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more to tell than commonly it is his habit it is special matter that has brought him to the port this morning he knows more devil s dealing than it pleases him at all times to let his neighbor hear yonder rides master the secretary he added as now appeared at a distance directing his course towards the mansion of the he may hasten matters i would that they would put us in the way of doing something to save our poor young lady from the jaws of these i the smith had scarcely ceased speaking when captain was seen coming towards the group whilst he was yet some paces he called out to the lieutenant master quickly get thee to the fort and march me instantly twenty men down to the see that they be provided lieutenant with all things necessary for service lose no time but away the lieutenant instantly departed and the captain approaching the assemblage continued john get thy horse man and thy weapon colonel rides down the opposite bank of the river with a score of men at his heels he counts upon you and your friends meet him quickly on the common behind the town house these orders hastily given separated the company and every ne now towards the places appointed for these by ic bob op bowl already colonel was on horseback collecting some of the more young men of the town and in a brief space for in truth most of them were expecting the summons a troop of some twenty were assembled ready to follow wherever he should command amongst these were de la and old both equipped and mounted after their accustomed fashion in a manner that might have provoked a smile from the and and cavalry of more orderly armies but which we may venture to believe was quite as effective as a more gaudy furniture last in this array came pale breathless and almost with the narrative he had just heard of the of the night he staid at the mansion but long enough to substitute a more active horse for the clumsy animal on which he had made his journey to the town and then hastened to join the party who were about to be across the river and to the country along the opposite shore meantime the arrived at the where two being in readiness the men were separated into equal divisions and very soon after sunrise were embarked under the respective charge of and the lieutenant who with all expedition shaped their course towards the islands at the mouth of the river despatched a half dozen of the party to the shore of the below st s the rest under his own command and attended by were transported to the opposite side of st mary s river by every boat that could be for such a service and being now collected on the further bank sprang forward at the orders of their leader on their career of duty with an alacrity which showed how deeply they took to heart the outrage which it was now their to by ic chapter she turned ber right and round and she swore by the i would not he your said she for that church full of gold he turned him right and round about and he swore by the mass lady ye my lore shall be and gold ye shall have less old when and his crew had again doubled the point of st s on their retreat the sail of the was spread before the breeze and she the waves like a bird of the sea had yet scarcely shown signs of animation except in the low and smothered moan that escaped from beneath the folds of the cloak which with an care the leader of the gang had disposed for the protection of her person from the cold beside her crouched the housekeeper sobbing and sighing and uttering of alarm one moment for her own fate at the next for the lot of her young lady and at intervals shrieking with a terror as the little bark bending to the wind dipped the end of her sail into the wave the now released from the oars were called to the care of their bleeding comrades the mate was already dead and the other in the of an wound the band were too familiar with the of war to be mu h moved by the fate of their companions by ic rob of the bowl and accordingly after applying a to the hurt of the living man and merely the body of the dead one in a position least inconvenient to themselves they assumed that indifference to the of their condition which has ever been a characteristic trait of the reckless temper by the discipline of the s life the beams of the sun had begun to on the face of the waters when the reached the island of st george s the first of those few scattered islands in the which passed under the general name of the islands during this brief voyage had in vain endeavored to soothe the maiden with kind words and that no harm should befall her he took her cold hand and it quivered in his grasp and when he released it it fell lifeless back upon her bosom he laid his palm upon her brow and a moisture the agony that wrung it dame he said addressing mistress you are better skilled than i in these woman look to lady and tell me of what she may stand in need ton shall take her presently on board of the and the whole vessel if she require it shall be given up to her comfort she stands in need of her father s house replied the dame with more spirit than she might have been thought from her previous fright to possess | 29 |
she stands in need of friendly faces and kind hearts her soul is bowed down by misery she will never open her eyes again never never unless it be to look upon the friends from whom you have stole her oh master you have broken bread under her father s roof and have sat in the warmth of his fireside his old eyes have looked kindly upon you and he has spoken words of welcome that have gone to your heart with a blessing in the very sound of them how can you heap on the head of his child by ic rob of the bowl in sorrow and wailing have you borne her away and she will quickly in your hand you have stolen a flower that dies in the and oh her gray haired father i with a broken heart you have cast him down to the tomb by st mary woman but i honor love and cherish the maid i returned have i not loved her long as never father loved her thought of her on the wide waters of the ocean under every sun dreamed of her night after night in many a weary voyage borne her image before me in storm and battle in the chase and in the flight beneath the stars in the dead hour of midnight and at the feast at high noon have i not made honorable petition for her from her father and been refused with scorn and foul insult and have i not now at last her as gently as she doth the winter bird that seeks a upon her window sill by my faith fairly have i won her and proudly will i wear her dame i her father i owe him nothing for his kindly greeting and warm fireside and breaking of bread he hath paid himself by his disdain and mockery of my suit have i not there he added speaking with an angry vehemence and pointing towards the bow of the boat given the life blood of two of my best and comrades to the old man s wrath and yet did i not myself turn aside the blow that would have laid him upon the floor oi his own better that he had so fallen replied the dame than live to witness what his old eyes saw last night better that he died outright than live to lose his child be silent woman exclaimed the if thou not give me fairer speech when this anger is gone and the maiden is more resigned i will speak to you not now to your oars good fellows he said in a calmer tone to the as with the rising sun the breeze had fallen away and the sail by ic rob of the bowl loosely against the mast we mast pass through this narrow strait to the opposite side of the islands we shall find the there at anchor a confined channel scarce above a pistol shot wide from shore to shore divided the two islands immediately across the month of st mary s river and afforded a passage for a light boat between these islands thickly to the water s edge effectually prevented by their forest screen the along the inner shore from the lai vessel which might be in the river beyond it was therefore with confidence in the certainty of finding the at her appointed ground that the leader of these rude commanded his men to labor at the oar whilst they shot through the strait i have described when they emerged upon the open river on the outer side of the islands the sun through the thick haze shot his fiery beam over the broad sheet of water without to the anxiously searching eye of trace of or boat or sail of any kind his vision however was within a horizon for the mist which at this season over the landscape the of a genial day scarce brought within the compass of his observation the nearer of the and effectually shut out all more distant objects a circumstance which however embarrassing to his present inspection had so far been favorable to his escape from the eye of the on the look out station of the fort of st mary s ha twice have i been by that old of st s he murmured when after straining his sight in every direction he became aware that the was no where to be seen he has himself or given way to some of his devilish temper why did i trust a by ic rob of the bowl with this enterprise but that i spoke somewhat hastily to him last night and would not have his displeasure i would have seen him e er i would have given the into hia charge yet he is and has a in him that fits him for such an too he will be here anon the wind has left him and what he had was in his teeth the does not keep pace with my patience for a season and meantime we will land on the island comrades and wait for our crippled admiral with this intimation he directly upon the beach john of he continued use your time to a grave for our comrade and see him bestowed as suits a brother of the coast joseph you and a will a fire under yonder oak these women are frozen into a dead silence harry get to the lower end of the island and there keep watch upon the river and report every thing that comes in sight now mistress you and our lady shall have sway over the whole island the lady shall be an and you her maid of honor see how quickly comes i you have your liberty | 29 |
pretty rose of st mary s so cheer up and make a fair use of it to this ill timed the maiden yielded no reply and the believing that upon being left alone with mistress she would perhaps into a more tone of feeling quitted the boat with the who had gone to execute his several orders and thus abandoned the two females to themselves i sobbed as she raised her head and then dropped it on the lap of the housekeeper dear what will become of us i shall die i shall die my poor father i poor indeed mistress replied the dame if we are not by ic rob of the bowl he will never up his head after the loss of his child oh if our would but follow as i trust they will i is there a chance of it exclaimed good is there a chance of it t ay truly my dear lady good and reasonable hope that these have been watched and will be followed be of good cheer and trust in heaven this thought to find his vessel at the island but the saints have us and the vessel has not yet come all will go well mistress such wicked men shall not prevail against the shield of in the fire cheerily mistress i pray you our lady to come ashore called out from a distance arouse thee child i shall be at thy side said the dame it may be discreet not to provoke the he is a harsh man and may be rude if we be stubborn mother of grace sustain me i said as her frame shook from head to foot and she grasped the arm of her friendly attendant even as you shall advise i walk i pray you hold me she added as raising herself on her feet her loose and disordered fell over her wan cheek and covered her breast and shoulders oh god this trial will my brain i do not sink dear child you need fire and this barbarous captain has provided it pray you be of stout heart and trust in coming help encouraged by the support of her companion feebly towards the bow of the boat and thence landed on the beach whilst she leaned upon mistress s arm and advanced towards the fire came forward to meet her and as he was about to address her in that tone of light by ic rob of the bowl tion in which he had heretofore spoken he was arrested in his first words by the maiden flinging herself npon her knees immediately at his feet and looking up in his face with her eyes with tears as she cried out for mercy spare me i she exclaimed oh spare a wretched girl who has never imagined thought nor spoken word of harm against you save me from a broken heart and bewildered brain from misery ruin and disgrace i if i or any friend of mine have ever given you offence on my knees and in the dust i entreat forgiveness pardon pardon a fault whereof i have ever been unconscious if one touch of pity dwell in your bosom oh think of the miserable being at your feet and send her back to her home land me but on yonder shore and i will morning and evening remember you in prayers and blessings on your head i this posture doth not become our queen said stooping to raise the maiden to her feet who shrinking from his touch crouched still lower to the earth this is but a foolish sorrow do i not love you ay by the virgin i and mean to do well by you i have of price on board the which shall trick you out as as a queen indeed our dame here shall her skill at the needle to set you forth quickly and then that pretty robe of crimson and which you did refuse you shall wear it yet girl i have chains of gold and jewels rare to make you gay as flower of the field i will bear you to an enchanted island where slaves shall bend before you to do your bidding and where you shall have store of wealth to scatter with such profusion as in dreams you have never even fancied we will abide in a sea tower upon a sunny cliff and through your window shall the breeze from the beautiful blue atlantic fan you to evening my gay bark shall be your servant and by ic rob of the bowl ride at your command upon the wave whilst oar merry men shall take tribute from all the world that you may go and more cheer up weeping mistress your is not absolute as at first you feared tour hand v sprang to her feet with a sudden energy and retreating a pace from her cast upon him a look of resolute and indignant pride base wretch she said i dare to your suit as i stand here a weak and captive girl if it be the last word i have to utter i you and your offer then into that tone of grief from which this momentary impulse had drawn her she added did you think did you think master when you stole me from my father s house that fair speech from you or promise of gold could win me to be your wife oh sir if in that error you have heaped the sin of this deed upon your soul quickly learn that not all the gold of all the mines nor longest nor promise of a kingdom if that were yours to give might persuade me though the speaking of the word should lift me ft om abject misery or the pangs of death to give | 29 |
a favorable word to your suit with holy faith and reverence i call my guardian the ever blessed virgin to hear my vow i never will be thine a boat a boat i cried out the voice of the man at the lower point of the island and instantly this painful interview was at an end the had since their landing been busy in the body of the mate in a shallow grave and had just set up a wooden cross of fallen timber chance found in the forest of the island to mark the spot when the alarm from the look out reached them with all haste to the beach and was soon aware not only of the boat to which the seaman alluded but also of a second of the same description by ic rob op the bowl dimly seen in the haze at no great distance behind the first they were both holding their course towards the mouth of st mary s river close on the eastern margin as if their purpose were to proceed down the st george s island lay abreast the opposite or western shore and it was therefore necessary for these boats if they were destined for the island to take a course nearly across the entire breadth of the river at its mouth as at the moment when first they gave no indication of such a purpose who did not doubt that these were parties in pursuit of him began to assure himself that his retreat to the island was not discovered and that his were most probably bound to st s again he cast a troubled eye over the waters in the hope to perceive the for which at this moment he looked with increased solicitude as he had reason to apprehend that on her voyage up the she must pass the boats that were apparently on their voyage downward for some time he gazed keenly abroad in silence or muttering only curses on the delay of rob with the and on his own folly in committing the vessel to the s guidance it was not long before the boats had reached the here instead of their further voyage as the had been led to expect towards the they took the opposite course and stood for the island they were near enough to make it apparent to that each was filled with armed men and if any doubts of their hostile purpose had existed before it now became altogether hastening towards the spot where the was drawn up on the strand the ordered his crew immediately to their posts and mistress were forced to take former seats and the boat being off was directed towards the point of land opposite the western of the upper island then only known as a by ic rob of the bowl sandy flat covered with pines but of late rendered some what more familiar to public by the comfortable accommodation with which it has been provided as a place of refuge against the of summer and for the luxury of its bathing by st we are hotly followed i said the retreating and anxious as he now measured the size of the with his eye whilst they shot out from behind the cover of the extreme eastern point of the islands and disclosed themselves in full pursuit and with swift craft well the devil hath sent us a dead calm otherwise with this rag of i would show these the trick of a sea fight as it is we must show them our heels oh that my good were here i would defy twenty and sweep through them all good fellows i not and are on our track we die by or leaden bullet if we are overtaken so pull ton have been in as great straits before and found a lucky ending we shall see rob anon when this mist shall lift its curtain and once in sight of our good bark we shall fight our way to her side courage friends i in this strain of spoke at intervals to his men whilst anxiously looking to the rear he watched the progress of his and seemed to count every wave that broke against their bows not even his experienced eye could tell which of the struggling rivals in this race had the so intense became the competition that soon all other cares were absorbed in the thought of the escape the boat s crew fell into silence and when the necessary orders were delivered they were spoken in the low tone of familiar conversation as if the were afraid they might be overheard by the enemy in their wake if the concern of the leader and his crew in their present condition was eager still more did it awaken the feelings of and mistress y rob of the bowl the maiden seemed to have forgotten her tears occupied with a more absorbing emotion than her grief she found herself in strength and by degrees assuming an upright posture in the boat whence with an ardent and gaze she kept her eye fixed upon the that swept along as messengers of hope to her some three or four miles yet lay between the parties in the chase towards the upper of point to use its modern and reaching this found a long sweep of the river ahead of him bounded by a smooth strand by creek or at one moment he thought of running for the virginia shore and there by back upon his aim to win the of in the hope of meeting the but he could not count on the speed of his boat to risk so dangerous a hazard if i can but keep my way till night i shall these hounds upon my track he said in pondering over the emergency a weary day it is before me and a long | 29 |
are here i let us not delay to set upon them hold master secretary i be not too eager replied the leader think you they will land if they see us lying at to attack them no no our honest friend of the bowl hath stolen away their and the cheated all at their are now seeking a hiding place where they may abide till night and then perchance repair their misfortune by some other we should mar our best hope if they but catch a glimpse of us so quiet gentlemen your impatience shall find action soon enough e er we get home again ah good luck friends i see how bravely sets the wind of our fortune by ic rob of the bowl yonder comes old like a comrade hot in chase with his trimmed to the of an arrow s he follows close in the wake of the and at his heels by my faith there opens now from behind the point of the island his second party push for it old friend i the good powers cheer thee in thy race master said will not be so as to land on that deep sand with two helpless women to take care of whilst he has a soldier like captain to track his march you are right returned after watching the leading boat for a space the wide of the beach and means to make a run of it up the river he is already passing by the point gentlemen to horse again we will get back towards the and there keep even speed with the chase and like well trained stoop upon our in the nick of time beware the open ground that the may not see us on the heights in obedience to this command the party set out quickly by a movement towards the which although somewhat remote from the river gave them at frequent intervals where the cleared forest allowed an extensive range of river view having gained this height they traversed it in a line parallel to the course of the shore ever directing their anxious eyes to the fierce between the boats for mastery in the race occasionally in this progress were to be passed a piece of land to be avoided or an open field which might expose the party to the view of the to be in all such passages of the journey the services of and of de la contributed greatly to the speed with which this company were enabled to keep pace with the rapid flight of the boats with deep and by ic rob of the bowl intense speculation did the watch the progress of the chase and measure the distance between the and their almost counting the strokes of the s oars as their wet blades flashed the upon his sight rode for some time in despairing silence he loses not an inch i he breathed to himself as his thought ran upon the s chance of his enemies he has men at the oar used to the and he will tire down his again he gazed and with no better hope but when after losing sight of the river for some mile or two whilst the party galloped over a piece of wooded low ground he came again in view of the boats joy beamed from every feature of his face as he exclaimed to his companions we advance upon his flight and the space between the grows weary of his labor thanks to the captain and his noble comrades the day begins to on our enterprise we will halt here said up his upon a summit which commanded a near view of that region recognized at the present day as s neck the game is nearly run down and presently will come our time to speak a word of comfort to this he strains for yonder point as if there he meant to land by saint i it is a wise choice he has made we have him if his folly be so bold as to touch that strand we have him in a trap he comes he comes driving headlong into our hands follow without waiting to his troop and even without looking behind his horse to a gallop and plunged into the forest which covered the even down to the river brink as and his band deserted their boat and fled into the wood with the drove rapidly in upon the shore a loud from his men announced the by ic rob of the bowl of the maiden and mistress the captain himself by the aid of a boat hook made a spring from his with an that would not have passed even at an earlier period of his life and was the first to board the s abandoned god bless thee gentle i he exclaimed as he eagerly seized by both hands and lifted her into his arms whilst the maiden with scarce less alacrity her eyes laughing through the big drops that rolled down her cheeks threw her head upon his breast and sobbed with joy god bless thee dear mistress i we will make your father a hai y man again and you old sweetheart they would have stolen you away i by my that war and of the poets tell of was but a ture compared with this i lieutenant he added almost in the same breath leave six with our to guard the boats and see that they draw off from the shore into a water there to await our signal when we return the rest of the men will push forward on the track of the follow comrades we have no time to lose as the captain spoke he was already pushing his way into the wood on the footsteps of the at the head of some dozen of in another moment the two females were left | 29 |
alone with the boats and their appointed guard spread yourselves across the neck said de la orange as with a small division of the he had now reached a position not more than half a mile from the point creep down on the shore and report whatever comes in sight the first man who finds the enemy will discharge his scatter gentlemen scatter this little party of were at the next moment extending their line across the extremity of s neck cautiously by ic bob of the bowl drawing towards the point some distance in the rear was to be been and the rest of the at a walk in a compact body upon the trail of the s advance and silently awaiting the signal by which they were to be guided to the quarter where their attack was to be made after a short period of suspense the report of a from the direction taken by arrested the general attention and on the instant with three or companions set off at high speed towards the spot on reaching the margin of the little bay which formed one confine of the neck of land he discovered advancing at a pace yet some distance off the handful of men whom the wild adventure of the had brought into these desperate circumstances they were in close array armed with and led forward by their reckless captain the confidence with which they hurried upon their march seemed to indicate an of any foe except the party in their rear this conviction was now instantly changed as they became aware of the presence of and his friends staggered by this unexpected disclosure they were observed to halt for a moment as if to receive some counsel from their chief and then to advance with a that indicated prompt and desperate resolve their ranks were formed with more precision pace gradually quickened and they came nearer to their enemy and having approached so near as to enable either side to hear the command of the other could distinctly recognize the voice of them to the in another moment they set up the war cry which they had learned from the of the gulf and which had grown to be their own from the recollections of the bloody with which it was associated a la to the field dogs i and thus shouting anticipated the attack of their enemies by selves the first blow by ic rob of the bowl had delayed to follow only until he could assure himself that the signal shot announced the presence of s party this was rendered certain by a messenger who rode back to report the fact and without loss of time the commander of the troop repaired to the scene of the assault the had already forced the little party of to give ground when reached the spot upon them gentlemen he cried aloud without halting to form his men and in an instant was seen opening his way through the of the with his sword leading on the little band of cavalry followed with impetuous haste in the track of his commander the compact array of the being broken a confused fight ensued with sword and pistol which was marked by various success two or three of the were thrown to the ground and as many of the slain s horse was killed by a pistol shot and the rider for a moment was brought imminent peril as much by revenge as by a determination to sell his life at a dear price no sooner perceived the prostrate secretary than he sprang upon him and would have done the work of death if de la who had followed s footsteps through the had not thrown himself from his horse and rushed to his comrade s rescue he arrived in time to the stroke of the s sword by his and at the same moment seized by the shoulder and dragged him backward to the earth the active seaman was in an instant again upon his feet but before he could renew the fight with effect he found himself overwhelmed by the whose unobserved approach now put an end to the struggle hands off i exclaimed shaking from him some two or three who had now crowded upon him as the by ic bob of the bowl blood of a recent wound oyer the eye down bis cheek hemmed in and i yon may do with me as yon will i ask no at hands and sayings this he his sword with a moody and anger upon the a fairer field on land or water and by t i we would hare disputed it with you till set of sun we came not prepared for this fight we have neither arms nor to cope with an equal force much less with the swarm that you have brought on horse and foot against this little boat s crew take victory and make the best of it i silence i said with the habitual calmness of an old soldier call your men to the foot of yonder tree or i may them thither with a under a chestnut hard by the remnant of the to not more than seven men beside their leader were assembled some of them bore the marks of the severity of the conflict in wounds upon their persons three of the s men were found dead upon the field their of had escaped with better fortune two only were found severely though it was believed not wounded a few others slightly a was detailed to conduct the prisoners to the boat the dead were hastily buried in the wood and the wounded borne on the shoulders of their comrades to the point of it was already afternoon when and were bestowed in due order in the boats the had by this time set forward on their homeward journey eager | 29 |
the public interest in the events of the day and to draw a considerable portion of the crowd into the immediate neighborhood of the hall of justice the with his friends took possession of a chamber opposite to that occupied by the court where they were soon joined by the sturdy old who with an erect and vigorous carriage and a face flushed with mingled resentment and pride of manhood aroused by the recent events rode up to the door and alighted amidst the of his and the expressions of their joy at the good fortune which had restored him his daughter a brief interval brought father conducting rob of the bowl to the same spot and by order of the they were both admitted into the chamber the prisoners had not yet arrived in the mean time the council were occupied with such inquiries as the presence of suggested the appearance and of the of st s engrossed the chief interest of the assembly his age his his singularly harsh and shrewd features the extraordinary of his life his connection with the of the chapel his apparent to melancholy above all his presence in this amongst persons with whom he had never before exchanged a word were circumstances of a nature to throw around him the eager regard of the there was a peculiarly subdued and sorrowful expression in his countenance as he gazed with silent intensity upon the features of and by ic rob of the bowl listened to his story of the of that night of horrors in which bob had first become acquainted with him the old man s up and his eye with a tear as he dwelt npon the tones of the secretary s voice and watched the changes of his at length whilst the secretary still continued his narrative unable longer to control his feelings or restrain his eagerness to catch every word that fell from s lips he heaved an involuntary but deep sigh and muttered loud enough to be heard by every one in the apartment oh god i have been reserved for this deed i in mercy have i been spared to save his life after a pause he added in a voice of loud and fervent entreaty i pray you gentlemen raise me to the table that i may look him nearer in the face my eyes are old and dim he continued wiping away the tear with his hand this and trunk holds me too near the earth it hath placed me below my fellow man and taught my spirit to to he repeated with a bitter emphasis in the very mire of the fellowship lift me on the table i you i have saved his life the saints be thanked i have saved his life i he uttered with a wild i had made up my mind to save it with loss of my own i i had boy i the strange frenzy that for the time seemed to possess the old man the wild glance of his eye and the nervous tone almost of laughter with which he ejaculated these last words gave rise to an instant doubt of the of his mind but in a moment he subsided into a calmer state and resumed his original self upon a sign from the his request was complied with and he was lifted upon the table that occupied the middle of the room go on boy he continued as soon as he was adjusted iu by ic rob op the bowl this position then suddenly checking himself for the of the address i pardon i forget master he added choking with the utterance of the name as now within a few feet of the secretary he still more narrowly gazed upon his face i pray thee go on i when the secretary had concluded his narrative a deep silence prevailed throughout the room and all eyes were bent upon the in expectation that he had something to disclose which all were anxious to hear he however remained mute still fixing his gaze upon and when the secretary casually turned his back upon him he reached forth his hand and caught the skirt of the young man s cloak with an evidently unconscious motion as if he sought by this to prevent the secretary from leaving him the at length as much struck with the of the as the rest who witnessed it and hoping to draw from him some history of himself addressed him in a tone in which the severity of rebuke seemed to have been softened by the anxious interest he took in the endeavor to learn more of the singular person to whom he spoke it was therefore with a grave though scarcely stern manner that lord him master robert he said the secretary s narrative which we have just heard has a dreadful import nor is it colored by a fancy we are all witnesses to facts connected with this fearful tale that leave no room to doubt the scrupulous truth of all that has been told true in every syllable true i interrupted rob with quick assent as god shall judge us it is all true it is a tale continued the with crimes of men who we find have lived in near com with you long has the province been frightened by ic sob of the bowl with stories of wicked rites celebrated in the black as people hare been to call that accursed house the common terror could solve the mystery only by referring it to the acts of the and it has ascribed to some inter course with evil spirits it hath it hath and with reason i i muttered bob as he struck his bosom with his open palm more sober eyes have seen in your life and rare | 29 |
communion with your fellow men but the evidences of a mind by a mind it would seem not so humbly cast as your condition might infer but stricken as the common belief has signified by some heavy blow of fortune a stifled groan spoke the listener s apprehension of the s words all have been deceived you have not lived that secluded life which in charity many have to you no nor hath wrought these terrors but the of lawless and what was deemed your solitude it is now confessed was active and commanding fellowship in this den of robbers thou art too far in the of years to be even if time which seldom fails to do his office had not already been the of the past tour in behalf of the secretary s life your removal of the and prompt hither as well as which i trust are true of clear and vow announce an honest though a late purpose of we think you owe it now to the of this good purpose that you all it concerns us to know of that wicked haunt the s chapel the scene of so much grief and crime and of its inmates speak freely old man my lord answered bob with a calm though somewhat by ic rob of the bowl tremulous voice the story of my life i have confided to this holy man until my sand is run would that its stream were spent that story lies in his bosom under the seal of the confess i dare not again it when i am gone he will tell it it be heard with curses by i deserve them but if a life clouded by disgrace and stung with misery may for a deed of passion i pray with an humble spirit that my story may raise one voice of pity but it doth not concern us to speak of this he said as in deep emotion he for some moments with his hand closely pressed across his eyes these are tears my lord i have not wept before to day this many a long year what concerns my coming to the province the life i have led here and the history of the black house he resumed after an interval in which he had regained his composure of these i have no scruple to speak sixteen years ago my lord i sailed from a port on the other side of the atlantic with some little store of wealth consisting chiefly of jewels my destination was the islands my name was hidden from the world and i had hoped to hide myself at sea drove us upon this coast where in a winter s storm such as i have never known but that our ship was wrecked i know not who survived i only know that it pleased heaven for my sins to a life that i could have better parted with than any who found their grave beneath the waters i chanced to save the larger portion of my and on a of floating was drifted into the where a took me up almost lifeless and starved with cold he put me down at st s i had no wish to face my fellow men and for such hire as i gave him provided me with comforts the scant comforts my condition needed in that forsaken house which then was terrible as it hath been since the house where paul murdered his own by ic of the bowl family there my lord i lived a solitary with no attendant near me except an aged woman who afterwards abandoned me and took np her habitation at on the cliffs she hath of late again returned that winter passed away in suffering ay to the full measure of my deserts and when spring came my limbs had off and i lay on my that wretched and thing thou me now there for many weary years i dwelt a man of sin and misery use made my state familiar and i began to think that my penance would at last restore my peace of mind in this lone spot from which all the world turned away with shuddering i did not dream that worldly passions could again be awakened but it so fell out that four years ago a band of in a trim led by this wolf tempted their fortune in these waters they came in the disguise of pitched upon the chapel as their lurking place won me to their purpose of commerce and drove their craft with such success as you my lord have seen i with them first because they were men and in that thought i took pleasure there was sympathy the food for which my heart was they built me a lodge and came and went as my familiar guests and i made money by them can you wonder my lord that i became their comrade they made me their chief i had their secret they gave me friendship and they brought me that devil s gold gold more than i had ever known before can you wonder my lord that i became their companion the treasures of the chapel needed guarding from curious eyes i made the spot to be doubly we had and strange i had the skill to compound fires we had on the watch and plied our game of till the whole country was filled with alarm by ic rob of the bowl at this moment some tumult from without attracted the attention of the inmates of the chamber and interrupted the further narrative of the at a distance in the direction of the fort was seen a guard of some ten or twelve advancing along the principal street of the city led by captain in person and | 29 |
forming an escort to and the prisoners who had been captured with him their progress was by the crowd that thronged upon their amongst whom were some who scarcely attempted to conceal their sympathy with the prisoners and who by signs if not by words cheered them with the hope of from their present of recognition were exchanged with and significant gestures made which he was at no loss to comprehend the press increased as they drew near the door of the town house and in the disorder incident to the introduction of the prisoners into the building more than one of the in the late found an occasion to assure the master of the by a brief hint of their readiness to co operate in seizing the and his crew were conducted into the presence of the by who leaving the guard in the hall or passage way that separated the court room from that occupied by the council ranged the prisoners within the apartment on either side of the door which being left open exposed to view the who were thus in a position to do their duty in case any should render their interference necessary whilst the crowd at the same time itself into the hall with such as to leave but little space for the occupation of the guard had lost none of the that his after his surrender on the day previous he was somewhat paler owing to the wound upon his brow by ic rob of the bowl was now bound up with a of black silk that in some degree the sickly aspect of his complexion still the fire of his spirit sparkled in his eye and a sullen as he looked in the face rested on his features a slight but guarded expression of surprise flashed across his countenance when his glance encountered bob of the bowl he was unaware of the presence of the in the port nor had he up to this moment ever entertained a suspicion that bob had deserted him the escape of the secretary he alone to the carelessness of the the failure of the to meet him at the he set down to accident and and her presence now in the harbor to a cause altogether with any conjecture of treachery in the even the old man s presence before the council he attributed to force and believed him to be like himself a prisoner in this conviction he now found himself before the chief authorities of the province he was of course and as all eyes were turned upon him he stood with folded arms his cloth cap dangling from his hand gazing in silent defiance upon the assembly he meditated no purpose of defence to the charges which he expected to hear the facts of his late outrage admitted none and the presence of the secretary assured him that the crime he had attempted to on all soul s eve had been in all its and with such full of the actors in it as to render useless all attempt even at the gesture of the his confident port and look even of scorn provoked an instant emotion of resentment in the as well as of the greater number of those who surrounded him he said dost thou approach us with this front to brave our authority m the province does no sense by ic rob of bo w of crime thy brow that here in the presence of those whom thou hast most wronged thou thy face without a blush i richard you came hither as all men thought a peaceful and found the friendship of the port accorded to you without or question again and again you left us and returned and the ever gave you hearty welcome to their homes how brief a span is it since we saw you breaking bread and sharing the wine cup with this aged father whose daughter villain thou to carry off by force in the dead hour of the night hast thou not against the life of the secretary thou not murder the bloody and man thou not like a coward strike at the gray hairs of this venerable man when thou upon him in his sleep no replied the leader in a voice loud and angry by the presence of the chief of the province and by his he lies who says i struck at the i though by st may claim no favor at my hands favor at thy hands exclaimed the who could not sit quiet whilst the spoke a boy who to play at man s game with men a boy to me thus i pray you master interposed the mildly do not interfere i struck not at the repeated i look to match my sword with men not spent with age when others would have beaten this old man to the ground i saved him i not against the secretary s life he continued answering the which the had at random heaped upon him i the as a hound that had been set to track my path i carried away this old man s daughter because i loved her are you answered lord t by ic bob of the bowl impudent returned the with an of speech altogether dost thou beard us with the confession of thy crimes have the laws of the province no terrors for thee i never acknowledged your s laws retorted the seaman scornfully i have lived above them coming when i would and going when it pleased me by st your hath but a sorry set of you might do well to teach the better half of the to remember that charles claims to be lord and master of this province they seem to have forgotten it you think i am my lord i have but one master here old rob of the my fellow prisoner we | 29 |
quaint and old and is for having the best s and the women in the world but even those attractions combined do not make it exactly lively there is very little to do the shops are not particularly good i suppose it is too near london for that and altogether most officers there spend every few hours of leave that they can get in the modern which we call town well it was on a august afternoon that the orderly officer for the day and let me tell you it is no joke to be orderly officer in a big garrison like found himself in possession of the first of peace and idleness which had been his since he had turned out of his cot at six o clock that morning he was a young man very young and not ill looking his name mc and he was as scotch as his name being scotch and hardy or perhaps because he was young to his work as yet he was not bored out of his life and tired to death as a man with three times his length of service would have been at that hour of the day the only company that bored him was his own and his first thought on being free for half an hour was to go and find some of the fellows not a soul in the room and of course at that hour not a soul in the mess room he glanced at and the day by day in the and gave a casual look at the little rack to see if there were any letters for him although there was no chance of a post at that particular time and his correspondence was never a one and then he took up his whip and settled his cap over his right eye and out into the open again he turned to the right when he got out of the mess and went as far as the comer of the block of buildings in which the officers mess was and then he stopped short now i wonder where all the fellows are he muttered there was however not a sign of any one of them a groom wearing a light suit which had evidently been his master s passed he went for a soldier him with a salute and went into a door of the officers stables opposite otherwise there was not a soul to be seen oh i ll go and see if s in his quarters he turned sharply round the comer and went in at the second door of the row of officers quarters passed up the stone stairs and knocked at the door on the right of the first landing come in cried a voice then added is that you yes are you busy not a bit thank the lord tm on leave replied on leave echoed with a sigh of envy you lucky beggar how did yoa manage that laughed why just the same way that you managed it last week i went and asked for it ah then as if by an inspiration but then i got mine to go to a wedding did you well i got mine by honest ly saying i didn t feel very well and that thought a few days by the would do me good but sit down and have a smoke picked out a from a small box on the chimney shelf yes a temporary one with a velvet top and a fringe more or less dingy such as you always see in officers quarters and settled himself in the biggest chair he could find thanks old fellow one is glad of a after being on the grind the whole day i said before that the young man was not in the least tired yet he would have died the death before he would have owned as much to one of his in service who one and all were in the regular habit of grumbling and growling from till noon and from noon to eve on those days when it fell to their lot to be orderly officer so then he dropped back with a great show of exhaustion and puffed away at his with the air of a man who had earned it by hard work by the by said presently did you go to the wedding last week he went for a of course i did whose young laughed a most romantic affair i can tell you the bridegroom was a colonel the bride a miss they were engaged twenty years ago then why the deuce didn t they get married then exclaimed oh that s more than i can tell you replied i only know the outlines of the story anyway they were engaged then when she was a young girl in her and for some reason he married another woman this season he came back to english i mean to england after having been eight years in india and a for eighteen months and almost the first he went to was at my people s and he was sent in to dinner with her without my mother knowing a word of their story wasn t it odd and now they re married yes they re married i saw them turned off safe enough sat thinking for a minute by jove he exclaimed but it s a pretty idea is she fit to be seen oh well a bit getting on you know answered the lad nearly forty don t you know and never been married well a woman sometimes does get a bit a bit old fashioned you know especially when she s had one man in her head all the time but still she s all right enough to have fetched him properly heaved a sigh of relief well my word it s awfully | 30 |
that i do not feel as though you were a stranger to us so i think if it does not bore you to talk to the children a little there won t be any harm in it you are very kind k a a he went a soldier i say very sensible thank you very much it will give me so much pleasure to talk to the a little i am very fond of children miss smiled and gave him a little bow and sat down beside the invalid s bath chair as if the conversation was now quite at an end however had something else to say and said it although had taken possession of his stick and of his arm with the assured air of friends of long standing i have not asked after the invalid this morning he said and you have not introduced me to your sister oh i m so sorry cried this is my sister mr took off his hat to the child who flushed with pleasure at the honor for it is an honor and a huge pleasure to any to have a man show her the ordinary that he shows to a grown up young lady you are better this morning he asked gently a little better she answered she was u rt r a w t adam etc more shy than but i was very ill oh very ill said miss gravely but more cheerfully we are well oa the mend now are we not darling oh yes smiling at her and after that and took full possession of their new friend and spent the next two hours at the hardest work he ever remembered to have toiled at in all his life how he dug and and how his back ached and how the sweat of honest labor of which there would be no result dropped from his brow until his face was like a fiery furnace and he would have given a sovereign for a of beer with a head on it and was it all for no result was it all for the love he had for the children well to tell the truth i very doubt it i think a certain pair of gray gray eyes had something to do with his sudden inspiration to toil for the pleasure of others and the worst of it all was that when the castle was finished and his watch warned them that it was time to go home for luncheon he came he went for a on to the wall again with the only to find that miss had gone home with the invalid leaving the old nurse with her knitting to wait patiently until half past one should come when realized that was gone and that all his had been thrown away i am afraid he bade a very hurried farewell to his friends and and went back to his hotel with thunder upon his brow and war in his heart but had not wasted either the time or the toil for the children had become his friends forever and mind there is something very and true about the love of a child look back over your own life and note the feeling that you have for the grown men and women who were your friends your very own real intimate friends then have your feelings for them ever altered has your love for them ever i t think so i know for my own part i had a dear dear friend in the days of my first he was an indian judge his name was richard he bought me the mysteries of and all the best things that i possessed when adam etc at that time he used to tell me the story of the brave and the fair and frighten me out of my wits and i used to call him mr dick sometimes to his intense disgust dear dear i wonder where you are now my dear richard w if you are alive and ever see these lines i wonder if they will recall your child friend who is getting in years now but who loves you just the same just the same as all those years ago no nothing that you do for a child is wasted and those two hours which spent with the children were not wasted either for they went home to the furnished home in terrace and they sang his praises to until she too caught the and felt quite a thrill of pleasure that she had been able to between the right sort and the wrong and that she had been gravely gracious to lord s double instead of sending him about his business with a stony glare of outraged propriety so when next they met which was late in the afternoon of that day she was quite he went for a soldier pleasant and friendly with him she kept s hand tightly through her arm and s slim young person between them but nurse was not there for the invalid had a slight headache and the nurse had stayed within doors to take care of her and felt that to be allowed to walk on beside miss was a distinct advance in the right direction he was surprised to find how well informed she was not on those subjects which we call book learning for that one expects in a but in all those ways which such men as hm call life she seemed to have been to have done everything to have had in fact quite a lovely time as a girl would express it and hung upon her arm in sweetest friendliness and supplied considerable as a to their conversation don t you remember when father took us to so and so or it wasn t then it was during father s last long leave | 30 |
when we all went to paris it was very strange and then even as they walked along a horrible thought presented when adam etc itself to him a thought which accounted f oi the of a man like living the life of a young lady of fashion evidently means to marry her himself chapter iv getting on it must not be supposed however that this idea prevented our friend fi making what way he could with miss after that first little walk when she had been so careful to keep between them it came to be quite an accepted state of affairs that he should go whenever he took his walks abroad in that direction where he was to all and purposes perfectly sure of finding them that is to say of finding miss and the they were always somewhere on the front for at there is not much temptation to get off the actual coast unless you happen to be of the class which considers an as an indispensable part of a at the in the neighborhood of you see the particular form of getting on cruelty to animals which an often in great perfection for if you take a drive along any of the roads within four or five miles of the little watering place you may meet as many as a dozen parties within an hour they are nearly all alike a heavy packed full of people drawn by a very small starved looking and generally permanently lame pony no not a horse nor yet a a pony of twelve or fourteen hands only the road is an up and down sort of road if not actually but nobody ever seems to dream of getting out and walking the day before yesterday i saw such a party at street a village four miles from there was the usual the usual wretched lame pony and the load consisted of eight full grown persons five of them the women i ever saw women who wore and sat solid besides these there were four children and three babies in arms a few ds further i met a much larger party on their way back to but it is time that their was almost a he went for a soldier oh you would ask are there no police in the neighborhood certainly there are in almost every village excepting ours you may find a small cottage with a little blue plate above the door bearing upon it in white letters the words county police i fancy though that the police go hay making or anyway they never interfere with the they toll me that it would be no good if they did that there are no local by laws or concerning the numbers which may carry and that drivers of such may do exactly as they like so long as the cruelty to animals people do not come down upon them but i do wish that the to animals people would look at their map of and take notice that there is such a place as and also take my word for it that during the summer months that particular place would be all the better for a little attention from them happily the young did not for little along the country lanes and generally remained on getting on the sea front generally too remained with them although he did not after that first morning give himself exclusively up to the work of castles of sand he told that he had himself on the previous morning and was afraid he had got a permanent in his neck which unless it passed off would certainly be the means of ending his career of glory as a soldier in her majesty s service and was dreadfully concerned she insisted his sitting down by and and himself veiy very quiet and then having given him a bit of from a private store in her pocket she carried off to look among the rocks for shell fish it s very good of to me so comfortably remarked to miss as the children disappeared over the edge of the sea wall oh is very tender hearted miss replied with a certain tenderness about her eyes which went near to finishing the she had already made of his heart he went for a soldier is the most charming little lady that it has been my pleasure to meet for some time returned promptly i only hope she has not you by her care for miss looked aside at him with her wonderful gray eyes and laughed i think you are one of the most men i ever met mr she said well you wouldn t like it if i wasn t under the circumstances he said no i should that is quite true she answered but all the same i may as well tell you that i felt a little a little uncertain the other night as to what i ought to do you see i don t generally pick up acquaintances through the children but it was so odd their taking you for lord who is quite a great friend of theirs or rather who was so two years ago and then my seeing the likeness and you being a friend of his and altogether the circumstances were peculiar so i sent a to major that evening saying the children have made friends with a mr getting on sixteenth is it all right and this morning i have had his answer yes and he says miss i give you my word i never felt so anxious in my life said and in truth he looked so she drew a letter out of her pocket and spread it upon her knee without wishing to look at it saw out of the tail of his eye that it began my dear he says this miss said | 30 |
reading from it i think it is all right about i met him once dinner at the sixteenth mess he seemed a very popular young fellow and is so wonderfully like west that i thought at first it was him so you see folding the letter and leaning back against the rough stones behind her though it was an introduction it is practically the same as if somebody neither of us knew intimately had said mr miss thank heaven for that ejaculated fervently and after this it was wonderful how well he went a they got on how really friendly he became with them he was good and thoughtful for the children too although he did not dig and for them again he took them out twice in a sailing boat and he treated them to various pleasures new donkey rides and other joys dear to a child s heart and to the delicate little whose pleasures for the present were necessarily oi a veiy limited kind he made life very brighter by little gifts of books and papers and fruit by sitting patiently down and telling her of things that interested her and so helping her to bear the tedious weariness of a slow recovery and for reward he had the fact that was always there and sometimes he had long talks to her when the others were not by surely surely never so much quiet delight was got out of one week s leave before on the third morning he began to tell and about the trick that some of his brother officers had been playing upon the one whom they called the but why do you call him the inquired getting on well it is rather a on in general i admit replied i can t quite go into all the details but this man happens to be very and nobody speaks to him except excepting that is on very rare occasions pleasant for him murmured what is his name his honored name is moses replied oh then he is a jew well he is but it isn t for that reason that he s been sent to oh not a bit of it but he s a regular what s a inquired cast an glance at really miss i beg your pardon he said my child he went on to i ought not to have said that to you but this mr moses is a very disagreeable person who does everything he can to make all the others dislike him and as he won t leave the regiment we have sent him to instead he is very rich and very and as he would not hang his pictures up in his rooms because he would have to pay a g he went for a soldier penny each for the nails as some of the fellows have taken considerable trouble to ornament his walls for him and then he went into the details of the whole story so far as he knew it i had a letter from this morning he continued when he had told his story up to the time of his going on leave is a great friend of mine and was the first to start the idea though and he tells me but i ll read you his letter he took three or four letters from his breast pocket and selected one from among them the came back from his leave last night we were all at mess we didn t know what time he was coming until he burst into the mess room like a or a and it all out to the colonel the colonel heard him patiently till he had to stop for breath you have not for your morning clothes mr moses he remarked mildly my clothes and here and omitted a word or two i tell you sir he almost shrieked getting on i left my rooms open thinking i was among gentlemen with a withering look around and i ve come back to find thousands of nails into my walls you would not expect to find them would you the colonel inquired mildly i shall have a penny a piece to pay for them veiled the i m afraid you will mr moses said the chief very gently but may i ask why you had them put in i did not i i it s those brutes he screamed well well you must not be hard on them said the colonel soothingly the is very much at the mercy of his and don t have the finest brains in the world or they would not be at all i always find it the safest plan to give a written order but you know the way the dear old chief on when he gets started i should think i do commented with a laugh well at last the made the he went a soldier colonel understand that the new of his rooms had been done without his knowledge or consent and on hearing that the old chief all over in a moment have you any evidence that it was done by your brother officers mr moses he asked evidence why there s the nails sir cried the thousands of them surely that s evidence enough for anybody i am afraid said the colonel that a dead body is not considered sufficient evidence on which to hang a man for murder without some more definite evidence to fix the guilt of it on him you can report your grievance to me if you like but i strongly advise you not to do so as unless you can bring me actual evidence i can of course do nothing in the matter and i am afraid you will have to pay for the all the same the fairly groaned the fellows who did are all here he said they can | 30 |
t deny it you ask them sir you should have seen the colonel s face getting on you would never have forgotten it he looked like a turkey cock and a boiled rolled into one i do not require you to teach me my duty mr moses he said in a stiffly tone i have told you what course you can take and i have given you the advice which my experience of army life tells me is the best you can please yourself whether you follow it or not but we will close this discussion mr moses if you please and confine ourselves to language for to night broke off short and looked at the two girls with laughing eyes they were all too well in the etiquette of a not to appreciate the joke to the full you must tell father that when he comes said lying back in her chair limp and weak poor child with the exertion of her hearty laugh yes said you must certainly tell the major chapter v the light of his life major did not manage to get off from his duties at during the few days that remained at the great eastern hotel at he had intended to do so but some personage was taken down to that week and naturally the major could not be absent just then the children were disappointed but they bore their disappointment with the which very happy children frequently dis play upon occasion and on the friday afternoon the day that they had expected their father to come stood treats in the shape of donkey rides to a quite alarming extent in spite of many from miss you ought not to spend so much money f the light op his life over them she you are them dreadfully and they really you i am sure the major would not allow it if he were here but he is not here pleaded and even if he were i can t think he would have the heart to deny them a donkey ride or two don t put a stop to their fun miss and mine but what fun can it be to you to pay for donkey rides for somebody else she asked opening her eyes very widely at such a novel idea of enjoyment i didn t quite mean it in that way he replied but you see since you have your foot and cannot walk much and takes her air with the old to keep her company a few donkey rides provide occupation at a little distance for our young friends at an exceedingly cheap rate and and i am able to talk to you without interruption of any kind miss blushed a little that must be poor sort of entertainment she said looking away from him oh very poor returned with he went for a soldier a laugh which the words miss do let the have a good time and me too so won the day and stayed where he was by miss s side paying for one donkey ride after another until it was time for them to go in to supper as they called a somewhat meal which they had about half past six o clock had gone in half an hour earlier and the old man brought the bath chair back for miss who had turned her ankle on a stone the previous day and could not do more than a few steps with the help of a good stout stick naturally enough it was s strong arm which helped her from her seat to the chair and who walked back beside her to terrace with his hand resting on the side of the chair in a very sort of way you ll come out again this evening won t you he asked in a voice oh not this evening i think she answered doubtfully i am going back to to morrow he urged the light of his life but not very early she replied yes i am going back very early before eight o clock really yes really you will come out again for a little won t you well i ll see with a laugh good by anyway he went back to the hotel with a light heart enough and enjoyed his solitary dinner tolerably well he was sorry that major had not been able to come to as he had intended because he wanted to have a talk to him he wanted major to see him before he went any further with for he had several days before fully made up his mind that she was the one woman in the world for him yes these things are done pretty quickly sometimes for instance my wife and i met one thursday at noon and the following monday evening we agreed to run in double harness for the rest of our lives was thinking about her as he ate his dinner thinking how dignified and gracious she was what self reliance there was about her what quick he went for a soldier wit had and how her great gray eyes shone like stars in her pure pale face himself was just the type of man to admire pale dark beauty in a woman for he was of a complexion very much just then his eyes were between gray and blue his features resolutely cut if not very handsome while in height he was some five feet ten and in figure strong and broad in the shoulders without being heavy in build altogether a very wholesome and young man with beautiful manners and excellent nerves she was still in his mind when he had finished dinner and was off again to for to night he knew that he would find the little party on the open space just in front of terrace miss not being | 30 |
able to get further a field miss r why what a sweet little dignified name it was how well it went with and how well it would go with ell one of these days for he never gave thought for a moment to the possibility that she might not be willing to change her name for his although still in his heart there the light of his life od and to him at times a remnant of that first doubt that major might have some intention of marrying her himself it came back to him then as he walked along the sea wall and having it so recalled to him he made a point of putting a few leading questions to miss upon the subject that evening their mother is dead isn t she he asked when the two children had gone for a turn on the parade to keep company oh yes t been dead long about five years ah so long then i suppose you never saw her he remarked oh yes i knew mrs very well she was killed you know killed what do you mean she was killed in an accident major he was captain then had bought a new pair of such beauties and the very first time he took her for a drive something happened to frighten them they were passing a field in which there was some agricultural engine and this thing he went for a soldier exploded in some way and the horses bolted they were both thrown out and the carriage utterly wrecked captain s arm was broken and his face fearfully cut and bruised and mrs never spoke or moved again oh yes she lived several hours but it was quite hopeless from the first and i suppose he was dreadfully cut up miss turned her lovely eyes upon him in astonishment she began then changed her tone ah i forgot you do not really know him he was almost heart broken he adored her he has never been the same since then you think there is no of his marrying again said major will never marry again mr she answered decidedly some good husbands and wives marry again simply because they are so lonely and so wretched they marry out of a sort of desperation but major wasn t that kind of husband at all he was devoted to her not because he was the sort of man that makes a good husband to any ordinarily nice wife the light of his life but because he adored her her only he was wrapped up in her his love for her was a religion she was the very light of his life and when she was taken away the light of his life died out forever as far as this world is concerned poor chap murmured under his breath he is just the same with the children they are her children and he them because of that they are beautiful winning little souls all three of them that no one could help loving but to him they are first and foremost reflections of her oh he will never marry again never i can quite believe it said who now that his mind was set at rest felt all sympathy toward the poor fellow who had lost the wife of his heart all in a moment and without warning and the next day he went back to his regiment chapter vl so and yet i do not know if i have already said that major had taken the furnished house at for three months but such was the case when they that is the three children and miss became acquainted with lord s double they had only been in a few days and after his week of leave was over contrived to see a good deal of them notwithstanding that leave was very difficult to get and that his colonel considered that he had done very well in that respect but he got into a habit of disappearing from as soon as work was over for the day and of turning up quietly at the great eastern at where he ate his dinner and then strolled out in a casual kind of way in the direction of near and yet court and there for a couple of hours or so he used to sun himself in the light of s beautiful eyes and in the morning get up at a really hour and get back to in time for officers call and strangely enough he never happened to see major twice he came down for a day and night and twice happened to be on duty with a long court martial during the following day so that he did not get down to until late when he found that major had already left it s so odd he said one day to that i have never met major yet yes so it is but you see he is very busy just now and so he says he has never known so many show people taken down to before all this summer has been spent in showing off and he does hate it so oh yes we all do by the by did you tell him that i came over pretty often did she replied and even in the gathering darkness he could see the tell tale color rising in her cheeks he went for a b oh i and what did he say she laughed outright oh mr i can t tell you exactly what he said all the same she could have done so to the very letter if she had been so inclined how conceited you are what can it matter to you what he said about you but it does matter as it happens tell me what he | 30 |
said he said that to the best of his recollection you were not so good looking as lord and he is right enough i don t think so burst out then cried oh and jumping up from her seat hurried on to catch up the others who were all walking on ahead quickened his pace and soon came up with her why need you have hurried away like that he asked reproachfully i i thought they had been long enough without us she answered promptly it wasn t kind of you he went on i have had such a tiresome disagreeable day so and yet and i was so happy and contented sitting there and then all in a moment you rush off like that without any reason at all i call it exceedingly unkind and of you they had fallen a little behind the bath chair again and feeling that she might as well have sat still where he was as he put it contented and happy found nothing to say but an inarticulate murmur which interpreted in his own way let us sit down again he said tl and overpowered by the romance of the hour sat down enough upon the seat that he pointed out to her but alas the spell was broken on the first seat they had been alone on the second they were immediately followed by a couple of common place women who were keen on the subject of their respective husbands and well mrs smith said all that i can say is that j don t know ow you bring yourself to bear it i don t say but what mr as is faults goodness knows i should be a story if i did but drink he went for a soldier ing ain t one of em mr t i says to him times out of count it s my opinion that the ought to have a free and but tell me when you want me to pack up and go and just come ome drunk and i ll take the int and we may as well take the int too murmured savagely to who already with laughter was but too glad to get up and go back to the people up and down the short parade and alas and alas i the spell of enchantment which had been over them both a few moments before was gone forever was dreadfully disappointed and as he took her hand in parting half an hour later he told her that he did not think that he should be able to come again for several days but why she faltered oh we re awfully hard worked just now he answered with a fine assumption of carelessness she was turning away when he caught her hand again would you mind if you did not see me again for a week he asked so near and yet yes i should mind very much she hesitated a moment then she turned back to him and answered simply and truly yes i should mind very much but why do you ask me mr you know without telling just how much i should mind he burst out in a passionate whisper my darling my darling there seemed to be a fate against them that night for just as the words left his lips came running up why don t vou ever ask mr to come in she asked looked at him hesitatingly answered for her not until your father is here my dear little woman he said and then he bent down and kissed her twice but thank you for saying that i ll not forget it then he turned to and took her hand good night my darling he said tenderly and bending his head kissed the hand he still held within his own but it was who spoke the last word he went for a soldier to him that night she said may i go to the end of the terrace with mr i want to tell something if you like answered for the place was all very quiet and not a soul was as a matter of fact in sight i will stand here and wait for you mr the child said when they had gone half the length of the short terrace you are very like lord did you bring me here to tell me that he asked smiling at her in the moonlight no but you are not only like him to look at but you like just as he does does he like he liked to use her name the dear little soft sounding name that suited her so well and the very fact of being able to speak of her so to the child seemed to give him a greater intimacy with them all does he like he asked lord why mr of course he does with all the wonder of a child that he did not know the fact but everybody likes explained who did not like to think that one so near and yet of his best friends was hard hit in the same quarter as himself oh but lord worshipped the very ground walked on cried nurse said so and the very last time he came to see us something happened i don t know what it was but afterward nurse said that she supposed had given him his answer and that he was upset about it i asked nurse what it was an answer to but she told me not to trouble myself about it when i was troubling myself dreadfully about it all the time i shall never forget she went on what he looked like when he went away he cried nonsense exclaimed who did not want to hear yet did not know | 30 |
how to stop her from saying any more oh i don t mean that he howled said but he kissed me before he went and my face was all wet and he told me to be good to and that he would love me always i know she ended was silent for a moment or so he burst out you ought not to have told me that he went for a soldier but why not it s true yes i know but a great many things are true which are better left and i think west would be very much hurt if he knew that you had told anyone of that but i told afterward she said and gave a great sigh and looked so sorry and then she said poor lord well i couldn t help it well don t talk of it to anyone else said and now go in ray little friend you are keeping waiting he watched her till she was within the house and then went back to the hotel w ith a new idea to think of so dear old west had had a try for and had failed well well what a queer world it was and how strange that he who was s double should win the day for there was no doubt that he had won it he had seen the bright on her cheeks the soft light in her eyes she had told him that he knew just how much she would miss him if he did not so near and yet come again for several days it was wonderful wonderful that of the two men so much alike she should choose the one who was the least desirable in a worldly sense it was wonderful but he was in heaven at that moment and he stood looking out over the wide stretch of sea thanking god over and over again for having kept his heart free and whole a fit shrine for the sweetest soul that had ever come across his path not all the same that was a man who would be a poor match for any girl he had come of a good stock the of the great firm of great north country whose business had been carried on for several generations from father to son and like many such they had married themselves and had and the old name had down to one or two representatives where once there had been at least a dozen men in the prime of life all more or less connected with the bank and its branches or occupying the most prominent positions in the county he went for a soldier but now all that generation had died off excepting one an uncle of the present head of the firm leaving as present representatives several girls our friend and two sons of his uncle s both in the firm with their father there had been no question of olive s going into the firm he was an only child and the idol of his father s heart he had almost from his expressed an intense desire to be a soldier and therefore his career had always been looked upon as settled his father had been dead about four years at the time of which am writing and with a comfortable fortune in the business enjoyed life in the service on an income of something like three thousand a year so that he had no hesitation in offering himself where thanks to s information he knew that lord had failed the following day he went back to and the next day he was on duty and the day after that there was an inspection by the duke and a huge dinner in the evening at which he was obliged to put in an so near and yet ance although he was to be off to to see again however duty is duty and in the service duty comes before every other consideration and it was not until the fourth day after parting with that he was able to look forward to going down to again said to him on that fourth morning will you go out with me to st anne s they ve got a garden party on this afternoon and want one or two more men awfully sorry old chap it s quite impossible answered i m engaged oh all right i ll take one of the others rejoined then added to a when had got out of hearing old s up to something i wonder what it is oh it s a woman of course said a very young officer wisely looked at him well i don t suppose it s a my child he said gravely chapter news on the morning of the fourth day the post arrived in at the usual time and among other letters received one bearing the post mark of the town in which the great firm of had its from my uncle thought as he noted the handwriting so it proved to be he broke the seal without having any suspicion that it was more than an ordinary letter although it was certainly not a usual thing for his uncle to write himself upon any matter of business connected with his nephew s property but as he read down the first page his very blood seemed to turn to water and within him and all his new found happiness died in that dreadful moment news my the letter ran we are all in terrible anxiety and trouble and i feel that it is due to you to lose no time in you that a dire misfortune is likely to overtake and all of us our trusted the day before yesterday with certainly fifty thousand pounds and to at least twice the value of that sum on monday he sent a note down to | 30 |
smiling then as he remembered how a few years before he had wondered with all his might where did the old gentleman sleep at night and then the tall tower of the abbey came into sight the bells were ringing for morning prayers and the smart little choir boys with their narrow white round their throats were just in at their own little door next to that entrance which led into the and then turned down the high street and presently came in sight of the old fashioned red brick house known as the bank a long substantial building with a large handsome door in the middle of it and with three large windows on either side and a row of seven windows in the story above and as soon as his eyes fell upon the house his heart went down to for he realized in an instant that the evil tidings had been true enough for the door was closed the stout outer door that is instead of being left as was usual wide open the wide within with their plate glass and he went for a soldier handsome brass finger plates and on the door was fastened a paper on which something was written that three or four people were lingering to read stopped also unconscious of the fact that one of the having recognized him had his companion to look at one of the young and this was what he read messrs regret that they have been compelled to payment owing to certain recent failures and to the sudden disappearance of their chief it was a bitter moment for poor he felt very much as one might imagine that the prince of wales s children might feel if they were suddenly told that her majesty had been and might for the future think herself lucky if she could earn a decent living say as to mr one can imagine no two ends of a stick so far apart as that i think and in fact to life at that moment was like a revolution and fall with cruel hardship on some however it was no use standing there staring at that pitiful announcement in messrs olive his uncle s handwriting and he turned sharply round the corner and knocked at the door on the side that was used as an entrance to the private part of the house a maid servant whom he did not know came in answer to his summons i am mr he said instinctively that he would find it difficult to get unless he gave his name at once is anyone here yes sir mr himself is here the girl replied and both mr jack and mr she made way for him to go within and led him to a room on the ground floor where she asked him to wait and after five minutes or so jack his cousin came to him well jack old fellow he said jack nearly wrung his hand off dear old chap i m so glad you ve come the governor has been worrying all the because he hasn t heard from you he quite expects a storm of reproaches from you but it isn t his fault i assure you my dear old jack cried and he went for a soldier i ought to tell you that all the were and exceedingly fond of one another he ought not to have thought that of me it s my fault i know i ought to have at once but on my word the news so knocked the wind out of my sails that i never gave it a thought i didn t indeed well come and see him and set his mind at rest on that score said jack then at the door he turned back and put his hand on his cousin s shoulders old fellow it s a devil of a mess we re in there ll be no getting out of it no saving anything out of the wreck i fear well it can t be helped said his heart aching for the pain in the other s eyes if you had seen my father last night old fellow i know it will fall hard on you the hardest of any of us because you might have got out of it at any time but if you had seen him last night you would haye pitied him with all your heart so i do cried that s good of you of course it s messrs the on married less than a year and but there s young and strong and his wife loves him and stands up like a little brick about it it s my father i m thinking of he s too old to bear being torn up by the roots take me to him said who could scarcely keep the tears out of his eyes so together they went to mr s private room where the old man who had held his head so high and had helped the poor and far and near sat trembling to await the nephew whose fortune had gone in the wreck of the great house some instinct made the old man rise from his chair as if he felt he had no longer the right to sit in the presence of those who must suffer with him his son was with him standing behind his chair tall and haughty ready to do battle if need be against one who had always been the best of friends with him a needless precaution when caught sight of the drawn old face that had always smiled so kindly on him he made a rush toward him and caught him in his arms with he went for a soldier a cry of my dear uncle | 30 |
my dear dear uncle and the next moment john head of the once great house had bent his white head upon the young man s shoulder and was sobbing like a child but although john s eyes followed his nephew about here there and everywhere and jack clapped him on the back and swore that he knew had known all along that would be old to them all whatever happened and although s melted away in one moment and he got hold of his cousin s hand and wrung it hard without saying a word simply because he could not control himself sufficiently to speak just then and though little mrs scarcely more than a bride came with her pretty eyes red with tears and put her arms right round his neck and kissed him whispering to him that god would make it up to him one day she was certain of it still so far as he personally was concerned was just where he was and that was neither more nor less than well if not actually that is supposing that a few hundreds were saved out of the messrs wreck of his fortune it would be the same thing in the end so before he went back to which he did to arrange for the sale of his effects there having sent in his papers at once when he found out how hopeless the ruin was he wrote again to and this time he did not hesitate to begin my darling you will let me he went on call you for once by a dear little name which i had thought would go so well with mine one day it is for the last time dear you know i feel sure you know it that i love you as i have never loved any woman before or ever will again i had thought to make you mine after i had seen your major but fate has come in between us dearest a terrible misfortune has overtaken me the last time i was at i had three thousand a year today i have nothing not even my pay for i have sent in my papers and have no longer even that if i had only three or four hundred a year i would have come and asked you to share it but i can t ask you to share nothing he went for a soldier i told you did i not that my father was a banker well all ray property was invested in the bank of which my uncle was the head until a week ago utter ruin has come upon him and upon us all and although i love you my dear love i love you too well to wish to drag you down to god only knows as yet what depths of poverty and you are safe and happy where you are you have a good home and they are good to you are they not but you must try to forget me dear though i shall never forget you i should not have written at all but i hated to leave you in uncertainty you might have believed that i had a very different reason for no more to the dear little place where i had so much happiness but now you know give my love to my little friends and now good by for always my darling till you forget me i hope you will pray sometimes for your unfortunate but true lover p s i have given my man instructions messrs to bring down a little fox to you she has been my faithful companion for three years if you are able to keep her i hope you will as a last kindness to me if you cannot tell the man who brings her to you and he will have her destroyed i shall be gone from by the time he comes to you c d chapter ix when found himself in london after learning the fate of the fox victoria he had about fifty pounds in his pocket having used the money got from the sale of his horses to pay the few personal debts which had happened to be owing at the time of the wreck of his fortune he did not hesitate long as to what he should do he knew that it would probably be a year perhaps eighteen months or it might even be two years before the affairs of the house of were fully cleared up what would happen then heaven alone knew the old house might be started again and in any case there might be a few hundreds or even thousands left after everything was paid up but our friend had to provide some occupation for himself during that time be as careful as you will the sum of fifty pounds will not go very far in the keep of a man more especially if that man happens to have been in possession up to the time present of an income of three thousand a year besides that had no taste for an idle life and he wanted most to try to forget the past well both the happy past and the bitter present and he knew that there was no remedy for sad thoughts so good as that of hard work and here he was at twenty four years old a good soldier so far as his experience but as he told himself fit for nothing else live upon his pay he simply could not he did not see the fun of exchanging into a west indian regiment or even of going to india either with an or a native regiment so in the end after a few days he paid his hotel bill and took a first class ticket to york where he | 30 |
they had been to each other that last and how fate seemed to have stepped in to keep them apart to remember how his dear little friend had enlightened him about lord and and sometimes to wonder whether west would end by winning her after all and generally when his thoughts got thus far he used to try to comfort himself with the news which his man had brought him of her after he had been down to to take the victoria to her what did she say did you see miss he had asked yes sir replied i asked to see the lady and i give her the note and victoria under my arm and the young lady she read the note and then she just flew at the and caught her out of my he went a soldier arm and says she keep the darling why of course i ll keep her stay you d better go down to the kitchen and get some dinner while i write to your master begging your pardon miss says i but it s no use of your writing mr have left the regiment and gone to london he particular told me to tell you so and then the young lady she tipped me half a crown and i come away and that was all that was all he had not given her the chance of answering his letter and indeed had given the that he was not to bring any letter back with him and yet he was disappointed that he had not done so he could to use his own phrase have the idiot s chuckle head for him but then what was the good of thinking about it the british soldier s first orders are to do what he is told that and that only so what was the good of expecting him to use his discretion on a subject in which although of vital importance to his master he had no interest and about which he had most likely not troubled himself to think at all chapter x meeting nearly a year had gone by the business of the once great firm of had been taken over by another house and their affairs were being gradually but surely got into order there seemed to be some prospect that ultimately the wreck would not be so complete as at first had been feared it would be as yet however it was only a prospect one which might possibly never be realized so for the future did not look ly bright still he had become wonderfully well used to the new life and excepting that whenever he thought of his heart ached in a dull sort of way for the rest of that day he had himself to cast very few regrets after his happy and prosperous past and of he had never heard one sin he went for a word he did not even know if she was alive or dead whether she was still with the or whether she had gone away from them and was earning her living elsewhere he knew nothing and he tried to find out nothing although she still reigned supreme and triumphant in his heart just the same as she had done during those few precious weeks of happiness at the little east coast watering place which would always to him represent the one paradise on earth and then something happened to rouse him out of the ordinary routine of his life something which brought all the past back upon him he scarcely knew whether as a pleasure or a pain for the five years command of the officer commanding the regiment came to an end and in his place was appointed and lieutenant colonel robert from the tenth colonel of course took up the command when colonel it which was but a few days after the appointment was meeting him in a moment but the eyes of the new commanding officer passed him over among the others without his having any idea that he had seen him before and even without seeing the strange likeness which he bore to lord charles west i m safe enough said to himself breathing freely again as colonel passed by him he ll never know me and even if i come face to face with the they are not very likely to know me either children have very short memories all the same it came back to him that these same children had remembered west intimately for more than two j ears during the next week or two little scraps of news concerning the new colonel came floating to him for everybody in the regiment naturally took the very keenest interest in him and his heard from one comrade that the colonel had taken a large furnished house about half a mile from the and that distance farther out from the town from another he heard that the family were coming the following day several children and a he went a soldier dozen servants i fancy there s no mrs said his carelessly and the next day another soldier who had been to the station to take charge of the colonel s baggage imparted further news to him i went down to see after the colonel s baggage to day he told him heaps of it and a whole pack of dogs and cats and birds and such like a lot of children asked a lot no several ones no children i mean little ones but uncommonly nice all the same and polite was there a yes a french girl young couldn t speak a word of english s heart sank within him then she was gone well well perhaps she was married and settled in a home of her own anyway he was safe from the | 30 |
with who naturally did not expect to find in the guise of a of the guards besides this had let his moustache grow which he had never done before and this had altered his appearance a little he saw several times in the distance but though he would have given a good deal to have been able to walk up to him and him with what s good with you he kept resolutely and carefully at as far a distance from him as he possibly could but on the morning of the fourth day when he was hard at work in the office came in with the orderly officer for the ld pain comes again ill the day oh he said to the i think you said you would go over to s with me this afternoon with pleasure but i can t go till about half past four replied that will be early enough said the younger man and began to walk about the bare uninteresting room i say are you busy not particularly i mean i needn t be off out of this at once eh was still so young that he positively loved the official atmosphere of an orderly room and vastly preferred staying there with to enjoying himself in the town or about the deserted laughed he knew the feeling of the lad well enough it is what in the theatrical world is called so very pro pro and in most cases both in the service and on the stage it wears off after a time oh you can stay here for the present if you want to said easily do you want to write letters or anything you ll find better pens here on the whole than in he went a soldier the room there s plenty of paper in that case ah thanks i do want to write a letter or two replied casually and who was sitting at a table with his back turned toward him bent down and rested his head upon his hand with a feeling of despair he tried to go on writing the report on which he had been at work when had come in but the writing was very and his ears were straining hard to catch every word which would tell him about that old life in which he had been so utterly happy that he had just let the days slip by one after another without troubling to think how fine a time he was having as he went along and how it all came back to him then s half important would be careless tone as if letters usually came to him by the and he could put in an odd hour at any time in answering them a few at a time remembered the lad s powers in that way so well the school boy fist the letters which usually were just long enough to turn the corner of the first page the old pain comes again and were generally one part taken up with the name of the one part signature the two together to about half of the whole oh he remembered it so well meantime had come to an on the opposite side of the table to the he drew a sheet of paper toward him and put the date just below the stamped address did you ever meet hands he asked suddenly of course i was at with him replied ah i had a letter from him this morning he says the is married at last had a guard of honor at the wedding and all the rest of it none of the fellows went of course the that s moses yes did you ever see him oh yes i was staying at last j ear and saw him i was staying with of the third ah yes well he couldn t stand living in any longer so he went and got married married a lady too that s the extraordinary part of it he went for a soldier who was she a miss masters quite a pretty girl and nice too took it into her head that the was treated and married him to prove that she had the courage of her opinions god help her i say ended solemnly it was really by a great effort that kept himself from turning round with a my boy you re getting on my word you are for a few minutes he almost forgot that he was no longer but smith very much at the service of others just then the s voice recalled him quickly enough oh perhaps he may make a very decent sort of husband i suppose he s rich rich yes the brute and just as as he s rich which is saying a good deal well with a sigh had a good deal of fun out of the but i suppose it s all over now there s no getting any fun out of a married fellow especially when his wife has taken up the for him still we ve had fine times we really t to at his escape the old pain comes again ah poor devil i ve no doubt he did have a bad time of it the sixteenth pride themselves on being a lively lot we used to returned gravely and although he was hearing eveiy word with agony could have laughed aloud as he heard him we used to of course is a lively sort of chap and we ve a very fair time still but somehow it s been different lately you see was the one that kept us all up to the mark did you ever meet no i don t remember him returned the who was standing at the window now with his back to he liad forgotten that | 30 |
to be pitied i can t stand being pitied it s bad enough without that and you have found it bad the said i quite thought you were getting on very well indeed sir rejoined hastily but still it s not exactly the life the old pain comes again i ve been used to and it s a long drop from the officers mess to the ranks i have to thank you and i do thank you with all ray heart for putting me on to office work and saving me a lot of rough work that i am no good at yet at times i really do feel as if i would just as soon put a bullet through my head as worry on any longer and just now i m not very well and i couldn t stand talking all my affairs over he s a good lad and a nice lad enough but a little of him went a long way unless you had nothing to do and were perfectly clear in your head if it had happened to be instead of i don t think i would have been able to resist having a with him very well said the i will respect your wishes i believe he goes away to morrow or the next day thank you sir said returning to smith again and with a salute went out of the office the sat down at the table to write a letter but s strained white face came so often between him and the pa he went a soldier per that at last lie threw down the pen and sat there thinking about the strange fate which had fallen upon the life of this man had taken him from the pleasant comfortable lines in which he had been born and had flung him down where he could have none of those good things which had made his life what a strange fate and how the poor chap had been all through and was still none knew better than the temptation it must have been to him to take the chance of an hour s talk with an old comrade to shake himself free for once of the position of and feel himself for a brief space of time back in his old place again well well he was resolute and bound to get on the officer s thoughts ran and he for one would respect him all the more that he had accepted his as as he had done and at that moment was lying face down among the grass of the low sobbing passionately as if his very heart would break not that the storm lasted after the old pain comes again half an hour or so he took up the burden of life again and went on his way so that none knew how near to desolation he had been and on the following day he saw go off with his and his hat box and he knew that from that danger he was safe for the present about this time the regiment was rather more harder worked than usual the time of inspection was in the not far distance the commanding officer was naturally anxious and eager to have everything up to the mark or as heard one to another new do sweep so blooming clean it ll be a wonder to me if we ve got any of our skins whole by the time leave begins and had his share of extra grind like all the others not that he minded he was satisfied so long as he got his hour or two hours sharp walk in the early evening and as in august the streets of the historic nay i might almost say the pre historic city are more like a huge brick oven than a place of rest and generally turned sharply to the left when he had through tha he went a soldier gates and out in the direction of the still fresh and smiling country lanes and it happened one day tliat he had been off at least an hour than usual and was on his way home again when just as he got near to the pretty village of he noticed a young lady coming to meet him accompanied by a little dog what took place next happened all in a moment for the little dog stopped short with nose in air and one front held off the ground then it gave a sharp bark and flung itself upon with a thousand tokens of wild affection and welcome victoria victoria the young lady cried victoria victoria don t be afraid she said to seeing that victoria took not the smallest notice of her it s only play she won t hurt you oh oh it is you mr is st as chapter xii yo may kiss me it was a very quiet lane in which and met again there were houses at the end of it the end which turned into the village but these houses did not have a good view of that part of the road where these two met i do not know that the fact of there being not a single soul in sight had anything to do with s on that occasion but i do know that when he clinging to him her great gray eyes with love his name upon her lips and victoria dancing around them both i do know that the situation was too much for him altogether and that he quite forgot that he was no longer to all practical purposes but john smith of the guards and ct i r he went foe a soldier miss in liis arms and kissed her over and over again with little fond thrown in my love my darling dearest | 30 |
dearest at last however he came back to himself and half pushed her away from him what have i to do with you he cried look at me with a gesture toward the uniform which clothed him smiled up at him well i do look at you i haven t looked at you half enough yet but i see that you are st the same except that you ve grown a moustache which doesn t become you half so well as your shaven lip there was a seat by the roadside just a wooden plank on two and miss sat down and patted it with her hand to show that she wished him to sit there also come and sit here i have so much to tell you but he did not sit down just then oh my dear he cried don t speak to me like i well she asked go on i am waiting you may kiss me don t you realize what has happened to me he exclaimed don t you realize that i am only a of now little better than a that if a ruined was not good enough for you said so she interposed quietly no because you are too good too true to say any thing that would hurt me or wound me he cried you never gave me the chance of doing either she put in don t forget that i gave you the chance of sending victoria back again he said yes at the cost of her poor little life oh how could you and since we are on the subject i think i may as well tell you that i think and i always have thought that it was exceedingly unkind of you to go away without even giving me the chance of proving myself a heroine if i wanted to do so i did what i thought was best he said meekly yes but you should have let me have some say in such a question too i he went for a soldier quickly you would have spared me many a i can assure you he was beside her on the seat in a moment my dear little love has your heart ached he cried tenderly i am so so sorry what do you think then that my these weary months oh my little love a very hell of misery and regret he looked so wan and worn and haggard in spite of the joy of seeing her again that the girl drew his hand to her and held it against her heart with a tender murmur of comforting and words and the little dog victoria had jumped upon the seat and climbed upon his knee where she sat with her bright eyes turning first upon and then upon as if her cup of joy was full to the brim and over and she hardly knew how to express her satisfaction at seeing the two of them together again you have been wretched and unhappy i can see it in your face she said tenderly my poor boy but it is all over now you won t go away and lose yourself again promise me that may kiss ie i cannot go away and lose myself unless i buy myself out and throw over a second time lie said rather bitterly when i parted from you at i was practically a free agent but now it is like the s servant they say to go and i go or come and i come i can t get out of your way now however much i want to do it but you don t want to get out of my way do you she asked i ought to want it he answered and if i were a man a real man i should remember always that there is a great difference between us that i am only a of but there she stopped him look here she said i want to put a very plain question to you when this little thing laying her hand upon victoria s sleek little head saw you just now did she stop to consider whether you wore the uniform of a lieutenant of or of a of now tell me that no of course not but ii he went for a soldier then do you credit me witli less feeling than a dog she cried half indignantly caught her close to his heart with a passionate cry which answered the question without any need of words the movement brought complete to poor little victoria who was however very complacent and began to bark with all her might and main to run to and fro inviting them both to games and and failing to attract their attention she jumped up on the seat again and her little body between them and gasped for breath as if her exertions had been too much for her i had not the smallest idea of seeing you ever again said presently when had given in and resigned himself to the delight of being with her but you why you must have known that you would see me before long no i didn t but you knew that colonel had got the command of the yes but i did not know that you would be here he replied you may kiss me she turned and looked at wonder and amazement plainly written on her face but where did you think i should be she asked well he said you can stand that the new colonel and his were very well talked over in the regiment and you can understand too that being interested in them i was more than willing to hear any news concerning him and his that came in my way and the man that | 30 |
went to look after the baggage at the station told me that there was a french well well it didn t occur to me that there would be two he said simply two she said yes he answered no i suppose not a queer little smile about her lips well you see here i am like a bad shilling turned up again you thought i dare say that i had gone out into the world after quarrelling with my employer to seek my fortune but here i am and putting her hand in his he went for a soldier you will never be able to get rid of me any more his hand closed over hers but he looked at her with a perplexed gaze dearest he said you must be fed you must be clothed you must have a roof to shelter you then how is it to be done i m a poor half hearted sort of chap if i was worth my salt i should have made a fortune for you by this time but i m not i m a in her majesty s service and unless you are content to use your influence with colonel to be put on the strength of the regiment i don t see how it s to be done i don t indeed oh i think it can be managed better than that she said quietly colonel will be able to suggest something he s a wonderful man ah what a pity you didn t fall in love with an instead of a poor or what a still greater pity seeing that he made an energetic gesture of that i was not an don t you think so yes i do he answered promptly since you are not and i have lost my whole you mat kiss me fortune the question still remains the question how are you going to live i am clothed and fed after a fashion by a grateful country but i fear the strength of the regiment is not for you darling even as a last resource well we will see you will go back with me to the house i will do anything that you wish he replied and i will take you to colonel by the by how is it he has never recognized you i don t know i have taken instructions from him almost every day ah he was not expecting to see you that is it she said calmly as if it was quite an every day thing for him to be a instead of an officer well you must tell him that i wish to be married to you and that you don t see your way to it do you see i hear what you say yes he answered that is all that is necessary she said smiling i have great faith in colonel he is the kindest man in the he went for a soldier world very likely he will ask you if you want to marry me i suppose you do oh he cried he was almost hurt that she could joke on such a subject but was too truly glad and gay even to mind that she rose to her feet and held out her hand come let us go she replied the sooner the interview is over the better for all of us stay he cried how do you know that the colonel won t bundle me out of the house neck and crop for my presumption do you think she replied that i did not show him your letter the last one of course i did why our letters had been full of you the children could talk of nothing else when he came and then why of course i showed him your letter and i know what he will say to you oh he will suggest something never fear so together they walked along the lane and through the e to the house where the lived they met two ladies on the way who bowed a little stiffly when they saw miss walking on evidently familiar terms with u a r b you may kiss me what they called a common soldier and almost before the smiles which their sour expressions had brought to s face had died away they met three of the officers whose consternation was ludicrous until one suddenly said to the others depend upon it she s known him before i always thought smith was a gentleman he speaks french like a native and then they reached the house and rang the bell is the colonel in james she asked of the butler yes ma am in the library james answered come along said but stopped at the door of the library and james having disappeared held up her sweet face to his you may kiss me she said and kissed her chapter xiii my own a moment later miss opened the door and went into the room the master of the house was sitting in an easy chair with a in his mouth and a newspaper in his hand he looked up in some surprise to see her come in followed by a of his regiment is anything the matter he asked nothing at all she replied but you remember my telling you about a mr of the sixteenth well this is mr but surely exclaimed the colonel jumping up surely this is smith who is said quietly he wants to ask your advice so i will leave you together u w m my own as tlie door closed behind her colonel turned to and held out his hand i ought to have known you he said kindly but my word the idea never ed to me sit down my dear fellow and forget the smith business and tell me | 30 |
ind if i do he said rising and moving toward them what do you want me to do who s my partner the three other men stared at one another in surprise for was one of the best players in the regiment and in an ordinary way would as soon have thought of counting honours as of settling the question of partners other than by cutting except in the case of a revenge why take a card of course my laughed in a soft voice was a recent from the white and had taken possession of the place left vacant in every day life by scott s marriage ah yes to be sure cut of course i believe said looking at the three faces before him in an uncertain way i believe i ve got a headache oh nothing like for a headache answered turning up the last card ace of diamonds however after stumbling through one game after twice his partner s trick a i several such like he rose to his feet it s no use you fellows i m no good to night i can t even see the cards get some one to take my place and make a fresh start why you re ill cried what is it baby it s a devil of a headache answered promptly here s miles the very man good night good night called the fellows after him then they settled down to their game and dealt never saw before said oh yes he gets these sometimes answered not often though miles your lead meantime went wearily away almost feeling his road under the of the along the broad in front of the officers quarters and up the wide flight of stone steps to his rooms facing the green of the square being the senior captain with only one bachelor field officer in the regiment he had two large and pleasant rooms not very furnished for though a rich man he was not an extravagant one and saw no fun in having costly goods and to be at the tender of soldier servants but they were neat clean and comfortable with a of great easy travelling chairs plenty of fur and lots of pretty little pictures and the fire in his sitting room was fast dying out but a bright and cheerful blaze his sleep big room shining on the brass of his cot on i silver at the baby dressing case on the three or four scent bottles on the tall table and on the tired but figure of himself he dragged the big chair pretty near to the fire and dropped into it with a sigh of relief absolutely too sick and weary to think about getting into bed just then as had said sometimes these seized him but it did not happen often in fact he had not had one for more than a year quite often enough he said well he had been lying in the big and easy chair his eyes shut and his hands hanging idly over the broad which served for arms for perhaps half an hour when to his surprise he heard a soft rustling movement behind him his first and not unnatural thought was that the fellows had come to draw him so without moving he called out oh confound it all don t come a poor devil with a headache by jove it s cruelty to animals neither more nor less the soft rustling ceased and closed his eyes again with a devout prayer that they would in response to this appeal take themselves off but presently it began again accompanied by a sound which made his heart jump almost into his mouth and beat so furiously as to be simply it stopped was repeated the devil muttered but it was not the devil at all like a baby little angel in truth for after a moment s he sprang from his chair and faced horror behind him it really was a horror to for there sitting up among the pillows of the cot with the clothes pushed back was a baby a baby whose short golden curls shone in the a little child dressed in white with a pair of open wondering eyes as bright as stars and i blue as stood in dismay staring at it where in the name of all that s wonderful did you come from p he asked aloud keeping at a safe distance lest it should suddenly start howling but the little stranger did not howl on the contrary as its bewildered eyes fell upon figure his gold scarlet jacket and gold embroidered waistcoat of white velvet his gold and spurs stretched out its little arms and cried took a step back in his and his headache vanished as if by magic by jove he exclaimed the of the cot cheerily went a step nearer why you re i queer little beggar he remarked where did you come from eh the queer little beggar suddenly changed its baby ire tone ant started another system of more triumphant and cheery than the first it went began to laugh can t talk hey well what do you want as it struggled fiercely to rise and stretched out its small arms more impatiently than before want to be lifted up hey oh but dash it scratching his head can t lift you up you know it s out of the question impossible by jove i might let you drop and you oo oo the baby as if it was the best joke in the world positively roared you don t mind well come along then approaching very and wondering where he should begin to get hold of it so to speak the baby soon settled that question | 30 |
holding out its arms towards his neck then somehow he gathered it up and carried it in doubt and to the big chair by the fire where the creature sat upon his knee the curly golden head resting against his scarlet jacket the soft fingers of one baby hand tight round one of his the other picking and wandering aim about the and curves of the gold on his waistcoat jove you re a jolly little just baby just as if it could understand liim but the question is where did you come from find what s to be done with you you can t stop here you know the babe s big blue eyes raised themselves his and the fingers which had been his made a at his watch chain it remarked in sin evident delight that laughed again oh you like it do you well you re queer little beggar no mistake about that i wonder who you belong to and where you live when you are at home can t be a child too dainty looking and not enough and this dress taking hold of the richly embroidered white skirt this must have cost a lot and it s all lace too he knew what cost by bis own mess and his then not only was the dress of the child of a very costly description but its sleeves were tied up with cambridge blue ribbons that were evidently new and its waist w encircled by a broad of the same material am tint altogether it was just such a child as he was occasionally called upon to admire in the houses of his married brother officers yet that any lady in the regiment would lend her baby for a whole night to a set of young fellows for the re ive di but and was pose of playing a trick on a brother officer wai baby absurd and besides that was so good natured and such a favourite with the ladies of the regiment that he thought he knew all their babies by sight and he became afraid that this one was indeed a little stranger in the land welcome or unwelcome yet if it was the fellows doing where had they got it and if it was not the fellows doing why should any one leave a baby asleep in his cot the whole thing was inexplicable just then the child in playing with his chain slipped a little on the smooth cloth of his and with a my lad n hauled it up again in doing so he felt a piece of paper rustle somewhere about the embroidered skirt a note this grows said his head to find it oh here we are now we shall see the note was written in a firm large yet thoroughly feminine hand and ran thus you will not me from my oath of secrecy respecting our marriage though now that i have offended you i may starve or go to the i cannot break my oath though you have broken all yours but i am determined that you shall acknowledge your child i am going to leave her to night in your rooms with her clothes by mid nigh baby ht i shall be out of the country i do thi i have obtained a good situation because when i reach my destination i shall spent my last shilling i give you fair however that if you desert the child or fail to acknowledge her i will break my oath and proclaim our marriage if you engage a nurse she will n be much trouble she is a good and tempered child and i have called her mary after your dear mother oh how she would pity me if she could see me now farewell from that moment the fellows from any share in the affair but what to do with the child he had not the least idea it is the very devil he said aloud watching the busy fingers still playing with his chain lie gathered it awkwardly in his arms and i to look for the clothing spoken of in the letter yes there it was a parcel of goodly size wrapped in a stout brown paper cover and on the chair beside his cot lay the garments of a young child a white coat bordered with fur a cap and some other things which did not quite understand the use of white wool gloves at least he did not know what else they could be and some longer things of the same class like stockings without feet shook his head in bewilderment t g m baby mother means it to stop i don t know what to do he said helplessly it occurred to him then that perhaps some of the fellows might be able to make a suggestion he did not know what to do with the child for the night nor for the matter of that what to do with it for the moment he had the sense not to take it out into the chill midnight air and when he attempted to put it back into the cot it clinging to his watch chain with might and main well have it then he said slipping it off the baby pleased with the glittering toy set up a cry of delight and took the opportunity of slipping out he entered the room with a very face finding it pretty much as he had left it was the first to catch sight of him what s the mat he asked is your head worse my head oh i forgot all about it replied but i say i m in a mess there s a baby in my room a what they cried with one voice a baby repeated al ive asked with his head on one | 30 |
side alive oh very very much so and means to stop for it has brought its entire wardrobe and a letter of introduction with it holding the letter for baby any one to take who chose it was who so and he asked if be should read it out yes do said dropping into a with a groan perhaps some one else will to it so read the letter in his ridiculous of a voice and ceased amid profound silence fa ah well well said finding no one inclined to speak well well said solemnly if you warn my opinion i think you ought to of yourself laugh followed but oh don t imagine it s me i ve nothing to with it i shouldn t have come to you if i had no no of course not returned miles promptly but with an air which raised shout then it s a plant announced tone of conviction of course it s a plant cried but wh in the wide world should it be planted on me why indeed echoed miles besides continued some of know my mother and that her name was not mi but margaret now as several of those present had my c do w int baby very well that of s assertion t the chief question however what could be done with the little stranger for t night some woman of course must look a but who it was then after two o clock and the lights had been out hours ago in the married people s quarters did not know what nd said so is it in your room now asked yes where did you find it in my cot the devil you did i wonder you were frightened out of your very wits i nearly was admitted did you see it at once was it howling howling not a bit of it never saw little beggar in all my life oh ejaculated miles i say fellows don t that sound to you very much like t proud ah you fellows all laughed at this even and asked a question did you see it directly oh no not for half an hour or more what on earth did you do why i looked at it of course what ou have done baby did you touch it laughed yes by jove the little beggar came to me like a bird great gods uttered miles and you doubt the of that oh what an ass you are returned then as if by a bright inspiration suggested say let s go and have a look at it thereupon the assembled officers five of them along the way had stumbled alone in the blindness of his now forgotten headache the baby was still in the cot playing with the watch and chain and at the sight of the five figures it set up a loud ing following by a ing evidently it considered this was the land of seems to take after its mother in its love foi a scarlet jacket remarked miles i ve heard that the child is father of the us of the woman too said gravely isn t it ver yes poor little beggar let s see you nurse it cried so proud of this new accomplishment ted the child awkwardly in his pretty as he might have done if it had bet of eggs and he had made a baby wouldn t break one of them he carried it to t fire just light the candles one of you he said it s the image of persisted miles well it isn t mine except by deed of gift with a laugh said look back over your past here he made a pause well said to think if you can any likeness o some early love who may or for hat matter not have some one else and your kind heart for you have a dashed kind heart there s no denying it may have found herself hard up or too much for er you know a sometimes an awkward addition to a lady s and may to your er general well shall we say softness of to see it well for er see no i don t of course i see you what you mean but i can t well er broke in i er s not thinking so much of your case as of my n you see appealing to the other three tha advent of this er a and er if it should chance to occur to my first love it would be awkward for me very awkward her name plunging headlong into a story they baby h all knew was and er she er k all knew was and she er k fact me for an parson whose name was er solomon now if mrs er solomon was to take it into her head to pack up the er eleven little and send em to me it would be what i should call awkward devilish awkward s four hearers positively roared and the baby on knee chuckled and with delight i believe it understands laughed no but it seems a jolly little chap answered oh i forgot tis a girl i say i do wish you fellows would advise me what to do how can i get one to attend to it oh roll it up in the bed clothes and sleep on the sofa it will go to sleep when it s tired said one with its clothes on said doubtfully j rather fancy they babies when they put cm to bed i don t advise you to try oh it won t hurt for to | 30 |
night there s a cab just driven up i believe it s the i saw them go out dressed before dinner said the were the and his wife who lived in she would help you in a minute oh go and see there s a good chap cried eagerly h s in trouble captain she said what is the matter well he s got a baby answered got what mrs gray cried b baby a baby it s been left in his rooms clothes and all and don t know what the de what in the world i mean to do with it shall i go in and see it mrs gray asked i wish you would some of the others are there well eventually mrs gray carried off the little stranger to her own quarters and put it to bed as for he too went to bed but during the whole of that blessed night he never slept a wink chapter il pan rap his word of honour when showed his face in the mess the following morning he was greeted a of as would have driven a more nervous man or one less of a favourite than himself to despair already the story had gone the round of the and found the greater part of his brother officers ready and willing to take miles view of the affair whether in or downright good earnest he could not say my man shouted one when he entered what s this story we hear is it possible that our and oh how are the mighty fallen hey inquired sweetly i wouldn t have believed it of you i wouldn t indeed any other fellow in the regiment that soft headed grinning over there for instance but our he broke off as if words could not express the volumes he thought baby but found his tongue and went on again before could open his mouth our with an wife sworn not to disclose her marriage our with a baby our a papa oh lor why didn t you manage better cried another you might have sent her an odd now and then you have p is she pretty asked a third was there by any chance a flaw in the marriage inquired a fourth do you think i m a fool asked pleasantly i tell you it s a plant i know nothing about the creature just my view struck in miles just what i said last night it s absurd you know to expect him to own it no fellow would besides does look like the father of a fine baby that goes it s absurd you know even joined in the laugh which followed and miles continued the only thing is and it really is awkward for the extraordinary likeness blue eyes golden hair fair complexion i should say myself looking at his comrade that at the same age was just such a baby as that which turned up so mysteriously last night u that s as may be anyway the is baby not mine said emphatically and co do with the little beggar don t know send it back to its mother suggested but i don t know who the mother answered impatiently oh no so yon say well then the must have like if i were should send it to the police station the police station oh no hang it all poor little beggar has done nothing to st world in that way answered did any of you asked miles of the company ever hear of a chap called solomon i er did answered promptly his other name was er the oh we ve all heard of him but i meant a rather more celebrated person there is a story about him i rather think it s in a yell of laughter not well perhaps it s in the song of solomon it s about two mothers who each had a baby and one of hem managed to hers in the night and finding it dead when she woke up in the morning claimed the other baby of course the other woman kicked up a row a regular and they came before solomon to get the matter settled both claim it said he then chop it in and let each have a share baby but you all know the rest how the real mother gave up her claim sooner than see the child now in this case you see hasn t the heart to send the child off to the as he would if here s the colonel said some one at this point and in less than two seconds he appeared why he said i ve been hearing a queer tale about you yea sir said and where it will end don t know here am i well of course you know whether the child has any claim upon you the colonel began upon my honour it has not colonel said earnestly then tliat of course settles the question replied the colonel with a frown at the grinning faces along the table i should send the child to the immediately the repeated i ll bet anyone a he don t murmured miles to his neighbours not he madame la knew what she was doing when she picked out he ll get one of the wives to look after it see if he don t the chief had left the room con baby his breakfast in silence considering the two for the disposal of the child now if the truth be told had a horror of he had gone deeply into the casual question and pitied a tramp from the very inmost recesses of his kind heart it fairly made him sick to think of that golden head growing up among the and locks of a | 30 |
brood to think of the little soft fingers that had themselves so confidently about his own and had picked at the of his being by the matron or set as soon as they should be strong enough to do coarse and hard work to develop into the and hand of a to think of that little dainty thing being nourished on or on whatever hard fare children are fed to think of that little being brought up among the children of thieves and oh confound it all he broke out i can t i never expected you could retorted miles it wouldn t be natural if you did this time did not laugh on the contrary he looked up and regarded miles with a grave and searching gaze rather to that young gentleman are you judging me out of your own he asked baby set what do you mean miles do you happen to know anything of the persisted i oh no on my honour i don t ah as the colonel said just now that the question you re a very witty fellow very i shouldn t wonder after a while if ou ain t quite the sharp man of the regiment your jokes are like the s jokes at the one gets to know them and when you ve en to the hall a dozen times somehow you in t see anything to laugh at for grace s sake miles was obliged to laugh for every one else roared except who went on speaking very gravely i know it s very amusing to make a joke of the affair to say i know more about it than i will confess i have told the colonel on my honour that the child is not mine nor do know whose it is if it were mine i should not have made the story public property it s not in reason that i should my difficulty is what to do with it the colonel suggests the the police station one simply means the other and i can t bring myself to do it it is an awful thing for the child of a tramp or a thief to he reared in a and this is no common person s child for any that s true enough observed a man who had not yet taken part in the discussion except to laugh now and then but remember if yon saddle yourself with the child you will have to go on with it it will stick to you like a and though we are all ready to accept your word of honour the world may not be so if you put the out to nurse in the regiment the story may crop up years hence just when you least desire or expect it you know a story mixed and confused by time and repetition about a deserted wife may come to have a very ugly sound about it now if as the colonel suggests you send the child to the you wash your hands of the whole business then again if the is brought up in the regiment with the disadvantage of your protection what will she be in twenty years time neither fish fowl nor good red far better the oblivion of than the distinction among the men of being captain shall we say yes there s a great deal in that admitted he had at all times a great respect for and profound faith in the of his judgment he saw at once that any plan of bringing the child up among the married people of the regiment would not do and yet the he rose from the table and settled his cap upon his head i you fellows will laugh b baby q at me he said almost desperately as he pulled the chin over his moustache but i can t condemn that helpless thing to the i can t and that s all about it it seems to me he went on rubbing the end of his whip on the back of a chair and looking at no one it seems to me that the child s future in this world and the next depends upon the course i take now and you may laugh at me i you will he quite nervously for him but i shall get a proper nurse to take charge of it and i shall keep it myself until some one turns up to claim it or or for good just then the officers call sounded and made a clean bolt of it leaving his brother officers staring at one another the first of them to make a move was the first too to speak upon my soul said he is a devilish fine fellow and d it all he added getting very red and scarcely in his intense rage of admiration if there were a few more fellows in the world like him it would be a place to what it is chapter iii i can t do it as soon as had a spare moment he made his way to the s quarters where he found mrs gray playing with the mysterious baby oh is that you captain she exclaimed come and see your she is the dearest little thing why i do believe she knows you whistled to the child which promptly made a at his chain and when he sat down on the sofa on which it was tried very hard tc get at the gold on his collar shoulder had not then come in mrs gray said she s very well dressed is she not oh very mrs gray answered out the child s skirt so as to display the fine and deep unusually so all its clothes are of the finest and most expensive description i thought so | 30 |
it don t look like a common child eh baby not at all replied the lady promptly well told her i ve been most which was only to be expected but the colonel takes my word about it and c course the others don t matter i can t think though why the mother has chosen me ah well you see captain said the s wife with a smile it is rather inconvenient sometimes to have a character for great kindness of heart i should say you are the greatest favourite in the regiment and naturally enough the officers speak of it sometimes in society oh is this and is that wouldn t turn a dog from hia door would share his last sixpence with a poor chap who was down and so on i have heard captain of your your pockets to divide among three poor who had begged no more than a pipe of tobacco i have heard of your standing up for with a deeper smile the poor devils of and if i hear it why not others why not the mother of this child true but i think you all my character replied modestly you know i don t go in for being at all that is just it if you did you would have no more influence than major whom laughs at but you don t you are one of themselves and yet you will always help a man a good urn oh i hear a good deal though se to make light of it aiid you know we are not told that the good made a great about what he did he professional saints the priest and the j by on the other side you are very complimentary a little much more than i deserve i the fellows laughing at the were much less merciful then about the suggests sending it to the police he colonel to the and one means i ther of course baby mrs gray caught the child to her breast with a cry of dismay and went on yes i feel as you do about it i can t do it and that s all about it it would be on my conscience all my life besides some day the mother might come back for it and though of course as the colonel says there is no claim upon me yet if for the sake of a few pounds i had turned the poor little beggar adrift ruined its life why i couldn t face her and that s all about it and besides that mrs gray i have a lurking suspicion that the letter is genuine and that it was not written to or intended for me it reads to me like the letter of a woman who was desperate yes a woman must have been desperate indeed willingly to part with such a child as that said mrs gray the gold baby curls so i think for nature is nature all the world over answered and besides to tell you the honest truth there is a resemblance in the child to some one i knew once yes eagerly oh no not that she is dead she was engaged to a fellow i knew desperately fond of him and lie her mr stared who told you he told me himself i think to ease his mind she answered quietly m baby ah well it killed her she died broken i saw her he said rising and go the window whence he stood staring out square a few hours after she died that c mother may look like that now and i can t won t turn it adrift whatever the fellows or o else choose to think or say and that s all i it two bright tears gathered in mrs gray s i and falling fell upon the baby s curls of diamonds from the f mines of pity for a moment or t there was silence broken at last by the laugh as a ray of sickly winter sunshine fell the glittering chain in its little hands sound recovered who from t window and so mrs gray he said carefully a c ing the gaze of her wet eyes i have to keep the little beggar but v fool you know has convinced me that it to trust to any of the women to look a her therefore if you won t mind for a few days i will for elderly nurse to take entire charge of the i i can arrange with for i room and you ll let me come to you for advice r and then won t un t you r gray rose and went close to him b baby cr hand upon his arm captain d earnestly you will have your reward god bless you for this oh please don t mrs gray really i d rather you d me mrs gray laughed outright well you know my sentiments are so for the future i will you come in she added in louder tone as a tap tap sounded on the the permission was followed by the entrance of who came in with a pleasant good er and a soft laugh at the sight of the baby on the sofa i er thought old would be here he explained and besides i er wanted to the seems to me he added staring with an absurd air of wisdom at the infant as if the face is somehow familiar to me oh i don t mean you it ain t a hit like you but there is a likeness though i don t know to plant it perhaps it will grow suggested ah it will and it won t the worst of the affair is that it is a not for worlds would he have | 30 |
admitted to his friend that he thought him the fine fellow he had declared him in the mess room that and if we are all with he d this speech over the gold at the top of whip little seems to find it a good way cried i m a hand at r baby s wife ia the white had all at once i say mrs stick it something on and i ll take it out and it dare you she asked i just by the by it s cold morning mrs gray therefore fetched the child s white and cap and those other white articles now discovered to be and transformed the little woman into a sort of the two men watched the operation intense interest la laughed i declare she s quite a to us i never saw such a started jt reminded him of the girl who had been by his friend and died for love he bad always called her he said carelessly not a bad name for her good returned preparing to present arms he proved himself a much better nurse than lie gathered the child on his left arm and marched off to the in front of which the officers were standing about waiting for lunch tbey set up a shout at the sight of him and crowded round to inspect the new i baby bore the inspection conscious perhaps as she was such a little person of the effect of her big blue i u like eyes under the white fur of her cap what a pity she ain t twenty years older mil the first comment and it was said in such a tone j i genuine regret that all the fellows laughed again i miss with satisfaction seems a jolly little beggar said another remarked miss i never saw such a jolly little beggar in all mj i life asserted another voice pretty work she ll make in the or seventeen years hence grumbled old ah well mind you i mind major sir cried we shall i all be dead by then and but this being an ei old and joke was instantly in the face of the new and substantial one has it any teeth demanded miles the orderly officer for the day don t know open your mouth little one said gravely at this point miss made a delighted in the direction of the belt across miles breast shouted and miles backed out of reach miss s s mouth went down until remembered the of his whip and held it up for her she by jove she can half say already ejaculated and here he comes now then called out have any of you fellows made up your mind to own this little baggage no none of us they laughed but one man by name said with a sneer he should rather think not and added two unnecessary words j turned and looked down upon in contempt my dear chap he said coolly to charge you with being the father of that child pointing with his whip to the picture in s arms would be a compliment to your personal appearance which i should never under any circumstances have of paying you i ll tell you what it is said afterwards to is a dashed good fellow one of the best fellows in the world i don t know that there s another i d trust as far or as thoroughly but all the same is sometimes best left and for my part i think and every one else had leave him alone about this b baby m as returned then began to law fl but it was fine though about appearance and then he added ugly beast i chapter are you a sir too it was not to be expected and did not expect it that the story of the mysterious little stranger should be confined to in fact in the course of a few hours it had flown all over the town gaining additions and alterations by the of its repetition until at last himself could hardly recognise it a baby had been found in captain rooms no one knew where it had come from nor to whom it belonged then captain had rescued a young baby from a brutal father who was going to dash its brains out against the door post then captain had picked up a new born infant while hunting with the duke s hounds then captain was suffering from mental or to speak plainly was getting a bit cracked and had adopted a child a year old out of i die then it was really most romantic but captain had been engaged to and by a young lady long ago which of course ae d s baby counted for his being to the of the girls who had married been deserted by her husband and now died some of the story said committed suicide leaving him the charge of a baby c some people told one version of the story and some people told another but nobody blamed very much it might be because he was so rich and so handsome and pleasant it might be because society was free from that of which causes most people to look at most things from the worst possible point of view but went on his serene way telling the true state of the case to every one who mentioned the affair to him and always ending and hang it you know it s a pretty little beggar and i couldn t send it to the he made no secret about it at all and on the saturday following the advent of the child an advertisement appeared in the chronicle which made tongues for a week wanted immediately a | 30 |
highly respectable and thoroughly experienced nurse of middle ge to take the entire charge of a child about a year old good wages to a suitable person to captain scarlet in due time this advertisement produced the right sort of person and a staid and respectable baby low of about fifty was soon in a room to mr gray s quarters in charge of miss non as the child had already come to he called f everybody it was a charming child strong and healthy to have no trouble with temper or teeth ever cried and might be seen morning and noon being wheeled by its nurse in a the square or along the outside the broad arrow boundaries and as the weeks rolled by and wore into months to about and could say plain as a staff in april the scarlet were moved from to where had i undergo a new experience for every one there ok him for a on account of the child would explain take her about with e yes she likes it always wants to go when sees the a bother not a bit of it e little woman in creation and as good as aid what am i going to do with her when she rows up well says he is going to marry if he don t somebody else will no fear taking it all round miss had a good time of it and seemed thoroughly to the pleasant places in which her lines fallen it was wonderful too what an immense she was with the fellows at first she baby had been but very soon that dropped and by the time she could which he did in very good time no one thought of mentioning her or of speaking to her except as miss scarcely any of the officers for a moment of returning after a few days leave without taking along as the americans say a box of sweets or a bundle of toys for miss indeed the young lady came to have such a collection that after a while mrs nurse s patient soul arose and with captain permission all the discarded ones were distributed among the less fortunate children of the regiment but miss s favourite was himself after people said it was wonderful the depth of the affection between the big soldier of thirty five and the little dot of a child scarcely two she adored and where was she would be if by hook or by she could convey her small person into his presence once she him turn in at the gates the right band of the colonel when the regiment was returning from a field day and escaping from her nurse s hand set off as hard as she could run in the direction of the band which immediately preceded the commanding officer mrs gave chase but alas mrs nurse was very stout and had the ill luck moreover to come a over a drain tile lying conveniently in her way b baby w while the child unconscious of danger ran straight for neither nor who was on the colonel s left perceived her until she was close upon them waving her small hands and in her shrill and joyous child s voice it seemed to as he looked past the colonel that the child was almost under the of s he called out but was already on the ground and caught miss out of harm s way but when he turned round he saw that his friend s face was as white as chalk as for the colonel when he saw mrs nurse gathering herself up with looks at the he simply roared and miss in as if it was the finest joke in the world that was a she remarked from her proud position on s shoulder just like a comment which gave that person the name of mrs as long as she remained with the regiment a few weeks after this the annual inspection came off and miss the lengthened absence of her again managed to escape from her nurse and boldly as fast as her small feet would carry her right into the mess room where was sitting just baby m union site the general at the late lunch miss not seeing him at first wandered coolly behind the row of scarlet clad backs until she him at the other side of the table then having no awe whatever of she herself in between his chair and the colonel s with a triumphant and joyous laugh the general gave a great start and the colonel laughed in dismay jumped up and came quickly round the table to take her away well you little rogue said the colonel reaching a for her what do you want i wanted sir said miss and nurse failed asleep so i looked french leave almost the only peculiarity in her speech was the habit of making all regular and who are you my little maid the general asked in extreme amusement oh i m miss with dignity the old general fairly chuckled with delight and as he had put his arm round the child who was standing behind could not very well take her oh miss hey and who do you belong to why to in surprise at his ignorance to and who is is and i love him miss replied as if that settled everything no no let her see my replied i general who was as proud of his as of miss are you a sir too miss i ng at the handsome old man with more respect what does she mean he cried ba bt laughed well sir she hears ua to the colonel so that is all dear me what a remarkably intelligent and attractive child exclaimed the general how old is she about two sir now it happened that the | 30 |
old general had t for absolute accuracy and he caught up with pleasant oh i does that mean more or less i can t say sir she is about two i do not know the date of her birth then she is not yours i am not her father sir but at present she belongs to me said smiling i m afraid not at all but perhaps she had better go what a charming this last was perhaps because miss finding her time had come and she never made a fuss on such occasions put two soft arms round his neck and gave him such a genuine of friendship that the old man s heart was quite taken by storm so miss was carried off looking back to the last over shoulder and waving adieu to the handsome old man who had such a fascinating array of and i didn t quite understand what relation is the child to him he asked of the colonel baby none whatever found her late one t in his quarters with her wardrobe and a letter the mother written as if was the he however gave me his word of he knew nothing about it and some of us the whole affair was simply a plant as he to be a very kind hearted fellow others amongst them think that note child were intended for one of the others however would own to it and has the child ever since i don t suppose he lid part with her now for anything i wanted l to send her to the but tis a jolly little soul and i am glad he did not then he is not married oh dear no he pays a woman fifty pounds year to look after her and all her meals go from b mess in fact he is bringing her up as if she his own and the child him simply him i respect that man said the general warmly t is an awful for a child to be reared in a aw ful yes feels very strongly on the sub replied the colonel i the time returned the officers had sen from the table and he met the guests and e just entering the room i ll shake hands with you captain if i b you please said the general cordially with you that it is an awful thing for a child to b brought up in a it is a subject upon which i feel very strongly very strongly a child reared as a not start the world with a fair chance i have met so often in the course of my military experience with bred in the i never knew one do well no is ground into them and they are never able to shake it off well sir that is my opinion said modestly i hope though you won t think my little maid is often so as to day she is really always very good a charming little child replied the general as if he meant it too and then he shook hands with again chapter v i m hiss here was only one blot in the sweetness an light of miss s baby character so s the officers of the scarlet were them all there was only one whom she di t like she had degrees of love then then two or three groups of friends she liked best better and well but she had s of dislike where she did not love sin hated fiercely and furiously hated with baby heart and soul there were seven persons in her small world whom she thus absolutely declining to hold or to accept from them however sweetly made but there was only one of the officers who came under this head and he was the man who had her at first miss could not endure him when old enough to understand that a certain box of had come from mr would drop it as if it had burnt her fingers draw down the corners ad on b a raw toe corners i baby of her mouth and remark miss is much obliged an observation which sent and off into fits of laughter at which the little maid would fly open armed to him and cry but loves but the fact remained the same that miss detested who indeed was not a favourite in lie regiment nor indeed did seem to like miss any better though he now and then brought his of toys and bon like tt e rest in the face of severe about tl e two odious words he had applied to her he wa hardly such a as to further rouse cf annoy the most popular man in the regiment y if he could possibly cast a on or of the child he did it never from his lips came the pet name miss never did his black eyes rest on her without a sneer or a if he could by any chance twist words into an admission that the child was really his he took care never to lose the opportunity oh come now cried one day when he had been at and who had just driven away with the child between them is a right good no mistake on that point no about him it would be well for you and me if we were half as fine but we are not and what is more we never shall be baby oh no but where is the mother of that how should i know or i shouldn t mind laying my life that never did never will cause her or any other woman to write such a letter as came with the child that night jolly good thing for this one if she was wife instead of being tied up to the hound who bound her to secrecy | 30 |
and deserted her perhaps she s dead poor soul who knows perhaps she isn t sneered some people never die good natured and not very wise stared at him and looked from behind his newspaper aghast at the bitterness of his tone good heavens cried u are you wanting somebody to die tried to laugh and succeeded very badly he rose from his chair knocking a few scattered cigar ashes carefully off his well i confess i should not be sorry to see that of out of the road we should perhaps get at the truth then and having delivered himself of this feeling speech he went out the door after him well upon my soul exclaimed oh the man s got a tile loose in his upper story said decidedly no man in his senses would talk such miserable rot as that baby always thought a crazy fool myself hut i am sure of it now and how he to it miss is own child as if it could be any good for him to say she isn t if she is no i shall tell to keep an eye on i say what a comfort it would be if he would only exchange i suppose we can t manage to him with the delights of india eh not very well besides lie lost ever so much by coming to us no such luck it s queer though he should be so persistent about and miss i suppose he wants to with some of his own mud thinks if he only throws enough some of it s sure to stick and so it would with most men happily however it don t in the least matter what a little like chooses to say about a man like a jealous beast neither of them said any more about the matter but took the earliest opportunity of repeat ing to what that ass had said about seeing that of out of the road and in consequence a kind of watch was set upon the child not that though he had a very poor opinion of and s was afraid for a moment that he would miss baby miss poisoned bon or run off with her and drop her in the river yet he did think it not improbable that he might encourage an already dangerous spirit of adventure and of course be absolutely if she could get trampled by s horse s cruel hoofs or crushed by one of tht many traps going in and out of when had taken bis first long leave al hiss s coming he had left her at id in charge of her nurse but when came round again and she must have been bout two and a half be decided to take her with one reason for this was certainly a fear ol y might choose to play that was taking his leave at the same time w d was afraid in the absence of both might fret herself into a fever and he had missed the child during a fortnight s in scotland that autumn more tin tie would have liked to own j rom therefore they went to hi place court where he was to entertain father large party for christmas with a sister his mother s and his only near relative to do tin honours for him and among his guests a mrs a widow and sister to that dead girl to whom a a resemblance in miss at he last moment mrs smith wrote to excuse self baby am very very sorry she said but a very dear friend of mine with whom i spent two in italy has suddenly appeared with a travelling companion and two maids to pay me a visit of at least two months she is a russian a widow like myself and wishes i fancy to improve her english which she already speaks very well of course i am disappointed but cannot help it now it happened that had a very deep and great respect and liking for mrs smith and not for all the in russia did he mean to see his plans upset therefore he wrote off at once to mrs smith after a five minutes consultation with lady to beg her to carry out her original intentions and bring madame and her along would she telegraph her reply mrs smith did so the reply being yes moreover she the by a letter in which she mentioned among other things that m dame s travelling companion must be treated in all ways as an ordinary guest so at the time originally appointed for mrs smith s coming the party of six three ladies and three maids arrived himself went to the station to meet them he found that madame was young not more than thirty of the plump and fair russian type quite fair baby to hold her own beside mrs smith whom be as the most beautiful woman of his acquaintance the third lady grace was fair also perhaps not so positively beautiful as either the english or the russian lady but fair haired with soft blue grey eyes intensely blue in some lights a noticed directly graceful she was to a degree and as he watched her move across the little station he thought how wonderfully her name suited her mrs smith smiled at him as he helped her mount to the top of the is not tl likeness wonderful she said with one of thi quick sighs with which we speak of our dead am then she said poor turned and looked at miss grace his mind going back to those dark days past am gone now he and his best friend had bt for honour s sake when he and this beautiful woman had stood side by watching a young life die out had together s he sacrifice of a heart the martyr | 30 |
of her and she him i he is a fine fellow said miss grace i with the pins in her hand i a fine fellow i his is a splendid character i mrs smith cried warmly i assure you i have i studied that man and i have known him for i and i cannot find fault in him years ago i when we were in great trouble my mother and i i st the time my sister died oh he was so good so i well with a quick sigh i cannot explain i it all hut he was such a comfort to us and she i died poor darling under very painful circumstances specially for me oh there ore very few in the like him not one in ten thousand take action as regarded that dear little child for his brother officers wanted him to send tier to the but as he wrote to me some day i may meet the mother and how ah murmured miss grace and mrs smith it on it was no small undertaking for a man in his position for he has not left her to the entire care i baby of servants she ia continually with him and mr who is also very fond of her do you know he pays her nurse fifty pounds a year in she is just as if she were really his own child it is just like him and they would have sent her to the one or two of them not mr of course miss grace was silent for a few moments then she roused herself as from a brown study well i am you mrs smith and shall be late myself thank you very much then she went away passing softly down the corridor and entered her room the door behind her but once within that safe shelter she flung the pins on the table and dropped upon her knees burying her face in her hands while the tears forced their way between her fingers and the great sobs shook her frame some day he might meet the mother she sobbed and how should he face her oh my child my little child how shall i face him how shall i bear it how shall i live in the same house with him without falling on my knees and blessing him for my little child from god knows what month had passed and the three ladies still remained at court though other visitors had come and gone lots of them also and occupied in making i baby love to the russian lady utterly two important facts one that she only laughed at him the other that she was three years his senior but while all this was going on had fallen in love at last as men and women only fall once in their lives and of course the lady was s friend miss grace had he but known it the mother of but never suspected that for a moment true there was a likeness so strong as to proclaim the truth and many a time miss grace wondered when she caught sight of the child s face and her own in a glass that all these people did not see ii yet neither nor any one else did sec it ami the game of love was played on with desperate earnestness on his side and with equally desperate desire to prevent it on her s but admired shy game and miss grace s evident shyness made him only the more earnest and not being troubled with that faint heart which never won fair lady had no intention of allowing madame to depart from beneath roof without asking miss grace to return to it as it mistress therefore one afternoon when he returned from hunting in much pink and went into the library where he found miss grace half dreaming by the fire he shut the door with the intention of getting it over at once miss grace rose with some signs of confusion don t go for a minute said i want to you it seems to me that you have ti very fond of my little grace caught at the of the shelf to steady herself and her heart l to beat hard and fast i i am very fond of her she stammered wish you would take her for your own les said very gently for my own sharply what do you a r a moment she thought he all but his words her f she had such a mother as you poor little s and if i had such a wife and if court had such a mistress oh don t what i mean taking her hand grace snatched her hand away oh don t she said turning away t possessed himself of it again must you more oh my darling how from the rat day i ever saw you i loved you with all art and soul how when i bade you to my house i could and would if i had have taken you up to my heart and kissed every one how oh tell me nothing nothing she cried perish haste don t you understand it cannot be it is impossible quite impossible i baby impossible he echoed why is it impossible not because you don t care that i ll swear she said nothing or if that is so look at me and say i don t love you but miss grace did not speak nor yet did look or will you tell me that there is some one whom you like better he asked no miss grace did not seem inclined ti safe that information either or that the care of the child would be a tion no she burst out in an tone then what do you mean by impossible it | 30 |
seems to me that it is very possible indeed she looked at him that proud handsome erect man with a smile of expectant happiness on his good face and tried to take her hands away oh she sobbed out don t you think that i would if i could i have not been so happy i would throw away such happiness as you could give me some day you may know what it me to tell you that it is quite impossible you give me no hope he asked hi a dull voice and she saw that he had grown white to very lips none she returned then added bitterly baby f oh hope and i have had nothing to say to one another this long long while dropped her hand then it is no use my you he said turning away a fierce denial rose to the girl s lips but she choked it down and suffered his words in silence then meekly and with one imploring backward look at his tall figure as he stood his head well up in spite of his defeat before the fire she went away and left him alone chapter vii thb deceased wife s sister bill it was all over this was the end of all o hopes and dreams and wishes this was th f end none of his bright hopes would ever be none of his golden dreams would come to pass his wishes had no weight with the woman he he had looked forward like a fool he thought bitterly and had pictured her in a dozen i ways at the head of his table in the hunting field in the middle age and in the decline of life as s mother as his wife but it was all now when madame s visit was over she would from under his roof never to come back to it any more for ever he was still standing there when the door opened with some difficulty and miss appeared on the threshold she said turned round to her well miss heard the misery in his voice i e and baby him got a headache he dropped into a chair and took her in hi such a headache knew what and drew his head down upon her small with an air of protecting and comforting equally pretty and absurd in one so young loves she whispered will always love he asked always was the confident reply b ill always love and so in and because of his trouble the little child crept closer and closer into his heart and drove out the greatest bitterness of his disappointment and the clasp of her little arms about bis n seemed to take away the sting of defeat the touch of her baby lips upon his a forehead and it did ache brought him a measure of comfort than any other living ing bad power to do at that moment if only he had known that was her child but was not the man to with fate hiss grace would not have him no more was to e said and no one but mrs smith saw anything unusual between them but trust mrs smith lie walked into miss grace s room and her ith it her in so friendly a way that the baby it is absurd she cried to refuse man such a position such such oh absurd i have no patience with you you v never have such a chance again never oh never she sobbed cable sail ted i e ta left v u ct y d st u em v i i lie j j d i t c f fo a if made toe t w r as a m miss ag i n o j e d h t ache j v j boot t d c if d it bo rf sa d but to d t h f ai r baby the were at again so cast meditations to the winds and flung himself the so you always say so everybody says responded coolly so by jove does poor old himself say likewise but all the same it s a mistake is as clever as daylight own at the bottom of all that put on foolishness of his you fellows see no further thi the expression of intense stupidity which is i habitual form you seem to think that because can t or won t use an r without a w front of it that he is not capable of seeing as far through a deal board as any other fellow but it s just the very greatest in the world old is not such a fool as he looks by a long way you re quite right he most decidedly is not laughed another man from the depths of a huge sofa is no fool far from it but you ll admit that to be as big a fool as he looks he would have to be a big fool indeed by the bye what was that joke at the on sunday afternoon you were close to him all the time and was pinned in the inner drawing room began to laugh immediately well you know that some of the bishop were at the afternoon service at the and went into the afterwards yes cried several voices i i he i l i ar iii id p ci baby as soon as put nose inside the be was promptly possession of by the miss jones and as promptly on of the deceased wife s sister bill what do you think of the deceased wife | 30 |
bill mr miss jones asked a engaging smile she s awfully like th bishop is miss jones j shows her teeth in the same way well go on well she certainly is not handsome admitted nor yet very young but really she gave poor old such a killing look out of the corners of her eyes that really i began to think would hook him on the spot looked up with his head on one side and with his most air of wisdom just as if he were a monkey blessed with an extra quantity of downright stupidity and cunning mingled and ihe was a harder nut to crack than had ever his path before in which he wasn t very far out of it put in with a dry laugh well and what hen he looked at her for full half a minute went on and then he asked in the most manner imaginable is it a i could guess a in all my life i ll give up please b baby a riddle echoed the bishop s daughter scornfully of course cot mr it s a measure which they are trying to pass through parliament but they won t the bench speak in a great big capital letter style of importance the bench will never allow it looked politely interested a measure de ah me you don t say so miss jones and er how much it measure its a bill they are trying to get through the house the upper house she began to get a little cross over it and by the bye you fellows all know what miss jones is when she s cross in an aside yes rather answered a voice amidst a general laugh continued his story ob a bill returned very politely nd with a great show of surprise i er night you said it was a measure and how er is the bill for miss jones miss jones uttered an exclamation of and despair its an act she fairly the word at bim but s serenity absolutely ob he echoed an act is it and i play in it r of laughter greeted this and when it i continued his story baby woman myself he explained i d i must say but it would be the poor wife who would be cried miss jones exasperated almost beyond the poor husband i think corrected f softly but you would marry the sister i ll give it up please said looking wiser than ever you would marry the sister she impatiently i ll give it up please he said again your wife she began would but i haven t a wife he interrupted ah any body in all my life k e you my word of honour but do you think a man ought to marry not you in particular but any man miss jones cried determined at any cost of time id patience to make him understand her why not p innocently do you think there is any permission given for it in the old looked awfully wise there was jacob he ventured mildly jacob said miss jones j jacob yes jacob didn t he er de baby sisters didn t even wait till the first one wa dead either now don t you think miss jones e must have been a deal on th first wife who was plain and er eyed to have her comely young sister set over her head in the place of if not of honour than it would have been if had died first i had known nothing at all about it oh jacob miss jones with unutterable scorn i don t think we can quite take for a pattern mr no old was sugar and honey in human guise but er wasn t he one of the ah fathers of i always thought so miss jones suddenly round and changed her i er think mr she remarked severely that it is more a question affecting the family life of to day even than the authority given by the law now if your wife but i haven t one never had such a thing explained then suddenly resumed his most confidential air of utter foolishness the fact is miss jones he said i ah wanted to but one lady in all my life and she me name was no cried three or four incredulous voice from different parts of the room you don t mean to say he dragged all that in again every word of it the solomon b baby and all the little yes he let miss jones have it all to the bitter end and j u call that fellow a fool the soldier wound up reproachfully i know i blessed old from the very bottom of my heart cried i never saw miss jones so thoroughly tired out before it as fine yes of course it was fine admitted w th a laugh but then always is fine he s such a fool looked up with a contemptuous l on on his good looking and usually ce it seems to me he said quietly that if icy is a fool there never was a fool who suffered ss from other people s there is not one rf you who has not at some time or other been taken in by him but when did any of you ever take in ever so little there was a profound silence throughout the fire lit room for nobody could say a word laughed his short amused laugh as he left it and when the door was closed behind him the silence was ended i don t know said whether any of you fellows have noticed it but in my opinion has changed very much of | 30 |
late faith he seems to take the most harmless joke as gospel now and comes down like a hammer on a baby single word of all the same he s perfectly right about would turn me inside out for brains in two minutes but that don t say much for s cried amid a roar of laughter miss is very much obliged quoted chapter viii he is s father a crowd of a lesser crowd of spectators and a lesser gathering of fashionable ones were assembled on the for it was the day of the scarlet on the grand stand were to be seen most of the rank and fashion of the neighbourhood and a goodly show of that class of people who are always to be found about towns which are also military stations the of people who have daughters to and not much money to marry them with there were all the scarlet ladies in full force from the colonel s wife in blue velvet and to the s lady in a hard felt bat with long diamond and pearl th were officers in and boots their silken by coats and there was the bride mrs in pink and grey the major s racing colours oh lor as the fellows said when they saw her and there waa miss baby a little three year old got up in scarlet purple and gold adapted in her small to a warm frock of purple velvet wit scarlet and gold and on her golden curls a to match it utterly absurd most people said but didn t seem to sec it nor for the matter of that did miss herself held by or when was riding by she sat oil the broad ledge of the balcony and surveyed the world like a queen in miniature it was a fine place for seeing yes and a fine place for hearing too as afterwards in his own peculiar style of delivery er baby r i and miss were waiting foi to come down the lawn when er a lad to us er a little person i found out afterwards that her name is with a nose like a and a mouth of little daughter by the bye p much of the same type but just a shade less suddenly us by huge pair of gold and holding the at arm s length owl said she in a voice when miles came down the lane looking like a sack cf flour in a purple satin jacket ow cap tain for ow my cap tain fer handsome and how e he ow i m he ll win and what a love horse cap tain fer he s handsome well er i gave miss a squeeze to hold her and she did th mrs er went on on miles a great beauty of person and on the absolute certainty of his winning and his pet name is she informed us his name wi came sailing down the lawn all his and miss quite forgot tl old girl and shouted out to him si called glanced up and waved his hand am n i baby old party called turned and eyed her sharply saw the scarlet purple am gold of her looked at her card and ow i don t know as if were a dozen captain knocking and this was one of the eleven she didn t know well when the was over er who should come up but miles ah miles said i i er heard a just now on your beauty and and elegance of person was you d win what a pity you didn t bless my soul said was she oil don t be flattered she took you for said i the question money again miles with a of laughter well in two up comes see me win said he so er told him the too and laughed that absurd ha ha of his come along and have some lunch my sweetheart said lie and s be out of this but it was after this incident that the most important event of that bright may day occurred one of those fearful struggles to win when half a dozen show well for the post and all the field finds tongue and shouts its hardest baby wins blue and yellow am miles wins miles wins no no front and blue miles front ah he s down miles blue and gains miles wins wins ah p with the others wins and then the company good bad and indifferent had time to remember that a man was down no not one man but two to find out that was bruised and stunned but able with help to get to the dressing room and recover himself to learn that the crowd round the other was watching a more exciting race than that which they had just witnessed with shouts and applause that they were watching with awe and in silence a race between life and death for the odd man of the regiment the man who had been nobody s friend nobody s was lying in the midst of them with his back broken waiting for a they were all as sorry as men could be who had never been moved by feelings of friendship the proceedings were stopped at once and they went gravely back to those who had ridden to get into morning clothes and all of them to hang about waiting for news but there was no hope absolutely none for him whatever with all his faults and i it baby was passing aw i by exchange as ha wished though the exchange not of one n for another but of this world | 30 |
for the next it was about six o that the senior c two in attendance on entered t room and looking round beckoned rt what news asked several voices he won t last the night he you i ll come rising sure to want observed oh yes i should myself returned another won t last the night remarked a third well i never did like never but all the same i m sorry for him now poor chap l or oh by jove it s a fearful thing when you come to that and then they fell into silence again waiting for to come back an hour passed quarters and did not come an appeared came with a white face i a scared look in his blue eyes followed by i doctor who had fetched him every man in tin room was roused from a lounging attitude to c expectation and surprise said moving towards but did not even look at him met baby the doctor and uttered words the like of which lie of his hearers had ever heard from him before i kept my temper doctor you think i did know the man s dying yes i know and t like to think i lost my temper with a po who was dying but but no i won t say i ll go away and keep to myself until i ve t over it a little if i stop here i shall say some ng i shall be sorry for all the rest of my life what is it broke in in t voice but did not reply for a moment still trying hard to control himself but ho had laid his hand upon his sleeve felt that i shaking from head to foot and his very li ere trembling tell us said what he is s father nd then he broke from s grasp and bed cried not at all it is true the doctor answered he is making his will now leaving sole and to the child the brute burst out indignant s not so long ago hush hush the man is dying and deal s everything the doctor cried and kept his temper said nothing re i a baby not one of reproach has he seen her no he would not though asked him his own child and she miss all the better she cannot endure him by jove but what a blow for how will he take it will it make any difference as miss what you talk as if but there broke off in disgust and the of questions and answers went on and that night died chapter ix some day i may meet the oh but it was a blow for to find he had been made a fool of all this time to remember the anxiety the trouble the expense to which he had been put nay to recall the he had endured and then to discover that miss was s child the child of the man whom he went perhaps nearer to than anyone he had ever known in all his life everything came back to him then the dead man s and and his efforts to tax him with an offence which he knew that he had not committed and though he had failed in that oh what a fool had made of him that was the sting felt most of anything for hours after he left the kept out of s way indeed until came to tell him that dead then it being close upon the hour of eleven he went and knocked at the door of s nursery the he passed into the inner room where the c was lying a candle burnt on a table beside the cot casting its light on the fair baby face now flushed in sleep and on the tangled golden c baby her arms lay outside the one grasping the whip with which he had ridden f won that day the other held the card of the bent and her face closely not one trace he discern of likeness t he father not one and he drew a deep breath t relief that it was so he remembered s puzzled scrutiny of the year old baby there s a likeness hut i bow where to plant it if there had been a likeness to then it had now passed in as satisfied himself that it was bo his love for her which during the last few hours had hung trembling in the balance though he would hardly have acknowledged it even to himself re asserted itself and rose up in his heart stronger than ever just then she moved uneasily b her sleep lai where is she asked then after a pause another headache and t instant later miss grace said was to be very kind to bent down and kissed her and she she said in sleepy surprise take me up so carried her to the fire in the ing room where the nurse was sewing a fresh of lace in the pretty velvet frock with its f scarlet and gold which she had worn that day ne n ihe to lot baby ties she an lai said wasn t to go to said reproachfully has been poor his cheek with her soft hand was vexed lai said so but not with told lai so confidently never with answered resting his cheek against the tossed golden curls and feeling as if he had done this faithful baby heart a cruel injustice by his hours of anger and doubt there was a moment of silence broke by the nurse have you heard sir how mr is she asked roused himself he is dead nurse died half an hour ago then if you please sir she asked hesitatingly might i ask if it is true about miss yes it is true | 30 |
his face darkening because sir miss should have ing she began when cut her short i shall not allow her to wear mourning mr he said so the nurse say no more three days later the funeral took place and if the facts of the dead man s having acknowledged miss as his child and having admitted to ties that ho hail transferred her that night f i miss for dared from baby is own quarters to rooms created a it was as nothing to the intense surprise by the will which was read by the dead s desire before all the officers of the regiment in it he left his entire property to his daughter now in the care of captain ad commonly known as on condition that captain consented to be her sole guardian ud until she had attained the age of one or until her marriage provided it be with her guardian s sanction and on the understanding that captain should lot give up the care of the child to her mother temporarily to his wife a of this testament was to be sent forthwith should any of the conditions be the whole of which he died possessed should go to lis cousin but if the be faithfully observed captain have the power of applying any or all of he income arising from the estate for the use and maintenance of the said mary murmured to who in contemptuous silence and wondered in small dismay what kind of a life he should lave if s mother chose to make herself but the will was not crazy at all far from it it iu only a very cleverly thought out plan for keep baby mother and child apart would care not to s inheritance and had taken advantage of it to carry out hia towards his wife to the end but of course there was one he had never thought of or provided for marriage it was less than a week after s de that received a note by hand signed i already i he groaned impatiently may trouble you to send the child to for half an during this afternoon she s and that was all but did not see sending the child to be quietly stolen away he forgot quite that since had not left his widow a she would probably be now no better able to provide for the child than she had been when compelled to cast her baby upon the father s mercy therefore immediately after lunch he drove down to ihe hotel from which the note had been written yes mrs was this way and then then with the child fast hold of his band was shown into a room and there they found miss grace the truth flashed into his mind instantly she rose hurriedly and he saw that she was clad in black but was not in widow s dress she fell her and almost smothered with i i baby she cried has been very kind to explained not knowing whether to laugh or cry my my baby the mother sobbed watched them the two things he loved best on earth have you nothing to say to me he asked at last what shall i say she had risen from her knees and now moved away you might say said severely that you are very sorry that you a married woman deceived me and stole my heart away you might say that for one thing but i am not sorry cried s mother then you might take a leaf out of s book and say as she says when i have a headache loves i do think remarked to the fellows when the news had been told and freely discussed that now we must let that poor malicious minded chap in his in peace seems to me he continued with his most air that er solomon was and said a wise thing when he said love laughs at b baby solomon cried a voice amid a shout of laughter oh wasn t it solomon questioned mildly it s of no consequence some one said it but only think of that poor devil spending his last moments a to keep mother and child apart and old all the conditions to the letter and b them all in the spirit by the end brothers b s list of works by john strange winter the author to whom we owe the most finished and faithful rendering ever yet given of the character of the british soldier mr in the daily telegraph january cavalry life legends baby pluck s secret a siege baby n s husband children in quarters on march army society garrison gossip beautiful jim that of a my poor dick harvest ii popular of ant i co price one shilling each s london library in small crown vo out bv a fair by tinted a by j baby a of ihe s struck down a tale of by smart la by j s winter at bay by mrs alexander gold by may s bargain by mrs alexander john a testimony bv the last of the bv l ki vn my friend by w c waters ij a woman s will by by a love story by a girl in a thousand by a wilful young woman by mrs of or all or by e green a maid by mrs the fortunes f by f h that o s bv paul jones by by charles king f r england s sake by the tide on the bar by burn a love by a love bv es s luck by w h miss by i on tim by france or the mystery of the by g buy bias founded on the drama by victor by the world forgot by e j | 30 |
and on this complex subject modern or how to play napoleon c c by professor m this volume is the recognised standard on the rules and methods adopted in playing card games o tips for by professor c t c n c u n l c c third and enlarged edition with numerous illustrations one of the best and most comprehensive of the kind we have yet would that all books of reference were as and as sensibly man as complete and as skill and pains could make it the book is full of useful information for upon a variety of subjects dealing with the practical parts of machines the health and comfort of generally and giving a table of railway and hints about continental the work is well illustrated and is one that every should add to his library and being in handy size can be conveniently carried in the pocket the best of everything practical information on a thousand subjects by the author of within new edition we in this little work most useful information on subjects of every kind given in plain and unmistakable language rendering to the reader the best of everything in a popular and form of easy reference and practical value hint about home and farm for pleasure prize and profit by stables m d c n r n this work may well be called a in on the with such a book as this anyone should be able not only to choose a pet bat manage to t t pet and well when they get it and co s price in each s useful books of h unity and al guides oil popular subjects son cloth or picture out door common birds their habits and general characteristics by with eighty original illustrations the habits appearance and peculiarities el the birds are an ascribed th e its varieties and management in health and disease the whole duty of man as regards horses ma bo found in these pages lift cattle their varieties and management in health and disease by ce m r c v with illustrations cheap neatly got up and fall of varied information ana useful facts a tj training l j e sporting the sheep its varieties and management in health and disease by m v s with us t with perfect the british bird with practical instructions on how to skin mid mi and animals with a chapter oh their il and to them also instructions in and i ur si li in j ami by samuel wood and professional bird r an fa fully management in sickness as well as hall oat the dog its varieties and management in health and disease by with numerous and choice wood there is no volume issued on the subject than this man hardy plants for little front gardens by s sh a knowledge of the of different flowers will save the time ami expense is to be found in the present l h i special hi t flowers and the flower garden with instructions on the culture of ornamental trees shrubs ic by e the information lot to become of i and can be recommended to any practical price is each s useful continued vegetables and how to grow them a guide to the ki burden by e this manual will be found useful by those who hate gardens y cultivate themselves the orchard and fruit garden its culture produce e waits a book for everybody containing all the british with the foreign species suitable lor a with numerous l s by m c the and most little work on the subject we with english to he found by the fields meadows mountains and sea by j t i radical illustrations this little book will be welcomed by hie thousands o hammer who take delight in the beauties of country and lanes poultry an original and guide to their breeding hearing feeding and exhibiting by e waits f this t i i i r v new i i hook ia r i if the author has written mil others bearing her name only ly her and much o this volume and how to angle a practical guide to bottom fishing spinning l and sea by j t an volume ana lull ol advice the will treasure a practical and handy guide s the common sea weeds of the british coast and channel islands with son into the beauties of their structure an i by mrs l with original i printed in tints this cheap little manual will as an admirable introduction to the common shells of the sea shore by the j g wood the amateur gardener a guide ax to what should he done in a garden in e n li month of the year by mrs by w i l s the amateur is n simple and handy guide to the various advice to singers by f j fourth edition recommend a new and enlarged of to lo ik in th hands ol all to u vi iti th j and co s price is each s useful continued letter ladies and gentlemen s model letter writer a complete guide to correspondence on all subjects with household and commercial forms every possible subject appears to have been dealt with and a table of contents serves to bring those who are in difficulties to the object of their search army and navy the companion letter writer a guide to correspondence on all subjects relating to friendship love and business with commercial forms c this volume has been prepared with great care and will be found most useful to persons requiring such assistance scientific and household the modern practical instructions on the bar | 30 |
gold without being either smooth or in any way she was laughing a little at the idea of madame having any desire to eat her and it was with the traces of that charming smile still her mouth that she left the room and went the bare and rather steep stairs to the private sitting room of madame j those head of the large and important establishment wherein was a pupil a sharp voice bade her enter you sent for me madame said still without any trace of fear about her i did send for you said madame le very coldly you will be good enough to stand there in the light of the window where i can see you i suppose you can guess what i want with you not in the least madame said without embarrassment oh then i will you i have found you out she said fixing with a pair of eyes she spoke in english the english of an for such in truth she was being only a in name i have found you out she repeated sternly ah i see you start which in truth did it is no wonder i would like to know what you have to say for yourself madame said i nothing to say those for myself i do not even know what you are talking about then i will you said madame le with a tragic air you have been receiving letters while under my roof and under my charge from a young man from a young man i said but i do not know whether he is old or young it is you have been receiving letters from a man one of these letters has fallen into my hands this morning i see that you do not deny it i have no wish to deny it said calmly though she had grown very white and was trembling visibly you are sixteen said madame speaking in a clear cold cutting voice you are of good family you have a devoted mother who has always done everything to forward your welfare that lay within her power you are here in the society of ladies in the house of a woman of high standing and of the highest you are supposed although perhaps it has not been as clearly laid down to you those girls as would have been the case had you been of less good family you are supposed to set a good example to your sister who is three years younger than yourself you are supposed to keep some faith with the mother who you and you are supposed to keep some faith with me you have not done any of these things you have indulged in a low vulgar such as makes me blush for you still i will give you one chance before i break your mother s heart to that which i have found out this during all this time the girl remained perfectly silent she had grown white to her very lips her eyes blue on ordinary occasions were almost black with fear and anxiety her fingers trembled so that she instinctively hid them in the folds of her gown i will give you one more chance madame went on of hiding this wretched story forever that you will give up to me the name of the man who wrote this letter he is not enough those of a man to sign his name in full you will also tell me the name of the person or persons who assisted you to receive this correspondence and you will swear to me on your sacred word of honor that so long as you live you will never hold communication in any shape or form with this man again on those conditions and on those alone i will give you the chance of the character which you have lost if you do not obey me in this i shall telegraph to your mother immediately and i shall lay the whole story before her i will not obey you said deliberately you ask what is impossible why is it impossible the demanded because said i would rather die than betray those who have done wrong for my sake i have had the misfortune to be found out and i will abide by the consequences of what i have done but i will not tell you how that letter came into my hands and i t ll you who m m it for the rest you may do what you like and how you like do you defy me said madame angrily no madame said i do not wish to defy you but i will not tell you how i got that letter or who wrote it then said madame you leave me no choice but to treat you as a prisoner and to your mother with the whole story you will remain in the little room which is through my bedroom instinctively gave a shudder at the prospect which lay before her for the room through madame s bedroom was lighted only by a and had no other means of than by the door into madame s room it was madame s habit on those rare occasions when one or other of her young charges was too for ordinary means to them in this room it had no window save the in the roof from which you could see nothing but a limited view of the blue sky of heaven above and moreover it was madame s practice to lock the door of her own bedroom so that communication with the prisoner was simply a matter of impossibility you will remain there you will hold communication with nobody you will see nobody except myself until the arrival of your mother she rang the bell and in a few minutes had issued her orders preparatory to s imprisonment | 30 |
take s and toilet necessaries into the room leading out of my bedroom she said to the servant who answered the summons make up the bed and prepare the room for occupation let me know when it is ready then she turned sharply to you are too near the window there go and stand by the piano now the girl although she knew that a veritable lay before her knew also that it was more than useless to and she went proudly across the room standing in the bay of the grand piano i shall take care that you have everything necessary for your health until your mother arrives madame said in a pitiless voice when she reaches which i think she will do as t as possible after the receipt of my i shall lay the whole disgraceful story before her and leave her to deal with you as she thinks most fit if this letter tapping the paper which she held in her hand were more explicit i could myself have confronted this young man but you foolish child do you not see how carefully he from committing himself on paper do you not understand that this marriage that he of would never have taken place once he had got you from under the shelter of this roof some day ill used as no doubt you think yourself now you wiu be thankful to me for having been the means of stopping you from this ill advised and foolish step which you were about to take and you will be more thankful to providence for having made me so madame i did not say that i felt said boldly yet with no air of audacity those from your point of view you are perfectly right in all that you are doing i am sorry for your mother said madame sitting down with her back towards the girl i hope madame said respectfully that you will not think it necessary to alarm my mother are alarming things at the best of times do you not think it will do just as well to write as to telegraph i don t mind being a couple of days longer in prison child said madame le turning round and regarding with grave eyes frankly speaking you me it is incredible to me that you can be so altered so absolutely dead to all feeling of shame as you seem to be now madame said i am not ashamed of what i have done then why retorted madame have you done it in secret because said the girl i am two years younger than most girls are considered old enough to be married i have not acted in any hurry i tm s g have thought everything out quietly and deliberately i love the man who wrote that letter to me i shall never love another man as long as i live i believe in him and i trust him he is as incapable of playing me false as i am myself of betraying a trust i was going to take the law into my own hands but circumstances or fate have been too many for me and i must needs submit now to those who have power over me for the present but i am not ashamed madame i have done nothing to be ashamed of well i will not argue with you said the with dignity if you are not ashamed of yourself i am ashamed for you indeed i am ashamed of you she put up her hand with a gesture indicating that the conversation was at an end and drawing a telegraph form towards her she began to write the message which was to convey to the girl s mother that something dreadful had happened at no avenue of you to come to the delay of a moment no one is ill but bom thing very has happened with which you personally as soon as possible so the message ran and when she had read it over madame once more rang the bell the same servant answered it said madame did you give my instructions about the inner room i did madame replied then immediately send this message to the post ofl ce i do not know what it will cost but here is a twenty piece with which to the expense certainly madame replied ine and immediately disappeared a quarter of an hour or so later and her maid came to say that the inner room was ready thank you said madame le then turned to come she said in a tone now had never before seen the interior of that dreadful room she had been in madame s moss bedroom on occasions when that lady happened to be dressing for the evening or when suffering from some but she had never penetrated into that other inner apartment which was looked upon in the establishment as the very last resource for with undue wickedness and rebellion she could not help shuddering a little as she crossed the it was so cold so cheerless not a picture on the dull gray walls not a touch of beauty from one end of the apartment to the other a little iron stood in one corner destitute of and of a and a bath occupied another corner a small square of carpet was laid in the centre of the room and a small square of looking glass even more cheap and dingy than is usual with looking glasses in which is saying a good deal hung against the wall beneath it there was a square table on which lay an english and a foreign bible there were two chairs perfectly in their and there was a there were three fixed to the back of the door and of other and there were none here said madame with a wave of her hand round the room you will | 30 |
remain until your mother arrives you will see nobody but myself except when the maid comes your room when i shall always be present you need not attempt to hold any communication with the outer it will be impossible by the bye she said abruptly turning back as she was about to leave the room let me see what you have in your pockets the girl turned perfectly scarlet from chin to brow but she had made up her mind to submit to all the lesser commands and which might fall to her lot and she and in silence emptied her pockets on to the little table there was nothing of any importance a letter from one of her sisters which madame glanced over and laid down on to the table again a purse containing a few in silver and one gold those girls piece a lead pencil and a pocket knife both of which madame appropriated give me your said madame le when she had satisfied herself that s pocket contained nothing either dangerous or amusing now take down your hair and it into one long the girl obeyed without a word taking down after until her shoulders were hidden by a shining red gold cloud it was fine and hair that curled naturally and being very long fell into great waves of exceeding beauty she it into a long which reached far below her waist madame meantime made her own of the i shall bring you your meals myself she said coldly the door of my bedroom will be locked so that you cannot make anybody hear however you call or shout you can make nobody through the for no other windows look on to it so it will be useless for you to attempt to with ou r in that those girls i am sorry to take all these precautions but you yourself have made them absolutely imperative i now leave you to your own thoughts and to the contemplation of the dreadful position in which you have placed yourself before i go is there anything that you have to say to me not a word said quietly very good said madame then i have nothing further to say she went out of the room shutting the door behind her heard the key turn in the lock heard madame moving about her own room then heard her open the outer door pass out shut it and lock it behind her it is almost impossible to describe the feeling of intense loneliness that came over the girl s heart as she realized that she was now absolutely cut off from her small world she knew that all her plans for the future had been brought to an end she knew that because of her loyalty she had put herself in the way of winning the most intense disgrace and the most severe those that could be out to her she put her hand into her half emptied pocket and drew out her handkerchief no i will not she exclaimed forcing the tears back from her eyes i will not cry after all things might be worse i have told nothing betrayed no one and although that silly woman has taken away my and my lest i should put an end to myself she has not taken away my love nor my greatest treasure and then she tore open her dress taking out a hanging round her neck by a fine gold chain oh dick dick my darling she cried how will you ever know why i did not keep my promise oh dick i don t know when i shall see you again but if i wait till the end of all time you will be worth waiting for dear and i will wait and then she sank upon her knees by the little bare bed sobbing over the pictured face in the as if her heart would those chapter ii a trust no secrets to a friend which if repeated would bring for about two years mrs had lived at the near the was a pretty river side residence about half a mile from the river house and about a mile and a half from the town it was a house rather above the average in though not quite what you would call a country mansion that is to say it was a large and spacious villa standing in charming gardens with a good ground and with more stable accommodation than mrs had actual need of for eight or ten years after the death of her husband mrs had lived abroad partly those girls because with all her children at school she had not cared to keep up an expensive establishment and partly for the sake of her daughters education but when was nineteen and had freely tasted the both of paris and mrs began to think it was high time that she made a permanent home to which all her girls would come when their education was finished well after much consideration and much consultation with mrs finally decided upon taking the at you see dear she said to when they had decided that they would make their home in england you see dear it is all very well being abroad for a time but with you four girls i have to think of the future and i am never able to forget that your dear father had an objection to foreigners it would be a very great grief to me if any one of you were to marry a foreigner because of that objection and because i believe that there is no husband like an english one and of course you are nineteen dear and though i don t those girls to flatter you at the same time you are very and it stands to common sense that you will marry sooner or later i would so much rather that you and your | 30 |
sisters should marry englishmen well now i have just a thousand a year and although a thousand a year is quite an income for or even for paris and i have not really spent anything like that for years past at the same time a thousand a year is nothing of an income on which to live in london and maintain a good position i could not possibly keep a carriage nor a house of any while if we go into the bs we become mere people at once which i could not endure but if we go to which many people tell me is quite a gay place in the midst of a very good country set we can have as good a position with three maids and a smart little cart as if we had five thousand a year it all depends on your well mother then go to said sensibly those and eventually mrs and went down to where they fell in love with the it was not a house of extravagant price in truth it was but eighty pounds a year but it was it had a long and charming drawing room a good dining room a dear little morning room and one of the best grounds in the neighborhood and although it had for four horses in other respects it was not at all too large for mrs s ultimate in due time the house was and done up for the new comers and two ladies spent a good deal of time in the principal furniture shop at choosing carpets and furniture but it was only furniture of an ordinary description for mrs had on the death of her husband put by all her favorite her pictures china silver some almost pieces of and and a few articles of old or furniture such as made the very mouth of to those whom she the care of them water and when mrs had put her house in order she set about letters of introduction to the best people worth knowing in the the bishop the dean the general commanding the district and lady were the people that she to use a very ordinary modem phrase went for and in due time mrs mc became as fashionable in as even mrs had been in her day now although the neighborhood of received mrs with open arms it cannot be said that itself did so mrs mc with one daughter pure and simple did not so much mind but mrs with three other daughters in the background was a very different person and as the four girls were all strikingly good looking resented the fact as though red gold hair and violet eyes were a studied insult to itself la of tim the second girl left school and began to go into society like her sister mrs herself was still a very handsome woman barely twenty years s senior the two eldest daughters were high spirited energetic girls with plenty of dash and go about them looking well in everything they wore doing everything that they attempted thoroughly well able to turn their handsome hands to anything as clever at picking up a new dance as they were at a new figure and with hands as at a hat or up a ball gown as they were at playing a piano or setting a dinner table and resented the advent of what it called those girls most deeply well it was towards the end of february the winter had been a rather hard one and had been quite the order of the day had been unusually gay the cavalry officers had given a and the officers had got up an afternoon dance and the general s staff had given a small evening one lady had had a house full of people and s mo j now that the frost had given way and nice soft hunting weather had set in the engagement list of the family at the was quite a full and a very interesting one it happened on the very morning on which poor over in her school at had been condemned to vile the three ladies were assembled over a rather late breakfast after a ball of unusual brilliancy the previous evening in the assembly rooms tired asked mrs as her sec md daughter appeared not a bit mother thank you i enjoyed myself too much to be tired i did enjoy myself yes i should think you did cried i saw half the girls in the town ring at you how very odd it is that they are always so furious when one has a good time i m sure i don t see the good of going to a dance unless one does if i went to a dance only to be to the wall miss continued with a superior air i would much rather stop at home those all but said with a laugh nobody ever goes to a ball expecting to be to the wall one would always hope for better luck next time yes i one would hope said with superb disdain well now i always remain to the wall said mrs smiling ah but cried quickly that s from a matter of choice not of necessity it doesn t matter when one chooses to do a thing it is when one is obliged to do it that the rub comes i i well i have enjoyed myself very much in my time said the mother smiling and i don t know that one wants to go on enjoying one s self just in the same way forever it is enjoyment enough for me to see you two having a really delightful time well then mother cried you must be the happiest woman in i believe i am said mrs but tell me what are you thinking of doing to day well to day said we promised to drive | 30 |
over to lady has got a little tea party on she said that she would tell you about it that it was quite an affair just got up during the evening and that she would particularly ask you to come didn t she no i only nodded to her i never spoke her oh well i suppose she knew we should tell you you will go won t no i don t think so said mrs you girls can go without me i have promised mrs french that i would go in and have that fitted on and as i really want it i cannot very well disappoint her then you will want the trap said not at all i shall walk in and take a cab out you go off to your tea party and just tell lady that i couldn t come you needn t those tell her what i am doing she ll be satisfied enough if you go the two girls were very busy that morning making themselves smart little red hats to match the red silk that they were to wear that day so they brought their down into the morning room and worked away as merry as leaving off now and then to go into the which opened out of the leading again into the drawing room where their mother was hard at work mrs s was her she loved every leaf and flower which it contained or so the girls said she knew when the big india rubber plant in the comer was going to shoot a new leaf or as she put it have a new baby she was on the watch lest the tall oil plant in the other comer should get what she called the she duly and truly washed the faces of many of the large plants and off the edges of the big palms when they began to turn brown she knew when to cut when to those when to water when to weed when to she knew everything about work her were a joy and a delight and her creeping things against the wall burst out into a blaze of glory so the tranquil and innocent morning slipped over the little red with their bit of gold showing here and there proved to be a complete success and mrs was unusually over a new baby that was from a fine palm by which she set great store the well maid announced that luncheon was served and the daughters laughed and over it as merrily as if they had been a large party instead of being but three and then just as mrs was about to leave the house to walk into ton and while the girls were still their feet over the comfortable fire preparatory to ing themselves smart to go to lady s tea party there came a sharp ring at the bell followed by a doubled knock twice repeated i those girls a cried mrs looked up in anticipation that was scarcely that of alarm and when entered the room bringing the little flame colored with her she took it scarcely expecting that it was for herself it was however merely addressed the and she tore open the envelope as her eyes j upon the word at the top she d oh in a sharp tone of surprise eagerly devouring the contents with wide open eyes you to come to without the delay fm moment she read aloud in a tone of the utmost astonishment no one is ill hut something very grave has happened with which i must you personally as soon as possible for a moment after she had finished reading there was dead silence then the mother turned a scared and face upon her daughters and said in a voice scarce above a whisper what does this mean what can have happened tm e madame le said is not a woman to send such a unless it was necessary of that i am certain and as had been at school for several years at the big house in the avenue the mother s heart sank lower still for she felt that there was truth in what the girl said i think she might have been more explicit cried i she thought of the money returned she s a soul you know oh yes but in a matter like this but there she has said no more and talking will not alter it exclaimed mrs what ought i to do what had i better do must i start at once shall i take the five o clock train to town and get across to night can i get across tonight no answered i don t think you can go across to night by either route but if you go up by that train you can sup and sleep in town and get off in comfort by the early day mail in those girls the morning the question is mother dear will you go alone or shall one of us go with you i think i would rather go alone said mrs in a voice you see she says distinctly that nobody is ill so you will not be wanted for nursing or anything of that kind i suppose that something dreadful has happened to one of the children she would never have sent for me like this except out of the most dire necessity and if it is something that we shall want to hide from the world it will be better that nobody here knows that i have gone to at all listen to me children i will pack a few things in a bag now i will go straight into the town and get my dress tried on then i will get a cup of tea at s and will go up to town by the five o clock train do | 30 |
you go to your and do not breathe a word unless i am distinctly asked for when you can say i have gone up to london for a few days say that i have gone on business make any reasonable excuse that you like but tell no one of those girls my having gone to i will let you know as soon as i get there what is the matter i can t think what it is this mystery is dreadful i wish really that it were illness rather than this dreadful suspense what can have happened it must be something to one of the children you forget mother said quietly that is no longer a child that is a beautiful young woman you don t mean cried mrs looking at her daughter with anxious eyes yes i do said take my word for it madame has found out in a love affair those chapter iii suspense stony limits cannot hold love out and what love can do that dares love attempt when mrs had once decided what to do she lost no time in making her preparations for her journey to i am going up to town for a few days she said to i have had to go rather unexpectedly put me together enough things for a week that dress will do and give me that violet that is nice and warm i will wear my coat for the journey and this dress touching her gown of black and the little red bonnet yes that will do beautifully put me those girls up enough linen and necessaries of that kind for a week will you drive down to the station in the trap ma am or shall i get you a cab asked you had better get me a cab answered mrs with as careless an air as she could assume because the young ladies are going over to and may as well have the trap and what time does your train go ma am asked oh i am not going till five o clock i have to go into mrs french s to have a dress fitted so as soon as you have packed my bag and got me a cab i will go she had also although she did not think it necessary to tell the servant that to go to the bank and get some money i will leave you a check she said to the girls whom she found still in the morning room i will leave you a check and you can get it in the town in the morning i shall take as much money as i want and whatever you do those girls remember not a word about my having gone to ob we won t say a word mother cried the two girls in a breath they were not seriously impressed by the news just received from madame they knew by experience that she was what they called death on anything like a and if the truth be told they pitied with all their hearts i wonder said to when they had seen mrs safely into her cab and were watching it go down the drive i wonder if she has shut up in that room poor said in accents of very real madame is so silly about that sort of thing remarked with superb disdain do you remember what a fuss she made when i had a letter from that little officer little hook nose oh yes rather of course i do why you were shut up for two days she threatened to send for mother then those girls and she would have done it too if i had not given in and eaten humble pie said with a laugh i suppose wouldn t do that but i don t see the use of being high minded to one s school mistress myself just as well give in for peace and sake and of course one didn t mean to marry little hook nose was it likely very stupid to send for mother like that i all it just as if she could not manage her school without calling in girls mothers to help her foolish old thing so they were not the least impressed at the departure of their mother nor alarmed at the nature of her errand but mrs herself who was along towards the town in a somewhat tumble down cab was in an exceedingly uncomfortable state of mind you see he had not been at school with madame le or possibly she would have taken the summons as as her two elder daughters had done it was not exactly a little expedition such as one would choose to take for pleasure at the end of those girls february that is to say to make a journey beginning five hours from london and ending at and the prospect of it very much appalled the poor woman who knew not what trouble might meet her at the end of her journey she however was a woman of much force of character and it never occurred to her to put off the visit to the on which she had decided earlier in the day she went straight to mrs french s stood patiently while her dress was fitted told her as carelessly as she could that she was going to town for a few days and would leave by the five o clock train first she went to the bank then to a couple of other shops where she had need to call and finally went into the good s and ordered herself some tea and a hot s had rather taken her appetite away but she compelled herself not only to eat the but also a very dainty and delicate and by five o clock she was sitting in a comfortable those girls corner of the railway carriage which was to | 30 |
take her to london she did not reach london till a few minutes past ten o clock when she went straight into the hotel adjoining the station to whose manager she had ordering a room and supper to be ready for her then she went to bed hoping to sleep and at all events to await with what patience she might command the time for continuing her journey it was already evening when she found herself in gay pretty with its rows and rows of twinkling lights its hundreds of cheerful bells and its pleasant good people it was the first time that mrs had ever entered with a really sad heart she quickly a cab and drove to no avenue which was well lighted up and when the door opened to admit her seemed to be full of cheerful and busy sounds madame le came immediately into the little into which she was shown those girls oh mrs she cried i am so sorry to have to send for you like this you will never know the trouble and grief that this affair has been to me i don t know what you mean madame mi s cried impatiently what affair remember i am in total ignorance of what has happened i only know that nobody is ill i have suffered since i left pray keep me in suspense no longer tell me the worst at once it is of course yes it is said madame le in reply i assure you mrs it has come like a upon me i had no idea that one of my young ladies was capable of a course of action so utterly or so terribly bold i made the discovery only yesterday but what discovery did you make asked mrs anxiously well to put it briefly that has been carrying on an with a man those girls i expected as much said mrs in what she could not help being a tone of relief it has been going on for weeks apparently madame continued for this letter which i happened to is evidently one of a series not a short series either here it is read it for yourself you will then understand what my state of mind has been now as a matter of fact mrs cared nothing at all as to the state of madame s mind what she cared about was the state of her daughter s health and behavior however she took the letter and with astonished eyes read it it was dated but there was no address my dearest sweetheart it began i returned last night from england where as i promised i would do i made every arrangement for our marriage as you are not of age i find that it will be absolutely necessary short of one s self which it would be impossible for us to do to be married by i have therefore put them up at a little church about miles from london those of which a great friend of mine is he practically knows everything and me very strongly to go to your mother and explain the whole situation and our wishes to her but i feel that that course is practically impossible i feel it even more than i did the truth is i dare not let my uncle know that i want to marry anybody except the lady he would like me to marry i can put on the time and off my if i know that i really have you for a wife but i could not possibly make a clean breast to him and if i offend him it is good bye to all my chance of ever getting the estates though of course he cannot possibly do me out of my other rights but as the estates happen to be where should i be if he chose to leave them elsewhere no as i told my friend there is nothing for it but marrying and making things secure and just keeping quiet until it is safe to reveal ourselves and if you don t mind this of course it will make very little difference to anybody else i shall have to ask you my darling to go on as you are for a those girls short time longer the were put up for the first time last sunday and will have to run two more sundays before we can be married as soon therefore as you can get comfortably away after two sundays have gone by you have only to let me know and i will make every preparation for our journey i wish that it were not so terribly to see you that old of yours seems to be dreadfully suspicious from what i hear of anything masculine that comes within reach of her flock such an odd idea when she is actually preparing you all to go out into the world see and conquer that she should be so desperately afraid of any of you even speaking to a man now so inconsistent you will reply to this i know darling can you not contrive to get out if only for ten minutes to see me i will wait any length of time climb any wall run any risk if only for a chance of a single glance into your dear eyes a single touch of your dear lips oh my darling i am counting the days the very hours almost the minutes to that those girls blessed and happy time when we shall be together for always i wonder if you love me half as well as i love you did you ever hear that old if you love me as i love you nothing but death shall part us two i once laughed at that sort of thing i thought a fellow was a sort of ass that cared more about one woman than another | 30 |
and only a few months ago a man said to me after i had been some such opinions by jove when you do get it you get it badly and i have got it very badly i ve got a sweet little name ringing in my ears and a pair of violet eyes always looking into mine and a proud little golden head set up forever in my heart i must stop dearest a thousand kisses no one will ever love you like your own dick he is an englishman said mrs in a still more relieved tone those oh yes he is an englishman said in a tone of superb indifference who is he mrs asked ah said the other significantly you will be clever if you can find that out absolutely refuses refuses to utter one word good bad or indifferent on the subject she won t say who wrote it nor how she would have received it and she also definitely refuses to make any promise that she will not see this man again and is she asked mrs rather faintly she is practically in prison returned the brightening up a little it is not often that i have need to put any of my young ladies into prison but i have such a place and if necessary i use it in reality she is in a room which opens out of my bedroom and which has no other means of and she won t tell you anything about it not one word answered madame le not a single word but you are cold and tired those girls after your journey how of me not to offer you a cup of tea immediately you ought to have a cup of tea before you see if the interview with her you as much as the affair has upset me and being her mother i should say it will have an even worse effect upon you you will need something to sustain you before you venture upon it i should like a cup of tea said mrs simply you shall have it immediately and madame rang the bell ine bring madame some tea immediately and the which i told to prepare certainly madame said ine so they began to talk it all over again and presently the tea was brought in and madame made haste to attend to the wants of her wearied visitor oh yes you must eat a little she cried when mrs would have put them aside they have been made especially for you my dear lady you will really need it i assure those girls you that is absolutely obstinate and indeed believe me you cannot better face the interview than by yourself inwardly another cup of tea let me beg of you and on the whole mrs found it was easier to eat the and to drink the tea than it was to refuse them and at last madame le suggested that they might go and see the prisoner she led the way along the ice cold passage up the staircase and into her own large and handsome sleeping room there was quite a good fire burning in the stove and the room was lighted by a pretty shaded lamp hanging by a chain from the ceiling sit there in the arm chair dear lady said madame in tones admirably the occasion and i will bring the naughty child to you she had closed the outer door and turned the key and she gently pushed mrs into the large and comfortable easy chair set near to those the stove then she took the key of s prison from her pocket and unlocked the door the room within was dark as night said madame le in a stem voice yes madame came the answer out of the darkness will you be good enough to come here please certainly madame s voice replied she was apparently sitting or lying on the little bed for it as she rose and there was the sound of a light on the hard carpet then stepped into the circle of light cast by the lamp evidently for the moment almost blinded by the sudden change from darkness to light then her eyes fell upon her mother sitting tired and somewhat in the arm chair by the stove oh mother she exclaimed is that you those chapter iv the wrong way put on the of resolution now if mrs had seen by herself it is more than possible that the girl s steadfast reserve would have been broken down and that she would have told her mother everything all that she most desired to know but unfortunately women of the world though they were or at least thought themselves to be mrs and the treated her too much after the style of the condemned prisoner to be very successful in getting at her t yes said mrs in answer to the girl s exclamation of surprise it is i those girls cast an indignant glance at the up to that moment she had not believed that madame had really carried out her threat of sending for her mother i am sorry that madame thought it necessary to send for you mother at this time of year too she said quietly i would much rather she had kept me locked up in there with a gesture toward her prison for the rest of the term than have dragged you over here madame was quite right to send for me said mrs her voice and face it would have been quite impossible for her to keep such a circumstance concerning one of my s from me yet said in an equally hard tone it was only yesterday morning that madame did offer under certain conditions to keep the information from you i exclaimed madame in an awful voice do you dare to those i nothing madame said i only | 30 |
state a bare fact mrs madame began i have had charge of your daughters now for over six years i appeal to you i ask you i beg of you and i beg you will do nothing of the kind said s mother decidedly there is no need to say anything more upon the subject i am perfectly satisfied with everything that you have done for my children i refuse to be made a judge or an between this child and you i will hear no more the great question is not one of madame s behavior but of yours you will tell me please immediately who is the writer of this letter to you i don t know said deliberately you don t know no said i have never seen that letter i do not know from whom it is nor what there is in it then said mrs very it must be owned you had better read it you those girls will then understand why madame objected to your receiving it and why she thought it necessary to send for me took the letter from her mother and moved nearer to the lamp that she more easily might read it the cast a glance at the mother a glance of distinct of what she had done and made an involuntary gesture as if to snatch the letter away from the girl it was so pronounced that perceived it and put out her hand as if to the off my mother gave me this letter to read madame she said in a very cold voice so there is no need for you to interfere in the matter one way or the other then she turned her attention to the letter once more and read it with a great tenderness sparkling in her eyes and the warm blood mounting to her cheeks read every word of it to the very end then she turned and gave it back to her mother again thank you she said politely those girls now said mrs looking straight at her you will tell me who wrote it no said i cannot tell you who wrote it you cannot or you will not i will not said firmly i insist upon your telling me no mother i cannot tell you and i will not tell you it is no use your asking me it is no use your i shall not tell you you persist in me as you have defied madame here no said i don t defy you at all i cannot tell you because i have promised not to do so and i will not break my word you admit that this is one of many letters i admit nothing said if this had not been found you would have gone away and married this man i have not said so said the girl looking at her mother with her wonderful blue eyes and how did it get into the house asked those girls mrs m baffled upon one point and immediately starting on a new one that i cannot tell you said with superb disdain madame knows more about it than i do i don t know where madame got it nor how she got it i don t know whether i have been betrayed or whether that letter was found by accident in any case i shall not commit myself one way or the other said mrs getting up from her chair and going close to where the girl was standing do you not understand that those who will not speak can sometimes be made to speak nobody will make me speak said then suddenly bursting out into a flame of passion listen to me mother cried look here it s no use your asking any more about it and talking at me like this i have had the misfortune to be found out well i am quite willing to abide by the consequences madame here offered yesterday morning if i would swear never as long as i lived to see the person who wrote that letter again that she those girls would as she put it refrain from breaking your heart well i refused her offer distinctly i told her she could do her worst she has done her worst she has sent for you she has dragged you all the way from to on a most useless errand it is what threats or you or she may bring to bear upon me i will never say by force who wrote that letter nor give any information concerning it or concerning that person i absolutely refuse to give up the idea of marrying him because he is the only man that i could ever love or that i ever could i might as well promise to give up my life itself i could not do it i should never keep the promise if i gave it i as you have found me out a little too soon that you will give me a very bad time for the next year or two i can t help that i must put up with it but speak i never shall until i speak of my own free will now with every word that passed the girl s lips the mother s heart grew harder and more determined she was very tired and the whole affair th e girls had come upon her with a shock which had tried her greatly she had passed a sleepless night of conjecture and doubt and on her long journey her mind had been torn a thousand ways in her attempts to account for the sudden and imperative summons which she had received from madame and now that the suspense was over and she knew the worst she was filled with anger at the daring of this girl but little more than a child as she was in | 30 |
thus boldly her anger and the probable punishment of the future and as she stood there with this beautiful defiant child before her the child who would make no explanation whatever who would not satisfy her even as to the social position of the lover she had picked up she knew not where a sudden fear came over her of the effect that a serious and ill matched might have upon the future prospects of her other three children and she made up her mind there and then that cost what it might must be placed for the next two years at least in a fold of absolute safety those girls well she said it is no use our continuing this painful discussion any longer you have had more than one opportunity of explaining everything and to a certain extent yourself in my good esteem you can go back to your room and i will discuss with madame what is best to be done with you some day perhaps you will be thankful that we were in time to stop you from a course so foolish so foolish in the case of all suitable marriages as to arrange for your future in this unwise and manner mother said in a softer voice i don t think that you ought to be so hard upon me or so certain that the man who loves me will play me false you ran away to be married yourself i ran away it is true said mrs looking at her daughter with cold and eyes but i ran away from a who had never been kind to me a who had all influence over the father who ought to have been the th e shield to me that i have tried to be to you i was fortunate in the husband that chose but even my happy experience does not make me believe that a young girl of your age without knowledge of the world without knowledge of human nature should be allowed to take her life entirely into her own hands my neither knew nor cared what my or my desires might be she did not in the least care what became of me she never wished to have my confidence you cannot say with truth that i have been as a to you if you had told me everything i might even have arranged for this marriage to take place i would at least have satisfied you if i found this man to be an husband for you as it is i shall have to deal hardly with you i cannot deliberately spoil your elder sisters chances in life by leaving you free to continue any love affair which you choose nor can i have who being three years younger than you should look up to you for an example of what she should be those girls by your perverse and ways now i have no more to say to you without a word more went back into the dark room madame closing the door and it behind her now my dear lady she cried in tender tones do take off your bonnet and refresh yourself with a wash and by brushing your hair and by that time i think the little meal that i have ordered will be ready thank you thank you said mrs i will come down in a few minutes so madame left her and presently she went down the steep stairs again to the cheerful little where an of fragrant soup greeted her till then she did not know how really hungry and she was madame le was exceedingly kind to her serving her and waiting upon her with and kindness you would like to see the child she asked when ine had cleared the table once more those girls yes answered mrs i should like to see very much so madame went away to fetch herself partly because she had been a long time absent from her flock and partly because she fancied that mrs would best like to see the child alone she went into the large where all the were assembled and said i want you yes madame cried jumping up in a great hurry for since had been in disgrace and for a reason that she did not know was prepared for any like calamity to fall upon herself come with me said madame then turned and left the room again she said taking the child s hand and holding it kindly when they reached the hall your mother is here mother i here cried yes she is here she has just arrived at least a short time ago she is in my little you can go in and see her tb e oh madame thank you exclaimed then sped into the like an arrow let fly from a bow mother i she cried bursting into the room why who ever expected to see you here what have you come for oh mother dear what is wrong with i haven t seen her since yesterday morning she is locked up in that horrid room of madame s what has she done i never knew do anything really wrong in my life never gets a bad mark always knows her lessons never quarrels is never never leaves her things never says a cross word to any human being and there she was yesterday morning as happy and as contented as ever you saw in all your life and all at once the very next thing i heard was that madame had shut her up in that room and i couldn t get anyone to tell me why well has done something very wrong said mrs gravely v well i m sure cried she never meant to tb e i am afraid that she did dear said the mother smiling sadly at the child s warm of her | 30 |
mind that if she would confide in her the might if a suitable one be arranged and carried out in a proper way good and devoted mother as she had always been to her girls mrs did not understand how to rebellion other than by sternly it when she opened the door of the inner room was sitting on the edge of her bed will you come here i want to speak to you said mrs in a voice which she tried hard not to make a cold one certainly mother said as she drew near to the warm stove she could those girls not repress the shudder which shook her whole frame you are very cold said mrs looking at her keenly oh starved to death answered promptly that comes you see said her mother of doing wrong oh h h dear groaned the girl fully believing that she was in for a repetition of the previous night s the long suffering tone and expression roused every shade of ire in mrs s composition she quite forgot that she had intended to try the effect of moral and she looked up sharply enough you had better sit down there and get warm she said is there no stove in that room no mother there is no stove and my food has not been of a very warming description answered it is your own fault you have behaved to me oh not at all mother at least i did not those girls mean to do so that i assure you returned without hesitation i suppose said mrs in disgusted accents that you never thought about me at all well mother dear i am afraid perhaps i did not well it is no use my arguing with you on that point i we should never agree even if we were to argue until the but i have come to ask you once more not as a matter of asserting my will over yours but in the hope that something may yet be arranged to make things agreeable for everybody that you confide in me the name of the man whose letter i showed you last night i am very sorry mother i cannot but why cannot you because i have promised that i would not but don t you understand child cried mrs in exasperated tones don t you understand that this man if he wishes to keep his identity so completely a secret from your own those people can have no really good intentions toward you no mother said i don t think i really don t think so and you positively refuse to tell me who he is yes mother i must then said mrs rising although i am very sorry for it i shall have no choice but to remove you from this house and place you under much and if in the future you feel yourself very hardly used you will perhaps remember that i gave you every chance of confiding in me and that i would have done my best to help you to the of your desires had it been practicable you will remember that it is entirely your own fault if you are not as happy in your next school as you have been in this one or perhaps i should say as you ought to have been pray go back into the inner room i have nothing more to say to you i am bound to say that it had never occurred to those g that her mother had had any idea of helping to bring her marriage with dick about she was very young and had not much knowledge of the world she felt as if her mother would use every effort to stop any marriage that she might desire to make and as if she would be sure to make a point of the truth to dick s people once she were in possession of his name and family so with the air and feeling of a young martyr she went head erect and lips tightly compressed into the inner room which was practically her prison and mrs went sadly downstairs again to tell madame how her scheme had failed then said madame there is nothing for it but my telling you as i offered to do last night the name of the to which one or two pupils have been sent from here these good sisters live on the very borders of not very far from it is a very strict religious community and the is entirely enclosed within very high walls and communication with the outer world is simply those there are no servants in the place being filled by working sisters those who have brought no fortune into the community their vows are even more strict than those of the well therefore is an absolute impossibility if you take there you will give instructions as to what line you wish taken with her and these instructions will be faithfully carried out and to the very letter i have usually found said madame in a meditative tone that six months at the of the sacred heart is enough to tame the wildest and most girl into absolute submission two i have had there for three months no starving no violence nothing of that kind oh no but at the end of the three months we had no no rebellion one of these girls i only needed to look at to bring her to my feet the other i had only to say you have been once to the of the sacred heart another time that you go there you will stay six months instead of three it was enough said madame looking tb s girls at the ceiling and touching her lip with her forefinger they don t starve them or anything dreadful of that kind the mother asked anxiously nothing of the kind whatever they are | 30 |
fed well i have seen their ordinary meals on many occasions and those pupils who have returned to me after a term at the have always declared to me that the food was plentiful and exceedingly well cooked there are no of a kind whatever i really can hardly tell you how the good sisters obtain their influence but they do obtain it and they maintain it and i must say that in those cases where i have seen it put in force i have seen the benefit of it as long as my acquaintance with the girl has lasted well it sounds horrible said mrs with a shudder but at the same time i have my other three girls to think of and i should never forgive myself if by being and soft hearted now i were to ruin their whole lives as i feel sure on my part just now those girls would do i really feel that for the sake of the others i must steel myself and simply my heart and mrs very did her heart she went off that afternoon to interview the good sisters of the of the sacred heart at or i should say near to for she had to hire a carriage at the station and it seemed a long and weary drive ere the white walls of the came in sight to the mother superior of the she told her story and implored her aid oh i madame said the good lady in a bland voice of perfect assurance you are worrying yourself too much these little events will happen when our daughters are young and pretty and it goes without saying that your daughter is pretty mrs blushed a little at the compliment and went on in rather a trembling voice to ask by what means they obtained so strong an influence over their young charges those that said the stately mother superior is one of the things that i cannot tell you really it is a sort of of ours to get influence over young people seriously i don t know how we do it we don t beat them and we never starve them we don t shut them up in prison as poor madame le has occasionally to do and yet we never know what it is to have a really pupil for one thing when they are naughty they are never left day or night for a moment they have always one of our good sisters praying over and beside them we never overlook any of their short but we pray for them incessantly and it is wonderful how the plan is mrs simply shuddered for a good woman such as she was she really felt great pity and for the but she was still hard she had no notion of giving in and allowing to take her sweet will with regard to the young gentleman called dick oh dear no it was quite a case of the heart of and it those grew harder and really more determined with every hour eventually she saw the little bedroom which would be s during her with the good sisters and she went back by the evening train having thoroughly tested the qualities of the cook and having promised to bring on the morrow and on the following day a sad little procession passed out from the big house in the avenue wearing a thick blue veil such as wear when travelling was brought out first much after the style of a prisoner of great importance and was placed in a closed the windows of which were closed on s side the little silk curtain was drawn to it was almost like a funeral it was certainly like the funeral of poor s love affair she could not help casting an eager glance around when she got into the street but no there was not a soul about there was no fond those lover waiting eagerly and anxiously for a sight of his beloved as she sped across the pavement nothing of the kind dick in truth was at that moment his head much over a letter that did not concern in any way and so the girl was hurried into the driven quickly through the town and with the same vigilance and care into a first class carriage of the train which leaves for between nine and ten in the it was a most tiresome journey they had a carriage to themselves and not one single soul got in to relieve the monotony of poor s disgraceful circumstances she was not even allowed to have a window corner j she was told to sit in the middle seat of the and did so with a of aspect that ought to have satisfied the hearts of both her mother and her they planted themselves one on either side of her and neither of them spoke to her except of necessity during the whole of that long cold and dismal journey those girls and when they arrived at they made the same progress that mrs had made on the day previously indeed they hired the same carriage and drove along the same stony dreary wretched road until the white walls of the came in sight the mother superior received them with open arms ah she said taking hold of s hand and drawing her within the folds of her ample robes we have made little mistakes we have gone astray from the right path but here in the of the sacred heart we will forget all that we will soon the past and we will go back home again and resigned to the will of those who know what is better for us than we know ourselves is it not so my little one now most of the young persons who were thus cast upon the mother superior s tender were in the habit of saying with a | 30 |
sob and with downcast eyes oh ma but not so she looked at the holy woman with straight and fearless eyes just as she those had looked at madame and her mother during the three previous days i don t think so madame she said quietly and yet with an air of extreme determination a faint smile across the mother superior s face we shall see what we shall see she said those chapter vi captain it is the fate of a woman long to be patient and silent to wait like a ghost that is speechless exactly as mrs had done in the case of so she did in the case of her two elder daughters on her return to she had been absent nearly a week and was naturally received with a thousand questions as to the reason of madame s and the consequences of her journey there is very little to tell said she quietly it was as said had got mixed up in a love affair how she managed it i cannot think but i suppose it all came of our letting them remain over the christmas holidays and allowing those girls them to visit among our old friends in if i had not had such a high opinion of s and good sense i should not have dreamed of allowing two young girls to remain practically in a gay little place like i am dreadfully annoyed about it however i did not find out who the young man was nor would satisfy me that i might trust her in future so i have taken her to the of the sacred heart near oh my gracious cried you don t mean it mother oh je i have said mrs and there for the present she will remain of course is left with madame le and knows nothing whatever of all this it is not necessary that she ever should know and if you two girls really wish to please me you will not speak about this either within or without our own walls the least said the mended and are we not to write to asked those i would rather that you did not the good sisters who seemed to be most kind and charming women particularly begged that she might not receive letters from home they in fact were to open all her letters and when i found how strong their wishes were upon the subject i consented that they should open mine also so on the whole it will be better if you girls do not write at all indeed i would rather that you did not now tell me all that you have done during my absence how did the party at go off oh cried glad enough to poor s to oblivion it was quite a lovely party and a lot of the new regiment were there such nice fellows too ever so much than the th and you know how lady is mother she actually had the taken up and let us have a dance wasn t it good of her very good said mrs and you really enjoyed it oh dear yes then on the wednesday they those girls had a big shoot at and lady who was at lady s afternoon asked us to go over in time to join the lunch which was taken to wood and we certainly had a most lovely time oh quite a delightful time we stayed out till dark and then we came back and dined at the you were asked there you remember oh yes to be sure said mrs i hope you told them on tuesday that i should not be able to go oh yes mother we sent down at once it was all right was it a nice party oh very nice who took you in to dinner well said it was really a party given for the new officers and one took in and another took me and another took who was looking extremely handsome and i don t know whether it isn t a case of love at first sight with her or i should say with both of them i had a very those girls good time said with a sigh at the remembrance of it so had i in my man is going to call during the week so is mine said oh i suppose so cried mrs smiling well i am glad you enjoyed yourselves and very glad that you like these new men because it does make a great difference in a little place like of course you didn t hint where i was oh no mother we told them all that you had gone to london for a day or two that s right she was really very wretched and down at heart about poor but the old proverb out of sight out of mind has a good deal of truth in it and the question can a mother forget may generally be very safely answered in the affirmative i do not mean that mrs forgot her daughter s existence but she after a few days taught herself to believe that it was necessary for s those social if not for her soul s salvation that she should be for an indefinite time in that dreary retreat near known as the of the sacred heart and she was a woman who had much to occupy her with the proper conduct of her house and with the welfare and pleasures of and so that by and by poor faded into the background and became a necessary evil rather than a trial to her well it happened that on the evening following mrs s return from london mrs gave a small dance at her charming house river cliff to which mrs and her girls were it was however a very very select affair only the very best people in the neighborhood and | 30 |
the officers from the garrison no being invited at all not two minutes after they had entered the room a tall and very good looking young man came up and spoke to i hope you have not given away all your those girls dances miss he said in a pleasant and easy voice no not all of them she replied in a very tone and i may have some why surely you know i tried your dancing the other day ah so you did that was lucky for me as it turned out for you might have tried my dancing so that your programme would have been full whenever you met me afterwards then i may have the first oh yes if you like thank you and i d like to have some more while i ve got the chance you shall have some more said how many would you like one more oh i should like them all he said promptly yes in an sort of tone but i am afraid you cannot have quite ah but if you like one other you can have it those no said he i won t be satisfied with one other i will have four others i don t think i can quite let you have four others can t you manage it is your mother a very strict i see that she s with you to night won t you introduce me and let me plead my cause you see i don t know many people here and of course mrs will not expect me to make myself agreeable all round mrs will probably take care that you do make yourself agreeable said think so oh i don t know she s got a lot of howling here to night i don t think she will trouble about me at all events miss mc i thoroughly believe in the old bible saying that god helps those that help themselves i don t think you ll find that in the bible said more than before no well it was written by some old fellow who knew what he was talking about it is a most sensible remark at all events if you wouldn t those girls mind my helping myself to a decent quantity of dances i be infinitely grateful and then i can have a good excuse if my charming hostess gives me to somebody i don t especially care about does she ever give you to anybody you don t like oh yes at least not mrs i ve never been at a dance here before but other never consider a man s feelings and are often most i have known more than one hostess went on s companion who would take a malicious pride in deliberately sending a man in to dinner with somebody that he detested now you can t think of anything more utterly mean than that i m sure oh most mean said she by the bye mrs didn t ask you to dance me tonight did she no not to night i asked you quite of my own you ll introduce me to your mother won t you those oh yes said i ll introduce you to my mother with pleasure when i don t introduce my partners to my mother i generally don t remember them when i meet them again well i defy you to forget me he said but let me see said with a air sir thomas introduced us but do you know i haven t the faintest idea what your name is my name is he replied she asked yes mr captain what captain francis to frank to still further me very well said then before we dance i will be dutiful and introduce you to my mother who is just here he was a remarkably fine looking and handsome young man this captain frank very broad shouldered and big with killing gray eyes those girls and a mouth that seemed made for smiles instead of bowing with the two phrases which are usual with young men whom one meets at dances how do you do charming dance isn t it he sat down by mrs and at once made himself agreeable to her i have been most anxious to be introduced to you he said looking at her i have been trying to persuade miss to give me four dances and she has been mean enough to it and give me but two she knows i can dance because she danced with me one afternoon at lady s tell me mrs are you a very strict no i never interfere about those matters said she smiling if my daughters were not capable of arranging their own dances i wouldn t take them to balls at all what a sensible mother said captain in a tone of great admiration i hope he went on after a moment that you will let me come and see you before long it is so those dull in not half such a good quarter as here scarcely anybody has taken any notice of us though to be sure they never do at first and we feel like a regiment of to night i positively don t know half a dozen ladies in the room i never saw our hostess before indeed i only know two ladies that i am at all anxious to dance with i m afraid you are very fastidious said mrs in much amusement not at all quite the contrary but of course i like to dance with a certain sort of young lady one likes to choose one s partners you know yes of course of course and there is the music so you must not stay here wasting time talking to me come and see me when you like will tell you the best time to find us and then | 30 |
he and went away and were soon lost in the moving throng of dancers i need hardly say that this bold and young gentleman did have his four dances and if those the truth be told one or two more besides which they spent in a sheltered nook under the stairs and i may come out and see you he said your mother said so oh yes you may come laughed sunday afternoon always finds us aa we really very seldom go into the parish my mother never and pretty often we are at home at five o clock on other days but then on the other hand pretty often we are out at that time i shall take my chance then he said in a tone of much satisfaction i went to the parish last sunday afternoon they always call the cathedral the parish in because i was told it was quite the right thing to like church parade in town on sunday morning i thought it very dull he went on they put me in an exceedingly uncomfortable seat between two two white and one of them insisted on me half of his big music book for the i didn t want it captain continued i had the use of my ears and a th d book of words is quite good enough for me without following the music of which i don t understand a note and it is such formidable work going up and waiting for your seat amongst all those rows of ladies and the seat look so scornful i suppose it is natural that the regular flock should look scornful at the occasional sheep oh i don t know said we never feel like that when we go and we always get a very good seat in fact we always sit in the lady margaret is very good about that but it s such a long way and we can t drive in a looking little trap on sunday and it s awfully to walk and stiu more to walk home and we generally have people who look in on sunday afternoon and somehow we don t very often go that s just the long and the short of it but i never feel shy of going into the parish she added oh well he returned i don t know that i m shy exactly but of course there are rows and rows of ladies and regular stall and all those people and of course it is an ordeal facing them especially when one has to walk out and take deep interest in the windows and the instead of speaking to one s friends as else is doing oh you will soon get over that said in one month you will know every man woman and child in the place as i do and how long have you lived here he asked oh not very long though long enough to have about two years she replied and before that he asked more that he might the conversation than that he really desired information oh before that time we lived in she said simply those chapter vii a family discussion take her to protecting arms with all her and all her charms time sped pleasantly by for the family at the days grew into weeks weeks into years two of them but neither of mrs s daughters had thought fit to leave the parent nest who was now three and twenty seemed as to marry as she had done at eighteen offers indeed she had had in plenty offers that were both good bad and indifferent but was dear mother she said one day when mrs was rather the fact of her having refused a high of the church dear bishop may be very handsome and very those girls popular and altogether fascinating and delightful and very young for his eminence but it is no use your saying anything he is not for me and after all he is only a bishop so pray don t try to me with him any more but he will be a bishop some day said mrs with delightful ignorance of matters to the church and he is a very handsome man and he is very well off with good private means i can t help it mother said i m very sorry when you have home again i ll take turns with all the dances indeed i ll stop at home altogether if you like but force me to marry somebody that i don t care about as one ought to care about one s husband however dear and sweet and charming he is dear mother he is not for me not for me well there was the general said mrs rather i know there was the general dear mother i know it he wore stays darling you wouldn t i those expect your to marry a man who wore would you well i don t see how you could have known how i could have known well i don t see how i could help knowing and pinch why there s not a single girl of my acquaintance that herself a quarter as much as general used to do no i really couldn t bring myself to marry general mother well you ve lost your chance now said mrs other people were glad enough to bring themselves to marry him oh dear yes after all it was only one of lady s daughters they re nice girls v went on but with her poor thing it was a case either of young or of marrying general and of course i would rather marry general than i would marry young i can t think why lady is so taken up with lady cried mrs for getting her grievance a little those money money my dear mother money it is for | 30 |
a great deal in this world and our poor dear lady is very keen on the acquisition thereof but for my ow n part cried with superb disdain i should say taken along with the it would be dear at the price but everybody knows their own know best in who was her feet by the fire and glancing idly through the london paper which had just come and you have definitely refused the bishop said mrs oh yes dear definitely i don t take any interest in church matters i don t care anything about nor new church organs nor all the different things that a bishop s wife has to take interest in really i m very sorry that i can t oblige you by marrying the bishop some girls are cut out for that sort of thing i really am not but you don t seem able to make up your mind what you are cut out for m mrs those no dear that s just it but you don t want to get rid of me do you i ll go when the right man asks me but he hasn t even shown himself yet of course i don t want to get rid of you what a dreadful idea only a marriage to a bishop with large private means is a good marriage and i should have been glad if you had seen your way to it it s a dreadfully good marriage dear said with an air of humility but not for me darling not for me most emphatically not for me by the bye mother said what are you going to do about i really don t know said mrs don t you think it is time was let out of prison you ll be having her turning into a or hanging herself by her stockings or something dreadful or other if you don t have her home soon and after all what did she do got mixed up in some absurd love affair we all had love affairs at madame s what those of course we had why and i both had desperate love affairs why was in that room for two whole days weren t you i was said and madame never told me said mrs oh my dear mother you surely haven t been so silly as to place faith in madame why she went through all the same scenes with us with it was hook officer we always used to call him little hook nose and he used to turn up his eyes and rattle his sword when we were out walking and he wrote a love letter such a love letter as it was too in such bad english and madame got hold of it of course she was always and about very improper call it to teach girls to and spy about as if a good looking girl like would want to marry a little hook officer on a week why nobody but a woman who had been silly enough to marry a herself would ever think of such a thing i those how was it you didn t tell me all this before cried mrs oh my dear mother do you think school girls would bring everything of that kind to their mothers and you never told us what was the matter with what she had done we knew it was something of the same kind all madame s why she had actually written the to summon you when gave in and promised she would never speak to the little man again as for me laughing at the remembrance of it i shall never forget my madame came one day into the where i was having a music lesson with such an idiot mother as you never saw in your life he was a little bit i admit it but there it didn t hurt anybody the fact was madame was on him herself that was about the english or of it oh i know madame i can read madame like reading a book she didn t shut me up in the room tiiat time because she came into the room those just as he had dropped on one knee and was beginning an interesting declaration of love beautiful and charming english lady he called it if you will but listen to my suit while i tell you how i love and you and then madame came in very quietly as she generally did and i saw by her face that she had heard him i must own i was rather hard on poor old that time for i got up and stood very and said as if i hadn t seen madame sir if you so far forget yourself again i shall have to complain to madame and madame sent me out of the room in an awful voice and as for poor old i saw him going out of the house half an hour afterwards like a dog with his tail between his legs he came any more and madame told me i had been discretion itself why my dear mother if she hadn t happened to come in just then i should have gone on with the poor old thing as far as i dared and be would have brought me and posted my letters and generally made himself most useful to me he did write to me after that but i thought it was not discreet to continue such a correspondence so i took the letter to madame you mean little wretch laughed quite right said mrs oh yes dear quite right but if none of your daughters get into worse trouble than i got into at no avenue you may think yourself one of the mothers in the united kingdom but about what are you going | 30 |
to do i don t know said mrs mother dear do you know that that poor child has been shut up in that dreadful place for just two years i know it that none of us have been allowed to write to her that she has never been home for her holidays what did she do when all s said and done well if i tell you said mrs you will remember that is not to hear one word about it shall not hear a word about it from us eh certainly not said who had a tremendous idea of keeping fifteen year old in her place then mrs told them all about the terrible letter which madame had discovered and about which had definitely and positively refused to give any information whatever was it an englishman s letter yes certainly it was did it strike you as the letter of a gentleman yes i must say it did then my dear mother how very silly you were not to the man s name out of was so obstinate so defiant murmured mrs why of course she was is a girl of spirit not to be got over by a thing like madame le a silly romantic old thing who is a perfect disgrace to her sex why mother i ve seen madame take up a glass that old the ts drawing master had drunk a out of i ve seen that silly old woman kiss the rim of the glass where his lips had touched it a old thing that you wouldn t pick up for nothing if you saw him lying in the street cried mrs oh yes you may say but it s perfectly true she didn t know i saw her but i did you must have been mistaken me mistaken mother dear i know madame a great deal better than you do you only see the society and strictly proper side of madame it isn t girls like with wills and minds and opinions of their own who get on at no avenue not a bit of it it s a girl who ll look i at madame and say darling how sweet you look to day or dearest madame how that dress becomes you i ve never seen you look so charming in anything before that s the kind of girl who gets on in that establishment and i used to do it a good bit didn t we simply because it was advantageous and we got a no most better time and the silly old thing didn t see that it was all put on didn t she tell you what sweet and girls we were yes she did admitted mrs well all i can say is said with a laugh that it s a thousand madame hasn t got charge of us now for a few days we should very soon her all this is a revelation to me cried mrs in a tragic voice well you see dear you didn t take us into your confidence when you came back and we naturally felt a certain delicacy in asking what had done and besides you us and sat upon us and we didn t want to seem to be over any trouble that poor was in but we think a great deal more of than madame and we would take s word before madame s any day oh of course she wouldn t tell after madame had been at her s not the girl to do that s a girl of spirit of course dear mother we don t like to ill find fault with you because never were girls who had such a mother as you ve been to us but at the same time we do think you ve treated poor very harshly and after all she s only eighteen now and it s very hard she should go on being shut up over a letter that somebody else wrote to her isn t it shall i send for home again asked mrs in a voice of despair i should if i were you said give the poor child a good time and don t say anything about the old cat at all treat her as if she d come home from an ordinary school and buy her some pretty clothes mother and make a lot of her you don t know what a dear child is mother she s worth all the rest of us put together i don t know so much about that said the mother smiling at them but i ll take your advice children and she shall come back well let her come back with a clean slate if she does said sensibly don t ever throw the past at her yes we shall do that perhaps i have been too harsh but with sudden apprehension supposing that that man finds her out again well dear mother he can t eat her did father want to eat you when he ran away with you besides probably all the conditions of his life are changed and he is two years older and so is she i wouldn t worry so about it if i were you only make up your mind that is coming home and that we are not going to have any of any kind why the very fact of her being with us who are clear headed and sensible girls ought to be quite enough to keep as clear headed as you can possibly desire i i chapter the resolute will of a strong man means and nobly with his foe to achieve great deeds in accordance with her promise to her daughters mrs sent instructions to the mother superior of the of the sacred heart of that the and unfortunate should return home at the term and she told the mother superior that she would | 30 |
either send to fetch her or provide a suitable escort for the homeward journey you had better let me go mother said when her mother was wondering what would be the best plan for her to follow let you go she exclaimed those oh yes dear i could run down by the train to and cross that evening and i should reach the next day believe me mother dear it will be better for and for her coming home again and breaking her into family life once more if i go to fetch her rather than if you do and really dear a girl who can refuse a general and a bishop can very well be trusted to make a little journey to oh i was not thinking of that said mrs hastily well then dear if you will go and fetch and i will go to london and you can meet us there that would be very nice said that would answer every purpose admirably well in due time arrived and who had not been by the good lady who was the ruling spirit of the of the sacred heart of her approaching return to home and freedom was startled one evening by being told to go into the mother superior s private those she opened the door and went in hesitatingly not knowing whether it might be some priest who would try to bring her to what the mother superior was pleased to call a sense of her wickedness but no it was no priest but was a young and pretty woman in a smart little hat who greeted her astonished eyes said a voice why she cried with a half sob yes it is i dear catching her in her arms and holding her very closely to her it is i dear come to fetch you home has anything happened to mother asked suddenly growing very white nothing at all dear except that she has confided in us at last and has suddenly woke up to the fact that madame le is a silly old fool much given to making mountains out of hills and i have come to fetch you home darling and we will never never have any or anything horrid between us again and i have only known a weeks you those were shut up here for au this long cruel time dearest i want you to pack all your things together and let us get away by the first train in the morning i am tired with my long journey but i am going to ask superior to let you come down to the hotel with me and we will have dinner together she won t said with conviction the girl was trembling and pale as death her eyes were bright with tears but they did not their usual bounds the door opened and the mother superior came in herself instantly the smile left her face the tears seemed to be thrust backward from her eyes and she became like a statue or as one who was frozen ah good day the holy woman said in a very bland and voice and how do you find this little one looking well madame said deliberately i think she has been here too long the life of the is not the best for a young girl who is intended to go out into th world after all and two year is ft those girls long time to be shut off entirely from your kindred but i must say that i think my sister looks very well in health and not at all as if you had fed her on prison diet but madame i hope that you will grant me a great favor to night i have just arrived and am very tired and hungry do you permit me to have the company of my sister at the hotel i would so much rather not be alone there oh assuredly with a polite gesture this little one has done with us now she is no longer a pupil of the of the sacred heart and you are a steady young lady chosen by her mother to take charge of her on her way home i have no fault to find with miss her conduct here has been absolutely we do not have trouble with our pupils often the only wish that i would have liked her to with is to give up the name of the man who was enough to wish to her from her school in my sister not give up that madame j those girls she had passed her word that she would not do so am i not right yes said in a steady voice we english people do not break our word went on with a sudden dignity which made the mother superior long to have her for a good long spell in the of the sacred heart we would rather die than break our word at any time we do not here take national prejudices into consideration we set a certain line of conduct for our pupils such as we believe to be the best for them and if they do not fall in with our we consider that an act of is that my sister s only act of asked quickly the only one admitted the superior then i think you can have very little almost nothing to complain of my mother will be very pleased to hear of it i must say added in a very haughty voice that i don t think madame acted very kindly or very wisely in those ing this child putting her hand on s shoulder an outcast from her people and an object of disgrace among her fellow pupils after all she went on with as much of a sneer as a well bred girl could allow herself after all it was but that my sister had the misfortune | 30 |
to be found out all the girls in madame le s establishment have love affairs i and my second sister were there for some years we know the establishment well and we know madame herself she had the misfortune so far as we are concerned to persuade my mother not to confide in us and it was not till a few weeks ago that my mother told us the reason of my sister s imprisonment here oh pray do not call her among us by so hard a name said the mother superior smiling slightly and wishing still more that she could have the control of miss s fortunes for a year or so you can t call it anything else said with a careless air then if you will allow my sister to go with me now i shall be very grateful those as glancing at the watch on her wrist i ordered dinner for eight o clock certainly my child turning to and taking both her hands my child i give you into your sister s care you are going out into the world and i hope that you will remember in after years that we did not ask you to come and join our life that we but followed the desires of your mother in keeping you so strictly under as we have done excepting that you have been too faithful in keeping your word i have had no fault to find with you thank you superior said i will try to remember the mother superior then saluted miss and with a few muttered words which might have been a or just the other thing herself noiselessly out of the room my poor darling said as the door closed behind the holy woman i m afraid you have suffered a perfect here s d taking hold of her s th e hands and holding them hard i have not suffered a but my ufe has been one everlasting hell you don t know what these holy women do they use prayer for a they use holy devotion for a punishment if you don t follow out every order strictly and to the letter they come to you in and they pray over you and for you day and night without ceasing i have known what it is to wish there was no god to wish that prayer had never been invented i have known what it is to religion and religious people i assure you that to keep my faith with the man that i loved once i have endured weeks and months of and agony my dear we will make you forget all that said holding her sister s head close against her shoulder we will go home and open a new book you will find that mother is something more than sorry that she was so entirely led as she was by that foolish old woman at she did what she thought was for the best and i hope darling that you will never reproach h x for those girls this cruel time in your life nobody can regret it more than she does and after all dear she has been a very good mother to all of us we will go back and we will try to forget that these dreadful two years have ever been most girls would have broken down at such a genuine expression of sympathy and of kind thought for the future not so her eyes were bright but she seemed to have forgotten how to shed tears and ten minutes later when she had fetched her hat and fur trimmed coat the two sisters went out of the heavily barred door crossed the and were let out of the outer door opening into the street by the sister who performed the office of how many times have you been outside this door asked putting her arm through s never said what cried her sister never said i have never seen the street for two years i have passed the whole time within those dreadful walls i told you just now that life had been a hell to me why even until i walked into the superior s little this afternoon i had not the least idea that there was any prospect of my going home at all my poor darling cried it seemed as if she could not make enough of the young sister who had suffered so much for what to her seemed so slight a cause the following they went up to the and fetched away all s then they said good bye to the mother superior as they both hoped for all time the mother superior uttered some over but i greatly fear that as they followed the most terrible two years of her whole ufe they were as good seed cast upon stony ground nay even the good seed which fell upon stony ground made an attempt to spring up until the sun withered it but to they fell as upon a dead heart not word did utter to her sister of tha lover for whose sake she had endured this terrible time they travelled that day from to for as very truly said it was perfectly impossible that could travel without at least a new hat and some new shoes besides one or two other trifles of dress such as the good sisters of the of the sacred heart had not troubled to tell her mother were necessary for her they went to the quiet de i europe when they reached and as soon as they had settled themselves in their room and had removed the traces of their journey from themselves they went off first down the and then down the de la in quest of a new hat for now in buying a hat is a very serious matter for you see the most beautiful hats and set out in the | 30 |
shops but as they are never but only pinned together they can never sell you that particular article but have always to make you one in copy of it however they did succeed in getting a fashionable and pretty head covering promised for that evening and then they went off after shoes and slippers and after gloves and handkerchiefs and a few pretty new and ties for to wear with her two years old tailor made gown would you like to go and have an ice and some asked when they had finished their and of the happy school days when they had gone off sometimes in charge of a young for a good feed at the sweet shops oh i should cried they were very wicked that afternoon both of them i mean that they were in a wicked mood gay and over with mischief even was gay who had almost forgotten how to be so they went to a delightful shop in the de they had and and tempting looking cakes all cream and jam and they wound up with a tiny glass of each well perhaps it was rather a fast thing for two tm e young women to do to drink in the afternoon but considering the of which they had eaten previously i think it was an exceedingly reasonable and wise thing after such a doubtful feast now what shall we do before dinner we have an hour and a half said it s a lovely afternoon and it won t be dark for ever so long yet shall we go on a and go wherever it goes and come back with it oh lovely cried i suppose you won t care to go and call at that silly old woman s at no avenue i shouldn t think so said in a disgusted tone is there any place where you would like to go no no dear no answered but had got it into her head that did want to do some particular thing then shall we get on a and go the entire round of the city tb e girls yes that would be lovely the girl cried so they strolled up to the place and demanded tickets for the entire tour said when they had nearly completed the circle of the city do you know what i think no said how should i i think dear she said gently that you are rather on the for some particular person tell me darling i don t want to into your secrets i only want to be the best and kindest and dearest of sisters to you but tell me dear strictly between ourselves are you not looking out for him those chapter ix pain and folded hands are not necessarily resigned ones you looking out for darling said in her kindest and most tones for a moment was tempted to tell her sister everything but she had not been in that terrible for two whole weary years without a break to no purpose and in an instant the little of affection the momentary longing to reveal the inmost recesses of her heart to some kindly human being passed and she turned round upon her sister with a face that was as as a face out of stone oh no dear she said you fancy things i ve been so long shut up among those dreadful girls sisters whose faces when i did happen to see them which was not very often were for the most part like without passions without hope of the future or even pleasant memories of the past i am excited dear to see even walking about the street in their looking blue remember i have never seen a street for two years my poor darling cried tenderly remember went on that i had not the least idea of what fashion has been doing for two years until i saw you and you in your pretty frock were like a creature from another world i ve been dead for two years she went on with a more passionate outbreak and you must not be surprised that i have come back to life with something of surprise and astonishment about my whole bearing because although because i have only been dead two years it has seemed like two centuries oh dear it s not the busy happy lives that go by too quickly what that is it s the dull days that go ts by one after another until yon lose count of them and you only know that it is sunday by a difference in the prayers i very often did not even know that at first they seem slow then to glide away without anything to mark their flight then they seem to get endless i swear to you that i have never once been left alone during the whole of the two years that i have been shut up in that place i have never once been left alone for a single moment with one of my fellow pupils did one ever say good morning to me or look as if she would like to kiss me a black sister parted us instantly i believe that all the other girls had been sent there for some form of punishment but i believe that they thought i had committed a murder and they never knew that i had only been sent to prison with hard labor for the crime of having kept faith my dear you must try and forget all that said holding her sister s hand very tightly forget i said turning her lovely eyes those upon her i never used to know what it was to wish to forget but now i quite understand why those ith apparently every happiness in life pray and long for f i quite understand why the old are glad to die and be at peace | 30 |
forever don t talk about it she went on with sudden vehemence let me pick up my old life in my own way don t ask me any questions some day perhaps i will tell you everything not because i don t love you now dear but because the wound which might have healed if treated rightly is too deep and too sore now that it has been and kept open all these weary weary months talk to me about anything else but ask not to mention it to me if lean forget that i have been in prison it will be because you all do not remind me of it i will do whatever you like dearest said in her kindest voice anything that you like i will do anything to help you to forget this terrible time but see here we are at the place a ain t e have still n hour before w those girls need of dinner shall we go down the de la again or shall we go down the oh down the said i had a vision of a lovely sweet shop there as we came along just now she veiy quickly recovered the brilliant spirits in which she had been ever since the outer gate of the of the sacred heart had closed behind them forever and the sisters went arm in arm up the broad handsome street almost their noses against the windows of the charming shops so the nearest approach that made towards confiding her heart s secret to any other than her own self passed and went by they went back to the de europe dined and very soon afterwards went to bed accustomed to excitement and change dropped asleep almost immediately but to whom the events of the last few hours had been joy and delight passed but a restless night f into the hours aud j those sleeping until she heard the maids begin stirring about below lie there she could not she got up and dressed although the water was icy cold and the morning light faint and gray and when she got downstairs she found chaos an a and generally surprise and and almost resentment upon the faces of every servant that she met she had taken down her hat and coat with her and so she went for a brisk walk round the park returning finally to find having just opened her eyes and rung for coffee and rolls you lazy creature she said do you get up at this time every morning well i generally get up later than this admitted why said four o clock in the morning for two whole years has seen me out of my bed r such as it was a plank and a rug or two dreadful i couldn t sleep last night those bed was so soft i have been for a brisk walk round the park dear me how dreadfully energetic you are i hope we shall soon cure you dear of such an uncomfortable for it won t suit anybody at to be up at four o clock in the morning it invariably means that you re dead sleepy at night just when life is beginning well perhaps but you re going to get up after you ve had your coffee i suppose oh yes yes only give me time to open my eyes protested we had rather a hard time yesterday what are you going to do with yourself in the meantime i think said deliberately that i shall walk up the avenue and look at the outside of the house where i died i cried i don t think if i meet madame le i said seriously that she will escape with her life those my dear cried who believed every word that her sister said if i were to go for madame le said she would have a very short and no favor my how she would however i shall not see her for i suppose it is just the time when she goes over to england with some of her wretched victims and returns with a of other poor creatures who are taught to be sly and and but i should like to see the outside of the house all the same well my dear do as you like said have another roll there s plenty more hot milk and coffee yes i think i will said who had a fine healthy appetite and was not ashamed to own it so when they had finished their meal she went dow n again and out into the street she turned in to the left and went down the de la to the but there was nothing worth seeing there it was too early in the year she looked jn a few lace shops m m climbed the steep those street again she bought a newspaper of the old woman sitting in her place at the comer and then she turned up the de towards the avenue well it was a satisfaction to the girl to stand on the opposite side of the road and the windows of madame le s residence to think of the last time that she had crossed that pavement of the eager way in which she had looked up and down hoping to catch a glance of him for whom she had been condemned to forego all that makes life for the space of two weary years she wondered where he was now she was wearing an elderly blue gown with an elderly coat and a still more elderly blue sailor hat upon her head with her hands in the pockets of her elderly coat she walked slowly on until she came to a seat and there she sat down and thought about the past she wondered where dick was now she wondered whether b b d grasped truth that she | 30 |
time was supplied with a carefully thought out wardrobe fit for a young lady about to come out in society mrs and her daughters returned to the now until they were fast by the express train which was taking them there had asked no questions about their friends or their mode of life to mrs the terrible reserve which seemed to her daughter had come with a shock and a dreadful sense of wrong doing on her own part she realized now that it was too late that was changed beyond all manner of recall she had used to be in those old days before the shaft of love had winged its flight to part them the most open and the most young girl possible to imagine with great strength of character yes that is true yet so frank so open so witty so full of fun always up to some gay or other innocent fun enough yet with never a sting or bitter word or thought to wound any one but now was changed and apparently so for hours she was accustomed to sit perfectly still and quiet doing nothing and to all appearance thinking of nothing speaking with perfect good temper when spoken to quite as told her more than once the of the little girl or big girl who should be seen and not heard ah said one day in answer to some those such sally madame le talked about fitting her charges to take their place with credit to her and satisfaction to their parents in the great world of fashion old fool whose opinion of her late was not a very high one superior on the contrary hated the world and all its works went on so far as she was concerned so far as the poor wretched sisters were concerned and so far as the still poorer and more wretched prisoners i mean pupils were concerned the world was not for them might wax and kings marry or die fashions rise and fall great ministers of state rise into or fall out of favor crops fail floods the land whole towns be burned to ashes they were all as one to the mother superior of the of the sacred heart her business lay within the four walls of her the lives hopes fears passions of those outside it had no more interest for her than those of the of an ant hill but it was not until the train from london to e was the latter place that asked any questions concerning the society in which her mother and sisters moved what sort of people are there in she asked oh a very good lot returned they were sitting in the opposite corner of the carriage to her mother and a very good lot it depends of course entirely upon the set you re in we happened to get into a very good set it s a queer place is some people happen to go there with every for becoming leaders of society in a small way and nobody takes the slightest notice of them and some people go there with a sort of feeling that they ve been nobody in the past and that probably they ll be nobody in the future yet somehow they catch on and become great people in it s a very queer place but of the people you know persisted you see it s so long she added since i was at home that i know very little of those girls the people that you knew then i doubt if i remember half a dozen names well there s a lady and there s lady of and there s lady margaret and there s the new bishop and his wife and there s mrs oh they re a good lot oh yes but those are all fixed up people said i mean young people young people repeated well of course there s the usual sort of thing there are the sons and daughters of the people one s mother knows they re all about the same class as their parents a little bit better some of them but where improvement was most greatly needed i can t see that it is to be found as to the men we know why they are a very considerable quantity first of all there is captain he s an awfully nice fellow said with a meditative not to say expression captain echoed in a breathless voice those girls yes dear he s in the th that is to say he was at two ago in the th and he has just come back as a d c to the general and has plenty of time to spare and hasn t got to live in and dine at mess and all that sort of thing oh he s a very attractive man is captain and you like him said with a catch in her voice like him oh my dear i don t mind telling you said turning up her eyes to the ceiling of the carriage i m awfully gone on him he s so handsome and he s so nice in every way i liked him awfully two years ago when he was with the th but now that he s come back for at least five years unless he or the general gets promotion i m simply in heavenly bliss of course he has to trot round a good bit after the general s wife but equally of course poor thing she isn t the kind of woman that would get much attention without an a d c of her husband s to trot after her as part of his those for a moment there was dead silence gazed out of the that she saw captain s handsome features reflected in the passing landscape sat still | 30 |
turned as to stone wondering if after all her weary waiting she was to have the pain of seeing her dear dick make love to her equally dear sister did i say equally dear well i did not mean quite to express that but to one of her dear sisters she pulled herself together with a great effort and asked about other people in the town keeping s mind quite clear of any idea that she had even heard of captain before in all her life and when they got home the first thing naturally that the two elder girls did was to fly to the hall table and see what cards had been left during their absence there were a good many and the one nearest to the edge of the table bore the name of captain f r and below the a few words those girls pencil i thought you would have been home before this put the card down as if it had burned her and turning to said in a strange and cold voice which room am i to sleep in am i to have one to myself or not certainly dear child cried her mother answering for her daughter your room is all ready and very pretty take her up and show it to her i shall be dreadfully disappointed if you do not appreciate it i shall love it mother responded in a voice i could not say whether sent a little note down to the handsome and popular a d c s chambers which would let him know that they had returned but on the following day he called at the it was rather an odd coincidence seeing that he had called but a few days previously he did not call alone he was accompanied by his brother lord and when he was announced happened to b in the study with those girls her mother doing something in the way of answering notes which naturally enough was considered the duty of the latest home comer oh well dear we won t go for a few minutes said her mother pleasantly you see captain is so devoted to dear that i expect to receive a little visit from him almost any day i don t see what else can happen i never interfere once my girls come out i never interfere with matters of this kind oh i think you need not trouble about that mother said carelessly if you like him and likes him and he likes there is no more to be said is there lord who comes so often with him mrs went on in a tone of admirably suppressed triumph is apparently equally devoted to really i don t know that one could expect a more brilliant match for each of one s daughters he is quite as nice as captain and of course very well off and very and au that an he w are great tb e friends he seems to me to stay a good deal here with captain but i think the attraction lies more in the direction of the than it does in st thomas s street where captain s chambers are i said who was too sick at heart on her own account to feel anything but indifference as to her sister s love affairs now dear said mrs if you will answer all those letters in the and say no to all the others say it nicely dear mother is very sorry but she has faithfully promised to do something on that day and so will not be able to come to your party nothing than that my child it doesn t do to offend people in a little place like so began writing the notes and presently mrs sailed away saying that she really must not leave the young people alone any longer but come in darling when tea is ready whether you have finished or not such a relief to these notes done for me by my girls those and curiously enough it happened that just writing the address of the last little note a refusal when came in to say that she had taken tea into the drawing room very well said she i will go but she did not go straight to the drawing room she went upstairs to her own room and washed her hands bathed her hot temples with scent and then held them against the cool glass of the window pane then feeling that she must be brave and meet the awful which was before her without showing any of the white feather signs she took her courage in both hands and went down to the drawing room it was cold chill dusk outside but the drawing room was warmly and softly lighted and a pleasant fire blazed upon the hearth captain was sitting talking to mrs with his back to the door it was a fair head and s heart danced so in her bosom and such strange weird shapes came floating in front of her eyes that she never doubted for a moment but tb t it li r pick those and this is my third daughter said mrs in a bland and tone the stranger got up instantly and held out a very friendly hand such a friendly hand as a man would hold out to his sweetheart s sister whom he had never seen i am so charmed to meet you he said pleasantly put a little clay cold hand into his and in a measure held on to him for support for it was not and the of feeling was almost too much for the girl in spite of her long training in acquiring self control you are very cold he said in his kind interested tones just a little cold she said trying to smile but looking very white and drawn don t you feel well | 30 |
dear asked not very bright answered bravely a cup of tea will do me good it s all right oh don t take any notice of me i m not going to faint or anything of that kind j felt sick coming into those this warm light room a little after being np stairs i m all right she sat down and took the cup of tea which he handed to her but refused to eat anything with it and presently as she drank the hot she came more to her own senses and was able to look at her sister s admirer with differently interested eyes to those with which she had looked at him before she saw then how easily she might have been mistaken he was not unlike her dick for he was tall and fair with a determined turn of the chin and a gracious ease of manner which undoubtedly had helped to make him one of the most popular men in dear me said mrs to i wonder where your sister and lord are oh don t disturb them mrs said captain good well that s very pretty at a dance said the mother with an amused laugh but when it is afternoon tea and hot i don t tb e think that it s kind to let people idle about a damp or some equally uncomfortable or place do you oh i don t know he returned i think if i was happy i d rather be left at the bottom of a well than be brought up to all the tea and in the world but i don t know that they are happy said mrs smiling i hear their voices said they are there was a faint light glimmering in the which lay between the drawing room and the morning room opened the door and came in followed by a tall fair haired man oh fancy your not letting us know that tea was ready how detestable of you she said speaking to them generally lord let me introduce you to my much beloved sister m e chapter xi the pain of an old wound set thy heart aright and constantly endure for a moment there was profound silence then taught in the school of patience to endure looked up into the eyes of the only man that she had ever loved and held out her hand to him i am very pleased to meet you she said in an ice cold voice and ji came from between his teeth but turned abruptly away and went back to the tea table where she sat down by who was there and began to turn her idly round and round in her cup who had seen nothing gathered nothing of the tragedy which had taken place between these moan two sat down on a not far from the table and made a gesture to that he should come and sit beside her i do think it was too bad of you not to let us know that tea was ready she went on in a gay laughing voice don t you think so lord oh i do he said promptly trying hard to speak in a natural voice frank old fellow i think it was real mean of you yes dick always pitch into the younger son that s the worst of being a younger son captain went on to the room in general he s a sort of everlasting to his swell of an elder brother and then knew why this lover of s had deceived her for a moment into thinking that he was dick for he and dick were brothers my dear chap said lord as he fetched s cup of tea trying to catch a glance of s eyes the while you ve had the best of it all along i ve got the title and tm s and the money put in captain quietly yes yes the money but not everything then he took his own cup of tea seeing that resolutely avoided looking at him and sat down on the beside handsome by the by mrs he said after a minute or so changing his tone to one of ordinary gravity my brother and i secured seats at the theatre to night it is almost the end of the and i assure you it s really won t you give us the pleasure of going there with us i shall be charmed said mrs quite charmed i was very lucky to get eight seats and i have asked two other men and sir john won t you dine with me early at the hotel before we go to the theatre oh it would be most pleasant said mrs mc graciously but do you mean all of us he looked round with an odd little smile i why yes he said which of you could leave out it seemed like an eternity to before they themselves away but in reality it was not very long for captain s dog cart came round to the door in less than half an hour after he and she had met for the first time how hard he tried to get just one word alone with but it was impossible she never raised her eyes to his she answered his remarks and questions only in and the little hand that she gave him when he went away although as he said by way of excuse it was but au instead of good bye might have been the hand of a dead girl is that said he to his brother as they drove along the dusky lanes is that the sister you told me about frank the one that was at school in yes and isn t she pretty pretty i shouldn t have thought of using the term pretty to her no i | 30 |
don t call her pretty said lord decidedly how long has she been at home came home yesterday i think where has she been i haven t the faintest idea old chap i believe i don t think that she s been in but of course i don t know you really admire oh yes really and truly and i think likes you old chap i hope with an affectionate little squeeze of the elbow nearest to him i hope that you ll be happy when you get her and i should like to be the first to congratulate you thank you old fellow said captain and then turning in his seat he looked at his brother sharply and dick old chap he said anxiously you don t seem over and above bright to night what s the matter nothing said lord looking steadily over the horse s ears tm s yet you don t look like yourself i m sure something a wrong what is it old man haven t you and the handsome got along as well as you generally do better said he bitterly i wish we didn t get along quite so well oh for shame dick my dear fellow getting a has been the ruin of you upon my word for two years past you haven t been the same man that you used to be lord what fun you were when you were only dick of the old with all your work cut out to keep off your wits and things i can t help it old fellow said lord rather humbly are apt to get too much for us and it isn t all beer and being a peer of the british realm that i can promise you but i thought dick that you were greatly taken with miss you thought wrong frank i never was those oh but i say old chap her mother thinks so i can t help what her mother thinks but look here old fellow you might just oblige me in one way i will if i can well you needn t cool off till i ve got settled need you at this lord simply burst out laughing my dear fellow you mustn t ask me to compromise myself with a lady because you want to get engaged to her sister i don t think that s quite the kind of manners one expects from you why then my dear chap did you go and ask them all to a dinner party to night and why get the theatre tickets that s what i want to know oh i wanted to make things easy for you perhaps anyway make the most of your time tonight make hay while the sun shines now here we are i ll get down and be sure you re not later than ten minutes past seven those how strange it was at home in the little pink room that had been got ready specially for her was lying on her bed face down and stifling the hot sobs by pressing her face down close against her pillow and two minutes after the brothers had parted at the door of the hotel dick had on reaching his room turned roughly to his man and told him he shouldn t want him again at present and had dropped upon the chair nearest to the dressing table and was hiding his face upon his arms i won t say that the man was actually crying or that he was even sobbing as the girl who loved him was doing at that very moment but after two weary years they had met again god help them both with cold averted eyes on one side and doubt or sickening dread on the other oh dick oh what an ending to a love story so unselfish so tender so faithful and so true as the story which those two had under the trees of the avenue little more than two s i well it is good for us that in very few those tions of life can we indulge ourselves in the luxury of grief neither of those two could afford to do so at that moment lord had asked seven people to dine with him he was bound to dress and be ready to receive them and was going out to her first dinner party as a society lady to meet her old love dick in the new guise of her favorite sister s lover i don t know how the girl dressed and made herself in the time that she had in which to do so she had not wept certainly so that her eyes were neither red nor swollen but her face of its lovely color was drawn and lined with pain her eyes set in black rings and dilated with the anguish of the past hour she could not make herself in one sense although she was beautifully dressed and her mother exclaimed at her appearance when she met her later on in the hall only under cover of the friendly darkness of the cab which took them to the hotel took hold of her younger sister s hand and held it tenderly in her own knew the other two never even suspected oh well well when i say that knew i do not mean to convey that she knew that lord was the same man who had written the letter which had gained for two years imprisonment and worse than imprisonment not at all not for a moment but she did know that something had gone wrong with s heart she knew it by her own mrs said lord you will take the head of the table will you not so he contrived to have on one side of him and on the other and on s other hand was young mr a | 30 |
gay and young gentleman belonging to the cavalry regiment then at but not one word beyond the replies to his questions and remarks could lord extract from to him with no idea having entered hia head of marrying there seemed no reason that she could not take up their inter those girls love story just where it had been so cruelly brought to an end to believing that he was her sister s choice believing that he had of his own free will chosen as his future wife he was as much a stranger as if they had never met before only once indeed did he almost succeed in breaking down the wall of ice and reserve that she had reared between them for as if a sudden memory had come to him of that sweet shop in the de he suddenly stretched forth a long arm and took a dish of from the table miss he said won t you have some she looked up at him then and shook her head no she said i haven t eaten for years and on the other side of the table hearing her answer and remembering the girl s excellent and healthy appetite for all sorts and conditions of but a fortnight previously when they those were wandering about wondered what the strange answer could possibly mean why she cried almost looked up at her with those same eyes which were almost breaking the heart of the man who sat between them i should have said except once she answered then why not twice said lord eagerly i couldn t eat one to night she answered and i think she went on in a very low voice that are very bad for us oh what an evening of agony it was not pain not anger not misunderstanding exactly but of sheer agony and anguish indescribable he contrived again that he should sit next at the theatre indeed once more he sat between and they had an entire row of the dress circle which is the most select part of the theatre at he did manage it very cleverly sir john who was a bold and squire and mighty hunter he sent in first then those girls mrs then then then himself then then captain and last of all now as a matter of fact mrs and sir john were by way of being quite intimate friends she said that he was a charming man quite a type of the old english gentleman and he said by jove she s one of the most sensible women that i ve ever known it s almost impossible to believe that she s got a handful of grown up daughters so he having nobody on his right hand did not turn his attention from mrs and mrs naturally did not take very much interest in young who was a charming boy about three or four and twenty now naturally enough mr did not see sitting between mrs and miss so he so and persistently talked to that she was not able to get more than a word or two with lord during the whole evening and as lord s brother was equally well occupied with those it became almost that and her old lover should so to speak pass the time of day with one another now lord had never been a in love even when he was not by any means sure of coming in for the estates and now that he was a nobleman with not a care in the world of a sordid description that is he was not at all likely to show the white feather he said to her in a whisper during one of the scenes of the where have you been all this time why did you never write to me how was it you never let me have any answer to my last three or four letters i never got but one answered and it s too late to talk about that now but teu me where have you been he persisted i have been in prison she said with a shudder but where at the of the sacred heart at she replied you don t say so do you know that the good natured who had been their go between while she was under madame le s roof told me that everything had been found out that you had refused to give up my name and that you had refused to say how you received my letters i knew it was just like you darling and she told me that she could only believe that you had been taken to that hole at and i wandered round and round and round that place like a dog watching a rat in a cage and never a sign did i see of you that was not at all unlikely said in a frozen voice because you see i was never once outside those walls for two whole years and all on my account he said all on your account she replied but you don t blame me for it i blame you for nothing she said in a choking voice only the past has gone by forever it can never come back again things can never be as they were then everything is altered change has fallen over the whole world at least over world and mine and after to night lord you must never speak to me again as you have spoken to me now you must never speak to me any differently than you would have spoken to me if i were the stranger to you that my people think me but why he asked oh she cried in a voice of pain you know why as well as i do i chapter xii the hardest task of all beware of losing heart in consequence of injury for the | 30 |
bringing them back after flight is difficult that night lord went back to his hotel pondering over what had said and wondering what she could possibly mean he could hardly think it conceivable that she could feel towards him for the fact that she had been in that dreadful during those two long years he had not very much time at his disposal because his leave of absence from the english in was not very long nor had he very much time to think of what he could do for some half hour after he had turned into his sitting room and was smoking a and thinking of his brother came in with a rush and those a whirl and told him with many a hum and and a sort of half shame faced pride that he and had that night made up their minds to run in double harness together now old chap you ll do the last offices for me won t you he said what do you mean best man of course answered well i didn t exactly mean best man he said but you see old chap it s a awkward thing going and talking to a girl s mother about one s prospects and all that and i thought you d be the proper person as head of the family to just how things stand eh i don t mind doing it said lord good and with a wild wish that he could go and do likewise for himself and another of mrs s daughters i d better go up to morrow afternoon then eh oh hadn t you better make it the morning asked captain rather awkwardly no i don t think i d better make it the mom tb m ing i d better make it about three o clock in the afternoon and then you can come along at and you can hear all that there is to hear i can tell you what the old lady he went on she ll talk about her darling child and she ll say that although she s got four of them she hasn t got one too many and that she doesn t like parting with any of them but that as she can hardly expect such girls not to leave the parent nest sooner or later they always talk about the parent nest you know that she d as soon let her come to you as to anybody else she knows that s about the tone of it dick old chap said frank in tones of concern there s something wrong with you what is it nothing nothing a little envious of you that s all but it s not surely what on earth are you talking about well you said this afternoon that it wasn t the other one did i well i suppose i was right never mind me i m a little bit i m down in the i m a little bit color one can t always be dancing about like a will o the pretending one s as merry as a when one isn t leave me alone old chap it s the kindest thing you can do for me don t worry about her if she s all right take my word for it the old lady s all right too i ll go up there first thing after lunch to morrow and put it all right for you you come up to tea and then i ll give you my blessing so the brothers parted for the night and lord sat down again before the fire and lighting a fresh fell to thinking of again i may as well confess that he was more in love with than ever although the effect upon her mind of the last two years had been decidedly bad the effect upon her body had been quite the opposite of that she had been very pale that evening but it was from excessive emotion rather than from lack of health t girls and when lord went up to the on the following day just after lunch he happened to meet her in the hall as he was being shown into the drawing room she was as blooming as a rose dressed in a pretty light frock made by a good tailor and as smart as pink and white striped collar and and a white silk tie could make her to his intense surprise she put out a perfectly frank and friendly hand and said in a bright and friendly tone oh is that you lord how do you do nice bright day isn t it very said he in a tone intended to convey deep reproach come to see my mother she asked or who to see mother on business he said quietly indeed the man was hurt by the utter indifference of her manner oh you d better take lord into the morning room my mother is there said promptly yes miss answered so lord was hurried off into the room before he had time even to cast a look of reproach into s eyes and how was he to know that turned and fled up the stairs down which she had just come that she shut herself up in her room and went through one of those awful storms of silent agony the agony that knows not the relief of tears how was he to know that while he was talking business on his brother s account with mrs he saw her go past the window with a couple of big dogs at her heels and a gray cat in their wake she looked so young so straight and tall with her bright fair hair her glorious complexion and her great gray bright eyes and unfortunately for lord s peace of mind she looked heartless also he quite made up his mind during the time | 30 |
that he was talking and such like dry details over with mrs and on his brother s future prospects that he would not those girls remain to afternoon tea that day and yet when mrs got up from her chair at the writing table and said with a glance at the clock on the chimney shelf ah it s time for tea stop and have a cup of course yet he was not then man enough or cold enough or cruel enough or what you will to keep the promise which he had made to himself that he would resolutely depart from the house not a bit of it he went in to tea and in the absence of his brother he had the honor of handing the various cups to the various ladies assembled as a matter of fact was out and sir john soon afterwards came in and mrs so as he had and could be supposed to have no interest in he carried his own cup of tea to the comer of the wide sofa on which had herself is this your little dog miss he asked the little which was lying beside ber those girls no she answered looking at him with her beautiful eyes it belongs to oh he said still it it s a nice little fellow you know me don t you at which the dog put up a soft little head and waved a sort of white feather in the other direction i see said that he knows you very weu they talked certainly on all manner of subjects of the academy which she had just seen for the first time on her ideas about on the e in you have been there he said in a tone that had something in it of inquiry oh yes she said feeling as if she would break out into floods of tears with every moment for during those memorable christmas holidays when she had been allowed by her mother s friends with the most charming ideas of as to young girls bringing up to run about the town as she liked she had met him in that charming little over and over again those girls the e in is pretty much what the gallery is in london a place visited principally by strangers oh yes she said i have been there more than once it is a place i don t like it gives me the horrors you think you will like he asked politely oh yes why not she said one never knows he responded when one has lived a good deal abroad one finds the manners and customs of people at home so changed and so different to what they were i am going back to next week oh really said you are yes he said i am still in the same position as i was except that my private circumstances are as you know a good deal altered i don t however remain there much longer and i am leaving the service when my time at comes to an end for some minutes the girl sat p holding those girls her breath for fear of giving way unconsciously her fingers nervous and trembling strayed in and out among the snowy silken curls of the little at last however the poor little animal could stand it no longer and uttered a miserable of dissatisfaction and pain oh dear cried seizing the little thing in her hands and holding it up to her throat did i hurt you my poor little you know i wouldn t hurt you for the world what could i have been thinking about it was all your fault lord for making me think of that horrid e which is enough to give one fits of the and the horrors for the rest of one s natural life i am very sorry if i reminded you of a disagreeable past miss said he meekly i assure you i did it quite in ignorance for the little dog s sake i would not have done so if i had thought you disliked the place so much i think said mrs when their visitors had gone that you and lord those do not get on very well together not very well mother answered it is a pity dear if he becomes your law it will be such a pity if you do not get on with him you should try to have a little more of the society about your manner dear mother said looking straight into her mother s eyes there was no society at the of the sacred heart everything there was stern and plain a was called a even at the most awkward moments and to have what you call society of manner the good sisters there call telling lies my dear mother if you wanted me to have the same society of manner as my sisters you shouldn t have taken and buried me in the of the sacred heart don t reproach me mrs cried dear mother said i do not reproach those girls you i have no wish to do so i believe with all my heart that you acted for the best but you must not dear when i fall short in those graces which madame with all her and all her was such an at teaching to her pupils as to lord he is very nice very good looking and he is to be my brother in law i have no fault to find with him whatever perhaps he does not like me perhaps i do not interest him perhaps he does not interest me some day went on holding her head very high and speaking in a suspiciously clear and distinct voice some day we may get quite fond of each other i am sure darling said mrs there is | 30 |
no reason why you should not be quite fond of each other now no mother no reason at all i have come back dear she cried dropping on her knees beside her mother s chair i have come back very sorry for the past very anxious to do everything th t will please you in the future and if it those girls please you that i shall become very fond of lord i will do my best to do so that is my good child said mrs a little she was a woman who could not bear scenes they always made her either hard or like i know that you will do everything i know dearest that i was in sending you to that the girls have convinced me of that but i acted at the time as i thought was for the best and you would not confide in me although i came up to you that morning alone that you might tell me everything and feeling even that i would try to arrange that marriage upon which your mind was set if it were possible much better not mother cried with a wild laugh much better not what is is best things might have been worse if i had married that man but don t ask me for his name mother i couldn t speak it and mother dear leave me to marry or not marry in my own time that is all i vou the favor i beg of you and those girls to please you dear and to show you that i really mean every word that i say i will try and like lord as much as even you could wish chapter feeling is deep and still and the word that on the surface is as the tossing that where the anchor is hidden it is one thing to make a promise a promise bom of the excitement of the moment and it is quite another thing to keep it had spoken in all good faith when she had promised her mother that she would try and like lord as much as even she could wish but it was quite another matter deep in her heart as lord s image was to like him in a totally different way to like him as a brother in law strangely enough said nothing of him never assumed any airs on account of his attentions t je to her never spoke with pleasure of being with him seemed indeed to be drifting on a current of life just as fate would have it and yet there was no doubt about the position of lord in that charming household mrs welcomed him with the fond eye of a mother in law before her daughter has been to the altar they are so different the mothers before the ceremony and the mothers in law afterwards i she was a little cool about s choice without saying it in plain english she hinted that she would have liked all her daughters to marry elder sons oh very much in love with each other she said to one or two people who congratulated her on the marriage but still captain is a younger son after all i would much rather that my daughter had married more but lord like the king could do no wrong in mrs s eyes he came and went to the villa as he liked and it must be owned that he came and went duly and truly gi i d i have only a few days further leave of absence mrs he said to her one day by way in apology for having turned up and i hope you will forgive me and let me make the most of my time oh come when you like she said kindly you are always welcome here when we next come to we will come and have tea with you or some gay of that kind eh it happened that was the only one of them left at home that afternoon the other two girls had gone under the of lady to a gay lunch party at the cavalry lord had been asked but had not availed himself of the invitation we will quite get you to do the honors of to us said mrs will we not i don t know mother said in a very cold voice i am not fond of i don t think if one of the others will go with you when you next want to go there that i shall put you to tm e the trouble and expense of taking me there i like much better she did not look at lord she did not look at her mother she apparently spoke only to the cat which was happily on her knee don t you like miss said lord in an appealing tone then she looked at him no she said i cannot bear oh well was at school there said mrs in a bland and indulgent tone and i think that girls very often don t like the places where they have been at school you will like it next time my dear it will be quite different are you thinking of coming out this winter he asked oh no not this winter you see i could not very well take there even if you wanted to go dear that is in an aside to until she has been presented and she is not to be presented until next season another year we shall see ah well i shall not be there then he said rather sadly really then are you giving up your post or sending in your papers or what are you going to do oh i m not going on with the service i shall just stay my time out in it s about three months longer and then i shall send | 30 |
in my papers and retire i could not go back to life not even in the guards really well then i suppose you ll be turning into the typical country squire and you ll look after your estates possibly marry and settle down and become quite a character put in lord in a bitter tone but mrs either did not or would not see it did it is one thing to say you will be a character she said leaning back in her chair and those girls the soft fur of the and it is quite another thing to be one yes miss he answered nobody is more thoroughly aware of that fact than i am he had made his appearance very early in the afternoon and as mrs had an urgent visit from a a frock for one of the young ladies she was obliged to leave them alone together for a little time lord made the most of his opportunity he crossed the room and sat down upon the sofa upon which was sitting he asked passionately way have you altered so what did i tell you the last time that you spoke to me about this she said in a very cold and stately voice why do you try to re open that old affair that is over and done with forever don t you that in my position i cannot listen to you for a moment you are my she stopped for a word conscious that he had not yet actually spoken out to you are my those girls your lover he put in you were once she responded quietly but not now oh not now listen to me lord she cried lifting her eyes boldly to his and speaking in a very clear and ringing voice when i told you the other day that i meant the past to be at an end forever between us i spoke only the plain and sober truth i am quite willing to meet you in my mother s house like this to be civil pleasant ever friendly towards you but that is only for my she was going to say for my sister s sake then suddenly changed the word at the last moment and continued for the sake of my people you must understand clearly and now and for all time that when you and i happen to find ourselves alone together we have no past still less have we any future no do not speak she cried putting up her hand with an imperative gesture seeing that he was about to interrupt her do not speak what might have been was not and can never be now what will be has no relation to what might have been i those don t ask this she went on in a tone of dignity as a favor i insist upon it by the right of all that i have suffered during the past two years for your sake but why he began eagerly oh don t ask why she interrupted fiercely there is no why between you and me we are as much apart as if death himself had come between us if you liave any tender recollection of that past foolish time you will prove it to me best by leaving me absolutely in peace absolutely in forgetfulness by remembering that everything is changed between us i loved dick yes yes with all my heart and soul for lord i have no feeling that is not a feeling of the deepest pain oh if you have ever loved me be merciful to me now and let me live in peace without one other such scene as this i did what was wrong in the past for it was wrong and you know it and i have suffered for it i mean to try in the future that is so near in front of u to do something more than merely right can t you those girls understand that i am thankful that my mother does not especially want to take me hack to now can t you understand that i shall be glad when you are gone when i know that there is no chance of your being left alone with me to touch upon the old wound as you have torn it open today oh dick she went on to think that i should ever have to ask you for mercy to leave me in a little peace to make my life a little less hard than you are making it for me now but you won t let me speak he cried speak what is the object of your speaking what good can you do by speaking you have cast your life and there is nothing more to say about it before he could answer her mrs returned to the room with apologies for having been so long away she knew but too well that did not like being left alone with lord at least she knew that did not particularly like him and she guessed that she those girls not be any too pleased at being left for alone in his company well she said in her bland smooth voice the voice that had told her that the good sisters of the of the sacred heart would call lying well i hope you two young people have been amusing each other is my daughter a good hostess lord you see she has been such a short time home from school that i do not know her capacity in that way i should imagine said he that miss could be a very delightful hostess if she wished to be so i m afraid said looking at him with angry eyes for thus giving her away to her mother i m afraid lord and i have | 30 |
talked too much f me i will not forget myself in that way again oh i did not mean that he said politely no no it does not matter what you mean or what i mean my mother is a perfect hostess those girls so that with her you will be or ought to be perfectly happy he would have gone away almost immediately but mrs would not hear of it oh stay a little while we will have tea and the girls will be back presently they will be so disappointed if you do not wait to see them so lord waited without a word to see the two elder daughters of the house who came in by and by bringing lady with them and also captain and another man watching with keen eyes and are any eyes as keen as those of a love that has gone wrong thought that he was disappointed at the coming of the second man for he confined his attention entirely to lady who was a pretty and particularly bright and easy little woman of he scarcely took any notice nor indeed did of him when they had all departed mrs reproached her eldest daughter gently for her indeed she went so far a those to call it her in having so neglected her admirer oh mother cried don t worry me about the man he was all right he thinks no end of lady but my dear he waited to see you then my dear mother said with the delightful impertinence of a pretty woman he will be all the more anxious to see me to morrow or next day my dear sister be thankful that you are not the eldest daughter of that lady when you are the eldest of two that is to say when and i have been into marrying somebody or other i m not going to be into marrying anybody cried indignantly if you mean frank i am absolutely r to marry him and he s absolutely eager to marry me don t put yourself in the same battle field as i am my dear because if you do you make a mistake i m sure mother never me into marrying frank never my dear said mrs with the those pride of a mother who is a firm in the charms of her daughter i should hope that i have no need to harry my daughters into marrying anybody still i do think that you treat lord very badly oh yes dear mother but he will get over it said if you mean to accept him i think you might at least be civil to him and if you don t mean to marry him i think you ought to choke him off i mean i think you ought not to encourage him at all i m sure i choked him off enough this afternoon said with amazing conceit girls i hope you marked our mother s delightful modern english well you can imagine the effect of all this upon our poor love sick who loved this man every inch of him as she never had loved and never would love any other man again as long as she lived they were going to a dance that night and al those though pleaded that three girls were too many for her mother to take out that she was not regularly out and didn t care in the least about going mrs and the two girls were all equally upon her going with them why shouldn t you go asked looking at her with wide open eyes of astonishment it s a big house you ve specially been asked you ve got a lovely dress you re looking brilliantly well and you re only just beginning to enjoy yourself as if we shouldn t be welcome anywhere it s not that said well then what is it it s because you re shy you foolish child really you ve been kept in the background so long that you must make an effort darling and get over it and mother will be so hurt if you don t go do you think she will asked oh yes dear i m sure of it she ll think you ve got all sorts of things in your mind that you really have not and never will have there come now darling say you will just to please me u those chapter xiv a golden change no good or lovely thing exists in this world without its corresponding darkness well to please the one who had rescued her from her seemingly interminable exile in an evil moment promised that she would go to this dance upon which her sister had so set her heart she was not a girl who cried i have said so before but she went through an hour of anguish in her own room before she gave a thought to her toilet for the evening and when she came into the hall dressed in a charming white gown neither too rich nor too plain neither too short nor too long but just that middle way which is perfection they never noticed in the colored light of the lamp how pale and wan she was looking those almost the first person whom they saw when they got into the ball room was lord he came up to the mother and sisters with the manner of one who had a right to do so asked first for a couple of dances then for one if she could spare it then turned boldly to and said i hope as this is your first dance that you will honor me and what could do under the very eyes of her mother who had not long before reproached her for not being sufficiently friendly in her manner towards lord she had | 30 |
no choice but to murmur the usual with which young ladies intimate to young men that they will be pleased to dance with them she stood by meekly while he a great d upon the space against the next dance i suppose i may take another he said under his breath she looked up at him half in reproach half in fear don t be afraid he muttered in the same those girls tones i won t say a single word to offend you then seeing acquiescence in her face or what he took for acquiescence he boldly the same against two other dances it was greatly to mrs s surprise that she saw her youngest daughter go away and dance the very next with lord he danced to perfection and in spite of her having been at the where such things as dancing and evening dresses were unknown also danced well your step suits mine he said presently yes she answered simply she was thinking in that moment of anguish for no lesser word will describe the torture which the girl was of the old story of dear christian s of the who was so anxious to win the love of a human being and thereby possess a soul you remember how it goes how the old witch deep down beneath the waters took her lovely voice in exchange for a pair of feet instead of the fish s tail which she tb e had possessed how she said to her you shall dance so gracefully so exquisitely as nobody on earth is able to do but every step you take will be as though your feet were being pierced by sharp swords and the girl who had seen the young prince for whose sake she wished to become mortal gladly accepted the charm even at such a terrible cost and then when she danced before the t the queen praised her and the king gave her money and riches and the young prince caused her to sit by his side and she became his favorite companion but after the manner is of princes he married with another and in her anguish the princess of a much older family than the earth princess mind you herself to the heart and floated to the daughters of the air where after three years of and good works she might be permitted with all other blessed souls to enter into paradise what are you thinking of miss asked he when they came to a pause in the dance tb e i was thinking said of a nursery tale that would not interest you tell it to me he said no she answered i could not tell it to you i was only recalling one of the stories of my childhood you see she said this is the first time i have danced for more than two years shall we go on again so they went on again and when the dance had come to an end he said to her very you will have an ice come everybody does seeing her hesitate it will look so odd if you go straight back to your mother then i will have an ice said oh what a mockery it was he brought her an ice and champagne cup and found her a pleasant retired nook where she made a pretence of eating it and he made no pretence of doing anything but letting his eyes feast upon her do you know he said presently that i am going back to in two days time no she said with a start i did not know it those tea i shall come to morrow for the last time shall you be at home i don t know said do you think you will be at home he persisted i can t say she replied although she knew perfectly well that she would not be there well he said speaking in a rough and indifferent careless sort of way i shall come and chance my luck i may succeed in getting what i want i may not at all events i have told you that i am coming then said as she rose to her feet and moved away i will make everything as easy for you as i possibly can for the ball was not a success she danced a g eat deal because she was young and fresh and because her sisters knew every man worth dancing with in the room partners she had in plenty and there was much grumbling at the three so largely upon her programme those on their return home that night the elder sisters as was their custom began to compare and took up s astonished to find the word put against two of her dances in an instant she realized that come what might she neither could nor would reveal to her sister s eyes the which the same hand had put against three of her dances where is yours asked i think i lost it cried or somebody took it her sister cried ah that is a trick the men about here have like their cheek i call it was rather sometimes in the bosom of her family who got it do you think oh i don t think anybody got it i believe i lost it said i believe i put it somewhere she had put it somewhere she had put it into the bosom of her frock but that was a detail she hid it away when she reached her own room with the faded little photograph which had those been her chief consolation in her many hours of loneliness at the of the sacred heart oh dick she cried to herself passionately as she looked at the three big bold characters dick how could you how could you do it why should you do everything to make | 30 |
me remember the past which can never be anything but a memory to me i could not show my programme to when you have stolen her heart from her and seem as if you care no more about breaking it than you did about breaking mine oh dick dick how could you do it the girl passed another sleepless night and not was told in the morning by her mother and sisters that she really was not fit for and would have to go to bed at eight o clock if she persisted in looking like this after a single dance i begged you not to let me go mother she with a great effort at cheerfulness i was no good there i didn t know what to say to the men and a good half of them didn t know what to say those to me they all thought i was the most stupid little they had ever been condemned to dance with because of her sisters popularity in their lives i thought you got on remarkably well said i saw you once or twice with lord did you said i didn t know it my dear don t you like him any better mrs asked no mother she said enough not any better than i did and then she blushed to think how utterly she had grown ah that s a pity dear he danced with you several times didn t he oh yes said he was very kind to me but he dances beautifully said oh yes dear he dances very well admitted girls during the course of the morning she said to her mother mother dear i want to tell you something yes darling what is it she was always poor woman anxious to have any sign of affection or confidence from this particular daughter lord told me last night mother that he goes back to in three days time and he is coming this afternoon to say good bye and he did say something about his fate or something of that kind i don t fancy he has said anything to so i thought perhaps you had better know my dear how good how very thoughtful and considerate of you what shall we do is difficult so afraid of seeming to men on or anything of that kind i know is going somewhere with captain and do you darling go into and match me those that we wanted the other day you can do any other little that you want and so keep out of the road and i will those girls manage to leave to receive lord alone mrs did manage it she managed it exceedingly neatly for as soon as and captain were gone she said to in quite an off hand tone oh dear i want you to go into for me to day if you don t want to walk dear take in the trap i must have those and i want a little marking ink from s and you might just as well look in at s and see if they ve got that bonnet of mine done i am really in need of it and then if there is you want in the town you can get it at the same time i had rather walk mother said taking her cue as she was intended to do as soon as had left the house mrs turned round to dear i do not feel very well i sent the child off because i should not like her to see me if i had one of my attacks this afternoon do stay with me dear those girls why of course mother dear will you come and lie down i think i d better do so dear it s only a little but i feel so nervous if i m left alone yes i will go np stairs i shall be better to be quiet lying down thus she up into her bedroom laid down on the sofa and went through the whole process of smelling and water and even a tiny dose of and presently that is to say about an hour afterwards came upstairs and said that lord was in the drawing room oh dear dear dear cried mrs i really cannot go down no of course not send down a message and say you re not well enough to receive him oh but my dear he has come to say bye said mrs anxiously i feel much better and i shall come down to tea in any case go down and talk to him a little dear child you know he s going back to the day aft r to morrow those girls you are sure that you ll be all right dear yes yes i ll ring my bell for if i feel the least faint or anything promised mi s mc knowing perfectly well that she was no more likely to feel faint than she was to feel that particular afternoon so after a glance at herself in the glass went down to entertain lord and as mrs fondly hoped to decide his fate but lord seemed in no hurry to get the process over he expressed deep regret that mrs was not feeling very well asked after the other members of the family received with a smile the information that miss had gone out with his brother and then with some asked whether miss was out also yes said has gone into well really i cannot tell you where she has gone somewhere for my mother but i cannot tell you where oh really he spoke in a tone of the most perfect indifference not as if it was a matter of any those girls consequence whether miss was out at the house or in and so they sat for some three quarters of an hour talking on subjects most absolutely | 30 |
indifferent to both of them and about half past four o clock mrs came down bland smiling and sweetly oh nothing my dear lord she said in reply to his anxious inquiries merely a touch of headache it was nothing merely a little and that sort of thing very unpleasant because i making a scene of any kind and this dear child here putting an affectionate hand upon s shoulder made me feel soothed and happy again but even the affectionate tone and the affectionate touch of the hand were not enough to make lord look anything different to his ordinary appearance not enough to or his manner in any way mrs s experienced eye told her at once that he had not proposed to her dear child here those you are just going back to said she dear bright i am very fond of the place i really do not know that i shall not come over this autumn i hope you will he said eagerly evidently hasn t given him a chance said mrs to herself how tiresome she is i wish it had been she would have had it settled long ago you will have a cup of tea she went on more still oh thanks yes said he he would have taken a cup of cheerfully at that moment if it would have helped matters on a little and then having spread out her errands to the longest possible time came in is that you dear asked her mother miss said he getting up and going to meet her but there was no response in s beautiful eyes she gave him her hand and with a fine air of indifference that deceived him those girls and presently he went away with a deep glance of reproach such as entered like into s bleeding heart my dear mother said as soon as she found herself alone with mrs my dear mother you never made such a mistake in your life as when you fancied that lord was in love with me dear one he cares no more for me than he cares for here pointing to the and you know perfectly well that he can t bear cats those girls chapter xv the way love among mortals is but an endless sigh i he and and stands waiting suffers and yet and smiles with tears in his eye a s for some days waited for some news of her sister s engagement to lord but she waited in vain he was not mentioned again except in a casual sort of way and as captain s brother and seemed perfectly indifferent on the subject of his absence at length she ventured hesitatingly and with much dread of herself breaking down to ask whether he had proposed to her or not s reply was profoundly oh my dear don t talk about lord girls to me he doesn t care two pence ha penny about me why should he he s frank s brother that s all he wanted to see frank and he didn t care about people so he came to us i told mother he didn t mean so foolish of mother to see a son in law in every decent looking man that comes along now in this remark which was meant poor saw nothing but the courage of a woman too proud to own that she was in love with a man who had loved and ridden away from that day her tenderness to her eldest sister was simply she never seemed to tire of waiting upon her and carrying out her smallest wish what a help is to one cried one day to her mother upon my word mother i never saw such an unselfish girl in my life as she is do my hair touch up my stay at home go here go there do anything that you like so long as she other people those girls yes she s a dear child most unselfish murmured mrs in a tone of modest yet appreciation and although i know that you girls thought me hard at the time yet i am sure that the two years she spent at the did her no harm so far as her character went she was always a dear child but she was never so utterly unselfish as she is now she s unselfish yes she certainly is but she is not happy you know mother not happy i wonder why not dear i don t know said shaking her head but she s not happy i m sure of it has she never confided in you no not a word i tried to get it out of her at first but she would tell me nothing she only begged me to leave her alone and say nothing about the past whatever oh said mrs easily i have no doubt that now she is out in the world she sees how foolish she was over that silly affair and she those is ashamed to think that she could have so to speak given herself away to a man that she would not care to know now i thought you told me at the time that he was a gentleman remarked i well he wrote a good hand said mrs m ah that s quite another matter i should have thought though went on from many little things that she was suffering from a more trouble than that after all when you grow up and feel that you ve made a little fool of yourself in your youth i don t know that it troubles you very much but is too young to brood said mrs i don t think so mother remember that she must have been taught to brood in that dreadful place at and mrs did not reply because she had nothing to say the days went | 30 |
merrily over until the middle of those july not one word did they hear from lord excepting such as came through his brother who told that poor old dick was very eager to get away from and seemed to the place as he had never known him do before i think you know said he to his that something or other has gone wrong with old dick i don t of course because he s not one to confide much in anyone i think there must have been some woman over there who has played old harry with him i shouldn t think so said nobody would be likely to refuse him you wouldn t have refused him would you said captain certainly not if i didn t happen to have seen you first answered ah but you did happen to see me first he answered but supposing that you had seen dick first and that dick had taken a fancy to you what then why then said why you know what i should have said and then although it was broad daylight and they were walking along a secluded though certainly a public walk which led from the village beyond the by the river s bank to the town captain put his arm round his s waist and kissed her regardless of any by who might be coming that way and really as a lady said indignantly an hour later in the select company of a villa drawing room a little further down the road the way those girls do go on is a perfect disgrace to the town really used to be a respectable sort of place but the young ladies who have been imported into it don t seem to know what le are i m sure the girls that were brought up in it don t remarked a voice in the comer but of course that s neither here nor there mrs now as a matter of fact mrs s those girls daughter bad been married about six months before with quite what you might call a flourish of trumpets and her history since that time had been to say the least of it unfortunate mrs blushed and said no more well at they remained living quite a gay sort of life until the middle of july when came home from her school in and they all went off for a month to a charming place a little over an hour s run from of course as they called her must have a little real change and holiday and with this wedding coming on i am sure it will be a great deal better if goes too i frank will be foolish enough to take a season ticket but that is his affair said mrs and to tell the truth he was foolish enough to take a season ticket and as soon as he was released from his duties in attendance on the general as a d c he went over to and spent girls a great deal of time on the balcony outside the windows of mrs s pleasant drawings room in the company of his charming the fashion at is to walk up and down up and down along a lighted where a band plays and everybody wears their and clothes but the lovers were not often of these one evening however they did happen to be down on the when captain was stopped by a man whom apparently he had not seen since they had been at together why old chap he exclaimed that can t be you why it s as i live the stranger exclaimed yes i m a d c to the general in command of this district i m in the th what are you doing doing nothing at all i tried the sea and i didn t like it and i tried and i didn t like that hated it always in a mess about some those girls thing or other and i tried farming and found coal on my land why you don t call that farming do you laughed the soldier no i don t call it exactly farming but that was what i began at you see i say old chap who are you with said he looking at the ladies who had walked on well i m with the lady i m going to be married to in september said with no little pride in the admission really old chap well i must congratulate you but you aren t going to marry them all are you no said he i m not going to marry them all i m going to marry the of the three oh well you might introduce me to the others will you with pleasure he took his friend by the arm and followed the three girls along the may i introduce my friend mr tb e to you miss mr rs then when the pair had exchanged greetings captain continued and this is miss this miss mr made himself excessively agreeable he walked along between and telling them how he had been three da rs in because he had been told that it was a jolly place to go to and that he hadn t seen a soul he knew and had never been so wretched in his life and he went on i assure you that was the very last person in the world i should ever have expected to see or even to recognize by the bye didn t dick come in for the title yes he is lord now said do you know him mr asked oh yes very well he was down at for some weeks with his brother he s not very long been gone back to he is military attach there really you don t say so i was in a those girls few weeks | 30 |
ago i would have looked him up if i had known a good fellow dick always was oh very charming man said miss could not resist stealing a look at her sister to see how she could thus speak of the man to whom they all believed she would have been long ere this but was looking up at the stranger with a smile in her eyes and never a quiver upon her charming lips i wonder if i might come and call upon you he said when they were preparing to go in oh yes surely said my mother is not out on the to night she had a little touch of and felt that it was safer to keep in i m sure she ll be charmed to see you we re always in to tea at five o clock then i ll get captain to bring me he said in quite a joyous tone poor thing said to as they went along the cliff fancy three days without speak those ing to a soul well he must have been miserable very but i he ll be all right now said indifferently and surely enough the following afternoon about five o clock captain went into the pretty drawing room at cliff terrace followed by his old friend mr mrs received him with quite the air of a mother i hear that you have had a most desolate time she said graciously oh an awful time he replied i seriously began to think of taking a shilling dip and never coming up any more i m used to loneliness he went on in a would be miserable tone i ve got a great of a place up in big enough for half a dozen families and as it was just about six times too big for my income to keep up i was not at all sorry when we discovered coal on the land i m now hard at work getting it restored and when it s all done then i suppose you will be thinking about getting married put in mrs in a joking tone i i i those well i ve been thinking about it for some time but then thinking about it isn t everything is it oh dear no but just now don t you think a cup of tea is everything she said smiling he took the cup of tea and the hint with it going over to the corner window where was busy with the tea things and settled himself down there with an air as if he meant to stop for the rest of the afternoon well from that time forward during the month which followed mr arthur remained in remained moreover as the most intimate friend that those girls possessed although there were many other men whom they knew in the gay and fashionable watering place and at the end of the month or rather a few days before the end of it he found his way one afternoon to their rooms and at a time when he knew that mrs would be resting after lunch mrs he said i ve come to ask you a plain and straightforward question those then my dear sir said she you shall have a plain and straightforward answer thank you said he my question is this may i marry your eldest daughter yes if my eldest daughter will marry you she replied and you will show me that you can provide for her in at least as good a way as she has been accustomed to live my dear mrs said he holding out a broad and honest hand i will tell you everything there is to know about me at present my coal mines are bringing me in something like eight thousand a year with care and moderate living they can be made to bring in anything between sixteen and sixty thousand my family is as you must know already a very old and honorable one i have no relations except some distant cousins and although i am a plain speaking man not given to language or anything of that kind i would lay down my life for the woman i loved which is said she kindly yes he replied which is tu e chapter only a touch explanations are waste of time a man who can see understands a touch i need not say that great was the surprise of all the others when they came in an hour or so later very keen on tea and tea cakes and apparently not at all expecting any such end to their visit to but they were all very nice to and herself looked so happy as did the bridegroom that nobody could doubt that the engagement was one of great mutual affection to however it came with a terrible shock and that evening after they had spent a couple of hours on the listening to the band and the two young men had their respective good night she crept quietly into s room and told her that she had come specially to wish her all the happiness in the world but she said when had kissed her and thanked her for her kind thoughts what will lord say lord my dear repeated oh you re not thinking about that my dear child as i always told mother lord had no more notion of marrying me than he had of marrying the man in the moon his brother was desperately in love with and as he was staying with his brother and naturally enough he came to see us but as for marrying me i give you my word of honor that he never uttered one word to me which might not have been shouted aloud from the very don t worry your dear tender heart by imagining that lord is going to die of a broken heart on my account went on | 30 |
he was a very nice man those girls and i liked him very well and of course it was a certain satisfaction to feel that we always had him about with us and so to let those charming people in see that those girls as they always called us could get the best and keep them from them very mean i know but then as for marrying lord she went on i would just as soon have thought of marrying him as he would have thought of marrying me but go to bed and get to sleep and be ready in the morning to help me to plan out how i can get my things ready to be married on the same day as dear old the end of september said yes the end of september answered half and went to bed but not to sleep no to lie awake all night thinking over those past few cruel months when she had resolutely crushed down her heart for the sake of the sister who had always been the tenderest and dearest of sisters to her when she had made one great self those sacrifice that had never been needed either for her sake or for his sleep why never a wink of sleep came near those great gray eyes that warm august night she laid awake in her bed thinking and thinking and in the gray faint light while was still asleep she got up and sat by her window watching the world which had become in a single moment a new world to her oh how cruel he must have thought her he that had no other thought than for her he who had probably made himself intimate with the family at the only that he might hear news of her she knew it she was convinced of it now and she had sacrificed him utterly and entirely she had just something of a doubt in her mind as to whether a man of his proud and imperious temper would be likely to forgive her he was coming from to be best man to his brother and she would naturally be the chief would he then refuse to let the dead past bury its dead or would he understand that she too had suffered a perfect mar those girls of pain well that was a matter that only time could show they returned a few days later to and mr took up his quarters in the principal hotel the one at which lord had stayed at and as mrs put it to her friends made life a perfect burden to her here we are she said in but the middle of august and really and truly i don t know how the poor young man will exist for another six weeks as for rosy poor child she cannot get her dresses tried on choose her linen and barely has time to admire the presents with which he loads her oh it is a dreadful time it is a real trial to have a young couple so excessively in love with each other as these two are however in due time captain the honorable frank spared time from his staff duties and from those duties which were not to the staff to write to his brother in j those chap the wedding was fixed for september th remember you promised to be mr best man and see me turned off in a manner creditable to the family when i say i am not joking you remember arthur at of course well he tried and didn t like it and he tried work and didn t like that and he tried farming his own land you know and didn t seem to do much good at that however he struck or to be correct coal at that rambling old place of his down in and he now has about eight thousand a year i met him at quite by chance introduced him to the and he caught on with them like a lamp or anything else you like and almost before you could turn yourself round or say jack robinson he and had made a match of it they are the couple i ever saw in my life and i have always been reasonable but upon my word this chap he s awful and she s awful too and i think poor old mrs will really be glad th m when the ceremony is over and they are safely out of the house they are going to be married on the same day as we are so old chap you ll have to fork out two wedding presents instead of one you asked me in your last letter for news of the family well i have sent you all the news there is except that isn t looking so solemn as she generally does let me hear from you for certain when you are coming and that the date suits you and believe me your affectionate brother frank in reply to this lord wrote saying that he was to be released from his duties at during the week previous to the date fixed for the so that it would suit him perfectly and he would be sure to be there in time with proper and suitable presents you might find out for me dear old chap what your future wife wishes to have it ll have to be of course those i scarcely know how to tell my tale further lord went down to the day previous to the wedding heavy at heart and sick with hope deferred you see he poor fellow had no notion that had sacrificed him against every dictate of her own heart for the of the sister she loved he dined at the that evening together with the two the other best man sir john and a good | 30 |
to his last long home in the of his cathedral church the had scarce as yet begun to wonder who would be the new bishop they were full of the quiet graces of the departed they had forgotten how often they had blamed him for not having been more prominent among them for being so gentle so full of humility and all those meek qualities which as a kind of to our con we make a point of to christ and which almost universally we utterly despise in the man i yes they had forgotten all the the petty of the past their spiritual head by great suffering had become to them a dear saint in glory whose life among them the other wife would be a bright to guide them on that dark road which we must all tread one day perhaps there is no irony so as the irony of events i a great spiritual lord was in the distance the not far distance who would be in most things what the good folk of had wished in him who had just left them a big heavy man of great dignity of bearing ponderous and a patron of christianity rather than a servant of christ a man who would make a rule of being prominent among his people who would be their superior in things of earth as well as in things of heaven a man who would seldom try to be and if he did would invariably make all wish fervently that he would not a man of the world worldly a bishop of society not the society of his own see but that portion of the world which is called the upper ten thousand and is commonly with a capital s as yet however was by the personal attributes of still to come it mourned him who was just gone and over the palace where he had held gentle sway during nearly fifteen happy and peaceful years there still hung the dim shadow of his departed presence a cloud of mourning and woe it was not generally known that bishop as already they had begun to call him had a very romantic history the little world of knew that he had been called early to the dignity of the bench that he had married a lady of title by divine providence immediately on his taking up his new a lady who had once been beautiful and young but who was then some five or six and thirty years old they had seemed very happy together and after two years lady bore her lord a son and in giving birth to the child her own meek and gentle life had slipped away the child flourished and the nurse who had charge of him was in time succeeded by a and the by a and when jack was a little over twelve years old the bishop after many months of intense suffering died and no other mistress had ever come to take the place of the gentle middle aged bride who had come home to the palace nearly fifteen years before so much did know of the matter but no more they did not know that many and many a year a son of the then lord had married for love and in defiance of his father and that their bishop was the only child of that marriage that he lived in poverty and educated his only son no one knew how that edward had won as a boy had worked himself through a career without his father a penny beyond his modest tailor s bill that he had worked on from point to point until he became head master of a great public school and that as a young man he had met and worshipped her who afterwards became his wife and dared not ask her to marry him partly because he had his own parents to support in their older years and partly because lady s the other man s wife people were such as would not willingly hear of their loveliest daughter marrying into what for her position would be dire poverty yet lady had given all her heart to the straight gentle eyed young parson who had never set eyes on the head of his house or seen the home of his ancestors and one gay or lover after another went sadly away with no for an answer and all the best years of her life went by waiting for what she had no hope might ever come to pass dear dear what tender there are sometimes in lives that seem to the outer world both common place and it happened one fair june morning that lady had been driving with her mother they had been to see her youngest married sister they were all married except and my lady the had been on the way home on the of remaining so long a i cannot tell how it is she said you must have been hard to please margaret will not compare with you for an instant and she never was half so agreeable or so sweet tempered and yet she is the of and you are yet i suppose i was hard to please dear mother answered lady smiling softly as her heart flew to a great public school which she had never seen where he ruled supreme not but that i should miss you dreadfully my lady went on tenderly but i don t edward by divine like to see margaret s little airs and graces and never mind dear mother said the other smiling now they reached home a moment later a handsome house in square and a tall servant in livery came to meet them there is a gentleman my lady he said the bishop of he asked for lady i will go to him said lady i it is about | 30 |
had to face the ordeal of passing down the crowded between the ranks of eager spectators each one seeming more anxious than another to get a good look at the and the bishop s only son what do you say my reader that you don t believe that any one would linger at such a time to gaze at the fresh grief of the newly well all i can say is that young jack knew better than you do he poor boy re called clearly enough the time two years before when the old dean had died when the people in their anxiety to miss nothing of such a show as three heart broken girls had not hesitated to climb the three steps which led to the and hang on to the door so as to get a really satisfying look at the the other man s wife figures still kneeling with their faces hidden in their hands so jack knew well enough that there was no escape for him and he gave his slight young arm to his grandmother and passed steadily through the throng of people his face pale as death his eyes with tears yet with his head well up in air a boy with the heart of a man the bishop had left his son to the of his uncle lord coupled with a wish that he should spend as much time with his grandmother lady as that lady and jack himself should wish i should like him to be as much with you as possible he had said to lady the week before his death he is a good boy very brave and truthful and i don t think you will find him much trouble edward said the old steadily jack is the very light of my old age my s boy whom she hardly saw as you say he is brave and truthful but if he were not if he were horrid as many boys of his age are i would still carry out all your wishes if only out of my gratitude to you for having been the best of husbands to my girl and for never having put another woman in her place i never thought of it he said but persisted the old lady many men would have thought of it most men would have thought of it for after a wife like you must have been often lonely and wretched many a man and boy would have married again because the empty life was too grievous to bear i never thought of it repeated the bishop simply and even then he did not tell her of that last sad promise he had made his that was a thing between him and her too sacred to repeat even to her mother well lady and jack went back to the palace and tried to eat a miserable meal which ended in the old going off to her own room to keep quiet until time for the afternoon service at the parish and jack forlorn and wretched not liking to go to the stables as was usual with him after luncheon on sundays found himself somehow walking slowly and through the west garden now the west garden was one of the prettiest bits about the palace jack s mother had loved it and the bishop had been accustomed to spend many hours pacing slowly up and down its thinking out his sermons and his addresses to the young thinking often too of her who had so often walked there hand in hand with him so jack by thoughts of him for whom his grief was yet fresh found himself walking among the bright flower beds towards the bank of the river and as he walked a voice called to him softly jack it jack jack quickened his footsteps as he heard it is it you he answered the other man s wife the garden at this point ended in a narrow which in its turn led into a strip of meadow land which ran to the bank of the river a little wooden gate led from this to the meadow and at this gate when jack reached it he found the owner of the voice standing oh jack dear she cried i wanted so to see you i did write we are so sorry jack so sorry all of us and i was in the parish this morning jack and i cried all the time let s go and sit on the bank said jack holding out his hand so together they went jack and his friend and sat down on the river s bank in the bright august sunshine and as jack sat with his hand in her s not because they were by way of being or in the habit of showing towards one another but only and solely because jack was in trouble he began in some way to be comforted his grandmother had tried with all her heart to comfort him it is true but with indifferent success for every tear and sob that escaped her had only seemed to the heart of the boy more cruelly lady was big and so so yes i know it s a vulgar word yet nothing else seems to express her so well her tears were so ready to flow her tongue was incessant her reminiscences was different she was so gentle and so pretty she had known the ever so much better than his mother in law had done she mourned for him with girl and boy all her true and tender childish heart yet tears did not have the effect of her whole face as always happened with lady tears only made her eyes look like forget me after a shower of rain mother says jack said presently that you will be going away from the palace now yes | 30 |
however the service passed off better than might have been expected lady did not begin to weep until the began even then she only wept softly and noiselessly the souls of the righteous are in the hands of god and there shall no torment touch them in the sight of the unwise they seem to die and their departure is for misery but they are in peace then followed s are the departed and then the congregation subsided into their seats while the was collected in less than ten minutes after that jack was leading his grandmother through the crowd once more and the dreadful day of public suffering was over looking back in after years jack always declared that his real boyhood ended on that day that he then became a man in reality although he had but the form of a boy in truth at that time he was his grandmother s chief stay and comfort and it was well that it was so for her son lord gas the man s being laid up with a bad attack of had not been able to go down to even for the funeral and necessarily it was imperative for the to lose no time in arranging the bishop s affairs and in deciding which of his were to be kept for his son and which were to be sold as he had directed by but at the end of a week lady had arranged almost everything had separated the pretty modem furniture which the dead bishop and had bought from the stately of carved oak black and shining with the polish of years which belonged to the palace she had set aside all the most valuable of her daughter s wedding presents and all her and these had been packed ready to be taken to her house in london the horses were all delivered over to the tender of a local dealer and were to be sold during the following week with the exception of a particularly handsome grey which had been for several years a great favourite of the bishop s and which lady thought would be suitable for jack to ride and last but certainly not least the evening before jack and lady were to leave the palace the boy went over to the to take the bull to his new home and mistress you know jack said s mother i really don t think a bull is quite the dog for a little girl of ten years old but has set her heart upon so i suppose i must give in and boy h yes mother cried oh yes mrs echoed jack wistfully it was perhaps a little hard on him to have his parting gift to his old and friend regarded in the light of a personal favour towards him rather than from him he had given his dearest possession a bull of the true strain he had offered it after a fierce struggle with himself and had with difficulty kept himself from going back on his word giving as a pretext his doubt that would settle in a new home or the coachman s fear that the dog was not yet over the and then to have his precious received as if he were being given a home out of charity to him and kindness to the well it was hard and that is where grown up people are often so stupid and so if mrs had realized the depth of and nobility which had their home within young jack s bosom her line of action from that day would have been so different that this story probably could never have been written for the simple reason that it would not have been there to write as it was she had yielded to s entreaties and understood nothing that was going on in the boy s heart did but at that moment hardly counted jack only knew that she was the little he had ever had he s a nice boy said mrs to her husband a little later but really i am not the man s wife sorry that he is going away although it is true we shall never get such a neighbour as the dear bishop again but is getting as wild as a hawk more like a boy than a girl she might be worse remarked major who had always been a great friend of jack s the boy is as honest as the day and as as oh yes yes his wife broke in but there are other things to consider in a girl s training than those h m muttered the major i don t know so much about that honesty and pluck make a very decent ground work ve ry decent my dear chapter iii only a i remember in the sunshine of my childhood s happy days a little maid with fair blue eyes and sweet and simple ways we wander d mid the fragrance of the smiling summer and we play d among the shadows of the fire lit winter hours years came and went springs gave place to and winter the last gleam of beauty from autumn foliage and so time passed on but jack never went back to his fond and faithful little at the settled down in his new home and straightway forgot the young master whose heart had been so sorely wrung at parting from him you see was very young and it is only old dogs who have anything to boast of in the way of only a memory memory and although talked to him often of jack it must be confessed he was more than satisfied with the change and jack never went back not that jack was to blame but when his first holidays came that was at christmas was lying ill with a mild attack | 30 |
of scarlet fever and the long talked of visit was of necessity put ofi and at it was before the time of long holidays mrs and had gone to to spend the summer and apparently mrs never thought of asking him to pay his visit there so the time went by and gradually the correspondence between the two which had at first been regular and fell off not with apparent intention but really it from weekly letters to letters on occasion eggs christmas and new year s cards and so on then at last there came a day when did not send back a and jack did not send a birthday gift it was not s fault in the least she had bought the card but her mother had remarked in an sort of voice that really it was time now that she should let jack alone jack missed the card sorely though he said nothing about it to anyone and cried over the want of the birthday gift and confided her grief to who was getting a staid dog now and had always been discreet in keeping the confidences made to him and the links of the the other man s chain once broken the friendship between the two seemed to die out by this time jack had left his first school and had gone to he was in fact nearly sixteen his career at this time was not especially remarkable he had owing to his father s foresight and prudence a fortune of about twelve hundred a year and was therefore as well off as was necessary for any school boy he still lived with his grandmother and was still the very light and life of her old age like most sons he was remarkable for great in all manner of sport and was very daring and full of courage he rode well and drove well too he was good at all manner of games and was a handsome lad well made and with frank eyes and a pleasant mouth he had that charm too which is perhaps the very greatest charm in a man a sweet speaking voice it was no wonder that old lady loved him so for he was far and away the flower among her lord q her eldest son had married late and had two little sons in his nursery who had no trace of the about them but strongly resembled their little mother both in face and in disposition mrs had an immense number of sons and daughters all sandy and like their scotch father her second girl had only one very delicate boy who spent most of his time lying on a sofa and the little who had given herself airs to was small only a memory wonder then that the old lady liked jack the best of all from jack went to and from he was to the th then his soul was satisfied and he set himself to enjoy the two months leave as only those who are young and with care can enjoy anything he spent part of his leave in making a round of country visits and among others he went to stay at the house of the lord of some half dozen miles from and his old home as a matter of course he met the bishop and equally as a matter of course he was introduced to him as the son of his and naturally enough he was asked to dine at the palace six years had gone by since he had seen the place but the dreadful familiarity of everything struck him most painfully he sat at the same table on one of the self same chairs on which he had sat as a boy the same device was on the plates and dishes on the and forks nay the very butler was the same the same who had served his father faithfully during ten years and called him mr jack just as he had done half a dozen years before once the old man for his familiarity and jack looked round at him with his frank eyes and ready smile why he said what would you call me i don t suppose if i was at home here still that you have to call me anything else the other man s wife no sir i don t suppose i should answered with a gratified mr jack s just the same as he used to be he remarked to the cook who had also been one of the late bishop s servants and whom mr had hopes of marrying one day i don t see a bit of at all and my word but it s a treat after this stuck up lot that s afraid of opening their mouths for fear of what they may let out ah mr jack was always a dear boy said mrs she was a still but enjoyed rank in the household many s the time he s come to me for his cakes or milk for the or something of the kind and he gave that to miss over at the i remember it as well as if it was yesterday now it happened that just at this very moment jack was saying to his hostess by the bye mrs jones do you see much of the now the bishop s wife hesitated well we do and we don t just now they are abroad and the house is shut up she answered is that so said jack i m sorry i used to know them all very well the major was always awfully good to me he taught me nearly all i know in the out door line and was a great friend of mine a great friend ah yes i mrs jones who was a beautiful woman turned her face | 30 |
taken out of her and yet she is marrying early the mistress wishes it sir the mistress believes in early marriages if there is money in the case and there is money here any amount of it i see said jack but all the same jack only thought that he saw and presently he rode away from the where he had spent so many happy hours in the days that were gone by feeling well as if he had been to look at some fondly cherished and carefully hidden treasure and had found that it had been stolen away long before and only a blank left poor dear little he did not like to think somehow of that brave and fearless little soul being cramped and by all the of a conventional education who had been as good almost at climbing trees as he was who would patiently dig for bait or watch for a rat with all the zeal of a real who despised and had been used to turn up her sweet little nose at all girls games i well it was unnatural somehow to think of her being tied down to needle work and piano practice to her manners particularly and taking care of her complexion true it was a lovely complexion he remembered that but jack had never thought it so lovely as when the red roses had through so the man s the brown of the son s kisses and now she was pale it was simply horrid to think of and jack shuddered a little as he rode through the pleasant morning air with a pang at his heart at the thought of how she must many and many a time have for her old again i suppose it had its influence upon her at last he said to himself as he his horse s ears with his whip like has on a chinese woman s foot at all events she gave up sending me a poor little girl iv the fighting the thing in this world is to do your in that state of life to which it shall please god to call you after this time jack s life a great change it seemed to flow into different channels altogether in fact he was then thrown entirely upon his own responsibility as much so as was possible with a young man not yet of age i think jack lord said to him the night before he went down to to join his regiment i think that you had better have an allowance of say four hundred a year it s quite enough for a newly joined in fact i never had more till i was five and twenty you will have your full income of course when you come of age but till then it will really be far more to your advantage if you only have a part of it the fighting all right said jack he was not extravagant he had no large ideas no love of show and to him four hundred a year seemed quite as much as he was likely to want for the present all the same uncle dick he said i don t see quite how i am to buy my out of it no no you must be started properly of course lord replied you ll find three horses enough for you i should think i suppose so said jack unless i should want a pony i don t see how you ll do it on four hundred a year lord said thoughtfully but of course jack if you really want more the money is there and you can have it only i don t want you to get into the way of spending it simply because it is there to be spent do you see oh yes i see answered jack easily i i shall make four hundred do very well lord had however something more to say you see jack twelve hundred a year is a very good income for a bachelor and as long as you remain a bachelor you are all right but if you should want to get married why you ll find twelve hundred a year just next to nothing at all i ll keep it in mind said jack carefully a i u keep it in mind all the time yes that just what i want said lord greatly relieved by the result of his conversation s the other man s wife he had been trying for several days to mention the matter to jack and felt quite clever and pleased with himself at his success lord was a very nervous man who hated interfering in other people s business although he was jack s guardian he invariably felt that he was extremely impertinent to be interfering with his private and probably had it not been for his mother s strong representations on the subject he would have quietly let the question of money matters slide altogether and jack would have joined his new regiment in the enjoyment of his full income my dear boy said old lady as they sat together at breakfast the following morning i never my own son when he went out into the world and i m not going to lecture you but you ll try and keep out of won t you yes he answered and he looked at her with his mother s very own eyes and his father s frank and fearless smile and then he stretched out his strong young hand to her and if i do have such bad luck as to get into any i ll let you know at once lady laid her beautiful old hand plump and white as a baby s in his that was all i wanted to say she said except except yes said jack except well except that when | 30 |
you marry dear i only wish especially for two things in your wife that the she will be a good girl and a lady you won t forget that your mother was both jack edged his chair a little nearer to the old lady s and put his arm around her in a winning way peculiarly his own dear he said i never knew my mother but i shall not forget that my grandmother is the very ideal of both i shall never bring any wife to you that you would be ashamed to receive you have spoilt me for second rate women my dear boy she cried and if that isn t a pretty speech for a child of twenty to make to his grandmother jack cried why beat it if you can that s all thus with the approval and confidence of his nearest relations jack went down to to join his regiment it is a terrible ordeal for any young man but i must say he got through it as easily as he could have expected or wished he had never seen the cramped little but as he drove up to the officers mess and looked out at the double row of windows all gaily out with smart flower boxes filled with blooming moon and red he thought the place was as cheerful and home like as any place he had ever lived in and then he got out of the carriage and wondered what would become of him next while he was waiting there a tall young man came out and him i suppose you re mr how d you do the other man s wife how do you do said jack my name is said the tall young man orderly officer for the day more s the pity very glad to meet you said jack in his easiest voice and can you tell me where my things are to go well you are to have the rooms next to mine said your cab had better go round to the back and i ll tell you what put your traps into my quarters and you can dress there oh thanks awfully said jack looked aside at him let s walk round look here my friend i ll give you the straight tip don t let the colonel hear you say awfully it s like a red rag to a bull and sets him oflf on the service going to the dogs how officers used to be gentlemen and all that sort of thing and all the fellows who have to sit and listen to his rot will hate you like poison thank you jack said gratefully he had already had a little experience of the ways of commanding officers and knew the value of good advice when he saw that it was good when do your things come chairs tables cot and all that asked i believe they ve come already jack replied then the sooner they are started making you comfortable for the night the better or stay i ve got a second little cot in my room i put my brother up sometimes when he comes to see me will you sleep there to night it ll be much the s more comfortable than your own quarters can possibly be it s really most uncommonly good of you said jack who had been on the point of using the word again not at all not at all come into the mess room and have a brandy and and then i ll take you round to the office and introduce you to the colonel he s not in the best of to day he discovered this morning that the big iron has been left out in the rain and has got rusty says its simply scandalous that there is a proper shed with shed marked on the door as large as you please and the is left to spoil in the rain simply because it s government property and belongs to nobody in particular nobody dare tell him that the shed is used to keep his in tell him by and bye when he s got over the on the a little jack burst out laughing he foresaw a very good time in the fighting i do not know how it is but be the newly joined ever so blessed with a good opinion of himself he cannot help admiring the of two months or perhaps two years standing who happens to be the one to receive him when he makes his first appearance in what is to be his home for the time that he remains in her majesty s service the of standing is used to the place he is used to his uniform and his boots make more noise and his spurs more perhaps than the other man s wife any other boots and spurs to be found in the whole regiment he a good bit and yet it is not offensive he shouts for his man or for a mess waiter or for attention when he enters a troop room in such a voice of command that cannot help positively respecting him for being able to do it jack had lived all his life in an atmosphere of command but he thought one of the very finest fellows he had ever come across and his very admiration made the dreadful ordeal of joining come the easier to him i suppose you ve got your said his new friend as they walked across the square towards the oh yes they re coming down to morrow my and my own began to bite the end of his thumb in a thoughtful kind of way i wonder where the devil you ll put them he remarked why because there isn t a stall to spare in the whole what a joke | 30 |
it will be if they have to turn the colonel s out to put a roof over your horses heads now here we are he opened the door of the and jack found himself in the presence of the commanding officer who was sitting on the corner of the large square table which stood in the middle of the room i ve brought mr to see you sir the new said the fighting er how de do how de do very glad to see you said the colonel getting off the table for a minute and then immediately sitting down again when he had shaken jack by the hand i hope you ll like your work and find your quarters comfortable mr must look after you and and put you up to our ways a little put up his hand in a gesture that was half a salute and half an expression of assent to the colonel s words jack made haste to assure the commanding officer that this had already been done or rather had already been begun thank you sir i ve already been aw that is uncommonly well looked after he said in his pleasant easy voice mr has been quite the good to me not because you have fallen among thieves i hope said the colonel quickly then went oflf into a fit of laughter at his own joke and jack both joining in as if wit so brilliant had never fallen upon their ears before let me see said the colonel when they had recovered themselves a little lord is your guardian and my uncle sir jack answered oh really i then your mother was lady sir and your father was bishop of you don t say so why i once dined with him the other man s wife at the palace i remember him well he was once head master of yes sir he was and a very fine fellow he was too i am very glad to have his son amongst my officers by have you got your horses down yet no sir they come to morrow jack answered ah yes and how many three sir three i see well we haven t much room but er mr you might speak to mr long about it he must find room for them of course ril tell him what you say sir said with grim humour and jack remembering his little story about the shed was seized with a wild desire to go oflf into a fit of laughing happily the colonel dismissed them then and they were able to go out into the open air and laugh as much as they pleased here s old long coming said as they walked back across the square long this is the new mr the quarter master put out his hand very glad to see you how d you do said jack mr has brought down three horses at least they re coming to morrow i k ng said getting straight to his subject and the colonel says you ve got to find room for em somewhere or other the fighting ss i don t know where said the quarter master with a blank face i think the colonel thinks are elastic i don t know where three extra horses are going unless i turn my own horses out into the yard well you ve got to night to think about it in long said soothingly any way that was what the chief told me to tell you well of course if the colonel says so it ll have to be done though how would puzzle the pope himself the quarter master declared there s always the shed suggested ah yes there is and there s the mess room and the cried the other with a loud laugh old chap long said as they walked on he ll manage it somehow and you ll probably have to pay toll so to speak oh i shall get over that said jack well after this jack really got on uncommonly well he was drawn the first night that he slept in his own quarters which were small and and like the royal we expressed more than there was tt express and the second night they made hay in his rooms and the third they tried him by court martial for one or two trifling he had made during the day yet on the whole he got on remarkably well and was soon at home among his brother officers sooner than he was in the strange of society whose two the other s wife hundred and defined and distinct soon make the one who goes there feeling in love and charity with all learn to tread like a weary pilgrim on peas chapter v new quarters time is a file that wears and makes no noise four years had gone by jack had long ago become an established favourite in the fighting was keen on gay as a boy blessed with a delightful fund of good humour though on occasion he could and sometimes did blaze up in a very pretty show of fiery wrath the were at camp not a particularly lively spot nor one in which a soldier is ever very well pleased to find himself however in a soldier s life place is altogether a question of chance and on the whole the had not been very hardly used from they had gone to and from to where they were utterly spoilt and now they were in camp at for two years with the pleasant prospect of a long spell in ireland when they should find themselves on the move again however after the manner of soldiers as they had nearly two years in front of them which must be spent in the regiment | 30 |
on the whole settled itself down and made the best of the new present without more than a few groans at the mention of the future the mess hut had been as much as possible and all the windows were gay with bright flowers the little in which the long hut stood had been planted thickly with tall moon red and yellow while odd corners were filled up with brave attempts at in the of which little hardy were flourishing as cheerfully as if they were growing on a wild west country instead of an arid and dusty camp well well they were watered twice and even thrice a day and perhaps the little knew no better let us hope not anyway certain it is that the around the mess hut at was with bright flowers to gather which was to the penalty of the law something very dreadful i know not quite what though i fancy it stopped but little short of death itself nor was the mess hut the only gay spot in the camp every hut almost had its patch of turf sometimes scarcely more than an apology for the genuine thing yet in most cases by every artificial means within reach of camp life every window had its little garden and within the huts now that the first bustle of removal was over was busy making the best of the situation in those of the married officers the wives were most of them very busy and let me tell you that there is nothing at which a really smart army the other man s wife woman will stop when she is doing up her quarters there was much over a certain column in the queen where in a sister in arms for a long time was wont to discourse out of own experience on comers painting and the like some were busy with needle and thread others with hammer and nails or paint and brush and in one of the unmarried officer s huts or i should to be quite correct say outside it our friend jack with about half pots of was excessively busy an exceedingly shabby collection of chairs and tables into what would be described in the trade as a for a in ivory white jack himself was very hot and very much with paint and he had also got an ingenious way of putting it on which though entirely satisfactory as to the result involved a great deal trouble in the actual process this consisted of putting it on hot and let me tell you that to any article of furniture out in the open and keep the pot of hot the while is anything but an easy business hi jack called out having discovered that his paint was beginning to show signs of the brush i say i must have some more hot water well my soul said a voice behind him i don t know much about painting chairs and tables but i never knew you did em with hot water before new quarters ah is that you come in old chap jack answered come in i m very busy so i see said the new comer pushing the little gate open and strolling leisurely into the tiny are you too busy to come down to the town with me don t sit on that chair it s wet jack then at the sight of the jump which gave he went off into a gay peal of laughter is there another man in the world but yourself who would go near white paint in his best uniform then why the devil asked with do you spread white paint about just where a fellow is likely to go by the by old chap are you thinking of getting married married why this like display with a gesture which included the old chairs and tables oh they re not mine they re for mrs poor little thing she can t manage them herself and won t try i say yes sir said putting his head out of the door more hot water said jack and bring mr a chair out the big one yes sir said disappearing again i ll tell you what it is my friend remarked when he had got the chair and had comfortably settled himself therein have to look out i other man s wife why jack asked as he diligently stirred the pot of paint with a bit of stick why it s clear enough pretty woman indifferent husband no money friendly old chairs and tables new coat of paint i say look out what an ass you are said jack beginning to his brush again perhaps keep it in mind all the same answered with absolute good nature what that you re an ass old chap oh i needn t trouble to do that you ll not let me forget it with a gay laugh laughed too yes i know all that it s a chestnut but no matter just mind what i say that s all all right old chap i will all the same up to the present moment there s been no need of it i m sorry for the little woman for she s had hard lines all the time but she s a good little woman and a loyal little woman too and i should as soon think of cutting my throat right away as of trying to presume on my acquaintance or get the least little bit more familiar than she chooses me to be yes i know said taking his out of his mouth but i ve noticed several times before that very pretty have arisen out of the and most intercourse with just that type of mild and good little down trodden woman however | 30 |
it s no business of mine only new quarters had it on my mind to give you a hint for some time and now i ve done it it s my mind and we needn t say any more about it it was perhaps the longest speech that jack had ever heard from who was a man of remarkably few words he laughed a little at the lecture and put out a rather paint hand to his comrade old chap he said it s awfully good of you to tell me if you see anything which makes you think i m going into danger but i assure you in this case there is no danger i like mrs immensely immensely she s one of the best little women i ever knew but i m not even a little bit in love with her and if i were it wouldn t be any good for she simply the very ground he walks on good ejaculated yes i know but it s true all the same and don t care a brass button for her not a brass button h m murmured thoughtfully then after a moment s silence he continued in a different tone by the bye you ve heard of course that has arranged his exchange the major no i never believed he meant it who is it with a major of the th ah do you know anything about him not a thing what does the colonel say very little for he knows very little he s never the other man s wife met him but he said just now i ve of him as a very smart soldier so i suppose it s all right ah and jack went on with his painting and finished oflf the leg of a chair which he then very carefully set aside to dry i wonder who he belongs to and where he comes from something to do with oh i forget answered carelessly he sat watching jack till he had finished the last article of furniture you ve done now haven t you he asked sitting up with some show of eagerness only the first coat answered jack what are you going to do em all over again why yes of course i am jack replied did you ever see a table with one coat of paint that looked decent how should i know a table might have a hundred and fifty coats of paint on it before i should be any wiser but look here old chap can t you drop it now and come out with me they can t be dry enough to go over again yet what as i am asked jack with much gravity no not as you are get yourself cleaned if you can and come along i want you to see a plate down there oh all right well you go and get out of your and i ll be ready in a said jack having carefully cleaned his new he disappeared into his hut and presently come out and cleared the and away ain t such a bad hand at it he chuckled to himself as he examined his master s work i expect if he knew i d been in this ere very line he d start me on painting for the of the aye but joseph ain t such a ass as to let on what ll get a o work without a blessed penny to show for it no joseph ain t such a ass as that in less than ten minutes jack came out of the hut looking as and span in his light summer clothes as if he had never heard of such things as old chairs and tables in all his life he went across to s hut and knocked on the door with the handle of his walking stick old chap he shouted opened the door i was just coming over to you he and then the two officers turned and went away together in the direction of the town they had got about half way there when suddenly uttered an exclamation it was he said in a tone of relief what was asked jack a little puzzled to know his meaning well it was lord that the new major is connected with replied i ve been trying to think of the name ever since i he was next to the title at one time and that old married when he was about a hundred and had several children the other man s wife hard lines for the major said jack then walked on in silence trying to piece together certain recollections which were hovering in his brain next to the title why i have it he cried aloud he was the man who married and who was asked she was the greatest i had when i was a boy her people s place was next to the palace at where i was born you know by jove what a jolly little soul she was looked aside at him first love he asked with a expression in eyes and mouth jack laughed well perhaps h m with a disgusted tone jack laughed yet more oh nothing of that kind i haven t seen her for for oh for over twelve years she was a child in short when i remember her she s been married for years she s younger than you oh yes several years then she can t have been married so many old chap i suppose now you ll spend all your time there you forget her husband will perhaps break my head if i try that on it s devoutly to be hoped he will said who was never so happy as when | 30 |
with jack and greatly resented his being such a favourite as he was with all the married women with whom he was brought into contact old chapter vl old friends for to come in due time major bade farewell to the fighting and departed with the usual honours and in due time also major appeared upon the scene the first impression he made was a distinctly one he was big and loud with a hard weather face and an cruel mouth the first day he showed in or i should say in the mess room the colonel brought him in just before lunch and introduced him to all the assembled there opened his eyes a little more than usual remembering that jack had spoken of this man s wife as a girl a pretty girl jack was not in the room at the time but he came in after a few minutes and slipped into his place beside who is that he asked in an new major replied jack s eyebrows went up and the corners of his mouth went down that s husband that coarse mouthed hard faced loud brute he understood the old nurse s now he knew the meaning of the severe lines about her mouth that s husband i it was incredible to incredible the other man s wife by jove his thoughts ran ho she mast have altered after i left i suppose she has grown the very of her mother by this time what d you think of him murmured in his ear at that moment i don t think anything at all answered jack a shade sharply the outside of a man makes very little difference one way or the other and then he went on wondering how in the world a marriage could by any possibility have come about or even been brought about between such a man as major and his old friend and first love immediately after lunch he went round and asked the colonel to introduce him to major i believe sir he said in his pleasant voice that i have the pleasure of knowing mrs indeed returned the major without in any way helping him if she was miss of the jack went on yes my wife was miss said the major my father was the bishop of said jack and the is next to the palace miss and i were children together and great friends ah i really first love i suppose and all that said the major with a harsh laugh the colonel looked surprised and not a little old friends disgusted jack drew his head up rather stiffly and answered in scarcely such a pleasant voice as he had spoken in before i have not seen her for over twelve years sir i cannot even say if she remembers me as the colonel maintained a dead silence and jack had not so much as the ghost of a smile on his face it must have occurred to major that he had said something which would have been better left at all events he burst into a somewhat laugh and patted jack lightly on the shoulder ah well joking apart i mrs will remember you well enough come down to the hotel and see her she hated leaving the old regiment though she didn t want to go to india but she doesn t think much of from what she has seen so far and i fancy an old friend s face will be a perfect to her jack s face cleared instantly thank you very much sir i should like to see mrs again immensely will she be at home this afternoon oh i should think so i shall not be able to get back till after five but you can look in when you like you know thank you very much sir said jack gratefully it happened to be a clear afternoon for him and when he had finished his jack strolled into s hut he said carelessly i m going down to call on mrs will you come the man s wife no said promptly you ll get on very well without me oh don t be rusty old chap come along jack urged not to day my friend but you ll have to go some time or other i i shall then why not do it now as well as to morrow or next week oh i t be alive next week then i shall get oflf it altogether what an ass you are i know i know but i m not going to call on anyone to day so jack finding his friend went and changed what he called his and went off to the town to call on his old love yes she was at home the waiter said so jack was taken upstairs feeling quite nervous at the prospect of seeing her again the waiter opened the door of a room on the first and ushered him in with an announcement mr mrs was sitting in a large lounging chair with her back to the door and was reading a book she rose when the man spoke and came to meet her visitor then all at once she uttered a cry of joyful surprise why jack she exclaimed jack is it you she held out both her hands in her joy at seeing him and jack took them and held them fast how little altered you are he old friends s cried i should have known you anywhere anywhere and why not jack she asked what should change me i am just the same you knew at home nay you are grown up and married he smiling at her and what difference does that make she demanded i couldn t help it in either case and i hope you didn t want to help either said | 30 |
he trying not to show what he felt about her husband oh well well and she gave a soft little sigh i was so very young to be married jack and major is so much older than i am you know youve seen him of course oh yes he gave me permission to call mrs began to laugh how funny it is for you to call on me i oh isn t it funny but why why well i cannot explain it but it is funny all the same oh jack what lovely times we used to have in the old days at home do you remember how could i forget he asked half tenderly what a little woman you were then i wonder if you could bait a hook now no i m sure i couldn t with a shudder but it was great fun all the same and do you remember jack to be sure i do what got him thb man s wife nothing i have him still she answered what is alive yet jack cried why he must be as old as the hills scarcely so old as that stay i ll fetch him she went to another door than that by which he had entered and called to the dog and then an exceedingly dignified bull dog came slowly into sight and apparently recognised his mistress s visitor why he knows you cried and yet he cannot possibly remember you not after all these years and he such a baby when you gave him to me you forget i saw him four years ago four years ago when where she asked at the of course just before you were married he replied just before i was married i but how was it i never saw you you were away i only saw old nurse and oh i see then after a moment s pause nurse never told me that you had been i wonder why said he with some astonishment in his tones mrs made a vague gesture as if to convey to him that she also wondered why she had never heard of the visit yet she knew well enough well enough she knew by an instinct which no woman ever mistakes exactly why nurse had not told her of the visitor who had found his to old the during the absence of the family from home knew well enough although not a word had passed between them on the subject that her old nurse had been all along perfectly aware that she had had practically no choice in the matter of her marriage major had proposed to her and at the same time had told her that he had her mother s consent he was rich and at that time stood next to the title and after her conventional education would no more have dared to refuse him than she would have dared to jump off the highest tower of cathedral she knew now that nurse had held her peace only to be kind only that the thoughts of her dear old play fellow jack might not help to make the burden of her marriage vows harder to bear well well it was all over now and here was her old friend jack grown out of all remembrance and what a fine fellow he was airs looked up at his goodly height at his good fair face and felt well like a beside him would you have known me jack she asked suddenly jack laughed out aloud why of course i should have known you anywhere you are not a bit altered except that you ve grown up you know well that is enough alteration in most people she said with a faint smile the other man s wife they were sitting then on an old fashioned wide seated sofa and was resting himself in a very majestic way against his mistress s feet and for a long time the two went on talking of the old days a conversation of intense interest to them both but one consisting chiefly of do you remember or have you forgotten ah what lovely times they were she cried with a sigh as she flung herself back in the corner of the sofa lovely times oh jack what a pity it is that we ever grew up jack looked aside at her and twisted himself round a little as he sat why you don t mean to say that you d like to go back to the and again he cried ah would i not she answered i do go home sometimes you know but that s not the same at all but you re happy you have a good time he asked anxiously oh so so she replied but you re not un happy surely he cried in dismay you me returned mrs pulling herself together with an effort i don t want you to understand that i am unhappy and i suppose i get a very good time if you call going out in society having a good time but but i think i was over educated and they did not begin as they meant to go on which was a pity they began with my father s idea of education old riding hunting fishing dim trees a regular farm yard sort of life and then after you went away from the palace they changed all that i had two and they taught me how to be i was not allowed to ride much for fear of making me crooked i was not allowed to walk without a for fear of my complexion and i had to take care of my hands and to do this that and the other until i hated my life and wished many a time that | 30 |
i had never been born perhaps if i had married a man who would have encouraged me to ride and drive and play i might have forgotten all the horrible process of my education but major hates masculine women and never lets me get on a horse or have the reins in my hands my poor little friend said jack taking the hand nearest to him in his own and holding it tenderly all this must be so bad for you yes hopelessly i might have got my nerve back and been quite my old self again by this time but as it is well among them they have killed my nerve and and i think they have broken my heart too my poor little friend repeated jack softly she snatched her hand away no don t pity me she cried with a half hysterical laugh i cannot bear that anything but that i ought not to have told you i assure you jack i never tell anybody we were four years with the old regiment and not one of them knew i had ever been on a horse in my life ba the other man s wife you don t mean it oh yes but there don t let us talk of it again it s not worth it it all comes of me i think i had not brains enough to stand it and your husband is he is he you are happy in your marriage oh we get along very well my mother thinks it a great pity now that i married so young you see when we were married major was next to the title and two years and a half ago old lady died and the old lord married again at once within three months or something like that it wouldn t have mattered so much only they ve got twin boys a year old now so the chances of my husband ever being lord are exceedingly small but you don t care not in the least i think i prefer to be as i am but my mother took the marriage as a great trouble and the almost proved her death major was disappointed you see he had looked upon himself so long and had been looked upon by others as the next lord and he feels dreadfully about it i can understand that and lord added insult to injury by asking him to be to the heir just to show there was no ill feeling and he was so angry i dared not laugh and he was angry old friends oh horribly awfully angry and i don t wonder laughed jack it seems to me that it can t really make much difference but i can understand his being angry about it by the bye i wonder if we couldn t talk the major over into letting you ride again started up in positive alarm h no don t try don t think of it for an instant he never and and he would be sure to resent your asking such a thing or even at it promise me you won t suggest anything of the kind promise me jack her tone was so her entreaty so urgent that jack turned and looked at her closely i say he said slowly are you afraid of your husband she looked from side to side and tried to laugh the question off it s not exactly that jack she said only he is a great deal older than us you know and has an immense idea of his rank and all that and i know he wouldn t like it and and it s so awfully jolly for me to have you to talk to again i shouldn t like you to do anything to vex him and when did you say awfully jolly last i wonder said jack smiling never since you went away from the palace answered the major s wife promptly and laughing quite gaily just then the door opened and the major entered the room the laugh died away from s face the other man s wife lifted his lip and showed his teeth in a dumb and jack at once got on to his feet then you found your way down here said the major in a very tone i did sir as soon as you were good enough to give me leave to come i lost no time in coming and how do you think my wife s looking mrs has grown up since i saw her last but i should have known her anywhere jack answered that s all right well you must come down and see her when you like come and dine tomorrow night eight o clock i shall be delighted sir said jack but as he walked away along the quiet little street the question came to him why did he ask me and why was she so surprised that he did chapter vii a ghost of the past when anything remains to be explained rather confess ignorance than offer an explanation which explains nothing the hut which had been occupied by major happened to be a particularly good one and major set about having it well cleaned and decorated at once my wife has a fancy to live in camp he explained to jack and as we shall be here for nearly two years we may as well have it made as comfortable as possible we ve bad furnished houses a ghost of the past before but there don t seem to be any decent ones in and i living in an hotel one never knows how one may be annoyed or who is staying in the house ob it s much more comfortable in camp sir said jack who had not | 30 |
been long enough in the service to hate a it s so much in every way and the major s hut is such an good one and the garden quite a little paradise major took infinite pains with it yes and my wife is very fond of a bit of garden major replied so i am having the place and painted and made as comfortable as possible and you must help my wife to get settled i m told you re a great hand at anything of that sort well sir i do try to make myself useful sometimes returned jack modestly i ve been helping mrs oh yes she showed us her furniture said the major taking the words out of jack s mouth and though mrs won t exactly want you to do that sort of thing i she ll be very pleased if you ll advise her about one or two little things her pictures and plants and so on i shall be only too delighted sir said jack in all good faith i am really out of all that sort of thing the major continued with an air of great good humour and when i get into any kind of a shop except the other man s wife it s a s or a boot shop i always feel like the bull among the china i i look like it too ha ha he walked away laughing heartily and jack stood looking curiously after him well you re a queer fish upon my word you are and to think you married my little friend poor little soul no wonder she looks so miserable every now and then and talks about and the as if the old days were paradise then he too turned on his heel and went about his own business which at that moment happened to be something concerning one of his horses while he was talking to the groom passed the door and seeing him came in and as men do they looked at the sleek satin horses together you ve heard the news said as they walked towards the mess together no i ve heard nothing except that the are going to live in camp jack answered oh i ve heard that too you knew her when she was a child didn t you yes what did she marry him for oh i don t fancy she had much choice about it jack said carelessly her mother was the sort of woman who does not give anyone within her range too much rope as a little girl mrs was let to go her own way pretty much but a ghost op the past young lady i believe she had the devil s own time you see the title weighed a good deal with her with the mother i suppose of course h m what an odd thing it is that titles do weigh so heavily with women as they do i should have thought that all the titles under the sun would never have gilded a brute like that let alone it s being only a title in yes it s rough on her anyway said jack with a sigh by the bye what w as your news oh i is going to be married you don t say so and who is he going to marry said looking straight in front of him an drum nonsense cried jack nonsense or no nonsense it s true asserted positively i had it from himself this morning and what did you say to him i said he was an ass or something like it and then of course i had to and say that i didn t mean anything personal only that i thought it a pity that soldiers should marry at all till they re out of the service and old what did he say oh he laughed said i was a jolly old cock that had gone wrong altogether and would never be better till i d in love myself in love me i the man s wo e just think of it he ended in disgust jack laughed aloud my dear old chap i can t think of it i can t imagine any woman ever giving you the chance of knowing her well enough to be in love with her they d give me the chance fast enough no fear said grimly yes i they would but old chap laughed jack you may take my word for this you u go on for a time well enough and then one of these fine days you ll get bitten before you know where you are and oh by jove won t you have it bad no mistake about it yes my friend returned as they reached the door of the mess room when i do have it i shall have it badly you are quite right about that quite right well about two hours after this jack was walking briskly along the narrow high street in which the principal shops of may be found when he literally ran against mrs who came out of a shop attended only by the majestic my dear i ask a thousand he cried i had no idea that you or anyone else was coming out of that shop i didn t hurt you did i not a bit jack she said laughing and if you had it wouldn t have been your fault where are you going with you if may he answered promptly a of the past oh yes indeed you may i am going to the s and then to a s little shop where they have odds and ends to make my drawing room look pretty the major tells me that you are going to be grand | 30 |
no beginning nor end take heed to man ere thou place foot on it jack said a few days afterwards come and sit by me i ve got something to tell you the officers were all streaming into the mess the other man s wife room for luncheon and jack took his seat beside smiling already in anticipation of something good to come what is it he asked said to yesterday the two you re an ass said you re drunk yes i know i am answered but i shan t be drunk to morrow and you ll always be a fool burst out laughing did you hear that yourself yes i heard it from but you didn t hear and well no i didn t admitted but it has a great air of probability about it oh it s a good story i ll allow returned with a laugh by the bye said i m going over to to day to see a mare has for sale will you go with me why does want to sell her jack asked not quite up to his weight answered carelessly he has put on flesh awfully the last six months but he says the mare is just as clever as daylight and as handsome as paint the usual thing jack laughed well i am going to have a look at her anyway said decidedly will you go or not this afternoon a friendship yes i m going over directly after lunch well i m awfully sorry old chap i should have liked to go immensely but i can t to day why not because i ve promised to go somewhere else said jack mildly in disgust where i m going to mrs s returned jack she s got an afternoon on didn t she ask you oh yes she asked me right enough said but i ve got more sense than to go to what is called an afternoon in a hut with fifteen women all wanting tea and only two of men to give it to em what an old bear you are cried jack with a gay laugh yes i know but i d rather be a bear than a cat s any day the other growled you look out what you re doing my friend i ve seen a good many of these tremendous between and field officers wives before but i never knew one that didn t come to a bad end sooner or later oh old man you re sane enough on some points but you re as mad as a march hare on certain others and on women you are of all you mark my words persisted and when anything happens don t forget that i warned you all right carelessly only i wish i was as the other man s sure of the command of the as i am that nothing of that sort will happen at all why man alive mrs and i were children together babies almost known her all my life we couldn t get up an affair if we tried and i m sure we shall not try h m of course not of course not they never ive seen plenty of that sort of thing returned gloomily jack however being a young man of decided views not to say exceedingly strong willed was not to be growled out of his friendship with the major s wife indeed if it had effect of any kind s opposition only the flame and made him the more determined to see as much of his old as the circumstances of their lives permitted and it must be admitted from the very beginning that the circumstances of their lives allowed of a good deal of intercourse jack very soon found that major did not in the smallest degree permit the fact of his wife s existence to his movements within the boundaries of her own hut mrs was apparently supreme that is to say she asked whom she chose there she went out when she liked and came in to suit her own pleasure she had her own carriages a neat single and a very smart victoria and very seldom indeed was major to be seen in either of them but outside their hut major seemed to consider that his wife had no claim upon him what a friendship ever he frequently went up to london but beyond his address to the orderly room he did not often trouble to communicate to his wife during his the major gone to london again remarked jack one day in accents of involuntary surprise but but how is it you are not going don t you like london yes i am very fond of london she replied but did not suggest my going and and i like very much well i dare say london is a bit hot and dusty at this time of year jack rejoined feeling that he had trodden on what must be painful ground to her and after all isn t half bad is it supposing we go down to the ground and watch the people the band is playing you know oh i should like it immensely she cried brightening up in a moment shall we walk down just as you like i ll go and get out of my paint and come back for you eh yes that will be quite charming therefore about half an hour afterwards mr who was smoking a last pipe before going out somewhere had the gratification of seeing his great friend and jack arrayed in an exceedingly light suit a white hat flower in his button hole and a generally air of enjoyment about his whole bearing go across the open space between the officers the other man s wife quarters | 30 |
and the married officers huts and open the little gate which led into mrs s tiny garden then after a few minutes he saw them come out together and go happily off in the direction of the gates followed them with disgusted eyes until they turned the corner of the mess hut and were out of sight pretty business he muttered the major off to town leaves his wife behind her old friend and all that hope they won t want me to with any of em whatever happens and something will happen before long mark my words i suppose he s telling her this moment that he d never go to london and leave her m camp all by her little self it s disgusting disgusting and to think it should be poor old of all others that s never given a woman a second thought since he s been in the regiment it s simply sickening however as it happened jack was saying nothing of the kind to mrs at that precise moment he was saying and how is it you go home so seldom mrs blushed a little doesn t care for and since lord married he does not get on so well with my mother as he did and really as i tell her he couldn t help his uncle marrying again and having children and all that of course not then why don t you go by yourself a mrs shook her head no my mother and i get on very well when we are apart but but well i don t care to go home much i am best here he understood from her tone that the was home in the proper sense of the word for her no longer he did not know that in his old s heart at that moment a wild tumult was raging a wild memory of a day a few weeks before her wedding when she had wept and prayed and begged and implored to be set free from her engagement when she had gone down on her knees beside her mother and had poured out all her troubled child s heart to that ear which would only hear music in the of gold and the sound of a title and was deaf and cold to the cry of yearning for love and sympathy mother i don t care for major she had in her despair i never shall care for him never could care it is wicked to marry a man you cried mrs you are really quite i can listen to no more of this you are nervous hysterical but i should not be doing my duty as your mother if i allowed you to say any more if you felt like this about captain you were very wrong indeed to accept him indeed i do not understand your doing so as it is everything has gone too far to draw back now the never break faith and your father would be the first to blame you if the other man s wife you disgraced him like that pray let me hear no more of this you had better go to your room and try to forget that such words have ever passed your lips got up from her knees without a word with no more than one long look at her mother a look which saw all too plainly through her assumption of sham indignation and in that moment all her seemed to up and die all her love of home seemed to fade into nothing in the oppressive magnitude of her despair how well she remembered it all that bright summer afternoon as she and jack walked down to the ground together she and jack just as they had been used to go down to the river s bank at home there to sit watching for fish that they seldom caught the best of friends the most faithful and entertaining of companions well well it was all gone by for ever and after all they were friends still that was something it was more than something to her indeed although she hardly owned as much to herself it was nevertheless true that their friendship was almost everything to her however as she reminded herself bitterly it was no use thinking about that now the past was past and what wa done could not be undone after all her life might have been more than it was her husband let her go her own way pretty much if he neglected her and led her in some senses a dog s life really a dog s life treating her as an incident a to ornament his house a friendship feeding her and clothing her leaving her behind when he did not want her with him that she might go with him when her presence would not actually annoy him at all events he did not trouble her with jealousy and she was on the whole free to take her amusement how and when she liked so she decided in her own mind that she would make the best of her life and enjoy herself as well as she could and since jack was now in the same regiment and major did not seem to mind her friendship with him why hfe might not be so dull a business after all for a long time they sat upon a garden seat under the shade of a group of big trees in the ground listening to the music watching the people and on all manner of subjects i wonder who that strange looking woman with the dark eyes is she said at last as a middle sized dark woman passed them for the third time i don t know i scarcely know a soul in | 30 |
you make devilish good wives one can always trust you mrs turned away with a bitter smile upon her lips and the major went off to dress for dinner quite satisfied with his own generosity and towards his wife the best of you proud cold women you make very poor sort of but you make devilish good wives she repeated under her breath poor sort of sweetheart good wives oh my if this man could only look into my heart and see just what sort of a sweetheart i could be to some men to one man at least oh if only you knew what a bad wife you have bad bad in every thought and wish if not in deed if you only knew how little she is able to trust herself she was standing at the window looking out over the tall white and the red over the bit of garden and the low against which the wall flowers grew and the sweet peas were climbing over the row of huts opposite to the distant sky beyond she looked in her trailing white tea gown and with her shining the other man s wife golden head like a herself how young and lovely she was still in years but twenty two in looks a girl and alas in and pain of heart she felt like an old old woman she held her hands pressed hard together then her blue eyes were full of pain her face was white and tired it is so hard to bear she said in the same hurt tone under her breath to live with him who has long ago grown tired of me and to have that other one ah she broke oflf sharp and short for across the open space between her window and the opposite row of huts she saw jack walk quickly by he looked at her window and seeing her saluted with a gay gesture and a bright smile she forced her hand to reply and her lips into an answering smile and then she dropped back into the nearest chair wishing wildly that she were dead or that she had never been born into this world of mistakes and weariness and suffering i am safe enough she told herself he cares nothing about me may trust me i am jack s old friend and that is all she was still lying back in the big chair when major returned wearing evening clothes and a smart smoking jacket a quite gorgeous velvet affair with and of superb he turned himself about for her inspection i invested in a new smoking jacket whilst i was up he told her pretty isn t it quite answered her eyes filled with jack s fair and beauty was it a so i thought but in bond street you know says it ll soon tone down do you think it will how should i know must be a better judge than i well i don t know about that doubtfully but he made it didn t he she was trying hard to force herself to seem to be interested in his new attire yes he made it supplied the velvet of course and not the oh the no i got that elsewhere he replied rather awkwardly rose from her chair a somewhat smile curling her lips i see the new eve gave you the she said scornfully yet very quietly what a pity to waste it down here you will take all the bloom off it not at all the bloom ought to be off cried he not sorry to find she had accepted the evidence of a new eve which by the bye he had not intended to let slip to her so quietly i think on the whole that they got on better than they had done for two years before the major had exchanged into the th in the old regiment mrs had often been dull and in low spirits he had been left a good deal alone and major had never been able to go away for a few days or even a few hours without feeling more or less of a brute towards her now no man in the world i take it likes to feel himself a brute go be the other man s wife was much inclined to accept the existence of jack his wife s old as an entirely blessing they spent the evening very quietly the major smoked a couple of and wrote two or three letters and talked to her a little of what he had done in london and all the time in s heart there was raging a wild and fierce tumult a cry rose up and would hardly be stifled that her life was harder to bear than it had been before that the mockery of going on living like this had become a very hell to her that she neither could nor would continue it yet major smoked and complacently on without a suspicion that his wife sitting quietly sewing at a bit of muslin and lace work beside the table where the lamp stood was feeling any different to what she looked without a suspicion that her exterior of ice covered in truth a very of fire a mine which might under his feet at any moment by the bye is anything going on just now he asked suddenly when it was getting towards bed time there is a garden party at tomorrow she answered thinking pleasantly of it because jack would be there and i believe we are all to be asked to an supper afterwards oh at are you going yes i have promised to go and with a was it a laugh i have got a new gown on purpose for it well will | 30 |
the do to drive you over in oh yes perfectly she replied accordingly the following afternoon about three o clock the major s very high with its bright yellow wheels came round to the little gate of their hut a gray was between the shafts a regular with satin coat and restless heels he showed a great objection to settling down at first but after a minute or two brought himself into the pose of a statue his head well in air and his handsome feet extended as far as possible mrs did not keep him waiting very long indeed as the major opened the front door she came out of her bedroom is that the new frock he asked let s have a look at you my word it s very pretty i feel quite proud of going out with you i am highly honoured cried turning herself about she was in high spirits and his little compliment pleased her it was certainly a pretty gown plain and simple of soft flannel with a smart sailor bat bound with a cream ribbon on her fair head she carried over her arm a coat of stone coloured cloth wit i a coachman s cape or rather set of is it cold she asked cold no you ll be smothered if you wear that thing he answered the other wife i shall he smothered in dust if i don t replied but i think it will be enough to keep me warm coming home you know it is twice as cold in that high trap as it is in the victoria a prettier or more woman surely no man ever helped into a high dog cart and major swung himself into his place beside her feeling quite in a glow of satisfaction ton my word his thoughts ran there s nothing like a little outside interest and attention for a married woman up why i shall be falling in love over again if i don t look out mrs cast a glance towards the mess yes the coach was there already the major saw her look would you rather have gone on the coach he asked oh i don t care at all because you couldn t have had the box seat and i ve no idea of your sitting behind don t you know oh no i like this much better she replied they swept through the gates as she spoke and once on a bit of open road the gray went like steam towards the town don t go through the town at this pace will you she asked major laughed i shall find myself in the police station if i do he answered i wonder if you would mind stopping at s for a minute only for a minute i left my little scent bottle there to be re charged he raised no objection and when they reached was it a the narrow high street pulled up the gray at the door of the s shop is my little smelling bottle ready asked yes ma am and away he ran into the shop again to get it what happened next was all over in an instant and hardly knew how it came about but just as the man returned with the neat little white parcel in his hand and gave it to mrs the major exclaimed under his breath and gave the gray horse a cut with the whip such as sent him off at a frantic gallop along the narrow street nor did he moderate his pace until they had got a good mile upon the road towards when with some his master pulled him up to a walk what was the matter asked who had been holding on to the side of the trap in sheer desperation expecting every moment to be dashed to the stones nothing nothing i think something stung me and he put up his hand to his neck as if to show that the mischief was there was it a does it hurt much now she asked she had never loved this man she knew that he was tired of her she guessed that he went after other gods yet in one moment she was all tenderness for his supposed hurt he looked down into her anxious eyes with a smile which but barely covered the fear which still lingered in his vm afraid i frighten your wits the other man s wife out of you every now and then he said with a rough sort of apology i m awfully sorry but the fact was i was startled and made a cut at the horse without thinking what i was doing and the brute being reminded of the whip at all then you were not badly stung she cried no a mere nothing a year or two ago i should never have noticed it ton my word i fancy my nerves are going i shall have to cut the service and travel for a while alone she asked scarce above a whisper her lips had gone white her cheeks were pale her whole face seemed to have grown drawn and haggard in a moment drawn and haggard and old alone of course not i but there what s the good of talking about that i m out of sorts altogether but i shall be all right after a bit when i have got my nerves pulled together a little he laughed as he spoke and began to talk about other things once or twice looking back to see if the coach was in sight or not they were more than half way to ere it appeared however and the major urged the gray to put his best leg forward so that the others might not overtake them by the | 30 |
time they pulled up at the at major was in the wildest and most boisterous spirits imaginable but the colour had not come back to his wife s lips and her face was pale and drawn still the coach was but just behind and jumped was it a down in time to help mrs to the ground are you not well he asked in an a little tired she whispered back come and speak to mrs and then let me get you a glass of wine or some tea were you cold driving no my coat is warm she answered but the horse bolted in the high street and never stopped for more than a mile and and frightened you to death poor little woman he added as he slipped oflf her coat i wonder the major likes to drive such a brute it wasn t the horse s fault touched him with the whip and he won t bear the whip at all why he goes like the wind he didn t do it on purpose something startled him and he threw out his arm and oh how do you do mrs what a lovely day you have for your party so glad to see you returned the hostess and mrs you will stay on to supper won t you you are very kind we shall be delighted and you mr i have been hoping to be asked he said with a laugh i shall be only too pleased then other guests streamed in and their hostess s attention was taken away from them come and have some tea said jack tenderly in truth he was somewhat frightened by her face and drawn look you must have the other man s wife been dreadfully frightened he said as he found her a seat i was but i shall be all right now she said trying to smile as i told you the other day jack my nerves have all gone to pieces says that his nerves have gone too so we shall be a pleasant couple by and by he laughed as he went away at the idea of anything being amiss with major s nerves and in two minutes he came back with a glass of champagne and a plate of straw and cream drink this and get you another it will pick you up better than anything else he said sitting down beside her i m afraid my brains would go after my nerves she returned smiling but she drank half the champagne and ate the declaring herself better there i have finished it all no not a drop more why i should be mad to take more i can only just manage this now put my plate and glass down and let us go out into the garden and see all the world jack was nothing loth and together they went out to see all the world which very soon resolved itself into a dim but charming where a most rustic seat invited them to rest awhile and study all the world in single specimens well said jack easily stretching his long legs out and speaking in a thoroughly happy and comfortable tone well and what is the latest news the latest news jack she answered is that major has more than a thought of what he calls cutting the service altogether jack sat bolt upright in an instant cutting the service he echoed but why i thought he was so keen on so did i and what would you do where would you i don t know he talks of travelling she answered without you no i should have to go too she replied there was a moment s dead silence a moment during which a new idea was born in jack s mind and you you would be sorry to leave the the regiment he asked in a curiously strained voice i she i yes i should be sorry and then she turned her head away but not before jack had seen that her eyes were with tears chapter x evils anticipated are twice endured a few days however went by and nothing more was said of major s possible intention of leaving the service more than once jack thought of it thought of it and dismissed the idea the other man s wife as a ridiculous one not worth troubling over yet he could not shut his eyes to the truth that of late he had begun to regard his major s wife in a new light up to the present time that is to say during the few weeks that the had been at he had looked upon her only as his old friend and as a new and charming interest in his existence and had even spoken of her to and much to that young man s disgust as the best he had ever had in all his life he had been all along so sorry that her husband was not more congenial to her and he had felt the deepest for the young healthy active nature that from about the time of his father s death had evidently been cramped and in every way but now now when he was forced to see all too plainly that she had practically no hand in arranging the plan of their life he began to feel differently towards her he began to feel indignation as well as pity he had gathered that if the major chose to throw up his commission and take to a wandering existence would have no power to influence him otherwise and the very thought of her being dragged about from one foreign hotel to another without a child to comfort her without a mother to stand by her or a husband who would be anything of a | 30 |
companion to her was enough to him and yet he was so helpless what could he do for her simply nothing she was s wife and s the oldest of friends cannot with reason or justice interfere between man and wife having no better excuse than the facts that there was a of years between them and that their dispositions were not congenial to each other however major seemed to have forgotten his suggestion and also in a measure to recover his good spirits at least complained to with a air of one day is getting positively with wit eh said jack looking up sharply repeated his assertion the brute fired oflf two stale old out of the pink un this morning more than half the fellows shrieked with delight though they had all read them in print years ago however shot them oflf with an air as if he had just made em and as i said six or seven laughed and you didn t asked waiting patiently for the end of the little with supreme disgust i i wouldn t have moved a muscle of my face if my life itself had depended on my doing it why i wouldn t laugh at his jokes if they d been new and i certainly wouldn t condescend to even grin at anybody s jokes that were years old i suppose not commented jack rather i am always finding myself wondering why ever tries to make a joke at all it s not because he s a genial sort of chap or loves a joke a bit he doesn t i as a general rule if you the other man s wife take notice he either doesn t see a joke or else he in the wrong place i ll tell you what it is rejoined the other with perfect seriousness as soon as i get my majority i shall retire but why cried because solemnly although the service is an excellent school for a young man there s none better it plays the very devil with a man over five and thirty for a nothing can be better a to think little of himself to respect place and rank to be respectful to his and under the old system when a man often went on till he was fifty before he got a command everything worked well enough up to the very end a man got and his place settled before he became a field officer but now as soon as he gets over thirty he begins to look for his majority and a precious ass he generally makes of himself when he s got it how do you account otherwise for nearly all officers over the rank of major being such old as they are i can t account for it jack answered smiling i only know that it is so i ll tell you in a word take a brute like for instance he s a senior and he has to be listened to whenever he chooses to speak let him tell ever such rot in the form of a story and nine out of ten either listen with respectful attention or him with laughter they ve got to it s the right to do and they do it ton my soul it would be a good thing for the service at large if all senior officers were forbidden to tell stories of any kind at the mess table they couldn t be forbidden to air their opinions laughed and for my part i d rather have r s stale than his opinions any day my faith yes ejaculated promptly and they were troubled with a good many of major s stories during that week at the mess he seemed as if he did not care to go outside the lines much and he spent a good deal of his spare time in the room not that he had much spare time for the was in camp for work not for play and neither nor men led an idle life by any means major for one complained bitterly of the fearful amount of grind he had to put in i am using his language now and expressed an opinion more than once that the game was not worth the candle and that he should throw up the and leave her majesty s service to take care of itself but not till you get the command mrs put in one day when he had been getting up a special subject for an instruction you know you have always had an ambition to have a command i know but there s such a devil of a lot of school master s work now a days he answered oh you are tired change your clothes and go down to the town with me she urged i c the other man s wife want some and books and the walk will do us both good but the major was not to be drawn out of his ill temper no i can t walk down been standing about in the sun all day i m as tired as a dog i ll drive you down if you like yes if you ll have the victoria she replied i d rather not go in the dog cart if we have to stop at any shops oh i nonsense nonsense i hate being driven and i can t drive the victoria can t you go without me no because i know you re bored to death here and want a change she answered besides i dislike going about by do come you can take he spoke quite good but his wife started and her face a little no i want you to go with me she urged do do go he looked | 30 |
a little surprised and for the matter of that well he might for never before had spoken to him in that tone of course i ll go if you wish it so much he said still with the same astonished look on his face but i do hate look here i ll take the brown horse in the dog cart will that do he s as quiet as an old sheep and will wait like a rock as long as you like all right i ll go and get ready at once she was quite joyous at thus won her point and was ready in her neat stone coat and white sailor hat long before the trap came round to the door she went out and looked at her flowers picking a leaf here and there her heart in quite a glow of gratitude for in truth had come to that point in her life when only this rough coarse minded man who made it no secret that he was tired of her served to stand between her and the temptation which comes sooner or later to most women he came out just as the dog cart was brought round a noticeable figure enough and as they passed through the little gate jack came by and stopped to speak to them he was a in the camp being orderly officer for the day very jolly day he said cheerfully are you going far into the town i suppose for a drive afterwards she answered in spite of herself the rich red roses began to bloom out upon her pale cheeks and a light to steal into her eyes laughed i envy you he said as he helped her into the high you know one never wants to go for a ride or a drive bo badly as when one is tied by the leg here is not that so sir he added to the major very much so answered the major with a great laugh as he mounted into his place and took the reins jack stood watching them until the trap w out of sight mind he had not yet the other man s wife to himself that his feelings had altogether towards his old as yet he only believed that he was grieved and sorry that she should have such a husband as the major he only felt a continual sort of irritation whenever he found himself in major s presence he hardly realized that his duty that day seemed more irksome than ever the square more dull than usual himself more weary well i suppose i must be oflf he said as he turned on his heel with a sigh that was almost a groan what s that and then he stooped down and picked up from the ground something lying almost at his foot it was a lady s visiting card a card with a mourning border and written upon it in a fine italian hand chapter xi a chain hell is full of good and good wishes but heaven is full of good works the days passed over and wore into weeks and still major never went into town a foot he rode and drove a good deal and was more than usual in his temper in fact his servant judge confided to a friend his opinion that his master was either in the devil s own mess about something or else that he was getting ready a chain for an attack of d t but for a time nobody else the nail so fairly on the head as did the ignorant and stolid to all the other persons with i he was connected at that time the major was a complete he told more stories and what was worse older ones than ever he laughed at them witb a loud and boisterous assumption of mirth was as unreal as it was he was more uncertain than ever in temper and as a matter of course his wife became more nervous and wan and jack made greater efforts to make hei life somewhat to her it must be confessed that jack was a good deal puzzled at this time he had felt from the beginning that s husband was somewhat of a brute that he was not the husband she ought to have had that the girl was unhappy and that her life had been ruined in every way but now there was something going on which he could not and did not understand and after about a week of hard thinking over the situation he tried an experiment by way of making observations on the result it happened one day that mrs had been in her little garden tending her flowers the summer was fast wearing into autumn but her were still bright and gay and by dint of daily attention showed no signs of decay while she was there jack happened to come past und it was really wonderful to see how at this time us daily duties and pleasures did happen to lake tim past the hut and seeing her he the other man s wife stopped and stayed lounging on the railing to talk to her you look awfully pale he remarked presently oh i have been moving about in the sun she answered flushing up into quite a brave show of roses the fact is you don t get half exercise enough he said you ought to get a good sharp walk every day you re positively for want of fresh air eh what said a voice behind him jack turned round and looked up to find the major standing beside him jack explained i ve been telling mrs sir he said that she doesn t get half enough exercise she ought to have a good long walk every day and you re quite right answered the major promptly | 30 |
afternoon after opening a parcel from town and with this tied on to the end of his walking stick and a bent pin secured to the end of the string he contrived a very respectable fishing rod and with a worm dug up with his pocket knife he began to fish in the little brook with as much contentment as if he had got his best rod with him and had the privilege of the best preserved waters in england not the first time we have made shift with a bit of string and a bent pin is it he said to her and laughed at the remembrance as she had been used to laugh in her childhood but as she never laughed now excepting when she was alone with jack for a long time they sat there he on the bank and she on the clumsy seat watching the a chain yea he bad contrived a float out of a piece of dried wood idly bob up and down in the water our chance of a fish is rather remote laughed jack when about half an hour had gone by then looked up at her what are yon doing the other man s wife make shift fishing rod went floating away down the little stream jack she said in a pained voice it s not so bad as you think has never struck me or anything of that sort never but last night he he caught at my arm to steady himself and and he does not know himself that he bruised it she was ashamed to have to make such a confession and yet she was obliged to say that much because the conclusion to which he had jumped on seeing her wrist was far worse than the reality however it was too late to keep him from speaking now the flood gates were opened the pent up feelings of disgust and irritation against major which had been for many weeks had all in a moment been into a flame and a flame you know more particularly a flame of love is not to be put out in a moment by a single word at least was not in a mind to the few words which would have it there and then for ever he pulled himself up on to the seat beside her still keeping her hand a prisoner within his own i never meant to tell you he said i swear i did not l on t be angry with me i was surprised into it yes i was indeed i have been struggling against it almost ever since you came to but the sight of your dear little bruised wrist was too much for me dear little patient he ended then bent and kissed it tenderly again don t jack she whispered we ought to have been married you and i a chain he went on still holding her hand we were always such friends right from the beginning what could your mother have been thinking of to sell you for the chance of a title and a few thousands a year it can make no to her whether you can have one horse or a pair but it makes a difference of life and death to you and the difference between hell and heaven to me i must go she cried in a stricken voice i ought not to listen to this it can do no good no good let us go let me go but held her closer prisoner than before it can do good he cried let me say everything that must sooner or later be said between us let us have it out once for all it will show us where we stand why should you go home you are much happier here i am not happy anywhere she burst out no but you could be he rejoined we could be so happy so happy away from all this it is useless trying to escape our fate if i had found you with a husband worthy of you who was good to you who loved you i would have stifled my own feelings under my feet you should never have known that i had any thought but the merest friendship for you but when i find you sad neglected unhappy with your dear eyes always full of fear for what may happen when i find you pale and wan the very shadow of yourself nay when i find you with your tender flesh bruised and blackened by the cruel fingers of a drunken brute i cannot be expected to be no the other wife silent i cannot be silent i am only after all but what is the good of speaking she asked my dear one he answered taking her other hand also in his and looking down into her troubled eyes you were forced into marrying a man whom you could not love he is and always has been a brute to you he makes your very life a burden is that not so well i love i am not a new friend a fair weather lover you have known me all our lives and know that you can trust me while we both live and as long as we both live why should you go on bearing this life of wretchedness and misery it is not as if your going would hurt your husband he will not mind it he has long ago grown tired of you how do you know she said scarcely above a whisper who is he asked jack why was the major in such a fever to know where that card came from i will tell you where it came from about a week before i picked that card up at your gate one day | 30 |
when i had seen you and the major go in the dog cart together you had the brown horse do you remember i remember i wondered where it had come from and to day i put it down on a little table as i went into your room just to see if the major knew anything about her if you had seen him pick it up and heard his a chain ill good god as i did you would have guessed who is i did guess she broke in i have known for a long time that there were others then what you to him jack cried there are other lands far better to live in than this if he you i will marry you the first day that it can be done if he does not i will settle every i have in the world upon you and be a upon your for ever you mean that we should go away yes together i together oh only think of it t think of it why not oh why not i would make you happy i swear i would you would try i know but you would never succeed i am not the kind of woman to live happily under a cloud i should be more wretched than i am now and very soon you would be wretched too no jack it cannot be i married major for better or worse and though it is for worse it might be much worse than it is i would rather go on as i am life is hard enough but i can hold up my head among the best yet he no longer held her hands hard in his and she drew them gently away for some minutes he sat staring thoughtfully into the little dancing stream at their feet then turned eagerly back to her again the other man s wife tell me one thing he said and tell me truly won t you i will you do love me she raised her eyes to his so true and blue they were he could have kissed them a thousand times had he dared to do it i will be quite honest she said do love you with all my heart what is the use of pretending that it is not so but if it will not help me to keep straight and true to myself why neither your love nor mine is of any real good to either of us oh my darling he began when she put out her hand and stopped him yes i know just what you would say but i do suffer i do have to struggle hard to go on living at all i know that i am right to say no jack dear it is so good of you to wish to make me happy heaven knows i have need of love from but let us be patient we can always be friends always the best of friends i ask for bread and you give me a stone he said bitterly but you will not refuse the stone she said no i will take all that i can get he answered wistfully she drew a long breath of relief i have not had much experience of men i think i only know intimately but i have read much and in books men always quarrel and are angry with between and women who won t run away with them i am very glad you are not going to quarrel with me jack he bent and kissed her little hand again my dear love he said tenderly shall i quarrel with you because you are more patient more long suffering than i am shall i go away and put you out of my life because of the very qualities which have made me love you more than any other woman in the world no no that would be foolish childish i am glad so glad she murmured i have an idea jack that it will all come right between us some if not here then elsewhere chapter xii between right and wrong pray for the living in whose breast the struggle between right and wrong is raging terrible and strong the sun was sinking low down in the west when and mrs reached the camp again i won t go in he said when they reached the gate but protested vigorously against this p an oh do come in will ask fifty questions and i cannot answer them all i cannot i feel as if i had committed a dreadful crime and that my face would betray me at once you must come in jack you must thus urged had little or no choice in the matter and he followed her in to the pretty little the man s wife sitting room where they found the major if the truth be told just awakened from a long sleep well he called out apparently in the most boisterous of good spirits have you had a good time where did you go did you see anyone you knew i think that nobody ever knew what it cost jack to make a civil and reply to these questions but for s sake he did his best knowing that she was tired and by the events of the afternoon we went across the common sir to the and we made a fishing rod by the bye i left my stick behind me no said and though she tried hard to keep the gladness out of her voice she did not succeed very well now you speak of it do you know i saw it go floating away down the little stream what a pity was it one you valued very much | 30 |
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