons sail for England next month," she explained, "I +want to go with them. Mrs. Worthington is very kind and will be good +enough to take care of me until I reach London." + +Mr. Vanderpoel moved slightly in his chair. Then their eyes met +comprehendingly. He saw what hers held. + +"From there you are going to Stornham Court!" he exclaimed. + +"To see Rosy," she answered, leaning a little forward. "To SEE her. + +"You believe that what has happened has not been her fault?" he said. +There was a look in her face which warmed his blood. + +"I have always been sure that Nigel Anstruthers arranged it." + +"Do you think he has been unkind to her?" + +"I am going to see," she answered. + +"Betty," he said, "tell me all about it." + +He knew that this was no suddenly-formed plan, and he knew it would +be well worth while to hear the details of its growth. It was so +interestingly like her to have remained silent through the process of +thinking a thing out, evolving her final idea without having disturbed +him by bringing to him any chaotic uncertainties. + +"It's a sort of confession," she answered. "Father, I have been thinking +about it for years. I said nothing because for so long I knew I was only +a child, and a child's judgment might be worth so little. But through +all those years I was learning things and gathering evidence. When I was +at school, first in one country and then another, I used to tell myself +that I was growing up and preparing myself to do a particular thing--to +go to rescue Rosy." + +"I used to guess you thought of her in a way of your own," Vanderpoel +said, "but I did not guess you were thinking that much. You were always +a solid, loyal little thing, and there was business capacity in your +keeping your scheme to yourself. Let us look the matter in the face. +Suppose she does not need rescuing. Suppose, after all, she is a +comfortable, fine lady and adores her husband. What then?" + +"If I should find that to be true, I will behave myself very well--as +if we had expected nothing else. I will make her a short visit and come +away. Lady Cecilia Orme, whom I knew in Florence, has asked me to stay +with her in London. I will go to her. She is a charming woman. But I +must first see Rosy--SEE her." + +Mr. Vanderpoel thought the matter over during a few moments of silence. + +"You do not wish your mother to go with you?" he said presently. + +"I believe it will be better that she should not," she answered. "If +there are difficulties or disappointments she would be too unhappy." + +"Yes," he said slowly, "and she could not control her feelings. She +would give the whole thing away, poor girl." + +He had been looking at the carpet reflectively, and now he looked at +Bettina. + +"What are you expecting to find, at the worst?" he asked her. "The kind +of thing which will need management while it is being looked into?" + +"I do not know what I am expecting to find," was her reply. "We know +absolutely nothing; but that Rosy was fond of us, and that her marriage +has seemed to make her cease to care. She was not like that; she was not +like that! Was she, father?" + +"No, she wasn't," he exclaimed. The memory of her in her short-frocked +and early girlish days, a pretty, smiling, effusive thing, given to +lavish caresses and affectionate little surprises for them all, came +back to him vividly. "She was the most affectionate girl I ever knew," +he said. "She was more affectionate than you, Betty," with a smile. + +Bettina smiled in return and bent her head to put a kiss on his hand, a +warm, lovely, comprehending kiss. + +"If she had been different I should not have thought so much of the +change," she said. "I believe that people are always more or less LIKE +themselves as long as they live. What has seemed to happen has been so +unlike Rosy that there must be some reason for it." + +"You think that she has been prevented from seeing us?" + +"I think it so possible that I am not going to announce my visit +beforehand." + +"You have a good head, Betty," her father said. + +"If Sir Nigel has put obstacles in our way before, he will do it again. +I shall try to find out, when I reach London, if Rosalie is at Stornham. +When I am sure she is there, I shall go and present myself. If Sir Nigel +meets me at the park gates and orders his gamekeepers to drive me off +the premises, we shall at least know that he has some reason for not +wishing to regard the usual social and domestic amenities. I feel rather +like a detective. It entertains me and excites me a little." + +The deep blue of her eyes shone under the shadow of the extravagant +lashes as she laughed. + +"Are you willing that I should go, father?" she said next. + +"Yes," he answered. "I am willing to trust you, Betty, to do things I +would not trust other girls to try at. If you were not my girl at all, +if you were a man on Wall Street, I should know you would be pretty safe +to come out a little more than even in any venture you made. You know +how to keep cool." + +Bettina picked up her fallen cloak and laid it over her arm. It was made +of billowy frills of Malines lace, such as only Vanderpoels could buy. +She looked down at the amazing thing and touched up the frills with her +fingers as she whimsically smiled. + +"There are a good many girls who can be trusted to do things in these +days," she said. "Women have found out so much. Perhaps it is because +the heroines of novels have informed them. Heroines and heroes always +bring in the new fashions in character. I believe it is years since a +heroine 'burst into a flood of tears.' It has been discovered, really, +that nothing is to be gained by it. Whatsoever I find at Stornham Court, +I shall neither weep nor be helpless. There is the Atlantic cable, you +know. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why heroines have changed. When +they could not escape from their persecutors except in a stage coach, +and could not send telegrams, they were more or less in everyone's +hands. It is different now. Thank you, father, you are very good to +believe in me." + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ON BOARD THE "MERIDIANA" + +A large transatlantic steamer lying at the wharf on a brilliant, sunny +morning just before its departure is an interesting and suggestive +object to those who are fond of following suggestion to its end. One +sometimes wonders if it is possible that the excitement in the dock +atmosphere could ever become a thing to which one was sufficiently +accustomed to be able to regard it as among things commonplace. The +rumbling and rattling of waggons and carts, the loading and unloading of +boxes and bales, the people who are late, and the people who are early, +the faces which are excited, and the faces which are sad, the trunks and +bales, and cranes which creak and groan, the shouts and cries, the hurry +and confusion of movement, notwithstanding that every day has seen them +all for years, have a sort of perennial interest to the looker-on. + +This is, perhaps, more especially the case when the looker-on is to be +a passenger on the outgoing ship; and the exhilaration of his point of +view may greatly depend upon the reason for his voyage and the class +by which he travels. Gaiety and youth usually appear upon the promenade +deck, having taken saloon passage. Dulness, commerce, and eld mingling +with them, it is true, but with a discretion which does not seem to +dominate. Second-class passengers wear a more practical aspect, and +youth among them is rarer and more grave. People who must travel second +and third class make voyages for utilitarian reasons. Their object is +usually to better themselves in one way or another. When they are going +from Liverpool to New York, it is usually to enter upon new efforts and +new labours. When they are returning from New York to Liverpool, it is +often because the new life has proved less to be depended upon than +the old, and they are bearing back with them bitterness of soul and +discouragement of spirit. + +On the brilliant spring morning when the huge liner Meridiana was to +sail for England a young man, who was a second-class passenger, leaned +upon the ship's rail and watched the turmoil on the wharf with a +detached and not at all buoyant air. + +His air was detached because he had other things in his mind than those +merely passing before him, and he was not buoyant because they were not +cheerful or encouraging subjects for reflection. He was a big young man, +well hung together, and carrying himself well; his face was square-jawed +and rugged, and he had dark red hair restrained by its close cut from +waving strongly on his forehead. His eyes were red brown, and a few dark +freckles marked his clear skin. He was of the order of man one looks at +twice, having looked at him once, though one does not in the least know +why, unless one finally reaches some degree of intimacy. + +He watched the vehicles, heavy and light, roll into the big shed-like +building and deposit their freight; he heard the voices and caught the +sentences of instruction and comment; he saw boxes and bales hauled from +the dock side to the deck and swung below with the rattling of machinery +and chains. But these formed merely a noisy background to his mood, +which was self-centred and gloomy. He was one of those who go back to +their native land knowing themselves conquered. He had left England two +years before, feeling obstinately determined to accomplish a certain +difficult thing, but forces of nature combining with the circumstances +of previous education and living had beaten him. He had lost two years +and all the money he had ventured. He was going back to the place he +had come from, and he was carrying with him a sense of having been used +hardly by fortune, and in a way he had not deserved. + +He had gone out to the West with the intention of working hard and using +his hands as well as his brains; he had not been squeamish; he had, in +fact, laboured like a ploughman; and to be obliged to give in had been +galling and bitter. There are human beings into whose consciousness of +themselves the possibility of being beaten does not enter. This man was +one of them. + +The ship was of the huge and luxuriously-fitted class by which the rich +and fortunate are transported from one continent to another. Passengers +could indulge themselves in suites of rooms and live sumptuously. As the +man leaning on the rail looked on, he saw messengers bearing baskets and +boxes of fruit and flowers with cards and notes attached, hurrying up +the gangway to deliver them to waiting stewards. These were the farewell +offerings to be placed in staterooms, or to await their owners on the +saloon tables. Salter--the second-class passenger's name was Salter--had +seen a few such offerings before on the first crossing. But there had +not been such lavishness at Liverpool. It was the New Yorkers who +were sumptuous in such matters, as he had been told. He had also heard +casually that the passenger list on this voyage was to record important +names, the names of multi-millionaire people who were going over for the +London season. + +Two stewards talking near him, earlier in the morning, had been exulting +over the probable largesse such a list would result in at the end of the +passage. + +"The Worthingtons and the Hirams and the John William Spayters," said +one. "They travel all right. They know what they want and they want a +good deal, and they're willing to pay for it." + +"Yes. They're not school teachers going over to improve their minds and +contriving to cross in a big ship by economising in everything else. +Miss Vanderpoel's sailing with the Worthingtons. She's got the best +suite all to herself. She'll bring back a duke or one of those prince +fellows. How many millions has Vanderpoel?" + +"How many millions. How many hundred millions!" said his companion, +gloating cheerfully over the vastness of unknown possibilities. "I've +crossed with Miss Vanderpoel often, two or three times when she was in +short frocks. She's the kind of girl you read about. And she's got money +enough to buy in half a dozen princes." + +"There are New Yorkers who won't like it if she does," returned the +other. "There's been too much money going out of the country. Her +suite is crammed full of Jack roses, now, and there are boxes waiting +outside." + +Salter moved away and heard no more. He moved away, in fact, because he +was conscious that to a man in his case, this dwelling upon millions, +this plethora of wealth, was a little revolting. He had walked down +Broadway and seen the price of Jacqueminot roses, and he was not soothed +or allured at this particular moment by the picture of a girl whose +half-dozen cabins were crowded with them. + +"Oh, the devil!" he said. "It sounds vulgar." And he walked up and +down fast, squaring his shoulders, with his hands in the pockets of his +rough, well-worn coat. He had seen in England something of the American +young woman with millionaire relatives. He had been scarcely more than a +boy when the American flood first began to rise. He had been old enough, +however, to hear people talk. As he had grown older, Salter had observed +its advance. Englishmen had married American beauties. American fortunes +had built up English houses, which otherwise threatened to fall into +decay. Then the American faculty of adaptability came into play. +Anglo-American wives became sometimes more English than their husbands. +They proceeded to Anglicise their relations, their relations' clothes, +even, in time, their speech. They carried or sent English conventions to +the States, their brothers ordered their clothes from West End tailors, +their sisters began to wear walking dresses, to play out-of-door games +and take active exercise. Their mothers tentatively took houses in +London or Paris, there came a period when their fathers or uncles, +serious or anxious business men, the most unsporting of human beings, +rented castles or manors with huge moors and covers attached and +entertained large parties of shooters or fishers who could be lured to +any quarter by the promise of the particular form of slaughter for which +they burned. + +"Sheer American business perspicacity, that," said Salter, as he marched +up and down, thinking of a particular case of this order. "There's +something admirable in the practical way they make for what they want. +They want to amalgamate with English people, not for their own sake, +but because their women like it, and so they offer the men thousands of +acres full of things to kill. They can get them by paying for them, +and they know how to pay." He laughed a little, lifting his square +shoulders. "Balthamor's six thousand acres of grouse moor and Elsty's +salmon fishing are rented by the Chicago man. He doesn't care twopence +for them, and does not know a pheasant from a caper-cailzie, but his +wife wants to know men who do." + +It must be confessed that Salter was of the English who were not pleased +with the American Invasion. In some of his views of the matter he was a +little prehistoric and savage, but the modern side of his character +was too intelligent to lack reason. He was by no means entirely modern, +however; a large part of his nature belonged to the age in which men +had fought fiercely for what they wanted to get or keep, and when the +amenities of commerce had not become powerful factors in existence. + +"They're not a bad lot," he was thinking at this moment. "They are +rather fine in a way. They are clever and powerful and interesting--more +so than they know themselves. But it is all commerce. They don't come +and fight with us and get possession of us by force. They come and +buy us. They buy our land and our homes, and our landowners, for that +matter--when they don't buy them, they send their women to marry them, +confound it!" + +He took half a dozen more strides and lifted his shoulders again. + +"Beggarly lot as I am," he said, "unlikely as it seems that I can marry +at all, I'm hanged if I don't marry an Englishwoman, if I give my life +to a woman at all." + +But, in fact, he was of the opinion that he should never give his life +to any woman, and this was because he was, at this period, also of the +opinion that there was small prospect of its ever being worth the giving +or taking. It had been one of those lives which begin untowardly and are +ruled by unfair circumstances. + +He had a particularly well-cut and expressive mouth, and, as he went +back to the ship's side and leaned on his folded arms on the rail again, +its curves concealed a good deal of strong feeling. + +The wharf was busier than before. In less than half an hour the ship +was to sail. The bustle and confusion had increased. There were people +hurrying about looking for friends, and there were people scribbling +off excited farewell messages at the telegraph office. The situation was +working up to its climax. An observing looker-on might catch glimpses of +emotional scenes. Many of the passengers were already on board, parties +of them accompanied by their friends were making their way up the +gangplank. + +Salter had just been watching a luxuriously cared-for little invalid +woman being carried on deck in a reclining chair, when his attention +was attracted by the sound of trampling hoofs and rolling wheels. Two +noticeably big and smart carriages had driven up to the stopping-place +for vehicles. They were gorgeously of the latest mode, and their tall, +satin-skinned horses jangled silver chains and stepped up to their +noses. + +"Here come the Worthingtons, whosoever they may be," thought +Salter. "The fine up-standing young woman is, no doubt, the +multi-millionairess." + +The fine, up-standing young woman WAS the multi-millionairess. Bettina +walked up the gangway in the sunshine, and the passengers upon the upper +deck craned their necks to look at her. Her carriage of her head and +shoulders invariably made people turn to look. + +"My, ain't she fine-looking!" exclaimed an excited lady beholder above. +"I guess that must be Miss Vanderpoel, the multi-millionaire's daughter. +Jane told me she'd heard she was crossing this trip." + +Bettina heard her. She sometimes wondered if she was ever pointed out, +if her name was ever mentioned without the addition of the explanatory +statement that she was the multi-millionaire's daughter. As a child she +had thought it ridiculous and tiresome, as she had grown older she had +felt that only a remarkable individuality could surmount a fact so ever +present. + +It was like a tremendous quality which overshadowed everything else. + +"It wounds my vanity, I have no doubt," she had said to her father. +"Nobody ever sees me, they only see you and your millions and millions +of dollars." + +Salter watched her pass up the gangway. The phase through which he +was living was not of the order which leads a man to dwell upon the +beautiful and inspiriting as expressed by the female image. Success and +the hopefulness which engender warmth of soul and quickness of heart +are required for the development of such allurements. He thought of the +Vanderpoel millions as the lady on the deck had thought of them, and +in his mind somehow the girl herself appeared to express them. The rich +up-springing sweep of her abundant hair, her height, her colouring, the +remarkable shade and length of her lashes, the full curve of her mouth, +all, he told himself, looked expensive, as if even nature herself had +been given carte blanche, and the best possible articles procured for +the money. + +"She moves," he thought sardonically, "as if she were perfectly +aware that she could pay for anything. An unlimited income, no doubt, +establishes in the owner the equivalent to a sense of rank." + +He changed his position for one in which he could command a view of the +promenade deck where the arriving passengers were gradually appearing. +He did this from the idle and careless curiosity which, though it is not +a matter of absolute interest, does not object to being entertained by +passing objects. He saw the Worthington party reappear. It struck Salter +that they looked not so much like persons coming on board a ship, as +like people who were returning to a hotel to which they were accustomed, +and which was also accustomed to them. He argued that they had probably +crossed the Atlantic innumerable times in this particular steamer. +The deck stewards knew them and made obeisance with empressement. Miss +Vanderpoel nodded to the steward Salter had heard discussing her. She +gave him a smile of recognition and paused a moment to speak to him. +Salter saw her sweep the deck with her glance and then designate a +sequestered corner, such as the experienced voyager would recognise as +being desirably sheltered. She was evidently giving an order concerning +the placing of her deck chair, which was presently brought. An elegantly +neat and decorous person in black, who was evidently her maid, appeared +later, followed by a steward who carried cushions and sumptuous fur +rugs. These being arranged, a delightful corner was left alluringly +prepared. Miss Vanderpoel, after her instructions to the deck steward, +had joined her party and seemed to be awaiting some arrival anxiously. + +"She knows how to do herself well," Salter commented, "and she realises +that forethought is a practical factor. Millions have been productive of +composure. It is not unnatural, either." + +It was but a short time later that the warning bell was rung. Stewards +passed through the crowds calling out, "All ashore, if you please--all +ashore." Final embraces were in order on all sides. People shook hands +with fervour and laughed a little nervously. Women kissed each other and +poured forth hurried messages to be delivered on the other side of +the Atlantic. Having kissed and parted, some of them rushed back and +indulged in little clutches again. Notwithstanding that the tide of +humanity surges across the Atlantic almost as regularly as the daily +tide surges in on its shores, a wave of emotion sweeps through every +ship at such partings. + +Salter stood on deck and watched the crowd dispersing. Some of the +people were laughing and some had red eyes. Groups collected on the +wharf and tried to say still more last words to their friends crowding +against the rail. + +The Worthingtons kept their places and were still looking out, by this +time disappointedly. It seemed that the friend or friends they +expected were not coming. Salter saw that Miss Vanderpoel looked more +disappointed than the rest. She leaned forward and strained her eyes to +see. Just at the last moment there was the sound of trampling horses and +rolling wheels again. From the arriving carriage descended hastily an +elderly woman, who lifted out a little boy excited almost to tears. He +was a dear, chubby little person in flapping sailor trousers, and he +carried a splendidly-caparisoned toy donkey in his arms. Salter could +not help feeling slightly excited himself as they rushed forward. He +wondered if they were passengers who would be left behind. + +They were not passengers, but the arrivals Miss Vanderpoel had been +expecting so ardently. They had come to say good-bye to her and were too +late for that, at least, as the gangway was just about to be withdrawn. + +Miss Vanderpoel leaned forward with an amazingly fervid expression on +her face. + +"Tommy! Tommy!" she cried to the little boy. "Here I am, Tommy. We can +say good-bye from here." + +The little boy, looking up, broke into a wail of despair. + +"Betty! Betty! Betty!" he cried. "I wanted to kiss you, Betty." + +Betty held out her arms. She did it with entire forgetfulness of the +existence of any lookers-on, and with such outreaching love on her +face that it seemed as if the child must feel her touch. She made a +beautiful, warm, consoling bud of her mouth. + +"We'll kiss each other from here, Tommy," she said. "See, we can. Kiss +me, and I will kiss you." + +Tommy held out his arms and the magnificent donkey. "Betty," he cried, +"I brought you my donkey. I wanted to give it to you for a present, +because you liked it." + +Miss Vanderpoel bent further forward and addressed the elderly woman. + +"Matilda," she said, "please pack Master Tommy's present and send it to +me! I want it very much." + +Tender smiles irradiated the small face. The gangway was withdrawn, and, +amid the familiar sounds of a big craft's first struggle, the ship began +to move. Miss Vanderpoel still bent forward and held out her arms. + +"I will soon come back, Tommy," she cried, "and we are always friends." + +The child held out his short blue serge arms also, and Salter watching +him could not but be touched for all his gloom of mind. + +"I wanted to kiss you, Betty," he heard in farewell. "I did so want to +kiss you." + +And so they steamed away upon the blue. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SECOND-CLASS PASSENGER + +Up to a certain point the voyage was like all other voyages. During the +first two days there were passengers who did not appear on deck, but +as the weather was fair for the season of the year, there were fewer +absentees than is usual. Indeed, on the third day the deck chairs were +all filled, people who were given to tramping during their voyages had +begun to walk their customary quota of carefully-measured miles the +day. There were a few pale faces dozing here and there, but the general +aspect of things had begun to be sprightly. Shuffleboard players and +quoit enthusiasts began to bestir themselves, the deck steward appeared +regularly with light repasts of beef tea and biscuits, and the brilliant +hues of red, blue, or yellow novels made frequent spots of colour upon +the promenade. Persons of some initiative went to the length of making +tentative observations to their next-chair neighbours. The second-cabin +passengers were cheerful, and the steerage passengers, having tumbled +up, formed friendly groups and began to joke with each other. + +The Worthingtons had plainly the good fortune to be respectable sailors. +They reappeared on the second day and established regular habits, after +the manner of accustomed travellers. Miss Vanderpoel's habits were +regular from the first, and when Salter saw her he was impressed even +more at the outset with her air of being at home instead of on board +ship. Her practically well-chosen corner was an agreeable place to look +at. Her chair was built for ease of angle and width, her cushions were +of dark rich colours, her travelling rugs were of black fox fur, and +she owned an adjustable table for books and accompaniments. She appeared +early in the morning and walked until the sea air crimsoned her cheeks, +she sat and read with evident enjoyment, she talked to her companions +and plainly entertained them. + +Salter, being bored and in bad spirits, found himself watching her +rather often, but he knew that but for the small, comic episode of +Tommy, he would have definitely disliked her. The dislike would not have +been fair, but it would have existed in spite of himself. It would +not have been fair because it would have been founded simply upon the +ignoble resentment of envy, upon the poor truth that he was not in the +state of mind to avoid resenting the injustice of fate in bestowing +multi-millions upon one person and his offspring. He resented his own +resentment, but was obliged to acknowledge its existence in his humour. +He himself, especially and peculiarly, had always known the bitterness +of poverty, the humiliation of seeing where money could be well used, +indeed, ought to be used, and at the same time having ground into him +the fact that there was no money to lay one's hand on. He had hated it +even as a boy, because in his case, and that of his people, the whole +thing was undignified and unbecoming. It was humiliating to him now to +bring home to himself the fact that the thing for which he was inclined +to dislike this tall, up-standing girl was her unconscious (he realised +the unconsciousness of it) air of having always lived in the atmosphere +of millions, of never having known a reason why she should not have +anything she had a desire for. Perhaps, upon the whole, he said to +himself, it was his own ill luck and sense of defeat which made her +corner, with its cushions and comforts, her properly attentive maid, +and her cold weather sables expressive of a fortune too colossal to be +decent. + +The episode of the plump, despairing Tommy he had liked, however. There +had been a fine naturalness about it and a fine practicalness in her +prompt order to the elderly nurse that the richly-caparisoned donkey +should be sent to her. This had at once made it clear to the donor that +his gift was too valuable to be left behind. + +"She did not care twopence for the lot of us," was his summing up. "She +might have been nothing but the nicest possible warm-hearted nursemaid +or a cottage woman who loved the child." + +He was quite aware that though he had found himself more than once +observing her, she herself had probably not recognised the trivial fact +of his existing upon that other side of the barrier which separated the +higher grade of passenger from the lower. There was, indeed, no reason +why she should have singled him out for observation, and she was, in +fact, too frequently absorbed in her own reflections to be in the +frame of mind to remark her fellow passengers to the extent which was +generally customary with her. During her crossings of the Atlantic she +usually made mental observation of the people on board. This time, when +she was not talking to the Worthingtons, or reading, she was thinking of +the possibilities of her visit to Stornham. She used to walk about the +deck thinking of them and, sitting in her chair, sum them up as her eyes +rested on the rolling and breaking waves. + +There were many things to be considered, and one of the first was the +perfectly sane suggestion her father had made. + +"Suppose she does not want to be rescued? Suppose you find her a +comfortable fine lady who adores her husband." + +Such a thing was possible, though Bettina did not think it probable. She +intended, however, to prepare herself even for this. If she found Lady +Anstruthers plump and roseate, pleased with herself and her position, +she was quite equal to making her visit appear a casual and conventional +affair. + +"I ought to wish it to be so," she thought, "and, yet, how +disappointingly I should feel she had changed. Still, even ethical +reasons would not excuse one for wishing her to be miserable." She was a +creature with a number of passionate ideals which warred frequently with +the practical side of her mentality. Often she used to walk up and down +the deck or lean upon the ship's side, her eyes stormy with emotions. + +"I do not want to find Rosy a heartless woman, and I do not want to find +her wretched. What do I want? Only the usual thing--that what cannot be +undone had never been done. People are always wishing that." + +She was standing near the second-cabin barrier thinking this, the first +time she saw the passenger with the red hair. She had paused by mere +chance, and while her eyes were stormy with her thought, she suddenly +became conscious that she was looking directly into other eyes as +darkling as her own. They were those of a man on the wrong side of the +barrier. He had a troubled, brooding face, and, as their gaze met, +each of them started slightly and turned away with the sense of having +unconsciously intruded and having been intruded upon. + +"That rough-looking man," she commented to herself, "is as anxious and +disturbed as I am." + +Salter did look rough, it was true. His well-worn clothes had suffered +somewhat from the restrictions of a second-class cabin shared with two +other men. But the aspect which had presented itself to her brief glance +had been not so much roughness of clothing as of mood expressing itself +in his countenance. He was thinking harshly and angrily of the life +ahead of him. + +These looks of theirs which had so inadvertently encountered each +other were of that order which sometimes startles one when in passing a +stranger one finds one's eyes entangled for a second in his or hers, as +the case may be. At such times it seems for that instant difficult to +disentangle one's gaze. But neither of these two thought of the other +much, after hurrying away. Each was too fully mastered by personal mood. + +There would, indeed, have been no reason for their encountering each +other further but for "the accident," as it was called when spoken of +afterwards, the accident which might so easily have been a catastrophe. +It occurred that night. This was two nights before they were to land. + +Everybody had begun to come under the influence of that cheerfulness of +humour, the sense of relief bordering on gaiety, which generally elates +people when a voyage is drawing to a close. If one has been dull, one +begins to gather one's self together, rejoiced that the boredom is over. +In any case, there are plans to be made, thought of, or discussed. + +"You wish to go to Stornham at once?" Mrs. Worthington said to Bettina. +"How pleased Lady Anstruthers and Sir Nigel must be at the idea of +seeing you with them after so long." + +"I can scarcely tell you how I am looking forward to it," Betty +answered. + +She sat in her corner among her cushions looking at the dark water +which seemed to sweep past the ship, and listening to the throb of the +engines. She was not gay. She was wondering how far the plans she had +made would prove feasible. Mrs. Worthington was not aware that her visit +to Stornham Court was to be unannounced. It had not been necessary to +explain the matter. The whole affair was simple and decorous enough. +Miss Vanderpoel was to bid good-bye to her friends and go at once to her +sister, Lady Anstruthers, whose husband's country seat was but a short +journey from London. Bettina and her father had arranged that the fact +should be kept from the society paragraphist. This had required some +adroit management, but had actually been accomplished. + +As the waves swished past her, Bettina was saying to herself, "What +will Rosy say when she sees me! What shall I say when I see Rosy? We are +drawing nearer to each other with every wave that passes." + +A fog which swept up suddenly sent them all below rather early. The +Worthingtons laughed and talked a little in their staterooms, but +presently became quiet and had evidently gone to bed. Bettina was +restless and moved about her room alone after she had sent away her +maid. She at last sat down and finished a letter she had been writing to +her father. + +"As I near the land," she wrote, "I feel a sort of excitement. Several +times to-day I have recalled so distinctly the picture of Rosy as I saw +her last, when we all stood crowded upon the wharf at New York to see +her off. She and Nigel were leaning upon the rail of the upper deck. +She looked such a delicate, airy little creature, quite like a pretty +schoolgirl with tears in her eyes. She was laughing and crying at the +same time, and kissing both her hands to us again and again. I was +crying passionately myself, though I tried to conceal the fact, and I +remember that each time I looked from Rosy to Nigel's heavy face the +poignancy of my anguish made me break forth again. I wonder if it was +because I was a child, that he looked such a contemptuous brute, even +when he pretended to smile. It is twelve years since then. I wonder--how +I wonder, what I shall find." + +She stopped writing and sat a few moments, her chin upon her hand, +thinking. Suddenly she sprang to her feet in alarm. The stillness of the +night was broken by wild shouts, a running of feet outside, a tumult of +mingled sounds and motion, a dash and rush of surging water, a strange +thumping and straining of engines, and a moment later she was hurled +from one side of her stateroom to the other by a crashing shock which +seemed to heave the ship out of the sea, shuddering as if the end of all +things had come. + +It was so sudden and horrible a thing that, though she had only been +flung upon a pile of rugs and cushions and was unhurt, she felt as if +she had been struck on the head and plunged into wild delirium. Above +the sound of the dashing and rocking waves, the straining and roaring of +hacking engines and the pandemonium of voices rose from one end of the +ship to the other, one wild, despairing, long-drawn shriek of women and +children. Bettina turned sick at the mad terror in it--the insensate, +awful horror. + + +"Something has run into us!" she gasped, getting up with her heart +leaping in her throat. + +She could hear the Worthingtons' tempest of terrified confusion through +the partitions between them, and she remembered afterwards that in the +space of two or three seconds, and in the midst of their clamour, a +hundred incongruous thoughts leaped through her brain. Perhaps they were +this moment going down. Now she knew what it was like! This thing she +had read of in newspapers! Now she was going down in mid-ocean, she, +Betty Vanderpoel! And, as she sprang to clutch her fur coat, there +flashed before her mental vision a gruesome picture of the headlines +in the newspapers and the inevitable reference to the millions she +represented. + +"I must keep calm," she heard herself say, as she fastened the +long coat, clenching her teeth to keep them from chattering. "Poor +Daddy--poor Daddy!" + +Maddening new sounds were all about her, sounds of water dashing and +churning, sounds of voices bellowing out commands, straining and leaping +sounds of the engines. What was it--what was it? She must at least +find out. Everybody was going mad in the staterooms, the stewards were +rushing about, trying to quiet people, their own voices shaking and +breaking into cracked notes. If the worst had happened, everyone would +be fighting for life in a few minutes. Out on deck she must get and find +out for herself what the worst was. + +She was the first woman outside, though the wails and shrieks swelled +below, and half-dressed, ghastly creatures tumbled gasping up the +companion-way. + +"What is it?" she heard. "My God! what's happened? Where's the Captain! +Are we going down! The boats! The boats!" + +It was useless to speak to the seamen rushing by. They did not see, much +less hear! She caught sight of a man who could not be a sailor, since +he was standing still. She made her way to him, thankful that she had +managed to stop her teeth chattering. + +"What has happened to us?" she said. + +He turned and looked at her straitly. He was the second-cabin passenger +with the red hair. + +"A tramp steamer has run into us in the fog," he answered. + +"How much harm is done?" + +"They are trying to find out. I am standing here on the chance of +hearing something. It is madness to ask any man questions." + +They spoke to each other in short, sharp sentences, knowing there was no +time to lose. + +"Are you horribly frightened?" he asked. + +She stamped her foot. + +"I hate it--I hate it!" she said, flinging out her hand towards the +black, heaving water. "The plunge--the choking! No one could hate it +more. But I want to DO something!" + +She was turning away when he caught her hand and held her. + +"Wait a second," he said. "I hate it as much as you do, but I believe we +two can keep our heads. Those who can do that may help, perhaps. Let us +try to quiet the people. As soon as I find out anything I will come to +your friends' stateroom. You are near the boats there. Then I shall go +back to the second cabin. You work on your side and I'll work on mine. +That's all." + +"Thank you. Tell the Worthingtons. I'm going to the saloon deck." She +was off as she spoke. + +Upon the stairway she found herself in the midst of a struggling +panic-stricken mob, tripping over each other on the steps, and clutching +at any garment nearest, to drag themselves up as they fell, or were on +the point of falling. Everyone was crying out in question and appeal. + +Bettina stood still, a firm, tall obstacle, and clutched at the hysteric +woman who was hurled against her. + +"I've been on deck," she said. "A tramp steamer has run into us. No one +has time to answer questions. The first thing to do is to put on warm +clothes and secure the life belts in case you need them." + +At once everyone turned upon her as if she was an authority. She replied +with almost fierce determination to the torrent of words poured forth. + +"I know nothing further--only that if one is not a fool one must make +sure of clothes and belts." + +"Quite right, Miss Vanderpoel," said one young man, touching his cap in +nervous propitiation. + +"Stop screaming," Betty said mercilessly to the woman. "It's +idiotic--the more noise you make the less chance you have. How can men +keep their wits among a mob of shrieking, mad women?" + +That the remote Miss Vanderpoel should have emerged from her luxurious +corner to frankly bully the lot of them was an excellent shock for the +crowd. Men, who had been in danger of losing their heads and becoming +as uncontrolled as the women, suddenly realised the fact and pulled +themselves together. Bettina made her way at once to the Worthingtons' +staterooms. + +There she found frenzy reigning. Blanche and Marie Worthington were +darting to and fro, dragging about first one thing and then another. +They were silly with fright, and dashed at, and dropped alternately, +life belts, shoes, jewel cases, and wraps, while they sobbed and cried +out hysterically. "Oh, what shall we do with mother! What shall we do!" + +The manners of Betty Vanderpoel's sharp schoolgirl days returned to her +in full force. She seized Blanche by the shoulder and shook her. + +"What a donkey you are!" she said. "Put on your clothes. There they +are," pushing her to the place where they hung. "Marie--dress yourself +this moment. We may be in no real danger at all." + +"Do you think not! Oh, Betty!" they wailed in concert. "Oh, what shall +we do with mother!" + +"Where is your mother?" + +"She fainted--Louise----" + +Betty was in Mrs. Worthington's cabin before they had finished speaking. +The poor woman had fainted, and struck her cheek against a chair. She +lay on the floor in her nightgown, with blood trickling from a cut on +her face. Her maid, Louise, was wringing her hands, and doing nothing +whatever. + +"If you don't bring the brandy this minute," said the beautiful Miss +Vanderpoel, "I'll box your ears. Believe me, my girl." She looked so +capable of doing it that the woman was startled and actually offended +into a return of her senses. Miss Vanderpoel had usually the best +possible manners in dealing with her inferiors. + +Betty poured brandy down Mrs. Worthington's throat and applied strong +smelling salts until she gasped back to consciousness. She had just +burst into frightened sobs, when Betty heard confusion and exclamations +in the adjoining room. Blanche and Marie had cried out, and a man's +voice was speaking. Betty went to them. They were in various stages of +undress, and the red-haired second-cabin passenger was standing at the +door. + +"I promised Miss Vanderpoel----" he was saying, when Betty came forward. +He turned to her promptly. + +"I come to tell you that it seems absolutely to be relied on that there +is no immediate danger. The tramp is more injured than we are." + +"Oh, are you sure? Are you sure?" panted Blanche, catching at his +sleeve. + +"Yes," he answered. "Can I do anything for you?" he said to Bettina, who +was on the point of speaking. + +"Will you be good enough to help me to assist Mrs. Worthington into her +berth, and then try to find the doctor." + +He went into the next room without speaking. To Mrs. Worthington he +spoke briefly a few words of reassurance. He was a powerful man, and +laid her on her berth without dragging her about uncomfortably, or +making her feel that her weight was greater than even in her most +desponding moments she had suspected. Even her helplessly hysteric mood +was illuminated by a ray of grateful appreciation. + +"Oh, thank you--thank you," she murmured. "And you are quite sure there +is no actual danger, Mr.----?" + +"Salter," he terminated for her. "You may feel safe. The damage is +really only slight, after all." + +"It is so good of you to come and tell us," said the poor lady, still +tremulous. "The shock was awful. Our introduction has been an alarming +one. I--I don't think we have met during the voyage." + +"No," replied Salter. "I am in the second cabin." + +"Oh! thank you. It's so good of you," she faltered amiably, for want of +inspiration. As he went out of the stateroom, Salter spoke to Bettina. + +"I will send the doctor, if I can find him," he said. "I think, perhaps, +you had better take some brandy yourself. I shall." + +"It's queer how little one seems to realise even that there are +second-cabin passengers," commented Mrs. Worthington feebly. "That was a +nice man, and perfectly respectable. He even had a kind of--of manner." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LADY JANE GREY + +It seemed upon the whole even absurd that after a shock so awful and a +panic wild enough to cause people to expose their very souls--for +there were, of course, endless anecdotes to be related afterwards, +illustrative of grotesque terror, cowardice, and utter abandonment +of all shadows of convention--that all should end in an anticlimax of +trifling danger, upon which, in a day or two, jokes might be made. Even +the tramp steamer had not been seriously injured, though its injuries +were likely to be less easy of repair than those of the Meridiana. + +"Still," as a passenger remarked, when she steamed into the dock at +Liverpool, "we might all be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean +this morning. Just think what columns there would have been in the +newspapers. Imagine Miss Vanderpoel's being drowned." + +"I was very rude to Louise, when I found her wringing her hands over +you, and I was rude to Blanche," Bettina said to Mrs. Worthington. "In +fact I believe I was rude to a number of people that night. I am rather +ashamed." + +"You called me a donkey," said Blanche, "but it was the best thing you +could have done. You frightened me into putting on my shoes, instead of +trying to comb my hair with them. It was startling to see you march into +the stateroom, the only person who had not been turned into a gibbering +idiot. I know I was gibbering, and I know Marie was." + +"We both gibbered at the red-haired man when he came in," said Marie. +"We clutched at him and gibbered together. Where is the red-haired man, +Betty? Perhaps we made him ill. I've not seen him since that moment." + +"He is in the second cabin, I suppose," Bettina answered, "but I have +not seen him, either." + +"We ought to get up a testimonial and give it to him, because he did +not gibber," said Blanche. "He was as rude and as sensible as you were, +Betty." + +They did not see him again, in fact, at that time. He had reasons of his +own for preferring to remain unseen. The truth was that the nearer his +approach to his native shores, the nastier, he was perfectly conscious, +his temper became, and he did not wish to expose himself by any incident +which might cause him stupidly and obviously to lose it. + +The maid, Louise, however, recognised him among her companions in the +third-class carriage in which she travelled to town. To her mind, whose +opinions were regulated by neatly arranged standards, he looked morose +and shabbily dressed. Some of the other second-cabin passengers had made +themselves quite smart in various, not too distinguished ways. He had +not changed his dress at all, and the large valise upon the luggage +rack was worn and battered as if with long and rough usage. The woman +wondered a little if he would address her, and inquire after the health +of her mistress. But, being an astute creature, she only wondered this +for an instant, the next she realised that, for one reason or another, +it was clear that he was not of the tribe of second-rate persons who +pursue an accidental acquaintance with their superiors in fortune, +through sociable interchange with their footmen or maids. + +When the train slackened its speed at the platform of the station, he +got up, reaching down his valise and leaving the carriage, strode to the +nearest hansom cab, waving the porter aside. + +"Charing Cross," he called out to the driver, jumped in, and was rattled +away. + +. . . . . + +During the years which had passed since Rosalie Vanderpoel first came to +London as Lady Anstruthers, numbers of huge luxurious hotels had grown +up, principally, as it seemed, that Americans should swarm into them +and live at an expense which reminded them of their native land. Such +establishments would never have been built for English people, whose +habit it is merely to "stop" at hotels, not to LIVE in them. The +tendency of the American is to live in his hotel, even though his +intention may be only to remain in it two days. He is accustomed to +doing himself extremely well in proportion to his resources, whether +they be great or small, and the comforts, as also the luxuries, he +allows himself and his domestic appendages are in a proportion much +higher in its relation to these resources than it would be were he +English, French, German, or Italians. As a consequence, he expects, when +he goes forth, whether holiday-making or on business, that his hostelry +shall surround him, either with holiday luxuries and gaiety, or with +such lavishness of comfort as shall alleviate the wear and tear of +business cares and fatigues. The rich man demands something almost as +good as he has left at home, the man of moderate means something much +better. Certain persons given to regarding public wants and desires as +foundations for the fortune of business schemes having discovered +this, the enormous and sumptuous hotel evolved itself from their astute +knowledge of common facts. At the entrances of these hotels, +omnibuses and cabs, laden with trunks and packages frequently +bearing labels marked with red letters "S. S. So-and-So, +Stateroom--Hold--Baggage-room," drew up and deposited their contents +and burdens at regular intervals. Then men with keen, and often humorous +faces or almost painfully anxious ones, their exceedingly well-dressed +wives, and more or less attractive and vivacious-looking daughters, +their eager little girls, and un-English-looking little boys, passed +through the corridors in flocks and took possession of suites of rooms, +sometimes for twenty-four hours, sometimes for six weeks. + +The Worthingtons took possession of such a suite in such a hotel. +Bettina Vanderpoel's apartments faced the Embankment. From her windows +she could look out at the broad splendid, muddy Thames, slowly rolling +in its grave, stately way beneath its bridges, bearing with it heavy +lumbering barges, excited tooting little penny steamers and craft +of various shapes and sizes, the errand or burden of each meaning a +different story. + +It had been to Bettina one of her pleasures of the finest epicurean +flavour to reflect that she had never had any brief and superficial +knowledge of England, as she had never been to the country at all in +those earlier years, when her knowledge of places must necessarily have +been always the incomplete one of either a schoolgirl traveller or +a schoolgirl resident, whose views were limited by the walls of +restriction built around her. + +If relations of the usual ease and friendliness had existed between Lady +Anstruthers and her family, Bettina would, doubtless, have known her +sister's adopted country well. It would have been a thing so natural +as to be almost inevitable, that she would have crossed the Channel to +spend her holidays at Stornham. As matters had stood, however, the child +herself, in the days when she had been a child, had had most definite +private views on the subject of visits to England. She had made up her +young mind absolutely that she would not, if it were decently possible +to avoid it, set her foot upon English soil until she was old enough +and strong enough to carry out what had been at first her passionately +romantic plans for discovering and facing the truth of the reason for +the apparent change in Rosy. When she went to England, she would go to +Rosy. As she had grown older, having in the course of education and +travel seen most Continental countries, she had liked to think that +she had saved, put aside for less hasty consumption and more delicate +appreciation of flavours, as it were, the country she was conscious she +cared for most. + +"It is England we love, we Americans," she had said to her father. "What +could be more natural? We belong to it--it belongs to us. I could never +be convinced that the old tie of blood does not count. All nationalities +have come to us since we became a nation, but most of us in the +beginning came from England. We are touching about it, too. We trifle +with France and labour with Germany, we sentimentalise over Italy and +ecstacise over Spain--but England we love. How it moves us when we go +to it, how we gush if we are simple and effusive, how we are stirred +imaginatively if we are of the perceptive class. I have heard the +commonest little half-educated woman say the prettiest, clumsy, +emotional things about what she has seen there. A New England +schoolma'am, who has made a Cook's tour, will almost have tears in her +voice as she wanders on with her commonplaces about hawthorn hedges and +thatched cottages and white or red farms. Why are we not unconsciously +pathetic about German cottages and Italian villas? Because we have not, +in centuries past, had the habit of being born in them. It is only +an English cottage and an English lane, whether white with hawthorn +blossoms or bare with winter, that wakes in us that little yearning, +grovelling tenderness that is so sweet. It is only nature calling us +home." + +Mrs. Worthington came in during the course of the morning to find her +standing before her window looking out at the Thames, the Embankment, +the hansom cabs themselves, with an absolutely serious absorption. This +changed to a smile as she turned to greet her. + +"I am delighted," she said. "I could scarcely tell you how much. The +impression is all new and I am excited a little by everything. I am so +intensely glad that I have saved it so long and that I have known it +only as part of literature. I am even charmed that it rains, and that +the cabmen's mackintoshes are shining and wet." She drew forward a +chair, and Mrs. Worthington sat down, looking at her with involuntary +admiration. + +"You look as if you were delighted," she said. "Your eyes--you have +amazing eyes, Betty! I am trying to picture to myself what Lady +Anstruthers will feel when she sees you. What were you like when she +married?" + +Bettina sat down, smiling and looking, indeed, quite incredibly lovely. +She was capable of a warmth and a sweetness which were as embracing as +other qualities she possessed were powerful. + +"I was eight years old," she said. "I was a rude little girl, with +long legs and a high, determined voice. I know I was rude. I remember +answering back." + +"I seem to have heard that you did not like your brother-in-law, and +that you were opposed to the marriage." + +"Imagine the undisciplined audacity of a child of eight 'opposing' the +marriage of her grown-up sister. I was quite capable of it. You see in +those days we had not been trained at all (one had only been allowed +tremendous liberty), and interfered conversationally with one's elders +and betters at any moment. I was an American little girl, and American +little girls were really--they really were!" with a laugh, whose musical +sound was after all wholly non-committal. + +"You did not treat Sir Nigel Anstruthers as one of your betters." + +"He was one of my elders, at all events, and becomingness of bearing +should have taught me to hold my little tongue. I am giving some thought +now to the kind of thing I must invent as a suitable apology when I find +him a really delightful person, full of virtues and accomplishments. +Perhaps he has a horror of me." + +"I should like to be present at your first meeting," Mrs. Worthington +reflected. "You are going down to Stornham to-morrow?" + +"That is my plan. When I write to you on my arrival, I will tell you if +I encountered the horror." Then, with a swift change of subject and a +lifting of her slender, velvet line of eyebrow, "I am only deploring +that I have not time to visit the Tower." + +Mrs. Worthington was betrayed into a momentary glance of uncertainty, +almost verging in its significance on a gasp. + +"The Tower? Of London? Dear Betty!" + +Bettina's laugh was mellow with revelation. + +"Ah!" she said. "You don't know my point of view; it's plain enough. +You see, when I delight in these things, I think I delight most in my +delight in them. It means that I am almost having the kind of feeling +the fresh American souls had who landed here thirty years ago and +revelled in the resemblance to Dickens's characters they met with in +the streets, and were historically thrilled by the places where people's +heads were chopped off. Imagine their reflections on Charles I., when +they stood in Whitehall gazing on the very spot where that poor last +word was uttered--'Remember.' And think of their joy when each crossing +sweeper they gave disproportionate largess to, seemed Joe All Alones in +the slightest disguise." + +"You don't mean to say----" Mrs. Worthington was vaguely awakening to +the situation. + +"That the charm of my visit, to myself, is that I realise that I am +rather like that. I have positively preserved something because I have +kept away. You have been here so often and know things so well, and you +were even so sophisticated when you began, that you have never really +had the flavours and emotions. I am sophisticated, too, sophisticated +enough to have cherished my flavours as a gourmet tries to save the +bouquet of old wine. You think that the Tower is the pleasure of +housemaids on a Bank Holiday. But it quite makes me quiver to think +of it," laughing again. "That I laugh, is the sign that I am not +as beautifully, freshly capable of enjoyment as those genuine first +Americans were, and in a way I am sorry for it." + +Mrs. Worthington laughed also, and with an enjoyment. + +"You are very clever, Betty," she said. + +"No, no," answered Bettina, "or, if I am, almost everybody is clever in +these days. We are nearly all of us comparatively intelligent." + +"You are very interesting at all events, and the Anstruthers will exult +in you. If they are dull in the country, you will save them." + +"I am very interested, at all events," said Bettina, "and interest like +mine is quite passe. A clever American who lives in England, and is the +pet of duchesses, once said to me (he always speaks of Americans as if +they were a distant and recently discovered species), 'When they first +came over they were a novelty. Their enthusiasm amused people, but now, +you see, it has become vieux jeu. Young women, whose specialty was to be +excited by the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, are not novelties +any longer. In fact, it's been done, and it's done FOR as a specialty.' +And I am excited about the Tower of London. I may be able to restrain +my feelings at the sight of the Beef Eaters, but they will upset me a +little, and I must brace myself, I must indeed." + +"Truly, Betty?" said Mrs. Worthington, regarding her with curiosity, +arising from a faint doubt of her entire seriousness, mingled with a +fainter doubt of her entire levity. + +Betty flung out her hands in a slight, but very involuntary-looking, +gesture, and shook her head. + +"Ah!" she said, "it was all TRUE, you know. They were all horribly +real--the things that were shuddered over and sentimentalised about. +Sophistication, combined with imagination, makes them materialise again, +to me, at least, now I am here. The gulf between a historical figure and +a man or woman who could bleed and cry out in human words was broad when +one was at school. Lady Jane Grey, for instance, how nebulous she was +and how little one cared. She seemed invented merely to add a detail +to one's lesson in English history. But, as we drove across Waterloo +Bridge, I caught a glimpse of the Tower, and what do you suppose I began +to think of? It was monstrous. I saw a door in the Tower and the stone +steps, and the square space, and in the chill clear, early morning a +little slender, helpless girl led out, a little, fair, real thing like +Rosy, all alone--everyone she belonged to far away, not a man near +who dared utter a word of pity when she turned her awful, meek, young, +desperate eyes upon him. She was a pious child, and, no doubt, she +lifted her eyes to the sky. I wonder if it was blue and its blueness +broke her heart, because it looked as if it might have pitied such a +young, patient girl thing led out in the fair morning to walk to the +hacked block and give her trembling pardon to the black-visored man with +the axe, and then 'commending her soul to God' to stretch her sweet slim +neck out upon it." + +"Oh, Betty, dear!" Mrs. Worthington expostulated. + +Bettina sprang to her and took her hand in pretty appeal. + +"I beg pardon! I beg pardon, I really do," she exclaimed. "I did +not intend deliberately to be painful. But that--beneath the +sophistication--is something of what I bring to England." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"IS LADY ANSTRUTHERS AT HOME?" + +All that she had brought with her to England, combined with what she had +called "sophistication," but which was rather her exquisite appreciation +of values and effects, she took with her when she went the next day to +Charing Cross Station and arranged herself at her ease in the railway +carriage, while her maid bought their tickets for Stornham. + +What the people in the station saw, the guards and porters, the men in +the book stalls, the travellers hurrying past, was a striking-looking +girl, whose colouring and carriage made one turn to glance after her, +and who, having bought some periodicals and papers, took her place in a +first-class compartment and watched the passersby interestedly through +the open window. Having been looked at and remarked on during her +whole life, Bettina did not find it disturbing that more than one +corduroy-clothed porter and fresh-coloured, elderly gentleman, or +freshly attired young one, having caught a glimpse of her through her +window, made it convenient to saunter past or hover round. She looked +at them much more frankly than they looked at her. To her they were all +specimens of the types she was at present interested in. For practical +reasons she was summing up English character with more deliberate +intention than she had felt in the years when she had gradually learned +to know Continental types and differentiate such peculiarities as were +significant of their ranks and nations. As the first Reuben Vanderpoel +had studied the countenances and indicative methods of the inhabitants +of the new parts of the country in which it was his intention to +do business, so the modernity of his descendant applied itself to +observation for reasons parallel in nature though not in actual kind. +As he had brought beads and firewater to bear as agents upon savages +who would barter for them skins and products which might be turned into +money, so she brought her nineteenth-century beauty, steadfastness of +purpose and alertness of brain to bear upon the matter the practical +dealing with which was the end she held in view. To bear herself in this +matter with as practical a control of situations as that with which +her great-grandfather would have borne himself in making a trade with a +previously unknown tribe of Indians was quite her intention, though it +had not occurred to her to put it to herself in any such form. Still, +whether she was aware of the fact or not, her point of view was exactly +what the first Reuben Vanderpoel's had been on many very different +occasions. She had before her the task of dealing with facts and factors +of which at present she knew but little. Astuteness of perception, +self-command, and adaptability were her chief resources. She was ready, +either for calm, bold approach, or equally calm and wholly non-committal +retreat. + +The perceptions she had brought with her filled her journey into Kent +with delicious things, delicious recognition of beauties she had before +known the existence of only through the reading of books, and the +dwelling upon their charms as reproduced, more or less perfectly, +on canvas. She saw roll by her, with the passing of the train, the +loveliness of land and picturesqueness of living which she had saved +for herself with epicurean intention for years. Her fancy, when detached +from her thoughts of her sister, had been epicurean, and she had been +quite aware that it was so. When she had left the suburbs and those +villages already touched with suburbanity behind, she felt herself +settle into a glow of luxurious enjoyment in the freshness of +her pleasure in the familiar, and yet unfamiliar, objects in the +thick-hedged fields, whose broad-branched, thick-foliaged oaks and +beeches were more embowering in their shade, and sweeter in their green +than anything she remembered that other countries had offered her, +even at their best. Within the fields the hawthorn hedges beautifully +enclosed were groups of resigned mother sheep with their young lambs +about them. The curious pointed tops of the red hopkilns, piercing the +trees near the farmhouses, wore an almost intentional air of adding +picturesque detail. There were clusters of old buildings and dots +of cottages and cottage gardens which made her now and then utter +exclamations of delight. Little inarticulate Rosy had seen and felt it +all twelve years before on her hopeless bridal home-coming when Nigel +had sat huddled unbecomingly in the corner of the railway carriage. Her +power of expression had been limited to little joyful gasps and obvious +laudatory adjectives, smothered in their birth by her first glance at +her bridegroom. Betty, in seeing it, knew all the exquisiteness of her +own pleasure, and all the meanings of it. + +Yes, it was England--England. It was the England of Constable and +Morland, of Miss Mitford and Miss Austen, the Brontes and George Eliot. +The land which softly rolled and clothed itself in the rich verdure of +many trees, sometimes in lovely clusters, sometimes in covering copse, +was Constable's; the ripe young woman with the fat-legged children +and the farmyard beasts about her, as she fed the hens from the wooden +piggin under her arm, was Morland's own. The village street might be +Miss Mitford's, the well-to-do house Jane Austen's own fancy, in its +warm brick and comfortable decorum. She laughed a little as she thought +it. + +"That is American," she said, "the habit of comparing every stick +and stone and breathing thing to some literary parallel. We almost +invariably say that things remind us of pictures or books--most usually +books. It seems a little crude, but perhaps it means that we are an +intensely literary and artistic people." + +She continued to find comparisons revealing to her their appositeness, +until her journey had ended by the train's slackening speed and coming +to a standstill before the rural-looking little station which had +presented its quaint aspect to Lady Anstruthers on her home-coming of +years before. + +It had not, during the years which certainly had given time for change, +altered in the least. The station master had grown stouter and more +rosy, and came forward with his respectful, hospitable air, to attend to +the unusual-looking young lady, who was the only first-class passenger. +He thought she must be a visitor expected at some country house, but +none of the carriages, whose coachmen were his familiar acquaintances, +were in waiting. That such a fine young lady should be paying a visit +at any house whose owners did not send an equipage to attend her coming, +struck him as unusual. The brougham from the "Crown," though a decent +country town vehicle, seemed inadequate. Yet, there it stood drawn up +outside the station, and she went to it with the manner of a young lady +who had ordered its attendance and knew it would be there. + +Wells felt a good deal of interest. Among the many young ladies who +descended from the first-class compartments and passed through the +little waiting-room on their way to the carriages of the gentry they +were going to visit, he did not know when a young lady had "caught his +eye," so to speak, as this one did. She was not exactly the kind of +young lady one would immediately class mentally as "a foreigner," but +the blue of her eyes was so deep, and her hair and eyelashes so dark, +that these things, combining themselves with a certain "way" she had, +made him feel her to be of a type unfamiliar to the region, at least. + +He was struck, also, by the fact that the young lady had no maid with +her. The truth was that Bettina had purposely left her maid in town. If +awkward things occurred, the presence of an attendant would be a sort +of complication. It was better, on the first approach, to be wholly +unencumbered. + +"How far are we from Stornham Court?" she inquired. + +"Five miles, my lady," he answered, touching his cap. She expressed +something which to the rural and ingenuous, whose standards were +defined, demanded a recognition of probable rank. + +"I'd like to know," was his comment to his wife when he went home to +dinner, "who has gone to Stornham Court to-day. There's few enough +visitors go there, and none such as her, for certain. She don't live +anywhere on the line above here, either, for I've never seen her face +before. She was a tall, handsome one--she was, but it isn't just that +made you look after her. She was a clever one with a spirit, I'll be +bound. I was wondering what her ladyship would have to say to her." + +"Perhaps she was one of HIS fine ladies?" suggestively. + +"That she wasn't, either. And, as for that, I wonder what he'd have to +say to such as she is." + +There was complexity of element enough in the thing she was on her way +to do, Bettina was thinking, as she was driven over the white ribbon +of country road that unrolled over rise and hollow, between the +sheep-dotted greenness of fields and the scented hedges. The soft beauty +enclosing her was a little shut out from her by her mental attitude. She +brought forward for her own decisions upon suitable action a number of +possible situations she might find herself called upon to confront. +The one thing necessary was that she should be prepared for anything +whatever, even for Rosy's not being pleased to see her, or for finding +Sir Nigel a thoroughly reformed and amiable character. + +"It is the thing which seemingly CANNOT happen which one is most likely +to find one's self face to face with. It will be a little awkward to +arrange, if he has developed every domestic virtue, and is delighted to +see me." + +Under such rather confusing conditions her plan would be to present to +them, as an affectionate surprise, the unheralded visit, which might +appear a trifle uncalled for. She felt happily sure of herself under any +circumstances not partaking of the nature of collisions at sea. Yet she +had not behaved absolutely ill at the time of the threatened catastrophe +in the Meridiana. Her remembrance, an oddly sudden one, of the definite +manner of the red-haired second-class passenger, assured her of that. He +had certainly had all his senses about him, and he had spoken to her as +a person to be counted on. + +Her pulse beat a little more hurriedly as the brougham entered Stornham +village. It was picturesque, but struck her as looking neglected. Many +of the cottages had an air of dilapidation. There were many broken +windows and unmended garden palings. A suggested lack of whitewash in +several cases was not cheerful. + +"I know nothing of the duties of English landlords," she said, looking +through her carriage window, "but I should do it myself, if I were +Rosy." + +She saw, as she was taken through the park gateway, that that structure +was out of order, and that damaged diamond panes peered out from under +the thickness of the ivy massing itself over the lodge. + +"Ah!" was her thought, "it does not promise as it should. Happy people +do not let things fall to pieces." + +Even winding avenue, and spreading sward, and gorse, and broom, and +bracken, enfolding all the earth beneath huge trees, were not fair +enough to remove a sudden remote fear which arose in her rapidly +reasoning mind. It suggested to her a point of view so new that, while +she was amazed at herself for not having contemplated it before, she +found herself wishing that the coachman would drive rather more slowly, +actually that she might have more time to reflect. + +They were nearing a dip in the park, where there was a lonely looking +pool. The bracken was thick and high there, and the sun, which had just +broken through a cloud, had pierced the trees with a golden gleam. + +A little withdrawn from this shaft of brightness stood two figures, a +dowdy little woman and a hunchbacked boy. The woman held some ferns +in her hand, and the boy was sitting down and resting his chin on his +hands, which were folded on the top of a stick. + +"Stop here for a moment," Bettina said to the coachman. "I want to ask +that woman a question." + +She had thought that she might discover if her sister was at the Court. +She realised that to know would be a point of advantage. She leaned +forward and spoke. + +"I beg your pardon," she said, "I wonder if you can tell me----" + +The woman came forward a little. She had a listless step and a faded, +listless face. + +"What did you ask?" she said. + +Betty leaned still further forward. + +"Can you tell me----" she began and stopped. A sense of stricture in +the throat stopped her, as her eyes took in the washed-out colour of +the thin face, the washed-out colour of the thin hair--thin drab hair, +dragged in straight, hard unbecomingness from the forehead and cheeks. + +Was it true that her heart was thumping, as she had heard it said that +agitation made hearts thump? + +She began again. + +"Can you--tell me if--Lady Anstruthers is at home?" she inquired. As she +said it she felt the blood surge up from the furious heart, and the +hand she had laid on the handle of the door of the brougham clutched it +involuntarily. + +The dowdy little woman answered her indifferently, staring at her a +little. + +"I am Lady Anstruthers," she said. + +Bettina opened the carriage door and stood upon the ground. + +"Go on to the house," she gave order to the coachman, and, with a +somewhat startled look, he drove away. + +"Rosy!" Bettina's voice was a hushed, almost awed, thing. "YOU are +Rosy?" + +The faded little wreck of a creature began to look frightened. + +"Rosy!" she repeated, with a small, wry, painful smile. + +She was the next moment held in the folding of strong, young arms, +against a quickly beating heart. She was being wildly kissed, and the +very air seemed rich with warmth and life. + +"I am Betty," she heard. "Look at me, Rosy! I am Betty. Look at me and +remember!" + +Lady Anstruthers gasped, and broke into a faint, hysteric laugh. She +suddenly clutched at Bettina's arm. For a minute her gaze was wild as +she looked up. + +"Betty," she cried out. "No! No! No! I can't believe it! I can't! I +can't!" + +That just this thing could have taken place in her, Bettina had +never thought. As she had reflected on her way from the station, the +impossible is what one finds one's self face to face with. Twelve years +should not have changed a pretty blonde thing of nineteen to a worn, +unintelligent-looking dowdy of the order of dowdiness which seems to +have lived beyond age and sex. She looked even stupid, or at least +stupefied. At this moment she was a silly, middle-aged woman, who did +not know what to do. For a few seconds Bettina wondered if she was glad +to see her, or only felt awkward and unequal to the situation. + +"I can't believe you," she cried out again, and began to shiver. "Betty! +Little Betty? No! No! it isn't!" + +She turned to the boy, who had lifted his chin from his stick, and was +staring. + +"Ughtred! Ughtred!" she called to him. "Come! She says--she says----" + +She sat down upon a clump of heather and began to cry. She hid her face +in her spare hands and broke into sobbing. + +"Oh, Betty! No!" she gasped. "It's so long ago--it's so far away. You +never came--no one--no one--came!" + +The hunchbacked boy drew near. He had limped up on his stick. He spoke +like an elderly, affectionate gnome, not like a child. + +"Don't do that, mother," he said. "Don't let it upset you so, whatever +it is." + +"It's so long ago; it's so far away!" she wept, with catches in her +breath and voice. "You never came!" + +Betty knelt down and enfolded her again. Her bell-like voice was firm +and clear. + +"I have come now," she said. "And it is not far away. A cable will reach +father in two hours." + +Pursuing a certain vivid thought in her mind, she looked at her watch. + +"If you spoke to mother by cable this moment," she added, with +accustomed coolness, and she felt her sister actually start as she +spoke, "she could answer you by five o'clock." + +Lady Anstruther's start ended in a laugh and gasp more hysteric than her +first. There was even a kind of wan awakening in her face, as she lifted +it to look at the wonderful newcomer. She caught her hand and held it, +trembling, as she weakly laughed. + +"It must be Betty," she cried. "That little stern way! It is so like +her. Betty--Betty--dear!" She fell into a sobbing, shaken heap upon +the heather. The harrowing thought passed through Betty's mind that she +looked almost like a limp bundle of shabby clothes. She was so helpless +in her pathetic, apologetic hysteria. + +"I shall--be better," she gasped. "It's nothing. Ughtred, tell her." + +"She's very weak, really," said the boy Ughtred, in his mature way. "She +can't help it sometimes. I'll get some water from the pool." + +"Let me go," said Betty, and she darted down to the water. She was +back in a moment. The boy was rubbing and patting his mother's hands +tenderly. + +"At any rate," he remarked, as one consoled by a reflection, "father is +not at home." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"I THOUGHT YOU HAD ALL FORGOTTEN." + +As, after a singular half hour spent among the bracken under the trees, +they began their return to the house, Bettina felt that her sense of +adventure had altered its character. She was still in the midst of a +remarkable sort of exploit, which might end anywhere or in anything, +but it had become at once more prosaic in detail and more intense in its +significance. What its significance might prove likely to be when +she faced it, she had not known, it is true. But this was different +from--from anything. As they walked up the sun-dappled avenue she kept +glancing aside at Rosy, and endeavouring to draw useful conclusions. The +poor girl's air of being a plain, insignificant frump, long past youth, +struck an extraordinary and, for the time, unexplainable note. Her +ill-cut, out-of-date dress, the cheap suit of the hunchbacked boy, +who limped patiently along, helped by his crutch, suggested possible +explanations which were without doubt connected with the thought +which had risen in Bettina's mind, as she had been driven through the +broken-hinged entrance gate. What extraordinary disposal was being +made of Rosy's money? But her each glance at her sister also suggested +complication upon complication. + +The singular half hour under the trees by the pool, spent, after the +first hysteric moments were over, in vague exclaimings and questions, +which seemed half frightened and all at sea, had gradually shown her +that she was talking to a creature wholly other than the Rosalie who had +so well known and loved them all, and whom they had so well loved and +known. They did not know this one, and she did not know them, she was +even a little afraid of the stir and movement of their life and being. +The Rosy they had known seemed to be imprisoned within the wall the +years of her separated life had built about her. At each breath she drew +Bettina saw how long the years had been to her, and how far her home had +seemed to lie away, so far that it could not touch her, and was only +a sort of dream, the recalling of which made her suddenly begin to cry +again every few minutes. To Bettina's sensitively alert mind it was +plain that it would not do in the least to drag her suddenly out of her +prison, or cloister, whichsoever it might be. To do so would be like +forcing a creature accustomed only to darkness, to stare at the blazing +sun. To have burst upon her with the old impetuous, candid fondness +would have been to frighten and shock her as if with something bordering +on indecency. She could not have stood it; perhaps such fondness was +so remote from her in these days that she had even ceased to be able to +understand it. + +"Where are your little girls?" Bettina asked, remembering that there had +been notice given of the advent of two girl babies. + +"They died," Lady Anstruthers answered unemotionally. "They both died +before they were a year old. There is only Ughtred." + +Betty glanced at the boy and saw a small flame of red creep up on his +cheek. Instinctively she knew what it meant, and she put out her hand +and lightly touched his shoulder. + +"I hope you'll like me, Ughtred," she said. + +He almost started at the sound of her voice, but when he turned his face +towards her he only grew redder, and looked awkward without answering. +His manner was that of a boy who was unused to the amenities of polite +society, and who was only made shy by them. + +Without warning, a moment or so later, Bettina stopped in the middle +of the avenue, and looked up at the arching giant branches of the trees +which had reached out from one side to the other, as if to clasp hands +or encompass an interlacing embrace. As far as the eye reached, they did +this, and the beholder stood as in a high stately pergola, with breaks +of deep azure sky between. Several mellow, cawing rooks were floating +solemnly beneath or above the branches, now wand then settling in some +highest one or disappearing in the thick greenness. + +Lady Anstruthers stopped when her sister did so, and glanced at her in +vague inquiry. It was plain that she had outlived even her sense of the +beauty surrounding her. + +"What are you looking at, Betty?" she asked. + +"At all of it," Betty answered. "It is so wonderful." + +"She likes it," said Ughtred, and then rather slunk a step behind his +mother, as if he were ashamed of himself. + +"The house is just beyond those trees," said Lady Anstruthers. + +They came in full view of it three minutes later. When she saw it, Betty +uttered an exclamation and stopped again to enjoy effects. + +"She likes that, too," said Ughtred, and, although he said it +sheepishly, there was imperfectly concealed beneath the awkwardness a +pleasure in the fact. + +"Do you?" asked Rosalie, with her small, painful smile. + +Betty laughed. + +"It is too picturesque, in its special way, to be quite credible," she +said. + +"I thought that when I first saw it," said Rosy. + +"Don't you think so, now?" + +"Well," was the rather uncertain reply, "as Nigel says, there's not much +good in a place that is falling to pieces." + +"Why let it fall to pieces?" Betty put it to her with impartial +promptness. + +"We haven't money enough to hold it together," resignedly. + +As they climbed the low, broad, lichen-blotched steps, whose broken +stone balustrades were almost hidden in clutching, untrimmed ivy, Betty +felt them to be almost incredible, too. The uneven stones of the terrace +the steps mounted to were lichen-blotched and broken also. Tufts of +green growths had forced themselves between the flags, and added an +untidy beauty. The ivy tossed in branches over the red roof and walls of +the house. It had been left unclipped, until it was rather an endlessly +clambering tree than a creeper. The hall they entered had the beauty +of spacious form and good, old oaken panelling. There were deep window +seats and an ancient high-backed settle or so, and a massive table by +the fireless hearth. But there were no pictures in places where pictures +had evidently once hung, and the only coverings on the stone floor were +the faded remnants of a central rug and a worn tiger skin, the head +almost bald and a glass eye knocked out. + +Bettina took in the unpromising details without a quiver of the +extravagant lashes. These, indeed, and the eyes pertaining to them, +seemed rather to sweep the fine roof, and a certain minstrel's gallery +and staircase, than which nothing could have been much finer, with the +look of an appreciative admirer of architectural features and old oak. +She had not journeyed to Stornham Court with the intention of disturbing +Rosy, or of being herself obviously disturbed. She had come to +observe situations and rearrange them with that intelligence of which +unconsidered emotion or exclamation form no part. + +"It is the first old English house I have seen," she said, with a sigh +of pleasure. "I am so glad, Rosy--I am so glad that it is yours." + +She put a hand on each of Rosy's thin shoulders--she felt sharply +defined bones as she did so--and bent to kiss her. It was the natural +affectionate expression of her feeling, but tears started to Rosy's +eyes, and the boy Ughtred, who had sat down in a window seat, turned red +again, and shifted in his place. + +"Oh, Betty!" was Rosy's faint nervous exclamation, "you seem so +beautiful and--so--so strange--that you frighten me." + +Betty laughed with the softest possible cheerfulness, shaking her a +little. + +"I shall not seem strange long," she said, "after I have stayed with you +a few weeks, if you will let me stay with you." + +"Let you! Let you!" in a sort of gasp. + +Poor little Lady Anstruthers sank on to a settle and began to cry again. +It was plain that she always cried when things occurred. Ughtred's +speech from his window seat testified at once to that. + +"Don't cry, mother," he said. "You know how we've talked that over +together. It's her nerves," he explained to Bettina. "We know it only +makes things worse, but she can't stop it." + +Bettina sat on the settle, too. She herself was not then aware of the +wonderful feeling the poor little spare figure experienced, as her +softly strong young arms curved about it. She was only aware that she +herself felt that this was a heart-breaking thing, and that she must +not--MUST not let it be seen how much she recognised its woefulness. +This was pretty, fair Rosy, who had never done a harm in her happy +life--this forlorn thing was her Rosy. + +"Never mind," she said, half laughing again. "I rather want to cry +myself, and I am stronger than she is. I am immensely strong." + +"Yes! Yes!" said Lady Anstruthers, wiping her eyes, and making a +tremendous effort at self-respecting composure. "You are strong. I have +grown so weak in--well, in every way. Betty, I'm afraid this is a poor +welcome. You see--I'm afraid you'll find it all so different from--from +New York." + +"I wanted to find it different," said Betty. + +"But--but--I mean--you know----" Lady Anstruthers turned helplessly to +the boy. Bettina was struck with the painful truth that she looked even +silly as she turned to him. "Ughtred--tell her," she ended, and hung her +head. + +Ughtred had got down at once from his seat and limped forward. His +unprepossessing face looked as if he pulled his childishness together +with an unchildish effort. + +"She means," he said, in his awkward way, "that she doesn't know how +to make you comfortable. The rooms are all so shabby--everything is so +shabby. Perhaps you won't stay when you see." + +Bettina perceptibly increased the firmness of her hold on her sister's +body. It was as if she drew it nearer to her side in a kind of taking +possession. She knew that the moment had come when she might go this +far, at least, without expressing alarming things. + +"You cannot show me anything that will frighten me," was the answer +she made. "I have come to stay, Rosy. We can make things right if they +require it. Why not?" + +Lady Anstruthers started a little, and stared at her. She knew ten +thousand reasons why things had not been made right, and the casual +inference that such reasons could be lightly swept away as if by the +mere wave of a hand, implied a power appertaining to a time seeming so +lost forever that it was too much for her. + +"Oh, Betty, Betty!" she cried, "you talk as if--you are so----!" + +The fact, so simple to the members of the abnormal class to which she of +a truth belonged, the class which heaped up its millions, the absolute +knowledge that there was a great deal of money in the world and that she +was of those who were among its chief owners, had ceased to seem a fact, +and had vanished into the region of fairy stories. + +That she could not believe it a reality revealed itself to Bettina, as +by a flash, which was also a revelation of many things. There would be +unpleasing truths to be learned, and she had not made her pilgrimage for +nothing. But--in any event--there were advantages without doubt in the +circumstance which subjected one to being perpetually pointed out as a +daughter of a multi-millionaire. As this argued itself out for her with +rapid lucidity, she bent and kissed Rosy once more. She even tried to +do it lightly, and not to allow the rush of love and pity in her soul to +betray her. + +"I talk as if--as if I were Betty," she said. "You have forgotten. I +have not. I have been looking forward to this for years. I have been +planning to come to you since I was eleven years old. And here we sit." + +"You didn't forget? You didn't?" faltered the poor wreck of Rosy. "Oh! +Oh! I thought you had all forgotten me--quite--quite!" + +And her face went down in her spare, small hands, and she began to cry +again. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +UGHTRED + +Bettina stood alone in her bedroom a couple of hours later. Lady +Anstruthers had taken her to it, preparing her for its limitations by +explaining that she would find it quite different from her room in +New York. She had been pathetically nervous and flushed about it, and +Bettina had also been aware that the apartment itself had been hastily, +and with much moving of objects from one chamber to another, made ready +for her. + +The room was large and square and low. It was panelled in small squares +of white wood. The panels were old enough to be cracked here and there, +and the paint was stained and yellow with time, where it was not knocked +or worn off. There was a small paned, leaded window which filled a +large part of one side of the room, and its deep seat was an agreeable +feature. Sitting in it, one looked out over several red-walled gardens, +and through breaks in the trees of the park to a fair beyond. Bettina +stood before this window for a few moments, and then took a seat in the +embrasure, that she might gaze out and reflect at leisure. + +Her genius, as has before been mentioned, was the genius for living, +for being vital. Many people merely exist, are kept alive by others, or +continue to vegetate because the persistent action of normal functions +will allow of their doing no less. Bettina Vanderpoel had lived vividly, +and in the midst of a self-created atmosphere of action from her +first hour. It was not possible for her to be one of the horde of mere +spectators. Wheresoever she moved there was some occult stirring of the +mental, and even physical, air. Her pulses beat too strongly, her blood +ran too fast to allow of inaction of mind or body. When, in passing +through the village, she had seen the broken windows and the hanging +palings of the cottages, it had been inevitable that, at once, she +should, in thought, repair them, set them straight. Disorder filled her +with a sort of impatience which was akin to physical distress. If she +had been born a poor woman she would have worked hard for her living, +and found an interest, almost an exhilaration, in her labour. Such gifts +as she had would have been applied to the tasks she undertook. It had +frequently given her pleasure to imagine herself earning her livelihood +as a seamstress, a housemaid, a nurse. She knew what she could have put +into her service, and how she could have found it absorbing. Imagination +and initiative could make any service absorbing. The actual truth was +that if she had been a housemaid, the room she set in order would have +taken a character under her touch; if she had been a seamstress, her +work would have been swiftly done, her imagination would have invented +for her combinations of form and colour; if she had been a nursemaid, +the children under her care would never have been sufficiently bored +to become tiresome or intractable, and they also would have gained +character to which would have been added an undeniable vividness of +outlook. She could not have left them alone, so to speak. In obeying the +mere laws of her being, she would have stimulated them. Unconsciously +she had stimulated her fellow pupils at school; when she was his +companion, her father had always felt himself stirred to interest and +enterprise. + +"You ought to have been a man, Betty," he used to say to her sometimes. + +But Betty had not agreed with him. + +"You say that," she once replied to him, "because you see I am inclined +to do things, to change them, if they need changing. Well, one is either +born like that, or one is not. Sometimes I think that perhaps the people +who must ACT are of a distinct race. A kind of vigorous restlessness +drives them. I remember that when I was a child I could not see a pin +lying upon the ground without picking it up, or pass a drawer which +needed closing, without giving it a push. But there has always been as +much for women to do as for men." + +There was much to be done here of one sort of thing and another. That +was certain. As she gazed through the small panes of her large windows, +she found herself overlooking part of a wilderness of garden, which +revealed itself through an arch in an overgrown laurel hedge. She had +glimpses of unkempt grass paths and unclipped topiary work which had +lost its original form. Among a tangle of weeds rose the heads of clumps +of daffodils, stirred by a passing wind of spring. In the park beyond a +cuckoo was calling. + +She was conscious both of the forlorn beauty and significance of the +neglected garden, and of the clear quaintness of the cuckoo call, as she +thought of other things. + +"Her spirit and her health are broken," was her summing up. "Her +prettiness has faded to a rag. She is as nervous as an ill-treated +child. She has lost her wits. I do not know where to begin with her. +I must let her tell me things as gradually as she chooses. Until I see +Nigel I shall not know what his method with her has been. She looks as +if she had ceased to care for things, even for herself. What shall I +write to mother?" + +She knew what she should write to her father. With him she could be +explicit. She could record what she had found and what it suggested +to her. She could also make clear her reason for hesitance and +deliberation. His discretion and affection would comprehend the thing +which she herself felt and which affection not combined with discretion +might not take in. He would understand, when she told him that one of +the first things which had struck her, had been that Rosy herself, her +helplessness and timidity, might, for a period at least, form obstacles +in their path of action. He not only loved Rosy, but realised how slight +a sweet thing she had always been, and he would know how far a slight +creature's gentleness might be overpowered and beaten down. + +There was so much that her mother must be spared, there was indeed +so little that it would be wise to tell her, that Bettina sat gently +rubbing her forehead as she thought of it. The truth was that she must +tell her nothing, until all was over, accomplished, decided. Whatsoever +there was to be "over," whatsoever the action finally taken, must be +a matter lying as far as possible between her father and herself. Mrs. +Vanderpoel's trouble would be too keen, her anxiety too great to keep to +herself, even if she were not overwhelmed by them. She must be told of +the beauties and dimensions of Stornham, all relatable details of Rosy's +life must be generously dwelt on. Above all Rosy must be made to write +letters, and with an air of freedom however specious. + +A knock on the door broke the thread of her reflection. It was a +low-sounding knock, and she answered the summons herself, because she +thought it might be Rosy's. + +It was not Lady Anstruthers who stood outside, but Ughtred, who balanced +himself on his crutches, and lifted his small, too mature, face. + +"May I come in?" he asked. + +Here was the unexpected again, but she did not allow him to see her +surprise. + +"Yes," she said. "Certainly you may." + +He swung in and then turned to speak to her. + +"Please shut the door and lock it," he said. + +There was sudden illumination in this, but of an order almost whimsical. +That modern people in modern days should feel bolts and bars a necessity +of ordinary intercourse was suggestive. She was plainly about to receive +enlightenment. She turned the key and followed the halting figure across +the room. + +"What are you afraid of?" she asked. + +"When mother and I talk things over," he said, "we always do it where no +one can see or hear. It's the only way to be safe." + +"Safe from what?" + +His eyes fixed themselves on her as he answered her almost sullenly. + +"Safe from people who might listen and go and tell that we had been +talking." + +In his thwarted-looking, odd child-face there was a shade of appeal not +wholly hidden by his evident wish not to be boylike. Betty felt a desire +to kneel down suddenly and embrace him, but she knew he was not prepared +for such a demonstration. He looked like a creature who had lived +continually at bay, and had learned to adjust himself to any situation +with caution and restraint. + +"Sit down, Ughtred," she said, and when he did so she herself sat down, +but not too near him. + +Resting his chin on the handle of a crutch, he gazed at her almost +protestingly. + +"I always have to do these things," he said, "and I am not clever +enough, or old enough. I am only eleven." + +The mention of the number of his years was plainly not apologetic, but +was a mere statement of his limitations. There the fact was, and he must +make the best of it he could. + +"What things do you mean?" + +"Trying to make things easier--explaining things when she cannot think +of excuses. To-day it is telling you what she is too frightened to tell +you herself. I said to her that you must be told. It made her nervous +and miserable, but I knew you must." + +"Yes, I must," Betty answered. "I am glad she has you to depend on, +Ughtred." + +His crutch grated on the floor and his boy eyes forbade her to believe +that their sudden lustre was in any way connected with restrained +emotion. + +"I know I seem queer and like a little old man," he said. "Mother cries +about it sometimes. But it can't be helped. It is because she has never +had anyone but me to help her. When I was very little, I found out how +frightened and miserable she was. After his rages," he used no name, +"she used to run into my nursery and snatch me up in her arms and hide +her face in my pinafore. Sometimes she stuffed it into her mouth and bit +it to keep herself from screaming. Once--before I was seven--I ran into +their room and shouted out, and tried to fight for her. He was going +out, and had his riding whip in his hand, and he caught hold of me and +struck me with it--until he was tired." + +Betty stood upright. + +"What! What! What!" she cried out. + +He merely nodded his head shortly. She saw what the thing had been by +the way his face lost colour. + +"Of course he said it was because I was impudent, and needed +punishment," he said. "He said she had encouraged me in American +impudence. It was worse for her than for me. She kneeled down and +screamed out as if she was crazy, that she would give him what he wanted +if he would stop." + +"Wait," said Betty, drawing in her breath sharply. "'He,' is Sir Nigel? +And he wanted something." + +He nodded again + +"Tell me," she demanded, "has he ever struck her?" + +"Once," he answered slowly, "before I was born--he struck her and she +fell against something. That is why I am like this." And he touched his +shoulder. + +The feeling which surged through Betty Vanderpoel's being forced her to +go and stand with her face turned towards the windows, her hands holding +each other tightly behind her back. + +"I must keep still," she said. "I must make myself keep still." + +She spoke unconsciously half aloud, and Ughtred heard her and replied +hurriedly. + +"Yes," he said, "you must make yourself keep still. That is what we have +to do whatever happens. That is one of the things mother wanted you to +know. She is afraid. She daren't let you----" + +She turned from the window, standing at her full height and looking very +tall for a girl. + +"She is afraid? She daren't? See--that will come to an end now. There +are things which can be done." + +He flushed nervously. + +"That is what she was afraid you would say," he spoke fast and his hands +trembled. "She is nearly wild about it, because she knows he will try to +do something that will make you feel as if she does not want you." + +"She is afraid of that?" Betty exclaimed. + +"He'd do it! He'd do it--if you did not know beforehand." + +"Oh!" said Betty, with unflinching clearness. "He is a liar, is he?" + +The helpless rage in the unchildish eyes, the shaking voice, as he cried +out in answer, were a shock. It was as if he wildly rejoiced that she +had spoken the word. + +"Yes, he's a liar--a liar!" he shrilled. "He's a liar and a bully and a +coward. He'd--he'd be a murderer if he dared--but he daren't." And +his face dropped on his arms folded on his crutch, and he broke into +a passion of crying. Then Betty knew she might go to him. She went and +knelt down and put her arm round him. + +"Ughtred," she said, "cry, if you like, I should do it, if I were you. +But I tell you it can all be altered--and it shall be." + +He seemed quite like a little boy when he put out his hand to hers and +spoke sobbingly: + +"She--she says--that because you have only just come from America--and +in America people--can do things--you will think you can do things +here--and you don't know. He will tell lies about you lies you can't +bear. She sat wringing her hands when she thought of it. She won't +let you be hurt because you want to help her." He stopped abruptly and +clutched her shoulder. + +"Aunt Betty! Aunt Betty--whatever happens--whatever he makes her seem +like--you are to know that it is not true. Now you have come--now she +has seen you it would KILL her if you were driven away and thought she +wanted you to go." + +"I shall not think that," she answered, slowly, because she realised +that it was well that she had been warned in time. "Ughtred, are you +trying to tell me that above all things I must not let him think that +I came here to help you, because if he is angry he will make us all +suffer--and your mother most of all?" + +"He'll find a way. We always know he will. He would either be so rude +that you would not stay here--or he would make mother seem rude--or he +would write lies to grandfather. Aunt Betty, she scarcely believes you +are real yet. If she won't tell you things at first, please don't mind." +He looked quite like a child again in his appeal to her, to try to +understand a state of affairs so complicated. "Could you--could you wait +until you have let her get--get used to you?" + +"Used to thinking that there may be someone in the world to help her?" +slowly. "Yes, I will. Has anyone ever tried to help her?" + +"Once or twice people found out and were sorry at first, but it only +made it worse, because he made them believe things." + +"I shall not TRY, Ughtred," said Betty, a remote spark kindling in the +deeps of the pupils of her steel-blue eyes. "I shall not TRY. Now I am +going to ask you some questions." + +Before he left her she had asked many questions which were pertinent +and searching, and she had learned things she realised she could have +learned in no other way and from no other person. But for his uncanny +sense of the responsibility he clearly had assumed in the days when he +wore pinafores, and which had brought him to her room to prepare her +mind for what she would find herself confronted with in the way of +apparently unexplainable obstacles, there was a strong likelihood that +at the outset she might have found herself more than once dangerously +at a loss. Yes, she would have been at a loss, puzzled, perhaps greatly +discouraged. She was face to face with a complication so extraordinary. + +That one man, through mere persistent steadiness in evil temper and +domestic tyranny, should have so broken the creatures of his household +into abject submission and hopelessness, seemed too incredible. Such a +power appeared as remote from civilised existence in London and New York +as did that which had inflicted tortures in the dungeons of castles of +old. Prisoners in such dungeons could utter no cry which could reach the +outside world; the prisoners at Stornham Court, not four hours from Hyde +Park Corner, could utter none the world could hear, or comprehend if it +heard it. Sheer lack of power to resist bound them hand and foot. And +she, Betty Vanderpoel, was here upon the spot, and, as far as she could +understand, was being implored to take no steps, to do nothing. The +atmosphere in which she had spent her life, the world she had been +born into, had not made for fearfulness that one would be at any time +defenceless against circumstances and be obliged to submit to outrage. +To be a Vanderpoel was, it was true, to be a shining mark for envy as +for admiration, but the fact removed obstacles as a rule, and to find +one's self standing before a situation with one's hands, figuratively +speaking, tied, was new enough to arouse unusual sensations. She +recalled, with an ironic sense of bewilderment, as a sort of material +evidence of her own reality, the fact that not a week ago she had +stepped on to English soil from the gangway of a solid Atlantic liner. +It aided her to resist the feeling that she had been swept back into the +Middle Ages. + +"When he is angry," was one of the first questions she put to Ughtred, +"what does he give as his reason? He must profess to have a reason." + +"When he gets in a rage he says it is because mother is silly and +common, and I am badly brought up. But we always know he wants money, +and it makes him furious. He could kill us with rage." + +"Oh!" said Betty. "I see." + +"It began that time when he struck her. He said then that it was not +decent that a woman who was married should keep her own money. He made +her give him almost everything she had, but she wants to keep some for +me. He tries to make her get more from grandfather, but she will not +write begging letters, and she won't give him what she is saving for +me." + +It was a simple and sordid enough explanation in one sense, and it was +one of which Bettina had known, not one parallel, but several. Having +married to ensure himself power over unquestioned resources, the man had +felt himself disgustingly taken in, and avenged himself accordingly. In +him had been born the makings of a domestic tyrant who, even had he been +favoured by fortune, would have wreaked his humours upon the defenceless +things made his property by ties of blood and marriage, and who, being +unfavoured, would do worse. Betty could see what the years had held for +Rosy, and how her weakness and timidity had been considered as positive +assets. A woman who will cry when she is bullied, may be counted upon to +submit after she has cried. Rosy had submitted up to a certain point and +then, with the stubbornness of a weak creature, had stood at timid bay +for her young. + +What Betty gathered was that, after the long and terrible illness which +had followed Ughtred's birth, she had risen from what had been so nearly +her deathbed, prostrated in both mind and body. Ughtred did not know all +that he revealed when he touched upon the time which he said his mother +could not quite remember--when she had sat for months staring vacantly +out of her window, trying to recall something terrible which had +happened, and which she wanted to tell her mother, if the day ever came +when she could write to her again. She had never remembered clearly the +details of the thing she had wanted to tell, and Nigel had insisted +that her fancy was part of her past delirium. He had said that at the +beginning of her delirium she had attacked and insulted his mother and +himself but they had excused her because they realised afterwards what +the cause of her excitement had been. For a long time she had been too +brokenly weak to question or disbelieve, but, later she had vaguely +known that he had been lying to her, though she could not refute what +he said. She recalled, in course of time, a horrible scene in which all +three of them had raved at each other, and she herself had shrieked and +laughed and hurled wild words at Nigel, and he had struck her. That she +knew and never forgot. She had been ill a year, her hair had fallen out, +her skin had faded and she had begun to feel like a nervous, tired old +woman instead of a girl. Girlhood, with all the past, had become unreal +and too far away to be more than a dream. Nothing had remained real but +Stornham and Nigel and the little hunchbacked baby. She was glad when +the Dowager died and when Nigel spent his time in London or on the +Continent and left her with Ughtred. When he said that he must spend her +money on the estate, she had acquiesced without comment, because that +insured his going away. She saw that no improvement or repairs were +made, but she could do nothing and was too listless to make the attempt. +She only wanted to be left alone with Ughtred, and she exhibited +willpower only in defence of her child and in her obstinacy with regard +to asking money of her father. + +"She thought, somehow, that grandfather and grandmother did not care +for her any more--that they had forgotten her and only cared for you," +Ughtred explained. "She used to talk to me about you. She said you must +be so clever and so handsome that no one could remember her. Sometimes +she cried and said she did not want any of you to see her again, because +she was only a hideous, little, thin, yellow old woman. When I was very +little she told me stories about New York and Fifth Avenue. I thought +they were not real places--I though they were places in fairyland." + +Betty patted his shoulder and looked away for a moment when he said +this. In her remote and helpless loneliness, to Rosy's homesick, +yearning soul, noisy, rattling New York, Fifth Avenue with its traffic +and people, its brown-stone houses and ricketty stages, had seemed like +THAT--so splendid and bright and heart-filling, that she had painted +them in colours which could belong only to fairyland. It said so much. + +The thing she had suspected as she had talked to her sister was, before +the interview ended, made curiously clear. The first obstacle in her +pathway would be the shrinking of a creature who had been so long under +dominion that the mere thought of seeing any steps taken towards her +rescue filled her with alarm. One might be prepared for her almost +praying to be let alone, because she felt that the process of her +salvation would bring about such shocks and torments as she could not +endure the facing of. + +"She will have to get used to you," Ughtred kept saying. "She will have +to get used to thinking things." + +"I will be careful," Bettina answered. "She shall not be troubled. I did +not come to trouble her." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ONE OF THE NEW YORK DRESSES + +As she went down the staircase later, on her way to dinner, Miss +Vanderpoel saw on all sides signs of the extent of the nakedness of +the land. She was in a fine old house, stripped of most of its saleable +belongings, uncared for, deteriorating year by year, gradually going to +ruin. One need not possess particular keenness of sight to observe +this, and she had chanced to see old houses in like condition in other +countries than England. A man-servant, in a shabby livery, opened the +drawing-room door for her. He was not a picturesque servitor of fallen +fortunes, but an awkward person who was not accustomed to his duties. +Betty wondered if he had been called in from the gardens to meet the +necessities of the moment. His furtive glance at the tall young woman +who passed him, took in with sudden embarrassment the fact that she +plainly did not belong to the dispirited world bounded by Stornham +Court. Without sparkling gems or trailing richness in her wake, she was +suggestively splendid. He did not know whether it was her hair or the +build of her neck and shoulders that did it, but it was revealed to him +that tiaras and collars of stones which blazed belonged without doubt +to her equipment. He recalled that there was a legend to the effect that +the present Lady Anstruthers, who looked like a rag doll, had been the +daughter of a rich American, and that better things might have been +expected of her if she had not been such a poor-spirited creature. If +this was her sister, she perhaps was a young woman of fortune, and that +she was not of poor spirit was plain. + +The large drawing-room presented but another aspect of the bareness +of the rest of the house. In times probably long past, possibly in the +Dowager Lady Anstruthers' early years of marriage, the walls had been +hung with white and gold paper of a pattern which dominated the scene, +and had been furnished with gilded chairs, tables, and ottomans. Some +of these last had evidently been removed as they became too much out of +repair for use or ornament. Such as remained, tarnished as to gilding +and worn in the matter of upholstery, stood sparsely scattered on a +desert of carpet, whose huge, flowered medallions had faded almost from +view. + +Lady Anstruthers, looking shy and awkward as she fingered an ornament on +a small table, seemed singularly a part of her background. Her evening +dress, slipping off her thin shoulders, was as faded and out of date +as her carpet. It had once been delicately blue and gauzy, but its +gauziness hung in crushed folds and its blue was almost grey. It was +also the dress of a girl, not that of a colourless, worn woman, and her +consciousness of its unfitness showed in her small-featured face as she +came forward. + +"Do you--recognise it, Betty?" she asked hesitatingly. "It was one of my +New York dresses. I put it on because--because----" and her stammering +ended helplessly. + +"Because you wanted to remind me," Betty said. If she felt it easier to +begin with an excuse she should be provided with one. + +Perhaps but for this readiness to fall into any tone she chose to adopt +Rosy might have endeavoured to carry her poor farce on, but as it was +she suddenly gave it up. + +"I put it on because I have no other," she said. "We never have visitors +and I haven't dressed for dinner for so long that I seem to have nothing +left that is fit to wear. I dragged this out because it was better than +anything else. It was pretty once----" she gave a little laugh, "twelve +years ago. How long years seem! Was I--was I pretty, Betty--twelve years +ago?" + +"Twelve years is not such a long time." Betty took her hand and drew her +to a sofa. "Let us sit down and talk about it." + +"There is nothing much to talk about. This is it----" taking in the room +with a wave of her hand. "I am it. Ughtred is it." + +"Then let us talk about England," was Bettina's light skim over the thin +ice. + +A red spot grew on each of Lady Anstruthers' cheek bones and made her +faded eyes look intense. + +"Let us talk about America," her little birdclaw of a hand clinging +feverishly. "Is New York still--still----" + +"It is still there," Betty answered with one of the adorable smiles +which showed a deep dimple near her lip. "But it is much nearer England +than it used to be." + +"Nearer!" The hand tightened as Rosy caught her breath. + +Betty bent rather suddenly and kissed her. It was the easiest way of +hiding the look she knew had risen to her eyes. She began to talk gaily, +half laughingly. + +"It is quite near," she said. "Don't you realise it? Americans swoop +over here by thousands every year. They come for business, they come for +pleasure, they come for rest. They cannot keep away. They come to buy +and sell--pictures and books and luxuries and lands. They come to give +and take. They are building a bridge from shore to shore of their work, +and their thoughts, and their plannings, out of the lives and souls of +them. It will be a great bridge and great things will pass over it." +She kissed the faded cheek again. She wanted to sweep Rosy away from the +dreariness of "it." Lady Anstruthers looked at her with faintly smiling +eyes. She did not follow all this quite readily, but she felt pleased +and vaguely comforted. + +"I know how they come here and marry," she said. "The new Duchess of +Downes is an American. She had a fortune of two million pounds." + +"If she chooses to rebuild a great house and a great name," said Betty, +lifting her shoulders lightly, "why not--if it is an honest bargain? I +suppose it is part of the building of the bridge." + +Little Lady Anstruthers, trying to pull up the sleeves of the gauzy +bodice slipping off her small, sharp bones, stared at her half in +wondering adoration, half in alarm. + +"Betty--you--you are so handsome--and so clever and strange," she +fluttered. "Oh, Betty, stand up so that I can see how tall and handsome +you are!" + +Betty did as she was told, and upon her feet she was a young woman of +long lines, and fine curves so inspiring to behold that Lady Anstruthers +clasped her hands together on her knees in an excited gesture. + +"Oh, yes! Oh, yes!" she cried. "You are just as wonderful as you looked +when I turned and saw you under the trees. You almost make me afraid." + +"Because I am wonderful?" said Betty. "Then I will not be wonderful any +more." + +"It is not because I think you wonderful, but because other people will. +Would you rebuild a great house?" hesitatingly. + +The fine line of Betty's black brows drew itself slightly together. + +"No," she said. + + +"Wouldn't you?" + +"How could the man who owned it persuade me that he was in earnest if he +said he loved me? How could I persuade him that I was worth caring for +and not a mere ambitious fool? There would be too much against us." + +"Against you?" repeated Lady Anstruthers. + +"I don't say I am fair," said Betty. "People who are proud are often not +fair. But we should both of us have seen and known too much." + +"You have seen me now," said Lady Anstruthers in her listless voice, and +at the same moment dinner was announced and she got up from the sofa, so +that, luckily, there was no time for the impersonal answer it would have +been difficult to invent at a moment's notice. As they went into the +dining-room Betty was thinking restlessly. She remembered all the +material she had collected during her education in France and Germany, +and there was added to it the fact that she HAD seen Rosy, and having +her before her eyes she felt that there was small prospect of +her contemplating the rebuilding of any great house requiring +reconstruction. + +There was fine panelling in the dining-room and a great fireplace and +a few family portraits. The service upon the table was shabby and the +dinner was not a bounteous meal. Lady Anstruthers in her girlish, gauzy +dress and looking too small for her big, high-backed chair tried to talk +rapidly, and every few minutes forgot herself and sank into silence, +with her eyes unconsciously fixed upon her sister's face. Ughtred +watched Betty also, and with a hungry questioning. The man-servant in +the worn livery was not a sufficiently well-trained and experienced +domestic to make any effort to keep his eyes from her. He was young +enough to be excited by an innovation so unusual as the presence of a +young and beautiful person surrounded by an unmistakable atmosphere of +ease and fearlessness. He had been talking of her below stairs and +felt that he had failed in describing her. He had found himself barely +supported by the suggestion of a housemaid that sometimes these dresses +that looked plain had been made in Paris at expensive places and had +cost "a lot." He furtively examined the dress which looked plain, and +while he admitted that for some mysterious reason it might represent +expensiveness, it was not the dress which was the secret of the effect, +but a something, not altogether mere good looks, expressed by the +wearer. It was, in fact, the thing which the second-class passenger, +Salter, had been at once attracted and stirred to rebellion by when Miss +Vanderpoel came on board the Meridiana. + +Betty did not look too small for her high-backed chair, and she did +not forget herself when she talked. In spite of all she had found, +her imagination was stirred by the surroundings. Her sense of the fine +spaces and possibilities of dignity in the barren house, her knowledge +that outside the windows there lay stretched broad views of the park and +its heavy-branched trees, and that outside the gates stood the +neglected picturesqueness of the village and all the rural and--to +her--interesting life it slowly lived--this pleased and attracted her. + +If she had been as helpless and discouraged as Rosalie she could see +that it would all have meant a totally different and depressing thing, +but, strong and spirited, and with the power of full hands, she was +remotely rejoicing in what might be done with it all. As she talked +she was gradually learning detail. Sir Nigel was on the Continent. +Apparently he often went there; also it revealed itself that no one knew +at what moment he might return, for what reason he would return, or if +he would return at all during the summer. It was evident that no one had +been at any time encouraged to ask questions as to his intentions, or to +feel that they had a right to do so. + +This she knew, and a number of other things, before they left the table. +When they did so they went out to stroll upon the moss-grown stone +terrace and listened to the nightingales throwing into the air silver +fountains of trilling song. When Bettina paused, leaning against the +balustrade of the terrace that she might hear all the beauty of it, and +feel all the beauty of the warm spring night, Rosy went on making her +effort to talk. + +"It is not much of a neighbourhood, Betty," she said. "You are too +accustomed to livelier places to like it." + +"That is my reason for feeling that I shall like it. I don't think I +could be called a lively person, and I rather hate lively places." + +"But you are accustomed--accustomed----" Rosy harked back uncertainly. + +"I have been accustomed to wishing that I could come to you," said +Betty. "And now I am here." + +Lady Anstruthers laid a hand on her dress. + +"I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" she breathed. + +"You will believe it," said Betty, drawing the hand around her waist +and enclosing in her own arm the narrow shoulders. "Tell me about the +neighbourhood." + +"There isn't any, really," said Lady Anstruthers. "The houses are so far +away from each other. The nearest is six miles from here, and it is one +that doesn't count. + +"Why?" + +"There is no family, and the man who owns it is so poor. It is a big +place, but it is falling to pieces as this is. + +"What is it called?" + +"Mount Dunstan. The present earl only succeeded about three years ago. +Nigel doesn't know him. He is queer and not liked. He has been away." + +"Where?" + +"No one knows. To Australia or somewhere. He has odd ideas. The Mount +Dunstans have been awful people for two generations. This man's father +was almost mad with wickedness. So was the elder son. This is a second +son, and he came into nothing but debt. Perhaps he feels the disgrace +and it makes him rude and ill-tempered. His father and elder brother had +been in such scandals that people did not invite them. + +"Do they invite this man?" + +"No. He probably would not go to their houses if they did. And he went +away soon after he came into the title." + +"Is the place beautiful?" + +"There is a fine deer park, and the gardens were wonderful a long time +ago. The house is worth looking at--outside." + +"I will go and look at it," said Betty. + +"The carriage is out of order. There is only Ughtred's cart." + +"I am a good walker," said Betty. + +"Are you? It would be twelve miles--there and back. When I was in New +York people didn't walk much, particularly girls." + +"They do now," Betty answered. "They have learned to do it in England. +They live out of doors and play games. They have grown athletic and +tall." + +As they talked the nightingales sang, sometimes near, sometimes in the +distance, and scents of dewy grass and leaves and earth were wafted +towards them. Sometimes they strolled up and down the terrace, sometimes +they paused and leaned against the stone balustrade. Betty allowed Rosy +to talk as she chose. She herself asked no obviously leading questions +and passed over trying moments with lightness. Her desire was to place +herself in a position where she might hear the things which would aid +her to draw conclusions. Lady Anstruthers gradually grew less nervous +and afraid of her subjects. In the wonder of the luxury of talking to +someone who listened with sympathy, she once or twice almost forgot +herself and made revelations she had not intended to make. She had often +the manner of a person who was afraid of being overheard; sometimes, +even when she was making speeches quite simple in themselves, her voice +dropped and she glanced furtively aside as if there were chances that +something she dreaded might step out of the shadow. + +When they went upstairs together and parted for the night, the clinging +of Rosy's embrace was for a moment almost convulsive. But she tried to +laugh off its suggestion of intensity. + +"I held you tight so that I could feel sure that you were real and would +not melt away," she said. "I hope you will be here in the morning." + +"I shall never really go quite away again, now I have come," Betty +answered. "It is not only your house I have come into. I have come back +into your life." + +After she had entered her room and locked the door she sat down and +wrote a letter to her father. It was a long letter, but a clear one. +She painted a definite and detailed picture and made distinct her chief +point. + +"She is afraid of me," she wrote. "That is the first and worst obstacle. +She is actually afraid that I will do something which will only add to +her trouble. She has lived under dominion so long that she has forgotten +that there are people who have no reason for fear. Her old life seems +nothing but a dream. The first thing I must teach her is that I am to be +trusted not to do futile things, and that she need neither be afraid of +nor for me." + +After writing these sentences she found herself leaving her desk and +walking up and down the room to relieve herself. She could not sit +still, because suddenly the blood ran fast and hot through her veins. +She put her hands against her cheeks and laughed a little, low laugh. + +"I feel violent," she said. "I feel violent and I must get over it. This +is rage. Rage is worth nothing." + +It was rage--the rage of splendid hot blood which surged in answer to +leaping hot thoughts. There would have been a sort of luxury in giving +way to the sway of it. But the self-indulgence would have been no aid to +future action. Rage was worth nothing. She said it as the first Reuben +Vanderpoel might have said of a useless but glittering weapon. "This gun +is worth nothing," and cast it aside. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +IN THE GARDENS + +She came out upon the stone terrace again rather early in the morning. +She wanted to wander about in the first freshness of the day, which was +always an uplifting thing to her. She wanted to see the dew on the grass +and on the ragged flower borders and to hear the tender, broken fluting +of birds in the trees. One cuckoo was calling to another in the park, +and she stopped and listened intently. Until yesterday she had never +heard a cuckoo call, and its hollow mellowness gave her delight. It +meant the spring in England, and nowhere else. + +There was space enough to ramble about in the gardens. Paths and beds +were alike overgrown with weeds, but some strong, early-blooming things +were fighting for life, refusing to be strangled. Against the beautiful +old red walls, over which age had stolen with a wonderful grey bloom, +venerable fruit trees were spread and nailed, and here and there showed +bloom, clumps of low-growing things sturdily advanced their yellowness +or whiteness, as if defying neglect. In one place a wall slanted and +threatened to fall, bearing its nectarine trees with it; in another +there was a gap so evidently not of to-day that the heap of its masonry +upon the border bed was already covered with greenery, and the roots of +the fruit tree it had supported had sent up strong, insistent shoots. + +She passed down broad paths and narrow ones, sometimes walking under +trees, sometimes pushing her way between encroaching shrubs; she +descended delightful mossy and broken steps and came upon dilapidated +urns, in which weeds grew instead of flowers, and over which rampant but +lovely, savage little creepers clambered and clung. + +In one of the walled kitchen gardens she came upon an elderly gardener +at work. At the sound of her approaching steps he glanced round and then +stood up, touching his forelock in respectful but startled salute. He +was so plainly amazed at the sight of her that she explained herself. + +"Good-morning," she said. "I am her ladyship's sister, Miss Vanderpoel. +I came yesterday evening. I am looking over your gardens." + +He touched his forehead again and looked round him. His manner was not +cheerful. He cast a troubled eye about him. + +"They're not much to see, miss," he said. "They'd ought to be, but +they're not. Growing things has to be fed and took care of. A man and a +boy can't do it--nor yet four or five of 'em." + +"How many ought there to be?" Betty inquired, with business-like +directness. It was not only the dew on the grass she had come out to +see. + +"If there was eight or ten of us we might put it in order and keep it +that way. It's a big place, miss." + +Betty looked about her as he had done, but with a less discouraged eye. + +"It is a beautiful place, as well as a large one," she said. "I can see +that there ought to be more workers." + +"There's no one," said the gardener, "as has as many enemies as a +gardener, an' as many things to fight. There's grubs an' there's +greenfly, an' there's drout', an' wet an' cold, an' mildew, an' there's +what the soil wants and starves without, an' if you haven't got it nor +yet hands an' feet an' tools enough, how's things to feed, an' fight an' +live--let alone bloom an' bear?" + +"I don't know much about gardens," said Miss Vanderpoel, "but I can +understand that." + +The scent of fresh bedewed things was in the air. It was true that she +had not known much about gardens, but here standing in the midst of +one she began to awaken to a new, practical interest. A creature of +initiative could not let such a place as this alone. It was beauty being +slowly slain. One could not pass it by and do nothing. + +"What is your name?" she asked + +"Kedgers, miss. I've only been here about a twelve-month. I was took on +because I'm getting on in years an' can't ask much wage." + +"Can you spare time to take me through the gardens and show me things?" + +Yes, he could do it. In truth, he privately welcomed an opportunity +offering a prospect of excitement so novel. He had shown more +flourishing gardens to other young ladies in his past years of service, +but young ladies did not come to Stornham, and that one having, with +such extraordinary unexpectedness arrived, should want to look over the +desolation of these, was curious enough to rouse anyone to a sense of +a break in accustomed monotony. The young lady herself mystified him +by her difference from such others as he had seen. What the man in the +shabby livery had felt, he felt also, and added to this was a sense of +the practicalness of the questions she asked and the interest she showed +and a way she had of seeming singularly to suggest by the look in her +eyes and the tone of her voice that nothing was necessarily without +remedy. When her ladyship walked through the place and looked at things, +a pale resignation expressed itself in the very droop of her +figure. When this one walked through the tumbled-down grape-houses, +potting-sheds and conservatories, she saw where glass was broken, where +benches had fallen and where roofs sagged and leaked. She inquired about +the heating apparatus and asked that she might see it. She asked about +the village and its resources, about labourers and their wages. + +"As if," commented Kedgers mentally, "she was what Sir Nigel +is--leastways what he'd ought to be an' ain't." + +She led the way back to the fallen wall and stood and looked at it. + +"It's a beautiful old wall," she said. "It should be rebuilt with the +old brick. New would spoil it." + +"Some of this is broken and crumbled away," said Kedgers, picking up a +piece to show it to her. + +"Perhaps old brick could be bought somewhere," replied the young lady +speculatively. "One ought to be able to buy old brick in England, if one +is willing to pay for it." + +Kedgers scratched his head and gazed at her in respectful wonder which +was almost trouble. Who was going to pay for things, and who was going +to look for things which were not on the spot? Enterprise like this was +not to be explained. + +When she left him he stood and watched her upright figure disappear +through the ivy-grown door of the kitchen gardens with a disturbed +but elated expression on his countenance. He did not know why he felt +elated, but he was conscious of elation. Something new had walked +into the place. He stopped his work and grinned and scratched his head +several times after he went back to his pottering among the cabbage +plants. + +"My word," he muttered. "She's a fine, straight young woman. If she +was her ladyship things 'ud be different. Sir Nigel 'ud be different, +too--or there'd be some fine upsets." + +There was a huge stable yard, and Betty passed through that on her way +back. The door of the carriage house was open and she saw two or three +tumbled-down vehicles. One was a landau with a wheel off, one was a +shabby, old-fashioned, low phaeton. She caught sight of a patently +venerable cob in one of the stables. The stalls near him were empty. + +"I suppose that is all they have to depend upon," she thought. "And the +stables are like the gardens." + +She found Lady Anstruthers and Ughtred waiting for her upon the terrace, +each of them regarding her with an expression suggestive of repressed +curiosity as she approached. Lady Anstruthers flushed a little and went +to meet her with an eager kiss. + +"You look like--I don't know quite what you look like, Betty!" she +exclaimed. + +The girl's dimple deepened and her eyes said smiling things. + +"It is the morning--and your gardens," she answered. "I have been round +your gardens." + +"They were beautiful once, I suppose," said Rosy deprecatingly. + +"They are beautiful now. There is nothing like them in America at +least." + +"I don't remember any gardens in America," Lady Anstruthers owned +reluctantly, "but everything seemed so cheerful and well cared for +and--and new. Don't laugh, Betty. I have begun to like new things. You +would if you had watched old ones tumbling to pieces for twelve years." + +"They ought not to be allowed to tumble to pieces," said Betty. She +added her next words with simple directness. She could only discover +how any advancing steps would be taken by taking them. "Why do you allow +them to do it?" + +Lady Anstruthers looked away, but as she looked her eyes passed +Ughtred's. + +"I!" she said. "There are so many other things to do. It would cost so +much--such an enormity to keep it all in order." + +"But it ought to be done--for Ughtred's sake." + +"I know that," faltered Rosy, "but I can't help it." + +"You can," answered Betty, and she put her arm round her as they turned +to enter the house. "When you have become more used to me and my driving +American ways I will show you how." + +The lightness with which she said it had an odd effect on Lady +Anstruthers. Such casual readiness was so full of the suggestion of +unheard of possibilities that it was a kind of shock. + +"I have been twelve years in getting un-used to you--I feel as if it +would take twelve years more to get used again," she said. + +"It won't take twelve weeks," said Betty. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FIRST MAN + +The mystery of the apparently occult methods of communication among +the natives of India, between whom, it is said, news flies by means too +strange and subtle to be humanly explainable, is no more difficult +a problem to solve than that of the lightning rapidity with which a +knowledge of the transpiring of any new local event darts through +the slowest, and, as far as outward signs go, the least communicative +English village slumbering drowsily among its pastures and trees. + +That which the Hall or Manor House believed last night, known only +to the four walls of its drawing-room, is discussed over the cottage +breakfast tables as though presented in detail through the columns of +the Morning Post. The vicarage, the smithy, the post office, the +little provision shop, are instantaneously informed as by magic of such +incidents of interest as occur, and are prepared to assist vicariously +at any future developments. Through what agency information is given +no one can tell, and, indeed, the agency is of small moment. Facts of +interest are perhaps like flights of swallows and dart chattering from +one red roof to another, proclaiming themselves aloud. Nothing is +so true as that in such villages they are the property and innocent +playthings of man, woman, and child, providing conversation and drama +otherwise likely to be lacked. + +When Miss Vanderpoel walked through Stornham village street she became +aware that she was an exciting object of interest. Faces appeared at +cottage windows, women sauntered to doors, men in the taproom of the +Clock Inn left beer mugs to cast an eye on her; children pushed open +gates and stared as they bobbed their curtsies; the young woman who kept +the shop left her counter and came out upon her door step to pick up +her straying baby and glance over its shoulder at the face with the red +mouth, and the mass of black hair rolled upward under a rough blue +straw hat. Everyone knew who this exotic-looking young lady was. She had +arrived yesterday from London, and a week ago by means of a ship from +far-away America, from the country in connection with which the rural +mind curiously mixed up large wages, great fortunes and Indians. +"Gaarge" Lunsden, having spent five years of his youth labouring heavily +for sixteen shillings a week, had gone to "Meriker" and had earned there +eight shillings a day. This was a well-known and much-talked over +fact, and had elevated the western continent to a position of trust and +importance it had seriously lacked before the emigration of Lunsden. A +place where a man could earn eight shillings a day inspired interest as +well as confidence. When Sir Nigel's wife had arrived twelve years ago +as the new Lady Anstruthers, the story that she herself "had money" had +been verified by her fine clothes and her way of handing out sovereigns +in cases where the rest of the gentry, if they gave at all, would have +bestowed tea and flannel or shillings. There had been for a few months a +period of unheard of well-being in Stornham village; everyone remembered +the hundred pounds the bride had given to poor Wilson when his place had +burned down, but the village had of course learned, by its occult means, +that Sir Nigel and the Dowager had been angry and that there had been a +quarrel. Afterwards her ladyship had been dangerously ill, the baby had +been born a hunchback, and a year had passed before its mother had been +seen again. Since then she had been a changed creature; she had lost her +looks and seemed to care for nothing but the child. Stornham village +saw next to nothing of her, and it certainly was not she who had the +dispensing of her fortune. Rumour said Sir Nigel lived high in London +and foreign parts, but there was no high living at the Court. Her +ladyship's family had never been near her, and belief in them and their +wealth almost ceased to exist. If they were rich, Stornham felt that it +was their business to mend roofs and windows and not allow chimneys and +kitchen boilers to fall into ruin, the simple, leading article of faith +being that even American money belonged properly to England. + +As Miss Vanderpoel walked at a light, swinging pace through the one +village street the gazers felt with Kedgers that something new was +passing and stirring the atmosphere. She looked straight, and with a +friendliness somehow dominating, at the curious women; her handsome eyes +met those of the men in a human questioning; she smiled and nodded to +the bobbing children. One of these, young enough to be uncertain on +its feet, in running to join some others stumbled and fell on the path +before her. Opening its mouth in the inevitable resultant roar, it was +shocked almost into silence by the tall young lady stooping at once, +picking it up, and cheerfully dusting its pinafore. + +"Don't cry," she said; "you are not hurt, you know." + +The deep dimple near her mouth showed itself, and the laugh in her eyes +was so reassuring that the penny she put into the grubby hand was less +productive of effect than her mere self. She walked on, leaving the +group staring after her breathless, because of a sense of having met +with a wonderful adventure. The grand young lady with the black hair +and the blue hat and tall, straight body was the adventure. She left the +same sense of event with the village itself. They talked of her all day +over their garden palings, on their doorsteps, in the street; of her +looks, of her height, of the black rim of lashes round her eyes, of +the chance that she might be rich and ready to give half-crowns and +sovereigns, of the "Meriker" she had come from, and above all of the +reason for her coming. + +Betty swung with the light, firm step of a good walker out on to the +highway. To walk upon the fine, smooth old Roman road was a pleasure +in itself, but she soon struck away from it and went through lanes and +by-ways, following sign-posts because she knew where she was going. Her +walk was to take her to Mount Dunstan and home again by another road. In +walking, an objective point forms an interest, and what she had heard of +the estate from Rosalie was a vague reason for her caring to see it. It +was another place like Stornham, once dignified and nobly representative +of fine things, now losing their meanings and values. Values and +meanings, other than mere signs of wealth and power, there had been. +Centuries ago strong creatures had planned and built it for such reasons +as strength has for its planning and building. In Bettina Vanderpoel's +imagination the First Man held powerful and moving sway. It was he whom +she always saw. In history, as a child at school, she had understood and +drawn close to him. There was always a First Man behind all that one +saw or was told, one who was the fighter, the human thing who snatched +weapons and tools from stones and trees and wielded them in the carrying +out of the thought which was his possession and his strength. He was the +God made human; others waited, without knowledge of their waiting, +for the signal he gave. A man like others--with man's body, hands, and +limbs, and eyes--the moving of a whole world was subtly altered by his +birth. One could not always trace him, but with stone axe and spear +point he had won savage lands in savage ways, and so ruled them that, +leaving them to other hands, their march towards less savage life could +not stay itself, but must sweep on; others of his kind, striking rude +harps, had so sung that the loud clearness of their wild songs had rung +through the ages, and echo still in strains which are theirs, though +voices of to-day repeat the note of them. The First Man, a Briton +stained with woad and hung with skins, had tilled the luscious greenness +of the lands richly rolling now within hedge boundaries. The square +church towers rose, holding their slender corner spires above the trees, +as a result of the First Man, Norman William. The thought which held its +place, the work which did not pass away, had paid its First Man wages; +but beauties crumbling, homes falling to waste, were bitter things. The +First Man, who, having won his splendid acres, had built his home upon +them and reared his young and passed his possession on with a proud +heart, seemed but ill treated. Through centuries the home had enriched +itself, its acres had borne harvests, its trees had grown and spread +huge branches, full lives had been lived within the embrace of the +massive walls, there had been loves and lives and marriages and births, +the breathings of them made warm and full the very air. To Betty it +seemed that the land itself would have worn another face if it had not +been trodden by so many springing feet, if so many harvests had not +waved above it, if so many eyes had not looked upon and loved it. + +She passed through variations of the rural loveliness she had seen on +her way from the station to the Court, and felt them grow in beauty as +she saw them again. She came at last to a village somewhat larger than +Stornham and marked by the signs of the lack of money-spending care +which Stornham showed. Just beyond its limits a big park gate opened on +to an avenue of massive trees. She stopped and looked down it, but +could see nothing but its curves and, under the branches, glimpses of a +spacious sweep of park with other trees standing in groups or alone +in the sward. The avenue was unswept and untended, and here and there +boughs broken off by wind. + +Storms lay upon it. She turned to the road again and followed it, +because it enclosed the park and she wanted to see more of its evident +beauty. It was very beautiful. As she walked on she saw it rolled into +woods and deeps filled with bracken; she saw stretches of hillocky, +fine-grassed rabbit warren, and hollows holding shadowy pools; she +caught the gleam of a lake with swans sailing slowly upon it with curved +necks; there were wonderful lights and wonderful shadows, and brooding +stillness, which made her footfall upon the road a too material thing. + +Suddenly she heard a stirring in the bracken a yard or two away from +her. Something was moving slowly among the waving masses of huge fronds +and caused them to sway to and fro. It was an antlered stag who rose +from his bed in the midst of them, and with majestic deliberation +got upon his feet and stood gazing at her with a calmness of pose +so splendid, and a liquid darkness and lustre of eye so stilly and +fearlessly beautiful, that she caught her breath. He simply gazed as her +as a great king might gaze at an intruder, scarcely deigning wonder. + +As she had passed on her way, Betty had seen that the enclosing park +palings were decaying, covered with lichen and falling at intervals. It +had even passed through her mind that here was one of the demands +for expenditure on a large estate, which limited resources could not +confront with composure. The deer fence itself, a thing of wire ten +feet high, to form an obstacle to leaps, she had marked to be in such +condition as to threaten to become shortly a useless thing. Until this +moment she had seen no deer, but looking beyond the stag and across +the sward she now saw groups near each other, stags cropping or looking +towards her with lifted heads, does at a respectful but affectionate +distance from them, some caring for their fawns. The stag who had risen +near her had merely walked through a gap in the boundary and now stood +free to go where he would. + +"He will get away," said Betty, knitting her black brows. Ah! what a +shame! + +Even with the best intentions one could not give chase to a stag. She +looked up and down the road, but no one was within sight. Her brows +continued to knit themselves and her eyes ranged over the park itself in +the hope that some labourer on the estate, some woodman or game-keeper, +might be about. + + +"It is no affair of mine," she said, "but it would be too bad to let him +get away, though what happens to stray stags one doesn't exactly know." + +As she said it she caught sight of someone, a man in leggings and shabby +clothes and with a gun over his shoulder, evidently an under keeper. He +was a big, rather rough-looking fellow, but as he lurched out into +the open from a wood Betty saw that she could reach him if she passed +through a narrow gate a few yards away and walked quickly. + +He was slouching along, his head drooping and his broad shoulders +expressing the definite antipodes of good spirits. Betty studied his +back as she strode after him, her conclusion being that he was perhaps +not a good-humoured man to approach at any time, and that this was by +ill luck one of his less fortunate hours. + +"Wait a moment, if you please," her clear, mellow voice flung out after +him when she was within hearing distance. "I want to speak to you, +keeper." + +He turned with an air of far from pleased surprise. The afternoon +sun was in his eyes and made him scowl. For a moment he did not see +distinctly who was approaching him, but he had at once recognised a +certain cool tone of command in the voice whose suddenness had roused +him from a black mood. A few steps brought them to close quarters, and +when he found himself looking into the eyes of his pursuer he made +a movement as if to lift his cap, then checking himself, touched it, +keeper fashion. + +"Oh!" he said shortly. "Miss Vanderpoel! Beg pardon." + +Bettina stood still a second. She had her surprise also. Here was the +unexpected again. The under keeper was the red-haired second-class +passenger of the Meridiana. + +He did not look pleased to see her, and the suddenness of his appearance +excluded the possibility of her realising that upon the whole she was at +least not displeased to see him. + +"How do you do?" she said, feeling the remark fantastically +conventional, but not being inspired by any alternative. "I came to tell +you that one of the stags has got through a gap in the fence." + +"Damn!" she heard him say under his breath. Aloud he said, "Thank you." + +"He is a splendid creature," she said. "I did not know what to do. I was +glad to see a keeper coming." + +"Thank you," he said again, and strode towards the place where the +stag still stood gazing up the road, as if reflecting as to whether it +allured him or not. + +Betty walked back more slowly, watching him with interest. She wondered +what he would find it necessary to do. She heard him begin a low, +flute-like whistling, and then saw the antlered head turn towards him. +The woodland creature moved, but it was in his direction. It had without +doubt answered his call before and knew its meaning to be friendly. It +went towards him, stretching out a tender sniffing nose, and he put +his hand in the pocket of his rough coat and gave it something to eat. +Afterwards he went to the gap in the fence and drew the wires together, +fastening them with other wire, which he also took out of the coat +pocket. + +"He is not afraid of making himself useful," thought Betty. "And the +animals know him. He is not as bad as he looks." + +She lingered a moment watching him, and then walked towards the gate +through which she had entered. He glanced up as she neared him. + +"I don't see your carriage," he said. "Your man is probably round the +trees." + +"I walked," answered Betty. "I had heard of this place and wanted to see +it." + +He stood up, putting his wire back into his pocket. + +"There is not much to be seen from the road," he said. "Would you like +to see more of it?" + +His manner was civil enough, but not the correct one for a servant. +He did not say "miss" or touch his cap in making the suggestion. Betty +hesitated a moment. + +"Is the family at home?" she inquired. + +"There is no family but--his lordship. He is off the place." + +"Does he object to trespassers?" + +"Not if they are respectable and take no liberties." + +"I am respectable, and I shall not take liberties," said Miss +Vanderpoel, with a touch of hauteur. The truth was that she had spent a +sufficient number of years on the Continent to have become familiar with +conventions which led her not to approve wholly of his bearing. Perhaps +he had lived long enough in America to forget such conventions and to +lack something which centuries of custom had decided should belong +to his class. A certain suggestion of rough force in the man rather +attracted her, and her slight distaste for his manner arose from the +realisation that a gentleman's servant who did not address his superiors +as was required by custom was not doing his work in a finished way. In +his place she knew her own demeanour would have been finished. + +"If you are sure that Lord Mount Dunstan would not object to my walking +about, I should like very much to see the gardens and the house," she +said. "If you show them to me, shall I be interfering with your duties?" + +"No," he answered, and then for the first time rather glumly added, +"miss." + +"I am interested," she said, as they crossed the grass together, +"because places like this are quite new to me. I have never been in +England before." + +"There are not many places like this," he answered, "not many as old and +fine, and not many as nearly gone to ruin. Even Stornham is not quite as +far gone." + +"It is far gone," said Miss Vanderpoel. "I am staying there--with my +sister, Lady Anstruthers." + +"Beg pardon--miss," he said. This time he touched his cap in apology. + +Enormous as the gulf between their positions was, he knew that he had +offered to take her over the place because he was in a sense glad to +see her again. Why he was glad he did not profess to know or even to +ask himself. Coarsely speaking, it might be because she was one of the +handsomest young women he had ever chanced to meet with, and while her +youth was apparent in the rich red of her mouth, the mass of her thick, +soft hair and the splendid blue of her eyes, there spoke in every line +of face and pose something intensely more interesting and compelling +than girlhood. Also, since the night they had come together on the +ship's deck for an appalling moment, he had liked her better and +rebelled less against the unnatural wealth she represented. He led her +first to the wood from which she had seen him emerge. + +"I will show you this first," he explained. "Keep your eyes on the +ground until I tell you to raise them." + +Odd as this was, she obeyed, and her lowered glance showed her that she +was being guided along a narrow path between trees. The light was mellow +golden-green, and birds were singing in the boughs above her. In a few +minutes he stopped. + +"Now look up," he said. + +She uttered an exclamation when she did so. She was in a fairy dell +thick with ferns, and at beautiful distances from each other incredibly +splendid oaks spread and almost trailed their lovely giant branches. The +glow shining through and between them, the shadows beneath them, their +great boles and moss-covered roots, and the stately, mellow distances +revealed under their branches, the ancient wildness and richness, which +meant, after all, centuries of cultivation, made a picture in +this exact, perfect moment of ripening afternoon sun of an almost +unbelievable beauty. + +"There is nothing lovelier," he said in a low voice, "in all England." + +Bettina turned to look at him, because his tone was a curious one for a +man like himself. He was standing resting on his gun and taking in the +loveliness with a strange look in his rugged face. + +"You--you love it!" she said. + +"Yes," but with a suggestion of stubborn reluctance in the admission. + +She was rather moved. + +"Have you been keeper here long?" she asked. + +"No--only a few years. But I have known the place all my life." + +"Does Lord Mount Dunstan love it?" + +"In his way--yes." + +He was plainly not disposed to talk of his master. He was perhaps not +on particularly good terms with him. He led her away and volunteered no +further information. He was, upon the whole, uncommunicative. He did not +once refer to the circumstance of their having met before. It was +plain that he had no intention of presuming upon the fact that he, as +a second-class passenger on a ship, had once been forced by accident +across the barriers between himself and the saloon deck. He was +stubbornly resolved to keep his place; so stubbornly that Bettina felt +that to broach the subject herself would verge upon offence. + +But the golden ways through which he led her made the afternoon one +she knew she should never forget. They wandered through moss walks and +alleys, through tangled shrubberies bursting into bloom, beneath avenues +of blossoming horse-chestnuts and scented limes, between thickets of +budding red and white may, and jungles of neglected rhododendrons; +through sunken gardens and walled ones, past terraces with broken +balustrades of stone, and fallen Floras and Dianas, past moss-grown +fountains splashing in lovely corners. Arches, overgrown with yet +unblooming roses, crumbled in their time stained beauty. Stillness +brooded over it all, and they met no one. They scarcely broke the +silence themselves. The man led the way as one who knew it by heart, and +Bettina followed, not caring for speech herself, because the stillness +seemed to add a spell of enchantment. What could one say, to a stranger, +of such beauty so lost and given over to ruin and decay. + +"But, oh!" she murmured once, standing still, with indrawn breath, "if +it were mine!--if it were mine!" And she said the thing forgetting that +her guide was a living creature and stood near. + +Afterwards her memories of it all seemed to her like the memories of a +dream. The lack of speech between herself and the man who led her, his +often averted face, her own sense of the desertedness of each beauteous +spot she passed through, the mossy paths which gave back no sound of +footfalls as they walked, suggested, one and all, unreality. When +at last they passed through a door half hidden in an ivied wall, and +crossing a grassed bowling green, mounted a short flight of broken steps +which led them to a point through which they saw the house through a +break in the trees, this last was the final touch of all. It was a great +place, stately in its masses of grey stone to which thick ivy clung. +To Bettina it seemed that a hundred windows stared at her with closed, +blind eyes. All were shuttered but two or three on the lower floors. Not +one showed signs of life. The silent stone thing stood sightless among +all of which it was dead master--rolling acres, great trees, lost +gardens and deserted groves. + +"Oh!" she sighed, "Oh!" + +Her companion stood still and leaned upon his gun again, looking as he +had looked before. + +"Some of it," he said, "was here before the Conquest. It belonged to +Mount Dunstans then." + +"And only one of them is left," she cried, "and it is like this!" + +"They have been a bad lot, the last hundred years," was the surly +liberty of speech he took, "a bad lot." + +It was not his place to speak in such manner of those of his master's +house, and it was not the part of Miss Vanderpoel to encourage him by +response. She remained silent, standing perhaps a trifle more lightly +erect as she gazed at the rows of blind windows in silence. + +Neither of them uttered a word for some time, but at length Bettina +roused herself. She had a six-mile walk before her and must go. + +"I am very much obliged to you," she began, and then paused a second. +A curious hesitance came upon her, though she knew that under ordinary +circumstances such hesitation would have been totally out of place. She +had occupied the man's time for an hour or more, he was of the working +class, and one must not be guilty of the error of imagining that a man +who has work to do can justly spend his time in one's service for the +mere pleasure of it. She knew what custom demanded. Why should she +hesitate before this man, with his not too courteous, surly face. She +felt slightly irritated by her own unpractical embarrassment as she put +her hand into the small, latched bag at her belt. + +"I am very much obliged, keeper," she said. "You have given me a +great deal of your time. You know the place so well that it has been +a pleasure to be taken about by you. I have never seen anything so +beautiful--and so sad. Thank you--thank you." And she put a goldpiece +in his palm. + +His fingers closed over it quietly. Why it was to her great relief she +did not know--because something in the simple act annoyed her, even +while she congratulated herself that her hesitance had been absurd. The +next moment she wondered if it could be possible that he had expected +a larger fee. He opened his hand and looked at the money with a grim +steadiness. + +"Thank you, miss," he said, and touched his cap in the proper manner. + +He did not look gracious or grateful, but he began to put it in a small +pocket in the breast of his worn corduroy shooting jacket. Suddenly he +stopped, as if with abrupt resolve. He handed the coin back without any +change of his glum look. + +"Hang it all," he said, "I can't take this, you know. I suppose I ought +to have told you. It would have been less awkward for us both. I am that +unfortunate beggar, Mount Dunstan, myself." + +A pause was inevitable. It was a rather long one. After it, Betty took +back her half-sovereign and returned it to her bag, but she pleased a +certain perversity in him by looking more annoyed than confused. + +"Yes," she said. "You ought to have told me, Lord Mount Dunstan." + +He slightly shrugged his big shoulders. + + +"Why shouldn't you take me for a keeper? You crossed the Atlantic with +a fourth-rate looking fellow separated from you by barriers of wood +and iron. You came upon him tramping over a nobleman's estate in shabby +corduroys and gaiters, with a gun over his shoulder and a scowl on his +ugly face. Why should you leap to the conclusion that he is the belted +Earl himself? There is no cause for embarrassment." + +"I am not embarrassed," said Bettina. + +"That is what I like," gruffly. + +"I am pleased," in her mellowest velvet voice, "that you like it." + +Their eyes met with a singular directness of gaze. Between them a spark +passed which was not afterwards to be extinguished, though neither +of them knew the moment of its kindling, and Mount Dunstan slightly +frowned. + +"I beg pardon," he said. "You are quite right. It had a deucedly +patronising sound." + +As he stood before her Betty was given her opportunity to see him as she +had not seen him before, to confront the sum total of his physique. His +red-brown eyes looked out from rather fine heavy brows, his features +were strong and clear, though ruggedly cut, his build showed weight +of bone, not of flesh, and his limbs were big and long. He would have +wielded a battle-axe with power in centuries in which men hewed their +way with them. Also it occurred to her he would have looked well in a +coat of mail. He did not look ill in his corduroys and gaiters. + +"I am a self-absorbed beggar," he went on. "I had been slouching about +the place, almost driven mad by my thoughts, and when I saw you took me +for a servant my fancy was for letting the thing go on. If I had been a +rich man instead of a pauper I would have kept your half-sovereign." + +"I should not have enjoyed that when I found out the truth," said Miss +Vanderpoel. + +"No, I suppose you wouldn't. But I should not have cared." + +He was looking at her straightly and summing her up as she had summed +him up. A man and young, he did not miss a line or a tint of her chin or +cheek, shoulder, or brow, or dense, lifted hair. He had already, even +in his guise of keeper, noticed one thing, which was that while at times +her eyes were the blue of steel, sometimes they melted to the colour of +bluebells under water. They had been of this last hue when she had stood +in the sunken garden, forgetting him and crying low: + +"Oh, if it were mine! If it were mine!" + +He did not like American women with millions, but while he would not +have said that he liked her, he did not wish her yet to move away. And +she, too, did not wish, just yet, to move away. There was something +dramatic and absorbing in the situation. She looked over the softly +stirring grass and saw the sunshine was deepening its gold and the +shadows were growing long. It was not a habit of hers to ask questions, +but she asked one. + +"Did you not like America?" was what she said. + +"Hated it! Hated it! I went there lured by a belief that a man like +myself, with muscle and will, even without experience, could make a +fortune out of small capital on a sheep ranch. Wind and weather and +disease played the devil with me. I lost the little I had and came back +to begin over again--on nothing--here!" And he waved his hand over the +park with its sward and coppice and bracken and the deer cropping in the +late afternoon gold. + +"To begin what again?" said Betty. It was an extraordinary enough thing, +seen in the light of conventions, that they should stand and talk like +this. But the spark had kindled between eye and eye, and because of it +they suddenly had forgotten that they were strangers. + +"You are an American, so it may not seem as mad to you as it would to +others. To begin to build up again, in one man's life, what has taken +centuries to grow--and fall into this." + +"It would be a splendid thing to do," she said slowly, and as she said +it her eyes took on their colour of bluebells, because what she had seen +had moved her. She had not looked at him, but at the cropping deer as +she spoke, but at her next sentence she turned to him again. + +"Where should you begin?" she asked, and in saying it thought of +Stornham. + +He laughed shortly. + +"That is American enough," he said. "Your people have not finished their +beginnings yet and live in the spirit of them. I tell you of a wild +fancy, and you accept it as a possibility and turn on me with, 'Where +should you begin?'" + +"That is one way of beginning," said Bettina. "In fact, it is the only +way." + +He did not tell her that he liked that, but he knew that he did like it +and that her mere words touched him like a spur. It was, of course, her +lifelong breathing of the atmosphere of millions which made for this +fashion of moving at once in the direction of obstacles presenting to +the rest of the world barriers seemingly insurmountable. And yet there +was something else in it, some quality of nature which did not alone +suggest the omnipotence of wealth, but another thing which might be even +stronger and therefore carried conviction. He who had raged and clenched +his hands in the face of his knowledge of the aspect his dream would +have presented if he had revealed it to the ordinary practical mind, +felt that a point of view like this was good for him. There was in it +stimulus for a fleeting moment at least. + +"That is a good idea," he answered. "Where should you begin?" + +She replied quite seriously, though he could have imagined some girls +rather simpering over the question as a casual joke. + +"One would begin at the fences," she said. "Don't you think so?" + +"That is practical." + +"That is where I shall begin at Stornham," reflectively. + +"You are going to begin at Stornham?" + +"How could one help it? It is not as large or as splendid as this has +been, but it is like it in a way. And it will belong to my sister's son. +No, I could not help it." + +"I suppose you could not." There was a hint of wholly unconscious +resentment in his tone. He was thinking that the effect produced by +their boundless wealth was to make these people feel as a race of giants +might--even their women unknowingly revealed it. + +"No, I could not," was her reply. "I suppose I am on the whole a sort +of commercial working person. I have no doubt it is commercial, that +instinct which makes one resent seeing things lose their value." + +"Shall you begin it for that reason?" + +"Partly for that one--partly for another." She held out her hand to him. +"Look at the length of the shadows. I must go. Thank you, Lord Mount +Dunstan, for showing me the place, and thank you for undeceiving me." + +He held the side gate open for her and lifted his cap as she passed +through. He admitted to himself, with some reluctance, that he was not +content that she should go even yet, but, of course, she must go. There +passed through his mind a remote wonder why he had suddenly unbosomed +himself to her in a way so extraordinarily unlike himself. It was, +he thought next, because as he had taken her about from one place to +another he had known that she had seen in things what he had seen in +them so long--the melancholy loneliness, the significance of it, the +lost hopes that lay behind it, the touching pain of the stateliness +wrecked. She had shown it in the way in which she tenderly looked from +side to side, in the very lightness of her footfall, in the bluebell +softening of her eyes. Oh, yes, she had understood and cared, American +as she was! She had felt it all, even with her hideous background of +Fifth Avenue behind her. + +When he had spoken it had been in involuntary response to an emotion in +herself. + +So he stood, thinking, as he for some time watched her walking up the +sunset-glowing road. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE PARTICULAR INCIDENT + +Betty Vanderpoel's walk back to Stornham did not, long though it was, +give her time to follow to its end the thread of her thoughts. Mentally +she walked again with her uncommunicative guide, through woodpaths and +gardens, and stood gazing at the great blind-faced house. She had not +given the man more than an occasional glance until he had told her his +name. She had been too much absorbed, too much moved, by what she had +been seeing. She wondered, if she had been more aware of him, whether +his face would have revealed a great deal. She believed it would not. He +had made himself outwardly stolid. But the thing must have been bitter. +To him the whole story of the splendid past was familiar even if through +his own life he had looked on only at gradual decay. There must be +stories enough of men and women who had lived in the place, of what they +had done, of how they had loved, of what they had counted for in their +country's wars and peacemakings, great functions and law-building. To +be able to look back through centuries and know of one's blood that +sometimes it had been shed in the doing of great deeds, must be a thing +to remember. To realise that the courage and honour had been lost in +ignoble modern vices, which no sense of dignity and reverence for race +and name had restrained--must be bitter--bitter! And in the role of a +servant to lead a stranger about among the ruins of what had been--that +must have been bitter, too. For a moment Betty felt the bitterness of it +herself and her red mouth took upon itself a grim line. The worst of it +for him was that he was not of that strain of his race who had been +the "bad lot." The "bad lot" had been the weak lot, the vicious, the +self-degrading. Scandals which had shut men out from their class +and kind were usually of an ugly type. This man had a strong jaw, a +powerful, healthy body, and clean, though perhaps hard, eyes. The First +Man of them, who hewed his way to the front, who stood fierce in the +face of things, who won the first lands and laid the first stones, might +have been like him in build and look. + +"It's a disgusting thing," she said to herself, "to think of the corrupt +weaklings the strong ones dwindled down to. I hate them. So does he." + +There had been many such of late years, she knew. She had seen them in +Paris, in Rome, even in New York. Things with thin or over-thick bodies +and receding chins and foreheads; things haunting places of amusement +and finding inordinate entertainment in strange jokes and horseplay. She +herself had hot blood and a fierce strength of rebellion, and she was +wondering how, if the father and elder brother had been the "bad lot," +he had managed to stand still, looking on, and keeping his hands off +them. + +The last gold of the sun was mellowing the grey stone of the terrace and +enriching the green of the weeds thrusting themselves into life between +the uneven flags when she reached Stornham, and passing through the +house found Lady Anstruthers sitting there. In sustenance of her effort +to keep up appearances, she had put on a weird little muslin dress and +had elaborated the dressing of her thin hair. It was no longer dragged +back straight from her face, and she looked a trifle less abject, even a +shade prettier. Bettina sat upon the edge of the balustrade and touched +the hair with light fingers, ruffling it a little becomingly. + +"If you had worn it like this yesterday," she said, "I should have known +you." + +"Should you, Betty? I never look into a mirror if I can help it, but +when I do I never know myself. The thing that stares back at me with its +pale eyes is not Rosy. But, of course, everyone grows old." + +"Not now! People are just discovering how to grow young instead." + +Lady Anstruthers looked into the clear courage of her laughing eyes. + +"Somehow," she said, "you say strange things in such a way that one +feels as if they must be true, however--however unlike anything else +they are." + +"They are not as new as they seem," said Betty. "Ancient philosophers +said things like them centuries ago, but people did not believe them. We +are just beginning to drag them out of the dust and furbish them up and +pretend they are ours, just as people rub up and adorn themselves with +jewels dug out of excavations." + +"In America people think so many new things," said poor little Lady +Anstruthers with yearning humbleness. + +"The whole civilised world is thinking what you call new things," said +Betty. "The old ones won't do. They have been tried, and though they +have helped us to the place we have reached, they cannot help us any +farther. We must begin again." + +"It is such a long time since I began," said Rosy, "such a long time." + +"Then there must be another beginning for you, too. The hour has +struck." + +Lady Anstruthers rose with as involuntary a movement as if a strong hand +had drawn her to her feet. She stood facing Betty, a pathetic little +figure in her washed-out muslin frock and with her washed-out face and +eyes and being, though on her faded cheeks a flush was rising. + +"Oh, Betty!" she said, "I don't know what there is about you, but there +is something which makes one feel as if you believed everything and +could do everything, and as if one believes YOU. Whatever you were to +say, you would make it seem TRUE. If you said the wildest thing in the +world I should BELIEVE you." + +Betty got up, too, and there was an extraordinary steadiness in her +eyes. + +"You may," she answered. "I shall never say one thing to you which is +not a truth, not one single thing." + +"I believe that," said Rosy Anstruthers, with a quivering mouth. "I do +believe it so." + +"I walked to Mount Dunstan," Betty said later. + +"Really?" said Rosy. "There and back?" + +"Yes, and all round the park and the gardens." + +Rosy looked rather uncertain. + +"Weren't you a little afraid of meeting someone?" + +"I did meet someone. At first I took him for a gamekeeper. But he turned +out to be Lord Mount Dunstan." + +Lady Anstruthers gasped. + +"What did he do?" she exclaimed. "Did he look angry at seeing a +stranger? They say he is so ill-tempered and rude." + +"I should feel ill-tempered if I were in his place," said Betty. "He has +enough to rouse his evil passions and make him savage. What a fate for a +man with any sense and decency of feeling! What fools and criminals +the last generation of his house must have produced! I wonder how such +things evolve themselves. But he is different--different. One can see +it. If he had a chance--just half a chance--he would build it all up +again. And I don't mean merely the place, but all that one means when +one says 'his house.'" + +"He would need a great deal of money," sighed Lady Anstruthers. + +Betty nodded slowly as she looked out, reflecting, into the park. + +"Yes, it would require money," was her admission. + +"And he has none," Lady Anstruthers added. "None whatever." + +"He will get some," said Betty, still reflecting. "He will make it, or +dig it up, or someone will leave it to him. There is a great deal of +money in the world, and when a strong creature ought to have some of it +he gets it." + +"Oh, Betty!" said Rosy. "Oh, Betty!" + +"Watch that man," said Betty; "you will see. It will come." + +Lady Anstruthers' mind, working at no time on complex lines, presented +her with a simple modern solution. + +"Perhaps he will marry an American," she said, and saying it, sighed +again. + +"He will not do it on purpose." Bettina answered slowly and with such an +air of absence of mind that Rosy laughed a little. + +"Will he do it accidentally, or against his will?" she said. + +Betty herself smiled. + +"Perhaps he will," she said. "There are Englishmen who rather dislike +Americans. I think he is one of them." + +It apparently became necessary for Lady Anstruthers, a moment later, to +lean upon the stone balustrade and pick off a young leaf or so, for no +reason whatever, unless that in doing so she averted her look from her +sister as she made her next remark. + +"Are you--when are you going to write to father and mother?" + +"I have written," with unembarrassed evenness of tone. "Mother will be +counting the days." + +"Mother!" Rosy breathed, with a soft little gasp. "Mother!" and turned +her face farther away. "What did you tell her?" + +Betty moved over to her and stood close at her side. The power of her +personality enveloped the tremulous creature as if it had been a sense +of warmth. + +"I told her how beautiful the place was, and how Ughtred adored you--and +how you loved us all, and longed to see New York again." + +The relief in the poor little face was so immense that Betty's heart +shook before it. Lady Anstruthers looked up at her with adoring eyes. + +"I might have known," she said; "I might have known that--that you would +only say the right thing. You couldn't say the wrong thing, Betty." + +Betty bent over her and spoke almost yearningly. + +"Whatever happens," she said, "we will take care that mother is not +hurt. She's too kind--she's too good--she's too tender." + +"That is what I have remembered," said Lady Anstruthers brokenly. "She +used to hold me on her lap when I was quite grown up. Oh! her soft, warm +arms--her warm shoulder! I have so wanted her." + +"She has wanted you," Betty answered. "She thinks of you just as she did +when she held you on her lap." + +"But if she saw me now--looking like this! If she saw me! Sometimes I +have even been glad to think she never would." + +"She will." Betty's tone was cool and clear. "But before she does I +shall have made you look like yourself." + +Lady Anstruthers' thin hand closed on her plucked leaves convulsively, +and then opening let them drop upon the stone of the terrace. + +"We shall never see each other. It wouldn't be possible," she said. "And +there is no magic in the world now, Betty. You can't bring back----" + +"Yes, you can," said Bettina. "And what used to be called magic is only +the controlled working of the law and order of things in these days. We +must talk it all over." + +Lady Anstruthers became a little pale. + +"What?" she asked, low and nervously, and Betty saw her glance sideways +at the windows of the room which opened on to the terrace. + +Betty took her hand and drew her down into a chair. She sat near her and +looked her straight in the face. + +"Don't be frightened," she said. "I tell you there is no need to be +frightened. We are not living in the Middle Ages. There is a policeman +even in Stornham village, and we are within four hours of London, where +there are thousands." + +Lady Anstruthers tried to laugh, but did not succeed very well, and her +forehead flushed. + +"I don't quite know why I seem so nervous," she said. "It's very silly +of me." + +She was still timid enough to cling to some rag of pretence, but Betty +knew that it would fall away. She did the wisest possible thing, which +was to make an apparently impersonal remark. + +"I want you to go over the place with me and show me everything. Walls +and fences and greenhouses and outbuildings must not be allowed to +crumble away." + +"What?" cried Rosy. "Have you seen all that already?" She actually +stared at her. "How practical and--and American!" + +"To see that a wall has fallen when you find yourself obliged to walk +round a pile of grass-grown brickwork?" said Betty. + +Lady Anstruthers still softly stared. + +"What--what are you thinking of?" she asked. + +"Thinking that it is all too beautiful----" Betty's look swept the +loveliness spread about her, "too beautiful and too valuable to be +allowed to lose its value and its beauty." She turned her eyes back to +Rosy and the deep dimple near her mouth showed itself delightfully. "It +is a throwing away of capital," she added. + +"Oh!" cried Lady Anstruthers, "how clever you are! And you look so +different, Betty." + +"Do I look stupid?" the dimple deepening. "I must try to alter that." + +"Don't try to alter your looks," said Rosy. "It is your looks that make +you so--so wonderful. But usually women--girls----" Rosy paused. + +"Oh, I have been trained," laughed Betty. "I am the spoiled daughter of +a business man of genius. His business is an art and a science. I have +had advantages. He has let me hear him talk. I even know some trifling +things about stocks. Not enough to do me vital injury--but something. +What I know best of all,"--her laugh ended and her eyes changed +their look,--"is that it is a blunder to think that beauty is not +capital--that happiness is not--and that both are not the greatest +assets in the scheme. This," with a wave of her hand, taking in all they +saw, "is beauty, and it ought to be happiness, and it must be taken care +of. It is your home and Ughtred's----" + +"It is Nigel's," put in Rosy. + +"It is entailed, isn't it?" turning quickly. "He cannot sell it?" + +"If he could we should not be sitting here," ruefully. + +"Then he cannot object to its being rescued from ruin." + +"He will object to--to money being spent on things he does not care +for." Lady Anstruthers' voice lowered itself, as it always did when she +spoke of her husband, and she indulged in the involuntary hasty glance +about her. + +"I am going to my room to take off my hat," Betty said. "Will you come +with me?" + +She went into the house, talking quietly of ordinary things, and in +this way they mounted the stairway together and passed along the gallery +which led to her room. When they entered it she closed the door, locked +it, and, taking off her hat, laid it aside. After doing which she sat. + +"No one can hear and no one can come in," she said. "And if they could, +you are afraid of things you need not be afraid of now. Tell me what +happened when you were so ill after Ughtred was born." + +"You guessed that it happened then," gasped Lady Anstruthers. + + +"It was a good time to make anything happen," replied Bettina. "You were +prostrated, you were a child, and felt yourself cast off hopelessly from +the people who loved you." + +"Forever! Forever!" Lady Anstruthers' voice was a sharp little moan. +"That was what I felt--that nothing could ever help me. I dared not +write things. He told me he would not have it--that he would stop any +hysterical complaints--that his mother could testify that he +behaved perfectly to me. She was the only person in the room with us +when--when----" + +"When?" said Betty. + +Lady Anstruthers shuddered. She leaned forward and caught Betty's hand +between her own shaking ones. + +"He struck me! He struck me! He said it never happened--but it did--it +did! Betty, it did! That was the one thing that came back to me +clearest. He said that I was in delirious hysterics, and that I had +struggled with his mother and himself, because they tried to keep me +quiet, and prevent the servants hearing. One awful day he brought Lady +Anstruthers into the room, and they stood over me, as I lay in bed, and +she fixed her eyes on me and said that she--being an Englishwoman, and +a person whose word would be believed, could tell people the truth--my +father and mother, if necessary, that my spoiled, hysterical American +tempers had created unhappiness for me--merely because I was bored by +life in the country and wanted excitement. I tried to answer, but they +would not let me, and when I began to shake all over, they said that I +was throwing myself into hysterics again. And they told the doctor so, +and he believed it." + +The possibilities of the situation were plainly to be seen. Fate, in the +form of temperament itself, had been against her. It was clear enough to +Betty as she patted and stroked the thin hands. "I understand. Tell me +the rest," she said. + +Lady Anstruthers' head dropped. + +"When I was loneliest, and dying of homesickness, and so weak that I +could not speak without sobbing, he came to me--it was one morning after +I had been lying awake all night--and he began to seem kinder. He had +not been near me for two days, and I had thought I was going to be +left to die alone--and mother would never know. He said he had been +reflecting and that he was afraid that we had misunderstood each +other--because we belonged to different countries, and had been brought +up in different ways----" she paused. + +"And that if you understood his position and considered it, you might +both be quite happy," Betty gave in quiet termination. + +Lady Anstruthers started. + +"Oh, you know it all!" she exclaimed + +"Only because I have heard it before. It is an old trick. And because +he seemed kind and relenting, you tried to understand--and signed +something." + +"I WANTED to understand. I WANTED to believe. What did it matter which +of us had the money, if we liked each other and were happy? He told me +things about the estate, and about the enormous cost of it, and his bad +luck, and debts he could not help. And I said that I would do anything +if--if we could only be like mother and father. And he kissed me and I +signed the paper." + +"And then?" + +"He went to London the next day, and then to Paris. He said he was +obliged to go on business. He was away a month. And after a week had +passed, Lady Anstruthers began to be restless and angry, and once she +flew into a rage, and told me I was a fool, and that if I had been an +Englishwoman, I should have had some decent control over my husband, +because he would have respected me. In time I found out what I had done. +It did not take long." + +"The paper you signed," said Betty, "gave him control over your money?" + +A forlorn nod was the answer. + +"And since then he has done as he chose, and he has not chosen to care +for Stornham. And once he made you write to father, to ask for more +money?" + +"I did it once. I never would do it again. He has tried to make me. He +always says it is to save Stornham for Ughtred." + +"Nothing can take Stornham from Ughtred. It may come to him a ruin, but +it will come to him." + +"He says there are legal points I cannot understand. And he says he is +spending money on it." + +"Where?" + +"He--doesn't go into that. If I were to ask questions, he would make me +know that I had better stop. He says I know nothing about things. And +he is right. He has never allowed me to know and--and I am not like you, +Betty." + +"When you signed the paper, you did not realise that you were doing +something you could never undo and that you would be forced to submit to +the consequences?" + +"I--I didn't realise anything but that it would kill me to live as I had +been living--feeling as if they hated me. And I was so glad and thankful +that he seemed kinder. It was as if I had been on the rack, and he +turned the screws back, and I was ready to do anything--anything--if +I might be taken off. Oh, Betty! you know, don't you, that--that if he +would only have been a little kind--just a little--I would have obeyed +him always, and given him everything." + +Betty sat and looked at her, with deeply pondering eyes. She was +confronting the fact that it seemed possible that one must build a new +soul for her as well as a new body. In these days of science and growing +sanity of thought, one did not stand helpless before the problem of +physical rebuilding, and--and perhaps, if one could pour life into a +creature, the soul of it would respond, and wake again, and grow. + +"You do not know where he is?" she said aloud. "You absolutely do not +know?" + +"I never know exactly," Lady Anstruthers answered. "He was here for a +few days the week before you came. He said he was going abroad. He might +appear to-morrow, I might not hear of him for six months. I can't help +hoping now that it will be the six months." + +"Why particularly now?" inquired Betty. + +Lady Anstruthers flushed and looked shy and awkward. + +"Because of--you. I don't know what he would say. I don't know what he +would do." + +"To me?" said Betty. + +"It would be sure to be something unreasonable and wicked," said Lady +Anstruthers. "It would, Betty." + +"I wonder what it would be?" Betty said musingly. + +"He has told lies for years to keep you all from me. If he came now, he +would know that he had been found out. He would say that I had told you +things. He would be furious because you have seen what there is to see. +He would know that you could not help but realise that the money he made +me ask for had not been spent on the estate. He,--Betty, he would try to +force you to go away." + +"I wonder what he would do?" Betty said again musingly. She felt +interested, not afraid. + +"It would be something cunning," Rosy protested. "It would be something +no one could expect. He might be so rude that you could not remain +in the room with him, or he might be quite polite, and pretend he was +rather glad to see you. If he was only frightfully rude we should be +safer, because that would not be an unexpected thing, but if he was +polite, it would be because he was arranging something hideous, which +you could not defend yourself against." + +"Can you tell me," said Betty quite slowly, because, as she looked down +at the carpet, she was thinking very hard, "the kind of unexpected thing +he has done to you?" Lifting her eyes, she saw that a troubled flush was +creeping over Lady Anstruthers' face. + +"There--have been--so many queer things," she faltered. Then Betty knew +there was some special thing she was afraid to talk about, and that if +she desired to obtain illuminating information it would be well to go +into the matter. + +"Try," she said, "to remember some particular incident." + +Lady Anstruthers looked nervous. + +"Rosy," in the level voice, "there has been a particular incident--and I +would rather hear of it from you than from him." + +Rosy's lap held little shaking hands. + +"He has held it over me for years," she said breathlessly. "He said +he would write about it to father and mother. He says he could use it +against me as evidence in--in the divorce court. He says that divorce +courts in America are for women, but in England they are for men, +and--he could defend himself against me." + +The incongruity of the picture of the small, faded creature arraigned in +a divorce court on charges of misbehaviour would have made Betty smile +if she had been in smiling mood. + +"What did he accuse you of?" + +"That was the--the unexpected thing," miserably. + +Betty took the unsteady hands firmly in her own. + +"Don't be afraid to tell me," she said. "He knew you so well that he +understood what would terrify you the most. I know you so well that I +understand how he does it. Did he do this unexpected thing just before +you wrote to father for the money?" As she quite suddenly presented the +question, Rosy exclaimed aloud. + + +"How did you know?" she said. "You--you are like a lawyer. How could you +know?" + +How simple she was! How obviously an easy prey! She had been +unconsciously giving evidence with every word. + +"I have been thinking him over," Betty said. "He interests me. I have +begun to guess that he always wants something when he professes that he +has a grievance." + +Then with drooping head, Rosy told the story. + +"Yes, it happened before he made me write to father for so much money. +The vicar was ill and was obliged to go away for six months. The +clergyman who came to take his place was a young man. He was kind and +gentle, and wanted to help people. His mother was with him and she was +like him. They loved each other, and they were quite poor. His name was +Ffolliott. I liked to hear him preach. He said things that comforted me. +Nigel found out that he comforted me, and--when he called here, he was +more polite to him than he had ever been to Mr. Brent. He seemed almost +as if he liked him. He actually asked him to dinner two or three times. +After dinner, he would go out of the room and leave us together. Oh, +Betty!" clinging to her hands, "I was so wretched then, that sometimes +I thought I was going out of my mind. I think I looked wild. I used to +kneel down and try to pray, and I could not." + +"Yes, yes," said Betty. + +"I used to feel that if I could only have one friend, just one, I +could bear it better. Once I said something like that to Nigel. He only +shrugged his shoulders and sneered when I said it. But afterwards I +knew he had remembered. One evening, when he had asked Mr. Ffolliott to +dinner, he led him to talk about religion. Oh, Betty! It made my blood +turn cold when he began. I knew he was doing it for some wicked reason. +I knew the look in his eyes and the awful, agreeable smile on his mouth. +When he said at last, 'If you could help my poor wife to find comfort in +such things,' I began to see. I could not explain to anyone how he did +it, but with just a sentence, dropped here and there, he seemed to tell +the whole story of a silly, selfish, American girl, thwarted in her +vulgar little ambitions, and posing as a martyr, because she could +not have her own way in everything. He said once, quite casually, 'I'm +afraid American women are rather spoiled.' And then he said, in the +same tolerant way--'A poor man is a disappointment to an American girl. +America does not believe in rank combined with lack of fortune.' I dared +not defend myself. I am not clever enough to think of the right things +to say. He meant Mr. Ffolliott to understand that I had married him +because I thought he was grand and rich, and that I was a disappointed +little spiteful shrew. I tried to act as if he was not hurting me, but +my hands trembled, and a lump kept rising in my throat. When we returned +to the drawing-room, and at last he left us together, I was praying and +praying that I might be able to keep from breaking down." + +She stopped and swallowed hard. Betty held her hands firmly until she +went on. + +"For a few minutes, I sat still, and tried to think of some new +subject--something about the church or the village. But I could not +begin to speak because of the lump in my throat. And then, suddenly, but +quietly, Mr. Ffolliott got up. And though I dared not lift my eyes, I +knew he was standing before the fire, quite near me. And, oh! what do +you think he said, as low and gently as if his voice was a woman's. +I did not know that people ever said such things now, or even thought +them. But never, never shall I forget that strange minute. He said just +this: + +"'God will help you. He will. He will.' + +"As if it was true, Betty! As if there was a God--and--He had not +forgotten me. I did not know what I was doing, but I put out my hand and +caught at his sleeve, and when I looked up into his face, I saw in +his kind, good eyes, that he knew--that somehow--God knows how--he +understood and that I need not utter a word to explain to him that he +had been listening to lies." + +"Did you talk to him?" Betty asked quietly. + +"He talked to me. We did not even speak of Nigel. He talked to me as +I had never heard anyone talk before. Somehow he filled the room with +something real, which was hope and comfort and like warmth, which kept +my soul from shivering. The tears poured from my eyes at first, but the +lump in my throat went away, and when Nigel came back I actually did not +feel frightened, though he looked at me and sneered quietly." + +"Did he say anything afterwards?" + +"He laughed a little cold laugh and said, 'I see you have been seeking +the consolation of religion. Neurotic women like confessors. I do not +object to your confessing, if you confess your own backslidings and not +mine.'" + +"That was the beginning," said Betty speculatively. "The unexpected +thing was the end. Tell me the rest?" + +"No one could have dreamed of it," Rosy broke forth. "For weeks he was +almost like other people. He stayed at Stornham and spent his days in +shooting. He professed that he was rather enjoying himself in a dull +way. He encouraged me to go to the vicarage, he invited the Ffolliotts +here. He said Mrs. Ffolliott was a gentlewoman and good for me. He said +it was proper that I should interest myself in parish work. Once or +twice he even brought some little message to me from Mr. Ffolliott." + +It was a pitiably simple story. Betty saw, through its relation, the +unconsciousness of the easily allured victim, the adroit leading on +from step to step, the ordinary, natural, seeming method which arranged +opportunities. The two had been thrown together at the Court, at the +vicarage, the church and in the village, and the hawk had looked on and +bided his time. For the first time in her years of exile, Rosy had begun +to feel that she might be allowed a friend--though she lived in secret +tremor lest the normal liberty permitted her should suddenly be snatched +away. + +"We never talked of Nigel," she said, twisting her hands. "But he made +me begin to live again. He talked to me of Something that watched and +would not leave me--would never leave me. I was learning to believe it. +Sometimes when I walked through the wood to the village, I used to stop +among the trees and look up at the bits of sky between the branches, and +listen to the sound in the leaves--the sound that never stops--and it +seemed as if it was saying something to me. And I would clasp my hands +and whisper, 'Yes, yes,' 'I will,' 'I will.' I used to see Nigel looking +at me at table with a queer smile in his eyes and once he said +to me--'You are growing young and lovely, my dear. Your colour is +improving. The counsels of our friend are of a salutary nature.' It +would have made me nervous, but he said it almost good-naturedly, and I +was silly enough even to wonder if it could be possible that he was +pleased to see me looking less ill. It was true, Betty, that I was +growing stronger. But it did not last long." + +"I was afraid not," said Betty. + +"An old woman in the lane near Bartyon Wood was ill. Mr. Ffolliott had +asked me to go to see her, and I used to go. She suffered a great deal +and clung to us both. He comforted her, as he comforted me. Sometimes +when he was called away he would send a note to me, asking me to go to +her. One day he wrote hastily, saying that she was dying, and asked if I +would go with him to her cottage at once. I knew it would save time if +I met him in the path which was a short cut. So I wrote a few words and +gave them to the messenger. I said, 'Do not come to the house. I will +meet you in Bartyon Wood.'" + +Betty made a slight movement, and in her face there was a dawning of +mingled amazement and incredulity. The thought which had come to her +seemed--as Ughtred's locking of the door had seemed--too wild for modern +days. + +Lady Anstruthers saw her expression and understood it. She made a +hopeless gesture with her small, bony hand. + +"Yes," she said, "it is just like that. No one would believe it. The +worst cleverness of the things he does, is that when one tells of them, +they sound like lies. I have a bewildered feeling that I should not +believe them myself if I had not seen them. He met the boy in the park +and took the note from him. He came back to the house and up to my room, +where I was dressing quickly to go to Mr. Ffolliott." + +She stopped for quite a minute, rather as if to recover breath. + +"He closed the door behind him and came towards me with the note in his +hand. And I saw in a second the look that always terrifies me, in his +face. He had opened the note and he smoothed out the paper quietly and +said, 'What is this?' I could not help it--I turned cold and began to +shiver. I could not imagine what was coming." + +"'Is it my note to Mr. Ffolliott?' I asked. + +"'Yes, it is your note to Mr. Ffolliott,' and he read it aloud. "Do +not come to the house. I will meet you in Bartyon Wood." That is a nice +note for a man's wife to have written, to be picked up and read by a +stranger, if your confessor is not cautious in the matter of letters +from women----' + +"When he begins a thing in that way, you may always know that he has +planned everything--that you can do nothing--I always know. I knew then, +and I knew I was quite white when I answered him: + +"'I wrote it in a great hurry, Mrs. Farne is worse. We are going +together to her. I said I would meet him--to save time.' + +"He laughed, his awful little laugh, and touched the paper. + +"'I have no doubt. And I have no doubt that if other persons saw this, +they would believe it. It is very likely. + +"'But you believe it,' I said. 'You know it is true. No one would be so +silly--so silly and wicked as to----' Then I broke down and cried out. +'What do you mean? What could anyone think it meant?' I was so wild that +I felt as if I was going crazy. He clenched my wrist and shook me. + +"'Don't think you can play the fool with me,' he said. 'I have been +watching this thing from the first. The first time I leave you alone +with the fellow, I come back to find you have been giving him an +emotional scene. Do you suppose your simpering good spirits and your +imbecile pink cheeks told me nothing? They told me exactly this. I have +waited to come upon it, and here it is. "Do not come to the house--I +will meet you in the wood."' + +"That was the unexpected thing. It was no use to argue and try to +explain. I knew he did not believe what he was saying, but he worked +himself into a rage, he accused me of awful things, and called me awful +names in a loud voice, so that he could be heard, until I was dumb and +staggering. All the time, I knew there was a reason, but I could +not tell then what it was. He said at last, that he was going to Mr. +Ffolliott. He said, 'I will meet him in the wood and I will take your +note with me.' + +"Betty, it was so shameful that I fell down on my knees. 'Oh, +don't--don't--do that,' I said. 'I beg of you, Nigel. He is a gentleman +and a clergyman. I beg and beg of you. If you will not, I will do +anything--anything.' And at that minute I remembered how he had tried +to make me write to father for money. And I cried out--catching at his +coat, and holding him back. 'I will write to father as you asked me. I +will do anything. I can't bear it.'" + +"That was the whole meaning of the whole thing," said Betty with eyes +ablaze. "That was the beginning, the middle and the end. What did he +say?" + +"He pretended to be made more angry. He said, 'Don't insult me by trying +to bribe me with your vulgar money. Don't insult me.' But he gradually +grew sulky instead of raging, and though he put the note in his pocket, +he did not go to Mr. Ffolliott. And--I wrote to father." + +"I remember that," Betty answered. "Did you ever speak to Mr. Ffolliott +again?" + +"He guessed--he knew--I saw it in his kind, brown eyes when he passed +me without speaking, in the village. I daresay the villagers were +told about the awful thing by some servant, who heard Nigel's voice. +Villagers always know what is happening. He went away a few weeks later. +The day before he went, I had walked through the wood, and just outside +it, I met him. He stopped for one minute--just one--he lifted his hat +and said, just as he had spoken them that first night--just the same +words, 'God will help you. He will. He will.'" + +A strange, almost unearthly joy suddenly flashed across her face. + +"It must be true," she said. "It must be true. He has sent you, Betty. +It has been a long time--it has been so long that sometimes I have +forgotten his words. But you have come!" + +"Yes, I have come," Betty answered. And she bent forward and kissed her +gently, as if she had been soothing a child. + +There were other questions to ask. She was obliged to ask them. "The +unexpected thing" had been used as an instrument for years. It was +always efficacious. Over the yearningly homesick creature had hung the +threat that her father and mother, those she ached and longed for, could +be told the story in such a manner as would brand her as a woman with +a shameful secret. How could she explain herself? There were the awful, +written words. He was her husband. He was remorseless, plausible. She +dared not write freely. She had no witnesses to call upon. She had +discovered that he had planned with composed steadiness that misleading +impressions should be given to servants and village people. When the +Brents returned to the vicarage, she had observed, with terror, that for +some reason they stiffened, and looked askance when the Ffolliotts were +mentioned. + +"I am afraid, Lady Anstruthers, that Mr. Ffolliott was a great mistake," +Mrs. Brent said once. + +Lady Anstruthers had not dared to ask any questions. She had felt the +awkward colour rising in her face and had known that she looked guilty. +But if she had protested against the injustice of the remark, Sir +Nigel would have heard of her words before the day had passed, and she +shuddered to think of the result. He had by that time reached the point +of referring to Ffolliott with sneering lightness, as "Your lover." + +"Do you defend your lover to me," he had said on one occasion, when she +had entered a timid protest. And her white face and wild helpless eyes +had been such evidence as to the effect the word had produced, that he +had seen the expediency of making a point of using it. + +The blood beat in Betty Vanderpoel's veins. + +"Rosy," she said, looking steadily in the faded face, "tell me this. Did +you never think of getting away from him, of going somewhere, and trying +to reach father, by cable, or letter, by some means?" + +Lady Anstruthers' weary and wrinkled little smile was a pitiably +illuminating thing. + +"My dear" she said, "if you are strong and beautiful and rich and well +dressed, so that people care to look at you, and listen to what you say, +you can do things. But who, in England, will listen to a shabby, dowdy, +frightened woman, when she runs away from her husband, if he follows +her and tells people she is hysterical or mad or bad? It is the shabby, +dowdy woman who is in the wrong. At first, I thought of nothing else but +trying to get away. And once I went to Stornham station. I walked all +the way, on a hot day. And just as I was getting into a third-class +carriage, Nigel marched in and caught my arm, and held me back. I +fainted and when I came to myself I was in the carriage, being driven +back to the Court, and he was sitting opposite to me. He said, 'You +fool! It would take a cleverer woman than you to carry that out.' And I +knew it was the awful truth." + +"It is not the awful truth now," said Betty, and she rose to her feet +and stood looking before her, but with a look which did not rest on +chairs and tables. She remained so, standing for a few moments of dead +silence. + +"What a fool he was!" she said at last. "And what a villain! But a +villain is always a fool." + +She bent, and taking Rosy's face between her hands, kissed it with a +kiss which seemed like a seal. "That will do," she said. "Now I know. +One must know what is in one's hands and what is not. Then one need not +waste time in talking of miserable things. One can save one's strength +for doing what can be done." + +"I believe you would always think about DOING things," said Lady +Anstruthers. "That is American, too." + +"It is a quality Americans inherited from England," lightly; "one of the +results of it is that England covers a rather large share of the map +of the world. It is a practical quality. You and I might spend hours in +talking to each other of what Nigel has done and what you have done, of +what he has said, and of what you have said. We might give some hours, I +daresay, to what the Dowager did and said. But wiser people than we are +have found out that thinking of black things past is living them again, +and it is like poisoning one's blood. It is deterioration of property." + +She said the last words as if she had ended with a jest. But she knew +what she was doing. + +"You were tricked into giving up what was yours, to a person who could +not be trusted. What has been done with it, scarcely matters. It is not +yours, but Sir Nigel's. But we are not helpless, because we have in our +hands the most powerful material agent in the world. + +"Come, Rosy, and let us walk over the house. We will begin with that." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +TOWNLINSON & SHEPPARD + +During the whole course of her interesting life--and she had always +found life interesting--Betty Vanderpoel decided that she had known +no experience more absorbing than this morning spent in going over the +long-closed and deserted portions of the neglected house. She had never +seen anything like the place, or as full of suggestion. The greater +part of it had simply been shut up and left to time and weather, both of +which had had their effects. The fine old red roof, having lost tiles, +had fallen into leaks that let in rain, which had stained and rotted +walls, plaster, and woodwork; wind and storm had beaten through broken +window panes and done their worst with such furniture and hangings as +they found to whip and toss and leave damp and spotted with mould. They +passed through corridors, and up and down short or long stairways, with +stained or faded walls, and sometimes with cracked or fallen plastering +and wainscotting. Here and there the oak flooring itself was uncertain. +The rooms, whether large or small, all presented a like aspect of +potential beauty and comfort, utterly uncared for and forlorn. There +were many rooms, but none more than scantily furnished, and a number of +them were stripped bare. Betty found herself wondering how long a time +it had taken the belongings of the big place to dwindle and melt away +into such bareness. + +"There was a time, I suppose, when it was all furnished," she said. + +"All these rooms were shut up when I came here," Rosy answered. "I +suppose things worth selling have been sold. When pieces of furniture +were broken in one part of the house, they were replaced by things +brought from another. No one cared. Nigel hates it all. He calls it a +rathole. He detests the country everywhere, but particularly this part +of it. After the first year I had learned better than to speak to him of +spending money on repairs." + +"A good deal of money should be spent on repairs," reflected Betty, +looking about her. + +She was standing in the middle of a room whose walls were hung with +the remains of what had been chintz, covered with a pattern of loose +clusters of moss rosebuds. The dampness had rotted it until, in some +places, it had fallen away in strips from its fastenings. A quaint, +embroidered couch stood in one corner, and as Betty looked at it, a +mouse crept from under the tattered valance, stared at her in alarm +and suddenly darted back again, in terror of intrusion so unusual. A +casement window swung open, on a broken hinge, and a strong branch of +ivy, having forced its way inside, had thrown a covering of leaves over +the deep ledge, and was beginning to climb the inner woodwork. Through +the casement was to be seen a heavenly spread of country, whose rolling +lands were clad softly in green pastures and thick-branched trees. + +"This is the Rosebud Boudoir," said Lady Anstruthers, smiling faintly. +"All the rooms have names. I thought them so delightful, when I first +heard them. The Damask Room--the Tapestry Room--the White Wainscot +Room--My Lady's Chamber. It almost broke my heart when I saw what they +looked like." + +"It would be very interesting," Betty commented slowly, "to make them +look as they ought to look." + +A remote fear rose to the surface of the expression in Lady Anstruthers' +eyes. She could not detach herself from certain recollections of +Nigel--of his opinions of her family--of his determination not to allow +it to enter as a factor in either his life or hers. And Betty had come +to Stornham--Betty whom he had detested as a child--and in the course of +two days, she had seemed to become a new part of the atmosphere, and to +make the dead despair of the place begin to stir with life. What other +thing than this was happening as she spoke of making such rooms as the +Rosebud Boudoir "look as they ought to look," and said the words not +as if they were part of a fantastic vision, but as if they expressed a +perfectly possible thing? + +Betty saw the doubt in her eyes, and in a measure, guessed at its +meaning. The time to pause for argument had, however not arrived. There +was too much to be investigated, too much to be seen. She swept her on +her way. They wandered on through some forty rooms, more or less; they +opened doors and closed them; they unbarred shutters and let the sun +stream in on dust and dampness and cobwebs. The comprehension of the +situation which Betty gained was as valuable as it was enlightening. + +The descent into the lower part of the house was a new experience. Betty +had not before seen huge, flagged kitchens, vaulted servants' halls, +stone passages, butteries and dairies. The substantial masonry of the +walls and arched ceilings, the stone stairway, and the seemingly +endless offices, were interestingly remote in idea from such domestic +modernities as chance views of up-to-date American household workings +had provided her. + +In the huge kitchen itself, an elderly woman, rolling pastry, paused to +curtsy to them, with stolid curiosity in her heavy-featured face. In her +character as "single-handed" cook, Mrs. Noakes had sent up uninviting +meals to Lady Anstruthers for several years, but she had not seen her +ladyship below stairs before. And this was the unexpected arrival--the +young lady there had been "talk of" from the moment of her appearance. +Mrs. Noakes admitted with the grudgingness of a person of uncheerful +temperament, that looks like that always would make talk. A certain +degree of vague mental illumination led her to agree with Robert, the +footman, that the stranger's effectiveness was, perhaps, also, not +altogether a matter of good looks, and certainly it was not an affair +of clothes. Her brightish blue dress, of rough cloth, was nothing +particular, notwithstanding the fit of it. There was "something else +about her." She looked round the place, not with the casual indifference +of a fine young lady, carelessly curious to see what she had not seen +before, but with an alert, questioning interest. + +"What a big place," she said to her ladyship. "What substantial walls! +What huge joints must have been roasted before such a fireplace." + +She drew near to the enormous, antiquated cooking place. + +"People were not very practical when this was built," she said. "It +looks as if it must waste a great deal of coal. Is it----?" she looked +at Mrs. Noakes. "Do you like it?" + +There was a practical directness in the question for which Mrs. Noakes +was not prepared. Until this moment, it had apparently mattered little +whether she liked things or not. The condition of her implements of +trade was one of her grievances--the ancient fireplace and ovens the +bitterest. + +"It's out of order, miss," she answered. "And they don't use 'em like +this in these days." + +"I thought not," said Miss Vanderpoel. + +She made other inquiries as direct and significant of the observing eye, +and her passage through the lower part of the establishment left Mrs. +Noakes and her companions in a strange but not unpleasurable state of +ferment. + +"Think of a young lady that's never had nothing to do with kitchens, +going straight to that shameful old fireplace, and seeing what it meant +to the woman that's got to use it. 'Do you like it?' she says. If she'd +been a cook herself, she couldn't have put it straighter. She's got +eyes." + +"She's been using them all over the place," said Robert. "Her and her +ladyship's been into rooms that's not been opened for years." + +"More shame to them that should have opened 'em," remarked Mrs. Noakes. +"Her ladyship's a poor, listless thing--but her spirit was broken long +ago. + +"This one will mend it for her, perhaps," said the man servant. "I +wonder what's going to happen." + +"Well, she's got a look with her--the new one--as if where she was +things would be likely to happen. You look out. The place won't seem so +dead and alive if we've got something to think of and expect." + +"Who are the solicitors Sir Nigel employs?" Betty had asked her sister, +when their pilgrimage through the house had been completed. + +Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard, a firm which for several generations +had transacted the legal business of much more important estates than +Stornham, held its affairs in hand. Lady Anstruthers knew nothing of +them, but that they evidently did not approve of the conduct of their +client. Nigel was frequently angry when he spoke of them. It could be +gathered that they had refused to allow him to do things he wished to +do--sell things, or borrow money on them. + +"I think we must go to London and see them," Betty suggested. + +Rosy was agitated. Why should one see them? What was there to be +spoken of? Their going, Betty explained would be a sort of visit of +ceremony--in a measure a precaution. Since Sir Nigel was apparently not +to be reached, having given no clue as to where he intended to go, it +might be discreet to consult Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard with regard +to the things it might be well to do--the repairs it appeared necessary +to make at once. If Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard approved of the doing +of such work, Sir Nigel could not resent their action, and say that in +his absence liberties had been taken. Such a course seemed businesslike +and dignified. + +It was what Betty felt that her father would do. Nothing could be +complained of, which was done with the knowledge and under the sanction +of the family solicitors. + +"Then there are other things we must do. We must go to shops and +theatres. It will be good for you to go to shops and theatres, Rosy." + +"I have nothing but rags to wear," answered Lady Anstruthers, reddening. + +"Then before we go we will have things sent down. People can be sent +from the shops to arrange what we want." + +The magic of the name, standing for great wealth, could, it was true, +bring to them, not only the contents of shops, but the people who showed +them, and were ready to carry out any orders. The name of Vanderpoel +already stood, in London, for inexhaustible resource. Yes, it was simple +enough to send for politely subservient saleswomen to bring what one +wanted. + +The being reminded in every-day matters of the still real existence of +the power of this magic was the first step in the rebuilding of Lady +Anstruthers. To realise that the wonderful and yet simple necromancy +was gradually encircling her again, had its parallel in the taking of +a tonic, whose effect was cumulative. She herself did not realise the +working of it. But Betty regarded it with interest. She saw it was good +for her, merely to look on at the unpacking of the New York boxes, which +the maid, sent for from London, brought down with her. + +As the woman removed, from tray after tray, the tissue-paper-enfolded +layers of garments, Lady Anstruthers sat and watched her with normal, +simply feminine interest growing in her eyes. The things were made +with the absence of any limit in expenditure, the freedom with delicate +stuffs and priceless laces which belonged only to her faint memories of +a lost past. + +Nothing had limited the time spent in the embroidering of this +apparently simple linen frock and coat; nothing had restrained the +hand holding the scissors which had cut into the lace which adorned in +appliques and filmy frills this exquisitely charming ball dress. + +"It is looking back so far," she said, waving her hand towards them with +an odd gesture. "To think that it was once all like--like that." + +She got up and went to the things, turning them over, and touching them +with a softness, almost expressing a caress. The names of the makers +stamped on bands and collars, the names of the streets in which their +shops stood, moved her. She heard again the once familiar rattle of +wheels, and the rush and roar of New York traffic. + +Betty carried on the whole matter with lightness. She talked easily +and casually, giving local colour to what she said. She described the +abnormally rapid growth of the places her sister had known in her teens, +the new buildings, new theatres, new shops, new people, the later +mode of living, much of it learned from England, through the unceasing +weaving of the Shuttle. + +"Changing--changing--changing. That is what it is always doing--America. +We have not reached repose yet. One wonders how long it will be before +we shall. Now we are always hurrying breathlessly after the next +thing--the new one--which we always think will be the better one. Other +countries built themselves slowly. In the days of their building, the +pace of life was a march. When America was born, the march had already +begun to hasten, and as a nation we began, in our first hour, at the +quickening speed. Now the pace is a race. New York is a kaleidoscope. +I myself can remember it a wholly different thing. One passes down a +street one day, and the next there is a great gap where some building +is being torn down--a few days later, a tall structure of some sort +is touching the sky. It is wonderful, but it does not tend to calm the +mind. That is why we cross the Atlantic so much. The sober, quiet-loving +blood our forbears brought from older countries goes in search of rest. +Mixed with other things, I feel in my own being a resentment +against newness and disorder, and an insistence on the atmosphere of +long-established things." + +But for years Lady Anstruthers had been living in the atmosphere of +long-established things, and felt no insistence upon it. She yearned to +hear of the great, changing Western world--of the great, changing city. +Betty must tell her what the changes were. What were the differences +in the streets--where had the new buildings been placed? How had Fifth +Avenue and Madison Avenue and Broadway altered? Were not Gramercy +Park and Madison Square still green with grass and trees? Was it all +different? Would she not know the old places herself? Though it seemed a +lifetime since she had seen them, the years which had passed were really +not so many. + +It was good for her to talk and be talked to in this manner Betty saw. +Still handling her subject lightly, she presented picture after picture. +Some of them were of the wonderful, feverish city itself--the place +quite passionately loved by some, as passionately disliked by others. +She herself had fallen into the habit, as she left childhood behind her, +of looking at it with interested wonder--at its riot of life and power, +of huge schemes, and almost superhuman labours, of fortunes so colossal +that they seemed monstrosities in their relation to the world. People +who in Rosalie's girlhood had lived in big ugly brownstone fronts, had +built for themselves or for their children, houses such as, in other +countries, would have belonged to nobles and princes, spending fortunes +upon their building, filling them with treasures brought from foreign +lands, from palaces, from art galleries, from collectors. Sometimes +strange people built such houses and lived strange lavish, ostentatious +lives in them, forming an overstrained, abnormal, pleasure-chasing world +of their own. The passing of even ten years in New York counted itself +almost as a generation; the fashions, customs, belongings of twenty +years ago wore an air of almost picturesque antiquity. + +"It does not take long to make an 'old New Yorker,'" she said. "Each +day brings so many new ones." + +There were, indeed, many new ones, Lady Anstruthers found. People who +had been poor had become hugely rich, a few who had been rich had +become poor, possessions which had been large had swelled to unnatural +proportions. Out of the West had risen fortunes more monstrous than all +others. As she told one story after another, Bettina realised, as she +had done often before, that it was impossible to enter into description +of the life and movements of the place, without its curiously involving +some connection with the huge wealth of it--with its influence, its +rise, its swelling, or waning. + +"Somehow one cannot free one's self from it. This is the age of +wealth and invention--but of wealth before all else. Sometimes one is +tired--tired of it." + +"You would not be tired of it if--well, if you were I, said Lady +Anstruthers rather pathetically. + +"Perhaps not," Betty answered. "Perhaps not." + +She herself had seen people who were not tired of it in the sense in +which she was--the men and women, with worn or intently anxious faces, +hastening with the crowds upon the pavements, all hastening somewhere, +in chase of that small portion of the wealth which they earned by their +labour as their daily share; the same men and women surging towards +elevated railroad stations, to seize on places in the homeward-bound +trains; or standing in tired-looking groups, waiting for the approach of +an already overfull street car, in which they must be packed together, +and swing to the hanging straps, to keep upon their feet. Their way of +being weary of it would be different from hers, they would be weary +only of hearing of the mountains of it which rolled themselves up, as it +seemed, in obedience to some irresistible, occult force. + +On the day after Stornham village had learned that her ladyship and Miss +Vanderpoel had actually gone to London, the dignified firm of Townlinson +& Sheppard received a visit which created some slight sensation in +their establishment, though it had not been entirely unexpected. It had, +indeed, been heralded by a note from Miss Vanderpoel herself, who +had asked that the appointment be made. Men of Messrs. Townlinson & +Sheppard's indubitable rank in their profession could not fail to know +the significance of the Vanderpoel name. They knew and understood its +weight perfectly well. When their client had married one of Reuben +Vanderpoel's daughters, they had felt that extraordinary good fortune +had befallen him and his estate. Their private opinion had been that Mr. +Vanderpoel's knowledge of his son-in-law must have been limited, or +that he had curiously lax American views of paternal duty. The firm was +highly reputable, long established strictly conservative, and somewhat +insular in its point of view. It did not understand, or seek +to understand, America. It had excellent reasons for thoroughly +understanding Sir Nigel Anstruthers. Its opinions of him it reserved +to itself. If Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard had been asked to give a +daughter into their client's keeping, they would have flatly refused to +accept the honour proposed. Mr. Townlinson had, indeed, at the time of +the marriage, admitted in strict confidence to his partner that for his +part he would have somewhat preferred to follow a daughter of his own to +her tomb. After the marriage the firm had found the situation confusing +and un-English. There had been trouble with Sir Nigel, who had plainly +been disappointed. At first it had appeared that the American magnate +had shown astuteness in refraining from leaving his son-in-law a free +hand. Lady Anstruthers' fortune was her own and not her husband's. Mr. +Townlinson, paying a visit to Stornham and finding the bride a gentle, +childish-looking girl, whose most marked expression was one of growing +timorousness, had returned with a grave face. He foresaw the result, if +her family did not stand by her with firmness, which he also foresaw her +husband would prevent if possible. It became apparent that the family +did not stand by her--or were cleverly kept at a distance. There was +a long illness, which seemed to end in the seclusion from the world, +brought about by broken health. Then it was certain that what Mr. +Townlinson had foreseen had occurred. The inexperienced girl had been +bullied into submission. Sir Nigel had gained the free hand, whatever +the means he had chosen to employ. Most improper--most improper, the +whole affair. He had a great deal of money, but none of it was used for +the benefit of the estate--his deformed boy's estate. Advice, dignified +remonstrance, resulted only in most disagreeable scenes. Messrs. +Townlinson & Sheppard could not exceed certain limits. The manner +in which the money was spent was discreditable. There were avenues +a respectable firm knew only by rumour, there were insane gambling +speculations, which could only end in disaster, there were things one +could not decently concern one's self with. Lady Anstruthers' family +had doubtless become indignant and disgusted, and had dropped the whole +affair. Sad for the poor woman, but not unnatural. + +And now appears a Miss Vanderpoel, who wishes to appoint an interview +with Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard. What does she wish to say? The +family is apparently taking the matter up. Is this lady an elder or a +younger sister of Lady Anstruthers? Is she an older woman of that strong +and rather trying American type one hears of, or is she younger than her +ladyship, a pretty, indignant, totally unpractical girl, outraged by +the state of affairs she has discovered, foolishly coming to demand +of Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard an explanation of things they are not +responsible for? Will she, perhaps, lose her temper, and accuse and +reproach, or even--most unpleasant to contemplate--shed hysterical +tears? + +It fell to Mr. Townlinson to receive her in the absence of Mr. Sheppard, +who had been called to Northamptonshire to attend to great affairs. He +was a stout, grave man with a heavy, well-cut face, and, when Bettina +entered his room, his courteous reception of her reserved his view of +the situation entirely. + +She was not of the mature and rather alarming American type he had +imagined possible, he felt some relief in marking at once. She was also +not the pretty, fashionable young lady who might have come to scold him, +and ask silly, irrational questions. + +His ordinarily rather unillumined countenance changed somewhat in +expression when she sat down and began to speak. Mr. Townlinson was +impressed by the fact that it was at once unmistakably evident that +whatsoever her reason for coming, she had not presented herself to ask +irrelevant or unreasonable questions. Lady Anstruthers, she explained +without superfluous phrase, had no definite knowledge of her husband's +whereabouts, and it had seemed possible that Messrs. Townlinson & +Sheppard might have received some information more recent that her own. +The impersonal framing of this inquiry struck Mr. Townlinson as being in +remarkably good taste, since it conveyed no condemnation of Sir Nigel, +and no desire to involve Mr. Townlinson in expressing any. It refrained +even from implying that the situation was an unusual one, which might +be open to criticism. Excellent reserve and great cleverness, Mr. +Townlinson commented inwardly. There were certainly few young ladies who +would have clearly realised that a solicitor cannot be called upon to +commit himself, until he has had time to weigh matters and decide upon +them. His long and varied experience had included interviews in which +charming, emotional women had expected him at once to "take sides." Miss +Vanderpoel exhibited no signs of expecting anything of this kind, even +when she went on with what she had come to say. Stornham Court and +its surroundings were depreciating seriously in value through need of +radical repairs etc. Her sister's comfort was naturally involved, and, +as Mr. Townlinson would fully understand, her nephew's future. The +sooner the process of dilapidation was arrested, the better and with +the less difficulty. The present time was without doubt better than an +indefinite future. Miss Vanderpoel, having fortunately been able to come +to Stornham, was greatly interested, and naturally desirous of seeing +the work begun. Her father also would be interested. Since it was not +possible to consult Sir Nigel, it had seemed proper to consult his +solicitors in whose hands the estate had been for so long a time. She +was aware, it seemed, that not only Mr. Townlinson, but Mr. Townlinson's +father, and also his grandfather, had legally represented the +Anstruthers, as well as many other families. As there seemed no +necessity for any structural changes, and the work done was such as +could only rescue and increase the value of the estate, could there be +any objection to its being begun without delay? + +Certainly an unusual young lady. It would be interesting to discover +how well she knew Sir Nigel, since it seemed that only a knowledge of +him--his temper, his bitter, irritable vanity, could have revealed +to her the necessity of the precaution she was taking without even +intimating that it was a precaution. Extraordinarily clever girl. + +Mr. Townlinson wore an air of quiet, business-like reflection. + +"You are aware, Miss Vanderpoel, that the present income from the +estate is not such as would justify anything approaching the required +expenditure?" + +"Yes, I am aware of that. The expense would be provided for by my +father." + +"Most generous on Mr. Vanderpoel's part," Mr. Townlinson commented. "The +estate would, of course, increase greatly in value." + +Circumstances had prevented her father from visiting Stornham, Miss +Vanderpoel explained, and this had led to his being ignorant of a +condition of things which he might have remedied. She did not explain +what the particular circumstances which had separated the families had +been, but Mr. Townlinson thought he understood. The condition existing +could be remedied now, if Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard saw no obstacles +other than scarcity of money. + +Mr. Townlinson's summing up of the matter expressed in effect that he +saw none. The estate had been a fine one in its day. During the last +sixty years it had become much impoverished. With conservative decorum +of manner, he admitted that there had not been, since Sir Nigel's +marriage, sufficient reason for the neglect of dilapidations. The firm +had strongly represented to Sir Nigel that certain resources should not +be diverted from the proper object of restoring the property, which +was entailed upon his son. The son's future should beyond all have been +considered in the dispensing of his mother's fortune. + +He, by this time, comprehended fully that he need restrain no dignified +expression of opinion in his speech with this young lady. She had +come to consult with him with as clear a view of the proprieties and +discretions demanded by his position as he had himself. And yet each, +before the close of the interview, understood the point of view of the +other. What he recognised was that, though she had not seen Sir Nigel +since her childhood, she had in some astonishing way obtained an +extraordinary insight into his character, and it was this which had led +her to take her present step. She might not realise all she might have +to contend with, but her conservative and formal action had surrounded +her and her sister with a certain barrier of conventional protection, at +once self-controlled, dignified, and astutely intelligent. + +"Since, as you say, no structural changes are proposed, such as an owner +might resent, and as Lady Anstruthers is the mother of the heir, and as +Lady Anstruthers' father undertakes to defray all expenditure, no sane +man could object to the restoration of the property. To do so would be +to cause public opinion to express itself strongly against him. Such +action would place him grossly in the wrong." Then he added with +deliberation, realising that he was committing himself, and feeling +firmly willing to do so for reasons of his own, "Sir Nigel is a man who +objects strongly to putting himself--publicly--in the wrong." + +"Thank you," said Miss Vanderpoel. + +He had said this of intention for her enlightenment, and she was aware +that he had done so. + +"This will not be the first time that American fortunes have restored +English estates," Mr. Townlinson continued amiably. "There have been +many notable cases of late years. We shall be happy to place ourselves +at your disposal at all times, Miss Vanderpoel. We are obliged to you +for your consideration in the matter." + +"Thank you," said Miss Vanderpoel again. "I wished to be sure that I +should not be infringing any English rule I had no knowledge of." + +"You will be infringing none. You have been most correct and courteous." + +Before she went away Mr. Townlinson felt that he had been greatly +enlightened as to what a young lady might know and be. She gave him +singularly clear details as to what was proposed. There was so much to +be done that he found himself opening his eyes slightly once or twice. +But, of course, if Mr. Vanderpoel was prepared to spend money in +a lavish manner, it was all to the good so far as the estate was +concerned. They were stupendous, these people, and after all the heir +was his grandson. And how striking it was that with all this power and +readiness to use it, was evidently combined, even in this beautiful +young person, the clearest business sense of the situation. What was +done would be for the comfort of Lady Anstruthers and the future of her +son. Sir Nigel, being unable to sell either house or lands, could not +undo it. + +When Mr. Townlinson accompanied his visitor to her carriage with +dignified politeness he felt somewhat like an elderly solicitor who had +found himself drawn into the atmosphere of a sort of intensely modern +fairy tale. He saw two of his under clerks, with the impropriety of +middle-class youth, looking out of an office window at the dark blue +brougham and the tall young lady, whose beauty bloomed in the sunshine. +He did not, on the whole, wonder at, though he deplored, the conduct +of the young men. But they, of course, saw only what they colloquially +described to each other as a "rippin' handsome girl." They knew nothing +of the interesting interview. + +He himself returned to his private room in a musing mood and thought +it all over, his mind dwelling on various features of the international +situation, and more than once he said aloud: + +"Most remarkable. Very remarkable, indeed." + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE FIFTEENTH EARL OF MOUNT DUNSTAN + +James Hubert John Fergus Saltyre--fifteenth Earl of Mount Dunstan, "Jem +Salter," as his neighbours on the Western ranches had called him, the +red-haired, second-class passenger of the Meridiana, sat in the great +library of his desolate great house, and stared fixedly through the open +window at the lovely land spread out before him. From this particular +window was to be seen one of the greatest views in England. From the +upper nurseries he had lived in as a child he had seen it every day from +morning until night, and it had seemed to his young fancy to cover all +the plains of the earth. Surely the rest of the world, he had thought, +could be but small--though somewhere he knew there was London where the +Queen lived, and in London were Buckingham Palace and St. James Palace +and Kensington and the Tower, where heads had been chopped off; and the +Horse Guards, where splendid, plumed soldiers rode forth glittering, +with thrilling trumpets sounding as they moved. These last he always +remembered, because he had seen them, and once when he had walked in +the park with his nurse there had been an excited stir in the Row, +and people had crowded about a certain gate, through which an escorted +carriage had been driven, and he had been made at once to take off his +hat and stand bareheaded until it passed, because it was the Queen. +Somehow from that afternoon he dated the first presentation of certain +vaguely miserable ideas. Inquiries made of his attendant, when the +cortege had swept by, had elicited the fact that the Royal Lady herself +had children--little boys who were princes and little girls who were +princesses. What curious and persistent child cross-examination on his +part had drawn forth the fact that almost all the people who drove about +and looked so happy and brilliant, were the fathers or mothers of little +boys like, yet--in some mysterious way--unlike himself? And in what +manner had he gathered that he was different from them? His nurse, it +is true, was not a pleasant person, and had an injured and resentful +bearing. In later years he realised that it had been the bearing of an +irregularly paid menial, who rebelled against the fact that her place +was not among people who were of distinction and high repute, and whose +households bestowed a certain social status upon their servitors. She +was a tall woman with a sour face and a bearing which conveyed a glum +endurance of a position beneath her. Yes, it had been from her--Brough +her name was--that he had mysteriously gathered that he was not a +desirable charge, as regarded from the point of the servants' hall--or, +in fact, from any other point. His people were not the people whose +patronage was sought with anxious eagerness. For some reason their town +house was objectionable, and Mount Dunstan was without attractions. +Other big houses were, in some marked way, different. The town house he +objected to himself as being gloomy and ugly, and possessing only a bare +and battered nursery, from whose windows one could not even obtain a +satisfactory view of the Mews, where at least, there were horses and +grooms who hissed cheerfully while they curried and brushed them. He +hated the town house and was, in fact, very glad that he was scarcely +ever taken to it. People, it seemed, did not care to come either to +the town house or to Mount Dunstan. That was why he did not know other +little boys. Again--for the mysterious reason--people did not care that +their children should associate with him. How did he discover this? +He never knew exactly. He realised, however, that without distinct +statements, he seemed to have gathered it through various disconnected +talks with Brough. She had not remained with him long, having "bettered +herself" greatly and gone away in glum satisfaction, but she had stayed +long enough to convey to him things which became part of his existence, +and smouldered in his little soul until they became part of himself. The +ancestors who had hewn their way through their enemies with battle-axes, +who had been fierce and cruel and unconquerable in their savage pride, +had handed down to him a burning and unsubmissive soul. At six years +old, walking with Brough in Kensington Gardens, and seeing other +children playing under the care of nurses, who, he learned, were not +inclined to make advances to his attendant, he dragged Brough away with +a fierce little hand and stood apart with her, scowling haughtily, his +head in the air, pretending that he disdained all childish gambols, and +would have declined to join in them, even if he had been besought to so +far unbend. Bitterness had been planted in him then, though he had +not understood, and the sourness of Brough had been connected with no +intelligence which might have caused her to suspect his feelings, and no +one had noticed, and if anyone had noticed, no one would have cared in +the very least. + +When Brough had gone away to her far superior place, and she had been +succeeded by one variety of objectionable or incompetent person after +another, he had still continued to learn. In different ways he silently +collected information, and all of it was unpleasant, and, as he grew +older, it took for some years one form. Lack of resources, which should +of right belong to persons of rank, was the radical objection to his +people. At the town house there was no money, at Mount Dunstan there was +no money. There had been so little money even in his grandfather's time +that his father had inherited comparative beggary. The fourteenth Earl +of Mount Dunstan did not call it "comparative" beggary, he called +it beggary pure and simple, and cursed his progenitors with engaging +frankness. He never referred to the fact that in his personable youth he +had married a wife whose fortune, if it had not been squandered, might +have restored his own. The fortune had been squandered in the course of +a few years of riotous living, the wife had died when her third son was +born, which event took place ten years after the birth of her second, +whom she had lost through scarlet fever. James Hubert John Fergus +Saltyre never heard much of her, and barely knew of her past existence +because in the picture gallery he had seen a portrait of a tall, thin, +fretful-looking young lady, with light ringlets, and pearls round +her neck. She had not attracted him as a child, and the fact that he +gathered that she had been his mother left him entirely unmoved. She +was not a loveable-looking person, and, indeed, had been at once +empty-headed, irritable, and worldly. He would probably have been no +less lonely if she had lived. Lonely he was. His father was engaged in +a career much too lively and interesting to himself to admit of his +allowing himself to be bored by an unwanted and entirely superfluous +child. The elder son, who was Lord Tenham, had reached a premature +and degenerate maturity by the time the younger one made his belated +appearance, and regarded him with unconcealed dislike. The worst thing +which could have befallen the younger boy would have been intimate +association with this degenerate youth. + +As Saltyre left nursery days behind, he learned by degrees that the +objection to himself and his people, which had at first endeavoured +to explain itself as being the result of an unseemly lack of money, +combined with that unpleasant feature, an uglier one--namely, lack of +decent reputation. Angry duns, beggarliness of income, scarcity of +the necessaries and luxuries which dignity of rank demanded, the +indifference and slights of one's equals, and the ignoring of one's +existence by exalted persons, were all hideous enough to Lord Mount +Dunstan and his elder son--but they were not so hideous as was, to his +younger son, the childish, shamed frenzy of awakening to the truth +that he was one of a bad lot--a disgraceful lot, from whom nothing was +expected but shifty ways, low vices, and scandals, which in the end +could not even be kept out of the newspapers. The day came, in fact, +when the worst of these was seized upon by them and filled their sheets +with matter which for a whole season decent London avoided reading, and +the fast and indecent element laughed, derided, or gloated over. + +The memory of the fever of the monstrous weeks which had passed at this +time was not one it was wise for a man to recall. But it was not to be +forgotten--the hasty midnight arrival at Mount Dunstan of father and +son, their haggard, nervous faces, their terrified discussions, and +argumentative raging when they were shut up together behind locked +doors, the appearance of legal advisers who looked as anxious as +themselves, but failed to conceal the disgust with which they were +battling, the knowledge that tongues were clacking almost hysterically +in the village, and that curious faces hurried to the windows when even +a menial from the great house passed, the atmosphere of below-stairs +whispers, and jogged elbows, and winks, and giggles; the final +desperate, excited preparations for flight, which might be ignominiously +stopped at any moment by the intervention of the law, the huddling away +at night time, the hot-throated fear that the shameful, self-branding +move might be too late--the burning humiliation of knowing the +inevitable result of public contempt or laughter when the world next day +heard that the fugitives had put the English Channel between themselves +and their country's laws. + +Lord Tenham had died a few years later at Port Said, after descending +into all the hells of degenerate debauch. His father had lived +longer--long enough to make of himself something horribly near an +imbecile, before he died suddenly in Paris. The Mount Dunstan who +succeeded him, having spent his childhood and boyhood under the shadow +of the "bad lot," had the character of being a big, surly, unattractive +young fellow, whose eccentricity presented itself to those who knew +his stock, as being of a kind which might develop at any time into any +objectionable tendency. His bearing was not such as allured, and his +fortune was not of the order which placed a man in the view of the +world. He had no money to expend, no hospitalities to offer and +apparently no disposition to connect himself with society. His +wild-goose chase to America had, when it had been considered worth while +discussing at all, been regarded as being very much the kind of thing a +Mount Dunstan might do with some secret and disreputable end in view. +No one had heard the exact truth, and no one would have been inclined to +believe if they had heard it. That he had lived as plain Jem Salter, and +laboured as any hind might have done, in desperate effort and mad hope, +would not have been regarded as a fact to be credited. He had gone away, +he had squandered money, he had returned, he was at Mount Dunstan again, +living the life of an objectionable recluse--objectionable, because the +owner of a place like Mount Dunstan should be a power and an influence +in the county, should be counted upon as a dispenser of hospitalities, +as a supporter of charities, as a dignitary of weight. He was none of +these--living no one knew how, slouching about with his gun, riding or +walking sullenly over the roads and marshland. + +Just one man knew him intimately, and this one had been from his +fifteenth year the sole friend of his life. He had come, then--the +Reverend Lewis Penzance--a poor and unhealthy scholar, to be vicar of +the parish of Dunstan. Only a poor and book-absorbed man would have +accepted the position. What this man wanted was no more than quiet, pure +country air to fill frail lungs, a roof over his head, and a place to +pore over books and manuscripts. He was a born monk and celibate--in +by-gone centuries he would have lived peacefully in some monastery, +spending his years in the reading and writing of black letter and the +illuminating of missals. At the vicarage he could lead an existence +which was almost the same thing. + +At Mount Dunstan there remained still the large remnant of a great +library. A huge room whose neglected and half emptied shelves contained +some strange things and wonderful ones, though all were in disorder, and +given up to dust and natural dilapidation. Inevitably the Reverend Lewis +Penzance had found his way there, inevitably he had gained indifferently +bestowed permission to entertain himself by endeavouring to reduce to +order and to make an attempt at cataloguing. Inevitably, also, the hours +he spent in the place became the chief sustenance of his being. + +There, one day, he had come upon an uncouth-looking boy with deep eyes +and a shaggy crop of red hair. The boy was poring over an old volume, +and was plainly not disposed to leave it. He rose, not too graciously, +and replied to the elder man's greeting, and the friendly questions +which followed. Yes, he was the youngest son of the house. He had +nothing to do, and he liked the library. He often came there and sat and +read things. There were some queer old books and a lot of stupid ones. +The book he was reading now? Oh, that (with a slight reddening of his +skin and a little awkwardness at the admission) was one of those he +liked best. It was one of the queer ones, but interesting for all that. +It was about their own people--the generations of Mount Dunstans who had +lived in the centuries past. He supposed he liked it because there were +a lot of odd stories and exciting things in it. Plenty of fighting and +adventure. There had been some splendid fellows among them. (He was +beginning to forget himself a little by this time.) They were afraid of +nothing. They were rather like savages in the earliest days, but at that +time all the rest of the world was savage. But they were brave, and +it was odd how decent they were very often. What he meant was--what +he liked was, that they were men--even when they were barbarians. You +couldn't be ashamed of them. Things they did then could not be done now, +because the world was different, but if--well, the kind of men they were +might do England a lot of good if they were alive to-day. They would be +different themselves, of course, in one way--but they must be the same +men in others. Perhaps Mr. Penzance (reddening again) understood what he +meant. He knew himself very well, because he had thought it all out, he +was always thinking about it, but he was no good at explaining. + +Mr. Penzance was interested. His outlook on the past and the present had +always been that of a bookworm, but he understood enough to see that +he had come upon a temperament novel enough to awaken curiosity. The +apparently entirely neglected boy, of a type singularly unlike that of +his father and elder brother, living his life virtually alone in the big +place, and finding food to his taste in stories of those of his blood +whose dust had mingled with the earth centuries ago, provided him with a +new subject for reflection. + +That had been the beginning of an unusual friendship. Gradually Penzance +had reached a clear understanding of all the building of the young life, +of its rankling humiliation, and the qualities of mind and body which +made for rebellion. It sometimes thrilled him to see in the big frame +and powerful muscles, in the strong nature and unconquerable spirit, +a revival of what had burned and stirred through lives lived in a dim, +almost mythical, past. There were legends of men with big bodies, fierce +faces, and red hair, who had done big deeds, and conquered in dark and +barbarous days, even Fate's self, as it had seemed. None could overthrow +them, none could stand before their determination to attain that which +they chose to claim. Students of heredity knew that there were curious +instances of revival of type. There had been a certain Red Godwyn who +had ruled his piece of England before the Conqueror came, and who had +defied the interloper with such splendid arrogance and superhuman lack +of fear that he had won in the end, strangely enough, the admiration +and friendship of the royal savage himself, who saw, in his, a kindred +savagery, a power to be well ranged, through love, if not through fear, +upon his own side. This Godwyn had a deep attraction for his descendant, +who knew the whole story of his fierce life--as told in one yellow +manuscript and another--by heart. Why might not one fancy--Penzance was +drawn by the imagining--this strong thing reborn, even as the offspring +of a poorer effete type. Red Godwyn springing into being again, had been +stronger than all else, and had swept weakness before him as he had done +in other and far-off days. + +In the old library it fell out in time that Penzance and the boy spent +the greater part of their days. The man was a bookworm and a scholar, +young Saltyre had a passion for knowledge. Among the old books and +manuscripts he gained a singular education. Without a guide he could not +have gathered and assimilated all he did gather and assimilate. Together +the two rummaged forgotten shelves and chests, and found forgotten +things. That which had drawn the boy from the first always drew and +absorbed him--the annals of his own people. Many a long winter evening +the pair turned over the pages of volumes and of parchment, and followed +with eager interest and curiosity the records of wild lives--stories of +warriors and abbots and bards, of feudal lords at ruthless war with +each other, of besiegings and battles and captives and torments. Legends +there were of small kingdoms torn asunder, of the slaughter of their +kings, the mad fightings of their barons, and the faith or unfaith of +their serfs. Here and there the eternal power revealed itself in some +story of lawful or unlawful love--for dame or damsel, royal lady, +abbess, or high-born nun--ending in the welding of two lives or in +rapine, violence, and death. There were annals of early England, and of +marauders, monks, and Danes. And, through all these, some thing, some +man or woman, place, or strife linked by some tie with Mount Dunstan +blood. In past generations, it seemed plain, there had been certain +of the line who had had pride in these records, and had sought and +collected them; then had been born others who had not cared. Sometimes +the relations were inadequate, sometimes they wore an unauthentic air, +but most of them seemed, even after the passing of centuries, human +documents, and together built a marvellous great drama of life and +power, wickedness and passion and daring deeds. + +When the shameful scandal burst forth young Saltyre was seen by neither +his father nor his brother. Neither of them had any desire to see him; +in fact, each detested the idea of confronting by any chance his hot, +intolerant eyes. "The Brat," his father had called him in his childhood, +"The Lout," when he had grown big-limbed and clumsy. Both he and Tenham +were sick enough, without being called upon to contemplate "The Lout," +whose opinion, in any case, they preferred not to hear. + +Saltyre, during the hideous days, shut himself up in the library. He did +not leave the house, even for exercise, until after the pair had fled. +His exercise he took in walking up and down from one end of the long +room to another. Devils were let loose in him. When Penzance came to +him, he saw their fury in his eyes, and heard it in the savagery of his +laugh. + +He kicked an ancient volume out of his way as he strode to and fro. + +"There has been plenty of the blood of the beast in us in bygone times," +he said, "but it was not like this. Savagery in savage days had its +excuse. This is the beast sunk into the gibbering, degenerate ape." + +Penzance came and spent hours of each day with him. Part of his rage +was the rage of a man, but he was a boy still, and the boyishness of his +bitterly hurt youth was a thing to move to pity. With young blood, and +young pride, and young expectancy rising within him, he was at an hour +when he should have felt himself standing upon the threshold of the +world, gazing out at the splendid joys and promises and powerful deeds +of it--waiting only the fit moment to step forth and win his place. + +"But we are done for," he shouted once. "We are done for. And I am as +much done for as they are. Decent people won't touch us. That is where +the last Mount Dunstan stands." And Penzance heard in his voice an +absolute break. He stopped and marched to the window at the end of the +long room, and stood in dead stillness, staring out at the down-sweeping +lines of heavy rain. + +The older man thought many things, as he looked at his big back and +body. He stood with his legs astride, and Penzance noted that his right +hand was clenched on his hip, as a man's might be as he clenched +the hilt of his sword--his one mate who might avenge him even when, +standing at bay, he knew that the end had come, and he must fall. +Primeval Force--the thin-faced, narrow-chested, slightly bald clergyman +of the Church of England was thinking--never loses its way, or fails to +sweep a path before it. The sun rises and sets, the seasons come and go, +Primeval Force is of them, and as unchangeable. Much of it stood before +him embodied in this strongly sentient thing. In this way the Reverend +Lewis found his thoughts leading him, and he--being moved to the depths +of a fine soul--felt them profoundly interesting, and even sustaining. + +He sat in a high-backed chair, holding its arms with long thin hands, +and looking for some time at James Hubert John Fergus Saltyre. He said, +at last, in a sane level voice: + +"Lord Tenham is not the last Mount Dunstan." + +After which the stillness remained unbroken again for some minutes. +Saltyre did not move or make any response, and, when he left his place +at the window, he took up a book, and they spoke of other things. + +When the fourteenth Earl died in Paris, and his younger son succeeded, +there came a time when the two companions sat together in the library +again. It was the evening of a long day spent in discouraging hard work. +In the morning they had ridden side by side over the estate, in the +afternoon they had sat and pored over accounts, leases, maps, plans. By +nightfall both were fagged and neither in sanguine mood. + +Mount Dunstan had sat silent for some time. The pair often sat silent. +This pause was ended by the young man's rising and standing up, +stretching his limbs. + +"It was a queer thing you said to me in this room a few years ago," he +said. "It has just come back to me." + +Singularly enough--or perhaps naturally enough--it had also just arisen +again from the depths of Penzance's subconsciousness. + +"Yes," he answered, "I remember. To-night it suggests premonition. Your +brother was not the last Mount Dunstan." + +"In one sense he never was Mount Dunstan at all," answered the other +man. Then he suddenly threw out his arms in a gesture whose whole +significance it would have been difficult to describe. There was a kind +of passion in it. "I am the last Mount Dunstan," he harshly laughed. +"Moi qui vous parle! The last." + +Penzance's eyes resting on him took upon themselves the far-seeing +look of a man who watches the world of life without living in it. He +presently shook his head. + +"No," he said. "I don't see that. No--not the last. Believe me." + +And singularly, in truth, Mount Dunstan stood still and gazed at him +without speaking. The eyes of each rested in the eyes of the other. And, +as had happened before, they followed the subject no further. From that +moment it dropped. + +Only Penzance had known of his reasons for going to America. Even the +family solicitors, gravely holding interviews with him and restraining +expression of their absolute disapproval of such employment of his +inadequate resources, knew no more than that this Mount Dunstan, instead +of wasting his beggarly income at Cairo, or Monte Carlo, or in Paris as +the last one had done, prefers to waste it in newer places. The head +of the firm, when he bids him good-morning and leaves him alone, merely +shrugs his shoulders and returns to his letter writing with the corners +of his elderly mouth hard set. + +Penzance saw him off--and met him upon his return. In the library they +sat and talked it over, and, having done so, closed the book of the +episode. + +***** + +He sat at the table, his eyes upon the wide-spread loveliness of the +landscape, but his thought elsewhere. It wandered over the years already +lived through, wandering backwards even to the days when existence, +opening before the child eyes, was a baffling and vaguely unhappy thing. + +When the door opened and Penzance was ushered in by a servant, his face +wore the look his friend would have been rejoiced to see swept away to +return no more. + +Then let us take our old accustomed seat and begin some casual talk, +which will draw him out of the shadows, and make him forget such things +as it is not good to remember. That is what we have done many times in +the past, and may find it well to do many a time again. + +He begins with talk of the village and the country-side. Village stories +are often quaint, and stories of the countryside are sometimes--not +always--interesting. Tom Benson's wife has presented him with triplets, +and there is great excitement in the village, as to the steps to be +taken to secure the three guineas given by the Queen as a reward for +this feat. Old Benny Bates has announced his intention of taking a fifth +wife at the age of ninety, and is indignant that it has been suggested +that the parochial authorities in charge of the "Union," in which he +must inevitably shortly take refuge, may interfere with his rights as +a citizen. The Reverend Lewis has been to talk seriously with him, and +finds him at once irate and obdurate. + +"Vicar," says old Benny, "he can't refuse to marry no man. Law won't let +him." Such refusal, he intimates, might drive him to wild and riotous +living. Remembering his last view of old Benny tottering down the +village street in his white smock, his nut-cracker face like a withered +rosy apple, his gnarled hand grasping the knotted staff his bent +body leaned on, Mount Dunstan grinned a little. He did not smile when +Penzance passed to the restoration of the ancient church at Mellowdene. +"Restoration" usually meant the tearing away of ancient oaken, +high-backed pews, and the instalment of smug new benches, suggesting +suburban Dissenting chapels, such as the feudal soul revolts at. Neither +did he smile at a reference to the gathering at Dunholm Castle, which +was twelve miles away. Dunholm was the possession of a man who stood for +all that was first and highest in the land, dignity, learning, exalted +character, generosity, honour. He and the late Lord Mount Dunstan had +been born in the same year, and had succeeded to their titles almost at +the same time. There had arrived a period when they had ceased to know +each other. All that the one man intrinsically was, the other man was +not. All that the one estate, its castle, its village, its tenantry, +represented, was the antipodes of that which the other stood for. +The one possession held its place a silent, and perhaps, unconscious +reproach to the other. Among the guests, forming the large house party +which London social news had already recorded in its columns, were great +and honourable persons, and interesting ones, men and women who counted +as factors in all good and dignified things accomplished. Even in the +present Mount Dunstan's childhood, people of their world had ceased to +cross his father's threshold. As one or two of the most noticeable names +were mentioned, mentally he recalled this, and Penzance, quick to see +the thought in his eyes, changed the subject. + +"At Stornham village an unexpected thing has happened," he said. "One of +the relatives of Lady Anstruthers has suddenly appeared--a sister. You +may remember that the poor woman was said to be the daughter of some +rich American, and it seemed unexplainable that none of her family ever +appeared, and things were allowed to go from bad to worse. As it was +understood that there was so much money people were mystified by the +condition of things." + +"Anstruthers has had money to squander," said Mount Dunstan. "Tenham and +he were intimates. The money he spends is no doubt his wife's. As her +family deserted her she has no one to defend her." + +"Certainly her family has seemed to neglect her for years. Perhaps +they were disappointed in his position. Many Americans are extremely +ambitious. These international marriages are often singular things. +Now--apparently without having been expected--the sister appears. +Vanderpoel is the name--Miss Vanderpoel." + +"I crossed the Atlantic with her in the Meridiana," said Mount Dunstan. + +"Indeed! That is interesting. You did not, of course, know that she was +coming here." + +"I knew nothing of her but that she was a saloon passenger with a suite +of staterooms, and I was in the second cabin. Nothing? That is not quite +true, perhaps. Stewards and passengers gossip, and one cannot close +one's ears. Of course one heard constant reiteration of the number of +millions her father possessed, and the number of cabins she managed to +occupy. During the confusion and alarm of the collision, we spoke to +each other." + +He did not mention the other occasion on which he had seen her. There +seemed, on the whole, no special reason why he should. + +"Then you would recognise her, if you saw her. I heard to-day that she +seems an unusual young woman, and has beauty." + +"Her eyes and lashes are remarkable. She is tall. The Americans are +setting up a new type." + +"Yes, they used to send over slender, fragile little women. Lady +Anstruthers was the type. I confess to an interest in the sister." + +"Why?" + +"She has made a curious impression. She has begun to do things. Stornham +village has lost its breath." He laughed a little. "She has been going +over the place and discussing repairs." + +Mount Dunstan laughed also. He remembered what she had said. And she had +actually begun. + +"That is practical," he commented. + +"It is really interesting. Why should a young woman turn her +attention to repairs? If it had been her father--the omnipotent Mr. +Vanderpoel--who had appeared, one would not have wondered at such +practical activity. But a young lady--with remarkable eyelashes!" + +His elbows were on the arm of his chair, and he had placed the tips +of his fingers together, wearing an expression of such absorbed +contemplation that Mount Dunstan laughed again. + +"You look quite dreamy over it," he said. + +"It allures me. Unknown quantities in character always allure me. +I should like to know her. A community like this is made up of the +absolutely known quantity--of types repeating themselves through +centuries. A new one is almost a startling thing. Gossip over teacups is +not usually entertaining to me, but I found myself listening to little +Miss Laura Brunel this afternoon with rather marked attention. I confess +to having gone so far as to make an inquiry or so. Sir Nigel Anstruthers +is not often at Stornham. He is away now. It is plainly not he who is +interested in repairs." + +"He is on the Riviera, in retreat, in a place he is fond of," Mount +Dunstan said drily. "He took a companion with him. A new infatuation. He +will not return soon." + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +SPRING IN BOND STREET + +The visit to London was part of an evolution of both body and mind to +Rosalie Anstruthers. In one of the wonderful modern hotels a suite of +rooms was engaged for them. The luxury which surrounded them was not of +the order Rosalie had vaguely connected with hotels. Hotel-keepers had +apparently learned many things during the years of her seclusion. + +Vanderpoels, at least, could so establish themselves as not to greatly +feel the hotel atmosphere. Carefully chosen colours textures, and +appointments formed the background of their days, the food they ate +was a thing produced by art, the servants who attended them were +completely-trained mechanisms. To sit by a window and watch the +kaleidoscopic human tide passing by on its way to its pleasure, to reach +its work, to spend its money in unending shops, to show itself and its +equipage in the park, was a wonderful thing to Lady Anstruthers. It all +seemed to be a part of the life and quality of Betty, little Betty, +whom she had remembered only as a child, and who had come to her a tall, +strong young beauty, who had--it was resplendently clear--never known +a fear in her life, and whose mere personality had the effect of making +fears seem unreal. + +She was taken out in a luxurious little brougham to shops whose varied +allurements were placed eagerly at her disposal. Respectful persons, +obedient to her most faintly-expressed desire, displayed garments as +wonderful as those the New York trunks had revealed. She was besought +to consider the fitness of articles whose exquisiteness she was almost +afraid to look at. Her thin little body was wonderfully fitted, managed, +encouraged to make the most of its long-ignored outlines. + +"Her ladyship's slenderness is a great advantage," said the wisely +inciting ones. "There is no such advantage as delicacy of line." + +Summing up the character of their customer with the saleswoman's +eye, they realised the discretion of turning to Miss Vanderpoel for +encouragement, though she was the younger of the two, and bore no title. +They were aware of the existence of persons of rank who were not lavish +patrons, but the name of Vanderpoel held most promising suggestions. To +an English shopkeeper the American has, of late years, represented +the spender--the type which, whatsoever its rank and resources, has, +mysteriously, always money to hand over counters in exchange for things +it chances to desire to possess. Each year surges across the Atlantic a +horde of these fortunate persons, who, to the sober, commercial British +mind, appear to be free to devote their existences to travel and +expenditure. This contingent appears shopping in the various shopping +thoroughfares; it buys clothes, jewels, miscellaneous attractive things, +making its purchases of articles useful or decorative with a freedom +from anxiety in its enjoyment which does not mark the mood of the +ordinary shopper. In the everyday purchaser one is accustomed to take +for granted, as a factor in his expenditure, a certain deliberation and +uncertainty; to the travelling American in Europe, shopping appears to +be part of the holiday which is being made the most of. Surely, all the +neat, smart young persons who buy frocks and blouses, hats and coats, +hosiery and chains, cannot be the possessors of large incomes; there +must be, even in America, a middle class of middle-class resources, yet +these young persons, male and female, and most frequently unaccompanied +by older persons--seeing what they want, greet it with expressions of +pleasure, waste no time in appropriating and paying for it, and go away +as in relief and triumph--not as in that sober joy which is clouded by +afterthought. The sales people are sometimes even vaguely cheered by their +gay lack of any doubt as to the wisdom of their getting what they admire, +and rejoicing in it. If America always buys in this holiday mood, it +must be an enviable thing to be a shopkeeper in their New York or Boston +or San Francisco. Who would not make a fortune among them? They want +what they want, and not something which seems to them less desirable, +but they open their purses and--frequently with some amused uncertainty +as to the differences between sovereigns and half-sovereigns, florins +and half-crowns--they pay their bills with something almost like glee. +They are remarkably prompt about bills--which is an excellent thing, as +they are nearly always just going somewhere else, to France or Germany +or Italy or Scotland or Siberia. Those of us who are shopkeepers, or +their salesmen, do not dream that some of them have incomes no larger +than our own, that they work for their livings, that they are teachers +journalists, small writers or illustrators of papers or magazines that +they are unimportant soldiers of fortune, but, with their queer American +insistence on exploration, and the ignoring of limitations, they have, +somehow, managed to make this exultant dash for a few daring weeks or +months of freedom and new experience. If we knew this, we should +regard them from our conservative standpoint of provident decorum as +improvident lunatics, being ourselves unable to calculate with their odd +courage and their cheerful belief in themselves. What we do know is that +they spend, and we are far from disdaining their patronage, though most +of them have an odd little familiarity of address and are not stamped +with that distinction which causes us to realise the enormous difference +between the patron and the tradesman, and makes us feel the worm +we remotely like to feel ourselves, though we would not for worlds +acknowledge the fact. Mentally, and in our speech, both among our equals +and our superiors, we condescend to and patronise them a little, though +that, of course, is the fine old insular attitude it would be un-British +to discourage. But, if we are not in the least definite concerning the +position and resources of these spenders as a mass, we are quite sure of +a select number. There is mention of them in the newspapers, of the +town houses, the castles, moors, and salmon fishings they rent, of +their yachts, their presentations actually at our own courts, of their +presence at great balls, at Ascot and Goodwood, at the opera on gala +nights. One staggers sometimes before the public summing-up of the +amount of their fortunes. These people who have neither blood nor rank, +these men who labour in their business offices, are richer than our +great dukes, at the realising of whose wealth and possessions we have at +times almost turned pale. + +"Them!" chaffed a costermonger over his barrow. "Blimme, if some o' them +blokes won't buy Buckin'am Pallis an' the 'ole R'yal Fambly some mornin' +when they're out shoppin'." + +The subservient attendants in more than one fashionable shop Betty and +her sister visit, know that Miss Vanderpoel is of the circle, though her +father has not as yet bought or hired any great estate, and his daughter +has not been seen in London. + +"Its queer we've never heard of her being presented," one shopgirl says +to another. "Just you look at her." + +She evidently knows what her ladyship ought to buy--what can be trusted +not to overpower her faded fragility. The saleswomen, even if they had +not been devoured by alert curiosity, could not have avoided seeing that +her ladyship did not seem to know what should be bought, and that Miss +Vanderpoel did, though she did not direct her sister's selection, +but merely seemed to suggest with delicate restraint. Her taste was +wonderfully perceptive. The things bought were exquisite, but a little +colourless woman could wear them all with advantage to her restrictions +of type. + +As the brougham drove down Bond Street, Betty called Lady Anstruthers' +attention to more than one passer-by. + +"Look, Rosy," she said. "There is Mrs. Treat Hilyar in the second +carriage to the right. You remember Josie Treat Hilyar married Lord +Varick's son." + +In the landau designated an elderly woman with wonderfully-dressed +white hair sat smiling and bowing to friends who were walking. Lady +Anstruthers, despite her eagerness, shrank back a little, hoping to +escape being seen. + +"Oh, it is the Lows she is speaking to--Tom and Alice--I did not know +they had sailed yet." + +The tall, well-groomed young man, with the nice, ugly face, was showing +white teeth in a gay smile of recognition, and his pretty wife was +lightly waving a slim hand in a grey suede glove. + +"How cheerful and nice-tempered they look," said Rosy. "Tom was only +twenty when I saw him last. Whom did he marry?" + +"An English girl. Such a love. A Devonshire gentleman's daughter. In New +York his friends called her Devonshire Cream and Roses. She is one of +the pretty, flushy, pink ones." + +"How nice Bond Street is on a spring morning like this," said Lady +Anstruthers. "You may laugh at me for saying it, Betty, but somehow it +seems to me more spring-like than the country." + +"How clever of you!" laughed Betty. "There is so much truth in it." +The people walking in the sunshine were all full of spring thoughts and +plans. The colours they wore, the flowers in the women's hats and the +men's buttonholes belonged to the season. The cheerful crowds of people +and carriages had a sort of rushing stir of movement which suggested +freshness. Later in the year everything looks more tired. Now things +were beginning and everyone was rather inclined to believe that this +year would be better than last. "Look at the shop windows," said Betty, +"full of whites and pinks and yellows and blues--the colours of hyacinth +and daffodil beds. It seems as if they insist that there never has been +a winter and never will be one. They insist that there never was and +never will be anything but spring." + +"It's in the air." Lady Anstruthers' sigh was actually a happy one. "It +is just what I used to feel in April when we drove down Fifth Avenue." + +Among the crowds of freshly-dressed passers-by, women with flowery hats +and light frocks and parasols, men with touches of flower-colour on the +lapels of their coats, and the holiday look in their faces, she noted so +many of a familiar type that she began to look for and try to pick them +out with quite excited interest. + +"I believe that woman is an American," she would say. "That girl looks +as if she were a New Yorker," again. "That man's face looks as if it +belonged to Broadway. Oh, Betty! do you think I am right? I should say +those girls getting out of the hansom to go into Burnham & Staples' came +from out West and are going to buy thousands of things. Don't they look +like it?" + +She began to lean forward and look on at things with an interest so +unlike her Stornham listlessness that Betty's heart was moved. + +Her face looked alive, and little waves of colour rose under her skin. +Several times she laughed the natural little laugh of her girlhood which +it had seemed almost too much to expect to hear again. The first of +these laughs came when she counted her tenth American, a tall Westerner +of the cartoon type, sauntering along with an expression of speculative +enjoyment on his odd face, and evidently, though furtively, chewing +tobacco. + +"I absolutely love him, Betty," she cried. "You couldn't mistake him for +anything else." + +"No," answered Betty, feeling that she loved him herself, "not if you +found him embalmed in the Pyramids." + +They pleased themselves immensely, trying to guess what he would buy +and take home to his wife and girls in his Western town--though Western +towns were very grand and amazing in these days, Betty explained, and +knew they could give points to New York. He would not buy the things +he would have bought fifteen years ago. Perhaps, in fact, his wife and +daughters had come with him to London and stayed at the Metropole or +the Savoy, and were at this moment being fitted by tailors and modistes +patronised by Royalty. + +"Rosy, look! Do you see who that is? Do you recognise her? It is +Mrs. Bellingham. She was little Mina Thalberg. She married Captain +Bellingham. He was quite poor, but very well born--a nephew of Lord +Dunholm's. He could not have married a poor girl--but they have been so +happy together that Mina is growing fat, and spends her days in taking +reducing treatments. She says she wouldn't care in the least, but Dicky +fell in love with her waist and shoulder line." + +The plump, pretty young woman getting out of her victoria before a +fashionable hairdresser's looked radiant enough. She had not yet lost +the waist and shoulder line, though her pink frock fitted her with +discreet tightness. She paused a moment to pat and fuss prettily over +the two blooming, curly children who were to remain under the care of +the nurse, who sat on the back seat, holding the baby on her lap. + +"I should not have known her," said Rosy. "She has grown pretty. She +wasn't a pretty child." + +"It's happiness--and the English climate--and Captain Dicky. They adore +each other, and laugh at everything like a pair of children. They were +immensely popular in New York last winter, when they visited Mina's +people." + +The effect of the morning upon Lady Anstruthers was what Betty had hoped +it might be. The curious drawing near of the two nations began to dawn +upon her as a truth. Immured in the country, not sufficiently interested +in life to read newspapers, she had heard rumours of some of the more +important marriages, but had known nothing of the thousand small details +which made for the weaving of the web. Mrs. Treat Hilyar driving in a +leisurely, accustomed fashion down Bond Street, and smiling casually at +her compatriots, whose "sailing" was as much part of the natural order +of their luxurious lives as their carriages, gave a definiteness to the +situation. Mina Thalberg, pulling down the embroidered frocks over the +round legs of her English-looking children, seemed to narrow the width +of the Atlantic Ocean between Liverpool and the docks on the Hudson +River. + +She returned to the hotel with an appetite for lunch and a new +expression in her eyes which made Ughtred stare at her. + +"Mother," he said, "you look different. You look well. It isn't only +your new dress and your hair." + +The new style of her attire had certainly done much, and the maid who +had been engaged to attend her was a woman who knew her duties. She had +been called upon in her time to make the most of hair offering much +less assistance to her skill than was supplied by the fine, fair +colourlessness she had found dragged back from her new mistress's +forehead. It was not dragged back now, but had really been done wonders +with. Rosalie had smiled a little when she had looked at herself in the +glass after the first time it was so dressed. + +"You are trying to make me look as I did when mother saw me last, +Betty," she said. "I wonder if you possibly could." + +"Let us believe we can," laughed Betty. "And wait and see." + +It seemed wise neither to make nor receive visits. The time for such +things had evidently not yet come. Even the mention of the Worthingtons +led to the revelation that Rosalie shrank from immediate contact with +people. When she felt stronger, when she became more accustomed to the +thought, she might feel differently, but just now, to be luxuriously one +with the enviable part of London, to look on, to drink in, to drive here +and there, doing the things she liked to do, ordering what was required +at Stornham, was like the creating for her of a new heaven and a new +earth. + +When, one night, Betty took her with Ughtred to the theatre, it was to +see a play written by an American, played by American actors, produced +by an American manager. They had even engaged in theatrical enterprise, +it seemed, their actors played before London audiences, London actors +played in American theatres, vibrating almost yearly between the two +continents and reaping rich harvests. Hearing rumours of this in the +past, Lady Anstruthers had scarcely believed it entirely true. Now the +practical reality was brought before her. The French, who were only +separated from the English metropolis by a mere few miles of Channel, +did not exchange their actors year after year in increasing numbers, +making a mere friendly barter of each other's territory, as though each +land was common ground and not divided by leagues of ocean travel. + +"It seems so wonderful," Lady Anstruthers argued. "I have always felt as +if they hated each other." + +"They did once--but how could it last between those of the same +blood--of the same tongue? If we were really aliens we might be a +menace. But we are of their own." Betty leaned forward on the edge of +the box, looking out over the crowded house, filled with almost as many +Americans as English faces. She smiled, reflecting. "We were children +put out to nurse and breathe new air in the country, and now we are +coming home, vigorous, and full-grown." + +She studied the audience for some minutes, and, as her glance wandered +over the stalls, it took in more than one marked variety of type. +Suddenly it fell on a face she delightedly recognised. It was that of +the nice, speculative-eyed Westerner they had seen enjoying himself in +Bond Street. + +"Rosy," she said, "there is the Western man we love. Near the end of the +fourth row." + +Lady Anstruthers looked for him with eagerness. + +"Oh, I see him! Next to the big one with the reddish hair." + +Betty turned her attention to the man in question, whom she had not +chanced to notice. She uttered an exclamation of surprise and interest. + +"The big man with the red hair. How lovely that they should chance to +sit side by side--the big one is Lord Mount Dunstan!" + +The necessity of seeing his solicitors, who happened to be Messrs. +Townlinson & Sheppard, had brought Lord Mount Dunstan to town. After a +day devoted to business affairs, he had been attracted by the idea of +going to the theatre to see again a play he had already seen in New +York. It would interest him to observe its exact effect upon a London +audience. While he had been in New York, he had gone with something of +the same feeling to see a great English actor play to a crowded house. +The great actor had been one who had returned to the country for a third +or fourth time, and, in the enthusiasm he had felt in the atmosphere +about him, Mount Dunstan had seen not only pleasure and appreciation of +the man's perfect art, but--at certain tumultuous outbursts--an almost +emotional welcome. The Americans, he had said to himself, were creatures +of warmer blood than the English. The audience on that occasion had +been, in mass, American. The audience he made one of now, was made up of +both nationalities, and, in glancing over it, he realised how large was +the number of Americans who came yearly to London. As Lady Anstruthers +had done, he found himself selecting from the assemblage the types which +were manifestly American, and those obviously English. In the seat next +to himself sat a man of a type he felt he had learned by heart in +the days of his life as Jem Salter. At a short distance fluttered +brilliantly an English professional beauty, with her male and female +court about her. In the stage box, made sumptuous with flowers, was a +royal party. + +As this party had entered, "God save the Queen" had been played, and, in +rising with the audience during the entry, he had recalled that the tune +was identical with that of an American national air. How unconsciously +inseparable--in spite of the lightness with which they regarded the +curious tie between them--the two countries were. The people upon the +stage were acting as if they knew their public, their bearing +suggesting no sense of any barrier beyond the footlights. It was the +unconsciousness and lightness of the mutual attitude which had struck +him of late. Punch had long jested about "Fair Americans," who, in +their first introduction to its pages, used exotic and cryptic language, +beginning every sentence either with "I guess," or "Say, Stranger"; its +male American had been of the Uncle Sam order and had invariably worn +a "goatee." American witticisms had represented the Englishman in +plaid trousers, opening his remarks with "Chawley, deah fellah," and +unfailingly missing the point of any joke. Each country had cherished +its type and good-naturedly derided it. In time this had modified itself +and the joke had changed in kind. Many other things had changed, but the +lightness of treatment still remained. And yet their blood was mingling +itself with that of England's noblest and oldest of name, their wealth +was making solid again towers and halls which had threatened to crumble. +Ancient family jewels glittered on slender, young American necks, and +above--sometimes somewhat careless--young American brows. And yet, so +far, one was casual in one's thought of it all, still. On his own part +he was obstinate Briton enough to rebel against and resent it. They +were intruders. He resented them as he had resented in his boyhood the +historical fact that, after all, an Englishman was a German--a savage +who, five hundred years after the birth of Christ, had swooped upon +Early Briton from his Engleland and Jutland, and ravaging with fire and +sword, had conquered and made the land his possession, ravishing its +very name from it and giving it his own. These people did not come with +fire and sword, but with cable and telephone, and bribes of gold and +fair women, but they were encroaching like the sea, which, in certain +parts of the coast, gained a few inches or so each year. He shook his +shoulders impatiently, and stiffened, feeling illogically antagonistic +towards the good-natured, lantern-jawed man at his side. + +The lantern-jawed man looked good-natured because he was smiling, and +he was smiling because he saw something which pleased him in one of the +boxes. + +His expression of unqualified approval naturally directed Mount +Dunstan's eye to the point in question, where it remained for some +moments. This was because he found it resting upon Miss Vanderpoel, who +sat before him in luminous white garments, and with a brilliant spark +of ornament in the dense shadow of her hair. His sensation at the +unexpected sight of her would, if it had expressed itself physically, +have taken the form of a slight start. The luminous quality did not +confine itself to the whiteness of her garments. He was aware of feeling +that she looked luminous herself--her eyes, her cheek, the smile she +bent upon the little woman who was her companion. She was a beautifully +living thing. + +Naturally, she was being looked at by others than himself. She was one +of those towards whom glasses in a theatre turn themselves inevitably. +The sweep and lift of her black hair would have drawn them, even if she +had offered no other charm. Yes, he thought, here was another of them. +To whom was she bringing her good looks and her millions? There were men +enough who needed money, even if they must accept it under less alluring +conditions. In the box next to the one occupied by the royal party was a +man who was known to be waiting for the advent of some such opportunity. +His was a case of dire, if outwardly stately, need. He was young, but a +fool, and not noted for personal charms, yet he had, in one sense, great +things to offer. There were, of course, many chances that he might offer +them to her. If this happened, would she accept them? There was really +no objection to him but his dulness, consequently there seemed many +chances that she might. There was something akin to the pomp of royalty +in the power her father's wealth implied. She could scarcely make an +ordinary marriage. It would naturally be a sort of state affair. +There were few men who had enough to offer in exchange for Vanderpoel +millions, and of the few none had special attractions. The one in +the box next to the royal party was a decent enough fellow. As young +princesses were not infrequently called upon, by the mere exclusion of +royal blood, to become united to young or mature princes without charm, +so American young persons who were of royal possessions must find +themselves limited. If you felt free to pick and choose from among +young men in the Guards or young attaches in the Diplomatic Service with +twopence a year, you might get beauty or wit or temperament or all three +by good luck, but if you were of a royal house of New York or Chicago, +you would probably feel you must draw lines and choose only such +splendours as accorded with, even while differing from, your own. + +Any possible connection of himself with such a case did not present +itself to him. If it had done so, he would have counted himself, +haughtily, as beyond the pale. It was for other men to do things of the +sort; a remote antagonism of his whole being warred against the mere +idea. It was bigoted prejudice, perhaps, but it was a strong thing. + +A lovely shoulder and a brilliant head set on a long and slender neck +have no nationality which can prevent a man's glance turning naturally +towards them. His turned again during the last act of the play, and at a +moment when he saw something rather like the thing he had seen when +the Meridiana moved away from the dock and the exalted Miss Vanderpoel +leaning upon the rail had held out her arms towards the child who had +brought his toy to her as a farewell offering. + +Sitting by her to-night was a boy with a crooked back--Mount Dunstan +remembered hearing that the Anstruthers had a deformed son--and she +was leaning towards him, her hand resting on his shoulder, explaining +something he had not quite grasped in the action of the play. The +absolute adoration in the boy's uplifted eyes was an interesting thing +to take in, and the radiant warmth of her bright look was as unconscious +of onlookers as it had been when he had seen it yearning towards the +child on the wharf. Hers was the temperament which gave--which gave. He +found himself restraining a smile because her look brought back to him +the actual sound of the New York youngster's voice. + +"I wanted to kiss you, Betty, oh, I did so want to kiss you!" + +Anstruthers' boy--poor little beggar--looked as if he, too, in the face +of actors and audience, and brilliance of light, wanted to kiss her. + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THINGS OCCUR IN STORNHAM VILLAGE + +It would not have been possible for Miss Vanderpoel to remain long in +social seclusion in London, and, before many days had passed, Stornham +village was enlivened by the knowledge that her ladyship and her sister +had returned to the Court. It was also evident that their visit to +London had not been made to no purpose. The stagnation of the waters of +village life threatened to become a whirlpool. A respectable person, who +was to be her ladyship's maid, had come with them, and her ladyship had +not been served by a personal attendant for years. Her ladyship had also +appeared at the dinner-table in new garments, and with her hair done +as other ladies wore theirs. She looked like a different woman, and +actually had a bit of colour, and was beginning to lose her frightened +way. Now it dawned upon even the dullest and least active mind that +something had begun to stir. + +It had been felt vaguely when the new young lady from "Meriker" had +walked through the village street, and had drawn people to doors and +windows by her mere passing. After the return from London the signs of +activity were such as made the villagers catch their breaths in uttering +uncertain exclamations, and caused the feminine element to catch up +offspring or, dragging it by its hand, run into neighbours' cottages and +stand talking the incredible thing over in lowered and rather breathless +voices. Yet the incredible thing in question was--had it been seen from +the standpoint of more prosperous villagers--anything but extraordinary. +In entirely rural places the Castle, the Hall or the Manor, the Great +House--in short--still retains somewhat of the old feudal power to +bestow benefits or withhold them. Wealth and good will at the Manor +supply work and resultant comfort in the village and its surrounding +holdings. Patronised by the Great House the two or three small village +shops bestir themselves and awaken to activity. The blacksmith swings +his hammer with renewed spirit over the numerous jobs the gentry's +stables, carriage houses, garden tools, and household repairs give +to him. The carpenter mends and makes, the vicarage feels at ease, +realising that its church and its charities do not stand unsupported. +Small farmers and larger ones, under a rich and interested landlord, +thrive and are able to hold their own even against the tricks of wind +and weather. Farm labourers being, as a result, certain of steady and +decent wage, trudge to and fro, with stolid cheerfulness, knowing that +the pot boils and the children's feet are shod. Superannuated old men +and women are sure of their broth and Sunday dinner, and their dread of +the impending "Union" fades away. The squire or my lord or my lady can +be depended upon to care for their old bones until they are laid under +the sod in the green churchyard. With wealth and good will at the Great +House, life warms and offers prospects. There are Christmas feasts and +gifts and village treats, and the big carriage or the smaller ones stop +at cottage doors and at once confer exciting distinction and carry good +cheer. + +But Stornham village had scarcely a remote memory of any period of such +prosperity. It had not existed even in the older Sir Nigel's time, and +certainly the present Sir Nigel's reign had been marked only by neglect, +ill-temper, indifference, and a falling into disorder and decay. Farms +were poorly worked, labourers were unemployed, there was no trade from +the manor household, no carriages, no horses, no company, no spending +of money. Cottages leaked, floors were damp, the church roof itself was +falling to pieces, and the vicar had nothing to give. The helpless and +old cottagers were carried to the "Union" and, dying there, were buried +by the stinted parish in parish coffins. + +Her ladyship had not visited the cottages since her child's birth. And +now such inspiriting events as were everyday happenings in lucky places +like Westerbridge and Wratcham and Yangford, showed signs of being about +to occur in Stornham itself. + +To begin with, even before the journey to London, Kedgers had made two +or three visits to The Clock, and had been in a communicative mood. He +had related the story of the morning when he had looked up from his +work and had found the strange young lady standing before him, with the +result that he had been "struck all of a heap." And then he had given a +detailed account of their walk round the place, and of the way in which +she had looked at things and asked questions, such as would have done +credit to a man "with a 'ead on 'im." + +"Nay! Nay!" commented Kedgers, shaking his own head doubtfully, even +while with admiration. "I've never seen the like before--in young +women--neither in lady young women nor in them that's otherwise." + +Afterwards had transpired the story of Mrs. Noakes, and the kitchen +grate, Mrs. Noakes having a friend in Miss Lupin, the village +dressmaker. + +"I'd not put it past her," was Mrs. Noakes' summing up, "to order a new +one, I wouldn't." + +The footman in the shabby livery had been a little wild in his +statements, being rendered so by the admiring and excited state of his +mind. He dwelt upon the matter of her "looks," and the way she lighted +up the dingy dining-room, and so conversed that a man found himself +listening and glancing when it was his business to be an unhearing, +unseeing piece of mechanism. + +Such simple records of servitors' impressions were quite enough for +Stornham village, and produced in it a sense of being roused a little +from sleep to listen to distant and uncomprehended, but not unagreeable, +sounds. + +One morning Buttle, the carpenter, looked up as Kedgers had done, and +saw standing on the threshold of his shop the tall young woman, who was +a sensation and an event in herself. + +"You are the master of this shop?" she asked. + +Buttle came forward, touching his brow in hasty salute. + +"Yes, my lady," he answered. "Joseph Buttle, your ladyship." + +"I am Miss Vanderpoel," dismissing the suddenly bestowed title with easy +directness. "Are you busy? I want to talk to you." + +No one had any reason to be "busy" at any time in Stornham village, no +such luck; but Buttle did not smile as he replied that he was at liberty +and placed himself at his visitor's disposal. The tall young lady came +into the little shop, and took the chair respectfully offered to her. +Buttle saw her eyes sweep the place as if taking in its resources. + +"I want to talk to you about some work which must be done at the Court," +she explained at once. "I want to know how much can be done by workmen +of the village. How many men have you?" + +"How many men had he?" Buttle wavered between gratification at its being +supposed that he had "men" under him and grumpy depression because the +illusion must be dispelled. + +"There's me and Sim Soames, miss," he answered. "No more, an' no less." + +"Where can you get more?" asked Miss Vanderpoel. + +It could not be denied that Buttle received a mental shock which verged +in its suddenness on being almost a physical one. The promptness and +decision of such a query swept him off his feet. That Sim Soames and +himself should be an insufficient force to combat with such repairs as +the Court could afford was an idea presenting an aspect of unheard-of +novelty, but that methods as coolly radical as those this questioning +implied, should be resorted to, was staggering. + +"Me and Sim has always done what work was done," he stammered. "It +hasn't been much." + +Miss Vanderpoel neither assented to nor dissented from this last +palpable truth. She regarded Buttle with searching eyes. She was +wondering if any practical ability concealed itself behind his dullness. +If she gave him work, could he do it? If she gave the whole village +work, was it too far gone in its unspurred stodginess to be roused to +carrying it out? + +"There is a great deal to be done now," she said. "All that can be done +in the village should be done here. It seems to me that the villagers +want work--new work. Do they?" + +Work! New work! The spark of life in her steady eyes actually +lighted a spark in the being of Joe Buttle. Young ladies in +villages--gentry--usually visited the cottagers a bit if they were +well-meaning young women--left good books and broth or jelly, pottered +about and were seen at church, and playing croquet, and finally married +and removed to other places, or gradually faded year by year into +respectable spinsterhood. And this one comes in, and in two or three +minutes shows that she knows things about the place and understands. A +man might then take it for granted that she would understand the thing +he daringly gathered courage to say. + +"They want any work, miss--that they are sure of decent pay for--sure of +it." + +She did understand. And she did not treat his implication as an +impertinence. She knew it was not intended as one, and, indeed, she saw +in it a sort of earnest of a possible practical quality in Buttle. +Such work as the Court had demanded had remained unpaid for with quiet +persistence, until even bills had begun to lag and fall off. She could +see exactly how it had been done, and comprehended quite clearly a lack +of enthusiasm in the presence of orders from the Great House. + +"All work will be paid for," she said. "Each week the workmen will +receive their wages. They may be sure. I will be responsible." + +"Thank you, miss," said Buttle, and he half unconsciously touched his +forehead again. + +"In a place like this," the young lady went on in her mellow voice, and +with a reflective thoughtfulness in her handsome eyes, "on an estate +like Stornham, no work that can be done by the villagers should be done +by anyone else. The people of the land should be trained to do such work +as the manor house, or cottages, or farms require to have done." + +"How did she think that out?" was Buttle's reflection. In places such +as Stornham, through generation after generation, the thing she had just +said was accepted as law, clung to as a possession, any divergence from +it being a grievance sullenly and bitterly grumbled over. And in places +enough there was divergence in these days--the gentry sending to London +for things, and having up workmen to do their best-paying jobs for them. +The law had been so long a law that no village could see justice +in outsiders being sent for, even to do work they could not do well +themselves. It showed what she was, this handsome young woman--even +though she did come from America--that she should know what was right. + +She took a note-book out and opened it on the rough table before her. + +"I have made some notes here," she said, "and a sketch or two. We must +talk them over together." + +If she had given Joe Buttle cause for surprise at the outset, she gave +him further cause during the next half-hour. The work that was to be +done was such as made him open his eyes, and draw in his breath. If +he was to be allowed to do it--if he could do it--if it was to be +paid for--it struck him that he would be a man set up for life. If her +ladyship had come and ordered it to be done, he would have thought the +poor thing had gone mad. But this one had it all jotted down in a clear +hand, without the least feminine confusion of detail, and with here and +there a little sharply-drawn sketch, such as a carpenter, if he could +draw, which Buttle could not, might have made. + +"There's not workmen enough in the village to do it in a year, miss," he +said at last, with a gasp of disappointment. + +She thought it over a minute, her pencil poised in her hand and her eyes +on his face. + +"Can you," she said, "undertake to get men from other villages, and +superintend what they do? If you can do that, the work is still passing +through your hands, and Stornham will reap the benefit of it. Your +workmen will lodge at the cottages and spend part of their wages at the +shops, and you who are a Stornham workman will earn the money to be made +out of a rather large contract." + +Joe Buttle became quite hot. If you have brought up a family for years +on the proceeds of such jobs as driving a ten-penny nail in here or +there, tinkering a hole in a cottage roof, knocking up a shelf in +the vicarage kitchen, and mending a panel of fence, to be suddenly +confronted with a proposal to engage workmen and undertake "contracts" +is shortening to the breath and heating to the blood. + +"Miss," he said, "we've never done big jobs, Sim Soames an' me. P'raps +we're not up to it--but it'd be a fortune to us." + +She was looking down at one of her papers and making pencil marks on it. + +"You did some work last year on a little house at Tidhurst, didn't you?" +she said. + +To think of her knowing that! Yes, the unaccountable good luck had +actually come to him that two Tidhurst carpenters, falling ill of the +same typhoid at the same time, through living side by side in the same +order of unsanitary cottage, he and Sim had been given their work to +finish, and had done their best. + +"Yes, miss," he answered. + +"I heard that when I was inquiring about you. I drove over to Tidhurst +to see the work, and it was very sound and well done. If you did that, I +can at least trust you to do something at the Court which will prove to +me what you are equal to. I want a Stornham man to undertake this." + +"No Tidhurst man," said Joe Buttle, with sudden courage, "nor yet no +Barnhurst, nor yet no Yangford, nor Wratcham shall do it, if I can look +it in the face. It's Stornham work and Stornham had ought to have it. It +gives me a brace-up to hear of it." + +The tall young lady laughed beautifully and got up. + +"Come to the Court to-morrow morning at ten, and we will look it over +together," she said. "Good-morning, Buttle." And she went away. + +In the taproom of The Clock, when Joe Buttle dropped in for his pot of +beer, he found Fox, the saddler, and Tread, the blacksmith, and each of +them fell upon the others with something of the same story to tell. The +new young lady from the Court had been to see them, too, and had brought +to each her definite little note-book. Harness was to be repaired and +furbished up, the big carriage and the old phaeton were to be put in +order, and Master Ughtred's cart was to be given new paint and springs. + +"This is what she said," Fox's story ran, "and she said it so +straightforward and business-like that the conceitedest man that lived +couldn't be upset by it. 'I want to see what you can do,' she says. 'I +am new to the place and I must find out what everyone can do, then I +shall know what to do myself.' The way she sets them eyes on a man is a +sight. It's the sense in them and the human nature that takes you." + +"Yes, it's the sense," said Tread, "and her looking at you as if she +expected you to have sense yourself, and understand that she's doing +fair business. It's clear-headed like--her asking questions and finding +out what Stornham men can do. She's having the old things done up so +that she can find out, and so that she can prove that the Court work is +going to be paid for. That's my belief." + +"But what does it all mean?" said Joe Buttle, setting his pot of beer +down on the taproom table, round which they sat in conclave. "Where's +the money coming from? There's money somewhere." + +Tread was the advanced thinker of the village. He had come--through +reverses--from a bigger place. He read the newspapers. + +"It'll come from where it's got a way of coming," he gave forth +portentously. "It'll come from America. How they manage to get hold +of so much of it there is past me. But they've got it, dang 'em, and +they're ready to spend it for what they want, though they're a sharp +lot. Twelve years ago there was a good bit of talk about her ladyship's +father being one of them with the fullest pockets. She came here with +plenty, but Sir Nigel got hold of it for his games, and they're the +games that cost money. Her ladyship wasn't born with a backbone, poor +thing, but this new one was, and her ladyship's father is her father, +and you mark my words, there's money coming into Stornham, though it's +not going to be played the fool with. Lord, yes! this new one has a +backbone and good strong wrists and a good strong head, though I +must say"--with a little masculine chuckle of admission--"it's a bit +unnatural with them eyelashes and them eyes looking at you between 'em. +Like blue water between rushes in the marsh." + +Before the next twenty-four hours had passed a still more unlooked-for +event had taken place. Long outstanding bills had been paid, and in as +matter-of-fact manner as if they had not been sent in and ignored, in +some cases for years. The settlement of Joe Buttle's account sent him +to bed at the day's end almost light-headed. To become suddenly the +possessor of thirty-seven pounds, fifteen and tenpence half-penny, of +which all hope had been lost three years ago, was almost too much for +any man. Six pounds, eight pounds, ten pounds, came into places as if +sovereigns had been sixpences, and shillings farthings. More than +one cottage woman, at the sight of the hoarded wealth in her staring +goodman's hand, gulped and began to cry. If they had had it before, and +in driblets, it would have been spent long since, now, in a lump, it +meant shoes and petticoats and tea and sugar in temporary abundance, +and the sense of this abundance was felt to be entirely due to American +magic. America was, in fact, greatly lauded and discussed, the case of +"Gaarge" Lumsden being much quoted. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +KEDGERS + +The work at Stornham Court went on steadily, though with no greater +rapidity than is usually achieved by rural labourers. There was, +however, without doubt, a certain stimulus in the occasional appearance +of Miss Vanderpoel, who almost daily sauntered round the place to look +on, and exchange a few words with the workmen. When they saw her coming, +the men, hastily standing up to touch their foreheads, were conscious +of a slight acceleration of being which was not quite the ordinary +quickening produced by the presence of employers. It was, in fact, a +sensation rather pleasing than anxious. Her interest in the work was, +upon the whole, one which they found themselves beginning to share. The +unusualness of the situation--a young woman, who evidently stood for +many things and powers desirable, employing labourers and seeming to +know what she intended them to do--was a thing not easy to get over, or +be come accustomed to. But there she was, as easy and well mannered as +you please--and with gentlefolks' ways, though, as an American, such +finish could scarcely be expected from her. She knew each man's name, +it was revealed gradually, and, what was more, knew what he stood for +in the village, what cottage he lived in, how many children he had, and +something about his wife. She remembered things and made inquiries which +showed knowledge. Besides this, she represented, though perhaps they +were scarcely yet fully awake to the fact, the promise their discouraged +dulness had long lost sight of. + +It actually became apparent that her ladyship, who walked with her, was +altering day by day. Was it true that the bit of colour they had heard +spoken of when she returned from town was deepening and fixing itself +on her cheek? It sometimes looked like it. Was she a bit less stiff and +shy-like and frightened in her way? Buttle mentioned to his friends at +The Clock that he was sure of it. She had begun to look a man in the +face when she talked, and more than once he had heard her laugh at +things her sister said. + +To one man more than to any other had come an almost unspeakable piece +of luck through the new arrival--a thing which to himself, at least, +was as the opening of the heavens. This man was the discouraged Kedgers. +Miss Vanderpoel, coming with her ladyship to talk to him, found that the +man was a person of more experience than might have been imagined. In +his youth he had been an under gardener at a great place, and being fond +of his work, had learned more than under gardeners often learn. He had +been one of a small army of workers under the orders of an imposing head +gardener, whose knowledge was a science. He had seen and taken part +in what was done in orchid houses, orangeries, vineries, peach houses, +conservatories full of wondrous tropical plants. But it was not easy for +a man like himself, uneducated and lacking confidence of character, +to advance as a bolder young man might have done. The all-ruling head +gardener had inspired him with awe. He had watched him reverently, +accumulating knowledge, but being given, as an underling, no opportunity +to do more than obey orders. He had spent his life in obeying, and +congratulated himself that obedience secured him his weekly wage. + +"He was a great man--Mr. Timson--he was," he said, in talking to Miss +Vanderpoel. "Ay, he was that. Knew everything that could happen to a +flower or a s'rub or a vegetable. Knew it all. Had a lib'ery of books +an' read 'em night an' day. Head gardener's cottage was good enough +for gentry. The old Markis used to walk round the hothouses an' gardens +talking to him by the hour. If you did what he told you EXACTLY like he +told it to you, then you were all right, but if you didn't--well, you +was off the place before you'd time to look round. Worked under him from +twenty to forty. Then he died an' the new one that came in had new ways. +He made a clean sweep of most of us. The men said he was jealous of Mr. +Timson." + +"That was bad for you, if you had a wife and children," Miss Vanderpoel +said. + +"Eight of us to feed," Kedgers answered. "A man with that on him can't +wait, miss. I had to take the first place I could get. It wasn't a good +one--poor parsonage with a big family an' not room on the place for the +vegetables they wanted. Cabbages, an' potatoes, an' beans, an' broccoli. +No time nor ground for flowers. Used to seem as if flowers got to be a +kind of dream." Kedgers gave vent to a deprecatory half laugh. "Me--I +was fond of flowers. I wouldn't have asked no better than to live among +'em. Mr. Timson gave me a book or two when his lordship sent him a +lot of new ones. I've bought a few myself--though I suppose I couldn't +afford it." + +From the poor parsonage he had gone to a market gardener, and had +evidently liked the work better, hard and unceasing as it had been, +because he had been among flowers again. Sudden changes from forcing +houses to chill outside dampness had resulted in rheumatism. After that +things had gone badly. He began to be regarded as past his prime of +strength. Lower wages and labour still as hard as ever, though it +professed to be lighter, and therefore cheaper. At last the big +neglected gardens of Stornham. + +"What I'm seeing, miss, all the time, is what could be done with 'em. +Wonderful it'd be. They might be the show of the county-if we had Mr. +Timson here." + +Miss Vanderpoel, standing in the sunshine on the broad weed-grown +pathway, was conscious that he was remotely moving. His flowers--his +flowers. They had been the centre of his rudimentary rural being. Each +man or woman cared for some one thing, and the unfed longing for it left +the life of the creature a thwarted passion. Kedgers, yearning to stir +the earth about the roots of blooming things, and doomed to broccoli and +cabbage, had spent his years unfed. No thing is a small thing. Kedgers, +with the earth under his broad finger nails, and his half apologetic +laugh, being the centre of his own world, was as large as Mount Dunstan, +who stood thwarted in the centre of his. Chancing-for God knows what +mystery of reason-to be born one of those having power, one might +perhaps set in order a world like Kedgers'. + +"In the course of twenty years' work under Timson," she said, "you must +have learned a great deal from him." + +"A good bit, miss-a good bit," admitted Kedgers. "If I hadn't ha' cared +for the work, I might ha' gone on doing it with my eyes shut, but I +didn't. Mr. Timson's heart was set on it as well as his head. An' mine +got to be. But I wasn't even second or third under him--I was only one +of a lot. He would have thought me fine an' impident if I'd told him I'd +got to know a good deal of what he knew--and had some bits of ideas of +my own." + +"If you had men enough under you, and could order all you want," Miss +Vanderpoel said tentatively, "you know what the place should be, no +doubt." + +"That I do, miss," answered Kedgers, turning red with feeling. "Why, if +the soil was well treated, anything would grow here. There's situations +for everything. There's shade for things that wants it, and south +aspects for things that won't grow without the warmth of 'em. Well, I've +gone about many a day when I was low down in my mind and worked myself +up to being cheerful by just planning where I could put things and what +they'd look like. Liliums, now, I could grow them in masses from June to +October." He was becoming excited, like a war horse scenting battle from +afar, and forgot himself. "The Lilium Giganteum--I don't know whether +you've ever seen one, miss--but if you did, it'd almost take your breath +away. A Lilium that grows twelve feet high and more, and has a flower +like a great snow-white trumpet, and the scent pouring out of it so that +it floats for yards. There's a place where I could grow them so that +you'd come on them sudden, and you'd think they couldn't be true." + +"Grow them, Kedgers, begin to grow them," said Miss Vanderpoel. "I have +never seen them--I must see them." + +Kedgers' low, deprecatory chuckle made itself heard again, + +"Perhaps I'm going too fast," he said. "It would take a good bit of +expense to do it, miss. A good bit." + +Then Miss Vanderpoel made--and she made it in the simplest +matter-of-fact manner, too--the startling remark which, three hours +later, all Stornham village had heard of. The most astounding part of +the remark was that it was uttered as if there was nothing in it which +was not the absolutely natural outcome of the circumstances of the case. + +"Expense which is proper and necessary need not be considered," she +said. "Regular accounts will be kept and supervised, but you can have +all that is required." + +Then it appeared that Kedgers almost became pale. Being a foreigner, +perhaps she did not know how much she was implying when she said such a +thing to a man who had never held a place like Timson's. + +"Miss," he hesitated, even shamefacedly, because to suggest to such +a fine-mannered, calm young lady that she might be ignorant, seemed +perilously near impertinence. "Miss, did you mean you wanted only the +Lilium Giganteum, or--or other things, as well." + +"I should like to see," she answered him, "all that you see. I should +like to hear more of it all, when we have time to talk it over. I +understand we should need time to discuss plans." + +The quiet way she went on! Seeming to believe in him, almost as if he +was Mr. Timson. The old feeling, born and fostered by the great head +gardener's rule, reasserted itself. + +"It means more to work--and someone over them, miss," he said. "If--if +you had a man like Mr. Timson----" + +"You have not forgotten what you learned. With men enough under you it +can be put into practice." + +"You mean you'd trust me, miss--same as if I was Mr. Timson?" + +"Yes. If you ever feel the need of a man like Timson, no doubt we can +find one. But you will not. You love the work too much." + +Then still standing in the sunshine, on the weed-grown path, she +continued to talk to him. It revealed itself that she understood a good +deal. As he was to assume heavier responsibilities, he was to receive +higher wages. It was his experience which was to be considered, not his +years. This was a new point of view. The mere propeller of wheel-barrows +and digger of the soil--particularly after having been attacked by +rheumatism--depreciates in value after youth is past. Kedgers knew that +a Mr. Timson, with a regiment of under gardeners, and daily increasing +knowledge of his profession, could continue to direct, though years +rolled by. But to such fortune he had not dared to aspire. + +One of the lodges might be put in order for him to live in. He might +have the hothouses to put in order, too; he might have implements, +plants, shrubs, even some of the newer books to consult. Kedgers' brain +reeled. + +"You--think I am to be trusted, miss?" he said more than once. "You +think it would be all right? I wasn't even second or third under Mr. +Timson--but--if I say it as shouldn't--I never lost a chance of learning +things. I was just mad about it. T'aint only Liliums--Lord, I know 'em +all, as if they were my own children born an' bred--shrubs, coniferas, +herbaceous borders that bloom in succession. My word! what you can do +with just delphiniums an' campanula an' acquilegia an' poppies, everyday +things like them, that'll grow in any cottage garden, an' bulbs +an' annuals! Roses, miss--why, Mr. Timson had them in thickets--an' +carpets--an' clambering over trees and tumbling over walls in sheets an' +torrents--just know their ways an' what they want, an' they'll grow in +a riot. But they want feeding--feeding. A rose is a gross feeder. Feed +a Glory deejon, and watch over him, an' he'll cover a housetop an' give +you two bloomings." + +"I have never lived in an English garden. I should like to see this one +at its best." + +Leaving her with salutes of abject gratitude, Kedgers moved away +bewildered. What man could believe it true? At three or four yards' +distance he stopped and, turning, came back to touch his cap again. + +"You understand, miss," he said. "I wasn't even second or third under +Mr. Timson. I'm not deceiving you, am I, miss?" + +"You are to be trusted," said Miss Vanderpoel, "first because you love +the things--and next because of Timson." + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ONE OF MR. VANDERPOEL'S LETTERS + +Mr. Germen, the secretary of the great Mr. Vanderpoel, in arranging +the neat stacks of letters preparatory to his chief's entrance to +his private room each morning, knowing where each should be placed, +understood that such as were addressed in Miss Vanderpoel's hand would +be read before anything else. This had been the case even when she had +just been placed in a French school, a tall, slim little girl, with +immense demanding eyes, and a thick black plait of hair swinging between +her straight, rather thin, shoulders. Between other financial potentates +and their little girls, Mr. Germen knew that the oddly confidential +relation which existed between these two was unusual. Her schoolgirl +letters, it had been understood, should be given the first place on +the stacks of envelopes each incoming ocean steamer brought in its mail +bags. Since the beginning of her visit to her sister, Lady Anstruthers, +the exact dates of mail steamers seemed to be of increased importance. +Miss Vanderpoel evidently found much to write about. Each steamer +brought a full-looking envelope to be placed in a prominent position. + +On a hot morning in the early summer Mr. Germen found two or three--two +of them of larger size and seeming to contain business papers. These +he placed where they would be seen at once. Mr. Vanderpoel was a little +later than usual in his arrival. At this season he came from his place +in the country, and before leaving it this morning he had been talking +to his wife, whom he found rather disturbed by a chance encounter with +a young woman who had returned to visit her mother after a year spent in +England with her English husband. This young woman, now Lady Bowen, once +Milly Jones, had been one of the amusing marvels of New York. A girl +neither rich nor so endowed by nature as to be able to press upon the +world any special claim to consideration as a beauty, her enterprise, +and the daring of her tactics, had been the delight of many a satiric +onlooker. In her schooldays she had ingenuously mapped out her future +career. Other American girls married men with titles, and she intended +to do the same thing. The other little girls laughed, but they liked to +hear her talk. All information regarding such unions as was to be +found in the newspapers and magazines, she collected and studiously +read--sometimes aloud to her companions. + +Social paragraphs about royalties, dukes and duchesses, lords and +ladies, court balls and glittering functions, she devoured and learned +by heart. An abominably vulgar little person, she was an interestingly +pertinacious creature, and wrought night and day at acquiring an air of +fashionable elegance, at first naturally laying it on in such manner +as suggested that it should be scraped off with a knife, but with +experience gaining a certain specious knowledge of forms. How +the over-mature child at school had assimilated her uncanny young +worldliness, it would have been less difficult to decide, if possible +sources had been less numerous. The air was full of it, the literature +of the day, the chatter of afternoon teas, the gossip of the hour. +Before she was fifteen she saw the indiscretion of her childish +frankness, and realised that it might easily be detrimental to her +ambitions. She said no more of her plans for her future, and even took +the astute tone of carelessly treating as a joke her vulgar little past. +But no titled foreigner appeared upon the horizon without setting her +small, but business-like, brain at work. Her lack of wealth and assured +position made her situation rather hopeless. She was not of the class +of lucky young women whose parents' gorgeous establishments offered +attractions to wandering persons of rank. She and her mother lived in +a flat, and gave rather pathetic afternoon teas in return for such +more brilliant hospitalities as careful and pertinacious calling and +recalling obliged their acquaintances to feel they could not decently be +left wholly out of. Milly and her anxious mother had worked hard. They +lost no opportunity of writing a note, or sending a Christmas card, or +an economical funeral wreath. By daily toil and the amicable ignoring +of casualness of manner or slights, they managed to cling to the edge of +the precipice of social oblivion, into whose depths a lesser degree +of assiduity, or a greater sensitiveness, would have plunged them. +Once--early in Milly's career, when her ever-ready chatter and her +superficial brightness were a novelty, it had seemed for a short time +that luck might be glancing towards her. A young man of foreign title +and of Bohemian tastes met her at a studio dance, and, misled by the +smartness of her dress and her always carefully carried air of careless +prosperity, began to pay a delusive court to her. For a few weeks all +her freshest frocks were worn assiduously and credit was strained to buy +new ones. The flat was adorned with fresh flowers and several new yellow +and pale blue cushions appeared at the little teas, which began to +assume a more festive air. Desirable people, who went ordinarily to +the teas at long intervals and through reluctant weakness, or sometimes +rebellious amiability, were drummed up and brought firmly to the fore. +Milly herself began to look pink and fluffy through mere hopeful +good spirits. Her thin little laugh was heard incessantly, and people +amusedly if they were good-tempered, derisively if they were spiteful, +wondered if it really would come to something. But it did not. The +young foreigner suddenly left New York, making his adieus with entire +lightness. There was the end of it. He had heard something about lack +of income and uncertainty of credit, which had suggested to him that +discretion was the better part of valour. He married later a young lady +in the West, whose father was a solid person. + +Less astute young women, under the circumstances, would have allowed +themselves a week or so of headache or influenza, but Milly did not. She +made calls in the new frocks, and with such persistent spirit that she +fished forth from the depths of indifferent hospitality two or three +excellent invitations. She wore her freshest pink frock, and an +amazingly clever little Parisian diamond crescent in her hair, at the +huge Monson ball at Delmonico's, and it was recorded that it was on that +glittering occasion that her "Uncle James" was first brought upon the +scene. He was only mentioned lightly at first. It was to Milly's credit +that he was not made too much of. He was casually touched upon as a very +rich uncle, who lived in Dakota, and had actually lived there since his +youth, letting his few relations know nothing of him. He had been rather +a black sheep as a boy, but Milly's mother had liked him, and, when he +had run away from New York, he had told her what he was going to do, and +had kissed her when she cried, and had taken her daguerreotype with him. +Now he had written, and it turned out that he was enormously rich, +and was interested in Milly. From that time Uncle James formed an +atmosphere. He did not appear in New York, but Milly spent the next +season in London, and the Monsons, being at Hurlingham one day, had +her pointed out to them as a new American girl, who was the idol of a +millionaire uncle. She was not living in an ultra fashionable quarter, +or with ultra fashionable people, but she was, on all occasions, they +heard, beautifully dressed and beautifully--if a little heavily--hung +with gauds and gems, her rings being said to be quite amazing and +suggesting an impassioned lavishness on the part of Uncle James. London, +having become inured to American marvels--Milly's bit of it--accepted +and enjoyed Uncle James and all the sumptuous attributes of his Dakota. + +English people would swallow anything sometimes, Mrs. Monson commented +sagely, and yet sometimes they stared and evidently thought you were +lying about the simplest things. Milly's corner of South Kensington had +gulped down the Dakota uncle. Her managing in this way, if there was no +uncle, was too clever and amusing. She had left her mother at home to +scrimp and save, and by hook or by crook she had contrived to get a +number of quite good things to wear. She wore them with such an air of +accustomed resource that the jewels might easily--mixed with some +relics of her mother's better days--be of the order of the clever little +Parisian diamond crescent. It was Milly's never-laid-aside manner which +did it. The announcement of her union with Sir Arthur Bowen was received +in certain New York circles with little suppressed shrieks of glee. It +had been so sharp of her to aim low and to realise so quickly that she +could not aim high. The baronetcy was a recent one, and not unconnected +with trade. Sir Arthur was not a rich man, and, had it leaked out, +believed in Uncle James. If he did not find him all his fancy painted, +Milly was clever enough to keep him quiet. She was, when all was said +and done, one of the American women of title, her servants and the +tradespeople addressed her as "my lady," and with her capacity +for appropriating what was most useful, and her easy assumption of +possessing all required, she was a very smart person indeed. She +provided herself with an English accent, an English vocabulary, and an +English manner, and in certain circles was felt to be most impressive. + +At an afternoon function in the country Mrs. Vanderpoel had met Lady +Bowen. She had been one of the few kindly ones, who in the past had +given an occasional treat to Milly Jones for her girlhood's sake. Lady +Bowen, having gathered a small group of hearers, was talking volubly to +it, when the nice woman entered, and, catching sight of her, she swept +across the room. It would not have been like Milly to fail to see and +greet at once the wife of Reuben Vanderpoel. She would count anywhere, +even in London sets it was not easy to connect one's self with. She had +already discovered that there were almost as many difficulties to be +surmounted in London by the wife of an unimportant baronet as there had +been to be overcome in New York by a girl without money or place. It was +well to have something in the way of information to offer in one's small +talk with the lucky ones and Milly knew what subject lay nearest to Mrs. +Vanderpoel's heart. + +"Miss Vanderpoel has evidently been enjoying her visit to Stornham +Court," she said, after her first few sentences. "I met Mrs. Worthington +at the Embassy, and she said she had buried herself in the country. But +I think she must have run up to town quietly for shopping. I saw her one +day in Piccadilly, and I was almost sure Lady Anstruthers was with her +in the carriage--almost sure." + +Mrs. Vanderpoel's heart quickened its beat. + +"You were so young when she married," she said. "I daresay you have +forgotten her face." + +"Oh, no!" Milly protested effusively. "I remember her quite well. She +was so pretty and pink and happy-looking, and her hair curled naturally. +I used to pray every night that when I grew up I might have hair and a +complexion like hers." + +Mrs. Vanderpoel's kind, maternal face fell. + +"And you were not sure you recognised her? Well, I suppose twelve years +does make a difference," her voice dragging a little. + +Milly saw that she had made a blunder. The fact was she had not even +guessed at Rosy's identity until long after the carriage had passed her. + +"Oh, you see," she hesitated, "their carriage was not near me, and I was +not expecting to see them. And perhaps she looked a little delicate. I +heard she had been rather delicate." + +She felt she was floundering, and bravely floundered away from the +subject. She plunged into talk of Betty and people's anxiety to see her, +and the fact that the society columns were already faintly heralding +her. She would surely come soon to town. It was too late for the first +Drawing-room this year. When did Mrs. Vanderpoel think she would be +presented? Would Lady Anstruthers present her? Mrs. Vanderpoel could not +bring her back to Rosy, and the nature of the change which had made it +difficult to recognise her. + +The result of this chance encounter was that she did not sleep very +well, and the next morning talked anxiously to her husband. + +"What I could see, Reuben, was that Milly Bowen had not known her at +all, even when she saw her in the carriage with Betty. She couldn't have +changed as much as that, if she had been taken care of, and happy." + +Her affection and admiration for her husband were such as made the task +of soothing her a comparatively simple thing. The instinct of tenderness +for the mate his youth had chosen was an unchangeable one in Reuben +Vanderpoel. He was not a primitive man, but in this he was as +unquestioningly simple as if he had been a kindly New England farmer. He +had outgrown his wife, but he had always loved and protected her gentle +goodness. He had never failed her in her smallest difficulty, he could +not bear to see her hurt. Betty had been his compeer and his companion +almost since her childhood, but his wife was the tenderest care of his +days. There was a strong sense of relief in his thought of Betty now. It +was good to remember the fineness of her perceptions, her clearness of +judgment, and recall that they were qualities he might rely upon. + +When he left his wife to take his train to town, he left her smiling +again. She scarcely knew how her fears had been dispelled. His talk had +all been kindly, practical, and reasonable. It was true Betty had said +in her letter that Rosy had been rather delicate, and had not been +taking very good care of herself, but that was to be remedied. Rosy had +made a little joke or so about it herself. + +"Betty says I am not fat enough for an English matron. I am drinking +milk and breakfasting in bed, and am going to be massaged to please her. +I believe we all used to obey Betty when she was a child, and now she is +so tall and splendid, one would never dare to cross her. Oh, mother! I +am so happy at having her with me!" + +To reread just these simple things caused the suggestion of things not +comfortably normal to melt away. Mrs. Vanderpoel sat down at a +sunny window with her lap full of letters, and forgot Milly Bowen's +floundering. + +When Mr. Vanderpoel reached his office and glanced at his carefully +arranged morning's mail, Mr. Germen saw him smile at the sight of the +envelopes addressed in his daughter's hand. He sat down to read them at +once, and, as he read, the smile of welcome became a shrewd and deeply +interested one. + +"She has undertaken a good-sized contract," he was saying to himself, +"and she's to be trusted to see it through. It is rather fine, the +way she manages to combine emotions and romance and sentiments with +practical good business, without letting one interfere with the other. +It's none of it bad business this, as the estate is entailed, and the +boy is Rosy's. It's good business." + +This was what Betty had written to her father in New York from Stornham +Court. + +"The things I am beginning to do, it would be impossible for me to +resist doing, and it would certainly be impossible for you. The thing I +am seeing I have never seen, at close hand, before, though I have taken +in something almost its parallel as part of certain picturesqueness of +scenes in other countries. But I am LIVING with this and also, through +relationship to Rosy, I, in a measure, belong to it, and it belongs +to me. You and I may have often seen in American villages crudeness, +incompleteness, lack of comfort, and the composition of a picture, +a rough ugliness the result of haste and unsettled life which stays +nowhere long, but packs up its goods and chattels and wanders farther +afield in search of something better or worse, in any case in search +of change, but we have never seen ripe, gradual falling to ruin of what +generations ago was beautiful. To me it is wonderful and tragic and +touching. If you could see the Court, if you could see the village, +if you could see the church, if you could see the people, all quietly +disintegrating, and so dearly perfect in their way that if one knew +absolutely that nothing could be done to save them, one could only stand +still and catch one's breath and burst into tears. The church has stood +since the Conquest, and, as it still stands, grey and fine, with its +mass of square tower, and despite the state of its roof, is not yet +given wholly to the winds and weather, it will, no doubt, stand a few +centuries longer. The Court, however, cannot long remain a possible +habitation, if it is not given a new lease of life. I do not mean that +it will crumble to-morrow, or the day after, but we should not think +it habitable now, even while we should admit that nothing could be more +delightful to look at. The cottages in the village are already, many of +them, amazing, when regarded as the dwellings of human beings. How long +ago the cottagers gave up expecting that anything in particular would be +done for them, I do not know. I am impressed by the fact that they are +an unexpecting people. Their calm non-expectancy fills me with interest. +Only centuries of waiting for their superiors in rank to do things +for them, and the slow formation of the habit of realising that not +to submit to disappointment was no use, could have produced the almost +SERENITY of their attitude. It is all very well for newborn republican +nations--meaning my native land--to sniff sternly and say that such a +state of affairs is an insult to the spirit of the race. Perhaps it +is now, but it was not apparently centuries ago, which was when it all +began and when 'Man' and the 'Race' had not developed to the point of +asking questions, to which they demand replies, about themselves and +the things which happened to them. It began in the time of Egbert +and Canute, and earlier, in the days of the Druids, when they used +peacefully to allow themselves to be burned by the score, enclosed +in wicker idols, as natural offerings to placate the gods. The modern +acceptance of things is only a somewhat attenuated remnant of the +ancient idea. And this is what I have to deal with and understand. +When I begin to do the things I am going to do, with the aid of your +practical advice, if I have your approval, the people will be at first +rather afraid of me. They will privately suspect I am mad. It +will, also, not seem at all unlikely that an American should be of +unreasoningly extravagant and flighty mind. Stornham, having long +slumbered in remote peace through lack of railroad convenience, still +regards America as almost of the character of wild rumour. Rosy was +their one American, and she disappeared from their view so soon that +she had not time to make any lasting impression. I am asking myself how +difficult, or how simple, it will be to quite understand these people, +and to make them understand me. I greatly doubt its being simple. Layers +and layers and layers of centuries must be far from easy to burrow +through. They look simple, they do not know that they are not simple, +but really they are not. Their point of view has been the point of view +of the English peasant so many hundred years that an American point of +view, which has had no more than a trifling century and a half to form +itself in, may find its thews and sinews the less powerful of the +two. When I walk down the village street, faces appear at windows, and +figures, stolidly, at doors. What I see is that, vaguely and remotely, +American though I am, the fact that I am of 'her ladyship's blood,' +and that her ladyship--American though she is--has the claim on them of +being the mother of the son of the owner of the land--stirs in them a +feeling that I have a shadowy sort of relationship in the whole thing, +and with regard to their bad roofs and bad chimneys, to their broken +palings, and damp floors, to their comforts and discomforts, a sort of +responsibility. That is the whole thing, and you--just you, father--will +understand me when I say that I actually like it. I might not like it +if I were poor Rosy, but, being myself, I love it. There is something +patriarchal in it which moves me. + +"Is it an abounding and arrogant delight in power which makes it appeal +to me, or is it something better? To feel that every man on the +land, every woman, every child knew one, counted on one's honour and +friendship, turned to one believingly in time of stress, to know that +one could help and be a finely faithful thing, the very knowledge of +it would give one vigour and warm blood in the veins. I wish I had been +born to it, I wish the first sounds falling on my newborn ears had been +the clanging of the peal from an old Norman church tower, calling out +to me, 'Welcome; newcomer of our house, long life among us! Welcome!' +Still, though the first sounds that greeted me were probably the +rattling of a Fifth Avenue stage, I have brought them SOMETHING, and +who knows whether I could have brought it from without the range of that +prosaic, but cheerful, rattle." + +The rest of the letter was detail of a business-like order. A large +envelope contained the detail-notes of things to be done, notes +concerning roofs, windows, flooring, park fences, gardens, greenhouses, +tool houses, potting sheds, garden walls, gates, woodwork, masonry. +Sharp little sketches, such as Buttle had seen, notes concerning Buttle, +Fox, Tread, Kedgers, and less accomplished workmen; concerning wages +of day labourers, hours, capabilities. Buttle, if he had chanced to see +them, would have broken into a light perspiration at the idea of a young +woman having compiled the documents. He had never heard of the first +Reuben Vanderpoel. + +Her father's reply to Betty was as long as her own to him, and gave her +keen pleasure by its support, both of sympathetic interest and practical +advice. He left none of her points unnoted, and dealt with each of them +as she had most hoped and indeed had felt she knew he would. This was +his final summing up: + +"If you had been a boy, and I own I am glad you were not--a man wants a +daughter--I should have been quite willing to allow you your flutter on +Wall Street, or your try at anything you felt you would like to handle. +It would have interested me to look on and see what you were made of, +what you wanted, and how you set about trying to get it. It's a new kind +of deal you have undertaken. It's more romantic than Wall Street, but I +think I do see what you see in it. Even apart from Rosy and the boy, +it would interest me to see what you would do with it. This is your +'flutter.' I like the way you face it. If you were a son instead of +a daughter, I should see I might have confidence in you. I could not +confide to Wall Street what I will tell you--which is that in the midst +of the drive and swirl and tumult of my life here, I like what you see +in the thing, I like your idea of the lord of the land, who should love +the land and the souls born on it, and be the friend and strength of +them and give the best and get it back in fair exchange. There's a +steadiness in the thought of such a life among one's kind which has +attractions for a man who has spent years in a maelstrom, snatching at +what whirls among the eddies of it. Your notes and sketches and summing +up of probable costs did us both credit--I say 'both' because your +business education is the result of our long talks and journeyings +together. You began to train for this when you began going to visit +mines and railroads with me at twelve years old. I leave the whole thing +in your hands, my girl, I leave Rosy in your hands, and in leaving Rosy +to you, you know how I am trusting you with your mother. Your letters to +her tell her only what is good for her. She is beginning to look happier +and younger already, and is looking forward to the day when Rosy and +the boy will come home to visit us, and when we shall go in state to +Stornham Court. God bless her, she is made up of affection and simple +trust, and that makes it easy to keep things from her. She has never +been ill-treated, and she knows I love her, so when I tell her that +things are coming right, she never doubts me. + +"While you are rebuilding the place you will rebuild Rosy so that the +sight of her may not be a pain when her mother sees her again, which is +what she is living for." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +INTRODUCING G. SELDEN + +A bird was perched upon a swaying branch of a slim young sapling near +the fence-supported hedge which bounded the park, and Mount Dunstan had +stopped to look at it and listen. A soft shower had fallen, and after +its passing, the sun coming through the light clouds, there had broken +forth again in the trees brief trills and calls and fluting of bird +notes. The sward and ferns glittered fresh green under the raindrops; +the young leaves on trees and hedge seemed visibly to uncurl, the +uncovered earth looked richly dark and moist, and sent forth the +fragrance from its deeps, which, rising to a man's nostrils, stirs and +thrills him because it is the scent of life's self. The bird upon the +sapling was a robin, the tiny round body perched upon his delicate legs, +plump and bright plumaged for mating. He touched his warm red breast +with his beak, fluffed out and shook his feathers, and, swelling his +throat, poured forth his small, entranced song. It was a gay, brief, +jaunty thing, but pure, joyous, gallant, liquid melody. There was dainty +bravado in it, saucy demand and allurement. It was addressed to some +invisible hearer of the tender sex, and wheresoever she might be +hidden--whether in great branch or low thicket or hedge--there was +hinted no doubt in her small wooer's note that she would hear it and +in due time respond. Mount Dunstan, listening, even laughed at its +confident music. The tiny thing uttering its Call of the World--jubilant +in the surety of answer! + +Having flung it forth, he paused a moment and waited, his small +head turned sideways, his big, round, dew-bright black eye roguishly +attentive. Then with more swelling of the throat he trilled and rippled +gayly anew, undisturbed and undoubting, but with a trifle of insistence. +Then he listened, tried again two or three times, with brave chirps +and exultant little roulades. "Here am I, the bright-breasted, the +liquid-eyed, the slender-legged, the joyous and conquering! Listen to +me--listen to me. Listen and answer in the call of God's world." It was +the joy and triumphant faith in the tiny note of the tiny thing--Life +as he himself was, though Life whose mystery his man's hand could have +crushed--which, while he laughed, set Mount Dunstan thinking. Spring +warmth and spring scents and spring notes set a man's being in tune with +infinite things. + +The bright roulade began again, prolonged itself with renewed effort, +rose to its height, and ended. From a bush in the thicket farther up the +road a liquid answer came. And Mount Dunstan's laugh at the sound of it +was echoed by another which came apparently from the bank rising from +the road on the other side of the hedge, and accompanying the laugh was +a good-natured nasal voice. + +"She's caught on. There's no mistake about that. I guess it's time for +you to hustle, Mr. Rob." + +Mount Dunstan laughed again. Jem Salter had heard voices like it, and +cheerful slang phrases of the same order in his ranch days. On the other +side of his park fence there was evidently sitting, through some odd +chance, an American of the cheery, casual order, not sufficiently +polished by travel to have lost his picturesque national +characteristics. + +Mount Dunstan put a hand on a broken panel of fence and leaped over into +the road. + +A bicycle was lying upon the roadside grass, and on the bank, looking as +though he had been sheltering himself under the hedge from the rain, sat +a young man in a cheap bicycling suit. His features were sharply cut and +keen, his cap was pushed back from his forehead, and he had a pair of +shrewdly careless boyish eyes. + +Mount Dunstan liked the look of him, and seeing his natural start at the +unheralded leap over the gap, which was quite close to him, he spoke. + +"Good-morning," he said. "I am afraid I startled you." + +"Good-morning," was the response. "It was a bit of a jolt seeing you +jump almost over my shoulder. Where did you come from? You must have +been just behind me." + +"I was," explained Mount Dunstan. "Standing in the park listening to the +robin." + +The young fellow laughed outright. + +"Say," he said, "that was pretty fine, wasn't it? Wasn't he getting it +off his chest! He was an English robin, I guess. American robins are +three or four times as big. I liked that little chap. He was a winner." + +"You are an American?" + +"Sure," nodding. "Good old Stars and Stripes for mine. First time I've +been here. Came part for business and part for pleasure. Having the time +of my life." + +Mount Dunstan sat down beside him. He wanted to hear him talk. He had +liked to hear the ranchmen talk. This one was of the city type, but his +genial conversational wanderings would be full of quaint slang and good +spirits. He was quite ready to converse, as was made manifest by his +next speech. + +"I'm biking through the country because I once had an old grandmother +that was English, and she was always talking about English country, and +how green things was, and how there was hedges instead of rail fences. +She thought there was nothing like little old England. Well, as far as +roads and hedges go, I'm with her. They're all right. I wanted a fellow +I met crossing, to come with me, but he took a Cook's trip to Paris. +He's a gay sort of boy. Said he didn't want any green lanes in his. He +wanted Boolyvard." He laughed again and pushed his cap farther back on +his forehead. "Said I wasn't much of a sport. I tell YOU, a chap that's +got to earn his fifteen per, and live on it, can't be TOO much of a +sport." + +"Fifteen per?" Mount Dunstan repeated doubtfully. + +His companion chuckled. + +"I forgot I was talking to an Englishman. Fifteen dollars per +week--that's what 'fifteen per' means. That's what he told me he gets at +Lobenstien's brewery in New York. Fifteen per. Not much, is it?" + +"How does he manage Continental travel on fifteen per?" Mount Dunstan +inquired. + +"He's a typewriter and stenographer, and he dug up some extra jobs to do +at night. He's been working and saving two years to do this. We didn't +come over on one of the big liners with the Four Hundred, you can bet. +Took a cheap one, inside cabin, second class." + +"By George!" said Mount Dunstan. "That was American." + +The American eagle slightly flapped his wings. The young man pushed his +cap a trifle sideways this time, and flushed a little. + +"Well, when an American wants anything he generally reaches out for it." + +"Wasn't it rather--rash, considering the fifteen per?" Mount Dunstan +suggested. He was really beginning to enjoy himself. + +"What's the use of making a dollar and sitting on it. I've not got +fifteen per--steady--and here I am." + +Mount Dunstan knew his man, and looked at him with inquiring interest. +He was quite sure he would go on. This was a thing he had seen +before--an utter freedom from the insular grudging reserve, a sort of +occult perception of the presence of friendly sympathy, and an ingenuous +readiness to meet it half way. The youngster, having missed his +fellow-traveler, and probably feeling the lack of companionship in his +country rides, was in the mood for self-revelation. + +"I'm selling for a big concern," he said, "and I've got a first-class +article to carry. Up to date, you know, and all that. It's the top notch +of typewriting machines, the Delkoff. Ever seen it? Here's my card," +taking a card from an inside pocket and handing it to him. It was +inscribed: + +J. BURRIDGE & SON, + +DELKOFF TYPEWRITER CO. + +BROADWAY, NEW YORK. G. SELDEN. + + +"That's my name," he said, pointing to the inscription in the corner. +"I'm G. Selden, the junior assistant of Mr. Jones." + +At the sight of the insignia of his trade, his holiday air dropped from +him, and he hastily drew from another pocket an illustrated catalogue. + +"If you use a typewriter," he broke forth, "I can assure you it would +be to your interest to look at this." And as Mount Dunstan took the +proffered pamphlet, and with amiable gravity opened it, he rapidly +poured forth his salesman's patter, scarcely pausing to take his breath: +"It's the most up-to-date machine on the market. It has all the latest +improved mechanical appliances. You will see from the cut in the +catalogue that the platen roller is easily removed without a long +mechanical operation. All you do is to slip two pins back and off comes +the roller. There is also another point worth mentioning--the ribbon +switch. By using this ribbon switch you can write in either red or blue +ink while you are using only one ribbon. By throwing the switch on this +side, you can use thirteen yards on the upper edge of the ribbon, by +reversing it, you use thirteen yards on the lower edge--thus getting +practically twenty-six yards of good, serviceable ribbon out of one that +is only thirteen yards long--making a saving of fifty per cent. in your +ribbon expenditure alone, which you will see is quite an item to any +enterprising firm." + +He was obliged to pause here for a second or so, but as Mount Dunstan +exhibited no signs of intending to use violence, and, on the contrary, +continued to inspect the catalogue, he broke forth with renewed cheery +volubility: + +"Another advantage is the new basket shift. Also, the carriage on this +machine is perfectly stationary and rigid. On all other machines it +is fastened by a series of connecting bolts and links, which you will +readily understand makes perfect alignment uncertain. Then our tabulator +is a part and parcel of the instrument, costing you nothing more than +the original price of the machine, which is one hundred dollars--without +discount." + +"It seems a good thing," said Mount Dunstan. "If I had much business to +transact, I should buy one." + +"If you bought one you'd HAVE business," responded Selden. "That's +what's the matter. It's the up-to-date machines that set things humming. +A slow, old-fashioned typewriter uses a firm's time, and time's money." + +"I don't find it so," said Mount Dunstan. "I have more time than I can +possibly use--and no money." + +G. Selden looked at him with friendly interest. His experience, +which was varied, had taught him to recognize symptoms. This nice, +rough-looking chap, who, despite his rather shabby clothes, looked like +a gentleman, wore an expression Jones's junior assistant had seen many +a time before. He had seen it frequently on the countenances of other +junior assistants who had tramped the streets and met more or less +savage rebuffs through a day's length, without disposing of a single +Delkoff, and thereby adding five dollars to the ten per. It was the kind +of thing which wiped the youth out of a man's face and gave him a +hard, worn look about the eyes. He had looked like that himself many an +unfeeling day before he had learned to "know the ropes and not mind a +bit of hot air." His buoyant, slangy soul was a friendly thing. He was a +gregarious creature, and liked his fellow man. He felt, indeed, more at +ease with him when he needed "jollying along." Reticence was not even +etiquette in a case as usual as this. + +"Say," he broke out, "perhaps I oughtn't to have worried you. Are you up +against it? Down on your luck, I mean," in hasty translation. + +Mount Dunstan grinned a little. + +"That's a very good way of putting it," he answered. "I never heard 'up +against it' before. It's good. Yes, I'm up against it. + +"Out of a job?" with genial sympathy. + +"Well, the job I had was too big for me. It needed capital." He grinned +slightly again, recalling a phrase of his Western past. "I'm afraid I'm +down and out." + +"No, you're not," with cheerful scorn. "You're not dead, are you? S'long +as a man's not been dead a month, there's always a chance that there's +luck round the corner. How did you happen here? Are you piking it?" + +Momentarily Mount Dunstan was baffled. G. Selden, recognising the fact, +enlightened him. "That's New York again," he said, with a boyish touch +of apology. "It means on the tramp. Travelling along the turnpike. You +don't look as if you had come to that--though it's queer the sort of +fellows you do meet piking sometimes. Theatrical companies that have +gone to pieces on the road, you know. Perhaps--" with a sudden thought, +"you're an actor. Are you?" + +Mount Dunstan admitted to himself that he liked the junior assistant of +Jones immensely. A more ingenuously common young man, a more innocent +outsider, it had never been his blessed privilege to enter into close +converse with, but his very commonness was a healthy, normal thing. +It made no effort to wreathe itself with chaplets of elegance; it +was beautifully unaware that such adornment was necessary. It enjoyed +itself, youthfully; attacked the earning of its bread with genial pluck, +and its good-natured humanness had touched him. He had enjoyed his talk; +he wanted to hear more of it. He was not in the mood to let him go his +way. To Penzance, who was to lunch with him to-day, he would present a +study of absorbing interest. + +"No," he answered. "I'm not an actor. My name is Mount Dunstan, and this +place," with a nod over his shoulder, "is mine--but I'm up against it, +nevertheless." + +Selden looked a trifle disgusted. He began to pick up his bicycle. He +had given a degree of natural sympathy, and this was an English chap's +idea of a joke. + +"I'm the Prince of Wales, myself," he remarked, "and my mother's +expecting me to lunch at Windsor. So long, me lord," and he set his foot +on the treadle. + +Mount Dunstan rose, feeling rather awkward. The point seemed somewhat +difficult to contend. + +"It is not a joke," he said, conscious that he spoke rather stiffly. + +"Little Willie's not quite as easy as he looks," was the cryptic remark +of Mr. Selden. + +Mount Dunstan lost his rather easily lost temper, which happened to be +the best thing he could have done under the circumstances. + +"Damn it," he burst out. "I'm not such a fool as I evidently look. A +nice ass I should be to play an idiot joke like that. I'm speaking the +truth. Go if you like--and be hanged." + +Selden's attention was arrested. The fellow was in earnest. The place +was his. He must be the earl chap he had heard spoken of at the wayside +public house he had stopped at for a pot of beer. He dismounted from his +bicycle, and came back, pushing it before him, good-natured relenting +and awkwardness combining in his look. + +"All right," he said. "I apologise--if it's cold fact. I'm not calling +you a liar." + +"Thank you," still a little stiffly, from Mount Dunstan. + +The unabashed good cheer of G. Selden carried him lightly over a +slightly difficult moment. He laughed, pushing his cap back, of course, +and looking over the hedge at the sweep of park, with a group of deer +cropping softly in the foreground. + +"I guess I should get a bit hot myself," he volunteered handsomely, "if +I was an earl, and owned a place like this, and a fool fellow came along +and took me for a tramp. That was a pretty bad break, wasn't it? But I +did say you didn't look like it. Anyway you needn't mind me. I shouldn't +get onto Pierpont Morgan or W. K. Vanderbilt, if I met 'em in the +street." + +He spoke the two names as an Englishman of his class would have spoken +of the Dukes of Westminster or Marlborough. These were his nobles--the +heads of the great American houses, and entirely parallel, in his mind, +with the heads of any great house in England. They wielded the power of +the world, and could wield it for evil or good, as any prince or duke +might. Mount Dunstan saw the parallel. + +"I apologise, all right," G. Selden ended genially. + +"I am not offended," Mount Dunstan answered. "There was no reason why +you should know me from another man. I was taken for a gamekeeper a +few weeks since. I was savage a moment, because you refused to believe +me--and why should you believe me after all?" + +G. Selden hesitated. He liked the fellow anyhow. + +"You said you were up against it--that was it. And--and I've seen chaps +down on their luck often enough. Good Lord, the hard-luck stories I hear +every day of my life. And they get a sort of look about the eyes and +mouth. I hate to see it on any fellow. It makes me sort of sick to come +across it even in a chap that's only got his fool self to blame. I may +be making another break, telling you--but you looked sort of that way." + +"Perhaps," stolidly, "I did." Then, his voice warming, + +"It was jolly good-natured of you to think about it at all. Thank you." + +"That's all right," in polite acknowledgment. Then with another look +over the hedge, "Say--what ought I to call you? Earl, or my Lord?" + +"It's not necessary for you to call me anything in particular--as a +rule. If you were speaking of me, you might say Lord Mount Dunstan." + +G. Selden looked relieved. + +"I don't want to be too much off," he said. "And I'd like to ask you +a favour. I've only three weeks here, and I don't want to miss any +chances." + +"What chance would you like?" + +"One of the things I'm biking over the country for, is to get a look +at just such a place as this. We haven't got 'em in America. My old +grandmother was always talking about them. Before her mother brought +her to New York she'd lived in a village near some park gates, and she +chinned about it till she died. When I was a little chap I liked to hear +her. She wasn't much of an American. Wore a black net cap with purple +ribbons in it, and hadn't outlived her respect for aristocracy. Gee!" +chuckling, "if she'd heard what I said to you just now, I reckon she'd +have thrown a fit. Anyhow she made me feel I'd like to see the kind of +places she talked about. And I shall think myself in luck if you'll +let me have a look at yours--just a bike around the park, if you don't +object--or I'll leave the bike outside, if you'd rather." + +"I don't object at all," said Mount Dunstan. "The fact is, I happened to +be on the point of asking you to come and have some lunch--when you got +on your bicycle." + +Selden pushed his cap and cleared his throat. + +"I wasn't expecting that," he said. "I'm pretty dusty," with a glance +at his clothes. "I need a wash and brush up--particularly if there are +ladies." + +There were no ladies, and he could be made comfortable. This being +explained to him, he was obviously rejoiced. With unembarrassed +frankness, he expressed exultation. Such luck had not, at any time, +presented itself to him as a possibility in his holiday scheme. + +"By gee," he ejaculated, as they walked under the broad oaks of the +avenue leading to the house. "Speaking of luck, this is the limit! I +can't help thinking of what my grandmother would say if she saw me." + +He was a new order of companion, but before they had reached the house, +Mount Dunstan had begun to find him inspiring to the spirits. +His jovial, if crude youth, his unaffected acknowledgment of +unaccustomedness to grandeur, even when in dilapidation, his delight in +the novelty of the particular forms of everything about him--trees and +sward, ferns and moss, his open self-congratulation, were without doubt +cheerful things. + +His exclamation, when they came within sight of the house itself, was +for a moment disturbing to Mount Dunstan's composure. + +"Hully gee!" he said. "The old lady was right. All I've thought about +'em was 'way off. It's bigger than a museum." His approval was immense. + +During the absence in which he was supplied with the "wash and brush +up," Mount Dunstan found Mr. Penzance in the library. He explained to +him what he had encountered, and how it had attracted him. + +"You have liked to hear me describe my Western neighbours," he said. +"This youngster is a New York development, and of a different type. +But there is a likeness. I have invited to lunch with us, a young man +whom--Tenham, for instance, if he were here--would call 'a bounder.' +He is nothing of the sort. In his junior-assistant-salesman way, he is +rather a fine thing. I never saw anything more decently human than his +way of asking me--man to man, making friends by the roadside if I was +'up against it.' No other fellow I have known has ever exhibited the +same healthy sympathy." + +The Reverend Lewis was entranced. Already he was really quite flushed +with interest. As Assyrian character, engraved upon sarcophogi, would +have allured and thrilled him, so was he allured by the cryptic nature +of the two or three American slang phrases Mount Dunstan had repeated to +him. His was the student's simple ardour. + +"Up against it," he echoed. "Really! Dear! Dear! And that signifies, you +say----" + +"Apparently it means that a man has come face to face with an obstacle +difficult or impossible to overcome." + +"But, upon my word, that is not bad. It is strong figure of speech. +It brings up a picture. A man hurrying to an end--much desired--comes +unexpectedly upon a stone wall. One can almost hear the impact. He is up +against it. Most vivid. Excellent! Excellent!" + +The nature of Selden's calling was such that he was not accustomed to +being received with a hint of enthusiastic welcome. There was something +almost akin to this in the vicar's courteously amiable, aquiline +countenance when he rose to shake hands with the young man on his +entrance. Mr. Penzance was indeed slightly disappointed that his +greeting was not responded to by some characteristic phrasing. His +American was that of Sam Slick and Artemus Ward, Punch and various +English witticisms in anecdote. Life at the vicarage of Dunstan had not +revealed to him that the model had become archaic. + +The revelation dawned upon him during his intercourse with G. Selden. +The young man in his cheap bicycling suit was a new development. He was +markedly unlike an English youth of his class, as he was neither shy, +nor laboriously at his ease. That he was at his ease to quite an amazing +degree might perhaps have been remotely resented by the insular mind, +accustomed to another order of bearing in its social inferiors, had it +not been so obviously founded on entire unconsciousness of self, and +so mingled with open appreciation of the unanticipated pleasures of the +occasion. Nothing could have been farther from G. Selden than any desire +to attempt to convey the impression that he had enjoyed the hospitality +of persons of rank on previous occasions. He found indeed a gleeful +point in the joke of the incongruousness of his own presence amid such +surroundings. + +"What Little Willie was expecting," he remarked once, to the keen joy +of Mr. Penzance, "was a hunk of bread and cheese at a village saloon +somewhere. I ought to have said 'pub,' oughtn't I? You don't call them +saloons here." + +He was encouraged to talk, and in his care-free fluency he opened up +many vistas to the interested Mr. Penzance, who found himself, so to +speak, whirled along Broadway, rushed up the steps of the elevated +railroad and struggling to obtain a seat, or a strap to hang to on a +Sixth Avenue train. The man was saturated with the atmosphere of the +hot battle he lived in. From his childhood he had known nothing but +the fever heat of his "little old New York," as he called it with +affectionate slanginess, and any temperature lower than that he was +accustomed to would have struck him as being below normal. Penzance was +impressed by his feeling of affection for the amazing city of his birth. +He admired, he adored it, he boasted joyously of its perfervid charm. + +"Something doing," he said. "That's what my sort of a fellow +likes--something doing. You feel it right there when you walk along +the streets. Little old New York for mine. It's good enough for Little +Willie. And it never stops. Why, Broadway at night----" + +He forgot his chop, and leaned forward on the table to pour forth his +description. The manservant, standing behind Mount Dunstan's chair, +forgot himself also, thought he was a trained domestic whose duty it +was to present dishes to the attention without any apparent mental +processes. Certainly it was not his business to listen, and gaze +fascinated. This he did, however, actually for the time unconscious of +his breach of manners. The very crudity of the language used, the oddly +sounding, sometimes not easily translatable slang phrases, used as if +they were a necessary part of any conversation--the blunt, uneducated +bareness of figure--seemed to Penzance to make more roughly vivid the +picture dashed off. The broad thoroughfare almost as thronged by night +as by day. Crowds going to theatres, loaded electric cars, whizzing and +clanging bells, the elevated railroad rushing and roaring past within +hearing, theatre fronts flaming with electric light, announcements of +names of theatrical stars and the plays they appeared in, electric +light advertisements of brands of cigars, whiskies, breakfast foods, all +blazing high in the night air in such number and with such strength of +brilliancy that the whole thoroughfare was as bright with light as a +ballroom or a theatre. The vicar felt himself standing in the midst of +it all, blinded by the glare. + +"Sit down on the sidewalk and read your newspaper, a book, a +magazine--any old thing you like," with an exultant laugh. + +The names of the dramatic stars blazing over entrances to the theatres +were often English names, their plays English plays, their companies +made up of English men and women. G. Selden was as familiar with them +and commented upon their gifts as easily as if he had drawn his drama +from the Strand instead of from Broadway. The novels piled up in the +stations of what he called "the L" (which revealed itself as being +a New-York-haste abbreviation of Elevated railroad), were in large +proportion English novels, and he had his ingenuous estimate of English +novelists, as well as of all else. + +"Ruddy, now," he said; "I like him. He's all right, even though we +haven't quite caught onto India yet." + +The dazzle and brilliancy of Broadway so surrounded Penzance that he +found it necessary to withdraw himself and return to his immediate +surroundings, that he might recover from his sense of interested +bewilderment. His eyes fell upon the stern lineaments of a Mount Dunstan +in a costume of the time of Henry VIII. He was a burly gentleman, +whose ruff-shortened thick neck and haughty fixedness of stare from the +background of his portrait were such as seemed to eliminate him from the +scheme of things, the clanging of electric cars, and the prevailing +roar of the L. Confronted by his gaze, electric light advertisements of +whiskies, cigars, and corsets seemed impossible. + +"He's all right," continued G. Selden. "I'm ready to separate myself +from one fifty any time I see a new book of his. He's got the goods with +him." + +The richness of colloquialism moved the vicar of Mount Dunstan to deep +enjoyment. + +"Would you mind--I trust you won't," he apologised courteously, "telling +me exactly the significance of those two last sentences. In think I see +their meaning, but----" + +G. Selden looked good-naturedly apologetic himself. + +"Well, it's slang--you see," he explained. "I guess I can't help it. +You--" flushing a trifle, but without any touch of resentment in the +boyish colour, "you know what sort of a chap I am. I'm not passing +myself off as anything but an ordinary business hustler, am I--just +under salesman to a typewriter concern? I shouldn't like to think I'd +got in here on any bluff. I guess I sling in slang every half dozen +words----." + +"My dear boy," Penzance was absolutely moved and he spoke with +warmth quite paternal, "Lord Mount Dunstan and I are genuinely +interested--genuinely. He, because he knows New York a little, and I +because I don't. I am an elderly man, and have spent my life buried +in my books in drowsy villages. Pray go on. Your American slang has +frequently a delightful meaning--a fantastic hilarity, or common sense, +or philosophy, hidden in its origin. In that it generally differs from +English slang, which--I regret to say--is usually founded on some silly +catch word. Pray go on. When you see a new book by Mr. Kipling, you are +ready to 'separate yourself from one fifty' because he 'has the goods +with him.'" + +G. Selden suppressed an involuntary young laugh. + +"One dollar and fifty cents is usually the price of a book," he said. +"You separate yourself from it when you take it out of your clothes--I +mean out of your pocket--and pay it over the counter." + +"There's a careless humour in it," said Mount Dunstan grimly. "The +suggestion of parting is not half bad. On the whole, it is subtle." + +"A great deal of it is subtle," said Penzance, "though it all professes +to be obvious. The other sentence has a commercial sound." + +"When a man goes about selling for a concern," said the junior assistant +of Jones, "he can prove what he says, if he has the goods with him. I +guess it came from that. I don't know. I only know that when a man is a +straight sort of fellow, and can show up, we say he's got the goods with +him." + +They sat after lunch in the library, before an open window, looking into +a lovely sunken garden. Blossoms were breaking out on every side, and +robins, thrushes, and blackbirds chirped and trilled and whistled, as +Mount Dunstan and Penzance led G. Selden on to paint further pictures +for them. + +Some of them were rather painful, Penzance thought. As connected with +youth, they held a touch of pathos Selden was all unconscious of. He had +had a hard life, made up, since his tenth year, of struggles to earn his +living. He had sold newspapers, he had run errands, he had swept out a +"candy store." He had had a few years at the public school, and a few +months at a business college, to which he went at night, after work +hours. He had been "up against it good and plenty," he told them. He +seemed, however, to have had a knack of making friends and of giving +them "a boost along" when such a chance was possible. Both of his +listeners realised that a good many people had liked him, and the reason +was apparent enough to them. + +"When a chap gets sorry for himself," he remarked once, "he's down and +out. That's a stone-cold fact. There's lots of hard-luck stories that +you've got to hear anyhow. The fellow that can keep his to himself is +the fellow that's likely to get there." + +"Get there?" the vicar murmured reflectively, and Selden chuckled again. + +"Get where he started out to go to--the White House, if you like. The +fellows that have got there kept their hardluck stories quiet, I bet. +Guess most of 'em had plenty during election, if they were the kind to +lie awake sobbing on their pillows because their feelings were hurt." + +He had never been sorry for himself, it was evident, though it must be +admitted that there were moments when the elderly English clergyman, +whose most serious encounters had been annoying interviews with +cottagers of disrespectful manner, rather shuddered as he heard his +simple recital of days when he had tramped street after street, carrying +his catalogue with him, and trying to tell his story of the Delkoff to +frantically busy men who were driven mad by the importunate sight of +him, to worried, ill-tempered ones who broke into fury when they heard +his voice, and to savage brutes who were only restrained by law from +kicking him into the street. + +"You've got to take it, if you don't want to lose your job. Some of +them's as tired as you are. Sometimes, if you can give 'em a jolly and +make 'em laugh, they'll listen, and you may unload a machine. But it's +no merry jest just at first--particularly in bad weather. The first five +weeks I was with the Delkoff I never made a sale. Had to live on my ten +per, and that's pretty hard in New York. Three and a half for your +hall bedroom, and the rest for your hash and shoes. But I held on, and +gradually luck began to turn, and I began not to care so much when a man +gave it to me hot." + +The vicar of Mount Dunstan had never heard of the "hall bedroom" as an +institution. A dozen unconscious sentences placed it before his mental +vision. He thought it horribly touching. A narrow room at the back of +a cheap lodging house, a bed, a strip of carpet, a washstand--this the +sole refuge of a male human creature, in the flood tide of youth, no +more than this to come back to nightly, footsore and resentful of soul, +after a day's tramp spent in forcing himself and his wares on people +who did not want him or them, and who found infinite variety in the +forcefulness of their method of saying so. + +"What you know, when you go into a place, is that nobody wants to see +you, and no one will let you talk if they can help it. The only thing is +to get in and rattle off your stunt before you can be fired out." + +Sometimes at first he had gone back at night to the hall bedroom, and +sat on the edge of the narrow bed, swinging his feet, and asking himself +how long he could hold out. But he had held out, and evidently developed +into a good salesman, being bold and of imperturbable good spirits and +temper, and not troubled by hypersensitiveness. Hearing of the "hall +bedroom," the coldness of it in winter, and the breathless heat in +summer, the utter loneliness of it at all times and seasons, one could +not have felt surprise if the grown-up lad doomed to its narrowness as +home had been drawn into the electric-lighted gaiety of Broadway, and +being caught in its maelstrom, had been sucked under to its lowest +depths. But it was to be observed that G. Selden had a clear eye, and a +healthy skin, and a healthy young laugh yet, which were all wonderfully +to his credit, and added enormously to one's liking for him. + +"Do you use a typewriter?" he said at last to Mr. Penzance. "It would +cut out half your work with your sermons. If you do use one, I'd just +like to call your attention to the Delkoff. It's the most up-to-date +machine on the market to-day," drawing out the catalogue. + +"I do not use one, and I am extremely sorry to say that I could not +afford to buy one," said Mr. Penzance with considerate courtesy, "but do +tell me about it. I am afraid I never saw a typewriter." + +It was the most hospitable thing he could have done, and was of the tact +of courts. He arranged his pince nez, and taking the catalogue, applied +himself to it. G. Selden's soul warmed within him. To be listened to +like this. To be treated as a gentleman by a gentleman--by "a fine old +swell like this--Hully gee!" + +"This isn't what I'm used to," he said with genuine enjoyment. "It +doesn't matter, your not being ready to buy now. You may be sometime, or +you may run up against someone who is. Little Willie's always ready to +say his piece." + +He poured it forth with glee--the improved mechanical appliances, +the cuts in the catalogue, the platen roller, the ribbon switch, the +twenty-six yards of red or blue typing, the fifty per cent. saving in +ribbon expenditure alone, the new basket shift, the stationary carriage, +the tabulator, the superiority to all other typewriting machines--the +price one hundred dollars without discount. And both Mount Dunstan and +Mr. Penzance listened entranced, examined cuts in the catalogue, asked +questions, and in fact ended by finding that they must repress an actual +desire to possess the luxury. The joy their attitude bestowed upon +Selden was the thing he would feel gave the finishing touch to the hours +which he would recall to the end of his days as the "time of his life." +Yes, by gee! he was having "the time of his life." + +Later he found himself feeling--as Miss Vanderpoel had felt--rather +as if the whole thing was a dream. This came upon him when, with Mount +Dunstan and Penzance, he walked through the park and the curiously +beautiful old gardens. The lovely, soundless quiet, broken into only by +bird notes, or his companions' voices, had an extraordinary effect on +him. + +"It's so still you can hear it," he said once, stopping in a velvet, +moss-covered path. "Seems like you've got quiet shut up here, and you've +turned it on till the air's thick with it. Good Lord, think of little +old Broadway keeping it up, and the L whizzing and thundering along +every three minutes, just the same, while we're standing here! You can't +believe it." + +It would have gone hard with him to describe to them the value of his +enjoyment. Again and again there came back to him the memory of the +grandmother who wore the black net cap trimmed with purple ribbons. +Apparently she had remained to the last almost contumaciously British. +She had kept photographs of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort on her +bedroom mantelpiece, and had made caustic, international comparisons. +But she had seen places like this, and her stories became realities to +him now. But she had never thought of the possibility of any chance of +his being shown about by the lord of the manor himself--lunching, by +gee! and talking to them about typewriters. He vaguely knew that if the +grandmother had not emigrated, and he had been born in Dunstan village, +he would naturally have touched his forehead to Mount Dunstan and the +vicar when they passed him in the road, and conversation between them +would have been an unlikely thing. Somehow things had been changed by +Destiny--perhaps for the whole of them, as years had passed. + +What he felt when he stood in the picture gallery neither of his +companions could at first guess. He ceased to talk, and wandered +silently about. Secretly he found himself a trifle awed by being looked +down upon by the unchanging eyes of men in strange, rich garments--in +corslet, ruff, and doublet, velvet, powder, curled love locks, brocade +and lace. The face of long-dead loveliness smiled out from its canvas, +or withheld itself haughtily from his salesman's gaze. Wonderful bare +white shoulders, and bosoms clasped with gems or flowers and lace, +defied him to recall any treasures of Broadway to compare with them. +Elderly dames, garbed in stiff splendour, held stiff, unsympathetic +inquiry in their eyes, as they looked back upon him. What exactly was a +thirty shilling bicycle suit doing there? In the Delkoff, plainly none +were interested. A pretty, masquerading shepherdess, with a lamb and a +crook, seemed to laugh at him from under her broad beribboned straw +hat. After looking at her for a minute or so, he gave a half laugh +himself--but it was an awkward one. + +"She's a looker," he remarked. "They're a lot of them lookers--not +all--but a fair show----" + +"A looker," translated Mount Dunstan in a low voice to Penzance, "means, +I believe, a young women with good looks--a beauty." + +"Yes, she IS a looker, by gee," said G. Selden, "but--but--" the awkward +half laugh, taking on a depressed touch of sheepishness, "she makes me +feel 'way off--they all do." + +That was it. Surrounded by them, he was fascinated but not cheered. They +were all so smilingly, or disdainfully, or indifferently unconscious of +the existence of the human thing of his class. His aspect, his life, and +his desires were as remote as those of prehistoric man. His Broadway, +his L railroad, his Delkoff--what were they where did they come into +the scheme of the Universe? They silently gazed and lightly smiled or +frowned THROUGH him as he stood. He was probably not in the least aware +that he rather loudly sighed. + +"Yes," he said, "they make me feel 'way off. I'm not in it. But she is a +looker. Get onto that dimple in her cheek." + +Mount Dunstan and Penzance spent the afternoon in doing their best for +him. He was well worth it. Mr. Penzance was filled with delight, and +saturated with the atmosphere of New York. + +"I feel," he said, softly polishing his eyeglasses and almost +affectionately smiling, "I really feel as if I had been walking down +Broadway or Fifth Avenue. I believe that I might find my way to--well, +suppose we say Weber & Field's," and G. Selden shouted with glee. + +Never before, in fact, had he felt his heart so warmed by spontaneous +affection as it was by this elderly, somewhat bald and thin-faced +clergyman of the Church of England. This he had never seen before. +Without the trained subtlety to have explained to himself the finely +sweet and simply gracious deeps of it, he was moved and uplifted. He was +glad he had "come across" it, he felt a vague regret at passing on his +way, and leaving it behind. He would have liked to feel that perhaps he +might come back. He would have liked to present him with a Delkoff, and +teach him how to run it. He had delighted in Mount Dunstan, and rejoiced +in him, but he had rather fallen in love with Penzance. Certain American +doubts he had had of the solidity and permanency of England's position +and power were somewhat modified. When fellows like these two stood at +the first rank, little old England was a pretty safe proposition. + +After they had given him tea among the scents and songs of the sunken +garden outside the library window, they set him on his way. The shadows +were lengthening and the sunlight falling in deepening gold when they +walked up the avenue and shook hands with him at the big entrance gates. + +"Well, gentlemen," he said, "you've treated me grand--as fine as silk, +and it won't be like Little Willie to forget it. When I go back to +New York it'll be all I can do to keep from getting the swell head and +bragging about it. I've enjoyed myself down to the ground, every minute. +I'm not the kind of fellow to be likely to be able to pay you back +your kindness, but, hully gee! if I could I'd do it to beat the band. +Good-bye, gentlemen--and thank you--thank you." + +Across which one of their minds passed the thought that the sound of the +hollow impact of a trotting horse's hoofs on the road, which each that +moment became conscious of hearing was the sound of the advancing foot +of Fate? It crossed no mind among the three. There was no reason why +it should. And yet at that moment the meaning of the regular, stirring +sound was a fateful thing. + +"Someone on horseback," said Penzance. + +He had scarcely spoken before round the curve of the road she came. A +finely slender and spiritedly erect girl's figure, upon a satin-skinned +bright chestnut with a thoroughbred gait, a smart groom riding behind +her. She came towards them, was abreast them, looked at Mount Dunstan, a +smiling dimple near her lip as she returned his quick salute. + +"Miss Vanderpoel," he said low to the vicar, "Lady Anstruther's sister." + +Mr. Penzance, replacing his own hat, looked after her with surprised +pleasure. + +"Really," he exclaimed, "Miss Vanderpoel! What a fine girl! How +unusually handsome!" + +Selden turned with a gasp of delighted, amazed recognition. + +"Miss Vanderpoel," he burst forth, "Reuben Vanderpoel's daughter! The +one that's over here visiting her sister. Is it that one--sure?" + +"Yes," from Mount Dunstan without fervour. "Lady Anstruthers lives at +Stornham, about six miles from here." + +"Gee," with feverish regret. "If her father was there, and I could get +next to him, my fortune would be made." + +"Should you," ventured Penzance politely, "endeavour to sell him a +typewriter?" + +"A typewriter! Holy smoke! I'd try to sell him ten thousand. A fellow +like that syndicates the world. If I could get next to him----" and he +mounted his bicycle with a laugh. + +"Get next," murmured Penzance. + +"Get on the good side of him," Mount Dunstan murmured in reply. + +"So long, gentlemen, good-bye, and thank you again," called G. Selden as +he wheeled off, and was carried soundlessly down the golden road. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF STORNHAM + +The satin-skinned chestnut was one of the new horses now standing in +the Stornham stables. There were several of them--a pair for the landau, +saddle horses, smart young cobs for phaeton or dog cart, a pony for +Ughtred--the animals necessary at such a place at Stornham. The stables +themselves had been quickly put in order, grooms and stable boys kept +them as they had not been kept for years. The men learned in a week's +time that their work could not be done too well. There were new +carriages as well as horses. They had come from London after Lady +Anstruthers and her sister returned from town. The horses had been +brought down by their grooms--immensely looked after, blanketed, hooded, +and altogether cared for as if they were visiting dukes and duchesses. +They were all fine, handsome, carefully chosen creatures. When they +danced and sidled through the village on their way to the Court, they +created a sensation. Whosoever had chosen them had known his business. +The older vehicles had been repaired in the village by Tread, and did +him credit. Fox had also done his work well. + +Plenty more of it had come into their work-shops. Tools to be used on +the estate, garden implements, wheelbarrows, lawn rollers, things needed +about the house, stables, and cottages, were to be attended to. The +church roof was being repaired. Taking all these things and the "doing +up" of the Court itself, there was more work than the village could +manage, and carpenters, bricklayers, and decorators were necessarily +brought from other places. Still Joe Buttle and Sim Soames were allowed +to lead in all such things as lay within their capabilities. It was they +who made such a splendid job of the entrance gates and the lodges. It +was astonishing how much was done, and how the sense of life in the +air--the work of resulting prosperity, made men begin to tread with less +listless steps as they went to and from their labour. In the cottages +things were being done which made downcast women bestir themselves and +look less slatternly. Leaks mended here, windows there, the hopeless +copper in the tiny washhouse replaced by a new one, chimneys cured of +the habit of smoking, a clean, flowered paper put on a wall, a coat of +whitewash--they were small matters, but produced great effect. + +Betty had begun to drop into the cottages, and make the acquaintance +of their owners. Her first visits, she observed, created great +consternation. Women looked frightened or sullen, children stared +and refused to speak, clinging to skirts and aprons. She found the +atmosphere clear after her second visit. The women began to talk, and +the children collected in groups and listened with cheerful grins. +She could pick up little Jane's kitten, or give a pat to small Thomas' +mongrel dog, in a manner which threw down barriers. + +"Don't put out your pipe," she said to old Grandfather Doby, rising +totteringly respectful from his chimney-side chair. "You have only just +lighted it. You mustn't waste a whole pipeful of tobacco because I have +come in." + +The old man, grown childish with age, tittered and shuffled and giggled. +Such a joke as the grand young lady was having with him. She saw he had +only just lighted his pipe. The gentry joked a bit sometimes. But he was +afraid of his grandson's wife, who was frowning and shaking her head. + +Betty went to him, and put her hand on his arm. + +"Sit down," she said, "and I will sit by you." And she sat down and +showed him that she had brought a package of tobacco with her, and +actually a wonder of a red and yellow jar to hold it, at the sight of +which unheard-of joys his rapture was so great that his trembling hands +could scarcely clasp his treasures. + +"Tee-hee! Tee-hee-ee! Deary me! Thankee--thankee, my lady," he tittered, +and he gazed and blinked at her beauty through heavenly tears. + +"Nearly a hundred years old, and he has lived on sixteen shillings a +week all his life, and earned it by working every hour between sunrise +and sunset," Betty said to her sister, when she went home. "A man has +one life, and his has passed like that. It is done now, and all the +years and work have left nothing in his old hands but his pipe. That's +all. I should not like to put it out for him. Who am I that I can buy +him a new one, and keep it filled for him until the end? How did it +happen? No," suddenly, "I must not lose time in asking myself that. I +must get the new pipe." + +She did it--a pipe of great magnificence--such as drew to the Doby +cottage as many callers as the village could provide, each coming with +fevered interest, to look at it--to be allowed to hold and examine it +for a few moments, guessing at its probable enormous cost, and returning +it reverently, to gaze at Doby with respect--the increase of which can +be imagined when it was known that he was not only possessor of the +pipe, but of an assurance that he would be supplied with as much tobacco +as he could use, to the end of his days. From the time of the advent +of the pipe, Grandfather Doby became a man of mark, and his life in the +chimney corner a changed thing. A man who owns splendours and unlimited, +excellent shag may like friends to drop in and crack jokes--and even +smoke a pipe with him--a common pipe, which, however, is not amiss when +excellent shag comes free. + +"He lives in a wild whirl of gaiety--a social vortex," said Betty to +Lady Anstruthers, after one of her visits. "He is actually rejuvenated. +I must order some new white smocks for him to receive his visitors in. +Someone brought him an old copy of the Illustrated London News last +night. We will send him illustrated papers every week." + +In the dull old brain, God knows what spark of life had been relighted. +Young Mrs. Doby related with chuckles that granddad had begged that his +chair might be dragged to the window, that he might sit and watch the +village street. Sitting there, day after day, he smoked and looked at +his pictures, and dozed and dreamed, his pipe and tobacco jar beside +him on the window ledge. At any sound of wheels or footsteps his face +lighted, and if, by chance, he caught a glimpse of Betty, he tottered +to his feet, and stood hurriedly touching his bald forehead with a +reverent, palsied hand. + +"'Tis 'urr," he would say, enrapt. "I seen 'urr--I did." And young Mrs. +Doby knew that this was his joy, and what he waited for as one waits for +the coming of the sun. + +"'Tis 'urr! 'Tis 'urr!" + +The vicar's wife, Mrs. Brent, who since the affair of John Wilson's fire +had dropped into the background and felt it indiscreet to present tales +of distress at the Court, began to recover her courage. Her perfunctory +visits assumed a new character. The vicarage had, of course, called +promptly upon Miss Vanderpoel, after her arrival. Mrs. Brent admired +Miss Vanderpoel hugely. + +"You seem so unlike an American," she said once in her most tactful, +ingratiating manner--which was very ingratiating indeed. + +"Do I? What is one like when one is like an American? I am one, you +know." + +"I can scarcely believe it," with sweet ardour. + +"Pray try," said Betty with simple brevity, and Mrs. Brent felt that +perhaps Miss Vanderpoel was not really very easy to get on with. + +"She meant to imply that I did not speak through my nose, and talk too +much, and too vivaciously, in a shrill voice," Betty said afterwards, in +talking the interview over with Rosy. "I like to convince myself that +is not one's sole national characteristic. Also it was not exactly Mrs. +Brent's place to kindly encourage me with the information that I do not +seem to belong to my own country." + +Lady Anstruthers laughed, and Betty looked at her inquiringly. + +"You said that just like--just like an Englishwoman." + +"Did I?" said Betty. + +Mrs. Brent had come to talk to her because she did not wish to trouble +dear Lady Anstruthers. Lady Anstruthers already looked much stronger, +but she had been delicate so long that one hesitated to distress her +with village matters. She did not add that she realised that she was +coming to headquarters. The vicar and herself were much disturbed +about a rather tiresome old woman--old Mrs. Welden--who lived in a +tiny cottage in the village. She was eighty-three years old, and a +respectable old person--a widow, who had reared ten children. The +children had all grown up, and scattered, and old Mrs. Welden had +nothing whatever to live on. No one knew how she lived, and really +she would be better off in the workhouse. She could be sent to Brexley +Union, and comfortably taken care of, but she had that singular, +obstinate dislike to going, which it was so difficult to manage. She +had asked for a shilling a week from the parish, but that could not be +allowed her, as it would merely uphold her in her obstinate intention +of remaining in her cottage, and taking care of herself--which she could +not do. Betty gathered that the shilling a week would be a drain on the +parish funds, and would so raise the old creature to affluence that she +would feel she could defy fate. And the contumacity of old men and women +should not be strengthened by the reckless bestowal of shillings. + +Knowing that Miss Vanderpoel had already gained influence among the +village people, Mrs. Brent said, she had come to ask her if she would +see old Mrs. Welden and argue with her in such a manner as would +convince her that the workhouse was the best place for her. It was, of +course, so much pleasanter if these old people could be induced to go to +Brexley willingly. + +"Shall I be undermining the whole Political Economy of Stornham if I +take care of her myself?" suggested Betty. + +"You--you will lead others to expect the same thing will be done for +them." + +"When one has resources to draw on," Miss Vanderpoel commented, "in +the case of a woman who has lived eighty-three years and brought up ten +children until they were old and strong enough to leave her to take care +of herself, it is difficult for the weak of mind to apply the laws of +Political Economics. I will go and see old Mrs. Welden." + +If the Vanderpoels would provide for all the obstinate old men and women +in the parish, the Political Economics of Stornham would proffer no +marked objections. "A good many Americans," Mrs. Brent reflected, +"seemed to have those odd, lavish ways," as witness Lady Anstruthers +herself, on her first introduction to village life. Miss Vanderpoel was +evidently a much stronger character, and extremely clever, and somehow +the stream of the American fortune was at last being directed towards +Stornham--which, of course, should have happened long ago. A good deal +was "being done," and the whole situation looked more promising. So was +the matter discussed and summed up, the same evening after dinner, at +the vicarage. + +Betty found old Mrs. Welden's cottage. It was in a green lane, turning +from the village street--which was almost a green lane itself. A tiny +hedged-in front garden was before the cottage door. A crazy-looking +wicket gate was in the hedge, and a fuschia bush and a few old roses +were in the few yards of garden. There were actually two or three +geraniums in the window, showing cheerful scarlet between the short, +white dimity curtains. + +"A house this size and of this poverty in an American village," was +Betty's thought, "would be a bare and straggling hideousness, with old +tomato cans in the front yard. Here is one of the things we have to +learn from them." + +When she knocked at the door an old woman opened it. She was a +well-preserved and markedly respectable old person, in a decent print +frock and a cap. At the sight of her visitor she beamed and made a +suggestion of curtsey. + +"How do you do, Mrs. Welden?" said Betty. "I am Lady Anstruthers' +sister, Miss Vanderpoel. I thought I would like to come and see you." + +"Thank you, miss, I am obliged for the kindness, miss. Won't you come in +and have a chair?" + +There were no signs of decrepitude about her, and she had a cheery +old eye. The tiny front room was neat, though there was scarcely space +enough in it to contain the table covered with its blue-checked cotton +cloth, the narrow sofa, and two or three chairs. There were a few small +coloured prints, and a framed photograph or so on the walls, and on the +table was a Bible, and a brown earthenware teapot, and a plate. + +"Tom Wood's wife, that's neighbour next door to me," she said, "gave me +a pinch o' tea--an' I've just been 'avin it. Tom Woods, miss, 'as just +been took on by Muster Kedgers as one of the new under gardeners at the +Court." + +Betty found her delightful. She made no complaints, and was evidently +pleased with the excitement of receiving a visitor. The truth was, that +in common with every other old woman, she had secretly aspired to being +visited some day by the amazing young lady from "Meriker." Betty had yet +to learn of the heartburnings which may be occasioned by an unconscious +favouritism. She was not aware that when she dropped in to talk to old +Doby, his neighbour, old Megworth, peered from behind his curtains, with +the dew of envy in his rheumy eyes. + +"S'ems," he mumbled, "as if they wasn't nobody now in Stornham village +but Gaarge Doby--s'ems not." They were very fierce in their jealousy +of attention, and one must beware of rousing evil passions in the +octogenarian breast. + +The young lady from "Meriker" had not so far had time to make a call at +any cottage in old Mrs. Welden's lane--and she had knocked just at old +Mrs. Welden's door. This was enough to put in good spirits even a less +cheery old person. + +At first Betty wondered how she could with delicacy ask personal +questions. A few minutes' conversation, however, showed her that the +personal affairs of Sir Nigel's tenants were also the affairs of not +only himself, but of such of his relatives as attended to their natural +duty. Her presence in the cottage, and her interest in Mrs. Welden's +ready flow of simple talk, were desirable and proper compliments to the +old woman herself. She was a decent and self-respecting old person, but +in her mind there was no faintest glimmer of resentment of questions +concerning rent and food and the needs of her simple, hard-driven +existence. She had answered such questions on many occasions, when they +had not been asked in the manner in which her ladyship's sister asked +them. Mrs. Brent had scolded her and "poked about" her cottage, going +into her tiny "wash 'us," and up into her infinitesimal bedroom under +the slanting roof, to see that they were kept clean. Miss Vanderpoel +showed no disposition to "poke." She sat and listened, and made an +inquiry here and there, in a nice voice and with a smile in her +eyes. There was some pleasure in relating the whole history of your +eighty-three years to a young lady who listened as if she wanted to hear +it. So old Mrs. Welden prattled on. About her good days, when she was +young, and was kitchenmaid at the parsonage in a village twenty miles +away; about her marriage with a young farm labourer; about his "steady" +habits, and the comfort they had together, in spite of the yearly +arrival of a new baby, and the crowding of the bit of a cottage his +master allowed them. Ten of 'em, and it had been "up before sunrise, and +a good bit of hard work to keep them all fed and clean." But she had not +minded that until Jack died quite sudden after a sunstroke. It was odd +how much colour her rustic phraseology held. She made Betty see it all. +The apparent natural inevitableness of their being turned out of the +cottage, because another man must have it; the years during which +she worked her way while the ten were growing up, having measles, and +chicken pox, and scarlet fever, one dying here and there, dropping out +quite in the natural order of things, and being buried by the parish in +corners of the ancient church yard. Three of them "was took" by scarlet +fever, then one of a "decline," then one or two by other illnesses. Only +four reached man and womanhood. One had gone to Australia, but he never +was one to write, and after a year or two, Betty gathered, he had seemed +to melt away into the great distance. Two girls had married, and Mrs. +Welden could not say they had been "comf'able." They could barely feed +themselves and their swarms of children. The other son had never been +steady like his father. He had at last gone to London, and London had +swallowed him up. Betty was struck by the fact that she did not seem +to feel that the mother of ten might have expected some return for her +labours, at eighty-three. + +Her unresentful acceptance of things was at once significant and +moving. Betty found her amazing. What she lived on it was not easy to +understand. She seemed rather like a cheerful old bird, getting up each +unprovided-for morning, and picking up her sustenance where she found +it. + +"There's more in the sayin' 'the Lord pervides' than a good many +thinks," she said with a small chuckle, marked more by a genial and +comfortable sense of humour than by an air of meritoriously quoting the +vicar. "He DO." + +She paid one and threepence a week in rent for her cottage, and this +was the most serious drain upon her resources. She apparently could live +without food or fire, but the rent must be paid. "An' I do get a bit +be'ind sometimes," she confessed apologetically, "an' then it's a +trouble to get straight." + +Her cottage was one of a short row, and she did odd jobs for the women +who were her neighbours. There were always babies to be looked after, +and "bits of 'elp" needed, sometimes there were "movings" from one +cottage to another, and "confinements" were plainly at once exhilarating +and enriching. Her temperamental good cheer, combined with her +experience, made her a desirable companion and assistant. She was +engagingly frank. + +"When they're new to it, an' a bit frightened, I just give 'em a cup +of 'ot tea, an' joke with 'em to cheer 'em up," she said. "I says to +Charles Jenkins' wife, as lives next door, 'come now, me girl, it's been +goin' on since Adam an' Eve, an' there's a good many of us left, isn't +there?' An' a fine boy it was, too, miss, an' 'er up an' about before +'er month." + +She was paid in sixpences and spare shillings, and in cups of tea, or a +fresh-baked loaf, or screws of sugar, or even in a garment not yet worn +beyond repair. And she was free to run in and out, and grow a flower or +so in her garden, and talk with a neighbour over the low dividing hedge. + +"They want me to go into the 'Ouse,'" reaching the dangerous subject at +last. "They say I'll be took care of an' looked after. But I don't want +to do it, miss. I want to keep my bit of a 'ome if I can, an' be free to +come an' go. I'm eighty-three, an' it won't be long. I 'ad a shilling a +week from the parish, but they stopped it because they said I ought to +go into the 'Ouse.'" + +She looked at Betty with a momentarily anxious smile. + +"P'raps you don't quite understand, miss," she said. "It'll seem like +nothin' to you--a place like this." + +"It doesn't," Betty answered, smiling bravely back into the old eyes, +though she felt a slight fulness of the throat. "I understand all about +it." + +It is possible that old Mrs. Welden was a little taken aback by an +attitude which, satisfactory to her own prejudices though it might be, +was, taken in connection with fixed customs, a trifle unnatural. + +"You don't mind me not wantin' to go?" she said. + +"No," was the answer, "not at all." + +Betty began to ask questions. How much tea, sugar, soap, candles, bread, +butter, bacon, could Mrs. Welden use in a week? It was not very easy to +find out the exact quantities, as Mrs. Welden's estimates of such things +had been based, during her entire existence, upon calculation as to how +little, not how much she could use. + +When Betty suggested a pound of tea, a half pound--the old woman smiled +at the innocent ignorance the suggestion of such reckless profusion +implied. + +"Oh, no! Bless you, miss, no! I couldn't never do away with it. A +quarter, miss--that'd be plenty--a quarter." + +Mrs. Welden's idea of "the best," was that at two shillings a pound. +Quarter of a pound would cost sixpence (twelve cents, thought Betty). +A pound of sugar would be twopence, Mrs. Welden would use half a pound +(the riotous extravagance of two cents). Half a pound of butter, "Good +tub butter, miss," would be ten pence three farthings a pound. Soap, +candles, bacon, bread, coal, wood, in the quantities required by Mrs. +Welden, might, with the addition of rent, amount to the dizzying height +of eight or ten shillings. + +"With careful extravagance," Betty mentally summed up, "I might spend +almost two dollars a week in surrounding her with a riot of luxury." + +She made a list of the things, and added some extras as an idea of her +own. Life had not afforded her this kind of thing before, she realised. +She felt for the first time the joy of reckless extravagance, and +thrilled with the excitement of it. + +"You need not think of Brexley Union any more," she said, when she, +having risen to go, stood at the cottage door with old Mrs. Welden. +"The things I have written down here shall be sent to you every Saturday +night. I will pay your rent." + +"Miss--miss!" Mrs. Welden looked affrighted. "It's too much, miss. An' +coals eighteen pence a hundred!" + +"Never mind," said her ladyship's sister, and the old woman, looking up +into her eyes, found there the colour Mount Dunstan had thought of as +being that of bluebells under water. "I think we can manage it, Mrs. +Welden. Keep yourself as warm as you like, and sometime I will come and +have a cup of tea with you and see if the tea is good." + +"Oh! Deary me!" said Mrs. Welden. "I can't think what to say, miss. It +lifts everythin'--everythin'. It's not to be believed. It's like bein' +left a fortune." + +When the wicket gate swung to and the young lady went up the lane, the +old woman stood staring after her. And here was a piece of news to run +into Charley Jenkins' cottage and tell--and what woman or man in the row +would quite believe it? + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +"WE BEGAN TO MARRY THEM, MY GOOD FELLOW!" + +Lord Dunholm and his eldest son, Lord Westholt, sauntered together +smoking their after-dinner cigars on the broad-turfed terrace +overlooking park and gardens which seemed to sweep without boundary +line into the purplish land beyond. The grey mass of the castle stood +clear-cut against the blue of a sky whose twilight was still almost +daylight, though in the purity of its evening stillness a star already +hung, here and there, and a young moon swung low. The great spaces about +them held a silence whose exquisite entirety was marked at intervals +by the distant bark of a shepherd dog driving his master's sheep to +the fold, their soft, intermittent plaints--the mother ewes' mellow +answering to the tender, fretful lambs--floated on the air, a lovely +part of the ending day's repose. Where two who are friends stroll +together at such hours, the great beauty makes for silence or for +thoughtful talk. These two men--father and son--were friends and +intimates, and had been so from Westholt's first memory of the time when +his childish individuality began to detach itself from the background of +misty and indistinct things. They had liked each other, and their liking +and intimacy had increased with the onward moving and change of years. +After sixty sane and decently spent active years of life, Lord Dunholm, +in either country tweed or evening dress, was a well-built and handsome +man; at thirty-three his son was still like him. + +"Have you seen her?" he was saying. + +"Only at a distance. She was driving Lady Anstruthers across the marshes +in a cart. She drove well and----" he laughed as he flicked the ash from +his cigar--"the back of her head and shoulders looked handsome." + +"The American young woman is at present a factor which is without doubt +to be counted with," Lord Dunholm put the matter without lightness. "Any +young woman is a factor, but the American young woman just now--just +now----" He paused a moment as though considering. "It did not seem at +all necessary to count with them at first, when they began to appear +among us. They were generally curiously exotic, funny little creatures +with odd manners and voices. They were often most amusing, and one liked +to hear them chatter and see the airy lightness with which they took +superfluous, and sometimes unsuperfluous, conventions, as a hunter takes +a five-barred gate. But it never occurred to us to marry them. We did +not take them seriously enough. But we began to marry them--we began to +marry them, my good fellow!" + +The final words broke forth with such a suggestion of sudden anxiety +that, in spite of himself, Westholt laughed involuntarily, and his +father, turning to look at him, laughed also. But he recovered his +seriousness. + +"It was all rather a muddle at first," he went on. "Things were not +fairly done, and certain bad lots looked on it as a paying scheme on the +one side, while it was a matter of silly, little ambitions on the other. +But that it is an extraordinary country there is no sane denying--huge, +fabulously resourceful in every way--area, variety of climate, wealth of +minerals, products of all sorts, soil to grow anything, and sun and rain +enough to give each thing what it needs; last, or rather first, a people +who, considered as a nation, are in the riot of youth, and who began by +being English--which we Englishmen have an innocent belief is the one +method of 'owning the earth.' That figure of speech is an Americanism I +carefully committed to memory. Well, after all, look at the map--look at +the map! There we are." + +They had frequently discussed together the question of the development +of international relations. Lord Dunholm, a man of far-reaching and +clear logic, had realised that the oddly unaccentuated growth of +intercourse between the two countries might be a subject to be reflected +on without lightness. + +"The habit we have of regarding America and Americans as rather a joke," +he had once said, "has a sort of parallel in the condescendingly amiable +amusement of a parent at the precocity or whimsicalness of a child. But +the child is shooting up amazingly--amazingly. In a way which suggests +divers possibilities." + +The exchange of visits between Dunholm and Stornham had been rare and +formal. From the call made upon the younger Lady Anstruthers on her +marriage, the Dunholms had returned with a sense of puzzled pity for the +little American bride, with her wonderful frock and her uneasy, childish +eyes. For some years Lady Anstruthers had been too delicate to make +or return calls. One heard painful accounts of her apparent wretched +ill-health and of the condition of her husband's estate. + +"As the relations between the two families have evidently been strained +for years," Lord Dunholm said, "it is interesting to hear of the sudden +advent of the sister. It seems to point to reconciliation. And you say +the girl is an unusual person. + +"From what one hears, she would be unusual if she were an English girl +who had spent her life on an English estate. That an American who +is making her first visit to England should seem to see at once the +practical needs of a neglected place is a thing to wonder at. What can +she know about it, one thinks. But she apparently does know. They say +she has made no mistakes--even with the village people. She is managing, +in one way or another, to give work to every man who wants it. Result, +of course--unbounded rustic enthusiasm." + +Lord Dunholm laughed between the soothing whiffs of his cigar. + +"How clever of her! And what sensible good feeling! Yes--yes! She +evidently has learned things somewhere. Perhaps New York has found +it wise to begin to give young women professional training in the +management of English estates. Who knows? Not a bad idea." + +It was the rustic enthusiasm, Westholt explained, which had in a manner +spread her fame. One heard enlightening and illustrative anecdotes of +her. He related several well worth hearing. She had evidently a sense of +humour and unexpected perceptions. + +"One detail of the story of old Doby's meerschaum," Westholt said, +"pleased me enormously. She managed to convey to him--without hurting +his aged feelings or overwhelming him with embarrassment--that if he +preferred a clean churchwarden or his old briarwood, he need not feel +obliged to smoke the new pipe. He could regard it as a trophy. Now, how +did she do that without filling him with fright and confusion, lest she +might think him not sufficiently grateful for her present? But they +tell me she did it, and that old Doby is rapturously happy and takes the +meerschaum to bed with him, but only smokes it on Sundays--sitting at +his window blowing great clouds when his neighbours are coming from +church. It was a clever girl who knew that an old fellow might secretly +like his old pipe best." + +"It was a deliciously clever girl," said Lord Dunholm. "One wants to +know and make friends with her. We must drive over and call. I confess, +I rather congratulate myself that Anstruthers is not at home." + +"So do I," Westholt answered. "One wonders a little how far he and his +sister-in-law will 'foregather' when he returns. He's an unpleasant +beggar." + +A few days later Mrs. Brent, returning from a call on Mrs. Charley +Jenkins, was passed by a carriage whose liveries she recognised half way +up the village street. It was the carriage from Dunholm Castle. Lord and +Lady Dunholm and Lord Westholt sat in it. They were, of course, going +to call at the Court. Miss Vanderpoel was beginning to draw people. She +naturally would. She would be likely to make quite a difference in the +neighbourhood now that it had heard of her and Lady Anstruthers had been +seen driving with her, evidently no longer an unvisitable invalid, but +actually decently clothed and in her right mind. Mrs. Brent slackened +her steps that she might have the pleasure of receiving and responding +gracefully to salutations from the important personages in the landau. +She felt that the Dunholms were important. There were earldoms AND +earldoms, and that of Dunholm was dignified and of distinction. + +A common-looking young man on a bicycle, who had wheeled into the +village with the carriage, riding alongside it for a hundred yards or +so, stopped before the Clock Inn and dismounted, just as Mrs. Brent +neared him. He saw her looking after the equipage, and lifting his cap +spoke to her civilly. + +"This is Stornham village, ain't it, ma'am?" he inquired. + +"Yes, my man." His costume and general aspect seemed to indicate that he +was of the class one addressed as "my man," though there was something a +little odd about him. + +"Thank you. That wasn't Miss Vanderpoel's eldest sister in that +carriage, was it?" + +"Miss Vanderpoel's----" Mrs. Brent hesitated. "Do you mean Lady +Anstruthers?" + +"I'd forgotten her name. I know Miss Vanderpoel's eldest sister lives at +Stornham--Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughter." + +"Lady Anstruthers' younger sister is a Miss Vanderpoel, and she is +visiting at Stornham Court now." Mrs. Brent could not help adding, +curiously, "Why do you ask?" + +"I am going to see her. I'm an American." + +Mrs. Brent coughed to cover a slight gasp. She had heard remarkable +things of the democratic customs of America. It was painful not to be +able to ask questions. + +"The lady in the carriage was the Countess of Dunholm," she said rather +grandly. "They are going to the Court to call on Miss Vanderpoel." + +"Then Miss Vanderpoel's there yet. That's all right. Thank you, ma'am," +and lifting his cap again he turned into the little public house. + +The Dunholm party had been accustomed on their rare visits to Stornham +to be received by the kind of man-servant in the kind of livery which +is a manifest, though unwilling, confession. The men who threw open the +doors were of regulation height, well dressed, and of trained bearing. +The entrance hall had lost its hopeless shabbiness. It was a complete +and picturesquely luxurious thing. The change suggested magic. The magic +which had been used, Lord Dunholm reflected, was the simplest and most +powerful on earth. Given surroundings, combined with a gift for knowing +values of form and colour, if you have the power to spend thousands of +guineas on tiger skins, Oriental rugs, and other beauties, barrenness is +easily transformed. + +The drawing-room wore a changed aspect, and at a first glance it was to +be seen that in poor little Lady Anstruthers, as she had generally been +called, there was to be noted alteration also. In her case the +change, being in its first stages, could not perhaps be yet called +transformation, but, aided by softly pretty arrangement of dress and +hair, a light in her eyes, and a suggestion of pink under her skin, one +recalled that she had once been a pretty little woman, and that after +all she was only about thirty-two years old. + +That her sister, Miss Vanderpoel, had beauty, it was not necessary to +hesitate in deciding. Neither Lord Dunholm nor his wife nor their +son did hesitate. A girl with long limbs an alluring profile, and +extraordinary black lashes set round lovely Irish-blue eyes, possesses +physical capital not to be argued about. + +She was not one of the curious, exotic little creatures, whose thin, +though sometimes rather sweet, and always gay, high-pitched young voices +Lord Dunholm had been so especially struck by in the early days of the +American invasion. Her voice had a tone one would be likely to remember +with pleasure. How well she moved--how well her black head was set on +her neck! Yes, she was of the new type--the later generation. + +These amazing, oddly practical people had evolved it--planned it, +perhaps, bought--figuratively speaking--the architects and material to +design and build it--bought them in whatever country they found them, +England, France, Italy Germany--pocketing them coolly and carrying them +back home to develop, complete, and send forth into the world when their +invention was a perfected thing. Struck by the humour of his fancy, Lord +Dunholm found himself smiling into the Irish-blue eyes. They smiled +back at him in a way which warmed his heart. There were no pauses in +the conversation which followed. In times past, calls at Stornham had +generally held painfully blank moments. Lady Dunholm was as pleased as +her husband. A really charming girl was an enormous acquisition to the +neighbourhood. + +Westholt, his father saw, had found even more than the story of old +Doby's pipe had prepared him to expect. + +Country calls were not usually interesting or stimulating, and this one +was. Lord Dunholm laid subtly brilliant plans to lead Miss Vanderpoel to +talk of her native land and her views of it. He knew that she would say +things worth hearing. Incidentally one gathered picturesque detail. To +have vibrated between the two continents since her thirteenth year, to +have spent a few years at school in one country, a few years in another, +and yet a few years more in still another, as part of an arranged +educational plan; to have crossed the Atlantic for the holidays, and to +have journeyed thousands of miles with her father in his private car; to +make the visits of a man of great schemes to his possessions of mines, +railroads, and lands which were almost principalities--these things had +been merely details of her life, adding interest and variety, it was +true, but seeming the merely normal outcome of existence. They were +normal to Vanderpoels and others of their class who were abnormalities +in themselves when compared with the rest of the world. + +Her own very lack of any abnormality reached, in Lord Dunholm's mind, +the highest point of illustration of the phase of life she beautifully +represented--for beautiful he felt its rare charms were. + +When they strolled out to look at the gardens he found talk with her no +less a stimulating thing. She told her story of Kedgers, and showed +the chosen spot where thickets of lilies were to bloom, with the giants +lifting white archangel trumpets above them in the centre. + +"He can be trusted," she said. "I feel sure he can be trusted. He loves +them. He could not love them so much and not be able to take care of +them." And as she looked at him in frank appeal for sympathy, Lord +Dunholm felt that for the moment she looked like a tall, queenly child. + +But pleased as he was, he presently gave up his place at her side to +Westholt. He must not be a selfish old fellow and monopolise her. He +hoped they would see each other often, he said charmingly. He thought +she would be sure to like Dunholm, which was really a thoroughly English +old place, marked by all the features she seemed so much attracted by. +There were some beautiful relics of the past there, and some rather +shocking ones--certain dungeons, for instance, and a gallows mount, +on which in good old times the family gallows had stood. This had +apparently been a working adjunct to the domestic arrangements of every +respectable family, and that irritating persons should dangle from +it had been a simple domestic necessity, if one were to believe old +stories. + +"It was then that nobles were regarded with respect," he said, with his +fine smile. "In the days when a man appeared with clang of arms and +with javelins and spears before, and donjon keeps in the background, the +attitude of bent knees and awful reverence were the inevitable results. +When one could hang a servant on one's own private gallows, or chop off +his hand for irreverence or disobedience--obedience and reverence were a +rule. Now, a month's notice is the extremity of punishment, and the old +pomp of armed servitors suggests comic opera. But we can show you relics +of it at Dunholm." + +He joined his wife and began at once to make himself so delightful to +Rosy that she ceased to be afraid of him, and ended by talking almost +gaily of her London visit. + +Betty and Westholt walked together. The afternoon being lovely, they had +all sauntered into the park to look at certain views, and the sun +was shining between the trees. Betty thought the young man almost as +charming as his father, which was saying much. She had fallen wholly in +love with Lord Dunholm--with his handsome, elderly face, his voice, his +erect bearing, his fine smile, his attraction of manner, his courteous +ease and wit. He was one of the men who stood for the best of all they +had been born to represent. Her own father, she felt, stood for the best +of all such an American as himself should be. Lord Westholt would in +time be what his father was. He had inherited from him good looks, good +feeling, and a sense of humour. Yes, he had been given from the outset +all that the other man had been denied. She was thinking of Mount +Dunstan as "the other man," and spoke of him. + +"You know Lord Mount Dunstan?" she said. + +Westholt hesitated slightly. + +"Yes--and no," he answered, after the hesitation. "No one knows him very +well. You have not met him?" with a touch of surprise in his tone. + +"He was a passenger on the Meridiana when I last crossed the Atlantic. +There was a slight accident and we were thrown together for a few +moments. Afterwards I met him by chance again. I did not know who he +was." + +Lord Westholt showed signs of hesitation anew. In fact, he was rather +disturbed. She evidently did not know anything whatever of the Mount +Dunstans. She would not be likely to hear the details of the scandal +which had obliterated them, as it were, from the decent world. + +The present man, though he had not openly been mixed up with the hideous +thing, had borne the brand because he had not proved himself to possess +any qualities likely to recommend him. It was generally understood that +he was a bad lot also. To such a man the allurements such a young +woman as Miss Vanderpoel would present would be extraordinary. It was +unfortunate that she should have been thrown in his way. At the same +time it was not possible to state the case clearly during one's first +call on a beautiful stranger. + +"His going to America was rather spirited," said the mellow voice beside +him. "I thought only Americans took their fates in their hands in +that way. For a man of his class to face a rancher's life means +determination. It means the spirit----" with a low little laugh at the +leap of her imagination--"of the men who were Mount Dunstans in early +days and went forth to fight for what they meant to have. He went to +fight. He ought to have won. He will win some day." + +"I do not know about fighting," Lord Westholt answered. Had the fellow +been telling her romantic stories? "The general impression was that he +went to America to amuse himself." + +"No, he did not do that," said Betty, with simple finality. "A sheep +ranch is not amusing----" She stopped short and stood still for a +moment. They had been walking down the avenue, and she stopped because +her eyes had been caught by a figure half sitting, half lying in the +middle of the road, a prostrate bicycle near it. It was the figure of +a cheaply dressed young man, who, as she looked, seemed to make an +ineffectual effort to rise. + +"Is that man ill?" she exclaimed. "I think he must be." They went +towards him at once, and when they reached him he lifted a dazed white +face, down which a stream of blood was trickling from a cut on his +forehead. He was, in fact, very white indeed, and did not seem to know +what he was doing. + +"I am afraid you are hurt," Betty said, and as she spoke the rest of +the party joined them. The young man vacantly smiled, and making an +unconscious-looking pass across his face with his hand, smeared the +blood over his features painfully. Betty kneeled down, and drawing out +her handkerchief, lightly wiped the gruesome smears away. Lord Westholt +saw what had happened, having given a look at the bicycle. + +"His chain broke as he was coming down the incline, and as he fell he +got a nasty knock on this stone," touching with his foot a rather large +one, which had evidently fallen from some cartload of building material. + +The young man, still vacantly smiling, was fumbling at his breast +pocket. He began to talk incoherently in good, nasal New York, at +the mere sound of which Lady Anstruthers made a little yearning step +forward. + +"Superior any other," he muttered. "Tabulator spacer--marginal release +key--call your 'tention--instantly--'justable--Delkoff--no equal on +market." And having found what he had fumbled for, he handed a card to +Miss Vanderpoel and sank unconscious on her breast. + +"Let me support him, Miss Vanderpoel," said Westholt, starting forward. + +"Never mind, thank you," said Betty. "If he has fainted I suppose he +must be laid flat on the ground. Will you please to read the card." + +It was the card Mount Dunstan had read the day before. + +J. BURRIDGE & SON, + +DELKOFF TYPEWRITER CO. + +BROADWAY, NEW YORK. G. SELDEN. + + +"He is probably G. Selden," said Westholt. "Travelling in the interests +of his firm, poor chap. The clue is not of much immediate use, however." + +They were fortunately not far from the house, and Westholt went back +quickly to summon servants and send for the village doctor. The Dunholms +were kindly sympathetic, and each of the party lent a handkerchief to +staunch the bleeding. Lord Dunholm helped Miss Vanderpoel to lay the +young man down carefully. + +"I am afraid," he said; "I am really afraid his leg is broken. It was +twisted under him. What can be done with him?" + +Miss Vanderpoel looked at her sister. + +"Will you allow him to be carried to the house temporarily, Rosy?" she +asked. "There is apparently nothing else to be done." + +"Yes, yes," said Lady Anstruthers. "How could one send him away, poor +fellow! Let him be carried to the house." + +Miss Vanderpoel smiled into Lord Dunholm's much approving, elderly eyes. + +"G. Selden is a compatriot," she said. "Perhaps he heard I was here and +came to sell me a typewriter." + +Lord Westholt returning with two footmen and a light mattress, G. Selden +was carried with cautious care to the house. The afternoon sun, +breaking through the branches of the ancestral oaks, kindly touched his +keen-featured, white young face. Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt each +lent a friendly hand, and Miss Vanderpoel, keeping near, once or twice +wiped away an insistent trickle of blood which showed itself from +beneath the handkerchiefs. Lady Dunholm followed with Lady Anstruthers. + +Afterwards, during his convalescence, G. Selden frequently felt with +regret that by his unconsciousness of the dignity of his cortege at the +moment he had missed feeling himself to be for once in a position +he would have designated as "out of sight" in the novelty of its +importance. To have beheld him, borne by nobles and liveried menials, +accompanied by ladies of title, up the avenue of an English park on his +way to be cared for in baronial halls, would, he knew, have added a +joy to the final moments of his grandmother, which the consolations of +religion could scarcely have met equally in competition. His own point +of view, however, would not, it is true, have been that of the old woman +in the black net cap and purple ribbons, but of a less reverent nature. +His enjoyment, in fact, would have been based upon that transatlantic +sense of humour, whose soul is glee at the incompatible, which would +have been full fed by the incongruity of "Little Willie being yanked +along by a bunch of earls, and Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughters +following the funeral." That he himself should have been unconscious of +the situation seemed to him like "throwing away money." + +The doctor arriving after he had been put to bed found slight concussion +of the brain and a broken leg. With Lady Anstruthers' kind permission, +it would certainly be best that he should remain for the present where +he was. So, in a bedroom whose windows looked out upon spreading lawns +and broad-branched trees, he was as comfortably established as was +possible. G. Selden, through the capricious intervention of Fate, if +he had not "got next" to Reuben S. Vanderpoel himself, had most +undisputably "got next" to his favourite daughter. + +As the Dunholm carriage rolled down the avenue there reigned for a few +minutes a reflective silence. It was Lady Dunholm who broke it. "That," +she said in her softly decided voice, "that is a nice girl." + +Lord Dunholm's agreeable, humorous smile flickered into evidence. + +"That is it," he said. "Thank you, Eleanor, for supplying me with a +quite delightful early Victorian word. I believe I wanted it. She is a +beauty and she is clever. She is a number of other things--but she is +also a nice girl. If you will allow me to say so, I have fallen in love +with her." + +"If you will allow me to say so," put in Westholt, "so have I--quite +fatally." + +"That," said his father, with speculation in his eye, "is more serious." + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +"WHAT IT MUST BE TO YOU--JUST YOU!" + +G. Selden, awakening to consciousness two days later, lay and stared +at the chintz covering of the top of his four-post bed through a few +minutes of vacant amazement. It was a four-post bed he was lying on, +wasn't it? And his leg was bandaged and felt unmovable. The last thing +he remembered was going down an incline in a tree-bordered avenue. There +was nothing more. He had been all right then. Was this a four-post bed +or was it not? Yes, it was. And was it part of the furnishings of a +swell bedroom--the kind of bedroom he had never been in before? Tip top, +in fact? He stared and tried to recall things--but could not, and in his +bewilderment exclaimed aloud. + +"Well," he said, "if this ain't the limit! You may search ME!" + +A respectable person in a white apron came to him from the other side of +the room. It was Buttle's wife, who had been hastily called in. + +"Sh--sh," she said soothingly. "Don't you worry. Nobody ain't goin' to +search you. Nobody ain't. There! Sh, sh, sh," rather as if he were a +baby. Beginning to be conscious of a curious sense of weakness, Selden +lay and stared at her in a helplessness which might have been considered +pathetic. Perhaps he had got "bats in his belfry," and there was no use +in talking. + +At that moment, however, the door opened and a young lady entered. +She was "a looker," G. Selden's weakness did not interfere with his +perceiving. "A looker, by gee!" She was dressed, as if for going out, +in softly tinted, exquisite things, and a large, strange hydrangea blue +flower under the brim of her hat rested on soft and full black hair. The +black hair gave him a clue. It was hair like that he had seen as Reuben +S. Vanderpoel's daughter rode by when he stood at the park gates at +Mount Dunstan. "Bats in his belfry," of course. + +"How is he?" she said to the nurse. + +"He's been seeming comfortable all day, miss," the woman answered, "but +he's light-headed yet. He opened his eyes quite sensible looking a bit +ago, but he spoke queer. He said something was the limit, and that we +might search him." + +Betty approached the bedside to look at him, and meeting the disturbed +inquiry in his uplifted eyes, laughed, because, seeing that he was not +delirious, she thought she understood. She had not lived in New York +without hearing its argot, and she realised that the exclamation which +had appeared delirium to Mrs. Buttle had probably indicated that the +unexplainableness of the situation in which G. Selden found himself +struck him as reaching the limit of probability, and that the most +extended search of his person would fail to reveal any clue to +satisfactory explanation. + +She bent over him, with her laugh still shining in her eyes. + +"I hope you feel better. Can you tell me?" she said. + +His voice was not strong, but his answer was that of a young man who +knew what he was saying. + +"If I'm not off my head, ma'am, I'm quite comfortable, thank you," he +replied. + +"I am glad to hear that," said Betty. "Don't be disturbed. Your mind is +quite clear." + +"All I want," said G. Selden impartially, "is just to know where I'm at, +and how I blew in here. It would help me to rest better." + +"You met with an accident," the "looker" explained, still smiling with +both lips and eyes. "Your bicycle chain broke and you were thrown and +hurt yourself. It happened in the avenue in the park. We found you and +brought you in. You are at Stornham Court, which belongs to Sir Nigel +Anstruthers. Lady Anstruthers is my sister. I am Miss Vanderpoel." + +"Hully gee!" ejaculated G. Selden inevitably. "Hully GEE!" The splendour +of the moment was such that his brain whirled. As it was not yet in the +physical condition to whirl with any comfort, he found himself closing +his eyes weakly. + +"That's right," Miss Vanderpoel said. "Keep them closed. I must not +talk to you until you are stronger. Lie still and try not to think. +The doctor says you are getting on very well. I will come and see you +again." + +As the soft sweep of her dress reached the door he managed to open his +eyes. + +"Thank you, Miss Vanderpoel," he said. "Thank you, ma'am." And as his +eyelids closed again he murmured in luxurious peace: "Well, if that's +her--she can have ME--and welcome!" + +***** + +She came to see him again each day--sometimes in a linen frock and +garden hat, sometimes in her soft tints and lace and flowers before or +after her drive in the afternoon, and two or three times in the evening, +with lovely shoulders and wonderfully trailing draperies--looking like +the women he had caught far-off glimpses of on the rare occasion of his +having indulged himself in the highest and most remotely placed seat in +the gallery at the opera, which inconvenience he had borne not through +any ardent desire to hear the music, but because he wanted to see +the show and get "a look-in" at the Four Hundred. He believed very +implicitly in his Four Hundred, and privately--though perhaps almost +unconsciously--cherished the distinction his share of them conferred +upon him, as fondly as the English young man of his rudimentary type +cherishes his dukes and duchesses. The English young man may revel in +his coroneted beauties in photograph shops, the young American dwells +fondly on flattering, or very unflattering, reproductions of his +multi-millionaires' wives and daughters in the voluminous illustrated +sheets of his Sunday paper, without which life would be a wretched and +savourless thing. + +Selden had never seen Miss Vanderpoel in his Sunday paper, and here he +was lying in a room in the same house with her. And she coming in to see +him and talk to him as if he was one of the Four Hundred himself! The +comfort and luxury with which he found himself surrounded sank into +insignificance when compared with such unearthly luck as this. Lady +Anstruthers came in to see him also, and she several times brought with +her a queer little lame fellow, who was spoken of as "Master Ughtred." +"Master" was supposed by G. Selden to be a sort of title conferred upon +the small sons of baronets and the like. The children he knew in New +York and elsewhere answered to the names of Bob, or Jimmy, or Bill. No +parallel to "Master" had been in vogue among them. + +Lady Anstruthers was not like her sister. She was a little thing, and +both she and Master Ughtred seemed fond of talking of New York. She had +not been home for years, and the youngster had never seen it at all. +He had some queer ideas about America, and seemed never to have seen +anything but Stornham and the village. G. Selden liked him, and was +vaguely sorry for a little chap to whom a description of the festivities +attendant upon the Fourth of July and a Presidential election seemed +like stories from the Arabian Nights. + +"Tell me about the Tammany Tiger, if you please," he said once. "I want +to know what kind of an animal it is." + +From a point of view somewhat different from that of Mount Dunstan and +Mr. Penzance, Betty Vanderpoel found talk with him interesting. To her +he did not wear the aspect of a foreign product. She had not met and +conversed with young men like him, but she knew of them. Stringent +precautions were taken to protect her father from their ingenuous +enterprises. They were not permitted to enter his offices; they were +even discouraged from hovering about their neighbourhood when seen and +suspected. The atmosphere, it was understood, was to be, if possible, +disinfected of agents. This one, lying softly in the four-post bed, +cheerfully grateful for the kindness shown him, and plainly filled with +delight in his adventure, despite the physical discomforts attending +it, gave her, as he began to recover, new views of the life he lived in +common with his kind. It was like reading scenes from a realistic novel +of New York life to listen to his frank, slangy conversation. To her, +as well as to Mr. Penzance, sidelights were thrown upon existence in the +"hall bedroom" and upon previously unknown phases of business life in +Broadway and roaring "downtown" streets. + +His determination, his sharp readiness, his control of temper under +rebuff and superfluous harshness, his odd, impersonal summing up of men +and things, and good-natured patience with the world in general, were, +she knew, business assets. She was even moved--no less--by the remote +connection of such a life with that of the first Reuben Vanderpoel who +had laid the huge, solid foundations of their modern fortune. The first +Reuben Vanderpoel must have seen and known the faces of men as G. +Selden saw and knew them. Fighting his way step by step, knocking +pertinaciously at every gateway which might give ingress to some passage +leading to even the smallest gain, meeting with rebuff and indifference +only to be overcome by steady and continued assault--if G. Selden was a +nuisance, the first Vanderpoel had without doubt worn that aspect upon +innumerable occasions. No one desires the presence of the man who while +having nothing to give must persist in keeping himself in evidence, even +if by strategy or force. From stories she was familiar with, she had +gathered that the first Reuben Vanderpoel had certainly lacked a certain +youth of soul she felt in this modern struggler for life. He had been +the cleverer man of the two; G. Selden she secretly liked the better. + +The curiosity of Mrs. Buttle, who was the nurse, had been awakened by a +singular feature of her patient's feverish wanderings. + +"He keeps muttering, miss, things I can't make out about Lord Mount +Dunstan, and Mr. Penzance, and some child he calls Little Willie. He +talks to them the same as if he knew them--same as if he was with them +and they were talking to him quite friendly." + +One morning Betty, coming to make her visit of inquiry found the patient +looking thoughtful, and when she commented upon his air of pondering, +his reply cast light upon the mystery. + +"Well, Miss Vanderpoel," he explained, "I was lying here thinking of +Lord Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance, and how well they treated me--I +haven't told you about that, have I? + +"That explains what Mrs. Buttle said," she answered. "When you were +delirious you talked frequently to Lord Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance. +We both wondered why." + +Then he told her the whole story. Beginning with his sitting on the +grassy bank outside the park, listening to the song of the robin, +he ended with the adieux at the entrance gates when the sound of her +horse's trotting hoofs had been heard by each of them. + +"What I've been lying here thinking of," he said, "is how queer it was +it happened just that way. If I hadn't stopped just that minute, and if +you hadn't gone by, and if Lord Mount Dunstan hadn't known you and said +who you were, Little Willie would have been in London by this time, +hustling to get a cheap bunk back to New York in." + +"Because?" inquired Miss Vanderpoel. + +G. Selden laughed and hesitated a moment. Then he made a clean breast of +it. + +"Say, Miss Vanderpoel," he said, "I hope it won't make you mad if I +own up. Ladies like you don't know anything about chaps like me. On the +square and straight out, when I seen you and heard your name I couldn't +help remembering whose daughter you was. Reuben S. Vanderpoel spells a +big thing. Why, when I was in New York we fellows used to get together +and talk about what it'd mean to the chap who could get next to Reuben +S. Vanderpoel. We used to count up all the business he does, and all the +clerks he's got under him pounding away on typewriters, and how they'd +be bound to get worn out and need new ones. And we'd make calculations +how many a man could unload, if he could get next. It was a kind of +typewriting junior assistant fairy story, and we knew it couldn't happen +really. But we used to chin about it just for the fun of the thing. +One of the boys made up a thing about one of us saving Reuben S.'s +life--dragging him from under a runaway auto and, when he says, 'What +can I do to show my gratitude, young man?' him handing out his catalogue +and saying, 'I should like to call your attention to the Delkoff, sir,' +and getting him to promise he'd never use any other, as long as he +lived!" + +Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughter laughed as spontaneously as any girl +might have done. G. Selden laughed with her. At any rate, she hadn't got +mad, so far. + +"That was what did it," he went on. "When I rode away on my bike I got +thinking about it and could not get it out of my head. The next day I +just stopped on the road and got off my wheel, and I says to myself: +'Look here, business is business, if you ARE travelling in Europe and +lunching at Buckingham Palace with the main squeeze. Get busy! What'll +the boys say if they hear you've missed a chance like this? YOU hit the +pike for Stornham Castle, or whatever it's called, and take your nerve +with you! She can't do more than have you fired out, and you've been +fired before and got your breath after it. So I turned round and made +time. And that was how I happened on your avenue. And perhaps it was +because I was feeling a bit rattled I lost my hold when the chain broke, +and pitched over on my head. There, I've got it off my chest. I was +thinking I should have to explain somehow." + +Something akin to her feeling of affection for the nice, long-legged +Westerner she had seen rambling in Bond Street touched Betty again. +The Delkoff was the centre of G. Selden's world as the flowers were of +Kedgers', as the "little 'ome" was of Mrs. Welden's. + +"Were you going to try to sell ME a typewriter?" she asked. + +"Well," G. Selden admitted, "I didn't know but what there might be use +for one, writing business letters on a big place like this. Straight, I +won't say I wasn't going to try pretty hard. It may look like gall, but +you see a fellow has to rush things or he'll never get there. A chap +like me HAS to get there, somehow." + +She was silent a few moments and looked as if she was thinking something +over. Her silence and this look on her face actually caused to dawn in +the breast of Selden a gleam of daring hope. He looked round at her with +a faint rising of colour. + +"Say, Miss Vanderpoel--say----" he began, and then broke off. + +"Yes?" said Betty, still thinking. + +"C-COULD you use one--anywhere?" he said. "I don't want to rush things +too much, but--COULD you?" + +"Is it easy to learn to use it?" + +"Easy!" his head lifted from his pillow. "It's as easy as falling off +a log. A baby in a perambulator could learn to tick off orders for its +bottle. And--on the square--there isn't its equal on the market, Miss +Vanderpoel--there isn't." He fumbled beneath his pillow and actually +brought forth his catalogue. + +"I asked the nurse to put it there. I wanted to study it now and then +and think up arguments. See--adjustable to hold with perfect ease an +envelope, an index card, or a strip of paper no wider than a postage +stamp. Unsurpassed paper feed, practical ribbon mechanism--perfect and +permanent alignment." + +As Mount Dunstan had taken the book, Betty Vanderpoel took it. Never had +G. Selden beheld such smiling in eyes about to bend upon his catalogue. + +"You will raise your temperature," she said, "if you excite yourself. +You mustn't do that. I believe there are two or three people on the +estate who might be taught to use a typewriter. I will buy three. +Yes--we will say three." + +She would buy three. He soared to heights. He did not know how to thank +her, though he did his best. Dizzying visions of what he would have to +tell "the boys" when he returned to New York flashed across his mind. +The daughter of Reuben S. Vanderpoel had bought three Delkoffs, and he +was the junior assistant who had sold them to her. + +"You don't know what it means to me, Miss Vanderpoel," he said, "but if +you were a junior salesman you'd know. It's not only the sale--though +that's a rake-off of fifteen dollars to me--but it's because it's YOU +that's bought them. Gee!" gazing at her with a frank awe whose obvious +sincerity held a queer touch of pathos. "What it must be to be YOU--just +YOU!" + +She did not laugh. She felt as if a hand had lightly touched her on +her naked heart. She had thought of it so often--had been bewildered +restlessly by it as a mere child--this difference in human lot--this +chance. Was it chance which had placed her entity in the centre of +Bettina Vanderpoel's world instead of in that of some little cash girl +with hair raked back from a sallow face, who stared at her as she passed +in a shop--or in that of the young Frenchwoman whose life was spent +in serving her, in caring for delicate dresses and keeping guard over +ornaments whose price would have given to her own humbleness ease for +the rest of existence? What did it mean? And what Law was laid upon her? +What Law which could only work through her and such as she who had +been born with almost unearthly power laid in their hands--the reins +of monstrous wealth, which guided or drove the world? Sometimes fear +touched her, as with this light touch an her heart, because she did not +KNOW the Law and could only pray that her guessing at it might be right. +And, even as she thought these things, G. Selden went on. + +"You never can know," he said, "because you've always been in it. And +the rest of the world can't know, because they've never been anywhere +near it." He stopped and evidently fell to thinking. + +"Tell me about the rest of the world," said Betty quietly. + +He laughed again. + +"Why, I was just thinking to myself you didn't know a thing about it. +And it's queer. It's the rest of us that mounts up when you come to +numbers. I guess it'd run into millions. I'm not thinking of beggars and +starving people, I've been rushing the Delkoff too steady to get onto +any swell charity organisation, so I don't know about them. I'm just +thinking of the millions of fellows, and women, too, for the matter of +that, that waken up every morning and know they've got to hustle for +their ten per or their fifteen per--if they can stir it up as thick as +that. If it's as much as fifty per, of course, seems like to me, they're +on Easy Street. But sometimes those that's got to fifty per--or even +more--have got more things to do with it--kids, you know, and more rent +and clothes. They've got to get at it just as hard as we have. Why, Miss +Vanderpoel, how many people do you suppose there are in a million that +don't have to worry over their next month's grocery bills, and the rent +of their flat? I bet there's not ten--and I don't know the ten." + +He did not state his case uncheerfully. "The rest of the world" +represented to him the normal condition of things. + +"Most married men's a bit afraid to look an honest grocery bill in the +face. And they WILL come in--as regular as spring hats. And I tell YOU, +when a man's got to live on seventy-five a month, a thing that'll take +all the strength and energy out of a twenty-dollar bill sorter gets him +down on the mat." + +Like old Mrs. Welden's, his roughly sketched picture was a graphic one. + +"'Tain't the working that bothers most of us. We were born to that, and +most of us would feel like deadbeats if we were doing nothing. It's the +earning less than you can live on, and getting a sort of tired feeling +over it. It's the having to make a dollar-bill look like two, and +watching every other fellow try to do the same thing, and not often make +the trip. There's millions of us--just millions--every one of us +with his Delkoff to sell----" his figure of speech pleased him and he +chuckled at his own cleverness--"and thinking of it, and talking about +it, and--under his vest--half afraid that he can't make it. And what +you say in the morning when you open your eyes and stretch yourself is, +'Hully gee! I've GOT to sell a Delkoff to-day, and suppose I shouldn't, +and couldn't hold down my job!' I began it over my feeding bottle. So +did all the people I know. That's what gave me a sort of a jolt just +now when I looked at you and thought about you being YOU--and what it +meant." + +When their conversation ended she had a much more intimate knowledge +of New York than she had ever had before, and she felt it a rich +possession. She had heard of the "hall bedroom" previously, and she +had seen from the outside the "quick lunch" counter, but G. Selden +unconsciously escorted her inside and threw upon faces and lives the +glare of a flashlight. + +"There was a thing I've been thinking I'd ask you, Miss Vanderpoel," he +said just before she left him. "I'd like you to tell me, if you please. +It's like this. You see those two fellows treated me as fine as silk. I +mean Lord Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance. I never expected it. I never +saw a lord before, much less spoke to one, but I can tell you that +one's just about all right--Mount Dunstan. And the other one--the old +vicar--I've never taken to anyone since I was born like I took to him. +The way he puts on his eye-glasses and looks at you, sorter kind and +curious about you at the same time! And his voice and his way of saying +his words--well, they just GOT me--sure. And they both of 'em did say +they'd like to see me again. Now do you think, Miss Vanderpoel, it would +look too fresh--if I was to write a polite note and ask if either of +them could make it convenient to come and take a look at me, if it +wouldn't be too much trouble. I don't WANT to be too fresh--and perhaps +they wouldn't come anyhow--and if it is, please won't you tell me, Miss +Vanderpoel?" + +Betty thought of Mount Dunstan as he had stood and talked to her in +the deepening afternoon sun. She did not know much of him, but she +thought--having heard G. Selden's story of the lunch--that he would +come. She had never seen Mr. Penzance, but she knew she should like to +see him. + +"I think you might write the note," she said. "I believe they would come +to see you." + +"Do you?" with eager pleasure. "Then I'll do it. I'd give a good deal to +see them again. I tell you, they are just It--both of them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +LIFE + +Mount Dunstan, walking through the park next morning on his way to the +vicarage, just after post time, met Mr. Penzance himself coming to make +an equally early call at the Mount. Each of them had a letter in his +hand, and each met the other's glance with a smile. + +"G. Selden," Mount Dunstan said. "And yours?" + +"G. Selden also," answered the vicar. "Poor young fellow, what ill-luck. +And yet--is it ill-luck? He says not." + +"He tells me it is not," said Mount Dunstan. "And I agree with him." + +Mr. Penzance read his letter aloud. + + +"DEAR SIR: + +"This is to notify you that owing to my bike going back on me when going +down hill, I met with an accident in Stornham Park. Was cut about the +head and leg broken. Little Willie being far from home and mother, you +can see what sort of fix he'd been in if it hadn't been for the kindness +of Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughters--Miss Bettina and her sister Lady +Anstruthers. The way they've had me taken care of has been great. +I've been under a nurse and doctor same as if I was Albert Edward with +appendycytus (I apologise if that's not spelt right). Dear Sir, this is +to say that I asked Miss Vanderpoel if I should be butting in too much +if I dropped a line to ask if you could spare the time to call and see +me. It would be considered a favour and appreciated by + +"G. SELDEN, + +"Delkoff Typewriter Co. Broadway. + +"P. S. Have already sold three Delkoffs to Miss Vanderpoel." + + +"Upon my word," Mr. Penzance commented, and his amiable fervour quite +glowed, "I like that queer young fellow--I like him. He does not wish to +'butt in too much.' Now, there is rudimentary delicacy in that. And what +a humorous, forceful figure of speech! Some butting animal--a goat, I +seem to see, preferably--forcing its way into a group or closed circle +of persons." + +His gleeful analysis of the phrase had such evident charm for him that +Mount Dunstan broke into a shout of laughter, even as G. Selden had done +at the adroit mention of Weber & Fields. + +"Shall we ride over together to see him this morning? An hour with G. +Selden, surrounded by the atmosphere of Reuben S. Vanderpoel, would be a +cheering thing," he said. + +"It would," Mr. Penzance answered. "Let us go by all means. We +should not, I suppose," with keen delight, "be 'butting in' upon Lady +Anstruthers too early?" He was quite enraptured with his own aptness. +"Like G. Selden, I should not like to 'butt in,'" he added. + +The scent and warmth and glow of a glorious morning filled the hour. +Combining themselves with a certain normal human gaiety which surrounded +the mere thought of G. Selden, they were good things for Mount Dunstan. +Life was strong and young in him, and he had laughed a big young laugh, +which had, perhaps tended to the waking in him of the feeling he was +suddenly conscious of--that a six-mile ride over a white, tree-dappled, +sunlit road would be pleasant enough, and, after all, if at the end of +the gallop one came again upon that other in whom life was strong and +young, and bloomed on rose-cheek and was the far fire in the blue deeps +of lovely eyes, and the slim straightness of the fair body, why would +it not be, in a way, all to the good? He had thought of her on more than +one day, and felt that he wanted to see her again. + +"Let us go," he answered Penzance. "One can call on an invalid at any +time. Lady Anstruthers will forgive us." + +In less than an hour's time they were on their way. They laughed and +talked as they rode, their horses' hoofs striking out a cheerful ringing +accompaniment to their voices. There is nothing more exhilarating than +the hollow, regular ring and click-clack of good hoofs going well over +a fine old Roman road in the morning sunlight. They talked of the junior +assistant salesman and of Miss Vanderpoel. Penzance was much pleased by +the prospect of seeing "this delightful and unusual girl." He had heard +stories of her, as had Lord Westholt. He knew of old Doby's pipe, and +of Mrs. Welden's respite from the Union, and though such incidents would +seem mere trifles to the dweller in great towns, he had himself lived +and done his work long enough in villages to know the village mind +and the scale of proportions by which its gladness and sadness were +measured. He knew more of all this than Mount Dunstan could, since Mount +Dunstan's existence had isolated itself, from rather gloomy choice. But +as he rode, Mount Dunstan knew that he liked to hear these things. +There was the suggestion of new life and new thought in them, and such +suggestion was good for any man--or woman, either--who had fallen into +living in a dull, narrow groove. + +"It is the new life in her which strikes me," he said. "She has brought +wealth with her, and wealth is power to do the good or evil that grows +in a man's soul; but she has brought something more. She might have come +here and brought all the sumptuousness of a fashionable young beauty, +who drove through the village and drew people to their windows, and made +clodhoppers scratch their heads and pull their forelocks, and children +bob curtsies and stare. She might have come and gone and left a +mind-dazzling memory and nothing else. A few sovereigns tossed here +and there would have earned her a reputation--but, by gee! to quote +Selden--she has begun LIVING with them, as if her ancestors had done it +for six hundred years. And what _I_ see is that if she had come without +a penny in her pocket she would have done the same thing." He paused a +pondering moment, and then drew a sharp breath which was an exclamation +in itself. "She's Life!" he said. "She's Life itself! Good God! what a +thing it is for a man or woman to be Life--instead of a mass of tissue +and muscle and nerve, dragged about by the mere mechanism of living!" + +Penzance had listened seriously. + +"What you say is very suggestive," he commented. "It strikes me as true, +too. You have seen something of her also, at least more than I have." + +"I did not think these things when I saw her--though I suppose I +felt them unconsciously. I have reached this way of summing her up by +processes of exclusion and inclusion. One hears of her, as you know +yourself, and one thinks her over." + +"You have thought her over?" + +"A lot," rather grumpily. "A beautiful female creature inevitably +gives an unbeautiful male creature something to think of--if he is not +otherwise actively employed. I am not. She has become a sort of dawning +relief to my hopeless humours. Being a low and unworthy beast, I am +sometimes resentful enough of the unfairness of things. She has too +much." + +When they rode through Stornham village they saw signs of work already +done and work still in hand. There were no broken windows or palings or +hanging wicket gates; cottage gardens had been put in order, and there +were evidences of such cheering touches as new bits of window curtain +and strong-looking young plants blooming between them. So many small, +but necessary, things had been done that the whole village wore the +aspect of a place which had taken heart, and was facing existence in a +hopeful spirit. A year ago Mount Dunstan and his vicar riding through it +had been struck by its neglected and dispirited look. + +As they entered the hall of the Court Miss Vanderpoel was descending the +staircase. She was laughing a little to herself, and she looked pleased +when she saw them. + +"It is good of you to come," she said, as they crossed the hall to the +drawing-room. "But I told him I really thought you would. I have just +been talking to him, and he was a little uncertain as to whether he had +assumed too much." + +"As to whether he had 'butted in,'" said Mr. Penzance. "I think he must +have said that." + +"He did. He also was afraid that he might have been 'too fresh.'" +answered Betty. + +"On our part," said Mr. Penzance, with gentle glee, "we hesitated a +moment in fear lest we also might appear to be 'butting in.'" + +Then they all laughed together. They were laughing when Lady Anstruthers +entered, and she herself joined them. But to Mount Dunstan, who felt her +to be somehow a touching little person, there was manifest a tenderness +in her feeling for G. Selden. For that matter, however, there was +something already beginning to be rather affectionate in the attitude of +each of them. They went upstairs to find him lying in state upon a +big sofa placed near a window, and his joy at the sight of them was a +genuine, human thing. In fact, he had pondered a good deal in secret +on the possibility of these swell people thinking he had "more than his +share of gall" to expect them to remember him after he passed on his +junior assistant salesman's way. Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughters +were of the highest of his Four Hundred, but they were Americans, and +Americans were not as a rule so "stuck on themselves" as the English. +And here these two swells came as friendly as you please. And that nice +old chap that was a vicar, smiling and giving him "the glad hand"! + +Betty and Mount Dunstan left Mr. Penzance talking to the convalescent +after a short time. Mount Dunstan had asked to be shown the gardens. He +wanted to see the wonderful things he had heard had been already done to +them. + +They went down the stairs together and passed through the drawing-room +into the pleasure grounds. The once neglected lawns had already been +mown and rolled, clipped and trimmed, until they spread before the eye +huge measures of green velvet; even the beds girdling and adorning them +were brilliant with flowers. + +"Kedgers!" said Betty, waving her hand. "In my ignorance I thought we +must wait for blossoms until next year; but it appears that wonders can +be brought all ready to bloom for one from nursery gardens, and can be +made to grow with care--and daring--and passionate affection. I +have seen Kedgers turn pale with anguish as he hung over a bed of +transplanted things which seemed to droop too long. They droop just at +first, you know, and then they slowly lift their heads, slowly, as if +to listen to a Voice calling--calling. Once I sat for quite a long time +before a rose, watching it. When I saw it BEGIN to listen, I felt a +little trembling pass over my body. I seemed to be so strangely near to +such a strange thing. It was Life--Life coming back--in answer to what +we cannot hear." + +She had begun lightly, and then her voice had changed. It was very +quiet at the end of her speaking. Mount Dunstan simply repeated her last +words. + +"To what we cannot hear." + +"One feels it so much in a garden," she said. "I have never lived in a +garden of my own. This is not mine, but I have been living in it--with +Kedgers. One is so close to Life in it--the stirring in the brown earth, +the piercing through of green spears, that breaking of buds and pouring +forth of scent! Why shouldn't one tremble, if one thinks? I have stood +in a potting shed and watched Kedgers fill a shallow box with damp rich +mould and scatter over it a thin layer of infinitesimal seeds; then he +moistens them and carries them reverently to his altars in a greenhouse. +The ledges in Kedgers' green-houses are altars. I think he offers +prayers before them. Why not? I should. And when one comes to see them, +the moist seeds are swelled to fulness, and when one comes again they +are bursting. And the next time, tiny green things are curling outward. +And, at last, there is a fairy forest of tiniest pale green stems and +leaves. And one is standing close to the Secret of the World! And why +should not one prostrate one's self, breathing softly--and touching +one's awed forehead to the earth?" + +Mount Dunstan turned and looked at her--a pause in his step--they were +walking down a turfed path, and over their heads meeting branches of +new leaves hung. Something in his movement made her turn and pause also. +They both paused--and quite unknowingly. + +"Do you know," he said, in a low and rather unusual voice, "that as +we were on our way here, I said of you to Penzance, that you were +Life--YOU!" + +For a few seconds, as they stood so, his look held her--their eyes +involuntarily and strangely held each other. Something softly glowing in +the sunlight falling on them both, something raining down in the song +of a rising skylark trilling in the blue a field away, something in the +warmed incense of blossoms near them, was calling--calling in the Voice, +though they did not know they heard. Strangely, a splendid blush rose +in a fair flood under her skin. She was conscious of it, and felt a +second's amazed impatience that she should colour like a schoolgirl +suspecting a compliment. He did not look at her as a man looks who has +made a pretty speech. His eyes met hers straight and thoughtfully, and +he repeated his last words as he had before repeated hers. + +"That YOU were Life--you!" + +The bluebells under water were for the moment incredibly lovely. Her +feeling about the blush melted away as the blush itself had done. + +"I am glad you said that!" she answered. "It was a beautiful thing to +say. I have often thought that I should like it to be true." + +"It is true," he said. + +Then the skylark, showering golden rain, swept down to earth and its +nest in the meadow, and they walked on. + +She learned from him, as they walked together, and he also learned from +her, in a manner which built for them as they went from point to point, +a certain degree of delicate intimacy, gradually, during their ramble, +tending to make discussion and question possible. Her intelligent and +broad interest in the work on the estate, her frank desire to acquire +such practical information as she lacked, aroused in himself an interest +he had previously seen no reason that he should feel. He realised that +his outlook upon the unusual situation was being illuminated by an +intelligence at once brilliant and fine, while it was also full of +nice shading. The situation, of course, WAS unusual. A beautiful young +sister-in-law appearing upon the dark horizon of a shamefully ill-used +estate, and restoring, with touches of a wand of gold, what a fellow +who was a blackguard should have set in order years ago. That Lady +Anstruthers' money should have rescued her boy's inheritance instead +of being spent upon lavish viciousness went without saying. What +Mount Dunstan was most struck by was the perfect clearness, and its +combination with a certain judicial good breeding, in Miss Vanderpoel's +view of the matter. She made no confidences, beautifully candid as her +manner was, but he saw that she clearly understood the thing she was +doing, and that if her sister had had no son she would not have +done this, but something totally different. He had an idea that Lady +Anstruthers would have been swiftly and lightly swept back to New York, +and Sir Nigel left to his own devices, in which case Stornham Court +and its village would gradually have crumbled to decay. It was for Sir +Ughtred Anstruthers the place was being restored. She was quite clear on +the matter of entail. He wondered at first--not unnaturally--how a girl +had learned certain things she had an obviously clear knowledge of. As +they continued to converse he learned. Reuben S. Vanderpoel was without +doubt a man remarkable not only in the matter of being the owner of vast +wealth. The rising flood of his millions had borne him upon its strange +surface a thinking, not an unthinking being--in fact, a strong and +fine intelligence. His thousands of miles of yearly journeying in his +sumptuous private car had been the means of his accumulating not merely +added gains, but ideas, points of view, emotions, a human outlook worth +counting as an asset. His daughter, when she had travelled with him, had +seen and talked with him of all he himself had seen. When she had not +been his companion she had heard from him afterwards all best worth +hearing. She had become--without any special process--familiar with +the technicalities of huge business schemes, with law and commerce +and political situations. Even her childish interest in the world +of enterprise and labour had been passionate. So she had +acquired--inevitably, while almost unconsciously--a remarkable +education. + +"If he had not been HIMSELF he might easily have grown tired of a little +girl constantly wanting to hear things--constantly asking questions," +she said. "But he did not get tired. We invented a special knock on the +door of his private room. It said, 'May I come in, father?' If he was +busy he answered with one knock on his desk, and I went away. If he had +time to talk he called out, 'Come, Betty,' and I went to him. I used to +sit upon the floor and lean against his knee. He had a beautiful way of +stroking my hair or my hand as he talked. He trusted me. He told me of +great things even before he had talked of them to men. He knew I would +never speak of what was said between us in his room. That was part of +his trust. He said once that it was a part of the evolution of race, +that men had begun to expect of women what in past ages they really only +expected of each other." + +Mount Dunstan hesitated before speaking. + +"You mean--absolute faith--apart from affection?" + +"Yes. The power to be quite silent, even when one is tempted to +speak--if to speak might betray what it is wiser to keep to one's self +because it is another man's affair. The kind of thing which is good +faith among business men. It applies to small things as much as to +large, and to other things than business." + +Mount Dunstan, recalling his own childhood and his own father, felt +again the pressure of the remote mental suggestion that she had had +too much, a childhood and girlhood like this, the affection and +companionship of a man of large and ordered intelligence, of clear and +judicial outlook upon an immense area of life and experience. There was +no cause for wonder that her young womanhood was all it presented to +himself, as well as to others. Recognising the shadow of resentment in +his thought, he swept it away, an inward sense making it clear to him +that if their positions had been reversed, she would have been more +generous than himself. + +He pulled himself together with an unconscious movement of his +shoulders. Here was the day of early June, the gold of the sun in +its morning, the green shadows, the turf they walked on together, the +skylark rising again from the meadow and showering down its song. Why +think of anything else. What a line that was which swept from her chin +down her long slim throat to its hollow! The colour between the velvet +of her close-set lashes--the remembrance of her curious splendid +blush--made the man's lost and unlived youth come back to him. What +did it matter whether she was American or English--what did it matter +whether she was insolently rich or beggarly poor? He would let himself +go and forget all but the pleasure of the sight and hearing of her. + +So as they went they found themselves laughing together and talking +without restraint. They went through the flower and kitchen gardens; +they saw the once fallen wall rebuilt now with the old brick; they +visited the greenhouses and came upon Kedgers entranced with business, +but enraptured at being called upon to show his treasures. His eyes, +turning magnetised upon Betty, revealed the story of his soul. Mount +Dunstan remarked that when he spoke to her of his flowers it was as +if there existed between them the sympathy which might be engendered +between two who had sat up together night after night with delicate +children. + +"He's stronger to-day, miss," he said, as they paused before a new +wonderful bloom. "What he's getting now is good for him. I had to change +his food, miss, but this seems all right. His colour's better." + +Betty herself bent over the flower as she might have bent over a child. +Her eyes softened, she touched a leaf with a slim finger, as delicately +as if it had been a new-born baby's cheek. As Mount Dunstan watched her +he drew a step nearer to her side. For the first time in his life +he felt the glow of a normal and simple pleasure untouched by any +bitterness. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +SETTING THEM THINKING + +Old Doby, sitting at his open window, with his pipe and illustrated +papers on the table by his side, began to find life a series of thrills. +The advantage of a window giving upon the village street unspeakably +increased. For many years he had preferred the chimney corner greatly, +and had rejoiced at the drawing in of winter days when a fire must be +well kept up, and a man might bend over it, and rub his hands slowly +gazing into the red coals or little pointed flames which seemed the only +things alive and worthy the watching. The flames were blue at the base +and yellow at the top, and jumped looking merry, and caught at bits of +black coal, and set them crackling and throwing off splinters till they +were ablaze and as much alive as the rest. A man could get comfort and +entertainment therefrom. There was naught else so good to live with. +Nothing happened in the street, and every dull face that passed was an +old story, and told an old tale of stupefying hard labour and hard days. + +But now the window was a better place to sit near. Carts went by with +men whistling as they walked by the horses heads. Loads of things wanted +for work at the Court. New faces passed faces of workmen--sometimes +grinning, "impident youngsters," who larked with the young women, and +called out to them as they passed their cottages, if a good-looking +one was loitering about her garden gate. Old Doby chuckled at their +love-making chaff, remembering dimly that seventy years ago he had been +just as proper a young chap, and had made love in the same way. Lord, +Lord, yes! He had been a bold young chap as ever winked an eye. Then, +too, there were the vans, heavy-loaded and closed, and coming along +slowly. Every few days, at first, there had come a van from "Lunnon." +Going to the Court, of course. And to sit there, and hear the women talk +about what might be in them, and to try to guess one's self, that was a +rare pastime. Fine things going to the Court these days--furniture and +grandeur filling up the shabby or empty old rooms, and making them look +like other big houses--same as Westerbridge even, so the women said. +The women were always talking and getting bits of news somehow, and +were beginning to be worth listening to, because they had something more +interesting to talk about than children's worn-out shoes, and whooping +cough. + +Doby heard everything first from them. "Dang the women, they always +knowed things fust." It was them as knowed about the smart carriages +as began to roll through the one village street. They were gentry's +carriages, with fine, stamping horses, and jingling silver harness, and +big coachmen, and tall footmen, and such like had long ago dropped off +showing themselves at Stornham. + +"But now the gentry has heard about Miss Vanderpoel, and what's being +done at the Court, and they know what it means," said young Mrs. Doby. +"And they want to see her, and find out what she's like. It's her brings +them." + +Old Doby chuckled and rubbed his hands. He knew what she was like. That +straight, slim back of hers, and the thick twist of black hair, and the +way she had of laughing at you, as cheery as if a bell was ringing. Aye, +he knew all about that. + +"When they see her once, they'll come agen, for sure," he quavered +shrilly, and day by day he watched for the grand carriages with vivid +eagerness. If a day or two passed without his seeing one, he grew +fretful, and was injured, feeling that his beauty was being neglected! +"None to-day, nor yet yest'day," he would cackle. "What be they folk +a-doin'?" + +Old Mrs. Welden, having heard of the pipe, and come to see it, had +struck up an acquaintance with him, and dropped in almost every day to +talk and sit at his window. She was a young thing, by comparison, and +could bring him lively news, and, indeed, so stir him up with her gossip +that he was in danger of becoming a young thing himself. Her groceries +and his tobacco were subjects whose interest was undying. + +A great curiosity had been awakened in the county, and visitors came +from distances greater than such as ordinarily include usual calls. +Naturally, one was curious about the daughter of the Vanderpoel who was +a sort of national institution in his own country. His name had not been +so much heard of in England when Lady Anstruthers had arrived but +there had, at first, been felt an interest in her. But she had been a +failure--a childish-looking girl--whose thin, fair, prettiness had no +distinction, and who was obviously overwhelmed by her surroundings. She +had evidently had no influence over Sir Nigel, and had not been able to +prevent his making ducks and drakes of her money, which of course +ought to have been spent on the estate. Besides which a married woman +represented fewer potentialities than a handsome unmarried girl entitled +to expectations from huge American wealth. + +So the carriages came and came again, and, stately or unstately far-off +neighbours sat at tea upon the lawn under the trees, and it was observed +that the methods and appointments of the Court had entirely changed. +Nothing looked new and American. The silently moving men-servants +could not have been improved upon, there was plainly an excellent +chef somewhere, and the massive silver was old and wonderful. Upon +everybody's word, the change was such as it was worth a long drive +merely to see! + +The most wonderful thing, however, was Lady Anstruthers herself. She +had begun to grow delicately plump, her once drawn and haggard face had +rounded out, her skin had smoothed, and was actually becoming pink and +fair, a nimbus of pale fine hair puffed airily over her forehead, and +she wore the most charming little clothes, all of which made her look +fifteen years younger than she had seemed when, on the grounds of +ill-health, she had retired into seclusion. The renewed relations with +her family, the atmosphere by which she was surrounded, had evidently +given her a fresh lease of life, and awakened in her a new courage. + +When the summer epidemic of garden parties broke forth, old Doby +gleefully beheld, day after day, the Court carriage drive by bearing her +ladyship and her sister attired in fairest shades and tints "same as if +they was flowers." Their delicate vaporousness, and rare colours, +were sweet delights to the old man, and he and Mrs. Welden spent happy +evenings discussing them as personal possessions. To these two Betty WAS +a personal possession, bestowing upon them a marked distinction. They +were hers and she was theirs. No one else so owned her. Heaven had given +her to them that their last years might be lighted with splendour. + +On her way to one of the garden parties she stopped the carriage before +old Doby's cottage, and went in to him to speak a few words. She was of +pale convolvulus blue that afternoon, and Doby, standing up touching his +forelock and Mrs. Welden curtsying, gazed at her with prayer in +their eyes. She had a few flowers in her hand, and a book of coloured +photographs of Venice. + +"These are pictures of the city I told you about--the city built in the +sea--where the streets are water. You and Mrs. Welden can look at them +together," she said, as she laid flowers and book down. "I am going to +Dunholm Castle to a garden party this afternoon. Some day I will come +and tell you about it." + +The two were at the window staring spellbound, as she swept back to the +carriage between the sweet-williams and Canterbury bells bordering the +narrow garden path. + +"Do you know I really went in to let them see my dress," she said, when +she rejoined Lady Anstruthers. "Old Doby's granddaughter told me that he +and Mrs. Welden have little quarrels about the colours I wear. It seems +that they find my wardrobe an absorbing interest. When I put the book on +the table, I felt Doby touch my sleeve with his trembling old hand. He +thought I did not know." + +"What will they do with Venice?" asked Rosy. + +"They will believe the water is as blue as the photographs make it--and +the palaces as pink. It will seem like a chapter out of Revelations, +which they can believe is true and not merely 'Scriptur,'--because _I_ +have been there. I wish I had been to the City of the Gates of Pearl, +and could tell them about that." + +On the lawns at the garden parties she was much gazed at and commented +upon. Her height and her long slender neck held her head above those of +other girls, the dense black of her hair made a rich note of shadow amid +the prevailing English blondness. Her mere colouring set her apart. +Rosy used to watch her with tender wonder, recalling her memory of +nine-year-old Betty, with the long slim legs and the demanding and +accusing child-eyes. She had always been this creature even in those +far-off days. At the garden party at Dunholm Castle it became evident +that she was, after a manner, unusually the central figure of the +occasion. It was not at all surprising, people said to each other. +Nothing could have been more desirable for Lord Westholt. He combined +rank with fortune, and the Vanderpoel wealth almost constituted rank in +itself. Both Lord and Lady Dunholm seemed pleased with the girl. Lord +Dunholm showed her great attention. When she took part in the dancing +on the lawn, he looked on delightedly. He walked about the gardens +with her, and it was plain to see that their conversation was not the +ordinary polite effort to accord, usually marking the talk between a +mature man and a merely pretty girl. Lord Dunholm sometimes laughed with +unfeigned delight, and sometimes the two seemed to talk of grave things. + +"Such occasions as these are a sort of yearly taking of the social +census of the county," Lord Dunholm explained. "One invites ALL one's +neighbours and is invited again. It is a friendly duty one owes." + +"I do not see Lord Mount Dunstan," Betty answered. "Is he here?" + +She had never denied to herself her interest in Mount Dunstan, and she +had looked for him. Lord Dunholm hesitated a second, as his son had done +at Miss Vanderpoel's mention of the tabooed name. But, being an older +man, he felt more at liberty to speak, and gave her a rather long kind +look. + +"My dear young lady," he said, "did you expect to see him here?" + +"Yes, I think I did," Betty replied, with slow softness. "I believe I +rather hoped I should." + +"Indeed! You are interested in him?" + +"I know him very little. But I am interested. I will tell you why." + +She paused by a seat beneath a tree, and they sat down together. +She gave, with a few swift vivid touches, a sketch of the red-haired +second-class passenger on the Meridiana, of whom she had only thought +that he was an unhappy, rough-looking young man, until the brief moment +in which they had stood face to face, each comprehending that the other +was to be relied on if the worst should come to the worst. She had +understood his prompt disappearance from the scene, and had liked it. +When she related the incident of her meeting with him when she thought +him a mere keeper on his own lands, Lord Dunholm listened with a changed +and thoughtful expression. The effect produced upon her imagination by +what she had seen, her silent wandering through the sad beauty of the +wronged place, led by the man who tried stiffly to bear himself as a +servant, his unintended self-revelations, her clear, well-argued point +of view charmed him. She had seen the thing set apart from its county +scandal, and so had read possibilities others had been blind to. He was +immensely touched by certain things she said about the First Man. + +"He is one of them," she said. "They find their way in the end--they +find their way. But just now he thinks there is none. He is standing in +the dark--where the roads meet." + +"You think he will find his way?" Lord Dunholm said. "Why do you think +so?" + +"Because I KNOW he will," she answered. "But I cannot tell you WHY I +know." + +"What you have said has been interesting to me, because of the light +your own thought threw upon what you saw. It has not been Mount Dunstan +I have been caring for, but for the light you saw him in. You met him +without prejudice, and you carried the light in your hand. You always +carry a light, my impression is," very quietly. "Some women do." + +"The prejudice you speak of must be a bitter thing for a proud man to +bear. Is it a just prejudice? What has he done?" + +Lord Dunholm was gravely silent for a few moments. + +"It is an extraordinary thing to reflect,"--his words came slowly--"that +it may NOT be a just prejudice. _I_ do not know that he has done +anything--but seem rather sulky, and be the son of his father, and the +brother of his brother." + +"And go to America," said Betty. "He could have avoided doing that--but +he cannot be called to account for his relations. If that is all--the +prejudice is NOT just." + +"No, it is not," said Lord Dunholm, "and one feels rather awkward at +having shared it. You have set me thinking again, Miss Vanderpoel." + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE THREAD OF G. SELDEN + +The Shuttle having in its weaving caught up the thread of G. Selden's +rudimentary existence and drawn it, with the young man himself, across +the sea, used curiously the thread in question, in the forming of +the design of its huge web. As wool and coarse linen are sometimes +interwoven with rich silk for decorative or utilitarian purposes, so +perhaps was this previously unvalued material employed. + +It was, indeed, an interesting truth that the young man, during his +convalescence, without his own knowledge, acted as a species of magnet +which drew together persons who might not easily otherwise have met. +Mr. Penzance and Mount Dunstan rode over to see him every few days, and +their visits naturally established relations with Stornham Court much +more intimate than could have formed themselves in the same length +of time under any of the ordinary circumstances of country life. +Conventionalities lost their prominence in friendly intercourse with +Selden. It was not, however, that he himself desired to dispense with +convention. His intense wish to "do the right thing," and avoid giving +offence was the most ingenuous and touching feature of his broad +cosmopolitan good nature. + +"If I ever make a break, sir," he had once said, with almost passionate +fervour, in talking to Mr. Penzance, "please tell me, and set me on the +right track. No fellow likes to look like a hoosier, but I don't mind +that half as much as--as seeming not to APPRECIATE." + +He used the word "appreciate" frequently. It expressed for him many +degrees of thanks. + +"I tell you that's fine," he said to Ughtred, who brought him a flower +from the garden. "I appreciate that." + +To Betty he said more than once: + +"You know how I appreciate all this, Miss Vanderpoel. You DO know I +appreciate it, don't you?" + +He had an immense admiration for Mount Dunstan, and talked to him a +great deal about America, often about the sheep ranch, and what it might +have done and ought to have done. But his admiration for Mr. Penzance +became affection. To him he talked oftener about England, and listened +to the vicar's scholarly stories of its history, its past glories and +its present ones, as he might have listened at fourteen to stories from +the Arabian Nights. + +These two being frequently absorbed in conversation, Mount Dunstan was +rather thrown upon Betty's hands. When they strolled together about the +place or sat under the deep shade of green trees, they talked not only +of England and America, but of divers things which increased their +knowledge of each other. It is points of view which reveal qualities, +tendencies, and innate differences, or accordances of thought, and the +points of view of each interested the other. + +"Mr. Selden is asking Mr. Penzance questions about English history," +Betty said, on one of the afternoons in which they sat in the shade. "I +need not ask you questions. You ARE English history." + +"And you are American history," Mount Dunstan answered. + +"I suppose I am." + +At one of their chance meetings Miss Vanderpoel had told Lord Dunholm +and Lord Westholt something of the story of G. Selden. The novelty of it +had delighted and amused them. Lord Dunholm had, at points, been touched +as Penzance had been. Westholt had felt that he must ride over to +Stornham to see the convalescent. He wanted to learn some New York +slang. + +He would take lessons from Selden, and he would also buy a Delkoff--two +Delkoffs, if that would be better. He knew a hard-working fellow who +ought to have a typewriter. + +"Heath ought to have one," he had said to his father. Heath was the +house-steward. "Think of the letters the poor chap has to write to +trades-people to order things, and unorder them, and blackguard the +shopkeepers when they are not satisfactory. Invest in one for Heath, +father." + +"It is by no means a bad idea," Lord Dunholm reflected. "Time would be +saved by the use of it, I have no doubt." + +"It saves time in any department where it can be used," Betty had +answered. "Three are now in use at Stornham, and I am going to present +one to Kedgers. This is a testimonial I am offering. Three weeks ago I +began to use the Delkoff. Since then I have used no other. If YOU use +them you will introduce them to the county." + +She understood the feeling of the junior assistant, when he found +himself in the presence of possible purchasers. Her blood tingled +slightly. She wished she had brought a catalogue. + +"We will come to Stornham to see the catalogue," Lord Dunholm promised. + +"Perhaps you will read it aloud to us," Westholt suggested gleefully. + +"G. Selden knows it by heart, and will repeat it to you with running +comments. Do you know I shall be very glad if you decide to buy one--or +two--or three," with an uplift of the Irish blue eyes to Lord Dunholm. +"The blood of the first Reuben Vanderpoel stirs in my veins--also I have +begun to be fond of G. Selden." + +Therefore it occurred that on the afternoon referred to Lady Anstruthers +appeared crossing the sward with two male visitors in her wake. + +"Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt," said Betty, rising. + +For this meeting between the men Selden was, without doubt, responsible. +While his father talked to Mount Dunstan, Westholt explained that they +had come athirst for the catalogue. Presently Betty took him to the +sheltered corner of the lawn, where the convalescent sat with Mr. +Penzance. + +But, for a short time, Lord Dunholm remained to converse with Mount +Dunstan. In a way the situation was delicate. To encounter by chance a +neighbour whom one--for reasons--has not seen since his childhood, and +to be equal to passing over and gracefully obliterating the intervening +years, makes demand even upon finished tact. Lord Dunholm's world +had been a large one, and he had acquired experience tending to the +development of the most perfect methods. If G. Selden had chanced to +be the magnet which had decided his course this special afternoon, Miss +Vanderpoel it was who had stirred in him sufficient interest in Mount +Dunstan to cause him to use the best of these methods when he found +himself face to face with him. + +He beautifully eliminated the years, he eliminated all but the facts +that the young man's father and himself had been acquaintances in youth, +that he remembered Mount Dunstan himself as a child, that he had heard +with interest of his visit to America. Whatsoever the young man felt, +he made no sign which presented obstacles. He accepted the eliminations +with outward composure. He was a powerful-looking fellow, with a fine +way of carrying his shoulders, and an eye which might be able to light +savagely, but just now, at least, he showed nothing of the sulkiness he +was accused of. + +Lord Dunholm progressed admirably with him. He soon found that he need +not be upon any strain with regard to the eliminations. The man himself +could eliminate, which was an assistance. + +They talked together when they turned to follow the others to the +retreat of G. Selden. + +"Have you bought a Delkoff?" Lord Dunholm inquired. + +"If I could have afforded it, I should have bought one." + +"I think that we have come here with the intention of buying three. We +did not know we required them until Miss Vanderpoel recited half a page +of the catalogue to us." + +"Three will mean a 'rake off' of fifteen dollars to G. Selden," said +Mount Dunstan. It was, he saw, necessary that he should explain the +meaning of a "rake off," and he did so to his companion's entertainment. + +The afternoon was a satisfactory one. They were all kind to G. Selden, +and he on his part was an aid to them. In his innocence he steered +three of them, at least, through narrow places into an open sea of +easy intercourse. This was a good beginning. The junior assistant was +recovering rapidly, and looked remarkably well. The doctor had told him +that he might try to use his leg. The inside cabin of the cheap Liner +and "little old New York" were looming up before him. But what luck he +had had, and what a holiday! It had been enough to set a fellow up for +ten years' work. It would set up the boys merely to be told about it. He +didn't know what HE had ever done to deserve such luck as had happened +to him. For the rest of his life he would he waving the Union Jack +alongside of the Stars and Stripes. + +Mr. Penzance it was who suggested that he should try the strength of the +leg now. + +"Yes," Mount Dunstan said. "Let me help you." + +As he rose to go to him, Westholt good-naturedly got up also. They took +their places at either side of his invalid chair and assisted him to +rise and stand on his feet. + +"It's all right, gentlemen. It's all right," he called out with a +delighted flush, when he found himself upright. "I believe I could stand +alone. Thank you. Thank you." + +He was able, leaning on Mount Dunstan's arm, to take a few steps. +Evidently, in a short time, he would find himself no longer disabled. + +Mr. Penzance had invited him to spend a week at the vicarage. He was to +do this as soon as he could comfortably drive from the one place to the +other. After receiving the invitation he had sent secretly to London for +one of the Delkoffs he had brought with him from America as a specimen. +He cherished in private a plan of gently entertaining his host by +teaching him to use the machine. The vicar would thus be prepared for +that future in which surely a Delkoff must in some way fall into his +hands. Indeed, Fortune having at length cast an eye on himself, might +chance to favour him further, and in time he might be able to send a +"high-class machine" as a grateful gift to the vicarage. Perhaps Mr. +Penzance would accept it because he would understand what it meant of +feeling and appreciation. + +During the afternoon Lord Dunholm managed to talk a good deal with +Mount Dunstan. There was no air of intention in his manner, nevertheless +intention was concealed beneath its courteous amiability. He wanted +to get at the man. Before they parted he felt he had, perhaps, learned +things opening up new points of view. + +. . . . . + +In the smoking-room at Dunholm that night he and his son talked of their +chance encounter. It seemed possible that mistakes had been made about +Mount Dunstan. One did not form a definite idea of a man's character +in the course of an afternoon, but he himself had been impressed by a +conviction that there had been mistakes. + +"We are rather a stiff-necked lot--in the country--when we allow +ourselves to be taken possession of by an idea," Westholt commented. + +"I am not at all proud of the way in which we have taken things +for granted," was his father's summing up. "It is, perhaps, worth +observing," taking his cigar from his mouth and smiling at the end of +it, as he removed the ash, "that, but for Miss Vanderpoel and G. Selden, +we might never have had an opportunity of facing the fact that we may +not have been giving fair play. And one has prided one's self on one's +fair play." + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +A RETURN + +At the close of a long, warm afternoon Betty Vanderpoel came out upon +the square stone terrace overlooking the gardens, and that part of +the park which, enclosing them, caused them, as they melted into its +greenness, to lose all limitations and appear to be only a more blooming +bit of the landscape. + +Upon the garden Betty's eyes dwelt, as she stood still for some minutes +taking in their effect thoughtfully. + +Kedgers had certainly accomplished much. His close-trimmed lawns did +him credit, his flower beds were flushed and azured, purpled and snowed +with bloom. Sweet tall spires, hung with blue or white or rosy flower +bells, lifted their heads above the colour of lower growths. Only the +fervent affection, the fasting and prayer of a Kedgers could have done +such wonders with new things and old. The old ones he had cherished and +allured into a renewal of existence--the new ones he had so coaxed out +of their earthen pots into the soil, luxuriously prepared for their +reception, and had afterwards so nourished and bedewed with soft +waterings, so supported, watched over and adored that they had been +almost unconscious of their transplanting. Without assistants he could +have done nothing, but he had been given a sufficient number of under +gardeners, and had even managed to inspire them with something of his +own ambition and solicitude. The result was before Betty's eyes in +an aspect which, to such as knew the gardens well,--the Dunholms, for +instance,--was astonishing in its success. + +"I've had privileges, miss, and so have the flowers," Kedgers had said +warmly, when Miss Vanderpoel had reported to him, for his encouragement, +Dunholm Castle's praise. "Not one of 'em has ever had to wait for +his food and drink, nor to complain of his bed not being what he was +accustomed to. They've not had to wait for rain, for we've given it to +'em from watering cans, and, thank goodness, the season's been kind to +'em." + +Betty, descending the terrace steps, wandered down the paths between +the flower beds, glancing about her as she went. The air of neglect and +desolation had been swept away. Buttle and Tim Soames had been given +as many privileges as Kedgers. The chief points impressed upon them had +been that the work must be done, not only thoroughly, but quickly. As +many additional workmen as they required, as much solid material as they +needed, but there must be a despatch which at first it staggered them +to contemplate. They had not known such methods before. They had been +accustomed to work under money limitation throughout their lives, and, +when work must be done with insufficient aid, it must be done slowly. +Economy had been the chief factor in all calculations, speed had not +entered into them, so leisureliness had become a fixed habit. But it +seemed American to sweep leisureliness away into space with a free +gesture. + +"It must be done QUICKLY," Miss Vanderpoel had said. "If ten men cannot +do it quickly enough, you must have twenty--or as many more as are +needed. It is time which must be saved just now." + +Time more than money, it appeared. Buttle's experience had been that you +might take time, if you did not charge for it. When time began to mean +money, that was a different matter. If you did work by the job, you +might drive in a few nails, loiter, and return without haste; if you +worked by the hour, your absence would be inquired into. In the present +case no one could loiter. That was realised early. The tall girl, with +the deep straight look at you, made you realise that without spoken +words. She expected energy something like her own. She was a new force +and spurred them. No man knew how it was done, but, when she appeared +among them--even in the afternoon--"lookin' that womany," holding up +her thin dress over lace petticoats, the like of which had not been seen +before, she looked on with just the same straight, expecting eyes. +They did not seem to doubt in the least that she would find that great +advance had been made. + +So advance had been made, and work accomplished. As Betty walked from +one place to another she saw the signs of it with gratification. The +place was not the one she had come to a few months ago. Hothouses, +outbuildings, stables were in repair. Work was still being done in +different places. In the house itself carpenters or decorators were +enclosed in some rooms, and at their business, but exterior order +prevailed. In the courtyard stablemen were at work, and her own groom +came forward touching his forehead. She paid a visit to the horses. They +were fine creatures, and, when she entered their stalls, made room for +her and whinnied gently, in well-founded expectation of sugar and bread +which were kept in a cupboard awaiting her visits. She smoothed velvet +noses and patted satin sides, talking to Mason a little before she went +her way. + +Then she strolled into the park. The park was always a pleasure. She was +in a thoughtful mood, and the soft green shadowed silence lured her. The +summer wind hus-s-shed the branches as it lightly waved them, the brown +earth of the avenue was sun-dappled, there were bird notes and calls +to be heard here and there and everywhere, if one only arrested one's +attention a moment to listen. And she was in a listening and dreaming +mood--one of the moods in which bird, leaf, and wind, sun, shade, and +scent of growing things have part. + +And yet her thoughts were of mundane things. + +It was on this avenue that G. Selden had met with his accident. He was +still at Dunstan vicarage, and yesterday Mount Dunstan, in calling, had +told them that Mr. Penzance was applying himself with delighted interest +to a study of the manipulation of the Delkoff. + +The thought of Mount Dunstan brought with it the thought of her father. +This was because there was frequently in her mind a connection between +the two. How would the man of schemes, of wealth, and power almost +unbounded, regard the man born with a load about his neck--chained +to earth by it, standing in the midst of his hungering and thirsting +possessions, his hands empty of what would feed them and restore their +strength? Would he see any solution of the problem? She could +imagine his looking at the situation through his gaze at the man, and +considering both in his summing up. + +"Circumstances and the man," she had heard him say. "But always the man +first." + +Being no visionary, he did not underestimate the power of circumstance. +This Betty had learned from him. And what could practically be done with +circumstance such as this? The question had begun to recur to her. What +could she herself have done in the care of Rosy and Stornham, if +chance had not placed in her hand the strongest lever? What she had +accomplished had been easy--easy. All that had been required had been +the qualities which control of the lever might itself tend to create in +one. Given--by mere chance again--imagination and initiative, the moving +of the lever did the rest. If chance had not been on one's side, what +then? And where was this man's chance? She had said to Rosy, in speaking +of the wealth of America, "Sometimes one is tired of it." And Rosy had +reminded her that there were those who were not tired of it, who +could bear some of the burden of it, if it might be laid on their own +shoulders. The great beautiful, blind-faced house, awaiting its slow +doom in the midst of its lonely unfed lands--what could save it, and all +it represented of race and name, and the stately history of men, but +the power one professed to call base and sordid--mere money? She felt a +sudden impatience at herself for having said she was tired of it. That +was a folly which took upon itself the aspect of an affectation. + +And, if a man could not earn money--or go forth to rob richer neighbours +of it as in the good old marauding days--or accept it if it were offered +to him as a gift--what could he do? Nothing. If he had been born a +village labourer, he could have earned by the work of his hands enough +to keep his cottage roof over him, and have held up his head among his +fellows. But for such as himself there was no mere labour which would +avail. He had not that rough honest resource. Only the decent living and +orderly management of the generations behind him would have left to him +fairly his own chance to hold with dignity the place in the world into +which Fate had thrust him at the outset--a blind, newborn thing of whom +no permission had been asked. + +"If I broke stones upon the highway for twelve hours a day, I might +earn two shillings," he had said to Betty, on the previous day. "I could +break stones well," holding out a big arm, "but fourteen shillings a +week will do no more than buy bread and bacon for a stonebreaker." + +He was ordinarily rather silent and stiff in his conversational attitude +towards his own affairs. Betty sometimes wondered how she herself knew +so much about them--how it happened that her thoughts so often dwelt +upon them. The explanation she had once made to herself had been half +irony, half serious reflection. + +"It is a result of the first Reuben Vanderpoel. It is because I am of +the fighting commercial stock, and, when I see a business problem, I +cannot leave it alone, even when it is no affair of mine." + +As an exposition of the type of the commercial fighting-stock she +presented, as she paused beneath overshadowing trees, an aspect +beautifully suggesting a far different thing. + +She stood--all white from slim shoe to tilted parasol,--and either the +result of her inspection of the work done by her order, or a combination +of her summer-day mood with her feeling for the problem, had given her +a special radiance. It glowed on lip and cheek, and shone in her Irish +eyes. + +She had paused to look at a man approaching down the avenue. He was not +a labourer, and she did not know him. Men who were not labourers usually +rode or drove, and this one was walking. He was neither young nor old, +and, though at a distance his aspect was not attracting, she found that +she regarded him curiously, and waited for him to draw nearer. + +The man himself was glancing about him with a puzzled look and knitted +forehead. When he had passed through the village he had seen things he +had not expected to see; when he had reached the entrance gate, and--for +reasons of his own--dismissed his station trap, he had looked at the +lodge scrutinisingly, because he was not prepared for its picturesque +trimness. The avenue was free from weeds and in order, the two gates +beyond him were new and substantial. As he went on his way and reached +the first, he saw at about a hundred yards distance a tall girl in white +standing watching him. Things which were not easily explainable always +irritated him. That this place--which was his own affair--should present +an air of mystery, did not improve his humour, which was bad to begin +with. He had lately been passing through unpleasant things, which had +left him feeling himself tricked and made ridiculous--as only women can +trick a man and make him ridiculous, he had said to himself. And there +had been an acrid consolation in looking forward to the relief of +venting one's self on a woman who dare not resent. + +"What has happened, confound it!" he muttered, when he caught sight +of the girl. "Have we set up a house party?" And then, as he saw more +distinctly, "Damn! What a figure!" + +By this time Betty herself had begun to see more clearly. Surely this +was a face she remembered--though the passing of years and ugly living +had thickened and blurred, somewhat, its always heavy features. Suddenly +she knew it, and the look in its eyes--the look she had, as a child, +unreasoningly hated. + +Nigel Anstruthers had returned from his private holiday. + +As she took a few quiet steps forward to meet him, their eyes rested on +each other. After a night or two in town his were slightly bloodshot, +and the light in them was not agreeable. + +It was he who spoke first, and it is possible that he did not quite +intend to use the expletive which broke from him. But he was remembering +things also. Here were eyes he, too, had seen before--twelve years ago +in the face of an objectionable, long-legged child in New York. And his +own hatred of them had been founded in his own opinion on the best of +reasons. And here they gazed at him from the face of a young beauty--for +a beauty she was. + +"Damn it!" he exclaimed; "it is Betty." + +"Yes," she answered, with a faint, but entirely courteous, smile. "It +is. I hope you are very well." + +She held out her hand. "A delicious hand," was what he said to himself, +as he took it. And what eyes for a girl to have in her head were those +which looked out at him between shadows. Was there a hint of the devil +in them? He thought so--he hoped so, since she had descended on the +place in this way. But WHAT the devil was the meaning of her being on +the spot at all? He was, however, far beyond the lack of astuteness +which might have permitted him to express this last thought at this +particular juncture. He was only betrayed into stupid mistakes, +afterwards to be regretted, when rage caused him utterly to lose control +of his wits. And, though he was startled and not exactly pleased, he was +not in a rage now. The eyelashes and the figure gave an agreeable fillip +to his humour. Howsoever she had come, she was worth looking at. + +"How could one expect such a delightful thing as this?" he said, with a +touch of ironic amiability. "It is more than one deserves." + +"It is very polite of you to say that," answered Betty. + +He was thinking rapidly as he stood and gazed at her. There were, in +truth, many things to think of under circumstances so unexpected. + +"May I ask you to excuse my staring at you?" he inquired with what Rosy +had called his "awful, agreeable smile." "When I saw you last you were a +fierce nine-year-old American child. I use the word 'fierce' because--if +you'll pardon my saying so--there was a certain ferocity about you." + +"I have learned at various educational institutions to conceal it," +smiled Betty. + + +"May I ask when you arrived?" + +"A short time after you went abroad." + +"Rosalie did not inform me of your arrival." + +"She did not know your address. You had forgotten to leave it." + +He had made a mistake and realised it. But she presented to him no air +of having observed his slip. He paused a few seconds, still regarding +her and still thinking rapidly. He recalled the mended windows and roofs +and palings in the village, the park gates and entrance. Who the devil +had done all that? How could a mere handsome girl be concerned in it? +And yet--here she was. + +"When I drove through the village," he said next, "I saw that some +remarkable changes had taken place on my property. I feel as if you can +explain them to me." + +"I hope they are changes which meet with your approval." + +"Quite--quite," a little curtly. "Though I confess they mystify me. +Though I am the son-in-law of an American multimillionaire, I could not +afford to make such repairs myself." + +A certain small spitefulness which was his most frequent undoing made it +impossible for him to resist adding the innuendo in his last sentence. +And again he saw it was a folly. The impersonal tone of her reply simply +left him where he had placed himself. + +"We were sorry not to be able to reach you. As it seemed well to begin +the work at once, we consulted Messrs. Townlinson & Sheppard." + +"We?" he repeated. "Am I to have the pleasure," with a slight wryness of +the mouth, "of finding Mr. Vanderpoel also at Stornham?" + +"No--not yet. As I was on the spot, I saw your solicitors and asked +their advice and approval--for my father. If he had known how necessary +the work was, it would have been done before, for Ughtred's sake." + +Her voice was that of a person who, in stating obvious facts, provides +no approach to enlightening comment upon them. And there was in her +manner the merest gracious impersonality. + +"Do I understand that Mr. Vanderpoel employed someone to visit the place +and direct the work?" + +"It was really not difficult to direct. It was merely a matter of +engaging labour and competent foremen." + +An odd expression rose in his eyes. + +"You suggest a novel idea, upon my word," he said. "Is it possible--you +see I know something of America--is it possible I must thank YOU for the +working of this magic?" + +"You need not thank me," she said, rather slowly, because it was +necessary that she also should think of many things at once. "I could +not have helped doing it." + +She wished to make all clear to him before he met Rosy. She knew it was +not unnatural that the unexpectedness of his appearance might deprive +Lady Anstruthers of presence of mind. Instinct told her that what was +needed in intercourse with him was, above all things, presence of mind. + +"I will tell you about it," she said. "We will walk slowly up and down +here, if you do not object." + +He did not object. He wanted to hear the story as he could not hear it +from his nervous little fool of a wife, who would be frightened into +forgetting things and their sequence. What he meant to discover was +where he stood in the matter--where his father-in-law stood, and, rather +specially, to have a chance to sum up the weaknesses and strengths of +the new arrival. That would be to his interest. In talking this thing +over she would unconsciously reveal how much vanity or emotion or +inexperience he might count upon as factors safe to use in one's +dealings with her in the future. + +As he listened he was supported by the fact that he did not lose +consciousness of the eyes and the figure. But for these it is probable +that he would have gone blind with fury at certain points which forced +themselves upon him. The first was that there had been an absurd and +immense expenditure which would simply benefit his son and not himself. +He could not sell or borrow money on what had been given. Apparently +the place had been re-established on a footing such as it had not rested +upon during his own generation, or his father's. As he loathed life in +the country, it was not he who would enjoy its luxury, but his wife +and her child. The second point was that these people--this girl--had +somehow had the sharpness to put themselves in the right, and to place +him in a position at which he could not complain without putting himself +in the wrong. Public opinion would say that benefits had been heaped +upon him, that the correct thing had been done correctly with the +knowledge and approval of the legal advisers of his family. It had been +a masterly thing, that visit to Townlinson & Sheppard. He was obliged to +aid his self-control by a glance at the eyelashes. She was a new sort +of girl, this Betty, whose childhood he had loathed, and, to his jaded +taste, novelty appealed enormously. Her attraction for him was also +added to by the fact that he was not at all sure that there was not +combined with it a pungent spice of the old detestation. He was repelled +as well as allured. She represented things which he hated. First, the +mere material power, which no man can bully, whatsoever his humour. It +was the power he most longed for and, as he could not hope to possess +it, most sneered at and raged against. Also, as she talked, it was +plain that her habit of self-control and her sense of resource would +be difficult to deal with. He was a survival of the type of man whose +simple creed was that women should not possess resources, as when they +possessed them they could rarely be made to behave themselves. + +But while he thought these things, he walked by her side and both +listened and talked smiling the agreeable smile. + +"You will pardon my dull bewilderment," he said. "It is not unnatural, +is it--in a mere outsider?" + +And Betty, with the beautiful impersonal smile, said: + +"We felt it so unfortunate that even your solicitors did not know your +address." + +When, at length, they turned and strolled towards the house, a carriage +was drawing up before the door, and at the sight of it, Betty saw her +companion slightly lift his eyebrows. Lady Anstruthers had been out and +was returning. The groom got down from the box, and two men-servants +appeared upon the steps. Lady Anstruthers descended, laughing a little +as she talked to Ughtred, who had been with her. She was dressed in +clear, pale grey, and the soft rose lining of her parasol warmed the +colour of her skin. + +Sir Nigel paused a second and put up his glass. + +"Is that my wife?" he said. "Really! She quite recalls New York." + +The agreeable smile was on his lips as he hastened forward. He always +more or less enjoyed coming upon Rosalie suddenly. The obvious result +was a pleasing tribute to his power. + +Betty, following him, saw what occurred. + +Ughtred saw him first, and spoke quick and low. + +"Mother!" he said. + +The tone of his voice was evidently enough. Lady Anstruthers turned with +an unmistakable start. The rose lining of her parasol ceased to warm her +colour. In fact, the parasol itself stepped aside, and she stood with a +blank, stiff, white face. + + +"My dear Rosalie," said Sir Nigel, going towards her. "You don't look +very glad to see me." + +He bent and kissed her quite with the air of a devoted husband. Knowing +what the caress meant, and seeing Rosy's face as she submitted to +it, Betty felt rather cold. After the conjugal greeting he turned to +Ughtred. + +"You look remarkably well," he said. + +Betty came forward. + +"We met in the park, Rosy," she explained. "We have been talking to each +other for half an hour." + +The atmosphere which had surrounded her during the last three months +had done much for Lady Anstruthers' nerves. She had the power to recover +herself. Sir Nigel himself saw this when she spoke. + +"I was startled because I was not expecting to see you," she said. "I +thought you were still on the Riviera. I hope you had a pleasant journey +home." + +"I had an extraordinarily pleasant surprise in finding your sister +here," he answered. And they went into the house. + +In descending the staircase on his way to the drawing-room before +dinner, Sir Nigel glanced about him with interested curiosity. If +the village had been put in order, something more had been done here. +Remembering the worn rugs and the bald-headed tiger, he lifted his +brows. To leave one's house in a state of resigned dilapidation and +return to find it filled with all such things as comfort combined with +excellent taste might demand, was an enlivening experience--or would +have been so under some circumstances. As matters stood, perhaps, he +might have felt better pleased if things had been less well done. But +they were very well done. They had managed to put themselves in the +right in this also. The rich sobriety of colour and form left no opening +for supercilious comment--which was a neat weapon it was annoying to be +robbed of. + +The drawing-room was fresh, brightly charming, and full of flowers. +Betty was standing before an open window with her sister. His wife's +shoulders, he observed at once, had absolutely begun to suggest +contours. At all events, her bones no longer stuck out. But one did +not look at one's wife's shoulders when one could turn from them to a +fairness of velvet and ivory. "You know," he said, approaching them, "I +find all this very amazing. I have been looking out of my window on to +the gardens." + +"It is Betty who has done it all," said Rosy. + +"I did not suspect you of doing it, my dear Rosalie," smiling. "When I +saw Betty standing in the avenue, I knew at once that it was she who had +mended the chimney-pots in the village and rehung the gates." + +For the present, at least, it was evident that he meant to be +sufficiently amiable. At the dinner table he was conversational and +asked many questions, professing a natural interest in what had been +done. It was not difficult to talk to a girl whose eyes and shoulders +combined themselves with a quick wit and a power to attract which he +reluctantly owned he had never seen equalled. His reluctance arose +from the fact that such a power complicated matters. He must be on +the defensive until he knew what she was going to do, what he must do +himself, and what results were probable or possible. He had spent his +life in intrigue of one order or another. He enjoyed outwitting people +and rather preferred to attain an end by devious paths. He began every +acquaintance on the defensive. His argument was that you never knew how +things would turn out, consequently, it was as well to conduct one's +self at the outset with the discreet forethought of a man in the +presence of an enemy. He did not know how things would turn out in +Betty's case, and it was a little confusing to find one's self watching +her with a sense of excitement. He would have preferred to be cool--to +be cold--and he realised that he could not keep his eyes off her. + +"I remember, with regret," he said to her later in the evening, "that +when you were a child we were enemies." + +"I am afraid we were," was Betty's impartial answer. + +"I am sure it was my fault," he said. "Pray forget it. Since you have +accomplished such wonders, will you not, in the morning, take me about +the place and explain to me how it has been done?" + +When Betty went to her room she dismissed her maid as soon as possible, +and sat for some time alone and waiting. She had had no opportunity to +speak to Rosy in private, and she was sure she would come to her. In the +course of half an hour she heard a knock at the door. + +Yes, it was Rosy, and her newly-born colour had fled and left her +looking dragged again. She came forward and dropped into a low chair +near Betty, letting her face fall into her hands. + +"I'm very sorry, Betty," she half whispered, "but it is no use." + +"What is no use?" Betty asked. + +"Nothing is any use. All these years have made me such a coward. I +suppose I always was a coward, but in the old days there never was +anything to be afraid of." + +"What are you most afraid of now?" + +"I don't know. That is the worst. I am afraid of HIM--just of +himself--of the look in his eyes--of what he may be planning quietly. My +strength dies away when he comes near me." + +"What has he said to you?" she asked. + +"He came into my dressing-room and sat and talked. He looked about from +one thing to another and pretended to admire it all and congratulated +me. But though he did not sneer at what he saw, his eyes were sneering +at me. He talked about you. He said that you were a very clever woman. I +don't know how he manages to imply that a very clever woman is something +cunning and debased--but it means that when he says it. It seems to +insinuate things which make one grow hot all over." + +She put out a hand and caught one of Betty's. + +"Betty, Betty," she implored. "Don't make him angry. Don't." + +"I am not going to begin by making him angry," Betty said. "And I do not +think he will try to make me angry--at first." + +"No, he will not," cried Rosalie. "And--and you remember what I told you +when first we talked about him?" + +"And do you remember," was Betty's answer, "what I said to you when I +first met you in the park? If we were to cable to New York this moment, +we could receive an answer in a few hours." + +"He would not let us do it," said Rosy. "He would stop us in some +way--as he stopped my letters to mother--as he stopped me when I tried +to run away. Oh, Betty, I know him and you do not." + +"I shall know him better every day. That is what I must do. I must learn +to know him. He said something more to you than you have told me, Rosy. +What was it?" + +"He waited until Detcham left me," Lady Anstruthers confessed, more than +half reluctantly. "And then he got up to go away, and stood with his +hands resting on the chairback, and spoke to me in a low, queer voice. +He said, 'Don't try to play any tricks on me, my good girl--and don't +let your sister try to play any. You would both have reason to regret +it.'" + +She was a half-hypnotised thing, and Betty, watching her with curious +but tender eyes, recognised the abnormality. + +"Ah, if I am a clever woman," she said, "he is a clever man. He is +beginning to see that his power is slipping away. That was what G. +Selden would call 'bluff.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +NO, SHE WOULD NOT + +Sir Nigel did not invite Rosalie to accompany them, when the next +morning, after breakfast, he reminded Betty of his suggestion of the +night before, that she should walk over the place with him, and show him +what had been done. He preferred to make his study of his sister-in-law +undisturbed. + +There was no detail whose significance he missed as they went about +together. He had keen eyes and was a quite sufficiently practical person +on such matters as concerned his own interests. In this case it was to +his interest to make up his mind as to what he might gain or lose by the +appearance of his wife's family. He did not mean to lose--if it could be +helped--anything either of personal importance or material benefit. And +it could only be helped by his comprehending clearly what he had to deal +with. Betty was, at present, the chief factor in the situation, and he +was sufficiently astute to see that she might not be easy to read. +His personal theories concerning women presented to him two or three +effective ways of managing them. You made love to them, you flattered +them either subtly or grossly, you roughly or smoothly bullied them, +or you harrowed them with haughty indifference--if your love-making had +produced its proper effect--when it was necessary to lure or drive or +trick them into submission. Women should be made useful in one way or +another. Little fool as she was, Rosalie had been useful. He had, after +all was said and done, had some comparatively easy years as the result +of her existence. But she had not been useful enough, and there had even +been moments when he had wondered if he had made a mistake in separating +her entirely from her family. There might have been more to be gained +if he had allowed them to visit her and had played the part of a devoted +husband in their presence. A great bore, of course, but they could not +have spent their entire lives at Stornham. Twelve years ago, however, he +had known very little of Americans, and he had lost his temper. He was +really very fond of his temper, and rather enjoyed referring to it with +tolerant regret as being a bad one and beyond his control--with a manner +which suggested that the attribute was the inevitable result of strength +of character and masculine spirit. The luxury of giving way to it was a +great one, and it was exasperating as he walked about with this handsome +girl to find himself beginning to suspect that, where she was concerned, +some self-control might be necessary. He was led to this thought because +the things he took in on all sides could only have been achieved by a +person whose mind was a steadily-balanced thing. In one's treatment of +such a creature, methods must be well chosen. The crudest had sufficed +to overwhelm Rosalie. He tried two or three little things as experiments +during their walk. + +The first was to touch with dignified pathos on the subject of Ughtred. +Betty, he intimated gently, could imagine what a man's grief and +disappointment might be on finding his son and heir deformed in such a +manner. The delicate reserve with which he managed to convey his fear +that Rosalie's own uncontrolled hysteric attacks had been the cause of +the misfortune was very well done. She had, of course, been very young +and much spoiled, and had not learned self-restraint, poor girl. + +It was at this point that Betty first realised a certain hideous thing. +She must actually remain silent--there would be at the outset many times +when she could only protect her sister by refraining from either denial +or argument. If she turned upon him now with refutation, it was Rosy who +would be called upon to bear the consequences. He would go at once to +Rosy, and she herself would have done what she had said she would not +do--she would have brought trouble upon the poor girl before she was +strong enough to bear it. She suspected also that his intention was +to discover how much she had heard, and if she might be goaded into +betraying her attitude in the matter. + +But she was not to be so goaded. He watched her closely and her very +colour itself seemed to be under her own control. He had expected--if +she had heard hysteric, garbled stories from his wife--to see a flame +of scarlet leap up on the cheek he was admiring. There was no such leap, +which was baffling in itself. Could it be that experience had taught +Rosalie the discretion of keeping her mouth shut? + +"I am very fond of Ughtred," was the sole comment he was granted. +"We made friends from the first. As he grows older and stronger, his +misfortune may be less apparent. He will be a very clever man." + +"He will be a very clever man if he is at all like----" He checked +himself with a slight movement of his shoulders. "I was going to say a +thing utterly banal. I beg your pardon. I forgot for the moment that I +was not talking to an English girl." + +It was so stupid that she turned and looked at him, smiling faintly. But +her answer was quite mild and soft. + +"Do not deprive me of compliments because I am a mere American," she +said. "I am very fond of them, and respond at once." + +"You are very daring," he said, looking straight into her +eyes--"deliciously so. American women always are, I think." + +"The young devil," he was saying internally. "The beautiful young devil! +She throws one off the track." + +He found himself more and more attracted and exasperated as they made +their rounds. It was his sense of being attracted which was the cause +of his exasperation. A girl who could stir one like this would be a +dangerous enemy. Even as a friend she would not be safe, because one +faced the absurd peril of losing one's head a little and forgetting +the precautions one should never lose sight of where a woman was +concerned--the precautions which provided for one's holding a good taut +rein in one's own hands. + +They went from gardens to greenhouses, from greenhouses to stables, and +he was on the watch for the moment when she would reveal some little +feminine pose or vanity, but, this morning, at least, she laid none +bare. She did not strike him as a being of angelic perfections, but +she was very modern and not likely to show easily any openings in her +armour. + +"Of course, I continue to be amazed," he commented, "though one ought +not to be amazed at anything which evolves from your extraordinary +country. In spite of your impersonal air, I shall persist in regarding +you as my benefactor. But, to be frank, I always told Rosalie that if +she would write to your father he would certainly put things in order." + +"She did write once, you will remember," answered Betty. + +"Did she?" with courteous vagueness. "Really, I am afraid I did not hear +of it. My poor wife has her own little ideas about the disposal of her +income." + +And Betty knew that she was expected to believe that Rosy had hoarded +the money sent to restore the place, and from sheer weak miserliness had +allowed her son's heritage to fall to ruin. And but for Rosy's sake, +she might have stopped upon the path and, looking at him squarely, have +said, "You are lying to me. And I know the truth." + +He continued to converse amiably. + +"Of course, it is you one must thank, not only for rousing in the poor +girl some interest in her personal appearance, but also some interest in +her neighbours. Some women, after they marry and pass girlhood, seem to +release their hold on all desire to attract or retain friends. For years +Rosalie has given herself up to a chronic semi-invalidism. When the +mistress of a house is always depressed and languid and does not return +visits, neighbours become discouraged and drop off, as it were." + +If his wife had told stories to gain her sympathy his companion would be +sure to lose her temper and show her hand. If he could make her openly +lose her temper, he would have made an advance. + +"One can quite understand that," she said. "It is a great happiness to +me to see Rosy gaining ground every day. She has taken me out with her +a good many times, and people are beginning to realise that she likes to +see them at Stornham." + +"You are very delightful," he said, "with your 'She has taken me out.' +When I glanced at the magnificent array of cards on the salver in the +hall, I realised a number of things, and quite vulgarly lost my breath. +The Dunholms have been very amiable in recalling our existence. But +charming Americans--of your order--arouse amiable emotions." + +"I am very amiable myself," said Betty. + +It was he who flushed now. He was losing patience at feeling himself +held with such lightness at arm's length, and at being, in spite of +himself, somehow compelled to continue to assume a jocular courtesy. + +"No, you are not," he answered. + +"Not?" repeated Betty, with an incredulous lifting of her brows. + +"You are charming and clever, but I rather suspect you of being a vixen. +At all events you are a spirited young woman and quick-witted enough to +understand the attraction you must have for the sordid herd." + +And then he became aware--if not of an opening in her armour--at least +of a joint in it. For he saw, near her ear, a deepening warmth. That was +it. She was quick-witted, and she hid somewhere a hot pride. + +"I confess, however," he proceeded cheerfully, "that notwithstanding my +own experience of the habits of the sordid herd, I saw one card I was +surprised to find, though really"--shrugging his shoulders--"I ought to +have been less surprised to find it than to find any other. But it was +bold. I suppose the fellow is desperate." + +"You are speaking of----?" suggested Betty. + +"Of Mount Dunstan. Hang it all, it WAS bold!" As if in half-amused +disgust. + +As she had walked through the garden paths, Betty had at intervals bent +and gathered a flower, until she held in one hand a loose, fair sheaf. +At this moment she stooped to break off a spire of pale blue campanula. +And she was--as with a shock--struck with a consciousness that she +bent because she must--because to do so was a refuge--a concealment +of something she must hide. It had come upon her without a second's +warning. Sir Nigel was right. She was a vixen--a virago. She was in such +a rage that her heart sprang up and down and her cheek and eyes were on +fire. Her long-trained control of herself was gone. And her shock was a +lightning-swift awakening to the fact that she felt all this--she +must hide her face--because it was this one man--just this one and no +other--who was being dragged into this thing with insult. + +It was an awakening, and she broke off, rather slowly, +one--two--three--even four campanula stems before she stood upright +again. + +As for Nigel Anstruthers--he went on talking in his low-pitched, +disgusted voice. + +"Surely he might count himself out of the running. There will be a good +deal of running, my dear Betty. You fair Americans have learned that by +this time. But that a man who has not even a decent name to offer--who +is blackballed by his county--should coolly present himself as a +pretendant is an insolence he should be kicked for." + +Betty arranged her campanulas carefully. There was no exterior reason +why she should draw sword in Lord Mount Dunstan's defence. He had +certainly not seemed to expect anything intimately interested from +her. His manner she had generally felt to be rather restrained. But one +could, in a measure, express one's self. + +"Whatsoever the 'running,'" she remarked, "no pretendant has +complimented me by presenting himself, so far--and Lord Mount Dunstan is +physically an unusually strong man." + +"You mean it would be difficult to kick him? Is this partisanship? I +hope not. Am I to understand," he added with deliberation, "that Rosalie +has received him here?" + +"Yes." + +"And that you have received him, also--as you have received Lord +Westholt?" + +"Quite." + +"Then I must discuss the matter with Rosalie. It is not to be discussed +with you." + +"You mean that you will exercise your authority in the matter?" + +"In England, my dear girl, the master of a house is still sometimes +guilty of exercising authority in matters which concern the reputation +of his female relatives. In the absence of your father, I shall not +allow you, while you are under my roof, to endanger your name in any +degree. I am, at least, your brother by marriage. I intend to protect +you." + +"Thank you," said Betty. + +"You are young and extremely handsome, you will have an enormous +fortune, and you have evidently had your own way all your life. A girl, +such as you are, may either make a magnificent marriage or a ridiculous +and humiliating one. Neither American young women, nor English young +men, are as disinterested as they were some years ago. Each has begun to +learn what the other has to give." + +"I think that is true," commented Betty. + +"In some cases there is a good deal to be exchanged on both sides. You +have a great deal to give, and should get exchange worth accepting. A +beggared estate and a tainted title are not good enough." + +"That is businesslike," Betty made comment again. + +Sir Nigel laughed quietly. + +"The fact is--I hope you won't misunderstand my saying it--you do not +strike me as being UN-businesslike, yourself." + +"I am not," answered Betty. + +"I thought not," rather narrowing his eyes as he watched her, because he +believed that she must involuntarily show her hand if he irritated her +sufficiently. "You do not impress me as being one of the girls who make +unsuccessful marriages. You are a modern New York beauty--not an early +Victorian sentimentalist." He did not despair of results from his +process of irritation. To gently but steadily convey to a beautiful and +spirited young creature that no man could approach her without ulterior +motive was rather a good idea. If one could make it clear--with a casual +air of sensibly taking it for granted--that the natural power of youth, +wit, and beauty were rendered impotent by a greatness of fortune whose +proportions obliterated all else; if one simply argued from the premise +that young love was no affair of hers, since she must always be regarded +as a gilded chattel, whose cost was writ large in plain figures, what +girl, with blood in her veins, could endure it long without wincing? +This girl had undue, and, as he regarded such matters, unseemly control +over her temper and her nerves, but she had blood enough in her veins, +and presently she would say or do something which would give him a lead. + +"When you marry----" he began. + +She lifted her head delicately, but ended the sentence for him with eyes +which were actually not unsmiling. + +"When I marry, I shall ask something in exchange for what I have to +give." + +"If the exchange is to be equal, you must ask a great deal," he +answered. "That is why you must be protected from such fellows as Mount +Dunstan." + +"If it becomes necessary, perhaps I shall be able to protect myself," +she said. + +"Ah!" regretfully, "I am afraid I have annoyed you--and that you need +protection more than you suspect." If she were flesh and blood, she +could scarcely resist resenting the implication contained in this. But +resist it she did, and with a cool little smile which stirred him to +sudden, if irritated, admiration. + +She paused a second, and used the touch of gentle regret herself. + +"You have wounded my vanity by intimating that my admirers do not love +me for myself alone." + +He paused, also, and, narrowing his eyes again, looked straight between +her lashes. + +"They ought to love you for yourself alone," he said, in a low voice. +"You are a deucedly attractive girl." + +"Oh, Betty," Rosy had pleaded, "don't make him angry--don't make him +angry." + +So Betty lifted her shoulders slightly without comment. + +"Shall we go back to the house now?" she said. "Rosalie will naturally +be anxious to hear that what has been done in your absence has met with +your approval." + +In what manner his approval was expressed to Rosalie, Betty did not hear +this morning, at least. Externally cool though she had appeared, the +process had not been without its results, and she felt that she would +prefer to be alone. + +"I must write some letters to catch the next steamer," she said, as she +went upstairs. + +When she entered her room, she went to her writing table and sat down, +with pen and paper before her. She drew the paper towards her and took +up the pen, but the next moment she laid it down and gave a slight push +to the paper. As she did so she realised that her hand trembled. + +"I must not let myself form the habit of falling into rages--or I +shall not be able to keep still some day, when I ought to do it," she +whispered. "I am in a fury--a fury." And for a moment she covered her +face. + +She was a strong girl, but a girl, notwithstanding her powers. What she +suddenly saw was that, as if by one movement of some powerful unseen +hand, Rosy, who had been the centre of all things, had been swept out of +her thought. Her anger at the injustice done to Rosy had been as nothing +before the fire which had flamed in her at the insult flung at the +other. And all that was undue and unbalanced. One might as well look the +thing straightly in the face. Her old child hatred of Nigel Anstruthers +had sprung up again in ten-fold strength. There was, it was true, +something abominable about him, something which made his words more +abominable than they would have been if another man had uttered +them--but, though it was inevitable that his method should rouse one, +where those of one's own blood were concerned, it was not enough to fill +one with raging flame when his malignity was dealing with those who were +almost strangers. Mount Dunstan was almost a stranger--she had met Lord +Westholt oftener. Would she have felt the same hot beat of the blood, if +Lord Westholt had been concerned? No, she answered herself frankly, she +would not. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +A GREAT BALL + +A certain great ball, given yearly at Dunholm Castle, was one of the +most notable social features of the county. It took place when the house +was full of its most interestingly distinguished guests, and, though +other balls might be given at other times, this one was marked by a +degree of greater state. On several occasions the chief guests had +been great personages indeed, and to be bidden to meet them implied +a selection flattering in itself. One's invitation must convey by +inference that one was either brilliant, beautiful, or admirable, if not +important. + +Nigel Anstruthers had never appeared at what the uninvited were wont, +with derisive smiles, to call The Great Panjandrum Function--which was +an ironic designation not employed by such persons as received cards +bidding them to the festivity. Stornham Court was not popular in +the county; no one had yearned for the society of the Dowager Lady +Anstruthers, even in her youth; and a not too well-favoured young man +with an ill-favoured temper, noticeably on the lookout for grievances, +is not an addition to one's circle. At nineteen Nigel had discovered +the older Lord Mount Dunstan and his son Tenham to be congenial +acquaintances, and had been so often absent from home that his +neighbours would have found social intercourse with him difficult, even +if desirable. Accordingly, when the county paper recorded the splendours +of The Great Panjandrum Function--which it by no means mentioned by that +name--the list of "Among those present" had not so far contained the +name of Sir Nigel Anstruthers. + +So, on a morning a few days after his return, the master of Stornham +turned over a card of invitation and read it several times before +speaking. + +"I suppose you know what this means," he said at last to Rosalie, who +was alone with him. + +"It means that we are invited to Dunholm Castle for the ball, doesn't +it?" + +Her husband tossed the card aside on the table. + +"It means that Betty will be invited to every house where there is a son +who must be disposed of profitably. + +"She is invited because she is beautiful and clever. She would be +invited if she had no money at all," said Rosy daringly. She was +actually growing daring, she thought sometimes. It would not have been +possible to say anything like this a few months ago. + +"Don't make silly mistakes," said Nigel. "There are a good many handsome +girls who receive comparatively little attention. But the hounds of war +are let loose, when one of your swollen American fortunes appears. The +obviousness of it 'virtuously' makes me sick. It's as vulgar--as New +York." + +What befel next brought to Sir Nigel a shock of curious enlightenment, +but no one was more amazed than Rosy herself. She felt, when she heard +her own voice, as if she must be rather mad. + +"I would rather," she said quite distinctly, "that you did not speak to +me of New York in that way." + +"What!" said Anstruthers, staring at her with contempt which was +derision. + +"It is my home," she answered. "It is not proper that I should hear it +spoken of slightingly." + +"Your home! It has not taken the slightest notice of you for twelve +years. Your people dropped you as if you were a hot potato." + +"They have taken me up again." Still in amazement at her own boldness, +but somehow learning something as she went on. + +He walked over to her side, and stood before her. + +"Look here, Rosalie," he said. "You have been taking lessons from your +sister. She is a beauty and young and you are not. People will stand +things from her they will not take from you. I would stand some things +myself, because it rather amuses a man to see a fine girl peacocking. +It's merely ridiculous in you, and I won't stand it--not a bit of it." + +It was not specially fortunate for him that the door opened as he was +speaking, and Betty came in with her own invitation in her hand. He +was quick enough, however, to turn to greet her with a shrug of his +shoulders. + +"I am being favoured with a little scene by my wife," he explained. "She +is capable of getting up excellent little scenes, but I daresay she does +not show you that side of her temper." + +Betty took a comfortable chintz-covered, easy chair. Her expression was +evasively speculative. + +"Was it a scene I interrupted?" she said. "Then I must not go away +and leave you to finish it. You were saying that you would not 'stand' +something. What does a man do when he will not 'stand' a thing? It +always sounds so final and appalling--as if he were threatening horrible +things such as, perhaps, were a resource in feudal times. What IS the +resource in these dull days of law and order--and policemen?" + +"Is this American chaff?" he was disagreeably conscious that he was not +wholly successful in his effort to be lofty. + +The frankness of Betty's smile was quite without prejudice. + +"Dear me, no," she said. "It is only the unpicturesque result of +an unfeminine knowledge of the law. And I was thinking how one is +limited--and yet how things are simplified after all." + +"Simplified!" disgustedly. + +"Yes, really. You see, if Rosy were violent she could not beat you--even +if she were strong enough--because you could ring the bell and give her +into custody. And you could not beat her because the same unpleasant +thing would happen to you. Policemen do rob things of colour, don't +they? And besides, when one remembers that mere vulgar law insists +that no one can be forced to live with another person who is brutal or +loathsome, that's simple, isn't it? You could go away from Rosy," with +sweet clearness, "at any moment you wished--as far away as you liked." + +"You seem to forget," still feeling that convincing loftiness was not +easy, "that when a man leaves his wife, or she deserts him, it is she +who is likely to be called upon to bear the onus of public opinion." + +"Would she be called upon to bear it under all circumstances?" + +"Damned clever woman as you are, you know that she would, as well as I +know it." He made an abrupt gesture with his hand. "You know that what +I say is true. Women who take to their heels are deucedly unpopular in +England." + +"I have not been long in England, but I have been struck by the +prevalence of a sort of constitutional British sense of fair play +among the people who really count. The Dunholms, for instance, have +it markedly. In America it is the men who force women to take to their +heels who are deucedly unpopular. The Americans' sense of fair play is +their most English quality. It was brought over in ships by the first +colonists--like the pieces of fine solid old furniture, one even now +sees, here and there, in houses in Virginia." + +"But the fact remains," said Nigel, with an unpleasant laugh, "the fact +remains, my dear girl." + +"The fact that does remain," said Betty, not unpleasantly at all, and +still with her gentle air of mere unprejudiced speculation, "is that, if +a man or woman is properly ill-treated--PROPERLY--not in any amateurish +way--they reach the point of not caring in the least--nothing matters, +but that they must get away from the horror of the unbearable thing +--never to see or hear of it again is heaven enough to make anything +else a thing to smile at. But one could settle the other point by +experimenting. Suppose you run away from Rosy, and then we can see if +she is cut by the county." + +His laugh was unpleasant again. + +"So long as you are with her, she will not be cut. There are a number +of penniless young men of family in this, as well as the adjoining, +counties. Do you think Mount Dunstan would cut her?" + +She looked down at the carpet thoughtfully a moment, and then lifted her +eyes. + +"I do not think so," she answered. "But I will ask him." + +He was startled by a sudden feeling that she might be capable of it. + +"Oh, come now," he said, "that goes beyond a joke. You will not do +any such absurd thing. One does not want one's domestic difficulties +discussed by one's neighbours." + +Betty opened coolly surprised eyes. + +"I did not understand it was a personal matter," she remarked. "Where do +the domestic difficulties come in?" + +He stared at her a few seconds with the look she did not like, which +was less likeable at the moment, because it combined itself with other +things. + +"Hang it," he muttered. "I wish I could keep my temper as you can keep +yours," and he turned on his heel and left the room. + +Rosy had not spoken. She had sat with her hands in her lap, looking out +of the window. She had at first had a moment of terror. She had, +indeed, once uttered in her soul the abject cry: "Don't make him angry, +Betty--oh, don't, don't!" And suddenly it had been stilled, and she +had listened. This was because she realised that Nigel himself was +listening. That made her see what she had not dared to allow herself +to see before. These trite things were true. There were laws to protect +one. If Betty had not been dealing with mere truths, Nigel would have +stopped her. He had been supercilious, but he could not contradict her. + +"Betty," she said, when her sister came to her, "you said that to show +ME things, as well as to show them to him. I knew you did, and listened +to every word. It was good for me to hear you." + +"Clear-cut, unadorned facts are like bullets," said Betty. "They reach +home, if one's aim is good. The shiftiest people cannot evade them." + +. . . . . + +A certain thing became evident to Betty during the time which elapsed +between the arrival of the invitations and the great ball. Despite an +obvious intention to assume an amiable pose for the time being, Sir +Nigel could not conceal a not quite unexplainable antipathy to one +individual. This individual was Mount Dunstan, whom it did not seem easy +for him to leave alone. He seemed to recur to him as a subject, without +any special reason, and this somewhat puzzled Betty until she heard from +Rosalie of his intimacy with Lord Tenham, which, in a measure, explained +it. The whole truth was that "The Lout," as he had been called, had +indulged in frank speech in his rare intercourse with his brother and +his friends, and had once interfered with hot young fury in a matter in +which the pair had specially wished to avoid all interference. His open +scorn of their methods of entertaining themselves they had felt to be +disgusting impudence, which would have been deservedly punished with a +horsewhip, if the youngster had not been a big-muscled, clumsy oaf, with +a dangerous eye. Upon this footing their acquaintance had stood in past +years, and to decide--as Sir Nigel had decided--that the oaf in question +had begun to make his bid for splendid fortune under the roof of +Stornham Court itself was a thing not to be regarded calmly. It was +more than he could stand, and the folly of temper, which was forever his +undoing, betrayed him into mistakes more than once. This girl, with +her beauty and her wealth, he chose to regard as a sort of property +rightfully his own. She was his sister-in-law, at least; she was living +under his roof; he had more or less the power to encourage or discourage +such aspirants as appeared. Upon the whole there was something soothing +to one's vanity in appearing before the world as the person at present +responsible for her. It gave a man a certain dignity of position, and +his chief girding at fate had always risen from the fact that he had not +had dignity of position. He would not be held cheap in this matter, at +least. But sometimes, as he looked at the girl he turned hot and sick, +as it was driven home to him that he was no longer young, that he had +never been good-looking, and that he had cut the ground from under his +feet twelve years ago, when he had married Rosalie! If he could have +waited--if he could have done several other things--perhaps the clever +acting of a part, and his power of domination might have given him a +chance. Even that blackguard of a Mount Dunstan had a better one now. +He was young, at least, and free--and a big strong beast. He was +forced, with bitter reluctance, to admit that he himself was not even +particularly strong--of late he had felt it hideously. + +So he detested Mount Dunstan the more for increasing reasons, +as he thought the matter over. It would seem, perhaps, but a +subtle pleasure to the normal mind, but to him there was +pleasure--support--aggrandisement--in referring to the ill case of the +Mount Dunstan estate, in relating illustrative anecdotes, in dwelling +upon the hopelessness of the outlook, and the notable unpopularity of +the man himself. A confiding young lady from the States was required, +he said on one occasion, but it would be necessary that she should be a +young person of much simplicity, who would not be alarmed or chilled by +the obvious. No one would realise this more clearly than Mount Dunstan +himself. He said it coldly and casually, as if it were the simplest +matter of fact. If the fellow had been making himself agreeable +to Betty, it was as well that certain points should be--as it were +inadvertently--brought before her. + +Miss Vanderpoel was really rather fine, people said to each other +afterwards, when she entered the ballroom at Dunholm Castle with her +brother-in-law. She bore herself as composedly as if she had been +escorted by the most admirable and dignified of conservative relatives, +instead of by a man who was more definitely disliked and disapproved of +than any other man in the county whom decent people were likely to meet. +Yet, she was far too clever a girl not to realise the situation clearly, +they said to each other. She had arrived in England to find her sister a +neglected wreck, her fortune squandered, and her existence stripped bare +of even such things as one felt to be the mere decencies. There was but +one thing to be deduced from the facts which had stared her in the +face. But of her deductions she had said nothing whatever, which was, of +course, remarkable in a young person. It may be mentioned that, perhaps, +there had been those who would not have been reluctant to hear what she +must have had to say, and who had even possibly given her a delicate +lead. But the lead had never been taken. One lady had even remarked +that, on her part, she felt that a too great reserve verged upon +secretiveness, which was not a desirable girlish quality. + +Of course the situation had been so much discussed that people were +naturally on the lookout for the arrival of the Stornham party, as +it was known that Sir Nigel had returned home, and would be likely to +present himself with his wife and sister-in-law. There was not a dowager +present who did not know how and where he had reprehensibly spent the +last months. It served him quite right that the Spanish dancing person +had coolly left him in the lurch for a younger and more attractive, as +well as a richer man. If it were not for Miss Vanderpoel, one need not +pretend that one knew nothing about the affair--in fact, if it had not +been for Miss Vanderpoel, he would not have received an invitation--and +poor Lady Anstruthers would be sitting at home, still the forlorn little +frump and invalid she had so wonderfully ceased to be since her sister +had taken her in hand. She was absolutely growing even pretty and young, +and her clothes were really beautiful. The whole thing was amazing. + +Betty, as well as Rosalie and Nigel--knew that many people turned +undisguisedly to look at them--even to watch them as they came into the +splendid ballroom. It was a splendid ballroom and a stately one, and +Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt shared a certain thought when they met +her, which was that hers was distinctly the proud young brilliance of +presence which figured most perfectly against its background. Much as +people wanted to look at Sir Nigel, their eyes were drawn from him +to Miss Vanderpoel. After all it was she who made him an object of +interest. One wanted to know what she would do with him--how she would +"carry him off." How much did she know of the distaste people felt for +him, since she would not talk or encourage talk? The Dunholms could not +have invited her and her sister, and have ignored him; but did she not +guess that they would have ignored him, if they could? and was there not +natural embarrassment in feeling forced to appear in pomp, as it were, +under his escort? + + +But no embarrassment was perceptible. Her manner committed her to no +recognition of a shadow of a flaw in the character of her companion. It +even carried a certain conviction with it, and the lookers-on felt the +impossibility of suggesting any such flaw by their own manner. For this +evening, at least, the man must actually be treated as if he were an +entirely unobjectionable person. It appeared as if that was what the +girl wanted, and intended should happen. + +This was what Nigel himself had begun to perceive, but he did not put it +pleasantly. Deucedly clever girl as she was, he said to himself, she +saw that it would be more agreeable to have no nonsense talked, and no +ruffling of tempers. He had always been able to convey to people that +the ruffling of his temper was a thing to be avoided, and perhaps she +had already been sharp enough to realise this was a fact to be counted +with. She was sharp enough, he said to himself, to see anything. + +The function was a superb one. The house was superb, the rooms of +entertainment were in every proportion perfect, and were quite renowned +for the beauty of the space they offered; the people themselves were, +through centuries of dignified living, so placed that intercourse with +their kind was an easy and delightful thing. They need never doubt +either their own effect, or the effect of their hospitalities. Sir Nigel +saw about him all the people who held enviable place in the county. Some +of them he had never known, some of them had long ceased to recall his +existence. There were those among them who lifted lorgnettes or stuck +monocles into their eyes as he passed, asking each other in politely +subdued tones who the man was who seemed to be in attendance on Miss +Vanderpoel. Nigel knew this and girded at it internally, while he made +the most of his suave smile. + +The distinguished personage who was the chief guest was to be seen at +the upper end of the room talking to a tall man with broad shoulders, +who was plainly interesting him for the moment. As the Stornham party +passed on, this person, making his bow, retired, and, as he turned +towards them, Sir Nigel recognising him, the agreeable smile was for the +moment lost. + +"How in the name of Heaven did Mount Dunstan come here?" broke from him +with involuntary heat. + +"Would it be rash to conclude," said Betty, as she returned the bow of a +very grand old lady in black velvet and an imposing tiara, "that he came +in response to invitation?" + +The very grand old lady seemed pleased to see her, and, with a royal +little sign, called her to her side. As Betty Vanderpoel was a great +success with the Mrs. Weldens and old Dobys of village life, she was +also a success among grand old ladies. When she stood before them there +was a delicate submission in her air which was suggestive of obedience +to the dignity of their years and state. Strongly conservative and +rather feudal old persons were much pleased by this. In the present +irreverent iconoclasm of modern times, it was most agreeable to talk to +a handsome creature who was as beautifully attentive as if she had been +a specially perfect young lady-in-waiting. + +This one even patted Betty's hand a little, when she took it. She was a +great county potentate, who was known as Lady Alanby of Dole--her house +being one of the most ancient and interesting in England. + +"I am glad to see you here to-night," she said. "You are looking very +nice. But you cannot help that." + +Betty asked permission to present her sister and brother-in-law. Lady +Alanby was polite to both of them, but she gave Nigel a rather sharp +glance through her gold pince-nez as she greeted him. + +"Janey and Mary," she said to the two girls nearest her, "I daresay +you will kindly change your chairs and let Lady Anstruthers and Miss +Vanderpoel sit next to me." + +The Ladies Jane and Mary Lithcom, who had been ordered about by her from +their infancy, obeyed with polite smiles. They were not particularly +pretty girls, and were of the indigent noble. Jane, who had almost +overlarge blue eyes, sighed as she reseated herself a few chairs lower +down. + +"It does seem beastly unfair," she said in a low voice to her sister, +"that a girl such as that should be so awfully good-looking. She ought +to have a turned-up nose." + +"Thank you," said Mary, "I have a turned-up nose myself, and I've got +nothing to balance it." + +"Oh, I didn't mean a nice turned-up nose like yours," said Jane; "I +meant an ugly one. Of course Lady Alanby wants her for Tommy." And her +manner was not resigned. + +"What she, or anyone else for that matter," disdainfully, "could want +with Tommy, I don't know," replied Mary. + +"I do," answered Jane obstinately. "I played cricket with him when I +was eight, and I've liked him ever since. It is AWFUL," in a smothered +outburst, "what girls like us have to suffer." + +Lady Mary turned to look at her curiously. + +"Jane," she said, "are you SUFFERING about Tommy?" + +"Yes, I am. Oh, what a question to ask in a ballroom! Do you want me to +burst out crying?" + +"No," sharply, "look at the Prince. Stare at that fat woman curtsying to +him. Stare and then wink your eyes." + +Lady Alanby was talking about Mount Dunstan. + +"Lord Dunholm has given us a lead. He is an old friend of mine, and he +has been talking to me about it. It appears that he has been looking +into things seriously. Modern as he is, he rather tilts at injustices, +in a quiet way. He has satisfactorily convinced himself that Lord Mount +Dunstan has been suffering for the sins of the fathers--which must be +annoying." + +"Is Lord Dunholm quite sure of that?" put in Sir Nigel, with a +suggestively civil air. + +Old Lady Alanby gave him an unencouraging look. + +"Quite," she said. "He would be likely to be before he took any steps." + +"Ah," remarked Nigel. "I knew Lord Tenham, you see." + +Lady Alanby's look was more unencouraging still. She quietly and openly +put up her glass and stared. There were times when she had not the +remotest objection to being rude to certain people. + +"I am sorry to hear that," she observed. "There never was any room for +mistake about Tenham. He is not usually mentioned." + +"I do not think this man would be usually mentioned, if everything were +known," said Nigel. + +Then an appalling thing happened. Lady Alanby gazed at him a few +seconds, and made no reply whatever. She dropped her glass, and turned +again to talk to Betty. It was as if she had turned her back on him, and +Sir Nigel, still wearing an amiable exterior, used internally some bad +language. + +"But I was a fool to speak of Tenham," he thought. "A great fool." + +A little later Miss Vanderpoel made her curtsy to the exalted guest, +and was commented upon again by those who looked on. It was not at +all unnatural that one should find ones eyes following a girl who, +representing a sort of royal power, should have the good fortune of +possessing such looks and bearing. + +Remembering his child bete noir of the long legs and square, audacious +little face, Nigel Anstruthers found himself restraining a slight grin +as he looked on at her dancing. Partners flocked about her like bees, +and Lady Alanby of Dole, and other very grand old or middle-aged ladies +all found the evening more interesting because they could watch her. + +"She is full of spirit," said Lady Alanby, "and she enjoys herself as a +girl should. It is a pleasure to look at her. I like a girl who gets +a magnificent colour and stars in her eyes when she dances. It looks +healthy and young." + +It was Tommy Miss Vanderpoel was dancing with when her ladyship said +this. Tommy was her grandson and a young man of greater rank than +fortune. He was a nice, frank, heavy youth, who loved a simple county +life spent in tramping about with guns, and in friendly hobnobbing with +the neighbours, and eating great afternoon teas with people whose jokes +were easy to understand, and who were ready to laugh if you tried a joke +yourself. He liked girls, and especially he liked Jane Lithcom, but +that was a weakness his grandmother did not at all encourage, and, as he +danced with Betty Vanderpoel, he looked over her shoulder more than once +at a pair of big, unhappy blue eyes, whose owner sat against the wall. + +Betty Vanderpoel herself was not thinking of Tommy. In fact, during +this brilliant evening she faced still further developments of her own +strange case. Certain new things were happening to her. When she had +entered the ballroom she had known at once who the man was who stood +before the royal guest--she had known before he bowed low and withdrew. +And her recognition had brought with it a shock of joy. For a few +moments her throat felt hot and pulsing. It was true--the things which +concerned him concerned her. All that happened to him suddenly became +her affair, as if in some way they were of the same blood. Nigel's +slighting of him had infuriated her; that Lord Dunholm had offered him +friendship and hospitality was a thing which seemed done to herself, +and filled her with gratitude and affection; that he should be at this +place, on this special occasion, swept away dark things from his path. +It was as if it were stated without words that a conservative man of the +world, who knew things as they were, having means of reaching truths, +vouched for him and placed his dignity and firmness at his side. + +And there was the gladness at the sight of him. It was an overpoweringly +strong thing. She had never known anything like it. She had not seen +him since Nigel's return, and here he was, and she knew that her life +quickened in her because they were together in the same room. He had +come to them and said a few courteous words, but he had soon gone away. +At first she wondered if it was because of Nigel, who at the time was +making himself rather ostentatiously amiable to her. Afterwards she saw +him dancing, talking, being presented to people, being, with a tactful +easiness, taken care of by his host and hostess, and Lord Westholt. She +was struck by the graceful magic with which this tactful ease surrounded +him without any obviousness. The Dunholms had given a lead, as Lady +Alanby had said, and the rest were following it and ignoring intervals +with reposeful readiness. It was wonderfully well done. Apparently +there had been no past at all. All began with this large young man, +who, despite his Viking type, really looked particularly well in evening +dress. Lady Alanby held him by her chair for some time, openly enjoying +her talk with him, and calling up Tommy, that they might make friends. + +After a while, Betty said to herself, he would come and ask for a dance. +But he did not come, and she danced with one man after another. Westholt +came to her several times and had more dances than one. Why did the +other not come? Several times they whirled past each other, and when +it occurred they looked--both feeling it an accident--into each other's +eyes. + +The strong and strange thing--that which moves on its way as do birth +and death, and the rising and setting of the sun--had begun to move in +them. It was no new and rare thing, but an ancient and common one--as +common and ancient as death and birth themselves; and part of the law +as they are. As it comes to royal persons to whom one makes obeisance at +their mere passing by, as it comes to scullery maids in royal kitchens, +and grooms in royal stables, as it comes to ladies-in-waiting and the +women who serve them, so it had come to these two who had been drawn +near to each other from the opposite sides of the earth, and each +started at the touch of it, and withdrew a pace in bewilderment, and +some fear. + +"I wish," Mount Dunstan was feeling throughout the evening, "that her +eyes had some fault in their expression--that they drew one less--that +they drew ME less. I am losing my head." + +"It would be better," Betty thought, "if I did not wish so much that he +would come and ask me to dance with him--that he would not keep away so. +He is keeping away for a reason. Why is he doing it?" + +The music swung on in lovely measures, and the dancers swung with it. +Sir Nigel walked dutifully through the Lancers once with his wife, and +once with his beautiful sister-in-law. Lady Anstruthers, in her new +bloom, had not lacked partners, who discovered that she was a childishly +light creature who danced extremely well. Everyone was kind to her, and +the very grand old ladies, who admired Betty, were absolutely benign +in their manner. Betty's partners paid ingenuous court to her, and Sir +Nigel found he had not been mistaken in his estimate of the dignity his +position of escort and male relation gave to him. + +Rosy, standing for a moment looking out on the brilliancy and state +about her, meeting Betty's eyes, laughed quiveringly. + +"I am in a dream," she said. + +"You have awakened from a dream," Betty answered. + +From the opposite side of the room someone was coming towards them, and, +seeing him, Rosy smiled in welcome. + +"I am sure Lord Mount Dunstan is coming to ask you to dance with him," +she said. "Why have you not danced with him before, Betty?" + +"He has not asked me," Betty answered. "That is the only reason." + +"Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt called at the Mount a few days after +they met him at Stornham," Rosalie explained in an undertone. "They +wanted to know him. Then it seems they found they liked each other. Lady +Dunholm has been telling me about it. She says Lord Dunholm thanks +you, because you said something illuminating. That was the word she +used--'illuminating.' I believe you are always illuminating, Betty." + +Mount Dunstan was certainly coming to them. How broad his shoulders +looked in his close-fitting black coat, how well built his whole strong +body was, and how steadily he held his eyes! Here and there one sees a +man or woman who is, through some trick of fate, by nature a compelling +thing unconsciously demanding that one should submit to some domineering +attraction. One does not call it domineering, but it is so. This special +creature is charged unfairly with more than his or her single share of +force. Betty Vanderpoel thought this out as this "other one" came to +her. He did not use the ballroom formula when he spoke to her. He said +in rather a low voice: + +"Will you dance with me?" + +"Yes," she answered. + +Lord Dunholm and his wife agreed afterwards that so noticeable a pair +had never before danced together in their ballroom. Certainly no pair +had ever been watched with quite the same interested curiosity. Some +onlookers thought it singular that they should dance together at all, +some pleased themselves by reflecting on the fact that no other two +could have represented with such picturesqueness the opposite poles +of fate and circumstance. No one attempted to deny that they were an +extraordinarily striking-looking couple, and that one's eyes followed +them in spite of one's self. + +"Taken together they produce an effect that is somehow rather amazing," +old Lady Alanby commented. "He is a magnificently built man, you know, +and she is a magnificently built girl. Everybody should look like that. +My impression would be that Adam and Eve did, but for the fact that +neither of them had any particular character. That affair of the apple +was so silly. Eve has always struck me as being the kind of woman who, +if she lived to-day, would run up stupid bills at her dressmakers and +be afraid to tell her husband. That wonderful black head of Miss +Vanderpoel's looks very nice poised near Mount Dunstan's dark red one." + +"I am glad to be dancing with him," Betty was thinking. "I am glad to be +near him." + +"Will you dance this with me to the very end," asked Mount Dunstan--"to +the very late note?" + +"Yes," answered Betty. + +He had spoken in a low but level voice--the kind of voice whose tone +places a man and woman alone together, and wholly apart from all others +by whomsoever they are surrounded. There had been no preliminary speech +and no explanation of the request followed. The music was a perfect +thing, the brilliant, lofty ballroom, the beauty of colour and sound +about them, the jewels and fair faces, the warm breath of flowers in +the air, the very sense of royal presence and its accompanying state and +ceremony, seemed merely a naturally arranged background for the strange +consciousness each held close and silently--knowing nothing of the mind +of the other. + +This was what was passing through the man's mind. + +"This is the thing which most men experience several times during their +lives. It would be reason enough for all the great deeds and all the +crimes one hears of. It is an enormous kind of anguish and a fearful +kind of joy. It is scarcely to be borne, and yet, at this moment, I +could kill myself and her, at the thought of losing it. If I had begun +earlier, would it have been easier? No, it would not. With me it is +bound to go hard. At twenty I should probably not have been able to keep +myself from shouting it aloud, and I should not have known that it was +only the working of the Law. 'Only!' Good God, what a fool I am! It is +because it is only the Law that I cannot escape, and must go on to the +end, grinding my teeth together because I cannot speak. Oh, her smooth +young cheek! Oh, the deep shadows of her lashes! And while we sway round +and round together, I hold her slim strong body in the hollow of my +arm." + +It was, quite possibly, as he thought this that Nigel Anstruthers, +following him with his eyes as he passed, began to frown. He had been +watching the pair as others had, he had seen what others saw, and now he +had an idea that he saw something more, and it was something which did +not please him. The instinct of the male bestirred itself--the curious +instinct of resentment against another man--any other man. And, in +this case, Mount Dunstan was not any other man, but one for whom his +antipathy was personal. + +"I won't have that," he said to himself. "I won't have it." + +. . . . . + +The music rose and swelled, and then sank into soft breathing, as they +moved in harmony together, gliding and swirling as they threaded their +way among other couples who swirled and glided also, some of them light +and smiling, some exchanging low-toned speech--perhaps saying words +which, unheard by others, touched on deep things. The exalted guest fell +into momentary silence as he looked on, being a man much attracted by +physical fineness and temperamental power and charm. A girl like that +would bring a great deal to a man and to the country he belonged to. A +great race might be founded on such superbness of physique and health +and beauty. Combined with abnormal resources, certainly no more could +be asked. He expressed something of the kind to Lord Dunholm, who stood +near him in attendance. + +To herself Betty was saying: "That was a strange thing he asked me. It +is curious that we say so little. I should never know much about him. +I have no intelligence where he is concerned--only a strong, stupid +feeling, which is not like a feeling of my own. I am no longer Betty +Vanderpoel--and I wish to go on dancing with him--on and on--to the last +note, as he said." + +She felt a little hot wave run over her cheek uncomfortably, and the +next instant the big arm tightened its clasp of her--for just one +second--not more than one. She did not know that he, himself, had seen +the sudden ripple of red colour, and that the equally sudden contraction +of the arm had been as unexpected to him and as involuntary as the quick +wave itself. It had horrified and made him angry. He looked the next +instant entirely stiff and cold. + +"He did not know it happened," Betty resolved. + +"The music is going to stop," said Mount Dunstan. "I know the waltz. We +can get once round the room again before the final chord. It was to be +the last note--the very last," but he said it quite rigidly, and Betty +laughed. + +"Quite the last," she answered. + +The music hastened a little, and their gliding whirl became more +rapid--a little faster--a little faster still--a running sweep of notes, +a big, terminating harmony, and the thing was over. + +"Thank you," said Mount Dunstan. "One will have it to remember." And his +tone was slightly sardonic. + +"Yes," Betty acquiesced politely. + +"Oh, not you. Only I. I have never waltzed before." + +Betty turned to look at him curiously. + +"Under circumstances such as these," he explained. "I learned to dance +at a particularly hideous boys' school in France. I abhorred it. And +the trend of my life has made it quite easy for me to keep my +twelve-year-old vow that I would never dance after I left the place, +unless I WANTED to do it, and that, especially, nothing should make +me waltz until certain agreeable conditions were fulfilled. Waltzing I +approved of--out of hideous schools. I was a pig-headed, objectionable +child. I detested myself even, then." + +Betty's composure returned to her. + +"I am trusting," she remarked, "that I may secretly regard myself as +one of the agreeable conditions to be fulfilled. Do not dispel my hopes +roughly." + +"I will not," he answered. "You are, in fact, several of them." + +"One breathes with much greater freedom," she responded. + +This sort of cool nonsense was safe. It dispelled feelings of tenseness, +and carried them to the place where Sir Nigel and Lady Anstruthers +awaited them. A slight stir was beginning to be felt throughout the +ballroom. The royal guest was retiring, and soon the rest began to melt +away. The Anstruthers, who had a long return drive before them, were +among those who went first. + +When Lady Anstruthers and her sister returned from the cloak room, they +found Sir Nigel standing near Mount Dunstan, who was going also, and +talking to him in an amiably detached manner. Mount Dunstan, himself, +did not look amiable, or seem to be saying much, but Sir Nigel showed no +signs of being disturbed. + +"Now that you have ceased to forswear the world," he said as his wife +approached, "I hope we shall see you at Stornham. Your visits must not +cease because we cannot offer you G. Selden any longer." + +He had his own reasons for giving the invitation--several of them. And +there was a satisfaction in letting the fellow know, casually, that he +was not in the ridiculous position of being unaware of what had +occurred during his absence--that there had been visits--and also the +objectionable episode of the American bounder. That the episode had been +objectionable, he knew he had adroitly conveyed by mere tone and manner. + +Mount Dunstan thanked him in the usual formula, and then spoke to Betty. + +"G. Selden left us tremulous and fevered with ecstatic anticipation. He +carried your kind letter to Mr. Vanderpoel, next to his heart. His brain +seemed to whirl at the thought of what 'the boys' would say, when he +arrived with it in New York. You have materialised the dream of his +life!" + +"I have interested my father," Betty answered, with a brilliant smile. +"He liked the romance of the Reuben S. Vanderpoel who rewarded the saver +of his life by unbounded orders for the Delkoff." + +. . . . . + +As their carriage drove away, Sir Nigel bent forward to look out of the +window, and having done it, laughed a little. + +"Mount Dunstan does not play the game well," he remarked. + +It was annoying that neither Betty nor his wife inquired what the +game in question might be, and that his temperament forced him into +explaining without encouragement. + +"He should have 'stood motionless with folded arms,' or something of the +sort, and 'watched her equipage until it was out of sight.'" + +"And he did not?" said Betty + +"He turned on his heel as soon as the door was shut." + +"People ought not to do such things," was her simple comment. To which +it seemed useless to reply. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +FOR LADY JANE + +There is no one thing on earth of such interest as the study of the laws +of temperament, which impel, support, or entrap into folly and danger +the being they rule. As a child, not old enough to give a definite name +to the thing she watched and pondered on, in child fashion, Bettina +Vanderpoel had thought much on this subject. As she had grown older, she +had never been ignorant of the workings of her own temperament, and she +had looked on for years at the laws which had wrought in her father's +being--the laws of strength, executive capacity, and that pleasure in +great schemes, which is roused less by a desire for gain than for a +strongly-felt necessity for action, resulting in success. She mentally +followed other people on their way, sometimes asking herself how far the +individual was to be praised or blamed for his treading of the path he +seemed to choose. And now there was given her the opportunity to study +the workings of the nature of Nigel Anstruthers, which was a curious +thing. + +He was not an individual to be envied. Never was man more tormented by +lack of power to control his special devil, at the right moment of time, +and therefore, never was there one so inevitably his own frustration. +This Betty saw after the passing of but a few days, and wondered how far +he was conscious or unconscious of the thing. At times it appeared to +her that he was in a state of unrest--that he was as a man wavering +between lines of action, swayed at one moment by one thought, at another +by an idea quite different, and that he was harried because he could not +hold his own with himself. + +This was true. The ball at Dunholm Castle had been enlightening, and +had wrought some changes in his points of view. Also other factors had +influenced him. In the first place, the changed atmosphere of Stornham, +the fitness and luxury of his surroundings, the new dignity given to his +position by the altered aspect of things, rendered external amiability +more easy. To ride about the country on a good horse, or drive in a +smart phaeton, or suitable carriage, and to find that people who a year +ago had passed him with the merest recognition, saluted him with polite +intention, was, to a certain degree, stimulating to a vanity which had +been long ill-fed. The power which produced these results should, of +course, have been in his own hands--his money-making father-in-law +should have seen that it was his affair to provide for that--but since +he had not done so, it was rather entertaining that it should be, for +the present, in the hands of this extraordinarily good-looking girl. + +He had begun by merely thinking of her in this manner--as "this +extraordinarily good-looking girl," and had not, for a moment, hesitated +before the edifying idea of its not being impossible to arrange a lively +flirtation with her. She was at an age when, in his opinion, girlhood +was poised for flight with adventure, and his tastes had not led him +in the direction of youth which was fastidious. His Riviera episode had +left his vanity blistered and requiring some soothing application. His +life had worked evil with him, and he had fallen ill on the hands of a +woman who had treated him as a shattered, useless thing whose day was +done and with whom strength and bloom could not be burdened. He had kept +his illness a hidden secret, on his return to Stornham, his one desire +having been to forget--even to disbelieve in it, but dreams of its +suggestion sometimes awakened him at night with shudders and cold sweat. +He was hideously afraid of death and pain, and he had had monstrous +pain--and while he had lain battling with it, upon his bed in the villa +on the Mediterranean, he had been able to hear, in the garden outside, +the low voices and laughter of the Spanish dancer and the healthy, +strong young fool who was her new adorer. + +When he had found himself face to face with Betty in the avenue, +after the first leap of annoyance, which had suddenly died down into +perversely interested curiosity, he could have laughed outright at +the novelty and odd unexpectedness of the situation. The ill-mannered, +impudently-staring, little New York beast had developed into THIS! Hang +it! No man could guess what the embryo female creature might result +in. His mere shakiness of physical condition added strength to her +attraction. She was like a young goddess of health and life and +fire; the very spring of her firm foot upon the moss beneath it was a +stimulating thing to a man whose nerves sprung secret fears upon him. +There were sparks between the sweep of her lashes, but she managed to +carry herself with the air of being as cool as a cucumber, which gave +spice to the effort to "upset" her. If she did not prove suitably +amenable, there would be piquancy in getting the better of her--in +stirring up unpleasant little things, which would make it easier for her +to go away than remain on the spot--if one should end by choosing to get +rid of her. But, for the moment, he had no desire to get rid of her. He +wanted to see what she intended to do--to see the thing out, in fact. It +amused him to hear that Mount Dunstan was on her track. There exists +for persons of a certain type a pleasure full-fed by the mere sense of +having "got even" with an opponent. Throughout his life he had made +a point of "getting even" with those who had irritatingly crossed his +path, or much disliked him. The working out of small or large plans to +achieve this end had formed one of his most agreeable recreations. He +had long owed Mount Dunstan a debt, which he had always meant to pay. He +had not intended to forget the episode of the nice little village girl +with whom Tenham and himself had been getting along so enormously well, +when the raging young ass had found them out, and made an absurdly +exaggerated scene, even going so far as threatening to smash the pair of +them, marching off to the father and mother, and setting the vicar on, +and then scratching together--God knows how--money enough to pack the +lot off to America, where they had since done well. Why should a man +forgive another who had made him look like a schoolboy and a fool? So, +to find Mount Dunstan rushing down a steep hill into this thing, was +edifying. You cannot take much out of a man if you never encounter him. +If you meet him, you are provided by Heaven with opportunities. You can +find out what he feels most sharply, and what he will suffer most by +being deprived of. His impression was that there was a good deal to be +got out of Mount Dunstan. He was an obstinate, haughty devil, and just +the fellow to conceal with a fury of pride a score of tender places in +his hide. + +At the ball he had seen that the girl's effect had been of a kind which +even money and good looks uncombined with another thing might not +have produced. And she had the other thing--whatsoever it might be. He +observed the way in which the Dunholms met and greeted her, he marked +the glance of the royal personage, and his manner, when after her +presentation he conversed with and detained her, he saw the turning +of heads and exchange of remarks as she moved through the rooms. Most +especially, he took in the bearing of the very grand old ladies, led +by Lady Alanby of Dole. Barriers had thrown themselves down, these +portentous, rigorous old pussycats admired her, even liked her. + +"Upon my word," he said to himself. "She has a way with her, you know. +She is a combination of Ethel Newcome and Becky Sharp. But she is more +level-headed than either of them, There's a touch of Trix Esmond, too." + +The sense of the success which followed her, and the gradually-growing +excitement of looking on at her light whirls of dance, the carnation +of her cheek, and the laughter and pleasure she drew about her, had +affected him in a way by which he was secretly a little exhilarated. He +was conscious of a rash desire to force his way through these laughing, +vaunting young idiots, juggle or snatch their dances away from them, and +seize on the girl himself. He had not for so long a time been impelled +by such agreeable folly that he had sometimes felt the stab of the +thought that he was past it. That it should rise in him again made +him feel young. There was nothing which so irritated him against +Mount Dunstan as his own rebelling recognition of the man's youth, the +strength of his fine body, his high-held head and clear eye. + +These things and others it was which swayed him, as was plain to Betty +in the time which followed, to many changes of mood. + +"Are you sorry for a man who is ill and depressed," he asked one day, +"or do you despise him?" + +"I am sorry." + +"Then be sorry for me." + +He had come out of the house to her as she sat on the lawn, under a +broad, level-branched tree, and had thrown himself upon a rug with his +hands clasped behind his head. + +"Are you ill?" + +"When I was on the Riviera I had a fall." He lied simply. "I strained +some muscle or other, and it has left me rather lame. Sometimes I have a +good deal of pain." + +"I am very sorry," said Betty. "Very." + +A woman who can be made sorry it is rarely impossible to manage. To +dwell with pathetic patience on your grievances, if she is weak and +unintelligent, to deplore, with honest regret, your faults and blunders, +if she is strong, are not bad ideas. + +He looked at her reflectively. + +"Yes, you are capable of being sorry," he decided. For a few moments +of silence his eyes rested upon the view spread before him. To give the +expression of dignified reflection was not a bad idea either. + +"Do you know," he said at length, "that you produce an extraordinary +effect upon me, Betty?" + +She was occupying herself by adding a few stitches to one of Rosy's +ancient strips of embroidery, and as she answered, she laid it flat upon +her knee to consider its effect. + +"Good or bad?" she inquired, with delicate abstraction. + +He turned his face towards her again--this time quickly. + +"Both," he answered. "Both." + +His tone held the flash of a heat which he felt should have startled her +slightly. But apparently it did not. + +"I do not like 'both,'" with composed lightness. "If you had said that +you felt yourself develop angelic qualities when you were near me, +I should feel flattered, and swell with pride. But 'both' leaves me +unsatisfied. It interferes with the happy little conceit that one is +an all-pervading, beneficent power. One likes to contemplate a +large picture of one's self--not plain, but coloured--as a wholesale +reformer." + +"I see. Thank you," stiffly and flushing. "You do not believe me." + +Her effect upon him was such that, for the moment, he found himself +choosing to believe that he was in earnest. His desire to impress her +with his mood had actually led to this result. She ought to have been +rather moved--a little fluttered, perhaps, at hearing that she disturbed +his equilibrium. + +"You set yourself against me, as a child, Betty," he said. "And you set +yourself against me now. You will not give me fair play. You might give +me fair play." He dropped his voice at the last sentence, and knew it +was well done. A touch of hopelessness is not often lost on a woman. + +"What would you consider fair play?" she inquired. + +"It would be fair to listen to me without prejudice--to let me explain +how it has happened that I have appeared to you a--a blackguard--I have +no doubt you would call it--and a fool." He threw out his hand in an +impatient gesture--impatient of himself--his fate--the tricks of bad +fortune which it implied had made of him a more erring mortal than he +would have been if left to himself, and treated decently. + +"Do not put it so strongly," with conservative politeness. + +"I don't refuse to admit that I am handicapped by a devil of a +temperament. That is an inherited thing." + +"Ah!" said Betty. "One of the temperaments one reads about--for which +no one is to be blamed but one's deceased relatives. After all, that is +comparatively easy to deal with. One can just go on doing what one wants +to do--and then condemn one's grandparents severely." + +A repellent quality in her--which had also the trick of transforming +itself into an exasperating attraction--was that she deprived him of the +luxury he had been most tenacious of throughout his existence. If the +injustice of fate has failed to bestow upon a man fortune, good looks +or brilliance, his exercise of the power to disturb, to enrage those who +dare not resent, to wound and take the nonsense out of those about him, +will, at all events, preclude the possibility of his being passed over +as a factor not to be considered. If to charm and bestow gives the sense +of power, to thwart and humiliate may be found not wholly unsatisfying. + +But in her case the inadequacy of the usual methods had forced itself +upon him. It was as if the dart being aimed at her, she caught it in +her hand in its flight, broke off its point and threw it lightly aside +without comment. Most women cannot resist the temptation to answer a +speech containing a sting or a reproach. It was part of her abnormality +that she could let such things go by in a detached silence, which did +not express even the germ of comment or opinion upon them. This, he +said, was the result of her beastly sense of security, which, in its +turn, was the result of the atmosphere of wealth she had breathed since +her birth. There had been no obstacle which could not be removed for +her, no law of limitation had laid its rein on her neck. She had not +been taught by her existence the importance of propitiating opinion. +Under such conditions, how was fear to be learned? She had not learned +it. But for the devil in the blue between her lashes, he realised that +he should have broken loose long ago. + +"I suppose I deserved that for making a stupid appeal to sympathy," he +remarked. "I will not do it again." + +If she had been the woman who can be gently goaded into reply, she +would have made answer to this. But she allowed the observation to +pass, giving it free flight into space, where it lost itself after the +annoying manner of its kind. + +"Have you any objection to telling me why you decided to come to England +this year?" he inquired, with a casual air, after the pause which she +did not fill in. + +The bluntness of the question did not seem to disturb her. She was not +sorry, in fact, that he had asked it. She let her work lie upon her +knee, and leaned back in her low garden chair, her hands resting upon +its wicker arms. She turned on him a clear unprejudiced gaze. + +"I came to see Rosy. I have always been very fond of her. I did not +believe that she had forgotten how much we had loved her, or how +much she had loved us. I knew that if I could see her again I should +understand why she had seemed to forget us." + +"And when you saw her, you, of course, decided that I had behaved, to +quote my own words--like a blackguard and a fool." + +"It is, of course, very rude to say you have behaved like a fool, +but--if you'll excuse my saying so--that is what has impressed me very +much. Don't you know," with a moderation, which singularly drove itself +home, "that if you had been kind to her, and had made her happy, you +could have had anything you wished for--without trouble?" + +This was one of the unadorned facts which are like bullets. Disgustedly, +he found himself veering towards an outlook which forced him to admit +that there was probably truth in what she said, and he knew he heard +more truth as she went on. + +"She would have wanted only what you wanted, and she would not have +asked much in return. She would not have asked as much as I should. What +you did was not businesslike." She paused a moment to give thought to +it. "You paid too high a price for the luxury of indulging the inherited +temperament. Your luxury was not to control it. But it was a bad +investment." + +"The figure of speech is rather commercial," coldly. + +"It is curious that most things are, as a rule. There is always the +parallel of profit and loss whether one sees it or not. The profits +are happiness and friendship--enjoyment of life and approbation. If the +inherited temperament supplies one with all one wants of such things, it +cannot be called a loss, of course." + + +"You think, however, that mine has not brought me much?" + +"I do not know. It is you who know." + +"Well," viciously, "there HAS been a sort of luxury in it in lashing out +with one's heels, and smashing things--and in knowing that people prefer +to keep clear." + +She lifted her shoulders a little. + +"Then perhaps it has paid." + +"No," suddenly and fiercely, "damn it, it has not!" + +And she actually made no reply to that. + +"What do you mean to do?" he questioned as bluntly as before. He knew +she would understand what he meant. + +"Not much. To see that Rosy is not unhappy any more. We can prevent +that. She was out of repair--as the house was. She is being rebuilt and +decorated. She knows that she will be taken care of." + +"I know her better than you do," with a laugh. "She will not go away. +She is too frightened of the row it would make--of what I should say. I +should have plenty to say. I can make her shake in her shoes." + +Betty let her eyes rest full upon him, and he saw that she was +softly summing him up--quite without prejudice, merely in interested +speculation upon the workings of type. + +"You are letting the inherited temperament run away with you at this +moment," she reflected aloud--her quiet scrutiny almost abstracted. "It +was foolish to say that." + +He had known it was foolish two seconds after the words had left his +lips. But a temper which has been allowed to leap hedges, unchecked +throughout life, is in peril of forming a habit of taking them even at +such times as a leap may land its owner in a ditch. This last was what +her interested eyes were obviously saying. It suited him best at the +moment to try to laugh. + +"Don't look at me like that," he threw off. "As if you were calculating +that two and two make four." + +"No prejudice of mine can induce them to make five or six--or three and +a half," she said. "No prejudice of mine--or of yours." + +The two and two she was calculating with were the likelihoods and +unlikelihoods of the inherited temperament, and the practical powers she +could absolutely count on if difficulty arose with regard to Rosy. + +He guessed at this, and began to make calculations himself. + +But there was no further conversation for them, as they were obliged +to rise to their feet to receive visitors. Lady Alanby of Dole and Sir +Thomas, her grandson, were being brought out of the house to them by +Rosalie. + +He went forward to meet them--his manner that of the graceful host. Lady +Alanby, having been welcomed by him, and led to the most comfortable, +tree-shaded chair, found his bearing so elegantly chastened that she +gazed at him with private curiosity. To her far-seeing and highly +experienced old mind it seemed the bearing of a man who was "up to +something." What special thing did he chance to be "up to"? His glance +certainly lurked after Miss Vanderpoel oddly. Was he falling in unholy +love with the girl, under his stupid little wife's very nose? + +She could not, however, give her undivided attention to him, as she +wished to keep her eye on her grandson and--outrageously enough it +happened that just as tea was brought out and Tommy was beginning to +cheer up and quite come out a little under the spur of the activities of +handing bread and butter and cress sandwiches, who should appear but the +two Lithcom girls, escorted by their aunt, Mrs. Manners, with whom they +lived. As they were orphans without money, if the Manners, who were +rather well off, had not taken them in, they would have had to go to the +workhouse, or into genteel amateur shops, as they were not clever enough +for governesses. + +Mary, with her turned-up nose, looked just about as usual, but Jane had +a new frock on which was exactly the colour of the big, appealing eyes, +with their trick of following people about. She looked a little pale and +pathetic, which somehow gave her a specious air of being pretty, which +she really was not at all. The swaying young thinness of those very +slight girls whose soft summer muslins make them look like delicate +bags tied in the middle with fluttering ribbons, has almost invariably +a foolish attraction for burly young men whose characters are chiefly +marked by lack of forethought, and Lady Alanby saw Tommy's robust young +body give a sort of jerk as the party of three was brought across the +grass. After it he pulled himself together hastily, and looked stiff +and pink, shaking hands as if his elbow joint was out of order, being at +once too loose and too rigid. He began to be clumsy with the bread and +butter, and, ceasing his talk with Miss Vanderpoel, fell into silence. +Why should he go on talking? he thought. Miss Vanderpoel was a cracking +handsome girl, but she was too clever for him, and he had to think +of all sorts of new things to say when he talked to her. And--well, a +fellow could never imagine himself stretched out on the grass, puffing +happily away at a pipe, with a girl like that sitting near him, +smiling--the hot turf smelling almost like hay, the hot blue sky curving +overhead, and both the girl and himself perfectly happy--chock full +of joy--though neither of them were saying anything at all. You could +imagine it with some girls--you DID imagine it when you wakened early on +a summer morning, and lay in luxurious stillness listening to the birds +singing like mad. + +Lady Jane was a nicely-behaved girl, and she tried to keep her +following blue eyes fixed on the grass, or on Lady Anstruthers, or +Miss Vanderpoel, but there was something like a string, which sometimes +pulled them in another direction, and once when this had happened--quite +against her will--she was terrified to find Lady Alanby's glass lifted +and fixed upon her. + +As Lady Alanby's opinion of Mrs. Manners was but a poor one, and as +Mrs. Manners was stricken dumb by her combined dislike and awe of Lady +Alanby, a slight stiffness might have settled upon the gathering if +Betty had not made an effort. She applied herself to Lady Alanby and +Mrs. Manners at once, and ended by making them talk to each other. When +they left the tea table under the trees to look at the gardens, she +walked between them, playing upon the primeval horticultural passions +which dominate the existence of all respectable and normal country +ladies, until the gulf between them was temporarily bridged. This being +achieved, she adroitly passed them over to Lady Anstruthers, who, Nigel +observed with some curiosity, accepted the casual responsibility without +manifest discomfiture. + +To the aching Tommy the manner in which, a few minutes later, he found +himself standing alone with Jane Lithcom in a path of clipped laurels +was almost bewilderingly simple. At the end of the laurel walk was a +pretty peep of the country, and Miss Vanderpoel had brought him to see +it. Nigel Anstruthers had been loitering behind with Jane and Mary. As +Miss Vanderpoel turned with him into the path, she stooped and picked a +blossom from a clump of speedwell growing at the foot of a bit of wall. + +"Lady Jane's eyes are just the colour of this flower," she said. + +"Yes, they are," he answered, glancing down at the lovely little blue +thing as she held it in her hand. And then, with a thump of the heart, +"Most people do not think she is pretty, but I--" quite desperately--"I +DO." His mood had become rash. + +"So do I," Betty Vanderpoel answered. + +Then the others joined them, and Miss Vanderpoel paused to talk a +little--and when they went on she was with Mary and Nigel Anstruthers, +and he was with Jane, walking slowly, and somehow the others melted +away, turning in a perfectly natural manner into a side path. Their own +slow pace became slower. In fact, in a few moments, they were standing +quite still between the green walls. Jane turned a little aside, and +picked off some small leaves, nervously. He saw the muslin on her chest +lift quiveringly. + +"Oh, little Jane!" he said in a big, shaky whisper. The following eyes +incontinently brimmed over. Some shining drops fell on the softness of +the blue muslin. + +"Oh, Tommy," giving up, "it's no use--talking at all." + +"You mustn't think--you mustn't think--ANYTHING," he falteringly +commanded, drawing nearer, because it was impossible not to do it. + +What he really meant, though he did not know how decorously to say it, +was that she must not think that he could be moved by any tall beauty, +towards the splendour of whose possessions his revered grandmother might +be driving him. + +"I am not thinking anything," cried Jane in answer. "But she is +everything, and I am nothing. Just look at her--and then look at me, +Tommy." + +"I'll look at you as long as you'll let me," gulped Tommy, and he was +boy enough and man enough to put a hand on each of her shoulders, and +drown his longing in her brimming eyes. + +. . . . . + +Mary and Miss Vanderpoel were talking with a curious intimacy, in +another part of the garden, where they were together alone, Sir Nigel +having been reattached to Lady Alanby. + +"You have known Sir Thomas a long time?" Betty had just said. + +"Since we were children. Jane reminded me at the Dunholms' ball that she +had played cricket with him when she was eight." + +"They have always liked each other?" Miss Vanderpoel suggested. + +Mary looked up at her, and the meeting of their eyes was frank to +revelation. But for the clear girlish liking for herself she saw in +Betty Vanderpoel's, Mary would have known her next speech to be of +imbecile bluntness. She had heard that Americans often had a queer, +delightful understanding of unconventional things. This splendid girl +was understanding her. + +"Oh! You SEE!" she broke out. "You left them together on purpose!" + +"Yes, I did." And there was a comprehension so deep in her look that +Mary knew it was deeper than her own, and somehow founded on some +subtler feeling than her own. "When two people want so much--care so +much to be together," Miss Vanderpoel added quite slowly--even as if the +words rather forced themselves from her, "it seems as if the whole world +ought to help them--everything in the world--the very wind, and rain, +and sun, and stars--oh, things have no RIGHT to keep them apart." + +Mary stared at her, moved and fascinated. She scarcely knew that she +caught at her hand. + +"I have never been in the state that Jane is," she poured forth. "And I +can't understand how she can be such a fool, but--but we care about each +other more than most girls do--perhaps because we have had no people. +And it's the kind of thing there is no use talking against, it seems. +It's killing the youngness in her. If it ends miserably, it will be as +if she had had an illness, and got up from it a faded, done-for spinster +with a stretch of hideous years to live. Her blue eyes will look like +boiled gooseberries, because she will have cried all the colour out of +them. Oh! You UNDERSTAND! I see you do." + +Before she had finished both Miss Vanderpoel's hands were holding hers. + +"I do! I do," she said. And she did, as a year ago she had not known she +could. "Is it Lady Alanby?" she ventured. + +"Yes. Tommy will be helplessly poor if she does not leave him her money. +And she won't if he makes her angry. She is very determined. She will +leave it to an awful cousin if she gets in a rage. And Tommy is not +clever. He could never earn his living. Neither could Jane. They could +NEVER marry. You CAN'T defy relatives, and marry on nothing, unless you +are a character in a book." + +"Has she liked Lady Jane in the past?" Miss Vanderpoel asked, as if +she was, mentally, rapidly going over the ground, that she might quite +comprehend everything. + +"Yes. She used to make rather a pet of her. She didn't like me. She was +taken by Jane's meek, attentive, obedient ways. Jane was born a sweet +little affectionate worm. Lady Alanby can't hate her, even now. She just +pushes her out of her path." + +"Because?" said Betty Vanderpoel. + +Mary prefaced her answer with a brief, half-embarrassed laugh. + +"Because of YOU." + +"Because she thinks----?" + +"I don't see how she can believe he has much of a chance. I don't think +she does--but she will never forgive him if he doesn't make a try at +finding out whether he has one or not." + +"It is very businesslike," Betty made observation. + +Mary laughed. + +"We talk of American business outlook," she said, "but very few of +us English people are dreamy idealists. We are of a coolness and a +daring--when we are dealing with questions of this sort. I don't think +you can know the thing you have brought here. You descend on a dull +country place, with your money and your looks, and you simply STAY and +amuse yourself by doing extraordinary things, as if there was no London +waiting for you. Everyone knows this won't last. Next season you will +be presented, and have a huge success. You will be whirled about in +a vortex, and people will sit on the edge, and cast big strong lines, +baited with the most glittering things they can get together. You won't +be able to get away. Lady Alanby knows there would be no chance for +Tommy then. It would be too idiotic to expect it. He must make his try +now." + +Their eyes met again, and Miss Vanderpoel looked neither shocked nor +angry, but an odd small shadow swept across her face. Mary, of course, +did not know that she was thinking of the thing she had realised so +often--that it was not easy to detach one's self from the fact that +one was Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughter. As a result of it here one was +indecently and unwillingly disturbing the lives of innocent, unassuming +lovers. + +"And so long as Sir Thomas has not tried--and found out--Lady Jane will +be made unhappy?" + +"If he were to let you escape without trying, he would not be forgiven. +His grandmother has had her own way all her life." + +"But suppose after I went away someone else came?" + +Mary shook her head. + +"People like you don't HAPPEN in one neighbourhood twice in a lifetime. +I am twenty-six and you are the first I have seen." + +"And he will only be safe if?" + +Mary Lithcom nodded. + +"Yes--IF," she answered. "It's silly--and frightful--but it is true." + +Miss Vanderpoel looked down on the grass a few moments, and then seemed +to arrive at a decision. + +"He likes you? You can make him understand things?" she inquired. + +"Yes." + +"Then go and tell him that if he will come here and ask me a direct +question, I will give him a direct answer--which will satisfy Lady +Alanby." + +Lady Mary caught her breath. + +"Do you know, you are the most wonderful girl I ever saw!" she +exclaimed. "But if you only knew what I feel about Janie!" And tears +rushed into her eyes. + +"I feel just the same thing about my sister," said Miss Vanderpoel. "I +think Rosy and Lady Jane are rather alike." + +. . . . . + +When Tommy tramped across the grass towards her he was turning red and +white by turns, and looking somewhat like a young man who was being +marched up to a cannon's mouth. It struck him that it was an American +kind of thing he was called upon to do, and he was not an American, but +British from the top of his closely-cropped head to the rather thick +soles of his boots. He was, in truth, overwhelmed by his sense of his +inadequacy to the demands of the brilliantly conceived, but unheard-of +situation. Joy and terror swept over his being in waves. + +The tall, proud, wood-nymph look of her as she stood under a tree, +waiting for him, would have struck his courage dead on the spot and +caused him to turn and flee in anguish, if she had not made a little +move towards him, with a heavenly, every-day humanness in her eyes. The +way she managed it was an amazing thing. He could never have managed it +at all himself. + + +She came forward and gave him her hand, and really it was HER hand which +held his own comparatively steady. + +"It is for Lady Jane," she said. "That prevents it from being ridiculous +or improper. It is for Lady Jane. Her eyes," with a soft-touched laugh, +"are the colour of the blue speedwell I showed you. It is the colour of +babies' eyes. And hers look as theirs do--as if they asked everybody not +to hurt them." + +He actually fell upon his knee, and bending his head over her hand, +kissed it half a dozen times with adoration. Good Lord, how she SAW and +KNEW! + +"If Jane were not Jane, and you were not YOU," the words rushed from +him, "it would be the most outrageous--the most impudent thing a man +ever had the cheek to do." + +"But it is not." She did not draw her hand away, and oh, the girlish +kindness of her smiling, supporting look. "You came to ask me if----" + +"If you would marry me, Miss Vanderpoel," his head bending over her hand +again. "I beg your pardon, I beg your pardon. Oh Lord, I do.' + +"I thank you for the compliment you pay me," she answered. "I like you +very much, Sir Thomas--and I like you just now more than ever--but I +could not marry you. I should not make you happy, and I should not be +happy myself. The truth is----" thinking a moment, "each of us really +belongs to a different kind of person. And each of knows the fact." + +"God bless you," he said. "I think you know everything in the world a +woman can know--and remain an angel." + +It was an outburst of eloquence, and she took it in the prettiest +way--with the prettiest laugh, which had in it no touch of mockery or +disbelief in him. + +"What I have said is quite final--if Lady Alanby should inquire," she +said--adding rather quickly, "Someone is coming." + +It pleased her to see that he did not hurry to his feet clumsily, but +even stood upright, with a shade of boyish dignity, and did not release +her hand before he had bent his head low over it again. + +Sir Nigel was bringing with him Lady Alanby, Mrs. Manners, and his wife, +and when Betty met his eyes, she knew at once that he had not made his +way to this particular garden without intention. He had discovered that +she was with Tommy, and it had entertained him to break in upon them. + +"I did not intend to interrupt Sir Thomas at his devotions," he remarked +to her after dinner. "Accept my apologies." + +"It did not matter in the least, thank you," said Betty. + +. . . . . + +"I am glad to be able to say, Thomas, that you did not look an entire +fool when you got up from your knees, as we came into the rose garden." +Thus Lady Alanby, as their carriage turned out of Stornham village. + +"I'm glad myself," Tommy answered. + +"What were you doing there? Even if you were asking her to marry you, it +was not necessary to go that far. We are not in the seventeenth century." + +Then Tommy flushed. + +"I did not intend to do it. I could not help it. She was so--so nice +about everything. That girl is an angel. I told her so." + +"Very right and proper spirit to approach her in," answered the old +woman, watching him keenly. "Was she angel enough to say she would marry +you?" + +Tommy, for some occult reason, had the courage to stare back into his +grandmother's eyes, quite as if he were a man, and not a hobbledehoy, +expecting to be bullied. + +"She does not want me," he answered. "And I knew she wouldn't. Why +should she? I did what you ordered me to do, and she answered me as I +knew she would. She might have snubbed me, but she has such a way with +her--such a way of saying things and understanding, that--that--well, I +found myself on one knee, kissing her hand--as if I was being presented +at court." + +Old Lady Alanby looked out on the passing landscape. + +"Well, you did your best," she summed the matter up at last, "if you +went down on your knees involuntarily. If you had done it on purpose, it +would have been unpardonable." + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +RED GODWYN + +Stornham Court had taken its proper position in the county as a place +which was equal to social exchange in the matter of entertainment. Sir +Nigel and Lady Anstruthers had given a garden party, according to the +decrees of the law obtaining in country neighbourhoods. The curiosity +to behold Miss Vanderpoel, and the change which had been worked in the +well-known desolation and disrepair, precluded the possibility of the +refusal of any invitations sent, the recipient being in his or her +right mind, and sound in wind and limb. That astonishing things had been +accomplished, and that the party was a successful affair, could not but +be accepted as truths. Garden parties had been heard of, were a trifle +repetitional, and even dull, but at this one there was real music and +real dancing, and clever entertainments were given at intervals in a +green-embowered little theatre, erected for the occasion. These were +agreeable additions to mere food and conversation, which were capable of +palling. + +To the garden party the Anstruthers did not confine themselves. +There were dinner parties at Stornham, and they also were successful +functions. The guests were of those who make for the success of such +entertainments. + +"I called upon Mount Dunstan this afternoon," Sir Nigel said one +evening, before the first of these dinners. "He might expect it, as one +is asking him to dine. I wish him to be asked. The Dunholms have taken +him up so tremendously that no festivity seems complete without him." + +He had been invited to the garden party, and had appeared, but Betty +had seen little of him. It is easy to see little of a guest at an +out-of-door festivity. In assisting Rosalie to attend to her visitors +she had been much occupied, but she had known that she might have seen +more of him, if he had intended that it should be so. He did not--for +reasons of his own--intend that it should be so, and this she became +aware of. So she walked, played in the bowling green, danced and talked +with Westholt, Tommy Alanby and others. + +"He does not want to talk to me. He will not, if he can avoid it," was +what she said to herself. + +She saw that he rather sought out Mary Lithcom, who was not accustomed +to receiving special attention. The two walked together, danced +together, and in adjoining chairs watched the performance in the +embowered theatre. Lady Mary enjoyed her companion very much, but she +wondered why he had attached himself to her. + +Betty Vanderpoel asked herself what they talked to each other about, +and did not suspect the truth, which was that they talked a good deal of +herself. + +"Have you seen much of Miss Vanderpoel?" Lady Mary had begun by asking. + +"I have SEEN her a good deal, as no doubt you have." + +Lady Mary's plain face expressed a somewhat touched reflectiveness. + +"Do you know," she said, "that the garden parties have been a different +thing this whole summer, just because one always knew one would see her +at them?" + +A short laugh from Mount Dunstan. + +"Jane and I have gone to every garden party within twenty miles, ever +since we left the schoolroom. And we are very tired of them. But this +year we have quite cheered up. When we are dressing to go to something +dull, we say to each other, 'Well, at any rate, Miss Vanderpoel will be +there, and we shall see what she has on, and how her things are made,' +and that's something--besides the fun of watching people make up to her, +and hearing them talk about the men who want to marry her, and wonder +which one she will take. She will not take anyone in this place," the +nice turned-up nose slightly suggesting a derisive sniff. "Who is there +who is suitable?" + +Mount Dunstan laughed shortly again. + +"How do you know I am not an aspirant myself?" he said. He had a +mirthless sense of enjoyment in his own brazenness. Only he himself knew +how brazen the speech was. + +Lady Mary looked at him with entire composure. + +"I am quite sure you are not an aspirant for anybody. And I happen +to know that you dislike moneyed international marriages. You are so +obviously British that, even if I had not been told that, I should know +it was true. Miss Vanderpoel herself knows it is true." + +"Does she?" + +"Lady Alanby spoke of it to Sir Nigel, and I heard Sir Nigel tell her." + +"Exactly the kind of unnecessary thing he would be likely to repeat." +He cast the subject aside as if it were a worthless superfluity and +went on: "When you say there is no one suitable, you surely forget Lord +Westholt." + +"Yes, it's true I forgot him for the moment. But--" with a laugh--"one +rather feels as if she would require a royal duke or something of that +sort." + +"You think she expects that kind of thing?" rather indifferently. + +"She? She doesn't think of the subject. She simply thinks of other +things--of Lady Anstruthers and Ughtred, of the work at Stornham and the +village life, which gives her new emotions and interest. She also thinks +about being nice to people. She is nicer than any girl I know." + +"You feel, however, she has a right to expect it?" still without more +than a casual air of interest. + +"Well, what do you feel yourself?" said Lady Mary. "Women who look like +that--even when they are not millionairesses--usually marry whom they +choose. I do not believe that the two beautiful Miss Gunnings rolled +into one would have made anything as undeniable as she is. One has seen +portraits of them. Look at her as she stands there talking to Tommy and +Lord Dunholm!" + +Internally Mount Dunstan was saying: "I am looking at her, thank you," +and setting his teeth a little. + +But Lady Mary was launched upon a subject which swept her along with it, +and she--so to speak--ground the thing in. + +"Look at the turn of her head! Look at her mouth and chin, and her eyes +with the lashes sweeping over them when she looks down! You must have +noticed the effect when she lifts them suddenly to look at you. It's so +odd and lovely that it--it almost----" + +"Almost makes you jump," ended Mount Dunstan drily. + +She did not laugh and, in fact, her expression became rather +sympathetically serious. + +"Ah," she said, "I believe you feel a sort of rebellion against the +unfairness of the way things are dealt out. It does seem unfair, of +course. It would be perfectly disgraceful--if she were different. I +had moments of almost hating her until one day not long ago she did +something so bewitchingly kind and understanding of other people's +feelings that I gave up. It was clever, too," with a laugh, "clever and +daring. If she were a young man she would make a dashing soldier." + +She did not give him the details of the story, but went on to say +in effect what she had said to Betty herself of the inevitable +incidentalness of her stay in the country. If she had not evidently come +to Stornham this year with a purpose, she would have spent the season +in London and done the usual thing. Americans were generally presented +promptly, if they had any position--sometimes when they had not. Lady +Alanby had heard that the fact that she was with her sister had awakened +curiosity and people were talking about her. + +"Lady Alanby said in that dry way of hers that the arrival of an +unmarried American fortune in England was becoming rather like the visit +of an unmarried royalty. People ask each other what it means and begin +to arrange for it. So far, only the women have come, but Lady Alanby +says that is because the men have had no time to do anything but stay +at home and make the fortunes. She believes that in another generation +there will be a male leisure class, and then it will swoop down too, and +marry people. She was very sharp and amusing about it. She said it would +help them to rid themselves of a plethora of wealth and keep them from +bursting." + +She was an amiable, if unsentimental person, Mary Lithcom--and was, +quite without ill nature, expressing the consensus of public opinion. +These young women came to the country with something practical +to exchange in these days, and as there were men who had certain +equivalents to offer, so also there were men who had none, and whom +decency should cause to stand aside. Mount Dunstan knew that when she +had said, "Who is there who is suitable?" any shadow of a thought of +himself as being in the running had not crossed her mind. And this was +not only for the reasons she had had the ready composure to name, but +for one less conquerable. + +Later, having left Mary Lithcom, he decided to take a turn by himself. +He had done his duty as a masculine guest. He had conversed with young +women and old ones, had danced, visited gardens and greenhouses, and +taken his part in all things. Also he had, in fact, reached a point when +a few minutes of solitude seemed a good thing. He found himself turning +into the clipped laurel walk, where Tommy Alanby had stood with Jane +Lithcom, and he went to the end of it and stood looking out on the view. + +"Look at the turn of her head," Lady Mary had said. "Look at her mouth +and chin." And he had been looking at them the whole afternoon, not +because he had intended to do so, but because it was not possible to +prevent himself from doing it. + +This was one of the ironies of fate. Orthodox doctrine might suggest +that it was to teach him that his past rebellion had been undue. +Orthodox doctrine was ever ready with these soothing little +explanations. He had raged and sulked at Destiny, and now he had been +given something to rage for. + +"No one knows anything about it until it takes him by the throat," +he was thinking, "and until it happens to a man he has no right +to complain. I was not starving before. I was not hungering and +thirsting--in sight of food and water. I suppose one of the most awful +things in the world is to feel this and know it is no use." + +He was not in the condition to reason calmly enough to see that there +might be one chance in a thousand that it was of use. At such times the +most intelligent of men and women lose balance and mental perspicacity. +A certain degree of unreasoning madness possesses them. They see too +much and too little. There were, it was true, a thousand chances against +him, but there was one for him--the chance that selection might be +on his side. He had not that balance of thought left which might have +suggested to him that he was a man young and powerful, and filled with +an immense passion which might count for something. All he saw was +that he was notably in the position of the men whom he had privately +disdained when they helped themselves by marriage. Such marriages he +had held were insults to the manhood of any man and the womanhood of +any woman. In such unions neither party could respect himself or +his companion. They must always in secret doubt each other, fret at +themselves, feel distaste for the whole thing. Even if a man loved such +a woman, and the feeling was mutual, to whom would it occur to believe +it--to see that they were not gross and contemptible? To no one. Would +it have occurred to himself that such an extenuating circumstance was +possible? Certainly it would not. Pig-headed pride and obstinacy it +might be, but he could not yet face even the mere thought of it--even +if his whole position had not been grotesque. Because, after all, it was +grotesque that he should even argue with himself. She--before his eyes +and the eyes of all others--the most desirable of women; people dinning +it in one's ears that she was surrounded by besiegers who waited for her +to hold out her sceptre, and he--well, what was he! Not that his mental +attitude was that of a meek and humble lover who felt himself unworthy +and prostrated himself before her shrine with prayers--he was, on +the contrary, a stout and obstinate Briton finding his stubbornly-held +beliefs made as naught by a certain obsession--an intolerable longing +which wakened with him in the morning, which sank into troubled sleep +with him at night--the longing to see her, to speak to her, to stand +near her, to breathe the air of her. And possessed by this--full of the +overpowering strength of it--was a man likely to go to a woman and say, +"Give your life and desirableness to me; and incidentally support me, +feed me, clothe me, keep the roof over my head, as if I were an impotent +beggar"? + +"No, by God!" he said. "If she thinks of me at all it shall be as a man. +No, by God, I will not sink to that!" + +. . . . . + +A moving touch of colour caught his eye. It was the rose of a parasol +seen above the laurel hedge, as someone turned into the walk. He knew +the colour of it and expected to see other parasols and hear voices. But +there was no sound, and unaccompanied, the wonderful rose-thing moved +towards him. + +"The usual things are happening to me," was his thought as it advanced. +"I am hot and cold, and just now my heart leaped like a rabbit. It would +be wise to walk off, but I shall not do it. I shall stay here, because +I am no longer a reasoning being. I suppose that a horse who refuses to +back out of his stall when his stable is on fire feels something of the +same thing." + +When she saw him she made an involuntary-looking pause, and then +recovering herself, came forward. + +"I seem to have come in search of you," she said. "You ought to be +showing someone the view really--and so ought I." + +"Shall we show it to each other?" was his reply. + +"Yes." And she sat down on the stone seat which had been placed for the +comfort of view lovers. "I am a little tired--just enough to feel that +to slink away for a moment alone would be agreeable. It IS slinking to +leave Rosalie to battle with half the county. But I shall only stay a +few minutes." + +She sat still and gazed at the beautiful lands spread before her, but +there was no stillness in her mind, neither was there stillness in his. +He did not look at the view, but at her, and he was asking himself what +he should be saying to her if he were such a man as Westholt. Though +he had boldness enough, he knew that no man--even though he is free to +speak the best and most passionate thoughts of his soul--could be sure +that he would gain what he desired. The good fortune of Westholt, or of +any other, could but give him one man's fair chance. + +But having that chance, he knew he should not relinquish it soon. There +swept back into his mind the story of the marriage of his ancestor, Red +Godwyn, and he laughed low in spite of himself. + +Miss Vanderpoel looked up at him quickly. + +"Please tell me about it, if it is very amusing," she said. + +"I wonder if it will amuse you," was his answer. "Do you like savage +romance?" + +"Very much." + +It might seem a propos de rien, but he did not care in the least. He +wanted to hear what she would say. + +"An ancestor of mine--a certain Red Godwyn--was a barbarian immensely to +my taste. He became enamoured of rumours of the beauty of the daughter +and heiress of his bitterest enemy. In his day, when one wanted a thing, +one rode forth with axe and spear to fight for it." + +"A simple and alluring method," commented Betty. "What was her name?" + +She leaned in light ease against the stone back of her seat, the rose +light cast by her parasol faintly flushed her. The silence of their +retreat seemed accentuated by its background of music from the gardens. +They smiled a second bravely into each other's eyes, then their glances +became entangled, as they had done for a moment when they had stood +together in Mount Dunstan park. For one moment each had been held +prisoner then--now it was for longer. + +"Alys of the Sea-Blue Eyes." + +Betty tried to release herself, but could not. + +"Sometimes the sea is grey," she said. + +His own eyes were still in hers. + +"Hers were the colour of the sea on a day when the sun shines on it, +and there are large fleece-white clouds floating in the blue above. They +sparkled and were often like bluebells under water." + +"Bluebells under water sounds entrancing," said Betty. + +He caught his breath slightly. + +"They were--entrancing," he said. "That was evidently the devil of +it--saving your presence." + +"I have never objected to the devil," said Betty. "He is an energetic, +hard-working creature and paints himself an honest black. Please tell me +the rest." + +"Red Godwyn went forth, and after a bloody fight took his enemy's +castle. If we still lived in like simple, honest times, I should take +Dunholm Castle in the same way. He also took Alys of the Eyes and bore +her away captive." + +"From such incidents developed the germs of the desire for female +suffrage," Miss Vanderpoel observed gently. + +"The interest of the story lies in the fact that apparently the savage +was either epicure or sentimentalist, or both. He did not treat the lady +ill. He shut her in a tower chamber overlooking his courtyard, and after +allowing her three days to weep, he began his barbarian wooing. Arraying +himself in splendour he ordered her to appear before him. He sat upon +the dais in his banquet hall, his retainers gathered about him--a great +feast spread. In archaic English we are told that the board groaned +beneath the weight of golden trenchers and flagons. Minstrels played and +sang, while he displayed all his splendour." + +"They do it yet," said Miss Vanderpoel, "in London and New York and +other places." + +"The next day, attended by his followers, he took her with him to ride +over his lands. When she returned to her tower chamber she had learned +how powerful and great a chieftain he was. She 'laye softely' and was +attended by many maidens, but she had no entertainment but to look +out upon the great green court. There he arranged games and trials of +strength and skill, and she saw him bigger, stronger, and more splendid +than any other man. He did not even lift his eyes to her window. He also +sent her daily a rich gift." + +"How long did this go on?" + +"Three months. At the end of that time he commanded her presence again +in his banquet hall. He told her the gates were opened, the drawbridge +down and an escort waiting to take her back to her father's lands, if +she would." + +"What did she do?" + +"She looked at him long--and long. She turned proudly away--in the +sea-blue eyes were heavy and stormy tears, which seeing----" + +"Ah, he saw them?" from Miss Vanderpoel. + +"Yes. And seizing her in his arms caught her to his breast, calling for +a priest to make them one within the hour. I am quoting the chronicle. I +was fifteen when I read it first." + +"It is spirited," said Betty, "and Red Godwyn was almost modern in his +methods." + +While professing composure and lightness of mood, the spell which works +between two creatures of opposite sex when in such case wrought in them +and made them feel awkward and stiff. When each is held apart from +the other by fate, or will, or circumstance, the spell is a stupefying +thing, deadening even the clearness of sight and wit. + +"I must slink back now," Betty said, rising. "Will you slink back with +me to give me countenance? I have greatly liked Red Godwyn." + +So it occurred that when Nigel Anstruthers saw them again it was as they +crossed the lawn together, and people looked up from ices and cups of +tea to follow their slow progress with questioning or approving eyes. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE TIDAL WAVE + +There was only one man to speak to, and it being the nature of the +beast--so he harshly put it to himself--to be absolutely impelled to +speech at such times, Mount Dunstan laid bare his breast to him, tearing +aside all the coverings pride would have folded about him. The man was, +of course, Penzance, and the laying bare was done the evening after the +story of Red Godwyn had been told in the laurel walk. + +They had driven home together in a profound silence, the elder man as +deep in thought as the younger one. Penzance was thinking that there +was a calmness in having reached sixty and in knowing that the pain and +hunger of earlier years would not tear one again. And yet, he himself +was not untorn by that which shook the man for whom his affection had +grown year by year. It was evidently very bad--very bad, indeed. He +wondered if he would speak of it, and wished he would, not because he +himself had much to say in answer, but because he knew that speech would +be better than hard silence. + +"Stay with me to-night," Mount Dunstan said, as they drove through the +avenue to the house. "I want you to dine with me and sit and talk late. +I am not sleeping well." + +They often dined together, and the vicar not infrequently slept at the +Mount for mere companionship's sake. Sometimes they read, sometimes went +over accounts, planned economies, and balanced expenditures. A chamber +still called the Chaplain's room was always kept in readiness. It had +been used in long past days, when a household chaplain had sat below +the salt and left his patron's table before the sweets were served. +They dined together this night almost as silently as they had driven +homeward, and after the meal they went and sat alone in the library. + +The huge room was never more than dimly lighted, and the far-off corners +seemed more darkling than usual in the insufficient illumination of the +far from brilliant lamps. Mount Dunstan, after standing upon the hearth +for a few minutes smoking a pipe, which would have compared ill with old +Doby's Sunday splendour, left his coffee cup upon the mantel and began +to tramp up and down--out of the dim light into the shadows, back out of +the shadows into the poor light. + +"You know," he said, "what I think about most things--you know what I +feel." + +"I think I do." + +"You know what I feel about Englishmen who brand themselves as half men +and marked merchandise by selling themselves and their houses and their +blood to foreign women who can buy them. You know how savage I have been +at the mere thought of it. And how I have sworn----" + +"Yes, I know what you have sworn," said Mr. Penzance. + +It struck him that Mount Dunstan shook and tossed his head rather like a +bull about to charge an enemy. + +"You know how I have felt myself perfectly within my rights when I +blackguarded such men and sneered at such women--taking it for granted +that each was merchandise of his or her kind and beneath contempt. I am +not a foul-mouthed man, but I have used gross words and rough ones to +describe them." + +"I have heard you." + +Mount Dunstan threw back his head with a big, harsh laugh. He came out +of the shadow and stood still. + +"Well," he said, "I am in love--as much in love as any lunatic ever +was--with the daughter of Reuben S. Vanderpoel. There you are--and there +_I_ am!" + +"It has seemed to me," Penzance answered, "that it was almost +inevitable." + +"My condition is such that it seems to ME that it would be inevitable in +the case of any man. When I see another man look at her my blood races +through my veins with an awful fear and a wicked heat. That will show +you the point I have reached." He walked over to the mantelpiece and +laid his pipe down with a hand Penzance saw was unsteady. "In turning +over the pages of the volume of Life," he said, "I have come upon the +Book of Revelations." + +"That is true," Penzance said. + +"Until one has come upon it one is an inchoate fool," Mount Dunstan went +on. "And afterwards one is--for a time at least--a sort of madman raving +to one's self, either in or out of a straitjacket--as the case may be. I +am wearing the jacket--worse luck! Do you know anything of the state of +a man who cannot utter the most ordinary words to a woman without being +conscious that he is making mad love to her? This afternoon I found +myself telling Miss Vanderpoel the story of Red Godwyn and Alys of the +Sea-Blue Eyes. I did not make a single statement having any connection +with myself, but throughout I was calling on her to think of herself and +of me as of those two. I saw her in my own arms, with the tears of Alys +on her lashes. I was making mad love, though she was unconscious of my +doing it." + +"How do you know she was unconscious?" remarked Mr. Penzance. "You are a +very strong man." + +Mount Dunstan's short laugh was even a little awful, because it meant so +much. He let his forehead drop a moment on to his arms as they rested on +the mantelpiece. + +"Oh, my God!" he said. But the next instant his head lifted itself. "It +is the mystery of the world--this thing. A tidal wave gathering itself +mountain high and crashing down upon one's helplessness might be as +easily defied. It is supposed to disperse, I believe. That has been said +so often that there must be truth in it. In twenty or thirty or forty +years one is told one will have got over it. But one must live through +the years--one must LIVE through them--and the chief feature of one's +madness is that one is convinced that they will last forever." + +"Go on," said Mr. Penzance, because he had paused and stood biting his +lip. "Say all that you feel inclined to say. It is the best thing you +can do. I have never gone through this myself, but I have seen and known +the amazingness of it for many years. I have seen it come and go." + +"Can you imagine," Mount Dunstan said, "that the most damnable thought +of all--when a man is passing through it--is the possibility of its +GOING? Anything else rather than the knowledge that years could change +or death could end it! Eternity seems only to offer space for it. One +knows--but one does not believe. It does something to one's brain." + +"No scientist, howsoever profound, has ever discovered what," the vicar +mused aloud. + +"The Book of Revelations has shown to me how--how MAGNIFICENT life might +be!" Mount Dunstan clenched and unclenched his hands, his eyes flashing. +"Magnificent--that is the word. To go to her on equal ground to take her +hands and speak one's passion as one would--as her eyes answered. Oh, +one would know! To bring her home to this place--having made it as it +once was--to live with her here--to be WITH her as the sun rose and set +and the seasons changed--with the joy of life filling each of them. SHE +is the joy of Life--the very heart of it. You see where I am--you see!" + +"Yes," Penzance answered. He saw, and bowed his head, and Mount Dunstan +knew he wished him to continue. + +"Sometimes--of late--it has been too much for me and I have given free +rein to my fancy--knowing that there could never be more than fancy. +I was doing it this afternoon as I watched her move about among the +people. And Mary Lithcom began to talk about her." He smiled a grim +smile. "Perhaps it was an intervention of the gods to drag me down from +my impious heights. She was quite unconscious that she was driving +home facts like nails--the facts that every man who wanted money wanted +Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughter--and that the young lady, not being +dull, was not unaware of the obvious truth! And that men with prizes +to offer were ready to offer them in a proper manner. Also that she was +only a brilliant bird of passage, who, in a few months, would be caught +in the dazzling net of the great world. And that even Lord Westholt +and Dunholm Castle were not quite what she might expect. Lady Mary was +sincerely interested. She drove it home in her ardour. She told me to +LOOK at her--to LOOK at her mouth and chin and eyelashes--and to make +note of what she stood for in a crowd of ordinary people. I could have +laughed aloud with rage and self-mockery." + +Mr. Penzance was resting his forehead on his hand, his elbow on his +chair's arm. + +"This is profound unhappiness," he said. "It is profound unhappiness." + +Mount Dunstan answered by a brusque gesture. + +"But it will pass away," went on Penzance, "and not as you fear it +must," in answer to another gesture, fiercely impatient. "Not that way. +Some day--or night--you will stand here together, and you will tell her +all you have told me. I KNOW it will be so." + +"What!" Mount Dunstan cried out. But the words had been spoken with such +absolute conviction that he felt himself become pale. + +It was with the same conviction that Penzance went on. + +"I have spent my quiet life in thinking of the forces for which we find +no explanation--of the causes of which we only see the effects. Long ago +in looking at you in one of my pondering moments I said to myself that +YOU were of the Primeval Force which cannot lose its way--which sweeps +a clear pathway for itself as it moves--and which cannot be held back. +I said to you just now that because you are a strong man you cannot be +sure that a woman you are--even in spite of yourself--making mad love +to, is unconscious that you are doing it. You do not know what your +strength lies in. I do not, the woman does not, but we must all feel +it, whether we comprehend it or no. You said of this fine creature, some +time since, that she was Life, and you have just said again something of +the same kind. It is quite true. She is Life, and the joy of it. You are +two strong forces, and you are drawing together." + +He rose from his chair, and going to Mount Dunstan put his hand on his +shoulder, his fine old face singularly rapt and glowing. + +"She is drawing you and you are drawing her, and each is too strong to +release the other. I believe that to be true. Both bodies and souls do +it. They are not separate things. They move on their way as the stars +do--they move on their way." + +As he spoke, Mount Dunstan's eyes looked into his fixedly. Then they +turned aside and looked down upon the mantel against which he was +leaning. He aimlessly picked up his pipe and laid it down again. He was +paler than before, but he said no single word. + +"You think your reasons for holding aloof from her are the reasons of a +man." Mr. Penzance's voice sounded to him remote. "They are the reasons +of a man's pride--but that is not the strongest thing in the world. It +only imagines it is. You think that you cannot go to her as a luckier +man could. You think nothing shall force you to speak. Ask yourself +why. It is because you believe that to show your heart would be to place +yourself in the humiliating position of a man who might seem to her and +to the world to be a base fellow." + +"An impudent, pushing, base fellow," thrust in Mount Dunstan fiercely. +"One of a vulgar lot. A thing fancying even its beggary worth buying. +What has a man--whose very name is hung with tattered ugliness--to +offer?" + +Penzance's hand was still on his shoulder and his look at him was long. + +"His very pride," he said at last, "his very obstinacy and haughty, +stubborn determination. Those broken because the other feeling is the +stronger and overcomes him utterly." + +A flush leaped to Mount Dunstan's forehead. He set both elbows on the +mantel and let his forehead fall on his clenched fists. And the savage +Briton rose in him. + +"No!" he said passionately. "By God, no!" + +"You say that," said the older man, "because you have not yet reached +the end of your tether. Unhappy as you are, you are not unhappy +enough. Of the two, you love yourself the more--your pride and your +stubbornness." + +"Yes," between his teeth. "I suppose I retain yet a sort of respect--and +affection--for my pride. May God leave it to me!" + +Penzance felt himself curiously exalted; he knew himself unreasoningly +passing through an oddly unpractical, uplifted moment, in whose +impelling he singularly believed. + +"You are drawing her and she is drawing you," he said. "Perhaps you drew +each other across seas. You will stand here together and you will tell +her of this--on this very spot." + +Mount Dunstan changed his position and laughed roughly, as if to rouse +himself. He threw out his arm in a big, uneasy gesture, taking in the +room. + +"Oh, come," he said. "You talk like a seer. Look about you. Look! I am +to bring her here!" + +"If it is the primeval thing she will not care. Why should she?" + +"She! Bring a life like hers to this! Or perhaps you mean that her own +wealth might make her surroundings becoming--that a man would endure +that?" + +"If it is the primeval thing, YOU would not care. You would have +forgotten that you two had ever lived an hour apart." + +He spoke with a deep, moved gravity--almost as if he were speaking of +the first Titan building of the earth. Mount Dunstan staring at his +delicate, insistent, elderly face, tried to laugh again--and failed +because the effort seemed actually irreverent. It was a singular +hypnotic moment, indeed. He himself was hypnotised. A flashlight of +new vision blazed before him and left him dumb. He took up his pipe +hurriedly, and with still unsteady fingers began to refill it. When it +was filled he lighted it, and then without a word of answer left the +hearth and began to tramp up and down the room again--out of the dim +light into the shadows, back out of the shadows and into the dim light +again, his brow working and his teeth holding hard his amber mouthpiece. + +The morning awakening of a normal healthy human creature should be a +joyous thing. After the soul's long hours of release from the burden of +the body, its long hours spent--one can only say in awe at the mystery +of it, "away, away"--in flight, perhaps, on broad, tireless wings, +beating softly in fair, far skies, breathing pure life, to be brought +back to renew the strength of each dawning day; after these hours of +quiescence of limb and nerve and brain, the morning life returning +should unseal for the body clear eyes of peace at least. In time to +come this will be so, when the soul's wings are stronger, the body more +attuned to infinite law and the race a greater power--but as yet it +often seems as though the winged thing came back a lagging and reluctant +rebel against its fate and the chain which draws it back a prisoner to +its toil. + +It had seemed so often to Mount Dunstan--oftener than not. Youth +should not know such awakening, he was well aware; but he had known it +sometimes even when he had been a child, and since his return from his +ill-starred struggle in America, the dull and reluctant facing of the +day had become a habit. Yet on the morning after his talk with his +friend--the curious, uplifted, unpractical talk which had seemed to +hypnotise him--he knew when he opened his eyes to the light that he had +awakened as a man should awake--with an unreasoning sense of pleasure +in the life and health of his own body, as he stretched mighty limbs, +strong after the night's rest, and feeling that there was work to be +done. It was all unreasoning--there was no more to be done than on those +other days which he had wakened to with bitterness, because they seemed +useless and empty of any worth--but this morning the mere light of the +sun was of use, the rustle of the small breeze in the leaves, the +soft floating past of the white clouds, the mere fact that the great +blind-faced, stately house was his own, that he could tramp far over +lands which were his heritage, unfed though they might be, and that the +very rustics who would pass him in the lanes were, so to speak, his own +people: that he had name, life, even the common thing of hunger for his +morning food--it was all of use. + +An alluring picture--of a certain deep, clear bathing pool in the park +rose before him. It had not called to him for many a day, and now he saw +its dark blueness gleam between flags and green rushes in its encircling +thickness of shrubs and trees. + +He sprang from his bed, and in a few minutes was striding across the +grass of the park, his towels over his arm, his head thrown back as he +drank in the freshness of the morning-scented air. It was scented with +dew and grass and the breath of waking trees and growing things; early +twitters and thrills were to be heard here and there, insisting on +morning joyfulness; rabbits frisked about among the fine-grassed +hummocks of their warren and, as he passed, scuttled back into their +holes, with a whisking of short white tails, at which he laughed with +friendly amusement. Cropping stags lifted their antlered heads, and +fawns with dappled sides and immense lustrous eyes gazed at him without +actual fear, even while they sidled closer to their mothers. A skylark +springing suddenly from the grass a few yards from his feet made him +stop short once and stand looking upward and listening. Who could pass +by a skylark at five o'clock on a summer's morning--the little, heavenly +light-heart circling and wheeling, showering down diamonds, showering +down pearls, from its tiny pulsating, trilling throat? + +"Do you know why they sing like that? It is because all but the joy of +things has been kept hidden from them. They knew nothing but life and +flight and mating, and the gold of the sun. So they sing." That she had +once said. + +He listened until the jewelled rain seemed to have fallen into his soul. +Then he went on his way smiling as he knew he had never smiled in his +life before. He knew it because he realised that he had never before +felt the same vigorous, light normality of spirit, the same sense of +being as other men. It was as though something had swept a great clear +space about him, and having room for air he breathed deep and was glad +of the commonest gifts of being. + +The bathing pool had been the greatest pleasure of his uncared-for +boyhood. No one knew which long passed away Mount Dunstan had made it. +The oldest villager had told him that it had "allus ben there," even in +his father's time. Since he himself had known it he had seen that it was +kept at its best. + +Its dark blue depths reflected in their pellucid clearness the water +plants growing at its edge and the enclosing shrubs and trees. The turf +bordering it was velvet-thick and green, and a few flag-steps led down +to the water. Birds came there to drink and bathe and preen and dress +their feathers. He knew there were often nests in the bushes--sometimes +the nests of nightingales who filled the soft darkness or moonlight of +early June with the wonderfulness of nesting song. Sometimes a straying +fawn poked in a tender nose, and after drinking delicately stole away, +as if it knew itself a trespasser. + +To undress and plunge headlong into the dark sapphire water was a +rapturous thing. He swam swiftly and slowly by turns, he floated, +looking upward at heaven's blue, listening to birds' song and inhaling +all the fragrance of the early day. Strength grew in him and life pulsed +as the water lapped his limbs. He found himself thinking with pleasure +of a long walk he intended to take to see a farmer he must talk to about +his hop gardens; he found himself thinking with pleasure of other things +as simple and common to everyday life--such things as he ordinarily +faced merely because he must, since he could not afford an experienced +bailiff. He was his own bailiff, his own steward, merely, he had often +thought, an unsuccessful farmer of half-starved lands. But this morning +neither he nor they seemed so starved, and--for no reason--there was a +future of some sort. + +He emerged from his pool glowing, the turf feeling like velvet beneath +his feet, a fine light in his eyes. + +"Yes," he said, throwing out his arms in a lordly stretch of physical +well-being, "it might be a magnificent thing--mere strong living. THIS +is magnificent." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +BY THE ROADSIDE EVERYWHERE + +His breakfast and the talk over it with Penzance seemed good things. It +suddenly had become worth while to discuss the approaching hop harvest +and the yearly influx of the hop pickers from London. Yesterday the +subject had appeared discouraging enough. The great hop gardens of the +estate had been in times past its most prolific source of agricultural +revenue and the boast and wonder of the hop-growing county. The neglect +and scant food of the lean years had cost them their reputation. Each +season they had needed smaller bands of "hoppers," and their standard +had been lowered. It had been his habit to think of them gloomily, as +of hopeless and irretrievable loss. Because this morning, for a remote +reason, the pulse of life beat strong in him he was taking a new view. +Might not study of the subject, constant attention and the application +of all available resource to one end produce appreciable results? The +idea presented itself in the form of a thing worth thinking of. + +"It would provide an outlook and give one work to do," he put it to his +companion. "To have a roof over one's head, a sound body, and work to +do, is not so bad. Such things form the whole of G. Selden's cheerful +aim. His spirit is alight within me. I will walk over and talk to +Bolter." + +Bolter was a farmer whose struggle to make ends meet was almost too much +for him. Holdings whose owners, either through neglect or lack of money, +have failed to do their duty as landlords in the matter of repairs of +farmhouses, outbuildings, fences, and other things, gradually fall into +poor hands. Resourceful and prosperous farmers do not care to hold lands +under unprosperous landlords. There were farms lying vacant on the Mount +Dunstan estate, there were others whose tenants were uncertain rent +payers or slipshod workers or dishonest in small ways. Waste or sale +of the fertiliser which should have been given to the soil as its due, +neglect in the case of things whose decay meant depreciation of property +and expense to the landlord, were dishonesties. But Mount Dunstan knew +that if he turned out Thorn and Fittle, whom no watching could wholly +frustrate in their tricks, Under Mount Farm and Oakfield Rise would +stand empty for many a year. But for his poverty Bolter would have been +a good tenant enough. He was in trouble now because, though his hops +promised well, he faced difficulties in the matter of "pickers." Last +year he had not been able to pay satisfactory prices in return for +labour, and as a result the prospect of securing good workers was an +unpromising one. + +The hordes of men, women, and children who flock year after year to +the hop-growing districts know each other. They learn also which may +be called the good neighbourhoods and which the bad; the gardens whose +holders are considered satisfactory as masters, and those who are +undesirable. They know by experience or report where the best "huts" are +provided, where tents are supplied, and where one must get along as one +can. + +Generally the regular flocks are under a "captain," who gathers his +followers each season, manages them and looks after their interests and +their employers'. In some cases the same captain brings his regiment to +the same gardens year after year, and ends by counting himself as of the +soil and almost of the family of his employer. Each hard, thick-fogged +winter they fight through in their East End courts and streets, they +look forward to the open-air weeks spent between long, narrow green +groves of tall garlanded poles, whose wreathings hang thick with fresh +and pungent-scented hop clusters. Children play "'oppin" in dingy rooms +and alleys, and talk to each other of days when the sun shone hot and +birds were singing and flowers smelling sweet in the hedgerows; of +others when the rain streamed down and made mud of the soft earth, and +yet there was pleasure in the gipsying life, and high cheer in the fire +of sticks built in the field by some bold spirit, who hung over it a +tin kettle to boil for tea. They never forgot the gentry they had caught +sight of riding or driving by on the road, the parson who came to talk, +and the occasional groups of ladies from the "great house" who came into +the gardens to walk about and look at the bins and ask queer questions +in their gentry-sounding voices. They never knew anything, and they +always seemed to be entertained. Sometimes there were enterprising, +laughing ones, who asked to be shown how to strip the hops into the +bins, and after being shown played at the work for a little while, +taking off their gloves and showing white fingers with rings on. They +always looked as if they had just been washed, and as if all of their +clothes were fresh from the tub, and when anyone stood near them it +was observable that they smelt nice. Generally they gave pennies to the +children before they left the garden, and sometimes shillings to the +women. The hop picking was, in fact, a wonderful blend of work and +holiday combined. + +Mount Dunstan had liked the "hopping" from his first memories of it. He +could recall his sensations of welcoming a renewal of interesting things +when, season after season, he had begun to mark the early stragglers on +the road. The stragglers were not of the class gathered under captains. +They were derelicts--tramps who spent their summers on the highways and +their winters in such workhouses as would take them in; tinkers, who +differ from the tramps only because sometimes they owned a rickety cart +full of strange household goods and drunken tenth-hand perambulators +piled with dirty bundles and babies, these last propelled by robust or +worn-out, slatternly women, who sat by the small roadside fire stirring +the battered pot or tending the battered kettle, when resting time had +come and food must be cooked. Gipsies there were who had cooking fires +also, and hobbled horses cropping the grass. Now and then appeared a +grand one, who was rumoured to be a Lee and therefore royal, and who +came and lived regally in a gaily painted caravan. During the late +summer weeks one began to see slouching figures tramping along the high +road at intervals. These were men who were old, men who were middle-aged +and some who were young, all of them more or less dust-grimed, +weather-beaten, or ragged. Occasionally one was to be seen in heavy +beery slumber under the hedgerow, or lying on the grass smoking lazily, +or with painful thrift cobbling up a hole in a garment. Such as these +were drifting in early that they might be on the ground when pickers +were wanted. They were the forerunners of the regular army. + +On his walk to West Ways, the farm Bolter lived on, Mount Dunstan passed +two or three of these strays. They were the usual flotsam and jetsam, +but on the roadside near a hop garden he came upon a group of an aspect +so unusual that it attracted his attention. Its unusualness consisted in +its air of exceeding bustling cheerfulness. It was a domestic group of +the most luckless type, and ragged, dirty, and worn by an evidently long +tramp, might well have been expected to look forlorn, discouraged, and +out of spirits. A slouching father of five children, one plainly but +a few weeks old, and slung in a dirty shawl at its mother's breast, an +unhealthy looking slattern mother, two ancient perambulators, one piled +with dingy bundles and cooking utensils, the seven-year-old eldest +girl unpacking things and keeping an eye at the same time on the two +youngest, who were neither of them old enough to be steady on their +feet, the six-year-old gleefully aiding the slouching father to build +the wayside fire. The mother sat upon the grass nursing her baby and +staring about her with an expression at once stupefied and illuminated +by some temporary bliss. Even the slouching father was grinning, as if +good luck had befallen him, and the two youngest were tumbling about +with squeals of good cheer. This was not the humour in which such a +group usually dropped wearily on the grass at the wayside to eat its +meagre and uninviting meal and rest its dragging limbs. As he drew near, +Mount Dunstan saw that at the woman's side there stood a basket full of +food and a can full of milk. + +Ordinarily he would have passed on, but, perhaps because of the human +glow the morning had brought him, he stopped and spoke. + +"Have you come for the hopping?" he asked. + +The man touched his forehead, apparently not conscious that the grin was +yet on his face. + +"Yes, sir," he answered. + +"How far have you walked?" + +"A good fifty miles since we started, sir. It took us a good bit. We was +pretty done up when we stopped here. But we've 'ad a wonderful piece of +good luck." And his grin broadened immensely. + +"I am glad to hear that," said Mount Dunstan. The good luck was plainly +of a nature to have excited them greatly. Chance good luck did not +happen to people like themselves. They were in the state of mind which +in their class can only be relieved by talk. The woman broke in, her +weak mouth and chin quite unsteady. + +"Seems like it can't be true, sir," she said. "I'd only just come out +of the Union--after this one," signifying the new baby at her breast. "I +wasn't fit to drag along day after day. We 'ad to stop 'ere 'cos I was +near fainting away." + +"She looked fair white when she sat down," put in the man. "Like she was +goin' off." + +"And that very minute," said the woman, "a young lady came by on +'orseback, an' the minute she sees me she stops her 'orse an' gets +down." + +"I never seen nothing like the quick way she done it," said the husband. +"Sharp, like she was a soldier under order. Down an' give the bridle to +the groom an' comes over." + +"And kneels down," the woman took him up, "right by me an' says, 'What's +the matter? What can I do?' an' finds out in two minutes an' sends to +the farm for some brandy an' all this basketful of stuff," jerking her +head towards the treasure at her side. "An' gives 'IM," with another +jerk towards her mate, "money enough to 'elp us along till I'm fair +on my feet. That quick it was--that quick," passing her hand over +her forehead, "as if it wasn't for the basket," with a nervous, +half-hysteric giggle, "I wouldn't believe but what it was a dream--I +wouldn't." + +"She was a very kind young lady," said Mount Dunstan, "and you were in +luck." + +He gave a few coppers to the children and strode on his way. The glow +was hot in his heart, and he held his head high. + +"She has gone by," he said. "She has gone by." + +He knew he should find her at West Ways Farm, and he did so. Slim and +straight as a young birch tree, and elate with her ride in the morning +air, she stood silhouetted in her black habit against the ancient +whitewashed brick porch as she talked to Bolter. + +"I have been drinking a glass of milk and asking questions about hops," +she said, giving him her hand bare of glove. "Until this year I have +never seen a hop garden or a hop picker." + +After the exchange of a few words Bolter respectfully melted away and +left them together. + +"It was such a wonderful day that I wanted to be out under the sky for +a long time--to ride a long way," she explained. "I have been looking at +hop gardens as I rode. I have watched them all the summer--from the time +when there was only a little thing with two or three pale green leaves +looking imploringly all the way up to the top of each immensely tall +hop pole, from its place in the earth at the bottom of it--as if it was +saying over and over again, under its breath, 'Can I get up there? Can +I get up? Can I do it in time? Can I do it in time?' Yes, that was +what they were saying, the little bold things. I have watched them ever +since, putting out tendrils and taking hold of the poles and pulling and +climbing like little acrobats. And curling round and unfolding leaves +and more leaves, until at last they threw them out as if they were +beginning to boast that they could climb up into the blue of the sky +if the summer were long enough. And now, look at them!" her hand waved +towards the great gardens. "Forests of them, cool green pathways and +avenues with leaf canopies over them." + +"You have seen it all," he said. "You do see things, don't you? A few +hundred yards down the road I passed something you had seen. I knew it +was you who had seen it, though the poor wretches had not heard your +name." + +She hesitated a moment, then stooped down and took up in her hand a bit +of pebbled earth from the pathway. There was storm in the blue of +her eyes as she held it out for him to look at as it lay on the bare +rose-flesh of her palm. + +"See," she said, "see, it is like that--what we give. It is like that." +And she tossed the earth away. + +"It does not seem like that to those others." + +"No, thank God, it does not. But to one's self it is the mere luxury of +self-indulgence, and the realisation of it sometimes tempts one to +be even a trifle morbid. Don't you see," a sudden thrill in her voice +startled him, "they are on the roadside everywhere all over the world." + +"Yes. All over the world." + +"Once when I was a child of ten I read a magazine article about the +suffering millions and the monstrously rich, who were obviously to blame +for every starved sob and cry. It almost drove me out of my childish +senses. I went to my father and threw myself into his arms in a violent +fit of crying. I clung to him and sobbed out, 'Let us give it all away; +let us give it all away and be like other people!'" + +"What did he say?" + +"He said we could never be quite like other people. We had a certain +load to carry along the highway. It was the thing the whole world wanted +and which we ourselves wanted as much as the rest, and we could not +sanely throw it away. It was my first lesson in political economy and +I abhorred it. I was a passionate child and beat furiously against the +stone walls enclosing present suffering. It was horrible to know that +they could not be torn down. I cried out, 'When I see anyone who is +miserable by the roadside I shall stop and give him everything he +wants--everything!' I was ten years old, and thought it could be done." + +"But you stop by the roadside even now." + +"Yes. That one can do." + +"You are two strong creatures and you draw each other," Penzance had +said. "Perhaps you drew each other across seas. Who knows?" + +Coming to West Ways on a chance errand he had, as it were, found +her awaiting him on the threshold. On her part she had certainly not +anticipated seeing him there, but--when one rides far afield in the +sun there are roads towards which one turns as if answering a summoning +call, and as her horse had obeyed a certain touch of the rein at a +certain point her cheek had felt momentarily hot. + +Until later, when the "picking" had fairly begun, the kilns would not be +at work; but there was some interest even now in going over the ground +for the first time. + +"I have never been inside an oast house," she said; "Bolter is going to +show me his, and explain technicalities." + +"May I come with you?" he asked. + +There was a change in him. Something had lighted in his eyes since the +day before, when he had told her his story of Red Godwyn. She wondered +what it was. They went together over the place, escorted by Bolter. They +looked into the great circular ovens, on whose floors the hops would be +laid for drying, they mounted ladder-like steps to the upper room where, +when dried, the same hops would lie in soft, light piles, until pushed +with wooden shovels into the long "pokes" to be pressed and packed +into a solid marketable mass. Bolter was allowed to explain the +technicalities, but it was plain that Mount Dunstan was familiar with +all of them, and it was he who, with a sentence here and there, gave her +the colour of things. + +"When it is being done there is nearly always outside a touch of the +sharp sweetness of early autumn," he said "The sun slanting through the +little window falls on the pale yellow heaps, and there is a pungent +scent of hops in the air which is rather intoxicating." + +"I am coming later to see the entire process," she answered. + +It was a mere matter of seeing common things together and exchanging +common speech concerning them, but each was so strongly conscious of +the other that no sentence could seem wholly impersonal. There are +times when the whole world is personal to a mood whose intensity seems a +reason for all things. Words are of small moment when the mere sound of +a voice makes an unreasonable joy. + +"There was that touch of sharp autumn sweetness in the air yesterday +morning," she said. "And the chaplets of briony berries that look as if +they had been thrown over the hedges are beginning to change to scarlet +here and there. The wild rose-haws are reddening, and so are the +clusters of berries on the thorn trees and bushes." + +"There are millions of them," Mount Dunstan said, "and in a few weeks' +time they will look like bunches of crimson coral. When the sun shines +on them they will be wonderful to see." + +What was there in such speeches as these to draw any two nearer and +nearer to each other as they walked side by side--to fill the morning +air with an intensity of life, to seem to cause the world to drop away +and become as nothing? As they had been isolated during their waltz in +the crowded ballroom at Dunholm Castle, so they were isolated now. When +they stood in the narrow green groves of the hop garden, talking simply +of the placing of the bins and the stripping and measuring of the vines, +there might have been no human thing within a hundred miles--within a +thousand. For the first time his height and strength conveyed to her an +impression of physical beauty. His walk and bearing gave her pleasure. +When he turned his red-brown eyes upon her suddenly she was conscious +that she liked their colour, their shape, the power of the look in them. +On his part, he--for the twentieth time--found himself newly moved by +the dower nature had bestowed on her. Had the world ever held before a +woman creature so much to be longed for?--abnormal wealth, New York and +Fifth Avenue notwithstanding, a man could only think of folding arms +round her and whispering in her lovely ear--follies, oaths, prayers, +gratitude. + +And yet as they went about together there was growing in Betty +Vanderpoel's mind a certain realisation. It grew in spite of the +recognition of the change in him--the new thing lighted in his eyes. +Whatsoever he felt--if he felt anything--he would never allow himself +speech. How could he? In his place she could not speak herself. Because +he was the strong thing which drew her thoughts, he would not come to +any woman only to cast at her feet a burden which, in the nature of +things, she must take up. And suddenly she comprehended that the mere +obstinate Briton in him--even apart from greater things--had an immense +attraction for her. As she liked now the red-brown colour of his +eyes and saw beauty in his rugged features, so she liked his British +stubbornness and the pride which would not be beaten. + +"It is the unconquerable thing, which leads them in their battles and +makes them bear any horror rather than give in. They have taken half the +world with it; they are like bulldogs and lions," she thought. "And--and +I am glorying in it." + +"Do you know," said Mount Dunstan, "that sometimes you suddenly fling +out the most magnificent flag of colour--as if some splendid flame of +thought had sent up a blaze?" + +"I hope it is not a habit," she answered. "When one has a splendid flare +of thought one should be modest about it." + +What was there worth recording in the whole hour they spent together? +Outwardly there had only been a chance meeting and a mere passing by. +But each left something with the other and each learned something; and +the record made was deep. + +At last she was on her horse again, on the road outside the white gate. + +"This morning has been so much to the good," he said. "I had thought +that perhaps we might scarcely meet again this year. I shall become +absorbed in hops and you will no doubt go away. You will make visits or +go to the Riviera--or to New York for the winter?" + +"I do not know yet. But at least I shall stay to watch the thorn trees +load themselves with coral." To herself she was saying: "He means to +keep away. I shall not see him." + +As she rode off Mount Dunstan stood for a few moments, not moving from +his place. At a short distance from the farmhouse gate a side lane +opened upon the highway, and as she cantered in its direction a horseman +turned in from it--a man who was young and well dressed and who sat well +a spirited animal. He came out upon the road almost face to face with +Miss Vanderpoel, and from where he stood Mount Dunstan could see his +delighted smile as he lifted his hat in salute. It was Lord Westholt, +and what more natural than that after an exchange of greetings the two +should ride together on their way! For nearly three miles their homeward +road would be the same. + +But in a breath's space Mount Dunstan realised a certain truth--a +simple, elemental thing. All the exaltation of the morning swooped and +fell as a bird seems to swoop and fall through space. It was all +over and done with, and he understood it. His normal awakening in the +morning, the physical and mental elation of the first clear hours, the +spring of his foot as he had trod the road, had all had but one meaning. +In some occult way the hypnotic talk of the night before had formed +itself into a reality, fantastic and unreasoning as it had been. Some +insistent inner consciousness had seized upon and believed it in spite +of him and had set all his waking being in tune to it. That was the +explanation of his undue spirits and hope. If Penzance had spoken a +truth he would have had a natural, sane right to feel all this and more. +But the truth was that he, in his guise--was one of those who are "on +the roadside everywhere--all over the world." Poetically figurative as +the thing sounded, it was prosaic fact. + +So, still hearing the distant sounds of the hoofs beating in cheerful +diminuendo on the roadway, he turned about and went back to talk to +Bolter. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +CLOSED CORRIDORS + +To spend one's days perforce in an enormous house alone is a thing +likely to play unholy tricks with a man's mind and lead it to gloomy +workings. To know the existence of a hundred or so of closed doors +shut on the darkness of unoccupied rooms; to be conscious of flights +of unmounted stairs, of stretches of untrodden corridors, of unending +walls, from which the pictured eyes of long dead men and women stare, +as if seeing things which human eyes behold not--is an eerie and +unwholesome thing. Mount Dunstan slept in a large four-post bed in a +chamber in which he might have died or been murdered a score of times +without being able to communicate with the remote servants' quarters +below stairs, where lay the one man and one woman who attended him. +When he came late to his room and prepared for sleep by the light of two +flickering candles the silence of the dead in tombs was about him; but +it was only a more profound and insistent thing than the silence of the +day, because it was the silence of the night, which is a presence. He +used to tell himself with secret smiles at the fact that at certain +times the fantasy was half believable--that there were things which +walked about softly at night--things which did not want to be dead. +He himself had picked them out from among the pictures in the +gallery--pretty, light, petulant women; adventurous-eyed, full-blooded, +eager men. His theory was that they hated their stone coffins, and +fought their way back through the grey mists to try to talk and make +love and to be seen of warm things which were alive. But it was not to +be done, because they had no bodies and no voices, and when they beat +upon closed doors they would not open. Still they came back--came +back. And sometimes there was a rustle and a sweep through the air in a +passage, or a creak, or a sense of waiting which was almost a sound. + +"Perhaps some of them have gone when they have been as I am," he had +said one black night, when he had sat in his room staring at the floor. +"If a man was dragged out when he had not LIVED a day, he would come +back I should come back if--God! A man COULD not be dragged away--like +THIS!" + +And to sit alone and think of it was an awful and a lonely thing--a +lonely thing. + +But loneliness was nothing new, only that in these months his had +strangely intensified itself. This, though he was not aware of it, was +because the soul and body which were the completing parts of him were +within reach--and without it. When he went down to breakfast he sat +singly at his table, round which twenty people might have laughed and +talked. Between the dining-room and the library he spent his days when +he was not out of doors. Since he could not afford servants, the many +other rooms must be kept closed. It was a ghastly and melancholy thing +to make, as he must sometimes, a sort of precautionary visit to the +state apartments. He was the last Mount Dunstan, and he would never see +them opened again for use, but so long as he lived under the roof he +might by prevision check, in a measure, the too rapid encroachments +of decay. To have a leak stopped here, a nail driven or a support put +there, seemed decent things to do. + +"Whom am I doing it for?" he said to Mr. Penzance. "I am doing it +for myself--because I cannot help it. The place seems to me like some +gorgeous old warrior come to the end of his days. It has stood the war of +things for century after century--the war of things. It is going now I +am all that is left to it. It is all I have. So I patch it up when I can +afford it, with a crutch or a splint and a bandage." + +Late in the afternoon of the day on which Miss Vanderpoel rode away from +West Ways with Lord Westholt, a stealthy and darkly purple cloud rose, +lifting its ominous bulk against a chrysoprase and pink horizon. It +was the kind of cloud which speaks of but one thing to those who watch +clouds, or even casually consider them. So Lady Anstruthers felt some +surprise when she saw Sir Nigel mount his horse before the stone steps +and ride away, as it were, into the very heart of the coming storm. + +"Nigel will be caught in the rain," she said to her sister. "I wonder +why he goes out now. It would be better to wait until to-morrow." + +But Sir Nigel did not think so. He had calculated matters with some +nicety. He was not exactly on such terms with Mount Dunstan as would +make a casual call seem an entirely natural thing, and he wished to drop +in upon him for a casual call and in an unpremeditated manner. He +meant to reach the Mount about the time the storm broke, under +which circumstance nothing could bear more lightly an air of being +unpremeditated than to take refuge in a chance passing. + +Mount Dunstan was in the library. He had sat smoking his pipe while he +watched the purple cloud roll up and spread itself, blotting out the +chrysoprase and pink and blue, and when the branches of the trees began +to toss about he had looked on with pleasure as the rush of big rain +drops came down and pelted things. It was a fine storm, and there were +some imposing claps of thunder and jagged flashes of lightning. As one +splendid rattle shook the air he was surprised to hear a summons at the +great hall door. Who on earth could be turning up at this time? His man +Reeve announced the arrival a few moments later, and it was Sir Nigel +Anstruthers. He had, he explained, been riding through the village when +the deluge descended, and it had occurred to him to turn in at the +park gates and ask a temporary shelter. Mount Dunstan received him with +sufficient courtesy. His appearance was not a thing to rejoice over, but +it could be endured. Whisky and soda and a smoke would serve to pass the +hour, if the storm lasted so long. + +Conversation was not the easiest thing in the world under the +circumstances, but Sir Nigel led the way steadily after he had taken his +seat and accepted the hospitalities offered. What a place it was--this! +He had been struck for the hundredth time with the impressiveness of +the mass of it, the sweep of the park and the splendid grouping of the +timber, as he had ridden up the avenue. There was no other place like it +in the county. Was there another like it in England? + +"Not in its case, I hope," Mount Dunstan said. + +There were a few seconds of silence. The rain poured down in splashing +sheets and was swept in rattling gusts against the window panes. + +"What the place needs is--an heiress," Anstruthers observed in the tone +of a practical man. "I believe I have heard that your views of things +are such that she should preferably NOT be an American." + +Mount Dunstan did not smile, though he slightly showed his teeth. + +"When I am driven to the wall," he answered, "I may not be fastidious as +to nationality." + +Nigel Anstruthers' manner was not a bad one. He chose that tone of +casual openness which, while it does not wholly commit itself, may be +regarded as suggestive of the amiable half confidence of speeches made +as "man to man." + +"My own opportunity of studying the genus American heiress within my own +gates is a first-class one. I find that it knows what it wants and that +its intention is to get it." A short laugh broke from him as he flicked +the ash from his cigar on to the small bronze receptacle at his elbow. +"It is not many years since it would have been difficult for a girl to +be frank enough to say, 'When I marry I shall ask something in exchange +for what I have to give.'" + +"There are not many who have as much to give," said Mount Dunstan +coolly. + +"True," with a slight shrug. "You are thinking that men are glad enough +to take a girl like that--even one who has not a shape like Diana's and +eyes like the sea. Yes, by George," softly, and narrowing his lids, "she +IS a handsome creature." + +Mount Dunstan did not attempt to refute the statement, and Anstruthers +laughed low again. + +"It is an asset she knows the value of quite clearly. That is the +interesting part of it. She has inherited the far-seeing commercial +mind. She does not object to admitting it. She educated herself in +delightful cold blood that she might be prepared for the largest prize +appearing upon the horizon. She held things in view when she was a +child at school, and obviously attacked her French, German, and Italian +conjugations with a twelve-year-old eye on the future." + +Mount Dunstan leaning back carelessly in his chair, laughed--as it +seemed--with him. Internally he was saying that the man was a liar who +might always be trusted to lie, but he knew with shamed fury that +the lies were doing something to his soul--rolling dark vapours over +it--stinging him, dragging away props, and making him feel they had been +foolish things to lean on. This can always be done with a man in love +who has slight foundation for hope. For some mysterious and occult +reason civilisation has elected to treat the strange and great passion +as if it were an unholy and indecent thing, whose dominion over him +proper social training prevents any man from admitting openly. In +passing through its cruelest phases he must bear himself as if he were +immune, and this being the custom, he may be called upon to endure much +without the relief of striking out with manly blows. An enemy guessing +his case and possessing the infernal gift whose joy is to dishearten and +do hurt with courteous despitefulness, may plant a poisoned arrow here +and there with neatness and fine touch, while his bound victim can, with +decency, neither start, nor utter brave howls, nor guard himself, but +must sit still and listen, hospitably supplying smoke and drink and +being careful not to make an ass of himself. + +Therefore Mount Dunstan pushed the cigars nearer to his visitor and +waved his hand hospitably towards the whisky and soda. There was no +reason, in fact, why Anstruthers--or any one indeed, but Penzance, +should suspect that he had become somewhat mad in secret. The man's talk +was marked merely by the lightly disparaging malice which was rarely to +be missed from any speech of his which touched on others. Yet it might +have been a thing arranged beforehand, to suggest adroitly either lies +or truth which would make a man see every sickeningly good reason for +feeling that in this contest he did not count for a man at all. + +"It has all been pretty obvious," said Sir Nigel. "There is a sort of +cynicism in the openness of the siege. My impression is that almost +every youngster who has met her has taken a shot. Tommy Alanby +scrambling up from his knees in one of the rose-gardens was a satisfying +sight. His much-talked-of-passion for Jane Lithcom was temporarily in +abeyance." + +The rain swirled in a torrent against the window, and casually glancing +outside at the tossing gardens he went on. + +"She is enjoying herself. Why not? She has the spirit of the huntress. +I don't think she talks nonsense about friendship to the captives of her +bow and spear. She knows she can always get what she wants. A girl like +that MUST have an arrogance of mind. And she is not a young saint. She +is one of the women born with THE LOOK in her eyes. I own I should not +like to be in the place of any primeval poor brute who really went mad +over her--and counted her millions as so much dirt." + +Mount Dunstan answered with a shrug of his big shoulders: + +"Apparently he would seem as remote from the reason of to-day as the men +who lived on the land when Hengist and Horsa came--or when Caesar landed +at Deal." + +"He would seem as remote to her," with a shrug also. "I should not like +to contend that his point of view would not interest her or that she +would particularly discourage him. Her eyes would call him--without +malice or intention, no doubt, but your early Briton ceorl or earl would +be as well understood by her. Your New York beauty who has lived in the +market place knows principally the prices of things." + +He was not ill pleased with himself. He was putting it well and getting +rather even with her. If this fellow with his shut mouth had a sore spot +hidden anywhere he was giving him "to think." And he would find himself +thinking, while, whatsoever he thought, he would be obliged to continue +to keep his ugly mouth shut. The great idea was to say things WITHOUT +saying them, to set your hearer's mind to saying them for you. + +"What strikes one most is a sort of commercial brilliance in her," +taking up his thread again after a smilingly reflective pause. "It quite +exhilarates one by its novelty. There's spice in it. We English have not +a look-in when we are dealing with Americans, and yet France calls us +a nation of shopkeepers. My impression is that their women take little +inventories of every house they enter, of every man they meet. I heard +her once speaking to my wife about this place, as if she had lived in +it. She spoke of the closed windows and the state of the gardens--of +broken fountains and fallen arches. She evidently deplored the +deterioration of things which represented capital. She has inventoried +Dunholm, no doubt. That will give Westholt a chance. But she will do +nothing until after her next year's season in London--that I'd swear. +I look forward to next year. It will be worth watching. She has been +training my wife. A sister who has married an Englishman and has at +least spent some years of her life in England has a certain established +air. When she is presented one knows she will be a sensation. After +that----" he hesitated a moment, smiling not too pleasantly. + +"After that," said Mount Dunstan, "the Deluge." + +"Exactly. The Deluge which usually sweeps girls off their feet--but it +will not sweep her off hers. She will stand quite firm in the flood and +lose sight of nothing of importance which floats past." + +Mount Dunstan took him up. He was sick of hearing the fellow's voice. + +"There will be a good many things," he said; "there will be great +personages and small ones, pomps and vanities, glittering things and +heavy ones." + +"When she sees what she wants," said Anstruthers, "she will hold out +her hand, knowing it will come to her. The things which drown will not +disturb her. I once made the blunder of suggesting that she might need +protection against the importunate--as if she had been an English girl. +It was an idiotic thing to do." + +"Because?" Mount Dunstan for the moment had lost his head. Anstruthers +had maddeningly paused. + +"She answered that if it became necessary she might perhaps be able to +protect herself. She was as cool and frank as a boy. No air pince about +it--merely consciousness of being able to put things in their right +places. Made a mere male relative feel like a fool." + +"When ARE things in their right places?" To his credit be it spoken, +Mount Dunstan managed to say it as if in the mere putting together of +idle words. What man likes to be reminded of his right place! No man +wants to be put in his right place. There is always another place which +seems more desirable. + +"She knows--if we others do not. I suppose my right place is at +Stornham, conducting myself as the brother-in-law of a fair American +should. I suppose yours is here--shut up among your closed corridors and +locked doors. There must be a lot of them in a house like this. Don't +you sometimes feel it too large for you?" + +"Always," answered Mount Dunstan. + +The fact that he added nothing else and met a rapid side glance with +unmoving red-brown eyes gazing out from under rugged brows, perhaps +irritated Anstruthers. He had been rather enjoying himself, but he had +not enjoyed himself enough. There was no denying that his plaything had +not openly flinched. Plainly he was not good at flinching. Anstruthers +wondered how far a man might go. He tried again. + +"She likes the place, though she has a natural disdain for its +condition. That is practical American. Things which are going to pieces +because money is not spent upon them--mere money, of which all the +people who count for anything have so much--are inevitably rather +disdained. They are 'out of it.' But she likes the estate." As he +watched Mount Dunstan he felt sure he had got it at last--the right +thing. "If you were a duke with fifty thousand a year," with a +distinctly nasty, amicably humorous, faint laugh, "she would--by the +Lord, I believe, she would take it over--and you with it." + +Mount Dunstan got up. In his rough walking tweeds he looked +over-big--and heavy--and perilous. For two seconds Nigel Anstruthers +would not have been surprised if he had without warning slapped his +face, or knocked him over, or whirled him out of his chair and kicked +him. He would not have liked it, but--for two seconds--it would have +been no surprise. In fact, he instinctively braced his not too +firm muscles. But nothing of the sort occurred. During the two +seconds--perhaps three--Mount Dunstan stood still and looked down at +him. The brief space at an end, he walked over to the hearth and stood +with his back to the big fireplace. + +"You don't like her," he said, and his manner was that of a man dealing +with a matter of fact. "Why do you talk about her?" + +He had got away again--quite away. + +An ugly flush shot over Anstruthers' face. There was one more thing +to say--whether it was idiotic to say it or not. Things can always be +denied afterwards, should denial appear necessary--and for the moment +his special devil possessed him. + +"I do not like her!" And his mouth twisted. "Do I not? I am not an old +woman. I am a man--like others. I chance to like her--too much." + +There was a short silence. Mount Dunstan broke it. + +"Then," he remarked, "you had better emigrate to some country with +a climate which suits you. I should say that England--for the +present--does not." + +"I shall stay where I am," answered Anstruthers, with a slight +hoarseness of voice, which made it necessary for him to clear his +throat. "I shall stay where she is. I will have that satisfaction, +at least. She does not mind. I am only a racketty, middle-aged +brother-in-law, and she can take care of herself. As I told you, she has +the spirit of the huntress." + +"Look here," said Mount Dunstan, quite without haste, and with an iron +civility. "I am going to take the liberty of suggesting something. If +this thing is true, it would be as well not to talk about it." + +"As well for me--or for her?" and there was a serene significance in the +query. + +Mount Dunstan thought a few seconds. + +"I confess," he said slowly, and he planted his fine blow between +the eyes well and with directness. "I confess that it would not have +occurred to me to ask you to do anything or refrain from doing it for +her sake." + +"Thank you. Perhaps you are right. One learns that one must protect +one's self. I shall not talk--neither will you. I know that. I was a +fool to let it out. The storm is over. I must ride home." He rose from +his seat and stood smiling. "It would smash up things nicely if the new +beauty's appearance in the great world were preceded by chatter of the +unseemly affection of some adorer of ill repute. Unfairly enough it is +always the woman who is hurt." + +"Unless," said Mount Dunstan civilly, "there should arise the poor, +primeval brute, in his neolithic wrath, to seize on the man to blame, +and break every bone and sinew in his damned body." + +"The newspapers would enjoy that more than she would," answered +Sir Nigel. "She does not like the newspapers. They are too ready +to disparage the multi-millionaire, and cackle about members of his +family." + +The unhidden hatred which still professed to hide itself in the depths +of their pupils, as they regarded each other, had its birth in a passion +as elemental as the quakings of the earth, or the rage of two lions in +a desert, lashing their flanks in the blazing sun. It was well that at +this moment they should part ways. + +Sir Nigel's horse being brought, he went on the way which was his. + +"It was a mistake to say what I did," he said before going. "I ought to +have held my tongue. But I am under the same roof with her. At any rate, +that is a privilege no other man shares with me." + +He rode off smartly, his horse's hoofs splashing in the rain pools left +in the avenue after the storm. He was not so sure after all that he +had made a mistake, and for the moment he was not in the mood to care +whether he had made one or not. His agreeable smile showed itself as he +thought of the obstinate, proud brute he had left behind, sitting alone +among his shut doors and closed corridors. They had not shaken hands +either at meeting or parting. Queer thing it was--the kind of enmity a +man could feel for another when he was upset by a woman. It was amusing +enough that it should be she who was upsetting him after all these +years--impudent little Betty, with the ferocious manner. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +AT SHANDY'S + +On a late-summer evening in New York the atmosphere surrounding a +certain corner table at Shandy's cheap restaurant in Fourteenth Street +was stirred by a sense of excitement. + +The corner table in question was the favourite meeting place of a group +of young men of the G. Selden type, who usually took possession of it at +dinner time--having decided that Shandy's supplied more decent food +for fifty cents, or even for twenty-five, than was to be found at other +places of its order. Shandy's was "about all right," they said to each +other, and patronised it accordingly, three or four of them generally +dining together, with a friendly and adroit manipulation of "portions" +and "half portions" which enabled them to add variety to their bill of +fare. + +The street outside was lighted, the tide of passers-by was less full and +more leisurely in its movements than it was during the seething, working +hours of daylight, but the electric cars swung past each other with +whiz and clang of bell almost unceasingly, their sound being swelled, at +short intervals, by the roar and rumbling rattle of the trains dashing +by on the elevated railroad. This, however, to the frequenters of +Shandy's, was the usual accompaniment of every-day New York life and was +regarded as a rather cheerful sort of thing. + +This evening the four claimants of the favourite corner table had met +together earlier than usual. Jem Belter, who "hammered" a typewriter at +Schwab's Brewery, Tom Wetherbee, who was "in a downtown office," Bert +Johnson, who was "out for the Delkoff," and Nick Baumgarten, who having +for some time "beaten" certain streets as assistant salesman for the +same illustrious machine, had been recently elevated to a "territory" of +his own, and was therefore in high spirits. + +"Say!" he said. "Let's give him a fine dinner. We can make it between +us. Beefsteak and mushrooms, and potatoes hashed brown. He likes them. +Good old G. S. I shall be right glad to see him. Hope foreign travel has +not given him the swell head." + +"Don't believe it's hurt him a bit. His letter didn't sound like it. +Little Georgie ain't a fool," said Jem Belter. + +Tom Wetherbee was looking over the letter referred to. It had been +written to the four conjointly, towards the termination of Selden's +visit to Mr. Penzance. The young man was not an ardent or fluent +correspondent; but Tom Wetherbee was chuckling as he read the epistle. + +"Say, boys," he said, "this big thing he's keeping back to tell us when +he sees us is all right, but what takes me is old George paying a visit +to a parson. He ain't no Young Men's Christian Association." + + +Bert Johnson leaned forward, and looked at the address on the letter +paper. + +"Mount Dunstan Vicarage," he read aloud. "That looks pretty swell, +doesn't it?" with a laugh. "Say, fellows, you know Jepson at the office, +the chap that prides himself on reading such a lot? He said it reminded +him of the names of places in English novels. That Johnny's the biggest +snob you ever set your tooth into. When I told him about the lord fellow +that owns the castle, and that George seemed to have seen him, he nearly +fell over himself. Never had any use for George before, but just you +watch him make up to him when he sees him next." + +People were dropping in and taking seats at the tables. They were all of +one class. Young men who lived in hall bedrooms. Young women who worked +in shops or offices, a couple here and there, who, living far uptown, +had come to Shandy's to dinner, that they might go to cheap seats in +some theatre afterwards. In the latter case, the girls wore their best +hats, had bright eyes, and cheeks lightly flushed by their sense of +festivity. Two or three were very pretty in their thin summer dresses +and flowered or feathered head gear, tilted at picturesque angles over +their thick hair. When each one entered the eyes of the young men at the +corner table followed her with curiosity and interest, but the glances +at her escort were always of a disparaging nature. + +"There's a beaut!" said Nick Baumgarten. "Get onto that pink stuff +on her hat, will you. She done it because it's just the colour of her +cheeks." + +They all looked, and the girl was aware of it, and began to laugh and +talk coquettishly to the young man who was her companion. + +"I wonder where she got Clarence?" said Jem Belter in sarcastic allusion +to her escort. "The things those lookers have fastened on to them gets +ME." + +"If it was one of US, now," said Bert Johnson. Upon which they broke +into simultaneous good-natured laughter. + +"It's queer, isn't it," young Baumgarten put in, "how a fellow always +feels sore when he sees another fellow with a peach like that? It's just +straight human nature, I guess." + +The door swung open to admit a newcomer, at the sight of whom Jem Belter +exclaimed joyously: "Good old Georgie! Here he is, fellows! Get on to +his glad rags." + +"Glad rags" is supposed to buoyantly describe such attire as, by its +freshness or elegance of style, is rendered a suitable adornment for +festive occasions or loftier leisure moments. "Glad rags" may mean +evening dress, when a young gentleman's wardrobe can aspire to splendour +so marked, but it also applies to one's best and latest-purchased garb, +in contradistinction to the less ornamental habiliments worn every day, +and designated as "office clothes." + +G. Selden's economies had not enabled him to give himself into the hands +of a Bond Street tailor, but a careful study of cut and material, as +spread before the eye in elegant coloured illustrations in the windows +of respectable shops in less ambitious quarters, had resulted in the +purchase of a well-made suit of smart English cut. He had a nice young +figure, and looked extremely neat and tremendously new and clean, so +much so, indeed, that several persons glanced at him a little admiringly +as he was met half way to the corner table by his friends. + +"Hello, old chap! Glad to see you. What sort of a voyage? How did you +leave the royal family? Glad to get back?" + +They all greeted him at once, shaking hands and slapping him on the +back, as they hustled him gleefully back to the corner table and made +him sit down. + +"Say, garsong," said Nick Baumgarten to their favourite waiter, who came +at once in answer to his summons, "let's have a porterhouse steak, half +the size of this table, and with plenty of mushrooms and potatoes hashed +brown. Here's Mr. Selden just returned from visiting at Windsor Castle, +and if we don't treat him well, he'll look down on us." + +G. Selden grinned. "How have you been getting on, Sam?" he said, nodding +cheerfully to the man. They were old and tried friends. Sam knew all +about the days when a fellow could not come into Shandy's at all, or +must satisfy his strong young hunger with a bowl of soup, or coffee and +a roll. Sam did his best for them in the matter of the size of portions, +and they did their good-natured utmost for him in the affair of the +pooled tip. + +"Been getting on as well as can be expected," Sam grinned back. "Hope +you had a fine time, Mr. Selden?" + +"Fine! I should smile! Fine wasn't in it," answered Selden. "But I'm +looking forward to a Shandy porterhouse steak, all the same." + +"Did they give you a better one in the Strawnd?" asked Baumgarten, in +what he believed to be a correct Cockney accent. + +"You bet they didn't," said Selden. "Shandy's takes a lot of beating." +That last is English. + +The people at the other tables cast involuntary glances at them. Their +eager, hearty young pleasure in the festivity of the occasion was a +healthy thing to see. As they sat round the corner table, they produced +the effect of gathering close about G. Selden. They concentrated their +combined attention upon him, Belter and Johnson leaning forward on their +folded arms, to watch him as he talked. + +"Billy Page came back in August, looking pretty bum," Nick Baumgarten +began. "He'd been painting gay Paree brick red, and he'd spent more +money than he'd meant to, and that wasn't half enough. Landed dead +broke. He said he'd had a great time, but he'd come home with rather a +dark brown taste in his mouth, that he'd like to get rid of." + +"He thought you were a fool to go off cycling into the country," put in +Wetherbee, "but I told him I guessed that was where he was 'way off. I +believed you'd had the best time of the two of you." + +"Boys," said Selden, "I had the time of my life." He said it almost +solemnly, and laid his hand on the table. "It was like one of those +yarns Bert tells us. Half the time I didn't believe it, and half the +time I was ashamed of myself to think it was all happening to me and +none of your fellows were in it." + +"Oh, well," said Jem Belter, "luck chases some fellows, anyhow. Look at +Nick, there." + +"Well," Selden summed the whole thing up, "I just FELL into it where +it was so deep that I had to strike out all I knew how to keep from +drowning." + +"Tell us the whole thing," Nick Baumgarten put in; "from beginning to +end. Your letter didn't give anything away." + +"A letter would have spoiled it. I can't write letters anyhow. I wanted +to wait till I got right here with you fellows round where I could +answer questions. First off," with the deliberation befitting such an +opening, "I've sold machines enough to pay my expenses, and leave some +over." + +"You have? Gee whiz! Say, give us your prescription. Glad I know you, +Georgy!" + +"And who do you suppose bought the first three?" At this point, it +was he who leaned forward upon the table--his climax being a thing to +concentrate upon. "Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughter--Miss Bettina! And, +boys, she gave me a letter to Reuben S., himself, and here it is." + +He produced a flat leather pocketbook and took an envelope from an inner +flap, laying it before them on the tablecloth. His knowledge that they +would not have believed him if he had not brought his proof was founded +on everyday facts. They would not have doubted his veracity, but +the possibility of such delirious good fortune. What they would have +believed would have been that he was playing a hilarious joke on +them. Jokes of this kind, but not of this proportion, were common +entertainments. + +Their first impulse had been towards an outburst of laughter, but even +before he produced his letter a certain truthful seriousness in his look +had startled them. When he laid the envelope down each man caught his +breath. It could not be denied that Jem Belter turned pale with emotion. +Jem had never been one of the lucky ones. + +"She let me read it," said G. Selden, taking the letter from its +envelope with great care. "And I said to her: 'Miss Vanderpoel, would +you let me just show that to the boys the first night I go to Shandy's?' +I knew she'd tell me if it wasn't all right to do it. She'd know I'd +want to be told. And she just laughed and said: 'I don't mind at all. I +like "the boys." Here is a message to them. "Good luck to you all."'" + +"She said that?" from Nick Baumgarten. + +"Yes, she did, and she meant it. Look at this." + +This was the letter. It was quite short, and written in a clear, +definite hand. + + +"DEAR FATHER: This will be brought to you by Mr. G. Selden, of whom I +have written to you. Please be good to him. + +"Affectionately, + +"BETTY." + + +Each young man read it in turn. None of them said anything just at +first. A kind of awe had descended upon them--not in the least awe of +Vanderpoel, who, with other multi-millionaires, were served up each week +with cheerful neighbourly comment or equally neighbourly disrespect, in +huge Sunday papers read throughout the land--but awe of the unearthly +luck which had fallen without warning to good old G. S., who lived like +the rest of them in a hall bedroom on ten per, earned by tramping the +streets for the Delkoff. + +"That girl," said G. Selden gravely, "that girl is a winner from +Winnersville. I take off my hat to her. If it's the scheme that some +people's got to have millions, and others have got to sell Delkoffs, +that girl's one of those that's entitled to the millions. It's all right +she should have 'em. There's no kick coming from me." + +Nick Baumgarten was the first to resume wholly normal condition of mind. + +"Well, I guess after you've told us about her there'll be no kick +coming from any of us. Of course there's something about you that royal +families cry for, and they won't be happy till they get. All of us boys +knows that. But what we want to find out is how you worked it so that +they saw the kind of pearl-studded hairpin you were." + +"Worked it!" Selden answered. "I didn't work it. I've got a good bit of +nerve, but I never should have had enough to invent what happened--just +HAPPENED. I broke my leg falling off my bike, and fell right into +a whole bunch of them--earls and countesses and viscounts and +Vanderpoels. And it was Miss Vanderpoel who saw me first lying on the +ground. And I was in Stornham Court where Lady Anstruthers lives--and +she used to be Miss Rosalie Vanderpoel." + +"Boys," said Bert Johnson, with friendly disgust, "he's been up to his +neck in 'em." + +"Cheer up. The worst is yet to come," chaffed Tom Wetherbee. + +Never had such a dinner taken place at the corner table, or, in fact, +at any other table at Shandy's. Sam brought beefsteaks, which were +princely, mushrooms, and hashed brown potatoes in portions whose +generosity reached the heart. Sam was on good terms with Shandy's +carver, and had worked upon his nobler feelings. Steins of lager beer +were ventured upon. There was hearty satisfying of fine hungers. Two of +the party had eaten nothing but one "Quick Lunch" throughout the day, +one of them because he was short of time, the other for economy's +sake, because he was short of money. The meal was a splendid thing. The +telling of the story could not be wholly checked by the eating of food. +It advanced between mouthfuls, questions being asked and details given +in answers. Shandy's became more crowded, as the hour advanced. People +all over the room cast interested looks at the party at the corner +table, enjoying itself so hugely. Groups sitting at the tables nearest +to it found themselves excited by the things they heard. + +"That young fellow in the new suit has just come back from Europe," said +a man to his wife and daughter. "He seems to have had a good time." + +"Papa," the daughter leaned forward, and spoke in a low voice, "I heard +him say 'Lord Mount Dunstan said Lady Anstruthers and Miss Vanderpoel +were at the garden party.' Who do you suppose he is?" + +"Well, he's a nice young fellow, and he has English clothes on, but he +doesn't look like one of the Four Hundred. Will you have pie or vanilla +ice cream, Bessy?" + +Bessy--who chose vanilla ice cream--lost all knowledge of its flavour +in her absorption in the conversation at the next table, which she could +not have avoided hearing, even if she had wished. + +"She bent over the bed and laughed--just like any other nice girl--and +she said, 'You are at Stornham Court, which belongs to Sir Nigel +Anstruthers. Lady Anstruthers is my sister. I am Miss Vanderpoel.' And, +boys, she used to come and talk to me every day." + +"George," said Nick Baumgarten, "you take about seventy-five bottles of +Warner's Safe Cure, and rub yourself all over with St. Jacob's Oil. Luck +like that ain't HEALTHY!" + +. . . . . + +Mr. Vanderpoel, sitting in his study, wore the interestedly grave look +of a man thinking of absorbing things. He had just given orders that a +young man who would call in the course of the evening should be brought +to him at once, and he was incidentally considering this young man, as +he reflected upon matters recalled to his mind by his impending +arrival. They were matters he had thought of with gradually increasing +seriousness for some months, and they had, at first, been the result of +the letters from Stornham, which each "steamer day" brought. They had +been of immense interest to him--these letters. He would have found them +absorbing as a study, even if he had not deeply loved Betty. He read in +them things she did not state in words, and they set him thinking. + +He was not suspected by men like himself of concealing an imagination +beneath the trained steadiness of his exterior, but he possessed more +than the world knew, and it singularly combined itself with powers of +logical deduction. + +If he had been with his daughter, he would have seen, day by day, where +her thoughts were leading her, and in what direction she was developing, +but, at a distance of three thousand miles, he found himself asking +questions, and endeavouring to reach conclusions. His affection for +Betty was the central emotion of his existence. He had never told +himself that he had outgrown the kind and pretty creature he had married +in his early youth, and certainly his tender care for her and pleasure +in her simple goodness had never wavered, but Betty had given him a +companionship which had counted greatly in the sum of his happiness. +Because imagination was not suspected in him, no one knew what she stood +for in his life. He had no son; he stood at the head of a great +house, so to speak--the American parallel of what a great house is in +non-republican countries. The power of it counted for great things, not +in America alone, but throughout the world. As international intimacies +increased, the influence of such houses might end in aiding in the +making of history. Enormous constantly increasing wealth and huge +financial schemes could not confine their influence, but must reach far. +The man whose hand held the lever controlling them was doing well when +he thought of them gravely. Such a man had to do with more than his own +mere life and living. This man had confronted many problems as the years +had passed. He had seen men like himself die, leaving behind them the +force they had controlled, and he had seen this force--controlled no +longer--let loose upon the world, sometimes a power of evil, sometimes +scattering itself aimlessly into nothingness and folly, which wrought +harm. He was not an ambitious man, but--perhaps because he was not +only a man of thought, but a Vanderpoel of the blood of the first +Reuben--these were things he did not contemplate without restlessness. +When Rosy had gone away and seemed lost to them, he had been glad when +he had seen Betty growing, day by day, into a strong thing. Feminine +though she was, she sometimes suggested to him the son who might have +been his, but was not. As the closeness of their companionship increased +with her years, his admiration for her grew with his love. Power left in +her hands must work for the advancement of things, and would not be idly +disseminated--if no antagonistic influence wrought against her. He had +found himself reflecting that, after all was said, the marriage of such +a girl had a sort of parallel in that of some young royal creature, +whose union might make or mar things, which must be considered. The man +who must inevitably strongly colour her whole being, and vitally mark +her life, would, in a sense, lay his hand upon the lever also. If he +brought sorrow and disorder with him, the lever would not move steadily. +Fortunes such as his grow rapidly, and he was a richer man by millions +than he had been when Rosalie had married Nigel Anstruthers. The memory +of that marriage had been a painful thing to him, even before he +had known the whole truth of its results. The man had been a common +adventurer and scoundrel, despite the facts of good birth and the air of +decent breeding. If a man who was as much a scoundrel, but cleverer--it +would be necessary that he should be much cleverer--made the best of +himself to Betty----! It was folly to think one could guess what a +woman--or a man, either, for that matter--would love. He knew Betty, but +no man knows the thing which comes, as it were, in the dark and claims +its own--whether for good or evil. He had lived long enough to see +beautiful, strong-spirited creatures do strange things, follow strange +gods, swept away into seas of pain by strange waves. + +"Even Betty," he had said to himself, now and then. "Even my Betty. Good +God--who knows!" + +Because of this, he had read each letter with keen eyes. They were long +letters, full of detail and colour, because she knew he enjoyed them. +She had a delightful touch. He sometimes felt as if they walked the +English lanes together. His intimacy with her neighbours, and her +neighbourhood, was one of his relaxations. He found himself thinking of +old Doby and Mrs. Welden, as a sort of soporific measure, when he lay +awake at night. She had sent photographs of Stornham, of Dunholm Castle, +and of Dole, and had even found an old engraving of Lady Alanby in her +youth. Her evident liking for the Dunholms had pleased him. They were +people whose dignity and admirableness were part of general knowledge. +Lord Westholt was plainly a young man of many attractions. If the two +were drawn to each other--and what more natural--all would be well. +He wondered if it would be Westholt. But his love quickened a sagacity +which needed no stimulus. He said to himself in time that, though she +liked and admired Westholt, she went no farther. That others paid court +to her he could guess without being told. He had seen the effect she had +produced when she had been at home, and also an unexpected letter to his +wife from Milly Bowen had revealed many things. Milly, having noted Mrs. +Vanderpoel's eager anxiety to hear direct news of Lady Anstruthers, was +not the person to let fall from her hand a useful thread of connection. +She had written quite at length, managing adroitly to convey all that +she had seen, and all that she had heard. She had been making a visit +within driving distance of Stornham, and had had the pleasure of meeting +both Lady Anstruthers and Miss Vanderpoel at various parties. She was so +sure that Mrs. Vanderpoel would like to hear how well Lady Anstruthers +was looking, that she ventured to write. Betty's effect upon the county +was made quite clear, as also was the interested expectation of her +appearance in town next season. Mr. Vanderpoel, perhaps, gathered more +from the letter than his wife did. In her mind, relieved happiness and +consternation were mingled. + +"Do you think, Reuben, that Betty will marry that Lord Westholt?" she +rather faltered. "He seems very nice, but I would rather she married an +American. I should feel as if I had no girls at all, if they both lived +in England." + +"Lady Bowen gives him a good character," her husband said, smiling. "But +if anything untoward happens, Annie, you shall have a house of your own +half way between Dunholm Castle and Stornham Court." + +When he had begun to decide that Lord Westholt did not seem to be the +man Fate was veering towards, he not unnaturally cast a mental eye over +such other persons as the letters mentioned. At exactly what period his +thought first dwelt a shade anxiously on Mount Dunstan he could not have +told, but he at length became conscious that it so dwelt. He had begun +by feeling an interest in his story, and had asked questions about him, +because a situation such as his suggested query to a man of affairs. +Thus, it had been natural that the letters should speak of him. What she +had written had recalled to him certain rumours of the disgraceful +old scandal. Yes, they had been a bad lot. He arranged to put a +casual-sounding question or so to certain persons who knew English +society well. What he gathered was not encouraging. The present +Lord Mount Dunstan was considered rather a surly brute, and lived a +mysterious sort of life which might cover many things. It was bad blood, +and people were naturally shy of it. Of course, the man was a pauper, +and his place a barrack falling to ruin. There had been something rather +shady in his going to America or Australia a few years ago. + +Good looking? Well, so few people had seen him. The lady, who was +speaking, had heard that he was one of those big, rather lumpy men, and +had an ill-tempered expression. She always gave a wide berth to a man +who looked nasty-tempered. One or two other persons who had spoken of +him had conveyed to Mr. Vanderpoel about the same amount of vaguely +unpromising information. The episode of G. Selden had been interesting +enough, with its suggestions of picturesque contrasts and combinations. +Betty's touch had made the junior salesman attracting. It was a good +type this, of a young fellow who, battling with the discouragements of +a hard life, still did not lose his amazing good cheer and patience, and +found healthy sleep and honest waking, even in the hall bedroom. He had +consented to Betty's request that he would see him, partly because he +was inclined to like what he had heard, and partly for a reason which +Betty did not suspect. By extraordinary chance G. Selden had seen Mount +Dunstan and his surroundings at close range. Mr. Vanderpoel had liked +what he had gathered of Mount Dunstan's attitude towards a personality +so singularly exotic to himself. Crude, uneducated, and slangy, the +junior salesman was not in any degree a fool. To an American father with +a daughter like Betty, the summing-up of a normal, nice-natured, common +young denizen of the United States, fresh from contact with the +effete, might be subtly instructive, and well worth hearing, if it was +unconsciously expressed. Mr. Vanderpoel thought he knew how, after +he had overcome his visitor's first awkwardness--if he chanced to be +self-conscious--he could lead him to talk. What he hoped to do was to +make him forget himself and begin to talk to him as he had talked to +Betty, to ingenuously reveal impressions and points of view. Young men +of his clean, rudimentary type were very definite about the things they +liked and disliked, and could be trusted to reveal admiration, or lack +of it, without absolute intention or actual statement. Being elemental +and undismayed, they saw things cleared of the mists of social prejudice +and modification. Yes, he felt he should be glad to hear of Lord Mount +Dunstan and the Mount Dunstan estate from G. Selden in a happy moment of +unawareness. + +Why was it that it happened to be Mount Dunstan he was desirous to hear +of? Well, the absolute reason for that he could not have explained, +either. He had asked himself questions on the subject more than once. +There was no well-founded reason, perhaps. If Betty's letters had spoken +of Mount Dunstan and his home, they had also described Lord Westholt +and Dunholm Castle. Of these two men she had certainly spoken more fully +than of others. Of Mount Dunstan she had had more to relate through the +incident of G. Selden. He smiled as he realised the importance of the +figure of G. Selden. It was Selden and his broken leg the two men had +ridden over from Mount Dunstan to visit. But for Selden, Betty might not +have met Mount Dunstan again. He was reason enough for all she had said. +And yet----! Perhaps, between Betty and himself there existed the thing +which impresses and communicates without words. Perhaps, because +their affection was unusual, they realised each other's emotions. The +half-defined anxiety he felt now was not a new thing, but he confessed +to himself that it had been spurred a little by the letter the last +steamer had brought him. It was NOT Lord Westholt, it definitely +appeared. He had asked her to be his wife, and she had declined his +proposal. + +"I could not have LIKED a man any more without being in love with him," +she wrote. "I LIKE him more than I can say--so much, indeed, that I +feel a little depressed by my certainty that I do not love him." + +If she had loved him, the whole matter would have been simplified. If +the other man had drawn her, the thing would not be simple. Her father +foresaw all the complications--and he did not want complications for +Betty. Yet emotions were perverse and irresistible things, and the +stronger the creature swayed by them, the more enormous their power. +But, as he sat in his easy chair and thought over it all, the +one feeling predominant in his mind was that nothing mattered but +Betty--nothing really mattered but Betty. + +In the meantime G. Selden was walking up Fifth Avenue, at once touched +and exhilarated by the stir about him and his sense of home-coming. It +was pretty good to be in little old New York again. The hurried pace of +the life about him stimulated his young blood. There were no street cars +in Fifth Avenue, but there were carriages, waggons, carts, motors, all +pantingly hurried, and fretting and struggling when the crowded state +of the thoroughfare held them back. The beautifully dressed women in +the carriages wore no light air of being at leisure. It was evident that +they were going to keep engagements, to do things, to achieve objects. + +"Something doing. Something doing," was his cheerful self-congratulatory +thought. He had spent his life in the midst of it, he liked it, and it +welcomed him back. + +The appointment he was on his way to keep thrilled him into an uplifted +mood. Once or twice a half-nervous chuckle broke from him as he tried to +realise that he had been given the chance which a year ago had seemed +so impossible that its mere incredibleness had made it a natural subject +for jokes. He was going to call on Reuben S. Vanderpoel, and he was +going because Reuben S. had made an appointment with him. + +He wore his London suit of clothes and he felt that he looked pretty +decent. He could only do his best in the matter of bearing. He always +thought that, so long as a fellow didn't get "chesty" and kept his head +from swelling, he was all right. Of course he had never been in one of +these swell Fifth Avenue houses, and he felt a bit nervous--but Miss +Vanderpoel would have told her father what sort of fellow he was, and +her father was likely to be something like herself. The house, which had +been built since Lady Anstruthers' marriage, was well "up-town," and was +big and imposing. When a manservant opened the front door, the square +hall looked very splendid to Selden. It was full of light, and of rich +furniture, which was like the stuff he had seen in one or two special +shop windows in Fifth Avenue--places where they sold magnificent +gilded or carven coffers and vases, pieces of tapestry and marvellous +embroideries, antiquities from foreign palaces. Though it was quite +different, it was as swell in its way as the house at Mount Dunstan, +and there were gleams of pictures on the walls that looked fine, and no +mistake. + +He was expected. The man led him across the hall to Mr. Vanderpoel's +room. After he had announced his name he closed the door quietly and +went away. Mr. Vanderpoel rose from an armchair to come forward to meet +his visitor. He was tall and straight--Betty had inherited her slender +height from him. His well-balanced face suggested the relationship +between them. He had a steady mouth, and eyes which looked as if they +saw much and far. + +"I am glad to see you, Mr. Selden," he said, shaking hands with +him. "You have seen my daughters, and can tell me how they are. Miss +Vanderpoel has written to me of you several times." + +He asked him to sit down, and as he took his chair Selden felt that he +had been right in telling himself that Reuben S. Vanderpoel would be +somehow like his girl. She was a girl, and he was an elderly man of +business, but they were like each other. There was the same kind of +straight way of doing things, and the same straight-seeing look in both +of them. + +It was queer how natural things seemed, when they really happened to a +fellow. Here he was sitting in a big leather chair and opposite to him +in its fellow sat Reuben S. Vanderpoel, looking at him with friendly +eyes. And it seemed all right, too--not as if he had managed to "butt +in," and would find himself politely fired out directly. He might have +been one of the Four Hundred making a call. Reuben S. knew how to make +a man feel easy, and no mistake. This G. Selden observed at once, though +he had, in fact, no knowledge of the practical tact which dealt with +him. He found himself answering questions about Lady Anstruthers and +her sister, which led to the opening up of other subjects. He did not +realise that he began to express ingenuous opinions and describe things. +His listener's interest led him on, a question here, a rather pleased +laugh there, were encouraging. He had enjoyed himself so much during his +stay in England, and had felt his experiences so greatly to be rejoiced +over, that they were easy to talk of at any time--in fact, it was even a +trifle difficult not to talk of them--but, stimulated by the look which +rested on him, by the deft word and ready smile, words flowed readily +and without the restraint of self-consciousness. + +"When you think that all of it sort of began with a robin, it's queer +enough," he said. "But for that robin I shouldn't be here, sir," with a +boyish laugh. "And he was an English robin--a little fellow not half the +size of the kind that hops about Central Park." + +"Let me hear about that," said Mr. Vanderpoel. + +It was a good story, and he told it well, though in his own junior +salesman phrasing. He began with his bicycle ride into the green +country, his spin over the fine roads, his rest under the hedge during +the shower, and then the song of the robin perched among the fresh wet +leafage, his feathers puffed out, his red young satin-glossed breast +pulsating and swelling. His words were colloquial enough, but they +called up the picture. + +"Everything sort of glittering with the sunshine on the wet drops, and +things smelling good, like they do after rain--leaves, and grass, and +good earth. I tell you it made a fellow feel as if the whole world was +his brother. And when Mr. Rob. lit on that twig and swelled his red +breast as if he knew the whole thing was his, and began to let them +notes out, calling for his lady friend to come and go halves with him, I +just had to laugh and speak to him, and that was when Lord Mount Dunstan +heard me and jumped over the hedge. He'd been listening, too." + +The expression Reuben S. Vanderpoel wore made it an agreeable thing to +talk--to go on. He evidently cared to hear. So Selden did his best, +and enjoyed himself in doing it. His style made for realism and brought +things clearly before one. The big-built man in the rough and shabby +shooting clothes, his way when he dropped into the grass to sit beside +the stranger and talk, certain meanings in his words which conveyed to +Vanderpoel what had not been conveyed to G. Selden. Yes, the man +carried a heaviness about with him and hated the burden. Selden quite +unconsciously brought him out strongly. + +"I don't know whether I'm the kind of fellow who is always making +breaks," he said, with his boy's laugh again, "but if I am, I never made +a worse one than when I asked him straight if he was out of a job, and +on the tramp. It showed what a nice fellow he was that he didn't get hot +about it. Some fellows would. He only laughed--sort of short--and said +his job had been more than he could handle, and he was afraid he was +down and out." + +Mr. Vanderpoel was conscious that so far he was somewhat attracted by +this central figure. G. Selden was also proving satisfactory in the +matter of revealing his excellently simple views of persons and things. + +"The only time he got mad was when I wouldn't believe him when he told +me who he was. I was a bit hot in the collar myself. I'd felt sorry for +him, because I thought he was a chap like myself, and he was up against +it. I know what that is, and I'd wanted to jolly him along a bit. When +he said his name was Mount Dunstan, and the place belonged to him, +I guessed he thought he was making a joke. So I got on my wheel and +started off, and then he got mad for keeps. He said he wasn't such a +damned fool as he looked, and what he'd said was true, and I could go +and be hanged." + +Reuben S. Vanderpoel laughed. He liked that. It sounded like decent +British hot temper, which he had often found accompanied honest British +decencies. + +He liked other things, as the story proceeded. The picture of the huge +house with the shut windows, made him slightly restless. The concealed +imagination, combined with the financier's resentment of dormant +interests, disturbed him. That which had attracted Selden in the +Reverend Lewis Penzance strongly attracted himself. Also, a man was a +good deal to be judged by his friends. The man who lived alone in the +midst of stately desolateness and held as his chief intimate a high-bred +and gentle-minded scholar of ripe years, gave, in doing this, certain +evidence which did not tell against him. The whole situation meant +something a splendid, vivid-minded young creature might be moved +by--might be allured by, even despite herself. + +There was something fantastic in the odd linking of incidents--Selden's +chance view of Betty as she rode by, his next day's sudden resolve to +turn back and go to Stornham, his accident, all that followed seemed, if +one were fanciful--part of a scheme prearranged + +"When I came to myself," G. Selden said, "I felt like that fellow in the +Shakespeare play that they dress up and put to bed in the palace when +he's drunk. I thought I'd gone off my head. And then Miss Vanderpoel +came." He paused a moment and looked down on the carpet, thinking. "Gee +whiz! It WAS queer," he said. + +Betty Vanderpoel's father could almost hear her voice as the rest was +told. He knew how her laugh had sounded, and what her presence must +have been to the young fellow. His delightful, human, always satisfying +Betty! + +Through this odd trick of fortune, Mount Dunstan had begun to see her. +Since, through the unfair endowment of Nature--that it was not wholly +fair he had often told himself--she was all the things that desire could +yearn for, there were many chances that when a man saw her he must long +to see her again, and there were the same chances that such an one as +Mount Dunstan might long also, and, if Fate was against him, long with +a bitter strength. Selden was not aware that he had spoken more fully of +Mount Dunstan and his place than of other things. That this had been the +case, had been because Mr. Vanderpoel had intended it should be so. He +had subtly drawn out and encouraged a detailed account of the time +spent at Mount Dunstan vicarage. It was easily encouraged. Selden's +affectionate admiration for the vicar led him on to enthusiasm. The +quiet house and garden, the old books, the afternoon tea under the +copper beech, and the long talks of old things, which had been so new to +the young New Yorker, had plainly made a mark upon his life, not likely +to be erased even by the rush of after years. + +"The way he knew history was what got me," he said. "And the way you got +interested in it, when he talked. It wasn't just HISTORY, like you learn +at school, and forget, and never see the use of, anyhow. It was things +about men, just like yourself--hustling for a living in their way, just +as we're hustling in Broadway. Most of it was fighting, and there are +mounds scattered about that are the remains of their forts and camps. +Roman camps, some of them. He took me to see them. He had a little old +pony chaise we trundled about in, and he'd draw up and we'd sit and +talk. 'There were men here on this very spot,' he'd say, 'looking +out for attack, eating, drinking, cooking their food, polishing their +weapons, laughing, and shouting--MEN--Selden, fifty-five years before +Christ was born--and sometimes the New Testament times seem to us so far +away that they are half a dream.' That was the kind of thing he'd say, +and I'd sometimes feel as if I heard the Romans shouting. The country +about there was full of queer places, and both he and Lord Dunstan knew +more about them than I know about Twenty-third Street." + +"You saw Lord Mount Dunstan often?" Mr. Vanderpoel suggested. + +"Every day, sir. And the more I saw him, the more I got to like +him. He's all right. But it's hard luck to be fixed as he is--that's +stone-cold truth. What's a man to do? The money he ought to have to keep +up his place was spent before he was born. His father and his eldest +brother were a bum lot, and his grandfather and great-grandfather +were fools. He can't sell the place, and he wouldn't if he could. +Mr. Penzance was so fond of him that sometimes he'd say things. But," +hastily, "perhaps I'm talking too much." + +"You happen to be talking about questions I have been greatly interested +in. I have thought a good deal at times of the position of the holders +of large estates they cannot afford to keep up. This special instance is +a case in point." + +G. Selden felt himself in luck again. Reuben S., quite evidently, found +his subject worthy of undivided attention. Selden had not heartily liked +Lord Mount Dunstan, and lived in the atmosphere surrounding him, looking +about him with sharp young New York eyes, without learning a good deal. + +He had seen the practical hardship of the situation, and laid it bare. + +"What Mr. Penzance says is that he's like the men that built things +in the beginning--fought for them--fought Romans and Saxons and +Normans--perhaps the whole lot at different times. I used to like to +get Mr. Penzance to tell stories about the Mount Dunstans. They were +splendid. It must be pretty fine to look back about a thousand years and +know your folks have been something. All the same its pretty fierce to +have to stand alone at the end of it, not able to help yourself, because +some of your relations were crazy fools. I don't wonder he feels mad." + +"Does he?" Mr. Vanderpoel inquired. + +"He's straight," said G. Selden sympathetically. "He's all right. But +only money can help him, and he's got none, so he has to stand and stare +at things falling to pieces. And--well, I tell you, Mr. Vanderpoel, he +LOVES that place--he's crazy about it. And he's proud--I don't mean he's +got the swell-head, because he hasn't--but he's just proud. Now, for +instance, he hasn't any use for men like himself that marry just for +money. He's seen a lot of it, and it's made him sick. He's not that +kind." + +He had been asked and had answered a good many questions before he went +away, but each had dropped into the talk so incidentally that he had +not recognised them as queries. He did not know that Lord Mount Dunstan +stood out a clearly defined figure in Mr. Vanderpoel's mind, a figure to +be reflected upon, and one not without its attraction. + +"Miss Vanderpoel tells me," Mr. Vanderpoel said, when the interview was +drawing to a close, "that you are an agent for the Delkoff typewriter." + +G. Selden flushed slightly. + +"Yes, sir," he answered, "but I didn't----" + +"I hear that three machines are in use on the Stornham estate, and that +they have proved satisfactory." + +"It's a good machine," said G. Selden, his flush a little deeper. + +Mr. Vanderpoel smiled. + +"You are a business-like young man," he said, "and I have no doubt you +have a catalogue in your pocket." + +G. Selden was a business-like young man. He gave Mr. Vanderpoel one +serious look, and the catalogue was drawn forth. + +"It wouldn't be business, sir, for me to be caught out without it," he +said. "I shouldn't leave it behind if I went to a funeral. A man's got +to run no risks." + +"I should like to look at it." + +The thing had happened. It was not a dream. Reuben S. Vanderpoel, +clothed and in his right mind, had, without pressure being exerted upon +him, expressed his desire to look at the catalogue--to examine it--to +have it explained to him at length. + +He listened attentively, while G. Selden did his best. He asked a +question now and then, or made a comment. His manner was that of a +thoroughly composed man of business, but he was remembering what Betty +had told him of the "ten per," and a number of other things. He saw +the flush come and go under the still boyish skin, he observed that G. +Selden's hand was not wholly steady, though he was making an effort not +to seem excited. But he was excited. This actually meant--this thing so +unimportant to multi-millionaires--that he was having his "chance," and +his young fortunes were, perhaps, in the balance. + +"Yes," said Reuben S., when he had finished, "it seems a good, +up-to-date machine." + +"It's the best on the market," said G. Selden, "out and out, the best." + +"I understand you are only junior salesman?" + +"Yes, sir. Ten per and five dollars on every machine I sell. If I had a +territory, I should get ten." + +"Then," reflectively, "the first thing is to get a territory." + +"Perhaps I shall get one in time, if I keep at it," said Selden +courageously. + +"It is a good machine. I like it," said Mr. Vanderpoel. "I can see a +good many places where it could be used. Perhaps, if you make it known +at your office that when you are given a good territory, I shall +give preference to the Delkoff over other typewriting machines, it +might--eh?" + +A light broke out upon G. Selden's countenance--a light radiant and +magnificent. He caught his breath. A desire to shout--to yell--to whoop, +as when in the society of "the boys," was barely conquered in time. + +"Mr. Vanderpoel," he said, standing up, "I--Mr. Vanderpoel--sir--I feel +as if I was having a pipe dream. I'm not, am I?" + +"No," answered Mr. Vanderpoel, "you are not. I like you, Mr. Selden. My +daughter liked you. I do not mean to lose sight of you. We will begin, +however, with the territory, and the Delkoff. I don't think there will +be any difficulty about it." + +. . . . . + +Ten minutes later G. Selden was walking down Fifth Avenue, wondering +if there was any chance of his being arrested by a policeman upon the +charge that he was reeling, instead of walking steadily. He hoped he +should get back to the hall bedroom safely. Nick Baumgarten and Jem +Bolter both "roomed" in the house with him. He could tell them both. +It was Jem who had made up the yarn about one of them saving Reuben S. +Vanderpoel's life. There had been no life-saving, but the thing had come +true. + +"But, if it hadn't been for Lord Mount Dunstan," he said, thinking it +over excitedly, "I should never have seen Miss Vanderpoel, and, if it +hadn't been for Miss Vanderpoel, I should never have got next to Reuben +S. in my life. Both sides of the Atlantic Ocean got busy to do a good +turn to Little Willie. Hully gee!" + +In his study Mr. Vanderpoel was rereading Betty's letters. He felt that +he had gained a certain knowledge of Lord Mount Dunstan. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +ON THE MARSHES + +THE marshes stretched mellow in the autumn sun, sheep wandered about, +nibbling contentedly, or lay down to rest in groups, the sky reflecting +itself in the narrow dykes gave a blue colour to the water, a scent of +the sea was in the air as one breathed it, flocks of plover rose, now +and then, crying softly. Betty, walking with her dog, had passed a heron +standing at the edge of a pool. + +From her first discovery of them, she had been attracted by the marshes +with their English suggestion of the Roman Campagna, their broad expanse +of level land spread out to the sun and wind, the thousands of white +sheep dotted or clustered as far as eye could reach, the hues of the +marsh grass and the plants growing thick at the borders of the strips +of water. Its beauty was all its own and curiously aloof from the +softly-wooded, undulating world about it. Driving or walking along the +high road--the road the Romans had built to London town long centuries +ago--on either side of one were meadows, farms, scattered cottages, and +hop gardens, but beyond and below stretched the marsh land, golden and +grey, and always alluring one by its silence. + +"I never pass it without wanting to go to it--to take solitary walks +over it, to be one of the spots on it as the sheep are. It seems as if, +lying there under the blue sky or the low grey clouds with all the world +held at bay by mere space and stillness, they must feel something we +know nothing of. I want to go and find out what it is." + +This she had once said to Mount Dunstan. + +So she had fallen into the habit of walking there with her dog at her +side as her sole companion, for having need for time and space for +thought, she had found them in the silence and aloofness. + +Life had been a vivid and pleasurable thing to her, as far as she could +look back upon it. She began to realise that she must have been very +happy, because she had never found herself desiring existence other than +such as had come to her day by day. Except for her passionate childish +regret at Rosy's marriage, she had experienced no painful feeling. +In fact, she had faced no hurt in her life, and certainly had been +confronted by no limitations. Arguing that girls in their teens usually +fall in love, her father had occasionally wondered that she passed +through no little episodes of sentiment, but the fact was that her +interests had been larger and more numerous than the interests of girls +generally are, and her affectionate intimacy with himself had left no +such small vacant spaces as are frequently filled by unimportant young +emotions. Because she was a logical creature, and had watched life and +those living it with clear and interested eyes, she had not been blind +to the path which had marked itself before her during the summer's +growth and waning. She had not, at first, perhaps, known exactly when +things began to change for her--when the clarity of her mind began to be +disturbed. She had thought in the beginning--as people have a habit +of doing--that an instance--a problem--a situation had attracted her +attention because it was absorbing enough to think over. Her view of the +matter had been that as the same thing would have interested her father, +it had interested herself. But from the morning when she had been +conscious of the sudden fury roused in her by Nigel Anstruthers' ugly +sneer at Mount Dunstan, she had better understood the thing which had +come upon her. Day by day it had increased and gathered power, and she +realised with a certain sense of impatience that she had not in any +degree understood it when she had seen and wondered at its effect on +other women. Each day had been like a wave encroaching farther upon the +shore she stood upon. At the outset a certain ignoble pride--she knew it +ignoble--filled her with rebellion. She had seen so much of this kind +of situation, and had heard so much of the general comment. People had +learned how to sneer because experience had taught them. If she gave +them cause, why should they not sneer at her as at things? She recalled +what she had herself thought of such things--the folly of them, the +obviousness--the almost deserved disaster. She had arrogated to herself +judgment of women--and men--who might, yes, who might have stood upon +their strip of sand, as she stood, with the waves creeping in, each one +higher, stronger, and more engulfing than the last. There might have +been those among them who also had knowledge of that sudden deadly +joy at the sight of one face, at the drop of one voice. When that wave +submerged one's pulsing being, what had the world to do with one--how +could one hear and think of what its speech might be? Its voice +clamoured too far off. + +As she walked across the marsh she was thinking this first phase over. +She had reached a new one, and at first she looked back with a faint, +even rather hard, smile. She walked straight ahead, her mastiff, Roland, +padding along heavily close at her side. How still and wide and golden +it was; how the cry of plover and lifting trill of skylark assured one +that one was wholly encircled by solitude and space which were more +enclosing than any walls! She was going to the mounds to which Mr. +Penzance had trundled G. Selden in the pony chaise, when he had given +him the marvellous hour which had brought Roman camp and Roman legions +to life again. Up on the largest hillock one could sit enthroned, +resting chin in hand and looking out under level lids at the unstirring, +softly-living loveliness of the marsh-land world. So she was presently +seated, with her heavy-limbed Roland at her feet. She had come here to +try to put things clearly to herself, to plan with such reason as she +could control. She had begun to be unhappy, she had begun--with some +unfairness--to look back upon the Betty Vanderpoel of the past as +an unwittingly self-sufficient young woman, to find herself suddenly +entangled by things, even to know a touch of desperateness. + +"Not to take a remnant from the ducal bargain counter," she was saying +mentally. That was why her smile was a little hard. What if the remnant +from the ducal bargain counter had prejudices of his own? + +"If he were passionately--passionately in love with me," she said, with +red staining her cheeks, "he would not come--he would not come--he would +not come. And, because of that, he is more to me--MORE! And more he will +become every day--and the more strongly he will hold me. And there we +stand." + +Roland lifted his fine head from his paws, and, holding it erect on a +stiff, strong neck, stared at her in obvious inquiry. She put out her +hand and tenderly patted him. + +"He will have none of me," she said. "He will have none of me." And she +faintly smiled, but the next instant shook her head a little haughtily, +and, having done so, looked down with an altered expression upon the +cloth of her skirt, because she had shaken upon it, from the extravagant +lashes, two clear drops. + +It was not the result of chance that she had seen nothing of him for +weeks. She had not attempted to persuade herself of that. Twice he had +declined an invitation to Stornham, and once he had ridden past her +on the road when he might have stopped to exchange greetings, or have +ridden on by her side. He did not mean to seem to desire, ever so +lightly, to be counted as in the lists. Whether he was drawn by any +liking for her or not, it was plain he had determined on this. + +If she were to go away now, they would never meet again. Their ways in +this world would part forever. She would not know how long it took to +break him utterly--if such a man could be broken. If no magic change +took place in his fortunes--and what change could come?--the decay +about him would spread day by day. Stone walls last a long time, so the +house would stand while every beauty and stateliness within it fell into +ruin. Gardens would become wildernesses, terraces and fountains crumble +and be overgrown, walls that were to-day leaning would fall with time. +The years would pass, and his youth with them; he would gradually change +into an old man while he watched the things he loved with passion die +slowly and hard. How strange it was that lives should touch and pass on +the ocean of Time, and nothing should result--nothing at all! When she +went on her way, it would be as if a ship loaded with every aid of food +and treasure had passed a boat in which a strong man tossed, starving to +death, and had not even run up a flag. + +"But one cannot run up a flag," she said, stroking Roland. "One cannot. +There we stand." + +To her recognition of this deadlock of Fate, there had been adding the +growing disturbance caused by yet another thing which was increasingly +troubling, increasingly difficult to face. + +Gradually, and at first with wonderful naturalness of bearing, Nigel +Anstruthers had managed to create for himself a singular place in her +everyday life. It had begun with a certain personalness in his attitude, +a personalness which was a thing to dislike, but almost impossible +openly to resent. Certainly, as a self-invited guest in his house, she +could scarcely protest against the amiability of his demeanour and his +exterior courtesy and attentiveness of manner in his conduct towards +her. She had tried to sweep away the objectionable quality in his +bearing, by frankness, by indifference, by entire lack of response, but +she had remained conscious of its increasing as a spider's web might +increase as the spider spun it quietly over one, throwing out threads +so impalpable that one could not brush them away because they were too +slight to be seen. She was aware that in the first years of his married +life he had alternately resented the scarcity of the invitations sent +them and rudely refused such as were received. Since he had returned +to find her at Stornham, he had insisted that no invitations should be +declined, and had escorted his wife and herself wherever they went. What +could have been conventionally more proper--what more improper than that +he should have persistently have remained at home? And yet there came a +time when, as they three drove together at night in the closed carriage, +Betty was conscious that, as he sat opposite to her in the dark, when he +spoke, when he touched her in arranging the robe over her, or opening +or shutting the window, he subtly, but persistently, conveyed that the +personalness of his voice, look, and physical nearness was a sort of +hideous confidence between them which they were cleverly concealing from +Rosalie and the outside world. + +When she rode about the country, he had a way of appearing at some +turning and making himself her companion, riding too closely at her +side, and assuming a noticeable air of being engaged in meaningly +confidential talk. Once, when he had been leaning towards her with an +audaciously tender manner, they had been passed by the Dunholm carriage, +and Lady Dunholm and the friend driving with her had evidently tried not +to look surprised. Lady Alanby, meeting them in the same way at another +time, had put up her glasses and stared in open disapproval. She might +admire a strikingly handsome American girl, but her favour would not +last through any such vulgar silliness as flirtations with disgraceful +brothers-in-law. When Betty strolled about the park or the lanes, she +much too often encountered Sir Nigel strolling also, and knew that he +did not mean to allow her to rid herself of him. In public, he made a +point of keeping observably close to her, of hovering in her vicinity +and looking on at all she did with eyes she rebelled against finding +fixed on her each time she was obliged to turn in his direction. He had +a fashion of coming to her side and speaking in a dropped voice, which +excluded others, as a favoured lover might. She had seen both men and +women glance at her in half-embarrassment at their sudden sense of +finding themselves slightly de trop. She had said aloud to him on one +such occasion--and she had said it with smiling casualness for the +benefit of Lady Alanby, to whom she had been talking: + +"Don't alarm me by dropping your voice, Nigel. I am easily +frightened--and Lady Alanby will think we are conspirators." + +For an instant he was taken by surprise. He had been pleased to believe +that there was no way in which she could defend herself, unless she +would condescend to something stupidly like a scene. He flushed and drew +himself up. + +"I beg your pardon, my dear Betty," he said, and walked away with +the manner of an offended adorer, leaving her to realise an odiously +unpleasant truth--which is that there are incidents only made more +inexplicable by an effort to explain. She saw also that he was +quite aware of this, and that his offended departure was a brilliant +inspiration, and had left her, as it were, in the lurch. To have said to +Lady Alanby: "My brother-in-law, in whose house I am merely staying for +my sister's sake, is trying to lead you to believe that I allow him to +make love to me," would have suggested either folly or insanity on her +own part. As it was--after a glance at Sir Nigel's stiffly retreating +back--Lady Alanby merely looked away with a wholly uninviting +expression. + +When Betty spoke to him afterwards, haughtily and with determination, he +laughed. + +"My dearest girl," he said, "if I watch you with interest and drop my +voice when I get a chance to speak to you, I only do what every other +man does, and I do it because you are an alluring young woman--which no +one is more perfectly aware of than yourself. Your pretence that you do +not know you are alluring is the most captivating thing about you. And +what do you think of doing if I continue to offend you? Do you propose +to desert us--to leave poor Rosalie to sink back again into the bundle +of old clothes she was when you came? For Heaven's sake, don't do that!" + +All that his words suggested took form before her vividly. How well he +understood what he was saying. But she answered him bravely. + +"No. I do not mean to do that." + +He watched her for a few seconds. There was curiosity in his eyes. + +"Don't make the mistake of imagining that I will let my wife go with you +to America," he said next. "She is as far off from that as she was when +I brought her to Stornham. I have told her so. A man cannot tie his wife +to the bedpost in these days, but he can make her efforts to leave him +so decidedly unpleasant that decent women prefer to stay at home and +take what is coming. I have seen that often enough 'to bank on it,' if I +may quote your American friends." + +"Do you remember my once saying," Betty remarked, "that when a woman has +been PROPERLY ill-treated the time comes when nothing matters--nothing +but release from the life she loathes?" + +"Yes," he answered. "And to you nothing would matter but--excuse +my saying it--your own damnable, headstrong pride. But Rosalie is +different. Everything matters to her. And you will find it so, my dear +girl." + +And that this was at least half true was brought home to her by the fact +that late the same night Rosy came to her white with crying. + +"It is not your fault, Betty," she said. "Don't think that I think it is +your fault, but he has been in my room in one of those humours when he +seems like a devil. He thinks you will go back to America and try to +take me with you. But, Betty, you must not think about me. It will be +better for you to go. I have seen you again. I have had you for--for a +time. You will be safer at home with father and mother." + +Betty laid a hand on her shoulder and looked at her fixedly. + +"What is it, Rosy?" she said. "What is it he does to you--that makes +you like this?" + +"I don't know--but that he makes me feel that there is nothing but +evil and lies in the world and nothing can help one against them. +Those things he says about everyone--men and women--things one can't +repeat--make me sick. And when I try to deny them, he laughs." + +"Does he say things about me?" Betty inquired, very quietly, and +suddenly Rosalie threw her arms round her. + +"Betty, darling," she cried, "go home--go home. You must not stay here." + +"When I go, you will go with me," Betty answered. "I am not going back +to mother without you." + +She made a collection of many facts before their interview was at an +end, and they parted for the night. Among the first was that Nigel had +prepared for certain possibilities as wise holders of a fortress prepare +for siege. A rather long sitting alone over whisky and soda had, without +making him loquacious, heated his blood in such a manner as led him to +be less subtle than usual. Drink did not make him drunk, but malignant, +and when a man is in the malignant mood, he forgets his cleverness. So +he revealed more than he absolutely intended. It was to be gathered that +he did not mean to permit his wife to leave him, even for a visit; he +would not allow himself to be made ridiculous by such a thing. A man +who could not control his wife was a fool and deserved to be a +laughing-stock. As Ughtred and his future inheritance seemed to have +become of interest to his grandfather, and were to be well nursed and +taken care of, his intention was that the boy should remain under his +own supervision. He could amuse himself well enough at Stornham, now +that it had been put in order, if it was kept up properly and he filled +it with people who did not bore him. There were people who did not bore +him--plenty of them. Rosalie would stay where she was and receive his +guests. If she imagined that the little episode of Ffolliott had been +entirely dormant, she was mistaken. He knew where the man was, and +exactly how serious it would be to him if scandal was stirred up. He had +been at some trouble to find out. The fellow had recently had the luck +to fall into a very fine living. It had been bestowed on him by the old +Duke of Broadmorlands, who was the most strait-laced old boy in England. +He had become so in his disgust at the light behaviour of the wife he +had divorced in his early manhood. Nigel cackled gently as he detailed +that, by an agreeable coincidence, it happened that her Grace had +suddenly become filled with pious fervour--roused thereto by a +good-looking locum tenens--result, painful discoveries--the pair +being now rumoured to be keeping a lodging-house together somewhere in +Australia. A word to good old Broadmorlands would produce the effect +of a lighted match on a barrel of gunpowder. It would be the end of +Ffolliott. Neither would it be a good introduction to Betty's first +season in London, neither would it be enjoyed by her mother, whom he +remembered as a woman with primitive views of domestic rectitude. +He smiled the awful smile as he took out of his pocket the envelope +containing the words his wife had written to Mr. Ffolliott, "Do not come +to the house. Meet me at Bartyon Wood." It did not take much to convince +people, if one managed things with decent forethought. The Brents, for +instance, were fond neither of her nor of Betty, and they had never +forgotten the questionable conduct of their locum tenens. Then, +suddenly, he had changed his manner and had sat down, laughing, and +drawn Rosalie to his knee and kissed her--yes, he had kissed her +and told her not to look like a little fool or act like one. Nothing +unpleasant would happen if she behaved herself. Betty had improved her +greatly, and she had grown young and pretty again. She looked quite like +a child sometimes, now that her bones were covered and she dressed well. +If she wanted to please him she could put her arms round his neck and +kiss him, as he had kissed her. + +"That is what has made you look white," said Betty. + +"Yes. There is something about him that sometimes makes you feel as +if the very blood in your veins turned white," answered Rosy--in a low +voice, which the next moment rose. "Don't you see--don't you see," +she broke out, "that to displease him would be like murdering Mr. +Ffolliott--like murdering his mother and mine--and like murdering +Ughtred, because he would be killed by the shame of things--and by being +taken from me. We have loved each other so much--so much. Don't you +see?" + +"I see all that rises up before you," Betty said, "and I understand your +feeling that you cannot save yourself by bringing ruin upon an innocent +man who helped you. I realise that one must have time to think it over. +But, Rosy," a sudden ring in her voice, "I tell you there is a way +out--there is a way out! The end of the misery is coming--and it will +not be what he thinks." + +"You always believe----" began Rosy. + +"I know," answered Betty. "I know there are some things so bad that they +cannot go on. They kill themselves through their own evil. I KNOW! I +KNOW! That is all." + + + +CHAPTER LX + +"DON'T GO ON WITH THIS" + +Of these things, as of others, she had come to her solitude to think. +She looked out over the marshes scarcely seeing the wandering or resting +sheep, scarcely hearing the crying plover, because so much seemed +to confront her, and she must look it all well in the face. She had +fulfilled the promise she had made to herself as a child. She had come +in search of Rosy, she had found her as simple and loving of heart as +she had ever been. The most painful discoveries she had made had +been concealed from her mother until their aspect was modified. Mrs. +Vanderpoel need now feel no shock at the sight of the restored Rosy. +Lady Anstruthers had been still young enough to respond both physically +and mentally to love, companionship, agreeable luxuries, and stimulating +interests. But for Nigel's antagonism there was now no reason why +she should not be taken home for a visit to her family, and her +long-yearned-for New York, no reason why her father and mother should +not come to Stornham, and thus establish the customary social relations +between their daughter's home and their own. That this seemed out of the +question was owing to the fact that at the outset of his married life +Sir Nigel had allowed himself to commit errors in tactics. A perverse +egotism, not wholly normal in its rancour, had led him into deeds which +he had begun to suspect of having cost him too much, even before Betty +herself had pointed out to him their unbusinesslike indiscretion. He had +done things he could not undo, and now, to his mind, his only resource +was to treat them boldly as having been the proper results of decision +founded on sound judgment, which he had no desire to excuse. A +sufficiently arrogant loftiness of bearing would, he hoped, carry him +through the matter. This Betty herself had guessed, but she had not +realised that this loftiness of attitude was in danger of losing some +of its effectiveness through his being increasingly stung and spurred +by circumstances and feelings connected with herself, which were at +once exasperating and at times almost overpowering. When, in his mingled +dislike and admiration, he had begun to study his sister-in-law, and +the half-amused weaving of the small plots which would make things +sufficiently unpleasant to be used as factors in her removal from the +scene, if necessary, he had not calculated, ever so remotely, on the +chance of that madness besetting him which usually besets men only +in their youth. He had imagined no other results to himself than a +subtly-exciting private entertainment, such as would give spice to the +dullness of virtuous life in the country. But, despite himself and his +intentions, he had found the situation alter. His first uncertainty of +himself had arisen at the Dunholm ball, when he had suddenly realised +that he was detesting men who, being young and free, were at liberty to +pay gallant court to the new beauty. + +Perhaps the most disturbing thing to him had been his consciousness of +his sudden leap of antagonism towards Mount Dunstan, who, despite his +obvious lack of chance, somehow especially roused in him the rage of +warring male instinct. There had been admissions he had been forced, +at length, to make to himself. You could not, it appeared, live in the +house with a splendid creature like this one--with her brilliant eyes, +her beauty of line and movement before you every hour, her bloom, her +proud fineness holding themselves wholly in their own keeping--without +there being the devil to pay. Lately he had sometimes gone hot and cold +in realising that, having once told himself that he might choose to +decide to get rid of her, he now knew that the mere thought of her +sailing away of her own choice was maddening to him. There WAS the devil +to pay! It sometimes brought back to him that hideous shakiness of nerve +which had been a feature of his illness when he had been on the Riviera +with Teresita. + +Of all this Betty only knew the outward signs which, taken at their +exterior significance, were detestable enough, and drove her hard as she +mentally dwelt on them in connection with other things. How easy, if she +stood alone, to defy his evil insolence to do its worst, and leaving the +place at an hour's notice, to sail away to protection, or, if she chose +to remain in England, to surround herself with a bodyguard of the people +in whose eyes his disrepute relegated a man such as Nigel Anstruthers +to powerless nonentity. Alone, she could have smiled and turned her back +upon him. But she was here to take care of Rosy. She occupied a position +something like that of a woman who remains with a man and endures +outrage because she cannot leave her child. That thought, in itself, +brought Ughtred to her mind. There was Ughtred to be considered as +well as his mother. Ughtred's love for and faith in her were deep and +passionate things. He fed on her tenderness for him, and had grown +stronger because he spent hours of each day talking, reading, and +driving with her. The simple truth was that neither she nor Rosalie +could desert Ughtred, and so long as Nigel managed cleverly enough, the +law would give the boy to his father. + +"You are obliged to prove things, you know, in a court of law," he had +said, as if with casual amiability, on a certain occasion. "Proving +things is the devil. People lose their tempers and rush into rows which +end in lawsuits, and then find they can prove nothing. If I were a +villain," slightly showing his teeth in an agreeable smile--"instead +of a man of blameless life, I should go in only for that branch of my +profession which could be exercised without leaving stupid evidence +behind." + +Since his return to Stornham the outward decorum of his own conduct had +entertained him and he had kept it up with an increasing appreciation of +its usefulness in the present situation. Whatsoever happened in the end, +it was the part of discretion to present to the rural world about him an +appearance of upright behaviour. He had even found it amusing to go to +church and also to occasionally make amiable calls at the vicarage. It +was not difficult, at such times, to refer delicately to his regret that +domestic discomfort had led him into the error of remaining much away +from Stornham. He knew that he had been even rather touching in his +expression of interest in the future of his son, and the necessity of +the boy's being protected from uncontrolled hysteric influences. And, in +the years of Rosalie's unprotected wretchedness, he had taken excellent +care that no "stupid evidence" should be exposed to view. + +Of all this Betty was thinking and summing up definitely, point after +point. Where was the wise and practical course of defence? The most +unthinkable thing was that one could find one's self in a position in +which action seemed inhibited. What could one do? To send for her father +would surely end the matter--but at what cost to Rosy, to Ughtred, to +Ffolliott, before whom the fair path to dignified security had so newly +opened itself? What would be the effect of sudden confusion, anguish, +and public humiliation upon Rosalie's carefully rebuilt health and +strength--upon her mother's new hope and happiness? At moments it seemed +as if almost all that had been done might be undone. She was beset by +such a moment now, and felt for the time, at least, like a creature tied +hand and foot while in full strength. + +Certainly she was not prepared for the event which happened. Roland +stiffened his ears, and, beginning a rumbling growl, ended it suddenly, +realising it an unnecessary precaution. + +He knew the man walking up the incline of the mound from the side behind +them. So did Betty know him. It was Sir Nigel looking rather glowering +and pale and walking slowly. He had discovered where she had meant to +take refuge, and had probably ridden to some point where he could leave +his horse and follow her at the expense of taking a short cut which +saved walking. + +As he climbed the mound to join her, Betty rose to her feet. + +"My dear girl," he said, "don't get up as if you meant to go away. It +has cost me some exertion to find you." + +"It will not cost you any exertion to lose me," was her light answer. "I +AM going away." + +He had reached her, and stood still before her with scarcely a yard's +distance between them. He was slightly out of breath and even a trifle +livid. He leaned on his stick and his look at her combined leaping bad +temper with something deeper. + +"Look here!" he broke out, "why do you make such a point of treating me +like the devil?" + +Betty felt her heart give a hastened beat, not of fear, but of +repulsion. This was the mood and manner which subjugated Rosalie. He had +so raised his voice that two men in the distance, who might be either +labourers or sportsmen, hearing its high tone, glanced curiously towards +them. + +"Why do you ask me a question which is totally absurd?" she said. + +"It is not absurd," he answered. "I am speaking of facts, and I intend +to come to some understanding about them." + +For reply, after meeting his look a few seconds, she simply turned her +back and began to walk away. He followed and overtook her. + +"I shall go with you, and I shall say what I want to say," he persisted. +"If you hasten your pace I shall hasten mine. I cannot exactly see you +running away from me across the marsh, screaming. You wouldn't care to +be rescued by those men over there who are watching us. I should explain +myself to them in terms neither you nor Rosalie would enjoy. There! I +knew Rosalie's name would pull you up. Good God! I wish I were a weak +fool with a magnificent creature protecting me at all risks." + +If she had not had blood and fire in her veins, she might have found +it easy to answer calmly. But she had both, and both leaped and beat +furiously for a few seconds. It was only human that it should be so. But +she was more than a passionate girl of high and trenchant spirit, and +she had learned, even in the days at the French school, what he had +never been able to learn in his life--self-control. She held herself in +as she would have held in a horse of too great fire and action. She +was actually able to look--as the first Reuben Vanderpoel would have +looked--at her capital of resource. But it meant taut holding of the +reins. + +"Will you tell me," she said, stopping, "what it is you want?" + +"I want to talk to you. I want to tell you truths you would rather +be told here than on the high road, where people are passing--or at +Stornham, where the servants would overhear and Rosalie be thrown into +hysterics. You will NOT run screaming across the marsh, because I should +run screaming after you, and we should both look silly. Here is a rather +scraggy tree. Will you sit on the mound near it--for Rosalie's sake?" + +"I will not sit down," replied Betty, "but I will listen, because it is +not a bad idea that I should understand you. But to begin with, I will +tell you something." She stopped beneath the tree and stood with her +back against its trunk. "I pick up things by noticing people closely, +and I have realised that all your life you have counted upon getting +your own way because you saw that people--especially women--have a +horror of public scenes, and will submit to almost anything to avoid +them. That is true very often, but not always." + +Her eyes, which were well opened, were quite the blue of steel, and +rested directly upon him. "I, for instance, would let you make a scene +with me anywhere you chose--in Bond Street--in Piccadilly--on the steps +of Buckingham Palace, as I was getting out of my carriage to attend a +drawing-room--and you would gain nothing you wanted by it--nothing. You +may place entire confidence in that statement." + +He stared back at her, momentarily half-magnetised, and then broke forth +into a harsh half-laugh. + +"You are so damned handsome that nothing else matters. I'm hanged if it +does!" and the words were an exclamation. He drew still nearer to her, +speaking with a sort of savagery. "Cannot you see that you could do +what you pleased with me? You are too magnificent a thing for a man to +withstand. I have lost my head and gone to the devil through you. That +is what I came to say." + +In the few seconds of silence that followed, his breath came quickly +again and he was even paler than before. + +"You came to me to say THAT?" asked Betty. + +"Yes--to say it before you drove me to other things." + +Her gaze was for a moment even slightly wondering. He presented the +curious picture of a cynical man of the world, for the time being ruled +and impelled only by the most primitive instincts. To a clear-headed +modern young woman of the most powerful class, he--her sister's +husband--was making threatening love as if he were a savage chief and +she a savage beauty of his tribe. All that concerned him was that he +should speak and she should hear--that he should show her he was the +stronger of the two. + +"Are you QUITE mad?" she said. + +"Not quite," he answered; "only three parts--but I am beyond my own +control. That is the best proof of what has happened to me. You are an +arrogant piece and you would defy me if you stood alone, but you don't, +and, by the Lord! I have reached a point where I will make use of every +lever I can lay my hand on--yourself, Rosalie, Ughtred, Ffolliott--the +whole lot of you!" + +The thing which was hardest upon her was her knowledge of her own +strength--of what she might have allowed herself of flaming words and +instant action--but for the memory of Rosy's ghastly little face, as +it had looked when she cried out, "You must not think of me. Betty, go +home--go home!" She held the white desperation of it before her mental +vision and answered him even with a certain interested deliberateness. + +"Do you know," she inquired, "that you are talking to me as though you +were the villain in the melodrama?" + +"There is an advantage in that," he answered, with an unholy smile. "If +you repeat what I say, people will only think that you are indulging +in hysterical exaggeration. They don't believe in the existence of +melodrama in these days." + +The cynical, absolute knowledge of this revealed so much that nerve was +required to face it with steadiness. + +"True," she commented. "Now I think I understand." + +"No, you don't," he burst forth. "You have spent your life standing on a +golden pedestal, being kowtowed to, and you imagine yourself immune from +difficulties because you think you can pay your way out of anything. But +you will find that you cannot pay your way out of this--or rather you +cannot pay Rosalie's way out of it." + +"I shall not try. Go on," said the girl. "What I do not understand, you +must explain to me. Don't leave anything unsaid." + +"Good God, what a woman you are!" he cried out bitterly. He had never +seen such beauty in his life as he saw in her as she stood with her +straight young body flat against the tree. It was not a matter of deep +colour of eye, or high spirit of profile--but of something which burned +him. Still as she was, she looked like a flame. She made him feel old +and body-worn, and all the more senselessly furious. + +"I believe you hate me," he raged. "And I may thank my wife for that." +Then he lost himself entirely. "Why cannot you behave well to me? If you +will behave well to me, Rosalie shall go her own way. If you even +looked at me as you look at other men--but you do not. There is always +something under your lashes which watches me as if I were a wild beast +you were studying. Don't fancy yourself a dompteuse. I am not your man. +I swear to you that you don't know what you are dealing with. I swear +to you that if you play this game with me I will drag you two down if I +drag myself with you. I have nothing much to lose. You and your sister +have everything." + +"Go on," Betty said briefly. + +"Go on! Yes, I will go on. Rosalie and Ffolliott I hold in the hollow +of my hand. As for you--do you know that people are beginning to discuss +you? Gossip is easily stirred in the country, where people are so bored +that they chatter in self-defence. I have been considered a bad lot. I +have become curiously attached to my sister-in-law. I am seen hanging +about her, hanging over her as we ride or walk alone together. An +American young woman is not like an English girl--she is used to seeing +the marriage ceremony juggled with. There's a trifle of prejudice +against such young women when they are too rich and too handsome. Don't +look at me like that!" he burst forth, with maddened sharpness, "I won't +have it!" + +The girl was regarding him with the expression he most resented--the +reflection of a normal person watching an abnormal one, and studying his +abnormality. + +"Do you know that you are raving?" she said, with quiet +curiosity--"raving?" + +Suddenly he sat down on the low mound near him, and as he touched his +forehead with his handkerchief, she saw that his hand actually shook. + +"Yes," he answered, panting, "but 'ware my ravings! They mean what they +say." + +"You do yourself an injury when you give way to them"--steadily, even +with a touch of slow significance--"a physical injury. I have noticed +that more than once." + +He sprang to his feet again. Every drop of blood left his face. For +a second he looked as if he would strike her. His arm actually flung +itself out--and fell. + +"You devil!" he gasped. "You count on that? You she-devil!" + +She left her tree and stood before him. + +"Listen to me," she said. "You intimate that you have been laying +melodramatic plots against me which will injure my good name. That +is rubbish. Let us leave it at that. You threaten that you will break +Rosy's heart and take her child from her, you say also that you will +wound and hurt my mother to her death and do your worst to ruin an +honest man----" + +"And, by God, I will!" he raged. "And you cannot stop me, if----" + +"I do not know whether I can stop you or not, though you may be sure +I will try," she interrupted him, "but that is not what I was going to +say." She drew a step nearer, and there was something in the intensity +of her look which fascinated and held him for a moment. She was +curiously grave. "Nigel, I believe in certain things you do not believe +in. I believe black thoughts breed black ills to those who think them. +It is not a new idea. There is an old Oriental proverb which says, +'Curses, like chickens, come home to roost.' I believe also that +the worst--the very worst CANNOT be done to those who think +steadily--steadily--only of the best. To you that is merely superstition +to be laughed at. That is a matter of opinion. But--don't go on with +this thing--DON'T GO ON WITH IT. Stop and think it over." + +He stared at her furiously--tried to laugh outright, and failed because +the look in her eyes was so odd in its strength and stillness. + +"You think you can lay some weird spell upon me," he jeered +sardonically. + +"No, I don't," she answered. "I could not if I would. It is no affair of +mine. It is your affair only--and there is nothing weird about it. Don't +go on, I tell you. Think better of it." + +She turned about without further speech, and walked away from him with +light swiftness over the marsh. Oddly enough, he did not even attempt to +follow her. He felt a little weak--perhaps because a certain thing she +had said had brought back to him a familiar touch of the horrors. She +had the eyes of a falcon under the odd, soft shade of the extraordinary +lashes. She had seen what he thought no one but himself had realised. +Having watched her retreating figure for a few seconds, he sat down--as +suddenly as before--on the mound near the tree. + +"Oh, damn her!" he said, his damp forehead on his hands. "Damn the whole +universe!" + +. . . . . + +When Betty and Roland reached Stornham, the wicker-work pony chaise from +the vicarage stood before the stone entrance steps. The drawing-room +door was open, and Mrs. Brent was standing near it saying some last +words to Lady Anstruthers before leaving the house, after a visit +evidently made with an object. This Betty gathered from the solemnity of +her manner. + +"Betty," said Lady Anstruthers, catching sight of her, "do come in for a +moment." + +When Betty entered, both her sister and Mrs. Brent looked at her +questioningly. + +"You look a little pale and tired, Miss Vanderpoel," Mrs. Brent said, +rather as if in haste to be the first to speak. "I hope you are not at +all unwell. We need all our strength just now. I have brought the most +painful news. Malignant typhoid fever has broken out among the hop +pickers on the Mount Dunstan estate. Some poor creature was evidently +sickening for it when he came from London. Three people died last +night." + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +SHE WOULD DO SOMETHING + +Sir Nigel's face was not a good thing to see when he appeared at the +dinner table in the evening. As he took his seat the two footmen glanced +quickly at each other, and the butler at the sideboard furtively thrust +out his underlip. Not a man or woman in the household but had learned +the signal denoting the moment when no service would please, no word +or movement be unobjectionable. Lady Anstruthers' face unconsciously +assumed its propitiatory expression, and she glanced at her sister more +than once when Betty was unaware that she did so. + +Until the soup had been removed, Sir Nigel scarcely spoke, merely making +curt replies to any casual remark. This was one of his simple and most +engaging methods of at once enjoying an ill-humour and making his wife +feel that she was in some way to blame for it. + +"Mount Dunstan is in a deucedly unpleasant position," he condescended at +last. "I should not care to stand in his shoes." + +He had not returned to the Court until late in the afternoon, but having +heard in the village the rumour of the outbreak of fever, he had made +inquiries and gathered detail. + +"You are thinking of the outbreak of typhoid among the hop pickers?" +said Lady Anstruthers. "Mrs. Brent thinks it threatens to be very +serious." + +"An epidemic, without a doubt," he answered. "In a wretched unsanitary +place like Dunstan village, the wretches will die like flies." + +"What will be done?" inquired Betty. + +He gave her one of the unpleasant personal glances and laughed +derisively. + +"Done? The county authorities, who call themselves 'guardians,' will be +frightened to death and will potter about and fuss like old women, and +profess to examine and protect and lay restrictions, but everyone will +manage to keep at a discreet distance, and the thing will run riot and +do its worst. As far as one can see, there seems no reason why the whole +place should not be swept away. No doubt Mount Dunstan has wisely taken +to his heels already." + +"I think that, on the contrary, there would be much doubt of that," +Betty said. "He would stay and do what he could." + +Sir Nigel shrugged his shoulders. + +"Would he? I think you'll find he would not." + +"Mrs. Brent tells me," Rosalie broke in somewhat hurriedly, "that the +huts for the hoppers are in the worst possible condition. They are so +dilapidated that the rain pours into them. There is no proper shelter +for the people who are ill, and Lord Mount Dunstan cannot afford to take +care of them." + +"But he WILL--he WILL," broke forth Betty. Her head lifted itself and +she spoke almost as if through her small, shut teeth. A wave of intense +belief--high, proud, and obstinate, swept through her. It was a feeling +so strong and vibrant that she felt as if Mount Dunstan himself must be +reached and upborne by it--as if he himself must hear her. + +Rosalie looked at her half-startled, and, for the moment held fascinated +by the sudden force rising in her and by the splendid spark of light +under her lids. She was reminded of the fierce little Betty of long ago, +with her delicate, indomitable small face and the spirit which even at +nine years old had somehow seemed so strong and straitly keen of sight +that one had known it might always be trusted. Actually, in one way, she +had not changed. She saw the truth of things. The next instant, however, +inadvertently glancing towards her husband, she caught her breath +quickly. Across his heavy-featured face had shot the sudden gleam of a +new expression. It was as if he had at the moment recognised something +which filled him with a rush of fury he himself was not prepared for. +That he did not wish it to be seen she knew by his manner. There was +a brief silence in which it passed away. He spoke after it, with +disagreeable precision. + +"He has had an enormous effect on you--that man," he said to Betty. + +He spoke clearly so that she might have the pleasure of being certain +that the menservants heard. They were close to the table, handing +fruit--professing to be automatons, eyes down, faces expressing nothing, +but as quick of hearing as it is said that blind men are. He knew that +if he had been in her place and a thing as insultingly significant +had been said to him, he should promptly have hurled the nearest +object--plate, wineglass, or decanter--in the face of the speaker. +He knew, too, that women cannot hurl projectiles without looking like +viragos and fools. The weakly-feminine might burst into tears or into a +silly rage and leave the table. There was a distinct breath's space +of pause, and Betty, cutting a cluster from a bunch of hothouse grapes +presented by the footman at her side, answered as clearly as he had +spoken himself. + +"He is strong enough to produce an effect on anyone," she said. "I think +you feel that yourself. He is a man who will not be beaten in the end. +Fortune will give him some good thing." + +"He is a fellow who knows well enough on which hand of him good things +lie," he said. "He will take all that offers itself." + +"Why not?" Betty said impartially. + +"There must be no riding or driving in the neighbourhood of the place," +he said next. "I will have no risks run." He turned and addressed the +butler. "Jennings, tell the servants that those are my orders." + +He sat over his wine but a short time that evening, and when he joined +his wife and sister-in-law in the drawing-room he went at once to Betty. +In fact, he was in the condition when a man cannot keep away from +a woman, but must invent some reason for reaching her whether it is +fatuous or plausible. + +"What I said to Jennings was an order to you as well as to the people +below stairs. I know you are particularly fond of riding in the +direction of Mount Dunstan. You are in my care so long as you are in my +house." + +"Orders are not necessary," Betty replied. "The day is past when one +rushed to smooth pillows and give the wrong medicine when one's friends +were ill. If one is not a properly-trained nurse, it is wiser not to +risk being very much in the way." + +He spoke over her shoulder, dropping his voice, though Lady Anstruthers +sat apart, appearing to read. + +"Don't think I am fool enough not to understand. You have yourself under +magnificent control, but a woman passionately in love cannot keep a +certain look out of her eyes." + +He was standing on the hearth. Betty swung herself lightly round, facing +him squarely. Her full look was splendid. + +"If it is there--let it stay," she said. "I would not keep it out of my +eyes if I could, and, you are right, I could not if I would--if it is +there. If it is--let it stay." + +The daring, throbbing, human truth of her made his brain whirl. To a man +young and clean and fit to count as in the lists, to have heard her say +the thing of a rival would have been hard enough, but base, degenerate, +and of the world behind her day, to hear it while frenzied for her, was +intolerable. And it was Mount Dunstan she bore herself so highly for. +Whether melodrama is out of date or not there are, occasionally, some +fine melodramatic touches in the enmities of to-day. + +"You think you will reach him," he persisted. "You think you will help +him in some way. You will not let the thing alone." + +"Excuse my mentioning that whatsoever I take the liberty of doing will +encroach on no right of yours," she said. + +But, alone in her room, after she went upstairs, the face reflecting +itself in the mirror was pale and its black brows were drawn together. + +She sat down at the dressing-table, and, seeing the paled face, drew the +black brows closer, confronting a complicating truth. + +"If I were free to take Rosalie and Ughtred home to-morrow," she +thought, "I could not bear to go. I should suffer too much." + +She was suffering now. The strong longing in her heart was like +a physical pain. No word or look of this one man had given +her proof that his thoughts turned to her, and yet it was +intolerable--intolerable--that in his hour of stress and need they were +as wholly apart as if worlds rolled between them. At any dire moment it +was mere nature that she should give herself in help and support. If, on +the night at sea, when they had first spoken to each other, the ship +had gone down, she knew that they two, strangers though they were, would +have worked side by side among the frantic people, and have been among +the last to take to the boats. How did she know? Only because, he being +he, and she being she, it must have been so in accordance with the +laws ruling entities. And now he stood facing a calamity almost as +terrible--and she with full hands sat still. + +She had seen the hop pickers' huts and had recognised their condition. +Mere brick sheds in which the pickers slept upon bundles of hay or straw +in their best days; in their decay they did not even provide shelter. In +fine weather the hop gatherers slept well enough in them, cooking their +food in gypsy-fashion in the open. When the rain descended, it must +run down walls and drip through the holes in the roofs in streams which +would soak clothes and bedding. The worst that Nigel and Mrs. Brent had +implied was true. Illness of any order, under such circumstances, would +have small chance of recovery, but malignant typhoid without shelter, +without proper nourishment or nursing, had not one chance in a +million. And he--this one man--stood alone in the midst of the +tragedy--responsible and helpless. He would feel himself responsible +as she herself would, if she were in his place. She was conscious that +suddenly the event of the afternoon--the interview upon the marshes, had +receded until it had become an almost unmeaning incident. What did the +degenerate, melodramatic folly matter----! + +She had restlessly left her chair before the dressing-table, and was +walking to and fro. She paused and stood looking down at the carpet, +though she scarcely saw it. + +"Nothing matters but one thing--one person," she owned to herself +aloud. "I suppose it is always like this. Rosy, Ughtred, even father and +mother--everyone seems less near than they were. It is too strong--too +strong. It is----" the words dropped slowly from her lips, "the +strongest thing--in the world." + +She lifted her face and threw out her hands, a lovely young half-sad +smile curling the deep corners of her mouth. "Sometimes one feels so +disdained," she said--"so disdained with all one's power. Perhaps I am +an unwanted thing." + +But even in this case there were aids one might make an effort to give. +She went to her writing-table and sat thinking for some time. Afterwards +she began to write letters. Three or four were addressed to London--one +was to Mr. Penzance. + +. . . . . + +Mount Dunstan and his vicar were walking through the village to the +vicarage. They had been to the hop pickers' huts to see the people +who were ill of the fever. Both of them noticed that cottage doors and +windows were shut, and that here and there alarmed faces looked out from +behind latticed panes. + +"They are in a panic of fear," Mount Dunstan said, "and by way of +safeguard they shut out every breath of air and stifle indoors. +Something must be done." + +Catching the eye of a woman who was peering over her short white dimity +blind, he beckoned to her authoritatively. She came to the door and +hesitated there, curtsying nervously. + +Mount Dunstan spoke to her across the hedge. + +"You need not come out to me, Mrs. Binner. You may stay where you are," +he said. "Are you obeying the orders given by the Guardians?" + +"Yes, my lord. Yes, my lord," with more curtsys. + +"Your health is very much in your own hands," he added. + +"You must keep your cottage and your children cleaner than you have ever +kept them before, and you must use the disinfectant I sent you. Keep +away from the huts, and open your windows. If you don't open them, +I shall come and do it for you. Bad air is infection itself. Do you +understand?" + +"Yes, my lord. Thank your lordship." + +"Go in and open your windows now, and tell your neighbours to do the +same. If anyone is ill let me know at once. The vicar and I will do our +best for everyone." + +By that time curiosity had overcome fear, and other cottage doors had +opened. Mount Dunstan passed down the row and said a few words to each +woman or man who looked out. Questions were asked anxiously and he +answered them. That he was personally unafraid was comfortingly plain, +and the mere sight of him was, on the whole, an unexplainable support. + +"We heard said your lordship was going away," put in a stout mother +with a heavy child on her arm, a slight testiness scarcely concealed +by respectful good-manners. She was a matron with a temper, and that a +Mount Dunstan should avoid responsibilities seemed highly credible. + +"I shall stay where I am," Mount Dunstan answered. "My place is here." + +They believed him, Mount Dunstan though he was. It could not be said +that they were fond of him, but gradually it had been borne in upon them +that his word was to be relied on, though his manner was unalluring and +they knew he was too poor to do his duty by them or his estate. As +he walked away with the vicar, windows were opened, and in one or two +untidy cottages a sudden flourishing of mops and brooms began. + +There was dark trouble in Mount Dunstan's face. In the huts they had +left two men stiff on their straw, and two women and a child in a state +of collapse. Added to these were others stricken helpless. A number of +workers in the hop gardens, on realising the danger threatening them, +had gathered together bundles and children, and, leaving the harvest +behind, had gone on the tramp again. Those who remained were the weaker +or less cautious, or were held by some tie to those who were already +ill of the fever. The village doctor was an old man who had spent his +blameless life in bringing little cottagers into the world, attending +their measles and whooping coughs, and their father's and grandfather's +rheumatics. He had never faced a village crisis in the course of his +seventy-five years, and was aghast and flurried with fright. His methods +remained those of his youth, and were marked chiefly by a readiness +to prescribe calomel in any emergency. A younger and stronger man was +needed, as well as a man of more modern training. But even the most +brilliant practitioner of the hour could not have provided shelter and +nourishment, and without them his skill would have counted as nothing. +For three weeks there had been no rain, which was a condition of the +barometer not likely to last. Already grey clouds were gathering and +obscuring the blueness of the sky. + +The vicar glanced upwards anxiously. + +"When it comes," he said, "there will be a downpour, and a persistent +one." + +"Yes," Mount Dunstan answered. + +He had lain awake thinking throughout the night. How was a man to sleep! +It was as Betty Vanderpoel had known it would be. He, who--beggar though +he might be--was the lord of the land, was the man to face the strait of +these poor workers on the land, as his own. Some action must be taken. +What action? As he walked by his friend's side from the huts where the +dead men lay it revealed itself that he saw his way. + +They were going to the vicarage to consult a medical book, but on the +way there they passed a part of the park where, through a break in the +timber the huge, white, blind-faced house stood on view. Mount Dunstan +laid his hand on Mr. Penzance's shoulder and stopped him, + +"Look there!" he said. "THERE are weather-tight rooms enough." + +A startled expression showed itself on the vicar's face. + +"For what?" he exclaimed + +"For a hospital," brusquely "I can give them one thing, at +least--shelter." + +"It is a very remarkable thing to think of doing," Mr. Penzance said. + +"It is not so remarkable as that labourers on my land should die at my +gate because I cannot give them decent roofs to cover them. There is a +roof that will shield them from the weather. They shall be brought to +the Mount." + +The vicar was silent a moment, and a flush of sympathy warmed his face. + +"You are quite right, Fergus," he said, "entirely right." + +"Let us go to your study and plan how it shall be done," Mount Dunstan +said. + +As they walked towards the vicarage, he went on talking. + +"When I lie awake at night, there is one thread which always winds +itself through my thoughts whatsoever they are. I don't find that I can +disentangle it. It connects itself with Reuben S. Vanderpoel's daughter. +You would know that without my telling you. If you had ever struggled +with an insane passion----" + +"It is not insane, I repeat," put in Penzance unflinchingly. + +"Thank you--whether you are right or wrong," answered Mount Dunstan, +striding by his side. "When I am awake, she is as much a part of my +existence as my breath itself. When I think things over, I find that I +am asking myself if her thoughts would be like mine. She is a creature +of action. Last night, as I lay awake, I said to myself, 'She would DO +something. What would she do?' She would not be held back by fear of +comment or convention. She would look about her for the utilisable, and +she would find it somewhere and use it. I began to sum up the village +resources and found nothing--until my thoughts led me to my own house. +There it stood--empty and useless. If it were hers, and she stood in my +place, she would make it useful. So I decided." + +"You are quite right," Mr. Penzance said again. + +They spent an hour in his library at the vicarage, arranging practical +methods for transforming the great ballroom into a sort of hospital +ward. It could be done by the removal of pieces of furniture from the +many unused bedrooms. There was also the transportation of the patients +from the huts to be provided for. But, when all this was planned out, +each found himself looking at the other with an unspoken thought in his +mind. Mount Dunstan first expressed it. + +"As far as I can gather, the safety of typhoid fever patients depends +almost entirely on scientific nursing, and the caution with which even +liquid nourishment is given. The woman whose husband died this morning +told me that he had seemed better in the night, and had asked for +something to eat. She gave him a piece of bread and a slice of cold +bacon, because he told her he fancied it. I could not explain to her, as +she sat sobbing over him, that she had probably killed him. When we have +patients in our ward, what shall we feed them on, and who will know how +to nurse them? They do not know how to nurse each other, and the women +in the village would not run the risk of undertaking to help us." + +But, even before he had left the house, the problem was solved for them. +The solving of it lay in the note Miss Vanderpoel had written the night +before at Stornham. + +When it was brought to him Mr. Penzance glanced up from certain +calculations he was making upon a sheet of note-paper. The accumulating +difficulties made him look worn and tired. He opened the note and read +it gravely, and then as gravely, though with a change of expression, +handed it to Mount Dunstan. + +"Yes, she is a creature of action. She has heard and understood at +once, and she has done something. It is immensely practical--it is +fine--it--it is lovable." + +"Do you mind my keeping it?" Mount Dunstan asked, after he had read it. + +"Keep it by all means," the vicar answered. "It is worth keeping." + +But it was quite brief. She had heard of the outbreak of fever among the +hop pickers, and asked to be allowed to give help to the people who were +suffering. They would need prompt aid. She chanced to know something of +the requirements of such cases, and had written to London for certain +supplies which would be sent to them at once. She had also written for +nurses, who would be needed above all else. Might she ask Mr. Penzance +to kindly call upon her for any further assistance required. + +"Tell her we are deeply grateful," said Mount Dunstan, "and that she has +given us greater help than she knows." + +"Why not answer her note yourself?" Penzance suggested. + +Mount Dunstan shook his head. + +"No," he said shortly. "No." + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +IN THE BALLROOM + +Though Dunstan village was cut off, by its misfortune, from its usual +intercourse with its neighbours, in some mystic manner villages even at +twenty miles' distance learned all it did and suffered, feared or hoped. +It did not hope greatly, the rustic habit of mind tending towards a +discouraged outlook, and cherishing the drama of impending calamity. +As far as Yangford and Marling inmates of cottages and farmhouses were +inclined to think it probable that Dunstan would be "swep away," +and rumours of spreading death and disaster were popular. Tread, the +advanced blacksmith at Stornham, having heard in his by-gone, better +days of the Great Plague of London, was greatly in demand as a narrator +of illuminating anecdotes at The Clock Inn. + +Among the parties gathered at the large houses Mount Dunstan himself +was much talked of. If he had been a popular man, he might have become +a sort of hero; as he was not popular, he was merely a subject for +discussion. The fever-stricken patients had been carried in carts to +the Mount and given beds in the ballroom, which had been made into a +temporary ward. Nurses and supplies had been sent for from London, and +two energetic young doctors had taken the place of old Dr. Fenwick, who +had been frightened and overworked into an attack of bronchitis which +confined him to his bed. Where the money came from, which must be spent +every day under such circumstances, it was difficult to say. To the +simply conservative of mind, the idea of filling one's house with dirty +East End hop pickers infected with typhoid seemed too radical. Surely +he could have done something less extraordinary. Would everybody +be expected to turn their houses into hospitals in case of village +epidemics, now that he had established a precedent? But there were +people who approved, and were warm in their sympathy with him. At the +first dinner party where the matter was made the subject of argument, +the beautiful Miss Vanderpoel, who was present, listened silently to the +talk with such brilliant eyes that Lord Dunholm, who was in an elderly +way her staunch admirer, spoke to her across the table: + +"Tell us what YOU think of it, Miss Vanderpoel," he suggested. + +She did not hesitate at all. + +"I like it," she answered, in her clear, well-heard voice. "I like it +better than anything I have ever heard." + +"So do I," said old Lady Alanby shortly. "I should never have done it +myself--but I like it just as you do." + +"I knew you would, Lady Alanby," said the girl. "And you, too, Lord +Dunholm." + + +"I like it so much that I shall write and ask if I cannot be of +assistance," Lord Dunholm answered. + +Betty was glad to hear this. Only quickness of thought prevented her +from the error of saying, "Thank you," as if the matter were personal to +herself. If Mount Dunstan was restive under the obviousness of the fact +that help was so sorely needed, he might feel less so if her offer was +only one among others. + +"It seems rather the duty of the neighbourhood to show some interest," +put in Lady Alanby. "I shall write to him myself. He is evidently of +a new order of Mount Dunstan. It's to be hoped he won't take the fever +himself, and die of it He ought to marry some handsome, well-behaved +girl, and re-found the family." + +Nigel Anstruthers spoke from his side of the table, leaning slightly +forward. + +"He won't if he does not take better care of himself. He passed me +on the road two days ago, riding like a lunatic. He looks frightfully +ill--yellow and drawn and lined. He has not lived the life to prepare +him for settling down to a fight with typhoid fever. He would be done +for if he caught the infection." + +"I beg your pardon," said Lord Dunholm, with quiet decision. +"Unprejudiced inquiry proves that his life has been entirely +respectable. As Lady Alanby says, he seems to be of a new order of Mount +Dunstan." + +"No doubt you are right," said Sir Nigel suavely. "He looked ill, +notwithstanding." + +"As to looking ill," remarked Lady Alanby to Lord Dunholm, who sat +near her, "that man looks as if he was going to pieces pretty rapidly +himself, and unprejudiced inquiry would not prove that his past had +nothing to do with it." + +Betty wondered if her brother-in-law were lying. It was generally safest +to argue that he was. But the fever burned high at Mount Dunstan, and +she knew by instinct what its owner was giving of the strength of his +body and brain. A young, unmarried woman cannot go about, however, +making anxious inquiries concerning the welfare of a man who has made no +advance towards her. She must wait for the chance which brings news. + +. . . . . + +The fever, having ill-cared for and habitually ill fed bodies to work +upon, wrought fiercely, despite the energy of the two young doctors and +the trained nurses. There were many dark hours in the ballroom ward, +hours filled with groans and wild ravings. The floating Terpsichorean +goddesses upon the lofty ceiling gazed down with wondering eyes at +haggard faces and plucking hands which sometimes, behind the screen +drawn round their beds, ceased to look feverish, and grew paler and +stiller, until they moved no more. But, at least, none had died through +want of shelter and care. The supplies needed came from London each day. +Lord Dunholm had sent a generous cheque to the aid of the sufferers, and +so, also, had old Lady Alanby, but Miss Vanderpoel, consulting medical +authorities and hospitals, learned exactly what was required, and +necessities were forwarded daily in their most easily utilisable form. + +"You generously told me to ask you for anything we found we required," +Mr. Penzance wrote to her in his note of thanks. "My dear and kind +young lady, you leave nothing to ask for. Our doctors, who are young +and enthusiastic, are filled with delight in the completeness of the +resources placed in their hands." + +She had, in fact, gone to London to consult an eminent physician, who +was an authority of world-wide reputation. Like the head of the legal +firm of Townlinson & Sheppard, he had experienced a new sensation in +the visit paid him by an indubitably modern young beauty, who wasted no +word, and whose eyes, while he answered her amazingly clear questions, +were as intelligently intent as those of an ardent and serious young +medical student. What a surgical nurse she would have made! It seemed +almost a pity that she evidently belonged to a class the members of +which are rich enough to undertake the charge of entire epidemics, but +who do not usually give themselves to such work, especially when they +are young and astonishing in the matter of looks. + +In addition to the work they did in the ballroom ward, Mount Dunstan +and the vicar found much to do among the villagers. Ignorance and alarm +combined to create dangers, even where they might not have been feared. +Daily instruction and inspection of the cottages and their inmates was +required. The knowledge that they were under control and supervision +was a support to the frightened people and prevented their lapsing +into careless habits. Also, there began to develop among them a secret +dependence upon, and desire to please "his lordship," as the existing +circumstances drew him nearer to them, and unconsciously they were +attracted and dominated by his strength. The strong man carries his +power with him, and, when Mount Dunstan entered a cottage and talked to +its inmates, the anxious wife or surlily depressed husband was conscious +of feeling a certain sense of security. It had been a queer enough +thing, this he had done--bundling the infected hoppers out of their +leaking huts and carrying them up to the Mount itself for shelter +and care. At the most, gentlefolk generally gave soup or blankets or +hospital tickets, and left the rest to luck, but, "gentry-way" or not, +a man who did a thing like that would be likely to do other things, if +they were needed, and gave folk a feeling of being safer than ordinary +soup and blankets and hospital tickets could make them. + +But "where did the money come from?" was asked during the first days. +Beds and doctors, nurses and medicine, fine brandy and unlimited fowls +for broth did not come up from London without being paid for. Pounds +and pounds a day must be paid out to get the things that were delivered +"regular" in hampers and boxes. The women talked to one another over +their garden palings, the men argued together over their beer at the +public house. Was he running into more debt? But even the village knew +that Mount Dunstan credit had been exhausted long ago, and there had +been no money at the Mount within the memory of man, so to speak. + +One morning the matron with the sharp temper found out the truth, +though the outburst of gratitude to Mount Dunstan which resulted in her +enlightenment, was entirely spontaneous and without intention. Her doubt +of his Mount Dunstan blood had grown into a sturdy liking even for his +short speech and his often drawn-down brows. + +"We've got more to thank your lordship for than common help," she said. +"God Almighty knows where we'd all ha' been but for what you've done. +Those poor souls you've nursed and fed----" + +"I've not done it," he broke in promptly. "You're mistaken; I could not +have done it. How could I?" + +"Well," exclaimed the matron frankly, "we WAS wondering where things +came from." + +"You might well wonder. Have any of you seen Lady Anstruthers' sister, +Miss Vanderpoel, ride through the village? She used sometimes to ride +this way. If you saw her you will remember it.' + +"The 'Merican young lady!" in ejaculatory delight. "My word, yes! A +fine young woman with black hair? That rich, they say, as millions won't +cover it." + +"They won't," grimly. "Lord Dunholm and Lady Alanby of Dole kindly sent +cheques to help us, but the American young lady was first on the field. +She sent both doctors and nurses, and has supplied us with food and +medicine every day. As you say, Mrs. Brown, God Almighty knows what +would have become of us, but for what she has done." + +Mrs. Brown had listened with rather open mouth. She caught her breath +heartily, as a sort of approving exclamation. + +"God bless her!" she broke out. "Girls isn't generally like that. Their +heads is too full of finery. God bless her, 'Merican or no 'Merican! +That's what I say." + +Mount Dunstan's red-brown eyes looked as if she had pleased him. + +"That's what I say, too," he answered. "God bless her!" + +There was not a day which passed in which he did not involuntarily say +the words to himself again and again. She had been wrong when she had +said in her musings that they were as far apart as if worlds rolled +between them. Something stronger than sight or speech drew them +together. The thread which wove itself through his thoughts grew +stronger and stronger. The first day her gifts arrived and he walked +about the ballroom ward directing the placing of hospital cots and +hospital aids and comforts, the spirit of her thought and intelligence, +the individuality and cleverness of all her methods, brought her so +vividly before him that it was almost as if she walked by his side, +as if they spoke together, as if she said, "I have tried to think of +everything. I want you to miss nothing. Have I helped you? Tell me if +there is anything more." The thing which moved and stirred him was his +knowledge that when he had thought of her she had also been thinking +of him, or of what deeply concerned him. When he had said to himself, +tossing on his pillow, "What would she DO?" she had been planning +in such a way as answered his question. Each morning, when the day's +supplies arrived, it was as if he had received a message from her. + +As the people in the cottages felt the power of his temperament and +depended upon him, so, also, did the patients in the ballroom ward. The +feeling had existed from the outset and increased daily. The doctors and +nurses told one another that his passing through the room was like the +administering of a tonic. Patients who were weak and making no effort, +were lifted upon the strong wave of his will and carried onward towards +the shore of greater courage and strength. + +Young Doctor Thwaite met him when he came in one morning, and spoke in a +low voice: + +"There is a young man behind the screen there who is very low," he said. +"He had an internal haemorrhage towards morning, and has lost his pluck. +He has a wife and three children. We have been doing our best for him +with hot-water bottles and stimulants, but he has not the courage +to help us. You have an extraordinary effect on them all, Lord Mount +Dunstan. When they are depressed, they always ask when you are coming +in, and this man--Patton, his name is--has asked for you several times. +Upon my word, I believe you might set him going again." + +Mount Dunstan walked to the bed, and, going behind the screen, stood +looking down at the young fellow lying breathing pantingly. His +eyes were closed as he laboured, and his pinched white nostrils drew +themselves in and puffed out at each breath. A nurse on the other side +of the cot had just surrounded him with fresh hot-water bottles. + +Suddenly the sunken eyelids flew open, and the eyes met Mount Dunstan's +in imploring anxiousness. + +"Here I am, Patton," Mount Dunstan said. "You need not speak." + +But he must speak. Here was the strength his sinking soul had longed +for. + +"Cruel bad--goin' fast--m' lord," he panted. + +Mount Dunstan made a sign to the nurse, who gave him a chair. He sat +down close to the bed, and took the bloodless hand in his own. + +"No," he said, "you are not going. You'll stay here. I will see to +that." + +The poor fellow smiled wanly. Vague yearnings had led him sometimes, in +the past, to wander into chapels or stop and listen to street preachers, +and orthodox platitudes came back to him. + +"God's--will," he trailed out. + +"It's nothing of the sort. It's God's will that you pull yourself +together. A man with a wife and three children has no right to slip +out." + +A yearning look flickered in the lad's eyes--he was scarcely more than a +lad, having married at seventeen, and had a child each year. + +"She's--a good--girl." + +"Keep that in your mind while you fight this out," said Mount Dunstan. +"Say it over to yourself each time you feel yourself letting go. Hold +on to it. I am going to fight it out with you. I shall sit here and take +care of you all day--all night, if necessary. The doctor and the nurse +will tell me what to do. Your hand is warmer already. Shut your eyes." + +He did not leave the bedside until the middle of the night. + +By that time the worst was over. He had acted throughout the hours under +the direction of nurse and doctor. No one but himself had touched the +patient. When Patton's eyes were open, they rested on him with a weird +growing belief. He begged his lordship to hold his hand, and was uneasy +when he laid it down. + +"Keeps--me--up," he whispered. + +"He pours something into them--vigour--magnetic power--life. He's like +a charged battery," Dr. Thwaite said to his co-workers. "He sat down by +Patton just in time. It sets one to thinking." + +Having saved Patton, he must save others. When a man or woman sank, or +had increased fever, they believed that he alone could give them help. +In delirium patients cried out for him. He found himself doing hard +work, but he did not flinch from it. The adoration for him became a +sort of passion. Haggard faces lighted up into life at the sound of his +footstep, and heavy heads turned longingly on their pillows as he passed +by. In the winter days to come there would be many an hour's talk in +East End courts and alleys of the queer time when a score or more of +them had lain in the great room with the dancing and floating goddesses +looking down at them from the high, painted ceiling, and the swell, who +was a lord, walking about among them, working for them as the nurses +did, and sitting by some of them through awful hours, sometimes holding +burning or slackening and chilling hands with a grip whose steadiness +seemed to hold them back from the brink of the abyss they were slipping +into. The mere ignorantly childish desire to do his prowess credit and +to play him fair saved more than one man and woman from going out with +the tide. + +"It is the first time in my life that I have fairly counted among men. +It's the first time I have known human affection, other than yours, +Penzance. They want me, these people; they are better for the sight of +me. It is a new experience, and it is good for a man's soul," he said. + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +HIS CHANCE + +Betty walked much alone upon the marshes with Roland at her side. At +intervals she heard from Mr. Penzance, but his notes were necessarily +brief, and at other times she could only rely upon report for news +of what was occurring at Mount Dunstan. Lord Mount Dunstan's almost +military supervision of and command over his villagers had certainly +saved them from the horrors of an uncontrollable epidemic; his decision +and energy had filled the alarmed Guardians with respect and this +respect had begun to be shared by many other persons. A man as prompt in +action, and as faithful to such responsibilities as many men might +have found plausible reasons enough for shirking, inevitably assumed a +certain dignity of aspect, when all was said and done. Lord Dunholm was +most clear in his expressions of opinion concerning him. Lady Alanby +of Dole made a practice of speaking of him in public frequently, always +with admiring approval, and in that final manner of hers, to whose +authority her neighbours had so long submitted. It began to be accepted +as a fact that he was a new development of his race--as her ladyship had +put it, "A new order of Mount Dunstan." + +The story of his power over the stricken people, and of their passionate +affection and admiration for him, was one likely to spread far, and be +immensely popular. The drama of certain incidents appealed greatly +to the rustic mind, and by cottage firesides he was represented with +rapturous awe, as raising men, women, and children from the dead, by the +mere miracle of touch. Mrs. Welden and old Doby revelled in thrilling, +almost Biblical, versions of current anecdotes, when Betty paid her +visits to them. + +"It's like the Scripture, wot he done for that young man as the last +breath had gone out of him, an' him lyin' stiffening fast. 'Young man, +arise,' he says. 'The Lord Almighty calls. You've got a young wife an' +three children to take care of. Take up your bed an' walk.' Not as he +wanted him to carry his bed anywheres, but it was a manner of speaking. +An' up the young man got. An' a sensible way," said old Mrs. Welden +frankly, "for the Lord to look at it--for I must say, miss, if I was +struck down for it, though I s'pose it's only my sinful ignorance--that +there's times when the Lord seems to think no more of sweepin' away a +steady eighteen-shillin' a week, and p'raps seven in family, an' one at +the breast, an' another on the way--than if it was nothin'. But likely +enough, eighteen shillin' a week an' confinements does seem paltry to +the Maker of 'eaven an' earth." + +But, to the girl walking over the marshland, the humanness of the things +she heard gave to her the sense of nearness--of being almost within +sight and sound--which Mount Dunstan himself had felt, when each day +was filled with the result of her thought of the needs of the poor souls +thrown by fate into his hands. In these days, after listening to old +Mrs. Welden's anecdotes, through which she gathered the simpler truth +of things, Betty was able to construct for herself a less Scriptural +version of what she had heard. She was glad--glad in his sitting by +a bedside and holding a hand which lay in his hot or cold, but always +trusting to something which his strong body and strong soul gave without +stint. There would be no restraint there. Yes, he was kind--kind--kind +--with the kindness a woman loves, and which she, of all women, loved +most. Sometimes she would sit upon some mound, and, while her eyes +seemed to rest on the yellowing marsh and its birds and pools, they saw +other things, and their colour grew deep and dark as the marsh water +between the rushes. + +The time was pressing when a change in her life must come. She +frequently asked herself if what she saw in Nigel Anstruthers' face was +the normal thinking of a sane man, which he himself could control. There +had been moments when she had seriously doubted it. He was haggard, +aging and restless. Sometimes he--always as if by chance--followed her +as she went from one room to another, and would seat himself and fix +his miserable eyes upon her for so long a time that it seemed he must +be unconscious of what he was doing. Then he would appear suddenly to +recollect himself and would start up with a muttered exclamation, and +stalk out of the room. He spent long hours riding or driving alone about +the country or wandering wretchedly through the Park and gardens. Once +he went up to town, and, after a few days' absence, came back looking +more haggard than before, and wearing a hunted look in his eyes. He had +gone to see a physician, and, after having seen him, he had tried to +lose himself in a plunge into deep and turbid enough waters; but he +found that he had even lost the taste of high flavours, for which he +had once had an epicurean palate. The effort had ended in his being +overpowered again by his horrors--the horrors in which he found himself +staring at that end of things when no pleasure had spice, no debauchery +the sting of life, and men, such as he, stood upon the shore of time +shuddering and naked souls, watching the great tide, bearing its +treasures, recede forever, and leave them to the cold and hideous dark. +During one day of his stay in town he had seen Teresita, who had at +first stared half frightened by the change she saw in him, and then had +told him truths he could have wrung her neck for putting into words. + +"You look an old man," she said, with the foreign accent he had once +found deliciously amusing, but which now seemed to add a sting. "And +somesing is eating you op. You are mad in lofe with some beautiful one +who will not look at you. I haf seen it in mans before. It is she who +eats you op--your evil thinkings of her. It serve you right. Your eyes +look mad." + +He himself, at times, suspected that they did, and cursed himself +because he could not keep cool. It was part of his horrors that he knew +his internal furies were worse than folly, and yet he could not restrain +them. The creeping suspicion that this was only the result of the simple +fact that he had never tried to restrain any tendency of his own was +maddening. His nervous system was a wreck. He drank a great deal of +whisky to keep himself "straight" during the day, and he rose many times +during his black waking hours in the night to drink more because he +obstinately refused to give up the hope that, if he drank enough, it +would make him sleep. As through the thoughts of Mount Dunstan, who was +a clean and healthy human being, there ran one thread which would not +disentangle itself, so there ran through his unwholesome thinking a +thread which burned like fire. His secret ravings would not have been +good to hear. His passion was more than half hatred, and a desire for +vengeance, for the chance to re-assert his own power, to prove himself +master, to get the better in one way or another of this arrogant young +outsider and her high-handed pride. The condition of his mind was so far +from normal that he failed to see that the things he said to himself, +the plans he laid, were grotesque in their folly. The old cruel +dominance of the man over the woman thing, which had seemed the mere +natural working of the law among men of his race in centuries past, was +awake in him, amid the limitations of modern days. + +"My God," he said to himself more than once, "I would like to have +had her in my hands a few hundred years ago. Women were kept in their +places, then." + +He was even frenzied enough to think over what he would have done, if +such a thing had been--of her utter helplessness against that which +raged in him--of the grey thickness of the walls where he might +have held and wrought his will upon her--insult, torment, death. His +alcohol-excited brain ran riot--but, when it did its foolish worst, he +was baffled by one thing. + +"Damn her!" he found himself crying out. "If I had hung her up and +cut her into strips she would have died staring at me with her big +eyes--without uttering a sound." + +There was a long reach between his imaginings and the time he lived +in. America had not been discovered in those decent days, and now a +man could not beat even his own wife, or spend her money, without being +meddled with by fools. He was thinking of a New York young woman of the +nineteenth century who could actually do as she hanged pleased, and who +pleased to be damned high and mighty. For that reason in itself it was +incumbent upon a man to get even with her in one way or another. High +and mightiness was not the hardest thing to reach. It offered a good +aim. + +His temper when he returned to Stornham was of the order which in past +years had set Rosalie and her child shuddering and had sent the servants +about the house with pale or sullen faces. Betty's presence had the +odd effect of restraining him, and he even told her so with sneering +resentment. + +"There would be the devil to pay if you were not here," he said. "You +keep me in order, by Jove! I can't work up steam properly when you watch +me." + +He himself knew that it was likely that some change would take place. +She would not stay at Stornham and she would not leave his wife and +child alone with him again. It would be like her to hold her tongue +until she was ready with her infernal plans and could spring them on +him. Her letters to her father had probably prepared him for such action +as such a man would be likely to take. He could guess what it would be. +They were free and easy enough in America in their dealings with the +marriage tie. Their idea would doubtless be a divorce with custody of +the child. He wondered a little that they had remained quiet so long. +There had been American shrewdness in her coming boldly to Stornham to +look over the ground herself and actually set the place in order. It did +not present itself to his mind that what she had done had been no part +of a scheme, but the mere result of her temperament and training. He +told himself that it had been planned beforehand and carried out in +hard-headed commercial American fashion as a matter of business. The +thing which most enraged him was the implied cool, practical realisation +of the fact that he, as inheritor of an entailed estate, was but owner +in charge, and not young enough to be regarded as an insurmountable +obstacle to their plans. He could not undo the greater part of what had +been done, and they were calculating, he argued, that his would not be +likely to be a long life, and if--if anything happened--Stornham would +be Ughtred's and the whole vulgar lot of them would come over and take +possession and swagger about the place as if they had been born on it. +As to divorce or separation--if they took that line, he would at least +give them a good run for their money. They would wish they had let +sleeping dogs lie before the thing was over. The right kind of lawyer +could bully Rosalie into saying anything he chose on the witness-stand. +There was not much limit to the evidence a man could bring if he was +experienced enough to be circumstantial, and knew whom he was dealing +with. The very fact that the little fool could be made to appear to have +been so sly and sanctimonious would stir the gall of any jury of men. +His own condoning the matter for the sake of his sensitive boy, deformed +by his mother's unrestrained and violent hysteria before his birth, +would go a long way. Let them get their divorce, they would have paid +for it, the whole lot of them, the beautiful Miss Vanderpoel and +all. Such a story as the newspapers would revel in would not be +a recommendation to Englishmen of unsmirched reputation. Then his +exultation would suddenly drop as his mental excitement produced its +effect of inevitable physical fatigue. Even if he made them pay for +getting their own way, what would happen to himself afterwards? No +morbid vanity of self-bolstering could make the outlook anything +but unpromising. If he had not had such diabolical luck in his few +investments he could have lived his own life. As it was, old Vanderpoel +would possibly condescend to make him some insufficient allowance +because Rosalie would wish that it might be done, and he would be +expected to drag out to the end the kind of life a man pensioned by his +wife's relatives inevitably does. If he attempted to live in the country +he should blow out his brains. When his depression was at its worst, he +saw himself aging and shabby, rambling about from one cheap Continental +town to another, blackballed by good clubs, cold-shouldered even by the +Teresitas, cut off from society by his limited means and the stories +his wife's friends would spread. He ground his teeth when he thought +of Betty. Her splendid vitality had done something to life for him--had +given it savour. When he had come upon her in the avenue his blood had +stirred, even though it had been maliciously, and there had been spice +in his very resentment of her presence. And she would go away. He would +not be likely to see her again if his wife broke with him; she would be +swept out of his days. It was hideous to think of, and his rage would +overpower him and his nerves go to pieces again. + +"What are you going to do?" he broke forth suddenly one evening, when +he found himself temporarily alone with her. "You are going to do +something. I see it in your eyes." + +He had been for some time watching her from behind his newspaper, while +she, with an unread book upon her lap, had, in fact, been thinking +deeply and putting to herself serious questions. + +Her answer made him stir rather uncomfortably. + +"I am going to write to my father to ask him to come to England." + +So this was what she had been preparing to spring upon him. He laughed +insolently. + +"To ask him to come here?" + +"With your permission." + +"With mine? Does an American father-in-law wait for permission?" + +"Is there any practical reason why you should prefer that he should NOT +come?" + +He left his seat and walked over to her. + +"Yes. Your sending for him is a declaration of war." + +"It need not be so. Why should it?" + +"In this case I happen to be aware that it is. The choice is your own, I +suppose," with ready bravado, "that you and he are prepared to face the +consequences. But is Rosalie, and is your mother?" + +"My father is a business man and will know what can be done. He will +know what is worth doing," she answered, without noticing his +question. "But," she added the words slowly, "I have been making up +my mind--before I write to him--to say something to you--to ask you a +question." + +He made a mock sentimental gesture. + +"To ask me to spare my wife, to 'remember that she is the mother of my +child'?" + +She passed over that also. + +"To ask you if there is no possible way in which all this unhappiness +can be ended decently." + +"The only decent way of ending it would be that there should be no +further interference. Let Rosalie supply the decency by showing me the +consideration due from a wife to her husband. The place has been put in +order. It was not for my benefit, and I have no money to keep it up. Let +Rosalie be provided with means to do it." + +As he spoke the words he realised that he had opened a way for +embarrassing comment. He expected her to remind him that Rosalie had not +come to him without money. But she said nothing about the matter. She +never said the things he expected to hear. + +"You do not want Rosalie for your wife," she went on "but you could +treat her courteously without loving her. You could allow her the +privileges other men's wives are allowed. You need not separate her from +her family. You could allow her father and mother to come to her and +leave her free to go to them sometimes. Will you not agree to that? Will +you not let her live peaceably in her own simple way? She is very gentle +and humble and would ask nothing more." + +"She is a fool!" he exclaimed furiously. "A fool! She will stay where +she is and do as I tell her." + +"You knew what she was when you married her. She was simple and girlish +and pretended to be nothing she was not. You chose to marry her and take +her from the people who loved her. You broke her spirit and her heart. +You would have killed her if I had not come in time to prevent it." + +"I will kill her yet if you leave her," his folly made him say. + +"You are talking like a feudal lord holding the power of life and death +in his hands," she said. "Power like that is ancient history. You can +hurt no one who has friends--without being punished." + +It was the old story. She filled him with the desire to shake or disturb +her at any cost, and he did his utmost. If she was proposing to make +terms with him, he would show her whether he would accept them or not. +He let her hear all he had said to himself in his worst moments--all +that he had argued concerning what she and her people would do, and +what his own actions would be--all his intention to make them pay the +uttermost farthing in humiliation if he could not frustrate them. +His methods would be definite enough. He had not watched his wife and +Ffolliott for weeks to no end. He had known what he was dealing with. He +had put other people upon the track and they would testify for him. He +poured forth unspeakable statements and intimations, going, as usual, +further than he had known he should go when he began. Under the spur of +excitement his imagination served him well. At last he paused. + +"Well," he put it to her, "what have you to say?" + +"I?" with the remote intent curiosity growing in her eyes. "I have +nothing to say. I am leaving you to say things." + +"You will, of course, try to deny----" he insisted. + +"No, I shall not. Why should I?" + +"You may assume your air of magnificence, but I am dealing with +uncomfortable factors." He stopped in spite of himself, and then burst +forth in a new order of rage. "You are trying some confounded experiment +on me. What is it?" + +She rose from her chair to go out of the room, and stood a moment +holding her book half open in her hand. + +"Yes. I suppose it might be called an experiment," was her answer. +"Perhaps it was a mistake. I wanted to make quite sure of something." + +"Of what?" + +"I did not want to leave anything undone. I did not want to believe that +any man could exist who had not one touch of decent feeling to redeem +him. It did not seem human." + +White dints showed themselves about his nostrils. + +"Well, you have found one," he cried. "You have a lashing tongue, by +God, when you choose to let it go. But I could teach you a good many +things, my girl. And before I have done you will have learned most of +them." + +But though he threw himself into a chair and laughed aloud as she left +him, he knew that his arrogance and bullying were proving poor weapons, +though they had done him good service all his life. And he knew, too, +that it was mere simple truth that, as a result of the intellectual, +ethical vagaries he scathingly derided--she had actually been giving him +a sort of chance to retrieve himself, and that if he had been another +sort of man he might have taken it. + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +A FOOTSTEP + +It was cold enough for fires in halls and bedrooms, and Lady Anstruthers +often sat over hers and watched the glowing bed of coals with a fixed +thoughtfulness of look. She was so sitting when her sister went to +her room to talk to her, and she looked up questioningly when the door +closed and Betty came towards her. + +"You have come to tell me something," she said. + +A slight shade of anxiousness showed itself in her eyes, and Betty sat +down by her and took her hand. She had come because what she knew was +that Rosalie must be prepared for any step taken, and the time had +arrived when she must not be allowed to remain in ignorance even of +things it would be unpleasant to put into words. + +"Yes," she answered. "I want to talk to you about something I have +decided to do. I think I must write to father and ask him to come to +us." + +Rosalie turned white, but though her lips parted as if she were going to +speak, she said nothing. + +"Do not be frightened," Betty said. "I believe it is the only thing to +do." + +"I know! I know!" + +Betty went on, holding the hand a little closer. "When I came here +you were too weak physically to be able to face even the thought of a +struggle. I saw that. I was afraid it must come in the end, but I knew +that at that time you could not bear it. It would have killed you +and might have killed mother, if I had not waited; and until you +were stronger, I knew I must wait and reason coolly about you--about +everything." + +"I used to guess--sometimes," said Lady Anstruthers. + +"I can tell you about it now. You are not as you were then," Betty said. +"I did not know Nigel at first, and I felt I ought to see more of him. I +wanted to make sure that my child hatred of him did not make me unfair. +I even tried to hope that when he came back and found the place in order +and things going well, he might recognise the wisdom of behaving with +decent kindness to you. If he had done that I knew father would have +provided for you both, though he would not have left him the opportunity +to do again what he did before. No business man would allow such a thing +as that. But as time has gone by I have seen I was mistaken in hoping +for a respectable compromise. Even if he were given a free hand he would +not change. And now----" She hesitated, feeling it difficult to choose +such words as would not be too unpleasant. How was she to tell Rosy of +the ugly, morbid situation which made ordinary passiveness impossible. +"Now there is a reason----" she began again. + +To her surprise and relief it was Rosalie who ended for her. She spoke +with the painful courage which strong affection gives a weak thing. Her +face was pale no longer, but slightly reddened, and she lifted the hand +which held hers and kissed it. + +"You shall not say it," she interrupted her. "I will. There is a reason +now why you cannot stay here--why you shall not stay here. That was why +I begged you to go. You must go, even if I stay behind alone." + +Never had the beautiful Miss Vanderpoel's eyes worn so fully their look +of being bluebells under water. That this timid creature should so stand +at bay to defend her was more moving than anything else could have been. + +"Thank you, Rosy--thank you," she answered. "But you shall not be left +alone. You must go, too. There is no other way. Difficulties will be +made for us, but we must face them. Father will see the situation from +a practical man's standpoint. Men know the things other men cannot +do. Women don't. Generally they know nothing about the law and can be +bullied into feeling that it is dangerous and compromising to inquire +into it. Nigel has always seen that it was easy to manage women. A +strong business man who has more exact legal information than he +has himself will be a new factor to deal with. And he cannot make +objectionable love to him. It is because he knows these things that he +says that my sending for father will be a declaration of war." + +"Did he say that?" a little breathlessly. + + +"Yes, and I told him that it need not be so. But he would not listen." + +"And you are sure father will come?" + +"I am sure. In a week or two he will be here." + +Lady Anstruthers' lips shook, her eyes lifted themselves to Betty's in +a touchingly distressed appeal. Had her momentary courage fled beyond +recall? If so, that would be the worst coming to the worst, indeed. +Yet it was not ordinary fear which expressed itself in her face, but a +deeper piteousness, a sudden hopeless pain, baffling because it seemed +a new emotion, or perhaps the upheaval of an old one long and carefully +hidden. + +"You will be brave?" Betty appealed to her. "You will not give way, +Rosy?" + +"Yes, I must be brave--I am not ill now. I must not fail you--I won't, +Betty, but----" + +She slipped upon the floor and dropped her face upon the girl's knee, +sobbing. + +Betty bent over her, putting her arms round the heaving shoulders, +and pleading with her to speak. Was there something more to be told, +something she did not know? + +"Yes, yes. Oh, I ought to have told you long ago--but I have always been +afraid and ashamed. It has made everything so much worse. I was afraid +you would not understand and would think me wicked--wicked." + +It was Betty who now lost a shade of colour. But she held the slim +little body closer and kissed her sister's cheek. + +"What have you been afraid and ashamed to tell me? Do not be ashamed any +more. You must not hide anything, no matter what it is, Rosy. I shall +understand." + +"I know I must not hide anything, now that all is over and father is +coming. It is--it is about Mr. Ffolliott." + +"Mr. Ffolliott?" repeated Betty quite softly. + +Lady Anstruthers' face, lifted with desperate effort, was like a weeping +child's. So much so in its tear-wet simpleness and utter lack of any +effort at concealment, that after one quick look at it Betty's hastened +pulses ceased to beat at double-quick time. + +"Tell me, dear," she almost whispered. + +"Mr. Ffolliott himself does not know--and I could not help it. He was +kind to me when I was dying of unkindness. You don't know what it was +like to be drowning in loneliness and misery, and to see one good hand +stretched out to help you. Before he went away--oh, Betty, I know it was +awful because I was married!--I began to care for him very much, and I +have cared for him ever since. I cannot stop myself caring, even though +I am terrified." + +Betty kissed her again with a passion of tender pity. Poor little, +simple Rosy, too! The tide had crept around her also, and had swept +her off her feet, tossing her upon its surf like a wisp of seaweed and +bearing her each day farther from firm shore. + +"Do not be terrified," she said. "You need only be afraid if--if you had +told him." + +"He will never know--never. Once in the middle of the night," there was +anguish in the delicate face, pure anguish, "a strange loud cry wakened +me, and it was I myself who had cried out--because in my sleep it had +come home to me that the years would go on and on, and at last some day +he would die and go out of the world--and I should die and go out of the +world. And he would never know--even KNOW." + +Betty's clasp of her loosened and she sat very still, looking straight +before her into some unseen place. + +"Yes," she said involuntarily. "Yes, _I_ know--I know--I know." + +Lady Anstruthers fell back a little to gaze at her. + +"YOU know? YOU know?" she breathed. "Betty?" + +But Betty at first did not speak. Her lovely eyes dwelt on the far-away +place. + +"Betty," whispered Rosy, "do you know what you have said?" + +The lovely eyes turned slowly towards her, and the soft corners of +Betty's mouth deepened in a curious unsteadiness. + +"Yes. I did not intend to say it. But it is true. _I_ know--I know--I +know. Do not ask me how." + +Rosalie flung her arms round her waist and for a moment hid her face. + +"YOU! YOU!" she murmured, but stopped herself almost as she uttered the +exclamation. "I will not ask you," she said when she spoke again. "But +now I shall not be so ashamed. You are a beauty and wonderful, and I am +not; but if you KNOW, that makes us almost the same. You will understand +why I broke down. It was because I could not bear to think of what will +happen. I shall be saved and taken home, but Nigel will wreak revenge on +HIM. And I shall be the shame that is put upon him--only because he was +kind--KIND. When father comes it will all begin." She wrung her hands, +becoming almost hysterical. + +"Hush," said Betty. "Hush! A man like that CANNOT be hurt, even by a man +like Nigel. There is a way out--there IS. Oh, Rosy, we must BELIEVE it." + +She soothed and caressed her and led her on to relieving her long +locked-up misery by speech. It was easy to see the ways in which her +feeling had made her life harder to bear. She was as inexperienced as a +girl, and had accused herself cruelly. When Nigel had tormented her with +evil, carefully chosen taunts, she had felt half guilty and had coloured +scarlet or turned pale, afraid to meet his sneeringly smiling face. She +had tried to forget the kind voice, the kindly, understanding eyes, and +had blamed herself as a criminal because she could not. + +"I had nothing else to remember--but unhappiness--and it seemed as if I +could not help but remember HIM," she said as simply as the Rosy who +had left New York at nineteen might have said it. "I was afraid to trust +myself to speak his name. When Nigel made insulting speeches I could +not answer him, and he used to say that women who had adventures should +train their faces not to betray them every time they were looked at. + +"Oh!" broke from Betty's lips, and she stood up on the hearth and threw +out her hands. "I wish that for one day I might be a man--and your +brother instead of your sister!" + +"Why?" + +Betty smiled strangely--a smile which was not amused--which was perhaps +not a smile at all. Her voice as she answered was at once low and tense. + +"Because, then I should know what to do. When a male creature cannot be +reached through manhood or decency or shame, there is one way in which +he can be punished. A man--a real man--should take him by his throat +and lash him with a whip--while others look on--lash him until he howls +aloud like a dog." + +She had not expected to say it, but she had said it. Lady Anstruthers +looked at her fascinated, and then she covered her face with her hands, +huddling herself in a heap as she knelt on the rug, looking singularly +small and frail. + +"Betty," she said presently, in a new, awful little voice, "I--I will +tell you something. I never thought I should dare to tell anyone alive. +I have shuddered at it myself. There have been days--awful, helpless +days, when I was sure there was no hope for me in all the world--when +deep down in my soul I understood what women felt when they MURDERED +people--crept to them in their wicked sleep and STRUCK them again--and +again--and again. Like that!" She sat up suddenly, as if she did not +know what she was doing, and uncovering her little ghastly face struck +downward three fierce times at nothingness--but as if it were not +nothingness, and as if she held something in her hand. + +There was horror in it--Betty sprang at the hand and caught it. + +"No! no!" she cried out. "Poor little Rosy! Darling little Rosy! No! no! +no!" + +That instant Lady Anstruthers looked up at her shocked and awake. She +was Rosy again, and clung to her, holding to her dress, piteous and +panting. + +"No! no!" she said. "When it came to me in the night--it was always in +the night--I used to get out of bed and pray that it might never, never +come again, and that I might be forgiven--just forgiven. It was too +horrible that I should even UNDERSTAND it so well." A woeful, wry little +smile twisted her mouth. "I was not brave enough to have done it. I +could never have DONE it, Betty; but the thought was there--it was +there! I used to think it had made a black mark on my soul." + +. . . . . + +The letter took long to write. It led a consecutive story up to the +point where it culminated in a situation which presented itself as no +longer to be dealt with by means at hand. Parts of the story previous +letters had related, though some of them it had not seemed absolutely +necessary to relate in detail. Now they must be made clear, and Betty +made them so. + +"Because you trusted me you made me trust myself," was one of the things +she wrote. "For some time I felt that it was best to fight for my own +hand without troubling you. I hoped perhaps I might be able to lead +things to a decorous sort of issue. I saw that secretly Rosy hoped and +prayed that it might be possible. She gave up expecting happiness before +she was twenty, and mere decent peace would have seemed heaven to her, +if she could have been allowed sometimes to see those she loved and +longed for. Now that I must give up my hope--which was perhaps a rather +foolish one--and now that I cannot remain at Stornham, she would have +no defence at all if she were left alone. Her condition would be more +hopeless than before, because Nigel would never forget that we had tried +to rescue her and had failed. If I were a man, or if I were very much +older, I need not be actually driven away, but as it is I think that you +must come and take the matter into your own hands." + +She had remained in her sister's room until long after midnight, and by +the time the American letter was completed and sealed, a pale touch of +dawning light was showing itself. She rose, and going to the window drew +the blind up and looked out. The looking out made her open the window, +and when she had done so she stood feeling the almost unearthly +freshness of the morning about her. The mystery of the first faint light +was almost unearthly, too. Trees and shrubs were beginning to take form +and outline themselves against the still pallor of the dawn. Before long +the waking of the birds would begin--a brief chirping note here and +there breaking the silence and warning the world with faint insistence +that it had begun to live again and must bestir itself. She had got out +of her bed sometimes on a summer morning to watch the beauty of it, to +see the flowers gradually reveal their colour to the eye, to hear the +warmly nesting things begin their joyous day. There were fewer bird +sounds now, and the garden beds were autumnal. But how beautiful it all +was! How wonderful life in such a place might be if flowers and birds +and sweep of sward, and mass of stately, broad-branched trees, were +parts of the home one loved and which surely would in its own way love +one in return. But soon all this phase of life would be over. Rosalie, +once safe at home, would look back, remembering the place with a +shudder. As Ughtred grew older the passing of years would dim miserable +child memories, and when his inheritance fell to him he might return to +see it with happier eyes. She began to picture to herself Rosy's voyage +in the ship which would carry her across the Atlantic to her mother +and the scenes connected in her mind only with a girl's happiness. +Whatsoever happened before it took place, the voyage would be made in +the end. And Rosalie would be like a creature in a dream--a heavenly, +unbelievable dream. Betty could imagine how she would look wrapped up +and sitting in her steamer chair, gazing out with rapturous eyes upon +the racing waves. + +"She will be happy," she thought. "But I shall not. No, I shall not." + +She drew in the morning air and unconsciously turned towards the place +where, across the rising and falling lands and behind the trees, she +knew the great white house stood far away, with watchers' lights showing +dimly behind the line of ballroom windows. + +"I do not know how such a thing could be! I do not know how such a thing +could be!" she said. "It COULD not." And she lifted a high head, not +even asking herself what remote sense in her being so obstinately defied +and threw down the glove to Fate. + +Sounds gain a curious distinctness and meaning in the hour of the break +of the dawn; in such an hour they seem even more significant than sounds +heard in the dead of night. When she had gone to the window she had +fancied that she heard something in the corridor outside her door, but +when she had listened there had been only silence. Now there was sound +again--that of a softly moved slippered foot. She went to the room's +centre and waited. Yes, certainly something had stirred in the passage. +She went to the door itself. The dragging step had hesitated--stopped. +Could it be Rosalie who had come to her for something. For one second +her impulse was to open the door herself; the next, she had changed her +mind with a sense of shock. Someone had actually touched the handle and +very delicately turned it. It was not pleasant to stand looking at it +and see it turn. She heard a low, evidently unintentionally uttered +exclamation, and she turned away, and with no attempt at softening +the sound of her footsteps walked across the room, hot with passionate +disgust. As well as if she had flung the door open, she knew who +stood outside. It was Nigel Anstruthers, haggard and unseemly, with +burned-out, sleepless eyes and bitten lip. + +Bad and mad as she had at last seen the situation to be, it was uglier +and more desperate than she could well know. + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE PASSING BELL + +The following morning Sir Nigel did not appear at the breakfast table. +He breakfasted in his own room, and it became known throughout the +household that he had suddenly decided to go away, and his man was +packing for the journey. What the journey or the reason for its being +taken happened to be were things not explained to anyone but Lady +Anstruthers, at the door of whose dressing room he appeared without +warning, just as she was leaving it. + +Rosalie started when she found herself confronting him. His eyes looked +hot and hollow with feverish sleeplessness. + +"You look ill," she exclaimed involuntarily. "You look as if you had not +slept." + +"Thank you. You always encourage a man. I am not in the habit of +sleeping much," he answered. "I am going away for my health. It is as +well you should know. I am going to look up old Broadmorlands. I want +to know exactly where he is, in case it becomes necessary for me to see +him. I also require some trifling data connected with Ffolliott. If +your father is coming, it will be as well to be able to lay my hands on +things. You can explain to Betty. Good-morning." He waited for no reply, +but wheeled about and left her. + +Betty herself wore a changed face when she came down. A cloud had passed +over her blooming, as clouds pass over a morning sky and dim it. Rosalie +asked herself if she had not noticed something like this before. She +began to think she had. Yes, she was sure that at intervals there had +been moments when she had glanced at the brilliant face with an uneasy +and yet half-unrealising sense of looking at a glowing light temporarily +waning. The feeling had been unrealisable, because it was not to be +explained. Betty was never ill, she was never low-spirited, she +was never out of humour or afraid of things--that was why it was so +wonderful to live with her. But--yes, it was true--there had been +days when the strong, fine light of her had waned. Lady Anstruthers' +comprehension of it arose now from her memory of the look she had seen +the night before in the eyes which suddenly had gazed straight before +her, as into an unknown place. + +"Yes, I know--I know--I know!" And the tone in the girl's voice had been +one Rosy had not heard before. + +Slight wonder--if you KNEW--at any outward change which showed itself, +though in your own most desperate despite. It would be so even with +Betty, who, in her sister's eyes, was unlike any other creature. But +perhaps it would be better to make no comment. To make comment would be +almost like asking the question she had been forbidden to ask. + +While the servants were in the room during breakfast they talked +of common things, resorting even to the weather and the news of the +village. Afterwards they passed into the morning room together, and +Betty put her arm around Rosalie and kissed her. + +"Nigel has suddenly gone away, I hear," she said. "Do you know where he +has gone?" + +"He came to my dressing-room to tell me." Betty felt the whole slim body +stiffen itself with a determination to seem calm. "He said he was going +to find out where the old Duke of Broadmorlands was staying at present." + +"There is some forethought in that," was Betty's answer. "He is not on +such terms with the Duke that he can expect to be received as a casual +visitor. It will require apt contrivance to arrange an interview. I +wonder if he will be able to accomplish it?" + +"Yes, he will," said Lady Anstruthers. "I think he can always contrive +things like that." She hesitated a moment, and then added: "He said also +that he wished to find out certain things about Mr. Ffolliott--'trifling +data,' he called it--that he might be able to lay his hands on things if +father came. He told me to explain to you." + +"That was intended for a taunt--but it's a warning," Betty said, +thinking the thing over. "We are rather like ladies left alone to +defend a besieged castle. He wished us to feel that." She tightened her +enclosing arm. "But we stand together--together. We shall not fail each +other. We can face siege until father comes." + +"You wrote to him last night?" + +"A long letter, which I wish him to receive before he sails. He might +decide to act upon it before leaving New York, to advise with some legal +authority he knows and trusts, to prepare our mother in some way--to do +some wise thing we cannot foresee the value of. He has known the outline +of the story, but not exact details--particularly recent ones. I have +held back nothing it was necessary he should know. I am going out to +post the letter myself. I shall send a cable asking him to prepare to +come to us after he has reflected on what I have written." + +Rosalie was very quiet, but when, having left the room to prepare to go +to the village, Betty came back to say a last word, her sister came to +her and laid her hand on her arm. + +"I have been so weak and trodden upon for years that it would not be +natural for you to quite trust me," she said. "But I won't fail you, +Betty--I won't." + +The winter was drawing in, the last autumn days were short and often +grey and dreary; the wind had swept the leaves from the trees and +scattered them over park lands and lanes, where they lay a mellow-hued, +rustling carpet, shifting with each chill breeze that blew. The berried +briony garlands clung to the bared hedges, and here and there flared +scarlet, still holding their red defiantly until hard frosts should come +to shrivel and blacken them. The rare hours of sunshine were amber hours +instead of golden. + +As she passed through the park gate Betty was thinking of the first +morning on which she had walked down the village street between the +irregular rows of red-tiled cottages with the ragged little enclosing +gardens. Then the air and sunshine had been of the just awakening +spring, now the sky was brightly cold, and through the small-paned +windows she caught glimpses of fireglow. A bent old man walking very +slowly, leaning upon two sticks, had a red-brown woollen muffler wrapped +round his neck. Seeing her, he stopped and shuffled the two sticks +into one hand that he might leave the other free to touch his wrinkled +forehead stiffly, his face stretching into a slow smile as she stopped +to speak to him. + +"Good-morning, Marlow," he said. "How is the rheumatism to-day?" + +He was a deaf old man, whose conversation was carried on principally by +guesswork, and it was easy for him to gather that when her ladyship's +handsome young sister had given him greeting she had not forgotten to +inquire respecting the "rheumatics," which formed the greater part of +existence. + +"Mornin', miss--mornin'," he answered in the high, cracked voice +of rural ancientry. "Winter be nigh, an' they damp days be full of +rheumatiz. 'T'int easy to get about on my old legs, but I be main +thankful for they warm things you sent, miss. This 'ere," fumbling at +his red-brown muffler proudly, "'tis a comfort on windy days, so +'tis, and warmth be a good thing to a man when he be goin' down hill in +years." + +"All of you who are not able to earn your own fires shall be warm this +winter," her ladyship's handsome sister said, speaking closer to his +ear. "You shall all be warm. Don't be afraid of the cold days coming." + +He shuffled his sticks and touched his forehead again, looking up at her +admiringly and chuckling. + +"'T'will be a new tale for Stornham village," he cackled. "'T'will be +a new tale. Thank ye, miss. Thank ye." + +As she nodded smilingly and passed on, she heard him cackling still +under his breath as he hobbled on his slow way, comforted and elate. How +almost shamefully easy it was; a few loads of coal and faggots here and +there, a few blankets and warm garments whose cost counted for so little +when one's hands were full, could change a gruesome village winter into +a season during which labour-stiffened and broken old things, closing +their cottage doors, could draw their chairs round the hearth and +hover luxuriously over the red glow, which in its comforting fashion of +seeming to have understanding of the dull dreams in old eyes, was more +to be loved than any human friend. + +But she had not needed her passing speech with Marlow to stimulate +realisation of how much she had learned to care for the mere living +among these people, to whom she seemed to have begun to belong, and +whose comfortably lighting faces when they met her showed that they knew +her to be one who might be turned to in any hour of trouble or dismay. +The centuries which had trained them to depend upon their "betters" had +taught the slowest of them to judge with keen sight those who were to be +trusted, not alone as power and wealth holders, but as creatures humanly +upright and merciful with their kind. + +"Workin' folk allus knows gentry," old Doby had once shrilled to her. +"Gentry's gentry, an' us knows 'em wheresoever they be. Better'n they +know theirselves. So us do!" + +Yes, they knew. And though they accepted many things as being merely +their natural rights, they gave an unsentimental affection and +appreciation in return. The patriarchal note in the life was lovable to +her. Each creature she passed was a sort of friend who seemed almost of +her own blood. It had come to that. This particular existence was +more satisfying to her than any other, more heart-filling and warmly +complete. + +"Though I am only an impostor," she thought; "I was born in Fifth +Avenue; yet since I have known this I shall be quite happy in no other +place than an English village, with a Norman church tower looking down +upon it and rows of little gardens with spears of white and blue lupins +and Canterbury bells standing guard before cottage doors." + +And Rosalie--on the evening of that first strange day when she had +come upon her piteous figure among the heather under the trees near +the lake--Rosalie had held her arm with a hot little hand and had said +feverishly: + +"If I could hear the roar of Broadway again! Do the stages rattle as +they used to, Betty? I can't help hoping that they do." + +She carried her letter to the post and stopped to talk a few minutes +with the postmaster, who transacted his official business in a small +shop where sides of bacon and hams hung suspended from the ceiling, +while groceries, flannels, dress prints, and glass bottles of sweet +stuff filled the shelves. "Mr. Tewson's" was the central point of +Stornham in a commercial sense. The establishment had also certain +social qualifications. + +Mr. Tewson knew the secrets of all hearts within the village radius, +also the secrets of all constitutions. He knew by some occult means who +had been "taken bad," or who had "taken a turn," and was aware at once +when anyone was "sinkin' fast." With such differences of opinion as +occasionally arose between the vicar and his churchwardens he was +immediately familiar. The history of the fever among the hop pickers at +Dunstan village he had been able to relate in detail from the moment of +its outbreak. It was he who had first dramatically revealed the truth of +the action Miss Vanderpoel had taken in the matter, which revelation had +aroused such enthusiasm as had filled The Clock Inn to overflowing and +given an impetus to the sale of beer. Tread, it was said, had even +made a speech which he had ended with vague but excellent intentions by +proposing the joint healths of her ladyship's sister and the "President +of America." Mr. Tewson was always glad to see Miss Vanderpoel cross his +threshold. This was not alone because she represented the custom of the +Court, which since her arrival had meant large regular orders and large +bills promptly paid, but that she brought with her an exotic atmosphere +of interest and excitement. + +He had mentioned to friends that somehow a talk with her made him feel +"set up for the day." Betty was not at all sure that he did not prepare +and hoard up choice remarks or bits of information as openings to +conversation. + +This morning he had thrilling news for her and began with it at once. + +"Dr. Fenwick at Stornham is very low, miss," he said. "He's very low, +you'll be sorry to hear. The worry about the fever upset him terrible +and his bronchitis took him bad. He's an old man, you know." + +Miss Vanderpoel was very sorry to hear it. It was quite in the natural +order of things that she should ask other questions about Dunstan +village and the Mount, and she asked several. + +The fever was dying out and pale convalescents were sometimes seen in +the village or strolling about the park. His lordship was taking care +of the people and doing his best for them until they should be strong +enough to return to their homes. + +"But he's very strict about making it plain that it's you, miss, they +have to thank for what he does." + +"That is not quite just," said Miss Vanderpoel. "He and Mr. Penzance +fought on the field. I only supplied some of the ammunition." + +"The county doesn't think of him as it did even a year ago, miss," said +Tewson rather smugly. "He was very ill thought of then among the gentry. +It's wonderful the change that's come about. If he should fall ill +there'll be a deal of sympathy." + +"I hope there is no question of his falling ill," said Miss Vanderpoel. + +Mr. Tewson lowered his voice confidentially. This was really his most +valuable item of news. + +"Well, miss," he admitted, "I have heard that he's been looking very bad +for a good bit, and it was told me quite private, because the doctors +and the vicar don't want the people to be upset by hearing it--that for +a week he's not been well enough to make his rounds." + +"Oh!" The exclamation was a faint one, but it was an exclamation. +"I hope that means nothing really serious," Miss Vanderpoel added. +"Everyone will hope so." + +"Yes, miss," said Mr. Tewson, deftly twisting the string round the +package he was tying up for her. "A sad reward it would be if he lost +his life after doing all he has done. A sad reward! But there'd be a +good deal of sympathy." + +The small package contained trifles of sewing and knitting materials she +was going to take to Mrs. Welden, and she held out her hand for it. She +knew she did not smile quite naturally as she said her good-morning +to Tewson. She went out into the pale amber sunshine and stood a few +moments, glad to find herself bathed in it again. She suddenly needed +air and light. "A sad reward!" Sometimes people were not rewarded. Brave +men were shot dead on the battlefield when they were doing brave things; +brave physicians and nurses died of the plagues they faithfully wrestled +with. Here were dread and pain confronting her--Betty Vanderpoel--and +while almost everyone else seemed to have faced them, she was wholly +unused to their appalling clutch. What a life hers had been--that in +looking back over it she should realise that she had never been touched +by anything like this before! There came back to her the look of almost +awed wonder in G. Selden's honest eyes when he said: "What it must be to +be you--just YOU!" He had been thinking only of the millions and of +the freedom from all everyday anxieties the millions gave. She smiled +faintly as the thought crossed her brain. The millions! The rolling +up of them year by year, because millions were breeders! The newspaper +stories of them--the wonder at and belief in their power! It was all +going on just as before, and yet here stood a Vanderpoel in an English +village street, of no more worth as far as power to aid herself went +than Joe Buttle's girl with the thick waist and round red cheeks. Jenny +Buttle would have believed that her ladyship's rich American sister +could do anything she chose, open any door, command any presence, +sweep aside any obstacle with a wave of her hand. But of the two, Jenny +Buttle's path would have laid straighter before her. If she had had "a +young man" who had fallen ill she would have been free if his mother had +cherished no objection to their "walking out"--to spend all her spare +hours in his cottage, making gruel and poultices, crying until her +nose and eyes were red, and pouring forth her hopes and fears to any +neighbour who came in or out or hung over the dividing garden hedge. If +the patient died, the deeper her mourning and the louder her sobs at his +funeral the more respectable and deserving of sympathy and admiration +would Jenny Buttle have been counted. Her ladyship's rich American +sister had no "young man"; she had not at any time been asked to "walk +out." Even in the dark days of the fever, each of which had carried +thought and action of hers to the scene of trouble, there had reigned +unbroken silence, except for the vicar's notes of warm and appreciative +gratitude. + +"You are very obstinate, Fergus," Mr. Penzance had said. + +And Mount Dunstan had shaken his head fiercely and answered: + +"Don't speak to me about it. Only obstinacy will save me from behaving +like--other blackguards." + +Mr. Penzance, carefully polishing his eyeglasses as he watched him, was +not sparing in his comment. + +"That is pure folly," he said, "pure bull-necked, stubborn folly, +charging with its head down. Before it has done with you it will have +made you suffer quite enough." + +"Be sure of that," Mount Dunstan had said, setting his teeth, as he +sat in his chair clasping his hands behind his head and glowering into +space. + +Mr. Penzance quietly, speculatively, looked him over, and reflected +aloud--or, so it sounded. + +"It is a big-boned and big-muscled characteristic, but there are things +which are stronger. Some one minute will arrive--just one minute--which +will be stronger. One of those moments when the mysteries of the +universe are at work." + +"Don't speak to me like that, I tell you!" Mount Dunstan broke out +passionately. And he sprang up and marched out of the room like an angry +man. + +Miss Vanderpoel did not go to Mrs. Welden's cottage at once, but walked +past its door down the lane, where there were no more cottages, but only +hedges and fields on either side of her. "Not well enough to make his +rounds" might mean much or little. It might mean a temporary breakdown +from overfatigue or a sickening for deadly illness. She looked at a +group of cropping sheep in a field and at a flock of rooks which had +just alighted near it with cawing and flapping of wings. She kept her +eyes on them merely to steady herself. The thoughts she had brought out +with her had grown heavier and were horribly difficult to control. One +must not allow one's self to believe the worst will come--one must not +allow it. + +She always held this rule before herself, and now she was not holding +it steadily. There was nothing to do. She could write a mere note of +inquiry to Mr. Penzance, but that was all. She could only walk up and +down the lanes and think--whether he lay dying or not. She could do +nothing, even if a day came when she knew that a pit had been dug in the +clay and he had been lowered into it with creaking ropes, and the clods +shovelled back upon him where he lay still--never having told her that +he was glad that her being had turned to him and her heart cried aloud +his name. She recalled with curious distinctness the effect of the +steady toll of the church bell--the "passing bell." + +She could hear it as she had heard it the first time it fell upon +her ear, and she had inquired what it meant. Why did they call it the +"passing bell"? All had passed before it began to toll--all had passed. +If it tolled at Dunstan and the pit was dug in the churchyard before +her father came, would he see, the moment they met, that something had +befallen her--that the Betty he had known was changed--gone? Yes, he +would see. Affection such as his always saw. Then he would sit alone +with her in some quiet room and talk to her, and she would tell him the +strange thing that had happened. He would understand--perhaps better +than she. + +She stopped abruptly in her walk and stood still. The hand holding her +package was quite cold. This was what one must not allow one's self. But +how the thoughts had raced through her brain! She turned and hastened +her steps towards Mrs. Welden's cottage. + +In Mrs. Welden's tiny back yard there stood a "coal lodge" suited to the +size of the domicile and already stacked with a full winter's supply +of coal. Therefore the well-polished and cleanly little grate in the +living-room was bright with fire. + +Old Doby, who had tottered round the corner to pay his fellow gossip a +visit, was sitting by it, and old Mrs. Welden, clean as to cap and apron +and small purple shoulder shawl, had evidently been allaying his natural +anxiety as to the conduct of foreign sovereigns by reading in a loud +voice the "print" under the pictures in an illustrated paper. + +This occupation had, however, been interrupted a few moments before Miss +Vanderpoel's arrival. Mrs. Bester, the neighbour in the next +cottage, had stepped in with her youngest on her hip and was talking +breathlessly. She paused to drop her curtsy as Betty entered, and old +Doby stood up and made his salute with a trembling hand, + +"She'll know," he said. "Gentry knows the ins an' outs of gentry fust. +She'll know the rights." + +"What has happened?" + +Mrs. Bester unexpectedly burst into tears. There was an element in +the female villagers' temperament which Betty had found was frequently +unexpected in its breaking forth. + +"He's down, miss," she said. "He's down with it crool bad. There'll be +no savin' of him--none." + +Betty laid her package of sewing cotton and knitting wool quietly on the +blue and white checked tablecloth. + +"Who--is he?" she asked. + +"His lordship--and him just saved all Dunstan parish from death--to go +like this!" + +In Stornham village and in all others of the neighbourhood the feminine +attitude towards Mount Dunstan had been one of strongly emotional +admiration. The thwarted female longing for romance--the desire for +drama and a hero had been fed by him. A fine, big young man, one that +had been "spoke ill of" and regarded as an outcast, had suddenly turned +the tables on fortune and made himself the central figure of the county, +the talk of gentry in their grand houses, of cottage women on their +doorsteps, and labourers stopping to speak to each other by the +roadside. Magic stories had been told of him, beflowered with dramatic +detail. No incident could have been related to his credit which would +not have been believed and improved upon. Shut up in his village working +among his people and unseen by outsiders, he had become a popular idol. +Any scrap of news of him--any rumour, true or untrue, was seized upon +and excitedly spread abroad. Therefore Mrs. Bester wept as she talked, +and, if the truth must be told, enjoyed the situation. She was the first +to tell the story to her ladyship's sister herself, as well as to Mrs. +Welden and old Doby. + +"It's Tom as brought it in," she said. "He's my brother, miss, an' he's +one of the ringers. He heard it from Jem Wesgate, an' he heard it at +Toomy's farm. They've been keepin' it hid at the Mount because the +people that's ill hangs on his lordship so that the doctors daren't let +them know the truth. They've been told he had to go to London an' may +come back any day. What Tom was sayin', miss, was that we'd all know +when it was over, for we'd hear the church bell toll here same as it'd +toll at Dunstan, because they ringers have talked it over an' they're +goin' to talk it over to-day with the other parishes--Yangford an' +Meltham an' Dunholm an' them. Tom says Stornham ringers met just now at +The Clock an' said that for a man that's stood by labouring folk like he +has, toll they will, an' so ought the other parishes, same as if he was +royalty, for he's made himself nearer. They'll toll the minute they hear +it, miss. Lord help us!" with a fresh outburst of crying. "It don't seem +like it's fair as it should be. When we hear the bell toll, miss----" + +"Don't!" said her ladyship's handsome sister suddenly. "Please don't say +it again." + +She sat down by the table, and resting her elbows on the blue and white +checked cloth, covered her face with her hands. She did not speak at +all. In this tiny room, with these two old souls who loved her, she need +not explain. She sat quite still, and Mrs. Welden after looking at her +for a few seconds was prompted by some sublimely simple intuition, and +gently sidled Mrs. Bester and her youngest into the little kitchen, +where the copper was. + +"Her helpin' him like she did, makes it come near," she whispered. +"Dessay it seems as if he was a'most like a relation." + +Old Doby sat and looked at his goddess. In his slowly moving old brain +stirred far-off memories like long-dead things striving to come to life. +He did not know what they were, but they wakened his dim eyes to a new +seeing of the slim young shape leaning a little forward, the soft cloud +of hair, the fair beauty of the cheek. He had not seen anything like +it in his youth, but--it was Youth itself, and so was that which the +ringers were so soon to toll for; and for some remote and unformed +reason, to his scores of years they were pitiful and should be cheered. +He bent forward himself and put out his ancient, veined and knotted, +gnarled and trembling hand, to timorously touch the arm of her he +worshipped and adored. + +"God bless ye!" he said, his high, cracked voice even more shrill and +thin than usual. "God bless ye!" And as she let her hands slip down, +and, turning, gently looked at him, he nodded to her speakingly, because +out of the dimness of his being, some part of Nature's working had +strangely answered and understood. + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +LISTENING + +On her way back to the Court her eyes saw only the white road before +her feet as she walked. She did not lift them until she found herself +passing the lych-gate at the entrance to the churchyard. Then suddenly +she looked up at the square grey stone tower where the bells hung, and +from which they called the village to church, or chimed for weddings--or +gave slowly forth to the silent air one heavy, regular stroke after +another. She looked and shuddered, and spoke aloud with a curious, +passionate imploring, like a child's. + +"Oh, don't toll! Don't toll! You must not! You cannot!" Terror had +sprung upon her, and her heart was being torn in two in her breast. That +was surely what it seemed like--this agonising ache of fear. Now from +hour to hour she would be waiting and listening to each sound borne on +the air. Her thought would be a possession she could not escape. When +she spoke or was spoken to, she would be listening--when she was silent +every echo would hold terror, when she slept--if sleep should come to +her--her hearing would be awake, and she would be listening--listening +even then. It was not Betty Vanderpoel who was walking along the white +road, but another creature--a girl whose brain was full of abnormal +thought, and whose whole being made passionate outcry against the thing +which was being slowly forced upon her. If the bell tolled--suddenly, +the whole world would be swept clean of life--empty and clean. If the +bell tolled. + +Before the entrance of the Court she saw, as she approached it, the +vicarage pony carriage, standing as it had stood on the day she had +returned from her walk on the marshes. She felt it quite natural that it +should be there. Mrs. Brent always seized upon any fragment of news, +and having seized on something now, she had not been able to resist the +excitement of bringing it to Lady Anstruthers and her sister. + +She was in the drawing-room with Rosalie, and was full of her subject +and the emotion suitable to the occasion. She had even attained a +certain modified dampness of handkerchief. Rosalie's handkerchief, +however, was not damp. She had not even attempted to use it, but sat +still, her eyes brimming with tears, which, when she saw Betty, brimmed +over and slipped helplessly down her cheeks. + +"Betty!" she exclaimed, and got up and went towards her, "I believe you +have heard." + +"In the village, I heard something--yes," Betty answered, and after +giving greeting to Mrs. Brent, she led her sister back to her chair, and +sat near her. + +This--the thought leaped upon her--was the kind of situation she must be +prepared to be equal to. In the presence of these who knew nothing, +she must bear herself as if there was nothing to be known. No one but +herself had the slightest knowledge of what the past months had brought +to her--no one in the world. If the bell tolled, no one in the world but +her father ever would know. She had no excuse for emotion. None had been +given to her. The kind of thing it was proper that she should say and do +now, in the presence of Mrs. Brent, it would be proper and decent that +she should say and do in all other cases. She must comport herself as +Betty Vanderpoel would if she were moved only by ordinary human sympathy +and regret. + +"We must remember that we have only excited rumour to depend upon," she +said. "Lord Mount Dunstan has kept his village under almost military +law. He has put it into quarantine. No one is allowed to leave it, so +there can be no direct source of information. One cannot be sure of the +entire truth of what one hears. Often it is exaggerated cottage talk. +The whole neighbourhood is wrought up to a fever heat of excited +sympathy. And villagers like the drama of things." + +Mrs. Brent looked at her admiringly, it being her fixed habit to admire +Miss Vanderpoel, and all such as Providence had set above her. + +"Oh, how wise you are, Miss Vanderpoel!" she exclaimed, even devoutly. +"It is so nice of you to be calm and logical when everybody else is so +upset. You are quite right about villagers enjoying the dramatic side of +troubles. They always do. And perhaps things are not so bad as they say. +I ought not to have let myself believe the worst. But I quite broke down +under the ringers--I was so touched." + +"The ringers?" faltered Lady Anstruthers + +"The leader came to the vicar to tell him they wanted permission to +toll--if they heard tolling at Dunstan. Weaver's family lives within +hearing of Dunstan church bells, and one of his boys is to run across +the fields and bring the news to Stornham. And it was most touching, +Miss Vanderpoel. They feel, in their rustic way, that Lord Mount Dunstan +has not been treated fairly in the past. And now he seems to them a hero +and a martyr--or like a great soldier who has died fighting." + +"Who MAY die fighting," broke from Miss Vanderpoel sharply. + +"Who--who may----" Mrs. Brent corrected herself, "though Heaven grant he +will not. But it was the ringers who made me feel as if all really +was over. Thank you, Miss Vanderpoel, thank you for being so practical +and--and cool." + +"It WAS touching," said Lady Anstruthers, her eyes brimming over again. +"And what the villagers feel is true. It goes to one's heart," in a +little outburst. "People have been unkind to him! And he has been lonely +in that great empty place--he has been lonely. And if he is dying +to-day, he is lonely even as he dies--even as he dies." + +Betty drew a deep breath. For one moment there seemed to rise before +her vision of a huge room, whose stately size made its bareness a more +desolate thing. And Mr. Penzance bent low over the bed. She tore her +thought away from it. + +"No! No!" she cried out in low, passionate protest. "There will be +love and yearning all about him everywhere. The villagers who are +waiting--the poor things he has worked for--the very ringers themselves, +are all pouring forth the same thoughts. He will feel even ours--ours +too! His soul cannot be lonely." + +A few minutes earlier, Mrs. Brent had been saying to herself inwardly: +"She has not much heart after all, you know." Now she looked at her in +amazement. + +The blue bells were under water in truth--drenched and drowned. And yet +as the girl stood up before her, she looked taller--more the magnificent +Miss Vanderpoel than ever--though she expressed a new meaning. + +"There is one thing the villagers can do for him," she said. "One thing +we can all do. The bell has not tolled yet. There is a service for those +who are--in peril. If the vicar will call the people to the church, we +can all kneel down there--and ask to be heard. The vicar will do that I +am sure--and the people will join him with all their hearts." + +Mrs. Brent was overwhelmed. + +"Dear, dear, Miss Vanderpoel!" she exclaimed. "THAT is touching, indeed +it is! And so right and so proper. I will drive back to the village at +once. The vicar's distress is as great as mine. You think of everything. +The service for the sick and dying. How right--how right!" + +With a sense of an increase of value in herself, the vicar, and the +vicarage, she hastened back to the pony carriage, but in the hall she +seized Betty's hand emotionally. + +"I cannot tell you how much I am touched by this," she murmured. "I did +not know you were--were a religious girl, my dear." + +Betty answered with grave politeness. + +"In times of great pain and terror," she said, "I think almost everybody +is religious--a little. If that is the right word." + +There was no ringing of the ordinary call to service. In less than an +hour's time people began to come out of their cottages and wend their +way towards the church. No one had put on his or her Sunday clothes. The +women had hastily rolled down their sleeves, thrown off their aprons, +and donned everyday bonnets and shawls. The men were in their corduroys, +as they had come in from the fields, and the children wore their +pinafores. As if by magic, the news had flown from house to house, and +each one who had heard it had left his or her work without a moment's +hesitation. They said but little as they made their way to the church. +Betty, walking with her sister, was struck by the fact that there were +more of them than formed the usual Sunday morning congregation. They +were doing no perfunctory duty. The men's faces were heavily moved, +most of the women wiped their eyes at intervals, and the children looked +awed. There was a suggestion of hurried movement in the step of each--as +if no time must be lost--as if they must begin their appeal at once. +Betty saw old Doby tottering along stiffly, with his granddaughter and +Mrs. Welden on either side of him. Marlow, on his two sticks, was to be +seen moving slowly, but steadily. + +Within the ancient stone walls, stiff old knees bent themselves with +care, and faces were covered devoutly by work-hardened hands. As +she passed through the churchyard Betty knew that eyes followed her +affectionately, and that the touching of foreheads and dropping of +curtsies expressed a special sympathy. In each mind she was connected +with the man they came to pray for--with the work he had done--with +the danger he was in. It was vaguely felt that if his life ended, a +bereavement would have fallen upon her. This the girl knew. + +The vicar lifted his bowed head and began his service. Every man, woman +and child before him responded aloud and with a curious fervour--not in +decorous fear of seeming to thrust themselves before the throne, making +too much of their petitions, in the presence of the gentry. Here and +there sobs were to be heard. Lady Anstruthers followed the service +timorously and with tears. But Betty, kneeling at her side, by the round +table in the centre of the great square Stornham pew, which was like a +room, bowed her head upon her folded arms, and prayed her own intense, +insistent prayer. + +"God in Heaven!" was her inward cry. "God of all the worlds! Do not let +him die. 'If ye ask anything in my name that I will do.' Christ said it. +In the name of Jesus of Nazareth--do not let him die! All the worlds are +yours--all the power--listen to us--listen to us. Lord, I believe--help +thou my unbelief. If this terror robs me of faith, and I pray +madly--forgive, forgive me. Do not count it against me as sin. You made +him. He has suffered and been alone. It is not time--it is not time yet +for him to go. He has known no joy and no bright thing. Do not let him +go out of the warm world like a blind man. Do not let him die. Perhaps +this is not prayer, but raging. Forgive--forgive! All power is gone from +me. God of the worlds, and the great winds, and the myriad stars--do not +let him die!" + +She knew her thoughts were wild, but their torrent bore her with them +into a strange, great silence. She did not hear the vicar's words, or +the responses of the people. She was not within the grey stone walls. +She had been drawn away as into the darkness and stillness of the night, +and no soul but her own seemed near. Through the stillness and the dark +her praying seemed to call and echo, clamouring again and again. It must +reach Something--it must be heard, because she cried so loud, though to +the human beings about her she seemed kneeling in silence. She went on +and on, repeating her words, changing them, ending and beginning again, +pouring forth a flood of appeal. She thought later that the flood must +have been at its highest tide when, singularly, it was stemmed. Without +warning, a wave of awe passed over her which strangely silenced her--and +left her bowed and kneeling, but crying out no more. The darkness had +become still, even as it had not been still before. Suddenly she cowered +as she knelt and held her breath. Something had drawn a little near. No +thoughts--no words--no cries were needed as the great stillness grew and +spread, and folded her being within it. She waited--only waited. She did +not know how long a time passed before she felt herself drawn back from +the silent and shadowy places--awakening, as it were, to the sounds in +the church. + +"Our Father," she began to say, as simply as a child. "Our Father who +art in Heaven--hallowed be thy name." There was a stirring among the +congregation, and sounds of feet, as the people began to move down the +aisle in reverent slowness. She caught again the occasional sound of a +subdued sob. Rosalie gently touched her, and she rose, following her out +of the big pew and passing down the aisle after the villagers. + +Outside the entrance the people waited as if they wanted to see her +again. Foreheads were touched as before, and eyes followed her. She was +to the general mind the centre of the drama, and "the A'mighty" would +do well to hear her. She had been doing his work for him "same as his +lordship." They did not expect her to smile at such a time, when she +returned their greetings, and she did not, but they said afterwards, in +their cottages, that "trouble or not she was a wonder for looks, that +she was--Miss Vanderpoel." + +Rosalie slipped a hand through her arm, and they walked home together, +very close to each other. Now and then there was a questioning in Rosy's +look. But neither of them spoke once. + +On an oak table in the hall a letter from Mr. Penzance was lying. It +was brief, hurried, and anxious. The rumour that Mount Dunstan had been +ailing was true, and that they had felt they must conceal the matter +from the villagers was true also. For some baffling reason the fever +had not absolutely declared itself, but the young doctors were beset +by grave forebodings. In such cases the most serious symptoms might +suddenly develop. One never knew. Mr. Penzance was evidently torn by +fears which he desperately strove to suppress. But Betty could see the +anguish on his fine old face, and between the lines she read dread and +warning not put into words. She believed that, fearing the worst, he +felt he must prepare her mind. + +"He has lived under a great strain for months," he ended. "It began long +before the outbreak of the fever. I am not strong under my sense of the +cruelty of things--and I have never loved him as I love him to-day." + +Betty took the letter to her room, and read it two or three times. +Because she had asked intelligent questions of the medical authority she +had consulted on her visit to London, she knew something of the fever +and its habits. Even her unclerical knowledge was such as it was not +well to reflect upon. She refolded the letter and laid it aside. + +"I must not think. I must do something. It may prevent my listening," +she said aloud to the silence of her room. + +She cast her eyes about her as if in search. Upon her desk lay a +notebook. She took it up and opened it. It contained lists of plants, +of flower seeds, of bulbs, and shrubs. Each list was headed with an +explanatory note. + +"Yes, this will do," she said. "I will go and talk to Kedgers." + +Kedgers and every man under him had been at the service, but they had +returned to their respective duties. Kedgers, giving directions to some +under gardeners who were clearing flower beds and preparing them for +their winter rest, turned to meet her as she approached. To Kedgers the +sight of her coming towards him on a garden path was a joyful thing. He +had done wonders, it is true, but if she had not stood by his side with +inspiration as well as confidence, he knew that things might have "come +out different." + +"You was born a gardener, miss--born one," he had said months ago. + +It was the time when flower beds must be planned for the coming year. +Her notebook was filled with memoranda of the things they must talk +about. + +It was good, normal, healthy work to do. The scent of the rich, damp, +upturned mould was a good thing to inhale. They walked from one end to +another, stood before clumps of shrubs, and studied bits of wall. Here +a mass of blue might grow, here low things of white and pale yellow. A +quickly-climbing rose would hang sheets of bloom over this dead tree. +This sheltered wall would hold warmth for a Marechal Niel. + +"You must take care of it all--even if I am not here next year," Miss +Vanderpoel said. + +Kedgers' absorbed face changed. + +"Not here, miss," he exclaimed. "You not here! Things wouldn't grow, +miss." He checked himself, his weather-toughened skin reddening because +he was afraid he had perhaps taken a liberty. And then moving his hat +uneasily on his head, he took another. "But it's true enough," looking +down on the gravel walk, "we--we couldn't expect to keep you." + +She did not look as if she had noticed the liberty, but she did not look +quite like herself, Kedgers thought. If she had been another young lady, +and but for his established feeling that she was somehow immune from all +ills, he would have thought she had a headache, or was low in her mind. + +She spent an hour or two with him, and together they planned for the +changing seasons of the year to come. How she could keep her mind on a +thing, and what a head she had for planning, and what an eye for colour! +But yes--there was something a bit wrong somehow. Now and then she would +stop and stand still for a moment, and suddenly it struck Kedgers that +she looked as if she were listening. + +"Did you think you heard something, miss?" he asked her once when she +paused and wore this look. + +"No," she answered, "no." And drew him on quickly--almost as if she did +not want him to hear what she had seemed listening for. + +When she left him and went back to the house, all the loveliness of +spring, summer and autumn had been thought out and provided for. Kedgers +stood on the path and looked after her until she passed through the +terrace door. He chewed his lip uneasily. Then he remembered something +and felt a bit relieved. It was the service he remembered. + +"Ah! it's that that's upset her--and it's natural, seeing how she's +helped him and Dunstan village. It's only natural." He chewed his lip +again, and nodded his head in odd reflection. "Ay! Ay!" he summed her +up. "She's a great lady that--she's a great lady--same as if she'd been +born in a civilised land." + +During the rest of the day the look of question in Rosalie's eyes +changed in its nature. When her sister was near her she found herself +glancing at her with a new feeling. It was a growing feeling, which +gradually became--anxiousness. Betty presented to her the aspect of one +withdrawn into some remote space. She was not living this day as her +days were usually lived. She did not sit still or stroll about the +gardens quietly. The consecutiveness of her action seemed broken. She +did one thing after another, as if she must fill each moment. This was +not her Betty. Lady Anstruthers watched and thought until, in the end, +a new pained fear began to creep slowly into her mind, and make her feel +as if she were slightly trembling though her hands did not shake. She +did not dare to allow herself to think the thing she knew she was on the +brink of thinking. She thrust it away from her, and tried not to think +at all. Her Betty--her splendid Betty, whom nothing could hurt--who +could not be touched by any awful thing--her dear Betty! + +In the afternoon she saw her write notes steadily for an hour, then she +went out into the stables and visited the horses, talked to the coachman +and to her own groom. She was very kind to a village boy who had been +recently taken on as an additional assistant in the stable, and who was +rather frightened and shy. She knew his mother, who had a large family, +and she had, indeed, given the boy his place that he might be trained +under the great Mr. Buckham, who was coachman and head of the stables. +She said encouraging things which quite cheered him, and she spoke +privately to Mr. Buckham about him. Then she walked in the park a +little, but not for long. When she came back Rosalie was waiting for +her. + +"I want to take a long drive," she said. "I feel restless. Will you +come with me, Betty?" Yes, she would go with her, so Buckham brought the +landau with its pair of big horses, and they rolled down the avenue, +and into the smooth, white high road. He took them far--past the +great marshes, between miles of bared hedges, past farms and scattered +cottages. Sometimes he turned into lanes, where the hedges were closer +to each other, and where, here and there, they caught sight of new +points of view between trees. Betty was glad to feel Rosy's slim body +near her side, and she was conscious that it gradually seemed to draw +closer and closer. Then Rosy's hand slipped into hers and held it softly +on her lap. + +When they drove together in this way they were usually both of them +rather silent and quiet, but now Rosalie spoke of many things--of +Ughtred, of Nigel, of the Dunholms, of New York, and their father and +mother. + +"I want to talk because I'm nervous, I think," she said half +apologetically. "I do not want to sit still and think too much--of +father's coming. You don't mind my talking, do you, Betty?" + +"No," Betty answered. "It is good for you and for me." And she met the +pressure of Rosy's hand halfway. + +But Rosy was talking, not because she did not want to sit still and +think, but because she did not want Betty to do so. And all the time she +was trying to thrust away the thought growing in her mind. + +They spent the evening together in the library, and Betty read aloud. +She read a long time--until quite late. She wished to tire herself as +well as to force herself to stop listening. + +When they said good-night to each other Rosy clung to her as desperately +as she had clung on the night after her arrival. She kissed her again +and again, and then hung her head and excused herself. + +"Forgive me for being--nervous. I'm ashamed of myself," she said. +"Perhaps in time I shall get over being a coward." + +But she said nothing of the fact that she was not a coward for herself, +but through a slowly formulating and struggled--against fear, which +chilled her very heart, and which she could best cover by a pretence of +being a poltroon. + +She could not sleep when she went to bed. The night seemed crowded with +strange, terrified thoughts. They were all of Betty, though sometimes +she thought of her father's coming, of her mother in New York, and of +Betty's steady working throughout the day. Sometimes she cried, twisting +her hands together, and sometimes she dropped into a feverish sleep, and +dreamed that she was watching Betty's face, yet was afraid to look at +it. + +She awakened suddenly from one of these dreams, and sat upright in bed +to find the dawn breaking. She rose and threw on a dressing-gown, and +went to her sister's room because she could not bear to stay away. + +The door was not locked, and she pushed it open gently. One of the +windows had its blind drawn up, and looked like a patch of dull grey. +Betty was standing upright near it. She was in her night-gown, and a +long black plait of hair hung over one shoulder heavily. She looked all +black and white in strong contrast. The grey light set her forth as a +tall ghost. + +Lady Anstruthers slid forward, feeling a tightness in her chest. + +"The dawn wakened me too," she said. + +"I have been waiting to see it come," answered Betty. "It is going to be +a dull, dreary day." + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +"I HAVE NO WORD OR LOOK TO REMEMBER" + +It was a dull and dreary day, as Betty had foreseen it would be. Heavy +rain clouds hung and threatened, and the atmosphere was damp and chill. +It was one of those days of the English autumn which speak only of the +end of things, bereaving one of the power to remember next year's spring +and summer, which, after all, must surely come. Sky is grey, trees are +grey, dead leaves lie damp beneath the feet, sunlight and birds seem +forgotten things. All that has been sad and to be regretted or feared +hangs heavy in the air and sways all thought. In the passing of these +hours there is no hope anywhere. Betty appeared at breakfast in short +dress and close hat. She wore thick little boots, as if for walking. + +"I am going to make visits in the village," she said. "I want a basket +of good things to take with me. Stourton's children need feeding after +their measles. They looked very thin when I saw them playing in the road +yesterday." + +"Yes, dear," Rosalie answered. "Mrs. Noakes shall prepare the basket. +Good chicken broth, and jelly, and nourishing things. Jennings," to the +butler, "you know the kind of basket Miss Vanderpoel wants. Speak to +Mrs. Noakes, please." + +"Yes, my lady," Jennings knew the kind of basket and so did Mrs. Noakes. +Below stairs a strong sympathy with Miss Vanderpoel's movements had +developed. No one resented the preparation of baskets. Somehow they were +always managed, even if asked for at untimely hours. + +Betty was sitting silent, looking out into the greyness of the +autumn-smitten park. + +"Are--are you listening for anything, Betty?" Lady Anstruthers asked +rather falteringly. "You have a sort of listening look in your eyes." + +Betty came back to the room, as it were. + +"Have I," she said. "Yes, I think I was listening for--something." + +And Rosalie did not ask her what she listened for. She was afraid she +knew. + +It was not only the Stourtons Betty visited this morning. She passed +from one cottage to another--to see old women, and old men, as well as +young ones, who for one reason or another needed help and encouragement. +By one bedside she read aloud; by another she sat and told cheerful +stories; she listened to talk in little kitchens, and in one house +welcomed a newborn thing. As she walked steadily over grey road and +down grey lanes damp mist rose and hung about her. And she did not walk +alone. Fear walked with her, and anguish, a grey ghost by her side. Once +she found herself standing quite still on a side path, covering her face +with her hands. She filled every moment of the morning, and walked until +she was tired. Before she went home she called at the post office, +and Mr. Tewson greeted her with a solemn face. He did not wait to be +questioned. + +"There's been no news to-day, miss, so far," he said. "And that seems +as if they might be so given up to hard work at a dreadful time that +there's been no chance for anything to get out. When people's hanging +over a man's bed at the end, it's as if everything stopped but +that--that's stopping for all time." + +After luncheon the rain began to fall softly, slowly, and with a +suggestion of endlessness. It was a sort of mist itself, and became a +damp shadow among the bare branches of trees which soon began to drip. + +"You have been walking about all morning, and you are tired, dear," Lady +Anstruthers said to her. "Won't you go to your room and rest, Betty?" + +Yes, she would go to her room, she said. Some new books had arrived from +London this morning, and she would look over them. She talked a little +about her visits before she went, and when, as she talked, Ughtred came +over to her and stood close to her side holding her hand and stroking +it, she smiled at him sweetly--the smile he adored. He stroked the hand +and softly patted it, watching her wistfully. Suddenly he lifted it to +his lips, and kissed it again and again with a sort of passion. + +"I love you so much, Aunt Betty," he cried. "We both love you so much. +Something makes me love you to-day more than ever I did before. It +almost makes me cry. I love you so." + +She stooped swiftly and drew him into her arms and kissed him close and +hard. He held his head back a little and looked into the blue under her +lashes. + +"I love your eyes," he said. "Anyone would love your eyes, Aunt Betty. +But what is the matter with them? You are not crying at all, but--oh! +what is the matter?" + +"No, I am not crying at all," she said, and smiled--almost laughed. + +But after she had kissed him again she took her books and went upstairs. + +She did not lie down, and she did not read when she was alone in her +room. She drew a long chair before the window and watched the slow +falling of the rain. There is nothing like it--that slow weeping of the +rain on an English autumn day. Soft and light though it was, the park +began to look sodden. The bare trees held out their branches like +imploring arms, the brown garden beds were neat and bare. The same rain +was drip-dripping at Mount Dunstan--upon the desolate great house--upon +the village--upon the mounds and ancient stone tombs in the churchyard, +sinking into the earth--sinking deep, sucked in by the clay beneath--the +cold damp clay. She shook herself shudderingly. Why should the thought +come to her--the cold damp clay? She would not listen to it, she would +think of New York, of its roaring streets and crash of sound, of the +rush of fierce life there--of her father and mother. She tried to force +herself to call up pictures of Broadway, swarming with crowds of black +things, which, seen from the windows of its monstrous buildings, +seemed like swarms of ants, burst out of ant-hills, out of a thousand +ant-hills. She tried to remember shop windows, the things in them, the +throngs going by, and the throngs passing in and out of great, swinging +glass doors. She dragged up before her a vision of Rosalie, driving +with her mother and herself, looking about her at the new buildings and +changed streets, flushed and made radiant by the accelerated pace and +excitement of her beloved New York. But, oh, the slow, penetrating +rainfall, and--the cold damp clay! + +She rose, making an involuntary sound which was half a moan. The long +mirror set between two windows showed her momentarily an awful young +figure, throwing up its arms. Was that Betty Vanderpoel--that? + +"What does one do," she said, "when the world comes to an end? What does +one do?" + +All her days she had done things--there had always been something to do. +Now there was nothing. She went suddenly to her bell and rang for her +maid. The woman answered the summons at once. + +"Send word to the stable that I want Childe Harold. I do not want Mason. +I shall ride alone." + +"Yes, miss," Ambleston answered, without any exterior sign of emotion. +She was too well-trained a person to express any shade of her internal +amazement. After she had transmitted the order to the proper manager she +returned and changed her mistress's costume. + +She had contemplated her task, and was standing behind Miss Vanderpoel's +chair, putting the last touch to her veil, when she became conscious of +a slight stiffening of the neck which held so well the handsome head, +then the head slowly turned towards the window giving upon the front +park. Miss Vanderpoel was listening to something, listening so intently +that Ambleston felt that, for a few moments, she did not seem to +breathe. The maid's hands fell from the veil, and she began to listen +also. She had been at the service the day before. Miss Vanderpoel rose +from her chair slowly--very slowly, and took a step forward. Then she +stood still and listened again. + +"Open that window, if you please," she commanded--"as if a stone image +was speaking"--Ambleston said later. The window was thrown open, and for +a few seconds they both stood still again. When Miss Vanderpoel spoke, +it was as if she had forgotten where she was, or as if she were in a +dream. + +"It is the ringers," she said. "They are tolling the passing bell." + +The serving woman was soft of heart, and had her feminine emotions. +There had been much talk of this thing in the servant's hall. She turned +upon Betty, and forgot all rules and training. + +"Oh, miss!" she cried. "He's gone--he's gone! That good man--out of this +hard world. Oh, miss, excuse me--do!" And as she burst into wild tears, +she ran out of the room. + +. . . . . + +Rosalie had been sitting in the morning room. She also had striven to +occupy herself with work. She had written to her mother, she had read, +she had embroidered, and then read again. What was Betty doing--what was +she thinking now? She laid her book down in her lap, and covering her +face with her hands, breathed a desperate little prayer. That life +should be pain and emptiness to herself, seemed somehow natural since +she had married Nigel--but pain and emptiness for Betty--No! No! No! Not +for Betty! Piteous sorrow poured upon her like a flood. She did not know +how the time passed. She sat, huddled together in her chair, with hidden +face. She could not bear to look at the rain and ghost mist out of +doors. Oh, if her mother were only here, and she might speak to her! And +as her loving tears broke forth afresh, she heard the door open. + +"If you please, my lady--I beg your pardon, my lady," as she started and +uncovered her face. + +"What is it, Jennings?" + +The figure at the door was that of the serious, elderly butler, and he +wore a respectfully grave air. + +"As your ladyship is sitting in this room, we thought it likely you +would not hear, the windows being closed, and we felt sure, my lady, +that you would wish to know----" + +Lady Anstruthers' hands shook as they clung to the arms of her chair. + +"To know----" she faltered. "Hear what?" + +"The passing bell is tolling, my lady. It has just begun. It is for +Lord Mount Dunstan. There's not a dry eye downstairs, your ladyship, not +one." + +He opened the windows, and she stood up. Jennings quietly left the room. +The slow, heavy knell struck ponderously on the damp air, and she stood +and shivered. + +A moment or two later she turned, because it seemed as if she must. + +Betty, in her riding habit, was standing motionless against the door, +her wonderful eyes still as death, gazing at her, gazing in an awful, +simple silence. + +Oh, what was the use of being afraid to speak at such a time as this? +In one moment Rosy was kneeling at her feet, clinging about her knees, +kissing her hands, the very cloth of her habit, and sobbing aloud. + +"Oh, my darling--my love--my own Betty! I don't know--and I won't +ask--but speak to me--speak just a word--my dearest dear!" + +Betty raised her up and drew her within the room, closing the door +behind them. + +"Kind little Rosy," she said. "I came to speak--because we two love each +other. You need not ask, I will tell you. That bell is tolling for the +man who taught me--to KNOW. He never spoke to me of love. I have not one +word or look to remember. And now---- Oh, listen--listen! I have been +listening since the morning of yesterday." It was an awful thing--her +white face, with all the flame of life swept out of it. + +"Don't listen--darling--darling!" Rosy cried out in anguish. "Shut your +ears--shut your ears!" And she tried to throw her arms around the high +black head, and stifle all sound with her embrace. + +"I don't want to shut them," was the answer. "All the unkindness and +misery are over for him, I ought to thank God--but I don't. I shall +hear--O Rosy, listen!--I shall hear that to the end of my days." + +Rosy held her tight, and rocked and sobbed. + +"My Betty," she kept saying. "My Betty," and she could say no more. What +more was there to say? At last Betty withdrew herself from her arms, and +then Rosalie noticed for the first time that she wore the habit. + +"Dearest," she whispered, "what are you going to do?" + +"I was going to ride, and I am going to do it still. I must do +something. I shall ride a long, long way--and ride hard. You won't try +to keep me, Rosy. You will understand." + +"Yes," biting her lip, and looking at her with large, awed eyes, as she +patted her arm with a hand that trembled. "I would not hold you back, +Betty, from anything in the world you chose to do." + +And with another long, clinging clasp of her, she let her go. + +Mason was standing by Childe Harold when she went down the broad steps. +He also wore a look of repressed emotion, and stood with bared head +bent, his eyes fixed on the gravel of the drive, listening to the heavy +strokes of the bell in the church tower, rather as if he were taking +part in some solemn ceremony. + +He mounted her silently, and after he had given her the bridle, looked +up, and spoke in a somewhat husky voice: + +"The order was that you did not want me, miss? Was that correct?" + +"Yes, I wish to ride alone." + +"Yes, miss. Thank you, miss." + +Childe Harold was in good spirits. He held up his head, and blew the +breath through his delicate, dilated, red nostrils as he set out with +his favourite sidling, dancing steps. Mason watched him down the avenue, +saw the lodge keeper come out to open the gate, and curtsy as her +ladyship's sister passed through it. After that he went slowly back to +the stables, and sat in the harness-room a long time, staring at the +floor, as the bell struck ponderously on his ear. + +The woman who had opened the gate for her Betty saw had red eyes. She +knew why. + +"A year ago they all thought of him as an outcast. They would have +believed any evil they had heard connected with his name. Now, in every +cottage, there is weeping--weeping. And he lies deaf and dumb," was her +thought. + +She did not wish to pass through the village, and turned down a side +road, which would lead her to where she could cross the marshes, and +come upon lonely places. The more lonely, the better. Every few moments +she caught her breath with a hard short gasp. The slow rain fell upon +her, big round, crystal drops hung on the hedgerows, and dripped upon +the grass banks below them; the trees, wreathed with mist, were like +waiting ghosts as she passed them by; Childe Harold's hoof upon the +road, made a hollow, lonely sound. + +A thought began to fill her brain, and make insistent pressure upon it. +She tried no more to thrust thought away. Those who lay deaf and dumb, +those for whom people wept--where were they when the weeping seemed to +sound through all the world? How far had they gone? Was it far? Could +they hear and could they see? If one plead with them aloud, could they +draw near to listen? Did they begin a long, long journey as soon as they +had slipped away? The "wonder of the world," she had said, watching life +swelling and bursting the seeds in Kedgers' hothouses! But this was a +greater wonder still, because of its awesomeness. This man had been, and +who dare say he was not--even now? The strength of his great body, the +look in his red-brown eyes, the sound of his deep voice, the struggle, +the meaning of him, where were they? She heard herself followed by the +hollow echo of Childe Harold's hoofs, as she rode past copse and hedge, +and wet spreading fields. She was this hour as he had been a month +ago. If, with some strange suddenness, this which was Betty Vanderpoel, +slipped from its body----She put her hand up to her forehead. It was +unthinkable that there would be no more. Where was he now--where was he +now? + +This was the thought that filled her brain cells to the exclusion of all +others. Over the road, down through by-lanes, out on the marshes. Where +was he--where was he--WHERE? Childe Harold's hoofs began to beat it out +as a refrain. She heard nothing else. She did not know where she was +going and did not ask herself. She went down any road or lane which +looked empty of life, she took strange turnings, without caring; she did +not know how far she was afield. + +Where was he now--this hour--this moment--where was he now? Did he know +the rain, the greyness, the desolation of the world? + +Once she stopped her horse on the loneliness of the marsh land, and +looked up at the low clouds about her, at the creeping mist, the dank +grass. It seemed a place in which a newly-released soul might wander +because it did not yet know its way. + +"If you should be near, and come to me, you will understand," her clear +voice said gravely between the caught breaths, "what I gave you was +nothing to you--but you took it with you. Perhaps you know without my +telling you. I want you to know. When a man is dead, everything melts +away. I loved you. I wish you had loved me." + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +THE MOMENT + +In the unnatural unbearableness of her anguish, she lost sight of +objects as she passed them, she lost all memory of what she did. She did +not know how long she had been out, or how far she had ridden. When the +thought of time or distance vaguely flitted across her mind, it seemed +that she had been riding for hours, and might have crossed one county +and entered another. She had long left familiar places behind. Riding +through and inclosed by the mist, she, herself, might have been a +wandering ghost, lost in unknown places. Where was he now--where was he +now? + +Afterwards she could not tell how or when it was that she found herself +becoming conscious of the evidences that her horse had been ridden too +long and hard, and that he was worn out with fatigue. She did not know +that she had ridden round and round over the marshes, and had passed +several times through the same lanes. Childe Harold, the sure of foot, +actually stumbled, out of sheer weariness of limb. Perhaps it was this +which brought her back to earth, and led her to look around her with +eyes which saw material objects with comprehension. She had reached the +lonely places, indeed and the evening was drawing on. She was at +the edge of the marsh, and the land about her was strange to her and +desolate. At the side of a steep lane, overgrown with grass, and seeming +a mere cart-path, stood a deserted-looking, black and white, timbered +cottage, which was half a ruin. Close to it was a dripping spinney, +its trees forming a darkling background to the tumble-down house, whose +thatch was rotting into holes, and its walls sagging forward perilously. +The bit of garden about it was neglected and untidy, here and there +windows were broken, and stuffed with pieces of ragged garments. +Altogether a sinister and repellent place enough. + +She looked at it with heavy eyes. (Where was he now--where was he +now?--This repeating itself in the far chambers of her brain.) Her sight +seemed dimmed, not only by the mist, but by a sinking faintness which +possessed her. She did not remember how little food she had eaten during +more than twenty-four hours. Her habit was heavy with moisture, and +clung to her body; she was conscious of a hot tremor passing over her, +and saw that her hands shook as they held the bridle on which they had +lost their grip. She had never fainted in her life, and she was not +going to faint now--women did not faint in these days--but she must +reach the cottage and dismount, to rest under shelter for a short time. +No smoke was rising from the chimney, but surely someone was living in +the place, and could tell her where she was, and give her at least water +for herself and her horse. Poor beast! how wickedly she must have been +riding him, in her utter absorption in her thoughts. He was wet, not +alone with rain, but with sweat. He snorted out hot, smoking breaths. + +She spoke to him, and he moved forward at her command. He was trembling +too. Not more than two hundred yards, and she turned him into the lane. +But it was wet and slippery, and strewn with stones. His trembling and +her uncertain hold on the bridle combined to produce disaster. He set +his foot upon a stone which slid beneath it, he stumbled, and she could +not help him to recover, so he fell, and only by Heaven's mercy not +upon her, with his crushing, big-boned weight, and she was able to drag +herself free of him before he began to kick, in his humiliated efforts +to rise. But he could not rise, because he was hurt--and when she, +herself, got up, she staggered, and caught at the broken gate, because +in her wrenching leap for safety she had twisted her ankle, and for a +moment was in cruel pain. + +When she recovered from her shock sufficiently to be able to look at the +cottage, she saw that it was more of a ruin than it had seemed, even +at a short distance. Its door hung open on broken hinges, no smoke rose +from the chimney, because there was no one within its walls to light +a fire. It was quite empty. Everything about the place lay in dead and +utter silence. In a normal mood she would have liked the mystery of +the situation, and would have set about planning her way out of her +difficulty. But now her mind made no effort, because normal interest +in things had fallen away from her. She might be twenty miles from +Stornham, but the possible fact did not, at the moment, seem to concern +her. (Where is he now--where is he now?) Childe Harold was trying to +rise, despite his hurt, and his evident determination touched her. He +was too proud to lie in the mire. She limped to him, and tried to steady +him by his bridle. He was not badly injured, though plainly in pain. + +"Poor boy, it was my fault," she said to him as he at last struggled to +his feet. "I did not know I was doing it. Poor boy!" + +He turned a velvet dark eye upon her, and nosed her forgivingly with +a warm velvet muzzle, but it was plain that, for the time, he was done +for. They both moved haltingly to the broken gate, and Betty fastened +him to a thorn tree near it, where he stood on three feet, his fine head +drooping. + +She pushed the gate open, and went into the house through the door which +hung on its hinges. Once inside, she stood still and looked about her. +If there was silence and desolateness outside, there was within the +deserted place a stillness like the unresponse of death. It had been +long since anyone had lived in the cottage, but tramps or gipsies had +at times passed through it. Dead, blackened embers lay on the hearth, a +bundle of dried grass which had been slept on was piled in the corner, +an empty nail keg and a wooden box had been drawn before the big chimney +place for some wanderer to sit on when the black embers had been hot and +red. + +Betty gave one glance around her and sat down upon the box standing on +the bare hearth, her head sinking forward, her hands falling clasped +between her knees, her eyes on the brick floor. + +"Where is he now?" broke from her in a loud whisper, whose sound was +mechanical and hollow. "Where is he now?" + +And she sat there without moving, while the grey mist from the marshes +crept close about the door and through it and stole about her feet. + +So she sat long--long--in a heavy, far-off dream. + +Along the road a man was riding with a lowering, fretted face. He had +come across country on horseback, because to travel by train meant +wearisome stops and changes and endlessly slow journeying, annoying +beyond endurance to those who have not patience to spare. His ride would +have been pleasant enough but for the slow mist-like rain. Also he had +taken a wrong turning, because he did not know the roads he travelled. +The last signpost he had passed, however, had given him his cue again, +and he began to feel something of security. Confound the rain! The best +road was slippery with it, and the haze of it made a man's mind feel +befogged and lowered his spirits horribly--discouraged him--would worry +him into an ill humour even if he had reason to be in a good one. As for +him, he had no reason for cheerfulness--he never had for the matter +of that, and just now----! What was the matter with his horse? He was +lifting his head and sniffing the damp air restlessly, as if he +scented or saw something. Beasts often seemed to have a sort of second +sight--horses particularly. + +What ailed him that he should prick up his ears and snort after his +sniffing the mist! Did he hear anything? Yes, he did, it seemed. He gave +forth suddenly a loud shrill whinny, turning his head towards a rough +lane they were approaching, and immediately from the vicinity of +a deserted-looking cottage behind a hedge came a sharp but +mournful-sounding neigh in answer. + +"What horse is that?" said Nigel Anstruthers, drawing in at the +entrance to the lane and looking down it. "There is a fine brute with a +side-saddle on," he added sharply. "He is waiting for someone. What is a +woman doing there at this time? Is it a rendezvous? A good place----" + +He broke off short and rode forward. "I'm hanged if it is not Childe +Harold," he broke out, and he had no sooner assured himself of the fact +than he threw himself from his saddle, tethered his horse and strode up +the path to the broken-hinged door. + +He stood on the threshold and stared. What a hole it was--what a hole! +And there SHE sat--alone--eighteen or twenty miles from home--on a +turned-up box near the black embers, her hands clasped loosely between +her knees, her face rather awful, her eyes staring at the floor, as if +she did not see it. + +"Where is he now?" he heard her whisper to herself with soft weirdness. +"Where is he now?" + +Sir Nigel stepped into the place and stood before her. He had smiled +with a wry unpleasantness when he had heard her evidently unconscious +words. + +"My good girl," he said, "I am sure I do not know where he is--but it +is very evident that he ought to be here, since you have amiably put +yourself to such trouble. It is fortunate for you perhaps that I am here +before him. What does this mean?" the question breaking from him with +savage authority. + +He had dragged her back to earth. She sat upright and recognised him +with a hideous sense of shock, but he did not give her time to speak. +His instinct of male fury leaped within him. + +"YOU!" he cried out. "It takes a woman like you to come and hide herself +in a place of this sort, like a trolloping gipsy wench! It takes a New +York millionairess or a Roman empress or one of Charles the +Second's duchesses to plunge as deep as this. You, with your golden +pedestal--you, with your ostentatious airs and graces--you, with your +condescending to give a man a chance to repent his sins and turn over +a new leaf! Damn it," rising to a sort of frenzy, "what are you doing +waiting in a hole like this--in this weather--at this hour--you--you!" + +The fool's flame leaped high enough to make him start forward, as if to +seize her by the shoulder and shake her. + +But she rose and stepped back to lean against the side of the +chimney--to brace herself against it, so that she could stand in her +lame foot's despite. Every drop of blood had been swept from her face, +and her eyes looked immense. His coming was a good thing for her, though +she did not know it. It brought her back from unearthly places. All her +child hatred woke and blazed in her. Never had she hated a thing so, and +it set her slow, cold blood running like something molten. + +"Hold your tongue!" she said in a clear, awful young voice of warning. +"And take care not to touch me. If you do--I have my whip here--I shall +lash you across your mouth!" + +He broke into ribald laughter. A certain sudden thought which had cut +into him like a knife thrust into flesh drove him on. + +"Do!" he cried. "I should like to carry your mark back to Stornham--and +tell people why it was given. I know who you are here for. Only such +fellows ask such things of women. But he was determined to be safe, if +you hid in a ditch. You are here for Mount Dunstan--and he has failed +you!" + +But she only stood and stared at him, holding her whip behind her, +knowing that at any moment he might snatch it from her hand. And +she knew how poor a weapon it was. To strike out with it would only +infuriate him and make him a wild beast. And it was becoming an agony +to stand upon her foot. And even if it had not been so--if she had been +strong enough to make a leap and dash past him, her horse stood outside +disabled. + +Nigel Anstruthers' eyes ran over her from head to foot, down the side of +her mud-stained habit, while a curious light dawned in them. + +"You have had a fall from your horse," he exclaimed. "You are lame!" +Then quickly, "That was why Childe Harold was trembling and standing on +three feet! By Jove!" + +Then he sat down on the nail keg and began to laugh. He laughed for a +full minute, but she saw he did not take his eyes from her. + +"You are in as unpleasant a situation as a young woman can well be," he +said, when he stopped. "You came to a dirty hole to be alone with a man +who felt it safest not to keep his appointment. Your horse stumbled and +disabled himself and you. You are twenty miles from home in a deserted +cottage in a lane no one passes down even in good weather. You are +frightened to death and you have given me even a better story to play +with than your sister gave me. By Jove!" + +His face was an unholy thing to look upon. The situation and her +powerlessness were exciting him. + +"No," she answered, keeping her eyes on his, as she might have kept them +on some wild animal's, "I am not frightened to death." + +His ugly dark flush rose. + +"Well, if you are not," he said, "don't tell me so. That kind of +defiance is not your best line just now. You have been disdaining me +from magnificent New York heights for some time. Do you think that I am +not enjoying this?" + +"I cannot imagine anyone else who would enjoy it so much." And she knew +the answer was daring, but would have made it if he had held a knife's +point at her throat. + +He got up, and walking to the door drew it back on its crazy hinges +and managed to shut it close. There was a big wooden bolt inside and he +forced it into its socket. + +"Presently I shall go and put the horses into the cowshed," he said. +"If I leave them standing outside they will attract attention. I do +not intend to be disturbed by any gipsy tramp who wants shelter. I have +never had you quite to myself before." + +He sat down again and nursed his knee gracefully. + +"And I have never seen you look as attractive," biting his under lip +in cynical enjoyment. "To-day's adventure has roused your emotions and +actually beautified you--which was not necessary. I daresay you have +been furious and have cried. Your eyes do not look like mere eyes, +but like splendid blue pools of tears. Perhaps _I_ shall make you cry +sometime, my dear Betty." + +"No, you will not." + +"Don't tempt me. Women always cry when men annoy them. They rage, but +they cry as well." + +"I shall not." + +"It's true that most women would have begun to cry before this. That is +what stimulates me. You will swagger to the end. You put the devil into +me. Half an hour ago I was jogging along the road, languid and bored to +extinction. And now----" He laughed outright in actual exultation. "By +Jove!" he cried out. "Things like this don't happen to a man in these +dull days! There's no such luck going about. We've gone back five +hundred years, and we've taken New York with us." His laugh shut off in +the middle, and he got up to thrust his heavy, congested face close to +hers. "Here you are, as safe as if you were in a feudal castle, and here +is your ancient enemy given his chance--given his chance. Do you think, +by the Lord, he is going to give it up? No. To quote your own words, +'you may place entire confidence in that.'" + +Exaggerated as it all was, somehow the melodrama dropped away from it +and left bare, simple, hideous fact for her to confront. The evil in him +had risen rampant and made him lose his head. He might see his senseless +folly to-morrow and know he must pay for it, but he would not see +it to-day. The place was not a feudal castle, but what he said was +insurmountable truth. A ruined cottage on the edge of miles of marsh +land, a seldom-trodden road, and night upon them! A wind was rising +on the marshes now, and making low, steady moan. Horrible things had +happened to women before, one heard of them with shudders when they were +recorded in the newspapers. Only two days ago she had remembered that +sometimes there seemed blunderings in the great Scheme of things. Was +all this real, or was she dreaming that she stood here at bay, her back +against the chimney-wall, and this degenerate exulting over her, while +Rosy was waiting for her at Stornham--and at this very hour her father +was planning his journey across the Atlantic? + +"Why did you not behave yourself?" demanded Nigel Anstruthers, shaking +her by the shoulder. "Why did you not realise that I should get even +with you one day, as sure as you were woman and I was man?" + +She did not shrink back, though the pupils of her eyes dilated. Was it +the wildest thing in the world which happened to her--or was it not? +Without warning--the sudden rush of a thought, immense and strange, +swept over her body and soul and possessed her--so possessed her that +it changed her pallor to white flame. It was actually Anstruthers +who shrank back a shade because, for the moment, she looked so near +unearthly. + +"I am not afraid of you," she said, in a clear, unshaken voice. "I am +not afraid. Something is near me which will stand between us--something +which DIED to-day." + +He almost gasped before the strangeness of it, but caught back his +breath and recovered himself. + +"Died to-day! That's recent enough," he jeered. "Let us hear about it. +Who was it?" + +"It was Mount Dunstan," she flung at him. "The church-bells were tolling +for him when I rode away. I could not stay to hear them. It killed me--I +loved him. You were right when you said it. I loved him, though he never +knew. I shall always love him--though he never knew. He knows now. +Those who died cannot go away when THAT is holding them. They must stay. +Because I loved him, he may be in this place. I call on him----" raising +her clear voice. "I call on him to stand between us." + +He backed away from her, staring an evil, enraptured stare. + +"What! There is that much temperament in you?" he said. "That was what I +half-suspected when I saw you first. But you have hidden it well. Now it +bursts forth in spite of you. Good Lord! What luck--what luck!" + +He moved to the door and opened it. + +"I am a very modern man, and I enjoy this to the utmost," he said. "What +I like best is the melodrama of it--in connection with Fifth Avenue. +I am perfectly aware that you will not discuss this incident in the +future. You are a clever enough young woman to know that it will be more +to your interest than to mine that it shall be kept exceedingly quiet." + +The white fire had not died out of her and she stood straight. + +"What I have called on will be near me, and will stand between us," she +said. + +Old though it was, the door was massive and heavy to lift. To open it +cost him some muscular effort. + +"I am going to the horses now," he explained before he dragged it back +into its frame and shut her in. "It is safe enough to leave you here. +You will stay where you are." + +He felt himself secure in leaving her because he believed she could not +move, and because his arrogance made it impossible for him to count +on strength and endurance greater than his own. Of endurance he knew +nothing and in his keen and cynical exultance his devil made a fool of +him. + +As she heard him walk down the path to the gate, Betty stood amazed at +his lack of comprehension of her. + +"He thinks I will stay here. He absolutely thinks I will wait until he +comes back," she whispered to the emptiness of the bare room. + +Before he had arrived she had loosened her boot, and now she stooped and +touched her foot. + +"If I were safe at home I should think I could not walk, but I can walk +now--I can--I can--because I will bear the pain." + +In such cottages there is always a door opening outside from the little +bricked kitchen, where the copper stands. She would reach that, and, +passing through, would close it behind her. After that SOMETHING would +tell her what to do--something would lead her. + +She put her lame foot upon the floor, and rested some of her weight upon +it--not all. A jagged pain shot up from it through her whole side it +seemed, and, for an instant, she swayed and ground her teeth. + +"That is because it is the first step," she said. "But if I am to be +killed, I will die in the open--I will die in the open." + +The second and third steps brought cold sweat out upon her, but she told +herself that the fourth was not quite so unbearable, and she stiffened +her whole body, and muttered some words while she took a fifth and sixth +which carried her into the tiny back kitchen. + +"Father," she said. "Father, think of me now--think of me! Rosy, love +me--love me and pray that I may come home. You--you who have died, stand +very near!" + +If her father ever held her safe in his arms again--if she ever awoke +from this nightmare, it would be a thing never to let one's mind hark +back to again--to shut out of memory with iron doors. + +The pain had shot up and down, and her forehead was wet by the time she +had reached the small back door. Was it locked or bolted--was it? She +put her hand gently upon the latch and lifted it without making any +sound. Thank God Almighty, it was neither bolted nor locked, the latch +lifted, the door opened, and she slid through it into the shadow of the +grey which was already almost the darkness of night. Thank God for that, +too. + +She flattened herself against the outside wall and listened. He was +having difficulty in managing Childe Harold, who snorted and pulled +back, offended and made rebellious by his savagely impatient hand. Good +Childe Harold, good boy! She could see the massed outline of the trees +of the spinney. If she could bear this long enough to get there--even +if she crawled part of the way. Then it darted through her mind that he +would guess that she would be sure to make for its cover, and that he +would go there first to search. + +"Father, think for me--you were so quick to think!" her brain cried out +for her, as if she was speaking to one who could physically hear. + +She almost feared she had spoken aloud, and the thought which flashed +upon her like lightning seemed to be an answer given. He would be +convinced that she would at once try to get away from the house. If she +kept near it--somewhere--somewhere quite close, and let him search the +spinney, she might get away to its cover after he gave up the search and +came back. The jagged pain had settled in a sort of impossible anguish, +and once or twice she felt sick. But she would die in the open--and she +knew Rosalie was frightened by her absence, and was praying for her. +Prayers counted and, yet, they had all prayed yesterday. + +"If I were not very strong, I should faint," she thought. "But I have +been strong all my life. That great French doctor--I have forgotten his +name--said that I had the physique to endure anything." + +She said these things that she might gain steadiness and convince +herself that she was not merely living through a nightmare. Twice she +moved her foot suddenly because she found herself in a momentary respite +from pain, beginning to believe that the thing was a nightmare--that +nothing mattered--because she would wake up presently--so she need not +try to hide. + +"But in a nightmare one has no pain. It is real and I must go +somewhere," she said, after the foot was moved. Where could she go? +She had not looked at the place as she rode up. She had only +half-consciously seen the spinney. Nigel was swearing at the horses. +Having got Childe Harold into the shed, there seemed to be nothing +to fasten his bridle to. And he had yet to bring his own horse in and +secure him. She must get away somewhere before the delay was over. + +How dark it was growing! Thank God for that again! What was the rather +high, dark object she could trace in the dimness near the hedge? It was +sharply pointed, is if it were a narrow tent. Her heart began to beat +like a drum as she recalled something. It was the shape of the sort +of wigwam structure made of hop poles, after they were taken from the +fields. If there was space between it and the hedge--even a narrow +space--and she could crouch there? Nigel was furious because Childe +Harold was backing, plunging, and snorting dangerously. She halted +forward, shutting her teeth in her terrible pain. She could scarcely +see, and did not recognise that near the wigwam was a pile of hop poles +laid on top of each other horizontally. It was not quite as high as the +hedge whose dark background prevented its being seen. Only a few steps +more. No, she was awake--in a nightmare one felt only terror, not pain. + +"YOU, WHO DIED TO-DAY," she murmured. + +She saw the horizontal poles too late. One of them had rolled from its +place and lay on the ground, and she trod on it, was thrown forward +against the heap, and, in her blind effort to recover herself, slipped +and fell into a narrow, grassed hollow behind it, clutching at the +hedge. The great French doctor had not been quite right. For the +first time in her life she felt herself sinking into bottomless +darkness--which was what happened to people when they fainted. + +When she opened her eyes she could see nothing, because on one side +of her rose the low mass of the hop poles, and on the other was the +long-untrimmed hedge, which had thrown out a thick, sheltering growth +and curved above her like a penthouse. Was she awakening, after all? No, +because the pain was awakening with her, and she could hear, what seemed +at first to be quite loud sounds. She could not have been unconscious +long, for she almost immediately recognised that they were the echo of +a man's hurried footsteps upon the bare wooden stairway, leading to +the bedrooms in the empty house. Having secured the horses, Nigel had +returned to the cottage, and, finding her gone had rushed to the upper +floor in search of her. He was calling her name angrily, his voice +resounding in the emptiness of the rooms. + +"Betty; don't play the fool with me!" + +She cautiously drew herself further under cover, making sure that no +end of her habit remained in sight. The overgrowth of the hedge was +her salvation. If she had seen the spot by daylight, she would not have +thought it a possible place of concealment. + +Once she had read an account of a woman's frantic flight from a murderer +who was hunting her to her death, while she slipped from one poor hiding +place to another, sometimes crouching behind walls or bushes, sometimes +lying flat in long grass, once wading waist-deep through a stream, and +at last finding a miserable little fastness, where she hid shivering for +hours, until her enemy gave up his search. One never felt the reality of +such histories, but there was actually a sort of parallel in this. Mad +and crude things were let loose, and the world of ordinary life seemed +thousands of miles away. + +She held her breath, for he was leaving the house by the front door. She +heard his footsteps on the bricked path, and then in the lane. He went +to the road, and the sound of his feet died away for a few moments. Then +she heard them returning--he was back in the lane--on the brick path, +and stood listening or, perhaps, reflecting. He muttered something +exclamatory, and she heard a match struck, and shortly afterwards he +moved across the garden patch towards the little spinney. He had thought +of it, as she had believed he would. He would not think of this place, +and in the end he might get tired or awakened to a sense of his lurid +folly, and realise that it would be safer for him to go back to Stornham +with some clever lie, trusting to his belief that there existed no girl +but would shrink from telling such a story in connection with a man who +would brazenly deny it with contemptuous dramatic detail. If he would +but decide on this, she would be safe--and it would be so like him that +she dared to hope. But, if he did not, she would lie close, even if she +must wait until morning, when some labourer's cart would surely pass, +and she would hear it jolting, and drag herself out, and call aloud +in such a way that no man could be deaf. There was more room under her +hedge than she had thought, and she found that she could sit up, by +clasping her knees and bending her head, while she listened to every +sound, even to the rustle of the grass in the wind sweeping across the +marsh. + +She moved very gradually and slowly, and had just settled into utter +motionlessness when she realised that he was coming back through the +garden--the straggling currant and gooseberry bushes were being trampled +through. + +"Betty, go home," Rosalie had pleaded. "Go home--go home." And she had +refused, because she could not desert her. + +She held her breath and pressed her hand against her side, because her +heart beat, as it seemed to her, with an actual sound. He moved with +unsteady steps from one point to another, more than once he stumbled, +and his angry oath reached her; at last he was so near her hiding place +that his short hard breathing was a distinct sound. A moment later he +spoke, raising his voice, which fact brought to her a rush of relief, +through its signifying that he had not even guessed her nearness. + +"My dear Betty," he said, "you have the pluck of the devil, but +circumstances are too much for you. You are not on the road, and I have +been through the spinney. Mere logic convinces me that you cannot be far +away. You may as well give the thing up. It will be better for you." + +"You who died to-day--do not leave me," was Betty's inward cry, and she +dropped her face on her knees. + +"I am not a pleasant-tempered fellow, as you know, and I am losing my +hold on myself. The wind is blowing the mist away, and there will be a +moon. I shall find you, my good girl, in half an hour's time--and then +we shall be jolly well even." + +She had not dropped her whip, and she held it tight. If, when the +moonlight revealed the pile of hop poles to him, he suspected and sprang +at them to tear them away, she would be given strength to make one +spring, even in her agony, and she would strike at his eyes--awfully, +without one touch of compunction--she would strike--strike. + +There was a brief silence, and then a match was struck again, and almost +immediately she inhaled the fragrance of an excellent cigar. + +"I am going to have a comfortable smoke and stroll about--always within +sight and hearing. I daresay you are watching me, and wondering what +will happen when I discover you, I can tell you what will happen. You +are not a hysterical girl, but you will go into hysterics--and no one +will hear you." + +(All the power of her--body and soul--in one leap on him and then a lash +that would cut to the bone. And it was not a nightmare--and Rosy was +at Stornham, and her father looking over steamer lists and choosing his +staterooms.) + +He walked about slowly, the scent of his cigar floating behind him. +She noticed, as she had done more than once before, that he seemed to +slightly drag one foot, and she wondered why. The wind was blowing the +mist away, and there was a faint growing of light. The moon was not +full, but young, and yet it would make a difference. But the upper part +of the hedge grew thick and close to the heap of wood, and, but for her +fall, she would never have dreamed of the refuge. + +She could only guess at his movements, but his footsteps gave some clue. +He was examining the ground in as far as the darkness would allow. He +went into the shed and round about it, he opened the door of the tiny +coal lodge, and looked again into the small back kitchen. He came +near--nearer--so near once that, bending sidewise, she could have put +out a hand and touched him. He stood quite still, then made a step or so +away, stood still again, and burst into a laugh once more. + +"Oh, you are here, are you?" he said. "You are a fine big girl to be +able to crowd yourself into a place like that!" + +Hot and cold dew stood out on her forehead and made her hair damp as she +held her whip hard. + +"Come out, my dear!" alluringly. "It is not too soon. Or do you prefer +that I should assist you?" + +Her heart stood quite still--quite. He was standing by the wigwam of hop +poles and thought she had hidden herself inside it. Her place under the +hedge he had not even glanced at. + +She knew he bent down and thrust his arm into the wigwam, for his fury +at the result expressed itself plainly enough. That he had made a fool +of himself was worse to him than all else. He actually wheeled about and +strode away to the house. + +Because minutes seemed hours, she thought he was gone long, but he was +not away for twenty minutes. He had, in fact, gone into the bare front +room again, and sitting upon the box near the hearth, let his head drop +in his hands and remained in this position thinking. In the end he got +up and went out to the shed where he had left the horses. + +Betty was feeling that before long she might find herself making that +strange swoop into the darkness of space again, and that it did +not matter much, as one apparently lay quite still when one was +unconscious--when she heard that one horse was being led out into the +lane. What did that mean? Had he got tired of the chase--as the other +man did--and was he going away because discomfort and fatigue had cooled +and disgusted him--perhaps even made him feel that he was playing the +part of a sensational idiot who was laying himself open to derision? +That would be like him, too. + +Presently she heard his footsteps once more, but he did not come as near +her as before--in fact, he stood at some yards' distance when he stopped +and spoke--in quite a new manner. + +"Betty," his tone was even cynically cool, "I shall stalk you no more. +The chase is at an end. I think I have taken all out of you I intended +to. Perhaps it was a bad joke and was carried too far. I wanted to prove +to you that there were circumstances which might be too much even for +a young woman from New York. I have done it. Do you suppose I am such +a fool as to bring myself within reach of the law? I am going away and +will send assistance to you from the next house I pass. I have left +some matches and a few broken sticks on the hearth in the cottage. Be +a sensible girl. Limp in there and build yourself a fire as soon as you +hear me gallop away. You must be chilled through. Now I am going." + +He tramped across the bit of garden, down the brick path, mounted his +horse and put it to a gallop at once. Clack, clack, clack--clacking +fainter and fainter into the distance--and he was gone. + +When she realised that the thing was true, the effect upon her of her +sense of relief was that the growing likelihood of a second swoop into +darkness died away, but one curious sob lifted her chest as she leaned +back against the rough growth behind her. As she changed her position +for a better one she felt the jagged pain again and knew that in the +tenseness of her terror she had actually for some time felt next to +nothing of her hurt. She had not even been cold, for the hedge behind +and over her and the barricade before had protected her from both wind +and rain. The grass beneath her was not damp for the same reason. The +weary thought rose in her mind that she might even lie down and sleep. +But she pulled herself together and told herself that this was like the +temptation of believing in the nightmare. He was gone, and she had a +respite--but was it to be anything more? She did not make any attempt to +leave her place of concealment, remembering the strange things she had +learned in watching him, and the strange terror in which Rosalie lived. + +"One never knows what he will do next; I will not stir," she said +through her teeth. "No, I will not stir from here." + +And she did not, but sat still, while the pain came back to her body +and the anguish to her heart--and sometimes such heaviness that her +head dropped forward upon her knees again, and she fell into a stupefied +half-doze. + +From one such doze she awakened with a start, hearing a slight click of +the gate. After it, there were several seconds of dead silence. It was +the slightness of the click which was startling--if it had not been +caused by the wind, it had been caused by someone's having cautiously +moved it--and this someone wishing to make a soundless approach had +immediately stood still and was waiting. There was only one person who +would do that. By this time, the mist being blown away, the light of +the moon began to make a growing clearness. She lifted her hand and +delicately held aside a few twigs that she might look out. + +She had been quite right in deciding not to move. Nigel Anstruthers +had come back, and after his pause turned, and avoiding the brick path, +stole over the grass to the cottage door. His going had merely been an +inspiration to trap her, and the wood and matches had been intended to +make a beacon light for him. That was like him, as well. His horse he +had left down the road. + +But the relief of his absence had been good for her, and she was able +to check the shuddering fit which threatened her for a moment. The next, +her ears awoke to a new sound. Something was stumbling heavily about the +patch of garden--some animal. A cropping of grass, a snorting breath, +and more stumbling hoofs, and she knew that Childe Harold had managed +to loosen his bridle and limp out of the shed. The mere sense of his +nearness seemed a sort of protection. + +He had limped and stumbled to the front part of the garden before Nigel +heard him. When he did hear, he came out of the house in the humour of +a man the inflaming of whose mood has been cumulative; Childe Harold's +temper also was not to be trifled with. He threw up his head, swinging +the bridle out of reach; he snorted, and even reared with an ugly +lashing of his forefeet. + +"Good boy!" whispered Betty. "Do not let him take you--do not!" + +If he remained where he was he would attract attention if anyone passed +by. "Fight, Childe Harold, be as vicious as you choose--do not allow +yourself to be dragged back." + +And fight he did, with an ugliness of temper he had never shown +before--with snortings and tossed head and lashed-out heels, as if he +knew he was fighting to gain time and with a purpose. + +But in the midst of the struggle Nigel Anstruthers stopped suddenly. He +had stumbled again, and risen raging and stained with damp earth. Now +he stood still, panting for breath--as still as he had stood after the +click of the gate. Was he--listening? What was he listening to? Had she +moved in her excitement, and was it possible he had caught the sound? +No, he was listening to something else. Far up the road it echoed, +but coming nearer every moment, and very fast. Another horse--a big +one--galloping hard. Whosoever it was would pass this place; it could +only be a man--God grant that he would not go by so quickly that his +attention would not be arrested by a shriek! Cry out she must--and if +he did not hear and went galloping on his way she would have betrayed +herself and be lost. + +She bit off a groan by biting her lip. + +"You who died to-day--now--now!" + +Nearer and nearer. No human creature could pass by a thing like this--it +would not be possible. And Childe Harold, backing and fighting, scented +the other horse and neighed fiercely and high. The rider was slackening +his pace; he was near the lane. He had turned into it and stopped. Now +for her one frantic cry--but before she could gather power to give it +forth, the man who had stopped had flung himself from his saddle and was +inside the garden speaking. A big voice and a clear one, with a ringing +tone of authority. + +"What are you doing here? And what is the matter with Miss Vanderpoel's +horse?" it called out. + +Now there was danger of the swoop into the darkness--great +danger--though she clutched at the hedge that she might feel its thorns +and hold herself to the earth. + +"YOU!" Nigel Anstruthers cried out. "You!" and flung forth a shout of +laughter. + +"Where is she?" fiercely. "Lady Anstruthers is terrified. We have been +searching for hours. Only just now I heard on the marsh that she had +been seen to ride this way. Where is she, I say?" + +A strong, angry, earthly voice--not part of the melodrama--not part of a +dream, but a voice she knew, and whose sound caused her heart to leap +to her throat, while she trembled from head to foot, and a light, cold +dampness broke forth on her skin. Something had been a dream--her wild, +desolate ride--the slow tolling; for the voice which commanded with such +human fierceness was that of the man for whom the heavy bell had struck +forth from the church tower. + +Sir Nigel recovered himself brilliantly. Not that he did not recognise +that he had been a fool again and was in a nasty place; but it was not +for the first time in his life, and he had learned how to brazen himself +out of nasty places. + +"My dear Mount Dunstan," he answered with tolerant irritation, "I have +been having a devil of a time with female hysterics. She heard the bell +toll and ran away with the idea that it was for you, and paid you the +compliment of losing her head. I came on her here when she had ridden +her horse half to death and they had both come a cropper. Confound +women's hysterics! I could do nothing with her. When I left her for a +moment she ran away and hid herself. She is concealed somewhere on +the place or has limped off on to the marsh. I wish some New York +millionairess would work herself into hysteria on my humble account." + +"Those are lies," Mount Dunstan answered--"every damned one of them!" + +He wheeled around to look about him, attracted by a sound, and in the +clearing moonlight saw a figure approaching which might have risen from +the earth, so far as he could guess where it had come from. He strode +over to it, and it was Betty Vanderpoel, holding her whip in a clenched +hand and showing to his eagerness such hunted face and eyes as were +barely human. He caught her unsteadiness to support it, and felt her +fingers clutch at the tweed of his coatsleeve and move there as if the +mere feeling of its rough texture brought heavenly comfort to her and +gave her strength. + +"Yes, they are lies, Lord Mount Dunstan," she panted. "He said that he +meant to get what he called 'even' with me. He told me I could not get +away from him and that no one would hear me if I cried out for help. I +have hidden like some hunted animal." Her shaking voice broke, and she +held the cloth of his sleeve tightly. "You are alive--alive!" with a +sudden sweet wildness. "But it is true the bell tolled! While I was +crouching in the dark I called to you--who died to-day--to stand between +us!" + +The man absolutely shuddered from head to foot. + +"I was alive, and you see I heard you and came," he answered hoarsely. + +He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the cottage. Her cheek +felt the enrapturing roughness of his tweed shoulder as he did it. He +laid her down on the couch of hay and turned away. + +"Don't move," he said. "I will come back. You are safe." + +If there had been more light she would have seen that his jaw was set +like a bulldog's, and there was a red spark in his eyes--a fearsome one. +But though she did not clearly see, she KNEW, and the nearness of the +last hours swept away all relenting. + +Nigel Anstruthers having discreetly waited until the two had passed into +the house, and feeling that a man would be an idiot who did not remove +himself from an atmosphere so highly charged, was making his way toward +the lane and was, indeed, halfway through the gate when heavy feet were +behind him and a grip of ugly strength wrenched him backward. + +"Your horse is cropping the grass where you left him, but you are not +going to him," said a singularly meaning voice. "You are coming with +me." + +Anstruthers endeavoured to convince himself that he did not at that +moment turn deadly sick and that the brute would not make an ass of +himself. + +"Don't be a bally fool!" he cried out, trying to tear himself free. + +The muscular hand on his shoulder being reinforced by another, which +clutched his collar, dragged him back, stumbling ignominiously through +the gooseberry bushes towards the cart-shed. Betty lying upon her bed of +hay heard the scuffling, mingled with raging and gasping curses. Childe +Harold, lifting his head from his cropping of the grass, looked after +the violently jerking figures and snorted slightly, snuffing with +dilated red nostrils. As a war horse scenting blood and battle, he was +excited. + +When Mount Dunstan got his captive into the shed the blood which had +surged in Red Godwyn's veins was up and leaping. Anstruthers, his collar +held by a hand with fingers of iron, writhed about and turned a livid, +ghastly face upon his captor. + +"You have twice my strength and half my age, you beast and devil!" he +foamed in a half shriek, and poured forth frightful blasphemies. + +"That counts between man and man, but not between vermin and +executioner," gave back Mount Dunstan. + +The heavy whip, flung upward, whistled down through the air, cutting +through cloth and linen as though it would cut through flesh to bone. + +"By God!" shrieked the writhing thing he held, leaping like a man who +has been shot. "Don't do that again! DAMN you!" as the unswerving lash +cut down again--again. + +What followed would not be good to describe. Betty through the open door +heard wild and awful things--and more than once a sound as if a dog were +howling. + +When the thing was over, one of the two--his clothes cut to ribbons, +his torn white linen exposed, lay, a writhing, huddled worm, hiccoughing +frenzied sobs upon the earth in a corner of the cart-shed. The other man +stood over him, breathless and white, but singularly exalted. + +"You won't want your horse to-night, because you can't use him," he +said. "I shall put Miss Vanderpoel's saddle upon him and ride with her +back to Stornham. You think you are cut to pieces, but you are not, and +you'll get over it. I'll ask you to mark, however, that if you open your +foul mouth to insinuate lies concerning either Lady Anstruthers or her +sister I will do this thing again in public some day--on the steps of +your club--and do it more thoroughly." + +He walked into the cottage soon afterwards looking, to Betty +Vanderpoel's eyes, pale and exceptionally big, and also more a man than +it is often given even to the most virile male creature to look--and he +walked to the side of her resting place and stood there looking down. + +"I thought I heard a dog howl," she said. + +"You did hear a dog howl," he answered. He said no other word, and she +asked no further question. She knew what he had done, and he was well +aware that she knew it. + +There was a long, strangely tense silence. The light of the moon was +growing. She made at first no effort to rise, but lay still and looked +up at him from under splendid lifted lashes, while his own gaze fell +into the depth of hers like a plummet into a deep pool. This continued +for almost a full minute, when he turned quickly away and walked to the +hearth, indrawing a heavy breath. + +He could not endure that which beset him; it was unbearable, because her +eyes had maddeningly seemed to ask him some wistful question. Why did +she let her loveliness so call to him. She was not a trifler who +could play with meanings. Perhaps she did not know what her power was. +Sometimes he could believe that beautiful women did not. + +In a few moments, almost before he could reach her, she was rising, and +when she got up she supported herself against the open door, standing +in the moonlight. If he was pale, she was pale also, and her large eyes +would not move from his face, so drawing him that he could not keep away +from her. + +"Listen," he broke out suddenly. "Penzance told me--warned me--that +some time a moment would come which would be stronger than all else in a +man--than all else in the world. It has come now. Let me take you home." + +"Than what else?" she said slowly, and became even paler than before. + +He strove to release himself from the possession of the moment, and in +his struggle answered with a sort of savagery. + +"Than scruple--than power--even than a man's determination and decent +pride." + +"Are you proud?" she half whispered quite brokenly. "I am not--since I +waited for the ringing of the church bell--since I heard it toll. After +that the world was empty--and it was as empty of decent pride as of +everything else. There was nothing left. I was the humblest broken thing +on earth." + +"You!" he gasped. "Do you know I think I shall go mad directly perhaps +it is happening now. YOU were humble and broken--your world was empty! +Because----?" + +"Look at me, Lord Mount Dunstan," and the sweetest voice in the world +was a tender, wild little cry to him. "Oh LOOK at me!" + +He caught her out-thrown hands and looked down into the beautiful +passionate soul of her. The moment had come, and the tidal wave rising +to its height swept all the common earth away when, with a savage sob, +he caught and held her close and hard against that which thudded racing +in his breast. + +And they stood and swayed together, folded in each other's arms, while +the wind from the marshes lifted its voice like an exulting human thing +as it swept about them. + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +AT STORNHAM AND AT BROADMORLANDS + +The exulting wind had swept the clouds away, and the moon rode in a dark +blue sea of sky, making the night light purely clear, when they drew +a little apart, that they might better see the wonderfulness in each +other's faces. It was so mysteriously great a thing that they felt near +to awe. + +"I fought too long. I wore out my body's endurance, and now I am quaking +like a boy. Red Godwyn did not begin his wooing like this. Forgive me," +Mount Dunstan said at last. + +"Do you know," with lovely trembling lips and voice, "that for +long--long--you have been unkind to me?" + +It was merely human that he should swiftly enfold her again, and answer +with his lips against her cheek. + +"Unkind! Unkind! Oh, the heavenly woman's sweetness of your telling me +so--the heavenly sweetness of it!" he exclaimed passionately and +low. "And I was one of those who are 'by the roadside everywhere,' an +unkempt, raging beggar, who might not decently ask you for a crust." + +"It was all wrong--wrong!" she whispered back to him, and he poured +forth the tenderest, fierce words of confession and prayer, and she +listened, drinking them in, with now and then a soft sob pressed against +the roughness of the enrapturing tweed. For a space they had both +forgotten her hurt, because there are other things than terror which +hypnotise pain. Mount Dunstan was to be praised for remembering it +first. He must take her back to Stornham and her sister without further +delay. + +"I will put your saddle on Anstruthers' horse, or mine, and lift you to +your seat. There is a farmhouse about two miles away, where I will take +you first for food and warmth. Perhaps it would be well for you to +stay there to rest for an hour or so, and I will send a message to Lady +Anstruthers." + +"I will go to the place, and eat and drink what you advise," she +answered. "But I beg you to take me back to Rosalie without delay. I +feel that I must see her." + +"I feel that I must see her, too," he said. "But for her--God bless +her!" he added, after his sudden pause. + +Betty knew that the exclamation meant strong feeling, and that somehow +in the past hours Rosalie had awakened it. But it was only when, after +their refreshment at the farm, they had taken horse again and were +riding homeward together, that she heard from him what had passed +between them. + +"All that has led to this may seem the merest chance," he said. "But +surely a strange thing has come about. I know that without understanding +it." He leaned over and touched her hand. "You, who are Life--without +understanding I ride here beside you, believing that you brought me +back." + +"I tried--I tried! With all my strength, I tried." + +"After I had seen your sister to-day, I guessed--I knew. But not at +first. I was not ill of the fever, as excited rumour had it; but I was +ill, and the doctors and the vicar were alarmed. I had fought too long, +and I was giving up, as I have seen the poor fellows in the ballroom +give up. If they were not dragged back they slipped out of one's hands. +If the fever had developed, all would have been over quickly. I knew +the doctors feared that, and I am ashamed to say I was glad of it. But, +yesterday, in the morning, when I was letting myself go with a morbid +pleasure in the luxurious relief of it--something reached me--some slow +rising call to effort and life." + +She turned towards him in her saddle, listening, her lips parted. + +"I did not even ask myself what was happening, but I began to be +conscious of being drawn back, and to long intensely to see you again. I +was gradually filled with a restless feeling that you were near me, and +that, though I could not physically hear your voice, you were surely +CALLING to me. It was the thing which could not be--but it was--and +because of it I could not let myself drift." + +"I did call you! I was on my knees in the church asking to be forgiven +if I prayed mad prayers--but praying the same thing over and over. The +villagers were kneeling there, too. They crowded in, leaving everything +else. You are their hero, and they were in deep earnest." + +His look was gravely pondering. His life had not made a mystic of +him--it was Penzance who was the mystic--but he felt himself perplexed +by mysteriously suggestive thought. + +"I was brought back--I was brought back," he said. "In the afternoon +I fell asleep and slept profoundly until the morning. When I awoke, I +realised that I was a remade man. The doctors were almost awed when I +first spoke to them. Old Dr. Fenwick died later, and, after I had +heard about it, the church bell was tolled. It was heard at Weaver's +farmhouse, and, as everybody had been excitedly waiting for the sound, +it conveyed but one idea to them--and the boy was sent racing across the +fields to Stornham village. Dearest! Dearest!" he exclaimed. + +She had bowed her head and burst into passionate sobbing. Because she +was not of the women who wept, her moment's passion was strong and +bitter. + +"It need not have been!" she shuddered. "One cannot bear it--because it +need not have been!" + +"Stop your horse a moment," he said, reining in his own, while, with +burning eyes and swelling throat, he held and steadied her. But he did +not know that neither her sister nor her father had ever seen her in +such mood, and that she had never so seen herself. + +"You shall not remember it," he said to her. + +"I will not," she answered, recovering herself. "But for one moment all +the awful hours rushed back. Tell me the rest." + +"We did not know that the blunder had been made until a messenger from +Dole rode over to inquire and bring messages of condolence. Then we +understood what had occurred and I own a sort of frenzy seized me. I +knew I must see you, and, though the doctors were horribly nervous, they +dare not hold me back. The day before it would not have been believed +that I could leave my room. You were crying out to me, and though I did +not know, I was answering, body and soul. Penzance knew I must have my +way when I spoke to him--mad as it seemed. When I rode through Stornham +village, more than one woman screamed at sight of me. I shall not be +able to blot out of my mind your sister's face. She will tell you what +we said to each other. I rode away from the Court quite half mad----" +his voice became very gentle, "because of something she had told me in +the first wild moments." + +Lady Anstruthers had spent the night moving restlessly from one room +to another, and had not been to bed when they rode side by side up the +avenue in the early morning sunlight. An under keeper, crossing the +park a few hundred yards above them, after one glance, dashed across +the sward to the courtyard and the servants' hall. The news flashed +electrically through the house, and Rosalie, like a small ghost, came +out upon the steps as they reined in. Though her lips moved, she could +not speak aloud, as she watched Mount Dunstan lift her sister from her +horse. + +"Childe Harold stumbled and I hurt my foot," said Betty, trying to be +calm. + +"I knew he would find you!" Rosalie answered quite faintly. "I knew you +would!" turning to Mount Dunstan, adoring him with all the meaning of +her small paled face. + +She would have been afraid of her memory of what she had said in the +strange scene which had taken place before them a few hours ago, but +almost before either of the two spoke she knew that a great gulf had +been crossed in some one inevitable, though unforeseen, leap. How it had +been taken, when or where, did not in the least matter, when she clung +to Betty and Betty clung to her. + +After a few moments of moved and reverent waiting, the admirable +Jennings stepped forward and addressed her in lowered voice. + +"There's been little sleep in the village this night, my lady," he +murmured earnestly. "I promised they should have a sign, with your +permission. If the flag was run up--they're all looking out, and they'd +know." + +"Run it up, Jennings," Lady Anstruthers answered, "at once." + +When it ran up the staff on the tower and fluttered out in gay answering +to the morning breeze, children in the village began to run about +shouting, men and women appeared at cottage doors, and more than one +cap was thrown up in the air. But old Doby and Mrs. Welden, who had been +waiting for hours, standing by Mrs. Welden's gate, caught each other's +dry, trembling old hands and began to cry. + +The Broadmorlands divorce scandal, having made conversation during a +season quite forty years before Miss Vanderpoel appeared at Stornham +Court, had been laid upon a lower shelf and buried beneath other stories +long enough to be forgotten. Only one individual had not forgotten it, +and he was the Duke of Broadmorlands himself, in whose mind it remained +hideously clear. He had been a young man, honestly and much in love +when it first revealed itself to him, and for a few months he had even +thought it might end by being his death, notwithstanding that he was +strong and in first-rate physical condition. He had been a fine, +hearty young man of clean and rather dignified life, though he was not +understood to be brilliant of mind. Privately he had ideals connected +with his rank and name which he was not fluent enough clearly to +express. After he had realised that he should not die of the public +humiliation and disgrace, which seemed to point him out as having been +the kind of gullible fool it is scarcely possible to avoid laughing +at--or, so it seemed to him in his heart-seared frenzy--he thought it +not improbable that he should go mad. He was harried so by memories of +lovely little soft ways of Edith's (his wife's name was Edith), of +the pretty sound of her laugh, and of her innocent, girlish habit of +kneeling down by her bedside every night and morning to say her prayers. +This had so touched him that he had sometimes knelt down to say his, +too, saying to her, with slight awkward boyishness, that a fellow who +had a sort of angel for his wife ought to do his best to believe in the +things she believed in. + +"And all the time----!" a devil who laughed used to snigger in his ear +over and over again, until it was almost like the ticking of a clock +during the worst months, when it did not seem probable that a man could +feel his brain whirling like a Catherine wheel night and day, and still +manage to hold on and not reach the point of howling and shrieking and +dashing his skull against wails and furniture. + +But that passed in time, and he told himself that he passed with it. +Since then he had lived chiefly at Broadmorlands Castle, and was spoken +of as a man who had become religious, which was not true, but, having +reached the decision that religion was good for most people, he paid a +good deal of attention to his church and schools, and was rigorous in +the matter of curates. + +He had passed seventy now, and was somewhat despotic and haughty, +because a man who is a Duke and does not go out into the world to rub +against men of his own class and others, but lives altogether on a great +and splendid estate, saluted by every creature he meets, and universally +obeyed and counted before all else, is not unlikely to forget that he is +a quite ordinary human being, and not a sort of monarch. + +He had done his best to forget Edith, who had soon died of being a shady +curate's wife in Australia, but he had not been able to encompass it. He +used, occasionally, to dream she was kneeling by the bed in her childish +nightgown saying her prayers aloud, and would waken crying--as he had +cried in those awful young days. Against social immorality or village +light-mindedness he was relentlessly savage. He allowed for no +palliating or exonerating facts. He began to see red when he heard of or +saw lightness in a married woman, and the outside world frequently said +that this characteristic bordered on monomania. + +Nigel Anstruthers, having met him once or twice, had at first been much +amused by him, and had even, by giving him an adroitly careful lead, +managed to guide him into an expression of opinion. The Duke, who +had heard men of his class discussed, did not in the least like him, +notwithstanding his sympathetic suavity of manner and his air of being +intelligently impressed by what he heard. Not long afterwards, however, +it transpired that the aged rector of Broadmorlands having died, the +living had been given to Ffolliott, and, hearing it, Sir Nigel was not +slow to conjecture that quite decently utilisable tools would lie ready +to his hand if circumstances pressed; this point of view, it will be +seen, being not illogical. A man who had not been a sort of hermit would +have heard enough of him to be put on his guard, and one who was a man +of the world, looking normally on existence, would have reasoned coolly, +and declined to concern himself about what was not his affair. But a +parallel might be drawn between Broadmorlands and some old lion wounded +sorely in his youth and left to drag his unhealed torment through the +years of age. On one subject he had no point of view but his own, +and could be roused to fury almost senseless by wholly inadequately +supported facts. He presented exactly the material required--and that in +mass. + +About the time the flag was run up on the tower at Stornham Court a +carter, driving whistling on the road near the deserted cottage, was +hailed by a man who was walking slowly a few yards ahead of him. The +carter thought that he was a tramp, as his clothes were plainly in +bad case, which seeing, his answer was an unceremonious grunt, and it +certainly did not occur to him to touch his forehead. A minute later, +however, he "got a start," as he related afterwards. The tramp was a +gentleman whose riding costume was torn and muddied, and who looked +"gashly," though he spoke with the manner and authority which Binns, +the carter, recognised as that of one of the "gentry" addressing a +day-labourer. + +"How far is it from here to Medham?" he inquired. + +"Medham be about four mile, sir," was the answer. "I be carryin' these +'taters there to market." + +"I want to get there. I have met with an accident. My horse took fright +at a pheasant starting up rocketting under his nose. He threw me into a +hedge and bolted. I'm badly enough bruised to want to reach a town and +see a doctor. Can you give me a lift?" + +"That I will, sir, ready enough," making room on the seat beside him. +"You be bruised bad, sir," he said sympathetically, as his passenger +climbed to his place, with a twisted face and uttering blasphemies under +his breath. + +"Damned badly," he answered. "No bones broken, however." + +"That cut on your cheek and neck'll need plasterin', sir." + +"That's a scratch. Thorn bush," curtly. + +Sympathy was plainly not welcome. In fact Binns was soon of the opinion +that here was an ugly customer, gentleman or no gentleman. A jolting +cart was, however, not the best place for a man who seemed sore from +head to foot, and done for out and out. He sat and ground his teeth, as +he clung to the rough seat in the attempt to steady himself. He became +more and more "gashly," and a certain awful light in his eyes alarmed +the carter by leaping up at every jolt. Binns was glad when he left him +at Medham Arms, and felt he had earned the half-sovereign handed to him. + +Four days Anstruthers lay in bed in a room at the Inn. No one saw him +but the man who brought him food. He did not send for a doctor, because +he did not wish to see one. He sent for such remedies as were needed by +a man who had been bruised by a fall from his horse. He made no remark +which could be considered explanatory, after he had said irritably that +a man was a fool to go loitering along on a nervous brute who needed +watching. Whatsoever happened was his own damned fault. + +Through hours of day and night he lay staring at the whitewashed beams +or the blue roses on the wall paper. They were long hours, and filled +with things not pleasant enough to dwell on in detail. Physical misery +which made a man writhe at times was not the worst part of them. There +were a thousand things less endurable. More than once he foamed at the +mouth, and recognised that he gibbered like a madman. + +There was but one memory which saved him from feeling that this was the +very end of things. That was the memory of Broadmorlands. While a man +had a weapon left, even though it could not save him, he might pay up +with it--get almost even. The whole Vanderpoel lot could be plunged neck +deep in a morass which would leave mud enough sticking to them, even +if their money helped them to prevent its entirely closing over their +heads. He could attend to that, and, after he had set it well going, he +could get out. There were India, South Africa, Australia--a dozen places +that would do. And then he would remember Betty Vanderpoel, and curse +horribly under the bed clothes. It was the memory of Betty which outdid +all others in its power to torment. + +On the morning of the fifth day the Duke of Broadmorlands received a +note, which he read with somewhat annoyed curiosity. A certain Sir Nigel +Anstruthers, whom it appeared he ought to be able to recall, was in the +neighbourhood, and wished to see him on a parochial matter of interest. +"Parochial matter" was vague, and so was the Duke's recollection of the +man who addressed him. If his memory served him rightly, he had met +him in a country house in Somersetshire, and had heard that he was the +acquaintance of the disreputable eldest son. What could a person of that +sort have to say of parochial matters? The Duke considered, and then, in +obedience to a rigorous conscience, decided that one ought, perhaps, to +give him half an hour. + +There was that in the intruder's aspect, when he arrived in the +afternoon, which produced somewhat the effect of shock. In the first +place, a man in his unconcealable physical condition had no right to be +out of his bed. Though he plainly refused to admit the fact, his manner +of bearing himself erect, and even with a certain touch of cool swagger, +was, it was evident, achieved only by determined effort. He looked like +a man who had not yet recovered from some evil fever. Since the meeting +in Somersetshire he had aged more than the year warranted. Despite his +obstinate fight with himself it was obvious that he was horribly shaky. +A disagreeable scratch or cut, running from cheek to neck, did not +improve his personal appearance. + +He pleased his host no more than he had pleased him at their first +encounter; he, in fact, repelled him strongly, by suggesting a degree +of abnormality of mood which was smoothed over by an attempt at entire +normality of manner. The Duke did not present an approachable front as, +after Anstruthers had taken a chair, he sat and examined him with bright +blue old eyes set deep on either side of a dominant nose and framed over +by white eyebrows. No, Nigel Anstruthers summed him up, it would not be +easy to open the matter with the old fool. He held himself magnificently +aloof, with that lack of modernity in his sense of place which, even at +this late day, sometimes expressed itself here and there in the manner +of the feudal survival. + +"I am afraid you have been ill," with rigid civility. + +"A man feels rather an outsider in confessing he has let his horse throw +him into a hedge. It was my own fault entirely. I allowed myself to +forget that I was riding a dangerously nervous brute. I was thinking of +a painful and absorbing subject. I was badly bruised and scratched, but +that was all." + +"What did your doctor say?" + +"That I was in luck not to have broken my neck." + +"You had better have a glass of wine," touching a bell. "You do not look +equal to any exertion." + +In gathering himself together, Sir Nigel felt he was forced to use +enormous effort. It had cost him a gruesome physical struggle to endure +the drive over to Broadmorlands, though it was only a few miles from +Medham. There had been something unnatural in the exertion necessary to +sit upright and keep his mind decently clear. That was the worst of it. +The fever and raging hours of the past days and nights had so shaken him +that he had become exhausted, and his brain was not alert. He was not +thinking rapidly, and several times he had lost sight of a point it was +important to remember. He grew hot and cold and knew his hands and +voice shook, as he answered. But, perhaps--he felt desperately--signs of +emotion were not bad. + +"I am not quite equal to exertion," he began slowly. "But a man cannot +lie on his bed while some things are undone--a MAN cannot." + +As the old Duke sat upright, the blue eyes under his bent brows were +startled, as well as curious. Was the man going out of his mind about +something? He looked rather like it, with the dampness starting out on +his haggard face, and the ugly look suddenly stamped there. The fact was +that the insensate fury which had possessed and torn Anstruthers as he +had writhed in his inn bedroom had sprung upon him again in full force, +and his weakness could not control it, though it would have been wiser +to hold it in check. He also felt frightfully ill, which filled him +with despair, and, through this fact, he lost sight of the effect he +produced, as he stood up, shaking all over. + +"I come to you because you are the one man who can most easily +understand the thing I have been concealing for a good many years." + +The Duke was irritated. Confound the objectionable idiot, what did he +mean by taking that intimate tone with a man who was not prepared to +concern himself in his affairs? + +"Excuse me," he said, holding up an authoritative hand, "are you going +to make a confession? I don't like such things. I prefer to be excused. +Personal confidences are not parochial matters." + +"This one is." And Sir Nigel was sickeningly conscious that he was +putting the statement rashly, while at the same time all better words +escaped him. "It is as much a parochial matter," losing all hold on his +wits and stammering, "as was--as was--the affair of--your wife." + +It was the Duke who stood up now, scarlet with anger. He sprang from +his chair as if he had been a young man in whom some insult had struck +blazing fire. + +"You--you dare!" he shouted. "You insolent blackguard! You force your +way in here and dare--dare----!" And he clenched his fist, wildly +shaking it. + +Nigel Anstruthers, staggering on his uncertain feet, would have shouted +also, but could not, though he tried, and he heard his own voice come +forth brokenly. + +"Yes, I dare! I--your--my own--my----!" + +Swaying and tottering, he swung round to the chair he had left, and fell +into it, even while the old Duke, who stood raging before him, started +back in outraged amazement. What was the fellow doing? Was he making +faces at him? The drawn malignant mouth and muscles suggested it. Was +he a lunatic, indeed? But the sense of disgusted outrage changed all at +once to horror, as, with a countenance still more hideously livid and +twisted, his visitor slid helplessly from his seat and lay a huddling +heap of clothes on the floor. + + + +CHAPTER L + +THE PRIMEVAL THING + +When Mr. Vanderpoel landed in England his wife was with him. This +quiet-faced woman, who was known to be on her way to join her daughter +in England, was much discussed, envied, and glanced at, when she +promenaded the deck with her husband, or sat in her chair softly wrapped +in wonderful furs. Gradually, during the past months, she had been told +certain modified truths connected with her elder daughter's marriage. +They had been painful truths, but had been so softened and expurgated +of their worst features that it had been possible to bear them, when one +realised that they did not, at least, mean that Rosy had forgotten or +ceased to love her mother and father, or wish to visit her home. The +steady clearness of foresight and readiness of resource which were often +spoken of as being specially characteristic of Reuben S. Vanderpoel, +were all required, and employed with great tenderness, in the management +of this situation. As little as it was possible that his wife should +know, was the utmost she must hear and be hurt by. Unless ensuing events +compelled further revelations, the rest of it should be kept from her. +As further protection, her husband had frankly asked her to content +herself with a degree of limited information. + +"I have meant all our lives, Annie, to keep from you the unpleasant +things a woman need not be troubled with," he had said. "I promised +myself I would when you were a girl. I knew you would face things, if +I needed your help, but you were a gentle little soul, like Rosy, and I +never intended that you should bear what was useless. Anstruthers was +a blackguard, and girls of all nations have married blackguards before. +When you have Rosy safe at home, and know nothing can hurt her again, +you both may feel you would like to talk it over. Till then we won't go +into detail. You trust me, I know, when I tell you that you shall hold +Rosy in your arms very soon. We may have something of a fight, but there +can only be one end to it in a country as decent as England. Anstruthers +isn't exactly what I should call an Englishman. Men rather like him are +to be found in two or three places." His good-looking, shrewd, elderly +face lighted with a fine smile. "My handsome Betty has saved us a good +deal by carrying out her fifteen-year-old plan of going to find her +sister," he ended. + +Before they landed they had decided that Mrs. Vanderpoel should be +comfortably established in a hotel in London, and that after this was +arranged, her husband should go to Stornham Court alone. If Sir Nigel +could be induced to listen to logic, Rosalie, her child, and Betty +should come at once to town. + +"And, if he won't listen to logic," added Mr. Vanderpoel, with a dry +composure, "they shall come just the same, my dear." And his wife put +her arms round his neck and kissed him because she knew what he said was +quite true, and she admired him--as she had always done--greatly. + +But when the pilot came on board and there began to stir in the ship the +agreeable and exciting bustle of the delivery of letters and welcoming +telegrams, among Mr. Vanderpoel's many yellow envelopes he opened one +the contents of which caused him to stand still for some moments--so +still, indeed, that some of the bystanders began to touch each other's +elbows and whisper. He certainly read the message two or three times +before he folded it up, returned it to its receptacle, and walked +gravely to his wife's sitting-room. + +"Reuben!" she exclaimed, after her first look at him, "have you bad +news? Oh, I hope not!" + +He came and sat down quietly beside her, taking her hand. + +"Don't be frightened, Annie, my dear," he said. "I have just been +reminded of a verse in the Bible--about vengeance not belonging to mere +human beings. Nigel Anstruthers has had a stroke of paralysis, and it is +not his first. Apparently, even if he lies on his back for some months +thinking of harm, he won't be able to do it. He is finished." + +When he was carried by the express train through the country, he saw +all that Betty had seen, though the summer had passed, and there were +neither green trees nor hedges. He knew all that the long letters had +meant of stirred emotion and affection, and he was strongly moved, +though his mind was full of many things. There were the farmhouses, +the square-towered churches, the red-pointed hop oasts, and the village +children. How distinctly she had made him see them! His Betty--his +splendid Betty! His heart beat at the thought of seeing her high, young +black head, and holding her safe in his arms again. Safe! He resented +having used the word, because there was a shock in seeming to admit the +possibility that anything in the universe could do wrong to her. Yet one +man had been villain enough to mean her harm, and to threaten her +with it. He slightly shuddered as he thought of how the man was +finished--done for. + +The train began to puff more loudly, as it slackened its pace. It was +drawing near to a rustic little station, and, as it passed in, he saw a +carriage standing outside, waiting on the road, and a footman in a +long coat, glancing into each window as the train went by. Two or three +country people were watching it intently. Miss Vanderpoel's father +was coming up from London on it. The stationmaster rushed to open the +carriage door, and the footman hastened forward, but a tall lovely thing +in grey was opposite the step as Mr. Vanderpoel descended it to the +platform. She did not recognise the presence of any other human +being than himself. For the moment she seemed to forget even the +broad-shouldered man who had plainly come with her. As Reuben S. +Vanderpoel folded her in his arms, she folded him and kissed him as he +was not sure she had ever kissed him before. + +"My splendid Betty! My own fine girl!" he said. + +And when she cried out "Father! Father!" she bent and kissed the breast +of his coat. + +He knew who the big young man was before she turned to present him. + +"This is Lord Mount Dunstan, father," she said. "Since Nigel was brought +home, he has been very good to us." + +Reuben S. Vanderpoel looked well into the man's eyes, as he shook hands +with him warmly, and this was what he said to himself: + +"Yes, she's safe. This is quite safe. It is to be trusted with the whole +thing." + +Not many days after her husband's arrival at Stornham Court, Mrs. +Vanderpoel travelled down from London, and, during her journey, scarcely +saw the wintry hedges and bare trees, because, as she sat in her +cushioned corner of the railway carriage, she was inwardly offering up +gentle, pathetically ardent prayers of gratitude. She was the woman who +prays, and the many sad petitions of the past years were being answered +at last. She was being allowed to go to Rosy--whatsoever happened, she +could never be really parted from her girl again. She asked pardon many +times because she had not been able to be really sorry when she had +heard of her son-in-law's desperate condition. She could feel pity for +him in his awful case, she told herself, but she could not wish for the +thing which perhaps she ought to wish for. She had confided this to her +husband with innocent, penitent tears, and he had stroked her cheek, +which had always been his comforting way since they had been young +things together. + +"My dear," he said, "if a tiger with hydrophobia were loose among a lot +of decent people--or indecent ones, for the matter of that--you would +not feel it your duty to be very sorry if, in springing on a group of +them, he impaled himself on an iron fence. Don't reproach yourself too +much." And, though the realism of the picture he presented was such as +to make her exclaim, "No! No!" there were still occasional moments when +she breathed a request for pardon if she was hard of heart--this softest +of creatures human. + +It was arranged by the two who best knew and loved her that her meeting +with Rosalie should have no spectators, and that their first hour +together should be wholly unbroken in upon. + +"You have not seen each other for so long," Betty said, when, on her +arrival, she led her at once to the morning-room where Rosy waited, +pale with joy, but when the door was opened, though the two figures were +swept into each other's arms by one wild, tremulous rush of movement, +there were no sounds to be heard, only caught breaths, until the door +had closed again. + +The talks which took place between Mr. Vanderpoel and Lord Mount +Dunstan were many and long, and were of absorbing interest to both. Each +presented to the other a new world, and a type of which his previous +knowledge had been but incomplete. + +"I wonder," Mr. Vanderpoel said, in the course of one of them, "if +my world appeals to you as yours appeals to me. Naturally, from your +standpoint, it scarcely seems probable. Perhaps the up-building of large +financial schemes presupposes a certain degree of imagination. I +am becoming a romantic New York man of business, and I revel in it. +Kedgers, for instance," with the smile which, somehow, suggested Betty, +"Kedgers and the Lilium Giganteum, Mrs. Welden and old Doby threaten to +develop into quite necessary factors in the scheme of happiness. What +Betty has felt is even more comprehensible than it seemed at first." + +They walked and rode together about the countryside; when Mount Dunstan +itself was swept clean of danger, and only a few convalescents lingered +to be taken care of in the huge ballroom, they spent many days in going +over the estate. The desolate beauty of it appealed to and touched Mr. +Vanderpoel, as it had appealed to and touched his daughter, and, also, +wakened in him much new and curious delight. But Mount Dunstan, with a +touch of his old obstinacy, insisted that he should ignore the beauty, +and look closely at less admirable things. + +"You must see the worst of this," he said. "You must understand that I +can put no good face upon things, that I offer nothing, because I have +nothing to offer." + +If he had not been swept through and through by a powerful and rapturous +passion, he would have detested and abhorred these days of deliberate +proud laying bare of the nakedness of the land. But in the hours he +spent with Betty Vanderpoel the passion gave him knowledge of the +things which, being elemental, do not concern themselves with pride and +obstinacy, and do not remember them. Too much had ended, and too much +begun, to leave space or thought for poor things. In their eyes, when +they were together, and even when they were apart, dwelt a glow which +was deeply moving to those who, looking on, were sufficiently profound +of thought to understand. + +Watching the two walking slowly side by side down the leafless avenue on +a crystal winter day, Mr. Vanderpoel conversed with the vicar, whom he +greatly liked. + +"A young man of the name of Selden," he remarked, "told me more of this +than he knew." + +"G. Selden," said the vicar, with affectionate smiling. "He is not aware +that he was largely concerned in the matter. In fact, without G. Selden, +I do not know how, exactly, we should have got on. How is he, nice +fellow?" + +"Extremely well, and in these days in my employ. He is of the honest, +indefatigable stuff which makes its way." + +His own smiles, as he watched the two tall figures in the distance, +settled into an expression of speculative absorption, because he was +reflecting upon profoundly interesting matters. + +"There is a great primeval thing which sometimes--not often, only +sometimes--occurs to two people," he went on. "When it leaps into being, +it is well if it is not thwarted, or done to death. It has happened to +my girl and Mount Dunstan. If they had been two young tinkers by the +roadside, they would have come together, and defied their beggary. As +it is, I recognise, as I sit here, that the outcome of what is to be may +reach far, and open up broad new ways." + +"Yes," said the vicar. "She will live here and fill a strong man's life +with wonderful human happiness--her splendid children will be born here, +and among them will be those who lead the van and make history." + +. . . . . + +For some time Nigel Anstruthers lay in his room at Stornham Court, +surrounded by all of aid and luxury that wealth and exalted medical +science could gather about him. Sometimes he lay a livid unconscious +mask, sometimes his nurses and doctors knew that in his hollow eyes +there was the light of a raging half reason, and they saw that he +struggled to utter coherent sounds which they might comprehend. This he +never accomplished, and one day, in the midst of such an effort, he was +stricken dumb again, and soon afterwards sank into stillness and died. + +And the Shuttle in the hand of Fate, through every hour of every day, +and through the slow, deep breathing of all the silent nights, weaves +to and fro--to and fro--drawing with it the threads of human life and +thought which strengthen its web: and trace the figures of its yet vague +and uncompleted design. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Shuttle, by Frances Hodgson Burnett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHUTTLE *** + +***** This file should be named 506.txt or 506.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/506/ + +Produced by Charles Keller and David Widger + +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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